#15: The Brood This is what therapy is. Whenever a girl talks about how great her therapist is, she's talking about a guy who is basically Oliver Reed's character in the Brood and does all the same stuff. When women talk about how guys should go to therapy, they're saying they want this stuff to happen to us. 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, 9) CandymanCH11, 10) Curse of the Crimson Altar, 11) PreyCH2, 12) The Possession of Michael King, 13) The Green KnightCH1, 14) Before We Vanish, 15) The Brood
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May 16, 2022 23:57
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2. The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) (challenge #9: Hidden Gems) "I don't like people I have to get to know." Well, it's no Black Christmas. It made sense to find out this was originally written as a parody but became more serious via studio fuckery, as there are some quite funny moments, like when the characters realize there's a killer around and we cut to them casually chatting while sitting in an outward-facing circle and holding knives, but the overall tone is discordant (in a bad way) and makes the more subtle humor difficult to parse. The killer is utterly uncompelling when he's not speaking which is the vast majority of the time. And as always, points lost for killing a real animal on screen (though at least it reminded me that F13 Part 2 doesn't). That said, I'm sure it's a great party movie. 6/10
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May 17, 2022 00:33
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Shaman Tank Spec posted:Any suggestions for LGBTQ horror movies? Don Mancini is gay, if you haven't seen one of the Chucky movies yet. Let The Right One In is also definitely a gay horror movie, but the Hammer remake isn't.
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May 17, 2022 00:36
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Shaman Tank Spec posted:Any suggestions for LGBTQ horror movies or Giallo-inspired movies? Elm Street 2 might've been a good shout for Scream, Queen, but I watched it already last fall. LGBTQ: Knife+Heart, Bit, Dracula’s Daughter, Jennifer’s Body, The Haunting (1963), The Perfection, Seed of Chucky Giallo-influenced more modern stuff, Knife+Heart, The Editor, Berberian Sound Studio, Malignant, Amer. For older films that aren’t strictly giallos:, Blow Out, Sisters, Don’t Look Now, Alice Sweet Alice basically everyone watch Knife+Heart
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May 17, 2022 00:42
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FreudianSlippers posted:5. One Dark Night (1982) PG-13 didn’t exist until 1984 so it must’ve not been enough to earn an R rating
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May 17, 2022 00:44
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gey muckle mowser posted:LGBTQ: Knife+Heart, Bit, Dracula’s Daughter, Jennifer’s Body, The Haunting (1963), The Perfection, Seed of Chucky Seconding this. Don't know how I could forget Knife+Heart from my list. or Jennifer's Body for that matter. Both are fantastic but very very dissimilar films.
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May 17, 2022 01:20
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We’re All Going to The Worlds Fair was directed by a Non-Binary director. That could work too.
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May 17, 2022 02:22
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 The Body Snatcher (1945) A kind of Burke and Hare-esque story (and narratively connected to Burke and Hare), Karloff plays a “resurrection man” who steals bodies to deliver to an anatomy teacher. When the supply runs dry, he sneaks and people die! Karloff was amazing, playing Gray with impish delight. There’s a depth to this as well - sure, he steals bodies, but is the doctor who hires him any better, turning a blind eye to what’s required for progress? It’s a gorgeous looking movie as well, claustrophobic and gothic. I really liked this one. Challenge #13 - Sins Of The Past 9/13 Movies: What Have You Done To Solange?, Kadaicha, Frankenstein Created Woman, Night Of The Living Dead (1990), Straight Jacket, Slaughterhouse Rock, It Came From Outer Space, The Changeover, The Body Snatcher (1945) 4/13 Challenges: #1 Woodlands Dark (Kadaicha), #4 Music Of The Night (Slaughterhouse Rock), #6 The King In Yellow (Solange), #13 Sins Of The Past (Body Snatcher)
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May 17, 2022 04:28
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Movie #14, Challenge #12 - Watch a film based on the works of (or written by) Stephen King Christine (1983)  A boy and a girl in love with the same nerd fight to save him from the influence of a demonically possessed sports car. Worst of all, it's got regenerating health! I've got to say, without reading the original book, that this is the most accurately I've ever seen Stephen King dialogue portrayed on film. Just the tone and pacing is so ludicrously King, taking this zany premise seriously and running with it. The Saturday morning cartoon bullies feel just as over the top ridiculous as they do in every King story. There's a subtext under all this about 1950's "perfection" poisoning a modern man and turning him into a hateful monster that's pretty relevant to this day. Men in general are pretty grotesque here, and even early on when Arnie still has our sympathy he lets slip little comments that make him just a gross as the rest of them. It's a shame that Leigh isn't a deeper character because she could be a good contrast. Fun watching this and Maximum Overdrive close together to get a double dose of Stephen King Killer Car movies with monumentally different tones. The soundtrack here is great because it's John Carpenter so of course it is.
