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Basebf555 posted:I know there's a gif of this floating around somewhere, someone feel free to post it if they have it: Sorry for the delay I had to Kramer back from Florida  bonus:  I loving love Spider Baby. ScaryJen posted:Jordskott I loved the first season, but found the second really disappointing. It felt like a giant step away from all the weird forest stuff and closer to a generic procedural. I mean I still watched the entire thing in the span of like three days, but I wanted to like it a lot more than I did.
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May 25, 2018 01:37
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Spider Baby is loving awesome.
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May 25, 2018 02:06
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It's a delightful missing link between the grimy 70s and the campy 60s.
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May 25, 2018 02:09
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Through random chance I had a European ecilpse double feature. 14. Veronica (2017) - What a boring and predictable movie. Like, why did they even bother to pretend to have a twist at the end? Also the music was loud and annoyed me, something I usually wouldn't notice. If I had to say something nice, I liked when the youngest drew a demon summoning sigil instead of Nordic runes. Rock on little dude. Rating: as enjoyable as staring at eclipse without film negatives 15. The Noonday Witch (2016) - Now we are talking, this movie had a fraction of the supernatural as Veronica but felt so much more creepy and tense. Slow burn folk horror. Beautiful scenery and most of the film takes place during the day. The eclipse in this movie was used so much better than in Veronica. Not even going to risk spoiling an other interesting similarity between the main characters. Check it out on Shudder.
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May 25, 2018 06:23
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28. Poltergeist II: The Other Side Wow, this was bad. Just feels uninspired and tired; it latches onto elements of the original that are least interesting. The creature effects are neat (especially the vomit monster), but it has seriously bad compositing that wasn't a problem for the first. This is especially strange as it has nearly twice the budget of the original. Also, I'd heard from several people that Kane was a good villain, but he's just Robert Mitchum from Night of the Hunter except less interesting and in a worse movie. 28. Poltergeist III A improvement over the previous film but only marginally. I liked Tom Skerritt, Nancy Allen, and Lara Flyn Boyle in their roles but transporting the story to such a different location with different characters makes it feel like it was some other horror script hastily re-written into a Poltergeist sequel. The use of mirrors for all the supernatural stuff is cool but it gets old really fast. The only other Gary Sherman movie I'd seen before was Dead & Buried and in this movie's best moments it echoes the deep sadness of that one, but they're very infrequent and it doesn't come close to the original. 29. Firestarter I saw this yesterday and I barely remember it. Didn't realize until about an hour and half in that George C. Scott was supposed to be Native American. That's not good & neither is the movie. 30. Tales from the Hood I don't usually love anthology movies, but this was fantastic. I was expecting something campy from the poster/title, but (for the most part) it's completely serious stories about the problems in the United States. Only weakness is the third segment is a little generic in its payoff. Hollismason posted:I like that you wrote The Toolbox Murders then just left it blank which is also my general impression of that movie. There really isn't a whole lot to say about Hooper's Toolbox Murders that can't be said about Mortuary. There's a clever (anti) jump scare near the end I really liked. Surprised by Sheri Moon Zombie, I didn't know she was in anything that wasn't directed by Rob Zombie. Almost Blue fucked around with this message at 16:36 on May 25, 2018 |
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May 25, 2018 16:31
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Almost Blue posted:30. Tales from the Hood I watched this for the first time last year and had the same reaction, it's great and surprisingly serious. It is also sadly still very relevant.
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May 25, 2018 16:38
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Oh yeah. I was really taken aback at how less than 10 minutes in you see racist cops beating a guy to death. “Those assholes are cops! Who are you to judge them?”
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May 25, 2018 16:54
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As Strange Fruit plays!
