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Lumbermouth
Mar 6, 2008

GREG IS BIG NOW


gey muckle mowser posted:



12. Popcorn (1991)
(blu-ray)

Yo this movie seems awesome and I definitely want to watch it.

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Gripweed
Nov 8, 2018

#13: Dementia 13



This was in a DVD set of Roger Corman horror movies, so all I knew about it going in was the title and the connection Roger Croman. So imagine my surprise when "Directed by Francis Coppola" popped up on the screen. That's right, Nick Cage's uncle! And then a few minutes later, a character says "She's an American girl. You can tell she's been raised on promises". How have I never head of Dementia 13?

On top of all that, the opening sets up a pretty fantastic plot. An American lady taken to her in-law's castle to meet the family sets out to get her mother-in-law to rewrite the will and die before anybody finds out her husband is dead and she's no longer part of the family. She comes up with a scheme to use the rumors that the castle is haunted by the ghost of a dead girl to help her. But are they just rumors?...

Then half an hour in she gets fuckin murdered and it becomes super clear we're in a blatant psycho ripoff. Goodbye fun plot, and also goodbye the most sympathetic and motivated character.

That would've ruined the whole thing, except Dementia 13 isn't just a Psycho ripoff. It's also a whodunnit, and a sort of proto-slasher movie. There's a family doctor who decides to play detective, and the actor made a fantastic choice to play him as a mildly deranged. rear end in a top hat who seems like he's accusing everyone he talks to. There's enough extra stuff strapped to the back half of the movie to elevate what should be a boring cheap Psycho ripoff into something genuinely entertaining.

Dementia 13 is a surprisingly decent gothic proto-slasher mystery Psycho ripoff that directly inspired a classic American rock song. Give it a try!

even if I'm still bummed we didn't get a full movie about the lady trying to get her inheritance before anybody finds out her husband is dead

Bruteman
Apr 15, 2003

Can I ask ya somethin', Padre? When I was kickin' your ass back there... you get a little wood?

These were all Scream Stream movies from the previous two nights:

11) Les Affames (aka The Ravenous, 2017)

When the zombie apocalypse comes to a rural corner of Quebec, a ragtag group of survivors has to figure out how to get out of the wilderness and to safety...if any remains.

I wasn't expecting much from this film but came away pleasantly surprised. It's legitimately tense and creepy. The sound design is great (barely any music used, with long stretches of silence eventually punctured by the zombies' shrill screams) and the zombies themselves are really unsettling - they're fast, not entirely mindless and the reveal of their activities outside of pursuing humans is a great :wtc: moment (there's a shot near the end of the film involving this when our protagonists find themselves in a fog-filled field that gave me goosebumps when I saw it). The cast is good too and you come to give a poo poo about their survival, which is always a sign of a good zombie movie.


12) Dead Snow (2009)

A group of medical students decide to spend their Easter holiday in the mountains somewhere in Norway, but their fun is interrupted by a band of Nazi zombies intent on tearing them apart to find a secret treasure.

So here's a film that almost achieves greatness - the gore and action is great, and the filmmakers were clearly inspired by some of the classics, but unlike Les Affames, the students' introduction in the first quarter of the film is obnoxious and it's hard to really give a poo poo about them (which might have been the intent, but if so the English dub and dialogue is lacking the finesse required to pull that off). Still, annoying protagonists aside, there's a great fight at the end of the movie involving power tools, machine guns and a snowmobile, guts and brains are spilled, limbs are cut off and if you don't care about characterization or plot, there's a lot here to enjoy.


13) Alucarda (1977)

A young orphaned girl, Justine, arrives at a convent and meets Alucarda, another orphan who has spent her life at the convent. They become fast friends, but their curiosity (and Alucarda's impetuous nature) ends up with them being demonically possessed and raging against the cruel church and its personnel.

Well, this sure was something! Loud, lewd and bloody, Alucarda starts weird and ramps up dramatically from there, with vivid imagery, orgies, pyrokinesis, and flagellating nuns dressed in weird gauze habits, and blind girls falling dramatically down steps. There's a bizarre synth-heavy soundtrack and a hilarious dub too ("Joosteen!"). There's never a dull moment, and it's easy to see why this was controversial on release - this movie really, really hates the Catholic church and wants you to know it.


14) What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

A documentary crew follows a group of vampire roommates living together in a New Zealand suburb.

I mean, what more of an introduction do you need? This is one of those movies that manages to skillfully mix several genres together (it's a mockumentary, a gory horror film and a comedy all in one) without one part feeling out of balance. It's great how it's uproariously funny (with some very pitch-black laughs too) and yet bittersweet - yeah, they're vampires and they kill people, but they all still have parts of them that are human and filled with eternal yearning. It's also interesting seeing their situation from the point of view of the humans around them, including the married familiar woman who can't wait to be turned but she's constantly denied, and Stu - sweet, wonderful Stu, who brings out the best in everyone around him, even if they're vampires or werewolves (not swearwolves). Watch this one if you haven't already, it's great.

Hey, I'm almost halfway to 31!

Watched so far:
1) House (1985)
2) Demon House (2018)
3) The Amityville Horror (1979)
4) Madhouse (1981)
5) Ghosthouse (1988)
6) Amityville 2: The Possession (1982)
7) Evilspeak (1981) :siren:SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #1: The Best Month:siren:
8) The House of Seven Corpses (1974)
9) House of Exorcism (1975)
10) Amityville 3-D (1983)
11) Les Affames (The Ravenous, 2017)
12) Dead Snow (2009)
13) Alucarda (1977)
14) What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

Alfred P. Pseudonym
May 29, 2006

And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss goes 8-8


6. Candyman (1992):
I had no idea going into this that it had a Philip Glass score. It’s a v good score. Candyman touches on a lot of interesting themes: urban decay, race in America, folklore and urban legend, and academics being huge assholes. We follow a pair of grad students researching the legend of Candyman, who, in a shocking turn of events, turns out to be real. I had expected this to be more of a slasher than it is, so the psychological elements were a nice surprise. The set design and the appearance and overall presence of Candyman were highlights. It has some minor flaws but I really liked it.

Justin Godscock
Oct 12, 2004

Listen here, funnyman!
15. Why Horror? (2014)



Decided to toss a documentary in here for some variety. I always enjoy tossing one into these challenges just to stimulate the brain a little and take a breather but within Challenge rules. This one is about a filmmaker who explores why we watch horror movies, what is the appeal and its legacy. It goes all the way back to medieval paintings (think ones from around the Black Death) and how they used macabre and grim imagery not just for artistry but to teach morality. It then goes on to show how over the centuries horror has been represented in literature, movise and even video games. Included are interviews with horror icons like John Carpenter and George A. Romero (RIP) who give they insight.

