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18. Hereditary (2018, Ari Aster) Source: Blu-ray (Netflix) Hereditary is the antithesis of the James Wan brand of by-the-numbers, jump scare-based horror. It doesn't just try to startle you, it tries to inject you with intense dread from head to toe. And it loving succeeds. The dread steadily escalates with no reprieve, punctuated occasionally by moments of soul-splitting horror. There's a scene in the first half that just about stopped my heart. And it never lets up, it just keeps digging into you until you can barely breathe. By the third act I was on the verge of having a panic attack, for real. The only other movie that's ever done this to me is The Shining. This is a film created for jaded horror fans like me. Director/writer Ari Aster masterfully avoids the cliches and formulas that infest modern horror. It's filled with scares, especially in the final act, yet every single one of them lands. Modern horror has a tendency to forecast every scare that's about to happen either through music cues or tired conventions, but not here. It all works. I said "holy loving poo poo" out loud on more than one occasion. And there were at least two moments where I got chills down my back like I haven't felt in ages. It's a truly scary movie. And I've got to mention Toni Collette. She's phenomenal. She conveys both deep sadness and horror better than anyone. Her closeups alone could carry this movie. No hyperbole, Hereditary is the best horror movie I've seen in the last decade. It's one of the greats.   (5 bird heads out of 5)
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Oct 6, 2018 17:31
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1. The Howling (1981, Joe Dante) [Blu-ray] I'm partial to the werewolf subgenre of horror films because of the prevalence of psychological themes in the best ones. I'm also a big fan of Joe Dante, so I was excited about seeing his take. This isn't a great film, but there are some great moments. As with all of Dante's films, he packs the cast with character actors. I will say the makeup effects are impressive and it almost has a great ending (why did Dee Wallace have to be killed off? It would have ended perfectly with the viewer reactions). Anyways, worth it for seeing Slim Pickens wearing fangs.  out of 5
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Oct 6, 2018 17:53
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 109- Abominable Dr. Phibes 1971 - DVD This one was the film that introduced me to the concept of silliness with scares. I absolutely adore the Phibes films. Even picked up the books on Amazon which are pretty good. When the show Scream Queens featured Vulnavia's theme when one of the Chanel's was in her walk in closet, I was grinning from ear to ear. Phibes is known as a classical musician specializing in Biblical themes. His wife dies during surgery following an accident and each of the surgical team are getting picked off according to the curses inflicted on Egypt, but everyone thought Phibes died in the accident too. Vincent Price blows it out of the water as Phibes. He's definitely having fun with the role, mixing menace with tongue in cheek. Took me a few watchings to catch Caroline Munro as Phibes' wife, Victoria. Everything about Phibes clicks with what you'd expect from the evil mastermind in a spy film with a grandiose base and plans with backup plans. Definitely a must see.  110- Dr. Phibes Rises Again 1972 - DVD Usually it's in the sequel where the quality drops from the first film, but not with the Phibes films. Picking up from three years after the first, Phibes is back in business. This time it's to Egypt and the River of Life used by the Pharaohs. This time Phibes has a rival, Dr. Biederbeck who has his own reasons for seeking the River of Life. Everything that was great in the first film's here too. Unusual themed deaths, the humor, Phibes' elaborate set ups. A different actress plays Vulnavia in this one as Virginia North was pregnant at the time, and there was talk of having Phibes clash against Count Yorga that didn't pan out. There was plans to make a third Phibes film but that fell through. I always watch this one as a double feature with the first.
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Oct 6, 2018 18:07
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Don't Torture a Duckling (1972) Challenge: Love Something You Hate  I'm not the biggest fan of non-Argento giallos, partly because I feel like that sort of Italian-horror dream logic works doesn't gel with murder mystery plotting nearly as well as it does with "Jennifer Connelly psychic bug attacks". This one by Fulci's a keeper though, moving the action from the city to the countryside. Not only does the film work as a compelling procedural murder mystery, but it also doubles as a damning portrait of small town provincialism and religious mania. The violence here comes not only from the genre's typical black-gloved killer, but from the public's violent reactions to the mounting pressure. This is still a giallo though, so we still get lots of absurd and oddly beautiful violence including an extremely memorable ending involving an obvious puppet, a cliff face, and lots of gore. Think of it as "Italian neo-surrealism". 4/5  Inferno (1980) Challenge: Video Nasties  Argento's follow up to Suspiria. At times this feels more like a gorgeously filmed walking tour of an incredible haunted house attraction than a movie, but these things live and die by their setpieces and the ones here are great. I especially love that this has a "cat jumps out of the shadows" scene that actually turns lethal due to the sheer volume of cats. Apparently this ended up on the Video Nasties list because of a single scene in which a cat is seen eating a mouse, which violated animal cruelty statues. Censorship! 3/5  s
