Seen and not seen's, recommendations and queries on top films in general.

[absurdexposition]

I've only watch All the Colors of the Dark once and it did blow me away. Martino's Torso is one of my all-time favorite films but his other giallo just don't do it for me the way that one does. A lot of people worship them so I feel like I must be missing something....  happy to see though that this Severin bluray is still available as I thought it was already sold-out but I just checked and they've got copies.

I felt that same about "All the Colors..." when I first saw it, not overly into psychedelic stuff.

[DSOL]

Cold Skin - someone posted this review on IMDB about the movie and it sum up exactly how I feel about it

"I was drawn to see this movie after reading a brief plot synopsis which had a clear Lovecraftian horror theme (et in the 20's an isolated lighthouse attacked by creatures from the sea). And though this wasn't exactly the movie I wanted it to be, I was satisfied with it. Firstly, this movie is extremely well-made and acted. The location is simply wonderful. I would've preferred the sea creatures to be more grotesque but that wasn't what they were aiming for. This film doesn't explain everything which leaves you thinking about it which works well in this case."

[THE RITA HN]

This year we should get Fulci's NEW YORK RIPPER

Definitely in the vein of needing any version I can get of this film.

[totalblack]

For anyone talking about missing Beyond The Black Rainbow I do recommend watching it as it's great. I did really like Mandy, but it was a lot less dark than BTBR - yes it is sci-fi but it's more on Cronenberg side of things

[A-Z]

Dead Ringers (1988) a more "mainstream" (but still awesome) side of 80s Cronenberg with a brilliant performance by Jeremy Irons playing identical twins; deals with issues of psychological autonomy and substance abuse
general impression: fuck, this is great, what the hell was i thinking, why didn't i watch this years ago (like everyone else on this board probably did)

Húsið: Trúnaðarmál (1983) a supernatural mystery / family drama hybrid from Iceland
influences from The Changeling, Rosemary's Baby and nordic drama (Ibsen?) melted into something quite unique
at times a bit too slow, at times genuinely creepy and thrilling without relying on any cinematic bells & whistles, at times deeply touching
+ a pretty efficient punch-in-the-gut ending
all in all, one of the rare examples of a haunted house movie that doesn't suck balls

[DSOL]

Annihilation [2018] - I wanted to see this when it came to theaters but I missed it. finally caught it on Hulu last night. I hoped it would be good but it was fucking awesome. visually its fucking gorgeous and super detailed. the acting is solid, the writing is a little hit or miss but mostly good. the score jumps between twisted IDMish electronics, drones, vocal fuckery and acoustic guitars. it's fucking great. Reminds me of the score for Blade Runner 2049 mixed with Mick Gordon's score for the video game Prey. I liked the ending too. Honestly I didn't have a complaint by the end and I just wanted to re-watch it immediately to see what I missed.

finally watched this last night on Prime and have to agree with everything stated here. couple of my friends went on and on about the movie when it first came out, but they are the types that every time they see a new movie, its better than the last one they saw so I took their opinions with a grain of salt in regards to Annihilation.

watched The Beingafterwards, 80's creature flick. overall pretty bad, but was still fun. probably wont ever want to watch it again.

[cantle]

The Captain/ Der Hauptmann ... watched this, rather liked it. Demented characters study of a dark decsent, black comedy moments, based on a true story. Brought to mind the feel of Come and See too but in a good rather than derivative way.

[ConcreteMascara]

Dead Ringers (1988) a more "mainstream" (but still awesome) side of 80s Cronenberg with a brilliant performance by Jeremy Irons playing identical twins; deals with issues of psychological autonomy and substance abuse
general impression: fuck, this is great, what the hell was i thinking, why didn't i watch this years ago (like everyone else on this board probably did)

Hard to pick a favorite Cronenberg film but objectively Dead Ringers is probably the best. Jeremy Irons just kills it and it's just relentlessly negative. I watch Scanners and Videodrome a lot more often but I think Dead Ringers is better than either one.

Last night was Argento's Phenomena. It was my first viewing and I watched the new-ish Synapse bluray which looked really good (though I have no comparison point). It was the direct inspiration for the video games Clock Tower and Clock Tower 2 for the SNES and PSX respectively and it was crazy to see how much those Japanese developers lifted straight from the film, main character included. The movie itself was definitely one of Argento's weirder ones, being closer to Suspiria than anything else, but still pretty different from that. It's a little slow and a lot weird, but the dreamier than usual tone really worked to move things along and keep me interested. Happy I finally got to see it.

[A-Z]

Dead Ringers (1988) a more "mainstream" (but still awesome) side of 80s Cronenberg with a brilliant performance by Jeremy Irons playing identical twins; deals with issues of psychological autonomy and substance abuse
general impression: fuck, this is great, what the hell was i thinking, why didn't i watch this years ago (like everyone else on this board probably did)

Hard to pick a favorite Cronenberg film but objectively Dead Ringers is probably the best. Jeremy Irons just kills it and it's just relentlessly negative. I watch Scanners and Videodrome a lot more often but I think Dead Ringers is better than either one.

well, i totally see your point, but on the other hand Cronenberg's output is so diverse (nevertheless remaining consistently cronenbergian) it's hard for me to compare some of his works in terms of "better" or "worse"
Videodrome, Dead Ringers, A History of Violence are all great, imo, but too different to place on a single rating scale
personal preferences are, of course, always valid at a personal level, not trying to debate that

[THE RITA HN]

Hard to pick a favorite Cronenberg film but objectively Dead Ringers is probably the best.

If I had to pick two Cronenberg films it would definitely be SHIVERS and DEAD RINGERS.  Jeremy Irons will always be my favourite actor.

[DSOL]

Hard to pick a favorite Cronenberg film but objectively Dead Ringers is probably the best.

If I had to pick two Cronenberg films it would definitely be SHIVERS and DEAD RINGERS.  Jeremy Irons will always be my favourite actor.

Simon Gruber

[aububs]

hasn't been a good cronenberg movie in 20 years imo

he has mild argento/carpenter syndrome

[EXU]

No way, man. "A History Of Violence" is maybe his greatest and "Eastern Promises" and "A Dangerous Method" are both better than most directors can dream of nowadays IMHO. he's not the nasty ol' gory Cronemberg of yore but I don't think that's bad, just different. Haven't seen "Cosmopolis" and "Map To The Stars" yet because I am a dumbass.
Really have to see "Dead Ringers" again because I've seen it too young...

I disagree with Carpenter too even if "The Ward" is pretty damn meh because it may not be a movie per se, but "Cigarette Burns" from Masters of Horror is a masterpiece.

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BlacKkKlansman
Maybe this one won't have a lot of fans over here (hehe) but I thought it was great on a lot of levels, fun and intelligent, poignant and snappy, heavy handed sometimes with the social/political/racial stuff but it's a Spike Lee joint so it's not like I wasn't expecting that.

[A-Z]

"Maps To The Stars" is top notch.

[absurdexposition]

Cronenberg has had a pretty fucking good run. Love the grittiness of the early works and of course the major efforts from the 80s are all legendary. Recent works are good, too - I enjoyed Maps to the Stars. The only one that hasn't really done it for me was The Dead Zone, which hardly even feels like a Stephen King novel, let alone a Cronenberg film.