Three You Need To See

Atrocious

a·tro·cious/əˈtrōSHəs/Adjective

Horrifyingly wicked: "atrocious cruelties".

 

Atrocious focuses on the case of a brother and sister who investigate a local urban myth while on holiday, resulting in strange occurrences at the family’s summer house.

In April 4th of 2010, Quintanilla family was found murdered in their country side house. Police reported the existence of 37 hours of recorded evidence. "Atrocious" shows the real images of such evidence. Quintanilla family traveled to their old farm house in Sitges, where Christian and July investigated about the Legend of the Girl in the Garraf woods. Both of them used to record all day whatever they did. On the fifth day of their arrival they were found dead under strange circumstances. ATROCIOUS shows the last five days of life for Cristian Quintanilla and his siblings. It also shows the strange situations that they lived in those moments and which remain unexplained.

The Tunnel
The Light Runs Out

In 2007 the New South Wales government suddenly scrapped a plan to utilise the water in the disused underground train tunnels beneath Sydney's St James Train Station.
In 2008, chasing rumours of a government coverup and urban legends surrounding the sudden backflip, investigative journalist Natasha Warner led a crew of four into the underground labyrinth.
They went down into the tunnels looking for a story – until the story found them.
This is the film of their harrowing ordeal. With unprecedented access to the recently declassified tapes they shot in the claustrophobic subway tunnels, as well as a series of candid interviews with the survivors, we come face to face with the terrifying truth.

This never before seen footage takes us deep inside the tunnels bringing the darkness to life and capturing the raw fear that threatens to tear the crew apart, leaving each one of them fighting for their lives.

The Loved Ones

Don't Break Her Heart

Brent, a 17 year old student, still grieving for his father, declines an invitation to the school formal from Lola, the quietest girl in school. When Lola and her father kidnap Brent he must fight to survive the macabre celebration they have in store for him.

Alternate: Brent (Samuel) never recovered from the car crash that killed his father: the crash that he was responsible for. His only solace is his loving girlfriend Holly (Thaine). But there's another girl who yearns to comfort Brent, the quietest girl in school, Lola (McLeavy), and when he turns down her invitation to the end of year dance he enters a nightmare beyond imagining.

A terrifying series of events take place under the light of a mirrored disco ball, involving pink satin, glitter, syringes, nails and power drills. Brent must summon every ounce of will he possesses if he is to survive and prevent Lola and her father from extending their revenge to those he loves the most.

 

Scene Of The Week

Another creepy one. This week it comes from Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Kairo which was remade in the US as Pulse.

Scene Of The Week

I have to say that watching this before I posted it still creeped me out.

Top Ten Asian Horror Films You've Never Heard Of

Alright, so the title is a little misleading.  We have a large array of horror fans and I'd be foolish to think I'm the only one who has ever seen or heard of these titles.  However, for the most part when you talk to people about Asian horror you get a LOT of the same titles thrown around.  There is nothing wrong with that because there are some pretty damn good Asian horror flicks that most people have seen.  With that said, I wanted to broaden people's horizons and came up with a list of ten Asian horror films that often go overlooked.  It's a big genre so it's my attempt to get people to branch out a little and get past all the scary dark haired girls of Asian horror cinema.

10.) Men Behind the Sun (1988): This is a tough one to start this list off with.  Men Behind the Sun is really a war film, but it's torture and brutality make this a very realistic horror film IMO.  The storyline is revolves around a place called Squadron 731 where Japanese troops torture Chinese troops and use them as test subjects for a deadly plague during WWII.  The film is basically gore scene after gore scene with some pretty intense torture.  This film is not for the weak stomached and probably not best for war vets as it is pretty grotesque.  I'm not trying to spoil anything but just to warn you there is a scene where a real live animal is gruesomely killed and a real child cadaver is used for a scene. I dont advocate either, but unfortunately its part of the "realism" they were striving for.

