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 26) StageFright (1987) Trailer Seen on: Shudder On a dark and stormy night, a murderous former actor confined to an insane asylum escapes and terrorizes the cast and crew of an avant-garde erotic musical rehearsing in a theater nearby (as you do). Michele Soavi's directorial debut, I thought StageFright was an entertaining slasher flick. If it has nothing else going for it, it's definitely got one of the more memorable killer's disguises I've seen in one of these:  The movie takes a little time to get going, as it sets up all the friendships and petty rivalries between the actors and crew (and their imperious, difficult director) before introducing the killer into the mix. Once things get going, we're treated to a cornucopia of kills and gore, as this theater is filled with power tools (I did summer theater and stage crew in my high school years and we NEVER got to use a chainsaw, what gives?!). Impalement and dismembering abounds, and we even get the "killer poses everyone in a tableau" scene. Soavi actually manages to make things a little suspenseful, and some of the characters even get to have an arc of development as time goes on, at least until they're messily dispatched. It's fun when a large group of the victims decide to gear up and hunt the killer en masse about halfway through, but the last half hour drags out a bit more as our final survivor tries to escape the theater without alerting the killer, and the ending with the janitor is very awkward. The movie ends by going back to the beginning so we can watch someone dressed as Marilyn Monroe play saxophone. Never change, Italy.  27) Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions (1995) Trailer Seen on: Amazon Prime Hardboiled private detective Harry D'Amour has a knack for getting involved in the supernatural. While investigating an insurance fraud case in L.A., he stumbles upon a cult trying to resurrect their (un)dead leader, who intends to cleanse the world with black magic. So here's yet another movie I watched for one of these challenges that I can't believe I haven't watched before. This was really cool! It's so weird seeing Scott Bakula playing a cursing tough guy (after years of seeing him on Quantum Leap and Enterprise) and Kevin J. O'Connor playing it serious (after enjoying his comic relief roles in Deep Rising and The Mummy). And you get Famke Janssen too! The movie immediately sets a dark tone and it rarely lets up. The main villain is cool, his twisted lieutenant trying to resurrect him is effectively creepy, and Vincent Schiavelli is only in one scene but it's a funny one "That's a great accent. What is it, Brooklyn?" "gently caress you, all right?!". What's really scary was when I realized one of the bad guy's cultists was wearing a Kliban Cat shirt. Speaking of the cultists, that bit at the end was taken straight from Barker's "Skins of the Fathers," wasn't it? The visual effects are dated but the makeup work is great (hello KNB and XFX). Glad I watched this one.  28) The Slayer (1982) Trailer Seen on: Tubi A woman who has been haunted by horrible nightmares and premonitions all her life goes on vacation to a remote island with her husband, brother and sister-in-law. When she gets there, she realizes that she's seen it in her dreams - and when she starts falling asleep and dreaming, terrible things start to happen. I think this is a nicely shot and presented film, but man is it slow. It spends a lot of time with characters who are all defined in the first five minutes and spend the rest of the movie arguing with each other endlessly. There's a lot of "is this real or not," "is it a dream or not" going on, and while the movie is shot to look very dreamlike, it couldn't really sustain my full interest for the whole of the runtime. The deaths aren't all that inventive (kind of surprised, but not really, that this got dinged as a UK video nasty), the climax is out of left field and the ending was apparently tacked on at producer request. I watched this to satisfy my curiosity but I'm not sure this one deserves the notoriety I've seen associated with it.
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Oct 13, 2021 01:18
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 The Collection, 2012 I remember watching The Collector way back when it was more or less new. Fun movie that was basically Home Alone, but what if they showed the real damage these traps would make + let's add sharp poo poo to the traps. The plot in that one was about a burglar breaking into the a house that a serial killer had rigged up with traps to play sadistic games with his victims. Fun times and we get the grim ending of the burglar getting trapped after he helps the little girl escape. Cut to this movie, where we learn from news clips that this serial killer has a ridiculously high kill count and kidnaps at least one victim from each crime scene (he is the collector you see). Never caught as he got no pattern on what victims he chooses. Some rich girl go clubbing, only for the whole club to be rigged. Our serial killer have now gone on to be a mass murderer and domestic terrorist as he massacres the whole club, keeping the rich girl for his collection. But she manages to let the burglar from the first movie out of the big old suitcases the collector keeps his collections in (no idea why he brought the suitcase with him to the club). Our burglar escapes and ends up in the hospital, only to be snatched away before the police can question him by goons hired by the rich girl's father. They don't have time for the police as they are there to rescue the girl asap and the burglar leads them to the abandoned hotel the serial killer uses as a base. No surprise, it is rigged up with death traps at every corner, as well hundreds of corpses and deranged victims broken both mentally and physically. Everything from here on and out is straight out of a Cannibal Corpse song. It is a kind of silly movie, but that's whats makes it kind of fun. I feel it would have been way more fun if it had been made in the 80s or early 90s, so it is not peak fun. Back then, they'd crank up the gore. The gore in this one felt a bit tame when as I've seen so much better in older splatter films. It is a worthwhile film if you are looking for something action packed that's fun, but don't try to be a comedy, and of course, if you liked the first film.
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Oct 13, 2021 02:39
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Crescent Wrench posted:You even get a scene where Tom Atkins and Dick Miller argue over the former's attempt to take said flamethrower out of the police artillery! Glorious. I love Night of the Creeps, speaking of Tom, 1. Halloween 3: Season of the Witch My first time seeing this thread fav, really cool flick! Just a fun smooth ride, pretty clever and sharp too. When Tom Atkins showed up, I knew we were I'm safe hands. Really liked the lead actress and villain guy too. Some of it feels like a precursor to They Live. I also liked the Invasion of the Body Snatchers nods, Santa Mira etc. This band Cauldron I love has a cool Santa Mira song by the way. I'd say it exceeded my expectations, just a rock solid cool fun 80s horror movie. Nice medley of elements, and a badass ending. Cool synth score too.
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Oct 13, 2021 03:08
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 (22) The New Mutants (2020) dir. Josh Boone Some teenage mutants are detained on the grounds of a mysterious hospital. The sole doctor is teaching meditation lessons and conducting blood tests for mysterious reasons. The latest addition has the mutant ability of nightmares which is causing havoc on her fellow patients. Not sure why Fox kept pushing this back, it was perfectly serviceable as is. However, thanks to the Disney buyout, it will never be resolved.  (23) Deep Rising (1998) dir. Stephen Sommers An ocean liner is attacked by giant undersea worms. Then hijackers board the ship to rob it but find only goopy skeletons. Unfortunately the ship they came in on crashed into a speedboat and needs to be repaired before they can leave. A good cast of dead meat and good practical effects let down by some rather poorly aged CG of the creatures. This was supposed to lead into a King Kong remake. With how great Sommers’ Mummy remake turned out, I’m sad it didn’t. Total: (1) Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) (2) The Addams Family 2 (2021) (3) Addams Family Reunion (1998) (4) Scooby-Doo! and the Goblin King (2008) (5) Titane (2021) (6) The Raven (1935) (7) Scooby-Doo! and the Samurai Sword (2009) (8) The Black Cat (1934) (9) Doctor X (1932) (10) Island of Lost Souls (1932) (11) The Lost Boys (1987) (12) The Ape Man (1943) (13) Night of the Living Dead (1968) (14) The Ape (1940) (15) Howard Lovecraft & the Frozen Kingdom (2016) (16) Student Bodies (1981) (17) Varan (1958) (18) The War of the Gargantuas (1966) (19) Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo (2010) (20) Terror Train (1980) (21) Scary Movie (2000) (22) The New Mutants (2020) (23) Deep Rising (1998)
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Oct 13, 2021 03:24
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October 12 Symptoms I never heard of this movie until I was looking over the posts today, and I had to give it a try. M_Sinistrari posted:
Anne heads out to the isolated country estate of her friend Helen for an extended stay. The two of them are the only ones in the house, though a groundskeeper is lurking around. Anne had a fight with her boyfriend and is avoiding him, and Helen is really into Anne. Anne hears "mysterious" "moaning" in the house in the middle of the night, and the sounds seem to be coming from Helen's room. Anne comes to the natural conclusion that there might be someone else in the house, but Helen assures her there's nobody. I'm not 100% sure what to make of this. For half the film I was thinking, "Wow, they were really piling on the subtext." Then they actually made it text. I think it's a bad early example of homosexuality on film since desperately wanting to have sex with another woman makes Helen go on a killing spree. I think the leads have great chemistry together at the very least. Though I wonder how repressed Anne is when she can't even recognize the sound of woman in ecstasy. She is British so that might explain it. The movie is a real slow burn. There's angry glares from the creepy groundskeeper and stories of people drowning in the lake and glimpses of people spying on each other, but it takes a long time for the plot to actually get underway. I think the film is harmed by the poor cinematography. This is a boring movie to look at and having it feature a bunch of slow, dull shots kills the atmosphere. Still, it's an interesting movie, especially for 1974. Helen deserved better than what she got, Anne! 
