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Someone should watch Argento's Dracula for the challenge. Not me though, somebody else.
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Oct 12, 2018 00:23
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That was actually my first thought but for the first time in years I can't find it available on a streaming service. And I'm not spending $4 on it.
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Oct 12, 2018 00:24
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18) Cockneys vs Zombies (2012) Builders break into an ancient tomb in the East End of London and unleash the living dead! Meanwhile, a pair of good Cockney lads plan a bank robbery to save the neighbouring retirement home. Guess what happens next? This movie sounds like it ought to be complete poo poo, but it turns out to be absolutely hilarious as well as featuring enough gruesome zombie deaths to keep anyone happy. A lot of it is down to the quality of the cast; watching an 87-year-old Honor Blackman tooling up as if no time had passed since her Bond girl days should warm everyone's heart, but the younger actors - by which I mean "anyone under 65" - hold their own as well. A strong recommend. I'm counting this one for my International Horror challenge because I've been to Bermondsey and it isn't on any Earth I know.
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Oct 12, 2018 00:28
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Sorry fellas , my fat fingers let my phone fall into water and I've been dealing with getting a new one the past few days, so I'm behind with my reviews Pet The plot and takes have been discussed quite a bit here and I don't really have much to add. I will give this movie points for being original, but this just isn't my type thing  /5Piranha (78) This was actually really fun. An unashamed rip-off of Jaws, (it even starts with one of the stars playing a Jaws arcade game) Corman shows us what happens when some spooky US Military GMO-ed Piranhas get let loose and are rapidly approaching a summer camp , and the ocean! This fish attack scenes are funny, as are the sound they make when they attack. /5Watched ; Halloween 4, Night of the Devils, Ghost Stories, Swamp Thing, Count Dracula, Living Dead At Manchester Morgue, Murder Party, The Mothman Of Point Pleasant, Viy, Pet, Piranha (78) I usually have a safety buffer of 2-3 films by now, I need to get on it.
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Oct 12, 2018 00:40
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Friends Are Evil posted:You’re both wrong, it’s Deadly Friend. Deadly Friend loving rocks.
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Oct 12, 2018 00:55
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^^ Hell yeah  Friends Are Evil posted:You’re both wrong, it’s Deadly Friend. I actually love Deadly Friend. It was the first movie where I "got" Wes Craven. Basebf555 posted:Someone should watch Argento's Dracula for the challenge. Not me though, somebody else. I'm planning on it! I have a copy of it that's been lying around forever.
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Oct 12, 2018 01:03
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Basebf555 posted:Someone should watch Argento's Dracula for the challenge. Not me though, somebody else. drat, if that had crossed my mind I'd have done it. It sounds weird but I've actually been looking for an excuse to watch that movie. I mean it can't be THAT bad... right?
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Oct 12, 2018 01:08
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Spatulater bro! posted:drat, if that had crossed my mind I'd have done it. It sounds weird but I've actually been looking for an excuse to watch that movie. I mean it can't be THAT bad... right? I'll be honest, I watched it several years ago and since then I've watched a TON of horror movies of very questionable quality. So there's a good chance that if I watched it again now I might not hate it as much. My tolerance is higher than ever before.
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Oct 12, 2018 01:13
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Yeah, I had it on my list for years during this because it was always hanging around streaming services and as bad as it looked it was "Argento's Dracula" so I kinda wanted to see it. But now that I have a reason its gone.
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Oct 12, 2018 01:16
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Franchescanado posted:I've tried not to comment too much on what people have chosen, but everyone that's chosen Ghost of Mars is playing it safe, in my opinion. Even for Carpenter, I'm surprised most people assume it's Ghost of Mars and not Memoirs of an Invisible Man or The Ward. I mean, I mostly did it because I'd never actually seen Ghosts of Mars before. And I'm mostly counting it for that challenge because, even though the movie's fine, the score is the single worst thing Carpenter has ever put his name on, in his entire life.
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Oct 12, 2018 01:18
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Part of me finds it kind of hard to connect with caring THAT much about the soundtrack as you do. Like I agree its not "good" but it doesn't actually take away from the film (which I think is just a mediocre B film) for me and I can't really connect with how it would. But then again it IS Carpenter who uses simple soundtracks so effectively in his works that people define an entire style of it with his name, so I get it.
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Oct 12, 2018 01:22
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Spatulater bro! posted:Every single Godzilla film is worth watching, more or less. Counterpoint:  Friends Are Evil posted:You’re both wrong, it’s Deadly Friend. Deadly Friend is awful, but it's watchably awful. Random Stranger fucked around with this message at 01:27 on Oct 12, 2018 |
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Oct 12, 2018 01:24
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Random Stranger posted:Counterpoint: I thought counterpoints were supposed to refute the original point, not confirm it.
