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 100- Count Yorga 1970- DVD Kinda similar to Deathmaster in it being a vampire making the most of 70s era California, though the Yorga films predate Deathmaster. Here, Yorga presents himself as a psychic working the seance circuit. Nice touch in this one was Yorga's death doesn't result in the vampires he made either revert to human or crumble to dust. One of my faves that I do recommend.  101- Return of Count Yorga 1971- DVD Revived by the Santa Ana winds, Yorga gets back to business. From what I've heard, there was supposed to be a third Yorga film but that never materialized. This one's best seen as a double feature with the first. A nice twist both Yorga films share considering the era is even when the vampire hunters know what to do and are prepared, they're still well in over thier heads.
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Oct 5, 2018 15:14
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DukeDuke posted:4. Braindead (1992) Braindead is my favorite horror movie. I'm glad you loved it. Jackson knew how to make gore both gratuitous and charming at the same time. No other director has been able to pull that off quite as well.
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Oct 5, 2018 15:16
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These are both rewatches, and mark the beginning of the Heisei era of Godzilla films for my challenge. 29. The Return of Godzilla (1984) The Return of Godzilla is a reboot of the series that ignores everything except the first one from the Showa era of films. Right from the beginning it sets the dark tone of the film with tense scenes that are shot like a horror movie. It does a great job of blending this dark tone into various aspects of the story, like the political board rooms that are heavy with the weight of impending doom. I feel like Return is a pretty openly critical of American and Russian foreign policy. Also it considers us extremely naive for our nuclear stockpiles, when we should be looking for safer solutions to defense. Godzilla moves slowly throughout the film, like an inevitable force of destruction. It's really quite interesting how the tension of the approaching monster slowly builds up as it progresses. Once he shows up we're given some extremely cool scenes of destruction, and battles with Hyper Laser Cannons plus the brand new Super X vehicle. These battles were done so well, with great camerawork and effects. There were really only a couple things I want to complain about. One was the characters, they just aren't all that interesting. Nearly every actor was solid (American diplomat was ehh) it's just the characters they played didn't really bring much to the table. Another was that some of the scenes felt a little too long, a bit of editing would have helped. The Return of Godzilla is a great reboot and has me psyched to watch the rest of the Heisei era of films.  holy gently caress look at this poster 30. Godzilla vs. Biollante There is a ton going on in this movie, scientists developing bio-weapons, terrorists trying to steal the bio-weapons, government agents trying to steal the bio-weapons from the terrorits that are trying to steal them, children with ESP having collective dreams about and communicating with Godzilla, and that is just some of the places this movie goes. There is a lot of pieces of the story I found quite interesting, but the breadth of plot strings may be the movies main weakness. It takes away from one of the greatest monster designs I have ever seen, Biollante, who is just not on screen nearly enough. When we get to see Godzilla and the Human/Godzilla/Plant DNA mash up monster Biollante fight it's just excellent. The action is slimey and wet, with some gnarly close-ups of the dripping special effects. It's the first monster battle in this era of Godzilla films and it brings with it a sense of weight, or consequence. Both monsters do considerable damage to each other. I dont want to spoil specifics, but some of the "weapons" or "moves" that Biollante uses were borderline disgusting, and caused real pain to 'Zilla. Overall, I really loved this one. Yeah the plot can be scattershot and half-baked in some areas, but it moves at a fairly quick pace and will take you on quite the ride if you let it. CRAYON fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Oct 5, 2018 |
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Oct 5, 2018 15:18
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#19. Celia (1989) A little girl growing up in 50s Australia struggles to understand events around her such as the Red Scare and the Rabbit Cull, leading to a disturbed mind mixing with her overactive imagination. Well. I was suggested this by someone who hadn't actually watched the movie, CoughFranchescanadoCough and I don't really blame them for the suggestion, as the marketing pushes this as a horror for sure. But...it's really not. It's not even fantasy. It's got some dark moments, and some bits in Celia's imagination with monsters, but that's it. If you like the kind of movie this is, where it shows a kid growing up in the 50s, then by all means, check it out. I was not a fan.  out of 5.