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Oct 13, 2021 03:47
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I spent all day trying to get a Hammer Dracula binge going and was just too sleep deprived and unfocused to ever pay attention and absorb anything. So instead I did a nap and for some reason when I got up instead of going back to the well I started a random “whatever comes up on Amazon recs” Welcome to the Blumhouse marathon while I furiously refresh this thread hoping to see a surprise. Go figure. 25 (44). Black as Night (2021) Directed by Maritte Lee Go; Written by Sherman Payne Watched on Amazon Prime Hooptober Ocho 19/39: 3/3 films with a person of color as director or lead. (excluding Asian) Its gonna get compared to Vampires vs the Bronx a lot but that feels superficial to me. Yeah, they’re both a diverse group of kids fighting vampires in an urban setting but that’s where the comp ends. Black as Night ages its kids up to puberty enough so you don’t have that same kid adventure thing and instead have a PG teen hormones thing in its place. It plays the whole concept straight instead of being a little silly about it. That makes the vampires scarier but the overall movie a lot less fun. And while VsBX didn’t do a deep dive into its social issues and setting or anything this one really just kind of passingly flirts with them without doing much at all there. Although there is a very solid “black is beautiful” subplot throughout the film and just a general vibe of poo poo they just have to deal with day to day. I liked the kids. Fabrizio Guido is especially fun and the Abbie Gayle idea of the preppy white girl brought into this because she’s way into YA vampire novels is very fun. But they just don’t really do enough with them and have enough fun with it. Too much of the focus is just on the main romance which I guess matches the YA thing but also isn’t terribly deeply dove into itself. The second half of the film twist helps a lot and ramps up the horror and threat level. Its actually kind of cute how easily the kids deal wit the vampires at first until they actually get noticed and have to defend themselves. poo poo gets serious then. And Kieth David provides a nice spark to the film even if there’s just not enough of him in it. The end result isn’t a bad film or anything and its still nice to see more horror told from POC voices with a diverse cast of characters in urban settings. There’s not enough of that in general. But the film doesn’t really do anything to make it stand out. The history/animation portion is kind of interesting but only really a small flourish. And its a dark film. Like not in tone, its just a really hard to see film. But its a solid little vampire flick that does some fun things even if none of feel like they’re full explored for what they’re worth.  26 (45). Madres (2021) Directed by Ryan Zaragoza; Written by Mario Miscione and Marcella Ochoa Watched on Amazon Prime ”I’m fine, the baby’s fit, everything’s fine, its fine.” “It sounds… fine.” I only kind of randomly stumbled on this and watched it on a whim but I was optimistic. It had all the makings of the stuff I really enjoy. A slow moody haunting story. A strong latin flavor. Some witchy mystery. The whole thing feels a bit like a spin on Rosemary’s Baby but instead of an affluent white lady dealing with the problems of isolation and being treated like a child its a young latinx woman struggling with the isolation of feeling unable to fit into either culture world of her identity. There’s a lot of interesting stuff done there with her not being Mexican enough for others and even her husband throwing it at her in the heat of an argument, and then how that plays into the eventual story twist. I’m just not sure it ever really got out of first gear. Given the direction the story goes and the important real world issue it is representing I can certainly understand why get didn’t want to go too hard on the supernatural or witchy stuff but I kept kind of waiting for that to escalate. It shifts in another direction and like I said, I think that’s a worthwhile and important direction to go in. But it leaves the other stuff in a more setting kind of way like a Guillermo del Toro or Mike Flanagan story. And I usually love that stuff but I dunno. It didn’t ever really get stylishly or spooky enough to really make an impression. The pattern of these Welcome to the Blumhouse movie seems to in part be an opportunity for women and POC to make films and I think that’s great. If you have inexperienced filmmakers you’re gonna have a lot of mediocrity, but you also kind of need to give the opportunities to get to the great stuff. After all there’s millions of mediocre horrors made by white dudes about white dudes. I don’t think I’d call this one mediocre. Its definitely got some good and interesting stuff and a strong message. But I don’t think it quite hit its stride to get to the next level. But its good enough to make me curious to see a few more of these and more stuff from the creative team.
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Oct 13, 2021 04:00
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Don’t know if this properly counts, but it sure was a trip. Film 25 Mandy Directed by Panos Cosmatos. 2018, United States🇺🇸 (maybe Belgium🇧🇪 too? One of the production companies is Belgian so who knows) Another weird one. So you know how people will say “this movie is like a big drug trip” and it just has some bright colors and one weird sequence? Well, this one really does feel like that, like it attempts to put you into a different state of mind and it kind of works. The pace on it is very deliberate. It could be shorter, but it never felt long. Probably the biggest highlight being the lighting and camerawork. Lots of interesting things happening with those. Lighting especially feels like a borrowed element from giallo, in the sense that it’s kinda character and emotionally motivated instead of being more objective. The story? Pretty standard revenge tale with a heaping helping of weirdness. Also, big influence from Heavy Metal; the genre, movie and comic. Would love to see this team comeback for a new Heavy Metal movie. 🎃🎃🎃🎃/5 Bonus! Chucky, S1E1 Directed by Don Mancini  So how does an over 30 year old slasher franchise translate to TV? Pretty good. Story follows Jake, a middle school boy that’s going through some poo poo. His mom is dead and now he’s with his dad that never got over the loss, his cousin is a bully, and he’s in love with the host of a local true crime podcast but can’t tell him his true feelings. Oh yeah, and he’s now friends with Chucky the killer doll. There’s a lot set up in this first episode, lots of interesting paths it can go. It also doesn’t look to bad for a cable show. They manage to get away with a lot more than I expected. 🎃🎃🎃.5/5
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Oct 13, 2021 04:27
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 51) The Wolfman - 2010 - Scream Stream Buried in this one is a good film. Plotwise if you've seen the '41 original, you already know the gist of this one. Of the changes from the original that I liked, the change of era from the 40s to the late 1800s. It gave me a 'I need to play Ravenloft again' vibe. I liked the expansion of the story to locations outside of Larry's hometown. I really liked the incorporation of elements from Werewolf of London with the angle of well off British guy gets lycanthropy in a remote area of another country . The transformation scenes did have me wince because ever since I broke my wrist, I've found I've gotten a bit sensitive when it comes to dislocations and bones breaking. I loved the werewolf design. It was everything I'd expect from Rick Baker's artistry. As for what I didn't like, I felt the portion before London could've been trimmed. I felt it was overlong for what it needed to establish. While I loved the introduction of the wolf's head cane, especially the little backstory of it coming from Gevaudan, it was disappointing that nothing really came of it compared to the original where the cane is what kills Larry. Maleva's looks were off. Geraldine Chaplin is of the right age for Maleva. Christ, she's one of Charlie Chaplin's daughters. I don't know if it was makeup, post-production, or both, but she looked like she was put in poorly done aging makeup. With Gwen, she's barely in the film since it's mostly 'we sent her away for her safety'. While that is an accurate response for that era, it feels like Gwen's just an add on to move the plot when they couldn't think of anything else. Overall, with some tweaking and editing, this could've been a good film. Instead we get moments of good stuff in a stream of 'meh'.  52) Tower of Evil - 1972 - Prime This wasn't half bad. If anything, it was painfully 70s. Short version is near everyone who goes to Snape Island ends up dying or going missing. Group of teens looking to party, dead. A small family, dead. Archeologists looking for alleged Phoenician treasure buried there, dead. Naturally, it turns out that the small family isn't so dead. Wife was dead, but the father and son have gone insane and feral. Much of the film looks fine. As far as the killers go, they look normal enough, just dirty and scruffy. Overall, this was an okay enough film.
