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gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord
In for 31!

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gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Xiahou Dun posted:

Are there ever any kids? No. Not yet. They were doing a counselor training.

I might be misremembering but I think part 6 is the only one with actual kids at the camp. Seems to be a more common thing in non-F13 summer camp slashers. Sleepaway Camp, The Burning, Madman, etc.

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord
Also mark me down for bingo card 12, assuming it’s still free

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord


1. Saw (2004)
dir. James Wan
blu-ray
rewatch

Haven’t seen this one in years and wanted to revisit before going to see Saw X soon. I’m not sure I’d say I’m a “fan” of the Saw franchise, but I usually find them entertaining despite their many flaws. This first entry is actually a pretty solid film though, and holds up better than I thought it might. It feels almost like two different films stitched together - the locked room mystery with Dr. Gordon and Adam, and the Se7en-style investigation of the Jigsaw serial killer.

The two characters trying to escape their situation is the main focus and the stronger part of the film for sure, but there is more good stuff in the rest than I remembered. I can even see some Italian horror influence in parts, which I’ve never really picked up on before - the doll always reminded me of the one from Deep Red, identifying the killer’s location by a faint sound on a recording is straight out of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, and Tombs of the Blind Dead features an abandoned mannequin factory (creepy mannequins in general feel like a giallo trope to me). Maybe I’m reading too much into things, but after Malignant wore its giallo influences on its sleeve I don’t doubt that James Wan was conscious of this on some level.

It’s not a great looking film - the mid-2000s color scheme of washed out bluish-gray permeates most of it (although the mannequin factory has some nice rich reds) and the frenetic editing is often obnoxious. The repeated use of extended flashbacks to events that took place like 20 minutes ago is dumb as heck - you can see the seeds of the soap opera stuff that defines much of the franchise here, but it’s really not so complex a story to require so much over-explanation. I wonder if those parts were added after test screenings or something, they feel totally unnecessary.

The film ends on a high note - the twist is a classic and was genuinely surprising the first time I saw it, and the musical cue that accompanies that scene (“Hello Zepp”) is really well done, both because the timing is great and because it’s a banger of a track. I still don’t think Saw is a modern classic exactly, but its influence on the following decade of horror is undeniable and it isn’t hard to see why it spawned such a popular franchise.

4 wildly unfair games out of 5

Total: 1
Watched: Saw
Challenges: 0/13
History Lesson: 1/5

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Shrecknet posted:

If you freeze-frame on the cop's phone, you can see the date is 9/10/01, so whatever Jigsaw was doing that might make the news absolutely will not, give the events of the next day. Gotta think all that planning and setup just to be overshadowed by some boxcutters chaps Kramer's rear end a bit.

Yeah I caught that, at first I thought maybe the movie came out a few years earlier than I remembered and it was a coincidence, but nope. Not sure what to make of that.

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Basebf555 posted:

:spooky:THE EXORCIST 50TH ANNIVERSERY CHALLENGE:spooky:

Watch The Exorcist OR watch a movie that involves The Devil, demons, or demonic possession.


2. The Pope's Exorcist (2023)
dir. Julius Avery
Netflix

Russell Crowe chews the poo poo out of the scenery as Father Gabriele Amorth, the highest ranked exorcist in the Vatican, personally appointed by the pope. He is sent to Spain to assist a young American boy who is showing signs of possession, but this is no ordinary case - set in an abbey that dates back to the start of the Spanish Inquisition, Amorth encounters great evils and long buried secrets.

Crowe’s hammy performance is the highlight for sure - I think this would be mostly forgettable without him. The possession of the young boy is the least interesting aspect of this - he lies in bed and makes dumb faces, says crude poo poo in a loud voice, and sometimes throws people around the room with his mind. Pretty generic exorcism movie stuff and it didn’t do much for me, so it’s too bad that it takes up like half the movie. It gets more interesting as it delves into some weird Christian history and theology, and it goes from a standard demonic possession story to more of a campy fantasy/horror vibe by the end, and it’s much better for the shift in tone.

Alexandra Essoe (Starry Eyes, various Mike Flanagan projects) plays Julia, the possessed boy’s mother, and while she’s very good at looking scared she isn’t given much else to do. The rest of the cast is fine, but Crowe upstages everyone so much that I could hardly even tell you any of the other characters’ names.

Overall this was more fun than I thought it was going to be. At its core it’s still a pretty generic demonic possession film, but Russell Crowe’s fun performance combined with a plot that goes off the rails in the third act make this more memorable than most. I was wavering between giving this 3 and 3.5 stars, but Crowe zipping around on that little scooter pushes it up over the edge.

3.5 Vespas out of 5

Total: 2
Watched: Saw | The Pope's Exorcist
Challenges: 1/13
New to me: 1/6
History Lesson: 2/5


(I'll do something with my bingo card at some point this weekend)

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord
If anyone needs more stuff to watch this month, the current horror lineup on the Criterion Channel is pretty rad, and not just arthouse/classic stuff you’d normally associate with Criterion. Some really great pre-code horror, 90s horror, Hong Kong hopping vampire movies, lots of stuff. There’s a 7 day trial too if you just want to watch a couple and then cancel.

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Shneak posted:

I haven't really watched the Saw series because torture porn is not the horror genre for me but I'm excited to announce I am incredibly desensitized! I was expecting uninterrupted LiveLeak gore streams but the body horror in Saw/Saw II is quite tame? At points I thought I had turned on a PG-13 cut. And then the needle pit wildly escalates that.

I’m not sure how the first couple Saw films ever got lumped into the “torture porn” category, like you said they aren’t even heavy on the gore (my partner can’t stand gore at all and even she has no problem with the first Saw). The later Saw films definitely get gorier but I still wouldn’t call them torture porn. Seems like a label applied by people who didn’t see them and just assumed that’s what they were like. There are certainly films out there where the label is apt but they are far from mainstream horror franchises like Saw.

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Basebf555 posted:

:spooky:PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK…..IN SPACE!!!:spooky:

(This is set in the distant future)



3. Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000)
dir. Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Amazon

A post-apocalyptic gothic sci-fi western vampire story wasn’t something I knew I needed, but here we are. I understand there is a lot of Vampire Hunter D media out there (novels, manga, other anime, etc) but I’ve never been exposed to any of it, so I went into this basically blind and was pleasantly surprised by how unique and weird the setting is. The animation is stylish and dripping with gothic atmosphere, it’s just a really cool and good looking film.

The protagonist (D) looks cool but doesn’t have any personality to speak of, he’s just a brooding blank slate here. It’s fine since there are so many interesting things happening around him, but I think a likable main character would’ve made me connect with this a bit more. As awesome and stylish as everything is, I wasn’t really invested in this on any emotional level. The voice acting didn’t help either - it’s far from the worst dub I’ve heard, but a lot of the dialogue is pretty flat. I only had the English audio available so maybe I would’ve felt a bit differently with subtitles instead.

