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 28. Noroi: The Curse (2005) "No matter how terrifying, I want the truth." Framed as a found footage/documentary type of thing, this is presented as an investigation into Kagutaba, an ancient demon. It has interviews, home movies they collected, clips from TV shows and so on and really feels like you're digging into the story. Thankfully, this is not your typical jump scare factory like a lot of found footage - it's just tension and creeping dread, building and building to the point where I actually had my hands up by my face in case I needed to quickly cover my eyes. I never do that. This was effective as hell, some of the imagery is deeply disturbing.  4.5/5 -- Spooky Bingo: The Devil Made Me Do It 29. Spring (2014) "Vampire, werewolf, zombie, witch or alien?" This is probably borderline for the Spaced Invaders box, but I'm gonna go with it. Went into this relatively blind, expecting a horrorish movie based on my experience with Resolution (The Endless and Synchronic are both on my list too) and was not disappointed. The story follows Evan, a man who loses his mother in the opening moments of the movie, taking a random trip away from the U.S. to try and clear his head. It's your classic "American abroad falls in love" story, except Louise is some sort of Lovecraftian magical nightmare creature created by an ancient volcanic eruption, hoping to get pregnant so that she can eat the embryonic cells to regenerate herself. Wild, right? But it's also really charming and romantic, like you're Ethan Hawke in Before Sunrise except you're spending time with that thing from that part of Possession instead of a French girl. 4/5 -- Spooky Bingo: Spaced InvadersTotal Watched: 29 // 'New to Me' Total: 21/40 Years Complete: 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2013, 2014, 2018, 2021
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Oct 15, 2021 05:01
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 15. American Psycho 2 (2012) For the Hooptober challenge, the worst part 2 you can find. I'm also doing new-to-me movies, and I've seen a bunch of the usual suspects, but this beat out Blair Witch 2: Book Of Shadows on LBD by being a few points lower. It tries for a lighter horror comedy tone, a bit of the OG, a bit of Scream, and outside of one or two moments, basically fails at both. The script is bad enough that when characters speaking in dialog uncover a plot hole, the other character just starts yelling at them. Police? Nah. Bodies hang out in the library for apparently hours if not days with no one noticing them, along with all the other bodies of people she's killed. The whole town also has an epidemic of stupid infecting everyone. It's an entirely different planet of quality than the original. It ignores whole heaps of the first movie (as a sequel, nothing makes sense - she was there as a young girl at Patrick Bateman's last killing and then killed Bateman and then William Shatner had been investigating Bateman for years and then oh no the headaches have started again.) And yet, for all that, this movie isn't entirely devoid of charm. Just maybe 99.9%. There was a moment where I chuckled and thought, good on ya movie. But then you see the movie poster and that scythe is not in the movie *at all*. Sadly this doesn't even cross off a bingo square. SPOOKY CARD  15/31: The Lure, Candyman, Wyrmwood, Malevolent, Vivarium, Three Extremes, Def By Temptation, Fanatic, Kuso, The Pit, VHS94, Blackwood, Shadow Of The Hawk, The Queen Of Black Magic (1981), Monstrous (2020), American Psycho 2
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Oct 15, 2021 05:20
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smitster posted:
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Oct 15, 2021 05:39
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#15. House (1986) (Bingo Challenge- Hausu) I'm surprised I hadn't seen this one before; it's one of those things where the poster image (a severed hand ringing a doorbell) was ubiquitous in video stores and the like during the late 80s/early 90s, it's been on streaming since forever, etc. William Katt plays Roger Cobb, a horror novelist and Vietnam vet determined to write a book about his war experience. When his aunt commits suicide, he moves into her house, despite some bad memories of his son going missing when he and his (now-ex) wife were living there. Sure enough pretty soon he starts seeing monsters and other strange things, intermixed with war flashbacks and neighbors dropping in at the worst possible times. It's interesting how abruptly the horror genre shifted to focusing on comedy; there had always been comic horror films but around '85 you see the wind shift. Maybe Ghostbusters was partly responsible, maybe everyone just realized the slasher glut had crowded the marketplace and humor was the best way to stand out, maybe it helped fend off critics and the MPAA. In any case this one's at least pretty consistent about going for chuckles over scares; there's material here that's potentially serious but there's always something lightening the mood. Of course a lot of the humor itself consists of Cobb trying to act normal when the neighbors drop in, and that frustration did get to me at times- it's a fine line between farce and just plain discomfort (as Aaronofsky would later discover.) Peter Jackson's Brain Dead would thread this needle more effectively. Still, after a time the film began to win me over. George Wendt is expectedly hilarious as the nosy Harold, who gets some of the best bits, and through all the gags there is a genuinely cool horror moment when Cobb smashes his bathroom mirror, revealing a hole that shouldn't be there. I also must single out a really great line from a fake soap opera: "My sister was an only child, and you abused her!" Overall it has sort of the feel of a first draft, with some rough edges and a very abrupt ending, but it's charming and inventive enough to work.
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Oct 15, 2021 05:54
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 - (55). Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) Directed by Tim Burton; Screenplay by John Logan; Based on Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler Watched on TubiTV HalloweeNIT 10/31 Not really a musical fan per say, but not overtly turned off by them. I am a Burton/Depp/Carter fan. I know that’s kind of rare these days. I get it. You can get tired of Burton Burtoning and Depp Depping even without the problematic elements of their personal stuff. Anything being done over and over can wear thin and both are guilty of going to the well a lot (and together). But I never really got sick of either. I mean not everything’s a hit with me and there’s definitely diminishing returns by the 4th or 5th Pirate film but I still mostly enjoy the acts. And I think this one is different. Putting the musical stuff aside for a second the movie has all the same darkness and macabre Burton is known for but I think its actually more sinister. He’s usually got a bit of romanticism and fairy tale to his stuff but there’s no happy ending with Sweeney Todd. I also thing its pretty reserved on the effects and Burton visual affectations. Apparently he intended to film it on green screen before going to a real set and I think that shows because it feels much more real and gritty than Burton’s usual hyper reality. The opening credits were very CGI heavy and had me worried but I didn’t really notice or think about it the rest of the way. And while Depp definitely has affectations he tends to fall back on I think none of them are here. He plays Sweeney Todd as a very monstrous, terrifying, and sad man and I think does a great job. Of course its a musical so we have to talk about the music. And again, I’m not really a fan and I think my criticisms and lack of them will show that. For one, did Depp and Carter do a good enough job with the music? They did for me. On the flip side that whole Johanna side plot is made up by theater performers and while I think they did fine I really didn’t care about their story nor their musical numbers. I gather that part of the story was cut down for time but that does basically leave it for plot devices and songs and… meh. Theres also just that musical thing of… what’s the word? Reprises? The same song over and over, or the same tone with new lyrics. I get it, I know its a fundamental part of how musicals work. And sometimes I find it very clever and fun. But other times I’m just kinda like “I heard this one, where’s the skip button?” Ultimately I don’t love the film but I did enjoy it. I’ve seen the play once but I can’t say much about it. It was long and interesting but I had been drinking. Burton does a good job keeping this feeling brisk enough for a two hour musical. I don’t know how much had to be sacrificed to do that but it sounds like Sondheim wasn’t mad about it. Its not gonna become a favorite of mine or anything but I do think its a fun Halloween movie especially if you have an audience more predisposed to this kind of entertainment. It made very solid decorating entertainment… even though I barely got anything done. But that’s on me. And maybe a little the film engaging me more than I expected.  - (56). Halloween (2018) Directed by David Gordon Green; Written by Jeff Fradley, Danny McBride, and David Gordon Green; Based on Characters by John Carpenter and Debra Hill Only my second time watching this but I was real hyped. I loved this the first time I saw it because it just felt like such a strong approximation of the Carpenter/Halloween vibe after all the modern Scream, Jason, and Rob Zombie variations. And like, just seconds into the rewatch I was smiling feeling that same vibe again and satisfied that I was gonna be happy about how this held up. And by and large I absolutely was. I don’t think I loved it as much as I remember from the first time. There’s definitely some clumsy elements and stuff that just doesn’t need to be there at all. I’m looking at you random rear end subplot about a lovely boyfriend and poorly placed bad jokes at the expense of a “nice guy” character. That felt a bit more like the “Danny McBride” I expected and it just served no purpose at all. And yeah, I’m kind of looking at you New Loomis. Overall I am a fan though. I love the approach to Jamie’s trauma and response. H20 does that but goes a completely different way with Laurie being scared to death, in the original script even to the point of abandoning her kid. The second H20 (or as you may call it, Scream 3) went to the “fight back” territory a bit but man, no punches are pulled here. Laurie’s full on badass and the film doesn’t treat it as cool, they treat it as the unhealthy, destructive obsession it is. Sure, she’s right and her obsession ultimately saves their lives (well, most of them) but it also led to 40 years of pain and suffering. I’ve seen people say they should have just focused on Laurie and not her granddaughter but I like the idea of that generational trauma and pain. Its always been a low key part of the Halloween franchise I really enjoyed. Michael doesn’t just kill people, he damages them. Everyone and everything left in his wake is scarred and broken and traumatized. Its what’s always drawn me to Halloween over the other slasher franchise. There’s a link and realness. Laurie, Jamie, Loomis, Haddonfield. There’s always real lasting damage and it all means something. Its not just Jason slashing up some random people until the next shipment arrives. So yeah I really like the three generations of Strode women all hurt by Micheal in different ways well before he returns. My first instinct was that I wanted Danielle Lloyd as the mom and I still sorta do. She was very good in the Zombie films and she’s owed something from the franchise for how they treated her. But I also recognize that would be fan service and distracting. It would have led to people exhaustingly reading into it and nitpicking the already absurd continuity strings of the franchise. So clean break, ok. Judy Greer does a good job as the angry, fed up, too much like her mother victim not of Michael but of Laurie. And I really enjoyed Andi Matichak as the third generation too far removed to really understand what happened and just be hurt by the damage this has done to her family. I wish that had been a bit more for her to do and maybe that’s the explanation for all that unfortunate love triangle stuff, but I enjoyed what we got and look forward to seeing more of her in Kills. I do think my takeaway here is that there’s just a bit too much going on in the film. There’s stuff I like such as the rear end in a top hat reporters who accidently wake up Michael or Allyson’s really cool babysitter friend who ends up in Michael’s path of rage. But also if those things weren’t here the movie wouldn’t lose a ton. And there’s stuff like New Loomis that feel like they just shouldn’t have been. I get the idea, I don’t dislike it. Loomis went insane treating Michael, obsessed with stopping the evil he saw. So this guy just went insane the other way, obsessed with seeing and understanding the evil. On paper I like it but it happens so suddenly and has so little payoff that it just feels like a silly waste of time. You didn’t even need it to get Michael to Laurie’s house. You could have worked up another contrivance, I’m sure. Michael’s characterization here is interesting. Its not all that clear that he’s actually after Laurie or the Strodes. Its entirely possible he’s just a mad animal that was set loose and they just happen to be in the way and read into it. That’s an interesting idea, that Laurie’s wrong. That Michael never actually cared, she was just the random victim in his path. And its ambiguous. Michael isn’t dumb or mindless. He’s constantly making deliberate choices so maybe he DOES know who Laurie is and is gunning for her and her family? But its left very in the air and I think that’s cool. And to that end I can see why you’d feel the need to get Michael to Laurie through a third party. But it feels rushed and kind of silly. That’s probably the mark against the movie, and again, I think they just had SO MUCH they wanted to do and it all kind of ends up a little pressed together and some parts feel rushed or expendable. But I do think all that stuff helps create the world that makes these films work for me where many slashers fail. Halloween starts from a normal real world town and Michael disrupts it. The town and its people are there before Michael, and he’s the intruder. They don’t just exist so Michael has someone to kill. So the thought is in the right place. The execution is just occasionally clumsy. But overall I really did love it and think it was a successful revival of the Halloween franchise. And by that I mean like… the Carpenter Halloween. I don’t have a problem with the Zombie Halloweens but they’re his and don’t fit into the whole, even beyond the impossible continuity. Its a full on remake/reimagining. This is a revival or sequel. It fits and feels right. Its a movie that now that I have a second watch under my belt will probably become a regular watch for me in one of the many possible continuity timelines you can wander down. I’ve said for awhile that this film makes H20 irrelevant and rewatching both of them this month I’m doubling down on that. I’ll always have a soft spot for the Thorn Trilogy because its what I grew up with and I’ll revisit Zombie’s movies as their own thing. But I can very much see a very easy Halloween ’78/’18 double feature maybe with II thrown in. And I’m excited and hopeful to see how Kills fits in here. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 06:20 on Oct 15, 2021 |
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Oct 15, 2021 06:02
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3. The Neon Demon Very pretty movie, but I think this will take a few watches before I really "get" it, because I found this first watch a bit difficult to keep track of, and it seems to be more based around symbolism than flat out telling you what's going on. Content is rather extreme, so you might want to check that out first depending on how much you can tolerate. Also, not on my Hooptober list but:  Halloween Kills It's got a bunch of cool shots and really sick kills. Unfortunately doesn't have that much of an ending, but it's the middle piece of the trilogy they're doing. Hope Ends sticks the landing because I've enjoyed both this and 2018 quite a bit.
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Oct 15, 2021 06:08
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16. Voodoo Moon (2005) Watched On: Tubi TV This had been sitting on my list for a while, I'll usually bite on anything set around Louisiana because I love all the swamps and bayous. This movie though... I should have left it on the list forever. It looks so loving cheap, worse than the Buffy show on it's worst day. Speaking of that, Charisma Carpenter is in this piece of poo poo AND Jeffrey Combs. They're way too good for this. That being said, the plot seems kind of a similar to IT but like, if IT was really bad. 17. Halloween (1978)  Watched On: Shudder I usually save this for closer to the holiday itself but we have a brand new Halloween coming out this week so I'm going to make an exception. I guess I don't feel like I can say much insightful about Halloween that hasn't already been said. One thing though, I wish Donald Pleasance had been around for Halloween (2018) and the upcoming Halloween Kills. He's just irreplacable and so drat good at Dr Loomis that I don't think anyone will ever come close. It's hard to imagine the first movie without him if Carpenter hadn't managed to get him on board.
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Oct 15, 2021 06:10
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Think I'm gonna aim for the right bingo column. I see that Nick Carter wrote a zombie version of The Magnificent Seven and got a bunch of boy-banders to act in it so I guess that's going to be my Asylum pick. Might flip a coin between Scanners and Suspiria for the video nasty (assuming that this is the list of eligibles).
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Oct 15, 2021 06:20
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TheKingslayer posted:One thing though, I wish Donald Pleasance had been around for Halloween (2018) and the upcoming Halloween Kills. He's just irreplacable and so drat good at Dr Loomis that I don't think anyone will ever come close. It's hard to imagine the first movie without him if Carpenter hadn't managed to get him on board. The crazy thing? Pleasance was the third choice after Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee turned the role down. Like... I can't even wrap my mind around Lee Loomis.
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Oct 15, 2021 06:22
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Christopher Lee as Loomis just sounds like it doesn't fit with how Donald Pleasance portrayed him.
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Oct 15, 2021 06:42
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Yeah Pleasance clearly made the decision "Michael has driven Loomis mad" at some point.
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Oct 15, 2021 06:47
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I should mention that Donald Pleasance would be pushing 100 if he lived to appear in Halloween 2018 so I really don't think it was ever going to happen.
