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Gonna break with my tradition of opening with a David DeCoteau nomination by nominating Fred Olen Ray instead. Films: a bunch, a whole bunch, quite a few, and a lot
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Dec 4, 2023 18:04
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Solo director nomination: Noboru Iguchi Films: The Machine Girl Dead Sushi Zombie rear end: Toilet of the Dead RoboGeisha Tomie: Unlimited Ghost Squad Nuigulumar Z Sukeban Boy Raining Blood Kazuo Umezu’s Horror Theater: Snake Girl Cat-Eyed Boy A Larva to Love The World YAMIZUKAN IDOL NEVER DiES Tales of Terror: Gi Those are all of his films as the sole director. He’s also contributed to anthology films (e.g., The ABCs of Death), but also some multi-director full-length features (e.g., Mutant Girls Squad). Could we go ahead and get a ruling on how those latter types of films should be handled in nominations?
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Dec 4, 2023 18:13
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Renominated teams: Team Drowning in Atmosphere (Curious Stories, Crooked Symbols is the used-up entry) Team Australian Aberration Team Metro Noir Horror Anime Team Desperation Boils Over And from back in 2022, Team Low-Budget But Lovable Also nominating Ataru Oikawa as a solo director. Films: Tomie The Groaning Drain Tokyo Psycho Tomie: Beginning Tomie: Revenge Apartment 1303 Shrill Cries of Summer 9 + 1 Shrill Cries: Reshuffle Shojyo Senso
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Dec 6, 2023 02:34
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More solo director nominations. Koji Shiraishi Films: more than I want to type out Kiyoshi Kurosawa Films: Sweet Home The Guard from the Underground Door III Pulse Kazuo Umezu’s Horror Theater: House of Bugs Retribution Creepy Daguerrotype Ruggero Deodato Films: Cannibal Holocaust House on the Edge of the Park Body Count Cut and Run The Washing Machine Phantom of Death Dial: Help Ballad in Blood Franck Khalfoun Films: Maniac P2 Amityville: The Awakening Night of the Hunted Prey i-Lived Hideo Nakata Films: Curse, Death & Spirit Don't Look Up Ring Ring 2 Dark Water The Ring Two Kaidan The Incite Mill The Complex Ghost Theater White Lily The Woman Who Keeps a Murderer Sadako Stigmatized Properties It's in the Woods The Forbidden Play Adrián Garcia Bogliano Films: Rooms for Tourists Scream at Night 36 Steps I’ll Never Die Alone Cold Sweat Here Comes the Devil Late Phases Evil Games Black Circle Come Play With Me The Exorcist Darthemed fucked around with this message at 07:45 on Dec 6, 2023 |
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Dec 6, 2023 07:21
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Nominating a couple more solo directors. Ratno Timoer Films: The Devil’s Sword Jungle Heat Revenge of the Ninja The Haunted House Galunggung Genie Satan’s Revenge Female Ghost Norio Tsuruta Films: Scary True Stories Scary True Stories: Night Two Scary True Stories: Realm of Spectres The Shivering Mu Experience Shin rei bideo I: Shinrei shashin-shuu Shin rei bideo II: Kyôfu taikendan-shuu A Haunted School Honto ni Atta Kowai Hanashi - Special 1 Ring 0 Scarecrow Premonition Dream Cruise Honto ni Atta Kowai Hanashi: 2008 Summer Special Orochi - Blood Ousama Game P.O.V. A Cursed Film Talk to the Dead Z Honto ni Atta Kowai Hanashi: 15th Anniversary Special Honto ni Atta Kowai Hanashi Natsu Hen 2015 Honto ni Atta Kowai Hanashi 2016 Honto ni Atta Kowai Hanashi 2017 The Perilous Internet Ring Honto ni Atta Kowai Hanashi: Summer Special 2022
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Dec 7, 2023 05:24
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Nominating Team Tomie (And Pals) Minus Ataru Oikawa. Ataru Oikawa outgrew this team, with fourteen horror films of their own, so this team is comprised of every other director who's handled a Tomie film. Toshirô Inomata Tomie: Another Face Fujirô Mitsuishi Tomie: Replay Shun Nakahara Tomie: Forbidden Fruit Tomohiro Kubo Tomie vs Tomie Tomohiro Kubo, Tomoyuki Akashi, and Hideaki Yoshida Oboeteiru Tomoyuki Akashi and Kenji Nakanishi Kadokawa Mystery & Horror Tales Vol. 1 Kenji Nakanishi and Takayuki Sato Kadokawa Mystery & Horror Tales Vol. 2 Tomoyuki Akashi, Toshio Oida, and Hideaki Yoshida Kadokawa Mystery & Horror Tales Vol. 3 Kenji Nakanishi The Face Burglar Street of Gravestones I can't find much info on Street of Gravestones, so if we locate a copy and it turns out to be a short film, can I delete it in advance?