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Oct 13, 2021 04:56
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 12. Blackwood (2016) I watched this for the hooptober 8 challenge as a folk horror. It ended up being more of a ghost story but then ended up somewhere different anyway, and there are enough British folk horror things in it I'm counting it! A decent yarn, at times gorgeously shot, with twists and turns to keep you guessing.  13. Shadow Of The Hawk (1976) I'm an old, and this is one of the Hooptober 8.0 challenges, YOB. It's an adventure/horror yarn telling the tale of a spirit threatening a Native village, and the medicine man travelling to a big city to bring his grandson back to become the new medicine man. On the journey back they are beset by various agents of the evil spirit, played by varyingly decent special effects, and the resolution just kinda... happens. Even so, this wasn't a terrible movie. 13/31: The Lure, Candyman, Wyrmwood, Malevolent, Vivarium, Three Extremes, Def By Temptation, Fanatic, Kuso, The Pit, VHS94, Blackwood, Shadow Of The Hawk
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Oct 13, 2021 05:23
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11. Zombie 1979 - dir Lucio Fulci You know it's a Fulci when even the soundtrack sounds absolutely disgusting. Roger Moore knockoff Ian McCulloch's hair is a glorious wisp of straw. Not even a zombie apocalypse can stop New York traffic. The guy doing the commentary with Ian is so drat horny, theres a part where he mentions he would just stay still if girls were chasing him like UK heart throb Ian and Ian's silence was so rich and velvety that I wasnt expecting to get another helping of it when the guy started saying how much he would love to do a love scene.  /512. Halloween 1978 - dir John Carpenter Give Michael this... and this... and then these. "Thank you, Doctor Loomis" Oh, I'm not a doctor. Watching this you get a sense Loomis is a little unhinged having spent most of his career with Myers but then the sequels happen and you see the real monster. God drat. /513. We Want Our Mummy 1939 - dir Del Lord Mildly horror tinged Stooges were always my favourite, they'd go even harder into zany slapstick when faced with imaginable terror - the sets are also usually better. The taxi from New York to Cairo gag is a hoot when it pulls up. /5
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Oct 13, 2021 05:31
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 #35) Color Me Blood Red (1965; Blu-ray) One of my subject matter soft spots is for artists in horror. "Pickman's Model", A Bucket of Blood, Anamorph, Still Life, etc. Even when the artist is obnoxious to everyone around him, as the main character is here. Adam Sorg is an artist with a beachfront house, who has one-man gallery showings, has an art dealer who drops by to deliver checks and pick up new pieces, and has a romantic partner who sticks by him, and most of what he does in this film is complain and attack the people around him. Part of this comes from his artistic block, as he's been searching in vain for the right color (happenstance gives him the realization that blood is the perfect shade). But we're given plenty of hints that he's always a pain in the rear end to everyone. Despite getting “a lot of money” from his art dealer, he complains that he hasn't sold to any “serious” art collectors since his mother stopped buying his paintings. All the same, he has a genuine passion for his art, and it's that passion which drives him to murder after murder, more than any latent bloodlust. The biggest strike against the movie for me, oddly enough, is an element which would stand just fine on its own. We get peppy jazz for painting fugues, for night-time explorations, for practically anything. And it never matches the tone of the scene. Secondarily, the hep teens who cause the climax to arise are as goofy as the teens in Blood Feast, but with more time spent hanging around them and their fab lingo. The usual acting issues of an HGL picture are there too, of course, but so much time is spent with Sorg and his intensity as he comes undone in pursuit of his art highs, that it's not really as much a problem as in the more populated HGL films. Despite dragging in some spots, it does feel like one of Lewis' more pointed films, even if he described it as “something of a joke.” “I paint what I feel, not what I see.” Rating: 6/10
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Oct 13, 2021 05:35
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23. My Friend Dahmer (2017) (first viewing) This film follows the soon-to-be serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer during his final year or so in high school, ending with the moment in the summer after graduation when he picks up his first victim. Adapted from the graphic novel by one of Dahmer's high school friends (the wonderfully named Derf Backderf). The friendship, as such, is a little one-sided, as Dahmer's willingness to act out in bizarre ways, especially with a little prodding, is a source of amusement for others. Dahmer's home and personal life as becoming increasingly chaotic, as he begins drinking heavily and drifting thoughts imaginary and actual violence towards animals and people. Ross Lynch, apparently some kind of former Disney kid and pop singer, gives a good performance as a young Dahmer. Next up: Time to start checking in with some newer Shudder offerings, starting off with Bleed With Me.
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Oct 13, 2021 05:54
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#13. The Curse of Frankenstein The film that launched Hammer's studio-defining run of Technicolor Gothic horrors is still one of the best of the bunch, a bold and confident rewrite of the Frankenstein story that asks the vital question, "What if Victor Frankenstein weren't tortured or conflicted, and was just a total loving dick?" Peter Cushing's Frankenstein is just a stone cold snake. He cheats on his fiancée (Hazel Court) with his maid (Valerie Gaunt), murders a man for his brain, and arranges to have him buried in the family vault just to give him better access to said brain. And that's not even the worst of it! Helping and opposing him at times is Paul (Robert Urquhart) who is the more traditional protagonist, but it's Frankenstein telling the story anyway. The creature is played by Christopher Lee, and between the makeup and performance there's a real sense of a walking corpse with a damaged brain. He's not as sympathetic as most incarnations, just a strange thing that shouldn't be. I almost shouldn't have to say that Cushing's performance is incredible. His cold disdain for anyone and everyone who questions his genius (or just makes themselves inconvenient) is played straight and true the whole time; you can always rely on him to just be the worst. Perhaps the best part is that when the monster inevitably escapes and goes on a rampage, Frankenstein's first instinct is to remind Paul that this is basically entirely his fault because the brain got damaged when the two were struggling. He's at least 75% of the reason you should watch this. The film's got cool color photography and some pretty girls and a neat monster, but mostly it works because it's very focused in its portrait of a man so arrogant and single-minded he was willing to leave body after body in his wake, and still insist it wasn't his fault. Maxwell Lord fucked around with this message at 06:42 on Oct 13, 2021 |
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Oct 13, 2021 06:22
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 27 (47). The Manor (2021) Written and directed by Axelle Carolyn Watched on Amazon Prime Hooptober Ocho 20/39: 1/2 folk horror Movie features John Carpenter’s Body Bags. A good sign. And 70 year old Barbara Hershey is still stunning. This is my third Welcome to the Blumhouse film in a row, a kind of spontaneous marathon that I worried might burn me out but as luck would have it they seem to be getting better with each one. The common pattern so far has been women and POC behind and in front of the camera. The other thing seems to be a loose theme of institutional problems affecting the people usually dismissed, taken advantage of, and abused. This film shifts away from POC or general women’s issues and onto the treatment and dismissal of the elderly. That was a bit of a tough watch for me, especially with my mom. A year ago she passed out and I saw my sisters shift into that “put her into a home, take away her freedom, don’t believe what she’s saying” mode. I fought and she’s doing very well and independently but there was awhile there I was worried that either her health would go the wrong way or that I’d have to fight very hard to keep this from happening. So its a pretty interesting and effective idea. Taking a pretty common horror story but adding in that element. Instead of it being a young person saying there’s supernatural things happening and people just kind of brushing them off casually, here its grounds to medicate grandma, lock her bedroom door, and diagnose her with dementia. A brutal use of that real world horror of life and our spooky stories and Hershey delivers it incredibly well. I’ve seen films that wrestle with dementia itself and the horror of living with that as the sick person or their loved ones. But this is different in it just deals with that reality that an old person can just slip or say something odd or forget something and a lot of people are gonna draw a lot of conclusions they wouldn’t with a young