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Xiahou Dun posted:I really want to see them do more of an action-dark comedy thing at some point. Like if instead of evil spirits it went all Three Kings. Yeah! That would've been extremely cool, and the guy definitely has the chops for it. The movie already has a snappy and kinetic style which would've worked well in that kind of film.
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May 9, 2023 17:28
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 Exists This is a bit of a cheat because I was pretty sure I'd seen it and I was right, I had. But I wanted to include it just because it's I think pretty widely regarded as the best Bigfoot movie that isn't Boggy Creek. Or at least one of the best. The Bigfoot: I think this is probably a bit divisive just because there is a mix of CG and practical effects at play with this Bigfoot. So some people will immediately dismiss it because of the presence of CG. Not me though, I've always felt that to really do Bigfoot justice, someone was probably going to have to use some CG. But tastefully and for a purpose, which I think Exists succeeds at doing. When the otherworldly size and ferocity of the Bigfoot needs to be displayed, the CG is used but it's shot in a purposeful way that doesn't overly expose it's flaws. Other times when we want to see more up close detail of the Bigfoot, it's done practically.  Score: 7/10 Everything Else: The film was directed by Eduardo Sanchez who also did The Blair Witch Project. So you know the guy is experienced with found footage and Bigfoot is a subject that obviously lends itself to that pretty well. The actors are ok, nothing special but certainly they would rank at or near the top of the Bigfoot movies I've watched so far. But again, this is kinda cheating because I knew this movie was put together fairly well and wasn't going to be the in the same category of production as most of my other selections. Score: 6/10 The total of 13/20 is the winner so far, but we're still not even close to what I would consider the Bigfoot movie of my dreams. 13/20 is Citizen Kane though compared to the majority of what this subgenre has to offer. 1. American Bigfoot 2. Terror on Bigfoot Pond 3. Scream 4. Clawed: The Legend of Sasquatch 5. M3GAN 6. Exists Challenges Completed: 2. Tales From the Cryptids(take your pick) 4. Fresh Hell(Scream 6) 10. Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things(M3GAN) Meta Challenges: History Lesson(1/5), Geography Lesson(1/5)
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May 9, 2023 18:04
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2. Twilight Zone: The Movie dirs. John Landis, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante, George Miller | 1983 The correct title of this movie is Twilight Zone: The Movie and not The Twilight Zone Movie. That feels wrong.  When I was a child, my parents took me on a trip to Disney World in Orlando. It was a weekend at multiple parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and MGM Studios (now known as Hollywood Studios). It was probably 1996. There was a (relatively) new ride that had been getting a lot of air on The Disney Channel called Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror. Despite my proclivities towards horror now, I was a cowardly child. As we walked through MGM Studios, the massive haunted hotel was inescapable. The mechanical rollers and the screams of patrons were heard from everywhere in the park. Of course my family wanted to go on the ride. There wasn't any conjecture about it being age-appropriate for me, and I have an older brother who wouldn't allow me to chicken out. My childhood grasp of reality was tenuous. I simultaneously walked through a theme park pre-ride and an actual Haunted Hotel. During the ride, you're informed that people have died in the hotel, in the elevator, and you're probably going to die too. You see the ghosts! We were transported into this surreal dimension called The Twilight Zone. I had no idea what that meant and before I could come to terms with it, I began to plummet at a rapid speed. My young legs were so skinny that I rose up out of the seat and had to grapple the security bar. It was a terrifying experience. But, y'know, it was fine, I lived, was stronger for it or scarred permanently, I dunno. It now feels alien to imagine a time when I wasn't aware of The Twilight Zone, a piece of pop culture as ubiquitous in my mind as James Bond or Indiana Jones. After the ride, my parents tried to explain The Twilight Zone to me. This was the 90's, and while I'm sure there was a channel that aired reruns of the original series (or maybe even a concurrent reboot at the time), my parents weren't aware of it. Instead, we went to Hollywood Videos, where we rented Twilight Zone: The Movie on VHS. The Opening Segment has two men (Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks) driving down a dark road at night, singing along with CCR. The tape dies and they combat the silence with car games and then a discussion about The Twilight Zone. As a child, there was a creepy sense of dread to the scene. When Albert Brooks's character turns of the car's lights and plunges them in darkness, I knew anything could happen. My dad had warned me that it was a scary movie and he vaguely remembered there being monsters in it. I watched it with my mom, on my parents bed. Aykroyd and Brooks are in darkeness, and there could be a monster at any moment. "Do you want to see something really scary?" asks Aykroyd. No I do not, but Brooks nods enthusiastically. "I mean something really scary," says Aykroyd. "Pull over the car." I knew he was going to turn into a monster and it would be the most repulsive creature ever put to film, and the ensuing carnage would be the most horrific thing I had ever seen. I couldn't do it. I had to leave and I would not come back. I never even saw the monster.  "Rawr!" I have finally watched it. It's reputation has kept me away for decades. It's production lead to the death of three people---Vic Morrow, Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen---six more were injured, multiple lawsuits ensued, and the trajectory of Hollywood and the careers of the four directors involved were changed. The resulting film is unbalanced and slightly mediocre. The film brazenly begins with it's controversial segment, Time Out, directed by John Landis, in which a ridiculously racist piece of poo poo transcends space and time to experience violent racism first-hand from the perspective of a descriminated race or ethnicity---a Jew in Nazi-occupied France, a black man in 1950's Alabama about to be lynched by the KKK, a Vietnamese(?) person in the jungle during the Vietnam War who's being shot at by American Troops. Completely ignoring the behind-the-scenes accident, this segment feels grotesque. I like John Landis as a filmmaker and he has created some of my all-time favorite films, but I also recognize that he is most likely racist against black people. I've read enough anecdotes and stories about him, I recognize the racist jokes in his films, and while I know he's worked with a lot of black actors, he also seems like the kind of guy to drop the n-word and wink it off as shock humor. And while I can appreciate the premise of making a bigoted person (specifically in this situation, a middle-class white guy who blames minorities for his own short-comings, mediocrity and perceived injustices) suffer actual bigotry in a semi-surreal situation, the execution here is just off. John Landis is Jewish, and the most successful moments in this segment are the Nazi moments. When it switches to the lynch mob screaming the n-word, we've lost something. It's not just the grotesqueness of, you know, showing racists be racist, but the handling of this fantasy from a white Jewish guy I perceive to also have bigotry towards black people, doesn't feel good. The Vietnam phantasmas are even more of a stretch. Vic Morrow's character talks about serving in 'Nam and killing Vietnamese soldiers, but that doesn't mean the analogy of bigotry correlates between the differing persecutions of Jews by Nazis, black people in racist America, and Vietnamese soldiers fighting a war. On paper, it reads as the most cinematic choice, but if we're talking about carrying themes and ideas, the whole speculative fiction aspects that were Twilight Zone's true bread-and-butter, it doesn't make the most sense. And the segment just kinda ends with an implication this cycle is never-ending, the main character has no resolution other than "Yer hosed, bud. Shouldn't have been a loud-mouth bigot." I guess we're supposed to feel jolly catharsis at this moral punishment, but it just left me feeling confused and discomfited. The fantasy of a bigoted person getting punished gets overshadowed by conflicting protraits of violent bigotry, by comparing European anti-semitism to the oppression and murders of black Americans by lynch mobs to anti-Vietnamese attitudes of American soldiers during our Imperialist intervention in their country. It's an intriguing thematic mess. As far as I've read, this was the original segment as written by Landis. Warner Bros. execs Terry Semel and Lucy Fisher had criticisms that were similar to mine, and the brainstormed solution was to give Vic Morrow's character an act of redemption during the Vietnam flashbacks, by rescuing two Vietnamese children from an onslaught of bullets from a US Army helicopter. The entire accident was because of reshoots for a finished segment, and we will never see the footage. The segments were shot semi-chronologically as they appear in the film. The timeline is, as I've figured: Landis filmed the intro segment. Then they started production on his full segment Time Out. It seems Spielberg, Dante and Miller had started filming their segments while Landis had Time Out in editing. Landis shows Time Out to the execs. They issue the reshoots. The accident occurs. Now Spielberg has to finish filming his segment, but the accident has poisoned his soul and destroyed a friendship and his trust in the filmmaking process. George Miller couldn't finish editing his segment, so Dante took it over. The movie was released in theaters eleven months after the accidenet. I can't find much about Dante during this time, in my brief time to research this. Dante seems to have put in the most work on the film, in style, substance, and work ethic.  