|
Renominating Koreans Gone Global - Korean directors who've achieved a fair bit of international recognition. Bong Joon-Ho Mother Park Chan-Wook The Handmaiden Stoker Yeon Sang-Ho The King of Pigs Seoul Station Train to Busan Lee Chang-Dong Burning I don't think any of these have any new horror (unless Decision to Leave counts; I haven’t seen it.)
|
#
¿
Dec 4, 2023 22:28
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 22, 2024 07:17 |
|
|
I'm adding to the renominations: Puberty Sucks - Jimmy Huston, Mary Harron, Michael O’ Shea, Paul Weitz, Wolfgang Groos Echoes of War - Antti-Jussi Annila, Babak Anvari, Kristijan Milic, Kong Su-chang, Jayro Bustamante Undying Love - Kamal Amrohi, Jim Jarmusch, Walter Stocker , Ben & Chris Blaine, Kristoffer Tabori, Fred Burnley They are most likely going to get adjusted later, so I'm not giving the full listing for each one yet. I just wanted to reserve some of them. Also a solo nom for Dan Curtis (of Dark Shadows and Trilogy of Terror fame) Kangra fucked around with this message at 07:20 on Dec 6, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Dec 6, 2023 07:07
|
|
|
Okay, I'm breaking apart my old 'sister/sibling act' team, and shifting them to other teams. First out is the new line-up for Puberty Sucks Wolfgang Groos is out, and they welcome John Fawcett. This makes the team thematically darker, as it gets rid of the ones that had a more comedic tone. (technically I might rename it to Puberty Bites, since it's no longer all-vampires, but I'll keep the name to avoid confusion). John Fawcett Ginger Snaps The Dark Mary Harron The Moth Diaries Jimmy Huston My Best Friend is a Vampire (aka I Was a Teenage Vampire) Final Exam Michael O’ Shea The Transfiguration Paul Weitz Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant
|
|
#
¿
Dec 7, 2023 20:14
|
|
|
Here's a new team: A Crate of Crichton Fright Freight Obviously there's more than one big movie based on a Michael Crichton work that's not here, but trying to include them all would overload the team. This is just a sampling. Michael Crichton Westworld Coma Looker Barry Levinson Sphere The Bay Frank Marshall Congo Arachnophobia If people want to argue for any more films to put on there (Runaway? Sleepers?) I'll add them.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 8, 2023 20:21
|
|
|
I had a few leftovers from Puberty Sucks, so I added a few directors and made a team of mostly family-friendly vampire comedies It's Fun to be a Vampire Stan Dragoti Love at First Bite Wolfgang Groos Vampire Sisters [Vampirschwestern] Vampire Sisters 2: Bats in the Belly [Vampirschwestern 2: Fledermaüse im Bauch ] Lilly’s Bewitched Christmas [Hexe Lilli rettet Weihnachten/Hexe Lillis eingesacktes Weihnachtsfest/Hexe Lilli 3] Amy Heckerling Vamps Aaron Lee Lopez Teenage Vampire Teenage Vampire 2
|
|
#
¿
Dec 11, 2023 08:00
|
|
|
Samfucious, I'm pretty sure Matt Reeves has already had both films in the tourney. But you can take Babak Anvari, who I'm releasing from my team. Of course he's not a +1 and his Cloverfield film is not released yet, so maybe not. I do really love Under the Shadow for this team, but I like that I have a tighter team this way. I'm adding an American as well, who brings in a 21st-Century war. Echoes of War Antti-Jussi Annila Sauna Jayro Bustamante La Llorona Kong Su-chang The Guard Post (aka GP506) R-Point Kristijan Milic The Living and the Dead [Živi i mrtvi] Alex Turner Dead Birds Red Sands
|
|
#
¿
Dec 12, 2023 13:21
|
|
|
Since I broke up the Sister/Sibling team, I'm adding one more to this team. I feel like this is a much better fit for Kim Jee-woon. Koreans Gone Global Bong Joon-Ho Mother Kim Jee-woon I Saw the Devil A Tale of Two Sisters Lee Chang-Dong Burning Park Chan-Wook The Handmaiden Stoker Yeon Sang-Ho The King of Pigs Seoul Station Train to Busan
|
|
#
¿
Dec 13, 2023 19:26
|
|
|
My final updated team - Undying Love. Two kind-of slow 1970s movies were too much for this team so Walter Stocker is out, and Jennifer Sheridan is in. Kamal Amrohi Mahal (1949) Ben & Chris Blaine Nina Forever Fred Burnley Neither the Sea Nor the Sand aka The Exorcism of Hugh Jim Jarmusch Only Lovers Left Alive The Dead Don’t Die Jennifer Sheridan Rose: A Love Story Kristoffer Tabori Dead of Night (1996) High Plains Invaders Also re-nominating The Rage Virus from last year (Danny Boyle & Juan Carlos Fresnadillo) Kangra fucked around with this message at 06:14 on Dec 17, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Dec 16, 2023 06:27
|
|
|
I'll give a bye to Team Japanese Whimsy
|
|
#
¿
Dec 17, 2023 15:40
|
|
|
