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 36. Apostle (2018, dir. Gareth Evans) [netflix] I liked this movie but it's too long. Not like the pacing is bad kind of too long but for its length it was just missing something and not as good as I feel it should have been. Gareth Evans has a good eye and can shoot a drat movie, but I think needs a little help in the script department. Dan Stevens is great. 3/5 Franchescanado posted:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO5DnxR3nb8 37. Tenebre (1982, dir. Dario Argento) [shudder] Sorry I'm too busy listening to Goblin and choking on a red heel to write a real review 4/5  38. The Invisible Man (1933, dir. James Whale) [blu-ray] Lots of fun and really darkly hilarious. The effects are a joy to watch, but not quite as impressive as the titular performance from Claude Rains. 4/5 Total: 38. The Untold Story (3/5), *The Sleep Curse (4/5), The Faculty (3/5), Demon Knight (4/5), Return of the Living Dead (4/5), The Evil of Frankenstein (3/5), Hellraiser: Judgment (1/5), Vampyres (3/5), We're Going to Eat You (3/5), The Slumber Party Massacre (4/5), The Eternal Evil of Asia (3/5), ~*28 Weeks Later (3/5), Phantasm II (4/5), Ravenous (4/5), Carrie (4/5), The Beyond (4/5), ~The Ward (1/5), Village of the Damned['95] (2/5), Amer (4/5), Halloween 4 (2/5), Halloween 5 (2/5), Manhunter (4/5), Revenge (5/5), ~Nightbreed (3/5), Mandy (4/5), Shivers (4/5), The Purge (2/5), The Purge: Anarchy (3/5), Satanico Pandemonium (2/5), The Purge: Election Year (2/5), ~Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (4/5), The First Purge (4/5), The Addiction (5/5), Tales From the Hood (5/5), ~Angst (4/5), Apostle (3/5), ~Tenebre (4/5), The Invisible Man (4/5) *-rewatch (2) ~-fran challenge (6/8 completed)
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Oct 15, 2018 17:57
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Watch a Video Nasty*
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After a Final Chapter, it's time for A New Beginning! I kinda hosed myself on this one. The movie is basically trying to make you think that Tommy Jarvis has become Jason. But before I'd watched any of the Friday the 13th movies, I'd watched a Let's Play of the Friday the 13th game. So the one specific piece of plot information I had going in was that adult Tommy Jarvis is an enemy of Jason. So the central thng of the movie was kinda ruined for me. On the other hand, if I had watched this movie thinking, as I was supposed to, that Tommy was new Jason, I would've been pissed the whole time. 'Trauma turns you into a psycho killer' is not a message I am down for. The movie presents most of the kids sympathetically, and goes way out of it's way to make the "normal" people who are opposed to the group home into filthy hosed up weirdos. So if you don't fall for the misdirection it's actually pretty good about traumatized youth. Until the ending stinger when it turns out Tommy is actually new Jason. But I'm going to guess that that turns out to be one of the trademark Friday the 13th ending stingers that's actually a hallucination or something? Whatever. Speaking of trademarks, the past three films have have had a new Friday the 13th staple that I kinda love; the weird couple that is completely unrelated to the actual story but gets killed by Jason anyway. Part 3 had the married couple with the rabbits, Part 4 had the coroner and the nurse, and Part 5 has Lola and the bald guy. It's such an odd thing to now be a recurring feature of the series, but I'm glad it's there. As for the actual killer, what? OK, it's a callback to the first one. A parent mad that their only child died decides to take it out on the people they blame. Great. But then why did he kill Lola and the bald guy? How did he get a rubber Jason mask to simulate baldness? And it only goes over the back f the head, it doesn't cover up his eye. He got the right clothes and is wearing a loving rubber mask, but he couldn't track down the right brand of hockey mask? Why did the sheriff say it was Jason? There was no reason for him to think that. Whatever. The old black guy from The Last Starfighter was in it! He was good. I dunno. I enjoyed it, I guess. But the actual plot doesn't really make sense. Friday the 13th Part 5 A New Beginning is fine, I guess? Whatever.
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Oct 15, 2018 18:01
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Franchescanado posted:
 27. Fright Night (1985) - DVD A perfect love letter to Hammer. That I took so long in seeing this is a shame. As for homosexual overtones, while attempting to avoid spoilers, one need only see the pose struck between the vampire and his servant to see. Our antagonist may suck the life from women but lives with, is cared for by, and cares about his constant male companion. Tally: N/A Psycho (1960)*, 1. Halloween (1978), 2. Halloween II (1981), 3. Carnival of Souls (1962), 4. The Blob (1988), 5. I Bury the Living (1958), 6. Dead Men Walk (1943), 7. Nosferatu (1922), 8. Les Revenants (2002), 9. The Mummy's Hand (1940), 10. House on Haunted Hill (1959)*, 11. Lifeforce (1985), 12. The Gorilla (1939), 13. The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960), 14. November (2017), 15. Doghouse (2009), 16 Sssssss (1973), 17. Maniac (1934), 18. Thirst (2009), 19. Horror Hotel (1960), 20. Event Horizon (1997)*, 21. In the Mouth of Madness (1994), 22. Frankenstein (1931)*, 23. Monster from a Prehistoric Planet (1967), 24. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), 25. The Funhouse (1981), 26. Beetlejuice (1988), 27. Fright Night (1985) Years Spanned: 95 (1922-2017) Tally by Decade: '20s (I), '30s (IV), '40s (II), '50s (II), '60s (V), '70s (II), '80s (VI), '90s (II), 2000s (III), 2010s (I) B&W/Color: 13/15 Rewatch/Total Counted: 3/27 Fran Challenges Complete: 1 * Rewatch
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Oct 15, 2018 18:53
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I was going to avoid any more posting about the movie so people won't mouse over the spoilers but maybe a double post will serve as well. Anyway, spoilers ahead for Fright Night and I'd discourage clicking if you haven't seen the film. There is no gay subtext in this movie. It's wide open. Some points in support of my argument: - The vampire's helper isn't asked to do much, he just reflexively supports his lover. Note that the female vampire is ordered. - He commands the woman to say that she loves him but never returns the sentiment. She is but a tool to hurt her own lover. - Women are food. The male protagonist is given a chance to make it all go away, something no female gets. The absolute looker of a mother is but an in to the boy's home. - The vampire hides in a closet, comes out into the boy's room, and then looks him over while holding him and talking. Men are a weakness in a film where women are chewed through. - A lot of tight pants on men, camera shots of men's glutes in nice pants, men in tight sweaters. Camera shots that would give credence to the objectification of women were genders reversed. - A horror film where the topless woman is about to be bitten and the window to view her body is literally closed after a man steps in front of her chest as we cut back to another man. - One man is cornered and attacked. He is comforted while crying and promised support, protection, understanding. That he won't be the strange one, anymore. They hold hands, embrace, his bite grants him immortality rather than death, his character is given the dignity of a private bite. One not even the voyeuristic audience gets to see - Three vampires in the house. Two coffins. One vampire, the male, has already spent a night. It's a gay and literal ménage à trois. The new lady vamp was created to torment a man that turned down the antagonist and will be disposed of in the sunlight as there is lierally no room for her here. - The washed up hackfraud vampire hunter leaves the house after killing the youngest male vampire. The camera does not follow him to return us to the action. Instead, it lingers on a nude male, prostrate on the floor.
