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New #26: In the Earth (2021) [Hulu] Spooky Square #17: It's Only A Myth A scientist and park ranger trek into the British countryside in search of missing researcher, where they encounter strange things that may or may not relate to a woodland spirit of local legend. I quite enjoyed the moodiness of the forest, the steady escalation of the stakes, and all of the performances. I'm a sucker for scientists exploring the inexplicable and I thought this navigated the gap between over and under-explaining well. Glad I caught this one. New #27: Frenzy (1972) [Peacock] Spooky Square #18: Masters of Horror The wrong man is accused of a series of rapes and murders as the real killer eludes detection in Alfred Hitchcock's second-to-last film. A number of strong performances here, particularly the killer, who steals the movie handily even before his true face is revealed. The choice to make the wrongly-accused man a real rear end in a top hat is great, helping the way he becomes framed feel less contrived. The killer's charm aside, some of the attempts at comedy didn't work for me or felt awkwardly retrograde. Still, highly entertaining, particularly once the killer takes center stage. 
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Nov 1, 2021 04:50
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Does Actress Wanted count as a Vietnamese movie? Or is it Vietnamese-American?
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Nov 1, 2021 04:52
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Here’s the part where I really focused on spooky bingo. Lots of great first time watches. Film 44 Cabinet of Dr Caligari Directed by Robert Weine. 1921, Germany🇩🇪 SPOOKY: Salomé This film is over 100 years old and I can still see it’s influence today, that’s incredible. The story on its own is pretty solid. Simple, but solid. I’m really impressed I was able to follow it even without the intertitles. The acting and direction was that clear. Even in the construction of the story, I was able to predict the end from events in the first act. That’s good filmmaking. The film is famous for its visual style, and yup, it’s awesome. Looking at it with 2021 eyes, it’s obvious that Tim Burton lifted this look wholesale for his movies. Like, Cesare is a Burton character and I’m surprised he hasn’t tried to do a remake of this. The music provided on this Kino Lorber release is pretty good, pretty spooky. In fact, it’s all pretty spooky. Again, over 100 years old and still providing good thrills and chills. 🎃🎃🎃🎃/5  Film 45 The Lawnmower Man Directed by Brett Leonard. 1992, United States🇺🇸 (Wikipedia says that there was some financing from studios in the UK and Japan, but I don’t think that’d really count) SPOOKY: fear dot com Weird movie. So there’s some things I like, some I don’t, and things I’m just perplexed by. For full context, I watched the extended cut. I like Pierce Brosnan and Jeff Fahey. Both did great. Fahey did pretty good on his portrayal of Jobe. Like it could have been very bad, but this was an okay representation. I think a lot of the issue lies in the writing. He’s a pretty stereotypical movie version of someone with a mental handicap: he doesn’t pick up social cues, he has trouble telling reality and fantasy apart, he’s good at repairing things. Like you get what kind of things he does. And then you have a couple uses of the R-word in there. Yeah, not great. The story itself is very very interesting. Lots of heavy Christian imagery and themes. I don’t know the story of Job though, so I recognize it but I don’t feel like looking up how it connects. I’m lazy. What I do recognize is you have a man that has difficulty separating reality and fantasy eventually grapple with the virtual and real world becoming blurred together. I also find it interesting that they made Jobe the bad guy. They did a great job of making him sympathetic at the beginning with the chimp, but he became a maniacal supervillain at the end. I was concerned at first on how spooky this was going to be for spooky season, but it got pretty unnerving towards the end. The special effects have not held up at all, but the intent of them are really weird and unnerving. Jobe becomes and omnipotent meta human that can bend reality to his whim. He disintegrates a guy into a video toaster effect! The virtual sex scene is also very hosed up. I just wish they had the technology to realize these ideas. This might be a story worth revisiting with better effects technology. And more homicidal gamer monkeys. 🎃🎃🎃/5  Film 46 The Masque of the Red Death Directed by Roger Corman. 1964. United Kingdom🇬🇧 & United States🇺🇸 SPOOKY: Tales of the Grotesque I remember when the pandemic was first hitting and this became a popular one for being “more relevant now more than ever”. It’s not so much being more relevant, but it’s more of “bad things of society still bad”. Anyway, the movie itself. When you combine Roger Corman, Vincent Price and Edgar Allen Poe, you get a stone cold classic. The look is vibrant but still high in contrast and creepy when it needs to be. Price’s performance is deliciously evil. He’s just the right amount of camp, a little spice in a sinister role. The story is great. What else would you expect from Poe? Most of it is a rumination on a very evil man. The issue with that in a 2021 perspective is it sounds like an insane Alex Jones tale. “The rich elite are satanists that are kidnapping Christian women and burning people alive at parties.” Still enjoyable because rich people suck and it’s cool when the red death finally comes. No one is too powerful to escape death itself. Hell of an end. 🎃🎃🎃🎃/5
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Nov 1, 2021 04:55
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 86 (136). House in the Alley aka ‘Ngôi Nhà Trong Hẻm’ (2013) Written and directed by Lê Văn Kiệt Watched on Tubitv Fran’s SPOOKY BINGO: Rùng Rợn Second day of film editing school: “You don’t actually need a transition effect between every scene.” Ok, here’s how I fix this movie. Its gotta go all the way back to the editing room. I feel like maybe there’s a decent film in here if it gets recut? First of all there’s a huge tonal shift and weird mixed messaging in the film. The first hour is all slow played and down beat creating a situation where its like 99% just a traumatized grieving lady and a whole bunch of people around her who kind of suck rear end at showing compassion and just call her crazy. And then all of a sudden she goes bugfuck crazy and they ramp up the threat and supernatural element so fast that I thought I missed an act. This is done all wrong. Mix it up a little. Build there. Blend the supernatural and human stuff together so we’re asking “is a ghost loving with them or is grief and stress just wearing them down?” The way the film handles it it feels like all of the latter and then all of the former. And not only does that make for a completely disjointed story but it sends some weird messages. Like… I guess no one was really in the wrong for calling her crazy then? She really was going crazy by ghosts and this had nothing to do with her traumatic near death experience and stillborn child? That’s what we’re doing? There’s actually this epilogue where they explain the ghosts and like… why is it an epilogue? Make that part of the story as the husband seeks answers for the weirdness going on and finds out the stuff. It does not good at the end of the film, but could have helped build tension twenty or thirty minutes earlier. There’s also this whole work subplot with his overbearing mom and goofy middle management underling who are giving a hard time about neglecting work and spending too much energy on his stupid crazy wife all while “chaos” reigns at the factor for some unclear reason. Its all very poorly done. On one hand its so cheesy that I kind of think its intended to be comedic relief? Like that lackey is way too stupid to not be comedy relief. But the mom isn’t, right? She’s supposed to be this extra stress pushing her son to the edge, right? Like there’s a version of this film where the point is that he’s being pulled so hard in multiple directions, sleep deprived, grieving, stressed, worrying, and suffering from multiple head injuries that he’s kind of out of his mind too and it adds more ambiguity and tension to the affairs. But that doesn’t come across here at all. Instead its just this weird and inconsequential part of the film where his mom yells at him a bunch and he has some VERY poorly written conversations with the dumbass working for him who for some reason considers his boss family even though the movie hasn’t established that kind of relationship at all. But maybe he’s supposed to be ridiculous when he says that and overly personal? And its just that the husband is so stressed that he gives in? I don’t know. Its all too poorly done to tell. But I do feel like there’s possibly a good film in here. Completely recut, movie a lot fo the later ghost stuff into the earlier part of the film. Cut most of that work stuff and focus on the couple. Get over that discovers of transition effects. Maybe add a tense score? I don’t know if there’s a classic film in here or anything but its a pretty basic ghost story with a fairly effective sympathetic human hook. And the couple aren’t terribly acted, at least when they’re together. So maybe someone could have made something of this. Oh yeah, and maybe make the husband a little less rapey. Or do a better job of making that important and meaningful. Just do a better job with this. If someone had I think it could have been a decent ghost story. But they didn’t and its kind of a confused, often amateurish mess. 87 (137). Fran's SPOOKY BINGO Salomé DIY Anthology Given the choice of one full length silent film or a bunch of shorts I took the shorts since a long silent film can be kind of rough for me. And I love the whole Short Cuts DIY Anthology thing that I just went and did it again. And another Youtube Playlist to just hit play on. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJsByf9TVAjsD_Z_v7FypRyQVsVibcyZ_ Fran’s SPOOKY BINGO: Salomé  The Ouija Board (1920) Directed by Max Fleischer https://youtu.be/ZoCuXDVi3Mk You always have to get a little scared when you see a black person pop up in something from 100 years ago. Thankfully this mostly seems to avoid being any more racist than just the basic placement of black people at the time as little more than janitors and comic relief. Getting past that this is one of Max Fleischer’s classic revolutionary animated Koko the Clown pieces with Koko getting haunted by some spooky ghosts and then escaping into the real world to haunt the Fleischers and their janitor’s Ouija Board. Its a fun little short, obviously more about the animation than anything else and it really is pretty remarkably well done and ages well 100 years later. I’ve seen enough random Fleischer bits but its always interesting getting the context of year and really appreciating what they were pulling off and how it would shape the next 100 years of animation. Am I saying 100 years too much? It feels like I am. Its just that that’s such a long time its kind of hard to wrap your brain around it. So yeah, nice little cute spooky animated opener. Except for the racism. That’s unfortunate.  The Queen of Spades aka ‘Пиковая дама’ (1910) Directed by Pyotr Chardynin; Written by Pyotr Chardynin and Alexander Pushkin; based on "The Queen of Spades" by Alexander Pushkin https://youtu.be/xv4kqeRSe-Y A story I’ve seen a few times before so it made it a bit easier to follow the silent film storytelling. If I hadn’t I might have been a bit lost as it really doesn’t do much explaining, but i got the basic gist. That being said the fact that I was familiar with it also kind of meant that it didn’t do much that I hadn’t already seen in deeper versions. Its mostly just kind of there like a movie trailer or something. I dunno. Some of these very old, very short ones I can understand why for the time they were maybe doing their best and doing something there wasn’t much of. But there’s been so much since that it just doesn’t feel like it holds up to much now.  The Witch’s Fiddle (1924) Directed by Peter Le Neve Foster https://youtu.be/dIWfr5ptzEM This copy on Youtube had NO soundtrack which was not only very difficult but really weird given the drat short is about music. I ended up just firing up some random fiddle track just to give myself something. But holy crap it didn’t work. I think I watched this like 5 times and I just couldn’t get it. Dude gets a magic fiddle, plays it as an ice breaker for some dude, the end? I dunno. I don’t get it.  Au secours! (1924) Directed by Abel Gance; Written by Abel Gance and Max Linder https://youtu.be/IP4erFsYlW0 My second silent film in a row that came without even a score, but this was a lot easier to work with even thought it was much longer. Mainly because there’s not a ton of story here. Some dude bets some dude he can’t stay in his haunted house and a whole lot of spooky happens. There’s a poo poo ton of stuff and visuals and camera tricks for the time and while I’m not sure any of it is especially impressive or memorable it all keeps flying so fast that it stays moving. I kind of hated the ending though. Real mean and kind of messed up. Like we’re all just cool with that? Really? Just what you can get away with in a bet? 1920s bets were hardcore.  A Nightmare aka ‘Le Cauchemar’ (1896) Directed by Georges Méliès https://youtu.be/EEdh-6_ZwE4 Apparently this dude’s nightmare included blackface people hanging around his room. Its 1 minute and a lot of nothing.  The Telltale Heart (1928) Directed by Leon Shamroy and Charles Klein; Based on The Telltale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe https://youtu.be/KUKxwKykOes This delivered as the main attraction of this DIY anthology. The story gets past its limitations as a silent film by borrowing heavily from German Expressionism. So the killer’s guilt and terror is represented with tons of hosed up Burtonesque imagery and flashing elements. There’s also a really good score. I have no idea if that was original (probably not) but it worked well especially for a piece that revolves around something like the sound of a beating heart. Between the visuals and score it does everything it really needs to do and feels very fitting for Poe’s work and style. Honestly probably one of the better and different Poe adaptions I’ve seen in some time. I should not have left this one for my last slot but I pulled it off. All 35 squares, all 13 possible Bingos. I loved this and I’d love to see it return. I’d also love like a ton of options and randomized cards so you might land Dead and Buried or you might not or you might draw an easy loose card or a real tough one of all “movie from Vietnam” type ones. But I don’t know how to do that so I will just tip my hand to Fran and thank him as always. 
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Nov 1, 2021 05:05
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39. Cult BINGO: [REC]-Watch a found footage film. Three idols take a job making a reality show about an exorcism. I never get quite what I expected with Shiraishi films, and Cult is no exception. A mixture of faux-documentary, reality TV and... shonen anime? OK that's fine actually and Neo rules. Creepy, funny and just straight up weird in a way that few directors are able to balance. Loved it. 4/5 40. The Hills Have Eyes BINGO: To Serve Man-Watch a film that predominantly features cannibalism A remake of Wes Cravens classic about mutated humans hunting hapless vacationers in a nuclear weapons testing zone. Nothing especially groundbreaking or smart but it's fast paced and brutal and very fun to watch. 4/5 41. Sputnik BINGO: Spaced Invaders-Watch a film about extraterrestrial life. Cold war Soviet Russia, a spacecraft crashes after an incident on re-entry and the surviving cosmonaut is acting weird. A brutalist, foreboding, slow-burn sci fi horror. This is the stuff I live for. Combines a splash of Arrival's scientific investigation with a dollop of Alien's gestation and wraps it in a beautifully dour Soviet aesthetic. 4/5 42. Demons 2 BINGO: The Devil Made Me Do It-Watch a film that features the Devil, or Satan, or demons. The Demons are back, this time infesting a high rise apartment building. The set up for this is wild and absolutely tries to one-up the weird film mirroring reality of the first Demons. The area infected by demons in the first film is now walled off and there’s a documentary? TV movie? Something in which a group hop the wall and go scavenging for demon leftovers. One blood drop on a dessicated demon corpse later and the whole group is infected, then the demon emerges through someone’s TV screen. Perfect It's more Demons! The location is bigger, the kill count is higher, Bobby Rhodes is back. It's basically the same film but more, and in this case it works. There are some extraneous bits that make it a slightly lesser film than the original. A dodgy puppet and the whole Jacob subplot come to mind. 4/5 43. Ravenous BINGO: Picnic At Hanging Rock-Watch a period piece film. 19th century American soldiers investigate reports of an officer gone rogue and gone cannibal. Another great film I’ve watched this month that has been sitting on my watchlist for too long. Spooky season serves its purpose! The cast is excellent, and they absolutely do the sharply-written script justice. Some lovely shots (Carlyle peeking through a blood-streaked window) and a soundtrack that just fits perfectly. Liked this a whole lot. 4.5/5 44. The Fury BINGO: Origin of Evil-Watch a film from your birth year. What a great way to end the spookiest month! Brian DePalma conjures up one of those weird dreamy 70s films where nothing really makes much sense but that helps rather than hurts the atmosphere here. Shadowy agencies kidnapping and conditioning psychic teenagers(?) for unspecified purposes, vengeful father, girl discovering her powers. The strands of the story all start quite separately but the momentum they have when everything starts to come together and barrel towards an unforgettable ending is, as I'm starting to realise, classic DePalma. Further evidence that 1978 is one of the all time greatest years for horror. 4.5/5  It’s a full Spooky Bingo! What a final day! Sorry for the wave of posts, I’ve never been one for doing my homework on time. Today I watched Demons 2, Ravenous and the Fury so I absolutely ended on a high. This Bingo challenge format has been excellent, Fran, thank you for organising it. Consider this a vote for more bingo. And thank you everyone for taking part and posting such fun reviews. I’m off to watch The Thing, an unbroken Halloween tradition for me since 1995. Happy Halloween everyone!
