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16. Long Weekend 1978| Colin Eggleston  This feels like a nightmare Hemingway had about Australia. Peter and Marcia, a bickering couple in a failing relationship, use a holiday weekend to go camping by a secluded beach. Their constant arguing about who's the greater rear end in a top hat leads Mother Nature to try and kill them. There's a poetic irony to the actions of the film. Mother Nature, who seems supernaturally involved in all the the events and a subtle cause of the psychological breakdowns of the two characters, takes a quid-pro-quo approach to the events of the film. Peter is an unrepentant rear end throughout the film--tossing beer bottles into the ocean so he might shoot them, shooting bullets from his rifle randomly into the woods, striking ducks and fish and other innocent creatures--and by the time he starts suffering, it's long over-due, and wonderful. Marcia, the more empathetic member of the couple, is completely uncomfortable being in the woods; hates nature and distrusts it. Rightfully so, by the end, really. It's a fascinating horror film, because there does seem to be supernatural occurences throughout the film. There is a lot left unsaid and unexplained, like people missing, dead animals coming back to life, strange noises coming from the woods or ocean. It is an unsettling backdrop to the human drama of Peter and Marcia's failing relationship. At 90 minutes, it's perfectly paced, mysterious and spooky. Thankfully it's also gorgeously shot.  Planet of the Vampires | The Brain That Wouldn't Die | Popcorn | Plan 9 From Outer Space | Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers | Rockula | Ringu | Four Flies on Grey Velvet | Seconds | Theater of Blood | Frailty | Daughters of Darkness | Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street | Train To Busan | Who Can Kill a Child? | Long Weekend Total: 16
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Apr 17, 2020 23:09
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We’re past the midway point of the month. Less days ahead than behind. I got franchises to tie up. 49 (61). The Prophecy: Forsaken (2005) Written and directed by Joel Soisson. Watched on Blu Ray. After surviving a clash between a demon and Satan grad student Allison still has the Lexicon, the secret last chapter of the Book of Revelations destined to name the Antichrist, and has to protect it (and herself) from the angels who want to get ahold of it. I wouldn’t quite say I was excited for this one, but I was definitely interested. After 2 really poor sequels that rested on Christopher Walken hamming it up I was really dreading 4 without him. But it actually turned out to be a solid little stand alone story so getting another one filmed back to back by the same people with much of the same cast had me curious if they could repeat the magic or build on it. 4 did rest a lot on the performance of Sean Pertwee who is gone from this, but 5 brings in Tony Todd so I was game. Sadly it didn’t deliver much. It actually feels like this was almost filmed at the same time as the last. Pertwee is the lead in 4 and John Light does a solid job as the co while Kari Wuhrer largely plays a supporting role. But here Wuhrer takes the lead and Light is a very background supporting character, which is a shame because he was a pretty good Satan in the 4th film and does ok in his short time here. Todd does a good job in that main antagonist role this time but its not a big enough performance to really weight the scales. Which is a shame because Tony Todd as a menacing angel is pretty inspired casting but its not a good enough film to make best use of it. The film is just pretty boring and never really wakes up or moves past exposition dialogue. There’s a weird rear end story in there about what side you actually want to be on between the angels who want to stop the Armageddon because they don’t want humans ascending to the right hand of God or the Devil who wants it to happen so he can torture all those billions of dead souls. Team Antichrist, Apocalypse, and Salvation or Team Satan and not genocide? Sadly nothing is really done with it and Satan seems barely interested. And with that the Prophecy series ends with a whimper. All in I’d call this a bad franchise. The first film is ok. Its deeply flawed but there’s a lot of good ideas and performances and its held together competently. The next two films are pretty trash and really just coaxed up by Walken, and he doesn’t really succeed much in doing so. 4 is the surprise as its a nice little story with a great performance from Pertwee. Not enough to seek out but enough to remind you that Sean Pertwee is a really good actor. But 5 sucks. Not in an interesting or noteworthy way, just in a “bare bones story, filmed quick and dirty without much effort.” Which is a shame because a lot of work seemed to go into trying to elevate 4. So either they just burned themselves all out on that or it really was just all Pertwee.  50 (62). Critters 4 (1992) Directed by Rupert Harvey, Screenplay by David J. Schow and Joseph Lyle, Story by Rupert Harvey and Barry Opper. Watched on DVD. CRITTERS IN SPAAAAAAACE!!!! Well I guess they’re always in space. They’re aliens. But you get the picture. Charlie is ordered to spend the last surviving Crite eggs for preservation but he gets stuck in the pod, messes it up, and wakes up 50 years later on a salvage space ship with evil intergalactic conspiracies. Another “filmed back to back” sequel expectations are where expected here. 3 was pretty mailed in but fun for what it was, but this one was more interesting first because its set up from the last film with something of a premise and with a surprisingly good liking cast of Brad Douriff and a Before She Was Famous Angela Bassett. Say what you will about the Critters franchise, it had some real good casting nailing Bassett and DiCaprio when they were nobodies. It feels like all the effort not put into writing a story for 3 is thrown into this one as this plot contains like ever sci-fi trope you can think of. Sadly it doesn’t have a whole lot else to it, including that charming fun Critter puppet stuff. They’re actually kind of at a minimum which is weird in a movie with “Critters” in the name. The talent cast also doesn’t do a hell of a lot as they’re going through the basic by the numbers Alien knockoff plot. It tries though. There’s even some pathos and tragedy in the Critters franchise mythology. But there’s just not a lot here to… ahem… bite into. On the bright side only 25 more years til we’re drinking beer in space. Last one? There’s still a 5th film out there somewhere plus a miniseries, but the series is oddly absent from Shudder despite it debuting there like a year ago. And I can’t find Critters Attack! available even though it too debuted like a year ago as a SyFy movie and they tend to leave their stuff up. I guess someone owns the rights to “Critters” and plays hardball with them or something. So maybe I’ll track down more as the month goes on… but for now my DVD set is done.  - (63). Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990) Directed by Mick Garris, Written by Joseph Stefano. Watched on Starz. Norman Bates out on parole calls into a radio show and tells its host that he plans to murder again, forcing the host and his former psychologist to try and talk him down and prevent tragedy by analyzing Norman on air and going through his murders and troubled relationship with his mother from the beginning. This is “made for tv” but its Showtime so really, its a step up from the DTV movies I’ve been been watching. I’ve actually seen this one in the past, at least in pieces. Probably having to do with that Showtime thing and multiple plays or something. Its also another round of pretty remarkable Before They Were Famous casting of CCH Pounder and Henry Thomas as the younger Norman, although in this case its not just random roles in bad movies as they’re actually given some stuff to work with. Garris even sneaks in a cameo from his buddy John Landis. This obviously ain’t Hitchcock but Stefano wrote the screenplay for the original and there’s a solid story here. I think the story gets a little lost in the middle. Its trying to both tell Norman’s backstory and how he got to the place he was at when we first met him but its also trying to build the tension that he’s going to kill again, and i think it loses that latter somewhat as it spends too much time on the flashbacks. Which is not to say that I think the flashbacks were a bad idea, the balance was just off. Pounder does a good job as the concerned party trying to steer Norman back to what he’s planning to do but Garris and the story seem like they kind of need that steering too as they all tend to digress a bit too much which hurts the building of tension for the final act. And when the final act does come it feels kind of separate from the rest of the film. The fact that Pounder plays such a prominent role in the film and then disappears for the climax… well it makes sense from the story but I think it hurts the film. I’m not sure how to get her involved in that ending. Maybe abandon the idea of going back to the house and keep it in Norman’s apartment where he could stay on the line with her as she tried to talk him down. It feels like if this film had been made in the era of cell phones then she absolutely would have been on the line with him pleading with him to the end. But its 1990 so we’re limited. Its worth noting this one apparently ignores II and III (which is odd considering it calls itself IV) but to be honest, its kind of negligible. Norman doesn’t mention any of his victims from those films but he doesn’t mention Marian Crane either. All the weirdness about his other mothers doesn’t come up but to be honest that stuff was always kind of confusing and feels easy to dismiss as the rantings of crazy people. Of course there’s the issue of why the hell Norman would be out on parole again. That’s probably the most compelling argument that it ignores the sequels, but I think its easy to hand wave away. It doesn’t really matter but you can probably take it either way. Its an imperfect film but I think its another interesting one. Probably better than the 3rd Psycho although I think behind #2. All in all I’ve been pretty impressed by this franchise. Its probably the one that has most held up quality and its been a huge help that Anthony Perkins has been there through all them really showing me what a good actor he is. He’s not as impressive in the later films but I think that’s mostly a reality of Norman’s character getting pretty well defined and boxed in after awhile. That’s technically the end of this Perkins chronology but I’ve never seen the Gus Van Sant remake so I’m gonna finish up this franchise with that one.
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Apr 17, 2020 23:32
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#20 The Stuff The first thing that struck me about The Stuff was weird editing. It just kinda starts partway through a shot. I assumed Tubi had hosed up and cut like 45 seconds off the front, but then it jumps to a kid seeing The Stuff move in his refrigerator, and then a commercial for it, and then a meeting on a boat where dialogue caught me up on what's going on. All very abrupt. After all that it's basically normal, so it feels like they jut forgot to film establishing shots for those early scenes But after that initial oddness, it's pretty much all good. The Stuff is a great monster, and they don't skimp on shots of it glooping and slopping around. The Stuff zombies are also great monsters, and there's lots of them getting torn open to reveal how the Stuff has hollowed them out. It is quite a bit 80s. The main guy is goofy, there's the precocious kid who tries to tell the adults what's up, even a comedy army guy. I'm generally not a fan of that kind of horror, so I think I enjoyed The Stuff maybe a bit less than most. But The Stuff's strengths outweighed it's 80sness even to me. So yeah, The Stuff it's really good. if a bit 80s.
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Apr 18, 2020 01:05
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25. Dead and Buried (1981) Dir: Gary Sherman  Almost the exact opposite of what I expected this to be, in a good way. One of my favorite discoveries from this challenge. The movie on a whole is a nice slow burn, but the last ten minutes are vital. The way the film ends creeped me out way, way more than I was expecting. Go into this blind if you can. 26. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995) Dir: Kim Henkel  Probably the worst movie featuring two Oscar-winning actors sharing a scene with each other? Like Jason Goes to Hell, this movie is loving WEIRD but there's almost an attraction to seeing how strange this gets. Absolutely terrible, even if Matthew McConaughey with a cyborg leg is probably worth watching.
