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Friends Are Evil posted:17. The Boxer's Omen (1983). Directed by Chih-Hung Kuei. The movies you are looking for are Devil Fetus , Hex , Black Magic , The Seventh Curse , Encounters of the Spooky Kind , A Chinese Ghost Story, Human Lanterns , Seeding of a Ghost Devil Fetus is my staff recommendation
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Oct 2, 2018 18:49
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Hellfest It's exactly the sort of movie the trailer makes it out to be. I had a good time watching it, though The Strangers: Prey at Night was more interesting. It's competently made and the idea of the killer being just some guy with a kid and family is creepy. If it had better cinematography I would probably have loved it, but the lighting and camera work is just ok. 3/5
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Oct 2, 2018 18:56
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CRAYON posted:Daimajin I love the Daimajin movies. They all have the same plot, but it's a good story so it's OK. The way the costume is all stone, except for the eyes, his human eyes that are full of hate, is so loving good. And the scale, where he's only like 40 feet tall, makes the action seem a lot more personal than with a Godzilla size monster My favorite moment in the trilogy is I think in the first one, where Daimajin pushes a guy through a wall. It's not gory, but he doesn't throw him through the wall, he pushes him through, so it takes a couple seconds. Nightmarish I wish I could find the Daimajin TV show that came out like ten years ago, I've heard good things about it
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Oct 2, 2018 18:59
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Hollismason posted:The movies you are looking for are Devil Fetus , Hex , Black Magic , The Seventh Curse , Encounters of the Spooky Kind , A Chinese Ghost Story, Human Lanterns , Seeding of a Ghost Are any of these streaming or rentable besides The Seventh Curse? I really want to watch Encounters of the Spooky Kind or Mr. Vampire next.
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Oct 2, 2018 19:05
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Guy Goodbody posted:I love the Daimajin movies. They all have the same plot, but it's a good story so it's OK. The way the costume is all stone, except for the eyes, his human eyes that are full of hate, is so loving good. And the scale, where he's only like 40 feet tall, makes the action seem a lot more personal than with a Godzilla size monster My favorite moment in the trilogy is I think in the first one, where Daimajin pushes a guy through a wall. It's not gory, but he doesn't throw him through the wall, he pushes him through, so it takes a couple seconds. Nightmarish Yeah that was my favorite part from the first film. Looks like Daimajin Kanon is on youtube.
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Oct 2, 2018 19:06
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Lumbermouth posted:Are any of these streaming or rentable besides The Seventh Curse? I really want to watch Encounters of the Spooky Kind or Mr. Vampire next. Like all of them are on YouTube. Some are on Amazon prime. Vudu has some for free, Tubu has some as well. Hollismason fucked around with this message at 19:22 on Oct 2, 2018 |
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Oct 2, 2018 19:12
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Annihilation (2018) [4K Blu-ray] Rewatch. Often lovely and haunting, but the minor twist of the last moments doesn't really do enough to unwind the pat ending. Liked it more than the first time, I think, thanks to having more distance from the books. So Far: #1 The Terror (2018), #2 The Cabin in the Woods (2011), #3 Gone Girl (2014), #4 Annihilation (2018)
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Oct 2, 2018 19:43
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Night 1 - Forbidden Siren <- Letterboxd link Forbidden Siren is a movie based off of the PS2 game Siren 2. Siren 2 didn't come to the US, so I don't have much experience with it specifically, thus I won't be talking about its faithfulness. I am however familiar with the series in general, and to that extent I found the movie to be a poor representation. That said, I did still enjoy this movie. It's got pretty decent tension throughout, and gets right into creepy imagery. I thought the monster makeup was simple, but effective. One of the hallmarks of the Siren game series is telling the story through multiple POVs in a non-linear fashion, similar to how Ju-On does. I feel like Forbidden Siren loses something by ditching this series staple in favor of following Yuki almost exclusively. I think that if they would've taken this approach they could've made the film a lot more interesting, as well as portrayed the themes of the film more effectively. Overall I liked the film. It's a relatively simple, low budget J-Horror, but that's very much my thing. I don't know if I'll revisit it, but I don't regret my time with it. --- Yamishibai S1E1: The Talisman Woman - This was a solid first story. The misdirect was well done and I feel like it sets a good tone for the rest of the series. I also can't get over how amazing the art style is. It's simple and extremely effective at being creepy as poo poo. Are You Afraid of the Dark S1E1: The Tale of the Phantom Cab - This one was just alright. It set up the premise of The Midnight Society wrapper story, but the Tale itself was nothing special. Still though, I'm looking forward to going back through this childhood favorite. I'm pretty sure this show is largely responsible for me being into horror, so I've gotta give it its due!
