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I'm down for 31 movies. I'm gonna aim for mostly new stuff but will be doing some rewatches too. I'm also not going to start until October 1st, because I've got some non-horror stuff I want to get through and it just seems appropriate.
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Sep 27, 2019 22:28
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Franchescanado posted:...What I find most disturbing about this film is how it can be perceived now that people like Epstein have been exposed. Salò has the benefit of being a fictional film based on a novel by Marques de Sade. It's violence isn't real... Sade's violence was all too real, however. Epstein was a monster but that's nothing new. Watching the fantasy world of a man every bit the maniac must be particularly headfucky with a more recent incarnation having passed, though.
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Sep 27, 2019 22:51
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Going for at least 31.  Actually started a week ago in anticipation (due to my birthday), plus I really intend to clean up my physical media backlog. I'll post reviews later, but my tally so far: The Tingler (1959, William Castle) 13 Ghosts (1960, William Castle) [In Illusion-O] Phantom of the Opera (1925, Rupert Julian) [Beautiful Photoplay 2K restoration with tints and Technicolor scenes and orchestral score] Homicidal (1961, William Castle) Mr. Sardonicus (1961, William Castle) So far what's on my first-time watch list: Innocent Blood (John Landis) Body Snatchers (Abel Ferrera) The Addiction (Abel Ferrera) The Old Dark House (William Castle/Hammer) The Haunted Castle (F.W. Murnau) The Last Warning (Paul Leni) Dead of Night (Ealing spooky anthology) Night of the Demon (1957) Viy The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (Argento) Horror of Party Beach 10 Rillington Place Sisters (DePalma) Dressed to Kill (DePalma) The Ghost of Sierra de Corbre The Maze (3-D by William Cameron Menzies) The Mask (1961 Canadian horror) and rewatches: As much of the Universal classic monsters on Blu-ray as I can (at least the two 3-D Creatures, and some of the sequels I haven't seen in forever) Alien series on Blu-ray (and 4K for the first) The Picture of Dorian Grey (1940s adaptation) House on Haunted Hill (my usual Halloween night tradition)
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Sep 27, 2019 22:52
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Egbert Souse posted:Going for at least 31. Night of the Demon’s a really good pick! Haven’t seen that one in ages, but I love it.
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Sep 27, 2019 23:15
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I'm going to shoot for 1 a day and 10 on Halloween. I didn't get to run my Gauntlet last year, so I'm just going to go with stuff I haven't seen on the streaming services and some of my favorites on Halloween. Halloween is shaping up to be: Night of the Demons Legend of Hellhouse Halloween Inferno I've had too much poo poo going on to plan, but Ill finalize it by the 31st.
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Sep 27, 2019 23:26
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Per my avatar, I hosed it up last year. This year is REDEMPTION. I plan to watch 31 movies. The twist? They will all be movies I physically own. No streaming. I have bought so many movies over the years that I've never even pulled the plastic off of. I'm excited to re-experience a lot of classics.
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Sep 27, 2019 23:32
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It's the most wonderful time of the year! I'm doing the same rules as I do every year: new to me movies only, one movie every day in October. In previous years I had been concerned that I'd spend time scraping the bottom of the barrel because there aren't a lot of classics or films I wanted to check out that I haven't seen, but this year I am prepared. I have not one, not two, but three DVD box sets which I'll be taking movies from. I have ten Hammer horror movies on bluray and I've only seen one of them. Are they lower tier Hammer? Probably! But this year I'm earning my Hammer badge. I still haven't seen Get Out and I knew I had to see it and Us this year, so I got an eight movie package of Blumhouse films, none of them seen by me before. I'm anticipating loving Get Out, liking a few more, and probably loathing that Ouija movie that's part of it. And to round things out, I have purchased from a garage sale a 13 pack of "cult" horror movies. Honestly, this is the one I'm probably going to pass on a lot of these for random streaming options, but there's one movie on there that I've been meaning to get around to watching for a while. So that's 31 movies on the docket filling out my month with the option of dumping a few if I'm not liking them. It's going to be a good October. Edit: So I thought I'd post my film list from these boxed sets and get some suggestions on what I needed to prioritize. Then I found out it wasn't 13 movies, it was "over 13 hours of movies" with only 9 films there. I might make an extra special challenge of watching every single movie in these packs over the month since that still leaves me with four open slots for something extra (probably fill it in with more Hammer). My movies are: The Hammers: Brides of Dracula (watched a few years ago as part of the challenge so this one doesn't count) The Curse of the Werewolf Night Creatures Phantom of the Opera Paranoiac The Kiss of the Vampire (I thought I watched this movie, but looking up a description I don't remember it at all so I might be thinking of one of a dozen other Hammer vampire films.) Nightmare The Evil of Frankenstein (looking forward to this the most since it's where I left off in the Frankenstein series) The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll The Gorgon The Blumhouses: Get Out (the most anticipated movie of the month for me) Split The Purge (I've totally skipped this series since I heard the first one was so bad. Guess I'm going binge the purge!) The Purge: Anarchy The Purge: Election Year Unfriended Ouija: Origin of Evil The Visit The Cult Horrors: Don't Look in the Basement Memorial Valley Massacre Kill Baby Kill (a Bava movie apparently which will be my yearly "I don't like Italian horror post") The Demon (1976 South African movie, not one of the many other movies by this title) The Hatchet Murders Pieces Silent Night, Deadly Night (the movie in this set I've been meaning to watch) Night of Bloody Horror Horror Rises from the Tomb If anyone has anything I haven't singled out that they think I need to check out, speak up and I'll move it up in my priority list. STAC Goat posted:
The 20's are going to be interesting. Once you get out of the well known greats, you're going to have to stretch for a couple of the years. I'm looking forward to what you turn up. I take it you're going to be hitting a lot of Universal this year. I almost got a box set of those movies, but I realized the bulk of what I could watch for the challenge out of them were the weaker entries. Random Stranger fucked around with this message at 00:20 on Sep 28, 2019 |
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Sep 28, 2019 00:03
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Random Stranger posted:It's the most wonderful time of the year! Looks like you're going to have two "I don't like Italian horror" posts (The Hatchet Murders is the American title of the Italian giallo Deep Red or Profundo Rosso)
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Sep 28, 2019 00:32
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Random Stranger posted:Night Creatures I'd make a point of watching these two because they're both really underrated in the Hammer catalog. The Gorgon also has the holy trinity of Fisher/Cushing/Lee so you know it's good.