I recommend this one if anyone wants a good horror documentary that attempts to explain us who do these Challenges.

:spooky::spooky::spooky::spooky:/5

16. Bad Moon (1996)



And with this entry, I am already over half-way done my initial goal.

I never really noticed there is a such a dead zone when it comes to werewolf movies once you get past the classics (American Werewolf in London, The Howling, The Wolfman, etc.). So I decided to just say “the hell with it” and click a random werewolf movie on Amazon Prime after coming up fruitless.

This is actually a pretty good low-budget one if you are looking for one. It’s about a guy who is bitten by a werewolf in Nepal (and his girlfriend killed) who comes back home to live with family in isolation because of his condition. From there, even though he tries to control/understand it (including handcuffing himself to a tree at a full moon) suspicion quickly arrives. What is really unique (and might be a bit of a turn off for some) is that the family dog is wise to the guy and is almost self-aware when it comes to dealing with the threat to his family. It’s based on a book where the dog is the first-person perspective and movie ditches that. So we get this really weird tone where the dog is bizarrely sentient in between the human moments which are the focus. It’s strange but at times it works. Oh, and the practical werewolf effects are shockingly good for a movie with such a low budget (aside from the crappy 90s CGI which is one scene).

:spooky::spooky::spooky:/5

Total: 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), 11. Grizzly (1976), 12. The Mummy (1932), 13. See No Evil (2006), 14. The Invisible Man (1933), 15. Why Horror? (2014), 16. Bad Moon (1996)

Super Samhain Challenges: 1

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006


This movie poster has captivated me since the film was in theaters and I've still never seen it. Time for that, uh, Flix Fling trial subscription I guess!

Count Thrashula
Jun 1, 2003

Death is nothing compared to vindication.
Buglord
#11) The Bye Bye Man (2017)



More like the Bad Bad Movie. Nothing in this movie makes sense, nobody seems to even care about acting halfway convincingly, and it's not even so bad it's funny, it's just boring. Seriously, how is that even scary? "Don't say it." Okay, cool. That works for names that are somewhat creepy: Bloody Mary. Candyman. Beetlejuice. But "The Bye Bye Man"?? It doesn't even make sense, they spend half the movie saying his name! "We can't say The Bye Bye Man!" "What? Don't talk about the Bye Bye Man!" "Oh, sorry I didn't mean to say Bye Bye Man." Ugh. "Bye bye, man," is what the movie studio should have said to the screenwriter after the first script read!

:spooky: 💩/5

Drunkboxer
Jun 30, 2007
Starting to get a blacklog of movies so I best log a few.

1: One Cut of the Dead - 2017, on Shudder



I came into this movie after a lot of hype and wasn't disappointed. It definitely pays off to go in as blind as possible, but you should expect it to play with genre and narrative a lot. The cast is pretty charming as well.

5/5

2: Arizona -2018, on HBO



Kind of a middling thriller that gets a bit of a boost for being set during the housing crash of 2008-9. Definitely a clever idea but your enjoyment of it's going to be based on how entertaining you think Danny McBride's sleaze ball hick characters are. I enjoyed it.

3/5

Drunkboxer fucked around with this message at 02:26 on Oct 7, 2019

Behind Maslow
Apr 11, 2008


#7.Hereditary (2018)
(First watch)

After a grandmother dies a family experiences a series of tragedy and breakdown.

I've heard great things about this and they were all true. I'm a sucker for slow burn and this was slow, plodding, pure tension every second, uncomfortable, and horrific. Toni Collette is incredible in every scene, as well is the rest of the cast. The score adds a pristine layer of dread that cannot be invoked any other way. The shots are static yet mundanely vibrant. I highly suggest checking this out if you haven't already.

Somebody fucked around with this message at 12:39 on Oct 7, 2019

Behind Maslow
Apr 11, 2008

gey muckle mowser posted:



12. Popcorn (1991)
(blu-ray)

I love Popcorn. I highly recommend it to everyone in this thread. I would totally go to a horror-a-thon like put on.

Darthemed
Oct 28, 2007

"A data unit?
For me?
"




College Slice

#44) Hocus Pocus (1993), a.k.a., Abracadabra
I remember seeing this with my mom at a Cinemark, and getting a glow-in-the-dark popcorn bucket with Front Row Joe and some other characters on it, all dressed up for Halloween. I wish theater chains still had mascots, instead of just CGI pre-reels. Is it just me, or is that opening credits sequence biting hard off of Beetlejuice? John Debney delivers a solid score with lots of autumnal vibes going for it, and that opening theme helped take some of the shock out of seeing that the story and screenplay were by Mick Garris.

Nice to see Omri Katz in one of his few non-Eerie, Indiana roles; I wonder why he retired from acting. And lil' Thora Birch! Midler, Najimy, and Parker all bring lively, quality performances, get great costumes, and give a clear sense of their quirks without being didactic about it. Probably my favorite SJP performance, not that there's much competition for that spot. And hey, early work for Doug Jones! I'm glad he managed to escape the mouse. Garry Marshall getting an uncredited cameo as Satan is... fitting.

Feels like there's been a big push of merch for this movie this year, for some reason. Shame that there's no Zippos in that push, considering the product placement they got in this. And I'd be very much in favor of more evil books with eyes showing up in movies. The script is tight and clever, and like Halloweentown, there are moments that I just can't imagine appearing in a modern Disney production (car-flattened cat, for example). Very weird having virginity be such a central plot point in a Disney movie. The threading in of something to let Midler have a musical scene is impressively organic, with a nice little set-up. Can't imagine how I interpreted the pottery-firing room as a kid; must've been something like 'Big kids' schools have fire rooms, I guess?'.

Looking at director Kenny Oretega's subsequent movies, which include a couple of High School Musicals and the Descendants series, it's hard to believe he landed something as squarely and relatively non-corny as this. But it still holds up, a quarter-century later, and part of the ending actually got my eyes watering. I guess I'm getting to be a softie.

:spooky: rating: 7/10

"Farewell, mortal bus-boy!"

That Dang Dad
Apr 23, 2003

Well I am
over-fucking-whelmed...
Young Orc


8. ONE CUT OF THE DEAD - Shudder

If you're reading this thread, you don't need my recommendation. You know everyone else loved it. So did I. Instant classic for me and the joy as it unfolded was wonderful. As others have said, don't read up on it, just go see it.

