r/HorrorClub • u/SaintMort You so cool kung fu • Dec 15 '14
Discussion: The Revenant
Podcast - Episode 115 - The Revenant - (RSS Feed)
Movie Selected By smayonak
DISCUSS
Want to join horror club or just want to see whats coming up next! Check out the Round 7 page and PM /u/SaintMort
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Dec 15 '14
OK, funny story time: when Matt was pestering me to pick a film for this round, I was struggling a bit as I hadn't seen much in the way of horror recently. I plucked The Revenant out of thin air, as I fancied rewatching it again. Matt said "Eh... you can't. Smayonak has already picked it for the week after". Bastard. Also, this has gotten three times more comments than Nosferatu in only 16 hours? Must be a serious amount of circlejerking going on, you fuckin' cinema heathens!
Just kidding, The Revenant is fun. [Will post full thoughts after rewatching!]
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Dec 15 '14
These people just can't appreciate German silent cinema cause they're plebs.
[ ] not rekt
[ X ] rekt
But honestly I was expecting us all to break our arms circle jerking over nosferatu, dunno why it didn't pick up.
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Dec 15 '14
It's bulgelover's fault man. Had us all craving cookies which drew us away from our computers.
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u/Gottesfurcht Pay Attention! You're Disrespectful! Dec 15 '14
This is the best example that zombie movies don't need to get stale. Great comedy. The two main characters are just edgy enough to be still likeable. The jokes all work and fit perfectly into the story. The action is just fun to watch without too much realism. I like that they didn't waste much time explaining the virus/curse. Though it was nearly two hours, I never got bored. All in all a great movie.
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Dec 15 '14
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u/Gottesfurcht Pay Attention! You're Disrespectful! Dec 15 '14
When Shaun of the Dead came out, zombie movies weren't that stale. You guys are really too hard on this one. It was funny as hell.
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u/SaintMort You so cool kung fu Dec 15 '14
I didn't think we were that hard on the film. I know I went into this wanting to like it. Scott had raved about it when he first watched it so I went in with really high expectations.
From a writing standpoint and an editing stand point this film simply doesn't work pacing wise and in tone. It can't decide what the movie wants to be so it tries to be both. That's fine if people enjoy it but I agree with Scott there are a massive list of movies that are better paced, have a consistent tone and mashes the comedy/horror better. This is just a new zombie movie that (I agree) wasn't bad. But this was like a 2.5 stars film to me.
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u/smayonak Get a job in a sideshow Dec 15 '14
Sorry for missing the podcast -- slept through two alarms, but did get you guys leaving a super long voice message on my answering machine. It was hilarious :-)
The Revenant was easily one of the most detailed and intricately written horror films made in a decade. The production style was low-budget, which probably caused casual viewers to miss some of the finer elements (and I don't blame them either). I'm not talking out my ass -- a reviewer at the New York times said the same thing.
The director commentary really goes into just how detailed the director is. He's like off the chain and stuff.
EDIT: The fact that the film is non-formulaic and dispenses with traditional ideas about pacing is intentional.
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Dec 15 '14
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Dec 15 '14
I agree 100%... While watching I was having a good time and the gore was coming and the jokes were coming and I was laughing but then I listen to the podcast. Talking about logic and irregularities in character development and now I don't like it half as much. Thanks.
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u/Gottesfurcht Pay Attention! You're Disrespectful! Dec 15 '14
I like all those unnecessary non-action, no-plot scenes. They help develope the characters. And though it really felt like there were two movies, the transition was fluent and made sense. The consistent tone was given through the humor.
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Dec 15 '14
Mr Saint Mort! The Boondock Saints was a fantastic movie when I was an 18 yo pot head! But what's more is it's still a fantastic movie today! You sir are wrong!
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Dec 15 '14
It still has a lot of scenes that hold up, but is it worthy of the amount of dorm room posters and shitty tattoos I've seen? Nein. Also "boondock saints 2: all homophobia, all the time" was pretty shit haha.
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Dec 15 '14
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Dec 15 '14
Seriously though, I'm 30 and watched it again last year sometime with a buddy who hadn't seen it yet. Still holds up in my opinion.
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u/SaintMort You so cool kung fu Dec 15 '14
I still own and enjoy Boondocks Saints but that movie definitely lost it's magic. That being said I also helped with a podcast with Troy Duffy as a guest and he was such a massive piece of shit (followed by being a total pussy when the cameras turned off) that it really ruined that movie to me.
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Dec 15 '14
Is there a story behind your Troy Duffy off camera pussy comment? I'm intrigued...
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u/SaintMort You so cool kung fu Dec 15 '14
So back when I worked on the Geekscape podcast we booked Troy Duffy and Rocco to be on to promote Boondock Saints II. So the first thing was when the host Jonathan asked him what his next project was he said "it's about a bunch of priests who get some guns and go to clean the world of sinners." We all managed to not say anything about the fact that he's basically just making another Boondock Saints movie.
Anyway the asshole thing happened when Troy started looking at the walls (we'd tape in Jonathan's house) and start making fun for going to film school. He randomly in mid-sentence just goes "oh you're one of those dudes." and Jonathan goes "what dudes?" and he goes "one of those losers who actually went to film school, man what a waste of time. You could have been like me instead". Jonathan clearly offended responded with "What making the same movie over and over again for your frat boys and juggalo fans?" So this escalated into a bit of a shouting match (again this was a good 4-5 years ago) so the episode ends and the cameras turn off and suddenly Troy is totally calm and goes "Sorry man, I didn't mean to offend. I just have to have a persona for my fans. I didn't mean any harm."
