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10. Eden Lake D From the writer of The Descent Part Two comes another awful script. There is no mystery and it's full of transparent surprises that only serve to waste time before the obvious happens. I don't mind mean-spirited bloodbaths but I need some memorable scenes and not an aimless stop and go chase. The class politics of the movie are kind of awful but I'm mostly offended that someone could think it is clever. 11. The ABCs of Death 2 C There's a mix of visually interesting shorts and V/H/S rejects. Probably more good than bad but nothing you have to see. 12. The Fog (1980) B Creepy and very effective with sympathetic characters running from a force they cannot fight. Janet Leigh is kind of flat as the mayor but Jamie Lee Curtis is great as a hitchhiker who lands in the wrong town. Casual drinking and driving is always fun to see in old movies. The glowing fog looks unreal but not fake. This Carpenter guy is good! 13. Dead & Buried B Another spooky coastal town dealing with the undead. It starts out weird and I never really got the gang of photographer murderers but the third act is awesome. Fantastic special effects and makeup. Grandpa Joe from Wonka is a creepy mortician and Robert Englund is a background henchman. 14. Graveyard Shift B A fun bloodbath inside a rat infested mill, featuring an evil boss with the Stephen King aesthetic dialed to 11. Brad Dourif plays a Vietnam veteran exterminator and the whole thing is treated with just enough seriousness to not fall apart. 15. Spirits of the Dead B Three shorts from Europe based on Poe stories. The first is flat but gorgeously set and costumed. The second is a creepy doppleganger story. Third is an amazing Fellini short about an alcoholic actor. It's worth your time. 16. Campfire Tales D Urban Legends but worse. The ending is so dumb it loops around to being kind of good. 16/31 Movies 9/31 Years
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Oct 8, 2017 06:33
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1. The Stuff: 80s cheesy action/horror featuring evil junk food, turning into more of an action near the end. Would be nice as a palette cleanser after something more intense, but unfortunately I started off with it. Welp 2. Haunter: I was interested in this because it was a time loop movie, which I normally love, but it really disappointed from that perspective. Basically it used ghost/haunting mechanics instead of time loop mechanics, so there was none of the fun stuff that other time loop movies have. Still had some scary moments, and was decent as a horror, but not the time loop movie I hoped for. 3. Spirits of the Dead : Part one had great costumes and tons of random animals, but was about 3 times as long as it should have been. Part 2 owned (though part of it was that part 1 was such a low point that it stood miles above it). Part 3 was really a work of art, with amazing cinematography. Would recommend part 3. 4. Campfire Stories: This was kinda bad. Maybe part of it was that I knew all of the urban legends it featured, so I saw the twists coming a minute into each short, but really the whole thing felt super generic. 5. Get Out: This was great, probably the one I'm most likely to recommend thus far. Lhet fucked around with this message at 08:53 on Oct 8, 2017 |
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Oct 8, 2017 08:51
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1. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) 2. TCM: The Beginning 3. Halloween (2007) 4. Friday the 13th (2009) 5. Hollywood Ghost Stories (1986) 6. Halloween 2 (2009) 7. A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) 8. Scream 4 9. Texas Chainsaw 3D 10. Mother! 11. Never Sleep Again 12. Lurdiak's Scream Stream 10/06 13. Scream Stream 10/07   Jedit posted:If he shows two movies, you watched two movies. gently caress you, you can't tell me what to do Dad. But for real, it feels a little cheap to me to treat them as different films. As is, I wasn't afforded the time to watch them uninterrupted from start to finish, or was able to pay them both the attention that the rest of these films have been given. For me, personally, it feels more fair to treat the night's stream as one experience. As is, the first feature was the definition of a mixed bag. The first segment, at least of what I saw of it, was a directionless and uneventful story. It's a film that suggests, rather than creates, any tension or atmosphere. And the actual climax of horror, again at least of what I saw, was weirdly abrupt and disjointed and without impact. It's kinda just overall bad. The second was technically better, but wasn't that fun for me. It definitely has more going on, having mystery and intrigue pushing the story. But what we have is a awful Antagonist-Protagonist, who uses his platform and power to do awful things, and that isn't entertaining for me to watch. Of course it is a story of comeuppance, and there is an opposing force preventing the very worst to happen, but it's a disturbing reflection of actual corruption and immorality. Something I can't take lightly as entertainment. As for the third segment, it's not a horror feature. It may take a few elements of the genre, but otherwise it's just a kinda cerebral exploration of celebrity. Be it either a result of where he is, the expectations he's held to, or just merely, selfishly, self imposing an emotional exile from the world at large. And the result may be my favourite thing I've watched in the last year. And then I found out it was created, directed, and co-written by Frederico Fellini, and I knew I needed to watch all of his films. It's surreal, stylish, weird and masterfully flawed. Watching it I see the things that inspired directors like Wes Anderson, David Lynch, Stanley Kubrik, etc. It's slow and yet electric, and that balance must've been held on the back of Terrance Stamp's performance, who masterfully steps up to the task. Seriously, if there is one film that I would hope everyone would catch out of any of the films I watch, I really hope it's this one. Now for the second feature... eh. My feelings can be personified as 'eh'. It's not a film that has a strong creative vision. It's not abjectly terrible as a whole, it's capable but not super ambitious. The quality of each feature is a gradual step down. The first was (as far as I saw), an okay creature feature with Ron Livingston bringing a bit of charisma to the story. The second is okay if excessively skeezy. The last takes way too long to get to the point, which doesn't help when they have to work around a mute protagonist. But getting back to that second segement, it's bad enough having an online pedo. It's wouldn't be too bad, the film goes far enough to only insinuate any perversions, and does enough to not condone it. But then there's a scene of a (suggested to be) pre-teen coming out of a shower with only a towel, and it focuses on this for long enough that I'm genuinely concerned about the files on the director's computer. Jesus Christ. And for the ending, it's such a weird misreading of tone. For a film that's pretty much a typical teen horror feature, made to titillate with shocks and violence, the end is a huge bummer that completely does not tie into anything that precedes it. It's like if 21 Jump Street capped off with the sobering impact of mental illness and the way it destroys families. Honestly, I recommend skipping it, as much as it does right there's enough that leave a sour taste to make it not worthwhile. That said, the stream is still a fun experience. I'm finding that the highlights end up being both the Earnest, Le Vampire shorts and the Episodes of The X-Files that Lurdiak caps them off with. And as always, watching things communally is always more fun than doing so alone.
