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Guy Goodbody posted:& Italy & Korea Yeah I need to consciously avoid Italy and Japan for this one to actually step out of my comfort zone
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Oct 10, 2018 22:21
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Yeah, a good chunk of my films have been foreign so far so I definitely think I'm gonna try and make that one a little harder with a country I've never seen a film from or something. I'll see when I get there. I'm still back on Challenge #2. Tonight I'm tackling that. I don’t usually like watching horror during the daytime. I want it dark, lights off, quiet, the whole thing But this is a free day and its daytime, 80 degrees, and humid as gently caress so I think there’s some horror movies that work well in the day and this seems like the perfect time for one I’ve been saving for just such an opportunity. 11 (12). Jaws (1975) Available on Amazon Prime.  Come on. I’ve never seen it and I know the plot. There’s a big rear end shark and its killing people and Roy Schneider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss are trying to kill it. They need a bigger boat. And its a Spielberg film. I didn’t look that up and i haven’t watched it yet. That’s just what I know because I live on this Earth. It was like the biggest movie in the world for awhile. I know, right? Who hasn’t seen Jaws? I’m not even sure why. I like horror/monster movies. I like popcorn flicks. I like Spielberg. I have a fear of the water but I watched Open Waters (and it hosed me up) and like Deep Blue Sea. Hell, I’ve been to the Jaws ride/show/thing at Universal Studios. Somehow I’ve just never seen this mainstream classic. I’ve seen clips. I’ve seen memes. I know lines. Hell, I know how the movie ends. I’ve spent my entire life hearing what a great film this, one of the best, one that monster movies and summer blockbusters are compared to. All that hype, all that build. Movies can never live up to it. God drat that was a great movie. Like, what a great loving movie. Jaws is loving awesome. I’m like the last person who knows that, right? I’m the last person to loving love Quint and laugh hysterically at him. Or with him. I’m the last person to know the origin of that “comparing scars” scene that’s been copied and parodied again and again. I’m the last person to marvel at how loving good and terrifying that shark looks even 30 years later. I’m the last person to see these three great actors in this amazing performance and this great director make this amazing film. There’s absolutely nothing I can see or observe that would be interesting. But my God, that was a great loving film. Lived up to the hype and build and went beyond it. loving beautiful. I have nothing more to say except how the hell was that rated PG? And I don’t know if anyone will object to it being on a horror countdown but I’ll stand by it because I was scared shitless when I wasn’t laughing. And only part of that is because I have Brody’s fear of the water and have totally drowned in my life. What an amazing loving movie. Thus completes the most pointless review of all time. If you haven't seen Jaws, watch Jaws. Its loving awesome. September Tally - New (Total) 1. A Cure For Wellness (2016) / - (2). Slither (2006) / 2 (3). Castle Rock (2018) / - (4). The Forsaken (2001) / 3 (5). The Night Eats the World (2018) / 4 (6). The Girl With All The Gifts (2016) / 5 (7). The Voices (2014) / 6 (8). Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010) / 7 (9). Jug Face (2013) / 8 (10). Coherence (2013) / 9 (11). A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014) / - (12). Vampire in Brooklyn (1995) / 10 (13). Excision (2012) / 11 (14). Spring (2014) October Tally - New (Total) 1. Suspiria (1977) / 2. It (2017) / 3. The Beyond (1981) / 4. Trilogy of Terror (1979) / 5. House on Haunted Hill (1959) / 6. Demons (1985) / 7. The Green Inferno (2013) / 8. Martin (1978) / 9. Malevolent (2018) / - (10). Dead and Breakfast (2004) / 10 (11). Night of the Comet (1984) / 11 (12). Jaws (1975)
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Oct 10, 2018 22:25
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Franchescanado posted:
I mean, half of my to-do list is that already. Here's one more.  28. Martyrs (2008). Directed by Pascal Lugier. Watched on VOD. Well, holy poo poo. I was putting off this one for a good decade because I was worried it was going to be straight torture porn. Turns out it's actually a raw, genuinely distressing film about how the effects of trauma gently caress with you. Who would have thought? It's a nasty and unpleasant film that also has a great amount of empathy, surprisingly enough. This was incredible, but I'll probably never watch it again (at least, not for a long time). A definite highlight of a very bleak time for horror film. I'm bummed that Lugier never got to make his version of Hellraiser. I'm pretty unfamiliar with New French Extremity as a whole. I've just seen this and Revenge. Is the rest of the genre worth seeking out?
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Oct 10, 2018 22:34
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Watch a horror film made outside of the USA & Canada. If you live outside of the USA & Canada, you cannot choose a film made in your home country.
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Pieces is a Spanish movie, for what it's worth. e: New French Extremity is... hit and miss. Inside is a hoot, though I don't like it as much now as I did in high school. High Tension is 95% a good movie and then the ending happens and ruins everything. Frontier(s) is pretty neat.
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Oct 10, 2018 22:40
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High Tension is amazing. It's a really good movie up until the twist that reveals it's basically the movie the dumb brother from Adaptation was writing.
