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Mokelumne Trekka posted: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. Last year we started like an entire week earlier too so if we do beat it then that means participation is definitely up.
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Oct 2, 2019 21:12
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 #2: Gozu - Ok this one was really weird. Reminded me of something like Lost Highway a bit, except with that it felt like there were only a few pieces missing that would make everything make sense. Gozu is on another level of strange. First half had a lot of awkward interactions, with people acting just a bit off and it's not apparent whether they're just weird small town folk or something deeper is going on, then it gets weirder and apparent that the townspeople are indeed weird (but without any real hostile motive). Partway through it drops the hint that some of the townspeople may be ghosts, suggesting that the restaurant might be some sort of ghost hub, but the movie doesn't really continue with that thread, it just goes in a different weirder direction, and ramps up ending in the weirdest sex scene I've ever seen. It's really strange. I enjoyed it pretty much the whole way through, and I guess I'd recommend it, but definitely not something I'd toss on at a movie night.  : 3.5??/5 (though it's too weird to really rate on any normal scale really)
Lhet fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Oct 2, 2019 |
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Oct 2, 2019 21:20
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 #28) The People Under the Stairs (1991) God, this movie has so much going on. Last month, my partner and I watched Twin Peaks (rewatch for me, first time fully through it for her), and thanks to the presence of Wendy Robie and Everett McGill, along with the mix of weird horror and dark humor, this seemed like a great way to bridge from that to Fire Walk With Me and the rest of Lynch's films. Following the young Fool through the nightmare trap labyrinth of the gentrifying villains is a real trip, with the flavor mashing working out just splendidly. I'd rate this as one of Craven's best films. As much as I love Scream, it's a little narrow in focus compared to this; while Scream focuses on horror movies, their effects on viewers, and rape culture (and fuses those foci very well), People Under the Stairs aims for capitalism, class warfare, poisonous ideas about what an American family needs to be, and childhood vs. adulthood. Also the 'Mommy' and 'Daddy' razz on the Reagans. There were a few moments that got audible reactions from my co-viewer, including the line "Daddy cut out their bad parts," and the hoard reveal. While everything is relatively grounded, there's a strong style to the sets, lighting, and color usage that brings the fantasy currents out into the 'real world' with wonderful smoothness. Once they pop through the metal door and the shelves slide aside, it's like we're through the protective border, and it almost gave me goosebumps. There's so much to praise in this film, I can't do it justice. But if you haven't seen this one, and you find yourself with an empty spot in your viewing this month, I'd highly recommend you slot it in. Bless Everett McGill for being willing to run around in that gimp suit. rating: 8/10
Darthemed fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Oct 2, 2019 |
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Oct 2, 2019 22:29
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2. Mausoleum (1982) - a first watch for me. A great transfer, Vinegar Syndrome hasn't disappointed me on quality yet. The movie itself was goofy schlock with an interesting premise about a cursed family. There's a neat idea buried in there about how the lead actress inflicts demonic violence on the men around her, but that's not what the movie is interested in. Some fun practical effects round out a decent trashy low budget film. 2.5/5
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Oct 2, 2019 23:20
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1. Tales of Terror An AIP Poe anthology starring Vincent Price in different roles across the 3 stories. Morella is the only story adapted that I wasn't familiar with. It was ok but I guess it strays a bit from the source. The second story is The Black Cat but they included elements of The Cask of Amantillado. I think I might have enjoyed a straight adaptation of the latter, but it works surprisingly well. Price's wine taster character in this is goofy as gently caress, but in a good way. The last one is an adaptation of The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. It's pretty good despite the effects being kind of garbage even for AIP. 3/5
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Oct 2, 2019 23:28
