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It’s finally the most wonderful time of year. I’m in for 31 new viewings and I grabbed lucky 13 for a bingo card. https://mfbc.us/m/rsgk447/13
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Sep 30, 2023 01:59
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Russian Guyovitch posted:It’s finally the most wonderful time of year. I’m in for 31 new viewings and I grabbed lucky 13 for a bingo card. https://mfbc.us/m/rsgk447/13 Okay, time to get started on the reviews before I start falling behind. I'm starting off with bingo card number 13.  1. Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein – FREDDY VS. JASON 20TH ANNIVERSARY – (Watched on Prime) Bud Abbot and Lou Costello star as shipping agents Chick and Wilbur. One day, Wilbur receives a call from noted werewolf Larry Talbot warning him against making a delivery to the local house of horrors, but Chick and the attraction's owner are insistent upon delivery. It turns out that the two crates in question contain Count Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, and as soon as Wilbur and Chick get them unboxed, hijinks ensue. Your level of enjoyment on this is going to be entirely dependent on your tolerance for 1940's slapstick comedy. For me, that's pretty high, so I had a blast with this. It's got everything: a spooky castle full of secret doors, a bunch of spooky occurrences happening to Wilbur right after Chick leaves the room, and a record setting number of full moons in the course of one week. On top of all of that, it ends with a special treat: an uncredited voice cameo from Vincent Price as the Invisible Man! If this is the sort of thing you can go for, it's a fun, dumb way to kill eighty minutes. Meta Challenges – New-to-You 1/6; History Lesson (1940's) 1/5; Around the World (North America) 1/4 2. Mosquito – WHEN ANIMALS OF UNUSUAL SIZE ATTACK – (Watched on Shudder) An alien space craft crashes into a swamp near a campground in a remote state park, where the local mosquito population begins to feed on the remains of the sole occupant. Shortly thereafter, mosquitoes the size of large dogs begin to terrorize the campground and everyone else in the surrounding area. This movie is exactly the sort of thing I would have expected to see on USA Up All Night back when I was a kid. It's cheap looking, has terrible writing, and the actors are all abysmal. I kept expecting to Gilbert Godfried pop in to make fun of it as we returned from a commercial break. Still, it knows it's trash and is pretty unapologetic about it, and wastes no time getting down to business. While you can do a lot better, it at least has some level of charm to it. Meta Challenges – New-to-You 2/6; History Lesson (1990's) 2/5 3. Kill List – CineD HORROR THREAD POLL – (Watched on Shudder) A quasi-retired hitman gets pulled back to work when money starts drying up at home, causing tension between himself and his wife. He's given a list of three targets, and sets about to work, but as he works his way through the list, he finds himself drawn into a disturbing underworld network connected to society's elites. Pulled from the “I've got to return these videotapes” list of the best of horror for the current century, I expected a little bit of a slow burn when I saw it was a Ben Wheatley film. Once it got going, however, it moved along at a fairly quick pace. It feels like the intersection of a more modern, action-oriented crime thriller with the old school, slow-burn folk horror. It's an overall good and unsettling time. Meta Challenges – New-to-You 3/6; History Lesson (2010's) 3/5; Around the World (Europe) 2/4 4. The Mutilator -BACK OF THE VIDEO STORE – (Watched on Shudder) As a young boy, Ed is cleaning his father's many hunting rifles as a surprise for his father's birthday. One goes off, however, killing his mother. Cut to years later, when Ed is at college and receives a call that his father needs him to go close up his beachfront condo for the winter. He and his friends decide to make a long weekend of it for their fall break, and six of them pack into Ed's old convertible to go party for the weekend. Unknown to them, however, is the fact that Ed's father is lying in wait, having had an alcohol-induced psychotic break. When I saw this challenge, I knew exactly which movie I would pick. The box art for this one always jumped out to me as a kid, and it's stayed seared in my brain for over three decades now. I mean, just look at it:  That box art and the box art for The Corpse Grinders always freaked me out when I was little. Now it's finally time to watch one of them. This gets the mood set right away by having *checks notes*... the most upbeat song possible play over the opening credits, a song custom written for this film. It's as though the song writer only saw the original title (“Fall Break”) and just assumed this was a comedy about a bunch of teens on vacation. That the producers kept it in the film is quite the choice. As for the rest of it, it's a fairly by the numbers early slasher with a no-name cast that can't quite carry the sub-par script. There is some fun practical effects work done on some of the kills, but there's not much that separates this one from the pack. Meta Challenges – New-to-You 4/6; History Lesson (1980's) 4/5 5. Piranha – THAT GUY DICK MILLER – (Watched on Peacock) A skip-tracer looking for a pair of missing hikers in rural Texas enlists the help of a local to guide her. He takes her to an abandoned military research facility that turns out to have been experimenting on piranha to allow them to adapt to colder waterways. When the skip-tracer drains a pool at the facility looking for the bodies of the missing hikers, she unknowingly releases the killer fish into the nearby river. It's now a race against time to save the lives of everyone downstream. This is a schlocky creature feature that has a fair amount of talent behind it, including effects work from a young James Cameron and a performance from “that guy” Dick Miller as the