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#24) Cementerio del Terror (1985) What a... weird film. Somehow there were 2-3 plots going on at the same time, and only one of them even really had much going on. Like, one scene there would be a detective driving down the street looking for a killer, and then next scene would be kids reading from a demonic book they found in an abandoned house. It's like they took two different movies and spliced them together and somehow made it come together in the last 5 minutes. I was so confused for most of it. Now, I'll admit, my choice of adult beverages tonight may have influenced my ability to comprehend what on earth was happening in this low budget Mexican 80s horror movie. But, I will say it was worth it for the last 15 minutes or so when it was fun silly zombie, well, fun.  2/5
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Oct 20, 2019 06:01
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blood_dot_biz posted:#19 Pulgasari (1985) Yeah, the story behind Pulgasari is wild and absolutely looking into if folks haven’t. The This Exists video linked here is a pretty great primer, if a little clickbaity. North Korean films are mostly interested in the propaganda aspect, almost to the detriment to everything else, so it’s not surprising that Pulgasari doesn’t have that much going.
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Oct 20, 2019 06:36
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20. Centipede Horror A rare Hong Kong horror that's finally getting a release in the States. A woman travels to Malaysia (well, the subtitles keep calling it just "SE Asia") and is struck down by a strange illness, eventually dying horribly with centipedes crawling out of her. Her brother investigates and finds that the family is the target of a curse by a powerful sorcerer. There's some pretty crazy stuff- like many HK horror films it ends with a wizard fight- as well as at least one really blatant gross-out scene, but the overall effect is just loud and kind of obnoxious, not to mention dull for much of the running time. This didn't travel well. 21. Lifeforce A space shuttle investigating Halley's Comet finds an alien spacecraft and brings back a cargo of space vampires, one of whom starts sucking the titular life-force out of anyone she meets. This is a movie where the monster is a beautiful naked woman (Mathilda May, who is genuinely unearthly) and yet that may not be the most outrageous thing about it. It's loving nuts, a big budget, unabashedly horny Quatermass riff with amazing special effects where the stiff upper lip of the British characters just makes it clearer how camp everything keeps getting- Tobe Hooper doesn't even try to play this straight. Is it any good? Well, I was never bored. It's such a weird miracle that this film even exists. Somewhere there's an alternate universe where this was a hit and Sony is trying to line up a director for the second prequel movie. 22. Society A rich high school kid with family issues starts to suspect that all his paranoia about his relatives has something to do with a mysterious secret society. Hence the title, though director Brian Yuzna is also clearly aiming for social commentary, of the "the rich are inhuman monsters" genre. This particular take on the subject has a lot more body horror than most, foreshadowed a few times but only really unleashed in the climax. There are some good concepts here but the whole mystery/thriller portion of the film- which is most of it- is kinda frustrating, it moves in fits and starts and there's a lot of messy running around. And it must be said that the actual ending is abrupt and a bit unsatisfying (One wonders if Yuzna was forced to have a "happy" ending and this was the best he could manage.) Still, the climax of this film is uniquely hosed up and I'd say it's worth a look just for that. 23. The Thing (1982) Is there anything left to say about this one? It's a modern classic, John Carpenter at his sharpest and most relentless, and it's still baffling that neither critics nor audiences appreciated this at the time. There's a striking naturalism to how the paranoia spreads among the group, as well as the entire environment this film takes place in. There's enough detail that I'm left wanting to figure out the gaps in just how the Thing moves and operates and who did what when nobody was looking, etc. The effects are brilliant and I love the very 50s "cry" of the alien. If you have somehow not seen this yet, go do that. Maxwell Lord fucked around with this message at 07:55 on Oct 20, 2019 |
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Oct 20, 2019 07:52
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 Creature from the Black Lagoon, 1954 Another oldie I haven't seen in ages. This is often considered the last of the classic Universal Pictures horror movies and an end of an era. This marks the shift from supernatural horror of the previous decades to the science fiction that would dominate out through the 50s and beyond. Instead of gloomy castles and foggy graveyards, we got an scientific expedition to the Amazons. That's not to say they made a complete jump in style. This feels very much like old Universal Pictures, especially towards the very end in the cave. The main attraction like in most of these movies is of course the monster. Gill-Man is one of the studio's iconic monster despite being such a latecomer and it's easy to see why when watching this film. They made two costumes for this. On for surface scenes and one for underwater. Both look identical of course, but both are amazing when it comes to costume design and special effects of the time. The way the face animates and that they had someone swim around in that is really cool. It's a cool movie after all these years and a lot better both in terms of looks and actually having an descent plot than most of the other monster movies from it's time.
