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Trash Boat posted:Question for the Monster Mash-Up challenge regarding Ghostbusters (or any other franchise relevant to the question): Would the distinct variety of ghost designs/abilities qualify them for the challenge, or would they fall under a single blanket designation as ghosts? And if the latter, are there any other monsters in Ghostbusters 2 that would qualify it? Nah. Ghostbusters are all ghosts. The dog demons and the ooze and things like the Stay Puft Marshmellow man aren't really unique creatures to make it distinct difference. (I mean, they are, but they aren't...) They're still just ghosts or things under Zuul/Vigo's control. Now, something like Sadako vs. Kayako (The Ring vs. The Grudge) counts, because while they're both ghosts, they're both very specific ghost characters from different franchises meeting together. In a similar vein, Freddy vs. Jason would count, as would Demonic Toys vs Puppet Master. Even though they're similar, the fact that different franchises are involved makes it a strong argument of distinction. Any Godzilla movie after the original counts, because they are distinct creature designs and the monsters battle it out. I said earlier that Krampus counts, but that was really stretching it, and kinda misses the intention of the challenge, which is to watch a movie with (at least) two very different monsters in it. Like a Sharktopus vs Pteraccuda.
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Oct 22, 2019 18:24
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Trash Boat posted:Of course I have, multiple times. Just never watched 2 for whatever reason and was planning to rectify that this year. Yea Ghostbusters 2 is an even more clear-cut no because the big bad is a ghost stuck in a painting, and everything that happens is just him controlling stuff from inside the painting. Franchescanado posted:I said earlier that Krampus counts, but that was really stretching it, and kinda misses the intention of the challenge, which is to watch a movie with two very different monsters in it. Like a Sharktopus vs Pteraccuda. I think ideally people who haven't delved into the Universal monster mash-up movies would check out one of them. Watch House of Frankenstein or Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein. Basebf555 fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Oct 22, 2019 |
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Oct 22, 2019 18:25
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Alright, no prob, thanks for the clarification. 
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Oct 22, 2019 18:27
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Trash Boat posted:Alright, no prob, thanks for the clarification. No problem! It's a tricky prompt to clarify. Basebf555 posted:I think ideally people who haven't delved into the Universal monster mash-up movies would check out one of them. Watch House of Frankenstein or Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein. Absolutely. There's, I think, 20(?) or so to pick from.
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Oct 22, 2019 18:33
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One of the segments in Dead of Night takes place on Christmas, is that enough to factor it in for the holidays challenge?
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Oct 22, 2019 18:37
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Ghostbusters 2 can be used for the holiday challenge.
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Oct 22, 2019 18:41
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Lumbermouth posted:One of the segments in Dead of Night takes place on Christmas, is that enough to factor it in for the holidays challenge? Yep. CopywrightMMXI posted:Ghostbusters 2 can be used for the holiday challenge. Yep!
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Oct 22, 2019 18:54
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CopywrightMMXI posted:Ghostbusters 2 can be used for the holiday challenge. Noted, thanks for the tip! 
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Oct 22, 2019 19:26
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smitster posted:
???? 
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Oct 22, 2019 19:43
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quote:#13: Pengabdi Setan or “Satan’s Slaves” (SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #5) quote:#14: Scooby Doo: Mask of the Blue Falcon quote:#15: Deep Red quote:#16: Cementerio Del Terror or “Cemetery of Terror” quote:#17: End of the Wicked Watched: 17/31 1.The Fog, 2. Evil Bong, 3. The Silence, 4. Death Ship, 5. Cannibal Women and the Avocado Jungle of Death, 6. Scream, 7. Who Can Kill a Child, 8. The Seventh Curse, 9. Killer Condom, 10. Zombie, 11. Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, 12. C.H.U.D., 13. Satan's Slaves, 14. Scooby Doo: Mask of the Blue Falcon, 15. Deep Red, 16. Cementerio del Terror, 17. End of the Wicked Samhain Challenges: #5: Satan's Slaves Peacoffee fucked around with this message at 06:03 on Oct 25, 2019 |
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Oct 22, 2019 19:46
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Again, sorry about that movie. It was my last choice in a list of popular Nollywood horror films, and I couldn't acquire the others. None of the people who recommended it mentioned that it was creepy religious propaganda, although it does make me suspicious of them now. It's not like they were random nigerian bloggers either, these were legitimate sites. I guess they didn't do a lot of vetting. I normally try to do more research before showing something, or at least warn people it's going to be upsetting, but various circumstances made it difficult to find any info on this and I didn't pre-screen it. I feel really bad about this one, folks.