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Oct 10, 2018 22:44
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Late start, but I'm in again at a smaller goal (13 new movies) 1. The Voices - Ryan Reynolds can hear his dog and cat talking to him, giving advice and feedback (good from the dog, bad from the cat), then things begin to spiral out of control. Fairly well done and well acted, but just kinda a downer I guess compared to my expectation and the beginning. 2. The Conjuring - A happy family moves into an old house, which is definitely haunted by a very powerful being that's been there for a long time. They call for some investigators that are connected to the church, and they set up a investigation and stakeout. A straightforward haunted house/evil spirit movie, but an very well done take on it. A lot of well done suspense without abusing jumpscares, which was nice. Lhet fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Oct 18, 2018 |
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Oct 10, 2018 22:45
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19. Dagon (2001) Viewed on: Scream Stream Dagon was a movie I'd only seen in snippets on late night network TV but it always looked kinda cool. This go around watching it from the beginning I can say it is actually really cool and pretty fun. Things start slow but really start to pick up at the halfway point and include an really really gnarly special effects scene that a lot of people might not like if it's sprung on them. 20. Demonic Toys (1992)  Viewed On: Scream Stream I did not have high hopes for this at all. But I was pleasantly surprised. It's camp fun and following everyone's comments on the stream really improved the experience. The child actor they got for this movie is honestly doing a great job of body language and facial expressions. The baby doll toy is also just a treat with some fantastic lines. 21. I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House (2016)  Viewed On: Scream Stream (Netflix) I won't lie, I had a hard time focusing on this movie because of a work call. I'd like to sit down with it without any distraction because I liked the visuals and it appeared to build a good atmosphere an tension, but it was maybe too long. 22. Nail Gun Massacre (1985)  Viewed On: Scream Stream I was not very hot on how this movie opened up. That out of the way, what a glorious poo poo show the rest of it was. The modulated voice of the Nail Gun Killer was amazing and I couldn't stop laughing when they would just make odd noises. You're getting something that's cheap, padded, and very poorly acted. I somehow couldn't look away and found this to be very memorable. 23. Night Of The Demons (1988)  THE BIRTH OF HORROR CHALLENGE Viewed On: Scream Factory BluRay The very first Scream Factory and it actually took a while for me to watch the first time years ago. This is pretty much exactly what I want out of an October movie, monsters, blood, sexuality, creepy sets, and young people getting scared. The intro and music are also really top notch. I had no idea there were sequels and I'll have to give them all a look over soon. 24. Prince Of Darkness (1987)  Viewed On: Scream Factory BluRay First time viewing and I have to say, this worked for me pretty well. It was so weird and surreal. Also very very bleak and left a real doomed feeling hanging over me for a bit after the movie was over. A big contributor was the main theme composed by John Carpenter that plays through much of the movie, it's synthy and dark and I love it. I also have to give props for a lot of the concepts and general story, I'd really be interested in more like it.
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Oct 10, 2018 22:46
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Lhet posted:Late start, but I'm in again at a smaller goal (13 new movies) That's definitely the downside of the film for me and what kept it from being great in my eyes. The initial premise is so comedic and Reynold is so charming and good in the role but as the movie goes on it just becomes increasingly clearer that it will just be impossible for anything to work out well for anyone in this movie. I kept kind of hoping that somehow it could have a "happy ending" in a dark way but every turn just made it more and more clear that it could only end badly. That was a bummer in the end and I didn't know how to feel about it. Still a really good film and performance.
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Oct 10, 2018 22:48
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 FRAN CHALLENGE #7: The World Is A Scary Place Hell yeah, I literally just finished... 18. October 10 - The Eye  I missed out on the late 90s/early 00s Asian horror craze, but I've been meaning to watch this ever since one of the biggest horror fans I know told me it was the scariest movie he'd ever seen. I don't know if it's scary, but it's extremely suspenseful. One scene in particular just keeps amping up the tension until you're about to break. The ending feels like it belongs in a totally different movie. Worth a watch, but I think I built it up too much in my head beforehand. Also, the version of the movie on Shudder is in a weird aspect ratio. There are black bars on all four sides, and the subtitles are hard to read. Find a better copy if you want to check this out.
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Oct 10, 2018 22:52
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STAC Goat posted:That's definitely the downside of the film for me and what kept it from being great in my eyes. The initial premise is so comedic and Reynold is so charming and good in the role but as the movie goes on it just becomes increasingly clearer that it will just be impossible for anything to work out well for anyone in this movie. I kept kind of hoping that somehow it could have a "happy ending" in a dark way but every turn just made it more and more clear that it could only end badly. That was a bummer in the end and I didn't know how to feel about it. Still a really good film and performance. Yeah, I think the turning point was when he takes the pills, after which point there was really no hope. In a way reminded me of Bubba Ho-Tep, another well producted and acted movie with a lead known for being quite entertaining that ended up just being a downer. On the topic of non US/UK/Italian/Japanese/Korean foreign horror movies, Liza the Fox Fairy is an excellent Hungarian comedy/horror that's a lot of fun. I'm curious about checking out some others though: I've never seen a Chinese or Indian horror, and I know there are at least a couple good ones.
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Oct 10, 2018 23:12
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The Coffin Joe movies have been on my "Eventually, one of these days" list for awhile
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Oct 10, 2018 23:17
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Guy Goodbody posted:Watch a horror film made outside of the USA & Canada & UK & Japan You forgot to add China and S Korea Guy Goodbody posted:The Coffin Joe movies have been on my "Eventually, one of these days" list for awhile Same I keep meaning to and just don't.