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Oct 20, 2019 08:23
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 #20 Body Bags 1993 Tubi This is an anthology film that was originally made for TV. It’s surprising to me that it initially aired in August, as the vibe for this one is so perfect for Halloween. What’s interesting about this one is that, unlike many horror shorts, and even some feature films, these stories feel compelling before any horror elements enter play. Frankly, I think I enjoyed these shorts more as little character pieces than I did as ghoulish parables. There’s something intriguing about the woman’s spooky late night shift, the poor balding guy, the baseball star that undergoes an experimental eye implant to rescue his career. Honestly, I felt that the horror elements of these shorts kind of let down their expository scenes. The interstitial scenes are a treat. John Carpenter has the exact right vibe going for some creepy fun. Though, his final scene is a little weird- it seems like they’re setting it up for him to jump up and grab the coroners, but then he just doesn’t? I guess it’s his job to get autopsied? 3/5
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Oct 20, 2019 09:12
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 30 (39). Faust (1926) Recorded off TCM, available on Hoopla, Kanopy, and Fandor. An agent of heaven gets all capricious and bets the devil that he can’t corrupt an alchemist’s soul and if he does he gets to unleash the gates of hell on earth. Seems like a bad bet. The devil then sets out tempting Faust with promises of power, glory, pleasure, and love. You know what? I’m just gonna say it. I’m not a fan of German Expressionism. Sorry. I can see the appeal. I can see the skill and good. Maybe 100 years ago this stuff was darker and more poignant. Today these films are playing like overly long Hallmark melodramas to me. Ok, “Hallmark” is a low blow. Watching this a day after The Man Who Laughs was probably bad timing. Probably right after my team was eliminated in painstaking ways. I thought that might add to the atmosphere. But I never super felt Faust’s dilemma. He’s kind of a douche. Kind of a rapey douche. Matter of fact, I’m not totally sure why Mephisto didn’t win the bet. 1920’s morality playing differently I guess. To me if you sell your soul to the devil, make a woman love you with devil roofies, knock her up, ditch her after the devil kills her mom and brother, leave her to live on the streets with your child deemed a harlot, and then show up after your baby has died and she’s being killed for it and use your hell wishes to just die with her instead of saving her or her baby or her brother or her mom or someone… I don’t know. I don’t see that as a win for good guys. Emil Jannings is fun as Mephisto. That much I enjoyed.* Some of the early set and costume stuff was a kick. But as is increasingly becoming the pattern for these ‘20s films there’s a whole long period of romantic melodrama that just doesn’t do a whole lot. I guess I know what people liked in the 20s. Not that people haven’t always enjoyed romance and melodrama. Not that I don’t enjoy some romance and melodrama. Its just a bit of wide definition of “horror” 100 years later. I mean, don’t get me wrong. Gretchen went through some horrific, existential poo poo. Girlfriend got hosed over hard by the devil and an angel betting the fate of the universe on essentially ruining her life in every way imaginable. But that’s a bit undercut by the ending, I think. *Of course Jannings turned out to be a huge rear end Nazi. Its like a 50/50 gamble when I click on one of these guys’ wikipedia pages. I dunno. Maybe I need to hear/read a lecture on Faust or Morneau or German Expressionism. I don’t get it. Everyone in German in the 20s was real sad and lonely and really mind hosed by WWI. I kind of figured. It worked out real lovely for the world. I mean, I get that the horror genre was basically born out these ideas and the otherworldly and fantastical sets and stories of the German Expressionism movement. I get that they were pulling off some pretty impression technical and filmmaking stuff for the time. But if I have to watch one more skinny german dude and his relationship problems… I’m rethinking some of the other ‘20s german movies I got left on my list. I got a ton of years left, man.  But still gotta do Halloweens too. Incidentally I feel like every movie after 3 felt the need to include “Michael Myers” in the title just to assure the audience they were getting the real deal and not some weird story about witches and skeezy doctors… oh wait…  - (40). Halloween: The Curse of Micheal Myers (1995) Watched on DVD, available on Fubo. Six years ago Michael and Jamie were taken by The Man In Black and Jamie has been held captive and impregnated but she escapes and is found by a retired Dr. Loomis and the kid Laurie Strode was babysitting (played by Paul freakin’ Rudd!) who is now a totally obsessed crazy who attempt to protect her baby from Micheal and the druid cult who gave him his powers. Got all that? aka The Real Stupid One. I mean, do I really have to review it? This movie is really loving stupid. Someone sat around and said “we should try and explain why Micheal kills people and can’t be killed.” Which, ok. I don’t like that. I like that Micheal is just the Boogeyman and we have no idea why or how. It makes him scarier to me. But I get why someone might feel differently and go there. So then someone wrote a whole mess of nonsense with druids and cults and unnecessary callbacks and weird addendums and multiple rewrites and even a complete round of re-filming after original screenings tanked. Re-filming that took place AFTER Donald Pleasance died which explains why he doesn’t even get an actual ending in the movie. He just disappears. Its just a complete mess of ideas and executions from top to bottom. A real bad film that at least has the decency of being relatively short. If Jamie was 9 and its been 6 years that makes her 15 with a kid and played by a 20 year old? Who taught Jamie to drive? Danielle Harris was 17 at the time and got herself legally emancipated so she could play Jamie in this film (which was apparently a much bigger role in the earlier drafts) but in true Hollywood fashion they cheapskated her and weren’t even willing to pay as much as the emancipation cost her. I personally theorize that Kara and Danny were supposed to be Jamie and her baby in the first draft but then someone did the math and realized how Tommy and Jamie being the same age and love interests made no sense and/or was super creepy. Even creepier than brushing past the part where Jamie was kidnapped by a cult and raped into pregnancy. Ok, maybe not creepier than that but the math still doesn’t add up. So instead Danielle Harris had to go on to a highly extensive career in B-horror films. Seriously, she’s in a lot of really bad looking movies. Instead they cast Marianna Hagan in the main female role, despite objections rom Harvey Weinstein who didn’t think she was pretty enough. Ah, the world sucks. Still, there’s nothing like seeing a mega star who made the poor choice of taking their first film role in a really bad horror movie. In almost any other case I’d be sitting here criticizing the weird, wooding acting of the lead but instead I’m sitting here talking about Paul Rudd’s choices to play Tommy as a traumatized psycho dude. I don’t have any idea why someone felt Tommy Doyle had to be brought back into the picture, but its kind of worth it just for this bit of Ant-Man trivia. Do you think Micheal could get beat by an army of ants? Does the Wasp get to help? Moustapha Akkad (the producer behind all the OG Halloween movies) wanted the 7th film to be about the entire town of Haddonfield being druid cults. Almost want to see that dumbness. Paul Rudd was also supposed to stay around as the new Loomis. I bet he regrets missing on that opportunity. Also apparently there’s a whole other “Producer’s Cut” of this film out there that its wildly different and gently caress, now I’m gonna track that down and watch it too aren’t I? drat it. Do I really want to buy a whole other version of this bad movie just because I own the rest? So yeah, this movie is real bad but at least its real bad in interesting and memorable ways. Right? September Pre-Game Tally - New (Total) 1. NOS4A2 (2019); - (2). Splice (2009); - (3). Drive Angry (2011); 2 (4). The Twilight Zone (2019); - (5). Event Horizon (1997); - (6). BrainDead (2016); 3 (7). The Dark Tower (2017); 4 (8). The Collector (2009); 5 (9). The Bad Batch (2016); - (10). Rose Red (2002); - (11). Salem’s Lot (1979) October Tally - New (Total) 1. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920); 2. Nightmare Cinema (2018); 3. Dead of Night (1945); The Queen of Spades (1949); 5. Tragedy Girls (2017); 6. House of Wax (1953); SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #1: The Best Month: 7. The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016); 8. In the Tall Grass (2019); 9. The Night of the Hunter (1955); 10. The Thing (1951); - (11). The Thing (1982); 11 (12). The Thing (2011); - (13). Halloween (1978); 12 (14). Dracula (1931); SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #2: Dead & Buried: 13 (15). Q (1982); 14 (16). The Black Cat (1934); 15 (17). The Unknown (1927); - (18). Halloween II (1981); 16 (19). The Seventh Victim (1943); 17 (20). The Beast With Five Fingers (1946); 18 (21). The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923); 19 (22). The Curse of the Cat People (1944); - (23). George A. Romero's Land of the Dead (2005); SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #3: Horror Noire: 20 (24). Ganja & Hess (1973); 21 (25). Drácula (1931); 22 (26). Universal Horror (1998); - (27). Happy Death Day (2017); 23 (28). The Phantom of the Opera (1925); - (29). Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982); SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #4: Inktober: 24 (30). Velvet Buzzsaw (2018); - (31). Frankenstein (1931); 25 (32). The Mummy (1932); 26 (33). The Raven (1935); - (34). Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988); 27 (35). The Man Who Laughs (1928); 28 (36). The Invisible Man (1933); - (37). Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989); 29 (38). The Black Castle (1952); 30 (39). Faust (1926); - (40). Halloween: The Curse of Micheal Myers (1995); STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 10:46 on Oct 20, 2019 |
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Oct 20, 2019 10:29
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#44: Puppet Master: The Legacy It's a loving clip show. It doesn't even iron out the inconsistencies, You see green goo animation, no green goo animation, they include the shot of the goblin puppet from the original version of how Toulon got the formula only to show in excruciating detail the contradictory story from Retro Puppet Master. They don't even explain how Leech Woman is back I don't think I mentioned it in my review, but as Puppet Master 5 is an immediate followup to Puppet Master 4, it started with a very long "Last time, on Dragon Ball Z!" style summation of the events of Puppet Master 4. Puppet Master the Legacy includes that in it's entirety. It's the most shameless goddamn thing. And then they just say "oh yeah that guys dead now" and don't reference the events of Puppet Master 5 at all. I was interested to see how they'd make Puppet Master 2 square with all of Toulon's characterization, and the answer is they didn't. It's like, yup that happened. Guess Toulon is actually just a horrible murderer too! That's what they end on! Even though they show clips from Puppet Master 4, which happened after Puppet Master 2 and has Toulon as a good guy! Puppet Master: The Legacy is a terrible clip show that rather than retconing or explaining away continuity problems, massively magnifies them. It's godawful.
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Oct 20, 2019 13:17
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And since Puppet Master The Legacy is the eighth Puppet Master movie, I've now reached parity between entertaining and non-entertaining Puppet Master movies. Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys and the Puppet Master Axis trilogy better bring their A game, because my whole opinion of the franchise is in serious jeopardy.
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Oct 20, 2019 13:23
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Gripweed posted:Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys and the Puppet Master Axis trilogy better bring their A game lol
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Oct 20, 2019 13:30
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17. The Canal A brooding, moody ghost story that keeps you guessing up until the end. Some truly great scenes here, with a fantastically creepy final scene. 18. Deep Red  I'm not a big fan of Italian slashers (or slashers in general), but I must admit that this films status as a classic is deserved. Beautiful shots, great music and interesting characters. Not particularly scary or creepy most of the time, however.  quote:1. The Shining [5/5 Spooks] Clayren fucked around with this message at 13:35 on Oct 20, 2019 |
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Oct 20, 2019 13:33
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Gripweed posted:#44: Puppet Master: The Legacy Hands up everyone who was waiting for Gripweed to get to this one.
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Oct 20, 2019 13:38
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Random Stranger posted:Hands up everyone who was waiting for Gripweed to get to this one.  But now they just have demonic toys and the axis trilogy before he gets to the other one I've been waiting them to get to
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Oct 20, 2019 13:46
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Whoops double post
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Oct 20, 2019 13:46
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 19 All-American Murder (1991) [Oklahoma] youtube This was a trip. Moving from college rom-com to police detective story to slasher with a pinch of giallo, the earnestness of a lifetime movie and the gore, tits & swearing of an HBO movie. The dialogue is a little too snappy, but with lines such as “in the last month I’ve knocked off more undergrads than Kent State” who cares. Incredibly cheesy power ballads and copious amounts of Dutch angles. Christopher Walken is in this, not really trying very hard, but still better than anyone else. Is it a good movie? Hell no, but it is exactly the kind of shlock that I love. Great fun.  20 The Monster (1925) [Indiana] youtube Three people get stuck in a sanitorium for the insane during a stormy night. Lots of creepy shadows and hidden passageways, this was pretty entertaining although it does take a while before they get to the house and things get going. Boris Karloff steals the show, especially in the finale when he gets the spotlight. The quality of the version I watched wasn't to great and did not have a soundtrack. However, I really wanted to watch some silent movies and this is one of the few I found that I could use for my US state challenge. One to revisit in better quality some time.  21 The Hitcher (1986)  Super Samhain Challenge #2: Dead & Buried RIP Rutger Hauer [Texas] youtube This was already high on my list so I'm glad I could use it for this challenge. Rutger Hauer (Ryder) is fantastic in this as a murderous hitchhiker playing a game of cat and mouse with the one victim that got away (C Thomas Howell; Jim). It’s impressive how the movie that has big car chases and a man shooting a helicopter out of the sky while driving a car, is at its most intense in the quieter character moments between them. The nihilistic nature of Ryder, who has no qualms about murdering everyone in his way to continue his tormenting of Jim make for a thrilling but and very bleak movie. The vast and desolate Texas desert landscape provide a great backdrop for the action, and really emphasizes the helplessness of Jim to escape from his pursuer.  22 The Fury (1978) [Illinois] dvd What if Carrie, but bigger? This was an interesting one mixing psychic horror with action and some slapstick comedy thrown in for good measure. Kirk Douglas (Peter) is a real badass, mowing down baddies with a machine gun and leaping out of buildings, while John Cassavetes makes an excellent bond villain. Overall, it is not as tight a film as Carrie, most time is spent on Gillian coming to terms with her psychic abilities and the search of Peter for his missing son. However, the arc of the son turning evil felt somewhat underdeveloped which meant that the final confrontation between them didn´t have as much impact as it should have. The true finale makes up for that though, banger of an ending.
