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#32. A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child Alice (Lisa Wilcox), now graduating from high school, is starting to dream about Freddy (Robert Englund) again. She's gotten pregnant by her long term beau Dan (Danny Hassel) and Freddy is somehow using her unborn child to enter people's dreams and kill them, using their souls to power his rebirth. First he gets Dan while he's driving (turning him into a pretty awesome looking biomechanical horror), then starts going after Alice's other friends. Alice's only clue to stopping Krueger this time is a vision of his mother, a nun raped by the inmates of a lunatic asylum. Like the last movie there's still a lot of creative imagery here, done by various small effects studios; the budget was lower this time but there are still some impressive effects. Krueger now really dives into the whole "seizing on people's personality traits" thing. A girl who's being pressured by her mother to stay thin so she can become a model gets stuffed with food and suffocates, a boy who draws comic books gets sucked into a comic book, etc. Some nice ideas, but the editing on this one is weird and nothing stays for very long or makes an impact. (This also got a few trims for an R rating which doesn't help.) While the last film at least built itself around Alice coming into her own as a person, this lacks that kind of dramatic structure. It isn't really focused on anything, giving brief nods to Freddy's origins, being a bit about the baby, but honestly it's kinda formless. Alice learns that she's pregnant, pretty instantly decides to keep it despite knowing it's Freddy's ticket back, and there's some drama with Dan's parents wanting to adopt because Alice would be a single mother and this conflict lasts for one scene and why even bother trying to add that melodrama when there's a psychic serial killer about? Like just about every film in the series, this entry blurs the lines between dream and reality a bunch but does it in a way that just gets a little confusing, and as for the ending- I honestly do not know what is supposed to be happening there. Like previous films used pretty simple metaphors, but this loses me. Not a terrible film but you can tell this is where people were running out of ideas, and this may have had something to do with the decision to make the next one the last one. Or maybe Freddy's merch sales started to flag, I dunno. The most remarkable thing about this film is that this is, as far as I can tell, the only horror movie to end with a diss track.
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Oct 26, 2021 07:36
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 Night of the Creeps, 1986 Nigh of the Creeps just hits all the right spots when it comes to 80s horror. It is 80s as gently caress in its look and feel, it got 50s nostalgia for sci-fi it came from outer space type of plots, even showing a flashback to the 50s, and of course gore. Alien brain slugs attack a college campus, turning people to zombies that have their faces burst open to let out more brain slugs to infect both people and animals alike. The splatter effects are nice and there's plenty of them. Nigh of the Creeps get it right with the balance of comedy and horror. It is that balance that makes 80s horror so amazing. No doubt this was a major influence on Peter Jackson's Braindead/Dead Alive from 1992. It even got a lawnmower kill. It is no where as close to as glorious and bloody as what Peter Jackson would later pull off, but is satisfying none the less. This movie is not exactly underrated by fans of gory 80s films, but I get an impression it might be somewhat unknown among more casual horror fans. So watch it if you haven't already.
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Oct 26, 2021 07:39
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 - (103). Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) Directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman; Written by Christopher Landon Watched on Showtime <b><a href=https://boxd.it/deTBs>🎃Halloween 2021: Hooptober Ocho and Spook-a-Doodle HalloweeNIT ’21🎃</a></b> <a href=https://boxd.it/ckyzI><b>🍿👩👦Movies With Mom👩👦🍿</b></a> Things learned from Paranormal Activity 3 - Don’t dead name a ghost or invade its personal space. Its rude and they don’t like it. - If you have video evidence of a ghost, lead with that. - Don’t touch grandma’s ugly paintings. They’re there for a reason. - If you’re gonna try and string out your brand with lore, really go for it. I think this does a much better job in that regard than the second film. I still prefer the tighter, less explained first film but the second film felt very forced. Not bad, just working very hard to do the same thing the first film did and make them connect as a parallel in ways that feel a bit derivative and clumsy at times. The third film obviously still has a lot of the same DNA and the same basic format but it does feel like its own story. It connects but they go back far enough that they don’t have to worry about keeping things on track. The lore twists come out of nowhere but there’s so little lore detail in the first two films that they have room to just kind of do whatever they want. And they do. Its still loose enough that they really didn’t provide a ton of answers but we did pick up a trail of what the hell is going on and why… whether we want it or not. Beyond that stuff I think the newer feeling story and characters help spark up the story. Its still a pretty standard haunted house movie in the less fresh than in the first film found footage format, but it worked for me. Kids always work as a cute, creepy, and concerning conduit to these things and for once the dude recording it all doesn’t seem like a total dick. I guess the dad in the second film wasn’t that bad. He was mostly just a dad who believed more in technical malfunctions and teenage recklessness than ghosts. That’s reasonable. But then he starts firing and cursing people and I dunno. He just didn’t handle that well. But Dennis is not a bad guy. He probably should have mentioned the ghost earlier and definitely should have thought out his pitch better, but he has actual concern for the family and stops messing around when poo poo gets serious. To that end its a bit of an awkwardly paced film because the really scary haunting stuff doesn’t really happen until late and as soon as it does they get the gently caress out of the house and head for the finale. But that does give it a bit of a different feel and I think the scares and characters are strong enough to carry the film. The film does end a little abruptly, but that feels like a constant thing with these. Although I really can’t tell if I would have felt the same way if these were first watches. I definitely remembered liking them more the first time. But kind of knowing where everything is going feels like it definitely takes away some of the scare factor. But its still a good enjoyable haunted house film, and I like haunted house films. And I actually didn’t realize Christopher Landon was all tied up in this. Reminds me tat I still want to get Freaky in this month. It was the movie I was saving for October and now October’s nearly over. So many films, so little time left… #HalloweenPeopleProblems  - (104). The Black Cat (1934) Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer; Written by Peter Ruric and Edgar G. Ulmer; Watched on Svengoolie Svengoolie Episodes 12/26 I could honestly just listen to KARLOFF give creepy speeches forever. I had seen this before but didn’t totally remember it. Like I thought it was the Black Cat adaption that has nothing to do with the Black Cat but is just Bela being obsessed with Poe, but I guess that’s the other Black Cat starring Bela? This is the one that has nothing to do with the Black Cat but has KARLOFF and Bela just being creepy frenemies. And there’s nothing wrong with that. The plot’s a little all over the place and unclear to follow. Like I guess he’s sacrificing the lady to Satan o raise his wife from the dead or just get power and money and stuff? I’m not super sure. But the leads more than carry things just based on the mood and these two horror legends loving with each other’s minds. Like a lot of Universal films of course it has to be judged within the proper context of forming what we know as horror. This is definitely a much more sinister and “style over substance” horror that preludes the decades of Poe adaptions and psychological horror that would become so common over the next near century. No real good guy here, no happy ending or moral. No fight of good vs evil. This is just a hosed up situation between a couple of hosed up dudes. There’s innocents stuck in the middle but they’re just pawns for this chess game very much feeling like something Poe would have conceived of. Adding this to the other stuff Bela, Karloff, and Universal stuff in that very tiny 5 year window is kind of insane. Dracula, Frankenstein, Bride, Old Dark House. They were just doing amazing work at the time and really laying the groundwork for everything we love and OD on during this Halloween season. So even though I’m not sure I love The Black Cat it feels incredibly important and very timely seasonal viewing. Also drat it, why does every mad scientist build a self destruct feature into his lair? It just seems like they wanna lose.  64 (105). The Creation of the Humanoids (1962) Directed by Wesley Barry; Written by Jay Simms Watched on Svengoolie Svengoolie Episodes 13/26 Imagine if Blade Runner was mostly just Harrison Ford getting drunk at dinner parties and getting into racist arguments with his sister, brother in law, and girlfriend. This is less of a 60s B sci fi film and more of an early allegorical sci fi message film. Its probably a relatively groundbreaking one and credit to making such an unsubtle film about “they will not replace us” racist assholes in the middle of the civil rights movement. I mean, they’re literally dressed like Confederates. But holy crap this thing is clumsy and blunt as hell. To be entirely truthfully you I don’t often take to these sci fi stories. I agree with the messages and am all for using film to deliver them but I often find the sci fi attempts to feel clumsy and weirdly “alien”. Like is someone understanding racism is wrong because it happened to some robots? Its popular so I guess it works for someone but I feel like you could have told this story with some non-white people. But like even compared to other stories of its kind this is about the least subtle, least artful one I’ve seen. After a certain point the film kind of just abandons any kind of plot or narrative and just spends like 30 minutes at an awkward family dinner party where everyone’s drunkenly arguing politics and insulting each other. Its dull and awkward and a little pointless. And then the twist is about the least surprising thing ever but just spends like another 30 minutes getting to it, diagnosing the problem, and resolving it. Methodically. The final act is literally a bunch of robots doing a Beta test report. Its weird and boring and I loving get it. And I mean, robot rights and all but I’m not sure the best way to spread your message of trust and respect is by secretly replacing dead humans with robot clones. Still, its an allegory and it blunt as hell. The message is certainly as true today as it was then. I mean, who could imagine a ton of people becoming angry, extremist, and violent that they felt they were being replaced by people different than them who aren’t the right, true, pure kind of people? Hear more tonight on Fox News’s prime time lineup! And beyond that the film goes into philosophical existential debates of what makes someone human or sentient, if memories make a person or organs or what, inter species relationship, “the pride of work”, blah blah blah. Its all in here. I’m not sure its especially intelligently thought out or communicated. But its certainly brought up like any terrible family get together in 2021. Although I guess no one’s arguing over masks and vaccines so maybe being replaced by robots isn’t so bad. Blade Runner, Battlestar Gallactica, iRobot, that movie with the Sixth Sense kid as a creepy robot, that one awkward dinner episode of The Office. This whole thing’s been done a lot in the decades since. If you really dig this stuff and wanna see some of its origins and history than its probably worthwhile watch, but there’s probably a dozen Twilight Zone and Star Trek episodes and movies you’ve already seen that already did the job. But as a film this thing just kind of grinds into a dull lecture/debate. At least those other movies put the allegory into a story. Apparently one of the Robot Laws is brow beating a point endlessly past any benefit. See you for Thanksgiving. Oh wait, the movie ends by breaking the 4th wall and quoting the dictionary. Ok, I change my mind. This is a must watch as the origin story of the internet.