9.) Eko Eko Azarak series:  Here is a film series I am surpirsed hasnt been remade yet.  The reason behind this is this series is the definition of teen targeted horror.  It's very similar idea to Buffy.  It deals with young school girls dabbling in black magic and unleashing demons on each other.  However unlike Buffy, the Eko Eko Azarak films have more interesting characters, a great musical score, and much more explicit sex and violence.  Even if you arent into a film about female students using black magic, check out the first film in the series Eko Eko Azark: Wizard of Darkness.  I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

8.) The Doll Master (2004):  I am pretty sure the title made everyone think Puppet Master and its a fair thought as it is sort of a knockoff.  However, this one isnt built to be cheesy and actually is pretty creepy.  It follows a group of students who were invited to see a private viewing of a doll gallery.  The dolls begin to kill the kids after a vengeful spirit brings the dolls to life.  Pretty familiar plot but the dolls can be kind of creepy and the film is very well acted.  It does start off a little slow but I think it picks itself up as it moves along.  For you gore hounds, there is some decent blood but nothing above and beyond what you'd expect.

7.) Alone (2007):  From the Writer and Directors of the original film Shutter comes another Thailand horror film that will keep you on edge.  Alone revolves around a girl who survived being removed from her Siamese twin sister when they were teenagers.  The other sister who died during the seperation operation begins to haunt the survivng sister at her mothers home.  The story is a bit familiar, but it is executed very well and is a great combination of suspense film and ghost story.  It has the same kind of creepy feel that Shutter had and it builds to a successful yet somewhat predictable twist.  Worth checking out is you thought the Asian version of Shutter was good.

6.) Rampo Noir (2005):  While many people know 3....Extremes, not as many know of the horror anthology called Rampo Noir.  Rampo Noir is an artisticly grotesque collection of 4 short films based on the writings of Edogawa Rampo, widely considered to be the Japanese Edgar Alan Poe.  The whole compilation is dark, violent, and disturbing yet it is still stylishly poetic. All four segments will get different reactions depending on the viewer, but watch segment three titled Caterpillar and tell me that didnt leave you with a disturbing taste in your mouth.

5.) Marebito (2005):  Here is a film that gets overlooked because of the directors other successful films.  Takashi Shimizu, director of the wildly successful Ju-on Series, creates a very stylish film that is a little puzzling and a little uncomfortable.  The film follows Masuoka as he discovers an underground tunnel run by creatures called Deros.  He finds a girl that he brings home to try and rescue but he soon finds himself at wits end trying to accomidate her insatiable appitite for blood.  It is a film that will make you think and also disturb you a little.  Shot in only 8 days before Ju-On began filming, Marebito is an intriguing psychological horror that doesnt get the recognition it deserves.

4.) Ebola Syndrome (1996): Straight out of Hong Kong, here is a film that is a little Sweeney Todd mixed with Outbreak.  The story revolves around a man who came down with the Ebola virus after raping a girl in South Africa.  He returns to Hong Kong and begins to spread the disease in various ways such as unknowingly infecting people, killing them, and then serving them as burger meat in his restaurant.  This one is quite brutal as it is filled with over-the-top sex and violence.  Its got all the blood and bodily fluid that anyone looking for a graphically violent film could ask for and even has some pretty good laughs as well.  This is definately one for those of you with a twisted mind.

3.) Jigoku (1960):  Foreign horror films that date back almost 5 decades arent high on everybody's "to do" list.  However I think everyone should get their hands on Jigoku and see what was once Japan's most gruesome and bizarre movie.  This film is almost split into two halves because half takes place in real life and half takes place in the afterlife. The second half in Hell is definately where things begin to get crazy but on the whole the film is an all-around treat.  I see some of the gore and it makes me wonder if this can be considered one of the first gore films.  Not too many other films were doing what they did with Jigoku back in 1960.  I suggest you check this classic out and see for yourself.

