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8. Outpost (2023) Vudu You may recognize the name Joe Lo Truglio if you're a fan of comedies. Charles Boyle in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Deputy Frank in Reno 911, Neil in Wet Hot American Summer, etc etc. He finally decided to try his hand in directing, and stepped a bit out of his comfort zone with Outpost, a new release starring his wife Beth Dover as a woman (still traumatized by an abusive relationship she exited) trying to get into a happier place by taking a park ranger position at an isolated tower overlooking a national park. She keeps reliving the experiences though, and it might not be for the best when she's exposed to the rare visitor she gets during them... Beth does a great job, making you effectively sympathize with her as she's being further and further broken down emotionally by her own past continuing to impact her present. The first half of this is pretty good because of that alone if nothing else. The shame is that can only do so much or get you so far, even with an 84 minute runtime. The fakeout scares and flashbacks padding time get old after a bit, the twist gets spoiled early because of at least one of them, and to call the ending abrupt would even seem a bit of an understatement; when the credits roll, either that's all you'll remember of Outpost, or it'll still be enough to balance against its favor. Joe showed some promise with his direction in this debut. Hopefully he does better with his next try ** 8/13 (Beau is Afraid, From Black, Enys Men, Fear 2023, Renfield, Malum, The Devil's Doorway, Outpost 2023) Chris James 2 fucked around with this message at 16:12 on May 23, 2023 |
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May 23, 2023 12:55
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#17: Shivers My last review I was saying the movie needed some nudity, and whaddya know, here's all the nudity I ordered and more. A glitzy apartment high rise gets infected with parasites that turns people horny. Too horny. It's good! It's a bit of a detective story but as the infection slowly spreads it eventually morphs into a zombie movie. I like that a lot. The one place I think it stumbles is the monster design. Unarticulated plastic slugs glued on to the actors. They look bad, they look goofy in a bad way. Get rid of those things, have a different way of visually depicting the spread of infection, I'd give the movie an A. but I just don't like the slugs. I'm really disappointed that there aren't sequels. I'd watch the hell out of increasingly cheaply made and problematic straight to video Shivers sequels. [sub][sub]Challenges in progress 13. Geography Lesson: North America (The Relic) Canada (Shivers) Europe (An Angel for Satan) Asia (Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi File 05: Preface True Story Of The Ghost Of Yotsuya) Challenges complete 1: Horror High: Naked Lunch 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 5. Shooting Zombies: Happy Birthday To Me 6. Drawn and Quartered: The Spine of Night 8. Second Chance: As Above So Below 10. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things: Beware! Children at Play 11. It's-a Me!: An Angel for Satan 12. History lesson: 1960s (An Angel for Satan) 1970s (Shivers)1980s (Beware! Children at Play)1990s (The Relic) 2000s (The Mothman Prophecies) 2010s (Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi File 05: Preface True Story Of The Ghost Of Yotsuya) 2020s (Scream)
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May 23, 2023 13:25
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34. Detention - 2019 返校 Directed by John Hsu 🎃 Geography lesson 🎃 Asia  Detention is a political period drama with some spooky supernatural elements. There are a few really nice looking scenes, but the story felt disappointingly flat. It probably carries more emotional weight for people who are familiar with Taiwan's history and its long period of martial law under the Kuomintang, but it's easy to empathize with people living under authoritarianism, then dealing with remorse and regret. 💀💀💀/5 Spooky May Spring Cleaning 13/13 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; 8. Saw III; 9. Saw IV; 10. Saw V; 11. Saw VI; 12. Saw VII 3D: The Final Chapter; 13. Jigsaw GMM Challenges 13/13 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 - Tales from the Hood 8. Second Chance - The Fly 9. Challenge of the Dead - Survival of the Dead 10. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things - The Pit 11. It's-a Me! - Baron Blood 12. History lesson - Alice, Sweet Alice (1970s); Evil Ed (1990s); Do You Like Hitchcock? (2000s); Blood Moon (2010s); Hellraiser (2020s) 13. Geography Lesson - Slash/Back (North America); Baskin (Middle East/Africa); Wolf Creek (Australia/Oceania); Even the Wind Is Afraid (Central/South America); Detention (Asia) Completed Collections * The Basket Case Trilogy * The Firefly Collection * The Blind Dead Collection * The Ginger Snaps Collection * The Saw Collection
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May 23, 2023 13:53
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 Interviewing Monsters and Bigfoot Your expectations of this movie can be drastically different depending on the poster you see. If you look at the poster above you might have some decent hopes that this could be a well done horror comedy with some solid Bigfoot action. On the other hand if you see the poster below, you immediately get a look at this guy's ugly mug and you know exactly what you're in for:  The Bigfoot: There's barely an effort to create a convincing Bigfoot because this is a goofy parody movie. You're not supposed to take the Bigfoot seriously, which personally I find to be offensive. Bigfoot is serious business. Score: 1/10 Everything Else: It's not funny, it's not scary, and more often than not it's just kinda annoying. Not particularly shocking considering the talent involved, but I pressed play on a Bigfoot movie so I gutted it out to the end. Honestly I'm not even really counting this one towards my overall total for the Challenge, so I'll be watching 14 movies just to make sure I have enough for real completion. But I had to watch this so you have to hear about it. Score: 0/10 Total: 1/20 1. American Bigfoot 2. Terror on Bigfoot Pond 3. Scream 6 4. Clawed: The Legend of Sasquatch 5. M3GAN 6. Exists 7. Terrifier 2 8. Primal Rage 9. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 10. Signs 11. Dawn of the Beast 12. Interviewing Monsters and Bigfoot
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May 23, 2023 14:43
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I'm calling it here since I'm not sure how much what watching/reviewing I'll be able to get done since work's getting mad busy. For convenience, here's my challenge recap. 1. Horror High - Cocaine Bear (2023) 2. Tales from the Cryptids - Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend (1985) 3. Holy Terror - The Menu -( 2022) 4. Fresh Hell - Nefarious (2023) 5. Shooting Zombies - It Follows (2014) 6. Drawn and Quartered - Mad God (2021) 7. Woke in Fright - M3gan (2022) 8. Second Chance - Parasite (2019) 9. Challenge of the Dead - Nudist Colony of the Dead (1991) 10. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things - Evil Dead Rise (2023) 11. It's-a Me! - An Angel for Satan (1966) 12. History lesson Cocaine Bear - 2020s It Follows - 2010s An Angel for Satan 1960s Nudist Colony of the Dead 1990s Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend 1980s 13. Geography Lesson North America - Evil Dead Rise - California Europe - An Angel for Satan - Italy Middle East/Africa - Saloum - Senegal Asia (China, Japan, Korea, India, etc) - Rampant - Korea Southeast Asia - The Medium - Thailand
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May 23, 2023 16:13
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35. Infection - 2005 Directed by Albert Pyun  It's barely a movie, but it is an ambitious piece of work that technically qualifies as a movie by virtue of its runtime and narrative structure. 💀/5 Spooky May Spring Cleaning 13/13 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; 8. Saw III; 9. Saw IV; 10. Saw V; 11. Saw VI; 12. Saw VII 3D: The Final Chapter; 13. Jigsaw GMM Challenges 13/13 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 - Tales from the Hood 8. Second Chance - The Fly 9. Challenge of the Dead - Survival of the Dead 10. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things - The Pit 11. It's-a Me! - Baron Blood 12. History lesson - Alice, Sweet Alice (1970s); Evil Ed (1990s); Do You Like Hitchcock? (2000s); Blood Moon (2010s); Hellraiser (2020s) 13. Geography Lesson - Slash/Back (North America); Baskin (Middle East/Africa); Wolf Creek (Australia/Oceania); Even the Wind Is Afraid (Central/South America); Detention (Asia) Completed Collections * The Basket Case Trilogy * The Firefly Collection * The Blind Dead Collection * The Ginger Snaps Collection * The Saw Collection
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May 23, 2023 18:13
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 22. A Wounded Fawn (2022) Starts off feeling like Fresh - fancy, charming (but psychotic) guy takes his new girlfriend to a secluded place for romance (murder) - but things don't go according to his plan, he winds up in a situation that leads to lots of hallucinations and Greek mythology-inspired shenanigans (there's a statue of the Wrath of the Erinyes that ties into everything). The second act is a major shift in tone and story so I can see how it would turn people off, but I was along for the ride and liked the chaos. Lots of fun visuals and the whole thing looks great (shot on 16mm).  3.5/5First time watches: 22/13 GMM Challenges:
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May 23, 2023 19:20
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I was about to tap out on the world tour last night, but a glaring grey spot in Europe was irritating me, so I decided to scour the world again, and discovered: 41. Вампирџија (Ghoul Quest officially, apparently better translated as Vampire Hunter) (2002) - A Macedonian flick about vampires and I can't say much more than that. The Youtube rip looks like it was rendered on a SNES, and this is an incredibly dialogue heavy movie with no subs (even garbage Youtube autotranslate ones) and no dubs. The first 3/4 seem to be an older hunter teaching (telling) a student the vampire lore, with the action in the latter quarter. - The Feet Part II (short, 2023) - Mozambique has joined the board with this apparent sequel to an American short about a... pair of killer feet. Think Addams Family's Thing, but feet (TWO OF THEM) instead. Of course, that inspired me to watch the American original... - The Feet (short, 2021) Both of these rely on two basic gimmicks (toes peaking around the corner or below-the-ankle filming) for their effects, but they pull off their narratives very well. The first a bit of comedy leading to horror; the sequel a horror leading to a dark comedy. 5/5 for the original; 4/5 for the sequel. - Eternity (short, 2020) - Oman checked off with this grotesquely beautiful, wordless mashup animation of Faust, Orlac, and Liega. As much as I've never gotten into Švankmajer, this is highly reminiscent and I love it. 5/5 I'm pretty sure this is the best that I can do, even with some stretches on what a horror movie is: 
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May 23, 2023 23:24
