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Spectacles of Gore sounds like a Herschell Gordon Lewis film. Love it.
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Sep 28, 2020 04:27
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I was really tempted to post some GIFs I found, but I feel like that would rob them of the shock. Definitely check it out. (Some deaths just involve falling down and having fake blood and slugs put on you. Those aren't the best ones.)
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Sep 28, 2020 04:31
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Dang I haven’t thought of Slugs in a long rear end time... maybe a double feature of Slugs and Body Melt are coming up.
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Sep 28, 2020 05:24
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And thus begins my personal struggle of trying to hold out until October...
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Sep 28, 2020 05:36
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 #6) Gallery of Horror (1967), a.k.a., Dr. Terror's Gallery of Horrors Does a great job of capturing the sometimes stilted, often abruptly developed nature of stories from EC and their imitators. And naturally so, as the stories are credited to Russ Jones, who did work for Warren, Charlton, and others on fright mags. Similar presentation to Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (anthology of five stories), with a slight step down in star power (from Cushing, Lee, Gough, and Sutherland to Chaney Jr. and Carradine), but I liked the framing device of this one more than the other. In that, it was a Tarot reader in a train car, divining for each of the passengers; here, it’s a dapper man giving quick history lessons before honing in on the specific tale at hand. It fumbles a little bit with the acting and lighting (though the latter may have only developed as an issue over the decades since original release), but the roughness does capably fit the original EC vibes. I felt like the movie led with its strongest story (a cursed clock which raises the dead, with John Carradine looking like Willem Defoe’s dad) and steadily descended from there, going through a serial killer named King Vampire (guess why), an undead scientist seeking revenge, a Frankenstein update (with a Dr. Cushing, amusingly), and finally a lackluster direct Dracula adaptation. Too compressed to do all it could have, but plenty of fun in spite of that.  Rating: 6/10Watched on Tubi
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Sep 28, 2020 05:39
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STAC Goat posted:And thus begins my personal struggle of trying to hold out until October... I envision STAC as Mark and the rest of us are all floating out the window trying to talk him into starting his October run. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV1V0U41HI4
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Sep 28, 2020 05:45
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I'm gonna hop on this. I put together a list of 31, but I doubt I'll get very close to that. One film a year from 1973 to 2003, never seen any of 'em before. Let's go.
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Sep 28, 2020 06:10
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1. Angel Heart (1987) Watched On: Bluray A movie I've seen vague talk about for years but had never actually jumped into myself. I figured why not give a go for the first movie of the official season? I couldn't have been more pleased with my choice. Angel Heart ticks off some of my favorite boxes. Noir, voodoo, unsettling southern US locations, and a main character seemingly in over their head. Mickey Rourke in this movie, what a handsome fella, it really is a shame what boxing and plastic surgery did to him in the next few decades. Robert De Niro is also fantastic in his role and look. At certain points I really felt like I was watching a cross between Seven (1995) and In The Mouth of Madness (1994) with the sometimes oppresive rain and detective in a foreign place searching for a missing artist. After this I may have to slip some more neo-noir/horror into my viewing schedule. Now to be fair, it's certainly not a perfect movie and maybe a bit clunky or predictable so if you aren't as much a sucker for the themes I mentioned, Angel Heart, might not be as great a watch for you but I would still recommend it in general. Probably would double feature well The Devil's Advocate now that I think about it. 2. Lord of Illusions (1995)  Watched On: Bluray Ok, so the thread was correct. The director's cut was indeed a far more enjoyable watch even if it felt like it dragged on kinda bad. That opening cult scene alone would have been a fun horror short on it's own. I don't know if I really enjoy Bakula's performance here, he's not bad but I also feel like you could have slotted almost anyone else in and gotten the same or better. I'm also glad the one sequence I remembered vividly held up, the whole falling sword illusion mishap scene. It's very gruesome and burned into my memory. Also props to the soundtrack, pretty sure it was done by the same person as Hellraiser? Certainly sounds like it. Anyway, there are certainly some cool as hell scenes in this movie but they aren't really held together that well. Probably won't be in a rush to revisit this one again but it was a fine selection for a neo-noir double feature with Angel Heart. TheKingslayer fucked around with this message at 06:36 on Sep 28, 2020 |
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Sep 28, 2020 06:29
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Ooh, ooh, I wanna play. I'm going to try for 31 movies based on whatever Criticker recommends, plus some random things I feel like watching. (1/31) 1. Black Devil Doll From Hell Black Devil Doll From Hell is probably the strangest movie I've ever seen. Ostensibly, it's about a deeply religious woman who acquires a possessed ventriloquist dummy that ultimately tempts her into sin. However, it soon becomes apparent that the plot is just an outlet for the director/producer/writer's (a triple threat!) puppet fetish. It also looks and sounds like it was filmed with a potato. Despite its many, many, many flaws, and outright baffling dialogue (when it's actually audible), its painful earnestness is charming enough to be worth a look. It certainly leaves an impression.