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Oct 20, 2019 14:09
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 21. DEEP RED/PROFONDO ROSSO - Scream Stream It's Argento giallo, you know what's up: a non-cop investigates a string of brutal murders, in this case starting with the murder of a psychic who can see the killer's crimes during a large conference on the paranormal. This is a super fun giallo romp. The set designs are incredible, the score is proggy perfection, the kills are gross, and it's all just weird as h*ck. Special shout-out to the impossibly cool Gianna Brezzi (played by Daria Nicolodi) who is sexy and bombastic and just so much cooler than our lead. 4 out of 5 giant sea shells 22. HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER - Shudder - Joe Bob Briggs This is a bleak, nasty, sleazy movie. You can practically smell the mold in the apartments and the urine in the alleys. Though many people are murdered, calling it a "violent" film doesn't quite fit; you rarely see the actually violence take place and instead come in afterwards. The killing is not sexy, Henry is not charismatic or cool, and this life is not a dark little fantasy about living a life without boundaries. I've seen many movies about sociopaths/psychopaths and serial killers that were more extreme or more in depth; it's hard to say why this one felt so... unnerving. I think it's because it's shot in an almost documentarian style such that it feels plausible this is real life, and real life happening tucked away in our world (which is true, and something we don't like to think about). It's a well-made film, certainly an unforgettable experience, but it's a lot to process and not a rip-roaring good time. Also major CW for sexual violence. (the Last Drive In version is fun, they get John McNoughton to visit and talk about the production. Worth your time!) 4 out of 5 stolen TV sets
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Oct 20, 2019 14:34
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31. Oct 19, 2019. Dracula (1931, Tod Browning) Universal Blu-ray Over the years, I've grown to enjoy this way more. I think some of it is that it's still a relatively early sound film from one of the lowest budget studios. I'll go ahead and say that Universal's restoration used for DCP and Blu-ray looks and sounds incredible, as if it's had decades of grime removed without losing its gothic patina. For that matter, I think the somewhat rickety quality to the pacing and continuity adds something of a layer of surrealism. And of course, Bela Lugosi is magnificent, always coming off as both suave and creepy in every shot he's in. But I think Edward van Sloan deserves a lot of praise, as he's one of the best Van Helsings of cinema. Though, it always seems like it attracts actors who can really make the most of it. And it's a pity Dwight Frye was so quickly typecast, but his Renfield is just as iconic, almost anticipating the sort of method acting you'd start to see in the 50s. As most know, there was a Spanish language version shot concurrently (as was the norm from 1929-1932 for many productions) with more inventive camera work and better plot resolution (almost 30 minutes longer), but this is still worth revisiting. Just check out the newer restoration.
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Oct 20, 2019 14:36
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#45: Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys I watched Demonic Toys for this? Watched on Youtube squeezed into the corner of the video and sped up by like 2% to avoid copyright bots, which is the presentation this movie deserves. Bad movie. Bad characters, bad plot, bad acting, terrible humor. The toys look like garbage, the cyborg puppets look indescribably lovely, and the puppetry is terrible. Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys is by far the worst Puppet Master movie I've watched. And Puppet Master The Legacy was a loving clipshow At least Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys dropped the rape element from the Demonic Toys lore. They get points for that, points for not hinging the whole plot on rape like Demonic Toys did.
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Oct 20, 2019 14:52
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You've made it through the desert and are about to hit a small Oasis before launching off a cliff you didn't know was coming. So far all your opinions mirror mine about the movies verbatim
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Oct 20, 2019 15:25
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 91) Amityville: Mt. Misery Road - 2018 - TubiTV First time watch. Well, we've now stretched things to where it counts as Amityville if it happens in the same state. Apparently it's based on 'real' events happening on the most haunted road, Mt. Misery. I think the old Route 666/now Route 491 out near me might have a bone to pick with that. Don't bother with this one. I've seen home movies better than this. Franchescanado posted:SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #6: Sometimes They Come Back  92) The Amityville Murders - 2018 - Prime First time watch. Essentially a remake of sorts of Amityville II. It still takes liberty with the DeFeo story but follows fairly faithfully in others. Thank God it dropped that incest mess from Amityville II. At times it seemed like they were decided on an angle to go with but ended up trying to do a little of everything, almost as if they were ripping from the Paranormal Activity franchise. Okay to have on for background noise but not much else. Final Thoughts: Holy poo poo, I made it through this. If there was ever a real world example of "Let's run this poo poo into the ground", the Amityville franchise is it. Googling around, I counted at least six more films in some stage of the works that haven't been completed yet. Seriously, six more loving films. The books went all the way from the 'events' in the house to the Lutz's being followed wherever they went by the spirits like some paranormal adventure series. It's kinda unnerving with how a halfassed drunken bullshit session between Ronnie DeFeo's lawyer, and George & Kathy Lutz to get them out of the money trouble they were in and the lawyer to try to get a second trial for Ronnie turned into all this. The Warrens are also to blame since the Amityville story is what brought them fame since before this, they were just another dime a dozen paranormal research team. All involved have had a vested interest in keeping the story rolling. Allegedly Ed Warren near his death admitted all the investigations of his and Lorraine's were bullshit and the people who came to them were crazy. When you look into how much money's made from the Warren's research society in teaching paranormal investigation classes and lectures, there's more vested interest in quashing that. There's enough articles around of the Warren's investigations where the families in question were already severely troubled and needed therapy, instead they were pitched their problems are caused by demons to keep the money train rolling. I do believe in the paranormal to some degree, but this hoax poo poo pisses me off because it obscures the possibility of real proof. In the end, the true horror of Amityville is that Ronnie DeFeo murdered his family for reasons we'll never know, and the Lutz children have been mentally wrecked by the perpetuation of a hoax.