person. We all gently caress up, we all have our moments but what happens when people stop giving you the benefit of the doubt? And then you throw in the terrible institutional treatment in homes. We’ve seen the horror stories of how Covid was handled in them and how many people died because they were considered too far along to be worth worrying about. Hell, elected politicians got on tv and said old people need to die so young people can go to restaurants and shopping. So this supernatural twist on this incredibly real world thing is very effective. I do think there’s a bit of a tonal imbalance. The focus on the basic unpleasantness and horror of growing hold and nursing homes is obviously hugely important to the story but it felt like maybe it didn’t give way to the spooky stuff soon enough or quite as much? That could be budget stuff, or simply the idea playing out as best as it can. But I think it gets a tiny bit restless around the middle. But also that’s probably kind of the intended affect. That uncertainty and deeply uncomfortable possability that maybe there isn’t some monster and some way to get out of this. Maybe this is it. A strong film, I’m not sure a great one. I might have been too close to the material, or I might have watched too many of these in a row. I’m not entirely sure I want to watch it again. Its very impactful. But that’s a good thing. Its a great performance from Hershey and a really powerful merging of ideas. I would definitely recommend.  - (48). 28 Weeks Later (2007) Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo; Screenplay by Rowan Joffé, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, E. L. Lavigne, and Jesus Olmo Watched on HBOMax I’ve seen this before and didn’t remember liking it but I did not remember the shockingly talented cast here. I knew Hawkeye was in here but but totally forgot about Robert Carlyle and Harold Perrineau. And hey there’s Rose Byrne and a young Imogen Poots… and oh poo poo, Idris Elba! Some of these were probably before they were famous or before I was aware of them but that’s some strong casting. I also just think it aged a lot better, and the first one aged worse. I don’t even know if “aged” is the right way to put it. My problems with the first one are problems I had when it came out. But I enjoyed the whole a lot less than I remembered. But I mostly enjoyed this one. I didn’t love it or anything but its a solid zombie movie with a great cast. The military stuff has been done in zombie films before (as has the “immune person needs to survive) but I’m not sure there’s too many cases of the military stuff being done quite as flashy and well as here. It looks good and keeps the movie moving and they treat it with the moral weight and judgment that it should be. Renner’s conflict with shooting infected and uninfected alike and Elba’s guilt over firebombing the city are both well played and I think get across the inhumanity of an army and its weapons much more effectively and less clumsily than that military stuff in the first film. The film also just benefits from not having a bad last act shift as the first one does. This one’s a solid move to an natural end and flows pretty well and easy. I don’t know that I have a ton to say about it. I keep saying, its a solid zombie action film with a very good cast that keep the whole thing moving well. Its very different from the original but I don’t think that’s in and of itself a bad thing. The first film did a lot right but also a lot wrong. And this feels in the same world and like a continuation, it just is a different story in that world. And a solid one, that I probably would have watched a 3rd of if they had made one. But they didn’t need to and I’m mostly glad they didn’t except maybe to get more of the surviving cast. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 12:05 on Oct 13, 2021 |
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Oct 13, 2021 06:59
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 28 (49). The Frozen Ghost (1945) Directed by Harold Young; Screenplay by Bernard Schubert and Luci Ward; Story by Harrison Carter and Henry Sucher; Based on Inner Sanctum Mystery by Himan Brown Watched on Svengoolie Svengoolie Episodes 4/26 Hooptober Ocho 21/39: 7/8 decades (1940s) A fine little mystery film, nothing special. Svengoolie says this is part of a series of Inner Sanctum films staring Lon Chaney Jr but I guess its an anthology of him playing different roles in different little old school mystery stories like this. There’s really nothing special going on here. Its your basic story of the period that could have been an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents or something. Chaney does his usual thing playing a kind of sad sack, a stage psychic guy who thinks he accidently killed someone with his mind by absentmindedly getting mad. So Chaney mopes around and takes a job at a wax museum for some reason, and someone wants to drive him crazy to steal his money, and every woman is in love with him… I guess they love a gentle sad giant. Its all very simultaneously odd and by the numbers and just kind of bounces around but its all very cozy and easy. It barely runs an hour and the combination of gorgeous women, plotting dudes, and puppy dog face Chaney just moves you through this cleanly like a crisp play or something. I can see the appeal of these things although its not exactly a satisfying full feature. But as a matinee or opening movie for a longer one it can be a lot of fun. The biggest impression I got from this episode was “The Svengoolie Stomp” that got put in here to pad time. This is one of those Svengoolie episodes where the movie is so short that there’s just tons of extra stuff thrown in to round out the timeslot. And to be honest I skipped a lot of it because I was just trying to keep the story crisp but I did enjoy the goofy theme song. And the odd thing is this is the last episode of May and I was trying to catch up back then. If I had actually finished it it really would have been a nice and perfect little ending for my Svengoolie marathon. Instead I’m 5 months behind on episodes and trying to burn them off this month but this was a fun little jaunty. https://youtu.be/ZDqDVBpRUvw  29 (50). Cult of the Cobra (1955) Directed by Francis D. Lyon; Screenplay by Jerry Davis, Cecil Maiden, and Richard Collins; Story by Jerry Davis Watched on Svengoolie Svengoolie Episodes 5/26 The set up for this story is that a bunch of soldiers observe a secret religious ritual, break the rules, get their tour guide murdered, KIDNAP the priestess lady, BURN THE TEMPLE DOWN, and get cursed to be killed by the cobra goddess. … gently caress yeah, kill those assholes! A ton of people compare this to Cat People and I couldn’t quite figure out why at first. I mean this is a revenge film, right? Cobra Goddess is gonna pick off the assholes one by one righteously? Sure its 1955 so you’re gonna have to do that with suggestion and shadows… and she’s playing the mysterious foreign beauty who transforms into a snake in the shadows like a certain Panther Lady. But the comparisons end there, right? Panther Lady is deeply confused about who she is and is getting gaslighted by these assholes. Cobra Goddess has a clear purpose… right? Right? But like… she just kind of hangs around the guys taking way too long to kill them. I mean they’re not scattered at all. They somehow all seem to live in the same city and all got sent home at the same time. And oh, she’s dating one of them. Ok, well, she’s getting close to kill him, right? Oh no… now she’s in love and conflicted or something? Why? Why are we doing this? What is the point? Am I supposed to feel for the war criminals? Really? So I can see how this is a Cat People ripoff because what the hell? Cobra Goddess is just kind of floating about confused by what she’s feeling… but why? And the guys are all rear end in a top hat villains incredibly miscast as the heroes. What the hell, 1955? At least Cat People seemed to be coding poo poo. There’s some good shots and shadows and stuff. Its not as good as Cat People but it definitely learned some tricks from it. And Faith Domergue is really quite good in the main role even though she’s written as such a confusing character. But she does the smokey eyed mysterious dangerous/conflicted thing very well and keeps the thing going. But the film is way too much of these assholes who started all this by being assholes and killing people. The story should have been a court martial trial but I would have accepted a Cobra Goddess revenge film. Instead we got war criminal protagonists fighting to survive when I’m not sure they should. Bleh.  - (51). Friday the 13th Part III (1982) Directed by Steve Miner; Written by Martin Kitrosser, Carol Watson and Petru Popescu; Based on Characters by Victor Miller and Ron Kurz HalloweeNIT 9/31 Was there ever a franchise easier to make that Friday the 13th? Its a wonder they’re not still cranking them out. You just throw a bunch of pretty young people in a cabin, collect bodies for Jason to kill, write a sentence on each “character”, make some minor tweak to Jason, and then visit a hardware store to plan his kills. You can do it in a weekend. You don’t have to worry about pesky things like story or visible boom mics. Need to fill some more time? Go film an extra scene of random people getting killed. Look, he has a bunny and eats fish food. He’s quirky. Now he’s dead. That was fun. Have you met these bikers and the clown car of teens? They’re gonna die too. Oh, its in 3D? Have you seen this eyeball? Why are the dangerous bikers concerned about someone getting hurt and their big plan is to steal some gas? Really all you gotta do is give Jason a mask and its regarded for decades as major character development. It would be so easy to do one of these things. Check it out, Jason has a fanny pack now. He keeps all his favorite beanie babies in it. Boom. Movie. Hit a local college to cast and lets get this thing filmed. I’ll make up a character with a retconned past with Jason. You know, for plot. I don’t even know why I watched this. Stupid challenge I make for myself. I guess there was always the chance I could gain new appreciation for the film and appreciate it on a new level. But no… I didn’t. Jason kills a bunch of nameless, nothing characters. You like one of them? Vera seems alright? Well oo bad, she’s dead now. That was her job. But he uses a pitchfork one time and another time a harpoon. Cool, right? So did Jason rape Chris and then bring her home? Did they not even finish writing the background? This one’s bizarrely slow too. Like it takes forever for Jason to get off his rear end and do his job but nothing really gets accomplished in the hour it takes. He’s not stalking them or anything. He kills off some side characters but the rest just kind of meander about. Like we learn half of Chris’ backstory. Her quasi boyfriend expresses how much he hates all of this a bunch of times. Vera rejects the nerd a few times. Someone’s pregnant or something? I guess to up Jason’s body count? The smartest characters are the ones that get high and sleep through it. That dude got so high he could hear Jason’s soundtrack cue. I guess credit to the long buildup. It didn’t tell us much but it did get me excited when the killing started that the movie might be over soon. Wait, did Shelley get slashed off camera? You know what actually would have been unexpected and kinda cool? If you had let that black biker guy actually live and be the unexpected hero instead of having him just show up for no reason except for Jason to get distracted beating him to death. Like that would have been borderline progressive for the time. But whatever. Lets have another final girl canoe death dream. No one’s straining themselves in this thing. I hoped to never watch a Jason film again. I was thinking of giving away my gifted blu ray set. Just because I hate them doesn’t mean someone who enjoys this stuff shouldn’t make good use of it. I hope I never use it again.  I’m way behind on the HalloweeNIT but at least this is one second round match done. It was never in any question though. I hate Jason and I love the Mummy. So it is what it is. But just because I’m behind doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still vote and dictate who wins and what I watch next. Feel free to vote and decide who advances to the Final Four and I keep watching. Next round drawn October 14th! 🎃Halloween 2021: Hooptober Ocho and Spook-a-Doodle HalloweeNIT ’21🎃 Hooptober Ocho: 21/39; HalloweeNIT: 9/31; Svengoolie: 5/26; 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); 14 (23). Sea Fever (2019); 15 (24). Tales from the Crypt (1972); - (25). The Shining (1980); - (26). V/H/S (2012); - (27). The Mummy (1999); - (28). 30 Days of Night (2007); 16 (29). Blood Moon (2021); - (30). V/H/S/2 (2013); 16 (31). Jakob’s Wife (2021); 17 (32). Terror Train (1980); - Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021); 18 (33). King Kong Escapes (1967); - (34). V/H/S: Viral (2014); 19 (35). Horror Express aka Pánico en el Transiberiano (1972); - (36). 28 Days Later (2002); - (37). Arachnophobia (1990); 20 (38). Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021); - (39). It Stains the Sands Red (2016); 21 (40). V/H/S/94 (2021); - (41). The Mist (2007); 22 (42). Humanoids from the Deep (1980); 23 (43). Hell Night (1981); 24 (44). Head (2015); 25 (45). Black as Night (2021); 26 (46). Madres (2021); 27 (47). The Manor (2021); - (48). 28 Weeks Later (2007); 28 (49). The Frozen Ghost (1945); 29 (50). Cult of the Cobra (1955); - (51). Friday the 13th Part III (1982);
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Oct 13, 2021 12:06
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The Bay Absolutely fantastic fake documentary exposing a government coverup of an ecological disaster. The way the government also denied or ignored warnings of the upcoming massacre was chilling in a COVID world.  The premise is, see that motherfucker sitting in the fish's mouth? What if those things got radioactive-mutated into becoming hyper-killers, where their larvae could be spread into the town's water supply and once inside a body they grow and eat and finally eat their way out of the host and aim to get into a host or back to the water. They're fast, they bite, and they're hungry. Please ignore the science, we're not here for the science, we're here for the buggy body horror of people being covered in rashes and boils and then living through the sheer pain of being eaten from the inside out, and there's absolutely nothing they can do about it. The most haunting character in the film is the doctor, who tries literally everything - calling the CDC, amputations, everything - and fails. The CDC finally tells him to get the gently caress out before he's infected, but he chooses to stay and document how the hospital went from a small town hospital to a Silent Hill-esque red light hellscape with bodies literally everywhere. The movie starts with a fourth of July celebration in a small town - crab eating contests, doofy amusement things, it felt familiar to me as I grew up in a small town like that complete with a duck race. Our "main character" is a rookie news presenter who is frankly terrible at her job (and her actress has a flat delivery... which I've seen criticism of, but I think it works as she's just so young and flat, it feels more real to me) going around asking people about the celebrations. But then - in the course of one day - we go from a woman wandering through the festival covered in boils begging for help, to the police investigating a "murder" scene, to the hospital slowly filling up, to a deeply haunting scene where the rookie news lady and her cameraman are standing on the pier trying to recap what they think is happening, only to shut up because they can hear the town wailing and screaming. The triad of "your death is guaranteed", "it will be extremely painful and won't kill you until the absolute end", and "happens over a course of eight hours or less" makes for this recipe of just - awful, awful horror. Even if it weren't a fake documentary or the government cover up angle, it would still scare the poo poo out of me. The body horror effects were well done, too - the gore felt real enough, and I loved/hated looking at it. Overall I loved this movie. It was well constructed, the actors felt more real than skilled, the premise is great, and I get shivers just thinking about it. There are lots and lots of great small moments in it where the horror is at its peak - the 911 call, the mercy killing, the girl who was skyping with a friend and going "I don't know where mom and dad went", there are countless more, it's made of small moments that show a small town being destroyed. I love it. I'm so happy I watched it, and I urge anyone else to give it a go.
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Oct 13, 2021 14:12
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HalloweeNIT #17 The Mummy (1999) - 2.5/5 I tried watching this once before and didn’t get very far into it before dismissing it as an uninteresting popcorn flick. Forced to watch it for the HalloweeNIT challenge, it’s still not interesting to me but at least it’s committed to being consistently entertaining, which kept it watchable. It’s certainly more watchable than any of the earlier Universal Mummy films except maybe the original. Brendan Frasier as the lead didn’t appeal to me. I was sort of watching the movie around him and his floppy Nineties hair. HalloweeNIT #18 Friday the 13th Part III - 3/5 I’ve seen this before in the theater actually in 3-D. No such luck this time, but it was still fun to note all the gratuitous points when something would have been stuck into the audience’s faces. I’m not that into the Friday the 13th series, so I don’t keep a ranking in my head of all the sequels. But this is fine, I guess? Trashy, but feels kind of safe and banal at the same time. Was this cut up by the MPAA? Multiple times we’re told that characters are getting naked in another location without our seeing it, and at least one death seems to be missing. HalloweeNIT #19 Lunacy - 3.5/5 I don’t know what I enjoyed more: the interludes with the animated meat or the Marquis de Sade’s nihilist ranting. I was unsure as to how much of the ranting was Švankmajer speaking directly to the audience, but given that the film opens with him actually making an appearance to speak to the audience to declare art dead, the world a madhouse, and all possible forms of governing it a farce, I’m guessing his sympathies lie with the Marquis more than a little bit. HalloweeNIT #20 Trog - 2/5 Another film I previously gave up on; this one with more justification than The Mummy. Most of the runtime is devoted to an absurd courtroom drama about whether or not the titular Trog should be put down even though he’s barely a threat to anyone; certainly less dangerous than a fully grown chimpanzee. Trog’s monster head is by far the best part of the film. I spent a lot of time wondering if the face was animatronic or if they slapped some makeup on someone with seriously weird facial dimensions.
