Spooky Movies
- Thread starter Debi
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garnetsilver
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I mostly like movies that are unsettling and scary, as opposed to a lot of fake gore. I really dislike that genre.
Selectric
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I noticed recently that The House in Between 2 is free to watch on streaming. Good docs to watch while in a paranormal mood.
Stevedog
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Just wanted to pop in and share a fairly recent movie, it was released last year, that I just watched. The movie is called The Black Phone and stars Ethan Hawke as a serial killer called The Grabber. It's not your typical slasher/horror film, it's more a crime thriller with supernatural elements.
The basic plot revolves around a series of child abductions by an unknown suspect whom the media has dubbed The Grabber. Once abducted the children are never seen again. However, things are different with the latest victim as they are being helped by some unexpected allies, the disembodied spirits of the previous victims.
The trailer looked interesting and I usually like Ethan Hawke's performances. However it did turn out to be a bit better than I expected. There were a lot of little touches and sub plots that made it feel like a part of a bigger story but without bogging down the main plot with a lot of extraneous exposition. Also, for being a movie about a serial killer there was not really any gratuitous gore. There are some fight scenes, such as bullies beating up a kid, but it's not over the top gore wise.
The basic plot revolves around a series of child abductions by an unknown suspect whom the media has dubbed The Grabber. Once abducted the children are never seen again. However, things are different with the latest victim as they are being helped by some unexpected allies, the disembodied spirits of the previous victims.
The trailer looked interesting and I usually like Ethan Hawke's performances. However it did turn out to be a bit better than I expected. There were a lot of little touches and sub plots that made it feel like a part of a bigger story but without bogging down the main plot with a lot of extraneous exposition. Also, for being a movie about a serial killer there was not really any gratuitous gore. There are some fight scenes, such as bullies beating up a kid, but it's not over the top gore wise.
Selectric
Tier-1 Mod
When stories/movies involve children they tend to tone down any despicable stuff. Nobody wants to see a child being harmed or worse...even if it is only a movie. I think there was another movie (recent) with a premise of paranormal aid of past victims...though title is escaping me. An older one was The Changeling.
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Stevedog
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I remember seeing an exchange between film reviewers Siskel and Ebert about movies where kids are put in danger. The consensus was that it was lazy writing because it crated artificial tension due to the audience's natural inclination to protect children.
There was a movie that came out with the last 15 years about a family that moves into an old house that needs to be fixed up. Throughout the film creepy things keep happening to terrify the children until at the very end its revealed that the spirits haunting the house have been trying to tell the family they are in danger because the kindly neighbor helping them fix stuff around the home is the previous owner who murdered his family in that house.
I just remembered another recent movie I watched last year called Freaky. This one is gory but it's also part comedy. It stars Vince Vaughn as a slasher/serial killer terrorizing the community in a series of brutal murders that feel like they could have come from Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. However things change when he attacks a teenage girl but instead of killing her the pair inadvertently switch bodies Freaky Friday style. In fact the original title of the film was Freaky Friday the 13th but they changed it to avoid copyright issues. The rest of the movie is the teen in the Killers body trying to convince her friends to help her get back into her own body and the Killer continuing his spree under the perfect disguise as a high school cheerleader. On paper this was an interesting premise that could have easily gone wrong in a lot of ways. However the two leads were perfectly cast and made the whole thing work as a goofy horror comedy.