One thing I really like about The Transfiguration is that by making the character an adolescent, it becomes easier for the audience to understand the confusion and the situation of the main character, because everything is out of proportion already. I can understand not wanting to visit that (or at least not want to in the way the film does it). It's a new favorite of mine and I am glad it got pulled for the team. I did like H-man but I feel like It never got as far into any of its themes as I hoped it would. It's not top-tier Honda; maybe middling for him and still worth watching.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 15, 2024 09:11
|
|
|
CelticPredator posted:Tubi is free. Tubi's not even available in many countries that don't restrict internet access.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 25, 2024 19:15
|
|
|
I liked Malpertuis and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein about the same, which is to say I found them both rather middling. It was kind of a tough choice. I actually like Frankenstein's insane energy, and it features some better performances. Plus I think it does the horror better. Malpertuis had a classic horror premise but does little with it and just sort of peters out into wankery by the end. Not to say that Branagh's film isn't pretentious and melodramatic, but it does have some spooky and creepy bits. As for the other match-up, Noonday Witch should be exactly in my wheelhouse. I love a heavy-handed horror metaphor, and there are a number of specific personal reasons I ought to have liked this film in particular. However, it has such a flaccid second act followed by a too-quick resolution that I was simply disappointed. Maybe I had too high of expectations, but I really think it doesn't really decide to go for the horror until too far into the runtime. I'm still voting for it, because Revenge of the Ninja had very little going for it. It has a thin and confusing demon-possession(?) plot (though one with at least a little potential) punctuated with lots of action. Not enough to hold my interest.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 29, 2024 04:28
|
|
|
I did like Dementia and have to say it might be the better made film in this match-up, but it didn't really grab me. I found the horror to be rather tepid. Wicked City has much lower low points. I did find it to be creepy (in multiple ways, at least one of them positive) and I might have liked the story if the last 20 minutes didn't feel tacked-on, like a story arc that was thrown in to pad out the run time. If I was recommending a film to someone, I think 8 times out of 10 I'd tell them Dementia before Wicked City. However, I'm giving the vote to Team MHN Anime thanks to the strong visual design; a lot of the grotesque body horror was quite good.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 4, 2024 05:06
|
|
|
Having rewatched Cirque du Freak and maybe not liking it as much as I did when I first saw it, I expected I might vote against my team. Something I felt this time is that there just doesn't seem to be a whole lot of love for the source material. Even though I never read the books, the film seems at its best when just having fun with some of the performances; the plot and set-up isn't given much focus. And then Innkeepers almost had my vote, but lost me with the last shot. I kind of felt like Ti West couldn't help himself there. It was a close call, but I will stick with Cirque du Freak. I just found it more entertaining, despite its flaws. Still unsure about Trance vs Deadly Friend. I never really liked the latter, but I recognize that Trance is kind of a mess (and not very horror-y). I have yet to re-watch it though. I think if I get something more out of a second viewing, I could end up giving it the vote.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 11, 2024 07:46
|
|
|
I woke up in the middle of the night last week and threw on Skinamarink, which should have been the ideal environment for it, but I didn't really care for it at all. I didn't know it's origin, but halfway through I had the thought that it was basically a youtube SCP/creepy video with higher production values, and found out that is what it is. No real characters or themes, just crafting 'spooky moments'. It was amusing at times but not really funny enough to be comedy, and I was chuckling more times than I was freaked out. [I found the repeated faint sounds of the whimpering dog to be disturbing, until I realized it was coming from outside.] There was just too much artifice on display for it to really get to me. I was coming in blind to Pulse, and I really enjoyed it. Kind of the opposite of Skinamarink in being a horror with heavy dramatic themes. I think it would've hit much better if I'd seen it when it came out, though. It feels very much of its time. The Seventh Victim I liked a lot better than I thought I would, but it loses out to Pulse. As for the other match-up, Thir13een Ghosts felt too by-the-numbers to really be any good, though I won't go so far to say that it was bad. It's just rather light, and I'd rank it the weakest entry of this week. Anguish was genuinely unnerving for me while still settling into something I could call enjoyable; it is also of its time but conversely feels more disturbing to watch nowadays. Kangra fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Feb 19, 2024 |
