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Angst is not only one of the best horror movies I've watched in the Tournament, it's one of the best horror movies I've ever seen. The ideas and images it explores are successfully transgressive and horrific, but it does so with artistry and restraint, only showing the bare minimum to convey the horror, with the exception of one scene. In that scene, the worst that is shown is no worse than something seen in a Friday the 13th sequel. It pops because it is the first time we are seeing blood, and also the most intimate the film gets with the suffering of a victim. Oddly enough, the film I'm reminded most of by it is John Carpenter's Halloween. It's really the same basic premise. A psychopath is freed from captivation and goes on a killing spree in a quiet neighborhood, fueled only by a compulsion for violence. Their actions aren't based on logic, but on instinct and maybe pure evil, in the most humanist of terms. Where Angst differs from Halloween is that Michael Myers is an unknowable figure in the shadows, bleeding into frame as he silently stalks his victims. Angst puts us in the mind of the killer, as he calmly moves through his thoughts, his feelings, his memory, and his senses. This intimacy is what is scary about the film. The camera isn't voyeuristic like in John Carpenter's slasher--which this is not a slasher, not really--but is instead both intimate with the main character and objectively distant, shifting between the two seamlessly. The intimate close-ups are disturbingly close. Wide eager eyes, a mouth of crooked teeth chomping, a sweaty Adam's apple bobbing up and down in exasperation. They also are framed to the movement of the character (on some type of body rig), shaking the backgrounds around him as he moves, never allowing his body to leave frame, subtly vibrating with his movements. The distant shots are often far enough to frame his entire figure, and are looking down at him at an angle, giving us a God's-eye-view, for lack of a better term. Sometimes the camera shakes, as if the very celluloid the image is printed on is quivering with fear. At every moment, I was impressed with the cinematography, and the choices it uses to convey the emotions of the scenes, as well as the uncanny unfamiliarity with the character the story has chosen. Half of the film, oddly enough, juxtaposes our killer with an adorable, sometimes hilarious, dachshund, a pudgy brown little pet to the family that will be victim to the main character's bloodlust. We like to think of dogs as man's best friend, but here, the animal is indifferent to the people in the story. It cares only about simple desires: having fun through play, following it's curiosity, and eating when it gets hungry. There is a danger for this dog, of course, as we learn in the introductory documentarian narration that our main character starting killing animals when he was a boy, but the dog does not care if it is in danger, or remains blissfully unaware of the present danger. It still plays, follows it's curiosity, and eats when it finds food available. For those worried, the dog survives, which adds an interesting layer through the story and our main character. The film is horrific because the idea is horrific, but I can't say that--minus the film's single stabbing and it's aftermath--that the imagery is any more horrific than other horror movies. I've watched many more terrible things. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Man Bites Dog, the Elijah Wood remake of Maniac and the original, The New York Ripper, The Devil's Rejects, The House That Jack Built, and many other transgressive horror films are far more disturbing than this film. Not to say that this isn't disturbing in it's ways, it's still a film I can understand people avoiding, but for me, this is an excellent, fascinating horror film. Crocodile was bad in a SyFy channel sorta way. I didn't mind it, cuz sometimes that level of entertainment is fun, but it really suffers under the dead weight of obnoxious antagonistic characters. Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Aug 19, 2021 |
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Aug 19, 2021 00:55
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Yeah angst over crocodile easily. Very well made piece of brutal cinema
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Aug 19, 2021 17:49
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I rewatched Knife+Heart last night and actually enjoyed it much more than I remembered. The look and score of the film is really very good. Its also less of the bad giallo stuff than I thought, or more of a play on it. I chalk that up to me watching it I think two years ago before I was more familiar with giallo and WHY I dislike it so much. I had kind of written off the gender reversal as kind of a superficial turn on the bad misogyny and gender politics of giallo, just flipping the victims and perpetuators but I actually think its a little deeper than that. Anne kind of feels like a merging of both. She's definitely exploitative, abusive, and obsessive like a lot of the giallo male leads are but she's also clearly suffering from and from the world of beauty and desire that she's desperately afraid she's "wilted" from. And while she's definitely exploiting young men and abusing her ex they all seem to have more agency and the narrative