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# 24 The Monster Squad (1987) - this didn't do much for me. It seems to be an early example of Big Studio nostalgia exploitation. Fred Dekker's attempt to write a charming and cute love letter to the classic monsters came across as tryhard, as did the humor. I've seen jokes land better in a lot worse movies. This was obviously pitched as a Speilbergian neighborhood adventure movie meshed with these old Universal properties (which I must say were not Stan Winston's most stand-out acheivements. I got major Predator vibes from the Gill Man, largely due to the creature's new set of teeth - an unecessary addition to the design). It makes sense - make a kids movie that appeals to adults who grew up watching Creature from the Black Lagoon and Dracula. There isn't inherently anything wrong with this concept, I just think Fred Dekker failed. I had his Night of the Creeps lined up at some point this Halloween season but now, with limited time, I'm going to move it to the hesitation pile. 5/10 # 25 Phantasm (1979) - the spirit of Halloween this year has been to see stuff I haven't seen. I went into my first viewing of Phantasm knowing only two things, 1) it is part of a franchise*, and, 2) there are orbs or some poo poo.... I'm the kind of person who appreciates something bizarre and unique, and this delivered. In terms of filmmaking itself Don Coscarelli's product was rough around the edges given its ostensibly shoe-string budget, but it is not a shoddy product overall, other than I suppose the Dollar Store fly monster which would even make Mothra's stage handler giggle. The cheeziness of elements like that (and there are others - like the outrageous extraterrestrial slave-production scheme**, which I loved by the way - enhance the movie. Plenty of gore, too - this is camp with an R-Rated stamp! I also liked the inclusion of an ice cream truck driver as part of the trio who take on the Tall Man. Emphasizes the modesty, small town-ness of the heroes. *I had no idea it spawned THAT many sequels. **This plot point results in more questions than answers. I gather a huge supply of planetary labor is needed, so I wonder if there are other Tall Men operating these schemes in cemeteries across the country? You're not going to get much exclusively out of a small area in Oregon, but at least it's low key. Or is it? Tommy's murder in the beginning was deemed a suicide, despite the fact that he was stabbed. The Seductive Lady seems to routinely lure men to this fate. Does she have a quota? And if this happens often, wouldn't the locals catch on? Lastly - if these slaves are dead anyway maybe what the aliens are doing isn't all that bad of a thing. Perhaps the humans/aliens can sign a treaty where we say stop murdering us and we'll supply some bodies from volunteers similar to Organ Donors on driver licenses. If the treaty has a progressive edge, liberating the dead and allowing them to form unions would help too, but that would be less of a priority. Speaking of tryhard humor. 6.5/10 And now... an exclusive double feature with, unfortunately, a common thread, and that is intercourse with hideous monsters. Sadly not the less common romantic kind either, ala The Shape of Water # 26 Humanoids From the Deep (1980) - this movie was fairly competent, surprisingly. I was expecting something along the lines of Spawn of the Slithis given both share the era of low budget Jaws rip offs. Unlike Slithis, this was at least comprehensible, and the actors in the sea monster costumes were able to move twice as fast! Brief glimpses of the monsters early on were beneficial. By the end you could see them in all their glory when they all-out assault a fishing town's Salmon Festival. The bad costumes were improved by being wet and covered in sea weed, and their large bulging brains gave it an interesting old school B-movie look. People were at least TRYING here. The content with the women is grotesque, even if it is mostly implied not shown. Anyone who can sit through this and not feel slightly disturbed should be ashamed. I sure am (ashamed). Doug McClure is in this too. I can't say for sure, but he seemed to be slurring some of his lines, so he was either buzzed or phoning it in. # 27 Species (1994) - woah, look at this cast! Ben Kingsley. Forest Whittaker. Michael Madsen! Woah, that is some bad CGI. Now now, this was the early 90s era afterall. Ok just hope they don't use CGI for the big conclusi-- oh boy, that looks bad. Yeah... I can see why nobody talks about this anymore. Then again, it did manage to spawn a franchise(?) Not an atrocious movie by any means. Just... forgettable. The finale degrades the film into another Alien rip-off, with the characters tracking down the menace in enclosed spaces, flamethrower in hand. What will stand the test of time is not the CGI effects in this film, but the practical effect in Aliens, made 8 years before. This time around, it is the female creature that is the sexual predator, but at least her male victims get to enjoy themselves before finding out what this thing, assuming the form of a European runway model, really is. Michael Madsen is a cool cat and I've never seen him as a leading man before. 5/10
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Oct 28, 2018 01:01
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44. Summer of 84 (2018) Shudder I'm pretty burned out on 80s and 90s nostalgia. I'm fine with it if it's just used as a setting for a story (like in Mandy), but I've grown pretty tired of it being employed solely as a mechanism for nostalgic pop culture references. That's my biggest complaint about this movie, otherwise well acted and there's some things that happen later on that were genuinely surprising. Rich Sommer can play creepy really well. 2.75/5 45. Bad Ben (2016) Prime  A very low budget movie made by and starring a guy (Nigel Bach) who clearly loves found footage. Especially paranormal activity. Despite the budget, the scares don't entirely miss and there were several parts that I laughed at loud at. It's hard not to be charmed by it. Nigel has apparently made a bunch of other movies in the 2 years since this came out, so I might go ahead and check those out. 2.5/ Franchescanado posted:
46. Waxwork (1988) Tubi  Pretty fun movie, definitely has a good halloween feel to it and I can see throwing it on again in the future. The waxwork setting is basically used as an excuse to set up a big monster mash, which is a good enough reason as any. 3.5/5 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 (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 | 44. Summer of 84 | 45. Bad Ben | 46. Waxwork Fran Challenges:
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Oct 28, 2018 01:51
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Watch a staff pick!
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Got a bunch 'o writeups to catch-up on before adding more to the list.Franchescanado posted:
Motel Hell: A coworker recommended this to me when I mentioned I was doing last year's challenge, and I only just got around to watching it a few nights ago (was actually planning on watching it before I went on vacation, but ended up holding off due to a packed schedule, and lucky me, the challenge was posted just after I left). Venom: Ended up liking this a bit more than I expected. Structurally, it's very much your typical 'morally corrupt business man prompts a superhero origin' story, but is at least somewhat elevated by the more monster movie-esque angle and a fun dual performance from Tom Hardy in both halves of the titular role. That being said, the plot and character development are pretty light even by comic book movie standards, and the more action-heavy second half in particular feels a pretty rushed (which would make sense given how much content I understand was cut). Still, I enjoyed it well enough for what it was, and don't regret going out to the theatre to see it. Franchescanado posted:
Slither: A solid horror comedy and directorial debut from James Gunn, essentially serving as an allegory for the abusive relationship between Grant and Starla, as personified by the physical transformation of Grant and the world around him at the hands of the parasite. This ended up being quite a bit grislier and had a lot more more straight up body horror than I was expecting going in (neither in a bad way mind you), though manages to use its comedy effectively so as to to provide some levity and balance things out without feeling pervasive. Franchescanado posted:
The Return of the Living Dead: Felt like I owed it to myself to give this a watch given it's high regard in the thread and James Karen's passing a few days ago. And yeah, this one was really good, managing to serve as both a spot-on parody of zombie movies and a solid entry to the genre in its own right. Self aware in just the right ways, from the bumbling leads more worried about covering their asses than the literal monsters they created, the use of genre savvyness only creating a bigger mess rather than fixing anything, and the deliberately one note characterization of the bulk of the punk supporting cast (barring Spider and Tina). The more intelligent than usual zombies in particular are used to great effect, managing to evoke tension, comedy and pathos all in one. Movies Watched (22): Mandy, Hobgoblins (MST3K), American Psycho, Mimic, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World's End, Carnosaur, Lake Mungo, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Gorgo (MST3K), Monsters, Inc., Halloween (1978), Halloween (2018), The Evil Dead, Motel Hell, Venom, Slither, The Return of the Living Dead Challenges Completed (10/13): #2 (Frankenstein), #3 (American Psycho), #4 (Mimic), #5 (Carnosaur), #6 (The Evil Dead) #7 (Gorgo (MST3K)), #8 (Slither), #9 (Motel Hell) #10 (Halloween (2018)), #12 (The Return of the Living Dead) Trash Boat fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Oct 28, 2018 |
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Oct 28, 2018 02:28
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 Plan 9 from Outer Space, 1959 Of all the movies with the title "best worst movie", I feel Plan 9 from Outer Space are among the best. Nothing about this movie is right. It's so bad that you almost feel Ed Wood is trolling the viewers. Like no one can be this poo poo at making movies, yet here we got this disaster. Including clips of Bela Lugosi that was made before he died, Ed Wood uses some other actor who walks around with a cape in front of his face to pretend he had Lugosi in this movie. There's an actor who uses his gun to scratch him self and point it around because he had no respect for Ed Wood and wanted to see what he could get away with. The cheap sets. The horrible scrip. Just everything screams of some internet troll made the dumbest poo poo ever and pretended he had an "real" 50s b-movie on his hands, only this is real. This really came out in 1959. This is not a dumb joke made today, and that still blows my mind every time I watch Plan 9 from Outer Space.
