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 17. Hobo With A Shotgun CHALLENGE GOAL MET!  I've seen this movie a couple of times before, but I was tired as hell and wanted some comfort movie. And what better way to finish the challenge than with this? Every time I watch it I like the movie more. It's both nasty and good-hearted thanks to Rutger Hauer's amazingly earnest performance, it's insanely quotable, got some absolutely brilliant line readings, and it manages to look both trashy and gorgeous at the same time. The colours loving pop, and the soundtrack rules. Interesting how similar Mandy is in many regards. I also really need to watch Street Trash. 18. Cast a Deadly Spell  A Film Noir set in a world where magic has recently turned out to be real, police use seances to solve crimes, a thriving zombie import business puts people out of work, Gremlins infest machinery and people are trying to summon Cthulhu. Also it rains blood now. A mix between Shadowrun and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, made lovingly but cheaply for TV (with some fun practical puppetry effects). Great cast consisting of, among others, Fred Ward, Julianne Moore, and Clancy Brown, directed by Martin Campbell who would later go on to direct GoldenEye and Casino Royale, among others. Thanks to whoever was it that discovered it in this thread. I realized I haven't done a single Fran Challenge consciously, can I retroactively go through my movies to tick em off? Alternatively I might take the rest of the month to go through as many as I can cause they're fun! Previously: Creepshow II, Monster Squad, Mandy, Shock, Devil Fetus, Black Cat, Suspiria, Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, Vampire's Kiss, The Vampire Lovers, The Howling II, Deathwatch, Lord of Illusion, Don't Torture a Duckling, The Burbs, The Cell married but discreet fucked around with this message at 15:31 on Oct 20, 2018 |
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Oct 20, 2018 15:20
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23) Nightbeast Seen on: Tubi A pissed-off alien crashes his spaceship outside of a small town and starts slaughtering everyone it can get its hands (claws?) on. The local oily folk try to survive. I was initially impressed with this one - for a low-budget film, the start is action-packed with some great amateur FX and camerawork that you wouldn't expect to see in something like this. In the first 20 minutes alone, the beast (who packs a nifty little laser pistol) disembowels and vaporizes what feels like half the town - including kids, no one is safe! - and there's two big shoot-outs between the beast and the townsfolk. The monster looks suitably impressive in the shadows and fog at night. And then they bring it out into the light and pfahahahahah. After a good start, we're then dealt a "Jaws" subplot (the police want to evacuate the town, but the governor is visiting or something like that), some really ugly violence against women in the form of a murderous douchebag loner who appears to be around just to have a human antagonist, and one of the most awkward sex scenes ever put to film. The monster shows up, snarls its weird toothy ape-like head off, and then is briefly driven off/escaped from for another 10 minutes. And so on. Overall the FX lift this one up a bit but it's still a super-low-budget flick that feels like it has sleaze sort of crowbarred in. Speaking of which... 24) Blood, Boobs & Beast Seen on: Tubi This is a 2007 documentary on low-budget Baltimore filmmaker Don Dohler, the guy who created the aforementioned Nightbeast. I'd seen Dohler's first film, The Alien Factor, on Rifftrax and watched Nightbeast as part of the challenge here, but I was unfamiliar with the rest of his work. Dohler was apparently a talented guy - an accomplished comic artist and self-made SFX guy. I had no idea he published CineMagic, a magazine on detailed amateur FX that my dad used to collect when I was a kid! They even get Tom Savini and JJ Abrams to briefly talk about Dohler - they were both devotees of CineMagic, and Abrams actually made music and and sound FX for Nightbeast. The whole documetary is kind of depressing. After a mid-life crisis, Dohler decided to jump into filmmaking sci-fi and horror, but the way this is set up, it seems like while his intentions were pure, he was sort of railroaded into adding more (way more) sex and violence into his films than he was comfortable with (by Lloyd Kaufman of Troma, no less, who also briefly appears in the film) so they'd be picked up by distributors. After getting screwed over by his own inexperience and shady dealings on the part of distributors in the mid-80s, he went on a long hiatus before making direct-to-DVD stuff in the early '00s that was way more salacious than his previous work. A lot of this seems spearheaded by his business partner who ended up directing most of these films. This is worth a watch if you're into B-movies and the people who make them. 25) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) Seen on: Shudder Well, here's another one of those horror titans I never saw that everyone else has - I watched the sequel several times in the late '80s but never the original. This was way better than I thought it would be. The atmosphere is perfect, and I loved the cinematography, the distant establishing shots and the low tracking shots especially. That opening pullback in the graveyard with the radio in the background was striking. I also loved that the soundtrack is just noise that sets you on edge. The set design inside the house is brilliant. I'd heard of this over the years, but it's amazing how little gore there is the film - the violence is quick, brutal and raw. I admit that last 20 minutes or so of Marilyn Burns being tormented was almost too much (the hammer scene with the grandfather especially). Kicking myself for not having watched this sooner. 26) The House by the Cemetary FRAN CHALLENGE #9: Stranger Danger Seen on: Shudder A young couple from New York (including their hilariously dubbed son Bob - never change, little kids in Italian horror films) moves to a quaint house in a Boston suburb that has someone, or something, lurking in the basement. My wife's BFF's husband is way more of a horror nut than I could ever hope to be; when I told him I was doing this challenge and showed him "my list" on my Shudder account, he was amazed I hadn't seen this one yet, so he bid me to watch it. I enjoy how weird Fulci's stuff can be, and this one doesn't disappoint. I love the introduction of the babysitter, one of the biggest red herrings I've ever seen in a film lol at all the eerie eye closeups and her loving taking the boards off the basement door...only to get killed anyway later The spooky kid ghost is a neat touch, and hahaha, that ending! Some great gore and makeup, and the main villain is actually kind of creepy, if totally inconsistent in presentation and behavior the eyes in the darkness are spooky, but when we see him he's blind/eyeless. Why was he crying like a little boy?. The scene with the dad trying to axe his way into the basement while his son is held headfirst against the door on the other side is also a highlight. Listen, when a little ghost girl tells you to stay out of the house, you stay out of the loving house!