|
#
¿
Feb 19, 2024 18:29
|
|
|
I was surprised how much I liked The Visit. I think it's really getting at some nice fears in a visceral way. It is of course carefully constructed, as Shyamalan's movies tend to be, but I think it is one where the artistry really works. There's a lot of tension in wondering just what exactly is going on. As for Witching & Bitching, I can see how it's sort of fun but the humor wasn't for me. I did really like the directing, there's a lot of flair to it. With Funny Games I'll admit I only watched the original, but I don't imagine the remake will be enough to put it past The Visit. Haneke's a tiresome party guest who just keeps wanting to hammering home his point well after you get what he's trying to say. On the other side, Carrie was a decent adaptation even if it's not nearly as good as the first one. I liked the more sympathetic characters, but that also made it harder to buy what happens at the prom. This Carrie doesn't quite seem to 'snap', she lashes out at times (comparatively, the scene where she leaves her mother at home is great) but I felt she didn't have it in her to do something so big except that the plot demanded it. The Breach is not terrible but not really well-made despite an okay effort. The story seems neat but the script and acting is weak, and the direction is merely so-so. So yes, I'm going to end up voting for my own team, but I do find Nina Forever to be both fun and have at least a little genuine emotional heft to it.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 26, 2024 04:03
|
|
|
Fresh was certainly good enough to win a vote over Return to Nuke Em High. I don't feel like the latter was doing anything I found interesting, and I stopped being enthusiastic about Troma films at least 15 years ago. If anything, I lost respect for Kaufman for doing so little that was novel. On the other side, I guess I'll go for Synchronic as it was the better film, but it's very light on the horror elements. It's a solid sci-fi movie, although I think it wasted some time explaining a set-up that it knows it's not going to need anyway, since it is more about the emotional payoff than the pseudoscience. Thankfully it upped the pacing by the last act. Koko-Di, Koko-Da had an okay start, but didn't go anywhere. At its best, it had the bizarre quality of a folktale that has grown quirky in the long ages of being passed down. But the problem with it is that this isn't an organic process, it's a crafted screenplay, and merely evoking the tone of a weird old tale is insufficient. There needs to be something at the heart of it, and that was sorely lacking. The visuals and atmosphere weren't enough.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2024 07:03
|
|
|
Upon rewatch, it's abundantly clear that Sphere fails to really hold together well. It has some serious flaws -- the script is almost aggressively stupid sometimes, the visuals are lacking, the action isn't well-shot, and the tension is too often broken up by overlong editing. There is some definite good stuff in it: the psychological fears of being trapped with people you can't trust, the oppressive sense of the underwater environment, and rather quality acting despite the writing. Unfortunately the good comes off all the worse contrasted with the really bad parts, and I think it makes the final product hard to enjoy. It's really hard to take it seriously when the bad parts are just so bad. Still, it makes me think of the better movie it could be, and the moments that work really worked for me. Beneath has its sights set far lower, though that's not to say it isn't trying hard. It's just a lot more straightforward. The characters are thin, the story just kind of advances as it needs with awkward exposition, and I'd say that it, too, doesn't portray action very well. However, it kind of exceeded my low expectations due to at least one interesting choice (the monster really only claims one victim outright, and the true villain turns out to be humans). I did like the 'Lifeboat' aspect and the ways it is something of a metaphor for the way relationships change in the period just beyond high school. I found it decently entertaining. It's not a slam-dunk vote for me, but I lean toward Sphere not because it's my own team but because the psychological sci-fi encounter with the unknown is more to my taste. Beneath is decent at what it's doing, it's just that I'm less interested in what it is doing. Other side I'm not sure which way yet, but I'm pretty sure Older Than America is going to get my vote, much as I like Jarmusch.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 23, 2024 03:17