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Oct 28, 2018 03:09
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The Pit and the Pendul, wait, The Inquisitor? The DVD case says The Pit and the Pendulum but the actual title screen says The Inquisitor? Whatever I bought a Stuart Gordon box set solely because it contained the meme movie, Death Bed: The Bed That Eats People. But I noticed that you guys were talking a lot about The Pit and the Pendulum, one of the other movies included in the set, so I thought I'd start there. Yeah this turned out to be a different The Pit and the Pendulum. For one, no Vincent Price, but even better it has Lance Henriksen! The opening scene of this movie has people digging up a corpse, accusing it of witchcraft, lashing it to bits with a whip, grinding the bones up in a giant mortar and pestle, and finally using the ground bones as the sand in an hourglass. So five minutes in and the movie is great. The rest of the movie could've been nothing but stock footage of airplanes landing and I still would give it a thumbs up The acting is great. The obvious stand outs are Lance Henriksen and the old man from Breaking Bad. But the old witch does a fantastic job too. And Torquemada's three underlings do a really good job just acting like they're coworkers and this is their job. They manage to walk this super thin line where from moment to moment they move between comic and the banality of evil without ever tipping over too far in either direction. But really, the star is Henrisken. Absolutely phenomenal job. This movie also wins big points from me for being unabashedly pro-witch. It thoroughly covers why the Inquisition is bad, which you'd expect from any movie about the Inquisition. But it goes even further than that, establishing that witches are real, but they're really cool and good. Great fake hands. There's one guy who has crucifixion wounds, and a scene where a guy is getting his hands eaten by rats, and the prosthetic hands in both cases are really good. Things this movie has that no other movies have: 1 A fantastic non-comedy ladle fight. 2 a man desperately reaching for the severed back half of a rat, because that is the precise item he needs to affect his escape. I'm always happy to add to my list of movies better than the book they're based on, and this one definitely qualifies Stuart Gordon's The Pit and the Pendulum is great, probably better than that Pit and the Pendulum movie you guys were talking about
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Oct 28, 2018 03:38
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Guy Goodbody please hang out in the horror thread more your reviews are great.
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Oct 28, 2018 03:50
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Hollismason posted:Guy Goodbody please hang out in the horror thread more your reviews are great. Alright, but after this challenge is over I'm probably gonna want to take a break from horror for awhile. Maybe try to watch 31 Thanksgiving movies in November or something.
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Oct 28, 2018 03:56
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Mokelumne Trekka posted:
I won't say that watching Phantasm II and III will answer all of your questions, but they will contextualize things for you. And make you go, "What the gently caress?!" a few times.
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Oct 28, 2018 05:33
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 Fran Challenge #8: Once In A Lifetime 32. Raw (2018) This ruled. Cannibalism as a metaphor for coming of age, very well done. The balance between sympathetic and well-drawn characters and cannibalistic carnage worked was spot on. This would pair well with Ginger Snaps. Watched List (32): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary, Frontier(s), Butterfly Effect 3, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Tenant, The Screaming Skull, Hell House LLC, Ringu 0, Cat People, Banshee Chapter, Critters 2, The Endless, The Witch Who Came From The Sea, Behind the Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon, The Old Dark House, Cold Moon, Rec 2, Phenomena, Mandy, It (2017), Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, Nightmare City, The Ghost Of Frankenstein, The Phantom Of The Opera, The Hidden, Cemetery Man, Sanctimony, Raw Fran Challenges Fulfilled(12): #1 Love Something You Hate: Only Lovers Left Alive, #2 Queer Horror: The Old Dark House, #3 Hometown Horror: Butterfly Effect 3, #4 Best Of The Worst: Sanctimony (Uwe Boll), #5 Birth Of Horror: The Tenant, #6 Video Nasties: The Witch Who Came From The Sea, #7 The World Is A Scary Place: Ringu 0, #8 Once In A Lifetime: Raw, #9 Stranger Danger: The Hidden, #10 Fear And Now: Mandy, #11 Dead And Buried: The Ghost Of Frankenstein, #12 Staff Pick: Cemetery Man
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Oct 28, 2018 06:40
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Alright, I'm short on time, so I'm gonna drop the star ratings and posters, my reviews are probably gonna get a decent bit shorter, and I'll go back and update the Google doc after Halloween. #15 / 31 - Vampire's Kiss (1988) This one loving owns. Nic Cage gets in an odd sexual encounter, and becomes obsessed with both the woman and the idea that he's become a vampire from her biting him. He's not actually one (this isn't a twist, he just isn't), but he sure takes this as an excuse to act like a complete jackass and chew scenery. The only real flaw with this is that there's a rape scene that kinda drags everything down. It's also immediately preceding one of the actual funniest moments in the movie (Nic Cage screaming "BOO HOO" in lieu of actual crying), which makes it doubly jarring. Franchescanado posted:
#16 / 31 - Halloween (2018) I liked this one pretty well. On the good side, the score is loving fantastic and possibly Carpenter's best work ever. Every scene involving Jamie Lee Curtis or Michael Myers is absolutely riveting, and there's one long take in the movie (the trick-or-treat sequence) that might be my actual favorite scene in a movie from this year. It's still really, really odd seeing Judy Greer in big movies because I mostly think of her as the voice of Cheryl from Archer, but she really holds it together here, too, and gets one really effective badass moment. The gore is also pretty nice; it's way more a Saulnier/Refn style of violence than the typical slasher movie stuff, aside from one kill that goes a little in the surreal direction. On the bad side, this is a movie that the studio has clearly stuck their hands in. It just feels utterly lacking in any kind of connective tissue; there's a number of characters who just kind of vanish without any kind of explanation, and while the plot mostly holds up, the movie feels noticeably janky from scene to scene as a result of it, like it's had only the most crucial bits Frankensteined together and is attempting to shamble to its conclusion on mismatched legs. And, as it turns out, this is exactly what happened: the original ending tested poorly, so the one we got was shot and turned out longer. The movie had to be its particular runtime, for whatever reason, so they went back and hacked bits that weren't absolutely crucial out to get it to match. This doesn't kill the movie, by any means- it's still very, very good. But it definitely hurts it. If you like the Halloween series, go see this right now. If you're not huge on the series, but you like slasher movies, go see this right now. Otherwise, wait for Redbox. Franchescanado posted:
#17 / 31 - El Santo vs. the Vampire Women (1962) Oh my god. gently caress this god damned loving movie jesus christ Okay, so, my fiancee is from Zacatecas and spent a large chunk of the early part of her life living there and Los Angeles, CA. As a result, she has a weird sort of nostalgia for old lovely Mexican B-movies with luchadors in them (her wording). I instantly realized she was most likely talking about the Santo series and imitators, she agreed that that was probably what she was talking about, so we ended up looking for a Santo movie to watch. We dug up this. It was under the title "Samson vs. the Vampire Women," which I recognized as being a MST3K episode. In fact, the MST3K episode was in the recommended videos on Youtube. My fiancee and I agreed that that was probably a red flag and that we should switch to the riffed version. That was a very good decision, because holy loving poo poo, even with Mike and the bots this movie is... I don't even know how to describe it. It's about a luchador fighting a coven of vampires and it's somehow loving BORING. HOW DO YOU EVEN ACCOMPLISH THAT? Like, I'm not even going to try to summarize this movie because I'm pretty sure nothing loving happens at all in it except vampires farting around, Santo doing... stuff I couldn't really make sense of, and completely terrible wrestling. After the terrible wrestling against the worst werewolf of all time, the movie... attempts to pick up, but doesn't quite manage it, because Santo actually defeating the vampire coven is boring as gently caress too. The riffs were good, but even with them, this one was a difficult watch. #18 / 31 - mother! (2017)  well uh that was certainly loving something now was itI'd had this pretty much 100% spoiled for me beforehand, and even then it managed to catch me off guard. I'm actually genuinely not really sure what I can say about this movie, because I'm not entirely sure I understood it and I'm afraid to look like a moron. It kind of seemed like Aronofsky making a sort of nihilistic Gnostic retelling of the Christ story, taking the sacrifice of Christ as a sign that God's compassion and kindness are fully and utterly dead, if they ever truly existed at all. This one was unpleasant for very different reasons, and kind of just made me insanely uncomfortable.
