DoctorTOC
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Post by DoctorTOC on Sept 25, 2016 16:21:27 GMT
Having very nearly caught up with the podcast, I'm facing the idea of horror-free nights with a sort of existential dread. I was wondering if folks had recommendations for horror movies with a similar vibe to the terrors of the Magnus Archives?
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DoctorTOC
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Post by DoctorTOC on Sept 25, 2016 16:39:07 GMT
I'll start with the following;
Pontypool - (2008) very clever, very creepy "not-zombie" movie They - (2002) Not the home invasion thriller, but a rather delicious supernatural creeper Case 39 - (2009) kids are creepy. This got panned, but I rather like it Mimic - (1997) Guillermo del Toro's "big bug" movie. The urban decay and theme of social isolation resonates with the world of the Archive. Fallen - (1998) the Denzel Washington supernatural thriller. Awesome. Absentia - (2011) Brrrrrrr The Corridor - (2010) Woodland isolation and a weird dimensional corridor. Lovely!
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Post by spooniermist on Sept 25, 2016 17:44:02 GMT
Not a movie, but Stranger Things is pretty unsettling all the way through, combining with conspiracy elements and a terrifying foe. It's very good. Also, The Orphanage is fucking terrifying. I haven't finished it, I literally turned it off because I couldn't handle it anymore. It's a bit of a slow burner, but it's spine tingling and put me on edge all the way through. That said, I'm not sure it's very TMA.
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kea
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Post by kea on Sept 25, 2016 20:18:40 GMT
Trying to find something that falls under TMA particular brand of horror is hard, so I guess general recs work: The haunted dollshouse - this is a short, but fairly terrifying. Oh whistle and I'll come to you, my lad
There's a whole bunch of M.R James adaptations on youtube that are pretty great. I'll try to think up some more.
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DoctorTOC
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Post by DoctorTOC on Sept 25, 2016 20:34:53 GMT
Oh, I'm a huge fan of M.R.James, probably the finest writer of English ghost stories we've ever produced.
Maybe we should make this thread the "MA Media Club" instead and expand it to include recommendations from all media? 😃
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kea
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Post by kea on Sept 25, 2016 21:01:48 GMT
Oh, I'm a huge fan of M.R.James, probably the finest writer of English ghost stories we've ever produced. Maybe we should make this thread the "MA Media Club" instead and expand it to include recommendations from all media? 😃 I forget that M.R James is a lot more well known in England than he is over here, for obvious reasons NZ doesn't seem to have much of a tradition of written ghost stories - more like urban legends like "some creepy stuff that happened up at the farm that time but we got our local Maori elder* to fix it, no worries bro" and "this ghost is actually a metaphor for something, probably colonialism." Yeah, certainly! Books and stuff would be great. *This trope has always struck me as fairly problematic, for obvious reasons.
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Jonny
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Host of The Magnus Archives
Turns out I was a ghost all along.
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Post by Jonny on Sept 25, 2016 21:42:21 GMT
There are various horror films/programs that I love and have inspired TMA to one degree or another - please be aware my loving/being inspired by a film does not necessarily mean it's goodCarnival of Souls (1962) - The plot is so predictable you'll have guessed the end correctly with 2 minutes, but its shot and edited in such a weird way it just has this oppressive, bizarre creepiness to it. The Thing (1982) - I love John Carpenter so much, but The Thing is a clear favourite, and it has been noted (not incorrectly) that I have a bit of a thing for body horror. Session 9 (2001) - A good modern spook story that's just very well executed. Also plays into themes of people running into supernatural just doing their job, which I like, as I find horror that much more accute when divorced from ideas od "deserve" Uzumaki (2000) - Japanese horror that is SO FUCKING WEIRD. Very good at demonstrating that not all monsters need to be slavering beasts, or even have a body. Jeepers Creepers (2001) - Not a good movie, but notable as being one of the first horror movies I saw as a teenager, and I still have a lot of affection for it. Plus very good example of the "horror doesn’t discriminate" trope I enjoy. All you need to be is wrong place and wrong time. Three Extremes (2004) - A rather gruesome East Asian anthology film by three great filmmakers. Great example of entirely distinct stories complementing each other to create an even better whole. A Ghost Story For Christmas (BBC 1971-78) - I believe the BBCs yearly MR James adaptation have already been mentioned by kea, but I also love the 1976 adaptation of Dickens' The Signalman. It perfectly encapsulates how less is more in Horror, and revels in its Britishness and the unexplained. Far scarier than the original short story in my opinion. L'Inventaire Fantome - wonderfully spooky French claymation short. Find it on Youtube - you'll see very quickly where the similarities lie to the archive. Backwater Gospel - American gothic of the darkest hue, and a wonderful piece of animation. A true monster's motivations are obscure, and its how people react to it that can create horror worse than anything it could do with claws or teeth
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DoctorTOC
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Post by DoctorTOC on Sept 26, 2016 12:01:54 GMT
Great recommendations, Jonny. I still haven't seen Session 9 yet, so that gets bumped up the list.
