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The main deal with Bloodline is it was hacked to pieces in editing. I have no idea if the original would have turned out good, but what’s left is a total mess.
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Oct 30, 2018 02:39
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Alfred P. Pseudonym posted:Didn’t know any others in the cast but one of the guys in the elevator looked like low rent Tom Hardy. I went and looked up the cast to see if you were talking about who I was thinking of, and yep, Logan Marshall-Green is in it
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Oct 30, 2018 02:39
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Franchescanado posted:
49. Trick 'r Treat (2007) Amazon  I for some reason have been avoiding this movie for a long time and I have no idea why. Maybe it's using the Sam character in the advertisements? It's a really fun anthology that interweaves it's stories in a (for the most part) organic way. It really nailed the EC comics tone, and wasn't afraid to bump off a few kids on the way. Why didn't this lead to a bunch of copycat anthologies in the past decade? A previous poster said that they'd have preferred that Sam remain more of an observer, and disliked his unmasking in the final story. I don't know, I feel like it was worth it to have that Brian Cox shut-in vs. monster story. 4/5 50. White Zombie (1932) Prime  A heartwarming tale about 3 men vying for total mental domination over a woman. It really does feel like a silent movie with sound sometimes. It seems like every actor except Bela (and maybe a few peripheral characters like the carriage driver) are doing that strange over-emoting silent era acting. Lugosi is great though, it seems like he's really committing here. He really carries the movie though its short runtime. 3.75/5 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 | 48. Friend Request | 49. Trick r Treat | 50. White Zombie Fran Challenges:
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Oct 30, 2018 02:43
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Ok, lets do this. The very last of my 31 Years and the one I’ve been saving. 49 (54). The Birds (1963) Available on Shudder.  Alfred Hitchcock’s classic about bored socialite Melanie Daniels who has a chance encounter with Mitch Brenner and decides to follow him to his family home and get into all kinds of antics with the women in his life including his overly protective mother and still attached ex-girlfriend. A romcom for the ages until all the birds in town suddenly decide they hate people. Hitchcock is Hitchcock. He knew how to develop tension and dread like few others in film history. Simple scenes like Melanie smoking a cigarette in silence as she notices more and more birds collecting calmly on the jungle gym near her speak so loudly. Hitchcock forgoes any traditional musical soundtrack that would denote or enhance tension in most films and instead leaves silence for the birds’ calls, chirping, and screeches to win out. You’re not listening for that musical interlude that tells you something’s about to happen. You’re just listening for the birds to know when something is about to happen. The romcom part of it feels a bit long (and it seems Hitchcock might have felt that way too) but it very much feels like Hitchcock playing games with his audience of telling them one story - and a pretty good one at that - before shifting into a horror totally different. I think Anne dying off screen really hammers that home. You’ve got this smart, likable character who feels so much like the rom-com character of the ex-girlfriend who befriends the new love interest. Played by a tremendous actress in Suzanne Plenchette who could have carried the main role if asked. And she ultimately becomes just a victim of the horror besetting this town (albeit while saving a young girl’s life). Tippi Hedren does a great job along with Suzanne Plenchette. Its interesting that I’ve been watching all these 50s and 60s films with the suave male lead and his beautiful love interest and this one kind of flips that a bit. Hedren’s Melanie is the smarmy, rascal character who does things like driving an hour to a stranger’s home, buying animals, renting a boot, making up stories, and breaking into someone’s house all for some flirting. The sort of done usually done by the likes of Matthew McCoughanney in the movies or be scary people with restraining orders in real life. But then throughout the film this sure headed, clever woman is gradually just beat down by what she’s experiencing and left traumatized and helpless. Not in a “damsel in distress” way but in a way most anyone would be. There’s all kinds of questionable stuff out there about what Hitchcock put Hedren through with this production. Hedren has claimed that he was obsessed with her and demanded sexual favors, and when she refused he tortured her and sabotaged her career. Others say that’s a wild exaggeration and he was a gentleman, while acknowledging he was meticulous and obsessive about every detail of his films including what his leading ladies wore. Whatever the truth is no one seems to dispute that Hedren worked her rear end off for this film, impressed skeptical people, and went through hell. For one scene Hitchcock locked her in a room with live birds for five days ever after she and others on the crew desperately wanted a break. There’s some interpretations out there about how the birds signify female sexuality in some way or that the whole thing is Hitchcock’s consumption with humanity and actors and that he wanted you to be rooting for the birds. I can’t see any of that, although I do find it funny that there were critics rooting for the unsympathetic villains way back in the 60s before the internet. I tend to take Hitchcock at face value. I don’t know if that makes me simple or what, but it is what it is. And minor trivia note, if you didn’t know. Hitchcock’s discovery/obsession Tippi Hedren is the mother of Melanie Griffith and grandmother of Dakota Johnson. And apparently BBC is making a tv series adaption. That should be intersection. Maybe. It being BBC I assume we’ll find out sometime in like 2022 or something and it will be 3 episodes. All in all, I really enjoyed that. It probably wasn’t my favorite of the countdown but it was definitely one of the top ones and worthy of the final spot. It lived up to the build and all that absorbed knowledge from it being in the cultural zeitgeist. Hell, just last week Superstore had a Halloween episode where a character dressed up as Melanie. And with that I have officially for the second year in a row completed the task of “31 Years in 31 Days.” 1986 to 1956. Or 1956 to 1986 depending on your perspective. I’ll talk more about it when we’re all done but here’s the final tally and I liked the movie poster thing so much I went back and redid last year’s 1987 to 2017 in the same style. So here’s 62 years of films completed over the last 13 months. I guess that means I really have only one choice of what to do next year.   Oh, but I hope you don’t think I’m done. Not only do I have one more Fran’s Challenge left but I’m close enough to last year’s total of 60 that I have to make a run at topping it. 3 days isn’t a ton of time but I’m way too close not to make a concentrated run at it. Hell, I can get in 2 or 3 more tonight and now I can just go ahead and watch whatever I want. And I've got countless films I'm interested in.
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Oct 30, 2018 02:48
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Day 29 - The Company of Wolves https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARC93pDUGbQ It occurred to me that I hadn't watched a werewolf movie this month and that made me pick this film. It didn't hurt that it sounded a bit offbeat. Also, maybe Angela Lansbury would be a lycanthrope! Werewolf, She Wrote! A girl dreams of a life in a psuedo-Grimm's fairy tales world where she lives within an enchanted forest. Her sister stepped off the path and was torn apart by wolves, so it's that kind of enchanted forest. Her grandmother lives in the forest as well. Grandma tells her stories about the beasts in men and is knitting her a nice red cloak. Will she join Team Jacob? Angela Lansbury was not a werewolf. But she did get her head punched off by a werewolf so I consider that a decent consolation prize. The werewolf transformation effects in this movie are completely horrifying. They're not as effective as American Werewolf in London, but they are suitably disgusting. Especially the first transformation which involves ripping all your skin off, and then their musculature and skeleton turns into a wolf before regrowing skin. It wasn't a creative idea even in 1985 to tie Little Red Riding Hood to werewolves or sexual awaking to lycanthropy. That's a metaphor that's sitting right out in the open. The Company of Wolves didn't really have anything distinctive to say along those lines, but it definitely went all-in on both of them. Pretty much every fairy tale that mentioned a wolf gets woven into the story, though often just by someone recounting it. And as for boys becoming men, men becoming wolves, there's a scene where the devil puts hair on a boys chest. I'm kind of wobbly on this one but I have to give it a thumbs up mainly on completely horrifying werewolf transformation effects. It's pretty disjointed and the dream intro feels like it was added to justify it, but there's plenty of good bits in the movie and they change tracks pretty often which prevents it from getting boring.
