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Fran Challenge #9 Stranger Danger 34- Witch in the Window After asking around for a while I finally got a recommendation for something I hadn’t seen. I didn’t like this as much as others here seemed to, though. The slow burn was a bit too slow, although I’ll admit once things started to go down it got pretty great for a while though, and yeah the phone call was a solid bit, plus being a divorced dad a lot of stuff got to me more than it would most. The fact that it looks like a Lifetime original movie, and that thing where it had like 3 natural endings before it finally did end, dragged it back down for me though. Opopanax fucked around with this message at 05:49 on Oct 24, 2018 |
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Oct 24, 2018 05:47
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#25- The Howling Joe Dante's werewolf extravaganza is a little ropier than I remembered- not bad at all, but not quite as tight as it could be. It's an engaging story, to be sure, with Dee Wallace as an anchorperson whose encounter with a serial killer sends her to a therapeutic retreat, whose inhabitants seem to have a peculiar culture all their own. Patrick Macnee is the new-age psychologist who's all about getting people back in touch with their natural instincts, Dick Miller runs an occult bookstore, and Robert goddamn Picardo is the killer, who is shot dead by police but doesn't let that keep him down for long. Oh yeah, the werewolves are awesome, with some glorious transformation sequences. It feels like Dante was still learning a few things, but overall a fun time.
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Oct 24, 2018 06:41
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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 3: Hometown Horror) 5. Dawn of the Dead (2004) (Fran Challenge 4: 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 11. Hell House LLC 12. The Purge (2013) 13. Interview With The Vampire (1994) (Fran Challenge 5: Birth of Horror) 14. He Never Died 15. Leatherface 16. Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon 17. Demons (Demoni)  From the son of Mario Bava, Lamberto Bava, and with heavy influence from Dario Argento, comes something that is very Italian, and even more so an Italian Horror Movie. The tone and cinematography is incredibly competent, and sometimes even extraordinary. And meanwhile, the writing, the acting, and storytelling are second rate, borderline incompetent even. The approach is to do whatever works, with little regard to anything other than what would make a Good Scary Movie. It's not a great movie, but it's a drat entertaining one. It's bloody, and occasionally gross. It's characters are weird Twin Peaks-ian facsimiles of people. It's pacing isn't necessarily bad, but occasionally will divert from the action of the film in really bizarre ways. It's visceral violence upsetting, and the titular creature's omnipotent control over the space bring to mind disturbing implications. It's climax involves (just in case you want to go in blind) a ridiculous battle against the titular Demons from on top a dirt bike, riding on top of multiple row of seats, while wielding a samurai sword. It's too clumsy to be a good movie, but it's got way too much talent and vision to be a Good Bad Movie. It's somewhere nebulously outside of the spectrum, and fits right in with general oeuvre of Italian Horror. 18. Saw (2004)  First time watching any of the movies in this series. Several months ago I bought a set of the complete series (minus Jigsaw), with the intention of binging them for the Challenge. I figure it's probably well known that this one is notorious for being atypical for the series. This film's follow ups would bring the series a reputation of being simultaneously a showcase of over the top death machines and operatic melodrama. And those elements are present here, but are more background elements to the proto-Escape Room shenanigans and the mystery of the two leads' circumstances. It's the film aiming to be more than a horror movie, and maybe even reach that brass ring of being known as a 'Thriller'. But it's also hard to reconcile it's ambitions with it's indulgences; The creepy doll, the pig masks, and other over-the-top elements bring it right back into the horror ghetto. Ultimately, this is a fine film. It's flawed, such as Jigsaw's over the top and overly competent nature, Leigh Whannell being nowhere on the same level as Cary Elwes, and the plot being unnecessarily elaborate. But it's fine, it's watchable, and it's for the most part still effective. It's just hard to reconcile what the series' reputation is, what this film aspires to be, and what this film actually is. And as well, it just hard to take the film's cinematography and editing seriously. It just feels like a cheap nu-metal music video, a product that can only be from a very specific point and time. Perhaps it's the same phenomenon as Shakespeare, where the film's style reached such a large cultural mass that it's no longer fresh or original. Though on the other hand, the largely agreed upon philosophy of design (though applies to cinematography and editing too) is that if it's working well then it should be almost invisible, and not be super noticable. Like I said, it's a fine film, but ultimately and unfortunately flawed. 19. Possession (1981) (Fran Challenge 6: Video Nasty)  Looking through the list of Video Nasties, this film seemed like the odd one out. Most of the films listed are about evil do-ers going out and inflicting harm, or outsiders interloping at the cost of their lives. This film, however, is about a married couple's marriage breaking down in an emotionally draining, metaphorical manner. It seems to pop up every several months or so in the Horror Thread, and generally with the same response each time: 'What the gently caress did I watch'. It's not spoken about in the same way that other films on the list are. Certainly, most are known for their bloody violent reputation, like The Evil Dead or Cannibal Holocaust. But when people talk about this film, it's described as a more emotionally disturbing, interpersonal horror. Most Video Nasties are titillating, but Possession is disquieting. So yeah, 'What the gently caress did I watch' is a fair assessment. It's very Arthouse-y and very European, so it has a lot more going on in it than a typical Horror film does. The atmosphere is alternately switching between ethereal and causticly toxic, the storytelling is fairly dreamlike in it's progression, and the characters act very alien in their motivation. The film is intentionally confusing at times, and holds little answers for it's big questions. Plot and motivation are second to it's themes and atmosphere. The performance and story can be described as Romantic (the art period, not the emotions), being at times overwrought yet anchored in understandable emotions. You can't help but imagine the process of filming this movie as being inscrutable and exceptionally agonizing. This isn't to say that watching the film is itself an agonizing, nigh unwatchably brutal experience itself (like how people imagine torture porn films are, or Salo, or even the original Martyrs is [spoiler]me in this case[/spoilers]). However, it's not accurate to say that it's an easy watch as well. There is legitimately upsetting content in this film, and it's earned a place on a list of notorious objectionable films (though none of the films deserved to have been banned completely, Possession especially). In conclusion, Possession 20. Saw 2  So yeah, the series is almost there, but not quite. The death traps certainly are getting more exposure compared to its predecessor, but the film still feels too rooted in interpersonal drama. And maybe that would be fine, but everyone lives on the spectrum of boring-to-rear end in a top hat. No one in particular is interesting, I would argue even the villains Jigsaw and spoiler-not-spoiler Amanda too. Character motivations are based on stereotypes rather than history or the events folding in front of them. And even then, plot progression is more arbitrary than natural. Even it's twist was highly, highly telegraphed. And even once it was evident what the reveal was, it still took like 5 minutes for the characters to catch up. This is just loving awful script. As well, the camera flourishes seemed to have been a touch toned down. However, this seemed to have been replaced with even more incompetent filmmaking. Shot quality is schizophrenic within scenes, switching from looking like digital HD to blown out 16mm within one particularly boring conversation. The lighting is flat, and the shots often look like they come out of a low framerate reality show. I mean, my god, the producers should feel embarrassed judging this appropriate for a Wide Release. This isn't the worst film I've seen (far from it), but this was the most evidently incompetent and uninteresting film I've seen of the whole month. Also, the best role Donnie Wahlberg ever had was as Mark's brother on Doug Loves Movies. Check it.
