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Franchescanado posted:FRAN CHALLENGE #13: What We've All Been Waiting For The Guest (2014) [Blu-ray] Rewatch. Halloween party. Halloween dance. Halloween psycho escaped from a mental institution running around stabbing people. https://i.imgur.com/4Ke1APB.gifv Franchescanado posted:FRAN CHALLENGE #9: Stranger Danger Tremors (1990) [Netflix DVD] Always vaguely intended to check this out but had never gotten around to it. Happy to have been recommended it. Pretty charming. I liked that the two main guys were constantly trying to figure out how to make a buck off the graboids. https://i.imgur.com/Q4UBQ5D.gifv Franchescanado posted:FRAN CHALLENGE #11: Dead & Buried Phase IV (1974) [DVD] I really dug how stylish this was, the close-up photography of ants, and the main character's voice, but, man, these scientists say some dumb poo poo. Shame Saul Bass only made this one movie, and that he's dead. https://i.imgur.com/Ba8kOlq.gifv New (30): #1 The Terror (2018), #6 Mandy (2018), #7 Dead Alive (1992), #8 Would You Rather (2012), #9 1922 (2017), #10 Infinity Chamber (2017), #11 Venom (2018), #12 Dagon (2001), #13 Demonic Toys (1992), #14 Murder Party (2007), #16 Godzilla (1954), #17 The Vault (2017), #18 Cargo (2017), #19 Berlin Syndrome (2017), #22 Dawn of the Dead (1978), #26 Seven in Heaven (2018), #27 Happy Death Day (2017), #28 Into the Forest (2015), #29 Hardware (1990), #30 Prodigy (2018), #31 The Survivalist (2015), #32, Honeymoon (2014), #33 Child's Play (1988), #37 Halloween (2018), #38 Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), #39 The Last House on the Left (1972), #40 The Exorcist (1973), #41 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), #43 Tremors (1990), #44 Phase IV (1974) Rewatch (14): #2 The Cabin in the Woods (2011), #3 Gone Girl (2014), #4 Annihilation (2018), #5 Seven (1995), #15 A Quiet Place (2018), #20 Doom (2005), #21 Predator (1987), #23 Gremlins (1984), #24 The Andromeda Strain (1971), #25 Split (2016), #34 Dawn of the Dead (2004), #35 Alien vs Predator (2004), #36 Alien vs Predator: Requiem (2007), #42 The Guest (2014) Personal Goal (5/13): Alien 3 (Assembly Cut), The Beyond, Beyond the Black Rainbow, The Brood, Fran Challenges (10/13): #7 [The World Is A Scary Place] Godzilla (1954), #3 [Hometown Horror] Dawn of the Dead (1978), #2 [Queer Horror] Into the Forest (2015), #8 [Once In A Lifetime] Dawn of the Dead (2004), #11 [Fear and Now] Halloween (2018), #12 [(Self-Described) Masters of Horror] Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), #6 [Video Nasties] The Last House on the Left (1972), #13 [What We've All Been Waiting For] The Guest (2014), #9 [Stranger Danger] Tremors(1990), #11 [Dead & Buried] Phase IV (1974)
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Oct 30, 2018 18:00
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Franchescanado posted:
 59. The Return of the Living Dead (1985)* - Blu-ray It's great but, beyond some moments, isn't really my thing. I like and respect it but just don't see much point for rewatches beyond rare background to mostly ignore and look up at specific scenes. Don't let my opinion bordering on indifference stop anyone watching, though. Campy acting, great punk schtick, awesome effects.   60. Scream of Fear (1961) - DVD Alternately, Taste of Fear Kickass early Hammer! 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), 54. Corpse Bride (2005), 55. Phantasm II (1988), 56. The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), 57. Piranha (1972), 58. The Fly (1986), 59. The Return of the Living Dead (1985)*12, 60. Scream of Fear (1961) Years Spanned: 96 (1922-2018) Tally by Decade: '20s (I), '30s (V), '40s (III), '50s (VI), '60s (XI), '70s (IV), '80s (XIV), '90s (IV), 2000s (VIII), 2010s (V) B&W/Color: 24/37 Rewatch/Total Counted: 8/60 Countries: 'Murika, Canada, Blighty, France, Germany, Estonia, China, South Korea, Japan Fran Challenges Complete: * Rewatch
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Oct 30, 2018 18:44
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   #105. Killers from Space (1954) Peter Graves strikes again! Not as much fun as he was in It Conquered the World, but a much goofier movie on the whole. An American military pilot is recovering in a base hospital after a plane crash, and he shares an incredible story with the officers who come to ask him about it: guys with ping-pong-ball eyes are hiding in a cave, watching the world's activities, and developing sinister footage of animals. Following the officers' skepticism, Graves' character heads to the local power plant to cut electricity to the area for a couple of minutes, causing the nuclear... thingie... at the aliens' base to explode. There's not a lot to buoy this movie if you're not desperate for old cheese. The threats made by the main alien are nothing special, there's no unusual sci-fi ideas at play, and there's clumsiness in handling the ones they do use. The ping-pong eyes are deservedly iconic, though.  / 10 #106. The Witch Returns to Life, a.k.a., The Witch (1952) Nice. This Finnish film was kind of a hassle to get to see (there's a copy on Youtube, but it doesn't have subtitles, so I had to download the video then hunt down some subtitles for it), but it was more than worth it. Local farmers are working for the government, doing the surface dig-work on an archeological excavation, and uncover a body staked with a poplar branch. That's enough to identify the corpse as that of a witch, which, along with the swamp location of its burial, reminds the peasants of the woman accused of being a witch by the Baron 300 years ago. The government archeologist, his wife, and their flirty artist friend retire to the current Baron's home, where they're joined by his lonely son, who makes numerous declarations of how he would give his soul or anything to have a woman. A storm kicks up, the men go to cover the dig site, and they find an unconscious and nude woman where the witch's body was. Unsurprisingly, there's a lot of sexual politics exploration going on. The flirting hints of the artist to the govsci's wife are frequent, but handled with good grace by the wife and husband at first. The sexual imposition of the old Baron comes up with increasing explication as to what he did, the alleged witch was put to death after the witchcraft accusations, which were leveled only because she wouldn't let the old Baron sleep with her, the class division is brought out in the differing reactions to the awakened woman, and the woman herself is saucy beyond belief for a film of the time. Also shocking for the time is her full front and back nudity, as she dances naked through a few of the third act scenes. Hard as it may be to believe, that's in service to the story. The acting, sets, camera-work, special effects, and lighting all fall somewhere on a scale running from 'very good' to 'great,' and I'm a little angry that this seems to have fallen so far out of memory. According to Monster Movie Kid, this has never received a commercial release, and is only available as a burn-on-demand DVD-R from Sinister Cinema. Gonna have to order a copy. / 10 #107. Halloween 5, a.k.a., Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) The goofiest Halloween entry yet. Did get some mileage out of most of the younger characters being in costume, but the intentional silliness didn't work for me. Silly noises and music while the cops are in a brutal murder scenario; what do they think this is, a Wes Craven movie? And Michael treating things like a GTA game was almost dumb enough to be funny instead of grating. Though Halloween I and II are much better than 4 and 5, I think I'm more impressed by the work put in by Danielle Harris than JLC. Partially because of her age, and being put in scenes where it was clear they were just getting her reaction and then inserting cut-aways of the gruesome material. But also for being saddled with muteness for a long stretch of this film (which I didn't really pick up on at first, so I was confused by the emotional reaction to her saying Tina's name), and still conveying a clear sense of her panic and desperation. Her work in the attic scene in particular was great. And Loomis really going off the loving tracks was delightful. But so much of this movie was forgettable, or spent with characters you know aren't going to matter, or used for psychic silliness, it's easy to see how it's built up such a sour reputation over the years. / 10
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Oct 30, 2018 19:11
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OK, here it is, the final move in the Stewart Gordon boxset and the reason I bought the thing in the first place, the classic meme movie, Deathbed: The Bed That Eats! Yeah it turns out this is a different Deathbed. The Pit and the Pendulum I get. It's a classic short story, the Inquisition is rich ground for horror movies, of course there would be multiple movies called The Pit and the Pendulum. But Deathbed? There are two unrelated movies called Deathbed? But as for the movie itself, hoo boy this was a step down. The Pit and the Pendulum and Castle Freak both had great acting overall and standout performances from their leads, Lance Henricksen and Jeffrey Combs, respectively. Not Deathbed. No good acting in Deathbed. The lovely Italian locations of the previous movies have been replaced with a brick studio apartment. The fantastic gore effects are gone, with the single exception of a great head-bashing sequence near the end, the movie's single highlight. There's no full frontal nudity for either gender, just a brief boob shot. The premise of a haunted bed that makes you horny for light bondage and chokesex sounds great, but this movie is really boring. I'm not trying to be funny or leaving out details or anything, that is literally the premise of the movie. If you get on this bed you will want to either be ted down on it and choked or tie your partner down on it and choke them. But sometimes, to death! Deathbed is really boring and poorly acted, probably the worst movie called Deathbed
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Oct 30, 2018 19:21
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Franchescanado posted:
#19 / 31 - Blood Feast (1963) I don't really like this as a viewing experience, but watching it with Joe Bob helped a lot. There's just... not really much there except gore (which, admittedly, still looks pretty decent even now, and must have been loving mindblowing at the time) and the guy who plays Fuad Ramses chewing the scenery. It's a pure exploitation movie, and watching it after watching a bunch of more traditional and mainstream horror is an odd juxtaposition. As Joe Bob mentions in the intro, Herschell Gordon Lewis died in 2016, making this fit the challenge. #20 / 31 - Near Dark (1987) God drat this movie loving owns. I feel like general stuff about this movie has been said to death, so I'm gonna laser-focus on a couple things that stuck out to me in particular this viewing: - this movie is funny as hell. The beginning almost feels like a comedy bit, with Mae practically telling Caleb directly about five or six times that she's a loving vampire, and him still not getting it until she says "gently caress it" and bites him and runs off; it ends up pretty much setting the tone for the movie. All the comedy is pitch loving black, mind, but the movie gets a lot of humorous mileage out of how absurd juxtaposing vampires and hillbillies is. - this movie is... bizarrely similar, plotwise, to The Lost Boys. tonally they're about as far apart from each other as can be; TLB is practically a kids' movie, and this, uh, is not. but in hindsight, this really is one of those Armageddon/Deep Impact situations, and while TLB definitely won in terms of cultural impact, I've gotta say Near Dark is the better movie.