I give it 5 out of 5 zombies

duz
Jul 11, 2005

Come on Ilhan, lets go bag us a shitpost


And the weekend ended early so I was able to catch up. Past the half way point now and it's still the first week of the month. Maybe I'll take a day off. Nah.


18. Sorority Massacre 2 (1990)

Apparently written and filmed in seven days because Roger Corman was on vacation and some of his sets were free and it shows. Some girls move into a murder house and decide to use a Ouija board to contact the killer. The goony neighbor breaks into the house and the girls start getting dead. Lots of nudity and no connection to the first movie. Annoyingly pretty much all the violence happens just off screen.


19. Leviathan (1989)

Peter Weller, Ernie Hudson, Daniel Stern and Hector Elizondo star in a mashup of Abyss and The Thing. An underwater mining station discovers a wrecked Russian ship that is supposedly deployed elsewhere in the world. One of the miners ends up infected and begins chronenberging. Luckily this underwater mining station has flame throwers. A really great movie, lots of fun.


20. Night of the Lepus (1972)

An experimental serum turns rabbits gigantic which also causes them to attack local towns and eat people. They really tried to make the rabbits look gigantic but even if they had succeeded, I’m not sure giant rabbits can be terrifying. Probably not worth watching unless you’re bored and hate rabbits.


21. Puppet Master (1989)

A man has discovered how to bring puppets to life, but kills himself before the men in black can capture him. Several psychics show up at an old hotel, summoned by an old acquaintance who turns out to have killed himself. The puppets have been rediscovered and start killing people. Pretty good effects, little light on the story but not bad.


22. Ice Cream Man (1995)

Clint Howard is an ice cream man whose secret ingredient is people. The town’s only hope to stop him is some plucky young kids who know the truth. Clint Howard doing what he does best, playing a weirdo that no one likes. Pretty great levels of camp, good kills. All around a fun movie.



1. Killer Workout (1987) 2. Ænigma (1987) 3. Killer Fish (1979) 4. Rear Window (Theater) (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) 10. 13 Ghosts (1960) 11. Vampyr (German) (1932) 12. Amuck (Italian) (1972) 13. Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951) 14. Fascination (French) (1979) 15. Lake of Dracula (Japanese) (1971) 16. Sorority House Massacre (1986) 17. Prophecy (1979) 18. Sorority Massacre 2 (1990) 19. Leviathan (1989) 20. Night of the Lepus (1972) 21. Puppet Master (1989) 22. Ice Cream Man (1995)

T3hRen3gade
Jun 7, 2007

Look in my eye,
what do you see?

Darthemed posted:

Very weird having virginity be such a central plot point in a Disney movie

I'm not kidding when I say this was the movie that prompted 9-year-old-me to ask my father "what does a virgin mean?" Things were much simpler in the 90's.

Hot Dog Day #89
Mar 17, 2004
[img]https://forumimages.somethingawful.com/images/newbie.gif[/img]

Morbid Hound

The Autopsy of Jane Doe, 2016

Father and son coroners are tasked with doing a late night autopsy of an unidentified female corpse after a mass killing. The police want answers fast to have something to give the press. Nothing about the corpse makes any sense and poo poo just get weirder and weirder as they cut her open. This movie gave me all the good stuff I want in horror. Characters I give a poo poo about, a solid mystery plot, creepy atmosphere and some good and fairly realistic looking gore. Not in any splatter sense, but you do get the feeling they are doing an proper autopsy. The horror isn't just that the corpse got mysteries inside and injuries that makes no sense. Weird poo poo start to happen down in that basement morgue and things goes from dark to grim. This is some top notch modern horror. I'm never scared by any movie, but I sure felt the creeps come over me and I know I'd be scared shitless if I were the type that did get scared from movies. I highly recommend this one.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Watched a whole lot of horror movies while I was in Philly/when I got back and didn't have any time to write about them before, so.... here's a batch of reviews. I also saw Joker while I was in Philly, but I can't really justify putting it towards the challenge.


9. Scary Movie (1991)
Dir: Daniel Erickson

[Blu-Ray rental from Beyond Video]

Not that one. Another wild card pick from Beyond Video and this was one of the bigger surprises I've had this challenge. I knew nothing about this one going in other than it recently got a nice restoration from AGFA (American Genre Film Archive). This film apparently never got an official release in any form until this year, though it's been up on YouTube in way grainier form for a while. A nervous introvert goes to a haunted house with his friends, but as he and his friends hear a story of a mental patient who escaped, he begins to believe the patient is in the house, ready to kill. Throughout the movie, there's a great sense of ambiguity of whether or not there is someone actually killing the volunteers at the house. Amateurish as hell, but there's still something immensely charming about the film. Sometimes, it feels more like a film where you're hanging out with a community, like a lost relative of Slacker that somehow got mutated into a no-budget horror movie. Maybe it's the artifice of being in a haunted house, but sometimes, the lighting gets somewhere close to Argento. Definitely worth a watch, especially if you have a thing for regional/old-school haunted houses like I do.


10. Ice Cream Man (1995)
Dir: Paul Norman

[Blu-Ray rental from Beyond Video]
Clint Howard is pretty much the only thing holding this movie even vaguely together. I don't even like Clint Howard as an actor, but his turn as this gross weird ice cream man who kills people and puts their body parts into his ice cream is like a breath of fresh air in this movie where practically everything else is the worst. The acting from the adults approaches "expositionary scenes in a porno" levels of quality, which honestly makes a whole lot of sense once you realize the only other things this guy directed are all porn! The practical effects work is pretty good, I guess? Shoutout to the normal-looking kid the crew tried to make into "the fat kid" of the group by stuffing a pillow under his shirt and calling it a day.


11. Freaks (1932)
Dir: Tod Browning

[Screening at Suns Cinema]
This film really suffers from pacing issues, partially because MGM edited this down to the bone and partially because some of the actors are not trained, but this film really shines when the sideshow performers get to interact with each other and just hang out. The film's depiction of these performers could easily have been exploitative and humiliating in other people's hands (and you could certainly argue it gets exploitative at some points), but especially for the time period, it's nice seeing them be portrayed in a pretty dignified way. I would have loved to see this in it's original form, but sadly, that will never happen. I don't know if this is a good film, but it's an important film.
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 8. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives 9. Scary Movie (not that one) 10. Ice Cream Man 11. Freaks

Friends Are Evil fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Oct 7, 2019

Darthemed
Oct 28, 2007

"A data unit?
For me?
"




College Slice

#45) Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire (2003)
Kind of neat; the name of this movie (minus the "Scooby-Doo and The" part) appeared on a theater marquee in the previous Scooby movie. Strike that, this one was released six months before Monster of Mexico. But the Hex Girls make an appearance! The gang heads down under, catching an Australian music festival and finding out about a vampire threat in the process.

