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Choco1980 posted:Continuing on my May journey into the weird and obscure... Sometimes I’m jealous of people who gently caress with physical media still because you all seem to have greater access to weird stuff like this. Anyone have any no-budget recommendations that are streaming on shudder/prime/netflix/hulu/anything free?
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May 2, 2019 17:47
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Drunkboxer posted:Anyone have any no-budget recommendations that are streaming on shudder/prime/netflix/hulu/anything free? First thing I thought of was Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things.
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May 2, 2019 17:57
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Franchescanado posted:First thing I thought of was Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things. Took a while to grow on me but I absolutely love this movie.
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May 2, 2019 17:58
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edit: sorry, thought this was the general chat thread
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May 2, 2019 18:01
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Franchescanado posted:First thing I thought of was Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things. Oh, I’ve been meaning to watch that anyway. I know literally nothing about it besides the title.
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May 2, 2019 18:05
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:Took a while to grow on me but I absolutely love this movie. The director character is so obnoxious, but there's something about this movie that sticks with me. It's spooky and dreadful.
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May 2, 2019 18:06
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That's kind of hilarious, because Carrey was awful in Man on the Moon. He basically played Kaufman as a simpering nincompoop, as opposed to the weird puppet master that he was.
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May 2, 2019 18:06
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 13) Bad Channels - 1992 - DVD There is not enough words in existence to describe how much I loving LOVE this film. This B film is so cheesy you can add it to your cheese blend when you bake up some mac & cheese. The plot is one that would be right at home in classic drive in movie fare. An alien lands on earth with his sidekick to abduct women and the few who know the truth aren't believed when they try to spread the world. The alien sets up his base in a bottom of the barrel radio station using the radio frequencies with his technology to select and abduct. Essentially once targetted, the women hallucinate they're in a music video before getting shrunk down and put in a glass jar. The day eventually gets saved. Due to a postcredits scene, this one's set in the same universe as Dollman and Dangerous Toys. I've watched this one so much the VHS screener I had snapped, and even managed to kill the bootleg I had too. So far my DVD's faring better. I loved the bands in this enough to track down thier albums and I freely admit I've been walked in on singing "I'm So Happy" to whichever cat didn't slink away knowing the segment's coming up. while dancing with them. At least they humor me with this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVIX1jeAbKI This is another that Lowtax reviewed for the frontpage. https://www.somethingawful.com/movie-reviews/bad-channels/  14) Laserblast - 1978 - TubiTV I'm kinda embarrassed to admit, I really never sat through this one in full. Even for as much classic MST3K I sat through, completely missed this one. Premise is pretty straightforward. A teenager stumbles upon an alien gun and goes after those who've who've been bullying him. As he uses the gun, he begins to mutate. It's a nice B movie, the stop animation's excellent. It's fine for a cheesy movie night.
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May 2, 2019 18:14
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Franchescanado posted:The director character is so obnoxious, but there's something about this movie that sticks with me. It's spooky and dreadful. The premise of it just tickles me to begin with, a bunch of lovely theater kids sarcastically wake the dead. There's a ton of horror movies that start from the idea that characters destined to die in a gruesome way should be as unlikeable as possible, but the way it's done here is genuinely creepy AND funny. Also, it's really hard to write obnoxious characters well. It's like if Noel Coward did a grindhouse movie.
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May 2, 2019 18:14
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:The premise of it just tickles me to begin with, a bunch of lovely theater kids sarcastically wake the dead. There's a ton of horror movies that start from the idea that characters destined to die in a gruesome way should be as unlikeable as possible, but the way it's done here is genuinely creepy AND funny. Also, it's really hard to write obnoxious characters well. It's like if Noel Coward did a grindhouse movie. Yeah, it all works really well. He's such an obnoxious character, and he leans so deep into being this sadistic extortionist more interested in being a perverse rear end in a top hat than a director. Props to the actor that pulled it off, cuz the movie would be forgotten without his energy. I think another saving grace is that the film was actually made on a little island in Florida, just like the premise in the film. There's tons of little islands all over the state, in rivers and lakes and intercoastals, and they're real creepy if you're there when the sun goes down.
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May 2, 2019 18:19
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M_Sinistrari posted:
Dollman vs Demonic Toys is actually a "sequel" to this movie as well. I haven't actually seen Bad Channels though, I might check it out now.
