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Cosmic Horror in Film
- Thread starter UCBooties
- Start date
just watched Picnic at Hanging Rock, and yes i'm putting it in the cosmic horror genre
(the book the film was based on had its final chapter removed at the last minute before it was published. wiki tells you what the final chapter was about, but please only go there once you've seen the film)
whoever recommended it, nice one. thoroughly enjoyed it...
(the book the film was based on had its final chapter removed at the last minute before it was published. wiki tells you what the final chapter was about, but please only go there once you've seen the film)
whoever recommended it, nice one. thoroughly enjoyed it...
i mentioned Noroi earlier in the thread but did the movie kind of a disservice with just a single word post. From a previous post of mine:
"When i think about it the best comic horror in the Lovecraftian sense ive seen is probably Noroi. You have a completely alien psychic old god eldritch abomination, a detective trying to figure out these paranormal mysteries that range from the big city to tiny rural villages, to out of their mind whack job cultists trying to accomplish a goal thats horrifying beyond imagination, to a feeling of complete dread and that the universe is just fucked."
The reason im bringing this back up is i just noticed that the movie is now more accessible as its on Shudder now.
"When i think about it the best comic horror in the Lovecraftian sense ive seen is probably Noroi. You have a completely alien psychic old god eldritch abomination, a detective trying to figure out these paranormal mysteries that range from the big city to tiny rural villages, to out of their mind whack job cultists trying to accomplish a goal thats horrifying beyond imagination, to a feeling of complete dread and that the universe is just fucked."
The reason im bringing this back up is i just noticed that the movie is now more accessible as its on Shudder now.
This is hard.
I fucking love Kill List so much.
Also if you live in the UK, it's free on Amazon Prime video.
Umm. That little bit of info could be seen as spoilery.
Is Noroi really a cosmic horror movie though? Don't get me wrong, I adore the movie, I think it truly captures just how well Japanese cinema can capture a dark/wrong atmosphere, but isn't it just a supernatural horror movie?
i think so. From the Lovecraft Wiki: Themes are Cosmic Indifference (humans are insignificant), Alienation (fear of the alien and unknown), and Sanity (just witnessing can drive one insane). The tropes listen on that page are Eldritch Abomination, The Cult, Secret Knowledge, and Tainted Bloodline.. all of which are present in Noroi.
It touches on that stuff but the way its all presented is more along the lines of a straight up creature feature horror film.
Has anyone seen The Endless? Just stumbled upon it, new film by the Spring guys. The plot sounds interesting.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3986820/?ref_=tt_rec_tt
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3986820/?ref_=tt_rec_tt
Spring was excellent, so curious to find out more about this one.
I just watched Spring. Loved it and reminded me of Let Me In which is another favourite.
On another note, why is it that Horror/Thriller movies can hardly ever break above a 5 or 6 rating on IMDB? It's like this genre is doomed to fail from the start, even when a movie in this genre is exceptional. It's so unfair.
On another note, why is it that Horror/Thriller movies can hardly ever break above a 5 or 6 rating on IMDB? It's like this genre is doomed to fail from the start, even when a movie in this genre is exceptional. It's so unfair.
And it's free on YouTube too!
Yeah I don't think the entity in it is really "cosmic" at all.
That's based on the implication that it has any forebearance on the Judeo-Christian religion. It has enough ambiguities to stand as a it's own mythos as far as I'm concerned.
When hearing things like "Cosmic Horror" I am imagining things like IT or Mountain of Madness, or the Mist. Is Aliens cosmic horror? I don't think it is, especially not with the stupid arse origin story Ridley gave them in Covenant.
If you read the comics Clive Barker explains his universe as a weird judeo-christian-lovecraftian-buddhist place. It's bizarre. It mostly based on perception and the will of a entity known as The Toymaker that resides within the Leviathan that controls the labyrinth and the cenobite hellpriests.
I see it in more as three categories
Mythos - Lovecraft's stories or directly based on/drawing from his stories.
Lovecraftian - ancient ones, other dimensions, cults, etc, etc, but not actually Cthulhu and whatnot (ie Repairman Jack, The Void)
Cosmic horror - more general unknowable/beyond-our-comprehension/perception concepts and premises. (ie House of Leaves, Channel Zero's No-End House, Twilight Zone's And When The Sky Was Opened)
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No he isn't. Prometheus is the only one of his films that even comes close and that film is all about demystification which is about as opposite of cosmic horror as you can get.
Hmmmm. What do you think about Event Horizon? I consider it Cosmic Horror myself.
Would you consider Cabin in the Woods cosmic horror due to the nature of the "Ancient Ones" in the film?
Edit: maybe just Lovecraftian
Edit: maybe just Lovecraftian
Probably not, as the Ancient Ones/Titans are essentially understood and can be held back in ritual. Plus being chained in the first place, there was a way to stop them in the past.
