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3: Phantasm This one has been on my list for years, time to finally clear it off. I'd say this sums it up  What a weird drat movie. I can't wait to check out the rest of them.
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Oct 5, 2021 04:58
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4. The Brood (1979, HBO Max) The most traditional, low-key film of all the Cronenberg horror stuff that I've seen. Part domestic drama, part evil mutant child slasher, I found the former elements much better executed than the latter. The kills are quite silly, but it's clear the budget wasn't really there to do them better, so between that and the story details that necessitate what ends up on screen, I don't really hold that against the movie. I really enjoyed the pacing, whenever you think you have a bit of a handle on what's going on the craziness ramps up until you hit the final, incredible, reveal. By the time it unfolds you know exactly what you're going to see, but it's no less effective for that. I'm not sure how I feel about the ending. The metaphor is clear, but bringing 2021 sensibilities to it makes the implications feel really bad. 3/5
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Oct 5, 2021 05:04
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6. Threee ... Extremes (2004) An anthology of shorts from Fruit Chan, Park Chan Wook and Takashi Miike, each of the three are pretty good and, yes, extreme. I think I liked Dumplings, Fruit Chan's feature, the best, involving a woman who wants to keep her youth eating dumplings with a shocking ingredient. Great characters that felt like they had depth. Park Chan-Wook's piece felt like a Saw movie, kinda, and wasn't one of this best. I liked it the least. Takashi Miike's is rambling, hard to follow, but stunning. This was a close second behind Dumplings for me 6/31: The Lure, Candyman, Wyrmwood, Malevolent, Vivarium, Three Extremes
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Oct 5, 2021 05:08
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6. The Swamp of the Ravens 1974 - dir Manuel Caño This was a gross slog, I'm pretty sure that was a real body in the autopsy scene and that was also that one guys real singing voice, good lord. Went a little overboard in ordering dead baby jars for the experiment shack. Life is cheap in South America but my time is even cheaper.  /5
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Oct 5, 2021 05:29
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 #16) Digging up the Marrow (2014; DVD) Ray Wise finds Midian, contacts Adam Green to tell him about it. A cute mockumentary in which Ray Wise's charisma and Adam Green's (or his self-character's) lack of it are on stark display. Overall, I liked this, though I don't have a lot to say about it so soon after seeing it. Put me in mind of a more comedically-inclined Mr. Jones (2013) with the actual body of the movie, while the 'horror movie based on a specific artist's work' angle reminded me of Conjure. A large chunk of the movie is spent on false leads and dead ends, but once it steps on the gas, it goes hard. Ray Wise is a delight, as always. The meshing of the real and fictional elements is done well, the creature designs are fantastic, and the bickering (though it gets tiresome) is believable. Fun batch of cameos, too. Looking forward to listening to the commentary, and finding out how they hashed out specific moments in the film. “Why Vance?” “Because that's what I wanted to call him.” Rating: 7/10
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Oct 5, 2021 05:46
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 8. Rear Window [1954] This may be my most favorite Hitchcock picture I've seen to date. Just real good tension all around and I love the conceit, always have. Just great performances and this level of dread that slowly builds and builds. The sneaking around moments are gripping and even if you know or can see the ending coming its still very satisfying and honestly delightful. 4 and a half  out of 5 9. Seed of Chucky [2004] Coming off of Bride this is a breath of fresh air. The humor is fun, the kills are dumb and goofy, but I had enjoyed them all. It was also great to see some subversion here with how Redman ended up playing his character. Everyone was great, it was great to see John Waters and my initial apprehension to the Glen/Glenda storyline, which I fully expected to be that early 2000's transphobic poo poo wasnt exactly as offensive as I was fully expecting. Coming off the dreadful Ronnie Yu 'Bride of Chucky' this one was a walk in the gore park. onward and forward with the Child's Play series. 3 and a half out of 5 10. Alone [2020] 'The Zombie One' I did not know that last years #alive was based on the same script as this version. So it took me a few minutes of going "didnt i see this exact movie last year at this same exact time?" until i looked it up and realized it was a joint effort between a Korean and American writer who then took the script and flipped it into their own sorta identical versions. I think I preferred some of the end bits of the Korean one a bit more but I liked the zombies in this one a lot more. Interesting tactics and small changes across both made them both worth checking out. 3 out of 5 11. The Lords of Salem [2012] ~It's Only a Myth~ Rob Zombies first movie and not just a collection of vignettes of torture, gore and emotional trauma! hooray! and its quite a good little picture he's got here too. There's a story that was cohesive and had built good atmosphere throughout. I was pleasantly surprised to be honest. I expected like more bad schlock, but this was just surprisingly decent and paced well. reminded me of Dead and Buried or The House of the Devil. That slow burn horror that really sneaks up on you. 3 and a half out of 5 12. Curse of Chuck [2013] This was pretty good. Started off a bit bumpy and I really pretty much hated all the characters besides the little girl and the lady in the wheelchair. When you get that reveal tho! whew, that was when the fun really began and drat if Mancini still doesnt have it after all these years. I'm looking forward to finishing all 7 of the main storyline movies with Curse next and jumping into the show whenever that starts. Good little flick with some dumb kinda saggy beginning stuff, but gets way better at the end and wraps up magnificently. 3 and a half out of 5 13. Psycho [1960] It's Psycho. It's a classic that's basically infused itself into pop culture and the medium of film making forever. Maybe not my most favorite of Hitchcock's work (and there's plenty I havent seen), but gotta respect the classics. It's fun and must've been a riot to see in theaters in its initial theatrical run. 4 out of 5
dorium fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Oct 27, 2021 |
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Oct 5, 2021 06:22
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I don’t know how some of y’all are already in the teens. Like, did you have a long weekend or is work so slow you watching Netflix on the clock? Film #9 Killer Klowns from Outer Space Directed by Stephen Chiodo. 1988, United States🇺🇸 Rewatching this mostly so I can go on a rant. So I see this movie frequently, well maybe just one or two times, on people’s “so bad it’s good” movie lists. Like, are you high? This is a “so good it’s good” movie. I guess people are assuming that this is attempting to be a serious scary film like Stephen King’s IT, but it’s called Killer Klowns from Outer Space for God’s sake. It’s supposed to be absolutely ridiculous. If it’s supposed to be “so bad it’s good” then why are the effects so stellar? The whole film is a vehicle for all kinds of crazy clown based terror and dumb jokes those weirdos the Chiodo Brothers can think up. This isn’t even a bad film saved by good effects, the characters are likable and the plot zips along a tried and true small town invasion plot similar to classic sci-fi of the 50s and 60s. You know what, maybe that’s the element some people are missing, that it’s a parody of old sci-fi with a funky 80s twist. Also, the main theme by The Dickies is a jam. The rest of the music is kinda bad tho. The electronic rock sound doesn’t work. Maybe they should have leaned into the older sound and used more theremin and horns. In conclusion, movie rules 🎃🎃🎃🎃.5/5
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Oct 5, 2021 06:32
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(2) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, Robert Wiene) Continuing to use this thread as motivation to watch some of my purchases, my second film is The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. This film is 100 years old now. How amazing is it that we watch some of these early films! And the most recent remaster of this is incredible quality. This is the first German Expressionist I have watched, and the setting is very interesting with this tilted and twisting structures with simplistic paint. The movie involves a man who suspects that the Dr. Caligari and sleepwalking minion are involved in the murder of his friend and several others. What is wild is how this movie then sets the template for so many modern horror films. You have the supernatural or science gone wrong intrigue of the sleepwalker who could be a vampire, robot, summoned demon, clone, or the many other "monsters" used today. There is a copycat killer, body doubles, a useless police force, an insane asylum, and a mystic book used to just explain the villains plot. And best of all, there is a giant twist! I don’t know what it directly inspired (like I am assuming Danny DeVito's penguin), but it's very interesting seeing how these story elements have been used for 100 years in horror. There is a constant theme of duality in all the characters as story mechanic describes two realities. Each of the main characters has both a sane and insane version. The sleepwalker is shown to have a picking flowers version and another that stabs people with picks. In the first story, Dr. Caligari is obsessed with finding a way to create mindless killing machines out of people. In the other version he just wants to make people whole again. The idea of man who just sleeps all the time does not itself seem very terrifying. Yet each time in the film when the sleepwalker is revealed from the cabinet and begins to wake, each of the characters seem to revolt in horror as if they see something more than us viewers. He seems to reflect something in them, or maybe he reminds them of their own capacity to transform into their other ugly self. Definitely recommend. It’s just under an hour long, a great piece of history, and quite entertaining with a solid use of a twist. Also I wonder, what is the earliest horror film available to watch?
