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2. Jessabelle-2014: 6/10 Woman gets hurt, moves in house with father who isn't all there and then haunting/ghostly poo poo goes down and it's all stuff we've seen before and there really isn't anything here to recommend. 3. Crawl-2019: 10/10 This is gonna be a classic in the animal attack subgenre in a few years, it's loving great and tense and delivers on everything. I wish Aja would give us stuff like this every year because goddamn did I love this movie. 4. Sleepwalkers-1992: 8/10 (rewatch) Batshit crazy Stephen King-penned (probably while coked out of his brain because there is no excuse for this movie otherwise) insanity. It's a lot of fun and gives us the greatest police officer cat we could ever want in Clovis. Also lets us have a fun game of Can You Spot the Famous Friends of King or Director Mick Garris That They Cast In This Thing. 5. Anaconda-1997: 8/10 (rewatch) Worth it for the final shot of Jon Voight and if you've seen this, you know what I mean.
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Oct 2, 2019 05:28
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 #3. Freaks (1932) dir. Tod Browning Viewed on Criterion Channel (first viewing) I'd been meaning to watch this for years and just now got around to it. I hesitate to call this horror, but it still does have that kind of horrific justice thing that would later become the norm for EC Comics' horror line. I suspect that the lost version of this film would have more firmly fit the bill, and it's a drat shame that this footage is gone. It's also a shame that this film did so poorly and damaged Browning's career, because it's good. I liked the characters, I liked the hackey love triangle story, and I loved the ending. The acting is understandably all over the map, and the audio is incredibly unclear (It would be great if better audio stems for this could be discovered too; I had a hard time making out a good bit of dialogue), and the tacked on epilogue from reshoots was needless, but overall it's def worth the watch.  1/2 out of 5Watched: 1. The Black Room (2017), 2. Excision (2012)3. Freaks (1932)
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Oct 2, 2019 05:35
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Hey hey, look what just happened to pop up on my B night 3: Body Bags ABCs: B This one comes up a lot and has been on my list for years, so when I pulled up shudder and saw it’d been added it was no contest. This movie is just pure, unrelenting fun (although the last one is a bit darker than the other two). It’s a very Tales from the Crypt inspired anthology from John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper (including Carpenter doing his best cryptkeeper in the tie in bits). It’s got a pretty stacked cast and has cameos from pretty much anyone involved in horror at that point, the stories as I mentioned are all pretty fun and well done, and you get to see Mark Hamill’s rear end! Strong recommend
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Oct 2, 2019 05:38
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3. Christine dir. John Carpenter, 1983  I feel like having "Stephen King adaptation" and "a bit overlong with an especially bloated third act" in the same paragraph is too predictable, but it's gonna happen. Carpenter's adaptation of King's killer car tome lacks the touch that the other Carpenter films I've seen have, feeling somewhat perfunctory and worksmanlike. This is mostly evident in the structure of the film; the introduction of the characters and titular car feel leisurely and truly give an attempt to have audiences connect with the leads, and it mostly works; there's chemistry between all the actors, and it makes Arnie's character turn even more dread-filled as the realisation of what's happening dawns on everyone. However, by the time we cotton on to what's happening with Arnie, the car, and everything else, there's still close to half the run time left, and the relatively sparse body count (majority of which is really knocked out in a single scene) makes it feel drawn out, as the ultimate plan that gets put in place doesn't even get discussed until the final fifteen minutes. What was first leisurely paced becomes languid, instead, making the final encounter more of an exercise in clock-watching than excited car-murderin'. 3.5/5 Sept 2019: 1. House of 1000 Corpses (2003) 2. Metamorphosis (1990) Oct 2019: 3. One Cut of the Dead (2017) 4. Christine (1983) The watchlist: Salo (rewatch), A Serbian Film (rewatch), Crawl
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Oct 2, 2019 05:42
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Retro Futurist posted:Hey hey, look what just happened to pop up on my B night I still remember being a kid and catching this late night on one of the movie channels and thinking I'd stumbled on some weird secret movie. I never got to catch it again until I was in my 20s and it still ruled.
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Oct 2, 2019 05:44
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Hi there! Last year I watched over 31 horror films, and I've decided to stick with 31 as my goal for the month. Will do my best! 1. Mutant (1984, not to be confused with "Forbidden World") A couple of city boys driving through the country wreck their car and end up in a small town where the locals have been getting sick or just plain disappearing in increasing numbers. Turns out chemical dumping is turning people into bloodthirsty zombie-like monsters. Good premise, and a good solid start with kind of a Salem's Lot feel, but it fails to build on it- the pace continues to drag and it's just not creepy enough. Director John "Bud" Cardos (of the much creepier Kingdom of the Spiders, and the misbegotten The Dark) manages to keep things looking slick, but not much more. You can also kinda tell when they're rushing exposition to explain plot points- there were rewrites and Cardos was replacing another director so I'm guessing things got a little confused. It's pretty bold when killing off cast members and does have its moments overall, but I can see how this got lost in the shuffle of stranger or more outrageous 80s horror flicks.
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Oct 2, 2019 05:49
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7. Frankenstein (1931) I bought the Blu-Ray box set of all the Universal monster movies because watching them has been a desire of mine for a while. With the challenge up, it's time. Frankenstein is another masterpiece. Directed by the legendary James Whale this film goes hard into gothic horror territory with the classic spooky castles and rumbles of lightning for dramatic effect. The portrayal of Frankenstein’s monster is a sympathetic one and we see a creature that was brought to life without being asked. Despite being almost child-like in innocence it commits it’s “evil” without knowing what it is and is demonized and hunted by the townsfolk as a result. It’s macabre for its time and, honestly, I can see why this was considered “horror” in the 30s. It's also aged well and still unnerved me. A must-see. /5 Super Samhain Challenge #1: The Best Month8. The Monster Squad (1987)  The funniest thing about these Challenges are the films I end up watching. I just said that I wanted to watch the Universal Monster movies. Now, here I am watching the homage crossover in The Monster Squad. The Monster Squad is a cheesy horror-comedy about a group of kids that fight a crossover of all the classic Universal Monsters (OK, this film is not Universal but you know what they were getting at). This is a fun family-friendly monster movie with great practical effects by Stan Winston and a good 80s small-town atmosphere. What really worked for me was Frankenstein’s monster and the chemistry he had with a little girl who showed him how to be human. Funny enough, that’s a major moment in the Frankenstein movie I watched above and to see it here brings me again to “the films I end up watching”. .5/5Total: 1. One Cut of the Dead (2017), 2. Chopping Mall (1986), 3. All the Creatures Were Stirring (2018), 4. Creepshow 2 (1987), 5. Black Christmas (1974), 6. Dracula (1931), 7. Frankenstein (1931), 8. The Monster Squad (1987) Super Samhain Challenges: Justin Godscock fucked around with this message at 06:05 on Oct 2, 2019 |
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Oct 2, 2019 05:56
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Super Samhain Challenge #1: The Best Month #6: Viy (1967)  I'm not cool enough to have a sweet .gif. For a guy who is drunk off his rear end for pretty much the entire film, Khoma could draw a better circle drunk than I can sober. In fact, I want to show this to some friends of mine and make the easiest drinking game imaginable out of it: every time a Russian drinks, you drink. By the time he starts seeing triple, you will too! This movie is a lot of fun, and it's short, which gives it bonus points. To echo what most everyone here has already said, the sheer goofiness that hangs over most of the movie is balanced so well by the bonkers weirdness that ensues inside the church. The practical effects are so simple I actually jumped a bit when the crow flies out of his book, it was just SO unexpected and the whole thing has a quaint classic charm. The score takes me back to watching stuff like the 1961 "Babes in Toyland," I just have a real fondness for that era of film scores. I'm confused a little bit about the relationship between the girl and the witch. Did she actually make a deal with the devil, giving her the power to do all kinds of weird stuff and transform into an ugly crone? Or did she get cursed by a witch who used her body demonic possession-style? Maybe it's just a cultural understand thing I lost in the plot, and maybe the answer isn't even really that important. I was just curious. Anyway it was a super fun film and interesting piece of Russian culture I would have never found otherwise, so thanks for giving me a reason to watch it. 4/5 Watched: Midsommar; One Cut of the Dead; Apostle; Wolf Creek; Lake Mungo; Viy Total: 6 T3hRen3gade fucked around with this message at 07:04 on Oct 2, 2019 |