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Dec 8, 2023 03:55
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Nominating Team Fresh Styles, a group of directors who each did only one horror film, but found ways to push the genre to wonderful places not visited nearly often enough (in my estimation). Harrison Atkins Lace Crater Mark Goldblatt Dead Heat Joseph Kahn Detention Bigas Luna Anguish Jiri Sádek The Noonday Witch Cindy Sherman Office Killer
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Dec 9, 2023 05:33
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Nominating Team Snoopernatural, a sextet of movies about investigations that get weird. Cyril Frankel The Witches David Prior The Empty Man The Autopsy Ricky Umberger The Fear Footage The Fear Footage 2: Curse of the Tape The Fear Footage 3AM
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Dec 9, 2023 22:18
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Darthemed posted:Nominating Team Snoopernatural, a sextet of movies about investigations that get weird. Revised team nomination: Cyril Frankel The Witches Alejandro Amenábar Tesis The Others Regression Ricky Umberger The Fear Footage The Fear Footage 2: Curse of the Tape The Fear Footage 3AM
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Dec 10, 2023 17:52
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Darthemed posted:Revised team nomination: Adding Antoine Le Followed to this team. And a few more solo director nominations. Greg Lamberson Slime City Undying Love Slime City Massacre Dry Bones Killer Rack Johnny Gruesome Widow's Point Álex de la Iglesia The Day of the Beast The Baby's Room The Last Circus Witching & Bitching The Bar Veneciafrenia Hiroki Iwasawa Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 42 Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video 43 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 44 Noroi no Saito 2 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 45 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 47 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 48 It Really Was! Cursed Video 50 Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video 51 Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video Vol. 54 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 55 Spirit Box Spirit Box 4 Paranoiac Spirit Box 2 Spirit Box 3 Spirit Box: Constellation Eisuke Naito The Crone Puzzle Litchi Hikari Club Dorome: Girls’ Side Dorome: Boys’ Side Liverleaf Poison Girl Mari Asato The Boy from Hell Twilight Syndrome: Deadly Theme Park Ju-on: Black Ghost Cellular Girlfriends Ring of Curse The Chasing World 3 The Chasing World 4 The Chasing World 5 Bilocation Fatal Frame Under Your Bed Yoshihiro Nakamura Seiki Matsu No Noroi Zoushoku Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 3 Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video 4 Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video 5 Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video 6 Lizard Baby @Babymail Asoko no Seki The Inerasable
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Dec 10, 2023 21:04
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Nominating Team Ladies Love Cruel Jams Marina Sargenti Mirror Mirror Child of Darkness, Child of Light Jackie Kong Blood Diner The Being Amy Holden Jones The Slumber Party Massacre Anne Goursaud Embrace of the Vampire
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Dec 12, 2023 02:18
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Nominating Team Japanese Whimsy Nobuhiko Obayashi House The Discarnates Cute Devil Legend of the Cat Monster Hajime Ohata Henge Ghost Storyteller Evil Idol Song
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Dec 14, 2023 06:26
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Using my bye for Ratno Timoer.
