Mama

[BakuryuuTyranno]

For whatever, I keep watching recent Hollywood horror, even though it generally parallels Syfy originals due to quality ranging between "looks like those behind camera just wanted it over with" and "good, but only by very narrow paramaters, and bad by normal standards".

So maybe expecting three good horror movies from Hollywood within a year was expecting too much. But, given we occasionally get good movies like Sinister and Dark Skies (the "good movies" referenced above). True, turds like The Purge often follow them. But maybe its worth it for those rare good movies? I don't know.

Perhaps a better reason for watching it was "I'm a lunatic".

It has very few jump scares, thankfully, but unfortunately they couldn't completely remove them, which is expected given executive meddling and such. Despite that, they didn't exactly replace them with a more talented method of scaring the audience - there's no scary material here, which means it's really just the equivalent of an unfunny comedy. However, The Quiet Ones, despite having even more jump scares, actually had some genuinely scary content in the second half.

Another mild upside is because the protaginist being already there's no arbitrary love interest. Those are boring anyway - they are borderline non-entities who somehow get treated like the second most important character by the writers. There's a doctor who technically might qualify as a deuteragonist (sp?) and I thought the (great?) aunt might qualify as the tritagonist if she actually contributed any storyline.

Also, this boyfirned/husband character gets injured and eventually tells his wife/girlfriend he's coming home the next day, except not. For some reason he doesn't actually return home ever. Aside from turning up almost completely randomly in the third act, he spent the movie sitting around the hospital.

But I learned "deuteragonist" and "tritagonist" from TV Tropes, who also provide the (unrelated) term "designated villain". That describes the maybe-great aunt actually. She's evil because she's rich I suppose, or at least that's what the audience is probably supposed to think.

And those are probably the best parts of the movie. Wait - actually, unlike many other recent Hollywood horrors (e.g. The Unborn, Stay Alive) it doesn't change its rules whenever said rules would require competent writing.

But basically there's the general theme of the wife/girlfriend & the older technically-adopted niece bonding, kinda, and there's some ghostly happenings surrounding the nieces. Which, actually I don't remember contributing much until it was almost over. The house and nieces are haunted and... it matters very, very little.

Now that third act - the climax just kept going and going. It got boring quickly, and worse, well. Maybe-husband apparently dies, but survives, so the movie has an ending with the family - the same ending where the ghost takes one of the nieces away forever. So, um, actually I don't know what the ending was going for.

However, somehow I'm enough of a sucker I'm going to watch Oculus next week, even though I really should know better than expecting anything of big-budget horror. Presumably I'll be writing here again on Saturday reflecting on the terrible decision I just made.

[zombie no.one]

It has very few jump scares, thankfully, but unfortunately they couldn't completely remove them, which is expected given executive meddling and such.

yeah it seems like the "jump scare" has become de-rigeur nowadays in horror. mark Kermode did an interesting piece on them ,which is on youtube.

I'm so disillusioned with all the new horrors I see. none of them have that proper 'horror' atmosphere which 60s,70s,80s, and even 90s horrors managed to evoke... they're all very bland and efficient and slick and lazy now. they're neither 'fun' nor genuinely scarey. I'm guessing there must be some good ones out there but I don't see it

[BakuryuuTyranno]

I'm so disillusioned with all the new horrors I see. none of them have that proper 'horror' atmosphere which 60s,70s,80s, and even 90s horrors managed to evoke

In fairness, loads and loads of 80's horrors were just splatter. IIRC, that was pretty much the first gore craze era... that happened outside Italy

Speaking of "atmosphere" most Lovecraftian horrors these days are much better than their 80's counterparts, probably because gore and Lovecraft don't really mix (I thought even Re-Animator was weak, because frankly, a proper Lovecraft adapation shouldn't be funny).

they're all very bland and efficient and slick and lazy now. they're neither 'fun' nor genuinely scarey.

Sounds like recent recent slashers, creature features and Hollywood horror.

On those I'd agree - the problem with Hollywood horror these days seems mostly poor quality because 1) they make lazy attempts to be scary and 2) if you're not scared, there's no interesting story, endearing characters or goofiness.

Most recent independent horror (that isn't just another slasher or creature feature), even the pretty bad ones, I find, usually at least have some manner of interesting story idea.

EDIT: After thinking about it, I'll admit if you draw the line 2003-2004*, suddenly my defence of scary movies this millenium gets  weaker**.

* - Because filmmakers didn't say "its a new millenium, lets significantly change our movies".

** - Not in quantity, but because frankly, several of the Millenium's best horror was in those few years

[indianasmith]

I thought that SINISTER was one of the best horror films I have ever seen, old or new.

[BakuryuuTyranno]

True that... its funny because when I watched it at Frightfest, I was expecting a generic Hollywood horror, already planning on asking the crew whether they really thought that was a good attempt at being scary.... and then the movie was actually good. (After that, I figured I should trust the Frightfest organisers to choose good movies).

EDIT: But prior to Sinister/Dark Skies, I thought Hollywood made one scary movie every, er... 3-5 years.

[dean]

It kind of flowed more like a supernatural family drama, but I have to admit I quite enjoyed it.  Very similar to 'The Orphanage' in some ways, but I have to admit, the creepy way the kids moved worked for me well.  Maybe not out and out 'I'm terrified' horror, but a good movie that I enjoyed all the same.  Not without it's flaws, sure, but the Mama reveal is pretty decent and I genuinely didn't know where the story was going to head by the end, which is a nice change of pace for me.

[bob]

I really liked this and Mama had me enthralled the entire time.........until the end where it became a cluster bomb of an ending.

[claws]

Lots had issues with the ending but it totally worked for me. I quite enjoyed Mama.

As for Sinister, I'm in the minority because I thought it wasn't that scary at all. I didn't hate it but a few scenes were unintentional funny to me.