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 Hatching (2022) Tinja has a crappy mother. Tinja finds an egg in the woods. Egg hatches into hideous bird thing. Yet another horror movie that's really a metaphor about, in this case, being a pre-pubescent young woman dealing with a lovely mother. What's good about this is that despite keeping things ambiguous as long as possible everything is exactly as it appears. She's not secretly a psychopath or has a multiple-personality disorder nor is it "all a dream" nope there really is a hideous bird monster that slowly becomes Tinjas doppleganger. Overall it was a solid film especially how it showed the relationship between the mother and daughter and the bird monster was pretty well done. 4/5  Skinned Deep (2004) Pretty much a Texas Chainsaw Massacre type thing about a murderous insane family there's really no story they just kill people and then more people show up and they kill them, and then more people show up and they kill them. This was created written directed by a special effects guy and it's completely self-indulgent in every regard. I can't say this is a "so bad it's good" movie it's so bad it's still bad but I respect that they went all in on making the effects looks good and creating just what the christ scenarios and the loving dialogue is insane. Warrick Davis's monologue about the perfection of plates and how they represent society or whatever, and various other rants from other characters. I mean, Plates.... what the gently caress, this movie has Plates, you know what I love is that he doesn't throw special sharp plates just regular loving plates. I love that they must have hundreds of plates in the house, there's plates right there on the wall, but they serve the family dinner on ripped up cardboard. 3/5  American Psycho II: All American Girl (2002) Well, lets just address the elephant in the room with this one about how this is ostensibly linked to American Psycho when the serial killer in that movie, Patrick Bateman, is in the middle of killing Rachael Newman's (Mila Kunis) babysitter when she frees herself and kills him. Personally I don't care about the American Psycho thing but I guess a lot of people are vehemently against this movie based on that alone but if you remove that link it's a fairly decent movie. The way Rachel so nonchalantly murders everyone that gets in her way. Though I really don't get why she wants to get into Quantico so drat badly. One thing that really struck me was the score was so insanely inappropriate for the subject. It's like music from "Home Alone" it's like if every time she kills someone you hear the theme song to "Seinfeld". I mean I appreciated that because it's so bad but someone probably put this music in and thought it was good. 2/5  Psycho Goreman (2020) I've already seen this but just binged through the blu-ray and ended up watching it four more times with commentary this weekend. It really is an amazing movie and I love it. I didn't realize that the director also does special effects he's a very talented guy. What I really love about PG is that he doesn't just want to kill everything he wants to destroy their souls and torture them eternally. I really hope they do a second movie and my suggestion is "Psycho Goremen" where we have multiple PG's from different dimensions like "The One" and maybe dare say a Psycho Gorewoman. 5/5  Color Out of Space (2019) I've already seen this too but just watched it on UHD and I also love this movie. One thing about the titular Color is you don't know what the gently caress it is or what it's really doing so in the movie literally anything goes and that really fits what a Lovecraftian monster should be. Lots of times in the movie you hear characters mentioning what *they* think is going on and it kinda makes no sense but then you think, they don't really know, everyone has their own theory, but the Color is beyond comprehension. Visually the movie is amazing and the score from Colin Stetson is intense. It was very surprising to find out the history of the director and that this was his first feature in 20 years and it's amazing, but also very disappointing that he probably will never make another film. 5/5
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May 24, 2022 06:30
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9. Supernova 2000 | dir. Walter Hill, Jack Sholder HBO Max Somebody shared the trailer for this film in the Physical Media thread after the new Event Horizon 4k UHD was released. It's wild. Two of my good friends are big fans of Jason X and Event Horizon, and are always interested in sci-fi thrillers and sci-fi horror on spaceships, so I invited them over to check this out.  James Spader? Angela Basset? Lou Diamond Phillips? Robert Forrester? It's much better than the trailer. It's an erotic sci-fi thriller, and it's incredibly horny. It's a mix of Dead Calm and Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and involves a space crew answering a distress signal, and finding a strange handsome-ish guy who has cargo that he says is very dangerous and very valuable. This cargo, which looks like a crystal from Crash Bandicoot, starts warping the minds and bodies of the crew, making them hornier, stronger, and more violent. The crew starts fighting over this crystal. Some recognize it as dangerous, others want to possess it for it's power.  It's a ridiculous movie. You can tell there was problems behind the scenes and that this is a salvage job. It's pacing is fast, and the main action--the evil stowaway being evil--happens so quickly that it's over soon before it starts. There are major plot holes that are there for convenience. Characters are under influence of mind control, which can frustrate an audience that wants logical characters throughout. It's a flawed film, but it's endlessly entertaining. . I just want more of it. This isn't Solaris. It's a step down from Jason X and Event Horizon, but not too far. It's like an R-rated SyFy Channel original with a strong cast. The set designs and special effects are all very good, but you'll have to put on your 2000's rose tinted glasses for the dated CGI. There's a robot who is purposefully awkward and janky, and we were anticipating it in every scene. It's great. Recommended if you want a silly, ridiculous but entertaining sci-fi erotic thriller on a spaceship that's in and out in 90 minutes. 10. Friday the 13th 1980 | dir. Sean S. Cunningham Shout blu-ray | rewatch If you wanted to know how far behind I am on my reviews, here's the film I watched 11 days ago. It was Friday the 13th, and I let my girlfriend pick the F13 movie we watched. She chose the original, since last time we watched Part 2. She did not remember any of Part 1. I have seen this movie so many times. I was thankful she picked it, because she gave me a fresh lens through which I could view the film.  Her major takeaways: -The film is very pretty. The lush greens of the woods. The small town vibes. The actual summer camp. The way the sunlight hits the water. The beaver swimming around. She asked me why the rest of the series dropped the naturalism and the earth tone color palettes, because she loves the vibe it gives. There was recently an announcement that this film is getting a 4k UHD, and I'm probably buying it, because I do think this movie captured a time and place that I love revisiting, especially in the spring and summer. Camp Crystal Lake with HDR? Yes please. -The mystery totally worked. She had forgotten about Jason's mom, and she didn't think Jason was in the film, so things like Steve Christie's Jeep being the same make and model that pick up Annie worked well. -We were both kinda impressed by the timeline that this film takes place in one day. I mean, of course it does; you can't call a movie Friday the 13th and have it take place over multiple days or other days, can you? The characters have enough time to bond, and stretch their legs before the murders start happening, and I think it's effective. -She loves Marcie and Jack. -She liked Crazy Ralph. -She loved Tom Savini's effects -She was pissed they killed a real snake. Rightfully so. I've got the timing down perfect so we were able to skip it without her actually seeing it. Y'know, it's just a classic for me. I get a little sad when people watch this and dismiss it. It's probably the best of the Halloween knock-offs, not because it incorporated more gore, but because the cheap and affordable choice of making a summer camp movie happened to also be the most creative choice. I love the characters, I love the setting, and I empathize with Mrs. Voorhees even if she's working from some flawed logic. Highly Recommended. Total 10 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, Supernova Rewatch: The Strangers , Friday the 13th Extra Credit: Are You Afraid of the Dark? (2019) miniseries Challenges: 1 2 Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 13:13 on May 24, 2022 |
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May 24, 2022 12:58
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 Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life and Ghastly Death of Al Adamson(Behind the Screams) It's amazing just how many filmmakers have made their mark on the horror genre, I feel like I should know them all by now but I still continue to discover new ones. To be honest I didn't really know anything about Al Adamson's films before this, and having watched the documentary I'm not sure they would be my thing but I still an interested to track a few of them down. He certainly has a filmography that reads like the schedule of showings at a midnight drive-in, the kind of filmography any horror director would be proud to have. It's a very unique type of movie career and the documentary does a good job of showing you the trajectory of how he ended up making the films he made. I thought they also did a good job of not making his death the entire story, which I was worried about. I wasn't looking for a true crime documentary. So overall this was a good way to be exposed to a filmmaker I hadn't known about before so that when an opportunity to delve into his stuff comes up I'll know to take it. 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) 9. El Dia de la Bestia 10. Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life and Ghastly Death of Al Adamson(Behind the Screams)