After a few scenes of exploring Australian attractions, including an oddly specific visit to Bondi Beach, it's on into the usual misdirection and red herrings of a Scooby-Doo mystery. Some more touch-ups/remixes of old Scooby music cues (mainly by dropping in a gentle back-beat loop), more overdosing on stock sound effects (there's a golf cart that sputters like it's about to spit out an Everlasting Gobstopper), and mild acknowledgments of being set in the 21st century crop up, as do numerous staple gags. The tradition of animation shortcuts for the series is upheld; at one point, Shaggy eats a Dagwood sandwich which appears to have nothing but lettuce between the bread slices.

Even with the Hex Girls returning (their theme song has been stuck in my head, off and on, for the last twenty years), this one didn't do much for me. The mystery revolves around bands disappearing/being kidnapped from the festival, a shady manager, and lots of substitute identities, and with the Hanna-Barbera level of scripting, it ends up more of a mess than a puzzle. The wrap-up explanation goes on and on, and there's not much fun to it. And Tom Kenny is wasted on three non-manic voice roles. The animation is stable and clean enough that I can't knock it too much, but as far as actual entertainment goes, the movie fails to rise above average.

:spooky: rating: 5/10

Alfred P. Pseudonym
May 29, 2006

And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss goes 8-8


7. Scream (1996):
Scream absolutely lives up to its reputation. The opening sequence with Drew Barrymore is incredible. The cast is great. Did not know Henry Winkler was in this. The meta stuff got to be a bit much at a couple of points but overall it was great.

Egbert Souse
Nov 6, 2008

19. Oct 6, 2019



Viy (1967, Georgiy Kropachyov/Konstantin Ershov)
Severin Blu-ray
preceded by the comedy/musical short The Devil's Cabaret (1930, Nick Grinde)

Russian/Soviet films are always a treat visually, but when you mix in folk tales or legends, it's irresistible. This is a bit of a slow burn given it's only 77 minutes long, but it's worth it. Don't want to spoil anything, but if you're concerned about a lack of scary in the first half, just keep watching and you won't be let down.

Egbert Souse fucked around with this message at 04:53 on Oct 7, 2019

Butch Cassidy
Jul 28, 2010



13. The Haunting (1963)
DVD

Amazing, possibly perfect, and I need to have the wife and kids watch this one in the dark and lights out.

Anyone who hasn't seen this should double-feature with The Evil Dead as the second piece. Raimi and crew were very obviously influenced by this in a major way.

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), 5. Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil (2017) *Tied for Current Favorite*, 6. Halloween (1978), 7. One Cut of the Dead (2017), 8. Phamtasm II (1988), 9. Ramekin (2018), 10. Les Affamés (2017), 11. Braindead (1992), 12. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), 13. The Haunting (1963) *Tied for Current Favorite*

Decade - 1920s, 1930s, 1940s (I), 1950s, 1960s (II), 1970s (II), 1980s (I), 1990s (I), 2000s, 2010s (VI)

Black & White:Color - 3:10

By Country - Canada (I), Japan (I), 'Murica (IX), New Zealand (I), Spain (I)

New:Rewatch - 10:3

Butch Cassidy fucked around with this message at 04:41 on Oct 7, 2019

STAC Goat
Mar 12, 2008

Watching you sleep.

Butt first, let's
check the feeds.

Darthemed posted:

#44) Hocus Pocus (1993), a.k.a., Abracadabra

Feels like there's been a big push of merch for this movie this year, for some reason.

Disney did a big push last year for the 25th anniversary complete with like a takeover of Salem.

blood_dot_biz
Feb 24, 2013
#10: Possum (2018)


I dug this. What a creepy, grimy little film.

The movie's about a puppeteer, Philip (Sean Harris), who moves back home with his Uncle Maurice (Alun Armstrong). Philip's only belonging is a massive brown leather bag containing an enormously creepy spider puppet, which he lugs around everywhere. He continuously attempts to get rid of the puppet, but that never quite seems to stick. The two main actors do a fantastic job, and the movie itself has a great look to it - all the locations, sets, and props are top notch and nearly every shot manages to be unsettling in some way.

My biggest complaint was that although there's a lot of creepy imagery and dreamlike shots, I don't think it's all pushed far enough. Basically, I wish things got weirder than they did. I hate to bring up the comparison, but a few moments of this movie felt like imitation Lynch. Sometimes I think that worked great, but other times stuff fell a bit short for me.



All in all though I enjoyed this. It sets a unique mood, is legitimately unsettling, has great performances, and at least for me the hits far outweighed the misses.

Watched (10/31): #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), #7 Daughters of Darkness (1971), #8 Sliders of Ghost Town: Origins (2016), #9 One Cut of the Dead (2017), #10 Possum (2018)
Challenges (1/1): #1

K. Waste
Feb 27, 2014

MORAL:
To the vector belong the spoils.
https://twitter.com/KennethJWaste2/status/1181065061391048704?s=20

deety
Aug 2, 2004

zombies + sharks = fun



6. The Witches (1966)

I enjoyed the first hour of The Witches as much as anything I’ve watched recently. Joan Fontaine stars as Gwen Mayfield, a teacher who takes a job in the English countryside after a harrowing experience in Africa. (The opening “witch doctor” scene is stereotypical but mercifully short.)

Miss Mayfield is warmly welcomed by her new community, but she’s a pretty lovely teacher by modern standards. She ignores a case of child abuse, acts as if some extra evening tutoring would help a gifted blue-collar kid just as much as an all expenses paid transfer to a more advanced school, and creates a play with barely any parts for the female half of her class because “hardly any girls invented anything.” So gently caress you very much to Miss Mayfield. Since Joan Fontaine is so goddamn charming though, her character manages to be sympathetic even when she leaves me gritting my teeth.

Strange things begin to happen that leave Miss Mayfield wondering if the locals are practicing witchcraft. She wanders around loudly sharing her suspicions with everyone, and unfortunately she’s not the only one who pays the price of her lack of discretion. After that the movie goes into a fairly sharp dive.

First there’s an amnesia plot. I almost always loving hate those, and in this case it feels like a way to squeeze fifteen more minutes into the runtime. Then there’s a pretty cool reveal, but much of the cult poo poo that follows takes the form of silly, overacted interpretive dance. At the end it’s implied that Miss Mayfield is being romanced by the anguished fake priest that gave her the job, but that guy was, while not in on the cult, still planning to stand by and angst while his sister murdered a teenager. Not exactly partner of the year material.

