horror movie talk with LFR
My friend Lucy F. R. has really great taste in movies.
I don’t say that lightly. You all know (if you’ve been reading me a while) how fussy I am about horror/weirdshit and how many movies I’ve watched. It’s my actual hobby, unrelated to anything else I do, purely for enjoyment. It’s hard for me to find people to talk about movies with, really- my uncle, who first introduced me to horror movies, and weird cinema, and one or two friends. So I’m really happy to have a conversation here about movies with someone.
Sal doesn’t take any shit from no man. (Beyond the Valley of the Ultravixens)
(R: me, L:them)
R: you’re on a grimy southern/grind horror kick right now. But what genre do you like best? What feeling are you after?
LFR: Horror is my favorite genre, I just get very into specific branches. I always want to end up saying to myself “this is a GOOD movie”.
R: What’s the best of the batch you’ve been into recently?
LFR:The Dunwich Horror (the 70’s one), Ghost Galleon, House By The Cemetery, Werewolves On Wheels, and Tourist Trap.
R: Tell me about Werewolves on Wheels. I just watched Dog Soldiers again, and I’ve been on a werewolf kick.
(Swamp Water)
LFR: Wait, you haven’t seen it?
It’s about a small biker gang that are on their way to the desert and come across a monastery that they think is abandoned but come to find out it’s not and a mysterious cult interacts with them. The cult takes one of the biker girls and puts her in a ritual. The bikers take her back from them and go back on the road, but don’t know that ~one~ of them is now a werewolf at night.
R: People reading might not have seen it. I usually try to explain a little when I start talking about stuff, especially the lists I make.
I feel like this could turn into a list?
I saw a short film recently also with a werewolf- soldiers are in WWII, surrounded by Nazis in an old police station. There’s a woman in a cell that’s locked herself in and they get stuck in there with her. She’s a werewolf and they turn so they can beat the Nazis.
I feel like- the older werewolf stuff, I think 60s to early 80s, a lot of it was hippie panic. Manson references.
I felt like Werewolves on Wheels is also backlash on feminism, like a lot of gory stuff from that time.
LFR: It felt like a backlash on feminism and hippies.
(Vamp)
R: with werewolves and vampires there’s the whole homophobic/transphobic thing too. “secret monsters” and all that.
what movies would you compare it to? what’s close to it, in feeling?
LFR: In feeling as in how it made me feel while watching it for the first time: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, House Of 1,000 Corpses, Ghost Galleon. I just know it’s a movie that I’ll recommend to everyone and watch over and over.
Aesthetics and mood-wise: Warriors, Clockwork Orange, Hammer Film movies.
R:yeah it’s got that grit to it. easy rider/warriors.
I actually haven’t seen Ghost Galleon. Rip it up for me a little.
LFR: Oh man, so
I get really into bands and for the past few years I always look up what my favorite band member’s favorite movies are, or movies that feel like the music genre. So recently I’ve just been super into doom and stoner metal, naturally I’ve been listening to a lot of Electric Wizard. I asked a bunch of doom metal fb groups “what’s the most doom metal movie you’ve seen” and eventually I somehow found Ghost Galleon.
It’s a movie that is not good. Very low budget. Like Ed Wood status. But it’s REALLY good.
These swim suit models go out on a shoot and stumble across a ship that should not be afloat still and is completely abandoned. They get stuck on the ship so friends come looking for them. But the ship’s crew is a satanic cult and they come alive and, to keep from spoiling, all hell breaks loose. And it’s THE most doom metal movie you will ever watch. It has it all- mood, aesthetic, and story wise.
R:so bad, it’s incredible. sounds perfect.
LFR: it’s on prime.
R: FUCK YEAH
you guys are always using my prime and my Netflix and my Hulu. you think this is a costume? this is a way of life
R:when I started watching musician friends’ recommendations I ended up discovering Green Room.
The last time before that, it was Pighunt, which is to this day one of my favorite movies.
LFR: You told me to watch that one years ago. I recommend it to basically anyone who will listen to me.
R:it’s like the least sexist least racist southern-USA monster movie ever made.
LFR:Les Claypool’s roll in that has forever changed how I see him. When I saw Primus all I could see him as was a hillbilly preacher.
R: yep completely.
let’s talk about art horror. the weird shit. seen anything good there lately?
(The Horde)
LFR:The Girl On The Third Floor. It was weird and a little comical, but I enjoyed it. I Am The Pretty Thing Living In The House is REALLY good but it’s a little weird and a major slow burn. And, Society, but that’s more body horror than art house horror.
