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feedmyleg posted:
Critters 2 is the one you're looking for.
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Oct 8, 2019 00:41
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Friends Are Evil posted:I know he's mostly a VFX guy, but does anything Buechler's worked on count towards the second Samhain challenge, or is this limited to actors/directors? Have a few things in my to-do list that he did, but if not, I can always watch Spider Baby to honor Sid Haig. It's strictly actors and directors, but Buechler directed Friday the 13th Part VII and Troll and had a number of acting credits so he counts for both. On the subject of which: 7) Super Samhain Challenge 2: The Hitcher (1986) I don't recall any rule saying this challenge had to be new to me, only the first one. Eric Red's a bit of a shithead, but he knocked it out of the park with this one. It's relentless, and Hauer is a force of nature. Top quality film, about which I need say no more as it's already all been said.
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Oct 8, 2019 00:43
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Franchescanado posted:SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #2: Dead & Buried Another challenge! Can I keep up with my plan to watch a cycle of threequels? 10.) Hatchet III  2013, rewatch, Amazon Prime R.I.P. Sid Haig, Jul. 14, 1939 - Sep. 21, 2019 Hatchet isn't particularly interested in selling itself to an audience - you're either already on board for all-you-can-eat jokey dialogue and gnarly kills or you aren't. For me, by the time we're dealing with the sequels, the gag starts to wear a little thin. Hatchet III could have been a mocking reflection of the inevitable mystical entry in any long-running slasher franchise, but it's mostly just a second chapter to its immediate predecessor. The whole series is akin to eating just the frosting off a cake. Prime material for putting on in the background at a halloween party, though. I sawed his body into little pieces. I'm pretty sure he's dead. 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], 10.) Hatchet III [Threequels, Samhain Challenge #2]
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Oct 8, 2019 00:50
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12. Who Can Kill A Child? (1976) A couple vacationing in Spain visit an isolated island, only to find that all the children there have risen up and killed all the adults there. This movie starts off with five minutes' worth of Holocaust and war footage, all of it focusing on child casualties, and if that's not a really awkward and tonally bleak way to start off your film then I don't know what is. The footage is supposed to set the scene for the children rising up to kill all the adults (because they're the cause of all the war crimes and atrocities), but it's not easy to enjoy a film after it's opened with actual footage of dead kids. As for the rest of the film... it's very slow-paced, with long scenes of our protagonist couple wandering the deserted island and doing little else, but it's biggest failing comes with "protagonist" Tom's behaviour, because the man is determined not to tell his wife the truth about what is going on no matter how important it is that she know what's going on. "The children are just playing!" he all but shouts at her, sweating like a madman, while the aforementioned children hoist an elderly man up and use him as a pinata. Yeah, we all cheer when he finally gets hold of a machine gun and empties a clip into a crowd of kids, but we have to wait for far too long to get to see it. 13. The Seventh Curse (1986)  A doctor journeys back to Thailand to try to lift a blood curse that has been placed on him that will kill him within three days, fighting kung-fu monks, terrorists, cultists and demons along the way. This movie has everything. You want terrorists getting shot en masse? You got it! Boobs? Got it! Demonic fetus-worm-thing made from the blood of 100 freshly juiced children? Got it! A roided-up skeleton demon that drinks spinal juice fresh from the neck? Got it! A climactic fight between the two afore-mentioned demons? You guessed it! Chow Yun-Fat smoking a pipe and turning up every now and then to provide exposition and, at one point, a handy rocket launcher? Got it! Kung-fu wire fight with a dozen Buddhist monks halfway up a giant Buddha statue? ...You get the idea. This movie does not give you a chance to catch your breath from one batshit action scene to another, and it's all the better for it. 14. God Told Me To (1976)  SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #2: Dead & Buried "Watch a horror movie whose director passed away since last October" A detective investigates a series of seemingly unrelated spree killings, where each of the perpetrators can only tell him that, "God told [them] to". His investigations lead him to a conspiracy of men and to question his own faith and to look into his own origins. Larry Cohen loved New York, and it shows in his films, with shots of skylines and prominent buildings and events such as the St. Patrick's Day parade, all of which he uses liberally here. Another "signature" of Cohen's was to have protagonists who were noticeably flawed in some way, making them feel much more relatable, such as Detective Peter Nicholas here, who has a strong Catholic faith but who also won't divorce his wife because of it, leaving both her and his new girlfriend in a relationship limbo. Of course, nothing is straightforward in a Cohen film either, and so what starts off as a potentially supernatural or psychological thriller dealing with religion, mental illness and the like suddenly veers off into alien abduction, hybrids and hermaphrodites at about the halfway mark. None of which I expected going into this. New: (10); Jacob's Ladder (1990); Dead Ringers (1988); Prom Night (1980); Exists (2014); Cure (1997); Ravenous (2017); Alucarda (1977); Who Can Kill A Child? (1976); The Seventh Curse (1986); God Told Me To (1976) Rewatched: (4); Exorcist III; Halloween (2018); Dead Snow (2009); What We Do In The Shadows (2014)
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Oct 8, 2019 00:55
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feedmyleg posted:
Get on Critters 2 stat.
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Oct 8, 2019 00:59
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7. Late Phases (2014) AKA Night of the Wolf USA / Mexico dir. Adrián García Bogliano Ambrose McKinley (Nick Damici, channeling Charles Bronson) blind Vietnam veteran moves into a gated retirement community. On his first night a mysterious creature kills both his next door neighbor and his seeing eye dog. Ambrose soon figures out this was the work of a werewolf and that he has a month until the next full moon to prepare for the next attack and get his revenge. A very solid werewolf flick. Ambrose is a crotchety old rear end in a top hat that doesn't like anyone and the feeling is mutual. Damici really sells his character's blindness. I know a few blind people and the way he moves through a space is exactly like a blind person in a unfamiliar place. It also has some neat effects and, the obligatory transformation scene which is really gnarly. The werewolf design is a bit goofy looking, looking more like a hairy gremlin than anything resembling an actual wolf. But it's nice to get a film where the effects are practical and the creature is just a dude in a suit in this day and age even if it sometimes looks a bit goofy. Most of the film is the buildup to the final confrontation, and it takes its time getting there, but once it does it's well worth it because the final battle rules.