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Oct 30, 2018 20:13
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Noroi:The Curse (2005) There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy and they hate your loving guts. Japanese found footage epic that tells the story of a demonic manifestation affecting psychics throughout Japan through retroactively assembled documentary, camcorder, and variety show footage. Sort of a cross of J-horror, Blair Witch, and HP Lovecraft, which, taken together, is about as fatalistic as horror gets. The slow build and variety of perspectives suck you in, which means you're forced to go along when things go completely nuts and horrible. Sort of the cosmic horror equivalent of a Three Stooges short where you spend two hours watching someone painstakingly bake all those pies beforehand. 4/5  sThe Canal (2014)  A man whose wife has died is haunted by ghosts...OR IS HE? Yeah, one of those. Some well done scares with the ghosts and some agreeably bonkers stuff at the end, but ultimately it's...one of those. Another arthouse horror movie, the kind where there's A Metaphor and everything in the movie is at the service of The Metaphor and it wants very hard to remind you that it's a horror movie but it's also a drama even though the protagonist has exactly one character trait. Being released in close proximity to The Witch and The Babadook doesn't exactly help this. Loses an entire half point for a scene where someone who is obsessed with a murder case has newspaper clippings on their wall because COME ON. 2/5  s
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Oct 30, 2018 20:17
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This is a little different. 52 (57). The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell (2018) A Netflix Exclusive.  Christine McConnell is another one of those people on TV who makes elaborate cakes and arts and crafts but her stuff is all horror themed and she makes it for the things that live in her haunted house including a reanimated undead raccoon and a resurrected mummified cat. Brought to you by Brian Henson its one part muppet, one part Food Network, and one part Halloween. I didn’t really expect to binge this for the marathon. I was just looking for something light to watch one day and clicked on it, and was surprised by what it actually is. Like, yeah, its one of those “cooking” shows about things you’ll never ever cook and if you tried it would turn out terribly. But like… there’s monster puppets and weird murder stories. Its kind of deranged. But in a totally light and palpable way. Its weird. And its only 6 episodes so suddenly I was done and I figured I’d add it to the countdown. You know what I really enjoyed about this? Have you ever watched one of these shows and seen someone spend so much time, energy, and money on something that looks impossible and like you can’t process why anyone would possibly do that for something and like what happens if you try to eat it? Will they kill you? Well this kind of plays with that by making it clear Christine is a highly functioning psychopath.  There's lots of fun little stuff like that like when Rose in a temper tantrum starts covering the house in gasoline to burn it to the ground with them in and Christine lightly scolds her for leaving way too much forensic evidence. I don’t know. I’m not into the food shows but I watch them every once and awhile with mixed company like we all do. Some of this stuff is cool but also impossible and the puppets are kind of fun but not exactly anything to go crazy for. It was weird but kind of fun. Definitely something different. If you’re sitting around this next day or two and looking for something to just put on while you’re waking up or getting ready for work or checking your phone or something… its worth a quick look. Or maybe I just really like muppets. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Oct 30, 2018 |
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Oct 30, 2018 20:57
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Yea I think the show wouldn't have been nearly as good if they'd tried to compromise too much and have her make things that the average person could pull off. It's refreshing to see a show like this where it's just a very dedicated and talented person making stuff that I can appreciate but that I'd never even attempt myself. There are plenty of other "you can do this!" shows out there if that's what you're in the mood for.
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Oct 30, 2018 21:07
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  #108. Freddy vs. Jason (2003) This was both better than I'd hoped, and about as good as you could hope for this premise to be executed. Seemed like the writers weren't fully satisfied with the title rivals, since we also got characters named Laurie and Michael, and one who's apparently cosplaying as PJ Soles' character in Carrie. Did a good job playing up the parallels between Freddy and Jason, with fire/water, chatty/silent, and child predator/fatally unattended child, and in running up the escalation of their awareness of each other, before bouncing them between each other's strongholds. Props to the quick-thinking bro with the grain alcohol, that led to a really cool visual. And the color saturation shifts were cool, even if they didn't really seem to tie in to any significant content changes. Gonna pretend the remakes didn't happen and consider this a cap on both series, finishing on a nice high note. I am disappointed the ending didn't have the pier getting blown loose by explosions, leading to an FvJ fight while it burns and sinks into the water. Big ups to Ronny Yu for this and Bride of Chucky. / 10 #109. Horror House on Highway 6 (2014) Oy vey. A sequel to Horror House on Highway Five, made 29 years after the release of that one, and done by the same director. On the one hand, that's impressive. On the other, this is terrible. '10s SOV equivalent garbage, with a slurry of bad gore, bad effects (even when all that's called for is a video playing on a screen), painfully bad acting (one actress has most of her lines given in shots separate from the other performers, and god, does her detachment show), and a script that seems like they didn't finish stitching all the scraps together. There's story elements of Elvis, purgatory, dimensional transference, existence through being recorded, brain implants, and booby-trapped soda machines, and none of it makes any loving sense. Oh, and there's a character who speaks in a Borat accent the entire film, because he's supposed to be from Croatia, not that that has any bearing on the movie beyond being an easy in for him liking Elvis. I'm all for film-makers trying weird plot inclusions (the mish-mash of the first movie was kind of charming in that regard), but this is just a bad-looking mess. Avoid. / 10 #110. Puppet Master: Axis Termination (2017) Trash-tier crowd-funded Full Moon Nazisploitation puppet dreck. None of the puppets are given personality, the humans are caricatures (we've got disbelieving American soldier, psychic Russian dwarf, black voodoo priestess, psychic Nazi man, psychic female Nazi doctor, etc.), the plotline is paper-thin, and kills are nonsensical (in this world, being jabbed on the side of one ankle makes you fall flat on the floor). Band tries to incorporate some Italian lighting by throwing red and blue against each other, but it's not lined up with emotional or tonal intensity, it's just there during dull dialogue scenes. The finale is unsatisfying, unsurprisingly. At least this story-arc is finally over. Now I just need to find a copy of The Littlest Reich, and I'll be done with this series until they crap out another one. / 10  #111. Dance of the Dead (2005) Aww, Tobe Hooper, no. At least it was more engaging than Djinn. Made me wonder if he and Coscarelli decided to trade scripts, since Coscarelli's episode dealt with a backwoods killer and a woman who finds strength within herself to overcome, and this one was about a world passing into a trippy post-apocalyptic setting with delinquent teens. Some sort of cataclysm has occurred, people are succumbing to zombie-like states, teens are looking for kicks to distract themselves. Kind of like a blending of Dead End Drive-In, the end of Rabid, and the opening of Mad Max. Besides drugs, one of the means of distraction for teens is going to a club run by Robert Englund, where those who've succumbed to zombification are made to dance on-stage by cattle-prod application. Convinced to visit the club with acquaintances one night, a young woman who's been sheltered by her mother is horrified to discover that her mom sold the young woman's zombified sister to the club-owner. Not a lot going for this one, though it does pick up in the second half. Hooper (or his DP) seems really taken with some flashy camera tricks, and uses them so much that it goes from annoying to tone-setting and right back to annoying. Englund seems to be having a good time, at least, and provides a distinctive sense of his slimy businessman character. Billy Corgan provides music, and the episode is adapted from a Richard Matheson story, but in spite of all the weirdness you might expect from everyone involved, or from the premise, this ends up being a lackluster affair. / 10
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Oct 30, 2018 21:21
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Basebf555 posted:Yea I think the show wouldn't have been nearly as good if they'd tried to compromise too much and have her make things that the average person could pull off. It's refreshing to see a show like this where it's just a very dedicated and talented person making stuff that I can appreciate but that I'd never even attempt myself. There are plenty of other "you can do this!" shows out there if that's what you're in the mood for. Yeah. Like, a show like Good Eats has actually taught me to cook some things but that ain't what this is. They're not even REALLY pretending you can do most of this stuff or they're trying to teach you. Its mostly just someone with a really weird talent showing off with a vague explanation of how its done and some snarky puppets noting how weird it is. So like, I don't really think its a "cooking show." Its just a weird little Halloween muppet special with cooking as a plot point.
