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55. Gore Whore (1994) I think... was this... was it empowering? It was a strange sex-positive LGBT re-imagining of Re-Animator, so I think I liked it. It scratched the low budget exploitation itch I was looking to scratch tonight, so that's good enough. 2/5 56. August Underground (2001)  I'm not even done with this yet (I have 10 minutes left) but I've seen enough to give it no stars. Guinea Pig had, dare I say it, some "class" to it that made it a respectable experiment in film making. August Underground, on the other hand, seems like that put through an early 2000s nu-metal edgelord filter. It's so stupid, I hate it. Dumbest thing I've watched this month. 0/5 Watched so far: 1. Zombie (1979) / 2. Frankenstein (1931) / 3. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) / 4. Basket Case (1982) / 5. Carrie (1976) / 6. Audition (1999) / 7. Creepshow (1982) / 8. Cannibal Holocaust (1980) / 9. Daniel Isn't Real (2020) / 10. Popcorn (1991) / 11. Matango (1963) / 12. Raw (2016) / 13. Men Behind The Sun (1988) / 14. Freaks (1932) / 15. Island of Lost Souls (1932) / 16. Hagazussa (2017) / 17. Guinea Pig 4: Mermaid in a Manhole (1988) / 18. The Mummy (1932) / 19. The Old Dark House (1932) / 20. The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) / 21. American Mary (2012) / 22. The Invisible Man (1933) / 23. The New York Ripper (1982) / 24. The Head Hunter (2018) / 25. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) / 26. The Wailing (2016) / 27. Dude Bro Party Massacre III (2015) / 28. The Hunt (2020) / 29. Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992) / 30. Friday the 13th (2009) / 31. Amer (2009) / 32. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988) / 33. A Bucket of Blood (1959) / 34. Demons (1985) / 35. Creepshow 2 (1987) / 36. All the Colors of Giallo (2019) / 37. Human Lanterns (1982) / 38. Bay of Blood (1971) / 39. Tenebre (1982) / 40. Don't Torture a Duckling (1972) / 41. Opera (1987) / 42. Brain Damage (1988) / 43. Deathgasm (2015) / 44. The Lighthouse (2019) / 45. Maniac (1980) / 46. 3615 code Père Noël (1989) / 47. Antrum (2018) / 48. Murder Death Koreatown (2020) / 49. Overlord (2018) / 50. White Zombie (1932) / 51. House (1977) / 52. The Lodge (2019) / 53. Blood Quantum (2019) / 54. Luz (2018) / 55. Gore Whore (1994) / 56. August Underground (2001)
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Apr 29, 2020 05:26
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 91 (110). It Comes at Night (2017) Written and directed by Trey Edward Shults. Watched on Netflix, also available on Kanopy. A family takes social distancing to the extreme by hiding out in the woods after a highly infectious outbreak occurs but their relatively stable existence is shaken up when they welcome a new family in inviting paranoia and jealousy to go with the “animals” they hide from at night and the monsters they risk becoming themselves. There’s slow burn and there’s slow burn. I’m not as burned out on zombie stuff as many here are. I like zombie stuff. But I definitely prefer a balance of zombie action to zombie world melodrama. I don’t mind the latter but like, I gave up on The Walking Dead a season or two ago. I gave up on the comic years before that. Sometimes enough is enough. And man… this is a sloooooooow burn of the usual well worn tropes of loneliness and paranoia and jealousy and all that. There’s a couple of teases of stuff happening but well over an hour in you’re still kind of waiting to see something. I think the problem is really mine. All the movies I pushed back to the end of the month and want to try and squeeze in here at the end are slow burn films or psychological stuff or the like. Sometimes you gotta mix it up and I was hoping for a bit more zombie action in this one. Also I don’t know if I’m getting old or what but I’ve been having to play with the sound a lot on certain apps (Prime movies seem noticeably tougher to hear) and man, a movie where like half the dialogue is heard through gas masks or bedroom walls is tough as gently caress to hear. Its a good film. Well acted, well directed, tense as hell (in an emotional way, not a scary way), loving heart wrenching and severe. The gradual build to something happening was long but managed to successfully build up that when it did happen it would be big while also really not preparing me for when it does. I got knocked on my rear end by the emotional weight of it. Not like as bad as Hereditary or anything but still a rough landing. This isn’t a zombie movie at all. Its a movie about grief, sadness, loneliness, being lost, not knowing what to do or what the right decision is. Its very well done and taps into something very raw and real. There’s an effective use of the small little world they live in that is both unmistakably small but also somehow confusingly big and maze-like. Its claustrophobic and at the same time like being lost in the woods. Its probably the perfect summation of grief and an unexpectedly fitting quarantine movie. Well fitting in capturing that feeling I have sometimes but not really fitting in what I really wanted to dwell in. Outside of the quarantine I probably would have enjoyed this more.  92 (111). Silent Hill: Revelation (2012) Written and directed by M. J. Bassett. Watched on Netflix. The girl who was actually a clone of the magical girl who made Silent Hill a hell dimension after she died… or something… is grown up now and the freaky pyramid people want her back so she’s gonna have to make sense of her backstory with help from some informative NPCs and dodge some freaky underbosses. I didn’t even know there was a Silent Hill sequel but it popped up as a recommendation after the last one and I needed to come down with something before I could get to sleep without having messed of grief and sadness dreams. I’m mildly amazed they got back the entire cast and did a straight sequel, but I suppose Radha Mitchell and Sean Benn aren’t huge names or anything. This was even filmed before Game of Thrones and hey, is that Jon Snow? Man, Malcolm McDowell will do anything. And Carrie Ann Moss? This movie’s casting agent was punching way above their weight class. I’ve seen that movie a bunch of times and I’m not even sure why. Its not very good. I think its just a combination of really striking visuals and a story that I can never quite process fully. I mean, maybe its just late but I just read the plot synopsis on Wikipedia to remind myself and my head’s kind of spinning. God bless movies based on video game plots, I guess. The original might honestly been indiscernible from just watching all the cut scenes from a video game into a barely coherent plot designed to drive you from level to level between new characters showing up to dump more back story on you. This one’s pretty much more of the same but cheaper and looking less good. Vaguely coherent plot. Nonsensical jumps from video game mission to video game mission. Cut scenes of new characters revealing their backstory and the next plot step. Despite the much cheaper look there’s some decent visuals and freaky stuff. I liked the doll parts monster. It doesn’t have that same fog ethereal look the first had that was probably the best thing going for it, but you know. I came for weird looking video game visuals and i got weird looking video game visuals. I definitely didn’t turn this on expecting Shakespeare. “The ash, its stopped. Because of you?” You know nothing, Jon Snow. But its ok, I didn’t really follow it either. And seriously, I had no idea there were this many 3D films. I somehow completely zoned out during this whole era.
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Apr 29, 2020 07:18
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COOL CORN posted:August Underground, on the other hand, seems like that put through an early 2000s nu-metal edgelord filter. It's so stupid, I hate it. Dumbest thing I've watched this month. If memory serves, August Underground was really big into the 'eXXXXXXtreme! Hardcore!' side of things. Back when it was in vogue to send shills to the various forums to bicker with naysayers, AU's people insisted you weren't a true horror fan if you didn't like their films and if you weren't hardcore like them you were a wimp poser. All their films were the same type of poo poo with a different title. STAC Goat posted:Its a shame this was Romero’s last film and that it may have pushed him away from making more. Maybe Romero was just dried out of material and old. It happens to us all. Or maybe he just needed to lead the Dead go. He could have made a 7th Dead film about the idea of letting go. Romero was working on other projects that weren't 'of the Dead' films, but I feel he kept coming up against the Romero = Zombies perception wall. Outside the horror threads, how many know about Bruiser, Martin, or Season of the Witch? I think he was content with how the story ended with Land of the Dead, but got nagged into Diary and Survival. It's obvious his heart wasn't into them, and it does suck that those were his last films.
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Apr 29, 2020 08:44
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23: Faust A demon and angel bet the world on the moral goodness of one man, Faust. The demon, Mephisto, doesn't play fair of course. He sends a plague to Faust's town and offers Faust the power to stop it in exchange for his soul. Faust agrees to a free trial period in order to save the town. He later gets locked in to the full subscription because he really wanted to get laid. Mephisto really makes the whole film. He's a funny and rather camp figure who's also unpredictable and evil to the core. One moment he's flirting with Gretchin's aunt and the next he's murdering someone. There's a scene where he takes Faust on a magic carpet ride and shows him a whole new world. The special effects are pretty impressive for the time and the sets are great.  Seen: 1) The Abominable Dr. Phibes; 2) Contagion; 3) The Devil's Rejects; 4) The Changling; 5) Frankenhooker; 6) Midsommar; 7) Village of the Damned (1960); 8) Wishmaster; 9) Der Golem; 10) City of the Living Dead; 11) A Nightmare on Elm Street 2; 12) Leprechaun; 13) Microwave Massacre; 14) Sisters; 15) Bride of Re-Animator; 16)The Crazies; 17) Maniac Cop; 18) Bay of Blood; 19) Outbreak; 20) A Nightmare on Elm Street 3; 21) A Quiet Place; 22) Gerald's Game; 23) Faust
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Apr 29, 2020 13:06
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 133) Extremity - 2018 - Shudder I don't know, but I'd think the last place someone who's endured horrific trauma that's still effecting them would go is one of those extreme McKamey style haunted houses. Apparently the lead, Allison feels this is what she needs to do to get over the horrific childhood trauma and abuse she endured even with her girlfriend who's been trying her best to help her saying this is a bad idea. Whelp, it does turn out to be a bad idea. I'm not sure what to make of this one. To start, I just don't understand the allure these extreme haunted houses have. Maybe it's because I'm an old fart, but haunted houses are supposed to be fun and these extreme places come across as the complete opposite. Getting put through a physical and mental grinder just to say you did it just doesn't sound like fun by any stretch. Secondly, going with the angle Allison's doing this as exposure therapy is going about this completely wrong. Years back I went through exposure therapy for some things and it's critical that the environment's one you feel safe in and the exposure's gradual as you progress over time. An extreme haunted house is definitely not either, and combined I just couldn't shut enough of my brain off to roll with it. This didn't click with me, but if you're into that extreme type of stuff, consider giving it a go.  134) 0.0 MHz - 2019 - Shudder This was pretty mediocre. Kinda sad since it was attempting something different. Premise is a ghost investigation club goes to a haunted location to contact a spirit through a combination of science and ritual, which of course doesn't work out well for them. If this was released back when Ju-On or Ringu were new, it'd be pretty decent. However now, jump scares and long haired ghosts skittering around is old and busted unless everyone's bringing their A game and knocking it out of the park. No A game was brought here. The actors are okay enough, setting's okay, but that's about it. I'd say skip this unless you're really into the long haired ghost thing.