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Oct 12, 2018 01:26
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STAC Goat posted:Part of me finds it kind of hard to connect with caring THAT much about the soundtrack as you do. Like I agree its not "good" but it doesn't actually take away from the film (which I think is just a mediocre B film) for me and I can't really connect with how it would. I ordinarily wouldn't care that much, but it's a Carpenter movie, it's a uniquely obnoxious score with the way that anything remotely resembling an action beat makes lovely Knockoff Pantera start chugging at ear-splitting volume, and I had just watched Return of the Living Dead about an hour prior, meaning I had a movie with fantastic music fresh in my mind.
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Oct 12, 2018 01:29
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 20. October 11 - As Above So Below Figured this would be a throwaway FF movie, but I ended up loving it. It's equal parts Dante's Inferno, The DaVinci Code, and The Descent. It hit all my buttons: claustrophobia, irrational architecture, people stumbling through portals to weird dimensions. It's not perfect by any means; some of the scares and plot points near the end are hamfisted, and it felt like a normal script that had been retrofitted into a found footage movie, but it's so much better than I expected.
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Oct 12, 2018 01:30
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 FRAN CHALLENGE #1: Love Something You HateI have an irrational dislike of Bradley Cooper so I went with 10. The Midnight Meat Train: The title alone is enough for me to be interested and this turned out to be a pretty decent thriller. I didn’t know Vinnie Jones was in this so that’s a pleasant surprise. He does Big Menacing Guy well. Cooper gives a decent performance. The gore was pretty good. The end was a bit predictable but it fit. I am pleased with this movie.
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Oct 12, 2018 02:51
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34. The Addiction (1995) - 4.5/5 (YouTube)quote:What a grimy fuckin movie, man. I love it. 90s NYC in black and white, hip hop, vampires, Christopher Walken. All vampire films should aspire to be this cool.
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Oct 12, 2018 02:56
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 Friday the 13th, 1980 Oh boy, I haven't seen this one since forever. Halloween may have defined what a slasher should be, but this one set the rules down in stone. It's such an straight forwards Halloween rip off, but with a bigger body count and more graphic kills. The opening make it very obvious that everything is taken from Halloween. That being said, it stands on its own as a solid slasher. This was the strong first movie that was needed to start the most iconic slasher franchise of all time. Sure, the plot was resolved in this one and it makes no sense to make a sequel, yet they managed to release a new Friday the 13th almost every single year trough the 80s. You might have noticed that I haven't talked about the plot yet, and do I really need to do that? It's loving Friday the 13th. Even if you never seen any of these, you know the first one is the one where Jason is not the killer and there's no hockey mask. It's incredible how a character that's hardly mentioned in the first movie becomes the very symbol of the entire slasher genre. Like I said, the plot get resolved in this one, so it's like its own self contained movie separate from the rest of the series. It's a good early slasher any horror fan needs to see, both for historical reason and because it's a cool movie.
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Oct 12, 2018 03:00
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I got a Jason question. Maybe it'll be resolved in a future Part, but I'm asking it now. Was Jason really alive the whole time? Because that makes no sense, but it seems like it's what Part 2 was saying. But if you take the thing with child-Jason in Part 1 as being at least somewhat literal, and assume that Jason was at the bottom of the lake preserved by Lake Magic, and awoke when his mother died, wouldn't that make more sense? I know he gets at least a little magic in the later Parts, so magic can happen. So was he alive and never drowned and the child-Jason scene is purely hallucination, or was he in the lake and the child-Jason scene was either actually real or a representation of him being awoken?
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Oct 12, 2018 03:06
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Jason was dead in the first movie. Like I said, sequels makes no sense. Picture an Citizen Kane 2 where Charles Foster Kane is alive despite dying at the start of the first movie and want to build a new Rosebud after it got burnt, or that it ignored that it got burnt and have the movie about him looking for it.
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Oct 12, 2018 03:14
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And from what I remember, the various Friday the 13th movie contradict each other in all sort of ways.
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Oct 12, 2018 03:15
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Cargo (2017) [Netflix Streaming] Martin Freeman tries to find a safe place for his infant child during a zombie apocalypse. He's compelling, and there's some interesting touches. The Australian setting is different, and the zombies burying the heads was striking. Entertaining enough. Watched: #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), #15 A Quiet Place (2018), #16 Godzilla (1954), #17 The Vault (2017), #18 Cargo (2017) Fran Challenges: #7 (The World Is A Scary Place) Godzilla (1954)
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Oct 12, 2018 03:17
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Hot Dog Day #89 posted:Jason was dead in the first movie. Like I said, sequels makes no sense. Picture an Citizen Kane 2 where Charles Foster Kane is alive despite dying at the start of the first movie and want to build a new Rosebud after it got burnt, or that it ignored that it got burnt and have the movie about him looking for it. But then my Lake Magic theory makes sense! Jason did drown, but was preserved at the bottom of Crystal Lake. When his mom died he woke up, and the girl's hallucination of Jason attacking her in the canoe was like a psychic vision of his awakening. Then Jason waded ashore, built the shack, and grew to full size over the five years between Parts 1 and 2.