Spielberg's segment Kick The Can feels shallow. It's saccharine sentimentality feels hollow. But it does introduce the actual thematic through-line of the film, which is the whimsical nature of childhood, the kind of imagination and feelings the filmmakers had as children watching The Twilight Zone. Kick The Can is ostensibly about a group of old people, who have lost their youthful vigor and simple childish pleasures in life, given a chance to be young again. This transformation from Old to Young informs the rest of the film. The audience is told to remember their childhood games alongside the old people. For viewers of the original show, it may signal a nostalgic call. The segment is boring, even though it has interesting layers, like the skeptical old man who misses his chance to be young out of stubbornness. That manages the Spielberg bittersweet feeling, even if it's a small dose. The childhood whimsy continues into the best segment of the film, directed by Joe Dante, It's A Good Life. It's a child's power fantasy. Adults are afraid of a child with a powerful imagination. It is manic, creepy, bizarre, funny, and has the live-action cartoon antics that are exemplary of Dante's style. If you're thinking, "Jeeze Fran, you're spending a lot of time writing about a movie you introduced as mediocre... and what was the deal with that framing device with the theme park ride?" There is nightmare fuel here for the whole family. A common parental fear is that they are raising an evil child. Hell, plenty of adults are afraid of weird children. On the flip side, if you told a child their cruel thoughts and mean-spirited imagination could manifest into reality, while this offers a power fantasy (and the story leans into it), it also opens the door for nightmares to manifest. The actual segment, while a remake of an original Twilight Zone episode (they mostly all are), feels like a twisted mini-memoir, a manic love-letter from adult Joe Dante to child Joe Dante, who lead a sickly life afflicted with polio and other illnesses and conditions, who stayed up late at night to watch movies on TV, who drew cartoons and animated them with a slapshod rotoscope made of paper and cardboard. It has the same gleeful energy as Gremlins 2. It is so good, it is not only worth the price of admission, I would say it's an essential bit of Dante. It takes a well-known episode of the original Twilight Zone series, which is notably still an effectively creepy story, and makes it absolutely new and different while maintaining the original premise.  I had seen George Miller's Nightmare at 20,000 Feet in bits and pieces on the Sci-Fi Channel. It's also probably the most ubiquitous story with the Twilight Zone, having been countlessly referenced. It's an interesting adaptation in that it is closer to the modern experience of flying in a post-9/11 airplane than the original. John Lithgow is fun in the main role of Mr. Valentine. The monster/gremlin looks kinda cool. This segment feels like being a child and every adult is incredulous towards you. It's solid, but after learning it was edited by Dante, it makes me like Dante even more. It's a mixed bag that is undermined by the first segment in every way possible. That said, there are some high highs here, and since its an anthology film, they arguably work as standalone pieces, although I do think that the meditations on youth and childhood fantasies and feelings of powerlessness throughout the majority of the film make this an interesting work as a whole. It just made me wonder: who the gently caress thought Landis was a good fit for this? Even if Spielberg tonally missed the mark, at least he was keyed into a similar headspace as Dante and Miller. Unless we only have what we have because of the accident, and the segments we have are an attempt to grasp at some semblence of innocence.  : Light RecommendedTotal: 2 New: 1 Rewatches: 1 Movies Watched: Tenebre | Twilight Zone: The Movie
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May 9, 2023 19:19
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Franchescanado posted:When I was a child, my parents took me on a trip to Disney World in Orlando. It was a weekend at multiple parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and MGM Studios (now known as Hollywood Studios). It was probably 1996. There was a (relatively) new ride that had been getting a lot of air on The Disney Channel called Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror. Despite my proclivities towards horror now, I was a cowardly child.  I chickened out the first time my parents tried to take me on that ride, I can't remember how old I was but probably too old to be terrified of a Disney ride. We went back a couple years later and I got on and loved it.
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May 9, 2023 19:24
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 7. The Boxer's Omen (1983) (dir. Kuei Chih-Hung) blu-ray History Lesson: 1980sIn this completely insane Shaw Brothers film, a Hong Kong gangster travels to Thailand and becomes a Buddhist monk in order to learn magic and fight a group of black magicians. I went in expecting a bonkers movie, but this out-bonkers even my high expectations. Rarely does more than a minute or two go by before some new wild idea is thrown on screen. Skeletal bats, big fuzzy fake spiders, reanimated crocodile skulls, ancient mushrooms, blood and gore and magic bolts and undead fighters… and all that barely scratches the surface. It’s fantastic and super fun. It’s also gross as hell - there are scenes in this that made me feel physically ill, and I have a strong stomach. Casting black magic apparently involves lots of eating disgusting things, regurgitating them, and then passing them to your magician buddy who shoves the mush into his own mouth and repeats the process. If you like crazy Asian ‘80s horror films like The Seventh Curse or Seeding of a Ghost, this is fantastic and a must see. Just be prepared for some extremely gross bits. 4.5  out of 5Total: 7 Watched: Lokis, a Manuscript of Professor Wittembach | The Manitou (Challenge #3) | Spoonful of Sugar (Challenge #1) | Faust (Challenge #5) | The Medium | Ringu (Challenge #8) | The Boxer's Omen Challenges: History Lesson: 5/5 - 1920s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2020s Geography Lesson: 4/5 - Europe, North America, Southeast Asia, Asia
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May 9, 2023 19:28
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13. History of the Occult (2020) I honestly don't wanna say too much about this movie because I went in blind and holy poo poo. Rough outline is it follows a group of journalists investigating Argentinian politicians being implicated in a ritual murder committed by a disappearing man, with the whole movie framed by a current affairs show delivering the results of the investigation. The best description is I can pitch is "imagine David Lynch made A Few Good Men", massive Twin Peaks vibes. I feel like I have to rewatch it immediately just to really piece it all together, because there's so much going on constantly. Counts for meta-challenge Geography Lesson (South America via Argentina) Watched so far: The Borderlands, Nosferatu (Shooting Zombies), Shed of the Dead (Challenge of the Dead), Djinn (Holy Terror), Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon (Tales from the Cryptids), Dolly Dearest (Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things), A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (It's-a Me!), The Addams Family (Drawn and Quartered), White Dog (Woke in Fright), Scream 3 (Second Chance), There's Something Wrong with the Children (Fresh Hell), Bliss (Horror High), History of the Occult Total: 13/13 Hell yeah, 13/13, and only one more movie left to finish Geography Lesson to finish the challenges.
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May 9, 2023 19:29
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gey muckle mowser posted:
That’s nothing. I was so scared of the Haunted Mansion I sobbed uncontrollably and my mom had to wait outside with me. I don’t remember how old I was but it was definitely too old to throw a temper tantrum.
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May 9, 2023 21:20
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14. Coming Home in the Dark (2021) A family vacation is hijacked by two homeless men seeking revenge for something the father of the family did in his past. It's a really tight movie, super tense through the whole thing, no wasted scenes at all, the sort of movie you're exhausted after because you've been clenched up the whole time. Special credit to Daniel Gillies, who just projects sinister menace the whole time, while being weirdly affable and chatty. Counts for meta-challenge Geography Lesson (Oceania via New Zealand) Watched so far: The Borderlands, Nosferatu (Shooting Zombies), Shed of the Dead (Challenge of the Dead), Djinn (Holy Terror), Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon (Tales from the Cryptids), Dolly Dearest (Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things), A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (It's-a Me!), The Addams Family (Drawn and Quartered), White Dog (Woke in Fright), Scream 3 (Second Chance), There's Something Wrong with the Children (Fresh Hell), Bliss (Horror High), History of the Occult, Coming Home in the Dark Total: 14/13 And that's every challenge complete! CHALLENGES: 1. Horror High - Bliss (2019) 2. Tales from the Cryptids - Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon (2008) 3. Holy Terror - Djinn (2013) 4. Fresh Hell - There's Something Wrong with the Children (2023) 5. Shooting Zombies - Nosferatu (1922) 6. Drawn and Quartered - The Addams Family (2019) 7. Woke in Fright - White Dog (1982) 8. Second Chance - Scream 3 (2000) 9. Challenge of the Dead - Shed of the Dead (2019) 10. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things - Dolly Dearest (1991) 11. It's-a Me! - A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971) 12. History Lesson (5/5 completed) - Nosferatu (1920s), A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1970s), Dolly Dearest (1990s), Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon (2000s), Shed of the Dead (2010s) 13. Geography Lesson (5/5 completed) - Nosferatu (Europe, via Germany), Djinn (Middle East, via UAE), Scream 3 (North America, via USA), History of the Occult (South America, via Argentina), Coming Home in the Dark (Oceania, via New Zealand)
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May 9, 2023 22:05
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Is As Above So Below well-regarded enough for Challenge 8: Second Chance? I see people list it all the time as one of the best found footage movies, and sometimes even as a good movie beyond the found footage format.