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Apr 18, 2020 02:06
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7. House I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie that commits as strongly to conveying emotional reality over rational reality. It’s truly astonishing how much innovative editing and effects processes Obayashi invented to make a child’s relationship with her best friend seem all encompassing, to make a stepmother seem as alienly beautiful as possible, and to make the weird things kids get frightened by primally terrifying. Learning that much of the movie’s plot and iconic imagery was conceived by Obayashi’s ten year old daughter really clarified the movie for me, to the point where I don’t think House is that strange at all. The movie is Nickelodeon’s slogan “By kids, for kids” made manifest. Gorgeous’ half-understood anxieties about her future stepmother, looking pretty, her resentment towards her friends (but not Fantasy, her best friend), and the generation gap are related into this fantasy story that could only be told as a movie. None of this stuff is rational, and explaining it in prose wouldn’t encompass the full emotional meaning behind those concerns. For that reason, though, I think the movie would be most effective if seen as a pre-teen or young teenager, like a thirteen to fourteen year old. I think kids at that age would connect to the movie much more viscerally, and some of the childish humor in it would have more appeal. Still, it’s undoubtedly a great movie that I’d recommend to pretty much anyone. 8. Delicatessen  Unlike Obayashi’s flavor of wackiness, I find Jean Pierre Jeunet’s whimsy to be grating and obnoxious. The set and prop designs are Burton-esque in a positive sense, but the editing and acting direction is tiresome. Many of the running gags, like Aurore constructing a series of unsuccessful Goldberg machines to kill herself or the “bullshit detector” are more annoying than funny. That being said, I liked the characters well enough to stick through this, and the story that emerges is quite sweet in a commercial way. Filling the bathroom with water was a very cool sequence. 9. Bacurau  I saw this before I first posted in this thread, but whatever, I still saw it in April. I didn’t care for this movie as much as other people in CineD. The way the town of Bacurau was portrayed as a big happy family, unperturbed by anything other than the interference of outsiders just felt indulgent to me, like condescending orientalism. I did appreciate how the movie resisted the temptation to make any of the killers remotely sympathetic. Each of them are racist, nasty, and pathetically idiotic, without exception. If you’re a fan of practical effects there’s a lot to enjoy here, but otherwise it’s insubstantial and utterly harmless. 10. Roar  First of all, SEE THIS MOVIE. To understand why this movie is so remarkable, you need to know the meta-narrative surrounding it. Inspired by an African safari trip, producer Jerry Marshall and his wife Tippi Hedren amassed a menagerie of over a hundred rescued animals (reportedly) to make a movie. The film is shot almost entirely with cats and elephants they actually owned. The actors and crew responsible for making the movie were actually attacked and harmed by the animals. Their daughter and co-star Melanie Griffith required facial reconstruction surgery after getting mauled. The opening of the movie states that no animals were harmed in making the movie, but it’s certified by the American Humane Society rather than the ASPCA as it normally is, so who knows. The story does have a happy ending, as Hedren eventually established the Shambala nature preserve in Africa and relocated all of their animals to there. With the meta-narrative in mind, the first half hour of this movie is absolutely surreally terrifying. In the first ten minutes, actor Kyalo Mativo has a difficult time entering the house from his boat because a panther is clawing at him, flanked by three other large cats. About ten minutes later, we are shown the interior of the house, which is filled wall to wall by about twenty large cats. Throughout this introductory sequence, lions and tigers pounce and claw at every actor. Marshall’s yelps of pain are ADR’d throughout. None of these attacks seem staged, framed, or otherwise intentional. For every shot of a lion biting an actor, there are shots that cut away just as a cat hits someone. Knowing the circumstances of the movie, it’s ambiguous whether these cuts are to make the movie more thrilling or whether they cut because they don’t want to show something too gruesome. It can’t be overstated how surreal it is to see literally dozens of real large cats flood the screen with human actors physically interacting with them. The film’s meta-narrative also has a strange effect on the story’s themes. The movie’s clear on how idiotic and delusional Marshall’s character is. The local Massai laugh at how he refers to the cats by name, carrying on conversations with animals he believes are his friends. Others chide him for bringing tigers and panthers to Africa, where of course they are not actually native. But then, aren’t Marshall and Hedren themselves just as ridiculous for bringing these animals to the United States? Isn’t it just as silly to credit the animals by name for acting, writing, and directing? The opening credits read, “Since the choice was made to use untrained animals and since for the most part they did as they wished, it’s only fair they share the writing and directing credits.” Lions named Robbie and Togar are given co-starring credits (of course, who gave them those names?) This core ambiguity makes the movie almost a found footage piece. Yes, Jerry Marshall and his character Frank are intended to be understood as independent people, but the movie itself is created from Frank’s point of view. Frank’s family are all performed by Marshall’s family. This blurred line between fiction and reality is so strange. The mood quickly turns when Tippi Hedren and the other real actors show up. Jerry Marshall and Kyalo Mativo are not trained actors, so their performance tends towards the more naturalistic. Because of that, you feel like they are in actual danger when lions and tigers pounce them and bite them, both as characters and as real actors. Tippi Hedren, Melanie Griffith, and the Marshall brothers, on the other hand, are more capable actors and therefore give more conventionally actorly performances. While certainly thrilling and filled with impressive stunts, when they’re attacked the movie feels more traditional than the raw, nightmarish feel of the first twenty minutes. The attacks seem more deliberately staged. Jurassic Park would use a few sequences from this movie, particularly during the velociraptors in the kitchen scene. This turn for the normal makes the movie less than a masterpiece, but still well worth seeking out.
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Apr 18, 2020 02:07
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One of my Fran challenges one year was called “Dead & Buried” and it was either watch a movie with an actor or director who has doed since last Halloween or watch Dead & Buried, and I think maybe one person actually watched Dead & Buried. Such a great movie.
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Apr 18, 2020 03:40
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Franchescanado posted:One of my Fran challenges one year was called “Dead & Buried” and it was either watch a movie with an actor or director who has doed since last Halloween or watch Dead & Buried, and I think maybe one person actually watched Dead & Buried. Such a great movie. I watched it and my opinion of it changed. Seeing it as a teen, I thought it was boring. Watching it older, enjoyed it much more. The novelization's worth it too if you can find it.  91) Houseshark - 2017 - TubiTV Only reason I sat through this was to see how they justified the title in the film. Not sure what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't a glorified Troma film with Troma nowhere in sight. Everything in this film is ridiculous ramped up to eleven. I'm not sure if the intention was aiming for so bad it's good or what. If you like schlock, you might want to give this a try. I'm still a bit miffed on how the hell you can have a shark in the toilet, big rear end fin sticking out from the bowl and there's no reason given.  92) Infection: The Invasion Begins - 2010 - TubiTV I went into this one thinking it was a different film. The film I hoped this one was is set in New Mexico at one of the army bases which is getting shut down and something gets loose. A former co-worker recommended it to me back at the last call center I worked at because there's a bit where they're evacuating people to Rio Rancho with a possible fall back further to Albuquerque and knowing the call centers out here, we laughed hard at envisioning some monster rampaging in the streets with people fleeing, but the call centers refusing to evacuate because there's calls in the queue to be taken. If anyone happens to know what that movie is, let me know. This film, well, for as much as I can say they tried, their trying wasn't good enough. The actors could've done a much better job, editing's a mess, and I swear that some of the soundtrack sounds like I've heard it somewhere else before. This one's fairly skippable.  93) Paranormal Island - 2012 - TubiTV It's probably going to sound silly, but from the beginning of the film where somehow a flush beating a straight in poker pretty much let me know this one was going to be a clunker. Even with a basic haunted location storyline, this just wasn't good. Skip it.  94) Infected - 2013 - TubiTV When I see name actors like Michael Madsen and William Forsythe in a bottom of the barrel film like this, I wonder how bad are they in the red in their accounts that they needed this paycheck. This film's just bland, dull, and boring. There's nothing here that we haven't already seen in better movies in the viral monsters running wild subgenre. Goes without saying, it's skippable.  95) The Jurassic Dead - 2017 - TubiTV Zombie dinosaurs, sure, why not? I went in expecting schlock, but I wasn't expecting Glorious Schlock. A group of mercenaries lead by not-Duke Nukem (I'm surprised a lawyer wasn't pulled in on this) up against a mad scientist's undead. CGI use had to be the strangest use I've seen of it yet with CGI sets but the monster's practical effects. Compared to the director's other film Tsunambee which featured bees but not a tsunami of bees as insinuated, this films is world's better. If you like schlock, you'll enjoy this one.
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Apr 18, 2020 03:47
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71. Project Metalbeast (1995, Prime) - Other than a nice creature design, not much here. 2/5 72. A Blade in the Dark (1983, Prime) - (Lamberto) Bava giallo about a composer working on the score for a horror movie that rents an isolated villa. Murders happen. The mystery elements are handled very well; the kills not so much. And I really wish they would have made the film within the film; this has a great opening scene but it's from the fictional movie. 3/5 73. Summer of Fear / Stranger in Our House (1978, Prime) - Wes Craven directed, Linda Blair starring TV movie about a rural family who has an orphaned cousin move in with them. Lee Purcell does a really good job as Linda Blair's creepy cousin, when she gets a chance, but it's a TV movie based on a young adult novel and the family drama elements outweigh the horror ones. 3/5 74. Beyond the Door (1974, Prime) - Exorcist ripoff, at the level where copyright lawsuits were filed. Not terrible on its own, simply mediocre, but pales in comparison to what it's trying to rip off. 2/5 75. Beyond the Seventh Door (1987, Prime) - Bozidar Benedikt. Lazar Rockwood. When legends meet... in a no-budget Canadian film about a burglar running the gauntlet through death traps in a millionaire's basement. Rockwood has both the look and acting chops of Tommy Wiseau. To its credit, this is so terrible that it loops around to being entertaining. 3/5 Apparently, I've already seen Beyond the Door 2 this month. (Bava's Schock.) There is a Beyond the Door 3; doors 4 through 6 have not been found.