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Oct 26, 2021 08:11
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#23. Hostel Don't Torture A Duckling-Watch a film that features killer children.  Whenever torture porn is discussed in the main thread Hostel is usually brought up as an example. I'm more into creature features, but the October challenge is a way for me to explore other things I decided to finally give Hostel a try. Very glad I did, because this was a blast. My expectations were low, just non-stop gore, but it actually sets up its characters quite well. Their trip through Europe almost feels like a Eurotrip teen comedy, though it never gets too on the nose. When the mood changes it doesn't shift straight into mutilations, but there is tension, a real sense of isolation, etc. I didn't know this could be used for the bingo until the street urchins showed up, got bribed with candy and killed two men by throwing giant rocks at them. That scene was unexpected and very funny. Bonus laugh for featuring the Netherlands, but not actually shooting there since all European countries look the same anyway. #24. Wildling Starring Brad Dourif-Watch a film that features Brad Dourif. It can't be a Chucky movie.  It's been a while since I saw Ginger Snaps, but I think this covers a lot of the same issues without feeling like a rehash. It had some very pretty shots and a few very effective scenes, making it an enjoyable experience for me. #25. The Burning Video Nasty-Watch a Video Nasty  Man, oh man, what an amazing poster. I could frame that and put it on a wall. Too bad the rest of the movie is just kinda meh. It feels like a by-the-numbers slasher at a summer camp, but apparently this was the first to do it so I guess the formula worked so well it was hardly ever tweaked. I did notice some similarities to giallo, with the killer wearing black leather gloves, a focus on the murder weapon and penetration, the killer obscured as a mystery. The only difference was it straight up tells you who the killer is, instead of keeping him off screen as part of the mystery. 
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Oct 26, 2021 08:50
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Spooky Square #8: Short Cuts Rakka (21:52) An Oats Studios short. Mostly world-building for an Earth that has been invaded by lizard-like aliens. Doesn't really go much of anywhere—feels more like a proof of concept than a short story—but the production design is cool and the effects look nice. Other Side of the Box (15:49) A couple receive a weird box. The basic idea of the monster, that it moves when no one is looking has been done before, but I thought this built tension nicely. Peter the Penguin (9:14) A young girl is obsessed with a large stuffed penguin. The transition from awkwardness to something more tense is fun, but once the dude is a penguin I feel like the short should be over. Each additional shot of him is less impactful than the last and it's accomplished what it came to do. We Die Alone (23:05) A parable about too quickly judging maladjusted loners. Didn't find the twist in this worth the wait. Corporate Monster (16:44) A quick take on They Live with more exploding heads. Solid effects work and a solid central performance. O.I. (17:48) A guy has a killer idea. Cute concept and well-performed. 
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Oct 26, 2021 09:28
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30: Rabid (1977) Following an accident, a woman gets experimental skin grafts that cause her to grow an armpit clitoris which she attacks people with, spreading a rabies-like disease as she does. Why yes, this is a David Cronenberg film. The lead actor was a famous porn star. She gives a good performance in this. I've found living in plague times has made me more invested in what goes on in plague movies. I wouldn't say this is one of Cronenberg's best, but it's a decent outing. No bingo square for this one Total: 30 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; The Beasterbunny; Bride of Chucky; V/H/S 2; Evilspeak; The Ward; Prince of Darkness; Terror in the Aisles; Sleepaway Camp; The Addams Family (2019); The Wolfman (2010); Green Room; Titane; When a Stranger Calls; IT Chapter 2; Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark; Rabid 
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Oct 26, 2021 12:15
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23. Behind the Mask: the Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006) Spooky Bingo: Behind the Screams. It's a work of fiction, not a doco, but it's explicitly about the act of creating a movie narrative.  Break some legs! Leslie Vernon is an aspiring slasher villain; a crew of grad students follows him around as he works up to his first spree. So, this is sort of a hybrid found-footage movie, split into unequal halves. The first one is filmed by the grad students, led by Taylor, who are nonplussed but willing to keep following this guy around. Leslie - a seemingly normal dude - takes us through his plan to isolate and murder some young people. While he doesn't acknowledge he's in a horror movie, that's clearly the idea here; his motivation isn't revenge or self-gratification, but a desire to create a compelling narrative. He picks out a final girl, falsifies a family connection to convince her he wants revenge, and even sets up a somewhat symbolic weapon for her to use against him, out of a conviction that that's just the way these things ought to work. He's even okay with the possibility of her killing him. He's overjoyed when he develops a Loomis-esque adversary-- "An Ahab! I got an Ahab!"-- because it's just such a rich vein of drama, which is the main goal here. There's a mix of childish joy and artistic discipline to how he goes about things. In the second half, the students get cold feet at the last second and try to derail murder night. The fake documentary style is dropped, and the movie is filmed conventionally, as Leslie shows a surprising talent for improvisation and begins hunting them as well as the kids. It's a great turn, that lets the movie get away from the cliched narrative it sets up in the first hand, while still recognisably being a slasher. The students are unable to break out of his design; all they can do is play their part. It ends with some of them surviving Leslie, but ultimately he still gets to do his slasher movie and become a legend, which is all he ever wanted. All you can do is play your part as best you can. Anyway, as far as parodies go, it's one of the charming, affectionate ones. Some of the discussion of horror tropes and motifs is very surface-level, or overly specific, but some of it is genuinely insightful, particularly the question of why this needs to happen. 