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Sep 28, 2019 00:38
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Random Stranger posted:The 20's are going to be interesting. Once you get out of the well known greats, you're going to have to stretch for a couple of the years. I'm looking forward to what you turn up. Yeah, I bought the big box set last year when I decided I was going to do this. I've never seen any of those Universals besides Frankenstein/Bride (and I only watched Bride this year) so I'm really excited. I've got a list of "essentials" I'm absolutely watching but I'm sure I'll watch more to fill in years around Hitchcocks, Vincent Price, and other "essentials". My viewing from these years is pretty sparse so if you can name it I probably haven't seen it. I expect 90% of that chart to be absolute classics. There's gonna be a few "this is the only movie I could find" years, but there have been each time I've done this. Its kind of fun to pick just a random film anyway, even if it sucks.
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Sep 28, 2019 00:41
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Didn't mention this in my initial post, but the films I'm watching this year are mostly going to be a grab bag of streaming things, things I get in the mail from Netflix, and wild-card stuff I've been renting from Beyond Video in Baltimore (great place, by the way). A couple things from my personal collection and things coming out in theaters. All first watches. I'm not going to stay too rigidly to a strict schedule and since I have to go to Philly for two art shows I'm in this coming month, I might end up watching these in bursts. We'll see! 1. Candyman (1992) Dir: Bernard Rose (Netflix DVD) Been waiting a long time to see this one, and it was (mostly) worth the wait! I'm in love with the creeping neo-gothic atmosphere and the creeping sense of dread this movie builds, as well as the framing device of students trying to research an urban legend. It asks a lot of interesting questions about well-meaning white institutions abstracting their subjects to the point of dehumanization. Gnarly when it needs to be. Obviously Tony Todd is great, but this is just a really mature and thoughtful horror movie. I do find myself wishing that a black director had a chance to interpret the Candyman mythos, though it seems like we're going to see that in the new one coming next year. One of the best things I've seen this challenge! Friends Are Evil fucked around with this message at 05:59 on Sep 28, 2019 |
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Sep 28, 2019 00:43
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I'm excited to do this again! My goal is 31 movies, mostly ones that I haven't seen but also some that my girlfriend hasn't seen (ie. I just want an excuse to watch Mandy and Trick r' Treat again). Looking forward to diving into Carpenter's lesser known films, a bunch of lesser known giallo on Amazon Prime and some classic 20s-50s horror! Also, if your local library has access to Kanopy, there are a lot of cool horror selections that you can watch for free! I think you can check out 4 per month, but there's a lot of Bava, some Argento and Fulci, Criterion/Kino stuff like Caligari and M, as well as Knife + Heart and Let The Corpses Tan.