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Dec 15, 2023 22:08
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Solo director nominations Yôhei Fukuda Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 16 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 17 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 18 Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video 19 Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video Vol. 20 Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video Vol. 21 DEATH FILE Kokkuri-san - A Really Scary Story DEATH FILE2 Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad Tokyo Gore School Real Kakurenbo 2 Death Tube- Broadcast Murder Show X Game Scary True Stories: Night 18 Kotoribako Death Tube 2 Mysterious! Unbelievable Shock! Approaching the mystery of the cursed sealed photo that kills people! Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Douga Mysterious! Unbelievable: Approaching the Enigma of Truly Terrifying Lucrative Properties! Eyes The Labyrinth of the Spirit World: Chapter 1 Nobuhide Kikuchi No Noroi Jikenbo Mysterious! Unbelievable: Impact! Journey through the Terrifying Spiritual Hell Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 58 Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video Vol.56 Honto ni Atta! Noroi No Video Vol.57 Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video Vol. 59 Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video Vol. 60 Honto ni Atta! Noroi No Video 62 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 63 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 64 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 65 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 66 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 67 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 68 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 69 Honto ni Atta! Noroi No Video 70 Kazuto Kodama Scary True Stories: Chaku-Shin Final Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video Vol. 25 Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video 23 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 26 Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video Vol. 29 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 27 Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video 28 The Slit-Mouthed Woman 0: The Beginning Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 31 Real Kakurenbo Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 33 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 34 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 35 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 36 Sealed Video: Cursed Forest Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 37 Sealed Video 2: Record of Curse Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video 40 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 41 Sealed Video 3: Curse of Abandoned Tunnel Sealed Video 4: Inugami’s Magic Sealed Video 5: Love Hotel Grudge Sealed Video 6: Cursed Power Spot Tokyo Videos of Horror Tokyo Videos of Horror 2 Tokyo Videos of Horror 3 Hitokowa Tokyo Videos of Horror 4 Tokyo Videos of Horror 5 Dusk Tokyo Videos of Horror 6 Tokyo Videos of Horror 7 Hitokowa 2: Deadly Hauntings Tokyo Videos of Horror 8 Hitokowa 3: The Killing Hour Tokyo Videos of Horror Panic Collection Tokyo Videos of Horror 10 Tokyo Videos of Horror 11 Tokyo Videos of Horror 12 Tokyo Videos of Horror 13 Tokyo Videos of Horror 14 Tokyo Videos of Horror 15 Tokyo Videos of Horror 16 Tokyo Videos of Horror 17 Tokyo Videos of Horror 18 Tokyo Videos of Horror 19 Tokyo Videos of Horror 20 Tokyo Videos of Horror 21 Tokyo Videos of Horror 22 Tokyo Videos of Horror 23 Tokyo Videos of Horror 24 Kazuyuki Sakamoto Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video: Special 4 Mysterious! Unbelievable: EX Mysterious! Unbelievable: Special 2 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 11 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 12 Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video: Special 5 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 13 Honto Ni Atta! Noroi No Video 14 Death Train It Really Was! Cursed Video 15 Kokkuri-san: Nihon-ban Authentic Recordings! Cursed Cell Phone Photo 1: Ghost Mail ‘Missed Call’ Authentic Recordings! Cursed Cell Phone Photo 2: Ghost Mail ‘Infection’ Once You Understand It Once You Understand It 2 Kotaro Terauchi Mysterious! Unbelievable: Documentary! Cursed Photographs Scary True Stories: Night 3 Scary True Stories: Chaku-Shin Honto ni Atta! Kokkuri-san no Noroi - Jitsuroku Kokuri Scarier Stories Than Ghosts Vol.4 Scarier Stories Than Ghosts Vol.3 Authentic Recordings! Cursed Urban Legends: The Underworld of Tokyo Authentic Recordings! Cursed Urban Legends: Shocking Sealed Urban Legends The Scissors Massacre Suberanai Kowai Hanashi Off Limit: Rec The Possession in Japan Cursed Mask Paranormal Surveillance Camera 8 Paranormal Surveillance Camera 9 Paranormal Surveillance Camera 10 Paranormal Surveillance Camera 11 Paranormal Surveillance Camera 12 Halloween Nightmare Paranormal Surveillance Camera 13 Paranormal Surveillance Camera 14 Paranormal Surveillance Camera 15 Paranormal Surveillance Camera 16 Paranormal Surveillance Camera 17 Paranormal Surveillance Camera: Legend Paranormal Surveillance Camera: Legacy Paranormal Surveillance Camera: Ruin Master Border Camera Paranormal Master Tape Border Camera 2 Border Camera 3 Border Camera 4 Paranormal Master Tape 2 Curse of the Apocalypse: Chapter 2 Curse of the Apocalypse: Chapter 7 Curse of the Apocalypse: Chapter 9
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Dec 17, 2023 22:00
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Nominating Team Bad Family Dynamics Joseph Ruben The Good Son The Stepfather Dreamscape Dennis Dimster Mikey Pascal Franchot Milo Richard Donner The Omen Alan Briggs Suffer, Little Children Lew Lehman The Pit Not sure which of these have already been run, but I wanted to get this in before the deadline, and I ended up with a close/open schedule for work tonight and tomorrow. Darthemed fucked around with this message at 06:54 on Dec 18, 2023 |
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Dec 18, 2023 06:50
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Figures that my Fresh Styles team pulls its most polarizing/weakest entry right off the bat. But hey, maybe people today aren't violently allergic to Joe Piscopo like they were in the '80s. Let's goooooo! Happy New Year to the bracketologists!
