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BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


I am so in!

Normally I do 31 movies in 31 days, but I can use some breathing room and will start as soon as I can.

As always I tend to go for stuff I have never seen before, including at least one classic. Probably The Wicker Man this time.
In case things get too dire I have some re-watches on stand-by to remind me why I love horror.

Kudo's to the staff picks. The ones I saw were indeed great and I am definitely grabbing a few more from that list.

Edit: Regarding prizes, I am in the Netherlands.

BioTech fucked around with this message at 12:37 on Sep 17, 2018

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BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


1. The Wicker Man

While it definitely had some enjoyable scenes and good ideas in there, I have a hard time understanding where all the praise comes from.
I really dug how upbeat the whole cult was. Singing, dancing, free love, for me as a viewer these outweighed the hints that something sinister was going till near the very end.
Not a waste of time, but it really didn't live up to my expectations.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


Jedit posted:

I brought the Britt Ekland body double. Who's got the matches?

I knew it wouldn't be a popular opinion so afterwards I read up on the praise to see what I was missing and I just can't parse it.
There is nothing wrong with the movie at all, but it just doesn't stand out in any way.
That, combined with high expectations, just left me lukewarm.

Same thing for when I first saw The Texas Chain Saw Massacre last year or two years back. It is okay, but probably got its reputation from being the first to come up with something, filling a void when it was released.
Someone wrote in the main thread that they found it underwhelming because they saw all the films influenced by it before seeing TCM itself and that describes my experience as well.
To be fair, I would have a hard time naming anything clearly influenced by The Wicker Man, but the feeling is the same.

Sorry for rambling, I'm trying to put it into words, but it just escapes me.
Oh well, at least 30 more to go and you guys help me discover gems every year so I am still pumped.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


2. Mandy

Hooooooooooooly poo poo, this was amazing.
Awesome visuals, great soundtrack, plenty of violence, just such a satisfying trip.

If I had to say one bad thing about it I guess it would be the cult leader's monologue goes on for way too long, but that is such a small thing in an otherwise great movie.

Also, I can't stop laughing at ocarina of crime

Ingmar terdman posted:

Did that ocarina of crime have a metal name too

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


3. Tombs of the Blind Dead

Pretty standard horror movie, but with a strong monster design, some good use of a creepy location and a sinister ending that make it better than average.

I can't believe this was released as some sort of Planet of the Apes sequel in the US.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


4. Deathdream
Dug it. It is definitely rough around the edges, but it has plenty of stuff that works.

5. Creepy
Retired detective moves to starts his new job as a professor and has to deal with his really odd and creepy neighbor.
For the first hour it bothered me how sterile this movie was, everything was shot so lifelessly. After that the story picks up and it really takes you for a ride.
At one point things went a little too fast for my taste, but the neighbor is such an interesting character that he carries the movie effortlessly. I enjoyed this.

6. Scream
I never saw Scream before. I remember it being huge, featured in every magazine and Ghostface showing up everywhere......but I just never saw it.
In the end I'm really torn on this. It wasn't awful at all, but it definitely is its own worst enemy and for every step it takes in the right direction it also does something stupid.
Ghostface is clowned on all the time. He slips, misses, falls, gets hit in the groin with beer bottles, hit in the head with a fridge door and probably more that I can't remember. It goes on and on until it is no longer refreshing, but it becomes a parody of itself. This is especially weird combined with him moving unseen through rooms, gutting people in seconds, magically disappearing, etc.
The idea of "breaking the rules" is nice, but the movie buff explaining this a bunch of times got really grating. It couldn't just do what it set out to do, no, it had to explain it to you, word by word, multiple times.
No motive because is a nice idea, but it seems like a cheap idea to do whatever you want and if you immediately have the killer explain his motive afterwards it falls flat.

So......I don't know? If I wanted to learn about "the rules" I would rather watch Behind the Mask again.

