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gey muckle mowser posted:hmm ok, I'll make an exception because it's a play about a murderer, and also because Stage Fright rules Thanks! 
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May 8, 2022 06:53
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MOVIE 2: Ghostbusters Afterlife (3. Rated PG) Who ya gonna call? Cards on the table: Ghostbusters is my favourite movie of all time. This means that I am exactly the guy Ghostbusters Afterlife was actually made for. I severely disliked Ghostbusters 2016, in large part because it felt like the movie was ashamed to be a Ghostbusters movie, and was trying to distance itself as much as possible. Afterlife is the polar opposite: even if you didn't know the movie was made by Jason Reitman, you could tell that the people making the movie love Ghostbusters. I'm sure you can enjoy the movie just fine if you've never seen the original movies, but if you grew up with them back in the 80s, it hits you much harder and I'm not afraid to admit I was ugly crying during the ending. They got all the guys! Even Janine and Dana! And they all seemed happy to be there! I'm not going to stand here and claim that Afterlife is as good as the original, but it's a drat fine horror comedy. Phoebe is excellent as Egon's grand-daughter, Paul Rudd is Paul Rudd as the stand-in for the Ghostbuster nerds in the audience, and the movie nails the balance of references, spooky stuff and comedy pretty well. I could've done without the miniature Marshmallow Men, but overall I super liked the movie. It would be interesting to hear what people who weren't super Ghostbuster fans and who didn't get misty-eyed when the Ecto-1's siren started going off, thought about the movie. I wonder if my hypothesis of the film still being enjoyable as a newbie is accurate or not?  / 5My May 2022 Movies: 1. Saturday Morning Mystery, 2. Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Rated PG)
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May 8, 2022 17:10
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Today is catch up day since I've been working the majority of Dr. Strange opening weekend. We're seeing fully packed theaters, even the wheelchair spots. gey muckle mowser posted:
 4) The House with a Clock in its Walls - 2018 - Prime When I first saw the trailer, my takeaway was "Eli Roth is doing a kid's film?" Having finally sat through it, I'm "Well, Eli Roth did a kid's film." It makes me think of something my Mom said about at some point a creator/entertainer's going to want to make something their kids or grandkids'll be able to watch. I had no idea this was based on a kid's book before the trailer and I am curious enough to pick up a copy at some point. The movie is a perfectly fine kid's film. The effects range from pretty good to "Good God Awful". The 'de-aged' Jack Black is deep in the latter category. I liked the concept of a warlock so traumatized by the horrors of war that they want to get rid of humanity. It brings to mind Ivo Shandor from Ghostbusters. The rest is exactly what one would expect from this subgenre of film, nothing particularly standout, but nothing particularly eye rollingly awful either that you find yourself turning it off and putting something else on. Overall, I liked this one, flaws and all. It'll fit in fine with a Goosebumps and/or Harry Potter marathon.
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May 8, 2022 17:26
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3. Censor (2021)  Hidden Gems challengeEnid is a censor working for the British censorship board during the Video Nasty hysteria of the 1980s. When she receives a film that seems to echo traumatic events form her own past she attempts to track down the director to find out how he could've known about events that no one else survived. The Video Nasty era is a great foundation for a horror film. For those who don't know in the 1980s the British government essentially banned a lot of films due to a public outrage that these, mostly foreign, splatter films were corrupting the youth and directly causing violence was (essentially the exact same thing that happened 30 years earlier with horror comics and 20 years later with video games). A list of banned films was compiled and police raids were carried out on video stores suspected of selling banned tapes. Some films were allowed to pass, with extensive cuts to violence, and the protagonist Censor is a pretty good film. It kept me engaged and I wanted to find out more about the central mystery, the disappearance of Enid's sister, but something about it didn't quite click and kept it from greatness. I do like that we don't actually get a concrete answer for what exactly happened to her sister and how much of the events is actually real and how much is in her head but we get just enough to be able to sorta make up our own minds. One think that irked me a little is that they didn't really capture the look and feel of the Video Nasty films in the little snippets we see from fictional films. They look a bit too clean and modern especially compared to the actual real snippets of Video Nasties we see during the opening credits. Which is strange because obviously a lot of time and work went into making everything else as authentic as possible. That's one thing I think keeps this film from being great is that it's not quite grimy and gritty enough. Something Knife+Heart a film with a somewhat similar subject matter set around the same time though riffing off giallo more than later splatter films. I really liked the last 10 or 15 minutes of the film where it allows itself to go properly gonzo but it didn't feel quite earned a lot of that craziness earlier in the film could've made a huge difference. But I'm not sure that was what the film was going for. I think it was trying to be more of a psychological thriller using Video Nasty hysteria as a base rather than a film about Video Nasties as such or a Video Nasty in it's own right. Still a well made, solid, and pretty film. I like how it plays with aspect ratios a lot and I'm pretty sure it was actually shot on film rather than shot on digital and then turned into a facsimile of the "film look" in post. 4. Short Cuts challengeBEASTS: Baby  51 minutes 11 seconds Trying to escape from the hustle and bustle of the city young newlyweds Jo and Peter Gilks move to an old country cottage. Peter intends to ply his trade as a veterinarian and Jo is extremly pregnant and bound to give birth at any moment. However when breaking down a wall to make room for some modern appliances they discover a large clay jar containing the nearly mummified remains of a strange creature that even the highly educated Peter can't identify. Part of Nigel Kneale's series of horror TV plays in which animals play a large part. In this case we have crows, cats, and whatever that thing in the jar is. Not to mention all the off-screen animals the vet husband treats. This is fairly typical folk horror. Some city folk move to a rural place and encounter something old and mystical that they, as outsiders and modern people, can't understand. There's even a scene where one of the two old workmen that are doing up the house for them makes some cryptic and heavily accented remarks about how things were done in olden tymes. But of course folk horror wasn't really a conscious concept back then, most of the "holy trinity" of folk horror had been made but there wasn't any recognition of it being a specific sub-genre until the mid 2000s. It also uses the well worn trope of the animal being the first one to know what is wrong with a cat that jumps out of his basket moments after entering the house and isn't seen again. It's fairly obvious from early on what is going to happen (in broad terms) because it's foreshadowed from the very first scene but knowing what is coming serves to better build dread and suspense than if it came totally out of nowhere. I don't wanna give too much away. It is also elevated by having well written and interesting like the slightly overbearing jolly old country vet the husband works with or the two workmen Arthur and Stan one of whom tries and fails to stop the other from scaring the cityfolk with all of this superstitious talk. The husband is a complete rear end in a top hat constantly throwing tantrums and screaming at his wife over the slightest things a temper which is seemingly what landed them in the country in the first place as implied by a few lines late in the film about how they just need to move one more time and that time he surely won't be surrounded by idiots like every other time they've done so. There Comes a Knocking  (2019) 9 minutes 21 seconds Grieving widow Emma installs a ludicrously ornate and expensive Victorian door, the last thing her husband bought, on her tool storage room but accidentally locks it while installing. During the night she hears knocking coming from inside the locked empty room. By Ryan Connolly the Film Riot guy. Obviously very influenced by James Wan's works on finely tuned jumpscare machines like The Conjuring, Insidious, et al. Especially one shot at the very end of the short where we briefly see the demon/ghost/creature standing directly behind the main character so only half of its body is visible. Which is very similar to a shot in Insidious where the Lipstick Demon is briefly visible behind The Dad snarling at the camera in an iconic jumpscare This is basically a concept video to use as to pitch a feature and it does that job pretty well it gives us all the info we need to know exactly who Emma is and what her deal is and then moves straight on to the haunting. I would like to see a longer more fleshed out version of this even though I´m getting sort of tired of Ghosts-as-Metaphors-for-Grief-sploitation I still enjoy a good haunted house film and this seems to have some potential. I especially like the idea of haunted objects and the short seems to imply that whatever the force is that is haunting her is coming from the door and not part of the house itself and is seemingly using the image of her husband to get her to invite it in. . I imagine that if this makes it to a feature there will be some reveal that the door was made from a hanging oak or was in a house where something horrible happened.
