|
6. It Follows (2014, dir. David Robert Michell, d.p. Michael Gioulakis) The concept of this is novel, and unfortunately is the best thing this film has going for it. It's not that any one aspect is clearly bad, as was the case with Blair Witch, so much as everything feels underserved. The concept on it's own isn't enough to produce reliable terror, and there isn't anything outside of that to step in and carry the load. The characters are stretched too thin to gain any distinctive features (the closest we come is the main character discovering an ant and drowning it near the start of the film), and what time the film could spend developing personality it instead relegates to naval-gazing platitudes on adolescence. Everything in the film is shot gorgeously, and the detail of what is being shot is easily one of the film's stronger aspects but the framing is constantly too loose. The best moments, outside of the blood cloud blooming in the pool, occur within the car where the boundaries of what can be shot are strictly enforced. Most of the other shots are too wide or too unfocused to effectively convey information visually or provoke any strong reaction. The plot lays its themes so heavily on the surface that the subtext vanishes, and although it's been hailed as a subversive film, I'm struggling to think of anything it subverts. It's not a bad film, but it really feels like there's nothing in it to return to, which is in some ways worse. 4/9
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2017 11:43
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 10, 2024 03:03 |
|
|
20. Viy Going out of my usual wheelhouse, I ended up watching a classic Russian horror movie this time. The thing about soviet era movies is that they're either incredibly low budget and inoffensively boring, or they're super high budget, beautiful, and also kind of boring. Luckily Viy straddles both ends of the spectrum and ends up being pretty entertaining. Viy is the story of Khoma Brut, a student of philosophy who takes a vacation with his two friends. During the trip, the group gets lost in the woods and come across a small shack owned by an old woman. Turns out, the old woman is actually a witch who looks suspiciously like Abe Vigoda. Abe visits Khoma in the night and climbs on to his shoulders and makes him fly around (this movie is weird by the way). Eventually, Khoma breaks free of the witch and beats the poo poo out of her, only to find out she's actually a beautiful girl. Figuring his witch escapade is over, Brut returns to his school, only to have the dean tell him that he's been requested by name by a rich Cossack who wants him to read psalms over his young daughter's corpse for three nights. When he arrives at the village, he's shocked at what he finds. I won't spoil the rest, but needless to say, poo poo gets real weird. Viy is an odd movie. A good 60% of the movie is a lead up to to the finale, and the tone up until that point is entirely different. Khoma is kind of a brash rear end in a top hat who jokes around, gets drunk, and the whole thing feels almost like a comedy rather than a horror movie. However, when the movie transitions fully to horror, it goes all in. The special effects are a high point and while obviously looking terrible compared to modern effects, they're incredibly inventive and entertaining (one of my favorite moments involves giant hands reaching out of the walls of a church). I highly recommend Viy if you're looking for something creative and different. Certain parts of the movie are lost in translation, but the main story is easy to follow and entertaining. 4/5
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2017 14:41
|
|
|
#30: Tetsuo: The Iron Man A grimy look at the endgame of music like Kraftwerk, Devo, and Throbbing Gristle: the increasing industrialization of humans, to the point where we become machinery. Hazy, textured, and in glorious black and white, it's a nightmare put to film. The energetic low-fi camera work adds tons of atmosphere to the movie, and it pairs really well with the cheap-yet-effective practical effects and Jan Svankmeier-esque stop motion, like there's so much going on visually that you can't take it all in. Tetsuo explores multiple facets of humanity, like the previously mentioned dehumanization, and even takes this to the point where humans are no longer turned on by other humans, and instead look to cyborg hybrids, voyeurism, and more. Throw in a harsh, repetitive industrial soundtrack, and you've got an exciting, disturbing movie that never lets up for a second of its barely-hour-long runtime. Completed: Beyond the Black Rainbow, Rabid, The Driller Killer, Phantasm*, Phantasm II, Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, Phantasm IV: Oblivion, Phantasm V: Ravager, The Prowler, The House of the Devil, From Beyond, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Apt Pupil, Wait Until Dark, Gerald's Game, Hell House LLC, Black Swan*, Happy Birthday To Me, Pieces, Trollhunter, As Above So Below, The Devil's Candy, Antibirth, Chopping Mall, The Terminator*, Death Note, Ghostwatch, Baskin, Let the Right One In, Inferno, Tetsuo: The Iron Man *denotes rewatches
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2017 18:06
|
|
|
19/31, Freaked: I'm not entirely sure this Alex Winter joint belongs in a horror challenge, but gently caress it, I'm including it anyway. There are a lot of obvious sketch comedy influences, lots of gross monster costumes, Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves back together again, Mister T, Bobcat Goldthwait, armed rasta eyeball freakshow guards. It's a thing that exists beyond genre and rating. Do I recommend it? Only if you want to experience the distilled essence of 1993.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2017 18:10
|
|
|