seems to be more aware that its a problem and keeps calling her out on it. So it feels a bit like a real addressing of these kinds of "giallo trappings" while still engaging in them. But all that said its still a "neo giallo" and I still don't like giallo. I don't like the red herring mystery and think the second half investigation kind of drags and loses me. I'm kind of bothered by the portrayal of the killer. I don't like the blend of sex and violence regardless of the gender involved. And while I can appreciate the way the film handles that exploitation and abuse stuff better than giallo did its still not something I enjoy. So ultimately Knife+Heart is a film I appreciate and recognize why people love it, and a better watch than a lot of giallo I've seen, but still not something I fully enjoy. Mimic on the other hand is really something I enjoy despite its flaws. Its definitely got flaws. The opening child pandemic story is really well executed which makes it weird that its just used as a prelude and then never really followed up on. The CGI doesn't age great and it feels like its in an odd place where its pretty mean but also isn't showing the meanest stuff. But I'm not someone who needs gore and I enjoy it as GdT doing a "modern" B monster movie (which also helps me give context to that child pandemic stuff as GdT's attempt to make Sorvino the scientist messing with nature but for a good reason). Ultimately I just really enjoy Mimic more even if Knife+Heart might be the "objectively" better film. But what can I say? We're not objective animals. Still not watching Angst. Still abstaining there.
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Aug 19, 2021 18:05
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Yea for me these two matchups were actually somewhat similar, in that both feature one film that is technically superior, and the other which is not as good in some areas but because it's a creature feature I can't help but enjoy it. In the end Mimic was good enough, and my nostalgia for it strong enough to sway me. Crocodile wasn't, both in terms of the creature effects but also just the lovely script, the horribly written characters and the very amateurish actors. And the characters actually are more important in a low-budget creature feature than in some other subgenres. I've seen a well drawn group of compelling and entertaining characters lift a creature feature to levels beyond what you'd expect given the quality of the actual creature effects, and Crocodile just wasn't doing that at all. The one and only thing in Crocodile that was mildly entertaining was the croc itself and while I did have fun with those scenes they weren't that good.
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Aug 19, 2021 18:12
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Another week where I really don't have it in me to effort post, but I'll be voting Knife + Heart and Angst. Not only are they the better films from a technical and artistic standpoint, but I also just plain enjoy them more. And once we dive into themes, what does Mimic have to say? Don't breed mutant cockroaches? Don't trust scientists during a pandemic? Kids on the spectrum are weird? Whereas Knife+Heart is a tender and exciting exploration of sexuality, gender, sex work, homophobia, both internal and external, and is clearly analogous to the AIDs epidemic that swept the gay community during the '70s and '80s, all of that and it's also a surrealist fever dream, with bird clawed mystics in extradimensional pet stores. Mimic, on the other hand, has the guy from Alien 3 being somewhat memorable for a few minutes, and that's about it. The choice couldn't be more clear.
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Aug 19, 2021 18:21
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I'm going K+H over Mimic. I still have to technically finish K+H, but the half of that movie I've seen is better than the whole of Mimic. Mimic is fine, competent, well-made, and interesting, but I just do not connect with it, and never have. I'm gonna try and finish K+H, but it'll be a little tricky, since it's a bit too violent for my partner and tonight's date night.
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Aug 19, 2021 18:25
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Basebf555 posted:Yea for me these two matchups were actually somewhat similar, in that both feature one film that is technically superior, and the other which is not as good in some areas but because it's a creature feature I can't help but enjoy it. Yeah, Mimic isn't breaking any new ground or doing anything special (although like GdT's Hellboy and Blade movies holds up a bit better than a lot of other gritty CGI action of the time) but its well made, has a really talented top tier cast, has good creature effects and gore. So it all works for me and elevates it beyond its simple well tread premise. Crocodile on the other hand was just poorly made all around.
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Aug 19, 2021 18:29
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Or to make a more direct comparison to another killer croc movie, Lake Placid is a great example of a creature feature that works despite actually having very little creature in it and only a few deaths. But because the cast is so strong, it's fondly remembered and a movie I can rewatch any time.