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Oct 10, 2018 23:18
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Lhet posted:Yeah, I think the turning point was when he takes the pills, after which point there was really no hope. In a way reminded me of Bubba Ho-Tep, another well producted and acted movie with a lead known for being quite entertaining that ended up just being a downer. Yeah, I think when he takes his meds and sees the horror of everything he's done and then just panics and doubles down it starts getting super dark and hopeless. Its weird because its still a movie about a crazy dude who kills people before that but up until then its got a kind of cynical, campy feel. Things get real in that moment. Then they throw you some hope when he falls for Anna Kendrick's character and they seem to actually click and I started just wanted it to get crazy dark camp again and have her like be a serial killer too or something. Just something to make it not end on a downer. Although ultimately I also think that's what makes the film genuinely worth seeking out. Its not just a campy movie about a crazy dude who talks to his pets who tell him to kill people. Its actually a kind of serious piece about mental illness. It just tries to do both and its tonally very uncomfortable and kind of unsatisfying. Both its ambitious and well done at the same time.
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Oct 10, 2018 23:30
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STAC Goat posted:I have nothing more to say except how the hell was that rated PG? 70's and early 80's PG ratings were a lot more permissive. You might even get the occasional topless woman in one (like in the opening scene for Jaws). STAC Goat posted:And I don’t know if anyone will object to it being on a horror countdown but I’ll stand by it because I was scared shitless when I wasn’t laughing. And only part of that is because I have Brody’s fear of the water and have totally drowned in my life. Jaws literally spawned an entire subgenre of horror that ran throughout the seventies. People watch a lot of borderline stuff because a month of "here's a monster. Boo!" can get pretty repeditive, but Jaws is nowhere near the border. It's very solidly in the horror genre. Edit: It's nice when I'm watching a movie that a lot of people like and I thought that I would hate, and then it turns out I'm enjoying it.
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Oct 10, 2018 23:56
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 Vampire's Kiss (1989) Fran Challenge - BIRTH OF HORROR Alva, there is no one else in this entire office that I could possibly ask to share such a horrible job. You're the lowest on the totem pole here, Alva. The lowest. Do you realize that? Every other secretary here has been here longer than you, Alva. Every one. And even if there was someone here who was here even one day longer than you, I still wouldn't ask that person to partake in such a miserable job as long as you were around. That's right, Alva. It's a horrible, horrible job; sifting through old contract after old contract. I couldn't think of a more horrible job if I wanted to. And you have to do it! You have to or I'll fire you. You understand? Do you? Good. Absolutely phenomenal. It's incredibly disappointing how much of the conversation around this film is about Cage's "overacting." What really strikes me is that this film is about the search for meaning, attempting to live a life with purpose, and being that drive being tangled up in mental illness by the many constraints of masculinity, class, power. It does a lot of what made American Psycho famous and did it a decade earlier. The two performances at the heart of the story are Cage's and María Conchita Alonso, and they both knock it out of the park. But I also have to call attention to the city of New York, shot so that every building is looming and gothic, with the filth of the city becoming more prominent as Loew descends further and further in madness and cruelty. There are moments where mundane architecture is filled with a kind of menace much like David Lynch finds in the famous ceiling fan shots in Twin Peaks. I actually have to wonder if the cockroach scene wasn't directly interfacing with Clarice Lispector's The Passion According to GH, which is itself one of the purest examples of existential horror in literature. But I don't think the timeline quite works out unless Cage can read Portugese, but who knows!
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Oct 11, 2018 00:03
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Random Stranger posted:70's and early 80's PG ratings were a lot more permissive. You might even get the occasional topless woman in one (like in the opening scene for Jaws). Its not that I thought I was going to hate it, its just that whenever you're dealing with buildup there's always the risk of disappointment. Like, I liked A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night but it was really hyped up in my head with people loving it so I came away thinking "I liked parts of that but..." Or Suprisia is a horror cult classic from a famed director I haven't seen much of representing a sub genre I hadn't seen much of and I enjoyed it, I just didn't "love" it the way it was kind of built up. Jaws just delivered 110% on 45 years of hype which is drat impressive. I actually didn't really register the topless lady. I was probably more distracted by the utter panic of the scene and my own experiences. It was mostly the child being attacked moment where I kind of let out a cry and went "Wait, PG?" STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 00:27 on Oct 11, 2018 |
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Oct 11, 2018 00:04
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Franchescanado posted:
Evilspeak I gotta say, I really didn’t enjoy this one too much until the last 15 minutes or so. The premise is interesting enough, Clint Howard plays Stanley Coopersmith, a military school student who is constantly bullied by his classmates. Some of this bullying leads to his character having to clean the cellar. While down in the cellar he finds an ancient satanic book, which he then begins translating with the school computer. This leads to both Stanley and the computer trying to summon Satan. Honestly, the bits with the computer and the naked ladies are pretty cool but otherwise you would be fine to watch the last 15 minutes of this, when the summoning finally works. From that point on the movie becomes a hilariously badass 80s romp. I really loved 1/8th of this film.