|
|
|
I find Promising Young Woman to be somewhat compelling (especially visually), but I think the story feels pretty thin and it's a facile treatment of the issues. Sun Don't Shine is way more subtle, and arguably is not as focused thematically. It's also pretty light on horror, but I liked it well enough to vote for it. Cloverfield Paradox has a germ of a decent story, with the idea of dealing with parallel-universe versions of people you aren't sure you can trust, while trapped in a situation where you have to rely on them*. Yet it's larded down with extraneous subplots, barely manages to develop tension, and ultimately comes off as dumb without being fun. Wasp Woman, in contrast is just barely competent as a movie. It has all the elements there, and nothing is really wrong with it; it's just low-effort. It's a barely-passing C-grade paper of a movie. Kind of a split decision for me, but Wasp Woman annoyed me less. *This year's seemingly overlooked ISS, while not about parallel universes, is a much better exploration of this idea.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 1, 2024 14:34
|
|
|
I do feel Evil Dead, taken just as a film, could well have lost out here, as it is not without its flaws. It's a horror classic, though, and still the right amount of comedy and messy horror to be a solid watch. I didn't find Terrified to be enough to really take it down. It's very good, just not quite great in my opinion. It doesn't quite seem to know if it wants to have a protagonist, or to try and have things explained or just disturbing and puzzling. It does well with the idea of all of this just not quite fitting in with our world, and does a good job conveying the mood visually. I felt pulled in and creeped out right from the start. Ultimately it was kind of disappointing, but it's the sort of disappointment of someone getting a double or a triple at the moment you expected them to hit a home run. As for the Mangler, I found it pretty entertaining, even if it's not top-tier Hooper. The cast is kind of uneven, though at least most of them seem to be having fun. Harlin's Exorcist: The Beginning does make you want to watch the better version of this script. The film just doesn't seem interested in exploring any of the ideas the script wants to bring up, and the only time it gets close to being interesting is when it's being loud and stormy.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2024 05:38
|
|
|
I felt like The Deadly Mantis was good when the mantis was there, but we really don't get enough of the mantis to make it worth watching. It takes far too long to get to the creature. That's fine if you build up the horror of it, but instead of that, it just seems like we're seeing the boring process of them figuring out what's going on. Which, to be fair, also happens in Japanese kaiju movies, but those make up for it by usually having interesting characters. This movie doesn't have any. We All Scream for Ice Cream is fairly solid horror for most of its runtime. Sure, the story's a pastiche of Stephen King, and the acting is kind of uneven, but on the whole I can't complain. Unfortunately the story kind of falls apart at the end, with a rushed 'happy' resolution (again, borrowed from King) and the unecessary 'is it really over?' ending; by that point it starts to feel too formulaic. I think I liked WASFIC slightly better but would say that the direction is kind of weak compared to Mantis, so I'm not sure which way I'll vote.
|
|
#
¿
May 13, 2024 04:03
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 22, 2024 07:17 |
|
|
I kind of expected that Chronicle would not age well, but I actually found it just as enjoyable. I think it does well making the found footage sensible, and highlights how kids might actually behave in such a situation, even if it is all a bit heightened and comic-booky. Fisher's Mummy felt too short to really show off the monster, though I think Lee is doing well with his portrayal. Overall it's kind of dull. Never a good sign to have a lengthy scene that's just some character narrating the events we are being shown. On the other side Van Helsing should be a lot of fun, but just isn't, with only the Brides of Dracula enjoying themselves. It drags on far too long, and the attempt to tie it in with the Universal franchise kind of feel more insulting to the other films than a fitting tribute. Mushrooms looked like something I thought I'd hate, but it's actually rather charming. Compared to the lifeless Van Helsing, it's an easy win. I'm still wondering if it's illegal in Australia to give away or sell eggs/chickens, since that is apparently a plot point. Kangra fucked around with this message at 06:39 on May 20, 2024 |
|
#
¿
May 20, 2024 06:37
|
|