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May 25, 2018 16:58
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8. Hobgoblins (1988) Welp this was pretty loving terrible. It's a poorly made film trying to cash in on the success of Gremlins, Ghoulies, Critters, and other little puppet-monster films. It goes for a campy/silly tone, but it doesn't work because the writing is awful and all of the jokes fall completely flat. The acting is terrible, the plot makes no absolutely no sense, and the creatures look like total poo poo. Did I mention the plot being garbage? It is basically about these little alien creatures that came to earth 30 years ago, possibly caused some havoc, and then were trapped in a vault by a security guard at a film studio. He hires a new guard to assist him, and gives him a vague warning to stay away from the vault, but of course the new guy wanders in there (the vault is not even locked) and releases the creatures. The aging guard explains that the aliens have some sort of psychic ability to fulfill people's fantasies, although it's unclear why they do this. The creatures make a beeline for the new guard's house, where his dumb awful friends are hanging out. They begin to use their psychic powers to attack and kill these stupid jerks, except when they don't and instead use their powers to make one of the girls go sing at a dive bar for some reason. By the end, the creatures are brought back to the vault and locked in again, and then the old guy decides that locking them up isn't safe enough, so he reveals that he already had the vault wired up with explosives and loving blows up the building. WHY DIDN'T YOU DO THAT 30 YEARS AGO YOU rear end in a top hat?? This would probably make a fun episode of MST3K, but on its own it is garbage.  out of watched so far: Night Train to Terror - Murders in the Rue Morgue - It Comes at Night - Dark Night of the Scarecrow - Suspiria - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me - You're Next - Hobgoblins
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May 25, 2018 17:06
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gey muckle mowser posted:8. Hobgoblins (1988) It’s one of my favorite MST3Ks actually. https://youtu.be/Q18Wz73yUPo
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May 25, 2018 17:32
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Drunkboxer posted:It’s one of my favorite MST3Ks actually. haha I should've known, I don't think I can stand to watch the movie again so soon but I'll checkout that episode at some point.
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May 25, 2018 17:37
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I was gonna say something but I figured there's no way you weren't making a joke. Hobgoblins is one of the top 10 MST3K eps.
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May 25, 2018 17:39
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I have friends that are super into MST3K but I've actually only seen a couple episodes myself. I like it but generally if I'm gonna sit down and watch something for 90 minutes I'd rather watch a real movie  Hobgoblins would've been a lot more fun with some friends and alcohol/weed
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May 25, 2018 17:50
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I feel like you owe it to yourself at this point to make up for having watched Hobgoblins.
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May 25, 2018 17:52
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 Psycho II I'd heard good things about this unlikely sequel(22 years later!) but to be honest I never quite believed them. Well, turns out Perkins is just that drat good. It's amazing how smoothly Perkins is able to slide back into Norman's shoes, and even more amazing is that he builds so much onto the original performance. You can definitely see the old Norman, he's there, but then there's a new aspect to him that I suppose he's gained from spending two decades in an asylum. There's self-awareness now, he knows what he did and he honestly wants to become a better person. Or does he? Perkins is always just opaque enough that you can't quite decide for sure what's going on in there, and as the film goes on you start to notice that Norman's "performance" can change drastically depending on who he's interacting with. So you end up bouncing back and forth between feeling bad for Norman, feeling scared for the woman he's invited to stay in his house, feeling angry at the woman, then back to being scared for her, and then the ending comes on and I really thought it was a fantastic capper. I would highly recommend that any fan of Perkins or Psycho check this out ASAP, don't make the same mistake I did and ignore it for years. Completed: 1. The Raven 2. The Last Man on Earth 3. The Mad Magician 4. A Dark Song 5. Dark Waters 6. Tremors 7. Tremors 2: Aftershocks, 8. Tremors 3: Back to Perfection, 9. Tremors 4: The Legend Begins 10. Tremors 5: Bloodlines 11. Tremors 6: A Cold Day In Hell 12. Ghoulies 13. Puppetmaster 14. Puppetmaster II 15. Puppetmaster III: Toulon's Revenge 16. Cold Hell 17. Raw 18. Lake Bodom 19. Four Flies on Grey Velvet 20. Rawhead Rex 21. Humanoids From the Deep 22. Manhattan Baby 23. Spider Baby 24. The Invisible Man 25. The Invisible Man Returns 26. Inferno 27. Mother of Tears 28. No One Lives 29. The Black Room 30. The Devil Commands 31. Subspecies 32. Bloodstone: Subspecies II 33. Cat People 34. Psycho II
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May 25, 2018 17:53
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Almost Blue posted:There really isn't a whole lot to say about Hooper's Toolbox Murders that can't be said about Mortuary. There's a clever (anti) jump scare near the end I really liked. Surprised by Sheri Moon Zombie, I didn't know she was in anything that wasn't directed by Rob Zombie. It's funny, that anti-jump scare is literally the only thing I ever praise the film about.
