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Class3KillStorm posted:#5i. Curve (09:51) I watched this one last year and it freaked me out a little because I’ve had nightmares that are basically exactly that situation. That’s my favorite kind of horror short, just one simple but effective idea that doesn’t overstay its welcome.
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May 6, 2022 20:42
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7. Lips of Blood (1975) I don’t know, maybe Jean Rollin is growing on me a little. This has all his usual trappings: castles, cemeteries, that one beach he likes, female vampires, copious nudity, concerns about memory, love, and death. The story of a man chasing the memory of a ghostly young woman he met as a boy, there’s a bit of a plot as he encounters a conspiracy trying to prevent their reuniting. There was just enough there to keep me engaged. 3/5
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May 6, 2022 20:50
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Curve is amazing and makes a great double feature (double short?) With The Black Tower (1987) another architectural horror film that's basically stylistically and structurally the exact opposite to Curve. For example while Curve has no dialogue and the main character is in frame almost the entire short The Black Tower is told almost exclusively through voiceover and we never actually see the narrator on screen. Could work as a yingyang sort of thing.
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May 6, 2022 21:04
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 - Moon Knight (2022) Directed by Mohamed Diab, Justin Benson, and Aaron Moorhead; Created by Jeremy Slater Watched on Disney+ Return of the Fallen: 2/13 - The Enemies of Horror Ok its a mini series so I guess that doesn’t count? Or that does now with the Rose Red designation? I dunno. I’m just gonna review it because I watched it and keep it separate for now. I dig me some MCU so its no real surprise that I enjoyed this. I do think this felt like a continuing trend of Phase 4 MCU feeling less like the same familiar Marvel stuff and more in the creative hands of those making it. There’s a bunch of horror people behind the cameras here and while I wouldn’t necessarily call this a full out horror there’s definitely an element of that in play. Not just in spooky stuff and monsters and zombie type things but in a psychological horror kind of sense. A real question of identity and sense of self and the existential horror of losing a grip on that. I think the series feels a little divided there. Some people definitely preferred it as it got weirder and darker towards the end and I get that. I probably did too. I’m not overly familiar with Moon Knight as a character. I know the elevator pitch but not much more so the first couple of episodes setting things up worked well for me in really coming to understand everything or at least start to. And I definitely enjoyed it when poo poo really hit the fan in the last couple of episodes. But there was definitely a middle part there that slowed down a bit. Focused more on a kind of Tomb Raider/Indiana Jones type journey that’s something I really can enjoy but it felt like it kind of slowed things down for a minute or so. I don’t know. I binged the whole thing in two days and the first four episodes in one so maybe I was really just feeling the need to space out the episodes a bit more. But it did feel like it kind of went “here’s some weird stuff… now lets go on an adventure… ok more weird stuff now”. But all told I really enjoyed this. Oscar Isaac is pretty great in the dual roles for this very unique superhero in the MCU. The series is definitely at its best when he’s out of costume and just playing his roles. I love F Murray Abraham as Khonshu. I just do. I actually really enjoyed the gods in total. Taweret was a delight and Ammit managed to somehow work even if on paper I feel like it shouldn’t have. The series felt like it managed to blue the lines so well between reality, delusion, and metaphysical magical god something that by the big finale fight I was just going with it. And May Calamawy does a good job as probably the one character who develops the most in the series as we get to know here and see her become more than she started as. I think I’m a fan and that was a delightful costume. And Ethan Hawke’s villain probably worked enough for me with that opening of the glass in his shoes and the constant slight sound of them you could hear when he walked up in a scene. That’s actually something I noticed in the series and it might have had something to do with Benson and Moorehead’s involvement, but I thought there was a lot fo really good subtle sound directing in this. Just the slight sound of broken glass or a fish tank or this or that. It was the sort of thing I sometimes thought might be in my house and just kind of played into the overall uncomfortable vibe of much of the series. Like most Marvel this probably wasn’t weird enough for people who find the MCU stuff too common or bland or whatever. Like most MCU films/shows it ends in a big CGI fight. But I like that stuff. I also really like Benson and Moorehead and while I’m not sure I’d call this their work I definitely felt like I felt their hands on it. With Sam Raimi’s Multiverse of Madness, Blade, and the upcoming Halloween Special as well as B&M being part of Loki S2 it feels like the MCU is getting a little more horrory. I actually thought we might see Blade, Werewolf or Night, or Black Knight in this one but this actually ended up being a very self contained story. There’s a few little nods to Madripor or The Ancestral Plane and maybe I missed something else but this did feel like it was the rare MCU property that stands alone nearly completely neither being set up from somewhere else nor setting something else up. The ending did obviously leave a ton more room for Moon Knight and whether we see a Season 2 or a movie I don’t know. But I get the feeling the MCU world is getting weirder and weirder and a bunch of Egyptian gods and their superhero avatars are gonna be interesting to see how they mix with someone else down the line.  6 (15). National Theatre Live: Frankenstein (2011) Directed by Danny Boyle; Written by Nick Dear Watched on Internet Archive 13 Frankensteins: 5/13 Technically I watched this twice since there’s two versions. One where Benedict Cumberbatch plays Frankenstein and Johnny Lee Miller plays the Creature and one where they switch roles. I wasn’t super sure if I would watch both. That was the plan but as the week wore on it seemed less and less likely to me. But once I did watch the first version (Miller/Creature; Cumberbatch/Frankenstein) not only did I really enjoy it but I was really interested to see how the