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Oct 2, 2019 06:58
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SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #1: The Best Month  3. Evilspeak (1981) Viy would be an overall better fit for my folk/witchy horror plan, but that one was already on my list for this month so I decided to choose something I wouldn’t have watched otherwise. Evilspeak looks like the kind of movie that should be a great fit for me. It’s got 80s cheese, vintage computer nonsense, weird murders, and some creative scenes. But I also couldn’t get into it at all. I had a really hard time connecting to Stanley, the teen bullying victim played by Clint Howard. Howard sometimes stands out too much to me, but in this case, that wasn’t really an issue. He’s totally believable as a hapless orphan that the cool kids want to punch. I think my biggest problem with Stanley is that he just wasn’t written very well. This movie seems to get compared to Carrie a lot, but the similarities are superficial. Carrie White’s story is about her attempt to reach out of her social comfort zone. Stanley, on the other hand, just wants to lurk in his computer dungeon with his new pal, Satan. He spends the whole movie ignoring the one friend he has, and the staffer who’s kind to him is really just around to kick off part of the plot. Things move along pretty slowly right up until the first moment in the movie when I felt what Stanley was feeling. The aftermath of that awful goddamn scene was wild, though maybe a little too long. I liked the overall vibe and the ridiculous blend of computers and magic, but some of the technical elements, like the bad lighting, kept throwing me. (For example, I was distracted during one big moment by watching the characters go from normal looking to weirdly pale as they moved through the frame.) Overall, Evilspeak falls short enough of its potential that I don’t think I’d recommend it. Watched: 1. Burn, Witch, Burn (1962) 2. TerrorVision (1986) 3. Evilspeak (1981) - Challenge #1
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Oct 2, 2019 07:05
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21. Phantasm II (1988) Watched On: Rip Of An Old Monstervision Episode  For those curious, the Monstervision wrap around was a parody of the Blair Witch project, with Joe Bob, Rusty the Mail Girl, and a camera person allegedly wandering around the woods while talking about the film. I've always loved Phantasm II but it always seems to be in some kind of rights hell when anyone tries to show it. Phantasm II is the Aliens to Phantasm's Alien, a little less cerebral, more action, more weapons, more explosions, and just a ton of fun. I'm a huge fan of the ideas that play out in Phantasm II, the whole idea the Tall Man is wiping out small towns left and right on a path to world domination and needs to be hunted down, it's an everyman monster hunting story and I really wish they could have played out better as the series went on. I also have to break in and say the rip of this episode is great since it still has the buffers from the commercial breaks with jack 'o lanterns and Fall leaves for the TNT Halloween weekend of programs. I forgot I'd had these and it's a pleasant surprise.
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Oct 2, 2019 07:23
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 3. It Stains the Sands Red (2016) Shudder Worse than the premise sounds but better than many reviews make it out to be. An alright watch. Watched - 1. Get My Gun (2017), 2. The Last Man on Earth (1964), 3. It Stains the Sands Red (2016) Decade - 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s (I), 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s (II) Black & White:Color - 1:2 By Country - 'Murica (III) New:Rewatch - 2:1
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Oct 2, 2019 07:23
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Super Samhain Challenge #1: The Best Month 4. Peeping Tom (1960) - Wow, there's a lot going on here. I think the thing that stood out to me the most is how committed Mark is to a documentary style in his own work - he's never concerned with shot composition or timing or transitions, it's all about keeping his subject in the center of the frame and just documenting. The movie, in contrast, gives all of this a lot of attention and there are some really great bits. I think my favorite is the cut from a pour of whiskey to a pour of developing fluid. A little on the nose, maybe, but it made me smile. There's also a great deal of watching people watch film, but it's always Mark's back - we only get to see faces when someone else is the audience. His confrontation with Helen's mother is also killer. It's occasionally disconcerting how fast people go from extremely anxious to normal conversation in some of these scenes, but not too difficult to write it off as wanting to ignore their instincts and believe everything is at least relatively benign. A must-watch for anyone who likes Martin, and vice-versa.
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Oct 2, 2019 08:16
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Windows 98 posted:I have seen it! I also suggest others check this out because it is worth a watch. Oh, awesome! I try to evangelize this movie whenever I can. It fits my taste so perfectly and I'm really happy it exists. Class3KillStorm posted:#4. You're Next (2013) (Vudu) I'm glad you liked this! I saw it in theaters and not only did it not seem like anyone else got the dark humor, but I also heard a lot of people grumbling about how bad they thought it was as they were leaving. I haven't seen it since it came out so maybe I'd have a different opinion now, but I had a great time with it. #6: Blood and Black Lace (1964)  I was pretty busy today but managed to sneak this one in. Good poo poo! The entire movie is gorgeous. Incredible colors and lighting, cool camera movement and framing, great sets... it's a real treat to look at. The acting and dialogue is, well, about what you'd expect from this sort of movie. Lots of ill-hidden exposition and strange lines/deliveries, but at least to me that's part of the charm. One of my favorite things about the movie is how it takes advantage of its setting, a fashion house. Namely that it's an excuse to litter various shots with mannequins. When there's the constant threat of a killer hiding in the shadows, every human-like figure draws the eye and creeps you out a bit. It's great. I also enjoyed that some of the conflict comes from the fact that many of the characters are high society and have butlers and maids puttering around as potential or actual witnesses to the various goings-on. I tend to prefer the more supernatural Giallo, but this was a great time. Watched (6/31): #1 Gozu (2003), #2 Spider Baby or, the Maddest Story Ever Told (1967), #3 Viy (1967), #4 Mondo Cane (1962), #5 Dark Water (2002), #6 Blood and Black Lace (1964) Challenges (1/1): blood_dot_biz fucked around with this message at 08:26 on Oct 2, 2019 |
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Oct 2, 2019 08:24