7. Critters 2
I saw the Critters covers at the videostore as a kid. They looked terrifying and whenever I dared pick up one of the tapes and look at the back it was even scarier. It felt like there were dozens of Critters movies and in my mind nothing was bloodier, meaner and horrifying than these movies.
Seeing the first Critters movies a few months back was kid of disappointing. Sure it was okay, but it just couldn't live up to my imagination.
The sequel takes the highlights from the first movie and adds to them. It was way more enjoyable, but I still cannot help but feel confused about how funny and relatively gore-less these are.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


8. Belladonna of Sadness

That is a lot of rape and a lot of penis.
This felt more like a fairy tale on acid than what I would call horror, but it was beautiful and well done.

Between this, Critters 2, Deathdream and The Wicker Man I now saw 4 staff picks.
Aside from Deathdream I already had these movies lying around, the rest of the staff picks I've already seen (trying not to do rewatches), or I don't have access too, so not sure if more will follow.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


Bruteman posted:

3) Blood Feast

An Egyptian caterer is slaughtering and dismembering young women as part of a ritual to resurrect his beloved goddess Ishtar.

I thought you were talking about Blood Diner, but that goddess is called Sheetar.
Turns out Blood Diner was meant to be a sequel, but made into a stand-alone movie.
If you want more trash, including a talking serial killer brain, watch Blood Diner next.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


9. Xtro

I was ready for alien gore, but did not expect a midget clown, a black panther, a giant toy soldier bayonetting a woman and a toy tank that shoots real bullets. This feels like it is two movies in one, poorly combined and while the good kind of crazy is present neither of them is entertaining enough. Didn't care too much for it.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


Friends Are Evil posted:

Is The Bad Batch good?

I didn't care for it at all. The beginning is great, after that it just falls apart.
There are some fun ideas in there, like Keanu Reeves as a cult leader, but they never amount to more than snippets in a movie that is too long and doesn't go anywhere.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


10. Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things

The first half of the movie really drags, but after that you get some excellent Thriller-style zombies.
You can tell there was no budget, but it still manages to do a lot of things right.
Didn't care much for the main zombie, especially considering how good some of the others look, but it was still an okay movie.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...



If all of those are movies you haven't seen yet you are still in for a lot of good stuff

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


11. Another WolfCop

I don't remember much about the first WolfCop except that I was disappointed. No idea why I decided to watch the sequel, but it was a lot better than I expected.
Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't call this a great movie, but it fully embraces the craziness and while it still seems oddly toned down at times the camp is enjoyable.
I mean, a ground up moon rock sniffing werewolf fighting a team of cyborg ice hockey players in a skate rink controlled by Reptilians who are using their craft beer to impregnate Canadians, how often do you see that?

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


Didn't have much time to post recently, but I did watch plenty of movies!

12. Happy Death Day
This started off great, but lost steam before reaching the halfway point and never recovered. Groundhog Day for a slasher victim is such a great premise and it started off creepy enough to draw me in, but halfway through it gets....I don't know...Hallmarky? It focuses more and more on the romance, the horror elements disappear, it loses its teeth and I couldn't help but think a different director shot the second half or the movie was gutted by an attempt to have it appeal to every single focus group out there.

13. The Transfiguration
This is like Vampire's Kiss, but featuring a troubled teen in a public housing project and played completely straight. Some people say it reminds them of Martin, but I haven't seen that one yet. It is a very rewarding slowburn with some shocking moments that reminded me of The Eyes of My Mother. It is a bit different from most stuff that I'm watching, but I really dug it. Haven't seen a lot of people write about this movie around here, so I'd love to hear what you guys think.

14. Savageland
This blew me away. Not a single jumpscare, scenes of gore or whatever, just pictures, eye witness accounts and theories of what happened and it is absolutely terrifying. Definitely my number 2 so far, right behind Mandy.
Even if you think zombies are overdone (boo on you, classics never go out of style), please don't let that scare you away from this movie. It is amazing.

15. Wrong Turn 2
Good, dumb fun. Henry Rollins going all Schwarzenegger in Predator but hunting cannibal rednecks instead of aliens made me laugh.

16. The Company of Wolves
Beautiful, dreamlike atmosphere that makes it easy to forgive the somewhat messy story.

17. Neon Maniacs
Look at that title.
It is also called Evil Dead Warriors
The description says it features legions of the damned waiting under the Golden Gate bridge.
The cover has a mutant samurai on it

It starts with a voice-over.
"When the world is ruled by violence,
And the soul of mankind fades,
the children's path shall be darkened
by the shadows of the Neon Maniacs."