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May 24, 2022 17:01
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Movie 14: The Ritual (Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched) My old scoutmaster used to say 'If the shortcut was a shortcut, it wouldn't be called a shortcut, it would be called a route'. After experiencing a traumatic event, a group of four friends decide to go hiking in the backwoods of Sweden... with spooky consequences. The Ritual is a pretty drat atmospheric horror movie that draws on Nordic folklore and pagan traditions. The film takes place almost entirely within an old forest, which made me as a Finn immediately feel at home, even though the movie was apparently shot in Romania. I guess their old forests are a lot like ours. If you're a weirdo like me who enjoys mossy boulders and huge trees, you'll also probably think the movie is beautiful. As every Finn knows, when you go poking around in deep dark forests, there's a chance you might find something that would've been best left forgotten. In this case that something is a bunch of creepy runes and stick effigies, and we all know nothing good ever came from that poo poo. I've always been a fan of movies that focus on building tension over jump scares or gross-out stuff, and The Ritual definitely belongs in that camp, even though it has some of the latter two as well. Large parts of the movie are spent with something stalking our hapless hikers, and usually all we see are maybe small glimpses of something in the background, or hear unnerving sounds. There's of course a bunch of death in the movie as well, but we don't really see it. We just hear it, and see the aftermath, which makes it all the worse. I dunno, the movie got to me big time. I haven't been affected like a horror movie like this in a while, and that alone makes The Ritual pretty special in my books. It's very much not a fun movie, but not all horror movies have to be.  / 5 My May 2022 Movies: 1. Saturday Morning Mystery, 2. Ghostbusters Afterlife (Rated PG), 3. Superstition, 4. Vampyr (Hidden Gems), 5. The People Under the Stairs (Horror Noire), 6. Rock & Roll Nightmare (Music of the Night), 7. Nosferatu (Sins of the Past), 8. Shadow of the Vampire (Behind the Screams), 9. Witchfinder General (The Price is Right), 10. Shorts (Short Cuts), 11. Creepshow (Hail to the King), 12. The Queen of Black Magic (Perfect Getaway), 13. Child's Play (Scream, Queen), 14. The Ritual (Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched)
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May 24, 2022 17:08
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11. Videodrome This movie rules. I went in knowing basically nothing besides that it's about video tapes and maybe they get put into people. That made it a wild ride as especially once Woods starts hallucinating I had no idea where it was going (actually kind of a deflation that these get explained as hallucinations, for a while I thought we were going somewhere crazy). A perfect " the internet will destroy us" movie before the invention of the internet. I bet there's a sweet writeup or book of the existential philosophy of this movie that I will now go search for. 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) Men 10) Scanners 11) Videodrome 12) Us 13) Drag Me To Hell
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May 24, 2022 18:27
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gey muckle mowser posted:
 16.) Tales from the Hood Rusty Cundieff | 1995 | Blu-ray Other than Creepshow and Body Bags, I don’t think I have too much experience with horror anthologies, but I did like Tales from the Hood. It reminds me a lot of when I was reading those Fantagraphics EC Comics collections, in a good way. There’s some cool effects and kills, even the ending CGI was probably impressive for its time. The film also addresses a lot of issues that are still pretty relevant today such as spousal abuse, police brutality, and racist fucks being elected to positions of power. While I did enjoy the movie, I feel like I would rate it higher if not for the fourth and final segment. The film is not very subtle, which works in its favor in the other three segments, doesn’t work in the fourth. One theme that I kinda picked up on is that there’s a place in Hell for POC (in this case, exclusively Black men) who betray and/or harm their own community. While this is apparent in the other parts: a rookie cop being pressured into not helping a community leader (part 1), a father beating his wife and son (part 2) or a PR consultant helping to get a former (maybe current) KKK member into office (part 3) but the 4th segment where it is really hammered in. I get what they’re going for but no, a gang member is not the same as a Klansman or a neo-Nazi. Also, I have to say regarding the first segment, Clarence is also a victim and it’s kind of lovely that it’s implied he’s in Hell. I still think this is a very good movie and I should point out some of the performances such as David Allen Grier (even though I was spoiled by having seen Horror Noire and Clarence Williams III. As much as I was critical of the movie, it did stay with me longer than some of the other films I’ve watched for this challenge. Rating:  Total: 16/13 New: 15 Rewatches: 1 Challenges: 1. Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched (Men), 2. Scream, Queen! (The Lost Boys), 3. Rated PG (Saturday the 14th ), 6. The King in Yellow (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage), X. SECRET BONUS LIMITED TIME CHALLENGE (Friday the 13th Part 2), 9. Hidden Gems (Night of the Creeps), 10. The Price is Right (Dead Heat), 11. Horror Noire (Tales from the Hood), 12. All Hail the King (Firestarter (2022)) My Letterboxd list (in progress)
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May 24, 2022 19:55
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CHALLENGES
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Movie 15: Knife + Heart (The King in Yellow) It was all shadows and blood and death! Knife + Heart opens with possibly the gayest nightclub in the history of gay nightclubs, then immediately moves on to a young man being murdered by a masked killer with a dildo that's actually a giant switchblade, all set to a thumping vaporwave soundtrack by M83. That's one hell of an opening statement. The movie's absolutely gorgeous, in a grimy kind of way. Considering the subject matter -- a psycho slashing their way through the late 70's gay porn scene of France -- it's undoubtedly intentional, but the movie looks like someone set out to make a 70s euro slasher with modern technology. I don't know if it's a giallo thing or just the film's aesthetic, but it also makes heavy use of coloured lighting. Some scenes are given almost sepia tones with sunlight, while the many night time scenes are naturally lit with strongly contrasting neon lights. It looks awesome and reminded me of Suspiria. The plot itself is ... well, not nonsense but intensely theatrical? Almost dreamlike at times. Symbolism on top of symbolism on top of symbolism. I don't know if I was really in the mood for that right now, but that may be more on me than the movie. I did enjoy how openly and even flagrantly queer the movie was, and I did really like many of the shots. Like for instance in the forest when the camera spins around really fast around the woman, and every time we see past her, the killer has crept a little bit closer to her until it's stabbin' time. And I liked the small subplot of Anne making a cheesy porn version of the real life murders, and how the movie kept cutting back and forth between the porn movie and reality really smoothly. It was fun! I'm not a giallo expert by any means so I can't say if the film's tone and atmosphere are just typical giallo fare or more unique to this film, but they are easily worth the price of admission even if the story doesn't hit you very hard, like it didn't me. And I really can't praise the soundtrack enough. M83's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming is still in my regular rotation, so I super appreciated their music and the mood it gave to the movie. / 5And that's 13/13 challenges completed. I think I'll try to squeeze in a couple more old favourites, like Army of Darkness, and I'm still open to suggestions for cool movies I might not have seen. My May 2022 Movies: 1. Saturday Morning Mystery, 2. Ghostbusters Afterlife (Rated PG), 3. Superstition, 4. Vampyr (Hidden Gems), 5. The People Under the Stairs (Horror Noire), 6. Rock & Roll Nightmare (Music of the Night), 7. Nosferatu (Sins of the Past), 8. Shadow of the Vampire (Behind the Screams), 9. Witchfinder General (The Price is Right), 10. Shorts (Short Cuts), 11. Creepshow (Hail to the King), 12. The Queen of Black Magic (Perfect Getaway), 13. Child's Play (Scream, Queen), 14. The Ritual (Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched), 15. Knife+Heart (The King in Yellow Shaman Tank Spec fucked around with this message at 20:29 on May 24, 2022 |
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May 24, 2022 20:23
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TheMopeSquad posted:
I absolutely loved this one. In my books it's the best Lovecraft filmation of all time. I really should pick up the 4K Blu-ray because as you say, it's visually stunning.