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So most of the films I’m gonna do for the 100 years are just like absolute essentials that I could name off the top of my head and am embarrassed I haven’t seen. But doing this for a 3rd year I’ve become accustomed to the reality that there’s always a few years where there’s just no big movie and I’m basically choosing what’s available to me. Put there’s picking a random movie and there’s picking a film that while lesser know is still very well regarded and listed as IMDB’s #1 horror of 1945. Of course Fran had to beat me to it so I don’t even get to wow anyone with a deep cut or make any new observations without being beat by smarter film critics than I.  3. Dead of Night (1945) Available on Kanopy. An architect is called to a home for a new job but becomes terrified when he realizes he remembers everyone there and everything that’s happening from a terrible nightmare, prompting the various people present to tell personal stories of their own encounters with the unexplained and supernatural while a present psychiatrist attempts to assure them that there’s a rational explanation to all of it. I liked this a lot. While its technically an anthology I don’t think it plays like that at all or should be judged as one. As opposed to the ones we commonly see where there’s a vague wrap around story connecting a series of unique stories often from different creative minds, in this case the story really is the “wrap around.” This isn’t a bunch of stories, its one story about a man paralyzed with fear that he’s experiencing something impossible and a room full of people trying very hard to sooth his fears in different ways. To that end while the first couple of stories are a little weak I actually think that works perfectly. Its the steady progression of the type of stories people are telling and how seriously they’re taking this or how freaked out the room is getting. It starts very quaint with some mildly spooky stories that the skeptic can easily explain away as your mind playing tricks on you or your fears getting the best of you. Then it moves to a genuinely disturbing personal experience that has no logical explanation except a very ugly, harsh one. Another houseguest tries to lighten the mood and even dissuade some of the superstitious thoughts taking the room over with a silly story he works up. And ultimately even the skeptic has to admit he has his own disturbing story that makes one second guess reality. And I think that’s the hook. The stories are all tools to advance the real story which is Mr. Craig’s growing anxiety and fear as his nightmare keeps unfolding towards an end he desperately wants to avoid. Everyone in that room is trying to help him out in their own way and it just keeps inching closer and closer to the nightmare. Its a fun, slow drip that built up the anxiety as you went with the help of gradually improving ghost stories. And the end isn’t just some twist or lark for a shock, but is something that can really get you going down an existential hole if you start thinking too much about it. What’s funny is the pieces WERE directed by different people. But the “wrap around” works so effectively to link them to together that I genuinely assumed the whole thing was just done by one source. I give a lot of credit to Basil Dearden for directing that linking story that I think is the heart of the film, and John Baines who wrote the three standout stories in The Haunted Mirror, The Golfer’s Story, and The Venquilist’s Dummy. The film seems largely the work of Baines, Benson, and Andy MacPhail, who is best known for doing a great deal of writing for Alfred Hitchcock. Also of interesting trivia note the lightest of the bunch The Golfer’s Story was directed by a young Charles Crichton who would go on over 40 years later to win an Oscar for A Fish Called Wanda. So there was a fair bit of talent involved, to no real surprise. So yeah, its an anthology but I’m not gonna treat it like the last one and judge the individual stories because its not really an anthology. Its a full story and I’m judging it as such. And I really enjoyed it. Also I have a new favorite gif.  Ok, onto IMDB’s #1 horror for 1949.  4. The Queen of Spades (1949) Available on Kanopy. An arrogant army captain striving for fortune learns of an elderly countess who allegedly sold her soul to learn the secrets of always winning cards and sets out to seduce her ward and learn her secrets by any means necessary. This feels like my first dud of October. It wasn’t terrible or anything. It picks up quite a bit in the second half and gets interesting. I think my problem is that the first half of the film spends a lot of time and energy on random soldiers, live inside the countess’ home, and love triangles that didn’t feel like they were really going anywhere and had very little horror element to them. The film has less to do with deals with the devil or satanic countesses than it has to do with one amoral man’s ambition making him willing to do anything. Which could definitely be interesting but I don’t feel like he actually gets the necessary focus as we get sidetracked with love triangles and extra characters there for exposition or comic relief. The countess also doesn’t come off as much more than a mean old lady so there’s just nothing that compelling, or even terribly sympathetic about her suffering ward who lives in a really pampered way but is kind of bullied by an old lady afraid of death. It just really lost me. As I said, it picks up in the second half as our amoral protagonist starts to actually do amoral stuff but it never really ends up being enough to suck me back in. It finishes at its best but that’s not a super high peak. Whenever I encounter this thing where I don’t like a film that is well regarded I wonder what I’m missing. Its beautifully shot and directed and the lead puts across a strong performance (that sort of reminded me of Russell Edgington with me recently rewatching True Blood). But it just never hooked me and I just don’t really see what someone like Martin Scorsese sees when it calls it “one of the few true classics of supernatural cinema.” Then again maybe that quote says more about Scorsese’s view of “supernatural cinema” then it does about “one of the few” examples he thinks is worth it. I should have watched Mighty Joe Young or Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff. First miss of the challenge. Ok, lets finish up away from the challenge with a movie that really caught my attention.  5. Tragedy Girls (2017) Available on Hoopla and Hulu. Sadie and McKayla want what all teenage girls want - likes, followers, and to get a good serial killer rep going before college. What’s two bestie psychopaths to do when boys come between them, the cops and media keep downplaying their killing spree, and the serial killer tied up in the basement refuses to mentor you? “I could be killed!” “Maybe stop checking in your location online and he won’t find you.” That was twisted fun. Not quite the “Scream meets Heathers” thing I had kind of imagined in my head but not that far off either. Alexandra Shipp and Brianna Hildebrand are the Tragedy Girls and they’re probably best known as X-Men (Storm and Negasonic Teenage Warhead respectively) but I recognize Hildebrand more from the criminally under appreciated Exorcist tv series where I think she was great. That’s definitely part of what drew me in, and both ladies do a really good job with their really warped characters. There’s an interesting kind of “psychopath vs sociopath” vibe between the two characters that I don’t understand those terms well enough to properly describe. But there’s an interesting journey and question as you wonder if either of them are remotely… salvageable? No… that’s the wrong word. The movie this kept reminding me of wasn’t Heathers, but Ryan Reynold’s Voices. I watched that last year and I remember that my lasting impression was that for how warped and depraved Reynold’s character was part of me just kept idly hoping that somehow something resembling a happy ending could occur or he could somehow get right. Which was basically impossible and illogical but I still kept hoping for it while watching. The same thing happens here. There’s no real hope for the Tragedy Girls. This isn’t a Heathers story where a bad influence is manipulating a seemingly ok person. These girls are hosed. But you kinda want things to somehow work out for the cold blooded murder. It’s twisted. It’s fun. There’s some fun small roles played by Craig Robinson and Kevin Durand. Who doesn’t want to watch a good Kevin Durand role? I won’t call this great or a must watch or anything. It lacks the real bite it would need to live up to the premise. Or maybe a more experienced director. But if you’re looking for some dark humor you can probably do a lot worse than this. September Pre-Game Tally - New (Total) 1. NOS4A2 (2019); - (2). Splice (2009); - (3). Drive Angry (2011); 2 (4). The Twilight Zone (2019); - (5). Event Horizon (1997); - (6). BrainDead (2016); 3 (7). The Dark Tower (2017); 4 (8). The Collector (2009); 5 (9). The Bad Batch (2016); - (10). Rose Red (2002); - (11). Salem’s Lot (1979) October Tally - New (Total) 1. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920); 2. Nightmare Cinema (2018); 3. Dead of Night (1945); The Queen of Spades (1949); 5. Tragedy Girls (2017)
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Oct 2, 2019 09:39
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7) Eyes without a Face 1960 After a young woman named Christiane's face is disfugured in a car accident, her surgeon father seeks to restore it... by any means necessary. Christiane spends most of the film wearing a mask and her performance is quite haunting. She doesn't say much, and expresses herself with motions of her head and body, a little like Michael Myers. The shots of her at the end are really beautiful. We see the father remove a girl's face which must have been shocking to a 1960 audience. Kind of surprised no one afaik has tried to do a remake since real life face transplants exist now. 8) Train to Busan 2016  It's a fast-zombie movie. 28 Days later meets Snowpiercer. It's pretty good, but there's nothing here I haven't seen before except the setting. Can't think of much else to say about it. 9) Creepshow 2  It's a bit pedestrian, and TV show-ish and does not compare favourably to Creepshow 1. They upped the kid-appeal with the Crypt Keeper-like truck driver and cartoon sections, which is odd in something that's still rated 18 (though a very soft 18) It's an entertaining trilogy of scary stories nonetheless and there are worse things to watch around Halloween.