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Oct 30, 2018 02:48
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29. The Exorcist III I've been putting off seeing this movie since like last year, and was even going to skip over it this year. Soooo glad I didn't, holy poo poo. Opinion in-general seems mixed just from looking around online, and I guess there's a lot about this movie that could be off-putting to a lot of people but I kind of loved it. The first thing of note is that this movie is wordy, like almost all the main characters either seem to be monologuing or having nonstop banter back and forth in every scene. Here's just a sample from an early scene with George C. Scott: My wife's mother is visiting, Father. And Tuesday night, she's cooking us a carp. It's a tasty fish, I've got nothing against it. But, because it's supposedly filled with impurities, she buys it live and for three days, it's been swimming... up and down... in my bathtub. Up and down... and I hate it. I can't stand the sight of it, moving its gills. Now, you're standing very close to me, Father; have you noticed? Yes. I haven't had a bath for three days. I can't go home until the carp is asleep because if I see it, swimming... I'll kill it. And it takes him longer to deliver that dialogue than it took you to read it. Brad Dourif probably has the most monologues-per-screentime in the movie, which is fine by me because he's fantastic as always. Beyond the dialogue though there's this pervasive, ominous weirdness. Stylistically it feels like the original Exorcist, there are a lot of beams of light, dutch angles or shooting up from a low angle, flashes of surreal imagery, etc. The story ties in nicely with the original movie, and while the aforementioned monologuing and exposition sometimes feels a bit longwinded it's a fine enough plot and doesn't overstay its welcome. The real reason to watch is the weirdness, the cinematography, George C. Scott and Brad Dourif, and an old lady scampering across the ceiling.
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Oct 30, 2018 02:49
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38. Premonition 2007 Sometimes you watch a movie because your podcast friends are watching a movie and releasing a commentary for it. This is generally a bad idea. Sandra Bullock wakes up to a nightmare: her husband has died. The next day, she wakes up again, and...he's alive. The cycle continues, but will she be able to figure out what's going on and prevent his death? A lot of the mysteries of this film would be solved if Sandra would just loving talk to the people around her. "Hey honey I dreamed this crazy dream where you died in a car accident" would clear up quite a bit. Or even "Hey honey what day is today?" It was bad do not watch it.  /539. Friend Request 2016  Listen, sometimes there's a weird girl at school (college, I think?) and she always sits alone and looks all weird and goth. DO NOT friend her on Facebook. She can be a little clingy. Oh and also she is a witch. I should be happy with any movie that extols the horrors of Facebook, particularly of trying to close a Facebook account. This movie is so bad I found it almost endearing. It is filled with stupid and unintentionally hilarious dialogue. One (late) example is "She can't make you lonely if you're dead." The school Dean expels the main character for her Facebook posts, even though she has repeatedly demonstrated no control over the account. The villain's mother mostly died in a fire, and then the hospital kept her alive until she could give birth, or, as one characters puts it "she was always alone". This is modern trash horror, and honestly, I would probably watch it again in a group setting. It was enjoyable and remarkably terrible. /540. Night of the Demons III 1997  Fran Challenge: The Night We've All Been Waiting For Things this movie gets right: * still takes place at Hull House * still has demons * still has running water around the house * still has nudity between friends Things this movie gets wrong: * so many gun standoffs * reused footage better than new footage * gun fellatio * pretty much everything A group of teens lead by a local hothead accidentally get involved in a shootout in a gas station, and head to Hull House to hide out, only to succumb to Angela and her demons. The charm of the first two movies is lost here, and I'd be willing to bet that it is not found in the 2009 remake. We shall see! 0.5/5 41. Killer Klowns from Outer Space 1988  In typical 80's horror fashion, a shooting star falls to earth and a local drunk goes to investigate, only to find a big top, and clowns! Or, klowns. Mayhem ensues as the klowns spread through town abducting people, and our heroes work to try and stop them. This movie is nonstop absurd fun. The klowns are menacing, ponderous, and scary, while still seeming to be clowns. Just fantastic designs. Their weapons wrap people up in cotton candy, or shoot popcorn bugs. Occasionally the movie stops to think about it's absurd premise. Why are they clowns? Because they're clowns, that's why! Maybe our clowns exist because they've been here before! Dude. Duuuude. Whoa. /5Jason X 2001  (rewatch) Jason is cryogenically frozen, and then foolishly unfrozen in the horny future where he wreaks havoc. Still dumb as hell, still a Halloween favorite. /5That's all of the Fran challenges so far. I hope to get another couple of movies in but we'll see! Including the 21 September movies, that's a pretty solid month and a half of mostly good horror.
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Oct 30, 2018 03:02
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Franchescanado posted:
29. Nightbreed (1990) Watched On: Shudder Nightbreed is a goofy as gently caress movie. It's like Clive Barker attempted to make a Guillermo del Toro movie in the late 80s on a Canadian budget. Pretty much every performance in the movie is melodramatic or camp and a lot of that acting is coming from people in slimy immobile masks. It's disjointed and muddy and I'm still not sure how the movie jumps to some of the conclusions it does. Nevertheless, there are a lot of fun moments to be had. For every goofy Nightbreed design, there is one that looks suitably creepy and the production design of Midian (particularly Baphomet's chamber) is top notch. David Cronenberg absolutely steals this movie as Dr. Decker. He's terrifying both in his mask and out of it and he adds a real level of menace to what otherwise is a pretty cartoonish movie. I haven't read the original Barker novella, but would like to after watching this. There are some solid ideas in this, I just think the movie tried to do too much at once.
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Oct 30, 2018 03:06
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I decided I needed one more silent spook-a-doodle this month, so...  (that's a really great poster imo) D.W. Griffiths' The Avenging Conscience A 6-reeler ! ' Despite how daunting that sounds, this movie 'only' clocks in at 1'18" , certainly not the directors longest feature. But that's [OK! This movie doesn't do a whole lot of anything until about 45 minutes in, when the spoiled 'The Nephew' (no one has a name in this) has had enough of his Uncle's unwavering care and decides to strangle him since he is keeping him from his love interest. Nephew bricks his uncle up in the fireplace and from here it turns into 'The Tell-Tale Heart' , with the notable difference that it isn't just growing paranoia and frights at noises in the night slowly driving Nephew crazy, he almost immediately starts seeing his Uncle's apparition . Then he really looses it  This movie drags a lot and doesn't have enough cool imagery to make up for it. Thanks to culture beyond the saturation point with Poe influenced media, this movie didn't have much to offer me. But probably most remarkable thing, as often hits me with movies this age, is that this thing is 104 years old. No matter how many I see, that is amazing. I can't help but think of the people I'm seeing, especially the toddlers or babies and think of what kind of life they must have lived after this, and knowing that if nothing else got them, they more than likely died of old age decades ago. So this hum-ho Poe story becomes a meditation on mortality and how time is the great equalizer, given enough time depending on who you are. It sounds like something Poe would have like to accomplished, but maybe not in the manner in which he did. /5And with this I have COMPLETED (  ) my hard-level challenge of 31 first-watches in October! But the month isn't over yet ! That means more time for classics and time on Halloween to get my candy on and hang with my boys in the scream stream , bidding this month farewell through both smiles and a tear. Thank you all for a great month. Dr.Caligari fucked around with this message at 03:30 on Oct 30, 2018 |
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Oct 30, 2018 03:10
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29 - Dawn of the Dead (2004) Fran Challenge: Best of the WorstOk so I know that on these forums, and on these forums alone, the claim that Zack Snyder is an awful director is a controversial one. But I truly believe that in my heart. The man is a great cinematographer and understands the power of visuals, but he is sorely lacking in every other department required of a director. His movies are full of accidental comedy, pointless visual emphasis on minor details, fascism, overly color graded misery, idiotic video game fight scenes, and they're all way too loving long. Dawn of the Dead is the movie he directed that he had the least control over (though he's quite happy with how it came out) and as a result it's his best film. And that's not my subjective opinion, either.  If critics didn't hate horror movies, the margin would be even wider. So having said all that, this film is still pretty much as fun and enjoyable as it was when I first saw it. James Gunn's excellent script gives the movie a great structure, and though the cast of characters is fairly packed, each of them is given enough of a "thing" that you can easily remember them, without getting outright cartoony. Snyder's strong visuals help the movie have one of the most memorable opening sequences in any zombie movie of all time, and Ving Rhames, Sarah Polley and Jake Weber are very good as our central protagonists. I remember listening to the commentary track for this film when I rented it on DVD back in 2005, and it's obvious this was a passion project for both Snyder and producer Eric Newman. The movie has a decent budget ($26,000,000 in 2004 dollars) and some established actors, but the attitude of the film-makers was very much "indie". This was their first big production, and they did a lot of improvisational film-making and used every trick in the book to make the movie seem even more expensive than it really was. They used amputees to play the mangled zombies, hired experienced character actors to play the minor roles, used practical effects and CGI in equal measure to get the gore working, and even shot handheld footage for the bonus scene in the credits. There's all sorts of anecdotes about little changes they made to the production design to make things more grounded or more visually exciting on the DVD commentary. It's clear they and most of the cast had a blast making this thing. This film's just got a solid structure, and while there's some shaky cam and fast zombies (which will never, ever be as frightening as proper zombies), it does everything it sets out to do perfectly and has something for everyone in the audience. Cool action, badass one-liners, genuinely human moments, typical James Gunn dark comedy (Zombaby anyone?), excessive gore, drama, romance... Zack Snyder will never make a film this good again, because he'll never have to work with someone looking over his shoulder the whole time again. He's gonna keep just making ugly, excessive, tone deaf 5 hour monstrosities. But at least he made one great movie. E: Not as good as the original, though, but I mean that goes without saying. Lurdiak fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Oct 30, 2018 |
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Oct 30, 2018 04:05
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 Dog Soldiers, 2002 I've been watching at least one movie from each decade from 1920s up to the 2010s, but I forgot the early 2000s, so here's one of my all time favorite werewolf movies to cover that. This is a great action oriented horror comedy to just drink beer and have a good time with. A bunch of British soldiers are out in the middle of nowhere in Scotland on a military exercise, and loving werewolves attack. There's more dept to the plot than that, but that's how you can sum the whole thing up. They make it to a house and keep the werewolves at bay as they slowly run out of ammo and men. It's kind of like a zombie move that way. Trapped in a place surrounded as things get more hopeless as time goes by. There's even a bit of the whole zombie movie trope about how the people around are the real treat in form of the special op officer knowing whats going on and not being helpful in the situation. I love the dumb jokes, the blood and action, and I dig the werewolf costumes as they are just as I pictured how werewolves should look when I was a child. This is a movie any fan of the types of horror that I mentioned should watch.
