Wednesday, January 13, 2016

F This Movie! - Our Favorite Horror Movies of 2015

Patrick and Heather Wixson recap all the horror movies they loved in the last year.



Download this episode here. (138.1 MB)

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Listen to F This Movie! on Stitcher.

Follow Heather on Twitter at @thehorrorchick and read her writing at DailyDead.com and TheHorrorChick.com.

34 comments:

  1. I agree - I thought 2015 was pretty great for Horror, especially from the indie studios.

    Last Shift was great minus some sillyness in the last half but it picks itself back up with the ending.

    I wish I liked Spring. The lead female character sucked me out of the movie completely. I didn't buy into any chemistry between the two and I had a hard time believing anyone would have stuck around having to be around her all the time.

    I'm with Heather, I'm really tired of the Zombie genre but Wyrmwood was fantastic and so much fun!

    I disagree that the Studio didn't have their hands in Krampus. I really hope it gets a directors cut release because I felt that it was cut to hell for the PG-13 rating. I still liked it, but I just felt like something was missing.

    I really liked the discussion regarding Goodnight Mommy. I thought the film was great but liked hearing opposing arguments. I wish I knew the specific moment that you're talking about Patrick, where you knew what was coming. If it's what I think it is, I am of the opinion that it was not meant to be a "twist" rather a reveal that was intentionally put out there early on for the audience to KNOW what was happening. The only scene that I hated was the dream sequence in the woods. Sucked me out for that moment. The "Jacob's Ladder" shaky head thing is as dead as jump scares.

    I leave out Bone Tomahawk because I do not think it's a Horror film and the Writer/Director has even said as much in interviews. It was in my top ten of the year, Heather, and I do not like the Western genre as well, because of my grandparents also!

    I think We are Still Here is the best Horror film of the year. My favorite is Hellions, but second is WASH.

    4 of my top 10 of the year are Horror films and all but one of them have Horror elements so it would be hard to come up with a top 10 Horror film list without including those so here goes.

    We Are Still Here
    Hellions
    Lost After Dark
    Horsehead
    He never Died
    Wyrmwood
    Clown
    From the Dark
    Goodnight Mommy
    Exile: The Sunderland Experiment

    There we're some other decent to good ones too:
    It Follows
    Last Shift
    Savaged (Avenged)
    The Final Girls
    Exeter (Backmask)
    Bound By Vengeance
    Bastard
    #Horror (surprisingly, but no one agrees :))
    A Christmas Horror Story
    Krampus

    Being that I watch a ton of Horror films, I would say that I saw a lot of crap, but they aren't even worth discussing. I think the good stuff I saw was REALLY good and that outweighs the bad stuff even though the ratio is probably 50/50 so, yeah, great year for Horror. Hoping 2016 brings it! Great podcast, guys!


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    1. Michael Dougherty was on KPOV this week and said that Krampus was never meant to be an R because he wanted kids to be able to see it (the way they saw Gremlins in the '80s). Maybe that's just a line or some sort of damage control, but that's what he said for what it's worth. There may not be an R-rated cut.

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    2. That is interesting, I'm going to have to listen to that. There is an obvious cut of an F-Bomb in the film so maybe that's the only cut because IO believe PG-13 only allows for one "fuck" which is said earlier by the Aunt. I also felt like the kills seemed chopped, but hey, I'll take the writer/director's word over anyone else.

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    3. Agreed. I think maybe that's what I mean when I say the last act feels 'rushed.' I haven't been able to pinpoint why, but that might be it.

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  2. Between this and the 'Top 10 of 2015' Killer POV podcast (which has a lot of the same movies that Patrick and Heather recommend) I've got a bounty of great suggestions for my early '16 horror viewing. Thanks guys, great podcast as usual. :-)

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  3. This is THE top ten:
    10 Knock, Knock
    9 We Are Still Here
    8 The Gift
    7 A Christmas Horror Story
    6 Bone Tomahawk
    5 What We Do in the Shadows
    4 Tales of Halloween
    3 The Visit
    2 Krampus
    1 It Follows

    It Follows is no Howling II but what are you going to do......

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  4. I couldn't agree with Patrick any more about We Are Still Here, I liked it a lot the first time, and only like it more on every rewatch. I think it's because the movie plays it honest the whole way through. It never really holds back to give any false leads. You know the house is haunted almost immediately. You know what the monsters are almost immediately. You know the town is hiding something almost immediately. It's really great.

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  5. Sat in a motel room alone in Florida, taking 45 mins to download the podcast over crappy Motel Wifi, desperate to listen because listening to Fthismovie makes me feel like im at home,
    Sat in a Motel in Florida trying to download a podcast from Chicago so I can feel comfortable like im at home in the UK
    My life is weird sometimes if I think about it!

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  6. Blade Trinity is now this year's Satan's Little Helper.

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  8. I would like to hear this podcast done with JB.

    Of all Patrick's partners in podcast he has the most insightful things to say. He pays attention attentions to aspects of film like cinematography, cultural impact, production etc... not just actors and whether or not the nostalgia hits in the right way.

    Not that the other hosts aren't lovely people, occasionally funny and what not, but they just don't have JB's insight, focus or open mindedness to the art of film. Rather than just say "some things worked and some thing didn't", JB usually thinks about things enough to actually tell you why specifically something worked for him or didn't.