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Oct 30, 2018 21:21
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#21 / 31 - Castlevania (Season 1) #22 / 31 - Castlevania (Season 2) This show is so, so much better than it has any right to be. Seriously, how is a loving NES game turned into a Netflix cartoon this goddamn good? They turned a video game in which you walk right and whip monsters into a genuinely emotional exploration of love, grief, trauma, and familial obligations. This loving show. The standout element to me, by far, is the voice acting. Not all the performances are technically perfect, but they are all perfectly befitting of the characters they're assigned to; Graham MacTavish is a pitch loving perfect Dracula, Richard Armitage is loving hilarious as Trevor Belmont while still bringing a deep underlying sadness to the role, and even Peter Stormare as Godbrand, the Viking vampire who screams his own name at people, is fantastic. Another thing this show does that I really like is, it takes a really, really interesting angle towards the central conflict of the story. The killing of Dracula isn't presented as some kind of heroic goal; it's made very clear that, prior to the event that sparked Dracula's rampage in the first place, he was actually genuinely turning himself around and becoming a positive force for the world. Trevor, Sypha and Alucard hunting him down is portrayed as outright tragedy, closer to putting down a rabid dog than slaying some great beast. It's also not overly kind to fundamentalist Christianity. That's neat.
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Oct 30, 2018 21:37
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Franchescanado posted:FRAN CHALLENGE #4: Worst of the Best or Best of The Worst Hold the Dark (2018) [Netflix] Jeffrey Wright investigates a wolf that killed a child. Nowhere near as good as Green Room. Everything is competently done: Jeffrey Wright whispers, Riley Keough is spacy, Alexander Skarsgård is tall, and it's all reliably grim. But the whole big thing of men being like wolves never really connected with me which left a pretty long two hours. New (31): #1 The Terror (2018), #6 Mandy (2018), #7 Dead Alive (1992), #8 Would You Rather (2012), #9 1922 (2017), #10 Infinity Chamber (2017), #11 Venom (2018), #12 Dagon (2001), #13 Demonic Toys (1992), #14 Murder Party (2007), #16 Godzilla (1954), #17 The Vault (2017), #18 Cargo (2017), #19 Berlin Syndrome (2017), #22 Dawn of the Dead (1978), #26 Seven in Heaven (2018), #27 Happy Death Day (2017), #28 Into the Forest (2015), #29 Hardware (1990), #30 Prodigy (2018), #31 The Survivalist (2015), #32, Honeymoon (2014), #33 Child's Play (1988), #37 Halloween (2018), #38 Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), #39 The Last House on the Left (1972), #40 The Exorcist (1973), #41 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), #43 Tremors (1990), #44 Phase IV (1974), #45 Hold the Dark (2018) Rewatch (14): #2 The Cabin in the Woods (2011), #3 Gone Girl (2014), #4 Annihilation (2018), #5 Seven (1995), #15 A Quiet Place (2018), #20 Doom (2005), #21 Predator (1987), #23 Gremlins (1984), #24 The Andromeda Strain (1971), #25 Split (2016), #34 Dawn of the Dead (2004), #35 Alien vs Predator (2004), #36 Alien vs Predator: Requiem (2007), #42 The Guest (2014) Personal Goal (5/13): Alien 3 (Assembly Cut), The Beyond, Beyond the Black Rainbow, The Brood, Fran Challenges (11/13): #7 [The World Is A Scary Place] Godzilla (1954), #3 [Hometown Horror] Dawn of the Dead (1978), #2 [Queer Horror] Into the Forest (2015), #8 [Once In A Lifetime] Dawn of the Dead (2004), #11 [Fear and Now] Halloween (2018), #12 [(Self-Described) Masters of Horror] Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), #6 [Video Nasties] The Last House on the Left (1972), #13 [What We've All Been Waiting For] The Guest (2014), #9 [Stranger Danger] Tremors(1990), #11 [Dead & Buried] Phase IV (1974), #4 [Worst of the Best] Hold the Dark (2018)
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Oct 30, 2018 21:51
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feedmyleg posted: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. I can totally get behind all of this and I enjoyed it, it's just that on a first watch, it's all just so bombastic and weird for what is essentially a Bad Seed/Omen movie. Like, I love everything about that first part of the film where they set up all the background cosmic story (this is one of the best musical sting/reaction shots ever put to film btw). I think for some people though, like me, the story may have been a bit too circuitous. I just wanted to see more happening. Like all those shots of Huston on top of the building with all of the...well, whatever he had going on up there. It's just there and its weird and takes forever and I just wanted to see a payoff sooner than what we got. I guess that's really my complaint about it. After watching it for the challenge last year, I actually went back and watched it again earlier this year with a friend who hadn't seen it, and they liked it too, but their main complaint was "man this thing really takes its sweet time to get moving."
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Oct 30, 2018 22:40
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07. Insidious (2010) - Rewatch (DVD) Patrick Wilson fights Darth Maul and Glenn Danzig. I recall liking Insidious the first time I saw it but it is slower moving and full of jump scares than I remembered. I still like the ending and the scenes in the Further but most of rest is a slog. 2.5/5 08. White Zombie (1932) (Amazon Prime)  The oldest film I watched for this challenge, and apparently the first movie I've seen starring Bela Lugosi. Overall it's decent, with some creepy scenes and I appreciate that it's a zombie movie that actually uses the word "zombie." I won't rate this due to its age. 09. The Hills Have Eyes (2006) - Rewatch (DVD)  This came out during the wave of edgy remakes (such as Dawn of the Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). I actually liked this more than I remembered. Ted Levine is always a welcome addition to a movie and it's just too bad he didn't get more to do. I liked the back story of this remake better than the original although both have a lot of similarities. 3/5 10. The Babysitter (2017) (Netflix Streaming)  I probably wouldn't have watched this but someone in the main thread had posted it was similar to Better Watch Out, which I liked. I definitely agree with that sentiment, but while Better Watch Out is more on the mean-spirited side of things, The Babysitter is pretty much straight horror comedy. I thought Judah Lewis and Samara Weaving did a good job as the leads. Personally I didn't care for the text that would pop up from time to time and felt that didn't add much at all. 3/5 11. Hereditary (2018) (Netflix DVD)  Hereditary is by far the best movie I have watched this year. Just about everything here works and is effective. The whole sequence after Charlie gets decapitated is a masterful use of sound. Toni Collette's performance is particularly notable. 5/5
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Oct 30, 2018 23:05
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Wet Tie Affair posted:White Zombie (1932) (Amazon Prime) Why?
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Oct 30, 2018 23:11
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I think the implication was that they wanted to grade it on a curve for its age, but didn't actually want to grade it on a curve?