 Halloween Is it perfect? No, but it does enough to separate itself from the original, while still feeling like a Halloween film and not just another Devil's Rejects. There are some Zombie touches, like most of Michael's family, but they all fit in pretty naturally in my opinion. A lot of the trappings are recreated; the setting, the overall production design, it really feels like Halloween but obviously Zombie is telling a different kind of story than the original. I really like the look of Michael in this movie, he's just huge and very threatening. Also his mask is like cracked and old from having spent years in a crawlspace, I like that look.  Malcom Mcdowell is a great Loomis too, even if he does come into his own even more in the sequel. His time with Michael is very compelling, and the kid playing Michael does a decent job too. There's also a bunch of other roles in here for some familiar faces like Brad Dourif and Dee Wallace. So I see no reason NOT to recommend this movie, unless you're someone who's just hung up on the changes Zombie made to the characters. I think we can probably see it now as a sign of things to come though, because he really went off the map with the sequel.  Halloween 2 This is just a whole different beast. Personally I consider it to be a borderline masterpiece, but I can also understand why aspects of it might annoy some people. Zombie almost acknowledges how weird things are about to get by giving us a quick remake of the original Halloween II, a great set piece inside a hospital. But once we move past that Zombie goes in some pretty crazy directions. There's a lot of emotion in this film, and I think that's a pretty big accomplishment for something like Halloween. By building off of the background that he established in the first movie, Zombie is able to tell a really genuine story about family and trauma that you wouldn't normally expect from something like this. I think the use of "Love Hurts"(which is used in Halloween as a song that Michael's mother dances to at a strip club, and also as the ending of Halloween 2), is very appropriate for what Zombie is trying to say with these films. Completed:1.The Wicker Man, 2. Deadly Blessing, 3. Night Creatures, 4.Shock Waves, 5.Slugs, 6.Venom, 7.Maximum Overdrive, 8.Christine, 9.The Tingler, 10.The Masque of the Red Death, 11.The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 12.The Funhouse, 13.Poltergeist, 14.Lifeforce, 15.Invaders From Mars, 16.The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, 17.The Seventh Curse, 18.The Mummy, 19.Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, 20.Hellraiser, 21.Hellbound: Hellraiser II, 22.Child's Play, 23.Cult of Chucky, 24.Leviathan, 25.Pumpkinhead, 26.Phantasm, 27.Murders in the Rue Morgue, 28.The Abominable Dr. Phibes, 29.The Devil's Candy, 30.The Visitor, 31.Prince of Darkness, 32.Critters, 33.Killer Klowns From Outer Space, 34.Horror of Dracula, 35.Brides of Dracula, 35.Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, 36.A Nightmare on Elm Street, 37.A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, 38.A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, 39.Horror Express, 40.Road Games, 41.13 Ghosts, 42.The Devil's Backbone, 43.Halloween(2007), 44.Halloween 2(2009)
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2017 18:35
|
|
|
Biff Rockgroin posted:Going out of my usual wheelhouse, I ended up watching a classic Russian horror movie this time. As far as I can tell, the Soviet Union produced exactly two horror movies. Viy is one, Den' Gneva (or Day of Wrath) is the other. I have not been able to find a translated copy of Den' Gneva at all even through the naughty places on the Internet that we shouldn't talk about. Apparently, the plot of the movie involved ecological damage in Colorado and werewolves.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2017 18:48
|
|
|
a foolish pianist posted:19/31, Freaked: This is one of those movies i watched once when I was a kid, probably on a day home sick from school or something, and ever since then I've not been able to shake my memories of it and what the gently caress it was I watched or even if it really happened or I just added crazy stuff to my memory.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2017 19:16
|
|
|
Well I was out on a business trip for a week so I've been trying to catch up this week. I'll have to edit in the numbering later. 13. Noriko's Dinner Table / Noriko no shokutaku (2005)  This is a follow-up to Suicide Club from 2001 which I haven't watched as part of this challenge or otherwise. It's billed as a psychological horror and I guess that's true, but it's pretty light on the horror part though there are a few pretty disturbing points. It's mainly just a sad story about teenage depression in circa 2000 bumfuck Japan (which is still a big city lol) and how their parents play into it. A school girl feels alienated from her immediate society and runs away to Tokyo despite her dad's warning about how the boys there are bad and will just get her pregnant. She joins up with a cult she fist discovered online that mainly seems to provide lonely men with the family experience, where the members pretend to be the customers' wives and daughters. As this goes on, we also check up on how this affected the rest of her family. Her sister runs away eventually too causing her mother to commit suicide. Her dad eventually quits his job and goes looking for her. There's a plot line about the mass suicides that I guess are supposed to tie it with Suicide Club, but they're only briefly mentioned although the thematic connection is obviously still there. The actors/cult members seem to be fine with actually dying if their part requires it which escalates the drama a bit. At a few points I thought it was unnecessarily difficult to follow due to intercutting of different time and plot lines, and its 160 minute runtime feels a bit excessive, but it overall it works just well enough to keep you engaged and IMO is worth checking out. 14. Three... Extremes / Saam gaang yi (2004)  2004 was one of the difficult years (along with 2002) as it was a pretty big year for horror and I've already seen the non-lovely ones like Shaun of the Dead, Saw, and Dawn of the Dead. So still on the Asian theme here, this a pretty cool experience. It's actually three short (~40min) films by different directors from Japan, Hong Kong and Korea. They