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Oct 20, 2019 16:09
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#26: Profondo Rossa (Deep Red) (1975) I watched this on the Scream Stream last night, and it was a blast and a half. I'm starting to get a good idea of what giallo is all about, and the distinct style Dario Argento brings to the screen. It's shot and framed so beautifully, the kills are extreme (and extremely entertaining) and the music is loving amazing. Seriously, I could spend pages talking about the Goblin soundtrack in this movie. Every single time it starts to kick in, my ears perked up and I sat forward ready to see something crazy. The story follows a jazz pianist named Marc, who witnesses the murder of his neighbor and gets wrapped up in the mystery of finding out who the killer is. The police are a bunch of sandwich-munching idiots and aren't any help at all (pictured below) so Marc enlists the help of a local journalist named Gianna. Marc is kind of a chauvinistic dick (this is a huge understatement) and Gianna is better than him in literally every way. I have no idea why she falls for him, because Marc sucks.  There are so many wild moments of over-the-top violence that it's hard to pick a favorite scene. The story has some great twists, and I genuinely had no idea who the killer was going to be and the reveal at the end was both surprising and satisfying. I highly recommend this movie, especially as a primer on giallo films for those (like me) who might not be familiar with the Italian sub-genre. Hell, the movie is worth watching just to listen to the Goblin score. All the crazy visuals are just a bonus. 5 half-eaten sandwiches out of 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; Spider Baby, or the Maddest Story Ever Told (Challenge #2); Hereditary; The First Purge (Challenge #3); Killer Condom; Road Games; Next of Kin; Zombie, aka Zombi 2; Suspiria (1977) (Challenge #4); Phantom of the Paradise; In Her Skin; Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon; Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead; Troll Hunter aka Trollhunter (Challenge #5); The Tunnel; Profondo Rossa aka Deep Red Total: 26
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Oct 20, 2019 16:35
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Untrustable posted:Can a challenge film also be part of my regular list? I have a physical copy on my list that meets the challenge requirement. Apologies for the late response. Yes, absolutely. The challenges are just to make you watch something more unusual or out of your normal watch pattern. If you have a film on your watchlist that qualifies, that's completely fine. Friends Are Evil posted:On that note, does the original of something that got remade count towards this challenge or is it just the remake itself? Never seen either version of Child's Play, so I was thinking about doing a double-header. Nope. Sorry. Only remakes or sequels Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 16:52 on Oct 20, 2019 |
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Oct 20, 2019 16:49
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Purno posted:
Man I love the hell out of this film, even though I recognize it's significantly flawed, and I hope most of the horror regulars have at least seen it. The story is kind of a hybrid between Carrie and Firestarter, "teens with super/psi abilities are sought by nefarious agency (government or otherwise) goons to be imprisoned, studied, made to be pawns and their powers to be harnessed for geopolitical bullshit" which kind of eventually bridges into all the recent teen oriented film franchises about kids gifted with powers. The biggest flaw IMO is all the cloak and dagger stuff with Kirk Douglas (the father of the teen boy), especially the extended car chase. It really does nothing for the story or the film IMO even though I love Kirk. I suppose since he's the big name star in the film they had to dedicate a lot of screen time to him, but there was plenty of room to feature him in a way that services the main story better. There are some really notable scenes in this. I really love all the depictions of psi events, such as when the girl is seeing flashbacks of past events, I think it's really well done. There's one scene that is IMO the most notable one in the film, where one of the girl's psi events climaxes into the actual appearance of the image of the teen boy in the glass coffee table. That's an incredible, shocking image that can only happen with a visual medium like film and it's like the whole essence of the story in one powerful vision, the search for this anguished boy. What's happened to him? How is he, what's he feeling right now? The sequence depicted in the animated .gif is also really horrifying IMO not just because of what happens, but specifically because it shows how the boy has been changed by everything that's happened and the humanity bled out of him, he's become the monster they've been trying to make him into. The stereotypical DePalma stuff that later became a staple and trademark for him, like the use of split screen and the lush musical score during hyperdramatic action sequences like the one where the girl tries to flee the "school" work very well in this film IMO.
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Oct 20, 2019 17:52
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Holy poo poo, M_Sinistrari, how good does it feel to reach the end of the existing Amityvilles? #125) The Evil Dead (1981), a.k.a., Book of the Dead Rewatch, partner hadn't seen it before. In a tale as old as time, a group of friends go up to a cabin in the woods and unknowingly release an ancient evil. It's been a few years since I've seen this (scheduling conflicts didn't let me catch the showing with the new score that came through recently), and it was a treat, but I also kept thinking 'I can't wait to get to the second one.' As much as there is to admire in this low-budget creation, the rough edges are hard to ignore, especially once you've seen it a few dozen times. My partner asked if it was supposed to be funny (before the tree scene, obviously), a question brought up more by the acting than the early joking around. I also have difficulty at this point watching it without thinking of all the behind-the-scenes stories, like how much of a pain in the rear end the contact lenses were. The parts that do work simply shine, though, and that's the majority of the movie. Raimi's visual flair is there even for the simplest shots, and Bruce getting put through the wringer is always a hoot. Bruce really does carry the back half of this movie, almost all on his own. And after all these years, I'm still picking up on little details I hadn't noticed before, like the back-and-forth eye game between Ash and Linda getting a repeat of sorts when he's about to bury her. I may not be as wild for it as I used to be, but I still have a lot of affection for this film. rating: 8/10"Well, it might not be that bad." "No." "In fact, it might be kind of nice." "Yeah."
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Oct 20, 2019 18:00
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#46: Puppet Master: Axis of Evil From the worst Puppet Master movie to the... best?! BWUH? Well, no. I thought it could be at the start, but it's definitely not. Puppet Master: Axis of Evil is a direct sequel to the first scene of Puppet Master. After Toulon killed himself, the nazis stuck around to do some sabotaging, and the puppets ended up in the hands of a nazi-hating 4-F. You can guess where it's going. And then you'll spend the next hour waiting for it to go there as Puppet Master: Axis of Evil fucks around! And when the puppet mayhem finally happens, it's pretty lackluster. There's also none of the little puppet movements or emoting that made the earlier Puppet Master movies so charming. The American characters spend a lot of time talking about "the Japs" People back then were racist, sure. It's not great that the good guy Americans are more vocally racist than the nazis. And the movie is on their side with the racism. In the entire movie there are three non-white characters; A Japanese lady spy who has a thick accent and always wears a kimono and full geisha makeup. And her two unnamed gi-wearing assistants who have no dialogue, one of whom dies because he mistakes a leech for a piece of sushi. Kinda fucks up the nazi killing fun when the movie is itself super racist! I assumed that Puppet Master: Axis of Evil would be something of a soft reboot. It starts at the first scene of the first movie, and references the events of Puppet Master 3: Toulon's Revenge, but since it takes place before most of the rest of the series I thought it wouldn't really bother with trying to establish continuity with them. Then it shows the drat fluid ports from Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys! The other movies that used the fluid form of puppet animation didn't have the ports, the green fluid would just be injected into the torso. But Puppet Master: Axis of Evil shows the ports, thus making Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys more canonical. One fun weird thing; the lead character's clothes and hair in his first scene are a callback to the lead character of Curse of the Puppet Master. I guess because they're both kind-hearted carpenters? I wanted to like Puppet Master: Axis of Evil. I was completely on board from the opening. But it squandered all of my goodwill by being boring, being racist, and not having the classic puppet fun that I come to Puppet Master for.