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Oct 30, 2018 23:12
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#117. Tales From The Hood 2 (2018). Four African-American slanted modern tales of terror are told by one Mr. Simms (Keith David), as part of an experiment to create a learning robot to fight crime. Yes, that really is the wrap-a-round. This Anthology is of very mixed quality. The first and third stories are just plain stupid, the second one is kinda funny and fun, and the fourth one is long and has promise, but gets a little more heavy handed in what it's trying to say. The wraparound is just plain goofy. eh. out of 5#118. Must Love Horror (2018? The credits say 2014) Edgar is a horror fanatic. When his fed up girlfriend accidentally dies in a fight on Halloween, a strange devilish entity named "You" appears to Edgar and begins pressuring him to cover up the death and to go after any potential witnesses. This is yet another case of people thinking they can make a good movie filming with a storebought home video camera in their apartment. YOU CAN'T. They're always bad at the very best. This one in particular tries to do all kinds of fancy editing and many-angled shots that scream "current film student". oof. I've been there. You don't have the talent you think you do, sorry. out of 5#119. The Signal (2008) A strange signal permeates the electronic devices of the city of Terminus, driving people insane and often violent. We follow the story from the perspective of three different people caught in this mess: Maya, her husband Lewis, and her secret lover Ben. This was a very strange film in that tonally it jumps back and forth. Most of Lewis' story is funny, for instance, despite him ostensibly being the villain of the film. However, I love a good memetic horror pretty much always. Also, the gore effects were very high level in this. It's not afraid of the gushy stuff. out of 5#120. Cold Skin (2017). In 1914, a nameless protagonist is assigned a year's duty as a weather researcher on a small, Atlantic island home only to an unfriendly lighthouse keeper. Our character then quickly learns that at night, the island is beset by strange amphibious creatures that try to storm the humans' meager structures... This was a great little movie, reminding me of the old book "The House on the Borderlands" with its nightly sieges. At the end of the day, it's a character piece about isolation and the way it affects our emotions and sanity bit by bit. The cinematography is gorgeous, the special effects on the creatures is top notch. A movie that needs more exposure. out of 5
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Oct 30, 2018 23:37
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 #112. Ghost (1990) * The best supernatural horror comedy fantasy drama romance thriller (with a splash of action) of all time? Past the incredible blending of styles, the performances are pitch-perfect to the movie's tone, even if Whoopi Goldberg does go a little too broad with the comedy. Swayze as the dead yuppie holding on for love of more than money, Goldwyn as a wonderfully slimy money-grubber in over his head, and Moore as the grieving and withdrawn widow all put in some of the best performances of their careers, and Rick Aviles gets one of my all-time most memorable film deaths. Well, more for what happens to him after he dies, but still. Does it get corny? Absolutely. Did it make me tear up? Maybe. So many memorable quotes (Vincent Schiavelli's intensifying exit monologue being my personal favorite). Pulp fiction synthesis par excellence. Also the best adaptation of the Deadman comic book we're likely to ever get. / 10  #113. Hood of Horror, a.k.a., Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror, a.k.a., Gang of Horror (2007) My girlfriend has been wanting to watch this since before the month's film run even began, so in spite of misgivings, we finally hunted down a copy (by typing its name into Youtube). Not as bad as I was expecting, but not nearly as good as Tales from the Hood. Madhouse provides some animation for connective segments, Dogg wanders through the segments (with a dwarf in tow, whom he has throw up on things), and Aries Spears somehow makes more of an impression than either Ernie Hudson or Billy Dee Williams. The stories themselves are unremarkable beyond the over-the-top violence (one guy slips and falls on a 40 oz. of Old English, driving it through his eye and the back of his head). You get to see Snoop Dogg in a gold weave, so that's something. / 10 #114. Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th, a.k.a., Shriek 1, a.k.a., Scary Video, a.k.a., Scary Scream Movie (2001) Heaven help me, I think I like this more than Scary Movie. Solid main cast of 'teenagers,' Tom Arnold as the Dewey stand-in, lots of sets, and enough general high school spoof jokes to rival High School High. The killer doesn't get any lines besides grumbles until he's unmasked at the end, but the actor(s?) in the costume put in some good physicality. Urban Legend seems like more of a point of reference than any of the F13s, but whatever. The jokes come rapid-fire, and they're not stretched out to unbearable thinness like in any of the Scary Movie sequels past the first. I even still remember some of the jokes a day later, imagine that. The replacement of Scream's 'rules of a horror movie' scene with a 'rules of a satire' scene is slotted in quite nicely. I'm sure if I were to watch this back-to-back with a modern genre target spoof movie, I'd get quality whiplash, but even on its own, it's not bad. / 10
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Oct 30, 2018 23:49
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Day 30 - Blood Freak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoU4TT8-frU I was reminded that this movie existed about three months ago and I said, "That's definitely going on the list for the October horror thread." But it's a movie with a killer turkey so I had to save it for as close to November as possible. With All Hallows Eve being reserved for another movie that I've wanted to watch for a long time, I bumped the movie I knew would be bad back to the thirtieth. Now the question was, would Blood Freak be entertainingly bad? Herschel is a greaser (this movie was made in 1971) who picks up a woman and they head back to her place where a party is going on. But it's a bad scene, man, because people there are smoking the devil's weed and Herschel won't have none of that. Instead, he and the woman read the bible to each other at the party. He gets a job at a turkey farm where he picks up extra cash as a meat tester. Meanwhile, another woman tempts him into trying super ganja and he instantly becomes addicted. The super ganja in his system reacts to the GMO turkey he eats and Herschel gets a turkey head that longs to drink the blood of drug addicts. But maybe Jesus can help? To answer my previous question: gently caress yes it was. I think everyone here knows the story about how Ed Wood got a church to fund the making of Plan 9 from Outer Space. Blood Freak is what happens when the church decides to fund another monster movie, but demands some creative input so that this time they can get it right. So the christian messaging is mixed in with scenes of Turkeyhead ripping people's throats out. It's amazing. There isn't a single aspect to the production that isn't totally incompetent. The acting is all single take so things like flubbed lines and extended coughing fits stay in. There's a guy who comes in from time to time to give sermons to the audience while seated in front of bubbling and pealing faux wood paneling while a crew member occasionally drifts barely into frame from time to time. The young punks don't just look over thirty, they look like hard lived 40's. Herschel's girlfriend reacts to him showing up with a turkey head and writing out several pages of explanation was, "What will our children look like?" The worst aspect of this movie is that there is some unpleasant animal death (I'd always mention something like this that would be a complete deal breaker for people, BTW). You get a really long couple of shots of a chicken (not a turkey) with its head cut off flailing around. Also a shot of a severed turkey head. At least in this case the crew probably ate the chicken afterward. So not as a bad as torturing animals for the camera, but probably something most people don't want to see in their movies. Blood Freak is just as crazy of time as I heard it was. I wouldn't put it on the level of Plan 9, but it's up there as a masterpiece of absurd, unintended comedy.
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Oct 31, 2018 00:55
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Trying to pick up a few I missed reviewing...  I was apprehensive about this one, but kept hearing it was a good Halloween movies, and it was free on Tubi, so I jumped in. This movie starts out really well. I found the 80s aesthetic, the story and all the elements were a good tone, but then the movie goes on. The 'rules' of Halloween are laid out, which is an interesting concept and things remain fascinating until the last 25%. Actually, it's more of an incline into be a not-good movie rather than it just turns bad. It feels like the director was like "I dunno... I think it's needs more" , when it was actually fine. The blood and gore drastically increase and even 'THE 80s" increases as 'cigarette burns' and other VHS blips start occurring. It's an ok movie. I'm kind of disappointing that it didn't keep the sweet momentum that it started with. /5 Slumber Party Massacre 2 This movie is loving bonkers and I loved it. It's all for nothing and feels like a colossal waste of time, but dammit, this is REAL 80s poo poo. Guitars, greasers , boobs and violence. Even an all female "sleepover" that goes the way every 13 year old boy thinks they do. .5 / 5The Phatom Empire Want to use this 1950s robot? SURE Want to use this moon vehicle from Logans Run? FUGG YES Want to use some stock footage of a volcano erupting? YES YES YES... GIVE ME IT ALL  ?? how do you rate this?! / 5Demonic Toys Fell asleep half way through the stream, and finally finished this. A random group of people come together in a warehouse by random incident . Dolls come alive and attack. This movie is just a lot of fun. The toys are wicked looking, but also mean. Some good physical comedy and a movie that just has fun with what it is without becoming a parody of itself. / 5
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Oct 31, 2018 00:57
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Franchescanado posted:
 50. Night of The Demons (1988). Directed by Kevin S. Tenney. Watched via YouTube VOD The egg punk counterpart to Return of the Living Dead, complete with Linnea Quigley showing up and turning into a cool monster. I'd have enjoyed this a lot more if it wasn't slathered with dollops of vintage 80's sexism and a weird emphasis on slut-shaming, but it's still a fun watch. It doesn't take itself too seriously and it has this scrappy vibe going. The scene where Angela gets possessed to a Bauhaus song is legit, as is that synth score. The way it depicts goths and punks was honestly better than I expected from the time period. And with that,  my Fran Challenges are finished! I made it to 50, which is honestly kind of staggering. I'll try to work in one or two more movies before the challenge is officially over, including the new Suspiria.I'll do a full rundown of my viewings after Suspiria tomorrow night, but here's a reminder what I saw for the challenges! 1. Train to Busan (2016) 2. Multiple Maniacs (1970) 3. Hollow Man (1998) 4. John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars (2001) 5. The People Under The Stairs (1991) 6. The House By The Cemetery (1981) 7. Martyrs (2008) 8. Angst (1983) 9. Wild Zero (1999) 10. Apostle (2018) 11. Black Christmas (1974) 12. The Lure (2015) 13. Night of the Demons (1988) Friends Are Evil fucked around with this message at 01:20 on Oct 31, 2018 |
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Oct 31, 2018 01:10
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Franchescanado posted:
30. Tales of Halloween (2015) Watched On: Netflix After seeing Trick r Treat earlier this year, I was hoping this was going to be more of the same. Adrienne Barbeau as the night drive DJ introducing the segments only gave me more hope. But each of the shorts that followed were surprisingly meanspirited or anticlimactic. For example, 'This Means War' starts promisingly enough: Dana Gould and his traditional yard decoration are challenged by a dipshit metalhead neighbor and his splatter display. They get in a fight. But then it ends with the two of them impaling each other on a wooden spike. No irony, no logical endgame of escalation, just both of them dying and a cop barfing. Thankfully, the last two shorts were a goofy joy and a lot more suitable to the Halloween spirit. 'The Ransom of Rusty Rex' got some genuine laughs out of me and plays with its premise in fun ways. And 'Bad Seed' takes a story about a murderous pumpkin and plays it completely straight, which earns a lot in my book. Those two shorts, plus 'The Weak and the Wicked' early on, made this worth my time.
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Oct 31, 2018 02:39
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I have seen a whopping 10 movies total from the 1930's and I tend to rate movies based on their peers. Is this a good 30's horror movie? I'm not sure, so I'm not rating it.
