|
21. The Awakening If you wanted to write a period piece haunted house movie entirely out of Mad Libs, you would get a result that wouldn't be too far from The Awakening. Hits all the cliches and tropes, meanwhile doing absolutely nothing interesting or unique. It looks very pretty, and all the actors involved try their hardest to elevate the material (Rebecca Hall especially, and it's always great to see Imelda Staunton still getting work), but it just never quite comes together. I didn't actively dislike it, and it held my attention to the end, but it's the sort of movie where if you've seen anything even slightly similar, you'll be able to call out the plot beats a solid 20 minutes before they happen. 2 out of 5! 21/31, watched: Scary Movie, Final Destination 4, Happy Death Day, Final Destination, No One Gets Out Alive, Smile, Freaky, Body Bags, Alien Psychosis, The Invisible Man, The Last Exorcism, Final Destination 2, Werewolves of the Third Reich, Unfriended, Final Destination 3, Hellraiser (2022), Deadstream, Final Destination 5, Village of the Damned, Piranha 3D, The Awakening 
Gyro Zeppeli fucked around with this message at 16:51 on Oct 9, 2022 |
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 16:40
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 2, 2024 02:45 |
|
|
WeaponX posted:Every movie should end like this. They had one written for The King's Speech, but realized it couldn't get any radio play and abandoned the idea.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 16:53
|
|
|
 Something Wicked This Way Comes -Watch a film about an evil carnival, fair, or circus #44.) Killjoy's Psycho Circus (2016; Tubi) Rendered mortal by the events of the previous movie in the series, Killjoy the demon clown is now strapped for cash, since he's never had to work a job besides torturing and killing humans before. So he's set up a small circus, from which he broadcasts a murderous variety show. He's also being hunted by the judge of the last film's trial, who's in trouble with Hell's higher-ups for letting Killjoy escape. Directed, produced, written, and edited by John Lechago, who's been running the series since the third installment, there's clearly more attachment to the movie-making than there would be for something like Corona Zombies. There's a small crossover with the Evil Bong series, which is unfortunate, but there's also some meta humor, usually poked at Killjoy's actor, Trent Haaga (e.g., “How do you pronounce this guy's name?”). Though the actors are game, most of the humor outside of the self-reflexive stuff tends to be lame (like confusing a retinal scan with a rectal scan), and sub-plots like Killjoy learning about how humans have sex feel more like space-fillers than anything of lasting significance. I know, I'm shocked too. But there's at least attempts at plot advancement (including a trip into outer space, complete with a spin on the Flash Gordon theme), and most of the actors seem to be having fun, so for what it is, and where it's coming from, it could have been worse. “What, so, crappy acting is a part of playing Killjoy?”  Rating: 4/10
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 16:58
|
|
|
12. The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959) 東海道四谷怪談 Directed by Nobuo Nakagawa 🎃 Hausu 🎃  This is another one that could check off a few different bingo squares -- Picnic At Hanging Rock, Highbrow Horror, Zombie Honeymoon. I went with Hausu because it's a great ghost story. I thought this was going to be black and white but I'm glad it wasn't. There's fantastic color in some of the shots. For about 40 minutes, The Ghost of Yotsuya is a pretty standard period crime drama, full of evildoing and coverups. Then it takes a pretty awesome detour into supernatural, with a vengeful lady ghost. Pretty entertaining if you're into stories about unscrupulous ronin getting what's coming to them. 👻👻👻.5/5 October Challenge 4/31 1. Blood Feast (1963), 2. Sunshine (2007), 3. Relic (2020), 4. Mortuary (2005) Spooky Bingo 8/36 1. Rodan (1956), 2. Carrie (2013), 3. Gargoyles (1972), 4. Ticks (1993), 5. Penda’s Fen (1974), 6. Crimson Peak (2015), 7. A Field in England (2013), 8. The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959)  Total 12/?
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 17:18
|
|
|
21. Superstition Canada, 1982. Dir. James W. Roberson Something Wicked This Way Comes: Witch Movie A centuries old witch, weakened and trapped in a lake by a powerful crucifix, seeks her freedom and the carnage that will ensue. I have to start by saying, there are some absolutely fantastic kills in this movie. Stuff that made me positively fist pump in my seat. They, some nice makeup work near the end, and some neat atmospheric flashback scenes, are what save an otherwise fairly boring movie from being wholly forgettable. Not enough happens in between the carnage for me to keep myself engaged with the movie. I recommend it still, if only for the gnarly kills. They're that good. 6/10. Stray thoughts: I was surprised at now little of a supernatural presence the witch was in the movie, acting, along with her accomplice, more like a generic slasher villain than anything. The music used for the theme was Dream of a Witches' Sabbath by Berlioz, used I have to imagine less for it's thematic significance than for the fact that The Shining came out two years earlier. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 17:37
|
|
|
6.) The Order (2003) Truly one of the most boring things ever put to film. Characters speak entirely in quiet mumbles, every scene goes on way too long, and the plot lacks any kind of connective tissue so it feels more like a grab bag of scenes. They also repeat “The Sin Eater!” so much that I was certain that was the original script name, and that was confirmed on wikipedia. This movie has no appeal for anyone. 1/5
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 17:56
|
|
|
6. THE MONOLITH MONSTERS (1957) – in this drive-in theater Atomic Age flick, the menace from outer space is neither monsters nor aliens bent on conquering the globe. Unless, that is, you want to count fallen meteorites spreading like plants when exposed to water in a freakish chemical reaction. Why such chemistry, you ask? Scientific monologues will remind you that there is much we do not know about space – in other words, who the hell knows where these drat meteorites came from. Fortunately, the original meteor impacted a remote area in the Mojave Desert. Unfortunately, it does in fact rain in the desert! Soon enough our main characters, geologists and a newspaper reporter, are racing against time before the meteorites spread and … uh…. knock down buildings in a modest desert town. It also seems that the meteorites like extracting silicon from the human body, rendering people into statues because [reasons] Fun and original in concept, this movie falls a little short of execution. It is talky, like most of these movies, but you never get much of a sense of doom and the movie spins it wheels wondering what else to do. The meteorites, indeed towering monoliths as advertised, never leave a canyon and only threaten some ranches. Not even record rainfall seems to get them within miles of town. Talk about monotonous monsters. It is interesting how the monoliths are extinguished – a case of chemistry being the cause of and solution to the mayhem. SCORE: 6.0 / 10 *** 7. DEEP RISING (1998) – I rolled the dice and picked this movie, an old guilty pleasure favorite, to watch with someone who tends to easily roll their eyes at bad movies. The thing is, Stephen Sommers keeps the tone jokey and light, despite dissolved corpses and axes to the skull. No really, the gore in this is rather hardcore with practical props. This was a transitory period before everything became CGI. First off, I like this movie and regard it as underrated. Treat Williams’ character is cool but in a dorky dad way. Famke Janssen is in her prime and a shady criminal who, like everyone else, just needs to get off this drat boat. Kevin J. O’Connor, aka grease monkey, reliably provides comic relief. All the people in this movie are self-interested scumbags just to different degrees. Nobody gets along and you need to accept that everyone has a low IQ who makes matters worse for themselves. For example, in one scene a mercenary is getting digested by a giant tentacle and is generously handed a gun to end his misery – instead of doing so, the mercenary fires his gun at the other person out of spite, misses, then realizes he is out of bullets and dies a painful death. The CGI gets a bad rep but honestly I see movies even 25 years later with CGI in the same tier. The monster design is nifty and not just a giant octopus. I get the general sense that Deep Rising is slowly getting more appreciation, in retrospect. SCORE: 6.6 / 10