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Oct 24, 2018 09:00
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 19) Splinter 2008 - Decent but not crucial One of the dudes from Royal Pains marries above his station but gets to walk away from a night of horror with his wife while lesser folk die around him. The greatest consequence of the presumably small budget isn't the two locations, one of which is a field, or the uneven and at times laughable special effects. It's the microscopic cast relative to the screen time they all receive. From my memory six people appear in the film; only four get more than one scene (plus death throes) and only three get a substantive amount of dialogue. This means most of the movie is spent watching those three people stand around and wonder if something's going to happen. The sound design was pretty dope, though. Two thumbs up for that aspect by itself.  20) CreepTales 2004 I guess - Fun in a group, don't watch alone Some buried anthology from a time lost to the ages released for incomprehensible reasons. Surprising amount of quality from a few of the stories. The same cannot be said of the production values. Overall something I'll only revisit in gif form thanks to enterprising video herders from the Scream Stream.  I'm actively looking for excuses to post this gif -- Franchescanado said I could split up the two fully distinct seasons of Slasher into their own entries~  21) Slasher Season One: The Executioner 2016 - Somehow both trying too hard and not nearly trying hard enough A woman returns to her hometown--and site of the brutal slayings of her parents--as an adult with her husband in tow. Soon after a series of homicides begins taking place seemingly perpetrated by a copycat of her parents' killer. The opening sequence of this season is stellar and the remainder of the show fails to live up to the introduction. There certainly are high points to enjoy over the course of eight episodes but this story is a prime example of being a mixed bag. The positives: the portions of the show focusing on the more episodic nature of the kills are the best aspect of the production. Once the show settles into a groove the victims are rather clearly marked but understanding why the victims are chosen makes the episodes more fun than they probably deserve. Character dynamics bob and weave in strange directions as the cast narrows and more sins are unearthed. The killer's visual design is strong and imposing. The negatives: the portions of the show focusing on the overarching story and connective tissue are the worst aspect of the production. The killer's motives are weak to the point of distraction. This wouldn't be a big problem except the show wants to be a slasher that's also Silence of the Lambs but don't forget a heaping helping of Seven too! Only the slasher portions work. The Silence parts aren't terrible but are heavy handed. They lead somewhere decent but not spectacular. The Seven parts are about as cohesive as runny jello especially in hindsight when you realize how limp the killer's mindset is. The acting is scattershot with special notice given to the lead actress' ever-wandering accent. Concerning the identity of the killer sometimes I try to figure these things out and sometimes I get immersed to the point where I don't really even want to connect the dots because I just want to watch the story happen on its own time. This season was not interesting enough to get me to dive in fully so I felt that it was too easy to notice that one and only one character was ever in position to do the things the killer was pulling off. So, bonus demerits from me. The action is a mixed bag. The more dynamic kills are, by and large, reminiscent of things done in better shows and movies. I recommend this only to the bored and patient. Season 2 is better.  22) Slasher Season Two: Guilty Party 2017 - My favorite character lived so I declare the season a success A group of six college students working as camp counselors decide one of their number has violated numerous friend codes and drum her out of the group. They accidentally drum a little too hard, though, and she dies in the ensuing confrontation. Fearing reprisal and ruination the remaining counselors stuff her body under a rock in the Canadian wilderness and call it a day. Five years later they learn that the land the now-former campground is on has been purchased by a developer looking to build new facilities on the property. Fueled by paranoia the five counselors take a trip the winter before construction is set to begin to move the body to a more secure location. Things don't go as planned. Virtually all complaints I had about season one--the sloppy writing, unremarkable characters, weak killer motivation, trying too hard to be like movies it has no chance of properly mimicking--are solved here. The only real tradeoff relative to the first season is that the killer's visual design isn't nearly as striking. The emphasis on secret pasts from season one returns as an even bigger part of season two. Overall this is done better than season one in no small part due to the entire plot and a bulk of the characterization relying on this part of the storytelling rather than having it be another gimmick on top of the trainwreck of hooks that season one employed. This season also marks an uptick in rating, leading to notably more language and gore. Compare, for example, the first on screen kill of both seasons for a direct nod to the advancement of what the show is putting on the table. Overall nearly every aspect of the show is improved in season 2 and I'm looking forward to the announced season 3. Franchescanado posted:
I don't like movies about spoopy children. There's never enough spoop and among the movies I've seen in the subgenre the potential for deeper storytelling tends to be wasted as window dressing for the main event of kids killing things. This wouldn't even be worth mentioning save for the fact that I don't think there's anything inherently interesting about a horror movie that revolves around the premise of murderous children. Werewolves can rend and tear, vampires can corrupt and subvert, the cruel and uncaring universe can coldly shrug. Kids can't tie their own shoes. I need more. There's a deep well of interest to be drawn from that's readily available in more dramatic renditions of the theme. In horror realms, however, discussions about psychopathic innocence, the collapse of societal hopes and expectations, and fear of the alien nature of the rising generation get buried for the shock value of an easily puntable mini person getting frisky with a pair of scissors. Too easily the concept becomes a cinematic cul de sac of filmmakers trying and failing to create a work more dynamic than the most mediocre Child's Play movie.  23) The Children 2009 - What terror lurks when the smallest and least capable of us rise in anger I fully appreciate the thread stipulation of not being overly negative. In honor of that demand I will write a review that is much kinder than this thermos of backwash pretending to be a movie deserves. I don't use the word 'hate' liberally. For all the bad or, worse, boring movies I've seen there have been very few that I've properly hated. Disliked? Sure. Been disappointed in? Of course. Hated? It's a genuinely short list. A movie I hate is one that leans so heavily on a clumsy aspect or mishandled plot device or flimsy premise to the point where it overwhelms my experience completely. It can be a little irrational or peculiar because what gets my goat might not come anywhere close to anyone else's. Have you ever seen The Good Dinosaur? I hate that movie. I can't engage with it at even a basic level because the setup is too lazy for me to be willing to follow along. For the blissfully uninitiated it's the story of an Earth where dinosaurs don't go extinct and in time develop enough intelligence to become capable of agriculture and civilization. They essentially follow the track of development that humans eventually would otherwise obtain. As a consequence human beings still exist but remain arrested in their development as wild animals. They're basically raccoons stealing from the dinosaurs' grain silos. The dino protagonist of the movie is tasked by his father with killing a young human who has repeatedly stolen their food and in turn was caught in a vermin trap. Our lead blanches and lets the human go. After being told off by his father and sent into the wilds to hunt and kill the thieving human a storm causes flood waters to rise. As a consequence the father, in an effort to come to the aid of his child, drowns in the river. This leads to a journey of self-discovery on the part of the young dino as he travels the land and learns to appreciate the human he failed to exterminate, who has become his plucky animal sidekick. That's right; the plot revolves around you, the viewer, being okay with the