|
Man, years ago I bought Chernobyl Diaries full price in the store on a whim for some reason and I was so disappointed when I got home and watched it. I don't even know why I thought it was going to be good. I just the idea of it just seemed so naturally promising or something. Or i just really wanted a new horror dvd.
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2018 23:17
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 1, 2024 09:38 |
|
|
STAC Goat posted:Man, years ago I bought Chernobyl Diaries full price in the store on a whim for some reason and I was so disappointed when I got home and watched it. I don't even know why I thought it was going to be good. I just the idea of it just seemed so naturally promising or something. I wanted to check it out solely because it was the first big movie that Olivia Taylor-Dudley from 5 Second Films was in.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2018 23:18
|
|
|
 VHS If you're around my age, and a horror fan, there's a good chance you used to rent horror movies on VHS by the quarter-dozen from your local mom and pop store. It was probably the start of your obsession, it was certainly the start of mine. But how does VHS hold up in the age of the boutique label blu-ray rerelease? In the age of Shudder? In the age of Amazon's octopus tentacles of Literally Every loving Movie Ever Made On Streaming? Well, thanks to my library's connections to a treasure trove of old obscure horror VHS tapes I'm about to find out. 7.  A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors Nostalgia Rating: out of 5A/V Rating: out of 5Trailers: 0 out of 5 (Seriously, no loving trailers? Why am I even bothering?) Almost immediately after I started watching this I began to regret my decision. The picture was muddied and looked like blurry diarrhea. I've only ever seen Dream Warriors in VHS form but this looked worse than I remembered. I mean, I'm pretty sure the Freddy worm that swallows Patricia Arquette actually looked good and not like a faceless, sweaty blue-black meatball. The sound was fine, but that's to be expected from my beefy-rear end Sony VCR with RCA stereo out. As for the movie itself, I guess it's just like I remembered it and still pretty good after all this time. I'm planning on giving this a proper rewatch in HD next month, I feel like this movie deserves better than a 4:3 cropped image and blown-out, muddy colors.  Dead & Buried Nostalgia Rating: 0 out of 5 (Only watched for the first time last year) A/V Rating: out of 5Trailers: 0 out of 5 (Come the gently caress on, Vestron. I expect better from you!) This was a slight step up picture-wise from Dream Warriors, probably due to the fact that it's not as well-known of a movie and likely hasn't been watched as often. But it still looks like poo poo, and I watched it just last year in HD so I have a mental comparison. As I was drinking during what should've been a triple-feature marathon, I sort of fell asleep at the halfway point, but the movie is still really good and creepy. I'm going to go ahead and not count this for my 31 since I missed like 40 minutes of it. I'm probably not going to give this a proper rewatch since I have so much other poo poo on the docket, but someday I'll revisit it because I really enjoyed it last Halloween season. All in all I'm disappointed in VHS's quality now. Maybe I've been spoiled, maybe it's my Panasonic flat-screen CRT, whatever the case the image is awful and it actually kind of takes me out of the experience. Maybe it's time to move on?
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2018 23:48
|
|
|
King Vidiot posted:
...did you watch the Dokken music video?
