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Shaman Tank Spec posted:I haven't seen it and I don't want to do too much googling because I don't want to spoiler it, but would Mandy count for Horror High? I somehow have the impression that it heavily deals with drugs. And if not, I am open for recommendations. idk about Mandy but there's Evil Dead (2013), Resolution, Beyond the Black Rainbow, and A Spoonful of Sugar
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May 4, 2023 16:51
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Class3KillStorm posted:If I remember it right, there's a key scene where a kidnapped Mandy is drugged before being presented to the lead villain of the piece, and the whole scene is incredibly trippy before it goes really really sideways. But it's also the only scene where I remember drugs being overtly used and the rest of it is just really heavily stylized. Someone else may be able to weigh in if there's more to it that I'm forgetting, since I only saw it the one time, but I don't know if there's quite enough there to count. mostly I just want everyone to watch Mandy, haha. But also the biker gang makes like super LSD or something like that, the plot doesn't totally revolve around it but it's significant enough to count for the challenge
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May 4, 2023 16:52
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10. Incantation - 2022 咒 Directed by Kevin Ko 🎃 Holy Terror 🎃  Incantation definitely has a few things going for it. It's decently spooky. It also sets up a plausible reason for the narrator to be recording everything -- she's trying to document her life with her daughter when they're reunited and she was previously a YouTuber or something like that. Lastly, it effectively plays on some very specific fears -- what if my child doesn't love me, what if someone bad happens to my child, what if the entity who lives in the "tunnel that you must not enter" puts a curse on me. Holy Terror connection: The villagers follow an alternative form of Buddhism and worship a malicious deity called Mother-Buddha 💀💀💀💀/5 Spooky May Spring Cleaning 7/13 1. Basket Case 2; 2. Basket Case 3: The Progeny; 3. 3 from Hell; 4. Attack of the Blind Dead; 5. The Ghost Galleon; 6. Night of the Seagulls, 7. Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning GMM Challenges 3/13 1. Bliss (Horror High); 2. Mongolian Death Worm (Tales from the Cryptids); 3. Incantation (Holy Terror) Completed Collections * The Basket Case Trilogy 🧺🧺🧺/🧺🧺🧺 * The Firefly Collection 🤡🤡🤡/🤡🤡🤡 * The Blind Dead Collection ⛪⛪⛪⛪/⛪⛪⛪⛪ * The Ginger Snaps Collection 🐺🐺🐺/🐺🐺🐺
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May 4, 2023 16:59
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VROOM VROOM posted:idk about Mandy but there's Evil Dead (2013), Resolution, Beyond the Black Rainbow, and A Spoonful of Sugar all good suggestions! I'll add Climax and A Cure for Wellness
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May 4, 2023 16:59
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gey muckle mowser posted:all good suggestions! I'll add Climax and A Cure for Wellness Since A Field in England is up in the Bracketology thread, would that count as well?
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May 4, 2023 17:13
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Class3KillStorm posted:How did you find this one? The premise looks interesting, and I'll never say no to a Peter Cushing performance, but it doesn't look like it's available anywhere for streaming in the US.
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May 4, 2023 17:14
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1. Tenebre Dario Argento | 1982 rewatch | 4k UHD  This was a group watch, so some of the more nuanced thematic details got lost in the hustle. The dialogue is a bit more meditative for Argento, a writer who favors plot and images over dialogue and character interactions, and it does seem to sincerely grapple with that ol' bugaboo that gets thrown towards transgressive artists: that creating art that is violent and/or seemingly misogynistic means the artist condones or is a proponent of such ideas. It's the 80's and Argento has accomplished two cinematic triptych: his definitive stamp on the giallo (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage ['70], The Cat O' Nine Tails ['71], Four Flies on Grey Velvet ['71]), and his baroque supernatural-tinged horror for which he's probably most known (Deep Red ['75], Suspiria ['77], Inferno ['80]). (Argento has a small run in-between these with two episodes of a TV series, La Porta Sul Buio, and an buddy comedy set during war, The Five Days (1973)). Tenebre's a bit of a weird one for Argento. It's considered by many Argento acolytes to be one of his best films, and a few considered it "his last Great film". I disagree with the latter assertion, knowing that Phenomena [1985] (while it doesn't work as well for me) has a rabid following and often ranks in Top 3 (or 5) Argento lists, and Opera [1987] is a high mark in his career (and what I would more confidently assert is his "last Great film". If you look up the wikipedia or Tenenbre, it's page is double (sometimes triple) the length of his more well-regarded films, and most of the content is dedicated to it's themes and imagery. For a little added context, Inferno was a flop, and remains divisive among fans. It was really only released in Italy for a limited run, and an American and International release were shelved by 20th Century Fox. This is after Suspiria was an international hit critically and financially. Suspiria was 20th Century Fox's 7th highest grossing release in 1977. While the surreal nightmare qualities of Suspiria caught on with audiences, Inferno's double-down on these qualities alienated more people rather than impressed them. It's an indulgent, messy, beautiful surreal film. It works on an internal logic, which feels a bit sloppy and strange. It did well in Italy, but when Fox took a look at it, they waited a year, gave it one week in New York City, and then was shelved immediately. It sat in relative obscurity for five years, when it was released on VHS (in 1985). Argento went from the biggest success in his career to his follow-up being almost completely ignored outside of his home country, where the reviews ranged from positive to (mostly) negative. This was a giant blow to his relationship with Hollywood and Fox. Also around Inferno's "release", Argento began a correspondence with a fan of Suspiria in Los Angeles, where Argento was living. The phone calls became menacing and then violent. The caller declared himself "The Great Punisher". He wanted to "harm Argento in a way that reflected how much the director's work had affected him". They began stalking him with a vocal intent to ruin his life. This pursuit followed him to Santa Monica, and eventually the phone calls reached him in Italy. I do not know the resolution to this, only that the police were involved and that the caller never realized his fantasy of killing Argento. This incident affected Argento's writing directly. A knowledgeable fan used his writing and his films to make him feel like a victim and also a purveyor of dangerous art. The end of his Witch trilogy was over. Inferno failed and the two films in the supposed trilogy has indirectly affected his life. But a writer's gonna write. He started writing a story directly inspired by his stalker, about weaponized celebrity and a writer's own words leading to pain and death. Tenebre is such a pointed statement from Argento, about himself and about being a creator. His previous films were notoriously colorful, vibrant with violence, and (recently in