#20. Resolution (2012) Chris is a drug addict, squatting in a small building on a Native Reservation. His friend Michael, after getting a strange video of Chris' antics, goes to him, and chains him to the wall in hopes of successfully detoxing him within a week. Then, Michael starts making strange discoveries about the area that put them at risk. I loved this film, and hate that it's hard to talk about without spoilers. The strengths of the film are twofold: Obviously, the strange horror factor is strong in it, but just as good are Chris and Michael's natural chemistry and humor. The movie is kind of scary and very creepy, but it's also legitimately funny as well, which is an incredibly hard balance to keep up. Apparently these characters also show up in the filmmakers' followup from last year, The Endless, so I'll be trying to watch that this month with excitement. out of 5#21. Human Lanterns 1982. Two Ming Dynasty era bigwigs are in a constant feud, and with a contest for best lanterns coming up, one searches out and finds a crafter he beat in duel years ago to make him the very finest. Turns out the guy is a psycho, and you'll never guess his secret technique for making lanterns. I'm a fan of horror, obviously, and I'm also a fan of kung fu movies. To my surprise, this film is a perfect blend of the two genres, something I've never seen before. The plot is a very solid slasher style one, yet is constantly punctuated with intense, wire-based fight scenes that are absolutely top tier, and are diagetically justified. Color me impressed with the seamless blending of the two genres. out of 5#22. Skeletons In The Closet (2018). Set in the 80s, Emily is a young horror fanatic, and tonight is her favorite program, a weekly horror movie shown by a horror hostess, The Widow, and her corpse husband, much to the misgivings of her babysitter. The movie The Widow watches, Chop Shop, is an anthology, featuring a handful of seemingly unrelated stories, or are they? I have to give this film credit for trying, I really do, but it's kind of a flop. The fact that we have an anthology three layers deep in bookend kinda confuses things, and the tone seems all over the place. Also, the stories are pretty bland. out of 5#23. Monster X! (2017) A couple goes to a horror movie marathon at the local cineplex for a first date, and finds that in this theater, the monsters are very much real, and must run and hide while the features play. Another flub of an anthology film, this one is at least competently made, collecting a score of short films that had circulated the festivals before the making of the movie. However, they're all fairly predictable, and quite short and forgettable. out of 5#24. Beyond The Door (1972) After she gets pregnant, a wife and mother becomes possessed by the devil. A strange man from her past comes forward to her rescue, but is actually in league with the evil one himself! When this Italian film came out, it was promptly sued by Warner Bros for being a copy of Exorcist, and it's obvious why Warner won that lawsuit. What's odd however is that's it's not strictly exactly the same, even though much of the possession stuff is copied. Like, it has the weird element of maybe Rosemary's Baby to it? Also there's a pretty cool brief poltergeist sequence a full decade before the Tobe Hooper film made that sort of thing popular. It's weird plot earns it an extra point from me. out of 5
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Oct 5, 2018 15:26
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^^^ drat tons of folks watching Human Lanterns. I need to get on that one. Biollante is sorely underappreciated. She's a top 5 Godzilla villain, and Godzilla vs Biollante is the best Godzilla film that isn't Shin. Spatulater bro! fucked around with this message at 15:32 on Oct 5, 2018 |
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Oct 5, 2018 15:29
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Hollismason posted:Uh Halloween lasts from the beginning of October to the day before Thanksgiving laffo if you don't watch horror movies from September 1 straight through Thanksgiving
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Oct 5, 2018 15:33
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Spatulater bro! posted:Biollante is sorely underappreciated. She's a top 5 Godzilla villain, and Godzilla vs Biollante is the best Godzilla film that isn't Shin. Yeah it's weird to me that so many Godzilla fans really don't like the film, but I think word is spreading that they are wrong and it's one of the best (not ready to rank them, might do that when I'm finished watching them all). I forgot to note that those were both rewatches, I'll do that so people have better context.
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Oct 5, 2018 15:41
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q != e
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Oct 5, 2018 15:43
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COOL CORN posted:laffo if you don't watch horror movies from September 1 straight through Thanksgiving Look at this guy who didn't start back in August. LOL.
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Oct 5, 2018 15:51
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Halloween begins Nov 1st.