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Jan 1, 2024 06:33
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STAC Goat posted:Sven's 15 Seed Play In: (Darth’s Team Fresh Styles) Mark Goldblatt’s Dead Heat vs. (Goat’s The REC Dudes) Paco Plaza’s Sister Death vs. Freddie Francis’ Tales From The Crypt My review from Oct 28, 2019: A catacombs tour group are forcibly told a series of tales, in which bad people get comeuppance. Any resemblance between said people and the tour group's members is purely coincidental. I liked this quite a bit. Part of that might have been from how favorably it compared to The House that Dripped Blood, which I'd watched earlier this month, but even without that contrast, this would have been a cool, gruesome batch of stories. The acting is good, the sets are tasty, and a good sense of who the main characters are as people (beyond their immediate circumstances) is communicated in each segment. Loved that lake of fire shot in the finish. A solid anthology, though I wish they'd picked a more high-energy segment to go in last place. Sister Death My review from Jan 01, 2024: A young woman with a miracle in her past moves to a reopened Spanish convent, where strange occurrences and secrets start to emerge. As though the setting didn't give the story enough of an atmosphere to begin with, the scenes are saturated in shadows and a heavy, brooding sound design which draws on both traditional and electronic horror scores for its form. At the same time, there's a lot of fairly stock horror imagery, which, at least in the moment of its utilization, feels a bit disconnected from any actual plot development, beyond further unsettling the protagonist. It's executed well enough, it just ends up feeling a bit hollow, and even undermines the believability of the characters to a degree. There's the heart of a good story here, it's just buried under too much genericizing cruft. Maybe I'm extra down on it because the quality of the set design and other production work is so much higher than the story's ambition. Don't have a review written for Dead Heat, but that one's getting my vote because I remember it having just more life to it than either of its competitors. STAC Goat posted:Sven's 16 Seed Play In: Andy Milligan’s Torture Dungeon vs. (Darth’s Team Metro Noir Horror Anime) Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s Demon City Shinjuku vs. (mbd’s Team Eerie Eire) Jon Wright’s Tormented My review from Jan 01, 2024: A bloodthirsty noble cuts down the competition and indulges his kinks. With stiff acting, cramped framing, jerky camera-work, and faltering deliveries, this is Andy Milligan's attempt at a medieval drama, with a sloshing of schlocky sex and violence to appeal to his usual audiences. In some ways, it feels like The Undead (1957) fused with Bloody Pit of Horror, though the two sides rarely feel as though they fit together. A number of the actors don't let their awkwardness with their lines hold them back from overacting, and combined with abrupt scene cuts (sometimes interrupting musical cues) this lends the whole thing a weird lurching momentum, just barely keeping its weak foundation from crumbling under the melodrama. Even if you usually have a tolerance or fondness for Milligan's peculiarities, this may be an effort to get through, though some late-stage attempts at genuine pathos do make for a jarring turn that might aid in engagement. Tormented My review from Jan 04, 2024: British teenagers in their twenties are harassed by the ghost of a boy they bullied into suicide. Consistently unlikable characters, jerky editing, blue tint saturation, failed attempts at 'edgy' humor... it's a real slice of the '00s. Normally, I'm in favor of horror films taking the time to build a sense of who the characters are, but this one just keeps going, and doesn't show any further depth to them, so all it adds to the film is making it more of a tiresome, grating excursion. And it's already dealing with British high-schoolers, so it's not like it needed the help. Even the eventual deaths of the characters doesn't help much, because it just makes the survivors that much more strident and irritating. At least the score and music choices are nice at times, and there's enough intentional stupidity to a death or two to add some much-needed uplift, but it's nowhere near enough to make up for how unpleasant it is to endure the presence of the characters for the film's length. No review for Demon City Shinjuku, but I've seen it enough times that I'm comfortable giving it the vote over the deeply flawed execution of Torture Dungeon and the deeply unbearable characters of Tormented.