this era) about the supernatural. And what is Tenebre? Shockingly white and more interested in light-colored patterns. The most color in the film is used sparingly: bright red splashes of blood, and bright red women's shoes with stilettos. The lighting is bright, and there are few color gels in use. The film is strictly a grounded-reality giallo in the strictest of terms: POV killer wearing gloves and wielding a razor, elaborate sets or interesting locations, the characters have exciting careers (an author, his agent, journalists, assistants, and the beautiful women around them), the mystery can (supposedly) be solved by the audience... No witches, no phantoms, no psychics, no spirits, and dream sequences (or are they memories?) are objectively such. Argento was an acknowledged master of the giallo, and had grown resentful of his imitators the populated the genre he helped innovate. Tenebre is complicated as hell to sparse, at times. The web of who-murdered-who is convoluted and shakey and our resolution is explained by people made manic by the murders around them. It's a complicated game to play. My friend group had fun trying to guess the killer, but realized (and felt a bit cheated) that in the end it's shown the movie didn't play completely fair. If anyone is grading this film on the actual mystery, I can understand their disappointment and frustration with the film. However, for anyone watching the film for everything but the plot, and instead are interested in the themes and the metanarrative of Argento reckoning with himself as an artist, his frustations with the business side of filmmaking, the role of art in the hands of critics and fanatics, then the film opens up and becomes a rich experience. Many consider it the last Giallo before the death rattles of the genre were fully heard (partially with the success of American slashers and the poor returns on cheap entries trying to milk the last viability of the genre). The pacing does wonders too. If the mystery has lost you, and if you aren't in on the themes, I believe this film works in an excellent (and usually memorable) horror sequence every 10 minutes. It's also one of his horniest movies. There is a palpable energy where every character kinda feels into another one. Playful flirting, innuendo, sexually-charged arguments, secret liasons, and (of course) the psychosexual nature of the murders and the dream sequences. The greatest achievement of the film, and another way it subverts previous Argento films, is the score. It's basically Goblin, but it's not technically Goblin, because the drummer Agostino Marangolo, did not participate. The heavy percussive element and the experimental noise elements were replaced with dance-oriented synth-driven electronica. It's a spooky disco track. The songs had to be long to accomodate Argento's love for long takes, and to keep things from being repetive, the songs (especially the main theme) go into a new variation or arrangement every few verses. I do not exaggerate when I say everyone that came over to watch this with me started dancing every time it came on. It's a loving banger and an essential song on my Halloween playlist(s). Tenebre was a modest success in Italy and Europe. After the financial disaster of Inferno, it was like water in a desert for Argento. That's where the positive begins and ends. It was immediately given a harsh VM18 rating (Argento argues this was because of his inclusion of a lesbian couple in the film riled up the homophobia of the conservative ratings boards at the time, rather than any violence.) The UK censored some of the violence and censored the poster, and then put it on the Video Nasty list when it came to VHS. The USA didn't even get the film until 1984, and that was the heavily censored version released as "Unsane". It truly hadn't been available uncensored on the home media market until roughly 2011, and even that version was criticized for having a bad transfer. It's a good movie. It manages to be dense with themes and ideas, over-written, and under-written all at once. Some of the imagery feels "incorrect" unless you've managed to click into Argento's wavelength of intentionality. But for giallo die-hards, it's an essential film. For a musical analogy, if Suspiria is Sgt. Pepper or Abby Road, then Tenebre is closer to a White Album. I watched Arrow's 4k UHD and it was beautiful.  : Highly RecommendedTotal: 1 Rewatches: 1 Movies Watched: Tenebre
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May 4, 2023 17:21
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The weirdest thing about Tenebre is the idea that Argento conceived it as a post-apocalypse movie, and that's why Rome is so deserted, and how little that actually affects anything in the story or is conveyed in either story or visuals or setup or anything. I have no clue how or where Argento got that idea, whether it came beforehand or is a post-hoc justification for everything looking so empty, but it didn't get translated into the film itself.A True Jar Jar Fan posted:It's streaming free on a Tubi-like network called Fawsome, not the best way to watch it (it has more commercials than Tubi) but it's currently the only way other than buying a disc. Cool, thank you.
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May 4, 2023 18:18
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Class3KillStorm posted:Since A Field in England is up in the Bracketology thread, would that count as well? Yes!
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May 4, 2023 18:19
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Class3KillStorm posted:The weirdest thing about Tenebre is the idea that Argento conceived it as a post-apocalypse movie, and that's why Rome is so deserted, and how little that actually affects anything in the story or is conveyed in either story or visuals or setup or anything. I have no clue how or where Argento got that idea, whether it came beforehand or is a post-hoc justification for everything looking so empty, but it didn't get translated into the film itself. Y'know, this is really weird for a few reasons. There's several scenes that are densely populated: a scene with a dozen sex workers on the busy streets looking for clients, the airport scenes, and notably a scene where John Saxon sits at a piazza waiting to meet someone and it's several minutes of him people watching (a child playing with a ball and then playing hide-and-seek, an arguing couple, a fight breaking out at a restaurant). The John Saxon scene is quite poignant at showing glimpses into the lives of strangers. You're right, there are notes and points of discussion about this semi-apocalypse future Rome, but the actual movie has quite a lot of life in it, despite the majority of it focusing on elaborate art deco houses in the suburbs. It feels like Deep Red is actually sparse. There's whole scenes with background actors standing still in giant empty piazzas, like mannequins, and it's unsettling. Anyway, I didn't pick up on this element of Tenebre at all.
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May 4, 2023 18:48
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gey muckle mowser posted:mostly I just want everyone to watch Mandy, haha. That works for me, I guess I'm setting sail for the sunny shores of Cage.
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May 4, 2023 18:54
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gey muckle mowser posted:mostly I just want everyone to watch Mandy, haha. But also the biker gang makes like super LSD or something like that, the plot doesn't totally revolve around it but it's significant enough to count for the challenge Also apparently alcohol to Nick Cage is like spinach to Popeye.