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Oct 15, 2021 07:39
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Justin Godscock posted:I should mention that Donald Pleasance would be pushing 100 if he lived to appear in Halloween 2018 so I really don't think it was ever going to happen. I guess I more meant like, of appropriate age and healthy.
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Oct 15, 2021 07:44
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TheKingslayer posted:I guess I more meant like, of appropriate age and healthy. True, maybe even just a brief non-speaking cameo if he was able to and his family willing.
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Oct 15, 2021 07:45
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As much as of course I would have loved for Pleasance to be in the revival I don't think Loomis serves any purpose at that stage. Loomis' whole thing is stopping Michael and '18's whole think is Laurie and the Strode women fighting back so I don't think there's really any room in the narrative. And the film's already overstuffed with stuff. Like I get what they were doing with New Loomis. Taking Loomis' mad obsession and twisting it the other way. Its a neat idea and could have been an interesting Halloween sequel. But its squeezed in here clumsily and just seems weird because it doesn't fit. So even if a 100 year old Pleasance were here and in good condition to do something as much as I would have liked it just as I would have liked to see Danielle Lloyd cast as Laurie's daughter... it probably would have just ended up a fanservice distraction.
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Oct 15, 2021 08:24
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 - (57). Child's Play 2 (1990) Directed by John Lafia; Written by Don Mancini Watched on Peacock The second film isn’t quite as “scary” as the first one. There’s not a ton of tension or question. And it feels a lot less adventurous purely as a filmmaking idea. I’ve seen a lot of killer doll films and I think Child’s Play is the best at really pulling the idea off wholeheartedly. But its got rough edges as well. The second film sands off a lot of those edges. It isn’t taking quite as many chances with Chucky and the effects but that’s largely because its really nailed the puppet work and Chucky feels alive and like one of the characters more than a doll they’re making look alive. There’s still some iffy shots for sure but by and large Chucky comes to life here and really this is where he besoms Chucky as we know him. He’s mean, he’s crazy, he isn’t really interesting in staying quiet and pretending to be a doll. He’s still trying to get out of this body and the urgency of that situation probably drives him to be bolder, but he also seems like he’s just more comfortable in his body so to speak. Brad Douriff and Don Mancini really seem to have figured out the character here run with it making Chucky one of the pantheon of slasher villains. To that end the movie’s a lot less interesting in scaring anyone or anything and just goes full on action and danger. And that results in some fun stuff and a really killer finale that might be the single most memorable sequence in all the films. And that’s saying a lot considering the weird poo poo in the later films. But despite all this the film still manages to have a lot of pathos. Andy’s not only traumatized but he’s been ripped from his mother who is out there suffering the consequences of what happens when a bunch of people show up dead in your life and you blame a killer doll for it. And Andy is messed up and sad and alone and the movie doesn’t really pull any punches there. His foster parents aren’t really and guys. I mean, its entirely logical to assume the kid you just met who says a killer doll is stalking him has troubles beyond your ability to help with or handle. But its heartbreaking to see Andy rejected like that. And Christine Elise is great as Kyle, the sudden foster sister of someone she could just kind of write off and decide is too much trouble like the foster parents but instead reaches out and chooses to be family to someone whose isolation she can relate to. I love it when these movies introduce a character like that. Not a love interest, not a family member or authority figure or someone who feels responsible to help based on roles. Just someone who could walk away and doesn’t because they choose to give a drat. I’m saying I love Kyle. So yeah, I still think I like the first film more. Its more of a pure horror film to me, or more of the kind of horror I like. Closer to a kind of haunted house type scenario than a slasher. This one’s a straight up slasher and its a real fun one. Not as unique after there’s been 5 more sequels and tons of CGI movies but still really its own thing and the defining film for Chucky. The first film lays the groundwork but this finishes the job that would establish the next 30 years and counting of sequels. And its a good fun watch with a great ending.  30 (58). The Wolfman (2010) Directed by Joe Johnston; Screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self; Based on The Wolf Man by Curt Siodmak Watched on Peacock I guess the Dark Universe could have been worse… I was actually a little up for this. The cast is killer and the aesthetic looks good as they’re just trying to do a Universal film with a modern budget and technology. But man. Its funny, I’m planning a Van Helloing rewatch maybe as soon as tomorrow and both films feel born of the same problem. An era of CGI that was so far advanced from what they had before that filmmakers fell in love with it and made movies all about it. Instead of using it to spice up stuff you make it the feature attraction, and not only does it age poorly but it just starts to feel more like a cartoon or hyper real thing than the story you’re theoretically trying to tell. The wolves look pretty good in moments but then the movie just becomes video game graphic action scenes. Not only doesn’t it look all that good but its just so artificial. The original film isn’t one of Universal’s bests but there’s a real simple strength to it. It doesn’t really try and be scary or thrilling, its more of a mournful piece. Lon Chaney Jr starts of gleeful and full of life and he’s broken by the curse. He’s the one scared of what he’s become and what he will do. Its almost a metaphor for terminal illness. And the ultimate sadness of the film is his father finally understanding what’s happened when its too late to save his son. So its certainly a choice to turn the whole thing into an evil conspiracy from dad ending in a werewolf fight. I dunno. I wanted to like this but I could just never fall into it. The cast is good, the setting is good. But nothing ever feels real or flows. The whole thing just kind of rolls off me so much that a couple of hours later I can’t really think of anything to say about it. It just kind of sucked. But hey… Franchescanado posted:
I got my first square. 
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Oct 15, 2021 09:00
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-- 21. The Mortuary Collection -- First time watch Second anthology for the month. Thank god for Clancy Brown bringing some much-needed charisma to this in the wrap-around story. I guess I'm having a bad night, I didn't enjoy this much. First one with the woman in the bathroom - Short and okay, not much of a story, just a creepy monster behind the mirror. Second one, the rapey college student who gets m-pregnated - Physically disgusting and the acting sucked. What the gently caress was with the dude who was meant to be the nerd of the fraternity? That might be the most inexplicable performance I've seen in a movie in a long time. What the gently caress was he doing?? I was eating at the part when the goopiness started, my bad I guess. The shot with the dude's penis exploding was just toooo muuuch, mannnn. Third one, with the dude and his sick wife - Is this meant to be black comedy? It's just depressing. Dude hates his sick wife and tries to kill her, then accidentally kills her a different way. Madness ensues. I didn't find this short funny, or scary, or fun. Fourth one, with the babysitter - Better than the previous ones. The head-smashing practical effect was naaaasty. Actually had a good twist. Well that's over with. Not the best anthology. --- Also sorry to be a downer but I'm revising my goal for the month. I'm gonna take some films off my list, maybe to get it down to 40 (last year's number) instead of 48. (personal stuff, probably not worth reading) I'm watching a lot of stuff I'm just not enjoying, and my overcommitment in terms of number of films means I'm losing time I could be spending doing other things that are important to me, like art. Don't get me wrong, I love watching movies, but in a normal month I'd watch like one a day, and spend a good amount of free time doing other stuff too. I'm really not trying to disparage the challenge or anyone else's viewing habits, this is purely a me thing. I just tried to cram too many movies in for this challenge compared to my normal viewing habits, and it's just resulted in them eating up all my spare time while I only enjoy like... half the films. I don't have a lot of spare time each night and I really don't want to let my other hobbies suffer. Lately I get to the end of each night feeling drained, and wish I had spent more time drawing, reading, and spending time with my fiancé. He hates horror so he's usually off in another room doing stuff and I'm just sitting on my couch by myself. Again this is all self-imposed misery, I'm not complaining about horror movies or this challenge, I just over-committed myself. And I gotta be honest, some of the really dark depressing content of these movies is really getting to me because of some tragic family stuff I've gone through in the last three weeks. That's my griping over, time to revise my list and try to pick the ones I really think I'll enjoy.