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May 8, 2022 18:26
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Shaman Tank Spec posted:It would be interesting to hear what people who weren't super Ghostbuster fans and who didn't get misty-eyed when the Ecto-1's siren started going off, thought about the movie. I wonder if my hypothesis of the film still being enjoyable as a newbie is accurate or not? I think Ghostbusters a great comedy but wouldn’t consider myself a super fan and personally I hated Afterlife. Thought the number references was out of control and totally smothered any new ideas that the movie was trying to play with, including the ending which just felt totally cynical and soulless. I do think it was competently directed, casted, and designed and if it had just been approached as a spiritual successor or something it might have been a fun flick but it got eaten by its own legacy.
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May 8, 2022 19:20
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 3. Superstition (1982) "You have a 20th century mind... you may soon regret it." A classic horror premise where some folks move into a house that was built on top of the execution site of a witch ~200 years previously. It's a bit slow and the score was getting on my nerves, but it has some really great death scenes, nobody is safe, and the finale makes it worth watching. Plus, an all-timer of a poster.  3.5/5Total Watched: 3 // GMM Challenges Complete: #10, #8
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May 8, 2022 19:52
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 Seeding of a Ghost (1983) Challenge #9: Hidden Gems Anthony's wife is cheating on him, she gets raped and killed, he happens to know a necromancer that he hires to help take revenge on her killers (and lover). Most of this movie is pretty unbearable there's not much going on and there's just an excessive amount of pointless nudity and sex scenes they aren't exciting in any way they just exist. It's not really shot or directed in an interesting way either. They manage to shoe-horn in two kung-fu scenes because this is a Shaw Brothers film. The movie only takes off after we get to the back half when the Necromancer gets involved but even then it takes a while to ramp up. Yes, there is a scene where a mummy makes tender love to a disembodied blue-spirit but the best part of the movie is the magic long-distance duel between the Taoists, attempting to exorcize one of the films fully-frontal naked women, and the Necromancer. In the finale the mummified corpse gives birth to a bloody pile of flesh with tentacles that ejects itself from a pregnant woman Alien-style and kills a bunch of people. Overall I think the movie has like three or four genres going on in it and the film-makers only knew how to make kung-fu movies and they really should have just stuck to their strengths because everything else is fairly low-effort and amateurish. 2/5  The Oblong Box (1969) Challenge #10: The Price is Right Here we have a film with both Vincent Price AND Christopher Lee based on a story by Edger Allen Poe. They are pretty much just side characters though which is disappointing and the movie is really centered around a third person played by Alister Williamson who not only wears a mask the whole time but was actually dubbed over by someone else. Edgar, the brother of Prices character, suffers from an african curse that made his face horrific and drove him mad. He doesn't really act mad or seem horrific he's actually a pretty lucid and intelligent dude. This is where the film falls apart because the part of Edgar is really not played well maybe because he was dubbed over but he's just not acting like he's described and you don't know if he's supposed to be terrifying or sympathetic. Everyone else in the movie is pretty bad too so even though Edgar is killing all these people they're all con-men, grave robbers, thieves and (bad) prostitutes. The story is pretty convoluted and being a EAP joint you can figure out the twist pretty easily and despite being called "THE OBLONG BOX" the box has very little screen time. It is a very nice box though. 2/5
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May 8, 2022 20:20
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The Berzerker posted:A classic horror premise where some folks move into a house that was built on top of the execution site of a witch ~200 years previously. It's a bit slow and the score was getting on my nerves, but it has some really great death scenes, nobody is safe, and the finale makes it worth watching. Plus, an all-timer of a poster. I watched this movie as an 8 year old with some older kids and it hosed me up for WEEKS, even though I ducked out after about 10 or 15 minutes. I think that's when my decades long aversion to horror movies started, in fact. Maybe it would be worthwhile to track down now and see if I can't exorcise some daemons? Or give myself nightmares for a month again, I suppose. Would it count for this challenge, considering I've seen a small bit of the movie?
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May 8, 2022 20:37
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Genocide (昆虫大戦争) 1968 Directed by Kazui Nihonmatsu  "I don't care whether I live in a free society or a communist one. I just want to breed vast numbers of insects that drive people mad and scatter them all over the world." Genocide, aka Genocide: War of the Insects is unlike pretty much anything I've seen before. It has Cold War paranoia, a missing H Bomb, a philandering bug collector who is falsely accused of murder, and a mad scientist who has engineered bugs to give them super poison. It's almost too much to pack into less than 90 minutes and I left out the biggest surprise. None of its elements are particularly good on their own so I think they were hoping to dazzle audiences by trying every single idea that occurred to them. The only other movie that Kazui Nihonmatsu has on Letterboxd is The X from Outer Space, so I guess I can mark him as complete now. 💀💀1/2 Spooky Non-American 1960s Challenge 6/13 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), 6. Genocide (1968) 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 8, 2022 21:08
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Shaman Tank Spec posted:
I'd say yes since A) you didn't sit through much of it, and B) it's been a very long time since you did sit through that little bit.
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May 8, 2022 22:05
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Shaman Tank Spec posted:Would it count for this challenge, considering I've seen a small bit of the movie? yeah definitely, I have definitely counted films that I had seen bits and pieces of before
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May 8, 2022 22:11
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 Night Of The Living Dead (1990) While not as great as the original, I found a lot to like in this one. Barbara’s transformation into a woman of action was neat, and this really felt like some kind of bridge piece between the original and Dawn of the Dead, just made by someone other than Romero and well after both of those. Each of the characters other than Barbara really felt like they were pushed more into the one characterizing trait, sometimes that worked well and at other times it made the characters too one-dimensional, but overall I enjoyed this take.  Strait Jacket (1964) Classic axe murderin’ at its finest. Joan Crawford was great and there were enough twists and turns to make you second guess your original hypothesis about what’s happening. But of course, it isn’t too hard to forecast. I enjoyed the ride to get there though! I also rewatched Black Sunday, but having seen that before I'm not counting it for the challenge. It's a classic and always a pleasure to watch, so gorgeous. 5/13 Movies: What Have You Done To Solange?, Kadaicha, Frankenstein Created Woman, Night Of The Living Dead (1990), Straight Jacket 2/13 Challenges: #1 Woodlands Dark (Kadaicha), #6 The King In Yellow (Solange)
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May 8, 2022 22:19
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gey muckle mowser posted:
 5) Stage Fright - 2014 - Prime Truth is, I don't particularly like musicals. Even as a kid, I didn't like musicals. Closest I could do was animated Disney films. That said, I do count Phantom of the Paradise and Little Shop of Horrors as my top faves. Storyline for this is a Broadway singer is murdered after her opening night performance, and then it skips to ten years later where the murdered singer's kids now work at a musical theater summer camp run by her former lover. Once the singer's daughter manages to get into the musical the camp will be putting on, bodies start turning up. As a plot outline, this is a slasher classic. As a musical, ehh. Still, I was determined to give this an honest shot. From the first joke of stating 'the musical numbers will be performed in order' had me thinking this could still go either way as to if I liked it or not, but slightly leaning towards not since it likely would be more aiming to the theater kids crowd. As the film went on, yeah, at most the humor had me smirking, but to someone from the theater crowd, this was probably hilarious. The songs were okay-ish, but just didn't have that 'zing' that other musicals I like have. Even though it's been a while since I've sat through them, I can still sing 'The Hell of It' from Phantom of the Paradise, or 'Suddenly Seymour' from Little Shop, or even 'Hot Patootie, Bless My Soul' from Rocky Horror. Here, none of the songs felt particularly memorable like that. The actors were okay, the effects were decent, but the rest..whelp. Pretty much I file this one under 'I am not in the audience demographic they were aiming for', and that's okay.