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Oct 5, 2018 15:57
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12. The Gorilla (1939) - DVD I'll admit to choosing this out of a bulk pack just for the decade in which it was released. I love 1930s filmmaking from the tinny voices, music, title cards, vaudevillian humor, effects, costumes, and set designs. It all just adds up to a comfortable and enjoyable experience with even substandard material to work with. This is no exception. Yes, the comedy is so-so at best. But enoygh jokes land. Yes, the conceit was tired even then but the creepy mansion in a thunderstorm worked so well at the time that I don't care. The corny, abrupt, and forced ending was common and to be expected. But I got to watch a mix of dimwits and straigh men flail about secret passages with a gorilla while Lugosi tried to hold everything together so gently caress Letterboxd, it was fun. And now I'm primed for some Abbott and Costello later in the month! "Don't you know Poe hates women?!" "So does Kipling." Tally: N/A Psycho (1960)*, 1. Halloween (1978), 2. Halloween II (1981), 3. Carnival of Souls (1962), 4. The Blob (1988), 5. I Bury the Living (1958), 6. Dead Men Walk (1943), 7. Nosferatu (1922), 8. Les Revenants (2002), 9. The Mummy's Hand (1940), 10. House on Haunted Hill (1959)*, 11. Lifeforce (1985), 12. The Gorilla (1939) Years Spanned: 82 (1922-2004) Tally by Decade: '20s (I), '30s (I), '40s (II), '50s (II), '60s (II), '70s (I), '80s (III), '90s (0), 2000s (I) * Rewatch
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Oct 5, 2018 16:04
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     #12. The Manster, a.k.a., The Split, a.k.a., Doktor Satan (1959) A little out of the ordinary for the time, but not by much. A reporter visits Japan, gets unknowingly experimented on, and starts misbehaving before growing a second head. Western fascination with Orientalism is heavy, from geisha girls, to sake, to hot springs, to wandering into a Buddhist temple and interrupting prayers with "I heard your singing." As ham-fisted as it is in that regard, the lead actor does a decent job of showing his emotional deterioration as something evil starts growing within him. This coming from the '50s, that's mainly expressed through womanizing, misogyny, insulting his employer, and being a drunk, all of which are treated as signs that he's just going through a rough patch, and which dove-tail right into the murders (all of Japanese people) without much between. Compared to the other films I watched this day, this one has more gristle for an analytical essay, but it's still pretty bad. There's a scene here which was replicated (intentionally or not) to an uncanny degree in Army of Darkness, so there's that. Also, the comeuppance for the villain is practically non-existent, to the point where I think it's covered by a line of dialogue while he's off-screen. The special effects are... not good, but they're masked by monochrome shadows to an effective degree. There's some stuff to dig into here, but not enough, and not enough style, to make for an actual recommendation. / 10 #13. Death Ship (1980) The Shining, but with a ship instead of a hotel, and the ghosts are Nazis! Some good atmosphere, and when things get bonkers, they really go wild. A kid who always needs to pee is repeatedly used as a way to advance the plot. There's a few deaths that are down to the character being in an incredibly specific spot on the ship (e.g., the chain of events leading to Saul Rubinek's death beginning with him planting his foot in an exact circle a few inches wide) or doing something reeeal dumb (an adult eating candy found on a ship so long abandoned that thick cobwebs are over everything), but those can be chalked up to ghostly influence. An (unintentionally) amusing example of that influence was when death rites are being read out of a Bible by the captain (George Kennedy!)... but the Bible is in German! Lots of scenes of the ship's machinery operating, which did provide better atmosphere than shots of the empty deck. Tonally, it felt like the screen-writer wandered a bit too far. With how real-world horrific the big reveal was (even if it was largely implausible), some of the sillier moments verged on bad taste. Is a scene where a woman spins around screaming in a shower with a ghost-locked door and water turning to blood awesome for a '70s horror movie? Oh yeah. Does it fit in a movie in which characters stare in mute horror at a pan of gold teeth removed from Jewish corpses? Mmm, no. While it could have used some serious tightening up, I came away from this movie respecting it, though I don't think I'll be rewatching it any time soon. / 10 #14. Teenage Zombies, a.k.a., Teenage Torture (1959) Pretty stock stuff for the late '50s, with the main stand-out being an untrustworthy authority figure, which I was not expecting. Yeah, there's a gorilla, for a few minutes. Pretty basic premise: teens are out boating one day, come across an island where everyone seems oddly out of it, then their boat goes missing. Their friends back on land mount a search for the missing teens, and fill in the blanks on the rest as you might imagine (but be sure to use Cold War science as the explanation). The cornball dialogue was more entertaining than anything