Kazzah fucked around with this message at 01:38 on Oct 29, 2021 |
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Oct 26, 2021 13:26
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 11. Tales from the Hood: A+ Goddamn. An instant Anthology Hall-of-Fame inductee right here. It's the strongest distillation of the EC Comics formula that I've seen, nailing the morality tale aspect, the social commentary aspect, the goopy spooky monster aspect, and the dark yet whimsical humor. With its laser-focus on social issues it easily surpasses Creepshow and HBO's Tales from the Crypt in exemplifying the best of what those stories can achieve and does so with significantly more depth and nuance. It might not be as visually inventive as Creepshow, but it is visually stunning. Incredibly well shot, framed, and lit, everything here feels like a four-color comic panel come to life, while still feeling wonderfully cinematic. It doesn't need the bells and whistles of comic book panel transitions or expressive lighting to pull it off, but instead leans on clean compositions and impeccably-crafted production design. Mr. Simms exudes as much if not more personality than The Cryptkeeper, which is quite an achievement. An instantly iconic and delightful performance. While the three drug dealers are somewhat forgettable, the segments themselves have great casting and acting across the board. It strikes a delicate balance of tone, with moments that can effortlessly jump between dramatic and comedic and horrific when the stories require it. The stories themselves largely remain sadly relevant to this day. Rogue Cop Revelation doesn't pull any punches and doesn't take the easy way out with its ending—though the mural feels like a mixed message, portraying the corrupt partner as a martyr and savior taken down by the drug problem. Yes, it successfully highlights that permissiveness in abuses of power lead not only to the destruction of positive voices in the community but is the mechanism that perpetuates positive perception of cops. However, the fact that the mural was created by that same positive voice in the community left it feeling a bit muddled to me. But I'd rather have that ambition toward thematic complexity than something straightforward and simple. Boys Do Get Bruised could have easily come off tasteless but is handled with care. Simultaneously subtle and wonderfully unsubtle in its message, it not only nails the nuance of domestic abuse but also delights in punishing the perpetrator in a gleefully cathartic scene. The effects of the ending are terrific, and DAG playing against somewhat type here is a delight. KKK Comeuppance is also wonderfully unsubtle in its social and political messages, ending with the politician literally wrapping himself in the American flag to shield himself from the consequences of his own views, actions, and unearned advantages from the horrific and exploitative actions of his ancestors. Some top-tier handheld stop-motion in here as well. I really wanted the consultant to stick around longer to not get such an easy out, though. It left the segment feeling like it had a hole in it for much of the runtime, being able to see a bit more of the story through the eyes of a man selling out his people. It also made me wonder if there's some DNA of Black Devil Doll from Hell in here, which would be incredibly cool. Hard-Core Convert is the most gonzo of the bunch, going over-the-top with its concept, production design, acting, and even message about black-on-black violence and its effect on perpetuating negative stereotypes and feeding racist ideologies. Bentley absolutely nails the bigger heightened moments that Crazy K requires, but ultimately this segment feels a bit janky and falls a bit short. Still, some really fun production design decisions and great acting elevate it. The ending wraparound brings it all together and effortlessly makes it feel like a cohesive whole, something which is incredibly rare in an anthology, and it all ends on a great little snappy sequence with some fun effects that doesn't overstay its welcome. Overall, what a treat. feedmyleg fucked around with this message at 13:44 on Oct 26, 2021 |
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Oct 26, 2021 13:33
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Nightmare on Elm street is by a Master of Horror, yeah? I'm thinking of watching it or Friday the 13th to finally knock those classics off my to-watch list.
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Oct 26, 2021 13:48
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StrixNebulosa posted:Nightmare on Elm street is by a Master of Horror, yeah? I'm thinking of watching it or Friday the 13th to finally knock those classics off my to-watch list. Nightmare on Elm Street is Wes Craven. Friday the 13th is Sean Cunningham, and I'd say he's also a Master of Horror, cuz he helped create Jason, but he's got like three horror films in his resume as director. We worked more as a producer than anything. Either is appropriate.
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Oct 26, 2021 13:54
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Franchescanado posted:Nightmare on Elm Street is Wes Craven. Sweet, thanks!
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Oct 26, 2021 13:58
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21. Children of the Corn I haven't been this unprepared for a bad rear end opening scene since the first time I watched Hellraiser. Sadly, after the first 10 minutes not a drat thing of interest happens for an hour. After they strap Issac to the corn cross, poo poo pops off again but there are probably only 20 quality minutes in the 90 minute run time. So I'd like to take this time to talk about my favorite part of the whole movie, Peter Horton's 1977 Banana Yellow Buick Lesabre. What a ride! In all honesty I had a couple of adult beverages before I watched this so maybe I went a little overboard for my love of the car but here we are 2 days later and I'm still trying to find one for sale. I actually was able to find one at a good price only 30 minutes from me but the listing was 2 months old and nobody has gotten back to me. Children of the Corn ladies and gentlemen! Banana Yellow! 22. The Ranger The Ranger reminds me a lot of the last season of Game of Thrones. The filmmakers had a list of things that needed to be done and they were determined to make it from point A to point B to point C with absolutely no nuance. A brief 80 minutes but you can really tell. It needed another 15 minutes to flesh out both the main and the Ranger himself. As I can recall, there is 0 characterization given to why the Ranger does what he does other than he's mad about his mountain. There is not one single likable character in this whole movie. The protagonist sucks, her friends suck, the ranger sucks. Everybody sucks. If I was trying to take any artistic reading of this at all, the only thing I could come up with is the irony of how similar these counter culture punk rockers are to the mainstream they probably hate. The only difference between the punk rock scene they are a part of and normal college aged poo poo heads are the clothes and the music. 23. One Cut of the Dead I'm not gonna be as high on this as most others. Its not that I thought it was bad, it just didn't blow me away. Now, part of that might be because the "twist" was spoiled for me from reading 1000 reviews on this over the last couple of years. I can imagine going in blind would have a lot more impact. Once the change over happens and they start showing you how everything was done, it is pretty god drat funny.
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Oct 26, 2021 14:05
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17. Tourist Trap (1979) 🇺🇸 The delightful Chuck Connors stars in this very fun telekinetic masked madman slasher. It’s rather nasty in some regards but is also often goofy and has a lot of late-70s charm. It owes a lot to Texas Chainsaw Massacre and shares that bizarre, uneasy, vibe. The oddly intense score definitely amplifies this creepy feeling. It’s a bit slow and like a lot of films of the era you have to wade through some rough dialogue and acting (except for Connors who is amazing) but the real stars of the film are the mannequins and what is revealed about them. I don’t want to give everything away since they need to be seen- but it is wonderful how something so loving creepy can be made with just a cheap prop and some simple sound effects. So it’s not an instant classic and it’s not quite silly enough or brutal enough and ends up in a slightly awkward place but it’s a very intriguing film. It’s bizarre tone is really worth witnessing and those loving mannequins are so great. 3.5/5Film list (ranked) 1. Demons* (4.5/5) / 2. Demons 2* (4/5) / 3. Aliens* (4/5) / 4. Scream, Blacula, Scream (4/5) / 5. Dolls (4/5) / 6. WNUF Halloween Special* (4/5) / 7. V/H/S 94 (4/5) / 8. The Slumber Party Massacre (3.5/5) / 9. Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (3.5/5) / 10. Tourist Trap (3.5/5) / 11. City of the Living Dead (3/5) / 12. The Void (3/5) / 13. Skull: The Mask (3/5) / 14. Urban Legend (3/5) / 15. The Mortuary Collection (3/5) / 16. Night Train to Terror (2.5/5) / 17. Screamtime (2/5) *=rewatch WeaponX fucked around with this message at 14:22 on Oct 26, 2021 |
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Oct 26, 2021 14:18