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 17:57
|
|
|
 18. Carnival of Souls (1962) An artful eerie spine-tingler with a terrific organ score. Carnival of Souls is all about vibes rather than literal meaning. Horror genre enthusiasts will quickly form a hypothesis about why a creepy man that no one else sees keeps appearing to Candace Hilligoss after she mysteriously survives a car crash into a river, but there's no textual, "factual" explanation for her magnetic draw to an abandoned fairground, nor the uncanny episodes where the world falls into silence and she realizes she cannot be seen or heard as life carries on indifferently to her. It's astonishing that this was Herk Harvey's only feature and shot on a nothing budget - this film is a haunted beauty, full of arresting compositions. Carnival of Souls also strikes me as a powerful piece of feminist fiction, standing taller in that department in 1962 than some of the contemporary the-evil-is-patriarchy films we get today (I haven't watched Alex Garland's Men but I've read some scathing reviews). All Hilligoss wants is to play the organ like she studied and get paid, but almost every man she meets tries in some way to exert his will upon her life and bend it into a shape he thinks is more fitting: the priest who rejects her music as "profane" and fires her and then in the next breath tries to have her accept the church's "help," the doctor who physically takes hold of her on the street after a moment of terror and verbally forces her to submit to his theory about her psychological condition, and of course Sidney Berger as her lecherous neighbor who intrudes into her physical space over and over as he tries to get her on a date (and later complains about her being a cold fish when she isn't drinking enough to be easier prey for his advances). Like the world that falls silent, there's an illusion of a community's worth of companionship and support, but it's all a ghostly unreal facade for an independent woman who won't yield to society's duress. Instead she's cursed to wander a hostile and unearthly realm, alone.  / 5  Carnival of Souls is spine #63 in the Criterion Collection, making it Highbrow Horror. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 18:05
|
|
|
 8. Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi! File 01 - Operation Capture the Slit-Mouthed Woman (2012) (dir. Kōji Shiraishi) YouTube SPOOKY BINGO: V/H/S A found footage-style fake documentary from Kōji Shiraishi, one of the greatest directors of the format. This is the first in a series of films about journalists investigating different supernatural and occult mysteries. Here they are investigating sightings of the “slit-mouthed woman”, a famous Japanese urban legend about a woman with long hair and a mask who asks her victims if they think she is beautiful. If they say “no”, she kills them, but if they say “yes”, she removes her mask to reveal that her mouth has been slit open from ear to ear - then repeats the question. If they still say “yes”, she will mutilate the victim by slicing their face exactly like hers. I love the creepy story, and I enjoy how Shiraishi effectively uses the documentary format. A lot of films in this style will have the characters running around filming everything for no reason, but all the footage here is part of their documentary and mostly free of cheap tricks. Whenever something spooky happens, the footage will be slowed down and replayed to highlight whatever it was, and often this makes them scarier. While I like the premise and his style, I don’t think this is one of his better films. Most of the dialogue and banter between the journalists feels awkward, like they are improvising as they go but aren’t very good at it. Now, I don’t speak Japanese and the subtitles on YouTube seemed a little wonky so I could be wrong, but it just felt off to me. I also thought the ending was very unsatisfying - but as this is the first in a series, maybe that’ll be addressed in the next film. The very final shot is creepy as hell though. Overall I liked it but didn’t love it - there are some creepy scenes though and a ton of potential in the premise so I am absolutely going to continue with the series. 3 urban legends out of 5  9. Deadstream (2022) (dir. Joseph Winter, Vanessa Winter) YouTube SPOOKY BINGO: Hausu An obnoxious YouTuber, trying to rebuild his reputation after an incident that got him banned from all his social media platforms, sets up the ultimate "challenge" livestream - locking himself in a supposedly haunted house overnight. He uses a variety of cameras and other tech to record everything that happens throughout the night and captures paranormal activity beyond his greatest fears. This was pretty solid. Joseph Winter, the lead actor and co-director, does a very good job of playing a douchey internet personality - maybe too good, because his character gets a little grating sometimes. It's intentional but I was still kinda rooting for the ghosts to get him. The running commentary from the viewers of the stream is pretty accurate to real life too, for better or worse. Many films of this type would limit the ghostly activity to faint shadows and vaguely spooky happenings, but this is an Evil Dead-style rollercoaster ride of undead action, disfigured creatures, and lots of blood and goop. That's not to say this is on the level of a Sam Raimi film, but it's certainly along those lines. Not a masterpiece, but a fun movie through and through and I had a good time with it. It makes good use of the livestream premise and uses the technology in interesting ways beyond just providing excuses to have cameras everywhere. Recommended! 4 million viewers out of 5 Total: 9 Watched: The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane | Extraordinary Tales | You Won't Be Alone | Eyes of Fire | The Munsters | The Snake Girl and the SIlver-Haired Witch | TV Specials | Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi! File 01 - Operation Capture the Slit-Mouthed Woman | Deadstream 
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 18:10
|
|
|
Franchescanado posted:
 39) Hantu Kak Limah - 2018 - Netflix Apparently this is part of a franchise that I should've sat through the other films to get a better gist of things. Plot from what I could tell involves a ghost/spirit hanging around a village and her getting dealt with. Overall this was fine. It's on par with other Malaysian horror-comedies I've sat through. A fair amount of the humor worked with me. Only negative is more on my part for not sitting through the other films. Franchescanado posted:
 40) Carnivore: Werewolf of London - 2017 - Tubi TV I wish to know where I lodge a complaint about a distinct lack of werewolf in London with this film. Story follows a couple working on their relationship going out to the countryside and there's a werewolf. Now I'm understanding of low budget, I'm understanding of small indie productions. I'm even understanding of dreaming big but not having enough to pull it off. This...oof...not good. I swear the werewolf design isn't even Spirit Halloween level of inexpensive, but more Party City cheap. Equally, I'm the farthest thing from a prude and have no problem with sex scenes, but they handled poorly here. They came across awkward and slapped on for bonus Mature points. There wasn't even chemistry between the leads. London barely made an appearance in the movie. The poster image has the comment of "Very similar to Dog Soldiers, but civilians". Yeah, not by any stretch is this even remotely comparable to Dog Soldiers. This is definitely skippable and the time better spent watching anything else.  edited to fix my spooky card. M_Sinistrari fucked around with this message at 19:05 on Oct 9, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 19:03
|
|
|
 Spaced Invaders -Watch a film about extraterrestrial life #45.) Evils of the Night (1985; Tubi) Alien vampires crash into an '80s sex comedy, abducting teens in their twenties to drain their blood. Despite it being the director's first feature film, they were able to get Aldo Ray, Julie Newmar, and John Carradine, Tina Louise, and Neville Brand in the cast. That's something, right? The plot is kept simple, with a couple of human henchmen abducting teens to turn over to the aliens, and most of the movie is spent on chasing and stalking a specific trio. Every now and then, we'll get a cut back to the aliens stressing out about meeting their blood quotas, or reminding each other not to use too much power with their laser rings. Kind of a snoozer, once it gets past the ridiculous T&A showcase of the first act. “All right, now we can get high.” Rating: 5/10
