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Posting to post. I have some leftovers from my October world tour. I'm going to finish those off and target challenges. And post the 80s D-list binge I went on this past Sunday.
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May 3, 2023 00:48
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 09:12 |
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Way behind on posting. Went on an 80s binge the weekend of April 29 & 30: 1. House (1985) - Classic 80s horror comedy that will make you look at Cheers differently. 4/5 2. House II (1987) - Classic 80s horror comedy that will also make you look at Cheers differently. 4/5 3. Evil Toons (1992, but basically the 80s)  Drawn and Quartered - Is exactly what Fred Olen Ray would do in response to Roger Rabbit. 3/54. Screaming in High Heels: The Rise & Fall of the Scream Queen Era (2011) - Great documentary, more about the lives of Linnea Quigley, Brinke Stevens, and Michelle Bauer than it is about the era itself, but there's a decent amount of that too. 4/5 5. Witchtrap (1989) - Watched because it was mentioned in the previous entry, and I thought it was Witchboard. 2/5 6. Teenage Exorcist (1991) - The only good thing about this movie is the theme song, which is an absolute banger. 2/5 7. The Channeler (1990) - A bonus feature on the previous disc. They shouldn't have bothered. With any of this. 2/5 8. The Outing (1987) - Supernatural slasher with a genie in a museum. It's 80's cheese, but it's good 80's cheese. 3.5/5 9. The Spiral Staircase (1946) - Proto-proto-slasher? Old dark house, murder mystery, family drama, and the killer keeps killing. 3.5/5 10. The Skin (2011, Antigua and Barbuda) - The first of my leftovers from my October world tour, and an absolute disaster on every level. 1.5/5 11. Knock at the Cabin (2023) Fresh Hell - Perfectly fine little character piece. 3.5/512. Killer Crocodile (1989) - Jaws, but a Crocodile. John Williams should have sued for how completely they steal the theme. 2.5/5 13. Masked Mutilator (1994/2019) - Took 25 years to finish, and not worth it. 2/5 14. Night Watch (1973) - Compelling at times, but drags elsewhere. It may have been better as an anthology show episode rather than dragging it out to 100 minutes. 2/5 15. Don't Look Now (1973) - And, on the other hand, a film where they try to pack too much in. 3/5 16. Death Line (1972) - Everything that it should be. 3.5/5 17. Attachment (2022) Holy Terror - Great Jewish demon film with two strong leads. Ably handles the religious aspects without getting bogged down in it. 4/518. When the Screaming Starts (2021) - Decent "found" footage horror comedy about a documentary team following a wannabe serial killer. 3/5 19. The Last Thing Mary Saw (2021) - Competently done, but far too slow of a slow burn for me. 2.5/5 20. Mean Spirited (2022) - Another perfectly fine horror comedy. 3/5 21. Outlier (2016) - Andorra's entry on my world tour. Competently made, but they try to shoehorn absolutely everything into this. Murder in a small town evolves into family drama, a possible vampire, and they don't resolve any of it. 2/5 And some shorts: - Isolated (2015) - Frenetically paced animation. Roughly what it's like to be someone other than the protagonists in a Resident Evil game. 3.5/5 - COI: Lonely Water (1973) - British PSA about the dangers of playing near water. By which I mean Donald Pleasence threatens to murder your children for 3 minutes. 3.5/5
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May 15, 2023 02:35
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22. Akpamyk (1996) - I have no idea what I just watched other than that it is from Turkmenistan, and that Youtube auto-translate is less than useless, A girl goes on a walk somewhere, and the big bad wolf, or possibly a donkey, but most definitely a guy in a really bad mascot costume is plotting... something? Then there are many more people in bad mascot costumes. Not rating because of the language barrier. -. La Voz de Afuera (2020) - Short to fill out Nicaragua. Again, no English subtitles, but there's very little dialogue here anyway. Nicely shot with some great in-camera effects. 23. Dry Season (2006) - A thriller from Chad, and the best I was going to do under the "I'm counting it if I made an honest attempt" rule I self-imposed in October. It's very good, but of the "Thriller - Drama - Action" label on Letterboxd, Thriller and Action don't really apply. With the government ending reprisal attacks in the aftermath of a civil war, a young man, encouraged by his grandfather, sets off to murder the man who killed his father, but finds out that the killer has reformed, attends mosque daily, and runs a bakery, so he gets to know him before deciding his course of action. 4/5
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May 16, 2023 15:39