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May has turned out to be a very busy month and I am falling behind in both watches and write-ups, so these are a little shorter. Both are also arguably not really horror movies, but they're close enough 10. The Meg (2018) (dir. Jon Turteltaub) Hulu  #2 - Tales From the Cryptids - Megalodon!Pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a movie about a giant prehistoric shark starring Jason Statham (who unfortunately does not play the shark). The first half takes itself a little too seriously, but there is some neat deep sea stuff and it never goes too long without someone being eaten by a shark. It leans more into big dumb action movie territory in the second half, and it’s better for it. It’s hardly a great film, but it’s decent mindless entertainment. 3 surprise shark attacks out of 5  11. The Suspicious Death of a Minor (1975) (dir. Sergio Martino) Shudder #11 - It's-a me! - I had intended to watch a Bava film for this, but it turns out I've already seen all the Bava stuff available to me on streaming.An undercover detective meets a young woman shortly before she is brutally murdered, and while investigating her death he uncovers a sex trafficking ring. This is a weird movie - it’s part giallo, part poliziottesco, and part goofy comedy, and the tone is all over the place. It was kind of jarring and disappointing at first as I was expecting a Sergio Martino giallo, but I started to get into it after a bit. It’s light on the horror elements, but it does feature a shootout on a moving rollercoaster and for that I have to give it four stars. 4 broken lenses out of 5 Total: 11 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) | Clearcut (Challenge #7) | The Meg (Challenge #2) | The Suspicious Death of a Minor (Challenge #11) 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 23, 2023 23:32
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13. Mad God (2021) (first viewing) (watched via AMC+/Shudder)  The much-anticipated feature is the directorial debut by visual effects giant Phil Tippett (you may have seen his work on niche film franchises like Star Wars, Robocop and Jurassic Park). Tippett starting working on Mad God in 1990, but put the project on hold for two decades when he became convinced stop-motion animation was out and CGI was in. He eventually picked it up again and, fueled by a successful Kickstarter and tons of volunteers, we got the finished film. It's 83 minutes of stop-motion, with only a handful of human actors, most pretty subtle. The film is obviously a visual treat, but, although it's certainly not a non-narrative feature, the story here is somewhat inscrutable, at least on the first watch. A character credited only as "The Assassin," decked out in a gas mask and other steam punk gear, is lowered via diving bell into a hellish underworld on some sort of mission involving a crumbling map and a briefcase full of dynamite. He makes his way through a mechanistic hellscape of bizarre machinery and even more bizarre creatures. What happens from there does seem to follow a pattern, at least in the sense of dream logic--if I'm interpreting things right, you might even map it onto a traditional, if warped, three act structure. And even if you aren't getting a clear read on the plot beats, there's enough in the way of consistent visual motifs and thematic unity and a method to the madness. Still, it's easy enough to enjoy the vibe and go along for the ride. The world Tippett has created is a harsh one, kind of reminiscent of watching a nature documentary that shows the brutality of the food chain in unsparing detail. So it's bloody and scatological, but it's also funny at times. Life is cheap here, and there are ample gags in the ways the faceless bottom-feeding creatures getting wiped out at a moment's notice. Sometimes they seem terrified, sometimes they seem oblivious, sometimes they walk head-on into danger and you'd swear they were smiling if their heads weren't made of featureless lumps of hair. The color palette mainly sticks to drab industrial and earth tones, with some warmth from reds and oranges. Yet it doesn't feel too muted thanks to the overflowing creativity on display, from the care and detail put into the puppets and animation to the designs themselves. And, most importantly, 83 minutes is about right for the mood--and, honestly, drat impressive for the dedication to the craft in every frame. CHALLENGE: "Drawn and Quartered." --- CHALLENGES: 1. Horror High--A Field in England (2013) 2. Tales from the Cryptids--Suburban Sasquatch (2004) 3. Holy Terror--Satan's Slaves (2017) 4. Fresh Hell--Evil Dead Rise (2023) 5. Shooting Zombies--Ringu (1998) 6. Drawn and Quartered--Mad God (2021) 7. Woke in Fright--Knife+Heart (2018) 8. Second Chance--Don't Look Now (1973) 9. Challenge of the Dead--City of the Living Dead (1980) 10. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things--Dolls (1987) 11. It's-a Me! 12. History Lesson (6/5 completed)--The Shout (1978) ('70s); Dolls (1987) ('80s); The Fear (1995) ('90s); Suburban Sasquatch (2004) ('00s); A Field in England (2013) (2010s); Pearl (2022) (2020s) 13. Geography Lesson (4/5 completed)--The Fear (1995) (North America via USA); The Shout (1978) (Europe via UK); Ringu (1998) (Asia via Japan); Satan's Slaves (2017) (Southeast Asia via Indonesia)
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May 24, 2023 02:56
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 - (83). The People Under The Stairs (1991) Written and directed by Wes Craven “My name is Ruby Williams and I represent the Association of People Who Have Been Unjustly Evicted, Exploited, and Generally hosed Over.” Still a great time. Wes is the best. This is such an offbeat, fun, and wild film from him. Unexpected if you know Wes primarily for Scream and Nightmare on Elm Street but really very much Wes across his big weird filmography and background as a humanities professor. That's right, in case you didn't know Wes Craven was a college professor before he started making coughporncough movies. Dude's smart and its always there. Here he does something completely different, almost making a blaxploitation film but I think avoiding the problematic reality that would be. Instead he makes something that feels like a bit of a homage to blaxploitation but set in a weird Craven film ala The Hills Have Eyes. That's kind of the real magic of the movie I think. The way its foundation is as the political commentary filled story of Fool, his family, and community's circumstances. Then as he and Ving Rhames try and get some righteous comeuppance from the landlords taking advantage of and exploiting them they just fall into this insane loving world contained within their home. Pitfalls and layers of abuse and exploitation and deprivation and danger. Craven said the house represents America and in that its these two black men just being trapped in it and its horrors. And its a ton of fun watching Ving scared shitless by it. And how many young black kid leads you see in horror let alone in 1991? Big Ed and Nadine are remarkable villains. Often said to be Reagan monsters they could just be any old MAGA couple pointing a shotgun at protestors today. They're wild and evil as gently caress but also fun as their ecstatic joy at their depravity and evil gives way to their frustration that Fool keeps outmaneuvering them. Its a truly one of a kind cat and mouse that has to be seen to believed. Just a great, great pulpy and campy but still scary and thoughtful film. As topically today as it was in 91. Wes showing that he was always smart and eclectic and that horror had messages back in the 80s and 90s despite what all the "less message movies, more throwback movies" crowd pushes. A tremendously fun time.  59 (84). The Banana Splits Movie (2019) Directed by Danishka Esterhazy; Written by Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas A tremendously fun time. I'm too old to really know or care about what a Five Nights in Freddy is and I'm not quite old enough to have ever actually have been a Banana Splits kid. But as someone who loves horror and puppets and grew up on Hanna-Barbera I kind of don't care how this bizarre film came to life, I'm just glad it did. Having enjoyed Danishka Esterhazy's Slumber Party Massacre the other day it seemed time to finally check out this other SyFy movie she made. And I'm glad because it was another fun movie. Not a world changer or anything but just a really silly fun time with a shocking amount of gore and kills. Like even with cable tv restrictions this really didn't hold back at all. That's what I'm getting from Danishka. She doesn't seem to hold back so it would be interesting to see what she could do with more space. It was also a fun surprise to see Dani Kind in this after watching Workin' Moms last month. Cool seeing her get to be a bad rear end mom in a horror movie. Its weird and silly and basically exactly what you can hope and expect a Banana Splits slasher movie to be. If you can imagine such a thing. I dunno if the Cage film is better. It probably brings more Cage/sicko energy for those fans. I still don't know poo poo about Five Nights at Freddy's but that will probably give some younger fans a thrill if it ever comes out. But this was fun for me and even if I don't really have any childhood memories of the Banana Splits its still really a vibe and energy I connected with to see these big fuzzy Hanna-Barbera things be the monsters they probably always were.  60 (85). Sick (2022) Directed by John Hyams; Written by Kevin Williamson and Katelyn Crabb Watched on Peacock Watched to find out if Kevin Williamson is still a hack, verified he is. I'll lead off with the good. The chase scene that makes up a good half of this film is perfectly good action. Its generic as hell slasher poo poo devoid of anything resembling character, story, or even a recognizable killer but if your thrill is watching young women get chased by knife wielding killers in black then it delivers that. And its both fun and trippy to see another of Pamela Adlon's daughters running around horror, doing a good job, and freaking me out doing their mom's mannerisms. Ok now that that's out of the way I loving hated this. The first act Covid stuff feels so lame and pathetically cynically already. Oh no, the harrowing times of when you had to wear a loving mask or someone might tell you you should. Curse the time when people actually expected each other to give a poo poo about each other and engage in the social contract. This is all that's there in the beginning as the characters have no definition at all besides their opinions on Covid restrictions. And then the final act twist came and holy poo poo I loving hated this movie. Just so loving stupid edgelordy bullshit. I dunno if it was mocking which side of this or what but I don't really care. Its just some lovely cynical completely unclever bullshit playing with the ridiculous reality we live in where basic health precautions and giving a poo poo about other people is now a partisan issue or even worse just some thing idiots mock because they're idiots. Williamson was never any good IMO. It took Wes Craven to make him good. I guess you would disagree with me if you were a Dawson's Creek or I Know What You Did Last Summer fan but I don't know what to say. We gonna have to agree to disagree on that. So I'd be lying if I said I expected him to somehow get better a couple of decades later. But I'd watched nearly all of his films this month and Sick had gotten buzz and fit my theme of the month of cleaning up 2020s horrors off my watchlist. And when I saw Williamson wrote it I figured why not? Well I regret that. I regret even more that I'm heavily considering sneaking Teaching Mrs. Tingle in before the end of the month just to close the book entirely. Like I said, if you wanna watch a young woman get chased through the woods this will give you a thrill. And if you love your edgelordy humor pretending its clever then you might enjoy the rest. But holy gently caress I thought this was a dogshit piece of crap even with my low expectations.