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Oct 8, 2019 01:07
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SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #2: Dead & Buried (rip Sid Haig) 12)Lords of Salem Tubi  I wish I liked this more than I did. It's probably my favorite Rob Zombie movie. It's got some clever ideas, some creepy imagery, great atmosphere, but none of it all clicks together for me. I think my biggest problem is that it really feels like a late 90s/early 00s film. I mean it's pretty clearly Rob's take on Rosemary's baby, but it's not as good or serious. The past stuff is pretty rad, but also not as good as The VVitch. And it never goes full out bonkers like the recent scream stream's Alucarda. Even the trippy acid ending doesn't have anything on Lair of the White Worm's It's hard to talk about because there's nothing I particularly dislike, it just never clicks.  .5/5
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Oct 8, 2019 01:09
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 #48) The Void (2016 [festival]/2017 [video]) Aww yeah, that's some good Cronenberg-meets-Silent-Hill-and-Hellraiser-II poo poo. Some From Beyond in the mix, too, towards the end. The setting and sense of enclosure reminded me of Last Shift (2014), but with everything kicked up several notches, and a much more interesting script. It may have included too much, as (for me) the structure started falling apart towards the end, but I appreciated the ambition. Similarly, the special effects weren't up to The Thing's level, but they were aiming for it, and came closer than I'd expected. I think I missed some important details while I was chomping down on pizza, but I still really enjoyed the experience, enough that I'd be willing to come back and try to absorb the missing pieces sometime. Could have done without so much red saturation light towards the late-middle, but apart from that, I think they handled the lighting and color usage very well. The heavy pulp horror adventure feel was lots of fun, and they pulled it off better than any other recent attempts that are coming to mind right now. I hope these directors get to do something else soon, besides [checks IMDb] Leprechaun Returns, but going back a ways, I guess I need to put their Father's Day on my watchlist. Maybe they'll hook up with del Toro someday, should we be so lucky.  rating: 8/10
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Oct 8, 2019 01:14
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# 8 THE OMEN (2006) I've never heard anyone acknowledge this remake ever since its theatrical release on 6/6/06, which you have to admit is fun marketing. The silence on it made me curious. It's safe to assume its bad... but how bad are we talking? I'll avoid comparing it to the original too much, so that it has a chance to survive on its own merits. However, many chunks of dialogue were copy and pasted from the original with all of their impact squeezed out . Many scenes were recreated but completely deflated of their power. This is a fascinating case study in which you see something being superficially repeated, but its soul is gone. Liev Schrieber, usually a good actor, was a tree trunk as Mr. Thorn. He could not capture the subtle dread and moral dilemma in Gregory Peck's performance. The kid playing Damien had no range. He must have been cast based on the single facial expression he could do, which is an evil glare that is quite silly if you think about it: in the original Damien often acts like a normal kid; in the remake, any sane parent would get him to a therapist immediately for looking so evil all the time. The remake has a polished, sleek look. I must say it actually is well-shot. The musical score is a barren wasteland, sadly, and this story needs to have music for it to resonate. The violence is dialed up but the result is at times stupid, such as the priest being not only impaled by a CGI church spire but also stabbed by gigantic CGI shards of falling glass! The remake seems keen on letting you know just how updated it is. 9/11 is incorporated into Biblical prophecy about "great mountains crumbling." There is a high speed action chase scene at the end. Damien rides a Razor scooter (remember those?) instead of a tricycle. Damien annoys his mother with video game noises rather than him knocking balls around on a pool table. This movie is not good. But it's no Psycho (1998). It at least tried to be different, sort of. Director John Moore is obviously a studio Yes Man who robotically fulfilled the wishes of 20th Century Fox: "redo, but make new. Throw in a mirror scare to be sure." SCORE: 5.7 / 10 *** # 9 THE OMEN (1976)  The sadness of the remake made me yearn for the original, as though watching the original would undo the sin... The Omen (1976) scared me as a kid like no other movie has in my life. People generally view it as the inferior movie between The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby, but I insist it is right up there with those two. Jerry Goldsmith's score is haunting. The performances are great. This is about a great horror unfolding before the world, a prelude to Armageddon. Only something so inevitable could be depicted in such a somber, dreadful, horrific manner. I can't even think of any complaints. What shocked me is that it has held up so well. Funny that such a great film gets the shortest review yet. SCORE: 8.1 / 10 *** # 10 Insidious (2010)  James Wan's fifth film emerged from the 2000s, a decade when the horror genre was characterized by an arms race of distasteful gore, remakes, and lazy jump scares. In this context, I can see why an original PG-13 movie with effective chills and atmosphere was a big deal. Still, Insidious strikes me as The Conjuring Lite. Both movies are structurally similar but Insidious is less refined. The plot is absolute bare minimum until paranormal experts arrive to explain the reason for all the creepiness going on inside a family's home. This is when we get an enormous exposition dump about astral projection and whatnot. Patrick Wilson - the World's Most Adequate Actor - does his thing as the concerned but skeptical dad. A scene in which he weeps over his child's drawings is touching. These drawings finally convince him of the supernatural cause of his child's illness - a dumber scene would have involved yet another demonic scare that changes his mind. After an intense sequence in which spirits are contacted and attack everyone, Patrick Wilson (this is the kind of movie where you don't remember character names) travels to a supernatural realm to rescue his son. As it turns out, he has the same special abilities as his son - another big reveal with virtually no set up. This conclusion is underwhelming - it was more of what we already got at the house in the "human" realm: lots of tip-toeing around in darkness and seeing spooky things. And the twist that he carried evil back with him was predictable. This is a crowd-pleaser movie because it delivers a steady dose of scares and is eerie throughout. But I did not find it remarkable story-wise or character-wise. SCORE: 6.4 / 10
