For the horror fans that just want the list: Possessor (2020) Pulse (Kairo) (2001) Titane (2021) Men (2022) The Empty Man (2020) A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) Swallow (2019) House (1977)...
For the horror fans that just want the list:
Possessor (2020)
Pulse (Kairo) (2001)
Titane (2021)
Men (2022)
The Empty Man (2020)
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
Swallow (2019)
House (1977)
The article includes trailers, a brief comment, "for fans of: ..." recommendations, and links for where to watch.
The Empty Man quickly became one of my favorites. I highly recommend it, and the less you know the better. I'll have to try out some of the rest of these. Hopefully there's some similar gems in there.
The Empty Man quickly became one of my favorites. I highly recommend it, and the less you know the better.
I'll have to try out some of the rest of these. Hopefully there's some similar gems in there.
I've gotta watch Hausu again, I feel like I remember most of it but could not tell you the order in which it happens. God bless Kung-Fu and her sicknasty theme.
As a fan of arthouse cinema and horror I have to say that Titane was one of the wackiest movies I ever watched, and not in a good way. I was warned going in that it was a complete waste of time...
As a fan of arthouse cinema and horror I have to say that Titane was one of the wackiest movies I ever watched, and not in a good way. I was warned going in that it was a complete waste of time but I thought ok, different strokes for different folks. Unfortunately, it really was very, very bad.
I can wholeheartedly recommend The Possessor and Men, though. Very different films but both were very enjoyable.
For me Titane definitely delivered the most intense "Wait. What did I just watch?" response when walking out of the cinema that year. I agree that the movie as a whole does not deliver, but being...
For me Titane definitely delivered the most intense "Wait. What did I just watch?" response when walking out of the cinema that year. I agree that the movie as a whole does not deliver, but being so wack and still being able to keep my attention until the end does count for something. Parts of the story were well done, I think. Calling it a complete waste of time is exaggerating.
I just finished watching Beyond the Black Rainbow and it was, in a word, brilliant! Although, an excellent subtitle for this film might be Answer to Carrie, in precisely the Jungian sense. The...
I just finished watching Beyond the Black Rainbow and it was, in a word, brilliant!
Although, an excellent subtitle for this film might be Answer to Carrie, in precisely the Jungian sense. The style is art-house grotesque, with critical themes being mirroring, pattern disruption, and the conflict between the synthetic and the natural. This can be observed almost immediately in shots of characters placed to the side of reflective walls, or the occasional abrupt turns in the soundtrack, even the implication of a great garden only to reveal a sterile environment moments later — all of which coalesce into unnerving the viewer.
Probable spoilers below.
Click to Expand
The opening sequence establishes the film's setting as retro-futurist, again playing into ideas of non-chiral or disrupted patterns. We see an advertisement for a psychological retreat center called the Arboria Institute, supposedly shot in 1966 (if the roman numerals next to it's copyright are to be believed), but done in the style of the Heaven's Gate recruitment video. Black Rainbow, while taking place in 1983, was released in 2010. If we the viewers place ourselves back in that time, the film is drawing upon feelings and nostalgia of fifteen to twenty years prior to the then present, using 1990s utopianism to make relatable the same grasps a generation earlier in the 1960s.
A pair of 1971 dystopian films are vital watches to both understand and anticipate the direction that the off-narrative is heading: A Clockwork Orange and THX 1138. The style of the music hearkens to John Carpenter and Tangerine Dream, while the coloring and texture of the scenes evoke Carpenter as well as Michael Mann. If you saw the fourth season of Stranger Things, you may likely be familiar with the influence that Mann's The Keep had over parts of the plot and antagonist. While the Duffer brothers have denied and partially admitted to having seen Black Rainbow, this film's influence on the Netflix series appears to me to be patently obvious. Of course, both are drawing from Akira, Scanners, and ultimately SLAN. Similarly, the exposure of the "man behind the curtain" — now in '83 shown withered and senile — draws upon the exchanges between Vader and Palpatine, again thematic of the conflict between Black Rainbow's antagonists and their chosen savior.