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 19:06
|
|
|
Got a few movies in so far this weekend! #7: Deadstream (2022) SPOOKY BINGO: HausuI don't have too much to say that hasn't already been said but yeah, this movie is extremely funny and still manages to pack a nice variety of real scares into this tiny little haunted house. It loves some Raimi-esque grossout stuff (hope you like...nose? horror) and does a lot with a low budget. Just a tight little 90min package that absolutely succeeds in everything it sets out to do. Especially loved: -the increasingly more ridiculous camera setups spearcam! milDEAD cam! -that the malevolent spirit's motivation for collecting souls was amassing an audience for her awful teenage poetry  #8: Halloween (1978) SPOOKY BINGO: Masters of HorrorYes! I've never actually watched the original Halloween. I've seen and loved lots of other Carpenter stuff but I've just never really enjoyed a slasher. So did this change my mind? Well, it's definitely the best slasher movie I've seen. It might not even be possible to make a better one, without diverging so hard it can't really be considered a slasher. A lot goes right here. The casting is spot on. Everyone gives a performance that is perfect for their role, with the subdued kinda small-town energy the film needs. The gore is much more understated than I think most people would expect going in. There is some stunning brutality--Michael pinning the kid to the wall with a kitchen knife is an incredible moment and then standing there in mute something--but no fountains of blood or hanging eyeballs. This speaks to a larger point, though. I read up on some critics who have talked about the influences of Hitchcock on this movie, and I felt like it was at its best when dealing with pure suspense. Michael is the face of the franchise, his costuming is perfect and his physicality and the mystery of his mind and motivation in every scene is played well. But I found the film, and Michael, strongest in the lead-up to the rampage but it started to lose my interest during the killing spree. Those early scenes of Michael in broad daylight, half seen through a car window or vanishing behind a hedge, those worked for me. The strange POV shots where we didn't quite know who we were following, the use of empty space in the frame, Carpenter was killing it there. In an odd way the movie falls into mundanity once it really "gets going" though.  #9: V/H/S/94 SPOOKY BINGO: V/H/SThe VHS movies all kick rear end, tbh. While I think other entries in the series have higher highs than 94, without taking too much time to ruminate on it I'd say this is the only one so far where every story in the anthology is at least good. Holy Hell: The wraparound segment. Uh, actually let me revise my previous statement. This wraparound sucks. That's a trend in the series. I think the first VHS still has the best framing segment. Storm Drain: My favorite short in here. An excellent practical monster, steadily escalating unease, pitch perfect ending. Hail Raatma. The Empty Wake: Nicely paced, big on showing over telling, leaves a little mystery in the air without shorting us on seeing what we came here to see. Could see some people wishing more stuff happened, but I dig it as is. The Subject: Frenetic, creative, goofy and goopy, horror-action-fps hybrid, it nonetheless drags in a few points which really shouldn't happen in a short. Despite that I'd probably place it as #2 in this anthology just on account of how brutal some of the experiments are and the energy of its action. Terror: A lot to like with its take on a classic monster and kinda batshit played straight ideas, but I have trouble getting into stories like this where every single person on screen is such a caricatured piece of poo poo who we know is gonna die and is set up to deserve it while the audience cheers on and feels good about ourselves for being on the right side. I dunno. Feels masturbatory. For me the weakest, but still very well done.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 19:06
|
|
|
15. Blood Harvest 1987 Living in the sunlight, murder in the moonlight, having a wonderful time  An absolutely bog-standard bad 80s slasher anchored by the fact that Tiny Tim is absolutely killing it. It's a low budget movie with all the problems that entails, complete with wooden acting, a bad script, and nonsensical drat near everything. As I said, the really redeeming quality about the movie is Tiny Tim as The Marvelous Mervo, who is absolutely committed to being as weird and memorable on-screen as possible. A retrospective on the movie says that it was filmed entirely in one day and night, and honestly, yeah, makes a lot of sense. But it does get REALLY rapey at the end of the movie, which is not really what I'm looking for in a clown-based movie. Or any movie. Oh well. Tiny Tim Rating: 8/10 Greasepaint Tins Movie Rating: 4.3/10 Throat Slashes PKMN Trainer Red fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Oct 9, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 20:04
|
|
|
#10: Xena: The Warrior Princess | Werewolf By Night SPOOKY BINGO: Halloween is Special Xena: The Warrior Princess Season 2 Episode 4: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun An extremely weird episode of TV. Ted Raimi shows up with the decapitated yet reanimate head of Orpheus in a bag, who gives them a mission to stop the Bacchae on Halloween night.  Bacchus, who you might be used to seeing as a youthful, androgynous, leopard-skin wearing party god of wine or, in some depictions, a more ambiguous god of madness and and the breakdown of social norms, is here presented as a giant red Satan with big horns and lots of muscles. The Bacchae, his all-female servants, are straight up just vampires.  Later in the episode, they go grave-robbing to find some dryad bones. Dryads here are neither tree people or beautiful women, but an entire race of flying skeletons.  It is a comedy episode through and through. Orpheus has a soul patch and they toss his head on top of a scarecrow so no one gets suspicious. The various Halloween parties are full of modern dance music. Xena throws a vampire across a room and into a wall so hard that they literally explode into a stock vfx fireball. This episode is also extremely gay. It's not even subtext. Gabrielle and the Bacchae are just fuckin into each other. At the ep's climax Gabriella bites Xena and it is steamy, and they let that shot go on for a long time while Lucy Lawless slowly morphs into goth makeup. Overall this episode is a weird combination of 90s time capsule and surprisingly progressive and experimental. It feels very out of time. You can watch it here in glorious 360p.  Werewolf by Night Pleasantly gory, with a couple of kills feat. the surprise guest star having some really lovely effects. It looks great and the characters have a lot of personality, with the whole thing have a nice dose of camp. I don't think runtime does it any favors. While the story it tells could be nicely self contained, like many MCU projects it's left feeling a bit like an advertisement for the further adventures of Elsa Bloodstone. I can't pretend not to be a comics fan though, and I'd love to see them give more time to this kind of smaller and sillier stories, that really feel like a comic book in the best way.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 20:49
|
|
|
22. The Ruins "Annoying college kids on vacation accidentally awaken ancient Mayan curse" is a solid rock to build your movie on, and it does just that. The kids are just annoying enough that you're mostly just here to see them get got, and when they do, it's satisfyingly goopy with living vines growing into their bodies and a particularly gnarly double leg amputation scene. After looking it up, turns out the unrated version (the one I didn't watch) has a vastly different and more bleak ending that, in hindsight, I wish I watched instead. But it's a decently fun, paranoid and reaaaal loving gross movie. 3 out of 5 stars! 22/31, watched: Scary Movie, Final Destination 4, Happy Death Day, Final Destination, No One Gets Out Alive, Smile, Freaky, Body Bags, Alien Psychosis, The Invisible Man, The Last Exorcism, Final Destination 2, Werewolves of the Third Reich, Unfriended, Final Destination 3, Hellraiser (2022), Deadstream, Final Destination 5, Village of the Damned, Piranha 3D, The Awakening, The Ruins  Woo, double bingo!