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Oct 11, 2018 00:31
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  #26. Basket Case 2 (1990) Well, this went in a different direction than the first one. It would make for a great double feature with Nightbreed, at least. Having survived the end of the first Basket Case, the Bradley brothers are rescued to a freak commune, where deformed Belial fits in, and normal-looking Duane feels alienated. Tabloid reporters put further pressure on the situation, bringing things to a violent head. To be honest, I didn't like this one too much. I really enjoyed the grimy NYC dread of the original, in which Belial was just a different kind of monster among many, and this one felt comparable to the tonal switch of Return of the Living Dead 2. Almost family-friendly (outside of the monster puppetry sex scene), and safer in a lot of ways. Where the first had Duane cautiously navigating the city and relationships while following his quest for revenge, this one pulls the brothers into insulation against the outside world, and the situations that setting enables were a lot less interesting to me. In centering the movie on a whole gaggle of freaks, there's some undeniable exploitation at play, but those characters are made into such physical impossibilities that it dodges most of the grossness that would have come with realistic birth defect depictions. I wouldn't call that half-assing things, but it did make it feel oddly insincere, especially with how those characters do very little but serve as mumbling set dressing. The story (or at least its specifics) is odd enough to win some points, but it's hard to shake the sense of it being limited, whether by the funding company putting some content demands on Henenlotter, or by his story tastes having changed in the eight years since the original (the latter seems kind of unlikely in light of Frankenhooker coming out the same year as this installment). Disappointing overall, but with a few odd spots giving it some shine, and capable execution of its chosen story.  / 10  #27. The Boogey Man, a.k.a., The Bogey Man, a.k.a., Spectre, a.k.a., The Boogeyman (1980) A non-lovely Ulli Lommel movie that isn't The Tenderness of Wolves? Biggest surprise yet this month. Not that this was great, as it had a lot of Italian-style horror dream logic and causality to it, without the style to back it up outside of a few zinger moments. Rambling creepiness outside of the opening, which has a focused build of sleazy unease. Deaths were abrupt enough to undercut the tension at times (the kid who climbs a trellis just to stick his head through a bathroom window and yell "Boogieman!", before the window-frame drops on him [with nowhere near enough force for the kill it inflicts] being a good example). But at the same time, there was a sense of gruesomeness and dread to the haunting that went beyond what was being shown. Cutting over to scenes of people entirely uninvolved in the main plot being killed by the evil force anyway, and then just flipping back to the farmhouse, could (not inaccurately) be described as sloppy. But it also brought a real sense of nightmare framework to the proceedings. No one was safe, it didn't matter what you'd done or not done, and things would catch on fire without warning. Some striking single images (like the red-bathed mirror, or the green stare with a mirror fragment over the eye) would have probably been pretty haunting if I'd seen this late at night as a kid. And, like virtually every other review I've seen for this movie, I've got to give props to the excellent grimy synth score. But for all the little pieces that work, there's a lot more that just feels unfocused, flabby, and pointless. That doesn't bring it down as much as it should, though. It's weird. / 10  #28. The Brain, a.k.a., Manipulations (1988) (Videodrome + They Live) / (a creature feature * talk shows) = The Brain. A small-time motivational speaker runs a TV show called Independent Thinkers, and some of its viewers start to have hallucinations, with lethal consequences. The reason? He's got a big-rear end brain with a face hooked up to machines at the broadcasting station/research institute, and he's using its superior brain-waves to brainwash those viewers, along with people treated at the clinic. It's up to one plucky and misunderstood super-smart high school kid to bust this racket up, Rowdy Roddy style. This was a lot of fun. The film-makers were clearly having a good time putting the hallucination sequences together, the brain was emotive to an impressive degree, and the main villain (played by David Gale, of Re-Animator, Savage Weekend, and the live-action The Guyver) had sinister charm with a hint of ham (after seeing an assistant get eaten by the brain, "That's food for thought!"). All of the effects were pretty drat solid, but the acting did have some weak spots, more in the line deliveries than the physicality (of which there was plenty, and which they kind of rocked a few times). The brainwashing scheme was vague and was probably riddled with plot holes, if I'd cared enough to give it close attention, but the movie zipped along with enough speed and energy to gloss right over them. The cutting between what the hallucinators were seeing and what everyone else saw was handled really well, and they didn't overplay it. If they'd diverged more from the usual body snatchers formula, I'd be recommending this with fewer caveats, but as is, it's only recommended for those who wanna see a bad-rear end killer brain movie that doesn't aim for anything more than that. / 10
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Oct 11, 2018 02:07
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Franchescanado posted:
16.  Unfriended: Ḍ̬͎̬̺͙͓͌̒̃̓̋̈̀͘͟a͖̥͉͖̬̍͋́̊̃́̓̚͡͠ȓ̸̠̞͔̞̹̪̮͕̦̆̿̇͂̔̀k̨̧͔̫͙̟͇̺͛͊̆̋̇̾̌̕͜ͅ W̧̯̠̳͔̠͉̆̃̽̿̇͆e̸̢̟̼̫̰͉̼̗͌̀̐͘͡b̛̟̱̩͔̬̳͇̙̭̱̑̈́͑̔ I completely skipped over the first Unfriended, it looked really dumb and even if it might've been the funny kind of dumb... it's a loving ghost movie about the internet, I mean come on. I also have a low tolerance for Modern Teen Horror. Well imagine my surprise when the sequel to Unfriended comes out, it's not about loving CyberGhosts and it's actually good. Or so I hear. There are many ways to gently caress up a movie like Dark Web, like you could make it into the new Hackers and cram it with techno-jargon and have people using computers and apps that nobody has ever had. It mostly doesn't do that. Or you could turn it into a torture porn sleazy voyeur movie where you just watch young people getting mutilated on camera. It doesn't do that at all, in fact I was surprised by how little blood or gore or violence it had. And while I was initially annoyed by the fact that I had to move closer to my small flatscreen to read the chat boxes on the screen, I quickly adjusted and the movie sucked me in. There's no "cinematography" to speak of, it is after all just the desktop of the main character's laptop, but the manipulation of the windows and cutting in and out of video feed and chat windows and so on felt natural and it was done really well. I guess you could call that "editing". The actors are all decent, particularly when poo poo really starts hitting the fan, and the plot is a well-done slow burn suspense horror. I actually cared about these one-dimensional characters, which is rare for a movie like this. All in all, not too bad, I might even like it better than The Den which covered much of the same ground with a slightly different focus.