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28) Housebound (2014) BINGO: Hausu This was a fun haunted house movie that didn't really take itself too seriously. It kind of had an Evil Dead-esque tongue in cheek feel (though obviously less gory). I liked it! 3.5/5 29) Slumber Party Massacre (2021) BINGO: They Always Come Back I'm surprised at how good this remake was. The way it turned around the male gaze into being a completely over-the-top female gaze was wonderful. 3.5/5 30) Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) Every single shot in this movie could be a poster or a painting. It's absolutely stunning. And Klaus Kinski just disappears into the role. Almost a perfect movie. 5/5 31) Little Monsters (1989) BINGO: Don't Torture a Duckling I could have sworn I saw this when I was little, but I don't remember a thing about it, so maybe I didn't? It was fun. Fred Savage is great as always, but Howie Mandel was super annoying. Maybe kids would have liked him in it? I dunno. 3/5 32) Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters (2014) BINGO: Something Wicked This Way Comes It's wild that this came out in the '10s because it feels like it could have been something that came out in 1999 where everything was being Matrix-ified and edgy. The gore was fun, but that was about it. 2/5 33) The Night of the Hunter (1955) Another nearly perfect movie. Robert Mitchum does creepy incredibly well in this, and the pacing is just wild. It's so astounding that the director ONLY DID THIS MOVIE. Puts a lot of other career directors to shame. 5/5 34) Halloween at Aunt Ethel's (2019) Lol. 2/5 35) Titane (2021) I'm not entirely sure what I just watched, but... I loved it. It's some of the best body horror I've seen in a long time. 5/5   1 bingo done! Total: 35 The Shining (1980) / The Devil's Rejects (2005) / Raw (2016) / Disturbing Behavior (1998) / Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988) / Pumpkinhead (1988) / Videodrome (1983) / Candyman (2021) / Children of the Corn (1984) / The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) / V/H/S/94 (2021) / The Mutilator (1984) / Woe (2020) / Angel (1984) / The Blair Witch Project (1999) / Maniac (2012) / The Devil's Advocate (1997) / Night of the Demons (1988) / Resident Evil (2002) / Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971) / Razorback (1984) / The Halloween Tree (1993) / Willy's Wonderland (2021) / Blood & Flesh [...] (2019) / Nothing Bad Can Happen (2013) / Ms. 45 (1981) / Malignant (2021) / Housebound (2014) / Slumber Party Massacre (2021) / Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) / Little Monsters (1989) / Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters (2014) / The Night of the Hunter (1955) / Halloween at Aunt Ethel's (2019) / Titane (2021) Count Thrashula fucked around with this message at 15:33 on Oct 26, 2021 |
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Oct 26, 2021 15:18
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49. Manichitrathazhu (1993, Youtube, डरावनी - Selected because it's the highest rated Indian horror film on Letterboxd, and one of only 75 horror films averaging 4+ stars. Like my Vietnamese selection, this also has a lot of comedy in it, particularly in the first act, but it works here because it's a comedy of errors among the cast, particularly certain members of the cast, and they never undermine the seriousness of the haunted estate. (E.g., the protagonist of the early part of the film gets talismans to seal the haunted house and is told that he can't talk until the task is complete, his wife thinks he can't talk because he is ill and gets talismans to heal him, so now she's not allowed to talk, etc.) The film really immerses you in the family and ancestral drama, and while it takes a while to get going (the film is more than 2 1/2 hours long), a lot of this is foreshadowing that pays off beautifully as it moves into the third act, with a tight climax and conclusion. I particularly enjoyed that the goofball psychiatrist who is supposedly world famous and dominates the second act turns out in the third act to actually be a world famous psychiatrist who is pretending to be a goofball because he's puppet mastering the perpetrator into revealing themself, and how effectively they flashback and tie things together once that revelation is made. 4/5 50. Gaia (2021, DVD, Don't Feed The Plants) - They fed the plants. Painfully boring tale of a park ranger in a South African forest who comes across two survivalists effectively worshipping a giant underground fungus that predates humanity's existence and is ready to spawn and spread. This is, essentially, true, although they also mix in some cordyceps concepts stolen from the Last of Us. It is very pretty, but it's ultimately a movie about 3 people sitting in a cabin talking. 2/5
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Oct 26, 2021 15:50
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 21. The Night House (2021), dir. David Bruckner It's hard to actively not enjoy a horror movie. I really didn't dig Halloween Kills for example, but there are definitely good parts in that thing and I didn't feel like I was struggling through watching it. This film left me so frustrated. The movie starts simple enough, a teacher's husband kills himself while she is trapped in the tomb that is the house he built for her. She finds some weird stuff in one of his notebooks and the film is initially half ghost story and half Lovecraftian mystery as he seems to have made a replica of their house, but flipped. The principle cast is strong--mostly just two actresses carrying the film and the first act provides some good scares. I was ready to offer a good review as I was genuinely tense for some of the opening parts. But in the same way that the recent Black Friday remake shows the limits of horror as feminist parable, The Night House devolves into a parody of trauma-horror. And let me be clear, I LIVE for films where a woman kills a Metaphor-Monster. That's my poo poo. But frankly, recent MCU films have done a better job of discussing trauma and depression than this movie. It says nothing about its topic. Whereas something like The Babadook or even the very uneven recent It Movies actually consider their topic and explore what it means to be wrapped in guilt and self-hatred. Bruckner just vaguely gestures at depression. The Night House is a movie that begins with interesting questions and fails to provide a compelling answer for every single one, but you bet all questions will be explicitly answered. A complete waste of time and embarrassment of a movie. /5
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Oct 26, 2021 16:08
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 (R) 64. Halloween (1978) "Death has come to your little town, Sheriff." I rewatch this every year. I cannot be objective about this movie. It's just so well executed, and looks so polished even though it was made with a budget of twenty bucks, dedication, and gumption. A true classic that I never tire of watching. One thing that stood out to me this time, having just watched Carpenter's short student film for the Short Cuts challenge, was how easily he builds tension with the POV shots. Also, Loomis' little smirk after he scares Lonnie away from the porch is so charming. 5/5 (R) 65. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1983) "I do love a good joke, and this is the best ever." I truly love this weird rear end movie. The plot is just so absolutely bananas. People aren't sacrificing animals and children for Samhain anymore so Conal Cochran creates Halloween masks that have magic microchips in them, with particles of Stonehenge, to uhhh turn the wearer's heads into bugs and snakes and stuff. How about that one gruesome death in the motel? Tom Atkins' perfect mask toss? I wish it had more kids turning into piles of bugs and snakes, and I think the Ellie twist should happen earlier than it does, but this is just a really fun cartoon. I aspire to be as nonchalant as Tom Atkins' Dr. Challis - Ellie, hearing someone dying in the next hotel room over, asks "What was that?" and Challis, with a mouth full of yabbos, says "who cares!" Going to have that loving jingle stuck in my head for two weeks again, though. 4.5/5 66. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) "Waiting a million years, just for us." On Valentine's Day in 1900, an Australian girls school take a field trip to Hanging Rock, a rock formation about 45 miles from Melbourne. Once there, a few of the girls decide to climb the rock (despite some odd happenings, like everybody's pocket watches stopping at exactly noon). They pass out near a monolith, most of them climb into a crevasse in the rock, and they disappear without any trace. The rest of the film is focused on trying to find out what happened to them, and examining the way it impacted the administrators, students, and other locals who get pulled into it. I enjoyed this for its surreal, dreamlike atmosphere and its lack of answers (we don't ever find the girls, although the book this is based on originally had a final chapter that has a woman turn into a crab and climb into a hole in the rock, which the girls somehow follow her through - this chapter was later removed, so... who knows). Unsettling. 3.5/5 -- Spooky Bingo: Picnic at Hanging RockTotal Watched: 66 // 'New to Me' Total: 54/40
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Oct 26, 2021 16:22