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May 17, 2022 04:37
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7. Death Drop Gorgeous (2020) (first viewing) "A dejected bartender and an aging drag queen try to survive the eccentric and hostile nightlife of a corrupt city, as a masked maniac slaughters young gay men and drains them of blood." This one was pretty rough. Our world here is the queer mecca of Providence, Rhode Island, and our heroes navigate a world of gay bars, drag shows, and dating apps. The film is aiming for something like a campy giallo, but the reach far exceeds the grasp. There are occasional laughs and bits of social commentary--and I am sure those more steeped in the culture will pick up on more of these elements than I did--but these moments are largely lost in the sub-amateur quality of the filmmaking. Forget about a thin script and dialed-to-11-at-all-times acting, we're talking "the camera is going in and out of focus during the climax" level issues. It's a novel setting, and there is some fun gore--I'll never look at a glory hole the same way again. But it was mostly a slog, and 104 minutes is way too long to invest in the kind of movie destined to be destroyed at the end of an episode of Best of the Worst. CHALLENGE: "Scream, Queen!" --- CHALLENGES: 1. Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched 2. Scream, Queen! Death Drop Gorgeous (2020) 3. 4. Music of the Night Nocturne (2020) 5. Behind the Screams Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (2019) 6. The King in Yellow 7. Short Cuts (various short films) (misc) 8. A Perfect Getaway 9. Hidden Gems 10. The Price is Right 11. Horror Noire Tales from the Hood (1995) 12. All Hail the King 1922 (2017) 13. Sins of the Past
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May 17, 2022 05:33
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gey muckle mowser posted:
 12) Sweetheart - 2019 - Netflix A boating trip goes wrong and leaves a young woman trapped on a remote island where there's a monster, because of course there is. First impression is this film's very tight and lean. We're given just enough to move on to the next point. While it's nice there's no bloat, it would've helped if we had a bit more characterization. Jenn's resourceful, but still makes the occasional mistake. Her boyfriend and friends however, are a particular level of stupid and out of touch to the degree you're not surprised they die and it's a relief when they do. I kept wondering why the hell is Jenn bothering with these idiots in her life. Seriously, here's Jenn who was on the island for a good week, warning of there's a danger and these two are going to whine over 'you weren't happy on our trip' or 'well, you lied about this other thing this one time so we don't believe you'. Even if you don't believe there's a monster, there very well could be some dangerous animal out there. But then, these are the idiots who likely murdered a friend on the raft and don't want to leave the island because of repercussions. I get the vibe that even with what resources the island has, they'd still gently caress it up. I did feel like the bit with them did make things drag a bit. The monster design was nice. The ending was fine. A dash of Predator with an enigmatic 'now what?'.
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May 17, 2022 10:48
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8. Troll 1986 | dir. John Carl Buechler Eureka blu-ray  3. Rated PGA nasty troll takes over the body of a little girl, the daughter of Harry Potter, and makes her the most obnoxious tenant in an apartment complex full of eccentric weirdos. One by one, the troll girl uses magic on the tenants, turning them into horrifying magic creatures and grows a non-Euclidean magic forest in their apartments from their corpses. He's a lonely and evil troll and wants a place to live with his friends. There's a witch with a pet anthropomorphic mushroom, and she's eventually going to realize magic is afoot and will help Harry Potter Jr. save the day.  I have seen Troll 2 over a dozen times, and multiple times in theaters. I have seen it so many times that it no longer exists in my mind as an objective bad film, and now feels more like a surreal (cheesy) piece of outsider art. The common stance is that it's unrelated to the original Troll, so you needn't bother with the original. I am here to write that you need bother with the original. It's a strange and fun trip. This is a Charles Band production, with music by Richard Band, which gives this a Full Moon Pictures vibe, with a little more craft and a little less FMP dumb sense of humor. It is trying to be funny, but not as stupidly "funny" as, say, Evil Bong or Gingerdead Man. It is two years after Gremlins, and the attempt at cashing in on Small Monsters has begun. The puppets manage to be memorable, grotesque and charming without articulating well as actual puppets. (I wouldn't be surprised if this movie also sourced Ghoulies as an inspiration, because there's a lot of Ghoulies DNA in this.) The Troll wavers between looking convincing or showing the thin neck gap from where the mask and body suit don't meet.  There is a part where all the troll's creature friends sing a song that's Richard Band's attempt at Disneyfying the Tom Waits song "Cemetery Polka". Here is the Troll Song. Please listen to it. The cast is another point of interest. Michael Moriarty (of The Stuff, Q The Winged Serpent) is Harry Potter. Harry Potter Jr is Noah Hathaway (Atreyu from Neverending Story). Also showing up: Phil Fondacaro (Star Wars, Willow), Shelley Hack, Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld, Veep, obviously), June Lockhart, and most surprising/strange, Sonny Bono, playing a washed-up sex-freak wanna-be Casanova who, in this kids(?) movie, gets premature ejaculation jokes. Behind the camera, serving as cinematographer, is Romano Albani, who did Argento's Inferno and Phenomena, as well as goon-favorite TerrorVision.  It is every bit as strange as the notorious sequel, Troll 2, but is served with a higher production value, and competent actors who are putting in sincere work. I had a great time with it and it's going into my regular b-movie rotation, along with stuff like Spookies. In that context, I Recommend It. Total 8 New To Me: Nightmare Weekend, House of Usher (1960), The Whip and the Body, Full Moon High, Frankenstein Created Woman, Night of the Living Dead (1990), Troll Rewatch: The Strangers Extra Credit: Are You Afraid of the Dark? (2019) miniseries Challenges: 1 2 Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 13:31 on May 17, 2022 |
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May 17, 2022 13:14
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I’ve seen Troll like half a dozen times and never seen Troll 2. It’s so weird and fun and clearly JK Rowling ripped it off and I just never remotely saw the point in watching a bad movie instead.