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Aug 19, 2021 18:35
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I swear to god y'all gonna make me have to watch Angst.
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Aug 19, 2021 18:38
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STAC Goat posted:Yeah, Mimic isn't breaking any new ground or doing anything special (although like GdT's Hellboy and Blade movies holds up a bit better than a lot of other gritty CGI action of the time) but its well made, has a really talented top tier cast, has good creature effects and gore. So it all works for me and elevates it beyond its simple well tread premise. Crocodile on the other hand was just poorly made all around. The problem with Crocodile isn't the crocodile, to me. I've seen plenty of alligators in real life, and they look fake as gently caress until they start moving. The problem with Crocodile is entirely with the characters. They are so obnoxious that there is zero investment in seeing them make it out alive. There's glimpses of ability in some of the performances--Claire and Annabelle, notably--but there is absolutely nothing for them to do. So much is spent on Claire and Brady's break up, when there's more room to see complications between their animosity vs the present demand for survival and teamwork. If the script had made the turn for these characters to work together instead of just screaming at each other for the next 60 minutes, then the crocodile effects would be fine. Most egregious is that Duncan, the worst character in the film by far, makes it to the end. He should have been the first character killed, and his death could have been a nice catalyst for getting rid of that obnoxious tone and making the characters interactions change. The CGI is terrible, of course. It's an impossible hurdle to fix bad CGI. But I still could have given the movie a passing grade if the characters were any good. It's wild that Hooper made this. Texas Chainsaw Massacre has an annoying character, Franklin, but his annoyingness works, since it's part of his compensation that comes with being in a wheelchair and being abandoned. It's still a shock when he gets killed, and we feel bad for the guy. The rest of the characters are in their own world, but they aren't mean to each other. Eaten Alive centers around a family of assholes, but they aren't obnoxious to the viewer. Poltergeist is all about a family who loves each other working through this bizarre tragedy that is beyond their control or understanding of the physical world. I could keep going through Hooper's filmography and point out how the characters are better than the ones in Crocodile. It's straight-up egregious. It's a look at this hateful dissonance and lovely attitudes that were pervasive in 2000. But thankfully culture has moved past that attitude, and I have zero interest in revisiting it. Basebf555 posted:Or to make a more direct comparison to another killer croc movie, Lake Placid is a great example of a creature feature that works despite actually having very little creature in it and only a few deaths. But because the cast is so strong, it's fondly remembered and a movie I can rewatch any time. Lake Placid's characters are dumb and goofy, but they all mean well. Even though there's a competitive vibe between them, none of them are outright hostile to each other or the audience.
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Aug 19, 2021 18:42
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Franchescanado posted:It's wild that Hooper made this. Not sure what you're talking about, according to Amazon Video Crocodile was directed by Tobe's little known evil twin, Taobe Hooper. https://www.amazon.com/Crocodile-Mark-McLachlan/dp/B07DMQNQNR/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Crocodile&qid=1629395177&s=instant-video&sr=1-1
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Aug 19, 2021 18:47
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Basebf555 posted:Not sure what you're talking about, according to Amazon Video Crocodile was directed by Tobe's little known evil twin, Taobe Hooper. It feels like a Taobe Hooper film, for sure. The movie made me want to do a deep dive on how he fell so far in quality. It's an insane fall from grace.
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Aug 19, 2021 18:51
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The "Production" section of the movie's Wikipedia page is pretty sad: Producer Frank DeMartini proclaimed that director Tobe Hooper was "trying to do with this movie is recapture the fright of [The Texas Chain Saw Massacre]".[2] Hooper reflected on this stating "It's the 25th anniversary of the first Chain Saw, and I really wanted to create an atmosphere that will wind you up like that."[3] Hooper also comparatively said the film was "Stylistically, I'm going for an entirely different look from anything I've ever done, or anything you'd expect me to do."[3] To do this DeMartini explained that he had their casting director Cathy Henderson-Martin go through 2,000 people with Hooper and DeMartini meeting a few hundred.[4] Hooper compared the characters in the film to Deliverance as the film becomes about survival The screenplay was written by Michael D. Weiss, Adam Gierasch, and Jace Anderson which Thomas Crow of Fangoria stated that Hooper had "tinkered with".[5] Hooper stated that "On paper, something may look good, but things change. Speaking in broad strokes, we've been reshaping some of the dialogue [to suit the actors]. The idea on the page will certainly get to the screen, but I'm aiming for spontaneity."[5] Hooper described doing a second film about crocodiles after Eaten Alive, describing the film as a campfire film with a "mythological background. There's a legend connected with it. Every town in American seems to have some story of lake or woods with a monster in it."