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Oct 15, 2018 19:29
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 39. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995, dir. Joe Chappelle) It's garbage and the only scary part is the scenes where Paul Rudd is responsible for a baby. 1/5 Total: 39. The Untold Story (3/5), *The Sleep Curse (4/5), The Faculty (3/5), Demon Knight (4/5), Return of the Living Dead (4/5), The Evil of Frankenstein (3/5), Hellraiser: Judgment (1/5), Vampyres (3/5), We're Going to Eat You (3/5), The Slumber Party Massacre (4/5), The Eternal Evil of Asia (3/5), ~*28 Weeks Later (3/5), Phantasm II (4/5), Ravenous (4/5), Carrie (4/5), The Beyond (4/5), ~The Ward (1/5), Village of the Damned['95] (2/5), Amer (4/5), Halloween 4 (2/5), Halloween 5 (2/5), Manhunter (4/5), Revenge (5/5), ~Nightbreed (3/5), Mandy (4/5), Shivers (4/5), The Purge (2/5), The Purge: Anarchy (3/5), Satanico Pandemonium (2/5), The Purge: Election Year (2/5), ~Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (4/5), The First Purge (4/5), The Addiction (5/5), Tales From the Hood (5/5), ~Angst (4/5), Apostle (3/5), ~Tenebre (4/5), The Invisible Man (4/5), Halloween 6 (1/5) *-rewatch (2) ~-fran challenge (6/8 completed)
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Oct 15, 2018 20:48
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FancyMike posted:
 The way he finds the baby in the bus station is so so weird. He just goes in and then I think he notices a blood trail and follows it into an empty bathroom with a baby crying inside. So no one noticed the crying baby in that bathroom or the blood for the entire day until Paul Rudd showed up. Wikipedia says: "He finds Jamie's baby at the bus station, takes him into his care, and names him Steven."
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Oct 15, 2018 21:12
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Didn't have a chance to post over the weekend, but still watched a few films.Franchescanado posted:
Wes Craven made a couple stinkers and you could probably make the case for several of them to be his worst, but I went with:  23. My Soul to Take (2010) (blu-ray) Sixteen years ago, the serial killer known as the Riverton Ripper committed his final murder before he died in an ambulance accident. That same night, seven children were born in the local hospital. Now, on their 16th birthday, the teens are being killed one by one. Has the Ripper returned, or was he somehow reincarnated into one of the children? Actually it's even dumber than that: the killer had multiple personalities and each one was transferred to a different child. Not gonna spoiler tag that because this movie is dumb and you shouldn't watch it. This is pretty lousy, and arguably Wes Craven's worst film. It's a complete mess - the premise is... fine I guess, but the plot becomes too complicated and doesn't really make any sense by the end. The dialogue is terrible, and the characters are all boring and one-dimensional. I felt like it was trying very hard to be Scream with some supernatural elements, but it fails pretty spectacularly at that. Much of what made Scream great was Kevin Williamson's brilliant script - without it you have, well, this movie. It's frustrating, because it has moments where you can see Craven's talents as a director still shine (mostly the tense/scary moments), but they are few and far between.  24. Apostle (2018) (Netflix) Set in 1905, this film is about a cult located on a remote Irish island that takes a young woman captive in order to extort a ransom out of her wealthy father. They demand that he come alone with the money, but his estranged son takes his place instead, infiltrating the cult to find his sister and rescue her. He discovers what seems to be an idyllic community, but he finds out very quickly that the leaders are hiding a disturbing secret. I really loved this movie. It starts off at a slow pace, but steadily ramps up the intensity until the wild and bloody third act. It almost feels like a completely different film by the end, like if The Wicker Man decided halfway through that it wanted to be The Evil Dead (ok that's a bad comparison, I'm just having trouble coming up with a good one right now, work has fried my brain today). I agree with the posters saying it is a bit too long but honestly I didn't mind it, I thought it was paced well enough that I didn't notice the length. After this and Safe Haven, I'm excited to see what else Gareth Evans will do in the horror genre. Franchescanado posted:
I was going to watch Hour of the Wolf for this challenge, but I decided to wait for the Bergman blu-ray set that comes out next month to revisit that film. Instead I went with Kathryn Bigelow's only horror film:  25. Near Dark (1987) (DVD) Late one night, small-town farm boy Caleb meets the beautiful and mysterious Mae, and immediately falls for her. It's pretty obvious to the audience that she is a vampire, but clearly Caleb doesn't know what kind of movie he is in, and is too dumb/horny to understand her comment about being alive in a billion years. Anyway, they lose track of time, and when Mae realizes that dawn is approaching, she panics and demands that Caleb take her home. In an awkward #metoo moment where he demands a kiss, she bites him on the neck and then runs away. Bitten but not drained, Caleb turns into a vampire himself, and has no choice but to go on the run with Mae's traveling crew. This is a pretty excellent vampire movie. It starts off as sort of a star-crossed lovers thing (and in fact was re-released and marketed as such when Twilight came out. I imagine many teenage girls were disappointed and horrified), but the majority of the film focuses more on Caleb's struggle to adapt to his new lifestyle. The real highlights, though, are Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen in supporting roles as members of the vampire gang. Henriksen barely needs to do anything to be a complete badass, and Bill Paxton absolutely steals every scene he is in. He's cocky, vicious, and psychotic, and it rules. There's a reason he is on the poster instead of the actual leads. This is definitely one of the best vampire movies of the '80s. It isn't perfect - the whole Caleb/Mae romance didn't do much for me - but Paxton alone is worth the price of admission. Movies Seen: The Witching Season | Lifeforce | Terrifier | Unsane | I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House | From Beyond | 13 Ghosts | The Ritual | Child's Play | Twice-Told Tales | Beyond the Gates | Cat People (1982) | Fright Night | The Vampire Lovers | The Vampire Doll | Frightmare | Honeybee | Murder Party | Child's Play 2 | The Beyond | The Night of a Thousand Cats | Mandy | My Soul to Take | Apostle | Near Dark Total: 25 Fran challenges: gey muckle mowser fucked around with this message at 21:23 on Oct 15, 2018 |
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Oct 15, 2018 21:15
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Halloween 6 is actually a harrowing examination of the effects of childhood trauma. Parents take heed, if your child has a traumatic experience they could grow up to be Paul Rudd.
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Oct 15, 2018 21:15
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It's an obvious flaw, but Curse of Michael Myers has a child from a previous sequel come back as an adult to face off against the slasher that scarred him as a child. Named Tommy. Ten years after Friday the 13th: A New Beginning. Lindsay should have come back instead, is what I'm saying.
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Oct 15, 2018 21:17
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gey muckle mowser posted:
So yeah, Wes tries to do what Williamson did with Scream and gets a bunch of ridiculously one dimensional teen characters whose one dimensions seem rather absurd. But also he couldn't pull off what he does either. It just felt like he wanted to reinvent things one more time but then just fizzled out and mailed it in.