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May 2, 2019 18:27
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Franchescanado posted:Yeah, it all works really well. He's such an obnoxious character, and he leans so deep into being this sadistic extortionist more interested in being a perverse rear end in a top hat than a director. Props to the actor that pulled it off, cuz the movie would be forgotten without his energy. Also you get a really good sense of what this troupe is like, what the relationship dynamics are, etc, even from characters who have like 2-3 lines at most. It just takes a lot to get over how unpleasant the movie is, in look, feel, tone, everything. It's sleazy in a non-explicit way.
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May 2, 2019 18:31
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:Also you get a really good sense of what this troupe is like, what the relationship dynamics are, etc, even from characters who have like 2-3 lines at most. It just takes a lot to get over how unpleasant the movie is, in look, feel, tone, everything. It's sleazy in a non-explicit way. This is succinctly why it's so memorable. It's pretty funny/hosed up that the director buried members of his troupe alive in used coffins, fully in make-up, for the prank. That is hell.
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May 2, 2019 18:34
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I'm in. Made a list of 13 I haven't seen, from 13 different countries. 1. Dead Ringers (1988, dir. David Cronenberg, Canada) Prime Video David Cronenberg is very good at making me feel very uncomfortable, I was tense through the whole thing. There are some incredibly unsettling images in places, but it's less body horror than his best known horror movies and more of a character piece that hinges on a fantastic dual performance from Jeremy Irons. Every moment is discomforting and Irons sells the hell out of the entire movie. 4/5
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May 2, 2019 18:47
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Journeying through the They Shoot Zombies… list #80 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) A while ago, someone in the Horror thread asked about the earliest film that still holds the potential to scare modern audiences. Speaking for myself, I can confidently say that the middle portion of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, where the titular Hyde starts an abusive relationship with Ivy Pearson, genuinely unnerved me, more so than any other monster story from this era. It’s easy to brush off vampires and werewolves as superstition, but domestic abusers like Hyde still walk among us, and, terrifying make-up aside, they don't differ much from the way they're depicted here, using a mixture of emotional and physical violence to keep their victims mentally chained. Fredric March earned deserved praise for his double role, but Miriam Hopkins easily proves his match acting-wise. When she reveals to Jekyll that she thought about drowning herself to escape her situation, you feel the pain in her voice. Aside from those observations, what stood out most to me was the film’s visual brilliance. It almost feels proto-Ophülsian in its dynamic use of the camera. The lens is constantly panning, zooming or tracking, the story opens with a very well-done POV sequence (the earliest such sequence I know of in cinema) and a lot of care went into the various scene transitions. All the more impressive considering how static many early sound films come across nowadays. There are some wonderful special effects on display as well, with fancy mirror tricks and an inventive use of dissolves to simulate Jekyll’s transformation. Between this and Island of Lost Souls, I’m honestly starting to believe that Paramount was the better pre-code horror studio than Universal. On a side note, do you really pronounce the name Jee-Kill? I always called him Jack-ill. #83 The Black Cat (1934) If I had to describe Ulmer’s directing style in a single word, I would use efficient. He doesn’t waste a single frame or gesture when telling a story, everything runs like clockwork. I think his no-nonsense approach suits noir better than gothic horror, which after all thrives on slowly building up tension. The final act of The Black Cat in particular seems to just rush through the necessary plot developments. That said, I won’t deny that Ulmer creates some effective moments along the way. I like the way he sells us a car crash in a single quick cut or conveys Poelsig’s diabolical desire for Joan in a simple hand movement. Beyond that, The Black Cat mostly serves as an excuse to have Karloff and Lugosi play off each other, something that must have thrilled audiences back when these two stars were still in their prime. Lugosi proves the weak link, I’m sorry to say, his performance too emotionally distant to portray a man ravaged by betrayal and lost love. On the other hand, Karloff does a phenomenal job as melancholic recluse, roaming the empty hallways of his mansion like a spectre forgotten by time. As in The Mummy, he and his penetrating gaze elevate what are otherwise fairly standard villain tropes. Also, 30s horror films sure loved their public domain classical music, didn’t they? This is the second time in a row Toccata and Fugue in D Minor prominently appeared, and you can hear a bit of Beethoven in the score as well. Samuel Clemens fucked around with this message at 21:51 on May 2, 2019 |
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May 2, 2019 19:21
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FancyMike posted:I'm in. Made a list of 13 I haven't seen, from 13 different countries. Love this movie, it's more of a disturbing drama than horror but Beverly's "gynecological instruments for operating on mutant women" is full-on nightmare territory (and I don't even have a vagina)
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May 2, 2019 19:39
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Dead Ringers has, since my first viewing, occupied space on my Most Disturbing Movies list, for numerous reasons. Even down to it’s structure and editing, it is disturbing.