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Oct 8, 2019 01:23
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 #7. Hush (2016) dir. Mike Flanagan Viewed on Netflix (first viewing) A deaf writer who retreated into the woods to live a solitary life must fight for her life in silence when a masked killer appears in her window. I didn't have very big expectations for this, but it turned out to be Flanagan's best work. It's shot well, utilizes it's limited space in interesting ways, and isn't completely predictable (it reminded me a little of Jeremy Saulnier's stuff). There are some genuinely creepy moments in there too, even if the threat is no real mystery after a few minutes. There are some logical issues here, just as there are in any sort of disability-as-the-gimmick horror film, like "A Quiet Place" or "Don't Breathe", which caused a couple of major disbelief issues during some key moments. Also, Flanagan has a tendency to get really schmaltzy during his endings, and this definitely went there a bit, though nowhere near the ridiculously sappy heights as the ending to "Haunting of Hill House". Home invasion stuff always bothers me in a deep way, even though I appreciate a fair bit of it. And because I take it seriously, I like it when films take it seriously, like in this, or "When a Stranger Calls" (which is why I didn't really get into "You're Next" very much). But I also find myself just getting pissed at the antagonists in these kind of movies in a way that I don't with any other kind of horror movie, so I spent a good portion of this viewing feeling angry and frustrated that I couldn't do anything to help. Maybe that's a sign of good filmmaking, but this one gave me the sense that I was being manipulated a bit.  out of 5Watched: 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), 7. Hush (2016)
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Oct 8, 2019 01:50
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October 7 - Sometimes They Come Back https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Am6AurDEeA So my three box sets that I'm cycling through this month have nine movies each and the more clever among you may have realized this means I have 27 movies total. With four extra films, I decided to take up the challenge of the thread title and watch one of the less likely horror series out there. If I didn't know for a fact that this was based on a Stephen King short story I'd swear it was someone doing a bad Stephen King pastiche. See how many things from other, better King works you can spot! A high school teacher who was laid off, possibly for getting violent with a student, is forced to return to his small home town (not in Maine, oddly enough). His family left after a gang of murderous bullies harassed him, killed his brother, and then got their car stuck in a train tunnel as a train was going down it. But evil doesn't stay down and when he returns to the town a mysterious car with no apparent driver is murdering people around him. He becomes the prime suspect in the killings, but he gets help from a man who died and came back with psychic powers. Weird coincidence here, but I was actually in the town that they shot this movie last weekend. It's not worth the trip. Mr. Norton is the worst teacher ever, to put it mildly. Day one, a student stands up in class and says that he's not allowed to do anything because they're on the football team. He does nothing. A few days later, a ghost punk turns up and is smoking in class and harasses him. He does nothing. Then another ghost student shows up and pulls a knife on him in class. He does nothing. Maybe he wouldn't have this reputation as an emotionally disturbed teacher if he actually maintained some discipline in his class. There are some interesting concepts in the film, but I think the big failing here in the acting. The ghost punks should be disturbing and menacing, but they're played like community theater rejects from Grease. They're boring villains who can't be the terrifying bullies or the wacky punks. It feels like the movie didn't know what they wanted them to be: wicked manipulators, rear end in a top hat punks who happened to escape hell, or total psychos. This was shot as a theatrical film but in the US it was aired as a TV movie. The version I saw off Amazon was in a widescreen format but it still felt like a TV movie. Everything feels cheap and quickly shot. Sometimes They Come Back is a movie that needed a better focus. It's all over the place and while there are good bits, they're pretty scattered. It really doesn't help that literally everything in it has been done a hundred times better. And done in other Stephen King adaptations. How this movie spawned a franchise is beyond me. Edit: With the poster blown up I can see the "produced by Dino di Laurentiis" credit which explains why about a minute of the film was dedicated to the characters watching his version of King Kong. Things I have just learned while trying to figure out how this got a sequel: there is a Hindi TV miniseries adaptation of It. Their version of Pennywise is not so intimidating... Random Stranger fucked around with this message at 02:17 on Oct 8, 2019 |
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Oct 8, 2019 02:07
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STAC Goat posted:Critters 2 is the one you're looking for. Origami Dali posted:Get on Critters 2 stat. I was planning on doing a double-feature of Critters/Critters 2, but the first film turned me off immediately revisiting the franchise for the night. Maybe I'll give that a go tomorrow, but instead tonight I went with...  Ghoulies Alright, much better. Again, quite a bit different than my expectations, but positively so. With the opening attempted Satanic baby sacrifice I was already more on board with this than Critters. The whole thing was a bit contrived, but it was also really fun and goofy. Way more Satanism than I was expecting, a large variety of Ghoulies which, even though they didn't do a ton for the majority of the movie, were cute and weird and fun and chill. I love the little rat Ghoulie just sitting beside the dude on his armchair while he reads. I'm not sure how much I can really say about this other than it was dumb fun with a ton of logic holes and convoluted plotting and motivations, but ultimately rose above that all to be a really solid time. It was highly enjoyable throughout, though it really feels like the girlfriend should've said gently caress that guy and bounced at the end. Also, the score was a Beetlejuice ripoff but I didn't mind because the Beetlejuice score is fantastic. I'll definitely be checking the sequels out. Rating: 6.5/10 Hobo with a Shotgun: 9/10, Demons: 9/10, The Fog: 8/10, Demons II: 7/10, Ghoulies: 6.5/10, The Changeling: 4/10, Critters: 2/10 feedmyleg fucked around with this message at 02:18 on Oct 8, 2019 |