two actors handled things differently. First as a general stage performance I really enjoyed the show. I think the lack of narration did lead to a few awkward transitions especially early on when the Creature is growing but in general I think the narrative flowed well and was very easy to follow. I don’t know what the steampunk really added to things but I really enjoyed the whole womb/light bulb lab setup as a simultaneously simple and incredibly extravagant alternative to those classic lab scenes from the Universal films that I so associate with the Frankenstein story. There’s no “Its alive!” here but its a very interesting theater version of that in its own way. Noticeably the first version I watched seemed more comedic. I don’t know how much of that was the actors hitting the comedy harder or the audience not responding to it. Or maybe both? Maybe the actors were reading the audience and adapting their performances? Its interesting because it changes the tone of a lot of the play and makes the same lines and scenes play differently. Of course the big thing is the two leads and that’s very interesting. Miller feels like he plays both characters more commanding and as a result more sinister. I never doubted his Creature was a villain. He was a very good villain who seemed quite evil. On the flip side Cumberbatch plays both characters more confused and disturbed. His Creature seems more child like and even as he’s doing evil things he seems to be lashing out in temper tantrums and immediately regretting it. I felt like Cumberbatch’s Creature wasn’t necessarily evil, or was at least fighting against it at times. Miller’s version felt like he was embracing being the monster. And it worked the same way with Frankenstein. Miller’s seems more arrogant and certain of what he’s doing. He feels like he’s talking down to Elizabeth and scoffing his father. But Cumberbatch’s felt more broken. Like he didn’t know how to talk to a woman and was hurt that he was disappointing his father. And he seems genuinely unsure of what to do with the Creature and scared. He just seemed like a man in crisis. Miller’s Frankenstein very much felt like a villain who knew what he was doing. Which version you prefer I think is a toss up. I can make arguments for both. I think I preferred Miller as the evil villainous Creature and Cumberbatch as the disturbed Frankenstein but maybe that’s just because it was the first one I watched. Different adaptions really do play it differently sometimes making the Creature a monster and sometimes a victim. Sometimes making Frankenstein a mad man or an amoral monster and sometimes just a tragic character who reaches for the sun and gets burnt. Both extremes feel represented here and that’s pretty cool. Ultimately I just don’t watch a lot fo live theater and if I’m being entirely honest there’s something I enjoy more about it than film. I mean I still think I’d watch a move 4 out of 5 times but there’s a lot of interesting comparisons and contrasts to the same play performed twice. And to be honest I kind of hate the way film fans really obsess over the same film they watch over and over. Taking scenes or shots and just hyper focusing on them again and again. Its dull to me and doesn’t feel terribly informative of the whole. But being able to notice how two actors play the same characters differently or how the same lines are delivered differently in two different performances feels like it reveals more about their intent and how they’re received. It feels like something real to talk about instead of just staring at a screen cap. I don’t know if I’m gonna start watching more live plays now. I wouldn’t mind. I’m not going to them. Covid and all. But I’m sure there’s ones I can find to watch on the TV. But it was a fun change of pace. 🌻💀 Spook-A-Doodle Half-Way-To-Halloween ’22: Return of the Fallen & King Spring II💀🌻 King Spring II: 3/13🎈Return of the Fallen: 2/13👻Spook-A-Doodle Challenges: 0/13🐺13 Frankensteins: 5/13 Watched - New (Total) 1. Magic (1978); - (2). A Quiet Place (2018); 2 (3). A Quiet Place Part II (2020); 3 (4). Benny Loves You (2019); 4 (5). Strait-Jacket (1964); 5 (6). Werewolves Within (2021); - (7). The Curse of Frankenstein (1957); - (8). Children of the Corn (1984); (9). The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958); - (10). The Evil of Frankenstein (1964); - (11). Frankenstein Created Woman (1967); - (12). Night of the Living Dead (1990); - (13). Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1992); - (14). Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995); 6 (15). National Theatre Live: Frankenstein (2011); Series: Moon Knight (2022);
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May 6, 2022 21:06
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17 This one ended up being pretty good. Has an interesting setup and premise with the crazed experimental doctor being put down by another doctor and then an amnesiac woman slowly uncovering these secrets decades later. Lots of fun goopy kills and zombie stuff going on that I really appreciated and the doctor figure has some funny moments. Just a real out there and like "we got the budget so lets go for it" premise. Really dug this one a lot and I mean, while completely impractical they had the lead character running around in cotton panties and a mid-riff white tee sans the bra. you can tell they had to throw this in because its the 80's and that's what you do, but also how do we fit in half naked people into this when we're supposed to be locked up in a mental asylum for the entire movie and we have one young woman in the entire picture that isnt a nurse. so lets just have the main character run around half naked for about an hour.   18  a pretty by-the numbers slasher when its all said and done. Enjoyable in its own way and has a neat twist on it with the psionic twins thing, but maybe just a bit too flat and not as interesting as say a Slumber Party Massacre or The Prowler. its very middle of the road, but enjoyable. Also has one of the funniest clothes try-on sequences I've seen in a bit. Just unabashedly naked ladies trying on a housemates wardrobe while they arent there. 19  Surprisingly tame for what kind of response the title and trailer elicit. I was really expecting this greasy exploitation movie, probably dropping some hard F-bombs as you would in the 90's, titilation for titilation's sakes and some crappy, but hard violence. What you kinda end up with is a milquetoast piece of media not really saying anything particularly interesting about the aids epidemic or the stigmatization of those with aids in society and in medicine. It's really just very bland despite its title and trailer. very surprising. It's shot fairly well though, the acting is dog poo poo, but I was reasonably entertained by the main actor.