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Apr 29, 2020 15:36
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 Dark Waters(Prime) Not technically a first time watch, but I really could not remember anything about this movie. I have a feeling I watched it for a challenge a few years ago and maybe it was at the end of the night and I fell asleep or something. Anyway, horror thread regulars know about Dark Waters. If you're into Lovecraftian horror even a little bit, you need to check this one out. For whatever reason it's a very obscure film, like, for most people From Beyond or Dagon are obscure but Dark Waters really is a hidden gem. I certainly never would've heard of it if not for the recommendations in the horror thread. It's visually excellent, with thick atmosphere in almost every scene. If you're familiar with Shadow over Innsmouth and other similar stories(this movie bears a striking similarity to Gordon's Dagon), the plot may not surprise you very much but it doesn't have to because the movie is packed with memorable imagery.  Also, shout-out to the costume designer for throwing in a Mario Bava Blood and Black Lace raincoat(or is it Don't Look Now?):   (Don't Look Now) (Blood and Black Lace)The ending here is a bit less bonkers than some other comparable films but maybe that's a good thing. Certainly the filmmaker succeeds in working within his budget, which Gordon is sometimes criticized for when discussing the ending of Dagon. This is one of those movies where it's been available on Prime for a pretty long time so it seems like you can watch it whenever, but as soon as it drops off Prime all the sudden it will be tough to find. So watch it now while you can. 1. Leprechaun 4: In Space 2. Leprechaun In The Hood 3. Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha Hood 4. The Uncanny 5. Rockula 6. Come To Daddy 7. Cast A Deadly Spell 8. In The Tall Grass 9. Pet Sematary(2019) 10. Pet Sematary(1989) 11. The Wind 12. VFW 13. Piranha 14. Jaws 4: The Revenge 15. Deep Star Six 16. Underwater 17. Antrum 18. MosquitoMan 18. Prometheus 19. Alien: Covenant 20. Dark Waters
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Apr 29, 2020 15:57
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COOL CORN posted:55. Gore Whore (1994)  I need this in my life immediately
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Apr 29, 2020 16:45
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35. Night of the Demons (1988) - Kevin Tenney What a terrific movie at the end. I was kinda annoyed with the lead girl because she really plays into the worst of the worst tropes, but by the end she's totally on board and kicking rear end. Movie was a lot of fun, good effects, solid soundtrack and the cast was all a lot of fun. Even the fat slob dick dude. I may have to add this one to the collection, especially for some extras on the blu-ray. Maybe I'll even watch the rest of the series if they hold up. 36. The Stuff (1985) - Larry Cohen I was definitely not familiar with this movie going in. It was always one I kinda just skipped over when I saw it at rental stores. I can't say I was too impressed with it either, but I guess that comes with a Larry Cohen production. I liked the gimmick and The Stuff was a lot of fun and provided some great practical effects work, but it really meanders in sections and the story just kinda goes nowhere? I dunno, like I said, you get what you get with a Larry Cohen production, but with such a great premise I was hoping for a lot more stuff to happen. Dunno. Probably a good midnite feature after a few tall glasses of water. 37. Paranormal Activity (2007) - Oren Peli It holds up alright I suppose. I absolutely still hate the boyfriend Micah with a firey passion. The gags are cool and I think it works overall, but man, this could've been a much more cleverer short than a full bore long movie that was far too long than what its premise needed. 38. The Silence of The Lambs (1991) - Jonathan Demme A classic by every standard. This is just a joy to watch because every frame feels purposeful and carefully crafted. The scares are real and terrifying, the performances only give everything a foundation you need to believe in this world that's being crafted. Jonathan Demme was absolutely on one when he made this and I don't think anyone who has tried their hand at the serial killer drama has reached this pinnacle. Well maybe everyone except for Bryan Fuller  39. Paranormal Activity 2 (2010) - Tod Williams Another Paranormal Activity movie with still not as much going on for long stretches, but there are still some good practical/digital bits in here and some fun camera tricks that I'm always down for because those are always cool. Mostly useless characters and Micah makes another appearance with being useless. I like the world building going on here, but you might've been able to smoosh both the first and second movies together into one. 40. Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) - Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman This is the first PA movie that felt like a movie with progression and characters and structure (found footage dont always need structure, but the last two lacked something that made them feel cohesive). Widens the world a bit more and gives us some very cool moments, but maybe at this point calling this series found footage seems kinda like not the right term anymore? I dunno. Interesting movie and the best one so far. A real missed opportunity not shooting and presenting this in a 4:3 aspect ratio. 41. Christine (1983) - John Carpenter A classic. I remember watching this whenever it would get repeat runs on TBS or TNT in the afternoon. This might've been my first Carpenter movie now that I think back on it. A lot of fun performances, some great practical work with Christine popping back into place. Just an overall genre classic that I have a lot of fun rewatching.
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Apr 29, 2020 17:01
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dorium posted:35. Night of the Demons (1988) - Kevin Tenney You should at least watch Night of the Demons 2, I think it’s equally as fun. Really goofy in a good way.
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Apr 29, 2020 17:04
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gey muckle mowser posted:You should at least watch Night of the Demons 2, I think it’s equally as fun. Really goofy in a good way. Yea I think I will. work is slowing down so I got some free time today.
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Apr 29, 2020 18:05
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57. Blood Feast (1963) You know, a lot of people on Letterboxd are dragging this film, but I didn't hate it. I went in knowing it was a cheap HGL exploitation film, and that's exactly what I got, so I wasn't disappointed. I'm double-featuring this with Wizard of Gore, so I can see exactly where the "splatter" genre started. If I were around in 1963 and saw this, it would have blown my mind. Is it "good"? No, certainly not. But it's entertaining for sure. 3/5 58. The Wizard of Gore(1970)  I watched this as a double feature with Blood Feast, and liked this one a good deal less. Yes, the gore effects are much better (and would have been downright scandalizing in 1970, I'd imagine), but this movie is a VERY LONG 90 minutes. The scenes with Montag on stage are fairly entertaining for the first couple times, but by the third stage act, I know what's going to happen, so I was checking my phone and just looking up now and then to see how the effects looked. The premise of the film is actually really clever and fresh, I just wish it had been done with more finesse. These two movies are my first foray into HG Lewis, and I understand the appeal and the novelty, but I'm probably done after this one. 2/5 Watched so far: 1. Zombie (1979) / 2. Frankenstein (1931) / 3. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) / 4. Basket Case (1982) / 5. Carrie (1976) / 6. Audition (1999) / 7. Creepshow (1982) / 8. Cannibal Holocaust (1980) / 9. Daniel Isn't Real (2020) / 10. Popcorn (1991) / 11. Matango (1963) / 12. Raw (2016) / 13. Men Behind The Sun (1988) / 14. Freaks (1932) / 15. Island of Lost Souls (1932) / 16. Hagazussa (2017) / 17. Guinea Pig 4: Mermaid in a Manhole (1988) / 18. The Mummy (1932) / 19. The Old Dark House (1932) / 20. The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) / 21. American Mary (2012) / 22. The Invisible Man (1933) / 23. The New York Ripper (1982) / 24. The Head Hunter (2018) / 25. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) / 26. The Wailing (2016) / 27. Dude Bro Party Massacre III (2015) / 28. The Hunt (2020) / 29. Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992) / 30. Friday the 13th (2009) / 31. Amer (2009) / 32. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988) / 33. A Bucket of Blood (1959) / 34. Demons (1985) / 35. Creepshow 2 (1987) / 36. All the Colors of Giallo (2019) / 37. Human Lanterns (1982) / 38. Bay of Blood (1971) / 39. Tenebre (1982) / 40. Don't Torture a Duckling (1972) / 41. Opera (1987) / 42. Brain Damage (1988) / 43. Deathgasm (2015) / 44. The Lighthouse (2019) / 45. Maniac (1980) / 46. 3615 code Père Noël (1989) / 47. Antrum (2018) / 48. Murder Death Koreatown (2020) / 49. Overlord (2018) / 50. White Zombie (1932) / 51. House (1977) / 52. The Lodge (2019) / 53. Blood Quantum (2019) / 54. Luz (2018) / 55. Gore Whore (1994) / 56. August Underground (2001) / 57. Blood Feast (1963) / 58. The Wizard of Gore (1970)
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Apr 29, 2020 18:09
