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The Gate probably would've given me nightmares as a kid, but even as an adult it's just got this wonderfully pervasive atmosphere that makes it impossible to look away from.Franchescanado posted:Me too. I was expecting it to be someone's staff pick, but it didn't happen. You mean the '87 one, of course? 
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Sep 18, 2017 05:39
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6. The Dead Next Door - A super low budget zombie movie featuring nobody who can act and its heart on its sleeve at all times; characters are named Savini/Raimi/Romero/Carpenter/etc. and one of the opening shots is a zombie slamming a pile of VHS tapes topped by Dawn down on a counter. It's mostly extremely earnest hero worship, but it also has a couple ideas that were either surprisingly original for 1989 or accidental consequences of having no budget or experience involved. The high point for me was the first scene-post title, where a few of the central characters are driving through some rural area and ignoring a bunch of zombies by the side of the road. They can't even be bothered to shoot a couple milling around outside the house they're there to check out. People are mostly so used to zombies that almost none of the characters take them seriously as individual threats, so someone has to do something insanely careless every few minutes to make sure there are casualties. It ends up feeling like everyone is more bored and annoyed by the apocalypse than really concerned. If you're in the mood for student film, give it a shot.
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Sep 18, 2017 05:54
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Ghost Cars and Haunted Automobiles: ok what the gently caress? Amazon has it's year listed as 2017 but this has gotta be closer to mid-80s. Spooky screen wipes and constant spooky whooshing noises for effect. Get ready for a full on write up of this documentary. I'm not gonna spoiler anything because God damnit I know I'm the only one who will sit through this. So kick back and get ready. I've Timg'd the screenshots because they're FUCKIN HUGE. I don't usually post images so if there's another way to do this lemme know. The movie opens with Adam West at the Winchester mystery house where he downplays the house itself and instead tells us, the viewer, that the garage is the scariest part of the mansion. He then explains that the designer of the Phantom Corsair could see the future, but does not elaborate. A whooshing noise and melting screen takes us to the first segment. Segment 1: the history of the automobile This segment just straight-faced explains the origin of automobiles. They then talk about the 1907 Thomas Flyer, a car that drove a race around the world. Adam West comes back to say that he's still at the Winchester mansion, and names 3 cars that Sarah Winchester owned. He then promises he'll elaborate on what's so scary about her garage later, which moves us on to the next segment: Unusual Stories of Indie cars. Choice Quote: "think Henry Ford invented the automobile? Not a ghost of a chance!" Segment 2: Unusual Indie Car Stories The segment opens with the screen melting and "The voice of the Indianapolis 500, Paul Page" showcasing the Indianapolis motor speedway Hall of Fame museum.  Paul Page has a massive forehead. So spooky. Page explains that the first Indianapolis 500 featured some of the most unsafe vehicles of the time. He then says that there was one car that could not be tamed, even by the best racers of the time: The Bowes Seal Fast Special. Oh guess what the Bowes Seal Fast Special fuckin killed it's driver by flipping over a wall. They repaired it and 6 days later it's new driver smashed it into a wall and died as well. Instead of just getting a different car they used it a third time and guess what? No one died. No other deaths were ever attributed to the car. Now the movie plays spooky music and slowly zooms in on a picture of the car and we move to our next segment. Choice Quote: "In racing, death is a constant passenger." Segment 3: Bonnie and Clyde This segment just goes over the Bonnie and Clyde story and doesn't really focus on their car or anything. At the end the camera plays what my closed captioning called, "tense music" as the camera slowly zooms in on the bullet-riddled car followed by what I think is the dumbest choice quote of this whole movie so far. Choice Quote: "Bonnie and Clyde, ghosts from the bullets of guns. Perhaps guns made by Winchester?" Segment 4: Adam West gives us a brief history and tour of the Winchester Mansion Oh fuckin finally we're back to Adam West. Still at the Winchester mansion, still being vague. He shows the seance room and talks about how the house is a huge maze. He then talks about Sarah Winchester going mad from guilt.  He continues on showing the odd construction choices while gentle 80s muzak plays. He then realized he's trapped and muses on how he will escape. He then says that as Batman he escaped far more dangerous houses and situations. He then says the magic words "Holy ghosts" and phases out of the room.  He then introduces the director of the Henry Ford museum, Eleanor Mondale. Which begins the next segment. Choice Quote: "Here are a series of steps that lead mysteriously to the ceiling and stop. Only a ghost could get to the upper floor." Segment 5: Eleanor Mondale talks about the first automobiles used by presidents  This segment has Mondale talking about moving from horse drawn carriages and into motor vehicles. She then moves on to a car in the middle of the museum. A 1961 Lincoln Continental that JFK was shot in. A bomb rear end synth track leads us to footage of Kennedy in different motorcades. I then learned something that I actually didn't know. The Continental Kennedy was shot in was reinforced with metal plating and bulletproof glass and the put back in the presidential fleet. Johnson, Nixon, and Ford all used the car before Jimmy Carter retired it. No choice quotes for this segment. Adam is back and shows us some more Winchester mansion and talks about Sarah Winchesters "luxurious taste" in automobiles. As an aside literally nothing has been even remotely supernatural yet. West then tells the story of Winchester throwing a party for herself with no guests in a giant ballroom.  Adam West then finally takes us to the fuckin garage he's been teasing us with. The grand revelation? Sarah Winchester invented the carwash. gently caress me really? I'm halfway done and I don't know if I can do anymore. If you are seriously thirsting for the rest of this write up I could do it but drat this post is long. Also added Europa Report and The Dead Zone to the list of movies watched. 7 down. Untrustable fucked around with this message at 07:02 on Sep 18, 2017 |
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Sep 18, 2017 06:39
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Movie #3: The Bay Bad movie. At no point entertaining or engaging. Its most enduring image is a pair of pants that are too tight for some reason.