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Sep 28, 2020 06:57
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Yesterdays Piss posted:Ooh, ooh, I wanna play. I'm going to try for 31 movies based on whatever Criticker recommends, plus some random things I feel like watching. "Wake up bitch! Biiiiiiiiiiiitch!"
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Sep 28, 2020 07:23
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 8) Vampyr - 1932 - DVD First time I saw this it was on VHS way back when. I vaguely remember not being impressed though the coffin scene had my full attention. Watching it again after I expanded my movie palate, it's definitely a very intriguing film. Unlike most vampire films of the era, this one shies away from the usual expectations. There's no urbane vampire or show of fangs. Here the focus is more on the mystical aspect of the vampire which I feel makes for a more horrifying depiction. She looks like someone you wouldn't give a second glance sitting on the bus. The film's dreamlike quality meshes with this extremely well. Adding to the odd feeling with this movie is it's a sound film shot in the manner of a silent film. On one hand this makes sense in that sound was really new at the time and many directors were having to learn a new style of filming. On the other, it almost feels like the dream world of the film's trying to leak into ours. The story tends to amble along the traditional formula of early vampire films. The hero, Gray is an occult student who happens to stumble on this while on holiday. He doesn't quite come across as the traditional protagonist in wanting to kill the vampire, but more seems to be interested in studying it. It feels like this is a young Van Helsing's first legit supernatural encounter. While the film's not particularly scary, it has plenty of scenes that stick in the head. The way the skulls react when the vampyr enters the room, the doctor suffocated in the flour mill, the shadow minions going about their tasks, just stick with you even when the movie's over. I recommend this one for it's unique depiction of a vampire and just because it's that drat good.  9) White Zombie - 1932 - DVD I can't remember which I sat through first, this or Night of the Living Dead. This film's probably going to be disappointing to those expecting what's become the zombie standard. However if one's looking for traditional old school zombies smothered in mood, this is the film to sit through. Right from the start, the film sets the tone and place and keeps on going. Neil and Madeleine are getting married on a friend's plantation, but we know something's going to take a turn as we meet Murder Legendre with his zombie posse on the way. We learn that Legendre runs a sugar mill staffed by zombies of his own crafting. Those who were his enemies are now zombies he keeps close as his personal guard. It turns out Neil and Madeleine's friend has a thing for her and has gone to Legendre for help to have her choose him. We know how this is all going to end up playing out. For what's been said about this being a low budget film for the era, it doesn't particularly show. From my understanding, Universal gave them permission to film at night so they used several sets from other films. I definitely recognize the halls from Dracula. Lugosi really sells the portrayal of Legendre. He's suave, charming and clearly someone who's bad side you don't want to be on. Neil on the other hand is a total wet noodle that I find myself wishing he gets zombified so he's got some usefulness. The depiction of the zombies is unsettling. While we know these are the drug dust made zombies, we see no sign of their former humanity. A zombie falls into the mill machinery and there's no reaction. Later on when one's shot with no bleeding, it makes one wonder if just maybe there isn't something more going on. My only complaint is the film could easily do with 50% less screaming vulture. This would make a nice pairing with Serpent and the Rainbow.
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Sep 28, 2020 07:26
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Woooohooooo, back for another October Horror Challenge! Same as every year I will try to watch 31 movies, focusing on things I haven't seen before with a few classics just in case things get dire. #1 The Hunger  After enjoying Only Lovers Left Alive yet again I asked for vampire movies in the main thread and The Hunger came up. It is vague, but never incoherent, seems uninterested in telling a story and yet it is all so very beautiful. It barely touches on some things that seem almost vital, but still manages to hit all the right notes. The result remains impressive, though it often feels empty and left me wanting more. What really gave me the creeps is that Miriam is such a cold, unrepentant monsters, discarding lovers the second they age, not even attempting to care for them, let alone love them, just leaving them to suffer alone forever while she moves on to the next one nearly right away. #2 What Keeps You Alive  I really enjoyed the first half of the movie, but the decision to head back and face Jackie/Megan made no sense to me. It was hard getting back into things after such a typical dumb horror movie decision, since it just didn't fit with what I saw up until that point. Perhaps this soured me on the rest of the movie, but the second half in general just felt like trope after trope, replacing what made the first half so enjoyable. Still, it had some nice moments and it was something I could watch with my partner, who shies away from creature features, supernatural stuff, etc., so that was nice.