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 20:56
|
|
|
Mover posted:Xena: The Warrior Princess This sounds incredible. I gotta get back to watching some Xena! Plus Ted Raimi rules.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 20:57
|
|
|
October 9 - Evil Dead Never did get around to watching the remake and there's no time like the present.  Friends take a drug addict to a remote cabin to try to get through the early stages of withdrawal and going cold turkey. But they failed to check the cabin in advance for any books written in blood and bound in human skin, so things don't go to plan. It's strange but I feel like this movie is pretty good when it's not trying to be the original Evil Dead and then becomes worse when it's trying to copy that movie. Like when someone's hand gets infected by evil so they cut it off; they use an electric kitchen knife that would have trouble with a tough loaf of bread to cut right through their bones. Or the utterly pointless and gratuitous Bruce Campbell appearance in the final five seconds of film. There were moments where they tried to replicate Sam Raimi's directing and editing, only it had less energy and since it was only for a few early sequences, it felt like they did it out of obligation rather than because it worked in the film. They wouldn't have surpassed the original by sticking to their own path, but they wouldn't have been making the comparisons that much worse. I think the real star of the show here are the make up effects which were pretty good. Limbs getting ripped off, faces mulched up, blood everywhere. While it wasn't as much utter mayhem as the original movies, it did lean into those things a lot harder than most horror films of the twenty-first century. I also appreciated the pacing of the movie. By the forty minute mark all hell has broken loose and things keep going at a fast clip from there. There isn't a lot of time to breathe in the last two-thirds of the film and that works to this movie's advantage since you're watching it for the spectacle. Pet peeve, but this film has the worst "jump start a heart" scene I've ever encountered in a movie. Probably not news to anyone who posts here, but defibrillators don't work like movies and TV programs present them as. They do not shock as person back to life. The real world is not James Whale's Frankenstein. This is mildly annoying when people use paddles over and over again ("You've never given up on anything before in your life! Now live!"  ), but when it's rigging up any shock instead of doing CPR it's really bad. So hooking up a car battery to a bunch of syringes and shoving them into someone's heart is right out. Over all, better than you'd expect a reboot of Evil Dead to be but it needed the courage to be its own thing a bit more. I've heard that you can find the Evil Dead musical on youtube and maybe I'll watch that after this. twernt posted:12. This is an adaptation of a traditional ghost story that's been filmed over a dozen times, but Nakagawa's version is the best I've seen and I'm up to around eight or nine versions at this point.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 21:09
|
|
|
8. DeadstreamV/H/S Challenge Big thanks to the goons who sang this films praises- it was exactly what I was craving. It’s funny, it’s full of great and creative spooky poo poo, and I love a good found footage film. It’s a lovely YouTube/Twitch streamer in a haunted house gone wrong story. I watched something similar last year Gonjiam Haunted Asylum- but this leaned way harder into the comedy/slapstick. I really commend the lead actor. It’s a real skill to pull off being really insufferable but still entertaining and funny. He nails the parody of that type of personality but he is still a very charismatic guy. You could see how the character could simultaneously have a big following while still being a total twerp. Great stuff. The Evil Dead inspiration is clear but I feel it does a good job pulling off that tone. Loved the way it set everything up from the cameras, his dumb rules, the reason why he is desperate for views. It’s a well-crafted, simple, plot. A lot done with very little, impressed with the variety of ghouls and ghosts. My only real complaint is that it starts to run out of energy a tad toward the end. Things not ending well wasn’t exactly surprising but was hoping for more escalation before the payoff. I do adore that it ended on the Gollum looking fucker busting through the door- when we saw him in the woods the first time I was begging for him to reappear Anyway, big recommend. Mileage may vary on how much you can stand the main character but obviously that’s part of the whole package and the satire worked for me. 4/5 5/5- Return of the Living Dead (1985)* 4.5/5 - Bride of Frankenstein (1935) 4/5 - Tales from the Crypt (1972), Deadstream (2022) 3.5/5 - Evil Toons (1992), Waxwork (1989) 3/5 - Ghost Stories (2017) 2.5/5 - Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988)
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 21:14
|
|
|
22. Night Terrors Israel/Canada, 1993. Dir. Tobe Hooper Masters of Horror A woman visiting her father in Egypt falls under the sway of a group based around a descendant of the Marquis de Sade, and also a mermaid-worshipping cult? Or they're the same group? Or not? Maybe? I don't know, this movie was very aimless, and none of the villains' motivations seemed to make any sense to me. This is the sort of movie where a lot of things happen, but there's too little connective tissue to link it all together thematically. Yes, each scene logically leads (for the most part) to the next, but nothing seemed to make sense and allegorically it was all over the place. What does de Sade, a mermaid fresco, and a dancer making out with a python have in common? You don't know? Me neither! I'm usually a big fan of Tobe Hooper's stuff, but in this case I can't in all honestly recommend you watch this film. 5/10. Stray thoughts: Robert Englund as the Marquis de Sade was a casting choice I never knew I needed in my life until now, and William Finley and Zoe Trilling are always a delight to see. This movie contains possible the most demented puppet show I've ever seen. Also, what was with the music choice and bizarre sounds during the first sex scene between Genie and Mahmoud, the Bedouin horse-rider? Very weird. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 21:53
|
|
|
Franchescanado posted:
 #11. The Thing From Another World (iTunes) A group of scientists and Air Force officers do battle with an alien vegetable monster after finding it crashed and frozen at the North Pole. Another important 1950s sci-fi/horror classic that I've somehow managed to never see before now. I know that general consensus among the Hollywood film brats is that this was one of the most formative film-going experiences of their young lives; me, I can see the traces of it in the things that it had inspired down the road, but can't get too too worked up about the film as an artifact in and of itself. It works well for a 1950s sci-fi creature feature, but those have always been a bit of a stumbling block for me. I can't get too worked up about wooden character actors losing all sense of individuality as they commit themselves to the mission at hand of rationalizing and destroying whatever impediment du jour to the All-American Way of Life has reared its ugly rubbery head. (This one fares a little better by having better defined characters in the first reel, though all that individuality and character work gets bled away to nothing by the time they make their discovery of the crashed spaceship.) It's got some neat ideas and some decent pacing, so I can't hate on the film too much; it's one of the best examples of a type of film that I just bounce off of too easily.  /5Franchescanado posted:
 #12. Hellraiser (2022) (Hulu) A young woman comes into possession of the dreaded Lament Configuration puzzle box, and her friends start disappearing around her. As she tries to solve its mysteries, she comes into contact with the Cenobites that are summoned by the box, who offer her a choice: sacrifice her friends and she can have anything she wants. I'm going to go against general thread orthodoxy and say that I don't care about the Hellraiser film series in general all that much - yes, including the first 2. I can respect what Pinhead represents to horror in general, and some of the ideas that are floating about in the first couple of films, but I end up seeing them more as worthwhile design and makeup showcases than decent films in their own right. This new series reboot ends in much the same way for me: it still mostly boils down to a showcase for appropriately bizarrely beautiful creature makeup and costuming more than anything else. (I will grant that the production team took the time to develop a story and hired a director with an appropriate vision and ability to execute, though, which does put it miles above most of the schlock that the series had become known for.) I think the biggest takeaway for me, though, is that the shift in focus on how the puzzle box works ended up being a bit of a weird undercutting of the series' lore, such as it is, to this point. I can see the desire to focus on a thematic idea - how addiction ends up warping and affecting the relationships of the people around the person suffering - and how the script has to warp itself around that theme. It just feels weird to have the box now act less as a general gateway and more like a silent but bloodthirsty tally-marker, waiting to be sufficiently sated before the user gets their supposed hearts' desire. (Especially because the Cenobites are now so much more lax when it comes to victim choosing; that line from the second film - "It is desire that calls us!" - always struck me as the series' Rosetta Stone, so seeing it get discarded feels weirder than any other changes that have been made. What I'm saying is Nora deserved better.) As said, I'm not a general Hellraiser stan, but it is nice to see the property get something resembling thought and care put into it again. I think Jamie Clayton is an excellent choice to shepherd through a new interpretation of the Pinhead character, as opposed to just getting the umpteenth iteration of doing a bad Doug Bradley impression. I liked the newly redesigned Cenobites, which ditch the leather BDSM designs in favor of a more flayed skin design, this idea that these creatures have been mutilated and put back together time and time again until they barely resemble their lost humanity at all anymore. It's a bit of a cost cutting decision, but I dug the enclosed mansion design, a shifting puzzle box build by the previous owner of the original, as a setting for the back half of the story. And I liked most of the films' cast. Ultimately, I think that this is a great example of a Hellraiser movie, one of the best in that franchise, but it's still much the same problem as The Thing From Another World, honestly - the best example of something I just don't gel with. If it's more of your general vibe, though, then I think it would be pleasure enough to partake. /5 Watched so far: The Empty Man, Hocus Pocus 2, Smile (2022), It Came From Outer Space, Watcher, The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, Bats, Choose or Die, The Curse of the Werewolf, "Werewolf By Night"/various Halloween episodes, The Thing From Another World, Hellraiser (2022)
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 22:02
|
|
|
 16) Wicked Little Things (2006) Trailer Seen on: Amazon Could have easily been slotted into Children of the Damned, but I have a different movie lined up for that one, so we're going with: After Dark -watch an After Dark HorrorFest film (or After Dark Original) A widower and her daughters inherit property in a Pennsylvanian mining town. When they get there, they find the locals to be enigmatic and cold, and with good reason - the hungry zombies of children who were forced to work in and die in the mines years ago come out to murder and devour anyone unlucky enough to be around. This is a pretty standard, no-frills spooky black-eyed kid/zombie flick (in fact, and as you can see in the trailer link above, its imaginative original title was "Zombies"). There's some novelty in that the youngest kid in the movie is Chloe Moretz in an early role, but she doesn't get a whole lot to do other than interact with one of the zombie kids a bunch. This is one of those movies where everyone in the town has a dark secret or knows about what happened (kids were trapped in the mine when dynamite blew and the greedy mine owner didn't bother to help them) and there's one of those situations where the zombies follow some rules about how they won't threaten certain people, until they do, maybe, or whenever it's convenient for the story, all of it involving bloodlines and whether someone is a blood relative or whatever. The lead actresses aren't super memorable, the bad people are cartoonishly so, and there's gore but it's pretty prefunctory. The editing is also mid-aughts as gently caress. Meh.  And in non-challenge rewatches, we have:  17) The Wolf Man (1941) Trailer Seen on: Internet Archive After the death of his brother, Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) returns to his ancestral home in Wales and winds up learning about the curse of the werewolf firsthand. So this was probably my daughter's favorite of the Universal monster movies so far. Chaney can be a charming guy as Talbot, and his story is a tragic one, unlike Dracula's, although I'd forgotten he was kind of creepy with Gwen (the telescope, not taking no for an answer, etc.). My daughter was amused when he showed up for the date and Gwen brought her ill-fated friend with her, but when they got to the gypsy camp, she was surprised that DRACULA (Bela Lugosi in a brief role) was waiting there! The scenes with the werewolves being beaten to death with the cane are kind of intense for the time. Mostly though my daughter is at that age where romance stuff is fascinating, so watching Larry and Gwen's relationship was the most interesting thing for her ("Wait, she's engaged?!"). I always liked the scene with the shooting gallery at the fair where we start seeing Talbot conflicted by what he's becoming. It's too bad we don't get the facial transformation effects until the end, my daughter thought the initial one with the hairy feet was funny. My daughter's scary rating and thoughts: out of 10 spooks - "This one wasn't really scary. It's too bad they couldn't be together, but being a wolf man is hard."