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Sep 18, 2017 08:14
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Irony.or.Death posted:6. The Dead Next Door - A super low budget zombie movie featuring nobody who can act and its heart on its sleeve at all times; characters are named Savini/Raimi/Romero/Carpenter/etc. and one of the opening shots is a zombie slamming a pile of VHS tapes topped by Dawn down on a counter. It's mostly extremely earnest hero worship, but it also has a couple ideas that were either surprisingly original for 1989 or accidental consequences of having no budget or experience involved. The high point for me was the first scene-post title, where a few of the central characters are driving through some rural area and ignoring a bunch of zombies by the side of the road. They can't even be bothered to shoot a couple milling around outside the house they're there to check out. People are mostly so used to zombies that almost none of the characters take them seriously as individual threats, so someone has to do something insanely careless every few minutes to make sure there are casualties. It ends up feeling like everyone is more bored and annoyed by the apocalypse than really concerned. If you're in the mood for student film, give it a shot. The crazy part is Raimi funded and executive produced it, and Bruce Campbell is the voice of the main character (Raimi) and one other guy (Carpenter, one of the cult leader's lieutenants). If you've listened to Bruce enough he's immediately recognizable.
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Sep 18, 2017 11:19
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Let's do this. I won't be "officially" starting my challenge until October 1st, but I'm hoping to watch at least 31 movies. Last October I did 34, here's last year's list just to keep me honest so I don't do any repeats this year:quote:1. The Last Exorcism Untrustable posted:
Sir Kodiak posted:Movie #3: The Bay Xenomrph fucked around with this message at 12:04 on Sep 18, 2017 |
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Sep 18, 2017 11:59
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Irony.or.Death posted:6. The Dead Next Door - A super low budget zombie movie featuring nobody who can act and its heart on its sleeve at all times; characters are named Savini/Raimi/Romero/Carpenter/etc. and one of the opening shots is a zombie slamming a pile of VHS tapes topped by Dawn down on a counter. It's mostly extremely earnest hero worship, but it also has a couple ideas that were either surprisingly original for 1989 or accidental consequences of having no budget or experience involved. The high point for me was the first scene-post title, where a few of the central characters are driving through some rural area and ignoring a bunch of zombies by the side of the road. They can't even be bothered to shoot a couple milling around outside the house they're there to check out. People are mostly so used to zombies that almost none of the characters take them seriously as individual threats, so someone has to do something insanely careless every few minutes to make sure there are casualties. It ends up feeling like everyone is more bored and annoyed by the apocalypse than really concerned. If you're in the mood for student film, give it a shot. The interesting thing is that this isn't far off Romero's original plan for Twilight of the Dead back in the early 90s. As the zombies decayed and became less threatening as a result, and as people got accustomed to their constant presence, they would end up being treated like the homeless - mostly ignored, sometimes elbowed out of the way when they approached. He never found a good way to turn it into a full script, though.
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Sep 18, 2017 12:13
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Going to go ahead and try for the 31, not sure what I'll be watching because there's a vast amount of classic or essential horror films I haven't watched. Definitely fitting in another rewatch of Lair of the White Worm, though.
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Sep 18, 2017 12:44
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Little Evil was a Nothing of a movie. Solid cast, but it wasn't funny and it wasn't scary. I love Clancy Brown, but he was barely given anything to do. I guess it'd be fine as background noise.