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Jan 5, 2024 04:42
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Wanna give big thanks to everyone who helped give me a double win with my teams this week, I've never gotten to experience that before. I'm just down that Team Fresh Styles will be going down when it goes up against Ratno Timoer when that time comes.
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Jan 8, 2024 20:02
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All four films this week were new watches for me, here are my reviews. A Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting 6/10 Blair Witch 6/10 The H-Man 7/10 The Transfiguration 9/10 Easy vote for The Transfiguration. Heavy stuff, powerful story. The H-Man was a pleasant change-up from Blair Witch, but even with slime and glowing sailor 'ghosts,' it couldn't stand up to its competitor. ABGtMH and BW was a harder call. I didn't really care about what was happening in ABGtMH, because it felt so cobbled together from assorted YA/tween novel cliches. But compared to BW, it at least knew how to use restraint and reserve intensity for when the story events called for it. BW was just tiring to watch, and none of the attempts at amplifying what was done in the original BWP worked for me. Also, all the time on the worsening foot situation, and then that thread just gets dropped. Irritating. ABGtMH gets my vote.
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Jan 12, 2024 21:47
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Yeah, no contest personally, ANoES gets my vote in that match-up. The other two are new to me, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that Argento will get my vote.
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Jan 15, 2024 19:57
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Jenifer: 5/10 28 Week Later: 7/10 A Nightmare on Elm Street: 8/10 Event Horizon: 6/10 Easy votes for me on both match-ups. I probably would have been less favorable towards 28 Weeks Later if I had seen it in the midst of the zombie glut, but I can't imagine Jenifer would have gotten my vote in any era.
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Jan 21, 2024 17:47
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I’m okay with you redrawing another film from Malpertius’ team, since you caught it the day the new contestants went up. Everybody else cool with that?
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Jan 23, 2024 06:14
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Weirdly enough, the Youtube upload of Revenge of the Ninja looks better than the Tubi copy. 
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Jan 25, 2024 19:35
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Whoa, gotta say I’m surprised you’ve never seen the Branagh take on Frankie, MZ.
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Jan 28, 2024 08:32
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Revenge of the Ninja vs. The Noonday Witch: 3/5 vs. 4/5 Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein vs. Malpertuis: 3/5 vs. 4/5 Easy votes in both match-ups, but I have to say, I'm disappointed by Revenge of the Ninja. It didn't hold a candle to the other Timoer films I've seen. If anyone enjoyed it and wants to see Timoer really pull out the stops, I highly recommend tracking down a copy of The Devil's Sword. Respect to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for trying to include so many details which are usually left out of Frankenstein adaptations, but it's just too much to cram into two hours. Good example of what happens when you tell your actors they don't have to bother with restraint or playing things small, though.
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Jan 29, 2024 03:05
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Dementia vs. Wicked City: 9/10 vs. 6/10 Bedlam vs. Sweet Home: 7/10 vs. 8/10 One of these matches was a much easier call. To be honest, it had been a long time since I'd last watched Wicked City, and I'd forgotten most of the content aside from that (still) great jazzy score. The animation looks very nice as well, but the content... Ehhhhhhhhhhhh. Meanwhile, Dementia was just fantastic, and really deserves more acclaim. Why the hell does it not have a place in the Criterion Collection? In the other match, Bedlam was enjoyable for getting to see Karloff in relatively little make-up, and getting to do a 'real' dramatic role, but... It was so stiff and stagy. In the other corner, Sweet Home was a fairly formulaic Japanese haunted house story, but one with superb special effects and designs, likable characters, and some real sentimentality to it. It was interesting seeing Kiyoshi Kurosawa, whom I mostly associate with melancholic slow-burn films, doing something which seemed to be so intentionally targeting widespread appeal. It felt like a straight-faced House (1977) in more than a few regards, and that's no bad association.