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 #29) The Hills Have Eyes (1977), a.k.a., The Family That Woke Up Screaming Decided to keep on trucking with another Craven film, this time on Arrow Video Blu-ray. I guess this is a fairly natural outgrowth of the hippie panic and biker rampage flicks from the early '70s. Always a treat getting to see Michael Berryman do his thing, especially when he's frantically rifling through a fridge or throwing a fit smashing up the kitchen of a trailer-home. As it went on, I found myself wishing that Craven had been able to pull David Hess in to play the role of Mars, as I'm sure he would have brought some real fire to it. Weird how the overhead airplanes never showed up again after the initial off-roading, and it's hard to imagine that the old gasman in Children of the Corn didn't draw anything from the one in this film. Wasn't expecting the entire family of protagonists to be idiots (even when resorting to booby-traps), but there you are. Made it hard for me to really care about any of them, and the villain clan was played so cartoonishly that I couldn't really hook into them, either. That meant I really latched onto the dog, though, so there we go. Made it tough for the drag-on portions in the home stretch without Beast, but then Chekhov's Snake appeared. Very sudden ending; I was sitting there thinking 'What, no 'where do we go from here' reunion scene?', but then I watched the alternate ending and went 'Ah, OK.' Left me feeling dissatisfied, but still appreciating Craven's craftsmanship. Nice bonus pair of essays in the accompanying booklet, too. rating: 7/10
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Oct 2, 2019 23:54
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8. Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (1999) Not nearly as good as the first one but still worth a watch. The scenes without Andrew Divoff are pretty boring but the scenes with him mostly make up for that, he really carries this movie hard. We get to see a lawyer literally gently caress himself and the big mayhem scene at the end is fantastic. 2.5 /5
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Oct 3, 2019 00:07
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6)Phoenix Forgotten Hulu  I'm like super the target audience for this. I love old 90s ufo docs, and found footage, and the concept of a found footage within a found footage is pretty great, I don't think I've seen before, short of like an anthology like VHS. It's not a great movie, but I sure enjoyed watching 90s kids play mulder and scully. /5
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Oct 3, 2019 00:15
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#9 Higher Power (2018) [Hulu] A mad scientist torments a man into becoming a god in order to save the Earth, in a movie that isn't nearly as interesting as that premise might imply. Two-thirds of the way through this I took a quick break to confirm my guess that, yep, this is a first-time film by a visual-effects artist turned director. The effects are impressive for the budget, and they're able to mostly carry the last act of the movie once things ramp up. Unfortunately, the movie is more than an effects reel, because the characters are uniformly unbelievable and uninteresting, just thinly-drawn vehicles for exposition and ham-fisted motivation to carry the protagonist through a cliched coerced-into-crime plot, which makes most of the actual movie a chore. https://i.imgur.com/NiJ56wn.mp4 New (7): #1 The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016), #3 Escape Room (2019), #4 Aniara (2018), #6 Overlord (2018), #7 Replicas (2018), #8 Antiviral (2012), #9 Higher Power (2018) Rewatches (2): #2 Brightburn (2019), #5 Cloverfield (2008)
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Oct 3, 2019 00:32
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7. In The Mouth of Madness (1994) Watched On: Vudu As we were watching this, my girlfriend reminded me of the old Coco Chanel adage, “before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.” This movie has a LOT going on in it and I think that works to its detriment. The metafictional elements are where this movie really shines: the works of Sutter Cane and how the real world is being shaped by writing that even he can’t understand. All the best parts of the movie come from that. But there’s a lot of other stuff in the film that I don’t think bolsters that central theme. The zombie kids and townsfolk are totally unnecessary. Sam Neil’s continued insistence that this is all a scam in the front half of the movie is too. Even the involvement of the Great Old Ones being the impetus for all of Cane’s writing seems a little too much for one movie. I think it would have been stronger if it just focused on Neill going crazier as Cane’s reality begins to overwrite his own. Definitely a strong end to the film, I just wish it was as strong in the middle.
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Oct 3, 2019 00:32
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Darthemed posted:#29) The Hills Have Eyes (1977), a.k.a., The Family That Woke Up Screaming where’s the alternate title from? It’s listed on IMDb but I can’t find any other references to it online
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Oct 3, 2019 00:33
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#5: Shaun of the Dead rewatch  Look what the gently caress do you want from me? It's Shaun of the Dead. You've all seen it. You all know it's good. Yes, every line of dialogue, every shot, is a joke or advances the plot or establishes the characters or sets up a future joke. That is known. It's so good you can even easily forgive the references(the lowest form of humor) and the manchild nagged by his too good for him girlfriend(the lowest form of plot). All that's left is dumb nerd stuff like pointing out the thing where the zombie is about to eat the pigeon but then it gets blocked by a grey bus, but then a red bus drives in front of that. That implied the violent act without actually showing it that early in the movie. I feel like I'm kind of a dick for bringing up that I noticed such a small detail, like ooh look at how good at watching movies I am. Literally the one thing I could maybe bring to the table on SotD discourse is that I genuinely couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a joke how pale Shaun's coworkers were or if that's just how British people look.