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Sep 28, 2019 00:49
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# 1. THE BOOGENS (1981) Aside from a little bit of gore and sex, The Boogens (1981) could have been a drive-in creature feature from the 1950s. It is not clear if it pays homage to that era or was a foolhardy attempt to scare a new generation of teens. The tone is very straight and not-so-fun, other than a goofball main character who whoops ok maybe isn’t such a lead after all having had his throat cut open by a spear-tipped appendage of the boogen half way into the movie . This is not a movie that winks at the audience in any manner. Setting it in B&W would have been a perfect way to do it, however. The film starts off with a photo-montage credits sequence, outlining the history of a mining community tucked away near the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. In the early 1900s, a mine collapsed under mysterious circumstances. Many decades later, blue collar dudes (one of whom, the aforementioned “main” lead, won’t stop talking about how he hasn’t gotten laid in “eleven days and seven hours” and is excited for his girlfriend to visit town – that’s the extent of character development we get here) blast open the mine and discover a cavern with a large pool of water. This is a charming set, and maybe the most expensive thing about the movie. Soon enough, townsfolk begin to disappear. Creepy crawlies have been released! Following the 1950s B-movie template, viewers must endure “suspense-building” wide static shots of people investigating noises, budget-minded POV shots of the creatures lurking around, and fake-out scares before glimpsing the boogens. Patience is rewarded in some of these kinds of movies, but it is iffy with this one. The crustacean-like, bug-like boogens do end up being kind of neat. In sum, The Boogens (1981) is small-scale, simple movie with no big goals, and it is perfect for half-paying attention to while you cook dinner or something else. Otherwise, you’re in for a patience-testing experience. Thank you to the horror thread folks who found this on Youtube! SCORE: 5.6 / 10 *** Bonus Review (seen days before challenge, does not qualify) #invalid - DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (1968)  Nearly all the positive things about Destroy All Monsters (1968) involve monsters. Anguirus and Godzilla take the spotlight with brand new, attitude-exuding costumes. Manilla is fresh out of prior year’s Son of Godzilla (1967). Even Manda looks good in close-up shots (despite having its horns taken off to look less like Ghidorah) – a sequence of the serpentine kaiju constricting a bridge into ruins is a highlight. The final brawl, which, arguably, can be better described as a brutal beatdown of Ghidorah, is a fan favorite. Dare you question Gorosaurus’ unmerciful finishing move, the “kangaroo kick”? Unfortunately, these treats are not enough to keep the movie afloat. The alien invasion plot is a watered-down rerun of 1965’s Invasion of the Astro-Monster, which at least involved deceit and double-crossing by the aliens – in DAM, the aliens, a new race known as the Kilaaks, simply take over by force in one easy, fell swoop. Afterward, the humans are left to piece together what happened in monotonous investigations and meetings. Silly gun battles and a counterattack on the Kilaak’s lunar base – the latter a torturous 15-20min stretch of runtime without monsters - fail to spice things up, though an excellent music score does everything it can to chip in. Supposedly a 74 minute cut of this movie was released later. There is no doubt in my mind it would be an improvement from the 90 minute theatrical cut. Side note: Toho’s kaiju flicks of the 50s and 60s are at times credited as being the first “cinematic universe”, but this characterization is flimsy. The continuity between films is inconsistent. SCORE: 5.9 / 10
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Sep 28, 2019 01:10
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Yay, it's my favorite time of the year. I've been looking forward to watching a ton of horror movies all year long. Heres my current list: https://trakt.tv/users/evil-vin/lists/halloween-2019 most stuff I didn't get to last year. I just throw everything up on Wheel Decide and let it pick for me. I hope to steal movies ideas from the thread to fix any gaps I'm missing.
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Sep 28, 2019 01:10
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Awesome, have been waiting all month for this thread ever since the leaves started turning color and the days started getting cooler. Last year I made it to 44 films but that was when we had that mid-September early start that I recall not everyone was too hot about. Because this challenge doesn't have that, I'm going to have to ditch my initial plan to break my record and instead promise to watch 31 films for this challenge. Though I might go over it which is possible again.
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Sep 28, 2019 01:26
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Mokelumne Trekka posted:# 1. THE BOOGENS (1981) The TV commercial for this is one of the earliest things I remember being scared of as a kid. Years later I watched it and, yeah, it's kind of quaint (and the monsters are almost too cute).
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Sep 28, 2019 01:36
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Since I'm going to be watching a ton of Hammer this year, I thought I'd see if there was a Hammer horror podcast. And there is. Oh, and it's hosted by Paul Cornell, writer of a lot very fun nerdy things including those Captain Britain comics where Dracula attacks England from the moon. I'm pretty happy to have stumbled onto this.
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Sep 28, 2019 01:41
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In for 31 this year with a focus on the Children of the Corn franchise through it's time owned by Dimension and movies made on the 9's (79, 89, 99, etc.) 1. Children of the Corn (1984) Watched On: DVD  Every time I revisit Children of the Corn I'm surprised how much it borrows from the Hitchcock style of horror in that you don't really see much in the way of violence or a monster but feel like you've seen a whole lot more, which is really front and center in the opening diner scene. Just the idea of the man getting his hand run through a meat slicer and then the blood splatter from off camera fills in a blank an effect might not live up to. For my money though the movie is carried on the back of it's actors. Casting John Franklin as Isaac instead of a child actor really lends an old soul/eerie amount of age in the eyes to what should be a child along with line delivery I don't think you could get from a younger actor. Courtney Gaines is also great as the bloodthirsty enforcer/true believer of the He Who Walks Behind The Rows. In all honestly though it sort of drags for me in the middle and loses me until the climax 2. Children of the Corn 2: The Final Sacrifice (1992) Watched On: DVD  Now I don't know what the gently caress happened here. It's like everyone involved watched the previous film and decided to do the complete opposite. Other than ironically liking so bad it's good parts the best thing going on is the film answering, "Well what the hell would we do with all these murderous orphan children?" even if the answer is pretty bad. But otherwise this is a mess. Animated corn killing people, old ladies in wheelchairs being launched through the air after being his by dump trucks, a flat out Wizard of Oz house kill, tainted corns, literal magic, and extremely suspicious gangs of creepy kids that the town just let's slide. Unless you happen upon a supercut of the kills I don't think this is worth your time as a viewer. 3. Children of the Corn 3: Urban Harvest (1995) Watched On: DVD  This is more like it. It feels almost like a make good for 2 being so poo poo since they borrow some of the ideas and use them in a much better way. Massive props to Dano Cerny as our main antagonist, he pulls off being a creepy little poo poo very well and also big up to Screaming Mad George for really nice special effects. Urban Harvest is way more in your face with more gore and effects shots that really only get bad towards the end when it's obvious the crew got too ambitious. This also is my favorite entry so far considering it held my attention a lot better than the previous two and is in general a lot more fun. I think you could safely scrub Final Sacrifice away and have a nice double feature of the original and Urban Harvest considering how well they contrast each other. TheKingslayer fucked around with this message at 02:11 on Sep 28, 2019 |
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Sep 28, 2019 02:05
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I'm in for 31. Do you have cable subscription or Vue? TCM has a pretty great Halloween lineup this month. Almost everything is on-demand the next day and stays for at least a week.The app and site will also let you watch live East or West coast feeds. quote:Available Now
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Sep 28, 2019 02:07
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One question: Does the “gore cut” of Tammy and the T-Rex count towards the challenge? Seeing that on Wednesday.