Big thumbs up for the setting, the visuals, and the gothic vibes, although I was less impressed with the characters and story. Still a very cool animated horror film though and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone.

4 sand mantas out of 5

Basebf555 posted:

:spooky:HORROR ADJACENT:spooky:



4. Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980)
dir. Sammo Hung
Criterion Channel

In this horror/comedy/kung-fu mashup, Sammy Hung plays “Bold” Cheung, a man known around town for his bravery (even though he is like cartoonishly cowardly for most of the film). His wife is having an affair with his boss Mr Tam, and when Cheung almost catches them in the act, Tam decides that Cheung needs to disappear before the story gets out and his reputation is ruined. Instead of just hiring an assassin, Tam instead hires a warlock who schemes to kill Cheung using black magic. Zany antics involving ghosts, zombies, and a hopping vampire ensue.

This is a lot of fun! It’s super goofy and slapstick, and the special effects and makeup are delightfully campy. The kung fu aspect doesn’t really come into play until about halfway through the movie, but some of the best scenes involve fights with vampires and wizards and I wish there was more of that. Occasionally it gets a little too silly, but for the most part the humor works well. Although the very last thing that happens in the film is Cheung beating the poo poo out of his wife while calling her a bitch, and then the film ends on a freeze frame of him slamming her into the ground… I mean, she’s terrible and all, but that’s a hell of a way to end a movie.

This isn’t the best example of this sort of bonkers ‘80s Hong Kong horror/comedy, but it’s a good one and if you’re into this kind of thing it’s most definitely worth a watch.

40 chicken eggs out of 50

Total: 4
Watched: Saw | The Pope's Exorcist | Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust | Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind
Challenges: 3/13
New to me: 3/6
History Lesson: 3/5
Around the World: 1/4


E: realized Vampire Hunter would count for one of the challenges!

gey muckle mowser fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Oct 1, 2023

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Shrecknet posted:


D is actually ________Dracula______, and he is personally erasing the mistakes he's made as he eliminates all vampires. This is backed up by Count Lee's final words in the 1985 film, plus Carmella's question at the end of this one. I've never engaged with any material outside the two movies, and it's never concretely stated in the movies, but I feel my reading is correct or at least something the writers considered and left themselves open to canonizing later.

That makes sense. He isn’t given much characterization in this one beyond “brooding bounty hunter” but I figured there was more there in the other media. I’ll check out the 1985 film at some point too.

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Xiahou Dun posted:

If you like absolutely gonzo nonsense, I can’t recommend the Vampire Hunter D novels enough. They’re hilarious and incredibly over the top ; by book 4 or 5, D is parrying laser beams with his sword.

That sounds rad, I was considering checking them out already but now I’ll bump them up the reading list.

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord


5. Hiruko the Goblin (1991)
dir. Shinya Tsukamoto
blu-ray

An eccentric archeologist and a high school student team up to investigate the disappearance of the boy's father, another archeologist who was searching for an ancient burial mound located somewhere near the boy's school. After an encounter with a goblin/yokai named Hiruko and several bloody deaths, they focus on finding the burial mound and sealing it off before more goblins can escape into the world.

Shinya Tsukamoto is up there with some of my favorite directors. His first feature - the industrial body horror nightmare Tetsuo: The Iron Man - is probably his most well known film, but he has done some incredible work in other genres as well. Hiruko was his second film, and more "mainstream" in that it was produced by a major studio instead of independently like most of his other work. It feels a bit like an outlier in terms of tone and style, but it does have some of the elements I've come to expect from his work - namely, wild creature/effect design and kinetic camerawork. Unexpectedly, it also has a sort of fantasy/adventure feel to it, like an '80s Spielberg movie.

The highlight is the creature design, which are basically severed heads with crab legs and insect-like wings. They're simultaneously creepy and goofy and I couldn't help but grin every time one was on screen. There is also a fair amount of blood and some gross goopy effects - that combined with fast camera POV shots racing down hallways or along ceilings gave me Evil Dead vibes.

Not one of Tsukamoto's best films, but it's a lot of fun and if you're a fan of his then you'll most likely enjoy this.

3.5 goblins out of 5

Total: 5
Watched: Saw | The Pope's Exorcist | Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust | Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind | Hiruko the Goblin
Challenges: 3/13
New to me: 4/6
History Lesson: 4/5 - 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2020s
Around the World: 1/4 - Asia

gey muckle mowser fucked around with this message at 13:08 on Oct 3, 2023

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord
I was sure I had seen Dracula 3000 but realized I was confusing it with Dracula 2000, which is not good but still far from the worst Dracula movie. Now I feel compelled to watch 3000 just to see what awfulness I've been missing.

also there's a quote from SA on the wikipedia page for Dracula 3000 :lol:

quote:

Critical reaction to Dracula 3000 has been negative. Andrew Stine of Something Awful said, "Whether it's out of some facsimile of genuine interest (rare) or because I just want to see how completely stupid things can possibly get within ninety minutes, I have so far been able to keep myself from lapsing into a waking coma by latching upon some facet of the movie which is not utterly, interminably boring. That is, until Dracula 3000."

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

moths posted:

Child's Play 2
(Film 3/31)
(New to You 3)
What the gently caress. The rules have changed a little maybe, so now since Chucky's got a new body he can do a new reveal and pick a new body.

Which lets the film have a cute kid as the target, while letting Andy grow into a teenager. Neat!

But then it's just kind of a mess.

I think someone needed to use up a bulk crate of military tropes. And maybe they also got a deal on an inexplicable carnival set.

2/5.

I’m assuming you are talking about 3, not 2? It’s the low point of the franchise for sure. Bride of Chucky is next and might be my favorite

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Action Shakespeare posted:

Oh hey I was just already doing this and writing stuff up on twitter. Put me down for 31!

Would just slapping down said twitter posts count or should I just input their contents here?

I think some people block twitter posts or just won’t bother clicking on them so you’re probably better off just copy/pasting the text here.

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Basebf555 posted:

:spooky:THE SAMHAIN CHALLENGE:spooky:



6. Ghostwatch (1992)
dir. Lesley Manning
blu-ray

Presented as a BBC live special, reporters and paranormal researchers broadcast live from a supposedly haunted house on Halloween night, hoping to record evidence of the supernatural. The host of the program is joined in the studio by a parapsychologist familiar with the house, and together they discuss what they are seeing, interact with the crew on site, and take calls from the public. Throughout the evening, strange events occur that give everyone involved much more than they bargained for.

I knew this was well-regarded and have had it recommended to me many times, but I still didn’t expect for it to be so loving good. It’s really clever and feels authentic (I have to imagine that when it first aired some viewers were fooled), but more importantly it’s just a really effective ghost story. It’s not often that a horror movie manages to actually get under my skin, but this successfully creeped me out more than once. It makes great use of the limitations of the format, letting the viewer’s imagination fill in the scarier bits and piece together the story in ways that the characters haven’t quite worked out.