greedy owner of a river-based aquatic resort. This is definitely trying to evoke Jaws at points, particularly during the attack on the resort. So much so that it actually winds up feeling more like the novel Jaws, given the extraneous corrupt investor subplot to explain why the resort doesn't heed the warning they receive. All in all, Piranha isn't what I'd call a good movie, but it is fun. Meta Challenges – New-to-You 5/6; History Lesson (1970's) 5/5 6. The Pope's Exorcist – THE EXORCIST 50TH ANNIVERSARY – (Watched on Netflix) The official exorcist of the Vatican, Father Gabriele Amorth, is sent to the ruins of an ancient abbey in Sevile, Spain, where the young son of the owner has begun exhibiting signs of possession. To save the boy's soul, and his own, Father Amorth will have to get to the bottom of a mystery the Vatican has covered up for centuries. Come for Russell Crowe riding a Vespa around Rome, stay for a fun little possession movie. I could have done without some of the whitewashing of the Spanish Inquisition, but otherwise it's got a good buddy cop vibe to it that I enjoyed. Definitely worth a watch. Meta Challenge – New-to-You 6/6 Six movies in and I've completed 6 individual challenges, 2 meta challenges and have 1 bingo.  Now I need to pick up the pace to catch up with some folks that are already up in the twenties and thirties.
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Oct 4, 2023 21:08
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Russian Guyovitch posted:Okay, time to get started on the reviews before I start falling behind. I'm starting off with bingo card number 13. (etc.) 7. Horror Noire – BITE-SIZED HORROR – (Watched on Shudder) This Horror Noire is an anthology film featuring 6 segments made by African-American filmmakers and featuring predominantly African-American casts, not to be confused with the Shudder-produced documentary of the same name. It features six shorts: The Lake, wherein a teacher moves to a lake house to make a fresh start; Brand of Evil, in which a young artist blows off some charity work to do some high-paying freelance jobs; Bride Before You, a period piece about a reconstruction era couple trying to start a family; Fugue State, the story of an academic who specializes in cults who decides to pay a visit to a suspect storefront church in his city; Daddy, about a first-time father dealing with the anxiety that comes with being a new parent; and Sundown, in which a group of political canvassers find themselves in a sundown town in West Virginia as the sun starts to set. First off, bite-sized is a bit of a misnomer here, because at two and a half hours long, this is one of the longest anthology films I've ever watched. It gives the feel that this was originally intended to be a series, rather than a film, as each segment clocks in around the length of your average half-hour show and there's no effort at a wrap-around. As with all anthology films, the quality varies widely between segments, with Fugue State and Sundown being the stand-outs (and with the former featuring an appearance from Tony Todd!). A mixed bag that really could have benefited from editing down some of the weaker segments. Meta Challenges: Horror Is For Everyone: P.O.C. (All segments by P.O.C. filmmakers) 1/3 8. No One Will Save You – HORROR ADJACENT – (Watched on Hulu) A young woman ostracized from her community suffers a late-night home invasion, in which she kills the intruder, who's not of this world. When the aliens refuse to let her flee town and come back the following night, she arms herself and prepares for a fight. While firmly a horror/sci-fi film for the first half of its run time, I'd say this is more sci-fi/action for the second half, as the protagonist Brynn finds herself taking the fight to the aliens. All in all, this was an enjoyable movie, although it perhaps didn't live up to some of the hype I'd heard about it. The design on the aliens is great, starting from the classic Grey look, but putting some fun variations on it. But by the end of the film, the whole minimalist approach to dialogue just felt forced and unnatural. Still, it's definitely worth checking out. 9. Totally Killer – SAMHAIN – (Watched on Prime Video) On Halloween night in 2022, the quiet town of North Vernon is rocked when the notorious Sweet Sixteen Killer returns to claim another victim, 35 years after his previous string of killings ended on Halloween night in 1987. A few days later, the killer attempts to strike again, targeting his previous victim's teenage daughter, Jamie, at the site of the high school science fair. But through a series of outlandish events, Jamie manages to escape the killer by being sent back in time to October 27, 1987. Now, she not only has managed to cheat death, but has a chance to stop the killer and save her mother's life. I'm not going to lie, when I put this on, I figured it would be my first movie of the month that didn't fulfill an individual challenge, given that I'd just tackled the “Horror Adjacent” challenge. So it was quite the nice surprise when it featured Halloween fairly prominently. As for the movie itself, I had a lot of fun with this. The plot is wildly contrived, but Kiernan Shipka is great, and a surprising amount of the “Gen Zer's shocked reaction to '80s teens” comedy landed. Plus, I do enjoy when the works of fiction being referenced by the plot of the film exist within the world of the movie as well, as it's always a good move to not have to make your characters pretend that the idea of time travel is some unheard of concept, and instead just make it so they've all just watched Back to the Future. Overall, a fun, light-hearted option for either the Samhain or Horror Adjacent challenges. Meta Challenges: Horror Is For Everyone: Women (Directed by Nahnatchka Khan) 2/3 
Russian Guyovitch fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Oct 8, 2023 |
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Oct 8, 2023 21:57