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May 2, 2019 20:09
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Dead Ringers is one of those rare movies where I finish it, I'm totally blown away by how fantastic it is on multiple levels....and yet I know there's a good chance I'll never watch it again.
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May 2, 2019 20:31
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 Stop me if you've heard this one; a dark, dirty parking lot is lit by bizarre power, unleashing a nude super-powered warrior into our world. His mission is to hunt down and kill a woman who will give birth to a son who will grow up to become a great leader. Meanwhile, another warrior comes into our world, but his mission is to protect the woman, and to gently caress her, thus creating the future leader. And also he wears a trenchcoat. Thus begins a dangerous cat and mouse game, the good warrior dies, the woman is left alone to battle the evil warrior in an industrial area with gantries and stuff. In the end she defeats him, and is left alone to raise her son in a world she knows will soon grow very dangerous. Yeah, remember in my The Prophecy review I said one of the highlights was the parts where Christopher Walken got to be the Terminator? Apparently the makers of The Prophecy 2 agreed! They got a bunch of my notes. The first movie didn't have any stakes for the larger angel conflict, this one established that if the bad angels win "The Earth will be covered in ash". I don't want that to happen. Stakes! The boring main guy from the first movie dies really early on! The characters that matter are set up in the beginning and the characters that don't matter don't get a ton of screen time. One thing I liked was that the lady at the end does the same thing the guy in the first one did at the end; gently caress with the evil angel by questioning his faith. But the lady figured out that that would be a good tactic based on like, empathy and understanding that other people experience emotions. While the guy in the first one had to be literally directly told to do it by satan. Yay for the new protagonist who doesn't suck. There is one big issue that bugged me though. In the first movie the central event of the world's backstory was God elevated man over angels by giving us souls. Man has souls, angels do not. That's really important and set the whole stage for literally everything that happened. It also established that angels who left heaven to fight in this war were mortal, and could die. The movie explained specifically what it would take to kill an angel. So if an angel died, and angels don't have souls, how the heck did he end up in Hell? No soul + body dead = nothing to go to Hell. It doesn't make any sense! They also forgot about the first Prophecy movie establishing that angels are hermaphrodites. I was thinking about that during the sex scene, he probably turned off the lights so she wouldn't see and ask about his vagina. Overall, The Prophecy 2 is Terminator with Christopher Walker. That's good enough for me.
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May 2, 2019 20:32
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Franchescanado posted:What makes me really appreciate the sexuality in From Beyond, as opposed to the cringey aspects of the predatory sexuality in Re-animator, is that Barbara Crampton was involved in all of the choices, from how they approached the scenes to picking out the costume, etc. In a way, it adds to the theme that it's not necessarily bad that the characters are experiencing a sexual awakening, but they are afraid of the actual changes and maybe how obsessive and compulsive their sexual desires are becoming, and/or that they are experiencing shame for feeling these desires. It's a juxtaposition to Dr. Pretorious, who's interest in BDSM is actually an interest in sadomasochism and cruelty from his own insecurities. Dr. McMichaels just experiences a sexual awakening, and that's intimidating and scary for her, but not villainous or evil in itself. Yeah, like I said, I was worried but the movie seemed to manage to walk the line and never really feel exploitative or demeaning to Crampton or her character. Obviously there's nothing fundamentally wrong with them being horny or sexual, it was just the nature of the machine kind of messing with their heads and making them act irrationally and Dr. Pretorious' whole thing that made it wander around a questionable area. But again, I think the movie does a fine job not crossing that line, which was a genuine surprise. Also I forgot to mention I loved "Dr. Pretorious" and the nod to Bride of Frankenstein. That's the sort of reference I would have missed before my whole "Years of Horror/Essentials" journey began with you guys. Basebf555 posted:I'm pretty sure I remember when STAC watched The Beyond by accident and I swear I thought you were joking when you were like "hey when does Jeffrey Combs show up" lol Yeah, ultimately I went in thinking it would be another Combs vehicle, was surprised and pleased when Pretorious was really the mad scientist and not Combs, and then really pleased and surprised when I realized it was really Crampton's film. Combs is great, Gordon and Yuzna are who they are, I'm a big fan of Foree, Ted Sorel is a really good villain, and the creature effects are great. But Crampton is the star of the film and she does a great job. And yes, the "Beyond" mixup was real. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 22:41 on May 2, 2019 |
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May 2, 2019 22:38