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May 24, 2023 04:12
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Crescent Wrench posted:13. Mad God (2021) (first viewing) This is on my list, haven't seen it yet, but your summary makes it sound pretty similar to Junk Head. JH is an (almost) one-man stop motion film about a dystopian future explorer searching for the secret of reproduction in the undercities and getting his head/consciousness transferred into a series of increasingly junky robobodies. Might be a stretch to call it horror, but there are some fairly gross organic bits and there is a monster at the end so  It's also on the 'tubes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyCCWHhH6R4
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May 24, 2023 05:31
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STAC Goat posted:More catchup insomnia spamming. Sorry. Sounds like they should have called it The Ascent.
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May 24, 2023 09:18
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Fall's brilliant, I don't even have much problem with heights and even I was white knuckling through a bunch of scenes.
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May 24, 2023 10:55
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 #20. Witchfinder General (Shudder) During the English Civil War, a vicious witch hunter and his minions terrorize a woman and her uncle, incurring the wrath of a young soldier. I'd always heard of this movie as a minor classic, but I don't know if I'd go that far, personally - it's less a horror movie than a medieval period drama, and a fantastic lead performance by Vincent Price, possibly one of his best ever, but there's a whole lot of cruft surrounding it. (True that you could say that about most Price films, but it especially stands out here.) While Price is great, none of the other actors are really rising to his level, unfortunately - his head minion is pretty good, but our heroically tragic/tragically heroic leads are fairly wooden and bland. And while there are some scattered moments of brilliance in terms of staging and scripting, for the most part things are pretty plain and everything is shot pretty flatly. I loved a moment where all of the poor townsfolks were roasting potatoes in the ashes of the pyre they used to burn a witch - it's a small throwaway bit in the midst of a larger scene, but it speaks volumes about the cruelty and pragmatism of the time being so intertwined. Similarly, I loved the very very end of the film, going on from after one side character puts Price out of his misery - lead Ian Ogilvy's tortured "You took him from me!" lines speak to a deep, wounded masculine betrayal, while lead heroine/victim Hilary Dwyer can do nothing but scream and scream into - and through - the credits. But that also speaks to the issues with the film in a microcosm, as those great final moments come at the tail end of an overly stagy, incredibly fake looking, terribly staged fight scene where Ogilvy knocks down Price and goes at him with an obviously rubber axe. Horrifying in theory, in practice it's way too obvious, and takes you out of the story right at the big climactic moment. And like I said, the moments of scattershot brilliance tend to be bookended by a lot of boring standing-around-and-talking scenes, and whenever Price isn't on screen that kind of point-and-shoot overly-staged filmmaking loses my interest really quickly. I will also say, just in general, that I'm not much of a fan of how much rape as a plot device gets used here, especially since Dwyer's character is pushed to the margins of the film, to be used as little more than a motivating factor for our hero, and her rape and torture are just presented in straightforward wide shots, for the most. (Tastefully, if such an oxymoron can be deployed here; nothing obvious on screen, but you know where they're going and what all of this means, which makes the story usage of it rankle just as much, in its own weird way.) I'm sure some would argue it was just a fact of medieval life and should be presented as such - I argue that it's both demeaning and terrible narrative shorthand, besides. Especially since the implication of that line of thinking is "torturing and killing innocent civilians accused of witchcraft for money is fine, but rape is just a line too far". Like, it was all bad, man - you didn't need to graft that other bit in to make Price more hate-able or worthy of filmic screen retribution here. In the end, the film has moments of scattershot brilliance, but they tend to be bookended by a lot of boring standing-around-and-talking scenes, and whenever Price isn't on screen that kind of point-and-shoot overly-staged filmmaking loses my interest really quickly. (And then there's all of the story stuff on top of that.) It's worth a look for Price alone, but don't expect much more than that, and be aware of what the story means you'll get. While Price alone is usually enough, I have to admit that the film's reputation made me expect more from it, and it was a bit of a letdown for me; I was hoping everyone else would rise to Price's level, but alas, 'twas not to be. /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, Deep Red, Road Games, Abominable, The Omen, Lyle, His House, The Mutilator, The Last Matinee, Infinity Pool, Witchfinder General
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May 24, 2023 16:50
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36. Phantasm IV: Oblivion - 1998 Directed by Don Coscarelli The Phantasm Collection  The fourth Phantasm movie is completely committed to the strange world that the series has created for itself and figures you are too, because there's no other reason for someone to casually watch this movie. Nobody thinks to themselves, "Hey I'm vaguely aware of the Phantasm series. Let's pop Phantasm IV: Oblivion into the old DVD player." It would be an interesting prank to play. Keep insisting that this is the first entry in a long running series and pretend that it all makes perfect sense. 💀💀/5 Spooky May Spring Cleaning 13/13 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; 8. Saw III; 9. Saw IV; 10. Saw V; 11. Saw VI; 12. Saw VII 3D: The Final Chapter; 13. Jigsaw GMM Challenges 13/13 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 - Tales from the Hood 8. Second Chance - The Fly 9. Challenge of the Dead - Survival of the Dead 10. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things - The Pit 11. It's-a Me! - Baron Blood 12. History lesson - Alice, Sweet Alice (1970s); Evil Ed (1990s); Do You Like Hitchcock? (2000s); Blood Moon (2010s); Hellraiser (2020s) 13. Geography Lesson - Slash/Back (North America); Baskin (Middle East/Africa); Wolf Creek (Australia/Oceania); Even the Wind Is Afraid (Central/South America); Detention (Asia) Completed Collections * The Basket Case Trilogy * The Firefly Collection * The Blind Dead Collection * The Ginger Snaps Collection * The Saw Collection
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May 24, 2023 20:56
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Probably not going to make it because I've been travelling a lot this months but I have two films I've watched but not yet written about. Might manage two more before I need to travel more next weekend. Gonna try and go extra hard in October to make up for it.
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May 24, 2023 22:44
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twernt posted:36. Phantasm IV: Oblivion - 1998 Hell, that's practically still an interesting prank with the original Phantasm.