idea of watching a movie where a kid gets his dad killed because the lad refused to kill a raccoon that was stealing from the family's limited food stores. The raccoon is shaped like a young human but this is only to provoke sympathy in the audience; the entire premise of the film is that dinosaurs are the dominant species. They have replaced humans in the timeline of this world. The entire film hinges on you, the viewer, looking at the human child on the screen and ignoring all of the world building the movie has just taken the time to set in front of you detailing how the dinosaurs in the movie are the human analogues. The dinosaurs aren't dinosaurs; they're people! Come watch the people dinosaurs build a farm and have adventures! The humans of the film aren't humans. They're raccoons. Don't let your dad die because you pitied a raccoon. ~ I hate The Children. It is the epitome of why I hate spoopy children movies. What setup is there to make the children menacing? They start coughing in the way all children always do whenever you think you might have a peaceful evening around them. What setup is there to make the adults more interesting? Several lines of dialogue providing rough outlines of their respective parenting styles and providing for the potential of various dynamics between one another as well as between them and the children of each of the respective couples. (Nearly) None of that winds up meaning anything though because the specter of SPOOKY KIDS is apparently supposed to be enough to carry the weight of the film. IT ISN'T Especially when, at the onset, it's the smallest kids who are the most violent. You know, the ones that are the slowest and weakest and worst-equipped to do anything other than freeze to death outside. If it sounds like I'm ragging on the movie for failing to provide bloodthirsty hyperzombie kids it's because it wants me to be menaced by squat morons with the sniffles. It really, really doesn't help that the first kill only occurs because a man on a sled with well more than ample warning to get out of the way of a hazard does literally nothing of any kind to dodge or protect himself. It set a strong negative tone for the mistakes the adults would need to make for the movie to have any kind of forward momentum. On the one hand, some of the characters cotton on to the threat comparatively quick and keep themselves safe but on the other hand this movie demands too much stupidity and circumstance to function as even a rough slug of a plot so I don't feel like giving it any due. Also the ending with the stinger of the teenager possibly being infected is the kind of gotcha that direct-to-VHS features spent the entirety of the 80s abusing and refusing to justify while still being more welcome than what happens here. Turning off this movie felt like escaping from a cage. Franchescanado posted:
 Qualifying director: Robert Siodmak, 1900 - 1973 24) The Spiral Staircase 1946 - Who is killing the great invalids of Vermont? In early 1900s New England a killer is on the loose and murdering women with notable physical or mental imperfections. At a local manor the lady of the house, weak in body but still fiery in spirit, fears for her favorite servant, a young lady mute since a childhood trauma. As the night advances and the storm outside howls it appears that the young lady is in more trouble than anyone initially thought. Movies like this are one of the biggest reasons I love digging through classic films. I've never taken a film studies or production course so movies like this, which is far from forgotten in circles where technique lineages are well known, are a fun surprise for me. In the same movie as the smirking, brandy-stealing maid and the rejected, sourfaced nurse is a series of shots and moments and point of view shifts that I recognize from much later giallos and slashers. The story, though thin, is still just as thick as it needs to be to feel like a satisfying watch. I started the film on guard for a slog and was rewarded with a good time. The climax is aces and made for a fulfilling ending to my movie watching for the evening.
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Oct 24, 2018 09:22
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Stupid World Series distraction… 38 (40). Night of the Creeps (1986) Recorded off the SONY Network.  Alien slug experiments crash land on Earth and start a zombie frat douche apocalypse! Also a weird 1950s ax murderer subplot and totally gratuitous naked alien battle! For funnies! I’ve loved Slither for years and like watch it every October and I always compare it to Night of the Creeps because like I know its a homage/knockoff, but I’ve never actually seen it before. At least I think I haven’t. You know that thing where you start a movie you’re pretty sure you haven’t seen but then characters or scenes or lines strike familiar? I’d mark this as a “rewatch” but I really didn’t remember the plot or 90% of the film. So my guess is I either watched it in passing one time and didn’t retain much, just caught bits and pieces growing up, or just watched a lot of trailers and clip shows. Anyway, this is a fun little quintessential 80s horror. Its got creepy crawlies, different stages of zombies, gratuitous nudity, nerds and jocks at war, the perfect girl next door who is good with a flame thrower. The works. And I really did enjoy that it just threw a bunch of random rear end subplots in for really no narrative sake at all. Just like clearly as a love letter to B horror subgenres that the movie isn’t actually but decided to throw in just for fun. I did think the early half of the movie dragged a little bit, perhaps in part due to all the homage stuff adding up for a lot of scenes that didn’t feel terribly connected. In retrospect I think it does serve a bit of a narrative purpose since JC dies so early into the film and you clearly want to know him so you feel the affect of that death and it worked, so I’ll give it a pass. But I do think without those extra weird ‘50s ax murderer, alien spaceship, and 80s frat movie stuff they probably could have told that part of the story a little quicker and gotten to the zombie fun. But all in all an enjoyable good time and one of those movies that I probably should have seen a long time ago knocked off the list. 39 (41). Night of the Demon (1957) Available on Daily Motion.  Dr. Holden arrives in London to visit a convention where a colleague intends to reveal evidence of a Satanic cult, only to find that he’s dead and a cult member is suspected. Holden doubts all the supernatural but his colleague’s niece attempts to convince him that not only was her uncle the victim of an occult murder but that he’s been marked as next. That was a real gem. Thanks to everyone who suggested it. A great story with great build and a number of really good scenes like the seance and the cat and mouse game at the end. Oh and the birthday party storm. Just lots of good. I guess the big controversy is that the director, screenplay writer, and actor didn’t want to show the demon but the producer put it in. Apparently they were so mad the actor threatened to quit and the director claimed he’d kill the producer. That seems a bit much. I think the Demon looks pretty good for the 50s. I mean, obviously it doesn’t look realistic now but its no worse than Godzilla or something. It worked for me. I guess the real issue is that everyone wanted it to be ambiguous and for it to be uncertain if there was a demon or magic at all. I don’t know if that would have been better or worse since it really would feel like a totally different movie. I’m not sure how I’d believe it wasn’t real with the storm scene but I also don’t know if I would have been engaged and tense if I had thought it might be fake. I don’t know. It could go either way and I guess I understand why they didn’t want it changed, but I’m also not sure stuff like the seance and cat and mouse scene would have worked as well if the magic wasn’t known to be real. Seems like those scenes could have become very silly and comedic if I was thinking it was all a ruse and everyone was just making believe or crazy. Its one thing if Karswell’s mom and the seance guy become silly because of it, since they were all ready a little silly. But it would seem to threaten to turn Karswell himself into a bit of a buffoon and I think that could have really hurt the movie. Definitely loved it, maybe one of my favorite movies of the month. 7 years left with 8 days to go. I’m kind of feeling a big digression for the latest Fran challenge that could cost me a day at least. And I’m not totally sure what I’m watching for the rest of the movies. Much like last year my last batch of years is coming down to the ones that I didn’t really find anything that excites me and seems like a must watch so either one of you guys are gonna suggest something great (and accessible) or I’m gonna pick a random one. 