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Sep 18, 2017 12:51
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egon_beeblebrox posted:Little Evil was a Nothing of a movie. Solid cast, but it wasn't funny and it wasn't scary. I love Clancy Brown, but he was barely given anything to do. I guess it'd be fine as background noise. Aw, I liked it and thought it was funny and kinda sweet, and enjoyed all the references. Al's character was a little off-putting, but I liked them after their second scene together.
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Sep 18, 2017 13:07
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3. Mad Ron's Prevues From Hell (Netflix) This is a late '80s amateur production that showcases over an hour of vintage 60's and 70's grindhouse style horror and exploitation movie trailers. The trailers are presented in the form of a mad projectionist, another dweeby guy and his terrible ventriloquist dummy presenting the trailers in a theater to a bunch of zombies (actually some pretty decent if amateurish makeup and gore fx on these guys), and it's all played for laughs. The trailers themselves are of varying quality and wow, it's interesting to see that they just put all the blood, gore, nudity and sex right up there - truth in advertising, I guess? There are some recognizable names up here and I few I wasn't familiar with that are really nasty - Africa: Blood and Guts, from the makers of Mondo Cane, is particularly brutal and disturbing, and that's just the trailer, as well as Man From Deep River, which I had never heard of but looked up after watching this and saw it was an Umberto Lenzi movie credited for starting the extreme cannibal natives movie trend of the time. The stuff with the dummy sucks, the zombies in the theater are pretty funny, and the trailers are a real treat if you're into that sort of thing - I counted at least three trailers, including the ubiquitous The Last House on the Left, with the announcer solemnly intoning some variation of "JUST REMIND YOURSELF, IT'S ONLY A MOVIE!" There are a couple of movies featured here that I saw on Shudder and Youtube, so I might have to check them out this month.
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Sep 18, 2017 14:20
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Shock Waves This movie is drat creepy, it definitely had me on edge in certain moments. The premise is fit for a video game and has been used more recently to make a great horror comedy(Dead Snow), but despite that Shock Waves is actually fairly reserved. I think it works, the resurrected Nazi soldiers don't really do much, but their slow plodding movement and lack of humanity make for some really spooky imagery.   Shock Waves was a double feature with Night Creatures because they both star Peter Cushing, although his character here is a bit different. He's had a rough go of it and is not as sneering and contemptuous as some of Cushing's other characters. This is probably due to the fact that he's been living alone in an abandoned hotel for decades.  Also a small role here for John Carradine, who played Dracula five or six times for Universal. All in all I'm not sure I'd call this movie a must-watch, but it's certainly worth a watch for Cushing fans it's only about 85 minutes so it doesn't overstay it's welcome. If there's a criticism I have it's that the non-Cushing characters aren't really very memorable at all, they're really just there to meet Cushing and then get picked off one by one. The "final girl" here is actually Brooke Adams, who did Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Days of Heaven only a year later. But even she is mostly just there and doesn't do much to make her character stick out. Completed: The Wicker Man, Deadly Blessing, Night Creatures, Shock Waves Basebf555 fucked around with this message at 14:58 on Sep 18, 2017 |
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Sep 18, 2017 14:26
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Basebf555 posted:Shock Waves Yep, I remember watching this a long time ago - I thought it was slow as hell but it's definitely creepy and the zombie design is effective.
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Sep 18, 2017 14:29
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Are these movie poster images to big? I've been making them full size as like an attention grabber but if they're too annoying I can make them thumbnails.
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Sep 18, 2017 14:32
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Basebf555 posted:Are these movie poster images to big? I've been making them full size as like an attention grabber but if they're too annoying I can make them thumbnails. I think you may need to bring them down a bit, at least to a 1000 x whatever and then timg them. I've been limiting mine to 600-800 range depending on the quality of the posters. It's what took so long with the staff picks posters (that and looking for cool unique cover art for each). edit: This is what I see, anyway:  By all means, please keep posting art, though. I really like it (all my reviews have art, screengrabs and/or animated gifs...)
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Sep 18, 2017 14:35
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I'll just timg things from now on and keep an eye on the size when I grab them. I don't have a lot of experience posting images.
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Sep 18, 2017 14:43
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Yeah, it's cool, bud. Imgur makes it handy by allowing you to resize while keeping the same width/height ratio. I usually just change with width to 600 and that fixes everything up, but timg'ing works just as well. And your effort and reviews are appreciated
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Sep 18, 2017 14:51
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Untrustable posted:Ghost Cars and Haunted Automobiles: Man, I was looking something exactly this dumb yesterday and came up empty. I'm jealous.