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Russian Guyovitch posted:Previous reviews... 10. Carmilla – PICNIC IN SPACE – (Watched on Shudder) Lara is a teenage girl living in isolation on her father's sprawling estate in the late 19th-century English countryside. Her loneliness seems to be at an end though, when one night there is a carriage accident on the road near the estate, and the only survivor is a young girl about her age. The girl, Carmilla, is brought to the manor to recuperate, and Lara's father leaves to see if he can track down any family or acquaintances of Carmilla that might be in the region. In his absence, Lara's governess begins to grow suspicious of Carmilla, and her intentions regarding Lara. Based on the 1871 novella of the same name, Carmilla is a vampire story that predates Dracula by over two decades. Here, however, the true nature of Carmilla is left rather ambiguous. While the governess does have some suspicions regarding the girl right from the get-go, it's not until she discovers Lara's emerging attraction to Carmilla that she jumps to the conclusion that the girl is a vampire. There's never any definitive evidence gathered, as in the novella, that leads to the conclusion. It's more a slow-burn tragic queer romance than horror, but it's beautifully shot and definitely was worth a watch. Meta Challenges – Horror Is For Everyone: LGBTQ+ (Deals with LGBTQ themes) 3/3 11. #Alive – ROB ZOMBIE – (Watched on Netflix) A twenty-something gamer who lives with his parents in an apartment in South Korea finds himself trapped alone when an outbreak of zombies sweeps through the city. Now he finds himself in a grueling struggle for survival, with no idea if there's even anything left in the world to live for. Given the description of this one, I expected it to be a little more goofy. The Netflix write-up played up the whole gamer aspect of it, making me think it would be more about the wacky hijinks of a man with no real skills trying to survive a desperate situation. And while that is sort of the case, the hijinks aren't all that wacky, more just sad. As for the whole of the movie, it doesn't really do anything interesting that you haven't seen in basically any other zombie film, and the end felt like a really cheesy PSA for just how important social media is in our daily lives. All in all, this one is safe to skip. Meta Challenges – Around the World (Asia) 3/4 12. Thirst – BIRTH OF HORROR – (Watched on Tubi) Kate, a well-to-do Australian businesswoman is heading off to holiday by herself when she's kidnapped by members of an international organization called “The Brotherhood”, whose aristocratic members maintain their health and youth by consuming the blood of members of the lower classes. They take her to their remote Australian compound, called “The Dairy”, and reveal to her that she's a direct descendant of Elizabeth Bathory and attempt to indoctrinate her into the organization. Released in the year of my birth, 1979, Thirst is a surprisingly good update of classic vampire stories. Here the vampires aren't supernatural beings, but rather simply wealthy elites who have unlocked previously unknown benefits from consuming the life force of others. It's a story that seems not quite so outlandish now that we have real-life ghouls like Peter Thiel getting blood transfusions from young donors to try and extend their lives. It definitely has that late seventies/early eighties obsession with parapsychology going on here, with “The Brotherhood” using induced hallucinations to indoctrinate Kate, but otherwise stays much more grounded than your average vampire story. I'm surprised this one has managed to stay under my radar all of these years, because it is right up my alley. Meta Challenges – Around the World (Australia) 4/4 13. C.H.U.D. - CHILDHOOD TRAUMA – (Watched on Prime Video) A police captain investigating a series of disappearances in Manhattan finds himself teamed up with a transient operating a soup kitchen from an abandoned building and a fashion photographer looking to branch out into the world of photo journalism. Together, they find themselves enmeshed in a government cover-up that's wreaking havoc on the homeless population taking shelter in the abandoned subway tunnels underneath New York City. There aren't really any horror movies that I saw as a kid that I haven't revisited. I personally didn't really find myself watching them until I was about 13 (with the exception of Jaws, which I was obsessed with as a young child, and watched at least once a day for years from the age of 6 until I was around 9). But when I was in junior high, there was a uhf station that came in at our house, channel 20 out of Hartford, CT, that aired a horror movie double feature every Saturday afternoon. I was introduced to a ton of the classics by that channel, such as Halloween, a bunch of the Friday the 13ths, and most of the Nightmares. But I also saw a bunch of lesser know stuff, like Phantasm and its sequels, Hell Comes to Frogtown, and of course, C.H.U.D. For me, C.H.U.D. was the turning point where I realized that horror was just my genre. It was a movie where watching it, I could see that it wasn't a great film, but so much effort and love was put into it by the filmmakers that I couldn't help but love it myself. It wasn't something to be enjoyed ironically, because of cheesy effects or bad acting. It was something to love earnestly, because that's what the cast were bringing to it. Sure, there are some smaller parts where you have unknown actors that aren't great, but then you have Daniel Stern just giving every single scene everything he's got. While others might look at this as something cheesy to riff on while they watch it, all I'll ever do is just marvel at how much heart this movie has.  And with that batch of reviews, I've polished off all of the individual challenges and all of the meta challenges, and also only have one space left on my bingo card. Just one movie from the other G.O.A.T. list and I'll have all 12 bingos and can watch whatever I'd like (provided that they're first-time viewings).