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Oct 6, 2018 18:59
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Infinity Chamber (2017) [Netflix Streaming] A man locked in an AI-controlled prison cell tries to talk his way out. Does a decent job with a limited budget, except for some really intrusive ADR. Fine enough if you like movies about people talking to robots. Dagon (2001) [Scream Stream] Years before Guillermo del Toro took it mainstream, Stuart Gordon brought us this adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's ode to fishfucking. Lots of goofy costumes. Best thing about it is an intense performance from a mermaid. Demonic Toys (1992) [Scream Stream] Entertainingly goofy for a group stream. So Far: #1 The Terror (2018), #2 The Cabin in the Woods (2011), #3 Gone Girl (2014), #4 Annihilation (2018), #5 Seven (1995), #6 Mandy (2018), #7 Dead Alive (1992), #8 Would You Rather (2012), #9 1922 (2017), #10 Infinity Chamber (2017), #11 Dagon (2001), #12 Demonic Toys (1992)
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Oct 6, 2018 19:42
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Day 6 - Shiver of the Vampires https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wxwrMG3cmo I generally try to go with movie posters, but they're all either  or really close to it, so here's a weird DVD cover for you.I've never been big on the erotic vampire subgenre, but there were a ton of them available for streaming so I said, "Why not?" Almost all of them were directed by Jean Rollin whose films I had never seen so checking out the work of a prolific director in that subgenre also seemed like a nice idea. The hard part was picking which of the eight or nine films that promised to be about erotic, possibly incestuous, bisexual female vampires. I picked Shiver of the Vampires mainly because it had a full description. A newlywed couple stop at the bride's cousin's castle in the south of France, but when they arrive, they find out that the cousins died yesterday. The serving girls who can't seem to figure out how to lace up the front of their blouses give them rooms and in the middle of the night the bride is visited by Isolde, a vampire who climbs out of unusual places and helps her explore her sexuality in exchange for some blood. Then the dead cousins turn up the next evening and insist that the couple stay for a few more nights. So the plot isn't anything special, though the cast of weird characters makes it pretty lively. There's some odd pacing with the story that makes it pretty confusing. I thought I was getting a handle on the movie. Then Isolde kills a woman from town with foot long nipple spikes that give the girl a pair of fatal piercings with a hold and blood splatter that match the art on the wall behind her and I was back to not being certain. Then there was a long scene that laid it all out and it was pretty simple, just not told in a straightforward way. The thing that made Shiver interesting was Rollin's direction. There's a lot of striking visuals in the movie and I'm not talking about see through outfits. Rollin gives the camera a real work out with some shots like a long exposition sequence where it never stops spinning and the women in the background seem to be holding onto the scenery for their lives. There's a lot of fun in how the characters behave like the vampire woman popping out of unexpected places or the cousins popping in and out of frame as they excitedly talk over each other. Shiver of the Vampires wound up being kind of neat and I think I'll watch another film by Rollin sometime to see if this was just a one-off success. Though I don't think I need to watch it anytime soon. I've had my fill of full frontal vampires for a whiles. Finally, have a screencap that will be useful for so many movies viewed this month: 
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Oct 6, 2018 20:09
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Trying to plug away at some of the challenges.Franchescanado posted:
 21. The People Under The Stairs (1991). Directed by Wes Craven. Watched via YouTube VOD. Casting Big Ed and Nadine from Twin Peaks as avatars of gentrification and culture war panic is the most early 90's casting choice you could possibly make. I didn't think Wes Craven had a movie like this in him. It's flawed like most of Craven's films, but there's such a righteous and rightful spite for the white conformist culture H.W Bush pushed that I can overlook those problems. For a white director, Wes Craven actually does a pretty good job sifting through white privilege and using its signifiers to make the villains come off as monstrous yet recognizable.
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Oct 6, 2018 20:19
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FRAN CHALLENGE #5: Birth of Horror 
Watch a horror movie released in the year you were born.