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Oct 22, 2019 20:03
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Lurdiak posted:Again, sorry about that movie. It was my last choice in a list of popular Nollywood horror films, and I couldn't acquire the others. None of the people who recommended it mentioned that it was creepy religious propaganda, although it does make me suspicious of them now. It's not like they were random nigerian bloggers either, these were legitimate sites. I guess they didn't do a lot of vetting. ah I'm sorry if my review looked like it was calling you out, I still enjoyed watching it, and I think there's value re: international horror, in terms of seeing what monsters lurk in the minds of different people. As a group viewing experience it was a 5/5. I can appreciate why some people tuned out, and they were probably right to in their own way, but I wouldn't change a thing personally. I'd rather you find something interesting to show than shy away under uncertainty, setting these streams up takes lots of effort and it's totally awesome that you do. e: I am sorry though, someone has to inform "Who Can Kill a Child?" that the "surprise horror footage" crown has been taken by "End of the Wicked". Peacoffee fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Oct 22, 2019 |
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Oct 22, 2019 20:11
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Franchescanado posted:Any Godzilla movie after the original counts, because they are distinct creature designs and the monsters battle it out. Godzilla movies count, but what about [i]War of the Gargantuas[/b]? There are two of them, with different names and personalities, but they're both big ol' kaiju sasquatches. Never saw that one and was considering watching it for this challenge.
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Oct 22, 2019 20:32
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Personally I don't even think Godzilla movies should count because they're all kaiju, but that's just me, I don't make the rules.
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Oct 22, 2019 20:35
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 24. Spookies (1986) Spookies starts out with a young runaway who meets a drifter, decides that his parents must have set up a surprise birthday party for him in a creepy old mansion, and then gets attacked by some kind of werecat. Meanwhile, in another movie, a group of people who would never be friends in real life stumble over the mansion and decide to party there. They play with a ouija board and then one of their friends becomes a deadite-style possessed person that sends monsters after them. The ouija board and deadite lady are also under the control of a sorcerer that lures victims to the house to use their deaths to wake up the woman he’s obsessed with, who he’s kept in suspended animation for seventy years. I was planning on using this for the monster challenge because it is wall-to-wall monsters. None of them are particularly well developed, but in addition to the sorcerer, the werecat, and that deadite, Spookies has zombies, farting dirt golems, a tiny merman, a magical vampire kid, an electro shock tentacle monster, a hag, a spider lady, and an animated statue of the grim reaper. Unfortunately when I hit the halfway point I realized I’d seen at least part of this piece of poo poo movie before, probably on 90s late night cable, so that means it's back to the drawing board again to find something that new-to-me that definitely includes multiple monsters and is available either for free or on one of my current streaming options. That's probably for the best considering that these monsters don't really interact with each other at all. The plot is a disjointed mess, which made total sense once I read about how all the ouija monsters vs. party people footage was taken from the filmmakers and handed over to a new team that tacked on the sorcerer plot. That explains why half of the movie is filled with monster effects that look pretty good for a small mid-80s film and half of it has garbage makeup, cheapo zombies, and weird lighting. The writing of that core set of scenes was not exactly amazing, but the kills may have been strong enough to have supported a so-so story if the original team had been able to finish. Whoever wrote the new bits put in that overlong birthday party part that felt more like a prequel short than an actual part of the movie, and they also wrote a character who’d been in suspended animation since the 1910s but then jumped in a modern car and started looking for the keys. The behind-the-scenes stories I read about Spookies were better than the movie itself, and it would be interesting to see what the original filmmakers would have done with their footage. 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; 9. Next of Kin (1982); 10. The Ritual (2017); 11. Def by Temptation (1990) - Challenge #3; 12. Halloween III (1982); 13. House by the Cemetery (1981); 14. The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1982); 15. Phenomena (1985); 16. Color Me Blood Red (1965) - Challenge #4; 17. Girls With Balls (2018); 18. Tarot (2009) - Challenge #5; 19. Jug Face (2013); 20. Wake Wood (2009); 21. Happy Death Day (2017); 22. Poltergeist II (1986) - Challenge #6; 23. Wolfman’s Got Nards (2018); 24. Spookies (1986)
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Oct 22, 2019 20:51
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Question that I feel dumb for asking: are Samhain Challenges counted towards your challenge total? Or are they essentially 8 movies (at the moment) + your initial goal count. Just working on formatting and planning the rest of my week. e: alright cool, thanks Peacoffee fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Oct 22, 2019 |
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Oct 22, 2019 21:03
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Peacoffee posted:Question that I feel dumb for asking: are Samhain Challenges counted towards your challenge total? Yes.