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 00:36
|
|
|
 38- Curse of Frankenstein 1957 Not sure what to say on this one that's not already been said. It's the start out the gate on the Hammer Horror we all know and love. The storyline as well as makeup differs a fair amount from the Universal versions which makes sense since to my understanding, Hammer was treading very cautiously to not face the wrath of Universal's lawyers. To my understanding, the Hammer films were VERY divisive in the Horror community of the time, splitting between those who found them a breath of fresh air to the genre and others who were absolutely disgusted by all this gore and skin getting shown. It reminds me of when slashers started becoming the trend and people pitching a fit about that. One thing I really liked with the Hammer films were they stuck with Dr. Frankenstein continuing to try and craft a creation that's not going to go the 'raar' killer route. It fits for the Dr. to be that frikkin' stubborn. As I said with my review on the later Universal Frankenstien films was it just felt ridiculous after a while of members of the family trying to redeem the name for generations.  39- Horror of Dracula 1957 This one's the one that got me thinking on my Dracula portrayal theory of each actor portraying him highlights one element of Dracula. Lugosi brought the Old World nobility angle, Carradine the authoritarianism, Lee the savagery...etc. Lee's Dracula has no problem getting brutal if that's what it comes down to. He also oozes sex appeal at the blink of an eye. Again, people were making GBS threads bricks on this one since they were more used to a Lugosi style portrayal. Me, we all know I'm biased on this one. I love this one.  40- The Mummy 1959 As was said before, the Hammer's Mummy is as different as can be from the Universal one, and I feel it was a good call. This version actually brings the fear of the Mummy coming at you like the Terminator. Not to mention, to me the Mummy just gives that feeling like he's disdainfully looking down at you like you're reducing property values by just breathing. Again, I'm biased here too, love this one.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 00:37
|
|
|
Lumbermouth posted:...did you watch the Dokken music video? Sadly, I don't think this release has it. There's certainly no mention of it or any sticker on the outside of the box, and it's distributed by "Video Treasures" which I guess means it's a rerelease or special rental-only copy. But you better believe I was fist-pumping and headbanging during the credits. e: V Okay that'd make sense, they probably added the music video later. King Vidiot fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Sep 24, 2018 |
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 00:47
|
|
|
From what I gather, Video Treasures was a Media Home Entertainment label, and that might be the original release of Dream Warriors (which would go some ways towards explaining why it looked like straight rear end- 30 years ain't gonna be kind to a VHS)
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 00:59
|
|
|
It's the most wonderful time of the year! #5 Trilogy of Terror (1975) - after hearing so much about THAT installment in this 3-part anthology (you know the one), I decided to give this a spin. What really brought this home for me was Karen Black's performances. While some of the material was outright cheezy and absurd, she sold it and came across as devoted & 100% serious. I know Karen Black was popular back in the day, and this was at her prime, but ToT is the first movie I've seen with her - I must say I'm impressed. She even was at her "A" game at the end of the doll story when she got possessed, squatting down in a predatory position with a knife, awaiting some company at her apartment. Deducting some points for the bad plastic fake razor-sharp teeth she had on, not that she had much to do with it. Story One was awkward, considering thirty years have passed and we are in the era of the #MeToo movement. On second thought, not much has changed since then. A college guy (played by the 35-year-old) sleazily pursues a quiet and timid grad student (also played by Karen Black), with all the cliche misogyny and sexism, and then jeopardizes the grad student by drugging her and taking photos of her. However, the twist is that she put him under a spell and was having fun with him the whole time, and let's just say it does not end well for the creep when she gets bored.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 01:03
|
|
|
Okay, so. I think I'd like to try my hand at this. But I don't think I can watch 31 horror movies over the course of one month. I just don't have the tenacity to pull that off. I'm going to instead pick a spooky number and watch 13.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 01:15
|
|
|
 9)Hellhouse llc 2 So, chernobyl diaries wasn't the worst movie I watched tonight. I liked the first hellhouse fine, but this one is a mess. It's dumb and the editing doesn't help even a little bit. Maybe there's a cut of an ok movie in there, but I think I'm going to be hardpressed to watch something worse this season 1/5
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 01:30
|
|
|