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May 24, 2022 20:32
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 5/13: The Exorcism of Emily Rose A limp nothing. The Exorcism of Emily Rose plays at both facts vs. faith courtroom drama and a straightforward exorcism story told in flashback, and despite the variety act, both aspects of the picture end up utterly boring. The horror elements are a particular failure, there's nothing happening to Jennifer Carpenter's possessed woman that we haven't seen before, and since we already know she's dead as the premise for the trial, she has absolutely else nothing going on to capture our sympathy or attention. I kept hoping for a deeper current of mystery to play out in her scenes, or maybe a shocking swerve, but instead the terror that's supposed to be the core of a horror film becomes tedious exposition. The courtroom stuff is similarly uninvolving. There's some subdued sparring between Laura Linney and Campbell Scott as defense and prosecution, Tom Wilkinson shows off how mopey he feels about everything, but there's never any question of law or emotion that made the film worth its production. The actors meet their marks and go no further. Even the photography feels unimaginative, with a dreary gray-brown "realism" that slides right off the eyeballs. The ending text cards explain the tedium by revealing this as one of those tiresome "inspirational" projects, a glorified Christian whine that the devil is out there so this girl dying should move you. How about you move me first, and then make the argument for faith.  .5 / 5 6/13: Ouija: Origin of Evil Endearing little piece of horror fluff, with amusing '60s period dressing and a likeable slate of characters. Lulu Wilson does about the best job I've ever seen as the possessed evil child archetype, enhanced by some well-deployed VFX. And Mike Flanagan's writing quirks here haven't reached the baroque excesses of his later Netflix projects. The climax on the other hand is a sloppy mess, throwing out chains of scares without establishing any rules to make the haunting cohere. So what could have been a surprise corker is instead just a spooky lightweight. / 5
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May 25, 2022 00:17
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12) Room 237 Challenge: All Hail The King Finding a new King movie is a trial for me. I've seen pretty much all the good adaptations down the years, and the ones I haven't seen are either trash or not accessible. But this documentary about Kubrick's movie of The Shining has been on my radar for a bit, and I think it's close enough to qualify. The concept of the documentary is sound: look at nine elements of the film and have five people explain how they fit into their competing theories. But there are two main problems with the execution. First, it's not really executed as a documentary; it's more like a film studies lecture, with the theorists imposing their view on the material rather than trying to analyse it. Second, most of the theories are plain drivel and the filmic elements are shoehorned in to the detriment of the intelligent things being said. The theorist who thinks it all comes back to mazes, for example; she makes some excellent observations about the geometry and frequent impossibility of the sets, but spoils it by trying to interpret everything as mazes and minotaurs. The only one of the five theories that actually does make sense is the one about the movie being about the genocide of the First Peoples, which is not a particularly profound observation when it's explicit text that the Overlook was built on native burial ground - the theorist just takes it beyond that to be about all native Americans. This puts him closer to the other theorist who dismisses the whole First Peoples element and claims it's about the Holocaust instead. But they're still both comparatively sane compared to the other two. One is a moon landing conspiracy theorist who claims Room 237 is the Moon Room because the key says "ROOM No 237" and the only words you can make from the capital letters are "MOON" and "ROOM". (He's wrong, of course - you can make another, more appropriate word that even uses all five letters: "MORON".) And the other is the seemingly obligatory Freudian who thinks the whole movie is about sex and comes off sounding like Jean-Pierre the Pervert in the Not The Nine O'Clock News sketch. "It is not the Overlook Hotel. It is the Overlook Willy!" Overall, this is not an especially profitable use of your time if you want to learn anything about the film or the book. It will remind you of how good the movie is, though.
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May 25, 2022 01:21
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 14 The Skeleton Key A Southern gothic tale about magic-granted immortality. This was enjoyable and suitably light-hearted enough for its rating. A young woman moves to an old bayou home to care for a stroke-addled man and gets in over her head in mystery and danger. The scenery was lovely, the leads played well, nothing soared to great heights but this was a fun little movie. Challenge #3 Rated PG (well, PG-13) 14/13 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, Cruising, Found Footage 3D, Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?, The Skeleton Key 7/13 Challenges: #1 Woodlands Dark (Kadaicha), #2 Scream Queen (Cruising), #3 Rated PG (Skeleton Key), #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 25, 2022 04:29
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13. House on Haunted Hill (1959) (first viewing) Wrapping up the last of the challenges with my Vincent Price entry. Price plays an eccentric millionaire who offers five strangers $10,000 each if they can last a night in his haunted house. (Adjusted for inflation, that's just shy of $100,000. Good work if you can get it!) The house has been home to seven murders and is supposedly haunted by the ghosts of the victims. The players here cover the spectrum from complete skepticism to true belief, ranging from the house's owner, who has personal ties to some of the victims, to a psychiatrist who claims he wants to reference the house in a study of mass hysteria. It's a tight 75 minutes. We establish the premise and the characters and go for it, no time for fat. We go into mystery mode when an eighth murder victim appears, although the tone stays pretty light. Case in point, when the film was released, theaters were rigged to have a plastic skeleton fly over the audience during a key scene. Also, I would remiss if I did not make one final note on the casting. Vincent Price is obviously the big draw, but I was pretty impressed at who they were able to cast as the skeleton:  A shame about the subsequent typecasting, though. CHALLENGE: "The Price is Right." 14. The Sadness (2021) (first viewing) Here we have a zombie pandemic film for the COVID era. In this Taiwanese production, the source of the outbreak is a virus that has mutated in a way to make those infected incapable of resisting their most depraved, sadistic urges to torture, rape, and murder. There's a slight variation on usual zombie here in that the infected retain the ability to speak, use tools, etc., they are simply unable to control themselves. The influence of COVID is mildly reflected in some lines about how warnings about the virus went unheeded until it was too late, but it's really not that different from standard zombie movie commentary on the inherent dark side of humanity, how little pushing it takes society to break down, etc. This one definitely earns some bonus points for creative gore, though. --- CHALLENGES: 1. Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971) 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 The Fifth Cord (1971) 7. Short Cuts (various short films) (misc) 8. A Perfect Getaway Baskin (2015) 9. Hidden Gems 12 Hour Shift (2020) 10. The Price is Right House on Haunted Hill (1959) 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 25, 2022 07:09