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Oct 8, 2017 09:08
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 what do I even say? one of the single greatest movies ever. here watch a key and peele sketch about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x01l_jMhjVM you just said noun and gremlin its in the movie
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Oct 8, 2017 09:10
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Movie #24: Cult of Chucky You really gotta hand it to Don Mancini. After seven movies we haven't seen a reboot, revival, or reimagining. The continuity has remained consistent. Also the 7th!movie in a franchise has no right to be so entertaining. The plot takes the chucky formula in such a weird direction that I couldn't help but love it. The skylight decapitation was fuckin beautiful and this movie altogether has a very artistic filmmaking style to it that I wouldn't expect from a 7th! Installment. Also props to Alex Vincent for coming back as a grizzled Andy Barclay. In the best timeline the next sequel is Andy, Kyle, and the other Chucky survivors straight going to war with the Cult of Chucky.
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Oct 8, 2017 09:40
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Untrustable posted:Movie #24: Cult of Chucky i need a movie about andy and kyle and chukys head all doing a detective mystery or something or in space. chucky in space
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Oct 8, 2017 09:48
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SomeJazzyRat posted:But then there's a scene of a (suggested to be) pre-teen coming out of a shower with only a towel, and it focuses on this for long enough that I'm genuinely concerned about the files on the director's computer. Jesus Christ. For the record, the actress in that segment was born in October 1984, and the film came out in September of 1997, so at the very best she was almost 13. Her character is supposed to be 11, and it's entirely possible she was 11 when her segment was filmed. It's important to note that the skeevy voyeurism on the girl isn't from the stalking pedo-killer's perspective, which would do a lot to, if not redeem it, at least make it understandable in the context of the film. The omniscient camera is the one lingering on her in various states of undress, and everyone in the chat was fairly alarmed by this, so it isn't like me and JazzyRat are just overly sensitive to things like this. Lurdiak fucked around with this message at 10:26 on Oct 8, 2017 |
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Oct 8, 2017 10:24
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8.) The Blob(1988): when you think of a monster like the Blob you might not think it could be scary, this movie goes out of it's way to prove you wrong, turning what was a relatively passive monster in the original movie into an active and downright malevolent predator of surprising intelligence in this remake, overall this is a very fun film, scary without going overboard on jump scares(indeed it has a surprising amount of restraint in that area overall), with many of it's characters likable and well developed 5/5 pretty much the only real complaint I have is that the Sheriff got eaten offscreen, which just feels really weird considering the amount of focus he had before that point, at least with Paul it made sense due to him being a Decoy Protagonist, my best guess is it happened due to something during production
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Oct 8, 2017 10:29
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3. The Alchemist's Cookbook The Alchemist's Cookbook was not what I expected. It's the story of Sean, a loner who lives in a trailer in the Michigan wilderness (I initially assumed it was near Detroit, but apparently it's actually Grand Rapids which is western MI). He's moved out there in an effort to summon a demon to grant his wish for wealth/gold. The only other (human) character we see in the film is Cortez, who is Sean's cousin and brings him food/supplies. I really enjoyed this film. There's bits of comedy in there, and a slow-burning growing horror to the proceedings. The film also does a great job blurring the lines between what's real and what parts are just from Sean's damaged mind. The choice of making the protagonist black adds a lot of elements here to unpack and adds an air of tragedy to everything. Also, a lot of the scenes almost have an improvised feel. 4/5 4. Roadgames Someone earlier did a writeup of this so I'll keep it largely brief. I mostly agreed with the previous comments, with the exception that I'd say I'm more lukewarm in general on it. I would say it definitely leans less towards horror and more like a thriller, only I felt there was a lack of tension that something like Rear Window (which I think it shares some similarities with) has. 3/5 5. The Gateway Danni moves into an apartment where (unbeknownst to her) the previous occupant killed himself in the bathroom. The shower curtain she puts up disappears, as do all subsequent curtains she hangs. Her coworker Tim suggests they investigate the phenomenon more, and this leads into stranger and stranger encounters. In hindsight, this actually shares some of the feel of The Alchemist's Cookbook. Danni is most definitely a loner, although she's withdrawn more mentally/socially than physically as she still lives in NYC. A former hospice nurse, it's implied she quit her job due to burning out (not an unreasonable thing) and is just getting her life back together after having lived with her uncle Gus who raised her. She takes a job working for Whale Savers soliciting donations on the street. This is where she meets Tim, who is trying to raise money to go fight against a particular whaling ship. There's some background story elements that seem not fully developed, but on the whole everything wraps up in an acceptable way. 3.5/5 6. The Thing In Antarctica, we see a helicopter flying after a dog. The copter is accidentally blown up, and one of the survivors from the crash is show after he raises a rifle at the science station they were approaching. We learn that the people in the helicopter were from a Norwegian science base, and the US base sends people to investigate. They find the burned ruins of corpses and the base (including one with two faces) and some tapes that they bring back. The dog that was being chased starts to transform into something else, and things progress from there. The Thing is one of my favorite movies ever. It has pretty much everything I think you can look for in a horror movie-great effects, good acting, a great "feel", just enough humor, great soundtrack, etc etc. There's basically not enough praise I can give this movie, and I'd say it's a must-watch for any horror viewer. 10/5 7. Phantasm II Sequel to the first it picks up pretty much right where it left off. Mike's having premonitions of a girl Liz warning him while he's committed to a mental institution for his "delusions" about the events of the first movie. He fakes his recovery and is released, warning Reggie about his house being in danger. They arrive just to see the house being blown up, and this convinces Reggie that Mike wasn't actually delusional so they go about trying to find and stop The Tall Man. I believe someone also covered this earlier, but I think it's a worthy sequel to the first Phantasm. Both have a dreamlike feel to everything that's happening which helps patch over some of the issues in the plot. There's a lot of stuff that's also goofily over-the-top (quad-shotgun! chainsaw duel!) but I think it works. It's very much something I think you either just kinda gotta go with and not think too much about or risk being disappointed. 3.5/5 Total: 2 2 Jennifer [1.5/5] Gifts From Strangers [3.5/5] The Alchemist's Cookbook [4/5] Roadgames [3/5] The Gateway [3.5/5] The Thing [10/5] Phantasm II [3.5/5]
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Oct 8, 2017 16:18
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Still trying to involve my son where I can, so work up yesterday and gave my head a slap for forgetting 13. Beetlegeuse It's been a few years since I sat down and watched the whole thing, and I still really love it. Keaton is just phenomenal, it's a role that could have crumpled pretty easily but he just gives it his all and pulls off a perfect combination of funny and creepy. I also really like how much world building there is there without hand feeding you too much. 14. Cube Another rewatch, but I hadn't seen it in ages and my partner hadn't at all. One of her podcasts was talking about it so thought we'd check it out. It's a very cool movie, definitely small scale and has that Canadian Cinema feel to it, but it sticks to what it's good at and pulls off a neat, creepy film. Just stick clear of the sequels.