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May 25, 2018 23:06
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5 - Oculus Something bad happened to Tim when he was a kid and it took him 11 years of treatment to get over it. But on his first day out of the institution, his sister threatens to bring it all back when she insists their parents' death was caused by a mirror. Dumb and formulaic movie that fails to achieve any sense of creepiness due to the completely inappropriate production design. Everyone looks like a model and has amazing hair, every scene has too many filters over it, at no point do you feel like you're looking at real people in a real house instead of at a fancy hollywood production on a set. The gore looks fake as hell and the ghosts all have default post-production creepy skin filters on them and do that stupid yawning face thing. The performances are very standard and so is the script. Nothing about the plan or plot makes much sense and there are no surprises to be had. It might as well be a highlight reel of bad modern horror visuals used in a video analysis of bad modern horror. Watch Mirror Mirror instead. 1/5
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May 26, 2018 05:22
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22. Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005) - 1/5. This is even worse than Hellseeker by most objective criteria and even less coherent. It's at least extremely goofy, though, and for some reason Lance Henriksen is in it. We've got a sort of fake haunted house movie with a Hellraiser theme loosely paperclipped to it, and for some reason there's a backstory about internet videogames and catfishing. Throw in the weird fixation on ancient (even by 2005 standards) cell phones and you might imagine the movie had some ideas about technology and interpersonal relationships or something but not really. The way it treats the Hellraiser franchise is similarly bizarre, as we seem to be looking at a world where the movies didn't exist but the fake videogame draws on the same(-ish) mythology. Or at least something with a bunch of the same names. Then for the resolution the movie just borrows twists from a random selection of the last few movies someone involved with the script watched, and we go through an increasingly nonsensical series of fake endings. Almost sucks less than Inferno, but comes up short on cowboys.
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May 26, 2018 05:28
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Lurdiak posted:5 - Oculus The creepiest scene of the movie was in the trailer, too; when she's eating the apple and it turns out to be a light bulb, the only scene that was remotely spooky. It was in the trailer! When your movie sucks, don't give us the only good part in the trailer!
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May 26, 2018 05:49
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Irony.or.Death posted:22. Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005) - 1/5. This is even worse than Hellseeker by most objective criteria and even less coherent. It's at least extremely goofy, though, and for some reason Lance Henriksen is in it. Yeah, Hellworld is definitely the worst film in the series. Even worse than the next film which is literally a fan film made legitimate. At least with that one, they're TRYING to make a Hellraiser movie to begin with, which is more than you can say of the last 4 films or so. #11. Wolf Guy (1975) Based on a Manga, Akira Inugami (Sonny Chiba!) is a reporter (?) who uh, also happens to be a wolf-man. The last of his rural tribe, when the moon is full he becomes invincible, possessing great strength and the ability to heal all wounds. In between fighting mooks and being a funky lady's man, he finds himself on a case where a small time rock band are getting killed off one by one by a spiritual curse that slashes them up like a ghost tiger. It turns out the curse is set forth by a woman the band brutalized on command from political higher ups to get her to be dumped by her rich boyfriend. It resulted in her getting syphilis and becoming hooked on drugs. So yeah, she has reason to be angry. Eventually the J-CIA becomes interested in both of our paranormal characters, and abducts them for their own purposes. Well. This was a pretty drat amazing movie. Despite the monstery premise, the film is made like one hell of a 70s exploitation film, full of funky guitar riffs, downbeat social messages, and the hero having women throw themselves at him seemingly at random. It also doesn't shy away from the red stuff, and as a warning, features some real surgical footage at one point out of nowhere. This is one hell of a movie, and apparently not even the only movie based on that manga, as two years earlier, Toho made one called "Horror of the Wolf" which features Inugami as a teenager. This film has proven difficult for me to track down however.