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Oct 9, 2023 16:15
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Russian Guyovitch posted:Batch of reviews #3... 14. Psycho II – (Watched on Peacock) Twenty two years after the events of Psycho, Norman Bates is deemed rehabilitated and is released from the institution to which he was committed. Despite the objections of the family of his victim's, he sets about trying to start his life over in his childhood home, but maybe he's not going to be doing it all alone. I opted for this one from the “Best of the twentieth century” list for the CineD challenge because it's one of those movies that's been getting a lot of reexamining well after its initial release. After watching it, I agree that it deserves more than its reputation as a quick cash grab sequel, but not much more. It's elevated by Anthony Perkins giving his performance everything he has, but Meg Tilly feels like she took a couple valium before every scene she's in. All in all, better than I expected, but doesn't quite live up to its newfound hype. And with that, I've completed my bingo card:  15. V/H/S 85 – (Watched on Shudder) A series of disturbing home movies are recorded over a news program about a tragedy at a research center at an American university. The sixth entry in the V/H/S series, I'd say this one is up near the top in terms of quality. No one segment hits a high at the level of “Safe Haven” from the second one, but the lows aren't nearly as low as some of the previous entries. 16. Dog Soldiers – (Watched on Shudder) A group of British soldiers on a training exercise in rural Scotland find something unexpected out in the woods. Now they need to fight for their lives to try and make it to sunrise. From Neil Marshall, director of The Descent, this was a fun take on the werewolf genre. It's got a little bit of Aliens in its DNA, what with the presence of a rescued special forces officer who knows more than he's letting on. All in all, a fun action/horror film that moves along at a good pace. 17. The Autopsy of Jane Doe – (Watched on Shudder) A father and son team of morticians find themselves working late one night when local police bring the body of a Jane Doe to them with an urgent need to get the cause of death. The pair set to work on the autopsy, but as their findings get stranger and stranger, discovering the mystery of that Jane Doe's death may prove to be more than they bargained for. This one had a ton of promise. Having what is essentially a bottle movie anchored on the performance of an actor of Brian Cox's caliber seems like a fool-proof plan. And for the most part, it is. But as the movie hits its denouement, weak writing lets down what was until that point a very good movie. Still, when all is said and done, the good outweighs the bad, and I wound up enjoying this one overall. 18. Slaughterhouse – (Watched on Shudder) When the owner of a dilapidated, out-of-business slaughterhouse gets behind on his taxes, his lawyer tries to get him to sell to the owner of a different slaughterhouse in a neighboring county before his property is seized by the sheriff. Instead, the owner decides everyone is out to get him, and lures all of his supposed enemies to his property so that his intellectually disabled adult son can kill them. Apparently there's enough people out there with nostalgia for this film to merit a relatively recent restoration, as that's the version on Shudder. After watching it, I can't understand why. It's as though the filmmakers saw The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and thought they could one up it. Sadly, they were mistaken. There's nothing here that hadn't been done better before it, and quite a bit that is done much worse than its predecessors. 19. Caveat – (Watched on Shudder) A man suffering from amnesia is hired by a friend to keep watch over his niece. She has schizophrenia and keeps returning to the secluded island cottage that belonged to her father, who took his own life in the basement of the home after his wife disappeared, and the uncle doesn't want her alone out there. However, she has some conditions if there's going to be a stranger staying in the house. I liked this one a lot. It's got a pervasive atmosphere of dread, plus a hint of mystery to it. It's a slow burn, but never one that felt like it was dragging at any point. And once things come to a head at the end, it has one of the creepier conclusions I've seen this month. Definitely one that I recommend. *Rewatch* Friday the 13th – (Watched on Max) When a man tries to reopen the rundown summer camp that he inherited, things don't go according to plan. If you've got a Friday the 13th in October, there's no way you can't watch at least one of these on the day itself. I wound up watching this with a bunch of people who had never seen it, or really any of the Friday movies, so there was a lot of confusion as to why they hid the identity of the killer, plus some genuine surprise with the reveal. *Rewatch* Freddy vs. Jason – (Watched on Max) After all the kids of Springwood forget about Freddy Kreuger, he's robbed of his power. So he just starts haunting the dreams of Jason Voorhees so he can walk from New Jersey to Ohio without being spotted, then commit a murder in the original Elm Street house so people will start being frightened of Freddy again. Also watched on the 13th to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the movie, this one could be okay, but man there is some stuff in here that didn't age well. Fortunately, watching it now means I can skip it when there's an October Friday the 13th in 2028 for its 25th anniversary. 