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 House (Obayashi, 1977) Re-watch of Criterion Collection Blu-ray This movie just loving rules. It's mostly known for being the OMG JAPAN SO CRAZY LOL movie, which is too bad because it's actually just really good. The movie's reputation mostly comes from how completely over-the-top it is visually - it's just stuffed to the gills with basically every goddamn editing trick, special effect, and visual gimmick imaginable circa 1977. Even the simplest scenes will have something funky going on with how they're shot and edited. No scene just happens, not even the simplest conversation - there's always something else to it, sometimes multiple things. I'm going to ignore the more obviously crazy poo poo that happens later (and don't get me wrong, it's batshit!) to show you what "normal scenes" look like in this movie.   A teenage girl in a spooky image is revealed to be a teenage girl in a science classroom.  This is what public transportation looks like in House.  This isn't a matte painting standing in for a location. The scene was actually shot outdoors, but contains a painting of the area the painting is in, that they're standing in front of. The camera pulls back in a second to show you the actual hills and sky.  The gag works in part because much of the movie IS obviously shot on a soundstage. You expect one kind of "fakeness" and you get another instead. This happens more than once. Again, this is what THE MUNDANE looks like in the world of House. The normal looks nuts, and the fantastical pushes on from there. Once things go crazy, they really go completely off the rails and it's fun as hell. Past a certain point it makes Evil Dead II seem like the directions on a box of oatmeal. To paraphrase Salvador Dali, it wasn't made on drugs - it IS drugs. The funny thing is, for being supposedly LOLRANDOM the plot is actually extremely simple to follow, it's very much a classic "Teenage girls go to a bad place and bad things happen" scenario. As for what it's about in a deeper sense, look no further than the sequence on the train when Gorgeous tells the other girls about her family history around World War II, represented as a silent film drama the girls "watch" and comment on as they "see" it unfold. It eventually reaches a point where they compare the mushroom cloud of the atomic bomb (which in reality killed the director's childhood friends) to cotton candy. That total lack of comprehension is going to have consequences, even if it's not really their fault. It rules, go watch it.  /5
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Oct 3, 2019 21:18
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I watched FW Morneau's The Haunted Castle last night. But it turns out despite being listed in Kanopy's horror section and Morneau's reputation and... you know... being called The Haunted Castle... this isn't a horror movie. I had realized Kanopy lists a much of thrillers and dramas in their "horror" section but I never even thought about double checking this one. The film even had a fakeout... one of my favorite parts of the movie... but I definitely don't think it was a horror film. So oh well. I have another 1921 film. I mostly liked the film. Slow start but pretty solid once it gets going. But not a horror film, just a murder mystery with some vague horror trappings.
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Oct 3, 2019 21:39
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5. One Cut of the Dead (2017) Japan dir. Shinichirou Ueda A simply delightful film full of energy and originality. It's best so say as little as possible so the increasingly few that haven't seen it yet can go in as blind as possible but BIG SPOILERS: when the one cut segment was almost over I was wondering what the hell could happen next since there was at least an hour left then the film becomes a film within a film and we watch the fictionalized making of the film we just watched and I thought that part was even better than the actual film. As someone who has dabbled in low and no budget filmmaking in various positions the constant barrage of unexpected problems requiring often outlandish solutions was very relatable.