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Oct 13, 2021 15:12
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10. A Nightmare on Elm Street No wonder this launched a franchise, what a stellar movie! It hits the ground running and doesn't waste a second of screentime through to the end. Freddy comes out a fully formed character from the jump and England's performance down to how he moves is immediately iconic. The dream stuff is very well done and the first kill is particularly creepy. The entire movie has an unusual feel to it, making it hard to tell if a character has slipped into a dream. Strong recommend.
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Oct 13, 2021 15:17
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Did we have to report by the 30th, or can I sign up now? If it's not too late, I'll aim for 31 films. No particular theme - I'm working around the whims of my wife and other friends, so whatever I can grab by hook or by crook. 10-12 already watched depending on whether Lawnmower Man and Promising Young Woman qualify. Personally I would include both, but I could see counting them as straight sci-fi/a dark comedy respectively.
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Oct 13, 2021 15:28
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Leatherhead posted:Did we have to report by the 30th, or can I sign up now? If it's not too late, I'll aim for 31 films. No particular theme - I'm working around the whims of my wife and other friends, so whatever I can grab by hook or by crook. Just post!
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Oct 13, 2021 15:39
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7. Psycho Goreman I went in to this apprehensive because the reviews on it were so divisive. There really wasn’t any “it’s ok, I guess”. I would say now I see why, except everyone should love it!!! My wife and kids were out of town, and I NEVER laugh out loud at things when I’m alone and I LOL’d twice at this. I guess I understand the criticism of not liking the little girls character but that was also wholly the point. I found PG to be smart, funny, plenty of spatter, I really dug it. Hoping to rewatch with my kids. 8. Revenge I’ve almost watched this about 8000 times and I’m glad I finally decided to stop and check it out. First of all, this film is equally disgusting and beautiful. The colors are bold and brilliant and the camera work is the real hero of this movie. There are some really great subtle shots like Jens finger on the trigger being equally neon pink nail polish and half missing and bloody from all the poo poo she has been through. Somehow they managed to make the rape scene (I really hate rape scenes) not even the most disgusting thing about the god drat rape scene! Dimitri close up chewing Charleston Chew knock off was equally as vile. Jens body hanging off the tree being slowly covered in ants also gave me the heeby Jeebys. The plot is your typical revenge plot but you should watch it for everything else because it’s really well made and somehow, beautiful. TheBizzness fucked around with this message at 16:03 on Oct 13, 2021 |
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Oct 13, 2021 15:55
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 Halloween H20(AMC+) So I skipped Halloween 6, partly because it's bad and partly because I'm trying to ramp this thing up to Halloween Kills on Friday and Halloween 6 has nothing to do with Laurie. I know this isn't a new observation, but it really struck me this time just how much Williamson used the same template for this movie as he did for Scream. The opening scene where you get a little mini-movie before the credits, there's a scene where someone hides from Michael in a bathroom stall, and then of course the dialogue of the teens has that same mid-90's quality to it. There's even a little nod to Scream in a scene where they show it playing on a television, just like how Halloween was playing on the t.v. at the party in Scream. Jamie Lee is really the reason to see this, and watching her first confronting the realization that Michael is back and then making the choice to face him down is very compelling. Almost all of the cast aside from her are bland at best and actively annoying at worst. We get a bit of a break with the presence of LL Cool J, who is always fun in whatever role he plays, but he's underused and doesn't really end up doing anything important in the end. The movie has precisely one iconic, memorable scene where Laurie shuts the door on Michael and they stare each other down through the window. I wish it was better, and it could've been a lot better, but sitting down to watch it in 2021 is really just about experiencing a time capsule of mid/late 90's horror and that's about it. 1. Phantasm 2. Malignant 3. The Thing 4. The Mummy(1999) 5. The Curse of Frankenstein 6. Child's Play 7. The Fog 8. Hellraiser 9. Beetlejuice 10. Elvira Mistress of The Dark 11. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein 12. Dead Heat 13. Halloween 14. Halloween 2 15. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers 16. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers 17. Halloween: H20
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Oct 13, 2021 16:08
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long-rear end nips Diane posted:Just post!  #1 Malignant First time watch It's an absolute blast to see this much joy and attention lavished on such a wall-to-wall awful script. For my money, Wan is at his best when he sets aside de-saturated grittiness (ala Saw or Insidious) in favor of big goofy fun (as in the underwater battles of Aquaman or the last act of Insidious). Malignant takes both modes to their extreme, and it's obvious which one the director enjoys more. Often, the movie feels like a local Halloween House; Wan needs the audience to plod through some joyless scenes of setting, back story and half-hearted character development, so that he can jump out of a closet in a devil mask and shout "Ooga Booga Booga" in your face. The listless first half is punctuated by an occasional moment of brilliance - the overhead tracking shot through the house stood out as particularly nice - but it mostly feels like dreary padding, running the clock out to feature length before we get to a reveal which will surprise no one who's been paying any attention at all. Conversely, once that reveal hits, it's nothing but unpredictable batshit fun until the credits roll. In one scene, we're paying homage to Hennenlotter and other scuzzy NYC films - trapped in a jail cell full of menacing ~ethnics~ and ~lesbians~. In the next, we're basically just playing an Ubisoft game, and you can practically see the "press X to parry" reminder. To me, this feels like a future Halloween classic; my friends and I spent almost as much time talking and laughing about it as we did watching it. I also want to give credit to Troy James doing his Troy James thing and some very fun prosthetic work from the design team. Star Rating: 2/5 Spooky Rating:   #2 Kuso First time watch Kuso may be the most accurate vision of a post-apocalyptic America, assuming there's no degree of degradation or queasy horror that we won't accept as the 'new normal' given preservation of a few basic comforts. A deliberate exercise in the grotesque, it's tempting to dismiss Kuso as 'merely' transgressive, or 'simply' disgusting. But the revulsion and discomfort it elicits is not unearned or incidental. The movie goes after your gag reflex with gusto, and there's a lot of work up on that screen, even if you may question the wisdom that put it there. It drags in places - the concrete/hole segment never really coalesces into anything, and some of the animations from Jimmy ScreamerClauz start to feel like meandering screen savers, rather than anything shocking - but at the very least you can use Kuso as a sort of Rorschach test: wait for the bit of human biology that makes you flinch, then wonder about why that is. In sharp contrast to my previous entry, if you put this on at a group gathering without enthusiastic and informed buy-in, you're an rear end in a top hat huge enough to play host to Mr. Quiggle himself. Star Rating: 3/5 Spooky Rating:
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Oct 13, 2021 17:01