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Sep 28, 2019 02:42
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Sign me up for a measly 13 movies. Horror will keep me sane this crazy month.
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Sep 28, 2019 02:58
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Here we go 1. One Cut of the Dead (2017)  I heard about this movie earlier this year after it started making some buzz on international film festival circuits. It's a Japanese horror-comedy about a film crew making a zombie movie only to have actual zombies show up to which the crazy director keeps filming his actors as they react. The film itself has the actual "zombie movie" as the first 30 minutes of the film, the next segment once it ends is the film crew organizing and prepping for the shoot a month prior. I won't say anymore because the film really gets amazing after that and its pure spoilers. But I will say the sheer amount of callbacks, in-jokes and references that film students would appreciate is amazing. Plus, the structure and pacing of the film is just perfect and really adds to just everything. /5Total: 1. One Cut of the Dead (2017) Edit: Added a spoiler tag because after thinking about it some more, it's best to go in totally blind to this one and I want to give people the option. Justin Godscock fucked around with this message at 03:52 on Sep 28, 2019 |
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Sep 28, 2019 03:43
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Jumping right in with the horror movie that's been on my amazon watchlist for the longest. #1: Gozu (2003)  "Ya ain't from Nagoya, are ya?" Wow, okay! I'm honestly at a bit of a loss as to how to write up coherent thoughts for this because I definitely don't think I fully understand it, so I'm going to just start typing and see where it takes me. A yakuza member, Minami, is ordered to dispose of one of his (yakuza) brothers, Ozeki, whose erratic and unhinged behavior is deemed a liability. Agenda hidden from the victim, the two embark on a road trip to the future disposal site in Nagoya, and that's where everything starts to unwind. The road to Nagoya abruptly cuts off directly in front of a river, forcing Minami to slam on the breaks and causing Ozeki to smash his head into the dash and die on impact. What follows is, as far as I understand it, a journey into hell and back. Minami stops in the nearest town to gain his bearings, but while ducking into a cafe to use their phone, Ozeki's body disappears and the search is on. Minami passes in and out of several stories during his search for his brother. The townsfolk are all off; in some way boiled down to a core vice or personality trait. A man faking a major skin condition and possibly other injuries as well, an innkeeper bottling and distributing her own breastmilk, a cafe regular who can't stop talking about the weather... the movie doesn't focus on or wrap up any of these characters' stories, but it gives enough for it to feel like there's a lot more to everyone than we're shown. It's equally captivating and unnerving. It's also interesting that the town itself seems to be leading Minami to his goal. He's frequently confused but never lost. There's always a coincidental meeting or purposefully left behind scrap of paper to point him in the right direction. It's all creepy but never really directly hostile. Everyone is largely preoccupied with their own issues and kind of just wants him to move on. They may or may not be interested in helping Minami, but they don't really seem to wish him any harm. He's just passing through. He's not from Nagoya. In the end, Minami comes to find that Ozeki's body is gone. He'd ended up at the assigned location where he was skinned and dismantled. Directly following this revelation, however, a woman claiming to be Ozeki shows up and attaches herself to Minami's side. She knows things only Ozeki could know and he's forced to accept that she really is who she says. The two head back to the big city with plenty of sexual tension. There are hints earlier of interest between Ozeki and Minami, and now that Ozeki's body has changed, the taboo has lifted a bit. Minami rejects his own interest at first but finally gives in once jealousy hits a boiling point. The two hook up, resulting in Ozeki giving birth to his previous body, and the now trio are shown living on happily together. The movie's unnerving but it's also way funnier than I expected. It doesn't feel right to call it a comedy, but the more visceral or disturbing elements are nearly always played equally for laughs. The better way to explain it is probably to say that it's absurd. It clearly has something to say as well, though I don't feel completely confident in nailing down exactly what that is after just this one watch. There's something there about love and about taboo. About everyone being too wrapped up in their own weird poo poo to care about yours, and about it sometimes taking a literal journey to hell and back for you to admit to yourself what you find truly important. I'm not sure how to rate it, but I'd recommend this one. Watched (1/31): #1 Gozu (2003) blood_dot_biz fucked around with this message at 04:20 on Sep 28, 2019 |