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Oct 3, 2019 21:45
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6. Ma Olivia Spencer plays a lonely woman who befriends some local teens when they ask her to buy them liquor. Then she has them party in her basement. Then she gets... clingy. It's an entertaining watch, and Spencer is just a fun actor to watch, but it just has too many layers. Her horrific backstory isn't really tied to her present actions, and her daughter exists..why? Too many pointless complications to what could be a fun scary story. .5/5
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Oct 3, 2019 21:46
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 #5. House on Haunted Hill (1959) (Amazon Prime) Eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren and his greedy 4th wife have invited 5 strangers to the infamous House on Haunted Hill for a "haunted house" party, with a condition: Any of the strangers that can stay in the house for one night will earn $10,000 each. As the night progresses, all the guests are locked inside the house with ghosts, murderers, and other terrors. "... I have rented the house on Haunted Hill tonight so that my wife can give a party. She's so amusing. There'll be food and drink and ghosts, and perhaps even a few murders. You're all invited." - Vincent Price Is there a more stereotypically Vincent Price performance than this one, in House on Haunted Hill? It's knowing, arch, droll, a little bit effete and a little bit sinister - much like the man himself. Price is largely powering the whole picture, but there is still a lot of other great performances in here, especially Carolyn Craig as the woman being driven to hysterics so she'll commit a murder and Richard Long as the beefy hero type who gets shut up in a closet and forgotten about for the third act. A lot of the picture plays off that kind of tongue-in-cheek approach, and it's a delight. Fun fact: While this is the first time I've watched this through (somehow... how did I sleep on this one so long?), I had actually seen the ending at some long-ago college party. I don't know why I never put one-and-one together, that ending with the trick skeleton scaring the evil wife into the Chekov's trapdoor-wine-vat-filled-with-acid was a joke among our group for several weeks after. This was a great, fun film. Highly recommended.  /5 #6. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (Shudder) Ten years after his original Halloween night massacre, the invalid Michael Myers awakens and returns to Haddonfield to kill his seven-year-old niece. The badly scarred Dr. Loomis is in hot pursuit, but can he stop Myers this time? This is like the most fairly adequate Halloween movie out there - it's an agreeable enough way to wile away 90 minutes, but it doesn't hold a candle to the better outings. It's not as great as the original, 2018 sequel or Rob Zombie's Halloween II; it's not as notably odd as part 3 or as intense as Rob Zombie's remake effort. (It's also not nearly as terrible as parts 5 or 6 or Resurrection, though, and I think it might also just edge out the original Halloween 2 and H20 for me.) It's got a great beginning (or at least, a great set of opening credits) and a great ending, but the whole rest of the middle kinda meanders. There's a weird choppiness to the way this movie is edited - there's a bunch of scenes that just kind of stop a beat or two early, and it never feels like the film can let itself breathe. There's also a bunch of moments that don't feel properly motivated, like when the lead teen girl gets scared into jumping a fence or when the posse of gun-toting townsfolk spot a figure in the bushes, stop and shoot him dead, only for it to not be Michael Myers. It's almost like they forgot to go back and get enough b-roll coverage or something to properly edit scenes together, so you're left kind of puzzling together why characters make certain decisions. It's a messy film, but there's also juuuuuuuuuuuuust enough in there to keep me from hating it outright. (Not by much, it's pretty much riding the line of "acceptable enough," but that's what the film seems to aiming for at best - broadly acceptable mediocrity.) Maybe it's disappointing to think that the 10 year anniversary of the codifying slasher film gets graced with something this inconsequential; seeing how low the series would end up falling, "ruthlessly average" could also seem like punching above its weight. /5Watched so far: The Curse of Frankenstein, Villains, Horror of Dracula, You're Next, House on Haunted Hill (1959), Halloween 4
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Oct 3, 2019 21:53
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3. One Cut of the Dead (2019) Echoing what others have said about going in blind. Just want to make a note that this movie takes a lot of stuff that should feel extremely played out by now (one long take shot, big twists, zombies themselves) and won me over through sheer charm and pluck. Clearly made by people who love movies 3.5/5  4. Roadgames (1981)  "I'm talking about sex!" Stacy Keach! Languid but fun Aussie reimagining of Rear Window about a dingo-owning truck driver convinced that another car on the highway is driven by a murderer. Lots of the fun of this movie comes from seeing Keach's rapidly declining mental state as he attempts to hunt a killer while looking and sounding like the most obviously guilty man alive, threatening the wrong people, failing to hijack a motorcycle, and raving about sex murderers to people he just met a minute ago. Also features gorgeous views of the Australian Outback and a fun turn by Jaime Lee Curtis as a hitchhiker. 3.5/5 
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Oct 3, 2019 22:45
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3) Super Samhain Challenge 1: The Babadook (2014) I wasn't interested in this movie, but it was one of the very few that I actually could watch for the challenge and the only one I could find. I'm still not interested in it. I've said before that the worst thing a horror movie can do is make you not care about the characters. Well, this one went above and beyond that in that I actively hated them. By the time anything happened I wanted to strangle the kid and slap the mother. These are not normal feelings for me; as the child of a single mother myself I would at least be sympathising with her even if the kid was a bit much. They say you can't get rid of the Babadook. I beg to differ. I kept the receipt.