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Oct 5, 2021 06:37
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5. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors (1987) Watched On: HBO Max The movie with one of the best tie in theme songs ever done. Aw yeah. I have to give this one props for being so ambitious in setting up and building so many characters that you actually root for and get a little sad as they get picked off. It really isn't an easy thing and it would have been the easy road to make them all annoying jerks so we would root for Freddy instead. The dream world sets in this one are a head above the previous films. One of my favorite set pieces is the spiral stair case down into Freddy's boiler room. It's so simple and menacing seeing the rough iron stairs lit with the harsh red lighting from below. A special shout out also the the Ray Harryhausen skeleton effects in the junk yard. This is truly the last appearance of Freddy being a dickhead that laughs at his own jokes before he turns into the audience pleaser of the later films and there really wasn't a better one to end it on. This is the Aliens to the first films Alien. This is also the first time it dawned me that Kincaid told the other patients that he would last longer than them and he was right haha. 
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Oct 5, 2021 06:58
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Liar Lyre posted:I don’t know how some of y’all are already in the teens. Like, did you have a long weekend or is work so slow you watching Netflix on the clock? Some states in Australia had a long weekend (I also took Friday off so October 1-4 was an extra long weekend for me; I've watrched 10 so far) I also work from home at the moment so even on work days I can watch an hour of something at lunch, polish it off right after work then queue up another movie after dinner. Anyway what happened to that goon from last year who was watching like 6 movies a day (sometimes more) and finished up somewhere around 150 movies?
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Oct 5, 2021 07:21
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6. Army of Darkness (1993) Watched On: HBO Max The Harryhausen skeleton reference in my last movie got me thinking about this one that I haven't seen in ages it feels like. I can say that as a kid I liked Army of Darkness the most of the Evil Dead series and then as I got older I realized that for me at least it was the weakest. I'd honestly rank it behind the originals, the remake, and the show. Not that it's bad, it's just different and it feels like comparing apples to oranges because of that. I will say it does a good service of adding to the world of the previous two films with it's content and I really appreciate that. One thing I thought was neat is using the camera trick for "The Evil" for the crossbow bolt towards the start of the movie, that was pretty sweet. I respect this movie for just being cool. Ash shoots his double barrel three times without reloading because it kicks rear end for him to do that, I'm already buying into demons and magic, I don't give a drat if he reloads. The character progression of Ash is pretty fantastic too since he goes from a guy over his head to a guy that's still over his head but is at least an expert at killing Deadites. He's at the height of his himbo powers. There's also some little touches here that I don't know if they're intentional? Like how Ash is attacked by The Evil during the broad daylight because it's so powerful in this time vs in the previous films how it only seemed to come out at night, just a nice touch if it's on purpose. Army of Darkness is a really great film experience standing on it's own and I think it's a fantastic bridge from fantasy to horror for the casual fan like it was for me growing up, it's right up there in that category with Tucker and Dale vs Evil with both being charming and slapsticky horror films. 
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Oct 5, 2021 08:13
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#8. The House That Jack Built A powerful and disturbing movie in the vein of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, with a daunting 150 minute runtime that you willingly slog through because it is all worth it. Not a big fan of the framing device, particularly how it dominates the ending and supplants the things in the movie I found most interesting, but it doesn't harm the film too much. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.
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Oct 5, 2021 08:14
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7. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) Watched On: HBO Max This is where many consider the series to take a downturn but I don't think I agree. This opening theme and sequence of visuals is really good. Also just peep that dope poster. But then the problems start. Kincaid, Joey, and Kristen get dumpstered in favor of new characters, ya know, gently caress the fans for being invested I guess. Take one of the three to raise the stakes, but all three just feels lovely. It also feels insanely cheap, Freddy just teleports in and kills Kincaid like it's nothing along with Joey. The last movie was much better as passing the torch. The dojo scene with invisible Freddy stinks on ice because of budget woes. Another thing. Really all the folks dead from Dream Warriors and this movie are buried right next to each other? That being said, this is actually a really pretty movie from a cinematography standpoint along with the special effects. The scene where the woman floats up to the top of Joey's waterbed is so striking visually along with the entire scene shot in Kristen's room from above and then they pull off the theater scene where Alice is sucked into the screen, just amazing ambition on display. I also don't mean to poo poo on these new characters, they're really good together and have good chemistry. The diner scene in particular before everyone gets brought down is some realistic ball busting between friends. I think all my gripes fall to the side with the whole product in front of me. If the Dream Warriors characters had been handled better this would easily be one of the greats in the series but I think that holds it back. 