I was two minutes in and knew this movie was made for me.

Obviously it never managed to live up to all of that, but it was still an enjoyable 80s experience.
It gave me the same vibe as Spookies, with tons of ideas just thrown at the screen and hoping something would stick.

A zombie GI, zombie native American, werewolf, mutant samurai and another dozen or so completely random monsters attack a bunch of teens and hunt the survivor.
They have their own trading cards. No, that isn't explained anywhere.
Ofcourse the finale takes place at a band competition where some ridiculous hair metal band faces of against the main guy.
Yes, they dissolve in water so people arm themselves with squirt guns.
When a cop steals a young girls bike and she gets it back making oink noises he nearly draws a gun on her.
I know none of this adds up, but neither does this movie and I love it.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


18. Hold the Dark

Great atmosphere, skillfully shot and with some fantastic scenes, that just do not come together to form a whole. I wanted to like this so much, but it just lacks structure or a cohesive approach. It left me disappointed, feeling like the sous-chef in Apocalypse Now complaining some prime cuts of steak were boiled by army cooks.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


19. Night of the Comet

Franchescanado posted:

:siren: FRAN CHALLENGE #5: Birth of Horror :siren:
:ghost: Watch a horror movie released in the year you were born.

A (mostly) family friendly doomsday movie with a weird focus on how hard it is to get a date when there are no boys around.
There are zombies, evil scientists, the obligatory mall looting and other staples of the genre, but it really feels like a teen comedy and while that isn't my thing I have to admit I enjoyed its unique style.



20. Hell Comes to Frogtown

Hollismason posted:

The poster says it all

I would have thought this film was a fever dream if I had not watched it sober .

I read your post while very tired and thought it was a joke.
Half remembered it this morning and looked it up to discover it actually exists.
I watched it and am still not sure if I ever really woke up.
What a weird, weird, weird movie.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


STAC Goat posted:

A way better Night of the Comet review than my few random sentences.

You worded exactly what I was thinking, but way better than I ever could.
A lot of things just feel off, yet for some reason it still works.

STAC Goat posted:

...a lighthearted adventure in a soul crushing setting are just more common than they were in 1984.

I have a really hard time coming up with examples for this, though. Even stuff like Zombieland and Turbo Kid which I consider "fun" aren't really that lighthearted and definitely show the darker side of the setting way more than Night of the Comet ever does. I mean, throwing shoes at guns with machine guns and getting chained to a post while someone monologues is just so cartoony, I can't think of anything that comes close.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


21. Ghosts of Mars

Franchescanado posted:

:siren: FRAN CHALLENGE #4: Worst of the Best or Best of The Worst :siren:

:ghost: Watch a highly regarded director's worst movie.

I saw The Ward upon release and didn't like it. I can't remember much except that it starred Amber Heard and that it was bad.
I never saw Ghosts of Mars before, but a bunch of you picked it for this challenge and I saw John Carpenter perform last night, so I figured it would be worth a shot.

Now, there is a lot in this movie that doesn't work. The flashbacks undermine the tension, they have flashbacks in flashbacks to make things more confusing, the acting is shaky, but my biggest issue was that this movie basically does Assault on Precinct 13 in space. It doesn't have the same atmosphere because the bad guys, Quake soundtrack and bad acting make it laughable instead of tense and yet......I don't think this is a terrible movie. Don't get me wrong, it isn't good, especially compared with Carpenter's other work, but it isn't worse than any other forgettable B-grade scifi-action romp.

I think the biggest problem is that it was made 20 years too late. This came out together with Lord of the Rings, Blackhawk Down and it just feels old fashioned and stale in comparison. People weren't interested in some mid-budget just-okay action flick considering what else was on offer, but I think that if it was released right after Escape from New York it would be remembered more kindly.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


22. Amsterdamned



Franchescanado posted:

:siren: FRAN CHALLENGE #3: Hometown Horror :siren:

:ghost: Watch a film that was filmed in the state you currently live in.
Bonus points if you can find a film that takes place in the city you live in,
*province for non-USA goons

So, where to start....
I doubt anyone here is familiar with Dutch cinema, so lets start with some background.