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May 17, 2022 13:43
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STAC Goat posted:I’ve seen Troll like half a dozen times and never seen Troll 2. It’s so weird and fun and clearly JK Rowling ripped it off and I just never remotely saw the point in watching a bad movie instead. Troll 2 is incredibly watchable and good. I have never introduced it to someone who didn't have fun and enjoy themselves. There's actually interesting connective tissues in the themes, imagery and ideas between Troll and Troll 2. I'd say watch it. Especially if you can watch one of the pristine transfers that are on the Eureka or Shout blu-rays. I'd say watch it if that's your relationship to the original. If I had to make a desert island list of movies, I'm probably including Troll 2 on it. That's how watchable it is for me. The whole experience is surreal. It's like someone remade a movie they watched in their dream. Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 13:53 on May 17, 2022 |
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May 17, 2022 13:50
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Does the Northman qualify? I remember The Green Knight being given a pass in previous challenges and that one didn't have half the grevious bodily harm of the Northman. If course both films have ghosts. The Green Knight one being the more traditional medieval type of ghost which just needs help so it can rest and the Northman having a proper Mound Dweller.
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May 17, 2022 14:21
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gey muckle mowser posted:
 #16. Happy Death Day 2U (iTunes) Tree Gelbman discovers that her boyfriend's roommate created the time loop that was plaguing her in the first film, and that he is similarly trapped. When they try to shut it down, she gets stuck in a loop in a parallel dimension. Will she be able to stop the Baby Mask Killer in this universe and escape back to her own? And does she even want to? I'd seen the original Happy Death Day in the theater and director Christopher Landon's later follow-up, Freaky,, and I liked them both, so I figured I should go back to the HDD sequel I'd somehow managed to skip over. After having watched that one now, I have to ask myself: what was I doing that got me to skip over this one in the theater, or at least shortly after it was released? This movie is a lot of fun, and has a real warmth and regard for its characters, which can be something of a rarity in horror films. I haven't seen the original since it was first released, so I admit that some of the callbacks and connective tissue were a little hollow for me, but I could remember enough to get through it. Plus, the film knows where it can breeze past and trust its audience to fill in the dots (like when Tree's ex comes to a basketball game with a new boyfriend), and where it will need to spend more time to fill in gaps and explain a relationship (Tree's whole relationship with her mom, who is dead in her universe). It's actually that second point that really brought me around on the film: after initially teasing that this film would be following someone else through the whole "'babby's first slasher' meets Groundhog Day" premise of the original, it switches back to having Tree as our focal point. I was initially against that premise, as I thought we'd already milked everything we could with a redemptive arc for her character and was excited to see the premise filtered through someone else's eyes, even if she was there to be a Captain Ahab figure assisting us through. However, by expanding the time loop out to also include parallel universes, it does allow the film to expand and enrich Tree's character and relationships further, in ways I wasn't really expecting. In the end, this is a film that is breezy and a lot of fun, knowing that this is built on a mess of sci-fi technobabble gobbledygook and just breezing past that for another affecting dialogue scene or high-premise suicide vignette. I've liked everything that Landon has directed that I've seen thus far, so I should know to at least trust him to get into setups and see where he goes from there. (I must admit, though, that between these two and Freaky that I'm now most curious about what he could do with a simple, straightforward film with no weird premise or gimmick hooks. I think he could nail it, but I don't know if he'd even want to try.)  /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), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) (GMM Challenge 13), Memory: The Origins of Alien (GMM Challenge 5), Trollhunter (GMM Challenge 8), Friday the 13th Part 2 (SBLT Challenge), The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, Firestarter (2022) (GMM Challenge 12), Happy Death Day 2U (GMM Challenge 2)
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May 17, 2022 14:24
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CHALLENGE TIME 
2. Scream, Queen!
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Class3KillStorm posted:I've liked everything that Landon has directed that I've seen thus far, so I should know to at least trust him to get into setups and see where he goes from there. (I must admit, though, that between these two and Freaky that I'm now most curious about what he could do with a simple, straightforward film with no weird premise or gimmick hooks. I think he could nail it, but I don't know if he'd even want to try.) Landon's actually written a fair share of horrors he hasn't directed. Disturbia is probably his most "straight" one but he also wrote Paranormal Activity 2, 3, 4, Marked Ones, and Next of Kin. So he's responsible for most of that franchise. I'm not sure it qualifies as "non gimmick" though and Marked Ones is the only one he directed and is probably the weirdest and most gimmicky of the bunch. But Next of Kin is a fairly straight up stand alone horror. Even if its kind of weird. I think Landon's probably just kind of weird. Landon also has the unique position of having made porn and a Highway to Heaven remake.
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May 17, 2022 14:39
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STAC Goat posted:But Next of Kin is a fairly straight up stand alone horror. Even if its kind of weird. I'll have to check this out sometime, then. Thanks. STAC Goat posted:Landon also has the unique position of having made porn and a Highway to Heaven remake. Uh, now I'm wondering if both of those come from some sort of "gently caress you Dad, I won't do what you tell me!" place, then. STAC Goat posted:I think Landon's probably just kind of weird. I can absolutely see this.