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Oct 5, 2021 10:10
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I work from home, take care of my mom who has become more passionate about watching horror movies than I am, and never sleep. That’s why I’m shamefully into my 20s. Playoffs better slow me down or this could become a cry for help.  12 (20). From Hell It Came (1957) Directed by Dan Milner; Screenplay by Richard Bernstein; Story by Richard Bernstein and Jack Milner Watched on Svengoolie Svengoolie Episodes 1/26 Hooptober Ocho 10/39: 5/8 decades White Scientist #1: A Tree has impossibly sprouted up on this dead guy’s grave! White Scientist #2: It has a face! White Scientist #3: It has radioactive goo coming out of it! White Scientist #4: It has a beating heart! Local: Its an ancient monster that will kill us all! We must destroy it! White Scientists: Calm down, you silly superstitious native. This is that typical 50s B sci-fi horror thing where way too much of the film is spent with a bunch of scientists standing around discussing the situation and debating if they respect the “natives” tradition of murdering people or tell all the savages what to do. Also the men scientists lecture the lady scientists that they should quit with the science and get married. And then a monster does show up but he’s so silly and has trouble turning sideways that we kind of have to use him sparingly. The tree monster has all the agility of an armoire being moved up 5 flights of stairs. You know the movie. Local Lady: I just saw the tree monster! Local Dude: How do you know it was the tree monster?! Local Lady: It had eyes and hands… it was a loving tree monster! The tree monster is actually the murdered spirit of some guy the tribe killed because he gave his dad western medicine and it didn’t save his life. So I’m not exactly sure who I was supposed to be rooting for. The racist and sexist scientists who ignored the warnings of the tribe about the tree monster? The tribe that murdered the guy that cursed them with a tree monster? The tree monster randomly shuffling across the island very, very, very slowly killing people. Like really slowly. He’s a tree. He moves slowly. He just kind of moves towards people until they trip on a rock or pass out and then he kills them when they’re out. If they really wanted to they could probably learn to live with this. He’s only like 6 feet tall. And in the end the ancient magical tree monster who survived being burnt to death by the tribe is killed with some bullets. That’s it. They just shot the tree monster and it died. And it all served the purpose of convincing the locals that the white people’s weapons, tech, and medicine are superior and they should accept it. Also that silly lady scientist who revived the tree monster when it was dying with her miraculous new drug ends up a damsel in distress thus proving to her that her beau was right all along that she should give up this life and go back to America to marry him and have kids. Tree monster was funny and I haven’t watched Svengoolie in months and enjoyed his corniness. But this movie was bad even by the standards of the time and delivery package.  13 (21). Fiend Without a Face (1958) Directed by Arthur Crabtree; Written by Herbert J. Leder Watched on Svengoolie Svengoolie Episodes 2/26 Two Svengoolie in a row is a gamble since you run the risk of two of those 50s B films that are like 75% talking and setup until the monster shows up. Svengoolie hyped the monster up a lot, obscuring it from the poster and saying he didn’t want to give anything away so I hung it and got interested but that really wasn’t the movie’s doing. Its the same basic script and character dynamic you’ve seen in any movie of this era and genre. Some scientist with secret experiments, a manly lead, a gorgeous love interest, a jealous rival, a best friend or sidekick or something. It all blurs together after some time and nothing especially stood out here. But the monsters were pretty cool. Are they worth the full film wait? I dunno. At some point you can pick up on the pattern with Svengoolie. The times he has to keep hyping the monster you know you’re not gonna see it until way, way, way late in the film. And apparently in the original script you never even saw them at all. THAT would have been a bad film. But the monsters do show up and even though they’re not around very long there’s a lot of them and they’re pretty cool. Sure, the ultimate fight was less of a kaiju battle and more of the hassle of letting a bunch of bats or frogs loose in your house. And the monsters weren’t so much defeated by the humans as they kind of just screwed themselves by losing their invisibility. But hey, what can you do? Ultimately I can’t say its a good film because there’s just way too much of that usual fodder. But Kim Parker was very beautiful and charming so that helped things along, and they did try and mix up the talking with some random fist fights and cemetery adventures so points for effort. And the monsters did in fact live up to Svengoolie’s hype. I don’t know that I’d bother again with this but I’d definitely tell some friends to see it and then show up for the second half. Its a solidly ok one that is the kind of thing I kind of look for Svengoolie… not really a good movie, but one with a fun, notable stand out.  - (22). Hostel (2005) Written and Directed by Eli Roth HalloweeNIT 5/31 I haven’t seen this since it was pretty new and my memory of it was that it had a strong first half of Hitchcockian tension and mystery that transitions into a dull waste of time sadistic gore and torture fest. But holy poo poo I did not remember how edgelordy and homophobic and rear end in a top hat the first half was. Shouldn’t really be a surprise. Its Eli Roth who I hate and is a lovely edgelord rear end in a top hat, and its 2005 when that poo poo was rampant. But man it sucks being transported back to that and having to put up with Roth’s idea of homophobic and rape jokes. I do like the idea here on paper with the terrifying idea of losing your friend in a foreign country and not knowing what to do or how to properly communicate or what the cultural protocol is. Or ending up alone and not knowing what the gently caress to do. Its an understated terror of travel. Being in a place you’re wholly unfamiliar with you kind of have no idea what the deal is. I was once pretty wild and I was in Europe and I remember being scared of getting drunk and getting into a fight or something because I had no idea how getting arrested or something would play out. You underestimate the comfort of home until you’re away and that kind of psychological mind gently caress and tense mystery of not knowing what’s going on or if you’re in danger or not is the sort of thing a great director or writer can do a lot with. But this is Eli Roth. And Eli Roth doesn’t do psychological mind fucks and tense mysteries, he does terrible edgelordy jokes and sadistic violence. And not to get to something deeper. Saw (at least the original) has some gnarly stuff but it exists as a pressure point for tension. People talk about humor like this as “transgressive” as some kind of positive about challenge censorship or outdated standards. But there’s absolutely nothing “transgressive” about screaming slurs over and over and talking about “railing” girls without consent. That was just what every gross dude was doing at the time (and many still are) and Roth clearly isn’t doing it to make some kind of point. He just thinks its funny. I don’t. And I don’t get anything from the big violence finish. “Everyone likes to watch people get hurt.” That’s bullshit. Its something people who like to see it say so you don’t have to consider that maybe other people don’t. Because other people don’t. I don’t. If it serves some story purpose I’ll watch. Its even possible if you make it a bad enough person I might get some sense of satisfaction from it. But the genres of slashing up teenagers and torturing randos does nothing for me. And not only did this help kick it off and help launch the career of a guy I hate but it feels like there’s a better movie idea in there if the priorities and sensibilities were a bit different.  I thought this was gonna be a lot closer than it was. I love Halloween but I’ve always been really down on H2O as like 15-20 minutes of a good Halloween movie poorly forced into a typical Kevin Williamson film. And I remembered Hostel interesting and promising start that gets derailed into a genre I hate and find boring and gross. But boy I underestimated how badly Hostel ages compared to H20. Sure, H20 is very 90s in bad ways and that Williamson reign of terror on horror but that’s not so bad when compared to the early 2000s edgelordy bro culture and the wave of “torture porn” that came from this and Saw. So I had a lot in my head about the ying and yang of a strong start vs a strong finish, or a promising idea not followed through on vs a satisfying finale with a poor build, or something I love disappointing me by being something I dislike vs something I dislike surprising me to be a bit of something I love… but none of that really ends up mattering. I didn’t like H2O much but I hated Hostel. Feel free to vote to decide what I watch next round on the 7th! 