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Aug 19, 2021 19:04
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Basebf555 posted:The "Production" section of the movie's Wikipedia page is pretty sad: That's interesting. I guess his taste just declined... Shoulda filmed it on 16mm...
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Aug 19, 2021 19:23
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I tell myself that the kids in Crocodile really aren't any more shallow than the ones in TCM and that if you made a movie in 2000 about rear end in a top hat kids who wander into someone's home they'd be like these assholes. But TCM doesn't really ask you to care about its characters, it just kind of throws you head first into the mood and nightmare they're experiencing. Crocodile doesn't have that. It has like 20 minutes of croc stuff, 20 minutes of that bad comedy locals thing, and 50 minutes of dumb rear end in a top hat kid drama from terrible actors and paper thin characters I couldn't keep count of. The party girl's the only one with any kind of presence and she apparently isn't even an actor but is a musician/dancer so like just a more natural entertainer/performer. There's this really campy comedy scene from the kids late in the film that felt like it came out of nowhere but made me realize that maybe they were trying to be funny the whole time but were doing such a bad job it was imperceptible? The croc puppet is solid but it seemed clear that all they had a was a very immobile head so all they could do with it was push it through cardboard walls and have actresses lay still in its mouth while it chomped. And that made me realize no guys got chomped because they would have broken the puppet. I think Hooper just had poor resources, no money, and an old man's lack of edge and sense of what would work. And probably the excitement of newer tech that makes things easier but not better. But you get old and a new toy seems more fun than all that hard work you used to have to do.
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Aug 19, 2021 19:30
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The idea of three different writers working on the script, then 60 year old Hooper coming in to "tinker" with it and "reshaping the dialogue to suit the actors" seems like it should've been a pretty big red flag that the script was gonna be terrible.
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Aug 19, 2021 19:37
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Ultimately I imagine the studio probably just wanted to make a cheap creature flick and hired Hooper so they could say "from the maker of Texas Chainsaw Massacre" on the poster/DVD. And Hooper probably saw it as an opportunity to play with some new toys and try and make a modern update on a film of his. Buts not really why he was hired and no one was gonna help and he was a 60 year old man who hadn't had a hit in decades so...
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Aug 19, 2021 20:18
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Eaten Alive rules, so it's crazy he couldn't figure out a way to make another good monster reptile movie.
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Aug 19, 2021 20:25
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I mean, it is functionally impossible for one person to make a good film on their own even if they're not past their prime. Like its my one real regret about our hyper focus on "directors". Its a good sorting mechanism for this but it does kind of put too much stock in auteurism and gives us some tunnel vision on the directors as if they're wizards. Crocodile probably sucks for a lot of reasons and its possible Hooper's the least of them.
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Aug 19, 2021 20:38
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STAC Goat posted:I mean, it is functionally impossible for one person to make a good film on their own even if they're not past their prime. I see your point, and I don't put all the weight on a director for a film's success, but I will defer to Brian DePalma's response to taking the blame for a failed movie (Bonfire of the Vanities). And I do think that it's a solid argument for why directors can take the blame or claim a success. edit: A bit ironic you bring this up, cuz when I blamed The Guardian's failure on the editor and not entirely Friedkin, you did admonish me for not blaming Friedkin on that. 
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Aug 19, 2021 20:43
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Well one thing that Eaten Alive does that would allow someone like Hooper to have an easier time putting his "auteur" stamp on it is that it's all a set. So you have this really cool looking, well designed set and Hooper had the ability to really exert a lot of control on the look of the film, especially the lighting. So while I'm sure the budget isn't high, it's a very stylish film that has a very unique look. Whereas Crocodile is filmed outside and it's much easier to end up with something that looks bland and uninteresting when you're shooting outside and because of time constraints and all the extra effort that comes with shooting a movie out in the elements like that.