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Goal is to make a hard press today to get myself into position for a casual 100/120 tomorrow. If I’m gonna be crazy I might as well go for the landmark.  93 (112). Dagon (2001) Directed by Stuart Gordon, written by Dennis Paoli, based on H. P. Lovecraft's novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Watched on TubiTV An American and his wife get stranded on an island off the coast of Spain and become victims to a bizarre town of fishlike people who worship a capricious sea god. Points for fighting monsters with a swiss army knife. The main character is like the dorkiest whitest dude ever and its kind of super amusing. Unfortunately he’s also kind of a douchebag cheating on his wife with the mermaid in his dreams. At some point of this month I was gonna do a “Stuart Gordon Tribute” and this ended up on my radar. I eventually ditched that for a more fluid schedule but this one kept bouncing on and off the schedule. I’ve seen a lot of people call it the best Lovecraft adaption (at least before Color Out of Space) and while I’m not a huge fan of the Gordon/Yuzna style I’ve had my share of fun with it as well. I wonder ow the two of them ended up making films in Spain for awhile. That’s a path I haven’t seen a lot. At least I follow Spanish considerably more than I do those Prophecy sequels with a ton of Romanian. If nothing else I’ll say for Gordon and Yuzna its that they swing for the fences. The problem seems to be that they’re out there making films on a budget in Spain. As expected there’s some pretty solid practical effects and gore, but also as expected there’s some pretty terrible CGI when they go for the big stuff. I wonder what Gordon and Yuzna would have done with bigger budgets. It would be easy to say “they did Honey I Shrunk The Kids” and assume that if they had Disney money behind Lovecraft movies they’d make amazing spectacles. But of course Honey I Shrunk The Kids was also the directorial debut of Joe Johnston who would go on to make movies like Jumanji, The Rocketeer, and Captain America: The First Avenger so you can’t assume he didn’t have something to do with that one. I kind of feel like Gordon and Yuzna were always going to be swinging for the fences broadly because they obviously just loved the insane, gore, madness of it all. That can be fun but it also can be a mess. But for a Lovercraftian Gordon/Yuzna mess I can see why this is considered a gem. They hold it together pretty well ultimately. The town setting is absolutely great and eery and while the fish monster people are iffy the film embraces the madness of it all in a way that makes you just go with it. I read Basebf’s review of Dark Water while watching this and was thinking I rather have watched that one, but by the end it had really mostly come together for me. Not a great film or anything, but a pretty good version of the madness of the idea. You know… within the limitations of the budget.  94 (113). Digging Up the Marrow (2014) Written and directed by Adam Green. Watched on Prime, also available on Hulu, hoopla, and Shudder. Director Adam Green plays Director Adam Green who is making a skeptical documentary about a man who claims that monsters are real, they live in an underground world, and that he’s found the entranceway in the woods. I was gonna finish off the Hatchet series here with Victor Crowley which I could have sworn was on Prime, but its not now. Ah well. So instead since i wasn’t really focused enough yet to watch one of the more heady movies on my list I decided to give another Adam Green movie a chance just to see if he’s got a skill beyond “really campy, not great horror homages.” And if nothing else the poster looks good. This feels like kind of more of the same, unfortunately. Green seems like he’s made an entire horror career off of making fan films. Which I guess is good work if you can get it. There’s something about Green that bugs me. Its like there’s a self appointed sense of importance to him or something. He tries too hard for me, I think. Or i don’t like his sense of humor. Or maybe I just don’t like him. I don’t mind that Rob Zombie is a fanboy or that the genre is filled with self parody and celebration. But sometimes it just works for you or it doesn’t, I guess. “I would never do the same gag twice.” “We’ve seen Hatchet II.” Ok, that made me laugh. Overall it just didn’t really work for me. It was a fine, easy enough watch but its played in a weird mix of silly and serious that doesn’t really work for me. The monster stuff is ok but not really anything notable and the payoff feels like it comes after a lot of empty time killing. The weird thing is this apparently took 4 years to make and I’m not exactly sure how. It feels like something that could have been filmed over a weekend at a convention. Like, I could have probably filmed the woods scenes a couple of blocks from my house. It seems like that entire time is spent trying to figure out how to create monsters to pay off on the basic premise. And I’m not really convinced he figured out how. Its at best a very shallow, silly version of Clive Barker’s Nightbreed. But just as I think that one fails to come together in a satisfying way and its more of an idea on paper that Barker couldn’t really make work, I think the same holds here. Except Barker’s certainly tries to do a lot more while Green is largely content to record himself making in jokes and being a fanboy. Which I guess is his think and more power to him. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Apr 29, 2020 |
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Apr 29, 2020 19:26
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STAC Goat posted:Goal is to make a hard press today to get myself into position for a casual 100/120 tomorrow. If I’m gonna be crazy I might as well go for the landmark. The torture scenes in this are pretty rough if you're not into that kinda poo poo, it was definitely during that phase for horror movies where the new hotness was watching people suffer indescribably. Though I liked Dagon I like the funnier Gordon Lovecraft stuff better.
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Apr 29, 2020 19:49
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10. Sole Survivor (1984) A woman miraculously survives a plane crash unscathed but as soon as she is discharged from the hospital it becomes clear that Death is not willing to let her be the one that got away. I'd be surprised if both Final Destination and It Follows weren't influenced by this. Final Destination for the "death catching up with someone who survived a disaster" and It Follows for the creepy yet dumpy figures that stalk the protagonist. There's even a moment very early on where a truck seemingly takes itself out of parking brake and almost crushes the main character which feels very Final Destination but that's the only moment like that in the film. The acting is a bit stiff in parts and it's a pretty slow paced movie but it's got a eerie atmosphere and a few moments of striking imagery.    11. November (2017)  In a tiny village in early 19th century Estonia the girl Liina falls in love with her neighbor Hans but her father wants to marry her off to his drinking buddy and Hans is desperately in love with the young German baroness whose father rules over the area from his crumbling manor house. More of a dark fantasy than a horror movie as such but I'd still categorize it as folk horror though with folk bolded and horror with a footnote. It's a black comedy and a period drama and a fantasy film all at once. What makes it less of a horror film is that although there are horrific elements they are a part of the world and not intruding upon it. The ghosts are not horrible apparitions haunting the living they are venerable ancestors that must be appeased. The Devil appears but he can be fooled by those clever enough. etc. etc. I recently read a piece by early 20th century ghost story writer M.R. James where he says that one of his rules is that the ghost or demon or creature must always be horrific and evil because ghosts that aid the character belong to fairy tales not horror stories. It takes a similar approach as the The VVitch to folklore in that every single one of the peasant's folk beliefs are literally true. Though here it is seen on a much larger scale than in The VVitch. The dead walk on certain days, if you whistle on the crossroads the Devil himself will come, witches can do actual magic, and a communion wafer shot from a gun can not miss its target. One of the most memorable part of the film is the Kratts, which are automatons created from household objects and given life via a deal with the devil. These tool golems handle most of the menial tasks for the townspeople and are so desperate for work that if not given a task they turn violent. They remind me a lot of the tilberi, a creature from Icelandic folklore, which serves a similar purpose but is far more specialized. In short a Tilberi is a sort of familiar to a witch. To make one you must steal a human rib stolen from a fresh grave on Whitsunday and wrapped in a layer of stolen wool then to give it life you have to had to conceal it between your breasts and spit the blood of Christ on it during communion at least three times. After that the witch would fashion a teet of sorts on her thigh from which the creature would drink blood. Once at full strength it could be sent out to steal milk from cows which it would do by suckling on them until bloated, then roll home and vomit the milk into the receptacle of its mother's choice which could then be made into substandard butter. They could also be used for more generalized petty theft. The catch is that they would become more and more greedy by the day and eventually suck their mother dry to get rid of a Tilberi you had to give it an impossible task a common one being sending it to the mountains and telling it to count all the sheep droppings in a particular area which would make it work itself to death. There's a scene early in the film where a Kratt is disposed of in a similar manner after it demands work: Its master orders it to make a ladder out of bread, it tries but gets so confused that it explodes and catches fire. ' It's an absolutely gorgeous movie with stunning black and white cinematography and amazing atmosphere.    I'm watching films 12 and 13 tonight but I might not be able to post them before the first, at least not a proper write-up but I'm making it to 13 come hell or high water.
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Apr 30, 2020 00:29
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dorium posted:35. Night of the Demons (1988) - Kevin Tenney Both commentary tracks on the Blu-ray are great - the production staff one insightful, the cast one fun. The second one is a great 80s horror movie, despite being made in 1994. The third one is mediocre. The remake is decent. Sono posted:97. Raccoon Valley (2018, Prime) - Seeing "(This is a slow-paced independent film)" in the description was a bit disconcerting, as if they're trying to get in front of criticism. On the positive side, it's wonderfully shot, the sound design is great, and the lead (who's alone for 95% of the film) is great at emoting. On the negative side, nothing really happens, and having the main character be deaf seems like a cheap excuse for her not to hear the evacuation alarms at the start of it and causes issues later (watching TV without subtitles). 3/5 I stopped counting at 100, but add Dead Faith (2018, Prime) to the list of unique zombie films. It's set during the clean up stages, where law enforcement is trying to track down any remaining zombies and end the threat. This takes place entirely at one rural house, where the husband is refusing to surrender his bitten wife. He also didn't put down the zombie that bit her on biblical grounds. It's from Pale Horse Films, which I can't find much on, but that name has implications, and the climax is an argument on biblical interpretation.