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Oct 3, 2019 22:55
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So every year I watch a ton of Horror Films and eat a ton of orange kit kats since they are seasonal. This year I'll get into this thread. I'll aim for 31 1)One Cut of the Dead (2017) This is one of the most unique movies in recent years, It’s clever, slick, and made on such a low budget it made 1000x it’s budget. Unfortunately, saying just about anything about this movie is a huge spoiler, but man is it great. 10/10 Orange Kit Kats. Really, go watch this film, and read nothing about it beforehand. [2) Idle Hands (1999) Anton is a lazy kid, spending all day getting high and watching cartoons with his friends. Of course, the devil makes work for idle hands, and his hand is possessed by a demon and forces him to kill without his consent. He must find a way to stop his hand before his hand drags the girl he likes to hell. This Horror Comedy movie is pretty fun, with a lot of jokes that actually land and lives up to it’s crazy premise. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it has Jessica Alba being able to act. 6/10 Orange Kit Kats. 3) The Ruins (2006) A bunch of young adults go to mexico to party, but on their last day decide to go to some ancient Mayan ruins off the map. However once at the ruins, they can’t leave, since the local villagers will not let them leave, and make it clear they will use violence if they try. They must survive on top of the Mayan temple with what little they have, and figure out why they are not allowed to leave… before they all die. Most movies of this type would make all the characters unlikable jackass’s, but in this movie they come off as human. Not good people, not bad people, but people. And as things go from bad to worse, it works in this movies favor. 8/10 Orange kit kats 4) Donkey Punch (2009) Three unlikable women get onto a boat with four unlikable guys to party and do drugs. After an accidental death, relationships between them become strained. There are some good ideas here, but overall all the characters are the worst. None of them have any redeemable qualities, so the movie is just hoping they all die horrible deaths. 1/10 Orange Kit Kats 5) Maniac Cop (1988) A cop who is a maniac goes on a brutal killing spree killing innocent people. Detective McCrae is on the case, and must clear the name of his friend Officer Jack W. Forrest before the killings get worse, and before public opinion on the cops gets worse than it already is. A film written by Larry Cohen staring Tim Atkins and Bruce Campell sounds like it would be a blast, and it kind of is. It’s got that Cohen charm, but it’s a bit slow in parts. For a slasher the killings are nothing special. The film seems to be making a point about police brutality and corrupt government officials, but it’s more subtext than in your face most of the time. Overall, a very enjoyable film. 7/10 Orange Kit Kats 6) K-12 (2019) Melanie Martinez is a fantastic songwriter singer, and decided to turn her new album into a horror musical, writing and directing it herself. It’s very odd. The songs are bangers, the aesthetics of bright pastel colors is fun, but some of the transitions from to musical don’t flow that well, and Martinez probably should have hired an actual writer. That said, the ambition alone makes me love it. Do I know what the movie is about? Kind of. Crybaby and her friend angelina, are angels who have to suffer on earth to understand the pain of humans. In 90 minutes, she goes from kindergarten to 12th grade, while showing the horrors of school and society. There are definitely too many themes crammed into one movie, probably due to it being a musical album as well. This movie might be too weird for some, but It’s my jam. Great songs, horror undertones, the running theme of fighting the authority, and turning an album into a movie are all things I love. 9/10 Orange Kit Kats (The film and the album)
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Oct 3, 2019 23:47
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Hey Fran, would a horror doc like King Cohen or Haunters count?
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Oct 3, 2019 23:49
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7)Apollo 18 Netflix  this one was pretty disappointing. Found footage of a disastrous last nasa mission to the moon? Sign me right up. And it's not the worst, but the ultimate reveal is pretty dumb (and not very surprising to be honest. moon rocks are actually little alien crab/spider things that eat and burrow inside people. I think if they had played up the conspiracy angle, and saved the reveal to later it would have worked better. Or even if it was shorter. There's at least one Doctor Who that does the same thing but better /5
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Oct 3, 2019 23:55
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Scream 01. "What's your favorite scary movie?" I watch this movie every year, but I haven't been able to devote screen time because, well, health that most all y'all know about. I adore this movie and I will plant a stake and say that this is Wes Craven's best film. It's stupidly good. The kills are inventive, the casting is top-notch (outside of Skeet Ulrich, but I admittedly have a weird, deeply embedded dislike of him), Marco Beltrami's score is great, and for a low-budget movie it's really beautifully shot. Special notice goes to the soundtrack. This was the film that introduced me to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, but the other songs on the soundtrack are great, too. Ending with First Cool Hive by Moby then fading into a cover of Whisper to a Scream ... perfection.