aren't actually thematically related in any way. The first segment is Box, about a Japanese circus gymnast that starts in the present day and then spends most of the time examining how the origins of the protagonist's nightmares. It's a pretty messed up story that seems to stem from a horrific accident caused by sibling jealousy but also has hits of abuse. I liked all three segments about equally but in various ways. This one is probably the more surreal and atmospheric one. Next up is Dumpling, which is instantly identifiable as a HK exploitation-y flick. The story is super simple and more disgusting than anything - a rich housewife seeks a "fountain of youth" type of remedy from, of course, the dumplings made by a local woman. You can kind of tell what goes into those from pretty early on, but the movie takes its time making it more and more explicit. For genre fans it should be all pretty funny as hell too. The last segment is Cut, about a South Korean director getting trapped in his own vampire flick set by an extra from his many movies. It's all kind a meta is also as amusing as it is disturbing. 15. A Tale of Two Sisters / Janghwa, Hongryeon (2003)  This was also my pick for 2003, and I'm mostly in agreement with STAC Goat's longer writeup (https://forums.somethingawful.com/newreply.php?action=newreply&threadid=3834342#post477592110) except that by the third act I was kind of drifting off a little and wasn't fully engaged. It's not necessarily the movie's fault though as it's two hours long and I was quite tired. I'd probably need to re-watch the last part again but I have no problem recommending it based on how well everything up to that point worked. 16. The Eye /Gin gwai (2002)  As mentioned, 2002 was pretty tough as I've already seen 28 Days Later, Bubba Ho-Tep, The Ring, and Dog Soldiers, which are definitely the top for this year. Digging a bit deeper, I came across The Eye, a Hong Kong ghost movie about a young blind woman who got an eye operation and is now able to see for the first time since she was little. The catch is that she can now see ghosts too! Mostly it seems of people about to die. There are a few funny moments but in general it's pretty serious, tense, and creepy. There's no gore or jump scares that I recall, but it's very effective at creating tension though its supernatural shenanigans. 17. The Others (2001)  For some reason I didn't expect much from this one, but was quite surprised by how well it worked. A woman lives with her two small children in a huge mansion while waiting for her husband to come back from WW2. One day she has three people walk up to her front door, responding to her ad for a nanny/gardener. Except that the ad didn't actually go out  Anyway, they aren't axe murderers and seem to get along with the two kids, who are weirdly photosensitive (but are not vampires). Everything goes well until it slowly becomes obvious that the house is being haunted.Eventually the husband/father comes back clearly with horrible PTSD, but then surprisingly decides to just leave. Things definitely take a turn for the worse afterwards. In retrospect, I should've definitely seen this coming, but in my defense nowadays "actually, they're all dead" type of twists don't come up like they did after Sixth Sense.. But the whole thing works so drat well, from the cold and distant cinematography, to the sets perfectly of this empty mansion, to the performances, all establish a creepy, tense atmosphere that it's kind of a relieve once things do blow up. Good poo poo. 18. The American Nightmare (2000)  I've already seen Pitch Black, and in retrospect, should've probably went with Wild Flowers (Kytice) instead. This documentary about the rise of American horror focuses on what we'd consider modern horror, starting around the 60s, rather than the classic Hollywood monsters. It basically argues how the Civil Rights and Sexual Revolution movement and the Vietnam war set the stage for these young filmmakers to express their fears, anxieties and obsessions in a new and different way. It's great to see Romero and Cronenberg, among others, who all make interesting points and observations but overall I just didn't find it as entertaining as the more recent documentaries like Not Quite Hollywood, Machete Maidens Unleashed or Electric Boogaloo. That being said, it's not in any way bad, in fact it's quite good, but I think something like Kytice would've been more interesting material for someone already well familiar with horror. 19. Stir of Echoes (1999)  All right, we're in the 90s! Originally I was planning to see Sleepy Hollow but then I realized that was a Tim Burton movie and watched this instead. Tl;dr is that Kevin Bacon (who's very fun to watch) gets hypnotized and despite his skepticism, it does open a new doorway in his mind and he can now see weird poo poo. Turns out there's a dark history to the house he, his wife and a child live in, and he obsessively tries to discover it. Despite this weird stuff going on, it's a pretty straightforward movie and David Koepp directs a nice and effective horror/thriller here before he went to poo poo (Mortdecai  ). Tom (Bacon) gets progressively more obsessed and even his interactions with his wife and child become very tense, even though he never does anything to endanger them. It all comes together in the third act with an escalation of tension and eventual explosion of violence. This was tight, effective, and entertaining, what more could I ask.Next up today is Bio-Zombie, which seems like might be a cheesy zom-b-movie, which would put me at 20 and just one day behind schedule (unless I count Three Extremes as 3 movies  ). I rarely have time to watch more than one per day but it should be still doable.Random Stranger posted:As far as I can tell, the Soviet Union produced exactly two horror movies. Viy is one, Den' Gneva (or Day of Wrath) is the other. I have not been able to find a translated copy of Den' Gneva at all even through the naughty places on the Internet that we shouldn't talk about. Apparently, the plot of the movie involved ecological damage in Colorado and werewolves. 
