Classic Film Soft for Digging Unearthed and Available to Own Online
Fans of The Burrowers and Hellbenders will certainly be thrilled to know that the man who created those films, J.T. Petty, has released his long lost movie Soft for Digging (review here) for purchase online. Read on to shovel up the deets!
The 2001 film, which stars Edmond Mercier, Sarah Ingerson, and Andrew Hewitt, features a man who wanders into the woods after his cat and happens upon a murder. The details of the release can be found in this letter Petty sent to his mum. You can buy the film now and watch or download immediately, DRM-free, at SoftforDigging.com.
Big day today, I'm releasing my first movie, Soft for Digging, online through VHX. You can purchase it at softfordigging.com for $5.00, and then stream it or download a DRM-free quicktime. The original score by Sophocles Papavasilopoulos and James Wolcott is included, free of charge.
It's incredible to me that we shot this movie 15 years ago. I look at the few production stills on the website and feel like I'm watching "Muppet Babies." I think the oldest of our six-man crew was 22, unless of course I count you, Mom, on catering duties. Or calculate Maxs age in cat years. (Max was the family cat, who plays the main characters cat, "Harpo." R.I.P.)
Since it screened at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, Soft for Digging has shown all over the world and had various theatrical and DVD releases. All of the rights have finally reverted to me, and I'm real excited to be putting it out through VHX, who handled the online release of movies like Upstream Color and We Are Legion.
I like selling Soft for Digging for the price of a hotel coffee. Its a 15-year-old movie made by a 20-year-old kid for $6000, it seems only fair. I like selling it in a DRM-free format that you can fuck with. The fact that its a mostly dialogue-free film, a ghost story filled with impressionistic imagery, and Patrick McGraw's amazing 16mm photography all make it a collection of footage that invites play. Its why I insisted on including the soundtrack in the download. If you see a better way to put the images together, please, be my guest.
We're at a curious moment in film distribution, entertainment feels like its following the same pattern as the world at large, a seeming democratization of power through technology that is somehow resulting in ballooning inequality. Feels like weve got tentpoles and no circus. From the distribution methods emerging (most recently notable the crazy inspiring way Shane Carruth put Upstream Color out into the world), VHX feels like the ideal partner. It's simple, transparent, and fair to everyone involved.
Anyway, mom I hope you enjoy the movie, I think its aged better than I have. And as always, dont worry, they wont think its your fault.
Highly recommended for the more patient fans of atmospheric horror. I'm going to order it myself this week just to support him, and to get the soundtrack.
I know I'm a bit behind here, but I caught up with Sinister and Mama, and seem to have the opposite opinions of most posting in this thread.
I really hated Sinister. Yeah, there were some promising concepts the snuff films could have been quite disturbing but the movie was just so incompetent on nearly every level. Sure, contrivances and stupid decisions are inherent in horror movies, but Sinister took it to a new level, from the hassling from the local cops to the inexplicable decision to
live in the house where the murders happened
to the usual boneheaded responses to creepy goings-ons.
These shortcomings are exacerbated by the clumsy direction. That info dump at the start was unbelievably artless, establishing Hawkes character with stilted and unnecessary conversations, with holes intended to intrigue the audience leaving me momentarily and unnecessarily confused. For me, the most obnoxious part was the way the film handled horror. As I said, the snuff films were legitimately frightening, but the movie flushes away any sense of dread they develop by over-relying on cheap jump-scares
the boogie man leaning into the frame? TWICE?
or employing crappy sound design to tell me that what Im watching is scary. Its like they couldnt trust the audience to be disturbed by images of
a family being drowned or hacked up by a lawnmower
, so they needed loud and obnoxious music and effects to tell me HEY! SCARY STUFF HERE! SCARY!
Like I said, I hated it. It stayed with me, to be sure, but not in the way they intended I was haunted by its incompetence.