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Apr 18, 2020 03:52
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Franchescanado posted:One of my Fran challenges one year was called “Dead & Buried” and it was either watch a movie with an actor or director who has doed since last Halloween or watch Dead & Buried, and I think maybe one person actually watched Dead & Buried. Such a great movie. I'd watched it before the challenge, it's a gorgeous and eerie New England spookadoodle. Dan O'Bannon wrote this after he did Alien.
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Apr 18, 2020 04:10
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 55. Blood for Dracula (filmin.es) Blood for Dracula is the story of Dracula being compelled by his servant to abandon his family and travel to Italy, in order to drink the blood of a virgin, and cure his vaguely referred to illness. Udo Kier plays dracula as a sad, decrepit, pathetic old man, who clings onto life for seemingly no reason, and by the barest thread. Everything in Dracula's life is apparently terrible, as all he does is complain and fuss over the minutiae of this and that. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a deleted scene of dracula complaining about his piles. It's hard to know what to expect from an Andy Warhol film. As a famous artist you might expect some artistry, some imagination or pathos. Most of the film is shot in a very boring, pedestrian way. The acting is almost all awkward, and wooden. Visually there's not a lot to talk about, except maybe the blood, at least he understands that more is more. Then I remember his hamburger short film, and I wonder why I had any expectations at all. The politics of the film are awfully presented. We have a very clumsy class struggle theme, and neither side is presented sympathetically. On the one hand we have the pathetic, defenseless Dracula representing the ailing aristocracy. Then we have naked buff peasant guy representing the virile working class, and we know he's virile because he's an awful misogynistic rapist. At the very least the finale is hilarious and gorey, though not very technically interesting. 2.5/5  56. Flesh for Frankenstein "To know death, Otto, you have to gently caress life in the gallbladder!" It's fascinating that they used the exact same font for the opening credits as Blood for Dracula. How utterly bankrupt of an artist do you have to be to be this lazy and predictable. I will say this though, this film is an improvement on Blood for Dracula, though not by a great deal. The very basic plot is that Frankenstein does Frankenstein stuff, his sister/wife is banging some dude, and that dude is friends with Frankenstein's monster's head's previous owner, and he has some feelings about that. That's about it. Monique van Vooren is excellent as Frankenstein's sister/wife/lover/???, and is finally an actor who puts an ounce of personality into their character. We have more class struggle, though less thuddingly overt this time. The sets and cinematography have improved, and, oh this was made before Blood for Dracula!? Oh dear. Well again what this film does well is the blood, and gore. We have Frankenstein erotically fisting a corpse. A cool heart/lung machine that they really milk for everything it's worth. The film is also slightly less rapey, so that's cool. Once again our hero is a misogynist creep with a shallow understanding of class struggle but, whatever, I'm as happy to finish this review as I was happy to finish these two rank disappointing films. 2.5/5 Debbie Does Dagon fucked around with this message at 05:26 on Apr 18, 2020 |
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Apr 18, 2020 05:19
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17) Maniac Cop The blurb said "a blood splattered tale of brutal cop vengeance from beyond the grave", so I strapped myself in for an evening of grimy, gratuitous violence where evildoers get murdered by anit-hero protagonist, Maniac Cop. That's... not what this is. It's quite light hearted, there's not much blood, it becomes an action movie in the second half and MC is a barely sentient Jason Vorhees-like monster who mostly kills at random. I liked the disconnect between how the cops revered MC as a hero cop, but we're shown he loved being a violent pig, for which he was jailed, where he was killed because he refused the protection offered to him. There's a news interview with civilians and the message is 'this is what the cops have always been', which I thought was neat. It's decent enough but nothing remarkable. Seen: 1) The Abominable Dr. Phibes; 2) Contagion; 3) The Devil's Rejects; 4) The Changling; 5) Frankenhooker; 6) Midsommar; 7) Village of the Damned (1960); 8) Wishmaster; 9) Der Golem; 10) City of the Living Dead; 11) A Nightmare on Elm Street 2; 12) Leprechaun; 13) Microwave Massacre; 14) Sisters; 15) Bride of Re-Animator; 16)The Crazies; 17) Maniac Cop
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Apr 18, 2020 11:32
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Sequels, sequels, sequels… 51 (64). Final Destination 5 (2011) Directed by Steven Quale, written by Eric Heisserer. Watched on Cinemax. ONE. LAST. TIME. Dude has a premonition of terrible fatal accident. People follow him. Accident happens. People survive. Death gets mad. Death finds wacky ways to kill them. They try not to die. 3D is so dumb. I mean, if you like it, no disrespect, but its always so silly when it just means a movie has a ton of really silly looking stuff solely to justify the gimmick. That highlight reel… Ok, typical douchey negativity towards the franchise aside… I really liked this. Like REALLY. I thought this was a good, engaging film. I thought it moved along really quickly. I though the characters felt fleshed out and real. I was interested in their fates. And there was uncertainty in their fates. That’s one of my big problems with the franchise. There’s no real drama past the second film. Everyone is gonna die, death gets you, the loopholes don’t work, every person exists to die bloody. And that’s what I don’t like about slashers, a ton of characters that exist solely to die. And that’s all 3 and 4 were. 3 hours of walking, talking special effects demo reel clips. No story, no pathos, no reason to engage. But 5 figures out how to bring that back and excels because of it. And the new loophole introduced wonderfully by Tony Todd was extra cool because it added intrigue. There were like half a dozen ways that climax could have gone in my head. Who is capable of murder? Who would do it for their life? Who would do it for the life of someone they love? I was genuinely and truly uncertain of what would happen and who would survive. I didn’t think for a second the FD franchise could get that back so really, kudos and well done. And the twist was really clever and caught me totally by surprise and made me laugh. Very good. I was gonna criticize it for drawing that out when I thought a quick cutaway would have been better than playing it all out, but then they had something else up their sleeve. Which might have been too cute by half for my tastes, but it still got a chuckle and I know its the sort of thing fans of the franchise like. So that’s it. The franchise I’ve been avoiding for like 20 years because I was convinced I would hate it is finished. Ultimately? I didn’t hate it. Did i like it? I don’t know. I genuinely liked 1 and 5. Both are good, stand alone horror films with some tension, some intrigue, some laughs, and some colorful deaths. 2 is ok. It tries to have some meat on the bone and pull things together and that holds it together for me. 3 and 4 are bad. Just lazy, bad, pointless movies that you could get the exact same thing from just watching 5 minutes of youtube clips. But 2.5 good films out of 5 is really a pretty good return rate for a horror franchise. I’m surprised and humbled. Mea culpa, Final Destination. You were not what I thought you were. I actually signed up for the free week trial for Cinemax just to get this in. I mean its free so whatever, but I was determined to give it a chance. And it paid off.  52 (65). Omen III: The Final Conflict (1983) Directed by Graham Baker, written by Andrew Birkin. Watched on Starz. The Antichrist is all grown up. Sam Neil is Damian Thorne, the head of the world’s most powerful government during a time of turmoil and uprisings who is preparing to ascend further to power over the planet and to kill the second coming of Christ destined to defeat him. This is boring. When I saw Sam Neil as the Anti-Christ I was like “oh man, this has to be good.” But all he does is stand around in his office doing monologues about “the Nazarene.” And like you’d think the concept of a Satanist cult throughout politics and business prepping the world to be taken over by the Anti-Christ would have some fun things, but its basically just some boot licker always being slightly chided by Damian. Which I guess might be a more accurate representation but still. I mean, there’s an extended fox hunting scene. I hoped the secret monk sect devoted to killing him would fix the problem that existed in II that the movie had no actual protagonist but the monks are mostly gently caress ups and the Anti-Christ gets to shoot lightning at them when he’s not even there. So its never actually a fight. Apparently the only thing truly standing between us and Armageddon is some bad latch key parenting. Actually the problem isn’t a lack of protagonist. Damien is the protagonist. He’s just not a terribly interesting one, which again, is heartbreaking to say about Sam Neil. His plots are literally just “I want to run for Senate in 2 years” and the previously mentions rants about Baby Jesus somewhere. For the Antichrist Senate runs and Ambassadorships seem really low key. Also this whole “global upheaval” thing isn’t really showing out in the movie. I mean the whole film is set with the 1% so I guess they wouldn’t be getting affected but its still another disappointment for the movie setup. But the filmmakers don’t seem to really get how to make the star of their movie out of the most evil dude in the world, which is kind of funny considering how common amoral tv and film protagonists are in the 21st century. There’s this pivotal scene midway through where Damian plots to have all the potential Baby Jesus’ murdered and it should be horrific and striking but the film shies away from showing any of it explicitly or showing any kind of reaction or anything. It just has no weight. Its a fact of infant mortality rates explained by a British news caster. Then there’s this huge scene where Damian’s lackey who happens to have a kid born on Jesus Day is confronted by his wife who has discovered what he’s been doing and is horrified and threatens to kill him… and then it just ends. Like it feels like he scene got cut or something. And then when it does resolve its… just… random. Man, I loved The Omen but this is a really hard decline for the sequels. And they’re not really bad in the way horror sequels usually are. They’re like perfectly competently made films with good talent who are trying. The whole rise of the Antichrist just turns out to be as interesting as watching any arrogant silver spoon guy spend years prepping a run for the presidency. Just with a few hapless monks being chased by dogs. Woof.  53 (66). Inferno (1980) Written and directed by Dario Argento. Watched on Shudder, also available on Vudu, Kanopy, DirectTV, and Mubi. A poet in New York discovers a book about the Three Mothers - three powerful and evil witches who control the world from their homes in NY, Rome, and Germany - and believes she lives in the home of one of them. That starts a chain of events of discovering in New York and with her brother in Rome that eventually lead to facing death. There’s not a whole lot of story here, huh? Its basically just a long string of pretty ladies (and Carlo) dying for the sin of being mildly inquisitive or helpful. For a trilogy of films about all powerful witches Argento’s Three Mothers really seems to be mostly about a bunch of people getting stabbed. That’s not to say I disliked it. Its a very pretty film with great use of color and tensions. I especially liked that opening scene underwater and it had one of the best jump scares I’ve had all month. I’ve also always heard about the cat scene or seen spoofs so it was funny to finally see that weirdness. The fire scene was also pretty striking. I definitely feel like I get Argento now, even though I don’t think I fully enjoy him. There’s a lot I do but also I’m not as enamored by the visual of ladies getting stabbed or people bleeding on each other as he is. I want to like this. There’s a lot I do like. But I found my enthusiasm dropping as the film went on. By the time Mark starts actually discovering some stuff it all feels kind of unearned to me because all he’s really done is pass out a couple of times while a bunch of women actually uncovering stuff got killed. It doesn’t feel remotely as compelling as Suzy’s journey in Suspiria… although I suppose she passed out while other ladies investigated and died too, huh? That’s an odd pattern. But she did other stuff and was the focus of the storytelling from the start. In Inferno Mark feels like a supporting character thrust into the main role after everyone else dies. The gender thing might have something do with that feeling, but I think its pretty accurate as well. I was really hyped for this one ever since I saw Suspiria, and especially since rewatching it this month and appreciating it more. But if I’m honest I was a little disappointed. Not that it was bad or anything just that it feels like a lot of the same from Suspiria but not as good. And with the generally poor opinions of Mother of Tears I suspect that’s a further deterioration. But I am a completionist nerd and there’s time left in the month so I’ll probably get there. Still I don’t want it to sound like I disliked Inferno. I was just a bit let down I guess. Its definitely a film I’ll have to revisit sometime later without those expectations. I had a bit of a similar reaction to Suspiria and liked it a lot more the second time through. April “Spring Shut-In” Marathon Watched - New (Total) 1. Blood Punch (2014); 2. La morte vivanta aka The Living Dead Girl (1982); 3. Prom Night (1980); 4. Rabid (1977); 5. Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987); 6. Mayhem (2017); - (7). Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (1999); 7 (8). The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986); 8 (9). Color Out of Space (2020); - (10). Critters (1986); 9 (11). The Prophecy II (1998); 10 (12). Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire (2019); 11 (13). Demons 2 (1986); 12 (14). Final Destination 2 (2003); 13 (15). Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell (2001); 14 (16). Maniac Cop (1988); - (17). The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971); 15 (18). Zombieland: Double Tap (2019); 16 (19). Hatchet (2006); - (20). Suspiria (1977); 17 (21). Climax (2018); 18 (22). The Prophecy 3: The Ascent (2000); 19 (23). Shudder’s Cursed Films; Episode 1: The Exorcist (2020)/Exorcist: The Beginning (2004); 20 (24). Psycho II (1983); 21 (25). Freaks of Nature (2015); 22 (26). Dave Made A Maze (2017); 23 (27). You Might Be The Killer (2018); 24 (28). Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990); 24 (28). Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990); 25 (29). One Cut of the Dead (2017); - (30). YellowBrickRoad (2010); 26 (31). Final Destination 3 (2006); 27 (32). Beyond Re-Animator (2003); 28 (33). The Wind (2019); 29 (34). 3 from Hell (2019); 30 (35). Patchwork (2015); - (36). Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995); - (37). Shudder's Cursed Films: Episode 2: The Omen (2020)/The Omen (1976); - (38). Stake Land (2010); 31 (39). Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972); 32 (40). Hatchet II (2010); 33 (41). Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (2019); - (42). See No Evil (2006); - (43). Critters 2: The Main Course (1988); 34 (44). Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (2001); 35 (45). Wishmaster: The Prophecy Fulfilled (2002); 36 (46). The Prophecy: Uprising (2005); 37 (47). Hatchet III (2013); 38 (48). The Final Destination (2009); 39 (49). Shudder’s Cursed Films: Episode 3: Poltergeist (2020)/Poltergeist (2015); - (50). The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003); 40 (51). Damien: Omen II (1978); 41 (52). Psycho III (1986); 42 (53). Piranha (1978); 43 (54). The Church (1989); 44 (55). Critters 3: You Are What They Eat (1991); 45 (56). Ruin Me (2017); 46 (57). I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016); 47 (58). Girl on the Third Floor (2019); - (59). It (2017); 48 (60). It Chapter Two (2019); 49 (61). The Prophecy: Forsaken (2005); 50 (62). Critters 4 (1992); - (63). Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990); 51 (64). Final Destination 5 (2011); 52 (65). Omen III: The Final Conflict (1983); 53 (66). Inferno (1980);
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Apr 18, 2020 12:47
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STAC Goat posted:
you may enjoy this Final Destination 5/Saved by the Bell parody music video that was released along with the movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXPvB92D0xY gey muckle mowser fucked around with this message at 14:28 on Apr 18, 2020 |
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Apr 18, 2020 14:23
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Heh. That's cute. I forgot to mention my FD5 cast impressions. Learning that Tom Cruise has a mini clone in Miles Fisher intrigues and terrifies me. I'm now kind of in love with Jacqueline MacInnes Wood and sad she doesn't appear to have done anything besides this and soap operas. At least until Eleonora Giorgi in Inferno kind of made me forget her. I think I stumbled into another Vancouver Hole because Emma Bell was in like 3 films I watched in the last few days. Watching all these horror sequels from the same eras is really eye opening in what it must be like being a young, pretty actor living in Canada and just jumping from genre set to genre set. I really did like FD5. If 3 and 4 had never happened an it was just a 1-2-5 trilogy I think I would have easily voted it over Return. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 14:57 on Apr 18, 2020 |
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Apr 18, 2020 14:55
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Sometimes I think I actually like Inferno more than Suspiria. I go back and forth on it. But Inferno undoubtedly has a few scenes(such as the underwater scene you mentioned) that I love more than anything in Suspiria.
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Apr 18, 2020 16:37
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I definitely see it. Everything I always heard about Suspiria was about how beautiful and striking it was, and it is, but Inferno struck me equally or maybe more in that regard. But Suspiria actually ends up having more of a coherent story and full character and I personally really kind of need that to stay engaged. I think that's kind of my constant string of complaint with other stuff like Final Destination or Mandy that people love. I get the flash and style, but I need that linking substance. Like I said, its definitely one I think I need to rewatch after some time to forget my feelings, expectations, and disappointments. A lot of movies like that come off better to me the second time through. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 16:52 on Apr 18, 2020 |
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Apr 18, 2020 16:49
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STAC Goat posted:Heh. That's cute. Miles Fisher did an American Psycho music video and depending on the angle or the lighting or his expression he can morph from looking like Christian Bale, looking like Tom Cruise, or looking like a third person who is halfway between the two. Deeply unnerving.
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Apr 18, 2020 16:50
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STAC Goat posted:Like I said, its definitely one I think I need to rewatch after some time to forget my feelings, expectations, and disappointments. A lot of movies like that come off better to me the second time through. Specifically regarding the plot, for me it definitely came together a LOT more when I rewatched Inferno. The movie jumps from the sister to the brother in a pretty random and jarring way but once I got past that the investigation aspect actually is really compelling in a way Suspira isn't. And I think is has the better ending. You gotta love a giant grim reaper bursting through a flaming mirror.
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Apr 18, 2020 17:09
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Yeah, I think the second time through knowing which characters I should try and invest in and which I should be prepared to loose quickly will ease the narrative a bit more. First time through it felt like shifting protagonists almost to the point of an anthology.
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Apr 18, 2020 17:13
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 16. The Invitation (2015) Netflix This is an extremely good thriller about trauma and grief and how societal norms stop us from expressing ourselves in healthy ways. I read a couple reviews on Letterboxd that claim this film isn't "subtle" enough, but it's not going for that at all. The characters are being shown red flag after red flag and are choosing to ignore them out of politeness, or because challenging it would be uncomfortable. I think we all know people who have weird beliefs or act strangely and we just awkwardly smile and nod because "they're harmless". This movie asks: what if they're not? Will is more willing to express his feelings than the others are, and just like in real life, it's good and healthy even though it's sometimes uncomfortable. He and Eden both went through a traumatic experience, but she was unwilling to deal with it - Will deals with it even though it's extremely painful, because the alternative leads you down dark paths. in summary, don't be polite to people you think might be trying to kill you also John Carroll Lynch is extremely good at playing creepy guys 4.5 red lanterns out of 5  17. Tremors 2: Aftershocks (1996) Netflix The graboids are back, this time terrorizing an oil refinery in Mexico. Fred Ward reprises his role as Earl, who is hired to hunt down the creatures. Unfortunately Kevin Bacon is nowhere to be seen, replaced by a generic '90s guy played by Chris Gartin. Bacon's presence is really missed - the two leads here don't have nearly the same chemistry as Bacon and Ward did in the first film. Generally the characters are just less interesting and charming here. I found the first half kind of dull - now that the characters know how to defeat the monsters easily, there isn't any real tension. Apart from some neat practical effects (which are still a step down from the original), there isn't really anything interesting going on. Luckily it picks up in the second half, where the monsters take on a new form that shakes things up quite a bit. It's still not a masterpiece and most of the characters are still boring, but it becomes a pretty fun monster movie for the rest of the film. I like the new creature designs and it even has some CGI that's surprisingly not terrible considering the year this was made. While overall this is definitely a step down from the first film, it's fun enough to be worthwhile. Less charming and less funny, but the monsters are still cool and it goes in a new and (mostly) interesting direction. 3.5 MREs out of 5  18. The Seventh Curse (1986) Amazon Prime gently caress YES. This movie is bonkers the whole way through, in the best way. Martial arts action, reanimated skeletons, lots of guns and explosions, a flying Xenomorph-clone demon, fetus monsters, unnecessary nudity, and lots and lots of blood. I love movies about black magic and evil sorcerers, and there's plenty of that here. The plot often makes no sense, but it didn't bother me because there's just so much wild poo poo happening at any given moment. Also I love the scene where the villain is casually shoving children into a contraption that crushes them and harvests their blood, and the heroes completely ignore it to save the obnoxious reporter instead. It's definitely not a perfect film, but I could care less about the flaws when I was grinning from ear to ear the whole way through. If you like Hong Kong action films and wild and bloody special effects, watch this ASAP. 7 blood curses out of 7 Watched: 18 - Horse Girl | Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II | Resident Evil: Extinction | Resident Evil: Afterlife | Phantasm II | Swallow | Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead | The Stendhal Syndrome | Deathgasm | Saturday the 14th | Human Lanterns | The Wailing | Beyond the Darkness | Xtro | Tremors | The Invitation | Tremors 2: Aftershocks | The Seventh Curse
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Apr 18, 2020 17:51
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#21 Paranormal Activity Y'know what? Paranormal Activity holds up. It's a solid movie. I know the franchise has gotten a reputation for being boring shots of a house interspersed with jump scares. Maybe that's true of the later ones, I'll find out, but the first one is pretty well paced. And there's almost no jump scares. A static shot of a bedroom, and then the door slowly swings partway closed by itself is not a jump scare. The big thing with found footage movies is that they often feel the need to explain why the character keeps filming. IMO it's unnecessary, just don't bring it up and if the rest of the movie is good people will roll with it. But in Paranormal Activity it's actually good character stuff. At first Micah straight up does not care about his wife's silly ghost fear. He just sees this as a great opportunity to buy an expensive video camera to gently caress around with. Maybe he can even talk his girlfriend into making a sex tape. But once the ghost stuff starts happening, he insist on continuing filming specifically because Katie doesn't want him to. It's his way of maintaining control in a weird situation he slightly resents Katie for getting him into. And by the end it's just a thing he can do to feel like he's in control in a situation 100% out of his control. The characters are really strong too. Micah is a daytrader, Katie makes handmade jewelry to sell on Etsy, and they drive a Miata. So right away we know what kind of people these are and it's OK if bad things happen to them. My one big criticism would be the very end. Literally the last two seconds, with Katie getting demon face and making demon noise. That's going too far, it breaks the reality of the movie. We already get Katie is demonfied. Turning her into a more cartoony demon than the actual demon is just dumb. But overall Paranormal Activity was a solid, well made found footage movie. Maybe it doesn't live up to the hype, but it certainly doesn't live down to the anti-hype backlash.