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Sep 28, 2020 09:38
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2) Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) It's Author's Name: Novel, an all star big budget classic monster movie produced by Frances Ford Copolla so it invites a comparison with Bram Stoker's Dracula of 1992 and I'm afraid it doesn't compare favourably. It stays a lot closer to the book than most Frankenstein adaptations, even including the framing device in the north pole, but the tone feels somehow wrong, too big and bombastic. I was underwhelmed by Brannah's take on Victor. He didn't really sell the descent into obsession. The part where was arguing with the lecturers made him seem whiny and petulant. Jeffrey Combs did the same scene so much better in Re-Animator. I liked De NIro as the monster. Interesting to see John Cleese play so against type. Rather wish his part was bigger. They really play up the incestuous angle of Victor and Elisabeth being step-siblings. Does Brannah own pornhub? It's not a terrible movie by any means, but I wouldn't especially recommend it. Watchlist: Tenebrae; Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (total: 2)
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Sep 28, 2020 09:55
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   (every cover art I could find of this movie owns) 2) Blood Beat (1983) Trailer Seen on: free on Tubi and with Amazon Prime, and can also be found on YouTube Normally I write up my own plot summaries for these, but for this movie I can't beat the provided description on Tubi - after reading this I had to watch it: A man’s invite for his fiancée to meet his family seems great until she is possessed by an evil samurai warrior’s spirit and goes on a killing spree. It's the "seems great" that really sells it. I had somehow never heard of this one before; in the '80s, it got a limited theater release and an even more limited VHS release. I don't know if I'd go as far as "it's so bad it's good," but it's definitely weird as poo poo so it was right up my alley. The overacting (and underacting). The bizarre camerawork. The drawn-on-the-film SFX. The weird electronic score that is complemented by classical music. Writer/director Fabrice-Ange Zaphiratos - who per imdb really only did this one movie - appears to be trying to say something about sex and death (the girl is usually in the throes of passion when the samurai shows up) and there's a lot of stuff about psychic powers (just about all of the main characters are psychic or develop powers over the movie), but it really feels like someone had a cool suit of samurai armor around and decided to make a movie that ends up being an excuse for a bunch of scenes of rednecks being stalked and killed by a heavy breathing POV shot. The ending is one of the best off-the-wall ones I've seen in a long time, as the evil samurai spirit and the psychic mom throw down and WWII stock footage plays. I turned on the captioning to try and understand what the samurai was saying in its high-pitched computerized voice (the captioner didn't know either) and lost it when it got to this:  It's some wild poo poo.
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Sep 28, 2020 11:32
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 10) House of Horrors - 1946- DVD This was a pretty good middle of the road film, though the title does set the wrong expectation. A starving artist decides to commit suicide after the most recent attempt to sell his art fails. Instead of drowning himself, he saves another man he sees drowning. The man has a very distinctive face that inspires the artist so he takes him home. Turns out the man is a murderer known as The Creeper. They end up hitting it off as friends and soon the critics who lambasted the artist's work start dropping like flies. The main reason to sit through this one is Rondo Hatton. From what early pictures I've seen of him, he was handsome but he developed acromegaly in adulthood. His distinctive look drew the attention of Hollywood and he had some success playing heavies and support roles. He passed on from a heart attack which is fairly common to those who have acromegaly. The Classic Horror Film Board's modeled and named their award the Rondo after Rondo Hatton. This is the sort of film I'd thrown on while doing something else. And the cat lives.  11) Bluebeard - 1944 - TubiTV I remember when I first read the story of Bluebeard. It was one of those generic horror stories for kids books. The final image was of the wife having opened the forbidden door and agast at the corpses, doesn't see her husband's hand about to grab her. About the only thing in common the movie has with the story is the string of women's deaths. This one definitely leans more towards a horror-thriller than just horror. The story centers around a puppeteer/artist who kills his models when they fail to live up to his idea of perfection in the late 19th century. It's not a bad film, though sometimes the cast's accents don't quite mesh and for it's setting there's more strong women with fewer men than would fit, but that's understandable considering when the film was made and most men would be in the war. Carradine pretty much carries the film. Overall, this wasn't a bad film to sit through.