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Oct 2, 2018 20:47
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 #1. The Crawlers, a.k.a., Contamination .7, a.k.a., Creepers, a.k.a., Troll 3 (1993) Woof, off to a good start here. Didn't know before watching this that it was part of the not-a-series Troll series, but in retrospect, it kind of fits. There's plants involved, nothing too gruesome (outside of one stand-out scene), the low budget is persistently obvious, and, like the other Troll movies, it has a weird charm to it. It's radiation that's causing weird events, instead of magic, and the amount of scenes featuring roots attacking people by wrapping around them was downright impressive, considering the work needed for those practical effects to be set up, performed, and edited into convincing flow. Weird side-scenes, awkward line deliveries (and some glaring dubbing), minor characters who steal the show from the main actors, and laughable leaps of logic are par for the course. Not one I can imagine wanting to go back and rewatch, but still fairly fun, for what it is.  / 10  #2. Head (2015) Better than Happytime Murders (or at least less disappointing), not as good, ambitious, or imaginative as Meet the Feebles. Pretty much a camping-trip slasher played straight, except everyone is a puppet. Unfortunately, in an apparent effort to off-balance the gimmick, the dialogue is packed with swearing like a high-schooler's attempt at writing a script imitating Quentin Tarantino (e.g., from the puppet zombie short that leads the movie, "This is loving Night of the Living Dead, it's a loving classic, you loving idiot!"), and the twist reveal doesn't finish explaining itself. The puppet construction is plain, the mouth-flapping doesn't try to match the dialogue, and the film-makers seem to have named two of the characters Lenny and Bruce without being aware of the joke, despite stringing their names back-to-back a couple of times. There is one memorable piece of visuals involving a shrine tree (and one in a scene with a puppet wedged behind a steering wheel), but outside of that, it's definitely forgettable. / 10 #3. Carne The Taco Maker (2013) Not sure what I was expecting from this, but I ended up satisfied. Kind of like Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 combined with Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, by way of a made-for-local-TV movie that could get away with gore, nudity, and swearing. The tacos are made from people! And they looked pretty tasty, too. Don Taco's actor had a nice weird charisma, but his henchman was so over-the-top in playing a glue-huffing dullard with come-and-go sexual issues that he detracted quite a bit from the scenes he was in, which made up the majority of the movie. The wandering structure of the movie, which just drifted from scene to scene, was kind of awkward, but also kind of fit with the portrayal of day after day selling tacos on a sidewalk of L.A.. None of the acting could be described as good, but some of the performers managed to seem pretty natural, which would really stand out in contrast, even if it was just three lines negotiating ordering a taco. Fairly predictable ending, but the specific execution was unexpected, at least. / 10  #4. Mind Ripper, a.k.a., Wes Craven Presents Mind Ripper, a.k.a., The Outpost, a.k.a., Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes 3, a.k.a., The Hills Have Eyes III: Mindripper (1995) Not the worst of the movies I've watched so far, but it is the one I've enjoyed the least. Directed by Joe Gayton (who also directed 1998's Sweet Jane, with Samantha Mathis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mary Woronov, and Bud Cort), produced by Wes Craven, and co-written by Wes Craven's son, Jonathan Craven. Lance Henriksen and Giovanni Ribisi play a father and son, respectively, with the latter wearing headphones for at least half of his scenes. The movie very slowly brings together two groups of characters, the first being researches in a desert bunker, the second being a family unit and wannabe-boyfriend of the daughter (Natasha Gregson Wagner, in a pair of scene-stealing shorts). Both groups are severely lacking in charisma, but that's kind of remedied by the antagonist, a beefcake with surfer hair who has a tongue that splits open to revel a phallic penetrator/stabber (think the brain-stalks from From Beyond, but spikier). I didn't care about anyone in this movie, aside from a few moments for the monster. The special effects were honestly not bad, with the make-up being particularly respectable, but that wasn't enough to salvage things. The pumpkin they might have earned gets cancelled out by the unbearable characters. The most interesting thing in the movie is probably the opportunity to observe a father-son dynamic written by Wes Craven's son. Outside of that, and Lance Henriksen pretending to fly a plane, this was dull. / 10
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Oct 2, 2018 20:50
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M_Sinistrari posted:I know from my description, it's probably got more than a few having that feeling. If anyone's posts here come closest to that same 'makes my eye twitch' his analysis rants he'd do, it's SMG's posts. That's why it took me so long to come to the horror threads, I read a SMG post and thought everyone here was like that. That's Cinema Discusso's problem in general.
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Oct 2, 2018 20:53
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Franchescanado posted:
Halloween 4 Looking for something to watch on the first day of October, I found Shudders new Halloween additions. Fondly remembering 1, 2 and 3 , I remember watching 4 over a decade ago and hating it, but not remembering why and figured it would be a good fit for the first, and this challenge to get me caught up. I now know why I neither remembered or liked it, although now just a day after it’s already fleeting. This movie is paint-by-numbers, un-loving-remarkable. Like explain to anyone the situation you put yourself in by making the first three, then tell them you need to get this slasher franchise back on track and you get the first 99% of this movie. The twist at the end doesn’t make sense. It feels like someone thought that was the most amazing twist and the shot at the end would become iconic. But maybe not, because the rest of the movie feels like they just needed to crank out something fast to show Michael Meyers is back Oh, and another kicker is that MM looks as generic as this movie is. I guess it makes sense that he wouldn’t have retained his original jumpsuit and mask, but I could have forgave it. It would have been just as believable as transporting this crazy, psycho-killer unsecured via ambulance and two security guards and , the ending and other junk in this movie . I’m curious where they go with 5, because I forget that one too, but I might just read the wiki entry /5
Dr.Caligari fucked around with this message at 21:13 on Oct 2, 2018 |
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Oct 2, 2018 21:08
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 Ain't No Such Thing as a Free DVD I've already mentioned a double-ordered Blu-ray from last season. This year, I did the same with a multi-film DVD! The Prize: One DVD featuring The Blob (1988), Christine, Fright Night, and The Seventh Sign Eligibility: Anyone in the continental United States and Canada. The Catch: Goon must first watch either I Bury the Living (streaming on Amazon Prime and is also packed into a lot of multi-film DVDs and 50-or-however-many Horror DVD packs so many of you likely have at least one hard copy as it stands) or Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies (streaming cheap on Amazon) and log their review in this thread. Or both. Again, the idea is to bring some more awareness to overlooked movies in here. Which is one of the best things this thread does every season. Details: Quote at least part of this post in yours so I don't manage to scroll by it.
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Oct 2, 2018 21:11
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M_Sinistrari posted:Yeah, I'm taking a sick day. Yeah, there's 0% chance that this wasn't shot to fulfill the director's fetish.
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Oct 2, 2018 21:14
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Random Stranger posted:Yeah, there's 0% chance that this wasn't shot to fulfill the director's fetish. My pet theory is that this is the case for every horror movie. 19. Downrange - 3/5 (Shudder) quote:Bad acting, dialogue, and paper-thin characters, but that's just a given for low budget horror. Downrange's strength is its well executed simple plot. Guy snipes young adults on a lonesome road and that's it. No conspiracies, twists, or overwrought backstories. Just straight gun horror, a subject that feels surprisingly absent in the genre.