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Oct 8, 2017 17:07
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October 8: The Ceiling at Utsunomiya Castle Okay, this requires a much bigger write up than I usually give because this is about one of my bigger personal discoveries from previous October challenges: the films of Nobuo Nakagawa. So who is Nobuo Nakagawa? He was Japan's first horror film director. Starting in the mid-1950's Nakagawa started making low budget horror movies for a small studio. These did well and so Nakagawa began to specialize in them at a time when horror movies in general were effectively unknown there. He made the first vampire film in Japan, for example. So that makes Nakagawa historically interesting, but it goes deeper than that. Once Nakagawa moved away from the poverty row flicks, it turned out that he was a really good director. He had a real visual flare, especially with how he used color. His masterpiece would come in the early sixties when he directed Jigoku, or The Sinners of Hell, a film that found international acclaim. The thing is, however, that Nakagawa's films are almost completely unavailable in the west. As far as I have been able to determine, seven of his roughly twenty horror films have been translated into English. There's another that I suspect has an English translated film print since it may have been shown at film festivals in the early 1980's but does not seem to have any kind of video release in the west. Two of his films, the ones I'd recommend with hesitation, are found in the Criterion collection, one had a DVD release from a cult film distributor that isn't too hard to find, and then the remaining films seem to have gotten some very limited releases from some extremely shady distributors. The Ceiling at Utsunomiya Castle is one of those in the last category and it was Nakagawa's first ghost story. He had directed two horror films before that, neither of which are available in English. Nakagawa's films are often adaptations of traditional ghost stories and this movie is one of those. In fact, this one is based on a true story, though history contains less ghosts and the possibility that there wasn't even a real plot. The shogun is due for a visit to Utsunomiya Castle and Lord Honda and a wealthy merchant have a plan to assassinate him. They have arranged for a group of carpenters and stone masons working in secret to build a device in the quarters planned for the shogun. Two of the shoguns scouts have caught word of something weird happening at the castle, but a mysterious masked samurai working for the merchant opposes them and the group will kill indiscriminately to fulfill their ambition. So as a traditional ghost story, this follows the familiar pattern of bad guys being total poo poo heads for the bulk of the movie, then their victims (or victim in this case) returns from the grave to make sure they get their comeuppance. As a result, there isn't a lot of supernatural horror in this movie, though when the ghost does show up it looks pretty good. Instead, this is mainly a mid-grade samurai film for the period with no real acting talent behind it. It's a few years too early for really quality fight choreography to become more common in Japanese films, too, so there's just a lot of flailing about with loosely held swords. I think Nakagawa's talents as a director really show up when he's working in color so this film doesn't have the complex shots or lighting use that I enjoy in his later movies. There's moments where I'm going, "Oh, this bit looks kind of nice," but for the most part there's not a lot there. So an interesting movie as an early work from an influential director, but not really worth the effort of chasing down. Especially if you're looking for good horror movies. I've got two more Nakagawa films to go here, so I'll save my recommendations regarding his work until the end of that. Oh yeah, the villain does grab a cat by the neck and throw it down a well, so he totally deserves the ghosting that he gets.
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Oct 8, 2017 18:42
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28. The Vineyard - First of the late-entry, unofficial staff picks. It's definitely worth of inclusion in the list; not an all-time classic like many of them, but it's unique and fun. There are at least three movies' worth of ideas in here. And, in the proud tradition of Dr. Phibes, a bunch of completely nonthreatening animal menaces. There's a rich winemaker/movie producer who owns the island his vineyard is on and is apparently immortal thanks to some combination of his wine, alchemy, and a Mayan god. Which might seem like more plot detail than I usually include in these but it's all stuff you learn in like the first thirty seconds and the movie goes from there. Definitely gets my seal of approval. Pictured: I'm still not sure whether this was supposed to be an assassination or a horse head on your pillow sort of situation. 
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Oct 8, 2017 18:55
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I'm genuinely uncertain if that gif is of a scene where a horrified woman attempts (poorly) to escape a snake or of a woman having a date night with a snake.