🎃Halloween 2021: Hooptober Ocho and Spook-a-Doodle HalloweeNIT ’21🎃 Hooptober Ocho: 10/39; HalloweeNIT: 5/31; Svengoolie: 2/26 Fran Challenges: 0/??; Watched - New (Total) 1. The Funhouse (1981); 2. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988); 3. Eden Lake (2008); - (4). Halloween (1978); - (5). The Purge (2013); 4 (6). The Company of Wolves (1984); 5 (7). Kiss of the Damned (2012); - (8). Halloween II (1981); 6 (9). Malignant (2021); 7 (10). The Vatican Tapes (2015); 8 (11). Hard Labor aka Trabalhar Cansa (2011); 9 (12). Alice aka Něco z Alenky (1988); - (13). Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982); - (14). Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988); - (15). Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989); 10 (16). Room 237 (2012); 11 (17). Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (Producer’s Cut) (1995); - (18). Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998); - (19). Halloween: Resurrection (2002); 12 (20). From Hell It Came (1957); 13 (21). Fiend Without a Face (1958); - (22). Hostel (2005);
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Oct 5, 2021 10:50
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3) It Follows (2014) David Robert Mitchell This is a really interesting take on the Ringu formula - instead of an evil video tape, it's a sexually transmitted curse. The obvious reading here is that it's about STDs, which is sort of unavoidable. But I think that instead the film is trying to say more about how sex is treated in films (and horror films specifically). Both of the male characters in the film are different types of horny, and there are several male-gazey shots from their point of view of the female characters throughout the film. But within the context of the sex-based curse, shots like these become threatening in a way which highlights how these types of shots can feel threatening in any film. I think the line this film walks is pretty difficult, though. With sex being the thing spreading the curse it would have been easy to make this come across as a weird pro-abstinence film, but it doesn't quite go that far. It's shot really well and the central idea of just having someone walk slowly but steadily towards you is an extremely effective idea, especially in the subtle moments where it's happening in the background of a shot. I think the ending is what makes it, though. Although it's very abrupt, the idea that this isn't a thing you can actually defeat but instead something you have to live with makes for a more impactful ending. Also the music is amazing. 8/10 4) Phycho Goreman (2021) Steven Kostanski This film is a CineD favourite so I was really looking forward to watching it! And, ummm, ummmm.... I really liked the aesthetic of it. Kostanski nails the 90's Power Ranger-like look of the monsters, everything looks bad but somehow high-quality at the same time. It's really impressive just how hard he nails this look; just looking at the various designs of all the creatures in this film is a joy. I want to watch more films that look like this. Unfortunately, basically everything else about the film fell really flat with me. There's a distinct strain of humour that runs throughout the film and if you're not with it, then the entire thing falls apart. And none of the humour landed with me, and it just didn't stop. I get what they were going for, I do. But it just didn't work for me. I can see what they were trying with a character like Mimi but I honestly just found that she was annoying and grating at best and downright psychopathic at worst. I honestly don't understand how I am expected to enjoy watching a character like that in any way. Because the entire film is based around this humour, the longer it went on for, the worse it got. By the end I was happy it was over. I get that people like this film, and that's great. I wish I liked this film more! But I really don't! Please can Steven Kostanski direct something else but for the love of god let other people write the script. 5/10
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Oct 5, 2021 11:14
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checkplease posted:Definitely recommend. It’s just under an hour long, a great piece of history, and quite entertaining with a solid use of a twist. Also I wonder, what is the earliest horror film available to watch? The earliest surviving is probably 1898's The Haunted Castle which is a three minute short where Georges Méliès showed off his special effects. The earliest feature length horror film is harder to pin down due to genre arguments, but I think a good case can be made for 1911's L'Inferno. Hedrigall posted:Anyway what happened to that goon from last year who was watching like 6 movies a day (sometimes more) and finished up somewhere around 150 movies? When they pulled that goon from the challenge, they looked just like this:  They say that goon haunts these forums to this very day... Random Stranger fucked around with this message at 11:55 on Oct 5, 2021 |
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Oct 5, 2021 11:38
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Liar Lyre posted:... is work so slow you watching Netflix on the clock? 
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Oct 5, 2021 12:54
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#6. Werewolf of London 1935 | dir Stuart Walker Peacock  A botanist, Dr. Glendon, on an artic expedition for a rare plant that only grows in moonlight. He gets attacked by a hairy human-like monster. He returns to his home in London, with the rare plant in tow. A stranger approaches Dr. Glendon and tells him he was the creature that attacked him on his trip, and now they share the curse of the werewolf, and the antidote is in exotic plant that refuses to grow. It's a lackluster affair. It's not as exciting or memorable as the Lon Chaney Jr. film. The first act is full of interesting moments--the arctic expedition, a showcase for predatory plants with fun special effects, a plant-based story for the werewolf--but then it becomes a pretty standard classic werewolf movie. The central drama of the film revolves around Dr. Glendon's wife, played by Valerie Hobson (who is my favorite part of the film), is overly friendly with her childhood friend Paul. There are lingering feelings, and Lisa does not know how to define her boundaries. She is young, Dr. Glendon is old, and Paul is younger than him but older than her. He pays attention to her, they have fun together, and Dr. Glendon, even before realizing he is cursed, is obsessed with his plant work. There's several thoughts that came into mind. There's an air of impotence with Dr. Glendon, that his obsession with plants is a compensation as a lackluster partner. The other thought is that there is a queer reading between Dr. Glendon and Dr. Yogami, the other werewolf. They share touches and intimacy when they discuss sharing their curse, and Dr. Yogami asks Dr. Glendon to share his research with him. There is more palpable chemistry between them than anyone else. If you're in the mood for the Lon Chaney Jr. movie, and want more of the same, but not as good, check this out. Soft Recommendation Total: 6 New: 5 Rewatches: 1 Films: Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?, Prince of Darkness, Titane, Hide and Seek, Vampire's Kiss, Werewolf of London
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Oct 5, 2021 13:25