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Oct 2, 2018 21:22
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Lake Bodom A couple boys decide to go camping in the same spot as the infamous Finnish murders in 1960. They lure a couple girls a long by telling them they have a cabin they are going to stay in. The idea here is that by recreating the conditions (but not even on the anniversary date, I don’t believe), the killer from 1960 will show him/her/itself again. This movie is kind of sloppy, but a decent watch. The casting choices and dialog aren’t the best, but my biggest problem is unnecessarily building itself around an actual unsolved murder. I know in the age of crime podcasts, serial killer movies and on-demand documentaries profiteering off murder is always a thing to some degree. But unlike others, this movie isn’t meant to inform or even speculate on what really happened, it’s all just used as a prop and no doubt name recognition. The twists are decent and it passes the time but I don’t think this will be on any of my new favorites lists at the end of the month /5
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Oct 2, 2018 21:25
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for day two, I watched A Nightmare on Elm Street I liked it a lot! The characters are good. They re convincing as teenagers, even though I'm sure all the actors were in their mid-twenties to early forties. The bit of vulnerability the movie gives Rod makes him come across more like a realistic shithead teen guy than just the rear end in a top hat in a horror movie you hope dies, like I assumed he was based on his first couple scenes But of course Nancy steals the show. Smart, rational, takes charge, doesn't take poo poo, she's great. You obviously think of her going all Al Qaeda in Iraq on Krueger, but there's something earlier that's really great. Even though she figures out what's going on pretty early, she never actually says "we're being killed in our dreams" until she has the hat. Once she has physical proof of what's going on, It doesn't matter what her parents say, she knows what's happening is real. Nancy finally says out loud "he's killing us in our dreams" and goes full bore on stopping him. All the dream sequences are great. Real simple practical effects, like having the camera upside down or replacing a wall with a sheet, to create fantastic dream-like images. What really makes the movie work is that it taps in to a universal human experience; being a teenager and having your judgement and priorities dismissed by your parents. It doesn't matter if it's your parents refusing to believe that your friends were killed by their dreams, or if they won't let you go to the midnight release of Halo 3 even though you don't even need them to drive you, you can ride your bike, it's only four miles and there's plenty of streetlights. Everyone knows that frustration, and it lets you immediately put yourself in Nancy's place, emotionally speaking. In conclusion; Nightmare on Elm Street is good!
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Oct 2, 2018 21:26
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UV code for Annihilation (2018) for whoever wants it. Please just post if you use it so others know not to bother. (TAKEN)
Sir Kodiak fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Oct 2, 2018 |
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Oct 2, 2018 21:27
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SMP posted:My pet theory is that this is the case for every horror movie. I keep trying to come up with a joke example of a fetishized horror movie, but they're all too plausible.
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Oct 2, 2018 21:31
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Sir Kodiak posted:UV code for Annihilation (2018) for whoever wants it. Please just post if you use it so others know not to bother. Claimed. Thanks!
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Oct 2, 2018 21:39
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Franchescanado posted:
I'm not great at putting my thoughts about a movie into text. I could discuss a movie all day face-to-face but putting my thoughts into words was never my strong suit. But I'm going to give it a shot. Hope it doesn't suck! Fair warning, I'll get into light spoiler territory here in the general text, but I'll put larger things into spoiler brackets. Everything I talk about in this will generally only cover the first 30-45 minutes of the movie for reasons mentioned below. 24. Halloween (2007) (Rewatch)  I've got a guilty pleasure soft spot for Rob Zombie. I could dig through the ditches and burn through the witches at just about any given time. House of 1,000 Corpses is a crazy ride and I think The Devil's Rejects succeeds not only as a horror movie but as a great crime film. When Zombie signed on to remake Halloween, I was super excited. I liked it, sort of, when it came out, but it was forgettable. I was much younger, much less critical, and much less analytical. So I decided to give it another go and see how it holds up. Rob Zombie's Halloween is a movie at war with itself. It does a lot right and an equal amount wrong. We start the film by seeing the family home of a ten year old Michael Myers. He lives with his mother, older sister, baby sister, and live-in deadbeat pseudo-stepdad Ronnie. Older sister Judith is your stereotypical self-absorbed teen, his mother is a deeply flawed woman who pole-dances to provide for her children, Ronnie is an abusive foul-mouthed handicapped drunk, and his baby sister is...a baby. Right off the bat we see a tumultuous breakfast scene with Zombie's trademark swear-filled dialogue, as if Tarantino grew up in the worst trailer park on earth. Amidst breaking dishes, shouting, sexual harassment and abuse, we pan upstairs to see that young Michael has taken a pocket knife to his pet hamster. Later, at school, we see Michael bullied in the bathroom by two classmates who know his mother's night-time dancing escapades. Michael tries to leave nonviolently until the two begin to taunt his mother and show him a newspaper clipping of an advertisement for the club she works in. Michael reacts violently before being broken up by the principal who, though we barely see in the film, comes across as somewhat menacing himself. Michael's mother is called to the school to speak to the principal who has called in child psychologist Dr. Samuel Loomis. While they discuss finding a dead cat and pictures of dead animals in Michael's bag, he runs off, dons a clown mask and heads into the woods. We cut to the bully from early, who steals another teen's hat, spits into it and throws it back at him, before also heading into the woods. He's blindsided with a branch by Michael and viciously beaten. Begging for his life, Michael raises his mask, looks at him for a moment, and puts the mask back into place before finishing his work. That night, Michael's mother says goodbye and asks Judith to take her brother out trick-or-treating before leaving for work. Ronnie taunts Michael about the trouble at school before passing out drunk in a recliner. Judith tells Michael to go trick-or-treating by himself and abandons him to go have sex with her boyfriend upstairs. What follows could be a powerful scene. Michael sits alone on the sidewalk, abandoned by everyone. We've established that he obviously has had a traumatic upbringing in a broken home, but we've also established that there's very little, if any, humanity left in the boy. We're only a scant 15 or so minutes into the film and we've seen Michael murder animals and a human being. We get no escalation as a result of environment. As far as we, the viewer, is aware - Michael Myers begins just as evil as he becomes. Though you could rationalize this poor kid sitting on the sidewalk as being a product of his environment, we get nothing that edges our emotions in that direction. Zombie has done interesting character arcs before. Maybe not necessarily arcs, but humanizing of monsters. A common viewer note for The Devil's Rejects is becoming attached to the Firefly family - a group of monstrous, irredeemable killers. But spending the time with them and seeing how they interact as a family humanizes them. They aren't heroes. They aren't even anti-heroes. They're the antagonists. We're following them through this story, and in a weird way, that almost makes you want to see them succeed. It's an interesting take on viewers rooting for Freddie, Jason, or in this case, Michael Myers in the classic slashers. After Michael returns to his kitchen and eats some candy corn and circus peanuts (further proving he is beyond saving. He has the worst taste in candy), he begins the process that will officially change him from Michael Myers into The