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Oct 28, 2018 08:14
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#29- The Bride of Frankenstein Hadn't watched this in a while. I had previously pegged it as a horror-comedy and it's sort of like that, but it's really just kind of nuts- James Whale and co. decided to go all out and make one of the weirdest movies to come out of Golden Age Hollywood. You almost can't believe they're getting away with this stuff, it's a crazy rambling tale with a mix of the macabre, the sentimental, outright self-parody, and just strange visual art. There is an entire scene where a mad scientist shows off jars of miniature people he's dressed up like kings and popes for no particular reason other than he thought it was funny, and I'm not even sure that's the oddest scene in the film. It wouldn't work if it weren't so lavishly and lovingly made, full of beautiful expressionistic sets, weird camera angles, arch yet dedicated performances, and an amazing music score that ended up being recycled in several serials. If there's a flaw it's that the ending is super abrupt (a common theme in Universal's monster movies, like as soon as the script hit 70 pages they had to wrap it up.) Also it's impossible to watch the scenes with the hermit without thinking of Gene Hackman in Young Frankenstein. Still, a blast.
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Oct 28, 2018 08:31
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Yesterday was... a productive day.Franchescanado posted:
 Seems like this is horror enough (more like horrific enough amirite) to count so why not. My non-goon friend suggested that we go see it before Halloween for a double-feature. Some space alien goo crash-lands in a shuttle type spacecraft and takes over the body of an EMT at the search and rescue scene, which seems to give her super-human strengths and abilities. We learn that this was an effort by an Elon Musky type to create alien-human hybrids and gently caress off into space. At the same time our main character blows up his life when he's interviewing him and asks about poo poo he wasn't supposed to. Eventually he also gets to meet the alien goo during an effort to uncover the secret plan, but thankfully this is the good goo and not evil goo and they form a team to fight the bad goo which by now took over ol' Musky and wants to, of course, destroy the earth. This seems to get poo poo on by critics but frankly didn't seem any better or worse than all the other comic book films, there's the same poo poo with the origin, jokes, and endless nonsensical action sequences. The venom creature is pretty disturbing looking and it bites off some heads that we don't really see, so eh.  .5/5Franchescanado posted:
 I don't recall seeing any Halloween movies other than the first and this seems to be a direct follow-up, likely ignoring everything else that happened in the sequels. Two podcasters try to interview Michael before he is transferred to another mental facility, but fail to get a response from him and go to interview Laurie about her "story", who now lives in a house in the middle of nowhere, full of surveillance equipment, locks and guns. She kicks them out soon for asking stupid questions, after taking 3 grand for the privilege. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the bus transferring Michael and other patients crashes and he shows up at the same gas station where the podcaster is taking a dump in the loo. This felt like a proper old-school slasher, the first act was a bit slow with the setup but once things got going it was very effective at building tension. The few comedic bits, particularly the little kid, were great, and the kills suitably shocking - there aren't buckets of blood flying everywhere but it's all more disturbing because it's so grounded. The movie also touches on the topic of what effect such a crime has on the surviving victim, without going all up its rear end like the podcasters trying to do. The answer is like Sarah Connor, they go full prepper nutjob and alienate everyone with their obsession. But they're right, the stories aren't over and everything turns out to be worth it. Still, the long-term trauma this causes isn't ignored and I thought it was time well spent. If I had any issues, it would be the doctor character whose motivations are made pretty clear but sill comes off as a bit too much. And Michael seems to teleport between a few of the kill locations without reason or feel for geography - were some of first victims in town just on the way? Was the grand-daughter's babysitter friend just a coincidence, or was he trying to find something? Perhaps this would've been more clear in the original cut as I just learned. The ending was fine IMO, though I'm also curious what it was supposed to be initially. I regret not timing to see this one on the 31st but I'm not sure I'd be able to make it as I have to take our dog to the vet that day. /5Franchescanado posted:
27. The Invisible Man (1933)  Four hours of movies in the theater wasn't enough so I also watched this after getting back home. I'm sure everyone has seen clips from this movie countless times by now, but at least I never watched it in its full 70-minute glory. And unsurprisingly it's very good. The invisibility effect is incredibly well done and though it's of course pretty tame after watching Halloween, there are multiple bloodless kills on screen and the mad rantings about world dominatioare pretty disturbing. Must've been pretty hardcore back in the day. It doesn't waste a lot of time on the "origin story" and is pretty fast paced and never boring. Surprisingly many quick cuts and camera movements, which make it feel way more modern than it is. If there was one thing that bothered me, it's The Lion's Head lady that's acting way too much. /5Fran Challenges: 1 mobby_6kl fucked around with this message at 10:33 on Oct 28, 2018 |
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Oct 28, 2018 10:28
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Ok, more “Random Available Movies From Years I Need.” 44 (49). The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) Recorded off TCM.  An elderly professor and his bumbling assistant travel through Transylvannia hunting vampires and end up having to try and rescue a beautiful young woman from the dreaded Count in his castle. Roman Polanski’s spoof of the classic Dracula story. Ugh, Roman Polanski but my other options all seemed to be exploitation flicks so it felt like kind of lateral movements. Curiosity won out, I suppose especially in light of Sharon Tate being in this and having just watched the film that clearly had its villains inspired by the Manson Family. The whole thing is just stranger and ickier the more I think about it so lets just talk about the movie. While there’s a few really good laughs in this they come very few and far between. There’s a very Mel Brooks feel at times but Polanski obviously has a much drier sense of humor and there are very few actual jokes, mostly just situations that appear funny in the abstract. Its probably hurt quite a bit by one of those abstract ideas being the bumbling assistant who becomes infatuated with the beautiful young woman while also being the subject of infatuation by the count’s son. But unfortunately Polanski chose to play that role himself and he’s not good at all. He seemed to know this enough that he gave himself very few lines to speak and mostly just walked around staring at things. But considering he was effectively the main character of the movie that kind of hurt the piece. Jack MacGrowan’s Professor Abronsius is more fun as he’s got some pretty good physical comedy and affectations to his character. And he has more actual jokes written for him so that helps. But he’s still a pretty dry character and feels like a Mel Brooks character that hasn’t been fully unleashed. Otherwise Tate is given very little to do besides look beautiful and no one else adds much to the movie. The Count is just a generic Dracula ripoff. The random characters are just extras. Tate’s father has a few fun moments and laughs including after being turned looking for a place to rest his coffin while he sleeps. But its all very muted. Not terrible or anything, but not that funny either. And it dragged. 108 minutes was way too long for this movie and I just desperately wanted it to end eventually. Especially since its so late and I wanted to get 2 more in and now it feels questionable if I can even get 1. 45 (50). Blood and Black Lace (1964) Available on Shudder.  A fashion model is savagely murdered by a masked killer and when her diary turns up containing secrets about an endless cast of sketchy characters it starts a chain of events as the killer starts racking up a body count to cover his or her tracks. Yet another random year pick I figured I should work Mario Bava into my month of exploring this era of horror. And while this was “random” in terms of not something that I was terribly interested in viewing it did stand out from the pack by its hype. The gist I get is that this film is viewed by many as one of the first “giallos” and “slashers” that inspired the idea of whodunit murder mysteries that shift away from the police investigation and to the killings themselves, in gruesome and often sexualized ways. Given that it only seemed fair to give it a watch even if it doesn’t feel like something that appeals to me. And that’s an odd thing. This didn’t feel like a “horror” to me. I can’t totally put my finger on why. I just got done watching the Scream series and obviously the two share a lot. A masked killer in a cast of many suspects wracking up pretty bodies in gory fashion. And that’s very much “horror” to me. There’s tons of grounded whodunit movies from people like Hitchcock that I don’t question as being horror. But for some reason this one didn’t ever really click that way for me. I have no idea why. Its obvious how it most likely inspired 50+ years of films like Scream and if so many people say it was one of the first that established the sub genre who am I to argue? There’s just something. That being said its a pretty good film. The story is tight and works without being too predictable. Its got tons of style from the opening credits to the final shot. The killer manages to be memorable if simple. Its gorgeously shot and has that bright single color thing that seems like a staple of Italian horror at the time. And even though Wikipedia says it was filmed/dubbed into English I watched it in Italian with subtitles. Which is great because I hate that dubbing crap and it would have killed the movie for me. I was struggling to get engaged and that would have crushed my chances. I can’t say what held me back from fully praising it. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood. Maybe i had a grudge against it as it sat on my list all month and I kept rejecting it for other films. Maybe it was just late and I was tired. Maybe the poor lead in hurt. Maybe I just don’t like giallo. I keep saying I don’t like slashers but I praised Scream and I praised Chucky last year. I’m sure there’s more I praised. Maybe when its too grounded I just feel like I’m watching one of those true crime murder shows or movies. And i don’t like watching that stuff because it feels too real and terrible. Its why I never watch the local news. I don’t know. But it was good and I’m glad I watched it. Three more years left. 1956, 1963, and 1968. I have ’56 and ’63 all lined up but I was going to watch Kuroneko on Kanopy for ’68 and its been pulled off there. So its gonna be a scramble as I have no idea what I'll be watching for that tomorrow but I know I really want to get my last 3 years done tomorrow and free up the last few days for whatever I feel like.  