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Feb 3, 2024 23:47
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Deadly Friend vs. Trance: 6/10 vs. 7/10 The Innkeepers vs. Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant: 8/10 vs. 6/10 Even though I have Deadly Friend rated lower than Trance, Deadly Friend is the one getting my vote in that match, because it's the one I would actually want to rewatch at some point. Trance was a lot of twists in service of a plot which lost my interest about a third of the way into the film. The Innkeepers gets my vote in the other match, because as fun as it was seeing John C. Reilly and Willem Dafoe as kooky vampires, and to have a YA fiction film adaptation that was willing to let its characters swear... CdF:TVA was too busy trying to set things up for sequels to really have much substance of its own, beyond the basic plot beats. Good cast, always glad to see Orlando Jones show up in something, but it couldn't hold a candle to the focused build of The Innkeepers.
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Feb 8, 2024 04:37
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Draculane, Mr. Draculane...
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Feb 10, 2024 03:39
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Skinamarink vs. The Seventh Victim vs. Pulse: 7/10 vs. 8/10 vs. 9/10 Thir13en Ghosts vs. Anguish: 6/10 vs. 8/10 I feel mildly guilty about voting for both of my films in these matches, but that's just the way it shook out. Skinamarink and The Seventh Victim were both new to me; I liked Skinamarink's ambition and distinctiveness more than the actual film, and The Seventh Victim was great up until the last five minutes. Pulse is one of my favorite films. No serious contest. Ditto for the second match. Anguish is so enjoyably creative and memorable, and I love Zelda Rubinstein and Michael Lerner as actors. I also love Tony Shalhoub and Matthew Lillard as actors, but the film they're in is such a strong example of style over substance, whereas Anguish has both in high measure. My vote goes to Bigas Luna's only horror film.
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Feb 16, 2024 18:55
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In a way, Funny Games feels like the snooty version of Cabin in the Woods. Both of them out of touch with what horror films actually are and what horror fans enjoy about them, but Funny Games is trying to shame the viewer while CitW is pulling a ‘hello fellow kids.’
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Feb 24, 2024 23:43
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The Visit vs. Funny Games vs. Witching & Bitching: 7/10 vs. 7/10 vs. 7/10 Weird situation with an annoying character or two vs. Annoying second-hand societal commentary vs. A fun set-up that felt like it could have been a lot more Giving it to The Visit The Breach vs. Carrie vs. Nina Forever: 8/10 vs. 6/10 vs. 7/10 Alright, so involving quantum determinism is basically a cheat code for making me like a horror movie. Even so, The Breach got lucky with its match this week. The Carrie adaptation left me cold, and Nina Forever brought some interesting ideas into play, but I kept waiting for it to take the next step with developing them, and instead, it started going backwards. Disappointing. I can picture some college sophomores absolutely loving that movie, though.
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Feb 26, 2024 17:18
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Fresh vs. Return to Nuke Em High Volume 1: 8/10 vs. 5/10 Synchronic vs. Koko-Di Koko-Da: 7/10 vs. 7/10 Both of my votes flipped from what I initially expected. Nu Nuke 'Em had some interesting choices in what to change from the original, but it was also considerably worse than the original, overall. Fresh felt like it could have said a lot more with its premise, but that might have resulted in a heavier movie. Sucked to see the best friend's character end up so shallow, though. Voting for Fresh. Synchronic never fully pulled me in. Another promising premise that could have done a lot more. Lost all my sympathy for the main character at a certain point (I'm sure most of you can guess when), and the ending was a let-down. Still, I was more stimulated by it than by Koko-Di Koko-Da, which just got tedious for me after a while. There's a reason most time loop movies tend to elide the inherent repetition after it's been established. Some well-crafted visuals weren't enough to overcome that for me. Voting for Synchronic.
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Feb 28, 2024 23:45
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The Great Yokai War: Guardians vs. Under the Shadow: 6/10 vs. 9/10 Tomb of Ligeia vs. Insidious: Chapter 3: 6/10 vs. 6/10 TGYW:G was less interesting than the previous film, probably because by having two chosen kids instead of one, they had to cram in twice the failings/chances for them to learn. I have no particular attachment to Daimajin, but I'm a big fan of Gamera, so that was another edge the earlier film had. Just not many chances for it to benefit from comparison to the preceding film in the series, and just kind of mediocre overall, despite the nice costuming. Meanwhile, Under the Shadow was fantastic. Such a relief to have a horror film with characters who were written like actual adults, with foibles and multiple responses to stimuli. And maybe I was just in the right emotional state for the film to really land with me, but it did a great job of merging the personal, societal, and war pressures into an engulfing storm without overplaying its hand with any of them. Tomb of Ligeia is a Corman/Price Poe adaptation. Easy win over the blandness of Insidious: Chapter 3, even if the film-makers finally realized that Lin Shaye is their ace card.