    Also the report between Patrick and JB is unbeatable.

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  9. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to my new blogger name, "G???"

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  10. Thank you for the kind words.

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  11. Thanks to Patrick for defending It Follows! And thanks for another great episode!

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    1. Heather went on for soooooooo long about her frustration with It Follows. Wish it had been more of Patrick talking and explaining why he liked it

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    2. I personally was interested to hear what Heather had to say, considering it was a different viewpoint. It was good to hear her try to work through why the movie didn't work for her, without simply being dismissive of the whole thing. And Heather has a track record of being rather unique (read: cray-cray) with her horror movie tastes, and that's what makes her a fun guest to listen to. My love of It Follows is not diminished by someone not seeing it the way I do, for me that makes me love the movie more.

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    3. In all fairness we heard why Patrick likes it here
      http://www.fthismovie.net/2015/03/review-it-follows.html?m=1

      So im guessing that's why it was more interesting to get a different opinion,

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  13. I've never wanted to yell at someone as much as I wanted to yell at Heather about It Follows. Mostly with love. Mostly.

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  15. I've watched Things we do in the Shadows four times since January 8th, Just thinking about it now makes me realize I'm going to be at five in a couple hours. It is sitting closely behind Fury Road as my second favorite movie that has come out this year.

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  16. Krampus's design seemed great until you see his face and realize that his mouth is an awkward mask that has one locked position. Was I the only one bothered by that?

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    1. I loved that design. I saw it as a St. Nicholas mask and not its real face. So we never see what it actually looks like.

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    2. I liked it too. I think it's creepier than any "real" face they could have designed, plus has the additional effect of looking like Krampus ripped off Santa's face and is wearing it Leatherface-style.

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    3. You don't want to see his real face. It's an exact replica of Whoopi Goldberg's vagina.

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    4. I didn't even think about it being Santa's actual face. That's even better.

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  17. I watched Goodnight Mommy after listening to this (probably because it was the most readily available) and I have to agree with Patrick...the scene he was referring to (my guess is the juice scene, but it could be the game scene right after that) pretty much led me to guess the entire plot of of the movie within a couple minutes. It was a bit of a disappointment in that regard...

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  18. Goodnight Mommy SPOILERS AHEAD has no twist in my opinion. I don''t feel like the filmmakers constructed that film with any reveal. They didn't try to skirt things as many things coming out of the mother's mouth clearly reveal what is going on. This is why many, including myself, knew what was happening from the very first scene. Many films are about the twist and this one was not, which is why I admire it.

    Torture is not my thing but I feel in the context of the film, the things that are done to the mother work for the horror of the story.

    My qualms reside in the peculiar and totally implausible Red Cross scene (It almost derailed the movie for me entirely) and the "shaking head scene" which a lot of people blame for misdirection in the trailer but I for one was relieved that's not what this movie was.

    For me there was only one outcome and they stuck to it. The final sequence has a truly great image of horror.

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    1. SPOLIERS

      You'll see I posted a very similar feeling above where I truly believed there was not meant to be a "twist" in the beginning and it was supposed to be obvious. Also I hated the shaky head scene. I finally decided to look a little more into this today and from a few interviews I have read with the directors, I now believe it is possible that they did make it as a "twist" but didn't really care, which I have mixed feelings about. I don't care about the "twist". I like the silence of the film, the shots, the camera movements, the set and the performances. I also feel the real "twist" is "who is this woman?" Which is fine with me. I like that. But damn if the first "twist" doesn't cheapen the whole film for me to some degree if that's really what it is.

      So, in one of the interviews, when asked about marketing the film and how to make a trailer without showing twists, one of the directors replies:

      "Franz: But we also wanted the film to not depend on a twist. So even if you guess or know it earlier, the film should work anyways. Some horror fans are just going to be better at figuring it out so we tried to balance that."

      He's dismissive of the "twist" yet acknowledges it exists. That bothers me. I do agree the film works anyway, I like that, however is that some BS, after the fact comment? Maybe. They also say in so many words that they don't connect with Haneke in one interview and seem dismissive of him too - that rubs me the wrong way as well cause GM is clearly comparable in many ways.



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    2. Oh yeah, and "Some horror fans are just going to be better at figuring it out so we tried to balance that" - ugh...I don't like that statement either which further tells me they were trying something with that "twist".

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    3. It's quite possible they didn't construct the "twist" very well and are backpedaling but I'd like to think that's not the case. I still appreciate the film for what it is and thought it was beautifully shot. And again, the end sequence has a wonderful visual.

      It is also possible Franz and Fiala carry some of the same influences, filmmakers and otherwise, as Haneke but, admittedly, that sounds a bit like if Noel Gallagher dismissed The Beatles. They want to carve out a spot for themselves, which I fully understand. I am interested in seeing what they do next.

      I've only seen it once, back when it opened, and knew nothing about it save for the trailer. I really need to see it again.

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  19. Heather you broke my heart, you didn't like It Follows but you enjoy Blade 3? An if I got this straight its because of Ryan Renolds abs right? , it doesn't make sense thats stupid then I thought wait I use to love Baywatch never mind now I get it now lol
    Still thou try an watch It Follows again you might like it better, I will give ya the pool scene was kinda out their.

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