else, with the potential for symbolism or an interesting scenario with zombified teens only scratched at superficially. I'm not sure whether the teenage boys not even considering leaving their girlfriends brainwashed is a sign of good taste in the writer, or due to lack of imagination. While the story-telling and technical execution is passable, the whole ends up too forgettable to forgive the wasting of such a good title. / 10  Not gonna count this one, but throwing down some thoughts, so no one else gets suckered by the poster art. This is a crime drama, not a horror, though it does dip into the POV of someone stalking the criminals at their hide-out for a few minutes, and has a pretty graphic hand-stabbing. John Candy is in it, and not just in a cameo, and the sheer number of insults about his weight (which, as young as he is here, is much lower than in his famous years) gets uncomfortable. If you've ever wanted to see a bunch of '70s yuppies dressed as clowns gang up and assault someone, here's your film. John Candy is, of course, the stand-out presence, and he puts some decent pathos into his character portrayal. Most of the reviews I saw for this were vicious in taking it down, which I suspect is due to the misleading pocketing of it in the horror category. As a mid-'70s Canadian crime drama, it's sub-par, but not terrible.  / 10
Darthemed fucked around with this message at 17:02 on Oct 5, 2018 |
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Oct 5, 2018 16:57
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Anyone have suggestions for outsider horror that's actually enjoyable/rewarding? The more bizarre the better, but in my experience outsider cinema tends to be a bit of a slog, but I haven't seen much. Spider Baby was one that would fit into my criteria, but Orgy of the Dead wouldn't. Building my list of possibles up.
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Oct 5, 2018 17:18
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Darthemed posted:
I almost want to say it was on Cracked, but it was one of those lists of early appearances of well known actors that mentioned John Candy in this so I rented it. When you go in expecting a slasher of some type and get this, it's definitely a disappointment.
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Oct 5, 2018 17:19
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With its title and the year it came out, I started it half-expecting some proto-slasher, maybe something that could have been polished up into Halloween. So yeah, I was pretty confused and let-down by the turn into squabbling over a sloppy kidnapping.
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Oct 5, 2018 17:23
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feedmyleg posted:Anyone have suggestions for outsider horror that's actually enjoyable/rewarding? The more bizarre the better, but in my experience outsider cinema tends to be a bit of a slog, but I haven't seen much. Spider Baby was one that would fit into my criteria, but Orgy of the Dead wouldn't. I don't know if I'm completely sure of what you mean, but here's some suggestions I think might be relevant: The Evil Within The Sadist Coven (a short, but whatever) Patrick Eaten Alive The Visitor Frankenstein Unbound The Ninth Configuration (probably more psychological thriller, but it's pretty strange and has a great sense of dread)
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Oct 5, 2018 17:37
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Let's just catch up entirely! Unless otherwise noted, I am watching all of these via Plex. 5. The Ward (2010)  Fran Challenge #4: Worst of the Best. We see a young girl run through the woods (impressively fast, really, for not wearing shoes) and then set fire to an old abandoned house. She is arrested, and taken to North Bend Psychiatric Hospital, and placed in the ward. But some sort of monster is stalking the ward, and killing the girls off one by one. Can our new girl arsonist Kristen get to the bottom of it before she becomes a victim? Many people would make the claim that Carpenter's worst work is Ghosts of Mars. Ghosts of Mars, however, is entertaining and terrible. The Ward is just mostly terrible. All the stuff you expect to happen in asylums happens. People avoid taking pills, everyone is a little bit crazy (mostly in a hot manic pixie way, not in a legitimately has problems way), electroshock therapy. It's just..kind of boring. The acting is mediocre, the scares are bog standard, and the girls all fit into one-note archetypes for ~plot reasons~ which are mostly just an excuse to have extremely one-note characters. The only thing really notable that I remember is a fairly lengthy shower scene, of note only because of the lack of nudity. It's not designed to titillate, but to set up a mundane situation for the monster to strike. *yawn* I blame this on *checks wikipedia* Mass Effect 2, and/or Red Dead Redemption. /56. Creep 2 (2017) Netflix  Creep 2 picks up right where Creep 1 left off, with Sara answering a craigslist ad for a videographer and Mark Duplass being creepy. It follows the same basic premise of the first film (is this guy a creep or is he just weird?) but with added levels of tension because we as the audience know things, and Sara also knows things. It