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Nov 1, 2021 05:07
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34: Hausu - A group of high school gcirl decieds to go to one of their aunt's houses for their vacation, not realizing the trap they are walking into. Hausu so jam-packed with weirdness and I love it. It's just such a unique movie, with the inexplicable visible backdrops, weird shots and effects, and aggressively unique kills even before other movies started trying for that. There's never a dull moment, even the slow moments present many more questions than answers, and when things start going there's absolutely nothing like this movie. I love this movie so much, it's the only one I specifically make a point to rewatch every year. 5/5 Hit a spooky with that one! Gonna watch maybe one more, but probably won't manage a second spooky.  Prelude: vi: Jaws v: Gozu vi: Slither iii: Let the right one in ii: House on Haunted Hill i: Lair of the White Worm New watches: 1: The Pit and the Pendulum 2: Suspiria (2018) 3: Velocipastor 4: Siren (2006) 5: Vivarium 6: Ju-on: The Grudge (2002) 7: Boxer's Omen 8: Pulse (2001) 9: Malignant 10: Final Destination 11: Black Swan 12: Dagon 13: Terrorvision 14: Death becomes Her 15: Happy Death Day 16: Pandorum 17: Freaky 18: It Chapter 2 19: Ravenous 20: Psycho Goreman 21: Mother! 22: Tumbbad 23: GhostWatch 24: Nosferatu (1922) 25: American Psycho 26: Ginger Snaps 27: Gingerdead man 28: The Evil Dead 29: Evil Dead 2 Rewatches: 1: Liza, the Fox-Fairy 2: Hellraiser 3: Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 4: They Live Challenges: Based on the Novel, To Serve Man, Spaced Invaders, Scream Queen!, डरावनी, As Seen on TV, Salomé, Femme Fatale, Full Moon, Holiday Massacre, Hausu
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Nov 1, 2021 05:13
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26: Empty Man Challenge: Only a Myth We'd originally planned to see Antlers today for this slot, but yesterday was our wedding and we are in our mid 30s so it was pretty clear by noon that we weren't going to leave the couch today. Remembered this one getting pretty high praise so threw it on. I think it's been talked about enough that I'm not going to add anything new. I enjoyed it but it definitely felt like a few different movies all smashed together, and some of those movies were really cool and some were basic and dull. It's close to great but the basic stuff weighs it down too much to bring it over. 27: Nightmare on Elm Street Challenge: Origin of Evil I know, I know, poser alert. I've seen a few of the later ones multiple times, but realized I've never seen the first one, and that seemed like a fine choice to end off with. It's certainly interesting going backwards to this one, from all the fun, inventive kills to here, where it's mostly just Freddy walking towards people menacingly. There are some good kills and scares but certainly nothing like the later installments. Also even though it's pretty well established that Freddy is fairly weak in the real world, it's pretty funny and unexpected to see Nancy just Home Alone the poo poo out of him. Not going to watch this one as many times as I've seen Freddy vs Jason, but another one I'm glad to check off my list at least.
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Nov 1, 2021 05:24
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drat it. I left my bingo card at work. Guess I have to make a new one. Thank goodness I wrote down what I had for every category. Time to go nuts with review dumps. Film 47 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Directed by Tobe Hooper. 1974, United States🇺🇸 SPOOKY: To Serve Man A stone cold classic, not without some flaws. So the biggest highlight for me is how it’s shot. It’s got a very objective view of things, I guess you could say. It’s got a great sense of putting you in the place of the characters and a lot of terror feels like it’s happening directly at you. Not a whole lot of camera trickery. You can feel a lot of the hot miserable Texas heat in this too. The music is also excellent. Minimal and creepy. A lot more experimental sounding than I was expecting. The performances were pretty good too. Again, very naturalistic in how things are portrayed. I do like how we have a character in a wheelchair and they don’t feel like a nuisance because of that, he’s just a wiener with or without the chair. No, my biggest gripe with this is the pacing. Nice slow burn, but when things get crazy, it’s just non stop chaos for the rest of the movie. I need some more ebb and flow. This just became exhausting and a little boring after awhile. Still great, just could have been better. 🎃🎃🎃.5/5  Film 48 The Burning Directed by Tony Maylam. 1981, United States🇺🇸 SPOOKY: Video Nasty Just a well executed slasher. So big highlight for me is how this could have been a Meatballs type summer camp movie, but you just add a crazed killer. Despite the cliche of “scary summer camp” in horror films, you really don’t see too many fun summer camp trips. Sleepaway Camp does it right too, but not even a majority of the Friday the 13ths can pull that off. Another highlight is the blood. If you’re a major gore hound, this is one you should check out. There have been plenty more gruesome kills after this, but this feels particularly gnarly for the time. One little nitpick I have is with the framing device. So it starts with a flashback on how the killer got burnt, but it ends with a classic campfire story. I think it would have been better to start with the campfire bit and frame the whole movie as a spooky ghost story type deal. It doesn’t ruin the movie, but it would have been nice. 🎃🎃🎃.5/5  Film 49 The Haunting Directed by Jan de Bont. 1999, United States 🇺🇸 SPOOKY: Hausu There’s a lot to like, but also this movie is real dumb. First of all, Jan da Bont know how to shoot a film. You add in just absolutely lavish production design and you have one of the best looking horror films. The mansion this takes place in is equally cozy and uninviting. Spacious empty rooms bathed in warm colors. It’s this kind of detachment from others while still feeling like a place you’d want to be. It’s hard to explain, but you can feel it when you see it. The premise is pretty goofy and definitely feels like something from the 60s, though I’m sure the other adaptations of the original story executed it better. You can tell the haunting is equally real and symbolic, but this version too quickly says that this is a spooky ghost house. By the end, it turns into that kids movie Monster House and it’s so hard to take any of it serious any more. Yet again, it’s so dumb it becomes fun. 🎃🎃🎃/5  Film 50 Children of the Corn Directed by Fritz Kiersch. 1984, United States🇺🇸 SPOOKY: Don’t Torture a Duckling Yeah, this one rules. Only real issue is you can feel this came from a short story and it’s stretching it’s run time. Also some of the kid actors kinda suck, but they either give a so bad it’s good or adorable performance so I forgive them. Really like the kid that played Isaac. Little smarmy poo poo, glad he got eaten by the corn monster. So there’s some obvious themes on society and organized religion in this. It’s obvious without feeling like it’s beating me over the head. Well, maybe a little with the corn crucifixion. Love how they keep the supernatural element ambiguous for most of the movie. Ending is a bit goofy with the evil storm cloud in the corn, but they had me with the first 2/3rds that I forgive a little goof. Yeah. Great movie, really zips on by. 🎃🎃🎃🎃/5  Film 51 Cape Fear Directed by Martin Scorsese. 1991, United States🇺🇸 SPOOKY: Origin of Evil Pretty sure this is my first Scorsese, and wow, what a trip. Kinda weird watching this about 20 years after seeing The Simpsons parody. First off, it looks like a 60s film made in the 90s, appropriately enough. It has all those great 60s touches like the dramatic lighting and, snap zooms, peculiar angles, a got danged split diopter shot. Love me a split diopter shot. Pretty sure most, if not all the effects used are from the 60s too. Lots of miniature shots for the house boat. Really, only bad one was the initial fire effect when Cady gets sprayed by the lighter fluid. Everything else looked great. Biggest highlight is the Max Cady character, in both the writing and the performance. He’s one of the slimiest, manipulative, hateful villains in cinema, but goddamn am I drawn to him. De Niro has such an infectious charm that you kinda want to see him win, especially when the Sam Bowden character starts losing his cool and becomes deranged. Cady though? Keeps his cool through the whole movie. Only nitpick is the end. It feels a little looney tunes at times, but it doesn’t ruin it. It’s a heightened film, so it’s not too immersion breaking. 🎃🎃🎃🎃.5/5
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Nov 1, 2021 05:31
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OCTOBER CHALLENGE 2021 RECAP First off, thank you, Franchescanado, for organizing this. Second, and just as important, thank you to everyone who participated. I loved bouncing off of other posters, getting recommendations from your reviews and seeing subsequent opinions on things that I brought to the thread. Third, a pat on the back for myself. I completely shattered my goal of 31 movies by watching 71, more than double the goal. I am not sure this will be sustainable every year, so I doubt I'll adjust it in the future. I had a lot of fun, but a month feel about the right length. I am looking forward to getting my life back. Can't wait for next year! Favorite Rewatches: Halloween, '80s vampire weekend (particularly Fright Night and the Lost Boys), Ginger Snaps, Carnival of Souls, Tremors, Raw, Night of the Living Dead Best First Viewings: Titane, The Day of the Beast, Teeth, Impetigore, Possession, The Lure, The Exorcist III Worst First Viewings: Wish Upon, Bleed With Me, King of the Ants, V/H/S/94, Smiley, Carnival of Souls (1998 remake) SPOOKY BINGO COMPLETED:  This was extremely tough given that it was dropped halfway through the month and prior viewings were not allowed to count. Some of the categories also seemed pretty narrow (I'm looking at you, Vietnam...). That being said, I did like how it encouraged me to seek out so many new movies with diverse styles and themes. I found some great stuff. This is my first year participating in this thread, so I don't know if the challenge varies, but I'd go for another round of SPOOKY Bingo for sure. Movies Watched: The Ward; Village of the Damned; In the Mouth of Madness; Titane; The Fog; Vampires; Halloween; Swamp Thing; Lifeforce; Doctor Sleep; Gerald's Game; The Serpent and the Rainbow; Fright Night; Fright Night Part 2; Fright Night (2011); Vamp; The Lost Boys; Near Dark; Dagon; Wish Upon; Spring; Night of the Creeps; My Friend Dahmer; Bleed With Me; Wait Until Dark; Night of the Demons; The Day of the Beast; Ginger Snaps; Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed; Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning; The Pit and the Pendulum; Teeth; Someone's Watching Me!; V/H/S/94; The Gorgon; Halloween (2018); Halloween Kills; King of the Ants; Impetigore; Possession; Candyman; A Page of Madness; Phenomena; Trick 'r Treat; The Funhouse; Smiley; Parents; The Innocents; Event Horizon; (various short films); Lyle; Tumbbad; Invaders From Mars; Brainscan; The Lure; Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film; House in the Alley; Def by Temptation; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2; Little Shop of Horrors (1986); Uncle Peckerhead' The Exorcist III; Venom; Carnival of Souls; Carnival of Souls (1998); The Stepfather; Tremors; Carrie; A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night; Raw; Night of the Living Dead
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Nov 1, 2021 05:50
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 #40: Actress Wanted Bingo square: Rung Ron Ok so this is actually a Vietnamese-American movie, but it is a majority Vietnamese language movie, so therefore it counts as a Vietnamese movie. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Actress Wanted was alright. The actor playing the guy was good, and the twist wasn't the most obvious thing they could've done. Although I might've misread where the ending was going. He had two pills, and put one of them in his wife's drink, I thought he was going to take the other? Like, he was never actually going to kill the actress at all. Which IMO would've been a good ending. But then the actual ending preempts that possible ending and leaves the guy's planned fate for himself and the actress ambiguous, which isn't as good, IMO. The biggest weakness is that the main actress isn't great and the writing isn't very strong, so the whole middle bit where we're supposed to see the actress start to really inhabit the role just doesn't really work at all. Actress Wanted isn't terrible, but it could've been a lot better. I wouldn't recommend it.  
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Nov 1, 2021 06:15
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I’m watching one of my final entries right now, but for the moment, here’s another SPOOKY DUMP! Film 52 The Collingswood Story Directed by Mike Costanza. 2002, United States🇺🇸 SPOOKY: [REC] Pretty ambitious for the time, but ultimately pretty bad. So it’s a ghost story told through web cams and video chats, which I don’t even think was a thing in 2002. Like I’m picturing a Zoom meeting in 2002 and it’s horrifying. Anyway, the biggest sin that this found footage style tale commits is not staying found footage. There’s a few moments where they break the format to have spooky nightmare sequence. You had one job movie! The acting is pretty hokey too. Very amateur/student actor vibes. Except for the ukulele guy, he ruled. Best part of the movie. I did like the psychic lady too. Pretty spooky. The story is equally goofy and hokey. Not a lot happens and then there’s a jumps scare. Like, the biggest issue is it being stuck on a computer screen means very very limited points of view, locations, and camera angles. Like you have to be an expert filmmaker to pull this off, and these guys weren’t even close. 🎃.5/5  Film 53 Without Warning Directed by Greydon Clark. 1980, United States🇺🇸 SPOOKY: Spaced Invaders Rambo vs Predator This could have been a really great movie. You got a war veteran hunting an alien that’s creeping around some teens. But nothing happens. There’s some great actors here, including a cameo from Cameron fuckin Mitchell, but they’re wasted. Alien looks neat, but you barely see him. Yeah, this review is hard to do because it’s so uneventful. 🎃🎃.5/5  Film 54 Crimson Peak Directed by Guillermo Del Toro. 2015, United States🇺🇸, Mexico🇲🇽, Canada🇨🇦 SPOOKY: Picnic at Hanging Rock Lavish and decadent. A fantastically dramatic and tragic tale. It’s a wonderful movie that didn’t need the supernatural element, but it makes it so much better. Like it’s said in the movie “it’s not a ghost story, it’s a story with a ghost.” First of all, Del Toro never misses. Just the way things are shot and how the story flows is incredible and distinct. Like, using red clay at the house to bring out brilliant and disturbing reds in the environment. Or all the bug violence. It’s weird and I love it. Cast is phenomenal. Tom Hiddleston is a man destined to wear fancy clothes and say fancy words. Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska also perfectly match their roles. I love everyone here. Really, my only gripe is some of the effects. I do like how they did a hybrid of practical and digital. The ghosts are really creepy, in fact all of it was a lot gorier and disturbing than expecting. But the digital bits look a little too fake to me. It doesn’t take me out, but it’s noticeable. 🎃🎃🎃🎃.5/5  Film 55 The Editor Directed by Adam Brooks and Matthew Kennedy. 2014, Canada🇨🇦 SPOOKY: Behind the Screams Real cool movie. It wears its influences right on its sleeve, chief among those being giallo films and Videodrome. I wouldn’t say this is a confusing movie, but it does have a dreamlike haze about it. One of our main characters is the titular editor who is slowly losing a grip on reality. As the movie progresses it becomes harder and harder to determine what is real and not, especially when it’s revealed that even things you take for granted aren’t real. It makes for a story you want to focus on and invest in to try and solve both the Murders and the strange circumstances around them. I will say though the murder mystery isn’t all that compelling. It’s more of a catalyst for the other strange, almost Lovecraftian, elements going on. Visually, this movie is a treat. Very rich colors, almost too rich at times which kinda works for this film. It makes the overpowering moment that much more powerful. Lots of gore in this one. You can tell the people making this really loved Evil Dead and it’s ilk from the 80s. The real over the top and goofy gore pics. I don’t know how to feel about all the nudity in this. There always comes a point in how much nudity is too much and then it starts to feel skeevy. At least we get some full frontal dude nudity in this too and not just full frontal lady nudity. The violence against women can be a bit much. I know it’s a joke on 60s Italian features, and it’s mostly just one unlikable character doing the slapping, but it still made me scrunch my face when it happened. 🎃🎃🎃🎃/5  Film 56 Calendar Girl Murders Directed by William Graham. 1984, United States🇺🇸 SPOOKY: As Seen on TV Nice little TV movie. Barely qualifies for spooktober tho. It’s more of a crime drama, but it’s got just enough little thriller and giallo touches. I really wish they had more of that because it would have really enhanced the movie. You got Tom Skerritt in the the lead role and he’s always great. He plays a real “tired of this poo poo” cop who doesn’t go rogue, but is willing to make the big snap decisions when it matters. There’s not much of a cat and mouse chase as you’d hope in a story of a serial killer targeting models, but the mystery is compelling enough. Some great action too. A van explodes! Yeah, really wish there were more TV movies like this. This was quality. Yet again, with it being a TV movie means no blood or nudity, which also would have really enhanced this movie and put it closer to horror instead of being a giallo-lite. Also, Rip Taylor cameo. Hell yeah. 🎃🎃🎃/5
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Nov 1, 2021 06:16
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New #28: Horror of Dracula (1958) [HBO Max] Spooky Square #19: Picnic at Hanging Rock Released in 1958 but set in 1885, which seems true to the novel, though this adaptation changes a great deal to streamline the story. With a number of characters missing and the geography collapsed, the end result feels a bit small, which is a shame because elements of it are certainly strong. Christopher Lee is magnetic, Peter Cushing is very cool, and the side characters are all well portrayed, even if Jonathan Harker is a baffling dipshit. Similarly, the production design is generally quite nice, lots of well-appointed interiors, though Lee's costume feels a bit hokey. Fun to have seen this, but I don't feel particularly compelled to dig into any of the sequels; rather a notice that I need to see more young Peter Cushing. I think that's going to be my last one of these, but seems a good place to stop since that's a third bingo. 
