|
22. Night of the Demons (1988) Watched On: Amazon Prime Keep in mind that I thought this was Night of the Creeps for a solid 30 minutes of watching. This movie was like if Evil Dead was made by stupid people. Everybody hates each other and they all want to have sex in a haunted house. It's loud, juvenile, horny and dumb. None of these things mean that it's bad, but whoo boy it is a very silly movie. There's not a single member of the cast who can deliver a line naturally, which gives the whole thing this live action cartoon vibe (Sal in particular is one "ring-a-ding-ding for you bozos" away from The Rat Pack.) Everything goes off the rails as soon as the seance starts, Linnea Quigley takes her pants off, people gently caress and then die. It's pretty by the numbers, but the script and the stilted performances made this an enjoyable evening watch.
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 02:40
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 8, 2024 16:28 |
|
|
 Dr. Cyclops, 1940 Directed by no other than Ernest B. Schoedsack of King Kong fame, I knew this movie would be rad, and I was not disappointed. It looked loving rad from start to finish and there wasn't a single boring second. This movie must have ha an impact all the sci-fi horror that came out in the 50s with its mad scientist villain and weird machine, but unlike these 50s movies, this one is in color. Most obviously, it must have had an influence on The Incredible Shrinking Man from 1957, that I saw last year's marathon, since both movies deal with shrinking people. The Incredible Shrinking Man was a great movie and I'd say a better as a science fiction story, especially the end. But Dr. Cyclops are by all means a way better spectacle. I mean come on. It's a loving Ernest B. Schoedsack movie. Of course every scene is going to look great and the special effects will look good despite being dated. The mad scientist is a great villain. He is almost sympathetic in that he just wants to do his science, but at the same time, it's obviously that he is a spiteful bastard and that he is amused by the death and suffering he causes. He is evil, and that's good. This movie is now among my all time favorites horror and science fiction movie from the 40s. I strongly recommend this one. Hot Dog Day #89 fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Oct 14, 2018 |
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 02:56
|
|
|
#12- Venom Yeah, this is absolutely a monster movie. From the opening echoes of the Quatermass Xperiment, to elements of Cronenbergian body horror and werewolf movies, to the occasional touch of Little Shop of Horrors, it's a monster flick, and a darkly funny one too. Tom Hardy is legitimately great at comedy, managing to make Eddie Brock a crusading reporter and also a hopeless schlub, with echoes of Charlie from It's Always Sunny in there. The plot bounces along, never getting too bogged down in explanations of things, and the film subtly builds in goofiness to the point that we're just willing to accept it after a while. It kinda reminds me of Ang Lee's Hulk only this time the world is ready for it. Also the end main titles are done to one of those rap songs where the lyrics really explicitly follow the film's plot and we haven't had enough of those lately.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 03:52
|
|
|
Day 13 - Vampire Circus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFJM7eIx9OM You know, the last thing I expected going into a movie titled Vampire Circus made in 1972 was a furry sex scene. Live and learn, I suppose. Fifteen years ago a group of villagers killed a vampire with a stake through his heart, though not before one of them managed to stake him through the dick. The vampire swears revenge on them and their children nominally for killing him, but I suspect it has more to do with the dick staking. Now a plague is taking the lives of the villagers isolating them from the outside world and a circus rolls into town. You'll never guess what monster the circus is infested with. I'm not the biggest Hammer-head (if that's not what fans of Hammer horror films call themselves, it is now), but I know that their early 70's output is terrible. My first Hammer film was Dracula AD 1972 so I got a dose of that early. So I didn't have high expectations going in beyond hoping that the theme was used in an interesting way, and Vampire Circus turned out to be pretty good! Not as good as the peak of Hammer's Dracula films but definitely one of their better ones. I think a lot of the reason why I liked it is the same reason I decided to watch it: that circus. Okay, the circus is a bit underpopulated, but the movie keeps going back to the odd performances where the circus prepares to torment or seize another victim. The villagers were afraid a vampire attack on their town was already underway when the circus rolls in so they don't suspect the connection and there's always an excuse that lets them keep picking people off. It helps keep the film moving since there's a pile of victims and a pile of weirdos to go after them. The biggest downside in this movie is that it does follow the vampire film formula pretty rigidly. Well, that and the casual Romani racism being tossed around. Which now that I think about it, the casual racism is kind of a big part of the formula.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 03:57
|
|
|
Yo everyone in this thread needs to watch The Children (2008)
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 04:52
|
|
|
Explain how/why
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 05:25
|
|
Almost Blue posted:37. Bordello of Blood - Somewhat of a mess, but an enjoyable one. Dennis Miller makes for a good rear end in a top hat but I could do without his homophobia. Everybody is a bit over-the-top, which is fun to an extent but it gets to be a bit much after a while. It feels like chunks got taken out of the movie because characters will sometimes jump from location to location with little reason why. (At the end a vampire suddenly appears in a church, even though that's the last place they'd want to be.) It's very short though. I think it's only about 75 minutes without the Crypkeeper scenes or credits. Also, Shout Factor's making of is fascinating. It gives a lot of information about how badly the production went, not all of which is evident from the movie. Chunks are missing from the film because Dennis Miller wouldn't show up when they were shooting sometimes, and when he did show up he'd often ad lib unfunny quips instead of saying his lines, which is unfortunate because they were plot critical lines. They could not get him to say them.
