MovieChat Forums > Trash Humpers (2011) Discussion > LAST NIGHT'S SCREENING

LAST NIGHT'S SCREENING

posted 15 years ago by worldisadonut
15 replies | jump to latest

Premiere last night. The film itself is hard to describe. More disturbed than disturbing (though it is that). I think it's closer to a horror film than anything els. Almost like a horror film made by the psycopath(s) that was never intended for an audience. The director said as much. He wanted the film to be like an artifact or a found object. He even said it wasn't really a film at all and suggested those who are prone to walking out of movies should probably just leave before it starts. Q&A after was surprisingly revealing with the director waxing poetic about the personal nature of his art and the bleak beauty of America.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] worldisadonut 15 years ago

Two days later the film is still with me...like an infection. Part of me wants to see it again on Friday.

Anyone else have a similar virus from Sat night?

[–] ringudeath 15 years ago

I actually thought a lot of it was rather funny. Definitely more intentionally funny than Gummo, in my opinion. I thought Gummo was intensely awkward and bleak whereas this shows some sort of hope and humor. Odd, but the more you think about it afterward, the funnier it gets.

[–] worldisadonut 15 years ago

I agree there was a lot of humour but it's so shaded by the disturbing context that I'm not sure funny is quite the right word for it. Not when you take into account the other aspects (violence, humiliation, perversity). Watching it with an audience for me was a very strange and tense experience. I was feeling the humour but was unable to let myself "enjoy" it. The few times I did laugh out loud where almost involuntary reactions to something that was just too much to take. At home, or in your memory, the complete absurdity of it all probably becomes easier to appreciate.

I know what you mean though about Gummo. This felt somehow both more horrifying and strangely gentler in tone. If that's possible. Also, it felt somehow more coherent despite it's fractured nature. Maybe because it kept to one set of characters.

[–] neroism 15 years ago

I was there, I loved it. I think it's his most creative work yet.

I wanted to ask a few questions during the Q&A but was too nervous. I wondered if he was at all influenced by Lars von Trier's The Idiots, since he is familiar with the Dogme movement and has worked in it before. I found that both films seem to have people pretending to be things they're not - in both cases, groups/types of people usually seen as "weak" by society. I found that in a way, seeing "old people" destroy the world around them was simulteneously hilarious and disturbing. But I figure it wasn't that big of an influence, if at all, based on his response to all the "were you influenced by...?" questions.

I also wanted to ask about the dogs. I found that there were a lot of dogs in the film, and it seemed interesting to me, almost like the flip to Gummo which had a lot to do with cats. I wanted to ask if the prominence of dogs within the film had anything to do with the fact that they hump things. I don't know about you, but when I think of humping, I think of dogs...

I also can't stop thinking about it, haha. I really cannot wait for the DVD to be released, so I can watch it again. I loved the little songs! "Three little devils..."

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] neroism 15 years ago

Haha my boyfriend linked me to your article on my facebook and I was like, "hey...I'm the person who made the stupid-funny comment!" haha. He reads that website all the time.

I don't see why it wouldn't get distributed, I mean a lot of people walked out, but he said more walked out of Gummo when he first screened that and that wasn't even when we knew he was a genius yet.

I talked to him after the screening of this movie and it was amazing, he could tell how nervous I was and was really nice to me. I got a photo of him and I together. I hope that he keeps making films so I can go to a primere again and talk to him once more.

I'm really curious as to see how he'll follow up this film.

[–] clinton-50 15 years ago

I too was there and wanted to ask if it would have easier to bring live monkeys to throw poo at us instead. I was this close to rushing the stage to punch Harmony Korine as payback for the contempt he showed the audience with this dreadful offering.It makes John Waters' Desperate Living look like Citizen
Kane. I'm sure I would have been applauded for my efforts. If you like this film, that anything goes and we'll just call it art. It's a 5 -minute U-Tube
sketch drawn out to unbearable lengths.

[–] sleepingbag 15 years ago

The trailer reminded me of that Goddess Bunny Tapdancer video.

Can't wait to see this.

"In celluloid we trust." -Herzog

[–] Dystopia_Crew 15 years ago

Are the old people in the movie real or not? It sure look like make-up, but I didn't thought that was Harmony's style... Julien Donkey-Boy I think is the best dogme movie of them all, so I really look forward too see this one!

[–] flipdabird 15 years ago

Don't quote me, but i'm pretty sure i read an article that indicated that the actors were wearing prosthetic masks, so they would look old.. I havent seen the movie, but from the production stills i've seen, its apparent that the old people have younger bodies, which would indicate that they are wearing masks. Either way, those old people look friggin' creepy.

[–] StellaDallas 15 years ago

Since one of the "old people" was Harmony himself, I think it's safe to believe all the actors were wearing latex facial prostheses. The fact that their mouths didn't move normally when speaking would also be a giveaway that it was makeup.

[–] Dystopia_Crew 15 years ago

Thanks! I was really hoping that it was all real people like in gummo but anyway the trailer looks creepy and the home made movie style is exactly the right way to shoot this thing. It sure reminds me of the danish "idiots" then, but I think Harmony is a much more interesting director than Von Trier so this could really be a cult classic!

[–] StellaDallas 15 years ago

At the screening I attended, I remarked to a critic that "Humpers" may well have been "Antichrist" with a $500 budget and no cinematography.

[–] ringudeath 15 years ago

Two of the "old people" were Harmony, himself, and his wife. I believe his child appears at the end, too.