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May 8, 2022 23:20
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4. Music of the Night
#7: Zombie for Sale I didn't care for it. Zombie shows up in small rural town, through shenanigans the family that owns the struggling gas station in town that unlike fictional zombies, this zombie's bites give old people a burst of vitality and youth. They keep the zombie in their shed and charge handsomely to be bitten by it. A few days later all the old guys who were bit turn into normal zombies, cue apocalypse. The two main things I didn't like is that there is a completely unnecessary bit of exposition early on explaining that the zombie is the result of a big medical company doing illegal experiments on vulnerable people. So I am not on board for the funny antics involving this guy! It's hosed up that this horrible thing was done to him, and then the family does more bad stuff to him. I didn't enjoy those comedy shenanigans of this guy being mistreated. And secondly, the two halves of the movie don't work great together, imo. Either the first half should have been much shorter, or there should have been a middle bit where things start to go bad but the family scrambles to keep things together. All my other complaints I think spring from me not being on the movie's side. Like, the sneaking through the zombies scene isn't as good as other sneaking through the zombie scenes, the first fireworks distraction scene wasn't properly set up and the second one was properly set up but by that point is basically a retread of the first, etc. All stuff that wouldn't bug me if I had been onboard. Because it's not a bad movie, the characters are well established, the acting is good, some of the comedy lands. I can totally imagine other people not being rubbed the wrong way by it like I was and thoroughly enjoying Zombie for Sale. But you know what really annoys me? The ending. The ending of Zombie for Sale is great. Like, there were multiple points towards the end where I was almost ready to turn it off, where I was getting really annoyed, but then the very ending was perfect. It was genuinely funny, great thematically, and the best way to wrap up the plot. This movie that annoyed me managed to leave me grinning when the credits rolled. And gently caress it for that. 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, 7) Zombie For Sale
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May 9, 2022 02:30
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I know it's because I'm watching fewer movies than normal, but this feels like the furthest I've gone in one of these challenges without discovering a certified banger
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May 9, 2022 02:40
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 3. Rated PG- Watch a film rated PG or PG-13  10. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) (dir. Sam Raimi) theater One of the criticisms I often see leveled at MCU films is that they all look and feel the same, and with a couple of exceptions I think that’s totally fair, even if I am still a fan of this stuff. So I was curious how much of Raimi’s directorial style would actually come through in this, and I’m extremely happy to say that this is unmistakably a Sam Raimi film. I was also skeptical that it was being called a MCU horror movie, but it actually sort of is - at its core it is still a superhero film, but there’s a fair amount of stuff in here that wouldn’t be out of place in an Evil Dead sequel, and it has the first MCU villain that I thought was genuinely scary. It does have issues though - it feels messy at times, possibly due to a rushed production or just because it has to fit in a whole lot into its 2-hour runtime. It’s a direct sequel to both the first Doctor Strange and to Wandavision, as well as continuing some plot threads/characters from Spider-Man: No Way Home and even What If…?. I’m up to date on all that stuff and this still felt a little chaotic at times, so I imagine anyone who hasn’t been keeping up with the MCU will be completely confused. Despite being occasionally disjointed, there are moments here that rank amongst my favorite things in the MCU to date. Strange’s spells are more varied and more creative here, and there is a fight scene involving music notes that I really loved. It’s creative and absolutely goofy in a way that few directors besides Raimi could pull off. It is also considerably more violent and gruesome than any other Marvel thing - this is a hard PG-13 and I wouldn’t take young kids to it. So yeah it stumbles sometimes, but I’ll take Sam Raimi’s creative and weird stumbling over another ultimately forgettable MCU film any day. 4 universes out of 5 Total: 10 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 | Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
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May 9, 2022 03:18
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 Slaughterhouse Rock (1987) A young man starts to have dreams of Alcatraz where many people died, so naturally he’s convinced by his paranormal professor to go there because he’s chosen and must stop a cannibal demon from … leaving I guess? The soundtrack was written and performed by Devo, presumably after listening to specific horror soundtracks on repeat, since it often seems very familiar. Toni Basil is in it as a heavy metal rocker ghost who helps the young man figure out how to defeat the demon. I couldn’t help but think of it in terms of being a companion piece to Rockula, as seen at Z-Fest a while back, but outside of having Toni Basil perform a weird dance number, there really isn’t anything in common. This is gorier, tries for a more serious vibe but keeps undercutting that with lame one-liners that don’t land, and it tries to camp it up to get some goofy humor but fails at that as well. The goopy effects are fun though, if not particularly novel. An entire band was killed at Alcatraz as a major plot point, the lead singer of that band is one of our protagonists, Devo did the soundtrack and the opening credits made sure you knew that, and it’s called “Slaughterhouse Rock” - Challenge #4 Music Of The Night 6/13 Movies: What Have You Done To Solange?, Kadaicha, Frankenstein Created Woman, Night Of The Living Dead (1990), Straight Jacket, Slaughterhouse Rock 2/13 Challenges: #1 Woodlands Dark (Kadaicha), #4 Music Of The Night (Slaughterhouse Rock), #6 The King In Yellow (Solange)
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May 9, 2022 03:19
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Slaughterhouse Rock is one of my childhood favorites. It’s shot really moodily. Just watched 1980’s Scared To Death, 2 1/2 star Alien/Giger knock-off, the creature looks interesting but cheap, I like the 80s Los Angeles setting, but I wonder if James Cameron saw this before he wrote Terminator because it shares some bones with it. 
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May 9, 2022 03:35
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02. Office Killer (1997) No picture, soz. It's more of a script-movie than a visuals-movie, anyway. A put-upon office drone embraces technology and learns to find joy in working from home. Specifically she starts murdering her coworkers, and also random people, and using their digital presences to cover it all up. This was April's MotM, but I was a little slow in getting hold of a copy, so it became a May movie for me. Anyway, it was pretty good. Darkly funny, a little reminiscent of Carrie, gory as hell from time to time. It does that thing where the status quo is so mean and unpleasant that the murders are almost a relief. Carol Kane did an excellent job with a character who was bizarre without being cartoony. The movie is also quite feminist in an understated way, being that all the most important characters happen to be women. I miss this kind of movie. It's just low-key and unserious, without constantly elbowing you in the ribs to make sure you know the filmmakers weren't taking it too seriously.
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May 9, 2022 04:10
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Movie #9, Challenge #6 Watch any giallo or giallo-influenced film The Bird With The Crystal Plumage I love Suspiria so I figured I should check out some other Argento films. I wanted to watch Tenebrae but it seems there's no way to right now without buying a physical copy, so I'm going with Bird. It's definitely stylish and has some solid dread in its quieter scenes, but this is a movie I'd say I respected more than I enjoyed. The investigation angle was more ordinary than I expected, with some very dry crime lab scenes and and overly exposition-heavy ending. I'll be the first to admit I'm not versed at all in giallo films, but for me this felt like a decent version of a story I've read and watched plenty of times before (works that came both before and after 1970.) Some distractingly bad dubbing on some minor characters, but the main cast felt fine. I feel like there's more to dig into with the idea of an American going to a foreign country on vacation to play hero, but Sam didn't do a whole lot for me. I expected his profession as an author to play into the mystery that's not where this story goes. I'm actually a little surprised this shows up on a lot of horror movie lists because it felt way more in the realm of detective fiction. I should probably give it a second watch with that in mind!
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May 9, 2022 04:50
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gey muckle mowser posted:
 6) Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson - 2019 - Shudder Watch enough drive in or grindhouse cinema and you'll eventually be watching an Al Adamson film. I think the first one I saw was Dracula vs Frankenstein, and it was on Son of Svengoolie in the afternoon. I think I've pretty near sat through all of Adamson's horror offerings at this point. This documentary covers Al warts and all, as well as his murder at the hands of his live in handyman who will be up for parole in 2024. I was a bit impressed with how many people they were able to interview. Surprisingly enough, I did learn a few new things about Adamson while watching this and if you've sat through some of his films, I recommend sitting through this one.