Dutch film industry does not seem that diverse to me. I work next to one of the biggest cinema complexes in the country and judging by the posters I see every day the domestic films mainly consist of romantic comedies with the same actors in it over and over again and movies for children. It is a very commercial venue and perhaps US movies drown out whatever is produced locally, but I also live close to two arthouse theaters that I walk by at least once a week and I can't remember when I saw last a Dutch film advertised there either.

Occasionally something different shows up on my radar (Borgman is fantastic and I can highly recommend it to anyone who wants to watch a foreign film for their challenge), but these are far and in between. Based on my experience it is hard enough to find an interesting Dutch film, let alone a horror movie. IMDB and Google gave me a good dozen or so titles, but then the next problem presented itself; Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is iconic, it is big and it is where every movie seems to take place.
I do not live in Amsterdam.
I do not live in the North Holland province where Amsterdam lies.
Amsterdamned, obviously, also takes place in Amsterdam.

However, a number of scenes, most importantly one of the big stunts during the speedboat chase finale, were actually filmed in Utrecht, where I live.
Much like Amsterdam the city of Utrecht has canals, but they are set up differently.
In Amsterdam goods that came into the city via the canals would be hoisted up with cranes to the storage rooms on the upper floors of the houses on the waterside.
Note that the canals are directly adjacent to the street.


In Utrecht they built storage cellars at water level, so goods didn't have to be hoisted up. The houses themselves were on street level and separate from the unloading platforms. .
Nowadays these cellars mostly serve as restaurants and small quirky shops, with the waterside platforms full of outside bars and dining. The streets are lined with larger shops.


I doubt any non-Dutch people watching Amsterdamned will know or care about this, but the two tier structure used in Utrecht makes it very easy to spot which city scenes were shot in.
Based on this I hope my pick counts for the challenge.

With this out of the way, lets talk about the movie.



Amsterdamned is a slasher flick about a scuba diver who uses the canals to move freely along the city and kill. A grizzled detective and his scuba diving buddy chase the killer around town, being taunted while the murders rack up.

It is quite formulaic, but it more than makes up for that by never being boring. The first kill might be something you saw a hundred times before, but how the body is found definitely leaves an impression. Just as memorable is the death of a sunbathing blonde, floating in the canals on her inflatable matrass.

The chases are high energy and exciting, way better than I expected out of a Dutch movie. I couldn't help but think it was like a Dutch giallo. It shook off the Italian misogynistic tendencies, replacing them with the more stoic Dutch attitude. It wouldn't call it a masterpiece, but it is a surprisingly good movie and I can recommend it to anyone who wants a decent slasher with a different setting.

The movie was quite successful upon its 1988 release and together with Flodder and The Lift cemented Dick Maas' career as a director.
It was released in some European markets as well. French, German and Czech(?) posters below, I just wanted an excuse to post these because I love how different they all are.



Last year the movie was restored and released on Blu-Ray in the US. Amazon says you can watch it on Prime, but having never used that service I can't confirm.

BioTech fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Oct 11, 2018

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


23. Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum

Franchescanado posted:

:siren: FRAN CHALLENGE #7: The World Is A Scary Place

:ghost: Watch a horror film made outside of the USA & Canada. If you live outside of the USA & Canada, you cannot choose a film made in your home country.

Found footage movies nearly always leave me disappointed. While the format can take away some of the boundaries between the movie and the audience I feel it is usually just an easy way of throwing proper lighting, composition and everything else overboard. Because of the technical and financial low entry barriers I wish it would've become a spawning ground for new talent, showcasing original ideas, but instead it feels like a dumping ground for cheaply shot movies. Nearly all of them deteriorate into the same glitchy footage, with brief glimpses of "something" followed by shouts and cameras wildly shaking while people run. The immersion is supposed to carry much of the weight, but this isn't enough if everything else in the movie falls short. It just doesn't work for me.