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Franchescanado posted:Video Nasty  #29. The Funhouse (1981) (Peacock) A group of teens sneak into the funhouse at the carnival to spend the night. However, while there, they witness a murder, and are now being stalked by the deranged and deformed son of one of the carnival workers. While it lives up to the "nasty" part of the term "Video Nasty," I have to be honest, I don't know why this was ever added to the list of banned titles in the UK. In terms of blood-letting and carnage, it's relatively tame, even for its time. Yes, there are some gross overtones, in terms of sex and the film's ugly views on the deformed, but that's also pretty par for the course for a Tobe Hooper film, and indeed for late 70s/early 80s Hollywood filmmaking in general. So why this got singled out, I don't know. (There's a theory that they were actually trying to ban The Last House on the Left, which went by the title "The Fun House" in certain territories; it sounds like a dumb enough coincidence to be true.) As for the rest of it, it's fine enough, but there's also a lot of padding in the runtime. Between a subplot about the little brother who sneaks off to the carnival on his own that ends up going nowhere, to a long section of the film that ends up being just pointing the camera at various carnival-style attractions and animatronics, it feels like Hooper knew how little meat was on the bones of this thing. He ends up just marking time so that we don't get to the "good stuff" until the second half. Fair enough, but I don't think the payoff is worth the setup, both due to how boring it is and how frequently it seems to just be leering at the things in front of it, be they sexual objectification or a repulsion from physical deformity.  /5 #30. House (1986) (Shudder) A htroubled writer moves into his aunt's house after she commits suicide. While living there, he begins to have flashbacks to his time in Vietnam... and may also be getting haunted by the spirits that still dwell in the house. Went from The Funhouse to "the fun House"... but I ended up struck by how little the overvalued comedy elements actually work here. The film ends up straddling a really weird tone, where it seems to be turning to humor only as a way of blunting the sadder, meaner aspects of the story. The whole thing revolves around a writer who keeps having flashbacks to his time in Vietnam and whose son disappeared, causing his marriage to crumble; that's a lot to put on a single character in a movie, and much harder to build any true comedy around that. I mean, I knew that was going to be difficult enough when the film opens with some poor kid stumbling on a woman who committed suicide; it gets even harder to try to maintain that when we get into the flashbacks, where William "The Greatest American Hero" Katt ends up machine-gunning some enemy combatants and can't bring himself to mercy-kill squadmate Richard "Night Court" Moll. This is without even getting into the true meat of the movie, where Katt is made to believe he might have murdered his ex-wife for a time and ends up getting tormented by a monster made out of the faces of napalmed Vietnamese non-combatants. Hilarious. So, the comedy aspects don't really work with the material that's being presented. The horror stuff fares a little better, though it's reliance on shooting everything inside the brightly lit house interiors does cheapen some of the effects. Katt and costar George Wendt do their best to sell the comedy without underselling the horror, but with Katt going big and Wendt going small it doesn't really feel like a harmonious marriage. (I guess that's a fitting metaphor for the whole thing, though.) I was struck by the fact that this was a Friday the 13th mini-reunion behind the scenes, with Sean S. Cunningham producing, Steve Miner directing and Harry Manfredini providing the score. However, I don't think such a group is all that well-suited to comedy, which was also apparently a second-pass script revision thing, not what was intended from the start. I think this kind of goes to show how all of these disparate elements can end up working against a project - the comedy doesn't help the horror elements, and the comedians don't seem to be working harmoniously against each other anyway. So the fact that, overall, I enjoyed this anyway is something of a minor miracle. I wouldn't say that, in this case, those are two great tastes that taste great together, but they taste good enough. Sometimes "good enough" is good enough. /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, Werewolves Within, It!, Ghost in the Machine, Halloween Kills, Near Dark, Actress Wanted, Def by Temptation, Razorback, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, various shorts, Dawn of the Beast, Graveyard Shift, The Funhouse, House
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Oct 26, 2021 16:33
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 117) Edge of the Axe - 1988 - Shudder Another from the Golden Age of Slashers. Here we have someone killing off people with an axe while two computer geeks try to figure out who it is. Unlike many in the era that were just cash grabs and uninspired, this one wasn't half bad. I was rather pleasantly surprised to see this film showing a proto-Internet years before it became reality. The characters were hit or miss with me and the twist could've used some more building up to though it did more or less work. Sleazy at times, cheesy at others, this one did hold my attention. This was definitely worth a watch.  118) Next of Kin - 1982 - Shudder I think I might've had a VHS screener copy of this at some point, but with the cover being the poster image, I never watched it because it looked possibly dull. I happily admit, I was wrong. Story is after the death of her mother, a young woman returns to her hometown to run the old folks home her mother ran. Creepy things happen soon after her arrival and bodies start to pile up. This one's a bit of a slow burn. The first half or so was a bit dull, but the last 20-30 minutes kicks things into high gear. Interestingly, while most Aussie horror of the time cribbed from Halloween or Texas Chainsaw Massacre, this one has more of a gialli feel. It was also nice seeing a young John Jarratt since I'd only seen him in Wolf Creek that I'm aware of. Definitely worth a watch if you don't mind it taking a bit to get where it's going.  119) Don't Be Afraid of the Dark - 1973 - Youtube This was an ABC TV Movie of the week. A couple moves into the house the wife inherited from her grandmother. She's warned to leave the bricked up fireplace in the basement alone, but of course she doesn't and the repercussions start. I remember watching it then and for the next week wouldn't go to bed unless my dog Juno was in the room with me because I was afraid of the Onionheads. Revisiting it now some 45+ years later, I'd have to say it still holds up. While we are shown the Onionheads, they're handled with finesse that one can understand why everyone around Sally thinks she's making it up or having some sort of a breakdown. We never learn what exactly they are or why they were sealed away in the fireplace beyond assuming they had something to do with the grandfather's death since it was after that the fireplace was sealed up. Depending who you end up cheering for as you watch this, the ending is potentially a downer. The Onionheads end up abducting Sally and turning her into one of them. I do plan on picking up a copy of this next paycheck. And I did imagine Herbert-cat taking out an Onionhead, coming in the bedroom with his Mighty Hunter strut and dropping the corpse on the bed all proud of himself. This one's a highly recommend from me.
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Oct 26, 2021 16:41
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18. Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel (2018) 🇺🇸 [REC]  I watched the first Hell House last year and it was a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately I had seen so many found footage movies before I got around to Hell House so a lot of it felt a bit old hat but I really appreciated it’s concept and creativity. Right off the bat the sequel suffers from some needless over-complication. The first one was framed as a mockumentary with the found footage weaved in but the sequel takes that a few steps further. We have multiple interviews and clips of unrelated characters interacting with the Hell House constantly cutting in. The “news” footage from the first film is extended to a horrifically green-screened “Neil Breen-esque” interview panel with bad expository dialogue that really doesn’t do any of the actors any favors. It’s a shame because what worked so well in the first film was its very straightforward concept that set up the end goal (the mysterious tragedy at the Hell House attraction) and let you watch it all play out. The faux-talking heads and news clip stuff before we get to them setting up the attraction was bad in the first movie and here they have doubled down on that. It will also pause sometimes to replay and zoom in on the scares sorta like Lake Mungo but what made that movie more effective was it was replaying a subtle scare that would benefit from a second look. Here it’s just a ghoul in the center of the frame and then it goes back and pauses on it and zooms in on the bad makeup- effectively removing all the scariness. Less is more!! But just like the first, once it really gets locked into the characters in the Hell House and all the poo poo is hitting the fan it’s a very competent and tense found footage movie. Some of the scares were very telegraphed and that hurt it, but still well done. So it’s diminishing returns here and it falls into the usual trap of getting bogged down by lore I don’t care about (including an overwrought twist that lets all the air out) and getting way too cute with intercutting different types of footage instead of keeping you inside the Hell House building dread. It’s still a good spook-house story when we focus on said spook-house. Sidenote- I almost died laughing when the film opens with a clearly middle-aged mother being interviewed about her son who went missing in the hotel. You are obviously expecting the son to be a teenager at most and then it cuts to footage of a very middle-aged man. It’s so unintentionally goofy. Another example of poo poo they should have just cut. 2.5/5 Film list (ranked) 1. Demons* (4.5/5) / 2. Demons 2* (4/5) / 3. Aliens* (4/5) / 4. Scream, Blacula, Scream (4/5) / 5. Dolls (4/5) / 6. WNUF Halloween Special* (4/5) / 7. V/H/S 94 (4/5) / 8. The Slumber Party Massacre (3.5/5) / 9. Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (3.5/5) / 10. Tourist Trap (3.5/5) / 11. City of the Living Dead (3/5) / 12. The Void (3/5) / 13. Skull: The Mask (3/5) / 14. Urban Legend (3/5) / 15. The Mortuary Collection (3/5) / 16. Hell House LLC II (2.5/5) / 17. Night Train to Terror (2.5/5) / 18. Screamtime (2/5) *=rewatch WeaponX fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Oct 26, 2021 |
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Oct 26, 2021 16:50