was pretty great, and Duplass continues to be charismatic and creepy. Possibly a little too much full frontal Duplass for my tastes, though. /57. Slumber Party Massacre (1982)  A group of high school girls has a slumber party, but alas! A killer is afoot! A driller killer, to be precise. Female directed and female written, it is still filmed entirely to meet Roger Corman's demands. I feel like this undermines the idea that this is a 'feminist' film. There is lots of ogling and pointless nudity here. (Balanced out, I guess with some female ogling of men.) It's also goofy. It was written as a parody, I think, but it's too serious to really pull that off, but it's also a movie where the killer's weapon is a 3 foot long My favorite dumb line was when the 'pizza guy' knocks and the guys inside ask "what's the damage" and he replies "Six so far". That's a cheap pizza (or a lot of bodies). Great stuff. Fun movie! /58. Slumber Party Massacre 2 (1987)  The two conquering heroines of the first movie return (in name, anyway: new actors) with crippling PTSD from the trauma. Valerie, the older sister, is in a mental institution. Courtney, the younger one seems pretty well-adjusted, apart from her wild and clairvoyant dreams. What we have here is Nightmare on Slumber Party Massacre, with a dash of musical for some godforsaken reason. Nightmare on Grease Party Massacre? Courtney's in a grrl band, and Courtney has a boy she likes, and oh yeah Courtney's dreams seem to be getting worse and might be intruding on her reality. No big deal. Can't tell mom or she'll throw her into the asylum. Friends just think she's weird. Courtney pulls a *very* pro teenager move and convinces her mom that, instead of visiting her sister, she should go on a slumber party with her friends. Hey sidenote to my imaginary wife: if my currently imaginary daughter is involved in something we call a 'slumber party massacre' I don't think she gets to have those any more. Sorry. Maybe that makes me a mean imaginary dad. So be it. I'm putting my foot down on this one. A few more nightmares along the way but the slumber party finally starts, with what I assumed all slumber parties were when I was a kid: half-naked drunken pillow fights. Finally, after almost 2/3's of the film, our is-he-real-or-not guitar driller shows up. This would be a sweet as hell Halloween costume, but the guitar drill is beyond my technical skills. It was a weird and bland movie, with some terrible, terrible rock song singalongs and unremarkable drilling. Pretty great scene involving a zit though. .5/5
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Oct 5, 2018 17:39
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Spatulater bro! posted:Biollante is sorely underappreciated. She's a top 5 Godzilla villain, and Godzilla vs Biollante is the best Godzilla film that isn't Shin. I've been wanting to watch Godzilla vs Biollante for a while since everyone points to it as the greatest Godzilla film ever (well, until the new one came out). Maybe I'll take it up this year.
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Oct 5, 2018 17:46
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 FRAN CHALLENGE #2: Queer Horror 6. October 5 - Rope  Probably the loosest definition of horror I'll use for this challenge, but it's on Shudder as well as a few of the Queer Horror letterboxd lists. I love limited-setting movies, and Hitchcock's four are some of the best. Dial M for Murder is my favorite, but Rope is a close second. This one is even more dedicated to the ideal; aside from the opening titles, all of the action takes place in a single set. The set itself is amazing.  The real-time sunset over the skyline and the flashing neon lights that come streaming in during a pivotal moment are really impressive for the time, especially since this was Hitchcock's first color feature. While it's not very "horrific" to modern eyes, there is a lot of uneasy dread layered over the protagonists' ostensibly light dinner party. The leads are great, but Cedric Hardwicke's denunciation of Brandon's twisted ideology was the standout performance for me. People smarter than me have written extensively about the film's queer subtext, but I will say it's disappointing that one of the first on-screen depictions of a gay couple casts them as psychopathic murderers.
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Oct 5, 2018 17:49
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Is Braindead streaming anywhere? I have Bad Taste on my list already for this month and I've been meaning to check out his other stuff.
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Oct 5, 2018 18:01
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Spatulater bro! posted:Halloween begins Nov 1st. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFPI9b9N6CQ
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Oct 5, 2018 18:16
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Random Stranger posted:I've been wanting to watch Godzilla vs Biollante for a while since everyone points to it as the greatest Godzilla film ever (well, until the new one came out). Maybe I'll take it up this year. Going out on a whim here that "new one" you're referencing is Shin Gojira not 2014 Godzilla. I don't know a soul that would rank 2014 even in the top few.
