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for 4. Music of the Night may I as usual recommend Anna and the Apocalypse or comedy option The Perfection (it's fine)Class3KillStorm posted:You should watch the other two Fear Streets.  and I'm about to turn this thread into the 4th of poo poo by trying to fit the trilogy into 3 challenges
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May 3, 2022 02:19
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 14:28 |
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gey muckle mowser posted:hey it’s Friday the 13th, so here’s a ugh okay fine I will actually get posting as this has given me a good reason to get around to watching 1. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) (and I'll mark the occasion by counting it for challenge #13: Sins of the Past) Before this my F13 watch history was 1) Jason X when I was a small baby child, 2) F13 (1980) for a challenge a few years back, and 3) that's it, and all I knew and remembered was that this was the proper introduction of Jason and that he doesn't have the mask yet. All things considered, I had quite a good time. The beginning and end sections were funny and clever, especially the very last sequence, which has a hilarious visual gag that tells you exactly what's about to happen (Paul brings Ginny into the cabin and carries her to a bed on the very far side in front of a massive window, which tells you Jason's about to come through it, and then a wide shot reveals that there was another bed in the center of the room the whole time, which tells you Jason's definitely about to come through that window) and still fits in an even funnier bit (the jump-heartwarming return of Chekhov's dog), and the totality of it smooths over the fact that they're basically just running back the ending of the first one. The larger cast allows some nice moments of the characters reflecting on the legend of Jason, even as it means that a bunch of time has to be dedicated to killing them off, not all of which is particularly interesting (though it does execute a number of nice classic jumpscares), and even if there are a number of bland or botched line reads. It does continue to be interesting to see the beginnings of the F13 franchise knowing a bit about what it becomes. I was surprised by Jason's intelligence as well as his some-guyness; I certainly was not expecting to see him get kicked in the nards, so good on Ginny for making that last chase more of a back-and-forth than your standard horror movie trope. It's pretty inconsistent overall, I was feeling it drag a bit in the middle, but the highs were much higher than I was expecting, so I will give it a nice 7.5/10.
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May 14, 2022 07:58
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SECRET BONUS LIMITED TIME CHALLENGE
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2. The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) (challenge #9: Hidden Gems) "I don't like people I have to get to know." Well, it's no Black Christmas. It made sense to find out this was originally written as a parody but became more serious via studio fuckery, as there are some quite funny moments, like when the characters realize there's a killer around and we cut to them casually chatting while sitting in an outward-facing circle and holding knives, but the overall tone is discordant (in a bad way) and makes the more subtle humor difficult to parse. The killer is utterly uncompelling when he's not speaking which is the vast majority of the time. And as always, points lost for killing a real animal on screen (though at least it reminded me that F13 Part 2 doesn't). That said, I'm sure it's a great party movie. 6/10
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May 17, 2022 00:33
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3. What Have You Done to Solange? (1972) (challenge #6: The King in Yellow) "I have never understood these girls." Unquestionably effective. The good news is that I did, in fact, find out who did what to Solange. The bad news is that it takes half the movie to even find out who Solange is, but I suppose that's part of the fun. The structure is definitely interesting, a mystery centered around a relatively charming but skeevy teacher who makes an excellent murder suspect except for the fact that we are shown from the start that it's not him. While in some ways it holds back from displaying the worst of the brutal violence depicted, even what is implied is horrifying, and there are images so striking they will stick with me for a while (especially Elizabeth bobbing in the tub). Strangely, there are like three straight-up jokes thrown in, but if they're out of place in this tragic story that's balanced by the fact that they're effective, if brief, tension-breakers. I am pleasantly surprised by how uncomfortably this movie continues to sit within me. 8/10 (alternate quote: "drat all cops! drat all priests too!")
