Saturday, October 13, 2012

VLOG 10-13-12 - Sinister



Linkara talks about the new horror film. ‎

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

So Sinister is essentially a Slenderman Movie?
Makes me wonder when someone does a Holders or SCP one

Didn't know they were making another Silent Hill movie
This may actually be good news, as the first one was one of the few good videogame movies out there
It is also one of my father's favorite horror movies (and he's a veteran of the genera, I have a problem naming any American or European horror film made before 2000 he hasn't seen), and he generally does not understand the criticism the movie gets (he says he does not give a damn about videogames, and then proceeds to say shockingly offensive things about gamers)

Glad to hear "Longbox of the Damned" is doing well
But financial success? Never saw a single ad while watching them (and I do get the ads during "Atop the Fourth Wall")

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"Didn't know they were making another Silent Hill movie
This may actually be good news, as the first one was one of the few good videogame movies out there"

No, it really isn't, since it continues to betray core concepts OF the games.

As for your father, he may like it, but the film itself doesn't hold up under its own internal logic. Why do all the townspeople seem to come out of a late 19th century atmosphere, including mindsets, clothing, and general operation of the town and yet there's a police officer who looks no different in modern times than he did back then who was apparently around?

Where did Alessa get her powers from if she wasn't birthed from the cult?

Why do all the demons look like they do? The reason they look the way they do in the games is that they're formed from the twisted psyches of various people - for example, a large butterly monster in the first game because of Alessa's fascination with insects. Pyramid Head is a creation of James Sunderland, derived from a painting featuring the town's old-style executioners who looked similar. An executioner would exist for people being punished for crimes, thus it's a symbol of punishment for him. What the hell is Pyramid Head to Alessa?

Why are all the nurses in low-cut outfits? Why are there nurse demons at all? The flashback seemed to imply that a nurse was kind to Alessa, so why would she manifest horrific nurses with exposed cleavages? In Silent Hill 2, the nurses looked like that because James spent lots of time in hospitals due to his ailing wife and because his wife was suffering from an illness, James had a lot of pent up sexual frustration.

If Dahlia Gillespie is sympathetic towards her daughter in the movie's continuity, why haven't the townspeople tried to kill her? They had no problem trying to burn Alessa.

Why is the church a safe haven from the Otherworld?

What the hell IS the Otherworld in context to the movie's story?

Why are the people still wearing coal mining outfits? If it's to protect them from the coal in the air, no one else seems affected by it, and they would still be affected by it even within the church.

Why is the church a safe haven from the otherworld?

Are you seeing hwta I'm gettnig at here?

Bekah said...

Sinister sounds good. I probably won't go see it though. I always go see movies with friends or family, and I don't think anybody I know is interested in it. :\ It's a shame. I like seeing scary movies. Oh well. :)

Moarte will be a great gag character. :D

Anonymous said...

Actually, I myself had no problem with the movie's logic

The town's inhabitants are ultra-conservative Christians, and there indeed are radical christian communities in the US who do dress in archaic clothes (and not only the Amish)
The Police are outsiders

As the origin of Alessa's powers goes, I could suggest watching Paranorman, or any other story about witch-burning where the victim (real witch or innocents) starts vengeance from beyond the grave

The demons are what they are - the Legions of Hell
Belzebub is associated with flies, associating him with other insects might not therefore be that far-fetched (would not be the first time)
Pyramids do hold significance as a mystical symbol, as any occultist or conspiracy nut will tell you, and the creature itself still fulfills his role of the executioner - he executes those who hurt Alessa
Also, Alessa was hospitalized before the world warped around her, which does explain the nurse imagery (remember, there WERE nurses in the first game as well, alto they were VERY different from the iconic look from SH2), and their highly eroticized nature reflects Christianity's condemnation of sexuality - instead of one sexually repressed man, we have an ENTIRE sexually repressed town here
not to mention, some demons tend to be described as sexual beings (Pyramid Head representing the male aspect here, while the Nurses the female aspect, notice how PH rips his victims clothes off before killing her)

As for the Cult's motives - NEVER expect logic from religious extremists (or any extremists for that matter), religion itself (at least of the Old Testament variety) is aggressively anti-logical
And remember Dhalia was the one who offered Alessa to the cult to begin with, thinking they would help her (before that, they merely ostracized them)

The switching of the foggy world and Otherworld could be seen as a struggle between the forces of Heaven and Hell (like if it's inhabitants were caught between the states of being raptured and being damned).
Which also explains why the church is a safe-heaven, God does not allow the forces of Hell to enter holly ground.
It had to be defiled first

Breathing-in coal can be compared to smoking. Breathing in small amounts on occasions won't kill you, but being exposed to it constantly will destroy you'r lungs (happen to know a bit about mining history)
The bit about the people in the church being safe can be explained simply by the writer not knowing how coal-dust works (or maybe it's also supernatural, and the holly ground protects them from that as well)


As far as I'm concerned, this movie is to the franchise what Constantine is to Hellblazer - fails as an adaptation (seeing as it does it's own thing, merely borrowing the imagery), but it's still a very enjoyable movie

Anonymous said...