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Oct 3, 2019 00:52
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Oh yeah, it was nice to see the Black Books guy in something that hasn't been retroactively ruined
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Oct 3, 2019 00:54
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gey muckle mowser posted:where’s the alternate title from? It’s listed on IMDb but I can’t find any other references to it online Not sure, that's where I pulled it from. Wikipedia said that there were 100 possible titles considered for the movie, so it might be one of those, just mislabeled when entered on IMDb.
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Oct 3, 2019 01:00
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Darthemed posted:Not sure, that's where I pulled it from. Wikipedia said that there were 100 possible titles considered for the movie, so it might be one of those, just mislabeled when entered on IMDb. Ah ok. It’s a pretty good one regardless
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Oct 3, 2019 01:18
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2. Noroi: The Curse Yes I know, shame on me for not having seen it sooner. I've watched a lot of found footage, a lot of it BAD found footage, but Noroi is great. It really nails the feeling of a documentary about weirdos who hunt bigfoot that you'd see on TLC on a Wednesday night. The J-horror sense of pervading dread is there in full force, along with some legitimately good scares so the built-up tension pays off.  (A ghost is a half pumpkin, read an economics book for once)quote:1. The Shining [5/5 Spooks]
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Oct 3, 2019 01:27
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 Super Samhain Challenge #1: The Best Month #6) Viy (1967)  Mosfilm is no stranger to experimental fantasy and sci-fi, but this adaptation of an 1835 Nikolai Gogol novella is expertly done, considering the technological advances of the time. Viy was Russia's first real scary movie, and one of the first films at all with "special effects" like it had. From a modern standpoint, the pacing is a little odd, but effective. There are long periods of nothing happening, followed by a few minutes of action, and back to long periods of nothing happening. But again, from a modern perspective, that reminds me a bit of the 2015 film The VVitch; long periods of tension building, followed by stings of terror, showing how the main character is slowly but surely unraveling. All in all, I enjoyed watching this as a sort of time capsule - it was certainly a change of pace from what I normally watch, and the final act was ABSOLUTELY no-holds-barred fun. There are much worse 70-minute movies you can watch. 3/5
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Oct 3, 2019 02:05
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 #30) Howling III (1987), a.k.a., The Marsupials: The Howling III, a.k.a., Wolfmen Hahaha, what? Contained the subtitle "(tense digeridoo music)". I don't know where to start with this one. I mean, the second Howling movie was weird, but this... We've got super-metabolism werewolf woman getting recruited for an in-movie horror movie about werewolves. We've got footage set in 1905 setting up the existence of werewolves in Australia. We've got costumes for the 'real' werewolves that are significantly worse in quality than those used for the in-movie movie. There's a sub-plot about a Russian werewolf who's in Australia to do ballet. There's an electro-reggae soundtrack. There's a nightmare scene involving a puppet stomach-bursting out of a fuzzy navel. A gang of werewolf drifters (actually, that's one of the more reasonable ideas in this) led by the brother-in-law from Mad Max. A squad of Australian soldiers in full dress uniforms staking out the drifters while armed with tranq rifles. A dramatic conclusion involving Dame Edna. And the werewolves are, as the title points out, marsupials, so they've got stomach pouches. I guess there's a continuous narrative going through it, but I kept getting hung up on details of the weird poo poo that was happening. Frankly, for a film audacious enough to throw all that stuff together (and put some money behind the production), I've got to respect it. rating: 6/10
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Oct 3, 2019 02:34
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 The Most Dangerous Game, 1932 This one is pretty straight forwards. Guy survives ship wreckage, ends up on island with a creepy rich dude who hunts people for sports. You don't need to know much more than that before going into this movie. It takes its time to get to the actual hunting part (about 40 minutes into this one hour long movie) and the violent bits aren't as in your face as a modern horror film would be, but I wasn't bored a single second of this. It got that 30s charm and a good atmosphere with the setting and characters. It's gruesome and macabre enough to have that good ol' horror feeling and the villain is the type of creep want to see in such a film. This is one every fan of old school horror should watch, especially if you are looking for 1930s movies outside of the usual Universal Pictures lineup.