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Oct 30, 2018 05:14
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Maxwell Lord posted:The main deal with Bloodline is it was hacked to pieces in editing. I have no idea if the original would have turned out good, but what’s left is a total mess. I watched the workprint during last year's challenge, and it definitely is improved by fleshing out the past segment of the story, and playing the three bits in chronological order instead of dancing back and forth from the future perspective. That said, they didn't change nearly as much of it as you'd hope.
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Oct 30, 2018 05:31
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Spatulater bro! posted:Hellraiser is a series that I really love yet I can't, CAN'T, make myself watch any beyond part 4. I want to but I just can't do it. Inferno is cool and good, I think?
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Oct 30, 2018 05:34
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 22. Society (1989) Watched on Amazon Prime FRAN CHALLENGE #9: Stranger DangerMy friend has been trying to get me to watch this for a few years now, and for some reason I always end up putting it off. Probably because I had the general gist of the crazy ending spoiled for me, so I figured that would kinda deflate the rest of the movie. And to be honest, the middle of the movie did end up feeling a bit like an exercise in delayed gratification - the themes here are extremely on the nose, and the movie hammers on them over and over and even has characters just flat-out explain the subtext out loud in case you didn't get it. Most of the performances here are just passable (though the Judge nails the slimy old rich guy role), and Billy Warlock (seriously?) doesn't really have what it takes to carry a leading role, but somehow that fits in with the at-times cheesy synth score and the decadent 80s set design and it mostly works. Obviously, the major draw here is the climax, and it really is something to behold. Definitely ranks up there with the best of the body horror genre, and seeing it with no idea what was coming must have been a trip. I think I would have rated this higher if I'd been able to go in blind, but as is I was mostly just waiting for the uncompelling subplots to wrap up so things could get crazy. .5 / 5---  23. Return of the Living Dead (1985) Watched on Amazon Prime FRAN CHALLENGE #12: (Self-Described) Masters of HorrorSomehow I've gone all these years thinking I saw this movie as a kid and wasn't impressed, only to realize after someone else in this thread posted a review that I was remembering some completely different zombie movie  Anyway, I'm glad I saw that, because this movie just rips from start to finish. It pulls off a ballsy meta-narrative framing device through sheer breathless energy, and from the very first zombie it's clear that this movie is gonna break a bunch of rules. The kid and his uncle are great - they put on a really raw, frantic, sorta dopey performance that is genuinely upsetting at times, and the way the movie blends that with the punk aesthetic (and it's refreshing to see a movie that actually *feels* punk instead of just using the trappings) and the gags (I was really hoping to see more split dogs) just shouldn't work but totally does. There are a few bizarre decisions here (having Suicide come back after the rest of the movie purposefully built on the tension of a bitten person coming back, only to subvert it, and then not really doing anything with her anyway. And also why did they recycle a shot for the very final twist?) but the whole thing is firing on all cylinders and you never have time to be bugged by it. The zombies here are great, and probably the most legitimately oppressive-feeling force in any undead movie I can think of - they're fast, they can speak, they lay ambushes, destroying their brain doesn't do poo poo, and even cutting them into pieces isn't enough. I've been super burned out on zombies for years now, but this was a breath of air in a largely derivative sub-genre. / 5---  24. Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981) Watched on Youtube FRAN CHALLENGE #13: What We've All Been Waiting ForThis is an interesting one - it's partly an austere slasher, partly a revenge movie, but it's also got a bit of a sweet-hearted humanist streak through it. It's also pretty moody and mostly bloodless, with the notably brutal exception of the murder of a man with an intellectual disability (the shot of his eyes peering out of the burlap sac is a serious gut punch, and Larry Drake's performance in general does a lot of heavy lifting). This was a made-for-TV movie, and it shows in some ways - a lot of the cinematography is purely functional, with lots of wide angle shots and flat depth of field, but it actually contrasts nicely with the "horror" scenes, where the editing gets a lot more creative and some more abstract shots creep in. The biggest knock against this movie is that when it's all said and done, it's still a pretty boilerplate story, and it doesn't really deviate from the expected plot beats at all. Still, it does a lot with a little, and there's a tender undercurrent that elevates it. Also, the blu-ray upload on Youtube looks great. .5 / 5--- So Far: Tremors | Blood and Black Lace | Cube | Killer Klowns from Outer Space | Kuso | The Fog | Borgman | The Tenant | Braindead | Al Final del Espectro | The Boxer's Omen | Phase IV |Der Student von Prag | The Invisible Man | Balada Triste de Trompeta | Gozu | Annihilation | Hour of the Wolf | Viy | The Quatermass Xperiment | Cat People | Society | Return of the Living Dead | Dark Night of the Scarecrow Total: 24/10 Challenges: Years Spanned: 1913 - 2018 Decades Represented: 1910s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s Countries Represented: United States, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Colombia, Hong Kong, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Russia Grizzled Patriarch fucked around with this message at 05:43 on Oct 30, 2018 |
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Oct 30, 2018 05:40
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#31 - Night of the Living Dead A rewatch. Finally got to watch the new Criterion of this. I held off for a bit because it's one of the grimmer movies and a bit topical considering everything. But in the end, a great horror film is a great horror film. Atmospheric and intense, with a sense of wrongness pervading everything- the ghouls are suitably ghoulish, even if they're sort of a background for the real human conflicts. The gradual reveal of the problem, from one strange man wandering in a cemetery to reports of nationwide panic (reminiscent of the radio broadcast of War of the Worlds), is masterful. Judith O'Dea's histrionics are a bit much at times, but at others she's fairly entertaining. Duane Jones is perfect. Still the scariest zombie movie ever made, with an oppressive power that hasn't been equalled. One detail I somehow never noticed, at the end Ben is placed on the pyre right next to the first ghoul we saw in the film. So that brings me to my initial goal of at least 31, but I'm not completely sick of horror yet so let's keep this going to the end. Got at least two to see.