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May 4, 2023 19:07
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 8. Pulse [2001] FW [SHOOTING ZOMBIES] I had initially mistaken this one for the american one for some reason. Glad I went ahead and grabbed the blu-ray when it was $10 because what a flick. A bit too long here and there, easily could've been 90 minutes, maybe 100 minutes total, but overall its got the right vibes and the right imagery of an early internet where people still dont know what is going on with this new tech and the allure of where you can go with it. I mean now we still dont know anything about this new tech, we entrusted it far too much and now its completely destroying more lives than a bunch of ghosts would. Honestly I'd take the ghosts and being occasionally lonely than all of the nazi's. Three and a Half  's 9. Altered [2006] FW [HISTORY LESSON 1] This one really tested my patience a bit. The characters all kinda sucked, I didnt really get what their motives were or why this lone alien seemingly let itself get caught and then it kinda escalated in the most flat way possible. It felt like an optical illusion where you think you're about the start climbing the tracks in a roller coaster, but you're actually still just going in a straight flat line, its just a delusion of exhaustion hitting you and the heat of the sun baking your brain. I liked the gore in this at least so that was neat and I really liked the alien design in this one. Those were the high points for me, but otherwise it needed better actors (tho the surprise James Gammon appearance was appreciated), screenplay and score. Two and a Half 's 10. Cyst [2020] FW [HISTORY LESSON 2] What a fun little goopy movie that I think overall worked really really well. You could feel the low budge but that's alright its just so charming and effectively done that it works in spite of that and was just a lot of fun. at a little over 60 minutes its very recommended. Three 's 11. Ferat Vampire [1982] FW [GEOGRAPHY LESSON 1] One I had never heard of, but it was on my list so I checked it out. It's a bit of a head scratcher on motivations, but the lurid and murky ambitions of the antagonists is so interesting and alluring. I liked the idea of a car that harvest blood from its drivers and drives them into mania, but there was some fleshing out on the side of the protagonists that was needed. I think it was my first flick from Yugoslavia too so it was interesting seeing how they interpret the lore of a vampire and it felt very future focused especially when you look at shows like Blood Drive. Three 's 12. Hellraiser: Inferno [2000] FW This was a slog and a half, but what I ultimately thinks save it is that everyone in the movie kinda deserves what they get even though the editing really let this movie down totally and thoroughly and I know they're going for this fever dream effect with the detective and I can see pieces of that Scott Derrickson directorial trademarks here and there its just a really flat experience overall unfortunately. the gore is fun here and there and its thankfully only a merciful 90+ minutes so it wasnt a complete killer of time, but these Hellraiser sequels are dire. Two 's 13. Renfield [2023] FW [FRESH HELL] This was surprisingly solid. Awkwafina wasnt annoying as gently caress like she is in basically everything else shes done, Nicholas Hoult was entertaining and Cage was obviously loving every minute of it. Even a surprise Shohreh Aghdashloo appearance! The script was flat, the comedy didnt hit as well as I think they wanted it to, but otherwise the gore, the cast and the pace felt right. I really liked the set design for this too, everything felt very sumptuous and interesting to look at. An enjoyable time. Three 's 14. My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To [2020] FW Now this one took me by surprise. I know this one sorta blew up in the main thread when it first dropped but then I just didnt check it out for 3 year, but now I did and now I love it. It's a very hard family drama with underpinnings of horror built into it and I think it largely works as this slice of life sort of story and its very depressing and sad. It's also incredibly effective at the story its telling, conservative in its runtime and in its screenplay and very visceral in its emotions. one of the first high points of the month. Four 's 15. Hellraiser: Hellseeker [2002] FW Dennis Duffy meets Kirsty from the first two movies and he Dennis's his way into hell.  Terrible. Good gore shots here and there. One 's 16. Inseminoid [1981] FW [HISTORY LESSON 3] I was ready for this one to be a decent Alien rip-off, but what we got instead was a bad Alien rip-off with a bit of Basket Case, some desperately need to be used as porno sets and some really bad characterization. I really wanted this one to work, but then it just farted out an alien and some stupid rear end characters. You know who woulda done this one right and did sorta do it right with Creepazoids? David DeCoteau, at least we woulda got some hot men and women sorta rubbing on each other before they melt into aliens or get eviscerated by a dumb alien puppet. This was just boring. One and a Half 's 17. Night of the Demons 2 [1994] FW [HISTORY LESSON 4] Pretty decent overall, but not as good as the first. It's a clear step down even though we get a very early Christine Taylor which is a lot of fun seeing her play the type she usually plays in a horror movie, but otherwise it was maybe in need of a bit of a cut down. I think this would've been much more better if it were snappier and got to the goods (tho even those are sorta wanting for more goopy-ness) otherwise a decent time. It's hard to live up to the original. Three 's 18. The Thing [1982] It's The Thing. It rocks. I watched it with the commentary this time and its like watching it with your two friends who actually worked on the movie. Just a solid dudes rockin' time. Highly recommended. Five 's
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May 4, 2023 19:29
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I didn't know Bernie Sanders was in Hellraiser Inferno
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May 4, 2023 20:25
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1. Fiend Without a Face (1958 dir. Arthur Crabtree) UK When people start dying mysteriously around an American army base in Canada the locals blame the radar experiments being conducted there. Major Jeff Cummings much investigate and soon discovers something far more sinister and cerebral is at work. Possibly one of the best movie titles ever. The plot is pretty straightforward and fairly typical of 50s sci-fi/horror, decent chunk of the runtime is Men of Science (and some merely Science Adjacent Men) dryly talking theories about what could be causing all of this hubbub, but what sets it apart is the Fiends which have a really simple but elegant design as a disembodied stop-motion brain with a spinal cord as a tail that it wraps around the necks of victims as it drains their skull of brain juice and in true 50s horror fashion we don't really get a good look at it until the climax but one really clever thing the film deos that for almost the entire film the titular fiends are entirely invisible. This allows the film to show the victims being killed in pretty explicit detail without risking showing the creatures too much. I imagine it also cut down on the budget a lot. It has a very sizable body count not only do we see several named characters getting brainsucked by the fiends but by the end of the film seemingly every single soldier in the base is dead . It's also very gory for a film of the 50s with the final showdown featuring buckets of pitch black blood. Though the impact of this is lessened somewhat by this being a black and white picture. 2. Occult (2009, dir. Koji Shirashi) Japan Challenge Holy Terror (in this case a heady mix of Shinto, Buddhism, and Lovecraftian cosmic horror.) Director Koji Shirashi investigates a seemingly motiveless stabbing massacre at a national park. Interviewing the survivors and family members of the victims and killers he begins to slowly unravel an occult mystery. One interesting thing is that Koji Shirashi plays himself not in cameo but as one of the main characters in the film. He's heavily involved in the plot especially in the latter half of the film where he forms a strange and awkward friendship with the main interview subject. After the first round of interviews, where the film zooms into the background of previously seen footage of the next person being interviewed or discussed, the film settles on one survivor, Shohei Eno, as the character followed throughout the rest of the film. no however claims that since the attack he has seen various phenomena he describes as "miracles" which includes ghosts and UFOs so Shirashi convinces his producer to allow Eno to sleep in their production office and lend him a camera so they could possibly catch these miracles on film. Eno is a temp worker but chronically unemployed and barely scraping by sleeping in internet cafes and surviving on ramen and potato chips from a discount store. A lot of the film is just the fairly mundane life of this down on his luck homeless guy, who constantly bums cigarettes and borrows money from the crew, occasionally punctuated with increasingly bizarre glimpses at the supernatural. This gives the film a sort of Social Realism feel as we watch Eno's struggles. There's several scenes in fast food restaurants with characters discussing massacres and dark gods over hamburgers and fries. Which lends it a very strange vibe where the fantastical and the everyday clash. I don't like it quite as much as Noroi, Shirashi's masterpiece, which is filmed in the same mockumentary style, but it's a lot of fun. The only thing I didn't like much was the ending which has Shirashi see footage from the otherworld some very goofy effects, which I thought were very fun but didn't fit the otherwise mostly grounded tone of the film. Not to say that the effects weren't already pretty stylized and unrealistic but the ending scene feels like a slightly out of place homage to House (1977) with the spooky floating heads. I do like that the afterlife appears to be full of jellyfish and leeches which feels appropriately Lovecraftian. also Kiyoshi Kurosawa (director of Pulse, Cure, and Tokyo Sonata shows up as himself in one scene where he shares his expertise on religious and occult iconography with Shirashi.