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Apr 30, 2020 01:02
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Just a few quick fire reviews 82. Child's Play (Vudu) Rewatch. My favourite of the first few movies, as the mix of innocence developing into paranoia is just perfect. The subway ride and the walk through the rough neighbourhood still gives me chills. 3.5/5 83. Child's Play 2 (HBOGO) I was really getting Basket Case 2 vibes from this. It's a good movie, but it really doesn't light a fire under me. 3/5 84. Child's Play 3 (HBOGO) This one really pushes itself into the kind of cheap farce that I'm really not that into, but it's a fine movie. 2.5/5 85. Seed of Chucky (Prime UK) Skipping my favourite, Bride, just because I watched it recently. Seed really amps up the meta commentary and goofy humour, but in a way I'm kind of on board with. If they dialed back the celebrity cameos and references it would have been a lot better. 3/5 86. Child's Play (2019) (Netflix UK) I thought this was okay, it's charming enough. It's like a worse Small Soldiers mixed with a '00s slasher. 2.5/5
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Apr 30, 2020 02:37
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I got 2 Kanopy rentals left so lets dig around. 95 (114). Knife+Heart (2018) Written and directed by Yann Gonzalez, co-written by Cristiano Mangione. Watched on Kanopy, also available on Shudder. Gay men are being killed by a masked man all around Anne, a porn producer who is slowly losing her mind over heartbreak. Today I learned that if you turn on a foreign language film in Kanopy and just wait for english subtitles without selecting them it doesn’t happen. Whoops. Anyway, another movie that’s been bouncing on and off my schedule all month. Its got a ton of hype around here so I wanted to give it a chance, but it seemed like its the sort of giallo like thing that doesn’t really do much for me. And yeah, that’s kind of how it played out besides reminding me of them Euro basement dance clubs where I wasn’t entirely confident I might not end up stabbed. There’s not a lot for me to say really. I just don’t go for this giallo thing. They’re more of crime thrillers then horror to me. The dramatic sexualized deaths don’t do anything for me. I get the appeal, this is done pretty well in that style. These giallo-like films also seem to lean pretty heavy into the murder mystery thing, which also isn’t a big draw for me. But the weird thing I seem to have noticed is that a lot of them seem like they don’t go for the big dramatic obvious suspect character study or the surprise character you didn’t expect but instead just goes for a kind of “just some random person with a backstory we’re gonna learn through some investigation” thing. And like… I just don’t care. I don’t really get the appeal of that but it seems like a bit of a staple. I dunno. Really, just not my thing. Meh.  96 (115). Kill, Baby, Kill (1966) Written and directed by Mario Bava, co-written by Romano Migliorini and Roberto Natale. Watched on Kanopy. A young medical student is called to investigate strange deaths in a small town in the early 20th century that the villagers believe are the act of a ghostly child who haunts their home. This is definitely more my thing. I love the gothic setting, the crypts that make me feel that cold wet cave thing, the simple creepy haunting stuff, the gorgeous 60s women with their sultry eyes. I’m not sure these 60s gothic films are exactly my favorite or anything but they’re just a really fun style and alternative from so much else in the genre. And in a lot of ways what I kind of grew up thinking of as “horror” beyond my 80s monsters. I said in the Bracket thread that I think the Hammer films might have been held back a bit by this style seeming cheesy to modern eyes, and there’s definitely some of that. But like while in my 20s I probably would have rolled my eyes at it and though myself too cool for such cheesy stuff now I think I’m just less bothered by such things and more relaxed to just enjoy it. Mario Bava in particular is someone I think I just love. Black Sabbath has long been a favorite of mine and I really enjoyed Black Sunday. That makes this 3 for 3 for Bava. He feels like a very safe go to place for me now when I’m coming off a disappointment and need something to get me back in the horror mood. That’s kind of what drew me right here since I needed a film that would keep me going to the next round and I just had a feeling this Bava gothic piece would get me there. This is the stuff I really think I love watching come October and just is everything I kind of thing as the “Halloween” aesthetic. I basically try and decorate my house like one of these sets if I can. You know what else I really liked? That the kind of douchey leading man totally had nothing to do with the resolution. Ha! Get on the sidelines, bro! Just a really good, moody, gothic ghost story and a lot of what I love from horror probably from the guy who made it so without me realizing.  97 (116). Unsane (2018) Directed by Steven Soderbergh, written by Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer. Watched on Prime, also available on Kanopy. Sawyer is involuntarily committed to a mental institution after expressing anxiety and depression over being stalked, but the already nightmarish scenario of being held against her will and trying to convince people she’s sane is made worse when she identifies an orderly as her stalker. I’ve been meaning to get to this for years now and I should not have waited. This is a great film. Claire Foy is amazing with a complicated, compelling character who you never quite get a full handle on as she alternates victim and manipulator, sane and “unsane”. The idea of being trapped in this situation, feeling that you’re held prisoner by an insane, inhuman system with no actual way out of it is one thing. The question of her own sanity and whether or not she really is there improperly is an extra wrinkle that the story and actress do a great job keeping a moving target. When you add in the stalker element and the third act of the film I’m absolutely riveted and my heart is in my throat. This is probably gonna be a hot take, but I honestly think Soderbergh’s directing fails this film. Its weird to say that I think the director was bad on a film I loved. Its weirder if that directer is a critically loved one. But I think this is a remarkable story and a stellar performance that are brought down to a B+ film by bad directing choices. I don’t know what the point was in directing the film “in secret” on an iPhone was. I don’t know what the experiment was intended to prove. It serves some value early on to capture the idea of Sawyer feeling as if she’s always being stalked by us viewing her through this voyeuristic medium. But past the opening 10 minutes I just think its a clunky filming technique that distracts and takes away from the film. When David goes after Sawyer’s mom confirming that he really is who she says he is and later when he kidnaps and kills Nate these are such major parts of the film that should ramp up the tension and drama but I think they actually fall kind of flat and I think a lot of that is the way those scenes are shot and the limits on the scenes. Experiment because you want to experiment, that’s fine. But in this case I think that experiment came at the sacrifice of making an absolutely amazing film. With the proper directing, cinematography, and scoring I think this thing could have been something else entirely. But as I said, I still thing this is a great movie in large part because of a really compelling and effectively twist laden story and a just excellent tour de force for Claire Foy. I just also kind of feel like Soderbergh handicapped it for some unclear point. Which makes this film somehow both everything I was hoping it would be and more, and also kind of a huge disappointment.
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Apr 30, 2020 03:25
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13. M What is there to say about this movie that hasn’t already been said? The cinematography is superb, among the best there’s ever been. The sociological approach to the script is still fresh today. Peter Lorre is tremendous. The only thing I could possibly add to the discourse around this movie is that the underworld bosses’ desire to return to normalcy and pursuing that goal by enlisting a crew of people to trace the murderer’s contacts was cute during the covid crisis. It’s a small part of a larger theme of surveillance. The movie’s very much concerned with the effects of being surveilled and suspected, even among the innocent. 14. Funny Games  Funny Games is a movie with a certain reputation, both for being brutally violent and for being a preachy, didactic, violent horror movie about how we shouldn’t watch horror and otherwise violent movies. After actually watching the movie, I can’t help but disagree with those reputations. First of all, the violence in the movie isn’t really that bad. For me, it was the anticipation of terrible violence that was more agonizing than seeing the acts themselves. The overall rudeness was way more terrible than anything else. I can’t help but feel that even if I didn’t know anything about the movie that I would have guessed that the two guys were killers because they wore gloves everywhere, but maybe I’m flattering myself. As for the reputation for being preachy, it is clear that Haneke intends his film as a provocation, but I didn’t find it to be a moral one. The meta affectations it utilizes clearly demarcate the movie as a work of fiction. Much of the violence is softened by the allusions to cartoons (Beavis and Butthead, Tom and Jerry). Rather than being concerned with the ethics of consuming violent movies, the movie is more interested in the idea of pleasure. The movie’s opening juxtaposes classical choral music with Naked City’s death metal. While the lyrics of Mozart and Handel’s music does technically have meaningful content, the act of enjoying this music is typically done as a purely aesthetic exercise; you don’t have to understand Latin to enjoy this music’s beauty. “Bonehead,” on the other hand, is less traditionally beautiful, but it still exists to be enjoyed as a pure aesthetic exercise, combining apparently ugly noises into something structured and consumable. “Funny Games,” too, is created to be enjoyed, turning horrible violence into a digestible two hour experience that is devoid of danger or ethical quandary. “Funny Games” doesn’t say anything conclusive about pleasure, but just raises interesting questions. For instance, the two killers seem to enjoy their torments for different reasons. The Paul seems to enjoy playing with taboos, while the Peter is more motivated by immediately sensual pleasures, like looking at naked women or eating someone else’s food. On a meta level, these are two reasons to enjoy a horror movie. Haneke pours attention into the craft of visual design and framing a scene, creating an immediate visual appeal, but then of course the movie exists as cultural critique. Like all horror movies, the characters violate social rules with abandon. The question, then, is which character’s tastes are the audience’s more analogous to. Another point of inquiry is addressed directly to the audience: do we want “plausible plot development,” that is, is the pleasure we derive from a well-structured, logical plot necessary to enjoy a movie? Funny Games’ plot, of course, is completely nonsensical. Even putting aside the notorious remote scene (which I thought was hilarious), the games the killers play are senseless. The idea of betting with someone who wants to kill you whether they will kill you or not is pointless. But then, the idea of any movie having a plot that is logically plausible is kind of dubious. In any horror movie, whether the victims live or die is really up to the screenwriter, there’s nothing else to it. So then why do we get pleasure from a good plot? I think Haneke’s trademark inconclusiveness often drives people to call his work lazy or to invent conclusions that can’t be found in his movies. Funny Games is far too obscure and underspoken to be a definitive takedown of violence in film. Richard Brody’s excellent review of Haneke and his acolytes aptly points out that Haneke’s work can never truly function as social critique when they don’t propose any solutions to the problems they observe. “For Haneke and the Hanekets, the social cinema is a sneer under glass.” For my taste, though, I’m plenty happy for a movie to be more provocative than intellectually satisfying.