That uneven ending really is a shame, because otherwise The Witches is a fun movie that nails that Hammer style without being overly gothic or even supernatural. In fact, if you’re willing to accept one big coincidence (or maybe just believe in the power of positive thinking), there’s some ambiguity about whether these people are really witches at all. I liked that there were a couple of genuinely disturbing scenes despite the low body count, and I was also a fan of a particularly memorable sheep stampede.




7. The Crimson Cult (1968)

An antiques dealer named Bob goes looking for his missing brother in a remote village that’s been allegedly cursed by the witch who was burned there. We start out with a dreamlike scene where the missing man is menaced by a group of people who are either Satan’s minions or outcasts from some weird S&M LARP. When Bob arrives to investigate, he runs into someone’s embarrassing idea of a wild, sexy party. Apparently the director just wanted to run off the prudes because the budding orgy disbands to go light some fireworks and the devil’s dungeon crew don’t become much of a focus.

Bob ends up staying in the house his brother may have visited along with Christopher Lee and his mod-girl niece, and after the niece makes a horror movie joke about Boris Karloff popping up, whelp. Then that happens. Karloff and Lee’s shared scenes are one of the few highlights of the movie; the biggest other point in its favor is Barbara Steele’s glam-rear end witch design. There’s a stupid echo effect on Steele’s voice though, and she isn’t given much to do, which contributes to my overall feel of The Crimson Cult being a sad waste of good actors.

The rambling plot does little to hold things together, and Bob ranges from uninteresting to intolerable. It was nice to see Karloff sometimes put him in his place. There is one decent surprise at the end, but it feels arbitrary.


Watched: 1. Burn, Witch, Burn (1962); 2. TerrorVision (1986); 3. Evilspeak (1981) - Challenge #1; 4. Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971); 5. The City of the Dead (1960); 6. The Witches (1966); 7. The Crimson Cult (1968)

Five Eyes
Oct 26, 2017
9.) One Cut of the Dead

2017, first watch, Shudder via Prime

Hey just real quick here - anybody mention before that you should go into this one blind?

I kept becoming more and more charmed by this as it went on, and I think it merits the heat the thread's been generating for it - it's a fun ride. It's probably going on the approved list for non-horror friends, especially as we have some theater and AV people in our circle.

Action!

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], 7.) Butterfly Murders, 8.) The Phantom of the Opera (1925) [Classics], 9.) One Cut of the Dead [J- and K-Horror]

STAC Goat
Mar 12, 2008

Watching you sleep.

Butt first, let's
check the feeds.

FYI, anyone looking for some older films and who still has cable I discovered this channel that is airing a ton of old stuff. Tuesday they have a Vincent Price marathon, last week they did a William Castle marathon, there's lots of other stuff I've been seeing or recording.

http://moviestvnetwork.com/

Maxwell Lord
Dec 12, 2008

I am drowning.
There is no sign of land.
You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand.

And I hope you die.

I hope we both die.


:smith:

Grimey Drawer
6. One Cut of the Dead

Echoing everyone else, yes, this is really good, no, I can't really tell you why. Just... it's, in a word, delightful. It'll reward multiple viewings easy and I'm still not sure how all of it was done, but along with the technical aspects you've got fantastic acting and some great human moments.

Irony.or.Death
Apr 1, 2009


12. Loft (2005) - This was a weird one. There are at least three different stories available from the events of the film, depending on exactly how many murders/ghosts you think were present and how plausible you think it is that an academic started more or less sane. The ambiguity doesn't come from a tightly-crafted puzzlebox sort of thing as much as a loose and dreamy structure, which I normally enjoy but am less enamored with when it feels like I should be sinking my teeth into a mystery. Maybe I was just approaching this in the wrong mood.

It's slow, it doesn't feel beholden to linear storytelling, and most of the spooks feel like a good joke told poorly. So I dunno. Maybe I liked it, maybe I didn't, can't really tell. It definitely gets points for being weird and keeping me interested despite no budget and a slow pace, though.

Origami Dali
Jan 7, 2005

Get ready to fuck!
You fucker's fucker!
You fucker!

#6. Ju On: The Grudge 2 (2003)
dir. Takashi Shimizu
Viewed on Tubi (rewatch)

A mysterious and vengeful spirit marks and pursues anybody who dares enter the house in which it resides... again.

Once again, I hadn't seen this in at least ten years, and it wasn't as good as I remembered. This one is a bit more character-focused than the first, but is hampered by an even more non-linear structure that leaves the viewer confused as hell as to when in the timeline the events are happening. Once again, we have a few spooky setpieces that vary in effectiveness. The best is a sequence involving a strange sound in the wall and a hanging, which might be the creepiest sequence in the series (Mike Flanagan had to have partially borrowed from this for his "Haunting of Hill House"), and the worst being a haunted wig. Kayako's ghost moves a lot more herky jerky in this movie, and it's a cool effect. But the final bit with the baby being a reborn Kayako that knocks out the lights and kills all the doctors in the room is some seriously dumb poo poo. Still worth a watch, tho.
:spooky::spooky::spooky:/5

Watched: 1. The Black Room (2017), 2. Excision (2012), 3. Freaks (1932), 4.The Seventh Victim (1943), 5. Ju On: The Grudge (2002), 6. Ju On: The Grudge 2 (2003)

bitterandtwisted
Sep 4, 2006




15) Chopping Mall 1986


Security robots run amok and start killing people.
This is way better than I expected. Well made and fun and it's got Dick Miller and Barbara Crampton.
Could have done with more creative kills - there's one great one.
It's short at 76 minutes, but that's a good length for it - it's a very light flick and there's not much in the setting or characters that needs to be fleshed out.

The score might be my favourite thing about it. It's a great sound to be murdered by robots to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZFiI4q8i0E

CHALLENGE COMPLETED 15/15
1) Brain Damage 1988; 2) Onibaba 1964; 3) Slugs 1988; 4) The Tingler 1959; 5) Pieces 1982; 6) Canibal Ferox 1981; 7) Eyes without a Face 1960; 8) Train to Busan 2016; 9) Creepshow 2 1987; 10) Anaconda 1997; 11) Son of Frankenstein 1939; 12) Happy Death Day 2017; 13) Species 1995; 14) Insidious 2010; 15) Chopping Mall 1986


Best film Onibaba.
Most fun, probably Happy Death Day.
Worst film definitely Canibal Ferox. gently caress that movie.