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Sep 28, 2019 04:17
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Okay, let's kick this pig and get rolling! Franchise: Children of the Corn How a short story only 30 or so pages long managed to get ten films made from it, I haven't a clue. The story which is in the Night Shift anthology is delightfully atmospheric. We're introduced to Burt and Vicky who's marriage crumbling and they're on a road trip to Cali in a failing attempt to patch things up. With how they bicker, you can't help but wonder why the hell did they get married in the first place. We're also introduced to a third character, the corn itself. It's a presence of it's own be it the rich smell of the soil and fertilizer with the silent awareness of it draping over the fields and Gatlin as if it's observing everything, quietly rustling it's opinion. It's as much as an entity as He Who Walks Behind The Rows and makes the setting feel almost unearthly. When Burt hits a child running out from the corn as he's arguing with Vicky is when the quiet wrongness of the area starts to build from the empty streets of Gatlin, to the repurposed church, to the cornfields and building to the appearance of the children. In light of the various clues Burt comes across as he explores Gatlin, the ending isn't particularly surprising. We're still left with questions, but the story works without explaining everything to tedium.  1) Disciples of the Crow - 1983 - Youtube While I wasn't planning on including independent short film adaptations, in this case there's extenuating circumstance. Disciples is one of Stephen King's "Dollar Baby" films where he granted permission for short adaptations of his work by students and aspiring filmmakers. Since it was meant for showings at conventions or film festivals, it's easily overlooked despite also seeing a VHS release on the Stephen King's Nightshift Collection Vol.2 video. For not even being a half hour long, it does follow the original story pretty well. It does change the location from one in Nebraska to one in Oklahoma, and it only adapts about half the story. Considering its budget and when it was made, it's a pretty decent short horror. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qLpJmy26zY  2) Children of the Corn - 1984 - TubiTV Stephen King wrote a script for this that hewed pretty close to the short story but the studio didn't like it and went with another. It's not so much a bad story, but more a stamped to the formula 80s film if that makes sense. Significant differences from the story is the corn cult's only been around for 3 years here compared to the story's 12. I know it's a silly nitpick, but the shorter time of the corn cult's existence doesn't quite carry the same inherent disturbing level of creepy the longer time does when you consider the dilapidated state of Gatlin looking every bit like a forgotten abandoned town and the children in the cult starting to reach the point where none alive have memory of a different Gatlin. Another rough bit which isn't the film's fault is Linda Hamilton. She's made Sarah Conner such an icon and it's hard to accept seeing her getting captured by children when we've seen her kick Terminator rear end. I understand the ending change since 'downer' endings weren't particularly popular in the 80s and the original bleak one likely wouldn't've gone over well. Even with these flaws, the film's okay for what it is.  3) Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice - 1992 - Prime It's generally not a good sign when it's almost a decade from first film to first sequel, and I get the feeling with this one as well as the films to follow that no one ever bothered to read the original story or take anything from the first film beyond 'killer child cult'. The plot here picks up after the first film with the people from nearby Hemmingford adopting some of the children of Gatlin. There's some definite clunker moments here such as claiming spoiled corn is the reason the kids are killers. Only thing of note with this film is from the DVD commentary where there were some local Christian groups protesting the film during filming and dead animals were left on the director's doorstep. This was also the last film to see a theatrical release, all the other films are direct to video. This one's pretty skippable unless you're a completionist.  4) Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest - 1995 - Prime I gave up on the franchise with this one so the rest of the films are first time watch for me. I don't think the urban setting works as well for the concept compared to a rural or suburban one, and they really diverged from the core storyline with this such as having the corn from Gatlin turn people into followers of He Who Walks Behind The Rows and having someone not age since the '60s. Effects range from not bad to pretty laughable. Only interesting bit is this is Charlize Theron's first film as an uncredited corn cultist, otherwise, there's better things to watch than this film.