I love a good ghost story and this is a banger. I thought it might feel a little dry, but instead I was on the edge of my seat. Highly recommended!

5 glory holes out of 5

Total: 6
Watched: Saw | The Pope's Exorcist | Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust | Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind | Hiruko the Goblin | Ghostwatch
Challenges: 4/13
New to me: 5/6
History Lesson: 4/5 - 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2020s
Around the World: 2/4 - Asia, Europe

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Scones are Good posted:

:skeltal:5. The Exorcist III dir. William Peter Blatty (1990) (theatrical cut):skeltal:



I watched the theatrical cut because that's what amazon prime has available and I've heard conflicting things on which version is best. I figure I'll get to the directors cut eventually because I really liked this!

Exorcist III is one of my favorite movies (I chose it as the CineD movie of the month a few years ago), glad to see you liked it too. The theatrical cut is definitely the one to watch first - the “Director’s cut” is interesting as a curiosity but isn’t really a finished film. Any scenes not in the theatrical are taken from workprints and look/sound like poo poo, it’s super jarring especially because the everything else looks really nice. It has some good and interesting stuff in it (more Brad Dourif, the original ending that isn’t a tacked-on exorcism) but even if it were finished I think I’d still prefer the theatrical. Switching between Dourif and Jason Miller is just super cool IMO and I actually like the exorcism stuff even though it feels like it’s taken from a different movie.

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Gyro Zeppeli posted:

There's a bunch of video games coming out this month I wanna play

same, I don't know when I'm gonna find the time. I've barely scratched the surface of Baldur's Gate 3 as it is. Is it wrong to call in sick to work just to watch horror movies?

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Basebf555 posted:

Obviously I thought about actresses as well, but I had a hard time coming up with actresses who were in a bunch of horror movies but who also weren't legitimate Scream Queen icons. Like, Jamie Lee Curtis and Barbara Crampton and Linnea Quigley aren't under the radar character actors in the same way that a Dick Miller is. With a little more time to think it over I'm sure we could come up with some actress options though.

maybe Lin Shaye?

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Erin M. Fiasco posted:

11. The Boxer's Omen (1983)



I watched this during the May challenge, it rules for all the reasons you said but the scenes where the black magic guys shove a bunch of gross food in their mouths, sloppily chew it up, regurgitate it onto a plate, and then pass it to the next person to do the same thing made me physically ill. :barf:

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord


7. Happy Birthday to Me (1981)
dir. J. Lee Thompson
blu-ray

Ginny and her friends - all popular students at an elite academy (it’s a high school I think but they all look 35) - are slowly picked off by a mysterious killer who seems to be part of their social circle. Ginny suffers from memory loss after a traumatic car accident involving her mother, and she starts to fear that she is blacking out and committing the murders herself.

1981 was a hell of a year for slashers (Friday the 13th part 2, My Bloody Valentine, The Burning, Hell Night, Madman, Halloween II, and even the slasher spoof Student Bodies, among others) but I don’t think this is on the level as even the weakest of those. It has some decent kills - the one on the poster involving a shish kebab made me cringe for sure - but the plot is convoluted and hard to follow and the twist ending makes no sense at all. With the exception of Ginny, none of the characters are at all likable or sympathetic, and even she comes across like a generic final girl, totally interchangeable with the lead of any other mediocre slasher. This film is also nearly two hours long for some reason, and so much of that feels like filler. This should’ve been an 80, maybe 90 minute film at most.

So yeah, clearly I didn’t think much of this. It’s not totally worthless - there are occasionally some nice shots, the kills are decent (if short and far between), and the final “birthday party” scene is pretty memorable. But considering how many good slashers came out the same year alone, I see no reason to recommend this unless you’re really digging for something new.

2.5 experimental brain surgeries out of 5



8. Doctor X (1932)
dir. Michael Curtiz
Criterion Channel

When the police suspect that a member of Dr. Xavier’s (Lionel Atwill) scientific research academy is actually a serial killer known as the “Moon Killer”, Xavier rounds up all the suspects and brings them to his estate, where he conducts an experiment to reveal the identity of the killer. A wisecracking reporter (Lee Tracy) sneaks in to get the exclusive story for his paper, and Xavier’s daughter (Fay Wray) tags along too because the studio needed a pretty young woman in it to sell tickets. Mad scientist antics ensue.

Doctor X’s experiment is extremely silly - he re-enacts the killings and uses an incredibly complicated process involving a room full of machines and giant tubes to essentially just measure the subjects’ heart rates. If their pulse goes up when they see the fake murders on stage, then of course they must be the killer! I don’t mind some dubious science in old movies like this, but this is extra lame. Stethoscopes and blood pressure cuffs existed in 1932, but I guess they weren’t very cinematic. Meanwhile, the reporter bumbles around and makes bad jokes while Fay Wray screams whenever anything at all happens.

Terrible plot aside, I still enjoyed this. The garish technicolor cinematography is wonderful, and the various laboratory sets look great. The different scientist characters are all goofy and fun. There is a “monster” scene at the end and the makeup looks pretty cool, even if what’s happening doesn’t actually make any kind of sense. Not an essential early horror film, but if you are interested in pre-code Hollywood I think it’s probably worth checking out.

3 synthetic flesh hands out of 5

Total: 8
Watched: Saw | The Pope's Exorcist | Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust | Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind | Hiruko the Goblin | Ghostwatch | Happy Birthday to Me | Doctor X
Challenges: 4/13
New to me: 6/6
History Lesson: 5/5 - 30s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2020s
Around the World: 2/4 - Asia, Europe

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Shrecknet posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD4k47TP3U0

the amount of fuckery behind the scenes on this makes it a miracle this movie came out at all. FWIW, the director agrees with you

Thanks for the video, there’s some interesting stuff in there. Some of the odder choices make a lot more sense knowing the production history. I like the thought of the crew getting annoyed at their esteemed British director gleefully sloshing buckets of blood around the set.

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Meaty Ore posted:

3. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

I've never seen much of this one before, just the scene where they test the masks. That said, I do know that this has a reputation as being a bit of a low point for the franchise.

This was true for a long time but in the past 10-15 years or so fans have come around on it and you’ll find a lot of folks who rank it in the top 2-3 of the franchise. Personally I think that’s an over-correction, it’s a solid movie that I enjoy but it is far from perfect. Plus it’s so far removed from the rest of the Halloween movies that trying to rank it is comparing apples to oranges and kind of meaningless.

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord


9. Murders at the Zoo (1933)
dir. A. Edward Sutherland
Criterion Channel

Another pre-code horror film starring Lionel Atwill. Here he plays Eric Gorman, a wealthy “collector” of animals, which I guess is like a trophy hunter except he shoves them in boxes and brings them back to the zoo. He is fiercely and violently possessive of his young wife, and in the first scene we see him sewing shut the lips of a man who dared to kiss her, then leaves him to be killed by a tiger. Once Gorman and his wife return home, he continues his murders… in the zoo.