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Oct 30, 2018 05:43
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  #102. Splinter (2009) One I'd seen recommended in the horror thread numerous times, and it lived up to the hype. Lots of fun with its twist on the zombies, kept to just a few locations, an uncommon lead type, characters who develop in personality over the course of the film, and some great effects. Also got some amusement out of this being yet another I've watched this month in which someone commits a carjacking, but keeps the previous riders in the car. There are some dumb moments, but the sharpness of their contrast kind of highlights how good everything else is. I'm a little disappointed that this didn't get a sequel, but at the same time, I can't think of what else they could do with it, or how they could scale it up, without losing the spirit that made this so fun. / 10  #103. Bikini Bloodbath Car Wash, a.k.a., Bikini Bloodbath 2: Bikini Bloodbath Car Wash (2008) A great example of low-budget horror done in a way that does nothing but annoy me. Characters wearing "COLLEGE STUDENT" T-shirts (not as a one-off gag, but in every scene in which they appear), bottom-of-the-barrel dance numbers (with a Michael Jackson visual gag), multiple Jaws scene 'homages,' an utterly forgettable killer who hardly factors into the movie, some sub-Troma cheesecake fumbles, and boring camera-work. Not even minor attempts to fit the movie's 'core' scenes into some sort of sensible context. Why is this school sports team doing carwashes in their bikinis, under the supervision of their coach? Because the movie needs them to, that's why, and because Debbie Rochon has to earn top billing by being in X number of scenes somehow. And bikinis are as explicit as it gets, so they don't even have the quality excuses ostensibly available to films like Wynorski's sexploitation horror spoofs. Top pick for my most irritating watch this month. / 10  #104. The Mad, a.k.a., Mad Zombies (2007) drat it, could someone please rescue Billy Zane's career? He's the one bright spot in this movie, which takes a county fair and turns it into a zombie fest as a result of burgers made with bad beef. Zane plays a widower doctor there on a date trip with his girlfriend, with his daughter and her boyfriend in tow. No points for guessing which ones survive. The movie picks up once all the fodder characters are eliminated, but until then, you've got to get through weak jokes, dreadful slapstick, cringe-inducing dialogue and delivery (including a whole bit meant to justify the youthful costuming choices for Zane), and some really obnoxious attempts at building sympathy for the early victims. The later parts of the movie do have some cute stuff, including beef (not cattle, but processed beef) attacking people, and a farmer trying to play off his pa's cannibalism. Made me feel bad for Zane, more than anything. / 10   #105. It Conquered the World, a.k.a., It Conquered the Earth (1956) As far as thinly-veiled Commie panic pieces go, this wasn't too bad. A well-meaning scientist communicating with a Venusian guides it to Earth, where it ceases all mechanical functions and begins taking over the minds of everyone on the planet. As they begin losing emotions and working against the unturned, the scientist's best friend tries to convince him that what he's done is wrong, while the scientist's wife does her best to belittle and scold him. The effects aren't bad, for the time, and while the story isn't especially nuanced, it bumps along through its beats OK. I wish there'd been more to the finale, but having the wife head out to take on the monster with a shotgun by herself was a move that I wasn't expecting at all from a '50s movie. / 10  #104. Bride of the Monster, a.k.a., Bride of the Atom (1955) Bela Lugosi in his last leading role. It's certainly an Ed Wood film. Tor Johnson bumbles around and gets whipped, the mechanical octopus the crew stole has its tentacles wriggled around by hand on-screen because they forgot to steal the motor, an oscilloscope serves as an atomic brain enricher, and so on. Lugosi actually gets some good moments, but since he's surrounded by bad sound, lighting, and sets, that doesn't go far. Better than those are the scenes in which the investigative reporter, played by Loretta King, is just navigating through the condescending bullshit of her coworkers. And hell, having someone knocked down a hill by a boulder, into the clutches of an octopus, only to have them all struck by lightning and an on-looker opine "He tampered in God's domain,"? That's a satisfying finish, personally speaking. "Home? I have no home. Hunted, despised, living like an animal! The jungle is my home. But I will show the world that I can be its master! I will perfect my own race of people. A race of atomic supermen, which will conquer the world! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" - Dr. Vornoff / 10
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Oct 30, 2018 06:14
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I'm considered calling it a challenge. I hit my goal of 31, did the Fran Challenges (loved them, certainly made me think and explore the horror genre) and working evenings then onto night shifts soon means I won't have as much free time to binge horror (setting the body clock is going to be a bitch). If I don't post here again then I just wanted to thank everyone for the discussions and especially Fran (and others) for setting this up and wish everyone happy horror. 41. Unfriended: Dark Web (2018)  Unfriended is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine because it is unique if anything. The entire story is told through a computer screen and features a ghost in the machine is I could use a cliche. It is strange, unconventional and really I appreciate any kind of experimental filmmaking just in the spirit of going somewhere unexplored. The sequel ditches the ghost and supernatural themes and goes for something more grounded with dark web criminals (though there is still glitchy weirdness but its not purely ghosts this time). The film goes for the same structure as the original film with apps and programs moving the plot along with twists and turns via confessions of the protagonists. Also, grown adult writers trying to write what they think is teenage drama which gets pretty laughable and cringey at times. Overall, not bad, not as good as the original give it a watch. .5/5 Franchescanado posted:
42. The Crazies (1973)  I’m going to say something that is either going to be unpopular or has people nodding in regretful agreement: Romero is not a strong director. His films are often cheesy in the wrong places with laughable acting and a story that is all over the place with no cohesion. It just reeks of a director who either had little control over his set or was unable to convince his actors of what he vision was. His zombie films (well, the first three) are absolute classics that founded the modern zombie image but everything else can only be enjoyed for the “so bad it’s good” aspect. This film fits that because its mostly about the government scientists locking down a city after a biological containment breach and the citizens fighting back. The practical effects are laughably poor at times, the tension can be pretty cheesy in the wrong ways and overall this is just a flawed film. Romero may be the pioneer of zombie films but its difficult watching his other work because its bad but respect to the man for his big achievements. .5/5Franchescanado posted:
43. Masters of Horror: Homecoming (2005)  This one is a very not subtle at all political satire that I figured given current events was worth watching. It’s about an election cycle (complete with a George W Bush impersonator because 2005). Joe Dante, no stranger to self-aware films, tells a story about soldiers that rise from the grave in the middle of the election. I’ll try to keep the politics light here because I do not want to derail here. But Joe Dante gives his delishly clever self-aware style of horror-comedy here. The image of undead soldiers rising and criticizing their politicians and going to the polls is great satire even if it’s pretty heavy-handed. I mean, holy crap, it has “Mission Accomplished” and everything. /5Franchescanado posted:
44. Ernest Scared Stupid (1991)  This is a childhood favorite of mine. One of the first films to scare me as well because of the trolls that turn kids into wood. I think what really amazed me about this movie is I haven’t seen it in over 20 years but I seriously recalled a LOT of it. Like, there were scenes that I remembered that led into others and I recall what I felt watching it all play out. I even remember when Jim Varney passed away being one of the celebrity deaths I actually mourned a little bit. It really is a film that is more serious than you’d think in delivering scares or at least I’m not sure the filmmakers knew what they were unleashing. The troll’s practical effects are honestly astounding and would make a kid believe more than anything what they were seeing. I still remember watching this as a kid and being super freaked out over the troll turning kids into wood and getting emotionally invested in the climax. It’s honestly the best work Jim Varney did with the Ernest character as far as I’m concerned. This is still a great family movie and the Halloween setting is still as charming today as it was in 1991. RIP Jim Varney as well. /5Total: 1. The Conjuring 2 (2016), 2. Terrifier (2016), 3. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), 4. Split (2017), 5. The First Purge (2018), 6. Trick 'R Treat (2009), 7. Wolf Creek (2005), 8. King Kong (1976), 9. Halloween II (2009), 10. Pumpkinhead (1988), 11. House on Haunted Hill (1959), 12. House on Haunted Hill (1999), 13. What We Do in the Shadows (2014), 14. Ghostbusters (2016), 15. Bride of Chucky (1998), 16. Seed of Chucky (2004), 17. Nightbreed (1990), 18. The Axe Murders of Villisca (2016), 19. Ghosts of Mars (2001), 20. Haunters: The Art of the Scare (2017), 21 Annabelle (2014), 22. The Stuff (1985), 23. Gremlins (1984), 24. Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), 25. An American Werewolf in London (1981), 26. The Evil Dead (1981), 27. Escape from Tomorrow (2013), 28. Creepshow (1982), 29. Microwave Massacre (1983), 30. Venom (2018), 31. Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018), 32. Lights Out (2016), 33. The Ritual (2017), 34. Halloween (1978), 35. C.H.U.D. (1984), 36. Carnival of Souls (1962), 37. The Exorcist (1973), 38. Summer of 84 (2018), 39. Halloween: H20 (1998), 40. Saw (2004), 41. Unfriended: Dark Web (2018), 42. The Crazies (1973), 43. Masters of Horror: Homecoming (2005), 44. Ernest Scared Stupid (1991) Fran Challenges: Justin Godscock fucked around with this message at 07:13 on Oct 30, 2018 |
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Oct 30, 2018 06:57
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Choco1980 posted:The real kicker is I introduced her to the concept of the challenge in the stream discord last month. Womp Womp It's probably going to take me a month before I'm able to watch anything and not feel like I need to start writing a review for it.