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 37 (55). Don’t Breathe (2016) Directed by Fede Álvarez; Written by Fede Álvarez and Rodo Sayagues Return of the Fallen: 11/13 - The One and Not Dones I really enjoyed that. I've been meaning to get around to this. I love Jane Levy and really dug Alvarez's Evil Dead remake/reboot. I think I was probably a bit put off by some of the spoilers I had caught wind of about rape being a plot element. But mostly I think I just never watched it because every time I thought about it it wasn’t streaming anywhere for me so I just never took that extra step of effort to get to it. But I had it pegged for this month and was just kind of waiting for my team to lose to prompt me to watch it and I’m glad I did. I’m not sure it 100% clicked for me. I think that might have been just my mood. I wasn’t feeling great and have been sleep deprived, and I watched it in the day light. I try and avoid that with horrors and this was definitely a film best watched at night. Still while I maybe didn’t get fully sucked into its world and tension I still got a lot of the way there. Its a simple enough story and solid flip on expectations. Its not quite a “turning the villains into victims” type of story as it might sound on paper. We spend enough time with the thieves and especially Levy that its clear they’re not bad people. Just people in desperate situations doing what they feel they have to. And like even still its just robbery. The poo poo escalates quickly enough with the Blind Man for that to feel inconsequential quickly. And that’s definitely a good bit of the quality of this. When things turn they turn fast. Its shocking and the films and characters show that. Levy is great and she sells the utter panic of the situation. Just something completely unexpected and traumatizing and just a mad cat and mouse run to survival. Its kinetic and brisk and even as there’s a bunch of new turns and fake outs the whole thing just keeps rolling on. Its possible the repeated story turns is what actually held me off a bit. I mostly think it worked but it did feel maybe a bit convoluted? Like maybe one too many beats? I dunno. I’m thinking back now trying to remember each of them and its a lot. And I feel like the story here probably works on a very simple level so over complicating it felt a bit unnecessary. I don’t know. I feel like I’m being a bit hyper critical. Just kind of looking for the reason that I didn’t absolutely love it. Because I don’t have any serious criticism or issue. Even the rape stuff I was wary of felt like it was handled reasonably well and without any exploitative elements. So yeah, I feel like its just a film I need to rewatch some time. That happens. You’re not always in the right frame of mind or mood. Or its not the right time or place. I think that’s all that happened here. But its a good film. Good cast with a great lead I love. A great kinetic pace. A somewhat Hitchcockian sense of twists and tension. Maybe not quite executed to that level but I’m not sure. Its staying on my watchlist to revisit down the road.  38 (56). Another Night of the Living Dead (2011) Directed by Alan Smithee, Written by George A. Romero, Alan Smithee, and John A. Russo Watched on AmazonPrime Knockoffs of the 13 Dead: 7/13 Oh boy. I’m starting to regret this whole “watch all the Night of the Living Dead knockoffs” challenge, especially as the end of the month winds up and I realize I’m really gonna have to burn through them in quick succession to pull this off. If I fail a challenge its gonna be this one because as much as I love Romero’s original sitting through bad parodies and knockoffs is getting tedious. And not just bad, but real amateurish BAD stuff. On paper I love the idea that the film’s public domain status offers the opportunity for artists to get creative with it. But man, no one’s really doing much good with opportunity. In this case the idea is adding a dumb character in with clumsy scene inserts and having him make juvenile jokes the whole time and just generally be gross. The idea of inserting a character might actually not be that bad on paper but this isn’t funny at all. Like humor is subjective and there’s obviously an audience for this kind of humor but its not executed well at all and the whole thing feels really tedious. It probably isn’t helping that I’ve watched the original film within the last two weeks so like just rewatching it with this idiot? Seriously, I’m regretting this idea of doing 2 or 3 more of these. But we’ll see. This feels like it has to be the bottom of the barrel but who knows? The most striking thing about this is the Alan Smithee name on top of that, that being a famous pseudonym that directors use when they’re upset enough with the final product they don’t want their name attached to the film. Now sometimes I find that kind iffy. I mean there’s studio interference and rewrites and reshoots and then there’s just making a bad film that’s a mess and wanting to wash your hands of it. I think that happens sometimes. But in this case what happened? No studio interfered in this mess. Did the guy who make this just finish it, watch it, and have a moment of clarity of what a piece of poo poo it is and how he didn’t want his name attached to it? But then figured “eh, I wasted time and effort so I guess I’ll release it anyway?” I mean gently caress… I paid $3 for it. So I guess the joke is on me. Good job “Alan”. Its terrible. Don’t watch it. Definitely don’t spend money on it. Even just $3. Its not worth it, truly. Maybe if you’ve got a bad movie night with some friends or something but even then. No, I don’t want you to blame me for this. Don’t watch it. And hey, its got some slurs and casual racism and misogyny so I can even give it the half a star rating. Stay away.  39 (57). Ticks (1993) Directed by Tony Randel; Written by Brent V. Friedman Some pretty decent creature effects and goop, a really bad and low effort plot and character work, and a lot of problematic elements? Yep, its a Brian Yuzna production. I guess he just produced but its definitely got that same familiar vibe. I guess Tony Randel has a bit of a similar reputation as Yuzna but I’ve only ever seen Hellraiser II from him. I enjoy that film but looking back it kind of has the same deal. A pretty loose plot and construction but lots of striking visuals. That film has good core characters though and this one does not. Half of its characters feel like very poor and problematic cliches and stereotypes and any effort to give them any depth feels symbolic at best. There’s one character who is basically silent the entire film except for one scene where she speaks to reveal she was once raped and that’s why she doesn’t talk. Really random and casual use of rape as a character plot point? Yeah, that’s another Yuzna special. And I’d bet money Alfonson Ribeiro heard the phrase “act more black/street/ghetto” more than once during this production. Its an embarrassing performance and I don’t blame him because a whole lot of people apparently thought this character was a good idea. Look, I just don’t like this stuff. I know lots of Yuzna fans. I get that the creatures and gore and gross and even problematic elements entertain them. That last one aside I get it. But gore and effects don’t go that far for me. They can be fun and fulfilling and maybe even carry a production but I usually need more and I can’t really ignore what’s there. And even if I can enjoy just a dumb creature feature which this mostly is, I’m just too distracted by those bothersome elements and just the general mess of a story. It didn’t need to be all that. This could have been a very simple creature feature with some regular teens who aren’t painful cliches. And that stuff might not bother a lot of people. Clearly it doesn’t for a lot of people. And if you dig Yuzna and that kind of stuff I think you’d probably dig this. But I dunno. I didn’t hate it or anything but it just wasn’t for me. Fun fact, I actually started watching Joysticks instead somehow and was very confused as to what video games had to do with ticks and where Seth Green and Ami Dolenz were and why this 90s film was so very 80s. I really haven’t been sleeping well.