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12/31 Trick r' Treat is a beloved cult classic among horror fans, and with two years in a row at Halloween Horror Nights I decided to finally sit down and watch it. What sets this film apart is that it's an anthology series tied together with the character of Sam, a sort of childlike spirit of Halloween that harshly punishes those who disobey the rules of the season (like putting out a jack-o-lantern before the night ends). This film doesn't take itself very seriously, and in some ways Sam himself is a comedic character; after making his first kill against a transgressor, he noisily struggles to painstakingly drag the body away to dismember and display as a warning. Trick r' Treat is a horror movie for people who love horror and Halloween. While all of the tales center around Halloween, it's really a movie for those of us who just adore the horror genre. The opening and ending credits even show off the style of a horror comic to a beautiful orchestral score. Somewhat unusually for an anthology film, the tales all take place simultaneously and we cut between them as the stories go on, giving the impression of a single night of horror that Sam supernaturally participates in. Cinematography is simple but clean, leaving the colors intact instead of trying to play with filters. While the horror rarely achieves true scares, the irreverent humor (such as a serial killing principal repeatedly finding roadblocks to hiding his bodies) keeps you watching. It's easy to see how Trick r' Treat became the instant classic it is. While it's not going to scare anyone but the most jumpy, the black comedy alone is worth it. chitoryu12 fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Oct 7, 2018 |
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Oct 6, 2018 20:34
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FRAN CHALLENGE #1: Love Something You Hate There was only one real option for me for this challenge. There are a lot of horror movies I didn't like, there are a lot of horror movies I thought sucked. But there's only one horror movie I hated. And, with fortuitous timing for this challenge, they just released a sequel nobody asked for  The first two thirds of the movie, I didn't hate. I was mainly bored. Oh no, it's the Strangers, they're wearing spooky masks and doing Michael Myers poo poo. The family had a stock drama plot, the actors did decent jobs, whatever. Then I got to the pool sequence. Why is this sequence set to Total Eclipse of the heart and lit by neon palm trees? Because it's cool, that's why. The movie has decided to become entertaining, I'm not gonna nitpick. The golf club is great, the fight in the pool is genuinely exciting, the flaming truck is great, that whole chase sequence is really entertaining. It's not like, blow your mind amazing, but it's fun and good. The cop wouldn't have turned his car off. C'mon, everybody who has ever interacted with a cop know they leave the car on. The girl is a rebellious teen, you can tell because she's wearing a Ramones shirt. a band a little older than her dad. I dunno, maybe when she was a little kid I Wanna Be Sedated was her favorite song in Guitar Hero. Overall, The Strangers Prey At Night is two thirds inoffensively dull, one third fun and exciting.
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Oct 6, 2018 20:38
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5. Prometheus Ridley Scott is relentless when it comes to body horror in his movies, but he's even more relentless in existential horror, possibly even moreso since his brother died. This is, full-stop, one of my favorite movies. I love the art and production design, I love the scoring, I love how ... goodness, just how good Rapace is as Shaw. The body horror is on full-tap, of course, and even though the Protomorph or whatever scene is goofy as poo poo, there's a sense of unease throughout the entire film. And Fassbender is gold. Going to take a bus ride to get some treats for my dog to clear my head before I finish today's triple-feature.
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Oct 6, 2018 20:50
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#4 The Endless (2017) I'd liked the directors' previous movies so I was looking forward to this one as well. The Endless follows two brothers who revisit a cult they'd left when they were younger. The cult's mystery is set up well and there are some fantastic scenes and set pieces surrounding the gradual reveal. The movie's at its best when you're not quite sure what's going on. The truth you learn is compelling, but once the subtlety is gone the characters got less interesting to me, not more. The side characters were often more interesting than the main two brothers. Additionally, the special effects had a hard time keeping up with and selling the mounting action. All that said, I still enjoyed it. I didn't realize it was connected to Resolution, but the link was neat and I'd really like to go back and do a double feature at some point. There are some really creepy scenes and ideas throughout, and even though I don't think the climax was as strong as it could've been, I still think the movie worked as a whole. Watched (4/15): #1 As Above, So Below (2014), #2 Shutter (2004), #3 A Dark Song (2016), #4 The Endless (2017)
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Oct 6, 2018 21:44
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Spatulater bro! posted:18. Hereditary (2018, Ari Aster) Source: Blu-ray (Netflix) same, same, same, and  especially the panic attack thing, I was freaked out and on edge for at least an hour afterwards, which never happens to me with movies. I went back with some friends and saw it again the next week and it still had a pretty profound effect on me, even knowing what was coming. There are lots of details that are easy to miss the first time around, too, it’s worth a repeat viewing for sure.
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Oct 6, 2018 23:04
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 111- Zombies of Sugar Hill 1974 - PRIME When it comes to Blaxploitation horror films, everyone knows Blacula, Blackenstein, J.D.'s Revenge. Sometimes there'll even be a mention of Dr. Black and Mr. White. Sugar Hill seems to be the one that gets forgotten which is pretty sad since it's a good revenge tale. I had a doozy of a time trying to track down a copy since everyone thought I was meaning the Wesley Snipes one. Plot is Sugar Hill's boyfriend owns a popular nightclub that the mob wants to take over. He refuses and is murdered. As the police aren't much help, she goes to Mama Maitresse for some proper justice. The zombies here are a nice callback to the traditional Voodoo ones and Don Pedro Colley does an excellent Baron Samedi. One of my faves and definitely worth a watch.  112- Deranged 1974 - DVD I think this one's the first fairly close attempt at telling Ed Gein's story compared to Psycho and Texas Chainsaw Massacre using elements of it. Ezra Cobb lives with his domineering mother who indoctrinated him to see all women as sinful. When she dies, he's alone until he digs her corpse up and brings it home. We all know where this is going from here. Film does a great job of showing the run down farmhouse and going from the crime scene photos I've seen of the Gein case, are fairly faithful to things. Robert Blossom who plays Ezra does a good job of showing the creepiness and outside of the people here in the thread, I think I was one of the few who recognized him in Home Alone as Old Man Marley. Overall, definitely worth watching.