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Oct 2, 2019 10:50
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5. Amer dir. Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani, 2009  Giallo's reputation for melding sex and violence is taken to a postmodernist extreme in Cattet and Forzani's feature-length debut, Amer. The vaguely supernatural, voyueristic, and penetrative aspects of the genre are intertwined with a surrealistic coming-of-age and feminine sexuality tale in three parts, as a woman grows up in a strict and patriarchal picturesque part of France. Through this, Cattet and Forzani weaponise the male gaze as much as Argento did for straight razors, exploring sexual suppression through repeated extreme closeups and repetitve editing that make the film utterly enchanting to watch. If this is sounding like it might be a bit too high concept for giallo, don't worry; when the violence arrives, it's as eye-watering and disturbing as anything Fulci ever delivered. Amer is as much a successful entry in the genre it so obviously reveres, forging a unique path instead of rote replication. 4.5/5 Sept 2019: 1. House of 1000 Corpses (2003) 2. Metamorphosis (1990) Oct 2019: 3. One Cut of the Dead (2017) 4. Christine (1983) 5. Amer (2009) The watchlist: Salo (rewatch), A Serbian Film (rewatch), Crawl
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Oct 2, 2019 12:40
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3. The Ruins I'm just sort of following along the trailblazers in this challenge so I threw on this on due to surprising recommendations from some regulars. My wife Jena Malone and some other sexy tourists manage to get themselves trapped on top of a mayan pyramid, surrounded by angry natives, with a cell phone ringing from within the ruins. Given the premise, you'd expect a schlocky creature feature, but this one goes heavy on the body horror and definitely grossed me out enough to postpone dinnner for a bit. I wouldn't call it amazing, but it's a serviceable little movie that probably won't disappoint if you don't come in expecting a masterpiece. Seen: 1. Children of the Corn, 2. Night of the Comet, 3. The Ruins
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Oct 2, 2019 14:18
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1. The Shining I was lucky enough to catch a showing of this classic last night in the theater, where they're trying to drum up excitement for Dr. Sleep by pinning a "special sneak peak" at the upcoming sequel after the credits. Endless reviews have been written and documentaries made by writers better than me, so I wont say too much, but make a few observations. + On re-watching it on the big screen I appreciated the moments of awkward laughter I had which were sprinkled throughout the film. Good horror will do that to you, as the built-up tension is relieved. + Since I stayed for the sneak peak I noticed just how short the end credits for the film are. +Everyone knows the classic hexagon rug in The Shining, but can I say that for the first time I really NOTICED the peacock rug in room 237? It's really a fantastic part of that room and adds a lot to the sense of dread. +Seeing King on the big screen in the sneak peak so shortly after seeing him in IT Part 2 got me thinking: for a guy who used to do a lot of coke he's aged pretty gracefully. Guess he stopped at the right time, good for him! +Mike Flanagan is making Doctor Sleep. Ouija: Origin of Evil is a FANTASTIC film that has a palpable sense of glee in torturing its protagonists, Oculus was great, so was Hush and Absentia. So I am hopeful for Doctor Sleep. +That said, he fanboys a little bit about the Shining in the sneak peak, which can be a bad sign. Doctor Sleep is of course not going to be as good as The Shining (nobody should expect otherwise), but a director who is too committed to the original is liable to make a lot of bad callbacks and be unwilling to let his film have its own "feel". +I am cautiously optimistic about Dr. Sleep. It'll probably be a good film, maybe even a great one. It won't be the equal of The Shining, but that goes without saying.
Clayren fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Oct 2, 2019 |
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Oct 2, 2019 14:49
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4. Annabelle Comes Home The Conjuring Universe has this It's like Goosebumps, or The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo. A curious teen girl unlocks the Warrens closet of evil things and unleashes a whole host of spook'em ups on the kids present. None of them seem that all interested in hurting anyone (except Annabelle), so it just amounts to lots of jump scares and things we see moving behind them that they don't see. I would enjoy this series a lot more if they weren't constantly trying to sell new movies inside current ones. And if the Warrens weren't probably getting some financial benefit from it. /55. Hell House LLC III  The third film succeeds in avoiding a lot of the pitfalls that ruined the second film, while still making enough missteps to not be the fun thrill the first film was. Here, a rich egotist buys The Abaddon, and plans to put on a play in those haunted halls. Everyone gets a camera, because why not, and spooks ensue. And there are some legitimately good scares, though the movie seems to think that my memory of the first two films is perfect, and that seconds of intercut flashback to the first few films will trigger something. All I really remember about the first film is that I liked it, so most of the meaning there is completely lost on me. As it is those flashbacks are distracting and detract from the film. Overall I still enjoyed it, and the ending is full-on absurd. /5
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Oct 2, 2019 15:01
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 House of Frankenstein I was in the mood for some classic, goofy fun and House of Frankenstein fit the bill. I think I mentioned this last year when I saw the film for the first time, but I've never been much of a Lon Chaney Jr. fan. Well, House of Frankenstein is the movie that kinda turned me around on that. The combination of his lovable oaf persona with the noble hero that is Larry Talbot actually works, it makes him a very accessible protagonist. He's easy to root for. And it came up in the horror thread a few days ago but it's true that Karloff's presence really does elevate the film and it's something that is lacking in the sequel. It's amazing how much you can see the form of the modern "team-up" movie here. Each monster gets it's own little intro and they all have their own function in the story and then come together towards the end. Which is why after I was finished I decided to watch the much maligned modern remake....  Van Helsing I picked this up on UHD for like $10, and you know what? I don't regret the purchase one bit. When the movie came out I wasn't really even aware of House of Frankenstein, and so the fact that this is more or less a remake didn't occur to me at the time. But it absolutely is, just with the addition of an action hero version of Van Helsing thrown into the mix. Stephen Sommers dedicated this movie to his father, and when I saw that the whole thing came into focus; this is a love letter to a childhood that must've been spent watching classic Universal Horror with his dad. It's something I find endearing and when you watch the movie I think it absolutely comes across. Hate on it all you want. It's certainly not great just as an action film, and it's not scary so it's hard to even call it horror. But the cast is solid overall(even if a better Dracula would've elevated it), and there are plenty of moments here that are absolutely gorgeous. Most people will of course point to the excellent black and white intro:  But really this is a movie that I think has a distinctive look and feel, and that's something I always appreciate even if it's somewhat inconsistent(some CGI heavy scenes can look a bit flat). So this will always be a not-so-guilty pleasure of mine and maybe I'm alone on that I'd certainly encourage people not to dismiss it without watching it for themselves.
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Oct 2, 2019 15:23
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Finally! Someone agrees Van Helsing is fun and good. Everyone always gives me flack for liking that movie. But if you just use 50% of your brain, and accept it for what it is, it’s an absolutely lovable romp. Hell yeah. Van Helsing is one of my favorite stupid movies. It’s got everything you could ever want in a movie that mashes every universal picture together.
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Oct 2, 2019 15:30
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I think if they cut like a solid 30 minutes out of it, people would remember Van Helsing a lot more fondly than they do now. I always love the first third of it when I've rewatched it and then it starts dragging and you remember that it's two hours long.
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Oct 2, 2019 15:43
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Lumbermouth posted:I think if they cut like a solid 30 minutes out of it, people would remember Van Helsing a lot more fondly than they do now. I always love the first third of it when I've rewatched it and then it starts dragging and you remember that it's two hours long. Agreed, there's a portion in the middle there where they probably should be getting to the big showdown but it just takes too long. It probably would've benefited a lot from a brisker pace.