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May 9, 2023 22:21
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3. Boxer's Omen (1983, dir.Kuei Chih-Hung ) Hong-Kong When his brother is seriously injured in a boxing match against a Muy Thai master gangster Chan Hung travels to Thailand to seek revenge but seen gets tangled in a twisted web of black magic intrigue. A wonderfully unhinged film with maybe two (2) whole scenes of boxing in the entire film but a lot of magical duels and more than one quest for sacred artifacts. Chan Hung teams up with Buddhists monks to stop the dark wizards seemingly a couple of hours after arriving in Thailand and then spends 3 months of his life training with them after shaving his head, changing his name, and promising to refrain from all his favorite vices. A gangster/boxer turned monk is a great concept and leading actor Phillip Ko really manages to sell that he doesn't really want to be doing any of this mystical crap but has too since he has no choice. I'm really fascinated with how black magic is shown in this film. Usually in the Hong-Kong films I've seen if there's a wizard of some sort it's mostly a load of wires and overlayed lightning shooting from fingertips accompanied with some pyrotechnics for effect. Not in this film. In this film it's all very earthy and labor intensive and more often than not revolting. Magic seems to involve a lot of body parts, both human and animal, and a lot of chewing and spitting out horrible things again and again and again. The dark wizards in this film do not simply read some magic words to raise the dead no they need to tear a rat apart with their teeth and spit the blood unto a skeleton or sew a corpse into an alligator if they want to achieve something like that. This stands in very sharp contrast with the good magic of the Buddhist monks which seems to consist mostly of lens flare and occasionally superimposed Sanskrit lettering. It's structured very unusually which, along with the often trippy visuals and mystical subject matter, helps to keep you suitably confused but since there is always something new and strange happening you never really get a chance to notice too much. That being said it starts to drag ever so slightly bit around the end in a bit that feels like a it's as much of a tourism ad for Nepal as it is a build up for the heist of a sacred relic but picks up again very quickly for great a final showdown. I really need to track down more magic based Hong-Kong films if they're anything like this because Boxer's Omen is a visually stunning feast for the eyes that also might genuinely make you vomit. 4. Tourist Trap (1978, dir.David Schmoeller ) USA  A group of young people find themselves stranded in a creepy Wild West museum in the middle of nowhere where the mannequins are not what they seem. It has some decent kills but the film seems to be holding back and there isn't really any gore to speak off except for a few splashes of blood here and there. It feels like they were holding back in order to avoid a strict rating and the film suffers for it. Though the best and most horrifying death is via plaster and involves not a single drop of blood so they obviously knew how to do something There are some twists and turns but most of them, except for one wonderfully bonkers one, are fairly predictable from the start. Despite being made before the slasher formula had really been codified it still follows structure closely. You have a group of young people trying to have fun but getting picked off by a masked psycho and the main character is even a sort of Final Girl type. The main difference is probably that there isn't a lot of slashing or stabbing involved and even when there is it's often via telekinesis as the killer uses his mind to fling objects, sometimes sharp objects, at people. That being said the film is worth watching for the creepy animated mannequins alone. When they get going it feels deeply and viscerally wrong; the way they flail around and the very disturbing way some of their mouths move is horrifying and not something I recall seeing anywhere else. Would this count for gey muckle mowser posted:10. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things or aren"t mannequins dolls? 5. The New York Ripper (1982, dir. Lucio Fulci) Italy  A serial killer is stalking the streets of New York preying on young women and making taunting calls to the police using a very poor imitation of Donald Duck. Very grimy and sleazy even by 1980s Italian standards. The film largely consists on brief glimpses into the lives of women, who are more often and not treated by the men around them as sex objects, who are then mutilated and murdered by the titular Ripper. Almost every man is a creep and almost every woman is a victim. I'm sure a lot of people have made some assumption about Fulci's views on women from this film but I'm not sure if he's actually reflecting his own views or just depicting the rampant misogyny of society. Probably a bit of both. This films takes a look at the seedy underbelly of New York and slits it open so that the guts come pouring out. Since this is Fulci all of this filth is very expertly handled with a keen eye for artistic gore. There is plenty of slashing One of the high-points of the film is a POV shot from inside the throat of a victim looking out as it is slit open by the killer. One thing that surprised me is that this is seemingly filmed mostly in actual New York. I was expecting something like Rumble in the Bronx or Living Dead in the Manchester Morgue where it takes place in a certain place but is for budget reasons shot in an entirely different country. Like many New York centered films of the era it really captures the grit and filth that seems to have clung to the entire city before the rough edges were sanded down and most the rougher spots gentrified beyond recognition. The time when there were porno theaters and strip clubs where there are no chain stores and tourist traps. Though I've never been to New York and know it second hand it always fascinates me to see older films from recognizable places and to see how they have changed since filming. Like watching any Icelandic film before 2000 and marveling at the total and utter lack of trees except in this case the trees are prostitution. FreudianSlippers fucked around with this message at 00:07 on May 10, 2023 |
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May 9, 2023 23:22
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Gripweed posted:Is As Above So Below well-regarded enough for Challenge 8: Second Chance? I see people list it all the time as one of the best found footage movies, and sometimes even as a good movie beyond the found footage format. yeah I’d say so, it’s not an all-time classic or anything but a lot of people (myself included) really like it and it gets talked about enough to be worth revisiting.
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May 9, 2023 23:59
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Gripweed posted:Is As Above So Below well-regarded enough for Challenge 8: Second Chance? I see people list it all the time as one of the best found footage movies, and sometimes even as a good movie beyond the found footage format. It's one of the better found/FPS footage entries I've seen. I think it gets a little goofy towards the end where their CGI reach exceeds their grasp/budget, but if you're into creepy claustrophobic stuff like The Descent it's definitely worth another shot iMO. e: Also glad to see all the Boxer's Omen love going on ITT https://i.imgur.com/AeN8zaI_lq.mp4 Takes No Damage fucked around with this message at 00:33 on May 10, 2023 |
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May 10, 2023 00:30
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#10: M3gan 4. Fresh Hell  I'm just gonna echo what everyone else has already said. Super solid movie, hits all the beats you'd want from a killer doll movie without feeling like a retread, knowingly campy without going too far and becoming obnoxious, the characters are well fleshed out, never really puts a foot wrong. Just a good killer doll time. I'm very happy to hear it's getting a sequel, this absolutely feels like a franchise that could go forever based on the strength of the monster design. I am onboard for M3gan 2 and I will be on board for M3gan 10. gey muckle mowser posted:yeah I’d say so, it’s not an all-time classic or anything but a lot of people (myself included) really like it and it gets talked about enough to be worth revisiting. oh good. I watched in once ages ago as part of a big found footage binge and wasn't really impressed. The persistent positive mentions of it have had me thinking I need to give it another go. Challenges in progress 12. History lesson: 1990s (The Relic) 2000s (The Mothman Prophecies) 2010s (Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi File 05: Preface True Story Of The Ghost Of Yotsuya) 2020s (Scream) 13. Geography Lesson: North America (The Relic) Asia (Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi File 05: Preface True Story Of The Ghost Of Yotsuya) Challenges complete 2: Tales from the Cryptids: Mothman Prophecies (because of mothman) 3. Holy Terror: Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi File 05: Preface True Story Of The Ghost Of Yotsuya (because of Shinto) 4. Fresh Hell: M3gan
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May 10, 2023 01:02
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My appreciation of As Above So Below comes largely in how well I think the film subtlety balances each characters’s journey with the not at all subtle Dante’s Inferno theme. Each one has their own little story and the movie uses the found footage approach to creepily interject bits and pieces.