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15/05/11 Abandoned Grain Elevatorquote:15/05/11 - ABANDONED GRAIN ELEVATOR is a terrible, awful, indulgent and simultaneously vacant retread of the worst impulses of found footage, doing everything Blair Witch Project did fully 13 years ago but with worse everything. Unlikable (and inaudible) Canadian crust-punks explore an abandoned grain elevator. Literally nothing happens and nothing is developed for 50 of its 55 minutes, then some spooks happen and we get the exact same ending as Blair Witch only worse with no setup. Shrecknet fucked around with this message at 17:19 on Oct 13, 2021 |
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Oct 13, 2021 17:13
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30. Djinn (2013) Directed by Tobe Hooper 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates Watched on Tubi  I went into this not expecting very much. It’s Tobe Hooper’s final movie and one of his lowest-rated efforts. The premise is very solid though. After the death of their child, Khalid and Salama relocate to be near her parents. Of course, the apartment building they end up in is far outside the city and perpetually surrounded by spooky fog.  Because Khalid’s job is in the city, Salama ends up isolated and alone. It’s the metaphor of marriage and motherhood as a prison the provides the scares here. Salama sees things that others don’t or won’t, as unseen forces work to keep her from leaving the building. The pieces of a good movie are there. They just aren’t put together very well.  Basically, Djinn takes the premise of Rosemary’s Baby, puts it into a haunted apartment building, and then does nothing especially interesting. It’s never a good sign when you get to the end of a movie and wonder what the point was of anything that lead there. I read that there were rewrites mandated by the royal family and that would make sense. It feels like a story that had been chopped apart at least a few times. 💀💀 Spooky Travelogue 30/31 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 🇭🇰, 14. Brotherhood of the Wolf 🇫🇷, 15. Şeytan 🇹🇷, 16. Rift 🇮🇸, 17. Alison’s Birthday 🇦🇺, 18. The House at the End of Time 🇻🇪, 19. Daughters of Darkness 🇧🇪, 20. 122 🇪🇬, 21. Us 🇺🇸, 22. 2012: Curse of the Xtabai 🇧🇿, 23. Faust 🇩🇪, 24. Rigor Mortis 🇨🇳, 25. Penumbra 🇦🇷, 26. November 🇪🇪, 27. Killbillies 🇸🇮, 28. Alucarda 🇲🇽, 29. Sputnik 🇷🇺, 30. Djinn 🇦🇪
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Oct 13, 2021 18:15
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*100% First-Time viewings* Movies that score a ‘7’ or above get images. # 10 GAMERA THE BRAVE (2006) The Heisei Gamera trilogy is a tough act to follow and oh boy does Gamera the Brave, a love letter to the Showa series for children, scale down the franchise’s ambitions. Opening with an impressive battle between Gamera and a few Gyaos, I exclaimed “Oh drat!” because it was some good kaiju footage. It made me wonder why this movie was overlooked. These thoughts were premature, sadly. What comes next is an overlong series of scenes with a kid and his pet turtle named ‘Toto’. The kid insists it is Toto and not Gamera even when it begins magically flying around. A kaiju called Zedus (think: a slim, chameleon-like Godzilla) comes to shore and corners humans against crumbled buildings and devours their flesh, an interesting choice because this movie goes out of its way to be kiddie in all other aspects (Gamera fans will be quick to point out that the Showa series, too, had its share of bloodbaths). In one of the few neat and original fight sequences, Toto, now medium-sized, takes hold of Zedus’ retractable tongue and launches a fireball into his face, temporarily warding Zedus off. More talking scenes.... More scenes designed but fail to tug your heartstrings.... More of the kid crying ‘Toto!’ … followed by a lackluster final battle. Bizarrely, Gamera’s cry is not even used – it’s a generic dinosaur sound that’s been used in many movies! I think the cry of an elk was even used! Was some sort of copyright thing going on or was it to disassociate from the Heisei series? This is hardly the worst Gamera film – ironically, the bar is low enough for the series that it may even be one of the five best. But I can barely muster a recommendation for it. Kudos to the cinematographer – I did notice the film is shot very nicely. SCORE: 6.2
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Oct 13, 2021 18:33
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 #13. Dracula's Daughter (Vudu) Following immediately after Dracula, a strange noblewoman arrives in London shortly after the death of Count Dracula, and Prof. Van Helsing believes a new vampire is stalking the city. Work and personal stuff ate up more of my evening last night than I expected, so I needed something pretty short that I could squeeze in ahead of the "Chucky" premiere. Clocking in at around 70 minutes, I figured I'd take a shot on Dracula's Daughter, since it fit my only criteria for the night. Similar to Bride of Frankenstein, this Universal sequel picks up right after the first Dracula film ends, with a pair of cops coming across the bodies of Renfield (an unnamed stand-in) and Dracula (a wax figure of Bela Lugosi). Also similar to Bride, Daughter ends up playing its material as more comical than its predecessor, with the cops fitting in the now stock "idiot constable" stereotype. The overtly goofy material largely dissipates after the introduction of main antagonist Countess Zaleska, though the film includes some light and airy His Girl Friday-style beats for our leads (Otto Kruger, wooden, and Marguertie Churchill, better than the material) to play off of each other. Those are pretty much the best parts of the movie, since Kruger is a boring lead, Gloria Holden's syrup-y accent as Zaleska holds her back, and the whole thing is more chatty than anything else. There's some nice atmospheric settings going on in the beginning, but once Zaleska has burned up that wax Lugosi dummy a lot of the rest of the film is stiff sitting rooms and one okay alleyway set, so the film becomes harder to look at. There's also a notable scene of potential lesbian overtones, when Zaleska picks up a poor woman to "pose" as a life model, but it's the 1930s so you don't see much of anything and intimation can only go so far. The rest of it as a bunch of dull dialoguing while standing or sitting around, so my attention was waning pretty hard in the lead-up to the last 10 minutes or so. (I did like how the ending seems to be that Zaleska only dies because her loyal manservant character is a terrible shot with a bow-and-arrow.) It's fine enough, but I think you can do better when searching out for possible Universal Monster options. At least it's short. /5Watched so far: The Hunt, The Fog (1980), The Howling, Venom 2, Curse of the Demon, The Mummy's Tomb, The Stepfather (1987), Maniac Cop, The City of the Dead, Halloween (2018), Killer Klowns From Outer Space, DeepStar Six, Dracula's Daughter
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Oct 13, 2021 18:35
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 53) Death by Invitation - 1971 - TubiTV I wonder if it was a trend for films with 'Invitation' in the title to have a screaming mouth on the poster? This was a pretty standard 'witch curses those who killed her' film. It does lean slow and dull, and many of the characters are such over the top caricatures they're hard to take seriously. I'm not sure if the crew was lacking in skill or what, but this film's technical and dialog flaws are out the wazoo. This one was pretty bland for a 'meh'.  54) Alison’s Birthday - 1981 - TubiTV Averaging everything here, this was an okay enough folk horror entry. 16 year old Alison's warned from beyond to not go home for her 19th birthday. Naturally, she goes home on her 19th birthday. Things get worse from there. What happens is something most of us in the thread know where this is going. Alison is going to be sacrificed so the cult her family belongs to can provide a new body for their deity, Mirna. I'm not sure which I found more flat, that beyond finding the stone ritual spot she really doesn't do anything, it's her boyfriend who does all the research and discovery or we don't find the motivation for the cult's worship. Wicker Man, it was for the crops; Midsommar, the spring renewal. Here, this could easily be swapped out for generic satanists. Even the poster gives that impression. With a little tweaking, this could've been better.