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Oct 3, 2019 23:57
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Anonymous Robot posted:Hey Fran, would a horror doc like King Cohen or Haunters count? Absolutely.
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Oct 4, 2019 00:19
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Summer of 84 (2018, Shudder) This is a nostalgia driven movie about the summer of 1984 and a group of kids who suspect that their neighbor is a serial killer. On paper it sounds good but it really fails in execution. A series like Stranger Things works because they realize that the kids are kids. Pre-teens can get away with quite a bit and naivety can be a valuable character trait. The kids on this movie are 15 years old and come off as more creepy than anything else. It doesn’t help that an older babysitter is a love interest for the main character and she comes off creepy as well. The movie has a really unsatisfying ending which makes the villains motivation really baffling. The parents of the main kid are really lame as well and irrationally angry for most of the movie. If you like 80’s throwbacks you’ll probably like the scenes of kids riding their bikes around and the synth soundtrack but I’m really getting tired of these throwbacks. Don’t let the gimmick fool you - don’t bother watching this movie. Watched (7): Brightburn, Tales from the Hood, Pet Semetary 2, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, One Cut of the Dead, Leatherface (1990), Summer of 84
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Oct 4, 2019 00:42
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9. Happy Death Day (2017) Watched On: HBO Now After how hard Videodrome hit me, I wanted a fun horror comedy to cleanse my palate. I started Deathgasm, but quit after an hour or so because I didn't like any of the characters and I didn't anticipate that changing. I remembered that Happy Death Day was surprisingly well-received for a PG-13 Groundhog Day horror movie, so I checked it out. It's barely scary, but holy hell is this movie funny. The script is sharp and the assorted montages of Tree reliving her birthday over and over are all really well done (the one where she's trying to rule out suspects in her murder being the particular highlight). Speaking of our goofily named protagonist, I don't think the movie would work as well as it does without the performance of Jessica Rothe. She sells all the aspects of her character: her initial terribleness, coming apart at the seams after continually waking up on the same day and eventually wanting to be better. Although a little formulaic, it had some fun twists and turns and I'm VERY interested to see how they make a sequel to this work.
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Oct 4, 2019 00:57
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October 3 - Don't Look in the Basement (a.k.a. The Forgotten) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys27ZxU3M3g My month of three box sets has taken me to the box that I'm expecting the least from. Simply titled Cult Horror Collection from St. Clair Vision, it's definitely one of those box sets that's filled with whatever they could get distribution on for a couple of dollars. I decided to keep my decision simple and start with the first movie on the first disk. There's a small asylum where the doctor running it allows the patients to roam freely as part of their treatment. Then one of them hits him in the back with an ax. The new nurse shows up a few days later and the new head doctor reluctantly takes her on, But it seems like the inmates are running this asylum. So I didn't like this movie, but I think it's almost entirely down to the direction of first timer S. F. Brownrigg. He'd go on to make a few more ultra-low budget horror flicks and maybe he improves, but in this movie the direction is just so lifeless. Everything is shot in the most boring way possible. The entire movie feels like it takes place in a white void thanks to the way everything is lit, shot flat, and inactive. But when I get past that... well, it's still not good but I can see what they're trying to do. I watched another movie last year about an asylum where the doctor let the patients just act out their delusions (The Ninth Configuration, which used almost the exact same plot twist as this movie probably because it's the obvious one) and it's a decent starting point. They want to tell a story about a woman's worldview being broken down and the challenge of identifying what is real and the script just isn't capable of carrying that weight. The characters are dull as dishwater, even the "wacky" insane ones, and it's hard to get interested in what they're doing. Basically, Don't Look in the Basement is a movie that needed a lot more life to it. It's so drab that it drains the intrigue out of its premise.