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May 26, 2018 05:52
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11. Bone Tomahawk This movie kicks rear end. Kurt Russell and Patrick Wilson do very good in their roles. I wasn't sure about a Wild West horror movie, but this one was pretty good. And David Arquette did good in his role, too. I always like seeing him in stuff, even Eight Legged Freaks (though, he'll always be Eddie from SSX Tricky to me). Definitely much better than the last horror western I watched. I don't recall the title, but it had Wesley Snipes, and boy, did it suck.
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May 26, 2018 06:22
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Leavemywife posted:Definitely much better than the last horror western I watched. I don't recall the title, but it had Wesley Snipes, and boy, did it suck. Gallow Walkers. Yes, it did massively suck. But it had Diamond Dallas Page!
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May 26, 2018 13:23
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Leavemywife posted:
Gallowwalkers, a.k.a the inexplicably boring Wild West Blade. 14. From Beyond  I figure this one has a couple fans in this thread, and for good reason. A mix between The Thing and Hellraiser, caked in gorgeous pink and blue colours, with slimy creature effects and a charismatic cast, especially Ken Foree, this is a must watch. It's streaming for free on tubitv so if you haven't seen it yet there is no excuse to miss it. 
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May 26, 2018 13:26
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The Blob 1958, dir. Irvin S. "Shorty" Yeaworth Jr. | FilmStruck (Criterion) Ah, here it is, the essential B-movie, the 50's monster movie that got everyone talking. It's funny watching this movie now, because it has been satirized by cultural osmosis for decades now. Pretty much when a movie makes parody of a monster movie, this is it. All the tropes are here. There is a joy, an odd seriousness in the action and responses to all the absurdity that seems to fit best in the 50's. The movie also seems aware of this and embraces it, by giving all the characters a love of horror movies and everyone becoming friends after a conflict. There's a lot of over-writing in the dialogue, which is mostly charming but also fuels this weird heightened reality of this world. The Blob itself is very impressive. Excellent creature work and some especially gross special effects. The theme song is also great. I've had it on my Halloween playlist for years and didn't know it was the actual theme song. 3 out of 5  | recommended, especially for classic monster movie fans(Movie List) 18: As Above, So Below | Mirror, Mirror | Magic | Day of the Dead | Kill Baby, Kill | Tourist Trap | Five Dolls For An August Moon | The Shallows | Baskin | The Endless | Tetsuo: The Iron Man | Deep Red | Daughter of Dracula ('72) | Peeping Tom | Fright Night ('85) | Phantasm | The Brood | The Blob ('58)
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May 26, 2018 15:38
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This is tonight!!Hollismason posted:Are you behind on movies for the May Challenge? Hollismason fucked around with this message at 02:01 on May 27, 2018 |
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May 26, 2018 15:59
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Announcing Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing Birthday Bash Stream 
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Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922) This was the highest ranked movie in the They Shoot Zombies list that i hadn’t seen, even though it all seems so familiar, how many times i’ve seen clips from it and knowing the story. But it in motion is another thing entirely. That’s where atmosphere builds, and new, expanded images and tones come. And i find out how funny it is. Certainly still the creepiest looking vampire put on screen. B+     Night of the Seagulls (Amando de Ossorio, 1975) I always kinda liked the knights templar movies but this just cemented them as one of my favourite evils in cinema. The best in the series, even those ones i haven’t seen. Slow, poetic, sombre, disquieting. A dreamworld.of foreordained death. Repetitive because this is ritual. The last half hour is perfect: awaiting death as it clangs its rusty sword against the door. A-     So far: Satan's Cheerleaders B \\ Shriek of the Mutilated B \\ Adrénaline B+ \\ Death at an Old Mansion B+ \\ Mark of the Devil B \\ Messiah of Evil A \\ The Haunting of Morella B- \\ The Manson Family A- \\ Daughters of Darkness B+ \\ Devil Foetus B+ \\ Simon, King of the Witches B+ \\ Mansion of the Living Dead A- \\ Seeding of a Ghost B+ \\ The Mafu Cage B+ \\ Red Spirit Lake B \\ Hunchback of the Morgue B+ \\ Pin B+ \\ The Blood Splattered Bride B \\ Edge of the Axe B+ \\ The Plague of the Zombies B+ \\ Shutter C+ \\ A Touch of Unseen B- \\ Nosferatu B+ \\ Night of the Seagulls A-
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May 26, 2018 17:21
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16. The Fly (1986) - What a crazy movie and I loved lit. I don't think I can add anything new to the discussion. At first I expected Brundle would try to find a way to undue the fusion bit nope the enthusiasm in which he embraces the it was perfect. Now, to decide what to watch next.