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Drunkboxer posted:Sometimes I’m jealous of people who gently caress with physical media still because you all seem to have greater access to weird stuff like this. Hauntedween The movie isn’t 2:20, it’s played twice to avoid some DCMA, I assume YouTube is a gold mine of obscure stuff Dr.Caligari fucked around with this message at 23:57 on May 2, 2019 |
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May 2, 2019 23:52
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2. Train to Busan (Netflix) If you think you’re burned out on zombies or if you hate subtitles, I think you should still give this one a shot. Plot is your typical zombie fare, chemical spill starts reanimating the dead as rabid violent humans who easily spread the outbreak. The movie opens with a drat cool scene involving a deer that lets you know what you are in for (mostly). Not exactly a mind bender so I’ll just jump into what I liked about the movie. The dude in the blue jacket was one cool mother fucker. When he and the dad character, “rear end in a top hat” or “jerk”, depending on how Mr. Blue felt at the time, become friendly, the movie really hits its stride. By the end, the movie is about self sacrifice more than anything else and the final scene between dad and daughter in the engine car is about as close to crying as I’ve ever been during a horror movie. My only complaint would be that it could have used a little more gore. Aside from that, there are some nice effects in the movie. The 2 cascading zombie waves, one on the train and one on the tracks during the climax were both well done and the engine car almost being ground to a halt because of the giant zombie tail it acquires was also cool as hell. I hope this movie gets an (well done) English remake if only because I think more people should it. Then again if you’re not willing because of the subtitles maybe you don’t deserve to see it. 4/5.
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May 3, 2019 00:36
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Journeying through the They Shoot Zombies… list #84: The Orphanage (2007) I remember watching Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in a theatre and not thinking much of it until the last act turns into a surprisingly effective slasher, with the genetically engineered supersaur stalking the protagonists through the rooms of a dark mansion. Today I learned that its director cut his teeth on the horror genre, so it’s no wonder that he performed better during the scary moments than the spectacle. The Orphanage sadly doesn’t feature any dinosaurs, but it no less heavily relies on architecture to set the right mood. The old orphanage with its dark corners and creaking floors provides just as much tension as the actual ghosts. We spend almost the entire runtime within the house, and by the end it feels like we’ve explored every nook and cranny, becoming as familiar with the setting as its inhabitants. I really have no complaints, The Orphanage is a well-done eerie tale with charmingly old-school sensibilities. It’s almost a shame that there’s a fairly graphic moment in the middle, otherwise this would have been a perfect film for younger audiences: relying on atmosphere rather than shocking images, with a likable family dynamic in the centre and a reconciliatory ending that suggests the dead are just as much deserving of sympathy as the living.  #87: The Fall of the House of Usher (1928) Suggested drinking game: Take a shot every time the name Usher appears in one of the intertitles. In my last post, I’ve criticised The Black Cat for its lack of atmospheric build-up. Conversely, The Fall of the House of Usher is nothing but build-up. You could convey the actual plot in about five minutes. The remainder of the running time chronicles Monsieur Usher’s steady descent into madness. Director Jean Epstein clearly had a lot of fun experimenting with different techniques. Off-beat camera angles, heavy fog, lots of candlelight, and slow-motion draw us into his otherworldly nightmare vision. He pays tribute to impressionism and Soviet montage but imbues these techniques with a very unique kind of rhythm. The closest analogue I can think of would be Dreyer’s Vampyr. Both films aren’t so much narratives as mood pieces. Unlike Vampyr however, Usher takes a while to get going. You have to be willing to put up with more than a few lengthy shots of characters wistfully staring off-screen before everything becomes truly bonkers.
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May 3, 2019 02:45
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Gonna shoot for 10 inclusive of a watch-through of Ash vs Evil Dead season three.
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May 3, 2019 04:03
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3. Child's Play 3  First time I've watched a Chucky movie since I was 15. It felt like it was made-for-TV. Goofy as gently caress, and I loved every second. Everyone is hammy, the best actor is Dourif. I was sold from his first line, "DAAAAAAAAAAAAAA gently caress WID DA CHUCK." Highlight - Chucky accidentally scares a man into a fatal heart attack. 4. Bride of Chucky (Seen before)  Saw it at a friends place ages ago, along with Child's Play 1 and 2. The lighting was far brighter than I remember, and the tone far more embarassing, as with every early 2000's horror movie I've revisited. Tilly and Dourif are a joy, even through animatronics that I swear are a downgrade from 3. I liked it, but it was lacking that made-for-tv cheese that I loved about 3. Watched - Friday the 13th part 2, Friday the 13th Part 3, Child's Play 3, Bride of Chucky Scones are Good posted:I'll try and do 13, any excuse to bone up ( Some of the imagery from the climax of Noroi has stayed in my brain for a decade and a half. There's so much that could have ruined the found footage illusion but the build is perfectly paced.