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Oct 15, 2021 11:39
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13: The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism (1967) Tales of the Grotesque: based on The Pit and the Pendulum What an amazing film title. It has many, but this is the best one. Christopher Lee is an evil count (how novel) who is torn into quarters by horses as punishment for his crimes. 35 years later his servant is trying to bring him back to life and take revenge on the families of those responsible for his death. The sets are absolutely adorable. Skulls everywhere, torture racks, an iron maiden, alchemical flasks of all shapes filled with coloured water and dry ice, vultures, snakes, spiders, trap doors, a pit and a pendulum. It's everything you could hope for in an evil lair. Other than that, it's not hugely noteworthy but it's entertaining enough. Good campy fun. 14: Enemy (2013)  What would you do if you found you had a doppelganger? Jake Gyllenhaal gives a fantastic performance as the two men, one a meek lecturer and the other a pervy actor. There's a lot of spider imagery. Real spiders. Monster spiders. There's a lot of ambiguity about what's literal or symbolic and for much of it I wasn't sure if there really were two of them. Still not sure tbh. There's a lot to unpack in this movie and I expect I'll be chewing it over in my mind for a few days. Would certainly recommend. Total: 14 Q the Winged Serpent; Zombieland Double Tap; Saint Maud; A Chinese Ghost Story; Halloween 4; Halloween 5; Gamera VS Viras; Saw 3; Boar; Crash (1996); Vampyr; The Wailing; The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism; Enemy 
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Oct 15, 2021 12:12
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 #12: Curse of Aurore Nothing happens in the entire first hour. Thee people drive around French Canada with a vague notion of finding inspiration for a screen play from the story of a child murder that happened there 100 year ago. They don't even suspect there's anything supernatural involved until like fifteen minutes from the end. That's when they see a ghost in the road, which makes them check their footage, and they see that a spooky face appeared in the background a couple times(so subtle I didn't even notice them while watching those scenes) and then spooky stuff finally happens and the last fifteen minutes are actually alright. But not worth slogging through the first hour to get through. If you literally cut like, half an hour to 45 minutes out of this movie, you could make a decent short film out of it. But at full feature length, don't bother with Curse of Aurore. There's one more thing worth noting. the movie has the most pointless and out of place bookends I've ever seen. A youtuber does unboxing videos of Dark Web Mystery Boxes. Which are exactly as it sounds, boxes of random stuff you buy off the dark web. And in case you were worried that that concept might have any sort of mystery or menace to it, they actually show the online storefront. There's an icon that's a cube with a question mark on it, and it's labeled "MYSTER BOX" and there's an add to cart button. The boxes are always full of garbage, but sometimes it's garbage that appears to be evidence from a crime scene. The youtuber finds the footage of this movie on a USB stick inside a creepy doll. At the end the Youtuber is like, "Goddamnit. Another murder one. I'm going to have to give all this stuff to the cops too. this is why I stopped doing Dark Web Mystery Box unboxing videos". And I kinda love that. Give me an entire movie of that, please. True crime/spooky Youtuber taken like one notch up where they're actually ordering murder evidence off Etsy and their reaction to real evidence of the existence of ghosts is just tired annoyance that they'll have to talk to the cops again. That's great. It's a shame it's only five minutes of an otherwise extremely boring movie. 
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Oct 15, 2021 14:46
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bitterandtwisted posted:13: The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism (1967) You know, call me a prude if you will... but I would not book appointments with a Doctor Sadism and I have to wonder how successful his practise is with that name.
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Oct 15, 2021 15:12
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Shaman Tank Spec posted:You know, call me a prude if you will... but I would not book appointments with a Doctor Sadism and I have to wonder how successful his practise is with that name. "Dr. Smith has an availability at 8:00am, and Dr. Sadism has an opening at 10:30" Me: "Let's do 10:30"
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Oct 15, 2021 15:27
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 Count Dracula(PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK CHALLENGE) I'm always on the hunt for Dracula adaptations I've never seen before, and this is one of the biggest that I was still missing. I did some looking into the situation and apparently this was a BBC movie that was originally aired continuously in a single night. Then, later on when they re-aired it they chopped it up into three episodes. So to me that means this counts as a movie, not a mini-series, but Fran can correct me if I'm wrong. The movie itself is an odd combination of the standard BBC stagey kind of production that feels a lot like watching a play, but then also some beautiful locations and scenery mixed in. At about 2.5 hours, it's definitely too long and whatever points I might want to give it for being faithful to the book are negated by that length. Clearly there's a reason why most Dracula adaptations tighten certain things up or combine characters, etc. Like a lot of Draculas, the main draws in the cast are Dracula himself and Van Helsing, everyone else is pretty bland and forgettable. Louis Jourdan as Dracula is solid but relatively unremarkable in the pantheon of Draculas, but I did take special notice of Frank Finlay as Van Helsing. Finlay also appears in horror thread favorite Lifeforce, as a Van Helsing-type character who ends up being turned by the space vampires. Lifeforce had a mostly British cast and so clearly Finlay got the gig because he was already known as Van Helsing, which is a connection I never knew about before. There are moments of beauty but in 2.5 hours they just don't come often enough. The version that's on Amazon Prime is mediocre, so it's possible that with a nice blu ray transfer my opinion could change somewhat, but for now I'll probably file this one away in the "glad I checked it off the list, probably won't be revisiting it" category.     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 18. VHS 94(TALES OF TERROR)19. Count Dracula(PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK)
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Oct 15, 2021 15:32
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Spatulater bro! posted:"Dr. Smith has an availability at 8:00am, and Dr. Sadism has an opening at 10:30" Yep, there it is.
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Oct 15, 2021 15:46
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Franchescanado posted:Femme Fatale  #16. The Voices (HBO Max) Jerry, a slightly disturbed but nice enough guy, is just trying to make it in this world: going to work, trying to woo a girl he likes... and ignoring the commands of his cat, Mr. Whiskers, who keeps telling him to kill. And once Jerry gets in over his head, listening to Mr. Whiskers over the voice of Bosco, his loyal dog, just starts to get easier and easier... This was a solid little horror-thriller-comedy, pretty much anchored by Ryan Reynolds' trio of performances (he provided the voices of Mr. Whiskers and Bosco, in addition to his winning turn as hapless weirdo Jerry). Credit to both Reynolds and director Marjane Satrapi for being able to twist his "likable weirdo" persona into something so sinister; it works in a way that similar turns from late-career Robin Williams would. It also helps that Gemma Arterton and Anna Kendrick give great performances as well, to help keep Reynolds bolstered throughout. Kendrick especially gets a lot of great work in the latter half, going from the quiet mousy girl getting love-struck for maybe the first time, to having the rug pulled out from under her when she finally sees how her new boy toy is living. (It's a neat trick that Satrapi pulls - since we're rooting for Jerry even as things spiral out of control, we don't realize how bad things have gotten because he can't perceive them correctly. When Jerry has an interlude of taking his medication for the first time in the whole movie, or anyone else enters his apartment/life, we can actually see how things really are, with body parts and blood and trash piled up everywhere and Jerry screaming at his animals unprompted.) This was a bit of a roller coaster - it starts off fun and funny, gets really weird and dark and sad in the back half, and then ends on something of a high note. (This might be my favorite end credits scene that I've seen in a good long while.) But it also remembers to never lose either the dark undercurrent in the beginning, or the humor in the sadder and scarier moments. Credit to both Reynolds and Satrapi for being able to walk that tightrope so deftly.  /5 Watched 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, Tremors, Friday the 13th Part 8, The Voices
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Oct 15, 2021 15:59
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I wanted to be extra and actually make a physical card. 8.5x11, has the rules on the front with the card and the category descriptions on the back. Gonna throw the link here in case anyone else wants a physical card: It's a PDF  Or hell, if you're comfortable with it, PM me your address and I'll mail you one. Until I run out of orange and green paper I guess. I promise not to draw dicks on the envelope. 