Shape. After taping Ronnie to his recliner, Michael slits his throat with a kitchen knife. He again removes his clown mask to view his work before pulling it back down. He then takes a baseball bat to Judith's boyfriend who comes downstairs for a snack. Michael continues upstairs and finds The Shape mask, left on the floor after Judith's boyfriend failed to scare her with it. He puts the mask on and stabs his sister to death. He then takes his baby sister outside and waits for his mother to return home to see the carnage. Lets talk about the mask for a second. The famous Captain Kirk mask, disheveled into what we now all know as the Michael Myers Mask, or The Shape Mask. It's iconic and absolutely necessary in any Halloween film, remake or otherwise. The way it's introduced here, however, is a bit lame. Judith's boyfriend pulls it out while they're fooling around and puts it on in an attempt to scare her. He then says he wants to leave it on while they have sex. It's later picked up and worn by ten year old Michael. Now, this is the full-sized mask later worn in the film by 6'8" Tyler Mane. Our introduction to this terrifying face is rendered a bit limp and goofy when a small child wears it, despite what he's done and is about to continue doing. Cut forward to almost a year later. Michael is in a psychiatric hospital after being court-ordered there in what an narration tells us was a trial widely covered by the media. One of the things most frightening about Michael Myers in previous films was that he was unknowable. He was a killer who was sent off to an asylum and forgotten about. Only legends continue about the Myers house, ghost stories that teens tell each other on rainy nights. When murders begin happening again, only Dr. Loomis is dead certain who is responsible. Michael Myers, in the original film, is credited as The Shape, and that's exactly what he is. He's a specter, or a force of nature. Here we are told that the entire country knows the story of Michael Myers, dramatically lessening any mystique that could have been derived from having a long-forgotten killer coming home. In this film, Dr. Loomis is also portrayed much differently. As opposed to a man who came face to face with evil and let his fear grow to obsession with stopping him, we've got Malcolm McDowell playing the worst psychologist ever. I work closely with psychologist in real life, and I'm not sure if it's bad writing or intentional, but Dr. Loomis says just about everything wrong every time he's on screen. He's blunt with Michael in a way that almost seems to be egging him on, or purposely impeding any progress that could be made. He overshares and clearly doesn't understand how to interact with any child, let alone one so deeply trouble. Normally I'd say this is bad writing, but Dr. Loomis is also seen capitalizing on this story with a book tour, recounting his time with Michael and the events that turned him into a nationwide famous killer. Fifteen years later, Michael is still committed to the asylum. Michael's mother visited him one last time when he was still ten years old and witnessed the aftermath of Michael killing a nurse. She returned home, and while a home-movie of a more innocent time plays on a projector, she ends her life. Michael is left alone in the world, quietly making masks in his room at the asylum. As a child he said that he wears them to hide his ugliness. He hasn't spoken in fifteen years. I'm going to cut synopsis here, as the rest of the film continues much the same as the original film. We return to Haddonfield to meet Laurie Strode who (spoilering in case someone has managed to not see the original) is Michael's baby sister who is now a teen, adopted after her brother's murders. Zombie's biggest contribution to the franchise, up until this moment, is the movie so far. He attempts to give more of a fleshed out backstory to the origin of Michael Myers. What took minutes in the original has now been extended to around an hour. But the question is, was any of it necessary? Not really. Part of what makes Michael so frightening is that we don't know why he did what he did. He was a troubled child, obviously, he killed people, but that's all we know. And then he's locked up for years and the town forgets about him and mostly forgets about the events of Halloween night at the Myers house. Adding to the events before that night accomplishes very little, especially approached in Zombie's style. Going back to The Devil's Rejects again, the world is borderline cartoonish in it's grime. It's grim, dirty, lewd and everyone sucks. All the characters, main and side, are caricatures. Overblown filthy dialogue, bad tempers, and a thick veneer of scum all over everything. It works because everything is like this. In Zombie's Halloween, the world is fairly normal. It's a normal town and a normal school. Meanwhile, the students, families and faculty all seem like they walked out of the sleaziest brothel in the worst part of town just outside of Satan's trailer park. No one has any redeeming value. Even Michael's mother, who isn't necessarily a bad woman, and certainly cares about her children, has still put her children directly in harms way and is shown to be resistant to any sort of help. Haddonfield is still the idyllic Haddonfield, Illinois that we know, except everyone is an rear end in a top hat this time. And it just doesn't quite work. Overall, do I think Halloween 2007 is a bad movie? Well yes. Or maybe just unnecessary. But, if it was going to be remade, I'm not sure anyone could have done better. The original Halloween works because it's simple and effective. Adding any excess bloat really hurts the entire form of the original. We can see where the sequels went and how they got a bit eye-rolling. It ends up feeling like a remake more akin to shot-for-shot remakes like Funny Games or Psycho. Except the director decided to make an entire prequel film and dump it at the beginning of his shot-for-shot. I don't hate Halloween 2007. It's not the worst remake/reboot out there by a large margin and does some things well. But, at the end of the day, it feels more like something that is flat-out pointless than it feels like a bad film. I've never seen his follow-up Halloween 2, so I guess that's my next stop. Sorry if this was too long. 
Several Goblins fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Oct 2, 2018 |
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Oct 2, 2018 22:10
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 90- The Mephisto Waltz 1971 - PRIME First time watch. I'm embarrassed to admit it's only now that I'm sitting through this one mostly because I didn't know it was a horror film. The coverbox we had at Blockbuster had someone in very stylized opera theater type glittery makeup so with the title I thought it was some performance of the Liszt waltzes that ended up getting categorized into Horror because BBV could be stupid like that. I'm very happy to say my earlier opinion was wrong. This one's more of a slow simmer which I don't think I would've appreciated if I'd seen it earlier. It goes more for the stylistic imagery and gradual build of tension rather than the usuals we expect from a modern Satanism film plot. Still was weird to me to see Alan Alda as anyone other than Hawkeye Pierce. While it's likely not for everyone, I liked it.
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Oct 2, 2018 22:14
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Random Stranger posted:I keep trying to come up with a joke example of a fetishized horror movie, but they're all too plausible. Pet Sematary.
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Oct 2, 2018 22:49
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Seven (1995) [Blu-ray] Rewatch. Masteful. Less blue than I remembered. Lots of great little details and great character actors. So Far: #1 The Terror (2018), #2 The Cabin in the Woods (2011), #3 Gone Girl (2014), #4 Annihilation (2018), #5 Seven (1995)
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Oct 2, 2018 23:09
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12) Idle Hands (1999) It's The Hands of Orlac, but with weed! I picked this movie up mainly because when it came out the entire DVD section in HMV was smaller than the discount horror movie Blu-Ray section is now; the joys of being an early adopter of the format. It's so painfully late 90s that it hurts - it stars Devon Sawa and Seth Green, the Offspring are still relevant enough to make a cameo and Rob Zombie was a musician - but it's got some good makeup and splat. Both verbal and physical comedy are mostly funny and at 88 minutes the script doesn't hang around. I'll recommend it. It's weird to think that this movie is now equally far back from the present as Friday the 13th was when it came out.