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Nov 1, 2021 06:44
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 Bubba Ho-Tep, 2002 Elvis Presley, played by Bruce Campbell, didn't die on the toilet, an Elvis impersonator did as the real Elvis swapped places with him to get a break from things. And JFK, played by Ossie Davis, didn't die in Dallas, they rushed him off and died his skin and made his appearances black. At least that's what we are suppose to believe based on what these two old men at a nursing home in Texas are calming about them selves. There's an ancient Egyptian mummy on the loose in the nursing home sucking the soul of the elderly through their anus at night. For such a silly horror comedy premise, this movie is pretty dark and depressing in its portrayal of how we treat old people, sending them off to die all forgotten and ignored. The way Elvis and JFK join together to fight the mummy is so rad to watch, and as I'm at my third six pack of beer, there's no holding back on the waterworks at the end. Don't think I've ever watched this one without breaking up in tears at the end as Elvis is dying and looking up at the stars. There's plenty of great jokes and all, but drat, it hit the feels pretty hard in lot of places.
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Nov 1, 2021 06:58
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And now I'm done! I've completed my 31 movie challenge with 41 movies watched, and a SPOOKY bingo line! (as well as Hooptober 8!) Horror movies are fun. 40. Madhouse (1981) Mary's sister has been locked in an asylum for years... until she isn't, and it seems she's creating a very special birthday party for them! A fun little slasher, quite brutal at times. I've been streaming movies on Fridays from the beginning of 2020, and it has become a running gag that I always feature a movie where a beloved pet dies. It isn't on purpose, it's just a well that writers keep drawing from to raise the stakes without losing characters. This movie, though, takes the cake. It has gruesome kills and a very good boy (bad boy?) helping out. Spooky Card: Video Nasty 41. Hollow (2011) Two couples go to Suffolk to shoot... a documentary? I admit it wasn't entirely clear... but anyway, there's an old tree there with spooky legends that causes couples to hang themselves, and wouldn't you know it, spooky things happen to our 4 characters as their relationships prove to be more fragile than thought. This is a found footage horror movie. The first half just meanders around, introducing us to characters. It's a bit boring TBH. The characters don't seem to be terrible people, so that's a welcome change in the FF formula, but it isn't until the second half that we get to the action, and then it kinda resembles a straight Blair Witch knockoff - off-screen screams, quick camera pans to hide scene transitions, and a bunch of other FF cliches. The core idea is cool, but the treatment it is given doesn't do it justice. Spooky Card: [Rec] And with that, I've also now completed a SPOOKY bingo! I wasn't necessarily trying to complete this, but I guess I did kinda lean into it tonight, I regret nothing. SPOOKY BINGO:  41/31: The Lure, Candyman, Wyrmwood, Malevolent, Vivarium, Three Extremes, Def By Temptation, Fanatic, Kuso, The Pit, VHS94, Blackwood, Shadow Of The Hawk, The Queen Of Black Magic (1981), Monstrous (2020), American Psycho 2, The Nesting, Halloween Kills, Mimic, The Mutilator, The Field Guide To Evil, The Editor, Godzilla Raide Again, Grizzly, The Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb, The Funhouse, Hell Night, Bullets Of Justice, Dr. Black Mr Hyde, The Thing From Another World, Gonjiam Haunted Asylum, Trick Or Treat, Ginger Snaps Back, The Pit And The Pendulum (1961), Lucifer's Women, Death Machine, Bệnh Viện Ma, Ghostkeeper, Night Of The Demons 2, Hell House LLC, Madhouse (1981), Hollow Spooky Card: Hausu: The Nesting, Holiday Massacre: Halloween Kills, Something Wicked This Way comes: The Funhouse, Rùng Rợn: Bệnh Viện Ma, It's Only A Myth: Monstrous, Tales Of The Grotesque: The Pit And The Pendulum, Don't Torture A Duckling: Godzilla Raids Again, Asylum: Gonjiam, Starring Brad Dourif: Death Machine, Horror Noire: Dr Black Mr Hyde, Wild Beasts: Grizzly, They Always Come Back: The Queen Of Black Magic, Video Nasty: Madhouse, A Perfect Getaway: Bullets For Justice, Don't Feed The Plants: Thing From Another World, Behind The Screams: The Editor, [Rec]: Hollow, Tales Of Terror: The Field Guide To Evil, Picnic At Hanging Rock: Ginger Snaps Back, Devil Made Me Do It: Lucifer's Women,
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Nov 1, 2021 07:26
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So the only challenges I didn’t feel compelled to complete were the Vietnamese and Indian films. That’s too much effort to seek out. Any way, DUMP!! Film 57 Dracula 2000 Directed by Patrick Lussier. 2000, United States🇺🇸 SPOOKY: Dead and Buried (R.I.P Christopher Plummer) A lot better than I expected. Very very 2000’s, but I love that poo poo. So this does what I like to call “Simpson’s Storyline” where it starts off as one thing, but turns into another kind of story. It’s real seamless though. It starts off as a heist and eventually becomes kinda like Blade but not as good. I mean it’s still cool, but Blade is a very high bar. It’s a little weird though in the structure that we don’t get introduced to our main heroine until like 20 minutes in. Gerard Butler is an okay Dracula. Not my favorite, but he vamps (heh) pretty good. No, the real acting highlight is Christopher Plummer as Van Helsing. He’s giving it his all in this goofy movie. Our main pair in Simon and Mary are kinda bland, not terrible but not that great either. They’re just kinda there. Again, very 2000 in house this looks. You got a lot of light in the dark scenes, flashing lightning effects, snappy editing, sick Kung fu, nu metal soundtrack. It’s pretty nostalgic for me and I love it. 🎃🎃🎃.5/5  Film 58 The Exorcist Directed by William Friedkin. 1973, United States🇺🇸 SPOOKY: The Devil Made Me Do It It’s incredible how this can feel so grand and so personal at the same time. Like the fate of all of our souls feels like it hangs in the balance of this one crisis of faith. So acting across the board is stellar. It’s a very emotional horror film. Linda Blair is pulling off an incredibly difficult performance portraying both an innocent child and a possessed hell spawn. Ellen Burstyn breaks your heart as a mother desperate to help her daughter. Then you have Jason Miller as the foundation who has to go through the most difficult struggles. Just exquisite. I love how this is paced out too. And shot. Though, I did watch the Director’s Cut and I wasn’t that happy with the changes I noticed. So the movie does a good job of escalating things slowly. An odd happening with the ouija board, Reagan feels ills, things get worse, until it’s full on pea soup time. It also leaves you guessing wether this is actually the devils work or not all the way up until the end. In fact, you could almost make an argument that there never was a demon. It’s all the belief of something that lead to these occurrences. Doesn’t quite add up, but there’s just enough to cast doubt. I wanna talk about some of the scares, because the most disturbing and upsetting moments aren’t the possession parts. It’s the mother begging the doctors to help. It’s the cold and clinical medical scenes. It’s the quiet moments with the Father struggling with his faith. It’s an absolutely brilliant film that only doesn’t get full marks because of the dumb Pazuzu face in the directors cut. 🎃🎃🎃🎃.5/5  Film 59 The Exorcist III Directed by William Peter Blatty. 1990, United States🇺🇸 SPOOKY: Starring Brad Dourif So first of all, not quite as good as Exorcist, but few films are, but it’s way better than it should be. It’s about 15 years after the first movie and we’re following the detective who was a minor character in the first, originally played by Lee J Cobb and now played by the always incredible George C Scott. A serial killer has returned and seems to be connected to the late/possibly missing Father Karras of the first film. As I said, George C Scott is always amazing. He knows exactly when to go all out and when to barely go above a whisper. And then he’s surrounded with all these other great actors. His rapport with Ed Flanders as Father Dyer is so genuine which makes it so much more heartbreaking when things go bad. I did watch the directors cut, which unfortunately means that all of Brad Dourif’s incredibly creepy scenes were in terrible VHS quality. The quality of the acting was thankfully uneffected. I do enjoy how it was visually tame but still gruesome. All these horrific murders are described in great detail, but they don’t show all that much. The scene with all the blood in the little cups is so messed up for being so simple. This one does get more explicitly paranormal than the first. It can feel a little goofy at times, but it still produces some incredible scares. 🎃🎃🎃🎃/5  Film 60 The Blob Directed by Irvin Yeaworth. 1958, United States🇺🇸 SPOOKY: They Always Come Back This is so archetypical of horror b-movies that’d I’d think it was a parody if it wasn’t the one to set the archetypes. You got the dead simple plot of an alien glob who attacks and eats everything and the oldest teenagers trying to save their little home town from it. You really don’t need anything else. You could definitely mine some kind of subtext from this, the blob being a stand in for consumerism or communism or any other -ism, but it’s not needed. You got blob, it eats, it hates cold, you good. In fact, everything about this movie is rock solid. Nothing really stands out as being exemplary in its field, but it’s never really a mark against either. I’m not saying any of it is unremarkable, but it’s incredibly fundamentally sound. One absolutely highlight though is the blob effects. It looks and moves real good. The light catches it just fine and it looks just unpleasant enough. There was a definite danger of it looking like a delicious gelatin treat. Also, awesome theme tune. That’s going right into my playlist. 🎃🎃🎃.5/5  Film 61 American Psycho Directed by Mary Harron. 2000, Canada🇨🇦, United States🇺🇸 SPOOKY: Femme Fatale So I know there’s a lot of interpretations and discussions on this one, so let me have a crack at it. So right at the start, Patrick Bateman tells us that he doesn’t exist, he’s just an idea. Well I take that to mean he no longer is an individual. He’s carefully crafted his life to match his coworkers and the ideal of a Wall Street hot shot. That explains why no one remembers his name. He’s become indistinct, another cog in the works. But that conflicts with his narcissism and need for success. He has these violent and sexual thoughts as an outlet for his frustration of being unrecognized. I don’t think most of what we see is literal, but just his fantasies, though I do think some of it is real. Namely, the first scene with the sex workers. He wants this to be real to take control of his ultimately meaningless life full of meaningless things and meaningless gestures. He’d love to be famous or infamous, but even in his fantasies everything gets covered up or just simply that’s the reality of his existence coming in. Or you know, something like that. On the more technical side, Christian Bale is captivating. The way he’s able to flip from cold and uncaring to absolute lunatic is astounding. I also love how he delivers the little rants he has. It sounds like he’s remembered magazine articles of these popular bands he’s supposed to like instead of actually forming an opinion on them. He’s also surprisingly hilarious. It’s an amazing performance. The direction is also top notch. In the wrong hands, this could have been a glorifying film of a terrible life. Mary Harron is able to perfectly portray Bateman’s pathetic life as one to be pitied, not aspired to. A still great film that will stay great as long as scummy, corporate shells exist. So forever. 🎃🎃🎃🎃.5/5  Film 62 Black Sabbath Directed by Mario Bava. 1963, Italy🇮🇹, France🇫🇷 SPOOKY: Tales of Terror Just a solid anthology film. I did watch the AIP edit, which I think flows better. The Italian one has the long part sandwiched between the smaller ones. The AIP edit saved the long segment for the end. The three segments are all good and creepy. The first one is a spooky ghost tale that may not even have a ghost. The second is about a long lost lover back for revenge. The last is vampires. All three segments plus the wraparound are directed by Mario Bava, so it’s very consistent is look and tone. Most of the stories aren’t outright scary, but are all creepy and spooky. I do love the 60s Italian look of it all. Great use of lighting throughout. Performances are alright. It was great seeing Boris Karloff. He’s always a delight in any film he’s in. 🎃🎃🎃/5
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Nov 1, 2021 07:46
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 - (138). The Blair Witch Project (1999) Written and directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez Bought on Amazon Prime One of my absolute favorites. I remember seeing this in the theater, I remember this being one of the first bonding moments for me with my college roommates, I remember a girl. Its a movie I love and feel a connection to and since I had been burning through both rewatches and found footage I had decided for awhile that I was saving this for Halloween and it was worth a purchase and everything. Blair Witch might not be the first found footage but its definitely an OG and the one that really set off the wave and also the whole viral marketing thing as we know it. The marketing campaign is kind of hard to make sense of if you weren’t there. From the faux documentaries on the Sci Fi channel about the made up Blair Witch legend to a website set up presenting all the characters and events as real with full investigations and baby photos of the missing parties and everything to even the IMDB entry listing the actors as dead. Its kind of insane and it would never work on today’s internet. Google, Wikipedia, Twitter, Youtube. There’s a zillion ways to get to the bottom of rumors and stuff now. People share leaked footage and spoilers and everything else and debunk stuff within hours. But back then? The internet was a mystery of new information and holy poo poo it was an effective game. I’m not sure I actually believed it was real, but it was all exciting and weird and confusing enough to get you wondering. But I removed from all that I just love the movie. Its really an excellent blueprint for found footage with the first stages of introducing the characters to us while also introducing the story and important future clues to the gradual breakdown of the group as their situation wears on them, they start pointing fingers, and everything escalates. The balance of spooky stuff that happens off camera and out of convenient full screen sight but is instead sold by the actors and their fear. The simple little creepy totems and things left behind for the crew. Not jump scares or effects, just the psychological beatdown of being so out of control, so lost, and so confused. Dread. The fear of the unknown. That’s the stuff. Love the film and am very glad I held it for Halloween and even happier I finally purchased a copy so I can revisit it again soon. And I’ve really enjoyed my run through some of my favorite found footage films. A much maligned sub genre and like all sub genres there’s plenty of bad and derivative films. But when it works I think it has real impact getting you sucked into the story on a level you can’t in a traditional film. Blair Witch is definitely on my pantheon if not sitting on the throne. Love it.  - (139). Trick ’r Treat (2007) Written and directed by Michael Dougherty Watched on HBOMax I have a strange relationship with this movie. I long thought I had seen it and didn’t care for it, then I watched it last year and not only felt completely unfamiliar with it and like it was a first time watch but I really liked it. So I was kind of excited to rewatch it here at the end of the month and… I dunno. Oddly again I didn’t really remember it. I remembered a bit more but not really much of it. And I didn’t super like it. I dunno. It came off a little too mean and overly proud of itself. There also felt like a rough undercurrent of that bad early 2000s humor especially with the uncomfortable “r slur” character angle of that kid story, which I actually thought was my favorite part of it? But man, it just kind of made me squirm tonight. I don’t know. Different time and place? Last year was very rough as a whole for everyone and personally with a lot of stress in October, and Trick r Treat kind of surprised me and put me in the Halloween mood about a week before the end. This year I was feeling that mood much more and already there and got my bump a week ago and saved this for Halloween night. So basically opposite setup and expectations and maybe that made a huge difference. But it just really didn’t click for me tonight. The interweaving of the stories felt kind of disjointed to me and like I said, the humor just hit bad with me this time. Too mean, too edgelordy or dude bro or something. I dunno. Just didn’t hit for me at all. Still I didn’t hate it and it had its moments. And its hard to shake that I did really like it last year. I guess I revisit again next year with a whole new set of expectations in a rubber match? I dunno. Probably not the way I would have liked to end my Halloween but you don’t always get what you want. And even if its not totally my thing or didn’t really click with me its still got tons of Halloweeny vibe and made me eat some candy. So not all bad. Still with the season. So hey. Its ok. So that’s it, that’s my Halloween. Had fun as always, completed 3 of my 4 challenges. Racked up an embarrassing number of movies. Barely avoided burnout. Feeling good about just doing whatever the gently caress I want tomorrow. I guess i gotta do a wrapup but I’ll do that tomorrow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CafQsKXVb-w&t=18s 🎃Halloween 2021: Hooptober Ocho and Spook-a-Doodle HalloweeNIT ’21🎃 Hooptober Ocho: 39/39; HalloweeNIT: 31/31; Svengoolie: 13/26; Fran’s SPOOKY BINGO: 36/36; Watched - New (Total) 1. The Funhouse (1981); 2. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988); 3. Eden Lake (2008); - (4). Halloween (1978); - (5). The Purge (2013); 4 (6). The Company of Wolves (1984); 5 (7). Kiss of the Damned (2012); - (8). Halloween II (1981); 6 (9). Malignant (2021); 7 (10). The Vatican Tapes (2015); 8 (11). Hard Labor aka Trabalhar Cansa (2011); 9 (12). Alice aka Něco z Alenky (1988); - (13). Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982); - (14). Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988); - (15). Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989); 10 (16). Room 237 (2012); 11 (17). Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (Producer’s Cut) (1995); - (18). Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998); - (19). Halloween: Resurrection (2002); 12 (20). From Hell It Came (1957); 13 (21). Fiend Without a Face (1958); - (22). Hostel (2005); 14 (23). Sea Fever (2019); 15 (24). Tales from the Crypt (1972); - (25). The Shining (1980); - (26). V/H/S (2012); - (27). The Mummy (1999); - (28). 30 Days of Night (2007); 16 (29). Blood Moon (2021); - (30). V/H/S/2 (2013); 16 (31). Jakob’s Wife (2021); 17 (32). Terror Train (1980); - Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021); 18 (33). King Kong Escapes (1967); - (34). V/H/S: Viral (2014); 19 (35). Horror Express aka Pánico en el Transiberiano (1972); - (36). 28 Days Later (2002); - (37). Arachnophobia (1990); 20 (38). Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021); - (39). It Stains the Sands Red (2016); 21 (40). V/H/S/94 (2021); - (41). The Mist (2007); 22 (42). Humanoids from the Deep (1980); 23 (43). Hell Night (1981); 24 (44). Head (2015); 25 (45). Black as Night (2021); 26 (46). Madres (2021); 27 (47). The Manor (2021); - (48). 28 Weeks Later (2007); 28 (49). The Frozen Ghost (1945); 29 (50). Cult of the Cobra (1955); - (51). Friday the 13th Part III (1982); - (52). Child’s Play (1988); (53). Village of the Damned (1995); - (54). The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988); - (55). Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007); - (56). Halloween (2018); - (57). Child's Play 2 (1990); 30 (58). The Wolfman (2010); - (59). Child's Play 3 (1991); - (60). Bride of Chucky (1998); - (61). Seed of Chucky (2004); 31 (62). Halloween Kills (2021); - (63). Curse of Chucky (2013); - (64). Van Helsing (2004); 32 (65). You Should Have Left (2020); 33 (66). How to Make a Monster (1958); 34 (67). The Vampire Lovers (1970); - (68). Cult of Chucky (2017); 35 (69). The Boneyard Collection (2008); 36 (70). Black Box (2020); 37 (71). Curse of the Undead (1959); 38 (72). Time Walker (1982); 39 (73). The Ward (2010); 40 (74). Versus aka ‘ヴァーサス’ (2000); 41 (75). Cult Following (2021); 42 (76). Fran’s SPOOKY BINGO Short Cuts DIY Anthology - Suckablood (2012)/The Tunnel aka ‘Tunnelen’ (2016)/Night Swim (2014)/The Captured Bird (2012)/Conventional (2015)/Doña Lupe (1985)/The Scooby-Doo Project (1999); 43 (77). The Block Island Sound (2020); 44 (78). Things Heard & Seen (2021); 45 (79). She-Wolf of London (1946); 46 (80). The Vault of Horror (1973); 47 (81). Relaxer (2018); 48 (82). Nocturne (2020); - (83). No One Lives (2012); 49 (84). Faust aka ‘Lekce Faust’ (1994); 50 (85). Untitled Horror Movie (2021); 51 (86). Island of the Fishmen aka ‘L'isola degli uomini pesce’ (1979); 52 (87). BloodRayne 2: Deliverance (2007); 53 (88). Evilspeak (1981); 54 (89). Howling Village aka 犬鳴村 (2019); 55 (90). Deadly Blessing (1981); 56 (91). Alligator (1980); 57 (92). Evil Eye (2020); 58 (93). The Skull (1965); 59 (94). No One Gets Out Alive (2021); 60 (95). The Unholy (2021); - (96). I Saw What You Did (1965); 61 (97). Lunacy aka ‘Šílení’ (2005); 62 (98). Tumbbad aka ‘तुम्बाड’ (2018); - (99). Paranormal Activity (2007); - (100). Paranormal Activity 2 (2010); - (101). The Mummy (1959); 63 (102). Scars of Dracula (1970); - (103). Paranormal Activity 3 (2011); - (104). The Black Cat (1934); - (105). The Black Cat (1934); 64 (106). The Creation of the Humanoids (1962); 65 (107). Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972); 66 (108). My Bloody Valentine (1981); 67 (109). Razorback (1984); - (110). Paranormal Activity 4 (2012); 68 (111). Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (1973); 69 (112). JD’s Revenge (1976); 70 (113). Little Otik aka ‘Otesánek’ (2000); 71 (114). Seed (2007); 72 (115). Elvira’s Movie Macabre: The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973); - (116). Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014); - (117). Evil Dead (2013); 73 (118). Juan of the Dead aka ‘Juan de los muertos’ (2011); 74 (119). Trog (1970); 75 (120). The Complex aka ‘クロユリ団地’ (2013); 76 (121). Riot Girls (2019); 77 (122). Blood Diner (1987); - (123). Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015); 78 (124). In Dreams (1999); 79 (125). The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971); 80 (126). Alive aka ‘アライヴ’ (2002); 81 (127). Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin (2021); - (128). Hell House LLC (2015); 82 (129). The Scorpion with Two Tails aka ‘Assassinio Al Cimitero Etrusco’ (1982); 83 (130). The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974); 84 (131). The Purge: Anarchy (2014); - (132). A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984); - (133). The Others (2001); - (134). As Above, So Below (2014); 85 (135). Asylum (1972); 86 (136). House in the Alley aka ‘Ngôi Nhà Trong Hẻm’ (2013); 87 (137). Fran's SPOOKY BINGO Salomé DIY Anthology (The Ouija Board (1920)/The Queen of Spades aka ‘Пиковая дама’ (1910)/The Witch’s Fiddle (1924)/Au secours! (1924)/A Nightmare aka ‘Le Cauchemar’ (1896)/The Telltale Heart (1928)); - (138). The Blair Witch Project (1999); - (139). Trick ’r Treat (2007)
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Nov 1, 2021 07:47
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Sorry for spamming the thread this late into the month with all my reviews. This is the last one for tonight. I’ll share my totals and shorts package in the morning.  Film 63 The Crazies Directed by George A Romero. 1973, United States🇺🇸 SPOOKY: Masters of Horror What a bleak movie. There are no sympathetic characters in this, though Romero does let all the factions present their sides. You come to understand what everyone wants, it’s just that their methods are questionable. I guess it’s a typical story for Romero, which is part of the problem. A lot of similar themes are explored much better in his later films, namely Dawn and Day. The distrust of the government, the collapse of civilization, the hopeless ending. I’d say overall this is an unremarkable film, but not unwatchable. There’s plenty of fun performances and it’s great to see what is essentially the zombie blueprint with a slightly different angle. I enjoy how the infected aren’t monsters, but just greatly troubled people. Probably a strong metaphor for the Vietnam war. Wouldn’t put this one high on my Romero ranking, but still enjoyed myself. 🎃🎃🎃/5  Film 64 BrainScan Directed by John Flynn. 1994, United States🇺🇸 SPOOKY: Video Games Cause Violence This movie is bullshit and I love it. So we got a kid playing a super video game that makes him do murders in real life. The concept is sound, but the execution is off. So the game is not really a game but a hypnosis video, I guess? They really didn’t try to make this seem like a game. Then the mascot(?) of the game comes out and messes with the kid and he’s totally unfazed by this? It doesn’t seem like an illusion because other people can see him. And then the kid has to keep playing the game to cover up his murder, but he really doesn’t have to???? The first two times it makes sense why he plays the game and it has consequences, but I don’t understand why he has to play the game to cover up his tracks. He literally could just go to the crime scene and clean up. The game doesn’t give him super powers or anything. It’s kinda implied that the kid has a bad knee and if they expanded on that it’d make sense why he’d play again. Like, if he was in a wheel chair or even had a knee brace I’d believe he’d need to keep playing to escape. And then the ending is another big old heap of B.S. that raises a million more questions. Now despite all of that, I still liked this. Soundtrack was really good, featuring a lot of rock and metal bands of the era. Really loved T. Ryder Smith as the villainous Trickster. Edward Furlong was alright too. And Frank Langella is here! It moved along at a quick pace and I never felt bored. It was just really dumb but fun. 🎃🎃.5/5  Film 65 Def by Temptation Directed by James Bond III. 1990, United States🇺🇸 SPOOKY: Horror Noire Not too many succubus stories, but this is a great one. First of all, this is a great effort for what is mostly a one man production. Bond surrounds himself with great talent that elevates an already decent story. First of all, Ernest Dickerson’s cinematography is superb. There’s plenty of strange but appealing angles here, with tons of moody and colorful lighting. It makes for a very fun watch that you can’t look away from. Music is real good too. Both the score and some killer hip hop tunes. On the other side of the camera, there’s some really nice performances. I especially like the relationship between Joel and K and the dialogue they have throughout. It’s very loose and natural and feels conversational. Maybe the weakest part is the story. It’s got some definite highlights, some themes about sexual diseases like AIDS, matters of faith, and men being creeps on women. The issue is it feels pretty loose and gets weird out of left field sometimes. It’s enjoyable, but not great filmmaking. Highly recommended. Shame James Bond III never wrote or directed anything else. This showed a lot of potential for a follow up, if not a proper sequel. 🎃🎃🎃🎃/5  Film 66 Ticks Directed by Tony Randel. 1993, United States. SPOOKY: Wild Beasts This one really surprised me. I fully expected this the be a cheap and gross monster movie with blood and boobies and really inappropriate jokes, but it’s actually very emotional and thrilling…with still a lot of blood. So it follows a group of troubled youths going on a camping trip to bond and learn lessons and have some fun. Among them are two very notable actors, and my two favorite characters in this film, Seth Green and Alfonso Ribeiro. Green is essentially the main character, but doesn’t do too much. He’s a very anxious kid that has to learn to conquer his fear of the wilderness and open spaces. Ribeiro is the heart of this film. He has two very emotion scenes that made me cry a little. This is a movie about ticks mutated from the fertilizers from Clint Howard’s weed farm! I’m not supposed to be crying! On the more fun and gruesome side of things, the effects on the ticks is excellent. The look so gross and they splatter so good. The effect of them crawling under skin is particularly gross and I love it. There’s also some great fire effects in this during the climax too. I watched this from the new UHD release and it is a fantastic looking film. Don’t let your preconceptions fool you, this is such a great and definitely overlooked film. 🎃🎃🎃🎃.5/5  Film 67 The Last Matinee Directed by Maximilliano Contenti. 2020, Argentina🇦🇷, Uruguay🇺🇾 SPOOKY: A Perfect Getaway Horror and cinema go hand in hand, so every time there’s a spooky movie about spooky movies, it’s a double win. When it’s good, like with this one, it’s really good. It’s a dead simple premise. A weirdo killer locks a bunch of people in a movie theater and he kills them. The reason? I dunno. Dude’s a serial killer, he don’t need a reason! All we know is he loves eyeballs. Visually, this is heavily inspired by giallo. It’s so bright and colorful, but it also has the other visual touches other homages ignore. You got black gloves, eye violence, those cool slow mo twisty zooms, all that good stuff. The cast of characters is like the perfect batch of people you’d expect to be at a midnight movie type of screening. Annoying teens, a couple on a date, a kid who snuck in, the usher and a weird eyeball man. Our hero though is a projectionists daughter who doesn’t want to be there. There’s a bit of story for her about her dad’s health, but not really. In fact, that’s my only real flaw with this is that it’s very direct. There’s not a lot of subtext or themes in this. Just a weird eyeball man! Still a lot of fun and well worth seeking out. 🎃🎃🎃🎃/5 How appropriate that my last feature is called “The Last Matinee” very fitting.
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Nov 1, 2021 08:31
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 Evil Dead II, 1987 Think I'll cut off the marathon at the here. When I start taking little beer naps and have to rewind, I probably shouldn't push it further. The second Evil Dead is pretty much just a retelling of the first, only way more focus on comedy and being over the top. If the Three Stooges had kept going, just replacing actors as they got old or died off, Bruce Campbell would be one of them. The slapstick comedy is perfect, the over the top blood and gore is perfect. You see just about ever shade and color of blood except from actually blood red. Partly to get past censures, partly to give this film a cartoony look. This is a great movie to end the marathon on. I'll rank all the movies I watched though October tomorrow when I'm sober. Happy Halloween.