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Oct 11, 2018 02:20
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 The Devils, 1971 This isn't a horror movie, but I got it because it kept showing up on various horror movie lists and it's one of the infamous video nasties from the 70s. I'd say that's horror related enough for the marathon. Besides, there's plenty of scenes that would fit in any blood soaked horror film. The Devils is an historical drama about the destruction of the city of Loudun by the Catholic church as it stands in their way of total religious control of France. Father Urbain Grandier harbors both catholic and protestants in the city, so they try to destroy him through a smear campaign by accusing him of witchcraft and blasphemy. It's a bleak and dark story showing how toxic religion is and the damage it does to the human mind. The city it self got a very distinct look that makes the visuals pop out of the screen. Everything about The Devils looks and sounds right. There's plenty of gruesome displays of death and torture, as well as depraved sexual acts alongside the religious imagery. This movie was censured to Hell and back over the years, but luckily we can watch a more or less complete version today. It's a visually gorgeous and beautiful movie with a very grim story to tell. It may not be a movie to play on Halloween, but if you just want an great movie that's both morbid and beautiful, then I can strongly recommend The Devils. Definitely one of the gems of the 70s.
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Oct 11, 2018 02:23
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STAC Goat posted:Yeah, there's definitely a "bubblegum" lightness that isn't there in more sardonic atuff like Zombieland or Shaun of the Dead or whatever. The girls feel like they just got left home alone for the weekend or something. I totally agree I can't think of anything that treats it quite as light as Night of the Comet, which is why it was just so weird. But I guess I was trying to figure out why it made such an impact and I just figured predating all that stuff probably made it more unique. But it's super light tone continues to make it unique 35 years later and that weirdness probably really appeals to some people or stands out as ballsy or different. I haven't even seen it, but from what I've gleaned of Career Opportunities I'd say it's pretty close tonally to Night of the Comet. Young people aimlessly wandering around in a commercialized wasteland in the 80's, except in Night of the Comet it's a literal wasteland. Now I'm gonna have to do a back-to-back viewing of those two movies.
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Oct 11, 2018 02:27
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STAC Goat posted:Its not that I thought I was going to hate it, its just that whenever you're dealing with buildup there's always the risk of disappointment. Sorry, I was talking about myself there. Day 10 - The Hills Have Eyes  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkdskdFemWM I find slasher films to be pretty much the dullest horror subgenre. It doesn't help that they tend to be cynically made as lazily as possible. But just about every time I try one of the proto-slasher movies that people cite as influential on the genre, I find that it's a pretty good movie. Halloween. Good movie. Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Good movie. And now The Hills Have Eyes which has plenty of rough edges but I still enjoyed it. A family on the road trip has taken a detour into the barrens of the western desert. After receiving cryptic warnings from the crazy guy running the gas station, they go down the wrong road where their car breaks down. But before they can reach AAA, they have to deal with a family of cannibals living in the hills around them. This is very much a "Let's get everybody we know, go out to the desert outside of LA, and make a movie!" situation. It has some extremely limited sets and a tiny cast that exists mainly to get picked off. But unlike so many ultra low budget stuff I watch in this challenge, I never felt like the movie was just filling time. This is a snappy film, moving from threat to threat quickly which keeps things interesting. I really enjoyed the cannibal family as villains, though I did wonder about how they were so well put together. I get how they have radios, but how did that one get a 1970's perm? And for people living in isolation in the desert, they seemed to know quite a bit about the world. Still, giving the film a pack of interesting weirdos to chase after their victims was great. If you're going to have a pack of killers, give them some personality! Even the lovely family of victims was lovely in relatable ways. I didn't like them, but they were interesting enough that I wanted to see what happened to them. I wouldn't put The Hills Have Eyes in the top tier of Wes Craven movies, but it's definitely in the upper range. Now I feel like I should watch Last House on the Left to complete the early Craven viewing. I'm going to assume that the remake is really awful given that it came out at a nadir of horror films. Is that the case?
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Oct 11, 2018 02:45
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Random Stranger posted:I'm going to assume that the remake is really awful given that it came out at a nadir of horror films. Is that the case? The remake has some extreme and disturbing scenes in it, but if you can handle that stuff it's actually pretty drat good.
