Dario Argento and others thrillers/horror movies directors

[Master Ray]

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/

Cheers for the update, I'll keep an eye out for it...

[Guillaume]

Great news (at least for me  ), it seems that Dario will shoot next year his thriller/giallo "Occhiali Neri"/"Dark sunglasses", an old project he seems to care about and should have directed 20 years ago if he didn"t have issues with his producer:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzl5mQfyVlo

[Master Ray]

Great news (at least for me  ), it seems that Dario will shoot next year his thriller/giallo "Occhiali Neri"/"Dark sunglasses", an old project he seems to care about and should have directed 20 years ago if he didn"t have issues with his producer:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzl5mQfyVlo

Hopefully it will be a return to form... not optimistic though.

Oh, and I did get around to watching that new De Palma one... meh.  It was OK, but nothing I'd watch again.   

[Guillaume]

Great news (at least for me  ), it seems that Dario will shoot next year his thriller/giallo "Occhiali Neri"/"Dark sunglasses", an old project he seems to care about and should have directed 20 years ago if he didn"t have issues with his producer:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzl5mQfyVlo

Hopefully it will be a return to form... not optimistic though.

Oh, and I did get around to watching that new De Palma one... meh.  It was OK, but nothing I'd watch again.   

Dario wrote the screenplay of "Occhiali Neri" so at least it's a personal subject for him, unlike "Dracula" and "Giallo" which were more "gun for hire" projects. From what i remember the pitch of the movie was quite intriguing:
after an accident, a prostitute becomes blind and teams up with a chinese orphan kid to  find the killer of his parents...there's a bit of "Cat'o'nine tails" in this pitch!
I just hope Dario will find decent producers and crew for this new giallo.

And the De Palma movie "Domino"...terrible for me...it has a promising relevant subject but the lack of budget and De Palma's lack of inspiration kill the movie...some terrible scenes and acting in it, i'm afraid! 
 

[cthulhu]

It has been a while but i did see the new Suspiria. Well...well, well, ....it was good, it had something, it was beautiful and disturbing. It wanted to say something, but i didn't get it. It was full of symbolism and hints and it wanted you to think about it. But this feeling that i had, that it wanted something from you kind of made me feel a little bit too pushed. And the ending was just too much, mostly because of the cgi-feeling type of effect-orgy that wasn't as well executed as it could have been. It had the feeling of they just didn't put enough thought in the preparation of the scene of how they could do this, but only had the scene in mind and thought: let the cgi work out the difficult parts.

SPOILER ahead...










The acting was superb though, tilda swinton is scary as hell and i didn't know before watching that she also played the role of the old guy (and also the big, fat mothers witch!). There was something very strange from the beginning about the old mans character and i immediately had the feeling, that they put a younger actor into old makeup, but that it was tilda swinton playing that guy...wow.
This is also interesting, because it takes the playing and breaking of the gender stereotypes and roles like argento did in his movies to a different level.

[Guillaume]

And now it seems that Dario is going to direct a tv series in a few weeks/months!:

 https://bloody-disgusting.com/tv/3588669/dario-argento-directing-longinus-series-thats-suspended-real-supernatural/

[cthulhu]

That sounds promising
"The show is the 79-year-old cult helmer’s first project since 2012 and “involves mysterious murders, esoteric elements and ancient enigmas.” but also there is a little skepticism in me, if he can do it visually as good as his movies.

[Guillaume]

That sounds promising
"The show is the 79-year-old cult helmer’s first project since 2012 and “involves mysterious murders, esoteric elements and ancient enigmas.” but also there is a little skepticism in me, if he can do it visually as good as his movies.

It's for the small screen so i don't think it will be as visually impressive as his movies from the 70's and 80's, but it can be good, though....wait and see!
Argento was in France last summer for a tribute to his career and his new book, and he seemed in rather good health and still passionate about movies...above all i hope he is going to direct his old thriller project for the big screen "Occhiali Neri" ("Dark sunglasses") before his last breath...

[cthulhu]

Recently I had a good re-watch of:

The Film has three storys by Lovecraft directed by three directors, imbedded in a simple frame-story of Lovecraft himself trying to obtain the Necronomicon.

I found the film to be highly entertaining, it kind of changes from superb to cheesy to bad to atmospheric and has some great tentacle-rubber-glibber effects old school style.
I was searching for that one for a long time and found this very good french edition blu ray, which has a nice booklet about christophe gans for a very good price.