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Mar 8, 2024 05:31
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I sent a DM, let me know if there's any issues.
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Mar 9, 2024 18:25
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The best part of Grotesque is seeing the actor who plays Kudo Jin in the Senritsu Kaiki File series playing a very different kind of rear end in a top hat. I didn’t like the movie, but as far as imitating Western torture porn goes, Koji hit the mark, and maybe even outdid the originators. It’s kind of like Funny Games if the director was really into going for broke with gore instead of trying to castigate the audience for imagined failings of taste and/or morality.
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Mar 12, 2024 03:36
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Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil vs. The Sixth Sense: 8/10 vs. 7/10 Grotesque vs. The Prowler: 6/10 vs. 5/10 The Sixth Sense is probably my favorite Shyamalan film. Good performances, use of color, camera focus, creepy ghosts, and an effort (maybe overplayed at times) to really humanize the characters. The twist(!) has been turned into a dead horse slurry by pop culture, but the film is good. Very good. However, I am a very big sucker for folklore horror, and Errementari pounded a few more nails into the coffin by utilizing Renaissance designs for the devils. We don't get those nearly enough in horror cinema, so that's the film that gets my vote. I love Koji Shiraishi as a film-maker. Grotesque is not what I want from him as a film-maker, at all. That said, he does a very good job mimicking the western torture porn style, and to be honest, takes it to a Guinea Pig-ish extremity that puts the western ones to shame. The Prowler, meanwhile, is (to me) an unremarkable slasher. The main thing it has going for it is Tom Savini's special effects, and those get left in the dust by just how explicit Grotesque is willing to be. Don't really like either of these, but Grotesque gets my vote.
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Mar 17, 2024 18:02
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Wasp Woman easily gets my vote over Cloverfield Paradox. Maybe two of the characters in Cloverfield Paradox felt remotely like real people instead of props for the set-pieces. Sun Don't Shine was interesting, but really hinged on caring about the characters more than their situation. And I didn't. Promising Young Woman offered both, and I cared about both in that film. So that's the one getting my vote in that match.
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Apr 1, 2024 03:07
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Blood Quantum vs. Arachnophobia 7/10 vs. 8/10 Basket Case vs. Glass 7/10 vs. 7/10 I enjoyed Blood Quantum, but felt let down by the last act. There his were so many directions it could have gone, but it ended up going with one of the least interesting, most frequently used finales for zombie movies. What a let-down, for a film that I was otherwise really enjoying up to that point. Arachnophobia, meanwhile, is a film I've loved since I was a kid (though it did lightly traumatize me back then). Great performances, fantastic comedic timing and set-ups, and wonderful twists on 'standard' horror framing, letting the spiders have scenes that are effectively transplants from a slasher film. And the JJJ power team of Jeff Daniels, John Goodman, and Julian Sands, come on. Basket Case is rough around the edges... and the center... but just packed with ambition. Glass loses points for not only having to live up to being the payoff of a suddenly-enacted trilogy, but also feeling like the story loses its way in the conclusion. It feels detached from the initial direction it takes, is weighed down by latter-day Bruce Willis, and Mr. Glass is the only character I feel really gets a character arc that feels complete and sensical (and even then, it was more satisfying in Unbreakable). As Henenlotter's first feature film, Basket Case is impressive. As Shyamalan's thirteenth feature film, Glass feels more than a little wanting.
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Apr 4, 2024 23:58
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I’m just excited to see people’s reactions to Futurekick. This movie made a big impression on me as a kid.
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Apr 15, 2024 22:06
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Same votes here. The Mangler was entertaining; The Exorcist: The Beginning was not. Would have given Terrified a 4/5 if not for those last three seconds, but it was never gonna overcome Evil Dead for me.
Darthemed fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Apr 29, 2024 |
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Apr 28, 2024 02:21
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