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Oct 8, 2017 18:59
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Irony left out that The Vineyard is James "everyone's favorite Asian-American creepy guy" Hong's brainchild. He's the director, screenwriter, and star of the film. Anyways, on to my updates: #23. Sinister (2012) An obsessed true crime novelist moves his unwitting family into the home of a murdered family that is the central point in his next book. There, he finds a box in the attic of 8mm films of this family and many others over the course of several decades first being stalked, then gruesomely killed. Becoming obsessed with this case, he learns there may be a paranormal connection between things, and he slowly begins having trouble telling what is real or not while his family seems to be more and more at risk of becoming the next victims. Five years after this has come out, and I'm still a little surprised at how grim and graphic this one is for a big mainstream theater release. There are a few elements I could have done without in this, but nonetheless, it's pretty good. I've heard that the sequel might not be as quality so I'm hesitant there. I give Sinister  out of Five#24. Spirits of the Dead (1968) This is a trio of artistic filmings of more obscure Edgar Allen Poe films. First we have "Metzengerstein" by Roger Vadim which is slow and brooding, with very little happening besides Jane Fonda being obsessed with a horse that's possibly also the ghost of her cousin. It's dreamy and lavish in its sets and costumes, but kinda plods otherwise. This is followed up by Louis Malle's "William Wilson", a story about a rotten man and his encounters through his life with his apparent doppelganger who is good and virtuous. This one is more fun, with a lot of different surprising scenes, truly painting Wilson as a terrible man. Finally, Fellini brings it home with "Toby Dammit", a very liberal take on "Never Bet The Devil Your Head", featuring Terrance Stamp as a hot young bad boy actor visiting Italy and doing the promotion circuit, and having an awful time of it all, drinking and badmouthing everyone before going off on a high speed adventure in his new ferrari. This is a pretty amazing to watch piece, full of everything that makes Fellini worth watching, with all the artifice and self-hatred of the bourgeoisie and some absolutely amazing camera work. I can see why some consider it his best piece. I wouldn't really call the anthology "scary", but I did like it as an artsy euro-piece. out of Five#25. Campfire Tales (1997) Four teens have a car accident after a concert, and build a fire and tell urban legends while waiting for the police to arrive. It's all here-the hook for a hand, the ribbon around the girl's neck, the girl having her dog lick her hand, etc. You've heard all these before. Yes, you've heard all these before, which drains the whole thing of any real tension. It also features a bunch of "before they were semi-famous" actors doing terrible jobs. And finally, that "licking a hand" piece? It features a very long sequence of a girl taking a shower then walking around in a towel with lurid camera angles that would be de riguer for the show if it weren't for the fact that the girl is 12 and we're now all suddenly on FBI watchlists for watching this movie. Gross. I give Campfire Tales  out of Five#26. Noroi: The Curse (2008) This film is set up like an episode of an "in search of..." type show, with a paranormal investigator putting together several at-first seemingly disparate cases of psychic and ghost phenomena to lead to one big, cataclysmic case. I loved this. Unlike other found footage pieces, this really tries to feel "real" with its montages. Our detective films everything for posterity, and for "seeing is believing" purposes while still maintaining discretion. He feels like an actual journalist. Also they intersperse our timeline with lots of news articles and variety shows to show the case building up around things instead of just being a sole perspective. Also, most found footage films are really, really bad at making the actors "act natural" and it comes off wooden, or they tend to interpret things as "be an rear end in a top hat". That's not happening here. Again, it feels like I'm watching a real tv journalism special. Plus there's a growing sense of dread as things come closer and closer to their climax, with a promise of bad things to happen to everyone involved. The film wears its J-horror influences on its sleeve, but I don't think that's a bad thing with the way it's handled here. One warning, by the end you see a LOT of dead animals, and I'm not sure they're all fake. I give Noroi
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Oct 8, 2017 19:51
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What The?! I somehow skipped a whole writeup for #31DaysOfHorror!! WHOOPS! #21 Inside Scarlet (2015) Scarlet is a very troubled girl. She suffers from agoraphobia, hoarding, and paranoid schizophrenia. One day she's spotted by a con woman who worms her way into her life and takes advantage of her father's tv producer cred. This leads to Scarlet having a series of increasingly unpleasant encounters with the woman, ultimately resulting in her one day discovering she is pregnant. Who is the father? Her ex-boyfriend with his own troubles that also happens to be a furry? The strange masked man that showed up when her "friend" convinced her to have a satanic exorcism that she was definitely drugged at? Her plush chicken she's had since childhood that has recently started walking around and talking to her? Yeah, it must be the chicken. This is a strange one, with time moving out of order, and Scarlet's own grip on reality being loose and hard to nail down. It creates a strange, claustrophobic trippyness, while still having the narrative's many scattered pieces come together by the end. It's a dark film, reminiscent of 90s indie films. I give Inside Scarlet out of Five#22. The Vault of Horror (1973) Five men get on an elevator and find themselves stuck in a sub basement waiting room. While they sit there, they discuss nightmares they've been having where they each exhibit reprehensible behavior, only to meet their own ironic deaths. But they're just dreams...right? I was surprised, I thought I had already seen this one, when it turns out I had only caught the ending once upon a time. So good for me for watching it with friends! Anyways, it's an Amicus anthology from the 70s. If you've seen even one, you know exactly what you're in store for, and I can't really add to that. I give The Vault of Horror out of Five
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Oct 8, 2017 20:15
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10. Dead & Buried (1981) A small town sheriff slowly begins to realize that something just ain't right up here in this quaint town. Just another arrow for my "small towns suck" quiver. The mystery takes a number of turns and was pretty entertaining to watch, and the final reveal is pretty out there. .5/511. Campfire Tales (1997) Awful. I agree with the Scream Stream watcher who suggested that campfire tales as a genre would be better served in a short film anthology series ala ABCs of Death. As it is we spend far too much time watching Ron Livingston have great sex, watching an inappropriately young girl take a shower and try on clothes, and watching a man kill his family every two minutes because our hero is a dullard who can't figure out what's going on. They are all pretty terrible. Ridiculous stinger reveal though. /5
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Oct 8, 2017 20:40
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Choco1980 posted:Irony left out that The Vineyard is James "everyone's favorite Asian-American creepy guy" Hong's brainchild. He's the director, screenwriter, and star of the film. The best part of this is that he took the opportunity to cast himself exactly the way everyone else always casts him. The biggest surprise is that I don't think there was a single shot of him leering at someone through a window, he's always on the same side of the wall as the camera.
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Oct 8, 2017 20:41
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Retro Futurist posted:14. Cube Dumb question, but was the podcast Thirty Twenty Ten by any chance? Just asking cause they just brought it up recently on there for it's 20th anniversary and I was actually considering giving it a look myself for that very reason.