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Oct 12, 2018 03:19
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Guy Goodbody posted:I got a Jason question. Maybe it'll be resolved in a future Part, but I'm asking it now. Was Jason really alive the whole time? Because that makes no sense, but it seems like it's what Part 2 was saying. But if you take the thing with child-Jason in Part 1 as being at least somewhat literal, and assume that Jason was at the bottom of the lake preserved by Lake Magic, and awoke when his mother died, wouldn't that make more sense? I know he gets at least a little magic in the later Parts, so magic can happen. Yes
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Oct 12, 2018 03:20
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Guy Goodbody posted:But then my Lake Magic theory makes sense! Jason did drown, but was preserved at the bottom of Crystal Lake. When his mom died he woke up, and the girl's hallucination of Jason attacking her in the canoe was like a psychic vision of his awakening. Then Jason waded ashore, built the shack, and grew to full size over the five years between Parts 1 and 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwXz8vDjOqg
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Oct 12, 2018 03:26
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The World is a Scary Place has me wondering how many of the movies I've watched were made outside North America. Nine out of twenty-two. Mostly Britain (Event Horizon was filmed in London, by the way) with Germany, France, Estonia, and South Korea also represented. China will be on the list soon enough. Wish I had internet woes fixed to stream some Thai but so it goes.
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Oct 12, 2018 03:35
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I feel like taking Mrs Voorhees word for the specifics of Jason's death isn't fair to the original counselors. She is an insane person, so we really can't take her word for it that it's all the counselor's fault that he died, or even that they were off loving at the time. Also, Jay says that the time Jason was in the shack overlaps with his mom's murders, which was not established definitively in any of the Friday the 13th movies I've seen so far. But yeah I'm glad to see that the bald one came to the same conclusion I did that Jason was in the lake for awhile.
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Oct 12, 2018 03:37
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I disagree with the idea that there needs to be accelerated aging. If we assume that Jason was 11 or 12 in Part 1, it's not unreasonable to think he could have the stature of an adult five years later in Part 2.
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Oct 12, 2018 03:40
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New York would have been super easy so I tried to get as close to home as possible. I thought about it a little and did some google searches with no luck but I remembered that the Abaddon Hotel and fictional town of Abaddon were supposed to be in my home of Rockland County. (it was actually filmed in PA). Rockland County ain’t that big so if Abaddon did exist it should probably be a quick drive and I might have ended up at the Hell House Massacre if it were real. It gave me an excuse to rewatch one of my favorite films of last year’s marathon and then fulfill the challenge with a fresh viewing of the sequel that has been universally lauded around here and that I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to waste my time with without this excuse. - (15). Hell House, LLC (2015) Available on Shudder.  A documentary crew looks back at footage of what happened to the crew of a haunted house attraction that had an unexplained massacre on their opening night and finds tons of eery things and the usual mix of hubris, stubbornness, and debt that makes haunted house stories possible. The original held up very well. Perhaps most telling, I have that “gotta turn the light on, don’t like having darkened hallways and stuff in my house” feeling going as I type this. Specifically I got this big scarecrow dummy and skeleton up for my decorations who do the “physical form in the shadows” thing that Hell House’s dummies do waaaaay too well to be comfortable with the lights off. I think that’s what Hell House does well. I’ve seen people critical of the scares as too simple as stuff moving without explanation but I don’t think that’s where the scare is. Its in the dark. Its in the panic and anxiety that the characters feel when there’s no logical explanation for what’s happening and that sense of dread when everything goes dark or the camera turns away. Its the horrible feeling of the only answer being “supernatural poo poo” and every fiber of your being yelling “GET OUT!” and you just not listening for reasons. Hell House does that so well and in general I think when found footage is done well its often because it pulls that off and makes you feel the anxiety of the characters from a first person perspective. That all held up for me. Sure, a few of the scares are lessened because I knew they were coming but the big one with the girl still made my physically jump up when it happened. Even though I 100% knew it was coming and there’s a long build. It just worked. The ending’s still a little hokey but I respect that they just had to find a way to tie up the movie. The sub-ending of us seeing what happened that night I think comes together pretty well. We don’t see a lot but I think we see enough to pay off the build. Not knowing exactly what happened is ok with me and I wasn’t really waiting to see a monster. Also I think I recognized the hotel clerk as the british lady from those dating app ads that are always playing. They’re actors! Such lies! Ok, onto the new film and actual challenge movie. 14 (16). Hell House, LLC 2: The Abaddon Hotel (2018) Also available exclusively on Shudder.  