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Oct 15, 2018 21:30
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Gremlins (1984) [Blu-ray] https://i.imgur.com/VDGG2NH.gifv Rewatch, but hadn't seen this in quite a while. And what a delight. The likeable leads, Gizmo's sweetness, and the straightforward 80s rich/poor setup ground things, and then the gremlins explode it all. I love all the little background jokes (like at the inventors expo), all the distinct gremlins (the poet, the robber, the puppeteer,..), the general cartoon mayhem. I rewatched this in advance of seeing Gremlins 2 for the first time, which is apparently even wackier, so definitely looking forward to that. Just a really great time at the movies. https://i.imgur.com/1T0rd19.gifv 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), #20 Doom (2005), #21 Predator (1987), #22 Dawn of the Dead (1978), #23 Gremlins (1984) Fran Challenges: #7 [The World Is A Scary Place] Godzilla (1954), #3 [Hometown Horror] Dawn of the Dead (1978)
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Oct 15, 2018 22:00
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Basebf555 posted:Halloween 6 is actually a harrowing cause of the effects of childhood trauma. FTFY. Anyway, on with the show. 21) Venom (2018)  The second dual role movie in a row for us and our fourth of the year. Tom Hardy played against himself almost as well as Dominic Cooper did in the more serious role. We definitely won't bite anyone's head off for saying this is a monster movie, because it is one. It just happens to be wrapped around a standard superhero narrative, ironically succeeding by accident in achieving what Universal signally failed to do with their abortive Dark Universe. It was a great deal of fun and we will be waiting for the inevitable sequel with interest.
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Oct 15, 2018 22:26
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 40. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998, dir. Steve Miner) The mask is very bad (seriously, look at that garbage) and Michael just looks flimsy in this. Completely lacking in presence. The movie just ended and I've forgotten everything else about it except that LL Cool J is an amateur erotica author. 2/5 Total: 40. The Untold Story (3/5), *The Sleep Curse (4/5), The Faculty (3/5), Demon Knight (4/5), Return of the Living Dead (4/5), The Evil of Frankenstein (3/5), Hellraiser: Judgment (1/5), Vampyres (3/5), We're Going to Eat You (3/5), The Slumber Party Massacre (4/5), The Eternal Evil of Asia (3/5), ~*28 Weeks Later (3/5), Phantasm II (4/5), Ravenous (4/5), Carrie (4/5), The Beyond (4/5), ~The Ward (1/5), Village of the Damned['95] (2/5), Amer (4/5), Halloween 4 (2/5), Halloween 5 (2/5), Manhunter (4/5), Revenge (5/5), ~Nightbreed (3/5), Mandy (4/5), Shivers (4/5), The Purge (2/5), The Purge: Anarchy (3/5), Satanico Pandemonium (2/5), The Purge: Election Year (2/5), ~Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (4/5), The First Purge (4/5), The Addiction (5/5), Tales From the Hood (5/5), ~Angst (4/5), Apostle (3/5), ~Tenebre (4/5), The Invisible Man (4/5), Halloween 6 (1/5), Halloween H20 (2/5) *-rewatch (2) ~-fran challenge (6/8 completed)
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Oct 15, 2018 23:01
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The Andromeda Strain (1971) [Blu-ray] Rewatch. The book's alright, the movie's better, primarily for marrying Crichton's combination of research and fictive documentation, and the general clinical feel of it, with 60s psychedelia, from the decontamination procedures to its depiction of the alien microorganism. Fun little scientifish thriller. https://i.imgur.com/wWI0z8w.gifv 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), #20 Doom (2005), #21 Predator (1987), #22 Dawn of the Dead (1978), #23 Gremlins (1984), #24 The Andromeda Strain (1971) Fran Challenges: #7 [The World Is A Scary Place] Godzilla (1954), #3 [Hometown Horror] Dawn of the Dead (1978) Sir Kodiak fucked around with this message at 08:21 on Oct 16, 2018 |
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Oct 15, 2018 23:04
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FancyMike posted:
Director's name sounded familiar so I looked him up. The name was familiar because I've been watching Crystal Lake Memories a little bit at a time and Steve Miner directed Friday the 13th Part 2 and 3.
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Oct 15, 2018 23:07
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Playing some catch-up.Franchescanado posted:
#13 / 31 - The Seventh Curse (1986) ★★★★☆  Holy christ, this movie is loving bonkers. It's the Riki-Oh director trying to do a take on Indiana Jones of sorts, and, uh, holy poo poo. This is probably the only movie in existence where the day is saved by Chow Yun-Fat appearing out of loving nowhere with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. This is probably the only movie in existence where the villains are an evil cult run by a drag queen worshipping an angry skeleton that eats spines. I will also throw out there that the mysticism in this movie is like 20 kinds of absolutely off the loving wall, and had me trying to look up Chinese occultism just to see if I could make any sense of what the gently caress was going on or the cause-effect relationship between a lot of things. This is why I knocked a star from the movie, for the record- it might be cultural differences, but there was a lot of this movie I just absolutely could not make sense of, and it kinda hurt the viewing experience a little. I don't really have a lot to say about this movie, because I feel like there's not actually very much there aside from complete insanity and there's only so many ways I can say "this movie is complete insanity." With that said, though, if you've got Prime go watch this right the gently caress now, it rules. watchlist with links WeedlordGoku69 fucked around with this message at 23:14 on Oct 15, 2018 |
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Oct 15, 2018 23:11
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 9. Apostle (2018) Dir Gareth Evans I don’t have much to add that others haven’t already said. It is definitely too long and struggles to focus but when it works it works well and Dan Stevens puts in a good performance. I will have to revisit it at some point  .5 / 5Movies Seen: Creep | Creep 2 | Halloween | Halloween II | Halloween III: Season of the Witch | The Void | Ghosts of Mars | The Ward | Apostle Total: 9 Fran challenges:
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Oct 15, 2018 23:14
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Franchescanado posted:
#14 / 31 - Hungerford (2014) ★★★☆☆  A film-school dork living in the UK gets an assignment to film a little documentary about his daily life. This gets upended by a zombie apocalypse out of nowhere, involving parasitic aliens that burrow into the back of your neck and are weak to deodorant. This one... wasn't the worst thing ever? Like, I'm going to be straight-up and say I graded it on a heavy, heavy curve because usually microbudget FF zombie flicks are absolute flaming garbage, but this was a fun watch. There's not a lot of zombie action and not a huge amount of gore, but the characters, who are the main point, are pretty likable; I honestly kind of liked the bits before poo poo goes down more than the bits after, which is rare for me with horror. Notably, this is a FF movie that goes out of its way to explain why the protagonist is filming. Prior to poo poo getting real, he's filming because he has to for his project; past that point, he's filming in order to have some kind of documentation of what's going on, with the framing device at the end tying it all together. Regarding the mini-challenge, I'm led to believe this is a prequel to another movie called The Darkest Dawn, which is bigger-budgeted, apparently somewhat more well-known, and apparently much worse. I had never heard of that movie until I began looking stuff up about this one (this was a Netflix grab-bag find that I picked because it was tagged "gory" and only 80 minutes long), and I'm led to believe it's not a horror movie in any respect; given that Drew Casson, the director, has only made two features, this is by default his only horror movie, and the reception of The Darkest Dawn leads me to believe he's probably not getting another shot. Anyhow, not shabby, if you want to watch British film dorks fight alien slug-zombies this is a decent call. watchlist with links WeedlordGoku69 fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Oct 15, 2018 |