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Oct 11, 2018 02:48
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 19. Horror Hotel (1960) - DVD Original Title: The City of the Dead A solid witch movie that very much makes proper use of black and white film and I now want a half dozen or so fog machines. This also came out the same year as The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll, Christopher Lee was a busy man.  20. Event Horizon (1997) - Blu-ray Doesn't hold up all that well, especially the CGI detritus, but still worth a watch for some eldritch horrors in spaaaaaaaaace. 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), 15. Doghouse (2009), 16 Sssssss (1973), 17. Maniac (1934), 18. Thirst (2009), 19. Horror Hotel (1960), 20. Event Horizon (1997)* Years Spanned: 95 (1922-2017) Tally by Decade: '20s (I), '30s (II), '40s (II), '50s (II), '60s (IV), '70s (II), '80s (III), '90s (I), 2000s (III), 2010s (I) B&W/Color: 11/10 Fran Challenges Complete: 1 2 3 4 5 6 * Rewatch Butch Cassidy fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Oct 11, 2018 |
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Oct 11, 2018 02:54
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I liked it too but it really is a part of 2000s torture porn film so if one doesn’t like that the film might not be for you.
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Oct 11, 2018 02:54
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Yeah the remake is definitely worth seeing, I might even go so far as to call it better than the original. The one-two punch of the father burning alive while the daughter is raped made me never want to see it again though.
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Oct 11, 2018 02:55
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Alright, for real this time. 20. Upgrade (2018) Watched: Blu Ray from library I was worried early on that I would have to stretch to classify Upgrade as a horror movie. I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong. Upgrade takes the body horror of Cronenberg and updates it to the 21st century. With some great fight choreography, slasher-level gore effects and inventive camerawork, it paints a cautionary action horror tale about giving our lives over to automation. I've got to give a lot of praise to the production design as well: the future of Upgrade feels grimy and claustrophobic even with its hexagon glass and self-driving cars. And for as much grief as I've given to last act twists during my October Horror Challenge, I was pleasantly surprised at how this one ended. The conflict between Grey and STEM ending with Grey in a comatose fantasy world and STEM behind the wheel feels earned. Highly recommended.
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Oct 11, 2018 02:55
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Event Horizon makes me want a Warhammer 40,000 movie so bad
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Oct 11, 2018 02:57
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I have to write these movies up before they slip my brain completely (two of them are not that great). 21. The Haunting of Molly Hartley (2008) on Netflix  I like movies where the devil possesses people but the devil is in the details and the details in this devil movie loving suck. The cold open feels like it was just put in there to pad the time (I don't know why, it didn't seem that short to me), you don't need a cold open to explain to the audience that the devil will make lovely deals with desperate people. That's a very old idea. I suppose the ending is supposed to make us feel a cold chill when the heroine of the story is all cold and evil after her possession has taken hold, but honestly she's just a slightly more confident version of her previous self. The only evil thing we see is her being a dick to her dad, but that idiot made a deal with Satan and then tried to pass himself off as an atheist. Was hoping for something along the lines of The Craft (based solely on the Netflix thumbnail) but was bored out of my goddamned mind. 0.5/5 22. Hold the Dark (2018) on Netflix  I used to think Jeffery Wright could only play fancy, overly poised, weird men. Turns out he can play a grizzled sad man just as well. Actually, I think this is his best role to date. Like Saulnier's previous movies, Hold the Dark is about a good, nominally gentle, man being put through a gauntlet of violence. Wright's character (unlike the guys in Blue Ruin and Green Room) is able to maintain his ethics throughout the film, and I think is even rewarded for it in a strange way. It's a rough movie emotionally (typical of Sailnier), punctuated with sudden violence (again, typical) and even flirts with the supernatural a bit (atypical). Really loved it. 5/5 23. Truth or Dare (2017) on Netflix  This was apparently a SyFy movie which makes me kind of want to judge is less harshly. It's not trying to be ironic or self aware, but it's still a made for basic cable horror movie. A fair amount of gore for a made for tv movie and there's some kills in there that made me laugh. But overall I don't think I'd recommend it to anyone, and I doubt I'll be able to remember anything about in a years time. There's another Truth or Dare that came out this year (the one where a teen has a spooky smile) that's not this movie - so that's a little weird. Enjoyed the fedora'd "milady" joke I guess. 1.5/5 Movies seen: 1. Terrifier | 2. A Nightmare on Elm Street | 3. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge | 4. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors | 5. Scream | 6. Mandy | 7. November | 8. Salem's Lot | 9. The Resurrected | 10. Demon House | 11. Pumpkinhead | 12. Prom Night | 13. Tales from the Crypt | 14. Carnival of Souls | 15. The Fly II | 16. Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker | 17. Resolution | 18. The Endless | 19. Spontaneous Combustion | 20. Hardware | 21. The Haunting of Molly Hartley | 22. Hold the Dark | 23. Truth or Dare Fran Challenges:
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Oct 11, 2018 03:06
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Hot Dog Day #89 posted:
You can tell if you are watching a edited version because in the uncut at the end the nun masterbates with his femur . Personally I think this is one of Oliver Reeds best roles and probably the high point for Ken Russell imo. I love this movie a lot. Glad more people are watching it. Exploitation falls under the umbrella term of horror. It doesn't make sense but that's how it is.