This midpoint of the film could be misunderstood as falling into the nonsensical. In reality, the depiction of the mind-trip clarifies the director's criticisms of synthetic attempts at insight and preservation, right down to the depiction of the divine spark petering out within the skull, leading the (seemingly) awakened Anthropos to emerge from darkness and consume the mother of God in a violent fit of sexual conquest. This is not literally but impressionistically depicted, however it is nonetheless obviously graphic and visceral while it compounds on the growing understanding of the eugenic nature of the protagonist Elena's captivity. From then on out, we are shown more discretely the way that people are being rendered into automatons, zombies, and ultimately less capable beings for the sake of the Institute's dark goals of "happiness" and "selfness."
Returning to the Jungian aspect, astute viewers may notice that at no point is the symbol of the pyramid ever shown completely from the side, but always at an angle as though having four corners. This is an emblem of Answer to Job's point about the quadrinity of God — the fourth member of the godhead being lost femininity and/or the unrealized evil aspect poured out over Job, which necessitated the Incarnation to forgive God of His own continuing sins. So, while Dr. Nyle (nihil) is the paragon of the Institute and becomes the adoptionist Christ, he fails to instigate redemption, insight, and utopia for others. His own individuation reaches an extreme point and splits, necessitating another incarnation in the anti-Christ Elena ("the Devil's Teardrop").
Nyle's understanding of himself as Avatara is synthetically induced and ultimately predatory. We see him take on the form of the immortal Michael Myers in brandishing the long knife that he carries to the end of the film. The conflict between sexuality and brutality are once again at play in his intense gratification wrought through controlling and ending life. These scenes are contrasted by Elena's emergence, passing through the industrial airways (with their colored pipes), to the nostalgic and cultured work room, through the contained and artificial garden, and ultimately into the cool night. Her first steps in the mud are deep and soulful, in sharp contrast to Nyle's heaving piquerism.
Why is this an answer to Carrie? Without giving away too much, in the eponymous story, Carrie is unfairly punished for the nature of her birth and sex. Unlike Job, she retaliates and is implied to have been sent to Hell for doing so, but alike Job, God incurs no explicit blame for having arranged this. For society, Carrie is the scapegoat (and Sue Snell is the only survivor to maintain pity for her). Elena passing through the red-tinted darkness of the Arboria evokes images of the blood-soaked Carrie, and Elena's willful escape and ascent to the surface is synonymous with the idea of Carrie escaping such a hell through virtue of her self-identity. Elena's natural telekinesis is made explicit by the film, but Nyle is never shown to be anything more than a self-aggrandized Dr. Jekyl. He claims to know Elena and himself, but eventually loses himself to drug-induced self-messianism. His Myers-like pattern is ultimately disrupted while the innocent product of the Devil remains, overlooking a new and foreign world in what are several inversions that mirror the conclusion to THX. Alike Job, these two characters are archetypes that represent a narrative dialectic within the collective unconscious.
The follies of the Institute are more direct criticisms of Learyianism and the aforementioned utopianism. The Institute as we find it in 1983 represents the product of Enantiodromia — a principle of extremity inversion (alike fǎn [ 反 ] ). The idea is that its leaders have artificially pushed into a place beyond the bounds ( [ 烏肝光 ] wū gān guāng: black liver light) of natural experience before they are really ready or capable of doing so. In skipping ahead to the finish-line to induce altered states, they miss the profound insight ( [ 玄學 ] xuánxué: deep-red learning) of natural processes, virtuelessly toppling instead into extremity and madness ( [ 走火入魔 ] zǒuhuǒ rù mó: exit fire, enter demons). To clarify, I don't think the film is necessarily against medicinal innovation; it merely attempts to address the psychiatric conflict between Jungian spiritualism and Freudian scientism still unresolved in society. Thus, along with the warning against rushing into utopia, a point of the film is not to throw Rosemary's baby out with the bathwater.