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Oct 3, 2019 03:06
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October 2 - Us https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNCmb-4oXJA I still haven't seen Get Out (it's on my list and I'm probably saving it for a very late in the month viewing), but I wanted to see Us as well and I felt like I should watch it early on. And maybe that was the smart choice since a lot of what I heard about Us is "It's fine, but it's no Get Out." I enjoyed Us quite a bit and perhaps not having any expectations built on the earlier film helped me enjoy it more. One night a family is confronted by a group of strangers in their driveway. The strangers are copies of them and their doubles want the originals dead. So a game of cat and mouse occurs. This is yet another movie where the strong physical performances by the actors are the strongest part of the movie. With each actor playing two roles, it required the evil versions to have distinctive behavior and the entire cast does an amazing job with it. And there's some amazingly creepy performances, especially Shahadi Wright Joseph whose other is so sinister. I've seen so many horror movies with strong beginnings that fall apart around the half way mark. Us is a weird mirror doppelgänger of that. The build up wasn't intriguing to me, even the initial home invasion scenes. But once that scenario was resolved and we discover that it's a strange apocalypse where everyone has a double that's hunting and killing them it picked things up. The stakes were raised and it became more intriguing to me. There is a problem where the central conceit of the concept is hidden from the viewer until the final act of the movie. There's a dribble of a hint in the opening shots, but it's so insignificant that it feels like it has nothing to do with the movie until an hour and a half later. Dropping such an out there concept on the audience in the last minutes does feel like it throws things off. But then the movie goes on to the big final confrontation that works perfectly and things swing back around to great. Overall, a pretty nifty movie that was fun to watch. And it was a creative take on the evil doubles concept that felt close to old legends while still giving it a new spin.
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Oct 3, 2019 03:17
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Let's see how far into the month I can get without spending any money 1) Freshwater (2016) [Tubi] A group of post-college friends have plans to party in a nearby lake house located on a secluded island in the Louisiana swamps. It's not until they arrive at their destination, however, that they learn that there's something nasty waiting for them in the water. Will Zoe "totally from Baton Rouge" Bell, local alligator expert, be able to rouse local authorities fast enough to save the twenty-something party-goers? Holy cow did I luck out. I pretty much clicked on the first movie on Tubi that looked even remotely interesting and I feel blessed. Part animal rampage flick, part stranded/siege flick, this big ol' bucket of dumb starts stupid and just keeps sinking. The offending giant alligator is obnoxiously seen fleeing the scene of the first kill, scant moments into the movie. It's a tone setter for the subtlety employed by the remainder of the film. The editing is mostly suspect, the dialogue is very spotty, effects work consistently substandard, and the pacing at times is awkward. Besides a couple of goofy moments in the first fifteen minutes of the film (at roughly the 0:13:15 mark I was audibly laughing) there's nothing to look forward to until I think halfway into the film when the plot starts to open up a tad. I recommend this movie. No, really! Remember when LORD OF BOOTY had just seen Mercy Black and they stormed into the Horror Thread all "people! The last 15 minutes of this movie are crazy!" Well I do. It got me to watch Mercy Black, a largely meh movie with an indeed quality finale, and I'm happy I watched it. Consider this a poor man's Mercy Black vis-a-vis its endgame. A very poor man. Overall this is a pretty ugh film but the conclusion is a bit of a descent into some really bad effects work sewn together with plot stupidity I rarely find in the wild. If you need a nudge or would rather just know a bit more about the film without actual commitment, here's this: overlapping with the tail end of the siege portion of the movie is when there's a bit of a turn into pseudo-slasher territory that actually built off the terrible-in-the-moment tension raising of the previous section of the movie. Now if any of you fools actually make the mistake of watching this nonsense you'll probably dislike it because, uh, it's bad. But not boring bad, and not ironic bad. It knows what it wants to be and believe me it commits. I respect that! Some value/10
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Oct 3, 2019 03:20
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#2: Goodnight Mommy, 2014 Young boys grow suspicious of their mother upon her return from a major facial surgery  I wanted to watch something moody and atmospheric tonight, and this mostly fit the bill. I knew the twist going in, and while I don't normally mind spoilers this probably would have worked better if I had been questioning more of the character's motivations during the beginning. Mostly I was just questioning why this woman was all alone after a major surgery and the mysterious accident which is a catalyst for the film, although we never get confirmation on exactly what happened to this family. Glad I finally got around to watching this, but I may have waited too long to get the full effect of this movie. .5 / 5
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Oct 3, 2019 03:24