mobby_6kl fucked around with this message at 21:21 on Oct 21, 2017 |
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2017 21:17
|
|
|
mobby_6kl posted:17. The Others (2001) I think the thing that kind of makes The Others work is the sort of reverse ghost story where all of the scariest haunting moments are really just a matter of them haunting the living family but not realizing that. I think if it had just been a moody story about the servants and husband and their strange, etherel behavior you could figure out the "everyone's dead" twist a lot earlier. But since there's this whole haunted house aspect occupying you it keeps you kind of distracted and you don't jump right to "but of course the ghosts are just the living" because its about one level too deep to really guess at. Oddly enough I think its kind of vaguely similar to what A Tale of Two Sisters did by having a couple of different things happening to keep you from ever getting too confident on one angle. Then again I guess that's also sort of what Sixth Sense did so you're probably right that time is the best benefit to remove you from that fad.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2017 21:38
|
|
|
28: In The Mouth of Madness (1994) I haven't seen this movie since it was in cinemas. Having seen it again, I honestly wish I hadn't bothered because it's nowhere near as good as I thought it was. The high concept is great, the cast is strong, but the whole thing is spoiled because while Michael de Luca has produced some really good movies he can't write to save his life. His other credits, lest we forget, include the worst Freddy movie, the worst episode of Star Trek, and Stallone's Judge Dredd. Carpenter is the only reason this isn't a total stinker; his eye for mood comes over very well. But the whole movie feels like that one scene in The Fog where the producers demanded he add a close-up on a leper ghost.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2017 22:14
|
|
|
14. Alien A goddamn masterpiece. It's essentially a slasher movie in space, but with a villain who has no motivation that you can actually describe, beyond that it's an alien creature who is acting on pure instinct. We all know the story. Space truckers find an abandoned ship, there's weird poo poo inside, then a dude gets face hosed by an alien and becomes a living incubator. The acting and atmosphere are incredibly fantastic. The creature design is by Geiger, who may be responsible for giving you subconscious fears regarding sex. Ridley Scott knocked this feature out of the park, as did Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt, and Ian Holm. It's a classic that shouldn't be missed. 5/5 Androids 15. Aliens The sequel goes in a different direction, being way more action oriented, but there are still plenty of elements of horror in the movie. James Cameron directed this installment, and did a great job. We're also familiar with the story here; Ripley wakes up from cryosleep, rescued by a salvage team. She quickly goes back to the Company, who think she's nuts for her alien story. But when the colony on the planet near where they found the Xenomorph eggs goes quiet, she ships out with a team of marines to investigate... Something that really adds to the horror here is how quickly the marines are torn apart. It's a crew of battle hardened badasses, equipped with high power weaponry, but the Xenomorphs tear them apart from the get-go. It quickly becomes a survival movie, tense and with thrills around every corner. It's another must-see movie. 5/5 Game Overs, Man 16. The Fly 2 Eh, this sequel to the 86 terror fest isn't as good. Not even really close. Veronica had given birth, dying in the process, but the kid was quickly snatched up by the company that Seth had worked for. He grows very quickly and is a prime source of study. However, one day, he's pushed just a little too much, and he fights back, using all of his newfound mutant abilities... That's pretty much the coolest part of the movie. Watching the new Fly roll around, icing security dudes left and right is neat. The rest is alright, but nothing special. It's the kind of movie where, if you happen to catch it on TV or need a quick time killer, watch it. But don't specifically seek it out. You can find something better. 2.5/5 Face Meltings
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2017 22:20
|
|
|
20/31, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil: I first saw this movie Christmas day with my mom and brothers, and it's remained sort of a Christmas tradition for the last 6 years or so. It's tightly constructed, gory, generally hilarious. 5/5 vacation cabins
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2017 22:29
|
|
|
October 21 - Kung Fu Zombie So after the intense and depressing Girl With All the Gifts yesterday, I kind of wanted to go to the opposite end of the spectrum. So I punched "kung fu horror movies" into Google and after eliminating the movies I had seen before, I picked Kung Fu Zombie entirely on the basis that its title meant I was guaranteed the walking dead of some kind and thus a valid movie for the challenge. Okay, maybe not walking... A Taoist wizard and a bandit plot revenge on a good kung fu master by setting a pack of hopping vampires on him. The bandit gets killed by the vampires, though, and his ghost harassing the wizard demanding that he get a new body. Meanwhile, an evil kung fu master shows up for his own revenge on the good kung fu master. When evil kung fu master gets beaten to death, the wizard accidentally revives him as a western style vampire. The bandit's ghost winds up possessing the body of the good kung fu master's father and then everyone punches everyone else. So this was a light bit of fluff as you might expect. It's got the usual mix of comedy and action that was popular in the martial arts films of Hong Kong in the early 80's. The action wasn't as impressive as some I've seen. The two main schools of martial arts were all about endurance and they talked about fighting for hours, so I thought that they might do some impressive They Live style super extended fight scene. Unfortunately, the fight started and then went for about thirty seconds of continuous action and a character said, "They've been fighting for hours!" despite there not being even any edits that imply time passing. Still, the ending with the evil kung fu master vampire fighting while on fire was kind of nifty since you know they had to actually put a stuntman (or possibly even the actor) in some flame retardant gear to cover the spots where he was on fire and then light him up. Frankly, there's better kung fu versus monsters movies out there if you want weirdness or martial arts. This one is just kind of middle of the road, super low budget even by the standards of the era stuff.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2017 22:37
|
|
Leavemywife posted:16. The Fly 2 The special effects are wasted on this movie. If they were in a good, well-written, well-acted movie, it'd be a classic.
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2017 22:38
|
|
|
34. Planet Terror: Trash celebrating trash. You'd be better off curating a list of actual fun original grindhouse grade films to watch, particularly Italian ones. But this is a nice love letter to even the theater experience (that almost no one these days actually got to experiencd for better and worse) to a point. I enjoyed it. More to the point, my senseless-body-horror-hating wife was engaged and interested until passing out as it got stupid late last night.