Another strange one i saw was:

This one is from 1972, is beautifully filmed and well acted, but the story and suspense elements are ridiculous. I had some good laughs and totally wondered how this movie was perceived in the 70's. It's kind of about catching a ghost and in those scenes, which would be the scary ones with meeting the monster in horror films, they point a lightbeam at it and try to move the beam to a cage to capture the ghost.

You have to see to believe! ;-) I cannot imagine that this topic and how they filmed it could scare anyone in the 70's, but the theme of death and immortality must have been way more tabu and seen differently in those time, while we are sourrounded by it and got numb.
I totally recommend this one, if you can take it!

And here we have an absolute hidden pearl of 80's cinema, a friend told me about it i had never heard of it before:

This one is a masterpiece. It is a low-budget production but looks like a blockbuster. Very well filmed, beautiful sets and situation, the direction is superb, the actors all are outstanding and the story is great!

This is an End of Days movie and i highly recommend that one!!

[Guillaume]

I've read praise this week about THE ASPHYX (and Robert Powell was awesome in the great HARLEQUIN) so i will order it ASAP!

Christophe Gans...he makes some nice looking movies and he was especially a great critic in the cool, warmly recommended cinema french magazine Starfix in the 80's...he is very passionate about talking about movies.

MIRACLE is great!! Tangerine Dream soundtrack rocks, the city is beautifully shot (what an opening in the museum!) and the characters are cool...the ending is, well...once you've seen it, you won't forget it 
The director Steve de Jarnatt is also a very cool down to earth guy, i talk with him from time to time on Facebook and he is always nice.
The fun thing is that MIRACLE MILE bombed at the box office in the 80's despite some good reviews but through the years it became a cult favourite with nice blu rays full of extras and re-releases in theaters in various countries...well deserved fate for this little gem and his director, in all cases! 

 

[Guillaume]

Also a BIG, HUGE recommendation for those who have Sony Movie Channel in the States...please watch this, this month!!:

https://www.sonymoviechannel.com/movies/haunting-julia?fbclid=IwAR1FFhRJhOOoWMhu3Tpzx1L2Z5Fz7Ywi5GerTtg3xW2l8fAdxLfittkQtSk

It is, indeed, like MIRACLE MILE...:

This one is a masterpiece. It is a low-budget production but looks like a blockbuster. Very well filmed, beautiful sets and situation, the direction is superb, the actors all are outstanding and the story is great!

i highly recommend that one!!

Not really "horror" but more a psychological drama movie about the horror of loss and guilt...THE HAUNTING OF JULIA/FULL CIRCLE is one of the best, underrated gems of the 70's, gorgeously shot with an incredible lead performance from Mia Farrow and an unforgettable piano/70's synth soundtrack by Colin Towns.

[Shush]

Absolutely love British horror films of the late 60's early 70's period, as such I have the Asphyx in my collection. In a way in reminds me of the Frankenstein story, kind of an interpretation of the late Victorian period interest in electricity, could it be used for evil as well as good.

[cthulhu]

Absolutely love British horror films of the late 60's early 70's period, as such I have the Asphyx in my collection. In a way in reminds me of the Frankenstein story, kind of an interpretation of the late Victorian period interest in electricity, could it be used for evil as well as good.

A good thought there and i love those old movies also very much. I'm a huge Vincent Price Fan!
The Asphyx though stays a mystery to me, how they thought that would be a scary picture or how the people then would see it as a horror film. Frankenstein went way further in having a terrifying monster shown then (30s?), but the Asphyx has this strange touch to it, with the supernatural explanation and the "monster"-scenes, where they are confronted with the "evil", it kind of has a naivity and looks like a child's play.

Found this website:
britishhorrorfilms

And what about this one:

I found this very entertaining, loved the special effects. It is kind of a british mix of King Kong and Godzilla. I wonder what Ray Harryhausen has thought of this.


@Guillaume
The haunting of Julia sounds very good, i'm going to keep an eye out for that!
What about your Suspiria re-watch?

[Ghosttrain]

Just watched ''GORGO'' on Youtube,the whole film is on.........brilliant stuff,i knew i would like it from the moment he pulls that rubber fish out of the sea  ..plus i did'nt realise Tower Bridge was made of cardboard and drinking straws  ...really enjoyed it ,thanks for the post.... ..

[cthulhu]

Glad you liked and had fun watching it!
Just in case you shouldn't know this classic, i recommend Fantastic Voyage from 1966. This one is on another level, the special fx do hold up and can still fascinate today, well at least me;-)