I’ll confess the main reason I chose this one is that it was late when I started and it is nice and short, but it turned out to make an interesting contrast to Doctor X. It’s darker in tone with some shocking violence (for the time anyway), contains an actual plot, and in general feels like a more cohesive film. On the flip side, it also heavily features an annoying comic relief journalist character who doesn’t do much except bumble around. Were audiences in the ‘30s really cracking up at this weaselly dude making a goofy face and saying “oh my goodness!” every time someone mentions an animal of any kind? I know humor is subjective and changes over time, but it’s not just an age thing - for example, James Whale’s The Old Dark House came out a year earlier and I think the comedy in that mostly holds up. This guy just sucks.

But hey, no one is watching this today for the comedy. Besides Atwill being really good at playing an evil bastard, this has some fun murders and some memorable moments involving the animals. Not only was this pre-code, it was also clearly pre-safe animal handling techniques, and it’s kind of insane. There is a climax where a shitload of dangerous zoo animals (lions, tigers, and others) are just let loose in a room together and they start chaotically running around and in some cases fighting, it’s… something. It’s clear the filmmakers also weren’t very concerned with the safety of the animals (or of the human cast). I feel like there are probably some horrible behind the scenes stories about the making of this film, but the conditions in the zoos back then were already depressing enough for me so I’m not gonna seek those out. I’ll just pretend they were all professionally trained stunt animals.

Anyway this is decent. Not one of the great horror films of the ‘30s, but it has its moments and at just over an hour it goes down easy.

3.5 green mambas out of 5



10. Mr. Vampire (1985)
dir. Ricky Lau
Criterion Channel

A priest/magician named Master Kau and his two bumbling students are hired by a wealthy man to rebury his father, hoping it will bring better fortune to their family. After digging up the corpse, Kau discovers that it has turned into a vampire, and brings it back to his temple for study. Things go awry when one of his students is attacked and begins to transform into a vampire himself, while the other falls under the spell of a beautiful but dangerous ghost.

Much like Encounters of the Spooky Kind, this is a horror/comedy/kung fu film with hopping vampires that pulls off all three elements extremely well. It feels much more modern than Encounters, or at least more influenced by Western horror films of the ‘80s in terms of look and feel. It’s unmistakably still a Hong Kong film, though - the magic and the hopping vampires are so much fun and the fight/action choreography is wonderful. This ups the ante in terms of acrobatics and general wild energy of the action to almost Evil Dead II levels of slapstick violence. The pacing is fantastic and the film just flies right by.

A must-see for fans of ‘80s Hong Kong horror, or even just ‘80s horror in general. An absolute blast from start to finish.

4.5 catties of sticky rice out of 5

Total: 10
Watched: Saw | The Pope's Exorcist | Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust | Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind | Hiruko the Goblin | Ghostwatch | Happy Birthday to Me | Doctor X | Murders at the Zoo | Mr. Vampire
Challenges: 4/13
New to me: 6/6
History Lesson: 5/5 - 30s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2020s
Around the World: 2/4 - Asia, Europe

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Pretzel Rod Stewart posted:

9. Final Destination (2000)

But I digress. I wish the Evil Rube Goldberg machines were cooler, maybe they are in the rest of the franchise?

They do get more elaborate and more fun IMO. I think 2 and 5 are the best movies in the series largely because they contain some of the best kill/accident sequences. 3 has some memorable ones although they start getting really silly - in the other films the deaths are highly unlikely but still possible, but in 3 it’s stuff like a tanning bed that sets you on fire or getting killed in a car wash. 4 just stinks.

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

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witches?



Buglord

Basebf555 posted:

:spooky:HORROR IS FOR EVERYONE:spooky:

- A film directed by a woman, or a film with feminist themes

I was going to pick something with more overt feminist themes for this challenge, but this was directed by a woman, written by two different women, and stars a mostly female cast, so it seems appropriate.



11. Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
dir. Halina Reijn
Amazon

A group of 20-something friends come together at an isolated mansion to ride out a hurricane. They entertain themselves during the storm with copious amounts of alcohol, drugs, dancing, and drama, but things take a sour turn during a game of “Bodies Bodies Bodies” (a party game similar to Mafia or Werewolf). The fun ends after an argument breaks out, and shortly afterwards one of the players is found dead. A real-life version of the game ensues, with accusations and more deaths tearing the group apart.

The murder mystery part is more about the paranoia and conflicts between the characters than it is about the actual deaths - this isn’t a slasher, although there is a bit of violence. What really makes this work is the characters and the way their backstories and personalities are revealed organically without awkward exposition. The cast is great, with Rachel Sennott being the standout - her character Alice is a pitch-perfect satire of a certain type of extremely online post-millennial. She’s really funny and has some of the best line delivery in the whole film (the way she accuses another character’s family of being “upper middle class” as if it were the worst insult possible killed me). Pete Davidson is enjoyable too, he’s really great at playing realistic douchebags. Sometimes this type of character is just an rear end in a top hat for no reason other than that the plot calls for it, but you really get the sense here that he’s not a dick because he’s a bad person - just a privileged dumbass with an easily bruised ego. It’s very natural, almost like Davidson isn’t even acting…

Overall I thought this was great, with just the right amount of satire to be effective without letting it overshadow the mystery or the humor. It has great music, with a score by Disasterpiece (who also did one of my favorite horror scores in recent memory for It Follows) and a lot of pop music I really liked as well. It looks really nice too, especially for a film that largely takes place in dimly lit rooms. I give this a strong recommendation.

4 tiktoks out of 5



12. No One Will Save You (2023)
dir. Brian Duffield
Hulu

Aliens of the grey big-eyed type are seriously underutilized as movie monsters, so it’s cool to see a film embrace them fully, complete with classic saucer-shaped UFOs and glowing tractor beams. The creatures here feel familiar but also appropriately alien at the same time - the film doesn’t explain why some look different than others, or what their behavior means, other than that they are invading the planet and take a special interest in Brynn.

The first hour is relatively straightforward action/sci-fi - the aliens are attacking and Brynn is running away from them. It’s creepy and intense and I thought it worked great. In the last act it goes off the rails a bit - it’s not always clear what’s happening or why, and while I appreciate that it gets kind of weird and doesn’t hold the viewer’s hand through it all, it also left me scratching my head a bit. I more or less followed what was happening, but not so much why it was happening or what it meant thematically. I won’t go into spoilers here, but I felt like the very end could be read in a couple different ways, and when I looked up what the director actually intended it turned out to be the one I thought was the least likely. Maybe that’s just on me, I dunno.