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May 24, 2023 22:51
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 #11 Siege (aka Self Defense) (1983) CHALLENGE MOVIE: Woke in FrightA group of Canadian homophobes take advantage of a police strike to rough up a gay club. Unfortunately for them, one patron escapes and finds some allies. (Word choice intentional.) The Good No matter the movie’s era or genre, it’s always good to see a bunch of dumbass fascists get their comeuppance. The Bad Oof. The low budget really comes through in everything, from SFX, to set design, to costumes, to makeup. (Side note: The closed captions call a calculator’s beeps a “ringtone.”) The Ugly On one hand, Siege is a great B-movie right at home in the Alamo Drafthouse, RiffTrax, or similar outlet. On the other hand, it’s hard to watch knowing how entirely plausible the plot is in 2023 America. Total: 11 Challenges Completed: Holy Terror, History Lesson, Second Chance, Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things, Woke in Fright
Naked Man Punch fucked around with this message at 13:30 on May 25, 2023 |
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May 25, 2023 02:34
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Crescent Wrench posted:Hell, that's practically still an interesting prank with the original Phantasm. Harsh but completely fair. The final entry kind of sort of wraps things up, maybe? it was all a dream  37. Phantasm: Ravager - 2016 Directed by David Hartman The Phantasm Collection  Reggie, Jody, Mike, and the Tall Man are back after an 18 year break. This time they're maybe finally asking the big question -- in a universe where it's possible to travel outside of linear time and among multiple different dimensions, what is actually real? 💀💀/5 Spooky May Spring Cleaning 15/13 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; 8. Saw III; 9. Saw IV; 10. Saw V; 11. Saw VI; 12. Saw VII 3D: The Final Chapter; 13. Jigsaw; 14. Phantasm IV: Oblivion; 15. Phantasm: Ravager GMM Challenges 13/13 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 - Tales from the Hood 8. Second Chance - The Fly 9. Challenge of the Dead - Survival of the Dead 10. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things - The Pit 11. It's-a Me! - Baron Blood 12. History lesson - Alice, Sweet Alice (1970s); Evil Ed (1990s); Do You Like Hitchcock? (2000s); Blood Moon (2010s); Hellraiser (2020s) 13. Geography Lesson - Slash/Back (North America); Baskin (Middle East/Africa); Wolf Creek (Australia/Oceania); Even the Wind Is Afraid (Central/South America); Detention (Asia) Completed Collections * The Basket Case Trilogy * The Firefly Collection * The Blind Dead Collection * The Ginger Snaps Collection * The Saw Collection * The Phantasm Collection
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May 25, 2023 03:24
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gey muckle mowser posted:
 61 (86). The Whip and the Body (1963) Directed by Mario Bava; Written by Ernesto Gastaldi, Ugo Guerra, and Luciano Martino Watched on Kanopy A solid gothic Poe like horror. Nothing to really write home about. Bava gives his usual style, Christopher Lee adds his presence, and Daliah Lavi brings that Barbara Steele sexiness and energy to a film that is especially horny (at least for the time). This is probably the closest I've seen Bava get to the way his Italian contemporaries treated women in their films as Lavi's job is to spend the entire film either crying in terror or engaging in rapture at Lee's S&M whippings and treatment. Its a film you can definitely see offending and shocking people of the time since its basically all about this woman fighting her sexual desire for the pain and terrible treatment of Lee. Lavi does a good job with it. And Lee's as monstrous as ever. Unfortunately there's not a ton of Lee in this thing. I mean he's there and he's an important part of the film but there's not near as much as you'd like. Even worse for me Kanopy's version was dubbed so instead of getting Lee's signature voice I got some other dude talking out of his mouth. Which was weird. Then again I guess I would have got that even if it in Italian. But it kind of sucked. Lee and Lavi and the taboo S&M content and Bava's trademark spooky gothic style all make this a perfectly serviceable horror. But there's something missing. The other characters just aren't interesting and too much of the film is spent with them. Lee and Lavi's roles basically demand that they spend a minimal time on screen or rational which unfortunately shifts a lot of the film to the boring stuff. The whole thing was shot on a budget and Bava was brought in as a budget hire since he was willing to be cinematographer too. So the film looks good and the stars are stars but the rest is kind of just pedestrian.  62 (87). Sun Don’t Shine (2012) Written and directed by Amy Seimetz Watched on Kanopy It would be a stretch to call this horror even though its been labeled as such by some and was featured on Shudder for some time. Its much more of a neo noir thriller but its a very unique vibe and feel to it. Filmed on good old fashioned Kodak and with largely outdoor settings in the sweltering Florida sun this film looks like something that could have been made in the 70s and honestly just smells like sweat and hot car seat leather. Its not quite anachronistic. The film freely uses cell phones or such. But the whole story and vibe definitely is deliberately pulled out of civilization in a way that could fit with those old Easy Rider type films. If you're gonna argue its horror its in the sense of anxiety and dread present from the start of them film where our first images are Kate Lyn Sheil being wrestled by a man that has a very uncomfortable feel of not quite consent. Watching it you get that feeling of when you're watching a couple argue and its starting to get ugly and you're not quite sure what you should do or if this is ok. Except its already physical as soon as we join it and we don't know what started it or what exactly happened. And that's the vibe. We only gradually learn what the hell is happening in this film and even as we do learn pieces its still very unclear what's really going on. Sheil is pretty great playing this character who you can't quite figure if she's innocent and abused or something else. Or both. We never really do get some kind of clear answer there. We never do get the truth from her. You can come up with an idea and a picture but its riddled with that uncertainty of knowing someone. Kentucker Audley is also good as the boyfriend who from the start is presented as a possibly abusive and dangerous man but who sees himself as a savior and victim in this. And again, its not super clear which one is the case. Who he was before today or what he's really capable of. That's the whole vibe of the film. Its Bonnie and Clyde or Mickey and Mallory but if they were young, "white trash" in Florida. There's no glee or excitement here, at least none that anyone shows. Its not clear either wants to be there. But the car's started moving and its not really clear who's driving it. Or if either of them are. Its unnerving, its grimey, its unique, and well done. Maybe not a horror film depending on how much these labels mean to you but certainly a ton of anxiety and fear present in the characters and situation.  63 (88). Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) Directed by Jun Fukuda; Screenplay by Hiroyasu Yamamura and Jun Fukuda Watched on Why you gotta do Anguirus like that? And has anyone check in on Godzilla's kid? I hope Rodan and Mothra are taking care of him in the hollow earth or wherever they all fell. I kind of get why we've more or less blown up Monster Island and are moving past the Kaiju that they belt of the last decade. Obviously its them trying to move the franchise to the future and they clearly thing that's robots. And they probably weren't wrong, right? These last couple of films feel very weird for Godzilla films but they feel in a lot of ways like the foundation of what a lot of stuff out of Japan is now. Maybe Toho didn't nail mechas but clearly they were onto something, right? Its not my thing but its clearly someone's. Its getting silly to say the same stuff about the goofy alien/human plots making up the majority of the film. They're built in at this stage and part of the Godzilla package as much as anything. And this did actually have a bit more monster action and better paced, I thought. I also kind of liked the idea of some kind of ancient god protector monster. A big floppy eared dog kaiju was a bit of a surprise but I did like the idea. So it definitely feels like they were kind of onto something but also like they didn't quite nail it. And I gotta say, as much as I've softened on Dad Godzilla its a little silly that they were all confused by the idea that Godzilla might start destroying cities and killing people. My theory is everyone in this world have gone completely mad due to 20 years of monster attacks and alien invasions and now everyone we meet is just a crazy person making up the minority of civilization still surviving. And I mean, Godzilla hasn't even seemed to see his kid in a few movies. He might be a deadbeat. So yeah, maybe he is being a dick again. He was one for a long time. Even if the movie title and poster kind of gives away the big reveal. It is what it is. The flaws of the series are built in at this stage and you can't really complain about them, but they're also kind of growing. I do think this is better than the last film but its still not really good. The alien stuff is silly and again King Ceaser and Mechagodzilla kind of feel like near misses to me. I get it. We're trying to do something different. But I guess we've already given up on Jet Jaguar? Did he just break down or gently caress of in the last year? Its one more left and to be honest I'm not that sad. Yeah, its a little bittersweet to end this but also it definitely feels like we've kind of run the course and we're throwing some weird poo poo at the walls now. So one last big hurrah with Honda to look forward to and then to be honest I think Godzilla could use a rest and a reset. But not quite yet I guess. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 06:27 on May 28, 2023 |
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May 25, 2023 03:43
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This is my 13th movie but I've still got a few outstanding challenges to get to Black Sunday - 1960, Italy - Challenge #11 It's-a Me  The only Mario Bava film I'd seen was Planet of the Vampires, seems like a good idea to check out some of the more well-known ones! Musty, cobweb drenched tombs. Thunder storms in foggy forests. A man attacked by a giant plush bat on visible wires. Absolutely my kind of vibe! More gruesome here but the mood and presentation feels very reminiscent of Universal's early horror films. A loose adaptation of Gogol's Viy with a lot more Dracula to it than the Ershov/Kropachyov version from 1967. A pair of witches wake up two hundred years after their death and seek revenge. Barbara Steele is great in her double role as Princess Katia and Witch Asa, I can see why this made her a star! One of the male leads, Andrej, is a very boring character and John Richardson really can't compete with Steele's charisma, unfortunately. I just love how shadowy and elemental everything is; fog and wind and rain everywhere. The story is straightforward but it's told with a ton of style. The score is a weak point; it's at times overwhelming and never particularly interesting. Could have used more silence. A True Jar Jar Fan fucked around with this message at 05:38 on May 25, 2023 |
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May 25, 2023 03:59
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twernt posted:Harsh but completely fair. The final entry kind of sort of wraps things up, maybe? it was all a dream Oh, don't get me wrong, I say it with love. I'm such a Phantasm junkie I've even seen Ravager at least three times. Crescent Wrench fucked around with this message at 14:43 on May 25, 2023 |
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May 25, 2023 04:02
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I watched Phantasm 4 and then, for unclear reasons, wound up watching them in reverse order. By the time 11 year old me got to the part about car-cubing people into zombie miners I was like, "Ok cool. Finally things are starting to make some sense in this franchise."