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Apr 30, 2020 04:15
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59. Chopping Mall (1986) This is another movie where I'm not sure why it took me so long to watch it. I'd always heard good things about it. And you know, it lived up to the hype! It's a fairly simple and very cheesy 80s horror movie, but it feels completely earnest and heartfelt in its cheesiness and comes by it honestly. And for that, I give it 4 stars. 4/5 60. Bloodsucking Freaks (1976)  This was ultimately pretty boring. Feels like it tried to scratch the same itch as 1970's "The Wizard of Gore", but never captured and of the same magic. Some of the background behind the movie was interesting, but the movie itself fell flat. 2/5 61. Gorotica (1993)  I have no idea what the point of this movie was. lovely VHS tape horror from the 90s, which describes a vast majority of the underground horror of the 90s, unfortunately. 1.5/5 Watched so far: 1. Zombie (1979) / 2. Frankenstein (1931) / 3. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) / 4. Basket Case (1982) / 5. Carrie (1976) / 6. Audition (1999) / 7. Creepshow (1982) / 8. Cannibal Holocaust (1980) / 9. Daniel Isn't Real (2020) / 10. Popcorn (1991) / 11. Matango (1963) / 12. Raw (2016) / 13. Men Behind The Sun (1988) / 14. Freaks (1932) / 15. Island of Lost Souls (1932) / 16. Hagazussa (2017) / 17. Guinea Pig 4: Mermaid in a Manhole (1988) / 18. The Mummy (1932) / 19. The Old Dark House (1932) / 20. The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) / 21. American Mary (2012) / 22. The Invisible Man (1933) / 23. The New York Ripper (1982) / 24. The Head Hunter (2018) / 25. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) / 26. The Wailing (2016) / 27. Dude Bro Party Massacre III (2015) / 28. The Hunt (2020) / 29. Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992) / 30. Friday the 13th (2009) / 31. Amer (2009) / 32. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988) / 33. A Bucket of Blood (1959) / 34. Demons (1985) / 35. Creepshow 2 (1987) / 36. All the Colors of Giallo (2019) / 37. Human Lanterns (1982) / 38. Bay of Blood (1971) / 39. Tenebre (1982) / 40. Don't Torture a Duckling (1972) / 41. Opera (1987) / 42. Brain Damage (1988) / 43. Deathgasm (2015) / 44. The Lighthouse (2019) / 45. Maniac (1980) / 46. 3615 code Père Noël (1989) / 47. Antrum (2018) / 48. Murder Death Koreatown (2020) / 49. Overlord (2018) / 50. White Zombie (1932) / 51. House (1977) / 52. The Lodge (2019) / 53. Blood Quantum (2019) / 54. Luz (2018) / 55. Gore Whore (1994) / 56. August Underground (2001) / 57. Blood Feast (1963) / 58. The Wizard of Gore (1970) / 59. Chopping Mall (1986) / 60. Bloodsucking Freaks (1976) / 61. Gorotica (1993)
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Apr 30, 2020 04:22
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The Iron Rose (1973) Two attractive young people trespass in a cemetery, have sex, and die. Perhaps the purest form of the "horror movie" performed here without even a narrative or a villain, just a location. At times, this feels more like an absurdist play like Waiting for Godot than a horror movie but the pervasive gothic vibe and constant focus on death keeps this in the realm of horror. I've only seen two Jean Rollin movies so far but I feel like I'm already familiar with his trademarks: melancholic horror fantasies with lush visuals, an extremely slow pace, light narrative, and absolutely, insanely, overpoweringly horned up. Also, they both utterly nailed their final shots, to the point where they elevated the entire movie and redeemed any boredom I'd previously felt. Very good movie to just hang out and be a goth with, especially now that the malls are all closed. No one has ever asked to be killed in a horror movie more than the guy in this movie who pressures a woman into sex in a graveyard and then yells at her. 4/5  In the Mouth of Madness (1994)  For John Carpenter, going full Lovecraft just gives you an excuse to have more fun. The super meta story here gives Carpenter an excuse to play around even more than usual, with our character's deteriorating mental state expressed through weird visuals, random body horror, and wild free-associative editing. At times this approaches the energy of an Evil Dead II while keeping up a pervasive sense of dread, no small feat. And of course, that ending is unimpeachable. Happy to finally get around to this. 4.5/5  Challenge completed! 13/13 watched Countries "visited": China, Australia, Italy, Japan, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, Canada, Britain, Malaysia, France, US
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Apr 30, 2020 05:53
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62. Dracula (1931) This was my first time seeing the Universal Dracula film. Overall, I enjoyed it. You can tell that Tod Browning and most of the actors are still holding on to some of their silent film habits, by the way they overact and by the way the camera presents things. I think that's a bit of a weakness, because the lack of soundtrack during these scenes hurts it a bit. Dwight Frye was the standout star for me, who played Renfield with a manic glee that overshadows any other Renfield I've seen. Bela Lugosi's performance is, in my opinion, a victim of its own reputation. EVERYBODY knows this performance - it's been seen, mimicked, parodied a hundred hundred times. So the original doesn't have the same punch it must have had in 1931. It's good, for sure, but Bela's performance didn't wow me. I will say that the scene when Renfield cuts his finger was delightfully tense. Bela Lugosi IS good at stoic staring, just not so much at emotive acting. Not my favorite Universal monster movie, but I didn't hate it. 3.5/5 Watched so far: 1. Zombie (1979) / 2. Frankenstein (1931) / 3. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) / 4. Basket Case (1982) / 5. Carrie (1976) / 6. Audition (1999) / 7. Creepshow (1982) / 8. Cannibal Holocaust (1980) / 9. Daniel Isn't Real (2020) / 10. Popcorn (1991) / 11. Matango (1963) / 12. Raw (2016) / 13. Men Behind The Sun (1988) / 14. Freaks (1932) / 15. Island of Lost Souls (1932) / 16. Hagazussa (2017) / 17. Guinea Pig 4: Mermaid in a Manhole (1988) / 18. The Mummy (1932) / 19. The Old Dark House (1932) / 20. The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) / 21. American Mary (2012) / 22. The Invisible Man (1933) / 23. The New York Ripper (1982) / 24. The Head Hunter (2018) / 25. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) / 26. The Wailing (2016) / 27. Dude Bro Party Massacre III (2015) / 28. The Hunt (2020) / 29. Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992) / 30. Friday the 13th (2009) / 31. Amer (2009) / 32. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988) / 33. A Bucket of Blood (1959) / 34. Demons (1985) / 35. Creepshow 2 (1987) / 36. All the Colors of Giallo (2019) / 37. Human Lanterns (1982) / 38. Bay of Blood (1971) / 39. Tenebre (1982) / 40. Don't Torture a Duckling (1972) / 41. Opera (1987) / 42. Brain Damage (1988) / 43. Deathgasm (2015) / 44. The Lighthouse (2019) / 45. Maniac (1980) / 46. 3615 code Père Noël (1989) / 47. Antrum (2018) / 48. Murder Death Koreatown (2020) / 49. Overlord (2018) / 50. White Zombie (1932) / 51. House (1977) / 52. The Lodge (2019) / 53. Blood Quantum (2019) / 54. Luz (2018) / 55. Gore Whore (1994) / 56. August Underground (2001) / 57. Blood Feast (1963) / 58. The Wizard of Gore (1970) / 59. Chopping Mall (1986) / 60. Bloodsucking Freaks (1976) / 61. Gorotica (1993) / 62. Dracula (1931)
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Apr 30, 2020 14:58
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I had the same reaction to Dwight Frye and I think most people do, especially if like you said they grew up already being totally familiar with Lugosi's performance. Frye is a surprise and he totally steals the show.
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Apr 30, 2020 15:05
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Basebf555 posted:I had the same reaction to Dwight Frye and I think most people do, especially if like you said they grew up already being totally familiar with Lugosi's performance. Frye is a surprise and he totally steals the show. Yeah I'm sure if I saw this movie in 1931, I'd be like "who is this ACTUAL LITERAL OTHERWORLDLY MONSTER, Bela Lugosi???" but now in 2020 his performance is such a trope. Dwight Frye was just wildly good. Anyway, nothing I've seen so far has swayed me from my opinion that Hammer's monster movies are better than Universal's.
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Apr 30, 2020 15:06
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I think Edward Van Sloan's Van Helsing is also a really strong and surprising performance in the film, although not surprising when you find out he'd been playing the role on stage for years. But he and Frye are the reasons beyond Lugosi that I can't give the nod to the Spanish Dracula despite better directing and a great performance from Lupita Tovar.