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Oct 3, 2018 00:49
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 16)Tetsuo:The Iron Man (shudder)  I wouldn't say I like the film. I like some of the things it does, and love the low budget aesthetic. And it's super Lynchian. That said, could've done without the sexual assault scene. Otherwise well made, and sufficiently weird. Got a really strong sentai influence too, and I wouldn't be surprised if the project's genesis was something like "It'd be really hosed if you were a sentai monster in real life" 3/5
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Oct 3, 2018 00:51
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21. Annabelle (2014) At the start of this challenge I said I was looking to get into The Conjuring Universe and kinda put it off. I figured with October now here I might as well get into it. The Conjuring Universe is the rare shared universe that has succeeded thus far (along with MonsterVerse). The main series is The Conjuring with films like Annabelle and The Nun being about the entities that main characters have encountered. Annabelle is the same as the rest of the series in that its a throwback to 70s horror. But what made it really personal to me was that my mother, who passed away last year, was responsible for introducing me to horror. I remember she showed me The Birds when I was younger (and complained because “the women always scream while the men do everything”), which made me seek out Psycho and other Hitchcock classics. She also talked about how The Exorcist scared the loving poo poo out of her (being raised Catholic in 70s Quebec will do that to you). I love and miss her and honestly watching this series thus far made me feel a lot like she must have had back then. It just captures just this raw 70s horror vibe I cannot explain and makes me wonder if I would have watched these films with her. Annabelle is about the entity that was first introduced in the first Conjuring movie at the beginning. This one obviously a prequel relies a little more on jump scares but the weird thing about these movies so far is they actually work some of the time. Yes, there are moments where the scene cuts to another with a loud music boom but even small things like a running child suddenly turning into this demonic woman after hitting a closing door was simple but well done. The characters share the same realistically portrayed couple (right down to the small arguments and compromises relationships have) as the Conjuring films as well and made everything feel more grounded by having human characters responding to this demonic intrusion. /5 Total: 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), 14. Ghostbusters (2016), 15. Bride of Chucky (1998), 16. Seed of Chucky (2004), 17. Nightbreed (1990), 18. The Axe Murders of Villisca (2016), 19. Ghosts of Mars (2001), 20. Haunters: The Art of the Scare (2017), 21 Annabelle (2014) Justin Godscock fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Oct 3, 2018 |
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Oct 3, 2018 00:59
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18. The Devil's Candy (2015). Directed by Sean Byrne. The Devil's Candy is pretty effective and well-crafted. The family's dynamic feels very emotionally resonant and you really sympathize with them very quickly. However, I have a bunch of hangups (admittedly personal ones) with it that keep me from truly being on board. I keep seeing this hailed as a movie that gets metal and that doesn't quite ring true for me. I don't think it really engages with what it means to be a metalhead beyond surface-level "Hey, you can be a metalhead and function as a normal human being!" and more accurate set decoration than usual. To be fair, that's an infinitely more preferable way of being depicted than films depicting us as Satan worshippers who need to be brought under heel. It's connection to the art making process also feels very tenuous aside from some misguided jabs at gallery culture and pretentiousness. They don't ruin the film, but I would have enjoyed this a lot more if it didn't cross into my very specific Venn diagram overlap of being a metalhead and an artist. For something that's otherwise well-observed, it bugs me that it kind of paints these two elements very broadly. It'd also be nice if the conflict didn't revolve around a reductive depiction of mental illness, but hey.
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Oct 3, 2018 01:31
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Alone in the Dark (1982) This has nothing to do with friend of the forums Uwe Boll’s identically titled movie. This movie sports somewhat of an all-star cast of older actors including Jack Palance, Martin Landau and Donald Pleasance. It also has Murdock from the A-Team as a new psychiatrist at a mental hospital. The elderly patients think the new psychiatrist killed the old one and during a power outage they escape and seek revenge. This is a good slasher, but it takes its time getting there. The plot is somewhat convoluted but not to the degree that it’s alienating or it loses you. We get lots of characterization along the way and we get to really have fun with these characters. A highlight is when they end up at a punk show with the Sick Fucks. The main actors really dive into their role and ham things up but are able to turn up the intensity and create tension along the way. There’s one scene where a pedophile inmate is alone with a young girl that does an excellent job of balancing tension with comic relief. I do have to criticize the portrayal of mentally ill people in this movie. It’s by no means exclusive to this movie but I just wish there was more portrayal of mentally ill people as actual human beings who need help instead of childlike sociopaths. Overall I enjoyed this movie and would recommend you watch it if you get the chance as it’s a really underrated 80s slasher. Plus it’s got a great poster. Watched (9) Always Watching: A Marble Hornets story; Terrifier; Boys in the Trees; Creature from Black Lake; Parents; Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat; Murder Party; Hell Fest; Alone in the Dark
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Oct 3, 2018 01:32
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Lurdiak posted:Pet Sematary. You mean the movie with zombie pussy in it?  Day 2 - The Love Witch  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHhaIRevB-Y There's a scene in The Love Witch where the titular character is seductively dancing on a coffee table to ensnare a man and we get some close ups of her butt. And the thing I'm thinking is, "Oh, it looks like that poor actress probably slipped and fell off that table in a previous take. That looks an awful lot like a big bruise that they tried to cover with makeup." I think that's a sign that I'm getting old. Elaine is a witch. She's open about that; she goes to the pagan rituals held by those people who will never stop telling you about how great paganism is and sells her handmade witch stuff to the new age store. She also is unlucky in love, leaving the city after her husband died mysteriously and then she uses magic to seduce a series of men. Her spells are going a bit awry, though, as one of the men she seduces winds up dead from the herbs she spiked his drink with. The big selling point of The Love Witch is that the film is a throwback to the late-60's/early-70's. The way it's shot, the story, the acting, the set dressing all leans heavily into that. There were a few things that weren't period appropriate and they seemed like that happened totally due to budget constraints. And then there's suddenly a couple of props that completely break the illusion; there's no good reason to have a computer monitor on a desk or a character pull out a smart phone when everything else was period. But setting those things aside, visually the movie is impressive and leans heavily into the strong color palette of films of that period. It's a really well done homage and The Love Witch is worth watching just for that.