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May 17, 2022 15:09
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Franchescanado posted:Troll 2 is incredibly watchable and good. I have never introduced it to someone who didn't have fun and enjoy themselves. There's actually interesting connective tissues in the themes, imagery and ideas between Troll and Troll 2. I'd say watch it. Especially if you can watch one of the pristine transfers that are on the Eureka or Shout blu-rays. I'd say watch it if that's your relationship to the original. Yeah Troll 2 is extremely entertaining, it’s only “bad” in the sense that pretty much everything that happens is bafflingly weird, but that’s part of the fun.
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May 17, 2022 15:23
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Class3KillStorm posted:Uh, now I'm wondering if both of those come from some sort of "gently caress you Dad, I won't do what you tell me!" place, then. I probably mischaracterized Boys Life 3 as "porn" just looking at the cover and quick synopsis. And that's probably lovely and homophobic of me so I'm sorry. But it was also 20 years ago so it was probably just him getting his career started.
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May 17, 2022 15:27
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 27 (42). Night of the Living Deb (2015) Directed by Kyle Rankin; Written by Andy Selsor Knockoffs of the 13 Dead: 5/13 That was alright. For a “zom-rom-com” there’s actually surprisingly little zom and not near as much rom as you’d think. The com is fine though. It wasn’t hilarious or anything but it was comfortably amusing the whole way and never lost me. The first act is a little rough as Maria Thayer plays Deb as VERY awkward and uncomfortable. Its clearly deliberate and seems to be less about the character and more about her reacting badly to first the awkward circumstances of waking up after a one night stand you don’t remember with a dude who clearly doesn’t want you around and then… you know… zombie apocalypse. Its actually a rough way to introduce the character because its not super clear if Deb is just loving with him, just really uncomfortable herself, or really kind of half crazy. As we get to know her more through the rest of the film I’m comfortable going with one of the former explanations but you don’t know that at the start of the film and it feels like she might be like a weird obsessed character. And to be honest I’m still not even sure how any of that is intended. The second act throws a curve, first because it like kind of just puts the zombies on the outside of everything but also because it basically stops the awkward “romance” thing and just kind of lets the characters be. It also has Deb make the choice to finally leave her one night stand when she is being demonstrably made to feel like a 3rd wheel with the ex. And again… is this a nice liberating moment where Deb just kind of shakes off the awkwardness and says “ok, its time to go” or is it Deb in love with this guy she barely knows being jealous by the transparent effort to make her jealous? I honestly don’t know. I was leaning towards the former but then the last act culminates with a declaration of love and like… I dunno. So yeah, I dunno. Its a totally fine zombie comedy. Its a bit of a weird rom com. I mean I know all rom coms are basically two people falling in love in record time after ridiculous circumstances but I think it played really odd here. Like zombie apocalypse is a weird time for awkward flirting. Obviously that’s the idea behind this and makes this a unique film… but its also like… sometimes something isn’t done because it isn’t very good. Sometimes you say “I wonder what this would taste like if I add X” and its the greatest thing you ever had. And sometimes it ruins the dish entirely and you never do that again. This isn’t that bad or anything. It really was a perfectly fine movie that I largely enjoyed. But I dunno. I’m not sure i’d do that again. I’m not sure it worked.  - (43). Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994) Written and directed by Don Coscarelli My biggest reaction to Phantasm III is that Coscarelli clearly had really enjoyed Sam Raimi films and Evil Dead before making this one. My second reaction is that fans went in an uproar when they recast Mike for the second film because it had been 10 years and the original kid wasn’t actually an actor, so then they get back the original Mike for this film and he’s kind of a really bad actor so they just make a movie where he’s kind of barely in it. Actually my biggest reaction to Phantasm III has always been anger and disappointment that they just kill off Elizabeth in the opening minute like its nothing. Not that I care deeply about the character or anything but the second film is entirely built around introducing her as part of the team and story and then some fans got mad so gotta kill off the girl. In hindsight it strikes me that a big part of why I liked the Phantasm sequels as a kid was that the road movie fighting monsters thing probably was something I liked and that’s probably why I loved Supernatural and it makes me wonder if Tim Kripke also grew up watching these movies. But even that’s weird since like Supernatural also had a huge problem with a fanbase who got really mad about stuff and always pressured the show to kill off its female characters. Also that made me realize that like the two women in this movie only exist for Reggie to creep on and then to fight over him. Overall Phantasm III is a schlocky monster hunting road movie clearly heavily inspired by Evil Dead an filled with goop and Deadites and the trademark floating death spheres. A whole lot of Phantasm is clearly cribbed from other stuff but if there’s anything that is distinctively Phantasm and probably is the reason the franchise had enough identity to make 5 movies its Angus Scrimm as the Tall Man and those spheres. They’re memorable and cool. And Phantasm III kind of throws a lot of stuff that is cool and fun at the wall… even if some of it is pretty gross misogyny that ages terribly… and constructs a fairly coherent horror sequel. There’s not really much of a story here but its all pretty simple monster hunting and goop stuff and that can be fun. But the surrealistic atmosphere that made the first film work so well is pretty much entirely gone and even those these are probably objectively better made films they’re also more generic and less impactful. And the actual story and canon stuff kind of just makes no sense and without the dreamy atmosphere of the first one that just seems like bad writing. ”Seeing is easy. Understanding, well, takes a bit more time.” gently caress off, Jody. But fine. I’ll watch the last two.
