MeFi Horror Club #9: Tesis
August 8, 2014 7:37 PM - Subscribe

This week's pick is a non-English rotation selection. The feature length debut of director Alejandro Amenábar (who later made The Others), this 1996 low budget Spanish film is available free on Hulu, with ads.

While doing a thesis about violence, Ángela finds a snuff video where a girl is tortured until death. Soon she discovers that the girl was a former student in her faculty.
We'll now be taking suggestions for week #10, which is scheduled to be a "retro" pick. We can also discuss week #11, if we like, which will be a "recent" pick. Pick #12 is a "Wild Card" pick and the randomly chosen person in charge of said selection has already been put to work.
posted by DirtyOldTown (22 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm really, really hoping this is the week we can build a consensus on Night of the Creeps.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:39 PM on August 8, 2014


...Okay, so I'm not gonna lie, I have seen this movie, I remember seeing this movie, but I don't remember anything that happens in it. I can only hope this is because it was so horrifying that I blocked it out, and not...well, anyway, this is my hope.

I don't think I've seen Night of the Creeps, but I would be down for that. I'd love to do Night of the Demons, but streaming seems kind of weak for that one.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:49 PM on August 8, 2014 [1 favorite]


Oh man, Tesis, I'm excited. It's been a long time since I've seen it, but I remember it being very good.

Suggestion for "retro", maybe we should do something really retro, back to the classic era? I know there's a lot of good stuff there. I freely admit to not having seen as much of it as I should, and I suspect I'm not alone. I've mostly seen some of the very classic silents, but it's been a while, of stuff I've seen, I'll just throw out Vampyr, M (maybe more of a thriller, but I guess "serial killer movies" are generally considered part of the horror genre, and this might be the first), and The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari. There's also James Whale's stuff, but that might be more widely seen, maybe? And Nosferatu, of course, but that's probably the one silent most horror have actually seen.

But I'm not all that well-versed. Maybe someone who knows more can point out a little-seen gem?
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 8:42 PM on August 8, 2014


Wait, is Night of the Creeps "recent" or "retro"? For those of us who grew up in the 80s, I suspect they're neither... Same for Night of the Demons (which is quite good and creepy, and worth watching, despite some 80s ridiculousness).
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 8:43 PM on August 8, 2014


Oh, and I'll just throw Hour of the Wolf out there, but that might be too artsy for many people's tastes? Very much worth watching, though, and great for "what the hell does this all mean discussions".
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 8:47 PM on August 8, 2014


Some other classic horror selections might include Dead of Night, Island of Lost Souls, Cat People, Haxan, and The Phantom Carriage. The James Whale stuff is fantastic -- people might be surprised by how great Bride of Frankenstein Really is.
posted by Mothlight at 9:41 PM on August 8, 2014


Originals/remakes could be fun. Nosferatu, Cat People, and The Fly would make interesting double features with their remakes.
posted by Mothlight at 9:44 PM on August 8, 2014


Is the Herzog/Kinski Nosferatu the Vampyre any good, by the way? I've managed to not see that somehow.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 9:51 PM on August 8, 2014


Oh, and the originals/remakes double features could be a great idea for October, maybe?
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 9:52 PM on August 8, 2014


How about Shadow of the Vampire with Willem Dafoe and John Malkovich? Is that horror? My weak recollection is that the movie was excellent.
posted by Literaryhero at 2:00 AM on August 9, 2014 [1 favorite]


Dafoe is amazing in Shadow of the Vampire, but I remember thinking the film around him was not that good. Maybe time's been kind to it, though.

I want to chime in on Dead of Night, which I walked into about halfway through on TCM one October. I don't know if I was just caught off-guard or what, but that is a creepy damn movie. I'd be interested, although I don't know if this is one of those classics that somehow everyone has seen but me.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:06 AM on August 9, 2014


Oh wow, October is really that close, eh?

What do we think? Should we do something thematic with the weekly picks? Add a couple of additional festive picks? Or do the regular picks plus something additional (rewatch the ________ series, etc.)?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:19 AM on August 9, 2014


Night of the Creeps is awesome. That is all.
posted by Etrigan at 10:06 AM on August 9, 2014


How about if, in honor of Halloween, we add an additional pick for every Friday of the month, ending on Halloween?

As for this series of five extra picks, here are some ideas:

1) We could pick five films from a famous series and do those. We could watch (duh) five films from the Halloween series. Five would give us one a week and would give us enough to cover both of the ones that are actually good (I and III), the remake, and one or two representatives from the awful sequels for hate watching.

OR...

2) We could just pick five super duper famous movies from the horror canon and do those. They'd be the kind of films we probably normally wouldn't pick because they're widely seen. But, for the holiday, they'd be fun rewatches. Bonus: many people would be able to chime in on the posts just from memory.

OR...

[Your idea here.]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:11 AM on August 9, 2014


I like Option 2.
posted by Literaryhero at 5:57 PM on August 9, 2014


I like option 2 the most. I also think we could do more than one movie a week in October, though. It's not like everyone has to watch and participate in discussion of every movie, people can just pick what they want to watch.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 12:28 AM on August 10, 2014


Hulu? I guess this is week 2 of "Dammit, Canada"
posted by Hoopo at 1:58 PM on August 11, 2014


For retro, I'll nominate again the 1931 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with Fredric March. It's great, and surprisingly horrifying, and a landmark in technical achievement. Or the 1941 Lon Chaney The Wolf Man, which I've never seen except in small bits.

The James Whale stuff is fantastic -- people might be surprised by how great Bride of Frankenstein Really is.

We really should do *some* James Whale film. Given the number of folks who only know Bride of Frankenstein from Madeline Kahn's performance in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein, the original could be a great choice. It's rich and strange and dated in a fun way.

Whale's The Old Dark House was mentioned in the early Horror Club Metas, and it's a fun period piece, too - maybe the original "haunted house on a stormy night" movie. Any of those could work for October.
posted by mediareport at 3:20 PM on August 11, 2014


It seems like folks are down with the "five extra classics" October model.

Let me add the additional wrinkle for October that streaming ability, while preferred, need not be a deciding factor for these extra picks. As long as we're picking legit broadly acknowledged classics, standard home video options should do.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:10 PM on August 11, 2014


Let's pick five classics representative of eras for October. Maybe a silent, a Universal Studios monster picture, something 50's/60's, a 70s drive in pick, and an 80s slasher pick.

And again: bonus points for stuff that streams but for these big name special picks, it isn't a dealbreaker. I'm not worried that lack of Netflix would make it impossible for someone to see Bride of Frankenstein with a month's notice, you know?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:14 PM on August 11, 2014


I went ahead and switched week 10 to "Crossover" and made the first pick in this slot One Hour Photo. Seemed the thing to do.

We do need to have some more conversations about how to plan the next few picks and what we're doing for October. We can convene in the new FFTalk post when it goes up.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:30 PM on August 11, 2014 [1 favorite]


Night of the Creeps is one of my personal favorites so much so I own it. (I may be too late, but just sayin'. I love that movie.)
posted by miss-lapin at 8:12 PM on August 15, 2014


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