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Sep 28, 2019 05:04
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 #3) One Frightened Night (1935) A cornball 'old dark house' movie, this one felt like it had a lot of threads in common with Castle's House on Haunted Hill. An old man invites people to stay the night at his mansion, promises them each $1 million (with a disqualifying condition in the mix), and then the murders kick in. The horror was kept very light, and the comedy did most of the heavy lifting, with some good zinger exchanges. A good variety of characters, including a suspicious maid, a sassy magician, policeman who's always a few steps behind in deductions, and a pair of women each claiming to be the millionaire's missing grand-daughter. Honestly, the killer creature felt almost incidental, but it was an alright mask for the time, and the character who saw it overplayed his reaction just right. Being on a Mill Creek DVD with four other movies, the quality was... pretty bad. The audio got it the worst, with a few lines simply dropping out of audibility. If it hadn't been monochrome, I'm sure the visuals would have shown more flaws, but aside from some weird contrast flares, it did alright. I didn't pick up on any '30s racism, thankfully, and the explicit misogyny seemed limited to having a woman be too scared to stay in a room because there was a decorative skull on the mantel. Overall, the movie was vaguely enjoyable, but it didn't leave much more than a surface impression. I'm also not really clear on why the killer needed a monster mask at all, outside of Scooby-Doo-level logic. rating: 5/10
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Sep 28, 2019 05:09
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1. Sept. 21, 2019 The Tingler (1959, William Castle) Indicator Blu-ray (with "stereo scream" audio mix) plus the short Three Stooges comedy Spooks! (1953, Jules White) [Blu-ray 3D] This has everything - a silly monster, gimmicks, and Vincent Price. It's also inventive in some ways like showing acid trips and the idea of a mute woman running a silent movie theater. (Also, anyone wanting to see this NEEDS to see the Indicator edition in their first William Castle box set since it's the only way to see the film as it was originally shown in 1959 - even the US Blu-ray uses a poor quality source for a critical scene that's perfect here). 4/5 2. Sept. 22, 2019  13 Ghosts (1960, William Castle) Indicator Blu-ray (Illusion-O Version) plus the UPA cartoon The Tell-Tale Heart (1953, Ted Parmelee) and the Three Stooges comedy Spook Louder (1943, Del Lord) I never saw the remake, but this was pretty fun. Especially with the gimmick of ghost sequences being in a red/blue tinted process where looking through either lens either makes ghosts disappear or appear. There's also a lovely role for Margaret Hamilton. 3/5 3. Sept. 23, 2019  The Phantom of the Opera (1925, Rupert Julian) BFI Blu-ray ("1929" Version) I've always had issues with the silent Phantom of the Opera. It doesn't help that it only survives in compromised states - either a mostly original cut in 16mm or a beautiful 35mm version of an odd recut version prepared years later. But the first half is fantastic, with great timing. It sort of falls apart in the third act. But it still has that great Bal Masque scene (in Technicolor) and Lon Chaney's performance is the true highlight. 3.5/5 4. Sept. 24, 2019  Mr. Sardonicus (1961, William Castle) Indicator Blu-ray plus the UPA cartoon Magoo's Masquerade (1957, Rudy Larriva) and the Three Stooges comedy If a Body Meets a Body (1945, Jules White) A pretty hosed up movie for 1961 - a peasant gains a rictus grin after digging up his father's corpse for a lottery ticket. The highlight here is Oskar Homolka in a wonderfully disgusting role. It's also quite lovely in terms of camera work and the score. 4/5 5. Sept. 25, 2019  Homicidal (1961, William Castle) Indicator Blu-ray Pretty obviously a variant on Psycho, but I will admit that the big twist at the end completely caught me off-guard. I'm guessing DePalma saw this prior to making Dressed to Kill. 6/7. Sept 27, 2019   Sisters (1973, Brian DePalma) Dressed to Kill (1980, Brian DePalma) Criterion Blu-ray Thought I'd go for a DePalma double feature. Sisters is incredibly creepy, headlined by a terrific performance(s) by Margot Kidder, but it also has William Finley as a creep. The hard left turn the film takes halfway really makes this disturbing. On the other hand, Dressed to Kill is a really uncomfortable film. I can't help but think DePalma typed the screenplay entirely with one hand. But it does have some interesting stuff and the dream-like look works. 3.5/5 and 2/5 respectively.
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Sep 28, 2019 05:15
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This thread is my favorite thing on the forums these days. I need to make up for my poor showing last year so I’m in for 31 again!