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Oct 6, 2018 23:14
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Deranged loving owns. The dude's name is actually Roberts Blossom. With an S. Makes you wonder if it was a typo on his birth certificate and they just went with it.
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Oct 6, 2018 23:17
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M_Sinistrari posted:
I'm going to agree with you that Sugar Hill is legit awesome and anyone who hasn't seen it should watch it this month. Hands down the best Baron Samedi in movies.
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Oct 6, 2018 23:19
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 #15. Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961) If you've seen the opening of Malcolm in the Middle, you've seen part of this movie; it's the googly-eyed monster that looks like the Cookie Monster was spray-painted green. I didn't know that link going in, so for two-thirds of this movie, I was wondering if there would be any monster showing up, as the movie spends most of its time focusing on a spy spoof, which the lead actor's terrible emoting (along with bad acting all around) effectively disguises as being just... uh... poo poo. There are lines which, had they been delivered by someone with a sense of comedic timing and multiple tones of voice, could have been funny. Stuff like "It was dusk. I could tell because the sun was going down," and "My years of work in espionage helped me realize that she was beautiful." So yeah, that goes on and on, and the crooks with whom the secret agent main character is traveling convince the Cuban crew that there's a monster about by squishing a plunger on the deck. But then there actually is a monster (I think that's the secret the movie poster asked me not to share), and it protects its domain, foiling their strongbox retrieval plans. The end. This sucked, but there were a few enjoyable moments. Oh, and this was directed by Roger Corman, with a screenplay by Charles B. Griffith. A real low entry for both of them, bring alcohol or other additives if you decide to watch this. / 10  #16. Tomb of Torture (1963) This was surprisingly cool. Very Poe-influenced, shot in sepia, people going mad while haunted by the past. Excellent spooky castle. Weird interlude of a meet-cute between a skinny-dipper and a broken-down motorist. Skeletons, cross-bows, hamsters that were supposed to be rats. Fairly stock characters, but they fit their roles well, especially the enema-happy doctor. So yeah, much more appreciable for visuals and atmosphere than dialogue and characters, this would be a great choice to throw on as background imagery at a Halloween party. Unfortunately, the emphasis on those qualities, along with the traditional plot, renders it more than slightly forgettable (I finished writing these three reactions before I even remembered the coffin-sleeping monster being in the movie), but the ethereality ends up giving it even more charm. / 10        #17. Amphibian Man (1962) Well, this wasn't horror, but it was a monster movie, so I'm gonna count it, same as I would Hocus Pocus. This was like Creature from the Black Lagoon crossed with one of the more romantic interpretations of Frankenstein. Also, it was a Soviet production set in a Spanish-speaking country. Well-respected local doctor fixed his son's bad lung with a bit of shark gill, and subsequently became enthralled with the idea of doing the same for many people, so that they can establish an underwater civilization. Unfortunately, the locals have the impression that his son (in his snazzy bedazzled full-body swimsuit and headgear) is a sea devil. Beautiful and sensitive girl is engaged to the main jerk who's into catching/killing the sea devil, sea devil rescues her when the jerk's negligence leads to her being endangered by a shark, Beauty and the Beast plotline plays out from there. There were some really beautiful shots in this, with a lot of underwater work. I might have to revisit it for screenshots at some point (the ones below come from IMDb, and don't capture the best lighting and color usage). Very earnest, and the film treated the naivete of Ichthyander (the sea devil) with a fairy-tale sentimentality instead of diminishing it. If not for some cheapness to the sets, and some under-performance from extras, I'm sure this would be a classic. Without a doubt, the sweetest movie I've watched this month. / 10 
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Oct 6, 2018 23:35
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6. Them (2006) I heard this described as the superior version of The Strangers, and that is pretty accurate. Really tense throughout, although I found some of the scenes inside the house to be too dark (lighting-wise). I can't decide if the attackers turning out to be kids makes it less scary or more scary, I keep going back and forth on that. I do love a short movie that doesn't overstay it's welcome. Bonus: It doesn't quite fit the Fran challenge, but this film takes place on my birthday! (Month and day) 3/5 7. Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988) I've wanted to watch this movie for years based solely on the title and poster, and it is exactly what I expected, no more or less. Cheesy 80s horror comedy that was perfect for a Saturday night with plenty of alcohol. 2.5/5 8. As Above So Below (2014) I slept on this one for so long since I'm not very into found footage, although I have grown more of an appreciation for a well done FF film. This is probably my new favorite FF movie. One issue I often have with the genre is that the characters are often unlikable assholes, but here I found myself actively rooting for the leads. The Paris catacombs are super creepy, and I loved the sense of claustrophobia. I'm not too familiar with Dante's Inferno , but there are lots of creepy little details that show their descent into hell. 4/5 MetalPriestess fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Oct 6, 2018 |
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Oct 6, 2018 23:51
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Franchescanado posted:
13.  Bloody Moon So I have a confession. I've never seen a Jess Franco movie before this. At least, I'm 99% sure I've never seen a Jess Franco movie before this. I'm sure this is a "lesser" Jess Franco movie, but it sure was disjointed, weird and kind of boring. There was plenty of decent low-budget gore, but in-between that there was a woman wandering around trying to uncover The Truth, and The Truth was even stupider and more convoluted than you think. Maybe I've just seen this kind of movie so many times by now that I'm jaded, but basically it's "murders start happening, someone's to blame, it's not entirely who you think". There's like 10 minutes worth of plot, 15 minutes worth of gore and an hour of giggling young topless or seethru-top-wearing women and their boy toys and shots of the Spanish countryside and one clueless protagonist who's scared of her own shadow. Can we talk about the toplessness? Is it that hot in the Mediterranean to where everybody has to go around in sheer blouses or fishnet tanktops? I really don't know what else to say, I'd put this squarely in the "lesser giallo" category alongside Torso or whatever. Completely forgettable, apart from a decapitation by rocksaw, followed by a kid getting killed. Not really recommended unless you simply have to see every giallo and/or Jess Franco movie. Me, I don't know if I'll ever bother watching another one 
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Oct 7, 2018 00:06
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 10. October 6 - Lake Mungo Between the poster and the title, I thought this was gonna be a lame slasher, but it's the exact opposite. It's an Australian "documentary" about a young girl's death and the subsequent paranormal experiences of her family. I'm a huge Twin Peaks fan, so a movie about a girl named Palmer with a secret life who has visions of her own death before it happens was bound to be up my alley. However, it doesn't feel like Twin Peaks at all, and it also doesn't feel like other horror mockumentaries. It's slow and contemplative, not goofy or shameless. It never sacrifices verisimilitude in order to shock or scare you. If ghosts were real, this would be a completely believable documentary. It's super low budget, and it has exactly one trick: slow, Ken Burns-style zooms into grainy photos to reveal a ghost. It might be repetitive, but I found this more unsettling than most jump scares. Edit: Oh yeah, can anybody recommend a movie from '87, preferably available on Prime, Shudder or Tubi? Lester Shy fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Oct 7, 2018 |
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Oct 7, 2018 00:20
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5. The Shining (1980) I have never The Shining in its entirety before and I went into this with very high expectations. This movie’s been parodied by everything, lines from it are know by people who’d never seen it, there’s even a documentary where a guy rants about how this is actually Kubrick’s confession that he faked the Apollo 11 footage. Could it actually live up to that amount of hype? Turns out it is in fact that good! The menace drips out of every shot from the opening panorama to the final closeup of the old photo, and the Overlook itself is the most menacing location I’ve seen in film. Everyone’s performances are incredible (although Kubrick got Duvall’s performance from terrorizing her, which is pretty lovely of him). I watched this on Netflix where it just came out, but I already picked up a Blu-ray copy today; I will definitely be returning to this. /5
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Oct 7, 2018 00:35
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Lester Shy posted:Edit: Oh yeah, can anybody recommend a movie from '87, preferably available on Prime, Shudder or Tubi? Prime has The Monster Squad, or if you're in the mood for something Italian there's Argento's Opera. Shudder has Hellraiser, can't go wrong there.
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Oct 7, 2018 00:40
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I'm going to actually participate in this thread for, I think, the first time. My goal is a modest 12 films. I'm kind of cheating since I plan on spending a fair amount of time in the Scream Stream but I also just moved and am going through a life overhaul this month so I don't want to overcommit. 1) I'm going to talk about Dagon so I can vent feelings about Lovecraft and swoon a bit over Macarena Gomez I've never liked Lovecraft's writings. His style of prose has never, with one exception, captured me the way all my favorite novels and short stories have. There's something about his insinuations that, generally speaking, completely fail to fire the most evocative parts of my imagination. That one exception is The Shadow Over Innsmouth. The paranoia and dread of the author's flight from the villagers fully grips me when I read despite the story being told after the fact. It was the first Lovecraft I read and what I thought reading his works would be like. Sadly that wasn't the case but for the sake of this movie I was very happy to see the story return. The film's beginning is bland but quick and the more time is spent in Imboca the deeper the mood settles in. Characters that don't matter stop appearing as soon as their utility to the plot runs out. The town itself is the (second) best thing in the film and more time spent in it the better the movie gets. In its own way it completes a task for me rather similar to the novella's; it manages to suck me into the dread and adrenaline of the situation even though I know this story. The villagers overall are well presented and make for memorable faces even when they don't speak. The best of them, however, is Gomez. Even though her script direction might as well have said "just stare at 'em real hard" her very intense and unwavering gaze still manages to reflect her character's longing, desperation, admiration, and rage. It's a notable performance especially considering her character is effectively airmailed into the story later on and given the bulk of the plot's importance to shoulder. Basically a bunch of intense Spaniards were hired to make a Lovecraft mashup movie that unintentionally looks almost a decade older than it is. It's still fun, though/10 Aside: I'm thinking of some of the thread challenges to complete and need a nudge. For an '83 horror film, should I roll with Sleepaway Camp or Videodrome? Those are the only options. I've seen neither. First vote wins. Lester Shy posted:Edit: Oh yeah, can anybody recommend a movie from '87, preferably available on Prime, Shudder or Tubi? I don't (yet) have anything besides Netflix but '87 has quality choices like Hellraiser, Evil Dead 2, NoES3: Dream Warriors, and Near Dark alongside less-conventional-for-spaces-outside-this-subforum titles like The Stepfather and Rock N Roll Nightmare. It's a pretty good spread. Adlai Stevenson fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Oct 7, 2018 |
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Oct 7, 2018 01:02
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Venom doesn’t count towards the challenge, does it? Cause I saw it tonight and lord, I have some takes.