Butch Cassidy fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Nov 1, 2017 |
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2017 23:54
|
|
|
I have mixed feelings about Planet Terror but the part of it that always makes me laugh is when they just completely bypass any efforts to write a plot or reason for the story to change by pretending the film reel where that happens got damaged. Its loving idiotic as hell and vaguely offensive but also kind of funny in how little it gives a poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2017 23:58
|
|
|
29: It Came From Outer Space (1953) Jack Arnold directed this 3D movie with Richard Carlson the year before they teamed up again for Creature From The Black Lagoon. It's based on a Ray Bradbury story, with all you'd expect from that, and it hovers on the border between SF and actual horror. It's showing its age, what with visible wires and suspiciously bendy rocks, but there's some ingenious practical camerawork going on and the aliens are suitably menacing. I'd recommend giving it a shot.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 00:02
|
|
STAC Goat posted:I have mixed feelings about Planet Terror but the part of it that always makes me laugh is when they just completely bypass any efforts to write a plot or reason for the story to change by pretending the film reel where that happens got damaged. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBjbsHAE41s&t=7607s
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 00:12
|
|
|
12: House of Wax (1953, Andre de Toth) [in 3-D] The first major studio 3-D movie is really something. I had seen this before years ago on DVD, but this 3-D restoration on Blu-ray takes it to another level. I was really surprised by how graphic this film is for 1953. Vincent Price's burn makeup is way too realistic and there's all these shots of wax figures melting in a way that rivals that certain scene in Raiders. Vincent Price is great, as usual. The rest of the cast is somewhat forgettable, except for a mute henchman played by Charles Bronson. The 3-D cinematography is great, with a lot of depth. It's genuinely creepy for the most part, especially a chase in the streets. I like how it balances the creepier parts with some great humor, especially the hilarious paddle ball guy. (The 3-D Blu-ray is easily the best I've seen so far) 13: Das cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920, Robert Wiene) Considered the first real horror film, this holds up amazingly well for being nearly 100 years old. This was from the Blu-ray, which is from the new restoration sourced primarily from the original camera negative and original prints. The way sets seem to tilt at impossible angles, doors are crooked, and characters have layers and layers of makeup makes this like some nightmare. I was surprised how Cesare, played by the great Conrad Veidt, doesn't really get a lot of screen time overall... but when he's on screen, he's mesmerizing. The ending still gets to me. I know someone who saw a theatrical screening and he could hear someone say "oh poo poo" when a certain reveal is made. 14: Gorgo (1961, Eugene Lourie) [MST3K] MST3K fans probably know this was the rarest episode outside the KTMA season for the longest time. It's funny how similar this is to Reptilicus, except switching Copenhagen for London. The effects are alright for what they are and it has an interesting ending. Still a slog of a film and the endless stock footage is obnoxious. Great episode, though, especially when they're making fun of the terrible editing (which may just be from the lovely print, but still...) 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 | 9: Night of the Lepus | 10: The Touch of Satan (MST3K) | 11: Halloween (1978)
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 00:21
|
|
|
21/31, Harbinger Down: This is a paint-by-numbers ripoff of The Thing, just set on a crab boat stuck in ice instead of an antarctic base. The CG creature effects were decent, and there was a really gross body horror moment near the middle. This was a decent companion while I was cleaning and rearranging some furniture. 2/5 soviet space capsules
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 00:30
|
|
|
Egbert Souse posted:12: House of Wax (1953, Andre de Toth) [in 3-D]
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 00:41
|
|
|
The missus is out of town and it’s been pissing rain all day, so took the opportunity to have a stay in movie day with the boy 21. Hellboy This ones a bit of a gray area for this sure, but I think there’s enough horror elements here for it to count. As for the film, this falls into that group of movies I WANT to like, and SHOULD like, but just don’t quite hit home. It looks good, the cast is mostly terrific, the concept is cool, but as many times as I’ve seen it I just can’t enjoy it. But it was on TV so what the heck. My son liked it least, though he did get a bit bored at parts. 22. Gremlins 2 Someone recommended this when I was looking for good family horror, and it was a great call. I can’t even remember the last time I’ve seen the full thing but it’s a lot of fun, mainly because it fully accepts what it is and has no problem poking fun at itself, but not in an eye rolling way. Great way to spend a rainy afternoon.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 00:56
|
|
|
Lurdiak posted:The special effects are wasted on this movie. If they were in a good, well-written, well-acted movie, it'd be a classic. That's the real poo poo of it. There was a thousand pounds of potential in that movie and they only used about five pounds worth. I think that's why I like the scenes where he's just tearing poo poo apart. There's a scene where he melts a guy's face and it's awesome.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 01:02
|
|
|
CopywrightMMXI posted:I bought this after you posted about the sale in the blu ray thread, and haven’t got around to watching it yet but it’s good to know that the 3D is high quality. I also have the Creature from the Black Lagoon 3D blu and it also has better 3D effects than a lot of modern movies. I’m not sure what it is with this era but they look so good now. It really does look incredible, especially the colors. I think the 3-D works well because they either had vibrant Technicolor hues or in B&W. I recall seeing the last Harry Potter in 3-D and it looked terrible. 3-D doesn't work well with desaturated colors and dim lighting. Looks great for 2-D, but it's like boasting Dolby Atmos for a one man show.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 01:02
|
|
Leavemywife posted:That's the real poo poo of it. There was a thousand pounds of potential in that movie and they only used about five pounds worth. I think that's why I like the scenes where he's just tearing poo poo apart. There's a scene where he melts a guy's face and it's awesome. That ending visual would've been haunting in a better movie. Sigh. Don't let effects guys direct, I guess.