Silent Hill is more or less reaping the same well deserved kinds of criticism to Final Fantasy The Spirits Within.

That movie is ok as a Sci-Fi animated movie but slap Final Fantasy on it and there are some expectations it needs to live up to.

There wasn't a single character design or area that gave even the slightest nod to the games. Nothing.

I mean it would have been so easy if they could have made the alien souls creatures from the games. Maybe even have some of the Better known GF's get cameos.

Maybe even have it so people no longer even joke about getting some Chicken to eat because when the core of the other world crashed it mutated all chickens into Chokobos or something.

But they did NONE of that. I mean think about it this way. How hard would it have been to have made this the core of a Midgard world where Meteor struck and all the remains of the life stream are the spirits you are now dealing with?

But no its just some post apocalyptic computer cartoon Sci-fantasy where the invading planetary soul has to be healed before the world can recover oh and the bad guys are infinite. You kill them they just return to the spirit mass so yeah your chances of any other resolution are 0.

The only thing better about the Silent Hill movies, and sort of an inverse of the problems, is that they decided to use some of the imagery. But with None of the Understanding of the themes or reasons for why anything happens in the game. The Final Fantasy movie had understanding of the games themes but nothing else.

Both could be good movies if they let go of the game aspects and stood on their own. However they tried to borrow from the franchises and so burned the fan bases of both.

Moarte use suggestion. How about if you run across a theme of either the Pandora situation or immortal care takers something could work to give him a cameo but I don't see it regularly occurring.

A Good time in my mind for the Long Box is around Valentines Day. How many tragic tales of love gone wrong could the long box contain? How many deals with otherworldly powers to either gain love etc. So many tragic twists in the dark annals of the damned.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I was kinda wondering if Moarte would show up in AT4W, but I kinda figured it would just be a cameo. Then again, even if he's cursed to look over a longbox, an immortal of any kind could be useful in various ways. And there definitely needs to be a Moarte vs. Halloweenie crossover at some point.

Erik Johnson Illustrator said...

I remember reading the synopsis online and thinking, "Oh so this is a movie about actually finds the found footage!"

Given the popularity of the trend right now, I'm putting money down that by the end of the decade we'll get a satirical or deconstructive film of this sub genre that is actually titled "Found Footage".

Ugo Strange said...

Actually Anonymous, The Towns people of Silent Hill the MOVIE weren't Christians at all, they were Manachiests and openly rejected Christians ideology (as seen in the original draft of the script). The final draft of the film made their religious affiliation more vague in order to allow The Order to be used in the next film. The cult in the movie is called "the Brethen" you can look up this information on Silenthill.wikia.com.

Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque said...

$1,000,000 idea, dude:

Moarte hosts a month of Romance Comics in February!

Unknown said...

Nice to know the movie was actually fairly decent. Had no way to judge it based on the short teasers I'd seen.

I want to say I'm surprised they made another Silent Hill movie but they keep making Resident Evil movies and those haven't made any damn sense since halfway through the second one.

One thing I'll mention about the Halloween movies. I'm a big fan of the first one and the one that was taking place 20 years after the events of the 1st one, Halloween H20, was actually a lot better movie then people had been guessing. Yes, it's a slasher horror but it makes a kind of sense and I thought it's length was appropriate, it was rather short compared to other movies.

There are a few strange plot holes that pop up but I don't think they take away from the over all story.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Shada67 said...

Fred Thompson is the Fred you were thinking of.

February should have at least a list of the greatest romances in comics' history; and maybe a list of the worst - most-forced romances in comics' history *cough* Superman-Wonder Woman *cough* (though you have gone over that one before).

Awesome to hear Longbox is doing so well, I jave enjoyed starting my mornings with LOTD before going to work. Hope it's not too overwhelming to do that and your regular schedule (please don't burn out!)