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May 3, 2019 05:11
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) on horror. Mostly just gonna do stuff at random from my big backlog.
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Ok, keeping up the idea that I’m cleaning up movies I’ve been meaning to watch for awhile this is a film that I’ve had on my watchlist for every October, May, or whatever marathon I’ve done since before i joined up with you guys. Ever Halloween I’m set on watching it but I decide I want to keep it for Halloween and then I run out of time and it gets bumped. I was planning to watch it as an “Essential” in the January thread but I ran out fo time and it got bumped. This poor movie just keeps getting bumped and I’ve never heard a drat thing about it besides “its great, you have to watch it.” So the easy solution is to make it one of the first in this here “Clean Up” marathon. 3. Coraline (2009) Available on Netflix. From the director of Nightmare Before Christmas adapted from a Neil Gaiman story comes a tale of a little girl bored with her busy parents who discovers a secret door that brings her to fantastic world with more attentive parents and all the fun she could wish for. Of course there’s a darker secret as she spends more time there and begins to suspect she might not be able to get back or see her real parents again. This is a sweet little film. Not really scary or anything from an adult sense but what would you expect from a PG kids film? It does do a good job creating spooky images and ideas and the concept of your parents going missing is just a nightmare and a half for a little kid. Its a really fantastic fairy tale and fun world and Coraline is fun protagonist and role model for kids. I wish I had more to say about this but I guess I’m not really a deep analyst of cartoons or anything these days. Its definitely the kind of film I like to work into my Halloween inventory for the light and easy moments, especially when kids are around. Spooky enough to set the mood but not scary enough to really upset anyone. I’m just stretching out this to try and get a whole paragraph but all in all I don’t want that to reflect poorly on my experience. I enjoyed it and the film didn’t let me down for the hype or wait. Good to see if you’ve never seen it, a fun movie to share with a little one, and a good Halloweeny lite mood setter. I’m dipping into my October years for this one but I got a bunch of options for 1932 and this movie’s had my interest since I first noticed it in October.   4) The Old Dark House (1932) Available on Kanopy and Shudder. A group of travelers become stranded on the road in a torrential rain storm and take refuge in a spooky house inhabited by an unsettling family, a disturbing brute, and a secret upstairs. It was really the restoration poster that captured my interest when I saw it pop up on Shudder on the last days of my subscription last October. There’s something so unsettling about Karloff’s makeup and image. Unfortunately I don’t feel like Whale did enough with his character. We’re told he’s a menacing monster to be feared quite a bit but I don’t feel like we were shown it enough. That was really my feeling on most of the film, not enough. I wanted more of Saul because as soon as he appeared on screen I was completely mesmerized by him and the cat and mouse game he was playing. But I feel like he arrived too late in the film to get the most out of. And I wanted more of Ernest Thesiger’s delightful performance. I can see how his performance here inspired Whale to cast him as Dr. Pretorius a few years later or influence how he played that eccentric character. I want to see more of Thesiger. All that said, I really enjoyed the film. Wanting more of good things is a good problem to have and its not that I think the film was lacking. Its engaging story that moves along well. The house is a satisfyingly spooky setting even if the film never really gets scary. I suppose the “savage dumb” monster Karloff was probably enough for the sensitivities of 1932, maybe even the flamboyant Thesiger and his threateningly puritanical sister. By 2019 standards there’s not a lot of scare there, but its still a good story with some full characters. Given the early date of the film I have to believe this is one of the earliest films of this particular trope and cliche. Its all the elements of the “stranded at a spooky house” films you’ve seen but Whale tackles them with a freshness reminding you that he was probably inventing some of them, but also with a bit of cheeky flavor to it that kind of doesn’t make it feel tired so long after these elements have been repeated. There’s a playfulness to the film that I think keeps it alive 87 years later. Its also been interesting to watch James Whale’s directorial ability evolve with these films. He’s not polished as he’ll be a few years later with Bride of Frankenstein, but he’s clearly more talented than he was when he made Frankenstein. There’s still some awkward cuts and editing like stood out in his earlier film but he’s also clearly having fun playing with different angles and reflections in mirrors and shadows and light and he’s really very good at it and clearly had an artistic eye. This isn’t the masterpiece or classic that those other two films are but its a nice little piece that showcases not only some strong acting performances but a growing director who a year ago I had never seen a single film of but whom I’m quickly coming to appreciate for the reputation and legacy he well deserves. ”Wonder How This Holds Up” PreGaming in April 1. World War Z (2013); 2. As Above, So Below (2014); 3. The Cabin in the Woods (2011); 4. The Last Exorcism (2010); 5. Trollhunter (2010); 6. The Blair Witch Project (1999); 7. Unfriended (2014); 8. Absentia (2011); 9. The Last Exorcism Part II (2013); 10. The Prophecy (1995); 11. Dawn of the Dead (1976); 12. Mandy (2018) May “New To Me/Clean Up” Marathon Watched - New (Total) 1. From Beyond (1986); 2. Train to Busan (2016); 3. Coraline (2009); 4. The Old Dark House (1932);