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 01:27
|
|
|
20. Biozombie (1998) Awww yeah, this is exactly what I was hoping to see and what one would expect from a low budget Hong Kong zombie flick. Tons of gore, super cheesy practical effects and ridiculously funny dialog and plot. Obviously production quality is rather modest and acting is sufficient, but that's all you really need in this kind of movie, and it does actually surprise with a few genius level shots even. I've seen a lot of great movies during this challenge, but they're mostly two hours of misery that leave you feeling like poo poo. This is kind of the opposite and is just very entertaining. One of the cops is now the first openly gay member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong IRL My perfectly legitimate copy turned out to be a horrible English dub so definitely watch the original instead. Thankfully it turned out to be available on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZfstcLwSXI STAC Goat posted:I think the thing that kind of makes The Others work is the sort of reverse ghost story where all of the scariest haunting moments are really just a matter of them haunting the living family but not realizing that. I think if it had just been a moody story about the servants and husband and their strange, etherel behavior you could figure out the "everyone's dead" twist a lot earlier. But since there's this whole haunted house aspect occupying you it keeps you kind of distracted and you don't jump right to "but of course the ghosts are just the living" because its about one level too deep to really guess at.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 01:36
|
|
|
18)Raw I really enjoyed it, but I tend to love weird art/horror film hybrid stuff (Mother!, House, Valerie and her Week of Wonders...) I work in the vet industry, so I dug on that aspect. The gore is effective in context, but it's not like a super gory movie. It is filled with a lot of disturbing imagery and cool scenes though.  .5/5
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 01:59
|
|
|
19)Black Sunday Great, feels kind of like a missing link between Universal and Hammer  /5
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 02:36
|
|
|
22. Son of Dracula, 1943 This is a pretty descent film. A bit boring early on, but gets better once the plot is in motion. Any old horror movie with Lon Chaney Jr. is cool. This time he plays Dracula him self and do an alright job. Not his best role, but can't complain. Dracula uses the name Alucard to cover up that he Dracula, and that's pretty silly, especially since they give it attention right away at the very start of the movie. It is fine movie when you want an old horror movie in the Universal Pictures style. There's no need to talk about the plot. It's simply Dracula in Louisiana.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 03:59
|
|
|
20)Hell House LLC I found this one really effective. Way better than the similar House that October built, by focusing on one haunted house, it does the haunted haunted house, really well. If you like found footage/mockumentaries definitely worth checking out. It's not without its flaws, but for the most part it's a creepy flick that does most things right.  /5
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 04:19
|
|
|
17. Alien 3 Assembly Edition If you have to watch Alien 3, watch this version of it. The theatrical is total crap. Anywho, after Aliens, Ripley, Newt, and Hicks crash on a prison planet. Ripley is the only human survivor, as there was an unexpected passenger. Before long, Ripley has to band together with a group of terrible criminals and try to survive. However, she's carrying an extra passenger of her own... The assembly cut, as the old thread proclaimed, was loving awesome. It's a lot better than the theatrical, in basically every way. This cut took it from the disappointing third entry to one that's nearly as good as the first two movies. David Fincher may have distanced himself from this movie, but you shouldn't. 4/5 85 IQ Officers 18. Alien Resurrection I can't really say a ton about this movie. I know it has Ripley clones, more of the Xenomorph monsters, and was written by Joss Whedon. It loving sucks. I base that entirely on the fact that the last two times I've tried watching it, I've put my daughter down for a nap beforehand. Those two times, I've ended up also putting myself down for a nap. Maybe this isn't a fair review, but I'd say this movie is worth skipping. 1/5 Ron Perlman Is The Coolest Guy In This Movie
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 05:37
|
|
|
Let the write-ups part of this challenge get away from me again, so here's some catch-up. 21. Cat People (1942) Very nice. A little stiff and unsubtle with the story-telling at times, and the early events are almost absurdly marched along to get the scenario going, but for the most part, it's extremely stylish and effective. Cool use of shadows, with the lamp-posts and swimming pool being the most memorable sets in that regard. Kind of felt like a forerunner to The Exorcist in terms of how ineffectual the science-based solutions were. Weird balance of attitudes toward women, from a modern perspective, with the traditional Americana running up against recognition of emotional complexity and contradictions. So much better than the '80s remake that it's almost a Wicker Man situation. 4/5 foreshadowing statuettes  22. Nightmare Beach, a.k.a., Welcome to Spring Break (1989) Man, this was a mess, but kind of a fun one. The most stereotypically '80s band I've seen since the last time I watched The Lost Boys, a pretty nonsensical big reveal, wild practical effects gore, an electrocutive back-seat on a motorcycle, proggy Italian score, delirious sexism (the bridging scenes of wet T-shirt contests made me feel like I was watching Killer Workout again), John Saxon, a motorcycle gang... It's a shame that all the ingredients were part of a movie that really just draaaagged at so many points. Good doggie, though, and lots of entertainingly over-acted lines. 3/5 exploding headphones  23. Hellraiser, a.k.a., Clive Barker's Hellraiser (1987) Another pair of rewatches with this and the next one. I'd forgotten how slow-paced this one was; you really don't get a sense of the Cenobites until at least an hour into the movie, and it dives into the family life of the Cottons to a degree that makes them feel vividly multi-dimensional in comparison to the characters of later entries in the series. And the majority of that is given to Julia, the living human of the antagonist collection. I don't feel she's made sympathetic, given how little conflict and hesitation she shows over leaping into that role, but there is more presence to her character than probably any of the others besides Kirsty. I still love how completely ineffectual Kirsty's boyfriend is; her swatting his hands away when he tries to help solve the box got a good laugh from the first-time viewer with me. And the little cuts of environmental shots, like the waterfront architecture, add some nice texturing, even if they're essentially ornamental. Still wanna see a fan-edit with Coil's score reintegrated. 4/5 handfuls of crickets  24. Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) I've got a tough time deciding which of the first two Hellraisers I prefer, but I generally go with this one. Sure, there's a lot of faults, like the recycling of footage from the first movie, the incredibly anticlimactic showdown scene, the really awkward insertion of a spooky carnival, Channard's apparent invisibility to local authorities, and the hamminess of certain dialogue and extras. But there's also the gorgeous matte shots, the parts of the Labyrinth that fully plug into their dream qualities, the straight-razor scene, the set dressing of Channard's home, and the expansion into Leviathan's influence. The highs it hits, even if they're scattered and unsteady, hit a more powerful note than the first one's smoother quality, and that initial burst of Christopher Young's score feels so much bigger than even the finale of the first film. Listening to the corresponding WHSFTSY episode after watching this explained a lot of reasons for the various issues, from actor injuries to budgeting and scripting troubles, which I think made me more forgiving to the version we did get. Here's hoping the upcoming sequel with Heather Langenkamp isn't poo poo. 4/5 bloody cigarettes