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Sep 28, 2019 05:25
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2. Annihilation 2018 | dir. Alex Garland | Prime, Hulu  Change is pretty scary. It's funny that I found Tarkovsky's Stalker--which this movie is a modern take on the idea of The Zone, or The Other (and, you could argue, that source material was inspired by Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space), a place on Earth that creates a new Life, a new Mutation, a new Evolution--much scarier than this film. Visually, this movie is gorgeous. The effects team did a great job, the creature designs are wonderful, the animations and colors are fantastic. The cast is top notch. I can't really complain about any of the acting. And yet, this movie is a bit lackluster to me. Alex Garland's Ex Machina is more of an impressive mind-gently caress, asking questions about Life and Artificial Intelligence. The core of this movie seems to ask if Change is really good or bad. Lena can't move on with her life after her husband vanished, presumed KIA. When he returns, he is a different person. She's a different person. She begins a journey into the mysterious Area X, which is certain doom, to try and fix her broke husband, because she feels she owes him a debt. She confronts newly evolved creatures. A monstrous albino alligator with rows of teeth like a shark, certainly grotesque and dangerous, but she also sees new plant forms, beautiful fauna, pretty deer that look like they belong in a Faerie Tale. She admits that many of the things she saw were beautiful. But it's not "normal". She refuses to adapt to the new world around her. She wants to fight for her arrested development, in a way. Maybe I need more creatures. Maybe I need more weirdness. Maybe I need more mind-fucks. Or paranoid delusions. Maybe the culmination of realizing change is scary, inevitable, but not necessarily good or evil, isn't rewarding. Maybe Oscar Isaac is just too creepy to try and risk your life to salvage a relationship with him. I don't know.  I liked the movie. It's pretty good. I'd recommend it. But I just don't really feel an urge to revisit it anytime soon. Instead I was more interested in reading the book it's based on and just rewatching Stalker. That's not really fair, I guess, but it was the reoccurring thought through-out. Movies Watched: Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom | Annihilation Rewatches: Total: 2
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Sep 28, 2019 05:30
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 #4) Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966) Finally sat down and watched my copy of the restoration Blu-ray from start to finish. While Manos is still an ineptly-made film in that form, it looks and sounds so much better that it's hard not to be impressed with Solovey's work cleaning it up, and to feel a little more charitable to the film as a result. Even so, the interminable driving scenes, nonsensical fights among the wives, jarring editing, high-repetition dialogue, and deeply troubled acting combine to make this a firmly bad film, despite the camp appeal. This was my partner's first time seeing it, and aside from laughing at how the Master's dog was clearly being held on a leash by someone out of frame, she mostly kind of tuned out the movie, so that I had to draw her attention to points like Torgo's hesitant pawing and the jump to uninvolved teen-agers. Might come back to this later in the month for Manos: The Hands of Felt, a puppet re-imagining included as a bonus feature on the Blu-ray. I guess I really just wanted a reliable stinker of known quality to kind of settle things into place this early in the run, and in that capacity, it did a great job. It was shorter than I remembered (put it on hold shortly after Torgo's punishment to go take care of something, then came back to finish it and found that there were like three scenes left), but man, that opening just draaaags. Kind of put me in the mood to make a copy of the Master's robes for Halloween, honestly, but if so, I'd want someone to walk around behind me yelling "Miiiiike! Miiiiike!" rating: 4/10
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Sep 28, 2019 05:32
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 1. Dead of Night (1945) (blu-ray) When architect Walter Craig is hired to do some work at a country house, he arrives only to find a group of strangers that he remembers from a dream - one that ends as a nightmare. He shares this with everyone, and they all begin to tell their own stories about the supernatural, stories featuring ghosts, a haunted mirror, and in the best one, an evil ventriloquist's dummy. All the while, Craig is terrified that the nightmarish events he dreamed about will end up coming true. This is a really excellent British horror anthology film, released at a time when the country wasn't producing much horror at all (I'm sure the real life horror of WWII and The Blitz was enough). I can't help but compare it to the later anthologies put out by Amicus in the '60s and '70s, especially Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror, because it was obviously a huge influence on those films and feels like an early prototype of the format. Parts of it do feel a little half-baked, especially some of the earlier segments that are much too short, but the final segment about the dummy is fantastic. The very end of the framing story is also really good and kind of unsettling. If you're a fan of classic horror, especially Hammer and Amicus stuff, this is a really good precursor to those and absolutely worth a watch. I've often heard this listed as one of the best horror films of the 1940s, and after finally watching it I'm inclined to agree. 4.5/5 Total: 1 Watched: Dead of Night
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Sep 28, 2019 05:36
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1: 1922 ABCs: # Figured I’d stretch my goal out a bit and a numbered title to this, especially since it looked like everyone else watched this last year and I didn’t get around to it. Pretty bleak stuff here. I’m a big Thomas Jane fan and he’s good here, but the movie itself definitely drags a bit in the middle, probably would have worked better as a shorter film or if the murder didn’t happen so early on. Overall though well acted, setwork was really good, and even if it dragged a bit it was a good, very Poe inspired tale. Bleak as hell though.
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Sep 28, 2019 05:50
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Hopped in with the Discord crowd for some streamin' and they were some good ones. Thanks for going to the effort Fr0id and Sareini! 4. The Exorcist 3 (1990) Watched On: Goon Stream  A first time watch for me and after seeing so much praise for it in the horror thread and in general. I wasn't disappointed. The serial killer seemingly back after being dead and the police investigating the mystery is very much my poo poo and I'll have to track down more movies like it. Also Brad Dourif and George C. Scott  these guys are just crushing it. I could watch them just have scenes in the holding cell for the whole drat run of the movie. 5. Halloween (2018) Watched On: Goon Stream  My second time watching this since release and I still really love it. I enjoyed the original Halloween 2 a lot but I feel like this is blows it out of the water as a sequel still. I'm also not dreading the coming sequels since they appear to have the same crew on board to do it right. I still hope we'll see some kind of competent 70's/80's slasher revival out of this. I think this was exactly the movie I needed to let me know the Halloween season is here.
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Sep 28, 2019 05:50
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Darthemed posted:
I watched the restored Blu at night and it gave me this feeling of unease like a David Lynch film. Just something about the ineptness, but startling clarity makes one feel like it's not something you're supposed to see. Sort of the same reason why I find stuff like less-than-seamless effects to sometimes be unnerving because it breaks the fourth wall in a sense.