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Oct 8, 2017 20:52
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1)Ghostwatch 2)Willow Creek 3)Mother! 4:Q 5)Vampyros Lesbos 6)Saw the final chapter 7)Trilogy of Terror 8)train to busan 9)The living Skeleton 10)Light’s Out 11)Gerald’s Game  12)31 This film is interesting, because when it works, it's really effective, and honestly that's all down to Richard Brake's performance as Doomhead, which is basically the Jared Leto Joker done right. Unfortunately, not in the movie a whole lot, and the rest of it is very Rob Zombie, redneck clowns and nazis, and just kind of meh. It's only my second Rob Zombie film. The first I've seen since House of 1000 Corpses. and while I liked it better than that, it still didn't do a whole lot for me. /5
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Oct 8, 2017 22:28
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Trash Boat posted:Dumb question, but was the podcast Thirty Twenty Ten by any chance? Just asking cause they just brought it up recently on there for it's 20th anniversary and I was actually considering giving it a look myself for that very reason. Faculty of Horror actually.
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Oct 8, 2017 23:01
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18: Carry On Screaming (1966) One of the last classic Carry On movies when they were still affectionate parodies instead of "Pick a setting and have Sid James make smutty jokes", Carry On Screaming takes a swipe at practically everything except Dracula (who still gets namechecked). If it wasn't for Young Frankenstein I'd say it was the best comedy horror movie. The highlight for me is when Harry H Corbett goes home to his harridan wife under the influence of Dr Jekyll's transformative potion and she tears him a new one.
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Oct 9, 2017 00:47
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1)Ghostwatch 2)Willow Creek 3)Mother! 4:Q 5)Vampyros Lesbos 6)Saw the final chapter 7)Trilogy of Terror 8)train to busan 9)The living Skeleton 10)Light’s Out 11)Gerald’s Game 12)31  13)The Monster Loved it. The acting, cinematography, editing. It's all really intense and being broken down on a backroad in the woods, with something out there during a downpour... The atmosphere is fantastic. My only minor quibble is the monster design, which isn't terrible, just kind of ok .5/5
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Oct 9, 2017 01:03
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I don't know why I've been not wanting to write these up, even though I've enjoyed watching a these spooky movies.  I guess. #10: The Descent (2005) (rewatch) I haven't seen this since it came out and it really holds up. It might be the best from that decade. Some random thoughts: 1) It makes a surprisingly good double feature with The Thing. One's all female and one's all male, they both have diverse casts (outside of gender) that are pushed to their extremes in remote environments, and they both deal with mistrust. 2) I forgot that it takes place in western NC, as a filthy hillbilly originating from there I dig that. 3) The ending is some straight up Robert E. Howard poo poo:  4) The ending stinger is the only bad part. 10/10 #11: The Thing (1982) (rewatch) I love this movie, clearly. Random thoughts: 1) Good double feature with The Descent. 2) Kurt Russel is awesome and great. 3) His hat is great in this. 4) It is a good movie:  10/10 #12: Lights Out (2016) Felt like it was built out of building blocks from a Build Your Own Scary Movie Kit. Every scare felt borrowed and fell flat to me. I don't get why it was reviewed so high. I mean it's not outrageously bad, it's just bland as hell. Also how do you have a character that looks like this and not kill him horribly:  2/10 #13: The Stone Tape (1972)  Thanks thread! This is a very good sunday morning horror movie/ghost story. Also thanks, old timey BBC. 8/10
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Oct 9, 2017 01:58
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9: Night of the Lepus (1972) It's already unlikely to find rabbits to be threatening, nor keep a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail out of your head during this film. This is a ridiculous film, but it doesn't have the charm of stuff by the likes of Corman or Bert I. Gordon. The effects work is pretty bad and it looks like a lot of fluffy bunnies are getting hurt. It's at least somewhat competent. Effects are pretty cheesy, with bad mattes and obvious models, but not unexpected. Still, who thought that a monster movie with rabbits would be scary? (The Wallace and Gromit movie notwithstanding) . I'd rather watch The Killer Shrews, which is at least amusing in its incompetence rather than just being boring. This week, I'm going to watch a bunch of "not that version, this one" movies: the British/English version of M, the 1941 Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Spanish Dracula '31, and Godzilla, King of the Monsters. 1a/b: The Creep Behind the Camera/The Creeping Terror | 2: Phantom of the Paradise | 3: The Phantom of the Opera (Hammer) | 4: I Walked with a Zombie | 5: The Evil Dead (1981) | 6: Evil Dead 2 | 7: Army of Darkness | 8: Phantasm
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Oct 9, 2017 02:09
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10.) Pumpkinhead: this movie has been reviewed a lot in this thread already, so I'm not sure there's much I can say about it that wasn't already said, the monster was great, the overall atmosphere was interesting(as people have noted already it has a very Gothic atmosphere to it in the vein of much older films), really the main issue I have with the movie is that the teenage victims were incredibly boring and one dimensional(all three of the female members of the group were pretty much interchangeable, and Joel was pretty much the only guy who had an actual personality, which was just "Stubborn rear end in a top hat"), and that overall it might have been TOO tame with the violence½/5
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Oct 9, 2017 08:39
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12. Contracted: I liked the sets (cheaply scouted locations all) and the acting was adequate. Makeup and concept were great. Too bad the script was written in a universe where mental retardation has spread through 100% of the human population. Maybe that was the primary plague this was secretly about with zombism as a MacGuffin. Not recommended but I am a little glad I watched it.
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Oct 9, 2017 10:10
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#12 Near Dark (1987) This movie doesn't bring anything new to the genre, but the murderous redneck vampires are having such a blast that you won't mind at all. It feels like a Western movie mixed in with The Lost Boys and while it doesn't live up to the brilliance of the latter it's still very enjoyable. #13 The Asphyx (1972) Solid Victorian horror that hasn't aged all that well but still brings pretty of cool stuff to the table. #14 The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) This had some legit creepy moments and the mystery itself was interesting enough to keep me hooked all the way through. It kinda stumbles at the end, but nothing too bad.
