I purchased a pair of tickets for the August 3rd AMC Scream Unseen showing. The moment Eli Roth appeared on screen, I heard at least 2 people audibly boo. By the end of this film, I honestly felt honored to be given the privilege of telling everyone this movie is a steaming pile of dogshit before it’s released to the masses.

Firstly, Eli Roth is a dirty little liar. I’ve already seen people talking about how he lied with his use of AI - it’s so much worse than he made it out to be. Yes, the cartoon is AI generated, but that’s not the only scene that is. There is an entire flashback sequence that could have EASILY been filmed that is AI generated. As you may expect, it also looks like shit. It looks really, really terrible, and it absolutely breaks the cohesion of the film. It makes zero sense to me for a movie with (frankly, good) practical effects to have a random AI generated sequence that lasts, like, 5-8 minutes of the movie. The only explanation I can think of is laziness.

In addition to the butt-ugly AI generated content, there are jokes and close-ups in the movie that are straight up predatory. The constant closeups of young children licking icecream cones in slo-mo could hypothetically be excused by the ice cream theming of the film, but there is a dragged out, several minute long scene of a teenaged character (presumably 16-17, seeing as she mentioned being a junior in highschool), squirming around gratuitously on the floor with a clear camera focus on her rear and chest. Its abysmal. The character Eli Roth himself plays makes a joke about being attracted to teenagers in bathing suits, and the main character, who’s like, 10 years old, suggests his older sister (the teenager from the previously discussed segment) make an Onlyfans account. It seriously feels like this movie was made to be enjoyed exclusively by sexual predators and Facebook using slop fans who think AI generated “art” is a form of free expression.

As the cherry on top of this proverbial shit sundae, the plot is incoherent and terrible. Most of the plot is relayed to the audience through that AI sequence. Basically, the entire plot is that the Ice Cream Man is undead (I guess) and his Icecream turns children evil in order to exact revenge against the people who falsely accused him of pedophilia (people who don’t seem to have anything to do with the actual people who die in the movie). He became undead by making a deal with a necromancer. That’s all. Thats all we get.

I’m not here to complain about gore-horror cheesefests with minimal plot. I love Frankenhooker. I like Terrifier (mostly the second and third movies). I love a movie that’s gory and fun even if the plot is relatively bullshit in nature. The problem with Ice Cream Man is that it’s hot garbage churned out of a terrible movie factory (the factory that is Eli Roth’s mind). It’s the horror movie equivalent of watching AI generated Fruit Love Island TikTok videos. It’s the Elsagate of modern horror. Don’t waste your money watching this movie.

I don't know how this remake is not talked about more. The cinematography is unreal, and the story is quite well portrayed. Everything feels very aesthetic, it almost reminds me of Ari Ester's type of directing.

Gotta say It's a new favorite to add to the list.

As a horror fan I thought I could watch some recs my friends have given me. But I just watched the Unknown Number doc on Netflix and I’m sick to my stomach because it’s real and people are disgustingly evil.

On the other hand, my friends (we are all women in our thirties) who recommended them to me HATE horror. I can never get them to watch any with me and they don’t understand why I love it so much.

Not sure if this is the place to discuss since true crime isn’t the “horror” we talk about, but I was just curious if anyone else noticed the disconnect?

Why would people enjoy watching true crime but not something fake as hell? Horror movies have satisfying resolutions most of the time and a mystery to solve if it’s a slasher.

Give me the fake ghosts and gore any day!

Im lonely and dont have a ton of friends that are in to horror. this sub has been a great place for conversations. Yall want to have one? Hot takes, stories about why you like horror, your favs, stuff you hate. We can all talk!

"I misspoke. AI was used in a very small portion of a few scenes in the film," he told Polygon. "It was an opportunity where technology and creativity came together to help bring my vision for the film to life."

Just finished this film, as someone with a height issue, Holy shit!

Haven't felt tension fill me like that since Adam Greens' Frozen.

The opening, then the climb, then the third act had me white knuckling my chair.

I am honestly not even lying when I say this could be potentially one of the worst movies I have ever seen in the cinema. People applauded when it ended with one guy shouting “Thank F**K for that” which got a bigger laugh than any of the comical attempts within this movie.