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 22:28
|
|
|
Bruteman posted:"This one wasn't really scary. It's too bad they couldn't be together, but being a wolf man is hard." Wise beyond her years
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 22:48
|
|
|
9. Prisoners of the Ghostland Well this was something! There was a lot I liked here- the Japan meets American West matchup was very cool. Bill Mosley’s character was great, love him! His samurai bodyguard character was maybe my favorite part of the film. But I mean look, it’s a unusual film. It has a very dreamy, amorphous, plot. I don’t have any issue with those type of narrative-light films but there wasn’t much meat on the bone here. It’s a film with a lot of breathing room. If anything, I wish Sono leaned more into the bizarre. Those bits were my favorite. And then sometimes it just feels like a cheap gonzo version of Escape from NY. But like I said, a lot of it’s visual panache is fun. Cage is mostly sleepy but as usual, as some great explosive moments. 3/55/5- Return of the Living Dead (1985)* 4.5/5 - Bride of Frankenstein (1935) 4/5 - Tales from the Crypt (1972), Deadstream (2022) 3.5/5 - Evil Toons (1992), Waxwork (1989) 3/5 - Ghost Stories (2017), Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021) 2.5/5 - Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988)
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 23:26
|
|
|
 This is technically a holiday movie. Black Mountain Side (Nick Szostakiwskyj ; 2014) Call it a Perfect Getaway but I'm increasingly fudging this This is pretty cute but mildly hamstrung by its own ambition. A team of archaeologists in very Northern Canada discover a weird, pre-Ice Age stone structure with apparent evidence of human construction and are trapped during the beginning of winter by the increasingly strange things it causes. It's a great premise, but you can't have "paranoid group of all-male researchers trapped in a cold, desolate environment" and not think of The Thing, and this is a good effort but they don't have the John Carpenter magic. I think you'd have to basically play them side by side to see the specifics (or, you know, maybe be better at analyzing film editing than me), but it just can't quite get that subtle, captivating tension and dread that makes the Carpenter version perfect. It's got all the bits, and they're good bits mind you, but it doesn't have the special sauce to really make it sing so it doesn't really gel. It's got pretty good short-game though, and if for whatever reason you haven't seen The Thing it probably looks much better without the goofus vs. galant comparison. Really mixed bag on the fake blood too, which is strange. Maybe they had two competing formulas depending on temperature or something? Cause sometimes it's pretty dece and sometimes it's more than a little marinara-ish. 7/10 15 down, 16 to go 
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 23:33
|
|
|
 18. Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) This has a lot going on, but I loved it. A reporter is collecting stories for a new series about interesting and strange phenomena. Meteors are crashing into the earth, causing strange magnetic fields and gravity shifts. Mothra's tiny twin fairy envoys, the Shobijin, are in town to be on a TV show. The Princess of Selgina sees a vision and jumps out of her plane moments before it explodes. She turns up in Tokyo claiming to be a prophet from Venus, warning everyone of a terrible danger - recognized in the newspaper, a team of assassins are sent to find and kill her. And I haven't even mentioned the monsters! It turns out the princess fell into a gap between dimensions, and was then inhabited by a Venusian whose society was destroyed 5,000 years ago by Ghidorah, a flying three headed dragon from space who spits lightning. All of the seismic disturbances release Rodan from Mount Aso, Godzilla comes to town, and they start fighting and wrecking power lines like only they can. Oh, the big meteor? Yeah, that's Ghidorah, and eventually he busts out and starts causing poo poo. The Shobijin call Mothra, and explain that Ghidorah can only be defeated if Mothra, Rodan, and Godzilla work together, like a kaiju Justice League. The big monster fights in this are sillier than the other Godzilla movies I've seen - Rodan pecks Godzilla's head a lot, Godzilla mostly just throws and kicks rocks at his enemies, and at one point Ghidorah zaps Godzilla in the rear end and he grabs his big lizard cheeks and hops around like a cartoon character - but I really didn't mind. There's so much happening in this that you're never bored, and it somehow manages to bring all of the different plot lines together in a satisfying way. There's a very funny scene where Rodan, Godzilla, and Mothra are all staring at each other while the Shobijin (using their telepathic connection to Mothra) explain what they're all saying to each other ("Godzilla says they have no reason to help humans. 'Humans are always bullying us'. Rodan agrees.") Just a really perfect Sunday morning movie. 4.5/5 -- Bingo Square: Highbrow Horror (Part of Criterion #1000, the Godzilla Showa-Era box set)Total Watched: 18 // First Time: 16
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 23:37
|
|
|
Random Stranger posted:October 9 - Evil Dead Oh, nice, as my feature last night just so happened to be... 8. Evil Dead (2013) (first viewing) This remake of The Evil Dead takes the broad strokes of the original's plot and adapts it into something... pretty okay? It certainly isn't gore-averse, but it plays things straight and doesn't go for the comedic tone that Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell brought to the rest of the series. Here, our group of blandly attractive anonymous twentysomethings (I only recognized Lou Taylor Pucci from a few things) are making a trip to a gloomy cabin in the woods, hoping to help their friend Mia kick heroin. They discover a trail of blood which leads to a hidden basement containing dozens of dead cats, fire damaged pillars and, oh yeah, a mysterious book known here as the Naturom Demonto. Naturally, one of them ignores all the warning signs and reads the book out loud, invoking a demon that begins the process of possessing and killing them in other to gather up five souls and release an evil force. The plot and characterization are thin, as they're just the framework to hang the gore on, and the movie does deliver in that regard. After a slow first act, we're off to the races for the rest of the movie. It's hard to comment on this without just shouting out your favorite parts. There's demonic possession-induced self-mutilation galore, from a character cranking the shower up to scalding and melting her skin, to someone using a knife to bisect own tongue, and there's even a callback to amputating an evil hand. And this time there's not just the trademark shotgun, but we get a nail gun shoot-out. The movie even ends with it literally raining blood! This doesn't supplant any of the original movies, but it definitely doesn't desecrate them, either. SPOOKY Bingo: This one checks off "The Devil Made Me Do It." 