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Apr 30, 2020 15:15
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 135) The Siren - 2019 - Shudder I know I've said it before, but with the sheer volume of cryptids/mythologicals out there in folklore and in the diverse range of cultures past and present, and everyone still stampeding to Bigfoot or mermaids, there's a wide range of other cryptids/mythologicals that are unexplored territory for fresh film content. With this one featuring a rusalka, my hopes were up. As fate would have it, those hopes were smashed. They completely got the mythology of the rusalka wrong. Even taking into account regional variants, only things they kept was a connection to water and drowning. I'm all for a good slow burn film, but not when it's going so slow you're hoping someone gets out and starts pushing. This could've been crunched down to a half hour easy and not lose anything important. Considering the characters here are a Christian minister who feels a connection to the rusalka, a man hunting the rusalka to avenge his husband who was drowned by her, and the rusalka who's got feelings enough for the minister to push back her urge to drown, it's sad to depressing for this film to be so drat slow and draggy. There's so much potential there and it's just...bleh. While I'm calling this one skippable, I'm still going to keep my hopes for other cryptid types films out there.  136) Voice from the Stone - 2017 - Shudder This one's more in the vein of The Others or Turn of the Screw. As far as eyecandy goes, it's got this by the shitload. The rest, I probably would've enjoyed this more if it was something I was in the mood for. It's not a bad film, but if you've sat through enough of the 'is it ghosts or person losing their mind' type films, it's pretty average. I'll probably watch it again at a later date.
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Apr 30, 2020 15:34
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Squeeking in a pair of "haunted" houses at the last minute 18. The Open House Netflix movie. How do I explain this one? There's this family, and apparently both parents are keeping the fact that they're unemployed from their son. Then the dad gets run over, and the aunt lets the mom and son live in the mountain house she's selling. Weird poo poo happens when they get there. This movie is incredibly half-baked. The whole set-up could have been skipped, it's not hard to show a recently dead dad without telling. I might have missed some of it because I am actually doing work from home, but there's no real explanation to what's happening, it's just someone messing with the heater, and then terrorizing them. Was it a ghost? Was it the Alzheimer neighbor lady? Was it just some rando living behind the wood pile in the basement?  It's never truly revealed.Unless you need some background noise, skip this one. 2/5 extra 1/2 for actually killing both protagonists 19. The Girl on the Third Floor A douche bag buys an old house to fix up for him and his pregnant wife. Ooops, it's actually haunted with cum. The big problem I have with this one is that the central mystery has absolutely no progress until the final 20 minutes, and the only real clue prior to that comes from a bartender who has about 4 minutes of screentime. This isn't the Shining which can get away with it because there's a lot more going on. Honestly the setup is there, it just fails at it. The majority of the movie should have been the first 20 minutes. Bring the wife in earlier, have her being freaked out about things she's finding. The minister was the most interesting character, and also severely underutilized, hell, she could have actually been a decent antagonist, the motivation was there. All in all, there was some decent enough effects, and the core was there for an actually really good movie, but spends too much time not doing anything with it. 3/5 1. Society 2. Pet Semetery 3. Pooka Lives! 4. The last Broadcast 5. Parasite 6. The Stuff 7. VFW 8. A Nightmare on Elm Street (remake) 9. Train to Busan 10. The Bye Bye Man 11. Deadcon 12a. Leviathan 12b. Deep Star Six 13. All the Boys Love Mandy Lane 14. The McPherson Tape 15. Pale Blood 16. Mom and Dad 17. Trauma 18. The Open House 19. The Girl on the Third Floor
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Apr 30, 2020 16:33
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 87. Dracula (1931) (Archive.org) My history with this is film is that I've seen it countless times, but I've always wandered into showings around the theatre scene. From that point onward it lacks some vitality. It feels like people standing very still in rooms, talking at each other, and then it ends at breakneck speed. I never really felt compelled then to sit down and do a complete viewing, but I'm really glad I did. Those opening castle scenes are just wonderfully atmospheric and haunting, and really play up the squallor Dracula is living in in a way I don't think I've seen done before. It's fascinating that this came out a year before Tod Browning's Freaks, because Freaks looks and feels like a contemporary film. Were the studios holding him back in Dracula, or was the progression in the language of cinema just that fast? 4/5 Seeing as this is the last day and I'm not going to watch anything else before midnight (GMT), here is my small retrospective top 13 recommended movies of the month: (In no particular order) 1. Amer 2. Little Shop of Horrors (1986) 3. Suspiria (2018) 4. The 4th Man 5. Desperate Living 6. Anna and the Apocalypse 7. Sleepaway Camp 8. Successive Slidings of Pleasure 9. May 10. Diabolique 11. The Killer Condom 12. Pola X 13. The Toxic Avenger e: I've been watching through streaming alone. Not a lot of room in my apartment for physical media I'm afraid Debbie Does Dagon fucked around with this message at 17:34 on May 2, 2020 |
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Apr 30, 2020 17:32
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I’m ready to let go of this marathon as I’m feeling the burn out a bit. But I’m gonna try and finish strong with 3 separate films, watched isolated, not trying to squeeze stuff in between them and stuff. Just watch them and let them breath and finish this on hopefully a high note (although probably also a really sad one). First up… 98 (117). Pet Sematary (2019) Directed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, Screenplay by Jeff Buhler and Matt Greenberg, based on Pet Sematary by Stephen King. Watched on Prime, also available on Hulu and Epix. Modern adaption of the cult classic where a father movies his family to a new town and is told about a burial ground that brings things back, leading to unspeakable decisions driven by grief and desperation. This is another film I’ve been bouncing on and off the list all month. On one hand I kind of had to see it. I love King, I love the original, and this looked good to me. On the other hand people seem to have very negative opinions towards it and I haven’t been able to watch the original in years because I just don’t want to go through the poo poo it puts me through. So I went into this with really low expectations and a lot of concern and it turns out I kind of loved this. Everyone seems to focus on the choice to change Gage dying to Ellie but not didn’t I mind that but I actually really agreed with the decision and the path it took the film. I’m not saying the original was wrong in any way, its just that this decision actually shifts the entire second half of the film down a different road which is basically what I think a remake should do. I’ve been saying remaking a classic is tough because you have to be respectful/faithful while also doing something different enough to warrant it existing, and I think that’s what happened here. The original isn’t a scary film. There’s frights but its a movie about grief and sadness and the horror of where that can take a person. This one has that of course, but its a scarier film. Its actually in a lot of ways basically a haunted house film. The first film is a movie about a family being torn apart by the cruel hand of fate and one man’s grief. But on this one that stuff is really almost a pawn to what feels like a more malevolent actor. And I really like that. I’m not saying its better than the original, I’m saying it was different in a way I enjoyed. I like the whole Stephen King thing of how there’s never really just one spooky thing going on. Your house may be haunted or a vampire may have moved to town or your husband might have brought back your kid as a zombie, but that’s just your problem. All that other stuff is happening in this world and while sometimes its random sometimes its not. Sometimes its that evil force that lives under Derry that infects the entire town and makes itself known in different ways. And that’s what this felt like to me. There’s something sinister and evil on that land. Its not just a random piece of land that brings back zombies. There’s something more at work there. Its undefined but its there. And it may well have put all of this into play itself. Again, I’m not saying this is a better film or equal. It would be impossible for me to judge the two side to side since the original is such a classic to me. I was thinking that midway through with like, how I liked Lithgow’s performance but I’d never be able to not compare him to Fred Gwynne. But I think that’s why I like what they did so much because once the story switches lanes and goes somewhere completely different I stopped doing that. It no longer mattered if Lithgow couldn’t make me forget Gwynne, because it was now a new story. And that ending. gently caress, man. I really don’t get why people are so bothered by the decision to not kill Gage in the middle of the film. Its not as if anything works out better for anyone involved. gently caress, this version’s ending is actually way darker than the original. Which I wasn’t prepared for at all. But its also darker in a more traditional horror sense and not the emotionally devastating way the original is. Which I guess is what people don’t like. But I liked this place and if I want to go revisit the other terrible feelings the original brings up I can always go rewatch that.
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Apr 30, 2020 18:24
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I'm going to call it at my last reviews. The Kindle books I picked up are calling me and from what I've read so far with Escape from Happydale, I'm hooked. My aims for the Challenge was streaming only and first time watches with no minimum or maximum. Hit all my goals for a total of 136. I'm already thinking towards the big October Ironman.