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Oct 20, 2019 18:01
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October 20 - Pieces https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShYV_jTxijs (There was no way I wasn't using that poster, but it's a bit  . Why are you browsing a thread where screenshots from horror movies are going to be posted, anyway?)Back in the cult movie box for Pieces which the blurb tells me, "You don't need to go to Texas for a chainsaw massacre." So I'm guessing this one is a generic slasher from the early 80's. Women at the notoriously horny Boston University are being hacked up with a chainsaw and the killer takes some of the parts with them. The world's most incompetent police force are baffled. All they can do is cover up the murders so no one thinks to protect themselves and enlist the aid of one college student to watch over the campus. As the parts pile up, the killer is assembling a jigsaw puzzle. If you like sexualized violence, this is the movie for you! I watched a movie last night where a room full of naked women engaged in rhythmic gymnastics get exploded and it wasn't half as sleazy as this movie. Slashers as a genre traditionally have this problem, but Pieces goes the extra mile as the "get naked, get killed" rule is in full effect with everyone ready to get naked at the drop of a hat. On the other hand, if you're looking for lo-fi buckets of blood, Pieces has plenty of that. Plenty of blood splatters and dismemberment. This really might be the most incompetent police force in horror movies. A serial killer is taking the limbs from coeds and they cover up the murders. What do they tell the parents of these kids, their friends and family? "Oh, she just went out of town suddenly and left a blood splattered room behind. Nothing to see here." And recruiting a civilian who by all rights should be a suspect to run the case for them? What the gently caress? Pieces has one thing going for it and that's the gore. There's a bit in the literal last minute of the film that's pretty memorable and lots of unpleasant stuff throughout. But that's all the movie has. I need more than boobs and blood in my movies. M_Sinistrari posted:Holy poo poo, I made it through this. Coagulations. I feel like there's enough of those movies that Amityville should be it's own horror subgenre.
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Oct 20, 2019 18:08
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Gripweed posted:But it squandered all of my goodwill by being boring, being racist, and not having the classic puppet fun that I come to Puppet Master for. Yeah get used to that for the rest of the series.
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Oct 20, 2019 18:21
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#25) A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) One of my all time favorite movies, and one of the movies that got me into horror in the first place. Before ANoES, I thought that horror had to be dourly serious and bleak. But then Freddy comes along, and I realize that spooky can be mixed with humor. It's a humor of the absolute darkest kind, but humor nonetheless. The characters all feel like actual people, and the interactions are organic. The effects are way ahead of their time, and pioneered some very inventive things. For me, there's really nothing NOT to like about this one. Some of the sequels don't hold up as well (except for 3, which is fantastic), but the original is a movie I could watch again and again and again. 5/5
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Oct 20, 2019 18:22
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I don't know which is less appealing to me; watching three more Puppet Master movies today, or waking up tomorrow and still having Puppet Master movies to watch.
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Oct 20, 2019 18:34
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Looks like the real puppet, is you
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Oct 20, 2019 18:35
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 30. Hobgoblins (1988) Dir: Rick Sloane (YouTube) Watched this one because I'm doing Hooptober on Letterboxd at the same time and I had to find "the lowest rated film from the 80s that you can access" for my final challenge on that. I vaguely remember watching the MST3K episode a while back, but that's different than watching a movie fresh. Obviously, this is a bad film. But the lowest rated horror movie of the 80's? C'mon. There's a charm to the weird amateurish quality of the film. It very obviously wants to be Gremlins, but there's also an upsettingly horny undercurrent running throughout the movie. There's a goony character who keeps running the phone sex hotline on his friend's money. And two of the characters gently caress in a van that makes cartoon sound effects. I'm not really sure what the logic of the hobgoblins is. They bug people and then they use the characters' daydreams to trick people? The actual hobgoblins are probably the least threatening monsters in a horror film, but they're actually just adorable. Friends Are Evil fucked around with this message at 19:10 on Oct 20, 2019 |
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Oct 20, 2019 18:57
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Gripweed posted:I don't know which is less appealing to me; watching three more Puppet Master movies today, or waking up tomorrow and still having Puppet Master movies to watch. I'd say just get it over with. After The Littlest Reich you'll be happy to wake up and not have to watch it ever again.
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Oct 20, 2019 18:57
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Oct 20, 2019 19:01
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Just dehumanize yourself and face to Puppet Master, man
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Oct 20, 2019 19:05
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Everyone wants a taste of that spooky dick, ain't nobody wants to follow-through and swallow the terror load.
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Oct 20, 2019 19:13
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I'm trying to find a movie I saw recommended here or elsewhere. It's an italian movie about 3 fathers (or maybe just men) tracking down a killer. Made within the last 10 years. I've got a trail running of shudder and I believe I found it while looking for recommendations on there. Any help?
