6 Films to Keep You Awake

Jcomp · Sep 4, 2008

I read some reviews about this the other day and picked it up on a whim. It's a foreign anthology from Spain that had originally run on television over there. 6 movies running about 70 minutes each for 20 bucks, I figured even if just 2 of the 6 are good it's more than worth the price.

The first movie I watched last night was X-Mas Tale. Here's the basic plot:

A group of kids staying with their parents at a resort for the holidays come across a well in the woods and find a woman in a Santa Claus outfit trapped inside. As they attempt to report this to the police they discover that the woman was in on a recent bank heist and is on the run with a substantial amount of money. The kids go back to the well and decide to negotiate with the woman: they'll help her out if she gives them the money. Tensions rise as, even after the woman gives up the money, the kids start to wonder about the wisdom of helping her out of the well. Being a horror story, things obviously start taking a turn for the worst...

So, I liked the premise here quite a bit. The idea strikes me as A Simple Plan meets Goonies. What ends up on screen is decent entertainment but nothing very scary at all.

I'm going to watch another one tonight. Be back with the scoop on that later...

Pike · Sep 4, 2008

I think we've seen so much that we've become jaded as to what is "scary" anymore. I know it takes something really obscure to freak me out. It's too bad.

I read about the flick you're describing and thought it be fun to pick up some foreign horror because they often come in from a different angle then what I'm used to. I've seen some British horror recently that actually made me jump. Hope the other tales generate a couple of good scares.

Wolvel · Sep 4, 2008

I recomend little shop of horrors from the eighties. The acting is so bad its scary. (the only good part was Steve Martin as the dentist)

MelodyO · Sep 4, 2008

I'm fascinated by horror movies but get the heebie-jeebies so badly that I can't watch it without all the sleepless nights/jumping at noises/rampant paranoia afterward. That's why I'm glad you're watching them and reporting back, so I can be scared (or not) vicariously through you. On to the next one!

PS But...but what happened at the end of the first one?!?!

Perks · Sep 4, 2008

Captain Howdy · Sep 5, 2008

Imprint, the infamous "banned" Masters of Horror installment directed by Takashi Miike left me disturbed for days. I can still hear that poor girl screaming, and I still see those little things the mother dumped into the river (no plot spoilers from me, no sirree!)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this thread began life referencing a DVD-set titled "6 Films to Keep You Awake" and quickly became a list of six movies we have seen that keep us awake...that still didn't make sense....must be all the time zone jumping these threads go through. Yeah, that's it, blame it on time zones!

anyway, here are some movies which left a lasting impact on me when I saw them at a young age:

The Birds
The Fly
The Wizard of Oz

and later
Alien

ok that's only 5 so I owe you 1

PS to Pike:
Netflix has enough Jhorror to keep you entertained for months. I have seen some real doozies, everything from the ultra absurd to the "wow, you guys are really sick" (see first title above)

Jcomp · Sep 5, 2008

Captain Howdy said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this thread began life referencing a DVD-set titled "6 Films to Keep You Awake" and quickly became a list of six movies we have seen that keep us awake...that still didn't make sense....must be all the time zone jumping these threads go through. Yeah, that's it, blame it on time zones!

This is what happens when threads and DVD sets have lousy titles...

Perks · Sep 5, 2008

Ha! This is true. It's not a very good title for a DVD-set, because any film will keep you awake if you wash it down with enough Red Bull.

But it's a fine title for a thread. Although I think I f'ed it up. Sorry.

DeeCaudill · Sep 5, 2008

I still remember a particularly bad night I had as a child after watching Arthur (the movie, not the cartoon).

comradebunny · Sep 5, 2008

Imprint didn't scare me, it disturbed me. It was so creepy. I do not like torture at atll (which is why I will never see Hostel or Audition).

To be honest they only movies that give me nightmares are zombie movies and the first Hellraiser movie. Other than that, I guess you'd say I have an iron mind. Of course, I do know what to stay away from. I love being scared, I do not like watching torture (it is not scary it is distrubing)

HoraceJames · Sep 5, 2008

Since this evolved into a trip down memory lane (and I'm really dating myself here) I once went on a double date to the drive-in in the early 70's. The reason for going to the drive-in was to experience as little of the movie as possible, and as much of your date as she'd put up with.