2.) Cure (1997):  So this may be the most well known film I am mentioning, but I still think there are enough people who havent heard of it to include it.  Cure is Japanese equivalent to the US film Se7en.  It is a slow paced crime thriller/drama that follows a string of extremely gory murders. Every murder is commited by someone who doesnt have any recolection of what happened or how they got there, but victim is linked with an X carved in their necks.  Cure is a film that has wonderful cinematography and is a great case study on madness.  It's almost hypnotic as it plays with your mind and keeps you thinking up until the very end.  A definite must see if you enjoy a blood filled crime themed horror films.

1.) Noroi (2005): Somebody send a note to the Blair Witch people because this is what a fake horror documentary should be.  A journalist obsessed with the paranormal begins to investigate unrelated strange phenomenons.  He eventually links them to a ritual to the demon Kagutaba and he will soon stop at nothing to uncover Kagutaba's mysteries on film.  If someones handed me Noroi and told me nothing about it, I would have thought it was real.  From start to finish the style made me feel like it was a true documentary and did so while maintaining a high level of tension.  The suspense builds all the way to the almost perfect and completely unnerving ending.  If you can find this movie, see it. You wont regret it.

Posted By : jmh314
Courtesy of Horror-Movies.ca

Scene Of The Week

Ringu. Need we say more?

Review: Confessions

March 25th. It’s the end of the school year for Class B and the teacher would like to say something. She announces to cheers and claps that she will not be coming back next year. She feels her students are no longer trust-worthy because of an incident between an angry teen and one of the teachers. She then begins to explain her life choices and tells her life story to a less-than-interested juvenile crowd. Then she reveals something truly shocking to her students and …… silence. Accusations are made and fingers are pointed. Someone is responsible and to blame for a terrible crime, but who? Only the culprit(s) and the teacher know. There is now one last thing teacher Yuko Moriguchi must confess before she leaves…

Wow. This Japanese actress made me lose track of what I was doing: reviewing her work. She’s (in my opinion) very good.  Takako Matsu’s character, Yuko Moriguchi, is something out of the ordinary. She seems so frail and delicate. Almost too nice for a teacher, if you know what I mean.  I always wanted to know what she was going to say next and I have to admit (or I must confess, pun intended): I felt a great deal of empathy for her. On the other side, I wanted to squeeze these kids’ heads off because they also play their parts to perfection. Their job was to represent everything you loved and hated about high school. It might sound like a big cast when you think of an entire class of students plus the teacher but overall, this is mostly about a handful of characters. Two students obviously stand out because of their ”creepiness” levels: students A and B, played by 15 year old Yukito Nishii and 14 year old Kaoru Fujiwara.

Director Tetsuya Nakashima had me mesmerized from the get-go. He’s very fluid with his camera, I’d say. I found that he can capture whatever he’s looking for very quickly.  A great deal of emotion passes through his lens and I found myself not only hearing what his characters had to say but also listening. The use of emo-music throughout really helped cement the whole thing and a good helping of American music kept things interesting. The way ”Confessions” or ”Kokuhaku” is edited only makes this hidden gem all the more enjoyable to watch. Because of the editing, this thriller/character study never really loses pace, even when it switches gears it’s more the terrain that changes if we can make that analogy. Which is primordial for any good thriller. What makes this one a great thriller for me is the fact that I wish that I’d been there. OOooo that would have been so good…

Let me sum it up for you in a few lines. I really liked ”Confessions”, borderline loved it. No guns, no nudity, no car chases, no explosions, no zombies, no vampires. Thank God. A couple of kids that needed to be punished were or were not but the story doesn’t end there. Teen love, teen angst and a bunch of twisted ideas to keep you well entertained. Some of the best dialogue/script I’ve seen in a few months. A very solid cast. Recommendation: Yes. A big fat one.

Courtesy of AMP

Scene Of The Week

This week we take a look at a scene from Takashi Miike's masterpiece Audition. This still gives me goosebumps.

News

Are You Ready To See The Devil?

Brits it is time to rejoice. Kim Jee-Woon’s serial killer opus ‘I Saw the Devil’ is set for a cinema release (albeit a limited one) on April 28th, and then shall shortly after (well, two weeks after) it shall be released on May 9th on DVD and Blu-Ray. It has been conformed that the film shall be released uncut, unlike in Korea – where it had received many controversial cuts and thus garnered very bad business at the box office.