Well now I look foolish.
Event Horizon is an interesting case because all of the trappings are there to make it a perfect example of Cosmic Horror but at the same time the horror in question, the 'what' in "What's going on?" ends up being completely understandable that it doesn't really work. I think the film needed a different director, Anderson's workmanlike nature ends up clashing with the story. It isn't often I would say that a film would be better if it was more vague but I absolutely think it is true in this case.
One does have to be wary about being too strict with genre definitions though or else nothing is going to fit anywhere so I would say Event Horizons has to fall under the Cosmic Horror umbrella.
Ehh, I don't think so. The dimension that the ship went through, the one that transformed it into such a malevolent living creature, was never actually explained, correct? In essence the real "bad guy" of the movie was not the ship but rather that mysterious dimension the ship accidentally traveled to, so I think it fits pretty well.
The problem is Anderson is too generic in its presentation, it is very much a "Hell". We might not truly understand the workings of it exactly but it being a hellscape of a sort shackles the horror to our own experience and viewpoint and Cosmic Horror is largely about the horror of the unknowable, that the terror is itself incomprehensible. When corpses start getting strung up with barbed wire you are very much in a horror your mind can fathom.
Have you heard of the upcoming movie Housewife? It's from the director of Baskin, and supposed to have a lot of Lovecraftian undertones and imagery
Oh man I stopped that halfway through, I am already hooked.
i just watched a flick called Ghostland (or Inccident in a Ghostland, as it's also known by) and thought it was worth a mention in the thread
now i'm not saying it's full on cosmic horror, but because of a certain inclusion, i feel as if it deserves an honorary mention at least
now i'm not saying it's full on cosmic horror, but because of a certain inclusion, i feel as if it deserves an honorary mention at least
I like to think of myself as someone who has good taste, but goddamn, I love Event Horizon.
I know it's a bad movie, but it's the best damn bad movie ever made.
I still need to watch In the Mouth of Madness.
I know it's a bad movie, but it's the best damn bad movie ever made.
I still need to watch In the Mouth of Madness.
I'd really hesitate to call stuff like Alien and Hellraiser cosmic horror. Unless our definition is loose enough that the mere presence of aliens is enough to qualify any work as cosmic horror.
I mean, the first and most obvious part of being cosmic horror is being, you know, horror.
This is disqualifying like 80% of Lovecraft's work.
However: Resolution >>> Cabin in the Woods.
I mean, the first and most obvious part of being cosmic horror is being, you know, horror.
This is disqualifying like 80% of Lovecraft's work.
However: Resolution >>> Cabin in the Woods.
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I think the movie They Remain might be cosmic horror... or just plain weird? It plays out alot like a low budget Annihilation.
The original Alien was pretty comic horror-like, the sheer insanity of the derelict, the fossilized space jockey, the xenomorph's life cycle, how the xenomorph used humans as raw material to make eggs. That ended as soon as the Xenomorphs were turned into space ants with a queen and all, and the engineers nonsense.
The original Alien was pretty comic horror-like, the sheer insanity of the derelict, the fossilized space jockey, the xenomorph's life cycle, how the xenomorph used humans as raw material to make eggs. That ended as soon as the Xenomorphs were turned into space ants with a queen and all, and the engineers nonsense.
Men in black fits well, despite the light tone of the series. Like, our world fits into a small locker room in another world, you can't be more cosmic horror than that.
It's literally not a horror movie dude. If somebody asked you to recommend them a cosmic horror movie, would you seriously answer Men in Black?
The alien spaceship is such a brief part of the movie that I don't think I'd say that makes the movie as a whole cosmic horror. The xenomorph is a much more present force than is standard for cosmic horror and it is severely lacking in lore and general cosmic nihilism. The universe itself is certainly cosmic horror, but the movies themselves really aren't.
I think Scott himself said that Alien is pretty much a haunted house movie IN SPACE!
Well I guess thats true. I always felt Alien was somewhat inspired by Beyond the Mountains of Madness, without the whole trip to the ancient alien city (though I supposed the Derelict could replace the ancient city). The hooks were there but the follow up decided to go on a completely different direction and ground the xenomorphs.
Funny this thread popped up this morning because I just watch Coherence last night. it really is great.Y'all should watch Coherence:
It's a real good movie.
- Celestial event? Check.
- Inexplicable events that may or may not be tied to said event? Check.
- Unexplained phenomena? Check.
- People losing their grip on reality? Check.
- Sort of ambiguous ending? Check.
Stranger Things season 1 is to me, the most well-adapted Lovecraftian story in film or television. Season 2 would've really put a cap on it if they hadn't gone into too many directions with the plot(s).
