Hells, yeah!

Right on.

Practical effects rock, and CGI blood is a real drag.

Yep. More films I think might start going back to practical effects. I mean CGI can still be used for certain aspects, safety is one, but I would like most of it should be practical. Love watching old films where people get shot in the head, you can always see the small squib painted over their foreheads!

@OddRob said:

Yep. More films I think might start going back to practical effects. I mean CGI can still be used for certain aspects, safety is one, but I would like most of it should be practical. Love watching old films where people get shot in the head, you can always see the small squib painted over their foreheads!

Favorite "head shot" film is probably Total Recall for me. A terrific film that was made before CG took over everything and which had the great Rob Bottin (the same guy that did The Thing) as the prosthetic effects technician. There were an almost ridiculous number of head shots and bloody squibs throughout the movie. Gory as hell, but a practical effects bonanza.

The only movie that I hope returns 100% (or 99.9%) to practical effects will be the next--and possibly last--Indiana Jones movie, assuming it gets made. Can't stand Harrison Ford anymore (go AWAY you old grump!), but I have a deep affection for the incredible stuntwork and practical effects work of Raiders.

@AlienFanatic said:

The only movie that I hope returns 100% (or 99.9%) to practical effects will be the next--and possibly last--Indiana Jones movie, assuming it gets made. Can't stand Harrison Ford anymore (go AWAY you old grump!), but I have a deep affection for the incredible stuntwork and practical effects work of Raiders.

They may have to CGI out his zimmer frame.

A good one to check out is the The Untouchables with Kevin Costner and Sean Connery. Great squib work. And I dont see a new Indiana Jones film being more practical than CGI. Especially after the last one...ewwwww.

I agree with practical effects.

To think this was made on a shoestring but had effects that could make you wince (appropriately), yet modern films with huge budgets are so sanitised and don't seem to be interested in even striving for gory realism.

@Fergoose said:

To think this was made on a shoestring but had effects that could make you wince (appropriately), yet modern films with huge budgets are so sanitised and don't seem to be interested in even striving for gory realism.

Agreed. The film made me wince maybe more than it scared me, and that's not, IMO, what horror should do. Horror should be frightening, not put all of these grotesque images in your face for about 2 hours to make your toes curl up. Still, it's a respectable directorial feature film debut from Clive Barker.

I don't know about the source material (and whether horror was intended) but I think the horror aspect on film was weakened due to (spoilers):

• a lack of time (about 20 seconds) being spent in the netherworld place
• the house not being particularly large or scary, so it didn't create tension (maybe someone could have been working overtime in an empty office block or going home late at night on foot when getting stalked by the cenobites)
• you didn't care about the average Joes being bumped off
• you didnt really empathise with Larry as a character and the danger he was in, he was just a sap.
• Frank was the most in peril, but was arguably the least pleasant being in the film.
• the slightly rushed shift from Pinhead telling the girl to leave (giving her a pass) to the seeming change of heart to hunt her down 2mins later

With some tweaks, better acting and a bit more patience I think the decent effects could have combined with something truly horrifying. It was really novel to have fairly impartial demons, with the true villain being a human. But yeah, nothing here to me make me want my mammy, like with Ringu or suchlike.

I said it was respectable, not your first viewing of Alien.

I liked how Barker created a netherworld of his own with its own beings (Cenobites), and he did it in a somewhat believable manner. Still, those are some strong criticisms that I will reread later.