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Oct 3, 2018 02:25
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Sorry for the big post - trying to catch up on writing out what I've seen. 7) Resolution Seen on: Shudder So this was on my list for last year but I didn't get to it. Fast-forward to earlier this year, and I see the trailer for the director duo's most recent film, The Endless which looked awesome...and then reviews come out saying you should watch this one first (you don't have to though), so that's what I did for the challenge. A man tries to forcefully help his junkie friend kick his drug habit in an isolated cabin in the middle of nowhere. Slowly, strange things begin to happen to the pair and it becomes clear that the detox is the least of their worries. The thing I'm most impressed by in "Resolution" is that it's 90% a character drama and 10% a horror movie, and yet it still manages to do both really well. The strength of the movie is the writing and acting for the two main characters, yuppie Mike and druggie Chris. Both are charismatic and funny and have great chemistry together. They're supposed to be old friends, with old wounds to reopen and good memories to recall, and they really feel like it. The horror elements of the film are subtle. Like, really subtle, and I can understand why there are reviews I've seen of this that essentially say "I don't understand, this was pitched as a scary movie, but I didn't understand it." The horror elements are there from the start and they slowly begin to increase as things progress to an abrupt ending, so it's a definite slow burn. I originally wrote another paragraph here that was my take on the "meta" theme of the film, and then I watched The Endless, and...uh, well, it's kinda spelled out directly in that one what was going on here, so it was kind of moot. I've seen some comparisons here to Cabin in the Woods, as both films touch on the concept of the audience (or some outside force acting as an audience) and expectations in horror films. Here, it's way more underplayed but still effective. 8) The Endless Seen on: Netflix Two men (directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead) left a "UFO death cult" a decade ago; the older, more controlling brother doesn't regret it, but the younger, more submissive one has only pleasant memories of the experience. When the latter receives a videotape from the camp showing that the cult is still around - after the older brother was certain they experienced "The Ascension," when he believed they were going to kill themselves Heaven's Gate-style - he convinces his brother to come back to the cult for closure. When they get there, they find things are still peaceful and idyllic...and the reason why it's still that way is some pretty existentially terrifying poo poo. The Ascension already happened, and it's starting again. So, The Endless is the movie I was hoping Resolution would be - the weird/horror elements start earlier and permeate the entire film. Here, you still get excellent, well-written performances from everyone, including the directors (who pull off the brother dynamic very well). This one also ramps up the dread and creepy poo poo nicely, with some beautiful cinematography and scenes and vistas that are still in my head a few nights after watching it - the shot of the countryside and the domes everywhere is a fantastic reveal. The nature of what's going on is really neat. Also, in relation to Resolution all of the callbacks to that film are great, and that whole bit with the characters from the previous film works even if you haven't seen it; if you have, it's a real bittersweet  moment that lends more impact to the events of this film.9) Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon Seen on: Shudder Mockumentary/straight-up slasher flick/dark comedy hybrid movie (can't believe I just typed all that) set in a world where Jason Vorhees, Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers and other cinematic slashers are "real." The film follows a group of young grad students who are making a documentary on the eponymous Leslie Vernon, an affable, geekily giddy kind of guy who is also an aspiring slasher icon-in-training. Over the course of the movie, Leslie divulges the tricks of the slasher trade that make them appear superhuman, which includes physical conditioning, magic tricks, observing targets for weeks (including selecting the "survivor girl") and lots of Batman/MacGyver-style preparation. I gotta say, I didn't know if this was going to work early on - at first it seems a little too jokey, and "oh, ho! the killer guy is actually goofy and sweet and someone you could like" - but once it gets moving, it's a hoot. The guy playing Leslie is excellent and does the role with more nuance than I expected - you end up pulling for him, a great feat considering he is a psycho killer. There's also a great turn by Scott Wilson (probably best known the last few years as Herschel in The Walking Dead) as Leslie's fatherly slasher mentor and brief roles by genre vets Robert Englund (as the Dr. Loomis stand-in pursuing Leslie) and Zelda Rubenstein. I love all the detailed in-universe explanations for standard slasher abilities, and they even try to give them a bit of a code of ethics (they offer themselves up as monsters so that good people in the world will counterbalance them and inspire others) which I thought was interesting, but they don't go much further into that. The first two thirds of the movie are documentary/found-footage style, but they occasionally revert to standard horror film for the hunting/slashing parts, as is the last 20 minutes when Leslie goes on his rampage. I'm not much for slasher flicks, but I would love to see a sequel to this - although it appears they tried to get one going but it's languished in Kickstarter/development hell. 10) The Definitive Document of the Dead Seen on: Shudder This was originally a behind-the-scenes documentary about the filming of Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" but later updated with more material from his later projects (Two Evil Eyes, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, etc.). The "Dawn" stuff is interesting, but the back half consisting of the later-added footage is a loving mess - inconsistent narration, a whole bunch of crap (yes, let's devote 10 minutes to a party with the Jerky Boys, Joe Pilato creeping on Judith O'Dea, a porn parody of NotLD, etc.). Stop watching after the Dawn of the Dead material, continue only if you're a Romero diehard, and even then it's iffy. -- So that's about a third of the way through. The biggest problem I'm having is choosing what to watch next! Summary of what I've watched so far and where I watched it: (all new to me) 1) Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser Part 1 - Shudder 2) Caltiki, The Immortal Monster - Youtube 3) Blood Feast - Shudder/Tubi 4) Demon of Paradise - Tubi 5) Hungerford - Netflix 6) Cropsey  FRAN CHALLENGE #1: Love Something You Hate - Tubi7) Resolution - Shudder 8) The Endless - Netflix 9) Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon - Shudder 10) The Definitive Document of the Dead - Shudder
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Oct 3, 2018 02:28
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After three well-regarded, classic horror movies, I decided to watch something a little different I knew that Doom had been poorly received, but the only details I knew were that there was no portal to hell, and no demons. So right off the bat it fails as a Doom movie. But I thought that by knowing that going in and adjusting my expectations accordingly, I could still get something out of the movie. It starts off with a scene right out of Predator and Aliens; the highly trained team of troops socializing, giving each other poo poo, etc. In Predator and Aliens that scene established that the team had been working together a long time, all the members knew and respected each other, they were were comrades. They could give each other poo poo because they had a almost familial bond. In Doom the scene establishes that the team has been working together a long time, and all the members genuinely dislike each other. Instead of friendly joshing, they just flat out insult each other. They go to Mars, and once again like Aliens, they investigate an abandoned building with lots of metal grates and flickering lights. This is where the filmmaking really comes into it's own, by which I mean becomes nearly unwatchable. The movie is fond of quick cuts and moving cameras. Moving a lot, and quickly. Why give just a flat shot of a room when you can swing around it really fast? Why just do a tracking shot of characters walking through a hallway when you could swing around the characters really fast? Why just do a closeup of a something when you could zoom in and also swing around a bit? This is happening during an exploration sequence, I'm supposed to be getting information from this, but gently caress giving me information, whee! They go into a room and I have just enough time to make out that the objects in the background might be guns before the camera has swung off them, past a bunch of other things that could be something. Then a character says "wow look at all these guns" and I'm like, thanks, you could've communicated that visually but that would've required not swinging the camera around like an rear end. Eventually it's explained that the science people on Mars found remains of an extinct alien species that had bio engineered themselves to have an extra chromosome. This made them super strong and fast because the more chromosomes the better, the movie seems to believe. But then it turns out that it turned some of them into monster who killed everyone. And naturally the corporation running the place injected the chromosome into people, the people becambilnjsfasofnsafasf you get the idea. Towards the end there's a first person shooter sequence, like in the Doom video game. But either the camera rig they set up to do the sequence couldn't move very fast, or they were worried about the audience getting motion sick, or something. Because once it goes to first person view, Karl Urban never moves faster than a slow walk. And all the action happens very slowly. And it goes on for a very long time. It's so loving dull. Dwayne The Rock Johnson is in the movie. He turns out to be a bad guy, it's weird and doesn't make sense. Somehow he has zero charisma or charm. Doom is so bad it made Dwayne The Rock Johnson boring. In conclusion, don't watch Doom. It's just really boring and miserable to sit through.