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May 25, 2022 08:30
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07. Violation (2020) A woman plots to kill her brother-in-law after he rapes her. Another one from Shudder, though not really from the backlog; I believe this one was recc'd by Chris James 2 the other day. Narratively this movie is simple, but it's excellently done. The nonlinear presentation knocks you out of sorts; it presents the attempted murder before it presents the rape (though it's not hard to guess, you probably knew what sort of movie you sat down to watch), as well as before all Miriam's attempts to solve the problem peacefully. The movie is gruesome in a very understated way. The killing itself has a little blood and practically no gore to it; the rape features no nudity or violent motion; yet, neither feels sanitised or underwhelming. The movie's focus is on what Miriam is experiencing. I took a while to write this post, and originally described it as a rape-revenge movie, but it really isn't, in the end. By which I mean revenge is not the motivation, nor is it a source of gratification or relief for the audience. Apart from everything else, the process itself is just agony. The rape seemingly happens on an impulse, and Dylan's coverup amounts to saying "nu-uh"; it's just all so easy. The killing, on the other hand, is carefully planned, and it still just barely works. All the gory tasks of body disposal are shown in detail: Miriam drains the body, carefully disposes of the blood, carves up the body, cleans the bones, incinerates the meat, and scatters the parts in the woods. She also pukes, cries, falls apart. The parts where she gets to do something more mundane, like scrubbing at a bloodstain, come as a relief. Maybe it's a cheap trick, but I'll give points to any movie that shows its characters ugly-crying. It feels dishonest to depict crying like there's any dignity or elegance to it. Anyway, the movie only gradually unpacks Miriam's motive for killing Dylan: it is, ultimately, because she cannot convince her sister to leave him. Only after that does she begin to plot the murder; not revenge, but protection. Though the final note is ambiguous as to whether she actually gets what she wants. This one's at the thriller end of the spectrum, but there's enough surrealness to bring it over the line into horror. There are all these intensely visceral shots of animals and nature, or way-too-closeups of people at odd angles, set to this droning soundtrack. Whatever, it's on Shudder, their judgment trumps mine. 4/5 (I haven't been rating the movies up til now, but it's occurred to me that I pay more attention to other peoples' writeups when they got a lot out of the movie, and I tend to better notice the ones with numbers tacked on, so gently caress it).
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May 25, 2022 12:19
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The Girl Who Knew Too Much (La ragazza che sapeva troppo) 1963 Directed by Mario Bava Watched on Shudder  The Girl Who Knew Too Much aka The Evil Eye, aka Incubus, aka Evil Eye is a goofy little horror/mystery proto giallo in which an American tourist who loves crime novels thinks she's discovered some actual malfeasance and a coverup in the Eternal City. Despite John Saxon's best efforts, it's all just too light and silly to take seriously, but not funny enough to actually be a comedy. 💀💀1/2 Spooky Non-American 1960s Challenge 14/13 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), The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963) Bracketology 10/? 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), 10. The Vampire Doll (1970) GMM Challenges 14/14 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), 10. The Tingler (1959), 11, His House (2020), 12. The Dead Zone (1983), 13. The Old Dark House (1932), 14. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
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May 25, 2022 16:40
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73 Now this was a surprising one that I enjoyed quite a bit. It's not like the best acted thing (beside Udo Kier eating this entire movie) I've watched this month, but I could tell everyone was having a pretty good time working on this picture. That's kinda one of the key components to a good flick is if you can tell at least there was some like "yeah this is a good time" feeling coming from a production. You can feel misery when its there on set and then sometimes you cant. I dunno but this one works. It's a good spin on the Frankenstein story with all of this cheese and sex permeating the essence of the movie. Frankenstein is an inherently sexual story, giving life like that and dealing with the body like that all comes from a baseline of creation and giving birth and there's really only one way we know how to get there as a species so exploring both subject matters simultaneously like that brings up a lot of concepts and ideas that I dont think get fully explored here, they get touched on and alluded to, but never mined. It's a good time, real gross and nasty, but a good time.   Out of 574  I REALLLLY didnt like this one. First and foremost it was like 3 different movies spliced into one which it most likely was just considering its budget. First you have the generic war movie, then you got one about a rebel group (both shot on different film stock completely) and then you got the nazi part of the movie with the beast and the experiments and the rapings. I've been on quite the tear with the rape-centric films this month, no idea why it just seems to be happening, now this one while graphic isnt horrendously being played for titilation. There's at least some semblance of "this is bad, this is sad and horrible" unlike Lust of the Dead which just played with it like it was a softcore titilation experience. Otherwise this was just poorly constructed, poorly acted and edited. The gore was fine, it was probably one of the first instances of "torture porn" because that's what a lot of the violence kinda consists of. Even the gun fights are shockingly tame. It was all about the experimentation room sequence, everything else fell to the budgetary waste side. Out of 575  Not my favorite Dan Decoteau picture. The beginning starts well off enough, a crazed Linnea Quigley attacks her boyfriend or sister boyfriend? the language and characters of the story seem so jumbled, perhaps on purpose because then when you get into the meat of the full story and these two kills ex boyfriends show up for a pool party / "we're banging each one of these dudes one by one" situation and then there's like a sorta whodunnit thrown in even though you know who did it because it expressly says "this character is crazy, we just spent the first quarter of the movie going over how crazy they are", but that's where the movie shines. The kills are glorious in this. Just real splatter kills. There is one in particular with a sledgehammer that I was really impressed by and you can tell they had a lot of fun rigging these up. Maybe save for one head explosion that they could've cut like 3 frames at the top to save you from looking straight at the dummy head (and maybe taken like a moment to save the camera position so it cut a bit more seamlessly) all the effects were really good. Like I said, of the Decoteau pictures I've seen this month, not my favorite, but not it wasnt terrible. Just middling to ok. Out of 576  Well I was disappointed. I didnt look into this movie at all. I saw the poster and was like "ok lets do this, this is Elvira!". Nope, wrong. Not even the woman now that I know sorta who was the inspiration for the poster looks nothing like Elvira. I went into this one like a kid picking out a movie just based on the cover and I was disappointed. The whole weird story about controlling anger by a ball that goes into your throat and a robot basically reprograms you. Ok on board, but then like nothing really interesting comes from that? Then you got a subplot of corporate subterfuge that kinda doesnt go anywhere? then you got like uh, the girl with clear dad issues being raised by a computer and having to have her feelings computed so she can recognize normal human love. I dont know. this was a weird one, not particularly enjoyable, again there's another rape/sexual assault scene that thankfully doesnt go horrendously too far, but still played as a cheesecake sorta thing. There's also a ton of boobs in this one. If you're looking for tits the horror movie, this is one of them. Just meh. The movie in my head where Elvira is fighting spooky monsters spewing from her computer over a long weekend is a way better movie. Out of 577  Now this one was a lot of fun! You can tell the cast and crew was having a good time with their budget and just trying their best to make a zombie mall movie and it all sorta works real well. I enjoyed the infected soda drink angle turning people into zombies and all the japanese mall gags. that would really suck to get stuck in a zombie movie in a japanese mall. its not like american malls where there's like huge swathes of space for everyone to run and hide. You're in these cramped corridors, with small shops and if it were any busier more people. definitely a no win situation. This was a lot of fun though and a real fun throw back in terms of fashion and the culture back then. good stuff! Out of 578  This was one I definitely didnt expect to enjoy as much as I did. It is absolutely 100% a cheesecake horror movie. Doing everything in their will power to get women naked from head to toe, zombie and human, doesnt matter. There's a whole subplot about blackmailing with porn movies and escorts and stuff. It's a trip, but it sorta works and the waste management that causes the dead to rise was funny and I really dug the masks/makeup on the zombie girls. Like I said its super all about getting as much tits into a screen as possible, but going in with that caveat I found it pretty solid, maybe and again this is a weird by-product of my movie choices this month, the rape scene towards the end with the zombies and a woman was a bit much and then that ending. WOOF. that ending is just pure grime exploitation out of nowhere kick to the face. Still enjoyed it, but go into it with those caveats. def not for everyone, but there's a solid foundation under it. Out of 579  Poltergeist still rocks. Got to see a nice looking 35mm print of it last night and it sure was a hell of a time. All the big beats still hit extremely well and the crowd reaction during the big scares hits like a mac truck. I was surprised just given the age we'd get more laughter from the effects being dated and all that, but everyone was still fully on board and just rocking with the movie. Just a super solid movie and a ton of fun. Out of 5
