Who enjoys films like hostel / paradise lost etc

[rutabowa]

Saw II was the last horror film that I really enjoyed – tightly-plotted, nice twist ending and a couple of good ol' fashioned "video nasty" moments.

oh no saw II was one of the worst films i have ever seen! i really liked the first Saw, too.

 

[Reno]

Well Irreversible is meant to appeal on the intellectual level. Whether or how it does that and whether what it says is right is another matter. Hostel on the other hand is meant to appeal simply because of the gore and nastiness. So they're fundamentally very different in nature I would say. But I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

I don't like this seperation between high and low culture and think your assumptions of how either film is supposed to work is rather simplistic. It's a bad idea to analyse films by how they marketed to us rather than to actually look at them individually. There are plenty of supposedly lowbrow films that are more intellectually stimulating than what is sold to us as art house cinema. Who says Irreversible is supposed to appeal on an intellectual level ? This can only be assumed because it is being sold to us as an arthouse film.

And I'm not saying that Hostel is very deep but a point can be made that there is more to it than gore and nastiness and the only thing that seperates it from Irreversible is style, a lack of pretention and the type of cinema where it gets shown.

 

[Brainaddict]

I don't like this seperation between high and low culture and think your assumptions of how either film is supposed to work is rather simplistic. It's a bad idea to analyse films by how they marketed to us rather than to actually look at them individually. There are plenty of supposedly lowbrow films that are more intellectually stimulating than what is sold to us as art house cinema. I'm not saying that Hostel is very deep but a point can be made that there is more to it than gore and nastiness and the only thing that seperates it from Irreversible is style, a lack of pretention and the type of cinema where it gets shown.

The point is that people go to see a film like hostel in order to *enjoy* the gore and that's meant to be the fun bit. I dont' know anyone who enjoyed watching the rape scene in irreversible or went to see it because they thought that would be fun. That was the distinction - not whether it's 'high' or 'low' culture.

 

[DrRingDing]

I agree with Brainaddict ( )

...but I love Hammer Horrors

 

[girasol]

Saw II was the last horror film that I really enjoyed – tightly-plotted, nice twist ending and a couple of good ol' fashioned "video nasty" moments.

I thought Saw wasn't too bad (I did think it was good actually), but I havent' seen Saw II.

We have Hostel at home but I refuse to watch it. And the more I hear about it the less I want to see it

 

[Pieface]

I watched wolf creek last night and tbh it was a bit lame, not enough gore/violence for me I'm afraid!

it wasn't the gore - it was the situation and the torment. I got as far as that bloke with the girl tied to some post and then he was threatening to rape and her and I just thought "this is fucking horrible" and stopped watching it. I can take gore - but this was really nasty.

 

[Structaural]

Nah, hate them. Watched Wolf Creek and I'd like that time back please. Nasty little film. Turned Hostel off after the tendon cutting scene. Thought Hannibal was shit in a similar way too. My mate, though, loves those kinds of films especially Ichi the Killer types.

 

[Structaural]

it wasn't the gore - it was the situation and the torment. I got as far as that bloke with the girl tied to some post and then he was threatening to rape and her and I just thought "this is fucking horrible" and stopped watching it. I can take gore - but this was really nasty.

I hated the way it was purported to be a true story, but the bodies were never found so almost the entire film is fiction, a nasty little fiction.

 

[andy2002]

oh no saw II was one of the worst films i have ever seen! i really liked the first Saw, too.

What didn't you like about it? I don't remember it being horribly gory...

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

oh no saw II was one of the worst films i have ever seen! i really liked the first Saw, too.

I thought saw 1 was pretty god damn boring.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

I'm exactly the same. I interviewed him for the shitty men's mag I used to work for and just thought he was one of the most entertaining, funny and enthusiastic people I'd ever met (he has some great stories). I quite enjoyed Cabin Fever but even I find it hard to say anything at all positive about Hostel.

I found his enthusiasum very infective. He was one of those guys you just want to be mates with. I know that sounds lame.


Dr Mambo.

 

[Reno]

The point is that people go to see a film like hostel in order to *enjoy* the gore and that's meant to be the fun bit. I dont' know anyone who enjoyed watching the rape scene in irreversible or went to see it because they thought that would be fun. That was the distinction - not whether it's 'high' or 'low' culture.