Mama, by contrast, certainly had its problems, but genuinely moved and interested me. It isnt particularly scary, mostly because of the incredibly crappy CG, and there are HUGE narrative gaps. But the central story is pretty compelling, mostly because of the excellent acting. I suspect that Jessica Chastains character was far more obnoxious on the page, as indicated by the way tattoos and punk music are supposed to signify irresponsibility, but she really sells the arc. I found the two little girls also quite convincing in roles that could (and probably should) have been supremely ridiculous. The younger actress, in particular, was effectively feral and innocence --
no one has ever been cuter while eating moths
.
Again, it wasnt scary, although two scenes
the tug-of-war sequence and the Lily in the corner/Mama in the corner bit
were expertly directed. Moreover, I was genuinely invested in the characters and actually cried a bit at the ending. But I dont know that I should have cried did the movie earn that ending? Part of it, Ill admit, is that the actress playing infant Lily looks a lot like my youngest daughter, but there is something horrifying in
the thought that the girl is more or less sacrificed to appease a vengeful ghost, creating another trauma for Victoria
. The camera does linger on
Chastain screaming
, so its clear that were supposed to be horrified for a moment, but I dont know what to do with
the moment shared between Mama and Lily as they fall or with the metamorphosis
. Is that supposed to be a happy ending, or at least
the bittersweet childs death in other Del Toro films
?
I'm not sure I bought it, but I can't deny that I was moved, and I appreciate the way the movie made me think about "good" motherhood. So it was a failure, but it was an ambitious failure, and I can't fault it for that.
The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears got a teaser about a week ago. Made by the same duo behind Amer, Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani. As a huge giallo fan and of Amer, this might be my most anticipated movie.
The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears got a teaser about a week ago. Made by the same duo behind Amer, Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani. As a huge giallo fan and of Amer, this might be my most anticipated movie.
It's a rough trailer, quality isn't that great, sound effects are all off freesound.org, the in-game assets aren't finalized and the footage is a bit wonky at times.
But damn if I don't feel a little bit proud for finally reaching this point.
I got really baked and went to see Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2 last night. It was hosted by a bunch of drag queens because it is the gayest Nightmare on Elm Street movie ever produced
Very interesting mix of some straight up weird shit and some hilarious gore. A lot of them were hit and miss but for me the highlight was the berko japanese segments, what the hell at the F and Z ones. Wild. Very entertaining and highly recommended.
I got really baked and went to see Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2 last night. It was hosted by a bunch of drag queens because it is the gayest Nightmare on Elm Street movie ever produced
all of this had just kinda flown over my head when i was younger...[/QUOTE]
You should watch the Nightmare on Elm street documentary, they talk about it and the weirdness, and kind of explain it.
Last night, I finally got around to ordering Lifeforce, The Burning, The Howling, and Amer from Amazon, and they should be arriving in the next couple of days.
I just watched Hellraiser for the first time last night, there any other decent movies in the series? I thought it was pretty good (and even funny as hell) at times but just looking at wiki there's 10+ sequels lol
My GF is insanely affected by horror movies. She went to see Silent Hill 3D and cried just from the imagery (at that point I thought she was exaggerating it when we talked about seeing horror movies).
So I talked her into watching Grave Encounters tonight based on this thread.
Last night, I finally got around to ordering Lifeforce, The Burning, The Howling, and Amer from Amazon, and they should be arriving in the next couple of days.
I just bought The Burning and They Live. The Burning, I had never seen before. It was pretty good as an 80s slasher flick. The cast was pretty good, a lot of famous names.
My GF is insanely affected by horror movies. She went to see Silent Hill 3D and cried just from the imagery (at that point I thought she was exaggerating it when we talked about seeing horror movies).
So I talked her into watching Grave Encounters tonight based on this thread.
It's a good found-footage film, I think Grave Encounters 2 is on Netflix as well. It's a great follow-up on the first. As far as your GF...if she has seen stuff like Blair Witch or Paranormal Activity, judge from how she's taken those if she has. GE setting is based in reality, like Ghost Hunters, (
which of course changes as the movie progresses
) which can make it a bit more terrifying for her.