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Oct 22, 2019 21:06
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Now you all got me anxious if my movie's different monsters count since they were technically all ------human---. I think the movie very much is in the spirit of "monster mash up" though and I'm gonna be watching a bunch of Universal mashups soon so I figure at worst they balance out.
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Oct 22, 2019 21:15
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STAC Goat posted:Now you all got me anxious if my movie's different monsters count since they were technically all ------human---. I think the movie very much is in the spirit of "monster mash up" though and I'm gonna be watching a bunch of Universal mashups soon so I figure at worst they balance out. sorry but presidential debates do not count as horror movies
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Oct 22, 2019 21:27
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gey muckle mowser posted:sorry but presidential debates do not count as horror movies While I might be inclined to dispute this, they're definitely all the same kind of monster.
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Oct 22, 2019 21:31
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Lurdiak posted:???? Look, lotsa people without cars need to get around. Some are good, some are bad, some just want to talk about other peoples' problems.
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Oct 22, 2019 21:48
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Basebf555 posted:Personally I don't even think Godzilla movies should count because they're all kaiju, but that's just me, I don't make the rules. Some Godzilla movies are more firmly horror than others, but I think giant monsters are definitely in the spirit of the challenge (and not just because I used one). edit:browsing tubi and if anyone is looking for a monster mash there is a "Sharktopus vs Whalewolf" Ambitious Spider fucked around with this message at 22:27 on Oct 22, 2019 |
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Oct 22, 2019 22:24
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smitster posted:Look, lotsa people without cars need to get around. Some are good, some are bad, some just want to talk about other peoples' problems. an rear end sculpted by miles and miles on the road. He doesn't need a lift, he's clearly already got it.
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Oct 22, 2019 22:30
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HOUSE, HOME and/or ROOM OF HORROR DON'T WEEK continues! Don't Open the Door...  25) Don't Go in the House (1980) - there's an edited version on Tubi but you can find an unedited version on YouTube. Trailer Donny's a disturbed guy. His dad died early in his childhood, and his mother emotionally and physically abused him - holding his arms over a lit stove to "burn out the evil." As an adult, he still lives with his mother, is socially stunted and has become obsessed with fire. When his mother suddenly dies, voices begin to tell Donny that he's finally free and he can "do anything [he] wants to do." Donny initially uses this freedom to listen to disco music with the volume turned all the way up and to smoke in the house, and accelerates quickly to kidnapping women and burning them alive with gasoline and a flamethrower in the steel-plated room he's constructed upstairs... This is a grim film that fits in with many others of its type released during this late '70s period. It borrows more than a little from Psycho but the really funny part is there are several elements here that also show up in William Lustig's infamous Maniac which was released later that same year - namely the way Donny displays his handiwork and the way the film ends. I read a few websites that speculated about this and it's just one of those coincidences, it appears, given both films were likely in production right around the same time. Given its exploitative subject matter and the gratuitous violence (nearly all the worst of it focused on women who are barely there as characters), it's kind of surprising to me how well-made this is. The acting is pretty good, there's some good cinematography and the soundtrack works well. Dan Grimaldi (best known for a role on The Sopranos) is suitably creepy as Donny, and the film early on gets you to try and sympathize with him, but man, those feelings go away real quick after the first death scene. I started watching the film on Tubi, but the first murder sequence - where he kidnaps a florist, strips her naked, hangs her by chains in his steel room, covers her in gasoline and then burns her - seemed really weirdly shot and edited. I poked around online and it seems the version on Tubi is the one that was ultimately released in the U.K. after decades of being on the "video nasties" list, and it still has a good three or four minutes cut or edited heavily. The version I found on YouTube is from a restored bluray version released in the last couple of years that has the full murder sequence in, and yeah, it's much more harrowing in its unedited version, with gratuitous nudity and the actual immolation shown in full. I'm impressed with the film's restraint - we don't see the subsequent murders, only the aftermath, where he dresses up the burned corpses, places them in an upstairs room and rants at them for much of the film. It's an interesting watch, but afterwards I really felt like I needed a shower to wash the grime off.