EDIT: Woops, I meant the fourth season of Stranger Things, not the third.
Anyway, yes it's "out there" but don't let my amateurish explanation sour your impression; the film is quite good.
I absolutely loved Pulse when I watched it! I was dealing heavily with some loneliness and how to process it at the time, the movie absolutely hit me where it hurts. I haven't seen any of the...
I absolutely loved Pulse when I watched it! I was dealing heavily with some loneliness and how to process it at the time, the movie absolutely hit me where it hurts. I haven't seen any of the other films on the list, but A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night sounds very interesting.
If anyone is a fan of found footage I recommend checking out Noroi: The Curse(2005) I believe it is available on Shudder. The production is a little rough; however, I feel that the rough aesthetic...
If anyone is a fan of found footage I recommend checking out Noroi: The Curse(2005) I believe it is available on Shudder. The production is a little rough; however, I feel that the rough aesthetic really works with mid 00s internet/ripped-DVD-style setting.
I loved Occult; if you have a chance you should check out the series Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi!, its by the same author, Koji Shiraishi. minor spoiler for later into the series They tie into...
I loved Occult; if you have a chance you should check out the series Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi!, its by the same author, Koji Shiraishi.
minor spoiler for later into the series
They tie into the story of Occult.
Cool, I think I stumbled across these at one point but I didn't watch them. Also didn't realise there were that many in the series! They sound awesome (couldn't resist peeking at the spoiler),...
Cool, I think I stumbled across these at one point but I didn't watch them. Also didn't realise there were that many in the series! They sound awesome (couldn't resist peeking at the spoiler), I'll check them out. Perfect for October! :D
This isn't found footage, but falls into the category of lesser-known J-horror (and I think you might like it, given that you like Noroi and Occult): Shikei dotto netto, it's about a website you can join to request a murder but you have to do one too. I loved it and never see it mentioned much
As a diehard horror fan, I can vouch for A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night and Kairo (Pulse). Hausu (House) from 1977 is too comedic/goofy to be considered a 'horror' film honestly. My...
As a diehard horror fan, I can vouch for A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night and Kairo (Pulse). Hausu (House) from 1977 is too comedic/goofy to be considered a 'horror' film honestly. My recommendation would be Exorcist III - AKA 'Legion'. Despite the tacked-on Exorcist title mandated by the studio, it's a fantastic film that I love far more than the original. Very slow burn, light on gore and violence (until the last act anyways), but high on creepy visuals and performances. Features easily the best and most effective jump scare of all time, too.
For the horror fans that just want the list:
The article includes trailers, a brief comment, "for fans of: ..." recommendations, and links for where to watch.
The Empty Man quickly became one of my favorites. I highly recommend it, and the less you know the better.
I'll have to try out some of the rest of these. Hopefully there's some similar gems in there.
I've gotta watch Hausu again, I feel like I remember most of it but could not tell you the order in which it happens. God bless Kung-Fu and her sicknasty theme.
As a fan of arthouse cinema and horror I have to say that Titane was one of the wackiest movies I ever watched, and not in a good way. I was warned going in that it was a complete waste of time but I thought ok, different strokes for different folks. Unfortunately, it really was very, very bad.
I can wholeheartedly recommend The Possessor and Men, though. Very different films but both were very enjoyable.
For me Titane definitely delivered the most intense "Wait. What did I just watch?" response when walking out of the cinema that year. I agree that the movie as a whole does not deliver, but being so wack and still being able to keep my attention until the end does count for something. Parts of the story were well done, I think. Calling it a complete waste of time is exaggerating.
I just finished watching Beyond the Black Rainbow and it was, in a word, brilliant!