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Oct 4, 2019 01:13
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After Creepozoids and The Loch Ness Horror, I have set out to find some halfway decent flicks as a palette cleanser… # 6 HUSH (2016)  Hush is a slasher/thriller hybrid with the variable of the protagonist being deaf. This variable, along with eschewing tropes slightly and the competent direction of Flanagan, prove that it doesn’t take much for this type of movie to feel fresh and be effective at suspense. Here are examples of tropes being tossed aside: The killer takes off his mask early which was unexpected but welcome. To the disappointment of some viewers, we learn virtually nothing about the killer himself - it is simply the deaf woman versus the killer in a period of a few hours or less. I welcome the movie’s abandonment of THAT trope… you know, like the killer being explained on a brief news broadcast or the cops say a few lines about him at the end. We only know he has a kill count scrawled on his crossbow, and that’s creepy enough. And hey, you don’t see that weapon of choice too often. I think this movie achieves its aims – as modest as they are at 82 minutes and with only several characters. I can hardly think of much to complain about. Noticing the 92% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and the lower audience score intrigued me enough to set out and read people’s beefs with the movie. Many of them are along the lines of “Character A was so stupid, why didn’t they do B?” or “Why didn’t A happen because B?” My brain raises these questions, too, but I find it beneficial to ignore them in this genre and go along with it. For instance: QUESTION: How did the jock dude get tricked by the killer posing as a cop? ANSWER: I don’t know. The guy had a rough day at work and his brain was Jello. QUESTION: Why couldn’t she pull back the wire on the crossbow? They make those so that anyone can pull them back. ANSWER: The killer customized his crossbow and made it hard? Don’t know or care. Sometimes viewers, especially people who love explaining things to you, let these things ruin their enjoyment of a well-crafted thriller. SCORE: 7.6 /10 *** # 7 ONE CUT OF THE DEAD (2018)  This movie works like a charm, but reading spoilers about it is comparable to learning in advance about a hilarious practical joke that you were supposed to stumble into. This is perhaps one of the most spoiler-fragile movies ever. In fact, for the middle part of this review I’ll turn the tags on. This is the first movie that I watched based on this thread’s recommendations and I was fortunate enough to not read anything other than “It’s good!” One Cut of the Dead is in three parts, and I’ll share my reaction to each part. Part 1: Fun! But, I did wonder if this was the only thing the movie was aiming to accomplish: a real zombie outbreak on the set of a zombie movie. Suspecting this, I felt the movie played its strongest card too quickly, and the gimmick isn’t THAT clever. There were also things that just didn’t feel right. Like the camera falling to the ground with a lingering crooked shot of the action. Weird hesitations from actors. And then, the credits came. And I was confused. I even checked if I had accidentally started the movie late. Part 2: Call me slow, but I probably watched half of the second act before finally understanding what the hell is happening. And that’s when the enjoyment factor shot upward. At last I was in on the joke. Part 3: At this point, I am charmed to death by this comedy. Its humor is warm-hearted and communal, not mean-spirited, which is a nice change for comedy. I probably haven’t had this feeling since Chef (2013). In hindsight, I remember the team spirit of the film & crew, more so than individual characters. You’re along on the ride with the filmmaking feat. In sum, I am onboard with the positive reception of this movie. Perhaps the only downside is that its re-watchability can be called into question given how reliant the movie is on its one-time mischief. However, I imagine re-watching with a person completely new to the experience would be great. SCORE: 7.6 / 10
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Oct 4, 2019 01:14
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3. The People Under the Stairs If you are like me and have put off on seeing this movie despite being told many times to do so, stop! It's a fantastic film that says a lot of great things in an hour and forty minutes without ever losing pace. There are a lot of fun little details here and there, but for me the three character arcs in the movie are the best bit. Alice's arc from obedient victim of patriarchy/evangelical sexual weirdness to violently seizing her own liberation is fantastic. The titular People Under the Stairs are great because they hearken back to the history of zombies standing in for an "underclass", economic and/or racial, and when they murder Mother you can't help but cheer for them, a wonderful inversion of typical zombie movies that carries a message about solidarity between oppressed classes. Fool's arc feels a bit more straight forward, but that's just because the film is very blatant in telling you ahead of time who Fool is and what he will have to do. It reminded me, weirdly, of Tigers are Not Afraid, which I recently saw. The theme of children growing up among poverty and violence finding themselves wrapped up in paranormal dangers which overlap with very real day-to-day danger, perhaps. The paranormality of Mother and Father in The People Under the Stairs is not very apparent, but a line given by Fool's grandad reveals it. He talks about the landlord family and how they got rich and greedy and how this made them more insane generation after generation, as if generational wealth is a corrupting force that not only destroys the victims of this system, but also the recipients of the wealth. A fantastic film I should have seen a lot sooner, 5 pumpkins out of 5. quote:1. The Shining [5/5 Spooks]
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Oct 4, 2019 01:17
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Random Stranger posted:October 3 - Don't Look in the Basement (a.k.a. The Forgotten) I just wanted to let you know that I watched Keep My Grave Open aka The House Where Hell Froze Over as part of my challenge log (will write it up later) - per IMDB S.F. Brownrigg directed that four years after Don't Look in the Basement (which is on my list to watch in two weeks or so) and if what I saw was any indication, uh, he didn't improve.
