Thursday, July 08, 2010

NETFLIX FRIDAY #11: SESSION 9

Creeeeeepy. It was this or House of the Devil, but I really think this is an under-rated little horror classic.

One of the first shot-on-digital flicks, Session 9 is bone simple: some guys get paid to pull asbestos out of an old mental hospital. The smart-ass of the group finds some recorded therapy sessions, and decides to throw them on the reel-to-reel during lunch breaks. (As one does.)

As the confessions of a sad, broken MPD patient from the 50's spools out into the darkness, at first you think he's unravelling a mystery, and then you think it's a ghost story ... and then it turns into something a lot worse than a ghost story.

It's a hell of a cast -- David Caruso, Josh Lucas, and Peter Mullan. ( I mean, Mullan's just sublime.) Brad Anderson's early in his career here, and for any of you shooting on a budget, it's worth seeing what he managed to pull off with the video equipment of ten frikkin' years ago. He takes great advantage of the heavy grain in the blacks, using it to evoke exactly the ambiguous blur the human eye deals with in shadow. There are things in the edge of the frame you can't quite make out, things that modern digital would make too clean. You really, really need to watch this one in the dark. It's the only way to truly appreciate some of the subtlety in the composition. A little screen glare would shank a few of the better moments.

Without the ability to do fancy camera bullshit, Anderson makes every shot count. Perfectly composed frames slide, never jerk over to something you'd rather not know about. But the main thing is the audio. A soundtrack that picks at your nerves. The insect buzz of a hot summer day, the grind of the machinery. Those voices. The personalities of the long-dead patient roll out on the tinny audiotape, one by one, getting progressively more disturbing. Until ...

... well, until you realize it's a trap, not just for them, but for you, the viewer. You were waiting for the bogeyman to show up to the party, and a bit too late you find he's the host and you've had way too much of this odd-tasting punch and-maybe-its-timetoliedownSHITITSTOOLATE.

Anyone who doesn't dig this also didn't like or get Robert Wise's The Haunting because you never see any ghosts. There, that's all I'll say, anything else would be a spoiler. Just watch the damn thing, at about midnight, for a perfect little creepfest. The last speech is still one of my favorite of any movie, ever.

Session 9 is your Netflix Instant Streaming recommend for this weekend. In the Comments, toss me your favorite underrated horror movie.

60 comments:

Anonymous said...

[No spoilers]

Nine years after seeing this I still believe this is the best horror / suspense movie ever made, especially since it comes without SFX and jumps and cheap scares. And it is believable.

These guys have a reason to be in the creepy building. No stupid trial of courage, no sex between soon-to-be-slaughtered teens in the abandoned orphanage, it's just a bunch of guys stuck in a crappy job, getting rid of asbestos and waiting for better days. Anybody here remember a point like that in his life? I sure do.

Another thing - 90% of this takes place during the day. Which makes it all the more scary. Even down in that creepy basement golden afternoon sunlight is shining through the windows. You said it: every single shot counts - when there's this utter silence, every little bit of movement in the background, every shadow shifting ever so slightly, every turning of heads acts as a shocker.

You're absolutely right: watch this at night. Alone. Have a beer, sit down, relax, turn up the volume and watch this with an open mind. You won't regret it.

Christian A. Dumais said...

Great to see some love given to Session 9. This is a movie that rewards you on repeat viewing.

-Christian A. Dumais

Phil Freeman said...

I vote for John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness. A professor and a team of students go to an abandoned church to analyze a canister that seems to contain Satan in liquid form. Even if you come in thinking that idea sounds almost Fulci-esque in its boneheadedness, this movie will have you looking over your shoulder before it ends. I think it's one of Carpenter's scariest movies. Not available for streaming, but Netflix has it.

Gareth-Michael Skarka said...

The creepiest thing about this movie, for me, is that it was actually filmed on location at Danvers State Hospital, before the buildings were demolished.

John said...

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

Anonymous said...