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May 3, 2019 07:39
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Pomp posted:
Yeah, that sequence is really unimpeachable. It's almost a shame the film keeps going after it. Another image from earlier in the films that's been sticking with me is when the younger possessed guy steps out onto a balcony and just casually grabs a pigeon to do god knows what with it. Just how easily he snatches it with a blank expression on his face while the other birds fly away around him. 2. Mandy dir. Panos Cosmatos (2018) This is like the perfect role for Cage, he gets to spend the first half showing off his subtler acting talents as a loving partner before going all out in the bathroom scene forward. The cast in general is great, Riseboroguh is great as the focus of the first half and I really enjoyed seeing Bill Duke pop up. Lost some steam for me after the fights with the demon(?) bikers and I don't think the animated sequences worked at all, just didn't gel well with the rest of the aesthetics of the film. But it also has a chainsaw fight, so gently caress yeah. 3.5 cool t-shirts out of 5 Watched: 1. Noroi 4/5, 2. Mandy 3.5/5
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May 3, 2019 07:57
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Pomp posted:4. Bride of Chucky (Seen before) I love Jennifer Tilly, I think she's actually better than Brad Dourif in this and he's loving great so that's saying something.
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May 3, 2019 13:41
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 3. Thoroughbreds (2017) (Prime via Cinemax add-on) Two teenage girls who were friends in grade school, Lily and Amanda, reconnect after Amanda has an... incident involving a horse. And by "reconnect" I mean plot to murder Lily's rear end in a top hat stepfather. Amanda shows signs of BPD and is basically a sociopath, but it becomes clear as the movie progresses that despite appearing normal at first, Lily is worse and a full-on psychopath. This leans more towards dark comedy (very dark) than horror, but there are plenty of tense and unsettling moments throughout. Both leads are fantastic actresses, Olivia Cooke especially. Anton Yelchin (RIP) is also excellent, and I think this might have been his last film role? He plays a sleazy drug dealer who is a loser but still probably the most sympathetic character in the movie. I absolutely loved this, and had I seen it when it was first released it would've been near the top of my year end list. The quote on the poster about it being "Heathers meets American Psycho" isn't entirely accurate but it's a decent idea of what to expect. If you like pitch black humor I think you will like this. Highly recommended. Total: 3 Watched: Hagazussa | Deep Rising | Thoroughbreds
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May 3, 2019 14:08
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 Let's Scare Jessica To Death This movie really could be considered a great entry in the "Foggy British Horror" genre, except for the fact that it's an American production that was shot in Connecticut. The director, John D. Hancock, is a complete no-name to me. Never heard of the guy and never seen anything else in his filmography. But clearly he could direct, and he has a skill for building atmosphere and dread without resorting to the usual cheap tricks(for the most part). The lead, Jessica, anchors everything and it's a really solid performance. The film presents a mystery but it's one of those mysteries that allows, if you're genre savvy, for the audience to solve it ahead of the characters. And that's what piles on the dread in scene after scene, you have a sense of where this is headed but because of the circumstances(Jessica's husband doesn't trust her sanity and she doesn't fully trust it herself) the characters always seem one step behind. Honestly though, the movie had the ball on the 1-yard line just based on the setting alone. I'm a huge sucker for this stuff. The green grass, the fog, the not so well kept cemetery, the old house, it's the kind of thing I can watch on mute and still enjoy every frame.    Watched: 1. Evil Bong 2. Let's Scare Jessica to Death Basebf555 fucked around with this message at 14:47 on May 3, 2019 |
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May 3, 2019 14:39
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 1) Cast A Deadly Spell (1991) HBO This is a cheesy made-for-HBO movie about a jaded private investigator who gets in over his head with an oddball client, and it's probably most notable for a mixing film noir detective story with pulp horror elements. I really liked the mash-up setting, the surprisingly satisfying gore scenes, and the puppet monsters. The genre blending isn't as effective as it could be because the Weird Tales influence tends to be mostly about references (the main character's name is Lovecraft) and very broad plot elements (a book called the Necronomicon); the movie never delivers up the dread I want from actual cosmic horror. But it's got some fun moments and great performances, especially by bit characters that really dive into hamming it up. It has a lot going for it, but it's also got several issues that will probably keep me from watching it again or recommending it to friends. The gentle way to say it is that some of the bits haven't aged well. That feels like letting it off the hook though because in 1991, when the movie came out, I was only a couple of years younger than a character involved in one of the parts that bothered me. I feel like even back in those days, somebody should have questioned having the entire ending hinge on a police detective having off-screen sex with a sixteen year old virgin, which he acknowledges is illegal and will get him in trouble with the wife that he didn't tell the girl about. The reveal of all this is played for laughs. deety fucked around with this message at 17:53 on May 3, 2019 |