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Oct 24, 2018 10:06
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32. Halloween (2007) Despite loving horror for years and years and years I didn't watch any of the long running series till I started with these challenges a few years back. I remember seeing dozens of video tape covers at the rental store, but for some reason I never picked them. No Halloween, no Friday the 13th, no Chucky, no Nightmare on Elm Street, no Hellraiser. When I started participating in these challenges I decided to watch some of these series. Lurking in the main horror thread these movies obviously come up a lot and ranking them seems to happen almost weekly. Reading things like "the one with the druids" or "the one where he goes to New York but actually stays on a boat" when people discuss the many, many sequels convinced me I should just watch the first movie and skip the rest. However, Halloween 2 by Rob Zombie comes up a lot and has piqued my interest. So, to prepare for that, I decided to give one of the many sequels/remakes a try and start with his first Halloween movie. I guess this was.....okay? There are a lot of strong points that I dug; Myers stealthily appearing in the frame often, or easy to miss as he was part of the background despite his size was well done. Colors were very nice and the general use of light and shadow was very pretty. All the stuff regarding his childhood was well done and genuinely disturbing On the other hand, there was a lot that didn't work. I really didn't care for this Laurie. The weird teenybopper vibe just didn't work for me, nor were any of her friends interesting. This makes it hard to care about what happens to them. The ending drags, a lot. The mostly quick, clean kills get replaced by a cat-and-mouse game that just goes on for too long. After wrecking the walls to find her, lets wrack the ceiling too. The fall into the empty pool was also groanworthy. Despite how well done the childhood stuff was it still explained something and took away some of the mystery. Instead of just hearing Loomis we now saw everything and I don't know if that was necessary. If the second part is the same quality I won't be disappointed, but with everyone singing its praises I expect it to be a more enjoyable experience.
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Oct 24, 2018 10:54
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 176- Night of the Living Dead 1990 - DVD This one's a bit special to me since when I first saw it I had just had my first 'serious' relationship breakup and was taking it pretty hard so some friends of my Mom took me to see this one to cheer me up. Added bonus was bumping into my ex at the theater as a really sour faced ticket taker and the guys I was with being catty about him within earshot. As the first remake of NotLD, it's pretty much a given there's going to be some adjustments to the story to make it worth going to the show instead of just watching the original. It's pretty much a given that Barbara's going to have more of a role than being in numb shock. There's other tweaks here and there that do add a freshness to the story we all know so well along with addressing some of the points we've all commented on at one time or another. I'd have to say that the zombie makeup here has to be my favorite on the 'so what would zombies really look like' scale. Very much worth a watch.  177- The Guardian 1990 - PRIME I have to give credit to a film that makes dryads seem pretty drat scary. When this came out I remember it getting hyped up as Friedkin's return to horror. While not on a The Exorcist level of scary, this one's pretty good. From what I've heard Raimi was supposed to direct this but ended up doing Darkman. Not sure how this would've gone with him at the helm since the script was going through revisions even through filming. Overall, I liked it.
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Oct 24, 2018 12:47
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21. Cronos (1994) An antique dealer comes across a device that promises eternal life and accidentally uses it on himself. At the same time, a dying industrial tycoon seeks to get the the same device with the help of bilingual Ron Perlman and shenanigans ensue. This... was ok, I know it's pretty well regarded and I did appreciate the filmmaking but it didn't really to much for me, I thought it could do something much more interesting with what is essentially the fountain of youth concept. The vampire stuff was also weird and didn't really go anywhere interesting either.  /5
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Oct 24, 2018 13:43
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39. The Changeling 1980 | dir. Peter Medak | YouTube This has been on my backburner for a while. I asked for haunted house recommendations over a year ago, and HUNDU mentioned this one to me. I watched twenty minutes, but it's really a better film for a cold day, preferably winter. But last night was rainy and chilly, so I threw it on.  This is a spooky movie about the grieving process and trying to start a new beginning by correcting the past. What I've seen during this October challenge are certain rhythms--or patterns, echoes, or maybe a less flighty term--that move through films of the same era. This feels like a companion piece to The Shining, despite their release dates being only two months apart (in America). While it's not on the same level as Kubrick's masterful ghost story of mania, it offers a different side of someone's mind breaking, grasping for answers in shadows. I love George C. Scott here. He embodies the role perfectly. He looks tired, old, sad. He looks hopeless and moody. The psychic scene is also a great moment of suspense. It's one of the best in the genre, alongside The Legend of Hell House. The screenplay was apparently inspired by playwright Russell Hunter experiencing a haunting in the 1960s, which I would like to read more about. Recommended! Movies Seen: Hell House, LLC | Dagon | The Bird With the Crystal Plumage | Critters 2 | Serial Mom | Monster Squad | The Neon Demon | Motel Hell | Vampyr | Possession | Under The Skin | Martyrs | The Curse of the Werewolf | The Old Dark House | Children of the Corn | Assassination Nation | The Leopard Man | Halloween 2 | Häxan | Friday the 13th Part 7: The New Blood | What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? | Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things | Near Dark | The Witches | Tenebrae | Return of the Living Dead | Masque of the Red Death | Cast a Deadly Spell | Clive Barker's Underworld | The 7th Victim | The Addiction | The Witchfinder General | Curse of Chucky | Puppetmaster | The Fall of the House of Usher (1928) | Alice Sweet Alice | Halloween ('18) | The Lords of Salem | The Changeling ('80) Total: 39 Fran Challenges:
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Oct 24, 2018 13:56