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Oct 2, 2019 15:46
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7. Under Wraps 1997 | dir. Greg Beeman  I was visiting friends last night, and they wanted to watch a Halloween movie that wasn't scary, so we threw this on for the nostalgia. It's a fish-out-of-water story with a mummy befriending three kids. Pretty simple set-up. It's light on plot, and relies mostly on the chemistry between the three leads and the mummy. The mummy, Harold, is pretty great. The make-up effects are good, and his mannerisms are fun, silly, and effective. He's played by Bill Fagerbakke, who had already starred as Tom Cullen in the mini-series for Stephen King's The Stand. He is now most famous as the voice of Patrick Star from Spongebob. It's still interesting to me that he's most famous for his voice when he has pretty good physical comedy chops. Fagerbakke actually does duel roles for the film, as he's also the soon-to-be-step-dad to the main character, which adds an interesting thematic layer. There are some darker moments in this film that would later be dropped by ABC/Disney for their DTV films. The girl of the group, Amy, makes jokes about people committing suicide; Adam Wylie's character Gilbert's mom disassociates from reality through role-playing and Gilbert makes jokes about his dad being checked out. There are a lot of jokes about parents, separation, divorce...In general, there's a lot of cynicism towards adult relationships. What's worse, there are several uncomfortable moments with Amy's character, where she talks about wearing a bra or sleeping in the nude, causing her two guy friends to go slack-jaw. As a kid watching the film, it didn't seem to strange, but as an adult, Amy's benign references to sexuality like that are really off-putting. It's still a fun nonsense film. The mummy designs are excellent. Familiar lesser-known actors get time to shine, like Ken Hudson Campbell as the nebbish Bruce, who has an occult shop, and Corinne Bohrer as Marshall's mom, and Adam Wylie (who has had a million bit parts in TV and film since the late 80's throughout the 90's) gets to play 2nd to the lead. A few moments still made me laugh. I looked up Clara Bryant's career, and it's kinda disappointing that she didn't do much. She was most notably Molly on Buffy the Vampire Slayer for a few episodes, she was the main character in the DCOM film Tru Confessions, which was a huge boost to Shia LeBouf's career into serious acting, but after that, just a handful of one-off roles. It's a shame, because she's the best actor of the leads, and gets all the funniest lines. I'd give this film a very light recommendation. It's good if you're with kids, or if you grew up with these films like I did, it's a weirdly comforting film during Halloween, much like Hocus Pocus. Movies Watched: Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom | Annihilation | Evil Bong 2 | Overlord | Dead of Night | The Ruins | Under Wraps Rewatches: 1 Total: 7 Edgar Wright's 100 Favorite Horror: 2/20 Super Samhain Challenge: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 16:15 on Oct 2, 2019 |
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Oct 2, 2019 16:11
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4. Werewolf of London (1935) - Owned #1 Part of the Universal Monster collection on blu-ray. I really liked this, more than The Werewolf. It was more intense in some ways, no doubt on account of it being set right in London. It played out, as others have said, as more of a Jeckyll and Hyde story, and there were definite whiffs of Jack the Ripper. The bestial appearance was simpler, but worked, and there were many scenes of people getting loaded, which is always a good time. It seemed a bit more tense - without Lon Chaney Jr's self-pity party, there was room for other more fun side characters who really helped to color the movie. 5. She-Wolf Of London (1946) - Owned #2  Another on the Universal Monster Collection… but why? Not really a werewolf movie. Blah. For what it was, it was ok, but it didn't really belong in the Universal monster movie blu-ray collection. A woman believes she's the inheritor of a werewolf curse, and bodies start stacking up, reinforcing her belief. It ends up not being the case, and there’s a slight mystery around who is really doing the killing (it’s pretty obvious from the start). Again, for a noirish mystery, it was alright, not great. For a werewolf movie it was terrible. Movies So Far - 5: Rewatches: 1 - Deep Red New To Me: 2 - Dolls, Borderlands Finally Watching Owned Movies: 2 - Werewolf Of London, She-Wolf Of London
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Oct 2, 2019 16:18
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#1: From Beyond (1986) Watched on Blu-ray Finally got around to watching this for the challenge last year, it blew me away then and has continued to do so since. It's crazy how much is packed into such a lean movie, and while all the performances are quite excellent, this is absolutely Barbara Crampton's movie. The effects look great in the practical 80's fashion, the color work continued on from Re-Animator is excellent (I love the cut in the opening minutes from the lurid pink of the resonator to the cold passionless blue of the neighbor), it's got a pretty horror hilarious and memorable script, most everything is exactly what I want for this kind of movie. It doesn't take itself too seriously, which isn't so much of a knock on it, but it does pull me back from it a teeny bit. That's not to say that the cast doesn't commit fully, they really do, particularly Crampton and Combs, maybe the script or direction is a little less self-serious? I don't quite have the language to describe what I mean. Then again, the scruffiness of the movie is part of the charm of it, it's like a great home-made meal that makes you wanting a bit more. .5 /5
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Oct 2, 2019 16:33
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 6. Prime Evil (1988, dir. Roberta Findlay) blu-ray Enjoyable, though not exceptional, sleaze. As often the case with these, all the best is concentrated in the beginning and the end. That opening five minutes is fantastic with the satanic monks, a beheading, and a man sacrificing his daughter to the devil. After that though it never quite goes far enough. The grimey moments are fun but mostly it’s following too many boring characters through a boring plot. Could have used a lot more of that incredible devil puppet. 3/5  7. Lurkers (1988, dir. Roberta Findlay) blu-ray A pizza scene that's almost as gross as The Driller Killer. I don't know what the gently caress to do with this movie. It's bad, clearly, there's nothing good in the first hour the only compliment I have is that the camera work is at least competent. But the third act is somehow weirdly effective. The acting doesn't improve, nor the writing, the scenario just shifts into something I find relatable and kind of scary. That feeling of being stuck at a party, all you want to do is get out, and there's no possible way to leave. Good timing because as it hit all I wanted to do was leave this film. So it's a poo poo movie, but those few moments of actual terror makes it feel like not a waste and actually almost interesting. Watched (7): 36.15 code Père Noël | Tetsuo II: Body Hammer | Devil Fetus | The Wolf Man | Don't Torture a Duckling | Prime Evil | Lurkers
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Oct 2, 2019 17:43
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 24) Critters Attack! - 2019 - Prime First time watch for me. I was a little hesitant going in on this one in light of the New Binge series (thoughts to follow), even with Dee Wallace being in it. For the most part, this one feels like a soft reboot as the plotline hews fairly close to the first film. Overall, it's not bad. It does have some flaws and I'm kinda surprised at the lack of Don Opper. Final Thoughts: I find it odd for the franchise to get revived after something like 26 years. I feel like I missed something in the horror community news that would've indicated an interest in the franchise. The web series on Shudder precedes Critters Attack but I'm not going to count it as a movie watch. I admit I did have some high hopes for the series going from the trailers, but compared to the movies, the series does have some issues that can't be glossed over. In light of the film lore, it's odd for there to be a full ship of Crites still out there since timelinewise, they're near extinct. As I stated in the main thread a while back, going the route of the one teen's mom is so sex hungry she hooked up with a Crite so her son's a hybrid and she also has been hooking up with the shapechanger bounty hunter who's been tracking the Crites. This is all played up as a 'your mom is such a whore' jokey kinda thing. It's the sort of juvenile characterization one would expect to see back in the 80s or earlier, not in the 2010s so it's definitely a clunker moment enough to knock the luster off the series. The series also doesn't seem sure about it's horror to comedy ratio so it's been inconsistent with each episode. While it's normal for a series to be a bit fumbly in the first season, I just get the vibe that if there is going to be a second season, they're still going to be fumbling finding the right ratio. The effects are mostly decent. I'm not sure how this revitalization of the franchise is going to play out, but I'm willing to give it a chance to see where it goes. Franchescanado posted:SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #1: The Best Month  25) The Babadook - 2014 - Prime For the record, I was really sweating finding a movie I'd not seen before on that list. Of course the one I haven't seen on the list is going to be The Babadook. I've been iffy about it since I heard it can be a rough watch, and I have to be in the mood for that sort of thing. Yeah, this was a really rough watch. I had to take pauses during the watch. First off, I really liked the Babadook's look. It was nice seeing a modernization of Chaney's London after Midnight vampire. As for the rest, it was cutting uncomfortably close. I remember being so sleep deprived when my kids were little that I'd be fuzzy headed, and while my two were pretty well behaved, I did know parents who's kids were so wired they weren't welcome coming over to other kids houses or had to look into sending them to a different school because the one they were at wasn't equipped to handle their needs. I could see the events of the movie happening in two ways. First, Amelia's having a slow burn breakdown from not dealing with her grief over her husband's death compiled with mad sleep deprivation. She hallucinates the book since she used to write children's books, and the pages reflect the fears she has. Her son who's probably bouncing off the walls because she's been bound up in grief and not giving him the level of attention he needs, picks up the vibe from her that something's wrong and his behavior gets worse. The Babadook is just a hallucination representing her grief and fears. It isn't until she confronts them, confining them to the figurative 'cellar' that she's able to start healing and be the parent her son needs. The other interpretation is the Babadook is similar to CryptTV's Look-See where "If you yourself cannot release, then it will come to take a piece". As Amelia's so bound up in grief, it's essentially summoned the Babadook and has to deal with her grief or lose her son. I will say that there was no reason for the dog to die like it did. That was bullshit. While I don't regret watching Babadook, I won't be watching it again.