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Oct 15, 2021 16:26
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#13 Sleepaway Camp (rewatch) Robert Hiltzik, 1983  In a previous review I called this movie "bland". Not sure if I was just in a bad mood or what, but it's anything but bland. Sure it doesn't have the most graphic kills, but what it lacks in gore it more than makes up for in its hilarious weirdness. I was laughing my rear end off this entire viewing. 3.5/5 13 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), 7. We Are the Flesh (2016), 8. V/H/S/94 (2021), 9. Antropophagus (1980), 10. The Boy Behind the Door (2021), 11. A Cat in the Brain (1990), 12. Grotesque (2009), 13. Sleepaway Camp (1983)
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Oct 15, 2021 16:29
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shrimpwhiskers posted:I wanted to be extra and actually make a physical card. 8.5x11, has the rules on the front with the card and the category descriptions on the back. Gonna throw the link here in case anyone else wants a physical card: Oh this was cool, I was actually able to print it out on orange paper that we had lying around here at my office. Super convenient to have the rules on the back to easily reference.
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Oct 15, 2021 16:31
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Darthemed posted:Was it “Stop calling me Bobby!”? It might very well have been - I appreciated that Shatner actually had a role and wasn't just a cameo/bit part.
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Oct 15, 2021 16:43
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 30. Crimson Peak (2015) "Ghosts are real, this much I know." I'm glad I put off watching Crimson Peak for so long, as I think I have a greater appreciation these days for the films that del Toro is fawning over with this. Beautiful spooky sets, tons of atmosphere, and a... good enough story. Jessica Chastain is fantastic in this. There are some big violent moments that always caught me off guard since the majority of the film is this slow burn, but it worked well. Doug Jones looks gross and great. 3.5/5 -- Spooky Bingo: HausuTotal Watched: 30 // 'New to Me' Total: 22/40 Years Complete: 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2021
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Oct 15, 2021 16:54
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 #39) 555 (1988; DVD rental) An ambitious (in terms of gore and sleaze) SOV slasher with strong soap opera vibes and a sweet synth score. A hippie is going around killing people who have sex, and the police force is useless to stop him. The movie gets from point A to point B without too much fuss, the kill scenes are dramatic enough (and loaded with plenty of screaming), and the police scenes are hilarious in their attempts to be hard-boiled. Eh, this just really didn't do much for me. It felt like a slasher made for Cinemax, but downgraded to SOV budget and standards. The killer's huge hair and beard props were amusing, but there just wasn't enough consistent energy to carry me through without getting bored. SOV horror is always a gamble, and I lost on this one. “We'd like to talk about the murders. Wanna let us in?” Rating: 5/10
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Oct 15, 2021 17:02
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 If you want to argue with me that The Old Dark House isn't a haunted house movie, we could get into an argument about what makes a haunted house movie. Does the house need a ghost? Does the house need something supernatural to it? Can a haunted house be completely normal, just filled with a creepy atmosphere? Well, unless Fran comes down from Horror Movie Heaven to tell me I'm wrong, I'm going to argue that this IS a haunted house movie. The title, the location, the sheer atmosphere the place lends to the play. The premise is, two groups of travelers in the Welsh mountains are stuck driving at night during a rainstorm, and are forced to shelter at this isolated house. They're greeted by a mute butler who has terrible scars, an extremely nervous fellow, and his going deaf older sister. They're not thrilled to have company, but let them stay. I think the single best character in the film is the little old lady as she's the most perfect example of the cliche I've ever seen. She repeats creepy phrases, cackles, misinterprets what you say, preaches, bosses around everyone, takes no bullshit, and is just a wonderfully awful little old lady.  I'm going to drop spoiler tags because wondering what will happen is part of the tension, even if imho there are no huge twists. Go ahead and click if you're curious: A series of small events happen - the little old lady creeps out the wife, the nervous fellow coaxes the husband into going upstairs to get a lamp as he's afraid of going upstairs, the butler gets drunk and attacks the wife (one of the scariest bits of the film as it's presented with no frills, just a big man trying to grab a woman, and brrrr) and finally they find a decrepit old person upstairs who tells them that this house has death and misfortune in it. Two people in their 20s died here. And there's Saul, the eldest, who is terrifying. ... Yes, he's let out by the drunk butler. Saul seems like a decent enough old man with a sob story, but almost instantly he turns to have a serial killer vibe and there's a great tense showdown / talk-down between him and one of the travelers, and a knife is involved. But - and this is key - nothing supernatural happens. Everyone (except Saul) survives the night. It's a creepy story with elements of horror, but I don't think I was ever actually scared? Well, scared for the wife as she fled from the butler. I don't know if this is because I'm immune to this kind of horror or because I had to be there in the 1920s. Who knows. Either way, I had a good time. It's not too long (seventy minutes!) and the dialogue is fun and fast, and it's just a creepy little story that wraps up fast. I also even appreciated the romantic subplot, as it was entirely about chemistry, and gasp - the actors had it! I could totally believe that they met and instantly wanted to fall in love with each other. I'll give this a 5/5 for being good. This is the kind of five star film where it's not a grand classic of the genre / best movie of all time, but because it does everything it wants to do really well. The characters were fun and snappy, the house and its inhabitants were great, and the pace was a solid rush through the rainy, rainy night. I don't know if I would change anything in it without having to remake/reshoot the entire thing.
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Oct 15, 2021 17:04
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Russian Guyovitch posted:Count me in for 31 new-to-me films. Thanks for organizing this, Fran! I'm way behind on my reviews, so sorry for the massive post. 1. Malignant – Watched on HBOMax. A woman who just barely survives a run in with a ghostly figure that kills her abusive husband starts to have visions of other murders that the entity commits. As the police try to get to the bottom of these killings, detectives start to get suspicious as to just how she seems to know so much. I wouldn't go so far as to say that this is a good film, but it sure as hell is a fun film. It commits to a pretty ridiculous premise and lets you know that it's swinging for the fences with it right from the get go, with its opening nighttime shot of ludicrous gothic castle situated on the edge of a cliff, complete with raging storm. While there are some weak performances and some really thin characterization for the majority of the cast, it's not going to let you have time to ever get bored. A fun but shallow ride. 2. Slumber Party Massacre 2 – Watched on Shudder. Courtney, the youngest survivor of the events of the first film, is trying to move on with her life and is excited to go spend her birthday having a party at friend's vacation house with the rest of her band. Also, for some reason she's southern now. Throwing a wrench in these plans is the fact that Courtney is being plagued by recurring nightmares of leather clad rockabilly singer wielding a guitar mounted drill stalking and killing her friends at the condo she's headed to. Are these really premonitions, or is she just going mad? This is a pretty serious fall from grace, after a very underrated first entry in the franchise. The plot takes absolutely forever to get moving, and once it does, it's completely nonsensical. It has the feel of a film in which they came up with the idea for an over the top slasher villain, then had no idea how to work him into the rest of the story. For a movie that clocked in at around 80 minutes, this really felt like it dragged. 3. Horror of Dracula – Watched on HBOMax. Jonathan Harker arrives at the castle of Count Dracula, ostensibly to serve as the count's new librarian. We learn shortly after, however, that Harker has an ulterior motive, as he is aware of the Count's monstrous nature and is there to put an end to him. Unfortunately for him, Dracula is a bit to clever for him, and he soon finds himself among the undead. It's now up to his partner, Abraham van Helsing, to finish his work. This film is the first of Christopher Lee's appearances as the count, and my first time seeing his take. To be honest, I don't feel that he got much of an opportunity to leave a huge impression. He certainly brings more of an inhuman menace to the character than you saw with Lugosi, but he's somewhat limited in terms of screen time, which is perhaps a bit more faithful to the novel than the Lugosi adaptation, but feels somewhat unsatisfying. And while the reduced presence of Dracula himself may me more faithful to the novel, that's pretty much the only thing that is. The locales in the film are all shrunk down to put everything within an evening's carriage ride of Castle Dracula. This allows for a bit more of an action-oriented take on the story, and allows Peter Cushing's take on Van Helsing to really shine. As opposed to the wizened old doctor of the books, Cushing is a dashing man of action, who instead of dispatching vampires resting in coffins, goes toe to toe with the count himself in his own throne room. All in all, while I did enjoy the film, I'm hoping that some of the later Hammer Dracula sequels might give Lee a little bit more material to work with. 4. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors – Watched on HBOMax. Years after the events of the first film, Nancy Thompson is now an aspiring psychiatrist who takes an internship at a mental hospital in her hometown of Springwood. There, she finds herself working with a group of teens who the doctors say are all suffering from a group psychosis, in which a mysterious figure is tormenting them in their dreams, which has already led to multiple suicides at the hospital. Nancy knows better than to think this is just a delusion, and after discovering that one of the teens has the ability to bring other people with her into her dreams, she sets about working with them to take the fight to the man in their dreams, Freddy Kreuger. Probably the most highly regarded film in the series after the first, it's somehow the only one that I managed to miss out on seeing over the years. It's also where the producers realized that they really needed to lay into Kreuger as the main draw of the film, as it's where he starts to develop the wisecracking persona that is associated with the series. It's also lays the groundwork for the whole “bastard son of 100 maniacs” backstory that's used throughout the rest of the series as well, which I was honestly never a fan of. For me, I just find that adding more explanation just detracts from the character. Still, I can see why it's ranked as highly in the franchise as it is. The kills are all creative and thematically appropriate to each character, and while Freddy's delivering quips when he kills, it's not as over the top and light-hearted as in the last couple entries. He retains a real sense of malice that's lost in the later films as he transforms into a cartoon. Also, this one has far and away the most Dokken of the entire franchise. 5. Psycho Goreman – Watched on Shudder. A brother and sister discover a mysterious crystal buried in their back yard, and in digging it up, they inadvertently unleash an ancient intergalactic evil upon the world. They quickly discover that the crystal that the sister has gives her complete control over it, however, and she's quick to take advantage of having a planet destroying evil at her command. This is a fairly divisive film in the horror thread, and it's easy to see why. The sister Mimi is an intentionally grating character, and if that isn't your thing, you're just not going to like this movie. For me though, I thought that it worked perfectly. It's an over the top gory episode of Power Rangers with a ten year old girl as the villain, and everyone around her just rolls with the weirdness of it all. While maybe not everyone's cup of tea, it's definitely mine. 6. Spookies – Watched on Shudder. Various lost travelers looking for a party find themselves lost and wind up stumbling upon a spooky old abandoned mansion. Inside they discover an ornate and sinister looking ouija board, and after they decide to ask some questions, all hell breaks loose. Meanwhile, a sinister old man menaces a well-preserved corpse that he's trying to resurrect. Also, there's some sort of a cat-man with a hook for a hand, for reasons. This sure was a movie. In fact, it's really two movies, hastily mashed together. Originally starting out as a film titled “Troubled Souls,” all of the footage of the party-goers with the ouija board and their ensuing tragedies was shot by one production crew that was looking to make an ambitious monster movie with a wide variety of creatures stalking the halls of the mansion. However, when the financial backers of the film started having issues with the producers, all post-production came to a grinding halt, and later a second production team was brought in by the backers to shoot additional footage, which contained none of the original cast, and that was clumsily edited into the original film, giving us Spookies. What's particularly impressive about the resulting mess is that, while it wasn't great, you can see the ambition that was present in the initial footage. The story was bare bones and just an excuse to showcase different monster designs, but there was some real love and imagination being put into all of those monster effects. The later footage, on the other hand, has none of the charm, lazy make-up effects, and the added story not only doesn't make any sense with the original plot, it also isn't internally consistent with itself to any degree. What might have been an ambitious flop wound up being turned into an absurd train wreck. 7. Child's Play (2019) – Watched on Hulu. When a defective smart doll is returned to her store, Karen decides to take it home for her son Andy's birthday. What start off as cute quirks of the doll not having the usual safety features installed start escalating, until people around Andy start mysteriously dying. Now it's up to him to stop his killer doll, before it's too late. I know that this one isn't as widely accepted among fans of the original films, but I really liked the direction they went with here. This Chucky isn't an evil monster from the get-go, like in the original. Here he's a basically a child; a basically blank slate who's basing everything he does on the two basic things he's programmed to know: 1) Andy is his best friend, and 2) he needs to make his best friend happy. So that means that if Andy likes it when Leatherface puts the severed face on Stretch in TCM 2, and also hates his mom's boyfriend, then that means he's going to love it when Chucky gives him his mom's boyfriend's severed face stretched over a watermelon. Mark Hamill's voice acting does a great job of selling this, keeping Chucky's tone as childlike as possible, even at his most villainous. There's never any real malicious edge to it. He's just a toddler that doesn't understand why Andy won't just play with him. Overall, while not the same kind of film that the originals were going for, I think this definitely succeeded at doing it's own thing. 8. Stagefright – Watched on Shudder. The cast of a musical about a serial killer stalking sex workers in the inner city are rehearsing on an isolated sound stage in the countryside when an escaped mental patient kills one of the costumers in the parking lot. Desperate for a hit, the director decides to seize on the tragedy, rewriting the play to make the story about the very same mental patient that committed the murder. To pull it off in time for opening night, the director locks the cast on the sound stage for an overnight rehearsal of his changes, not realizing that he's locked the killer inside with them. The directorial debut of Michele Soavi, Stagefright is a well-paced slasher with a really memorable look for its killer. While it doesn't reinvent the wheel, there's very little wasted time, and the tension is constantly ratcheting up once things are underway. Highly worth checking out if slashers are your thing. 9. V/H/S/94 – Watched on Shudder. After receiving a disturbing video tape, the police raid a warehouse where they discover what appears to be a cult compound, imprisoning people and forcing them to watch disturbing videos until they die. As the raid progresses through the warehouse, we get to see four of those tapes. As with all of the V/H/S movies, the wraparound is the weakest part here. While not quite as bad as the wraparound for Viral, it's in contention for worst of the series. As for the vignettes, they were a mixed bag. For me, the first was the stand out, doing a good job building tension and doing the best job of incorporating the nineties feel into the short. The third is fun, but a bit of a letdown given that it was from Timo Tjahanto, and fell well short of his excellent “Safe Haven” from the V/H/S 2, what with all of the After Effects muzzle flashes and overly digital look of the film. The fourth has an interesting concept and I liked the creature design, but ultimately it just didn't click with me. Finally, the second was the weakest of all, for me. It was basically just a long, drawn out spooky campfire story. There just wasn't enough there to merit its inclusion, in my opinion. Long story short, if you're familiar with the V/H/S films, you're not going to be particularly surprised by anything here, but not overly disappointed either. A solid, if unremarkable entry in the series. Hail Ratmaa. 10. Army of the Dead – Watched on Netflix. When a zombie outbreak occurs in Las Vegas, the city is walled off, and survivors who fled are quarantined into camps in the surrounding area. Years later, the US government has decided to nuke Vegas and be done with it from here on out. With the nuke just around the corner, a wealthy casino owner recruits one of the heroes of the battle of Vegas to put together a team to retrieve the $200 million in cash sitting in the vault before the bomb can drop. This was a pretty fun horror-action flick. Zak Snyder does a good job of telling the story of the fall of Vegas during the opening credits in a way that gives you all the backstory you need to really establish the setting. The team assembled has some solid performances and a good blend of personalities, and the film does some interesting things with its zombies, giving us a slightly different take from what we're accustomed. All in all, it's not going to blow you away, but Army of the Dead is a solid way to spend a couple of hours. 