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Oct 22, 2019 22:32
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 SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #6: SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK quote:Watch a horror remake you haven't seen.  35. A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) Dir: Samuel Bayer (HBO Now) gently caress this movie. Obviously, they spend way too much time trying to redo the iconic dream scenes from the first movie, but the real problem is this film's tendency to have its cake and eat it too. It wants to give Freddy the chance to make quips because that's what people recognize him for and drop the "child killer" kayfabe in an attempt to be dark and edgy. It's hard to overstate how much of a misstep dropping the kayfabe and making Freddy a sexual predator in text is. If you want to do something like this, at the very least, you have to treat it with some degree of tact. You can't just drop something like this as window dressing so you can make this version more **hardcore**. Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy isn't bad in theory, but he's absolutely held back by baffling decisions that aren't really his fault. The more realistic makeup really hinders what he can do with the character. A deeply unpleasant film to watch, both on a craft level and a subtextual level. Watched: 1. Candyman 2. The Wailing 3. Spookies 4. One Cut of the Dead 5. Viy 6. The Driller Killer 7. Tammy and the T-Rex 8. Friday the 13th Pt VI: Jason Lives 9. Scary Movie 10. Ice Cream Man 11. Freaks 12.The Hills Have Eyes 13. Spider Baby 14. Lady Terminator 15. All The Colors of the Dark 16.Tales From The Hood 17. Man Bites Dog 18. Prime Evil 19. Bride of Re-Animator 20. The Phantom Carriage 21. Thinner 22. Robot Monster 23. Color Me Blood Red 24. A Bay of Blood 25. Errementari: The Devil and the Blacksmith 26. The Lighthouse 27. TerrorVision 28. Phantom of the Opera (1925) 29. Stay Alive 30. Hobgoblins 31. Knife + Heart 32. Rats: Night of Terror 33. Dog Soldiers 34. A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
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Oct 22, 2019 22:37
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Franchescanado posted:SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #8: Happy Holidays!  #134) Santa's Slay (2005), a.k.a., Very Bad Santa Wow, what an opening. Weird (and irrelevant) story, a few years before this came out, I had a dream that was the animated opening for a movie by the same name, and it was so vivid that I've remembered it ever since. Anyway, Goldberg gives the spear to Christmas because he's the son of Satan, who lost a bet and had to be Santa for a millennium, and the millennium's up. As you might imagine, he's pissed, so he goes on a rampage. Writer/director David Steiman (his only IMDb credit in either role) brings the inventively silly premise to life with gusto. There's a lot of variety to the kills, with holiday lights, star toppers, candy canes, and more getting put to murderous use, and between those and the playful dialogue, I got quite a few laughs out of this flick. The action is choreographed well, Goldberg sells his exasperated demon Santa persona, and for a one-and-done director, the scenes are put together nicely. There's also a surprising number of cameos, including Saul Rubinek as the main character's employer and Tiny Lister as a gas station worker, which is extra-nice, because main character Nicolas Yuleson (Douglas Smith) is one of the weaker actors in the ensemble. Had a lot more fun with this than I expected, definitely plan to revisit it. rating: 7/10"I'd rather be crazy and alive than ignorant and dead."
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Oct 22, 2019 22:47
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Basebf555 posted:Personally I don't even think Godzilla movies should count because they're all kaiju, but that's just me, I don't make the rules. I can see where you're coming from but there are two things you need to consider. First, Godzilla fights monsters that come from other movies. Mothra and Rodan are the obvious two. So that right there gives it a Freddy vs. Jason thing. Second, Godzilla sometimes fights things that are radically different from him. Yeah, another giant, fire breathing reptile might be kind of the same, but a giant oil squid is pretty different even if they're about the same height. Trying to split hairs on which Godzilla movies count and which don't would just be silly. I'm not just saying this because a Godzilla movie I've wanted to watch forever is what I've got ready to go for Saturday...