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Oct 2, 2019 17:54
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#4: Piranha 3D It's a late 2000s boobs and piranhas movie. It's exactly what you would expect. Of course Ving Rhames is in it. There are definitely some good parts. Opening with a Richard Dreyfus Cameo is always good. Christopher Lloyd absolutely swings for the fences for all 45 seconds of his screentime. lots of good boobs. The big piranha attack sequence is actually really good. It uses the setting of a spring break crowded marina exceptionally well, with stuff like people swarming and then tipping a floating DJ booth, somebody running from one boat to another by jumping from abandoned inflatable floating things, etc. There's a bit where a guy tries to escape by driving a little powerboat through a bunch of people, and it's rough as hell. The boat really looks like it's actually hitting and going over people, I have no idea how they filmed it safely. But the good boobs are kinda ruined by the running commentary from the guy from Sliders(and also Eli Roth in one scene, because it's a late 2000s horror movie). And the great attack sequence is kinda undercut by the movie still trying to be funny during it. It's like, when you have people being pulled out of the water with flesh hanging off them, just straight up actual IRL shark attack survivor imagery, you can't then do a quick cut to a piranha burping up a half digested penis. I know this is supposed to be a horror comedy, but they really should've just played that whole part straight. Plus they don't really separate the boobs from the horror as much as I'd like. We all love a horror movie with boobs, but imo you gotta keep the gratuitous boob shots and the gore shots separate. When a woman's bikini top falls off while her face is being eaten by a piranha, that sucks. That's no good for anyone. The whole "plot" is completely pointless. There's this whole thing about a high school kid who is supposed to be babysitting but instead gets a job as a location scout for a Girls Gone Wild style video shoot, and then the girl he likes tags along, and the kids he was supposed to be watching end up on an island. There's just a ton of moving parts and it's all kinda pointless. The Jaws style story of the sheriff investigating the piranhas and the big piranha attack are 100% separate from that high schooler plot for the bulk of the movie, and are also way more interesting and better. Overall, I wouldn't recommend Piranha 3D, but if "late 2000s boobs and piranhas movie" is something you're interested in, Piranha 3D won't disappoint.
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Oct 2, 2019 17:55
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Super Samhain Challenge #1: The Best Month 4. Viy (1967) Soviet Union dir. Konstantin Yershov & Georgi Kropachyov Not much to say that hasn't been said already. Beautiful film. Amazing effects and production design. Just really good fun throughout. I find it interesting how much emphasis the film puts on the drunkenness, corruption, and general ugliness of Ukrainian society in 18hundredandsomething. In that way it reminds me a bit of Wake in Fright an extraordinarily sweaty film from 1971 where an mild mannered English teacher who plunges into complete drunken depravity when stuck in a small town in the Australian outback. It is basically a horror film where Australian culture is the monster. Viy felt a bit like that as well. I don't know how much of that is present in the original short story and how much of that was added in as a way for the filmmakers to say "Hey look how backwards and barbaric our society was before the Revolution!". Another thing I like is that Khoma actually gets ridden by a hag. An aspect of witch folklore that doesn't get much use today but was a thing back in the day. Witches, or ghosts or vampires or fairies depending on where you were, laying in wait in the dark and jumping on people's back and riding them around until they collapse with most victims either dying or going insane. In Newfoundland sleep paralysis is beloved to be caused by a hag and the phenomenon itself is even called "The Old Hag" although the hag in question is not a witch but some sort of spirit or demon that can be sent to haunt people using a ritual that among other things involves stabbing your bedpost a whole bunch while saying the name of the intended target. A much older example of this is found in the Ynglinga saga, written circa 1225 by Snorri Sturlusson, where king Vanlandi of Uppsala is killed by a mara sent by a Finnish sorceress. I've also read some books that claim "haggard" is derived from being "hag rid(den)" but I get a strong feeling that's a folk etymology without any real basis. One thought though: The version of the film that is on Shudder is an English dub but it has a few moments that are in Russian. One of them a drinking song and one them a piece of scripture read by Khoma. Does anyone know the reason for this? Like are those parts of the film cut from the original English dub but were added back in undubbed in whatever version of the film is on Shudder?
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Oct 2, 2019 17:56
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Ok so I technically was doing re-watches before Oct 1st so I am going to just pretend like I wasn't and that my challenge is just starting here... 1. Antropophagus (1980)  First of all, I would like to state for the record that I did not spell the title of this movie wrong. It is spelled Antropophagus on nearly every resource I can find, but the poster includes a random H that is no where else to be found. Which has me convinced that the artist who did the poster spelled it wrong, no one cared or noticed, and it just rolled out like that. Which would be absolute par for the course for this absolute dumpster fire of a movie. I was so hyped up to watch this, as it is one of the few movies left on the Video Nasties list I have not seen yet. The rest of the list has been very kind to my exploitation loving nerd-self (except for Trauma (1976), that movie was garbage). So when I finally sat down and experienced this I can only describe my reaction as "anger". I was legitimately mad at how loving bad this movie was. Not only does it hardly deliver anything worth being banned over it is also a horrible boring slog. Antropophagus was one of the worst films I have seen in recent memory. There is nothing of any value to see in this. It isn't even worth googling to pull up the Wikipedia and read the plot synopsis. That would be too good of a use of your time better spent watching paint dry or smashing your dick in a kitchen drawer. The acting is terrible. The plot is worse. The practical effects were borderline comedic bad. I seriously cannot help but feel I was tricked into watching this. This won't even require spoilers because HONESTLY I don't even feel an ounce of guilt about telling you what happens because you are likely going to enjoy reading my take down more than actually watching this. So the movie starts and we get an opening splash scene where something comes out of the ocean and murders two people on the beach with nearly all of it shown off screen. Why is "something" from the ocean murdering people with a butchers cleaver? It is unclear. But it was just enough to keep you wanting to know what the set up is here. Cut to our team of tourists who want to go to a random island for unknown purposes. They chit chat and meander about for 20 god drat minutes to just make it abundantly clear one of them is pregnant. Cool. After arriving on the island they seem to get suspicious vibes that they are on the wrong island because there is no people on the island (implying, that whatever came from the ocean killed the entire god drat village). They see a sole human, who is just a woman standing still looking out the window. They go off to try and ask her what's going on and along the way run into some dead bodies they are convinced the woman has set up as a trick? Just trying to scare them? Why they jump to this conclusion and don't immediately get back on the loving boat and just go home and call the cops is beyond me. But instead, they persist and head to their little hotel thing on the island. By the time they spend the night in the hotel on the island (who was running this establishment if no one was alive or on the island?) you're nearly 45 minutes in. Absolutely nothing of substance has happened. In the middle of the night an intruder breaks in and behaves in a very zombie-like manner. Runs into a bedroom of some dude, knocks him over and eats his throat out. Chalk that up as the most entertaining thing you'll experience for the foreseeable future. It all happens in like 1 minute. The zombie dude who shows up looks like poo poo. It's basically just a guy with some bumps on his forehead. I could hardly tell what was even going on because the whole scene is shot in the dark with abysmal lighting in what I am sure was an attempt to create an air of mystery around what is going on. Unfortunately, it just is hard to see. With one dead the group decides they MUST investigate what is happening themselves. And their only solution is to obviously track down the random woman, of which they don't know her name or where she lives. Yet somehow they come across her sprawling mansion. Magically they know it is her house and just waltz right the gently caress in to look for her. While searching they come to a stairwell that had a pretty effective jump scare. The woman they saw jumps off the top of the stairs and hangs herself before they even know she is there. Leaving them to then search the rest of her house, because ya know why the gently caress not. In the house they find half burned documents (journal?) of the woman which loosely alludes to this random man killing people in an unstoppable frenzy. Definitely couldn't be zombie man though, because his behavior is the exact opposite of "frenzy". Without taking any of the notes at all they go off to explore more and eventually end up in the catacombs. Why does this wealthy mansion have an entire crypt underneath it filled with more bodies than could possibly be in a single family even for generations? I just have to assume that they were elected to hold all dead bodies on the island in their basement at a town meeting or something. While in the catacombs, a full 1h15m into the 90 minute movie, one of the only things worth being banned over happens. Really it is the highlight of the whole film. But before I get to that.... So zombie man is hanging out in the crypts and starts some poo poo. I guess he had hid the bodies of two of the group's women in the catacombs? They are still alive for some reason? Honestly it's extremely hard to follow. Zombie man jumps on one of the men in the group