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Oct 31, 2018 03:18
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The Cloverfield Paradox Some scientists messing about accidentally puncture a whole into the Warp, get sucked in and thrown out. Without the benefit of a Navigator or the Astronomicon, they have no idea where they've ended up. And since they didn't have a Geller Field, you guessed it, they got some Daemons and mutations to deal with. It's pretty good! The crazy stuff on the station is great, even if there's nowhere near enough of it. There's an exciting sci-fi action scene, and a good sense of tension builds up during the station parts. Plus it's got that Scottish guy I like. a couple small complaints Having the one character only speak Chinese, and all the other characters speak Chinese when directly addressing her, sometimes, and otherwise exclusively using English, was goofy. I know it was supposed to show that it's an international team, they all work together despite their differences, yada yada, but it was goofy. It just called attention to itself way too much. And since they didn't subtitle all of her dialogue, it marked that character out as less important. We don't actually need to understand what she's saying all the time, it's fine. Way too much foreshadowing of the character betraying people. Every loving scene they were in had at least one moment where tehy stared ominously at the camera without blinking. Yeah, we get it, don't trust them. Oh they betrayed everybody? No poo poo. one major complaint The earth stuff. It wasn't interesting, and it completely killed the tension the rest of the movie was building. Oh no, they gotta do a thing, something broke, aaaaa will they ever get back home? Oh yeah and that guy is back on earth. He still doesn't have a cell signal. ... back to the station poo poo's happening aaaaaaa. It also sucked out all the energy from what should've been a great ending twist. But the earth stuff foreshadowed it so much it ends up just being a jump scare. Honestly, I would've liked two movies. One movie just on the station. You don't know anything about what's going on on earth until the very end. Then, like, the next day, because J J Abrams loves doing crazy surprise release stuff, a second movie covering the same time frame on earth. That would've given them time to actually tell an interesting earth story, instead of just boring scenes that stole energy from space. The Cloverfield Paradox is a flawed but fun space adventure
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Oct 31, 2018 03:23
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31 - SuspiriaFran challenge: Stranger Danger So I guess I have really cool irl friends, because my pal who's barely into horror recommended me Dario Argento's masterpiece. This just might be the most beautiful movie ever made. "Atmospheric" doesn't even begin to describe the gorgeous, surreal sets and lighting, the cinematography is masterful and incredibly creative, and Goblin's score is amazing and adds to the tension. There's an insane amount of tension throughout the entire film, from the extended sequences where things get violent to the simple scenes of mundane life where things are just slightly off-kilter. Jessica Harper gives an amazing performance in this film. She doesn't speak all that much, but her body language and facial expressions are truly amazing, and her beauty only heightens the gorgeous decor and shot composition. There's a particular sequence where she has a whispered conversation with Stefania Casini's character, and their eye acting in that scene is simply amazing. Some people incorrectly claim this film's plot doesn't live up to its visuals, but I think it's one of the best applications of a horror mystery I've ever seen. Like a good Giallo, you don't really know what's going on until the very end, but along with the misdirection, you get many clues and a picture begins to form in your mind as the characters try to investigate what's happening around them. It isn't the frustrating kind of mystery where nothing seems to make any sense at all, there are threads connecting the deaths and spooky events. The gore in this film is the usual fake looking bright red blood, but in a movie that's already so colorful and visually heightened, it feels right at home instead of standing out as something unreal. There's some amazing horror visuals in here, truly haunting imagery that complements the beauty of the environments. The only real flaw this movie has is that it's full of classic italian bad ADR. Even though much of the cast is clearly speaking english from their mouth movements, it's apparent that seemingly every single scene was dubbed over, and not particularly convincingly. One could say that it's an intentional choice that heightens the artificiality and surreality of the experience, but I am pretty sure it's just that Italian film-makers are bad at recording their actors on set and cheap out on the ADR. It's not like chinese martial arts film bad or anything, and everyone's voice is very sincere and appropriate to their characters, but it does take you out of the experience every time you notice it. I don't see what value there could possibly be in remaking a film like this, it stands the test of time perfectly.
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Oct 31, 2018 03:49
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30. Re-Animator (Joe Bob Briggs' The Last Drive-In Edition) I figured I might as well get around to watching the one last episode of The Last Drive-In I hadn't watched yet. I hadn't watched it because Re-Animator was a huge favorite of mine from my college days, and I'd probably watched it half-a-dozen times already over the years. But Joe Bob made it feel fresh, and I learned some things like that Stuart Gordon had a background in theater, and that Re-Animator was rehearsed over and over like a stage play. It certainly shows in the finished product, the movie "flows" really well and the cast all work together perfectly. The back and forth between Jeffrey Combs and David Gale is really good, both of them are bassstaaarrrds in their own right and they make great mutual antagonists. I also like the progression of Bruce Abbott's Dan Cain as he gets roped into West's madness before finally taking up the syringe himself in the final shot. The gore effects and humor are spot-on too. Still a classic, and it's been long enough since I'd seen it last for me to appreciate it all over again. Dolls might still be my favorite though, and I have yet to see Robot Jox.
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Oct 31, 2018 03:51
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FRAN CHALLENGE #13: What We've All Been Waiting For #32- Halloween (2018) Not quite the definitive capper on the franchise that it's trying to be, but good nonetheless. I feel like all attempts to do a sequel to Halloween- apart from III which was its own thing and my relationship with that is complicated- run into the issue that there really isn't anything more you can say or reveal about Michael Meyers since his entire point is he's an incomprehensible, nigh-supernatural avatar of pointless violence. This film does some cool stuff with Laurie Strode as a character, and overall the fast forward to a new timeframe is well handled. OTOH the "dead teenager" portion of the film feels perfunctory, being done out of obligation, and there's a whole plot twist of sorts that goes nowhere and feels like a cul-de-sac. Also it features Michael just stomping someone's head into jelly which I feel is more a Jason Voorhees move? Michael's strong but not pulverize-you-without-trying strong. Slasher experts, back me up on this? But it eventually gets round to a pretty good climax, Jamie Lee Curtis is great of course, and Judy Greer gets to kick some rear end which feels way overdue. The finale is strong enough that I'm willing to forgive the flaws in the middle portion.
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Oct 31, 2018 03:59
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30. Black Sunday (1961): This is the first Bava film I’ve seen. The opening scene was great with the execution by Mask of Satan. The lighting and cinematography throughout are great. However I had a hard time focusing and following the story. I think I wasn’t in the right mood or something. Definitely one to revisit at some point.
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Oct 31, 2018 04:18
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I've been slacking on this. I think I can still get myself to my personal goal of 15 films but I don't think I'll end up with all the challenges down as well. It's been fun keeping tabs on everyone's progress though, and I've seen a few things this month I otherwise might not have!Franchescanado posted:
#12: The Beyond (1981)  I had a great time with this movie. I've only seen two other Lucio Fulci movies, but this one is definitely my favorite of the bunch so far. The gore is obviously pretty excellent and fun (the spiders, my god!), but for me the real stars of the show were the music and sound effects. They're both super over the top and often convey a completely different tone than I'd expect them to be going for, but they're always super entertaining in exactly the right way. All this combined with a few legitimately arresting sequences (specifically can't get the shot of Emily running silently through the house out of my head) and an excellent ending, and this might be my favorite movie of the month so far! Watched (12/15): #1 As Above, So Below (2014), #2 Shutter (2004), #3 A Dark Song (2016), #4 The Endless (2017), #5 Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978), #6 Blade II (2002), #7 Tag (2015), #8 Tale of Tales (2015), #9 Under the Shadow (2016), #10 Blood Feast (1963), #11 The Hitcher (1986), #12 The Beyond (1981) Fran Challenges (5/13): #1,
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Oct 31, 2018 04:24
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 54. Scarab (1983) Scarab has some cool moments but the editing makes it indecipherable. The way the movie flows is just insane and really makes no sense. Also the main character comes off as super skeevy and just doesn't make for a good hero.  55. Street Trash (1987) Street Trash is a movie that seems to be trying very hard to offend people. It goes out if its way to give you a collection of truly reprehensible characters that are a chore to watch. There are definitely some fun moments but they pale in comparison to the number of scenes that are just downright difficult to watch. If you're a fan of exploitive films definitely check it out, but be warned there are a number of really uncomfortable scenes that add absolutely nothing of value and just exist to offend. Having said all that, the way it's made is technically top notch and quite amazing given the subject matter.  56. Minutes Past Midnight (2016) An anthology film that doesn't really have a common theme or narrative thread, but rather is just a collection of shorts. The quality of the shorts ranges from absolute garbage (Roid Rage) to extremely interesting and thoughtful films (The Mill At Calder's End). Despite how much Roid Rage brings down the entire package I think that overall the quality was fairly high and I recommend checking Minutes Past Midnight out if you like anthology films.  57. The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) This was quite a surprise. For a film that is basically a slasher paint by numbers it actually manages to be charming, engaging and pretty creepy at times. Tonally the movie was just on point. It's such a great mix of comedy, sexuality and horror. Yeah it's full of cliched moments and you probably have it all figured out halfway through, but that doesn't make it any less of a joy to watch. Also the villains bloodlust and choice of weapon (portable drill) makes him pretty damned scary. Definitely check this out if you're a fan of slasher films, it's a pretty great one.  58. Slumber Party Massacre II (1987) The shift of tone from the first film is massive. While Part 1 is just a well made slasher film, this one is a surreal comedy horror. It's slow start could make you just write this off as boring and bland, but the last half of the film is extremely whacky and fun to watch. This time around our villain isn't just a psychopath on a bloodlust, he's a rockabilly guitarist who has a bright red guitar with a giant drill on the end of it. He appears and moves in ways that might mean he is supernatural, but then again the entire movie kind of operates on a fuzzy dream logic that makes reality hard to pin down. Part 2 is definitely a strange sequel and just a weird movie all around, but I think it's pretty good, especially if you don't overthink it. Despite it's flaws I think it's worth a look.  59. The Phantom Empire (1988) Phantom Empire is a bad movie but drat did I have a good time watching it. It's full of reused props and locations, terrible characters and low quality acting. It's also full of insane moments that will have you crying laughing.