Not to say that certain illicit refreshments may have increased the paranoia level, but by the middle of "Night of the Living Dead," the windows were up, doors locked and we were all in a state of freakazoia.

Good times, man. Good times. Interesting that I remember the movie but not the girl.

HoraceJames · Sep 5, 2008

comradebunny said:
Imprint didn't scare me, it disturbed me. It was so creepy. I do not like torture at atll (which is why I will never see Hostel or Audition).

To be honest they only movies that give me nightmares are zombie movies and the first Hellraiser movie. Other than that, I guess you'd say I have an iron mind. Of course, I do know what to stay away from. I love being scared, I do not like watching torture (it is not scary it is distrubing)

Now that's interesting. How would you define disturbing vs. scary? Maybe as different aspects of a larger reaction -- upsetting?

I guess the reaction is somewhat different. Scream as opposed to squick.

comradebunny · Sep 5, 2008

Scary: my heart is pounding and the adreniline is rushing. My who body is in a state of panic.

Disturbing: This really happens. It could happen to me. I am creeped out and don't want to think about it.

I know it's a weird distinction and it is kind of hard to explain. I don't think I did an good job at it, but I can't seem to form the correct descriptions right now (compliments of my cold medicine).

Doodlebug · Sep 5, 2008

Jcomp said:
I read some reviews about this the other day and picked it up on a whim. It's a foreign anthology from Spain that had originally run on television over there.

That sounds very interesting. I know what my next NetFlix pick is going to be.

Last year, I saw the Spanish movie The Orphanage which was very...well, not scary exactly...but riveting all the same. The mood was wonderfully eerie, and the ending caught me off guard. I guess what freaked me out the most was the thought that what happened in the movie could have so easily happened in real life (not the supernatural stuff, but the accident that sparked everything.) I highly recommend it.

For me, a disturbing movie revels (delights in, celebrates) the cruelty of one person against another. I'm with Comradebunny...I hate torture.

FOTSGreg · Sep 5, 2008

Wrong Turn is a really disturbing horror flick as is Rest Stop.

The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price is a classic horror flick and does more justice to Richard Matheson's original story I Am Legend than the Will Smith remake did.

On my shelves I've got some real, um, "interesting" flicks - Blood Gnomes, Drainiacs, Creature, and The Contaminated Man (among others).

Captain Howdy · Sep 5, 2008

comradebunny said:
Imprint didn't scare me, it disturbed me. It was so creepy. I do not like torture at atll (which is why I will never see Hostel or Audition).

To be honest they only movies that give me nightmares are zombie movies and the first Hellraiser movie. Other than that, I guess you'd say I have an iron mind. Of course, I do know what to stay away from. I love being scared, I do not like watching torture (it is not scary it is distrubing)

I stand corrected. It didn't scare me either, but I was certainly disturbed. Audition is by far a better movie and the torture is more like revenge-torture and not nearly as extreme (or as undeserved) as Imprint. Hostel was a bit much but the part with the dangling eyeball was pretty inventive! I recommend Audition to my friends and I hereby recommend it to you!

comradebunny · Sep 5, 2008

Captain Howdy, I've seen enough clips of Audition to convince me not to see it. Perhaps, though, if I only watch up to that one scene, I'll be okay. I already know what happens in most of it thanks to Bravo TV. I hear that this one scene is the only truely disturbing one and that the rest of the story is fine. Is that true?

Doodlebug, I am so envious of your Avatar. I love Crow. Tom Servo is my favorite, but Crow is a close second. Just a little FYI.

I've wanted to see The Ophanage, so I guess I'll add it to my Netflix queue. Have you seen The Devil's Backbone? I've always wondered if there was any similarities. I adore The Devil's Backbone. It is my belief that it has the most unique ghost ever potrayed on film

Kerr · Sep 5, 2008

Personally, I found the premise behind Hostel more horrifying than the torture which was gruesome. It stayed with me for days. Something like that could happen, in fact did.

Doodlebug · Sep 5, 2008

comradebunny said:
Doodlebug, I am so envious of your Avatar. I love Crow. Tom Servo is my favorite, but Crow is a close second. Just a little FYI.