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May 4, 2023 22:03
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Shaman Tank Spec posted:I didn't know Bernie Sanders was in Hellraiser Inferno I am once again asking you to solve the puzzle box.
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May 4, 2023 23:25
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Return of Daimajin (1966) - Challenge #3 - Holy Terror The second of three Daimajin films released in '66, this one follows a lot of the same beats with a new cast: An oppressive regime conquers an isolated community who turn to the Old Gods for salvation. There's no continuity so you can watch these in any order. It's a fun concept as a production: Take three different directors, give them access to a lot of the same crew, and see how each interprets the story. This one replaces the first film's emphasis on dirt and stone with water and wind. As in the first film, the heroes are purely good and the villains are cackling evil do-ers. There's a heavy focus on the faith of the innocent characters, a combination of Buddhist ritual and belief and a worship of an older elemental god, trapped in a statue until his strength is needed. It's a period-piece kaiju film in feudal Japan with a giant stone golem that gets pissed off and stomps the hell out of the unjust, of course I'm on board! The monster action is heavily back loaded again, but the swords and warlords stuff leading up to it is more exciting than it was in the first film. This installment also features Daimajin parting the seas like a hundred foot tall vengeful Moses to stop a crucifixion so the religious imagery is kind of all over the place! His rampage doesn't come until late in the film but when it does it rules. The big guy loves his poetic kills. Each of these films is scored by Akira Ifukube, best known for his Godzilla scores, and the music gives the film a sense of horror and incoming disaster even in its smaller scenes. It's not always used appropriately but it always sounds good!
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May 5, 2023 03:40
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 2. Friday the 13th (1980) Watching horny teens killing time taking their shirts off in between chores and getting axe murdered should by all rights be dullsville. Friday the 13th is pretty thin on the ground for excitement for long stretches. But it succeeds at weaving a spell of suspense anyway, leveraging unsettling vocalizations on the score in tandem with a voyeuristic subjective shakycam that effortlessly implies the killer's eye raking over those young bodies even when it couldn't literally be a POV shot. It makes for a good simmer. And then things finally kick into high gear when Betsy Palmer shows up with a delightful periwinkle sweater and a kindly face before swiftly going psycho. That last chunk of movie is just excellent, serving up some cat and mouse games, a delicious slow-mo machete decapitation, and what instantly became my all-time favorite jump scare ever. They should have had the balls to just roll credits on it, god drat it got me so good, instant hooting and hollering mode. Still no idea how this one spun into a franchise about some dude in a hockey mask instead of Palmer grinning with a knife on every film poster.  / 5This one scratches off History Lesson: 1980s.
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May 5, 2023 06:09
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gey muckle mowser posted:
 8 (13). Day of the Dead: Bloodline (2017) Directed by Hèctor Hernández Vicens; Written by Marc Tonderai and Lars Jacobson Watched on Netflix Best part was realizing that the creep in the beginning was played by the dude who played the jerk band member in That Thing You Do. I should have rewatched that movie instead. A dull and badly done and uninspired nothing remake of Romero's cult classic. The second of the kind. The other one was bad but I remember it as being at least kinda better than this. This is just bad. And for some reason its also dubbed. Badly dubbed, but is there another kind? There's just nothing worthwhile going on here. I'm not even sure i have anything to say. I'm just padding this out I think. The one thing of note is the weird idea they have to replace Bud with a stalker rapist creep with handwave antibodies to make him... whatever. I don't care. I'm done pretending. Its bad. Don't watch it.  - (14). Scream 4 (2011) Directed by Wes Craven; Written by Kevin Williamson Watched on Paramount+ This is a polarizing one it seems and I admit that I've probably got a lot of sentiment wrapped up in it. I am a huge Wes Craven fan, this is his last film, and I first watched it soon after his death. So yeah. Its got sentimental points with me. But I do think its a return to form for the series after a rough couple of sequels. Is it as good as the original? No, of course not. But I think the problems with 2 and 3 can best be summed up as simply ones of the need for a sequel. Williamson sold Scream as a franchise with 3 scripts. Wes was contracted for 3 films. Wiliamson rewrote 2 after it got leaked. 3 got completely reworked after Columbine. Some seeming conflict between what the films should be as sequels or parodies of sequels. I enjoy them well enough but they're clearly very messy and unsettled. Scream 4 feels more sure of itself. Williamson's script got rewritten a bit and he got pissy about it but Wes said it was still the heart of his script. I dunno. Scream 4 just seems more sure of itself than 2 or 3. There's stuff I find too clever by half or flawed. The multiple fakeout opening is just goofy and out of tone with the rest of the film. I've seen people who seem disappointed it didn't follow up in that direction of camp but I am not one of them. And Dewey and Gale kind of just disappear from the film for the last act. That feels off and kind of wrong even with the idea of trying to establish the new characters... which kind of doesn't work if you kill them all off. You know? That part's weird and maybe a partial consequence of the rewrites. Still. I actually do think the movie does a good job establishing its new characters, better than the last two. I never quite got why people went crazy for Hayden Panettiere's character but that's probably a generational thing and where she was at the time. But ultimately the characters we know and care about in Dewey and Gale get sidelined and we focus on characters we kind of know are doomed. And that feels a bit eh. On the other hand that's clearly in service of the whodunit. And that's honestly an aspect of the Scream series I never really fully appreciated. Its just not a thing I go for in films. I don't try and guess who the killer is. I just go along for the ride. But I really did get it this time as I watched the films with someone who very clearly was delighting in openly predicting who the killer would be. So yeah, I get it. Dewey and Gale ain't the killer. So they don't matter to the ultimate whodunit. And the mortality of these characters is secondary to that reveal and twist. It makes sense. Still for whatever elements of this film don't click with me what puts it over the top is Emma Roberts. I just think she's kind of amazing in this. Not all the way. She's definitely just kind of there for the first bit of the film. But man when she comes out of her shell I really do think its a great performance. I've kind of sworn off Ryan Murphy but its enough to make me considering biting on all the hype I've heard from Scream Queens and the later seasons of American Horror Story starring Roberts. Because I could definitely see me enjoying her there after Scream 4. So yeah, its not perfect. I can nitpick it. And maybe its not entirely necessary. The meta nature of its commentary on celebrity via tragedy or the blending of true crime and horror. It feels like Wes Craven saying that the old job he had for 40 years of shocking and scaring people via fiction had been replaced by the new wave of reality tv and exploitation and voyeurism of true tragedy. And a dozen years later with the way true crime has really dominated podcasts and documentaries and so much media people consume it feels almost like the most accurate prediction from this franchise. If Scream started as Wes looking back and seeing what was tired about horror then Scream 4 feels like a bittersweet goodbye to what the media landscape was coming. In many ways it feels like a fitting, if sad, final film. So yeah, I have sentiment wrapped up in this clearly. But I like the film and I think it does some things very well. It does some things kind of shaky. But ultimately it does the most important thing and feels like a good Scream movie to me.  - (15). Scream (2022) Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett; Written by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick Watched on Paramount+ ”To Wes!” This was my second time with this and I feel comfortable saying this is a very good, very appropriate and loving tribute and revival of Wes' original vision and franchise. Some seem to dismiss it as a retread and like... obviously there's elements of that. You could probably call this fan fiction if you were so inclined. But what sequel isn't? And this one is very clearly self aware as its monologues and rules about "requels" clearly show. Radio Silence know what they'd dealing with trying to revive a classic franchise. The impossible place you end up with horror fans these days between purists who have such a rigid idea of what the thing they love is that any changes will anger them and fans who need something new and deeper to justify it as more than a cash grab. Its no shock this is polarizing because its going head on at the state of horror the same way Wes did originally in 96. But there's no consensus now between the "elevated horror" fans and the "pure slasher" fans. Its all people yelling on Twitter one way or another. Which makes it funny and appropriate that I've seen people interpret this as being anti "elevated" and anti "purist". When really I think its just reflecting what's going on. But also I think the meta stuff about Scream has always been kind of too focused on. Its obviously there but at the same time so many often mislabel Scream first and foremost as a parody or something. Its a straight horror film at its core that excels because of the strong characters and story. And the franchise works because of its strong characters and core heart and commitment to above all else telling full stories. That's really the difference between Scream and most other slashers. Ghostface is not the star, he's a plot point. Its never really about watching people get murdered. That's there but Wes went and put it into full stories and characters which not everyone was doing. And that's kind of what all those rules and meta commentary was about. About what horror was doing... not that horror was broken or something. Just that it could be better. So ultimately I also just think this is a very good story. The Billy stuff is maybe a little weird and I'm not sure how necessary it is. It does feel like they could have told the story without hallucinations and nothing changes. And it all plays a little oddly supernatural/strange for the Scream franchise. But its also established pretty early on and doesn't play a huge factor the rest of the way so I'm fine with it. But Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera are great new additions to the Scream family. Its got the usual whodunit stuff and its got the "legacy characters". The trio of characters we've known and loved for 25 years. I'm rambling a lot. And have kind of lost my train of thought. Ultimately I went into this knowing I enjoyed it the first time but unsure if that was just excitement for a new film of something I love and whether it would hold up. But it absolutely did. I still really, really enjoyed this. Its not perfect or anything but I had a good time and it feels most importantly like a very true to the franchise entry of Scream. That's the hardest part for these revivals i think. To make something that feels like it belongs with the classic film made by legends. But I think Radio Silence pull it off with Scream 5. And I am excited to see what they did with 6.
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May 5, 2023 09:02
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Ginger Snaps (2001) -- I'm way out on the corner of hosed Up and Evil! A franchise that was completely under my radar until page 2001 of this thread when everyone was like 'yeah obviously it's GS for this page, what other possible choice is there? You'd have to be some sort of horror beta loser to not know about it already. Me catching up with the thread:  Characters start out as tryhard  edgelords, but are teenagers in horror movies ever not terrible?Attacked in the woods by a giant monster, covered in blood and lacerations. "No don't call 911 I'm ok."  Reading about the history of werewolves by the light of a skull candle  this is some early 2000s Hot Topic worship.Fairly large dose of characters making bonehead decisions at the end of a horror movie, but no worse than other genre examples. A decent little monster flick with some moderate goop. If you want a werewolf movie that's framed as a metaphor for female puberty this is probably your best bet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XqWBvzhzdk ~*Progress Tracker*~ 01. Idle Hands Horror High, History Lesson 1990s02. Maniac Cop History Lesson 1980s03. Skinamarink History Lesson 2020s, Fresh Hell (released in North America in January)04. Ginger Snaps History Lesson 2000s
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May 5, 2023 09:29
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1. Beau is Afraid Theaters A thing I knew would be controversial from the moment of its original announcement (as a 4-hour film called Disappointment Blvd., eventually getting an hour trimmed and a worse title), and a film I knew I'd love since I left the theater for Midsommar. Ari Aster is hitting a solid 1.000 for me, and I'll see whatever he does as long as a studio's bold enough to attach its name to a release for it. That continued to the nth degree here, with what is for my money his second-best film and the one I've most thought about since leaving the theater and immediately writing 1100 words about it I couldn't do this stressed epic about a man running a marathon gauntlet of all his guilts and fears, in a world where they're both inescapable and validated at all turns, more justice than it deserves if I tried, except to reiterate what I closed with there: "If a film could make me more uncomfortable while holding a mirror to me for longer, I'm not sure I could survive it. To those who exit the theater and are lucky enough to say "I don't get it": I'm happy for you. And to those who agree with Aster calling this a comedy and not horror: you sick loving fucks" My second-easiest five stars given of the year (first was Babylon. Next one I expect is Barbie). I hope to god I never see something that leaves me more anxious or stressed for as long as this did ***** 2. From Black  Shudder Anna Camp does solid work as a woman absolutely desperate for her kid's return, to the point she lets a stranger from her grief counseling group-therapy session guide her into black magic bargaining with a demon to bring him back. The film looks great at times, and even the demon is surprisingly well-done, but the real star is the booming score that fills you with dread throughout; I almost would have loved this to have gotten a theatrical release for that alone. Despite all that, the story and the quality/depth of the supporting cast isn't enough to really fill out 1hr40min, which makes an abrupt ending feel even more abrupt and a downer for it. Still on the better side of Shudder's 2023 originals *** Chris James 2 posted:I'll try to do 13. As always aiming for new releases first, new-to-me in general no matter what 2/13 (Beau is Afraid, From Black)
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May 5, 2023 12:11
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#4: Scream It's a great movie! It's funny, there's so much talk of classic slashers throughout it, but the first scene also shows off how different it is from those movies. When Barrymore hits the guy and he's actually hurt, it establishes that this is just a guy. He's not an unstoppable monster like Freddy or Jason. And when she takes his mask off but the audience can't see who's under it, that establishes that this is a mystery. It's a classic whodunnit. It's a whodunnit wearing the skin of a slasher. Scream has an odd structure. It's basically got two scenes, the opening and the party, and then some exposition and fluff between them. But the opening and the party take up like more than half of the movie's run time. I was persistently distracted by Courtney Cox's lipstick. I'm not a makeup guy, I don't know what made her lipstick weird, but I don't think I've seen anyone wear that kind of lipstick since 2004. Maybe they lost the formula to make it. Challenges in progress 12. History lesson: 1990s (The Relic) 2000s (The Mothman Prophecies) 13. Geography Lesson: North America (The Relic) Challenges complete 2: Tales from the Cryptids: Mothman Prophecies (because of mothman)
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May 5, 2023 13:28
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gey muckle mowser posted:
 #6. A Field in England (2013) (Shudder) After fleeing from battle during the English Civil War, a group of deserters are captured by a crazed alchemist and forced to search for a lost and buried treasure. A perfectly adequate little throwback, I think that the faux desire to set your "historical" film entirely in black-and-white needs to be tempered by the dictates of the story. And since such a principal amount of the story involves characters accidentally (or purposely) ingesting 'magic' mushrooms, it seems like it would be easiest to visualize the psychotropic effects with flashes of color. Even if it was relegated to our principal viewpoint character; when he was dosed and seeing visions of a giant swirling planet in the sky, I kept expecting to see it in color. Like that scene in The Tingler, or even the poster for the film! Would also make it easier to understand what has happened, rather than relying on pure performance alone. (Mind you, I get what happened, even without knowing what happens going in; you don't watch them cut from a shot of an actor complaining about his tum-tum to a shot of mushrooms and not make a simple deductive leap. But using the language and aesthetics of cinema to underscore your point is easier than relying on actors alone.) Speaking of, the actors are fine, the script is fine, costuming and pacing and everything is fine. It's a perfectly fine film. I just don't know that it added up to too much, and that the tone of it all feels very "stagy Hollywood independent," even if I recognize that it's not. I expected slightly more from Ben Wheatley after Kill List; now this makes me worried that The Meg 2 may not turn out great.  /5Also counts towards History Lesson (2010s). Watched so far: The Seed, Witchboard, The Visitor, Mad God, Eyes Without a Face, A Field in England