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Aug 19, 2021 20:45
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Basebf555 posted:Well one thing that Eaten Alive does that would allow someone like Hooper to have an easier time putting his "auteur" stamp on it is that it's all a set. So you have this really cool looking, well designed set and Hooper had the ability to really exert a lot of control on the look of the film, especially the lighting. So while I'm sure the budget isn't high, it's a very stylish film that has a very unique look. I don't think I posted it here, but it is in my Letterboxd review: Crocodile's outdoor cinematography looks I get what you mean, especially with dealing with filming a large, unwieldy puppet, but I did want to give it that credit. And the shots of the croc tail smashing stuff is all pretty good. There's also two good jump scares that really nail an excellent sense of timing, in my book: the scene where the croc eats the first guy on the dock (releasing the boat to go astray), and when the drunk girl is trying to seduce Brady by swimming in the water and the Croc pops up behind her. Both of those legit startled me!
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Aug 19, 2021 20:50
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Yea I don't mean to say the cinematography is bad in Crocodile, but it's just sort workmanlike. It's fine, but in Eaten Alive the aesthetic of the film is like a huge part of what makes it good. Something like that is always a big boost to any film, at least in my book.
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Aug 19, 2021 20:54
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Franchescanado posted:I see your point, and I don't put all the weight on a director for a film's success, but I will defer to Brian DePalma's response to taking the blame for a failed movie (Bonfire of the Vanities). And I do think that it's a solid argument for why directors can take the blame or claim a success. To be honest I don't remember the exchange but I didn't mean to say Hooper has no blame at all. Film making is a collective work. There are auteurs but even they are usually because of a familiar and reliable team of people who they work well with. Hooper's career seems much more "gun for hire". Its probably part of the reason he's got such an eclectic collection of films. One film he's doing his thing, the next he's hired by Spielberg to do his thing, the next he's hired to make something else. So I think in this case yes Hooper was the guy making the film so he carries plenty of blame. But also he probably had no budget and limited time and resources and bad people to work with. Maybe some of that was his choices and bad calls. Probably some of it is. But probably some of it wasn't. Is it possible Hooper could have salvaged something out of this? Maybe. Maybe he was too old or not inspired enough or something. I dunno. So I didn't mean to say "lets not blame Hooper". Just that the "how?" question probably comes from a bunch of angles. Basebf555 posted:Yea I don't mean to say the cinematography is bad in Crocodile, but it's just sort workmanlike. It's fine, but in Eaten Alive the aesthetic of the film is like a huge part of what makes it good. Something like that is always a big boost to any film, at least in my book. I think the thing that makes it hard for people to process with this and Hooper is that like, this is cheap and lazy from but Hooper's definitely done more with less. But maybe because of his age... maybe because of standing and relative lack of control of the project... maybe because of the bigger budget, scope, and tech available he tried to do more than he could with it... Hooper making Eaten Alive in '76 and Crocodile in 2000 are probably just totally different worlds. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 21:01 on Aug 19, 2021 |
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Aug 19, 2021 20:55
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STAC Goat posted:To be honest I don't remember the exchange but I didn't mean to say Hooper has no blame at all. Film making is a collective work. There are auteurs but even they are usually because of a familiar and reliable team of people who they work well with. Hooper's career seems much more "gun for hire". Its probably part of the reason he's got such an eclectic collection of films. One film he's doing his thing, the next he's hired by Spielberg to do his thing, the next he's hired to make something else. So I think in this case yes Hooper was the guy making the film so he carries plenty of blame. But also he probably had no budget and limited time and resources and bad people to work with. Maybe some of that was his choices and bad calls. Probably some of it is. But probably some of it wasn't. Is it possible Hooper could have salvaged something out of this? Maybe. Maybe he was too old or not inspired enough or something. I dunno. The "how" is really the easiest thing here, though. The most affordable thing to fix on any film production is the script, and then secondly working with the actors you have to achieve something with the script. Which, according to wikipedia, was a failure. When you're dealing with an auteur behind the script--a Joe Eszterhas maybe or a Paddy Chayefsky--then fixing the script can be too expensive or a headache. Then you have to fix it in the performances (maybe) or the editing (mostly), as well as the cinematography. But that's not the case with Crocodile. Ignoring the ridiculous premise of a crocodile god, or the logic behind the croc knowing it's egg is in a backpack, that still leaves us with the most simple problem at it's heart: the dialogue between the main characters. Which