11. No One Gets Out Alive – Watched on Netflix. A young woman from Mexico arrives in Cleveland, ready to start a new life in America after the death of her mother. Her undocumented status leaves her with few options in terms of work and housing, and she finds herself living in a sketchy boarding house run by two suspicious brothers. As mysterious things start to occur around the building, she begins to wonder if the brothers aren't the only things there she needs to worry about. A decent haunted house film, the real horror here is the uncertainties and vulnerabilities the protagonist encounters due to her undocumented status. Additionally, what starts as a straight-up haunted house film gets a bit of a twist creature feature ending. The design work for that end is great conceptually, although I wish there had been some practical effect work involved, because the CGI winds up looking pretty flat. Overall, a decent, but not super noteworthy ghost story. 12. Crimson Peak – Watched on Netflix. A Victorian era period peace from Guillermo Del Toro, Crimson Peak is the story of Edith, a young woman and aspiring author from Buffalo, NY who meets and falls for a charming English nobleman, despite her industrialist father's disapproval of him. Following her father's death, she marries him and returns with him to his family's ancestral home in the English countryside along with his brooding sister. Once there, Edith soon discovers that the three of them are not alone in the house, and must get to the bottom of the mysterious happenings before she winds up haunting the halls herself. Between the focus on the central romance and the crumbling English manor house setting, this film is a classic Gothic ghost story that feels like equal parts Charlotte Bronte and Shirley Jackson put together ( and later with some Flowers in the Attic for good measure). A solid, if not wildly original, story, the real draw here is the visuals. The set and ghost design are a treat, and take what might be a pretty standard ghost story and elevate into something more. 13. Severance – Watched on HBOMax. A team from the London office of an international arms dealer are invited to a team-building retreat at the company's new luxury lodge in the mountains of Serbia. When the road conditions force the team to detour through hostile terrain on foot, however, the lodge that they arrive at doesn't live up to expectations, and as the night wears on, suspicions grow that they might not be in the right place. While this one doesn't bring a ton new to the slasher genre, it's a fun little horror comedy, with more emphasis on the horror than the comedy. While you get some standard jokes in there based on the usual stock characters (if not somewhat aged up from the typical slasher movie teenage/twenty-something year-old victims), once the horror really gets going, it keeps the tension up, with only the occasional bit of levity. All in all, definitely worth giving a look if you haven't seen it before, though probably nothing you'll ever feel the need to revisit. 14. VFW – Watched on Shudder. A group of aging vets congregate at the local VFW hall in the seedy part of town to celebrate proprietor Fred's birthday. Just as the night winds down, a young woman runs through the door, with two attackers in pursuit. The crew intervenes, leaving the attackers dead and one of their own grievously wounded. Soon, they find themselves in a life or death struggle, besieged by a horde of murderous punks, looking to get their hands on the girl and the bag that she was carrying. A grindhouse-style throwback, in the same vein as things like Hobo with a Shotgun or Planet Terror, this is a fun movie with a lot of Assault on Precinct 138 in its DNA. It has a strong ensemble cast with Stephen Lang and William Sadler stealing the show. That's everything from before Fran posted the spooky bingo. Now to start filling in the card.
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Oct 15, 2021 17:11
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Edgar Allen Poe's Requiem for the Damnedquote:Two stars just for The Black Cat, what starts out looking like hokey nonsense ends up being a super-stylized and very fun version of that tale. Usher and Rue Morgue are eminently forgettable, and Pit & Pendulum is peak 'our friend is a manager at Hot Topic' nonsense, and the Tell-Tale Heart updates in a pretty fun way.  1) One Cut of the Dead 2,3)Freddy's Return, Never Fall Asleep 4,5,6) Fear Street(s) 7) Debug 8) Astro Loco 09,10)Flesh, TX & Black Christmas (2019) 11) GOG 12) It Came from the Desert!13, 14) Happy Death Day 2 U & The Perfection 15) Train 16) 15/05/11 17) The Brain 18) EAP's Requiem for the Damned
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Oct 15, 2021 17:21
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MOVIE 10: FRIDAY THE 13TH (2009) They Always Come Back  "Ch ch ch ch... ah ah ah ah..." Friday the 13th is a movie of two halves. Well, more accurately 1/5 and 4/5ths. We open with a group of rear end in a top hat teens who come to Crystal Lake for a camping trip, and also to find a legendary pot field that's rumoured to grow around there. Crystal Lake is also the place where, according to urban legend, some lady went crazy and killed a bunch of counsilors back in the 1980s. And sure enough, the assholes have barely settled down for sex and assholery, when a mysterious burly killer wearing a burlap sack over his head is already murdering them with bear traps, a machete and burning them in a sleeping bag. God drat. So wait, we're 15 minutes in and Jason's already killed all but one of the teens? So the remaining hour and half are going to be one teen running with zero kills? And he's wearing a burlap sack? What, are you doing a reboot of Friday the 13th Part II and having Jason wear a sack in the first movie, thinking you're going to get to make more of these? Michael Bay, please. But then the last teen gets got and a late title card pops up. And now it's six weeks later. And another group of rear end in a top hat teens turn up to Crystal Lake, along with Jared Padalecki who is looking for his lost sister, one of the original teens. And sure enough, Jason starts murdering people in brutal ways and yaaaay he's wearing the mask! So they're doing the sequel within the same movie, that's kinda clever! I'm gonna be honest, Friday the 13th surprised me in more ways than one. My expectations were already low, and when "Produced by Michael Bay" was one of the first credits, they sank below C.H.U.D. territory. But the movie ain't awful! The teens are cartoonishly awful people, so it's awesome when Jason starts to murder the gently caress out of them. The kills are also very inventive and bloody as gently caress, which is also nice to see. It doesn't all work. The opening flashback to the remake of the first movie's finale is real badly done and shot in a bizarre hyperactive "cut to black every 1,5 nanoseconds" strobe style. Jared Padalecki is essentially Sam from Supernatural, and while that's Jared Padalecki's natural state of being, maybe a more competent director could've taken him aside for a brief chat. There's too much what tries to be clever dialogue but falls flat on its face. Like the token black guy in the group keeps pointing out he's the token black guy and making "Oh you thought I'm starting a RAP LABEL? Why you gotta put me in a box? I can't be black and listen to Green Day? Yeah I'm starting a rap label" jokes. Movie, you're not that clever. But poo poo. rear end in a top hat teens getting hacked apart by Jason (in a hockey mask, yaaaay!) in brutal ways, competent filming and a bunch of little nods and references to the original movies? That's enough. I wouldn't call this an amazing movie, but then again I also wouldn't call many of the original Friday the 13th movies amazing, so I guess it balances out in the end. I would have thought that remaking / rebooting Friday the 13th was a terrible idea, but the bastards made it work. SCORE: 3  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 Makes It Out Alive, 8. Shaun of the Dead, 9. Call of Cthulhu (Based on the Novel), 10. Friday the 13th (2009, They Always Come Back)
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Oct 15, 2021 17:43
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🎃 Starring Brad Dourif 🎃 Malignant (2013) Directed by Brian Avenet-Bradley Watched on Tubi  No, not that Malignant. It’s the other one. It’s the one with Brad Dourif. After his wife dies, Alex self medicates with alcohol. This does not prove to be very effective and he descends further into depression. Seven months later, a mysterious man appears and offers a treatment for his alcoholism. It’s all completely legit and there are no unforeseen consequences at all.  I’m not sure what you call it when a character is only visible from behind or in shadows and only heard on the phone for 2/3 of the movie. It’s not exactly voice acting. Anyway, that’s Brad Dourif’s deal here. For a long time, his character is more of a presence than anything else. He does as much as he can, given the constraints of his role. The rest of the actors are okay, I guess. The premise is interesting but the execution is not compelling. 💀💀 Spooky Bingo 4/? 1. The Crazies (2010), 2. The Ritual (2017), 3. Blacula (1972), 4. Malignant (2013)  Spooky Travelogue 31/31 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 🇦🇪, 31. Cold Prey 🇳🇴 twernt fucked around with this message at 21:38 on Oct 15, 2021 |