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May 10, 2023 01:07
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16. Hellraiser - 2022 Directed by David Bruckner 🎃 History Lesson - 2020s 🎃  This is probably the best you could hope for if someone offered to reboot the Hellraiser series, especially considering the state of the franchise. It takes the original mythology and tweaks it enough to present a standalone story that doesn't rely on winking references to the original. It's also nice to have a protagonist with friends they care about and have the Cenobites be a little more active while staying alien. 💀💀💀.5/5 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 5/13 1. Horror High - Bliss 2. Tales from the Cryptids - Mongolian Death Worm 3. Holy Terror - Incantation 4. Fresh Hell - The Pope’s Exorcist 5. Shooting Zombies - The Fall of the House of Usher 6. Drawn and Quartered - Violence Voyager 7. Woke in Fright 8. Second Chance 9. Challenge of the Dead 10. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things 11. It's-a Me! 12. History lesson - Evil Ed (1990s); Do You Like Hitchcock? (2000s); Hellraiser (2020s) 13. Geography Lesson Completed Collections * The Basket Case Trilogy 🧺🧺🧺/🧺🧺🧺 * The Firefly Collection 🤡🤡🤡/🤡🤡🤡 * The Blind Dead Collection ⛪⛪⛪⛪/⛪⛪⛪⛪ * The Ginger Snaps Collection 🐺🐺🐺/🐺🐺🐺
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May 10, 2023 03:48
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 18 (27). Mom and Dad (2017) Written and diretced by Brian Taylor I know we get into like zombie movie tactical realism survivalist strategy debates and they suck. But like shouldn't this one be manageable? You only want to kill your kid. You're rational otherwise. They seem to be picking up on that quick. That poo poo's actually kind of easy to manage. I feel like there probably should have been a better response in this well off community or something. I dunno. This walked a line with me but ultimately didn't work. This shade of dark comedy is too much for me generally. I don't really love or hate Cage but him just going over the top in and of itself isn't enough for me. That does seem to be the main draw for people and like I get it. But there doesn't seem to be a lot beyond that. Like there's a unique premise and a setup and it gets backed into a corner of conflict... and then... it ends. I think they forgot to write an ending. Brien Taylor obviously doesn't write sophisticated films. That's ok. Again, it feels like this may have started with "lets have Nick Cage go loving nuts" and it feels like that's not a rare starting point these days. But I don't think there's a full film here. There could have been. It probably wouldn't have been fully my thing. But I feel like they said "Lets have Nick Cage go loving nuts", figured out a reason to make him do that, and got to the point where they figure out what comes next and just stopped. The more I thought about this the more I just really disliked it. I don’t even know why it annoys me so much. It just really does. gey muckle mowser posted:
 19 (28). Big Legend (2018) Written and Directed by Justin Lee Watched on Amazon Prime This could have been worse, but it sure could have been better. I picked it because it looked like one of the more decently made Bigfoot films and it had Lance Henriksen and Adrienne Barbeau in the credits. Don’t count on them, they’re in maybe 10 minutes of film combined. But it was competently enough made. I definitely feel like I could have watched a lot worse in the Bigfoot genre. Its clearly low budget but the director uses a lot of reasonably well shot footage of the gorgeous forest to really get past that in a similar way that found footage does. I’ve said that there’s so many bad Bigfoot movies because its so drat easy to go film a piece of crap with a dude in a suit in the woods but this is at least a decently shot one of those. Where it fails is probably on the lead who simply isn’t up to the task of carrying such a character driven story. 90% of the film is us just with this guy, and most of that the he’s not even talking. So it takes a lot to make that work. And he’s not a very well written character nor is this a very well written plot. But Kevin Makely also doesn’t really add anything to the equation besides a solid beard and a need to take down or turn up his performance about 15% at any given point of the film. The film’s better when the wacky other guy is around since he not only has character beyond stoic silence and angst but he’s also just a better actor. Sorry, dude. Maybe next time you make a film so heavily reliant on your lead you should do some casting instead of just getting your buddy who is really into Bigfoot. The film attempts to go full Predator at the end… again, it could have been a lot worse. The Bigfoot costume isn’t great but its not terrible and even though the action is a little goofy especially with Bigfoot fighting like a dude and not an animal its more action paced than the entire film to that point so it kind of feels climactic by default. Of course the real climax of this film is a comically audacious tease of a sequel/cinematic universe. If you thought The Mummy and Universal were cocky trying to establish an entire Dark Universe the way they did wait until you see the pure balls it takes to try and do that here. I’m actually disappointed he didn’t follow through and make the sequel. I definitely would have watched it out of sheer curiosity if he did. You could do worse for Bigfoot. You could be better for bad cinema. Its definitely not really a film worth watching unless you’re really interested in another Bigfoot film that’s just kind of topping out at mediocre.  20 (29). Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966) Directed by Jun Fukuda, Screenplay by Shinichi Sekizawa Watched on HBOMax Godzilla is such a dick. First he and Ebirah are having a perfectly pleasant game of catch and splashing each other when he has to go and boil Ebirah with his atomic breath. Which has to be a micro aggression against shellfish, right? Then he just picks a fight with Mothra while she's trying to evacuate some people. What a jerk. I was on a nice run with these movie a year ago when I hit the weird Star Trekky Astro Monster and that just derailed me completely apparently. I kept meaning to get back into this but the way the film got so weird in such an unexpected way really threw me. This one's pretty weird too. Like the vibe both give off is that the producers know they have kaiju movies to sell but now they're doing them in other films. I guess that's not dissimilar to the way like the MCU works now with the brand and super hero thing being the market appeal but different sort of films or vibes happening. I dunno. Any way this is a weird one. Like almost a wacky teen comedy Bond film or something? I dunno. Stop me if you've heard this one. A bunch of bros lose a dancing competition to win a yacht because they want to go search for their shipwrecked bro only to steal a boat from a bank robber and then they all get shipwrecked when they're attacked by Ebirah the giant crab and they end up on Mothra's island where her little fairy ladies are trying to wake her up to help the locals because a group of terrorists are there building nukes and controlling the giant crab so then the bros stumble across a napping Godzilla and wake him up so he can fight the terrorists, Ebirah, and a giant bird and then he just gets carried away and fights Mothra too until she once again leaves his aggro rear end behind. Its weird. Not unamusing. The kauju stuff is good althogh it feels like it as a long time to get to it and then its just Godzilla rampaging around like a jerk. But that stuff is solid. Ebirah is actually really cool looking. Godzilla kind of looks like a muppet and not in a good way. Bit it is what it is. The shots of the two of them facing off as Ebirah stands in the ocean and Godzilla stands on land are really cool and would be super bad rear end if they had figured out a better way for them to fight than playing catch. But that's fun too. And then Mothra showed up because I guess they had her in storage or something? I dunno. I'd really love to understand how this film got written. Apparently it was a King Kong film with Rankins, Bass, and Honda at first? That's weird. It definitely could have had more kaiju. Ebirah's not around that much in his own film and Godzilla and Mothra literally sleep through most of the film. But there's some fun stuff. And if you can vibe the silly campiness of it all its probably a lot of fun. Still the first half of this is really kind of rough as you try very hard to care about this very silly human stuff. I'm not one against human melodrama in kaiju films but like... this stuff is just silly. But if that can connect with you then great. I didn't hate it or anything. It was a fun enough watch especially once the monster action started. But man... we've definitely gotten into deep silly territory here. 🌼💀Spook-a-Doodle Half-Way-to-Halloween ’23: Spring Cleaning💀🌼 Watched - New (Total) - (1). Scream (1996); 1 (2). The Invisible Man’s Revenge (1944); 2 (3). Viral (2016); - (4). Scream 2 (1997); 3 (5). Mostly Ghostly 3: One Night in Doom House (2016); 4 (6). Man-Thing (2005); - (7). Vampires (1998); - (8). Vampires: Los Muertos (2002); 5 (9). Vampires: The Turning (2005); 6 (10). Evil Ed (1995); - (11). Scream 3 (2000); 7 (12). Do You Like Hitchcock? (2005); 8 (13). Day of the Dead: Bloodline (2017); - (14). Scream 4 (2011); - (15). Scream (2022); 9 (16). This Island Earth (1955); 10 (17). A Field in England (2013); 11 (18). Scream: The Inside Story (2011); 12 (19). Scream VI (2023); 13 (20). My Best Friend’s Exorcism (2022); - (21). Fright Night (2011); - (22). Brain Damage (1988); 14 (23). Fright Night Part 2 (1988); 15 (24)Children of the Corn (2020); 16 (25). The Signal (2014); 17 (26). The Mole People (1956); 18 (27). Mom and Dad (2017); 19 (28). Big Legend (2018); 20 (29). Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966); Return of the Fallen: 4/13 - Viral; Day of the Dead: Bloodline; My Best Friend’s Exorcism; The Signal; Completed Collections: 5/13 - The Invisible Man; Mostly Ghostly; John Carpenter’s Vampires; Scream; Children of the Corn; Spook-A-Doodle Challenges: 7/13 - Day of the Dead: Bloodline (Challenge of the Dead); A Field in England (Horror High); Scream VI (Fresh Hell); Brain Damage (Second Chance); Children of the Corn ’20 (Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things); Big Legend (Tales from the Cryptids); Meta Challenges: History Lesson: 8/5 - The Invisible Man's Revenge (1940s); This Island Earth (1950s); Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1960s); Fright Night Part 2 (1980s); Evil Ed (1990s); Man Thing (2000s); Viral (2010s); Scream VI (2020s); Meta Challenges: Geography Lesson: 4/5 - The Invisible Man's Revenge (North America); Evil Ed (Europe); Man Thing (Australia/Oceania); Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (Asia);
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May 10, 2023 04:01
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Wait Rankin? Bass? The throws folk music in all their cartoons Hobbit people? They almost made a Godzilla movie? I guess we found Wes Anderson’s next film.
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May 10, 2023 05:59
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Xiahou Dun posted:Wait Rankin? Bass? The throws folk music in all their cartoons Hobbit people? They almost made a Godzilla movie? They apparently made a King Kong cartoon and wanted to bring him back to the big screen to coincide. And that's what the movie was originally gonna be. But Toho was insistent on Jun Fukuda directing and Rankin-Bass were insistent on Ishiro Honda soRankin/Bass pulled out and took King Kong with him. So Toho replaced him with Godzilla. Rankin/Bass would then work with Toho and Honda to make King Kong Escapes a year later. History is crazy.