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Apr 18, 2020 18:46
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I’m at a point where I’m not only scheduling my horror movies by the hours I’m scheduling non horror intermissions. I may need intervention. - (67). Tremors (1990) Directed by Ron Underwood, written by Brent Maddock and S. S. Wilson. Watched on Netflix, also available on DirectTV and Amazon’s Starz channel. A pair of scoundrel handymen find a strange creature in the Nevada desert killing people and have to fight for survival with the locals against big man eating sand monsters! Taking a tiny “risk” and starting a new franchise this late in the month. But I’ve become accustomed to watching these lighter sequels in the day time before my more anticipated films and with me tying up so many of the franchises I thought I should add some more. I was thinking of doing Puppet Master and Leprechaun too but they’re just way too long to start this late because I’m a nutmeg who will feel like a failure if I don’t finish by the end of the month. So trying not to go overboard. But I’ve never not enjoyed just turning Tremors on in the afternoon. Honestly, Tremors is just the perfect B monster movie. Its light when it needs to be, its gory and mean when it needs to be, its suspenseful and exciting when it needs to be. There’s a fun cast of characters to invest it and enjoy anchored by a un buddy duo and a charming little romance. It has a really cool creature design and some really gnarly monster gore. I don’t know what to say about Tremors. I’ve seen it so many times. Haven’t you? Hasn’t everyone? You should. Its great. Its fun. Watch Tremors.  54 (68). Satanic Panic (2019) Directed by Chelsea Stardust, written by Grady Hendrix and Ted Geoghegan. Watched on Shudder, also available on hoopla. Sam’s first day as a pizza delivery driver takes her to a gated community where not only do they stiff her for a tip but they kidnap her, plan to sacrifice her to Satan, sick a bunch of demons on her, and some really hosed up non-consensual sex stuff. For some reason I was really pumped for this coming into the month. Sometimes a movie just catches your attention, and i think I had it confused with Ready or Not and thought Samara Weaving was in it. But I corrected that and read a bunch of bad reviews but… well sometimes you just gotta get it out of your system. What a weird loving movie. I wasn’t really feeling it out of the gate. The sense of humor and vibe just felt very flat. But like 15 minutes in or so it just goes completely bonkers. Just so drat weird. Not a good weird, not a bad weird, just a dumb weird. It doesn’t make a ton of sense, it doesn’t not make sense. Its kind of silly... but in a mean, dumb way. Its not some confusing Lovecraftian madness. Its just some weird rear end dumb sense of humor throws all kinds of dumb weird poo poo at the wall. And I don’t even know if anything sticks. I don’t think I ever really laughed or anything. But I also didn’t turn it off or get bored or anything. It was just a weird dumb little journey. I don’t think I’d recommend it. But I don’t think I’d turn people away. I don’t think it really ever decided if it wanted to be mean or funny or what predominantly. And honestly, I think it was too mean. Like it introduces this kind of annoying girl and it just seems like its gonna be this wacky dark comedy where you don’t super care and that’s ok, but then it makes he completely sympathetic and good and not someone who should be hosed with and then it fucks with her. So then I was like mad at the movie or something. If you wanna gently caress with your hero don’t make them a child cancer survivor who fell in love with another cancer patient who died when she went into remission and who she carries a poo poo ton of survivor’s guilt for “abandoning” and who goes out of her way to save the life of an rear end in a top hat she doesn’t know because she doesn’t want to abandon anyone else. Like… leave that poor girl alone, assholes. Why’d you have to give her a tragic backstory? Jerks. Ok, I didn’t care THAT much but it was enough that in the final act I was just kind of like “Come on, seriously? gently caress off.” instead of laughing or something. Whatever emotion it wanted me to have. I don’t know. Its a weird movie with a weird vibe and a weird sense of humor. And I have no idea if I hated it or liked it or what. Its weird. And dumb. But ok? I dunno.
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Apr 18, 2020 19:47
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You know, the only other movie I think gets close to Tremors perfect tone is James Gunn's SLiTHER. The high school in that film is named Earl Bassett high, so the influence is on its sleeve.
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Apr 18, 2020 20:16
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17. Raw Meat / Death Line 1972 | Gary Sherman  Donald Pleasance and Christopher Lee star in a British C.H.U.D. story and...it's lackluster? I don't really have much to say about this flick. It's slow. The camera is meditative about it's imagery. The sound design is excellent and gross. But the overall experience didn't do much for me. Donald Pleasance is assertive as a police chief, but he's so antagonistic that it doesn't do much for me. Still, it's a nice little British CHUD movie, and it has some style, but it's overall a limp note for me. And with that, I have watched every film on Edgar Wright's list. Kind of a lame ending. Thoughts on Edgar Wright's 100 Favorite Horror Films I think this may the most solid Best Horror Movie List I've come across. There is a heavy emphasis on British films I hadn't seen, which seems rather obvious. Edgar Wright has a great sense of excitement and intriguing films. Some of the more lackluster entries are still stylish and great to watch. A 1/3rd of the list is Pre-1970s, which I think is another interesting choice. There are only 7 entries from the 90's, and while they're mostly obvious choices, only three of them are from America, one of which is the under-seen Craven classic The People Under The Stairs. I don't agree with all of his choices. Jeepers Creepers? Come on, there are better movies from the 00's than that. Some new favorites that I watched specifically from this list: Island of Lost Souls Dead of Night The Innocents The House That Screamed Hitchcock's Frenzy The Devil Rides Out Theater of Blood The Ruins Train To Busan Worth mentioning: Seconds Overall, it's an excellent list. If there are any on it that you haven't seen, trust Edgar and enjoy. Planet of the Vampires | The Brain That Wouldn't Die | Popcorn | Plan 9 From Outer Space | Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers | Rockula | Ringu | Four Flies on Grey Velvet | Seconds | Theater of Blood | Frailty | Daughters of Darkness | Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street | Train To Busan | Who Can Kill a Child? | Long Weekend | Raw Meat Total: 17
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Apr 18, 2020 21:53
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10. Dracula (1973) (a.k.a. Dan Curtis' Dracula) Well, it's Dracula alright, made for TV this time. It's a perfectly competent movie with no real highs or lows, and as a result it's almost dreadfully boring. I don't know if I like Jack Palance as Dracula - he does not impart any threatening or suave qualities onto the character, but rather goes for a pained and sad expression. He's not having any fun drinking blood, that's for sure. It ends up making his death quite interesting, almost pathetic. Overlaying his demise with the cheers of Dracula! from his loyal medieval subjects makes him a more tragic figure than usual. Still I would not recommend this one other than for completion's sake. 11. Ganja and Hess  After getting stabbed by a cursed dagger, Dr. Hess Green is turned into a blood craving immortal sort of vampire and ends up wooing Ganja, the wife of his former acquaintance. This one's curious - I was not sure there was any plot at all for perhaps the first hour of this movie, and if I was not just watching a sort of poetry performance. While there is ultimately plenty of paint-red blood and sex, it is decidedly not a blaxploitation movie. I don't think a character like Hess is often portrayed in movies at all, and Ganja is pleasantly nuanced and complex. I'll have to digest this one more. Watched: 1. Southbound, 2. Vampire Circus, 3. Verotika, 4. Next of Kin, 5. Frankenstein (1931), 6. Body Bags , 7. Hell House LLC, 8. Three Extremes, 9. Dracula (1931), 10. The Stuff, 11. Dracula (1973), 12. Ganja and Hess
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Apr 18, 2020 21:59
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#22 Paranormal Activity 2 It's not as good as the first one. Paranormal Activity 2 is set shortly before Paranormal Activity 1, and leads directly into the events of the first movie. Which I'm not opposed to. Keeping it small and sort of intimate like that isn't a bad idea for the sort of movies they are. It backfills a lot of stuff from the first movie, unnecessarily but I didn't hate it. I already said that I liked how in the first movie Mika sees the ghost stuff at first mainly as an excuse to buy an expensive camera. Adding to that that he's was jealous of his richer brother in law's expensive camera works pretty well. I'd say the big problem is that there are fewer scares, they're worse, and they make less sense. In the first movie all the demon poo poo was either a result of the demon's presence in the house or the demon intentionally loving with the couple. But in Paranormal Activity 2, the demon does stuff nobody sees. It's performing for the camera. Nobody saw it spin the mobile, so why did it do it? Because it's spooky for the audience. That's a big problem for the pacing. In Paranormal Activity the scares piled up on the couple and they got more afraid as the movie went along. But in Paranormal Activity 2 since there are fewer scares and some of them are just for the audience, you don't get that ramp up. It's just general concern until things start going crazy near the end. And that's a big problem for the ending, where the first suggestion they get for dealing with the demon is crazy, but they just go for it. It's like, couldn't you even call an exorcist first? It makes me wonder why the writer made the decision to have the maid fired so early on. If she had been there the whole time being like, yo I know how to take care of the demon, and the family had been like no we can't do that, it's wrong! it would've made way more sense when they finally gave in. But instead she just burns some sage early on, gets fired for it, then gets called in at the end and is like yo I can do this but it's gonna be wild and after seeing one demon thing the dad is like yeah sounds good. Overall I didn't hate it, I think it's an acceptable expansion of the first movie, but it's not very good.