oh hey, the challenge counts as already begun? Sweet. In that case I'll review the movie I watched right this evening: Unfriended: Dark Web Much like its predecessor Unfriended, the gimmick in this one is that you're seeing the action through the protagonist's desktop. We see him click from Facebook chats to Skype group calls to Google searches, and all of that adds a very nice human element to the experience. The characters were... not all that deep, honestly, but they were entertaining and well-acted enough that I cared about them. They're certainly above the cardboard cut-outs that we so joyfully watch getting butchered in Fryday the 13th. As the title implies, this movie abandons the avenging phantom antagonist in favor of a more modern monster: a cabal of hackers that haunt the Deep Web, where Google doesn't reach, and trade in murder-based entertainment. The terror of an organization that can and does get away with murdering you for their own entertainment is a very deep, very powerful fear to invoke, I feel, and it mixes very well with the fear of computers, a technology that we rely on even as we don't completely understand them. It evokes a sensation of powerlessness that is only underlined as you watch the characters watch helplessly as their friends are killed one by one by the hackers, both directly and undirectly. The glitching effects when the hackers appeared on screen, as if their presence just radiated "computer wrongness", was very nice. Overall I give this /5A very strong start. paradoxGentleman fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Sep 24, 2018 |
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 01:41
|
|
|
N/A Psycho (1960) My daughter has been in a full court press to watch this. She'd fallen asleep during last year's projector night and missed most all of it. Wife and son are sick, wanted to watch a movie, and I caved on saving it for October. It's still an amazing film. From Jamet Leigh's portrayal of a crime of passion and the subsequent mounting panic leading to a fumbling mess of an escape to Anthony Perkins chewing the scenery to Vera Miles delivering one of the best what in the everloving gently caress os going on!? faces to ever appear on screen. My wife has seen it before and was tense. Daughter had her mind blown by the final act. Son still loves it. That Hitchcock dispensed with studios, chose cheap B&W film, hired a television crew, and made this masterpiece is to have captured lightning in a bottle. It holds up to date. Every bit as tense, beautiful, magnificently acted, and watchable as ever. Forget one of the beat horror films ever made, one of the best films at all. Not counting this for my goal since I'm still holding out for October but will gladly slobber all over this film every chance I get. Will be adding Rear Window to the October watchlist and introduce the kids to another magnificent Hitchcock. Depressing and Horrific Trivia: Anthony Perkins died from an illness compounded by AIDS. He left behind a wife and two sons. His widow died aboard a hijacked plane on 9/11. To say that their children have known tragedy is an absolute understatement. The Thing From Another World was brought up on the last page. While I'm being a fanboy, the fire scene was loving BONKERS. <3 that movie. James Arness owns and THEM! should follow as the next '50s classic though his role was overshadowed by James Whitmore. Whitmore never gets enough credit for his awesome characterization in the film. Then finish with Invasion of the Body Snatchers which is another oldie that ages like wine.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 02:11
|
|
|
13. What We Do in the Shadows (2014) This is a mockumentary horror-comedy from New Zealand by Taika Waititi (known more as the director of Thor: Ragnarok) that I imagine is well known around here (it has a cult following). All I have to say is this is a really delightful and funny film with some of the most entertaining characters I've seen in film in a long time. Not only are they entertaining and witty but grow to have your sympathies as the film goes on. It's about a group of vampires living in an apartment flat with the usual drama and bickering roommates tend to have (and some extra problems only vampires could relate to). I don't want to say more about this one because it's really something to enjoy the less you know about it. If you love witty banter, the mockumentary style, sudden gorey moments and New Zealand cinema this is for you. /5Total: 1. The Conjuring 2 (2016), 2. Terrifier (2016), 3. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), 4. Split (2017), 5. The First Purge (2018), 6. Trick 'R Treat (2009), 7. Wolf Creek (2005), 8. King Kong (1976), 9. Halloween II (2009), 10. Pumpkinhead (1988), 11. House on Haunted Hill (1959), 12. House on Haunted Hill (1999), 13. What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 02:15
|
|
|
I'm very interested to see the series that comes out of that because my one real problem for What We Do In The Shadows was that it felt less like a feature film to me and more like a few random episodes of a sitcom I catch in syndication some day.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 02:22
|
|
|
9- Elvira, Mistress of the Dark Figured I’d check this one out since it’s the 30th anniversary today. It was good as long as you’re into it. It’s extremely corny and campy, and veeerrryyy 80s. I liked it, but I have a high tolerance for camp, and my deeply routed goth fever (which looking back, probably started with Elvira back in the 80s) added a lot to the enjoyment.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 04:19