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May 10, 2023 06:19
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Terrifier (2016) -- Good luck on your interview tomorrow. A standard slasher with reasonable goop and gore, but stuffed so full of tropes it's hard to imagine anyone taking it seriously enough to be offended. If anything the infamous cleft in twain scene was a tamed down version of the actual medieval execution method. No way that lovely little hacksaw would have moved that fast  Slasher ladies, when you get the drop on the killer and stab him once, that is not, in fact, your cue to get up and run away  Slasher ladies, when you discover a mutilated body and literally have a phone in your hand, you do not, in fact, have to use the flashlight function to explore dark scary passages. You can use the phone as a phone  OK the whole thing being a flashback was a decent twist, points for that at least. Recommended for being a decent slasher, but it's reputation as being anything shocking is well overblown IMO. ⚞💀Progress Tracker💀⚟ 01. Idle Hands 🎃History Lesson 1990s🎃 🎃Horror High🎃 02. Maniac Cop 🎃History Lesson 1980s🎃 03. Skinamarink 🎃History Lesson 2020s🎃 🎃Fresh Hell (released in North America in January)🎃 04. Ginger Snaps 🎃History Lesson 2000s🎃 05. The Night Eats the World 🎃History Lesson 2010s🎃 06. Terrifier
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May 10, 2023 09:13
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#8 The Fog (1980), rewatch A small town is terrorised by vengeful ghosts, who manifest only in... THE FOG. I watched this quite a few years ago, when I was going through all of John Carpenter's catalogue for the first time, and I didn't think much of it. It felt very slow, and small-stakes; it didn't land for me. Anyway, I figured I'd give it another shot. I loved it. I was surprised how much I loved it! It eases us into the lives of these different people, and then brings their plot threads together, in a way that's just very charming. The ghost scenes look fantastic - probably helps that I'm watching this on a decent TV instead of a laptop screen this time around. It doesn't have the same focus on a central character or grand stakes that some of Carpenter's later flicks have, but I cared about these people, you know?  Anyway, this is my entry for Second Chance, and I'm really glad I gave it a shot. I recall there are some other Fog-skeptics in the main thread, and I would really encourage them to give it another spin. 4/5  #9 Razorback (1984), first watch  A small town in the Australian outback is harassed by two real piece of poo poo brothers, Benny and Dicko. Also there's a giant boar who is just sort of around. Eh. There are a lot of lovely shots, like seriously nice-looking trippy shots of the landscape, the night, the fog, coloured lighting, people in silhouette. But most of the movie itself is just killing time, enduring the acidic company of the brothers, wondering if the big pig is going to show up. There's some cool sets, I guess, and the special effects for the razorback are quite good (and effectively-used). Nice to look at, just temper your expectations regarding the pig itself.  2/5
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May 10, 2023 13:42
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gey muckle mowser posted:
 #10. Survival of the Dead (2009) (Amazon Prime) As the world falls apart due to a zombie outbreak, a small group of survivors get stuck in a war between families on a small island off the coast of Delaware that was promised to be a safe haven. George Romero was always an ideas guy, and sometimes his thoughts and plans would fall outside of the scope of his ability to capture on film. There's a low-budget documentary feel to Night of the Living Dead and even the beginning of Dawn of the Dead that stem from his original job working on short industrial films that really elevate the material. The more the ...of the Dead films feel like real life, the better they work. This even extends to Day of the Dead, which is controversial and can be shrill and unpleasant, but that sort of brittle hostility only feeds into the idea that this is a window to a type of reality; human beings do not do well under that kind of sustained stress. I picked Survival of the Dead because, on paper, it seems like it should be a continuation of the ideas introduced in Day that Romero never got a chance to properly flesh out - the ideas that zombies are tameable or domesticate-able, that there is a possibility for self-direction and even grace and forgiveness for them. Couple that with an idea that people would chain up zombies under the hope that a cure for the zombie virus might one day be found, and there are elements with which Romero could create an intriguing new take on the mythos he helped create and popularize. Unfortunately, execution ends up tanking the whole thing here. Ideas are brought up but never fully expanded or explored; I did love the fact that the bad guy was right in his idea that zombies could be trained to eat something other than human flesh, but that no one in the principal cast of survivors ever find that out, as the one person to see it gets merced by her dad immediately before being able to report it, though. Any themes about forgiveness or domestication or anything take a back seat to a weirdly flaccid "Hatfields vs. McCoys" take; while I can appreciate the last shot of the two patriarch zombies being cursed to go through the motions of pistols at dawn forever in their eternal afterlife, the rest of it is incredibly rote and not as interesting as other "humans are the real monsters!" takes that Romero has put forth before. Couple all of that with terrible scripting, bad acting and weak gore effects that are far too reliant on cheap CGI gimmickry, and this may end up being the worst of Romero's zombie output by a pretty wide margin. And I'm only not rating it worse because of the little thematic depth I went plumbing for, and the affection for the man who created a whole subgenre of horror films, only to prove that he had long since run out of anything worthwhile to say within it. Not recommended. /5Watched so far: The Seed, Witchboard, The Visitor, Mad God, Eyes Without a Face, A Field in England, Dolly Dearest, Black Sabbath, The Boxer's Omen, Survival of the Dead
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May 10, 2023 15:45
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Movie #10: Braindead aka Dead Alive (1992) 8. Second Chance "That's my mother you're pissing on!" I saw Braindead on a dodgy VHS tape when it was new, and I was still quite young. I've always been sensitive to blood and violence, but back as a kid I was hyper-sensitive. You can guess how well Braindead went down with me. I remember liking the comedy and the general goofiness of the film, but having nightmares of the bloody parts for a few weeks. But now I'm old and desensitized! Braindead is basically a zombie movie, even though the monsters aren't literally zombies, "they're just... sort of rotting" and really angry, after getting bitten by a Sumatran Rat-Monkey. Since the infection can be traced back to our main character's mother, he spends a considerable amount of the movie trying to unsuccesfully contain the infection to comic effect. I'm glad I went back to the movie, because I bloody loved Braindead. The film has this very charming naivety and goofiness about it, which is underlined by Jackson's cinematography. There's a whole bunch of shots that would be at home in an Evil Dead movie. In fact the whole film kind of came across like it could have been a cheaply made children's TV special or a very old silent movie era romantic comedy (albeit not silent) with the very simple and dramatic soundtrack, the aforementioned strange shots and the acting performances which are very amateurish and exaggerated. None of this is bad, it just gives the movie a very unique tone which I adored. And then the hyper-violence started. And yeah, watching it even now, I can definitely see why the violence freaked me the gently caress out as a young kid. In the style of the rest of the film, the violence is extremely cartoonish albeit also intensely graphic and loving gross. The sound effects are incredibly squishly and loud, which just makes it all the more brutal. I genuinely felt a bit nauseous early on in the film when a big fat man is eating custard mixed with bloody pus accompanied by loud smacking and squelching. I was trying to eat ice cream at the time too. God damnit, Peter Jackson. Heads get torn off, faces ripped apart, and that's before we even get to zombies being mulched with a lawnmower, or all the truly memorable stuff! Braindead may be the bloodiest and most brutal movie I have ever seen, while also being loving hilarious. Some real next level slapstick stuff. It's remarkable that Peter Jackson got this done with a comparatively limited budget. In my books Braindead goes right up there next to Evil Dead 2 and Shaun of the Dead as one of the best horror comedies of all time. It's silly, it's bloody, it's absolutely disgusting and it's hilarious from start to finish. The Best Part: The humour. So many of the jokes flew over my head as a kid, but now I lost my poo poo several times. My favourite? A zombie punk is menacing a dweeb at a party, and the dweeb yells "OK, I take it back! I'm sorry I called Nabokov a paedophile!" / 5My May 2023 Movies: 1. Black Friday!, 2. Hood of the Living Dead, 3. Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron, 4. Psycho (1960), 5. Mandy, 6. Knock at the Cabin, 7. Suburban Sasquatch, 8. Bay of Blood, 9. Saloum, 10. Braindead Challenges Completed: 1. Horror High (Mandy) 2. Tales from the Cryptids (Suburban Sasquatch) 3. Holy Terror (Saloum) 4. Fresh Hell (Knock at the Cabin) 5. Shooting Zombies (Psycho) 6. Drawn and Quartered (Hellboy Animated) 8. Second Chance (Braindead) 9. Challenge of the Dead (Hood of the Living Dead) 11. It's-a-Me! (Bay of Blood) History Lesson (Complete): Psycho (1960), Bay of Blood (1971), Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron (2007), Mandy (2018), Knock at the Cabin (2023) Geography Lesson: (4/5): North America (Psycho), Europe (Bay of Blood), Africa (Saloum), Australia/New Zealand (Braindead)
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May 10, 2023 17:38
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Lmao I had to pause at exactly 27:30 because of the custard scene, particularly when the mom eats her own fallen-off ear. I gotta come back on an empty stomach (hopefully this month!) because I could tell from everything before then that I’ll definitely dig it once it all goes off the rails
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May 10, 2023 18:43
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Yea that scene makes me physically ill. The most recent few times I've rewatched the movie I pretty much just look completely away from the screen until it's over.