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Sep 28, 2020 11:55
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1. The Abominable Dr Phibes The terribly disfigured Dr Anton Phibes takes his incredibly theatrical revenge on the medical professionals who he blames for his wife's untimely death on the operating table. First off, this is one hell of a beautiful movie. It's set in 1925, and so Phibes' secret lair/bandstand room with Wurlitzer organ is sumptuously appointed in art deco style. I could happily have stared at that one set all day - even if Phibes' "Clockwork Wizards" looked like prototype Frank Littlebottoms. The film's plot itself is of course as theatric and bombastic as Phibes' taste in interior decoration, as he meticulously kills his way through the doctors (and one nurse) he feels killed his wife (an uncredited Caroline Munro) with the help of his equally beautiful nurse Vulnavia, recreating the ten plagues of Egypt for his revenge. A man's head is crushed in a jewelled frog mask; another is frozen to death in his own car; and one unfortunate victim has concentrated cabbage syrup poured on their head before giant locusts are let loose in their room, with suitably gruesome results. Meanwhile, Phibes is doing his best 70s Darkman impression, playing the organ and generally conducting things like the last night of the Proms. A joy to watch. 2. The Grapes of Death  After an experimental pesticide for grapes causes all who drink the wine made from them start to rot from the inside and go murderously insane, a young woman must try to escape through the countryside and find her fiance. Oh Jean Rollin. Never met an abandoned castle or beautiful woman he didn't want to shoot in a dreamlike quality (and in the case of the women, usually as naked as possible). And this movie does have a very dreamlike quality to it, not least because our protagonist Elisabeth basically sleepwalks through the final third of the film. It's quite a bleak, nilhistic film in its shots of deserted villages and empty, isolated countryside, and has a suitably odd synth score to go with it. It also has Brigitte Lahaie, Rollin's muse, who at one point wanders around a village with two dogs on a lead, while wearing a flimsy white nightdress and carrying a flaming torch (the nightdress comes off at one point, of course). Also, in the film's third act, Elisabeth is saved from a village full of the wine-zombies by a pair of beer-drinking, dynamite-throwing antifacists. Ridiculously good fun. Letterboxt list Totals: 2 1 new (The Abominable Dr Phibes) 1 rewatch (The Grapes of Death)
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Sep 28, 2020 11:59
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1) Don't Look Under the Bed (1999) Boy what a milquetoast movie to start off my SA challenge. It just so happened that something family friendly on Disney+ was suggested to me when we decided to watch a movie, so it was the luck of timing I guess. Overall, this doesn't rise above something akin to "mediocre Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode", except it's 90 minutes long. I'll admit, it was nice to see Stephen Tobolowsky in something from 20 years ago, but none of the actors really stood out. I guess it'd be fun for kids, but this isn't one I'm going to remember much at all. 2/5 2) Mom and Dad (2017)  It's a shame, I really wanted to like this movie more than I did. It starts, and then... cranks up to 11 with no explanation. And then, don't get me wrong, I'm on board with the whole conceit of it, and there's some genuinely exciting parts, but then it just... ends. None of the character building scenes really do anything for me, other than be hamfisted. Unfortunately, I'm probably going to forget about this movie, despite some very fun moments. 3/5 Total: 2 1. Don't Look Under the Bed (1999) / 2. Mom and Dad (2017)
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Sep 28, 2020 13:31
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 1. Peeping Tom (1960) Amazon rental Released in 1960, just two months before Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, this influential British thriller is often cited as the first slasher film. It's about a photographer who films his victims as he stabs them - with a blade attached to the end of his tripod. He has an obsession with capturing authentic fear on camera thanks to an abusive father, a scientist who studied voyeurism and fear and used his son as a test subject. Many of the hallmarks of what would come to define the slasher genre are present here: a series of murders seen from the POV of the killer, victims that are exclusively young sexually active women, and an extremely phallic murder weapon. It's criminal that this film isn't as well known as Psycho, because it's arguably just as good. At release it was panned by critics and audiences who found it too shocking and controversial, to the point where it pretty much ruined Powell's career as a director. It mostly feels pretty tame today though - despite the sometimes racy subject matter, there isn't any nudity or explicit violence on screen. The implied violence is disturbing enough on its own, and there are a couple of really good tense and scary scenes. This is a very stylish film too, with sometimes garish colored lighting that reminds me very much of Mario Bava. Blood and Black Lace came out four years later, and I have to imagine that this was on influence on Bava as he made that film. While you can see the influence of this film throughout basically the whole slasher subgenre, the plot in particular was aped pretty heavily for the sleazy '80s slasher Maniac (and its less sleazy but more disturbing 2012 remake starring Elijah Wood). In the 60 years since it was released, both audiences and critics have come around on it and it is now widely considered to be a classic. Although it's much closer to Hitchcock than Halloween, it's importance in the birth of the slasher genre is unmistakable. 5 tripod knives out of 5 Total: 1 Watched: Peeping Tom SIDE QUESTS: Edgar Wright's Top 100 Horror: 88/100 Slate Top 100 Horror: 87/100 TSZDT Top 100: 97/100
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Sep 28, 2020 13:35
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 4) Slaughterhouse Rulez (2018) 3.5/5 A solid horror comedy. Middle class kid comes to an Eton-like private school and makes some friends and enemies. Fracking on the school grounds then leads to trouble. The first half is just about getting to know the characters and the setting. The second half is a monster movie. The monster part is nothing special but the characters make it work, so the prolonged set-up has some pay-off. Simon Pegg, Martin Sheen and Nick Frost appear in secondary roles. Martin Sheen is very good but sadly isn't in the movie very much. The movie doesn't quite rise to the top of the genre, but it also doesn't really blunder anywhere. Would recommend to the horror comedy fans.