I just bought The Burning and They Live. The Burning, I had never seen before. It was pretty good as an 80s slasher flick. The cast was pretty good, a lot of famous names.
I maintain that The Burning is a better Friday the 13th than Friday the 13th. If only it had the franchise potential to see how crazy things could get by a sixth entry.
I got really baked and went to see Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2 last night. It was hosted by a bunch of drag queens because it is the gayest Nightmare on Elm Street movie ever produced
Well, you just made me spend money for the NOES blu-ray collection. I haven't seen most of those movies in a very long time and I guess it's time to remedy that heh.
I made a 15 minute horror film last year for any interested. The sound quality unfortunately was awful as our sound op screwed us and we had to go with the cam audio. Also the version on youtube is a bit darker than it should be - but you may like the story and I'd be interested to hear thoughts.
I don't want to ruffle any feathers but I am fairly certain I'm the biggest horror fan in here haha. Unless there are other fanboys/prop collectors around. Or people with Halloween tattoos.
I don't want to ruffle any feathers but I am fairly certain I'm the biggest horror fan in here haha. Unless there are other fanboys/prop collectors around. Or people with Halloween tattoos.
I don't want to ruffle any feathers but I am fairly certain I'm the biggest horror fan in here haha. Unless there are other fanboys/prop collectors around. Or people with Halloween tattoos.
Looking for some decent horror anthologies as I recently saw ABC's of death in anticipation for v/h/s 2, and after seeing the latter I'm hungry for more. Anybody know any good ones? Netflix or not it's cool I just want to get spooked stupid.
I finally watched Silent Hill Revelations last night, such a disappointment for me. I rather liked the first one, which was a big surprise for me, but this was almost laughable at times. There was some really cool stuff in it (like the
mannequin spider (which reminded me of the Shadows from Persona 3), after turning a person into a mannequin and taking their head off)
, but the movie as a whole just wasn't as good as the first (which itself isn't exactly a high bar). Plus there were a lot of shots that were incredibly blatant "this was done for the 3D effect!", which is always lame.
I made the mistake of buying the Blu-Ray of Silent Hill: Revelations. Neither I or my girlfriend could watch it through, it was just too much like a B-grade Hellraiser.
I've been reading this slowly (a bit before bed each night). You can read individual stories on Dagonbytes as well. For the bigger stories, 'The call of Cthulhu', 'Dagon', and 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth' are the big ones to start with.
Film-wise there hasn't been a truly great one, but stuff like Dagon (2001) is decent. I personally also like the short film 'AM1200' which is lovecraftian but not strictly based on his work.
Would anyone mind if we make this more of a General Horror thread? I love horror films but there are so many great horror books, video games, comics, soundtracks, etc. to talk about and share too.
Would anyone mind if we make this more of a General Horror thread? I love horror films but there are so many great horror books, video games, comics, soundtracks, etc. to talk about and share too.
Would anyone mind if we make this more of a General Horror thread? I love horror films but there are so many great horror books, video games, comics, soundtracks, etc. to talk about and share too.
HorrorGAF, i need your help! I've been thinking about this movie i saw maybe 15 years ago but i can't remember it's title. It's a horror movie where this bug-thing completely takes over a persons body by crawling into it's mouth. It then travels from body to body and i can't remember much else. I think the movie begins with a car crash, or maybe that was the ending.
Edit* Nevermind, i think i found it. It's called The Hidden.
Yeah, I wasn't sure about whether the thread was for me either, as the OP emphasizes slasher flicks for some reason. And I personally associate slashers more with comedy than horror. Luckily that wasn't what this thread was all about.
Would anyone mind if we make this more of a General Horror thread? I love horror films but there are so many great horror books, video games, comics, soundtracks, etc. to talk about and share too.