I wasn’t really a fan of the (almost) complete lack of dialogue - I get what it’s going for and I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad choice, but I feel like if you’re going to go that route then you need to have really stellar music and sound design, which this does not. The score is fine and there isn’t anything wrong with the sound, it just doesn’t stand out. Which is kind of a problem when it’s being put front and center. It just feels like a gimmick when compared to something like Under the Skin, which is just a better film in every sense.

I’m focusing on the negatives here but overall I did like this. The first hour is really intense and strong, and while the ending lost me a bit I do appreciate how unconventional it was. It’s absolutely worth checking out, I just think it sometimes misses the mark.

3.5 flying saucers out of 5

Total: 12
Watched: Saw | The Pope's Exorcist | Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust | Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind | Hiruko the Goblin | Ghostwatch | Happy Birthday to Me | Doctor X | Murders at the Zoo | Mr. Vampire | Bodies Bodies Bodies | No One Will Save You
Challenges: 4/13
New to me: 6/6
History Lesson: 5/5 - 30s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2020s
Around the World: 2/4 - Asia, Europe
Horror is for Everyone: 1/3

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Class3KillStorm posted:


#11. No One Will Save You (Hulu)

The thing that really brought it down to only average levels for me, though, was the ending. I've been too brain-poisoned by a combination of Evil Dead II and "Doctor Who" - when Our Heroine, who has managed to kill pretty much every alien that has come her way so far, gets captured and taken up to one of the alien ships at the big finale, I kept imagining that this was only gonna end with thousands of dead aliens. Finally give the lead a chance to talk, and make it a badass line: "You know I've killed every one of you I've met, right? And you want to bring me here?" They go a different way with it, fortunately, but I'm not sure if the ambiguous ending really works... I take it her grief and isolation make her an unsuitable choice for... whatever it is the aliens want/are doing, but is she in control at the end? Are the aliens also setting up the Earth to be a 1950s sock hop for some reason? Is it all a dream? Is the film really saying that that kind of isolation and guilt is a good thing? I thought the aliens were supposed to be a metaphor for self-actualization - doesn't the ending fly in the face of all that? I'm left with more questions than answers, and I don't know if the film really has thought out what it means to say. Or if I care enough to really keep trying to unravel it.

Yeah the ending left me confused more than anything. In an interview the director confirmed that everyone except for Brynn is being controlled by the aliens. Which doesn't really explain why everything is so picture perfect for her - did the aliens read her mind and then base the behavior of the other humans on what she wanted? Is she somehow influencing them, like the aliens made her a conspirator in their domination of humanity and she's super happy about it? I can't work it out either.

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Basebf555 posted:

:spooky:BITE-SIZED HORROR:spooky:

Watch a horror anthology film OR watch 60+ minutes of horror shorts.

For some reason I thought "watch an anthology" and "watch 60+ minutes of shorts" were two separate challenges, and I ended up watching like 45 minutes of shorts in addition to this before I realized. Oh well.



13. V/H/S/85 (2023)
dir. various
Shudder

By this point we know what we’re getting from a V/H/S film - a collection of found-footage style shorts that lean towards the schlocky and gory, and as the title indicates these are all set in 1985. I’m generally a fan of the series - like most anthologies they are uneven, but overall they are solid films and most have at least one or two standout segments. This entry follows the same formula, for better or worse.

The framing story is sparse at first, and as a way to connect the segments together it works well enough. It turns into a full segment in its own right by the end, which is neat as it means there is very little filler here. The first segment vacationers getting attacked on a lake (“No Wake”) is probably the highlight, and it even ties into a different segment later in the film that is also pretty good. We also get an OK short about an earthquake in Mexico that uncovers an ancient god, and a one-woman stage show warning of the dangers of technology. Neither are bad, just not super memorable. Good gore in the latter one though. The final segment (before the framing story fully takes over at least) is about a killer who sends the police videotapes of his murders days before he commits them, and I enjoyed that too.

So that’s 2 OK segments, 1 good, 2 great, plus a decent framing story. This probably won’t blow your socks off but it’s a worthwhile entry in the series. Also it ends with an ‘80s-style end credits song that recaps the movie, which rules.

3.5 Eye Phones out of 5

Total: 13
Watched: Saw | The Pope's Exorcist | Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust | Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind | Hiruko the Goblin | Ghostwatch | Happy Birthday to Me | Doctor X | Murders at the Zoo | Mr. Vampire | Bodies Bodies Bodies | No One Will Save You | V/H/S/85
Challenges: 5/13
New to me: 6/6
History Lesson: 5/5 - 30s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2020s
Around the World: 2/4 - Asia, Europe
Horror is for Everyone: 1/3

gey muckle mowser fucked around with this message at 23:39 on Oct 9, 2023

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
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Buglord

Hollismason posted:

Damnit I need to keep a list of movies I've watched .

just use Letterboxd, you can just mark movies as Watched without having to also log/review them if you don't want. When I first created my account it was kind of fun to just flip through different lists of films and mark the ones I've seen

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

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Buglord

Von Pluring posted:

10. Old
I actually thought this was a comedy and had a grand old time until the credits when I saw that it was made by M. Night Shyamalan. Bad acting and I mean very bad acting, a very silly plot, kids (I mean people who were recently kids) having sex, getting pregnant and whatnot. Really dumb and laughable. 1/5 weird beaches.

Learning that M Night directed it made it retroactively less fun? It’s 100% intentionally a silly movie, I mean it has a character named “Mid-Sized Sedan”. I don’t think he gets nearly enough credit as a director, he knows exactly what kind of movies he is making.

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
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Buglord


14. Saw X (2023)
dir. Kevin Greutert
Theater

Calling this “the best Saw movie since the original” is damning with faint praise, but it’s true. I have a soft spot for these films even though they are generally not great - the mix of soap opera-esque melodrama and absurdly gory traps works better than it should. I sort of admire the way they keep adding to the already convoluted lore around Jigsaw and his apprentices without contradicting the events of previous films. Whoever is in charge of continuity for the Saw franchise deserves a raise.

The first half hour or so of this is odd - it’s just John Kramer going through an experimental cancer treatment in Mexico. No violence or gore apart from a brief fantasy he has while in the hospital. It works relatively well, mostly because I think Tobin Bell is a pretty decent actor, but when you give it much thought it starts to fall apart. This isn’t an origin story showing what finally pushed the mild-mannered Kramer over the edge - the placement on the timeline isn’t exact but he’s already been Jigsaw for some time, so we’re asked to sympathize with a known serial killer like he’s just a sad old man who has been wronged. I get that Jigsaw is “likable” in the same way that people like Freddy Krueger or Hannibal Lecter, but it’s still a weird choice to ask the audience to root for him while he tortures people.

Of course the meat of the film is the series of “games” he puts his victims through. They aren’t quite as over-the-top as some of the ones in previous films, but they seem extra gory and gross. I’m not especially squeamish but there are a couple moments in this that had me gagging a bit. Since this is set right around the same time as the first Saw, I was hoping it might go back to the more psychological thriller style of that film, but it goes in the opposite direction instead. The first couple of games in this are mostly just gross and not super interesting, but at a certain point it starts getting better and things culminate in a pretty decent “Hello Zepp” moment. As far as this franchise goes it is pretty well executed.