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 Hobo with a Shotgun  Smart, socially-conscious exploitation with a great sense of humor and a dayglo palette? Why the heck did I put this off for so long? That was a literal and figurative blast from back to front. It had a love and a reverence for the films it was paying homage to and understood what made them work, unlike Kung Fury and even Planet Terror. It was the most energetic and over-the-top thing I've seen in ages, and I just watched Death Spa and Body Melt recently. In a lot of ways it reminded me of Sorry to Bother You with its kinetic blend of magical realism, its socialist values, and its complete disregard for convention. But, you know, written by a 14 year old incapable of subtlety about what 80s movies and arcade games taught him the world was like. My only real complaint is that the gangster kids were the weak link in the whole thing, feeling like they belonged in a high schooler's version of the same film. 9/10. Great pick for my birthday. Hobo with a Shotgun: 9/10, Demons: 9/10, The Fog: 8/10, Demons II: 7/10, The Changeling: 4/10 feedmyleg fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Oct 3, 2019 |
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Oct 3, 2019 03:38
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2. An Evening with Edgar Allen Poe An AIP tv movie, more a one man dramatic reading of 4 Poe stories by Vincent Price. The stories are The Telltale Heart, The Sphinx, The Cask of Amantillado, and The Pit and the Pendulum. Each story gets an appropriate set, and some musical cues. No audience, live or simulated. Price did dramatic readings of Poe stories for years. My parents were lucky enough to have see one of his shows in the 80s. He does a good job here. The Sphinx is kind of a weak story, I think they might have put it in to take up a little bit of runtime. There's some goofy 70s chromakeying in thos. 3/5
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Oct 3, 2019 03:49
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# 5 THE LOCH NESS HORROR (1981) This is my first Larry Buchanan watch, the “schlockmeister” director who was so schlocky he remade 1950s schlock into 1960s schlock, such as Zontar, The Thing from Venus (1966) being born out of Roger Corman’s It Conquered the World (1956). Here we are in more obscure territory with his 1980s film The Loch Ness Horror, which does not have a counterpart from a prior decade. The film opens with bagpipes playing, followed by unremarkable shots of Lake Tahoe, ahem, excuse me, Loch Ness, which linger a bit too long. In the 1940s, a man looks through his telescope and sees Nessie in the water, practically motionless, and we linger on this shot a bit too long. Already, there are worrying signs of frustrating filmmaking… Much of the movie’s runtime is attributed to shots that could have been cut sooner. Four decades later, two Nessie hunters chat on a raft in the crystal clear, beautiful blue waters of Long before the movie ends, though, you are wishing Nessie finds her egg. A dentist visit is more exciting than this. As the movie plods along, it is clear we are stuck with actors putting on SNL-skit quality Scottish accents, except for a young hotshot from Texas who wants to study the beast, and horny American tourists camping near the lake. In one amazing scene, Nessie attacks the guy who took her egg. He fails to get out of his sleeping bag in time, despite the Nessie prop taking forever to lower itself down. This movie does feel like it belongs in a different era. Echoing the scientific exposition scenes in Atomic Age B-movies, there is a lecture by a scientist who explains that Nessie is an amphibious reptile, like the plesiosaur. As a cryptozoology nerd it is was neat how they used “actual” photographs of Nessie in the lecture such as the famous photo from the 30s. Tragically, in close up shots, Nessie’s face looks like Barney spray-painted gray and this is revealed in one of the movie’s first scenes. Its movement is also extremely limited - this is notable in a godawful sequence of Nessie attacking kids on a raft. The obvious explanation for this is that the monster is just a long neck attached to a stick. We do not even get any body shots. The late 70s and 80s were a booming era for practical special effects, so this is a shame. And without the charm of a kids’ movie or the violence of the decade’s monster movies, it is obvious why this movie sunk fast to the bottom. SCORE: 3.2 / 10 Mokelumne Trekka fucked around with this message at 04:02 on Oct 3, 2019 |
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Oct 3, 2019 03:50
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 2. One Dark Night (1983). (First watch) After a bunch of dead girls and psychic are found in the apartment of said psychic, he is laid to rest in a mausoleum. His daughter is having strange visions too. She is married to Adam West. There is a girl, Julie, she is a goodie goodie and wants to join up with a cool girl clique: The Sisters. The Sisters smoke weed and have matching purple jackets. The leader of The Sisters isn't happy Julie is dating her ex-boyfriend, who rides a motorcycle. The Sisters have Julie stay in the mausoleum so they can scare her. Julie stays in mausoleum, The Sisters show up to scare her, and the psychic makes all the dead people kind of float around. The girls are scared. The boyfriend shows up to save her. The daughter has a premonition and much to Adam West's protests she goes and stops her sort of dead father with her compact. The end. What a stinker. Other than the zombies looking pretty cool,some nice shadow work at the end, and a face melting this doesn't have anything really going for it. These weren't zombies either, the dead psychic just made them float around. I guess 2 were. I don't loving know. Rating: I want to be in a clique that wears matching purple jackets out of Adam West is kind of a dick in this.