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May 26, 2018 17:47
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11. Dead Body (2017) A mostly enjoyable but ultimately predictable murder mystery. 12. Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon  A perosnal favorite that is still fun after many viewings. 13. The Lost Boys (1987)  An unexpected addition to my horror challenge since a friend had never seen it. This is my favorite vampire movie period and easily in the list of my top ten favorite movies. Never a bad time to watch some Lost Boys. 14.Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser Part 1  BONUS ROUND! A great documentary. Maybe not quite on the same level as You're So Cool Brewster or Never Sleep Again but very close.
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May 26, 2018 20:43
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23. Hellraiser: Revelations (2011) - 1/5. I'm running low on ways to say "at least it's better than Hellseeker". This at least has some ideas of its own (well, okay, one idea) that are appropriate to a Hellraiser story, but overall it sticks way too close to the original while being substantially less competent. Never a flattering look. The entire thing sort of hinges on the actor who plays Steven and it is not a good performance at all.
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May 26, 2018 20:48
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Santa Sangre 1989, dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky | Amazon Prime Oddly enough, Jodorowsky's most grounded film, in which the poetic (surreal, dreamy) imagery is grounded within the literal psychosis of the main character as he survives his haunted world. Disturbing, beautiful, creepy, and intriguing. It's certainly a new favorite for me, and fits within the weird patterns of family themes that many of this months movies have had, as well as the horrors of sexual appetites and perversions. There's a lot of fascinating tonal shifts with some genuinely hilarious moments that I find so endearing in Jodorowsky. Next for me is his film The Holy Mountain. 5 out of 5 | a must see, but will be polarizing(Movie List) 19: As Above, So Below | Mirror, Mirror | Magic | Day of the Dead | Kill Baby, Kill | Tourist Trap | Five Dolls For An August Moon | The Shallows | Baskin | The Endless | Tetsuo: The Iron Man | Deep Red | Daughter of Dracula ('72) | Peeping Tom | Fright Night ('85) | Phantasm | The Brood | The Blob ('58) | Santa Sangre
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May 26, 2018 21:03
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15. The Evil Dead (1981) One of my favorite things this go around was the recording talking about the book and the demons. It's so effective and ominous. Feels like a great addition to a horror music playlist.
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May 26, 2018 22:25
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#14 - The Transfiguration (2016) A slow paced, quiet, horror movie about a teen serial killer who believes he's transforming into a vampire. The movie owes a lot to Martin and Let the Right One In, and doesn't try to hide it. In fact, the main character is a connoisseur of vampire movies and has a tendency to name drop them frequently. Also, he's a bit of a weirdo:  Despite wearing its influences on its sleeve, the movie stands on its own - and it has a lot to do with it being set in a housing project. Quite good, definitely a good Saturday morning horror movie.  /5
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May 26, 2018 23:17
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24. Hellraiser: Judgment (2018) - 2/5. Clockwise, motherfuckers. Like most of the previous five movies this seems to have been made by people who were somehow devoted fans of the original despite not watching or understanding it. It's also got that Inferno/Hellseeker disease that I can only assume results from secretly just wanting to direct music videos forever. It is at least visually...well, okay, not really interesting but there's more going on than in the past couple movies.  I guess  Bad Hellraisers retrospective: Deader's clearly the least-bad of the bunch, but they're all better than The Scarlet Gospels. Now that my official personal challenge list is complete, I am going back to my normal strategy of not having a plan or schedule. I'm still sad about Friday Part VII because it should have been the best one by far.
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May 27, 2018 00:42
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poo poo, expected this to be in June! Consolation prize goal: One horror/monster flick in the backyard on a projector while drinking beer and eating something off the grill. One after work per night during the week. Only the projector film may be a possible rewatch. At least one after work film chosen blind from each Amazon and Netflix.