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May 25, 2022 17:47
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12. Us Never saw this on release before really liking Get Out so wanted to catch up with it before Nope. My expectations were kind of sky high due to its reputation and I was a little let down despite it being a solid film. Really interesting allegory to pick apart, Lupita Nyong'o is killing it, and the score is like an favorite. But I think the whole explanation for the events are not threaded through the film enough, resulting in a final infodump that goes on way too long (and also is delivered in a composite shot that looks really fake, an outlier in an otherwise fantastic looking film). I think Peele came up with a cool sci-fi allegory and an interesting home-invasion horror conceit, but didn't quite synthesize them into a single cohesive thing. Still, each half is executed well on its own and it leaves me excited for Nope this summer. 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) Men 10) Scanners 11) Videodrome 12) Us 13) Drag Me To Hell
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May 25, 2022 17:52
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 17.) Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Sam Raimi | 2022 | AMC Theater I guess I can include this here. I thought this was a fun, yet slight little movie. It doesn’t quite meet the expectations one would expect from a Raimi production, nor does it really deliver on the promises of the title, but I still enjoyed myself. I’ve never watched Wandavision or What If?, but I was able to follow along without a problem, but then again I am a lapsed comics fan. There’s some cool visuals here and there and I always appreciate a good _____Bruce Campbell____ cameo. I wasn’t too keen on their portrayal of America Chavez though. Overall, better than the first Dr Strange film, but not anything you really need to drop everything and see. Rating: ½ gey muckle mowser posted:
 18.) Birth of the Living Dead Rob Kuhns | 2013 | Shudder This was a really interesting documentary on Night of the Living Dead and its legacy. It’s mostly talking heads but when those heads include George Romero himself, then it leads to some very fascinating stuff. Romero himself is fun to listen to, but are other great interviewees as well, such as a teacher in NYC who uses the film to teach media literacy. I do wish they’d have talked about the other films in Romero’s Dead series, or talked about the role Duane Jones had in shaping the role of “Ben”. Still, it’s a really fun doc if you like zombie films and it was neat to see Bill Hinzman before his death. Rating: Total: 18/13 New: 17 Rewatches: 1 Challenges: 1. Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched (Men), 2. Scream, Queen! (The Lost Boys), 3. Rated PG (Saturday the 14th ), 5. Behind the Screams (Birth of the Living Dead), 6. The King in Yellow (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage), X. SECRET BONUS LIMITED TIME CHALLENGE (Friday the 13th Part 2), 9. Hidden Gems (Night of the Creeps), 10. The Price is Right (Dead Heat), 11. Horror Noire (Tales from the Hood), 12. All Hail the King (Firestarter (2022)) My Letterboxd list (in progress)
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May 25, 2022 19:19
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5. Behind the Screams
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Movie 16: Army of Darkness https://i.imgur.com/vO92s0N.mp4 Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun. When I was younger, I thought the Army of Darkness was the perfect movie. And you know, I still kinda do. I think this movie is to be blamed for my life-long obsession with the undead, my increasingly large Warhammer undead army and why to this day I absolutely love any game that lets me fight grimy and dusty skeletons. Time hasn't been super kind to the movie, nor has the 1080P Blu-ray transfer. You can now see the human eyes inside some of the undead eye sockets, and a lot of the more mobile undead are obviously just guys in rubber suits now. But at the same time, the Raimis did a smart thing by using stop-motion for so many of the skeletons. That still looks as good (or bad?) as it ever did and I loving love it. And holy hell I love the skeletons. Both Evil Dead II and the Army of Darkness are full of silly slapstick, and the skeletons are the embodiment of this. So many fun little gags and jokes with these guys, and I'll never get tired of Ash just picking one up by the shoulders and legs, and breaking it in half against his knee. It's been ages since I last saw the movie, but apparently whatever version I saw back in the day didn't have the original theatrical ending, because I swear to god I have never seen the ending where Ash ends up fighting the possessed lady in modern day S-Mart. But at the same time, how would I have had the alternate ending in early-to-mid-90s Finland? Maybe my memory's just going bad! Either way, the Army of Darkness owns bones and is still easily one of my favourite movies. It's fun to see that it's still as entertaining as it ever was. I absolutely love Sam Raimi's sense of humor and the wonderful and inventive shots he throws in his movies, I love Bruce Campbell's corny performance, I love how quotable the movie is, I love the skeleton having a coughing fit while getting out of his coffin, I absolutely love the angry dooting skeleton flutist, and I still 100% love that Ash's master plan was to pretend he had a coughing fit while stealing the Necronomicon. Hail to the king, baby. / 5My May 2022 Movies: 1. Saturday Morning Mystery, 2. Ghostbusters Afterlife (Rated PG), 3. Superstition, 4. Vampyr (Hidden Gems), 5. The People Under the Stairs (Horror Noire), 6. Rock & Roll Nightmare (Music of the Night), 7. Nosferatu (Sins of the Past), 8. Shadow of the Vampire (Behind the Screams), 9. Witchfinder General (The Price is Right), 10. Shorts (Short Cuts), 11. Creepshow (Hail to the King), 12. The Queen of Black Magic (Perfect Getaway), 13. Child's Play (Scream, Queen), 14. The Ritual (Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched), 15. Knife+Heart (The King in Yellow), 16. Army of Darkness Movies watched: 16/15 Challenges completed: 13/13
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May 25, 2022 20:07
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Shaman Tank Spec posted:Time hasn't been super kind to the movie, nor has the 1080P Blu-ray transfer. You can now see the human eyes inside some of the undead eye sockets, and a lot of the more mobile undead are obviously just guys in rubber suits now. But at the same time, the Raimis did a smart thing by using stop-motion for so many of the skeletons. That still looks as good (or bad?) as it ever did and I loving love it. Just curious, have you seen some of the classic Ray Harryhausen stuff from the 50s, 60s and 70s? Jason and the Argonauts, 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Clash of the Titans, etc. I'm guessing you have but I just wanted to bring it up because obviously Harryhausen is the go-to place if you're in the mood for classic stop-motion creatures.
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May 25, 2022 20:23
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Basebf555 posted:Just curious, have you seen some of the classic Ray Harryhausen stuff from the 50s, 60s and 70s? Jason and the Argonauts, 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Clash of the Titans, etc. I'm guessing you have but I just wanted to bring it up because obviously Harryhausen is the go-to place if you're in the mood for classic stop-motion creatures. You know, I don't think I have! Other than some random clips and maybe back in the day as a kid. But that definitely sounds like a good idea to revisit!
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May 25, 2022 20:45
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Shaman Tank Spec posted:You know, I don't think I have! Other than some random clips and maybe back in the day as a kid. But that definitely sounds like a good idea to revisit! Clash of the Titans is wild. It's the perfect 60's fantasy movie, down to fuzzy dreamy cinematography, costume designs, animations, sets, plotting and pacing, and it was released in 1981.
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May 25, 2022 20:53
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If you look at the span of time that Harryhausen dominated for, and how many iconic filmmakers claim him as one of their biggest influences, there's very few people who you can say made more of an impact on American film. Now, maybe some people would argue that impact wasn't all positive if you consider the state of modern blockbuster films but I just think Harryhausen is overlooked pretty often for a guy who is on the same level as a Spielberg or George Lucas in terms of how influential he was.