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Oct 9, 2017 10:51
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So I won't be able to watch anything until next weekend due to work and other commitments, so I front-loaded my next couple of watches late last week and this weekend: 17. Beyond the Black Rainbow A girl with psychic powers is held prisoner by a deranged scientist in a research lab. I think someone upthread watched this and didn't like it but said they could understand why someone would, and I can understand the converse. The reviews of this one I saw before watching it are pretty divisive - it's a very weird, very deliberately slow film with very little dialogue - the movie relies on its trippy sci-fi-70s-inspired visuals to forward the story, and the synth soundtrack and sound design is loving amazing and creates a real sense of dread. Michael Rogers is fantastic as the antagonist, someone who experienced something outside of human perception and it's totally hosed him up. I love every scene with the guy just trying to make small talk with the people he works with and his wife because he just exudes this subdued psychopathic seething rage and dismissal that is creepy as hell. The only really bad thing I can say about it is the movie fucks up the landing, as the last 10 minutes are kind of pointless and anticlimactic, but I thought the rest of it was pretty great. 18. Hell of the Living Dead (aka Virus, Night of the Zombies and Zombie Creeping Flesh) Yet another in my "fascinated by the VHS box as a kid in the 80s" pick. An experimental chemical is accidentally released from a laboratory in Papua New Guinea and creates zombies. A SWAT commando team and two journalists band together to find answers as to why. Should have been called "Hell of the Stock Footage." A large amount of stock footage of random animals is shown. The heroine of the film enters a tribal village with what looks like tons of stock footage of natives dancing, etc. Even the excellent music (by Goblin) is pilfered from their work in other movies. The worst crime of the film is it's boring. It was clearly designed to be a cash-in on Dawn of the Dead, as the zombie makeup here is clearly inspired by the blue ghouls from Romero's movie. One of the SWAT team members is sort of funny, so there's that, and I was surprised that for an '80s Italian horror film, the heroine actually holds her own against the men (even though she gets topless, but it's because she knows the native village they have to cross through, so it's for serious reasons, ok?). A couple of decent gore shots here and there, but overall kind of a clunker. Burial Ground was a lot more entertaining. The last three here courtesy of Lurdiak's Scream Stream (which is a lot of fun and you should tune in if you can): 19. The Vault of Horror I'd read about the British Amicus horror anthologies but I'd never seen one before - this is a pretty hokey one based on Tales From the Crypt comics, but it's entertainiing. Five men share their recurring nightmares (the focus of each segment) with each other, and hey, it turns out they're all kind of assholes. These are all pretty light on shocks and blood, but there are some well-known actors here who are pretty good and it was fun figuring out what was going to happen in each segment. 20. ABCs of Death 2 I hadn't seen the first one and from everything people said, this one was better. 26 short films, each with a theme based on a word starting with each letter in the alphabet (A is for Amateur, etc.). On the whole these were pretty good - I think it takes a lot of skill to actually scare or creep out people in a short amount of time. It's sort of a grab-bag, and no matter how you like your horror - gory, mean-spirited, funny - there's something here for you. My favorites were "E is for Equilibrium," wherein two island castaways have their lives disrupted by the arrival of a beautiful woman; "O is for Ochlocracy (mob rule)," wherein zombies put humans on trial for killing them (after they've been brought back by a cure); and "R is for Roulette," wherein three people play Russian roulette, and the winner may be the luckiest one of all. 21. Spirits of the Dead Adaptations (some apparently very loosely) of three lesser-known Edgar Allan Poe stories filmed by renowned European directors Roger Vadim, Louis Malle and Federico Fellini. Vadim's segment about a nasty countess (played by his then-wife, Jane Fonda) is interesting to look at but that's really all there is to it - its otherwise short on dialogue and kind of incomprehensible. Malle's segment about a nasty German army officer whose cruel (and particularly misogynistic) actions are repeatedly thwarted by his benevolent doppleganger is pretty effective and much better, and Fellini's segment about a world-famous drunken British actor (a very young Terence Stamp, who is loving fantastic in the role) who appears to be losing his grip on his sanity is a surreal delight. So with that I'm 2/3rds of the way through the challenge. Just 10 films left! 1. Hellraiser 2. Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 3. Mad Ron's Prevues From Hell 4. The Void 5. Phantasm: Remastered 6. Phantasm 2 7. Messiah of Evil 8. I Drink Your Blood 9. Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape and Video Nasties: Draconian Days 10. You're So Cool Brewster: The Story of Fright Night 11. The Dead Next Door 12. Patchwork 13. The Visitor 14. Burial Ground 15. Undead 16. The Living Dead Girl 17. Beyond the Black Rainbow 18. Hell of the Living Dead 19. The Vault of Horror 20. ABCs of Death 2 21. Spirits of the Dead
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Oct 9, 2017 13:02
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7. Creep (2014) It has a nice slow ramp up, but after successfully building a tense first half the movie doesn't seem to know how to bring things to a close. The second half of the movie drags a bit, and the illogical actions of the protagonist make the flow of the movie a little stilted. There are too many jump scares, several of which feel forced, but there's some solid tension when the actors are allowed to just interact with each other. Three pumpkins out of five for having a pretty solid first act and a sloppy conclusion.
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Oct 9, 2017 13:30
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Egbert Souse posted:9: Night of the Lepus (1972) Isn't this the movie that's playing on a tv during the "there is no spoon" scene in The Matrix?