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 05:47
|
|
|
married but discreet posted:Explain how/why
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 06:27
|
|
|
#25 There is nothing in the desert, and no man needs nothing. Prometheus (2012) After listening to Ridley Scott's commentary and then listening to the writers, the characterizations in this film really seem like they are a jumble; to me, the scenes don't accomplish what the writers think they accomplish. There's hardly a likeable or empathetic human on the Prometheus; they all seem fundamentally disconnected from what it is to be a complete, healthy human being. I don't see justifications for their behavior that the writers do; just people estranged from their humanity. David is not so much a villain as a character who delivers to everyone what they deserve and what they need. The writers also seem overly concerned with what general audiences and alien fans will think; their commentary seems defensive. Ridley's certainty on what he wanted to project is refreshing by comparison. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 06:32
|
|
|
29- Night of the Living Dead (68) This has a very similar feel to Psycho, in that it created so many of the tropes that would define the entire genre for decades that it becomes predictable, to the point where even my 6 year old was calling out twists before they happened; BUT, like Psycho, it’s so damned good and finely crafted that it’s still enjoyable to watch today. Yes stuff like White Zombie and Plan 9 were around before, but there’s no questions Romero created the Zombie genre as we know it today, and it’s easy to see why when watching how great this movie is. Also as much as I love a happy ending, I will always have a soft spot for the absolutely nihilistic bummer this goes out on.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 06:44
|
|
|
#13- Zombie Holocaust, aka Doctor Butcher, M.D. Bruteman's post wasn't exactly a recommendation but it was enough to get me interested. In some ways this is the stereotypical grindhouse movie- a hastily dropped-in title card, some extraneous scenes added at the start for no real reason, unnecessarily detailed gore scenes, some nudity, cannibals, and zombies. It is kinda like Fulci's Zombie but not nearly as stylish or atmospheric. Oh, and the music is TERRIBLE. It's the worst "someone randomly fiddling with a Casio" poo poo you can imagine. The film takes so long to get going that they have to throw in some more eviscerations just to thin out the cast, and while I admire the attempt to have a plot, it doesn't quite get there. It's caught between something as moody as the Fulci film, and the geekshow antics of the various cannibal films of the period, and doesn't have their "should I even be seeing this" feel either. (No animals are killed which I guess is a plus?) It has its moments, but not many.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 07:04
|
|
|
married but discreet posted:Explain how/why You're good, don't worry about it. For everyone else, it was buried by its distributor and just completely brought the house down at the Music Box of Horrors marathon.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 07:05
|
|
|
The Children and Mom and Dad double feature.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 07:41
|
|
|
Last House on the Left did a real number on me. It broke me a little or burned me out. Everything I was thinking of watching was getting looked at through this prism of “do I want that after this?” I started like 6 different movies and just bailed on all of them because I just didn’t feel like it at all. But there was one thing that did have my interest and I kept going back to and luckily it really kinda was the exact right thing I needed to recharge my batteries. 17 (19). The Haunting of Hill House (2018) A Netflix Original Series.  For one fateful summer the Crain children lived in Hill House and decades later a terrible tragedy forces them to revisit the horrors they faced back then and how it has haunted them and shaped who they are their entire lives. Mike Flanagan takes a turn at the classic story that started as a 1959 novel, became a cult classic film in 1963, and had a remake in 1999 that was a tragedy off a different sort. Ok, first off the bat the most important thing to know about this is that the word “haunting” doesn’t necessarily mean “to scare.” It means something that lingers and persists well past it being gone. Yeah, scary rear end ghosts are haunting but so is loss and grief and tragedy. This series has some scares. But its got way more of the latter. Its an old school kind of ghost story that isn’t about a spirit that wants to kill everyone (but it totally does) but about all that pain and anguish from those affected by it. Its sad and its sweet and its painful. It made me tear up more than a couple of times and it made me angry at times. At the end of Episode 5 I was ANGRY at the Hill House for what it had done and the pain it had brought. In the finale I had bittersweet sadness and happiness at what it had done. poo poo was a rollercoaster and I really, really enjoyed it. And make no mistake, it made me jump more than a few times as well. But if you want to just be scared and not deal with “bullshit relationship drama” then this isn’t for you. It reminded me a lot of one of those old Stephen King mini-series I grew up on (but mostly better). Maybe that is a good thing to you, maybe its a bad thing, but I loved them and they were a big part of what made me a horror fan. King always has that human element in heavy supply in his stories that are meant to suck you into the characters’ lives and what they have to lose more than to just scare you. Flanagan seems to do that which I suspect is part of the reason he seems kind of polarizing and unpopular with your more “violence and scares” horror fans. But I love King and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen of Flanagan (Absentia, Oculus) and