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Oct 20, 2018 15:36
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Gotta knock out some brief reviews and then get back to work on a project. 32. Witchfinder General 1968 | dir. Michael Reeves | Rental recommended by Fr0id Franchescanado posted:
 What phallic imagery? A gruesome tale of witch hunts that turns into an excellent revenge tale. Vincent Price is amazing in this film, I actually really enjoy his restrained malice and his subtle fear of his own mortality. Shot and filmed in the UK, so I'm taking advantage and using this for challenge #7. I quite liked this film, but I knew within the first ten minutes that there wouldn't be a happy ending for anyone involved. Tense as hell. Highly recommended. 33. Curse of Chucky 2013 | dir. Don Mancini | Scream Stream A back-to-basics Chunky slasher.  I now have a crush on Brad Dourif's daugther, Fiona Dourif. Never thought that would happen. She is excellent in this. My biggest complaint, actually, is how her character arc is ultimately flattened by the ending; while I'm fine with Chunky getting away, having Nica being blamed for the crimes and being put into a psychiatric ward completely kills her proving her strength and independence as a handi-capable person. It's not enough for me that she gets to scream "I'm still alive, you bastard! You didn't kill me!" because everything she fought for is null and void. It's quite tragic. I like the limited setting, the kills, the suspense, and most of the cast. The dinner scene is great. The nanny cam footage is great. Ultimately I was very happy with this. The two big slasher franchises I've missed out on are any Chunky's after Child's Play 2 and any Hellraiser after Hellraiser 2. I'll be going through the Chunkys now. Recommended! 34. Puppetmaster 1989 | dir. David Schmoeller | Scream Stream I've seen this movie an unhealthy amount of times.  I hate Frank. I hate that other guy's hair. "My super power is napping." Mine too, bud. I love the idea of different psychics of various skills that hate each other having to spend a weekend together in a spooky house. I agree, however, that that's not why anyone is coming to a movie called "Puppetmaster". The puppets don't really do anything until the final half-hour. Nonetheless, this movie is like a comfort food to my brain. The sequels are much better, but the first one holds a special place in my heart, because it makes me productive. I'd rather work on anything than only sit and concentrate on this film, and then I can look over and see a neat puppet kill. Recommended for b-movie enthusiasts. 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 | Clive Barker's Underworld | The 7th Victim | The Addiction | The Witchfinder General | Curse of Chucky | Puppetmaster Total: 34 Fran Challenges:
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Oct 20, 2018 16:37
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 Remind you of anyone? 35. The Bat (1959) - DVD While loving off at work and talking with a mechanic, it came up that I hadn't watched any Vincent Price and am more than half through the month. He all but gasped while crossing himself. My oversight has now been corrected with one new to me. This had plot holes and conveniently incompetent people doing conveniently stupid things just to keep the plot limping through. But Price delivered a great and mellow performance while most of the ladies also put in solid work. Especially our heroine (Agnes Moorehead!) and her maid. Claw coming through the door at her boss? Maid kicks into a run and slams the door on it. Murderer outside the room? Heroine grabs her carry gun and announces that she is armed while the prowler boogies on out. Psycho attacking a house guest? Throws a fire poker into the back of the fucker's head. Secret passages, stolen money, rabid bat squeak squaking around on a string, assorted murders, greedy assholes, belligerent residents, cool villain design, whodunnit elements, and a creepy mansion. It's basically a perfect comfort food film. Also a reminder that Price was not just a figurehead of camp but a genuine talent.  36. Alien Apocalypse (2005)* - DVD Just look at the screenshot. You already know if this Bruce Campbell number will be worth your time or not. That I own a hardcopy should be indicative of my opinion. Wife, dad, and kids enjoyed it as well. 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), 28. Son of Frankenstein (1939), 29. The Terror, 30. A Cure for Wellness (2016), 31. Blood Diner (1987), 32. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), 33. The Killer Shrews (1959), 34. The Devil Bat (1940), 35. The Bat (1959), 36. Alien Apocalypse (2005)* Years Spanned: 95 (1922-2017) Tally by Decade: '20s (I), '30s (V), '40s (III), '50s (IV), '60s (VI), '70s (III), '80s (VII), '90s (II), 2000s (IV), 2010s (II) B&W/Color: 17/20 Rewatch/Total Counted: 4/36 Countries: 'Murika, Canada, Blighty, France, Germany, Estonia, South Korea, Japan Fran Challenges Complete: 1 * Rewatch Butch Cassidy fucked around with this message at 17:09 on Oct 20, 2018 |
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Oct 20, 2018 17:06
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Franchescanado posted:
34. Tales From the Hood 2 (2018) Netflix  Even though I'm going to Halloween in a few hours I'm going to use this for this challenge. Keith David is amazing in this, he really leans into it. He has a lot of laugh lines and gets to eat all of the scenery. It's an impressive feat, since he's following Clarence Williams's portrayal of the same character and he isn't as innately insane acting as Williams is. The film is about as subtle as the first installment (that is to say, not at all) and has all the morality and broad acting you'd expect. Loved the wrap around and the Golliwog segment. The most memorable story for me will probably be the one focused on the lynching of Emmett Till and the responsibility of the people of the present not to forget the sacrifices of the past. The segment wildly swings from comical (the Colonel Sanders villain), to brutal and infuriating (scenes depicting the murder), to maudlin (ersatz MLK). The bluntness of the satire really fits the Trump era, unfortunately. 4/5 35. Halloween (1978) umpteenth rewatch, on Shudder  Watched this in preparation of seeing the new one today. One thing that struck me this time is how good the ending is. He's still out there and no one is safe. It really makes me wish there wasn't the weight of the whole franchise (and indeed, the whole slasher genre) weighing the film down so that scene would still have its original impact. Weird sentiment to have because I'm excited to see the new one, but whatever. 5/5 Movies seen: 1. Terrifier | 2. A Nightmare on Elm Street | 3. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge | 4. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors | 5. Scream | 6. Mandy | 7. November | 8. Salem's Lot | 9. The Resurrected | 10. Demon House | 11. Pumpkinhead | 12. Prom Night | 13. Tales from the Crypt | 14. Carnival of Souls | 15. The Fly II | 16. Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker | 17. Resolution | 18. The Endless | 19. Spontaneous Combustion | 20. Hardware | 21. The Haunting of Molly Hartley | 22. Hold the Dark | 23. Truth or Dare | 24. Trick or Treats | 25. The ‘Burbs | 26. Dead and Buried | 27. Digging up the Marrow | 28. Frankenstein Conquers the World | 29. The War of the Gargantuas | 30. Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil | 31. Apostle | 32. Maximum Overdrive | 33. Blood Rage | 34. Tales from the Hood 2 | 35. Halloween (1978) Fran Challenges:
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Oct 20, 2018 17:27
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Watch a horror movie released in 2018.
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Alien Apocalypse owwwwwwns (if I remember correctly).
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Oct 20, 2018 17:32
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Day 20 - The Driller Killer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oBr_GNHmpY A young artist living in 1970's New York finds an outlet for his frustrations with his life like the rock band always practicing upstairs, his agent getting frustrated with him, and the homeless people he encounters. Fortunately, he has a portable battery pack for his power tools. It's a good thing for the filmmakers that Driller Killer set off a moral panic because there's no way that this movie would be remembered otherwise. It tries to have something meaningful to say, but Abel Ferrara is on the level of film school hack in his writing and direction. Despite his pretensions of depth, this is a movie about a horrible rear end in a top hat who goes on a rampage to clean up New York, a popular theme at the time Driller Killer was made. This movie reminds me a lot of the indie film boom of the 90's. There were a lot of movies made then which were all about the writer/director stand-in character who was a complete piece of poo poo though the film didn't seem to recognize it. The stand-in is victimized by the world despite being so much better than it until the dramatic incident occurs. I had been hoping going in that this movie was a bit of a hidden gem, but everything I've heard about it has been very divisive. I am very firmly on the "did not like it at all side", though that's not really justification for banning it.
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Oct 20, 2018 18:54
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22. Psycho 1960 A struggling hotel gets several new visitors in an uncharacteristically busy week. Going into this movie while knowing how everything plays out really hurt my overall enjoyment of it. It's all very well made and the things set into motion in the first half are a great misdirection from where things go in the second. I still enjoyed this movie but more so than any I've watched recently I was constantly aware of the time passing while waiting for the next thing to happen. 3/5 (I'm rating based on my overall enjoyment at the time I watched it. This is probably a 4 or maybe a 5 if I'd gone in knowing nothing.) 23. Suspiria A wave of ballet overtakes a murder mansion and distracts from the necessary murder. I can see why people like this movie but I can't say I enjoyed most of it. The star of this film for me is the gorgeous visuals and the incredible sets. I loved the first 10 or so minutes and the last 10 or so minutes of this. Beautiful, unsettling, relentless, unpredictable. The rest just didn't do much to hold my attention. I may revisit this one later on to see if it grabs me on a rewatch. I think I'd enjoy the film more if there was more buildup to the reveal that the ballet school is a front for a witch coven. I loved the final shot over the credits of this movie also. Great choice. 3/5 24. Halloween 2018 Halloween H40: 40 Years Later I absolutely loved this movie. Loved it. I went in just hoping that the movie wouldn't feel like a modern horror film with a coat of Halloween nostalgia injected. What I ended up getting was a movie that felt incredibly reminiscent both in look and in tone to the original film while still feeling completely worthwhile. The nods to the earlier films were great without feeling too cutesy. There's a great combination of horror and humor throughout. There are a lot of gorgeous visuals in this movie. There's a scene early on where a kid is backlit by headlights on a misty road at night and it's so beautiful. Some of the horror sequences were really imaginative and shot in interesting ways. I really like a scene early on where Michael is in the background of a shot moving about and then can be seen in the background of a new shot a few moments later murdering someone mostly out of frame. There's a really clever sequence later in the film involving an open field and motion detector lights that is another favorite. I love so much about this whole thing. I couldn't be happier with how it all turned out. My favorite of all of the Halloween sequels and the first one to capture the feel of the original. 5/5
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Oct 20, 2018 19:10
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 40.Eaten Alive (1976). Directed by Tobe Hooper. Watched on Amazon Prime It was real hard finding a good gif to represent this film, because half the image results for "eaten alive gifs" are just vore. I probably brought that on myself. Only Tobe Hooper could follow up one of the most intense horror movies ever made, known for it's incorporation of cinema verite techniques, with this. It's almost a complete reverse of the aspects that made that film notorious. There's a glaringly intentional inauthenticity to every aspect of the film, from the primary colors meant to stand in for a swampy sunset to the cartoonish acting. Sometimes, the staging approaches Mario Bava levels of artificiality. It feels like a prelude to what he was doing with Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, if way less proficiently made. It's a mess from a plot standpoint, but no one does weird grindhouse Southern gothic film quite like Tobe Hooper did. Also, young Robert Englund is in it as just a complete shithead and he's really distracting whenever he's on screen? Friends Are Evil fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Oct 20, 2018 |
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Oct 20, 2018 19:20
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42. Excision - 3/5quote:God drat that is the darkest ending to a dark comedy I have ever seen. Pitch fuckin black. Now that the shock is wearing off though, I guess yeah that was pretty funny too. Franchescanado posted:
43. Halloween (2018) - 4/5 quote:This movie fuckin whips, it's about as great as a revival can get. No wink-and-a-nod attempts at deconstructing the genre or anything, just straight hype and murder. And comedy, because it's a DGG/McBride venture, but it's tastefully done.