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May 17, 2022 16:35
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 Diary of a Madman(The Price is Right) This is another one from over the weekend where I more or less chose it randomly after searching Amazon Video for Vincent Price. I guess with Price what happens is that he was so prolific and has so many iconic films, inevitably some good ones fly under the radar. You just don't see Diary of a Madman brought up very much when Price is discussed, but it's a very solid outing for him and probably should be more well known. So ok, a good chunk of the movie is Price wandering around making various baffled and confused facial expressions as he struggles to figure out what's going on. But as his fans know, Price is consistently entertaining whether or not he has no lines or he has a long Shakespearean monologue. The story is actually pretty interesting, it has the bones of a standard demon possession plot but filled out with some weird stuff and fun exchanges between Price and this "entity" inside him. It also has a fairly brutal twist that I wasn't expecting. Overall maybe it's not as classically spooky as House on Haunted Hill or as visually stunning as Masque of the Red Death, but I'd be happy to throw Diary of a Madman into a fun Price double-feature any time. The version that's on Amazon Video looks drat good too, which is always a nice bonus because not all of their classic films are in a watchable quality.    1. Intruder 2. Spookies 3. Subspecies 4. Megalodon Rising 5. The Spine of Night 6. Eyes of Laura Mars(Hidden Gems) 7. Prophecy 8. Diary of a Madman(The Price is Right)
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May 17, 2022 16:50
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 12. Last Night in Soho (2021) "If this place is haunted by anything, it's the good times. When it's empty, all I hear is the laughs." This shows how far aesthetics and a great soundtrack can carry an okay script. The Lindsey twist is a silly red herring to begin with, but I thought the Sandie twist was fine if a bit predictable. I think this should have looked a little more grimy and sweaty for what it was trying to do but overall I liked it.  3.5/5 13. The Vampire Doll (1970) "Don't go! You'll get spooked again." Part of this week's Bracketology lineup. It might say 'vampire' in the title, but for a lot of this it feels like a ghost story - light on scares and gore but heavy on atmosphere. Great score, good effects, you can feel the Hammer in this. The mystery is eventually solved with some twists that felt out of nowhere, but this is a solid, well paced spooky story. 3.5/5 14. The Uninvited (1944) "I believe a house can be filled with malignity." A brother and sister purchase a long abandoned seaside mansion, and guess what, it's haunted. This is fine, I guess. In 1944, I'm sure this was novel and scary, but watching it today it just feels like fifty other haunted house movies I've seen. It's too long, and we don't get to anything particularly interesting until over an hour in, though there are some neat effects for its time. I wouldn't recommend this over The Haunting or The Old Dark House or others in the haunted house genre but it isn't bad, just bland. 2.5/5 --  13. Sins of the PastTotal Watched: 14 // GMM Challenges Complete: #13 (The Uninvited), #12 (The Tommyknockers), #10 (The Witchfinder General), #9 (Motel Hell), #8 (Kratt), #7 (replaced with Never Hike Alone: The Ghost Cut), #5 (Shadow of the Vampire), #3 (The Changeover), #2 (Penda's Fen)
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May 17, 2022 17:13
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 A Perfect GetawayThe Medium (ร่างทรง) 2021 Directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun Watched on Shudder  This is apparently my first Thai horror movie. I have mixed feelings about the documentary crew framing device. At first, it's great because it establishes the normality of characters. Sure, Nim is a shaman, but she's presented as more more of a therapist than a wizard. The extended family also seems to have a tenuous connection to animism and the spirit world that wouldn't come up in casual conversation. Later, when it all starts to hit the fan, it turns into more of a conventional found-footage style production, complete with the obligatory night vision scenes. This is when I thought that it started to fall apart, even though it's the same time that all of the spooky and gory action happens. When you're forced to ask yourself how many camera operators this documentary crew can possibly have, it abruptly takes you out of the story. The big plus to The Medium is that the special effects are really limited. It depends on the actors' performances and every one of them is great. 💀💀💀1/2 Spooky Non-American 1960s Challenge 13/13 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), 8. The Whip and the Body (1963), 9. The Snow Woman (1968), 10. The City of the Dead (1960), 11. The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales (1960), 12. The Devil Rides Out (1968), 13. Spirits of the Dead (1968) Bracketology 9/? 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), 7. Morgiana (1972), 8. Phantasm II (1988), 9. Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994) GMM Challenges 9/14 1. The Other Lamb (2019), 2. A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985), 3. Madhouse (1974), 4. Suck (2009), 5. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006), 6. Don’t Torture a Duckling (1972), 7. Various shorts, 8. The Medium (2021), 14. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
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May 17, 2022 17:16
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 10.) House Nobuhiko Obayashi | 1977 | Blu-ray I didn’t know what to expect when I put this into my blu-ray player, but man what a loving blast! Everything is done so well from the settings to the actors to the effects and to the music (especially the music!) I mean I understood that it was going to be a trippy movie, but I didn’t expect it to be so funny! Speaking of trippy, a lot of the effects were probably cheap but they work and work well! It’s honestly kind of mind-boggling that this was somebody trying to make their own Jaws! Overall, an absolute blast and one that I’m glad to have finally watched. Thanks, thread  Rating: Total: 10/13 New: 9 Rewatches: 1 Challenges: 3. Rated PG (Saturday the 14th ), X. SECRET BONUS LIMITED TIME CHALLENGE (Friday the 13th Part 2), 12. All Hail the King (Firestarter (2022)) My Letterboxd list (in progress)