and they begin to wrasslin' with each other. This is absolutely the most climactic and energetic moment of the whole film and then suddenly MID-FIGHT it just randomly jump cuts to a family in a life raft in the ocean. I assume, this raft part is zombie man's origin story. He wants to cut up and eat his dead son and his wife is like nooooooo and he stabs her too. It is implied he eats them and catches what Frank Reynold's would call "the hunger". Now, one is to assume he jumped off the life raft, magically had a butchers cleaver appear in his hand from the ethereal, and swam to shore where he murdered those people in the beginning of the movie. But this is wildly inconsistent with the entire theme that the whole island has been wiped out by this guy, since there just would never been enough time to murder everyone before our group of heroes arrived. They use no timestamps on anything so you have absolutely no idea what time period these events took place. I will assume the director wanted it to come off that he did kill the whole town and slowly dumped the bodies in this crypt, but that's only after deep reflection and reading a plot synopsis. It is unimaginable bad at getting this information across to you in an appropriate manner. Ok so after the raft scene it cuts back and we are still in mid-fight between Guy #2 and Zombie Man. Zombie man stabs the guy, which as everyone knows, zombies love stabbing people. That's their thing! And he gets the dude right in the shoulder. Is it life threatening? Probably not. Can he still move and or act and fight with this injury? According to every movie I've ever seen, yes. Does he? No. He just lays on the ground and whines and holds out his arm reaching and screaming like he is completely incapable of stopping what is about to happen. Zombie man goes over to Preggo Lady and pushes her down. Reaches his hand up her pussy and rips out the baby and begins to eat the fetus. This, of course, is one of 3 whole moments in the entire movie worth banning it. It looks like poo poo and is completely unbelievable and just feels silly. Especially after how bored you are up until this point, it feels like it was a moment taken from a much better script. In fact it almost feels as if Joe D'Amato had this single moment of the movie in his head, and then spent forever trying to justify the rest of the run time in an effort to lead up to this climactic moment. And it's still very weak. After Zombie Man has had his lunch he moves along in his killing spree. He kills another woman by comically busting through the roof of a house and yanking her up by the air into the hole he has made, and biting her throat out (I assume this is his "signature move" like a pro wrestler). This implies he has super strength, and not just some cannibal guy who caught "The Hunger". Why is he suddenly so strong he can punch through a god drat roof but had to struggle to fight a guy 5 minutes earlier? Who cares! The movie is nearly finished! Finally. The very very end. They stab him. He pulls his own intestines out and gives them a single chomp. No chewing, no swallowing, no eating. Just a bite. The moment I was waiting for from the poster finally happens and he doesn't even actually eat his god drat intestines. All he does is look at them really. A wildly misleading poster. Then, cut to black with "THE END". I can not stress how bad this movie was. Even re-reading what I have wrote above is nearly way too much credit than it deserves, and makes it sound even watchable. It isn't. Maybe look at the highlights on YouTube and then move on with your life. Or not. You're not missing much. The only redeemable thing about this entire film is the incredibly bad rear end soundtrack. I have very high praise for the musician who did the soundtrack, it was way better than it had any right to be. The only reason I am not giving this film a flat out 0 is because of it's quality soundtrack. I like to think of it as a "Reverse Burial Ground", a movie that is insanely cool and good in every aspect except the soundtrack. Or maybe Liquid Sky (yes, I know you love the soundtrack to Liquid Sky, but it is bad and I am here to tell you that you are wrong). So with that being said... .5/5 2. Shogun's Sadism (1976)  After watching Antropophagus I was literally angry and felt I had wasted the first day of my horror fest. I was supposed to get a fun gore fest Video Nasty, and instead I got a flaming pile of excrement. So to counter balance it I re-watched a movie I know was Video Nasty worthy. And boy, I hadn't seen Shogun's Sadism in a while, but god drat does it bring the heat. It is nearly 80 minutes of just pure people being tortured in an unflinching and gorey manner. Not only is the gore an 11/10 in this, it is beyond sadistic as gently caress. Truly a competitor to Salo. The sadism and humiliation aspects of this really just gently caress your whole drat day up. This is not a light watch and not for the feint of heart. This is not a movie I want to spoil too much about but I highly recommend it for the real gore hounds who haven't seen it yet. If you're an exploitation fan this is an absolute must watch. I will give you a fair and upfront non-spoiler warning that it is a bit rapey. Way more sexual abuse then I remembered there being. Keep that in mind before hitting play. They do blur out the actual rape parts with a big ol' fuzzy blur you may have seen in other Japanese films. So... I guess that's some relief. But if you're the type to be squeamish about these things this movie is absolutely not for you anyway. I hope my high rating for this film does not condone the content of it and make me seem weird. The way I see it, is that a "good" movie is a movie that makes you feel strong emotions. In this case, that emotion is disgust. And jeez, does it accomplish it's goal. And so because of how truly effective it is disturbing you to your core I must rate it a 4.5/5 Watched: 1. Antropophagus | 2. Shogun's Sadism
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Oct 2, 2019 18:12
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 #27) Mausoleum (1983) Hell yeah, cemetery horror. Kind of. This was an impulse buy from Vinegar Syndrome during one of their flash sales, because I remembered enjoying this on Youtube during a late-night horror forage a few years back. Seeing it all cleaned up by the VS folks is a treat, as it lets the care put into the film's making really shine through. Good use of colored lighting is a frequent piece of that, along with eyes that glow green with evil, some good gore and explosions, solid transformation make-up, a disco scene, and some gloriously early-'80s interior decorating. John Carl Buechler contributes to the special effects, and aside from the goofiness of the final transformation, they're very good. On its face, the movie is a pretty basic 'family line cursed with evil' story, but it dips (lightly) into some fears of inherited mental illness, and having the evil sealed away in a crypt adds some tasty atmosphere. There's also some threads of men being creeps in all sorts of ways (which doesn't really fit with the killing of the mall clerk, who was just doing his job). The family name being Nomed is practially a Troll 2 joke, and the Van Helsing-type is comically ineffectual. The lead actress does a respectable job with all the directions in which the script pushes her character (and there's one scene where she looks just like Black Lodge Laura Palmer; see below). The movie wasn't as good as I remembered it being, mainly because of its failure to stick the landing, but I still had fun with it.  rating: 6/10
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Oct 2, 2019 18:26
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 4. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) Shudder Finally saw the classic. And  Beautifully shot, amazing art design, well-enough acted, a subtly unique sound design, and absolutely intense. Watched - 1. Get My Gun (2017), 2. The Last Man on Earth (1964), 3. It Stains the Sands Red (2016), 4. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) Decade - 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s (I), 1970s(I), 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s (II) Black & White:Color - 1:3 By Country - 'Murica (IV) New:Rewatch - 3:1 Butch Cassidy fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Oct 2, 2019 |
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Oct 2, 2019 18:35
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Let's do this, I'm in for 31. For my personal challenge, I thought about watching a movie set in every US state but all 50 states might be a little too ambitious and would leave me pretty much no room for anything non-american so I'll chop this challenge in half and watch movies set in 25 US states at least. Maybe I'll do the rest in the next may/october challenge. Also, for this I'm going to count 3 movies I've seen in the last couple of weeks: Friday the 13th: A New Beginning [New Jersey] Dissapointing, especially since I watched it directly after the much better part IV. It Chapter Two [Maine] Enjoyed it but didn't need to be that long, not as good as Part 1. The Bye Bye Man [Wisconsin] Ugh This leaves me with at least 22 more states and 9 free picks!  1. Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker aka. Night Warning (1982) [Arizona] youtube A young boy whose parents get killed in a particularly gruesome car accident (shot by Jan de Bont before he was replaced) is raised by his aunt Cheryl, when Billy is 17 and making plans to go to college his aunt is not quite ready to let him go. When aunt Cheryl kills a man in her house, the homophobic detective investigating the case doesn't believe her and thinks Billy killed him in a homosexual lovers-quarrel. Despite the fantastic title I had never seen any talk about this movie, which is a shame because it's good! Just as that other horror movie aunt who was the mascot of last years challenge, something about aunt Cheryl is not quite right from the start, and she only becomes more and more unhinged from there. Susan Tyrrell really swings for the fences in every scene and it's a blast to watch. Also, for a 1982 exploitation horror movie it actually has a surprisingly positive attitude towards its gay characters. I really could've added a dozen other fantastic gifs but I won't. Recommended! (Ok, one more, and yes, that's Bill Paxton.)  2. Urban Legend (1998) [New Hampshire] (Dutch) Netflix Decent slasher with a killer using urban legends as inspiration for his kills. The plot doesn't really hold up when you think about it for more than a minute and most of the characters are pretty unlikable, but there are some decent kills and the hammy performance by the killer in the finale is entertaining. Robert Englund and Brad Dourif also show up which is always nice.