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 Personal goal completed! 31. The Bloodstained Shadow (1978, Antonio Bido) Source: Blu-ray (owned)  Venice makes an excellent setting for a giallo. The foggy streets and the canals at night just seem like the perfect place for a black-gloved murderer to stalk his (or her) victims. This film uses its location to great effect. It's a very nice looking movie. This is one of only two gialli that Antonio Bido made (and one of only four films total), which is too bad because the guy totally gets the giallo visual aesthetic. The dissonant, jazzy score, which was composed by Stelvio Cipriani and performed by Goblin, is terrific and the most memorable thing about the movie. But it suffers from its script. The screenplay takes great effort to be air tight, but in doing so feels contrived. This, like far too many gialli, cares mostly about the whodunnit story and not nearly enough about its characters. Most of the dialog is in place solely to drive the story so a lot of it feels labored and artificial. The especially out-of-sync dub doesn't help matters (I started watching it with the Italian track, then switched to the English. They're both pretty bad but the English was slightly less off-putting). It's also disappointingly light on gore. Gialli are at their best when they fully embrace the exploitation inherent to the genre and go all out with the gore. We get two semi-memorable kills (the fireplace kill was the standout), but overall it's pretty dry. This is mid-tier giallo. I've seen better, I've seen worse. The setting, cinematography and the music elevate it, but otherwise there's not much here to make it stand out.   (3 pet rats out of 5) _____________________________________________ Total: 31 Watched: The Blob (4.5) | Mandy (5) | The Hands of Orloc (4) | Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (4.5) | Fright Night (3) | Black Magic Part II (4) | Body Melt (3.5) | Suspiria (5) | The Old Dark House (4.5) | The Nude Vampire (3.5) | The Thing From Another World (3) | Phantasm (4) | Basket Case 2 (3) | Murders in the Rue Morgue (2) | The Tenant (5) | The Howling (3) | Calvaire (3.5) | Hereditary (5) | Nothing Left to Fear (1) | The Black Cat (4) | The Killing of a Sacred Deer (4.5) | The Hills Have Eyes Part II (0.5) | Cannibal Holocaust (3) | Apostle (2) | Christine (3.5) | Winterbeast (4) | Terrified (3) | Halloween 2018 (4) | Revenge (1.5) | The Witch in the Window (3.5) | The Bloodstained Shadow (3) Fran Challenges: Countries: USA (19) | Italy (4) | France (3) | Argentina (1) | Hong Kong (1) | Germany (1) | Belgium (1) | Australia (1) Decades: 1920s (1) | 1930s (3) | 1950s (1) | 1970s (7) | 1980s (6) | 1990s (3) | 2000s (1) | 2010s (9) Spatulater bro! fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Oct 24, 2018 |
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Oct 24, 2018 15:50
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I asked my partner what I should watch last night and she told me... 32) Heathers I went back and forth a lot on this one. But there's murder, there's plotting, there's stalking... I think it counts. The final act FEELS very horror-y. And drat what a fuckin' great movie. 33) Hush I love this movie so much. One of my favorite Netflix original finds that I watched on a whim. Watched (33): Puppet Master 4, Puppet Master 5, Terrifier, Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, Martyrs (2008), Mandy, Babadook, Ghost Stories, Behind the Mask: the Rise of Leslie Vernon, Curse of the Puppet Master, Devil's Candy, Curse of Frankenstein, Mummy, Shining, Horror of Dracula, Quatermass Xperiment, Plague of the Zombies, Revenge of Frankenstein, I Am The Pretty Thing..., Nail Gun Massacre, Tucker and Dale, Coraline, Children of the Corn, Brides of Dracula, Curse of the Werewolf, Splinter, Evil of Frankenstein, Pumpkinhead 2, Apostle, Hellraiser, Sixth Sense, Heathers, Hush Challenges completed: #1 (Babadook), #7 (The Brides of Dracula), #9 (Heathers)
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Oct 24, 2018 15:54
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Heathers for-sure counts. It's a horror comedy.
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Oct 24, 2018 15:56
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Was sick yesterday, so managed to get in a CREATURE TRIPLE FEATURE of Hammer horror. First up: Night Creatures Was recommended this one in the horror thread when I asked for something that could be described as “Basically an episode of Scooby-Doo” and it didn’t disappoint. A small English village in the late 1700s is being terrorized by “Marsh Phantoms”, a cabal of ghostly, skeletal riders. It also just so happens to be the final resting place of Captain Clegg, an infamous privateer hanged for piracy. When a Royal Navy captain (played by Patrick Allen) shows up to investigates reports of wine smuggling from one of Clegg’s former crew—marooned on charges of betrayal—he and his crew occupy the town while trying to ferret out the smugglers. Peter Cushing plays the local priest who some years before had saved the town from poverty and ruin. He is in on the smuggling operation, with secret passages leading between his church and the coffin-maker’s workshop. The smuggling group also contains a dashing Oliver Reed, playing a young squire's son who is wrapped up in the smuggling operation, in love with an young orphaned woman played by Yvonne Romain. As is typical of Hammer productions, the whole thing is rather slow in a way that I find rather pleasant, as you have plenty of time to relax into this world, these characters, and their scheme. Also typical of Hammer productions, the thing is gorgeous and lush, with terrific production design, sets, and cinematography. The script is pretty solid, and even though it drags a bit in the middle, they always find ways to keep the tension and stakes high. I liked the characters, I enjoyed how the story unravels, and I loved the series of twists and reveals at the end—even if they were a touch predictable. Turns out the priest was the phantom who was the pirate who was the father of the orphan all along! I think the film lets itself down in two major places, though: the phantoms, and the piracy. The phantoms are very cool when they’re on screen and are such a great concept, but the story doesn’t do much with them, nor does it particularly justify their existence. The piracy stuff is all in the background, and for a film that centers around it so much, it’s not nearly as fun as it could have been. Had the production received a larger budget, I think the whole thing could have been elevated by opening on a Captain Clegg vs. Royal Navy pirate battle, which would better set up the rivalry between Clegg and the Navy captain. As it stands, it was in there for no real reason and got no payoff. Deepening that rivalry and seeing it play out on screen would be terrific, especially if we got a final sword fight between the newly revealed Clegg and the Navy captain. Also more pirate imagery in general would’ve been welcome, because pirates are cool. Overall, very charming but not particularly remarkable. Grade: B+  Curse of Frankenstein A terrific version of the story, which succeeds mainly on three strengths: Cushing’s incredible performance, the film’s depiction of the lamentable monster, and the wonderful production design and atmosphere typical of Hammer films. But it’s also let down by its very surface-level script. In a departure from the book (and previous screen adaptations) the film centers on an orphaned Victor Frankenstein and his mentor Paul Krempe. Their relationship and shifting power dynamic is what the entire film revolves around, as Victor’s immorality grows as his command over life and death grows. This disturbs Paul, who threatens to abandon Victor to his work, if only it weren’t for Victor’s innocent cousin having recently arrived, indebted to become his bride. The monster is a pitiable thing. Christopher Lee puts in an incredible physical performance as a terrified, damaged, and abused miscarriage of science. More than any other adaptation, I truly felt like the creature was a reanimated, brain-damaged corpse—who remembers his own murder at the hands of Victor. While this adaptation focuses far less on the creature than any other I’ve seen, the sad nature of the