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May 25, 2023 14:13
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9. Creepypasta Screambox You know how anthologies are a cool premise but rarely executed well? Yeah... 11 segments (10 plus a wraparound) Dead Stream: the wraparound, where a guy gets trapped in a house with corpses around him and is taunted by texts telling him the way out involves watching creepypastas, but each one has a deeper worse physical and emotional affect on his health Back to Bed: a girl experiences strangeness in her house after a power outage Jumby: a kid finds out the hard way his sister's imaginary friend is real BEC (Black Eyed Child): a dying woman gets a visitor Corner of Your Eye: 4 girlfriends at a get-together share weird trivia, and the presence of one's contribution lingers after the others leave the building Do Not: a careless man disobeys many warning signs Blue Moon: a woman lures a man to the woods The Grey Man: a writer of a horror story finds unwelcome inspiration for the sequel she's struggling with Hada: a kid doesn't want to sleep with the lights out Invoke: a woman plays true crime audio her cousin texts her involving a mirror. Guess where she winds up hearing the audio? El Cuco is Hungry: a babysitter shows up to take care of a kid who claims to have a monster locked up for "taking care" of prior babysitters In the interest of at least starting with what I liked, I did enjoy two of these segments ultimately. Black Eyed Child was a nicely-stylized Spanish black-and-white (aside from occasional flash of color used effectively) tale of a dying woman being haunted that had maybe the best use of tension in the whole film too; if there's a standout to find in these 80 minutes, it's gotta be this by default. But I also appreciated Do Not, a less-dragged-out but still fun spin on a sleazy-looking dipshit breaking a lot of rules on warning signs blatantly to the point that even when he finds two he definitely shouldn't pursue further, he hesitates but still does so out of habit more than curiosity. The ending of that one also looked cool Hada is the segment I most hated that wasn't the wraparound. A couple of these segments had jumpscares, I get it and don't hate it as a concept, especially when you need to pad time. But with this you had like 5 minutes to tell a story as good as you wanted and put three jumps in ten seconds, that's just silly as gently caress And when it comes to the wraparound, the original V/H/S didn't do much I thought was great or even good, but they did this kind of thing better. And in the end that's my big problem with this bad anthology more than most of the other bad anthologies I've seen: very little of this you haven't seen before and/or done better. Obviously creativity isn't needed for something to be good, but it helps at least being one of the four (appearing creative or inspired, or like your cast for each segment cares, or making the best of your budget). 2 of these segments fulfill at least one of those basic criteria. 2 out of 11. F Screambox doesn't have many duds since being relaunched under Bloody Disgusting ownership. This is undeniably one of them though * 9/13 (Beau is Afraid, From Black, Enys Men, Fear 2023, Renfield, Malum, The Devil's Doorway, Outpost 2023, Creepypasta) Chris James 2 fucked around with this message at 22:23 on May 26, 2023 |
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May 25, 2023 14:24
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I owe this thread a bunch of write ups which I hope to get to tonight.
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May 25, 2023 15:54
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 #21. Ready or Not (2019) (iTunes Purchase) On her wedding night, a new bride has to play a deadly game of "hide and seek" with her new family. I have to be honest - yesterday was an incredibly frustrating, nerve-wracking and overall lovely day for me, so I needed something spooky yet fun to throw on last night to combat those bad vibes. And I figured that a fairly well-regarded horror comedy about eating the rich would be the perfect thing to fill that role. Turns out... yeah, I was right. The movie - and its dark yet glib sense of humor - kind of perfectly fit the tone of what I was looking for: snarky comedy, a couple of spook-em-up jump scares, and some okay gore effects scenes. And it ends on pretty much the perfect end note. I don't have a ton to say about this one - it is kinda slight, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing - but sometimes you just find the right movie for the right time, and that's enough, y'know? /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, Deep Red, Road Games, Abominable, The Omen, Lyle, His House, The Mutilator, The Last Matinee, Infinity Pool, Witchfinder General, Ready or Not
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May 25, 2023 16:00
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6. Dream Demon (1988, dir. Harley Cokeliss) UK Bride-to-be Diana keeps having strange nightmares where her fiancé, a famous war hero, is cruel to her. She attributes these to stress until she meets Jenny, an American tourist, who has been having very similar nightmares all set in Diana's home. From the name alone was expecting this to be a cheap Nightmare on Elm Street knockoff but was pleasantly surprised that it's far more it's own thing than I expected. Despite the title there isn't really a literal Dream Demon. There are some hideously deformed British men, or perhaps a supernatural form pretending to be them, but no real big bad monster. It's more about the characters confronting their insecurities and the trauma of their past through dreams and/or astral projection. Most of the film is spent with either Diana, the virginal upper-class schoolteacher, or Jenny, the brash streetwise L.A. party girl, and they play very well of each other. It is still a cheap Nightmare on Elm Street knockoff but a pretty good one and better than a lot of the real NoES films. 7. Enys Men (2023, dir. Mark Jenkin) UK gey muckle mowser posted:4. Fresh Hell The year is 1973. On the isolated Cornish island of Enys Men an unnamed Volunteer observes and logs the unchanging condition of rare flower. Her daily routine is interreupted when she sees a fungal growth on one of the flowers and a similar fungus starts to sprout from a scar on her abdomen. Shot on 16mm making it wonderfully fuzzy and grainy. Enys Men is actually fairly similar to Dream Demon in that a lot of it revolves around making the audience and characters question what is real and what is a nightmare. The main difference is that the two female leads in Dream Demon at least have each other to rely on. The Volunteer has no one except occasional voices on her radio and a mysterious girl who spends almost all her screen time silently standing on a roof looking at the nearby standing stone. This is the most recent part of the folk horror revival of the last decade or so and is folkier than a lot of them as it actually iincorporates some Cornish folk music and dancing and a standing stone, the building block of British folklore, plays a prominent part in it. The name of the film is even in Cornish translating to "Stone Island". This is a film that a lot of people are going to think is boring as it almost ritualistically repetitive in parts and the plot is loose at best. The Volunteer measures the heat of the soil near the plant, drops a stone into an old mineshaft, walks back to her cottage, starts the generator, has tea. Repeat ad nauseum with slight changes every now and then that might be hallucinatory or not. Towards the end the nightmares/hallucinations/hauntings(?) become increasingly prevalent and sinister reaching a fitting but somewhat unsatisfying ending. A neat little picture about the horrors of running out of tea. 8. Santo vs. the Evil Brain (1961, dir.Joselito Rodríguez) Mexico/Cuba A group of gangsters is kidnapping scientists and forcing them to work for them. When a masked hero tries to stand in their way he too is kidnapped and brainwashed into doing the bidding of the evil genius Dr. The very first film starring masked wrestler El Santo who would go on to play a superhero version of himself in 50+ films fighting everything from alien invasion, to mummies, to Draculas and/or Wolfmen. Strangely though Santo isn't very prominent in this one. He is in the very first scene but he spends almost the entire film a brainwashed drone and has little dialogue and though he does wrestle the bad guy at the end he first needs to be saved by another masked hero. It also seems like Santo isn't a wrestler in this film like he is in most others (all of the other Santo films I've seen feature at least one (1) scene of him in the ring doing his day job though sometimes against vampires) in this film he seems to be some sort of police agent but partially freelance as he leaves the country at the end. Not quite a horror film. I was expecting the title to me more literal maybe something like this guy from a later Santo film:  But it turns out the titular Evil Brain is just a run of the mill somewhat Mad Scientist who is using his science for crime. Though there are no literal monsters in the film it does have the horror element of brainwashing. Both Santo and a banker are brainwashed by the doctor through a special serum and some unspecified rays. This process causes the victim to not only become a slave to the Evil Brain but to move and behave very drowsily. The characters in the film describe it as robotic but it feels much more like the victims are being partially zombified as they shamble about almost wordlessly. Filmed in Cuba during the revolution on a shoestring budget with the second Santo film, Santo vs the Infernal Men, being filmed at the same time in most of the same locations and even featuring some common scenes to save money. You can really tell that this is a cheap film and that they didn't quite have enough footage. The film is 72 minutes but is full of long shots of people driving from one place to another and has two (2) separate musical performances that have nothing to do with anything. None of this is uncommon in the Santo Oeuvre but most of this other films have much higher highs to make up for the filler. I'd recommend this only to Santo completionists. If you are curious about the adventures of the Silver Masked Man the films are all fairly episodic and you don't really lose anything by not having seen this one as it might as well be an unrelated character in the same mask.
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May 25, 2023 17:35
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Nosferatu - 1922, Germany - Challenge 5 - Shooting Zombies I had seen plenty of clips of the original Nosferatu but never the actual movie straight through. For my first viewing, I went with a 2006 restoration and came away impressed! I generally have a hard time with silent film, but I loved how ludicrously exaggerated everyone is here. Everyone's so wide-eyed and reacts so strongly to everything, it's a very staged production but I actually really like that and wish more modern films would have their actors go this big. A very abridged version of Stoker's Dracula, I appreciated that Nosferatu kept the concept of delivering much of its story through letters and journals. Characters get switched around a little as expected, but the biggest change is the Count himself. Count Orlock is so grotesque, 100 years later his character design and mannerisms are still chilling. There's no gentleman monster angle here; unlike most Dracula adaptations, Count Orlock is plague itself. He's almost alien, with a rat-like design tying him to the other plague bearers around him. Just a great performance all around! Also important to note is that Orlock has a phenomenal clock with a skeleton topper in his castle. I would buy that in a heartbeat.