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Oct 2, 2019 18:46
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SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #1. The Best Month Viy seemed like the obvious choice for this, and I will probably end up watching it later this month anyway, but I already had another movie that qualified lined up...  7. Cure (1997) (digital) A series of bizarre murders is plaguing Tokyo, all committed by different people who seem to have no connection to each other. What they do have in common is that the killers had no apparent motive and in each case they have carved a giant X into the necks of their victims. Detective Takabe struggles to put the pieces together, but is always one step behind the next murder. Meanwhile, a young drifter with severe amnesia appears, but his connection to the killings is unclear. Despite being structured more like a police procedural and containing few outright horror elements, this film is absolutely permeated with a Lynchian sense of dread and unease. It's more of an existential and nihilistic horror - yeah, the murders are disturbing, but what is really scary are the questions that the film asks about ourselves. I don't want to go into detail on this because it would mean sharing spoilers here, and also because it's probably best to come up with your own interpretation of the film. A good question to keep in mind is: why is it titled Cure? This is brilliant and certainly the best film I've watched so far. There isn't much in the way of shocks and scares, but the implications are bound to stick with you for some time. Very highly recommended. 4.5/5 Total: 7 Watched: Dead of Night | Child's Play (2019) | Escape Room | Hell Night | The Wind | Evil Dead (2013) | Cure
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Oct 2, 2019 19:06
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#7 Replicas (2018) Keanu Reeves's family dies in a car accident, but fortunately he's been working on resurrecting dead soldiers, so it'll be a snap to fix that situation up with no inconvenient complications. The sci-fi aspects of this movie aren't anything you haven't seen before—brain uploading, human minds in robot bodies, clones—but I appreciate how much of the drama of this spins out from human aspects of the story as compared to the standard science-is-bad stance that a lot of movies take. For instance, the problem with resurrecting his wife isn't that she "comes back wrong" Pet Sematary style, but that she might divorce him after she finds him editing their daughter's memories, to which moments Keanu Reeves brings a steady hand at the wheel. Everyone outside the two main characters is pretty thinly sketched, particularly the machinations of the corporation he works for, but that core dynamic is enough to carry the movie. I enjoyed this one. And who doesn't love seeing a robot wearing a business suit? https://i.imgur.com/9CYhhva.mp4 #8 Antiviral (2012) Whereas lack of originality is no problem for this movie. Brandon Cronenberg follows in his dad's footsteps with a grim little movie about the intersection of celebrity worship and biotechnology. The nominal mystery plot of this is very much whatever, but as an excuse to take a tour through the hosed-up world of its main character (Caleb Landry Jones, probably best known as the dickish little brother in Get Out) it's a lot of fun. https://i.imgur.com/qvwoy05.mp4 New (6): #1 The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016), #3 Escape Room (2019), #4 Aniara (2018), #6 Overlord (2018), #7 Replicas (2018), #8 Antiviral (2012) Rewatches (2): #2 Brightburn (2019), #5 Cloverfield (2008)
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Oct 2, 2019 19:23
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I am not ready but I will make a standard promise despite this 31 movies this month when I fail, I hope to get a failatar as neat as Aunt Martha
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Oct 2, 2019 19:46
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Gunning for 31! Tremors (1990)  The floor is lava! Perfect goofy, goopy creature feature fun to kick off a month-long horror marathon. Refreshingly well crafted in the progression of its "setting up the worms/outsmarting the worms/ worms outsmart us/ explosions" narrative, and the pacing's relentless while still giving us time to hang out with the characters. Also, has there been a better original monster design since? Feels weird to say "they don't make 'em like this anymore" about a movie about killer worm monsters, but what's the last new movie that was this unpretentiously fun? Fury Road? 4.5/5  The Company of Wolves (1984)  Heavily stylized "stories-within-stories" gothic take on the Riding Hood story. With werewolf transformations. Multiple, gory, creative werewolf transformations that are absolutely a highlight along with the weird, elaborate artificial sets. Leans heavily into the original tale's overtones of sexual predation and transgression, but the stories-with-stories framework allows us it to delve into its themes from number of angles and with your sympathy shifting from the townsfolk, to the wolves, to the uncomfortable place between we're left on. Possibly the only film ever made in which Angela Lansbury's head explodes into dust after being punched by a werewolf, and you know you want to see that. 4/5 
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Oct 2, 2019 20:10
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6. The Case of the Bloody Iris Watched On: Amazon I have a soft spot for Giuliano Carnimeo’s incredibly stupid spy action spaghetti westerns, so I thought I’d try his one giallo film. Like Carnimeo’s Sartana films, it’s definitely an imitation of a better known movie, but it’s not without its charms. It stars brooding beauty Edwige Fenech from Five Dolls for an August Moon along with Carnimeo featured player George Hilton and has a fun jazzy score by Bruno Nicolai, the hardest working composer in Italian cinema. I don’t know if it’s solely the work of the English dub or the script itself, but the movie has a lot of hilarious performances in it. The best friend, the undercover police officer and the fashion photographer all help make this a more comedic affair than most other giallo I’ve seen. Despite a flower child sex cult subplot, it doesn’t quite reach the ridiculous heights of Carnimeo’s “secret machine gun sewing machine” spaghetti westerns. It’s fine, but not worth going out of your way for.
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Oct 2, 2019 20:18
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| # ? Jun 2, 2024 10:02 |
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drat, I am six pages behind on this thread's reviews because I intend to read ALL of them, no exception!! Its a joy to read what you guys write. I wonder if we'll beat last years 80 page count...
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Oct 2, 2019 20:48
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