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May 17, 2022 20:47
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 15. Def by Temptation (1990) "I have the feeling that our destinies are entangled, somehow." For a low budget horror by a one-time-only writer/director, I was surprised at how good this is. The film is centered on two childhood friends, Joel (a minister, like his dead dad) and K (who left their small town for New York to become an actor). Joel is struggling with his faith and goes to visit his old friend in the big city for comfort. Unfortunately, K's community is being preyed on by a succubus (who eventually sets her sights on Joel after a few quick kills of nobodies early on). James Bond III (the writer/director, who plays Joel) is a bad actor, but Cynthia Bond gives a solid performance as the succubus, as do Kadeem Hardison (K) and Bill Nunn (Dougy, another friend). You can tell there are some ideas that don't fully develop, and this has some pacing problems (mostly the middle), but it's a very enjoyable vampire movie with some memorable moments and gore that made me go, "oh, sick!" 3.5/5 -- 11. Horror NoireTotal Watched: 15 // GMM Challenges Complete: #13 (The Uninvited), #12 (The Tommyknockers), #11 (Def by Temptation), #10 (The Witchfinder General), #9 (Motel Hell), #8 (Kratt), #7 (replaced with Never Hike Alone: The Ghost Cut), #5 (Shadow of the Vampire), #3 (The Changeover), #2 (Penda's Fen)
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May 17, 2022 22:00
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8. Dracula (1931, English Language) Never seen a classic Universal Monster film so it was fun to dive in at the beginning. Lugosi of course is killing it and it's obvious why this became the iconic portrayal. His eyes look great leering at victims through the darkness. The plot doesn't really make sense, I guess Renfield escapes from his cell like 5 to 10 times? Van Hellsing is really boring just spouting off vampire lore that a modern audience member already knows. The sets are really great and some day I'll watch the Spanish language film that was shot on the same sets overnight. Bats are already not scary but they are especially not scary in this. Every time Dracula turned into a bat I couldn't help but giggle. 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 17, 2022 23:17
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7) Challenge: Short Cuts The Backrooms (48:32) Elevated (19:26) The Backrooms by Kane Pixels has been getting a fair amount of interest in the main thread, so I thought they'd be a good pick for this challenge. I watched them on the Kane Pixels YT channel in playlist order. The ten (so far) shorts cover goings on surrounding a scientific experiment that has created - or granted access to - a strange series of rooms that look a little like an empty open plan office. Over the next three years (according to video timestamps) a group of anonymous scientists in full NBC suits investigate the Backrooms, delving deeper into what becomes an increasingly strange world. The final movie, which was the original short, takes place five years later and is found footage from a young guerrilla filmmaker's camera after he finds himself in the Backrooms. I can't imagine watching these in the order of release. If you do, the most strictly horrific of the stories come at the end and the remainder of the run just provides backstory. It's better watched on the playlist, where even if you know a bit more about what's going on you don't necessarily understand it. It also adds a deeper level of horror to the original short. I had actually thought that The Backrooms would cover the whole hour, but it turned out to come a bit short. As a big fan of Vincenzo Natali I grabbed the link to his early short Elevated that someone gave elsewhere in the thread - thank you. It was a proof of concept piece made to convince people to invest in Cube, and it shares some small resemblances with that movie: an enclosed space, a character who comes in out of nowhere, a small group of people who neither know nor trust each other but may need each other to survive. David Hewlett is on form (of course) and guides the story through a couple of twists in believable ways. It's far from perfect, but it works as well as anything made for tuppence ha'penny ever will.
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May 18, 2022 00:48
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gey muckle mowser posted:
 13) Rose Red - 2003 - DVD The short-short synopsis is Stephen King does Legend of Hell House/The Haunting. Normally I'm pretty good about catching stuff like this when it first airs, but I had so much personal crap going on I don't even remember seeing the ads for this. I picked this up in a discount bin at Walmart. For me, the standard pick up diet soda, eggs, bread, handful of horror films. With now many films I've got stacked up and on watch lists, it's taken me a while to finally get to this. Overall, it's exactly what you'd expect from Stephen King. Plenty of his quirks are here like the 50s era music, person with Powers, callbacks to his other work like the shower of stones echoing the one in Carrie. The shots of the house are gorgeous. The practical effects are very good. The CGI...oof. It's bad. I've seen better in video games from the 90s. The characters are pretty decent, the actors all doing a good job. Comparing this to King's other 'not an adaptation' works, this is average.
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May 18, 2022 01:30
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12. All Hail the King
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If I recall right Rose Red is the first thing King wrote for tv instead of adapting an existing story into a screenplay. And I think it suffers from it. It feels more like a knockoff/checklist of King stuff than anything actual original feeling.