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Nov 1, 2021 08:53
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22) A Page of Madness (1926) Teinosuke Kinugasa  SPOOKY BINGO: Salomé I've watched a fair few silent films, including a lot of the classic horror silents, but I still wasn't quite expecting what this film is and how it tells it's story. This film looks amazing, and that's a good thing as there are no intertitles - the entire story is told visually. It's a bit jarring at first as there are frequent shots of people speaking where normally you would have an intertitle, but you soon accept that you're supposed to just infer what they're saying by the visial storytelling. I will admit that as I wasn't quite expecting this approach I don't think I was in the right headspace at the time to properly go with it. It lost my attention a few times - which again I don't think was actually the fault of the film but rather me. I wouldn't be surprised if I watched it again, hopefully a proper release and not the YouTube version, I'd enjoy it a lot more. But for this first watch I'd have to give it: 7/10 23) Doctor Sleep (Directors Cut) (2019) SPOOKY BINGO: Based On The Novel I was pleasantly surprised by this one! Making a sequel to one of the best horror films of all time seems like it will only end in disappointment, but I liked this a lot I think this film is at its best when it's telling its own story, as soon as they directly go back to the events of The Shining it instantly pales in comparison. Which is not a knock against Doctor Sleep, really, it's just that The Shining is an impossibly high bar to beat. Ewan McGregor and Rebecca Ferguson both put in excellent performances. I'm not totally convinced by the actors they got to replace the original actors of The Shining, though. I mean it's basically impossible to live up to Jack Nicholson, Shelly Duvall and Scatman Crothers, but at the same time I'm happy they recast the roles rather than do some terrifying CGI versions. I watched the director's cut and the three hours really didn't feel that long. Looking at some of the scenes that were added I don't think I'd ever want to check out the theatrical cut. 8/10 24) Kwaidan (1964) Masaki Kobayashi SPOOKY BINGO: Tales of Terror Four Japanese ghost stories told in an anthology format over three hours. The stories themselves are fairly straightforward, which is fine because the anthology format of the film means they never actually overstay their welcome. If anything, it almost reminds me of a Japanese version of the Twilight Zone (in a very good way). The stand-out story is obviously the third one: "Hoichi the Earless", but I don't think any of the stories are bad. It does have very slow pacing; the first story in particular has a lot of set-up before the actual first part of the story. The whole film is three hours long, and I definitely felt that time a bit more than with Doctor Sleep. But the most important thing about this film is how it looks. I don't think I've ever seen a film that looks quite like this? Everything is shot on sets, that are created with a deliberate level of artifice that makes it seem like an insanely impressive stage play, complete with beautiful but obviously hand-painted backdrops. In a way, the fact that they're so obvious about it being shot on a soundstage makes some parts even more impressive. The opening of Hoichi the Earless consists of a large navel battle, with ships floating on the water. If something like that had been shot on location it would have still looked good, but the fact it was all shot on sets just breaks my mind wondering how they pulled it off. I watched this on the recent Masters of Cinema blu-ray and it looked amazing, I'd recommend seeing it in the best quality possible. 8/10 25) Room 237 (2012) Rodney Ascher SPOOKY BINGO: Behind the Screams One of the most amazing things about art is that as soon as a peice of art is given to an audience, it's totally out of the artist's control how that audience receives and interprets it. As such, seeing how different people read a film can be really fascinating, and can highlight themes and messages the artist did not intend. But gently caress this film, though. Several different interpretations of the The Shining are given throughout this film from several different people, with a wide range of views on what The Shining 'means'. And that's mostly fine, but the thing that made me mad about this film is how all of them - every single one of them - refuse to actually engage with The Shining as a peice of art separate from the artist. All of the theories are presented as hidden meanings that were 100% intentional by Stanley Kubrick and it's only because the person with the theory is so clever and smart that they understood what Kubrick was thinking when they made the film. Like, there's a section where someone is talking about the first interview scene in the hotel manager's office, and how small elements can make the scene unusual and unsettling. And a lot of that is actually valid, interesting things to point out, but the whole thing is then framed as something that Kubrick definitely meant and intended and it's only because they're so clever that they cracked the code and if Kubrick was still alive they'd definitely agree and become best friends because they're so clever. Like, just analyse and read a film without trying to suck up to a director that's been dead for 20 years! But also gently caress the fake moon landing guy. They should never have let that guy on the film, I don't think he's mentally well. Ugh. 3/10
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Nov 1, 2021 09:41
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 32.) Tammy and the T-Rex (1994) [[  Wild Beasts]]A very silly (and bloody, if you have the right version) comedy where a mad scientist transfers a young high-schooler's brain into a robotic t-rex. This teenage t-rex then wreaks his revenge on the bullies who put him in the hospital and those who took advantage of him from there. As others have already pointed out, this is the Iron Chef of filmmaking. Someone had access to a animatronic t-rex model for the week and the rest of the movie spun out from there. Most of the jokes and gags work well enough. Whenever Dr. Wachenstein, the mad scientist, is around it's a treat. The t-rex's ridiculous puppet hands are by far the best part of the film. The t-rex model isn't too mobile, fastened to a platform at its feet, and a lot of the camp comes from the filmmakers trying to work around that. Unfortunately, Paul Walker's Michael (who is very quick to kill in his new body) gets his bloody revenge on the arch-bully Billy and his gang about half-way through the movie. After that it sorta loses its way. The rest of the film is keeping Michael a secret while finding him a new body, but it feels like padding. At least the funeral scene was great. The final scene overstays its welcome and leaves things on a bit of a sour note. Great first half, weak second half. Also, Denise Richards' character has a Golliwog doll and that's yikes. "This is just a bad day for everybody." 3/5 33.) The Blair Witch Project (1999) [[ Behind the Screams]]Stories about desperation, where you're weaker and worse off today than you were yesterday, really get to me. Our characters get lost in the woods, and the woods aren't playing fair. I wish I had seen this in theatres, with a proper surround-sound system, but perhaps the other patrons would have ruined it. Watching it at home, I didn't get scared, but the ending did make my heart beat and the genuine fear in the actors' eyes got to me. Not a lot happens in the film, but it flew by. Not only is this a spooky story about a spooky situation, what impresses me just as much is how this film was made. Much has been written, but in short the actors stayed in character the whole time and reacted to the production crew messing with them at night and received written character notes and plot beats in the morning. Otherwise the cast was completely alone, cold, underfed and agitated with each-other. Because of this all the emotional beats are half-real, and I think their efforts and experiments paid off. No wonder it sparked a whole genre movement. All the segments with the locals are great too. I really liked the two quarrelling fishermen. They seemed like real people - not actors and not amateur actors either. I wonder if there's been a reality TV show like Alone, except the navigation equipment is tampered with and the contestants are toyed with at night. I'd watch that. "We'll all look back on this and laugh heartily, believe me." 4/5--- And that's it!  I accomplished all my goals: - Watched and wrote about 31 films (33, all of them new)! - Made custom animated GIFs for each of them! (Album here!) - Completed four lines on the Spooky Bingo card (as long as you count the Silent Hill game series as an adaptation of Jacob's Ladder)! - Took a massive chunk out of my shame list! - Had fun! - Proved to myself I'm not a poser!(?) Thank you to everyone who participated and Franchescanado for organizing!
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Nov 1, 2021 09:58
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Halloween Horrorthon Megapost #43. Friday the 13th Part 2 Last year I came around to appreciating the Friday the 13th franchise, so I decided I'd go back to a film I kinda rejected when I first saw it as a teenager, but is considered by many aficionados to be the best or at least among the best of the series. Five years after Pamela Voorhees murdered a bunch of teens at the former Camp Crystal Lake, her simple, disfigured son Jason still lives in the woods, a single-minded psychopath. Elsewhere on the lake (though clearly not far enough away), another camp holds a training workshop for counselors, and Jason is ready and willing to take up his mother's work. So this is the formal debut of Jason-as-killer, though he still doesn't have his iconic look- he wears a bag on his head with one eye cut out, like a baldknobber, and the glimpse of him we get sans mask is more a monstrous hillbilly than anything since. The film mostly plays as straight horror, and it's still not really scary; almost all of Jason's kills are of the quick-and-bloody variety, he's just suddenly right behind you and that's all she wrote. So the formula's already in place, scenes of mundane teenage behavior punctuated by gory kills. And yet, this worked for me. It moves at a very good clip, the characters are mostly believable, and there's still plenty of atmosphere (the first film's saving grace)- it's all about the spooky woods and the lake and the legend that's been growing. The Friday the 13th movies always had this savage aura around them and I think the environment adds a lot to that. I also like one subversion of the traditional formula here- a whole bunch of the teens, including the default "goofy" guy you assume is gonna buy it, go into town to get drunk and party, stay when the final girl and her boyfriend go back, and thus are spared the massacre completely. For once debauchery pays off! My one complaint is the ending, which tries to one-up the final scare and twist of the original, but ends up being just kinda vague. Oh well. #44. The Sentinel (1977) I'd been wanting to see this one for a while- I first heard of it via a reference in The Burbs, I saw the trailer a few times, it seemed neat but was hard to track down. It's on Peacock now but it's one of those things where you still get ads even at the highest paid tier, even though this is a movie Universal made and owns and the only ads I got were for other Peacock shows so what's even happening here, is the company just stingy when writing checks to itself, whatever. Alison Parker (Cristina Raines) is a successful model whose yuppie lawyer boyfriend (Chris Sarandon, already typecast as creepy milquetoasts) is trying to pressure her to marry him, but she needs some time apart, so she moves into a small apartment in Manhattan where a blind priest can be seen eternally looking out the window from the top floor. The other tenants are pretty strange too, especially since she finds out there aren't supposed to be any- she and the priest are the only actual residents. Rooms she went to parties at are shown to be vacant and cobwebbed, she starts seeing a lot more things that aren't there, and is also subject to random fainting spells. So from what I can see this film is the result of Universal looking at the box office returns for Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, etc. and saying "Where's our Catholic supernatural blockbuster?" This is based on a novel I haven't read but the way it unfolds feels like it would make a lot more sense in book form, where you expect things to jump around more. Here, we've got what's actually a kind of simple and really cool premise- the building is a gateway to Hell, the other inhabitants are all dead murderers, the priest is a sentinel standing watch at the gate to prevent them getting into our world, and Alison's next in line for guard duty- shrouded in confusion, strange edits, and high pitched performances. Lots of scenes of people visiting priests and professors to translate Latin passages or discuss their lapsed faith and whatnot. The cast is an all star one- the landlord is Ava Gardner, Eli Wallach is a police detective, among the creepy tenants you have Burgess Meredith as a kindly and sinister old guy and Vera Miles and Beverly D'Angelo as lesbian cannibals, they even managed to nab Christopher Walken and Jeff Goldblum before anyone knew who they were. (Goldblum was apparently dubbed, which, why.) The whole thing plays like if The Shining were directed by Irwin Allen, it's very bright and glitzy and Incredibly 1970s. (The actual director is Michael Winner, better known for Death Wish.) I loving love this. The film is so weirdly pitched, so nuts, full of strange seriocomic images and bombastic music (by Gil Melle, who did the electronic music for The Andromeda Strain), it almost gives Exorcist II a run for its money in the surreal horror department. It definitely misses the potential this kind of story has for horror- if it had just stayed in the apartment more and focused on Alison's growing unease and shrinking grip on reality it might actually be just plain classic- but as an attempt to tap into the Elevated Horror zeitgeist of 1977 it's unforgettable. See it now. #45. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre You probably know this one. After a grisly series of grave desecrations somewhere in Texas, Sally (Marilyn Burns), her brother Franklin (Paul A. Partain), and three of their friends head down to the graveyard to see if any of their family's graves were dug up, pick up (and quickly discard) a violent, slaughterhouse-obsessed hitchhiker (Edwin Neal), and then go down to see their old, now-abandoned house. But there's another house nearby, full of bones and remains and inhabited by strange, almost inhuman figures. I went the longest time without owning a copy of this, finally picking up the 2014 Blu Ray earlier this month. It's... a masterpiece. So many grimy low budget horror/killer films came out in the 70s, all trying to shock the audience with the new freedom of the screen and an emphasis on naturalistic horror, but there is just this one film that doesn't hit a false note. It feels raw, authentic, a portrait of utmost depravity where everything is reduced to meat and bone. The first appearance of Leatherface is of course brilliantly done, but I feel like I respond even more to the second big scare, Pam (Teri McMinn) stumbling into a room full of feathers and freely mixed human and animal bones. For all its apparent crudity the film is precisely (and gorgeously) shot, and this time around I really appreciated the minimalist music score, all dull electronic thuds. Just a perfectly calibrated scare engine. #46. The Evil Dead (1981) I normally end on something lighter but heck, this film turns 40 this year, I turned 40 this year, and this is just going to be a perennial favorite no matter what. Five friends head to a cabin in the woods near the Tennessee border, only to find it was previously inhabited by a professor who disappeared after researching a strange book bound in human flesh and inked in human blood. Someone unwisely plays the tape of him reading from the ancient text, awakening some kind of horrible force in the woods. One by one the people are possessed by hideous, sadistic demons, until soon enough only the biggest dork among them (Bruce Campbell) is left to stand against the seemingly all-powerful cackling undead. This film has just got everything I love in a scary story- forbidden tomes, ancient demons, voices calling out "Why have you disturbed our sleep?" and "JOIN US". It's so drat primal, evoking deep unknowable terrors in the dark and to Hell with any subtext. It's also another great example of low budget filmmaking, going for broke on style and covering up any inconveniences like "most of the cast is no longer available" in piles of makeup and goo. There are so many things in here that seem like they shouldn't be, the legendary handheld tracking shots of the dark power in the woods, a bridge destroyed and turned into an upturned claw, shots from the point of view of a demon trapped in the cellar as it taunts the survivors above; Raimi pulled off so drat much, and this was only the beginning for him. The tree attack doesn't entirely work, it brings in a sexual assault element that simply doesn't fit the rest of the film, but everything else? Just unforgettable. It's getting late, I'll write up some final thoughts, but before I forget here's my final bingo card:  HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
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Nov 1, 2021 10:07
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 13. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978): A- I'm sick so I don't feel like writing much in depth. But I wanted to save a never-seen classic for Halloween weekend, and I nailed it. Great flick, even if it sags a bit in the middle. The 50s film felt quite trim in comparison, though neither are exactly zippy. There's a great visual texture to the whole film, with all the natural lighting and tweed and sideburns. Terrific cast doing terrific work. Some wonderfully spun tension. One thing that struck me is that this is more or less exactly how I'd want a sequel to The Thing to play out. In that case I'd want more monsters, of course, but there was oppressive inevitability here that is exactly what I'd imagined based on Blair's computer simulation. Anyway, 13 was my goal and I reached it! I'd wanted to exceed it and watch a bunch of stuff this weekend, but I ended up coming down with a bad cold and not in the headspace to absorb much. But I think this is the first year I actually achieved my goal 
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Nov 1, 2021 12:19
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Congrats, Retro Futurist! 34. Halloween Kills (2021) Spooky Bingo: They Always Come Back No picture; saw it at the movies Perhaps there's more to Michael than meets the eye... or not, maybe there's less. There's a lot to like about the movie. The look of it is perfect; the way Michael moves and the way the camera moves around him is entrancing. The kills are upsettingly gnarly. There are a BUNCH of minor characters in this movie, and for the most part they work and add a lot of pathos to things. Hell, I even came around on the Johns, after they died, and then some other words to make the spoiler less obvious. There's this sense of mounting disbelief, as they all do the best they can, and it isn't working, and the night turns into a total calamity, and the strain of it is awful. Sorta reminded me of the atomic-breath scene from Shin Gojira; the movie just flies beyond your sense of what a slasher-villain is capable of. Several characters make the point that the connection between Laurie and Michael is seemingly one-way; he never gives any indication he recognises her or cares about killing her. The only pattern to his actions is the way he is drawn to his old house-- so in other words, his relationship is to the town. And that's what the movie is, Michael versus the town, and Christ he runs up the score. It was a bit excessive, a bit bloated, a bit aimless. 4/5  And that's a bingo! I got off to a strong start this year, though I was fading a bit by the end of the month. I managed to break out of the recency-bias of the previous challenges, with 14 of my movies from before the year of my birth. I didn't end up seeing as much low-budget schlock as I wanted, and it could have done with some more non-English movies. Did manage to get a couple of Australian flicks in there though. Also, I think this is the most movies I have seen in a 31-day period, ever. I'm gonna put together a heat-map of which Bingo items were popular some time this week. Maybe I'll get a light day at work.