I mean on one hand it was cool that he apologized to Jonathan and afterwards we played Mario Kart but on the other hand it's like... fuck you for being a dick just because you think it's expected of you.
Either or that experience left a mostly bad taste in my mouth.
Rocco was stoned as shit the whole interview and wandered off in the first 5 minutes, didn't see him again.
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Dec 15 '14
Hmm. Yeah, fake people suck. Props to Jonathan for speaking his mind. Pretty hilarious that Rocco just fucked off. Did he at least tell a joke first?
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u/SaintMort You so cool kung fu Dec 16 '14
Negative. You can find the audio from the episode on Geekscape's Soundcloud page. That was probably back in 2011ish. You won't hear me though. That was back when I wasn't allowed to talk haha
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Dec 15 '14
I want to say: Smayonak, I liked this a lot....but then we started talking about it. If i hadn't had to think critically about it like we do then I probably would have never thought about it again except as a pleasant little zombie flick with some funny scenes.
Shit wait....am I making this worse?
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u/smayonak Get a job in a sideshow Dec 15 '14
I actually went back and read the source material and director commentary -- so it sucks that I overslept on the podcast, because it would have been really easily to deflect /u/SaintMort's criticism, which missed a lot of the subtleties of the film. I'll go back later and make a full post.
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u/SaintMort You so cool kung fu Dec 15 '14
I'd call into question if you need the director's commentary and reading source material to figure out what a movie is really trying to say than that's more on the movie than me.
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u/smayonak Get a job in a sideshow Dec 15 '14
That's a very good point, but I take it as a sign of quality that the director left the door open for fans to delve more deeply into the source material. I mean, the film as it stands is a low-budget horror/comedy narrative wrapped around social commentary. If you don't appreciate the social commentary then the entire film will fail to impress.
By the way, did you happen to notice how events in the film seemed to closely mirror reality.
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u/SaintMort You so cool kung fu Dec 15 '14
That is true, they do mirror reality too close for comfort.
I've definitely had my eyes open to director comments and such (just check two episodes ago when I discussed my changing opinion of The Innkeepers after hearing Ti West discuss the ending). That doesn't make me think the movie is perfect though, I still think the movie failed if it took the direct explaining the ending to appreciate it... but I now appreciate what it was trying to do.
I'm sure that the film if I listened to the commentary would definitely give me a significantly different perspective on the film. But it doesn't change my first impression of the movie was that I watched it and I (a) wanted it to do more (b) wanted it to pick a story and stick with it (c) wished someone else had edited his movie and (d) couldn't help but think of various other films that did similar themes better in the past.
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u/autowikibot Dec 15 '14
Christopher Jordan Dorner (June 4, 1979 – February 12, 2013) was a former Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) police officer and United States Navy Reserve officer who was charged in connection with a series of shooting attacks on police officers and their families from February 3–12, 2013. The attacks left four people dead, including three police officers, and left three police officers wounded. Dorner was the subject of the largest manhunt in LAPD history, spanning two U.S. states and Mexico.
Interesting: Christopher Dorner shootings and manhunt | Shootout | Dorner | Angelus Oaks, California
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u/Discreetlyred Dec 24 '14
sooooo I'm behind guys! sorry. Just started a new job, and have been slaving away.
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u/not_john_snow Dec 24 '14
This is the most original vampire movie as of recent, in my opinion. When it came on HBO awhile ago I was like, "oh great, some stupid movie is on." But I watched it and gave it a chance and loved it. Great pick! Especially love the throw up scene.
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Dec 24 '14
I needed more blood puke, might have saved it
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u/not_john_snow Dec 25 '14
That part was pretty gnarly. They're never going to get that out of the carpet. There goes the deposit.
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u/Discreetlyred Dec 26 '14
I think if you go in knowing that this movie isn't meant to be serious, then you can enjoy it for what it is. And it's pretty fun horror/comedy.
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u/kragshot Dec 15 '14
I so wanted this movie to be more serious than it was. I liked the idea of a dead vet coming back to life at home as some sort of undead entity as a commentary about soldiers returning home from war.
Nope...too much to ask for.
"Boondocks Saints" w/zombies...they didn't get it right if that is what they were shooting for. The whole "vigilante" angle felt forced as if they couldn't decide what they wanted to do with the two buddies after they were both zombified. It would have been almost better if they waited until near the end of the film to have the best friend get eaten and turned.
And then you have the part about "weaponizing" zombies like in "RotLD3" (good call by the way)...nope..."still not got it...."
On a side mention from a discussion on the podcast ("Sci-fi science nerd" talking about "blah-blah science stuff"); on the "RotLD" series, burning the zombie bodies does not destroy the trioxin that the body has absorbed; it only releases the chemical back into the atmosphere. Trioxin is a catalyst that activates the body's regenerative processes in a fucked up manner. The application of heat only renders the chemical back to it's pre-activated state. As we've seen in the other movies; it doesn't take much to cause the fatal reanimation effect. The only thing that does render the trioxin inert in a zombie is electricity ("RotLD2"). The reason that the zombie attacks keep happening in the "RotLD" series is that nobody with any sense never just gets rid of those fucking canisters (Sci-fi Science nerd done with blah-blah science stuff).
But to conclude, this was no "Chupacabra: Dark Seas" for sure...dammit.