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Oct 3, 2019 03:51
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I'll get caught up on reviews probably tomorrow after work, but here's a bingo card I made for myself for Spooky Movie Month: Randomized card: https://mfbc.us/m/h7g5um
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Oct 3, 2019 04:08
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 4. Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971) Along with The Wicker Man and Witchfinder General, Blood on Satan’s Claw is considered one of the folk horror greats. I get why it earned that reputation, but I had mixed feelings about this one. It starts with a farmhand’s disturbing discovery, which gets brushed off for of a couple of scenes about an upper class man whose mother is less than thrilled about his marriage plans. This well-off family isn’t important though, and we don’t get any resolution of their struggles. The movie jitters like that from subplot to subplot, from truant kids to gleeful murders, and from inept local officials to a regional authority who explains that the town will just have to wait and let a bunch of nasty poo poo go down until he decides he’s ready to sort things out. The whole thing seems disjointed at times because it’s not really about any one particular story. It’s more about how a small community can fall into madness under the wrong influence. It’s an ambitious approach, and I'm not sure it's entirely successful. There are the seeds of a ton of great ideas here. Unfortunately the movie doesn't elaborate on them. If it had more focus, it could dip more deeply into themes about religious dogma, social structures, or political corruption. Instead it just wanders around making a point about the randomness of evil. Blood on Satan's Claw certainly sets a mood, but I thought it had some pacing issues. Some of the more horrific scenes are also too dark or too abrupt to be clear. I was surprised at how mean it was, even by the standards of a subgenre that regularly involves human sacrifice. There’s sexual violence as well as some body horror, and one moment that keeps coming back to me for some reason involves a teen cultist taunting a woman who doesn't know that her son has just been killed. It's probably a must-watch for folk horror fans, but I'd only recommend it to others if you're in the mood for meandering and atmospheric. Watched: 1. Burn, Witch, Burn (1962); 2. TerrorVision (1986); 3. Evilspeak (1981) - Challenge #1; 4. Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971)
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Oct 3, 2019 04:15
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 #6 Brain Damage 1988 Shudder This one feels like someone gave a feature budget and runtime to one of those cartoons they used to show us in school to warn us about the dangers of drugs. And you know what? Those shorts were always kind of spooky and bizarre, so it works alright. And it feels a little less gross to be denigrating drug users in such a way when it’s an allegory by way of malevolent brain parasite. There isn’t much about this one that is very interesting; it feels like they did the bare minimum with the fun and inventive premise they had. It’s a letdown that the resolution comes not from any growth or insight on the part of the characters, but instead a sort of karmic comeuppance when the parasite is simply accidentally mangled by one of his dejected former hosts. I would’ve appreciated seeing characters overcome addiction, rather than the sort of tragic morality play we get in the end. It is kind of funny that this movie hints at an equation between total enlightenment and a self-gratifying psychedelic lightshow. Early on, I couldn’t help but think that this picture might be more engaging if it always showed us what the main character was seeing, rather than only giving us glimpses of psychedelia in cutaway shots. 2/5
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Oct 3, 2019 04:25
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9. All Hallow’s Eve (2013) Last year for this challenge I blind-watched Terrifier on Netflix. I figured, scary killer clown for Halloween? Of course. Then I witnessed a gloriously absurd or disgusting (depending on your view) slasher film in the vein of Troma of a sadistic but slightly self-aware killer clown as he stalked two girls going home from a Halloween party. If you can stomach it, it's amazing and recommended. After that, I found out it was actually a semi-sequel to another film All Hallow’s Eve. I put off watching it because I wanted to save it for this challenge and browsing Amazon Prime reminded me of my plans (you’re going to hear a lot of me going “oh, I wanted to watch this one for the challenge”). This film is a horror anthology featuring that same clown (Art the Clown) as a re-occuring theme (then main antagonist) in each segment. It’s not as gleefully absurd and Troma-like as Terrifier but it does have the same ultra low-budget energy and devil may care attitude. The anthology starts off kinda lame and dumb at first but, poo poo, does it pick up as the film goes on especially with a good wraparound. If you saw Terrifier, expect more of the same “holy poo poo, dude” scenes from Art the Clown (who is just as sick, twisted and violent as ever). /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), 9. All Hallow’s Eve (2013) Justin Godscock fucked around with this message at 04:41 on Oct 3, 2019 |