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Oct 5, 2018 18:34
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I'm a little behind with the write-ups! 4. Creepshow 2 (1987) I watched the first Creepshow for the May challenge and thought it was a lot of fun. This one had a very noticeable drop in quality. At first I thought having three segments instead of five meant that the stories would be a little more... detailed, I guess? Instead they all felt stretched out too long. I would have rather shortened them and gotten an extra segment. The first one about the wooden Chief was my favorite, but it should have been a bit shorter. Also, random gross sexual assault in the second segment, wtf. 2/5 5. Mandy (2018) What else can be said about this movie? It's like a metalhead's van art turned into a film in the best possible way. Beautiful, atmospheric, and a great performance from Cage. Also loved the chainsaw fight! Got some Resident Evil 7 vibes there. Hands down my favorite so far! 5/5
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Oct 5, 2018 18:50
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Grizzled Patriarch posted:Is Braindead streaming anywhere? I have Bad Taste on my list already for this month and I've been meaning to check out his other stuff. It can be found on YouTube, but don't tell anyone I told you that. Mokelumne Trekka posted:Going out on a whim here that "new one" you're referencing is Shin Gojira not 2014 Godzilla. American made Godzilla films don't count for anything.
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Oct 5, 2018 18:51
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#3 A Dark Song (2016) Oh, this movie was such my poo poo. Every single reaction I've ever seen to this mentions the disappointing third act and I don't disagree, but I also feel like focusing on that does a disservice to the rest of the movie. I'd rather talk about everything else. I was enthralled. The film's gorgeous to look at and right from the start it pulls you in and takes you for a ride. The core idea here is that a woman hires someone to lead her through a grueling, months-long dark ritual to summon an angel capable of granting her a wish. The build up to the ritual's beginning is slow and beckons the start of an ever-creeping dread that grows throughout the entire film. Everything involved that we get to see feels suitably intense, and yet there's a comfort to it. The idea that you just have to follow the steps, however grueling they may be, is calming. It's also an excuse to shut out the outside world for a bit, and while this is the source of much anxiety for these characters, it ties in to the main woman's motivations for doing the ritual in the first place. I wish it was explored a bit further, but isolating yourself from the world and spiraling through a self-spun web of all consuming busy work is a pretty realistic way of coping with grief, and the main character's change of heart at the end is a nice bookend to it all. As much as I enjoyed the ritual aspects of the film, I wish we got to see more of them. Often times we're introduced to concepts that we never see play out and teased with ideas that never quite make it back to us. What we see is excellent, and there honestly is a lot of it, but it just didn't quite go far enough for me. The movie also falls into the trap of ending the ritual prematurely. Things still ultimately complete, but not in the traditional way, and stories interrupting their otherwise interesting concepts like this never ceases to frustrate me. I understand wanting to introduce conflict, but especially in this case I believe there was plenty of conflict and struggle already present. Have confidence in your ideas and just let them play out! I loved this movie despite its missteps and despite it falling short of excellence. If you're the type that's willing to overlook aspects of a movie you didn't like in favor of aspects you did (which is something that this genre feels like it requires more than most), then I highly recommend checking this out. If not, you might wanna give it a pass. Watched: #1 As Above, So Below (2014), #2 Shutter (2004), #3 A Dark Song (2016)
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Oct 5, 2018 19:15
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Alfred P. Pseudonym posted:4. The Fog (1980) Deep Rising!
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Oct 5, 2018 19:16
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Almost Blue posted:I don't know if I'm completely sure of what you mean, but here's some suggestions I think might be relevant: Yeah, you nailed what I was thinking of as outsider cinema. These are great, putting most of 'em on the list—Evil Within I somehow forgot about but was itching to see.