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 23:49
|
|
|
9. Deadstream A streamer visits a haunted house... with... I mean, what did you expect? We got a new Hellraiser and a new Evil Dead in the same year! This is a lot of fun. It's actually funny. The lead does a great job of being an enjoyable rear end in a top hat. The movie actually does some good stuff with the found footage style. And it has good jump scares? 4.5/5 
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 23:58
|
|
|
16 (35 - Iran). Tall Shadows of the Wind Origin of Evil - 1979 - Folk horror from Iran. A village builds a scarecrow to protect their crops, Abdullah gets bored and paints a face on it, and it comes to life and starts murdering. Slow and atmospheric, but a bit drawn out. 3.5/5 17 (36 - Cambodia). Lady Vampire Goodnight Mommy - A bunch of students from Phnom Penh go out into the countryside to study geology and rent a house from the titular Lady Vampire, whose head comes off at night and floats around eating people's organs. One of the students ends up dating Lady Vampire's daughter, so Lady Vampire is a bit peeved. Fortunately, she's been seeing a Buddhist monk to work on her karma issues, so she's not as murderous as she could be. However, Grandlady Vampire, a.k.a. ghost vampire, is on the "gently caress it. kill everyone." side of things. It's schlock, but it's exactly my kind of schlock. 4/5- (- Whoops. Guadeloupe again. Also not even vaguely a horror movie). Nightmare Wedding - Alice-in-Wonderland-inspired short film about Lilly trying to get to her wedding at noon. She never reaches her destination, but it never stops being 11:55 either. Beautiful and poignant film. 4.5/5 - (37 - Croatia). Nasty Nancy - Shortish film (49 minutes). A bunch of teachers get together to do drugs and have premarital sex in an abandoned school building, where they're promptly slashed by katana-totin', roller-bladin' punk chick Nancy in ways that mirror the ways in which they've (mostly sexually) abused their students. Nancy is your new favorite slasher. 5/5
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 23:59
|
|
|
I started doing this essentially of my own accord but now that I’ve started reading the thread I’m gonna go back and write up what I’ve gotten done since the evening of 9/30 if that’s all right with y’all—I’ll probably go back and fill out the bingo card after. So! 1. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) I watched the version on Shudder; given it’s a silent film I figured I’d note that so you know what kind of score with which I was workin’. I’d never seen it before and frankly did not know very much about it! There’s a lot to love about this thing, even with 102 years of age on it, and what stuck out to me was the sets—I really dug the way everything was askew with the sole exception of the asylum’s ground floor. 2. Puppet Master (1989) Honestly I expected this to be worse than it actually was? A psychic dies and a bunch of other psychics who used to work with him gather together for his funeral, where puppets start to pick them off one by one. The puppet designs are awesome (Jester and Leech Woman are my faves I think—I was surprised to find Blade is part of an ensemble!), the characters were fun, and the kills were too. I don’t think the logic of the puppets turning on the bad guy makes much sense, because they really did not show much of a moral backbone until he was mean to them despite being totally harmless under their initial creator, but it’s silly crap—it doesn’t have to hang together perfectly. The little stinger at the end rules, but my understanding is the series zags instead of zigs and subsequent films are mostly about Nazis (???) so I’ll probably skip ‘em. 3. Chopping Mall (1986) You know this one. I don’t have any trenchant observations here. Love the use of Chekhov’s road flare, and it’s always nice to see a young Barbara Crampton, or an older Barbara Crampton for that matter. She was in Puppet Master too, actually, but it’s a much bigger role here and she’s likable. I don’t know enough about Roger Corman to appreciate the Easter eggs but that’s a personal problem. The propane tank trick is exactly the kind of poo poo I would’ve tried because of Hitman—maybe they could put killer robots in a mall in the next game. 4. The Blair Witch Project (1999) These are all new watches so far, but the one that is probably the most shameful is The Blair Witch Project. I got into horror movies late through my interest in scary stories (book version) so that’s my excuse. Hey! This holds up! The atmosphere mostly gets tense when it’s supposed to, and the sprinkling here and there of the mythology is really intriguing to me as a lore freak. I found the verisimilitude impressive; the kids spend so much time hanging out in a very plausible way (like…a lot of the runtime) and begin to break down in a way that makes sense. Last scene is still freaky in 2022. I love the intentionally student film-y credits, which include a special thanks to Mott’s Apple Juice and Success brand rice. 5. We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021) I’d been looking forward to seeing this for a while, but it had to wend its way from festivals to Hoopla to HBO Max before I actually did. I was a teenage creepypasta fan, so a story about a teenager who falls down an Internet spooky stories rabbit hole piqued my interest. There’s one (1) other character in this movie, a notably older man who strikes up a strange Internet “friendship” with the girl at the center, and while he never does anything obviously untoward, there’s always the implication and the tension that he might. This is a movie about the Internet, about screen-mediated relationships, about dysphoria of different kinds (the director is transgender and non-binary), and about performance. It’s only lightly horrific; I’d say melancholy and discomfort are the major emotions running through it, but I don’t think you could really categorize it anywhere else. Highly recommended, especially if you’re into any of this stuff or have struggled with any of it. 6. Creepshow 2 (1987) An anthology following up on another anthology (and further followed up on with the Shudder series). Unlike the five stories of the first Creepshow, a limited budget means we’re down to three: “Chief Wood’nhead”, “The Raft”, and “The Hitchhiker”. “Chief Wood’nhead” is racist, but what can ya do. A general store’s wooden Indian caricature comes to life and dispenses justice on behalf of the murdered (white!) store owner. It still kind of rips, though, because the villain is such a weirdo piece of poo poo. “The Raft” is about an entity played by a submerged pool cover that floats around under a raft and kills the hapless high schoolers who go for a swim. It’s fine. “The Hitchhiker” is my favorite one—a rich lady is on the way home from boning a gigolo and she’s in a big hurry because her punctual husband is expecting her. She creams a dude standing by the side of the road hitching and you can figure out the rest. Lois Chiles plays the hitchhiker and she’s great, really funny and this weird mix of likable and profoundly awful. There’s also a framing device, which is a lovely cartoon that looks bad. Stick with the first one, but in a pinch this Creepshow’ll do. There’s more bare gazongas if you’re into that. 7. The Lighthouse (2019) Here’s my joke: “Kind of a copout he finally gets up there and it’s just Marcellus Wallace’s soul.” You probably know how you feel about this already and you don’t really need my input, but I liked it. Very atmospheric. Big fan of sailor talk. And the Greek myth imagery in the middle and at the end was really cool. Recommended for bird haters and fans of cum. 8. Deadstream (2022) This is a found-footage horror comedy that premiered on Shudder on the 6th. It’s about a canceled streamer called Shawn whose final gambit to win his fans (and sponsors) back is a night spent alone in a haunted house, with a stipulation being he has to go investigate. If he chickens out, he doesn’t get paid. If you know enough about tech, you might have to suspend your disbelief a little, but that aside pretty much everything in this is diegetic: the score is some synthwave the streamer himself wrote and plays on a Walkman, the camera angles are provided by GoPros attached to various walls or objects around the house, and any exposition not provided within the haunt itself is shared in videos sent to Shawn by his fans. I enjoyed it a lot despite its sense of humor not quite clicking with me. Despite the premise I felt like it’s got an old-school regional horror vibe, where you get the sense it was assembled on a small budget by a talented group of friends and family, and wouldn’t you know it when the credits rolled I saw the same last names over and over again. (The star is one of the two directors and is married to the other one, so some of that was just the Winterses, but not all of it!) I’d say watch with a partner or a friend group—people I follow on Letterboxd saw it in a theatre and loved it, but I watch all my movies alone since I’m the only person in my house who likes movies with ghosts and demons and blood. 9. Blood Beat (1983) Speaking of low-rent regional horror, here is a slasher (kind of?) made by a bunch of Wisconsinites and a French director stoned out of his loving gourd. (This is not me saying “this guy must be high!”—Vinegar Syndrome tracked him down to do commentary for their 4K DVD release and he admits as much. I only saw it on Tubi tho.) It’s about a girl visiting her boyfriend’s family whose presence summons the spirit of an evil samurai. Every time she busts a nut the samurai kills someone and brother? She’s horny. Nothing but deer hunting happens for the first half hour, and then nothing much happens for a while after that, but the last half-hour goes buckwild. Psychic battles amid blue glow effects set to Carl Orff. Poltergeist activity KOing your mom’s redneck boyfriend. Wandering in the woods swinging an axe at nothing. My favorite unscripted part is when the killer’s POV passes by a window and makes eye contact with a dog, who then turns away like “ok… that’s none of my business”.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2022 00:01