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May 18, 2022 01:57
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 Anarchy Parlor (2015) American and British tourists go to Lithuania and run afoul of the of-course strange and murderous locals - well, one in particular, but no one from the country is shown in a good light. This movie is dumb. The plot is basically Hostel and full of torture and gore with occasional breaks for stripping and sex. The editing is bad - people presumably just stand around waiting for reaction shots and additional shouts before they decide to move but whoops it is too late. Character decisions are terrible, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in a horror movie, but here doesn't do the movie any favors. The acting is budget. It’s listed as a Lithuanian movie on IMDB so I’m counting it for the increasingly-difficult movie-from-a-new-country #8 A Perfect Getaway. That also means this isn’t a total loss, as this movie did not hit me at all. The gore was ok, but even if you’re looking for that there’s better out there. Challenge #8 - A Perfect Getaway 8/13 Movies: What Have You Done To Solange?, Kadaicha, Frankenstein Created Woman, Night Of The Living Dead (1990), Straight Jacket, Slaughterhouse Rock, It Came From Outer Space, The Changeover, The Body Snatcher (1945), Anarchy Parlor 2/13 Challenges: #1 Woodlands Dark (Kadaicha), #4 Music Of The Night (Slaughterhouse Rock), #6 The King In Yellow (Solange), #8 A Perfect Getaway (Anarchy Parlor), #13 Sins Of The Past (Body Snatcher)
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May 18, 2022 03:45
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Movie #15, Challenge #13 Sins of the Past The Gorilla (1939)  A murder mystery horror comedy about a hitman called The Gorilla, who may or may not be an actual gorilla. After receiving a threatening gorillagram, Rich Guy Walter Stevens calls for help in the form of The Ritz Brothers, a comedy act that's basically "What if all Three Stooges Were Curly?" These three goofy, indistinguishable detectives fall over a lot and repeatedly fail to figure anything out and before we know it there's a second gorilla on the loose, this one an actual zoo animal. This is a very light thriller, even if it brings in Bela Lugosi as a suspicious butler to lend it some horror cred. The Ritz Brothers' act wore thin for me before the halfway point, but I'm into some really stupid humor so I laughed every time a guy in a gorilla suit started throwing garbage around or trashing the furniture. The cast reacts in horror at a lot of this but the monkey business is just a good time. There's a cheap gag where a skeleton pops out of a book for no reason and yeah, I laughed at that. There's a lot of twist upon twist upon twist nonsense by the end that sort of almost works as a detective fiction parody, but too little time is spend actually building up any of that. That's all the challenges for me! I don't know how many total movies I'll have time for but I'm going to keep going. 1. Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched Yokai Monsters - 100 Monsters 2. Scream, Queen! The Book of Birdie 3. Rated PG Godzilla vs. Hedorah 4. Music of the Night Phantom of the Paradise 5. Behind the Screams Document of the Dead 6. The King in Yellow The Bird With The Crystal Plumage 7. Short Cuts! The Pledge (1981, 21 minutes) The Sermon (2018, 12 minutes) Consume (2017, 20 minutes) Backwoods (2019, 15 minutes) 8. A Perfect Getaway Rift (Iceland) 9. Hidden Gems Magic 10. The Price is Right The Abominable Dr. Phibes 11. Horror Noire Tales from the Crypt - Demon Knight 12. All Hail the King Christine 13. Sins of the Past The Gorilla (1939) A True Jar Jar Fan fucked around with this message at 04:10 on May 18, 2022 |
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May 18, 2022 03:56
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8. The Wolf Man (1941) (first viewing) After his brother's sudden death, Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) returns to his hometown in Wales to reconnect with his estranged father and help care for the family estate. Shortly after his return, however, he is attacked by a werewolf. He slays the beast, but is bitten himself, meaning he will inherit the curse. (Notably, the initial werewolf is a fortune teller played by Bela Lugosi--does this make Legosi the OG Universal werewolf, too?) I've seen maybe a couple dozen films from this era or earlier, and I have absolutely no background with the classic Universal horror films, so this was of most interest to watch for the historical context. It's from a very different era, but it's a classic film with a compact 70-minute run time, so it stays engaging although it is simple and low stakes. I had absorbed a lot of the werewolf myth by osmosis, but some of it has changed and/or wasn't set in stone yet. For instance, there is a heavy emphasis on the pentagram as a werewolf symbol, and the full moon doesn't enter into the equation at all. It's fun to watch the lore being established, even if the film is low-key and has some sloppy plotting (which is my biggest substantive criticism). More generally, I would definitely like to find ways to brush up on the Universal era as part of future challenges. CHALLENGE: "Sins of the Past." --- CHALLENGES: 1. Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched 2. Scream, Queen! Death Drop Gorgeous (2020) 3. 4. Music of the Night Nocturne (2020) 5. Behind the Screams Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (2019) 6. The King in Yellow 7. Short Cuts (various short films) (misc) 8. A Perfect Getaway 9. Hidden Gems 10. The Price is Right 11. Horror Noire Tales from the Hood (1995) 12. All Hail the King 1922 (2017) 13. Sins of the Past The Wolf Man (1941)
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May 18, 2022 06:06
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STAC Goat posted:If I recall right Rose Red is the first thing King wrote for tv instead of adapting an existing story into a screenplay. And I think it suffers from it. It feels more like a knockoff/checklist of King stuff than anything actual original feeling. Not to be That Goon, but that was actually Golden Years in 1991, which is also bad. I only know this because it was his direct response to Twin Peaks and how that show changed storytelling in Television, which inspired him to give it a try.