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Oct 30, 2018 07:02
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 25. Possession (1981) Watched on Mubi FRAN CHALLENGE #6: Video NastiesThis is a really polarizing movie, but honestly I loved this. It's bizarre, and at times seems actively hostile to any attempt to interpret it, but it's also just got this crazy primal feeling to it that really gets under your skin. The acting is absurdly intense, and Adjani in particular probably puts on one of the rawest performances I've ever seen. You could cut out all of the other horror elements and it would still be a very powerful, uncomfortable film about a dissolving marriage and the jealousy and rage that often accompanies it. Setting it in a divided Berlin just really amplifies that, and makes for a very oppressive atmosphere that very casually creates a foundational sense of dread that the rest of the film just keeps building on top of. The cinematography is really kinetic, and it does some interesting stuff with really wide outdoor shots and really claustrophobic indoor ones that literally trap you in the room while the emotional storms rage. This is honestly sort of draining to watch, and it's definitely not for everyone, but it's one of my favorite things I've watched this month. / 5---  26. Les Diaboliques (1955) Watched on Youtube Elegant, suspenseful, cold, and a bit cruel. There are some great performances here, especially from Simone Signoret and the detective. (I think there's also potential for an interesting queer reading here - the relationship between the two women seems to veer into that lane, with hints at emotional co-dependence and a camera that frequently lingers on Signoret's looming, comparatively masculine presence). The film's twist is still plenty effective today, though the follow-up is a bit disappointing. I'll also say that this could have stood to be about 20 or maybe even 30 minutes shorter - a big chunk of the movie is a relatively slow set-up, and some of it feels superfluous. Not a whole lot else to say about this one - there's a reason it's been copied partly or wholesale so many times. / 5---  27. Pontypool (2008) Watched on Shudder After RotLD, I figured, what the hell, let's try another zombie movie that supposedly breaks the mold. This movie stretches its obviously small budget pretty well, and they were smart enough to put most of it into a strong character actor that can effectively paper over some of the plot issues and keep the first half of the film feeling taut (though this seems to come at the cost of giving the actual zombies much screen time). In some ways it feels like it's trying to be a more sophisticated The Fog, and the not-quite-subtext about the inherent responsibility that comes with having a platform for your voice and the desire to dramatically change avenues of national discourse seems to have aged pretty well, but ultimately this movie can't quite hold itself together. Once the mystery is solved, things start get very uneven and the plot becomes pretty contrived, and it just sorta gases out. Novel idea, but there's too much off-screen mayhem for it to play as a zombie movie, and on the other end of the spectrum...I mean a Metal Gear Solid game basically did it in a more interesting way. / 5--- So Far: Tremors | Blood and Black Lace | Cube | Killer Klowns from Outer Space | Kuso | The Fog | Borgman | The Tenant | Braindead | Al Final del Espectro | The Boxer's Omen | Phase IV |Der Student von Prag | The Invisible Man | Balada Triste de Trompeta | Gozu | Annihilation | Hour of the Wolf | Viy | The Quatermass Xperiment | Cat People | Society | Return of the Living Dead | Dark Night of the Scarecrow | Possession | Les Diaboliques | Pontypool Total: 27/10 Challenges: Years Spanned: 1913 - 2018 Decades Represented: 1910s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s Countries Represented: 13 (United States, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Colombia, Hong Kong, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Russia, France, Canada) Grizzled Patriarch fucked around with this message at 08:52 on Oct 30, 2018 |
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Oct 30, 2018 07:11
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Drunkboxer posted:49. Trick 'r Treat (2007) Amazon That was me! And yeah, admittedly I might have made it come across as being a bigger gripe to me than it was. Agreed that the confrontation was a super strong segment in its own right, and personal preferences aside, I can definitely see the logic in making Sam a more active participant in the film's climax. Really, the main thing I would probably edit out of that sequence if I had the choice would be the aforementioned unmasking, and even then it's far from a dealbreaker. Anyway, last Fran Challenge down! Franchescanado posted:
It Follows: Closer to the didn't like/get end of the spectrum rather than hate, but I recall wanting to love this movie when it came out, but ultimately coming away from it pretty underwhelmed despite (and probably somewhat because of) the sheer critical acclaim that it got. That being said, I'm glad I revisited it for this challenge, because I ended up liking it a lot more this time. I think one of my biggest hang ups going into it the first time was that I went in anticipating something closer to a straight up horror movie, when in reality the horror elements serve as more of an allegorical framing device than the main focus in and of itself. With that baggage out of the way, I was able to tune my expectations properly and appreciate it more for what it is: a melancholy coming-of-age piece about Jay's loss of youthful innocence and time literally catching up with her. I do have some minor gripes in that I feel both the monster and the metaphor attached to it lose a bit of its potency in the sequences where it's actively attacking Jay at the beach/pool, but beyond that I'm happy to say that I came away with a much higher opinion of the film on rewatch. Movies Watched (26): 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, Trick 'r Treat, Creepshow, Tales From the Crypt, It Follows Challenges Completed (13/13): #1 (It Follows) #2 (Frankenstein), #3 (American Psycho), #4 (Mimic), #5 (Carnosaur), #6 (The Evil Dead) #7 (Gorgo (MST3K)), #8 (Slither), #9 (Motel Hell) #10 (Halloween (2018)), #11 (Creepshow), #12 (The Return of the Living Dead), #13 (Trick 'r Treat) Trash Boat fucked around with this message at 11:26 on Oct 30, 2018 |
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Oct 30, 2018 09:29
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The funny thing is that part of the reason I love the “31 Years” and Fran’s Challenge thing is because it gives me a set of rules to follow on what movies to pick. As much as I in theory love the freedom to watch all the movies that I wasn’t watching because they didn’t apply to a Challenge rules now that I have that freedom I can’t decide between them! I guess I’ll get with the current hotness. 50 (55). Tales from the Hood 2 (2018) Available on Netflix.  From the same creators who brought you the 1995 cult classic comes a new anthology of horror tales brought to you from a new Mr. Simms who is hired to help teach the A.I. of a new Judge Dread-esque “Patriot Bot” built by a MAGA weapons designer/prison owner meant to “keep America safe.” So Mr. Simms tells him stories of horror from the hood that touch on the history of racism and things like blackface (hi, Megyn), predatory men (heya, Bart and Donnie), and the sacrifices and accomplishments of the civil movement being torn away by things like voter suppression (hey, every red state in the south). Con: No Clarence Williams III. Pro: Keith David as an acceptable replacement. I don’t know that I ever loved the original. I’ve seen it a bunch of times and I definitely appreciated the different perspective Spike Lee brought to horror. But I don’t know that I ever thought the film was especially… good? Fun? For sure. Relevant in a way few horrors are? Definitely. Good? Ehhhh. That being said its kind of a masterpiece compared to the sequel. I’ll agree with the basic takes of all the other reviews I’ve read. The first piece Golly Gee isn’t good but its got a real “WTF?” factor and really goes there. Unlikable people making you feel very uncomfortable for the reason to prove a point and then that point being delivered in a way that’s hard to describe without seeing. The next two pieces are so forgettable that I’m already kind of struggling to remember them. The Medium doesn’t even really have a “point” or something to say that I picked up on. And Date Night only kind of barely does because of the rear end in a top hat MAGA guy in the wraparound’s whole “boys will be boys” reaction to it. The Sacrifice has a lot to say, though, and I think it works. Its not especially good and its definitely a little clumsy but the subject is probably powerful enough to get through that. I mean, I’m not saying its some revolutionary work or anything. But it was the most engaging and worthwhile of the pieces and actually affected me emotionally. If not for that I’d call the movie a complete waste of time you should skip even if you have huge nostalgia for the original. But that one kind of makes it a little worth watching. Interestingly Rusty Cundieff directed The Sacrifice and Golly Gee while Darin Scott directed The Medium and Date Night. I really didn’t know anything about them coming in and never even thought about who made the original film. Cundieff directed Fear of a Black Hat (which was a childhood odd favorite of mine) and quite a few episodes of The Chappelle Show and The Wanda Sykes Show. Scott on the other hand doesn’t have a Wikipedia page and his IMDB page has stuff like Deep Blue Sea 2 on it. So I guess we know where the talent is in this team. Still, this one probably isn’t worth it. Maybe it is for that last piece, but ehhhh. If you’re feeling REALLY nostalgic for the original I guess you could do worse, but you’d probably be better served just rewatching the cult classic. And if you want some similar social commentary there's better stuff out there. And another probably bad one that came up today… But I'm in a light and silly mood... 51 (56). The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009) Available on TubiTV and Hoopla.  