this moves some of his other work up my short list for this October. If nothing else I should probably check out Gerald’s Game for that Flanagan/King connection and I thought Kate Siegel was one of the standouts of this series making me want to finally get around to Hush. Pacing wise I had some initial criticisms about the choice to focus all the early episodes on one character and kind of rehash scenes and tell things really out of order. I still sort of feel that way and part of me thinks the first 5 episodes that focus on getting us to know the Crain kids and ends with Nellie’s death would have made a better “Part 1” of a mini-series if worked together a little better and viewed all at once. Of course that would be 5+ hours but there was some rehashing of scenes and flashback stuff that probably could have been moved forward. I dunno. I’m playing backseat driver because I do think it all worked out in the end. And there’s some aspects of the slow storytelling that I really liked like the “Ohhhhhhhh!” slow reveal of the nature of The Red Room. I was almost a little disappointed when the series outright spelled that one out for viewers because I thought it was such a cool subtle little thing they slipped in the whole way that I only really started to suspect or put together late. So ultimately I guess the good probably outweighs the bad on the pacing issues and I should stop complaining. Its also been said by some (me) that Theo gets lost in the mix early and its kind of hard to keep track of how many kids there are or who is who early on. At least that was the case for me where I was totally confusing Theo and Shirl for awhile. But really that all works itself out by the end of first episode and it probably would have been clearer if I was just better with names and noticed them all in the first scene. Also I suspect some of the confusion had to do with the weird thing I noticed about Flanagan that he casts leading women who all look alike (including his wife). But I guess that works out when you can bring back your leading ladies and have them all play mother and daughters. I think there’s lots of great actors in the lot and great performances. Like I said Siegel’s Theo was one of the standouts for me but Carla Gugino and Timothy Hutton do predictably good jobs, and I thought Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Victoria Pedretti do great as the heart of family twins Luke and Nellie. And all the kids do a great job as well, although I can’t tell if its dumb luck or just good characterization that both the kid and adult versions of Steve and Sheli are kind of the lamest. Also I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen Anthony Ruivivar not play a bad guy so I just waited from the second I saw him to see if he’d turn out to be an rear end in a top hat. Hmmm… anything else? I liked the ghosts although I’m not sure any of them really scared me (outside of some very effective jump scares). But that’s ok, because like I said I don’t think it was THAT kind of a haunting. Episode 5 (“The Bent-Neck Lady”) really stood out to me as one that I was kind of cold to some characters at the start and the journey of the episode was so good that I was heartbroken and angry by the end. Like seriously, gently caress you, Hill House. You had to loving bring Arthur into this to screw with Nellie? gently caress you, you evil house. You're just a dick. An unexpected highlight is the Dudley’s story. That really came on late in the series and ended up delivering and making me tear up. Ok, I think that’s all I got. This is exactly what I needed after not just the sadistic nature of Last House on the Left but of kind of a pattern of darker themed movies. I now think I’m refreshed and ready to start trying to make up some of the ground I lost the last few days, because I’m now WAY behind on my challenges (both 31 Years and Fran’s). But if I hadn’t taken the couple of days away with this I’m not sure I would have made it much farther. I was actually intending to watch Friday the 13th Part 3 or The Hills Have Eyes Friday night. That probably wouldn’t have helped my mood. 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) / 17 (19). The Haunting of Hill House (2018)
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 11:26
|
|
|
Lurdiak posted:Chunks are missing from the film because Dennis Miller wouldn't show up when they were shooting sometimes, and when he did show up he'd often ad lib unfunny quips instead of saying his lines, which is unfortunate because they were plot critical lines. They could not get him to say them. That explains so much about Bordello of Blood.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 13:49
|
|
|
Due to deaths in the family (seems to be the real theme for October in my life) and starting a new job I think I'll have to end my challenge at 0 watched. I'm fuckin gutted. I'll save the list for next year. gently caress. Happy Halloween.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 14:03
|
|
|
Hitting the final stretch here! 20) Castle Freak Seen on: Scream Stream A family being torn apart by personal demons inherits a castle in Italy haunted by unspeakable family secrets and inhabited by a deformed freak. I want to say this is the third Lovecraft-inspired film co-starring both Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton and directed by Stuart Gordon (the previous two were Re-Animator and From Beyond). Unlike those two, which were filled with gore and nudity offset by plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor and a lighter B-movie vibe, this one is played much more as a gothic drama, and is much darker and nastier. Combs and Crampton (who gets to keep her clothes on this time!) are great together as the tormented parents, with Combs delivering his usual over the top performance. The titular monster starts out pretty sympathetic but once he gets a taste of blood and sex (haha  ) in a very uncomfortable scene involving a prostitute, things