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Oct 5, 2018 19:20
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17. The Leopard Man 1943 | dir. Jacques Tourneur | Rental A mystery involving a murderous gato.  Jacques Tourneur is probably my favorite director in the 1940's. Each of his movies, no matter how grounded, has a spooky atmosphere that always hints that there are supernatural currents just barely under the surface. This film involves an investigation of several deaths involving an escaped leopard, or possibly a person who murders and mutilates the bodies as if a large cat had attacked them. The best part of the film occurs within the first fifteen minutes. The leopard has escaped but has not been found. There are search parties working hard to find it. Everyone is warned to stay inside for their safety. A woman, frustrated by motherhood, angrily makes her daughter go out for cornmeal for dinner. What follows is one of the most memorably suspenseful segments. The simplicity of shadows and the known threat of a large scared feline and the actress's fear add up to terror. It's worth the price of admission alone. It's a shame, actually, that the rest of the movie falls flat in comparison. There is a mystery, which stays interesting enough throughout, but nothing gets as exciting as that girl's walk to the store. Still, I liked it a lot, though not as much as the rest of Tourneur's work that I've seen. Recommended. 18. Halloween 2 1981 | dir. Rick Rosenthal | DVD It's been years since I watched this film. Now I see why!  What a clumsy follow-up to THE classic slasher. Completely misses the mark. Almost everything Dr. Loomis says is ridiculous. There is zero of the methodical pacing or suspense of the original. The structure is janky and confusing. This movie was written with the fear of hospitals as the main idea. There are many gross-outs involving syringes, there are people impaled(?) by scalpels, and yet the setting somehow still feels very under-utilized. There are some good moments. I like the image of what's-his-name slipping on the blood and falling to the ground. Parts of the hot tub scene work really well. Ben Tramer's death is still interesting and horrific. I like some of Michael's journey's through neighborhoods in the beginning. Ultimately it's very lack-luster. Even the mask looks ugly. It's not that I even hate it, I just think it's kinda boring. I'd rather just watch a different slasher. Not Recommended. 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 | The Leopard Man | Halloween 2 Total: 18 Fran Challenges:
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Oct 5, 2018 19:37
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FRAN CHALLENGE #6: Video Nasties  Watch a Video Nasty*or Watch a film about the Video Nasties*It must be one of the 72 films officially listed as a Video Nasty
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Oct 5, 2018 19:52
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 A Nightmare on Elm Street(1984) I could use this as a Fran challenge but I'm not going to because I wasn't really even in the mood to watch it. But I wanted to watch Dream Warriors and my movie OCD just won't let me skip over Nancy's first showdown with Freddy, it feels wrong. Objectively of course I can see all the things that make the film so effective, and yet for me it's never been in the upper echelon of horror like it is for so many others. Especially after having seen this movie and all of the sequels several times over the years, I find it less enjoyable then some of the later opportunities Englund has to really cut loose with the character. The true genius part for me is the dynamic between the kids and the parents. King released It two years later, I wonder if he was at all influenced by having seen A Nightmare on Elm Street. I love way Nancy interacts with her mother and father as if she's the adult and they are children, and it definitely creates a sense of isolation that is really important to the atmosphere of the movie. Her father is literally the town sheriff and yet she can't depend on him for protection from this threat.  A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors(1987) Hell yea, now this is the true potential of Freddy realized. It's actually almost a little depressing to watch because I know nobody ever matched it as far as taking advantage of the premise to do things that the average 80's slasher flick couldn't. And the likeability of the characters is off the charts, every single death is impactful and important. Englund is perfect in this one, he has the sarcastic edge but always accompanied by an intense meanness that keeps him scary and not the cartoon character he became in a few of the later sequels. And he has so much to play with, he's constantly surrounded by the crazy dream shenanigans of the Dream Warriors and then of course he has a few of his own that create some extremely memorable images. My personal favorite probably being Freddy with the bright blue needles in place of the usual finger blades. 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) 17. The Tomb of Ligeia(1964) 18. Blood and Black Lace(1964) 19. Frankenstein Created Woman(1967) 20. Quatermass and the Pit(1967) 21. Don't Look Now(1973)22. Dracula A.D. 1972 23. Phantom of the Paradise(1974) 24. The Wicker Man(1973) 25. Nosferatu The Vampyre(1979) 26. The Fog(1980) 27. An American Werewolf in London(1981) 28. Prince of Darkness(1987) 29. A Nightmare on Elm Street(1984) 30.
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Oct 5, 2018 19:57
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Franchescanado posted:
Ahhhhh sweet. What a great idea. I own Cannibal Holocaust and Driller Killer on Blu-ray and haven't watched either of them in years. Or maybe I'll check out something new. Decisions decisions... e: oh poo poo same with Last House on the Left. I just picked up the Arrow LE. Spatulater bro! fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Oct 5, 2018 |
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Oct 5, 2018 19:57
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I didn't know what a Video Nasty was and looked it up and immediately saw "Faces of Death" and let out an audible sigh. But it turns out there's a bunch of movies on the list that are already on my list including the one I watched last night. So its not bad. That was just a bad first impression.