Way ahead of schedule. Let's have a stretch goal and do the FULL 31

STAC Goat
Mar 12, 2008

Watching you sleep.

Butt first, let's
check the feeds.

I’m super behind in my years so I skipped a game last night to try and get a jump on things. I had this one saved on my DVR since April just for this.


9. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Recorded off TMC, seems to be on Youtube.

Robert Mitchum plays a charming traveling preacher who also happens to be a serial killer who believes he’s doing God’s will to punish promiscuous women. He takes up with a widow and her two children and menaces them as he looks for the small fortune their father left behind. Based on the true story of serial killer Harry Powell.

This one definitely lived up to the hype.

This is the only film directed by Academy Award winning actor Charles Loughton and that’s an absolute tragedy because this is an absolutely gorgeous film. Some of the shots like the river, the lake, and Mitchum standing over Shelley Winters are just awe inspiring and kind of hard to imagine how they were shot so well not only by an inexperienced director but in 1955. There’s films done today that don’t look this good. And the score of the film is really unique and excellent, relying almost exclusively on simple musical pieces and hymns sung by the cast to haunting effectiveness.

Mitchum’s angel voiced preacher is chilling and in many ways the blueprint for so many characters like him on the 60+ years that followed. In fact I was shocked to finally learn the origin of that “LOVE/HATE” knuckle tattoo thing that has become such a cliche today. Talk about a film having a legacy. For some reason this recording from TMC was introduced by Rose McGowan who called him the “quintessential boogeyman” and I can’t put up much of a fight. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Mitchum before, but if I have its never really made an impression on me. This did. I’ve now added at the very least the original Cape Fear to my list. I had a hard time thinking someone could play that role better than DeNiro but I know believe in Mitchum.

Another interesting element of the film is how just as I felt like it was reaching its climax it shifted into a whole new story. From Powell preying on the family to him hunting them. And then the very effective foil to his evil character being introduced in an almost dueling “Christian” battle of guardian vs predator, false prophet vs servant of God, kind of thing. Really an unexpected turn for the story but one that really worked.

All in all a really great film that has once again opened my eyes about threads of film history I’ve never gone down. Worth the wait.



10. The Thing from Another World (1951) aka The Thing
Recorded off Cable but seems to be available on Internet Archive.

Soldiers in Alaska are called to aid a research team who have discovered a ufo and an alien specimen. But the alien is still alive and becomes a danger to not just all those at the outpost but for the entire world if its allowed to escape in any form.

I’ve seen Carpenter’s version many times but never the original. To be honest I’m not sure I knew there was an original. Going in with the familiarity to one version I knew it wouldn’t be able to do the kind of effects and body horror that Carpenter’s did, but I don’t think I expected a film that was part romantic comedy and featured a vampire carrot.

I really enjoyed it though. It was a completely different take on Carpenter’s but one that absolutely worked for me. While Carpenter’s is nihilistic tale this one manages to keep a kind of fun and upbeat atmosphere in ways as the charming ensemble cast just keeps busting each other’s balls even as everything’s going to hell. While Carpenter’s is very big and loud and really showcases the absolute isolation of the arctic wasteland the original keeps it tight (almost certainly out of necessity) and has a somewhat claustrophobic feel with people constantly squeezing into rooms and spaces and rooms they can go seeming to be getting systematically cancelled out. Its a much lighter, B piece but it works with the same kind of constantly moving pace and sense that there’s nowhere to go and no time to waste.

“An intellectual carrot. It boggles the mind.”

Yet another horror film where the monster is a plant. Who knew they were so popular? That who angle was weird (mainly because of the carrot thing) but really worked for me and still gets across the same basic threat of a threat that could spread to the world through the smallest seed. It takes a bit of a quasi mad scientist to get there but it got there. And I like that they didn’t treat him badly. They were all nice enough to make excuses and give passes to the guy risking the end of civilization. It was really a nice group of folks.

And I really loved Scott.

Another really good watch that opened me up to some film history I didn’t know. Also “watch the skies.” Is that two films in a row where I discovered the origin of a trope I’m so familiar with now? That’s both the challenge and fun of doing this backwards trek through film history. On one hand sometimes something feels “derivative” that was really kind of there first. But I also sometimes get the thrill of seeing things that just completely shaped a century of film and culture and I never realized how or where it came from. History is cool.




I was I was further along than this, but early October is usually the slowest pace I have with this since there’s so much postseason baseball. The entire first round could end Monday, which means I probably won’t watch much that day but then things open up after. We shall see. But I’m gonna have to double up on the years a little and get ahead of pace, especially since there’s a bunch of other stuff I want to watch including the entire Halloween franchise. So I need to really get a good pace going, and get on those Halloweens so I don’t save them all to the end of the month.

STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 12:18 on Oct 7, 2019

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


Been making progress!

#4. House of 1000 Corpses


I absolutely adored Lord of Salem, dug his Halloweens, but the only other Rob Zombie movie I saw was 31 and it didn't do much for me so I never got around to his other movies, which I heard were similar. All the Sid Haig talk in the main thread finally convinced me to give it a try and I'm glad I did. I don't care for crazed rednecks much and this movie didn't add much aside from unnecessary, overused camera tricks....until the ending. Everything in that underground lair, with corpses lining the walls, deranged experiments, monstrous doctors and what else was delightful. Very much worth it.


#5. The Devil's Rejects


I expected a sequel, but this was definitely something else. A step up on nearly every level, I really enjoyed this. It failed to deliver on the schlock I enjoyed in the House of 1000 Corpses finale, but everything else is just such a leap forward that it is more than compensated. Guess I'll be watching 3 From Hell soon....


#6. Evilspeak
:spooky::spooky::spooky:#1. The Best Month:spooky::spooky::spooky:


Viy sounds like something I will love, so I decided to try something else instead. Wish I didn't, because Evilspeak is just plain boring.
Victim of bullying becomes buddies with Satan and takes his revenge isn't anything original, but Evilspeak takes waaaaaaaay too long to get to the point. The conclusion isn't half bad, but I'd rather just watch the Carrie again.


#7. The Ruins


The write up earlier made it sound pretty cool and it was. Everything comes together nicely and while it never swings for the fences it is nice to see a movie that just does everything decent-or-better.


#8. The Fury


Evilspeak put Carrie in my head, Carrie means De Palma and well....here we are.
This movie was not what I expected and it really didn't work for me. It was long, very vague about what was going on and really drags at times. The pay-off isn't worth it either, such a shame.