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Oct 3, 2018 02:44
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 91- I Drink Your Blood 1970 - DVD You know you're in for a wild ride when the film gets rolling with the line "Satan was an acid head.." This one's a quintessential grindhouse entry. We have Satan worshiping hippies wrecking havoc in a small town that's slowly dying out. They rape a local girl, beat up her grandfather and dose him with LSD so the man's grandson gets revenge by giving the hippies rabies. Everything just gets wilder from there. I did like that each of the infected manifested differently instead of going a blanket all 100% homicidally violent. The ending was just surreal considering everything that happened in the movie.
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Oct 3, 2018 02:44
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Dwayne Johnson knocked Doom during an introduction piece he was giving at the Oscars (or Golden Globes, it was an awards show). That should tell you how bad it was that even Dwayne Johnson will trash it during an awards show. I remember people defending the movie because of the FPS scene at the end. But here's the thing, if you have an hour straight of crap a novelty piece will not redeem it. It's fun to watch on YouTube but do not watch the movie for it.
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Oct 3, 2018 02:47
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5. Hereditary I really liked this. It seemed to shift three gears on me while watched - three times I thought I knew what kind of horror it was going to be, and was wrong(ish). Great acting all around, I found myself pretty lost in the characters' anguish and tension was kept high. The jump scares felt earned and surprising, and the movie gave you a chance to breathe afterward and soak in the dread of what just happened. Pretty cool! List (4): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary
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Oct 3, 2018 03:20
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 It, 2017 I think everyone in this thread are seasoned enough horror fans that they have seen It from 1990 with Tim Curry as Pennywise the clown, so this so whats really interesting to write about is how well this adaptation is compared to the one we are all nostalgic about. Horror tends to be about the monster or villain, and my opinion on Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise is that he did a decent enough job. I wasn't a fan of the makeup at first as when it comes to portraying Pennywise. If it was suppose to be a creepy clown in just about any other movie, it would be great, but Pennywise is suppose to just look like a regular clown in order to lure kids. He is only suppose to look hosed up when the fangs comes out. But this isn't a big issue as you get past that after the opening and just accept that's how Pennywise looks in this move. I'd say at the end of the day, Bill Skarsgård is just as good as Tim Curry and the makeup is pretty cool. I think this is probably a better movie than the 1990 version. The big problem with the original is that its not really a movie, but two episodes of a miniseries that's usually turns into as a one overlong movie when you watch them back to back. A lot of love for the 1990 one is very much based on nostalgia and that you probably watched it at an young age. The 2017 version only focuses on when the main characters when they were kids, while the miniseries goes for the whole story. The 1990 one takes place in the 60s and while don't look bad by any means, only look as good as a made for TV movie from the early 90s could look. The 2017 takes place in the 80s, a setting that's a lot easier for me to be nostalgic about, and looks pretty good as it is a big budget movie. It got tons of CGI instead of special effects, but the CGI look pretty good. It's just better at being a movie than the miniseries, mainly because it's actually a movie, but also because it's effective enough at telling the story. I'd say both versions are worth watching, but I think this one got an edge over the 1990 one. How do I resize images? Don't want to be the guy with way too big movie posters.
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Oct 3, 2018 03:48
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Hot Dog Day #89 posted:How do I resize images? Don't want to be the guy with way too big movie posters. With Imgur, you can put an "l" (lowercase L) right before the ".jpg" in the filename to make it constrain to a smaller width So, "qo1j8LYl.jpg" instead of "qo1j8LY.jpg". Or use "m" for even smaller, or "s" for a square thumbnail. I think "m" works best for this thread ("qo1j8LYm"):  Count Thrashula fucked around with this message at 03:57 on Oct 3, 2018 |
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Oct 3, 2018 03:55
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 #6 The Crazies (2010) Director's Commentary On "Don't ask me why I can't leave without my wife and I won't ask you why you can." The director, Breck Eisner, is a creature of show business and doesn't really know how to speak movie-goer English. He says things like "went to lens." About a minute into the commentary he mentions "Paramount allowed us to put into turnaround"--I had no idea what this means. Wikipedia: quote:A turnaround or turnaround deal is an arrangement in the film industry whereby the production costs of a project which one studio has developed are declared a loss on the company's tax return, thereby preventing the studio from exploiting the property any further. The rights can then be sold to another studio in exchange for the cost of development plus interest.[1] This was Eisner's seventh directing job. More importantly, you guessed it, he is Michael Eisner's son. The Crazies gets into its core concept early, which is... a hell of a nice change after sitting through The Birds. It's kind of The Thing meets Night of the Living Dead in an anti-war story. According to Eisner, the house that burns in the beginning was a real but dilapidated house that the locals believed was haunted, so they gladly allowed Eisner to burn it down for the opening scare. Welcome to Iowa. In another case they used an existing house in exchange for agreeing to restore the family's porch and shooting on it while they stayed in a hotel. Joe Anderson is really good in this and I've barely seen him in anything after, but I'm looking forward to seeing his version of Mason Verger as I get around to finishing Hannibal. Eisner is much more commercial-oriented than George Romero (who in directing isn't), and Eisner describes scenes from the original in terms of things he didn't think would work "today." Breck, my dude, George never did something with "how it would play" in mind. But this is still a pretty intense movie. It's just not George Romero avant garde. Breck would never make an achingly earnest movie about a Ren Faire troupe. Eisner drew my attention to the fact that they used CG to fix things in post, notably a huge amount of blood splatter that they didn't have the time to do on set. Mostly the film looks really good to my eyes, though. The most publicized moment from this film is Pitchfork Guy, but the real piece de resistance is the nursery room. Car wash is a close second.