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Oct 4, 2019 01:22
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I apologize if I missed it but is The Ruins streaming somewhere? I really want to watch it now.
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Oct 4, 2019 01:25
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TheBizzness posted:I apologize if I missed it but is The Ruins streaming somewhere? I really want to watch it now. Prime, Showtime, Vudu, Tubi. No excuses! I love that October '19 is randomly becoming the year one of my personal favorites starts getting mad love. Thanks, Fran!
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Oct 4, 2019 01:27
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4) The Mummy's Hand (1940) The opening salvo in what may be the first horror franchise reboot. It's cheap and short, like many wartime movies, and there's not a great deal to the plot. The Mummy also doesn't even appear until almost two thirds of the way through the 67 minute run time. However, it's for my money the most interesting portrayal of the character put to film. Where Imhotep was almost a tragic figure and the architect of his own plans, Kharis is a cursed slave. In his one appearance, Tom Tyler - perhaps most famous for being the first cinema superhero in The Adventures of Captain Marvel - plays Kharis as a drug addict desperate for the fluid that grants him movement. I wouldn't often say this, but it's almost a shame that they recast the part with Lon Chaney Jr for the three sequels. There's also some pretty good make-up, with Kharis's eyes being blacked out in close-ups for a very effective look. I'd say this one is definitely worth an hour of your time. I have The Mummy's Tomb lined up next, and I might look for The Mummy's Ghost and The Mummy's Curse as well.
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Oct 4, 2019 01:30
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3. The Changeling (Shudder) I found this one to be a mixed bag. As another reviewer mentioned, the mystery is better than the horror, especially considering how it starts. I will admit that a huge part of that is because the movie is nearly 40 years old and most of the spooky scenes have been replicated in other ghost movies since. That said, this film is filled with beautiful shots (mostly of stairs) and George C. Scott is always a delight. 4. Knock Knock (Prime) Not a ton to say about Knock Knock it delivers exactly what it wants to. Not a great movie but I enjoyed it more than Mayhem. The scene where Keanu’s wife calls right as he figures out that not only are these girls not leaving, but are now toying with him, might be the scariest/most panic inducing thing I view this whole October. I felt like Keanu was kind of mailing it in during early scenes but by the end he’s loving killing it. The ending also, is a bit lacking but overall this is a pretty solid but unspectacular movie.
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Oct 4, 2019 01:49
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TheBizzness posted:I apologize if I missed it but is The Ruins streaming somewhere? I really want to watch it now. I've been using this site to find where stuff is available and it's been super useful: https://www.justwatch.com/us
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Oct 4, 2019 01:55
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Is the good Oujia movie people are talking about Oujia: The Insidious Evil?
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Oct 4, 2019 02:05
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Anonymous Robot posted:Is the good Oujia movie people are talking about Oujia: The Insidious Evil? Oujia: Origin of Evil. Its a Mike Flanagan film so like, it depends on if you dig his style or not. But I hated the first one and avoided the second one for a long time but its a pretty decent ghost story.
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Oct 4, 2019 02:06
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STAC Goat posted:Oujia: Origin of Evil. Its a Mike Flanagan film so like, it depends on if you dig his style or not. But I hated the first one and avoided the second one for a long time but its a pretty decent ghost story. Too bad, doesn’t look like this one is streaming anywhere.