Maybe I'll go with my daughter to see Sinister (she loves horror too).

Scott Tibbs said...

I watched it this morning with a friend. It wasn't terribly surprising who the bad guy was and I had figured out the twist at the end fairly early in the film. The thing I disliked most was the ending, which was a major letdown.

AnaM said...

I think there is an easy explanation to why Baguul(sp?) would want to use super8 film. It wants things to look creepy.

I mean, if it is savvy enough to name the files, its savvy enough to try to maximize the horror.

Frosty said...

Duuuuude, Moarte would be totally RADICALACIOUS on the show, maaan! He has those EXTREME skulls and stuuuff! And he has all that BLOOOOOOD! ('Cause he's all undead and stuff, right.)
But you know what would make him totally HARDCORE?

GUUUUUUUNS!


Khm... sorry, I must have watched too much 90's kid for tonight.

...

*walks away*

Nick Michalak said...

I just saw the film today - scariest horror film I've seen in years! I concur with pretty much everything you said as well as Brad Jones' review on his site. I just posted my review of the film at the link below. It's part of Forever Horror Month, one new horror film review every day. So far, I'm keeping up with it. Some days, more than one review, like today.

The composer of this film, Christopher Young, also scored the first two "Hellraiser" movies, and he did a shockingly amazing job here. Also, it was Fred Dalton Thompson you were thinking of who played the Sheriff. He played D.A. Arthur Branch on "Law & Order."

http://forevercinematic.wordpress.com/2012/10/13/sinister-2012/

Unknown said...

Doing some digging, I found that the only things that Insidious and Sinister share are production team (producers, associate producers, etc). Considering the lack of other contiguous elements, and the in production sequel to Insidious, I suspect that at most it's a shared universe for their productions.

As far as Moarte goes, it may be worth doing a couple one week runs with him during the rest of the year (like say one week a quarter) and keeping the full month for October. Summer is kinda traditional horror time in Japan, which raises possibilities in terms of a manga focused week. Early winter was traditionally the time for horror in the British Isles until relatively recently (a couple centuries ago or so at most). Not sure if there is any anthropological connection for a horror tradition in spring though.

Also, just to save additional posts elsewhere, I have to say that I love that there is a Blackest Night comic visible in the longbox during the opening.

Wishes to remain Unknown said...

As a Final Fantasy fan I'm okay with Spirits within, especially since the Era it came out, they were doing some weird stuff with Final Fantasy (7 & 8 were modern industrial fantasy, while 9 was a throw back to the old days and 10 was a weird '1000 years later' plot.) I do like they included Sid and the party system (the deepeyes group and aki was the party). They even had the villain who works for the government that goes mad.

As for my take on Silent hill:

She got her powers from the demons that they though they were keeping away.

The demons of silent hill in my mind are forms that always have existed but have no clear shape, they just take PARTS of a person's psyche (which doesn't have to be solely Alessia's or the person trapped inside the town, but could be a resident of the town) and keep that form. This applies to the nurses forms and clothing as well.

Alessia was just plain angry at the town, so even though the nurse in red was trying to help her, she was still a ball of anger. it's like trying to help a dog was trained to attack after it's seriously wounded.

Deliha is sympatheic but isn't obviously practicing what they consider evil. However she is shown to be shun by the commuity at large for bring such a burden on them.

The church being a safe haven wasn't explained, but I think it was simply due to the strong amount of faith they had, down to the point all of them were willing to burn a child for possibly being evil. Which if you notice when Alessa is let in, it's after the lead actress visibly shakes everyone's faith and then her blood is split. Imply possibly some form of ritual.

The other world appears to be Aleesa's pain incarnate or a literal slice of hell brought on by the demon who made a deal with Alessa.

The mining suits may just to look intimidating or a show of status. As they're the only visible sign of protection in the other world, also they may have to travel to dangerous such as places near or inside the mines to hunt for meat(as they're obviously eating well enough to survive in that world).

Kaiju-Z said...

My theory on the "Super 8" filming of the previous kills is that the demon was brought to life during the time of "Super 8" filming and decided to use that kind of filming as honoring to being brought to our world, maybe?

Kaiju-Z said...

PS: Did you know that there is a Slenderman movie in the works? It's apparently called "Entity". Here's the teaser trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T03TMMilIwU

Anonymous said...

you know Lewis, other then you seem to have made a written cameo in a Spider-Man 4 retroview: http://steamland.deviantart.com/art/Spider-Man-4-Rhue-s-Retroview-Episode-3-AU-330606020?ga_submit=10%3A1350205879

glad Longbox is working for you. I know a guy who can do a dead on crypt keeper laugh and maybe you should get him to dub over the laughter in long box since idk, makes it sound less cheesy.