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Oct 20, 2019 19:25
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Got to catch up here. 19. Eyes Without A Face (1960)  After his daughter is badly disfigured in a car accident (that he caused), a doctor resorts to kidnapping young women and grafting their faces onto his daughter in an attempt to restore her beauty. The black-and-white in this film is so crisp and pronounced, it's beautiful. This, combined with the white gown that Christiane often wears and the slow, almost dream-like quality of some of the scenes, lends an almost fairy tale air to this film. It reminded me a little of the old German Expressionist films, particularly with Christiane's unchanging yet haunting mask to hide her disfigured face. 20. Killer Condom (1996)  An Italian detective, Luigi Macaroni (yes, really), investigates a series of bizarre deaths at a brothel where all the victims were male and had their penises bitten off. After an aborted encounter with a hustler named Billy and one of the titular killer condoms that leaves Luigi minus one testicle, he vows to discover the origins of the condoms and stop them. I first read about this film in an old issue of Fangoria in the 1990s, and at the time lamented that I was unlikely to ever see it here in the UK. Well, hope and the Scream Stream spring eternal! This movie is a delight, which perhaps seems like an unusual word to use to describe a movie about carnivorous condoms emasculating unsuspecting men, but it really is. It's one part black comedy, one part hard-boiled detective movie, and one part touching LGBTQ+ romance as Detective Macaroni struggles with his relationships - his old flame Bob/Babette, new love interest Billy, and his friendship with his working partner Sam despite the casual (and not so casual) homophobia in the police department. The killer condoms are also a metaphor, in case you didn't get it. 21. Next of Kin (1982)  After her mother's death, Linda inherits the nursing home that she ran, Montclare. People soon start dying there, and although Linda is told that nothing strange is going on, she believes otherwise and starts to investigate, discovering the disturbing past of the nursing home. A young John Jarrett is in this movie. That's probably the first thing everyone is going to notice about this film. The second is that it tries to make itself mysterious and spooky and potentially supernatural, but unfortunately sometimes slips over that line into confusing, muddled and a little slow. My ability to predict plot twists and revelations continues to stand me in good stead as I totally saw where the film was going, and it at least made sense plotwise, but it takes quite a while to get there and there are several overlong scenes that could have been trimmed without any harm to the film overall. 22. Zombie/Zombi 2/Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979)  A journalist teams up with the daughter of a missing scientist to travel to the Carribean island of Matul, where a doctor is fighting to contain a strange plague that seems to be causing the dead to walk. Everyone has seen at least one scene from this film - either the eyeball scene or the zombie versus shark scene. Yes, zombie versus shark. Real shark, real stuntman (actually the shark's trainer/handler, who insisted that the shark be both fed and mildly sedated before filming the scene, just to be safe). But if those two scenes aren't enough to get your attention and make you want to see the film, there's also gross, decaying zombies, throat rippings, a score from Fabio Frizzi and lots of closeups of eyes. It should be a must-watch for anyone looking to expand their horror film knowledge. 23. This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse (1967)  Super Samhain Challenge #5: Watch a horror film you've never seen before that was made by / filmed in a country you've never watched a movie from. (Brazil) Coffin Joe, after being cleared of the crimes he committed in the previous film, heads to a new town and promptly gets up to his old tricks again, kidnapping women in search of the perfect one that will bear his son. This is the second Coffin Joe film (of three), but don't worry if you didn't catch the first one - there's a brief recap at the start, followed by Joe's trial where he's acquitted of everything and let go with a hearty slap on the back and told to stay out of trouble. But Coffin Joe, with his top hat, cape and fingernails that must make it really hard to open jars and hold pens, just rocks up to a new town and gets right back to the kidnapping, murders and Nitzschian pontificating (and he does this last one a lot). There's some disagreement over whether or not this movie is endorsing Joe's deeply unpleasant views; I fall on the side of believing it's presenting him as utterly morally reprehensible and not a figure to be admired and emulated. The high point of this film, however, has to be the Technicolor Hell dream, complete with people being poked with forks, whipped and more, while Joe rolls around on the floor wailing... until he wakes up and gets right back to the evil. 24. Satan's Slave/Pengabdi Setan (1980)  After the death of their mother, an Indonesian family find themselves tormented by ghosts and strange deaths. This film is noteworthy primarily for being a rare haunting/supernatural film where the religion called upon to defeat the evil spirits is Islam rather than Christianity or Buddhism, which is an interesting thing to see. Other than that, however, it's a relatively anaemic film, aside from a couple of scenes, and a lot of the movie is shot at night with poor lighting, making it a little difficult to see what is going on. Oh, and a special mention has to go to the family's gardener/manservant Karto, who goes through most of his time in the film sounding like he should be in an iron lung. Death was actually an improvement for his health. 25. Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)  Super Samhain Challenge #4: Watch a horror film you've never seen that heavily features art or artists. A previously-unknown artist's works are discovered after his death, and despite his wishes that all his work be destroyed, several people in the art scene start to exhibit and sell his work. A supernatural force then begins to stalk and kill them one by one, punishing them for valuing money over art. Hmm. I'd seen a few people talking about this movie before I finally sat down to watch it, and I've got to say... I'm a little underwhelmed. The movie is nearly 2 hours long and could probably do with losing about 20-30 minutes of that, because there's only so much filler of how shallow, cutthroat and false the art scene is I can take before I start looking for something else to do. The film's title doesn't really even come into play until the very end, which was another disappointment - although thankfully no cats were harmed during the course of the movie. It does have a pretty stacked cast though. 26. Deep Red/Profundo Rosso (1976)  An American jazz pianist living in Rome becomes involved in a brutal murder and sets off to discover the killer's identity before he becomes their next victim. I could probably talk for hours about this film - from the music by Goblin, the cleverness of the plot, the various characters and cyphers and how they all fall into the traditional giallo plot of "everyone is a suspect until dead or proved otherwise", and all the other little pieces of the movie that all come together to make it one of the most perfect gialli of the era, if not of all time, but I think all of that can be condensed into one phrase: Holy crap, go see this movie ASAP if you haven't already. 27. Cemetery of Terror (1985)  On Halloween, a group of teenagers reanimate a dead serial killer and devil worshipper, who proceeds to pick up right where he left off. A group of children out trick-or-treating get caught in the middle of all of this, while the killer's doctor drives around looking for him. Every movie I've seen Hugo Stiglitz in, he has a beard and the beard has out-acted him. And it's not like he has all that much to do in this movie except argue with some cops and then like I said, drive around looking for the killer so he can stop them. And when he finally does turn up at the cemetery where everything is going down (the dead having also risen at this point for... reasons), he gets a Scatman Crothers Special, leaving the kids to put an end to the serial killer with fingernails that could put Coffin Joe to shame. New: (21); 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); Blacula (1972); The House That Jack Built (2018); Viy (1967); Mystics in Bali (1981); Eyes Without A Face (1960); Killer Condom (1996); Next of Kin (1982); This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse (1967); Satan's Slave/Pengabdi Setan (1980); Velvet Buzzsaw (2019); Cemetary of Terror (1985) Rewatched: (6); Exorcist III (1990); Halloween (2018); Dead Snow (2009); What We Do In The Shadows (2014); Zombie/Zombi 2/Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979); Deep Red/Profundo Rosso (1976)
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Oct 20, 2019 19:27