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Oct 15, 2018 23:25
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       #39. Halloween, a.k.a., John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) * Watching Halloween this time, I ended up focusing on the kids more than the teenagers. And while JLC, PJS, etc., earn the praise they get for their work in this, the kids do a great job too. Tommy's increasing tension and fear over the course of the night are played well, as is the way the other kid reacts to his fear, and while they tend to go unmentioned when people are talking about Halloween, their (believable) presence in the film helps fill it out in ways that would have gone unaddressed if it had just been teenagers and adults. Also, Doc Loomis' self-absorbed satisfaction when he scares some random spook-seeking kids is great. / 10  #40. Madman (1981) Not bad, but not great. A solid little camping slasher with some variety to the kills and life to the characters. With how early it came out, the more clichéd script choices were more forgivable, but it still felt a bit hacky with the story. Nice locations, which, along with some of the coloring, really lent things an earthy, moldering feel. Enough to make it believable that a crazed murderous farmer had been living in an abandoned house thereabouts. Individual characters were pretty flat and forgettable, but their actors did a good job, generally speaking, particularly the brunette who hid in a fridge. I kind of liked the way the ending went against the usual finish, but at the same time, it left me a little disappointed. Can't say this one left much of an impression, but it was enjoyable enough in the moment. / 10  #41. Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II, a.k.a., The Haunting of Hamilton High, a.k.a., Mary Lou (1987) And this series takes a turn. Hey, did you know that if you're a hedonistic enough teenager, you can come back from the grave for revenge against those you resent? Instead of the solidly non-supernatural slasher route the first Prom Night took, this one turns into a ghostly possession tale likely to put you in mind of Carrie. Mary Lou Maloney is all set to be crowned prom queen until her date, who walked in on her making time with another guy, decides the best response is to drop a stink bomb on her. Shoddy Canadian craftsmanship leads to her fatally catching on fire as a result. Flash forward a few decades, and her date is now Michael Ironside, principal of their former high school, Mary Lou's spirit is soon set free from its basement confinement, and people start dying off. As unprepared as I was for the total shift of this movie from the way of the first, it ended up being a lot of fun. References pop up without being overwhelming (the main character's surname is Carpenter, and there's a Mr. Craven and Mr. Romero among the faculty), the effects work is enjoyable, and there's a good mix of malicious and playful energy from the antagonist. Some of the effects do get a little goofy (like the meat-paste from someone getting slammed between lockers), but I don't have much to knock against this movie. The villain's single-minded pursuit of such a simple goal was down-right endearing, and there were enough weird touches put into the acting (not all of them from Ironside, surprisingly enough) to give the majority of the performances distinction. Also, quite a nutty finale. / 10
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Oct 15, 2018 23:29
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 Fran challenge: The Birth of Horror Nightmare City (1980 - Prime) This is like an Italian version of The Crazies. A military plane lands and all the passengers have been turned into zombie-like creatures due to nuclear radiation. They operate under zombie rules but they all use weapons and seem slightly intelligent. The whole movie is just them attacking people intercut with the occasional exposition or dancing scene. The movie is sleazy, the make up is bad, the special effects are cheesy and the dubbing is poor, but I still kind of liked it. There’s a frantic energy present throughout that makes this easy to watch, and it at least succeeds in making the creatures seem threatening. I’m also still deciding if the ending is a cop out or absolutely brilliant. Mildly recommended. Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933 - blu ray) I haven’t seen this before but it’s an extra on the House of Wax (1953) disc. This was good. I was surprised to see it was in color - it’s in that old early technicolor effect that was really only used for a brief period in the late 20s/early30s. The effects are quite good, especially when considering when this was made. The plot is almost the same as 1953 version but focused a little more on the mystery part. The heroine in this is great, and her dialogue is very pre-code. She is pretty great. Overall I prefer the Vincent Price version but this is fine too. Recommended. Shocker (1989 - PSN) I used to see ads for this on the back of comics from when it was released and I always wanted to watch it but for some reason I never got around to it until now. I quite enjoyed this movie. It’s a lesser heralded Wes Craven flick about a death row inmate who becomes an electric monster seeking revenge on the young man who sent him to the chair. The film was way more creative than I expected it to be. I figured the killer just be like the electric Gremlin but there’s a possession element that is used quite creatively. I liked the various special effects used that made the killer look like he’s literally a tv character come to life. There is some serious pacing issues at time. The movie is 1:51 and the first act alone is 51 minutes. There’s a lot of set up to get to the bulk of the action and it almost feels like we get shortchanged as a result. The acting is subpar as well. At least star Peter Berg realized he is better off behind the camera. This movie seems to not be too well-loved but I quite enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it. Boy Eats Girl (2005 -DVD) This is the only movie from some DVD 6 pack in my collection that I hadn’t seen and it’s a British zombie romcom from the mid 2000s! This will be good, right? Right? There’s not much to say here. It’s a typical straight to video zombie comedy that manages to neither be scary nor funny. Not recommended. Watched (22( : Always Watching: A Marble Hornets story; Terrifier; Boys in the Trees; Creature from Black Lake; Parents; Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat; Murder Party; Hell Fest; Alone in the Dark; House of Purgatory; 30 Nights of Paranormal Activity...; Phantom of the Paradise; Dead Silence; Blood Diner; the Toolbox Murders; bride of Re-Animator; Baskin; The Mummy’ Curse; Nightmare City; Mystery of the Wax Museum; Shocker; Boy Eats Girl CopywrightMMXI fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Oct 16, 2018 |
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Oct 15, 2018 23:52
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Franchescanado posted:
38. Audition quote:I love a slow burn, but an hour thirty with almost no horror or tension at all is asking a bit much. This is just a drama about an old dude's casting couch fantasy going wrong, until the hard right turn at the end. There's a twisted sense of fun in the end that unfortunately isn't found anywhere else in the movie. Disappointing.