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Oct 20, 2018 20:47
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     #61. Halloween III: Season of the Witch, a.k.a., The Last Halloween, a.k.a., Halloween 3 (1982) A welcome change-up after the disappointing Halloween II, with Tom Atkins' mustache and Dan O'Herlihy warming me right up. The plot's absurd when considered for more than a minute, but the movie keeps up enough energy and vibrancy to make it easy to go along for the ride. The pyrotechnics team put in some great work, the side characters get some fun touches, and having a plot explicitly targeting children is a refreshing change of pace from what I've been watching lately. It would have been nice if this hadn't received such backlash, and Halloween had continued as a series open to any horror script set at the holiday, but even as a one-off, this is quite a special experience.  / 10      #62. The Invisible Man, a.k.a., H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man (1933) drat solid, and much larger in scope than I remembered from my kids' book adaptation. Claude Rains gives a great performance, the villagers' reactions are overplayed to an amusing degree (save for the stalwart old man who loses his hat), and while the love interest seems extraneous, her actress does a fair job with her lines. The special effects still hold up well, the snowy environments are quite nice, and there's some wonderful use of the cameras. Even with the screeching of the pubmistress and gags like stealing and chucking a bicycle, the film does a great job of building tension, and while the jumps to espionage do feel kind of abrupt, the groundwork is at least laid by Griffin explaining his plans to move into that activity. The conclusion is a little too pat, but shot and acted well, and Griffin's fade back to visibility is a haunting final shot. / 10   #63. Critters 4, a.k.a., Critters 4: They're Invading Your Space (1992) And we end on the series' lowest point. Jumped forward a few hundred years from the last movie, the Critter eggs are found in suspended animation by a generic '90s spaceship group of misfits, and things go predictably from there. Series staple Ug is now a villain, for reasons that are never adequately explained beyond "Things change," and a lot of time is wasted on trying to build lame drama between the bland spacers. Once they thaw and get active, even the Critters are disappointing, and we get Chekhov's Juggling as a big moment. It is kind of remarkable how steady and even the descent in quality is over the four films. I'd estimate that we're about four years away from a reboot on this series. / 10
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Oct 20, 2018 21:00
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The Terror More like The Terrorble movie! Ok, it's not that bad. It is bad though First, some highlights! Boris Karloff is great. Young Jack Nicholson has all that Nicholson charm, even if his acting isn't quite at Anger Management level yet. Jack Nicholson tries to punch a bird. A bird tears a guys eyes out.The line that ends the first act is great, *Karloff voice* "Perhaps we're both mad...". Any writers out there who aren't sure how to end a story, just use that line. The real problem is the plot. At first I was enjoying it. A decent if unimaginative spooky ghost story, but it starts to get good once it starts laying out the clues that there is no ghost at all. It becomes clear that the ghost is actually the daughter of the dead woman, who is being forced by the old lady to lead the Baron to suicide. Great! But then we get to the climactic crypt-flooding scene, and there's an actual ghost. Semi-transparent, speaking in a ghost voice, taunting the Baron, being unmistakably a ghost. So I figure, OK, I guess it really was a ghost, all the clues implying it was a secret daughter were just red herrings? That's lame. But then the ghost fades away, and a very clearly flesh and blood identical woman wades through the waters to fight the Baron. OK, so there is both a secret daughter pretending to be a ghost and also a real ghost? What? But then Jack Nicholson gets the flesh and blood person out of the crypt, and she immediately turns into a skeleton. So I have genuinely no idea what the gently caress was going on. Also there was an incredibly stupid twist right near the end that has literally zero effect on the plot, it's indescribably dumb. Don't watch The Terror, by the end it's not worth it.
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Oct 20, 2018 22:32
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Franchescanado posted:
#9 Under the Shadow (2016)  Life got in the way but I'm back after an extended break. I kinda assumed this would happen, hence the low-ish overall goal I set for myself, so I think I'm still on track! I enjoyed this. Set in Iran in the 1980's, a mom and her young daughter struggle to exist amidst the war, the iron fist of their own government, and a lurking evil inside their home. This is not a hopeful movie. It feels oppressive from every angle, which is appropriate given the context. Most of this movie would've worked well even without the horror elements, and the horror supported and extended an already strong and terrifying premise. It all comes together nicely and I especially enjoyed the slow burn build up of the first half of the film. The payoff didn't quite match the creepiness of the first half for me, but everything else was so solid that I didn't mind too much. I don't have a ton more to say about this movie because I don't feel qualified to really speak about the political and social context, but I thought it was good and I recommend it! Watched (9/15): #1 As Above, So Below (2014), #2 Shutter (2004), #3 A Dark Song (2016), #4 The Endless (2017), #5 Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978), #6 Blade II (2002), #7 Tag (2015), #8 Tale of Tales (2015), #9 Under the Shadow (2016) Fran Challenges (2/10): #1,
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Oct 20, 2018 22:46
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40. The Company of Wolves - Man, this movie's beautiful. I don't have a strong affinity to 80s fantasy movies, but this really worked for me. I love all the studio-bound forests and groves. It gives everything an otherworldly beauty. I'd heard this was an anthology movie and I guess it is to an extent, but it's a pretty unique take on one. The frame story is the main plotline and stories are told by characters to anticipate or react to what is happening to them. Those segments aren't even that long in comparison to most anthology movies. Some are only a few minutes in length. Oh, and Angela Lansbury is fantastic.Franchescanado posted:
41. Sweet Home - The main point of reference I have for Kiyoshi Kurosawa is Pulse (or Kairo) and this is a far cry from that, but it is quite a fun watch. There are certain similarities between the two films, especially in regard to the use of shadows and how media is directly linked to disrupting nature. Filled with wonderful effects and makeup work. Also I adore how cell-animated laser beams and lightning look in all these old movies. There's just something so charming about it. 42. Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare - The only one of these I haven't seen before. An improvement over the last two entries, but still not much in comparison to ones Craven worked on. Rachel Talalay does a good job directing the material (I admire her next two films much more though), yet she's brought down by a mediocre script. I appreciate the desire to inject more comedy in these films as at this point there isn't much scary about Freddy anymore. I don't think it ends up work that much in its favor though, as the comedy imbalances the movie. I think it stumbles in including too much serious subject matter. All of these films include this to an extent, but the sixth one decides to take a dive into child abuse in ways no other installments do. Nearly every single character in this is revealed to have suffered at the hands of their parent – including Freddy Krueger. We see all of this. One girl gets mocked by Freddy about her molestation from her father in the same way he mocks another character for playing too many video games. It just doesn't work. You can't do both. I also think the movie is held by kowtowing to some of the normal rules of slashers. Two of the three characters who get killed are completely unimportant to the narrative, and it would be a much stronger film without them. I did find enjoyment in it though, and it's certainly a better watch than 4 or 5, but I wish the film had leaned in much more to a single style and tone. 43. Lisa - An oddly sweet mashup between a coming-of-age movie and a slasher movie. Has such a quaint and good-natured atmosphere that it's hard to hold any kind of ill-feeling against it. Kind of fascinating in how it turns both the protagonist and antagonist into stalkers. Neither's actions are considered good, and both receive punishment for their actions in very different ways. The film just feels so oddly alive and lived-in. Characters like the local grocery store clerk pop off the screen, but I'm almost certain he's only in two shots of the whole film. I adore the chemistry Lisa has with her mother and how the two play off of another, how they push each other, how they reconcile. While it's obvious, there's something so honest about it. The same goes for Lisa and Wendy's friendship. How they imagine growing up to be. How they imagine relationships to be. It's great. 44. Link - I admire this movie's cinematography, but to be honest I really wanted some more killer monkey. It isn't that bad for what it is, I just wanted more. Weirdly, Terence Stamp is barely in it even though he's a central character. Also, despite the the titular Link clearly being an orangutan, he's constantly referred to as a chimp. I looked it up and apparently I saw the Cannon films cut, which is about 10 minutes shorter than the original cut. I'll have to track that down sometime to see how it compares. 45. Bug - Hoo. This was a wild ride. I was not expecting everything to go completely off-the-rails in this. Michael Shannon is as incredible as he always is. I kind of loved this, but I don't think I really understand what it was aiming at, so this is another one I'll have to re-watch later. Franchescanado posted:
46. Curtains - There's something indescribable about Curtains. It's so driven by imagery. There's a And Then There Were None-inspired plotline to go along with it, but that just feels so secondary to everything else. There's also constant subplots which were introduced and dropped immediately, yet that added to film immensely. It's so strange and startling. It exists both outside and inside reality. It felt there was some kind a push-and-pull between opposing ends of something, it was interesting to read up on it and find that it was the work of two different directors over the span of a few years. Their different aims actually work remarkably well together. 47. Popcorn - Likeable, but I wish it was loveable. I actually prefer the slasher plotline to all the movie parodies, even if it isn't particularly great. While I do love all the types of films that Popcorn ribs, the mockeries seem to be based on dim memories of them. While these are parodies, its disinterest in authenticity is off-putting. A good comparison would be Joe Dante's Matinee from just two years later. There's a real love of film an attention to detail there that's simply lacking here. It interesting in how it occupies a somewhat similar space as New Nightmare and In the Mouth of Madness. In a pre-Scream world, it tackles with how horror affects audiences. A rowdy crowd at a theater eggs on the killer to slaughter someone, not realizing (or not caring) that the violence could be real. The villain lives for being lauded, he's defeated as soon as the audience looks away to see explosions. It seems to indicate slasher films give way to greater Hollywood spectacles. And that's really too bad. Franchescanado posted:
48. Anguish - Wow! I can't believe I'd never heard of this one before. I never knew Michael Lerner had this performance in him. I don't want to say too much about the film, as it really needs to just experienced. Very radical take on slasher movies, especially for 1987. 49. Night of the Demons - This has been recommended to me several times over the years, so I though I'd finally sit down and watch the whole thing. I really want to like this movie, but there's just something about it that doesn't connect with me. Maybe it's just the pacing? I'm not really sure. I've actually watched the first 40 or so minutes of it several times over the years, but never made it past them until now. I think all the best elements are in the back half of the film though, so I was missing out some pretty great stuff. The opening credits are brilliant though. Almost Blue fucked around with this message at 23:03 on Oct 20, 2018 |
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Oct 20, 2018 22:59
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It's seriously hosed up that nobody has posted the scene from The Terror where Jack Nicholson loses a fistfight with a bird on Youtube
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Oct 20, 2018 23:00
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26) The Abominable Dr Phibes (1971) 27) Dr Phibes Rises Again (1972)   Back for some more classic Price revenge movies, and why not? Having watched most of them this month, I think that TADP is quite weak in comparison to Theatre of Blood and House of Wax. The kills are somewhat contrived and with nine of them to cram in the movie rattles from one to the next with little time for character development or plot. Phibes is a good gimmick character, though, and the general design of the movie is lovely. Dr Phibes Rises Again, on the other hand, is one of the least needed sequels in history. It contradicts literally everything in the first movie. Phibes sought revenge on the surgeons who killed his wife ... who isn't actually dead. Phibes died at the end of the first movie to be with his wife in the afterlife ... nope, just suspended animation. His assistant Vulnavia died in his own acid trap ... except she's mysteriously alive and unharmed, with no explanation. Phibes developed ingenious mechanical devices allowing him to speak through a gramophone ... now he can speak whenever he wants. There's little rhyme or reason to the goings on, the kills are even more contrived (if sometimes quite funny), and the whole thing comes off as a dull retread.
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Oct 20, 2018 23:09
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36. Halloween (2018) I kind of feel the same way I felt after seeing this as when I saw H20 (20 loving years ago). It's a pretty good sequel to the first movie, I liked a lot of the kill sequences and there's some real moments of tension. Especially since the movie kills a kid early on, so it feels like no one is safe. There's a few scenes where Danny McBride's voice comes through a little too much, but the overall effect is that you like most of the victims. Maybe my 3rd favorite film in the franchise? 3/5 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. The ‘Burbs | 26. Dead and Buried | 27. Digging up the Marrow | 28. Frankenstein Conquers the World | 29. The War of the Gargantuas | 30. Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil | 31. Apostle | 32. Maximum Overdrive | 33. Blood Rage | 34. Tales from the Hood 2 | 35. Halloween (1978) | 36. Halloween (2018) Fran Challenges:
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Oct 20, 2018 23:29
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Franchescanado posted:My biggest complaint, actually, is how her character arc is ultimately flattened by the ending; while I'm fine with Chunky getting away, having Nica being blamed for the crimes and being put into a psychiatric ward completely kills her proving her strength and independence as a handi-capable person. It's not enough for me that she gets to scream "I'm still alive, you bastard! You didn't kill me!" because everything she fought for is null and void. It's quite tragic. But like she says, she's still alive. It's a planned trilogy so she's back for Cult and whatever the next one is. Her arc isn't totally finished, I'm sure. I'm really anxious to see how they wrap it up, considering how Cult ends.