From the mind of Rob Zombie comes a story about El Superbeasto who is a… luchador… porn star… celebrity… spy? With the help of his sister Suzi-X and her gently caress robot he has to stop Dr. Satan from marrying stripper Velvet Von Black to turn into a demon? Huh? I uh… I’ll say this, that thing we were saying about how all of Zombie’s films have the basic foundation of his work in them? That’s here too. Recurring cast of people who like to work together. A clear love of the genre in tons (and TONS) of references and nods. Vulgarity and shock. Its Zombie all right. But it feels like something Zombie wrote when he was 16. I mean, I have no illusions about Rob Zombie. Obviously he can always be gross and juvenile and offensive. But this is just… I’m not offending or anything. I mean, its misogynistic and kind of racist and homophobic and everything else but its really too stupid to take offense to. I just remember Zombie hyping this up after the success of Devil’s Rejects and buildup into Halloween. He was so, so proud of this and I was high enough on Rejects that I got kind of excited about it. But it took forever to come out and I lost interest and forgot or something. I guess I was like, “hey, I should watch that Zombie film I haven’t seen that he was really passionate about.” Well… I did. You know what it is? There was a moment when this kind of movie might have made sense. Somewhere between Cool World and South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut. I’m not saying it would have been good, but it would have fit into a thing that was happening and my teenage self probably would have gotten an irreverent kick out of it. But it was made a full decade after South Park’s movie. When Zombie was in his 40s. I don’t know. Maybe he just had to get this out of his system? I don’t really like House of 1000 Corpses but I always kind of regard it as Zombie just needing to get his feet wet and work out some stuff he’d probably been wanting to do for a long time before he could just go and make something actually whole and his own. Maybe this is more of that. Maybe this is the stupid poo poo he was drawing for much of his life and thinking about since he was a dumb, horny teenager and he just have to get it out and on the screen to clear the cobwebs. I’ve heard it said 31 was the same thing. Maybe that’s just Zombie’s process? Maybe he has to periodically make a piece of poo poo out of the mess floating around his head so he can make room for something else. I guess we’ll see what he follows 31 with. That was a weird night. See what happens when I don’t have any rules? 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) / 46 (51). The Astro-Zombies (1968) / 47 (52). Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) / 48 (53). Ghost Stories (2017) / 49 (54). The Birds (1963) / 50 (55). Tales from the Hood 2 (2018) / 51 (56). The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009) STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 09:40 on Oct 30, 2018 |
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Oct 30, 2018 09:37
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35. Thoroughbreds Disturbing and subdued, I really enjoyed this. Some question marks about the finale, but that doesn't take away from a very enjoyable experience. 36. Halloween II Franchescanado posted:
One of the few times I genuinely cared for the victims. The focus on the damage done by these killings, both through the scenes at the emergency ward and the focus on the victims' families was just brutal. Michael pushing over a car was a bit much for me and the white horse stuff felt really out of place, but the rest is a solid slasher where death actually matters. Can't say I'm too happy with the ending, but Zombie definitely made it his own instead of a Carpenter clone. And with that I think I am done. I have a concert tonight and an evening appointment tomorrow, so watching another movie is gonna be next to impossible. Managed 36 movies and I pledged 31, so all is good. I also did all of Fran's challenges and watched a bunch of staff picks, running into some nice things along the way and some things not so nice, probably no different than when I would've picked all movies myself. This was a blast, see you next year!
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Oct 30, 2018 09:58
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30 - Basket CaseFran Challenge: Queer Horror Boy, for a movie released in 82, it sure feels like the 70s. This film had a $35,000 budget, and it shows, baby. The main way it shows is that absolutely nobody in this film is what I'd call an actor, delivering all their lines in an awkward fashion that reminds me of the performances in Pink Flamingoes. This movie's plot is very simple, and it manages to wring some genuine emotion out of its ludicrous premise. You really feel bad for Dwayne and Belial as you come to learn about their tragic past. The effects in this film are not... very good, although they're at least shot creatively so that there are some genuine grossout and shock scenes. There's a particular sequence near the end that was very obviously shot the way it was to get around the puppet simply not being able to do what they wanted it to, and it's genuinely artistic. There's a lot of ways to interpret the story of the film beyond the literal. Considering Henenlotter is a queer film-maker (though I can't really find details on that), the language used when Dwayne's father wants to make him "normal" through surgery carries a lot of meaning, and Belial and Dwayne's explorations of their respective sexualities and Belial's jealousy can also be interpreted in a lot of ways. The way people judge Belial as inhuman and are even willing to kill and throw him away in a literal garbage bag also probably speaks to a lot of outcasts. The problem with this film, really, is that Belial's just too evil. We can't really be sure of how smart he is because he can't talk, but he violently murders a bunch of people and sexually assaults two women. Many of the victims sort of deserve it, but they're killed with such savagery that it's hard to really root for their end. If the movie had Belial going around killing these people while someone else tries to stop him or figure out what's going on, and then we got the tragic backstory, he'd be a sympathetic villain. Instead he's an unsympathetic protagonist, and Dwayne is as well for enabling him. If Dwayne was more reluctant about the murdering, he might be a more tragic character, but he seems pretty gleeful about it (at least when it comes to the specific revenge targets). You feel bad for the brothers, but you can't really root for them, especially not Belial. This movie is pure exploitation and features some tasteless stuff, so be warned, but for a movie made with such a low budget, it's certainly memorable and interesting.
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Oct 30, 2018 10:20
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This thread is 23 pages longer than last year's thread. For context, every October Challenge thread prior to 2017 are only 20ish pages long. This year's challenge thread is insane. You are all wonderful monsters. And we still have today and tomorrow. Just a reminder, final reviews will need to be posted by 1PM EST on November 1st
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Oct 30, 2018 13:46
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Franchescanado posted:Just a reminder, final reviews will need to be posted by 1PM EST on November 1st I just want to point out that if anyone has free time on Thursday, that they could get in a viewing of a film from the Thankskilling series before 1pm. 