Although, an excellent subtitle for this film might be Answer to Carrie, in precisely the Jungian sense. The style is art-house grotesque, with critical themes being mirroring, pattern disruption, and the conflict between the synthetic and the natural. This can be observed almost immediately in shots of characters placed to the side of reflective walls, or the occasional abrupt turns in the soundtrack, even the implication of a great garden only to reveal a sterile environment moments later — all of which coalesce into unnerving the viewer.
Probable spoilers below.
Click to Expand
The opening sequence establishes the film's setting as retro-futurist, again playing into ideas of non-chiral or disrupted patterns. We see an advertisement for a psychological retreat center called the Arboria Institute, supposedly shot in 1966 (if the roman numerals next to it's copyright are to be believed), but done in the style of the Heaven's Gate recruitment video. Black Rainbow, while taking place in 1983, was released in 2010. If we the viewers place ourselves back in that time, the film is drawing upon feelings and nostalgia of fifteen to twenty years prior to the then present, using 1990s utopianism to make relatable the same grasps a generation earlier in the 1960s.
A pair of 1971 dystopian films are vital watches to both understand and anticipate the direction that the off-narrative is heading: A Clockwork Orange and THX 1138. The style of the music hearkens to John Carpenter and Tangerine Dream, while the coloring and texture of the scenes evoke Carpenter as well as Michael Mann. If you saw the fourth season of Stranger Things, you may likely be familiar with the influence that Mann's The Keep had over parts of the plot and antagonist. While the Duffer brothers have denied and partially admitted to having seen Black Rainbow, this film's influence on the Netflix series appears to me to be patently obvious. Of course, both are drawing from Akira, Scanners, and ultimately SLAN. Similarly, the exposure of the "man behind the curtain" — now in '83 shown withered and senile — draws upon the exchanges between Vader and Palpatine, again thematic of the conflict between Black Rainbow's antagonists and their chosen savior.
This midpoint of the film could be misunderstood as falling into the nonsensical. In reality, the depiction of the mind-trip clarifies the director's criticisms of synthetic attempts at insight and preservation, right down to the depiction of the divine spark petering out within the skull, leading the (seemingly) awakened Anthropos to emerge from darkness and consume the mother of God in a violent fit of sexual conquest. This is not literally but impressionistically depicted, however it is nonetheless obviously graphic and visceral while it compounds on the growing understanding of the eugenic nature of the protagonist Elena's captivity. From then on out, we are shown more discretely the way that people are being rendered into automatons, zombies, and ultimately less capable beings for the sake of the Institute's dark goals of "happiness" and "selfness."
Returning to the Jungian aspect, astute viewers may notice that at no point is the symbol of the pyramid ever shown completely from the side, but always at an angle as though having four corners. This is an emblem of Answer to Job's point about the quadrinity of God — the fourth member of the godhead being lost femininity and/or the unrealized evil aspect poured out over Job, which necessitated the Incarnation to forgive God of His own continuing sins. So, while Dr. Nyle (nihil) is the paragon of the Institute and becomes the adoptionist Christ, he fails to instigate redemption, insight, and utopia for others. His own individuation reaches an extreme point and splits, necessitating another incarnation in the anti-Christ Elena ("the Devil's Teardrop").
Nyle's understanding of himself as Avatara is synthetically induced and ultimately predatory. We see him take on the form of the immortal Michael Myers in brandishing the long knife that he carries to the end of the film. The conflict between sexuality and brutality are once again at play in his intense gratification wrought through controlling and ending life. These scenes are contrasted by Elena's emergence, passing through the industrial airways (with their colored pipes), to the nostalgic and cultured work room, through the contained and artificial garden, and ultimately into the cool night. Her first steps in the mud are deep and soulful, in sharp contrast to Nyle's heaving piquerism.