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Oct 21, 2018 00:56
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 156- Company of Wolves 1984 - DVD Personal story time: When I started dating, my cousins gave me the advice of always make sure to be the one to pick either the movie or where to go to dinner so if the date flops, you at least got a good dinner or saw something you wanted to out of it. Company of Wolves was my first-first date movie. As dinner had been at a place which was so bland it makes English food look like the height of spices and flavor, I was hoping this movie I'd read about in Fangoria was going to be good. Thank God it was amazing. Essentially a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood crossed with werewolves, this was the film that showed me artsy films aren't all incoherent messes. It's a complete feast for the eyes across the board. The interspersed stories show a variety of werewolf transformations from the salve granted by the Devil at the crossroads to magic and more. My favorite is the tale of the wronged woman who shows up pregnant at her lover's wedding banquet for justice with the freshly cursed nobility still feasting as they're transforming. I absolutely love this film and highly recommend it. And for how my first-first date ended, the guy was pretty salty over I was more into watching the film than making out with him during the movie.  157- Demons 1985 - DVD I first read about this one in Fangoria way back in the day and the teenaged me made it my life's purpose to find a copy and watch it. Of course, no video store in my area knew what it was much less had a copy. My then boyfriend and I ended up pretty much calling every video store in the Chicagoland area to try to track down a copy. Ended up finding one in a tiny hole in the wall place in a run down area. My then boyfriend was mostly grumbling that this film better be worth it. Oh yes it was very much worth it. An assortment of random people all receive a golden ticket from a strangely dressed man for a private viewing of an unnamed movie. Naturally they go because, hey free ticket. In the lobby is a manikin on a motorcycle wielding a katana and holding a stylized devil mask, and naturally someone's got to play around with the mask and get cut. Soon as we see the movie on the screen's events unfold, we know that cut's going to bring no good. That I liked the soundtrack is no surprise, to this day I can't hear Fast as a Shark and not think of the guy on the motorcycle tearing down the aisles. I thought the angle of viral demons an interesting one, it's pretty refreshing compared to the usual motif of demons/devils we see. I don't think there's been many horror films predominantly set within a movie theater like this one. Definitely worth a watch in my opinion.  158- Demons 2 1986 - DVD As far as sequels go, this one's pretty interesting in that while it does connect into the first film, it also features many of the actors from the first but in completely different roles. It's rather nice to see how some of them had changed since the first. In this one, the events of the first film happened and the areas devastated by the demons are blocked off. The residents of a large apartment building are settling in for the night with many watching a documentary about what happened in the first film. As this is a Demons film, we know it's only a matter of time before they're running wild. The soundtrack's okay in this one, just didn't click with me to the degree the first one did. Having this one as a double feature with the first is a good choice.  159- The Church 1989 - PRIME For as much as I've read about Soavi not wanting to have a connection to the Demons films with this one even though it was being written as a third film,even after the heavy editing to remove the Demons series connection, there's still enough in the film that anyone with two functioning brain cells can see. So, to me this is the True Demons 3. Here, the inescapable location is a massive gothic style cathedral which has been built over the mass grave of a village of alleged devil worshipers. When the grave's breached, the cathedral goes into lockdown to prevent the demons from spreading, and trapping people inside. I do wonder what the original script must've looked like because while the demons here are more of a cerebral depiction which is a nice change, sometimes you just want your snarly fluids a' flying demons.  160- 976-Evil 1988 - DVD This one's a pretty standard by the numbers 'be careful what you wish for' story during the heyday of 900 numbers. As I sat through it, I can't help but think doing a modern version of this would have to be some sort of chatbot or an advice generator since I don't think 900 numbers really exist much anymore even with the sexlines or phone psychics. A particularly stand out thing with this film is it's depiction of the Devil. We've seen plenty of actors capturing the viciousness, pride, and even regret of the Devil, but here we have the con man angle that's handled really well by Robert Picardo. If I ever met him, it'd be a tie for what I have him sign, a copy of this or Get Crazy.  161- I, Madman 1989 - YOUTUBE At the time this one came out, it was a bit of a breath of fresh air since it had some nice differences from the usual trend of horror back then. Here we have Virginia who works in a used book store and loves reading old pulp horror. When she starts reading the last book from Malcom Brand called I, Madman which was written after he was committed to an insane asylum, we know it's only a matter of time before weird poo poo starts happening. Only real negative I have to say on this one is it does start off slow almost to the point I can see some just calling it there rather than sticking it out. Once the film picks up, whoo it picks up. Overall it's a nice blend of noir with horror and a dash of almost giallo style colors in parts. Despite being slow to start, it's worth a watch.
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Oct 21, 2018 01:02
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M_Sinistrari posted:
No crossing was involved. The first iterations of the Red Riding Hood story are just a girl talking to a stranger and being robbed and killed by him, often embellished with anything from rape to cannibalism. At the time, outlaws were often known as "wolves" or "wolfsheads". Later it evolved from a man who was a "wolf" to werewolf before becoming a literal wolf.
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Oct 21, 2018 01:30
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Jedit posted:No crossing was involved. The first iterations of the Red Riding Hood story are just a girl talking to a stranger and being robbed and killed by him, often embellished with anything from rape to cannibalism. At the time, outlaws were often known as "wolves" or "wolfsheads". Later it evolved from a man who was a "wolf" to werewolf before becoming a literal wolf.
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Oct 21, 2018 01:39
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Franchescanado posted:
 37. Dave Made a Maze (2017) - DVD I loved it, wife had a lot of fun, kids laughed hysterically. It, at one point, had a minotaur hand puppet. Movie is great and I can't wait to make more people watch it. 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)7, 19. Horror Hotel (1960), 20. Event Horizon (1997)*, 21. In the Mouth of Madness (1994)3, 22. Frankenstein (1931)*, 23. Monster from a Prehistoric Planet (1967), 24. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), 25. The Funhouse (1981)6, 26. Beetlejuice (1988)5, 27. Fright Night (1985)2, 28. Son of Frankenstein (1939), 29. The Terror, 30. A Cure for Wellness (2016), 31. Blood Diner (1987), 32. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), 33. The Killer Shrews (1959)9, 34. The Devil Bat (1940)9, 35. The Bat (1959), 36. Alien Apocalypse (2005)*, 37. Dave Made a Maze (2017)8 Years Spanned: 95 (1922-2017) Tally by Decade: '20s (I), '30s (V), '40s (III), '50s (IV), '60s (VI), '70s (III), '80s (VII), '90s (II), 2000s (IV), 2010s (III) B&W/Color: 17/21 Rewatch/Total Counted: 4/37 Countries: 'Murika, Canada, Blighty, France, Germany, Estonia, South Korea, Japan Fran Challenges Complete: 1 * Rewatch Butch Cassidy fucked around with this message at 02:08 on Oct 21, 2018 |
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Oct 21, 2018 02:00
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Franchescanado posted:FRAN CHALLENGES For the purposes of expediency and protection of the innocent "Loved One" is an amalgamation of multiple people I bothered today with this request. You get the general idea. Me: Don’t ask me why, its weird, I just need you to suggest a horror movie to me. Loved One: Uhh… Exorcist? Me: I’ve seen that. You got something else, something I maybe haven’t seen? Loved One: Uhh… Friday the 13th? Me: Nah, that one’s not any good either. Try again. Loved One: Why? Me: I just said don’t ask me why. It won’t really make sense. Just pick one. Loved One: This is weird. Why? Me: Look, I’m just watching horror movies and there’s other people doing it and there’s dumb challenges and bets and one is to ask for a suggestion from someone. Loved One: That’s weird. Me: I know, I said that. So just pick one. Loved One: Is this some internet thing? Are you doing weird stuff online. This is weird. Me: Come on, just pick one. Loved One: Uhh… The Walking Dead? Me: Ok, look, here just look at this Netflix selection and pick one. 30 (32). The Open House (2018) A Netflix Exclusive.  After a tragic loss Naomi and her son Logan move into her sister’s “mountain house” she’s selling with the condition that they have to vacate during open houses. This being a horror movie the house is huge, the neighbors are sketchy, and unexplained things happen. As the grieving family struggles to hold it together they also wrestle with question of who comes into the house when its “open” and if anyone keeps track of if they leave. This isn’t quite a haunted house movie and isn’t quite a home invasion. It lives somewhere in between where it tries to tease all kinds of eery stuff and possibilities but also the question of “Is there a stranger in my house?” Ultimately I feel like the stuff they kind of tease or throw out there is more interesting then where they go. And maybe they didn’t tease it. Maybe I was reading into it looking for something more interesting than what I was getting? Had all kinds of ideas in my head. Ghosts of past residents? Some sort of weird mountain town cult? I’m not even sure any of that was justified. Maybe it was all my imagination. But the end result was just kind of underwhelming and boring. And honestly, the whole end of the movie is just kind of mean. Not overly gory or cruel or anything. I mean, there’s a little cruelty but its not an Eli Roth movie or anything. But like, the way poo poo goes is just kind of mean and unsatisfying. This has a RT score of 13% and I think that’s very fair. I do not recommend this. Bad movie pick, Loved One. Bad pick.
