Dario Argento and others thrillers/horror movies directors

[cthulhu]

Did you buy a blu or do you'll stream it? Here in germany it only will be available end of march. Curious about your opinion later...

[Master Ray]

I did stream it, but I'll deffo be buying The Blu.  Just trying to get my thoughts together in a coherent review... be back later.   

[Master Ray]

OK... what I thought about the Suspiria remake...  I really rather liked it... but with certain reservations.

NO SPOILERS AHEAD! Or, if they are, they will be minor ones just to make a point... 

Firstly, it was so desperately, stupidly overlong (but that's a fault of so many films these days).... there was a cracking good two-hour movie here, just waiting to get out... as it stands, it was rather bloated.

BUT... I really liked the re-imagining of the concept.  And it was the best remake I could have hoped for... seriously, it could have been a teen friendly remake with loads of cute US girls at a New York ballet school with cute guys thrown into the mix and little or no gore, a kid-friendly certificate and some currently trendy bands on the soundtrack... instead, we got something quite disturbing.  The scenes with the dances mixed with murders were just superb.  The performances were really rather good, yes even from the 'Fifty Shades Of Grey' girl.  And the climactic scene was excellent, blood-soaked and disturbing with a great soundtrack (yes, I've not been a fan of Radiohead for many years but Thom Yorke played a blinder here...)

But my favourite bit of the film?  The way that it carried on after the immesensly bloody climax for another ten minutes of stuff that people might not quite get.  This is a horror movie with intelligence and heart.  If I'd have seen it in 2018, it would have been one of my favourites. 

so, yes, I liked the new Suspiria.

 

[cthulhu]

I'm looking forward to it. I read another review while searching for the release date and it also was full of praise for it, in a way that made it interesting for me. I would go for it even if i would have read only bad reviews about it, but if you say that we got something quite disturbing..sounds promising;-)

[Master Ray]

I'm looking forward to it. I read another review while searching for the release date and it also was full of praise for it, in a way that made it interesting for me. I would go for it even if i would have read only bad reviews about it, but if you say that we got something quite disturbing..sounds promising;-)

Hope you enjoy it!  Like I said, it's rather slow in places but stick with it. It all pays off in the end.  I'd love to say more but I don't want to spoil anything!

And it's a Blu Ray buy for sure!

[Guillaume]

7
Firstly, it was so desperately, stupidly overlong (but that's a fault of so many films these days)....as it stands, it was rather bloated.

The scenes with the dances mixed with murders were just superb.  The performances were really rather good, yes even from the 'Fifty Shades Of Grey' girl.

"Overlong" and "bloated", i agree...the two dance scenes are pretty good, i wish there would have been more dance scenes, what was lacking from Argento's movie. The performances from the casting are ok, but the characters unfortunately aren't really fleshed out and involving, and Tilda Swinton's 3 characters "make up show" is distracting and grating, vanity performances from her, i guess...
The big bloody climax in my opinion is terribly wrong, it feels out of tone with the rest of the movie, and terribly made (the use of slow motion and music!!)...frankly, i laughed because of the cheap effects and fat "Markos" witch with sunglasses...even the controversial orgy climax of Dario's "Mother of tears" is low key, sober, if you compare it to the climax of this new "Suspiria"!

The big issue i have with this film is simple, in fact:  at the end of the movie...what was the point of the screenplay??
It has too much characters, background political historical references leading nowhere, even dubious at times (all the stuff about german people being "guilty"/"not guilty"...)..screenplay is all over the place, confusing, messy, so the film drags and drags, erratic pace.
I'll give it another viewing/chance on Blu Ray especially if there is another edit with deleted scenes, but for the moment i can unfortunately only agree with this review:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/review-luca-guadagninos-suspiria-is-the-cinematic-equivalent-of-a-designer-che-t-shirt

For all the new movie’s talking points, any random shot of Jessica Harper in Argento’s “Suspiria” has more vitality, presence, and resonance than even the most dramatic ones by Guadagnino of Johnson, not because of a difference in talent between the actresses, but because Argento sees Harper. Guadagnino is so busy directing a movie about women in the abstract, witchcraft in the abstract, dance in the abstract, terrorism in the abstract, the Holocaust in the abstract, Berlin and Germany in the abstract, that he doesn’t see the people, the places, the characters that he’s filming. His camera sees nothing.

[Master Ray]

Well.. err...   

 

Sorry it didn't work for you.  Worked for me because I was expecting something terrible, judging by so many bad reviews.  And, as I said, it could have been so much worse, see all these dreadful horror remakes that are being made these days, but it's the first film I've seen in ages that I can't wait for a second viewing, knowing what i do about the ending.  Think I'll wait for the Blu-Ray!