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Apr 18, 2020 23:07
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I’ve been watching movies but not reviewing them so I will just be doing cliff notes because time and a pandemic have caused me to forget some of the finer points I would have attempted to make. 2. Wishmaster I have to admit I really liked this. It has some flaws, the CG stinks out loud but at least it was ambitious. The practical effects though are good as hell, and some great performances from the cast. This is exactly the kind of late night HBO horror movie I grew up on, and I really dug it. 3. From Beyond I had no idea what to expect going in other than the thread loves this movie and I can see why. Just the epitome of what made 80s horror great. Wonderful practical effects, Ooey Gooey body horror, a wonderful cast that knew exactly what they were involved with. Honestly though, it could have been about anything because I would watch Combs, Crampton and Ken Foree talk about anything. 4. Re-Animator This is my first “re-watch”, but only kind of because I remember watching about 40 minutes and being bored out of my mind when I bought it on a whim from Blockbuster a lifetime ago. Well, I don’t know what the gently caress was wrong with me back then, and honestly don’t remember a single drat scene other than maybe the cat scene. But I loved it this time around for all the same reasons as From Beyond but I personally enjoyed this one even more. 5. Bride of Re-Animator While I still enjoyed this I don’t think it’s as tight as the original. Don’t get me wrong, re-animated decapitated heads fused to bat wings flying around creating chaos are incredibly my jam, and while there are many nuggets like this, the overall story seems like kind of a reach just to make a sequel. Everyone seemed to have a great time making it though and I enjoyed watching it.
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Apr 19, 2020 01:12
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 96) Satan's School for Girls - 1973 - TubiTV God, I miss the TV Movies of the Week. Yeah, they had the TV restrictions of the era, but there's some good stuff there if you look. Title's pretty much the storyline and it is delightfully 70s. Quite a few name actors in this one too. While there are some clunky moments, overall, this was a good watch. If you're looking into exploring the old Movies of the Week, this is definitely one to not miss.  97) Guru, the Mad Monk - 1970 - TubiTV One of these days I need to pick up the Milligan book. This film's standard Grindhouse. Low budget, gringy, and the usual flaws. Storyline involves a priest who runs a prison on an island with the usual torture/cruelty. Comparing it to the few other Milligan films I've seen, it's pretty average. His work's not for everyone, but I'd consider recommending this to someone curious about his films but not sure where to start watching.  98) Alpha Girls - 2013 - TubiTV I went in expecting something along the lines of Tragedy Girls. I'm happy to say, I expected wrong. Story is the rushes to a sorority get more than they bargained for when they get ahold of the sorority's book of traditions. I liked this one. Yeah, the premise is one that's been done a lot but the cast just makes it enjoyable. And seeing Ron Jeremy as a priest never fails to crack me up. Definitely worth giving a try.  99) The Cremators - 1972 - TubiTV I was first thinking this was Island of the Burning Damned or Island of Terror under a different title, but it's not. Storyline's similar to the other two, mystery monster going around killing, but this one's just not as good as the other too. I wasn't too keen on the cat and dog deaths. This was okay enough, but I probably won't watch it again.  100) The Playgirls and the Vampire - 1963 - TubiTV This was probably pretty hot stuff in it's time, but now it's fairly quaint. Story is the standard tour bus gets caught in a storm and takes shelter in the nearby creepy castle. The horror element's pretty skimpy overall, feels more like a cheesecake film.
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Apr 19, 2020 01:28
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#23 Paranormal Activity 3 Easily the strongest of the series so far Paranormal Activity 3 breaks with Paranormal Activity tradition by daring to have likable characters. Every Paranormal Activity has introduced a new camera thing. 1 was all handheld, 2 had the locked down security cameras, and 3 adds an oscillating camera. Which leads to the best scare in the movie so far, the sheet thing. But the fact that it's set in the 80s makes the found footage angle slightly harder to swallow. The dude is recording all day with multiple cameras when a 6 hour tape back then cost like 50 bucks? And he's running around with a handheld camera that I assume weighed about 85 pounds. One of the problems with Paranormal Activity 2 was despite the fact that it was a studio film made with money, it less impressive scares than Paranormal Activity, an independent film made without money. Paranormal Activity 3 actually uses the studio money to have big impressive scares. It starts small but builds towards actual horror sequences with stuff flying around, and an actor replaced with a contortionist for one shot, y'know, actual movie things you can do with money. Honestly I was too kind to Paranormal Activity 2 in my review. That movie was a dud. And best of all we get fun horror stuff built on the Paranormal Activity lore established in the first two movies. When the dude goes into the kitchen and sees his mother in law has a dang pentagram at the head of the kitchen table, it's delightful. Paranormal Activity 3 uses money and likable characters to inject fresh energy into a series that was wearing thin by the second entry.
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Apr 19, 2020 02:44
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76. The Distiller (2016, Prime) - I want to like this movie. It starts with a highly campy paranormal investigator who traps ghosts in liquor bottles, complete with "spirits" double entendre, and cuts back to his adventures a few times. There's some great no-budget puppetry, and the concepts behind the cgi ghosts are creative, if not pulled off terribly well. The problem is that after a few adventures, the overwhelming bulk of the film concerns his niece and nephew inheriting his house 25 years later and releasing the spirits to run amok, and the leads can't act. 3/5 77. Zombie Island Massacre (1984, Prime) - Troma movie about some people sitting around a house talking. The house is on an island, so the title is 33% correct. 1/5 78. The Demon's Rook (2013, Prime) - Heavy metal splatterfest about a portal to hell opening up, unleashing swarms of zombies and demons. Pedestrian plot and acting, but the makeup and costuming is really unique and the soundtrack contributes greatly. 3/5 79. The Zombie Club (2019, Prime) - Antibullying PSA. Honestly, it's a fun teen comedy about a diverse group of students who get drawn together when they're turned into "zombies" with superpowers (e.g., straight up throwing fireballs) after spending detention in a biology classroom that had the wrong frogs shipped to it. There's a subplot with the rear end in a top hat basketball coach trying to get himself infected for the superpowers, which I thought was where this was going to take a horror turn, but it only pays off in a gag epilogue. 3/5 80. The Sender (1982, Prime) - Solidly creepy with plenty of nightmare fuel. I was expecting 80s trash but it's quite a bit better than that. An amnesiac gets committed to the mental ward, where they rapidly discover that he can transmit his dreams to other people. Most of these dreams involve massive quantities of rats. Really well plotted, and the leads do a great job with the material. 4/5 81. Abigail Haunting (2020, Prime) - Middling haunted house (trailer) film, dragged down by the lead's inability to emote without looking like she's having a seizure. 2/5
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Apr 19, 2020 02:56
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quote:The Purge Series (viewed within the Universe Timeline) - 30. The Belko Experiment (2016) - Greg McLean A dumb bad movie that should've been a lot more fun than it actually was. It gets rid of its best cast members far too soon and it doesnt go far enough with the craziness of the people in that situation. If someone were to tell me this was their favorite horror movie, I'd question their sanity. It isn't fun, maybe a bit boring, but overwhelmingly BLAH. 31. The Birds (1963) - Alfred Hitchcock People call it a classic, I suppose it is. I dunno, it was a nice palette cleanser to the last 30 films I've watched this month. It shows its age, but not to its detriment. It's still fun and thrilling, the acting is well done (even if you know the unfortunate history of the shooting practices) and it moved along briskly despite it being a two hour film (and me being exceptionally stoned all night). Not my most favorite Hitchcock film, but still solid.
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Apr 19, 2020 03:43
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Man, this thread slowed the gently caress down after people finished posting about their Easter binges. Anyway, 07. Suspiria (2018) 2020/04/12  A remake of this excellent giallo from 1977; both movies are about an American girl inducted into an exclusive German dance academy in the 1970s, run by a coven of witches who want her for their own purposes. The original is moody, bathed in rich colours, dreamlike, kind of plotless. It's set in Germany, but I can't tell why; everyone just speaks Italian all the time anyway. The remake makes a point of its setting: it's in west Berlin, in the midst of the unrest and terrorism of 1977. This, and the character of Klemperer, give me the impression that you need a stronger grasp of the history of that era to completely get what they're going for. The main thing I know about Berlin is that it's cheap and lively, that political events have sort of shielded it from the economic forces that have exploded rent and eliminated all "unnecessary" expenses everywhere else. Hey, the academy also lets you live there for free, cool. Fortunately for me, this movie has a lot in it, beyond the significance of its setting.  The dance academy is an interesting setting; this secluded space run by women. The only times we see a man in there are when some cops come to investigate, and get hypnotised and, uh, emasculated by the witches. The only major male character is an old man, Klemperer, who takes an interest in a missing dancer-- and he's played by Tilda Swinton (very convincingly, I might add). The movie does not depict the women's academy as an innately good thing: the conveners after all are killing their students. Of course, the protagonist Susie isn't an especially good person either; she is revealed to be an agent of one of the coven's mothers, sent to kill off the witches on the wrong side of a dispute, which she does with relish. The whole narrative of the first movie, of the innocent corrupted and subverted, is just an act here. The missing dancer Klemperer is trying to find died (at the start of the movie) because he would not listen to her, so he is trying to assuage his guilt; no-one in this movie is wholly good.  The dance scenes are stunning, and the only time when things get colourful. They take that one soundtrack element of the original, the rhythmic gasps and sighs, and do more with them. The act of breathing is connected to the act of dancing, which itself is some sort of communal ritual to the dark gods. When I watched the original, I thought it sounded good, but here it's entrancing. This movie is dense, and I need to watch it again in a few months. 08. Excision (2012) 2020/04/13  I was planning on doing this one later, but since I've been posting these in pairs I decided it would make a neat partner to Suspiria. I watched this when it came out, liked it a lot, but hadn't seen it since. The name is in reference to Repulsion; this is a horror movie about madness. Teenager Pauline is a misfit, obsessed with death and surgery and always at odds with her mum. Over the course of the movie, she experiences a lot of friction with her parents and classmates, has morbid dreams, prays halfheartedly, and occasionally claims to be mentally ill. In the end, it becomes clear that she's not just making excuses when she murders her sister and a neighbour in an attempt to give her sister a life-saving lung transplant.  I've got to say, it's a very different experience if you go in knowing the ending. You can see The Plan forming quite early, and a lot of Pauline's actions and smart-rear end remarks take on new weight. Her relationships with her family are interesting. Her mum wavers between an unbelievable bitch, and a flawed person who is trying their best; her dad is perpetually on the edge of saying something but never does; her sister sucks up to Mom, but is kind and loving the rest of the time. Eight years on, I found Pauline's dreams-- colourful grotesque sequences of sex, blood, and death-- to be kind of boring, and was much more interested in the day-to-day angsty teen melodrama. There's this one scene towards the end where Pauline overhears her parents talking about her that's genuinely heartbreaking. There's a line midway through, when she's confronted by the principal over something: "It's not my fault I was born with a chemical imbalance"; at first glance you might write it off as a smart-rear end kid repeating something they read in a book, but as her behaviour ramps up it becomes clear she's just describing reality. In a hundred other movies the Unreasonable Adults are a source of frustration; here it's tragedy. I enjoyed this movie the first time I saw it. This time, I loved it. I found it totally gripping, even compared to the other April movies I enjoyed. I'm really glad I gave this one another go-around. drat, I forgot Ray Wise was in this.