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May 9, 2022 05:38
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5. Behind the Screams
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Lets Stephen King this poo poo. 10 (19). Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering (1996) Directed by Greg Spence; Written by Stephen Berger and Greg Spence King Spring II: 4/13 Whoever the user at tmdb is who threw a blue filter on half of the Children of the Corn sequel posters for some weird reason and then made them the primary one but also didn't do it with all of them... I don't like you and it makes me irrationally mad I can't figure out how to change it to the right posters. But then that's probably why you did it, isn't it? Ok, We've now entered the stage of the horror franchise where the most interesting thing about the movie is the future star who will one day regret having made this. Our familiar face here is Naomi Watts and this isn’t too early into her career, I guess because she had whole “star in Australia, try to break out in America” phase. Watts is Australian? Wait she’s British? I had no idea. But I digress. She’s reasonably experienced here and I think that benefits her and the film because this isn’t really a performance she has to regret. Its not a good film but that’s definitely not Watts’ fault. If anything I think she actually holds a fair bit of it together as the lead, especially once the story kind of stops dicking around and actually starts to focus in on her. Its not a very good story but Watts handles her part well and actually does have the presence for the finale which I was surprised to find got me engaged. Karen Black is also here and she does well and I feel like there was a lot of good work that could have been done if Black and Watts had been in the movie more together working through their issues and everything. But mostly Black just kind of acts senile but she’s actually being haunted or something? And Watts is kind of too busy dealing with the rest of the movie. So Black’s just doing her own thing and feels like a bit of a distraction. I’m honestly not even 100% sure what the story was. Its something about a ghost kid or something. We’re also well into the stage of the horror franchise where it has like no attachment to the original or the source material. Now we’re just collecting demon children who lived on farms. Its not complicated enough to be confused about but it also just kind of gets explained in one exposition dump without any real build or it feeling like it makes a ton of sense. Like if this all about one ghost kid why are all the kids calling themselves other names like they’re possessed by other ghost kids? I mean they’re dead kids and I guess the ghost kid is raising other ghost kids to do his bidding or something? Its just not very clear or meaningful and feels like you could have done it in more of a straight line. I dunno. Its not a good movie and really its a bad one. But grading on the scale of Children of the Corn sequels it could have been a lot worse. The first half pacing is all wrong and someone definitely needed to write a better script and realize that they should put their name horror icon in more of the movie with their young lead, especially when they’re playing mother and daughter. And really, just make a movie about cult kids and a corn god. That’s all I want to see. I haven’t seen a franchise lose the plot quite as proununced as this. It really is just a bunch of people who are like “Uh, I have a movie about a creepy kid dressed like he’s amish” now. That’s probably how this franchise got this big. Just any time the studio got a horror script about a creepy farm kid they threw “Children of the Corn” on it and King got a licensing check. Makes sense. Definitely has me excited for 6 more. Oh, and the pedophile from Glee is in this being a creepy kid. That was weird.  11 (20). Stephen King’s Night Shift Collection (The Boogeyman (1982)/Disciples of the Crow (1983)/The Woman in the Room (1983)) Directed by Jeff Schiro, John Woodward, and Frank Darabont; Written by Stephen King Watched on Youtube King Spring II: 5/13 Spook-A-Doodle Challenges: 1/13 gey muckle mowser posted:
Ok, you probably know the deal. Back in the 80s Stephen King was getting a bunch of request from student and amateur filmmakers asking if they could adapt his works so he started letting anyone adapt one of his works for $1 as long as he hadn’t already sold the rights to someone commercial and you don’t sell it. For the last four decades countless filmmakers have made god knows how many of these “Dollar Babies” and aired them at film festivals and such. Now since you can’t actually distribute them without King’s permission most of these are probably lost to most of us. But some of them sneak through either because King likes them or because its 2022 and you can only keep so much stuff off the internet. But back in the 80s King sold the rights to a handful of stories made from his Night Shift Collection including one from a guy named Frank Darabont. And the legend is that it was this very short that ultimately made Darabont a King Whisperer who would go on to make poo poo like Shawkshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist. So I’ve been meaning to get to some of these and now is a perfect time since its King Spring. And luckily not only are these three shorts readily available on Youtube but I found a new favorite youtube guy who put them all together to show. That’s convenient. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaUlRpujXZY&list=PLyYndFVkzKFntZXi3z7xlzcKQuTA6U2yF&index=57  The Boogeyman (1982) Directed by Jeff Schiro The Boogeyman is a solid place to start off my string of Dollar Baby amateur shorts because its definitely very amateur. Its clear there’s a limit in finances and resources here and the quality is rough even for an 80s VHS but its still a pretty solid little piece. Largely a dude just sharing his story of growing madness as the monster in the closet kills his kids and just to be a bigger dick decides to lay it all at his feet. I mean, sure, a monster does his thing but if he also takes the time to frame and gently caress with you then he’s a real rear end in a top hat. And there’s a fun aspect to that and the ending here. Its not super surprising or anything but its a solid little spooky story that I would like to see it more drawn out. And luckily there’s a bunch of other adaptions of this so I’m gonna go looking. I like simple little spooky stories. And this is one decently done despite the limitations.  Disciples of the Crow (1983) Directed by John Woodward I’m watching all the Children of the Corn movies so it makes sense to get this one in too. Its another pretty solid if obviously limited piece. Since I’m at the part of my CotC where the sequels are just kind of showing they’ve never actually read or heard of a Stephen King story and are just doing random spooky stories about evil kids who dress Amish its fun seeing what’s really the most faithful adaption to this point. I mean its not all the way there and still kind of ends right when stuff gets real good but its good the core foundation. It kind of works like a real good prequel for the original one in a way. Watching creepy kids boiling frogs in witch cauldrons and poo poo is a lot of fun and sets up a cool little pre-story for these kids. That’s the biggest disappointment with the CotC movies really, that none of them have actually really dug into the whole concept of a bunch of kids worshipping an evil god. Like lets get culty here. This one does do some fun stuff and is a solid little ride. But again, it kind of stops right when it really gets good. But its always good to leave people wanting more. Especially if you’re a student filmmaker on a limited budget just trying to make an impression. Apparently John Woodward just kind of made porn after this… but hey. Everyone has their path. Wes Craven started there too.  The Woman in the Room (1983) Directed by Frank Darabont Wow. That was loving great. I love watching student films from accomplished directors because even when they kind of suck you can usually see little bits of the talent and future in them. Like a lot of people make movies and a lot more make amateur films. But the guys who do it really well clearly kind of had an idea early on and stand apart. Its like watching high school kids play basketball. Some are good, some are mediocre, some are bad… but you can tell when a kid is GOOD and just playing at a higher level. But holy crap. Darabont was Lebron. This poo poo is GOOD. Some of the performances are maybe a little uneven (although again, they’re really loving good for the level) and there’s still obviously a lack of budget but holy crap, this is a real film. How about another metaphor? You know when your friends invite you to see their band? Or like you go to a bar and hear a band. And like the band’s maybe ok. Maybe really fun to listen to and dance to. But every once and awhile you actually wanna buy that CD because the band is actually good. Or download the song on iTunes? Do bar bands still sell CDs or do they just have internet links drawn on a sign? I don’t know. I’m old. Point is this is GOOD. Darabont had been working as a PA for other films so he probably had some experience and know how of what to do beyond just film school stuff. But still. Its just real good and you can see the great director he’ll become here because he already is pretty great. The story is heartbreaking and told completely even in the short format. We have a full narrative here and even three acts. Like 3 or 4 locations. Dramatic shots. It just loving rocks. And by the time we get 20 minutes in and we’re getting to the conclusion I’m basically welling up with tears. Just drat. And honestly, this is the kind of story that much like King’s short stories feels like it works better in this format than as a full feature. You could spend more time with these characters and explore it more but the ideas are pretty simple and easy to get across. And the pain of a dying loved one is something sadly most of us can either remember or anticipate. And the challenge of whether your love for someone is more about what they want than what you do? If letting go and helping someone means doing something you might not be able to forgive yourself for? Its haunting and loving impactful. Just a really great story and a really great adaption. gently caress. I gotta go watch some Darabont.  12 (21). Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror (1998) Written and directed by Ethan Wiley King Spring II: 6/13 Well the good news is someone’s read the original story. I mean, sorta. We’re at least back around the idea. Creepy cult of kids and some corn. Well “kids”. Eva Mendes ain’t 17, guys. Who are we kidding? But this actually seems to be actually treating itself as an actual sequel to the first film too kind of making reference to past events or something. I think? I dunno. To be honest the core story is still kind of loose. David Carradine is… what? A scarecrow? I don’t get it. And seriously, why is everyone in this cult old enough to drink except for the leader? Its ridiculous. Just this 10 year old kid ordering around a bunch of grown rear end people and everyone pretending they’re all attending the same school or like this kid just got skipped a couple of grades. Oh and then there’s the 14 year old girl impregnated by the 18 year old dude? That’s kind of upsetting and not really handled like it should be at all. Like no one’s reacting to that poo poo at all. Is it just me? loving middle america gonna tell me what the age of consent is or something. But seriously the age thing is weird and impossible to ignore. Like I guess the main characters are supposed to be high schoolers who are just on some random road trip to bury their buddy? No one’s really treating them like kids but the entire story kind of demands that they are under 18. Its really a shock when Mendes is like “hey, I’m under 18”. No you’re not. None of your friends are. You’re all clearly in your 20s. So are those guys too. I know its Hollywood and we pretend grown people are teenagers but this is just weird. It really is that kid I think. Its just kind of a silly juxtaposition. But no, its also the weirdness of how the story simultaneously doesn’t treat them as kids at all but also basically requires they be kids by the rules. Its like they wrote and cast the movie and then someone was like “Oh poo poo, the book says ‘children’ and you gotta die if you’re 18” but it was just too late so they just went with what they had. I dunno. Its weird. Its probably not a terrible movie. Its not good, but its definitely not the worst CotC movie. The consistent pattern is that there first half of these movies are really dull and then the finale actually has a little fun. There’s a really cool effect at least and some zany action. It wasn’t great but it could have been a lot worse. I should also say there’s this odd suicide theme during this that I think they meant to be really deep and drive the emotional core of this but… well, its not written well at all. Its just like this uncomfortable subject that no one really deals with and then someone just sacrifices themselves to a deity because the first person who actually talked to them was a corn cult member. Come to think of it, that’s the plot of Midsommar. So clearly Ari Aster watched this crappy film and was like “I can do better.” This writer/director made House II. I know I saw that but don’t really remember it except that its loving weird. He also made a film about a Santa’s elf superhero. So why is this so boring and poorly made? Dude seemed to have ideas. Did the studio just say “naw, we can’t make a movie with a bunch of kids. Cast a bunch of 25 year olds and have this really sexy future star have a sex scene for no real reason.”? Why am I writing so much about this movie? I have like 5 more of these. Maybe I’m just avoiding them. 🌻💀 Spook-A-Doodle Half-Way-To-Halloween ’22: Return of the Fallen & King Spring II💀🌻 King Spring II: 6/13🎈Return of the Fallen: 3/13👻Spook-A-Doodle Challenges: 1/13🐺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); 7 (16). The Shallows (2016); 8 (17). Leviathan (1989); 9 (18). Piranha 3DD (2012); 10 (19). Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering (1996); 11 (20). Stephen King’s Nightshift Collection (The Boogeyman (1982)/Disciples of the Crow (1983)/The Woman in the Room (1983)); 12 (21). Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror (1998); Series: Moon Knight (2022);
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May 9, 2022 06:05
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4. Full Moon High 1981 | dir. Larry Cohen Paramount Plus  A goofy horror comedy from Larry Cohen. Not as comedically incisive as The Stuff, or as wild and creative as Gold Told Me To, but still a fun time. It feels like a mix of Porky's with I Was A Teenage Werewolf, and it feels like the inspiration for Teen Wolf. The comedy mixes absurdity, sight gags and word-play, which I generally enjoy, but most of the time I just nodded along with the jokes instead of laughing with them. It's not terrible, and it's not good. 5. Frankenstein Created Woman 1967 | dir. Terence Fisher  aka, I Spit On Your Frankenstein A pretty solid revenge film that takes the Hammer Frankenstein (and really the Frankenstein mythos) into a new, interesting direction. Terence Fisher, the unofficial king of Hammer Productions, returns to Frankenstein to pain the mad doctor as even more of a bizarre catalyst in the lives of anyone foolish enough to get close to him. The first half of the film focuses on a tragic tale of classism, where a poor deformed woman and her simple and optimistic lover are regularly tormented by the local upper class denizens. Their hopes and dreams are shattered by murder and lies, and Hans (the simple and optimistic lover) is made scapegoat in a charge of murder. Frankenstein swaps some souls and bodies around, and the rich assholes we loathe are made to suffer revenge under a beautiful murderous woman. It's a very pretty movie. The film focuses on characters that are pitiful or atrocious, which keeps the stakes simple but compelling. Recommended. Total 5 New To Me: Nightmare Weekend, House of Usher (1960), The Whip and the Body, Full Moon High, Frankenstein Created Woman Challenges: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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May 9, 2022 13:56
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The House That Screamed (La residencia) 1969 Directed by Chicho Ibáñez Serrador Watched on Amazon Prime  A very stylish thriller/horror that's more about atmosphere than actual scares. That said, there are a few genuinely tense scenes and one at least one legitimate surprise. There are also quite a few red herrings which makes it much more enjoyable and entertaining that it would be otherwise. The pace is kind of slow, but that helps to maintain the consistent sense of dread. 💀💀💀1/2 Spooky Non-American 1960s Challenge 7/13 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), 6. Genocide (1968), 7. The House That Screamed (1969) Bracketology 5/? 1. Night of the Living Dead (1990), 2. Strait-Jacket (1964), 3. National Theatre Live: Frankenstein (2011), Frankenstein Created Woman (1967), The Changeover (2017) 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 9, 2022 14:52
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Extra Credit! (Does not count towards my total.) Are You Afraid of the Dark? 2019 | dir. Jeff Wadlow 3 part mini-series | Paramount Plus "What are you thinking?" "I'm thinking I should have stayed home and watched a Hammer film."  The original Are You Afraid of the Dark? was a big reason I got into horror as a kid. It was genuinely scary in ways that I find most anthology series lacking, partly from the creative creature designs, and partially from the writing, which always emphasized dynamic stories and elevating the stakes. (Goosebumps, for instance, always revealed the monster or threat for the episode, and then just churned that idea through several commercial breaks until it was time for an illogical twist; whereas AYAotD introduced new ideas in each act, and never relied heavily on a twist ending.) To this day, I would rather watch a Twilight Zone or an Are You Afraid of the Dark before really any other anthology series. I did not, however, come into this viewing with nostalgia. I vaguely knew of the premise, but it felt like it's own standalone idea, and I wanted to approach it as such. I wanted to know, "What is a horror mini-series for kids in 2019?" Rachel Carpenter moves to the small town of Argento, Oregon, with her single mom. (Yes, okay, let's do this. Argento, Oregon. Rachel Carpenter. Adam Lynch. Louise Fulci. Gavin Coscarelli. Graham Raimi. They attend Herbert West Middle School. I thought all of these were good and cool. The only real miss is that Miya Cech plays a character named "Akiko Yamato", and that could have been, I dunno, "Akiko Miike", "Akiko Honda", "Akika Shimizu", "Akiko Nakata", or we also have Tsukamoto, Shindo, or even Kurosawa. Can someone tell me if Yamato is a reference I'm missing?) Rachel has a hard time acclimating to her new home, and feels like an outsider. After a brief conversation with a kid in her class about the George C. Scott film The Changeling, Rachel begins finding notes in her locker asking her horror questions. This leads to her getting invited into an initiation in the middle of the woods at night. The original series had two characters get introduced through initiations, and it's implied that the characters didn't really interact outside of The Midnight Society meetings. I thought that making a plot-line of what it is like getting invited into The Midnight Society was a genuinely good idea, that is executed intelligently. As part of her initiation, Rachel has to write a story. She is inspired to write about nightmares she has about a scary carnival lead by a man named Mr. Tophat. The story is a hit, Rachel is invited into the club. The next day at school, the students are given invitations to the very carnival Rachel wrote a story about. Also a kid has already been kidnapped. Fiction bleeds into reality, terrifying the Midnight Society, and compelling Rachel to lead them into an investigation into this Mr. Tophat. Spooky poo poo happens.  