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May 5, 2023 15:00
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 Clawed: The Legend of Sasquatch The Bigfoot: This was a bit of an odd looking Bigfoot, but I actually liked it. A lot more effort put into the face than the two previous Bigfeet I've seen this month, and I dunno I just think there's a lot of character in this one. It kinda looks like an old grizzled Bigfoot(or Sasquatch, excuse me) and obviously they just had a lot more money to put into the suit overall than something like American Bigfoot which looked more like Cousin It. All that said, the movie is pretty typical in how it treats the Bigfoot in terms of screentime. The Bigfoot rarely appears and when it does you don't really ever get a clear shot of it like the one below. The score would be higher if I saw more of it. But there's no arguing that this is a clear upgrade from what I've watched so far:  Score: 5/10 Everything Else: Also an upgrade, mainly because the setting feels more appropriate for a Bigfoot story. It's forest that feels like that stereotypical Pacific Northwest forest that you'd find a Bigfoot in. It's not a mud puddle in the middle of an open field, they actually went to a real forest and shot the movie there. There's also just a more confident directing hand at work, not that we're talking about the next Kubrick here or anything but the director was trying things and using techniques to give the movie some atmosphere. The acting is still pretty bad though, but even there I'd still call it a slight upgrade from the previous two films I've watched. Score: 5/10 Total Score of 10/20, which realistically could end up taking the crown when this is all said and done. In the world of Bigfoot films, mediocrity can seem like a home run. 1. American Bigfoot 2. Terror on Bigfoot Pond 3. Scream 4. Clawed: The Legend of Sasquatch Challenges Completed: 2. Tales From the Cryptids(take your pick) 4. Fresh Hell(Scream 6) Meta Challenges: History Lesson(1/5), Geography Lesson(1/5)
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May 5, 2023 15:49
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4. Ringu (1998) (first viewing) (watched on AMC+/Shudder)  Catching up with my highest-ranked unseen feature on the "They Shoot Zombies, Don't They?" list. In fact, I hadn't even seen the American remake either until a couple of years ago. You know the story: there's a mysterious VHS tape making the rounds. If you watch it, you get a phone call informing you you've got one week to live. The movie itself follows a newspaper reporter investigating the tape, and the heat is on once she watches it and has her own one-week countdown in effect. It's a solid slow burn with a mystery element and good pacing. I enjoyed seeing some good-old fashioned shoe-leather investigate reporting with the protagonist looking through old newspapers, calling remote bureau offices, and pounding the pavement for interviews. It kept the movie grounded even as the supernatural elements were revealed. I also skimmed through the 2002 American remake to refresh my memory. A memorable scene on a ferry aside, there's not much to recommend it over the original. It manages to be both flabbier and thinner by adding 20 minutes of runtime despite dumbing down the plot. It leans much more on jump scares than atmosphere and suspense. And fast-forwarding through the movie also highlighted the fact that it's got one of the ugliest color palettes I've ever seen--every drat shot has a nauseating, hospital green tint to it. Even a character looking at a sheet of white paper under fluorescent lights has a sickly pallor to it. Stick with the original here. CHALLENGE: "Shooting Zombies." This is 32 on the They Shoot Zombies, Don't They? top horror films list. Incidentally, the next highest ranked I haven't seen is 36, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) This also contributes to "Geography Lesson" (3/5 completed) as my first Asian film of the challenge (via Japan). --- 5. Dolls (1987) (first viewing) (watched on Tubi)  From director Stuart Gordon comes Dolls, the follow-up to his classic debut one-two punch of Re-Animator and From Beyond. Dolls was apparently filmed before From Beyond, even using some of the same sets (to the film's credit, this wasn't obvious to me), but it came out after From Beyond because of the time needed for the various special effects. The story follows a young girl, her father, and her evil stepmother, who have to take refuge in a spooky mansion after their car gets stuck in the mud during a storm. Turns out the old husband and wife who live in the house have a collection of dolls and, wouldn't you know it, the dolls have turned evil because they contain the spirits of people the old couple has captured and killed? The movie isn't overly goopy, especially compared to Gordon's first two films, and the concept of tiny dolls is a little silly, although it manages some good visuals here and there, like the screencap I chose above. The acting is a big detriment, as, for all his qualities, Stuart Gordon is not much of a director of actors. His most-loved films are carried in large part by letting pros like Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton do their thing, but he doesn't have the ability to drag good performances out of middling talent. The actors here are mostly no-names from Gordon's stable, and the performances here range from flatlines to outright grating. The child actor is overly cutesy even by child actor standards. Then there's the punker played by Bunty Bailey (perhaps most famous as the girl in the "Take On Me" music video). She puts on a British accent so broad I was shocked to learn the actress is legitimately English. Still, you're not watching a killer doll movie for nuanced acting. Dolls is mid-tier Gordon, but it knows what is in and gets in and out in 77 minutes. You could do worse. CHALLENGE: "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things." This also contributes to "History Lesson" (4/5 completed) as my first '80s film of the challenge. This contributes to "History Lesson" (3/5 completed) as my first '70s film of the challenge. --- CHALLENGES: 1. Horror High 2. Tales from the Cryptids 3. Holy Terror 4. Fresh Hell 5. Shooting Zombies--Ringu (1998) 6. Drawn and Quartered 7. Woke in Fright 8. Second Chance 9. Challenge of the Dead 10. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things--Dolls (1987) 11. It's-a Me! 12. History Lesson (4/5 completed)--The Shout (1978) ('70s); Dolls (1987) ('80s); The Fear (1995) ('90s); Pearl (2022) (2020s) 13. Geography Lesson (3/5 completed)--The Fear (1995) (North America via USA); The Shout (1978) (Europe via UK)' Ringu (1998) (Asia via Japan) Crescent Wrench fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Jul 20, 2023 |
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May 5, 2023 16:21
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 4. Faust (1926) (dir. F.W. Murnau) Moonflix (Website) Challenge 5 - Shooting Zombies - ranked #112 History Lesson: 1920sThe old man from the "pondering my orb" meme makes a deal with Mephisto to gain power and youth, then completely ruins the life of a young girl because he couldn't keep it in his pants. Versions of Faust (or stories heavily inspired by it) have been a basic part of horror media (and the Western canon as a whole) forever, but I don't believe I've ever actually seen a straight film adaptation before. The story's good, but it's the look and style of the film that makes this a classic. This is an absolutely insanely gorgeous film. The German Expressionist cinematography and set design are incredible, and there are quite a lot of special effects that are not only impressive for the time, but hold up well today. There's a "flying" shot with the camera swooping across a model landscape that looks very modern, plus endless scenes that are composed like classical paintings. I'm just going to post some screenshots.     I found the last third or so less engaging - it focuses heavily on Gretchen, the young woman who Faust screws over. There are some nice shots here still, but it's just generally less interesting than the more supernatural stuff that makes up much of the first hour of the film. Super glad I watched it. I'm not often attracted to silent film - I can appreciate something like <b>Metropolis</b> or <b>Häxan</b>, but I'm not likely to want to rewatch them often. <b>Faust</b> is absolutely a film I will revisit, if only to soak up the visuals. 4.5 unholy contracts out of 5 Total: 4 Watched: Lokis, a Manuscript of Professor Wittembach | The Manitou (Challenge #3) | Spoonful of Sugar (Challenge #1) | Faust (Challenge #5) Challenges: History Lesson: 3/5 - 1920s, 1970s, 2020s Geography Lesson: 2/5 - Europe, North America
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May 5, 2023 16:35
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gey muckle mowser posted:
Murnau invented that shot for the movie. Fun fact: Emil Jannings, who played Mephisto, won the Oscar for Best Actor at the 1st Academy Awards in 1929. Less fun fact: he later became a fervent Nazi.