monster is the anchor of this film, only highlighting Victor’s immorality and cruelty. Cushing is incredible in the role as an obsessed scientist who is blinded to his own immorality, and is completely magnetic on screen. The character is a fascinating one that is a joy to watch, and I’d love following him no matter what the story surrounding him was. However, I can’t help but feel that there was a big missed opportunity for depth here, and most of that relates to Victor’s character. We hop straight from him as a young man to an accomplished scientist with all of his character development happening during the jump. His sociopathic nature isn’t particularly justified, nor is his obsession with reanimating the dead. His affair with his housekeeper came out of nowhere, as did his love of his cousin and his desire for marriage. The actor who played a young Victor did an astounding, pitch-perfect impression of Cushing and I would have loved to spend more time with him as a young man. Just a few short scenes could have made Victor’s character choices feel more earned. Instead of opening on Victor having already decided to get a tutor and jumping into science, we could have seen him more consciously distance himself from dealing with the feelings surrounding the death of his parents which would set up his cold, borderline (?) sociopathy later. In the film, he never seems to acknowledge the death of his parents or growing up as an orphan as anything meaningful. Instead of jumping to adulthood immediately, we could have seen the boy decide to put aside childish things (such as love) in favor of his work, which also would have set up him using his maid as a purely pragmatic way of releasing sexual energy. Her pregnancy could have inspired more than just cruelty, but could have served as his inspiration to create new life from scratch with no mother necessary. Or perhaps him learning that his bride-to-be was barren, or that she wanted to have a child and he didn’t (or vice versa), or really anything to do with woman-as-life-creator, hooked back to his own orphanhood, would have really connected the dots for me. Had the film been made a decade or so later, I feel like we would have gotten a scene where he comes upon his mother’s corpse, giving him psychological trauma or possibly even some psychosexual issues. The film didn’t need that, but it felt like so many of those elements were swirling around that a scene in that vein could have tied everything together. All of this is arguably implied to some degree, but it requires the audience to fill in too many of the gaps themselves. Going a little more explicit would have served the story well in my opinion. Instead I have to rely on headcanon in order to justify Victor’s behavior. All that being said, it’s a ton of fun for what it is, but I see why critics of the time called it shallow. Grade: A-  Revenge of Frankenstein This film picks up directly where the previous film left off. Victor has faked his own death and is going under the alias of “Dr. Stein”, now practicing medicine in Germany. He runs a hospital for the poor, whom no other doctor in the city will touch. This is not out of guilt for releasing the creature in the previous film, however. In fact, Victor feels no remorse whatsoever, continuing to blame Paul for damaging the first creature’s brain and insisting that his experiment would have worked otherwise. Instead, Victor’s blindness to his own immorality allows him to take amputated parts from his destitute patients in order to make a new, better monster. He has justified his actions thoroughly, and this time plans to transfer a living brain into the new body to ensure success. He has a crippled assistant who has volunteered to be placed into the new body, and with the help of his new assistant, does so successfully. The newly-transferred man recovers in his secluded hospital bed, healing and learning how to walk, speak, and function in his new body, freed from the constraints of his previous handicap. After Victor reveals that his future will be that of a scientific curiosity, on display for the world, he escapes, burning his old body and venturing out into the world. In the process, however, he is badly beaten by a watchman who discovers him having broken into Victor’s lab. This, coupled with the fact that the previous test subject (an orangutan brain transferred into a chimpanzee body) suddenly turned cannibal after its operation, means that things go very wrong once again. Cushing is once again terrific, as is the performance by the the new creature played by Michael Gwynn. The pacing, acting, story, production design, and atmosphere are all once again great. But this film has the same problems with depth as Curse. While elements are there for making some sort of thematic point or social commentary, the film is far more interested in its own monster movie plot than having something concrete to say. It’s the Marvel Cinematic Universe of its day, in a way. Yet again, I enjoyed this for what it was a great deal. I just wish it did more with its commentary on class and the exploitation of the poor by the wealthy and clueless establishment. It also could have done a lot more with its limp love story. The creature was fantastic, and I love the whole idea of this series where Victor just creates more and different Frankensteins (sorry, jerks, but that's what they're called in my book!), learning nothing. Grade: B+ Cast a Deadly Spell (A+) Return of the Living Dead (A+) Pumpkinhead (A-) Curse of Frankenstein (A-) Revenge of Frankenstein (B+) Night Creatures (B+) Invasion of the Saucer Men (B-) Pieces (C+) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (C+) feedmyleg fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Oct 24, 2018 |
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Oct 24, 2018 16:47
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33. Halloween (2018) I've got to be honest, if I build a house with the primary intention of eventually fighting my worst nightmare with it, it sure as hell won't have any places for inhuman monsters to hide in it. We are talking stark, bare rooms, maybe those drop-down beds you can hide in the walls, at most some folding chairs. Certainly not a room full of goddamn mannequins. This movie is tense as hell, and does a great job of getting Michael as unstoppable monster, but still seeming mostly within the realm of human possibility. There were a few contrivances that made me roll my eyes a bit sure boyfriend just throw my $1000 phone into the...yogurt? punch? but I think this is easily one of the best in the franchise. /5
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Oct 24, 2018 17:11
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FRAN CHALLENGE #11: Dead & Buried Jason X  It's Lexx! It's literally a big budget episode of Lexx. Even down to the goddamn love-crazed robot head. The special effects are good, the miniatures are great(not something I ever thought I'd say about a Friday the 13th movie), and the fashion is a wonderful sort of futuristic 90s. The movie keeps moving at a good pace. It could be edited maybe slightly tighter, but I was never bored. There's good humor too. I laughed out loud when it cut to Jason in the holodeck using a girl in a sleeping bag as a club to beat another girl in a sleeping bag. I still think the Zombie Jason vs Psychic Girl fight from 7 was the best fight in the series, but the Zombie Jason vs Android Warrior Powered by Love is up there. How Jason X get a reputation as really bad? It's one of the best Friday the 13th movies, in my top 3 or 4, easy. Jason X is almost literally a lost Lexx episode.