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May 3, 2019 17:50
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Basebf555 posted:Dead Ringers is one of those rare movies where I finish it, I'm totally blown away by how fantastic it is on multiple levels....and yet I know there's a good chance I'll never watch it again. Yeah I get this. I'm used to leaving Cronenberg movies ready for more but this one left me unusually disturbed in a very different way and I'm not sure I want to feel that again.  2. Tumbbad (2018, dir. Rahi Anil Barve, India) Prime Video Given the response it seems to have gotten I was expecting a little more out of this one. That's not to say I had a bad time, it's a solid movie that I liked and would recommend maybe checking out, it just didn't have anything to quite make me love it. Tumbbad is a pretty straightforward horror/fantasy story of greed with cursed treasure and some monster stuff. It's definitely well made and while not too scary the atmosphere is great at points and I really liked the visual style. It's worth a watch. 3/5 13 films, 13 countries: Dead Ringers (Canada) | Tumbbad (India)
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May 3, 2019 18:50
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I'll be going for 13 here!
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May 3, 2019 20:22
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 15) Shadowzone - 1990 - TubiTV A sleep study draws the attention of a creature from another dimension. Overall, not bad. I was really impressed by some of the names they got for this one like Louise Fletcher and James Hong. It's fine for having something on for background noise.  16) Zone Troopers - 1985 - Youtube I think this was the first Charles Band film I ever sat through when it showed up on cable. Set in WW2, an American patrol comes upon a space ship with a survivor and have to get the survivor to somewhere safe since the Nazis are en route to capture the alien for the Reich. All things considered this one's pretty good. I think most of the people from Trancers is in this one.
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May 3, 2019 22:28
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2. Beyond the Gates (2016) Why did they even bother to make this movie? It's so clearly a low-budget affair from movie nerds who have the backing and know-how to put on a cheapo grisly little horror flick, but then they waste it being as self-indulgent as possible with old video stores and board games as the framing device. Having v a p o r w a v e gels for your final sequence doesn't redeem this impossibly long, endless-feeling slog that somehow clocks in at... 82 minutes? No way. I thought I had started playing the game and was trapped in a world where time stood still, it felt so long. 1. A Serbian Film
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May 3, 2019 23:40
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WELL I WAS WONDERING WHY EVERYONE WAS WATCHING COOL poo poo ON PLEX LATELY - NOW I KNOW WHY! A NEW HORROR CHALLENGE THREAD!!! I'm not going to set any goals, because I never meet them and then get anxiety about it. But I will post about what I am watching.  1) My Lovely Burnt Brother and His Squashed Brain - (1988) "Underground Italian extremely gory, gross-out "comedy" (in early John Waters vein) about a badly burnt morphine junkie who is turned into a zombie after he gets injected with infected urine by his pug-ugly, crazy sister." This movie is an absolute trip. I loving loved it. Immediately from the start of its run time you can tell that it's going to be a special one. The description of it being John Waters-esque is absolutely spot on, a perfect description. The acting is outrageous, and on par with that of someone who bought a camcorder and filmed something in their back yard, yet somehow it is entertaining as hell. In particular the "sister" character was especially fun to watch. This is a fantastic movie for anyone who loves cheesy Z-Grade gore. Honestly, the fact their are essentially no remaining copies of this film in solid condition only adds to it's appeal, and actually makes the gore a lot more sickening. Watching a compressed and beat up copy of it really made it hard to distinguish how bad these effects were (I'm sure they look like poo poo on the master footage) and in turn made them feel way too real for their own good. Without spoiling too much, one of the highlights that the description doesn't tell you about is that the burnt brother character only wears a KKK hood to cover his burnt face, just adding to the depredation a little bit extra. There is a pretty intense scene where a guy is murdered by needles into his veins and an ax to the skull. 8/10
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May 3, 2019 23:42
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I'm going to invoke my authority as Scream Stream host and declare that everyone doing this challenge must watch Rockula (1990) or be forever known as an uncool dude.