The DVD/Blu Ray special features seem to be a little bare-bones. According to Amazon.co.uk, the bonus material shall include:

• Directors Commentary
• Deleted Scenes
• Trailer
• Gallery

‘I Saw the  Devil’ is directed by  Kim Jee-Woon ( The Good, the Bad, the Weird, A Bittersweet Life).

‘I Saw the Devil’ has garnered wide attention, and very favourable reviews (Read the Official AMP Review). It is a treat that we have the opportunity to watch the movie on the big screen before watching it at home.

So remember to put a note in your diary: April 28th for cinema, May 9th for DVD/Blu-ray.

Courtesy of AMP

Scene Of The Week

This weeks scene is from the Korean creature feature The Host. In this scene the monster runs riot on the banks of the Han river. We love this scene because it's not common in monster movies for the monster to be fully revealed at the beginning of the film. This shows us that the film is not just about the monster. Enjoy.

News

The Silent House out in cinemas 8th April.

This is an indie horror from the Uruguayan director Gustavo Hernandez. The first horror film to be shot in one continuous take using an SLR digital camera.

The Silent House focuses on Laura, who, second by second, intends to leave a house which hides an obscure secret. Laura and her father, Wilson, settle down in a cottage they have to renew since its owner will soon put the house up for sale. They intend to spend the night there and make the repairs the following morning. Everything seems to go smoothly until Laura hears a sound from outside that gets louder and louder on the upper floor of the house. Wilson goes up to see what is going on while she remains downstairs on her own, waiting for her father to come down.

Check out the trailer.

Scene of the week

This is one of the many scary scenes from the spanish classic REC. Can you watch it till the end?

News

BATTLE ROYALE – The 2000 hit Japanese film will make its official U.S. theatrical release eleven years after its original release in Japan

Despite rumors to the contrary, the film is not banned in the United States. Rather, there has never been a distribution agreement for the film.

It has been exhibited at film festivals  in North America. Nonetheless, bootleg copies of the film imported from China, South Korea, and Hong Kong have widespread availability on the continent, and a Special Edition DVD of the film was carried to a limited extent by retailers such as HMV and Starstruck Entertainment in Canada and Tower Records in the United States; the legal status of this edition is not clear. Also, the film's UK distributor, Tartan Films, released an all-region NTSC DVD version of the film that is available in North America from specialty outlets. One widely available Hong Kong import is a special edition without English subtitles that contains both Battle Royale and its sequel. Both Battle Royale and its sequel are available on NetFlix, a major home-entertainment distributor in the United States.

The film was released to theaters in 3D in Japan on November 20, 2010. Director Kinji Fukasaku's son and screenwriter of Battle Royale, Kenta Fukasaku, oversaw the conversion.The 3D version will be the premiere version in America, due for release by Anchor Bay Entertainment sometime in 2011.



Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Scene Of The Week

The scene of the week this week is the amazing corridor fight scene from Oldboy. In this scene Min-Sik Choi takes on 20+ men in what we would certainly nominate as one of the best fight scenes in a movie ever!!!!

First Rule of A-Horror Film Club, Talk as much as you can about it.

We are big fans of the J-Horror/K-Horror movies scene and decided to put the both under one label. A-Horror was born! But we couldn’t stop there. With all the amazing horror movies being made around the as well as the outrageously fantastic Asian thrillers we have come to know we just couldn’t leave them out. However, A-Horror/Thriller & World Cinema Horror/Thriller Film Club was a little bit long so we stuck with A-Horror.

Here at the A-Horror Film Club we aim to bring you the best news, reviews and (coming soon) views of the best in the above mentioned genres. For now we have compiled a list of our ten favorites movies. If you haven’t seen these yet then WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING?!?!?!?!