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24. Zombie rear end: Toilet of the Dead (2011) Challenge of the Dead - This movie definitely overdelivers, by which I mean that there are plenty of piss- and vomit-related gags too. Zombification via mutant, anal tapeworms. Obviously full of goop, dials up to ludicrous at the end. 3/5 25. Yeelen (1987) - Another revenge thriller from Africa that is really more drama than anything, this time from Mali. This one's set in the mythical past, with our protagonist out to get his sorcerer father. Gorgeously shot. 4/5 26. Poison for the Fairies (1986) Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things - Slow-burner from Mexico that feels more 70's than 80's about a lonely rich girl making friends with an orphan who believes that she's a witch. Gets heavier and heavier as they become more immersed in witchcraft, and pays it off nicely. 3.5/527. The Fourth Victim (1971) It's-a Me! - Fairly tame giallo that may only be notable because it has quite possibly the most anti-climatic ending in cinematic history. 2/528. Eyes Without a Face (1960) Shooting Zombies - The opening reminded me somewhat of Carnival of Souls, but this goes in a completely different direction. A bit predictable as a story, but it's executed perfectly and the ending is glorious. 4/5
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May 18, 2023 04:24
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29. The Abominable Snowman (1957) Tales from the Cryptids - Hammer film about horrible bipedal monsters (humans) in the Himalayas. Not much Yeti, too much "humans are the real monsters," and Peter Cushing demonstrating mastery of his craft. 3.5/5 30. Awakening of the Beast (1970) Horror High - Hallucinogenic Brazilian film about hallucinogens, as a psychiatrist gives four patients LSD to prove that drugs just ramp up people's natural inclinations, not turn them into criminals. Visual feast and subtly horrifying, at least until it turns outright horrifying with the final patient's vision of hell. 4/531. Sarraounia (1986) - My October leftover from Mauritania... it's about a witch, so it counts, right? In this case, it's a historical film based on sorcerer queen Sarraounia uniting her neighboring tribes to oppose French colonialism in West Africa in the 1890's. The titular character is on-screen rarely, and it mostly focuses on the racism and brutality of the French forces. 3.5/5
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May 19, 2023 04:26
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32.The Resurrection of Charles Manson (2023) - Absolutely terrible flick about a cult trying to revive Charles Manson. 1.5/5 33. Grave Encounters 2 (2012) - A bit of a favorite. Although not as good as the first one, some of the asylum's new tricks in this one - especially the hole in the wall that goes from horizontal to vertical when you pass through it - are unique. 4/5 34. Aquarium of the Dead (2021) - Asylum flick that I came across when trying to find a cheeky answer to the challenge. Even for the Asylum, this is poo poo. Jaws (3D)/Alien/Deep Blue Sea mashup where most of the characters are suicidally stupid, most of the kills are offscreen, and most of the zombie creatures look like they were rendered on a PS2. 1.5/5 35. Honeygiver Among the Dogs (2016) Bhutan's entry on my world tour. More film noire than horror, as a police detective keeps an eye on a witch/demoness/sorceress who's been accused of murdering the abbess of a monastery in a remote village and ends up uncovering a conspiracy to frame her. A bit overly long. 3/5 36. M.F.A. (2017) Woke in Fright - After an art student sees her rapist die in an accident, she gets the idea to start murdering rapists. Brings up the obvious issues with rape on college campuses - no one believes the victim; the rape survivors group is pushing for emergency phones and rape whistles rather than men stopping rape. Is it still a horror movie when the killer is completely justified? (Yes, it is. Or y'all wouldn't be ranking Friday the 13th films on a bimonthly basis). 3.5/537. Lady Hyde (2022) - Tubi decided to autoplay this after the last one, and I'm always down for a good gender-swap Jekyll & Hyde. Except this isn't that. This is a remake of a Jess Franco film about a woman 38. Eraserhead (1977) Second Chance - Still 90 minutes of umbilical cords being scary. Still filmed in a wind tunnel. 2/5Not quite done, but checking myself: 1. Horror High - Awakening of the Beast (1970) 2. Tales from the Cryptids - The Abominable Snowman (1957) 3. Holy Terror - Attachment (2022) 4. Fresh Hell - Knock at the Cabin (2023) 5. Shooting Zombies - Eyes Without a Face (1960) 6. Drawn and Quartered - Evil Toons (1992) 7. Woke in Fright - M.F.A. (2017) 8. Second Chance - Eraserhead (1977) 9. Challenge of the Dead - Zombie rear end: Toilet of the Dead (2011) 10. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things - Poison for the Fairies (1986) 11. It's-a Me! - The Fourth Victim (1971) 12. History lesson The Spiral Staircase (1946) The Abominable Snowman (1957) Eyes Without a Face (1960) Night Watch (1973) House (1985) Evil Toons (1992) Dry Season (2006) The Skin (2011) Knock at the Cabin (2023) 13. Geography Lesson North America - House (1985) Europe - Death Line (1972) Central/South America - The Skin (2011) Middle East/Africa - Dry Season (2006) Asia (China, Japan, Korea, India, etc) - Zombie rear end: Toilet of the Dead (2011) No Australia or Southeast Asia, yet. First to the two remaining entries on my world tour list, which are from Grenada and French Guiana.