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May 25, 2023 21:23
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9) The Police Are Blundering In The Dark (1974) Challenge: It's A-Me Who is murdering every woman staying at this small Tuscan hotel as soon as she gets her boobs out? Is it the rear end in a top hat waiter whose casting call said "must have past experience in snuff movies"? Is it the rapey idiot gardener? Or perhaps the wheelchair-bound scientist is not as crippled as he wants you to think? Could it be all of them? And after 90 minutes of this, will you even care? Couldn't find a Mario Bava, so I had to go with a giallo. Big mistake. Literally the best thing I can say about this movie is that it waits a whole three minutes before the first sexual assault. I searched another candidate movie on IMDb to check it wasn't Spanish and the top Trivia line for that one was "the producers didn't want to wait for the first titty murder so they put the opening credits over it". The kills are dire, the blood is loving magenta at one point, the acting is lame even for a bad dub and the plot - such as it is - is ludicrous. The killer is finally unmasked when the scientist reads his mind with a theremin and sees a picture of a naked woman, and the waiter - who turns out to be a PI - then confirms to the police that actually he knew all along the guy was a schizo who had changed his name to hide but didn't say anything. Christ, this genre is a sewer. Verdict: Don't Watch. Run.
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May 26, 2023 00:44
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Rewilding - 2023, UK - Challenge # 4 - Fresh Hell A three-part British folk horror anthology by writer/director Ric Rawlins. I personally prefer anthologies with a single director, it makes the whole thing feel more cohesive. Stone Mothers - A priest asks an old archeologist to look into a spooky cave, locals start to get upset. The two angles here (digging where you shouldn't dig and townie paranoia) are both fine but at such a short length I'd have preferred to focus on just one. The Family Tree - A writer takes a trip out at the country to learn about a spooky tree and uncovers its connection to a mysterious death hundreds of years earlier. One really good unnerving shot! The final piece could have used more intensity. The Writer's Enquiry - A journalist is going around a small town collecting ghost stories for the Big City Paper. This one has a great ending, the best piece of horror across all three shorts! The strongest act of the film for sure, with the best pacing and delivery. A very light, mostly pleasant set of stories. There's a couple bits of distracting acting and some weirdly oversaturated color in a few shots, but the whole thing is comfortably low-key. The landscapes are pretty and the film is very genuine. At just an hour long, this is a very easy watch, but don't go in expecting anything too dark.
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May 26, 2023 03:49
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38. The Mother of Tears - 2007 La terza madre Directed by Dario Argento The Three Mothers Collection  The problem with The Mother of Tears is that Dario Argento never changed the way he made movies. So the melodramatic awkwardness became less charming as time went on. The Mother of Tears isn't actually an awful movie, except for the final scene with the protagonists laughing in front of a matte painting. It's just a movie that was released in the wrong year and that's not its fault. 💀💀/5 Spooky May Spring Cleaning 16/13 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; 8. Saw III; 9. Saw IV; 10. Saw V; 11. Saw VI; 12. Saw VII 3D: The Final Chapter; 13. Jigsaw; 14. Phantasm IV: Oblivion; 15. Phantasm: Ravager; 16. The Mother of Tears GMM Challenges 13/13 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 - Tales from the Hood 8. Second Chance - The Fly 9. Challenge of the Dead - Survival of the Dead 10. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things - The Pit 11. It's-a Me! - Baron Blood 12. History lesson - Alice, Sweet Alice (1970s); Evil Ed (1990s); Do You Like Hitchcock? (2000s); Blood Moon (2010s); Hellraiser (2020s) 13. Geography Lesson - Slash/Back (North America); Baskin (Middle East/Africa); Wolf Creek (Australia/Oceania); Even the Wind Is Afraid (Central/South America); Detention (Asia) Completed Collections * The Basket Case Trilogy * The Firefly Collection * The Blind Dead Collection * The Ginger Snaps Collection * The Saw Collection * The Phantasm Collection * The Three Mothers Collection
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May 26, 2023 03:54
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 64 (89). The 9th Life of Louis Drax (2016) Directed by Alexandre Aja; Screenplay by Max Minghella; Based on The Ninth Life of Louis Drax by Liz Jensen Watched on Hoopla This is a weird one. Another I hesitate to call horror although it certainly has elements of Alexendre Aja's horror filmography. It reminds me quite a bit of Horns which kind of felt like it was walking the line between horror and not and this feels like a bigger step away. But it still doesn't quite feel not. It reminds me in a lot of ways of Guillermo del Toro. Its very weird and I struggle to label it as anything but "dark fairytale." Sarah Gadon kind of glows in the role, quite literally. She's obviously a beautiful woman but there's something to the way they dress, style, and shoot her to make it look as if she is a Hollywood Starlet walking out to a spotlight and wind machine. This is obviously a deliberate choice as she ends up residing in this place somewhere between Grace Kelly and a femme fatale. I don't think the end reveals of the film are terribly surprising but I don't really think they're meant to be. It feels much more like a story we're meant to just move with so when the truth is revealed we just know it rather than are shocked by it. Even the finale of the film isn't shot in a shocking revelation kind of way. Its a hyper real, sad, weird scene that everyone just kind of accepts and reacts to. I don't really know what I think of this or what to say about it. Its a weird film. Not entirely unlike Aja's other work but definitely not the same as it either. He's got a pretty wild filmography in general and this was obvious a very ambitious attempt at something else. And I think it looks amazing and does a lot of things right. Its also kind of messy and never quite feels like it gets going. Also the kid is kind of a dick. I don't know if he's supposed to be a dick, but he is. Like we should be more concerned about that hamster thing, guys. That's messed up. That feels a bit like Aja's edgey streak and some iffy ideas from a 2006 book that don't feel like they've aged well even in 2016 let alone 2023. Its certainly something unique. I think if you like Guillermo del Toro or Aja's Horns or pulpy noir or like... Where the Wild Things Are? I dunno. But if any of those things kind of interest you then this might be worth checking out. And I think I liked it? I think? I'm not entirely sure. But I was with it the whole time and don't regret watching it and I can sheepishly claim it as horror. But I dunno. Its weird.  65 (90). Bed Rest (2022) Written and Directed by Lori Evans Taylor That was alright. A pretty standard ghost story that isn't really breaking any new ground or doing anything to surprise you. There's a decent amount of spookiness and misdirection in play. There's duel horrific elements of the feeling of helplessness and imprisonment of being bed ridden or the grief and anxiety of losing a child stillborn and having a second pregnancy in danger. Ghosts almost feel like overkill in the theme department. I mean there's not really a movie without them but there's a bunch of things here to bring anxiety and fear but they also kind of walk over each other a little so you can never fully focus on any of them. Most of the reviews just seem obsessed with Melissa Barrera either positively or negatively as I guess is the way these things go. I did basically put this on my radar for her after watching the Scream films. Although I watched the film because it was the one that best fit into the small window of time I had available. And that worked in its favor as its a brisk little story. I think Barrera is good in the role although not revolutionary or anything. But she's gotta carry much of the film while in bed and she does an admirable job especially with its sometimes messy web of themes. I think maybe the time skips do the film a bit of a disservice in not really showing us the relationship between her and her husband Guy Burnet fall apart through the film. Its all very clear how and why it happens and there's even a good scene where we see Barrera make her case while very rationally appealing to his perspective. But he disappears for most of the film and just comes back less supportive and kind of cold. That was probably all purposeful to create a kind of Rosemary's Baby type atmosphere of paranoia and isolation. But I dunno if it got there so much as just kind of making me dislike him. Its a fine little horror. Not long enough to outstay its welcome, not unique enough to really stand out, but perfectly solidly done. And its a pretty solid and fast paced finale after a lot of slow build. I'm sure some would not like the ultimate ending and feel like it should have gone another way, but agin that goes back to what the film is. Kind of a perfectly safe, perfectly serviceable, perfectly fine horror film and not much more.  66 (91). Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975) Directed by Ishirō Honda; Written by Yukiko Takayama Watched on HBOMax Well its over. I did it. I watched them all. At least the classic Godzilla films. I've finally seen them. Rodan, Mothra, Jet Jaguar, Mechagodzilla, Minilla... Yeah, I learned the name of Godzilla's kid even if he disappeared in a concerning way. But I finally saw it all. I learned where that one gif came from. I learned that the first Godzilla is brilliant and the back half of the franchise are largely goofy sci fi films more than just the straight monster film. And its over. And appropriately it ends with Ishiro Honda and with another silly sci fi scheme with a new monster. I guess part of me hoped this would be a big blow off. In my mind I was hoping for some Endgame film where Rodan, Mothra, and Anguirus show back up to go all Monster Avengers and have one big final blowoff. But also clearly that's not what this was. Honda wasn't brought back for some big farewell, he just was hired because Jun Fukuda bailed. And this isn't some big blowoff epic story, its something that won a Godzilla story context. What you gonna do? I'm rambling about the meta of my journey I guess because it doesn't totally feel like i have much to say about this one that I didn't say about the last few films. The shift into robots and aliens is not sudden. This one does seem less silly and a bit more serious. I mean its goofy but it doesn't seem to be taking itself as a joke as many of the recent films did. And it feels like there's more monster action in here or at least better paced so its not all at the end. Honda is still making a Godzilla film as it exists in 1975 instead of how he