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Apr 19, 2020 08:11
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18: Bay of Blood An old countess is killed by her husband, who wants her land. He's not the only one. A giallo and proto-slasher. The lakeside setting and some of the kills reminded me a lot of the earlier F13 films, but the deaths here are way better without the MPAA making GBS threads it up. If there is a protagonist here, it's the scheming step daughter. I liked her, she's so unapologetically evil. The plot get's a little complicated and is eventually revealed in flashbacks. I burst out laughing at the ending. What the gently caress. Seen: 1) The Abominable Dr. Phibes; 2) Contagion; 3) The Devil's Rejects; 4) The Changling; 5) Frankenhooker; 6) Midsommar; 7) Village of the Damned (1960); 8) Wishmaster; 9) Der Golem; 10) City of the Living Dead; 11) A Nightmare on Elm Street 2; 12) Leprechaun; 13) Microwave Massacre; 14) Sisters; 15) Bride of Re-Animator; 16)The Crazies; 17) Maniac Cop; 18) Bay of Blood
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Apr 19, 2020 11:40
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13. I See You  I remember seeing the trailer for this some time last year, and then nobody ever talked about it again. Now it's on Prime. Unfaithful wife Helen Hunt is in familial trouble with her teenage son and her husband, a small town police detective investigating the disappearance of a child. On top of that, the family's house appears to be haunted. Slick, mid budget mystery/horror/thriller movie that drives a fine line between implausible/stupid/intriguing for about half its runtime and then WILDLY swerves out of control before coming to a very self satisfied and, in my opinion, idiotic but fun standstill in the end. Nice cinematography with some neat drone shots - whoever is making the next iteration of Evil Dead better pay attention to the POV shots you can do with that. I was entertained throughout, it's worth a watch if you don't expect the world from this. Watched: 1. Southbound, 2. Vampire Circus, 3. Verotika, 4. Next of Kin, 5. Frankenstein (1931), 6. Body Bags , 7. Hell House LLC, 8. Three Extremes, 9. Dracula (1931), 10. The Stuff, 11. Dracula (1973), 12. Ganja and Hess, 13. I See You
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Apr 19, 2020 15:14
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 55 (69). The Dead Don’t Die (2019) Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. Watched on Cinemax. Bill Murray is the sheriff of a small town that is noticing strange occurrences as a result of fracking throwing the Earth off its axis, but things get really out of hand when the zombies show up. “Why’s that song sound so familiar?” “That’s the theme song.” That kind of established the film’s sense of humor early. Its a weird movie. A lot of it kind of just amounts to Murray and Adam Driver having some deadpan Vaudeville show. Tilda Swinton’s in there being weird for the sake of it. There’s so many stars and comedians in the movie that they all just kind of end up blurring together after awhile and it becomes less of a matter of seeing what they do and more just a game to see if you recognize all of them. Characters randomly get meta or break the fourth wall. Its a weird film and a weirder sense of humor. I’m sure this works for some but you gotta have really fine tuned appreciation for this humor I think. I don’t but like I didn’t think the film was bad or anything. I stayed mostly engaged through the whole thing even if I don’t think I was ever really that entertained. I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen anything Jarmusch has done. I do have Only Lovers Left Alive penciled in for late in the month and I don’t entirely know how i feel about that now. We’ll see if I get around to it as I don’t want to just dismiss a heralded director (especially comparing a comedy to a drama) but I get the sense I’m just not on the same wavelength.  56 (70). The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) Directed by Jonathan Liebesman, written by Sheldon Turner and David J. Schow. Watched… somewhere. Set four years before the Jessica Biel reboot this one tells the story of where Leatheface came from and how the Hewitt’s got into the murdering and eating people business. So Leatherface’s origin story is that he was born on the floor of a slaughterhouse, thrown in a dumpster by the manager, dug out by a family of psychos, grew up to work at that same slaughterhouse and get fired by that manager, came back and killed the guy who threw him in a dumpster (you know… for poetry), and then the family of psychos decided to just start murdering and eating everyone to cover it up or something? Ok? This feels like a low point for Jordana Brewster. I mean, its one thing to star in a bad horror sequel before you were famous like Matt Bomer is doing. And its one thing to star in one when you’re just a veteran character actor like R. Lee Ermey is doing. And its one thing to star in one when you’re just a random pretty actor trying to catch a break like… whoever the hell Taylor Handley and Diora Baird are. But Brewster’s here in this tough hole between the big blockbuster film where she broke out and that blockbuster turning into a mega franchise that will set her for the rest of her life and all she’s got to show for it at this moment is a starring role in this. The film itself is just… dour. Mean. Pointless. I mean, if you just want to watch some people get tortured and killed then go for it. But there’s just no point. Its sadism and brutality for the sake of it. Nothing compelling or interesting. There’s like 2 extra plot lines tossed into the first 20 minutes that of course mean nothing as soon as the Hewitt’s show up and the movie just becomes about avoiding becoming dinner. And the fact that its a prequel makes it all the more inevitable and pointless. You know the character who are gonna show up to torture Jessica Biel in 4 years aren’t gonna die or get caught or anything. You know Jordana Brewster isn’t gonna get away and alert authorities to what happened. This can only really end one way and when it finally does I was just… tired. Two more of these…
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Apr 19, 2020 16:17
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#24 Paranormal Activity 4 Another Paranormal Activity with likable protagonists! We're 50/50 for the franchise now. Overall I'd say not as strong as Paranormal Activity 3, it doesn't have the same cosistent rate of scares ramping up towards the end. But it does have some good stuff. I liked how much time they spent setting up the knife. Like, oh you fuckers think we just do jump scares? We're going to spend five goddamn minutes on this knife so you'll spend the rest of the movie just waiting for it to show up. And trapped in a garage with a car running was pretty good, although the limits of the format meant we didn't get a really good angle on the car smashing through door. And I liked the teens, they were cute together. I gotta say, I loved the final shot of the army of white women. They will turn your children into demons and also try to get you to buy into LuLaRoe. So four entries in to the series, I gotta say, Paranormal Activity is doing pretty good. There's only been one real dud so far.
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Apr 19, 2020 16:47
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4. The Terminator Yeah, I'm way behind. I spent a week with my girlfriend and she's not much for horror, and she has an 8-year-old daughter who thinks Ghostbusters is traumatizing, so I'm trying to catch up for my 13. Anyway: The Terminator is absolutely, at its core, a horror film. Say what you will about its sequels but Kyle Reese sums it up perfectly: quote:It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead. Throughout the entire film there is a pervading sense of existential dread.