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Nov 1, 2021 12:21
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44) Ice Cream Man /5 Killer Spooky Card: Asylum It's a FRESH APPLE.  I managed to sneak in a little belter of a film on Halloween evening. WATCH OUT CHILDREN signs on the back of ice cream vans has never been so apt. Clint Howard is a deranged mental patient who was tortured in an asylum in order to become the next big horror icon - ICE CREAM MAN. This film hits a weird tone with loads of 90's kid-friendly adventures where they team up to investigate and take down the creep but then things change as the gross-out gags like cockroaches in the rocky road to Howard literally decapitating people left and right and a decent amount of bloody mayhem. Clint has never been so good, he really shines here and the film is full of daft ideas. David Warner makes a pretty tame appearance but it's always nice to see him. The director is more famous for directing EDWARD PENISHANDS, maybe see that next spooky season if I can find a copy...  31 Horror List +Random Films 1) Four Flies on Grey Velvet 2) Knife+Heart 3) Wrong Turn 4) The Reflecting Skin 5) Scary Movie 3 6) Scary Movie 2 7) Scary Movie 8) Haunters: The Art of the Scare 9) House of Frankenstein 10) VHS 94 11) Boys in the Woods 12) The Dark Tapes 13) Edge of the Axe 14) The Empty Man 15) There's Someone Inside Your House 16) Spirits of the Dead 17) Daughters of Darkness 18) Killed the Family and Went to the Movies 19) The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad 20) The House That Screamed 21) Penda's Fen 22) Torso 23) Halloween Kills 24) Venom: Let There Be Carnage 25) Singapore Sling 26) In a Glass Cage 27) Hack-O-Lantern 28) Feral 29) Salome 30) The Mangler Reborn 31) What Keeps You Alive 32) The Bad Batch 33) Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde 34) Willard 35) Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural 36) Prey 37) The Lure 38) Good Manners 39) I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives In the House 40) Wild Zero 41) Saint Maud 42) Tammy and the T-Rex 43) Luz 44) Ice Cream Man I watched all my Letterboxd list which was new films from a bunch of subgenres and with an LGBTQ+ friendly reputation and then a spooky extra 13! Just wanted to thank Fran for once again being cool and organising, spooky bingo was fun I'm glad I got one line! Also well done to all the spooky goons for participating this year. Note that every film I've watched this year I've ran through the ROTTEN APPLES database which will let you know if any major contributor has had any allegations of sexual misconduct against them, something I am going to be using a lot more before watching films going forward. It's not a perfect database but it's a good idea and should be supported. Edit Roundup for Fran, my bingo strike movies were: Hausu: I am the Pretty Thing That Lives In the House Salome: Salome Femme Fatale: Singapore Sling As Seen on TV: Penda's Fen Full Moon: Good Manners Holiday Massacre: Hack-o-Lantern The Hausu Usher fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Nov 4, 2021 |
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Nov 1, 2021 14:14
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2021 October Challenge 64 movies watched, 35 of them for the SPOOKY bingo card Fran Challenge (and four short films) - broke my record of 50 movies watched last October: 1) In Search of Darkness: Part II (2020) 2) Subspecies (1991) 3) Dead & Buried (1981) 4) The Alien Dead (1980) 5) Sole Survivor (1984) 6) The Beast Must Die (1974) 7) Bride of Re-animator (1989) 8) Lords of Salem (2012) 9) Star Crystal (1986) 10) Mutilations (1986) 11) Black Roses (1988) 12) The Day of the Triffids (1963) 13) The Creeping Flesh (1973) 14) Tourist Trap (1979) 15) Tenebrae (1982) 16) The Jitters (1988) 17) Clive Barker's Underworld (aka Transmutations) (1986) 18) Horror Express (1972) 19) Night Life (aka Grave Misdemeanors) (1989) 20) Bruiser (2000) 21) Uzumaki (2000) 22) Shock (1977) 23) H.P. Lovecraft's The Unnamable (1988) 24) Cannibal Girls (1972) 25) Nightflyers (1987) 26) StageFright (1987) 27) Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions (1995) 28) The Slayer (1982) 29) One Dark Night (1983)  Fran Horror Challenge 2021: SPOOKY BINGO filmsThe Devil Made Me Do It -Watch a film that features the Devil, or Satan, or demons 30) Cameron's Closet (1988) Origin of Evil -Watch a film from your birth year. 31) Embryo (1976) Picnic At Hanging Rock -Watch a period piece film. 32) Dead Birds (2004) Spaced Invaders -Watch a film about extraterrestrial life. 33) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) Tales of Terror -Watch an anthology film. 34) Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965) Don't Torture A Duckling -Watch a film that is family-friendly 35) The Addams Family 2 (2021) To Serve Man -Watch a film that predominately features cannibalism 36) Anthropophagous (aka The Grim Reaper; The Beast ) (1980) Behind the Screams -Watch a film about filmmaking 37) The Dead Hate the Living! (2000) Punk Vacation -Watch a film that heavily features punks. 38) Future-Kill (1985) Full Moon -Watch a film by Full Moon Pictures 39) Bad Channels (1992) They Always Come Back -Watch a remake, reboot or a prequel to a film. 40) Night of the Demons (2009) Based On The Novel -Watch a film adaptation of a novel or short story 41) Magic (1978) Video Nasty -Watch a Video Nasty 42) A Bay of Blood (1971) Wild Beasts -Watch a film that features killer animals. 43) Rats: Night of Terror (1984) Horror Noire -Watch a film directed by a Black filmmaker (William Crain) 44) Blacula (1972) Starring Brad Dourif -Watch a film that features Brad Dourif. It can't be a Chucky movie. 45) The Exorcist III (1990) Dead & Buried -Watch a film who had a major contributor (director, composer, actor, producer, etc.) pass away since last October - (Daria Nicolodi, who passed away in November 2020) 46) Deep Red (1975) Something Wicked This Way Comes -Watch a film about an evil carnival, fair, or circus 47) Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) A Perfect Getaway -Watch a film from a country you've never seen a film from (Brazil) 48) Skull: The Mask (2020) Hausu -Watch a haunted house film. 49) The Changeling (1980) Salomé -Watch a silent film that is over 60 minutes long. 50) Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922) Femme Fatale -Watch a horror film directed by a woman 51) Mirror Mirror (1990) As Seen On TV -Watch a made-for-TV film. 52) The Intruder Within (1981) Holiday Massacre -Watch a film set on a holiday 53) Hack-O-Lantern (1988) Tales of the Grotesque -Watch an film adapted from an Edgar Allen Poe story or poem. 54) The Pit and the Pendulum (1991) Asylum -Watch a film that takes place or heavily features an insane asylum 55) Grave Encounters (2011) [REC] -Watch a found footage film. 56) V/H/S 94 (2021) Masters of Horror -Pick an objective Master of Horror. (Dario Argento) 57) Inferno (1980) fear dot com -Watch a film that predominately explores fears about technology or the internet 58) Demon Seed (1977) Don't Feed The Plants -Watch a film featuring killer plants. 59) From Hell It Came (1957) It's Only A Myth -Watch a film that use myths, cryptids, folk-tales, or legends. (The Lost Dutchman Gold Mine) 60) Dark Mountain (2013) Scream, Queen! -Watch a horror film by a LGBQT+ director 61) Knife + Heart (2018) Rùng Rợn -Watch a Vietnamese Horror Film 62) House in the Alley (2012) डरावनी -Watch an Indian horror film. 63) Demonte Colony டிமான்டி காலனி (2015) Video Games Cause Violence -Watch a film that heavily features video games. 64) Arcade (1993) Short Cuts -Watch 60 minutes of short films. Write a review for each one. Curve - 9:51 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dD3Fawk4y0 Other Side of the Box - 15:22 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrOYvVf6tIM Somniphobia - 25:06 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju--srCYxO0 Finley - 25:26 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0641hHG1IQ Total cumulative runtime - 1 hour, 15 minutes AWARDS: Favorite Five: Dead & Buried, Tenebrae, Horror Express, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), The Exorcist III Bottom Rung: A crowded field for sure this year, but these were particularly bad: The Alien Dead, Star Crystal, The Jitters Most likely to be posted to Pornhub: Demon Seed Films with Daria Nicolodi ranked from favorite to least: Tenebrae, Shock, Deep Red, Inferno Best killer disguise: Owl guy from StageFright Best use of tennis balls as a weapon: Black Roses Best Chuck Connors role and screaming doll heads: Tourist Trap Thanks to Fran for organizing the challenge yet again!
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Nov 1, 2021 14:33
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Got four to write out, so they'll be a little shorter. 31. Vampires vs the Bronx Watched On: Netflix Fran Challenge: Horror Noire (Watch a film with themes that predominantly relate to POC) A really charming and fun teenage horror movie. Love of one's neighborhood fighting against gentrifiers trying to bend it to their purposes is still more relevant than ever. Great performances by all the kids, including The Kid Mero  32. The Girl With All The Gifts Watched On: Plex This was a very good movie that I am not going to watch again. We were talking about this in the general horror thread but watching this movie made me realize that one of my triggers is institutional cruelty towards children and this one has it in spades. It is well acted, shot and put together but it is a stone cold bummer. 33. Escape Room Watched On: Amazon A palate cleanser after Girl With All The Gifts. Surprisingly gnarly for a PG-13 horror movie and full of fun twists and turns. Also pivots into one of my favorite movie tropes: millionaire bloodsport gambling! I know it's not likely that Minos will ever be shut down or defeated but you've got to hope. 34. Escape Room Tournament of Champions Watched On: Amazon Watched almost immediately after the first Escape Room. I'm surprised how well this handled the psychological ramifications of surviving a murder game. I'm also very glad that I watched the extended cut because I really liked all of the gamesmaster and his daughter stuff and would have been SUPER pissed if the movie ended with Zoey and Ben being stuck in the airplane escape room after going through all of that struggle. There's a line that needs to be threaded to make this whole situation not feel hopeless and the extended cut manages it. And with that, here's my bingo card! I managed four this year, which was achievable without feeling like work.  1. Prince of Darkness 2. Possessor 3. The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh 4. Death Walks On High Heels 5. Death Wish Club 6. There’s Someone Inside Your House 7. The Devils Rain 8. The Stuff 9. Dead Heat 10. Attack of the Crab Monsters 11. The Wasp Woman 12. Graveyard Shift 13. VHS94 14. Troll 2 15. Killer Klowns From Outer Space 16. Berberian Sound Studio 17. WNUF Halloween Special 18. Arcade 19. Video Nasties 20. Masque of the Red Death 21. Cat People 22. Dolls 23. Day of the Triffids 24. Highway to Hell 25. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 26. Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 27. Deadbeat At Dawn 28. Wolf Guy 29. Perfect Blue 30. A Homestar Runner Halloween 31. Vampires vs the Bronx 32. The Girl With All The Gifts 33. Escape Room 34. Escape Room Tournament of Champions
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Nov 1, 2021 14:59
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28. Boar – Watched on Shudder Spooky Bingo: Wild Beasts A family ventures out to a small town in rural Australia to go stay at the mother's childhood farm with her brother. What they don't realize is that a vicious wild boar the size of a minivan is lurking out in the bush, preying on unsuspecting travelers. I'm not going to say I'm mad at this movie, but I'm definitely disappointed. This could have been a legitimately good movie. All the pieces that it needs are right there. The first thirty to forty five minutes of this movie are just straight-up charming as gently caress. They spend enough time with a cast of small town characters that everyone gets an established personality and all have some enjoyable banter with each other. Had they just stuck to the townies and the family coming to visit, they could have had a great wild animal/rural siege style film, a sort of Jaws-Tremors hybrid. I mean, Bill Mosely and a cast of broad Australian stereotypes plus some pretty good, if not spectacular, practical giant wild boar effects is a pretty great recipe for success. Unfortunately this movie wastes all of that potential by bringing in Nathan Jones (a.k.a. Rictus from Mad Max: Fury Road) to play the giant muscle-bound hero who's going to fight off the boar, and it all descends into some crappy made-for-cable action movie schlock. Instead of a tense struggle for survival by a charming ensemble cast, a la Tremors, we get a hulking behemoth knife-fighting a giant boar's head puppet. Such a shame to waste so much potential. This could have been a cult classic B-movie and instead it's just crap. 29. The Editor – Watched on Shudder Spooky Bingo: Behind the Screams As a series of murders are committed on the set of a giallo in production, the film's veteran editor finds himself the prime suspect. Now, with the walls closing in around him and his sanity starting to crumble, he's got to get to the bottom of this mystery before he finds himself locked up, either behind bars or in an asylum. This one bills itself as a parody of the giallo genre, but it's really a parody of Italian horror in general. Sure, there are shadowy figures in black leather gloves committing various murders, but you also have some pretty direct references to things like Fulci's The Beyond and Argento's Three Mothers trilogy. As is often the case with these sorts of parodies/spoofs, there are hits and there are misses in terms of the humor. For my tastes, though, the hits outweighed the misses, and I enjoyed it. 30. Censor – Watched on Hulu Spooky Bingo: Video Nasty Enid, a censor for the British Board of Film Classification takes her job of reviewing the so-called “video nasties” quite seriously. One day, she's assigned to a film that starts to jog loose memories from the day that her little sister disappeared. The events depicted in the film line up with those memories so closely that she begins to suspect that the director might have been involved, as suspicion that only gets stronger when she tracks down one of the director's banned films and becomes convinced that the lead actress is her sister Nina, now all grown up. This is a solid psychological horror film that makes effective use of the moral panic surrounding the video nasty outrage as a backdrop. Juxtaposing Enid's detached and fastidious approach to the more extreme scenes she reviews in the beginning of the film with her shock at the film that triggers her sets up the viewer for just the extent of her upcoming collapse. I will say that you can see where the film is headed a mile away, but it does a good enough job in depicting that journey that you don't mind the predictable nature of it. While not a groundbreaking film by any stretch of the imagination, Censor is definitely worth your time. 31. The Queen of Black Magic (2019) – Watched on Shudder Spooky Bingo: They Always Come Back Having received word that the man who raised him is ill, well-to-do Hanif brings his family with him to rural Indonesia to the orphanage in which he was raised. Two of his other childhood friends who had left come as well, with their wives in tow. While Hanif and friends go to visit with their ailing father-figure, his children get situated at the orphanage, and are introduced to the story of Murni, a young girl who disappeared from the orphanage when Hanif and his friends were just boys. Soon after, mysterious occurrences begin happening around the orphanage. Could this be related to Murni's disappearance, or perhaps what Hanif thought was a deer that he hit on the road to the orphanage was something else. This is really a spiritual remake of the 1981 The Queen of Black Magic rather than a remake of the story. In the original, the titular queen of black magic is a much more sympathetic character, shown to have been unfairly persecuted by her village, and choosing to take here revenge only on those who had wronged her. Here, the titular character is taking revenge against Mr. Bandi, the man who operates the orphanage, but retaliates against those who are in any way associated with the orphanage, going so far as to slaughter an entire bus full of children from the orphanage. She's a clear villain, and is only revealed as the film reaches its conclusion. The real thread that connects these two films is that both films are about the mistreatment and mistreatment that women face in Indonesian society. In this film, all of the female characters are in some way shape or form targeted in a way, either conventionally or supernaturally, that reflects a sort of common prejudice or crime that target women. I would say that this remake deals with the subject matter in a more thoughtful manner than the original, and is by far the better movie because of it, not simply due to benefiting from advances in film making in the past forty years. This is one that will stick with me for a bit.  And there we have it, 31 new to me films to fulfill my own personal challenge, plus three lines on the spooky bingo. As always, thank you Franchescando for organizing this. It's something I always look forward to.
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Nov 1, 2021 15:06
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And the grand finale. I do hope theses count for at least 60 minutes of shorts https://youtu.be/7K_wkQSM8xM Never Hike Alone A guy goes on a hike, he encounters Jason Voorhees, they fight. Not a lot of content for the length. It also has like 4 false endings which is a pace killer. Jason makeup looks great. https://youtu.be/cbl0DmPR9fo Never Hike in the Snow This one has the opposite problem, too much content in a smaller package. Effects are still good. Not enough Jason though. Would still like to see this guy handle an actual Friday film or just an original slasher. Visually it looks pretty decent. https://youtu.be/PKPmNeZSjf8 Batman Dead End Batman chases the Joker. A Xenomorph attacks, then a Predator. A very well known short film I finally got to watching. Fight was well executed and the costumes were great for its budget. Glad to cross this classic fan film off the list. https://youtu.be/sOnqjkJTMaA Michael Jackson’s Thriller Yeah, never seen the full Thriller video before. The double (possibly triple) fake out is kinda lame, but the story is sound. I think it’d be cool to flesh this story out someday into a feature. It pretty much functions as a musical and I can’t think of many other spooky musicals besides Phantom of the Opera and Sweeney Todd. https://youtu.be/ygSEkwRCQPM Halloween is Grinch Night A sequel to the classic Grinch story, but not as good. Songs aren’t as good, neither is the animation. The plot is whatever too. It’s a spooky night and The Grinch just wants to get spooky! I feel ya man! There’s a couple memorable parts, especially the last song with some very spooky shots. So where does that leave me in spooky bingo? Here’s my card!   And I crushed my 31 goal with 67 feature films, 57 of which were new to me. Crossed a ton of classics off my list. Unfortunately, I didn’t complete Hooptober. I’m just gonna link my Letterboxd account instead of making a long list of spooky films. Thanks you all for the very spooky challenge. Next year I’ll plan out my challenges a bit better. It was hard enough just trying to watch enough movies.