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Sep 28, 2020 13:38
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gey muckle mowser posted:
Why would you want to argue that Peeping Tom is worse than it is?
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Sep 28, 2020 13:41
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NUMBER 1 FULCI FAN posted:1) Don't Look Under the Bed (1999) lol I love that the poster has them looking up at the ceiling and not, you know, under the bed Jedit posted:Why would you want to argue that Peeping Tom is worse than it is? 
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Sep 28, 2020 13:50
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1. Chopping Mall (1986) Four couples have a sex party in a mall furniture store and get locked inside the building when a thunderstorm causes three security robots to malfunction and start killing people. I'd hesitate to call this a good movie but it's really fun. There's some sleazy nudity in the first third, but once the robots show up it's a pretty good time. It's a brisk watch with some good pacing and the mall is a fun location for such a goofy movie. Definitely worth a watch, especially if you are looking for something with a shorter runtime.
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Sep 28, 2020 14:06
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1. Godzilla Raids Again (1955) Blu-Ray Although not as good as the first Godzilla movie, it's another one where the kaiju are a looming threat instead of the focus. It was definitely strange from the perspective of TYOOL 2020, when they take it very seriously that a second Godzilla is discovered, as well as a new monster, when later movies that I haven't seen in decades, would treat it like just another Tuesday in Japan. This one was, well slightly disappointing compared to the original, as it didn't seem to have anything new to add outside of Anguirus. It followed some similar beats, and none of them were quite as effective as they were in OG Godzilla. Anguirus, didn't really add much to the story, they have a fight and kick over a bunch of Osaka, and then Godzilla heads back to Godzilla Island. Story-wise they made sure to evacuate before the kaiju fight, but it wasn't nearly as impactful, nor horrific, as Godzilla's annihilation of Tokyo in the first movie. All in all, I did enjoy it, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series, I would have watched the next one King Kong Vs. Godzilla, but my roommate kept talking about how she really liked that one as a kid, so I'm waiting on that one. 3.75/5 Iron Crowned fucked around with this message at 12:23 on Sep 29, 2020 |
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Sep 28, 2020 14:21
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3) Body Melt (1993)  An Australian suburb is devastated by a new health fad that causes people's bodies to melt. Neighbours meets The Stuff. The body horror was really well done for the low budget and they clearly knew how to shoot a movie. Was reminded of early Peter Jackson stuff. The comedy was grating, especially the stuff with the inbred family, and the first half in general is a bit tedious, but the second half makes up for it. So much puss. If you're in the mood to be grossed out, check out Body Melt. Watchlist: Tenebrae; Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; Body Melt (total: 3)
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Sep 28, 2020 15:06
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gey muckle mowser posted:lol I love that the poster has them looking up at the ceiling and not, you know, under the bed They are looking at the letters that magically appeared in the air.
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Sep 28, 2020 15:10
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bitterandtwisted posted:3) Body Melt (1993) FYI, if you have the Vinegar Syndrome release, the interview with the director is a must watch, especially about that sequence.