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Oct 16, 2018 00:04
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Franchescanado posted:
10. The Gestapo's Last Orgy / L'ultima orgia del III Reich (1977)  Friday the 13th didn't really qualify for this so I had to look for another Video Nasty (what a great British name) and this one had "Orgy" in the title so it was an easy choice. In the aftermath of WW2, we get to hear proceedings from a Nuremberg-like trial where a Nazi is questioned about what they did to the women in one of the camps. He describes a pretty horrible scene where a prisoner's leg tendons were cut so that she wouldn't try escaping and could be repeatedly raped. Eventually she managed to crawl out and get herself ran over by a truck. Sounds exactly like what you'd expect to seen in an Nazisploitation film but for the most part, the movie doesn't actually go there. We then flash back to the running camp and get to witness the processing of new arrivals, medical examination and eventual rape by Nazi soldiers. There' also a dinner scene which is mostly remarkable because of a crazy speech given by one of the Nazis about how literally eating the Jews was a good thing for the Reich. They then get some cannibalism going. Most of the movie is really about the relationship between one of the prisoners, Alma, and one of the high-ranking officers (not sure what his position is, exactly). I'm probably not going to do it justice trying to describe what the film was trying to do, as getting too deep into analyzing this schlock isn't really worth it, but there's an almost Martyrs-like situation going on with the officer wanting to torture her so much that she goes crazy. But she refuses to engage with him and he chickens out from going full out. They develop something that looks like a relationship, yada yada she shoots him in the present time. I'm by no means a nazisploitation connoisseur so my only frame of reference is the first Ilsa movie. Compared to it, which was way more campy and over the top, this one actually tried to be somewhat more serious. It doesn't fail entirely, but it's not that great either and considering all the Nazi stuff I'd prefer it it were more obviously ridiculous. Still, you could probably do a lot worse than this too. /5Franchescanado posted:
11. Student Bodies (1981)  This wasn't my first choice for the challenge but procuring obscure horror movies from the 70s made by one-time directors turned out to be a bit more difficult than I expected. Still this ended up being much more interesting than I anticipated. During the intro scenes, the movie claims it's based on a true story. "Last year, 26(?) horror films were released. None of them lost money." Well I have bad news for you Mickey Rose! You don't get to make any more movies! Which is a shame, because while not great, this film was way ahead of its time, as the opening also makes it very clear this film will be heavy on parody (which I had no idea it was going to be). The plot is generic high school slasher stuff but with a heavy dose of ZAZ-like gags. I realize of course that Scream wasn't the first horror parody/deconstruction, but this is pretty impressive for being just a few years after Halloween and just a year after Airplane. Still, it's just not good enough to be anywhere near the same level. Many jokes simply fall flat or are repeated until they're no longer funny and fail to loop back to funny again. The killer is a heavy breather and we get to hear that every time we see a POV shot. I really appreciate what it was trying to do but sadly it just didn't work for me most of the time. It could be that it was more fresh back in the day, but it seems like the reaction at the time wasn't that great either. .5/512. Into the Dark / The Body (2018)  I don't see anything that would disqualify an episode of a miniseries anthology since this one is over 80 minutes long, making it longer than many other movies I've seen for the challenge, plus it's very thematically appropriate. It's halloween night and a hitman is just finishing a job. He just needs to deliver the body to the customer but his SUV's tires got slashed by some rear end in a top hat so he stops on the street with a body wrapped in shrinkwrap to ponder his next moves. A group of a strangers are very impressed by his realistic looking costume and want to invite him to their party. He agrees to go for a drink on the condition that they'll drive him wherever. At the party he meets a woman who seems to be on the same scale of weirdness that he is and they get along well, but when it's time to go, the rest of the crew try to get him to stay and party more, eventually locking themselves in a secret room in order to do shots, and this is where things start to go wrong, as he has a limited amount of time to deliver the body and no patience for their bullshit. One thing leads to another and he killed one of their friends and they're on the run with the body. I had no idea what to expect as this was a recommendation but I ended up quite liking it. It's really a black comedy horror on the wavelength of the Evil Dead show (Ray Santiago is in it too) that makes its 80 minutes fly by. It can be predictable at times for any horror nerd but I didn't mind that too much. 5/5Fran Challenges: 1 2 mobby_6kl fucked around with this message at 00:27 on Oct 16, 2018 |
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Oct 16, 2018 00:23
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 143- The Beast Within 1982 - PRIME We all know movie adaptations do vary from the books they're based from. Some are pretty close like Watchmen, and others go the World War Z approach where it's a couple plot points and the title. Unfortunately Beast Within's in the latter category. The book's good, starting in the 1920s when a smooth talking bible salesman arrives at a far rural farmhouse. The farmer's intensely religious to the degree that he's convinced everyone else is damned to hell and all sex is repulsive, even within marriage. He even beats his wife for her sinfulness of wanting to sleep with him. As expected, she's seduced by the salesman and the two get caught in the barn. She's killed and the salesman is imprisoned in the basement only to escape when the farmer dies of old age. By then the salesman's completely regressed into a bestial state. While roaming the area, he rapes a woman who becomes pregnant but assumes the baby's her husband's. As the child grows, it becomes apparent there's something not right about him. In some ways it brings to mind Hammer's Curse of the Werewolf. In the movie, we get some mess with strange roaming creatures, a connection to cicadas, shamanistic magic, and wanton abuse of bladder effects. Only way I can see someone preferring the movie over the book is because they haven't read it. There was talk some years back about a remake but it was going to be more of the cicada connection crap. As a monster film, it's average and one would be better off watching something good than this mess.
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Oct 16, 2018 01:39
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I'm on number 11 and I'm arguing with my roommate over whether Planet of the Apes should be acceptable for the challenge. Never seen it. I feel that the nightmare scenario of a planet ruled by apes, paired with said fear manifesting as an allegorical device warrants its inclusion. He says no.
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Oct 16, 2018 01:51
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I just found this thread, but luckily I had already switched over to horror for October. I picked up the Friday the 13th boxset last month on sale, but since I've already seen those, I won't list them. They're still fun even how ever many rewatches later. 1. Suspiria (1977)  Saw the 4k restoration at the cinema. Probably the best way to see it for the first time. Gorgeous, suspenseful, definitely a movie every horror fan should see. 2. The Last Shark (1981) Amazon  James Franciscus and Vic Morrow star in an illegal* Italian remake of jaws. It's just literally just Jaws but made by Italians. It's also amazingly bad. The shark is even worse than Bruce yet the director, Enzo G. Castellari, apparently decided Spielberg was wrong to try to hide the shark so it is front and center in all it's stiff, rubbery glory. * Universal sued for copyright infringement and won resulting in the movie being pulled from theaters. 3. Evils of the Night (1985) Amazon  John Carradine and Julie Newmar are aliens who hire local mechanics to recreate Friday the 13th. They need fresh teenager blood to fuel their masters' health. So I guess they work for Peter Thiel? A decent enough slasher flic but not too memorable. Carradine count: 1 4. Little Shop of Horrors (1986)  Saw this on the big screen with a crowd that was way into it. I saw the Roger Corman version awhile back so finally seeing the much more famous version was long overdue. It's a great musical, Rick Moranis is great, everything about it is just done right. 5. Death Spa (1989)  Captain Kirk's son Merritt Butrick is the creator of a computer controlled gym that is owned by his brother in law, William Bumiller. He is also possessed by the spirit of his dead twin sister who committed suicide after becoming paralyzed giving birth to her and William's child. So she takes revenge from beyond the grave by trying to kill as many gym patrons as possible. Some interesting kills, a lot of breasts. I'm not sure which of the two was the goal of the movie. That's a lie, it was the breasts. 6. Belladonna of Sadness (1973)  A beautiful watercolor animated movie about a woman who makes a deal with a devil for power after becoming a victim of prima nocta. 7. Orca (1977)  Richard Harris is a hunter who accidentally kills a mother and her unborn child. The father/husband is out for revenge and is also an orca. It's a bog standard slasher movie but the killer is a killer whale. Really weird and full of terrible effects. All shots of the orca are either framed so close you can't see the edge of the SeaWorld tank or of the most fake looking rubber orca you'll see outside of a SeaWorld giftshop. Also the orca bites off Bo Derek's legs. 8. Evil Toons (1992)  This movie starts off with David Carradine hanging himself to try stopping the necronomicon. Four porn stars find it and a cartoon demon jumps out of it and rape/murders them. I'm not making fun of their terrible acting, it's a Fred Olen Ray movie. David Carradine then comes back from the dead to fight the cartoon demon and save the day. Carradine count: 2 duz fucked around with this message at 16:48 on Oct 27, 2018 |
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Oct 16, 2018 01:58
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 The List1. Welcome to Willits (Fran Challenge 1: Love Something You Hate) 2. Multiple Maniacs (Fran Challenge 2: Queer Horror) 3. The Phantom of the Opera 1925 Featuring commentary by Andrew Lloyd Webber (as portrayed by Paul F. Tompkins) 4. Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (Fran Challenge: Hometown Horror) 5. Dawn of the Dead (2004) (Fran Challenge: Best of the Worst) 6. Creep 2 7. I am the Pretty Thing That Lives In The House 8. Silent Hill 9. The Undertaker and his Pals 10. Re-Animator  Hell Yeah! Re-Animator! Hell Yeah! Fake Edit: Go watch it!