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May 22, 2023 03:50
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39. Blinded (2006) - Grenada's first feature, a melodrama about a domestic abuse victim who shoots her husband. There are some strange narrative choices here - we start with the kill scene, then flash back to their life from their first meeting, and the husband seems fine, even being compared positively to a friend who won't put a ring on it, and there's no sign of the abuse (not letting her go out, not letting her have friends) that's mentioned in the fatal confrontation. We then replay the death and jump to her getting out of prison 14 years later in what was clearly a self-defense killing after he came at her with a gun. According to a title card, she's going in search of her son. According to what's depicted, she goes to the husband's grave, cries, and the son also shows up at the grave. And they don't recognize each other, despite her not having aged a day, the son giving his first name, and the fact that they're both visiting the husband's grave... The end. The lead can act, but this seems to be her only film. (Although I learned in October that a lot of international stuff isn't on the movie sites at all). The antagonist is fine. The film is 90% the two of them, so the fact that the rest of the cast is rough doesn't matter much. 3/5 40. Anuktatop: The Metamorphosis (2016) - The best I was going to do for French Guiana. A documentary/fantasy, I took "everyone wanders off now and again into a parallel, at times almost ghostly world" too literally. Instead, it's mostly a "day in the life" documentary of the Wayana tribe, with a few very brief scenes of an elder discussing the spirit world while an orb floats through the village. And a bizarre ending of a shaman summoning a storm onto a spaceship launch that is narratively disconnected from everything else. 3/5
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May 23, 2023 04:30
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I was about to tap out on the world tour last night, but a glaring grey spot in Europe was irritating me, so I decided to scour the world again, and discovered: 41. Вампирџија (Ghoul Quest officially, apparently better translated as Vampire Hunter) (2002) - A Macedonian flick about vampires and I can't say much more than that. The Youtube rip looks like it was rendered on a SNES, and this is an incredibly dialogue heavy movie with no subs (even garbage Youtube autotranslate ones) and no dubs. The first 3/4 seem to be an older hunter teaching (telling) a student the vampire lore, with the action in the latter quarter. - The Feet Part II (short, 2023) - Mozambique has joined the board with this apparent sequel to an American short about a... pair of killer feet. Think Addams Family's Thing, but feet (TWO OF THEM) instead. Of course, that inspired me to watch the American original... - The Feet (short, 2021) Both of these rely on two basic gimmicks (toes peaking around the corner or below-the-ankle filming) for their effects, but they pull off their narratives very well. The first a bit of comedy leading to horror; the sequel a horror leading to a dark comedy. 5/5 for the original; 4/5 for the sequel. - Eternity (short, 2020) - Oman checked off with this grotesquely beautiful, wordless mashup animation of Faust, Orlac, and Liega. As much as I've never gotten into Švankmajer, this is highly reminiscent and I love it. 5/5 I'm pretty sure this is the best that I can do, even with some stretches on what a horror movie is: 
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May 23, 2023 23:24
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I'll cash in since I'm about to go down a Preston Sturges rabbit hole and I seriously doubt any of them are going to qualify as horror. 42. Mystics in Bali (1981) - Checking off my Southeast Asia spot. This was on my watchlist because of some discussion or another in the main thread. I don't recall what it was, but hopefully it was "This movie is really, really bad." "Yes, it is" because this is godawful where 90% of the screentime is taken up by the antagonist talking about how evil she is and cackling. 1.5/5 43. Next of Kin (1982) - Watched for Australia. A little bit giallo, a lot bit 80s. 2.5/5 44. Dead End Drive-In (1986) - Also watched for Australia because I couldn't decide. 80s overload dystopia with a variety of punks caged in a drive-in theater. Visually wonderful, the plot meanders. 2/5 -. The Mysterious Retort (1906; short) - I believe I've seen this before, mistitled as Hallucinated Alchemist, which is apparently lost. (Plenty of others seem to have done the same.) Pretty typical effects showcase from Melies. 3/5 - The Haunted Castle (1896; short) - Same problem. I thought I was watching the 1987 American remake, which is apparently lost. Turns out it was a rewatch of the Melies version, which is great. 