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Oct 22, 2019 23:47
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 #23 The Devil’s Rejects 2005 Tubi Before this year, I’d always overlooked Rob Zombie’s films, but it seems like they’ve had a growing fanbase, and that time has really redeemed the reputation of Devil’s Rejects in particular. Devil’s Rejects is suffused with nostalgia, set in a world that is strewn exclusively with gas stations, motels, and cowboy movie sets. The Manson-family-esque Firefly clan roams the desert floor, aimlessly loving and/or killing anything in their path. A guy doing a Charles Bronson bit follows in pursuit. There are some interesting things to note about this film. While it definitely does linger on scenes of violent and often sexual abuse, it never portrays the victims of abuse as stupid or weak for having been victimized (and the victimizers are, themselves, at times victimized and rendered helpless by others.) There’s also an interesting juxtaposition between the Firefly clan and their pursuer. The Firefly family are purely libidinal creatures, answering only to themselves and guided solely by their immediate desires. They do violence because it pleases them. The police character that pursues them is equally sadistic, and deals violence in equal measure, but isn’t so honest about it; he needs to externalize his violent impulses by placing them in god, or the law, or his family. Lacking real convictions, he imitates films, leaning on a violent culture to try and puff himself up to be capable of the heinous deeds he desires to commit. That’s key to what makes Devil’s Rejects work. Its antiheroes are obviously vile, but they’re honestly vile, and more importantly, they’re exceptionally vile. The cop character, on the other hand, is evil in a way that we deal with every day, which permeates our world, and is reified as something honorable. This is a pretty good movie. It’s not really my kind of thing, honestly, but I can see why people enjoy it. 4/5
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Oct 23, 2019 00:11
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SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #8: Happy Holidays! (Christmas) 25)Elves Youtube  Kirsten:I'm your loving sister. Willy: Yeah, you've got loving big tits and I'm going to tell everybody I saw them.  And that's in like the first five minutes. This movie is kind of bonkers. A group of teen girls borrow one of their nazi grandfather's occult books to perform an anti-pagan ritual, and accidentally summon an elf. A group of other nazis bother the dad because they want to summon the elf, and alcoholic ex-cop mall santa (played by Grizzly Adams himself Dan Hagerty, in a performance that rules) gets involved. There's needless animal cruelty, regular cruelty, needless slurs, so much incest, jokes that land super flat, a super lame monster, cringey dialogue, the plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but despite, or maybe because of it, the movie kind of rules. It's no Troll 2 or The Room, as far as bad movies go, but I liked it more than birdemic. I love the 80s mall and christmas aesthetic, and there's enough fun goofy stuff if you get past the tasteless bits that I recommend a watch Oh and top it all off, there's only one ELF.  /5
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Oct 23, 2019 00:42
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29. Dead of Night (1945) Watched On: Kanopy SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #8: Watch a horror film that you haven't seen that takes place on a holiday that isn't Halloween, All Hallow's Eve, Samhain, Dia De Los Muertos, etc. An absolutely fantastic movie and, alongside Trick r' Treat, probably the best horror anthology I've ever seen. I've never really explored pre 60s horror as I've always felt it was a little more academic than purely entertaining. But I have to say that two of the five segments in this film were creepy as gently caress even 70 years after they were made. Dead of Night doesn't feel like any other anthology I've seen. It's almost like a full film with occasional interludes, rather than a series of individual stories threaded together by an overarching theme. You could watch the segments individually, but they would lose what makes them special as the anecdotes of these characters wrangling with a sudden dose of the unexplainable. The two strongest sequences in this film are very simple stories told extremely well. The Haunted Mirror takes an incredibly simple premise and leans into how eerie it would be, personally and psychologically, to see something different when you look into a mirror. And The Ventriloquist's Dummy is the mold from which every evil dummy has been cast. Michael Redgrave is goddamned incredible in it and the whole thing stays just believable enough to still be scary. The final hallucinatory dream sequence, with Walter lying in a jail cell surrounded by gawking faces while Hugo the dummy stands up and walks over to throttle him, only to wake up and begin to live the whole day again is an ending I didn't see coming from a movie made in the 40s. I respect the hell out of it.