Years after the first documentary more people are out to find out if the first movie/documentary was real and to find explanations for what happened the fateful night, before, after, and pretty much every question you never actually asked. All in a confusingly handwaved away package. Well that was a terrible movie in nearly every conceivable way. Right off the bat, the second I saw that there was a Hell House sequel I didn’t want to watch it. Hell House is one of those movies that worked because it was simple, didn’t try to do too much, and went for “unexplained creepy is better than convoluted explanation.” Sequels that don’t need to happen always miss that and this is a massive example of that. I mean for God’s sakes they have a loving Bond Villain monologue by the big bad. Why the gently caress would you do that? Who the gently caress wrote it? And I mean, its more than that. That’s the big ending and takeaway but it was all across the film. Remember how the first film works by taking dummies that shouldn’t move and putting them in places they shouldn’t be without explanation? Well the new movie just shows them getting up and taking strolls. Remember how the original movie doesn’t really try to offer an explanation for what happened that night, just some vague sense of evil and something satanic that you can fill in blanks with? Well not only does the sequel explain and show you it takes the thing that the entire first film built up to and shows it (unimpressingly) half way through this film and then just moves on. I mean, I get it. That didn’t look cool enough to close on. But isn’t that why you decided to not try and do that the first time and let imagination win out? I mean, really, that’s the key. Hell House knows its limits and goes with what it can do. It builds tension and riddles people with anxiety. It scares them in small ways to drive that anxiety up. 2 just shows you tons of crap that isn’t all that scary at such a frantic pace that sometimes i didn’t even know what I was supposed to be scared by. Seriously, what scared the crew into going upstairs? I couldn’t see it. And what scared that one kid who went in on a dare? poo poo was just flying by so fast I didn’t even care to keep rewinding to find out. I knew there was another one right around the corner. And it breaks the cardinal rule of found footage films by having a format that makes no sense. By my count the footage in this came from the original documentary crew, the tabloid mystery show, the investigative crew, half a dozen internet videos, unexplained home videos, and a police interrogation tape. Its all spliced together (clumsily) and given editor notes with no reason why that makes sense. Sure they handwave it away at the end but even if that were an explanation that made sense (the police video is kinda WTF?) it wasn’t a mystery worth having. It was just a weirdly edited film that you explained at the end WHY it was weirdly edited. And it wasn’t an interesting explanation. Oh, and the acting loving sucked. I mean, everyone was terrible and unlikable. Maybe not that gay couple. They seemed ok and they were just trying to help someone out. Maybe not the best decision makers, but basically good samaritans who got screwed. Everyone else totally sucks and does a bad job showing how they suck. An advantage I think found footage films often have is that the “home movie” style of filming means a lot of acting performances can be more natural and with each other instead of interacting with the camera. I think that hides some poor actors and flaws. But everyone’s playing to the camera in this one in overly explained scenes. And its absolutely terrible. Like even the returning actors who were totally fine in the first film suck. And why start the film with that weird rear end story of the kid that was channeling the house or some poo poo that never came up again the entire film? What the gently caress? Also not only was it utterly unnecessary and counter productive to explain Alex’s money troubles and how he ended up at the hotel but it was super confusing how they they imply at first that he was complicit and setting them up and then the Tully devil man boasts that he just tricked him. I guess all this satanic scribbles in his notebook were done while he was in the house and going insane or something? I mean, fine, but what was the point of that? Did we really need that red herring distraction in this movie with already 4 dozen plots and twists? There was like one effective jump scare midway through. Just to be totally fair? But are you really going to expect a round of applause for making me jump once by throwing something scary out of the darkness in the middle of a lot of bad? I can't even remember what it was. I think it was the end of the gay couple's video? Maybe they should have done a movie about them. Hell House 2 does everything wrong that Hell House did right. I’m honestly shocked this was made by the same people. How do you get it so right once and then just so wrong the second time? 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) / Fran’s Challenge #1: 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) / 12 (13). Black Swan (2010) / Fran’s Challenge #2: 13 (14). Happy Death Day (2017) / - (15). Hell House, LLC (2015) / Fran’s Challenge #3: 14 (16). Hell House, LLC 2: The Abaddon Hotel (2018)
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Oct 12, 2018 03:54
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Day 11 - Burnt Offerings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GxAEqNBvNI A family goes to an old, remote house that's seen better days to spend the summer in the country. Once there, they start behaving strangely with the father suddenly prone to violent outbursts and the mother becoming obsessed with acting as a caretaker for an old resident who is never seen. Nightmarish visuals of death and strange occurrences abound until the building itself starts changing to trap them. I feel like there's a really great movie in Burnt Offerings that's desperate to get out. And the title of that movie is The Shining.  Seriously though, my biggest problem with Burnt Offerings is that it's shot like a TV movie. Dan Curtis who directed the film is, of course, the creator of Dark Shadows and a metric ton of TV movies; basically a man who made things cheap and flat for the sake of speed. You can't have Kubrick direct every moon landing, but this movie would have benefited from someone with a more visual eye.On the positive side, Oliver Reed is fantastic in this movie as he swings from caring father to violent lunatic and then back to being horrified at what he's done. Then he's undergoing a mental breakdown as the film progresses and that gradual progression is fantastic to watch. Reed's performance elevates the movie and without him this would just be a turgid drama that had a great ending. The last act of the film is a big improvement as the house starts actively acting against the family. You can see that ending coming a mile away, but it is really great and pretty much exactly what you want to see. Never approach the old woman in a wheelchair facing away from you and staring out the window. Turning her around is always bad.