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Hoo boy, time for some catch-up #3 Skull: The Mask First time watch BINGO: It's Only a Myth My first real disappointment of the month. There's a lot to love here: the ambition, the concept, the crazy grindhouse opening, and most of all, the excellent practical effects. When the titular mask sprouts spider legs ala Norris' head in The Thing, I figured I was in for a real good time. Unfortunately, Skull is an excellent case study in the gestalt of cinema. It's let down at every turn by the more innocuous aspects of film-making: editing, score and sound mixing. I imagine that every daily must have seemed like a home run, and it was only once the movie cut together that the mediocrity set in. Everything is undercut by the strange low-energy audio, and so even its craziest moments, including its climax, play out like a youtube video, and never let you forget you're looking at a dude in a Gwar suit. Combined with an overstuffed plot, underwritten script, and unlikable protagonist, Skull can't help but disappoint. Still, it's ambitious as hell, and probably an excellent learning experience for Furman and Fonseca. I look forward to what they'll try next. Star Rating: 2/5 Spooky Rating:  #4 The Brood First time watch BINGO: Don't Torture a Duckling Easily could have slotted this into the masters of horror category, since this was one of the only remaining films I hadn't seen from one of my favorite directors. Much has been made of the thinly veiled influence of Cronenburg's divorce, and that specter does indeed hang over the whole affair. I actually wish I hadn't known about it, because it inevitably creates some disgruntled masculine subtext that I don't think is necessarily present in the objective picture. It makes the climax feel tawdry and petty, rather than sad or cathartic. Overall, The Brood doesn't quite live up to the thematic standards of Cronenburg's best work, but it certainly hangs in there with the technical aspects. Good performances all around, especially from Oliver Reed and weirdo-Cronenburg-mainstay Bob Silverman. The children are impressively bizarre (I had foolishly expected more of a Children of the Corn vibe), and Samantha Eggar's prosthetic is up there with the director's best mutations. A good time, but not something I think I'll return to with any regularity. Star Rating: 3.5/5 Spooky Rating:  #5 Pieces First time watch Hell yeah. I long ago had the last shot of this spoiled for me, but my friend hadn't, so I got to experience it vicariously. I definitely wasn't expecting most of the other weirdness, which culminates in the utterly mystifying (and, uh, 'charmingly' racist?) encounter with the Kung Fu professor. I love what a mary sue Kendall is, combined with the goofiness of the actor playing him. When Kendall's not on screen, everyone should be asking: Where's Kendall?! One thing I thought was interesting is that the homophobic tendencies of films from this era actually create a sort of retroactive double-bluff. The gay-coded (and later explicitly gay) Prof. Brown is built up suspiciously, but given an alibi (his mother is still alive, he lives with her) that seems like it's going to be revealed as a fake (he's adopted etc.). So I was genuinely surprised when it turned out to be the Dean instead. It drags in places, which is hardly unusual for a giallo, but the peaks are certainly worth the valleys. A good group-watch. Star Rating: 2/5 Spooky Rating:  #6 Sleepaway Camp Re-Watch The last time I saw this I was sixteen or seventeen, and I was a little apprehensive about how it would age when I screened it for my wife and friend, neither of whom knew anything about it. Overall, I'm not the one to talk about the complex gender/sexuality issues that this movie cannonball dives into, but it's always read to me as sympathetic (if only inadvertently) to someone trapped in the wrong externally enforced gender role. I'll leave it at that. What I didn't remember is how much goddamn fun everything before that famous last shot is. This is maybe one of the most accurate ever portrayals of tweens and summer camp, and I still love every minute. I'd also forgotten how amazing Mel's entire character/story is, as he Dr. Loomises around the camp ranting about the evil of Ricky. Star Rating: 3/5 Spooky Rating: BINGO CARD (including retroactive Horror Noir for 'Kuso') 
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Oct 26, 2021 16:51
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MOVIE 14: DEF BY TEMPTATION Horror Noire  "Well, you know, I am a surgeon... I'm just a kung-fu surgeon." "I like them big girls, man. That girl got a welfare butt, man." "Oh girl you got a nuclear butt. You got one of them explosive butts." Def by Temptation is one of the trashiest movies I've ever seen. We open with a bartender having a phone conversation with a woman, trying to convince her to abort his unborn child, lying that he's DEFINITELY going to pay for it. And then immediately hanging up, turning around and hounding other women. Luckily for everyone the woman he's hounding turns out to be a succubus who murders the poo poo out of the dude. We then cut to Samuel L. Jackson giving a sermon in a North Carolina church to an almost empty church. The only audience member is ... uhhh... possibly his son? Who is being fondled by an undead being dressed in veils and black silk. Then we cut to Samuel L. Jackson telling his kid that he'll need to live with his grandma for a while. And then we cut to Samuel L. Jackson possibly intentionally running over a woman dressed in black veils and silk, while his wife screeches in the passenger seat. And apparently they both died in the crash? And now the boy is grown up and on the verge of becoming a world-famous preacher? But before that he'll be attacked by the forces of Hell? Ultimately we land in a cautionary tale about the dangers of loving around, as a parade of hapless men get either murdered or maimed by the succubus until our young preacher-to-be turns up to do battle with the forces of Hell with the help of his friend K and a cop who "specializes in supernatural cases" but actually seems to spend most of the movie hitting on women with stories of being a kung-fu surgeon. It's amazing. The movie doesn't give a gently caress and is never around of just cutting straight to the point. Def by Temptation loving GOES FOR IT. It's bloody, silly and often quite poorly acted and ... uhh... everythinged. The movie often doesn't make a lot of sense, because the plot jumps around like crazy. The characters are insanely broad and often feel like they'd be at home in a Hee-Haw style sketch show. None of that is to the movie's detriment, because it's the kind of movie that you just have to accept on its own terms. The crew obviously knew what they were going for and they nailed it. It feels real. Not in the sense of being realistic because lol it isn't, but in the sense of being raw and coming from a place of honesty. I mean, how can you not love a movie where we suddenly cut to two people having sex on a bed, and behind them is a inexplicable (in-universe?) window to a room where a dude is playing the dirty sax soundtrack in blue smoke? SCORE: 4/5 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 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), 11. Suspiria 1977 (Video Nasty), 12. Birdemic (Wild Beasts), 13. Urban Legend (Starring Brad Dourif), 14. Def by Temptation (Horror Noire) 
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Oct 26, 2021 17:02
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 17. The Mummy's Tomb (1942) This movie literally spends 20% of its runtime recapping the previous movie. This time the Mummy shows up in the good old US of A to kill everyone who disturbed his tomb. It’s not very good but at least it’s short!  18. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943, rewatch) Dr. Frankenstein is long dead, but his daughter Elsa does indeed meet the Wolf Man so the title is technically accurate. Much more of a Wolf Man movie than a Frankenstein movie. It really only works at all because of Lon Chaney Jr. who really sells the despair of a guy who can’t stop killing people and also can’t die. Overall though there’s not a whole lot going on here and it’s pretty anticlimactic.  19. Phantom of the Opera (1943) Spooky Bingo: Based on the Novel The technicolor looks great and the camerawork is excellent but man is this boring for me, someone with no interest in opera. Claude Rains is the only saving grace here. I’ll be sticking with Phantom of the Paradise. 
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Oct 26, 2021 17:41
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 I kept putting off Nightmare on Elm Street because c'mon, a guy who kills you in your dreams? That sounded boring to me for the longest time. Boy, was I wrong. In case someone in here hasn't seen it: the premise is, four teenagers begin to have nightmares. Then one of them has a nightmare that literally kills her in one hell of a fantastical kill sequence with blood and levitating bodies and screaming. See, they've got a serial killer in their dreams who goes by the name of Freddy, and he's having the best drat time of his life scaring and killing these teenagers. The police are useless, blaming the murder on the wrong guy, and our heroine's parents are also useless, as one does believe her, and the other sure doesn't. The music and atmosphere and direction is top-notch, while the adults in the movie are worried about killers and underage sex and the teenagers are worried about literally dying if they sleep. The dreams are wonderfully twisted, with Freddy coming out of places he really shouldn't and reality bending in other ways. I'm not sure how I feel about the ending, but it sure continues the theme of asking: what is real? What is dream? Either way it's absolutely worth watching, and it stands with Halloween as a titan of the genre, ready for endless sequels. I'll need to watch Friday the 13th to find out if it also is worthy of standing in that trio... but not yet. 5/5, please watch this, it's a great time.