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Oct 23, 2019 01:29
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October 22 - The Gorgon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeQTmGt-7wE I'm at the point in the month where's I'm getting strategic with my picks. Which movies do I want to save for last, which ones do I need to split up. For the Hammer box set I'm working through, the October 29th movie is getting the short end of the stick because I have an event I'm attending that day and I'm going to watch about a third of it in the morning before I go to work and the remaining two-thirds over lunch. And that leads to looking at which movies I want to pair this week and what I think might be fine with getting broken up. But I knew that I wanted to check out this one since it sounds like it'll be a different kind of monster movie. People have been getting killed in a small Eastern European village by getting turned to stone. The local magistrates believe it to be the work of some kind of supernatural creature, likely a mummy. When the villagers string up a tourist to blame them for the crime, the tourist's father comes to investigate. The father happens to be a classics scholar so he immediately spots what it could be, a gorgon, only to fall victim to it himself. They reused the castle from Evil of Frankenstein! I know Hammer reused pretty much everything, but the very first shot is the castle model from Evil of Frankenstein. I spotted some of the same sets, too. Watching this many early 60's Hammer productions in quick succession is giving me an eye for it. Plotwise, The Gorgon is a bit of a mess. It goes through a whole family of potential main characters and has new characters sweep in out of the blue to pick up the plot where the last one left off. It's notable that Lee and Cushing are given equal billing in this movie, but they barely interact and Lee doesn't even really appear until the last third of the movie as Lee is character number four who comes in to deal with the plot. There's not even a satisfying reason for the police covering up for the gorgon; there's a reason, it's just not a very interesting one. The movie also doesn't use it's villain particularly well. There's no "My what lifelike statues!" bit; it starts with the characters saying people have been killed by being turned to stone which is a pretty big leap. There are snake bites left on the victims heads so I was going, "Oh, it's not actually the gaze, it's the snakes that are killing people." Nope, people just spontaneously generate snake bites on their forehead when they see her. And worst of all, the villain is a were-gorgon complete with changing in the full moon. Full moons occurring approximately twice a week in this country. But what this means is they just transplanted a gorgon into an average werewolf movie. The result is unsatisfying and a monster that just reeks of wasted potential. The Gorgon was a big disappointment for me. I had been looking forward to getting something really different and in this case it feels like they scribbled out some words in a script they already had, wrote in "gorgon", and then changed a couple of small details. The very end is nifty, but it's the last five minutes of the movie and they needed more than that.
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Oct 23, 2019 01:39
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SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #6: Sometimes They Come Back #50: Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle  The second in the Godzilla anime trilogy. I really enjoyed the first one, Planet of the Monsters. It's unrelenting grimness and unwavering focus on "We are going to kill Godzilla and die trying" were right up my alley. City on the Edge of Battle doesn't quite measure up. It's got a bit of middle film syndrome, it's got too much work to do continuing from the first movie and setting up the third to give it's own story the focus it deserves. But that being said, I still really enjoyed Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle. Especially from the revelation of the titular city, that was such a neat concept I was totally down from then on. That's what makes these anime Godzilla movies work for me; they know they can't have the same classic appeal of a guy in a rubber suit, so they take Godzilla concepts and do something different with them. I really liked how it does the Mothra twins. They're just two members of a new race of humans that have adapted to the Godzilla world. The first movie had a bit of a Tsutomu Nihei vibe already, but the new form of humanity that isn't what we would want to become but is better equipped for the new world than we are is Nihei as gently caress. There's one thing I have to give it big points for. There is never a Godzilla shaped Mecha Godzilla. I assumed there would be, I assumed at the end a proper Mecha Godzilla would break out of Mecha Godzilla City and fight Godzilla. But it never happened. They were so confident in the Mecha Godzilla City concept, they didn't do the expected thing and have an old fashioned Mecha Godzilla. And I respect them for it. So overall I enjoyed Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle, even though it's not as strong as it's predecessor. I'm definitely down to watch the third one in the future. Gripweed fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Oct 23, 2019 |
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Oct 23, 2019 02:39
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https://twitter.com/KennethJWaste2/status/1186819164972994560?s=20
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Oct 23, 2019 02:42