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Oct 21, 2018 02:27
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 Mighty Joe Young, 1949 Not a horror movie, but it is a monster movie of sorts. Big gorillas are one of the classic old school monsters and Mighty Joe Young deliverers in that aspect. Joe Young is a baby gorilla adopted by a young girl that buys him from some hunters. He grows up to be loving huge and some show biz guy talks the girl to bring Joe to the states for his big show. Joe has to degrade himself on stage in front of drunk assholes and one night after some bozos bring him booze backstage, he snaps and wreck the whole nightclub he is in. It's so delightful when it happens and it is what makes this movie so great. Of course this is an Ernest B. Schoedsack movie, the guy of King Kong fame, and as a result, it looks great. As dated the special effects are, they look marvelous and Joe is a very expressive character. This is the third Ernest B. Schoedsack I've watched in this marathon and he is slowly becoming one of my favorite all time directors.
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Oct 21, 2018 02:31
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FRAN CHALLENGE #9: Stranger Danger 18. Let the Right One In (2008): I’m not sure what to make of this movie. It’s very well shot and I dig the atmosphere. The romance between the two leads is cute in kind of a hosed up way. The kids’ performances are pretty good. I appreciate the general grimness with a tinge of hope. 19. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1978): I watched the first 2/3 of this in middle school with my church youth group, weirdly enough. I can’t in good faith call this a good movie, but it’s reasonably fun. The style of humor reminds me of Airplane! though this is not nearly as good. The man in a tomato suit asking the giant tomatoes to pass him the ketchup is such a stupid joke that I can’t help but love it.
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Oct 21, 2018 03:56
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38. Wrong Turn (2003) - DVD Meh. Well made and worth the watch but not really my thing. May use it as background noise in future years as it did have some interesting moments. 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)7, 19. Horror Hotel (1960), 20. Event Horizon (1997)*, 21. In the Mouth of Madness (1994)3, 22. Frankenstein (1931)*, 23. Monster from a Prehistoric Planet (1967), 24. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), 25. The Funhouse (1981)6, 26. Beetlejuice (1988)5, 27. Fright Night (1985)2, 28. Son of Frankenstein (1939), 29. The Terror, 30. A Cure for Wellness (2016), 31. Blood Diner (1987), 32. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), 33. The Killer Shrews (1959)9, 34. The Devil Bat (1940)9, 35. The Bat (1959), 36. Alien Apocalypse (2005)*, 37. Dave Made a Maze (2017)8, 38. Wrong Turn (2003) Years Spanned: 95 (1922-2017) Tally by Decade: '20s (I), '30s (V), '40s (III), '50s (IV), '60s (VI), '70s (III), '80s (VII), '90s (II), 2000s (V), 2010s (III) B&W/Color: 17/22 Rewatch/Total Counted: 4/38 Countries: 'Murika, Canada, Blighty, France, Germany, Estonia, South Korea, Japan Fran Challenges Complete: 1 * Rewatch
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Oct 21, 2018 04:20
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Back from a horror movie 'thon so I'm ahead of the curve. #19- Splatter University. An unseen man escapes from an institute for the criminally insane, and kills a college professor- soon after, her replacement shows up, and the killings start again. It's obviously trying to be a kind of horror/comedy hybrid but really doesn't do either well, it's the kind of movie where they don't even attempt jokes very often, and instead just have everyone be kinda broad and nutty. There is some intense gore, which feels really out of place when it happens despite the title. Just very crudely made in general, with a lot of weird little editing choices and the like. Basically a drag. #20- Creepers, aka Phenomena. This was an old 35mm print of the American cut (with the silly title), which I'm given to understand omits material from the original cut, and on top of that the print was old enough that there were probably entire seconds of frames dropped. I still had a blast- it's a Dario Argento movie so I already assumed the plot was gonna be loopy, and it is. Jennifer Connelly, pre-Labyrinth, plays the daughter of a famous actor, going to school in Switzerland, where it turns out a lot of murders are taking place. She has a weird psychic link with insects and is prone to sleepwalking, which leads her to a professor (Donald Pleasance) who hopes to maybe get a lead on the killer via her ability to work with bugs. Yeah, look, this poo poo is bananas, and I loving loved it- it's got tons of atmosphere, and the plot, while zany and coincidence laden, holds to its own logic just enough that I was willing to accept its stupider moments. (Of which there are a lot.) Connelly gets really put through her paces here, apart from the role being weird she's in almost every scene and there are at least two that REALLY had to be no fun to shoot. (Checking up on IMDB, she was apparently bitten by a chimp too.) And she pulls it off! There's some good tension at the end, and also Iron Maiden and Motorhead have songs on the soundtrack. So yeah good stuff. Will have to watch the original cut eventually. #21- Re-Animator. I'd seen this before, but it's fun to revisit. An obscure story H.P. Lovecraft wrote entirely out of hunger gets turned into the madcap, very gross adventures of a medical student who has figured out how to revive the dead, only they won't stop screaming and bleeding all over the place. Manages to be outrageous and distasteful without feeling completely cynical or mean- I suspect a big reason is, it's as much an homage to 50s B-movies as it is a contemporary splatterfest. Also helps that Jeffrey Combs is as superb as he is- the rest of the cast is good (David Gale in particular), but he just nails the nerdy sociopath who gives no consideration to anything besides proving himself right. Fran Challenge #2: Queer Horror #22- The Lost Boys. Qualifies because of Joel Schumacher, though any actual LBGT+ themes in the film itself are pretty subdued. Anyway, this is an odd movie that seems to be made up of two parts. One is a very heady, stylish modern Gothic story about a teen falling in with a coven of young vampires hanging around in Santa Barbara, which has a beach, a carnival, and that's basically it- it's such a dirtbag place that everyone's already kinda inured to the frequent disappearances, and you can see how desperation would breed monsters. Then there's the story of the teen's kid brother, who meets a couple of other kids who have figured out that vampires exist and offer to help him out, and this part resembles nothing so much as something like The Monster Squad or Gremlins. There's a lot of goofy comedy in this part, the height being a farcical dinner scene where the kids think mom's date is the head vampire so they try pouring garlic on his spaghetti and shoving a mirror in his face. The implication that the two Frog Brothers are in such bad straits that they've had to set up their own defenses against the undead based on what they've read in comic books is never delved into, they just remain comic types. (There's an interesting detail with Corey Feldman's character always talking in this very affected Rambo voice, which again kinda makes sense, but it's never developed beyond a comic bit.) It still mostly works, the atmosphere is top notch and Schumacher deserves credit for capturing this crazy goth aesthetic a few years before other filmmakers cottoned on, but it lapses back into comedy by the end. Basically I'm not sure what came first, the genuinely scary and intense vampire movie or the wacky kid adventures, and you can tell this script has been through some changes. I dunno, it was okay.
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Oct 21, 2018 06:06
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Franchescanado posted:
20. Personal Challenge Completed ... ...or is it?   Halloween (2018) Whew. I mean, a lot of people were saying this is good, probably the best since the original... and it is! In fact, maybe after I process it some more I'll feel different but I think this might be my favorite one now. Beat for beat the movie's just perfect, scares are earned, tension is built and released, callbacks are had without getting too dumb with it, and Jamie Lee Curtis is superb as always. I mean she's a highly-respected, seasoned actor but she completely steps back into the role as Laurie and she's exactly where you'd expect her to be after 40 years of anticipating Something Going Wrong. And go wrong it does. There are some really gruesome kills in this one and while I appreciate how downplayed and low-key a lot of them are, like just showing the aftermath briefly, they linger on some really uncomfortable and painful scenes. But even so, it still matches tonally to the original, I never once felt like I was watching some slick, ultraviolent modern horror movie. The violence is sudden and shocking when it happens, and once Michael is unleashed even the quiet moments are nerve-wracking. It's really late and I'm beat so I'll cut it short, but I'll just add that I appreciated the little nods to the original like Michael looking over the balcony for Laurie and she's gone, and it's the exact same camera angle as when Loomis looks over the side and Michael's gone with the same music sting. The score's amazing, one scene in particular that stood out was right after Allyson's friend gets killed and then Michael's chasing Allyson. It's just a simple, pounding synth chord but holy poo poo is that a tense moment. The final scene also kinda subtly hints that the bastard is still alive maybe, somehow. I mean we don't see his body. So yeah, initially my humble goal was to hit 20 by the 20th and here we are. But I'm still going to do the remaining Fran challenges, and try to go the full 31 if I can but I'm not going to force it.