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 06:15
|
|
|
7. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986, dir. Tobe Hooper, d.p. Richard Kooris) Complete insanity. I can respect the decision to make the essentially a live-action cartoon, as the likelihood of recreating the feeling of the original was unlikely. How well it works is dependent on which half you are watching. The first half manages to find a healthy synthesis between the two sensibilities, crafting moments of incredible hilarity and genuine terror. The film does a great job of mapping out territory that remains distinct from its predecessor while still feeling like a part of that universe. However, after the movie transitions to the Sawyer's villainous lair, everything about it becomes a markedly worse string of 80s action-horror clichés. The nadir of this is the dinner scene, which is recreated beat-for-beat from the original film, but stripped of it's inventive shot choices, set design, and tension. It even denies the protagonist of the agency to escape her captivity, which I thought was one of the more impactful moments of the original. There are still flashes of lunacy to enjoy within that, but it's extremely disappointing after a particularly strong first half. Character-wise, the only real misstep is Leatherface. Unlike the others who are abstracted to absurd proportions, the film tries to give him more humanized motivations, which only serves to detract from the presence of pure evil that the first film was able to effectively convey. Most of the other performances range from serviceable to fantastic, with the stand-outs being the initial victims, whose antics and demise set the tone of the movie perfectly. This film is definitely a step down from the original, but is still incredibly enjoyable on its own merits, and different enough to not keep you caught up in the differences for much of the time. 7/9
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 11:38
|
|
|
22/31, Midnight Meat Train: This is a pretty solid Barker adaptation, and goddamn does Ryuhei Kitamura make it stylish - his touch for action and atmosphere is everywhere in this film. Bradley Cooper plays an excellent descent into near-madness, and Vinnie Jones is menacing as always. 4/5 subway cars
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 15:44
|
|
|
35. The Mummy (1932): Is movie. Some side boob to taunt the code and a better movie than many here will admit. It is totally watchable and only falls as flat as it does in comparison to the rest of the Universal monsterverse. As makeup goes, it features some of the most well done blackface from the era. Unfortunate and more than a touch disturbing that it mixed blackfaced actors as paid servants with actual minorities in roles playing slaves. Anyway, the only truly standout moments were an assistant going mad and closeups of the mummy's face with lighting ramping up to highlight truly malevolent eyes. That all said, two friends were visiting during last night's viewing and stayed engaged throughout. Neither had seen a classic mummy film before. Both admitted weaknesses but enjoyed the film. It sparked a fun discussion wondering if the code had caused the faults and it was the best that could be done under such censorship. I totally disbelieve that but, unfortunately, didn't have time to screen Frankenstein as a counter to show some truly disturbing moments such as the flowers in the pond. In a film made the year before The Mummy, no less So I'd say that I find it an average movie rather than bad. Butch Cassidy fucked around with this message at 15:18 on Nov 1, 2017 |
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 16:50
|
|
|
Queen of the Damned This was an embarrassment for everyone involved. The idea is solid (vampire uses gothic Alice Cooper tactics to go on tour as a band), but it is just so cringe-inducing early 2000s that you can't ever enjoy it except by laughing at it. Aaliyah is still a singular physical presence, but doesn't have much to do beyond portending the Key & Peele "why ya'll hissin' so much" takedown of vampire culture. Utter nonsense. Last Girl Standing This was really impressive, though. Smartly starts at the end of one horror movie, only to give us a really quiet and meditative look at PTSD and what survivors of trauma actually go through. Plays around with several different options for how it will play out, before finally settling on one, essentially opening the lady or the tiger door for us and letting us enjoy the grisly outcome. I love this movie because it's so content to be silent, to let the actors do their jobs, and just be. Highly recommend. Movies Watched: (25) Midnight Meat Train, IT, Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), Saw 7, Phantasm, Demons, Rockula, House of the Devil, 31, Deathrow Gameshow, Nine Miles Down, The Carrier, Halloween (1978), Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama, Nightbreed, Pumpkinhead, What we do in the shadows, Curse of Chucky, Cult of Chucky, Dracula 2000, RAW, The Blob (1988), Addams Family Values, Queen of the Damned, Last Girl Standing
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 17:14
|
|
|
a foolish pianist posted:21/31, Harbinger Down: Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't this movie all practical effects? I'm pretty sure the studio that did the practical effects for The Thing prequel were miffed that their work got hastily CGI'd over on that movie, so they kickstarted their own movie with all practical effects. Lurdiak posted:Don't let effects guys direct, I guess. Counterpoint: motherfucking Pumpkinhead.  #31: Starry EyesThe classic tale of a young woman who wants to make it big in Hollywood, only to find that the price of success in a cruel world is more than she bargained for. From the plot synopsis, you can guess that it takes a lot from Lynch, especially Mulholland Drive, and you'd be right. But thankfully, it doesn't really try to be Lynch, it just takes a few images and themes, and it manages to be better for it. It's a slow burn, the standard horror movie stuff doesn't appear until the final half-hour, but the first hour is pretty unnerving, especially in light of the recent accusations against a lot of men in Hollywood. Where the film lacks originality, it makes up for in execution. It's well-paced, well-acted, and surprisingly funny at parts, and the characters are well-developed, and the final act is really good, with lots of blood and very disturbing violence. I liked it quite a bit, and if you want a movie about the evils of Hollywood, you could do a hell of a lot worse. Completed: Beyond the Black Rainbow, Rabid, The Driller Killer, Phantasm*, Phantasm II, Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, Phantasm IV: Oblivion, Phantasm V: Ravager, The Prowler, The House of the Devil, From Beyond, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Apt Pupil, Wait Until Dark, Gerald's Game, Hell House LLC, Black Swan*, Happy Birthday To Me, Pieces, Trollhunter, As Above So Below, The Devil's Candy, Antibirth, Chopping Mall, The Terminator*, Death Note, Ghostwatch, Baskin, Let the Right One In, Inferno, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Starry Eyes *denotes rewatches