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Oct 30, 2018 14:44
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42. (63) Night of the Demons 2009 Let's relaunch this series with a less charismatic cast and a more convoluted backstory, shall we? Ugh. The remake has Angela hosting a party at a house. Not Hull House, for some reason, but some other house with a demonic past. It's a big party, it gets busted by the cops, but seven remain, and demons come and do their business. It's all rather artlessly done, with obvious and boring twists and an awful script. But don't take my word for it! Here's a quote from a scene they remade from the original, where it was effective and creepy. "She stuck a lipstick in her boob and it fell out of her pussy, ok!?" Or, even better, perhaps, here's a quote from the long exposition scene where the final girl reads the (literal) writing on the wall and understand why the demons are here and their purpose: "But there’s always a loophole. If demons could possess seven people over the course of one Halloween night, they’d be free." These demons are "too badass" for hell, see. At least the effects are practical, I guess, although not particularly great. The director sure does enjoy that "shake your head super-fast" effect! Like all horror series this one ends on a particularly low note. III is better, but avoid them both. 0.5/5
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Oct 30, 2018 15:30
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Franchescanado posted:
 Revenge(2017) Guy at work has been bugging me to watch this movie but I kept telling him that I was waiting for it to show up on Shudder. Well it finally did so I finally watched it. It's a weird combination of elements and I'm not sure it works as a cohesive whole but there were definitely some standout moments. Obviously the beginning is rough, be prepared for that going in, but the blood soaked finale feels earned and is one of the more effective pieces of black comedy I've seen in years. I especially love how the camera pans over the living room after it's all finished and blood covers almost every square inch, there's hardly a bare spot in the whole room.  Franchescanado posted:
 Night of the Living Dead(1968) Sad that this can be used for the Dead & Buried challenge, it's still been less than 2 years since Romero's death. But I do think that Night of the Living Dead is being celebrated now moreso than it has been in a very long time, because finally the proper care and attention was put into a legit home release. You definitely don't need to be a Criterion person to grab their NotLD blu ray, it's an essential, definitive version of one of the most influential horror films of all time. The technical skill of Romero is on full display and much more apparent than it ever was in those fuzzy public domain releases. The scenes inside the house take on a noirish quality with sharply defined a stylish lighting, and there are a lot of artistically framed shots that never jumped out at me the way they do in this beautiful new restoration. The ending is always a gut punch. It's just so matter of fact about this guy you've been following for the whole movie getting unceremoniously gunned down. Certainly doesn't leave you feeling positive about humanity.  Return of the Living Dead(1985) Not sure what I can say here that hasn't already been said, but this is a perfect movie. There isn't a single casting choice that I'd change, not a single line, or special effect. It is perfection. Every year in here a bunch of people watch it for the first time and it has a perfect record, nobody ever comes away disappointed. PARTY TIME  Total: 1. Frankenstein(1931) 2. The Old Dark House(1932) 3. The Bride of Frankenstein(1935) 4. The Mummy(1932) 5. The Invisible Man(1933) 6. The Wolfman(1941) 7. House of Frankenstein(1944) 8. House of Dracula(1945) 9. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein(1948) 10. The Boogeyman Will Get You(1942) 11. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms(1953) 12. Gojira(1954) 13. Creature From the Black Lagoon(1954) 14. The Night of the Hunter(1955) 15. The Curse of Frankenstein(1957) 16. Brides of Dracula(1960) 17. The Tomb of Ligeia(1964) 18. Blood and Black Lace(1964) 19. Frankenstein Created Woman(1967) 20. Quatermass and the Pit(1967) 21. Don't Look Now(1973)22. Dracula A.D. 1972 23. Phantom of the Paradise(1974) 24. The Wicker Man(1973) 25. Nosferatu The Vampyre(1979) 26. The Fog(1980) 27. An American Werewolf in London(1981) 28. Prince of Darkness(1987) 29. A Nightmare on Elm Street(1984) 30. C.H.U.D.(1984) 31. Candyman(1992) 32. Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh(1995) 33. Mimic(1997) 34. Scream(1996) 35. Audition(1999) 36. Cursed(2005) 37. Saw(2004) 38. Drag Me To Hell(2009) 39. Slither(2006) 40. Freddy vs. Jason(2003) 41. The First Purge(2018) 42. The Void(2016) 43. Lords of Salem(2012) 44. Hereditary(2018) 45. Summer of '84(2018) 46. Blood Feast(1963) 47. Revenge(2017) 48. Night of the Living Dead(1968) 49. Return of the Living Dead(1985)
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Oct 30, 2018 15:31
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Grizzled Patriarch posted:
Glad you liked Diabolique, didn't think someone else would be watching it was well. I also felt like there was some tension building between the women but it's kind of undermined by the fact that Nicole was using Christina there, doesn't mean it couldn't have been one-sided. Also glad I'm not the only one who thought it could benefit from cutting out some fluff from the fist half
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Oct 30, 2018 15:45
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Very curious to see what anyone thinks on my take on this. I've looked around and haven't seen many folks identifying the same themes in the same way I have, most people just talk about how nutso it is rather than trying to offer any real critical examination. The Visitor - 1979 What a cool goddamn film. Part prog-rock album cover, part evil child flick, part metaphysical alien overseer fable, this was a blast from start to finish. I was a little defensive going in, having read so much about it being inscrutable, impenetrable, or confusing, but I found it relatively straightforward with some very cool ideas, some great surreal imagery, terrific cinematography, and next-level production design. I don’t know how large the budget was, but no matter what it was all right there up on screen. The story is more than a bit circuitous, but had clear stakes, a strong protagonist, and made sure it was never boring with any of the (many) elements it introduced. Great acting across the board, even if Lance Henriksen was a bit wasted with his limited screen time and the whole detective subplot wasn’t as deeply integrated as it could have been. Thematically the film circled around a really compelling examination of the way that women are used and manipulated by men and controlled by the patriarchy to remove their agency and choice in their lives, relationships, families, and bodies. It didn’t quite stick the landing, however, having to split its message between female agency and the vague tangential idea that evil isn’t inherent to any person and should be cured rather than condemned. Grade: A The Thing (A+) Hausu (A+) Cast a Deadly Spell (A+) Return of the Living Dead (A+) The Love Witch (A+) The Visitor (1979) (A) Nosferatu (1922) (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 16:26 on Oct 30, 2018 |
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Oct 30, 2018 15:47
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Franchescanado posted:
 35. Phantom of the Opera (1943) (bluray) After getting fired from the Paris Opera and having the manuscript for his concerto stolen from him, violinist Erique Claudin goes a little crazy and kills a man. He eludes the police and takes to living in the shadows of the sprawling operahouse, where he threatens the directors with violence if they don't allow his unrequited love, soprano Christine DuBois, to perform. This story has been adapted to film, television, and just about every other form of media dozens of times, so I doubt there is anyone out there who isn't at least a little familiar with it. This is a pretty good version, and features a lot of really great music and lavish sets. Claude Rains is great as Erique/The Phantom, although his portrayal isn't as iconic as Lon Chaney's in the 1925 version. It isn't real heavy on the horror elements, but it definitely has its moments. If you are looking for a Universal horror classic, you could do worse, but this isn't quite up there with Frankenstein, Dracula, etc. Still worth checking out, though. 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 | Bride of Chucky | Phantom of the Opera (1943) Total: 35 Fran challenges:
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Oct 30, 2018 16:28