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Oct 4, 2019 02:17
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Anonymous Robot posted:Too bad, doesn’t look like this one is streaming anywhere. Looks like its on FX Now... if you have a cable sub or know an old person. I don't remember it well enough to know if a tv edit would ruin it, but I don't think so. But like, its not great or a must watch or anything. Just a pretty decently good horror story which is a surprise given what a piece of garbage the original was. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Oct 4, 2019 |
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Oct 4, 2019 02:26
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6.) Knife + Heart 2018, first watch, Shudder via Prime Colorful, dreamlike, and sensual, with its own microgiallo sequence (complete with POV shots and gloved hands, of course.) This wouldn't have crossed my radar if not for CineD, and I'm glad I got to see it. I'll echo an earlier poster and note that there's some fat around the middle, here - and, perhaps more pressingly for a movie like this, those sequences also add a new color to the palette, becoming both narratively and visually intrusive. It's a form of love. Powerful, voracious, boundless. Watched: 1.) Cabinet of Dr. Caligari [Classics], 2.) Occult [J- and K-horror], 3.) Son of Frankenstein [Threequels, Samhain Challenge #1], 4.) Game Over [India] 5.) Candyman [Clive Barker], 6.) Knife + Heart [New Releases]
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Oct 4, 2019 02:28
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#1 - Fright Night (1987) (DVD) Horror might be the only genre that blurs the line between protagonist and audience so thoroughly. How many westerns are there where the heroes succeed because they're aware of the cliches of the western? That said, Charlie Brewster is pretty dumb for someone who supposedly knows a lot about vampire movies. Shouldn't he know that the cops never believe in vampires, even on screen? Fright Night ends up being a lot of fun, but it's obvious that the script needed another pass. The fact that Charlie recruits Peter Vincent based solely on his role as a vampire hunter in the movies makes Charlie seem...not too bright at best, mentally ill at worst. /5#2 - Halloween III: Season of the Witch (Blu-ray) I usually try to fit this one in on Oct. 23, when it's actually EIGHT MORE DAYS TIL HALLOWEEN HALLOWEEN HALLOWEEN but I decided I needed the fix a lot sooner this year. This was probably my favorite of the entire series as a kid just because they would show it on TV more often than any of the Michael Myers entries. I have a major soft spot for dirtbag horror heroes, and Dr. Challis is on my Mt. Rushmore with Ash and Uncle Reggie from Phantasm. /5#3 - House of 1,000 Corpses (DVD) I hadn't rewatched this in a long time because I thought it was pretty much just okay back then and didn't want to find out I was wrong. But it ended up being just okay again. I admired Karen Black's commitment to having really gross teeth, but that was the only revelation I had during this watch. The editing was just a mess. .5/5#4 - Poltergeist II: The Other Side (Amazon Prime) Apparently there was a cut of this 91-minute movie that crossed the two-hour mark and I cannot believe it. Sure, it's obvious that it's been cut to ribbons, but no way was there another 30 minutes of story because there's not much there in the final product. /5#5 - One Cut of the Dead (Shudder) I'll echo what a lot of people have already said by keeping my mouth shut about it. One of the most life-affirming movies I've seen in a long time, oddly enough. /5#6 - The Invisible Man (Blu-ray) Not just my favorite Universal horror, but one of my favorite movies of all time. Claude Rains is one of cinema's best villains without ever showing his face. He goes from pitiful to violent to madcap in a flash and makes the most out of lines like, "Even the MOON'S frightened of me! The whole world's frightened! Frightened to DEATH!" Pretty much every cop who has a line is hilarious, starting with the one who first gets news of an invisible maniac with "Eh, wot's all this, then?" and later declares, "E's invisibo, that's wot's the matter wit' im!" /5
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Oct 4, 2019 02:40
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sean10mm posted:
This is sitting in my Amazon cart with a handful of other titles, couple also Japanese, just waiting for a paycheck to hit the bank. Looking forward to it even more, now.
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Oct 4, 2019 02:44
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Its sitting on my DVR so I hope to get to that crazy later in the month once I get my years under control.
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Oct 4, 2019 02:48
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Splint Chesthair posted:#1 - Fright Night (1987) (DVD)
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Oct 4, 2019 02:56
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 #7 Big Legend 2018 Tubi I’m more of a fan of Bigfoot movies in sentiment than in practice. I feel compelled to watch them, but I have yet to find one that gives me what I want. Hell, the closest one I can think of is Cry Wilderness, with its mystic noble bigfoot. At its base, I think the sasquatch myth speaks to our feelings of humans’ base nature, and I like to believe that it’s something higher. Well, there’s none of that here, and that’s fine. The sasquatch is a big brute killer. There’s a scene where he hits a guy in the leg with a boulder launched from off screen that’s just a riot. The thing about bigfoot movies that makes them so often disappointing is the low barrier to entry. If you have one actor, a camera, some wilderness and maybe a cheap suit, you can make a bigfoot movie. At least they do give us some full-on glimpses of the sasquatch in this one. This movie is nothing but wasted potential. They caught my interest early on by implying that the sasquatch’s presence was tied up with some secret shady laboratory, but this never pays off, except as a truly shameless plug for a sequel in which the real interesting stuff happens. It’s downright insulting. There’s a character in this movie that has a quirk where he starts literally every sentence with “chief.” Stupid. Don’t bother with this one. Watch Cry Wilderness instead. 1/5
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Oct 4, 2019 02:59
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10. One Cut Of The Dead (2017) Watched On: Shudder Broke down and got Shudder for the month. I'll echo pretty much exactly what everyone else has said about this movie. It's amazing. Go into it knowing absolutely nothing about it. One of the best movie experiences I've had all year.