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Sep 28, 2020 15:14
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 2. Cry of the Banshee (1970) blu-ray In 17th century England, Lord Whitman (Vincent Price) is obsessed with hunting down witches and practitioners of the "old religion" - which is supposed to be Druidism I think but they also worship Satan and use Voodoo dolls for some reason. When he massacres a bunch of the witches, their leader places a curse on the Lord's estate and Whitman and his sons begin dying one by one. This is a total mess. Despite the title, there are no banshees to be seen - it's basically a witchcraft story with some werewolf elements thrown in. It tries to paint the witches as the good guys, but having them worship the devil and kill people severely undermines that. It's fun to watch Price chew the scenery and act like a total dick, but it's not enough to make up for how lousy the rest of the film is. It's also pretty rapey - there are at least 4-5 scenes of women getting assaulted and having their blouses torn off. I get that the Whitmans are supposed to be evil, and that the filmmakers were probably required by the studio to include a certain amount of nudity, but there had to be a better way of going about it. By far the best part of the film is the opening titles that are animated by Terry Gilliam in a very Monty Python-esque style, however they are both too goofy and too good compared to the rest of the movie. I can't think of a reason to watch this over something like Witchfinder General, a much better film that also features Vincent Price hunting witches. Just watch the title sequence here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiLej1V1RYI 1.5 voodoo satanist druid witches out of 5 Total: 2 Watched: Peeping Tom | Cry of the Banshee SIDE QUESTS: Edgar Wright's Top 100 Horror: 88/100 Slate Top 100 Horror: 87/100 TSZDT Top 100: 97/100
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Sep 28, 2020 15:18
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I stumbled on a cheap copy of The Mummy Legacy Collection at the store over the weekend and I actually haven't seen any of these Mummy sequels! Like a lot of people I've never been a huge fan of the original film but I was still excited to dive into these.  The Mummy(1932) Well I still couldn't just skip this one if I was going to watch the rest. I have to say though that I enjoyed it a bit more this time around, mostly out of appreciation for Karloff's performance. He really does get a decent amount of screen time to give us creepy dialogue and atmospheric flashbacks and all that stuff. The second half is his movie, in a way that the Frankenstein films never really allow him to be. His Immotep is probably more along the lines of the type of role we'd see from him going forward, whereas his Frankenstein's monster feels more like an outlier(in a good way, obviously). One thing holding the film back is that the two leads are pretty forgettable. Edward Van Sloan saves whatever scene he's in, as always, but I can't say that I really felt a strong attachment to Frank or Helen. I still much prefer the Hammer version, which I'll be watching at some point this week as well. But if I were doing a Karloff marathon and wanted to choose films that showcased him, this wouldn't be a bad addition.  The Mummy's Hand(1940) Now here's where things got interesting, because I didn't have high hopes for this one. Knowing nothing about these movies, I saw that Lon Chaney Jr. begins his run as The Mummy in the next film, so I was anxious to get through the Mummy's Hand and into the Chaney era. Well that turned out to be completely wrong, for a couple of reasons. First, as I'll get into later, Chaney doesn't actually do poo poo in these movies. He's completely wasted. Second though, is that The Mummy's Hand is pretty drat good! Maybe this is just my nostalgia for the 1999 Stephen Sommers version, but The Mummy's Hand works really well as like a prototype horror/action-adventure mashup that Sommers definitely took a lot of his cues from. The characters are more solid(there's an action/comedy sidekick named Babe and he's great), and overall this just feels like the DNA of what I thought of as a proper Mummy movie growing up. This is the Friday the 13th Part 4 of Mummy movies. So it was a very pleasant surprise, but unfortunately things were downhill from there...  The Mummy's Tomb(1942) I gained a real appreciation for Lon Chaney Jr. a year or two ago, when I really delved into his run as Larry Talbot and saw that he was the heart those movies. So this was a pretty big bummer, seeing him struggle to put any sort of stamp on this "character" through layers of makeup that were nowhere near as good looking as what Karloff had in the original. It's interesting though, how much of the Dracula story ended up being coopted for this. Just look at Chaney's entrance, where his hand slowly creeps up the side of the coffin ala Lugosi's Dracula. But then you have the creature being brought to England, surviving on native plants from it's home(a substitute for Dracula's Transylvanian earth), and kidnapping women from their bedrooms. None of it feels unique to The Mummy and none of it stands out compared to the The Mummy's Hand, which was just clicking on a bunch of levels that this one isn't. The makeup on Chaney really was a crime though. Apparently it was done strictly to save time and money, and everyone knew that it wasn't going to look as good as what came before. Check out the progression: The Mummy:  The Mummy's Hand The Mummy's Tomb:  I've got two more Mummy sequels here(already watched one of them and it was....not great), plus Abbott & Costello Meet The Mummy. So that will be my lead-in to October 1st.