#9. Death Spa


This was a lot of fun. Nothing seemed to add up, but it didn't really matter. Murder plot, a real ghost, a cross-dressing IT guy with a grudge, who cares, just use all of it. Cops getting killed by frozen mackerels, sticky blenders, exploding showers, toss it in and we'll see what sticks. The 80s really were something.


#10. One Cut of the Dead


Absolutely wonderful.


#11. Goosebumps 2


My four-year-old understands what I do in October and wanted to join in. I was tempted to show him Monster Squad, but ran into this and it seemed a better pick.
It was a very pleasant surprise. There are a gazillion monsters in here and everybody's favorite gets a moment. The scene where the masks are brought to live was nicely done and while inoffensive it didn't feel dumbed down or pulling its punches.

BioTech fucked around with this message at 14:40 on Oct 7, 2019

Iron Crowned
May 6, 2003

by Hand Knit
Due to my current circumstances, I know for a fact that I cannot possibly reach 31 movies for October, but here's what I got a chance to watch over the weekend:

1) Stephen King's Cat's Eye (1985, Blu-Ray) What is there to say about Cat's Eye? It's an anthology of two not really horror King short stories, tied together with a new creature feature story.

The movie starts with the titular cat waking up and being chased by Totally-Not-Cujo, and the two of them nearly get run over by Totally-Not-Christine, before the cat escapes and ends up taking part in the next two segments.

The first segment is based upon Quitter's Inc., where James Woods signs up to a program to quit smoking with extreme penalties for regressing. Overall it's a decent enough concept and executed about as well as it could be, although the cat torture scene is hard to watch.

The second segment is based upon The Ledge., a dude messes around with a mobster's wife and is forced to walk around the ledge on his building. Also overall it's about as good as it could get from the story it's based upon.

And now the wrap around come to completion, and the Cat arrives at Drew Barrymore's house. The Cat now named General, fights a little gremlin that lives in Drew Barrymore's wall. I saw just this segment once when on vacation at about 7 years old, and it terrified me that there was a gremlin living in my wall. I'm pretty sure this was the only time a horror movie had given me nightmares. Having not seen this movie in at least 15 years, this segment was a treat to watch at 38 years old.

Overall there's a very low budget feel for most of the movie because they rightfully dumped it all into the last segment. It was amazing seeing the last segment in high-definition as there's someone in a gremlin costume running around a set that's scaled to match, in addition to some decent for 1985 compositing as he interacts with full sized cat and Drew Barrymore. If I would change one thing, I'd probably replace The Ledge with a different story as I feel like that one was the weakest of the bunch.

Score: 3/5

2) In the Tall Grass (2019, Netflix), It's a haunted field. I enjoyed this one as well, like all Stephen King adaptations it's got some flaws. I haven't read this story, so I can't speak for what was cut, but it does make me want to as there's probably a good 60 pages of explanation that would fill in the holes. Overall though the holes aren't huge IMHO, but I want to know how a bowling alley got built in the middle of a spooky field.

Score: 3.5/5

3) Night of the Living Dead (1968, Blu-Ray). The first undead zombie flick, and there are tomes that have been written about it. This was my first viewing of the Criteron restoration, and it's beautiful, almost too beautiful. There's a lot of details that I'd never seen before and the muddiness is gone. It has been a few years since my last viewing, so it was definitely a treat.

My only real complaint was that the new cleaned up film just feels wrong on this one. Due to the copyright issues on it (or lack thereof), everyone and their mother has made some kind of release of this for 50 years, and it just feels wrong being able to see it flawlessly.

Score: 4.9/5 (penalized for being too perfect)

4) A Vampire in Brooklyn (1995, Hulu). Ugh, what is this movie even? It's an Eddie Murphy movie, but beyond that it can't decide if it wants to be a horror movie or a comedy, and fails hard on both fronts.

It's weird because this seemed to be the last gasp of Eddie Murphy as a serious actor, coming off of the previous year's Beverly Hills Cop 3. There are a couple of sequences which seem to be test footage of Eddie Murphy playing other characters for the next year's Nutty Professor.

Angela Bassett was good at least for such a terrible movie.

Score 1/5

qwewq
Aug 16, 2017
#6: Boar (2017)
Watched on Prime

As overgrown-animal-wreaks-havoc-on-unsuspecting-people movies go, this feels a notch above average. The practical boar effects look pretty great when stationary and the camera is nice and tightly framed, but in motion it switches to CG to the overall detriment of the film. The cast is likeable for the most part, and while I (as an American) recognized Bill Moseley, Nathan Jones, and John Jarratt straight-away, it was the women of the cast that most impressed, Melissa Tkautz chief among them. Come for the giant boar, stay for Rictus Erectus wrestling a giant half-ton animal puppet.


:spooky::spooky::spooky:/5

Watched: 1. From Beyond 2. Evil Dead 3. Phantasm 4. Candyman 5. Phenomena 6. Boar

Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer
11. Island of Lost Souls
1932 | dir. Erle C Kenton
Edgar Wright's 100 Favorite Horror: #4



One of life's simple pleasures is finding a classic black & white horror movie that transcends time and is a joy to watch. Thankfully, I tend to find at least one each time a challenge comes up.

This is the first talkie adaptation of The Island of Dr. Moreau. I have never read HG Wells's novel, so I can't speak on how it serves as a representation of the story, but compared to other adaptations I've seen, this is, by far, my favorite.

It was released a year after Universal's Dracula, so sound design has been better established, and the film is bookmarked by a great score. It's still a quieter film, which gives the setting a haunting silence. This is used to great effect when the "locals"--Dr. Moreau's human-animal hybrids--begin chanting in the jungle. The two major technical aspects that makes the film distinct are Karl Struss's cinematography, which plays with a lot of shadows and distortion, and Wally Westmore's make-up effects on the locals.

Westmore's special effects start off "subtle", like the furry ear pictured below and get more fantastical as it goes along. What I think was a great decision for the film--and really why the effects hold up so well--is that Moreau is interested in making man from animals, so the creatures look 80%-90% human, but have longer teeth, more body hair, snouts, longer ears...Their features are distorted, but much more human than animal. If they had tried to go more animal than human, the effects would be laughable. Instead, they are disturbing.


Karl Struss's use of distorted imagery is, in this scene, used for Edward Parker being seduced by Lota, the Panther Woman.


Our first introduction to Wally Westmore's make-up effects.