The overall tone feels like a Wes Craven film. It's like Scream, but without the detached Gen Z irony and smarminess (if anything, all of the references feel super sincere, which is probably why they worked for me), and it's like A Nightmare on Elm Street, which an emphasis on the magical realism of dreams and fictional worlds bleeding into reality, and even some of the weirdness of The People Under The Stairs. It also reminds me of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, and Stephen King's The Body or IT, although nowhere near as grotesque as those stories. Visually, the show is surprisingly adult and, indeed, scary. If I were the intended age for this, I would have been scared. It maintains a cinematic look and feel, and it doesn't dumb down any of it's components. I was also happy that the film is colorful! Thankfully a film that name-checks Argento so much realized that gel color lighting is cool. Most of the carnival sequences are lit in a way that's reminiscent of Bava, Argento's Suspiria, or Romero's Creepshow. Real, actual color gel lighting setups, not post-production color grading! It's not a flawless affair. As much as I enjoyed the entire thing, Mr. Tophat becomes a bit lackluster of a villain. They kept his design very human. If they had went with a more monstrous look, or even scary make-up and kept him in darkness, it would have worked better. By the time we get to Part 3, he's already been deflated as a villain. Everyone around him is scarier looking than he is. The final act is a bit too on-the-nose and not very inventive. It feels like they didn't have any new ideas for how to resolve this kind of story, and so went with the ol' tried-and-true methods. The editing is tight and maintains a nice momentum. There are a lot of setups for montages of characters doing everything, and thankfully the entire mini-series skips these moments and instead shows that the kids are smart, capable and armed with current technology. The main cast of kids--and thankfully they're actually kids--are solid. They have good chemistry, they are competent, and they aren't annoying. This could have been an easy grab at nostalgia. The references could have been rote, but instead are sincere. This could have been a slog, or a waste of time, but not only did I enjoy watching it, I felt compelled to watch the next part to see where the story went. The music in this show is pretty great. While there's current rock in it that's not bad, there's also stuff like "Human Fly" by The Cramps. They also worked in the original theme songs in modern, but faithful, versions that I found very effective. I understand that there's already a 2nd mini-series they did under this banner, or possible a 3rd? I'm interested. Highly Recommended, with the understanding that it's, y'know, for kids and/or families. Total 5 New To Me: Nightmare Weekend, House of Usher (1960), The Whip and the Body, Full Moon High, Frankenstein Created Woman Extra Credit: Are You Afraid of the Dark? (2019) miniseries Challenges: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 16:08 on May 9, 2022 |
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May 9, 2022 16:05
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Movie 3: Superstition This is about as far as I got the last time. So like I posted earlier, Superstition and I have some history. Back when I was 8 or 9 years old, I tried to watch the movie with some older kids. I made it about 20 minutes in before literally running out of the room and didn't sleep properly for weeks. Now, over 30 years later, we meet again. Superstition is the story of a priest trying to renovate a run-down old house... with spooky consequences. Turns out a witch was put to death on the spot 300 years ago, and her spirit is now haunting the building and murdering the ever living poo poo out of people. The official story claims that the witch is murdering the descendants of the people who put her to death 300 years ago, but she's definitely just killing everyone she can. I can definitely see why Superstition was so traumatic to a super-empathic kid, especially since we were Jehovah's Witnesses back then, and adult authority figures I had been brought up to trust unquestioningly had filled my head with "true stories" of demons and spirits. On my first attempt back in the day I checked out after the witch causes a circular saw blade jump to off its moorings and saw its way clean through an elderly priest, but even before then there were some gnarly kills. Some of them are comic, like a dude's decapitated head in a microwave, but some are also uncomfortably "realistic". A guy gets cut in half by a window pane and then we see shots of his separated body halves twitching as he's gasping for breath. A young girl gets a huge wooden stake hammered through her head and into the ground. It's loving brutal. The true star of the movie is Albert Salmi as a bizarrely hostile detective who seems to be personally offended by everything and everyone. He communicates exclusively through angry growls and shouting. He thinks the house's caretaker should be locked up for the crime of being mute. He is constantly sassing the movie's main character, a painfully 70s style groovy youth pastor who seems to be about two seconds away from sitting down on a reversed chair for a "rap session". He's leering at the scantily clad young daughters of the family who moved into the murder house. He's a real shitbag. Overall the movie is still pretty atmospheric and spooky. I wouldn't say this is a classic horror movie or anything, and I'm definitely not in any huge hurry to watch it again, largely because honestly the movie feels heavily padded at times. Like they had 2/3 of a great movie, and then had to somehow fill it out to feature length with ... stuff. That being said, it's still a perfectly serviceable 80s style haunted house movie. Ominous foreshadowing, oppressive soundtrack, brutal kills and a cop who clearly thinks he's the angry black captain in a bad 70s cop movie. That's a pretty good time in my books! Now let's see if I lose several weeks of sleep again. / 5.My May 2022 Movies: 1. Saturday Morning Mystery, 2. Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Rated PG), 3. Superstition Shaman Tank Spec fucked around with this message at 16:20 on May 9, 2022 |
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May 9, 2022 16:07
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10. Hostel: Part II (2007) I’ve been trying to work my way through various Letterboxd best of horror lists, and I’m near completion on the They Shoot Zombies, Don’t They? list, so that’s the only reason I watched this. But this is fine, I guess? I think I liked it more than the first Hostel, since the protagonists are more vulnerable throughout. In fact, I watched the first forty-five minutes with a mild thrill of dread, until I got to the first torture sequence and remembered that the Hostel series is very mild despite its “torture porn” tag. Indeed, the films are like 90% thriller, 10% gore. 3/5
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May 9, 2022 16:35
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Weekend catch-up time, which also means it'sgey muckle mowser posted:
 #7. The Hallow (Shudder) A family that recently moved into a remote house in Ireland finds themselves at odds with the local community - and fighting for survival against the creatures living in the woods around them. Decent enough as a "spam in a cabin" kind of thriller, I'm not terribly sure how well this would work as a true "folk horror" kind of movie. I know the elements are there - local legends, strangers outside of a community, pastoral settings, supernatural beasties - but all of those seem to get shuttled out of the way around the midpoint to turn into one long grueling stretch of chase and attack set pieces. The big problems working against it are that the monsters, their powers and their motivations are too nebulously defined - are they animal or fungus? Why do they spread via fungus but also via needle injection? If they're mindless monsters, why are they also smart enough to deploy a lookalike infant - also made of fungus? - to distract the parents? I thought they were supposed to be fairies or whatever, why are they fungus monsters in the first place? - to ever prevent a consistent and coherent threat. That, and the Chekov's flaming scythe promised on the poster never gets deployed in a satisfactory way - don't show me a flaming scythe and then not actually use said flaming scythe to kill any of the nameless monsters. It looks good enough, and the acting is good enough, and it's tense enough as a thriller for me to give it a passing recommendation; I can't pretend that this couldn't have been better, though. /5 #8. Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (Theatrical) Doctor Strange, the (ex-)Sorcerer Supreme, battles against the odds to protect a young girl who can travel between universes from a foe looking to steal her power. It's been 10 years since Sam Raimi last made a feature film, but Dr. Strange 2 went and proved that he's still got it in him. This film is a glorious collection of whip pans, fast zooms, ghoulish glee and horror tropes abound for a PG-13 family action movie within the containment of the largest and most profitable film franchise around, under the stewardship of the zealously protective House of Mouse. Considering those restraints, it's a miracle that the film ended up as good as it did, and that it had as many horror-tinged elements as it had. On the other hand, all of the film's glorious imagination is still in service to said franchise, so a lot more of it is both table-setting for the future and name checking elements of the past more than it is coming up with new and exciting scenarios for its own benefit. I'm a big enough Marvel fan to get a kick at all of the cameos and callbacks during the Illuminati sequence, but it also felt like a bit of dead air, as if we all had stop and forcibly appreciate our friends' well kept and thoroughly maintained collection of action figures. (At least that lead to a surprisingly gruesome sequence of PG-13 mayhem as all of these cameo characters got absolutely ruined by the film's big bad.) Also, on the subject of the bad guy, Dr. Strange 2 continues the Marvel problem of having all of its themes totally overshadowed by all of the franchise elements and the pre-vis action scenes. (At least there, Raimi was able to turn one wizard's duel setpiece into an impressive showcase for Danny Elfman's talents, so hopefully they have buried whatever hatchets they needed to after Spider-Man 2 almost two decades ago. It certainly seems like Raimi wants to spread the love around, at least.) I saw this on Mother's Day, ironically enough for a film where Scarlet Witch becomes the villain after the events of WandaVision, so desperate to return to her imaginary family from the show that she seeks to murder an innocent teenager to steal her soul and kills dozens, if not hundreds, of people in the process. Meanwhile, Strange is supposed to be grappling with his feelings about his place in the universe, especially since his actions during the last two Avengers films essentially doomed his relationship with Rachel McAdams. Again, though, the franchise elements undercut the film's intent; it's been over half a decade since the last Dr. Strange solo movie, but since he keeps cropping up in Avengers films and the last Spider-Man movie, it feels like he's never been off of the screen. So it feels like all of the character work isn't really motivated by the characters themselves, but as a faux issue to try and give Cumberbatch something to do in the non-action scenes; Cumberbatch, being a pro, isn't playing down to the material in any way. It's not like the relationship between him and McAdams was all that strong in the original Doctor Strange, so shuttling her out of the way by marrying her off to someone just offscreen doesn't feel like a big loss or anything anyway. I liked this more than I think the last few paragraphs have lead on - as far as Marvel movies go, this is definitely in the top half easily, and maybe even in the top 5 or 6. But that's its own form of damning with faint praise, as the Marvel formula is far stronger than Raimi's idiosyncrasies in the end. I love that he gave as much of the old feeling as he could within the confines of this form, but I also don't feel like he was ever as in control of the product as he was in the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man days. What I would give to see a Sam Raimi film where Marvel let him all the way off the chain. /5gey muckle mowser posted:
 #9. Madhouse (1974) (Amazon Prime) A washed-up horror actor, recovering from a stay in an insane asylum, agrees to resurrect an old character for a new British television series. However, people keep dying around him in ways inspired by his old movies. Is his character Dr. Death now working - and killing - against his will? A proto-slasher starring old horror hands Vincent Price and Peter Cushing - the discomfort and disconnect between Price's melodramatic tendencies and Cushing's stately reserve end up butting up against the lurid bloodletting and thriller elements a bit more than you would have expected. Perhaps both had aged past the point where this kind of horror MO could conceivably be applied to them? Perhaps the film's sluggish pacing ends up undermining any thriller elements that could have been expected from that scenario? I don't know, but while it's an interesting idea to have those leads in this kind of film, it doesn't really have anywhere to go. Price and Cushing are consummate professionals, so they give it their all, and I ended up liking it a bit more than I probably should have just because of their presence alone. For a non-fan of either actor, I don't know that there's all that much here to recommend. /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), The Hallow (GMM Challenge 1), Dr. Strange 2, Madhouse (1974) (GMM Challenge 10)
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May 9, 2022 17:04
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CHALLENGE TIME
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12. The Tingler (1959) -  10. The Price is Right - Price is great here, as is pretty much the entire cast. As actors; the characters are mostly one degree of rear end in a top hat or another. Which kind of adds to the intrigue when you're thinking that someone is about to do something noble and... nope. 4/513. Pyewacket (2017) -  1. Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched - I've tried to watch this before when Shudder put up the folk horror collection and couldn't do it. Now that I've made it all the way through, exactly as dull as I anticipated. 2/514. Phantom of the Paradise (1974) - 3. Rated PG - It is glorious. A rock version of Phantom of the Opera, with a heavy dose of Faust, even Faustception, and a bit of Dorian Gray. 4/515. Eve's Bayou (1997) - 11. Horror Noire - An excellent Southern gothic drama about the descendants of slavery. Despite some precognition and implied voodoo, I was thinking "great movie, not a horror movie" until the last 15 minutes, when everything pays off, well, horribly. 5/5 BANGER16. Leptirica (1973) - 8. A Perfect Getaway (Yugoslavia) - A decently interesting film, for the village and marriage related drama and the look at rural Yugoslavian life. The vampire is just there, and doesn't really notably impact the plot, and the ending is predictable from the title. 3/5 17. 7. Short CutsSlapface (2017, 8 minutes) - Having seen the feature already, this is more teaser than short film, although it does do a good job of introducing the three main characters, including the monster, and leading the viewer to want to see more, so it seems to have accomplished its mission. 3/5 You’re Dead Helene (2021, 25 minutes) - Wonderful Belgian short about a guy and the ghost of his girlfriend that deftly balances some quotidian scenes (it opens with a conversation / him talking to himself on the subway) with a strong overall narrative. 5/5 BANGER Street of Crocodiles (1986, 20 minutes) - Creepy doll doing creepy things and dealing with creepy things. Nicely stop-motion-animated. I don't think I'm the audience for this. 2.5/5 Cursed Video (2021, 18 minutes) - The first in the Q series that everyone's been raving about, and I don't get it. It takes way too long to get where it's going and falls flat when it gets there. 2/5 And for some reason I felt the need last night to remind myself why I hate the 50's. Except the Tingler. 18. She Gods of Shark Reef (1958) - Two criminals end up on a remote, women-only island and nothing happens. 1.5/5 19. Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959) - Decent redneck drama, also giant leeches, and Roger Corman's signature "That's 61 minutes, movie over." 2/5 20. Killers from Space (1954) - Did anyone ever think matting for giant insects, lizards, etc. looked good? Why? 1.5/5
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May 9, 2022 17:07
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Movie 4: Vampyr (9. Hidden Gems) The blood! The blood! Vampyr is one of the coolest horror movies I have ever seen, and definitely the most unique. Part of the charm probably comes from the movie being 90 years old, because everything is kind of poorly lit, heavily contrasted, dark, grungy and foreboding. But it goes beyond even that. The movie has a wonderful dreamlike quality. A young man is wandering through the German countryside and comes upon a lonely inn. He's barely had time to settle in when strange doins start a-transpirin'. A weird man pops into his room to give cryptic warnings of impending doom, before the man is lured to a run down house by a strange premonition. As he drifts from place to place he encounters strange and supernatural things, all of which seem to be connected to a vampire lurking in the area. Vampyr isn't a silent film, but it almost might as well be. Large parts of the story are told through static text screens. The minimal dialogue we do have adds to the dreamlike quality, because conversations are stilted and repetitive like they might be in a dream. Peep this poo poo when our wandering young man encounters a strange man in the haunted castle: Marc: The child! Nikolas: Yes. Marc: There is no child here. Nikolas: But ... the dogs... Marc: There is no child here, and no dogs either. Nikolas: No? Marc: No. Our main character spends most of the movie kind of drifting from one place to another in a daze, almost like he was drawn from scene to scene like he was trapped in a dream he didn't really understand the logic of himself. I don't think this is just shoddy early film making or acting, but the director intentionally trying to make a movie that feels off-putting and strange, because overall the movie is anything but amateurish. Many of the shots feel extremely modern, and at times you could think you were watching a modern art film. And also, consider the insanely inventive and impressive special effects. Some scenes have the film running backwards, they play with transparency through double exposure etc. Early on our main character watches a river with a path running alongside it. In the water's reflection we see someone running on the path, but the path itself is empty. Shortly afterwards we explore a haunted house where disembodied shadows move by themselves or out of sync with their human bodies, including a sequence where the shadow of a one-legged soldier is climbing up the shadow of a ladder, while the ladder itself is completely empty. I want to know how they did all this in the early 1930s! As a story Vampyr isn't anything special, but as an experience it's cool as hell, and everyone who is interested in horror movies or just unique movie experiences should definitely watch it. / 5My May 2022 Movies: 1. Saturday Morning Mystery, 2. Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Rated PG), 3. Superstition, 4. Vampyr (Hidden Gems)
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May 9, 2022 17:43