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May 20, 2022 10:30
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4. Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) This is from A24 so I figured th- just kidding. 4. The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001) (challenge: #4 Music of the Night) "I'm with the US Navy. No, to be more precise, Britain's Royal Navy...well, just between you and me, I'm also a British secret agent. By order of Queen Elizabeth, give me your phone number."  My third Miike film after Audition and 13 Assassins, and a triumph. It has it all: unsettling claymation, slasher-POV for a guest approaching a bed&breakfast, outstanding physical comedy and slapstick (like the aftermath of the screenshot above), songs that start and stop arbitrarily and last for random periods of time, inappropriate amounts of visible breath in outdoor scenes given that it's supposed to be summer, a Japanese guy pretending to be a British-Japanese guy who speaks Japanese like a British guy, inexplicable blowing leaves, and more. It even manages to have a coherent plot, as ridiculous as it is, and after rapid-fire goofiness for most of the movie the climax manages to pull out a surprise that was the last thing I expected, namely a hostage sequence that is deadly loving serious. And after that it brings it home. I feel like rating this generously and also taking a half-point off for one of the jokes being a guy having an uncomfortably young girlfriend, so 8.5/10.
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May 21, 2022 10:30
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I apologize in advance for the garbage-rear end reviews I will be posting as I cram movoes and write the reviews all at once e: oh wait lmao I totally blanked on the fact that I started the month with the Fear Street trilogy and just haven't written them up. I was like "I have been watching movies, how am I struggling to reach 13" lol VROOM VROOM fucked around with this message at 18:15 on May 30, 2022 |
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May 30, 2022 16:39
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alrighty, review dump. Started watching random non-challenge stuff so I just ended up doing 13 new-to-me movies and the F13 bonus challenge 5. Lifeforce (1985) "You mean life after death?" "Yes." "Is there?" "What?" "Life after death." "Do you really want to know?" "No." "Well, to answer your question, yes, I think there is." Lifeforce kicks rear end, what a mess. The beginning space sequence is fantastic, the camera is constantly rotating and things are positioned in various parts of the frame to disorient you. So many audacious setpieces, and the effects for the victims are incredible, especially in the first half. A desiccated zombie charging into the bars of a jail cell and exploding into dust is going to stick with me. The manpires are cast aside so casually it's hilarious, they both get "killed", turn out to still be alive in a twist, only for one to be killed offscreen and the other to get like a 5-second dramatic speech at the end before getting owned. I agree with those who don't like the middle as much, not because it's slow but because the procedural aspect was kinda negated by most of it advancing arbitrarily via telepathy, though the same device was very cool when used to deliver exposition that would be impossible to provide otherwise. Despite all the talk of femininity and masculinity I'm not convinced the movie actually has anything to say about them at all. But what a spectacle. 7.5/10 6. Baskin (2015) "You die as you sleep, you resurrect as you wake up. So, fear not." alternately: "gently caress the police. You goddamn sons of bitches." Undisputed surprise hit of the challenge for me. It's a loving nightmare, it's fantastic(al). Just unsettling and nasty and wrong start to finish. From the beginning it's impossible to tell whether what is happening is real, but usually you don't want it to be. The characters are casually hostile to everyone, you've got some indulgent long takes that are downright voyeuristic, and just when it seems like it's going to devolve into haunted-house schlock, it pulls up before diving deeper. As Above, So in the Mouth of the Martyrs' Uncut Kill List-rear end movie. Ugh. 8.5/10 7. Candyman (1992) I spent most of the time I was watching this overthinking it, but it appears the only notes I took were "climbs with the hook", so I'll have to come back to it. The Phillip Glass score definitely stood out, it seemed like it was able to start on a dime and never lose effectiveness despite its repetition. I thought Tony Todd's rendition of the character fairly flat at first, but he steadily increases his expressiveness over the course of the film and the end result is quite satisfying. 