Oldboy

Taken without reason. Imprisoned for 15 years. Released without reason. 5 days to seek the truth...
One day in 1988, ordinary white collar worker Oh Dae-soo (Choi Min-sik) is kidnapped and incarcerated in a private makeshift prison cell, dressed up like a cheap hotel room. With only a TV for company, Dae-soo makes numerous attempts to escape and to commit suicide but they all end up in failure. All the while Dae-soo asks himself what made a man hate him so much enough to imprison him in solitary confinement with no explanation. While suffering from his near-madness, Dae-soo becomes shocked when he watches the news and hears that his beloved wife was brutally murdered. At this very moment, Dae-soo swears to take revenge on the man who destroyed his happy life.

15 years on and without a word of warning Dae-soo is released. Given a new set of clothes, a mobile phone and the attentions of curious sushi waitress Mido, Dae-soo begins to track down his enemy, only to find he may be the pawn in a much bigger game which is only just beginning. Taunting Dae-soo, the culprit gives him just 5 days to catch and kill his captor or Mido will die...

 Host

The Park family seem to lead a quite ordinary and peaceful life; well, maybe a little poorer than the average Seoul citizens. Park Hee-bong (played by Byun Hee-bong) is a man in his late 60s running a small snack bar on the banks of the Seoul's Han River and, living with his two sons, daughter and granddaughter.

Hee-bong's elder son Gang-du ( Song Gang-ho) is an immature and incompetent man in his 40s, whose wife left home long ago. Nam-il (by Park Hae-il) is the youngest son, an unemployed grumbler, and daughter Nam-joo (by Bae Du-na) is an archery medallist and member of the national team.

What the three generations of the Park clan doesn't know, is that a bloodthirsty mutant of indeterminate origin is about to rise up unannounced from the Han River. When the creature abducts the granddaughter and the dysfunctional remnants of the group decide to come together to save her, so begins a terrifying lesson of a new concept of family...

Lady Vengeance

The cinematic flair and narrative surprises that marked Park Chan-Wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy continue in this third and concluding part of the director's thematically-linked trilogy of revenge. Intense and inventive, the film follows the progress of beautiful, impassive Lee Geum-ja (Lee Young-Ae) after she's released from prison having served 13 years for the kidnap and murder of a young boy.

Once on the outside, she hooks up with some former cellmates, a preacher who thinks she's an angel, the detective who originally arrested her and the daughter she gave up for adoption, gathering around her all the people needed to carry out an elaborate plan of revenge. Her target is kindergarten teacher Mr. Baek (Oldboy star Choi Min-Sik), while her weapon(s)-of-choice are unexpected and highly personal. This is striking and ghoulishly entertaining stuff, a highwire act poised between horror, tragedy, comedy and exploitation. With the aid of Oldboy Director of Photography Jeong Joeng-Hun, who employs some neat tricks and brings a vibrant beauty to the dark proceedings, Park ensures there's never a dull moment.

REC

A team of local TV reporters are following a squad of firemen on night duty. The footage is completely live and their task is to make show about on the life of these professionals who work while we are sleeping. The first job of the night is to rescue an old lady who is trapped inside her apartment but the routine rescue soon takes a sinister turn. Something evil is spreading throughout the building, out of control. Trapped inside, the firemen and the TV crew have to confront an unknown and lethal horror. Now, the only thing that matters is hiding, surviving and trying desperately to escape. They must keep on recording. No matter what happens. Until the very last moment.






Shogun Assassin

Banned Since 1983


Banned since 1983, this version is at long last released in uncut form.

Astonishingly violent - Shogun Assassin tells the story of Lone Wolf, a powerful and feared Ronin, a 'masterless' Samurai, who lives a peaceful existence with his wife and his son. When he refuses to swear allegiance to Kurando, the most vicious Shogun in Japanese history, Kurando orders the death of Lone Wolf's wife, Azame. Blinded by rage, Lone Wolf vows to avenge her death, taking his son Daigoro with him on the path of darkness and retribution.

Soon lone Wolf's sword of vengeance is unleashed upon the evil Shogun's sons and ultimately the legendary 'Masters of Death'!