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Sep 28, 2019 05:55
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Franchescanado posted:I liked the movie. It's pretty good. I'd recommend it. But I just don't really feel an urge to revisit it anytime soon. Instead I was more interested in reading the book it's based on... Definitely do this; I followed the same mostly-enjoying movie -> reading the books trajectory, and they have much more to offer. It almost functions as a trailer for them, giving you a glimpse of the themes and sort of shuffling around scenes to show you a story that's suggestive of what you'll get in the full story while still being misleading and omitting a lot that's important.
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Sep 28, 2019 06:36
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Egbert Souse posted:I watched the restored Blu at night and it gave me this feeling of unease like a David Lynch film. Just something about the ineptness, but startling clarity makes one feel like it's not something you're supposed to see. Sort of the same reason why I find stuff like less-than-seamless effects to sometimes be unnerving because it breaks the fourth wall in a sense. MST3K put it the best with Joel saying something along the lines of "Every frame of this movie is like someone's last known photograph". It gives me just this sense of unease comparable to that.
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Sep 28, 2019 07:31
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6. Santa's Slay (2005) Watched On: Tubi TV  I'm working the graveyard shift this season so there's gonna be a lot of, "Well let's just find something to watch while I work." choices and this one was a drat winner! I've somehow gone years without watching Santa's Slay but knew it was absurd, but I never knew just how much so. Santa's Slay is like a drat cartoon. This is on my list now of horror movies with very strong openings and I won't spoil anything for people that haven't had the pleasure of seeing this yet. I was never a huge fan of Bill Goldberg in wrestling but this role is suited to him, it's a treat watching him rampage through a small town as Santa wasting people. I guess the thing I'm most impressed by is how Santa is violently killing people but the movie still keeps a lighthearted tone. A disclaimer though is that characters use a few slurs over the course of the movie that are hurtful to gay men and the mentally challenged, so I can see where that might instantly turn people off. Questionable content aside though I found this to be a great deal of fun and it's a lean 77 minutes so not even that much of a time commitment.
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Sep 28, 2019 08:56
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TheKingslayer posted:I'm working the graveyard shift this season so there's gonna be a lot of, "Well let's just find something to watch while I work." choices and this one was a drat winner! That's me right now as well. On night shifts until October 27th and will be exploring Shudder because Netflix's selection is still crap. Speaking of that. 2. Chopping Mall (1986)  This might seriously be the most 80s movie I have ever witnessed in my life. Even films made today that try obnoxiously to go retro could not match this film. It's a nice and quick slasher flick about robots that go rogue after a lightning storm and murder a bunch of horny teenagers in a shopping mall. That alone there is 80s cheese and the heart this film has in just gleefully running with it is nice. .5/5Total: 1. One Cut of the Dead (2017), 2. Chopping Mall (1986) Justin Godscock fucked around with this message at 09:12 on Sep 28, 2019 |
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Sep 28, 2019 09:09
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Random Stranger posted:The 20's are going to be interesting. Once you get out of the well known greats, you're going to have to stretch for a couple of the years. I'm looking forward to what you turn up. Go German or go home. FW Murnau, Paul Wegener, Robert Weine and Paul Leni were all at peak activity in the 20s. My picks would be: 1920: Cabinet of Dr Caligari or The Golem 1921: The Haunted Castle (there was a DVD edition in 2012, should still be findable) 1922: Nosferatu or Haxan 1923: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (free in the Internet Archive) 1924: The Hands of Orlac 1925: The Phantom of the Opera 1926: Faust 1927: The Cat and the Canary (free in the Internet Archive) 1928: The Man Who Laughs (just re-released on BD) 1929: The Last Warning (free in the Internet Archive) I am committing, as usual, to watch and review at least one movie. I can't commit to more due to holidays and personal issues.
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Sep 28, 2019 09:25
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1. Death Machine (1994) - Supposedly a bunch of fantasy novels started as someone's D&D campaign - I'm pretty sure this movie was a game of Shadowrun. Heavy doses of Robocop and Alien as well. We, of course, have characters named Raimi and Carpenter. I can imagine Yutani's player at the table, asking what the roll would be to rip off his boxers and use them as a tourniquet. Simultaneously functions as a movie fan mash-up, adorable 90s cyberpunk (we're simultaneously saving personalities to disk, storing personnel records on hard drives that aren't attached to a network, and attempting to break into a corporation's vault to blow up its money), and a documentary about Uber. Brad Dourif plays a typical engineer. Ely Pouget, as new CEO, punches a bunch of people in the face. Richard Brake is an executive with absolutely no faith in the company but enough investment of some sort that he doesn't even think about going home when he's worried about shark attacks in the building. Apparently there are like four different cuts of this; I'm curious about the 128 minute version, but probably not curious enough to watch it again anytime soon. Still, it's fun, earnest, has more going on than you'd expect, and it's one of those VHS covers I always noticed as a kid but never actually rented. Always nice to circle back to those.
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Sep 28, 2019 09:30
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| # ? May 6, 2024 06:37 |
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After sifting through my physical releases I have 27 I want to watch for the challenge. Time to buy 4 movies! Now I just gotta choose 4 movies. Tough choices being made.
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Sep 28, 2019 10:41
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