These are assumptions film theorists and moral guardians have been arguing over for the last 35 years or so. I wouldn't want to speak for others, but I approached both films with exacly the same curiosity about how far they would go, what my respose to the extreme imagery would be and whether there was anything to them besides.

 

[Yetman]

The point is that people go to see a film like hostel in order to *enjoy* the gore and that's meant to be the fun bit. I dont' know anyone who enjoyed watching the rape scene in irreversible or went to see it because they thought that would be fun. That was the distinction - not whether it's 'high' or 'low' culture.

Exactly. The plot of Irreversible isn’t structured around a load of violence and gore (the selling points of Hostel), its structured around the whole issue of revenge, and also is done in such a way that its not typical movie horror and violence, its designed to hit you right between the eyes and genuinely shock you – as it would if it was happening in front of you right now – a factor pretty much every ‘made for gore’ film ironically lacks and this one pulls of so well.

As well as that there is the ‘arty’ aspects which just polish off its brilliance – it being shot in reverse, the subliminal connotations that went with the rape (it was anal, by a gay man, in a red tunnel, the man was the ‘tapeworm’, he was in ‘the rectum’ club, among others) and as far as it being homophobic, the director cameoed as a wanking pervert in the club to protest the accusation. It was about the very real issue of revenge where revenge appears to be the only solution, Hostel is about how sick a situation they can make you squirm with, nothing less.

 

[Reno]

Exactly. The plot of Irreversible isn’t structured around a load of violence and gore (the selling points of Hostel), its structured around the whole issue of revenge, and also is done in such a way that its not typical movie horror and violence, its designed to hit you right between the eyes and genuinely shock you – as it would if it was happening in front of you right now – a factor pretty much every ‘made for gore’ film ironically lacks and this one pulls of so well..

I don't see how Irreversible has anything new to say about revenge that hasn't been said by many exploitation films before. I do believe that the hype about how horrific Irreversible is was exactly what sold it to audiences. Its notoriety was carefully engineered by it's makers and distributors and that makes it no different from exploitation. It is merely one glut of recent art house films that trade in explicit sex and violence to provoke for provocations sake and which depite their stylistic florishes often don't really have that much to say.

As well as that there is the ‘arty’ aspects which just polish off its brilliance – it being shot in reverse, the subliminal connotations that went with the rape (it was anal, by a gay man, in a red tunnel, the man was the ‘tapeworm’, he was in ‘the rectum’ club, among others) and as far as it being homophobic, the director cameoed as a wanking pervert in the club to protest the accusation. It was about the very real issue of revenge where revenge appears to be the only solution, Hostel is about how sick a situation they can make you squirm with, nothing less.

Why would the director taking part in the scene at the Rectum make the film less homophobic ? It's much more important that he chose to make Monica Belluci's rapist a gay man (why?) who destroys the happiness of a heterosexual couple who were expecting a child. this heterosexual idyll is excessively idealised at the end. Further more he shows us a bunch of gay men in the club standing by impassively as someone gets brutally mirdered as if to say that gay men in the S&M scene are to desensitised by violence, which is of course completely idiotic. The film could be used by rightwing homophobes as a teaching tool.

So what if it Irreversible is about the "very real issue of revenge". Yup, revenge is bad for you, big news! Ideologically it's no more profound than Hostel, which apart from being an explicitly violent horror film is satire on how American's behave abroad, former Eastern Block capitalism and the consumption of violence.

 

[Taxamo Welf]

Who enjoys films like hostel / paradise lost etc?

dickheads.

Though there are some genuine psychopaths too, no offence to them.

 

[rutabowa]

What didn't you like about it? I don't remember it being horribly gory...

it wasn't.. i wouldn't have been bothered if it had been... i just didn't think there was any tension or mystery, and the chracters were all lame hollywood stereotypes (i don't mind lame stereotypes it's the hollywood bit)... mostly i didn't like that you knew exactly who the psycho was and what he looked like, i liked the first 1 better because there was much more mystery, which was the creepy bit.

 

[rutabowa]

Who enjoys films like hostel / paradise lost etc?

dickheads.

Though there are some genuine psychopaths too, no offence to them.

NO! i am sure that's not true.

 

[David Clapson]

I got Inseminoid from Pirate Bay. I'm half way through and am so SHOCKED I had to open a tab to post about it. But I don't want to give the game away. All I'll say is that Judy Geeson has more fillings than I expected. She is ably supported by Victoria Tennant and Stephanie Beacham.