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Oct 24, 2018 17:37
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 #36. Friday the 13th, Pat 2 (DVD) -  /5Five years after the massacre at Camp Crystal Lake, Jason, not actually drowned as a child, returns to attack a group of counselors at the camp next door. A mediocre follow up to the also mediocre original Friday the 13th, Part 2 is an odd entry, adding Jason to the mix but not having him with his now iconic design. It ups the gore factor and the nudity (from what I remember), but no more effort was added to the characters or plotting. So it can scratch a particular itch, but people looking for additional depth are going to leave disappointed. (Though why would you be looking to the Friday the 13th series for anything besides aimless teenage slaughtering?) I'm not a fan of the pillowcase design for Jason, and I'm not a fan of some of the filmmaking choices that were made - the editing is choppy, and there's a reliance at the end on terrible slow-mo, like they were trying to milk the moment and not successfully doing so. Also, a huge number of the extras are shunted off in the second half to allow for more focus on potential victims, which makes the counselor scenes seem unnecessarily overstuffed in the first half. It's fine enough for background noise, but not much more than that. Not recommended. Watched so far: Cat People, Halloween 5, Mom and Dad, Hell House LLC, A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), Beetlejuice, The Horror of Party Beach, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, The Return of the Living Dead, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, Murder Party, Anaconda, Dracula (1931), The Ritual, Blade II, The Beyond, Sleepaway Camp, Lord of Illusions, The Mummy's Ghost, Children of the Corn II, The Mummy's Curse, The Prophecy, Child's Play 2, Halloween II (1981), Hotel Transylvania, Psycho (1960), Halloween III, The Creature Walks Among Us, Train to Busan, Frankenstein (1931), The Addams Family, Bedeviled, Halloween (2018), The Old Dark House (1932), Pumpkinhead, Friday the 13th Part 2
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Oct 24, 2018 17:37
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Franchescanado posted:Heathers for-sure counts. It's a horror comedy. If you at more than one point put your fist in your mouth and ask yourself "Oh God, why am I laughing?" and it's not because of weird sex, it's probably a horror comedy.
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Oct 24, 2018 17:54
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Guy Goodbody posted:
Guy Goodbody posted:
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Oct 24, 2018 17:56
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Guy Goodbody posted:How Jason X get a reputation as really bad? It's one of the best Friday the 13th movies, in my top 3 or 4, easy. that's less impressive when you consider that there are only 3 or 4 good ones in the series, total. I do like Jason X though, it's dumb but fun. Plus Jason impales David Cronenberg. graventy posted:There were a few contrivances that made me roll my eyes a bit sure boyfriend just throw my $1000 phone into the...yogurt? punch? but I think this is easily one of the best in the franchise. that whole plot line with the boyfriend seemed to have no point except to get rid of her phone. He just disappears from the movie after that. and I'm pretty sure a teenager would at least try to grab the phone out of the bowl to save it.
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Oct 24, 2018 17:57
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Franchescanado posted:
Asked for a recommendation on facebook and got some pretty good ones (except for some dude I used to work with that recommended Rest Stop which is a total garbage fire), so I picked the first one mentioned that I hadn't already seen. Luckily I have a couple friends with good taste. I hadn't even heard of this one, so I went in completely blind.  33. Darling (2015) (VOD) A young woman is hired as the caretaker of the oldest home in Manhattan. The house is notoriously haunted, and the previous caretaker committed suicide by jumping off the top floor balcony... seems like maybe not the best job in the world. Almost immediately she begins hearing strange noises and having hallucinations. When she unexpectedly bumps into a man on the street from her past, she begins a descent into madness. Sort of The Shining meets Repulsion. This is a pretty interesting movie. Stylistically speaking, I thought it looked fantastic. The black and white cinematography is really nice, it's one of those films where you frame almost any shot and hang it on your wall. Manhattan at night in B&W is sort of cheat mode, but the interior shots look great as well. The score is also really good throughout the film. The plot is pretty barebones and the spooky stuff, though mostly effective, isn't going to win any awards for originality (it does get unexpectedly disturbing at one point, though). The story is mostly told indirectly and you need to infer it from context, which works well for most of the film. At times it feels a little experimental, but I wish the filmmakers had taken the hallucinatory stuff a bit further. Also there are lots of little "subliminal" images that pop up randomly, which is cool at first but gets a little annoying by the end. Overall I liked this quite a bit, but I think it would've worked better as a ~40-45 minute short instead of a feature. The last act in particular was a little weak. I do recommend it if you are looking for something a little different and don't mind that it favors style over substance. 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 | Child's Play 3 | The Phantom Carriage | Halloween (1978) | Halloween II (1981) | Halloween (2018) | Creep 2 | The Quatermass Xperiment | Darling Total: 33 Fran challenges:
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Oct 24, 2018 18:11
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Franchescanado posted:
42. Vampyros Lesbos (1971) Shudder  These vampires are spooky! I was shaking in my socks because of of frighteningly scary they were! This is the first Jesus Franco movie I’ve seen, are they all this stylish? I guess I was expecting a bunch of softcore and boobs (there’s plenty of that, of course), but there’s definitely a lot of interesting shots in there as well. Also I dug the score. 3.5/5 43. Night of the Demons (1988) Prime  Looking at the date that this started production I have to to imagine the filmmakers walking out of Evil Dead 2 and going “let’s do that.” Still, its a 80’s horror-comedy with some fun gore, so it’s not like I didn’t enjoy it. Linnea Quigley does something very strange with a lipstick in this, and there’s a weird out of place poop joke. 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 (2017)| 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 | 38. Truth or Dare (2018) |39. Slender Man | 40. An American Werewolf in Paris | 41. Mr. Jones | 42. Vampyros Lesbos | 43. Night of the Demons Fran Challenges:
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Oct 24, 2018 18:15
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 47. Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989) - DVD Fun, schlocky premise but kinda sucks until Bruce Campbell rolls in. Except the bitchin' stop-motion bats. Then still kinda just sucks until David Carradine shows up. Then kicks rear end and lives up to its trashy potential. 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, 40. Halloween (2018)10, 41. I Sell the Dead (2008), 42. Village of the Damned (1995), 43. Beast from 10,000 Fathoms (1953)*, 44. Gamera (1965), 45. Parents (1989), 46. Rigor Mortis (2013), 48. Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989) Years Spanned: 96 (1922-2018) Tally by Decade: '20s (I), '30s (V), '40s (III), '50s (V), '60s (VIII), '70s (III), '80s (IX), '90s (III), 2000s (VI), 2010s (V) B&W/Color: 20/28 Rewatch/Total Counted: 5/47 Countries: 'Murika, Canada, Blighty, France, Germany, Estonia, China, South Korea, Japan Fran Challenges Complete: 1 * Rewatch
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Oct 24, 2018 19:33
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Guy Goodbody posted:How Jason X get a reputation as really bad? It's one of the best Friday the 13th movies, in my top 3 or 4, easy. It is my favorite Friday the 13th movie. The other films in the franchise bore the hell out of me, but Jason X is so crazy that I can stay entertained by it.