If you don’t care for the Saw films, this will absolutely not win you over, but if you do enjoy the series then you’ll almost certainly like this one too.

3.5 ounces of bone marrow out of 5

Total: 14
Watched: Saw | The Pope's Exorcist | Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust | Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind | Hiruko the Goblin | Ghostwatch | Happy Birthday to Me | Doctor X | Murders at the Zoo | Mr. Vampire | Bodies Bodies Bodies | No One Will Save You | V/H/S/85 | Saw X
Challenges: 5/13
New to me: 6/6
History Lesson: 5/5 - 30s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2020s
Around the World: 2/4 - Asia, Europe
Horror is for Everyone: 1/3

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Erin M. Fiasco posted:

32. Willy's Wonderland (2021)

When I first saw this movie I was so caught off guard by it and had such a great time that I thought it was one of the best bonkers horror-comedies I had ever seen, rivalling Evil Dead 2. Upon rewatch, I don't think I'd go quite that high, especially since I've seen them both so close together, but hot drat if this movie isn't still a ton of fun. The scenes that were a blast still are, with Nic Cage's incredible wordless physical performance as the put-upon janitor just absolutely slaughtering murderous animatronics between breaks remaining one of my favorite horror performances of his. The part where he curbstomps the gorilla in the bathroom and then cleans it up had me in hysterics the first time. The social commentary of how people in power abuse minimum wage workers because maintaining the status quo keeps them in positions of power is still great. There's oil spilled and blood and guts and the pinball training montage is fantastic. The jumpscares are still entertaining, too, and the sets are weird and varied which makes for a great funhouse film.

There was at least one time this time around where I wish they had stayed with the action instead of cutting back and forth. The backstory and lore behind all of it also makes little logical sense but I love how weirdly goofy and horror-brained it is. The shock value of the movie did wear off just a bit on the second watch, but at the same time I know that if I got with a group of friends who hadn't seen it and they wanted to, I'd gladly watch it all over again. It also has the second funniest use of Freebird in a movie, just behind The Devil's Rejects.

All in all, some good clean fun.

Rating: 4.5 Staff T-Shirts Out Of 5

I'm a Nic Cage fanboy and was optimistic about this one based on the silly premise, but I thought it was incredibly boring and bad. I gave it 1 star on Letterboxd, putting it in the bottom 20 of the ~1150 films I've rated on there. You're the second person I've seen on these forums post about how they thought it was great though and now I feel like I should give it another chance.

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

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witches?



Buglord
e: /\/\/\ :hai:

Mover posted:

It’s interesting to see such glowing reviews for Prince of Darkness this year. Personally, I think it had some of Carpenter’s most interesting ideas ever, and some great single images, but the overall execution kinda sucked

Prince of Darkness suffers from having way too many characters, none of which are memorable or interesting. I've seen it a bunch of times and I don't think I could tell you a single character's name, or even what they look like apart from Donald Pleasance and Victor Wong. And Alice Cooper of course. It does have some great stuff in it though.

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Basebf555 posted:

:spooky:CHILDHOOD TRAUMA :spooky:

ok so I missed the "but haven't seen in at least 10 years" part of the challenge until just now - it's only been probably 4-5 years since my last watch of this. But it's still the movie that scared me the most as a kid and the only other one I can really think of for this is Child's Play which I have also seen within the past 10 years, so I'm sticking with this.



15. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
dir. Wes Craven
blu-ray
rewatch

Freddy Krueger gave me nightmares long before I ever actually saw any of these films. I remember seeing something on TV as a kid where Freddy was introducing some clips or a show or something (it might’ve been the series “Freddy’s Nightmares”) and I distinctly remember him saying something along the lines of “How’d you like to wake up and find me sitting next to you? Or worse, not wake up at all!” and it really freaked me out. I also remember seeing a clip of the scene where Johnny Depp is “eaten” by his bed and that was pure nightmare fuel for a little kid.

Decades later, this is one of my favorite horror movies. There are a lot of iconic scenes here that I still find scary - Tina being dragged up to the ceiling and murdered by an invisible force and Nancy’s nightmare where she sees the bodybag in the school hallway are the two that creep me out the most, but there are plenty of other small moments in this that hold up really well. There are a couple of terrible special effects that I can’t imagine ever looked good - Freddy’s stretched-out arms in his first scene are hilariously lame, and Nancy’s mom turns into the world’s most obvious dummy in the final scene, but for the most part the effects look great.

I go back and forth between this and Scream as Wes Craven’s best film - I think Scream is nearly perfect, but this one is just so original and scary that the handful of janky effects hardly matter. An absolute classic.

5 cups of coffee out of 5

Total: 15
Watched: Saw | The Pope's Exorcist | Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust | Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind | Hiruko the Goblin | Ghostwatch | Happy Birthday to Me | Doctor X | Murders at the Zoo | Mr. Vampire | Bodies Bodies Bodies | No One Will Save You | V/H/S/85 | Saw X | A Nightmare on Elm Street
Challenges: 6/13
New to me: 6/6
History Lesson: 5/5 - 30s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2020s
Around the World: 2/4 - Asia, Europe
Horror is for Everyone: 1/3

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Basebf555 posted:

:spooky:FREDDY VS. JASON 20TH ANNIVERSERY CHALLENGE:spooky:

watch another “Monster Mash” movie



16. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
dir. Roy William Neill
blu-ray
rewatch

When a pair of grave robbers raid the Talbot family mausoleum for valuables, they inadvertently bring Larry Talbot back from his state of near-death. Once again desperate to either cure himself of the curse of the werewolf or to finally die for real, Talbot seeks out Elsa Frankenstein after hearing of her father’s work.

This is much more of a Wolf Man sequel than it is a Frankenstein movie, which is probably a good thing as Larry Talbot is the most relatable and interesting character out of all the Universal monsters. Frankenstein’s monster (played by Bela Lugosi here) doesn’t do a whole lot besides lumber around and scare villagers, but we do get some fun mad science stuff towards the end as another character becomes obsessed with Dr. Frankenstein’s work and turns Larrry’s quest for eternal peace into an experiment to make the monster more powerful.

This is pretty good - it’s not on the same level of any of the standalone Universal monster films, but it mostly feels like a natural continuation of Larry’s story and not just an excuse to force a crossover. There is some great spooky atmosphere, fun sets and costumes, and of course the classic Wolf Man transformations. There isn’t anything essential here, but it’s more of what makes the Universal films fun, and if you’re a fan of those then you’re probably going to get something out of this too.

3.5 full moons out of 5

Basebf555 posted:

:spooky:HORROR IS FOR EVERYONE:spooky:

- A film by an LGBTQ+ director



17. The Invisible Man (1933)
dir. James Whale
blu-ray
rewatch

I know a lot of people love this one and consider it one of the best Universal monster movies, but I just can’t see it.