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SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #5: TOURIST TRAP I usually go out of my way to watch films from different countries, so I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to find something for this challenge that I had easy access to. Luckily, Shudder came through with an Estonian film!  27. November (2017) (Shudder) The plot of this one is a bit hard to describe - at its core it's a story about Liina, a young peasant woman in the 19th century trying to win the affection of a man named Hans, who is smitten with a young baroness. That basic story is wrapped in layers of Estonian folklore. Some of it is fairly standard stuff - ghosts and witches and the like - but it also gets into some really weird and wild myths. The strangest are creatures called kratts, which are built out of everyday items (tools, scraps of wood, animal skulls, etc) and then given life by selling your soul to the devil. They look super cool and creepy and are also the source of much of the film's humor. This Estonian film touches on the horror genre, but it also combines fantasy, drama, and comedy into a really unique package. It's at times creepy, funny, and sad. The black and white cinematography is gorgeous - this is one of those films where you could grab almost any random frame and hang it on your wall. The music is excellent too. My only complaint is that it probably could've been shorter - there are several sequences that are fun but have nothing to do with the plot, such as a scene where the peasants trick the plague (masquerading as a goat) into leaving them alone by putting their pants on their heads. I love that stuff, but it hurt the pacing of the movie a little. If you like folklore and bizarre myths, or just want to appreciate a beautifully shot film, I definitely recommend checking this out.  4/5 Total: 27 Watched: Dead of Night | Child's Play (2019) | Escape Room | Hell Night | The Wind | Evil Dead (2013) | Cure (Challenge #1) | Tigers Are Not Afraid | The Craft | Tower of London | In Fabric | Popcorn | Cube | Uninvited | Galaxy of Terror (Challenge #2) | Brightburn | Body Bags | The Tingler | The Wax Mask | Cube 2: Hypercube | Dark Water (2002) | The Ruins (Challenge #4) | Viy | The Haunting | Bones (Challenge #3) | A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) (Challenge #6) | November (Challenge #5) Samhain Challenges:
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Oct 20, 2019 19:54
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#47: Puppet Master X: Axis Rising lmao both leads got recast. I like the new actors. The guy reminds me of the line from Darkplace, "I like his vacancy, there's a rawness to it" and the lady gives too much to every single line, and I love her for it. This is the third Puppet Master movie where they fight nazis, and they finally introduced that classic nazi fighting fiction trope, the nazi babe. I thought the European accents in Retro Puppet Master were bad, but her attempt at a German accent easily moves from terrible German accent to terrible British accent to just an American accent and back again in a single two syllable word. But then she gets killed and replaced with a puppet, an a bit of fun leaves the movie with her. There's an angry army man whose presence doesn't make a ton of sense. He does add a bit of energy, which is appreciated in a franchise that has a history of issues with being boring. But as a comic relief character he falls flat, and I grew to resent his presence. They got a new Leech Woman puppet, and it looks like poo poo. Also apparently they broke Blade and he can't open his mouth anymore. Whoever they got voicing Six Shooter can't do his creepy creaking laugh, so that's ruined. The new nazi puppets are unimpressive. The problem is bad puppetry! They have no character. Kamikaze is a problem. I know that he was made by nazis, and nazis are racist. But it' still a super offensive Japanese caricature which they decided to make a character in the movie. And since the offensive Geisha lady from Axis of Evil dies in the opening scene, It's the only non white "character" in the movie after that. Bad puppetry also means bad puppet fights. Early on I really thought Puppet Master X: Axis Rising was gonna go in the enjoyed column. but it got boring, and racist, and the bad puppetry ruined any potential puppet fun. So that's it. I've watched eleven Puppet Master movies, enjoyed four, and not enjoyed seven. There are only two left. Even if I like both of them, I'm still gonna walk away from this having not enjoyed a majority of the Puppet Master movies.
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Oct 20, 2019 20:20
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 SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE 5 TOURIST TRAPBaskin  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RuOOfoEdoY This is the worst challenge. I have gone out of my way to watch horror films from countries where I've never seen a horror movie from them before. So with this challenge I had to dig pretty goddamned deep to find a horror movie from a country where I had not seen one before. Basically, I had to use one of those sites that let you pick through streaming libraries, filter it down to international horror, and then any movie which was a possibility I had to search for its origin. Then if I couldn't remember if I had watched a movie from that country or not, I had to search for horror movies from that country to find out if I had seen any ("Ah, Austria can't have made that many horror movies. I bet this is... HANDS OF ORLAC! GODDAMNIT!") In the end I had exactly two movies to chose from: one Israeli and one Turkish. Yes, I could have just lied and said, "Why no, I have never seen a horror movie from Spain," but I'm trying to be do this right. A group of really lovely cops who are determined to prove ACAB respond to a call for help at a place they didn't know exist. Very eventually they get there after crashing their van, seeing weird symbols, frogs turning up everywhere, and an extended dream sequence that recapped the first few minutes of the movie. Inside the decrepit building they find nightmares. There's certain plots that are obvious for horror movies and get run into the ground. This is one of them: surprise, all the cops have all been deadl. There are films that have used this concept as a platform for some incredible visual concepts (there's one obvious stand out, but I don't want to spoil that movie by citing it here even if it's really obvious from the first five minutes what's happening in it). Baskin is trying for an artistic approach, to this old chestnut, but the first half of the movie can be summed up with "When are they going to get to the fireworks factory?" A quick aside here, but the 31 horror movies in 31 days challenge has really made me appreciate the skill it takes to pace a movie well. I've seen so many movies pad their running time with "atmosphere" that's about as atmospheric as the surface of the moon. Telling viewers that the movie won't make sense doesn't justify it, either. This is a filthy movie. Even without the shots of a guy's face being shoved into a plate of poo poo over and over again, this is a movie that makes me want to take bleach to every surface I can find. I feel like I need a tetanus shot after watching it. There's a lot of "What?" and "Why would that happen?" in Baskin that in the plot are justified by everyone is already dead but exist mainy to be a shocking image. There's no throughline that makes sense. So the only thing to watch this movie for is the ickiness. I've seen a lot of movies this month that exist entirely for the imagery and Baskin's is just unpleasant to me.
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Oct 20, 2019 20:40
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5) Hellraiser (1987) This was a movie that was unafraid to be gross and I appreciate it given the subject matter. The scene of Frank pulling himself back together was disgusting but also weirdly fascinating to watch, which is true of a lot of the movie. This is an oddly structured movie as well, with Julia being the protagonist of the movie for a significant portion until the focus shifts to Kirsty towards the end. I liked how quickly Kirsty got a grasp of the situation once she gets more involved with the story. She was a much more capable protagonist than I was expecting going into the movie and it was a nice surprise. I'll probably watch the sequel next year, but from what I've heard it's not worth keeping up with this series past that point. EDIT: Also at one point in the movie the dad throws a six pack of Budweiser with one hand like it's a shotput across the room to another guy and it honestly stood out to me as the strangest moment in the film. Everything else follows its own horror movie logic but this was a truly bizarre act. Flying Zamboni fucked around with this message at 20:49 on Oct 20, 2019 |
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Oct 20, 2019 20:41
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