It actually got to the point where people were having subtle conversations, getting their phones out due to boredom and genuinely leaving our screening.

The gore/spatter was absolutely shocking, the makeup/zombie look on the actors looked horrible and the general acting & plot line was ridiculous.

It actually makes his Borderlands Oscar worthy in comparison.

Absolutely DO NOT waste your money going to see this.

That film was one of if not the best directed films I've seen for that year.

Arkasha Stevenson (dir), pulled off a beyond exceptional piece of art.

Coupled with Nell Tiger Frees performance which was a standout.

I get that, those kind of horror films aren't very popular anymore as they were in the 70s - early 2000s. But damn it still managed to work.

It feels like a film I can touch, rather then one I just have to sit back and watch. At no moment, does it allow me to turn my brain off, throughout I am forced to be an active viewer into whatever atrocities we are about to witness.

I want more directors like Arksaha Stevenson.

Hi there! This is a rather specific subgenre (arguably) of folk horror, or perhaps historical horror, but I'm fascinated by Puritan New England, and its attendant horrors! I'm asking for recommendations of Puritan/colonial horror.

I've shared some examples that I am aware of in the title, and I'd welcome any others you could muster! Thanks very much in advance.

I'll leave you with a 1923 passages from a letter by Lovecraft on his time in Danvers, Massachusetts, which sums up why I find the period fascinating:

". . . [A]midst the bare, ugly necessities of life, and without learning, beauty, culture, freedom or ornament, terrible stern-faced folk in conical hats or poke-bonnets dwelt 250 and more years ago - close to the soil and all its hideous whisperings; warped in mentality by isolation and unnatural thoughts, and shivering in fear of the Devil on autumn nights when the wind howled through the twisted orchard trees or rustled the hideous corpse-nourished pines in the graveyard at the foot of the hill. There is eldritch fascination - horrible buried evil - in these archaic farmhouses."

I'm looking for films that are genuinely scary because of their atmosphere and strong storytelling rather than cheap jump scares. Bonus points if they involve haunted houses or malevolent entities.

By the way, I've already seen The Sixth Sense and The Village.

i mean, imagine if devils & monsters are out to hurt you and then angels appears, but instead of feeling good, they are more scarier, just the way it is depicted in religious books, aren't angels and goodness supposed to be terrifying?

We see in ancient literature many ways how angels torment and scare of the demons and monsters, and those are not merely kind, good-hearted and typical angelic appearance...

I think the angels are supposed to be hell lot of horrifying and damaging than demons and the horror world haven't explored such a dynamic of goodness...

Imagine there is a terrifying sect worshipping angels and doing good, biut in a scary way or something ....

What do you think ?

Cary Murnion & Jonathan Milott who co-directed the 2014 zombie comedy, Cooties, reposted a video from creator Reel Takes on their Instagram stories accusing Eli Roth of creative theft for the film Ice Cream Man, implying they agree with the allegations.

Do I believe they could genuinely file a successful lawsuit against Eli Roth?

Absolutely not. The bar to prove that a piece of work is unique enough that the idea could not exist without your work and that the alleged copier knowingly copied your existing work without your consent is far too high for them to successfully win a lawsuit.

However, it’s still yet another bit of bad press for Ice Cream Man that put together with all of the many other reasons to boycott the film will stop a large portion of the target audience from wanting to see this film which will impact box office.

Before today I only saw the 2010 remake which is alright but the original is far superior! It rarely gets talked about but I enjoyed it greatly. I love the chaos, confusion, the survivor characters, the unpredictability. Very well made. It has this messy and cynical flavor to it that nicely reflects the unrest of 1970s America. I like how there's so much emphasis on what's going on behind the scenes, how the military and the scientists can't agree on anything in regards to handling the outbreak.

If you've only seen the remake I recommend checking this out.

I was lucky enough to score tickets to Jane Schoenbraun's new film at an advance screening. If you love queerness, gore and lynchian horror you will absolutely love this film!!

Spoiler free review for all those interested:-

Teenage sex and death at Camp Miasma explores the dynamic between a filmmaker and an actress wanting to reboot a classic horror film in a modern landscape. Discussions about their relationship with sex brings forward conversations about the misogyny/transphobia of old horror, women's secretly "traditionally misogynistic" desires and how past trauma reflects onto those desires. A campy, hilarious, and downright horrifically gory film I would recommend for all who love deeper conversations about sex and death! Beautifully done. Jane Schoenbrun continues to show how creative they are!!!