|
|
|
7) The McPherson Tape (1989) First Watch SPOOKY BINGO: V/H/S I'd say this was more of an interesting watch than an entertaining one - it's interesting to see a lot of techniques used in so many found footage films seen at such an early stage. I think they actually get quite a bit right - mainly that the family feels like an actual family in the way they interact, and there's at least some sort of justifiable reason for someone to be filming everything (at least more so than some more modern found footage films!). The trouble is that it kind of fails a lot at actually being scary - mainly because it's difficult to actually see anything most of the time. There are a lot of instances of them shouting "Oh my good look at that!" only to be shown a black screen with a vague grey smudge on it. Literally everything this film does has been done better in later films (mostly in The Blair Witch Project) but I did still enjoy watching this, if just for the curiosity of it. And the actor playing that grandma was pretty good. 6/10 8) Scanners (1981) First Watch SPOOKY BINGO: Masters of Horror So that's where that gif is from! It's weird to see a David Cronenberg horror film and think that it could stand to be a bit more intense, but here we are. I feel like there were a lot of good ideas in Scanners that never really came together for me. It starts strong and it ends strong, but that's only because the start and end are the only times where anything interesting happens. There could have been a good sense of tension throughout the whole thing but it's just not there. When it goes go, I like it. Michael Ironside is always good. 6/10 9) The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) First Watch I guess this was Argento's first film? The only other Argento I have seen is Suspiria, so I was surprised at how normal this film is in comparison. But it was still really good! It's a solid thriller with great music and an interesting plot. I liked it. 8/10 10) Phenomena (1985) First Watch drat there's a lot happening in this film. Maybe too much??? This film is insane but very bloated, I very much felt the two-hour run time. But there's a lot of really good stuff! I really like how Argento will score scenes where basically nothing is happening with THE MOST EXICITNG MUSIC YOU HAVE EVER HEARD. It works every time. I love it. She's just walking in a field doing nothing but WOAH HERE'S MOTORHEAD and it's scored like something crazy is happening but she's just walking in a field. It's so good. But I do think it's overloaded with ideas in a way that hurts it. Characters just sort of disappear when there's nothing else for them to do, and for someone with the power to control insects she does sure forget she can control insects a lot of the time. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage was very simple but it worked. There's so much more happening here but it doesn't fit together quite as well. It's not as solid as The Bird with the Crystal Plumage but is is a lot stranger, which is almost as good. 7/10 11) Dawn of the Dead: Argento Cut (aka Zombi) (1978) Rewatch (Dawn of the Dead) / First Watch (Zombi) Spooky Bingo: Whispers in the Dark God drat Dawn of the Dead is such a good film. This version of it, which edits out a lot of the less-action heavy parts of the film really highlights just how good some parts are; mainly the start. Dawn of the Dead starts with everything in chaos and the editing here just makes that even more so, it's so good. It doesn't feel like there's even a chance to breathe until about half an hour into the film. There are some elements of this edit that don't work as well, though. I think that the tightened pacing does change the feel of a lot of the mall sequences. I like how the daily routine of the main characters in the mall fall start to feel almost mundane as they try and live as if everything were normal, and the slower pacing and some of the elements of comedy do add to that. The biggest difference for me is the change in score. The theatrical cut uses a mix of the Goblin score and a lot of library music. This cut almost exclusively uses the Gobin soundtrack. Now, the music by Goblin is amazing, of course, but I really like feel that a lot of the tracks of Muzak added to the film; they were a really interesting and quirky juxtaposition against the nightmare that was happening on screen. They also give the film a sense of place and time that is now missing somewhat from this version. And it's really strange to watch Dawn of the Dead without The Gonk. But it's still, y'know, Dawn of the Dead. It's still amazing. I like this version overall but I think I still prefer the theatrical version over it. 9/10 
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2022 00:02
|
|
|
 10)Candyman 21 horror noireI enjoyed it, and liked how it modernized the themes of the original. I guess my biggest complaint is that it doesn't explore things far enough.It handles the impact of generational trauma well, but it doesn't go deep enough into the gentrification and art bits.It's kind of like halfway through writing the script Peele decided to move the exploitation of tragedy themes into NOPE. Definitely not enough Tony Todd, but there never is. There is a lot to like, but I also can see why it wouldn't work for people /5 1)The Munsters, 2)Color Out of Space 3)Living Dead Girl 4)Collingswood story5)Mr. Harrigan’s Phone 6)Werewolf by night/halloweenies 7)Hellraiser 8)My Best Friend’s Exorcism 9)Deadstream 10)Candyman
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2022 00:09
|
|
|
Got the rest of my movies watched this past week, but didn't get them written up until now. 2. Fright Night (1985) This is a good, fun vampire movie, which does a good job paying homage to the awful late-night horror flicks the main character watches. Good performances all around; the standouts to me were Stephen Geoffreys as the main character's rear end in a top hat friend whose personality remains unchanged even after becoming a vampire, and of course Chris Sarandon as the vampire next door with a magnetic personality and an insatiable hunger for blood (and apples). Has a nice mix of humor and horror, some impressive makeup and creature effects work, and gets better as it goes along. A bit formulaic, but then that's also kind of the point. A solid 4/5. There was a remake in 2011with Colin Farrell , so this being the original qualifies it for They Always Come Back.  3. Misery (1990) Rob Reiner and William Goldman team up again with this Stephen King adaptation, about a writer badly injured in an auto accident being rescued by a deranged, obsessive fan who forces him to keep writing while she "helps" him recover. Kathy Bates is great as the killer nurse (she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for the role); she and James Caan play off each other terrifically, and the tension keeps ramping up. Remember: Non-corrasible bond only! 4.5/5 The movie is about a writer, and he spends a lot of it trying to write a Paperback From Hell. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2022 00:11
|
|
|
8. Something in the Dirt (2022) "But that happened, right? And that's more scarce than gold." Two characters with unexpected depth go through ups and downs in their relationship against a backdrop of potentially-supernatural circumstances that serve as a metaphor for mortality and the drive to make meaning out of one's life. What's new from Benson and Moorhead? And yet, it's drat compelling. The two are fully in their element as people trying to capture something wondrous and rare on camera in order to make sense of everything that's brought them to this point, and if you think that sounds meta, that's just the beginning. This takes you through the full spectrum of the human experience, from forlorn reflection on passions faded to the joy of bonding with another human to the regret of tragic mistakes that cannot be undone to the cringe of dropping a fragile piece of technology to the temptation to feed one's ego by tearing down another to wistful remembrance of simple childhood. To the fear that grasping that wondrous, incalculable, elusive thing that is always so close at hand will destroy you. Most filmmakers settle for making focused examinations of certain topics, attempting to evoke certain emotions, trying to do certain small numbers of things as well as one can. I have seen no others besides Benson and Moorhead who so unrelentingly attempt to strike at the heart of what it means to exist, and while some of their attempts have not landed well with everyone, here they have taken advantage of everything they have created up to this point. The best elements of all their films are present. I don't expect them to ever do better. Because in the end, aren't we all just little somethings in the dirt, maaaaaan?  9.5/10 9. Whistle and I'll Come to You (2022) (directed by Valentina Battorti) (challenge: Picnic at Hanging Rock) "I say you should chuck it into the sea. But it's up to you." A nice adaptation of a story that has been put to film multiple times before. Much of it has a near-comedic tone, but this lends some weight to those scenes meant to be unsettling or disturbing, which are executed well. Against a backdrop of Lovecraftian-type stories that escalate until the protagonist is destroyed, it was nice to experience a fine little tale of someone who has a brush with the supernatural. Impressive for a director's first outing, especially after finding out the director was also the editor, and the costume designer, and one of the minor roles... At the beginning the film states its intention to depict a story that stays with the viewer and gives them a pause when they are about to dismiss the dark and mysterious, similar to what happens to the protagonist, and by this measure it's a great success. 8/10 10. Deadstream (2022) (challenge: Hausu) "Are you fansplaining to me right now?" It's fun! I don't have much to say that hasn't already been said by others. The livestream-found-footage format is used to excellent effect, with some good moments of dramatic irony, times where you're not sure if you should be looking at the stream itself or the chat, situations where the streamer is interacting with his fans (or is he?) and relying on them for help, and so on. The scares are well-timed and it even takes its premise far enough to offer meaningful commentary on the pitfalls of seeking fame. 7.5/10 