On the other hand, I love Korean movies. I went through more than a hundred a few years back, mainly focusing on gangster movies. The tonal whiplash that people often complain about is glorious, the most violent or heartbreaking scenes turning into slapstick just seconds later. Horrorwise they impressed me as well. The Host is great, Thirst (reviewed just a few pages back) is a fantastic vampire flick that I often recommend, I Saw the Devil and The Chaser make a superb back-to-back viewing and I think nearly everyone will agree The Wailing is a masterpiece.

So, I gave Gonjiam, a Korean found footage movie, the benefit of the doubt.
This was a mistake.

Long story short, this movie does everything I dislike about found footage movies. The premise is shamefully stolen from Grave Encounters, but aside from two moments that drew my interest it just did the same thing as nearly every found footage movie. Glitchy footage, a flash of something creepy, people running and screaming, it was a chaotic experience that didn't make me feel scared, intrigued or involved, but instead drove me away from anything I could've related to.

I guess found footage just isn't for me.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


Quote is not edit

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


24. Apostle

Franchescanado posted:

:siren: FRAN CHALLENGE #8: Once In A Lifetime

:ghost: Find a director who only made one horror film in their career and watch that film.

I'm with Spatulater bro! a few posts up on this this one. It is a beautifully shot movie that starts off as a way darker version of The Wicker Man but just doesn't manage to bring all of the moving parts together into something great. I can't stop comparing it to Hold the Dark, which I also found full of scenes and ideas that were great on their own, but didn't translate into a cohesive, fulfilling experience.

I don't regret watching it and there is plenty of there that will stay with me
The vice being applied to the boy's head, camera going to his pov, the slight pop and a red haze slowly washing over the view was just nasty
However, but it was too long and juggled just a few too many things for its own good. Enjoyable, but flawed.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


25. The Bride of Frankenstein

Franchescanado posted:

:siren: FRAN CHALLENGE #2: Queer Horror :siren:

:ghost: Watch a horror movie made by a LGBQT+ director.

I haven't seen any of the classic Universal monster movies in over 10 years and even though I taught a course on the novel I only ever saw the original movie and none of the sequels.
This was a really enjoyable experience. The theatricality of it, the gorgeous set pieces, it reminded me of why I loved these old movies in the first place.


26. Inferno

Franchescanado posted:

:siren: FRAN CHALLENGE #6: Video Nasties

:ghost: Watch a Video Nasty*

Giallo never really clicked for me. I love the ideas, the atmosphere, the craziness, but it never really adds up to something that appeals to me.
Perhaps it is because I started with Suspiria and that kinda skewed my expectations, but during past challenges I saw The Bird with the Crystal Plummage, Deep Red and a few more without really caring much for them.
On the other hand I really enjoyed two movies about giallo; The Editor and Berberian Sound Studio, plus this is a sequel of sorts to Suspiria, so I gave it a try.

Unfortunately it was not a movie I enjoyed. The underwater ballroom was very cool, but for the most part it feels like a bunch of decent horror ideas thrown together with "a witch did it" thrown in to justify the chaos.
The visuals were not up to Suspiria's level, nor was the soundtrack, or did I care about the characters as much. Disappointing.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


27. Prince of Darkness

Franchescanado posted:

:siren: FRAN CHALLENGE #1: Love Something You Hate :siren:

:ghost: Pick a film that you have seen before that you hated, did not like or just didn't get. Rewatch it, and re-evaluate.

This was a genuine challenge for me. I only watch movies I haven't seen yet during October and even the rest of the year I will only re-watch movies that I absolutely adore.
So, re-watching something that I didn't like is difficult for me, there is a reason I am only doing this challenge so late.

Watching John Carpenter perform last week I saw highlights from Prince of Darkness projected on the screen and figured I would give it another try.
I saw it a few years back during one of the October challenges and it didn't click. The idea was great, but I remember how incredibly goofy the finale was, with cultists swarming through the ventilation system and our heroes playing whac-a-mole whenever one popped up. It just looked so amateurish it took me out of the movie.