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May 27, 2018 03:39
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9. Critters C A very weird and fun b-movie. Nothing beats actors losing fights to puppets. Far more explosions than you would expect from a movie about monsters the size of squirrels. The alien bounty hunter subplot is good enough for its own weird sci-fi movie. 10. Deep Rising D Tentacle monsters on a cruise ship. It's bad. The CGI is horrendous but they do a nice job of mixing practical effects for slime and gore. The monsters dissolve humans with acid and that's always a fun visual. 11. Critters 2: The Main Course B Fun action sequel. Ups all the ridiculous poo poo from the first. The first establishes too much plot to skip but this is the one you need to see. 12. I, Monster D Flat Jekyll and Hyde take. Cushing and Lee are fine but there's not a lot that stands out. 13.  Horror ExpressB Ancient monster on a train. There are a dozen colorful characters wandering around. Very high effort costuming with very low budget effects. The ongoing discovery of the monster, it's powers, and origins provide lots of fun stuff. The 1974 soundtrack is amazing.
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May 27, 2018 07:05
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Thanks to Hollis' stream for my 3 next entries into the challenge! 6 - The Devil Rides Out A young man who lost his father gets involved with a secret society with occult roots. His older friends become concerned for his well-being and decide to take action, but things get very dark as the leader of the cult strikes back. So this is a Hammer production, and like most of their work, it's pretty good. The basic structure is basically the second and third acts of Dracula, where an older man wise in the ways of "the enemy" (Christopher Lee) tries to protect younger, more naive people from a dark force who wants to claim them. And while there's very little action in the film and there aren't that many special effects, the score and camera work manages to sell the spiritual assaults the dark forces unleash as legitimately terrifying events, even if it's just a lot of people standing around looking worried. Lee makes a very convincing off-brand Dr. Strange, and his delivery of the ridiculous incantations and descriptions of the dark threats make them sound appropriately serious and ominous. Essentially this movie is charming because everything is played straight and treated as a credible threat, even if it's just a horse with cheap bat wings glued onto it. This movie is more evidence Lee would've made a great Baron Mordo to play opposite Vincent Price in my imaginary Dr. Strange movie from the 70s. 3.5/5 7 - I, Monster Dr. Marlowe, a medical doctor and student of Freud's theories, has discovered a chemical that can temporarily suppress the ID or the superego of whoever injects it. When he tests the mixture on himself, things soon spin out of control for him. This is just The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde adaptated by Amicus with the names changed, possibly for legal reasons. While the beginning is interesting as it adapts the themes of the story to a more modern understanding of psychiatry (and general questions about the nature of man), once Dr. Marlowe finally becomes Mr. Hyde, all that is tossed out the window for a pretty by-the-numbers adaptation of the source material. While Lee is great in the role and the makeup is good enough, the low budget and short runtime don't really allow the film to do anything memorable with the premise or with the modernized twist. As a big fan of stories about the inner life of dualistic characters, we just don't learn enough about Dr. Marlowe or what drives him (or Mr Blake) to really become concerned with his fate. I've read Two-Face comics that put this production to shame in that regard. Still, it's fun to see Christopher Lee run around with bad teeth, and Peter Cushing is also there for a bit, but doesn't get to do much. 2.5/5 8 - Horror Express A professor of anthropology brings a fossil onboard a russian train full of colorful characters. But the fossilized creature soon comes to life and starts taking out the passengers. Are the ancient bones cursed, or is something even more terrifying going on? This movie was a joy to watch. Lee and Cushing are predictably great in their roles, playing a man with too much hubris and a man with too few scruples respectively, but the rest of the cast also stand out. Like your average "murder on the orient express" pastiche, everyone is a bit quirky and interesting, and it's fun to see all these personalities interact as the creature slowly kills them off. I especially enjoyed the crazed russian orthodox monk who inexplicably becomes a devil worshipper halfway through the film. The slow discovery of the creature's true nature and the full extent of its abilities are fun, and remind me a bit of Alien in that regard. The movie isn't very high on gore, but there are fun effects throughout, punctuated by an amazingly groovy 70s score. The climax raises the stakes to an almost absurd level, and the movie ends not one second after that climax is resolved. This is a movie that never slows down and doesn't overstay its welcome, and I heartily recommend it to anyone who has a tolerance for really really unconvincing russian accents. Also, Kojak is in this movie for some reason! 4/5