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 SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #3: Horror Noire #26) Us (2019)  This is a perplexing one to review. First off, I want to get out of the way that I loved it, I really did. I think that Jordan Peele is masterful when it comes to pacing and tension-building. The first 2/3 of the movie is perfectly wrenched up, tension-wise. What I'm worried about is that I'll start to think about the movie too much and the logic behind it will start to unravel. But then again, I don't think that's really the point. Peele is a fan of classic horror, and you can really see that pedigree bleed through into his own filmmaking. You can see little callbacks and riffs on classic shots. You can tell he loves what he's doing, and there's a lot of passion in it. But above all else, he's a premise writer. I think his history of sketch writing really weighs him down - you can see the influence from his work on Key & Peele here, where there's a scene set, a buildup, and then a twist/prestige/punchline/whatever you want to call it. The problem lies in the fact that, with a comedic sketch, you laugh, and don't spend too much time musing on how believable it is. In dramatic works however, you have to buy in to the idea and believe it the whole way through, for 2 hours. If you're looking for nits to pick, you'll find plenty. But, if you can turn off your logic brain and enjoy it for what it is, Us is a fantastic film. It's really hard to talk about this movie without going into spoilers, but suffice it to say - don't think about it too much. Enjoy the ride. It's worth your time. 4/5Challenges completed: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Challenges not completed: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
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Oct 23, 2019 02:48
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e: poo poo. empty accidental post. Peacoffee fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Oct 23, 2019 |
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Oct 23, 2019 02:52
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Franchescanado posted:SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #7: Monster Mash-up  #135) Night of the Howling Beast (1975), a.k.a., The Curse of the Beast, a.k.a., Horror of the Werewolf, a.k.a., Hall of the Mountain King, a.k.a., The Werewolf and the Yeti Scratching another Video Nasty off of the watchlist with this one, a little under two-thirds of them to go. An expedition in Tibet is wiped out by the yeti they were seeking, and another group retraces their path. One of them wanders off and ends up in a sacred cave watched over by two sisters who are werewolves. After slaying them both and picking up the werewolf curse, the dude goes off to bother people and fight the yeti. Mainly the first option. There's also a warlord-type guy in the area, whose henchmen bother the rest of the expedition. Oh, and someone named Larry Talbot, who's not the werewolf, he's just this guy, you know? The look of things, and the quality of dubbing, had me thinking this was an Italian film, but nope, it's Spanish. And it's not great, but the fighting monster premise kept my interest. Too bad that promise takes forever to be fulfilled. Both of the monsters look pretty bad. The werewolf is basically a normal guy with too much hair on his face and hands. The yeti looks pretty much the same, but a little shaggier, and gets very little screen-time; for a while, I was wondering if he would even show back up after the opening scene. All of the landscapes are beautiful, though, and that might be where most of my good will towards this movie manages to hang on. It gets put to the test, though, as there's a long, boring stretch once the characters are captured by the warlord and thrown in his dungeon. '70s Spanish dungeons set in Tibet being boring? Yes, this movie manages that. Doesn't deliver what it promises (in one title) until the last ten minutes, and bores for most of its run, despite looking nice. No loss if you don't watch this. rating: 5/10"We were very good friends." "Yes, I heard."
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Oct 23, 2019 03:31
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33. The Thing from Another World (1951, Christian Nyby) Warner Archive Blu-ray I finally saw John Carpenter's remake last year (and loved it), but it's been at least 15 years since I've seen the original produced by Howard Hawks. This has some meaty science fiction (with more real science than most of the 50s), but it's more about how characters are reacting to an alien spacecraft and visitor. There's actually a few good scares and it's really easy to see how Carpenter reworked this into something more terrifying. "An intellectual carrot, the mind boggles!" 4/5
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Oct 23, 2019 03:55
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 21. The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942): Amazingly, Frankenstein’s monster has somehow managed to survive the climax of Son of Frankenstein, in which he was thrown into an 800 degree sulfur pit. Though he was so disfigured by the incident that he now resembles Lon Chaney Jr. instead of Boris Karloff. Ygor and the monster manage to find yet another Dr. Frankenstein and some people die. This franchise is starting to get a bit stale. But I wanted to watch this one before getting to... Super Samhain Challenge #7: Monster Mash-up 22. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943): What a disappointment. This could have been pretty good if it was just a Wolf Man story, as the first half focusing on Chaney’s character (Larry Talbot/Wolf Man, not the Frankenstein monster, heh) is the strongest part of the movie. Wolf Man wants to die but he can’t, so he goes searching for the diary of Dr. Frankenstein. The Frankenstein stuff feels a bit tacked on. The monster, now played by Bela Lugosi, is hardly in the movie. The fight billed in the poster doesn’t happen until the final five minutes of the movie and it’s not that exciting. This is skippable.