20. Slash/Back – (Watched on Shudder) A group of adolescent indigenous girls in a small town in Nunavut sneak out of town to go hang out in the wilderness one day and encounter what they think is a sick polar bear. After narrowly escaping the encounter with their lives, the girls soon discover that it was no sick bear, but rather an invading alien, and find themselves as the last line of defense that the Earth has. Filmed on location in remote Pangnirtung, Nunuvut, I would say Slash/Back is more charming then good. But it's still good enough that you're easily charmed. The acting is rough, which is to be expected when the filmmakers went to a small community and cast locals and simply gave them acting lessons, but improves as the film goes on. Not great, but has a lot of heart. 21. Scarecrows – (Watched on Prime Video) A group of mercenaries commit a daring robbery of an army base's payroll, escaping in a wild, action-packed shoot-out. At least, that's what we're told; the movie picks up with them fleeing to Mexico in a stolen propeller plane, being flown by the plane's owner and his daughter, who are being held hostage. When one mercenary betrays the rest and parachutes out of the plane with the money, the others force the pilot to land so they can hunt him down. Unfortunately for them, the money landed right in the middle of a haunted farm. First and foremost, just how quickly into their escape did this guy pull his double cross? They mention that the plane was stolen from San Diego and they aren't even over Mexico yet when he does it. He couldn't wait the ten minutes to be able to escape to somewhere that the pursuing military police couldn't go after him? Aside from that, this had some interesting ideas, but poor execution. Having the murderous scarecrows able to manipulate their victims with auditory hallucinations was a fun bit, but not enough was really done with it. All in all, you're not really missing anything if you haven't seen this one.
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Oct 18, 2023 18:56
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Russian Guyovitch posted:Review batch #4... 22. Evil Dead Rise – (Watched on Max) An earthquake opens up a long abandoned vault under the garage of a condemned apartment building. When a teen climbs down into the vault to explore, they discover the Necronomicon, along with some mysterious recordings. When they decided to listen to one of the recordings, they unleash deadites into the building, dooming all of the trapped residents. Another solid entry in the franchise, in my opinion. It doesn't have the full-on slapstick comedy of ED2 or AoD, but it's still clear that the deadites in this one are having a grand old time loving with the people trapped with them before they kill them, and there's definitely some stuff that would feel right at home in any of the original three films (I'm looking at you, hallway eyeball kill). Mean-spirited, but still fun, I definitely recommend this one. 23. Moloch – (Watched on Shudder) In a small Dutch town, a local man starts compulsively digging holes in the local peat bog, and uncovers some mummified remains before dying of a heart attack. The find prompts a team of archaeologists to come to the area, and several more bodies are discovered. Could this be related to the local legend of Fieke, a woman falsely condemned for witchcraft? And more importantly, what does it mean for single mother Betriek and her family, who live on the edge of the bog? I was pleasantly surprised by this one. The Shudder exclusives can be real hit or miss, but this had a great slow-burn, spooky vibe the whole way through, and I enjoyed the payoff. Also, the best children's stage play I've seen in a horror movie in years. All in all, a good folk horror/witch/ghost story with a solid metaphor about the danger of repressing trauma rather than dealing with it. 24. Road Games – (Watched on Shudder) Stacy Keach is driving a truck load of pork across the Australian countryside when he begins to suspect that the driver of a green van that he keeps encountering is responsible for the string of murders that are being reported on his radio. With the help of a young hitchhiker he picks up along the way, he pursues his quarry, but perhaps sleep deprivation and isolation have driven him mad, and he's the true danger on Australia's highways. Once you get past the fact that the two leads of this Australian film are inexplicably American, you've got a fun little thriller on your hands. Keach does a great job of portraying a man who has perhaps let the loneliness of his job get to him just a bit too much, cruising Australia's rural highways carrying on one-sided conversations with his dingo companion. I do feel they dropped the ball a bit with the ending, but the journey there more than made up for it for me.