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Oct 4, 2019 03:01
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6. Lake Mungo (2008) Australia dir. Joel Anderson A ghost story but one that is more about the way death affects those left behind than things going bump in the night. Alice Palmer drowns while on a family trip. After her passing the house just doesn't feel the same. Strange sounds are heard from her room, her mother has nightmares about Alice standing over her bed and her brother, an amateur photographer, captures images of what looks like Alice in and around the house. Most distressingly it seems that Alice knew she was going to die months before it happened. Presented as a documentary about the events. With talking heads mixed with found footage of the events. There's quite a lot of slow zooming into grainy footage or photographs with something ghostly hidden in them which gets a bit repetitive but always remains very unsettling. Something about not quite being able to make out what you're seeing adds to the creepiness in a strange way. The main thing that makes Lake Mungo stand out among ghost stories is how deeply sad it is. We're watching people try to piece their lives together after a traumatic event and grasping wildly at anything that can help them cope and at the same time the ghost is trapped in some melancholy limbo beyond even time itself seemingly not able to do anything but stand by and watch the people she loves. It's never quite made clear if the apparition is actually Alice herself or is it some sort of psychic imprint left by the trauma. Also interesting are the parallels to Twin Peaks. Both invole the death of a young girl called Palmer who knew she was going to die and whose death dredged up dark secrets in her community. The presentation couldn't be more different but I'd be really surprised if Anderson wasn't influenced by Lynch. A drat creepy film and sad too.
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Oct 4, 2019 03:09
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 SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #1: The Best Month #3: Viy 1967 A Russian seminary student is tasked with spending three nights alone with a witch Watched on Shudder  Wow, this was something else. I never imagined I would find a mime “invisible wall” gag to be so innovative and fun, especially from a film made in 1967 Soviet Russia. This was fast-paced, funny, and spooky. I cracked up at the witch surfing on her own coffin, and my mouth dropped at the effects, make-up, and design of the demons at the end. Watch this movie, and then read MacheteZombie’s excellent and informative thread. / 5
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Oct 4, 2019 03:21
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 #3.Necromancer (1988) (First watch) A college student is raped by a couple of other students. She contracts out to a necromancer for  . The necromancer kills the guys.Aside from a kick-rear end soundtrack that doesn't really fit the movie well, this isn't very good. Basically every guy in this movie is an enormous rear end in a top hat. From her professor sexually assaulting students, the guys raping the lead while their friend watches, and her boyfriend being a petty, childish dick. The special effects aren't even good cheesy, they're just bad. The editing is awkward too. Avoid. Goatsee's hole is small compared to the guys in this flick out of The soundtrack is the best part of this.
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Oct 4, 2019 03:43
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10. The Addams Family (1991) I haven’t seen this one since I was a kid and with the animated film coming up soon (might see it, waiting for some people to get back to me) it’s time for a rewatch. It holds up really well and what makes it all work is Barry Sonnefeld’s excellent direction. He’s just so good at madcap comedy (Men in Black is another solid work of his and an excellent other example) but mixed with the macabre and black comedy of Addams Family (which has it in droves) and you have a film. Raul Julia is Gomez Addams and it’s hard for me to picture anyone else performing the role. /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), 10. The Addams Family (1991) Super Samhain Challenges: Justin Godscock fucked around with this message at 06:25 on Oct 4, 2019 |
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Oct 4, 2019 03:55
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https://twitter.com/KennethJWaste2/status/1179955035729473537?s=20
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Oct 4, 2019 04:03
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| # ? Jun 10, 2024 01:17 |
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Random Stranger posted:October 3 - Don't Look in the Basement (a.k.a. The Forgotten)
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Oct 4, 2019 04:08
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