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Oct 31, 2018 04:37
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53 (58). Mr. Boogedy (1986) Available on Hoopla and Youtube.  The Davis family move to Lucifer Springs to a creepy old house that is “not really haunted” and immediately are advised to get out. Solid advice because it turns out their house is haunted by a family of pilgrims and the evil Mr. Boogedy keeping them trapped with the magic cloak he sold his sold to the devil for. Back when I was a kid there used to be this thing called The Disney Sunday Night Movie that was on every Sunday night on ABC. Every Sunday Michael Eisner (the CEO of Disney at the time) would introduce the show, talk a bit about what was new in the Disney movies or theme parks or tv shows, and then air either a classic Disney film like Swiss Family Robinson or Mary Poppins or a new made for TV movie. My family used to watch this religiously. This was the thing we did together as a family and it holds incredible nostalgia and emotional value in my memory. The made for TV movies were probably all poo poo but they were childhood favorites of mine. Stuff like The B.R.A.T. Patrol - a sorta Goonies knock off about kids on a military base - or Fuzzbucket - a Mick Garris directed movie about a weird swamp creature that acts as a kid’s imaginary friend - were my poo poo as a kid. But I was a horror kid in the making even at 6 years old so my favorites were still when they went horror. Or “horror”. It WAS the Disney Sunday Night Movie. I’m pretty sure Michael Eisner turned out to be terrible in a bunch of ways, but he was a weird part of my childhood with goofy intros to fantastical kid Disney stuff like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KYQQEhUu40 So anyway, when I saw this film amongst Hoopla’s options I HAD to watch it. Honestly, once I got past the nostalgia there’s not a lot here. Its your typical haunted house story that probably was copying Poltergeist pretty liberally, but also played completely for a PG audience. Spooky stuff happens. Parents don’t listen to kids. Kids go find out the backstory. Ghosts fully reveal themselves. Dad doesn’t leave for reasons. Big end sequence. Its SUPER truncated probably to skip any of the stuff that might actually scare any kids like me watching at home in 1986. I seem to recall it still getting to me a little back then but our standards for special effects for ghosts were a lot lower at the time. The film was directed by Oz Scott who appears to have spent nearly 40 years directing TV from everything from Hill Street Blues to Black-ish and his wikipedia claims that Mr. Boogedy won an award. I can’t actually find any evidence of that though or what such an award would be. Special effects, I guess? Man, we’ve come a long way from making someone glow. Notably the kids include a young Kristy Swanson and an even younger David Faustino. The third kid Benjamin Gregory would go on to star in Alf later in the year. So I guess it paid even back then to be a kid working for the Mouse. And Gomez Addams himself John Astin also plays a bit part in the movie and he ends up making himself the official mascot for me in every future haunted house film I watch going forward.  I think I’m saving that. 54 (59). The Houses October Built (2014) Available on Hulu.  A group of friends set out on a road trip through the US south to document haunted house attractions and get behind the scenes on what lines they cross and what screwed things might actually happen there. Either because they pissed off the wrong people or because they kept searching too hard for something “more extreme” they end up the prey in a game by people who may be trying to do more than scare them. This intrigued me for two reasons. One, I’ve never been to a haunted house attraction as an adult because I’m reasonably certain my “fight or flight” would cause me to punch some poor sap. I don’t say that as some macho thing, I’m just saying I don’t think I have the temperament to take that stuff. And part of that is the other thing, that I don’t fully trust people. Its that “I’m not scared of werewolves or vampires, but I am scared of people” thing. I’m not afraid of people in the sense that I don’t leave my house or don’t talk to strangers. But I’ve always lived with a healthy fear of yelling at someone in traffic or reacting to a stranger yelling at you because you don’t know who that person is or what they’re capable of. I have no idea if there’s any truth to the idea the movie presents that haunted house attractions are a mess of no one’s watching poo poo happening. But I do on some level wonder if its possible and if such a thing would appeal to that kind of person. Like, if someone yells at me “I’m going to kill you” my instincts say to take them at their word. And if someone yells “Please, help me, he’s hurting me” my instincts are that they’re in trouble. Even if logically I can tell myself “that’s an act, you paid a surcharge for this” there’d be a part of me wondering how you’d ever know if it wasn’t. So like, I felt primed for this and there was some real tension at places, especially as I was waiting to see the tide turn on everyone. But ultimately I don’t think the story ever comes together effectively enough. I feel unsure of what happened in a way that leaves me unsatisfied. Did they just piss off the wrong people at the start of their trip? Did they just get lured in by some serial killers? Was it both? Did they somehow piss off the Blue Skelton crew by chance and fate just coincided? Did they piss off Blue Skeleton and get targeted hence ever getting them interested? That seems like the only explanation that makes sense. That if they hadn’t pissed off some people on Night 1 no one would have ever clued them into the Blue Skeleton and they never would have started down that path. But it feels so unexplored that I feel a little empty in my viewing. The other problem I have is that I think they failed to really make us connect with the characters beyond Brandy and Mike. And maybe Zach as the cliche douche leading the charges down the path to hell. But Bobby and Jeff are largely non characters to me. And I actually had Zach and Bobby confused before I did a google image search and didn’t know Jeff’s name. And I was never clear until I read the Wikipedia that Bobby and Brandy were a thing. I just think they did a really bad job establishing those characters and relationships. That can either be an advantage or a struggle to found footage. Done right you get a lot of first hand perspective that is an easy way to get your audience to get to know people. Done wrong its just people coming in and out of camera view. And since so much of this film is spent watching the shaky scares we only really get to know Brandy who doesn’t like this stuff and Mike who is always on the edge of having fun or clocking someone. Also, the whole documentary/unsafe conditions angle never felt like something they were actually doing rather than just an excuse to introduce the premise and medium. All in all it wasn’t a bad film. It had tension, I did like Mike and Brandy, and I was engaged. I found the closing act too sloppy. Its easy enough to follow but its so jumpy and one dimensional that it doesn’t really feel like it sticks for me. Like, telling a story from 3 or 4 perspectives of the same scene is one thing. Splitting them up and splicing between their perspectives of different rooms just feels like too much. I’ve seen worse found footage films. I’ve seen plenty of worse horrors in general. But it didn’t come together well enough for me to really have much strong to say about it or to fire up the sequel. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Oct 31, 2018 |
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Oct 31, 2018 05:12
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 The Haunting, 1963 This is without a doubt my all time favorite haunted house movie. The house is this huge old mansion or château with lots of death attached to it over the years. It is just such the perfect perfect setting for a classic haunted house story. A scientist who wants to prove the supernatural have invited people with past supernatural experiences to stay in the house as he does his studies. Only two girls show up as all the other's got spooked away (get it?) by the house's history as they were the only two that didn't bother to learn about the place. The one that's our main character slowly looses her mind as she stays there and creepy poo poo happens. You never see any ghosts and there's no dumb jump scares, just pure atmosphere and that unsettling feeling of dread. I love every second of this movie. I've watched it a few times over the years and it stills gives me the creeps at certain scenes. This one is a classic all the way.
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Oct 31, 2018 05:27
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Fran Challenge 11 dead and buried 39 - The Manitou Shudder’s spoilery synopsis (say that three times fast) drew me in A growth on a woman’s back turns out to be the reincarnation of an evil medicine man in this insanely strange cult horror hit. Harry (Tony Curtis) is a fortune teller confronted with real magic when his girlfriend’s tumor starts causing scary things to happen. Harry discovers an evil shaman is birthing himself on Karen’s back and when he’s born, she’ll die. So it’s time to call on all the manitous (spirits) of the world, leading to a final showdown that takes place (obviously) in outer space! If you’ve never seen this before, strap yourself in. It’s a very wild ride. Unfortunately it was fairly by the numbers for the most part, though there are a few cool sequences. I also liked the final battle as they had kind of a unique idea. Burgess Meredith also has a brief cameo that owns. On the whole though it’s not weird enough to be great, but it’s enjoyable. Now I just need to figure out tomorrow. I was all set for the last Fran Challenge with Great Pumpkin, but it’s only 34 minutes. Good grief.