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May 4, 2019 00:07
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  Stop me if you've heard this one before; the important fetus from the previous movie has gown up into a teen. A lovely teen because he never knew his dad and his mom was out of the picture. But now, once again two warriors from another world have arrived to fight for his life. But, twist! The bad guy from the previous movie is the good guy now! Ok, in fairness, The Prophecy 3: The Ascent is just a mild ripoff of The Terminator 2. It's not a complete remake like The Prophecy 2 was of Terminator. First off, the good -Christopher Walken. He's not in as much as I'd like, but they make good use of him when he does show up. It's like they knew they'd only have X days to shoot his stuff so they wrote the script so every like 10 minutes there would be a brief, good Christopher Walken scene -Christopher Walken's character is a good guy now because he got laid. Like, it's not implied or subtle at all, he just says that having sex taught him the value of humanity. -The bad guy's anti-angel weapon. Angels can only be killed by tearing out the heart, so the bad guy has this spear that you stab in people's chest and then it turns into a grappling hook and you rip out the heart. That's neat. -Brad Dourif is in it! Briefly! -They actually brought back the little girl and the diner lady from the first movie. The little girl is in one scene, I think literally one shot, and adds nothing. She actually makes the timeline weird because she's aged like 6 years since the first movie but the main character has gone from fetus to 16 in less time. And the diner lady let's them do a funny redo of the diner scene from the first movie. I don't know if anybody really needed The Prophecy 3 to try to tie together the unrelated plots of The Prophecy and The Prophecy 2, but good for them for doing so anyway The bad: Pretty much everything else. They forgot to ripoff the action and character arcs from Terminator 2. All the new actors are bad. If Christopher Walken, Brad Dourif, or the guy who plays the coroner(I don't know his name but I like him. Think backup William H Macy. Like if William H Macy dies this is the guy they'd get to replace him. You know who I mean) isn't on screen, the movie is very boring. It makes the last movie confusing because why did Gabriel want to kill the Nephilim if he was fated to destroy humanity? Wouldn't he want that, or at best be ambivalent? And even though Christopher Walken is still great, he's a lot less compelling than when he was a villain. overall, I'd say The Prophecy 3: The Ascent is a boring movie made watchable by regular doses of Christopher Walken. But only just
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May 4, 2019 00:20
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Journeying through the They Shoot Zombies… list #88: The Changeling My change-a-ling, My change-a-ling I want to play with my change-a-ling Entertaining mixture of traditional ghost story and 70s-era “Don’t trust The Man” conspiracy thriller. For a purported mystery there is a conspicuous lack of twists and turns, but when you have an assured craftsman at the helm and the ever-reliable George C. Scott in the lead, an okay script suffices. One thing that I don’t quite understand is why the ghost needed John to help him in the first place. He appears quite capable of communicating with and even manipulating the outside world, so why bother bringing an uninvolved human into your family dispute?  #89: The Howling The first act suffers from the same issue as the middle portion of Dracula, in that it ostensibly presents a mystery to which the audience already knows the answer. No one watches The Howling without being aware that it centres on werewolves. Even if you didn’t see the trailer or poster, the title almost certainly clued you in. As such, we spend a fairly long time just waiting for the characters to catch up to us. Once the film stops playing coy and lets the beasts roam, it becomes quite a spectacle though. The standout scene is the transformation of course, with make-up so convincing it’s a crime the responsible artists didn’t win the Oscar that year. I'd also like to give an honourable mention to the ending, in which Joe Dante flexes his satirical muscle and offers a perfect resolution to his tongue-in-cheek werewolf conspiracy story. Samuel Clemens fucked around with this message at 00:56 on May 4, 2019 |
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May 4, 2019 00:53
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| # ? May 29, 2024 21:53 |
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Lurdiak posted:I'm going to invoke my authority as Scream Stream host and declare that everyone doing this challenge must watch Rockula (1990) or be forever known as an uncool dude. Rockula is very good and Toni Basil channelling Elvira is extremely my jam 
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May 4, 2019 00:53
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