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 #43. Leviathan (1989) (Vudu) -  /5A group of deep sea miners discovers an old Russian ship, listed as still in active service, damaged and sunk several miles below the surface. After bringing some contraband on board the ship, several crew members begin to mutate into man/fish hybrids, and the monsters begin stalking the remaining crew members. Finally, an answer to the age-old question, "what if you mashed together Alien and The Thing and also kinda sucked?" That's maybe being a bit too harsh, but this is a movie made to make you remember bits of other, far better films. Everything feels recycled here, and even the cast, mostly made of normally reliable B-Listers like Peter Weller, Ernie Hudson and Daniel Stern, feels like they're phoning it in. The fish monster effects are decent enough, but when you can see them you can tell how cheap and limiting they were. They make the wise decision to shoot around it, but they also have it more brightly lit than they probably should, too - the trade off for noticing that the monster has Daniel Stern's leg sticking out the back is noticing that the guy in the suit can't do much more than rock forward. I did have horrible flashbacks to The Horror of Party Beach when they started talking about how the fish monster needs human blood, but fortunately they dropped that quickly to get back to ripping off the whole Alien vibe of trying to trap the monster and kill it with mining equipment, which is something I can live with. Not terrible, but easily forgettable too.  #44. Killer Klowns from Outer Space (Vudu) - /5A group of people spot a comet landing in the woods. Turns out the comet is actually a space ship shaped like a circus tent, and the aliens inside all look like giant, bulbous clown monsters. Now the clown-liens are using circus themed weaponry to capture the humans, so they can drink their blood later. I don't know that I can be totally objective about this one - I've loved this weird, dumb, goofy thing ever since I was a child perpetually renting the VHS tape from the local pharmacy. It's a movie with low enough ambitions and a complete understanding of what it is, and what it's trying to do. Credit this being a family affair, and a family of veteran special effects artists, with that - they're making a movie to show off their creature design work, and the whole thing is nothing but love for those goofy clown designs and what sorts of mayhem they could work into it. Decapitations, explosions, Godzilla-style rubber suit attacks, anything goes here. The whole thing is basically a series of short horror vignettes, tied together with the flimsiest of plots and most over-the-top terrible acting that the budget could afford, and quite frankly, I don't know that you'd want it to be anything else. Highly 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, Dead & Buried, Summer of 84, Bride of Frankenstein, Jigsaw, Son of Frankenstein, Critters 3, Leviathan (1989), Killer Klowns from Outer Space
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Oct 30, 2018 16:35
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36. The Mountain of the Cannibal God, aka Slave of the Cannibal God, aka Prisoner of the Cannibal God, aka Primitive Desires (1978, Sergio Martino) Source: Shudder Boy am I torn on this one. It's shockingly technically competent. Sergio Martino really is a gifted pro. The acting is spectacular (by Italian cannibal flick standards). It's one of the more coherent of these films I've seen. The plot has a nice slow burn buildup that I appreciated, since most of these movies are in a huge hurry to get to the cannibal action. The majority of the film focuses on the trek through the jungle and up the titular mountain. And once they get there the payoff is decent, if a bit subdued. The most peculiar thing about the climax is how sleazy it becomes out of nowhere. There's a gratuitous, extended shot of one of the native girls pleasuring herself in full graphic detail. And there's a dude loving an enormous pig. Yeah I don't know what the deal was with that. It's all very bizarre but admittedly entertaining. The movie's only major technical flaw is the gore. Although adequately abundant, the effects themselves leave a lot to be desired. There are lots of instances where a person gets stabbed or impaled and it cuts to a closeup of the person's wounded "skin", only the skin tone and texture is laughably mismatched. But otherwise I have no complaints about the film on a formal level. If my analysis ended there this would probably be a 4-star movie. But there's a significant drawback that made me almost hate it: lots, and lots and LOTS of animal killing. Anyone familiar with these films knows that animal deaths are unfortunately par for the course. This film contains two scenes of animals being killed by humans (and to be clear to the uninitiated, we're talking about the filmmakers actually killing real animals). One is a tarantula and the other is a monitor lizard (which the script ignorantly refers to as an iguana). Fine. If it was just those two I'd be okay. But the film is absolutely littered with shots of animals killing each other. And these aren't stock footage shots, these are obvious contrivances by the director. Like, the filmmakers probably went around looking for wild animals and then threw them together to kill each other and filmed it. There's one especially horrendous sequence of a small monkey being eaten by a snake that just about made me turn the movie off. And this poo poo pervades the entire movie. This aspect alone made me come away from the film feeling sick, and not in the way the director intended. I never say this, but I think this would be a much stronger film in a censored form, with all the animal deaths removed. They're entirely superfluous anyway. So yeah, this is a great cannibal film tarnished by the terrible decision to stuff it full of real animal violence. It's an irredeemable misstep.   (2 cannibal masks out of 5) _____________________________________________ Total: 36 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) | The Mountain of the Cannibal God (2) Fran Challenges: Countries: USA (20) | Italy (7) | France (3) | Argentina (1) | Hong Kong (1) | Germany (1) | Belgium (1) | Australia (1) | Canada (1) Decades: 1920s (1) | 1930s (3) | 1950s (1) | 1970s (9) | 1980s (9) | 1990s (3) | 2000s (1) | 2010s (9)
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Oct 30, 2018 16:37
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Yeah, without having seen the movie I had that poster up in my room for a while because it was just such a great pulpy poster. After I read about the animal deaths I took it down...
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Oct 30, 2018 16:58
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It's as if the filmmakers are under the impression that real animal gore elicits an identical reaction as fake human gore. That lack of distinction demonstrates a sad misunderstanding.
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Oct 30, 2018 17:05
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Spatulater bro! posted:It's as if the filmmakers are under the impression that real animal gore elicits an identical reaction as fake human gore. That lack of distinction demonstrates a sad misunderstanding. I can understand it in the cannibal films if the tribes were just doing their usual preparing an animal for a meal and the crew just decided to film it, but more often than not it just feels like the crews just pushed for something real gore for the controversy and it really doesn't add to the film other than making you wonder what wouldn't the crew film to draw attention.
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Oct 30, 2018 17:26
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Spatulater bro! posted:It's as if the filmmakers are under the impression that real animal gore elicits an identical reaction as fake human gore. That lack of distinction demonstrates a sad misunderstanding. I mean, a lot of it IS an attempt at audience manipulation through the Kuleshov effect.
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Oct 30, 2018 17:27
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Franchescanado posted:I mean, a lot of it IS an attempt at audience manipulation through the Kuleshov effect. Is there a film studies term to describe why 70s Italians threw so many cats at so many actors?
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Oct 30, 2018 17:37
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I'm way behind on reviewing but I'm determined to finish this challenge. 02. Stitches (2012) (Netflix Streaming)  I definitely didn't choose to watch two in a row, but this was a palate cleansing killer clown movie after the awful Terrifier. There were enough jokes and entertaining camera work to hold my attention and the egg clown cult was a decently interesting plot element. 3/5 03. The Descent (2005) - Rewatch (DVD)  I recall really enjoying this movie a lot more the first time I saw it. That being said there is a good amount to appreciate. The underground scenes do a great job of building atmosphere and a general claustrophobic tone and the performances are believable. I agree with a lot of viewers that the crawlers were a fairly unnecessary addition but their design is decent. 3.5/5 04. Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) - Rewatch (DVD)  A strange mix of historical drama, action and horror I still really like this movie. I saw it when it had a short theatrical run but hadn't watched it in a long time. Vincent Cassell is the standout (like most movies I've seen him in) but the rest of the cast does a good job. The cgi on the "beast" is more than a little wonky but that has never bothered me too much. It is a long movie (I have the 142 minute cut and I saw there is a longer one out there) although it is entertaining the whole way through. 4/5 05. Population 436 (2006) (Amazon Prime)  Jeremy Sisto stars as a census worker sent to figure out why a particular town's population has remained at 436 for so many years. Overall there isn't much going on here; the central mystery is not very inspired and while the hanging scene is suitably disturbing there's nothing else to match that during the rest of the movie. 2/5 06. My Friend Dahmer (2017) Fran Challenge 2 Queer Horror (Netflix DVD)  A disturbing and unsettling horror movie despite there being no real violence or death. Ross Lynch and Alex Wolff are both great, especially Lynch as Dahmer. Despite always having an "interest" in Dahmer (he was living in the same city as me when he started killing in Wisconsin) I never really read about him until recently. His story always strikes me as tragic and seems like he could have been helped with some instituional intervention. 4/5
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Oct 30, 2018 17:41
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Drunkboxer posted:Is there a film studies term to describe why 70s Italians threw so many cats at so many actors? Gettato Gatto Spaventato, or 'The GGS Effect'
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Oct 30, 2018 17:49
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| # ? Jun 7, 2024 17:12 |
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Anyone else trying to see new Suspiria on Halloween so they can get a review in just under the gun? I’m hoping to close out my challenge with that. That 1PM deadline is a life saver. Friends Are Evil fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Oct 30, 2018 |
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Oct 30, 2018 17:53
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