|
|
|
Day -8 - Return of the Living Dead https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeSAFGWzft8 The film I had lined up for today fell through. That was probably a good thing since it was a superlong foreign language film and I hit a time crunch. And Return of the Living Dead is great fun so it all worked out. For trashy horror films, this is pretty much the top. Gloriously crazy and never failing to deliver on its promises. It's about as punk as its stereotypical punks that populate the film, reveling in its madness. It helps that the script is way better than it has to be, although the actors delivering those lines are pretty awful. It's really the slimy special effects that sell Return, though. They're the peak of 80's low budget practical effects and they wring everything they can out of them. I love the half-dog puppets in particular. They're so absurd that it's charming. The movie really doesn't work as a sequel to Night of the Living Dead, though. Even setting aside that Return's zombies are smart monsters who are desperate for "BRAAAAAAIIINS!", the tone of the films is completely different. Dawn carried the concepts of Night forward, while Return is just there for the naked lady and violence. It's really easy to screw up a movie like Return of the Evil Dead as you might tell from the thousands of lovely zombie movies out there. Return of the Living Dead succeeded by just diving in and putting any wild thing that came to mind in their movie. Retro Futurist posted:9- Elvira, Mistress of the Dark Now I kind of wish I had watched that. I don't think I've seen it since I was a kid.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 04:22
|
|
|
These both rip hard. I watched The Mummy last year and was surprised how much I liked it. I didn't care for the first Hammer Frankenstein. I thought the second one was much better.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 04:24
|
|
|
8. Suspiria (1977, Dario Argento) (rewatch) I had the pleasure of seeing the 4k restoration of this film at the Kansas City Alamo Drafthouse this evening. What an absolute loving treat this was. I've seen the movie at least five times before tonight, but it's never felt this alive. The vibrant colors jumped off the screen and the sonic details came out loud and articulate. A seriously awesome experience that I highly recommend to anyone who even remotely likes this film. This is the way Suspiria is meant to be seen. As I said, I've seen the film many times, and each time I see it I become even more sure that this is the singular masterpiece of Italian horror. Nobody before or since, not even Argento himself, has come close to matching this film's aesthetic perfection. It's shot masterfully. And not just the famous colors; Argento uses all sorts of interesting compositions, focal tricks and camera moves. There's not an un-interesting shot in the whole thing. This is full fledged cinematographic bliss. But the visuals are just one half of the puzzle. Suspiria wouldn't be nearly as wonderful as it is without one of the greatest horror scores ever. Strike that. It's the greatest. Nothing else comes close. Not even Psycho. Goblin's score is delicate, mysterious and completely engrossing. Every time that main theme starts I get goosebumps. I can't think of a better marriage in film between visual and aural aesthetic. I love this god drat movie.   (5 secret irises out of 5)
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 04:50
|
|
|
3. Rabid Decided to watch this Cronenberg classic. I didn't know much of anything going it, but it's a cool little movie. If you describe the premise as, "A woman has an armpit stinger that drinks blood and creates "zombies," you'd be accurate but make the movie sound a lot sillier than it really is. I really enjoyed it. 4/5
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 04:54
|
|
|
 14. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) What a ride. This movie seems like what Jun Fukuda was trying to do with his past couple films but maybe didn't have the budget. The human plot is definitely a rehash but with an apocalyptic omen thrown in for good measure. Once the first villain reveals it's true nature you either forget everything and buckle up for the ride or contemplate shutting the movie off. For me, this movie seemed like a culmination of Fukuda style and storytelling. He doesn't pull punches with the way the action is shot or the wackiness in which he delivers the story. The main monster is a mechanized version of Godzilla that leads to some surprising doppelgänger scenes and some action packed battles. The last one in particular might be the coolest one in the entire Showa era of films (haven't watched Terror of Mechagodzilla yet). If you're into laser beams, explosions (lots of explosions), villainous aliens, and the occasional blood fountain then this movie is definitely for you.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 05:24
|
|
|