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Oct 16, 2018 02:57
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Kart Barfunkel posted:I'm on number 11 and I'm arguing with my roommate over whether Planet of the Apes should be acceptable for the challenge. Never seen it. I feel that the nightmare scenario of a planet ruled by apes, paired with said fear manifesting as an allegorical device warrants its inclusion. He says no. It's on the line, but I'd say it counts.
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Oct 16, 2018 03:03
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 #42. Final Exam (1981) OK, first off, there's a school prank in this movie that would absolutely never fly today, and it's the most memorable part of this movie by a looong shot. It's one of the best scenes you could pull from cinema to demonstrate to someone how different American societal standards in the '80s were from today. Setting that scene aside, I really enjoyed this, even with the weird little quality showing how early in the formatting of slasher conventions this movie was. The slasher villain is, quite literally, 'just some guy.' He doesn't get a motivation revealed, his name isn't given, he doesn't even have a gimmick (besides being able to grab an arrow out of the air before it hits him). He's just some guy in a green jacket who likes killing people who attend college. The rest of the characters have lots of shading and idiosyncrasies, by slasher standards, from the nerdy Radish (with his room of computer poo poo and posters on his wall including The Corpse Grinders and Murder is My Beat), through the domineering jock Wildman (who really likes to hold frat pledges tightly from behind), to the dickish drunk of a security guard, to the disguised exasperation of final girl Courtney (Cecile Bagdadi's only acting credit). The easy normality of the character interactions was probably the movie's strongest point, as none of the actual murders besides the first one were all that memorable. Kind of looking forward to revisiting this one after a while, when I'll be able to watch it without the shock of that prank overshadowing everything else. / 10  #43. Scream Blacula Scream (1973) Despite some reservations on my part, this turned out to be even better than the first Blacula. A power vacuum left within a voodoo community by the death of their high priestess leads her petulant son to resurrect Blacula (Prince Mamuwalde, played by William Marshall). Of course, a resurrected vampire is a hard thing to control, and the son's plans are soon rendered insignificant. This took a lot of what made the first one enjoyable and refines it, while adding more touches of interest. Marshall is fantastic in this; his silent presence, even when standing out-of-focus in the background, would just dominate a scene, and his eyes and expressions were always wonderfully communicative. Pam Grier is present, playing the adopted heir apparent to the priestess' position, and she soon draws Mamuwalde's interest, naturally. His interactions with the black community were the highlights of the film for me, with moments like Mamuwalde correcting a professor of African studies on the provenance of a royal necklace (before going into exacting detail on its original context) and his angry reaction to being shaken down by a pair of pimps ("You made a slave of your sister, and you're still slaves, imitating your slave-masters!"). His accumulation of servant vampires at his home, and his thorough disdain for them, were interesting, and while they didn't get that much development compared to other parts of the film, their presence in a film released just half a decade after the Summer of Hate was gently provocative. Deserves a better reputation than its dismissal under the blaxploitation horror umbrella seems to have given it. In short, Blacula and Scream Blacula Scream are both great, though the sequel improves on the original, and they'd make a sweet quadruple feature with the Count Yorga films. / 10 #44. Don't Look in the Attic, a.k.a., The House of the Damned, a.k.a., House of the Cursed Spirits (1982) Geez, this movie is already fading from my memory. I remember thinking 'OK, so this is like A Bay of Blood meets The Hearse or The Nesting or some other low-key, slow-burn haunted house movie,' but I'm having to go off of the memory of that thought, because so much of the movie has already drained right away, even though I watched it fully awake and sober. There's some haunting activity for new tenants of a house where people have been murdered, there's a creepy butler-type guy, and there's a lot of conversational scenes. There's a scene of someone getting hit by a car, and it ends up feeling low-impact despite the rushing camera and screaming. I don't even remember the twist reveal scene so much as I do a character in the following scene saying 'Wow, can you believe [character] was a [twist]?'. Go with Don't Look in the Basement instead. / 10
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Oct 16, 2018 04:00
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FRAN CHALLENGE #4: Worst of the Best 11. Dracula 3D aka Argento’s Dracula (2012): This movie sucks. It looks super cheap, the acting is subpar, nothing about it is particularly memorable, except that Argento have his daughter a nude scene, which uh yikes. It picks up a bit when Van Helsing shows up, but this is a rough watch. 12. It Came From Outer Space (1953): This was decent. It looked and felt a bit like an extended Twilight Zone episode, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. The alien design was cool, it definitely felt otherworldly in a way that a lot of movie aliens don’t. FRAN CHALLENGE #8: Once in a Lifetime 13. Phase IV (1974): What if ants got really smart? This is a cool movie. I really like the close up ant photography. I think some of it was actual footage of ants, though I know a lot of it had to be stop motion. It looks great. The design on the ant structures was cool. Acting was a little weak and the writing was a bit spotty at times, but it’s solid overall with some good visuals. 14. Apostle (2018): This is extremely my poo poo. I love cult stuff like Wicker Man and this starts out like that and then goes to the extreme. Some pretty disturbing deaths in this one and Evans’s style really works here. There’s a couple of short fight scenes that absolutely feel like something out of the more brutal parts of The Raid. Very good movie.
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Oct 16, 2018 04:09
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Malevolent (2018 - Netflix) I decided to check this out. It’s about scammy paranormal investigators going to a haunted house that turns out to actually be haunted. This does take a few twist with that formula but ultimately still comes off as generic. This was okay. It had a fine plot, even if it was a little predictable. The performances were ok, but nothing really stands out. I kind of found it dull for the most part, maybe due to the dim lighting or quiet dialogue? I didn’t hate it but it’s really the type of movie that you’ll forget you even watched. I can’t really recommend this. Watched (23) : Always Watching: A Marble Hornets story; Terrifier; Boys in the Trees; Creature from Black Lake; Parents; Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat; Murder Party; Hell Fest; Alone in the Dark; House of Purgatory; 30 Nights of Paranormal Activity...; Phantom of the Paradise; Dead Silence; Blood Diner; the Toolbox Murders; bride of Re-Animator; Baskin; The Mummy’ Curse; Nightmare City; Mystery of the Wax Museum; Shocker; Boy Eats Girl; Malevolent
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Oct 16, 2018 04:10
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 Ed Wood, 1994 Not a horror movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it is an good comedic biography of one the most infamous directors of bad horror and sci-fi. If you know your lovely horror, you've seen the MST3k episode of Bride of the Monster, and you should have of course seen Plan 9 from Outer Space. So while this movie is not horror, it's about one of the big names of (bad) horror. I'll let Red Letter Media explain why this movie is great https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm09nLK-Pg8
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Oct 16, 2018 04:17
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Alfred P. Pseudonym posted:
but did you see THE LOST ENDING https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beLpsWaUDNk its even more insane!
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Oct 16, 2018 05:25
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#27 Blade III (2004) Attempt #9,235 to get Ryan Reynolds over as a leading action guy! In the hall of fame of worst miscasts ever, Dominic Purcell as Dracula (and I like Dominic Purcell, in doses)! In second place for miscasts, Patton Oswalt as anyone of consequence in an action movie! A wondrous combination of homophobic and aimed towards teenagers! More famous for Wesley Snipes being almost impossible to work with on set, unless it was Triple H, who he found intimidating. Really not worth watching, even on a bet. #28 Blade: House of Chthon (2006)  This served as the pilot to the short-lived TV show. This isn't a great movie, but is a better Blade movie than III. Along with a so-so Blade, has a normie character realizing for the first time that there is a vampire conspiracy, which would be spooky if the answers were not obvious to the audience. Also has a Randy Quaid cameo, playing a character almost as crazy as Randy Quaid. Relatively little vampire kung fu, the only reasonable expectation one should have of a Blade movie.