So....I was wrong.
The finale how I remember it doesn't actually happen. There are just two possessed girls crawling through a hole and one gets clobbered with bricks. That's it. One scene.
I really thought the whole Alice Cooper gang tried to get in and it became like an Assault on Precinct 13 parody that dragged on and on, but it just didn't happen.
The other thing is that I expected a disappointing end and tried to focus on the rest of the movie more, instead of seeing it as a whole, and it really worked.

I already thought the idea was solid and that one shot near the end (you know the one) was fantastic, but the use of bugs, the slowly building dread and the unnaturalness of it all really stood out this time. It was a great experience.

Without this challenged I probably never would've watched Prince of Darkness again and missed out on a great movie. Thanks, Fran!

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


Jedit posted:

The only answer to that is Let The Right One In.

Raw is great too, but Let the Right One In is wonderful.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


28. Chained

Franchescanado posted:

:siren: FRAN CHALLENGE #9: Stranger Danger

:ghost: Ask an offline/non-Goon* friend/family member/person to recommend you a horror movie to watch.

I have a Russian colleague who watches some odd stuff and we recommend each other stuff from time to time. Usually I add it to the list and forget about it, but this challenge made me dig up Chained.

A serial killer kidnaps and murders a wife, keeping her son as his personal servant. Imprisoned for years the boy learns about women, murder and his own future all solely through his kidnapper.
So, I really dug the majority of this movie. It felt like a mix between Henry and Room. Bob, the serial killer, was a genuine character, you never sympathize with him but you grow to understand him. His casual way of killing, the detachment mixed with shots of his naked rear end next to a bloody corpse is genuinely frightening. D'Onofrio does a great job of playing someone who is human, but lacking something.

However, it isn't all praise. This movie has a terrible ending. Really, really, really terrible. There is a twist that comes (almost) out of nowhere, feel tacked on and ruins a lot of what was going on. If you can see past things like that I recommend this, but if I ever rewatch this I'll probably turn it off before this happens. .

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


29. The Endless
I though Resolution was okay and this is more of the same. Just a tad too slow and too long, but it has interesting characters so it didn't bother me too much.

30. Revenge

Franchescanado posted:

:siren: FRAN CHALLENGE #10: Fear and Now

:ghost: Watch a horror movie released in 2018.

On screen rape makes me extremely uncomfortable and I avoid movies because of it. I blame watching Irreversible in theater with someone behind me saying it was the hottest rape he ever saw. It made me sick and I walked out.
Men, Women and Chain Saws has a chapter about rape movies and despite how interesting the analysis in there is I still won't watch I Spit On Your Grave. I'll brave it from time to time for movies like Clockwork Orange, but I am not sure why I chose to watch Revenge.

However, I am very happy that it did. This was a fantastic flick that I enjoyed immensely. Once you get past the rape it turns into a very mean revenge movie that is beautifully shot, very violent and tense from start to finish.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


31. Silver Bullet

I like werewolves and this had some weird tonal shifts that I really dug. On the one hand it is about a kid with a high power wheelchair using fireworks to fend off a werewolf and having his favorite uncle help him out, but on the other hand it involves some really brutal kills, a stronger focus on losing loved ones than most horror movies and some pretty mature themes. Loved the pulsating transformation and the nightmare about the whole congregation turning into werewolves was very well done. Dug this.

With that I made it to 31 movies, however, it is still October and I will just keep watching more horror movies.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


32. Halloween (2007)

Despite loving horror for years and years and years I didn't watch any of the long running series till I started with these challenges a few years back.
I remember seeing dozens of video tape covers at the rental store, but for some reason I never picked them.
No Halloween, no Friday the 13th, no Chucky, no Nightmare on Elm Street, no Hellraiser.

When I started participating in these challenges I decided to watch some of these series.
Lurking in the main horror thread these movies obviously come up a lot and ranking them seems to happen almost weekly.
Reading things like "the one with the druids" or "the one where he goes to New York but actually stays on a boat" when people discuss the many, many sequels convinced me I should just watch the first movie and skip the rest.

However, Halloween 2 by Rob Zombie comes up a lot and has piqued my interest. So, to prepare for that, I decided to give one of the many sequels/remakes a try and start with his first Halloween movie.