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Oct 8, 2019 02:16
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#11: A Quiet Place (2018) This movie is fantastic. It's the only John Krasinski-directed film I've seen, and a quick google search reveals he's done some other stuff, and I might have to hunt it down. This is a tense, action-driven nearly silent horror film by necessity; aliens (or something?) have invaded Earth and wiped out most of the population. Since they hunt by sound, you can't make noise. John Krasinski and his family (including pregnant wife Emily Blunt) have survived 472 days and she's about to give birth. The whole film takes place over two days, and it's a very anxiety-ridden survival ride that I loved from start to finish. This seems like an absolute no-win nightmare world where I'm shocked that a family with three small children could have survived a week, let alone over a year. And seriously, fix the drat nail in the stairs! Every time a character went up or down those stairs I held my breath. My favorite scene is when the kids are in the grain elevator, because those things legit terrify me, and I've heard so many horror stories about people who fall inside of them and can't get out. What a horrible way to die, drowning in grain. I guess it beats the alternative of getting ripped to shreds by aliens though.  Also, I get what the ear devices were doing to some extent, but it looked like the frequency was making them go temporarily deaf? Was that just an unintended side effect? If so, why does it need to be placed around their ear and not just be a portable speaker that blasts ultrasonic sound? They also gave the impression that Krasinski had created many such devices before and none of them had worked. How did they find out they didn't work and somehow survive? So many questions. Highly recommend this one. 4.5/5 Watched: Midsommar; One Cut of the Dead; Apostle; Wolf Creek; Lake Mungo; Viy (Challenge #1); Demon Knight; Witchfinder General; Razorback; Joker; A Quiet Place Total: 11
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Oct 8, 2019 02:18
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feedmyleg posted:I was planning on doing a double-feature of Critters/Critters 2, but the first film turned me off immediately revisiting the franchise for the night. Maybe I'll give that a go tomorrow, but instead tonight I went with... But in this case everyone really agrees with you on Critters. Its a bad film that takes itself too seriously. But Critters 2 totally gets that, is written/directed by Mick Garris, and really is everything everyone expects and hopes Critters to be. The goofy, schlocky, Gremlins knockoff that puts those bounty hunters front and center. Its just everyone watches Critters expecting that and then gets demoralized because they really should have just watched Critters 2.
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Oct 8, 2019 02:22
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T3hRen3gade posted:#11: A Quiet Place (2018) Those were the outside component of a Cochlear Implant. You see the daughter is wearing one at the beginning. At some point it broke, and The dad has been trying to fix it/scavenge up a new one. The devices on his bench were failed attempts. The sound was the just a terribly unpleasant sound that the thing was making because it was faulty. The fact that it was painful to the aliens was pure coincidence
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Oct 8, 2019 02:22
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Gripweed posted:Those were the outside component of a Cochlear Implant. You see the daughter is wearing one at the beginning. At some point it broke, and The dad has been trying to fix it/scavenge up a new one. The devices on his bench were failed attempts. The sound was the just a terribly unpleasant sound that the thing was making because it was faulty. The fact that it was painful to the aliens was pure coincidence Oh! So she was deaf?! I knew the implant looked like one of those for the hard of hearing, but I thought it was just some kind of device Krasinski had been working on to "find a weakness." That explains so much, like how the family knew ASL so well. I had figured they just learned it as a survival strategy. Wow, this seems super obvious in hindsight. Thanks for the insight!
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Oct 8, 2019 02:28
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T3hRen3gade posted:Oh! So she was deaf?! I knew the implant looked like one of those for the hard of hearing, but I thought it was just some kind of device Krasinski had been working on to "find a weakness." That explains so much, like how the family knew ASL so well. I had figured they just learned it as a survival strategy. Wow, this seems super obvious in hindsight. Thanks for the insight! Yeah the giant "WHAT IS THEIR WEAKNESS" line on the whiteboard doesn't make any sense in universe because there's no evidence that the dad has spent any time at all trying to figure out if they had a weakness. It's literally just to set up the idea of a weakness for the audience so when it turns out the sound is their weakness, we'd be expecting something like that I hate that whiteboard. I liked A Quiet Place a lot but my review of it earlier in the thread was just bitching about the whiteboard. There's so much thought put into the setting, it all makes sense and shows how they've been surviving, except for that giant loving whiteboard that exists solely to impart information to the audience that the audience would've easily figured out just from watching the movie!
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Oct 8, 2019 02:34
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Yeah. It makes sense that like anyone in this would would have "WHAT IS THEIR WEAKNESS?!" as a fundamental question that keeps them up at night. But it also doesn't actually have anything to do with the story except as a really lazy Chekov's Gun.