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Liar Lyre posted:I don’t know how some of y’all are already in the teens. Like, did you have a long weekend or is work so slow you watching Netflix on the clock? All I do is watch movies, viewing challenges or not. I can knock out a couple movies before work, depending how I feel after work, I can knock out a couple more. In the case of yesterday I had day surgery, I banked a couple reviews to post something since I didn't know how I'd feel afterwards. Since I have the rest of the week off for recovery, I have more movie watching time.  11) Camp Wedding - 2019 - Prime I freely admit I have a guilty pleasure in reading/watching Bridezillas and wedding trainwrecks. I still chuckle over the story my florist aunt told me about a wedding brunch where the bride was kicking up a fuss over the breakfasty appetizers having scrambled egg since she felt egg was cheap and people would think she was cheap with them being served. I don't know, but scrambled egg with artisanal bacon and gruyere in a puff pastry shell sounds delicious. In this horror/comedy film we have Mia, an Internet personality doing a destination wedding at what was a summer camp where a child died that was built on the site of both witch burnings and a massacre of the local native tribe. Mia's plan is for her bridal party to fix up the dilapidated camp into the wedding venue of her dreams. Everyone here is insufferable to where when the creepy texts and selfies start, I was looking forward to when the bodies start dropping. Then things took a turn. It turns out that the religious camp director pitted the kids against each other in reporting sins and posting their photos to his Board of Sin. Miriam was the first on the board for having a tape recorder that broke the 'No Electronics' rule and was orchestrating the other children to 'sin' so she could get off the board. She died getting struck by lightning and drowning. Because Miriam knew electronics, the ghosts of the burned witches were using her spirit to mess with the wedding party's smart phones and eventually creating smartphone 'zombies' under their control. It's only by admitting their own sins that they're able to free Miriam's spirit and cut off the witch spirits access. Everything ends on a happy note which was kinda bland. I've mentioned before that there has to be a balanced ratio of horror to comedy in this subgenre and this was more comedy cake covered in horror fondant. It was reasonably watchable, but had there been some actual horror worked in, this would've been better. Only reason I made it through was the wedding trainwreck angle and even that got deflated by the ending. The possessed Teddy Ruxpin was cute, though everyone knows the best cassette to put in was anything by Slayer. I will give this film a point for making me aware that gluten free knives are a thing.  12) Carnivore - 1989?2000 - Prime This film poses an interesting question. What year do you consider a film from that was filmed mostly in the '80s, had extra stuff filmed in the '90s and didn't get released until the '00s? Plot centers around a secret government lab in an abandoned house. Four teens go to the house to party and run afoul of the creature created in the lab. This was a pretty bog standard 80s era creature feature. When I was looking for a poster image to use, a majority of the negative reviews were treating this like it was made in 2000 which honestly is a disservice to the film. Whoever is doing those reviewers research needs a serious talking to about how they do their job.
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Oct 5, 2021 13:43
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Liar Lyre posted:“so bad it’s good” That phrase never really made sense to me. If you watch a movie and find it entertaining and enjoyable it then it's good, full stop. No need to qualify it!
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Oct 5, 2021 14:05
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4. Near Dark I mean this with the highest possible praise: Bill Paxton could really play a piece of poo poo! This is one of his best performances and anytime Paxton was not on screen I was asking "where's Paxton?" The romance aspect of the film was a little weak, and I think that was largely due to Wright and Pasdar having kind of a weird, rushed delivery of their lines during some of those scenes. That being said they do have some good chemistry together and Pasdar really sells it when he's stumbling around starving for blood. Henrickson, Goldstein, and Paxton are all great and the scenes of them being evil redneck vampires are fantastic. The scene where they terrorize the bar is some of the best vampire stuff ever put to film. Great vampire movie and I'm so glad it was finally on a streaming platform this year.
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Oct 5, 2021 14:22
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Flying Zamboni posted:4. Near Dark Have you seen Frailty? It's another amazing Bill Paxton movie. He was a good director!
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Oct 5, 2021 14:24
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Franchescanado posted:Have you seen Frailty? It's another amazing Bill Paxton movie. He was a good director! Yeah, it's really good! Wish he'd been able to direct more stuff.
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Oct 5, 2021 14:33
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Ok I'm going to force myself out of my funk and start putting some effort into this. #6 Possum Matthew Holness, 2018  A troubled man with a possibly guilt-ridden conscience returns to his childhood home with a bag containing a creepy-rear end spider puppet. And that's... kinda the whole plot. It's sparse and disjointed, keeping the viewer at arm's length for most of its runtime. I was often reminded of Cronenberg's film Spider (which ironically has nothing to do with all the spider imagery). This is a film to let wash over you and then piece together afterwards. There's actually quite a bit going on here thematically, it's just shrouded in a thick layer of metaphoric opacity. It also has some undeniably creepy imagery and a jump scare that legitimately gave me the chill-down-the-spine treatment. 3/5 6 Films watched: 1. Titane (2021), 2. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), 3. The Lair of the White Worm (1988), 4. Maniac (1980), 5. Maniac (2012), 6. Possum (2018)
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Oct 5, 2021 15:04
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3. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers This was always my favorite non-OG Halloween, but I hadn’t seen it in a decade plus. My wife and I were watching a Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights haunted houses video on YouTube and it gave me a hankering to revisit. It’s ok/slightly above average. For my money it’s still a better film than any Friday the 13th in terms of quality. The first 45 minutes we get a lot of Loomis and Jamie and it really works! Loomis and Jamie/Laurie are all I really need to enjoy a Halloween movie. At about the half way mark they both disappear for awhile unfortunately and the movie begins to drag. It picks back up for the finale and the ending scene is iconic and the reason I loved it so much originally. It’s around 60 minutes of a good movie but 88 minutes long. There’s a bunch of really corny moments but some compelling stuff as well.Not the worst, not the best. (The mask is terrible, oof)
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Oct 5, 2021 15:17
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 7. Slaxx (2020) “We're all equal here. Sort of like communism but not really.” A teen gets her dream job at a trendy clothing store only to find out that their hot new jeans are… killer. The comedy elements of this were drier than I expected, at least apart from the inherent goof-factor of the murder pants, and I worked enough retail to get a kick out of all the little squabbles between the employees. The script was also more detailed than some filmmakers might bother with for this concept. I think that ended up helping the movie's pace, which kept things moving while still having enough story elements tie back to the destructive-fashion theme. Another thing that stood out was that whole thing had a clearly defined style that everything from the performances to the special effects meshed with. And that ending was an especially nice touch to go out on. There are a lot of solid elements here, and I’d love to see something else from this director. But at the same time, I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch Slaxx again. While it was fun enough, it didn’t connect for me on more than a passing level. It’s still probably worth the watch for anyone looking for a short movie that’s lighter on gags than horror comedy tends to be. 1. Elvira, Mistress of the Dead (1988) 2. The Dead Pit (1989) 3. Blacula (1972) 4. When a Stranger Calls (1979) 5. When a Stranger Calls Back (1993) 6. The Beyond (1981)
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Oct 5, 2021 15:41
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Better late than never. Here's my list: https://letterboxd.com/caiman/list/october-horror-challenge-2021/
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Oct 5, 2021 16:29
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Spatulater bro! posted:
For those who don't recognize the name, Matthew Holness co-wrote and starred as Garth Marenghi in "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace".