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Oct 11, 2018 03:10
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 19. October 10 - Dark, Deadly & Dreadful I love horror anthologies. A lot of horror movies ruin the fun by explaining too much, and shorts are a great way to explore weird, creepy ideas that might not withstand the scrutiny of a full-length film. This one's a mixed bag. There's no frame story or theme connecting each short; they're just cut and pasted one after another. It starts off really bad, with grossouts, jumpscares and cheap production values, and it feels like you're in for an even worse version of ABCs of Death. I almost turned it off after half an hour, but I'm glad I didn't. The last two "serious" shorts (Room 731 and The Cleansing Hour) are great, and they both look and feel like real movies. A feature-length version of The Cleansing Hour is currently in post-production, so I hope it doesn't fall victim to the problems I mentioned earlier.
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Oct 11, 2018 03:13
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 123- House of Seven Corpses 1974 - PRIME This one's a pretty standard story of film crew goes to film in a haunted house and poo poo starts happening when someone has to go read a spell from a book of the dead. I did like the touches of connecting with the original deaths in the house to the later ones. You also can't help but think 'What did you expect was going to happen?' with the director insisting on being as close to accuracy with the occult connections from the original murders to his movie. And some lines are pretty funny 'You're supposed to be going into a trance, not having an orgasm'. I'd say this one's about average with some good moments.  124- Raw Meat 1972 - DVD One of the films my parents took me to when they couldn't find a babysitter, it was a double feature with Cannibal Girls. For years all I remembered of this one was a hulking figure and 'Mind The Doors', so naturally I had to pick it up to refresh my memory. I really like this one. The angle of something still lurking in the abandoned areas underneath cities really clicks with me and when taking history classes and learning more about them, just added to it for me. Essentially the survivors of a cave in from the 1800s while working on the Underground have continued on to the modern day feeding on who they can pick off from the trains. While usually the killer/monster is presented as some degree of inhuman, you really feel for the cannibal survivor especially during the shots of his home with the deceased cannibals neatly laid out, his tenderness to his dying mate, and his only communication being 'Mind the Doors'. Unlike other cannibal types living in isolated areas, the cannibal survivor really only knows this confined world around him with the surface being completely alien other than here's where to get food. The effects are very good in this and it's a definite must watch. I know I could've used this for the challenge, but it felt like it would be cheating to me.
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Oct 11, 2018 03:20
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#20 Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994) "Jody, what the hell are you doing here? You're dead." "So what else is new?" After another long break between movies, here is our first DTV Phantasm production, kicking off where the last left off with the Tall Man blowing up their car for like the fourth time in two movies. The Tall Man immediately kills II's love interest off-screen. Reggie saves himself by threatening to detonate a grenade, even though two scenes earlier it is confirmed that the Tall Man cannot be physically killed for any longer than it takes his new body to return from the door to his own dimension. A. Michael Baldwin, the original Mike, returns for the third movie, and he's a welcome change from the terrible studio-mandated actor in II. Bill Thornbury's back as Jody too! But he's projecting himself from the afterlife, in which he is now one of the Tall Man's balls. Generally this movie kicks off a lot more convincingly than II and is a solid show by Phantasm standards. It's not good, and it's got that Extremely 1994 Low-Budget DTV zeitgeist. But it's extremely random, and introduces one of the series' most important characters, Frisbee Kid. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f95YAFxX4tE The way this is put together and choreographed is so charmingly lame.
Name Change fucked around with this message at 08:12 on Oct 11, 2018 |
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Oct 11, 2018 03:20
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24) The Brides of Dracula (1960) FRAN CHALLENGE #7: The World Is A Scary Place  It's the UK, that counts for the challenge! Hm, I'm not sure how I feel. I mean, the title is accurate but... there's no Dracula. There IS Van Helsing, and Peter Cushing is perfect as always. But the whole movie felt a bit phoned in. I will say that it still had a really good gothic horror feel, but the second half dragged a bit. 3/5 Watched (24): Puppet Master 4, Puppet Master 5, Terrifier, Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, Martyrs (2008), Mandy, Babadook, Ghost Stories, Behind the Mask: the Rise of Leslie Vernon, Curse of the Puppet Master, Devil's Candy, Curse of Frankenstein, Mummy, Shining, Horror of Dracula, Quatermass Xperiment, Plague of the Zombies, Revenge of Frankenstein, I Am The Pretty Thing..., Nail Gun Massacre, Tucker and Dale, Coraline, Children of the Corn, Brides of Dracula Challenges completed: #1 (Babadook), #7 (The Brides of Dracula)
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Oct 11, 2018 03:21
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I don't often post and also don't watch many horror movies but I'm really liking these challenges so since it's been stated before that this is all about getting people to watch more movies I'll see how many I can get. My main goal being to at least do all the challenges even if I come in well below 31 movies. Dawn of the Dead '78 FRAN CHALLENGE #3: Hometown Horror PA made this easy, thanks Romero! We've also got Shyamalan, but I might save Signs for Love What You Hate. This movie starts of at a great pace and doesn't slow down at all until about a little more than half-way through. The two cop characters, Peter and Roger, really keep the pace with their insane gung-ho attitudes thanks to their history of dealing with zombies before the main story starts. Even after that mark it starts up again as the raiders descend upon the mall for the last big comedy?/action scene. Definitely an easy recommendation Things I liked: The slow battle of attrition that eventually does in Roger as they're parking trucks, probably the most tense scene for me only maybe beaten by the madness that is the apartment building raid at the very beginning. Some of the comedy, including the zombie holding onto the AR for the whole movie and only giving it up when presented with a better gun and the dude who was just so desperate to get his blood pressure checked. The motivation of the zombies being to some degree their memories from before they died. Stephen getting outright threatened when he fires wildly trying the kill a zombie in the beginning at the airport. "When there's no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth." The only thing I had an issue with was the odd pregnancy side plot as everything said about it seemed to be in a single 5 minute period, then it's dropped and never discussed again. I like Night more, but only a little bit. This really holds up as a classic. Blood pressure of over 5.I Am Not a Serial Killer (2016) on Netflix US It's hard to get specific without giving stuff away on such a recent movie but I happened to like this a lot. It's a slow burn but has a strong central theme of sociopath human vs a monster with very human reasons for doing what he does while pushing the main character closer and closer to what he thinks he's destined, but is scared to, be. Also, it's got Christopher Lloyd! /5 organs replacedMovies (2) Challenges (1) #3
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Oct 11, 2018 03:36
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If there's one challenge I'd really like to see it's "Scroll down as far as you can on Prime/TubiTV and find a movie nobody has ever seen". There's just soooo much.