Southern Comfort (1981) - Not a supernatural thriller, but it has an MA vibe (isolation, unknowable opponents, creeping terror)
Jacob's Ladder (1990) - I just love this film. End of :-)
The Blair Witch Project (1999) - I know, I know! But hype and shaky cam aside, it's actually a pretty cool concept, though much of the material produced around the movie was better than the movie itself (in particular I'm thinking of the Oni Press comic series)
Pod (2015) - Mental illness and the unexplained collide. Again, one I like more for the ideas than the presentation, but it's entertaining.
Wake Wood (2011) - A lovely understated British horror film with a vaguely "Wicker Man" vide.
Bug (2006) - Insects, insanity and body horror.
The Mothman Prophecies (2002) - Ignore the rubbish about being based on "real events", and just go with it.
Apparitions (BBC, 2008) - A BBC mini-series about an exorcist. Actually bloody terrifying in places (and I'm agnostic!).
The Midnight House (BBC Radio 4, 2008) - Creepy WWII home-front supernatural story inspired by M.R.James' "The Mezzotint"
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Post by seelingkat on Sept 26, 2016 23:30:51 GMT
+ 1 million for Session 9 - that one is one of my favourites and so vastly underrated.
I'm quite heavily into Asian Horror movies as they are more spooky than gross. My preference for horror tends more to those set during wartime. I'll put my thinking cap on for ones closer to Magnus archive...
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kea
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Post by kea on Sept 26, 2016 23:54:00 GMT
Robert Aickman's a short story writer that definitely deserves to be better known*. Definitely falls under the "creepy, mundane and English" category. Somewhat amusingly, (according to my uni database anyway) he's better known for restoring England's canals. E.M Carroll's also a great writer and illustrator - she's got a book out called "Through the woods" and a website with a few graphic short stories in it. There's a great podcast called "Podcast to the Curious" which does interesting analysis of the works of M.R James as well. *As always, different geography means I'm not sure how "known" he actually is in England.
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Post by seelingkat on Sept 27, 2016 1:19:57 GMT
There's a great podcast called "Podcast to the Curious" which does interesting analysis of the works of M.R James as well. ooh thanks - I'll add that to my list
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DoctorTOC
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Post by DoctorTOC on Sept 28, 2016 10:26:14 GMT
I can't believe I forgot to add the mighty Ramsey Campbell to my list, in particular his works after he'd stopped trying to do Lovecraft pastiches and found his own voice. Especially recommended for fans of TMA are the stories in his collections Cold Print, Dark Companions, Demons by Daylight, The Height of the Scream, Holes for Faces, Waking Nightmares, Strange Things and Stranger Places; all of which share the themes of social isolation and urban decay as backdrops for the supernatural. There's a great collection of his best short stories called Alone with the Horrors if you can't find the other books. Recommended novels include Ancient Images, The Hungry Moon, Midnight Sun, and The Overnight.