I've wanted to see The Ophanage, so I guess I'll add it to my Netflix queue. Have you seen The Devil's Backbone? I've always wondered if there was any similarities. I adore The Devil's Backbone. It is my belief that it has the most unique ghost ever potrayed on film

MST3K rocks

I've never heard of "The Devil's Backbone", but I'm putting in my NetFlix queue. Is it a foreign film as well?

"Pan's Labyrinth" was another movie I really enjoyed. Again, riveting, but not really scary.

Doodlebug · Sep 5, 2008

Kerr said:
Personally, I found the premise behind Hostel more horrifying than the torture which was gruesome. It stayed with me for days. Something like that could happen, in fact did.

Okay, now I'm never going to sleep again. Especially not in a hostel.

comradebunny · Sep 5, 2008

Doodlebug said:
MST3K rocks

I've never heard of "The Devil's Backbone", but I'm putting in my NetFlix queue. Is it a foreign film as well?

The movie is also by Guillermo Del Toro (who did Pan's Labrynth if you hadn't already made that connection). It's set in Spain during the last days of the Spanish Civil War. The dialogue is in Spanish with subtitles.

I convinced a friend of mine to watch this with me and she hates horror films (but she teaches Spanish so she wanted to watch the fill). We spent three hours talking about the movie after it was over. I especially loved his use of light.

Doodlebug · Sep 6, 2008

comradebunny said:
The movie is also by Guillermo Del Toro (who did Pan's Labrynth if you hadn't already made that connection).

Okay. Del Toro is quite a genius then, IMHO.

BTW...didn't he direct the latest Hellboy movie, too? I haven't seen that one yet, either, but want to do it.

Jcomp · Sep 6, 2008

Just watched the 2nd flick, "To Let."

A young couple goes apartment hunting. They visit a dilapidated building on the outskirts of the city and... well... I actually don't want to give much more away.

The premise seems paper-thin on the surface, but there are some pretty interesting things going on with this one. The villain's motive is great--imo--in that it explains their actions without excusing them. You're not meant to sympathize, just identify where the madness began. I like that.

Some genuinely intense moments here. It's directed by Jaume Balaguero, who also directed the somewhat underrated (but still very flawed) Darkness and the excellent [REC] and his style is pretty obvious. He's particularly fond of a random, trembling camera technique that I actually liked in Darkness but just found distracting here. Still, the dude knows how to frame a scare-shot and, as in [REC], he does very well in turning a big apartment building into an inescapable house of horrors.

Unfortunately there are also some pretty obvious "padding for time" moments as well, and while the villain is more than capably portrayed, the character's physical limitations make some of what transpires pretty hard to believe. I was less afraid of the villain than I was frustrated with the protagonists' woeful inability to adequately fight back. That really took a lot of the scare potential out of the movie. If I can put myself in the character's shoes and think, "Wow, I would've just thrown a few punches and been out of there just fine," that's a problem--because I'm not exactly a trained Muay Thai fighter or anything.

Overall, a good effort, but a little disappointing. I know people patently hate remakes, or even the idea of remakes, but this to me is the find of flick that is perfect for a remake. There was potential for this to be great, instead of just decent.

GLAZE_by_KyrstinMc · Sep 6, 2008

That's an interesting theme for a story, sounds like it may have a good moral twisted somewhere in there.

comradebunny · Sep 6, 2008

I like the idea of stating the reason for the maddness, but not excusing the actions that come afterward. Seems like a new twist. How very sad.

I didn't really get into Darkness. It might have been the day, though. I've found that I can watch a movie once and not care for it and see it again and love it. I think your emotions at the time you view a movie can play a huge role in your reaction to it (duh).

" I was less afraid of the villain than I was frustrated with the protagonists' woeful inability to adequately fight back."

You have just elequently stated my greatest pet peeve with the horror genre. Outright stupidity and being just plain pathetic make me happy when the person dies (is that wrong?). I hate it when I can figure out in a minute what takes the character half the film to sort of understand. Argh. Okay, now I sound jaded.

6 Films to Keep You Awake

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"It *is* the rabbitt!"

"It is the rabbitt!"

"It is the rabbitt!"

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"It is the rabbitt!"

"It is the rabbitt!"