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Oct 11, 2018 03:57
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Fran Challenge - watch a non-Us/Canadian film Baskin (2015, Prime) This is a gory Turkish movie. It’s about a group of cops who respond to a back up call and pretty much end up in hell. It’s a pretty surreal film, with a lot of really gory imagery. I found it pretty uncomfortable at points, which is a good thing for this type of movie as that’s exactly what it aims for. It really does a good job at actually building up tension and fear. Most of the ghoul design was great, with the exception of the main villain. He looked way too cartoony, like something out of a kids fantasy movie. The movie was subtitled and I’m not sure if it was just how it is on Prime, but the dialogue was appearing at the bottom of the screen way before being spoken on screen. This made it difficult to follow at times. There’s a lot of exposition scenes which kind of drag when you have to read instead of listen. This was definitely good though, but the pure, visceral gore may be off putting to some. Watched (17) Always Watching: A Marble Hornets story; Terrifier; Boys in the Trees; Creature from Black Lake; Parents; Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat; Murder Party; Hell Fest; Alone in the Dark; House of Purgatory; 30 Nights of Paranormal Activity...; Phantom of the Paradise; Dead Silence; Blood Diner; the Toolbox Murders; bride of Re-Animator; Baskin
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Oct 11, 2018 04:14
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Finding my last post
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Oct 11, 2018 04:18
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CopywrightMMXI posted:Most of the ghoul design was great, with the exception of the main villain. He looked way too cartoony, like something out of a kids fantasy movie. That's his real face.
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Oct 11, 2018 04:35
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Been putting off my writeups, here goes. 5. The Howling (1981): This one was pretty fun. I enjoyed the prominent placement of Wolf Brand Chili and other Wolf titled products. The first act of the movie is pretty grounded compared to what follows. A news anchorwoman finds herself the object of a serial killer's obsession and has to meet him in a jerkoff booth at a porn store, where the killer is shot dead by police. She is traumatized by the incident, leading to struggles at work and in her marriage, and her psychiatrist sends her to a retreat where everyone is a dang werewolf. The wolf transformation effects are cool and the best side character award goes to the occult bookstore owner. 6. The Wicker Man (1973) (rewatch): Been trying to do movies that are new to me, but my friend hadn't seen this one so it had to happen. An uptight devout Christian policeman heads to a Scottish island to investigate a missing girl. The villagers are all weird and he can't get a straight answer out of anyone and is also perturbed by their apparent disregard for Christianity. Christopher Lee, in one of his best performances imo, plays Lord Summerisle, the local nobleman who leads in the May Day festivities. This has a lot of musical numbers, which you wouldn't typically expect in a horror movie, but it works and kind of adds to the discomfort you feel on behalf of Howie. The ending is still incredibly haunting, no matter how many times I see it. FRAN CHALLENGE #2: Queer Horror 7. Sleepaway Camp (1983): This movie went from weird to kinda boring to very weird. Seeing James Earl Jones's dad laugh off the camp cook openly lusting after children was pretty bizarre. After the business with the pedophile cook, it shifts into a pretty standard slasher movie. rear end in a top hat teens get murked a bunch. The only really interesting part of this is the ending, which is pretty wild. I dunno, this was okay I guess. FRAN CHALLENGE #6: Video Nasties 8. Tenebrae (1982): This was my first Argento movie and my first Italian horror movie overall and I can't say I'm all that impressed. There are some cool shots, but none of the kills felt particularly interesting. The flashback scenes were cool. I dunno, mostly it felt like an excuse to splash blood all over smokin babes. It picks up a bit at the end, but this didn't do a whole lot for me. FRAN CHALLENGE #5: Birth of Horror 9. Pumpkinhead (1988): Man, teens sure are assholes huh? Some shithead teens show up at Lance Henriksen's simple country grocery store and promptly murder his son with a dirtbike. Displeased by this, Henriksen seeks out a local witch to summon Pumpkinhead to bring vengeance to the shithead teens. Henriksen gives a solid performance and I like the country horror aesthetic, but outside of his character, I didn't find anyone else very compelling. Pumpkinhead was an okay monster and the way they have to defeat him is cool. This is an okay movie.
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Oct 11, 2018 04:47
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