Forums of Filth

October 24th has come and gone.

So where's Halle Berry in the shower scene?

Er... I mean... where's this excellent psychological/supernatural thriller from Dark Castle Entertainment?

just saw an ad for it yesterday 11/10/03

Saw it on the tube. Some how it is just not sparking my interest though.

Same here - Looks to cheesy. Anything with the Charles Band logo on it I tend to stay clear of.

Anything with the Charles Band logo on it I tend to stay clear of.

While it might not make much of a difference (and while it is quite similar), that's not the Full Moon logo--it's the Dark Castle (HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, GHOST SHIP) logo.

Who owns that company now? I know that it's not the FULL MOON logo. but it has that weird Charles Band feel to it. Didn't he have something to do with the William Castle remakes?

I know he has another company that releases direct to video cheese, one of which was the classic BLEED.. Have you seen this bundle of film excitement?

Dark Castle is primarily Robert Zemeckis and some fellow TALES FROM THE CRYPT associates--with the addition of Terry Castle (daughter of William). Originally, they were going to do a whole series of William Castle remakes, but started going elsewhere after the first two.

No involvement from Charles Band--but yes, that logo sure looks like one of his.

Dark Castle doesn't have the best movie resume, & as far as gothica goes, i'll wait till cable.

Whoa! Turned out to be pretty damned good--worth the wait!

So... is it a supernatural thriller... or is it a classical "drive the young lady crazy" tale? Mum's the word. And I can't tell you what film it reminded me of without getting into spoiler territory... suffice it to say that it was a film from last year that I rather despised--but GOTHIKA made the trappings work!

And what trappings they are... I know feelings are mixed about Dark Castle's output, but I don't think anybody ever suggested that they LOOKED bad. Look where they keep setting these things--HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (which I loved), THIR13EN GHOSTS and GHOST SHIP (which I had fun with, even though they weren't particularly outstanding)--they all had pretty fantastic production designs... and GOTHIKA keeps the tradition going beautifully with the prison/mental institution atmosphere--it's another great, spooky setting, and the movie is the best from Dark Castle since the first one.

Oh--forget what I said about the shower scene--it's all creepy, ugly stuff (and Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz admitted that they chickened out at the last minute and opted for pasties, anyway).

Kept me guessing, kept me entertained, kept me jumping--we'll talk more when more of you have seen it, but GOTHIKA is a nice, solid thriller (despite certain over-familiar elements) that's worth catching on the big screen.

But AVOID Roger Ebert's review! He liked the movie, all right, but he mentions TOO many things that should NOT be mentioned ahead of time!!!!

My wife really wants to see this. I was a little apprehensive about it because it's advertised so much and generally when they spam the hell out of a movie ad, I usually cringe and assume that it's not going to be very good since they're saturating the media with it.

But if Remo says it's good, I'll give it a chance.

In all fairness, I must now point out that I seem to be one of the few people who DID like it. Others find it predictable and repetitious. Nevertheless, I stand by my reaction (deliberately avoiding the hype often helps).

Oh man, I caught this on wednesday night with my wife and we all left the theater wanting our money back. I thought it was incredibly stupid and there are plot holes big enough to drive a truck through. These aren't just nitpicky things, either, they're massive logical inconsistencies that took away from the entire movie.

Okay--we've both seen it, and I don't think anyone else is worried about spoilers now. I'd be interested in the plot holes you mean, just to see if we read GOTHIKA the same way.


SPOILER ALERT ANYWAY....

I'll tell you one bit I liked--since I often complained about FEARDOTCOM and the way that the ghost in that film had no reason to terrorize and kill people that it wanted help from, I was intrigued by the behavior of the ghost in GOTHIKA. When it showed up in Halle's cell and started battering her around, I was wondering just why it was doing that to her--and then it hit me... by doing that, it attracted the guards and gave her a chance to escape. Hard to believe in? Perhaps, but the idea helped the scene work for me...

The biggest problem I had with the movie was the ending. Maybe I missed something, but despite the fact that Miranda solved the big murder case and exposed her husband and the sherriff as sex sadists, she was still placed at the scene of her husband's murder with all sorts of evidence piled up against her that could have put her away for life. Yet in the end you see her and Chloe on the street, Chloe also facing murder charges, as if killing the bad guys was all she needed to prove her innocence. Last I knew, spiritual possession wasn't admissable in court.

Now, I can suspend disbelief but only so far. Unless I missed something, like the two women escaped from the hospital or something, that's some logic that I just can't get over.

SPOILERS CONTINUE


You're right in that it would have been nice to have an explanatory "retrial" scene--on the other hand, it would have dragged the movie down when everyone was expecting it to be over.

I'm just figuring that when both the husband and the sheriff were exposed as murderous sexual predators, all sorts of "just cause" and "temporary insanity" defenses became relevant, and that everyone was eager to testify against the (dead) killers so as not to be associated with their crimes. Ghost or no ghost, I can see acquittals/reversals of that nature happening in real life.

("Good grief, I know she killed him--but he was Jeffrey Dahmer's evil twin!")

Style over substance--no doubt about it. But the epilogue--rushed as it was--was actually one of the bits I had the least trouble buying!

Finally saw this and my verdict........would be middle-ground. I didn't hate it as much as Latte did, but then again I wasn't all that enthusiastic about it either. The performances and story were decent, but the biggest problem for me were the aforementioned holes. Did she really kill her husband or was it just her imagination? If so, then why didn't she remember any of it? I don't think I ever figured that part out unless I missed something. In the end, this wasn't a truly terrible movie. But in a year that has already given us some pretty memorable (and outstanding) genre offerings, this one doesn't rate at the top in my book. I will agree with Remo that it was way better than FEARDOTCOM though. But out of all the Dark Castle offerings to date, I still say HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL is by far the best.

Originally posted by Remo D
October 24th has come and gone.

So where's Halle Berry in the shower scene?

Er... I mean... where's this excellent psychological/supernatural thriller from Dark Castle Entertainment?

I've heard nothing but negative feedback about that film so I have no desire to go see it.
There's a movie with a similar title that's pretty twisted, and already out on DVD... anyone seen GOTH?

I was pretty disapointed with this movie!