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Oct 12, 2018 04:03
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Franchescanado posted:
I was drawn between just counting one of multiple Italian films that I watch in October, or maybe some bonkers HK stuff like is popular, but just in time for this challenge, Atterados aka (Terrified) popped up on Shudder From Spain, this movie focuses on strange events that begin occurring in a small neighboorhood and the people that start investigating them. I felt this movie started off strong, but it quickly turned into what I would deem a 'redbox' movie. A designation that is marked is for movies that rely on the played out quick-jerky movements by the monster/ghost and jump scares. This movie attempts plenty creepy shots , but it's all stuff we have seen before and the make-up and effects are just generic at this point. The part with the boy at the table felt like it was interesting, but I'm not sure where they had to go with it, and I don't think the filmmakers knew either. The explanation at the end doesn't help at all in explaining earlier events. I was really sleepy when I watched this also, and the narrative that hops around somewhat didn't help. I should have stuck with the bad I know and watched something Italian. .5 / 5
Dr.Caligari fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Oct 12, 2018 |
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Oct 12, 2018 04:24
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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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16/31 When Hollis started streaming this, I was convinced that I could never add it to the list. Luckily, the movie is so all over the place that I think you can credibly argue that it's at least partially horror. I'm also going to say this is my Queer Horror challenge film because it's gay as hell. Heaven and Hell, also marketed as Shaolin Hellgate, starts out as a story of star-crossed lovers. Love is forbidden in Heaven (which seems to be a pretty lovely place altogether), but two angels fall in love and flee to Earth to be reincarnated as mortals. An angel guard who helps them is forced out of Heaven, reincarnating as a taxi driver who helps the lovers (now reincarnated as actors) deal with a gangster trying to keep them apart. When the taxi driver angel is killed trying to protect them, he must recruit warriors from across Chinese history who were also wrongfully condemned to Hell and escape. The film basically feels like three totally different movies mashed together. It begins, I poo poo you not, as a fantasy musical. The scenes in Heaven and the majority of the scenes on Earth are framed as a filmed stage play, with minimal sets set up in an empty soundstage. The action is choreographed with little to no foley and matched to music, with an obviously fake element that makes it resemble West Side Story, and there are multiple in-character songs (with bad dubbing and an even worse English translation). There's a few scenes on Earth that are framed as a typical 1980s kung fu film, up until the taxi driver angel dies and during later flashbacks. Where the film really starts to enter the horror genre is in Hell. While some parts of it are played for laughs (like the idea of the guards being little different from real world cops and having a bureaucracy that even demands taxes be paid, or the increasingly petty and individual torments like Plow Hell and Gambling Hell), some of the punishments seen are so horrific that it clashes with the rest of the film. One room has sinners slowly having their skin peeled off, all shown in bloody and gruesome detail. Another has gossipy women condemned to have their tongues stretched inhumanly far. When we learn the backstories of the warriors that our protagonist recruits, one of them is executed by having his jaw broken and a long iron rod slowly and painfully shoved down his throat until his internal organs rupture. What begins as a virtually bloodless fantasy musical suddenly turns into a surprisingly bloody free-for-all. As for the gay element, the costumes take a huge amount of inspiration from gay subculture, to the point where it would be an insane coincidence if there was no inspiration at all. The angels in Heaven wear a variety of ridiculous costumes, including a bizarre two-piece outfit seemingly made entirely of feathers color coordinated to match each angel, and the protagonist regaining his status is symbolized by him reapplying glittering golden eyeshadow. Even the simpler costumes used for the fighting between the angels at the beginning of the film mostly consists of slick-chested shirtless men, one of whom uses a size-changing golden ring like a throwing hula hoop. The gangsters on Earth show up in leather vests, hats, and caps with variously colored ascots and fight in a way that resembles synchronized theatrical prancing. One of the warriors, when he was still human on Earth, skulked around the Hong Kong markets with his friends in tight tank tops like they were on their way to the club. So the question remains: do I recommend this movie? It's really hard to say. The kung fu is well-choreographed (though it has the usual Shaw Brothers special effects budget of $0 and lots of shoddy teleportation edits) and gets some neat ideas with the magic and terrain of Hell, but it happens almost ceaselessly any time they have an excuse for a fight scene at least 10 seconds long. The ending is so abrupt that I didn't see it coming until "The End" popped up, and the plot of the angel lovers is dropped long before the halfway point so the film becomes entirely about a different fallen angel trying to escape Hell. What might be the biggest thing that makes or breaks the movie for someone is how disjointed the filming style is. The transitions between minimalist theatre sets and musical numbers to street kung fu to elaborate wuxia-style fighting among the bureaucracy and pettiness of Hell make it feel like three different scripts were combined with no editing to make them work together. If you're looking for the weird, though, give Heaven And Hell a try. I can certainly say I've never seen a movie quite like it, even if that isn't always a good thing. chitoryu12 fucked around with this message at 05:24 on Oct 12, 2018 |
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Oct 12, 2018 05:21
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 21. October 11 - Chernobyl Diaries I've always been fascinated by the story of Chernobyl, and it's a great setting for a horror film, but unfortunately this movie does nothing with it. The only character with any personality gets killed 30 minutes in, and the monsters are essentially zombies in all but name. Not fun, not funny, not tense, not scary, not much of anything.