R:Society is a classic. Body horror and class war. So amazing. I thought I am the pretty thing was a lot of fluff- I understand the drive to slow-burn right now, it’s nostalgic. But I think it’s one of the movies where they went too far into the slow burn.
If I’m going to wait 90 minutes, that girl better taste some damn butter. You know?
LFR: I can see why but I also saw it as more of a classic gothic horror story so the pace didn’t bother me too much.
R:I kind of got tired of Gothic horror at some point. The slow burn. I think I was too interested in French and Korean extreme and gore for a minute.
LFR: I’m a sucker for gothic horror and black and white universal monsters.
R:I liked Late Phases- that kind of straddled the line for me really well. Which brings us back to werewolves, strangely enough.
I have been seeing more elderly characters in movies, which I like a lot.
LFR: I love creepy old women and demonic children in films. I feel like The Visit sparked people’s interest in elderly characters in horror.
R: yes! I agree. I really like variety- diversity. ” 5 teenagers on a road trip ” movies… it gets tiring. Bland.
not to mention that there’s actually Black people and elderly women in movies now.
LFR: Road trip gone wrong horror is good but, you gotta do it right.
R:tell me about one that you think gets it right.
LFR: The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It paved the way.
R: it did pave the way. that there were pockets of deep weird hate in this country- I think the suburbs were really shocked by it. but if you grew up in bumfuck nowhere it was less shocking.
I think Dead End is the ultimate “road trip gone wrong” movie. Urban legend plot, Ray Wise, Lin Shaye. Just incredible pacing.
LFR: I haven’t seen that one, I’ll have to watch it.
R:oh, you’re going to love it.
I feel like the Hills Have Eyes deserves a mention here. though it’s more a “trapped on purpose” movie than a road trip.
LFR: That’s a “vacation gone wrong” horror movie, and it’s definitely one of the best ones. Vacation and road trip movies are two different branches of a genre to me.
R:I think of them as “wrong turn” vs “bad directions”. like they stumbled into trouble is one genre. they were purposely hunted/trapped, is another.
LFR:Yes, exactly!
R: like a vacation movie that’s a trap-
hills have eyes
a vacation movie that’s an accident-
Jurassic Park
Texas chainsaw massacre is both a road trip and a vacation, an accident and a trap.
tell me about a movie that’s got a plot hole, or has kept you thinking afterward, lately. for me it’s been resolution/the endless, and residue.
residue in particular. how do they keep that book? why such a dumb ending?
resolution/endless bugs me and I have to watch it again- time loops force me to do math, and I end up a little obsessed with figuring out timelines.
(Requiem for a Vampire)
LFR:Horror wise, 3 From Hell. I keep thinking about how different of a movie it originally was going to be. But also, still, HOW did they survive the shoot out from Devil’s Rejects just… miraculously??? And how come this new Firefly brother was never mentioned previously whatsoever??
R:OMG yes. I couldn’t. I got too wrapped up in plot holes to enjoy it!
LFR:I still enjoyed it for what it was but yeah, I was like WAIT WHAT??? every ten minutes.
R:what about not-horror?
LFR: Picnic At Hanging Rock.
We’ve come for the crites.
R: oh yeah. that’s the kind of movie you think hard about the rest of the day. what’s your theory on the ending?
man I just went to find a photo from it and they made a show? what the hell.
have you seen The Fields? It’s set where I grew up, it’s got…a vibe. Stuck with me.
LFR: Honestly? I can’t come up with a theory on what happened. It just really feels like they simply vanished.
I haven’t seen it. Tell me about it.
(The Fields)
R: There’s a menacing thing in the cornfields. A kid has shitty parents and is sent to stay with family. The farm is in the middle of all cornfields… there’s an abandoned little amusement park that lures him. It’s based on an actual place- a tiny amusement park that flooded and was shut down. it’s still there abandoned, right next to the town I grew up in!
cornfields are extremely creepy. it’s so easy to get lost in them.
The main characters- it’s got all the bad mountain people shit going on, abuse, drinking, violence, and then more because of the presence in the fields. pretty good stuff.
not a slow burn. a medium burn.
LFR:I’m definitely watching it
R: you’ll like it. big Jughead mood.
(and then I got tired and they I think did too, so that’s all for today)
I hope I get to do this again soon: I fuckin LOVE to talk horror.
Not your baby.
If you want to support LFR in some way, wear a mask, stay the fuck home, support BLM and trans rights, and get your government reps to continue unemployment payments for gig AND other workers. Seriously.