That’s also movie #50 so if I want to match my total from last year of 60 I’m gonna have to press hard these last few days. I have more than enough movies in mind to do it, but I don’t know if I have the time. I do have a cheat in my backpocket but I rather not use it, especially this late in the game. It would make the total feel cheap. September Tally - New (Total) 1. A Cure For Wellness (2016) / - (2). Slither (2006) / 2 (3). Castle Rock (2018) / - (4). The Forsaken (2001) / 3 (5). The Night Eats the World (2018) / 4 (6). The Girl With All The Gifts (2016) / 5 (7). The Voices (2014) / 6 (8). Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010) / 7 (9). Jug Face (2013) / 8 (10). Coherence (2013) / 9 (11). A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014) / - (12). Vampire in Brooklyn (1995) / 10 (13). Excision (2012) / 11 (14). Spring (2014) October Tally - New (Total) 1. Suspiria (1977) / 2. It (2017) / 3. The Beyond (1981) / 4. Trilogy of Terror (1979) / 5. House on Haunted Hill (1959) / 6. Demons (1985) / Fran’s Challenge #1: 7. The Green Inferno (2013) / 8. Martin (1978) / 9. Malevolent (2018) / - (10). Dead and Breakfast (2004) / 10 (11). Night of the Comet (1984) / 11 (12). Jaws (1975) / 12 (13). Black Swan (2010) / Fran’s Challenge #2: 13 (14). Happy Death Day (2017) / - (15). Hell House, LLC (2015) / Fran’s Challenge #3: 14 (16). Hell House, LLC 2: The Abaddon Hotel (2018) / 15 (17). Carnival of Souls (1962) / 16 (18). The Last House on the Left (1972) / 17 (19). The Haunting of Hill House (2018) / Fran’s Challenge #4: 18 (20). My Soul To Take (2010) / Fran’s Challenge #5: 19 (21). Motel Hell (1980) / 20 (22). The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) / Fran’s Challenge #6: 21 (23). Don’t Look In The Basement (1973) / 22 (24). All Cheerleaders Die (2013) / 23 (25). Sleepaway Camp (1983) / 24 (26). The House That Dripped Blood (1971) / 25 (27). The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane (1976) / 26 (28). Friday the 13th Part III (1982) / Fran’s Challenge #7: 27 (29). November (2017) / Fran’s Challenge #8: 28 (30). Escape From Tomorrow (2013) / 29 (31). Horror of Dracula (1958) / Fran’s Challenge #9: 30 (32). The Open House (2018) / 31 (33). The Innocents (1961) / 32 (34). The Brides of Dracula (1960) / 33 (35). Resolution (2012) / Fran’s Challenge #10: 34 (36). The Endless (2018) / 35 (37). The Oblong Box (1969) / 36 (38). Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) / 37 (39). Ex Machina (2015) / 38 (40). Night of the Creeps (1986) / 39 (41). Night of the Demon (1957) / - (42) Scream (1996) / - (43). Scream 2 (1997) / - (44). Scream 3 (2000) / Fran’s Challenge #11: 40 (45). Scream 4 (2011) / Fran’s Challenge #12: 41 (46). Possession (1981) / 42 (47). Devils of Darkness (1965) / 43 (48). I Drink Your Blood (1970) / 44 (49). The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) / 45 (50). Blood and Black Lace (1964) STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 10:33 on Oct 28, 2018 |
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Oct 28, 2018 10:31
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I can't sleep so I might as well review some more movies. 22 - Scarab Robert Gintyyyy! The man with the personality of Coke Zero. Despite having a lumpy face, he plays some kind of playboy journalist in this film. In fact he's such a playboy that it actively keeps him from properly reporting on or investigating anything. This movie is very strange, shot in spain with a lot of actual spanish dialogue left in without any subtitles, and with brief scenes where people speak german and french as well. The plot is incredibly hard to follow, but involves Rip Torn as a former nazi cultist trying to do... something, which causes prominent politicians around the world to commit suicide. Ginty stumbles onto this plot while trying to get laid, and spends the rest of the movie bumbling around while insane things he doesn't understand happen around him, often in languages he doesn't speak. This movie manages to be mind blowing and dull at the same time, which is quite the achievement. It also manages to look super cheap and wildly expensive from scene to scene. Weird monsters, gore, boobs, incomprehensible non-linear editing, lots of shots of 1980s spain, bad comedy, shocking special effects, drugs, arrows being psychically returned to sender... this movie has it all, except anything good. Watch this one with a crowd, and maybe a couple drinks in you, or skip it. Not a film to be engaged with seriously. 23 - Street Trash So I have very little patience for things that are offensive on purpose, most of the time. I find it to be a very shallow form of humor that makes people think they're very clever because they're doing the thing people told them not to do. Street Trash is absolutely that kind of film. But for some reason, it's so offensive that not only does it stop actually being offensive at one point, it also stops being annoying. Maybe it's the tone of the film. While it absolutely does not take itself seriously at all, it's also not over the top winking at you. It knows that you know it's stupid, and it doesn't need to nudge you to remind you. This movie's famous for its incredibly creative and disgusting melting scenes, and those are absolutely worth seeking out even if you have no interest in a purposefully shocking film full of classism, homophobia, racism, misogyny, rape, sadistic violence, necrophilia, pee, poo, vomit, misanthropy etc. But what's funny is how little the tainted alcohol that's making all the hobos melt has to do with the plot. Though the narrative constantly shifts points of view, the film's really about a self styled king of the hobos becoming progressively more unhinged and violent and coming into conflict with the less dislikeable characters in the film (I hesitate to call any of them the heroes), until he faces off with the surviving ones in a battle to the death. The fact that people are melting is really an afterthought to all that. And that's kind of great. This movie has a lot of "You have to see it to believe it" moments, genuinely funny jokes, astonishing gore, weird fighting, great set design, and it's maybe the most authentically grimy portrayal of 1980s NYC ever put to film. I dunno. I feel like if you have a tolerance for obnoxious edginess, it has to be seen at least once, especially now that it's on blu-ray. For all its problems, this film has great visuals. But I can't blame anyone who turns it off after the 12th racial slur. 24 - Gerald's Game Ok so I read the book this is based on in middle school and it kinda messed me up, I wasn't ready for the hosed up sexual content in it, and it really soured me on Stephen King for a long time. While it's not even a book I can say I really liked, I cannot believe how terrible a job Mike Flanagan did adapting it. All his films have this air of artificiality that I hate. It kind of reminds me of Zack Snyder's visual style. When you watch Sucker Punch or 300, at no point do you feel like you're looking at real human beings, everyone's a heightened character with extra detailed contours and perfectly placed shadows. Flanagan's movies have that same feeling to an extent, but just... blander. It's like 300 meets the sears catalogue. Carla Gugino doesn't look like a housewife at the start of this film, she looks like a Hollywood actress on a movie poster. Her hair is perfectly styled, her makeup is flawless, the lighting hits her just so. And once she's been in dire straits for a long time, instead of looking haggard and dehydrated, suddenly someone's cleaned up her makeup and straightened out her hair. There's an absolutely obnoxious eclipse motif in this film that I'm sure Flanagan thought was very meaningful and haunting, but it completely undermines the emotional impact of the scenes it's used in, as the red lighting and fake looking CG eclipse make everything feel like a sub-par music video. It's downright laughable. But this inability to be subtle and naturalistic doesn't just extend to the visuals. The characters in the book were very real and grounded, and in this film they're completely cartoonish. Carla Gugino isn't even the lead of the film, since her dead husband appears as a hallucination almost immediately after dying, chewing the scenery and running around and mugging for the camera incessantly, soon to be joined by another Carla Gugino that yells at the one tied to the bed and the husband. The thing that really stuck with me for over 15 years after reading Gerald's Game was the slow, agonizing hopelessness of Jessie's situation. She's tied to the bed for nearly a week, and through her inner monologue you feel the hopelessness creep in, the fear, the thirst, the loneliness, and she very slowly starts to come unglued and be assaulted with unwelcome memories of the past and hallucinations. But there's no time for that in this dumbass film. She starts hallucinating a few hours after Gerald dies (although the pacing of the film makes it feel like a few minutes after). The dog comes in and starts chowing down on Gerald's corpse almost immediately as well, and the crypt crawler shows up on the very first night. But beyond just compressing the actual timeline (which is already annoying, because being tied to a bed for 36 hours is not really as spooky as being tied to a bed for so long you literally have no idea how long it's been), the movie is too frenetically paced for the kind of story it's trying to tell. It's almost like Flanagan is afraid the audience will get bored if he slows down for even a minute. I'm not asking for a 3 hour film here, but it would've been so easy to just have one or two moments where things are still and quiet and we hear Jessie's ragged breathing, to give a real sense of just how lonely and endless her situation feels. Instead Flanagan feels that it's more important that we see spooky CG faces and imaginary dead people monologuing. The gross sex stuff in the book is still in this film, which I guess is inevitable since it's so central to the plot, but it's portrayed in a much clumsier way than the original story, which both makes it feel grosser and more stupid. So congrats on that. This is a bad adaptation of a bad book. 25 - Minutes Past Midnight So this is an anthology film, but it doesn't seem to be the kind where a single director had like a vision and guided the rest of the production. Each short is entirely different stylistically, and they greatly vary in quality and even length. Some of the shorts are so short they seem like they could be from an ABC's of death, some use fully practical effects, other use terrible looking CGI, some have great acting, others not so much... It's the definition of a mixed bag. Of note are the interminable short Roid Rage(which should be Rhoid rage but I guess they can't spell), about a man who thinks he has horrible hemorrhoids but it turns out he actually has a giant worm up his rear end that eats people, which is the only thing that relieves his rear end pain. This short feels like a Troma fan film, has absolutely abominable special effects, including what seems like plug-in effects of blood hitting the camera, and everyone in it is either the worst actor I've ever seen or acting poorly on purpose, and I can't decide which is worse. It seems like it's going to end about 5 times and then it just keeps going. Truly obnoxious. But on the flipside, there's a completely straight faced spooky victorian horror story which is done entirely with puppets. I don't mean Muppets or stop motion dolls here, I mean classic marionette-looking rod puppets, with facial expressions that only change when there's a camera cut. And while that sounds like it would be really easy to gently caress up, it does a marvelous job of it and has some truly frightening and creepy imagery. There's also a hilarious short about a man in his trailer fighting a chupacabra, and a brief but delightful one about a children's programming mascot invading a home.  This is probably the most uneven anthology I've ever seen (and I've watched a lot) but it's absolutely worth powering through the bad ones to watch the good ones. Don't let the mediocre opening segments fool you, this is a genuine rollercoaster.