8/10 for now 8. Candyman (2021) "No, I get it. It's the hood, gentrification, et cetera." This has a lot of little touches I appreciate, like everybody's retelling of the story being ever so slightly different, and the art explainer piece having some typos. I thought it also did well taking advantage of advances in special effects to show off the monster that is invisible except in mirrors. But overall it gets too complicated for its own good, even as it simplifies itself by e.g. having every single cop be white whereas in the original the majority were Black. Some of the reveals work and others just don't. Even the ending: you have the nice big cathartic cop-murder climax, but then more cops just show up so she's in the same position she was a minute ago? Take what you like from this and leave the rest. 6.5/10 9. Head Count (2018) has a couple well-constructed moments (Zoe jumping, double-Sam) but is likewise disappointing. Too many characters for how poorly-developed they are; woah there's a guy who likes drugs so when weird stuff happens they ask him if he drugged them!! Groundbreaking. There's a scene transition where the cut is constructed as a jumpscare, sting and all, for no apparent reason. I had the sinking feeling the whole time that the brother character's sobriety and isolation would amount to absolutely nothing except a plot device, which turned out to be the case. I would've taken "the brother is also a monster" or "the brother is sober because he knows drugs make you more susceptible to desert monsters, and no friends means no friends for it to imitate" over what we got. The most pleasant surprise was when the monster counted down straight from 4 to 1 instead of one-by-one, which I think is the definition of damning with faint praise. 5.5/10 10. A Quiet Place Part II (2020) "..." A mostly worthy sequel. II loses most of the melancholy silence of the first one but trades for some non-diegetic sound manipulation that creates some nice moments (I'm mostly thinking of when Emmett returns to the despondent Regan). Continues the tradition of strong survival gimmick scenarios. Third act is a bit overwrought with the dual narratives, but it comes together. Excellent performances, especially given the limitations imposed by the plot. Action sequences are fun despite the sheer number of them eliminating most of the monsters' mystique. 7.5/10 11,12,13. The Fear Street Trilogy (2021) consistently refused to disappoint and is kinda really good? Some things don't land for everyone (like the "reveal" of the storyteller's identity in part 2, which did nothing for me because I saw the preview at the end of part 1 and assumed the one from Stranger Things was the main character. Plus, how do you even tell a story like that?) but even most of the things that seem goofy (like someone getting stabbed a million times and being saved by CPR) turn out to be audacious storytelling tricks. Hell, part 3 has multiple layers of fakeouts (like the moment Sarah says she will make a deal with the Devil, which seems like the final piece of the puzzle that puts the whole picture together, and then is immediately subverted). Great fun and rewarding whether you want to pay close attention to the mystery, be walked through a parade of shout-outs to various horror genres, or just enjoy a variety of children suffering horrible fates while hoping at least some of them make it through. I didn't read the Fear Street books growing up but I did read Goosebumps and these really felt like a nice R-rated version. Combined 8/10 VROOM VROOM fucked around with this message at 12:23 on Jun 1, 2022 |
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Jun 1, 2022 12:18
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Challenge roundup: 1. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) (secret bonus challenge): 7.5/10 2. The Slumber Party Massacre (1982): 3. What Have You Done to Solange? (1972): 8/10 4. The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001): 8.5/10 5. Lifeforce (1985): 7.5/10 6. Baskin (2015): 8.5/10 7. Candyman (1992): 8/10 8. Candyman (2021): 6.5/10 9. Head Count (2018): 5.5/10 10. A Quiet Place Part II (2020): 7.5/10 11,12,13: Fear Street Trilogy: 8/10 Hadn't done a May challenge before, was nice to keep it chill and bounce around through a bunch of new stuff. MVP definitely goes to Baskin, watch it if you wanna have a real bad time.
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Jun 1, 2022 22:16
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all I do is win mfers. thanks for playing (and contributing cool reviews that are very nice to read, especially in the future when searching the forums to read what people have to say about a movie)
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Jun 8, 2022 03:10
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 14:28 |
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oh yes, thank you gey muckle mowser for organizing. there are, I think, 108 movie-watchings I have done thanks to October/May challenges, the vast majority new to me, so my horror experience would be much deprived without them
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Jun 8, 2022 23:55
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