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May 10, 2023 18:44
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 3) M3gan - 2022 - Theater & Peacock Yeah, I was interested the moment I saw the trailer for this one. It just came across so whole ham crazy, I had to see if the movie delivered on the trailer promise. Narrator: Yes, it definitely did. Story follows an AI doll that becomes self aware and what the ramifications are from that along with how we form dependence on our tech. It's rare for me to be able to say this at this point, but this film definitely managed to unnerve me, though likely not as it would for others. I know this is probably going to make me seem like some sort of luddite, but I'm uncomfortable around certain aspects of modern technology. For example, my fiance got one of those Google/Alexa things for free. We didn't use it much, but one time he asked me something and the Alexa which was supposed to be off spoke up. It unnerved me enough to unplug it and put it in a drawer. At this time, it's still unplugged and in a box from our moving to our current place. M3gan's inter-connectivity just gets under my skin. I'm not even comfortable using the 'Sign in with Google' type options when I sign up for a service. I guess this all stems from my awareness of how easily something can go wrong with this sort of thing. I remember years back when I was taking classes, something happened with Google Drive and people weren't able to access files. One of my classes had a paper due and most of my class was freaking out, trying to get an extension from the professor and here I was with my paper ready to go because I kept backups on a USB drive. I understand the convenience, but to me it just seems like it opens the door for when something goes wrong, for it to go really wrong. In the case of this film, yeah, things go really wrong. M3gan's logic makes sense for her, but it's without the nuance of humanity. She's following her programming directive of protect Cady. Then there's Cady's attachment to M3gan, which also disconcerting. Granted Cady's dealing with the trauma of the car accident that killed her parents along with having to live with her aunt who's not really a child raising type, this is a catalyst for where the film goes. Going from my experience with my kids, children are very perceptive. They might not grasp the nuances, but they do pick up on the gist. Cady knows on some degree that her aunt sees her/the situation as a nuisance. Gemma is shown early on to be one of those who's set in their place in life and having a child in that life does not fit the equation. This doesn't make Gemma a bad person, just not too good with adapting to change. With creating M3gan, Gemma's given Cady the parent she's not ready to be, someone who will always be with her forever. This brings up an issue that's gone on for decades, technology as child care. When I was a kid, the concern was the TV as a babysitter. The news regularly reported on kids being plopped in front of the TV for hours, hyping up fears that they wouldn't discern reality from TV fiction or health concerns over sitting in front of a screen for hours at a time/or not going outside to play as much as previous generations. Had similar about video games with kids would get desensitized to violence and would be in poor health since they weren't going outside so much. Now, we have the Internet and apps for children with parents giving their kids tablets to focus on for hours at a time. We've all seen kids have tantrums if their tablet dies or an app stops working along with seeing on the news how some kid died doing a TikTok challenge that the rest of us look at and wonder 'why would you even do this in the first place'. Again we have the concerns over parents relying too heavily on electronic distractions rather than interacting with their children. The movie ramps up that concern. M3gan's algorithms and inter-connectivity make it easy for the still grieving Cady to bond with her rather than with her distant and still adjusting aunt. Now, I do completely understand the aspect of having something to occupy the kids so you can get house stuff done or just have a moment to refocus, and I have known parents who pretty much put a game tablet in their kids hands as fast as they could and rely on it so much I wanted to ask them 'why did you have a kid in the first place?' as well as parents who pretty much gave up their identity to become 'kid's name's parents' and are so involved with every aspect of their kid's life that you can't help but wonder how the kid's going to deal with life when the parents aren't around. Obviously, these extremes got issues. There is a middle point here of 'in moderation'. Let the kid have some fun with the tech, but make sure you interact with the kid beyond making sure they've got food and clothes. Go do things together, go outside and play, get some sun, enjoy the air. We're a social species after all, and part of our humanity is our connections with each other. With all that said, this movie's a must see. The actors bring their A-game and then some. Before seeing the film, I watched a behind the scenes clip with the actress playing M3gan and her energy and excitement about the role just had me more amped to see the movie. Considering how good the box office was for the film, there will be a sequel and I can't wait to see it. gey muckle mowser posted:
The challenges of parenting in the modern era with the increasing dependence on technology/social media.
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May 10, 2023 18:55
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Basebf555 posted:Yea that scene makes me physically ill. The most recent few times I've rewatched the movie I pretty much just look completely away from the screen until it's over. The later scene where he's trying to feed the zombies, and the weird mush keeps oozing out of the nurse's partially decapitated neck, until he just gives up, flips the head back and dumps it down her neck hole was another one where I started getting physically nauseous.
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May 10, 2023 19:14
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I tried to show Dead Alive to some friends once and the custard scene was when one of them had to go lay down from nausea. We did not finish the movie. It sounds bragadocious, but I've never been grossed out by Dead Alive. I'm curious if the new transfer on 4k UHD will change that. Mostly skinlessness grosses me out. The last time I rewatched Hellraiser 2, on blu-ray with Arrow's really nice transfer, I was getting pretty nauseous with all the wet skinless bodies in that film and their sticky trails of blood. That short film He Took His Skin Off For Me? Lovely little tale, grosses me the gently caress out every time.
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May 10, 2023 19:29
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 8. Magic (1978) (dir. Richard Attenborough) Shudder #10 - Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things - just look at that poster!After completely bombing his first public performance, an up-and-coming magician named Corky Withers (Anthony Hopkins) reinvents his act by adding a ventriloquist dummy, "Fats". His act is so impressive that he is skyrocketed to fame, landing appearances on Johnny Carson's late show. Despite his erratic behavior - like never dropping the act, even when alone with Fats - Corky is offered a television show by a major network, but when he finds out that a medical exam is necessary as part of the contract, he refuses "on principle" and secludes himself in a lakeside cabin near his hometown, where he rekindles a romance with a woman he grew up with. This is pretty good! Rather than a Child's Play-style killer doll movie, this is a psychological thriller where it's unclear if Fats is actually alive or if Corky is just a lunatic. Anthony Hopkins plays an excellent unstable weirdo, Burgess Meredith is as classy as always as his agent, and the rest of the supporting cast is very solid as well. Unfortunately, the version I watched on Shudder kind of looked like poo poo - I thought maybe it was originally a TV movie because of the 4:3 aspect ratio and was full of what seemed like commercial break edits, but according to the internet it was a widescreen theatrical release. It's unusual for Shudder to have a lovely TV cut instead of the real version, but I suppose that's the only one they could license. It didn't totally ruin the experience, as the main attraction here is Hopkins' performance, but it did make the film look pretty flat and ugly. I'll revisit this someday when I can watch a proper transfer of it. Overall this is good and I recommend checking it out, just maybe not on Shudder. 3.5 rising aces out of 5 Total: 8 Watched: Lokis, a Manuscript of Professor Wittembach | The Manitou (Challenge #3) | Spoonful of Sugar (Challenge #1) | Faust (Challenge #5) | The Medium | Ringu (Challenge #8) | The Boxer's Omen | Magic (Challenge #10) Challenges: History Lesson: 5/5 - 1920s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2020s Geography Lesson: 4/5 - Europe, North America, Southeast Asia, Asia
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May 10, 2023 19:29
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Would Taiwan count under Asia, or Southeast Asia for Geography Lesson challenge? I looked at Wikipedia and saw "Some definitions of Southeast Asia may include Taiwan. Taiwan has sometimes been included in Southeast Asia as well as East Asia but is not a member of ASEAN" so I wasn't really sure.
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May 10, 2023 20:57
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May 10, 2023 21:06
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The Berzerker posted:Would Taiwan count under Asia, or Southeast Asia for Geography Lesson challenge? I looked at Wikipedia and saw "Some definitions of Southeast Asia may include Taiwan. Taiwan has sometimes been included in Southeast Asia as well as East Asia but is not a member of ASEAN" so I wasn't really sure. Taiwan would fall under Asia. It does seem like there is some variation in the definition of Southeast Asia, but for the purposes of this challenge, these are the countries that count as Southeast Asia: Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam
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May 10, 2023 21:21
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The Berzerker posted:Would Taiwan count under Asia, or Southeast Asia for Geography Lesson challenge? I looked at Wikipedia and saw "Some definitions of Southeast Asia may include Taiwan. Taiwan has sometimes been included in Southeast Asia as well as East Asia but is not a member of ASEAN" so I wasn't really sure. And making either one of these arguments would make about half of the country really mad at me. Edit : beaten while I was posting this.