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Oct 3, 2019 04:35
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I went and saw Rambo 5 instead of catching up on my reviews. That was a mistake. Altho if they had put any sort of tension into it, it might have counted as a crappy home invasion movie. 7. Paranorman (2012)  A young boy is bullied because he can see dead people. Turns out that’s kind of an important power for keeping a local dead witch from enacting her revenge. Which he can’t figure out how in time so the dead rise and the witch attacks. I have not seen any Laika movie outside of Box Trolls. Here is my first step in fixing that. I really enjoyed the animation and the puppet work. The story was a bit cliched but it is a kids movie so that’s forgivable. A really fun movie, hope the rest of Laika is at least as good. 8. Night of the Comet (1984)  A passing meteor causes everyone not protected by steel to turn into dust and anyone only somewhat protected to turn into a flesh eating ghoul and then dust. Two sisters survive and have a short adventure after coming to terms with everyone being dead. Someone described this in chat as I Am Legend with valley girls and they’re not wrong. Charmingly 80s and very enjoyable. 9. Corpse Bride (2005)  A hesitant groom accidentally marries a former bride who also happens to be dead. Songs happen and both sides try to resolve the situation in a way that makes everyone happy while the groom’s living bride tries to figure out what’s going on. A Tim Burton/Laika joint for my plan to watch all of Laika’s movies. Really good songs from Danny Elfman and quality animation from Laika, a really fine movie. 1. Killer Workout (1987) 2. Ænigma (1987) 3. Killer Fish (1979) 4. Rear Window (1954) 5. House on Haunted Hill (1959) 6. Nail Gun Massacre (1985) 7. Paranorman (2012) 8. Night of the Comet (1984) 9. Corpse Bride (2005) duz fucked around with this message at 04:48 on Oct 3, 2019 |
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Oct 3, 2019 04:44
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Alright let's get started with OCTOBER CHALLENGE: PHYSICAL RELEASES EDITION! I buy movies. I'm sure you all do. I buy them and look at them and feel proud of my collection. While considering the horror challenge this year I realized I've bought a bunch of movies for various reasons (best variant covers, stores going out of business, garage sales, etc.) that I've never even opened or watched. So this year will be movies just from my personal collection; and to show that they are my movies, I'll be taking a lovely cell phone pic of the movie, including an object related to the movie. So let's start with: 1 of 31: DUDE BRO PARTY MASSACRE III  No red Solo cups in the house so a blue Solo cup will have to convey the frat aesthetic. Purchased: Amazon, like a week ago Status: Was still in plastic before I put it in the Blu-ray player. A new addition to the collection so it's in new condition, and wasn't secondhand as you'll see in some of my later movies. Dude Bro Party Massacre III is a movie that satirizes the genre tropes of the 1980s while at the same time showing a clear love and enthusiasm for those movies. It wears it's inspirations on its sleeves, with references to everything from Evil Dead to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. The jokes come fast, frequent, and always absurd. One understated bit was a character in a box with just a hole cut out labeled "glory hole". He pokes his mouth out to say, "I sometimes just feel like you guys don't respect me". The practical effects are noteworthy in that they were done on a crowdfunded budget but still look pretty drat good. They nailed the we-filled-a-pumpkin-with-beef-and-shot-it effect style of the 80s. Is it scary? Not at all. Is it funny and gory? Yes. The creators set out to have the slasher movie with the highest kill count, and sitting north of 4000, they're the clear winners. The movie also features Greg Sestero, of The Room fame, and a fun Andrew W.K. cameo. If you want to be scared, there are other movies. If you want a splatstick belly laugh, then this is your movie. 5/5 SIZZLER!(s) Untrustable fucked around with this message at 07:49 on Oct 3, 2019 |