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Oct 23, 2019 04:03
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SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #7: Monster Mash-up 13. Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein Loved this movie especially because it is incredibly in line with my personal sense of humor. Jokes and one liners are delivered so sharply that if you blink you could easily miss them. I personally loved Lou Costello’s quick 4th wall breaking glances at the camera. Just long enough to get a laugh, but not so long as to take the audience out of watching the film. I thought that the horror elements worked well considered when this was made. Bela Lugosi was fantastic and menacing as always. I like that he actually got included in the action/fight scenes at the end considering the most aggressive thing he did during the original Dracula was sissy-slap a mirror. The whole movie is building to the final fight/chase at the end and I think my only complaint is I wish that it lasted a bit longer.
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Oct 23, 2019 04:13
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The home stretch! I was worried that I wouldn't manage 31, and I can't even fathom how people are getting into the triple digits, but this has been an enjoyable little experiment.Franchescanado posted:SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #7: Monster Mash-up 26.) The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy (La Momia Azteca contra el Robot Humano)  1958, first watch, Amazon Prime Hypnotic past life regression! Mad scientists! Aztec mummies! Ponderous dialogue! The third installment in the Aztec Mummy series has it all. The villainous ascientist Dr. Krupp, a.k.a. "The Bat", has devised a diabolical robot to steal priceless artifacts from the titular Aztec mummy, Popoca. Only diligent investigation by the heroic Dr. Almada can stop his nefarious plot. Fortunately for those of us that aren't diehard followers of the Momia Azteca Cinematic Universe, this movie spends a third of its runtime recapping the contents of the first two films. This will all run fairly familiar if you've seen a Santo joint or really any of the mad-doctor-vs-heroic-scientist films of the 50s and 60s. The usual staples roll out on schedule: trap doors, stolen cadavers, pilfered radium. Watching the clues get put together is fairly rote, but the problem is more that, as is typical, these are rolled out in leaden lectures and small vignettes of no-drama consultations with various witnesses. There's no sense of escalation as Almada ploddingly exposits his investigations to a small council of indistinguishable suit-wearing peers. Krupp and his sweet retro robot bring things up when we finally get to spend some screentime with them. I'm being negative here because honestly this ain't the ride that poster promises, but I'd be down for a reboot - imagine a Daimajin series of films in which various modern ne'er-do-wells get their grisly comeuppance at the hands of an ancient and tragic Aztec warrior. (Apparently this exists?) How far can the human mind penetrate the mysteries of the great beyond? Who knows. Franchescanado posted:SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #8: Happy Holidays! 27.) Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale  2010, first watch, Amazon Prime One of the well-saturated entries in the "evil Santa" subgenre, Rare Exports is a Finnish horror-comedy which has been sitting on my to-see list for a while. It's a treat, though it opens with more foreshadowed menace than ever manifests in the movie. I enjoyed this well enough, but I'm not sure I could tell you when you'd want to seek it out - it's not a Christmas classic like Gremlins, nor is it particularly spooky, nor are the comic bits that funny - the humor is sporadic and ranges from dry to dark. Without committing to any particular angle, this ended up feeling like a perfectly fine movie that I'd never share or revisit - it just doesn't have an obvious spot on the roster. Looks like we've been naughty. 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], 11.) Neighbours: They Are Vampires [India], 12.) Midnight Meat Train [Clive Barker], 13.) Us [New Releases, Samhain Challenge #3], 14.) The Taking of Deborah Logan, 15.) People Under the Stairs, 16.) L'Inferno [Classics], 17.) The Host [J- and K-horror], 18.) Hell House LLC 3 [Threequels], 19.) Stree [India, Samhain Challenge #4], 20.) P [Samhain Challenge #5: Thailand], 21.) Lord of Illusiosn [Clive Barker], 22.) Child's Play [New Releases], 23.) Tigers Are Not Afraid, 24.) Creature from the Black Lagoon [Classics], 25.) Ju-on: The Grudge 2 [J- and K-Horror, Samhain Challenge #6], 26.) The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy [Threequels, Samhain Challenge #7], 27.) Rare Exports: A Christmas Story [Samhain Challenge #8]
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Oct 23, 2019 04:20
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