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Oct 8, 2019 02:37
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#7: Mandy (2018) Watched on Shudder Wow wow wow, Mandy really does it for me. What's not to gush about in this movie? Panos Cosmatos has envisioned an absolutely gorgeous film, replete with haunting visuals, inspired performances, a slow fuse revenge plot, and a beautiful, moody score by the late Johann Johannsson. That sounded a little staid, so let's be clear, Mandy is batshit in the best possible ways. I mean, the title sequence comes 75 minutes into the movie following Nicolas Cage forging a battleaxe. Speaking of Cage, not only does he unleash a wildman performance that plays to his manic strengths, you wonder if the movie would work anywhere near as effectively with anyone else playing the role. Andrea Riseborough and Linus Roache similarly come off seeming perfect for their parts, and with cameos by Richard Brake and Bill Duke as well, the acting of Mandy is definitely one of its strong suits. Cosmatos continues his excellent use of color from 2010's Beyond the Black Rainbow; visually this movie is an absolute treat of lush, vibrant red-purples and smoke-choked darkness, wavering between brutal hellscape and ephemeral fantasy. Please, go see Mandy, there's little else like it and we are worse off for that. /5Watched: 1. From Beyond 2. Evil Dead 3. Phantasm 4. Candyman 5. Phenomena 6. Boar 7. Mandy
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Oct 8, 2019 02:48
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 #49) Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster (2004) The Scooby world tour continues, and you'll never guess where they are this time! The Scottish accents are actually worse than the Australian ones of Legend of the Vampire (particularly with the Scottish surfer conspiracy nut), and with Sheena Easton popping up in a role, the bad ones stand out even more. The dialogue feels more natural than in the last couple of Scooby movies, the jokes land more often, and the animation team was getting a lot of mileage out of their access to CGI tools. A song by what my co-viewer described as "off-brand Dropkick Murphys" powered a lengthy chase scene, with some running towards the camera as the bridge gets demolished behind Scooby and Shaggy being the high point of the animation flexing. And hey, they're cutting down on the sound effects! On the down-side, Scooby got few jokes of his own, and was mostly confined to parroting Shaggy's lines and laughing. More than usual. The A- and B-plots have a much cleaner arrangement than Legend of the Vampire, and also have an edge on Monster of Mexico in that regard, which made it much more enjoyable to watch. Loch Ness Monster is causing mayhem, Daphne's Scottish relatives and their friends are trying to run a traditional games day, investigation leads to a simultaneous conclusion of both plots. The Nessie in this had a striking resemblance to the Godzilla of the late-'90s Godzilla cartoon, which was a little distracting, but also kind of fun. An improvement on its immediate predecessors, but still not up to the point of being something I'd recommend to non-Scooby-completionists. rating: 6/10"We can have a clambake with the Clan Blake!" 
Darthemed fucked around with this message at 05:55 on Oct 30, 2019 |
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Oct 8, 2019 02:50
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#7 - The Pit and the Pendulum (DVD) Vincent Price is a grieving nobleman who can't let go of the idea that his dearly departed wife might have been buried prematurely. Guess what? He was right. But it's a little more complicated than all that. One of Roger Corman's cheapie Poe adaptations, the atmosphere and Price carry most of the film. Has a final shot that would have been right at home on a "Tales From the Crypt" episode. /5#8 - Trick 'r Treat (Blu-ray) A series of vignettes loosely connected by shared characters, a festive holiday setting, some familiar faces...it's the "Love Actually" of Halloween! As someone who grew up in the Midwest, I appreciate even the barest acknowledgement that it can get pretty loving cold on October 31 in certain parts of the country. You can see everyone's breath when they're outside in this movie and it helps set the scene. Even Carpenter and Craven forgot to block out the palm trees in Haddonfield, "Illinois" and Springwood, "Ohio." /5#9 - Bog (Amazon Prime) A couple of drunks drag their rightfully irritated wives on a fishing trip that's interrupted by the sudden appearance of a gill-man. I don't remember much of this one because I fell asleep in the middle, but there's a swamp witch and a romantic subplot about a middle-aged couple, if that does anything for you. /5#10 - Ghost of Frankenstein (DVD) Ygor wants his brain inside the monster's body. Dr. Frankenstein wants his dead colleague's brain inside the monster's body. The monster wants a little girl's brain inside the monster's body. Obviously, someone is going to have to compromise. The movie is a step down from "Son of Frankenstein" because it lacks the weird Impressionist production design and sort of recycles some of the plot, but it's quick and fun. /5#11 - Zombieland (Blu-ray) Zombie movies, even when they're not trying to be funny, are always more about how people react to the monsters than how they survive or defeat them. Case in point - Zombieland spends a large portion of its second act with nary a zombie in sight. The "Zombie Kill of the Week" cutaway gag seems to exist only to drop some action into the story. But unlike some others I've seen that just use the zombie apocalypse as set dressing for wankery about "tough men making tough choices," this does a good job of creating some characters that you want to see survive, even if they rarely seem to be in any real danger. .5/5#12 - Evil of Dracula (Amazon Prime) A teacher takes a job at a remote girls' boarding school, only to find out the headmaster and his wife have a dark history that just might involve...well, his name's in the title. This is a Japanese attempt at a Hammer-style vampire tale, and it hits all the beats. There's even an interesting wrinkle involving how the vampires' lineage is continued that was pretty neat. /5#13 - Slice (Amazon Prime) You know a movie has too much going on when you can't figure out who the main character is supposed to be. Is it the werewolf accused of murdering pizza delivery drivers? Is it the delivery driver seeking revenge for her lover's death? Is it the crusading journalist trying to uncover the connection to the murders of Chinese food delivery drivers years ago? Is it Paul Scheer? (It's definitely not Paul Scheer.) But yeah, this movie is trying to do a lot. There's slasher elements, ghost gentrification, werewolf parkour, a witch coven and Chris Parnell painting a three-breasted woman. It's New York's hottest nightclub. You could probably cut Chance the Rapper's werewolf character completely out of the movie and change very little about the plot. Still, I can't fault ambition and it has a dope animated opening credit sequence. /5My list so far: 1. Fright Night (1987) 2. Halloween III: Season of the Witch 3. House of 1,000 Corpses 4. Poltergeist II: The Other Side 5. One Cut of the Dead 6. The Invisible Man 7. The Pit and the Pendulum 8. Trick 'r Treat 9. Bog 10. Ghost of Frankenstein 11. Zombieland 12. Evil of Dracula 13. Slice
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Oct 8, 2019 03:10
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17. Head Count (2018) This one is on Netflix and the best way I can describe it is...this could have been more. It’s about a group of 20-somethings out partying in the middle of the California desert. One night one of them reads a scary poem online which turns out to summon a Hisji (a supernatural being) who haunts and torments them. I felt this one needed a hell of a lot more tighter focus because it really ignores the one rule of suspense: you build it, you release it periodically. So something like three-quarters of the film are build with little release and it gets annoying after a while. I will say the climax of this film was more intense than I was expecting but it felt like a road to get there. /518. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)  Well, poo poo, I can’t believe this but this one right here is the best of the Universal monster movies. James Whale really outdid himself in atmosphere with extensive use of lights/shadows beyond what he did before. The film had a bigger budget I felt so there were more sets and less of a feel of everything being on a soundstage (some find it charming, but you notice the difference when they hid it better). The monster gets a lot of time and development to humanize him more and you actually start to feel for him. God drat, I regret not checking out these films sooner. /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), 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), 17. Head Count (2018), 18. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) Super Samhain Challenges:
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Oct 8, 2019 03:36
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 8. The Wolf Man (1941): This is probably the weakest of the Universal monster movies I’ve seen (I haven’t seen a whole lot). The makeup on the Wolf Man is cool but it’s weird that he’s humanoid while Bela Lugosi’s wolf transformation appears to just be a regular wolf. Larry is also a creep. Has some good moments but kind of drags.