Just watched this for the first time recently. Scary, yes. Creepy, yes. Great ending, yes. (And I think I've seen that idea/premise ripped off in other things since, so I guess that's a tribute!)

Anonymous said...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069992/
The 1973 TV movie Don't Be Afraid of the Dark terrified me when I saw it as a child. I haven't seen it since so I'm not sure how well it holds up, but I still sleep with a night light because of this movie. Judging by the comments on IMDB I'm not the only one. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069992/usercomments

Guillermo del Toro's remake hits movie theaters in January, but you can find the original online if you do a little searching.

Absinthe said...

DARKNESS (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0049371/) - an earlier effort from the creator of [REC] that isn't perfect but deserves way better than it's gotten. Moody with a side of Eldritch Horror.

THE STUFF (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090094/) - from the occasionally brilliant Larry Cohen. Evil yogurt. Simultanously so-bad-it's-good and surprisingly thoughtful for low-budget '80s schlock.

Michael Mock said...

Screamers (the original, not the did-they-really-have-to-make-this sequel) was always my favorite underrated horror movie. It works in part because it presents itself as science fiction as much as (or more than) horror.

Stephanie said...

As another poster said, this was filmed on location at Danvers State Hospital. My mom did one of her nursing rotations there and still tells horror stories about it. She says she'll never forget the screams.

When they were filming the movie, there were all kinds of reports of how the people on the production couldn't get out of there fast enough. Apparently, all kinds of weird crap was happening and disrupting filming.

Recently, they've torn most of the buildings down and built apartments, but the original main red-brick castle-like building is still there, looming on the hill to be seen from miles around. Personally, you couldn't pay me to live in one of those apartments!

Cam_Banks said...

I second Prince of Darkness. I think the scariest part of that movie isn't the big green tank of evil or the zombie-like Alice Cooper or the killing, but the video footage from the future being broadcast into the dreams of the present and the slow, slow reveal.

That, and the footage on TV in SIGNS where the kids see something out their back garden at a birthday party. "It's behind! It's behind!"

Matt P said...

Discussions of Session 9 always make me sad. All of the smart people with impeccable taste seem to love it, but it left me alternately irritated and blah.

I did love Wise's The Haunting, though, and Tourneur's Curse of the Demon up until the last ten minutes or so. Maybe I only respond to eeriness in black and white.

Also, another thumbs-up for The Stuff. Good, goofy, horror fun with bonus Garrett Morris.

Anonymous said...

I've been on a horror kick this month anyway, so I took your recommendation. Thanks! The movie is a slow burn: it's not trying to make you jump out of your seat. It is trying to creep you the fuck out for 100 minutes. You know something's going on early on, but then the focus shifts to the characters and their relationships, and you wait for the "scary" stuff to start, so you're always on your toes. And the first commenter makes an excellent comment about the movie taking place almost entirely in the daytime, which is just so...damn.

When the credits finally rolled, I kind of couldn't move for about a minute.

Andrew Cosby said...

Absolutely. SESSION 9 is one of those great underrated horror flicks... right alongside EXORCIST III. No kidding. A lot of folks skipped it because the 2nd film was so God-awful (no pun intended), but EX 3 is scary as hell (pun intended), with great performances by George C. Scott and Brad Dourif. The fish monologue alone is worth the price of the rental. And it's got one of the best shock moments in horror film history. Those who've seen it know exactly what I'm talking about. Anyway, watch it if you haven't already. It truly is a worthy successor to the original.

Andrew Cosby said...

Another great, lesser-known horror movie... and one of my favorites from a couple years back... PONTYPOOL. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsGPsbAd7Dc

John said...

Not sure how "underrated" it is necessarily, but the American remake of The Ring still fucks me up pretty good.

Anonymous Bosch said...

I saw Exorcist III only once, in a packed cinema with a Friday Night crowd. It's still one of the oddest cinema-going experiences of my life.

I've been to plenty of crowded weekend showings of movies before, but I've never come across a crowd more openly disinterested in the movie on the screen before or since.