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May 5, 2023 17:19
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#5: Scream 2 OK, I know for a fact I have seen Scream 2 before. But I somehow remembered literally nothing from it. Which is especially weird because it's really good! The cast is insane, I should've at least remembered the cavalcade of stars. Early on we get "the sorority girls" intorduced, it's a line of five pretty preppy girls, I immediately assume, "oh OK they're upping the body count for the sequel, here are five pretty girls who will get bumped off" But then none of them die. Like, to the point where I think that introduction scene was intentional misdirection. Wes Craven wanted you to think Scream 2 was going to be a more traditional slasher, here's your lineup of victims. But then, like the original, it's not a slasher. Scream was a whodunnit, Scream 2 is basically a giallo. Man, I was on Cox's case about her weirdly dated lipstick in the first one, and here she's got red streaks in her hair. What was going on with her hair and makeup people with this franchise? Challenges in progress 12. History lesson: 1990s (The Relic) 2000s (The Mothman Prophecies) 13. Geography Lesson: North America (The Relic) Challenges complete 2: Tales from the Cryptids: Mothman Prophecies (because of mothman)
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May 5, 2023 17:25
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Jedit posted:Murnau invented that shot for the movie. I'm not surprised, it feels kind of rough but in an interesting way. Must've been really impressive at the time. Gripweed posted:Man, I was on Cox's case about her weirdly dated lipstick in the first one, and here she's got red streaks in her hair. What was going on with her hair and makeup people with this franchise? just wait til you see her bangs in Scream 3
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May 5, 2023 17:33
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Movie #5: Mandy (2018) 1. Horror High "So whatcha hunting?" "Jesus freaks." As I was watching Mandy, I kept wondering what the movie reminded me of stylistically, and for the longest time I couldn't figure it out. The movie has a very specific aesthetic. There's a ton of noise in the picture, the colours are often washed out or oversaturated, there's light bleed, some shots are either slightly out of focus or focused in a weird way. Some cuts are abrubt and awkward, the lighting is strange (even before getting into the scenes that are lit pure red, purple or blue), and the pacing feels off, like some coked up maniac hammered out this fever dream of a script during one weekend-long binge, and refused to let anyone edit it in any way. And then, at about an hour and 10 minutes it hit me: Mandy is like a forgotten early 80s Cannon Group movie that was made in, and only released in, Italy, or more accurately the Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray re-release of it. On the surface this doesn't seem like a particularly fresh idea, but the thing about Mandy is that it's not ironic in any way. It plays everything completely straight. This is not a "ha ha remember those lame 80s cheese fests, well here's an intentionally bad ironic one of those" movie, this is like someone REALLY wanting to make one of those weird 80s cult classics, right down to one guy inexplicably having a tiger around -- because someone involved in making the movie had a tiger, and they took advantage of the opportunity. And they loving nail it. It's also one of the most Nicholas Cage movies I've ever seen. Like, obviously Cage himself is loving GOING FOR IT as the world's angriest lumberjack who sets out to avenge his paperback loving girlfriend's death by murdering a bunch of Jesus freaks and some bikers who once took some VERY bad LSD and never came down from the trip, but so is everyone else. Again, much in the style of those weird 80s movies, it feels like everyone understood "characterization" to mean coming up with a weird quirk for their character, and then leaning the gently caress into it. I can see why it might put people off, but I am all for Nicholas Cage growl shouting about someone ruining his favourite shirt. Mandy took a while to get going, and for the first 50 minutes I was just kinda watching in a semi-detached "hmm yes, this is definitely going for a vibe" kinda way, but once the movie got going, it was just balls to the wall insanity for an hour. I mean how the hell am I not going to love a movie where Nicholas Cage has a chainsaw duel with a guy who's like the avatar of 80s eurotrash dirtbags? / 5 The Best Part: I have to give special props to the soundtrack. It initially reminded me of Vangelis' Blade Runner soundtrack, or maybe the Mass Effect 1 soundtrack, but as the movie went on the composer started mixing in harsher sounds and instruments. The end result is a brutal electronic soundtrack that feels gritty and raw, like the forgotten concept rock opera album of some weird 80s synth metal band. Reasoning for the challenge claim: Well, aside from "gey muckle mowser said I could", and aside from Mandy feeling like someone wrote and directed it while high on all the cocaine, drugs also play an important role in the movie. The bad guys are --- acording to the film -- on a never ending bad trip. My May 2023 Movies: 1. Black Friday!, 2. Hood of the Living Dead, 3. Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron, 4. Psycho (1960), 5. Mandy Challenges Completed: 1. Horror High (Mandy) 5. Shooting Zombies (Psycho) 6. Drawn and Quartered (Hellboy Animated) 9. Challenge of the Dead (Hood of the Living Dead)
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May 5, 2023 17:37
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 4. Demonic Toys (1992) Well, it does what it says on the tin. It's basically a Puppet Master movie without Nazis - same Charles Band stop motion shenanigans, same goofy Richard Band soundtrack. In this one, a group of people get trapped in a factory as a demon possesses toys to pick them off, hoping to hijack a pregnant cop's baby as its new body. Dumb but fun, probably in the top half of Band movies I've seen. I watched the director's cut which restores a little more gore from the angry teddy bear. Pretty much exactly what I expected. Completes GMM Challenge #10 Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things 3/5 The Grudge (2004) I didn't care for this much when I first saw it, which was likely around 2006. Most of what I remembered from it were the jump scares, and I had a real bee in my bonnet about jump scares at the time. I wasn't very well versed in horror, but they felt cheap to me. It's also likely that I wasn't paying close attention to the story because I remembered very little beyond spooky kids and Sarah Michelle Gellar. I'm glad I watched this again, because it's solid (caveat - I've still never watched Ju-On, so I can't compare the original to this one). I liked piecing together the story along with the characters, it jumps around a lot in the timeline but the actual plot and background on the spooky kids is sad. Some fantastic background scares that I've really come to appreciate, and the jump scares aren't anywhere near as egregious as a lot of movies that came after it. Perhaps the scariest part of all is trying to convince me that Clea Duvall would be married to Ethan from Lost. Completes GMM Challenge #8 Second Chance 3.5/5 5. Return of the Living Dead: Part II (1988) This is weird. It's a sequel, but two of the main actors from the original are back as different characters. The zombies look worse, more cartoonish, and there's barely a story. Feels like they wanted to do the first one again but take out all the boobs and gore and make it more kid-friendly. No offense to the kid from The Blob, but I'd much rather have Linnea Quigley and the gang back over this. Completes GMM Challenge #9 Challenge of the Dead 2.5/5First time watches: 5/13 GMM Challenges: 1 GMM #12: History Lesson: 1980s, 1990s, 2010s GMM #13: Geography Lesson: North America
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May 5, 2023 21:23
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gey muckle mowser posted:just wait til you see her bangs in Scream 3 OH JESUS
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May 5, 2023 21:44
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I have no idea what Courteney Cox did to piss her hairdresser off before Scream 3, but it must have been something loving horrible.