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Sep 18, 2017 14:59
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I have it figured out now, imgur really does make resizing easy! I wanted to try to make the posters as full-size as would be practical so they'd stand out compared to the regular screenshots.
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Sep 18, 2017 15:01
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I guess I'll get in on this. I am trying to go through the They Shoot Zombies don't they list. I finished 985 recently and will try going through one movie per night, aside from weekends watching the Scream Stream. By my count, that would be around 30 movies, not including the stream. I'll try to do some mini reviews of them. May also do some general journaling. Also, of the ones I've gone through so far, I have liked: The Beast Within (best cicada-based horror movie I've ever seen) The Cat and the Canary 1939 (bob hope is really funny, and there is actually a good chunk of meta-humor. Amazing to know that people nearly 70 years ago knew what was up about cliches) Fiend Without a Face (super fun, and the monsters are so cool looking) Everything else I felt meh about. Also, the main character from The Living and the Dead is supposed to just have schizophrenia, but there are obviously some cognitive deficits going on, possibly autism. Also, I kind of hated it, because it felt like the humanity was stripped from the character and it was more like "look at this human tragedy." It takes place with a wealthy British family, and there's a sort of Flannery O'Connor vibe with the huge empty estate building and the "grotesquery" within it. It lacks the humor of O'Connor, though, and that's where it loses me.
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Sep 18, 2017 16:07
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Xenomrph posted:See, I personally don't view Europa Report as a horror movie. Like yeah it's suspenseful at times, but it's suspenseful in the same way 'Apollo 13' or '2001' is: space exploration is profoundly, existentially dangerous. Still a great movie, though. See I kinda went back and forth on this one while watching it but the giant bioluminescent octo-squid thing kinda sealed the deal. I may be biased though because the thought of a thin sheet of ice being the only thing between a person and a 200 kilometer deep ocean is loving terrifying to me.
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Sep 18, 2017 16:18
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Xenomrph posted:You're talking about the Barry Levinson mockumentary, right? I thought that movie was great, but I'm also a sucker for found footage/mockumentaries so maybe my opinion is skewed in that regard. Yes. I was onboard with the fake documentary setup, but I didn't find it went anywhere interesting.
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Sep 18, 2017 16:21
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Untrustable posted:See I kinda went back and forth on this one while watching it but the giant bioluminescent octo-squid thing kinda sealed the deal. I may be biased though because the thought of a thin sheet of ice being the only thing between a person and a 200 kilometer deep ocean is loving terrifying to me. No, you're right on the money. The creature at the end isn't what makes it horror in my mind, it's how it creates these utterly terrifying scenarios that you don't normally see in space movies. That scene you mentioned is pure nightmare fuel.
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Sep 18, 2017 16:38
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#3 The Fog - The Fog is a very pretty movie with a great atmosphere. Not a whole lot going on with either the plot or the horror, but the creepy calm was more than enough to carry it for me. My new dream job is running a radio station from a lighthouse in the middle of nowhere. 4/5  Total: 3 Butterly Murders [4/5], Candyman: Day of the Dead [1/5], The Fog [4/5] Letterboxd list
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Sep 18, 2017 17:47
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The Fog was definitely a location focused film, Carpenter was inspired to do a movie like that on a trip to England to promote Assault on Precinct 13. It didn't actually end up being shot there but I can certainly see how English fogginess would have inspired it.
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Sep 18, 2017 18:02
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Basebf555 posted:The Fog was definitely a location focused film, Carpenter was inspired to do a movie like that on a trip to England to promote Assault on Precinct 13. It didn't actually end up being shot there but I can certainly see how English fogginess would have inspired it. You know what The Fog has? Great cinematography Nancy Kyes/Loomis, one of my favorite late 70's/early 80's horror crushes.' It's a shame she's pretty much only in Carpenter films. Jamie Lee Curtis being an almost anti-Laurie Strode Tom Atkins, who is one of my favorite horror protagonists. If I see his name in the credits, I am excited. Adrienne Barbeau as a lighthouse DJ Great music. Glad I watched it for the May challenge. It's so good.
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Sep 18, 2017 18:13
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I'm way late to the party on Carpenter (having only seen The Thing up until a couple months ago) but I'm doing my best to catch up. Just added Christine and In the Mouth of Madness to the watchlist
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Sep 18, 2017 18:20
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I still haven't watched a horror movie since this thread launched.  Hope to change that tonight with Motel Hell.