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Oct 26, 2021 17:44
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StrixNebulosa posted:
I am legitimately surprised by the number of first time viewers of Nightmare on Elm Street the thread has. To those people I say, keep watching the series. Even when it goes down hill, it's so creatively fun with the dream kills that it's still watchable.
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Oct 26, 2021 18:30
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Random Stranger posted:I am legitimately surprised by the number of first time viewers of Nightmare on Elm Street the thread has. To those people I say, keep watching the series. Even when it goes down hill, it's so creatively fun with the dream kills that it's still watchable. Yeah, I solidly enjoy 1-4, but they're all kinda worth one watch, even the bad ones.
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Oct 26, 2021 18:32
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Personally for me the thread's MVP is typically someone who is watching a bunch of all-time classics for the first time so for this year I think that's clearly StrixNebulosa.
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Oct 26, 2021 18:34
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Basebf555 posted:Personally for me the thread's MVP is typically someone who is watching a bunch of all-time classics for the first time so for this year I think that's clearly StrixNebulosa. Absolutely. I sometimes worry that people skip classics they haven't seen out of embarrassment of admitting so when they do their write-up. All I can say is, that is the furthest from the truth. Most people are probably surprised by it, but if anyone started shaming someone for it, I'd bring a swift hammer down on them. It's almost always out of excitement. So, watch those missed classics and share that experience with us! It's nice to be reminded what it's like the first time someone watches a classic. (I get to do this with my partner now, and it's wild to see her reaction to something I've taken for granted after watching it all my life.)
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Oct 26, 2021 18:38
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🎃 Origin of Evil 🎃 The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974) Non si deve profanare il sonno dei morti Directed by Jorge Grau Watched on Hoopla  When it comes to blood and guts, The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (aka Let Sleeping Corpses Lie) is all about quality over quantity. It takes some time to establish the mood and make sure you know that George is a colossal jerk before you meet the police sergeant who is somehow even worse. This is a movie with serious bad cop energy.  The zombies that lumber around are especially dangerous because they possess some amount of intelligence, they can use tools, and they know about teamwork. They also look so content when they eat. It’s like they’re enjoying a nice sandwich while they plan their Sunday afternoon. 💀💀💀1/2 Spooky Bingo 25/36 1. The Crazies (2010), 2. The Ritual (2017), 3. Blacula (1972), 4. Malignant (2013), 5. Black Sheep (2006), 6. [REC]2 (2009), 7. Demons 2 (1986), 8. Birdemic 2: The Resurrection (2013), 9. The Masque of the Red Death (1964), 10. Night of the Demons (1988), 11. The Witch Who Came from the Sea (1976), 12. Opera (1987), 13. Various Shorts, 14. Sword of God (2018), 15. Thale (2012), 16. Stranger in Our House (1978), 17. The Ruins (2008), 18. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986), 19. Uncle Peckerhead (2020), 20. Werewolves Within (2021), 21. Blood of the Vampire (1958), 22. Winchester (2018), 23. The Perfection (2018), 24. The Spell (2019), 25. The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974)  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 🇳🇴
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Oct 26, 2021 18:40
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It is so, so much fun to watch something that's genuinely great for the first time. I'm always reminded of this xkcd comic: Finding out my partner hadn't seen Clue last year was a huge exciting moment for me: I got to rewatch it and see his first time reactions!
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Oct 26, 2021 18:42
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Franchescanado posted:Absolutely. There's also some jealousy in there as well. My first reaction when somebody says they haven't seen one of my favorites before is "you son of a bitch..." because they get to have an experience that I can never have again and I'm jealous. I think this came up in another thread but I've actually started getting into movie reaction videos on youtube because it's like a minor version of that juice you get when you show a friend a movie you love that they've never seen before.
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Oct 26, 2021 18:44
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 65 (106). Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972) Directed by Alan Gibson; Written by Don Houghton Watched on HBOMax Groovy, man. I’ve seen enough of these films that i know continuity is pretty loose so I don’t NEED to watch every film to see a later one, but I’ve also seen enough of these films that my completionist obsession kicks in and I’d feel all twitchy skipping one. Besides the reunion of Lee and Cushing is what I’ve been waiting for and the idea of jumping into the 20th century is pretty interesting. I take it fans think this is the worst of them and I guess I can understand why. If you’re going in expecting the classic Victorian setting or a full on Lee vs Cushing film then this is the 1970s equivalent of Hollywood “updating” your favorite franchise with some young and sexy people and pop music. But its 50 years later so this is as much a “period piece” as any of the rest, and lets be real. I like the Hammer stuff but the Dracula films had been treading water for awhile so I’m game for something a bit different. And truthfully I think its pretty true to Hammer at its core. You’ve got lots of mood and setting. You’ve got the gorgeous women and their heaving chests. You’ve got a bit of a slow middle where the polite gentlemen are investigating the case. And you’ve got Lee and Cushing being awesome but also not enough of them and not enough of them together. But that’s Hammer. We do get fun Lee/Cushing opening and closers and I think there’s enough of them individually scattered through the film that I was satisfied. Plus I enjoyed Stephanie Beacham and Christopher Neame as the two more main characters. Jessica Van Helsing is a much less helpless damsel in distress than the average Hammer lady and while she didn’t exactly take up her family mantle she still was a solid protagonist. And I really enjoyed Johnny Alucard. He really nailed that line between conniving, threatening psycho stand in villain and pathetic sycophant to the real villain. So I actually think the film does a good job juggling the four leads so it never quite falls unto the lulls some of these do. Its not great, but I really enjoyed it for all the reasons I enjoy the other Hammer films and it came with some extra new in that groovy, 70s music and style. The Black Mass scene is pretty great, Alucard is a fun villain, Cushing keeps being Old Man Action Star, Beacham could have made a solid next generation if they had the nerve to do that 50 years ago, and Lee kicks rear end as the positively demonic Dracula. So I had a real good time and I’ll actually be able to remember this one and its story I think. On the other hand the whole initial premise reminded me of Dracula 2000 and now I feel compelled to watch that. So I guess there are drawbacks.  66 (107). My Bloody Valentine (1981) Directed by George Mihalka; Screenplay by John Beaird; Story by Stephen Miller Watched on Epix Hooptober Ocho 35/39: 4/4 films from 1981 Fran’s SPOOKY BINGO: Holiday Massacre Well that was a pleasant surprise. I’m not a slasher fan so I was apprehensive, and the early part of this felt like the usual slasher stuff I just don’t care for. But gradually it kind of won me over. The first thing that stood out to me is that it gives a bit of an original setting and cast with the blue collar mining town instead of a high school or college or the usual young and pretty kids. The roles and formula are still all kind of the same but I appreciate the effort there and it does set up for a good setting for the last act in the mines. The film also seems to kind of just embrace its cheesiness. The mine set up, while original, is also kind of silly. Like for all the bad mistakes kids in slasher films make at least they don’t get wasted in abandoned mines. And that slasher outfit is kind of silly, if functional. But the film just for of goes with it. The premise is a psychotic miner who sends people bloody valentines. The killer is a Batman villain. Ok, it is what it is. It doesn’t try and make a joke out of it. We are neither laughing with it or at it. It just says “that’s the premise, we’re gonna take it seriously, get on board.” I respect that and I think its something you kind of need to do with films such as this and the flaw with many a parody film. But ultimately I think I just actually got sucked into the story. The gory silly kills are kind of front loaded in the film and it kind of uses them to cover up the fact that its introducing characters and laying out story. So then things kind of slow down and focus on the characters and story in the second half and I was surprised to actually feel a little invested. I knew their names and everything. The film also plays a clever little game with the killer’s identity. Like in any other film they’d be hammering you over the head with the fact that the killer showed up at the same time the prodigal son returns with a cryptic dismissal of where he’s been. There would absolutely be a scene where the angry, violent romantic rival brings that up and accuses him of being the killer and he in turn accuses his rival as being the killer on the grounds of all that angry violent stuff. But this film never does that and never really questions that the killer is Henry Warden. All the pieces are there for there to be a whodunit mystery but the film just kind of puts them there and leaves it to you to decide if they’re worth picking up and examining. And that adds a nice tension and ambiguity to the ending. Its not a straight forward cat and mouse chase. There’s very few shots of the killer coming at the victims. Its kept just mysterious enough to give your mind room to ask questions if it wishes. The movie doesn’t ask them, its left to you. Also its got an original theme song written as an irish folksong? Sorry, I gotta give an extra half star for that. Those are the rules. So yeah, its a slasher and I don’t super like clashers. But its a solid, surprising slasher that tries to be different and a little smarter and does a pretty good job at it. I just picked this because it could kill two challenges at once and I was feeling terrible so I needed something in English and kinda dumb I could just veg out with. But I actually could gel with that as I started to feel a little better. I think that had more to do with the cocktail of pills I washed down with a Gatorade during the film but a solid watch was a good chaser.  🎃Halloween 2021: Hooptober Ocho and Spook-a-Doodle HalloweeNIT ’21🎃 Hooptober Ocho: 35/39; HalloweeNIT: 21/31; Svengoolie: 13/26; Fran’s SPOOKY BINGO: 26/36;
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Oct 26, 2021 18:53
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Basebf555 posted:Personally for me the thread's MVP is typically someone who is watching a bunch of all-time classics for the first time so for this year I think that's clearly StrixNebulosa. Yeah! I'm glad you joined us StrixNebulosa, and that you're enjoying some amazing films
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Oct 26, 2021 18:55
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Dracula A.D. 1972 also has that all-time great Lee scene where Johnny Alucard is all excited about resurrecting him, he's like "I did it Master! I brought you back!" And Dracula just flatly says "It was my will" and extends the ring.