As for silent hill, its easy to explian the prymid head being there, well jackass it was in the frist film. thsi director as much as he didn;t like the frist film has to at least keep SOME canonuity. right? the nurses agian keeping consistanty. its like if say soem of your storyliens were nto kept in cohariant. Dahliane is weird i;m gussing, and as for the rest idk... why does Alternate Linkara hit on mara Wilson? eh?


How do you feel with the cancelation of The Amazing spider-man's 50 year run? whiel tis making way for The Superior Spider-Man. will you read Superior? i'm kinda pissed off at this news, different spdiey, new book,etc,etc.

Jesse said...

You could do "Lunchbox" in April. Every 6 months of so. Keeps it fresh without being too close to October.

Marlate could be your go-to guy for evil things, or Black magic. Linkara doesn't seem like the type to touch that kind of magic, so Marlate could serve that function.

Emily said...

Great vlog - I wasn't planning on seeing Sinister (not my cup of tea) but it is nice to know I can recommend it to my friends on Halloween ;)

Also, thanks so much for not planning to include Moarte in the main show. I love the character (surprising, since I sort of rolled my eyes the first few times I heard LOTD was coming. I thought "Another character? Reeally?), but you're totally right, he just wouldn't fit with the style of AT4W and doesn't really serve a purpose (aside from being awesome of course).

I am also enamored with the "Mid Summer Nightmare" idea. I really wanted to see Moarte more than one month a year, but being a regular cast member would have been too much ... Thank you so much for reading my mind before I even thought of it ;)

Keep up the great work
Em

Movie-Brat said...

If it helps, I know Prison is getting a DVD release next year probably January or later in 2013 from the folks at Shout! Factory. It's basically directed bhy Renny Harlin who went on to direct A Nightmare on Elm Street 4.

Perhaps that should be interesting for next Halloween maybe. I just wanted to inform you of that.

CountZeroOr said...

Shada had it right - it was Fred Thompson, who left Law and Order for a failed run for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2008 (IIRC, he was the first guy to drop out).

CountZeroOr said...

I posted my last comment (which may or may not have been approved by now), before I finished watching the vlog, and I have a guess about why the demon used Super 8 instead of other methods of recording.

Super 8 is, technically, always retrievable, at least as far as video is concerned (having not used the format before, and going by the movie Super 8, presumably there is a way to record audio). Even without a proper projector, you can always, always look at the images. It's film - it's a translucent image, with different levels of opacity depending on what it's recorded. It insures that the demon, theoretically, can always propagate.

The real question comes in when we're talking about how the demon could kill (or exist) before the existence of film, never-mind the motion picture camera. That is, of course, assuming that the demon isn't a historically recent occurance.

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"The real question comes in when we're talking about how the demon could kill (or exist) before the existence of film, never-mind the motion picture camera. That is, of course, assuming that the demon isn't a historically recent occurance"

In the movie, Vincent D'onofrio says that it was difficult to find information on it because any painting or image of the demon and its symbols had been destroyed, suggesting that it can exist in representations of it, as well.

Anonymous said...

The other Anonymous beat me to it - this is totally a Slenderman movie, I was telling my buddy as we left the movie, "Bagul is Slenderman." Then I had that awkward conversation where I introduce someone to the awesomeness that is Slenderman.

SO yeah, I really liked this movie too, for the same reasons Linkara did (music, atmosphere in general, which I think they pulled off very well and it's the kind of horror I prefer), but I also liked the similarities I saw with the meme that I know the writers cribbed from, but it's a creepy one and one that deserved a movie. I feel like it might have originally been called Slenderman, and they changed it at the last minute to Sinister because that's being too cute.

Anonymous said...

I have two comments. First, I don't think you should do Longbox during the summer, or rather doing it for a whole month during the summer. You ever hear of "too much of a good thing?" It's why people don't celebrate Halloween or Christmas everyday. I'm sure there is a better way of describing my feelings on it, but that's the best I can do right now.

Second, and I know it's nitpicky, but you might want to look at your description of the video. "Linkara talks at the bew horror film."

Adriftchalice said...

Linkara, this was co-written by an ex-member of Spill.com. He understands what needs to be done in a movie because he reviewed movies. Just imagine what he would do with some like The Punisher (with the proper source material).