I guess this was.....okay?

There are a lot of strong points that I dug; Myers stealthily appearing in the frame often, or easy to miss as he was part of the background despite his size was well done.
Colors were very nice and the general use of light and shadow was very pretty.
All the stuff regarding his childhood was well done and genuinely disturbing

On the other hand, there was a lot that didn't work.
I really didn't care for this Laurie. The weird teenybopper vibe just didn't work for me, nor were any of her friends interesting. This makes it hard to care about what happens to them.
The ending drags, a lot. The mostly quick, clean kills get replaced by a cat-and-mouse game that just goes on for too long. After wrecking the walls to find her, lets wrack the ceiling too. The fall into the empty pool was also groanworthy.
Despite how well done the childhood stuff was it still explained something and took away some of the mystery. Instead of just hearing Loomis we now saw everything and I don't know if that was necessary.

If the second part is the same quality I won't be disappointed, but with everyone singing its praises I expect it to be a more enjoyable experience.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


33. Horror of Dracula

Franchescanado posted:

:siren: FRAN CHALLENGE #11: Dead & Buried

:ghost: Watch a film made by a director who is now deceased.

The only Hammer film I ever saw was The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires and that one didn't do much for me, but I heard it was an outlier with all the martial arts.
Much like with the Universal flicks I decided to give Dracula a try and see where that would lead me.

In the end I guess I expected more. It has the theatricality of the Universal movies, but lacks the wonderful sets.
It feels too modern to work as a classic, but too dated to be enjoyable as a modern film, if that makes any sense. It occupies its own place in time and that isn't one I particularly care for.
On top of that the pacing is really off things like the one-time joke with the customs inspector in a movie that doesn't do humor just feel out of place.
Even Lee, jumping over the table, seemed more like amateur theater than an icon of horror.

34. Phenomena

Franchescanado posted:

:siren: FRAN CHALLENGE #12: (Self-Described) Masters of Horror

:ghost: Watch a staff pick!

Franchescanado posted:

Phenomena picked by King Vidiot: "It's Dario Argento, it's Jennifer Connelly, it's Donald Pleasance. There's a deformed killer on the loose, and only Jennifer Connelly and Donald Pleasance and the power of psychically-bonded bugs can stop them! Featuring gratuitous and inappropriate Iron Maiden songs, a hyper-intelligent chimp, and did I mention Donald Pleasance? Can't recommend this movie enough, it's completely bonkers, especially that finale."

This certainly delivered everything King Vidiot promised. Outside of Suspiria giallo never really worked for me, but this one is on point. It starts off a bit slow, but once things get rolling in the last half hour it just goes completely nuts. Sometimes I wasn't sure if it was a parody, but in a good way.

The last scene has the best deus ex machine ever. I was laughing my rear end off.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


35. Thoroughbreds
Disturbing and subdued, I really enjoyed this. Some question marks about the finale, but that doesn't take away from a very enjoyable experience.

36. Halloween II

Franchescanado posted:

:siren: FRAN CHALLENGE #13: What We've All Been Waiting For

:ghost: Watch a movie that takes place on Halloween.

One of the few times I genuinely cared for the victims. The focus on the damage done by these killings, both through the scenes at the emergency ward and the focus on the victims' families was just brutal.
Michael pushing over a car was a bit much for me and the white horse stuff felt really out of place, but the rest is a solid slasher where death actually matters.
Can't say I'm too happy with the ending, but Zombie definitely made it his own instead of a Carpenter clone.


And with that I think I am done. I have a concert tonight and an evening appointment tomorrow, so watching another movie is gonna be next to impossible.
Managed 36 movies and I pledged 31, so all is good.
I also did all of Fran's challenges and watched a bunch of staff picks, running into some nice things along the way and some things not so nice, probably no different than when I would've picked all movies myself.

This was a blast, see you next year!

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BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


Franchescanado posted:

:siren: I Completed The Fran Challenges and All I Got Was This Spooky T-Shirt :siren:

To everyone that completed all of the Fran Challenges this year, you get this shirt:


That is so cool, thanks!

I'll send a PM early next week.

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