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Oct 12, 2018 05:30
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7. Evil Toons (1992) watched on Goontube It's a lovely softcore porno disguised as a "horror parody" with no coherent plot and the "evil toon" (singular; the title is a lie) appears for only two minutes, one of those minutes is a rape scene. Don't watch this loving poo poo. 0/5
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Oct 12, 2018 05:58
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I just wanted to quickly add that I'm likely going to have horror films as a "rewatch". My plan was for the 31 challenge to include nothing but new horror and since that was met I figure the overrun will have me rewatching horror film I haven't seen since high school 15+ years ago. 32. Lights Out (2016)  This movie is based on a YouTube short that I do recommend watching because it’s simple and effective in what it tries to do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNbJE0y29_c It went viral and of course Hollywood had to adapt it into a feature film. The results are what you would expect. The film has a lot of jump scares (though I will say the shadow creature thing moving when its dark is effective) and a family drama plotline that gives the creature an origin. This is where the film doesn’t work because the simplicity of the short in how paranoid it makes you feel when the lights go out as a kid. The film trying to be a film giving an origin to it removes a lot of the tension and suspense of just not knowing. /5Franchescanado posted:
33. The Ritual (2017)  My submission for the Fran Challenge. This one was made in Britain and clearly not just “set” there because holy crap are the leads English as gently caress when it comes to their dialogue. So, I think it counts. The film is about four guys that decide to go hiking in Northern Sweden as a big adventure getaway. Well, there is another reason but I won’t spoil it because it’s a surprise that’s more powerful if you don’t know. The emotional impact as the film goes on is way more intense with it as a mystery going on. As you might imagine they encounter strange occult things and quickly everything goes sideways. I liked this one. It’s a simple film of backpackers encountering evil in the woods as a pretty cliched set-up but the whole “lad” dynamic worked and holy crap was the creature design great. I also admit I have a soft spot for horror set in the woods because I remember as a kid I would go camping constantly in the fall. The strange sounds at night mixed with the Halloween season brings me back. .5/5Total: 1. The Conjuring 2 (2016), 2. Terrifier (2016), 3. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), 4. Split (2017), 5. The First Purge (2018), 6. Trick 'R Treat (2009), 7. Wolf Creek (2005), 8. King Kong (1976), 9. Halloween II (2009), 10. Pumpkinhead (1988), 11. House on Haunted Hill (1959), 12. House on Haunted Hill (1999), 13. What We Do in the Shadows (2014), 14. Ghostbusters (2016), 15. Bride of Chucky (1998), 16. Seed of Chucky (2004), 17. Nightbreed (1990), 18. The Axe Murders of Villisca (2016), 19. Ghosts of Mars (2001), 20. Haunters: The Art of the Scare (2017), 21 Annabelle (2014), 22. The Stuff (1985), 23. Gremlins (1984), 24. Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), 25. An American Werewolf in London (1981), 26. The Evil Dead (1981), 27. Escape from Tomorrow (2013), 28. Creepshow (1982), 29. Microwave Massacre (1983), 30. Venom (2018), 31. Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018), 32. Lights Out (2016), 33. The Ritual (2017) Justin Godscock fucked around with this message at 07:17 on Oct 12, 2018 |
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Oct 12, 2018 07:14
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Okay, as usual I got lazy and just sorta didn't post but still been watching a bunch of stuff, mostly rewatches... 5. Clowntergeist-2017: 3/10 6. House on Haunted Hill-1999: 10/10 (rewatch) 7. Deep Rising-1998: 9/10 (rewatch) 8. The Faculty-1998: 9/10 (rewatch) 9. The Oblong Box-1969: 7/10 (rewatch) 10.Tokyo Gore Police-2008: 8/10 11. Friday the 13th-1980: 8/10 (rewatch) 12. Murder Party-2007: 10/10 (rewatch) 13. Deadly Friend-1986: 7/10 (rewatch) 14. No Escape Room-2018: 7/10 15. The Green Inferno-2013: 9/10 (rewatch) 16. Dog Soldiers-2003: 9/10 (rewatch) 17. Friday the 13th Part 2-1981: 8/10 (rewatch) 18. Nightmare Shark-2018: 4/10 19. The Monster That Challenged the World-1957: 6/10 (rewatch) 20. Intruder-1989: 9/10 (rewatch) 21. Frogs-1972: 8/10 (rewatch) 22. The Food of the Gods-1976: 8/10 (rewatch) 23. Evil Dead-2013: 10/10 (rewatch) 24. Friday the 13th-2009: 9/10 (rewatch) 25. Tales from the Crypt-1972: 8/10 (rewatch) As you can tell, you should all avoid Clowntergeist.