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Sep 18, 2017 18:21
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FancyMike posted:I'm way late to the party on Carpenter (having only seen The Thing up until a couple months ago) but I'm doing my best to catch up. Just added Christine and In the Mouth of Madness to the watchlist If it weren't for The Thing, ITMOM would be my favorite horror film of all time
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Sep 18, 2017 18:22
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MacheteZombie posted:I still haven't watched a horror movie since this thread launched. That's a good start. I have a double feature of Slugs and Venom on tap for tonight. I've never seen either one so it's a rare treat to watch two new creature features in one night, sometimes it feels like I've seen them all.
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Sep 18, 2017 18:23
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Basebf555 posted:That's a good start. Pretty stoked for it. It's part of a pile of blind buy blurays I got during Arrow's last sale. Might pair it with Microwave Massacre. Slugs is on Shudder right? I really want to see that one, the poster is dope.
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Sep 18, 2017 18:28
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FancyMike posted:I'm way late to the party on Carpenter (having only seen The Thing up until a couple months ago) but I'm doing my best to catch up. Just added Christine and In the Mouth of Madness to the watchlist Wait, does this mean you haven't seen Halloween? I'd have to say my favorite Carpenter is Halloween, because that's like the greatest horror movie and slasher film. But I'll say that I like In The Mouth of Madness more than The Thing. Both are mysteries, but ItMoM is a detective story, and that makes it even better. I haven't seen Christine, that one's my big shame, but I'm hoping to get to it in this thread. This is a dangerous list, but: Carpenter > Romero > Craven > Gordon > Hooper > Dante This is entire careers considered and impact on the genre, and it's subject to change with the wind.
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Sep 18, 2017 18:31
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MacheteZombie posted:Pretty stoked for it. It's part of a pile of blind buy blurays I got during Arrow's last sale. Might pair it with Microwave Massacre. Yea Slugs is on Shudder, for months I kinda just assumed it was bad because I'd never heard of it and how could it live up to the poster? Turns out it's actually good though, at least according to a few people in the horror thread.
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Sep 18, 2017 18:31
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The Fog is one of my absolute all time favorites. Its so simple but it does mood and dread so amazingly well and the whole thing really just creeps on you like the fog the whole time. And you can't name great Carpenter films without Prince of Darkness. Man, Carpenter probably easily has to be my absolute favorite. Its a shame he just didn't really make anything the last couple of decades. It seems like his 90s stuff kind of went over badly, he demanded a big fee to direct H20 they passed on, and he just kind of gave up after that? That seems like a really sad ending to a really great career.
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Sep 18, 2017 18:32
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FancyMike posted:I'm way late to the party on Carpenter (having only seen The Thing up until a couple months ago) but I'm doing my best to catch up. Just added Christine and In the Mouth of Madness to the watchlist You're in for a good time with both of those. The scene in Christine where the car repairs itself had me scratching my head, saying "How did they do that???", it's seriously great.
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Sep 18, 2017 18:37
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Franchescanado posted:Carpenter > Romero > Craven > Gordon > Hooper > Dante I guess if we're really being honest then Gordon would have to be last within that group, as hard as it is for me to say. His impact is mostly on a cult level and both Hooper and Dante have at least one all-time great iconic film on their resume. Now, if we're just talking personal taste then Gordon is #2 right behind Carpenter, and I'd put Craven last. But it's impossible to ignore the significance of several Craven films that for whatever reason just aren't my favorites(certainly not the way I love Carpenter's), like Last House on the Left, NOES, and Scream. So if impact on the genre is taken into account Craven probably has to be top-3, there's really not much of an argument there.
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Sep 18, 2017 18:38
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Franchescanado posted:Wait, does this mean you haven't seen Halloween? So far in the last two months I've watched Halloween, They Live, Escape From New York, Big Trouble in Little China, and The Fog. Carpenter is very good.
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Sep 18, 2017 18:39
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Franchescanado posted:This is a dangerous list, but: Fight me:  
Shrecknet fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Sep 18, 2017 |
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Sep 18, 2017 18:39
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FancyMike posted:So far in the last two months I've watched Halloween, They Live, Escape From New York, Big Trouble in Little China, and The Fog. Carpenter is very good. Yea so In the Mouth of Madness, Prince of Darkness, and Christine are must-watches if you enjoyed all or at least most of those. Also, not appropriate for this thread but Starman is somehow a forgotten Carpenter gem even though Bridges was nominated for an Oscar for it.
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Sep 18, 2017 18:43
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Basebf555 posted:Yea so In the Mouth of Madness, Prince of Darkness, and Christine are must-watches if you enjoyed all or at least most of those. I still stand by Elvis: The Movie.
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Sep 18, 2017 18:55
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