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May 6, 2022 21:16
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Gamera, the Giant Monster (大怪獣ガメラ) 1965 Directed by Noriaki Yuasa Watched on Tubi  Gamera was Daiei Films attempt to capitalize on the success of Toho's Godzilla. It's not very good, but because it was the scrappy, low-budget underdog, it really pulls out the stops. Gamera shows up relatively early and breathes actual fire. The army uses freeze bombs to try to knock Gamera on his back, knowing that turtles can't right themselves and eventually starve to death. The scene in which we find out why there have been so many UFO sightings is kind of magical. 💀💀 Spooky Non-American 1960s Challenge 5/13 1. Matango (1963), 2. Mill of the Stone Women (1960), 3. The Brainiac (1962), 4. Kill, Baby… Kill! (1966), 5. Gamera, the Giant Monster (1960) Bracketology 4/? 1. Night of the Living Dead (1990), 2. Strait-Jacket (1964), 3. National Theatre Live: Frankenstein (2011), Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) GMM Challenges 0/13
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May 6, 2022 21:30
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STAC Goat posted:
Still no miniseries, I was going to allow Rose Red if as M_Sinistrari mentioned it had been released on DVD with the parts edited together. Some miniseries are just films split into a couple parts for broadcast but I think something like Moon Knight falls squarely into the category of a TV show. Feel free to discuss stuff like this obviously but they won't count towards the 13 films needed to be eligible for the prize drawing at the end of the month.
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May 6, 2022 21:31
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2. A Nightmare on Elm Street My favorite thing about Wes Craven slashers is how the killer always gets knocked around like Wiley E. Coyote on the way to the kill. If he hadn't made his name in horror I like to think he would have been a great director of slapstick comedy. The production design and practical effects are the main draws for this movie. The plot itself is kind of a boring mess. Freddy's backstory feels kind of rote and it doesn't have any of the atmospheric dread of a Halloween or Candyman. But cool knife glove, cool creepy boiler room, cool effects on the kills, especially the first one. 2) A Nightmare on Elm Street 3) Scream 4 4) Scream 2022 5) You Won’t Be Alone 6) The Night House 7) Audition 8) Dracula (1931) 9) Suspiria (1977) 10) Drag Me To Hell 11) Us 12) Men 13) Night of the Living Dead (1968)
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May 6, 2022 22:55
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#6 Satan's Cheerleaders An angry high school janitor decides that the mean girl cheerleaders would make excellent sacrifices for his satanic cult. But things go awry when it turns out one of the cheerleaders might have a connection to Satan herself... Not bad! 70s horror about cheerleaders, I was worried about the gender politics going in. But all the dudes especially the janitor are depicted as bumbling creeps, while the cheerleaders are clever, funny, and resourceful. They are more than capable of saving themselves. It's very pro-popular hot people, which is nice. So many movies are sympathetic to outcasts, it's nice to have a movie where the popular people are popular because they're just better. Its not all great though. There are some dull sections of characters just running around in the woods, and the attempts at funny banter between the head and lieutenant Satanist are pretty dire. The fact that one of the girls is herself a super powerful Satanist is criminally underused. Most of it is just her creepy smiling at one of the Satanists. Total wasted potential, both narratively and comedically. I also especially liked that all the girls survived unscathed. Although that may have contributed to some of the boring running around in the woods problem, since without deaths there wasn't an easy way to ratchet up the tension Satan's Cheerleaders is desperately calling out for a remake. Just make the Satanist girls Satan powers a bigger deal and remove some of the running around in the woods and you're golden. But as it is, Satan's Cheerleaders is an inoffensive bit of fluff. Soft recommendation, especially if you've been watching a bunch of intense A24 stuff or whatever and want a light break 1) One Cut of the Dead, 2) Land of the MinotaurCH8, 3) Terra Formars, 4)The Great Buddha ArrivalCH5, 5) BogCH3, 6) Satan's Cheerleaders
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May 7, 2022 01:44
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 Woodlands Dark and Days BewitchedThe Other Lamb 2019 Directed by Małgorzata Szumowska Watched on Hulu  Things are not as wonderful as they seem at the isolated polygamy incest cult. The leader, Shepherd, may not actually be the messiah and he may not actually be looking out for anyone's best interests except his own. The Other Lamb can be a bit slow at times but it includes some really striking imagery. Things kind of collapse at the end, but I can't imagine a abusive system like this ending any way other than suddenly and violently. 💀💀💀1/2 Spooky Non-American 1960s Challenge 5/13 1. Matango (1963), 2. Mill of the Stone Women (1960), 3. The Brainiac (1962), 4. Kill, Baby… Kill! (1966), 5. Gamera, the Giant Monster (1960) Bracketology 4/? 1. Night of the Living Dead (1990), 2. Strait-Jacket (1964), 3. National Theatre Live: Frankenstein (2011), Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) GMM Challenges 1/13 1. The Other Lamb (2019)
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May 7, 2022 02:58
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gey muckle mowser posted:
7) The Fly (1958) A totally tonally different film from the remake, and this was my first time seeing it. Some of it was a bit schlocky in 2022, but overall it's a fantastically fun movie. 4/5 I'm currently at a drive in watching a double feature with this and the remake. That'll be logged next! 