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Oct 7, 2018 01:05
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Friends Are Evil posted:Venom doesn’t count towards the challenge, does it? Cause I saw it tonight and lord, I have some takes. I'd say it counts as a horror-comedy that fails at the first part.
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Oct 7, 2018 01:14
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 15. The Vampire Doll (1970) (watched on blu-ray) Keiko is worried about her brother - after 6 months abroad, he went to a small village to visit his girlfriend Yuko, but hasn't been heard from since. Worried, Keiko heads to Yuko's house to try to find him, but learns that Yuko died a few weeks ago, and is told that her brother has already left... but when she finds one of his cufflinks covered in blood, she decides to stay and figure out what really happened. This is a pretty unique film, sort of a Japanese take on Hammer-style gothic horror, and very different from the other Japanese horror films I'm familiar with from this period (Kwaidan, Kuroneko, etc). Yuko's home is a large western-style house, and Yamamoto does a great job of replicating the look and atmosphere of a Hammer (or Corman/Poe) film. The score is also very different from what I'd expect from a Japanese film - it's mostly creepy harpsichord music, and I thought it worked really well. This isn't much of a vampire film though, it's really more of a ghost story. Yuko doesn't have fangs and doesn't drink blood, and as far as I can see the only reason they refer to her as a vampire at all is because the film is trying to capitalize on the success of Hammer vampire films. The title card even says "Legacy of Dracula", which is especially odd because there are definitely no connections to Dracula anywhere in the film. This is the first in a trilogy of vampire films, so maybe the more traditional stuff will show up in the sequels. I enjoyed this one quite a bit, so I'll be checking those out soon as well. Not exactly essential viewing, but I definitely recommend it if you like Japanese and/or gothic horror films. Franchescanado posted:
There were plenty of good horror films released in 1983, but I've seen most of them already, so I chose the first one I haven't seen that I could find on streaming. Bad call:  16. Frightmare (1983) (Amazon Prime) When legendary horror icon Conrad Radzoff dies, a group of horror-buff film students decide to honor him by doing the obvious - breaking into his mausoleum and stealing his corpse, of course! The logic behind this isn't obvious, but nothing in this movie seems to happen for any particular reason. They bring his body back to their house, where they have a party and take pictures with him. When his widow enlists the help of a psychic to find where he was taken, he is reanimated and starts getting revenge on the students. This is not a good movie. The plot is bad, and there are parts that make so little sense that it made me wonder if whole scenes were missing. Conrad is not a threatening villain at all - he just looks like an old man in a bad Dracula costume. The only interesting thing about this one is that it is one of Jeffrey Combs' first films. He isn't given much to work with, but at least he's better than the rest of the cast. I think this could've benefited quite a bit from taking a lighter tone - it's a silly premise but it tries to play it straight, and more or less completely fails. I did laugh out loud a couple of times, but it was at the film, not with it. Not worth anyone's time. Movies Seen: The Witching Season | Lifeforce | Terrifier | Unsane | I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House | From Beyond | 13 Ghosts | The Ritual | Child's Play | Twice-Told Tales | Beyond the Gates | Cat People (1982) | Fright Night | The Vampire Lovers | The Vampire Doll | Frightmare Total: 16 Fran challenges:
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Oct 7, 2018 01:16
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15) Dracula AD1972 (1972) Dracula has risen from the grave yet again, summoned to the 20th century by bored dopers, where he plans to take his vengeance on the descendants of Van Helsing. It is never adequately explained why Dracula is included in a Satanic ritual, but who cares? It gave us a really good Orbital track. Also we discover in this movie that Dracula likes his coffee the way he likes his women - he'll take black if there's nothing else, but it's not his first choice. This was Lee's first Dracula movie in 12 years, and while he's on imperious form he probably should have stayed away because he was let down by the material. Johnny Alucard's death in particular is unintentionally hilarious - at least, I hope it was unintentional. I've never seen Satanic Rites of Dracula, but from what I hear it was even worse for trying to be funny.
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Oct 7, 2018 01:20
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Lester Shy posted:Edit: Oh yeah, can anybody recommend a movie from '87, preferably available on Prime, Shudder or Tubi? The Lost Boys is on Netflix and Hellraiser is on shudder. Prince of Darkness, Nightmare on Elm Street 3, and Blood Diner also came out that year.