4. Deathdream Dug it. It is definitely rough around the edges, but it has plenty of stuff that works. 5. Creepy Retired detective moves to starts his new job as a professor and has to deal with his really odd and creepy neighbor. For the first hour it bothered me how sterile this movie was, everything was shot so lifelessly. After that the story picks up and it really takes you for a ride. At one point things went a little too fast for my taste, but the neighbor is such an interesting character that he carries the movie effortlessly. I enjoyed this. 6. Scream I never saw Scream before. I remember it being huge, featured in every magazine and Ghostface showing up everywhere......but I just never saw it. In the end I'm really torn on this. It wasn't awful at all, but it definitely is its own worst enemy and for every step it takes in the right direction it also does something stupid. Ghostface is clowned on all the time. He slips, misses, falls, gets hit in the groin with beer bottles, hit in the head with a fridge door and probably more that I can't remember. It goes on and on until it is no longer refreshing, but it becomes a parody of itself. This is especially weird combined with him moving unseen through rooms, gutting people in seconds, magically disappearing, etc. The idea of "breaking the rules" is nice, but the movie buff explaining this a bunch of times got really grating. It couldn't just do what it set out to do, no, it had to explain it to you, word by word, multiple times. No motive because is a nice idea, but it seems like a cheap idea to do whatever you want and if you immediately have the killer explain his motive afterwards it falls flat. So......I don't know? If I wanted to learn about "the rules" I would rather watch Behind the Mask again. 7. Critters 2 I saw the Critters covers at the videostore as a kid. They looked terrifying and whenever I dared pick up one of the tapes and look at the back it was even scarier. It felt like there were dozens of Critters movies and in my mind nothing was bloodier, meaner and horrifying than these movies. Seeing the first Critters movies a few months back was kid of disappointing. Sure it was okay, but it just couldn't live up to my imagination. The sequel takes the highlights from the first movie and adds to them. It was way more enjoyable, but I still cannot help but feel confused about how funny and relatively gore-less these are.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 08:50
|
|
|
 41- The Monolith Monsters 1957 I'll be the first to admit, it takes skill to make a slab of glorified granite seem a threat. This film manages to pull it off for the most part. A meteorite crashes to Earth, shattering into fragments of black mineral. Locals collect pieces as souvenirs thinking nothing of it until the mineral comes in contact with water. Turns out it's a form of silicon life that when a chemical reaction's set off by exposure to water, drains any silicon it comes in contact with to grow unweidly tall, collapsing to break into fragments and repeat the process. I'd say this film brings dread a skosh more than scares as the slow steady progress of the monoliths towards population centers is shown and knowing all it takes is rain to set off the growth process unless a way's found to stop them. Overall, I liked it even if it's not as well known as other horror from this era.  42- From Hell it Came 1957 This one's an odd one in how some ways it's as cliche as can be to the point of forgettable and creative in others. Movie opens to a random island in the South Seas where Kimo is facing judgement for the death of his Chieftain father. We quickly learn that the Chieftain and his son were ruffling some feathers by being friendly to the American scientists who are on the island. They're there because of the atomic testing going on and the wind blowing fallout where it wasn't expected. There's also an obnoxious as gently caress drunk lady who runs a trading post on the island but the less said about her, the better. Kimo's sentenced to death, is stabbed and buried upright. We also find out that Kimo's dad was murdered but not by the scientists or Kimo, but by a plot between the tribal witch doctor, Kimo's wife and the new Chief.Not long after Kimo's buried, a strange plant's seen growing out of his grave. The scientists who were expecting to study the fallout and treat any locals with radiation sickness naturally dig up the plant for study. Of course, part of the study is exposing the plant to radiation which makes it speed grow. We end up with the Tabanga, a walking tree spirit of vengeance. I'll be the first to admit, the Tabanga stiff walking around is ridiculous as all hell, but his design's pretty interesting. He's like a scowling ent with a revenge agenda and the only reason to really sit through the movie or even clips on youtube. The dialog's janky and the trading post lady's enough to put anyone's teeth on edge with her nasal voice and clumsy comic relief. First time I saw this I kept wishing for the Tabanga to get her.  43- Night of the Demon 1957 I've seen this under this title and the Curse of the Demon one. I also credit this movie with introducing me to M.R. James and compelling me to read everything he's written. What is there not to love about this one. The cinematography and editing's excellent. That underlying tension of whether Karswell is really a spell caster or just an incredibly skilled manipulator, the not being sure whether what we're seeing is real or manipulated delusions. The demon's appearance is one of my faves even though those appearances are fairly quick.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 12:34
|
|
|
M_Sinistrari posted:
My favorite thing about this movie is that a review at the time of its release was, in its entirety: "And to hell it can go!"