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Apr 19, 2020 17:20
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 57. The Hitcher The elevator pitch for Hitcher is "what if you picked up a hitchhiker, and they were a crazed serial killer". My first exposure to this film was a Siskel & Ebert review, in which they criticised the film for being nihilistic torture porn. So I had the expectation coming into this that I was in store for a treat, hopefully 90 minutes of the hitchhiker scene from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A tight little intense bottle movie. This film however is very different from my expectation. Rutger Hauer isn't so much a hitchhiker, he's more of a supernatural force that exists on a desolate highway, and his goal isn't to kill but to brutalise. Jim, the driver of the car, is haunted by Hauer throughout the movie, with Hauer acting like a curse to put Jim into compromising situations where violence and insanity is the only way out. It's almost like a comedy of errors, like what if Kitten With a Whip but with Rutger Hauer instead of Anne Margaret. The film is pretty good, there are some nice tense moments. A few nice shots. Hauer really steals the film as a feral psychopath with a poo poo eating grin. C. Thomas Howell also does a good job as Jim, but the role doesn't really let him do much other than look terrified and haggard. I also love that they kept in his accidental scorpion enziguri.  3.5/5
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Apr 19, 2020 17:49
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Tigers are Not Afraid (2017) Slightly let down after all the praise I heard for this one. Goes for the better Del Toro movies' mix of social realism and fantasy, but the depictions of slum life feel underrealized, with a focus on gangsters coming after kids like the terminator instead of the actual perils of poverty. Meanwhile, the fantasy elements are never quite incorporated as well as they are in films like Pan's Labyrinth, with the ghosts just showing up at certain points to remind you that this is a horror fantasy. Great production design though, and all of the child actors do incredible work. Enough here works for me that I was hoping more would. 2.5/5  Faust (1926)  Can a film be a masterpiece based only on its beginning and ending? The first scene in particular, with an angel and devil battling over the soul of Faust, with gorgeous, shadowy visuals of Satanic riders, and the figure of Mephisto towering above a German village spreading pestilence. Murnau uses shadow masterfully here and the deliberately stylized costumes and miniatures are evocatively theatrical (at one point Mephisto even drapes his cloak over a scene exactly like a pair of curtains). Faust's early film dilemma is fascinating too, as he seeks Satanic knowledge not out of selfishness, but out of a desire to cure the plague that afflicts his neighbors. An early scene of Faust curing the sick, only to find himself repulsed when one of them is holding a cross, is particularly effective. Unfortunately, once Faust succumbs to his second temptation and is made young again, the movie grinds to a halt. All the gorgeous shadows and accomplished special effects disappear until the finale in favor of a romance plot that doesn't work at all. A bleak but powerful ending that sees the return of Mephisto helps save this and bring the movie out on a high note, but while the doe-eyed romance is essential to the final plot, I wish it had been cut down in favor either of Faust losing his soul more gradually or more of the incredible visuals. 4/5  8/13 watched Countries "visited": China, Australia, Italy, Japan, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Germany
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Apr 19, 2020 17:56
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18. Sleepaway Camp 1983 | Robert Hiltzik | rewatch  I'm going to spend a lot of this challenge going through horror blu rays I've been buying and going through all the extras. This review is for the If you, for some reason, haven't seen Sleepaway Camp, please skip this review, as it assumes you are familiar with the film. Go and watch it immediately, it's a bizarre gem. The Movie Sleepaway Camp is, thankfully, now a bona-fide slasher classic, largely attributed to Jeff Hayes (and John Klyza) of SleepawayCampMovies.com, who appears on most of this blu ray's features. Robert Hiltzik, fresh from film school, wanted to make a hit, and a horror movie was the easiest gamble with minimal budget. He decided to make a film about a summer camp, inspired by his own summer camp experiences. He loved the freedom that summer camp allows kids, and wanted to use that setting both for a "real" representation of being a kid and for a Lord of the Flies type story. Frustrated by many studio films having adults playing kids, he wanted real teenagers and pre-teens for his summer camp slasher. He was also interested in trying to find a "balance" with the characters killed. Friday the 13th sets up characters to be killed because you gotta have kills, so what if we made the characters deserve it in some way? There is a more fulfilling sensation when a pedophile is being killed than an innocent teenager being killed with a machete. Throughout the film there are many characters bullying each other, especially our protagonist Angela, and the bullies getting hurt or killed is a major theme through-out the film. Felissa Rose and Jonathan Tiersten, our protagonists Angela and Richie respectively, say it is one of the most common praises from fans. "I was bullied too." Some of the more taboo aspects of the film do seem to come from a good place, at least from the mouths of a cast and crew. Angela is a victim of bullying for being different. She is forced into false gender identity by her guardian, and is traumatized from seeing her father's and sibling's accidental death. Felissa Rose says that part of her direction with Angela was her struggling with understanding how her character--a boy forced into a girl's role--is genuinely attracted to Paul, and having known her father was in a gay affair, she is coming to terms with that being okay, a dangerous notion in the violent society of summer camp in the 80's. Paul gets decapitated, not because of Angela's gender confusion, but for revenge for making out with Judy after they fight. A true fun thing about this film is the visual life each character is given. Go big, was often recommended, and I'll pull you back when necessary. Aunt Martha's insanity was the actress's choice. "Well it was her choice because she was just actually insane," argues Jonathan Tiersten. "Doing that scene was insane. She was insane." Hiltzik loved it and never told her to pull it back. "The character is insane. The whole twist's effectiveness relies on whether or not we believe Aunt Martha is capable of doing that to Angela/Peter." This type of character direction was applied to everyone, especially the extras. Instructors for previous scenes do a lot of background work in later scenes. The cooks hang out and joke around in the background. Games are played. Hiltzik is said to have given a lot of freedom with every character. Camp Arawak will seem more alive if the campers and counselors feel like real characters. Camp Arawak was actually written and planned with the location in mind. It is the actual summer camp Hiltzik attended growing up. He asked the owners if they could film there, and they were happy to have more income coming in after their summer season. That's why the opening scene with an empty summer camp and the ghostly voices of campers playing has an autumnal look with the trees: they started filming in September. The cast and crew actually lived at the summer camp, which is why there is a palpable solidarity and chemistry with a lot of the cast. Many of the actors also had experience attending real summer camps, and drew from experiences there for some of the bits. Another bizarre fact: the film crew is the same crew from George A Romero's Creepshow. As soon as Creepshow wrapped, they went up to Hudson Falls and started filming another cult classic. Scanning Sleepaway Camp There is a nine minute video on how they did the new 2k scan of Sleepaway Camp from the original film negative. If this is something you're interested in, it is currently available for free on YouTube. I thought it was interesting. At The Waterfront After the Social: The Legacy of Sleepaway Camp YouTube Link  A nice 45 minute set of interviews from the cast and crew about Sleepaway Camp's legacy. Felissa Rose, as wonderful as she is, is a little intense with how much she loved working on this film. It does seem like they had a great crew and time. Even the most lecherous character, Artie the pedophile cook, was played by a kind, quiet theater actor named Owen Hughes who was known for performing Shakespeare. He is in fact the hardest person to find, and has never been interviewed about Sleepaway Camp. We also get to hear first hints about Felissa Rose and Jonathan Tiersten's dating. Apparently they were each other's first significant other, and production even got halted because the two of them got in a fight. Desiree Gould is also interviewed about being Aunt Martha, and she still has intense eyes. Hiltzik addresses for the first time (it's mentioned again in the third commentary) how his only real regret with the film is having the young kids killed in the sleeping bags. The idea was Angela gets thrown in the lake, and the little kids throw sand on her while she is terrified, and so she gets her revenge on them as well for adding to her suffering. While it does show how psychotic Angela is, it doesn't really work with his intention of how the kills in Sleepaway Camp are karmic retribution for bullying. If he could change or remove that scene today, he would. Another major highlight is the insight on the special effects, especially the boiled skin, the bees and the arrow death. This was a breezy 45 minutes, and I loved hearing about how much fun it was to film. Commentary with Robert Hiltzik and super-fan Jeff Hayes The first major stumble with this release. Jeff Hayes has a lot of information to share from his research and interviews, Robert Hiltzik is cagey, aloof and can't seemed to be bothered about any insights. "Fans really would like to know, officially, how is Aunt Martha related to Angela." "She's her aunt." "Well, yes, we know. But is she Angela's mother's sister? Or Angela's father sister? Or a step-sister or?" "Well who do you think it is?" "I didn't write the script or direct the movie. This is your story, you're the mastermind. So which is it?" "It's whatever you think it is. I don't want to say" It's this kind of interaction for 90 minutes. Jeff Hayes fills a lot of the silence with some tidbits, but tries to let Hiltzik talk. Hiltzik just repeats how Hayes is the expert, so he should just say. It's quite dull, and not worth listening to. Commentary with Felissa Rose, Jonathan Tiersten and Jeff Hayes Felissa Rose and Jonathan Tiersten are vivacious and still have a great chemistry. They are quick to acknowledge that they have remained friends ever since filming Sleepaway Camp. "I joke all the time, but it's not a joke," says Tiersten, "but like it or not we are in each others lives until we die." It's refreshing to know how they are big fans of the film themselves. They discuss the How Did This Get Made episode. They've watched the film many times, together and apart, and there's even a discussion about watching the controversial Anchor Bay release together one night at Rose's apartment and being baffled with the differences. They are quick to point out the fun flaws, or details that may go missed. They talk about different extras or actors, or family members of the cast and crew that got to cameo. They discuss the older cast members partying, what Hiltzik was like to work with, changes in the script, etc. Some actors had their clothes picked for them, like Ricky, while others were allowed to wear their own, like Ronnie (Paul DeAngelo) and Gene (Frank Trent Saladino). There are jokes and hints about their 13 year old romance and the fighting halting production and Tiersten becoming infatuated with some of the extras. There are some cool insights with script changes. Ricky was originally going to die, for instance. Rose and Tiersten end the commentary by thanking the fans, and saying they are definitely people person, and love meeting and talking with fans of the film. It's a great commentary. The best one in the set by far. Commentary with Felissa Rose, Robert Hiltzik, and Jeff Hayes While better than the Hiltzik/Hayes commentary, not as good as the Rose/Tiersten/Hayes commentary. Apparently the original commentary from a previous release. Hiltzik is more alive, but plays it a little more jokey and coy, and sounds kinda like your uncle that has a few dirty jokes. Still, it has moments of insight, with Hiltzik elaborating on changes from the script, with Rose and Tiersten's romance and bickering, and a few of the struggles from a director's perspective. Hiltzik is just a cagey guy. When anecdotes from other interviews are brought up, he denies or ignores them. Still, it's more of a "filmmakers watching the film" feel than "filmmakers talking about the production of the film". That's right. I watched Sleepaway Camp 4 times in 2 days. Judy a short film by superfan Jeff Hayes A rant against courts and child care and custody battles...Starring the character Judy from Sleepaway Camp? Wielding a hair curler for a weapon? She puts a turkey baster through a woman's head and squeezes it, squirting a stream of blood. Such a bizarre no-budget fan film. A novelty extra. Notebooks of Make-Up Effect Artist Ed French a slideshow A quick little glimpse at notes, drawings, storyboards and pictures from Ed French's notebooks. A little too short. Camp Arowak Scrapbook a slideshow Production stills. Pretty cool if you wanna see all the cast and crew hanging out, looking 80s as gently caress. It basically looks like summer camp. This is surprisingly long compared to the 15 seconds of Ed French's notebooks. "Princess" Music Vido a song by Jonathan Tiersten Sounds like a sincere Ween song. Two prominent shots: Jonatahn Tiersten sitting and drinking beer; a redheaded woman in fishnets swinging in circles. I think this song is about Felissa Rose. It ends on a guitar solo of four notes. TV Spots & Trailers Iconic. There are three included, and it's kind of a shame that they just play them sequentially and don't let you pick from a menu. They look good though. Planet of the Vampires | The Brain That Wouldn't Die | Popcorn | Plan 9 From Outer Space | Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers | Rockula | Ringu | Four Flies on Grey Velvet | Seconds | Theater of Blood | Frailty | Daughters of Darkness | Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street | Train To Busan | Who Can Kill a Child? | Long Weekend | Raw Meat | Sleepaway Camp Total: 18 Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Apr 19, 2020 |
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Apr 19, 2020 17:59
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