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Oct 12, 2018 07:21
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Berlin Syndrome (2017) [Netflix Streaming] Guy keeps a woman locked in his house in a facsimile of a relationship. I like that it was fairly low key, kinda trashy, and stayed grounded. Overly long at just under two hours, though. Watched: #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), #15 A Quiet Place (2018), #16 Godzilla (1954), #17 The Vault (2017), #18 Cargo (2017), #19 Berlin Syndrome (2017) Fran Challenges: #7 (The World Is A Scary Place) Godzilla (1954)
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Oct 12, 2018 07:25
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#10: Invasion of the Saucer Men This popped up on Amazon Prime recently, and I was happy to see it again because it's never been on DVD, and I understood it to be one of the AIP movies owned by James H. Nicholson's widow, who was asking a lot for the rights. Not sure what changed things, but here's the movie. And it's an odd duck. It's a sort of comedy, complete with whimsical title music, where a flying saucer lands near Lover's Lane and bug-eyed aliens start messing with the locals. They inject people with alcohol through their fingertips, and when one of their number gets hit by a car, they manage to frame the teens in it for hitting a pedestrian (this was the thrust of the short story it was based on, "The Cosmic Frame". ) It's never fully explained what the aliens are up to, but it feels like they're riffing more on the mythology of little green men showing up, spooking people, and disappearing without a trace. One surprising bit is the humor is pretty risqué for 1957, with references to underage drinking and guys trying to get to first base and so on. (At least I assume the drinking is underage, I don't know what the laws were back then.) It's just a little over an hour long and while it's never really *funny*, it has a certain charm. Frank Gorshin is in it, as the one character the saucer men actually kill. Paul Blaisdell designed the aliens, perhaps the most iconic Bug Eyed Monsters, and honestly we don't see enough of them. (Though there's a fairly clever scene with the disembodied hand of one of them crawling around.) A very slight film by design, but good to finally have available again.
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Oct 12, 2018 07:29
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#23 "Your body's dying. Pay no attention, it happens to us all." Interview with the Vampire (1994) Two pansexual abominations spend 200 years figuring out that: (1) Relationships are hard; (2) Adding children to dysfunctional relationships only makes the problems worse; (3) Being the rebound guy comes with a price. In addition to being supremely macabre, this is a movie far out on the social forefront for a major box office picture in 1994. Before Ellen was getting parental advisory warnings because of one episode where she comes out, Lestat and Louis are raising a child in a same-sex household. Every review complains about the graphic content, and the worst of them simply indict it for that and stop discussing it. Even now it has a 62 on RT. This is another movie that again reveals the razzies are an institution that can age very poorly (the razzies dared to single out The Thing for ridicule). Kirsten Dunst is incredible in this movie, it's truly the child actor role of several lifetimes, and as necessary for everything to work, you forget that Dunst is 12. It's incredible to me that Rice wanted Rutger Hauer or loving Tom Hanks to play Lestat. Really authors are best left out of creative decisions for their movie adaptations, it seems. As it is, every piece of casting is ingenious, and every actor inhabits their role. I don't really think of Stephen Rea when I see Santiago. Antonio Banderas, who could barely speak English at the time, has never done another part like this. "Although one of the characters in "Interview with the Vampire" begs to be transformed into a vampire, and eagerly awaits the doom of immortality, the movie never makes vampirism look like anything but an endless sadness. That is its greatest strength. Vampires throughout movie history have often chortled as if they'd gotten away with something. But the first great vampire movie, "Nosferatu" (1922), knew better, and so does this one." - Roger Ebert The special effects are also subtly incredible (though there's a fair amount of unsubtle stuff where it counts). I never realized that Lestat at one point during his climactic confrontation with Claudia becomes the world's most horrifying puppet.  Neil Jordan's director commentary is not particularly insightful on the production, unfortunately, merely re-confirming many of the movie's themes and sharing relatively few technical details.
