James Franco stars in a hokey Shonen Jump version of WW1. I think he's got too contemporary of a face for the role, but the film was a lot of fun. Bonus points for a very literal application of Chekhov's gun.
Body of Water (2011):
Does this count as deconstructing folk horror?
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I'm sure this particular twist has been done before, but I have to admire a film that takes an axe to the fundamental folk horror notion of a creepy backwoods village. The villagers are surly and unsociable, yes, but that's all they are, and all the culty supernatural stuff stems from the protagonist's unraveling mind as her suppressed childhood traumas start bubbling up.
The movie actually brought to my mind this question I once read in some comment thread that was about predictability in religious horror films: Has there ever been a demon possession movie where it turns out the suspected possessed person was, in fact, not possessed after all? I think only one example was mentioned in the thread, and it was some obscure European thing.
The movie actually brought to my mind this question I once read in some comment thread that was about predictability in religious horror films: Has there ever been a demon possession movie where it turns out the suspected possessed person was, in fact, not possessed after all? I think only one example was mentioned in the thread, and it was some obscure European thing.
The Room (2019):
This one reminded me of The Purge, in that both are horror films with incredibly thought-provoking set-ups that disappointingly devolve into by-the-numbers genre exercises. Somehow we only got a fairly standard home invasion film out of all the rich possibilities offered by the concept of the Purge Night, and in The Room's case, the set-up is equally tantalizing. A young artist couple moves into a big old house in upstate New York, where they quickly find out that their new home comes equipped with a techno-magical room that can materialize out of thin air seemingly anything they can dream up. The only catch is that the conjured objects cannot be taken outside of the house because when past the threshold, they become subject to super-rapid aging and soon turn into dust.
This discovery is followed, as one would expect, by a period of hedonistic experimentation, but you'd think a pair of decently smart people would eventually graduate into bigger things like, you know, discreetly making the world a better place. We may argue how much of a villain Light Yagami was, but at least he used his magic item to its fullest extent. The magic room's physical creations must stay within the confines of the house, sure, but there seems to be no information filter, and you could do a lot with just information. For example, ask for some Mr. Fusion blueprints, scan or photograph them inside the house (using non-magically created equipment to be sure) and have the info anonymously mailed to leading energy scientists. Sadly, nothing that clever ever happens. Instead,
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the couple is childless due to medical reasons, so the wife conjures up a homunculus baby, and it's a generic evil child film from that point onwards.
"No fun if it is against ze rules!")