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May 10, 2023 21:22
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Laos is cool because they only started making movies in earnest in the last 20 or 30 years, so you basically have to watch Mattie Do films. and she’s talented! it’s just funny because she was American-born and -raised but had to move back to Vientiane for family reasons like a decade ago and sort of de facto became the sole Lao horror director. I’ve only seen Dearest Sister but it was pretty good, I thought.
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May 10, 2023 21:34
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 6. The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) Bill Pullman is Dennis Alan, an anthropology professor from Harvard who heads to Haiti searching for a voodoo powder that can bring people back from the dead, to research its use as an anesthetic. I avoided this for a long time because most of the 'voodoo horror' I've seen has been lazy garbage, but this was good. The political uprising against Jean-Claude Duvalier is happening in the background of the story (and in reality during the shooting which is really interesting), and it doesn't feel much like Alan is a white savior type - he's kind of a bumbling moron who won't listen to warnings and keeps loving up, and we're never really sure how much of what is happening / he's seeing is from voodoo, or from hallucinations, but in either case Zakes Mokae is terrifying as Peytraud. The ending gets a little goofy but there are fantastic effects and it's definitely worth a watch. Completes GMM Challenge #3 Holy Terror (though you could also use it for 'Horror High' if you wanted since the story revolves both around voodoo and medicine!) 4/5 7. The Sadness (2021) I really only watched this because it was easily accessible and I had a HORRORx52 challenge to watch something from Taiwan. I knew this wasn't really going to be for me. Marking this off for Asia on the Geography Lesson challenge, thanks for clarifying, GMM. It's a 'fast zombie' movie (low on story and many disposable characters), except the zombies can talk, are sadistic, and love to rape. It's a bloody gorefest but it will only be memorable for a couple of gross-out scenes, nothing more. 2/5First time watches: 7/13 GMM Challenges: 1 GMM #12: History Lesson: 1980s, 1990s, 2010s, 2020s GMM #13: Geography Lesson: North America, Asia
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May 10, 2023 22:28
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 #6 - Season of the Witch (1973) George Romero’s psychedelic tale of the monster named middle-age. The Good This is an amazing time capsule of look, language, and style of the five-year period of post- “Summer of Love” late 1960s and pre-polyester discotheque 1970s US culture. The Bad The editing is infamous and can really jar viewers. Cuts are hard, quick, and sometimes baffling. (Note that this is the studio’s fault. Romero’s director version is lost.) The Ugly The first few dream sequences feel like viewers are watching Romero’s final student films. TOTAL: 6 Challenges Completed: Holy Terror, History Lesson
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May 11, 2023 03:08
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17. Blood Moon - 2014 Directed by Jeremy Wooding 🎃 History Lesson - 2010s 🎃  This movie is magic becuase it sustains two subplots without a main plot for way longer than any movie should be able to. It's also startling every time the subplots switch, because your conscious mind can't comprehend that they both exist. I don't even know what's happening here or why. 💀.5/5 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 5/13 1. Horror High - Bliss 2. Tales from the Cryptids - Mongolian Death Worm 3. Holy Terror - Incantation 4. Fresh Hell - The Pope’s Exorcist 5. Shooting Zombies - The Fall of the House of Usher 6. Drawn and Quartered - Violence Voyager 7. Woke in Fright 8. Second Chance 9. Challenge of the Dead 10. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things 11. It's-a Me! 12. History lesson - Evil Ed (1990s); Do You Like Hitchcock? (2000s); Blood Moon (2010s); Hellraiser (2020s) 13. Geography Lesson Completed Collections * The Basket Case Trilogy 🧺🧺🧺/🧺🧺🧺 * The Firefly Collection 🤡🤡🤡/🤡🤡🤡 * The Blind Dead Collection ⛪⛪⛪⛪/⛪⛪⛪⛪ * The Ginger Snaps Collection 🐺🐺🐺/🐺🐺🐺
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May 11, 2023 03:46
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5. Evil Dead Rise (2023) Ehhh. Ever since I saw the first trailer I was really turned off. It just did not push my buttons at all in the way 2, Ash vs, and the last 15 minutes of 2013 did, but I resolved to mostly bitch privately and give it a chance once it wouldn’t cost $20+ to potentially be disappointed. And… Okay, this is really well-made and it looks good, but how do you make an Evil Dead movie that’s not super fun, or particularly creative, or all that original? At least 2013 had the end to recommend it for me: there I was beaming and cheering and whooping, even if the rest of it was not really my speed at all. And maybe I just predisposed myself to not dig this because I really didn’t like any prerelease poo poo barring the poster, but I don’t know what I’d hang my hat on here, really. And as an Evil Dead fan—but again, especially of 2 and Ash vs, so definitely take my opinion with a grain of salt if you like 1 or 2013 better—it bums me out. Fantastic work from Alyssa Sutherland, though, and I liked Lily Sullivan a lot too. I wish the other characters hadn’t been so lightly sketched. If they weren’t going to be doing madcap Three Stooges poo poo or dying in goofy-awful ways, I would’ve at least liked to have given more of a poo poo. Truly not a bad movie by any means, but it feels a bit like when I forgot a different studio made Fallout: New Vegas and got myself hyped after the announcement of Fallout 4. Like oh whoops, this is for people who value different things about the thing we all collectively love than I do! Ah nuts! Hope they get me with the next one! (Bethesda never will, but the producer team of Raimi-Campbell-Tapert might!)
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May 11, 2023 04:39
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Poison for the Fairies - 1986, Mexico - No challenge, but this would be eligible for Children Shouldn't Play... if I hadn't already used that one  A coming of age story with a witchcraft backdrop. 12 year old Flavia (Elsa Maria Gutierrez) moves to a new school and befriends the narcissistic Veronica (Ana Patricia Rojo), a lonely girl obsessed with witch stories. She draws Flavia into her world with lies and manipulation and things quickly get out of hand. My first film by Mexican director Carlos Enrique Taboada and I'll definitely check out his others! The two girls make up most of the film's on-screen cast. The adults we see are, with very few exceptions, obscured or just out of view. It lends the film a dreamlike atmosphere, along with the natural blurriness of childhood memory where the most awful moments burn into your brain the strongest. Thankfully, both actresses are excellent! It's VERY RELATABLE watching a friendship build between two kids with one of them lying about absolutely everything. Rather than witchcraft, one of my earliest friends tried his best to convince me he was an alien and threw the worst fits when I'd argue. I always got in trouble. That same friend also blackmailed me and conned me out of some of my favorite toys when we were 10 so drat do I feel for Flavia here! Childhood itself as a fairytale/horror story is always an effective setting for me, this one reminds me a lot of Ann Turner's excellent 1989 film Celia. Outside of the first and the final moments of the film, this one's light on horror, with witchcraft standing in for any kind of topic a bully might take interest in. It's almost a PG movie aside from those two shocking scenes, but as a parent I still felt a sense of dread throughout.