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Oct 21, 2018 06:14
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FRAN CHALLENGE #10: Fear and Now 31 Apostle I really liked this one. I agree with other posters that it runs a bit long, but I don't know what I'd cut. All the little bits and pieces are important to fill in what's happening, and if anything I'd like that to have been fleshed out and given more room to breath. There's so much crammed in here but it's all good stuff, and I think it would have worked better in a 4-6 episode miniseries.
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Oct 21, 2018 06:24
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 41. Vampires (1998). Directed by John Carpenter. Watched via Youtube VOD Pound for pound, I think this is worse than Ghosts of Mars. This is technically a better-made film (except for that loving massacre scene) and the soundtrack low-key rips, but everything else feels stunningly lazy. It also has a big ol' mean streak of 90's misogyny and homophobia which makes this really unpleasant to watch now. I don't know how you expect a film where James Woods and Daniel Baldwin are portrayed as the cool, likable vampire slayers to hold up in 2018. Nice to see Sheryl Lee get some post-Twin Peaks work, but she gets very little to do (to be fair, this happened with pretty much every director she worked with at the time who wasn't David Lynch). It's my pick for the worst Carpenter film, but I'd happily pay for a sequel on the condition it consists of Sheryl Lee unrelentingly kicking James Woods' rear end for two hours.
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Oct 21, 2018 09:01
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Friends Are Evil posted:41. Vampires (1998). Directed by John Carpenter. I'm not sure that Woods and Baldwin's characters were supposed to be likable. It's been a while since I've read the book but I don't remember them being much better there.
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Oct 21, 2018 10:21
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37. Slumber Party Massacre (1982) Silly, campy, T&A fest slasher where escaped serial killer with a power drill Russ Thorn menaces a girl's slumber party. Not a lot to say about it, but it was a pretty good time. /538. Slumber Party Massacre 2 (1987)  Picks up with a survivor of the first film who is now older and playing in a cheesy all-girl rock band. She's plagued by nightmares/hallucinations of Russ Thorn, who is now personified as a one-liner spouting greaser with a guitar. The guitar has a loving power drill coming out of the neck of it. I mean just look at this.  2.5 Power Drill Guitars/5 39. Unfriended: Dark Web (2018)  The first Unfriended was a sleeper hit for me. It was surprisingly well done and I actually really enjoyed it. They took an eye-rolling concept and managed to make it the first non-cringy internet based horror movie I think I've ever seen. The sequel revolves around friends chatting on a Skype-alike after our main character joins the chat on his new secondhand laptop. After discovering some files on the computer that seemingly depict kidnapping and murder, things start to get dark. It's shockingly mean-spirited and nihilistic, and overrides the silliness of some of it's big, bad evil dark web tropes with being genuinely intense. It's not a masterpiece, but like the original, I find it to be better than it has any right to be. /5
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Oct 21, 2018 13:13
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Hot Dog Day #89 posted:Mighty Joe Young, 1949 I remember being a little disappointed he wasn't as big as King Kong when I was little.
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Oct 21, 2018 13:29
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37. The Old Dark House on Shudder So little happens in this yet so much goes on. The movie is driven by dialog and atmosphere, and by some really charming performances. My only gripe is that Karloff never speaks. His voice was so iconic (echoic?) and spooky it's always a waste when he's a mute monster or when he's been dubbed over in italian or something. Weird this is the first movie from the first half of the 20th century that I've watched for this challenge, I didn't mean to do that. 4/5 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. The ‘Burbs | 26. Dead and Buried | 27. Digging up the Marrow | 28. Frankenstein Conquers the World | 29. The War of the Gargantuas | 30. Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil | 31. Apostle | 32. Maximum Overdrive | 33. Blood Rage | 34. Tales from the Hood 2 | 35. Halloween (1978) | 36. Halloween (2018) | 37. The Old Dark House Fran Challenges:
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Oct 21, 2018 14:09
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Catching up with a few: Little Monsters I'm gonna make the argument that this felt like a movie that started out as a kids horror movie but got screwed during production. There's certainly a good idea for a kids horror movie in there, but the movie itself is a mess. The tone is all over the place, Howie Mandel is obnoxious, and the comedy just isn't funny. Not much to recommend about it, really. 1.5/5 Venom Since everyone else included it, why not? I had more fun than I expected, the bits that looked sketchy work a lot better in context, and while it wasn't anything groundbreaking, it was a good time at the movies. The final fight did end up just seeming like a mass of slime wrestling with itself, which was kind of underwhelming. 3/5 Halloween 2018 Another Halloween by someone else that is better than the original! I really liked this. It's well shot, there are some really tense sequences, great kills, and Mihael really feels like a murderous force of nature here, carving a path through whoever happens to be within arms reach. And I got to see it at a drive-in, which just felt right. 5/5
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Oct 21, 2018 14:49
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Franchescanado posted:
  39. Last Woman on Earth (1960) - DVD A lot of people find this to be one of or even the weakest entry in Corman's catalogue. I disagree. Corman was a sketchy filmmaker with a rather long list of titles to his credit. Many of them rushed through writing and shooting to make use of leftover sets, borrowed sets, beat pay rule deadlines, get another movie out of actors with some down time before their next project, or just use rights to something. A lot of trash was made. A lot of good ideas not given a proper production. But a lot of interesting concepts were thrown to audiences, many packed as double features for marketing. This one is often likened to an episode of the Twilight Zone. I, again, disagree. It would be better described as a Bradbury short story. Ever leaf through his anthologies? A lot off odd fancies struck him, got a rough treatment, and he moved on to his next idea. Worldwide conspiracy of architects, elderly couple tired of likeless marriage making a murder pact. Author who died too old transported in time to a more fitting demise he had narrowly avoided. Stuff like that. So an unsatisfied, alcoholic trophy wife meets a cute young lawyer in Puerto Rico to work a case for her slimey husband. They all go diving and resurface to find rhe oxygen gone from the air. It goes from there to become a love triangle of three peole losing it in different ways. One becoming more stable and seing what she wants from the men, one devolving to a raving nihilist, and one clinging to now-extinct societal standards. Well written? Well enough. Well shot? Hard not to make Puerto Rico look beautiful even when littered with bodies. Well acted? Better than it gets credit for. Much better. The Terror was Corman's worst while this remains one of my favorites. You may notice that it is not labeled as a rewatch. I'd only ever caught the meat of this a couple decades ago. What I saw stuck in my mind as a basic framework. Seeingnit now, start-to-finish was a surprise. I expected to be let down given its reputation. But no, for all the reasons I love Bradbury's lesser and forgotten works, I am charmed by this simple little movie. 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)7, 19. Horror Hotel (1960), 20. Event Horizon (1997)*, 21. In the Mouth of Madness (1994)3, 22. Frankenstein (1931)*, 23. Monster from a Prehistoric Planet (1967), 24. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), 25. The Funhouse (1981)6, 26. Beetlejuice (1988)5, 27. Fright Night (1985)2, 28. Son of Frankenstein (1939), 29. The Terror, 30. A Cure for Wellness (2016), 31. Blood Diner (1987), 32. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), 33. The Killer Shrews (1959)9, 34. The Devil Bat (1940)9, 35. The Bat (1959), 36. Alien Apocalypse (2005)*, 37. Dave Made a Maze (2017)8, 38. Wrong Turn (2003), 39. Last Woman on Earth (1960)4 Years Spanned: 95 (1922-2017) Tally by Decade: '20s (I), '30s (V), '40s (III), '50s (IV), '60s (VII), '70s (III), '80s (VII), '90s (II), 2000s (V), 2010s (III) B&W/Color: 18/22 Rewatch/Total Counted: 4/39 Countries: 'Murika, Canada, Blighty, France, Germany, Estonia, South Korea, Japan Fran Challenges Complete: 1 * Rewatch
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Oct 21, 2018 15:44