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Oct 7, 2018 01:38
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DukeDuke posted:5. The Shining (1980) It's so weird to me that The Shining was absolutely despised when it was released. Terrible reviews, rejected by audiences. With the exception of Stephen King who has his own stupid reasons for hating this version ("Boo hoo, they adapted it to use the themes and make the story play better on film! I'll show them! I'll make a miniseries with that guy from Wings that gets it right!"), I can't understand those views at all. Lester Shy posted:Edit: Oh yeah, can anybody recommend a movie from '87, preferably available on Prime, Shudder or Tubi? People have already recommended the good movies, so let me toss out the wacky suggestions: A Chinese Ghost Story - I did a write up on it when I did a rewatch a few weeks ago; this is my genuinely great movie suggestion before the crazy "why would someone make this movie?" suggestions Killer Workout - the other insanely goofy movie about someone killing people at a gym Howling III - aka, the one that makes even less sense than the other ones, oh and they're in Australia Rock and Roll Nightmare - You really have to see this one to believe it, notoriously off-the-wall bonkers Random Stranger fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Oct 7, 2018 |
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Oct 7, 2018 01:53
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 14. November (2017) - Blu-ray Holy poo poo, buy this on Blu-ray if you have any intention to see it. Now. The seven minute short from the early 1920s and test footage of a kratt marionette alone make it worth your while. I paid my money just based on two .gif files of a kratt posted in the horror thread and am so very happy to have done so. The film itself is outstandingly beautiful with great sound design, fun foley, solid acting, and a format that makes more sense if considered as an anthology of tightly related shorts. I used the word "fun" in there and hits are very much. But the whole is a wonderfully depressing vision. E: I'm curious to see where the B&W:Color ratio shakes out. 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), 13. The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960), 14. November (2017) Years Spanned: 95 (1922-2017) Tally by Decade: '20s (I), '30s (I), '40s (II), '50s (II), '60s (III), '70s (I), '80s (III), '90s (0), 2000s (I), 2010s (I) B&W/Color: 9/6 * Rewatch Butch Cassidy fucked around with this message at 05:10 on Oct 7, 2018 |
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Oct 7, 2018 02:15
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The Gate is, like, so frustratingly close to being perfect, but there's just some wild tone and pacing problems that plague the second act. But man, love a script that treats its young characters like actual humans with complex emotions. Superb and creative special effects too that hold up. 4/5.
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Oct 7, 2018 02:25
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The Wicker Man (1973, Robin Hardy) [Blu-ray - Final Cut] Perhaps not a full on horror film, but still magnificent. Though, I do find one horror aspect is the reversal between the pagans and the Christian man. It's a pretty film with some lovely music, plus a terrific role by Christopher Lee. Edward Woodward doesn't get much outside of a one note character, but the fear of his fate is tangible. 1/2 out of 5
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Oct 7, 2018 03:03
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13/31 Jeremy Saulnier is better known for Blue Ruin and Green Room, two extremely realistic and bloody horror-action films about the raw violence of humanity. Before that, he made this. Murder Party is about an entire cast of idiots and wimps. Christopher, a very dull man, receives a mysterious invitation to a "murder party". Without much else going on, he puts on a cardboard suit of knight's armor and shows up. Predictably, he's kidnapped by a group of murderous art students looking to kill him as part of an art project to please their incredibly sanctimonious patron. Also predictably, none of them are very good at it. This low-budget comedy is absolutely hilarious. Christopher only survives the night because his captors are just as or more dull-witted than him, and far more interested in their art project than actually doing a professional job of killing him. The whole film is a brutal stab at pretentious art school students from a guy who could have only written from experience. The actors do a phenomenal job as well. Because of the low budget, effects are few and far between. What gore exists showcases Jeremy Saulnier's early taste for realism, but combined with a slapstick world in which someone can survive multiple gunshot wounds to the head out of anger at having their photography interrupted. Also, who the gently caress puts raisins in pumpkin bread? chitoryu12 fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Oct 7, 2018 |
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Oct 7, 2018 03:10
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Murder Party (2007) [Scream Stream] I'm sure there's art school poo poo I didn't get, but pretty entertaining in general. Very enthusiastic cast. So Far: #1 The Terror (2018), #2 The Cabin in the Woods (2011), #3 Gone Girl (2014), #4 Annihilation (2018), #5 Seven (1995), #6 Mandy (2018), #7 Dead Alive (1992), #8 Would You Rather (2012), #9 1922 (2017), #10 Infinity Chamber (2017), #11 Dagon (2001), #12 Demonic Toys (1992), #13 Murder Party (2007)
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Oct 7, 2018 03:12
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24 - Venom I'm counting this one as it's pretty much a mix between a werewolf movie and an alien invasion movie. That was a really fun movie. I went in with fairly low expectations but it was kind of a blast. Tom Hardy is channeling Nic Cage throughout and he really just makes the whole thing enjoyable but going all in; someone in the ComicBook movie thread called it "the superhero version of The Room" and that kind of nailed it. I also really liked how much weight they gave him; he moves like Spider-Man but leaves craters when he lands. The visual effects are all pretty good, although the villain is basically just "gray Venom" and could have used a little more flair. Its not a great movie, but it's a good time for sure.