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Oct 19, 2023 15:30
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Russian Guyovitch posted:Review batch 5... Once again I've let myself get behind on my reviews, so I apologize for the giant post. Anyhow,... 25. Triangle – (Watched on Peacock) A group heads out on a friend's yacht one day for an afternoon pleasure cruise. When a freak electrical storm capsizes their ship and leaves them stranded, they take refuge in a seemingly abandoned ocean liner that passes them by. Once aboard, however, they find themselves being hunted, and one of them might know more about this ship then they're letting on. This was a pretty interesting take on a time loop movie. I like the wrinkle that we were really only seeing one iteration of a partial loop, with Jess catching a glimpse of a completely separate portion of the loop at one point that we never see. I also got a bit of a chuckle at just how quickly the protagonist Jess winds up being completely all in on the plot here. Things are weird for her for about an hour real time before she's completely changed her entire world view and is raiding the ship's armory. Not the best movie you'll watch this month, but you could do a lot worse. 26. The Black Phone – (Watched on Peacock) A predator known as the Grabber is stalking the streets of Colorado back in the late seventies, abducting adolescent boys. Shortly after the disappearance of his close friend, Finney is pulled off the streets by the Grabber and wakes up trapped in a sound-proof basement under the Grabber's home. It seems like all hope is lost, when suddenly, the disconnected phone in the basement with him rings... I liked this one. The pacing was solid and the movie never felt like it dragged. There were some solid performances from child actors, and Ethan Hawke gave a solid performance as the Grabber. Also, I'm just a sucker for that whole Gothic Horror-style “yeah, there's ghosts, but they're there to warn you, not haunt you” plot device. Definitely one of the stronger films I watched this year. 27. Slotherhouse – (Watched on Hulu) A sorority sister purchases a sloth from an exotic animal seller in a bid to gain enough popularity to be voted president of the chapter. It turns out, wild animals belong in the wild for a reason. This could have been funny. There were a handful of actors that actually seemed able to do comedy well (not you though, comic relief mma-loving sorority sister. Tone that poo poo down.). Additionally, the filmmakers seemed to know that they needed to commit to the craziness, having the first thing the sloth does in the sorority house be hopping on the protagonist's computer to start stalking her on Instagram. But then instead of ludicrous murder sloth action, we get a bunch of tedious sorority politics. A funny concept that could have been done well, but is ultimately wasted. 28. May – (Watched on Shudder) Socially awkward May just can't meet the right person. Everyone seems to have their good parts, but the whole never quite lives up to expectations. If only there were some way should could take the best from everyone and have the perfect person in her life. This one has been a popular choice so far among everyone in the challenge thread, and I can see why. It's got some strong performances from some actors who would go on to have decent careers. It was hard for me watching the first two-thirds or so of the film, as it's just an awkward, mentally ill person making terrible choices for themselves, but the last act really brings it all together. 29. The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014) – (Watched on Prime Video) A requel of Charles Pierce's 1976 documentary-style slasher of the same name, this one sees the Phantom Killer of Texarkana returning to action 38 years after the release of the first film. Who could possibly be behind this new string of murders? A so-so slasher with some bigger names in it then I expected. It doesn't do anything you haven't seen before. Ultimately, fine if you're just looking to kill an hour and a half or so, but not anything you need to go out of your way to see, except maybe for the confused look on Anthony Anderson's face as he watches the trombone kill from the first movie. 30. Rec – (Watched on Prime Video) A reporter and cameraman from a Spanish late-night news magazine show are spending the evening filming at a local firehouse. When the two tag along to film an emergency call, they soon find themselves trapped in a desperate situation when health officials place the building under an emergency quarantine. A decent found-footage zombie film, though I don't know that it's quite worth all of the praise it received. There's not really anything that it brings to the table that hadn't been done before. And as for criticism of the American remake, that many feel is unnecessary, I kind of get why they did it now. Even just watching it on a television, the combination of subtitles and shaky cam was...not great. I can only imagine how I would have felt watching it in a theater. 31. Terrifier 2 – (Watched on Prime Video) Picking up where the first one left off, Art the Clown is mysteriously resurrected and goes on a killing spree in Miles County. This time, he's accompanied by a sinister young girl in clown make-up. But perhaps this time there's a prophesied hero that might put an end to his evil once and for all. I did not like the first Terrifier. I thought it was a bare-bones screenplay that existed just to give a vehicle to a glorified FX reel, and that what was there was pretty grossly misogynistic. But based on the general reaction of folks over in the CineD horror thread, I gave this one a shot, and I will say that it's a much better film. While the violence is still over the top and mean, it felt a lot more fun. Plus, the actor who plays Art absolutely brought his A-game, stepping up the clown antics of the character even more so than the first. The scene in which he stalks and menaces the protagonist Sienna through the costume shop is just straight up excellent. That said, this movie did not need to be as long as it was. This was a production that was funded primarily through crowd sourcing with no studio involved, and that shows. If you write and direct the movie, you maybe don't want to edit it as well. Bring in some outside eyes to help you trim out some of the fat. Still, worth the watch if you can stomach this level of gore and violence. 