Since we all like a bit of free audio horror, you can hear Mr Campbell himself reading The Guide, his tribute to M.R.James, at; www.darkfictionmagazine.co.uk/episode-10/story-the-guide/
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Post by AshenCircle on Sept 29, 2016 14:13:30 GMT
The Thing (1982) - I love John Carpenter so much, but The Thing is a clear favourite, and it has been noted (not incorrectly) that I have a bit of a thing for body horror. I see what you did here. Regarding Uzumaki, I'd plead with people to read the manga rather than (or at least as well as) watching the movie adaptation. Junji Ito's work is extremely good, and his art captures the surreal body-horror (both in terms of terror and black comedy, since Uzumaki walks a razor's edge between the two) beter than any attempt to bring it to the screen imo. I'll try to add some movie recommendations, but I fear they'd all either be genre classics or already listed here. Props to Doc Oc for being one of the only other people I've come across who both saw and liked Absentia. Seconding They (2002), which is one of the better early-2000s spookers. It's perhaps a little too reliant on genre tropes, but it's a horror movie, so... Anyway, here's a few offerings for consideration: Oculus (2013) is always foremost among my horror recommendations, and I suspect we've all seen it, since "documenting an attempt to destroy a cursed object" seems like it would have widespread appeal here. Ring /リング (1998) seems like a redundant recommendation. Watch it again? You should find it's aged extremely well. If you've only seen the atrocious 2002 remake, track this down and watch it immediately. YellowBrickRoad (2010) is... I saw it once, I never want to see a single frame of it again. Many people hate this movie whether they found it scary or not. It's bizarre, illogical and nightmarish in the most literal sense. It's like watching a bad dream. It's the most unsettling movie experience I've ever had, but it does nothing for some people. I'm not sure if I recommend it as such, but it's there, and you may not have been aware of it, since it's relatively obscure (at least in the UK). You've become aware of it now. It of you, perhaps. Sinister (2013) You all know this one. My favourite horror movie of the last decade, more cursed objects, more motif of harmful sensation. Dark Was the Night (2014) Even more recent but less widely known. Atmosphere-driven low budget monster movie that wisely hides its beastie for most of the movie, favouring tension over bloodshen or jump scares. I liked it. Kind of a stupid ending. Sic semper horror. The Barrens (2014) I guess I'm committing to "recent movies you may not have seen" here. This one isn't stellar, honestly, but it's got some gorgeous spooky scenery and a decent monster that may or may not be in the increasingly unstable and equally frightening protagonist's head. The Signal (2007) On the back of the Pontypool recommendation I feel like I have to mention this one. Three directors offer three linked vignettes (blending drama, black comedy and horror) giving us different perspectives on a world reeling from a broadcast that has a highly deleterious effect on its listeners. edit: Die Farbe (2010) is one of the best attempts to bring HP Lovecraft to the screen. It plays a bit fast and loose with the source material, relocating The Colour Out of Space to Baden-Württemberg (where the Swabian-Franconian forest makes a suitably eerie backdrop) and giving it a framing story of a man searching for his errant father, who was there 30 years ago when something not right happened in a small farming community. It's filmed in black and white using a prototype camera, and the retro effect is nice. Shoestring budget, and a few of the narrative changes might raise quibbles, but if you haven't seen it, I recommend trying it. It's certainly very atmospheric, and it isn't quite like anything else.
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kea
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Post by kea on Oct 4, 2016 2:39:28 GMT
Not really a gamer, but I find myself fascinated occasionally. One is Pathologic, a horror game released by Ice Pick Lodge, an independent Russian developer. It follows three characters trying to cure a town of a mysterious disease. There are some Let's Plays on Youtube, and an interesting write up about the themes of the game here. They also made a game called Knock Knock, which is also terrifying but in a completely different way. I had to stop the let's play since I got so freaked out.
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DoctorTOC
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Post by DoctorTOC on Oct 5, 2016 8:44:03 GMT
Not really a gamer, but I find myself fascinated occasionally. One is Pathologic, a horror game released by Ice Pick Lodge, an independent Russian developer. It follows three characters trying to cure a town of a mysterious disease. There are some Let's Plays on Youtube, and an interesting write up about the themes of the game here. They also made a game called Knock Knock, which is also terrifying but in a completely different way. I had to stop the let's play since I got so freaked out. Thanks for this, kea. Pathologic looks pretty damn creepy, and the exploration of the themes just makes me want to play it more.
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