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Oct 15, 2021 18:52
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SPOOKY Challenge: fear dot com  #40) Distorted (2018; Blu-ray) A married couple moves into a smart house apartment complex, then get creeped out by it. I went into this hoping for something like Sliver meets Demon Seed. What I got was more like Slender Man meets The Net. Christina Ricci (man, it hurt seeing her in something this bad) plays the wife, who has some sort of past trauma, which is exacerbated when the TV in the new apartment starts flashing shock image collages and negative words. It's gonna take the help of an off-the-grid specialist played by John Cusack to help her fight off the intrusive visions that may be planted there by the mysterious mogul who developed the smart apartments. Generally speaking, the performances are fine. It's the script and scene direction that sinks this. Conspiracy buzzwords are thrown around like they're trying to hit a bingo, the subliminal stuff is insultingly stupid, and big plot developments hinge on Ricci's character being unable to close her eyes, for no particular reason. The relationships between characters are half-baked, so betrayals of trust and other changes don't have nearly the impact that they're trying to have. If you're specifically looking for a bad riff on The Manchurian Candidate, this is your movie. If not, don't waste your time. “My name's Vernon, by the way.” Rating: 5/10 
Darthemed fucked around with this message at 05:19 on Oct 16, 2021 |
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Oct 15, 2021 18:56
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 19. Halloween Kills (2021) “You want your mask, come and get it!” Spooky Bingo: They Always Come Back Knowing that this was the middle of a trilogy left me with low expectations, but I ended up liking it a lot. Halloween Kills spun out the focus to the rest of the town (in a way that reminded me of the best parts of Halloween 6), and it continued to highlight the generational trauma of the Strode girls in a really interesting way. It did an incredible job of personalizing its victims, even many of the incidental ones, which is a step that slasher movies often skip. I also really liked the window that we were given into the aftermath of the last movie’s attacks, watching the victims’ families and the town as a whole react to the situation. And the more I think about it, the more I love the fact that (major spoiler) Michael and Laurie didn’t make their way back together in this one. Halloween Kills runs with the idea that going after Laurie again was never personal, so she’d spent her life obsessed with him when the feeling wasn’t mutual. And after all that, her plan still wasn’t good enough. That seems like a great setup to take into one more movie.  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) 7. Slaxx (2020) 8. House of Wax (1995) 9. When a Stranger Calls (2006) 10. Till Death (2021) 11. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) 12. Peeping Tom (1960) 13. Intruder (1989) 14. Lifeforce (1985) 15. The Keep (1983) 16. Halloween (2018) 17. Night of the Living Dead (1990) 18. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
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Oct 15, 2021 19:25
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10. SPOOKY BINGO: Short Cuts  A Warning to the Curious (1972) 50 minutes  Mr.Paxton, a down on his luck amateur archeologists, seeks fortune and fame via discovering a legendary Anglo-Saxon crown said to be buried near the sleepy town of Sesburgh. He soon discovers the crown is guarded by more then just superstitious locals who refuse to talk about due to a belief that the crown is the last of three ancient crowns preventing any foreign army to invade England.* Quite different from the original short story without changing all that much. It's been a while since I read the story but I recall the story Paxton being a legitimate scholar who seeks the crown largely out of professional and intellectual curiosity in the film Paxton is broke as evidenced by his worn shoes and further signaled by the fact that he is wearing what was at the time a purely working class hat (a flat cap or possibly a Baker Boy cap. I'm not a hat guy. No cap.) though he himself is a middle class man fallen on hard times, presumably due to the Great Depression, rather than a proper prole. In the story the exact nature of the crown's guardian is unclear but in the film it's explicitly the ghost of William Ager. Although based on the chat Paxton has with the antique store owner the ghost should be the archeologist murdered by Ager at the start as he claims human sacrifice was practiced in the middle ages as a way to secure a guardian for important sites and judging by the tools Paxton finds in the mount he was pretty deep in when Ager killed him. Or perhaps those tools belonged to a previous digger. The main difference is of course that the original story has several layers of narrative where different people are telling something someone else told them and is of course like almost all M.R. James stories presented as a true story heard by the narrator while the film is a conventionally structured story from Paxton's perspective. My second favourite of the BBC A Ghost Story for Christmas series after the original Whistle and I'll Come for You (1968). Both are based on M.R. James stories and both achieve a masterfully crafted atmosphere of creeping terror though the first does it slightly better. If this wasn't 10 minutes short of an hour it could've fit into about three other bingo categories as it's a TV movie about folklore/local legend and a period piece. *Presumably the Dutch invasion and still ongoing occupation of Britain during the Glorious Revolution doesn't count and neither does the Norman Conquest or the Norwegian Invasion that occurred concurrently with the Norman one. Curve (2016) 10 minutes  A woman wakes up bloody and lying on a steep concrete curve above a deep abyss. An incredibly tense film that does a lot with very minimalist story and premise. The entire film is her trying to edge herself up the slope and back to the surface while strange sounds echo from the depths below. The less I say the better. A good companion piece with The Black Tower (1987) a very different and minimalist in an completely opposite way film that is also about hostile architecture where the story is told entirely through shots of buildings and voiceover whereas this film has no dialogue. But both films can be read as metaphors for dealing with depression and how inescapable and hopeless it can feel. . Watch it.
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Oct 15, 2021 20:06
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FreudianSlippers posted:Curve (2016) 10 minutes I watched this last challenge and it was the most anxiety-inducing thing I've seen in a long time. I've had nightmares that are basically exactly like that.
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Oct 15, 2021 20:13
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10) The Dark (1978) First (and second and maybe third?) time view Challenge: Spaced Invaders Look, this was loving terrible. An opening crawl explains that we're going to see an alien. Then the film opened a time portal to what a generation didn't watch while they were loving in a drive-in. I fell asleep a few times, and kept going back because this is a challenge and it's supposed to be challenging. Remember I Come in Peace? Watch that instead. Or Predator II. From what I could understand: A serial killer is causing panic in LA. Only it's not a killer, it's an alien. A psychic gives the police some clues, the cops are dicks to the Black community after the alien kills a guy. A pretty reporter is told by her boss that she's only popular because men want to get into her pants. There's a lot of ugliness here. It's unclear if the film is trying to comment on any of it. The alien shoots lasers out of its eyes. A guy who looks like a 70s Show is looking for his daughter's killer. He threatens to write a letter to the editor. He meets up with the reporter, the psychic, and then spends the movie hunting for the monster's next victim. He's good at looking like young Steven King or all of the Ramones. On paper, it makes sense: a psychic foresaw a guy getting killed by an alien, so find the guy and you'll find the alien. But the guy is just some rear end in a top hat. There's a hundred ways this could have been better. Everyone threatens to complain to the newspapers about the police, which genuinely frightens the police. Eventually the trucker dad hooks up with the psychic and yadda yada yadda car chase with a drunk driver, AMSR word-jazz saying "the darknessss" and a climax that was filmed in (wait for it) the dark. There's more growling than you'd expect, the monster is dressed like a homeless guy, Trucker Steven King sets it on fire and it explodes in a mushroom cloud. Now there's a guy and he says something unintelligible. Time passes, the pretty reporter looks out a window topless. A closing credits crawl and announcer tells us that humanity has finally met extra-terrestrials and it went badly. I'm not going to give it zero stars because. I was asleep for part of each of four attempted viewings, and that's on me. I've had to scroll up writing this review just to remember the movie's name. There's nothing compelling enough to take a fifth run at this. 1/5 Don't watch it.
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Oct 15, 2021 20:24
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