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Apr 30, 2020 20:12
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Also calling it too. I watched a few <1 hour movies today, so I'm not going to count them here, but I'm happy with my showing. 62 for the official challenge 72 unofficial including other shorts and things watched on March 31st (since technically we would have had 31 days in May for the normal challenge instead of the 30 days we got in April  )It's been a blast and I'm going to miss everybody's reviews and stuff
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Apr 30, 2020 20:34
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12. Night of the Demon (1957) American parapsychologist John Holden is sent to Britain to investigate an occultist called Karswell that seems to have already killed Holden's colleague, Professor Harrington, by sending a demon to kill him. Holden is of course a sceptical man of science and doesn't believe in any of this. Based on the M.R. James story Casting the Runes from his second collection of ghost stories, imaginatively titled More Ghost Stories, from 1911. The core story is the same, an occultist slips a piece of paper containing magical runic symbols to people he dislikes which puts a death curse on them. In the film Karswell puts a death curse on people who are investigating the devil worshiping cult he heads but in the original story he's some petty crank who puts curses on academics who gave his book bad reviews. The death curse itself is also on a much shorter timer in the film than in the original where the cursed person had three whole months to agonize over their impending doom instead of just a few days. The main difference is that the main character of the original story, one Edward Dunning, is replaced by an American parapsychologist and is assisted by Harrington's niece rather than his brother. It is said that director Jacques Tourneur didn't want to ever show the demon directly to give the story more ambiguity and that the demon scenes were all done in reshoots and although I see where he was coming from, in the short story the demon is only briefly glimpsed hiding under someone's bed and doesn't do much, actually showing the demon at the beginning gives the rest of the film more tension as Holden stubbornly holds onto his skepticism while his doom draws ever closer. Also the demon looks really loving rad. One of Tourneur's best films and that's saying quite a lot. There's one really janky bit where Holden is "attacked" by a panther (a stuffed animal that he holds against his chest and thrashes around) and I'm pretty sure one of the minor characters, an Indian professor, is played by a white guy in brownface but aside from that it's a fine picture that manages to tread a nice middleground between the sometimes dry spookiness of Jamesian ghost stories and a 1950s monster movie. It should also be noted that the runic inscription in the film:  is complete nonsense. Seems to be a random mishmash of the younger and elder fúþark with some Anglo-Saxon runes and a bit of random squiggly nonsense thrown in for flavor. This does not detract from the film in any way because nobody but smelly unpleasant nerds even knows what the heck a fúþark is. Coincidentally I am currently working on the first ever Icelandic translation of M.R. James ghost stories so this is extremely my poo poo.    I've already watched the thirteenth film 2016's A Dark Song but I feel like I need to digest it a bit more before I can do a proper write-up. 13. A Dark Song  Grieving mother Sophia locks herself in an isolated old house with an occultist as part of a grueling months long ritual to summon her guardian angel. I could go on a long rambling rant about the sort of magic depicted in the film where the magic doesn't stem from the practioner as such but from them conjuring up an otherworldly being and harnessing its power but I shall spare you. Mostly because my internet's been down for the last few days and I'm posting on a barely functional old phone since my regular one is in the shop. So be thankful. A Dark Song is not a film for everyone. It's often hard to watch, it's very emotionally intense, and not really a traditional horror film. Nonetheless I highly recommend it for anyone who is into feeling bad. FreudianSlippers fucked around with this message at 19:04 on May 3, 2020 |
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Apr 30, 2020 21:36
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I do not check the Internet Archive enough for good movies that are otherwise impossible to find. 99 (118). Witchfinder General (1968) Written and directed by Michael Reeves, co-written by Tom Baker and Louis M. Heyward, Based on Witchfinder General by Ronald Bassett. Watched on the Internet Archive. A very fictional tale of the real Matthew Hopkins who spent much of the 17th century declaring himself “Witchfinder General” driving the witch hunt through England and personally executing the majority of “witches” killed as he torments and murders citizens for the petty desires of he and his accomplices. I’m not entirely sure what to make of this. It doesn’t feel like a horror film, at least until the end, but I can see why the violence, torture, and subject matter would have made it much more horror like at that time. It also probably had all kinds of subtext with religion and politics and everything happening in the US with McCarthyism. Today I can see these things but the presentation feels more like some “historical” soap opera. Its really the tone. There’s almost a Medieval quality to it. The hero of the story acts like some knight vowing to go on a quest to defend the honor of the wounded maiden. The soundtrack feels like I’m being told a story from a bard playing his guitar thingie in a tavern. I don’t know, it just feels a mile away from “horror” to me. Still the torture stuff was probably really sadistic for the time. And the ending is certainly enough for me to count it. Price’s role was a bit of a disappointment to me. He’s a very subdued, low key character which I think Price plays well with menace, but it also makes him feel like a relatively small part of the film. He never really feels like the menace the heroic journey calls for. I mean he is, but he’s just some slub. Which I get the point being that evil doesn’t have to be melodramatic or over the top and can just be a perfectly reasonable seeming monster with mundane motivations. But it doesn’t put on much of a show. Part of this is probably because Reeves apparently hated Price and was a huge loving rear end in a top hat to him. Seriously, like, apparently besides just being a dick and insulting him every chance he got he put Price in physical danger and directed other actors to hurt him. Michael Reeves sounds like a real piece of poo poo. Price has said he saw what Reeves wanted him from after he saw the film, but had no idea what it was at the time. I imagine a director who could have verbalized that to his talented actor might have gotten an even stronger performance out of him. But what do I know? I don’t know. I don’t think it was a bad film or anything. It was good, I guess. I wasn’t really feeling the whole knight’s quest thing but after 117 horror films I didn’t hate something else. I guess I was just expecting something more from such a highly regarded film with such a iconic star. I think I understand everything about why its highly regarded and why some of that didn’t translate and why the things I had some problem with happened the way they did. It just still kind of shaped out to a bit of a disappointment, or just a place where I’m not really sure how I felt since I went in with very different expectations. Its a film I’ll probably have to give another watch some other time away from such expectations or the horror mood. And one more to tie this all up, a film I've been pushing back all month but actually feels kind of perfect to close on.  100 (119). Midsommar (2019) Written and directed by Ari Aster. Watched on Prime. After an unimaginable emotional blow Dani makes the ill advised decision to go with her bad boyfriend and his friends to a commune in Sweden for a once every 90 years festival where things get real loving weird. What makes Ari Aster want to hurt me so? I’ve only seen Florence Pugh in one thing, Malevolent which was a pretty mediocre and generic film but which was carried by her really strong performance without great material. Every since then I’ve very curious to see her in something better and she did NOT disappoint. Aster seems to revel in making actress rip their hearts out of their chests and bear their souls for all of us and Pugh is just as up to the challenge as Toni Collette was. Which is a REALLY big compliment considering how highly I regard Collete’s skill and how heart wrenching her performance in Hereditary was. But Pugh brings it and leaves it all on the field in an absolutely heart wrenching performance. Aster is obviously a very talented director especially adept at just ripping your loving guts out. I don’t know how I feel about that. On one hand he’s obviously talented and if everyone could tap into raw emotion that way then I’d pretty much never turn my TV on again for fear of self harm. On the other hand something feels manipulative to me. I’d actually like to see him do something that doesn’t rest on a devastated woman’s fragility. I’m not accusing him of anything, I’m just saying if “writing powerful reasons for talented actresses to weep to the heavens” could be a crutch then Aster might have a crutch. He’s obviously very talented and I in no way am trying to take away from him, but I’m curious to see what he’d do with a movie that doesn’t have a great actress putting in an award worthy performance or a gut wrenching emotional trauma to base build the story on. Also I’d like to watch a movie of his without crying. Its a trippy, emotional terrifying (on multiple levels) experience that manages to not feel like the daunting 2 hours and 28 minutes it is. I don’t think I believe it to be a masterpiece or as highly as others have it, but its a drat good movie and one I can actually see myself rewatching without some medication or a puppy handy. Unlike some of Aster’s films. I’m really curious to see what he does next and VERY curious to see Pugh in more stuff. I mean even watch that WWE movie she’s in. Maybe. And I think that’s it for me too. Not only is the 100 a nice (and horrifying) number to finish on but I think there’s something very fitting about my Spring Marathon ending on a daylight folk horror set at the start of spring, here on one of the warmest days of the month and before the sun has set. In October its Halloween and I want to be watching movies past the witching hour. Today its April and a couple of weeks past Easter and a couple of weeks before my garden gets planted and this feels appropriate. I just kind of wish I had gone with one of my other instincts and watched Wicker Man as the first movie of the day. That would have been a really fitting day of films to close on.
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May 1, 2020 00:54
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15. Porno Porno is a low budget horror film about a bunch of Christian teens working at a movie theater who discover a cursed film reel that summons a demon. That demon has a gimmick that I won’t spoil here, but is exactly as evocatively puerile as you would expect from a movie called “Porno”. In all honesty, the script just isn’t that good. There’s a valorous commitment to portraying the small town conservative Christianity of the early nineties in accurate detail, but the writers have a tendency to lean on certain phrases like crutches (“Did you hear that?” and “That little perv” come to mind), the characters are fairly bland, and the jokes are over-reliant on exaggerated Bible thumping. There are some good scares. The cursed film they watch is actually creative and unnerving. Occasionally the movie does interesting things with lighting and scene framing, although it’s mostly shot flat. When the camera switches to handheld mode it’s usually done to good effect. The special effects are creative; there’s a particularly funny and gross scene with a prosthetic penis. If it sounds like I’m grading on a curve here, it’s because I am. Obviously, a Z-grade low budget horror movie entitled “Porno” sets expectations extremely low. A lot of credit has to go to the actors, who enliven the script and pour a lot of personality into their flat roles. The breakout actor has to be Robbie Tann playing “Heavy Metal Jeff,” a mash-up of a flat metalhead character and a Jesus freak (you can hear the screenwriting class advice in his voice, “Combining two stock character types can create a single fresh character.”) Their commitment to their true believer characters is compelling. When one character comments after seeing the cursed film, “I wonder if that’s what all pornos are like,” you buy it. It’s because of these actors that the movie maintains enough good humor and charm to make it worth watching. 16. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari  Amazingly cool set and costume design. The ending is a lot of fun, sort of doing The Usual Suspects eighty years prior. I like it a little better than M, if only for its even more flamboyant acting style. 17. Nosferatu  Once Count Orlok stops talking about how much he likes doing vampire stuff, he’s actually pretty effective! This is a great movie. It’s got a strong, fun plot, gorgeous photography (especially any scene with rats!), and characters with actual personality. Probably my favorite of the German expressionist movie’s I’ve seen.