Hot take and bad pun aside, I’ve seen this quite a few times and every time I come away kind of lukewarm on it. I don’t like most of the first half - there is hardly any plot and Griffin acts more like an annoying dick than a madman. The humor falls flat and the innkeeper’s wife is unbelievably irritating. She screeches with equal intensity whether the invisible man is violently knocking people around or if he just doesn’t want any mustard.

It does pick up quite a lot in the second half though and on this watch I think I finally get what people like about this. Griffin’s rampage and the ensuing manhunt is fun, even if some of it gets really goofy. The idea of what he’s capable of is scarier than anything that happens on screen (although derailing the train and killing hundreds of people just for laughs is chilling, and gives him the highest bodycount of any of the classic monsters by a wide margin).

I still think this is the weakest of the Universal monster films, but I liked it more on this rewatch than I ever have before, so that’s something.

3 mustachioed British policemen saying "wot's all this?" out of 5

Total: 17
Watched: Saw | The Pope's Exorcist | Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust | Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind | Hiruko the Goblin | Ghostwatch | Happy Birthday to Me | Doctor X | Murders at the Zoo | Mr. Vampire | Bodies Bodies Bodies | No One Will Save You | V/H/S/85 | Saw X | A Nightmare on Elm Street | Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man | The Invisible Man
Challenges: 7/13
New to me: 6/6
History Lesson: 5/5 - 30s, 40s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2020s
Around the World: 2/4 - Asia, Europe
Horror is for Everyone: 2/3

gey muckle mowser fucked around with this message at 01:49 on Oct 14, 2023

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord


18. Phantoms (1998)
dir. Joe Chappelle
Amazon

After nearly the entire population of the small town of Snowfield mysteriously vanishes, a group of survivors led by the sheriff (Ben Affleck) and town doctor (Joanna Going) try to make sense of what happened while fighting for their own survival. A mysterious message reading “Timothy Flyte The Ancient Enemy” scrawled across a mirror leads them to the only man on the planet (Peter O’Toole) who has a chance of saving them.

I’ve read the Dean Koontz novel this is based on and remember thinking that the premise was good but the writing sucked, so I was expecting about the same from this. It definitely has some issues, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked it quite a bit! The way the central mystery unfolds doesn’t always make sense, but it’s fun anyway. I didn’t really care about the characters’ backstories, mostly because they had very little bearing on the plot of the film, but also because the performances mostly aren’t great. I like Rose McGowan a lot but she doesn’t get much to do here, and Affleck and Going are OK at best. I blame the writing more than the talent of the actors, though. At least Peter O’Toole is fun, and Liev Schreiber is always good at playing a creep.

The movie wastes very little time getting to the spooky stuff and keeps up a wide variety of scares, creatures, and gross-out moments throughout. Not all of them work, but it throws enough ideas out to keep things interesting. There are some surprisingly good practical special effects, especially ones involving Liev Schreiber’s character towards the end of the film that would be right at home in a John Carpenter film, but unfortunately there are a fair amount of lousy CGI effects too. Nothing exceptionally bad, it just gets a little too ambitious for a film from 1997.

Overall I had more fun with this than I expected to. Worth checking out if you’re looking for a late ‘90s horror movie that’s a bit of a deeper cut.

3.5 giant moths out of 5




19. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
dir. John Carl Buechler
blu-ray
rewatch

A young girl with telekinetic powers named Carri- I mean, Tina - accidentally kills her father at Crystal Lake by causing the dock he was standing on to collapse (she was angry at him for hitting her mother “again”, a fact that seems important but never comes up again). Years later, she is brought back to Crystal Lake by her doctor who is supposedly treating her psychological trauma, but is really only interested in studying her superpowers. While standing by the water and wishing that her father was still alive, Tina inadvertently brings Jason Voorhees back to life instead. He immediately starts doing his thing, but Tina’s powers give her a unique edge over any of his previous targets.

It’s been a few years since I last watched this, and it’s a lot better than I remember. It probably helps that I didn’t just watch parts 1 through 6 immediately beforehand like last time. Even without her powers I like Tina as a final girl, and having her doctor act as a secondary antagonist adds another interesting layer to the film. Jason looks rad as hell here - they really lean into the hulking waterlogged zombie monster look, and when he loses his mask in the final act the makeup on his face looks amazing. It could’ve done more (or anything really) with the idea of Tina wishing her serial abuser father back to life but getting a serial killer instead, but maybe that’s asking too much from a Friday the 13th sequel.

Unfortunately the deaths in this were really butchered by the MPAA in their attempt to crack down on movie violence, with most of them cut down to practically nothing. I don’t necessarily need to see lots of blood and gore to enjoy a slasher film, but many of the kills in this are edited down to the point where they lose any impact at all. The blu-ray includes the cut scenes as a special feature, but they are taken from an ancient VHS workprint and the quality is terrible. Even looking like poo poo and without any score or sound added they are clearly way better than what we got. One of the best kills in the film, where Jason murders a woman by picking her up in her sleeping bag and bashing it against a tree, was originally longer and much more brutal - he swings her multiple times instead of just once, with an increasing amount of blood pouring out of the bag each time. It rules and it’s very disappointing to see what could’ve been. Perhaps to make up for the lack of gore, the film doubles down on the sex and nudity instead. Rarely do five minutes go by without a scene of characters loving, about to gently caress, or just having finished loving. This has to be the horniest movie of the series.

The final showdown between Jason and Tina is really excellent - as I said his makeup looks rad, her powers are cool, and the violence is finally actually a bit brutal. I guess the ratings board doesn’t care so much about violence towards zombies. It’s one of more memorable sequences in the whole franchise.

This is a super underrated Friday the 13th sequel, and on this viewing I appreciated it more than ever. I think that if the original kills were left in tact this may have even been a contender for one of the best films in the whole series. Normally when I feel like a F13 film I go for 2, 4, or 6, but I think I’ll be adding this to that rotation from now on.

4 bloodless kills out of 5

Total: 19
Watched: Saw | The Pope's Exorcist | Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust | Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind | Hiruko the Goblin | Ghostwatch | Happy Birthday to Me | Doctor X | Murders at the Zoo | Mr. Vampire | Bodies Bodies Bodies | No One Will Save You | V/H/S/85 | Saw X | A Nightmare on Elm Street | Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man | The Invisible Man | Phantoms | Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
Challenges: 7/13
New to me: 6/6
History Lesson: 5/5 - 30s, 40s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2020s
Around the World: 2/4 - Asia, Europe
Horror is for Everyone: 2/3

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Weird Sandwich posted:

3. Creep



Found out about this one from a goon-adjacent podcast, and I'm glad I did because it's great and I would never have given it a chance on my own because the title is so generic. This one is an extremely low key production with basically just 2 guys in the cast, the titular Creep and an unlucky videographer hired to follow him around for a day. Mark Duplass puts in an amazing performance as said creep, sometimes funny and sometimes menacing, with unclear intentions. This is a certain type of lovely guy you've probably met in real life who delights in making people uncomfortable. The terror comes from the rising unease of not knowing exactly how far this guy wants to go.