Name Change fucked around with this message at 06:18 on Oct 16, 2018 |
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Oct 16, 2018 06:09
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I had a "oops, all giallo" block going these past few days.  32. Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key (1972). Directed by Sergio Martino. Watched on Amazon Prime Sleazy as heck. It tries to go for a more psychological approach than most gialli I've seen and I'm not sure the film quite works? There's a good thread about abuse and complicity here, but I would have enjoyed this more if it didn't end up being kind of hypocritical in the way it depicted sexual violence. It makes a point of showing Oliviero as a terrible abuser as well as the effects of that abuse, but it's point feels a little hollow when it's eager to show you objectified dead bodies. Ironically, it'd probably be a better movie without all the giallo tropes mixed in. Then again, I don't know what I expected in that aspect from a giallo film from the '70s. Title game is real strong. If you're willing to put up with some deep flaws, this is worth a watch.  33. Blood And Black Lace (1964). Directed by Mario Bava. Watched on Shudder The platonic ideal of a giallo. There are definitely deeper or more inventive ones out there, but there's something to be said for how straightforward this is. I've always been really fond of Bava's aesthetic, but this is next level. At times, it rivals Suspiria in terms of how much mindblowing color and aesthetic stuff is happening. Masterfully choreographed and lit, even if the characters themselves are paper thin. How the gently caress is this a real movie that was shot? Mario Bava loving owns.  34. Opera (1987). Directed by Dario Argento. Watched on Amazon Prime Probably the last Argento film I can recommend without any caveats. Opera might be his easiest to see as his "serious" film, even though that's a bullshit classification? It's also got a real mean streak going. The cinematography is beautiful and spacious, as you'd expect from Argento in the 80's. Highly recommended.
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Oct 16, 2018 06:21
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#15- Creepshow (Should I be marking rewatches? Because if so, this, Shivers, Invasion of the Saucer Men, and Phantom I'd all seen previously.) After the awfulness of Robot vs. Aztec Mummy I figured I should go for a guaranteed classic. What a fun movie! What a joy to see Romero and King both in such good form! The first story drags a little, but after that it's good times aplenty, from goofball surrealism to legit shocks and scares, and that perverted EC Comics sense of poetic justice. Gorgeously photographed in bright comic book colors, with original music by John Harrison, and an insanely deep bench of a cast. Leslie Nielsen has to win any contests, though, as the gloriously amiable murdering psychopath with a video obsession in "Something to Tide You Over", which is also the best segment. (Coincidentally, perhaps, it's the one Romero edited himself.) Pretty much delivers on its promise of "The Most Fun You'll Ever Have Being Scared", which of course makes it perfect seasonal viewing.
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Oct 16, 2018 07:06
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Pacing note, this will be my 31st new horror if we count the September films (which we’re not). So I wanted something a little special. I had intended to watch this during the heat wave during the day time last week along with Jaws but I never got the chance. Since then the weather has skipped right past Autumn and gone from the 80s to the 40s so its not exactly the mood I wanted for this film. But hey, whatcha gonna do? I think I’m ready for a little more sadism again. Hopefully its not too soon. 20 (22). The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) Available on Shudder.  The Tobe Hooper cult classic about a group of travelers who run afoul of a crazed family and their masked chainsaw wielding big boy. Banned in several countries, billed as a true story to build controversy, and infamous for its violence and gritty presentation its another film by which so many other horror films and sub genres are judged and inspired by. Huh. That was actually kind of tame after Last House on the Left. Yet another classic I’ve never seen. No great reason. As I’ve said slashers have never been my main thing and explosion stuff and gore isn’t either. So TCM just never really moved to the top of my list. Its always been around and I’ve owned the DVD for awhile. But something else always gets the bump. Oddly I’ve totally seen the remake with Jessica Biel and the sequel/reboot/whatever with Matthew McConaughey. Plus all kinds of knock offs and spoofs and homages. So I didn’t avoid it the way I did some others. I just never got around to it. Its tough to judge a movie like this that you know inspired so many things that you now see as common or tropes or generic. Like it doesn’t feel original at all but I know the context that its only so because of its own success in inspiring so many other similar movies. Still, there’s a lot to appreciate here. There’s some gorgeous shots and camera work that could hold up today and it hasn’t aged poorly at all compared to other movies from the 70s or 80s. The very simple style Hooper employed probably plays a large part in it but its also just a really good job done. Leatherface is an imposing force and the rest of the family are sufficiently hosed up/contemptible/crazy. The kids besides Sally and Franklin are all pretty forgettable but I guess they all were clearly there to be cannon fodder. You’d think a movie that’s basically like 45 minutes of one actress screaming her head off while she’s chased around by some crazy dudes would get tiring but it manages to keep up its pace pretty well. The dinner scene was a bit much as far as the screaming overkill and I wasn’t feeling Hooper’s camera stuff with her eyes. I know what it was trying to evoke and I felt it, but that whole trick was just so over the top and went on a bit too long that it kind of took me out of it and made that scene feel a little anticlimactic. Still, the true final sequence makes up for it, even though I kind of had seen it already. It still worked and delivered. I didn’t love it, but slashers aren’t my thing. But it was a good and satisfying watch. And nice to finally have that marked off my list. Franchescanado posted:FRAN CHALLENGES I’ve got a bunch of movies from this list on my list but I want to keep to the “challenge” nature of these things by watching something I wouldn’t have otherwise watched. So I was cruising over the list to see if anything stood out and I noticed a title that sounded familiar. It turns out I own this on DVD. Why? I have no idea. I probably picked it up dirt cheap in a bargain bin or a gas station. Back in the old days before streaming I would always pick up cheap and random horror films when I saw them just to get random watches. Nowadays you can just do that on Prime or Netflix or wherever but I still dig through bargain bins when I find myself near one. Anyway, I picked this one up somewhere or another and never watched so it seems like a good sign to watch it. Especially given the irony of these being movies that were illegal to own for so many and here I just have it sitting around without even knowing why. “From the makers of Last House On The Left…” Oh God… What have I done? 21 (23). Don’t Look In The Basement (1973) DVD but looks like its on Prime too.  Young nurse Charlotte joins the worst run mental health institution in the world on the same day that half the staff is murdered by separate patients in totally unrelated events. As you might imagine Charlotte finds some problems with the way this place operates and some clashes with management as motherfuckers keep dying. Maybe we should start with not letting people keep axes in their rooms? Just an idea. Well that was a lot of nothing. All that “Video Nasties”/Last House on the Left/“Don’t Faint” buildup and I’m honestly not sure what landed that movie on the list. I suppose maybe the portrayal of the mentally ill as dangerous and violent? Or seeing them brutalized in care? That seems pretty progressive for the 70s and a censorship law. Maybe I’m just desensitized? That last sequence of the film and ending is certainly a thing, but it felt like nothing compared to what I was all braced for. For the most part this is a fairly boring film of really terrible healthcare. Charlotte does her best and Rosie Holotik does an ok job with not a whole lot. She has to somehow portray the absolute terror of her situation with the compassion of a nurse and she isn’t gonna win an Oscar for it but she does a solid enough job, especially once the poo poo really hits the fan and she figures out what’s going on. I think they primarily cast her for her beauty and ability to make her eyes bulge, but it