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Oct 8, 2019 03:55
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 #8.The Gravedancers (2006) (First watch) A group of people become haunted after dancing on graves. I remeber this came out during the first Afterdark Horrorfest. And seeing that Mike Mendez, who also directed The Convent (which I really like), I gave this a shot. Well, I found it pretty middle of the road. It had some great monster designs, when the ghosts showed up they looked sinister. The characters were kinda just there? I didn't really care if they lived or died to be honest. And the story, well, things just kind of happen. It could be better and it could be worse.
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Oct 8, 2019 03:56
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 Annihilation, 2018 About time I got some sci-fi into the marathon. This is a very pretty and cool looking movie. Not sure how to give it a plot synopsis that's not just mechanical copy paste, so I'll just go with strange zone where weird poo poo happens, scientists goes in and the main character is depressed and stuff. Something scrambles everything around in the zone, including DNA, so it fucks up all life. I like how it's not very action focused or about mutants killing people. It got that and even some cool gore, but it's hardly the main attraction. It's more character driven and thoughtful next to how most of these type of plots are handled. Lot of the mutations are more pretty and interesting than straight up grotesque deformities, and there's some trippy elements to how things looks, especially towards the end. It got the tone of hard and serious science fiction without going to hard on the scientific explanations. Instead, it's more of an dark adventure into the unknown and facing something something truly alien.
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Oct 8, 2019 04:04
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that fuckin bear tho
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Oct 8, 2019 04:05
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20. Oct 6, 2019 The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945, Albert Lewin) Warner Archive Blu-ray preceded by the cartoon short Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Mouse (1947) I had seen this on TCM years ago, but this was pretty fresh to me. An adaptation of the Oscar Wilde novel that dwells in the corruption of the soul. As Mr. Gray lives a life of sin, he retains his youthful looks indefinitely while his portrait becomes ever more grotesque over time. This is a creepy film and it's a surprise something this dark came out of MGM. Hurd Hatfield stars as Gray. At first, he seems almost miscast, coming off as bland. Except the blank, emotionless facade becomes an unnerving mask to his character. This also has George Sanders as a quite unlikable character (such miscasting). This also has good parts for Angela Lansbury and Donna Reed. There's also a surprise to some of the shots of the painting, but I dare not spoil it.
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Oct 8, 2019 04:11
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3. Nightbeast (1982) - first watch, Vinegar Syndrome release. Wanted to like this more, had the right kind of goofy special effects, but was pretty boring for the most part. 1.5/5 4. The Zero Boys (1986) - first watch, Arrow Video. After a silly opening we end up with the usual group of teens at a cabin in the woods. Kelli Maroney co-stars (Chopping Mall, Night of the Comet) and gave another fun performance, though not nearly as much as her prominent roles. The gimmick of this slasher being the guys are super into paintball/survival games getting stalked by some snuff film making woodsmen. Some decent tension and solid kills made for a good time. 2.5/5 5. Tales of Terror (1962) - first watch, Arrow Video A great Edgar Allen Poe anthology by Roger Corman. Giving Price three roles to play and letting Peter Lorre star in the Black Cat portion were amazing choices. Excellent all around. 4.5/5 (Not counting until I meet my goal of 15 Blurays: Pookah!, One Cut of the Dead)
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Oct 8, 2019 04:19
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See No Evil (1967, Amazon Prime Canada) IMDB: A group of delinquents are sent to clean the Blackwell Hotel. Little do they know reclusive psychopath Jacob Goodnight has holed away in the rotting hotel. When one of the teens is captured, those who remain - a group that includes the cop who put a bullet in Goodnight's head four years ago - band together to survive against the brutal killer. This is a WWE-made horror movie, with long time star Kane as the main villain. The wrestler Kane was originally inspired by slashers so it's a pretty fitting casting choice here. He carries himself well in the role. I wish they leaned more into making him look unique though. He just looks like his wrestling persona wearing farmer clothes. They should have given him a mask, since he's always better with a mask. The thumbnail for the sequel looks like it solves that problem. It's a pretty by the numbers slasher and it has that mid-2000s gritty filter throughout. I honestly didn't think it was too bad, just kind of formulaic. The kills themselves were pretty good. There's one involving a pack of dogs and another involving a cell phone that really stand out. If you're into slashers this is worth checking out, or at least checking out a kill reel on YouTube. Watched (12): Brightburn, Tales from the Hood, Pet Semetary 2, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, One Cut of the Dead, Leatherface (1990), Summer of 84, Viy, Mandy, In the Tall Grass, Street Trash, See No Evil Samhain Challenges: 1. The Best Month - Viy
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Oct 8, 2019 04:25