Count Thrashula fucked around with this message at 03:41 on May 7, 2022 |
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May 7, 2022 03:39
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10. The Price is Right
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Would Noroi count for the documentary challenge? Been on my list for a long time but don’t know enough about it to guess for sure
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May 7, 2022 03:47
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 Eye in the Labyrinth (1972) Challenge #6: The King in Yellow We immediately open the film following a man, bloodied, fleeing for his life through a maze of concrete corridors tilting in puzzling angles leading on endlessly. Every time the man stops thinking he is safe a knife slashes at him from the darkness prodding him to continue running, running until he cannot any more. Again he halts and this time the knife gouges him deeper and deeper crunching at bone and then suddenly a woman bolts up right in bed. "Lucas!" she screams, she is Julie, the protagonist of this story, and she's gonna find out what the gently caress happened to Lucas. Immediately you're drawn into the movie after this amazing sequence and the high lasts a little longer but unfortunately they never revisit that level of tension and surrealism. Julie retraces the dead man steps which leads her to a commune of beautiful, promiscuous, artist types that seem to know more about Lucas's fate and the bulk of the movie is spent here. This is the first giallo film I've ever seen but I suppose its standard with lots of topless ladies and murder I thought it was fairly smart had some what the gently caress twists and a nice ending. 4/5
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May 7, 2022 03:49
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Opopanax posted:Would Noroi count for the documentary challenge? Been on my list for a long time but don’t know enough about it to guess for sure No, but you should watch it anyway though because it rules. general recommendation for anyone looking for something for that challenge - Butterfly Kisses is a mockumentary-style film about a guy trying to make a found footage film from actual footage he found, I really like it and it doesn’t get brought up very often
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May 7, 2022 04:08
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gey muckle mowser posted:No, but you should watch it anyway though because it rules. 
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May 7, 2022 04:12
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gey muckle mowser posted:No, but you should watch it anyway though because it rules. And if you're pressed for time you can watch The Great Buddha Arrival, which wouldn't count for the challenge if it was 9 seconds shorter
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May 7, 2022 04:13
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Movie #7, Challenge #4 - Watch a horror musical Phantom of the Paradise How had I not seen this before? An insane mix of The Phantom of The Opera and Faust with a whole lot of elements and plot points of other classic horror, Phantom of the Paradise is an absolutely wild, garish trip. I loved it. The songs are great, every costume is awesome. I love Jessica Harper, I love Beef. A tribute to horror, camp, and musical theater while simultaneously (and rightly) crapping on the rock and roll industry from top to bottom, from satanic producers to vacant fandoms. Aside from some messy editing to get around copyright issues with the record company's name, this is just perfect.
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May 7, 2022 05:05
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5. Choose or Die Just to get this out of the way, this movie is absolute garbage. It wears its "influences" on its sleeve, and that's my nice way of saying it rips a lot of stuff off blatantly and poorly. Imagine the trap-puzzles of Saw, but reimagined as video game levels that our leads must navigate. There's a cursed media angle that comes straight from last year's indie video game hit Inscryption, and an 80's obsession from Ready Player One. Add a dash of terrible special effects and a geriatric's vision of what video games are like and you've gotten the bones of this one. It fails on every level. Samfucius fucked around with this message at 12:13 on May 19, 2022 |
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May 7, 2022 12:12
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8) The Fly (1986) This was a rewatch for me as a double feature with the original, so here's my original review when I first saw it: These practical effects are... possibly the best I've ever seen in a horror movie. It's gooey, it's gross, it's visceral, it's peak Cronenberg. Goldblum's performance is tragic, cocky, gross, frantic... he's all over the place, but it's not "Goldblum schlock" that has become his oeuvre in the last decade or so, the stuttering parody of his Jurassic Park character. No, this is a laser focused performance. And Geena Davis just excels as the terrified onlooker. We're thrown into this story with hardly any introduction, but everything makes sense. The pacing is there, the backstory is trickled to us just right. I can't say enough good things about this movie, I loved it. 5/5
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May 7, 2022 15:05
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 2. Scream, Queen! A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge 1985 Directed by Jack Sholder Watched on HBO  It's an allegory for sure but I don't know if it's positive or negative. It could be a kind of meta thing where the movie is taking advantage of 1980s anxiety about homosexuality or it could be much more straightforward, telling us how awful it is to be gay. At one point, Freddy does literally come out of Jesse and I'm not sure I'm equipped to unpack the symbolism. Mark Patton does a good job as Jesse, but he's stuck in an awkward movie that's punctuated by some random bits of genius. 💀💀💀 Spooky Non-American 1960s Challenge 5/13 1. Matango (1963), 2. Mill of the Stone Women (1960), 3. The Brainiac (1962), 4. Kill, Baby… Kill! (1966), 5. Gamera, the Giant Monster (1960) Bracketology 4/? 1. Night of the Living Dead (1990), 2. Strait-Jacket (1964), 3. National Theatre Live: Frankenstein (2011), Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) GMM Challenges 2/13 1. The Other Lamb (2019), 2. A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)
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May 7, 2022 15:32
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3) The Abominable Snowman (1957) Challenge: Rated PG A classic Hammer Horror movie from the Quatermass team of Val Guest and Nigel Kneale. Peter Cushing plays the scientist Rollason, reprising his role from a TV adaptation made two years previously, hunting for the Yeti in the mountains of Nepal. I've had this on my list for a while now and decided to watch it now to celebrate Kneale's centenary. It also won't be the last Kneale I watch this month. It doesn't feel sparkly at first, and it never reaches the heights of The Stone Tape or Quatermass and the Pit, but as it gets towards the end there are some extremely effective scenes. As with many of Kneale's scientific horror scripts it likes to ask questions and get you to think about the possible answers. Cushing is of course the standout actor in the piece, but Forrest Tucker is serviceable as the seedy American explorer Tom Friend and the supporting cast has no weak spots. Overall I'd give this a recommend, although I don't think I'll hasten back to it.