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Nov 1, 2021 15:16
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# 25 FRANKENSTEIN (1931) I was a kaiju kid growing up, so I skipped most of the Universal Monsters. Guilty as charged. The verdict here is that the original Frankenstein is short and efficient, utilizing all its set pieces well and establishing a gloomy mood and getting compelling performances from the lead actors. The little girl being thrown into the lake was not something I remembered and it was quite disturbing. Then I read about the censor boards which made the girl get killed off screen - how silly, that would be confusing to viewers. This scene touches your heart, then rips it out. SCORE: 7.5 *** # 26 BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935) It's great that they got a lot of the same people back (cast and crew) from the first entry, because this sequel doesn't skip a beat. Frankenstein's monster is given a variety of new adventures and people to smack down, running amok in forests and cemeteries. Elsa Lanchester is only briefly in the movie as the bride, but, as we all know, she managed to create an icon regardless. Love the hissing and bird-like movements of the head. Oh... and honestly had no idea the bride would not be romantically interested in Frankenstein's monster resulting in everything exploding. SCORE: 7.6 *** # 27 OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL (2016) A run-of-the-mill studio product, but with Mark Flanagan's talented directing ability. I'm glad he established himself and is able to pursue more interesting projects now. Not much to say on this one, but definitely a crowd-pleaser. SCORE: 7.0 / 10 *** Aaaaaaaaaaaand that's a wrap. Congrats to Suspiria (2018) for taking the crown.
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Nov 1, 2021 15:33
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30. The Funhouse (1983) I was so ready to jump into this thread and refute all the other reviews of this film. Everything about it suggests that it should be fantastic. The setting, the aesthetic, Tobe Hooper. Ultimately, I will not be upsetting the apple cart. All the other reviews are pretty much spot on. Nothing happens in this movie for a solid drat hour. The setting is barely used and even when it is, not well enough imo. There is no funhouse full or deadly animatronics or killer freaks, I guess there are a couple funhouse traps but nothing mind blowing. There isn't even a drat clown with an axe like the cover art suggests. Its basically a group of "teens" stuck in a funhouse with a couple of TCM's cousins who left Texas to hit the road. Now, the best part of the whole movie is, the reveal of and any scene featuring, the monstrous son of the seemingly lead carnie fellow. Great design, ugly and terrifying as heck. But that is really all the positive I got out of The Funhouse. 31. Hocus Pocus Not gonna spend a ton of time on this because I watch it and try to find some new angle to review it from every year. Just a great movie let alone kids movie and with some more serious adult tones than you might expect. If you haven't seen this, remedy that already for heavens sake. 32. The People Under the Stairs This was not at all what I expected but I really liked it. Its equally spooky, strange, and at times downright hilarious. The dog going down the slide and accompanying sound effects had me in stitches. I don't say this often but this is a film that could really benefit from a remake if done correctly, at least from a scary movie point of view. There is no way they could recapture the early 90s hokeyness that provide the humor throughout. The themes of the movie still resonate today and probably more so than ever. Its always jarring when you watch a movie made in the early 90s or earlier and realize not a loving thing has changed in this country in 30+ years. Somehow, horror comedy The People Under the Stairs captures that perfectly with regards to race and capitalism. Most importantly it touches on them effortlessly as its barely spoken out loud just simmering underneath the surface. I sort of hit my goals! I watched 31+ movies but did not get to 35 which would have been a new personal record. Though if you counted the movies that were on when I was black-out on Saturday night I might have gotten there! I also, most importantly, hit a SPOOKY! The few black and white movies represent things I watched before the challenge started just to see how much of my card I covered but none of them counted towards the Bingo. I apologize for my terrible editing skills. 
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Nov 1, 2021 15:40
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#22 The Entity Sidney J. Furie, 1982  Gripping and intense, if a bit overlong. The last act goes in a direction that I can't say I totally loved, but overall I enjoyed this a lot. I loved the way characters on both sides of the issue hold reasonable, good-faith perspectives. It's a thoughtful movie with a handful of great sequences. And enough praise can't be given to Barbara Hershey's awesome performance. 3.5/5 #23 SPOOKY BINGO: Starring Brad Dourif Trauma Dario Argento, 1993  A fairly standard (neo?) giallo. Argento doesn't do much new here, aside from the inspired beheading device. It's overlong and dull in stretches. The small section with Brad Dourif was definitely the highlight. And I've gotta mention how creepy it is that Argento filmed a topless scene of his own daughter. 2.5/5 #24 The Deep House Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury, 2021  This gets one star for its premise. An underwater haunted house. Very cool. Unfortunately the movie does absolute gently caress all to take advantage of said premise. In all ways besides the setting, this is as by-the-numbers and generic as a horror film can be. Zzzzzzz. 1/5 #25 SPOOKY BINGO: Wild Beasts The Boxer's Omen Kuei Chih-Hung, 1983  I always dig Shaw Brothers horror because they seem to go out of their way to make you utter the words "what the gently caress" at least once throughout their runtime. Well, The Boxer's Omen seemed to be on a mission to make me say it once every 10 seconds. And it succeeded. It's by far the craziest Shaw horror I've seen. In fact it's one of the most bizarre horror films I've ever seen. It's absolutely bonkers and entertaining as hell. 4/5  BINGO  25 Films watched: 1. Titane (2021), 2. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), 3. The Lair of the White Worm (1988), 4. Maniac (1980), 5. Maniac (2012), 6. Possum (2018), 7. We Are the Flesh (2016), 8. V/H/S/94 (2021), 9. Antropophagus (1980), 10. The Boy Behind the Door (2021), 11. A Cat in the Brain (1990), 12. Grotesque (2009), 13. Sleepaway Camp (1983), 14. Possession (1981), 15. Faces of Death (1978), 16. Header (2006), 17. They All Must Die! (1998), 18. Censor (2021). 19. Halloween Kills (2021), 20. The Manor (2021, 21. I Spit on Your Grave (2010), 22. The Entity (1982), 23. Trauma (1993), 24. The Deep House (2021), 25. The Boxer's Omen (1983)
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Nov 1, 2021 15:45
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Couple of parting capsule reviews for the road. #38. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (Vudu) After being unintentionally resurrected, Larry Talbot, the Wolf Man, seeks the help of Dr. Frankenstein as a means to get back to the sweet release of death. However, instead he only finds Frankenstein's Monster, and his daughter... which leads to an inevitable showdown between the Monster and the Wolf Man. Threw this on as background noise while people were prepping for Halloween activities, and that's where it is most effective. Best not to pay too much attention to it otherwise; it's a fairly boring talkfest for much of its runtime, and Lon Chaney Jr. is being asked to do not much more than shuffle around bemoaning his desire for death for most of the film. The titular meeting of the monsters is a major disappointment, coming only in the final few minutes and with no clear, definitive winner before everything just gets swept under the proverbial rug (really, the castle and the duo get swept under the non-proverbial river). While not bad when you don't need to focus on the screen, there's also probably other Universal Monsters films that would work better as radio plays when you're in and out of the room. /5 #39. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (Vudu) Mavis convinces Dracula to go on a cruise vacation, as a means to relax and spend more quality time together as a family. However, Dracula starts falling for Captain Ericka, not knowing that she is a Van Helsing and that the whole cruise is a ploy to acquire a long lost weapon to destroy Drac and all of his monster friends. We threw this on for my nephew after getting back from trick-or-treating last night, as a way to try and calm him down; that didn't end up working. Between the fluid animation and the brighter colors afforded by the change in location, I can kinda see why: the original Hotel Transylvania was lively, but this one feels alive and gloriously cartoon-y. It still has the same issues of moralizing over family issues endemic to middling children's movies, and the original voice cast of Adam Sandler and his dumpy middle aged lazy comedian friends is still keeping things from truly singing, for the most part, but this was a lot of fun. I think the adults were even more into it than the sugar-addled toddler. /5 #40. The Manor (Amazon Prime) After suffering a minor stroke, a woman moves herself into an assisted living facility. However, she begins to believe that the staff working there are covering up for supernatural happenings that are killing the residents. I get it - getting old sucks and the American assisted living industry is a nightmare. But I still can't say that the rest of the movie was all that interesting or enticing. Barbara Hershey as the lead is fine, but a little too one note for me; Bruce Davison is the best of the supporting cast but not really around enough to make too much of an impact. The big reveal - that actually it's a few residents being into Celtic witchcraft to kill off other residents and stay alive perpetually and occasionally regain their youth temporarily, with their family members working as staff to help perpetuate the system - seems to not be very well set-up, and kind of a left field choice. Ditto the ending, wherein Hershey decides to say "gently caress it" and take Davison's place in the group of Elderly Celtic Witches And Their Life-Sucking Tree Monster, as that decision seems to not be at all established as a possibility in the story proper, and even contrary to the direction it had been running. (Then again, we were all fairly exhausted by the end of the night and I was borderline ready to fall asleep during most of the movie, so I may have missed something important. The fact that the film wasn't interesting enough to counter any of that is something I'm still going to hold against it.) /5And... that's a wrap for me. If anyone is interested, below is the full breakdown of how this past month went for me. Anything bolded is a first-time watch, anything italicized is a rewatch of a film I haven't seen in at least 5 years, and anything underlined was a first-time theatrical viewing. 01) The Hunt 02) The Fog (1980) 03) The Howling 04) Venom: Let There Be Carnage 05) Curse of the Demon 06) The Mummy's Tomb 07) The Stepfather (1987) 08) Maniac Cop 09) The City of the Dead 10) Halloween (2018) 11) Killer Klowns From Outer Space 12) DeepStar Six 13) Dracula's Daughter 14) Tremors 15) Friday the 13th, Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan 16) The Voices (FC: Femme Fatale) 17) Werewolves Within (FC: Video Games Cause Violence) 18) It! The Terror From Beyond Space (FC: Spaced Invaders) 19) Ghost in the Machine (FC: fear dot com) 20) Halloween Kills (FC: They Always Come Back) 21) Near Dark 22) Actress Wanted (FC: Rùng ron) 23) Def by Temptation (FC: Horror noire) 24) Razorback (FC: Wild beasts) 25) Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (FC: Picnic at Hanging Rock) 26) Various shorts (FC: Short Cuts) 27) Dawn of the Beast (FC: It's Only a Myth) 28) Graveyard Shift (FC: Starring Brad Dourif) 29) The Funhouse (1981) (FC: Video Nasty) 30) House (1986) 31) Slumber Party Massacre (2021) (FC: As Seen On TV) 32) My Soul to Take (FC: Masters of Horror) 33) A Nightmare on Elm Street, Part 3: The Dream Warriors 34) Bram Stoker's Dracula (FC: Based On The Novel) 35) Last Night in Soho 36) The Devil's Rain 37) Hotel Transylvania 38) Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man 39) Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation 40) The Manor And also, I ended up with three completed lines in Spooky Bingo. This was a fun idea Fran, and I'd vote to see it resurrected in some form in another Challenge Thread in the future. 
Class3KillStorm fucked around with this message at 15:25 on Nov 4, 2021 |
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Nov 1, 2021 15:49
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 #19 House on Haunted Hill (1959) First time watch BINGO: Hausu I know this is an old favorite - a comfort movie even - for a lot of people, but it sadly didn't do much for me. No particular knocks against it, but whatever joy others seem to take away never really coalesced. Vincent Price is typically great, and his scenes with Carol Ohmart really pop; the two of them have a very nice chemistry. Elisha Cook Jr. had some nice vulnerability as Pritchard. The rest of the performances felt mostly forgettable. None of the plot really hangs together if you think about it very long, which is fine - it's supposed to be a goofy good time - except that (other than the skeletal marionette), most of it isn't very 'fun' either. I'd genuinely love to hear from some fans of the movie about why they love it. I was disappointed it didn't make more of an impact with me. Star Rating: 2.5/5 Spooky Rating:  #20 Drag Me to Hell First time watch BINGO: Masters of Horror This, on the other hand, I had a blast with. I had always thought this was supposed to be Raimi's 'serious' horror movie, but I don't think such a thing is really possible, is it? You still get talking goats and a literal anvil hanging up for no reason in a bank manager's garage. Two dings - the treatment of Roma people/culture is something you couldn't really get away with for almost any other ethnicity, and the killing of the kitten, while effective, feels just a little too outside the tone of the rest of the movie (although the payoff in the exorcism scene is great). You can see that ending coming a mile away, but that doesn't make it any less fun, and the last shot of Justin Long is one of my favorite endings in a long time. I believe The Gift is the only remaining Raimi horror I still haven't seen. Is it generally considered worthwhile? Star Rating: 3.5/5 Spooky Rating:  #21 Mama First time watch BINGO: Punk Vacation What's that? Punk Vacation? For Mama? You clearly forgot about Jessica Chastian serving up her best Brody Dalle impersonation, and the band she abandons to raise the two girls. As I mentioned under Taking of Deborah Logan, I'm a sucker for seeing Virginia on screen (even if it's usually played by Canada), so I'm stoked to see the venerable Richmond punk scene given some representation. As for the movie itself, I was pleasantly surprised! I feel like this doesn't have the best reputation in horror circles, but I thought it was touching and effective overall. The center of the film are four good performances (including from two child actors!), and while it gets a little sloppy towards the end, the whole thing is dripping with mood and grounded by a compelling human story. The design on mama is very cool, even if the effects haven't aged well (or may not have been great to begin with - it's only 8 years ago). It is pretty obvious, seeing this after both It movies, that Andy Muschietti needs to figure out some new tricks if he's going to keep going - the palette of 'character slowly opens door' / 'thing runs real fast at camera' is already on display here in 2013, and its rarely ever actually scary. Still, a very solid horror fantasy, something I wasn't at all surprised to see Del Toro produce. Star Rating: 3.5/5 Spooky Rating:  #22 Evilspeak First time watch BINGO: Video Nasty I had the vaguest memory of this movie's plot, because it was episode ten of the We Hate Movies podcast way back in 2011. It's mostly a depressing snooze, waiting impatiently to explode in that famous final set piece. One of the most unsympathetic groups of bullies ever put to film, but Clint Howard doesn't really have the charisma to make you do any more than pity him. Nonetheless I cheered for his revenge, and loved the horde of black boars - it felt a little like the movie was paying homage to Pig Blood Blues by Clive Barker. Everything to do with ~ Esteban~ is fun, and it's cool to see where Carpenter Brut swiped their entire aesthetic. Also, credit to a surprisingly great beating heart-rip - a few years before Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Star Rating: 2.5/5 Spooky Rating:  #23 The Strangers First time watch Nah. This just feels like Funny Games played straight. Nihilism is a hard sell for obvious reasons, and this movie doesn't innovate enough on the home invasion formula to consummate its seemingly subversive aims. I can't even really think of anything else to say about it, other than it's shot pretty well and I wish we got more Glen Howerton. Star Rating: 2/5 Spooky Rating:  #24 Dead and Buried First time watch BINGO:Dead and Buried A complete left-field choice I might never have watched if not for the bingo category - and a pretty fun one! Even if my wife and I hit on the twist before the final reel, the script spends long enough dripping out the information that we kept revising our expectations, and had an enjoyable time guessing. It's a shame this didn't do more for Gary Sherman's career, but 1981 was a packed year for horror, and this must have gotten lost in the mix. Shout out to pre-Freddy Robert Englund, and post-Wonka Jack Albertson - particularly the latter for his villainous grandiloquence. Star Rating: 3.5/5 Spooky Rating:  #25 The Howling First time watch BINGO: Full Moon I might be the only person in the world who gets all jazzed to see Robert Picardo's name come up in a movie's opening credits. When I was a kid, I was a weirdly big fan of him as the doctor on Star Trek: Voyager, and he's great here as a hedonistic murderer/rapist/werewolf. It's only fair to judge The Howling on its own merits, but I can't help but consider it in contrast to American Werewolf from the same year (I haven't seen Wolfen yet), and ultimately I prefer Landis' movie on pretty much every axis. I will say I appreciated the unique take on transformation - it looks uniquely unpleasant here - and the overall conceit is good, leading to a blast of a climax, but I think the movie spends a little too much time exploring the colony without werewolves. Really, the best scenes in the movie all take place in New York, and I wish we'd stayed there for more of the run time. Dick Miller comes out of nowhere to steal all his scenes as the nonplussed bookstore owner, feeling like a jaded landlord telling his tenants 'yeah, it's New York, you're gonna get some werewolves'. Star Rating: 3.5 Spooky Rating:  #26 Train to Busan Rewatch I remember when this very forum exploded with recommendations for this movie five years ago, so I assumed I must have hyped it up in my head, and it wouldn't stand up so strongly on a rewatch. Nope! This is, to me, almost a perfect zombie movie, easily the best since 28 Days Later and possibly going back to the OG Dawn of the Dead. The key always seems to be recognizing that zombies should never be more than an extreme circumstance - a device for exploring human drama and social satire, otherwise you get bogged down in 'tacti-cool' nonsense. It's so much faster to talk about what I don't like. The one beat I feel like the movie doesn't quite sell is Jong-gil deciding to open the door and let in the zombies. I get what her motivation is supposed to be, but unlike everything else in the movie, it doesn't quite feel earned or natural. I'm willing to admit though, that considering her previous references to re-education camps, there might be some cultural baggage from South Korea's complex 20th century political history that paints her as a 'certain type' - a short-hand that doesn't play for western audiences that would better set up the decision she makes. Either way, I still love the hell out of this. Star Rating: 4.5/5 Spooky Rating: BINGO CARD  Last five movies and bingo card to come....