worked out. The ending twist throws a little life into the film and the last 20 minutes or so are better, if still not quite good. I did enjoy the extra little ”you’re a patient too!” twist thrown in and then never really addressed again just to kind of gently caress with Charlotte and us a little more. I’m reasonably sure it was a lie, but also they never actually did anything to indicate it was. And given how poorly this place was run it seems plausible. A little fun. Random production notes. This film is listed as The Forgotten on Wiki and also titled Death Ward #13. I don’t know what that’s about. Apparently all the Last House on the Left stuff is just that it was paired up with the film in Drive Ins so it was all a false sell. I’m actually pretty relieved about that. And weirdly apparently there’s two sequels for this including a 2017 remake under the Death Ward 13 title. Although that was apparently supposed to come out in 2017 so I don’t know if it even exists. A 2015 sequel directed by the original director's kid is on Prime though and I’m mildly curious. Maybe a candidate for that 1 and done challenge. Mostly I’m just sad that Sam definitely never got to put his boat in the water. I don’t really want to count my Fran’s Challenge movies for my 31 Years but I’m way behind that right now. So for now I’m counting them with an asterisk and if I have the time I’ll go back and give those years individual watches. I just need a little rope right now and the 31 years is challenging enough as it is.  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) / Fran’s Challenge #4: 18 (20). My Soul To Take (2010) / Fran’s Challenge #5: 19 (21). Motel Hell (1980) / 20 (22). The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) / Fran’s Challenge #6: 21 (23). Don’t Look In The Basement (1973)
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Oct 16, 2018 07:47
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Split (2016) [Blu-ray] Rewatch. M. Night Shyamalan and James McAvoy firing on all cylinders, with McAvoy taking full advantage of the opportunity to chew the scenery. Super pumped for Glass. https://i.imgur.com/uwmkmg0.gifv 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), #20 Doom (2005), #21 Predator (1987), #22 Dawn of the Dead (1978), #23 Gremlins (1984), #24 The Andromeda Strain (1971), #25 Split (2016) Fran Challenges: #7 [The World Is A Scary Place] Godzilla (1954), #3 [Hometown Horror] Dawn of the Dead (1978)
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Oct 16, 2018 08:25
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27. Prince of DarknessFranchescanado posted:
This was a genuine challenge for me. I only watch movies I haven't seen yet during October and even the rest of the year I will only re-watch movies that I absolutely adore. So, re-watching something that I didn't like is difficult for me, there is a reason I am only doing this challenge so late. Watching John Carpenter perform last week I saw highlights from Prince of Darkness projected on the screen and figured I would give it another try. I saw it a few years back during one of the October challenges and it didn't click. The idea was great, but I remember how incredibly goofy the finale was, with cultists swarming through the ventilation system and our heroes playing whac-a-mole whenever one popped up. It just looked so amateurish it took me out of the movie. So....I was wrong. The finale how I remember it doesn't actually happen. There are just two possessed girls crawling through a hole and one gets clobbered with bricks. That's it. One scene. I really thought the whole Alice Cooper gang tried to get in and it became like an Assault on Precinct 13 parody that dragged on and on, but it just didn't happen. The other thing is that I expected a disappointing end and tried to focus on the rest of the movie more, instead of seeing it as a whole, and it really worked. I already thought the idea was solid and that one shot near the end (you know the one) was fantastic, but the use of bugs, the slowly building dread and the unnaturalness of it all really stood out this time. It was a great experience. Without this challenged I probably never would've watched Prince of Darkness again and missed out on a great movie. Thanks, Fran!
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Oct 16, 2018 08:32
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#29 "We should have come here ages ago." Thirty Days of Night (2007) A clan of vampires--these ones on the half-feral, demonically deformed, extremely nihilistic side--finally get the bright idea of raiding northern Alaska for food during the dark season, using a human patsy to disable the town's natural defenses. Puts vampires on an intensity level that I can only compare to the Stephen King short stories. They don't live among humans, they don't perpetrate ancient conspiracies, and they don't live the high life and learn languages or musical instruments out of boredom. They look like they run around in the clothes they died in, and they're not much for wiping after they eat. Most of the vampire actors are unrecognizable. You get the impression that eternity has no meaning to them, and without someone to butcher, they'd just roam or vegetate in the dark, exposed to the elements as their living hell. The original material (which was shopped as a movie before being made) was less stark than this, and involved some typical vampire politics that muddy up the narrative. The movie is very character-driven and the writing is tight and straightforward. It's really enjoyable if you like your horror graphic and vicious.
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Oct 16, 2018 09:46
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Couldn’t sleep. 22 (24). All Cheerleaders Die (2013) Available on Shudder.  Head cheerleader Alexis dies in a tragic accident and her friend Maddie sets out to join the team to get revenge on Alexis’ boyfriend Terry and best friend Tracy who are already hooking up. But poo poo gets out of control, Terry murders everyone, and Maddie’s ex-girlfriend Leena - who is a witch - brings them back to life as blood sucking zombies. And there’s a body swap. This poo poo’s kind of complicated but I definitely feel like I’m back in high school trying to explain it. I’m sorta calling this “Queer Challenge Part 2” because I was debating it vs Black Swan but couldn’t find any clear evidence this really had LGBTQ themes. But it does way more than Black Swan. Whatever. In my head they’re sharing the seat. Mainly I was interested in this because its from Lucky McKee whose work (Woman, May) I’ve enjoyed and whose Masters of Horror episode “Sick Girl” was one of my highlights of my recent rewatch. This is actually a remake of McKee’s first film he made over a decade earlier so I was kind of interested in seeing it since he apparently felt strongly enough to revisit it once he got successful and got some backing. I can see WHY he revisited. There’s a huge effects and epic scope to it that I’m sure he couldn’t really pull off the first time. I’m not sure he 100% pulled it off here but I had a fun ride. Its not really a direct hit of a good film. Like Happy Death Day it kind of tries to walk the line between dark comedy and serious horror. McKee has done that with May and Sick Girl but its tricky and I’m not sure it quite works this time. Part of that may just be that Terry is SUCH a loving villain there’s nothing at all fun to what’s happening. And honestly, Maddie’s not super sympathetic early on until we find out her true motivations. I kind of felt like the whole “Maddie wants revenge for Alexis” plot was perfunctory and bogged down the story but I get why its there once the big reveal happens. But its one of those things where even if an house into the film I understand why you did it it doesn’t change the fact that I spent the last hour questioning it and affecting how I view characters. I think McKee probably could have handled that better by abandoning the swerve that Maddie was never really targeting Tracy and she was just collatoral damage. And McKee also seems to struggle with finding if Tracy is a villain or a hero. And that whole body swap thing was just weird. And a little rapey. And a little pedophily? That was a miss. But I really did overall enjoy the "take no prisoners" all balls out ride and I really wish the sequel had happened. Like seriously, the whole movie happens over the course of like 24 hours and the body count and "no gently caress given" impact of the actions of those 24 hours were a trip to ride with. I wish it kept going. Still not tired but sun's gonna come up before I finish another movie. And I got poo poo to do tomorrow. Dunno... If there was a Part II I'd absolutely be watching it right now. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 10:08 on Oct 16, 2018 |
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Oct 16, 2018 10:03
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