I think you might agree with Mark Kermode's review...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3pDHxnZucg

 

[Guillaume]

Sorry it didn't work for you.  Worked for me because I was expecting something terrible, judging by so many bad reviews.  And, as I said, it could have been so much worse, see all these dreadful horror remakes that are being made these days, but it's the first film I've seen in ages that I can't wait for a second viewing, knowing what i do about the ending.  Think I'll wait for the Blu-Ray!

I'm glad that you liked it Master Ray, i agree that it wasn't the usual generic lazy horror remake but i wasn't convinced by the paths the director and screenwriter followed here  ...like i said though, i will give it another chance sooner or later on Blu Ray...crossed fingers for another cut, with deleted scenes.
And don't forget to read this year Dario Argento's excellent autobiography book "Paura" ("Fear") soon translated in English! 

[witch]

Good morning Viv ,
thxs a lot for your kind  information 
I wish you a nice day
cheers

[cthulhu]

I couldn't resist and bought the Hellraiser I II III collection by Arrow Video for 20€.
There is an 18min interview with a member of Coil, who told the story of the soundtrack. So him and Barker met some time befor Barker directed Hellraiser and he became fond of the Music of Coil. he asked them to do a score and they began. Then a new studio came into the production of Hellraiser and they demanded a more mainstream soundtrack, so coil was out of the game. they had like 3 songs finished and were working on more. During that interview, they showed some short scenes with the coil soundtrack combined and it's really scary.

[Master Ray]

Thought I'd post it here (as opposed to the RIP thread, seeing as only fellow fans of cult writers / directors would have heard of the guy) but did you guys hear that Larry Cohen died yesterday?  Never reached the heights of Argento, Carpenter etc, but some fine low budget cult pictures like It's Alive, Q - The Winged Serpent, God Told Me To, The Ambulance, The Stuff...

[Guillaume]

Thought I'd post it here (as opposed to the RIP thread, seeing as only fellow fans of cult writers / directors would have heard of the guy) but did you guys hear that Larry Cohen died yesterday?  Never reached the heights of Argento, Carpenter etc, but some fine low budget cult pictures like It's Alive, Q - The Winged Serpent, God Told Me To, The Ambulance, The Stuff...

Yeah i was sorry to hear of Larry Cohen's death, he was a genius screenwriter and a more than decent director, i re-watched a few days ago "The Stuff", a very fun satirical "horror" movie, as a kind of tribute to his memory.
Wes Craven, George Romero, Tobe Hooper and now Larry Cohen...the last living legends of horror/thrillers still with us and born in the 40's are John Carpenter, Dario Argento, David Cronenberg, Stuart Gordon, Joe Dante and Brian De Palma, who will release next month on VOD his last thriller "Domino"...here's the trailer!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZv4Fvv5-Hw

[Master Ray]

Thought I'd post it here (as opposed to the RIP thread, seeing as only fellow fans of cult writers / directors would have heard of the guy) but did you guys hear that Larry Cohen died yesterday?  Never reached the heights of Argento, Carpenter etc, but some fine low budget cult pictures like It's Alive, Q - The Winged Serpent, God Told Me To, The Ambulance, The Stuff...

Yeah i was sorry to hear of Larry Cohen's death, he was a genius screenwriter and a more than decent director, i re-watched a few days ago "The Stuff", a very fun satirical "horror" movie, as a kind of tribute to his memory.
Wes Craven, George Romero, Tobe Hooper and now Larry Cohen...the last living legends of horror/thrillers still with us and born in the 40's are John Carpenter, Dario Argento, David Cronenberg, Stuart Gordon, Joe Dante and Brian De Palma, who will release next month on VOD his last thriller "Domino"...here's the trailer!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZv4Fvv5-Hw

Well, 'Domino' looks worth a watch, I'll be checking that one out!

[Guillaume]

Well, 'Domino' looks worth a watch, I'll be checking that one out!

Be warned, De Palma himself said that it was his most chaotic/problematic shooting , the film was under budgeted because the producers were lousy, De Palma shot only 30 days and spent the rest of the time in hotel rooms waiting for the money to be delivered, to shoot the rest of his movie...so expectations i guess have to be low, even if De Palma said he still likes the film!

[Guillaume]

DOMINO, Brian De Palma's new thriller, is released on VOD and some US big screens this week...:

https://theplaylist.net/depalma-domino-review-20190527/