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Oct 9, 2017 14:17
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I'm gonna try to focus a bit more on new-to-me movies for the next few days because I know myself, once we get into the home stretch it's gonna be all classics.  I had high hopes for this one because the setting is so perfect, but in the end I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I expected to. It's decent, but too one-note and it doesn't keep up the pace enough to prevent some spots of boredom. The story is basically a combination of a Poe detective story and Phantom of the Opera, reading up on it a bit I see that a lot of people consider the original novella to be one of the first of it's kind. A proto-Sherlock Holmes in some ways. So it's worth checking out for that reason alone, and the cast is certainly interesting. Jason Robards in the main role, but throw in some fun side roles for a few great character actors like this dude from Thunderball:  And Dr. Loveless from The Wild Wild West(sadly he passed away two years after this film)  The killer in the film is fairly unimaginative, choosing to kill all of his victims in similar and predictable ways. The reveal of his face is also not very memorable, it's kinda what you'd expect but not in a good way. So with that said, you can understand why I reached for this film when the credits rolled:  A similar revenge tale that's simply better in ever way, and that's without even getting into what Price himself brings to it. I love the look of this film, it's operatic but in a very 70's way.  The Abominable Dr. Phibes doesn't ever seem to get the credit it deserves for how influential it is. You don't hear it's name thrown around very often in terms of the subgenres that so clearly draw from it, mostly revenge and slasher films. One can't help but think that Blatty must have seen this before he filmed Exorcist III:  Or that someone involved with the production of Saw probably saw this:  Throw in what I consider to be one of the funniest kills in horror history(you know the one), and I think the only thing I can say holding it back from perfection is that Price is given many more monologue opportunities in the sequel. Take the best of both Phibes films and combine them, I think you'd have the perfect horror movie. Completed:The Wicker Man, Deadly Blessing, Night Creatures, Shock Waves, Slugs, Venom, Maximum Overdrive, Christine, The Tingler, The Masque of the Red Death, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Funhouse, Poltergeist, Lifeforce, Invaders From Mars, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, The Seventh Curse, The Mummy, Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, Hellraiser, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Child's Play, Cult of Chucky, Leviathan, Pumpkinhead, Phantasm, Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Abominable Dr. Phibes Basebf555 fucked around with this message at 15:14 on Oct 9, 2017 |
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Oct 9, 2017 15:02
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Wait Until Dark 1967, dir. Terence Young | Rental  Three criminals create a convoluted plot to steal a doll filled with heroin away from a blind woman while her husband is away. A minimalist Hitchcockian suspenseful thriller with home invasion and slasher qualities that manages also to be a coming-of-age story for the blind protagonist as she deals with an onslaught of toxic masculinity and manipulation. Alan Arkin's Roat is one of the greatest villains from the era, and it's surprising it's not more well known for him alone (out-acting Hepburn at that!) Stephen King and John Carpenter learned a lot from this movie, especially Carpenter, who would mimic Mancini's score with his own in Halloween, as well as the influence the car scenes had on Christine. Also manages to have one of the most effective jump scares I've seen.  / 5Demons 1985, dir. Lamberto Bava | Shudder  STILL one of my favorites. I've probably watched this movie half a dozen times this year already. Horror thread regulars know I do a horror movie night for all of my friends where I show lesser-known horror films or ones they haven't seen. Group reactions: -the neck boils popping caused some shrieks -everyone agrees Tony the Pimp is one of the best horror characters ever -they assumed the red-head was in on it -motorcycle katana kicks rear end -everyone is terrified of getting their nipples sliced with a coke razor  / 5What's the best thing to pair with Demons? Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight 1995, dir. Ernest R. Dickerson | Rental  Billy Zane is a cowboy demon. Sandman, Rodger Rabbit, Jada Pinkett assist William Sadler in stopping him with the blood of Christ. Even that's too much to know. Probably the best thing to come from the Tales from the Crypt franchise. Zane-y (oh god), violent and awesome, and a go-to Halloween favorite that manages to surpass most horror films with energy alone. Group Reaction: "I never thought I'd be attracted to a Demon Knight." "Billy Zane should be in everything." / 5HAMMER MUMMY MOVIE MARATHON! The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb 1964, dir. Michael Carreras | Rental  While it's very much a by-the-numbers sequel, it moves away from it's source material for the better. The mummy doesn't look as good as Christopher Lee's Mummy, but the characters are better, the visuals are better (with some great uses of thematic lighting), the plot is better, etc. / 5The Mummy's Shroud 1967, dir. John Gilling | Rental  It continues the strange trend of Hammer horror mummies getting better as they get further from the source material, but with uglier mummies. This mummy has the worst mummy face, but the best mummy hands (which culminates with a really cool final mummy death where he tears himself apart). This is, by far, the best of the Hammer Mummy movies, and the best classic mummy movie I've seen. It's basically a slasher but with strangulation and head crushing. The plot is still based on the mummy being controlled by a man with an agenda, but this one is based around cultural appropriation and as an terrorist act against European capitalism. More than a 1/3rd of the movie takes place in the mummy's tomb and the dangers that are in it (obvious territory that is never explored), but also incorporates curses, psychics, etc. / 5Blood From The Mummy's Tomb 1971, dir. Seth Holt | Rental Burkion posted:There is exactly one reason why Blood was made  Pretty much Lifeforce, but with a sexy mummy lady. It eschews all the traditional aspects of a mummy movie while also embracing the general tropes (flashbacks to Egyptian times). It also incorporates non-linear storytelling, some psychedelic coloring, dream logic, and has an obvious influence from Star Wars. Sam Raimi had to have stolen the evil hand from this film. Despite it not being a traditional mummy movie, and it being made with an obvious male gaze, this movie really is compelling and awesome. I wonder if the new Mummy (2017) took inspiration from this movie for a sexy mummy. It's a little disappointing that it manages to stay rather reserved instead of going for the bat-poo poo insanity of Lifeforce, though.  / 5The Uncanny 1977, dir. Denis Héroux | Scream Stream  Spooky gatos. A very strange anthology based around a kinda lame idea of killer cats. There's some out-there moments that elevate this where I kind of recommend it, but it was made more enjoyable by crackin some cold ones (and jokes) with the goons during Scream Stream.  / 5Movies Watched NEW: I Walked With A Zombie, Dead & Buried, The Mummy ('59), The Resurrected, Critters, Cemetery Man, Roadgames ('81), mother!, Christine, Willow Creek, Castle Freak, Wait Until Dark, Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, The Mummy's Shroud, Blood from the Mummy's Tomb, The Uncanny REWATCH: The Return of the Living Dead, Pumpkinhead, Night of the Creeps, Demons, Demon Knight SHORT FILMS (not counted in goal): Junk Head 1; TOTAL: 21
