Inspirational Movies and TV for Dark Conspiracy

[Linden]

Recently watched three films by writing/acting/directing duo Justin Benson/Aaron Moorhouse:

Resolution in which the protagonist tries to help his old school pal get clean from drugs. An impromptu detox in a cabin on a native American reservation probably not the best idea, especially when the area is inhabited by unfriendly locals, plus an unseen entity that likes to use people to act out stories for its own amusement.

The Endless - A sort of sequel to The Endless, or at least a companion film. Two brothers return to visit the UFO Doomsday cult they fled over a decade ago, none of whose members seem to have aged a day. Strange time bending stuff happens. Set in the same geographical area as Resolution and features some of the same characters.

Spring which isn't really related to the other two, although there are references to at least two characters from The Endless. A recently bereaved American man goes off to Italy and takes up with a local woman who has a dark secret.

These are low budget, quite talky affairs - possibly a bit too talky for some. Reviews generally refer to them as being Lovecraftian and HPL himself is name checked a couple of times in The Endless. However, there are plenty of DC elements. The unseen entity in in Resolution and The Endless is actively sadistic rather than indifferent, and thus has more in common with DC's Dark Masters than CoC's great old ones. The Endless introduces the concept of repeating time "bubbles" which are like a hardened protodimension - very difficult to escape. Spring features a fair amount of weird science, some of it verging on Dark Tek.

Recommended if you enjoy a slightly oblique approach to horror, and don't mind high levels of profanity (which almost tips over into parody at times).

[ReHerakhte]

I've seen The Endless but not the other two yet. I quite liked it and was pleased to find out that Resolution formed a companion piece for The Endless.
Must get around to watching it one day and I'm equally interested in Spring.

[Linden]

Spring has been compared to 1981 film Possession which stars Sam Neil and Isabel Adjani. A film I've always meant to see but have never got round to. Was banned as part of the video nasty panic back in the 80s but I think it's a more thoughtful film than it was given credit for, by the BBFC at any rate. I gather it's pretty over wrought though.

[ReHerakhte]

Ah, interesting!
I am aware of Possession but I don't think I've ever seen it, I had a bit of a crush on Isabel Adjani during the 1980s but I would not have been aware of all the movies she was in at the time. I think if I had seen it, I'd hopefully remember it, simply because I had a "thing" for her but if it had an R-rating in Australia when it was released, then I would have been too young to be able to see it at the time.

So, another movie to add to my watch list!

[Linden]

So, another movie to add to my watch list!

I'm going to try and watch it at the weekend.

[ReHerakhte]

Just finished the last episode in the 2012, eight-part, TV series Hunted.
I had never even heard of it back when it was released and even though I thought it the premise was somewhat interesting when it was advertised through Google Play, I still didn't bother with it.
But it was recently discounted in price on Google Play so I bought it and was pleasantly surprised.

Nothing supernatural or ET about the show but its central focus is on a private intelligence agency and a long running conspiracy (as in hundreds of years, long running) by certain mercantile groups to accumulate power to place them above governments. The main character has a link to the conspiracy that is, once it's finally revealed, rather tenuous in my opinion, but it's used as a plot point to keep her investigating the conspiracy.
It's one of the weaker points of the show, these corporations are not above murder and kidnapping but there seems to be no sensible reason for ignoring those options (you'll have to see the last episode to get the "reveal" to fully comprehend what I'm blathering about, but it involves plot spoilers so I won't elaborate unless someone specifically asks).

There's a bit of tech, a bit of gunplay and some reveals for secondary characters that make the show a bit more intriguing than expected but it still suffers a few cinema trope moments such as a soil analysis claimed as only taking "minutes". However overall it's entertaining and may provide a few ideas for corporate espionage and conspiracy for any RPG with those genres.

[Linden]

Is Hunted the one with Melissa George? I thought it started well, but became more and more ludicrous as it went on. I seem to remember one scrap in a farmyard where our heroine and friend disarm a bunch of gun toting thugs with their bare hands. Some pretty high Initiative scores there!

[ReHerakhte]

Yes that's the one and yes, for a bunch of private corporation intelligence agents they do seem a bit "superhero" at times.
In the farmyard scene they did get some help from a "mysterious stranger".
It definitely suffers from some of the usual bad tropes and I think I can see why it wasn't renewed for further seasons, George's character doing the same sort of things all over again with the same lack of plausibility is probably more than the audience would have wanted!

For all those faults though, it does have a good conspiracy storyline (involving multiple parties) that can be snatched up for gaming purposes.

[Linden]

I remember it also featured Patrick Malahide, who is a very fine actor, but for Brits of a certain age will always be the hapless Detective Sergeant "Charlie" Chisholm in Minder.

[Linden]

Split Second currently on Amazon Prime. Just thought I'd mention it.

[Linden]

Just watched barmy space vampire romp Lifeforce. The script's a mess, hobbled as it is by Colin Wilson's idiosyncratic take on psychology, but it's fun seeing how the film evolves from a kind of poor man's Alien to a full on Hammer-Quatermass pastiche. The scenes where London goes up in smoke in a massive zombie-vampire riot are really well done. As movies about sex-mad-aliens-on-the-rampage go I'll take this over Species any day.

Lee, I remember your mate Jonathan Turner recommending this in one of his DC articles for 1990s pro-mag Roleplayer Independent. Subsequently reprinted in Demonground I think?

[Morthrai]

Lee, I remember your mate Jonathan Turner recommending this in one of his DC articles for 1990s pro-mag Roleplayer Independent. Subsequently reprinted in Demonground I think?

Ah yes, you are correct. The movie that my gang renamed "Quatermass and the Tits", which I had forgotten about until the Bela Lugosi's Shed podcast reviewed it a while back.

[Linden]

I remember seeing it years ago, probably on VHS back in the eighties and thinking it was utter pants. I really enjoyed it this time around. It's a failure, but it's an interesting failure. Netflix currently hosting the "international" version which I gather is a bit longer than the UK release.

Interesting that all the soldiers are issued with Steyr-Augs (carbine version I think?). Golan-Globus must have had a load of replicas cluttering up their prop cupboard.

You've got to hand it to Mathilde May, she had some front (in every sense). Only eighteen as well.

[Morthrai]

Interesting that all the soldiers are issued with Steyr-Augs (carbine version I think?). Golan-Globus must have had a load of replicas cluttering up their prop cupboard.

It was the 80s, the AUG was the look of "The Future". Several movies from this century are full of people waving Kriss Vector SMGs and Chiappa Rhino pistols around for the same reason, most notably the Total Recall remake.

[ReHerakhte]

As for the AUG, yes indeed.
I remember it's appearance in Die Hard (the first movie) pretty much for the reasons you mentioned.