I recently saw “Rampage” from 2009. Its basically a movie where a spree shooter is portrayed as the good guy/anti-hero. Several parts gave me that pit in your stomach, teeth gritting uncomfortable moment. I really hated it. Although I’m not surprised there are sequals I am disappointed and will not be watching them.
The War Zone is a great pick here. Tim Roth’s contributions in this sphere are notable, that was his directorial debut, and before that his acting debut was playing a teenage skinhead in Made in Britain which fits the criteria too.
someone mentioned Michael Haneke elsewhere, Roth is in the english language remake of Funny Games, another film that meets the requirements and one of the the few remakes worth watching, due to it being a) an exact replica of the original but in english and b) having tim roth in it
Do you know I have had Funny Games on DVD for years and I haven’t watched it. I got so burned out by dark films that I have to ‘fall’ into watching them organically somehow. Like either they are on and I get pulled in or I have to creep up on them without quite realising/admitting they’re going to be a fucking brutal trip, or go see them at the cinema.
You sound like your a bit of a film buff as well. What have you watched recently that you rate or hate?
yeah, you never know what will get to you but for what it’s worth i think Funny Games is less dark than many mentioned here
i’ve been lax at watching and noting down what i’ve watched lately but two newish ones that stood out were MadS (2024) and the Toxic Avenger remake (probably in it’s favour that i saw it after the relatively disappointing Street Trash one). also yet another rewatch of From Dusk Till Dawn which is always a winner for me
MadS looks good. I will dl it tonight. Haven’t seen the Toxic Avenger remake but I have it on the server, but tbh I’d probably rather rewatch Tromeo and Juliet. Some films have a magic to them and that film is a sputtering dark candle in a gutter o’erflowed with filth.
I recently rate The Surrender 2025, Bring Her Back 2024 (not just cos I have a thing for Sally Hawkins) and if you haven’t seen it When Evil Lurks from 2023. All scratched the horror itch.
Agree on the pointless Street Trash remake. Feels like ‘they’ have done that a lot recently, i.e. remake schlock and double down on the shit bits in some kind of ironic crapfest. Like with the new Anaconda film. Why not just remake something good instead of microwaving crap bc they got the IP for pennies.
Troma of course a mixed bag but i have a big soft spot for more or less anything of theirs, agree T&J high up the ranking
cheers for The Surrender, haven’t come across that, i’ll get it to add to Bring Her Back already on the backlog
When Evil Lurks is excellent, very high stakes, noone safe. And even though ST wasn’t much cop the same guy made Fried Barry before that which i think you might like
Thanks for the recommendation for Fried Barry, looks like a lot of fun. Much Appreciated! I haven’t watched anything out of South Africa for years. Not since Oats Studios which feels like a million years ago now.
Ah yes. The ‘Backlog’. I keep seeing films come up on Kodi or Jellfin that I would quite like to watch but there’s always a ‘but’. I don’t know quite when I started obsessively paying attention to exactly how long a film runs but probably somewhere around the same time I started asking myself: “Am I going to fall asleep after an hour?” and “Will I bother picking it up again tomorrow if I do?” Lee Cronin’s The Mummy almost fell by the wayside, saved only by the young woman playing the titular being (I thought) rather good (also is he trying for a Clive Barker thing or is just to avoid confusion with Tom Cruise’s The Mummy?)
Sometimes I even start films I know for a fact I am not going to watch just so I can sit there grumbling for fifteen minutes or so. In much the same way you might speculate over the existence of an especially egregious turd - “The size! the smell! Who would lay such a thing!?” The Bone Keeper is the most recent one I can remember the name of. Though there seems to be a recent glut of Loosely Lovecraft films that seem to be made of old dried up bits of Shoggoth shit.
I am quite enjoying Widow’s Bay though. Thirty five minutes, a monster of the week and it’s funny.