Of course by the end, he turns out to be a proper serial killer. Something about the way the kill scene is shot, in bright sunlight but far away from the camera and minimised in the lower right corner, made it feel scarier than I was expecting. Maybe it made it feel more “real”, like something that could be recorded accidentally by a passerby, compared to the first person shaky cam that I'm used to in found footage stuff.

5/5

The scene where Duplass is wearing the wolf mask and blocking the exit creeped me the gently caress out, I still think about it a lot.

Creep 2 is also great, I actually think it's a little better. Builds on the first in interesting ways and goes in some unexpected directions.

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Basebf555 posted:

:spooky:BACK OF THE VIDEO STORE CHALLENGE:spooky:

watch a movie that has less than 10 reviews on Letterboxd

Finding a movie that has less than 10 reviews and is actually available to watch anywhere was kind of tricky, but then I remembered that I had a box of DVDs in my closet that I got for really cheap because they all had loose discs. This one had 8 watches and only 1 review before I posted mine.
 


20. Scarred (2004)
dir. Steve Looker
DVD

On the one-year anniversary of his daughter Jen’s disappearance, her father performs an exhaustive search by going to the extremely remote area she disappeared in and taping a single flyer to a random tree. While there he meets Andy, a young man who just narrowly escaped being killed by a maniac who he says is also holding Jen captive. As they return to the site of the massacre to rescue Jen, Andy recounts the the details of the ordeal they went through.

This is an extremely low budget British indie film, and it’s… well, there’s a reason I’m only the second person to review it on Letterboxd. Things like poor sets, actors, and effects are forgivable in a film like this, because they generally cost money and this was funded using spare change found in the director’s sofa. However I don’t think it’s too much to ask that the plot make at least a little bit of sense. The first half sort of holds together, but most of the last act of the film takes place in a shack where the characters are “trapped” (although they aren’t locked in, they have a gun, and the killer drives off and leaves them alone, so it’s not clear why they can’t just leave), and it was just completely impossible to follow what was supposed to be happening. In one moment Jen is shooting at the killer, and then in the next shot she is upset because another character shot the killer who she calls “my boyfriend”, and then in the shot immediately following that she is back to fighting off the attackers and the boyfriend comment is never mentioned again. That’s not even the weirdest moment, it’s just the only one I could wrap my head around enough to put into words. The whole sequence feels like they just shot random scenes with no script and then attempted to edit them together into a coherent story later on. I had to rewatch it twice and still couldn’t make any sense of it.

Anyway I feel kind of bad making fun of this, but also it’s not likely this review is going to deter anyone from watching it. The only reason I have it is because I bought a super cheap box of random DVDs that had broken cases or loose discs from a local indie distributor and this was in it. If you somehow also have this buried in a cardboard box in your closet, leave it there.

1 missing person flyer out of 5

Total: 20
Watched: Saw | The Pope's Exorcist | Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust | Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind | Hiruko the Goblin | Ghostwatch | Happy Birthday to Me | Doctor X | Murders at the Zoo | Mr. Vampire | Bodies Bodies Bodies | No One Will Save You | V/H/S/85 | Saw X | A Nightmare on Elm Street | Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man | The Invisible Man | Phantoms | Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood | Scarred
Challenges: 8/13
New to me: 6/6
History Lesson: 5/5 - 30s, 40s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2020s
Around the World: 2/4 - Asia, Europe
Horror is for Everyone: 2/3

gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Basebf555 posted:

:spooky:”THAT GUY” CHALLENGE FEATURING DICK MILLER AND KEITH DAVID :spooky:

[i]Watch a movie in which “that guy” character actor Dick Miller appears.

Dick Miller has a small cameo in this, he's in one scene and has maybe 3 lines.



21. Amityville 1992: It's About Time (1992)
dir. Tony Randel
Shudder

After a business trip, single father Jake returns home to his teenage kids who are being watched by his ex-girlfriend Andrea. As a souvenir he brings back an antique clock, which came from a house in - you guessed it - Amityville, New York. Shortly after, Jake is viciously attacked by a neighborhood dog, and while laid up in bed he begins to act erratically. Strange spooky stuff starts happening to everyone in the family, and as the haunting intensifies it’s clear they are running out of… time.

Since the name of a town can’t be copyrighted, there are a huge number of films with “Amityville” in the title. I haven’t seen any of them apart from the original, but I understand that for the most part they have almost nothing to do with the actual murders/haunting. This one makes at weak attempt at fitting in the iconic Amityville house into some scenes and vaguely referencing the town, but I’m guessing it was shoved into an unrelated script late in development because it is entirely unnecessary and doesn’t even make much sense. “Haunted antique clock once owned by a French necromancer” is already a fine premise, having the clock also from the Amityville house adds nothing.

This is better than I expected! Not a great film by any stretch, but it’s a decent haunted house movie with a couple effective scenes and some fun effects. The plot as a whole doesn’t really come together into something cohesive, but it’s entertaining throughout. Some of the acting is questionable, especially from Jonathan Penner, who plays Andrea’s boyfriend. I’ve never seen somehow so bad at acting scared.

If this had not been branded an Amityville film, I think it might be remembered more fondly. If you like cheesy early ‘90s horror, this is fun enough to be worth a watch.

3.5 evil clocks out of 5

Total: 21
Watched: Saw | The Pope's Exorcist | Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust | Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind | Hiruko the Goblin | Ghostwatch | Happy Birthday to Me | Doctor X | Murders at the Zoo | Mr. Vampire | Bodies Bodies Bodies | No One Will Save You | V/H/S/85 | Saw X | A Nightmare on Elm Street | Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man | The Invisible Man | Phantoms | Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood | Scarred | Amityville 1992: It's About Time
Challenges: 9/13
New to me: 6/6
History Lesson: 5/5 - 30s, 40s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2020s
Around the World: 2/4 - Asia, Europe
Horror is for Everyone: 2/3

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gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord

Action Shakespeare posted:

16. Sleepaway Camp (Robert Hiltzik, 1983)

There's definitely something to dig into here, be it gender expression, mental illness, or even psychosexual trauma. The problem is none of it is all that...good. There's room to be both hosed up and earnest, but all that earnesty went towards baseball games with DA BOYS, which were delightful don't get me wrong. But the rest just turned into shock value.

:spooky: HORROR IS FOR EVERYONE :spooky: 3/3 (LGBTQ+ Begrudgingly counted if only for me having to watch it as a trans woman) CLEARED

the other characters' reactions to Angela at the very end kind of crack me up, they're way more shocked about her having a penis than they are about the fact that she is holding a child's severed head

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