is confrontational, vapid, and only give the actors room to scream at each other. This is just fixing scenes you already have scheduled to shoot. If we're talking about room to change schedule, then I'd have added more setups for suspense. Make a point of Claire almost forgetting the backpack, and then going back for it. Do that a couple of times. Play the scene where Claire has to save the girl her boyfriend cheated on her with from the crocodile to be more of a moral struggle as well as a physical one. Add a scene that explains why Brady and Duncan are even friends*, cuz there's no reason in the film for it. Make a scene where Claire and the girl with the dog talk about the other girl, and have the dog girl play devil's advocate, trying to mend the drama between everyone. (*edit: There's a brief moment where they jokingly say that Duncan is in love with Brady. Lean into THAT, obviously without homophobia or insensitivity.) It's probably not a fair comparison, but I'm now thinking of Robert Altman while filming McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Every day, during production, with money on the line, actors already filmed as characters, scenes filmed, sets built, Altman would be reconfiguring the story. He would walk around, thinking about the story, and rewriting it. He notoriously went up to one of the characters, who had a really really big moment in the finale of the film, and he said "I hate to say it, but...We're not gonna do that scene anymore. The story means something different now. We can't have your character do the thing anymore. I'm sorry. But we have to do something else now." And that actor was heartbroken, because he now went from being the film's big catalyst with the biggest action in the film, that really defines his character's morality, arc, and position in the story, and essentially changed him to being an interesting side character. And when the movie was made, the actor saw it, and knew it was the right decision, even though it made everyone's jobs a lot more complicated and the production weirder, and the story different. But you gotta have that active mind and have to have an intuition and take those weird risks. As for Crocodile, I don't see an issue with the cinematography. I think it's good. The set designs are good. The characters are obnoxious, their dialogue sucks, but I don't think these are incompetent actors (except for the dirty redneck guy with the weird fake southern accent). The editing isn't bad, either! So there's not really a lot for me to point to as bad, really, except for the writing, which kinda boils down to Hooper's taste and critical thinking. edit: Oh, and obviously the CGI. But that's budget and technology. It would never be good. Deep Blue Sea is a miracle of production values, with the biggest budget available, and it can't make convincing CGI sharks at points. Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 21:21 on Aug 19, 2021 |
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Aug 19, 2021 21:13
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Somehow this conversation has me debating between watching The French Connection or Deep Blue Sea.
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Aug 19, 2021 21:49
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STAC Goat posted:Somehow this conversation has me debating between watching The French Connection or Deep Blue Sea. Between the two? Deep Blue Sea. However, if you haven't seen Friedkin's Sorcerer, that is absolutely the must-see movie.
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Aug 19, 2021 21:52
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Franchescanado posted:Angst is not only one of the best horror movies I've watched in the Tournament, it's one of the best horror movies I've ever seen. Fantastic post, thank you Fran. During the stream we commented on the massively effective use of the one gory image and how it was shot and lit like a crime scene photo but you've really captured what makes a moment that is tame for gore aficionados so contextually shocking
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Aug 20, 2021 02:47
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Also everyone should watch McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
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Aug 20, 2021 02:55
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The one thing I thought was decent about Crocodile was the casting. I could believe them as all of their types for that era (even if the acting wasn't always top notch). There's an awful lot else that's bad there though, and it's hard to tell how much is meant to be schlocky on purpose or if there was just a lack of effort. Watching Angst, I didn't feel engaged much at all. I did start to wonder if I should be more affected by it, or less affected? If I was less affected, then I'm seemingly ignoring these horrific events, but then the film is clearly trying to convey the lack of affect that a sociopath has, so maybe I'd be working against the film. For this reason and others I have to hand it to the film as a technical exercise, a clear precursor to modern extreme cinema. I can appreciate it for its influence, even if I'm not a fan of the movement. It did hold some slight interest for me as a West German film (it's neat to think that for historical context we can just use that to define pretty much the whole era). The newspapers indicating shifting politics and international allegiances, the isolation and sense of wrongness without necessarily feeling guilt, all contribute to that, but even then it doesn't delve that deeply into those themes. It's just kind of there. It's not a film I'd come back to, but neither is Crocodile.