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Sep 28, 2020 15:22
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gey muckle mowser posted:
"Voodoo" dolls actually have nothing to do with Voodoo and were much more prominent in European witchcraft and aren't attested in connection with Voodoo until the 20th century FreudianSlippers fucked around with this message at 15:45 on Sep 28, 2020 |
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Sep 28, 2020 15:42
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FreudianSlippers posted:"Voodoo" dolls actually have nothing to do with Voodoo and were much more prominent in European witchcraft and aren't attested in connection with Voodoo until the 20th century Huh, I never knew that! It doesn't make the movie any better but at least it explains why that stuff is in there.
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Sep 28, 2020 15:49
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And they're adorably known as poppets in English speaking European witchcraft 
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Sep 28, 2020 16:14
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First one of this year!  #1. The Ghost of Frankenstein (Amazon Prime) After the Monster is released from the sulfur pit under Castle Frankenstein, Ygor takes it to Ludwig, Frankenstein's second one, to be healed. Ludwig is talked into replacing the Monster's criminal brain with a "good" one... only to be tricked into replacing it with Ygor's brain instead. ...but not the one I would have expected. Ghost of Frankenstein is... adequate, is the correct word to use here I think. Everything, from the set design to the acting to the scripting to the directing, is workmanlike and serviceable, but a noticeable step down from the more transgressive original and stylish sequels. Long stretches of the middle just feel perfunctory and somewhat lifeless. Still, there's some good stuff that manages to stand out a bit more from the monotonous surroundings. I thought the beginning, from the villagers whipping themselves up into a frenzy through the destruction of the castle, was better paced and better looking than most of the rest. I also liked the following bit, where the Monster wanders around in the forest begging the sky to strike him with lightning. I found it funny that they reused the sets for Talbot Manor from The Wolf Man for Ludwig's home here, though it does make it odd to think that he also had a mazelike underground laboratory set up underneath there at some point. I did like that there was a literal ghost of Dr. Henry Frankenstein that appeared, but was annoyed that Cedric Hardwicke didn't do more to channel Colin Clive in his performance; it feels more like Ludwig talking to himself than it does two theoretically distinct characters. I liked the ending bit where Bela Lugosi was dubbed over Lon Chaney's lips as Ygor inside the Monster's body, and I had to smile at the dumb, overly saccharine "lovers walk hand in hand into the sunset" ending. A lot of the best bits are relegated to the opening 10 minutes and the closing 10. It's a shame, then, that the 50 or so minutes separating those bits is so plodding and dull; if they were better, Ghost of Frankenstein might feel like more than a seventy minute footnote in the Universal Frankenstein series.  /5Watched so far: The Ghost of Frankenstein
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Sep 28, 2020 16:25
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 #7) Big Bad Wolves (2013) An Israeli abduction/revenge film, with a little girl going missing during a game of hide and seek, and police trying to find who took her. There's also the school-teacher who's condemned by public opinion as being the one who did it, despite a lack of evidence, entangled with the former cop taken off the case for being recorded in a brutal interrogation, and the grief-stricken father, who has his own plans for how justice should be served. To be honest, a large chunk of the film is extremely predictable. It's playing with well-used narrative pieces, and if it weren't shot, acted, and edited so crisply, this could be just another crime thriller. Aside from the production quality, where it rises above that is with including incidental details to humanize the characters (the cop falling asleep on stake-out, or the teacher sitting alone in his classroom after hours), and when it brings the three men directly together, about halfway through the film. Once that happens, the intensity starts ratcheting up, That's mainly because at that point, it turns into a lengthy torture sequence. The tension is helped along by a detailing of all the things they're going to do beforehand, with the caveat that they may not happen in the same order. There's also an amusing theme of hierarchical condescension (e.g., civilian talking down to the cop, civilian's father talking down to his army veteran son), but it doesn't seem to lead anywhere beyond its surface inclusion. As well-made as the film is, it arrives at an anticlimactic (though thematically fitting) finish. 8/10 Watched on Dollar Tree Blu-ray Darthemed fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Sep 28, 2020 |
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Sep 28, 2020 16:57
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 Dave Made a Maze (2017) "High five!" Dave makes a maze (duh) out of cardboard in his living room, but it's bigger on the inside and full of traps and monsters. Imagine if you set a horror movie inside of a Little Big Planet game - most everything is made of cardboard and yarn and so on. It's visually stunning, I loved looking at all of the background details and the way they use craft supplies in place of gory effects is cool and charming. Explores the fear of failure, and what happens when you define yourself by your productivity. A great surprise. 4/5SA October Horror Challenge Count: 3/40
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Sep 28, 2020 17:19
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I really got the impression Dave was terrible for his girlfriend in that film, and that the creators were completely on Team Dave. It was uncomfortable, she deserved better.