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27. Night of the Demons (1988) There's a school dance, but all of the cool kids are going to Hull House instead, to have a party. Local good girl Judy gets dressed in her costume and shows us her butt. Local bad girl Suzanne distracts the clerks and the grocery store with her panties while Angela steals party supplies. This movie has an obsession with asses that I can't really complain about. Meanwhile local party animal Stooge drives two people to the party who clearly lost some sort of drawing and don't want to be in the car with him. Stooge is a party dude, and as a party dude the only name he knows to call women is 'bitch'. Once at the house, we learn it's history of demon problems and things finally start ramping up, cinematographically if nothing else. A mirror breaks, and there's this cool as hell shot of the entire case in the pieces of the broken mirror. The group splits up, possessions happen, demonic chaos erupts. It was a hell of a lot of fun. /528. Slender Man 2018  Fran Challenge: Fear and Now A group of high school girls have a slumber party, lead by two girls who look entirely too alike to cast as friends in a horror movie. Anyway, because this is 2018 they don't perform the traditional slumber party act of getting naked. Instead, one of the girls is all "hey let's watch a youtube video which will summon slender man" and the rest agree. Then they get stalked by slender man. Here's the fun thing about slender man. He's a background villain who shows up in the distance in photographs, or briefly in movies, but never all that close enough to really tell if you're looking at a tree or a shadow or a scary dude. Boy does this fleeting nature translate well to a movie! There were several jump scares where there just wasn't anything there. Like, big musical sting, character jumps, I rewind to see if I missed something but still don't see anything. The movie is dark as hell, so when they head into the forest you can't tell what exactly is going on, but you don't really care because overall it's boring. They also do that fast-shaking-head thing, in combination with pulsing rooms, which makes me think that the occult girl dosed their drinks before having them summon this character. Just remarkably lame. /529. Sometimes They Come Back (1991)  A failed teacher with a remarkably bad and untreated case of PTSD returns to his home town, where the trauma actually happened. Seems like a real bad idea, right? As a kid, he and his older brother were bullied by a gang of cool greasers, who ineptly try to steal their lunch money before stabbing his brother and getting hit and exploded real good by a train. As a present day teacher, he see visions of the greasers returning to torment himself and his class of kids. Stephen King short stories do not make good full-length movies. It is too much time to fill, and here they fill it with maudlin Hallmark movie music and moping about town. It is criminally boring, and only recovers when the hyena-like greasers show up to laugh a lot and kill. At least they were having fun. /530. Night of the Demons 2 (1994)  At no point during the first movie did I get the idea that Angela was a main demon, or that she might return in the future to demon again, but here we are. This movie is the Evil Dead 2 to the original's Evil Dead: original idea, but zanier and turned up to 11. Lots of girls being randomly nude in dorm rooms with each other, an rear end-kicking nun, an amateur demonologist, and a 55-gallon drum of holy water really add up to a fun demon fighting movie. This series is a gem. At least, the first two are. /5
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Oct 21, 2018 16:21
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15. The Wicker Man (1973) A police officer from mainland UK goes to a remote island community to investigate a case of possible missing girl, after being tipped off personally by an anonymous letter. The community is weird religious cult that seems to obstruct him at every step but he continues on doing the regular detective stuff. Progressively he gets more and more turned off by the behavior of the locals, who don't worship Jesus and dance around naked in the streets. By the end he's ready to just leave and report everything to his commanders but his plane doesn't start and he has to stay for their annual festival, where he finally manages to track down the girl. So that's the other wicker Man, with much less Nic Cage and woman punching but way more boobies. I seem to recall the remake being a bit more entertaining, though this one has a nicely escalating set of bizarre activities from the locals and a bit more to say about our protagonist's character. On the downside it didn't feel very scary at all and knowing the twist probably further detracted from the experience. Overall it's a better movie for sure but if I had to watch one of them again, I'd probably go for the remake. And maybe regret it  /5Double feature last night: 16. The Loved Ones (2009)  The movie opens with what feels like a classic zombie setup: someone is driving along, gets distracted for a moment and looks back only to see a strange figure in the middle of the road just seconds before hitting it. But instead of being swarmed by zombies, we flash forward six month and learn that it was a high school kid driving and his father died when he hit a tree. Nevertheless life continues and it's the day before prom, our guy Brent already has a sweetheart and has to reject another girl, while his fat stoner friend scores a date with a goth/metal chick. The next day the stoner guy picks up his girl Mia, and Brent goes for a walk to either meet up with his girl or just to clear his head. The poster kind of gives it away anyway, the girl he rejected is a psycho and has her equally psycho daddy kidnap the poor kid for her to play with. While the beginning might feel like a typical teen comedy/drama, it gets pretty loving dark and disturbing quickly, it really doesn't waste much time. The b-plot with his buddy's date night doesn't connect in any way with the main story, but works as a funny contrast of what typical teenage debauchery looks like. There's a decent amount of gore and body horror, and all the effects look pretty nice and practical. There isn't really much more to say, but it's definitely one of the most fun movies so far. /517. Suspiria (1977)  A young dancer travels from NY to Germany to study ballet at a famous school. The night she arrives, she's not let inside the school where she's supposed to stay, but sees another woman run outside into pouring rain and into the woods. She doesn't see what happens to her next, but we do  Eventually she settles down and strange but explainable things start happening, such as maggots falling from the ceiling into the dorms. I'll probably need to rewatch at least part of this one, it was getting pretty late and I feel like i might've fallen asleep during parts of the third act. Still, what I do remember was a bit disappointing. The first two kills take place pretty early on and on very interesting sets, and then there's long period of pretty mundane stuff. The aforementioned maggots are a great way to step up the weirdness but then everything is explained away soon after. It was probably building up to something but I sadly don't remember how it ended :d Anyway, I'll hold off with the rating until I can see the second half again. Also there's a remake coming out any day now that seems to have pretty decent reviews: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034415/?ref_=nv_sr_1 Franchescanado posted:
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Oct 21, 2018 17:37
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Dolls (1987) Challenge: Stranger Danger  Stuart Gordon 80s Doll-themed spook'em'up that walks a weird thin line between being a kid-friendly horror comedy like Gremlins and being...extremely not that. Pretty clearly a proto-Puppet Master both in the obvious way and in the murderous toys deliberately choosing comically unsympathetic victims. I'm not a huge fan of the way a lot of eighties horror movies tried to make the audiences root for their killer by making the victims dicks, but this film makes up for it with great haunted mansion atmosphere and a strong fairy tale sensibility. This would be a good movie for kids who are a little too young for it to watch at a sleepover without their parents knowing. Underneath their doll faces the dolls are tiny animate skeletons and I feel like they left a lot of money on the table not making a second movie about that because tiny animate skeletons holy poo poo. 3.5/5  s
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Oct 21, 2018 18:15
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Franchescanado posted:
#10 Blood Feast (1963)  This movie is a delight. It's not even close to being legitimately good, but every element works together so perfectly that I was charmed the whole way through. The acting and dialogue are both wonderfully stilted, the main villain and his numerous crazy-eyed close-ups are great, the premise is bizarre, the lingering shots of carnage are awkward, and it's impossible not to laugh any time someone says "blood feast" in a serious tone. All that said, I think the real heroes of this film are the music and foley. The organ-lead soundtrack frames the grisly shots it accompanies as almost cute, and my absolute favorite moment in the entire movie is when they let loose a single, half-hearted tuba burp the moment a character dramatically passes away. This would've been a great group watch, but even alone I really enjoyed myself. It's clearly in bad taste, but it's just so quaint and charming in its execution that it's funny to think about anyone getting seriously mad about it. Watched (10/15): #1 As Above, So Below (2014), #2 Shutter (2004), #3 A Dark Song (2016), #4 The Endless (2017), #5 Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978), #6 Blade II (2002), #7 Tag (2015), #8 Tale of Tales (2015), #9 Under the Shadow (2016), #10 Blood Feast (1963) Fran Challenges (3/10): #1,
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Oct 21, 2018 18:28
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