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Aug 20, 2021 08:30
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Fun Fact: I misnamed the conferences in the vote questions and it drove me crazy all week because you can’t change it after votes have been made with creating a second set of results. Drove. Me. Insane. Thankful my nightmare is over.  No real surprises here except perhaps that Crocodile and Mimic drew as many votes as they did. Still its a pair of blowout victories for Knife+Heart and Angst which should surprise no one. The pair of Hooper and del Toro creature features scoring a handful of votes before being eliminated keeps either from racking up an epic slot for the films but Predation and Queer as in gently caress You just keep rolling along and head into a seemingly inevitable clash of super teams in the Final Four. Oh also Deb finally ended the threat of the terrible 16 team collection of some guy. The reign of terror is over. Two of the Final Four spots are filled, time for the last two! Up first fighting for the Italian Conference its two of the biggest names in horror history, and fighting for the US Slasher Conference its two more of the top teams in this tournament. So lets see the draws! 2. Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath vs. 4. Stuart Gordon’s Eater (Fear Itself)  We get a massive clash of names here but a very uneven draw of films. Gordon didn’t even actually get a film. He’s not the first person to draw an anthology episode in Bracketology but its a real bad time for it. Now don’t get me wrong, I myself am a fan of Fear Itself (a short lived NBC horror anthology from Mick Garris that was effectively the third, non-cable season of Garris’ Masters of Horror) and from what I remember Eater is one of the better episodes that features “The Queen of Peak TV” Elisabeth Moss. But Black Sabbath? drat. Quite possibly one of the greatest anthologies of all time starring Boris Karloff and featuring Bava’s diverse style in three stories that vary from person to person over the best and worst. Its entirely possible Gordon’s pool was just too shallow at this point to hang with that, and its entirely possible Bava drew too strong as if he advances he’s gonna be working with weaker films when he needs quality the most. Or maybe I’m just totally wrong. Maybe people will hate Sabbath and love Eater even with network constraints on gore and content. I dunno. A landslide? An upset? A controversy? I guess I’ll find out. Black Sabbath is available on Shudder, AMC+, Classix, Kanopy, Spectrum, and free on Pluto. Eater is available free on Plex and Vudu. Its Episode 5 of the show Fear Itself. Its also on Youtube in four parts - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 and Dailymotion although its one of those flipped screen things. 4. (MacheteZombie’s The One n Dones) Bill Gunn’s Ganja & Hess vs. 7. (Deb’s Family Friendly) Jim Henson’s Dark Crystal  This one’s an incredibly intriguing matchup from two very intriguing teams. Ganja & Hess is a seminal piece, breaking down the classic horror monster as a metaphor for important social issues before it was popular and being one of the most striking and ambitious art pieces of the Blaxploitation era. Bill Gunn is credited by Spike Lee as one of the most important filmmakers despite only making 3 films, and like most trailblazers he had a difficult time with the guys in charge. He had such a dispute over this film that he made it intentionally more abstract removing scripted scenes and replacing them with random ad libbed dialogue and random shots from deleted footage. G&H can be a hard film to process but can also me a marvel to watch. On the other hand Henson’s Dark Crystal is a marvel in its own right and a cult classic and fantasy world that has remained relevant for 40 years getting a recent prequel series from Netflix. Henson’s trademark wizardry with muppets meets his rare dark imagination in another Family Friendly that might push the bound of horror for many voters. Then again Ganja & Hess isn’t exactly fangs and bats. This is essentially two seminal works in two very wildly different directions, both which kind of dance with the idea of “horror”. Its tough for me to tell how this one is gonna go, or even how I’m gonna vote since for as much as I love Henson I haven’t see this one since I was a kid. But its a matchup I’m very excited to see play out. Ganja & Hess is available on AMC+, Showtime, Spectrum, Fubo, DirectTV, and Kanopy. The Dark Crystal is available on Starz, Spectrum, and DirectTV. Thats our week and its the far week where I’ve got no whining at all but rather four films I’ve seen and am excited to watch again. There’s only two weeks left after this so its time to treasure our time. Also crunch hard on any projects you might have intended to do all year and kept procrastinating on. Not that I’m talking about anyone in particular. Vote or change your vote until 3 AM EST Aug 27th (or when I wake up) Bracket & Noms Spreadsheet Letterboxd List Next Week! THE FINAL FOUR!