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May 11, 2023 05:16
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 - (30). Extraterrestrial (2014) Directed by Colin Minihan; Written by The Vicious Brothers (Colin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz) “This is hosed up.” I used to be really into the Vicious Brothers but I think they kind of vibe a little too mean for me as I get older and less game for all the meanness and "humor" around. Still. Minihan and Ortiz make pretty good films. They're a very below the radar duo in horror and its kind of odd. Grave Encounters is kind of a low key cult classic I think but it seems like the rest of their stuff has kind of been overlooked as is they're pretty consistent rate of turnout. Then again they did get one of the recent remake/reboot/requel movies that got real popular lately. Then again of all the franchises they drew Urban Legends. So still kind of getting the short stick. But I digress. Extraterrestrial is a pretty good movie that very cleverly mashes up the classic cabin in the woods horror movie with the classic alien abduction movie. The result is a fast paced, tense, and pretty vicious ride. If you've seen some of the Vicious Brothers' films you'll recognize their regular cast members like Brittany Allen and Sean Rogerson. There's also a few nice larger than cameo appearances from names like Michael Ironside, Gil Bellows, and Emily Perkins. And I really liked Melanie Papalia. She's got spunk. Its a good cast that help out some fairly shallow characters. And there's like that one really annoying douchebag as always. The film looks good with tons of effective merging of those two alien abduction/cabin in the woods things. And its not just fast. Its mean. Maybe too mean. Well that's a matter of taste. But its mean. Like the ending is real mean. The whole last third of the film is mean as gently caress. Just kick to the nuts after kick to the nuts. And that's where I do think the Vicious Brothers stuff ages a little for me and just feels like the unrelenting meanness I'm trying to get away from. But lord knows I seem to be the exception to that these days, especially online. So I imagine for a lot of people they'd have a ball with just how mean and juvenile this film really is. But I guess what else can you expect from some dudes who call themselves the Vicious Brothers?  21 (31). Blood Moon (2014) Directed by Jeremy Wooding; Written by Alan Wightman Watched on Freevee This is a technically well enough made film. Everything and everyone looks good. It plays like a bunch of British people putting on a western to such a broad and cliched degree that it borders on parody. The man in black and saloon madame in particular just feel like caricatures rather than real characters or people. He's such a silly dry silent bad rear end and she never stops saying witty audacious things. Its all quite stupid. Also that one crook is speaking at such a low bad guy baritone that I bet his throat hurt. This must be what non-Americans feel like whenever they watch a bunch of Americans put on accents and play another culture. Its all quite silly played against its all very serious and competent western motif. But really the problem is its just not very good. The story is weak and nothing feels terribly consequential. The characters are weak. Everything is just a trope of better westerns you've seen. And the werewolves barely show up. And when they do the limited budget shows itself as they have to actively avoid any of the actual pivotal action or kill blows either because they can't afford it or because British censors wouldn't allow it. I don't know. But maybe don't mash up westerns and horror if you're not able or willing to go to the level of violence and gore that kind of demands. Its just a very dull and long feeling 90 minutes with few highlights. If you really love westerns or if you think you might get a kick out of watching a bunch of Brits and Australians play cowboys and... yeah, that's kind of a problematic element there too. But mostly its just not a very good execution of a kind of interesting premise.  22 (32). Son of Godzilla (1967) Directed by Jun Fukuda; Screenplay by Shinichi Sekizawa and Kazue Shiba Watched on HBOMax I really do enjoy how in this world Godzilla is just like something everyone is used to enough that you might just stubble across him napping on an island or flying across the ocean in the middle of the night and you're more or less unphased. Whoops, Godzilla. Best go around. Oh what's that? Some giant praying mantises bullying a newly hatched baby godzilla? Better set our equipment up somewhere else. HBOMax only had the english dub, which is unfortunate but what can you do? At least it helped my headache to not have to read so much. And while if we were closer to the original Godzilla film I might have sought out the original version to get the best version or at least intended version we're in silly Baby Godzilla territory now so like... whatever. The human story is nothing and silly as usual. The giant bugs and spider are just kind of there and pretty cool looking and all but nothing deeper. Its more kaiju fighting and I guess I get that at this stage it was just Toho being like "ok, we gotta make a Godzilla film every 6-12 months for Christmas" or whatever. I get it, I do. And they do seem to putting some effort into the new monsters and some kind of different wacky story each time. But they're definitely not the draw and I doubt they ever were. Its obviously about Baby Godzilla. And he's pretty cute, I admit. They went fully for it with him just being a toddler playing around and scared and poo poo and it kind of worked. I think I believe in that guy's character more than any of the humans. And Godzilla's basically going through the standard "immature rear end in a top hat becomes a father and has to grow up" movie. So I guess this might be his actual face turn? He only demolished one human settlement and probably only killed a few people this time. That's progress? I'm not sure there's enough of that for a whole movie but this one did feel like it balanced the kaiju stuff better. It felt like much more of the movie was either monsters fighting or Baby Godzilla being a kaiju toddler. Which is definitely better than some of the other movie's divide. So yeah, its an ok little Godzilla film. Now that we're full in the silly bad suits rolling out a new one every year phase expectations are set and this was a silly little goof. I had a good enough time even if it kinda was whatever. I guess it all comes down to if you find the kid cute or not. 🌼💀Spook-a-Doodle Half-Way-to-Halloween ’23: Spring Cleaning💀🌼 Watched - New (Total) - (1). Scream (1996); 1 (2). The Invisible Man’s Revenge (1944); 2 (3). Viral (2016); - (4). Scream 2 (1997); 3 (5). Mostly Ghostly 3: One Night in Doom House (2016); 4 (6). Man-Thing (2005); - (7). Vampires (1998); - (8). Vampires: Los Muertos (2002); 5 (9). Vampires: The Turning (2005); 6 (10). Evil Ed (1995); - (11). Scream 3 (2000); 7 (12). Do You Like Hitchcock? (2005); 8 (13). Day of the Dead: Bloodline (2017); - (14). Scream 4 (2011); - (15). Scream (2022); 9 (16). This Island Earth (1955); 10 (17). A Field in England (2013); 11 (18). Scream: The Inside Story (2011); 12 (19). Scream VI (2023); 13 (20). My Best Friend’s Exorcism (2022); - (21). Fright Night (2011); - (22). Brain Damage (1988); 14 (23). Fright Night Part 2 (1988); 15 (24)Children of the Corn (2020); 16 (25). The Signal (2014); 17 (26). The Mole People (1956); 18 (27). Mom and Dad (2017); 19 (28). Big Legend (2018); 20 (29). Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966); - (30). Extraterrestrial (2014); 21 (31). Blood Moon (2014); 22 (32). Son of Godzilla (1967); Return of the Fallen: 4/13 - Viral; Day of the Dead: Bloodline; My Best Friend’s Exorcism; The Signal; Completed Collections: 5/13 - The Invisible Man; Mostly Ghostly; John Carpenter’s Vampires; Scream; Children of the Corn; Spook-A-Doodle Challenges: 7/13 - Day of the Dead: Bloodline (Challenge of the Dead); A Field in England (Horror High); Scream VI (Fresh Hell); Brain Damage (Second Chance); Children of the Corn ’20 (Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things); Big Legend (Tales from the Cryptids); Meta Challenges: History Lesson: 8/5 - The Invisible Man's Revenge (1940s); This Island Earth (1950s); Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1960s); Fright Night Part 2 (1980s); Evil Ed (1990s); Man Thing (2000s); Viral (2010s); Scream VI (2020s); Meta Challenges: Geography Lesson: 4/5 - The Invisible Man's Revenge (North America); Evil Ed (Europe); Man Thing (Australia/Oceania); Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (Asia);
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May 11, 2023 05:20
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3. Enys Men Vudu A thing I haven't been shy about : I love weird, experimental poo poo. When you can see something and come to any of a dozen or hundred or million conclusions about it, and you can show it to a friend and they'd immediately have a different thought. It's why I've championed Skinamarink, it's why I've championed The Outwaters Enys Men, finally given an expanded release via VOD services a few weeks ago, is not just another thing I'll praise, I'll go further to say I love it more than those, it deserves the virality and praise those got more, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it in the few days it's been since viewing it for the first time. I never rewatch things twice in the same week but I couldn't help myself. Mark Jenkin made something I feel even if I can't promise I understand it Extremely beautiful and extremely English, the only thing I know for sure happens in Enys Men is a girl volunteers at an isolated island and documents what happens with a flower. Everything and everyone else featured, I couldn't tell if it was real, dream, metaphor, past occurrence or future occurrence. I thought I had a guess for maybe where it was going at last within the last fifteen minutes, then got swerved again and beautifully/staggeringly. I'm fascinated by this more than I've been by anything in a while, and I was visually taken back by it throughout. Excited to see what Mark does next ***** 4. Fear (2023)  Vudu Minutes ago I finished a stark contrast to that in every way. I'd only ever seen the poster for this, not a trailer, and was interested in it but still put it off for months because I was always interested in/prioritizing more stuff. Turns out I was right to  The most-used idea of scary is rapidly changing the volume from quiet to loud throughout the entire second half. It's 97 minutes long, is an R-rated horror film that technically had a major release, has at least ten characters, and didn't have the guts to kill anyone off until 67! minutes in (the balls of having that one not even happen onscreen, too!). Said ten characters basically all get dropped off into this house by scene 2 and you're only ever given real reason to care about like three of them and their exploited fears, two of which the reason was given in scene 1. And the climax has a D-tier The Grudge homage with an attempted twist it won't even commit to the aftermath of, negating it almost immediately with a midcredits plea for a sequel I hate when I feel like I'm really harsh with poo poo films, because like, I can believe people tried with failures, I can find successes amidst miscommunications. There's some positives or hopes of promise to be found in more of the average one or two star film I or you may see than you may think, and I've seen enough I can say that with confidence. Here? Everything that doesn't feel lifeless or look blander than straight-to-Netflix poo poo (seriously Fear looks visually like how people think that new Little Mermaid looks, and it stands out more coming off of seeing beautiful films like Enys Men and Beau Is Afraid) just reminds me of something better or with more potential. And I know people will say "January horror, what did you expect?" which is bullshit: earlier this January had M3GAN and Sick, there were good horror films released this January! Fear just very much wasn't it * 4/13 (Beau is Afraid, From Black, Enys Men, Fear 2023)
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May 11, 2023 06:09
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