stay unpleasant until the end.21) Project: Metalbeast Seen on: Scream Stream A secret government project involving the creation of werewolf soldiers goes awry when a cryogenically frozen test subject is revived and implanted with near-indestructible skin grafts. Ok that sounds awesome, right? And the first 15 minutes or so live up to the promise of B-movie cheese, with a hilariously buff werewolf suit, plenty of overacting (Barry Bostwick!) and terrible dialogue, right up until it gets to the modern day sequences, and then it draaaags like a motherfucker. There is so, so much talking and so little metalbeast in this film. The creature effects are kinda good (the final form of the werewolf is extremely metalbeast) but they don't show a lot of it. The end part where they eschew silver bullets because of its impervious skin and instead make silver RPG missiles is something the 10-year-old in me appreciated. Also a pretty progessive '90s horror flick for letting more than one woman survive until the end. Watchable with a group making fun of it, but I'd avoid this if you're watching solo. ---- Ok, just 10 movies to go! Here's a recap of what I've seen and where I saw it - my personal goal again this year was to watch movies that were new to me: 1) Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser Part 1 - Shudder 2) Caltiki, The Immortal Monster - Youtube 3) Blood Feast - Shudder/Tubi 4) Demon of Paradise - Tubi 5) Hungerford - Netflix 6) Cropsey FRAN CHALLENGE #1: Love Something You Hate - Tubi 7) Resolution - Shudder 8) The Endless - Netflix 9) Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon - Shudder 10) The Definitive Document of the Dead - Shudder 11) Nosferatu (1922) FRAN CHALLENGE #2: Queer Horror - Shudder 12) Toxic Zombies FRAN CHALLENGE #3: Hometown Horror - Tubi 13) Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers FRAN CHALLENGE #4: Worst of the Best / Best of the Worst - Youtube 14) God Told Me To FRAN CHALLENGE #5: Birth of Horror - Shudder 15) Murder Party - Scream Stream 16) Contamination FRAN CHALLENGE #5: Video Nasties - Tubi 17) Crystal Lake Memories - the Complete History of Friday the 13th - YouTube 18) Train to Busan FRAN CHALLENGE #7: The World Is A Scary Place - Netflix 19) Zombi Holocaust (aka Doctor Butcher M.D.) - Shudder 20) Castle Freak - Scream Stream 21) Project: Metalbeast - Scream Stream
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 15:19
|
|
|
Franchescanado posted:
For the challenge, I'm going with Spain/Portugal and the Blind Dead films.  134- Tombs of the Blind Dead 1972 - DVD My first exposure to the Blind Dead was a full color pull out about the films in the Chicago Tribune. From that moment I knew I had to see these movies and what pictures I saw in Famous Monsters only added to it. While usually this sort of thing sets one up for disappointment when the film's eventually seen, the Blind Dead films do not disappoint. Film begins with Virginia bumping into an old friend, Betty while out with her boyfriend Roger. Roger commits the relationship faux pas of inviting Betty to the camping trip he was going on with Virginia. As they're all on the train heading out, we learn that there's some additional history between Betty and Virginia. Rather than talk to Roger and Betty about how she feels, Virginia decides to jump off the train and head for some ruins they're going past. It does not end well for her as this is Berzano where the locals rose up against the group of Knights Templar who lived there and practiced dark rites they picked up while on the Crusades. Her body is found later, bitten to death and bloodless. I absolutely love how the Templars are handled in this. There's lots of mention around calling them zombies but that's not accurate. They're a mix of vampire, mummy and zombie which makes them pretty unique. As their bodies were hung on display as a warning, the birds pecked out their eyes so the undead go by sound as they hunt. The choices of the low chanting when they appear and how when they're galloping on horseback in slow motion really gives the feel at how unearthly they are.  135- Return of the Blind Dead 1973 - DVD This one picks up in the town of Berzano where they celebrate thier uprising against the Templars. It's when the village idiot murders a woman as a sacrifice for revenge that the sleeping Templars rise. Compared to the first film, Return ups the ante with the Templars riding into town during the celebration. The Templars get much more screen time compared to Tomb, and I'm not complaining in the least.  136- The Ghost Galleon 1974 - DVD Here we have some models who are sent out on a publicity stunt pretending to be stranded at sea. When thier boss loses contact with them, he mounts his own rescue and finds the ruined ship they did and goes onboard. Of course, the ship is filled with undead Templars. Out of all the Blind Dead films, this is the one that isn't quite up to the same level as the others. The Templars are fine and the creepy atmosphere's fine, but the rest could've used a little more work.  137- Night of the Seagulls 1975 - DVD Much like the first two films connect with Berzano as the focal point, this one connects with Galleon. A doctor and his wife relocate to a remote fishing village where the locals aren't too welcoming. There they learn of how the villagers have been sacrificing young women every seven years for seven nights to keep the Templars at bay. Naturally when the doctor interrupts the sacrifice, the Templars rise from the sea looking for thier due. While not on the same level as the first two films, this one is handled better than Galleon. Overall, I have to say I'm a bit torn over I wish Ossorio made more Blind Dead films, but with just the four, the series ended at a high note compared to dragging on past it's point.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 15:24
|
|
Watch a horror film made outside of the USA & Canada. If you live outside of the
|