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 13:31
|
|
|
M_Sinistrari posted:43- Night of the Demon 1957 Sometimes people ding this movie for showing the demon at the end but those people are wrong. I like that demon. Also 43 movies and there's still a week of September left, you feeling ok?
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 13:35
|
|
|
I see I'm not the only one who was in a Hammer mood this weekend... The Curse of Frankenstein(1957) Well I couldn't leave the 50's behind without at least one Hammer flick(Horror of Dracula gets a coveted Halloween week slot), and The Curse of Frankenstein is the beginning to one of the all-time great horror series. Cushing is more subdued here than he would become in the later sequels, but he's still smarmy as hell and all of the Hammer trappings are present in full force right out of the gate. The addition of color to these stories is great, that goes without saying, but you hear a lot more about the bright red blood than anything else. Personally though, the important piece for me is what the color does for the sets. This will always be the greatest mad scientist lab in film history in my mind, it's the one I immediately think of and reference whenever Frankenstein is discussed.  (can't help but think of David's lab from Alien:Covenant when I see this shot) If there's any nit-picking I can think of, it's that this is my least favorite of the original three Christopher Lee performances as the Hammer monsters. He just has less to do than the other two, mostly growling and lumbering, not a whole lot of subtlety compared to Dracula and not as much raw physicality as The Mummy. And certainly it doesn't touch Karloff's emotional performance from the original Universal version. But overall as a total package I prefer this film to Frankenstein(1931) because of the look and Cushing's presence. Total: 1. Frankenstein(1931) 2. The Old Dark House(1932) 3. The Bride of Frankenstein(1935) 4. The Mummy(1932) 5. The Invisible Man(1933) 6. The Wolfman(1941) 7. House of Frankenstein(1944) 8. House of Dracula(1945) 9. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein(1948) 10. The Boogeyman Will Get You(1942) 11. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms(1953) 12.Gojira(1954) 13. Creature From the Black Lagoon(1954) 14. The Night of the Hunter(1955) 15. The Curse of Frankenstein(1957)
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 14:42
|
|
|
M_Sinistrari posted:
Jacques Tourneur was actually against showing the demon at all but the producer insisted. As much respect as I have for Tourneur I have to say I'm glad his opinion got trumped. The demon adds a wonderful visceral, almost campy, element to the film that I feel benefits it. There's an awesome looking Blu-ray set coming out from Indicator next month. It includes four(!) versions of the film and a shitload of features. 
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 16:39
|
|
|
 My Blu-ray copy of The Blob (1958) arrived from Blighty. Can't wait to fire it up for my backyard triple feature! Also need to re-program the triple feature. Wife and daughter are highly likely to pass out during the third feature and will kill me if they miss Fido. So: Open - Nightmare Before Christmas Brief concession break Second Feature - The Blob (1958) Short as a transition while most guests leave - Trilogy of Terror pt. III Final Feature - It's Alive So, three features that clock in about 1.5 hours and a short we can round up to 0.5 hour. Adding a half hour for restroom runs and concession break leaves us at about 5.5 hours. Nautical twilight falls around 7:30 but, in the mountains, we can get away with a 7:00 start. That would leave me policing the yard around midnight-thirty. Gonna conscript a kid and make my hopefully improved screen frame next week. Wife is on invitation duty. 