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May 7, 2022 16:32
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 #6. Black Sunday (1960) (Shudder via Joe Bob Briggs) A vengeful witch - or is she a vampire? - and her servant return from the dead and try to possess the body of the witch's beautiful descendant, with only the girl's brother and a handsome doctor standing in her way. Mario Bava's first film, this mostly shows off what his style will be - the big sets, the swooping camera, the histrionics - without the lurid colors. On the one hand, I miss all of the beautiful colored lighting soaking everything in the frame; on the other hand, with the rich blacks and fine details, I wonder if he lost a little something in the jump to color photography. It's a wonderful film to look at, is what I'm saying - all the rich, smoky forest scenes and underground caverns and ridiculous haunted house antics brought to life in stunning black and white. Not such a great film to actually watch, though. The acting is stilted and wooden, even when trying to soften the criticism due to the obvious (and pretty terrible) dub job over everyone; Bava is obviously not an actor's director. Given the overly flowery and nonsensical script, it's obvious he's not a terribly good writer, either. I've seen this film before, but probably over 15 years ago, so while I remembered the broad points I had forgotten all of the details. Even then, I found it hard to stay terribly engaged with what was happening on screen repeatedly throughout. Because of the film's odd pace - individual scenes can have a decent pace, but as a whole the film feels fairly slow and plodding until the last 20 or so minutes - I think I appreciated the Joe Bob interstitials here more than I normally would have. Having Briggs pop in to drawl about Bava's career and try to pitch Americans adopting the German celebration of Walpurgisnacht as a "Spring Halloween" tradition occasionally did help to pull my wandering attention back at key points. In the end, Black Sunday is a film I appreciate more than I enjoy it. I can see how and why it influenced so many of the filmmakers who grew up in its wake, but I just find the odd pacing and dialogue and dub job to detract too much from it for me to really let it into my heart.  /5Watched so far: Night of the Living Dead (1968), Escape Room (2019), The Company of Wolves (GMM Challenge 9), Shutter (2008) (GMM Challenge 3), bunch o' shorts (GMM Challenge 7), Black Sunday (1960)
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May 7, 2022 17:25
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8. The Long Hair of Death (1964) One of a bunch of Gothic horror films Barbara Steele made in the Sixties. I would put it in the middle of the pack: less stylish than her Mario Bava or Roger Corman movies, but not talky and dull like some of her other Italian Gothics. Shares similarities with the Poe films as we see a murderer driven mad and meeting the ironic fate promised the audience at the start of the film. The third act is especially focused on action over talk as we see the murderer running around, trying to deal with being gaslit. 3/5
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May 7, 2022 17:36
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MOVIE #1: Saturday Morning Mystery There's no such thing as ghosts. Just cruddy old perverts, politicians and real estate developers. "Hey guys, what if Scooby Doo was like ... REAL" isn't exactly a groundbreaking idea. Countless books, comics, TV shows and movies have explored the idea, and I'm willing to take a leap and say most of them did it better than Saturday Morning Mystery. The basic idea is exactly what you'd expect: a group of young adults have been running a ghost hunting business, but in reality they're just a detective agency that keeps busting criminals, child pornographers and other scum because as everyone knows, ghosts aren't real. The business isn't doing so hot, so the team take a case from a bank they owe a lot of money to. If they can solve the mystery of a seemingly haunted building, the bank can lend them a hand. But it turns out that this house ... is REALLY HAUNTED! This would all be very well and good, but Saturday Morning Mystery has a couple of big problems. First of all, the movie is insanely amateurish. Again, not throwing shade at all movies with amateur casts and limited equipment, people have made good movies with limited tools, but Saturday Morning Mystery is not one of them. The acting is awful, the direction is bland and flat and the movie keeps trying for a "natural" style, which just means that everyone is constantly talking all over each other. Second, the movie is trying to be far too loving cute and clever. Multiple references to Scooby Doo, and not clever references: just people saying "hey this is pretty Scooby Doo, right?" or imitating characters from the show. gently caress you, movie. You're not as clever as you think. The end result is a movie that thinks it's awesome and groundbreaking and fourth wall breaking and clever and smart and funny, while being none of those things. One of the worst things a horror movie can do is bore you, and that's pretty much all Saturday Morning Mystery did. Don't waste your time with this movie. Watch the Supernatural episode "Scoobynatural" instead. / 5
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May 7, 2022 19:37
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20 This one took me by surprise, didnt expect it to be so fully developed and have a clear and concise concept and finish the way that it did. Basically a Vampire takes in a human trying to kick his alcohol habit that is destroying his life so she decides over the course of the movie that she wants to kick her blood habit. It's got the familiar tropes of an addiction story, but told in support with this Vampire story on the side juggling her nature vs the person she'd like to be again. It really won me over and its a quick movie too. At 80 minutes max it gets in and tells the story it wants and gets out with plenty of vampire action and ponderous moments in life. out of 521  An afternoon classic in my house. Part goofy and scary and kinda weird, but it all sorta works in its own way. Like its really hard to beat Fred Gwynne's delivery of every single line in this movie or Gage being just so adorable you kinda wouldnt mind a baby managing to sneak up on you and slicing your throat. Just a strange adaptation and a lot of fun in its own way. Also like a Ramones ending song over the credits? That's really tough to beat, even if another Stephen King adaptation did have an entire AC/DC soundtrack. out of 522  This one took me by surprise. I wasnt expecting this much GOOP! like just gallons of it and it was glorious. The story is just the vehicle in which the goop is delivered and it works well, but man when the monster(s) really start freaking and the body count starts rising its just goop city. I had a lot of fun with this one and it's definitely one I'm going to be buying in the near future to add to my personal library. Just a ton of fun front to back. Really enjoyed this one quite a bit. out of 5