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 17:20
|
|
|
My second #31 of the countdown and I wanted something special, I ended up picking the one classic film from my all time favorite horror auteur I had somehow never watched. 31 (41). Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)  A cop’s first day in command finds him protecting a nearly shut down precinct from a murderous (and surprisingly ethnically diverse) gang hell bent on sieging it and killing everyone, including the prisoners the cop must turn to for help. So how did I go this long without seeing this? I have 3 theories. 1, its content means it never popped up on TV for me. 2, I never really thought of it as a horror film. 3, It wasn’t until this month that I realized how much I loved John Carpenter. People were listing his movies and suddenly it hit me… I loved every single one of them. So I should certainly want the one classic film he made that I’ve never seen. I didn’t love it. I’m also still not sure its horror. I’m counting it on the grounds that its on Shudder and if the gang were robed cultists or zombies I’d totally call it horror. I didn’t hate it or anything. I think its definitely a case of aging issues. Its not QUITE as shocking and violent as I imagine it was at the time. It certainly is violent but given the stuff we see quaint. Although the girl being murdered to start all this still was shocking and left me a little shaken even with some preparation. There were good performances from the leads. I imagine a lot of those elements - black hero cop in command, killer with some moral code, strong woman flirting with both - were controversial at the time. Oddly I imagine the opening scene of gang members being gunned down by cops without any real chance to surrender wasn’t shocking at the time but in the modern light certainly takes on a different feel. There’s a lot in this movie and it kept my interest the whole way through. I guess I was just prepared for something more shocking and graphic than it really was after a lifetime of buildup. - (42). Phantasm II (1988)  Mike (sorta) and Reggie are back 8 years after the first movie that may or may not have happened (I’m still confused) and chasing down the Tall Man as well as looking for Elizabeth, a young woman with a psychic connection to the Tall Man and Mike. This franchise is so confusing. Not in a hard to follow sense but in a just not clear what is real and isn’t sense. Obviously that’s purposeful but its weird to take. I mean, just the opening act of picking up on the first movie, having Reggie blow up the zombie dwarves, and then 5 minutes and 8 years later him saying it didn’t happen but then maybe he was lying? I can only imagine the first scene was filmed a decade earlier when making the first film so Coscarelli wanted to include it, but it didn’t quite fit his vision for the second movie? I don’t know. I really couldn’t get my footing in the first act. I’m not sure i ever really got my footing and I have no idea what the ending was but at some point I just kind of feel into the groove of the nightmare feeling again. Another dilemma for me in that I KNOW I saw this movie as a kid. I know that because one of my “never will happen” fantasies has always been to break into a hardware store and build an arsenal that includes a quadruple barrelled sawed off shotgun and a propane blow torch. I’ve dreamed about that poo poo. And a lot of moments and scenes of this movie were definitely memorable. But I had no sense of the story or plot. Then again, I still have no sense of the story or plot. So maybe that’s not my memory but the film. Sadly I don’t think I can count this as a new movie and my 1988 entry. Thankfully I have another option for ’88 but with the days dying down its tough to have another miss. I really don’t know what to say about the movie. Its definitely got memorable and impactful elements and moments. The Tall Man and the killer balls have always been lasting nightmare fuel for me since I was a kid. And there’s a whole emotional grief and loss theme that goes through these movies. All I can really say is I have every intention to continue on through the series. Not just because the sequels fill some tough to fill years for me but because I am genuinely curious where this is going. I’m also curious to see another franchise entirely done by one person after the interesting journey of the Chucky series. A bit of a low key night for me. My team is now out of the playoffs so I’m planning a big marathon tonight. I’m just gonna lose myself in horror as soon as the sun goes down.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 20:11
|
|
|
STAC Goat posted:All I can really say is I have every intention to continue on through the series. Not just because the sequels fill some tough to fill years for me but because I am genuinely curious where this is going. I’m also curious to see another franchise entirely done by one person after the interesting journey of the Chucky series.  Just keep in mind, the final movie was the only one not solely written by Coscarelli and the only one not directed by him. It's not that good, but it's definitely worth watching and puts the entire series in a whole new light.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 20:29
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 10, 2024 03:03 |
|
|
15: M (1931, Fritz Lang/Charles Barnett) [British version] M is one of Fritz Lang's greatest films, especially for the way it's somewhere between procedural and film noir. This version was a long-lost cut released in the UK. Unlike most other foreign language versions from 1929-1932, this is primarily dubbed into English with some signs/labels/newspapers clumsily replaced with translations. Peter Lorre deservedly became a star with this film. Though, I particularly love Otto Wernicke as Inspector Lohmann. Lang rightfully brought him back for The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, which is my personal favorite of his films. 16: Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1956, Ishiro Honda/Terry Morse) I watched the original Japanese film earlier this year and found it to be an effective and surprisingly disturbing film. The English language version, re-edited, re-shot, and dubbed is still effective, but... kind of comes off as silly in parts that were much darker before. Listening to David Kalat's commentary track on the Criterion edition, he points out that this radical re-invention of the film was actually meant to be more respectful of the film. Before Godzilla, King of the Monsters, foreign films were usually subtitled, but the fact that some producers saw enough promise to go through expensive dubbing and re-shooting said a lot about the quality of the film. 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 | 9: Night of the Lepus | 10: The Touch of Satan (MST3K) | 11: Halloween (1978) | 12: House of Wax (1953 - in 3-D) | 13: Das cabinet des Dr. Caligari | 14: Gorgo (MST3K)
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2017 20:33
|
|