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Oct 13, 2021 19:49
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MOVIE 8: SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004, Prime Video) "You've got red on you." A few days ago I watched "Werewolves Within" and noticed that even though it was an alright comedy, it wasn't any good as a horror movie, unlike some of the best horror comedies. Like Shaun of the Dead. So why not rewatch Shaun of the Dead again? Shaun of the Dead has been one of my favourite movies from my first watching onwards, probably in part because I was in the same age bracket and situation in life as Shaun at the start of the movie, so the whole thing resonated with me on a deep level (which is also why I still love The World's End as well). But also probably because it's one of the finest horror comedies of all time. It works brilliantly as a comedy, and it works brilliantly as a zombie movie. And it's so rewatchable! On every watching I notice some new little detail, which just speaks to how much love Edgar Wright and the crew had for the movie, and how much they focused on attention to detail as a result. At this point most of those little details are already well known but I still get a kick out of seeing a lot of the zombies as humans before they get turned, earlier scenes and conversations that are later repeated almost verbatim with a completely different tone and meaning and of course the genuine heart the movie has. Like loving hell, the one-two punch of Shaun finally having to accept his step-dad's good intentions and love for him as the man was dying from a zombie bite, and then having to watch his mum die moments later is genuinely gut-wrenching stuff and Simon Pegg acts the hell out of those scenes. Great jokes, brilliant in-jokes for fans of horror movies and zombie films, genuinely tense atmosphere and Tom Savini levels of gore. What more could you ask for from a horror comedy? All-time classic. Score: 5/5 My October 2021 movies: 1. Fear Street 1994, 2. His House, 3. Willy's Wonderland, 4. Halloween III, 5. Demons, 6. Werewolves Within, 7. No One Gets Out Alive, 8. Shaun of the Dead
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Oct 13, 2021 20:46
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9. Amusement Park This is barely a horror movie and closer to a PSA on how senior citizens are discriminated against which is still tru today despite the film being made almost 50 years ago. It’s not particularly scary or anything but it is an interesting watch and since it’s Romero I felt like I needed to see it. I realize it’s runtime doesn’t meet the criteria of the challenge but I plan on watching more than 31 movies and maybe Fran will make it part of a challenge so I’m counting it. 10. VFW Assault on Precinct 13 meets Bucketlist. I really love how well this captured the 80s feel almost everything seems to be going for now better than things that are explicitly nostalgia cash-ins. Especially the “this is what the breakdown of society will look like” vibe that 80s apocalypse movies had. The story itself is pretty typical siege film but is elevated by wonderful performance from Stephen Lang and Fred Williamson. Some wonderful colorization that sets the tone for the aforementioned apocalyptic 80s feel. Nothing game changing here but a nice way to spend 90 minutes. 11. Horror Express A thread darling, and one I wish I would have checked out sooner. Not enough Lee and Cushing would be my only complaint. The Thing on a Train doesn’t really do justice to what’s captured here but as close as I can come to explaining it and not at all what I was expecting. Stellar performances all around highlighted by the father/monster monologuing why they should let him live. 12. No One Gets Out Alive I was all set to say this was a boring stinker (first one of the month) but the last 20 minute or so is where they spent all their budget and almost redeems it. Unfortunately for must it’s run time it’s a pretty paint by the numbers “the ghosts aren’t the real threat here” haunted house tale, and the true horror is what undocumented immigrants have to go through in this country. I would still probably say to skip it if you have other options but at least it wasn’t a complete 0.
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Oct 13, 2021 21:06
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8. Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare (1968) A pair of graverobbers in Iraq disturb the rest of an ancient Babylonian vampire demon. The demon kills them and then flies directly to Japan where he murders and takes on the appearance of a Lord Magistrate. This disturbs the native monsters who team up with a samurai to fight off the invading bloodsucker. A totally different film from the first one (see my previous post on Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters also from 1968 because the Japanese work fast) The humans are for the most part perhipheral in this film compared to 100 Monsters where the titular Yokai didn't get nearly as much screentime and most of them no dialogue. They don't really appear much until the final few minutes and then they're largely silent apparitions scaring the characters before disappearing into nothing. Here most of them have entire scenes of dialogue with each other and with humans. Which makes them a lot less spooky but I think the idea was to make them more sympathetic and relatable which would've been harder if the portayl had stayed consistent with the first film. Deimon, the Babylonian vampire, is actually sort of scary looking if in a somewhat kitsch way. The effects in general are quite nice for the era even though they're in that Tokusatsu style where they aren't really going for realism. Most of the monsters are very obviously just guys in make-up or suits but the make-up and suits is cool enough that you don't mind. I enjoyed this much more than the first film partly because it's one consistent story throughout and not one story with one anthology segment haphazardly jammed into the middle. If you like Japanese stuff where people in rubber suits fight you should be able to extract enjoyment from this.
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Oct 13, 2021 21:49
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what is the best movie you've seen for the first time for this challenge?
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Oct 13, 2021 21:55
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Shrecknet posted:what is the best movie you've seen for the first time for this challenge? Images (1972) and Titane (2021) for me. Vampire's Kiss is probably the third favorite.
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Oct 13, 2021 21:58
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Shrecknet posted:what is the best movie you've seen for the first time for this challenge? Baby of Macon, easily. FreudianSlippers posted:8. Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare (1968) If I didn't like this one is there a chance I'll like the first?
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Oct 13, 2021 22:03
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Shrecknet posted:what is the best movie you've seen for the first time for this challenge? For me it's definitely November (2017). It was beautiful and weird and there was just so much happening.
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Oct 13, 2021 22:04
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married but discreet posted:Baby of Macon, easily. Very little. I'm guessing you need to be a very specific sub-species of Weeb for this to stick.
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Oct 13, 2021 22:05
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Shrecknet posted:what is the best movie you've seen for the first time for this challenge? Lost Boys and People Under the Stairs are my two favorites so far. I kinda want to rewatch both, but I’m already struggling to keep to my schedule. Speaking of…  Film 26 The Evil Dead Directed by Sam Raimi. 1981, United States🇺🇸 You know, the last time I saw this was on VHS. Big difference between that and the UHD. The gore effects have never looked better. Raimi used every trick in the book and a couple gallons of fake blood to pull off a no holds barred horror extravaganza. It wastes zero time getting into the meat of the story. You got some friends, they go to a cabin for the weekend, find a scary book, poo poo happens. It can feel a little unrelenting at times. There’s very little down time once the possessions start, and what little there is still has incredible tension throughout. Even in his first feature, you can see Raimi’s incredible camera skills. The peculiar angles and camera locations to drive home the uneasiness. Bruce Campbell is rightly lauded for this role. He gets beaten, stabbed and bled upon. What a trooper. However, I don’t think enough credit is given to Betsy Baker as Linda, especially when she’s possessed. That cackling will haunt me. In fact, all the sound design is stellar. The groan and cries and gurgling noises of the possessed add a whole new layer of fear. My only big issues are it can feel a little long since it’s just 80 some minutes of non stop scares and the tree scene. It’s just a little too much for me. 🎃🎃🎃🎃.5/5
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Oct 13, 2021 22:07
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10. Candyman (2021) ***½ An update that seems to really divide audiences, but I didn't know why prior to seeing. I watched Candyman 2 last year and loved the setting but overall didn't care a ton about the movie itself. I've not seen the original since being a kid in the 90s, so it felt I could go into this while knowing the lore while not having anything directly to compare it to fresh in my mind. I think it ultimately worked well enough as both sequel and reboot to the original, and while it doesn't get as deep with the messaging as I feels like it wanted to (a pretty brisk runtime eliminates this really), it flows well and the horror scenes were pretty awesome. I didn't have as high expectations or investment as others, and I enjoyed it plenty. 11. WNUF Halloween Special ***½ In the past I've tried to watch this on Halloween itself, and always failed. Most memorably I managed to get the first 5 minutes on before being respectfully asked to turn it off, so this year knowing I wouldn't be around on the night itself I knew it was time. My main concern was, being a stickler for well executed nostalgia I didn't want to be picking holes in how it was produced instead of enjoying the story. Luckily, the crew obviously put a lot of love and detail into making this feel as legitimate as they could with the budget, and it shows. Frank Stewart is just a fantastic local remote reporter, and carries the film from the moment the show switches over to him being the focus. It's great to watch what they were able to do with stock footage to make the commercials, especially ones that are supposed to be actual TV shows - they just end up looking ludicrous, and it somehow works. You can't make something like this without having genuine adoration for the time period and what they're essentially satirizing, and it really shines through.
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Oct 13, 2021 22:09
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Shrecknet posted:what is the best movie you've seen for the first time for this challenge? Pretty tough call between Little Shop of Horrors and A Nightmare in Elm Street for me so far this year.
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Oct 13, 2021 22:10
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Shrecknet posted:what is the best movie you've seen for the first time for this challenge? Curse of the Demon
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Oct 13, 2021 22:19
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