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Oct 31, 2018 06:20
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# 28 Halloween H40: 40 Years Later (2018) - I liked this, but the shortcuts in the writing are obvious. A big example is the manner in which Laurie Strode, her family, and Michael Myers all end up at the same house for the final confrontation. I was hoping for something clever, because we all knew the showdown was inevitable, hell it's what we wanted, but how we got it was Dr. New Loomis being a nutjob who stabs the sheriff, drags Michael Myers into the car, keeps Laurie Strode's granddaughter trapped inside the car, and drives over to the house because [weird mad scientist reasons]. There is also an inherent problem with Laurie Strode fortifying her house deep in the woods with traps, weapons, and blockades, preparing 40 years for a showdown, and a lumbering killer making its way over discreetly and somehow getting an edge on Laurie. Look no further than Laurie Strode's ridiculous decision to stand right by the glass windows to the entrance of her fortress. 40 years of obession and doomsday prep led to THAT decision? Not only does she stand there, but she decided to have glass windows in the first place... I didn't understand the trap. Wasn't it more of a self-destruct apparatus? In how many scenarios could Michael Myers end up in the shelter, as opposed to, you know, the people hiding in it? Also another weakness is Laurie Strode the character. She is quite under-utilized here, in fact she is practically a supporting role. I find H20 to be Laurie-centric; H40 is not the case. I'm only focusing on the negative here because the movie is getting a lot of deserved praise for being an adequate Halloween sequel, which it is. All the positive things have been said. Oh, and I loved the line "They were feeding me guacamole in sexy ways". Thanks, Danny McBride, I was laughing during the kill shortly after because of that. 7.5/10
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Oct 31, 2018 06:41
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#33- Hell of the Living Dead Another bad Euro Zombie flick, in which a chemical facility of some kind accidentally (?) releases a toxic gas that turns people into ravenous monsters and contaminates the island of New Guinea. You can tell you're in for quality when the film recycles Goblin's Dawn of the Dead score and, for its second scene, has blue-suited SWAT Team guys laying siege to a compound- however the movie drops the Romero ripoff (in part) to focus on another jungle excursion. There's plenty of vaguely skeezy footage of natives preparing corpses and eating maggots, and while it doesn't go as far into bad taste as the dedicated cannibal films of the time, it plays with the line. There's some story involving the soldiers, and a female reporter (who strips and paints herself to blend in with the natives at one point), and there's like a couple with a kid who are trapped there too but they die within a few minutes, and the plot REALLY doesn't cohere at all. The filmmakers are making some statement about exploitation of the third world but it's hampered by bad storytelling and lots of sequences that are just excuses for zombies to lumber around and occasionally take a bite out of people. I will say the zombie makeup is sometimes pretty good, and the gore effects are also intense. Also a few nice shots of the chemical plant exterior. Look, I have to take what I can. It's mostly crap.
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Oct 31, 2018 07:11
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#23 / 31 - Slumber Party Massacre 2 (1987) Well uh that was certainly a loving movie If you ever wanted to see a Jersey Shore Elvis impersonator who's also kinda-sorta Freddy Krueger murder people with a drill-guitar, the last 20 minutes of this or so are your movie The first 55 are... the most bizarre loving teen movie I have ever seen in my life  Like I'm not entirely sure how to describe this movie except that I smoked two bowls watching it and I'm still pretty sure I wasn't high enough to be on its level
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Oct 31, 2018 07:57
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55 (60). The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2015) Available on Prime.  Two young girls are left at their boarding school over break while a third travels alone. All three girls are going through their own personal turmoil while something more sinister appears to be lurking at the school. I started up on The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and wanted to have it for the countdown, but it took me awhile to get through the first episode (it picks up a lot in the second) and there’s just no way I’ll be able to get it done now and still watch what I want tomorrow. So I decided to take a bit of a side step and watch that other Kiernan Shipka horror I’ve been meaning too. Emma Roberts was also a lot of fun in Scream 4 so this felt like a nice one to visit. I didn’t realize quite how parallel a choice this was. I really struggled to come up with a quick description of the film up above. I mean, I know what it was but its structured and dealt with so differently than usual that it really is hard to describe or sum up without just spoiling things. This is the first film of Oz Perkins, son of the horror icon Anthony Perkins, and he does a tremendous job establishing tension and atmosphere. Structurally I don’t really know what to make of his narrative but I really respect what he was trying to do with it and laying it out the way he did. The three young actresses (Shipka, Roberts, and Lucy Boynton) all do great jobs getting across their own individual sadness and struggles without ever feeling like victims or cliches. I don’t know, I don’t have a lot to say about this but that shouldn’t be taken as an indictment of the film. I really enjoyed it, I just don’t really know how to verbalize it or exactly what to think of it. The ultimately revealed story of Kat/Joan’s emptiness and sadness in losing the possession and seeking it out again was really powerful and I was actually really surprised and impressed by how even though I didn’t think the two actresses looked much the same at all when I started by the time it started to become clear they were the same person they really were starting to look quite similar. That was another impressive little trick Perkins pulled off and the actresses executed well. I’m curious to see what more Perkins has done and Boynton is in his other work I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House but I’ve heard opinions about it that kind of match how i feel about this one (which makes sense since the two were done so close to each other). I definitely still intend to check that out as everyone says it has tension and atmosphere and i’m a big tension and atmosphere guy. But I’m also very curious to see what Perkins might have coming down the line. Its been a couple of years so hopefully he’s got something soon. 56 (61). Hush (2016) Available on Netflix.  Maddie is a deaf and mute but fiercely independent and lives alone, which makes her easy prey for a home invasion killer. Or at least so he believes when he begins a cat and mouse game with her and she uses everything to fight for survival. drat I loved that. This is another movie partly inspired by my previous viewing as I really enjoyed Haunting of Hill House, especially Kate Siegel’s performance, so it reignited my interest in seeing her first collaboration with husband Mike Flanagan here. I’ve enjoyed all of Flanagan’s stuff I’ve watched so far but usually with some caveats. But this is easily my favorite of what I’ve seen from him so far (Absentia, Oculus, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Hill House). A great build up of tension and character with from both sides of the “game”. Mid way through I was actually surprised that Flanagan didn’t do quite as much as I expected with the deaf and mute premise. As time went on it became clear he didn’t need to and that really wasn’t the premise at all. This was a good old fashioned slasher and fight. Siegel is tremendous and there’s so much powerful character that comes through with no words. I think the last “Final Girl” I’ve been so invested in and rooted so hard for was You’re Next’s Erin and hers came with so much more action and… “noise.” The fact that Maddie is deaf isn’t the focus of things, its just makes her disadvantage so much larger than the average Final Girl. And man, that was such a perfect use of Chekov’s Gun. You knew that smoke detector was going to come into play the second it was introduced… you spend so long waiting for it… its on screen so many times and you’re screaming at Maddie (and she can’t hear you). And then its used perfectly. I also really liked the “writer’s brain” think. It was a total diversion from what you expected with the deaf and mute thing and it wasn’t overused at all. Introduced, left alone, and then applied at the perfect place just once. I really, really loved that. I didn’t even think I was loving it as much as I was through the first half but then the second flew by and just had me on the edge of my seat. Easily one of my favorite of the month. I liked it so much I'm all jacked up now and totally can't sleep. And with that I’m at 61, which puts me past last year’s total of 60. And my personal best is gonna grow because I have tomorrow mostly free and have a list of movies i want to watch before an end Halloween (and Fran’s last challenge) run. 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) / 52 (57). The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell (2018) / 53 (58). Mr. Boogedy (1986) / 54 (59). The Houses October Built (2014) / 55 (60). The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2015) / 56 (61). Hush (2016)
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Oct 31, 2018 09:39
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Franchescanado posted:
Franchescanado posted:Bride of Frankenstein picked by Choco1980: "What can be said about this that hasn't already? It's just an absolutely perfect film from its time. Better in every way from the first film, from the writing, to the acting, to the tension, to the humor, to all the subtle bits, to the tragic, painful end. Every time I watch it, I promise myself I won't cry at the ending. And I know every time that will be a promise I break."  28) Bride of Frankenstein (1935) - I wish I could love any film as much as Choco apparently loves this Mary Shelley decides to compose an extemporaneous sequel to the first movie where Dr. Frankenstein finds himself roped into returning to the blasphemy game while his first creation begins to intellectually and emotionally expand. By the standards of the time this is clearly a superior film although I, personally, would have liked 10 or so more minutes of connective tissue to tie the movie together more cleanly. Truthfully I was cruising along until the end. I liked more of the humor than I thought I would and I was more interested in the Monster's development than I had assumed I would but I was a little distracted by the clip at which most of the film moves. For example I enjoyed the People in Jars scene and considering the overall thrust it didn't feel out of place but it was still strange to consider for a first viewing when I couldn't spend much time digesting it when the movie kept flowing. This would undoubtedly get better with repeat viewings. Knowing what's coming and how to consider and slot it in as the movie speeds by would certainly help increase my appreciation for the whole. As it stands I find myself enjoying more individual scenes than the overall themes. Currently my favorite parts are basically every moment the Bride is onscreen twitching like a bird. After spending the runtime watching Karloff expand and grow it was a shock to remember, hey, they're basically weird kids when they first awake. It's been much too long since I've seen the original Frankenstein so I wouldn't presume to rank one above the other. Regardless I'm confident that I'll see this film again; I want to see how the pace feels when I know where it goes and how much time I have to dwell on any given scene. DeimosRising posted:It’s good, and disheartening but not really a shock that the queer girl melodrama written and directed by women gets a bunch of comments about the leads are hot and dumb, and “plain” respectively Okay sure  29) Jennifer's Body (2009) - People hurtin' people BFFs Jennifer and Anita go to an indie rock concert at a seedy