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May 25, 2022 20:57
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I wish someone would make a Clash of the Titans 4k remaster.
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May 25, 2022 21:19
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 7/13: Hush Textbook minimalist horror. Compact single location setting, an immediate hook in Kate Siegel not being able to hear her tormentor, and a svelte 82 minute runtime of cat-and-mouse games. Hush is well-made, it entertains, and then it's immediately forgettable, because it also demonstrates the limits of its format: there's nowhere to escalate with a premise like this. Kate Siegel is either scared, or hurt and scared. John Gallagher Jr. is similarly consistent as a dead-eyed creep, and it's conspicuous that he can't storm the house and directly attack his victim because then the movie would be over. Every bad decision or implausible moment becomes a bigger drag than it would have in a film with more irons in the fire, because the whole entertainment value of Hush is watching the hero match wits and trade blows. Hush is sufficiently clever (and brisk) in its plotting that it ends up a good time, mind you. I'm just not surprised that Mike Flanagan seems to prefer working on long melancholic horror miniseries with tons of runway for dialogue and reveals.  / 5 8/13: Rubber I thought director slash techno musician Quentin Dupieux's 2019 movie Deerskin was fuckin' weird. It has a main character so obsessed with looking cool in a deerskin jacket that he starts murdering rival jacket-wearers with a sharpened ceiling fan. And recording the murders, naturally. In retrospect, however, Deerskin is more than a bit askew, you might say quirky, but it adheres to the same core structure of a lot of films about weirdo obsessives who go to violent extremes as their mental state unravels. Deerskin lives within the genre rules. Now, this other Dupieux film, Rubber? Rubber is fuckin' weird. Rubber opens with a thesis statement that I think to most audiences will come off as "gently caress you for watching this." We see a dirt road in the California desert, set out with wooden chairs placed at random angles and positions. A man in a dress shirt and tie is standing by the road holding a dozen binoculars in each arm. A car turns into view, it carefully turns left and right as it comes down the road toward us, so that it can smash each chair in the way. A man in a sheriff's uniform emerges from the trunk, swaps his sunglasses to the driver for a glass of water, then approaches us to speak directly into the camera: "In the Steven Spielberg movie E.T., why is the alien brown? No reason." This level of deliberate dadaist absurdity sure sounds like we're in for an LOL random ride, something like watching Rick and Morty scoot their butts across the floor of a supercomputer space fortress while telling us how lame it would be to care about any of this. But the opening scene of Rubber is immaculately crafted. The contrast of the inexplicable furniture in a beautiful, desolate landscape is well shot and grabs attention. It builds tension from the heightening mystery of weird poo poo until Stephen Spinella's totally inane speech about the virtue of "no reason" in films becomes a bolt to the brain. In short, someone palpably cared about the details of cinematography and editing, you can instantly feel it in the film's bones, and so this cheeky bullshit about how things just happen for no reason in films doesn't come off as a dismissal of sincerity but instead an invitation to enjoy something in a very nontraditional bent. (And ya know, maybe don't take Spinella's remarks at face value when he goes on to suggest that JFK died in Oliver Stone's JFK for "no reason".) This is just talking about the first five minutes. We go from there to a live audience who arrives at the desert to watch "the film" through binoculars and make comment, a car tire that inexplicably comes to life to roll around and psychokinetically detonate people's heads, and at one point a total breakdown of the concept of diegesis as Spinella tells the other actors to drop character and go home because no one is watching the movie anymore. All of this is strained and ridiculous and frequently very funny. Every single concept in play here is maximally artificial and absurd, and yet critically it's always filmed as if it matters. Making fun of cheap cheesy B-movies is a regular sport but Dupieux shoots that tire with a The Shape of Water level seriousness to the presentation. Even after characters toss away their script pages or get pissy with an audience member for wanting a better ending. Dupieux said in an interview that he was partially inspired by the experience of walking into a screening of his movie Steak and realizing that no one was there in the theater, that the movie was just playing on to empty seats with a life of its own. Interpreting Rubber is probably a fool's game but I can't help but see in that tire an admiration of how an idea can live on in art past the audience's disinterest, past even the artist's. How many of those schlocky B-movies that I've enjoyed were made for the money rather than as acts of passion? But my enjoyment was still real.  .5 / 5
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May 25, 2022 21:56
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dorium posted:77 What movie is this? I don’t recognize the poster
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May 25, 2022 23:37
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Basebf555 posted:If you look at the span of time that Harryhausen dominated for, and how many iconic filmmakers claim him as one of their biggest influences, there's very few people who you can say made more of an impact on American film. Now, maybe some people would argue that impact wasn't all positive if you consider the state of modern blockbuster films but I just think Harryhausen is overlooked pretty often for a guy who is on the same level as a Spielberg or George Lucas in terms of how influential he was. People overlook Harryhausen because he stopped making movies at the same time Spielberg and Lucas began to define the blockbuster. Every film buff knows him, though - he learned his craft at the feet of Willis O'Brien, the master who created Kong, and ultimately far surpassed his teacher.
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May 25, 2022 23:38
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gey muckle mowser posted:What movie is this? I don’t recognize the poster Bio Zombie from 1998 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCZTIg6Nm2k
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May 25, 2022 23:42
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gey muckle mowser posted:What movie is this? I don’t recognize the poster the title was all tucked in the smallest font right under the kanji(?) in yellow. like Ruddiger said tho Bio-Zombie.
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May 25, 2022 23:45
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 15. The Tingler This was goofy but exactly the kind of goofy you want from Castle and Price. Cameron must certainly have seen this, the scene where his wife opens the box holding the Tingler in it while Price sleeps on the couch is reminiscent of Ripley and Newt being trapped in the medical lab. The design of the tingler itself is creepy enough, and the whole movie, while goofy, was actually less cheesy than I anticipated - it took itself seriously enough. It was a fun watch, especially as part of a double feature with The Last Man On Earth, which I had initially put on for the Price challenge but then realized I had seen before. I really liked the brief use of color - it was effective. Challenge #10 The Price Is Right 15/13 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, Cruising, Found Footage 3D, Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?, The Skeleton Key, The Tingler 8/13 Challenges: #1 Woodlands Dark (Kadaicha), #2 Scream Queen (Cruising), #3 Rated PG (Skeleton Key), #4 Music Of The Night (Slaughterhouse Rock), #6 The King In Yellow (Solange), #8 A Perfect Getaway (Anarchy Parlor), #10 The Price Is Right (Tingler), #13 Sins Of The Past (Body Snatcher)
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May 26, 2022 03:35
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Franchescanado posted:Clash of the Titans is wild. It's the perfect 60's fantasy movie, down to fuzzy dreamy cinematography, costume designs, animations, sets, plotting and pacing, and it was released in 1981. That's cool, I've always been into that. If I'm reading the list correctly, Clash of the Titans was his last movie?
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May 26, 2022 10:38
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Shaman Tank Spec posted:That's cool, I've always been into that. If I'm reading the list correctly, Clash of the Titans was his last movie? Yes. He was 61 when he finished it and as each movie required two or three years of tough work he felt it was time to retire. Also modelwork had moved on and there were easier ways than stop motion to do it.
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May 26, 2022 10:54
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Jedit posted:Yes. He was 61 when he finished it and as each movie required two or three years of tough work he felt it was time to retire. Also modelwork had moved on and there were easier ways than stop motion to do it. Yeah that makes sense. And hell, the guy went out on top at least I guess?