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Oct 28, 2018 10:33
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 192- World War Z 2013 - VUDU When I first heard they were doing a World War Z movie, my mind was already spinning with things like 'which chapters are they going to use? Good God they have to do the Battle of Yonkers!'. Well, we all know what we ended up getting and we can only hope for a cable series adaptation at this point. Hopefully handled like Ken Burns did his Civil War series. As a World War Z adaptation, this film sucks so hard it blows on a hurricane category scale. As a zombie film, it's around average to meh on the sliding scale. There's some okay ideas but if given the option, there's far better zombie films to sit through than this one.  193- Tucker & Dale vs Evil 2010 - HULU I first went into watch this, I wasn't expecting much with that title. I was very happy to be proven wrong. This essentially is 'what if you had a bigger perspective on a slasher in the woods'. We meet Tucker & Dale as they're heading up to do some fixing up of the cabin they've bought to have for some hunting/fishing trips. At the same time a group of college kids are up to have some camping fun and are creeped out by the the two rural guys. From there, the ball gets rolling. I laughed so hard at parts of this movie I was sure I'd pull a muscle and have to go to the hospital and explain I hurt myself laughing at a movie...seriously...and yes I do feel safe in my relationships. And THIS is how you do a satirical commentary on horror movie conventions, Whedon you hack!
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Oct 28, 2018 11:06
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STAC Goat posted:Three more years left. 1956, 1963, and 1968. I have ’56 and ’63 all lined up but I was going to watch Kuroneko on Kanopy for ’68 and its been pulled off there. So its gonna be a scramble as I have no idea what I'll be watching for that tomorrow but I know I really want to get my last 3 years done tomorrow and free up the last few days for whatever I feel like.  I wouldn't completely discount a weird licensing issue, but it's definitely still there for me. It's also an amazing film that more people should watch.
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Oct 28, 2018 13:18
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No frills update! 46. The Night of the Hunter (1955) A terrific deep-south thriller about a killer preacher/con man who hounds two small children in search of money hidden by their father. I've heard about this one for years and have just never gotten around to watching it. I'm glad I finally did and it's a shame I waited so long. Robert Mitchum plays sleazy-charming with an air of menace incredibly well. /547. Carnival of Souls (1962) A survivor of a car accident that killed her friends, a woman moves and takes a job as a church organist to put the past behind her, only to find she's having now having strange visions of a sinister man. Another that I've heard of for years and that I may have seen when I was fairly young. I had a hunch I'd seen it, but couldn't tell you anything about it. As I watched it, more and more stuff felt familiar. I appreciated it more this time around, though. It's an incredibly solid and spooky film on it's own, but you can see so many things (Particularly Lynch, with the antagonist seemingly lifted for Lost Highway) that this film would influence since it's release. /548. Under The Shadow (2016) One of the more unique horror films I've seen in a long time. A woman and her daughter try to survive in war-torn, post revolution Tehran when they begin to experience a haunting in their apartment. I don't think I've ever seen a horror film where the ghost feels like a secondary antagonist. Under The Shadow manages to put the city of Tehran itself as the most terrifying and oppressive figure in the film. Seeing plumes of smoke in the background from recent explosions, our main characters and their neighbors spending nights in a bomb shelter in the basement of their building, and the city becoming ever more deserted as people flee their homes. When the paranormal events begin happening, it's deeply unsettling and sad as we watch a mother and daughter deal with this horror in their home, removing the last illusion of safety they have the terror outside. It's a beautiful and spooky flick, I really enjoyed it and I look forward to director Babak Anvari's new film coming next year. /549. Beyond the Gates (2016) Brothers reunite at their father's video store after their father goes missing. While cleaning out the store they come across a spoooooooky VCR board game. I didn't love this, but I've got to admit that it's a unique and fun concept. I thought the idea of a haunted VCR board game was pretty funny as I remember playing those crappy old games, especially Nightmare/Atmosfear. It's not a bad movie at all and, aside from being a bit goofy/over acted at points, and it's hard to find too much to complain about with it's 80ish minute runtime. It won't knock your socks off, but it's not entirely worth writing off either. .5/550. Venom (2018) Yeah, yeah, I know, kinda pushing it with the definition of horror here. That being said, I'm not sure if this is the Venom movie I was asking for. Hell, I'm pretty sure I wasn't asking for a Venom movie at all, but this one is fairly fun and they could have done a lot worse. They didn't do a great job, by any means, but my fiancee and I were both entertained for the run time. Venom himself was fairly cool looking, a few people's heads got eaten, and it had a few funny moments thrown in. Tom Hardy is fun as this mumbly terrified idiot through most of the film and his performance got less bumbling and more endearing as the film progressed. It gets by on mediocrity and doesn't stand alongside other recent comic book adaptations at all, but I wouldn't say it's Catwoman, Daredevil or Elektra bad either. /551. Desolation (2017) A woman, her young son, and best friend go on a hike into the wilderness only to discover they're being followed. I liked this, with one major caveat I'll get to in a moment. The characters are likable and feel realistic, at least through the majority of the movie. The lead actresses have great chemistry, the mother feels very human dealing with the loss of her husband and uncertainty in her role of what to do now as a mom, and the young son seems dejected and sad. My caveat is the antagonist. I'm fine with the villain in a horror movie being a normal human - that can easily be the scariest type of enemy. What's not scary or interesting is Rob Zombie in aviator sunglasses standing over there. If you've seen it, feel free to chime in on your thoughts, because the best I know how to word it is that I don't mind when the killer is just some loving dude, but in the movie the killer is just some loving dude. .5/5
Several Goblins fucked around with this message at 13:37 on Oct 28, 2018 |
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Oct 28, 2018 13:22
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Got my suspiria tickets for Halloween. Hype! I really hope it doesn't suck. 
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Oct 28, 2018 13:38
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Ambitious Spider posted:Got my suspiria tickets for Halloween. Hype! You and me, both. I've been purposefully avoiding trailers and soundtrack stuff. Trying to go in as blind as possible.
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Oct 28, 2018 14:04
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Guy Goodbody posted:Alright, but after this challenge is over I'm probably gonna want to take a break from horror for awhile. Maybe try to watch 31 Thanksgiving movies in November or something. That's pretty normal. I usually participate in Noirvember and also watch more action movies and comedies after.
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Oct 28, 2018 14:29
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Franchescanado posted:That's pretty normal. I'm particularly looking forward to Sci-Fibruary.