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Sep 28, 2020 17:27
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Oh totally, Dave comes across as a deadbeat boyfriend but the movie makes Annie seem like the problem for not being on board with his nonsense. I don't think they got deep enough into it either way.
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Sep 28, 2020 18:29
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Yeah that was the first time I remember rooting for a breakup. It felt unhealthy and pathological, like the end of the Babadook but not on purpose.
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Sep 28, 2020 18:37
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NUMBER 1 FULCI FAN posted:1) Don't Look Under the Bed (1999) I watched this movie when it came out. I thought it was pretty creepy at points, with the Boogeyman being a Freddy Kruger-type character. It's only when they get into the 3rd act and Larry starts turning into a Boogeyman (which starts off creepy and then becomes lame) and they show The Boogeyman's real face and stuff that it falls apart. Some of the set design from the Boogeyman world is cool. Franny is a competent character. And the whole themes about growing up, while trite, aren't the worst. Like you said, it's like a 90 minute Are You Afraid of the Dark?. Funny thing, it's basically just Insidious before Insidious. I always thought Ty Hodges (Larry) would have a bigger acting career than he did. He never really shook the Disney Channel actor thing, even though he was always prominent in the projects.
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Sep 28, 2020 18:50
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Scream Stream Thread Is Live
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Sep 28, 2020 18:55
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| # ? Jun 9, 2024 21:51 |
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I think I'm going to have fun doing double features when I can this season. 3. The 'Burbs (1989)  Watched On: Digital One of my ultimate warm and fuzzy movies that used to come on TNT a whole lot during the 90's. The 'Burbs and Return of the Jedi might be neck and neck as far as my most viewed movies over my entire life. Ok, maybe The Lost Boys is up there too now that I think on it. I can't think of too many movies that really capture the small community/urban legends you'd hear as well as The 'Burbs. I think almost everyone in this movie is killing it as far as their roles and it's kinda funny how my opinion of the characters has changed as I've become an adult. Like, the "arms dealer" neighbor Mark Rumsfield was my favorite as a kid but as an adult he's just a weird, pathetic rear end in a top hat trying to cash in on a tough guy military image. Art was a fun uncle type character when I was a kid but now he's just a complete prick that can't mind his own business, he just lives for dumbass gossip. Carrie Fisher though? Absolute dish here, she looks amazing and does a good job as the put upon wife. My biggest issue with The 'Burbs is that the paranoid neighbors are right. It feels... eh a bit pointless. There's no lesson to be learned other than if your neighbors are creepy they're probably serial murderers? It's just a bad blemish on what comes close to being a perfect movie. In my own head I imagine Art and Ray both went to jail for a few years after this whole ordeal. [b ]4. Terror Tract (2000)[/b]  Watched On: YouTube Now here is a movie I thought was just a dream for years until I was able to find it again on the internet. A pretty novel idea for an anthology film and one that may have been more suited for a television series, a real estate agent shows buyers homes and they all have gruesome stories attached. Kinda cool right? At this point I'll level with you, the first story is kinda lame with super unlikable characters. It's a poo poo version of, "Something To Tide You Over" from Creepshow. The next two stories? Fantastic. Bryan Cranston versus a killer monkey and then a, in my opinion, super creepy slasher killer story. Terror Tract is a bit of a lesser known gem if you ask me. I won't spoil too much but I think it's very much worth your time. 5. Southbound (2015)  Watched On: Hulu I was just kind of casting about for something to watch and Southbound jumped out at me because I hadn't watched it since the original release but I remembered enjoying it. Horror road movies. There's just something I like about it, maybe it ties into my own personal love of road trips and traveling backroads. For me it still held up really nice and even had some things I hadn't noticed on earlier viewings. Southbound's biggest weak point is probably the acting, some of the actors are really flat and delivery is less than stellar. Southbound drops lots of hints about this small town/stretch of road the characters find themselves in and I guess it's supposed to imply it's some kind of hell for everyone in it. If I had to pick a personal favorite it would probably be... The Accident. That was a pretty disturbing story. I'd say if you're an anthology movie fan this ain't a bad one put in a regular rotation and it even ends a grim but kinda hopeful note which sets it apart for me.
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Sep 28, 2020 18:55
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