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May 1, 2020 01:05
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#35 Prevenge A pregnant young widow is guided on a revenge murder spree by her psychic unborn baby. I wanted to end the month on a guaranteed banger, so I got a recommendation from the horror thread. I went in literally blind. I'd never even heard of Prevenge before. ngl the first few seconds had me thinking I'd made a terrible mistake. All the actors were British, there were weird sex jokes, I was thinking this was gonna turn out to be a weird movie for horror movie fans. Was I gonna end this month with some Greasy Strangler type deal? And it kinda is. The whole section with the DJ just revels in dreary British unpleasantness. But despite that it's still quite good. It's one of those horror movies that's not really a horror movie, it's about something and is using a horror movie to be about it. It's about loneliness and grief, and being angry at your child. Prevenge and Babadook would be a good double feature. Plus the main lady is played by Liz from Garth Mahrengi's Darkplace. Prevenge is a fun little oddball British movie, I say give it a try
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May 1, 2020 03:24
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I have another two that I’ve watched but haven’t written up yet, I’ll do it tomorrow. More than hit my goal of 13 first-time watches though!
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May 1, 2020 04:00
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I hate to be that guy, but I have been watching movies and have not been posting reviews in the thread, so here they all are now: 1. In the Mouth of Madness (1994) This movie rules. I’ve enjoyed every John Carpenter movie I’ve seen and this is no different. Sam Neill gives a great performance as an insurance investigator searching for a missing horror writer named Sutter Cane, whose books have become so popular that they’ve started to become real. Lots of good practical effects and otherworldly designs. Very Lovecraft inspired and the theme music, which is clearly aping Enter Sandman, is good. Just a very enjoyable movie. 2. The Velocipastor (2018) I don’t know what to make of this. The filmmakers clearly set out to make a cheesy B-movie (there are a few direct references to the great Miami Connection) but it kept switching to sincere mode in scenes that advanced the romance plot, including a montage love scene that I can’t call good or bad, just interestingly edited. There are times throughout the movie where it seems like a joke is being set up and the punchline never comes and I can’t tell if they forgot to make the joke or were consciously doing anticomedy. The only thing I can say was definitely bad was the pimp character who just sucks completely. His dialogue felt like it was written 15 years ago and never updated. 3. The Phantom of the Paradise (1974) It took a bit for me to get into it but this ended up being a lot of fun. The songs are good and the overall look of the movie is great. The opening of the Faust cantata is a highlight. Just a fun movie. 4. Near Dark (1987) A moody vampire movie with shades of Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and a little bit of The Devil’s Rejects. An Oklahoma country boy gives a pretty girl a ride home, comes on a bit too strong, and gets turned into a vampire. Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton are two of the more sadistic members of the vampire crew, who definitely take pleasure in feeding. Our protagonist struggles adapting to vampire life and has some tough times. I liked this movie quite a bit. 5. Godzilla (1954) The OG Godzilla still holds up in large part due to the human drama being more interesting than in any of the other Godzilla movies I’ve seen. Dr. Yamane’s desire to study Godzilla rather than kill him, Dr. Serizawa’s reticence to use the Oxygen Destroyer, these are interesting conflicts. And Godzilla himself is quite menacing. The big rampage through Tokyo is truly harrowing. Great movie. 6. Godzilla Raids Again (1955) Maybe it’s because I watched it right after Godzilla ‘54 but I was fairly disappointed in Godzilla Raids Again. The fights between Godzilla and Anguirus were fun but the human segments didn’t do a whole lot for me. And the climactic air battle at Godzilla’s island was pretty repetitive and low stakes. 7. Vampire's Kiss (1988) This is the ultimate Nicolas Cage performance. From his weird accent to shouting the alphabet at his therapist to literally crying, “Boohoo,” his performance is completely insane. And it actually makes sense in the context of the movie! An underappreciated psychological horror film. 8. The Wicker Man (2006) I can’t completely hate this movie but I’m pretty close. 90% of The Wicker Man is a hollow imitation of the original padded out to fill a longer runtime. It doesn’t get interesting at all until Cage’s performance starts getting weird. But the entire reason I watched this movie was to see the infamous “NOT THE BEES” scene and it wasn’t even in the movie. It’s apparently only in the unrated cut. What a disappointment. 9. The Platform (2020) The Platform is not a subtle movie nor does it need to be. It beats you over the head with its message because it’s a message we should be beaten over the head with. Everything is gross and miserable in this movie, which is fitting. Really enjoyed this. 10. Final Destination (2000) This movie is pretty dumb but I think it’s mostly aware of that. I appreciate that there is no “killer” in the traditional sense. The characters aren’t particularly interesting but that’s not what you’re expecting from this type of movie. 11. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) Your standard slasher about a bunch of horny teens getting murked In the woods. Much better than the first one, though still no sighting of the infamous hockey mask. The first 8 minutes of this ~80 minute movie are a recap of the first movie which is p funny. It’s an okay movie. 12. Project: Metalbeast (1995) This has a good premise for b-movie schlock but it’s unforgivably boring. I remember almost nothing about this movie besides the deceptive use of the Metal Gear Solid font on the cover. 13. Final Destination 2 (2003) I’m glad this series is embracing its ridiculous premise though it’s kind of lame that they killed off the surviving characters from the first movie except for Ali Larter. The highway pileup scene at the beginning is very good and genuinely harrowing. The subsequent death scenes are pretty funny with a lot of Rube Goldberg type stuff and some quality fakeouts. The acting isn’t great and the story gets a bit overwrought towards the end but overall this was a good time. 14. It Chapter Two (2019) It Chapter Two is about 40 minutes too long. Having said that, I still enjoyed it for what it was. Bill Skarsgard puts in another good performance as Pennywise and most of the scares are effective (though some are not). I’m not sure we needed to follow each individual character on their quest to obtain their token for the ritual and I think you could drop Bowers from the movie without losing much of anything. But overall it’s a reasonably satisfying conclusion.
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May 1, 2020 05:13
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Alfred P. Pseudonym posted:6. Godzilla Raids Again (1955) It’s definitely a really weak sequel. I’m still working my way through the big Criterion set but it’s easily the worst so far. They start getting really good with Mothra vs Godzilla. quote:7. Vampire's Kiss (1988) For a long time I was only aware of this movie from the insane clips in those “Nic Cage loses his poo poo” compilations, so when I finally watched it I was pleasantly surprised that it’s actually pretty decent!
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May 1, 2020 05:41
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 13: Color Out of Space - 4/5 The Gardner family moves to a remote farmstead in rural New England to escape the hustle of the 21st century. They are busy adapting to their new life when a meteorite crashes into their front yard, melts into the earth, and infects both the land and the properties of space-time with a strange, otherworldly colour. To their horror, the family discovers this alien force is gradually mutating every life form that it touches—including them. I'll confess, this is a bit of a cop-out. I intended to watch 13 new movies for April, but I picked this up in a recent sale and couldn't resist the urge to rewatch it. And I'm glad I did, because I liked it even better the second time. I love Nic Cage's performance in this so much that I'm willing to forgive the occasional wooden moment from the rest of the cast. It's a complicated, oddball performance that depicts a man battling financial desperation, worry for his family, early stage alcoholism, and an encroaching alien consciousness that manifests itself in the voice of his abusive father. The visuals will steal the show for a lot of folks, and that's fine--The movie looks great, with bright pinkish-purples slowly intruding on the dark green of the New England forest, gradually asserting dominance until the color finally bursts out in a malevolent, kaleidoscopic explosion in the film's final acts. It's a great movie, and I'm glad I watched it as my 13th film of the month, even if it's not what I originally intended. I'll probably watch it again next month, too. Here's the final tally: 1. The Crazies (1973) - 4/5 2. Shutter (2004) - 3/5 3. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) - 2/5 4. Daniel Isn't Real (2019) - 3/5 5. Wishmaster (1997) - 3/5 6. The Blob (1988) - 4/5 7. Sea Fever (2019) - 3/5 8. I'll Take Your Dead (2018) - 3/5 9. The Other Lamb (2019) - 3/5 10. Spawn of the Slithis (1978) - 2/5 11. Lords of Chaos (2018) - 4/5 12. Bloodsucking Freaks (1976) - 3/5 13. Color Out of Space (2019) - 4/5
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May 1, 2020 06:16
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13. Come to Daddy By far the best thing I watched this month, and a strong contender for my favorite so far this year. It's the only thing I've watched in ages with long stretches in which I had no idea where it was going, and was engaged enough that I didn't really feel the need to guess or be distracted by structural elements because within the first ten minutes I trusted it to end up somewhere fun and interesting. Beautifully shot with an outstanding score - Elijah Wood's walk through the forest at the beginning felt like a complete adventure all on its own and I wanted in, in no small part thanks to the music. He's following a hand-drawn map and ends up at an amazing, gorgeous house on the beach. Then, you know, the usual "go in blind". I can't remember the last time a movie made me laugh so many times.
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May 1, 2020 08:26
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24: The Devil's Rain Satanists hang out in a Wild West set consisting of four buildings. I hadn't realised this was the movie with the William Shatner mask that would become the Michael Myers mask. Shatner even does the head tilt thing. That was really cool Otherwise this is very dull and I don't have much to say about it. It has a wonderfully goopy ending that deserved a better movie. That was my last film of the month. I exceeded my target of 19. Thought I might go to 30 as I have all the time in the world now that I've been furloughed but instead all my motivation to do anything at all has been lost, like satanists in rain. Time to drink. Final ranking: The Abominable Dr. Phibes Midsommar A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 The Changeling Sisters Bride of Re-Animator A Quiet Place Gerald's Game The Devil's Rejects Bay of Blood Faust Contagion Der Golem The Crazies City of the Living Dead Village of the Damned Frankenhooker Outbreak A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 Wishmaster The Devil's Rain Maniac Cop The Leprechaun Microwave Massacre
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May 1, 2020 12:57
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