created it 20 years earlier but he's clearly making it to the best of his ability and within its limits. And like you either enjoy this or not. Its kind of unfair to judge these films or any franchise like this in a marathon I watch in a matter of weeks. Obviously these films weren't made or meant to be watched days apart from each other. There's an obvious pattern of releasing one a year as a big event and that's a lot more fun especially if you're really into it. Its a new Fast and Furious movie every couple of years. Its not high art or fine cinema but its a thing lots of people love to see a new trailer for and go to the theaters to watch in part for their history with them and nostalgia for their journey as much as the film itself. And obviously even over the last 50 or 60 years these films have been enjoyed as treats and fun aspects of childhood or goofy weekends. So like me watching them all close together clearly isn't ideal and I'm sure if two months from now I watch this on Svengoolie I might enjoy it a lot more because I'll be all "hey, Godzilla!" instead of "time for the next Godzilla," Again, I'm rambling about something other than this film but I dunno. The film is fine. Like I said, better and more serious than the Fukuda ones I think. Titanosaurus and the entire teamup plot is all a little silly and random but Honda treats them with gravitas and plays the action as devastating instead of silly. There's even a cyborg romance and existential dilemma plotline like 7 years before Blade Runner. Maybe it didn't nail its poignance but it tried. So its a totally fine, even good late Showa era Godzilla film. I definitely prefer Honda over Fukuda and he brings a more serious tone, even if the silly tone is charming in its way. I enjoyed this as I enjoyed most of the Godzilla films and this whole marathon. But I'm also kind of ready for it to be over. It feels like the idea of Godzilla has changed so dramatically from where it started and so much stuff has been thrown at the wall and discarded that it definitely feels time for a break and a reset. I know that wasn't the intent either. Toho didn't kill it. The movies just stopped doing good enough business and there weren't good enough ideas to put another film into production. but the time feels right. I'm ready to take a break and then down the line visit the next era. Ok, I'm done rambling. I enjoyed the run, this isn't the best of the late Godzilla sequels but it isn't the worst. It doesn't really close anything but it does feel like the right time to step away. And in the end Godzilla is at his best deeply powerful and tragic stuff and at its worst is still goofy fun. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 06:29 on May 28, 2023 |
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May 26, 2023 04:36
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The Bat Whispers (1930) -- I've seen you through Socialism, Fletcherism and rheumatism. But when it comes to Spookism I'm through! Basically a stage play performed in front of a camera, albeit with more scene changes. And some pretty neat camera tricks for the time. The major environments get a camera fly-in on a miniature as establishing shots, and peep this "crane shot" in the opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhgEKm7-kOM&t=152s This is borderline comedic, pretty much a farce with an endless stream of wacky characters clown-car'ing into this one lady's house to bumble around in the dark looking for stolen cash. The ending is a literal Scooby Doo meme, followed by a 4th wall smashing appeal to the audience to not spoil the ending for others. Dark and light are constant themes throughout, with the use of silhouettes approaching shadow puppetry in some scenes. Audio is a bit rougher. I guess this was before people realized they needed to score films; almost the entire thing is people stomping around obviously hollow stage sets with only speaker-blasting fake thunder every few minutes to keep us company  The maid is straight up comic relief and I'm here for it. ⚞💀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 07. Alligator 🎃Tales from the Cryptids🎃 08. Evil Dead II 09. Blood Quantum 🎃Woke in Fright🎃 10. Blood and Black Lace 🎃It's-a Me!🎃 11. 🦇The Bat Whispers🦇
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May 26, 2023 08:11
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8. Primal Rage (1988) I got plenty of chuckles out of this, it's 80s as all hell. However, it's also an Umberto Lenzi written movie so it's got plenty of sleaze and misogyny that gets uncomfortable at times. Debbie was done so wrong by the script. The lead is also bland as hell. At times it paints over it's problems with some ridiculous nonsense I couldn't help but enjoy, like Duffy going nuts in the er room toppling over that shelf lol. The Halloween party finale had a lot of cool rear end costumes and the murder jocks tearing through some of them was over the top in the right ways. Hard to recommend this to anyone but I was entertained. 2.5/5 9. The Zodiac Killer (1971) Can't say I liked this one. It's a neat oddity that works more as an insight into the creators mind than anything else. I watched Primal Rage earlier and thought it had misogyny issues, this makes that look downright progressive. Every guy in the movie is some flavor of misogynist and/or homophobic. The best scene is when the cops meet the profiler dude who is clearly just bullshitting, a great way to paint everyone involved in the investigation as stupid and clueless lol. 2/5 10. Blood Moon (2014) Mediocre to downright bad most the time. Every western stereotype and some bad werewolf action on top. Easy skip 1.5/5 11. Blood Hunt (1986) You ever wonder what a Spanish knock off of Sam Peckinpah's grittier work would be like? Look no further. It's a bit slow paced at time, but I kinda dug the weird vibe it had. It definitely veers more into exploitation at times, particularly with the Don and the mom characters. The teenage daughter has some silly dialogue though I'm glad she's there, she's ultimately the heart of the movie. The approach to drug abuse and the empathy the main character has for the issue was surprisingly refreshing, I was expecting a far less sympathetic approach. Pretty solid overall, I wouldn't go into it expecting something as action packed as "a small town kidnaps drug abusers and hunts them" promises though. 3.5/5 12. The Lost Boys (1987) A great vampire romp from start to finish I absolutely love the look of the vampire clique. It's a classic for a reason, the loving sax man of course. 4/5 13. Madeline, Study of a Nightmare (1974) This was pretty dope. A slow character study of a woman haunted by dreams of a past she'd rather forget. It's described as a psychological horror but the horror elements are extremely light with the primary driver being Madeline's anxiety and her husband lurking about shooting menacing glares at everyone. Gorgeous cinematography, a wonderful soundtrack and some excellent vibes made this an easy watch. I dug the ending, thought they pulled it off well in this instance. 4/5 14. Tragic Ceremony (1972) Not bad, a great black mass ceremony scene and I liked the insanity after that with the group escaping the villa. It's another example of Italian filmmaking having a great look and vibe but awful writing lol. The cast is mostly good, Keaton makes the most of her screen time. 3/5 15. Sex of the Witch (1973) An Italian sleazefest that delivers more on the sex than it does the witch/kills of this odd giallo. There's an extended threesome scene that had me checking the time more than anything. A wild rear end ending that I couldn't believe lol. Still it hangs in there with some great moody vibes aided in large part by the score and the castle/mansion setting. Camille Keaton doesn't get a whole to do, but she was solid when she gets her scenes. Again, the ending is so loving out there that if you dig giallo at all I recommend it just to see that. 3/5
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May 26, 2023 17:26
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 12. Birth of the Living Dead (2013) (dir. Rob Kuhns) Shudder #9 - Challenge of the DeadA neat little documentary about Night of the Living Dead. Sometimes these types of documentaries are just various horror personalities talking about what makes the film great or it's influence on the genre (and there is a little bit of that), but it also gets into a lot of production details that I thought were interesting - Romero's early career filming commercials, how he got funding for NotLD, info on various cast members and zombie extras, etc. It also features a film class for little kids and their reactions to watching the film for the first time, and it's pretty adorable. This also talks a fair amount about the impact the film had by featuring a black lead actor in 1968. I've often heard that Romero wasn't trying to make any kind of statement, but he discusses it here and that seems only half true. Ben wasn't written with any specific race in mind, but once Duane Jones was cast, Romero was very aware of how that would play and he and Jones gave a lot of thought to the character. They ultimately didn't change much, if anything, but it certainly makes some parts of the film read differently and they were fully aware of that. Romero even muses that maybe they should've leaned into the racial aspect a little, but I think not doing so was ultimately the right choice. This isn't an essential documentary, but if you're a fan of Night of the Living Dead or just enjoy learning production details on classic films, I think there's some pretty good stuff here. Plus it's nice and short! 4 ghouls out of 5  13. Angel's Egg (1985) (dir. Mamoru Oshii) YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YopWyb75G7o #6 - Drawn and Quartered (is this horror? it's very hard to fit this into a genre but it's got majorly spooky gothic vibes so I think it counts)A young girl wanders a gothic post-apocalyptic landscape clutching a large mysterious egg. She meets a man who takes an interest and begins to follow her - she is scared of him, but she is even more frightened of the giant rolling war machines and silent fishermen who futilely throw their spears at the shadows of unseen giant fish. Full of gorgeous yet haunting imagery and music, Christian symbolism, and a pervasive feeling of hopelessness and loneliness, this film is, as they say, a whole-rear end vibe. I'd be lying if I said I had any idea what this was about. Supposedly even the creator doesn't know what it means, but it's obtuseness lets the viewer project their own personal interpretation onto it. I think that's called "art". There is very little dialogue outside of one scene where the man relates a Christian parable to the girl. If there's a key to understanding the film, it's probably found there, but it doesn't offer any clear answers. Maybe the creator was working though a crisis (or outright loss) of faith - if there is a God in this world, it is hostile and alien. This is one of those films where a star rating seems meaningless - it's a capital-A work of Art, and wholly original and unique. 5 eggs out of 5 Total: 13 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) | Clearcut (Challenge #7) | The Meg (Challenge #2) | The Suspicious Death of a Minor (Challenge #11) | Birth of the Living Dead (Challenge #9) | Angel's Egg (Challenge #6) Challenges: History Lesson: 6/5 - 1920s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2010s, 2020s Geography Lesson: 4/5 - Europe, North America, Southeast Asia, Asia