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May 7, 2022 20:30
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 Errementari: The Devil and the Blacksmith (2017) Challenge #1: Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched Based on a story or fairy tale of some kind about a blacksmith that makes a deal with the devil the eponymous blacksmith in this tale lives secluded in a self-made fortress designed to hide a terrible secret. One day a man comes into town and wants to poke around the blacksmiths place because he thinks there's goooold in there, but of course... it's not gold! Despite the movie being set in the 1800's they don't do much to make It feel like its the 1800's besides costumes the acting and dialogue is modern and doesn't lend anything to the setting and atmosphere which I feel is the weakest part of the movie. Apparently all the actors are speaking Basque though which might be impressive to a linguist but means nothing to a dunce like me. The best part of the movie is the Devil of the film Sartael who is kinda a gently caress up. He's malevolent yes but cowardly, clumsy, a buffoon really. I thought it was a bit plodding and was losing interest but at the end they're like okay, lets go to hell now, which immediately got my attention. That part alone was really cool. 4/5 TheMopeSquad fucked around with this message at 20:59 on May 7, 2022 |
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May 7, 2022 20:48
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 3. Rated PGMadhouse 1974 Directed by Jim Clark Watched on Amazon  I wanted to like this a lot more than I actually did, which is not to say that I didn't like it. Instead, I just felt a like it was a little bit of a letdown. A movie in which Vincent Price basically plays himself and isn't sure whether or not he's a murderer is a fantastic concept. I also really enjoyed all of the old Vincent Price clips. The overall effect was just a little too hammy for me to take it as seriously as I should have. 💀💀💀 Spooky Non-American 1960s Challenge 5/13 1. Matango (1963), 2. Mill of the Stone Women (1960), 3. The Brainiac (1962), 4. Kill, Baby… Kill! (1966), 5. Gamera, the Giant Monster (1960) Bracketology 4/? 1. Night of the Living Dead (1990), 2. Strait-Jacket (1964), 3. National Theatre Live: Frankenstein (2011), Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) GMM Challenges 3/13 1. The Other Lamb (2019, A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985), 3. Madhouse (1974)
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May 7, 2022 21:28
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3. Scream 4 Well starts off with a disastrously disorienting inverted frame narrative that has none of the cleverness of the first three Scream cold opens. From there it kind of recovers as the plot gets going and competently executes a retread of the first movie, but never really answers the question “why a new one” besides having a first draft monologue about how kids want to be internet famous or something. Hayden Panettiere is really good in this, I’m bummed she didn’t have a bigger movie career. 2) A Nightmare on Elm Street 3) Scream 4 4) Scream 2022 5) You Won’t Be Alone 6) The Night House 7) Audition 8) Dracula (1931) 9) Suspiria (1977) 10) Drag Me To Hell 11) Us 12) Men 13) Night of the Living Dead (1968)
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May 7, 2022 22:03
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 Stage Fright (1987) Challenge #5: Behind the Screams Not much to say except this is a phenomenal well made slasher flick. Lots of victims, lots of good deaths, the setting of a theater where we have all sorts of claustrophobic places to run over the stage, under the stage, backstage, behind the flats, ect ect. Most of the substance is visual here the owl faced killer-slash-actor especially I think deserves to be more well known. Acting is actually pretty good and goddamn they have some great screamers. The fake out at the beginning is legendary. 5/5
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May 7, 2022 23:35
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9. The Medusa Touch (1978) Sort of a hybrid mystery/horror told in flashback, the story of a hilariously misanthropic psychic with the ability to will the death of anyone who displeases him. Worth watching for camp value as Richard Burton tears up scenery passing judgement on God and humanity alike in massively smug and superior fashion. I don’t think I would have liked to meet the author of the novel this was based on as Burton’s character seems like an obvious self-insert, but his revenge fantasies are fun to watch. 3.5/5
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May 8, 2022 00:18
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 6: Dr Strange and the Multiverse of Madness Rated PG I'm glad I'm not the first nerd to try and slot this into the challenge, but it definitely counts. It's not strictly horror obviously, but it has some pretty horrific moments and imagery, and they gave Raimi a pretty long leash. It's obviously going to be a love/hate thing for people, it's not likely to be anyone's first MCU movie and this point you're either on board or you're not, but I enjoyed it a lot and I hope people keep giving Raimi more money to go nuts with.
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May 8, 2022 00:27
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Lol great poster concept
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May 8, 2022 03:00
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Movie #8, Challenge #5 - Watch a documentary about a horror film or filmmaker Document of the Dead A student-made documentary following George Romero during a few days of the filming of Dawn of the Dead. This is one of those documentaries that's academically focused and those are the kind I generally prefer; the basics of film making and who does what are covered in a way that's very accessible to students and aspiring film markers. There's a decent amount of time spent on Night and Martin as well. It's fun seeing the mall behind the scenes, especially now that malls themselves are becoming zombies. It's funny in 2022 hearing a mall described as A Futuristic Place! Tom Savini is delightful here, showing us some timelapsed footage of makeup application and some great stunt work. There's clear admiration for Romero here, but it doesn't ever feel like a fandom film (that's a big positive for me.) The biggest weakness is a narrator that feels completely detached from anything. I watched the original 66 minute cut. It sounds like throughout the years this documentary was expanded to cover later Romero films, which I can't imagine not feeling disjointed.