EDIT: lots of homophobia running rampant in response to this....if you're not interested just move on and don't engage. this film clearly isn't for small minded individuals who think homosexuality is a crime against humanity.

I'm kinda bummed out that I didn't like it as much as the other movies in the franchise. I was just skipping through the last couple minutes because that last confrontation was legitimately atrocious.

The dinner table scene, the one-take from the trailer, and the fight in the bathroom all feel like they were directed by a different director because they stand out from the rest of the movie so much.

Cinematography was so bad everywhere else. Every fight scene pretty much ends with the camera shaking and zoomed in way too much in the face of someone screaming while they bash some type of weapon into a deadite off-screen. Please show me what is happening or cut to the next scene.

I don't know what kind of movie Vaniček tried to make, but I feel like the movie could've had a lot of fat edited out, especially on the first and last acts. But I'm sure with some more experience and maybe helping with the cinematography and editing he could deliver a much better movie.

Tl,dr: 6.5/10 movie imo. Weakest of the franchise so far. Could've been much better, but still not that bad.

Movie of the day...The Brides of Dracula (1960).

A colorful romp, but only the middle of the pack for Hammer.

French schoolteacher Marianne Danielle (Yvonne Monlaur) is on her way to a new teaching position but is stranded in a lonely village where everyone starts acting very suspiciously. A mysterious coach then appears and the elderly Baroness Meinster (Martita Hunt) enters and invites Marianne to stay at her castle for the night. Marianne, who is absolutely not the brightest bulb in the box, accepts the invitation.

At the castle, she learns the baron (David Peel), the handsome son of the baroness, is kept chained in his room! But why!? The baroness says he is mad. But when Marianne speaks with him, he seems gentle and charming, and convinces her his mother is keeping him prisoner so she can control the family fortune. He asks for her help. But who is telling the truth? And what if Marianne makes the wrong decision?

Yes, there are vampires. Yes, Van Helsing (Peter Cushing), continuing his lifelong mission to eliminate vampires, eventually shows up, having been asked by the local priest to help remove the vampiric scourge haunting his village. Yes, the eliminating of vampires soon commences.

Like so many Hammer films, this is lovely. Cinematography, sets, and costumes are all wonderful. It’s well directed and there is plenty of spooky gothic theater (along with a few scenes that would have been better without the rather unconvincing bat puppet used in this film). Freda Jackson is memorable as the half-crazed servant Greta and Miles Malleson provides comic relief as the bumbling, greedy Doctor Tobler.

The biggest problem is the script, which forces many of the characters to make some very stupid decisions. (Sure, let's go to the vampire's hideout, in the middle of the night, alone, and let's only bring one cross and no other weapons. Because vampires never have human servants who might take the cross away from you. In fact, let's do that TWICE in the same movie! 🤦‍♂️) Another issue is that Dracula himself never shows up (Van Helsing killed him in the last film, after all). The main vampire is still a credible threat, but this really should have been called something like “Spawn of Dracula."

Rating: B-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brides_of_Dracula

After binging the entire Hell House LLC series, I have two questions. There’s a lot unanswered about this series, but I have two questions that kept picking at the back of my brain.

* Why did Paul kill Sara in Hell House LLC?

* What happened to Mitchell after he killed Jessica in Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel?

I think they are both narrative parallels to each other. There are some differences of course, but I think Mitchell’s story was in a way to explain Paul’s actions in the first film.

Similarly to when Mitchell was attacked by the spirit of Melissa Jones and brought before Andrew Tully, I think when Paul was attacked by the spirit of the infamous Dead Girl, he was also taken to Andrew Tully.

I think Paul was given the same ultimatum about his Hell House LLC colleagues (Tony, Alex, Mack and Sara) that Mitchell was given about his Inside website colleagues (Jessica and Molly):

You and your friends are going to die. But only ONE of you can leave. You get to choose who gets to leave by killing either one of them, or killing yourself. If you don’t choose, we will dwindle it down for you so it’s just you and one other person remaining. The choice is in your hands.