bar. A fire breaks out and in the resulting chaos a tipsy Jennifer is whisked away by the band members. Later that night she shows up at Anita's and she's...changed. This was quite a surprise. When this was first released I pondered seeing it considering I liked Juno and wanted to see what Diablo Cody would do with a horror movie. Then virtually all word of mouth I heard was negative, I gave it a pass, and I mostly forgot about it until this thread. Or, rather, the horror thread when I opened to a random page and saw DeimosRising, who is a 49ers fan and therefore correct, drop a few words on the matter. I had two slots left in my queue for my month's worth of movies so I slotted them in. Of the scripts Cody's written I've only seen Juno and Jennifer's Body. I like them both and one of the primary reasons I do is the dialogue. Since Juno's release she's taken flack for writing that's described as unnatural and distracting and I suppose I just disagree. Here, at least, I feel like the style of humor fits and the characters are distinct. As for the tone I suppose I would say that this is a movie where JK Simmons wanders around with a claw hand, a ritual sacrifice is set to an a cappella rendition of a Tommy Tutone song, and we're supposed to believe that Amanda Seyfried looks plain wearing glasses. It's ridiculous by nature. As much as I enjoyed the comedy I was much more invested in the personal drama than I thought I would be. The horror is fairly minimal given the premise; cut out a few moments of sharp-toothed special effects and there would be very little to speak of. The drama is the meat of the story. I'll say this, though: for all the real readings of empowerment and the examination of intense high school female relationships I, a dude, am intrigued by the use of violence in the film. The source of violence here is primal in a way that I can't help but fixate on in a comedy built around a feminine BFF dynamic. Jennifer's being is reduced to her body (hey, there's the title) because that's all the band needed from her. Jennifer in turn does this to the largely inoffensive boys at school because, hey, their bodies is all she needs from them. Anita sheds decorum for the sake of embracing power and asserting herself against Jennifer. None of this has anything to do with any rules or stipulations that many horror films embrace. There's no sex ban. No one taunted the devil. No one accidentally camped in the wrong part of the woods. Everyone just existed as they did every day before except, today, someone with power decided to exploit them. Overall I'm sad I waited so long to watch this.  30) It Follows (2014) - Half of the movie is about finding a guy named Jeff You know that group icebreaker about the snail that's always chasing you, and nothing can stop it, and if it touches you you die? And everyone in the room talks about how you would manage yourself and what you would do to get away from the snail for as long as you could? This is basically that conversation turned into a movie about a sex ghost. There's a lot in the visuals of this movie to enjoy. There, I said something positive. I had a real fundamental problem with the construction of this movie. Namely, according to its own rules, I knew nothing was going to happen without a sex scene or a twist. And there was never a twist. Does that, by itself, constitute a problem? No, not necessarily. A movie can be transparent with its intentions and maintain tension and atmosphere. It needs other aspects to put work in but it's very possible. What It Follows provided in the early going, however, was the entirely ineffectual apparition I decided to name Señorita Pee Ghost. Upon her arrival I checked out mentally and rarely resurfaced. The forms the ghost took weren't intimidating or unsettling; they were awkward and embarrassing. You may not want to see a senile relative wander out of the house in their robe during a family reunion but it's not really frightening if they do so. With 1:09:00 left I asked the movie, "how does this take another hour?" and the movie answered, "I don't know either!" The sequence that flattened my resolve was Greg's demise. I was all ready for a cool set piece and almost got it until the camera decided to show me that Greg died via ghost humping. It wasn't shocking, or gross, or unsettling. It was sad. I felt bad for the movie. But what about the themes, eh? All that downtime spent trying to avoid the inevitability of death? Well, for me it mostly came off as the slowest possible Final Destination movie. Spoilers for Summer of 84: it's like the existential implications of the ending of Summer of 84 except that's the whole movie. Both dwell on the loss of childhood innocence and the changes involved in growing up and realizing that some day you're going to die and there's nothing you can really do about it. I liked Summer of 84 much more both in general and in the delivery of this concept. For my money the only interesting scene in the movie is Jay swimming to the boat and getting at least one of those dudes killed. I don't think a movie full of the tone of that scene would work but it was the first time I felt like the premise was evolving and then the movie went for the endgame and time was up. I guess that itself is interesting in its own way but not to the point of satisfaction. In summation it's a slow movie that I don't feel delivers on its premise. There's no tension without real threat of change and there's no fear when the entity lacks menace. It does look nice though. -- THE TALE OF THE TAPE: POOL CLIMAX EDITION Jennifer's Body's scene has character development and confrontation. It Follows' scene has a noodle noggin accidentally shoot his friend but not in a severe enough way to stop her from ponderously quoting The idiot while sipping from a juice box. Neither are tense. Jennifer's Body has Megan Fox getting maced and then stabbed with a flagpole; it's supposed to be funny and it is. It Follows has a man in plain underwear throwing small appliances at a girl in a swimming pool; it's neither thrilling nor anywhere near as interesting as a sentence with that construction would imply. Winner: Jennifer's Body
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Oct 31, 2018 10:38
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32 - Shivers Fran challenge: Hometown Horror Boy, there really are not a lot of horror movies set in Montreal. Anyway, this is Cronenberg's third feature and his first foray into horror. It's got a very small budget and the practical effects are quite limited, but it's still full of that trademark body horror, and more specifically to Cronenberg, the terrifying notion that the people who's bodies are changing in terrifying ways are super into it. Your body becoming alien is one thing, but what if it changes your mind as well so that you don't think there's anything bad about it? That's truly freaky. Everyone knows this as "The movie where parasites makes people want to gently caress", but it honestly takes quite a while until it becomes apparent that that's what's happening. For almost the entire first half of the film, we slowly come to understand that there's disgusting parasites spreading throughout this isolated apartment complex, and that they're doing weird things to people's bodies, but it takes a while until these victims start turning into orgy zombies. Once the ball gets rolling, though, things really get chaotic. If you think this movie is an excuse to get some sexy scenes going, you'd be very wrong, because while the movie is full of sexuality, something disturbing is going on in almost every single scene, from a slug bulging from one woman's throat to another, to a little kid making out with an unconsenting adult, to some incest. The weird inhuman tics of the infected are pretty disturbing. There are many moments where they're talking, scheming, hanging around going about their business, using technology, etc. but you can tell they're not quite right anymore. It's pretty terrifying, despite the absurdity of the premise and the relatively nonviolent way the infection spreads. The most amusing scene in the film is when two doctors dispassionately lay out the entire premise and plot, and realize that these are parasites that will turn people into mindless monsters, but they only seem a little bit concerned about it (possibly not realizing how fast it spreads). This movie's not amazing, but it's an interesting twist on the contagion/zombie outbreak angle. 33 - Cigarette Burns Fran challenge: (Self-Described) Masters of HorrorHey, it's a stealth sequel to In the Mouth of Madness! Possibly John Carpenter's most meditative work, this Master of Horrors episode features a lot of discussion about the meaning of film, the power of cinema, the responsibility of directors, and the relationship between a director and their audience. From minute one, everyone who seeks the cursed film knows that something horrible's going to happen when they watch it, but they all still seem really keen on viewing it anyway, which I suppose can be interpreted as a commentary on what makes us seek out horror in the first place. Like, it's by design horrible, and yet we still want it, and the more extreme we hear a horror film is, the more intrigued we are. The mythology behind the creation of the cursed movie is very unique and fresh, and there's some truly haunting imagery when we see glimpses of the evil footage. Everyone in the episode is great, and Norman Reedus is very sympathetic as the small theater owner turned investigator. You understand what drives him to pursue this forbidden knowledge despite all the chances he has of backing out. I don't know how much more I can say, the work speaks for itself and is ultimately very straightforward. Watch this episode of Masters of Horror if you haven't already! 34 - The Evil Dead Fran challenge: Video NastiesYeah, I didn't feel like watching Zombie Cannibals From Murder Island or something, so I went with an old standby. Possibly the most famous indie horror film of all time, and it hasn't gotten old yet. This film is chock full of interesting blocking, weird and memorable visuals (the light bulb filling up with blood, the water mirror), incredibly gross gore (that was done on no budget!), a surprisingly haunting score, and charmingly bad claymation. The Evil Dead trilogy has always been a favorite of mine, but no matter how many times I see this film, I just can't side with those who say this is their favorite. It's a very creative no budget horror film, but it simply doesn't have the memorable characters or the hilarious comedy of the sequels, and as fun as the weirdness and gore is in this one, it can't touch things like the laughing deer head or the geyser of blood from the well. But I don't want to speak ill of this movie, because it really is great. The tension builds steadily through the first act, and we get to know each character just well enough before everything goes to poo poo. Ash has maybe the best character arc of any horror movie protagonist ever, going from a meek, near-useless dork to an enraged monster slayer as the demonic forces drive him to the brink of insanity. The commentary track is always fresh in my mind whenever I revisit this film, and it's truly great hearing Sam Raimi talk about how irresponsible he was with his actors (smashing real glass right next to them, swinging heavy objects near their head, etc.) and Bruce Campbell talk about how much of a stupid weenie his character is. This movie truly is something special, and it started one of my favorite franchises across all media. So cheers to you, The Evil Dead! Maybe someday they'll film a movie version of the musical, and then we'll truly have the perfect film.
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Oct 31, 2018 11:59
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Maxwell Lord posted:FRAN CHALLENGE #13: What We've All Been Waiting For It really depends on which movie you're talking about, but pretty much every Halloween after the first one gives Michael incredible strength. Part 2 has him pick up a nurse one-handed with a scalpel. Part 4 has him digging into people barehanded and pulling them apart like clay. Even the original has him pick up Bob by the throat with one hand, which takes a lot of strength. You're right it's more in line with Jason, but not by much. But many of Halloween sequels decided to steal from Jason and the Friday the 13th series more than anything, like do their own thing.
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Oct 31, 2018 12:42
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