Let Me In

[rok]

Also, I've seen 2 other critically acclaimed indies in the past few weeks (Frozen and Burning Bright), and while both were entertaining in their own way, they left me feeling short-changed.

[Butcher]

I started House of the Devil on Netflix and appreciated the filmmakers' ability to recreate the look and feel of the late-70s/early-80s low budget horror flick. But I didn't feel it was any better than any other mediocre horror flick from that era. I didn't really get the point of it. I turned it off about halfway through.

[rok]

<!--quoteo(post=116152:date=Oct 4 2010, 03:48 PM:name=Butcher)-->QUOTE (Butcher @ Oct 4 2010, 03:48 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->I started House of the Devil on Netflix and appreciated the filmmakers' ability to recreate the look and feel of the late-70s/early-80s low budget horror flick. But I didn't feel it was any better than any other mediocre horror flick from that era. I didn't really get the point of it. I turned it off about halfway through.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It looked great, sounded great, was stylish and all, but to me it was boring and had no point. The final 15 minutes and the ending in particular, after all that wait, were incredulous and unoriginal. The comparisons to Polanski are laughable at best, and at least the 80s movies that it paid homage to were fun. This one wasn't. Trust me, you missed nothing.

[rok]

From BDH regarding Monsters:
http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/film/4465/review
<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->When it comes to horror films, there are a few central complaints that everyone makes about why many of them turn out so lackluster. But one of the big – and most prevalent – reasons is that there isn’t enough emphasis on plot and compelling characters. And if you find that’s normally your beef with the increasingly large number of dreadful duds, then perhaps MONSTERS is the film you’ve been searching for. That is, if you don’t mind it really not being a horror film.

What it is, however, is a fairly thought-provoking tale about the human condition and an entertaining romantic drama road movie that just happens to have a sci-fi horror setting. Several years after a probe crash lands in a Mexican region, it becomes infested with giant monsters and is dubbed an “infected zone.” The creatures are Lovecraftian – read: tentacled – and quite large, leaving a path of devastation wherever they go. Oh, and they also discharge hazardous fumes that are deadly to humans, which causes pretty much everyone living in, or around, the infected zones to wear gas masks. The presentation of the creatures is what proves the most ambitious and noteworthy about them: director Gareth Edwards has a background in digital effects so he created and animated the CGI creatures by himself. He also chose to show them as little as possible, only giving them about 20 minutes total of screen time – and that might even be overestimating it a bit. What he does with this tactic is give the creatures an almost omnipresent sense of dread by merely showing the destruction and human anguish left in their wake.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I am still interested.

[Scarey]

That sounds pretty bad ass.

[veryzer]

Colour me intrigued.

[rok]

A friend of mine (who has sort of shitty taste in movies BTW) just watched a screener of Monsters and he hated it. I guess it is definitely more of an indie gabfest and love story than anything sci-fi/horror.

I dunno, I'm still interested.

[veryzer]

So I saw "Let Me In" and I thought it was real good. I found it more sad than scary. I gave it a B+.

[Scarey]

<!--quoteo(post=116147:date=Oct 4 2010, 03:31 PM:name=rok)-->QUOTE (rok @ Oct 4 2010, 03:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=116145:date=Oct 4 2010, 03:17 PM:name=BT)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BT @ Oct 4 2010, 03:17 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->also, I have a sneaking suspicion that the "Monsters"trailer is going to end up being misleading. I think the movie was pretty low budget, which leads me to believe it's going to be talky, and more of an indictment on the US Immigration policy than it is a monster movie. I hope I'm wrong, because I would love for it to be good.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It's tough to say, and these ultra low-budget indies (except for the foreign variety) are almost never my cup of tea, unless they are groundbreaking in some way or visually off the wall, but I've been impressed with the across the board praise that Monsters has gotten so far, even in sci-fi/horror circles. Then again, so did House of the Devil last year, and that movie was a gigantic letdown for me, and am convinced that most of the critics out there were being paid to say they loved it.
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This finally became available on Netflix instant queue. It was a decent movie, although I'm extremely impressed with it after reading about the films production which is outlined on it's wikipedia site.

<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->The film was devised, storyboarded and directed by Gareth Edwards, who also worked as the visual effects artist.[6] Allan Niblo and James Richardson of Vertigo Films work as producers on the production.[7] The filming equipment cost approximately $15,000, with the budget coming in at under $500,000.[8] The film was shot entirely on location: any settings featured in the film were real locations often used without permission asked in advance, and the extras were just people who happened to be there at the time.[9]

Edwards had the idea for the film while watching some fishermen struggling to haul in their net and imagining a monster. He had the idea to make a monster movie set "years after most other monster movies end, when people aren't running and screaming, but life is going on" and "where a giant, dead sea monster is considered completely normal." He pitched the idea to Vertigo Films, and they asked Edwards to watch a film called In Search of a Midnight Kiss which starred Scoot McNairy and had been made for $15,000. As the chemistry between Edwards' two characters was so important, he wanted a real couple, and luckily McNairy's then-girlfriend (and now wife) Whitney Able was an actress, and joined the project.[10]

The film was shot in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Texas in the US, over three weeks.[11] For about 90% of the filming the crew comprised seven people transported in one van: Ian Maclagan (sound operator), Jim Spencer (line producer), Verity Oswin the Mexican 'fixer', Edwards, a driver, and Able and McNairy, the stars. As the low-budget production didn't run to a camera dolly, Edwards made do by sticking the camera out of the van window, cushioned on some bundled-up clothing.[10]

As most of the extras were non-actors who were persuaded to be in the film, their action was improvised. "As a result of all this random behaviour, the idea of scripting the film went out of the window. Instead I had a loose paragraph describing the scene with just the main points that had to be hit; how the actors carried this out was left up to them." Each night during the shooting period the editor Colin Goudie and his assistant Justin Hall would download the day's footage so the memory sticks could be cleared and ready for the next day's filming.[10]

Back in the UK, Edwards had over 100 hours of unique ad-libbed footage (rather than repeated takes of scripted scenes which would be very similar) to edit into a coherent film. Edwards did all the special effects himself using off-the-shelf Adobe software and Autodesk 3ds Max. The first assembly was over four hours long, and over eight months of editing was trimmed to 94 minutes. Once the film was locked, Edwards had five months to create all 250 visual effects shots, a process he undertook in his bedroom. "[I was] churning out about two shots a day, which was fine until I got to the first creature shot. Then suddenly two months went by and I still hadn't finished a single creature shot; it turned out to be the hardest part of the whole process." Due to time constraints, the sound effects had to be produced before the special effects were undertaken.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

It's not a typical horror film, but there's plenty of tense moments and interesting character development. I would say it's worth your time to check it out if you like suspensful horror movies.