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Oct 3, 2018 04:16
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Here’s my first batch. Going to try and do all movies that are new to me. 1. Halloween (1978) I think the hype got the best of me on this one. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but I wasn’t blown away. Jamie Lee Curtis is very good in this, hard to believe it’s her first movie. I wasn’t super into the scenes with the doctor and the buildup before Michael starts killing people feels pretty long. But the ending is very good. I like the bit where Laurie is knocking on the door of a house screaming for help and the residents just look out the window and turn the lights back off. Felt very true to suburbia. 2. Black Death (2010) Sean Bean plays a knight sent by the bishop to investigate rumors of necromancy and human sacrifice in a village untouched by the plague. Eddie Redmayne is a novice monk who’s supposed to guide Bean’s crew through the marshes to the village but intends to slip away and meet his gf and elope. Since it’s in this thread you know things go wrong. I appreciate that this movie goes for a gritty feel and it really conveys that England at the peak of the plague is just absolutely loving miserable to live in. It also leaves some ambiguity to whether there is actually anything supernatural going on. The village is led by an herbalist and maaaaaaybe witch played by Carice van Houten and things go to hell from there. This was a lot better than I expected, but nothing too special.
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Oct 3, 2018 04:24
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Franchescanado posted:
#9. Count Dracula (1970) Do I really need to summarize this one? Count Dracula takes solicitor Johnathon Harker prisoner and goes and invades England. Hijinx ensue. Jess Franco is legendarily awful in many movie circles, though I have a soft spot for him, due to my love of out-there filmmakers. This is said to be his best film, and I think from a conventional sense it certainly is. It has a name cast, with high production values, despite his penchant for pointless zooms like, constantly. Christopher Lee calls it his favorite Dracula film, and besides some trimming of things for speed and brevity, it's one of the most accurate adaptations to the book surprisingly. Also it's got a great soundtrack with an eerie mandolin springing along. .5 out of 5#10. 1922 (2017) A Nebraska farmer feuds with his wife over land she has inherited, and he conspires with their son to murder her. Her death however leads to misery to come... Up until this point, there's very few Stephen King feature adaptations I've yet to see. I must say, this one is not one of the best. Thomas Jane as the lead mumbles his lines in a thick drawl and the plot just seems to drag on and on despite not much going on. Meh. out of 5#11. Belladonna of Sadness (1973) (Commanded by Lord of Booty) In a medieval land, a woman is savagely raped by her king on her wedding night, leading eventually to her making a deal with the devil to grant her the power of revenge. Well. People like to recommend this one because of its classic horror plot, and its surreal imagery. It's a Japanese made animated movie, taking after the psychedelic styles of the LSD generation of work. However...it's probably more than half just graphic sexual imagery back and forth that gets super old super fast, and makes me rather embarrassed to watch. Approach with caution. out of 5#12. Soft Matter (2018). Young art punks break into a closed up nursing home to put on a street art show, and discover the place holds a secret lab where the scientists are attempting to merge humans with fish to find the secret to immortality, which angers a sea god, who feels they're stealing her secrets. Yeah. Holy poo poo. 18 out of 5
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Oct 3, 2018 04:26
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16. Assassination Nation 2018 | dir. Sam Levinson | In Theaters!  This movie begins with a rapid-fire trigger warning montage of moments to come: foul language, violence, gore, male gaze, homophobia, toxic masculinity...etc. I try to avoid spoilers in my write-ups, especially for films in theaters, but even in typing this I know that the joke is intact.  In fact, I could write this film plot point by plot point and it wouldn't spoil a thing. It has to be seen to believe. It's like The Warriors and Spring Breakers had a baby and started the Purge via Reddit. It's anarchy in the name of public shaming. It's The Heathers with social media. This isn't a typical horror movie. It's a dark comedy, it's a thriller, and it's a horror movie. The idea itself is horrific: a public mass hysteria in a small town caused by personal data being hacked, resulting in murderous revenge. This is the modern fear of having your secrets exposed and vilified, no matter how mundane or innocent. There are elements of home invasion, there's gun horror, there's elements of classic slashers, and there's a biting absurdity to it all. Subtlety isn't on the agenda. They discuss changing the gender dynamics in Straw Dogs. There's a lot to accolade here. The script is stylish and unpredictable. The cast is phenomenal. Props to the film for allowing Hari Nef, a trans actress, to steal the show and put in the best performance. I'm happy to see Suki Waterhouse again so soon, after loving her in The Bad Batch. Odessa Young, our lead, is solid in staying grounded as a solid anti-hero who serves destruction for her ideals. And of course, a scene-stealing Bill Skarsgaard and a demented Joel McHale. The lighting (a neon palette of reds, whites, and blues) is wonderful. The cinematography is beautiful. The editing is energetic and inventive. The production design is controlled chaos. The music is   It's a little painful to keep this vague. It's the most fun I've had in the theaters all year. It's not perfect by any means. It's satire becomes heavy-handed in the end, but it's a major bitch-slap that kicks rear end and feels hugely cathartic in these times. There are some issues in the finale. I wanted it to get bigger and bigger. But it's a hell of a ride that had me dancing in my seat, and that's more than most movies give me nowadays. And it's funny. It's loving bloody and loving mean and loving funny. And I want to go watch it again. Highly Recommended. In fact, as bold as it is for an early vote, this may be my favorite movie of the year. Movies Seen: Hell House, LLC | Dagon | The Bird With the Crystal Plumage | Critters 2 | Serial Mom | Monster Squad | The Neon Demon | Motel Hell | Vampyr | Possession | Under The Skin | Martyrs | The Curse of the Werewolf | The Old Dark House | Children of the Corn | Assassination Nation Total: 16 Fran Challenges: Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 04:40 on Oct 3, 2018 |
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Oct 3, 2018 04:37
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