4/5 45. The Phantom Honeymoon (1919) - So I thought I had discovered unsung greatness from the silent era. A professor goes to debunk a haunting that supposedly kills everyone who stays the night, and the film does a great job of using flashback (and flashback within flashback) to explain how the manor came to be haunted, with a dispute between two men after the same girl leading to an unconventional duel (sit at a table with a deadly snake on it until someone gets bit). Then it completely goes to poo poo at the climax. 1.The protagonist agrees to the duel to prevent the antagonist's plan of... falsely accusing him of being the son of a "Negress." 2. After the antagonist covers up the death of fiance and fiancee by rolling a car over a cliff, the three ghosts (THERE IS ALSO A GHOST OF THE CAR) go on an eternal honeymoon where they can teleport to any destination they'd like, return at dawn, and are ecstatically happy with this. Absolutely no sign that they're killing everyone who sets foot in the house. 3.5/5 -. The Doll's Revenge (1907; short) - Hilarious horror short about a boy destroying his sister's doll and the doll returning and coming to life to get revenge. I suppose that's obvious from the title. Some great gags. 5/5 -. The Grip (1909; short) - A silent film of people talking with few title cards. The matte of the basement is nice. 1.5/5 46. The Golem: How He Came into the World (1920) - Some great expressionist visuals, somewhat ruined by the golem obviously being a dude in a wig, but rather slow moving for most of it, although the ending pulls together nicely. 2.5/5 47. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) - Whoops. I meant to watch the 1931 one and was somewhat wondering why a silent came out this late. And why Hyde didn't look anything like the poster. And why people on Letterboxd keep mentioning dialogue. Three wrong movies watched over the weekend. Decent enough silent adaptation. Like The Golem, rather staid and slow moving. 3/5 I guess I have one more to go.
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May 31, 2023 01:36
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48. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931, for real this time) - Perfect. A great merger of expressionistic silent-style cinematography with compellingly acted dialogue, and few things (POV shots) that are ahead of their time. 5/5 Wrapping up for real this time: 48 movies (41 new) and 10 shorts watched. Best of the month: Attachment (2022) Awakening of the Beast (1970) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) Eyes Without a Face (1960) Screaming in High Heels: The Rise & Fall of the Scream Queen Era (2011) Best Shorts: Eternity (2020) The Doll’s Revenge (1907) The Feet (2021) The Feet Part II (????) Challenges1. Horror High - Awakening of the Beast (1970) 2. Tales from the Cryptids - The Abominable Snowman (1957) 3. Holy Terror - Attachment (2022) 4. Fresh Hell - Knock at the Cabin (2023) 5. Shooting Zombies - Eyes Without a Face (1960) 6. Drawn and Quartered - Evil Toons (1992) 7. Woke in Fright - M.F.A. (2017) 8. Second Chance - Eraserhead (1977) 9. Challenge of the Dead - Zombie rear end: Toilet of the Dead (2011) 10. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things - Poison for the Fairies (1986) 11. It's-a Me! - The Fourth Victim (1971) 12. History lesson The Haunted Castle (1896; short) The Doll's Revenge (1907; short) The Phantom Honeymoon (1919) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) The Spiral Staircase (1946) The Abominable Snowman (1957) Eyes Without a Face (1960) Night Watch (1973) House (1985) Evil Toons (1992) Dry Season (2006) The Skin (2011) Knock at the Cabin (2023) 13. Geography Lesson North America - House (1985) (USA) Europe - Death Line (1972) (UK) Central/South America - The Skin (2011) (Antigua and Barbuda) Middle East/Africa - Dry Season (2006) (Chad) Australia/Oceania - Next of Kin (1982) (Australia) Asia - Zombie rear end: Toilet of the Dead (2011) (Japan) Southeast Asia - Mystics in Bali (1981) (Indonesia) World Tour Added Antigua and Barbuda, Andorra, Turkmenistan, Nicaragua, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Bhutan, Grenada, French Guiana, Macedonia, Mozambique, and Oman. I'm reasonably sure that some research could turn up things that are not on Letterboxd (and that I could add to TMDB to fix that), but as things are, this seems to be the furthest I can go:
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May 31, 2023 04:09
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Gripweed posted:I don't suppose any one has recommendations for movies that qualify for Woke in Fright or Challenge of the Dead that were made in Central/South America, Middle East/Africa. Australia/Oceania, or Southeast Asia? Juan of the Dead from Cuba. The World of the Dead from Mexico (Santo).
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May 31, 2023 05:53
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 09:12 |
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Xiahou Dun posted:*Don't wanna back-seat challenge here, but maybe having literally half of the world's population in one category isn't very equitable While we're at it, there's also an entire continent missing.
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Jun 2, 2023 05:38
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