 Audition

'Audition' is an eerie tale of a man (Ryo Ishibashi) who, in his search for a new wife at the insistence of his son, holds an audition for potential mates. He disguises his actual intentions by saying that the audition is for an actress to star in a new movie that he is making. When at last he finds the perfect woman (the model Eihi Shiina), she disappears, leaving a bizarre trail of gruesome murders in her path...












The Devil's Backbone

From acclaimed Mexican horror maestro, Guillermo Del Toro, comes The Devil's Backbone, a truly terrifying spine-tingler combining state of the art special effects with towering performances from a combination of Latin legends (Federico Luppi and Marisa Paredes) and younger stars (Eduardo Noriega, from Alejandro Amenabar's Open Your Eyes).

A deliciously dark horror, The Devil's Backbone tells the tale of a remote Spanish orphanage during the final days of The Spanish Civil War whose young inhabitants are brutally terrorised by Santi, a decomposing spirit who stalks the building's dark decaying hallways. But, as the film builds to a grisly, explosive finale, the children learn the true story of Santi's death and rise up to vow a deadly vengeance on his vicious murderer. Produced by Pedro Almodovar and brilliantly photographed for maximum suspence by leading cinematographer Guillermo Navarra, The Devil's Backbone is a truly haunting, memorable ghost story


Battle Royale

At the dawn of the new millennium, Japan is in a state of near-collapse. Unemployment is at an all-time high, and violence amongst the nation's youth is spiralling out of control. With school children boycotting their lessons and physically abusing their teachers, a beleagured and near-defeated government decides to introduce a radical new measure: the Battle Royale Act.

Overseen by a former teacher, (Takeshi Kitano), and requiring that a randomly chosen school class be taken to a deserted island and forced to fight each other to the death, the Act dictates that only one pupil be allowed to survive the punishment. He or she will return, not as the victor, but as the ultimate proof of the lengths to which the government are prepared to go to curb the tide of juvenile disobedience.





Let The Right One In

A fragile, anxious boy, 12-year-old Oskar is regularly bullied by his stronger classmates but never strikes back. The lonely boy's wish for a friend seems to come true when he meets Eli, also 12, who moves in next door to him with her father. A pale, serious young girl, she only comes out at night and doesn't seem affected by the freezing temperatures.

Coinciding with Eli's arrival is a series of inexplicable disappearances and murders. One man is found tied to a tree, another frozen in the lake, a woman bitten in the neck. Blood seems to be the common denominator - and for an introverted boy like Oskar, who is fascinated by gruesome stories, it doesn't take long before he figures out that Eli is a vampire. But by now a subtle romance has blossomed between Oskar and Eli, and she gives him the strength to fight back against his aggressors.

Oskar becomes increasingly aware of the tragic, inhuman dimension of Eli's plight, but cannot bring himself to forsake her. Frozen forever in a twelve-year-old's body, with all the burgeoning feelings and confused emotions of a young adolescent, Eli knows that she can only continue to live if she keeps on moving. But when Oskar faces his darkest hour, Eli returns to defend him the only way she can.

Them

Clémentine, a beautiful young teacher and her lover Lucas live an idyllic, isolated existence in a large house in the middle of rural paradise. But tonight, that paradise will be shattered beyond all comprehension. Because something is watching. Something is waiting. Something unknown, unhinged and unrelenting.

They are all around, they are in the shadows, and they will stop at nothing to get inside the distraught couple's dark, cavernous home. As blind panic takes over, Clementine and Lucas must face a terrifying test of endurance to discover the true nature of the evil just outside their door - the true nature of "them". Nerve-shreddingly suspenseful and ferociously uncompromising, Them is an all too real journey to the very limits of fear itself.

You'll never feel safe in your home again.



And Here you have it. Our top ten favorite films. There are many many more but we would definitly be here all day. Actually, it would be great to see your top ten or even top 5 favorite a-horror/world cinema movies. feel free to write you list in the comments section.

Look at for our list of movies to watch out for in 2011.