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May 27, 2018 13:16
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Vampire Circus (Robert Young, 1972) Starts off as just another movie about a village tormented by a vampire until the the circus rolls into town 20 minutes in, fulfilling the promise of the title and giving the formula enough of a unique spin. The circus is more of a sexual revolution performance art piece that i thought might have been a bit much for a medieval village, but they seemed to enjoy it. As did I this movie. Good fun. B+     Island of the Fishmen (Sergio Martino, 1979) There’s some fishmen on an island. Goofy looking creatures that move goofily, under the command of the self-appointed lord of the island, he using them for some Atlantis-ransacking scheme. Decently enjoyable but i did grow tired of it by the end. There’s a strange but welcome infusion of wonder in the underwater scenes. Some really amusing dubbing too. B-    So far: Satan's Cheerleaders B \\ Shriek of the Mutilated B \\ Adrénaline B+ \\ Death at an Old Mansion B+ \\ Mark of the Devil B \\ Messiah of Evil A \\ The Haunting of Morella B- \\ The Manson Family A- \\ Daughters of Darkness B+ \\ Devil Foetus B+ \\ Simon, King of the Witches B+ \\ Mansion of the Living Dead A- \\ Seeding of a Ghost B+ \\ The Mafu Cage B+ \\ Red Spirit Lake B \\ Hunchback of the Morgue B+ \\ Pin B+ \\ The Blood Splattered Bride B \\ Edge of the Axe B+ \\ The Plague of the Zombies B+ \\ Shutter C+ \\ A Touch of Unseen B- \\ Nosferatu B+ \\ Night of the Seagulls A- \\ Vampire Circus B+ \\
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May 27, 2018 13:51
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#15 - The Brides of Dracula (1960) They're not really the brides of Dracula, they're the brides of Baron Meinster. The young baron caught a bad case of vampirism because his mom spoiled him (?), and this leads her to chain him up in their decadent old castle. He's freed by our protagonist, then runs afoul of Van Helsing (Peter Cushing). It's atmospheric and spooky, and there's some pretty cool scenes. There's also some strange stuff you don't get in most Dracula movies, like some Oedipal undertones and a scene where the vampire attacks Helsing with a chain. Usually the monsters in these movies don't just wail on people with chains. A pretty good Hammer movie with a lot of quality Cushing, but the actor who plays the Baron just doesn't have the presence of a Lee, and I think that hurts the movie a bit. They do some cool stuff with his eyes but he never feels that menacing to me. /5
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May 27, 2018 15:51
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Lurdiak posted:Thanks to Hollis' stream for my 3 next entries into the challenge! I've only counted new-to-me films for the challenge, as is my custom. That said, I'll be the epitome of laziness and steal these reviews for my #12 and #13 as there's really nothing I could say that Lurd didn't already about these two films. The other two films HollisMason showes last night were not new to me, but that doesn't matter because I hit the goalpost for the challenge!
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May 27, 2018 16:23
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| # ? Jun 10, 2024 04:32 |
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7. Alice Sweet Alice (1976)  I had heard of Alice, Sweet Alice before and seen a few clips here and there in documentaries about slashers. I was expecting it to be a bit more of a traditional slasher but as soon as the film started it became clear that wasn't the case. It has a masked killer stalking and killing victims but it's played more like a giallo murder mystery and the tone and look of the film reminds me a lot more of Don't Look Now than Friday the 13th as it is more interested in the tragedy of the deaths than the actual spectacle of the murders. What makes it feel like an American giallo is that the plot revolves around solving the murder and finding out who the real killer is and the research is being done by an amateur sleuth with a personal stake in the case, in this case the father of both the victim and the main suspect, and not the incompetent police. Like a giallo some of the parts of the puzzle don't quite fit together logically but that doesn't matter since it's about the journey not the destination. Alice, Sweet Alice is fantasticly grimy, creepy and off-putting. It made me feel physically uncomfortable and I loved it.   
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May 27, 2018 18:19
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