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May 8, 2022 03:47
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In for at least 13 and already a ways in! 1. Just Before Dawn – Glad to know there's still really good slasher movies I haven't seen! Well, maybe not anymore after watching this. Genuinely insane ending. Thought the pacing was a little wonky at times so I'll have to check out the alternate, longer cut that's on the blu-ray later. 2. Graduation Day – Some real crazy exciting editing in the first half of this (especially the first half hour) and then there's song that lasts for nearly 8 minutes which plays out in full. After that happens, the movie becomes incredibly sluggish and more boring with each minute that passes. 3. The Hills Have Eyes Part II – I think the last time I saw this it might've been on VHS tape and some scenes were so dark that I couldn't tell what was happening. Not as bad as a I remember it being! Like, it's pretty awful if you compare it to the original The Hills Have Eyes – which is not a slasher – but if you compare it to the slashers this is imitating (like Friday the 13th 3D) then it's pretty fun. The whole "Wes Craven didn't finish filming this" is a bit overstated, there's about 10 minutes of scenes from the first movie and do they make a grave error in deploying them as soon as the movie starts. But the producer on the blu-ray claims he wanted Craven to go back and refilm about 50% of the movie, not that he didn't finish filming it. One of the actresses said something similar. 4. Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge – Apologies to this film's fans, but I think this is one of the most boring slasher movies I've seen. 5. Dream Demon – Fun! Kind of feels like a feature-length audition for this group of people to make a Nightmare on Elm St. movie – which unfortunately didn’t happen, as this is a lot better than 5 and Stephen Hopkins’s own audition movie, Dangerous Game. This does lag a bit in the back half as it becomes too repetitive. One of the problems is the two protagonists are almost never in any real danger, so there's basically no tension. That, and as fun as Timothy Spall is at playing a melty, deformed dream monster, he's no Freddy Krueger.
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May 8, 2022 04:30
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9/13 - Christine (1983) 12. All Hail the King Looking for King movies to watch, it occurred to me that I never actually saw Christine, even though it's a Carpenter and obviously a classic. I'm pretty sure I mentally mushed together Maximum Overdrive (lol), the actual book Christine, and the episode of Futurama with the were-car. So I finally watched the movie tonight and yeah, it basically rules. The first hour is a little slow as it builds character, but the Christine car itself is as much a character as any human in the movie, and the shot of a flaming Christine in dead center frame slowly rolling down the road is absolutely iconic. Definitely one of Carpenter's best, and I'm ashamed it took me this long to realize I hadn't seen it.  
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May 8, 2022 05:23
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TheMopeSquad posted:
I haven't seen this in years but I remember it being about a play - is there also a film being made in it?
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May 8, 2022 05:33
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gey muckle mowser posted:I haven't seen this in years but I remember it being about a play - is there also a film being made in it? No, I just figured making a play was similar in spirit to making a film but if not then I'll just watch something else and put this on my other list.
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May 8, 2022 05:45
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  8. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970) (dir. Jaromil Jireš) Amazon A surreal Czechoslovakian fantasy film about a young girl who, uh, has… magic earrings? And there are vampires and chickens? Honestly no clue what happened in this, it operates on a strange dream logic that made it hard for me to follow. Fortunately it’s a very good looking film, with some gorgeous cinematography and sets that would be right at home in a Hammer production. It’s not quite horror, more like a dark folk tale with some spooky scenes. There’s a fair amount of nudity but it didn’t feel exploitative to me, especially if you compare it something like a Jean Rollin film that’s borderline softcore pornography. Dreamy euro-horror is my jam so aesthetically I loved this, but I did find it a little difficult to follow the plot (disclaimer: when I watched this it was late and I was super tired so it’s entirely possible a rewatch would change my mind on that). It’s been on my list for quite a while though and I’m glad I finally got around to it. 4 polecats out of 5  9. Hollow Man (2000) (dir. Paul Verhoeven) Netflix Paul Verhoeven’s take on The Invisible Man. Kevin Bacon plays Sebastian Caine, a scientist developing an invisibility serum for the military. His serum works on lab animals, but he and his team haven’t yet cracked the problem of how to make the subject visible again. When the government threatens to end the program due to lack of results (which is bonkers because this is already one of the most incredible scientific advances in human history), Caine decides to skip ahead to human trials, and volunteers himself. Things don’t go so well. I would’ve liked this a lot more if it wasn’t so goddamn rapey. After turning invisible, Caine sexually assaults two of the three women on his team and then spies on the third in the bathroom. Later in the film he assaults and rapes a neighbor. It’s implied that staying invisible for too long causes erratic and aggressive behavior, but he does these things almost immediately. I get that he’s an rear end in a top hat to start and a full-on villain by the second half of the film, and that the cynical idea that this is what some men would do with invisibility is probably pretty accurate, but the actual scenes are too sleazy and male gaze-y to be anything but uncomfortable and gross. Sleaze aside, there is still a lot about this that I enjoyed. The cast is solid, some of the effects are pretty fun (even if many of the CGI shots aged poorly), and I thought it was paced well. It is definitely a lesser Verhoeven film, but his talent as a director often shines through in spite of the flaws. I can’t say I recommend it very strongly, but I did have some fun with it. 3 invisible gorillas out of 5 Total: 9 Watched: The Exorcist | Exorcist II: The Heretic | We're All Going to the World's Fair | Irreversible | Amsterdamned | Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched | We Have Always Lived in the Castle | Valerie and Her Week of Wonders | Hollow Man