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Oct 3, 2019 05:09
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https://twitter.com/KennethJWaste2/status/1179607955429363714?s=20
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Oct 3, 2019 05:11
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 4. Happy Death Day dir. Christopher Landon 2017 Similar to Chopping Mall, I've sat way too long on this movie for no real good reason. Just haven't had the time to watch it after initially dismissing it when it came out.The movie obviously lives and dies Rothe's performance as a human Daffy Duck. The PG-13 rating is... fine, and works in how cartoony the film can be. But there are a few moments where I wish there was just some splatter. 3/5 Timeless Appeal fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Oct 3, 2019 |
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Oct 3, 2019 05:16
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 7. Tammy and the T-Rex (gore cut) (1994) Dir: Stewart Rafilli Watched at Suns Cinema in DC Like your dad made a body horror movie. The story behind this film's existence is wild and honestly helps makes the film endearing as hell. Literally made in a month because the director's friend had an animatronic T-Rex for a short time before it had to be shipped out to a theme park in Texas and subsequently recut from a gory R-rated b-movie into a PG "family film" to ride on that Jurassic Park hype. Yeah, this is a bad film, but one that knows exactly what it is and what it wants to do. It doesn't need to be high art, and it never aspires to be. It's actually funny in a corny way most of the time, with the exception of a very poorly aged gay character who ends up being the butt of similarly aged jokes. Honestly, not quite as much gore as you would think given it has a cut specifically called the "gore cut", though what is there is a hoot thanks to FX maestro John Carl Buechler (RIP). Watched: 1. Candyman 2. The Wailing 3. Spookies 4. One Cut of the Dead 5. Viy 6. The Driller Killer 7. Tammy and the T-Rex (gore cut)
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Oct 3, 2019 05:25
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#10 A Simple Favor (2018) [Hulu and Amazon Prime] Who knew Paul Feig could direct an actual movie. Blake Lively is surprisingly good and Anna Kendrick predictably good as mismatched moms caught in a web of lies and murder. It's Gone Girl played, if not for laughs, at least amusement with the twists and turns moved rapidly past in recognition that even if their precise details aren't obvious, we all know that nothing will be as it seems at least a few times over. This depends on the chemistry of the leads, and that works, so it's a pretty good time. https://i.imgur.com/7Yy0vNd.mp4 New (8): #1 The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016), #3 Escape Room (2019), #4 Aniara (2018), #6 Overlord (2018), #7 Replicas (2018), #8 Antiviral (2012), #9 Higher Power (2018), #10 A Simple Favor (2018) Rewatches (2): #2 Brightburn (2019), #5 Cloverfield (2008)
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Oct 3, 2019 05:46
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4: Cold Skin ABCs: C Ray Stevenson plays Col Kurtz on an island, when Friend (no really that’s his name) shows up. Turns out the Island occasionally gets swarmed by deep ones and paranoia, mass murder, and friendship ensue. This was a neat one, with some surprisingly good makeup and effects. Both leads are good, though the story was fairly boilerplate and could have lost a good 20 minutes. Probably the second best movie about 2 dudes in a lighthouse I’ll see this year!
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Oct 3, 2019 06:08
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Is Prometheus horror? I'm like half way through it and want to make sure.
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Oct 3, 2019 06:15
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Untrustable posted:Is Prometheus horror? I'm like half way through it and want to make sure. You might have to ask Fran, but I'd say it qualifies. It's still part of the Alien series, even if it's maybe the least horrory of the bunch.
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Oct 3, 2019 06:18
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Friends Are Evil posted:You might have to ask Fran, but I'd say it qualifies. It's still part of the Alien series, even if it's maybe the least horrory of the bunch. It's pretty spooky so far, and I'll do a write-up after, but I'll let Fran make the final call on if it counts. Neat movie so far though.
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Oct 3, 2019 06:23
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