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 18:34
|
|
|
Spatulater bro! posted:Jacques Tourneur was actually against showing the demon at all but the producer insisted. As much respect as I have for Tourneur I have to say I'm glad his opinion got trumped. The demon adds a wonderful visceral, almost campy, element to the film that I feel benefits it. quote:REGION FREE  And since M.R. James has been brought up , I’m going to give my yearly suggestion of the 1970s series A Ghost Story For Christmas They are a series of short, slow burn ghost stories that range from good to amazing. At least some of the shorts are usually always on YT, otherwise the DVD set is rather expensive
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 18:46
|
|
|
Dr.Caligari posted:
So for that to count for the challenge would we need to watch all of them? Individually they’re too short.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 19:23
|
|
|
 Brides of Dracula(1960) Pretty sure this is a lobby card, not an actual poster, but I thought it was perfect because it encapsulates perfectly why the movie is a letdown. It focuses on a this random doofus, not Dracula. The lead vampire's mother is actually a far superior character. The actor, David Peel, apparently quit acting after this role and went into real estate. Probably for the best. It's crazy to think that after 1959, Lee and Cushing wouldn't be brought back together in the same Dracula film until 1972's Dracula A.D. The leads in this one are solid though. Of course Cushing is reliable as ever, but I also quite liked Yvonne Monlaur in the starring role as Marianne. And all of great costume and set design that you expect from Hammer is here, so even though it's not one of their best I'd still not recommend skipping it. Total: 1. Frankenstein(1931) 2. The Old Dark House(1932) 3. The Bride of Frankenstein(1935) 4. The Mummy(1932) 5. The Invisible Man(1933) 6. The Wolfman(1941) 7. House of Frankenstein(1944) 8. House of Dracula(1945) 9. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein(1948) 10. The Boogeyman Will Get You(1942) 11. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms(1953) 12.Gojira(1954) 13. Creature From the Black Lagoon(1954) 14. The Night of the Hunter(1955) 15. The Curse of Frankenstein(1957) 16. Brides of Dracula(1960)
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 19:40
|
|
|
Spatulater bro! posted:Jacques Tourneur was actually against showing the demon at all but the producer insisted. As much respect as I have for Tourneur I have to say I'm glad his opinion got trumped. The demon adds a wonderful visceral, almost campy, element to the film that I feel benefits it. That is a badass monster, especially for the time period characteristic of goofiness. I remember AMC showed that shot of its head on a monster fest commercial. I tried for a long time obsessively looking for where the clip came from.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 19:58
|
|
|
Drunkboxer posted:So for that to count for the challenge would we need to watch all of them? Individually they’re too short. Correct. They seem to be, at longest, 50 minutes. And since it'd be unfair to say two of them count as one film, when two episodes of Castle Rock don't count as a single film, they'd have to watch them all, and it'd only count as one film. Short films just make it really hard to quantify. I don't mind their recommendation, because I love short films, especially horror shorts, but counting them in the challenge would be difficult.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 20:45
|
|
|
 10. The Slumber Party Massacre (1982, dir. Amy Holden Jones) I'm not sure where in the process it slipped, but it doesn't seem quite as effective as a subversion of the genre as it was meant to be. Still a lot of fun and a great quick thrill at under 80 minutes. All the girls were good and definitely better than average slasher victims. 4/5  https://i.imgur.com/pYsMhms.png11. The Eternal Evil of Asia (1995, dir. Chin Man-Kei) Worth it just for the dickhead joke. Four Hong Kong men on vacation in Thailand meet and befriend a wizard, accidentally murder his sister, he follows them back for revenge. Not as gross or mean as many others, but standard CAT III content warnings still apply. hosed up and sleazy fun, it features plenty of blood, a wizard battle involving flying-sex-spellcasting, a weird acrobatic ghost rape, and a dickhead. Watch it for the dickhead. 3/5 Total: 11. The Untold Story (3/5), The Sleep Curse (4/5), The Faculty (3/5), Demon Knight (4/5), Return of the Living Dead (4/5), The Evil of Frankenstein (3/5), Hellraiser: Judgment (1/5), Vampyres (3/5), We're Going to Eat You (3/5), The Slumber Party Massacre (4/5), The Eternal Evil of Asia (3/5)
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 21:15
|
|
|
https://i.imgur.com/pLQJhaI.gifv Holy Blood! Holy Blood! Santa Sangre (1989) If Fulci's The Beyond is preoccupied with people's eyes being destroyed, Jodorowsky's Santa Sangre is preoccupied with people having their arms cut off. It works very well, in that this is a gory-as-hell slasher movie that is all about overcoming powerlessness. https://i.imgur.com/7fJaln2.gifv Like all of Jodorwosky, everything is beyond beautiful. Every scene is so densely packed, lived-in, colorful that it is impossible to take everything in on a single watch. The sheer size of the crowds, the verisimilitude and consistency of the aesthetic for every city, costume, and subculture, is so complete that you almost have to believe Jodorowsky wasn't behind any of it, but rather stumbled upon, say, this blood cult, with their stranger-than-fiction iconography, run down church space decorated haphazardly over the course of many years, and sacred chants, and decided to include them in his movie. But then he does it again and again and again. https://i.imgur.com/ATRC5wi.gifv As strange as its images become, it remains far and away the most straightforwardly plotted of his films that I've seen. Jodorowsky marries the hallucinatory and Jungian with reality so well that I think you could remove all the dialogue from the movie and still be able to follow along not only with the story, but all of its deeper meaning. And it draws its horror from some familiar places: the circus and its many, strange characters, adolescent fear and awe of sexuality, insanely hosed up mother/son relationships, and our favorite: a graphic castration scene!