The film's messages work on multiple levels. It's not just Man Trying to Be God, as most Moreau adaptations explore, but there's also Imperialism and Class discrimination, with Moreau being a rich elite who has managed to secure an uncharted island for his personal use, and created his own "locals", and uses them as indentured servants. He tries to rule them with laws to separate them as "men" and not animals. This comes to a deliciously ironic end when Moreau corrupts his creatures by having one of them break The Law for his own selfish manipulations, which, when realizing their ruler is a hypocrite and a law-breaker, causes the creatures to perform a coup d'etat.



The performances are great all around. Charles Laughton is the menacing cherubic Dr. Moreau, who is giddily sociopathic. Kathleen Burke steals the spotlight as Lota the Panther Woman, who's childlike innocence is made disturbing by her cat-like personality. Richard Arlen is good as the handsome Edward Parker who's morality is twisted by what he's seeing. Bela Legosi, just a year after Dracula, plays the unnamed Lawkeeper, who gets some of the film's most memorable lines and leads the most memorable moments.

I was also happy to discover that this film is the source for one of my favorite Oingo Boingo songs.


Highly Recommended.

Movies Watched: Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom | Annihilation | Evil Bong 2 | Overlord | Dead of Night | The Ruins | Under Wraps | Attack The Block | Don't Go In The Woods | Body Snatchers | Island of Lost Souls
Rewatches: 2
Total: 11

Edgar Wright's 100 Favorite Horror: 3/20
Super Samhain Challenge: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer
SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #2: Dead & Buried



:ghost: Watch a horror movie who's director passed away since last October

or

:ghost: Watch a horror film featuring an actor who has passed away since last October.

or

:ghost: Watch the film Dead & Buried.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
Spent all weekend dogsitting so I was able to watch some horror sequels!


Poltergeist II: The Other Side

Not sure why this one slipped by me all these years considering that Poltergeist is one of my all-time favorites. I guess I assumed that it was a cheap cash-in but no, the entire cast is back and the budget was almost double of the original. There's also the fact that the entire franchise has an air of tragedy surrounding it. Dominique Dunne was supposed to have a short scene of her character away in college, but she was murdered right after the release of the first film. Julian Beck, who plays the main villain here, was dying of cancer and Poltergeist II was to be his final role. Heather O'Rourke would die tragically just a few years later prior to the release of Poltergeist III. So maybe I stayed away from the sequels for that reason.

Anyway this is a solid, if maybe somewhat redundant, sequel. It definitely has standout moments(the worm barfing scene comes to mind), and Beck plays a memorable villain, which is one way it distinguishes itself from the original which didn't have as much of a direct antagonist on-screen. Nelson and Williams(and Rubenstein) returning to their roles was key to making this feel like a legit sequel instead of the cash-in imitator I'd assumed it was. So I enjoyed it but I'm not sure there's enough here to make me want to revisit it.


Pumpkinhead 2: Blood Wings

Now this one did turn out to be exactly what I was expecting. It's a direct to DVD sequel made 6 years after Winston's original, and it mostly fails to reproduce the atmosphere and style that made Winston's film so engaging. A common complaint about Pumpkinhead is that the monster really doesn't move a whole lot, it's very sluggish. Winston, an iconic creature expert, mostly shot around those limitations until the finale but here there is no such restraint. I imagine they assumed fans would want more Pumpkinhead, but fans don't always fully understand what they really want. So there are a lot of shots like this:


...where the creature is just too well lit and clearly in focus to hold up(although it looks better in a still photo). It lumbers around and in the end does not make for a very threatening monster. The cast doesn't do much to make things better(although there's some fun stunt casting here with Linnea Quigley and Punkey Brewster) and overall I can't think of a reason I'd ever recommend this one.

Watched: 1. Child's Play(1988) 2. Child's Play(2019) 3. VHS: Viral 4. Tales From the Crypt 5. Viy 6. House of Frankenstein 7. Van Helsing 8. The Shining 9. Salem's Lot 10. Poltergeist 2: The Other Side 11. Pumpkinhead 2: Blood Wings

Basebf555 fucked around with this message at 14:42 on Oct 7, 2019

Egbert Souse
Nov 6, 2008

Franchescanado posted:

11. Island of Lost Souls
1932 | dir. Erle C Kenton
Edgar Wright's 100 Favorite Horror: #4

I was also happy to discover that this film is the source for one of my favorite Oingo Boingo songs.

It was also a big influence on Devo. The Criterion edition even has an interview with Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale (as well as the complete Truth About De-evolution short).

I do think it's interesting how a lot of people assume it's a Universal horror film rather than Paramount (especially since it's now owned by Universal), but Paramount was doing some really amazing stuff in the first half of the 30s. This is a time when they had Ernst Lubitsch, Josef von Sternberg, Rouben Mamoulian, Cecil B. DeMille, Leo McCarey, the Marx Brothers, and W.C. Fields.

Iron Crowned posted:

3) Night of the Living Dead (1968, Blu-Ray). The first undead zombie flick, and there are tomes that have been written about it. This was my first viewing of the Criteron restoration, and it's beautiful, almost too beautiful. There's a lot of details that I'd never seen before and the muddiness is gone. It has been a few years since my last viewing, so it was definitely a treat.

My only real complaint was that the new cleaned up film just feels wrong on this one. Due to the copyright issues on it (or lack thereof), everyone and their mother has made some kind of release of this for 50 years, and it just feels wrong being able to see it flawlessly.

Score: 4.9/5 (penalized for being too perfect)

To be honest, I do think people get the wrong idea about public domain films. If you saw an original 1968 35mm release print, it would have looked pristine. Not to mention Romero supervised the restoration before he passed, so it's definitely how it was intended.

Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer

Egbert Souse posted:

It was also a big influence on Devo. The Criterion edition even has an interview with Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale (as well as the complete Truth About De-evolution short).

I do think it's interesting how a lot of people assume it's a Universal horror film rather than Paramount (especially since it's now owned by Universal), but Paramount was doing some really amazing stuff in the first half of the 30s. This is a time when they had Ernst Lubitsch, Josef von Sternberg, Rouben Mamoulian, Cecil B. DeMille, Leo McCarey, the Marx Brothers, and W.C. Fields.

Yeah, the "Are We Not Men?!" chant is clearly an influence throughout the first DEVO album. Kind of a shame that Criterion Channel didn't add this one to their October line-up. The ending is pretty macabre for a early '30's movie, and I would love to dig into the special features.

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Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer
Also, I forgot to mention in my write-up for Body Snatchers that the screenplay is by Larry Cohen, Stuart Gordon, Dennis Paoli and Nicholas St. John. Just one of those names is enough to get me to watch a flick, let alone one directed by Abel Ferrara.

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