After about 15 minutes people started openly talking to each other, and not in that hushed cinema way. It spread from person to person, making me think of that old Burroughs quote about language being a virus from outer space.

In the end, almost no-one was paying attention to the movie. It sounded more like the rumble of a sporting event. I kept waiting for people to "shush" each other, but that only came about 50 minutes into it, when some nerdy, no-friends basement-dwelling type guy stood up and shouted "You're all damn rude!" to the entire cinema. Normally that might have embarrassed people, but instead everyone just laughed at him, until *he fled the cinema*.

I sat there in awe. How much could a movie disinterest an audience? Was I actually going to see everyone turn feral and start slashing the seats? Would I end up in the middle of some kind of Bad Movie Riot? I immediately gave up watching the screen and watched the audience instead, John Waters-style, so remember little else about the movie.

As I said, I've never seen anything like it since. People are very undemanding in their entertainment, so now I'm very curious as to just how bad that movie must be.

John said...

"You really, really need to watch this one in the dark."

IMPORTANT SAFETY TIP: Do not actually do this.

Just finished watching it at 2330EST. Rogers, you owe me one night's sleep.

Penh said...

Just chiming in to echo some of the recommendations here, and to add one of mine.

Below -- An intensely claustrophobic horror movie taking place on a WWII submarine, which is one of the very last places you want to have problems with ghosts. Or is it something worse?

Prince of Darkness -- Probably the John Carpenter movie that's least like any of his others, and seriously creepy all the way through. The progressive reveal of the dream is brilliant and haunting.

Darkness -- Jaume Balagueró deserves a lot more recognition, and maybe the success of [REC] and (with luck) [REC] 2 will get him some mainstream love.

Exorcist III -- Despite major studio interference, it still turned out relatively well. And yes, it's got one of the all-time greatest shock moments in cinema history. I just about launched myself through the back wall of the theater.

Pirate Alice said...

Session 9 is the movie I tell all my friends about and they all just say, "never heard of it" and ignore me. That movie still creeps me out TO THIS DAY! (I saw it maybe 7 or 8 years ago.) I'm not usually so disturbed by horror movies, it's a genre I love. Session 9 was so quiet and spooky and creepy without any of the usual, blood and gore and stupid make you jump tricks. Anyone who hasn't seen it yet, really should.

Unknown said...

I can see why it was a toss up between this and House of the Devil. Both do a great job of turning up the creepy slowly that you don't notice you're in the boiling pot until it is too late.

Though it is still weird to remember Caruso had a career outside of Horatio Caine, Supercop.

Cliff said...

Hello...Gordon.

GAAHHHHHH. Love that movie.

Underrated horror movies?

TOWN CREEK (a/k/a BLOOD CREEK) - a tight, solid supernatural siege story, marred only by a horror cliche at the very end. Still, better than I would ever expected from Joel Schumacher.

THE KILLING ROOM - Hell, your man Timothy Hutton is in this, and it's the best take on the sinister-experiment movie I've seen in a long time.

And I haven't watched THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL yet, but it looks promising.

Unknown said...

Nomads,
Pierce Brosnan and Adam Ant, where both of them are doing good jobs acting. Weird, disjointed, and definitely creepy.

"They are not there; they are Einwetok."

jre said...

Lynn and I just watched this last night.

Your comments were perfectly balanced, telling us enough to prepare and frame the experience without spoiling it.

I thought Peter Mullan sounded more Scottish with every scene, until at the end I expected him to pull out some haggis and gnaw on it while salting it with his despondent tears. Despite (or because of) this, his performance is a thing of amazing beauty.

One plot point came up in post-flick discussion (spoiler alert): How could Amy have told Phil that Hank was going to Miami, given what we learn later on? I think the answer is that Hank announced his intentions to Amy before returning to the hospital to collect his swag. That, or Brad Anderson committed a minor continuity fuckup; you be the judge.

All in all, a great little movie, undeservedly obscure. Thanks for the tip!

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