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Alright sweet, glad I got held up for a couple days because I was planning on doing this anyways 7: The Fly (1958) ABCs: F SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #2: Dead & Buried RIP David Hedison Starts strong, kind of drags in the middle, then has a pretty solid and bonkers ending, which loses some omph with the 50s tacked on happy ending. I think this is one that definitely suffers from being in the cultural zeitgeist for over half a century in the same way as films like Psycho or Planet of the Apes; it's a mystery really built on the big reveal, but you know what that reveal is before the movie even starts so you really feel the filler. It is nice to see Vincent Price in a normal guy role, you see him as so many campy creeps that you forget he's a legitimately great actor and brings a lot of pathos to the role. 8: Goosebumps 2 ABCs: G I absolutely devoured these books when I was a kid, but even then I knew they weren't exactly high art, so when they made the movie I assumed it was going to be hot garbage, but its actually a really enjoyable movie that I'd like to rewatch at Halloween time. The sequel isn't terrible, but it's definitely a step down in basically every way. Even from a reference point it's based on an unfinished lost goosebumps book so other than some extremely short monster scenes and Slappy being the villain again, there's not much there for fans or anything. I'm also still unsure how I feel about the R. L Stine role in this one They call him for help early on and you get multiple scenes of him gearing up and heading out, only for him to arrive a few minutes after the kids solve everything If it's intentional it's pretty funny, but it feels like they just didn't know what to do with him. There's also no mention of his daughter, and they use him for a sequel hook that seems weird when this was already a fairly unenthusiastic cash in that didn't feel like a franchise push.
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Oct 8, 2019 04:29
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Random Stranger posted:Looking up recent deaths in film, one of India's major horror film directors, Shyam Ramsay, died last month. I've never seen anything by him and the prospect of a Bollywood horror film is awfully tempting. thanks for this, I actually have a double feature DVD with two of his films and have never gotten around to the second one, this is a good reason to finally check it out the one I’ve watched is Mahakaal/The Monster and it’s a weird Bollywood rip off of A Nightmare on Elm Street
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Oct 8, 2019 04:39
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6. Nosferatu Just got back from watching this at an Alamo Drafthouse with a live score performed by the Invisible Czars. The band did a great job, and the music drove home how intense this movie is. One of those movies that you’ve seen quite a bit of, even if you’ve never purposefully watched or heard of it. While everyone is familiar with the monstrous appearance of Count Orlock, I was particularly impressed by how many horror elements they were able to include onscreen for a movie released in 1922. (deaths/rats/murder and even vampire feeding) I also liked how they handled the effects during the movie to show supernatural speed, strength, or ghostly projections. Were these all double exposure tricks? (I’m not too familiar with cinematography terms) Even without a live band, I would still highly recommend checking this one out if you haven’t seen it.
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Oct 8, 2019 04:47
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https://twitter.com/KennethJWaste2/status/1181436050293395456?s=20
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Oct 8, 2019 06:09
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 SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #2: Dead & Buried  8. A Return to Salem’s Lot (1987) Larry Cohen’s in-name-only sequel to Tobe Hooper’s adaptation of Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot gets a bad rap. If you look this movie up online, you’ll see it torn to shreds by people who were hoping for the direct follow-up that the trailers and the box art suggested. That’s fair, but personally I find the full original miniseries to be a tedious slog, so I don’t really get wanting more of it. (The shorter cut of the miniseries is much better but difficult to find.) If you go into Return looking for a Larry Cohen movie rather than a Stephen King one, there’s a lot to love. It’s starts off a bit restrained for a Cohen film. We meet the main character, Joe, while he’s filming a human sacrifice as part of his anthropological research. He’s dragged out of the jungle and forced to take charge of his son, Jeremy, who he hasn’t seen in years. The two head for a house that Joe inherited in a tiny town called Salem’s Lot. When I said this was an in-name-only sequel, I wasn’t kidding. This totally new version of Salem’s Lot has a different backstory and a different cast of characters. It also serves a different purpose, because Cohen’s setting leads Joe and Jeremy to struggle with issues of moral relativism pushed on them by the town’s vampire inhabitants. The vamps challenge Joe to engage with their customs and reconsider his own perspective, which left me briefly curious about what the students from Midsommar would have made of a visit to that blood dairy. Even if someone didn’t already know that Salem’s Lot = vampires, that reveal wouldn’t be much of a spoiler because the vampires show themselves right away. They want Joe, a trained anthropologist, to write a book about them in hopes of eventually presenting themselves in a positive way to the outside world. Joe’s conscious of the danger to his son, but he’s also caught up in professional curiosity as well as memories of his earlier visit to the town, especially after reuniting with his teenage fling who still (disgustingly enough) looks the same age that she did when they first met. The vampires put on their best faces for Joe and Jeremy, launching a careful propaganda campaign about how their ways are just different than humans are used to. They present themselves as practical New Englanders and even proud Americans, which some of the characters are rightfully skeptical of. The movie is a bit slow in places, and a couple of the actors are iffy enough to be a distraction. But Michael Moriarty works out well in the lead role, and the three older vampires are all delightful. Samuel Fuller plays a nazi killer who steals every scene he’s crops up in. Some aspects of the rest of it could have been better, but it’s twisty, funny, and touches on interesting themes beyond the obvious moral quandaries. For example, I loved that the vampires brag about not taking a penny from the government as if that’s a sign of thrift and virtue, but later they explain that their unnatural lifespans give them a leg-up on building wealth. So yeah, of course they don't need government assistance when the system so clearly benefits them. It’s just one of the many times their appearance doesn’t line up with reality. The part of the ending when a chastened Jeremy stakes the lead vampire with the end of a flagpole and we watch the creature's remains crumble beneath the red and white stripes of Old Glory is easily among the top vamp deaths of the 80s. 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); 8. A Return to Salem’s Lot (1987) - Challenge #2 deety fucked around with this message at 06:33 on Oct 8, 2019 |