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May 8, 2022 05:50
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Rainy and dreary day put me in a certain mood. 7 (16). The Shallows (2016) Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra; Written by Anthony Jaswinsk A pretty solid shark movie. Its no Jaws or anything but its not trying to be. The Shallows actually holds the shark back a bit which I think is effective. Its not a slow play movie at all. The shark attacks early and often and we get into the tension quickly. But for the first half of the film or so I felt like I rarely actually saw the shark and was wondering if that was a budget thing or they couldn't film decent looking shark scenes. But the shark definitely shows up a LOT as we go and it definitely plays more like an intentional holding back to play into the character situation. What starts as a shocking attack and is visualized more through blood filled water and thrashing camera movements against rocks and a desperate scramble to recover or survive eventually becomes an extended scope of everything terrible that's happening and the impossible challenge of beating it. Its not really an Alien or Jaws thing where the monster is held back to build suspense for its big reveal but more about the character’s mindset and the growing sense of “do I keep fighting?” Lively does a good job in a role that really is just 100% her. Well… kinda. This isn’t a heavy dialogue or face closeup movie. Its there and Lively does a good job with that stuff. But its also a lot of action and very striking visuals and stunts and some much lesser known stunt woman is probably responsible for that stuff. Actually I looked it up. Kelly Richardson did most of the stunts and Isabella Nichols did the surfing stunts. Lively also did some stunts herself though. Three talented women who all deserve their due for a film entirely focused on this one character they all had a role in playing. And credit to the directing and editing since it merges them all well. I guess we don’t think a lot about a movie being able to effectively sell a stunt double as the star. Its something you only really notice when they fail. But its one of those movie magic things where when they do it right you believe in the lie even though mentally you know Blake Lively probably didn’t do all that intense poo poo. But I did buy it in the moment and feel compelled to look it up. And that’s a testament not only to the effectiveness of the magic but really how impactful and difficult the stunt work was and how good a job the women did. There’s some iffy CGI, I think. The jellyfish scene is very interesting and sounds good on paper but it kind of fell into the uncanny valley for me or something. That part I became very conscious of it not being real. But for the most part I think the film actually does a great job hiding the seams of the CGI. Hell they filmed most of the movie in a tank and on blue screens and I honestly didn’t notice. I thought the film looked gorgeous and the tranquil beauty of the “paradise” island put against the horror of the situation was very effective to me. To hear director Jaume Collet-Serra put it “Every scene has one shot that is real, and the other 99% is not – but the one real shot tricks you.” And for the most part that trick worked for me. I saw what the other hand was doing a few times for sure but for most of the show I was just watching the magic. The story is pretty simple and standard. No one’s reinventing the wheel here. Maybe a little tacky CGI and male gaze stuff? Early on it feels deliberate that we’re being shown that Blake Lively is a beautiful woman even if as the film goes on you might kind of have to have a weird king to be excited by watching her bleed and gangrene and starve to death. Of course she’s always still a beautiful actress and I couldn’t really shake the idea that the film was exploiting that a bit but maybe that’s more about me. I dunno. There were elements of the film that felt like they held it back from being a full hit for me but for the most part it worked. Its a tight, well done tension filled thriller that I really enjoyed.  8 (17). Leviathan (1989) Directed by George P. Cosmatos; Written by David Peoples and Jeb Stuart Return of the Fallen: 3/13 Everyone says its an Alien ripoff… and boy is it an Alien ripoff. I mean man. That couldn’t be more blatant. But I mean I love Alien so its not all that bad. The creature effects are pretty good and the cast is pretty fun and a nice recognizable nostalgia collection. I didn’t mind this at all really. But to be honest I watched it yesterday and I kind of can’t think of ANYTHING to say about it. Its just way too much of a really blatant Alien knockoff. I’m not bothered by that. A decent Alien knockoff in the ocean instead of space with a Thing like monster instead of a xenomorph isn’t a bad watch at all really. I always enjoy Ernie Hudson. And I can’t even remember why I know Amanda Pays. Do I really recognize her from Max Headroom? Was that show THAT impactful on my psyche? Was it some random episode of Psych? A short recurring character from The Flash I don’t remember? I have no idea. Its weird. I dunno. I just can’t think of anything to say.  9 (18). Piranha 3DD (2012) Directed by John Gulager; Written by Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan, and Joel Soisson; Based on Characters by Peter Goldfinger and Josh Stolbergi Well that was just trash. And not like trash that offended me. Just really unfunny, uninteresting, nothing trash. I feel like I watched it before but I what I think happened is that I started watching it once because some people said it was good, and then I turned it off and said “This movie?” and they were like “no, that’s the bad sequel” so I watched the other one. So I don’t know really know why I watched it this time. It kind of fit my theme/mood and I didn’t want anything heavy or real and it filled a challenge for me. But man. Just bad and dumb and nothing. At least I got some work done during it.
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May 8, 2022 05:56
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TheMopeSquad posted:No, I just figured making a play was similar in spirit to making a film but if not then I'll just watch something else and put this on my other list. hmm ok, I'll make an exception because it's a play about a murderer, and also because Stage Fright rules that also goes for anyone else who wants to watch it for the Behind the Screams challenge, but that's the only exception I'll make for this one so don't ask 
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May 8, 2022 06:14
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