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Oct 5, 2021 16:49
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 #5. Curse of the Demon (iTunes) A skeptical American professor arrives in London for a parapsychology conference, but ends up investigating the head of a devil-worshipping cult... and trying to determine if he really is cursed to be killed by a demon in several days' time. Watching this, I was vaguely aware that this was a formative horror work out of the 1950s and influenced many of the film brats; I didn't realize that Sam Raimi had stolen the spine of it for Drag Me to Hell a half-century later. I don't know if that tangential familiarity via another work really helped or hurt this one; I want to set aside what I had previously remembered and focus only on the film in front of me, but at the same time, I was aware enough of the story mechanisms to be able to work out the ending well in advance of it getting there. And the ending, while effective, does also get hampered by a combination of stuffy 1950s attitudes and a super-speedy resolution, so I think it feels a bit more perfunctory then it intended to. (Though, on the other hand, the skeptic walking away with a "sometimes it's better not to know" attitude is a great small character beat, the understated nature making the moment work a bit better than this stuff tends to in other 1950s B-movie creature features.) Director Jacques Tourneur created another beautiful looking, moody psychodrama here, akin to his 1940s masterpiece Cat People but transplanted to the psychodrama and skepticism of the 1950s, where it fits in a little better amid the undercurrent of post-war anxieties. Like his earlier works, this is mostly a talky melodrama, but there's a bit more wit about it; I loved that the charismatic head of the devil worshipers gets an extended bit where he dresses up like a hobo-magician-clown to entertain children for a Halloween party, but still manages to come across as subtly menacing. It works, almost in spite of going out of its way to try not to; you could say that about the film as a whole. The film is understated enough that you almost have to wonder if Dana Andrews, starring as "The Most Rational Man Alive", is almost on to something about this all being psychological tricks and chicanery, again akin to Cat People. The producer apparently went in and shot new footage with a monster to stick in the film, to Tourneur's dismay; I can understand his reluctance, but I think that monster helps elevate the proceedings. Yes, it denies the idea that this could have all been in someone's head, but the plot mechanics don't really allow for that reading any way. Besides, how could you be upset about this handsome lad getting a few minutes of screen time in there?  Highly recommended. /5NOTE: The version I saw up for rent/purchase on iTunes was the 80 minute American cut. Was there a lot that was substantially lost or altered for the 90 minute British release Night of the Demon? Or is this more of a Gojira vs. Godzilla: King of the Monsters! kind of a situation? Watched so far: The Hunt, The Fog (1980), The Howling, Venom 2, Curse of the Demon
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Oct 5, 2021 17:01
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I haven't seen the theatrical version (confusingly there are both uncut and theatrical versions of both the US and the UK versions), but I've watched the uncut version with commentary by Tony Earnshaw and he points out all the places the film was cut, and he gives the impression that the uncut version is way more fleshed out and coherent than the theatrical. It's something like 14 minutes worth of character and plot stuff that was removed. So yeah I think it's worth seeking out the uncut version.
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Oct 5, 2021 17:09
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5. The Exorcist ***½ In 1998 when I was 16, I went on a trip to the US and was keen to procure a tape that would take advantage of the NTSC playback feature of my VCR - and what better choice than the then banned in the UK horror classic, The Exorcist? Little did I know that merely weeks later, it would be finally given a certificate and released on home media shortly after. But still! The thrill of importing such illicit goods, the things that dreams are made of. I still remember putting it on for the first time, having a friend over and expecting to be thrilled and shocked, but alas all I remember from that night was being bored senseless. I'm not even sure looking back that we even finished it, as watching it again for the first time in 2 decades I don't recall a single frame of the first hour of the movie. I also get why we didn't care for it, the film definitely has that undeniable 70s pacing to set things up and none of the infamous stuff turns up until quite some time in. The anti-scientific tone doesn't gel wonderfully with me, especially in 2021 as this has crept back in to public thought, but in fairness the medical scenes shown are pretty harrowing so I get it to some degree. I've not remotely enjoyed any exorcism based movie I've seen since, and tend to actively avoid them, so the fact I'm able to enjoy this one is a breakthrough in itself. It really is a film that's all about the leadup to Regan passing beyond normal sickness and the ride from there until the end, and I can only imagine the outcry in 1973 of some of the scenes. Hell, if it was to be made today there would undoubtedly be the same shock from the mainstream I'm sure. Anything I dislike about it is not the movies fault - it's undeniably well made, there's no doubt it's the posterchild for exorcism movies (even if I don't like them), the effects still stand up brilliantly, and it has a fantastic ending. Alas, it still doesn't grab me the same way it does others though, and I can't quite put my finger on why. If I felt the fear that others seem to have when watching this, I'd probably give it a full 5 stars.