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23 Still a classic that I just dont get sick of. I stuck with the theatrical cut this time and there's just a jovial bounce to this movie despite its suppressive overtones of calamity and the end of the world like George wanted it really does feel like a comic book. Something you'd get in an old EC comics but condensed down into 24 pages. Like I dont know how to explain to my partner why a pie fight with zombies works in the last quarter of this movie, but it just does!  out of 524  Sure its not as horrific as like some people are really making it out to be, but its gotta be the most brutal of the MCU films to date. Like there's some Boys level supe kills in this movie that left some people in the theater actively responding to in a visceral way. I was howling however, Raimi is back in the saddle of a more horror centered story in one of the biggest franchises in the world (though a Sam Raimi Pokemon story where you're following a trainer into a haunted house looking for their own Ghastly could be a lot of fun) and you can tell he was actively telling Marvel management "I got this fellas, give me a couple 2x4's and I'm gunna make some magic happen" and like you could tell the cast was having fun to in a way that I dont think the other films in the franchise save for the Guardians, Thor Ragnarok and those Ant-Man pictures were really having F-U-N. Cumberbatch is getting thrown around like a rag doll and getting to do some real wacky stuff here. Maybe not like Evil Dead 2 level physical gags, but there's a lot to enjoy here and tons and tons of the Raimi camera goodness. Just so many smash zooms into the actors face to shake a stick at.  out of 525  Yeesh what a boring movie. Just one of the roughest sit downs I've had in a minute. I still gave it two stars because the puppets are entertaining and one star because the actors had to figure out a way to make these things even remotely threatening and they sorta just did their best with the worst they had to work with. I will probably end up watching a couple more of these just to see where they go. I did like the opening sequence and the stuff with Barbara Crampton, but you dont give me Barbara Crampton and then make me continually ask myself "Where is Barabara?" every two minutes hoping she'd return. just a dry and boring movie straight through. out of 526 THE KING IN YELLOW  This one was an absolutely wonderful time. Just a tight and focused movie that I kinda would've lived in it for at least ten more minutes if they wanted to add some extra dumb dumb characters to get killed off earlier in the movie. It's also a little mean, but like in a good way. Just exceptionally well done work and a lot of fun. I enjoyed the cast, the kills and the moody look and feel of everything. Just all so well done top to bottom. Great little picture. out of 527  Then we get to George's later output. This one just feels so forced and like "I gotta be sayin' something with this one because that's what everyone expects!" except he didnt have as much time as he did with Land to at least cogently put some ideas together and express them with better actors, a tighter script and bigger budget. Even if he was able to produce three exceptional zombie pictures on what was then a shoe string budget this is decidedly not that. All the actors are as flat and stiff as a board and it was actively painful to get through most of the run time. Just begging for this to end didnt make it end. I had to just persevere and get through it. A couple good zombie kills of the non-cg variety were pretty rad and like the warehouse portion is the best part of the movie, but otherwise just a big fat MEH. out of 528  No matter how times I've seen it its still singularly a perfect film (with or without bringing up the original short or tv show, though both are also perfect in their own way). Just a great slice of life tale of vampires living together and exceptionally funny and witty. The ideas around just vampire neatness when draining a victim or their persistent rivalry with the werewolves of New Zealand and discovering 20th century technology is just as funny as the first time. Easily one of if not maybe the best horror comedies ever? I'd probably put it up there, easily top 3. out of 5
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May 9, 2022 18:50
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#8: JeruZalem A found footage movie where all the footage is from a Google Glass is a pretty clever idea, as it explains why the camera is always on and pointed at the action no matter what happens, and it makes the audience extremely excited to see the cameraman die horribly. Like, there's a scene where she's walking through a crowd and her Google Glass does facial recognition on random people, including children. Demons, please murder this woman and everyone who ever wore Google Glass in public. There's some poorly done ye olde footage of a demon at the beginning, but then 40 minutes of nothing but some assholes on vacation in Jerusalem. All of it completely skippable. Once the demons attack it gets alright. Standard found footage fare, run run run, pant pant pant, see a monster, character dies, run run run, pant pant pant, "come on we have to go", and so on. The apocalyptic setting is pretty good, but they didn't really have the budget for any really impressive set pieces so, of course, it's into the sewers or catacombs or whatever. If you're in the mood for just a plain ol found footage movie, you could do so much worse than JeruZalem. But fastforward through the vacation footage part 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, 7) Zombie For Sale, 8) JeruZalem
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May 9, 2022 18:58
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5. Don’t Go in the Woods (2012) Directed by Vincent D’Onofrio  "Try to speak Chinese to a cat and they wont know what you're saying" I love any film that tells me to play it loud. Make my soul SHIVER! Then it's a musical on top of that? GIMME! Well, it turns out that the audio sounds tinny when you blast it, so, if you're going for that gimmick maybe invest in some decent audio equipment, especially when the director is Vincent D’Onofrio, all his connections and he couldn't call in a few favours? I also understand that a lot of people enjoy diegetic music over random bursting into song, but there's an artificiality to not having the music flow from the emotions on screen, once you ask "But why are we singing?" You're already overthinking musicals, and simply having them break the action to show a diegetic performance feels unearned. The songs are okay, but they feel very much like a group of drama kids brought together and asked to perform anything unlicensed they have prepared. It's honestly hard to know if this is a comedy or not, it's not funny, but the decisions made within the film just seem surreally silly and purposeless. For instance, a character takes off their shoe and chops it in half with an axe, then later steps on some glass, they don't seek medical attention or leave, they just hang out with a huge gash in their foot and no shoe. Does it pay off at any point? Neh. Does anything pay off at any point? Not really. It honestly feels like a film made by a poorly programmed AI who really wanted to showcase some drama kids. It's entirely possible that D’Onofrio is just a 4000 IQ supergenius who is just putting things down that I can't pick up, but I doubt it. 2/5
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May 9, 2022 19:01
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It Came from Outer Space 1953 Directed by Jack Arnold Watched on Internet Archive  This is a decent but mostly forgettable 1950s sci-fi flick. There's a stoic middle class everyman protagonist, a lady companion who is sassy but shrieks when she's scared, and skeptical authority figures. There's also a message about not judging a book by its cover which seems to be at odds with the strong thread of Cold War paranoia running through the story. Maybe don't just a book by its cover, unless its cover has one eye and tentacles and is possibly a communist. 💀💀💀 Spooky Non-American 1960s Challenge 7/13 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), 6. Genocide (1968), 7. The House That Screamed (1969) Bracketology 6/? 1. Night of the Living Dead (1990), 2. Strait-Jacket (1964), 3. National Theatre Live: Frankenstein (2011), 4. Frankenstein Created Woman (1967), 5. The Changeover (2017), 6. It Came from Outer Space (1953) 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 9, 2022 19:07
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I'm being sluggish on the challenge and I need a kick in the rear end. Somebody name a movie that's currently on Shudder and if I haven't seen it I'll watch it tonight.
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May 9, 2022 20:32
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Basebf555 posted:I'm being sluggish on the challenge and I need a kick in the rear end. The Spine of Night
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May 9, 2022 20:57
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El Dia De La Bestia! It’s a Spanish movie about a priest and a metal head trying to summon Satan stop the coming of the antichrist.
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May 9, 2022 21:00
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Haven't seen either of those so I'll watch both, thanks!
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May 9, 2022 21:16
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10/13 - Kairo (Pulse) (2001) 9. Hidden Gems In a bit of happy luck, Kairo (one of the few big-name J-Horror movies I haven't seen yet) ended up on Franchescanado's list, so I finally watched it! Great movie, although I do feel like the pace is a little weird at times. The more subdued 'end of the world' scenario is appreciated after years of big, bombastic 'the world is ending' movies, and I thought the movie had a lot of really interesting big idea concepts. The visuals are, of course, absolutely remarkable, and the soundtrack is haunting. Like I said, I think the only real weakness is that the movie is deliberately very slowly paced like most Asian horror, which makes it hard to recommend or show at a party since a lot of viewers aren't willing to put in the work that these types of movies demand. Still rad as hell though.  
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May 10, 2022 02:27
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3 movies in so far! Slacking! Corporate Animals Like an incredibly extended SNL skit, complete with having a "heh, that's funny" premise followed by no loving jokes. Yummy Exhausting in the way that only movies that cannot shed their baggage can be. It's an enthusiastic gorefest romp, an effects showcase and doofy lighthearted horror but the zombies are too rote, the beats too predictable. It is clearly made by people who know what they're doing and how to do it, but the choice of zombie over literally any other monster really dooms this. What about a hospital making werewolves? or run by experimenting aliens? anything would have been better than yet-again-zombies, which is why this movie fails despite doing everything to win me over. The Forever Purge You have no idea how close I am to giving this four stars. It is never boring, the pacing whips along at a perfect clip, with the downtime non-Purging parts full of really great melodrama. The Purge movies are a lot of things but subtle has never been one of them and this movie is no different - having to sneak across the border into Mexico to have an anchor baby being this film's denouement is just glorious and I hope James DaMonaco makes a thousand more Purges. Also we all agree this movie was called Purge Forever After in production, right?
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May 10, 2022 03:27
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