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May 26, 2022 12:50
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08. Scream (1996) (rewatch) I was in the mood for something prime. I first watched this like fifteen years ago, before I was properly into horror movies, and before I'd seen most of the things it's riffing off, so this was still kind of a fresh experience despite being a rewatch. The whole thing with there being two killers feels so obvious in hindsight, like any good twist; there's so many little hints, like "We're not finished yet!" in the opening scene. Sometimes the meta-horror dialogue feels way too over the top. Like c'mon, the people watching this KNOW ABOUT the trope you're describing, whose benefit is this for? But when it gets back to being a horror movie it works fantastically, which is the crucial thing. Man, You're Next is a bit of a ripoff of this. Still love that movie, though. 4/5
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May 26, 2022 13:09
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Kazzah posted:Sometimes the meta-horror dialogue feels way too over the top. Like c'mon, the people watching this KNOW ABOUT the trope you're describing, whose benefit is this for? I don't how much general audiences at that point really knew that stuff, or at least had heard it articulated in the same way. Plus leaning into the tropes is part of the point of the film, because everyone is aware of the "right" things to do but either fail to actually do it themselves or do it and get killed anyway. Casey in the opening scenes does literally everything right (immediately locks all the windows and doors, arms herself, runs out the front door instead of up the stairs, etc) but dies anyway because this movie, like all slasher movies, cheats. The difference in Scream is that there is an explanation for the cheat with the two killers instead of stuff like Jason seemingly teleporting around or whatever. I love the scene where Randy is watching Halloween and yelling at Laurie to turn around, and you know the audience is doing the exact same thing to him. e: seems unnecessary to spoiler tag that but if you somehow haven't seen or read anything about Scream it's a great reveal.
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May 26, 2022 13:32
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11. Scooby Doo on Zombie Island 1998 | dir. Jim Stenstrum, Hiroshi Aoyama, Kazumi Fukushima rewatch This isn't the first Scooby Doo movie to acknowledge that the supernatural is real. Shaggy had already become a werewolf in a road rally that featured vampires and mummies and Frankensteins in Scooby Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf (1988), before that Shaggy and Scoob taught at an all Zombie Island is made distinct by it's dynamic animation style, which now has an anime flair, since animation was completed by Japanese studio Mook Animation. Apparently they weren't given a deadline, because this was direct-to-video and TV, so they weren't beholden to a release date. There was a lot of freedom in approaching how the film would look and move. Meanwhile, the American part of production updated the character designs to fit into a modern context. The color palettes are darker, and feel inspired by early EC Horror Comics. I loved the watercolor backgrounds. It's probably what I miss most from hand-drawn animation films, those watercolor sets.  Besides the animation, the other distinct characteristic in this film is the hard rock soundtrack, mostly by a band called Skycircle. When their songs "It's Terror Time Again" and "The Ghost Is Here", I had to stand on my couch and headbang along. They are so self-serious and sincere, it is wonderful. I appreciate that the central story is about two women who were victims of barbarous pirates who raped and pillaged their village and killed everyone they knew by feeding them to alligators. Their cat god showed the women pity and imbued them with a power that turned them into were-cats, which they used to brutally slaughter the pirates and turn them into zombies. This complicates the morality of the villains, giving them both empathy for why they initially became monsters, but then also says "Well, they've been sucking the souls out of innocents for hundreds of years now", which provides the film some existential and body horror (since these people seem cognoscente of their past lives while sitting under swamp waters for decades). It's incredibly dark, and the later sequels to this era of Scooby Doo, while also fun (The Witch's Ghost, I remember, being just as good as this one), never get nearly as dark as this film. The zombies are scary (and even though they're kinda coded as 'good' guys, because they want to end the were-cats murder spree, they're still mass murderers), the were-cats are scary, the Louisiana swamp setting is effectively scary. My biggest problem with the film is Scooby and Shaggy themselves. I guess their antics were funny as a kid, but they are serious gently caress-ups. They are all id, and their oral fixations are never satiated, no matter how much they consume. Just scene after scene of them eating peppers and crawdads. The characterizations of Daphne (who I always preferred over Velma; fight me horny nerds), Velma and Fred are all sincere and feel true to their characters while giving them the weight of living in a real world. (I do really love the show Mystery Inc., which is probably the best Scooby show through it's writing, self-awareness, and interest in an over-arching plot, a la X-Files, but even that relied on deconstructing the Scooby Gang in a more comical way.) They were always the straight characters to Scooby and Shaggy's idiot savants, and that dynamic is interesting in this more tonally serious concept. Really, the central conceit that the Mystery Inc. broke up because they became disillusioned that they never found a real monster is solid, and was a nice change of pace for the characters after a long history of Whodunnit episodes. That spark has been spent. You can't really do a "the monsters are real" story with Scooby anymore. It no longer has a punch.  There are some illogical moments with the villains. They plan to immolate, or soul-suck, the Mystery Inc. crew, but are made aware very quickly that Daphne is the main star of a GLOBAL HIT TV-SHOW. Even if they don't know TV, that should give them cause for concern to find someone else immediately. They also just straight-up tell the truth during most of the investigation. They may be confidant they will kill these people, but why sell yourself out to them? Also, there are three people who live on this island, and even if they have magic powers, that doesn't explain how they manage to run an entire Hot Pepper Farm, especially without a lot of modern technology. Overall, it's a solid Scooby Doo flick that goes darker than most of them, has pretty solid animation (despite inconsistent character models), and a charmingly dated soundtrack. It's still a good one for kids and family movie nights. Recommended. Total 11 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, Supernova Rewatch: The Strangers , Friday the 13th, Scooby Doo on Zombie Island Extra Credit: Are You Afraid of the Dark? (2019) miniseries Challenges: 1 2
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May 26, 2022 14:00
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Shaman Tank Spec posted:Yeah that makes sense. And hell, the guy went out on top at least I guess? Clash of the Titans was one of the biggest hits of that year yea, but it also was a bit unlucky because it came out on the same day as Raiders of the Lost Ark. Still made $70 million, which was drat good money for 1981.
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May 26, 2022 14:09
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Basebf555 posted:Clash of the Titans was one of the biggest hits of that year yea, but it also was a bit unlucky because it came out on the same day as Raiders of the Lost Ark. Still made $70 million, which was drat good money for 1981. And, again, it's a 1981 movie that looks like it was delivered via time machine from 1962. edit: Which I think is a selling point, but it's just crazy comparing it to Raiders of the Lost Ark, which kinda reset every filmmakers brains on how Hollywood movies should look. Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 14:13 on May 26, 2022 |
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May 26, 2022 14:10
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Basebf555 posted:Clash of the Titans was one of the biggest hits of that year yea, but it also was a bit unlucky because it came out on the same day as Raiders of the Lost Ark. No, it didn't. Clash came out the start of July, Raiders came out at the end. I know because I went to see Clash for my 7th birthday, and we went to see Raiders for my stepdad's birthday a month later. (And he spent the rest of the day complaining about the inaccuracies in the German military vehicles.)
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May 26, 2022 14:31
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Jedit posted:No, it didn't. Clash came out the start of July, Raiders came out at the end. I know because I went to see Clash for my 7th birthday, and we went to see Raiders for my stepdad's birthday a month later. (And he spent the rest of the day complaining about the inaccuracies in the German military vehicles.) Wikipedia fails me again
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May 26, 2022 14:42
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