32. Day Shift – (Watched on Netflix) In order to keep his family close, a Los Angeles-based vampire hunter needs to get back in the good graces of the vampire hunters' union to raise enough cash to pay for his daughter's tuition and braces. However, the union won't let him go back to work unless he brings a union rep out into the field to keep tabs on his wild card ways. This could have been good. It's got some good performances and a premise that's sort of a fun spin on John Carpenter's Vampires, but what good it sets up in the beginning is let down by a rushed and convoluted conclusion. Ultimately, it winds up being a fairly forgettable outing, which felt lake a waste. 33. The Wretched – (Watched on Netflix) A teen is sent to go spend the summer working with his father at a marina on Lake Michigan after getting into some trouble at his mother's home. While there, his next door neighbor becomes possessed by an entity that causes people to be forgotten about by those around them so that it might feed on them without raising suspicion. Will anyone believe him before it devours the entire family? This was technically the #1 movie in the country at one point, based solely on the distributors smart move to aggressively target drive-in theaters during the first spring of Covid in 2020. At any other time, no one probably would have seen this, as it really struggles with its tone. The family drama element and the feel around that portion of the story puts it squarely in the YA category, but the goop-level of the horror half of the story is fairly high. As a result, the two halves of the story never quite mesh. Still it does do some interesting takes on witches in film, and the point in the last act when the hag's altar burns and suddenly Ben and the audience realize that Ben has a little brother that the hag has made him forget is a pretty well done twist. All in all, though, not anything that is a must see. 34. The Conference – (Watched on Netflix) A team of Swedish municipal employees head out on a team building retreat in advance of the ground-breaking ceremony for a massive new shopping mall in their quite town that they helped make happen. Not everyone on the team is actually for the development, however, and there's some suspicions of foul play in the paper work. But even worse, there are those in the community that are willing to do anything to stop the construction. Anything. This is one of the highlights of the month for me, so far. The filmmakers do a great job of making sure that the internal drama in the team surrounding the mall project in the first half of the film is compelling enough to keep the viewer engaged as the slasher elements ramp up towards the second half's hectic killing spree. Definitely one people should be checking out. 35. Influencer – (Watched on Shudder) Influencer Madison is traveling through Thailand to shoot content for her Insta when she meets CW, a young woman that promises to show her some more authentic spots in the country. After a break in at her hotel leaves Madison stranded in the country without a passport, and after an argument with her boyfriend Ryan over video chat leads to a long distance break-up, she decides to take CW up on her offer, so that she can spend some time actually enjoying her travels, instead of trying to get content. Unfortunately for her, CW takes Madison out to a remote island with no fresh water and abandons her there to die of exposure, then sets about stealing Madison's digital life through the use of Deepfake and AI voice cloning. This was a great modern serial killer film. Watching CW methodically stalk her next victim, laying the ground work to try and steal her life as she's done several times before, only to have the sudden, unexpected appearance of Ryan throw everything into chaos is chilling. She starts off in a chess match where she's clearly several moves ahead of her new prey, but eventually finds herself in an increasingly desperate series of pivots as she struggles to deal with the unwanted x-factor that Ryan presents. And finally, just when she thinks she's gotten herself in the clear, she can only smile to herself and admit defeat when it turns out that Madison was much more capable than she gave her credit, leaving CW stranded on the same island from the beginning of the film. Certainly in the top five of the films I've watched so far. And with this batch of reviews, I've surpassed my original goal of 31 first-time viewings, having watched 34 new-to-me films, plus three rewatches. From this point on, anything is fair game, so I might just indulge in some old favorites going forward.
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Oct 24, 2023 17:17
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Russian Guyovitch posted:Review batch 6... I've got one final batch of reviews to sneak in before the deadline, and I'll follow up with a wrap-up post a little later. 36. Rosemary's Baby – (Watched in theater) A young couple starts their lives together in their new apartment in Manhattan. The building has something of a reputation, but the elderly couple next door are very nice, if somewhat nosy... I'd held off on seeing this for years, planning on waiting for Roman Polanski to die so I wouldn't possibly contribute to him financially in any way, but the movie marathon that I go to every year for Halloween was showing it, so I bought my ticket a month ago and hoped really hard that he would finally keel over, but apparently being an evil piece of poo poo is great for longevity (e.g., Henry Kissinger). Having finally seen it, it's definitely a great film. Mia Farrow pulls off a terrific performance as a woman who's being gaslit by everyone in her life, but holds firm in her belief that she's not crazy. I imagine that the ending probably hits a bit better when you haven't had many intervening decades to have it spoiled for you, but still good nonetheless. Shame about the director, though. *Rewatch* Suspiria – (Watched in theater) When Suzy makes her way to Berlin