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Oct 12, 2018 07:58
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I fell waaaay behind on my 31 Years when I took my “palette cleansing” break so I gotta knock a few out and catch up. So I guess my next few entries are gonna be living in the 60s and 70s. Also, for the sake of noting pace this would be my 31st total movie if I was counting the September movies. For some reason I’ve always wanted to see this one and just never have. Its a fitting “31”. 15 (17). Carnival of Souls (1962) Available on Amazon Prime.  Mary miraculously survives a fatal car accident but as she tries to restart her life in a new town she feels withdrawn from the world, unable to connect with people, and strangely drawn to an abandoned carnival and stalked by a man who can’t be there. Despite being Hank Harvey’s only feature film its regarded as a cult classic referenced by many of the great horror directors for inspiring them. Despite it being his only feature film Harvey apparently had a long career in non-fiction film that took him around the world. So he knew how to handle a camera and that really shows in this film. Its really beautifully shot and there are some frames that just take your breath away. Candace Hilligoss is a beautiful woman who Harvey manages to shoot in a way that can capture her beauty and at the same time give it a haunting and cold feeling. Credit of course to her as well for being able to effectively carry what is largely a one woman movie and show her flips between feeling alive and feeling like a ghost. Oddly like Harvey she barely had a career after this as well. Apparently she was a model who just took the acting job for some money but she’s really pretty solid in a role that takes up nearly 100% of the screen time. But the star really is the camera and the cinematography. To be honest, the story feels a little long and there’s some awkward directing. Transition shots that feel very clumsy. Ghosts that maybe are trying a bit too hard. A romantic lead who flirts a little too close to the line of sex pest that kind of confuses the message of Mary being withdrawn from the world and unable to connect with her just not being into the pushy creeper. Also a priest who seems to kind of overreact a little and be a little harsh with someone he knows has just suffered a terrible trauma. But all through some amazing shots and framing and a haunting organ soundtrack really keep the movie going strong. Maybe not one of the best films I’ve seen but a pretty deserving reputation and a film I can see really inspiring a lot of the films that followed it. Ok… so I decided I’d go ahead and do The Hills Have Eyes 2 for the Best of the Worst challenge but first I’d have to watch the original movie. Only problem is, I forgot the name of the movie and confused it with a different Wes Craven film.  16 (18). The Last House on the Left (1972) Available on Amazon Prime.  Wes Craven’s debut film about a sadistic gang of murdering, child molesting, escaped cons kidnap, torture, and rape a pair of teenage girls and accidently end up at one of their houses. And for some reason they have a catchy kazoo theme song. Jesus Christ, Wes. What the gently caress? According to Wikipedia some film projectionists were so outraged by this film that they ripped the reel out and destroyed it before the movie was over. I get that. You know, I don’t agree with the “Video Nasty” thing. But if a film was gonna make me agree with it this might be the one. Just, what the gently caress? And why the gently caress does Wes Craven have to be a good enough director to actually make it kinda good? Like I get it. You juxtaposed something horrible with beautiful scenes and goofy comedy. And the scenery was beautiful and the comedy was goofy. But holy poo poo, man. Did you have to make the rapists’ theme catchy enough to get stuck in my head? I liked Wes Craven. I've seen a lot of his library and don't think he's a sick bastard. But I get the sense that if Wes Craven was born 40 or 50 years later he would have gotten in a shitload of trouble for the stuff he posted on Twitter as a teen. I swear to God I spent the first half of the money thinking "So when are the mutants gonna show up?" I had myself convinced "Oh, so the idea is to make these guys so loving repugnant that when they get slashed up by some monsters we're rooting for the monsters?" I think maybe an hour in the thought crossed my mind that I had the wrong movie. I'm actually kind of angry I can't just retroactively count this for either the Video Nasty challenge or the "Worst of the Best". Because if this is somehow not worse than The Hills Have Eyes 2 I'm not sure I want to actually watch that. I guess silver linings… it filled one of my years. And The Hills Have Eyes will probably feel tame after that. Right? It has to. But seriously, I can't get the loving song out of my head. 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) / Fran’s Challenge #1: 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) / 12 (13). Black Swan (2010) / Fran’s Challenge #2: 13 (14). Happy Death Day (2017) / - (15). Hell House, LLC (2015) / Fran’s Challenge #3: 14 (16). Hell House, LLC 2: The Abaddon Hotel (2018) / 15 (17). Carnival of Souls (1962) / 16 (18). The Last House on the Left (1972) 
STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 09:43 on Oct 12, 2018 |
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Oct 12, 2018 08:59
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