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Oct 24, 2018 20:32
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Careful everyone, if you say three positive things about Jason X it will summon The Lurdiak.
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Oct 24, 2018 20:39
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Random Stranger posted:It is my favorite Friday the 13th movie. The other films in the franchise bore the hell out of me, but Jason X is so crazy that I can stay entertained by it. The only Jason movie I can remember hating is Jason Goes to Hell. It's amazing how much better the Friday the 13th movies are than the Halloween movies overall.
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Oct 24, 2018 20:40
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I haven't like any of the Friday movies I've seen but I don't think they actually have enough ambition to draw an emotion as strong as "hate". I guess that's why Jason X is so polarizing. Good or bad it really tried to do something. Of course I've still only seen the first 3 (plus X and Freddy vs Jason). I have time maybe I'll try 4 before the month is done. But I suspect its just going to be more of the same.
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Oct 24, 2018 20:48
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 51. Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002) This movie made me so damned happy. I'm a big sucker for mechs and I think Mechagodzilla is a particularly sweet mech, but the version in this film is easily my favorite. Nicknamed Kiryu, this incarnation of Mechagodzilla is actually a cyborg, created using the skeleton of the Godzilla from the 1954 film. Using the bones allows the film to do some interesting things with the Mechanical monster, like giving it a will. As you probably already figured out, that causes some issues when the pilots are trying to fight the new Godzilla that shows up. Speaking of the new Godzilla, it has a brand new design that is pretty cool. It's got a very svelte look that must be a response to negative feedback on the sort of chubby version from GMKG:GMAOA (which I loved) that I've heard some people complain about. The sleek Mechagodzilla and fit Godzilla star in some incredible battles, that have a nice mix of beam, rocket and hand to hand combat. There are also some awesome looking military support vehicles that show up. If you're at all like me and really enjoy the vehicle design of Godzilla movies this one features a ton of that stuff. It's also pretty good storywise and includes some strong characters. Yumiko, is a master pilot that is trying to overcome the weight of the past on her shoulders. She is very strong and a lot of fun to watch. Our other main characters are the Yuhara father-daughter duo that are trying to adjust to life on a military base and the loss of a wife/mom. Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla is an action packed monster movie with a strong human plot and a definitely recommend it. Director Masaaki Tezuka really stepped up his game after the fairly mediocre vs. Megaguirus.
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Oct 24, 2018 20:49
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 178- House on Haunted Hill 1999 - DVD I remember first watching this when it seemed like remaking 50s era horror was en vogue even when it seemed like some were just remakes in name only. I consider this one as one of the better ones. The basic story core is here though now the hauntings are real. While the effects aren't bad, some of the CGI which looked iffy back then, really looks dated now. Funny thing is when I met Chris Kattan when I was working at AOL ages ago (we hit some company metrics so our location's reward was his visiting), while he seemed annoyed with everyone bringing up Mango or Night at the Roxbury, I think I weirded him out bringing up this movie.
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Oct 24, 2018 20:50
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Basebf555 posted:Careful everyone, if you say three positive things about Jason X it will summon The Lurdiak. Stares into bathroom mirror with the lights turned off and holding a candle: "Jason X had David Cronenberg in it."
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Oct 24, 2018 20:54
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Jason X has the best kill of the entire franchise. (face freeze/smash)
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Oct 24, 2018 20:58
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Spatulater bro! posted:Jason X has the best kill of the entire franchise. (face freeze/smash) "He's screwed." edit: My favorite kill of any Jason movie is actually in Freddy vs Jason. Jason stabbing the rear end in a top hat in the bed before folding the bed in half.
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Oct 24, 2018 20:59
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oh gently caress me I think I like Jason X.
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Oct 24, 2018 21:00
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Why is Jason X so Canadian anyway?
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Oct 24, 2018 21:02
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Drunkboxer posted:Why is Jason X so Canadian anyway? I told you, it's Lexx.
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Oct 24, 2018 21:02
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Drunkboxer posted:Why is Jason X so Canadian anyway? Because its a genre movie filmed in the 21st century so it had to be made in Vancouver?
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Oct 24, 2018 21:03
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Spatulater bro! posted:oh gently caress me I think I like Jason X. My friend, who admittedly isn't a huge F13 fan, loves it. It's a "____ In Space" that works as a one-off sequel idea, and it's a stand-out for the very bare sci-fi horror sub-genre. You get a lot of great stuff. The two kills mentioned among others, a high body count, a pretty good cast of characters (that admittedly open on rewatches), the hologram gags, the call-backs, a pretty good Jason design (I'm not a huge fan of Super Jason). When the absurd poo poo happens, like anything with the android, it just adds to the camp instead of bogging it down. Like, it's nowhere near my favorite, but I totally get why people love it. It's fun. edit: Also, it makes a fun point of showing that a trained task force can't take down Jason, and it's more entertaining than Jason Goes To Hell. Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Oct 24, 2018 |
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Oct 24, 2018 21:04
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Sodomy Hussein posted:The only Jason movie I can remember hating is Jason Goes to Hell. It's amazing how much better the Friday the 13th movies are than the Halloween movies overall. They have a much lower ceiling, though - they don't fall as far in comparison, but the best Friday the 13th* isn't as good as the fourth best Halloween film. *I'm not counting Freddy vs. Jason here, since that is both the best Friday and the best Nightmare on Elm Street movie, but it also exists in its own weird bubble.
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Oct 24, 2018 21:29
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Class3KillStorm posted:They have a much lower ceiling, though - they don't fall as far in comparison, but the best Friday the 13th* isn't as good as the fourth best Halloween film. Friday the 13th must be judged in totality or not at all And unlike Halloween, Friday the 13th doesn't ask you multiple times to forget that all of the movies except 1 ever happened
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Oct 24, 2018 21:33
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Class3KillStorm posted:They have a much lower ceiling, though - they don't fall as far in comparison, but the best Friday the 13th* isn't as good as the fourth best Halloween film. Woah woah woah. You keep these crazy hot takes out of my precious thread before they catch it on fire. FvJ is the 3rd best Freddy Movie and maybe the 5th best Friday, and there are only three Halloween movies in existence, Halloween, Halloween 3, and Halloween 2018. Some say that a Zombie made a good Halloween 2, but that's an urban legend.
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Oct 24, 2018 21:35
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You know what, I LIKE Halloween II. I think. I haven't seen it in forever but I remember loving the idea of "its over... NO ITS NOT!" and the tension of the chase in the hospital. My hopes are that I can finish up my challenges in time to: A) Watch some more Friday the 13ths so I can say with confidence that its a bad franchise. B) Go old school AMC Fear Fest and watch a bunch of wacky Halloween sequels on October 31st and sincerely love them.
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Oct 24, 2018 21:53
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