I thought the atmosphere was quite good, the scene with the little kid as the old creature was very creepy, BUT the ending was predictable, and given the subject matter and the ending it reminded me a little bit of m night shamylan, who I hate more than any other director. I'm getting slightly angry even thinking of him now. What an asshole. He is to film what Deepak Chopra is to... well, whatever it is Chopra claims he is doing. 

Novelty regarding the twist was a non issue to me considering how well wrought the whole thing was - the classy and non-violent type of horror. I'd say the orphanage also falls into this classy ghost mansion category as well, though there is some gore in that one.

agreed about he who should not be making films. I'm constantly amazed though, by how many huge, legitimately skilled actors have been in his films over the years. 

didnt like that one, although not sure why right now.

As for Shymalan, the Sixth Sense was good and parts of Unbreakable and Signs were good. I actually think he's quite a skilful director, especially for suspense, but he just needs to stop writing. Get him someone else's script and I think he would do a pretty good job. 

6th Sense, Unbreakable and Signs WERE all good movies, although The 6th Sense wasn't really as great as everyone made it out to be. Remove the cheap twist, and you've got a movie that no one would have wasted their money on. Lady in the Water and The Village were crap.

Then he did The Happening which I actually enjoyed. Haven't lowered myself to seeing The Last Airbender.

I'm not a big fan of his either, the plagiarism is quite obvious.

The Orphanage was decent. Didn't predict the ending twist. 

I agree that he is very pretentious, but I really loved Signs, being a crop circle fan. I thought that 6th Sense and The Village were decent and his other movies were crap, esp. The Happening, which was one of the worst movies I have seen so far. 

Otherwise only seen sixth sense I think, was good but over-hyped. 

And yeah - its sucks. 

was a bag of balls. it actually went beyond sucking and into the realms of severely pissing me off and and sending me into a tronyn-esque rant mode ;)

as for his other films i agree with sleepy, i liked signs (disregarding the terrible ending) and thought sixth sense & village were alright, but not a fan of his other stuff. i actually thought the others was one of his too prior to reading the above :Z 

Unbreakable made me angry too, it was so goddamn pretentious! Look everyone; this the new movie of the wunderkind! What an asshole. 

I like all of his movies, especially unbreakable! ;-)

Signs and Lady from the Water took a second watch to appreciate them, though. And Village sucked for everyone who had been watching the trailers and went into the movie expecting something horrorish.

I think he really excels at portraying the characters. His movies, and Signs in particular, are character portraits before anything else, or at least I see them as that (and enjoy them greatly).

I guess the movies suck if they don't succeed in making you care for the characters, but well, that's the nature of character heavy plots, isn't it? 

They all are movies that have protagonists defunct in one way or the other; what makes them interesting is how they show the way these characters interact and react to the world around them (and why), and that good (or particularly evil, e.g. in The Village or Unbreakable) can come from their defunct reactions. In that way, his movies seem to care deeply for all of their characters, even the evil ones.

I don't think his movies have a message more focused on one particular thing, like "meaning of life" or something like that. At the very least, I choose to ignore it ;-) 

It's no news that you like pretentious artsy stuff. 

It's pretending to be artsy. And his characters really aren't very deep, are they? I like Signs because it is suspenseful and is about an Alien Invasion / End of the World scenario, and I always like that. I also like that it tells the story of an apocalypse (or prevention thereof) from the perspective of a small family that lives way off the map in some rural area. It's a cool idea. 

but as sleepy says, I think he thinks they're artier than they actually are (well the scripts anyway).

But I still stand by his skill as a director, particularly a suspense director.

The plot of Unbreakable is balls, the rest I actually quite like. 

Rocks. Great ghost story. Continually creepy and intriguing. Like the way "good vs bad" pans out, or not as the case may be. 

I get where Nitin is coming from - there is something approaching sterility in the movie... something like, working too hard to fit the 'classy ghost mansion horror' tag I labelled it with, maybe?

Still, I own it, like it.

Hate the village. Ham fisted.
Signs was okay, but yeah, the ending - those endings... also, hate his cameo in that movie.

also, was thinking of this today

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLMyInUPQ2g 

it has good parts :)

Trying too hard might be what I was annoyed with, I honestly cant remember (I could check my func review but cant be arsed right now).

Btw, for those that like The Others, The Innocents is worth a watch. I prefer Others but your mileage may vary. Innocents definitely looks classier and is a very good film. 

yeah now that I think about it I think I kind of talked it down earlier in this thread... 

Speaking of 80s slasher crap, anyone seen C.H.U.D.? Its been on my wanted list for a while but I can't find it anywhere. Is it any good? 

cinemageddon 

That's where I saw it.

Good cheesy horror vibe, really bad d�nouement (awful foreign accent mark added for czg's sake.) 

czg is this your channel?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg&feature=player_embedded 

Saw this movie tonight, was pretty damn beautiful. I'm not generally one for artsy foreign movies about the growing pains of a young girl, but I must say this was excellent.

Westerners have no problems compared to little Iranian girls =/ 

 

Waltz with Bashir makes a good companion piece even though they are nothing alike.