Why is this an answer to Carrie? Without giving away too much, in the eponymous story, Carrie is unfairly punished for the nature of her birth and sex. Unlike Job, she retaliates and is implied to have been sent to Hell for doing so, but alike Job, God incurs no explicit blame for having arranged this. For society, Carrie is the scapegoat (and Sue Snell is the only survivor to maintain pity for her). Elena passing through the red-tinted darkness of the Arboria evokes images of the blood-soaked Carrie, and Elena's willful escape and ascent to the surface is synonymous with the idea of Carrie escaping such a hell through virtue of her self-identity. Elena's natural telekinesis is made explicit by the film, but Nyle is never shown to be anything more than a self-aggrandized Dr. Jekyl. He claims to know Elena and himself, but eventually loses himself to drug-induced self-messianism. His Myers-like pattern is ultimately disrupted while the innocent product of the Devil remains, overlooking a new and foreign world in what are several inversions that mirror the conclusion to THX. Alike Job, these two characters are archetypes that represent a narrative dialectic within the collective unconscious.
The follies of the Institute are more direct criticisms of Learyianism and the aforementioned utopianism. The Institute as we find it in 1983 represents the product of Enantiodromia — a principle of extremity inversion (alike fǎn [ 反 ] ). The idea is that its leaders have artificially pushed into a place beyond the bounds ( [ 烏肝光 ] wū gān guāng: black liver light) of natural experience before they are really ready or capable of doing so. In skipping ahead to the finish-line to induce altered states, they miss the profound insight ( [ 玄學 ] xuánxué: deep-red learning) of natural processes, virtuelessly toppling instead into extremity and madness ( [ 走火入魔 ] zǒuhuǒ rù mó: exit fire, enter demons). To clarify, I don't think the film is necessarily against medicinal innovation; it merely attempts to address the psychiatric conflict between Jungian spiritualism and Freudian scientism still unresolved in society. Thus, along with the warning against rushing into utopia, a point of the film is not to throw Rosemary's baby out with the bathwater.
EDIT: Woops, I meant the fourth season of Stranger Things, not the third.
Anyway, yes it's "out there" but don't let my amateurish explanation sour your impression; the film is quite good.
First of all. Hang on. That article was on Digg? How has that place survived all these years?
I absolutely loved Pulse when I watched it! I was dealing heavily with some loneliness and how to process it at the time, the movie absolutely hit me where it hurts. I haven't seen any of the other films on the list, but A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night sounds very interesting.
If anyone is a fan of found footage I recommend checking out Noroi: The Curse(2005) I believe it is available on Shudder. The production is a little rough; however, I feel that the rough aesthetic really works with mid 00s internet/ripped-DVD-style setting.
Occult too is great, from the same director. It's also found footage style, and features a cameo from
minor spoiler
the director of Pulse!I loved Occult; if you have a chance you should check out the series Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi!, its by the same author, Koji Shiraishi.
minor spoiler for later into the series
They tie into the story of Occult.Cool, I think I stumbled across these at one point but I didn't watch them. Also didn't realise there were that many in the series! They sound awesome (couldn't resist peeking at the spoiler), I'll check them out. Perfect for October! :D
This isn't found footage, but falls into the category of lesser-known J-horror (and I think you might like it, given that you like Noroi and Occult): Shikei dotto netto, it's about a website you can join to request a murder but you have to do one too. I loved it and never see it mentioned much
Throw Come True in there and you got yourself a list going.
As a diehard horror fan, I can vouch for A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night and Kairo (Pulse). Hausu (House) from 1977 is too comedic/goofy to be considered a 'horror' film honestly. My recommendation would be Exorcist III - AKA 'Legion'. Despite the tacked-on Exorcist title mandated by the studio, it's a fantastic film that I love far more than the original. Very slow burn, light on gore and violence (until the last act anyways), but high on creepy visuals and performances. Features easily the best and most effective jump scare of all time, too.
Any of these movies available on the most common streaming sites?
I usually use reelgood.com when I want that kind of information but I think there are other sites as well.
Pulse didn't do it for me, but all others are really good.
Empty Man is the only one I didn't watch. Will do this weekend