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May 18, 2022 12:48
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 Hidden GemsThe Eyes of My Mother 2016 Directed by Nicolas Pesce Watched on Tubi  This is a haunting, starkly beautiful film. It has a vibe similar to A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, without the magical realism. It's also about the tragedy of an endless cycle of loneliness. There are a lot of things to love about The Eyes of My Mother. There are the shots in which the camera is seemingly left behind as the action movies away from it. There's the way that Francisca speaks Portuguese to herself. It doesn't seem to waste a single minute and Kika Magalhaes does an amazing job as the lead. 💀💀💀💀 Spooky Non-American 1960s Challenge 13/13 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), 8. The Whip and the Body (1963), 9. The Snow Woman (1968), 10. The City of the Dead (1960), 11. The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales (1960), 12. The Devil Rides Out (1968), 13. Spirits of the Dead (1968) Bracketology 9/? 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), 7. Morgiana (1972), 8. Phantasm II (1988), 9. Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994) GMM Challenges 10/14 1. The Other Lamb (2019), 2. A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985), 3. Madhouse (1974), 4. Suck (2009), 5. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006), 6. Don’t Torture a Duckling (1972), 7. Various shorts, 8. The Medium (2021), 9. The Eyes of My Mother (2016), 14. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
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May 18, 2022 13:42
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I may need someone to spec me a film for A Perfect Getaway. I already burned Tunisia and Ethiopia as options.
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May 18, 2022 14:56
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Watch Strangler vs Strangler (1984) the Yugoslavian horror comedy about the (fictional) first serial killer in Belgrade and a rock star that becomes obsessed with him.
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May 18, 2022 15:05
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Hmmm. I've done Croatia, but this is Serbian. Is it streaming anywhere easily accessible?
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May 18, 2022 15:26
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It's on https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/ Along with many other films that might qualify
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May 18, 2022 15:37
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gey muckle mowser posted:
 #17. The Editor (2014) (Shudder) A washed-up film editor, reduced to working on cheap exploitation horror films, becomes embroiled in a string of murders around the latest film production he's working on. Can he solve the case before the detective pins it all on him? I tend to run hot and cold on giallo films in general - mostly cold, and mostly for a while now - so I wasn't thrilled about too many of the prospects in front of me via Shudder's selection service. I figured going the tongue-in-cheek satirical route might be a good way to work around my distaste. However, what I ended up finding was a good example of that old adage about satire becoming indistinguishable from the real thing; all of my problems with Italian horror are present in this film - intentionally so, but that doesn't prevent them from eventually becoming equally tiresome. To be clear, I was initially all in on the hook. The film can be pleasurable to look at at times, everything bathed in Bava-esque color splashes and mood lighting (though tending more to "Stranger Things"-style 80s invocation pinks and blues, rather than true Bava-style harsh reds and greens). The subtly-off dubbing seems like a good joke in the beginning, and the writing and delivery manages to perfectly capture the bizarre, stilted translation issues endemic to giallo in general. If it was a short film, clocking in at 30-45 minutes max, it would probably be really good. Unfortunately, the film is more than twice that length, and all of the issues tend to compound over time. I can smile at a good humorous parody of something that I don't like for a little while; stay too long and you just end up reminding me of why I didn't like it in the first place. After a point, all of the gratuitous nudity stops being a send-up of the form (since I don't remember so much pervasive nudity in those classic giallos), and just starts to feel like a "nudity for the hell of it" scene from an HBO show. The violence follows a similar path - a good invocation of an Italian chainsaw splatter moment quickly degrades into an attempt to dump as much fake blood around the screen as possible. And I don't really want to get into the film's faux-throwback politics; you can maybe dismiss or excuse some of the retrograde sexism of the original films due to the fact that they come from a different time and place than an American audience member in the 2020s is going to accept. Harder to pitch that in a more recent, Western adaptation, especially one that seems to enjoy its one-note joke about how Italian horror films tended to belittle women too much to stop doing that itself. (I also won't go into how the central mystery doesn't make a lick of sense when it's finally explained - I get that that's the point, but it also seems to ignore that the logic in giallo was usually at least consistent, even if it seemed odd to outsiders.) I dunno - I can appreciate the desire to shine a light on a specific, sometimes undervalued area of genre filmmaking with a loving parody, but I think that, ultimately, The Editor is too close to the form to be able to achieve its desired function. It's less a loving parody of the broad giallo filmmaking than it is one itself - messy, broad, inconsistent and sometimes incoherent. In other words, it's not even a good giallo film on its own merits. /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), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) (GMM Challenge 13), Memory: The Origins of Alien (GMM Challenge 5), Trollhunter (GMM Challenge 8), Friday the 13th Part 2 (SBLT Challenge), The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, Firestarter (2022) (GMM Challenge 12), Happy Death Day 2U (GMM Challenge 2), The Editor (GMM Challenge 6)
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May 18, 2022 15:56
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6. The King in Yellow