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Oct 9, 2017 15:12
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 #17 Entity (2012) - So I hosed up. I meant to rent The Entity(1982) but mistakenly grabbed this one instead. Easy enough mistake to make I guess since they're both filed in the ghosts section. A film crew is in Russia ghost hunting or something. They have a psychic lady who can see ghosts and the whole film is a dull blue/grey not a bit of color. It was boring and ugly and bad. I would have turned it off if it weren't October. 1/5 Total: 17 Butterly Murders [4/5], Candyman: Day of the Dead [1/5], The Fog [4/5], Demons [5/5], Demons 2 [4/5], Prom Night [2/5], The Texas Chainsaw Massacre [5/5], In the Mouth of Madness [4/5], Inland Empire [3/5], Vampyr [4/5], Scanners [4/5], The Manitou [4/5], Crimson Peak [4/5], Planet of the Vampires [3/5], Raw [5/5], Friday the 13th Part 3 [2/5], Entity (2012) [1/5] Letterboxd list
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Oct 9, 2017 15:25
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Gerald's Game (2017) I'm not familiar with the Stephen King novel so I wasn't really sure what I was getting into, aside from the Netflix plot description. I did not realize I was getting into the most disturbing film of the year. This movie is about a couple (Jessie and Gerald) who are trying to save their relationship by having a kinky weekend at their lake house. This leads to Jessie being handcuffed to the bed when Gerald suffers a heart attack. The movie then focuses on Jessie having to confront her inner demons while trying to escape. It's far from a flawless movie, but this movie scared me. The thought alone of being cuffed in a remote location is scary enough, but then you factor in the dog, the lack of water, and the descent into madness and it just gets so much worse. Coupled with that, Jessie's past is very troubled and she had disturbing incidents which she never properly confronted. Then to make it even more disturbing, we get some physical gore that caused me to look away from the television. There's a subplot involving a "man of moonlight" which felt unnecessary. It's really just there to show character growth for Jessie, but I felt the main plot already helped address these themes. Rewatches (5): Maniac Cop, Friday the 13th 3, Friday the 13th 4, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 , The Lost Boys First time watches (15): Mortuary, Little Evil, Eloise, Mother!, The Roommate, The Chaos Experiment, Resident Evil 6, Vacancy, Rings, The Stepfather, Train to Busan, Dracula's Daughter, Son of Dracula, Cult of Chucky
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Oct 9, 2017 16:36
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CopywrightMMXI posted:Gerald's Game (2017) Gerald's Game was pretty disturbing, but have you seen Raw yet? That's my pick for most disturbing film of the year.
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Oct 9, 2017 16:53
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X-Ray Pecs posted:Gerald's Game was pretty disturbing, but have you seen Raw yet? That's my pick for most disturbing film of the year. No I haven't. I'll probably end up renting it before the end of the month though.
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Oct 9, 2017 16:56
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CopywrightMMXI posted:No I haven't. I'll probably end up renting it before the end of the month though. If you're American, it's on Netflix.
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Oct 9, 2017 17:02
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13. The Girl With All the Gifts: Body snatchers meets Lord of the Flies and 28 Days Later with a dash of 28 Weeks Later. Garnished with a dollop of Open Grave. Quite a good movie despite being very, very British.Basebf555 posted:I'm gonna try to focus a bit more on new-to-me movies for the next few days because I know myself, once we get into the home stretch it's gonna be all classics. This is a good plan. I'm on a solid run of first time viewings and should do the same. If I tuck into comfortable black and white monster flicks and the Evil Dead movies, I'll binge rewatches like an addict.
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Oct 9, 2017 17:06
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X-Ray Pecs posted:Gerald's Game was pretty disturbing, but have you seen Raw yet? That's my pick for most disturbing film of the year. I'd say it goes to mother!, but that's nothing against Raw, which gets 2nd place. I think the first act of The Bad Batch is incredibly disturbing as well, but it mellows out. I haven't seen Gerald's Game yet, though. I also feel like I'm forgetting a movie I've seen this year. If We Are The Flesh counts, that's easily the most disturbing movie all year, but it's got a weird release date thing going.
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Oct 9, 2017 17:20
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9 (16). Society (1992) A teenager thinks there’s something wrong with his preppy, rich, 80s Beverly Hills community and that there’s some darker secret going on. Also he thinks his sister is banging his parents. That one was weird. I had never heard of it until this thread but it gave me a 90s year I needed so I decided to go with it. Body horror isn’t totally my thing (which might factor into my conflicted feelings about Lovecraftian horror). Its not that I have a problem with it, but it doesn’t do a lot for me on its own. This movie was really odd in that the first hour feels like a 80s teen comedy but without the laughs. Like Billy running for class president only for the 80s bully to fake killing his opponent to make Billy look crazy is like some 80s comedy prank gone horribly wrong. I suppose that was probably the point. To lampoon that sort of movie with a much darker paranoia undercutting it. But it felt very odd since they really didn’t go deep into it until the third act so it felt like it was really dancing oddly on the satire line. If that whole hour+ had maybe just been shortened a bit before the audience really got something horrorish maybe it would have worked some more. That ending though. Like I said, body horror on its own doesn’t do a lot for me, but that was certainly a bizarre show. I don’t even know how i feel about those last 20 minutes. But I was watching and… entertained? Amused? Intrigued? I don’t know, but I was paying more attention than I would have liked to be. Big baseball day so I'm gonna have to try and squeeze a movie in before bed. I've been losing a little sleep with this thing. October Tally - New (Total) - (1). V/H/S (2012) / - (2). V/H/S/2 (2013) / 1 (3). Let Us Prey (2014) / - (4). The Crazies (2010) / 2 (5). The Boy (2016) / 3 (6). Beyond the Gates (2016) / - (7). Child’s Play (1988) / - (8). Jennifer’s Body (2009) / 4 (9). Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015) / - (10). Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988) / 5 (11). The Void (2016) / 6 (12). Nightbreed: The Director’s Cut (1990) / - (13). Grave Encounters (2011) / 7 (14). Grabbers (2012) / 8 (15). Get Out (2017) / 9 (16). Society (1989) /
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Oct 9, 2017 18:21
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