The Blind Dead films are an absolute blast. I'm glad you liked them.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 15:46
|
|
|
Pretty sure those are Planet of the Apes sequels.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 16:18
|
|
|
Franchescanado posted:
25. Christine (1983, John Carpenter) Source: DVD (Netflix)  Having the reputation of being lesser Carpenter, I went into this with fairly low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. The biggest shock was the quality of the characters. Think about all the other 80s horror movies with schlocky high concepts and tell me how many of them have characters that you care about. Very few. Everyone here is spot on, both in characterization and acting. I'd even go so far as to say Keith Gordon's performance as Arnie is bordering on great. His gradual transformation from a slouchy, weaselly dork into a confident hard rear end isn't something most young actors in the 80s would have been tasked with doing, let alone been able to pull it off. He's the main reason this film works as well as it does. Oh, and I was delighted to see the great Roberts Blossom in a small role. Talk about an under appreciated actor. The film has a wonderful tactile aesthetic, full of squealing tires, broken glass and crunching metal. We get a sense of the powerful physicality of the car, especially when it slams into stuff (which happens frequently). The scene were the car repairs itself is a fascinating display of pre-CGI special effects. I have no idea how they did it. The movie suffers from two main things: the kills could have been more interesting/gory, and the finale needed to be more exciting. The bulldozer meandering around the car garage just didn't thrill me. Unfortunately these are pretty big complaints, especially the latter. But they don't ruin the movie. It's just unfortunate that Carpenter didn't stick the landing because I think this could have been one of his greats.    (3.5 Plymouth Fury insignias out of 5) _____________________________________________ Total: 25 Watched: The Blob (4.5) | Mandy (5) | The Hands of Orloc (4) | Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (4.5) | Fright Night (3) | Black Magic Part II (4) | Body Melt (3.5) | Suspiria (5) | The Old Dark House (4.5) | The Nude Vampire (3.5) | The Thing From Another World (3) | Phantasm (4) | Basket Case 2 (3) | Murders in the Rue Morgue (2) | The Tenant (5) | The Howling (3) | Calvaire (3.5) | Hereditary (5) | Nothing Left to Fear (1) | The Black Cat (4) | The Killing of a Sacred Deer (4.5) | The Hills Have Eyes Part II (0.5) | Cannibal Holocaust (3) | Apostle (2) | Christine (3.5) Fran Challenges: Countries: USA (16) | Italy (3) | France (2) | Hong Kong (1) | Germany (1) | Belgium (1) | Australia (1) Decades: 1920s (1) | 1930s (3) | 1950s (1) | 1970s (6) | 1980s (6) | 1990s (2) | 2000s (1) | 2010s (5) Spatulater bro! fucked around with this message at 22:09 on Oct 14, 2018 |
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 16:20
|
|
|
Hollismason posted:Pretty sure those are Planet of the Apes sequels. The first film was released in the US as Revenge from Planet Ape and had an extra scene at the beginning linking it to the Planet of the Apes. VVV just filling in the gaps for anyone who may not have understood your reference 
Spatulater bro! fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Oct 14, 2018 |
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 16:22
|
|
|
I know that. That why I made the joke. Why are you telling me this?
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 16:39
|
|
|
22) Death Bed: The Bed That Eats FRAN CHALLENGE #8: Once in a LifetimeSeen on: Shudder A demon-spawned bed devours human souls every 10 years; however, the bed's latest group of potential victims may hold the key to its defeat. Wikipedia and IMDB indicate that this was the only feature film directed by one George Barry, and man, is it ever one for the ages. It's very surreal, very weird, and tries to be very artistic, and while I think some people might tune out after the first 20 minutes, if you're a weirdo like me who's fascinated by terrible weird content, you'll stay just to see what the hell comes next. The movie's concept is actually pretty good - it's sort of a typical haunted house movie, only here you're seeing it from the POV of the house/evil power that inhabits it. But the way it's produced, well... The acting is paint-peeling-off-the-wall terrible. The music is terrible and barely there. It probably runs neck-and-neck with David Lynch's Dune for most internal monologue voiceovers ever heard in a movie (one of the bed's old victims is trapped as a ghost in the bedroom with the bed, and he narrates much of the film, tells us what the bed is thinking and feeling, etc.). The bed itself breathes heavily, burps, chews, snores and laughs! It also apparently has a sick sense of humor. We're treated to endless montages of anything being put on or near the bed (food, flowers) being devoured - it even drinks Pepto-Bismol! One of my favorite sequences in the film is the bedroom ghost going over a long flashback of some of the bed's past victims, and some of these are actually pretty funny (like a group of sex/wellness cultists that the bed devours as they have an orgy), so you know that they're not being totally serious here. There are a couple of neat other touches I liked, like the skeletons of the bed's victims being transported elsewhere in the grounds outside the house. This movie is weird as hell and I'm glad I saw it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 17:31
|
|
|