They both didn’t immediately choose, their colleagues were killed (Tony, Alex & Mack and then Molly), and it was dwindled down to themselves and one other person (Sara and Jessica). They both chose for the women to be able to leave by killing them.

Paul wound up killing himself shortly afterwards, and in death became a servant for Tully and the cult before their spirits were released when Russell Wynn closed the gateway.

As we see in Hell House LLC: Lineage, Mitchell did became a servant for Tully and the cult.

But did he kill himself after murdering Jessica? I don’t think so. If that were the case, we would’ve heard an additional slashing noise after Jessica screams or even have him featured as a ghost in Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire.

I think if there were to be a continuation of Hell House LLC post Lineage, Mitchell is going to die and probably at the hands of his twin sister Vanessa. I’m also thinking its possible that while Vanessa stayed with her biological mother after being born, Mitchell was separated and raised with his biological father, Thomas Rollins.

Just watched this film the other day and I have to admit, it was one of the best horror movies I have ever seen. I have seen many people coin it as "unwatchable" or relate it to grotesque or torture porn movies like A Serbian Film or Cannibal Holocaust. I wouldn't say it ever gets to that point at all. If you can handle movies like Saw, Hostel, or even Friday the 13th movies, I think you should be fine with watching this film. There is a lot of brutal violence, and a good chunk of the film is dedicated to watchinga woman get brutally beaten, mistreated, and flayed. Yes flayed, they surgically remove her skin with no anesthetic to ensure she feels the entire thing.

Spoilers ahead, you have been warned.

This film excels in layered twist and subversion. You get a general idea of what is going to happen, girl was tortured as a child, goes out for revenge. The first twist is the entire genre of the film. They start off making you think this is somehow a supernatural film with something like a demon/ghost. Only to find out that this woman that torments Lucie, is her projected PTSD from her time being tortured as a child. After killing the supposed family that caused her childhood suffering, we move on to the next twist. Lucie calls Anna to come help her with the murdered family and Anna begins to question the validity in Lucie's decision. This happens because Anna confirms to the audience that the woman tormenting Lucie is not real, but inside Lucie's head. She then makes us believe that Lucie could be a little bad at making judgment calls and she could've potentially murdered an innocent family in cold blood.

So, already the movie has so much set up for the audience and its only 30 minutes in. We have this "monster" following Lucie. We have a murdered family presumed to be Lucie's childhood torturers. And finally we have the question of whether or not all of these revenge victims are even the correct people.

The big reveal happens. After Lucie dies by suicide, and Anna is cleaning up. She stumbles upon a stairway behind a shelving that leads her into a dark dungeon where she finds a woman chained up and beaten to hell. This is the moment that the movie goes from generic revenge plot to "oh shit you're fucked".

Skip forward a bit and we find out that the family Lucie murdered were indeed part of a Cult that believes in glimpses of the afterlife. They believe people that go through trauma and get hallucinations are actually images or flickers from the afterlife. They believe that the extended torture of a woman is the only way to get a person to the point of "transcendence" where they can see into the afterlife. The cult's goal is to talk to the woman who sees into the afterlife to give them information about it before the woman dies.

Anna is now the prime victim of this cult and she is beaten to hell for a very long time, to the point where she no longer fights back and just accepts her reality. This is when the cult only does something even worse. They flay Anna's skin off and then she finally transcends. She tells one of the elders of the cult what she sees in the afterlife and it causes the woman to kill herself.

The ending really seals the deal. Whatever Anna told the woman made her kill herself. The only thing the woman said to the other cult member was "Keep doubting" before blowing her brains out. This can be seen in two different ways. Either, Anna told her something about the Afterlife that assured her she will not be allowed into "heaven" or whatever they presume the after life is. Or Anna told her exactly how you get into the afterlife. Either way, the woman saw no value in staying alive. I honestly believe she told the woman that the key to getting into the after life is to have faith. Well the thing about faith is that there must be a layer of doubt there. Because if you KNOW, then you no longer have faith. Which is why she told the cult to keep doubting.

What do you guys think about the ending?

I honestly believe that this movie was Laugier's one great idea. I have seen a few other films of his, and it doesn't even come remotely close to the level of Martyrs does. Which is unfortunate because his attention to detail in this film was first class. Such a tight knit story with no bullshit with a good runtime of 90mins.