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Oct 28, 2018 14:40
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Guy Goodbody posted:I'm particularly looking forward to Sci-Fibruary. Don't threaten me with a good thread
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Oct 28, 2018 14:45
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I managed to hit my target over the past week, I’ve just been too busy/lazy to write much up. I started writing some reviews last weekend but didn’t get a chance to finish any write ups until now. Annihilation (2018 - Netflix)  Fran challenge- here and now This is Alex Garland’s follow up to Ex Machina, a film I enjoyed very much. Now Annihilation is more sci-fi than horror, but there’s enough creepy and monstrous poo poo in here to qualify it in both genres. Annihilation has a lot of gorgeous imagery and effects, and a deep story, but despite all these positive qualities, I didn’t find myself loving or even really liking it all too much. I found it somewhat heavy on exposition and kind of explained too much. Still, it’s a very pretty film and it has some great creatures and scenes so I’d recommend this. Halloween (2018 - theatre) Like last year’s It, this movie was released at just the right time to really strike a cultural chord and become a huge hit, as evidenced by its near $80 million opening weekend. Now we all know that box office gross isn’t necessarily reflective of film quality but I am glad to say that Halloween is a movie that deserves its success. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel and it doesn’t really go meta, its just a very well made slasher. There’s a few callbacks to previous entries but nothing comes off as too jarring or out of place. The film can get pretty scary at times, and we learn early in the movie that Michael has very few restraints on who he kills. This leads to an incredibly tense scene later in the movie involving Michael and a baby. There’s some complaints in the Halloween thread about characters kind of randomly disappearing in the movie but I really didn’t mind that. These characters had served their role and anything else would have just seemed to exist to pad out the run time. Definitely go check this out in the theatres if you haven’t already done so. The Seventh Sign (1988 - DVD) This was a pretty dull movie about the prelude to the apocalypse starring Demi Moore. It was made in the late 80s but it kind of looks like a bland, mid-90s horror movie. It’s really plot-heavy and has a few decent scenes but nothing really worth going out of your way to see. Madhouse (1981 - iTunes) I enjoyed this when I watched it, but I honestly forgot I even watched this a few days later and that's never a great sign for a movie. It’s a murder mystery involving two twins and a Rottweiler. It gets pretty gory at times as well. As I mentioned, it was enjoyable, just not particularly memorable. The Stuff (1985 - hoopla) “America is under attack by a dessert known as the stuff” What a bizarre movie. The tone is immediately set when an old man finds white goo in the ground and decides that eating it is the obvious thing to do. It’s like an old 50s style Body Snatcher/Blob movie with anti-consumerism and anti corporate undercurrents. It has some of the weirdest characters I’ve seen in horror movies, like the southern protagonist and racist military man. As low budget as the stuff looks, the kills are still a lot of fun. I think what really hit home was how authentic all the commercials seem. I had more nostalgia from those than any faux-80s stuff made now. So yeah, definitely check out The Stuff if you get the chance. It’s a truly underrated gem of the 80s horror scene. The 50 Best Horror Movies You’ve Never Seen (2014 - Prime) This is a talking heads style documentary that was originally released as VOD. It’s over 2 hours so I feel this can count. It’s clips of movies interspersed with actors/directors/other personalities talking about why they liked the films. Some people are a little snarky and annoying but most of the guests are genuinely interesting. It gets a little too spoilers at times as it gives away some plot twists or shows crucial scenes from movies so that’s a bit of a downer. As for the list itself, it’s pretty drat solid. I’ve logged hundreds of horror films over the years and I haven’t even seen half of these. They’re not all deep cuts, especially by CineD standards, but it’s a good list. I found the list on Letterboxd here: https://boxd.it/ea3S If you don’t have Letterboxd, here’s the list: Basket Case When a Stranger Calls Silent Night, Deadly Night The Slumber Party Massacre Valentine Grace The Hunger Prophecy The Dentist The Food of the Gods Motel Hell Wrong Turn The Fury April Fools Day Humanoids from the Deep Hatchet May Lemora Brides of Dracula The Exorcist III Burnt Offerings The Funhouse Halloween III Hard Candy Castle Freak Feast Slither Inside Tourist Trap Trilogy of Terror Splinter Session 9 Ginger Snaps Alice Sweet Alice Visiting Hours Repulsion Alone With Her Near Dark Joshua Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark Audition Let the Right One In Reanimator Wishmaster The Descent Alone in the Dark The Night of the Hunter The Beast Within Pumpkinhead Black Christmas I’ve hit my target of 31 new movies, but I may keep going. Red Dead 2 is pretty addicting but I should be able to squeeze a few more movies in. Watched (31) : Always Watching: A Marble Hornets story; Terrifier; Boys in the Trees; Creature from Black Lake; Parents; Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat; Murder Party; Hell Fest; Alone in the Dark; House of Purgatory; 30 Nights of Paranormal Activity...; Phantom of the Paradise; Dead Silence; Blood Diner; the Toolbox Murders; bride of Re-Animator; Baskin; The Mummy’ Curse; Nightmare City; Mystery of the Wax Museum; Shocker; Boy Eats Girl; Malevolent; Basket Case; Exorcist III; Annihilation; Halloween (2018); The Seventh Sign; Madhouse; The Stuff; The 50 best horror movies you’ve never seen
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Oct 28, 2018 14:49
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Guy Goodbody posted:I'm particularly looking forward to Sci-Fibruary. I'm not sure if this is a real thing but if not it needs to be.
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Oct 28, 2018 15:09
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53. Candyman - 5/5quote:There's an air of elegance to Candyman that I've yet to see in any other slasher. The film opens up with sweeping aerial shots of Chicago, scored by the legendary Philip Glass. It's a grandiose and operatic intro, borrowing the language of Koyaanisqatsi to establish its own central conflict. This sprawling metropolis is a monument to the capitalist drive for endless expansion, and this is the story of those left in its shadow.
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Oct 28, 2018 15:20
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CopywrightMMXI posted:The Seventh Sign (1988 - DVD) drat it. This is the last unwatched movie in a four-pack and I had hopes to go in blind. Though your write up sounds like my expectations from the cover art/cast/jacket description are correct. Franchescanado posted:...this weekend might be everyone's Halloween celebration.  52. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)* - Blu-ray Kicks off at the very end of Halloween night and takes place in Halloween so counting it. Anyway. Opened our projector night triple feature with this and didn't get to watch as much of it as I'd have liked. Trouble with a chafing dish, tending campfire, dualing in speaker volume to easily audible but not dickish to neighbors, and some other things to settle it all in kept me distracted. Shame as the Blu-ray looks beautiful, especially having last seen it on VHS. Unfortunately, this wound up being the only projected film. Area was under a wind advisory and sleet had spent the day icing everything over. At one of thenmoments I was just watching the movie with a Canadian whiskey spiked hot mulletld cider, I was bodyslammed by a runaway 10'x10' pop-up. Then got to help wrangle the thing, organize a slightly better placement than original, re-stake with beefier spikes, and tie a couple running bowlines to the ridgeline and run down to heavy benches as anchors and tie off with taut lines hitches (all in the dark earning me respect from my father). Our few attending guests ducked out after the credits. So the wife, kids, and I all broke down the set-up and called it a night. The correct decision as the wind started whipping about an hour later. Daughter and I watched one more in the living room before calling it a night.   53. The Blob (1958) - Blu-ray Everyone just go out and find a copy of the Criterion Blu-ray if you care at all about this movie. Despite being a cheap drive-in program stuffer, it looks great. The film/lenses used were notably better quality than the '88 remake. Colors pop, black backdrop properly black rather than grainy, and fine detail shows well. This is one of the best quality discs on my shelves. As for remake vs. Original, I can't pick a winner. The remakenis better plotted, shows more blob, and uses great practical effects. The original is just endearing and fun with its sound stages, betterr than the vudget deserved effects, and charcyers that were more enjoyable. I'd say both are decided classics and worth viewing now and then. Though I think the original may be an easier watch and a little more fun. 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), 47. Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989), 48. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), 49. The Mist (2007)*ish 1, 50. The Slumber Party Massacre (1982), 51. Village of the Damned (1960)11, 52. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)*13, 53. The Blob (1958) Years Spanned: 96 (1922-2018) Tally by Decade: '20s (I), '30s (V), '40s (III), '50s (VI), '60s (IX), '70s (III), '80s (XI), '90s (IV), 2000s (VII), 2010s (V) B&W/Color: 22/32 Rewatch/Total Counted: 7/53 Countries: 'Murika, Canada, Blighty, France, Germany, Estonia, China, South Korea, Japan Fran Challenges Complete: * Rewatch
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Oct 28, 2018 15:38