 7. Borgman (2014) Watched on Shudder This was pretty interesting - it really nails that old world fairy tale tone, and there's just a great, malevolent atmosphere that keeps building throughout the entire runtime. It plays its cards very close to its chest, and I could see that being frustrating for people who want concrete answers, but I appreciated the commitment to a story that simmers without ever quite cooking off. Bijvoet's performance is excellent - he's really good at being magnetic and menacing at the same time. There's some obvious class warfare subtext going on, and the film itself seems to invite a religious reading, but by the end it felt like something that deliberately wants to defy any singular interpretation. It's a cold, opaque movie at times, and the closest thing I think to compare it to is like some weird mashup of Yorgos Lanthimos and Roy Andersson, but I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to check out something off the beaten path. / 5---  8. The Tenant (1976) Watched on Tubi I'd probably put this near the bottom of what I've seen from Polanski - it deals in pretty much every theme that his larger body of work explores, but the feeling of dread never quite connected. This is a deeply nihilistic film, and Polanski putting himself in the lead role feels slimy and a bit egotistical. It lacks the humanity that Farrow and Ledoux brought to their roles, and so the paranoiac downward spiral just ends up making his opportunistic creep even more unlikable. There is some unsettling imagery (the cinematography in general is great), it's predictably good at portraying emotional isolation manifesting physically, the rest of the cast is great, and the sense of claustrophobia is pretty strong given how little time is actually spent in the apartment. I've read that on some level the film is operating as a critique of the 70s French zeitgeist, but I'm not at all familiar enough with that element to take anything meaningful away from it. The lead-up to the ending is very predictable, and the more tired, off-hand cruelty of the film's world gives way to delusions that feel more hokey than menacing. Not a bad film by any stretch, but it feels like it's treading ground that he's already tackled in more compelling ways. .5 / 5---  9. Braindead, a.k.a. Dead Alive (1992) Watched on Youtube Fun as hell slapstick splatterhouse that doesn't take itself even remotely seriously. The characters are flat, the acting is awful, and the plot is basically non-existent, but that's not what anyone is here for. Pretty much a non-stop parade of incredibly creative practical effects, lots of quotable lines, and I'm pretty sure that's the most fake blood I've ever seen in a movie. There's a surprising amount of care put into the shot composition - the film's action has a very fluid, dynamic feeling that really complements the frenetic pace one things really get going, and there are lots of clever tricks used to work around the limitations of the prop work and practical effects. Not much else to say about this, except how the hell did Peter Jackson go from this to making bloated, digital effect-driven studio pieces? / 5--- So Far: Tremors | Blood and Black Lace | Cube | Killer Klowns from Outer Space | Kuso | The Fog | Borgman | The Tenant | Braindead Total: 9/10 Challenges: Years Spanned: 1964 - 2017 Countries Represented: 4 Grizzled Patriarch fucked around with this message at 18:22 on Oct 14, 2018 |
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 18:18
|
|
|
Which version of The Exorcist should I watch first if I've never seen it before? I've got the Blu-ray with both the 1973 theatrical release and "extended director's cut."
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 19:14
|
|
|
Sir Kodiak posted:Which version of The Exorcist should I watch first if I've never seen it before? I've got the Blu-ray with both the 1973 theatrical release and "extended director's cut." The Extended Director's Cut, in my opinion, is the definitive version.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 19:23
|
|
|
Gamera 2 Attack of the Legion It's really good! I complained about how in Gamera 1 about how some of the human scenes later on didn't feel like they were taking place in a world where there was a giant monster war. Gamera 2 does not have that problem. There's a conversation early on about how apocalyptic the world feels now, everyone involved in the events of the first movie wrote a book about it, there's a website spreading crackpot Gamera theories, there's even a couple exchanges that gave me the impression that "is Gamera a good guy" is an argument that everybody has had and has no interest in having again. It very clearly takes place in a world where the events of the first movie happened, and have effected society. The miniatures are once, again fantastic. And now the monster effects are great too. The difference in size between Gamera and Legion, both the little ones and the big one make it feel like the deck is stacked against him. He's almost killed by both the swarms of man-sized bugs and the queen bug that's twice his size. This isn't an old grudge match like when he fought Gyaos, this is Gamera standing up for the earth. The new monster is great! There was so much thought put into them, everything makes sense. They communicate electromagnetically, so they attack cities because they read the electro-magnetic waves put out by machines as a signal to come and plant the seed pods, and they attack people because they read the signals put out by cell phones as a threat. They eat silicon and the digestion process produces pure oxygen that the plants use to create explosions that launch seeds into space. All of Legion's actions are grounded in their nature. They are a threat not because they just wanna gently caress up cities, but because their nature is inimical to our own. The human characters are all good, and their characters come through strongly. The kinda romance between Obitsu and Midori is charming but never pulls undue focus. The focus of the movie is always on the threat of Legion. There's good energy propelling the movie, a serious sense of escalating threat, I paused it at one point thinking I'd been watching it for like half an hour but it turned out I'd been watching it for an hour. Gamera 2 Attack of the Legion is a great monster movie with fantastic special effects. If you like giant monsters at all, don't miss it!