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Aug 20, 2021 09:45
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I think Bava still has a strong chance at beating One n Dones or Family Friendly. Based on what's left, I actually feel like Family Friendly is the bigger threat but while Bava's remaining films aren't necessarily his top-tier stuff, most of it is still pretty solid.
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Aug 20, 2021 15:55
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So Predation is going to get to draw an old movie again for the final, assuming that Let The Right One In wins?
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Aug 20, 2021 15:59
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I’m happy I bought a bunch of Bava on sale before this challenge. Black Sabbath is gonna be hard to beat.
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Aug 20, 2021 16:12
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married but discreet posted:So Predation is going to get to draw an old movie again for the final, assuming that Let The Right One In wins? Traditionally in the final each team draws three films, right? Not that anything has a realistic chance against QaiFY.
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Aug 20, 2021 16:52
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Oh right, that makes sense. My prediction is Ganja & Hess beats Dark Crystal, then it's luck of the draw when it comes to picking Def or Wailing, with the latter probably beating Predation's Let the Right one in. Queefu vs Bava is going to be interesting, both Amer and Santa are strong but not unbeatable, but both are just completely different from anything Bava has, good or bad.
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Aug 20, 2021 17:10
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quote:2. Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath vs. 4. Stuart Gordon’s Eater (Fear Itself) I've been meaning to watch Black Sabbath for ages and I finally did as a result of it coming up here. It's really fantastic and will handily win this match up (certainly has my vote), but I will say that Eater was much better than I expected when I saw it was essentially a Masters of Horror 45 minute type of thing. Great cast, solid scares, but the ending was a little weak. Are there any other Fear Itself episodes worth seeking out? I've never seen The Dark Crystal despite watching Labyrinth about 500 times as a kid, so I'm excited to see that for the first time. I liked Ganja & Hess when I watched it for Hooptober last year but might need to revisit it.
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Aug 20, 2021 20:51
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The Berzerker posted:I've been meaning to watch Black Sabbath for ages and I finally did as a result of it coming up here. It's really fantastic and will handily win this match up (certainly has my vote), but I will say that Eater was much better than I expected when I saw it was essentially a Masters of Horror 45 minute type of thing. Great cast, solid scares, but the ending was a little weak. Are there any other Fear Itself episodes worth seeking out? I also kinda like Ernest Dickerson's Something With Bite (although its not as good as his Masters of Horror episode) and remember liking Darren Lynn Bousman's New Year's Day, Breck Eisner's Sacrifice, and John Landis' In Sickness and In Health (which stars Psych's James Roday Rodriguez and Maggie Lawson in a fun dark turn on their dynamic) but its been years since I've seen them. Ultimately its all what you think it is. Network TV mini movies that probably don't have enough time or R freedom to be great when they're good. But there's a lot of talent in front of and behind the camera and I mostly enjoyed the series when it aired.
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Aug 20, 2021 21:35
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Very Important Note about Black Sabbath! There are two versions of the film, an original Italian print and an American version. They have the same stories but are significantly different. Boris Karloff does more introductions in the American version which is good, but it also changes details of a couple of the stories. I'm a nutbag so I'm thinking of watching both but you do you.
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Aug 22, 2021 07:23
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I'm undecided on The Dark Crystal vs. Ganja & Hess. They're both really good but also very different. Right now I'm leaning towards Ganja & Hess just because it feels like the deeper, more meaningful film, but at the same time those sets and puppets in The Dark Crystal are amazing works of art.
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Aug 24, 2021 14:07
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