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Oct 5, 2018 20:01
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STAC Goat posted:I didn't know what a Video Nasty was and looked it up and immediately saw "Faces of Death" and let out an audible sigh. Yea it was a mostly arbitrary label so the fact that Faces of Death is on there shouldn't put anybody off.
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Oct 5, 2018 20:13
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STAC Goat posted:I didn't know what a Video Nasty was and looked it up and immediately saw "Faces of Death" and let out an audible sigh. I'm mean, but I'm not that mean.
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Oct 5, 2018 20:14
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 Butt. Right off the bat, I didn't like the opening. Starting with extended flashbacks of the end of the first movie is way too much energy at the outset. There's no buildup if in the first five minutes have a confrontation with a psychopath, a decapitation, a zombie child jumping out of a lake, and an ominous warning for the future. Later on in the film there's the spooky story campfire scene, they could've just extended that slightly and gotten across all the information from the first movie they needed the audience to know. Plus that would've made the whole timeline fuckery less obvious. I was wondering how they were going to explain people going back to Camp Crystal Lake again, but the movie side-stepped that rather nicely by just having another camp on the same lake. Making it a training camp for experienced camp counselors from all over the state was a wonderfully dumb escalation from the first movie. But it goes completely underutilized. The fact that they're all experienced counselors never comes up. C'mon, at least give us somebody trying to shoot Jason with an arrow! Half the counselors leave before the murders and are never seen from again, and that sucks for a couple reasons. Fewer deaths, but most importantly it means that we get way less time with the actual cast. We got a lot of time with the counselors in the first movie, so even though they aren't complex or deep characters we feel bad when they get murdered. Why even include all the extra counselors if they aren't going to matter at all when the action starts? I don't get it. The actors do a decent job, but the lack of screen time we get for the characters hurts them. I liked how much Ginny beat up Jason, and using his special needs status to trick him. It's kinda weird that two movies in to the franchise and Jason still doesn't have his trademark hockey mask. The machete is a staple of the series, but as the weapon the women use to defeat the murderer. I'm guessing parts 3 and onwards will have the machete wielding hockey mask Jason I know from pop culture. I didn't hate it, but there was nothing really praiseworthy about it. All in all, Friday the 13th Part is a pretty lackluster followup. also butt.
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Oct 5, 2018 20:29
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 #14. The Ritual (Netflix) - /5I know this one got talked up a little bit in the regular horror thread back when it first came out, so I wanted to play catch up to that. I don't know that's there anything I can particularly knock against this one, but for whatever reason I also didn't feel like it added up to all that much. Maybe it was the total anticlimax at the end (Our Hero, who essentially inadvertently gets all of his friends killed, runs out of the forest and the big Nordic monster from ancient lore can't chase him out of the forest and then they yell at each other and the movie's over immediately afterwards), which I felt utterly undercut what had been a pretty tense and exhilarating sequence right at the end. I also can't say I was terribly bowled over by the fracturing friend relationship dynamic element of the story. I think this one peaked at the overnight stay in the creepy abandoned cabin, complete with nightmare sequence and naked worshiping of a Nordic witchcraft statue. It sure looked pretty, though. Watched so far: Cat People, Halloween 5, Mom and Dad, Hell House LLC, A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), Beetlejuice, The Horror of Party Beach, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, The Return of the Living Dead, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, Murder Party, Anaconda, Dracula (1931), The Ritual Franchescanado posted:
Is there a single list or page that we can use to reference for this? A quick glance at Wikipedia had a whole bunch of extra entries and explanations and everything, so I want to make sure no one gets dinged for using incorrect information.
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Oct 5, 2018 20:35
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STAC Goat posted:I didn't know what a Video Nasty was and looked it up and immediately saw "Faces of Death" and let out an audible sigh. Posted this in the main thread a little ways back, but here's a pretty comprehensive series on the film and phenomenon for anyone unfamiliar.
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Oct 5, 2018 20:37
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Also from the OP: https://letterboxd.com/thenomad/list/video-nasties-vn1-the-72-banned-films-in/
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Oct 5, 2018 20:40
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STAC Goat posted:I didn't know what a Video Nasty was and looked it up and immediately saw "Faces of Death" and let out an audible sigh. I do have to ask, but would Faces of Death count as a horror movie?
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Oct 5, 2018 20:51
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M_Sinistrari posted:I do have to ask, but would Faces of Death count as a horror movie? Yes.
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Oct 5, 2018 20:54
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