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Drive-In Massacre Some spoilers ahead , but I wouldn't dare spoil the ending for you. Two similar looking cop buddies are tasked with solving a rash of beheadings that happen at a drive in theater. Obviously ripping off a lot from both Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Town That Dreaded Sundown (which is weird since these both came out the same year), yet doing it's own thing which accumulates in an ending which I'm sure has most people cussing and throwing stuff at the screen. As much as it was influenced by the movies mentioned, it also feels like cartoons were a major inspiration. The characters, violence and situations are all very cartoonish. Cops, villains, the pervert and even the dim-witted help all fit a character just as you would expect them too. The violence is wacky and without much gore. A man doesn't notice his date has been beheaded until he moves the car and her head falls off. Other beheadings happen swiftly and with little blood. Credit here goes to the impossibly sharp and durable samurai sword(s) which take a head off with one low effort swing and leave a perfectly flat wound. These swords keep being used, and the cops recover one early on, but they remain fixated on finding the murder weapon. This is just another one of those cartoon logic things where the movie just wants us to pretend the killer has his sword and it can be in numerous places at one, or that the killer has a giant crate stamp ACME full of indestructible swords.  Villain (note giant cross villain's wear to show they aren't a villain)  The Pervert (note pin-ups tacked to living room wall... as perverts do) On top of this the film is of course riddled with other problems. I am really curious about how bad a scene had to be before the director would cut it. At one point, when the two cops are interrogating someone, one of the cops totally fumbles his line and forgets it. He gives a couple nervous glances to his partner, then remembers his line and they just leave all that in the movie. There is also a part toward the end of the movie were they get a call that the killer has been cornered in a warehouse and has a hostage. Naturally, our two cops also serve as the towns hostage rescue team as they go barreling into the warehouse. Here again we find a very cartoon like setup where the suspected killer is chasing his young female captive and the cops are chasing him. At one point they are so close to having the classic impossible-inner connected room pursuit scene where one person will chase the other in and out of rooms that are across the hallway from each other. This all seems like it takes forever and ends with the cop catching the killer in the open, yelling 'FREEZE' , then shooting him despite him having froze. They start patting themselves on the back when the girl who was hostage comes up and gives an emotionless explanation that the man they just shot was her dad and he was just released from the mental hospital that morning and he had killed her mom and her aunt. I feel like I should also mention the lighting;  I'm not really recommending you watch this in these days close to Halloween when you should be watching actual good movies.. but I liked this. It's aggravating and really stupid, but it moves quick (with the exception of the warehouse scene) and has the balls to go with the ending that it did. Without a doubt, a good- bad movie /5
Dr.Caligari fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Oct 28, 2018 |
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Oct 28, 2018 15:41
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47. The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) Rewatch, on Prime I forgot what a strange movie this actually is. All I seemed to remember was the killing sequences, especially the trombone one. However, the other half of the movie is a bunch of weird Dukes of Hazzard style goofing off and car chases. There's a lot more time spent with Sparkplug (the Barney Fife substitute) than I remembered from seeing it years ago. It makes for some pretty strange tonal shifts when it goes from broad comedy to a kill scene that is still pretty brutal even by today's standards. That coupled with the documentary style narration makes for a weird viewing experience. Really enjoyed it though. 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 (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 | 44. Summer of 84 | 45. Bad Ben | 46. Waxwork | 47. The Town that Dreaded Sundown Fran Challenges: edit: Franchescanado posted:That's pretty normal. I was just thinking how little reading I've been doing the past month and a half and I'm looking forward to watching absolutely nothing (until the next Joe Bob marathon). Drunkboxer fucked around with this message at 16:50 on Oct 28, 2018 |
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Oct 28, 2018 16:47
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quote /= edit
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Oct 28, 2018 16:49
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Ugh Suspiria isn't playing anywhere within 4 hours of me. Guessing it'll show up on demand fairly soon at least.
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Oct 28, 2018 16:57
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It was cheaper to buy Freddy vs. Jason in a three pack with the remakes, so here we go A Nightmare on Elm Street (the remake)  All the characters knew each other as teens, but they forgot about it. What is this, Final Fantasy 8? Is this the Final Fantasy 8 movie? Were they making a Final Fantasy 8 movie and accidentally got it mixed with A Nightmare on Elm Street? There's no buildup or escalation here, from scene one all the kids know they're being hunted in their dreams and are maximum scared. The thing about Nancy slowly coming to accept what's happening and figuring out how to fight it is almost completely removed, and the subplot of her mom descending into alcoholism and denial is entirely removed. So the movie has no arcs. Nothing changes from the first scene to the end, which makes it all very dull. Most of the scares are just lifted wholecloth from the original, but done less competently. The original did something really scary just by replacing a wall with a sheet. The remake recreates the scene with like three million dollars of CGI and it looks like poo poo. This new Freddy is pretty bad. I think they tried to make his makeup look more like an actual burn victim, which is just a baffling decision. He's a lot less expressive, and looks a lot less evil. On top of that, they made Jackie Early Haley talk like Batman. And they took all of the whimsy and inventiveness out of the dream sequences. And at one point Freddy uses a dream to deliver backstory to the audience? Thanks, Freddy. The movie establishes in a flashback that the green and red sweater Freddy died in wasn't just a one off thing, he generally liked to wear stripey tops. Thanks, movie, for that bit of characterization. It seems like they were inspired by the McMartin preschool case when they came up with Frddy's backstory. The recovered memories, accusations of secret tunnels under the school that were never found, etc. But with the twist that he actually did it. Which is hosed up. That is a hosed up thing to do with a movie. It's like if they made a movie about the Central Park Five, but with the twist that they actually did it. The Nightmare on Elm Street remake is really bad
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Oct 28, 2018 16:57
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Guy Goodbody posted:I'm particularly looking forward to Sci-Fibruary. If this happens I am fully on board. It’s bullshit that sci-fi gets the shortest month but what can you do?
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Oct 28, 2018 17:34
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Day 28 - Tales from the Hood 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd-3lWV9-1A WELCOME TO HELL, MOTHERFUCKER!! I feel like I need a gif or embeddable video link of Keith David shouting that since it's a useful response for pretty much any situation. Tales from the Hood is a favorite of all intelligent and handsome horror movie enthusiasts. Still, making a sequel twenty-five years later seems iffy even if it's more relevant than ever. So I was pleased that Tales from the Hood 2 was pretty good. Maybe a bit too blunt in some ways but I can't say I really minded since it was often heavy handed in ways that became entertaining. A girl wants a doll from a museum of racism where she doesn't see the harm in many of the exhibits. Some gangsters get the bright idea to call back the ghost of one of their victims to find his money. Two guys decide to roofie a pair of girls and find out that they're not always effective. A black republican in Mississippi is confronted by the ghosts of the past. And a wrap around tale of a storyteller helping an industrialist teach their robotic police officer. The stories were a lot of Twilight Zone episodes or the Tales from the Crypt comics where they were morality plays. So things play out pretty much how you'd expect but they can still be very effective. The final segment in particular is powerful even if I don't buy into the premise that the civil rights movement was tied to one singular incident. It wasn't the naked racism on display (I would say "cartoon racism" given how simplistic the depictions often are, but it's not hard these days to find people who are acting like that), it was the characters reacting to it. Both the first and final segment had African-Americans at the center of them who refuse to engage with the past. So when a girl decides to do some "sexy" roleplaying with her boyfriend against a real whipping post Tales from the Hood 2 finds something deeper. Despite not leaning into racial themes directly, I enjoyed the second segment a lot as well. The John Edwards style "psychic" (who was named John as well to make sure the connection was clear) was a lot of fun. Really, the only weak segment was the third which didn't have a very interesting idea and then didn't even do much with it. I didn't need a five minute scene of them playing Cards Against Humanity, especially since it didn't reveal anything about the characters. Everyone who has posted about this movie in this thread has mentioned it, but I've got to reiterate that Keith David is Keith David. I would say he's amazing, but that's redundant when he's Keith David. Basically, not as good as the original, but a pretty good and timely horror anthology that only really suffers in comparison with the original. Three days left and I have two movies specifically set aside for the end of the month. Which leaves me with one last pick where I go for something weird and random... Random Stranger fucked around with this message at 17:57 on Oct 28, 2018 |
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Oct 28, 2018 17:52
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Trouble Every Day (2001) Very disappointed that I wasn't a fan of this, as I love the director Claire Denis. Denis is maybe the best director in the world at showing sensuality and touch, but it's unfortunately built to theme and all the archetypes it's trafficking in (sex drive as annihilation, rational man v. primal femininity) are...extremely tired? And were always kind of dumb? The gap between how tender and intense individual scenes are and the inanity of the broad strokes is huge. Maybe the real problem is that I found Gallo boring and Dalle kinda mannered, if Denis made this with other collaborators like Denis Lavant and Juliette Binoche this coulda been a classic. Undeniably a very beautifully made film but I just couldn't get into it. This is the third film I've watched this month by a European woman director about being horny for cannibalism, so uh, what's going on over there. 2.5/5  A Page of Madness (1926)  Oh poo poo. This is a rediscovered Japanese silent about the fantasies/hallucinations of a man who works as a janitor at the mental institution where his wife is being held. Being a silent movie without intertitles that's missing about a third of its footage, you'd think the barrier to entry would be higher, but this is a pure mood piece. It's jarringly swift in its editing and uncompromisingly aggressive in its juxtapositions in a way that I've never seen in a silent film before. This is a violent film not in content, but in how aggressively it throws itself at the audience. Clearly this was strongly influenced by films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, but where that movie's painted sets have a ramshackle, enchanted quality, this is just pure nightmare. All I knew about this going in was images from the scene with the creepy noh masks, so I was surprised that part was...weirdly sweet? 5/5  s