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 19:25
|
|
|
 138- Cannibal Girls 1973 - PRIME For the longest time all I remembered about this one was the warning bell that would go off before a gory scene and my Mom trying to cover my eyes to mixed success. When I sat through it again in my teens, I thought it was crappy. For a cannibal film, there's very little gore. Giving it another watch, I can say it's very much a product of it's time and kinda meh even when compared to other 70s era films. It's definitely worth a watch since we've got Ivan Reitman directing and a young Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin before SCTV.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 19:37
|
|
|
26. Return of the Living Dead 1985 | dir. Dan O'bannon | Prime The perfect zombie movie? The perfect zombie movie.  Perfect sense of humor. Perfect pacing. Hilarious nihilism. A love letter to punks everywhere. Showed this to my horror group. Many of them hadn't seen it. It's now in their top favorites, right next to Gremlins 2. A Must Watch. 27. Masque of the Red Death 1964 | dir. Roger Corman | rental A love letter to Edgar Allen Poe.  Trippy and colorful. It tonally feels just like a Hammer horror film. Vincent Price spouts undying love for Satan while being a dick to everyone he encounters. I really enjoy how mean this movie is to everyone. It gives the finale an extra layer of catharsis. It's certainly the best film I've seen created by Roger Corman, and deserves it's reputation amongst Price fans as one of his best roles. Highly Recommended 28. Cast A Deadly Spell 1991 | dir. Martin Campbell | Prime Franchescanado posted:
Tales from the Crypt meets Who Framed Roger Rabbit  What an underrated classic! I love Fred Ward in Tremors and only recently heard about his lead as a detective in a horror noir where magic is real. I love a horror film with imagination, energy and packed full of ideas and gags. This is basically the unsung third Tales From The Crypt movie. It was filmed alongside the early seasons of that show, and you can tell it had a major influence. There are plenty of gags and gore and silly references. Fred Ward and Julianne Moore are the central leads fully hamming up some noir tropes (Julianne Moore is especially at home in the fast talking femme fatale role) alongside David Warner, Raymond O'Connor, Clancy Brown and Lee Tergesen. There's a few off-putting moments that will stand out for being of the time and setting, but this films parts add up to a satisfying whole despite a few flaws. Highly Recommended Movies Seen: Hell House, LLC | Dagon | The Bird With the Crystal Plumage | Critters 2 | Serial Mom | Monster Squad | The Neon Demon | Motel Hell | Vampyr | Possession | Under The Skin | Martyrs | The Curse of the Werewolf | The Old Dark House | Children of the Corn | Assassination Nation | The Leopard Man | Halloween 2 | Häxan | Friday the 13th Part 7: The New Blood | What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? | Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things | Near Dark | The Witches | Tenebrae | Return of the Living Dead | Masque of the Red Death | Cast a Deadly Spell Total: 28 Fran Challenges:
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 19:38
|
|
Spatulater bro! posted:25. They used plastic that looks like shiny metal and broke it, then played it in reverse. The simplest effects, but it's super convincing. They had a bunch of Christines, too, so they could cut to the car in various states of disrepair.
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 19:49
|
|
|
13. A Dark Song (2016) Slow burn film mostly focused on an extended magic ritual. My favorite thing about this is how much they emphasize the difficulty of the ritual. It takes months, tests you mentally and physically, and is generally grueling and breaks you down completely. I wasn't sure what to make of the ending. When she said, "I want to forgive" I kind of cringed because it seemed so cliche and lame. But it does fit with what the guy said about the ritual only working if your intent is strong enough. I read it as the ritual worked for her once she truly wanted the power of forgiveness. Not the direction I thought it would go, but enjoyable nonetheless. Also I liked the look of the Guardian Angel. He really felt powerful and otherworldly. The visuals in that scene have me chills. 3.5/5 14. Twin Peaks: The Return (2017) Counting this one as a miniseries. I love the original Twin Peaks and Fire Walk With Me, so I was super excited to finally watch this (One week free trial of Showtime on Amazon, hell yeah!) I gotta say, it loving delivered. At first I was a bit disappointed that Cooper spent so much time with amnesia living as Dougie but those scenes grew on me. I loved that they leaned hard into the horror aspects with plenty of Lynchian strangeness. I don't even know where to start with those couple episodes, there's just so much there. Intriguing and enjoyable from start to finish. 5/5
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 19:53
|
|
|
Lurdiak posted:They used plastic that looks like shiny metal and broke it, then played it in reverse. The simplest effects, but it's super convincing. They had a bunch of Christines, too, so they could cut to the car in various states of disrepair. I figured it was a reverse shot of some sort but I had no idea it was plastic. Looks incredibly metallic.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 19:54
|
|
|
 21)London after midnight (2002 photo reconstruction) Just shoot me now. It's a cool idea in theory, but it amounts to still images and silent movie text and is boring as gently caress. Like makes me wish the film existed, but this is a pretty pointless exercise. Ambitious Spider fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Oct 14, 2018 |
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 20:00
|
|
|
Ambitious Spider posted:
Interesting. Reminds me of the 4 hour cut of Greed which interjects over an hour's worth of still production photos to make up for lost footage, which I actually thought worked pretty well.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 20:10
|
|
|
Franchescanado posted:
23. Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors (1987) Watched On: Amazon Prime rental I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this. I've always hated the idea of rooting for Freddy Kreuger, a child murderer who loves tormenting teens in their sleep. Thankfully, this entry doesn't encourage it. Freddy is a monster, pure and simple, and his monstrous nature is only exacerbated by the strongest and most likable ensemble cast I've seen all month. I didn't want to see a single one of the patients at Westin Hospital die, which made it that much more heartbreaking when they did in increasingly disgusting ways (Taryn's death especially got to me.) This might be the rubberiest movie I've ever seen: every special effect is floppy and wet and gross and it adds a lot to both the film's creepiness and dreamlike quality. It's only a dollar to rent on Amazon right now and I definitely got my money's worth.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 20:11
|
|
|
Untrustable posted:Due to deaths in the family (seems to be the real theme for October in my life) and starting a new job I think I'll have to end my challenge at 0 watched. I'm fuckin gutted. I'll save the list for next year. gently caress. Happy Halloween. Condolences. I seemed to have some kind of October curse in the same way for a few years (knock on wood). Best of luck to you.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 20:29
|
|
|
Ambitious Spider posted:
I was on the fence with doing this one for the October challenge since I wasn't sure it was going count as a film. Only positive I can say for it is that it's at least something to give an idea of how the film was but it's just not the same as having the actual film.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 20:35
|
|
|
#58. Doom Asylum (1987) A sleazy lawyer and his wife win a super high paying lawsuit and while celebrating get in an accident killing her and mangling him. At the hospital the doctors mistake him for dead but he comes back to life and goes crazy, killing everyone. 20 years later his step-daughter and equally dumb-as rocks group of friends come to explore the closed down hospital, where a punk lesbian trio are squatting, and he comes out of hiding to stalk and slay them all one by one. Wow was this a dumb movie. Like, both critically, and diagetically, d-u-m-b DUMB. Every single character is deliberately stupid and one-note to cartoonish levels, and can't at all think for themselves. The makeup and gore effects are pretty great at least so I enjoyed that. out of 559. Shock! (1977) Dora moves into a new house with her son Bruno, and her new husband Marco. Slowly her son starts acting stranger and stranger, and memories of his deceased father, and her trouble remembering the details of his death start to haunt and terrorize the housewife. This is a weird one. Like, at times it feels at home in Roman Polanski's "Apartment" trilogy, being about a woman trapped in her own home losing her mind, at other points it's a full on ghost movie, with a creepy kid. Regardless, Mario Bava pulls out a full magic hat's worth of optical tricks along the way that are just masterful and fun to watch (including one that was later stolen for Housewife, which I watched earlier in the month that I just love). Of all the movies I've seen Daria Niccolodi (Mother to Asia Argento) in, I'd say this is her best performance. out of 5#60. Project Metalbeast (1995) A military experiment to put werewolf blood into human soldiers goes bad and the project is put into cryogenic storage. A decade later, scientists are working on an artificial metal based skin to make soldiers bullet resistant. The evil man in charge (Barry Bostwick!) sees a "Chocolate and Peanut Butter" potential and has them start using the comatose were-soldier as their guinea pig. I'm sure you can guess what happens next. Wow, from the description, you'd think this was actually a cool movie! It's not. It's dull as dirt, with a big fat lot of nothing happening most of the movie. It's the worst kind of "B" movie--"BORING". Avoid. out of 5#61. Evil Dead Trap 2 (1992) Aki is a film projectionist who is kinda a wallflower. Because of guilt over an abortion she once had, she is seeing visions of a young boy, perhaps the child she didn't have. Her boss persuades her to see a mystic for this. Also, she's a serial killer, going after young women in car parks and construction lots. Her friend Emi, who is her total opposite, is a reporter that is making a name for herself covering these killings. Her boyfriend, Kurahashi, is very much into Aki despite her rebuking him repeatedly. Emi encourages him chasing after her. I...think he's married as well, and the kid Aki keeps seeing is living with his wife? Am...am I having a stroke? This movie was super confusing to me, something that's an ultra rarity for myself. It feels like I was watching the film a schizophrenic might make, with the tone flopping around to different ideas rapidly and without as much cohesion as it thought it had. Don't get me wrong, I liked it a lot, but my head hurts trying to make sense of it. For the record, it has nothing to do with the first Evil Dead Trap film. One thing that also raised my eyebrows was that its protagonist was a plus sized woman-which are about as rare as friggin unicorns in Japanese films-and that there is zero attention brought to this fact in this weird sort of psycho-sexual film. out of 5
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 20:43
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 8, 2024 16:28 |
|
|
Franchescanado posted:
25. Dead and Buried (1981) on Shudder  Really cool movie that I've been putting off seeing for too long. Fun Stan Winston effects with a pretty interesting mystery. That said, I have to wonder about the motivations of the main villain. If he had full control of the character (since he's been dead the whole time), why did he put him through all this? Was he just bored? Jack Albertson steals every scene he's in, and this is one of his final roles. 4.5/5 26. Digging Up the Marrow (2014) Shudder  Directed by the guy behind the Hatchet movies. I'm kind of lukewarm on the Hatchet movies, and that extends somewhat to this movie. I like the idea, and I do like some of the spooky boogens we get to see. I just wish there was more of the good stuff and less self insert stuff that (while self deprecating) still feels a little arrogant. I don't mind the horror fan meta-humor but I think the movie could have been better if it had leaned into the monsters even more. Ray Wise is great like usual. 2.25/5 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 | 24. Trick or Treats | 25. Dead and Buried | 26. Digging up the Marrow Fran Challenges: Drunkboxer fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Oct 14, 2018 |
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2018 21:16
|
|