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Oct 7, 2018 03:13
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 11. October 6 - Jigsaw Other people have Halloween or Friday the 13th as their favorite horror franchise, but I was born too late for either of those, so I'm stuck with Saw. From high school to college, this is the movie I was waiting for every October. I've rewatched the whole series a couple times, and they all start to blur together after a while. None of them are great movies, (even the first one is a lot rougher than you probably remember) but they're absolutely a guilty pleasure. Sins that I would excoriate other movies for (convoluted plots, villains explaining their convoluted plots, flashbacks within flashbacks to things that happened five minutes ago) I enjoy here, and Jigsaw is no different. This movie is very stupid, and my brain will start forgetting it as soon as I hit post on this review, but there are much worse ways to spend 90 minutes.
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Oct 7, 2018 03:34
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 The Brood, 1979 I love David Cronenberg and his hosed up movies, so it was about loving time I watched The Brood. It was as messed up as I hope. There's very little of the body horror he is famous for, except towards the end, but it makes up for it in how messed up the whole thing is. Some guy's wife is at some weird new experimental psychiatric retreat and the daughter got bruises, showing abuse, after visiting the mom for the weekend. Then the mother in law gets killed by some deformed child and poo poo just gets messed up from there on. The broods are pretty messed up monsters and the whole movie got a very dark tone through the whole way. It's not David Cronenberg's best work, but it's up there.
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Oct 7, 2018 03:39
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Franchescanado posted:
24. The Beyond (1981) - 2.5/5 (Shudder) quote:Is 'surrealistic' synonymous with 'inexplicable'? It's a pretty common label for this movie, but I'm not quite sure how it's applied here. I love a lot of movies with tenuous plots, but I'm struggling to get a sense of this movie's supposed surreality. The plot isn't any weirder than say, Prince of Darkness, nor are any of the supernatural shenanigans. Most of the abstraction seems to come from the cast. Characters come and go with no introduction or motivation, and form relationships with each other because...?
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Oct 7, 2018 03:45
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If Retro Futurist is counting Venom, I guess I am too. 22. Venom (2018). Directed by Ruben Fleischer. Pretty much as big of a trainwreck as you heard/imagined, but it's shockingly enjoyable? There's a whole lot of baffling decisions and it was made fifteen years too late, but I'd see many movies with Tom Hardy doing whatever the gently caress he's doing here. It's like The Mask for edgelords. One of the better trash movies I've seen in recent years. Also, this movie is weirdly horny about the concept of Venom. It kinda feels like someone's DeviantArt page and I honestly respect that.
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Oct 7, 2018 03:49
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Franchescanado posted:
#5 Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978)  I'll be honest, I chose this movie entirely because of the poster, which I saw while flipping through one of the queer horror lists. Specifically, it was the image on the far right of the above collection, but every poster/cover I found was amazing so I put them all together to share with you. Devil Dog is a movie about a possessed(???) dog. A satanic cult adopts a german shepherd and performs a ritual on it to imbue it with demonic powers. Then I guess that dog has puppies and those puppies make their way throughout the town. The puppies are also evil, but they're very cute. Anyways, our main family ends up with one and bad things start to happen. The movie's fairly unremarkable overall but I'm on board with puppy-based horror so I had a great time. The dog eventually grows to full size but it's still adorable. The titular devil dog sometimes switches forms (and breeds) which is good because it puts this dog with a wig on your screen.  The director of this movie is Curtis Harrington. I hadn't heard of him before but I did some quick research into him and he seems like a really interesting guy. He worked closely with Kenneth Anger for a while, made some important contributions to New Queer Cinema, and I'd really like to check out some of his other works. This specific film was done much later in his career as a made for TV movie. I recommend this movie if you're looking for something cheesy and fun. Watched (5/15): #1 As Above, So Below (2014), #2 Shutter (2004), #3 A Dark Song (2016), #4 The Endless (2017), #5 Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978) Fran Challenges: #1,
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Oct 7, 2018 03:52
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Venom (2018) [Theater] Feels like there's a better movie in it trying to get out, but still pretty entertaining. Spends an awful lot of time on action that's never as good as Tom Hardy or Riz Ahmed or Jenny Slate or Michelle Williams being weirdly spacy. https://i.imgur.com/9RhhJK5.gifv So Far: #1 The Terror (2018), #2 The Cabin in the Woods (2011), #3 Gone Girl (2014), #4 Annihilation (2018), #5 Seven (1995), #6 Mandy (2018), #7 Dead Alive (1992), #8 Would You Rather (2012), #9 1922 (2017), #10 Infinity Chamber (2017), #11 Venom (2018), #12 Dagon (2001), #13 Demonic Toys (1992), #14 Murder Party (2007)
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Oct 7, 2018 04:59
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