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May 26, 2023 20:28
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 23. All Eyes (2022) A podcast/radio host loses his job from some poor decision making, but hopes to get back on the air by investigating a story of a farmer who says he has a monster living in the woods near his house. This was pretty charming for most of the runtime - I thought the lead was smarmy (but he is meant to be smarmy), and really loved Ben Hall as the slightly demented farmer who may or may not have a legitimate story to share. It's low budget and a slow burn, more of a character piece and an exploration of the farmer's grief over his wife, but it resolves the actual monster premise in the third act. By the time we got there though, I didn't really want it? That last chunk fell really flat for me, too cartoonish and silly from what came before. Still, I enjoyed this enough to say it's worth a watch if you're patient. 3/5First time watches: 23/13 GMM Challenges:
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May 26, 2023 20:57
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10. Influencer (2023) Shudder A social media influencer named Madison has issues with her relationship, as her boyfriend booked them both for a trip to Thailand but bailed last-minute, leaving her behind and alone. During one of her struggles on this trip, she meets a girl named CW who's more familiar with the area, puts her mind at ease and helps her sightsee Now throw out literally everything you may think about that above synopsis because it doesn't play out in any way like that sounds like it may play out, and it's impossible to talk about it without spoilers. The only things I'll say is (minor spoiler) this and Fresh solidify that more films need to be unafraid to have the titles pop up half an hour in and a lot of this is stunningly beautiful and almost-horribly (given the point of the film; we're all pretending in some capacity) relaxing If not for some parts of the final 15 minutes that I don't think went without hitches, this would have been among the top 5 Shudder originals imo. As is, it's still a pretty good watch and firmly in the best new (in general, not even just streaming-exclusive, but including that too) horror films of the year already, and I know I won't have forgotten about it by December. Wouldn't be shocked if I upped this to a 5 the more I think about it later **** 10/13 (Beau is Afraid, From Black, Enys Men, Fear 2023, Renfield, Malum, The Devil's Doorway, Outpost 2023, Creepypasta, Influencer 2023) Chris James 2 fucked around with this message at 03:02 on May 27, 2023 |
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May 26, 2023 22:37
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10) The Wolf House (2018) Challenge: Drawn and Quartered A young woman flees from a colony of expatriated Germans in Chile. Pursued by a wolf, she finds her way to a small house inhabited by two pigs and takes up residence. I don't want to say too much about this retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, as it's a hard recommend but it's best watched blind. Stylistically it's both inventive and nightmarish, with stop motion puppets being mixed with chalk paintings on the walls of a house and real furniture. It doesn't try to hide what it is, it being a story told through art is much of the point. The movie was inspired by true events at Colonia Dignidad, which I'll leave you to read up on for yourself if you wish. Once you have, three scenes in the movie will suddenly make a great deal more sense and the film as a whole will become a great deal more disturbing.
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May 27, 2023 00:23
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 67 (92). The Hunt (2020) Directed by Craig Zobel; Written by Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof Watched on Peacock This is a dumb loving movie. Like really loving dumb. Forget the political stuff and all the controversy. On some level its why I and most people watched it because it made a ton of noise and stuck the movie in our memories and watchlists and gave someone like me the idea of "well I'll finally see what that's all about." But its really about nothing. At best its of the "nothing matters, people who care about politics are all crazy, whatever" mindset. Or it was done deliberately to just rile people up and make noise the way it did. I don't know. But I think trying to make sense of this film's politics or decide which side its on or what its message is is a waste of time that will just feed into your own stuff. Its a dumb movie and its only saving grace is Betty Gilpin. She's great. Just absolutely great. She not only carries this film but she basically turns a very poorly written and dumb film into a star vehicle. She kicks rear end. She's fun. She's charming. She just loving nails it. She should be an action star and superstar and I can't wait to check out Mrs. Davis when I'm done with this horror month. I should probably go finish up GLOW too. I should just find more Betty Gilpin because she loving killed it and made another fan. Everything else sucks. Like pretty much everything. I dunno, you might enjoy the gimmick of casting recognizable actors to kill them quickly. You might connect with some broad political statement made. You might laugh at the overall meanness. Its funny how much I loved Gilpin because her character is basically a self admitted psychopath, But she even makes that work with her charm and humor. Not everyone could have sold that, but she did. And a lot of this cast is talented and good so its not their fault they can't sell stuff like that speech Hillary Swank gives. Swank is good and she seems to be putting her all into this. Its just stupid material. But god drat does Gilpin rise above it and kick rear end. So should you watch this? I dunno. I don't wanna say that. There's stuff about this I genuinely didn't like and probably would have hated if it wasn't for Betty Gilpin. There's a broad humor type that you might really click with. But if there's a reason to watch this its for Betty Gilpin. Betty Gilpin. Betty Gilpin. I can't not oversell her. Betty Gilpin kicks rear end in this.  68 (93). Spree (2020) Directed by Eugene Kotlyarenko; Written by Eugene Kotlyarenko and Gene McHugh I could not get with this and it was a pretty painful watch and i think that comes down to a kind of cultural/generational/age gap. I don't stream. I've never streamed. I didn't grow up in the world where streaming and social media was standard. This Letterboxd account is about the extent of my social media profile. So like I understand what this film was doing and all but none of it resonated with me. And unlike similar films like Deadstream that are set in the online world this feels more like a movie liek We're All Going To The World Fair, a film ABOUT the online world. And I'm online. I get it. But I ain't of it. The other thing is its just kind of a very very dark and mean humor that I can't enjoy. I understand the jokes. We're laughing at how pathetic he is and how desperate he is for this online validation. We're laughing at the fact that all these other successful streamers and influencers are basically doing the same pathetic thing. We're laughing that all these people commenting are just as cruel and pathetic and lovely. I get it. I just don't find any of it terribly funny. And some of that is probably just that generational/online thing. Some of its probably that the film's doing that "hold a mirror up to the audience" thing and I generally find that very clumsy and stupid. But also a lot of it is definitely that... this is a really loving dark and topical story about a spree killer. And I dunno. I'm not judging or anything but playing it for these kinds of laughs just doesn't work for me at all. And again, that's a taste thing and there's clearly an audience for this kind of thing. But it just really made for a tough watch for me. Joe Kerry plays his role well. But I dunno. The humor doesn't hit for me. The cruelty and darkness makes me uncomfortable. The commentary about social media feels shallow and circular. That's probably the point but its also no point at all. At the same time if you're a part of this world or ever were maybe it connects with you at some level. Or maybe you just find the stuff funny I didn't. It was just a miss for me.  69 (94). Ghosts of the Ozarks (2021) Directed by Matt Glass and Jordan Wayne Long; Written by Tara Perry and Jordan Wayne Long This was alright. Like a lot of modern horror it feels like it spends a lot of energy and time just kind of meandering about in its setting. I get it. Westerns are this iconic style and romantic setting that a lot of people like to dive into. I get it. I watched Deadwood and played Red Dead Redemption and suddenly got all western obsessed for a minute. When done well its a very cool vibe and obviously a lot of people who are making westerns today... especially a cross genre like this are into that aesthetic and want to really focus on it. I do think this just kind of meanders a bit much. I get it. There's this idea its trying to sell of this strange utopian society and they sell it by having like an hour of just kind of walking around living with the occasional nod to something sinister going on and them ghosts or monsters outside the walls. Its clear there's something going on but the film kind of ignores that for awhile to just get their cowboy on a little. And then Angela Bettis and Tim Blake Nelson do a musical number. Which was odd. But catchy. I just think the film takes too long to ever shift into second gear. Its also maybe got a few too many ideas and tones going on? Like there's times when I thought I had really figured it out that they were doing like an American folk horror and a play on The Wicker Man. That would explain the musical number. Then there were times I thought they were kind of doing a Coen Brothers thing where its all a little silly or funny on some level but its still a serious story. That would also explain the musical number. Then again maybe they just liked the song. I dunno. But I don't feel like the film found its groove or defined itself quite quickly enough. The last act is solid and the cast here is very good. There are points where I thought they were coming off kind of broad but I gotta chalk that up to the writing/directing struggles. Like I said, I just feel like it had a hard time finding its tone so sometimes it wasn't entirely clear how I was supposed to be receiving something. But I didn't dislike this. Good cast, western vibe, and a decent finale. Its got issues, is probably too long, has pacing issues, tonal issues. I dunno. And the horror doesn't play nearly as big as I hoped for. But you know... it was fine. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 06:30 on May 28, 2023 |
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May 27, 2023 03:10
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