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Oct 5, 2021 17:46
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Debug (2014) even two stars feels insanely generous to this average-to-the-point-of-absurdity sci-fi horror piece; nevertheless it isn't often you get a literal deus ex machina ending. there's nothing here to.impress or excite, Momoa just doesn't have any weight and the half-dozen plot threads and ideas are just sort of left there with no explanation or even investigation, like the screenwriter put "JUST SAY BIOWARE" in the script and forgot to replace that with anything smart. Sci fi horror is usually my jam, but this was an ugly chore whose only saving grace is the impressive amount of CG given its budget. 1) One Cut of the Dead 2) Freddy's Return 3) Never Fall Asleep 4,5,6) Fear Street(s) 7) Debug
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Oct 5, 2021 17:47
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 3. The Return of Swamp Thing: A- What a blast! I've never felt more like I'm reading a comic book while watching a movie. The tone, dialogue, production design, cinematography, pacing, humor, character archetypes... it all felt like I was kicking back and seeing a Golden Age comic book come to life. It essentially ends up as a PG-13 Toxic Avenger in a swamp, but with more monsters, more explosions, and almost no sleaze. I haven't seen the first Wes Craven film, but my understanding is it tries to be much darker and more grounded, while Return is a straight-up campy comedy. I'm guessing that it spent a lot of time building up pathos for ol' Swampy and focusing on his story and perspective—something that this movie throws out the window. In this movie, Swamp Thing is far more of a plot device or a force of nature than a protagonist. Instead, the focus is on Heather Locklear's character who is a delight. Locklear absolutely nails the camp and is incredibly charming and capable, carrying the movie with ease. It works. The only disappointing thing to me here is the editing—the film is short, but the scenes often feel overlong. The whole thing could've been much snappier with a lot more momentum from scene to scene. Overall this thing is a fun time at the movies. It's not a classic to write home about by any means, but I can't think of many better ways to spend 89 minutes of your life if you like your movies to be fun romps full of monsters and swamps and camp. Supplementary Material - None of this counts!  Goosebumps — The Blob That Ate Everyone: B- This was a fun one. I'm a sucker for blobs, and the actual blob in this film looks fantastic. It's the rare blob monster that isn't visually just a ripoff of The Blob, but instead has bubbling flesh and veiny tentacles and teeth and goo. It's just a shame that it's not actually the focus of the story. The child actors in this are not good, and their characters going through the process of slowly discovering that the typewriter is magical was a bit of a chore, and them reversing course on it for a chunk of time is totally unnecessary wheel-spinning. That being said, if you set a scene in a video rental store horror section and you have a monster attacking kids there, I can forgive pretty much anything. The best thing about these Goosebumps episodes is that they pack an entire plot of a YA book into 22 minutes, so they're all fun and breezy and nothing ever has a chance to overstay its welcome.  Goosebumps — Bride of the Living Dummy: C+ I was terrified of Slappy as a kid, so it was fun to go back and watch this through the eyes of an adult. Turns out, still creepy! It's no wonder this character became the somewhat defacto mascot of Goosebumps, because he's a blast. I have yet to check out the prior episodes that he's in yet, nor Magic which I assume is the primary source for all later killer dummy stories, but the opening of the episode is basically a speedrun of The Ventriloquist's Dummy episode of Tales from the Crypt. Slappy falls for the doll of a little girl at one of his shows and becomes obsessed with her, leading him to go terrify some children to get her. That being said, the whole premise is very confusing because Slappy's sole goal seems to be "being with" the other doll, which he achieves about 1/3 into the episode. I'm not really sure why he's chasing down the kids and terrifying them, there's not really anything he could hope to accomplish there. That being said, it's all still a breezy good time so none of this really bothered me all that much. Plus, it had some real creepy animatroics and puppeteering so none of that really matters. Timing-wise I have to wonder if it's a response to Bride of Chucky going into production, since both this and the book came out the same year as that film. However, there aren't any significant plot similarities. feedmyleg fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Oct 5, 2021 |
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Oct 5, 2021 18:00
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My goal is to watch 13 horror movies this month. I watched a few yesterday. #1 The Fog (1980) - watched on Amazon Prime. I first saw this many years ago when I was a pre-teen. I remember thinking it was scary, I recall the plot being about people in a fishing town, fog and ghosts, but not much else. I watched it last night and it definitely held up! I shouldn't be surprised, it is a John Carpenter movie after all. The "special effects" aren't all that elaborate, but honestly it's more of a thriller. Not a lot of blood or gore, but a lot of suspense. It was amusing that a young Jamie Lee Curtis is in it, as well as an elderly Janet Leigh. I strongly recommend it if you haven't seen it, it's worth the hour and a half run time. Rating: 4.5/5 #2 Malignant (2021) - watched on HBOMax This one was new to me, and at first, I was intrigued. A pregnant woman starts dreaming gruesome deaths, and then when she awakes, it turns out those deaths really happened. It has a very creepy vibe, the "monster" is terrifying, it definitely felt like a James Wan movie. If you've seen any of the Conjuring movies, you'll know what I mean by that. However, by the ending, it all starts to unravel. (Spoilers for the "twist" ending.) I think it would have been a better movie if it had been an actual ghost or monster. Knowing it was her, or rather, her parasitic twin, just didn't wrap things up well. Plus the question I had at the end was, if it was "her" all along, how did Gabriel call them when she was being interrogated? That... doesn't make sense, and here I go expecting supernatural movies to make sense. I know that way lies madness, but regardless, it ruined the movie for me. Rating: 2/5 #3 Final Destination(2000) - watched on HBOMax This is another movie I saw decades ago, when I was a teenager. I decided to rewatch it to see if it held up. It really did! The opening at the airport and in the plane was excellent and tense, even though I knew full well what was going to happen. The rest of the movie is just as gripping, especially the elaborate ways in which every one dies. It has a very dark humor, to the point that the final death made me laugh out loud. The acting is decent enough, and I would recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it before, even though by now you won't be shocked by the gimmick of the movie. Rating 3.5/5 #4 Final Destination 2 (2003) - watched on HBOMax I never saw this before, because I figured that trying to recreate what the first one did was like catching lightning in a bottle. It turns out I was right, I should have avoided it. If I had, I'd never have realized that the lone survivor's name of Final Destination was "Clear Rivers".  Besides all that, the movie was completely mediocre. All the deaths just felt rushed, there was no artistry or tension behind the deaths, and the climax was basically a rip-off of the first movie. Do not recommend at all. Rating 1/5
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Oct 5, 2021 18:10
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13. The Untold Story (1993) 八仙飯店之人肉叉燒飽 Directed by Danny Lee Sau-Yin, Herman Yau 🇭🇰 Hong Kong Watched on Shudder  The one big thing that The Untold Story has going for it is Anthony Wong as Wong Chi Hang. His performance as a depraved mass murderer is really unnerving and he won Best Actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards for it. Otherwise, the tone is kind of a mess. It combines graphic violence (including sexual violence) with slapstick humor and I’m not sure if it totally works.  Based on the true story of the Eight Immortals Restaurant murders, The Untold Story is about four lazy and incompetent police detectives trying to figure out who threw a bag full of body parts into Chuk Wan Bay. Because it’s a Category III film, it’s basically a police procedural comedy with random gratuitous violence and nudity. The violence does get gnarly, so fans of blood and guts will find something to like here. The best (or worst) part is in a flashback at the end of the movie after Wong Chi Hang is in the hospital, so plan accordingly. 💀💀💀 Letterboxd treats Hong Kong as a country, at least for the purpose of filtering movies, and they have a flag 🤷♂️ Spooky Travelogue 13/31 1. At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul 🇧🇷, 2. Pontypool 🇨🇦, 3. Inferno 🇮🇹, 4. The Queen of Black Magic 🇮🇩, 5. The Forest of Lost Souls 🇵🇹, 6. Tumbbad 🇮🇳, 7. The Silent House 🇺🇾, 8. The Phantom Carriage 🇸🇪, 9. Housebound 🇳🇿, 10. I Saw the Devil 🇰🇷, 11. Witchfinder General 🇬🇧, 12. Kuroneko 🇯🇵, 13. The Untold Story 🇭🇰