to join a prestige dance academy, things start off on a suspicious note, as she watches another student flee into the stormy night while she herself is refused entry. When she does finally get in the next day, a series of mysterious deaths and disappearances make her start to think that there's something up with the staff and the never-seen director. The pinkest and most purple movie that isn't called From Beyond, Suspiria is a classic for a reason. The dream-like atmosphere is perfect for a film where the protagonist is being menaced by a force beyond reason, and the score is perfect for elevating the tension. An excellent film, start to finish. *Rewatch* The Blair Witch Project – (Watched in theater) A group of film students head to Burkitsville, Maryland to film a documentary about the local legend, the Blair Witch. Not content to simply get interviews with the locals, they head off to film locations in the nearby wilderness where supposed witch sightings occurred, but quickly find themselves lost in the woods. The start of the found-footage boom in the US, I'd say that this still holds up. The beginning drags, and the acting is somewhat amateurish, but when it ramps up at the end, it's still effective. Not the greatest movie ever made, but a decent spooky time. *Rewatch* The Conjuring – (Watched in theater) When a truck driver and his family move to a farmhouse in small town Rhode Island, inexplicable events begin to occur every night at 3:07 a.m. As the occurrences become increasingly sinister, it becomes clear that there's some malevolent entity terrorizing them, and they seek help in the form of a pair of paranormal investigators named Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Conjuring doesn't really do it for me. So much of the run time is dedicated to the Warrens and their story that it detracts from the actual haunted house story that should be the meat of the story. And that's before you even get into the fact that the real-life Warrens were a pair of opportunistic grifters, as opposed to the heroes they're depicted as here. Excise all of the set-up for the Warrens and focus on the family and you would have a pretty solid ghost story, but unfortunately there's just too much filler there. *Rewatch* The House of the Devil – (Watched in theater) Desperate to scrounge up the money she needs to move out of the dorms and into her first apartment, Samantha takes a baby-sitting job out in the middle of nowhere. When the job turns out to be not quite what she expected, she takes it despite her best friend's objections because the money is simply too good. As the night goes on, however, she begins to suspect that there's more going on in that house than she's been lead to believe. A slow-burn period piece, I really enjoy this one, even though I know it's not for everyone. I can see why some might feel that it drags, but for me, I think it spends its run-time doing an excellent job of building tension. We the audience are aware that Samantha is in trouble, pretty much right from the get -go. There's no chance of the story being about her being paranoid; there is an established threat right away, and we get to watch her go about her night unaware. When things do finally come crashing down on her, we get a fast-paced, horrific showdown, with a real downer of an ending. While not for everyone, I'm a big fan, and can see how this really launched Ti West as a director.
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Nov 1, 2023 16:39
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I still need to toss together my wrap-up, but would also like to go for the Jason tag.
Russian Guyovitch fucked around with this message at 20:05 on Nov 2, 2023 |
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Nov 2, 2023 20:03
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Russian Guyovitch posted:I still need to toss together my wrap-up, but would also like to go for the Jason tag. Finally, a wrap-up post: I didn't really have a lot of stand-outs this year, so I haven't bothered trying to identify any best and worst films. Overall it was mostly a competently made and enjoyable list of films with a few duds sprinkled in, but nothing that I'm going to go out of my way to revisit down the line. So without further ado, here's my full list, with challenges and meta-challenges included, plus my bingo card: 1. Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein – FREDDY VS. JASON 20TH ANNIVERSARY 2. Mosquito – WHEN ANIMALS OF UNUSUAL SIZE ATTACK 3. Kill List – CineD HORROR THREAD POLL 4. The Mutilator -BACK OF THE VIDEO STORE 5. Piranha – THAT GUY DICK MILLER 6. The Pope's Exorcist – THE EXORCIST 50TH ANNIVERSARY 7. Horror Noire – BITE-SIZED HORROR 8. No One Will Save You – HORROR ADJACENT 9. Totally Killer – SAMHAIN 10. Carmilla – PICNIC IN SPACE 11. #Alive – ROB ZOMBIE 12. Thirst – BIRTH OF HORROR 13. C.H.U.D. - CHILDHOOD TRAUMA *Rewatch* 14. Psycho II 15. V/H/S 85 16. Dog Soldiers 17. The Autopsy of Jane Doe 18. Slaughterhouse 19. Caveat 20. Friday the 13th *Rewatch* 21. Freddy vs. Jason *Rewatch* 22. Slash/Back 23. Scarecrows 24. Evil Dead Rise 25. Moloch 26. Road Games 27. Triangle 28. The Black Phone 29. Slotherhouse 30. May 31. The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014) 32. Rec 33. Terrifier 2 34. Day Shift 35. The Wretched 36. The Conference 37. Influencer 38. Rosemary's Baby 39. Suspiria *Rewatch* 40. The Blair Witch Project *Rewatch* 41. The Conjuring *Rewatch* 42. The House of the Devil *Rewatch* Meta Challenges New-to-You 1. Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein 2. Mosquito 3. Kill List 4. The Mutilator 5. Piranha 6. The Pope's Exorcist History Lesson 1. Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1940's) 2. Mosquito (1990's) 3. Kill List (2010's) 4. The Mutilator (1980's) 5. Piranha (1970's) Around the World 1. Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein (North America) 2. Kill List (Europe) 3. #Alive (Asia) 4. Thirst (Australia) Horror is For Everyone 1. Horror Noire (P.O.C. Filmmakers and Themes) 2. Totally Killer (Female Filmmaker) 3. Carmilla (LGBTQ+ Themes)
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Nov 6, 2023 15:38
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