VROOM VROOM fucked around with this message at 00:22 on Oct 10, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2022 00:19
|
|
|
16. Deep Red 1975 Trashterpiece  Trashy and tone-deaf, Deep Red still manages to be an effective murder thriller even more than 30 years later. What do you say about a movie like this, that has been dissected over and over again, and influenced an entire generation of films after it? The film suffers from the same lazy pacing that so many films of the era do, but when it's firing on all cylinders during the stalking/murder scenes, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who could do it better. I'm glad the film's bright red blood and ridiculous deaths would continue for decades to come, just as I'm glad that its brand of casual misogyny isn't seen as much any more. Rating: 8/10 Black Leather Gloves
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2022 00:25
|
|
|
I have been doing this challenge for years and never gotten round to properly posting in this forum for some reason. I write full reviews elsewhere but gonna keep it brief for this thread. Though some years I watched entire TV series or played a horror movie game (like the Dark Anthology games). Will do only movies this year. Last year I watched all of Saw, Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser and Evil Dead. There were a LOT of bad films in there. My scoring system: ++ = Excellent + = Good / = Fine - = Bad -- = Awful poo poo Emoji = Hellraiser: Revelations This year so far: 1) Resolution Cosmic horror, hell yeah! Slow burn in an isolated cabin with an unimaginable force of unnatural power manipulating events. + 2) Orphan: First Kill The prequel that almost nobody wanted turned out to be a lot of fun, with one of the best twists of all time. + 3) Wendigo I was a little disappointed. I love Larry Fessenden and his passion for horror. This had some really cool visuals but this didn't deliver for me. Could've used more time fleshing things out. / 4) Scream 2 Great sequel to an all-time classic. Not as good as the original, but few things are. Probably my favourite of the sequels. + 5) The Empty Man Kinda Lovecraft-esque, with a detective investigating a cult devoted to an extra-dimensional entity. Spooky as hell. + 6) Hellraiser 2022 Holy poo poo, a good Hellraiser film that isn't one of the first two. + 7) The Endless Sequel to Resolution, kinda. Surpasses it easily. Fleshes out the 'lore' and builds upon it massively. ++ 8) Martyrs (original, not remake) Watched this with a buddy of mine, who is French. "What the gently caress is wrong with French people?" was our immediate reaction. + 9) Let The Right One In Beautiful, creepy and tragic film. One day I'm going to write a poorly thought out essay about how this was retroactively ruined by Twilight. ++
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2022 00:28
|
|
|
 19. Savageland (2015) A faux documentary presentation of a zombie attack and the aftermath in which a migrant Mexican is scapegoated for the massacre of a rural town. The word "zombie" is never mentioned but the moment you see a flash of forensics paperwork mentioning bite marks, come on, we all know what's up. Savageland hones in on the presentation of a very specific documentary format: the slightly trashy commercial docs that you'd find on the History Channel or Discovery. Not a full bore Ancient Aliens level of stupid cash-in, but definitely a juiced-up and one-sided telling of what in-universe is a conspiracy theory. If you don't know what I mean, believe me you'll recognize the style once that scratchy typewriter font shows up for title cards and a bunch of quick flash-ins and intense zoom-ins are used on the already dramatic photographs taken on the night of the incident. It's a clever exercise executed well, with only a few missteps (a voicemail message from a preacher way oversteps with too-spooky bullshit, and the film sails past a perfect documentary ending for a more predictable found footage one). I especially liked the talking head interviews with Len Wein as a Vietnam war photographer, who gave a really good and earnest explanation for why a man in the middle of hell on earth would still be snapping photos. Yet even at its best Savageland never convinced me this format was the most effective way you could tell this story. When Noe Montes' character's journey through the town is being laid out in a CG diagram, I was into it, and I started wanting to actually see this zombie movie instead of being told how it went down with repetitive visual aids. This could have been awesome as the Fire in the Sky of zombie movies. Probably a lot cheaper to get made this way, though! Available for free on YouTube.  / 5 Savageland's conceit leans on a ton of found footage, so I'm marking it for V/H/S. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2022 01:20
|
|
|
12. Jeepers Creepers Reborn VOD (Vudu)  ...Sigh... A man takes his girlfriend (he doesn't know she's pregnant, but she doesn't know he's proposing to her, so they're at least even on hiding stuff right now) to HorrorHound Festival, which this year is in Louisiana near the mythical home of The Creeper. This film simultaneously acts as reboot to the franchise, distancing itself from convicted pedophile creator of the series Victor Salva in every way including not crediting him, while also weirdly still outright acknowledging the films exist (there's a line where the girlfriend mentions she thinks she's heard of the Creeper, and the guy goes "yeah, there were three films about him, but you know films aren't real"). The Creeper looks and acts different (more taunting of characters than killing them, including onscreen; a surprising amount of deaths offscreen). And the hosed up thing is pretty much every change, aside from the director, is for the worse Sanitized kills, everything including the Creeper's new look looks ugly (especially the last two scenes which are just laughably bad, standing out as different even from the whole rest of the film before), new Creeper song which is worse And they play it four different times (three of which are just the Creeper jamming to it while hunting someone down with it in the background), and a baffling ending setting up sequel/s with a new hook that makes no sense I guess he hypnotizes people now And he can be reformed completely from bird formations? Cool, that's what he needed, he can already grow back limbs and fly. You could have at least went somewhere with the 2-minutes you devoted to a cult sacrificing people to him, but no, do that instead I guess with your final few scenes left in the budget It's my fault for pushing through with trying to see this even after hearing some of the reviews. They still didn't prepare me. Not as unwatchable as Birdemic 3, but it feels like as much effort was put into making the second half entertaining and coherent half a * Watched so far: Missing (2022), Everyone Will Burn, Dark Glasses, Lynch/Oz, Give Me An A, Flowing, Mr. Harrigan's Phone, Deadstream, Hellraiser (2022), Werewolf by Night, Old People, Jeepers Creepers Reborn
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2022 01:37
|
|
|
Wow that was Len Wein in Savageland? Like, THE Len Wein? Creator of Swamp Thing, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Storm? How did I not realize that? I actually thought he was one of the better actors in the film. Super natural. How random!
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2022 01:40
|
|
|
 Don't bother, you're just belaying the inevitable. The Devil Below (Brad Parker ; 2021) Probably Something But I Don't Care I honestly don't know how much I have to say about this, considering I need to have the imdb page for it open in order to even remember the title. This is basically the cinematic version of a living fossil in that it is clearly and obviously just a SciFi Original Movie that somehow came out in 2021 and is on Netflix. Group of vaguely research-oriented people are investigating a sinkhole in an abandoned mining area with the help of Store Brand Michelle Rodriguez. Mine was less abandoned and more invaded be bad puppets from beneath the earth. The puppets are not fun puppets and are almost never shown at all, they're just out of focus shapes. But not even like how Dog Soldiers did it where it's frantically shot so your brain covers the gaps in the budget making it better ; nah, this is just a puppet slowly moving but you can't see it very well because the camera isn't co-operating. The best thing to come out of this was that I might be able to do something funny with swapping it out for copies of The Descent. Except even I think that's too cruel a prank. 4/10 because I can't even be bothered to hate it much 16 down, 15 to go
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2022 01:45
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 2, 2024 02:45 |
|
|
Random Stranger posted:This is an adaptation of a traditional ghost story that's been filmed over a dozen times, but Nakagawa's version is the best I've seen and I'm up to around eight or nine versions at this point. Oh nice! Are any of the others worth seeking out? This one had been on my radar for a little while but I don't remember it being available anywhere until recently.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2022 01:47
|
|