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May 5, 2023 22:21
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gey muckle mowser posted:just wait til you see her bangs in Scream 3 In a franchise I otherwise love completely, goddamn does it make the actually bad stuff (Gale's hair in 3, the color grading in 4) stand out even more
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May 5, 2023 22:30
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 Saloum (2021) ; Jean Luc Herbulot I'd been kind of saving this one as a treat and the challenge seems like a good time. First, at some point when this came up in the horror thread I got the impression that this was horrifically violent. It profoundly is not. You could probably get a PG-13 cut of this by just changing the translation a bit. Once I got over waiting for the other shoe to drop, this is a great and super stylish little action-horror. The soundtrack absolutely rules. I did think it was stronger in the action end that the horror end ; I liked the monsters but their amorphous design made the action scenes less legible so I occasionally found myself resenting them. Really solid, I'm gonna keep an eye on Monsieur Herbulot. 6 down out of  1 in Africa for Geography Lesson By the way I loving love how many times Chaka asks to do the talking because he's literally saying he wants to "faire le talking". That always makes me smile.
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May 5, 2023 23:41
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#6: Scream 3 Ironic, that the movie about the making of a movie called Stab has no loving stabbing in it! Like, at first I noticed that there was a lot of punching in the fights, and I was like, that's neat you don't see much punching in horror movies. But then I realized that the punches replaced the stabbings! Scream 1 started with a stabbed to death girl hung from a tree with her guts hanging out, barely anyone gets stabbed at all in Scream 3 and when they do they barely bleed. I bleed more when I shave than these fuckers do when they get stabbed in the torso! I love Gale Weathers. She's a great character. A Scream movie where Gale Weathers is the lead could easily be great. Lots of people with legitimate reasons to hate her, but they're pretty good at giving her enough humanity so you don't want to see her get killed. It could work. But a movie where Gale is the lead for the first half, and then Sidney walks into the story and completely takes over? That's not great. That's weird and bad. I don't like the voice changer that can perfectly replicate anyone's voice. That's too goofy. It almost feels like they did it to add obfuscation since there's only one killer this time but it doesn't work. I don't like the retcon. A not as good sequel is fine, but if it fucks with the canon of the good movies, that's a problem. All that being said. I still enjoyed it. It's a fun time, it's just a drastic step down from the first two. Challenges in progress 12. History lesson: 1990s (The Relic) 2000s (The Mothman Prophecies) 13. Geography Lesson: North America (The Relic) Challenges complete 2: Tales from the Cryptids: Mothman Prophecies (because of mothman)
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May 5, 2023 23:53
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For what it’s worth the reason for the decreased violence in Scream 3 is it started production like minutes after Columbine and the studio got real gun shy about things as you can imagine. The original script had like a cult of movie obsessed killer teens in Woodsboro. So they decided they had to go way there opposite route of killer high school students.
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May 6, 2023 00:01
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STAC Goat posted:For what it’s worth the reason for the decreased violence in Scream 3 is it started production like minutes after Columbine and the studio got real gun shy about things as you can imagine. The original script had like a cult of movie obsessed killer teens in Woodsboro. So they decided they had to go way there opposite route of killer high school students. Man, remember when one school shooting was a big deal? Also, I know we already talked about her bangs, but there's one scene early on where Courtney Cox is standing on the Stab 3 set and you can see she has the most pathetic lovely highlights ever. I don't think you'd be able to see them on DVD, they're very faint. I don't know if she doesn't have them in other scenes or if it was just the perfect lighting and closeups of the back of her head that make them stand out in that one scene. Kinda want to get the UHD and investigate further. edit: oh poo poo, is Columbine also why there's only one killer in Scream 3?
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May 6, 2023 00:07
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gey muckle mowser posted:Versions of Faust (or stories heavily inspired by it) have been a basic part of horror media (and the Western canon as a whole) forever, but I don't believe I've ever actually seen a straight film adaptation before. Some dude on IMDB made a list of the top 10 horror movies for every year since the dawn of cinema and I've been browsing through a decade or so every night. One thing I noticed was that for the first 20 years or so people just kept remaking the same 5 stories over and over. Dozens of Faust/Mephistopheles variants, Dorian Grey was really popular for some reason, and people were really into Svengali for a few years there. Faust in 1897:  e: STAC Goat posted:after Columbine and the studio got real gun shy Oof size: Large.
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May 6, 2023 00:08
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Gripweed posted:edit: oh poo poo, is Columbine also why there's only one killer in Scream 3? Columbine's the reason for a lot of things about 3 quote:In a 2009 interview, Matthew Lillard, who played Stu Macher in Scream, said that he had been contracted to reprise his role in Scream 3 as the primary antagonist, having survived his apparent death, orchestrating new Ghostface attacks from prison on high school students and ultimately targeting Sidney.[20][21] Following the Columbine High School massacre shortly before production began, the script was scrapped and re-written without his character and this plot to avoid development of a film which associated violence and murder with a high school setting.[13]
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May 6, 2023 00:15
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