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Nov 1, 2021 16:04
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Had a great Halloween weekend for movie watching, not so much for posting but thems the breaks. I watched Trick R Treat, Halloween 3, Candyman, and Bram Stoker's Dracula. In the end I definitely slacked on the posting end of the challenge this year because I definitely watched like 50ish movies but only a little over 30 actually ended up getting logged in the thread. Oh well.
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Nov 1, 2021 16:12
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 28. Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951) This reuses a few bits from The Invisible Man’s Revenge, like using the Invisible Man to win a fight, and the story is very similar to The Invisible Man Returns, but it’s still a fun time.  29. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) Good monster suit. Good setting. Underwater is scary. Good underwater footage, which I imagine wasn’t super easy to shoot in the 50s. I haven't seen a lot of them but this feels kinda like the definitive 50's creature feature. I appreciate how horny the creature is.  30. Revenge of the Creature (1955) Not much really happens in this movie outside the first and last 10 minutes. Mostly this movie feels like they had a few days to shoot aquarium footage and then worked it into a Creature movie. It was kinda fun to see Clint Eastwood in an early bit part.  31. Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955) Fairly standard Abbott and Costello hijinks that pick up quite a bit once they arrive at an actual tomb. The mummy costume in this looks pretty bad.  32. The Creature Walks Among Us (1956) I wish the Gill Man got to do more in this but the ending is pretty good. Gill Man did nothing wrong imo. Perhaps the real monster... is man...  I hit my goal of 31, including the whole Universal Monsters box set, but I was unable to secure a Spooky Bingo. Life stuff happening took a lot of my time this month and I simply ran out of time. Maybe next year I'll have more flexibility in my movie selections and be able to do more challenges.
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Nov 1, 2021 16:22
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(R) 79. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives One last rewatch to close out the month. This is one of my favorites in the series, it's certainly goofier than some of the other ones but I love the opening scene with potato brain Tommy Jarvis needing to make sure a corpse is hella extra dead, and I enjoy Megan mouthing off at her cop dad so much. This was my partner's first time seeing anything in this series besides the first movie, which was a fun way to spend Halloween night. 3.5/5Final Total Watched: 79 // 'New to Me' Total: 59/40 Filled in the entire bingo card, and watched at least 1 'new to me' movie for each year from 1985-2021
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Nov 1, 2021 16:28
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Trick or Treat- (Michael Doughtery 2003) This was a fun anthology film celebrating urban legends and the "spirit" of halloween. There's suburban serial killers, wearwolves, zombies, poison candy, and ghost stories. The last battle of the old man vs. pumpkin boy felt a little long, but it had lots of fun callbacks to other movies (pet cemetery and evil dead at least) Spooky Bingo: Tales of Terror Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper 1974) My first time watching this. This has such a unsettling atmosphere from every character you meet to the house and surrounding area. It is masterful at setting the mood. The kills are so brutal and non-chalant at times. It is really another example of how well low budget horror can work. Weird country cannibals in the backyards of America's ruined homes makes for some great scares. Spooky Bingo: To Serve Man 
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Nov 1, 2021 16:51
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FINISHING THIS UP 26) Chernobyl Diaries (2012) Bradley Parker This feels like someone wanted to make a found footage film about people stuck in Pripyat and Chernobyl but then realised they couldn't think of a justification for people to be constantly filming so just made a standard horror film instead. This one just wasn't very interesting. Pripyat is an inherently creepy place, so you don't really have to do much to create an atmosphere with that. Everything beyond that just feels uninspired and boring, not helped by some incredibly thin characters. Also setting a film like this around an actual real life tragedy where a lot of people died within living memory means it's very easy to come across as tasteless… which this film definitely does. 4/10 27) Tumbbad (2018) Rahi Anil Barve SPOOKY BINGO: डरावनी Saw this one recommend by others in the thread so I thought I'd check it out to get that sweet, sweet bingo space. Very surprised how much I dug this one. I'm not sure how much of the Tumbbad story is based on real life folk tales, but it definitely gives that feeling of watching a story that's been told and modified over generations. This film has a really good, grimy and gross look to it in a lot of places. Some very striking visuals and designs - I think the easiest way to describe it would be that it's very Guillermo del Toro like in many ways. It was free on Prime for me so I'd say it's worth checking out if you have that. 8/10 28) Willow Creek (2013) Bobcat Goldthwait SPOOKY BINGO: [REC] Check this out: A found footage film about people making a documentary about a local forest-based folk tale. The first section of the film involves interviewing the locals to learn more about the legendary creature, but as soon the filmmakers enter the woods they start to hear strange noises when camping overnight and walk in circles. It sounds reductive to just call Willow Creek “The Blair Witch Project, But With Bigfoot” but, well… that’s all it basically is! It follows that formula almost to a tee, and never does anything interesting enough to divert from it. I will shout out one scene, though. There’s a scene while the main couple are sitting in their tent in the middle of the night listening to the crazy noises around them. While it’s another scene taken from Blair Witch, this one is actually really effective. It’s basically an 8-10 minute long single take, where all we see are the couple on camera just… listening and reacting. But the sound design and the acting of the actors manage to make this an extremely tense scene to watch. It’s the best part of the whole film and I wish the rest of it was as interesting. Willow Creek isn’t a bad film. I actually enjoyed watching it mostly. It’s solidly made, the acting isn’t terrible from the two leads, it’s just… go watch The Blair Witch Project again and you’ll probably have an identical but also better time. 6/10 29) Body Parts (1991) Eric Red SPOOKY BINGO: Starring Brad Dourif This was one fun, if a bit cheesy! Jeff Fahey - The Lawnmower Man himself - plays a criminal psychologist who loses his arm in an accident, only to have it replaced with a different one in an experimental new procedure. Surprise surprise, it’s the arm of a serial killer and it’s making him do evil things! It’s a bit of a cliché set-up, but Body Parts manages to make it a bit more interesting. Instead of it just being about Jeff Fahey trying to control his evil arm, it’s actually about the dead serial killer, whose head was actually reattached to a different body, hunting down everyone who got his body parts so he can put himself back together. It’s a pretty crazy premise but it helps keep the film interesting! Brad Dourif plays the person who got the other arm of the killer; a painter who suddenly found success painting dark and disturbing art with his new hand. He’s not as Brad Dourif as he could be here but, hey, he plays it well. Nothing special but I didn’t hate it! 6/10 30) The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) Roger Corman SPOOKY BINGO: Don’t Feed The Plants! I was only familiar with the 80’s musical remake before watching this, so the most surprising thing is how much of the weird and crazy stuff I thought they would have added in the musical was actually present in the original. Stuff like the sadistic dentist and the masochist patient - they’re here too! And one of them’s Jack Nicholson! It’s interesting here that despite the original being a lot shorter, it also has extra characters and side-plots, including a police investigation framing device that doesn’t seem to go anywhere. There’s a lot of good ideas here, obviously, and I think Corman directs it well, but it really does suffer from the fact that every good idea here was done better in the remake. 5/10 31) The Strangers (2008) Bryan Bertino The best thing about The Strangers is that it’s only 1 hour and 25 minutes long, and that’s with about 8 minutes of credits. I don’t know how much longer I could watch Liv Tyler running around screaming while the least scary people in masks just sort of look at her. Every time one of the mask people appear on screen there’s a BIG SCARY MUSICAL STING which does just highlights how not scary everything is. At one point the mask people stop standing and looking at Liv Tyler (and her bland boyfriend) and capture them. “Oh good”, I thought “Maybe something interesting will happen now”. Then I checked the time and saw there was 15 minutes left. And 8 of those were credits. Look I like Liv Tyler. It’s good when Liv Tyler’s in things. But this film was bad! 2/10 Oh well, I wish I could have ended on a happier note but at least I hit my goal of 31 films and got a Double Spooky Bingo! So that’s something! 
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Nov 1, 2021 16:59
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 #93) 幽霊屋敷の恐怖 血を吸う人形 (The Vampire Doll) (1970; digital) A Japanese man returns from America, expecting to find his fiancee, only to be told on arrival at her manor that she's died. But it's not long before he's seeing her face in unexpected places, even when he visits her grave. When he goes missing, his sister and her boyfriend follow the trail to the Western-style house, encountering a mystery with multiple layers. Stylish in that exiting-the-'60s Japanese way, with sharp clothing choices lending things an air of cool amid the horror, and a splash of jazz in the soundtrack. And everyone's very polite as the mystery is investigated, though the fiancee's mother and the groundskeeper maintain a chilly distance. Between that and the wonderful sets, it feels rather like a Japanese Hammer offering. None of the twists are really all that surprising (well, there's a big one that is), but they keep coming, and the acting bolsters their revelations to an enjoyable level. The movie runs fast, but it delivers on its premise, and it has me eager to see the rest of the trilogy. “Kei-chan, remember this cuff-link?” Rating: 8/10
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Nov 1, 2021 17:30
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 #27 Titane First time watch BINGO: Scream, Queen! One of many films I could have slotted under Femme Fatale, but I was definitely affected by the complex take on gender and bodily alienation. My vernacular may not be perfect, and I apologize if I use any outdated or unintentionally offensive terms while talking about these themes. Alexia's transformation was a startlingly effective series of images, and by evoking 'metal' as a sort of nth gender, it really made me feel the sense of wrongness, of invasion, of being trapped in a body marred by appendages and processes which are not one's sense of the natural self. At the same time, this coding of titanium as a sort of intersexual state sheds so much light on Alexia's reactions throughout the film. They are neither male nor female, but titanium, and endlessly frustrated by a dichotomous world which has seemingly nothing to offer them for companionship or gratification. Their fascination with Justine's piercing is a desperate search for someone who identifies as they do. I read their attack on Justine not as an initially homicidal impulse, but a frustrated and tortured attempt, in penetrating her with metal, to enact a sexual impulse that has never found satisfaction or release; it only turns to murder when they are met with horror and revulsion. Far more familiar to me is Vincent's own struggle with dysmorphia, unable to accept the decay of his masculine body that accompanies his advancing age. I have personally struggled with similar feelings; after a day or two without working out, I'm consumed by feelings of shrinking, withering, almost decomposition, that I know are primarily psychosomatic, but nonetheless difficult to ignore. Only when they see him engaged in this fight against his own body does Alexia finally speak to him, or begin to allow themself vulnerability. If there's one thing I find frustrating with the film, it's reconciling the extreme violence of the first act (much of it directed at seeming innocents) with the rest of the movie. Are we supposed to see this as a hyperbolic allegory for alienated rage? Is it a deliberate exercise in stripping away sympathy so that the film can better align the viewer with a prejudiced external viewpoint, before building that understanding back up? No matter what, Ducournau has delivered two absolutely fascinating pictures in a row, and if all goes well, she seems assured of a spot as one of the genre's greats. Star Rating: 4.5/5 Spooky Rating:  #28 Candyman (2021) First time watch BINGO: They Always Come Back I see why so many people were disappointed with this, and it doesn't hold a candle to the original, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It does seem pathologically fixated on explaining itself to a white audience, to its ultimate undoing, but the bones of the movie are solid. In a way it strikes me as a mirror image (ha!) of Get Out, which I thought excelled as a satire but fell short as a horror movie. Candyman feels too hedged and compromised to be politically vicious, but still clips along as a perfectly serviceable horror flick. I particularly appreciated the continuity with the first film, without feeling obsessed by it. The cameos by Madsen and Todd felt like they fell into consistent lineage without dominating the movie, and the multifarious guises of candyman ('he's the whole hive') expanded and explicated on the idea of candyman as Tulpa, rather than wraith. Colman Domingo chews up the scene, even if the first of two climaxes, centered around his character, doesn't quite work. I was utterly flabbergasted to realize Vanessa Williams was reprising her role, having seemingly aged about two weeks in the last thirty years. Star Rating: 3/5 Spooky Rating:  #29 Witchboard First time watch BINGO: Origin of Evil Another movie I selected because of We Hate Movies, this time because they have a live episode on this that I still hadn't watched, and I figured I'd get the background first. I wasn't expecting to be as invested in the two rear end in a top hat male leads as I was. I read that Kevin Tenney was aiming to focus on some real human drama with this movie, and I think he actually succeeded; most of this movie doesn't come off nearly as silly as I assumed it would. That said, the supporting cast is filled with some truly spectacular over-actors. I didn't mind; it certainly helped keep my attention during some of the more predictable plot beats. In the end, this has more than enough charm to make up for its sometimes amateurish production, and I'd give it a light recommend. Star Rating: 3/5 Spooky Rating:  #30 Censor First time watch BINGO: Behind the Screams More than competent for a feature-length debut, but feels unfortunately similar to a couple of other pictures. One, Saint Maud can't really be helped, since the two movies were in production at the same time, even if Maud feels like the more complete film to me. Berberian Sound Studio, however came out nine years ago, and while it's been almost that long since I watched it, Censor felt just a little too much like a rip of that concept. Totally fine, and short enough that I didn't mind the faults, but one of the more underwhelming and forgettable movies I watched this month. Star Rating: 2.5/5 Spooky Rating:  #31 V/H/S 94 First time watch BINGO: [REC] I haven't actually seen any of the VHS movies, and since this is supposed to be one of the worst, I should clearly correct that ASAP, because I thought this was a blast. Mostly. All four anthology segments were a lot of fun. They all hit the mark in their own way, with my favorite being Sewer Drain, for the elegant pace and some bonkers design work. The last segment felt like the weakest, but that's largely because 'white supremacist terrorists' doesn't really land that 'ha-ha' these days, even if the point is watching them trip over their own dicks. That framing device though. Woof. I'd heard Knives and Skin was supposed to be good, but if that's all emblematic of Jennifer Reeder's work, I just lost all interest. Badly acted, badly written, confusingly edited and 100% embarrassing. Enough to hurt my star rating, but not enough to kill the fun. Star Rating: 3.5/5 Spooky Rating: BINGO CARD  I pulled out one sad and solitary bingo, but overall I'm extremely proud of hitting my 31 movies goal. Next year I'll DEFINITELY not wait so long before starting to type up my thoughts, as doing this in bulk starts to get exhausting and saps some of the fun, but it's been a great exercise, and I appreciate all the work that goes into proctoring it. Now I'm excited to read through the thread and dig up some hidden gems for the rest of the year! Leatherhead fucked around with this message at 17:47 on Nov 1, 2021 |
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Nov 1, 2021 17:38
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