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Oct 8, 2019 06:28
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#11: EGG. (2005) Haha, drat, okay. This movie is really its own thing. Since she was a child, our main character has seen the image of an egg every single time she closes her eyes. On her 20th birthday, however, that egg begins to hatch... It's such a good premise, my god. I'm really glad I watched this movie, but it's hard to put down too many concrete thoughts on it. The narrative itself is surprisingly straightforward for a movie like this but it's moved through at a fairly slow pace, even with the film's relatively short 73 minute runtime. That said there are lots of goofy characters and moments, the acting is often very exaggerated and caricatured in an enjoyable way, parts of it have a super fun y2k era aesthetic, and the main egg critter is this, quite frankly, incredible rubber suit monster that I love to look at.  Ultimately I think this would've worked a bit better as a short rather than a feature, but I'm just glad it exists at all. It's got some cool ideas and moments, and if you can seek it out then I think it's a unique and worthwhile watch.  Watched (11/31): #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), #11 EGG. (2005) Challenges (1/2):
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Oct 8, 2019 06:30
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7. Beast From Haunted Cave This is an odd little late-50s monster movie, if nothing else for the fact that it's the directorial debut of Monte Hellman (who would later make Two Lane Blacktop and China 9, Liberty 37, and would end up an Exec. Producer on Reservoir Dogs.) The script was by Charles B. Griffith (of Little Shop fame) and the producer was Gene Corman, and this shares music with his Night of the Blood Beast. The plot concerns a group of robbers who pull off a heist by setting off an explosion at a nearby mine, and in the process they draw the attention of a strange spider-like beast which pursues them to their hideout, a cabin on the snowy mountainside with an unsuspecting ski instructor in tow. Thing is, it's MOSTLY a crime drama- there's a goodly portion where the monster is kinda forgotten about, which is a problem since this thing's only 72 minutes long. The crime drama is not terrible but we're here for the beast. I get the feeling the filmmakers just weren't confident in their monster, which admittedly is kind of a weird raggedy lump of hair with long arms, but still the film drags. There are some legitimately ghastly images in the final scenes, and I do like the South Dakota locations; Hellman has a good eye and makes the proceedings, however slow, at least kind of visually pleasing. There's some comic relief which doesn't quite land, overall it's kinda patchy and doesn't work overall, but it has a few moments.
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Oct 8, 2019 06:37
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#13 Bad Samaritan (2018) [Amazon Prime] A valet who robs the homes of the people whose cars he parks stumbles across a situation he's totally unprepared for. Some of the air comes out of this from improbable twists and turns (the bad guy's ability to remove multiple rooms' worth of torture poo poo in a few hours removes any sense that the villain is outsmarting the protagonist rather than merely benefiting from having the production crew on his side), but it's got a solid plot hook, moves along quickly enough, and David Tennant is predictably good.  #14 Constantine (2005) Rewatch. Just an absolute blast. I love movies that peel back the mundane to reveal the supernatural and this one does so super stylishly with a great cast and an absolutely top-tier Satan. https://i.imgur.com/CGw8MwD.mp4 New (11): #1 The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016), #3 Escape Room (2019), #4 Aniara (2018), #6 Overlord (2018), #7 Replicas (2018), #8 Antiviral (2012), #9 Higher Power (2018), #10 A Simple Favor (2018), #11 What Still Remains (2018), #12 Joker (2019), #13 Bad Samaritan (2018) Rewatches (3): #2 Brightburn (2019), #5 Cloverfield (2008), #14 Constantine (2005) Sir Kodiak fucked around with this message at 07:43 on Oct 8, 2019 |
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Oct 8, 2019 07:40
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 16. Annihilation (2018) Amazon Prime Trippy, beautiful, existential, and good enough I want a hardcopy. Like a Peter Watts novel but less up its own rear end. 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*, 14. House of Wax (1953), 15. Shock (1946), 16. Annihilation (2018) Decade - 1920s, 1930s, 1940s (II), 1950s (I), 1960s (II), 1970s (II), 1980s (I), 1990s (I), 2000s, 2010s (VII) Black & White:Color - 4:12 By Country - Canada (I), Japan (I), 'Murica (XII), New Zealand (I), Spain (I) New:Rewatch - 13:3
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Oct 8, 2019 07:42
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#12. Tragedy Girls Every year I promise myself I'll finish my backlog before adding new things and every year there are write ups in this thread that get me to watch something instantly. STAC Goat posted:
I absolutely loved The Voices and STAC comparing it to that meant I just had to watch it. Very glad I did, because this was great. Smart, funny, playing with conventions and constantly trying to win you over only for new shocks to push you away again, it was wonderful. The distorted portrayal of gruesome events did remind me of The Voices, but mainly I kept thinking of Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon.
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Oct 8, 2019 07:50
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Shankel Magnus posted:6. Nosferatu I really wish there were a release of Nosferatu with the Invincible Czars score. I saw them perform it a couple of years back, and it's fantastic.
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Oct 8, 2019 08:00
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