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Oct 28, 2018 19:01
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This is wrapping up the challenge for me - I saw more than 31 movies, but I had one more Fran Challenge to wrap up and my schedule between now and the 31st is filled with work OT and family time, so I'm not going to really get a chance to see anything else. 33) Minutes Past Midnight Seen on: Scream Stream A horror anthology comprised of nine short films. Like most anthologies, the quality varies quite a bit. The worst offender was "Roid Rage," a terrible amateur grindhouse/Troma/Chillerama wannabe about a guy with a demonic anus. Filled with terrible dialogue, effects and acting, it probably would have sat better if it wasn't so drat long. Fortunately, I'd say about almost half of the shorts were good, including: "The Mill at Calder's End," a Gothic horror story told in a neat visual style (with marionettes); "Crazy For You," about a serial killer who considers changing his ways when he falls in love; "Timothy," a short but effective story about a children's TV mascot come to terrifying life; and "Horrific," a VERY short and obviously Evil Dead-inspired story about a trailer trash guy fighting a "goddamn Chupacabra." And the final movie of the challenge for me: 34) The Barn FRAN CHALLENGE #13: What We've All Been Waiting For Seen on: Tubi On Halloween night in1989, two best friends - one of whom is obsessed with the holiday - and their peers run afoul of three legendary demonic killers in a rural barn. So this is one of those recent indie love-letter flicks to '80s horror that have become real popular in the last decade or so, including film grain and fake cigarette burns in the corner, a synth and heavy metal soundtrack, and buckets of gore - this stuff may delight you or leave you cold. Overall, I found it to be better than the sum of its parts and pretty appropriate Halloween viewing. Let's get the weak stuff out of the way first - the acting ranges from barely-there wallpaper to just okay (some of it clearly intentional, but after a while it gets hard to tell); most of the dialogue sounds like it was ADR'ed; the movie is mostly slow as hell and could be paced better; and a little of the cheapo '80s aesthetic goes a long, long way. The good stuff? The gore and FX are plentiful and pretty great, including an extended sequence set at a Halloween dance when the marauding demon trio slaughters just about everyone there (full disclosure: I watched this partially because a friend of mine from high school started his own makeup FX company, and he developed the masks for two of the three featured monsters, the jack o'lantern and scarecrow ones). For as clumsy as the acting and dialogue are, the two main protagonists have pretty good chemistry with each other. The movie also tries some unique stuff here, like how the monsters are bound by Halloween rules (mostly introduced by the main character, who has a whole list of Halloween etiquette that he abides by, kinda like the Jamie Kennedy character in Scream with his movie rules). The monsters ignore you if you're wearing a costume mask, because humans wear costumes on Halloween to fit in with the demons that walk the earth that night; they're vulnerable to attack because summoning the monsters requires saying "trick or treat" and they don't hold up their end of the bargain, etc. They also try to give each of the monsters a backstory and abilities, some of which are better than others - I liked the pumpkin guy, who can use any jack o'lantern nearby to see what's going on, or to summon his whole body into any nearby pumpkin, Matrix style, if you destroy his current body. The movie also benefits by just being really into the Halloween spirit, and I think it was a great fit for this challenge. -- So that's it for my 2018 horror challenge! Everything I watched was new to me: 1) Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser Part 1 - Shudder 2) Caltiki, The Immortal Monster - Youtube 3) Blood Feast - Tubi 4) Demon of Paradise - Tubi 5) Hungerford - Netflix 6) Cropsey FRAN CHALLENGE #1: Love Something You Hate - Tubi 7) Resolution - Shudder 8) The Endless - Netflix 9) Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon - Shudder 10) The Definitive Document of the Dead - Shudder 11) Nosferatu (1922) FRAN CHALLENGE #2: Queer Horror - Shudder 12) Toxic Zombies FRAN CHALLENGE #3: Hometown Horror - Tubi 13) Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers FRAN CHALLENGE #4: Worst of the Best / Best of the Worst - Youtube 14) God Told Me To FRAN CHALLENGE #5: Birth of Horror - Shudder 15) Murder Party - Scream Stream 16) Contamination - FRAN CHALLENGE #5: Video Nasties - Tubi 17) Crystal Lake Memories - the Complete History of Friday the 13th - YouTube 18) Train to Busan FRAN CHALLENGE #7: The World Is A Scary Place - Netflix 19) Zombi Holocaust (aka Doctor Butcher M.D.) - Shudder 20) Castle Freak - Scream Stream 21) Project: Metalbeast - Scream Stream 22) Death Bed: The Bed That Eats FRAN CHALLENGE #8: Once in a Lifetime - Shudder 23) Nightbeast - Tubi 24) Blood Boobs and Beast - Tubi 25) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) - Shudder 26) The House by the Cemetary FRAN CHALLENGE #9: Stranger Danger - Shudder 27) Sometimes They Come Back - Scream Stream 28) Night of the Demons 2 - Scream Stream 29) Night of the Demons - Tubi 30) Apostle FRAN CHALLENGE #10: Fear and Now - Netflix 31) Madman FRAN CHALLENGE #11: Dead & Buried - Tubi LIGHTNING BONUS ROUND - extra movies! 32) Tales of Halloween FRAN CHALLENGE #12: (Self-Described) Masters of Horror - Netflix 33) Minutes Past Midnight - Scream Stream 34) The Barn FRAN CHALLENGE #13: What We've All Been Waiting For - Tubi
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Oct 28, 2018 19:35
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Fran Challenges complete! Franchescanado posted:
35. Night of the Demons (1988, Kevin Tenney) Source: Tubi  I remember seeing this VHS cover while browsing around my video store as a kid in the early 90s. Scared the CRAP outta me. Neither the cover nor the film has such an effect today, but it's nevertheless a very entertaining bit of 80s horror schlock. It has a thick layer of sleaze over an even thicker layer of camp. I got Evil Dead II vibes. Not to say this is as good as that film, but there's a similar playful attitude that I always appreciate. The setup glued me in. A creepy old house with a demonic possession legend, filled with partying teenagers just asking to be slaughtered and/or turned into disgusting demons. The acting ranges from passable to atrocious, but it didn't bother me. What I came for was lots of gnarly makeup effects and fun demonic mayhem. I left satisfied. Oh, and it has one of the coolest opening title sequence I've ever seen.   (4 sun-dried poodle turds out of 5) _____________________________________________ Total: 35 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) | Zombie (4.5) | The Gate (3.5) | Zombie Holocaust (3) | Night of the Demons (4) Fran Challenges: Countries: USA (20) | Italy (6) | France (3) | Argentina (1) | Hong Kong (1) | Germany (1) | Belgium (1) | Australia (1) | Canada (1) Decades: 1920s (1) | 1930s (3) | 1950s (1) | 1970s (8) | 1980s (9) | 1990s (3) | 2000s (1) | 2010s (9)
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Oct 28, 2018 19:38
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 194-VHS 2010 - TUBI TV This one's a found footage anthology that's pretty hit or miss. The wraparound story was okay, but the only stories I liked were the Tuesday the 17th one and the Halloween one. The rest either didn't click with me or were just bad. I've heard the first story, Amateur Night ended up getting done into a full length feature, but I haven't seen it.  195-VHS2 2013 - HULU Pretty much the same format as the first, though I'd rate this one better because other than the first story which wasn't that good, I liked the others for the most part, particularly Ride in the Park and Safe Haven, though the last story with the aliens lost points with me because of what happened to the dog.  196-VHS: Viral 2014 - PRIME I think I'm the only one who remotely likes this one. The wraparound story's a bit weak, and the main flaw I see with the stories is the first two feel like full features truncated down to fit with the last story being the only proper short. I still liked each of the stories, but can take or leave the wraparound. Personal Challenge DoneAimed for at least 2 films a day with approximately 100 watched by Halloween, with at least 6 films watched from each decade starting with the 1920s. All Fran challenges completed as well.
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Oct 28, 2018 20:33
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I mean, you HAVE to get to 200. Its right there.Random Stranger posted:
Yeah, its gotta be a country/rights thing.  I could have swore it was up there at the start of the month but its possible i just relied on JustWatchUs telling me it was and never double checked.
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Oct 28, 2018 21:14
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 48. Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell (1968). Directed by Hajime Sato. Watched via FilmStruck Schlocky B-movie goodness. The effects work is really simplistic and effectively goopy, even if some effects don't hold up well to modern scrutiny. This would make a surprisingly good double feature with Train To Busan. It has a shocking amount of parallels, including an interest in how humanity's divisions play out in an apocalyptic scenario as well as a privileged survivor who screws over the rest of the survivors to keep himself alive (a politician this time). Went a touch bleaker than I expected it to.
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Oct 28, 2018 21:45
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Murder Party (2007) Challenge: What We've All Been Waiting For  Fun! Now that Saulnier is a big deal genre artist, it's great to go back and see him and an amateur crew working with nothing but lots of gusto and fake blood. The "truth or dare" sequence involving sodium pentothal is particularly inspired. I may go to cinephile hell for rating this higher than a Claire Denis movie but eh. 3/5  sFRAN CHALLENGES COMPLETED!!!
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Oct 28, 2018 21:50
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