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 21:17
|
|
|
9. mother! - 3.5/5quote:A technically wonderful film with the perfect atmosphere and slow-burn horror, but really just a straight remake of Rosemary's Baby. The big setpiece is stunning...right up until Mother starts getting mauled by the crowd. At that point, the fantastical metaphor strayed a bit too close to reality. You flew too close to the sun, Arronofsky. You had it all with your stepped up Anchorman-cum-Children of Men sequence, then you lost me. There was no subtlety to the metaphor to begin with, so when the film sees the need to use graphic violence towards women as a cheap prop, it really just highlights how dumb Arronofsky thinks we are.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 21:43
|
|
|
Drunkboxer posted:So for that to count for the challenge would we need to watch all of them? Individually they’re too short. Oh, yeah, sorry. No, I never count them toward the challenge, but thought them worth mentioning in the Halloween thread. They make a nice atmospheric filler.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 21:51
|
|
|
 8. Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977) Directed by: George Barry Been fascinated with Death Bed's existence for a long time, in part because of that Patton Oswalt bit, but I was not prepared for how genuinely bizarre and hallucinatory this film was. I wasn't prepared for half the movie to be Audrey Beardsley's ghost who's trapped in a painting shittalking the stomached demon bed. It owns so hard.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 22:00
|
|
|
8. Lake Bodom This one occupies that weird space for me, where I didn't totally "hate it" and actually think it was well-done and competently-paced, directed and acted, but I see the potential for a much better movie. The movie's biggest problem is that it not once, but twice commits the sin of telling and not showing. First it has an extended flashback sequence narrated by one of the main characters where an entire convoluted plot thread is revealed, and this after the main story of the first 2/3rds of the movie is concluded. So the movie is "over", except we already know what's coming next since it's been beating us over the head with little moments of foreshadowing throughout. Then in the wrap-up to the second plot, we have more narration explaining what happened after the climax along with a montage. Essentially the movie is a high school drama/thriller that unfolds in the middle of a slasher movie, except the slasher movie doesn't even get started until the last 1/3rd of the movie. It could've really used some editing and reshoots, like the high school drama part is fine except maybe cut out the 5-minute flashback montage. Overall... not bad? The last act of the movie is pretty tense, particularly the... "reverse car chase" for lack of a better way to describe it. tl;dr - It's a solidly-atmospheric thriller that ramps up into a full-blown slasher-in-the-woods. There's blood, there's breasts, there's (a) beast (okay, a dog)... wrench fu, winch fu, knife fu, tree branch fu... I'd give it a solid 1/2 out of 5 
King Vidiot fucked around with this message at 22:07 on Sep 24, 2018 |
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 22:04
|
|
|
4. Shock (1977), a.k.a. Beyond The Door II by Mario Bava A woman with a dark past, her 7-year old son and her new husband move back into the house she lived in when her previous husband (her sons' father) disappeared. Soon, strange things start happening, the son is acting weird, and you think you know where it is going. Is it though? This one was waaaay better than I expected, an Italian movie that's both legitimately scary and boasts a complex main character that's not just a walking stereotype! It's quite amazing what this movie does on such a low budget, there's barely any effects except for moving furniture and minimal makeup/blood, and yet I was legitimately creeped out by the end of it. Pulls off some really good jump scares too, and foreshadows both The Evil Dead and very heavily The Babadook. Recommended!
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 23:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 1, 2024 09:38 |
|
|
Shock has a really good underseen performance by Daria Nicolodi, if anyone is already a fan from her work with Argento.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2018 23:16
|
|