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Oct 5, 2021 18:28
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 Child's Play(blu ray) Right now I'm in nostalgia mode and Child's Play is definitely a big one. One thing that was interesting about Child's Play is how I vividly remember my experience with it changing over time as I got older and physically bigger. When I first saw it, I was about Andy's size and Chucky terrified me. As I started to get bigger, Chucky became less and less threatening because I became very confident I could take him. Eventually when I was big enough that I could just punt Chucky across the room, he wasn't scary at all anymore. So it was actually a very cathartic experience to have that full range where I saw myself conquer that fear over time and go from terrified of Chucky to laughing at him. The film itself definitely still holds up. I particularly enjoy Chris Sarandon's character, he's the rare cop in one of these movies that is actually (somewhat)useful and I think you root for him to survive almost as much as Andy and his mother. There's a scene towards the end when Chucky causes him to flip his car and so he's defending himself while upside down with Chucky scurrying all around the overturned car. It's an incredibly effective, creepy and tense scene because you know there's a solid 50/50 chance that the cop isn't gonna survive that situation. As much as I appreciate the newer Chucky films for their creativity, they were never scary to me the way this film and also Child's Play 2 were. Those later sequels did what they had to do to keep the formula from becoming stale, I get it, but the first two are what I find myself coming back to year after year.    1. Phantasm 2. Malignant 3. The Thing 4. The Mummy(1999) 5. The Curse of Frankenstein 6. Child's Play raven77 posted:#2 Malignant (2021) - watched on HBOMax Not to start a whole thing about Malignant, which we do have a separate thread for, but it's established that Gabriel can communicate through electronics, like phones, TVs, etc. So yea it "makes sense" in the context of the movie but it's not like they ever attempt to explain why Gabriel has those powers other than the fact that he was electrocuted at the research place. Basebf555 fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Oct 5, 2021 |
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Oct 5, 2021 18:32
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 #17) Zombie Dearest (2009; DVD) To atone for trying to cheat on his wife, a scuzzy dude is tasked with renovating their new house. In the process, he unearths a zombie, one who's willing to follow his orders. Meanwhile, his wife is reconnecting with an old flame at her new job. Impressively, the zombie is the most likable character, despite having no lines beyond groans. The couple is persistently horrible, the husband verbally and physically abuses the zombie, and the husband wants to be a stand-up comedian, with a focus on caveman jokes. Unsurprisingly, his jokes aren't particularly funny, nor is the rest of the movie. The idea of using a zombie as grunt labor is an old one, but one which doesn't tend to get a lot of play in modern horror movies. Same with zombies involved in an otherwise normal domestic situation. There could have been some allegory here, but there isn't, as the movie would rather focus on the husband's efforts to establish himself as a local stand-up comedian. And then everything goes to poo poo, because zombies are involved. Not only tedious to get through, the movie has an ending that invalidates the time you've spent watching it. So... don't. “What if they don't get it?” Rating: 4/10
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Oct 5, 2021 18:53
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Basebf555 posted:Not to start a whole thing about Malignant, which we do have a separate thread for, but it's established that Gabriel can communicate through electronics, like phones, TVs, etc. So yea it "makes sense" in the context of the movie but it's not like they ever attempt to explain why Gabriel has those powers other than the fact that he was electrocuted at the research place. Gabriel has those powers firstly because he's just so evil, but also because the unseen father figure for the twins is Horace Pinker, meaning Malignant is in the same universe as Shocker. Obviously.
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Oct 5, 2021 19:06
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 13) Fatal Games - 1984 - Private viewing Everyone knows that during the Slasher glut of the '80, quality varied since it was all about making a quick buck. This film is no exception. Plot essentially is a group of athletes preparing for Nationals are getting picked off by a hooded killer with a javelin. This cribs so much from Graduation Day that one of my friends who came late to our group watch glanced at the TV and asked if that's what we were watching. There is a substantial amount of nudity, both male and female in this one, even for a 80s slasher. At one point a woman's chased out of the shower and it's done fully nude. The massage session between Nurse Diane and Anne is definitely a something. The ending came out of nowhere for me as I didn't see any of the tells leading to it. Granted I could've missed them while getting a beer or giving our host's pittie belly rubs, but it turns out the killer is Nurse Diane. She was an athlete who underwent a 'failed sex change' and had too much testosterone so was disqualified from the Olympics. This was her breaking point so she's killing athletes who have the potential of being successful. This has to be a crib from Sleepaway Camp since that film was released before this one. The killer's motivation/reasons...I don't know. I kept thinking 'It doesn't work like that!'. Overall, I don't regret watching it, but I likely won't sit through it again since I've got so much other stuff to sit through.  14) The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh - 1971 - Shudder I've come to the uncomfortable conclusion that I have been slacking on my gialli watching. For some reason I keep confusing this one with Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key. In this one, a serial killer who's going around slashing up prostitutes appears to be stalking Mrs. Wardh. God, this one is so good. We have creepy exes, loveless marriages, blackmail, affairs, psychological breakdowns, red herrings and double crosses. It can't get better for a murder mystery giallo. You could put all this in an English Country House mystery and it just wouldn't be as good. I love the twist that it's her husband, lover, and ex all in this together for the money while planning on blaming the serial killer and the plans go awry when the killer gets killed by his victim. As far as the strange vice goes, she has a bit of a blood fetish which frankly's kinda quaint these days as far as that goes. Highly, HIGHLY recommend this one.
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Oct 5, 2021 19:30
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Venom (1981) While it doesn't have Tom Hardy or Woody Harrelson, this Venom movie does have Klaus Kinski, Nicol Williamson, Oliver Reed, and a black mamba. Kinski and Reed play criminals who attempt to kidnap the son of a hotel magnate. But things go wrong when the find themselves instead in a hostage situation with the boy and grandfather. Nicol Williamson plays the rough police officer who is in charge of the negotiations. But unbeknownst to them, earlier in the day, there was a mix-up. The reptile loving boy was meant to bring home a harmless garden snake, but due to a mix-up, instead brought home a black mamba, the deadliest snake in the world. And it's loose ... What a great little film. The stand-off scenes with Williamson and Kinski are great, and Reed plays a guy in over his head wonderfully. Sterling Hayden plays the boy's grandfather, and really bring something to role. The POV shots of the snake as it slithers though the ducts really give a nice sense of suspense, since as a viewer we don't know where the snake is, so we don't know when it will attack. Recommended. Watched on Tubi. Two little trivia facts: Tobe Hooper was the original director, but left after a bit due to "creative differences". He was replaced by Piers Haggard ("The Blood of Satan's Claw). And Klaus Kinski chose to due this film instead of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" because the pay was better. 4 out 5 rubber snakes 1. Final Exam (1981) 2. Snowbeast (1977) 3. Suburban Gothic (2014) 4. Pledge Night (1990) 5. Without Warning (1980) 6. Death Machine (1994) 7. Cell (2016) 8. Venom (1981)
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Oct 5, 2021 19:32
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