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Oct 26, 2021 18:59
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Yeah I don't know if it was the 70s setting or Alucard's performance or if I was just more receptive but I just really dug that whole relationship and how it really sold Dracula as like a demon from hell. And Alucard is this sniveling scumbag worshipper. It was fun.
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Oct 26, 2021 19:12
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25. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 Watched On: Paramount+ Fran Challenge: To Serve Man (Watch a film that predominately features cannibalism) God I wanted to like this movie so much more than I actually did. Good stuff out of the way first: the production design, specifically the sets, is absolutely gorgeous. I liked Stretch more than every single character in the first TCM put together. There is a chainsaw fight between Leatherface and a screaming Dennis Hopper. Drayton winning the chili cookoff three years running is hilarious. But gosh, it feels like barely anything happens in its 100 minute run time. It has all these great elements (the radio station, Stretch, a vengeance-fueled chainsaw cowboy) and then takes pains to rehash scenes verbatim from the first movie. People have compared this to House of 1000 Corpses a lot and I see both the positives and negatives in that. It's a beautifully shot movie that spends most of its time on assholes yelling at each other while someone screams for thirty minutes. I wish Stretch got more to do. I wish there was SIGNIFICANTLY more Lefty in the movie than there ends up being. I wish Bill Moseley would repeat his lines like three or four times as opposed to a dozen. 26. Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla Watched On: Criterion Fran Challenge: Don't Torture A Duckling (Watch a film that is family-friendly) There's a real comfort to watching a dubbed Godzilla movie in the mid-morning. I've always loved the psychotronic spy movie vibes that smash together a blend of mysticism, supertechnology and alien invasion and you get a LOT of it in this one. There are casual line deliveries about the origin of space aluminum and passengers on an airplane chiming in about ancient statue prophecies. There are a bunch of delightfully dumpy kaiju moving much more humanly than I remember as a kid. My favorite part (apart from the resurrection of Okinawan guardian monster King Caesar) is the fight on the cargo ship where a thief gets shot in the face and turns into a green Planet of the Apes alien Lon Chaney-werewolf style. All I wanted out of a light family friendly monster movie. 1. Prince of Darkness 2. Possessor 3. The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh 4. Death Walks On High Heels 5. Death Wish Club 6. There’s Someone Inside Your House 7. The Devils Rain 8. The Stuff 9. Dead Heat 10. Attack of the Crab Monsters 11. The Wasp Woman 12. Graveyard Shift 13. VHS94 14. Troll 2 15. Killer Klowns From Outer Space 16. Berberian Sound Studio 17. WNUF Halloween Special 18. Arcade 19. Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Video Tape 20. Masque of the Red Death 21. Cat People 22. Dolls 23. Day of the Triffids 24. Highway to Hell 25. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 26. Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla Lumbermouth fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Oct 26, 2021 |
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Oct 26, 2021 19:12
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 Bệnh Viện Ma is my pick for the "watch a Vietnamese horror movie" square and...  The concept has some good bits: babyfaced doctor moves into town, joins up with the local hospital. He's warned that it's haunted but he does it anyways. The hospital is staffed by weird, silly people and the building has all kinds of weird ghost stuff in it. Solid concept, and the comedy has real potential. To wit I enjoyed the receptionist being a total jerk, terrified of the ghosts, and creepy in her own right. I liked the mortician sleeping in the morgue just for the cheap scare. I like how everyone walks around silently to spook everyone else. I liked the fake jump scares. But the rest of it didn't work. The actual horror wasn't very scary, the plot wasn't compelling, and the character work had a romance that felt half-baked - and it didn't help that the comedy kept trying to undercut the romance. Okay one comedy bit worked, the little girl grifting the dude with fake flowers for his girlfriend. That was very good. So this was a mess! Which makes me sad, it was cool to listen to a language I don't hear at all. Oh well. e: Okay the credits scene was good, I like scared man and cleaning lady sass. StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 20:27 on Oct 26, 2021 |
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Oct 26, 2021 20:25
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19: VFW Challenge: Punks A teenager steals a bunch of the new drug Hype from the gang lord who killed her sister and runs to the VFW bar across the street, leading to a siege. I wasn't expecting anything out of this one but it's actually quite good, mainly due to the cast which is packed full of really good character actors. The punks are rad too and have some good variety (there's a big tank guy, a ninja chick, the leader's more of a gunslinger etc) and the Hypers (the people addicted to the drug) function like a zombie hoard, so the story is able to keep moving without repeating itself too much. The effects budget must have been pretty huge, too; there is some terrific splatter in this movie.
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Oct 26, 2021 20:27
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🎃 Femme Fatale 🎃 Jennifer’s Body (2009) Directed by Karyn Kusama Watched on Criterion Channel  In a just world, Megan Fox would be a big deal as an actress instead of being in the news for whatever is happening with the Machine Gun guy. I’m not terribly familiar with him. She got a bit of a raw deal here. It’s not just her. Jennifer’s Body has also been underrated for a long time. When it came out, I definitely dismissed it. It’s only recently that it’s getting a reassessment and I’m here to jump on the bandwagon.  It’s definitely a fun movie with a lot to unpack. There’s a story about unrequited love. Both text and subtext concerning our expectations of kids. Female empowerment. The patriarchy in all its insidious and bumbling forms. It also feels like a throwback to the ensemble teen movies of the 90s in a lot of ways. The writing is generally good but some of the dialog is definitely overdone. It's a minor complaint though when everything else works so well. 💀💀💀💀 Spooky Bingo 26/36 1. The Crazies (2010), 2. The Ritual (2017), 3. Blacula (1972), 4. Malignant (2013), 5. Black Sheep (2006), 6. [REC]2 (2009), 7. Demons 2 (1986), 8. Birdemic 2: The Resurrection (2013), 9. The Masque of the Red Death (1964), 10. Night of the Demons (1988), 11. The Witch Who Came from the Sea (1976), 12. Opera (1987), 13. Various Shorts, 14. Sword of God (2018), 15. Thale (2012), 16. Stranger in Our House (1978), 17. The Ruins (2008), 18. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986), 19. Uncle Peckerhead (2020), 20. Werewolves Within (2021), 21. Blood of the Vampire (1958), 22. Winchester (2018), 23. The Perfection (2018), 24. The Spell (2019), 25. The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974), 26. Jennifer’s Body (2009)  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 20:37 on Oct 26, 2021 |
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Oct 26, 2021 20:34
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Franchescanado posted:Absolutely. Yep, that wasn't mocking since there's plenty of reasons to have not seen a well known and loved film. Every thread gets people discovering some classics and it's always great. That was just a reaction to multiple first time viewings happening.
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Oct 26, 2021 21:08
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