|
I'm not going to list all 30 movies right here, I'll post every few days as I watch stuff. Oct. 1st - Creepshow: I'm kicking things off with anthologies and the Creepshow movies were my first exposure to this genre. The most memorable story in the first entry is probably Leslie Neilson playing a psychopathic villain in "Something to Tide You Over". I've always had a soft spot for the zombie-father in the first story though, I love the effects on him. October 2nd - Body Bags: I just bought this blind on Blu-ray based on the Carpenter name, and I'm hoping I wont be disappointed. October 3rd - Creepshow 2: I'm in the minority that prefers Creepshow 2 to the first. I love both but the decider here is The Raft, which scared the poo poo out of me when I first saw it and still unnerves me every time I watch it. October 4th - Necronomicon: I just discovered this anthology last year, and it was instantly one of my favorites. I just love the idea of a Lovecraft themed anthology, and this movie delivers. Also Jeffrey Combs. October 5th - Chillerama: This movie is disgusting and hilarious and I love it. Probably the only movie in this list that forces me to physically turn away from the screen at certain moments. October 6th - Trick r Treat: The "main event", and my favorite horror anthology of all-time. This movie has it all, its very funny and yet still legitimately scary in parts, and the stories all weave together seamlessly in a way that most other anthologies don't even attempt. A modern classic as far as I'm concerned.
|
#
¿
Oct 1, 2014 18:19
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 2, 2024 02:14 |
|
|
Pet Rock Band posted:I started yesterday! With Poltergeist, which I had never seen before. I barfed up almost 1,000 words on my letterboxd, but the short version is- I was blown away. It was way more hardcore than I was expecting. And it made me hate all the Paranormal Activities even more. Yea I think that's a major factor in what makes Poltergeist so good. Nobody expects it to go as far as it does because it presents itself as a family movie, which I suppose it still is. But it does get, as you say, fairly hardcore by the end.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 2, 2014 09:38
|
|
|
I've spent a lot of time in my life sifting through all the garbage the horror genre has to offer, so when October comes around I prefer to mostly watch the best of the best. Sometimes I'm tempted to watch a few new movies but then I may end up sitting through poo poo like Silent Hill Revelations and wasting an October night.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 2, 2014 16:30
|
|
|
Last time I posted I had Body Bags on the list, but I had never seen it yet. I watched it yesterday for the first time. I had no idea Carpenter actually had a major part, playing the Cryptkeeper-type host in the wrap-around segments. That was an unexpected treat, and there were several more horror movie director cameos, so that alone makes this great Halloweentime viewing. My favorite of the three stories ended up being the second, where Stacey Keach is desperate to avoid going bald, so he ends up falling victim to alien parasites posing as a hair transplant operation. In general there isn't a whole lot of gore in these stories, they rely a lot more on interesting characters and a really strong cast. David Warner plays the creepy transplant doctor, and Mark Hamill also does a really good job in the third story. Overall a very solid anthology.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 6, 2014 15:13
|
|
|
flashy_mcflash posted:Oct 4: ABC's of Death 2 I've watched a bunch of anthologies this week and I think I've decided that the magic number is 5. Each story gets 15-25 minutes and if you have one that is a little weak it doesn't have enough time to bring the rest down. I think because of this I have changed my mind and decided that I like Creepshow better than Creepshow 2.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 6, 2014 16:13
|
|
|
flashy_mcflash posted:Four to five definitely sounds like the sweet spot. More than that and things start to get muddled, rushed, and without emphasis and less, as you say, means that the inevitable one weak segment makes up a full third of the film. Eh, I still don't even think there's enough good stuff in the 26 segments for it to be worthwhile at a Halloween party. Better just to have a few Michael Myers entries and maybe some Jason or Freddy on hand to play in the background, at least for my age group. Too many of the segments are just a minute or two of boring building up for no payoff, or even worse the payoff is a terrible joke that isn't at all funny.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 6, 2014 16:49
|
|
|
Franchescanado posted:Freddy Vs. Jason is interesting. I watched it again a few months ago, and the director, Ronny Yu, used his Chinese influence big time: Freddy and Jason are both elemental forces of evil. Freddy fears fire, and Jason fears water. It's a clash between these two spirits, and the people are pawns in their game. A lot of the violence is stylized and over-the-top (Ronny Yu has an anecdote where they asked him how much blood he wanted in the movie. Since he had free reign, he said "Barrels. Barrels and barrels."). It's not my favorite in either series, but it's an interested interpretation of the characters and it's very fun. I think the most important part of what works about Freddy vs. Jason is that they actually somehow managed to come up with a premise that doesn't sound stupid and like a dumb excuse to get them to fight. The idea that Freddy's power can be taken away by forgetting about him was already established in the Nightmare series, and Jason had already become a supernatural/immortal being, so it made sense that Freddy could somehow bring him back and use him. If you're a fan of both series the whole thing really does make perfect sense, which is kind of a crazy thing to say about a monster mash-up movie like Freddy vs. Jason.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 6, 2014 17:47
|
|
|
Lurdiak posted:
I suppose this isn't the thread to debate whether it was good or bad(personally I think it may be the best of the entire series), but the Friday remake wasn't a flop at all. It had a very successful opening weekend and ended up making a decent amount of money. Its getting a sequel so the studio obviously didn't see it as a flop.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 6, 2014 19:53
|
|
|
Random Stranger posted:I know people love "The Raft", but I feel that Creepshow is better overall than Creepshow 2. I absolutely LOVE The Raft, and for a while I thought its presence alone made Creepshow 2 better, but when I watched them again this week I changed my mind. The Raft is by far the best story in either one, but the original just flows much better and has a more consistent quality mainly because it has five stories in it, as I mentioned earlier in the thread. If you edit The Raft into the first Creepshow you have a perfect anthology I guess. Oh well.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 6, 2014 21:24
|
|
|
I was randomly killing some time in a Barnes & Noble and ended up finding a 4-pack of Hammer Dracula films. Finally I will get to see Dracula AD! Anyway I watched two of these last night. Horror of Dracula: This may be my favorite Hammer film of them all. What you don't realize until you start going through these movies is that Christopher Lee actually gets minimal screen time and not very many lines. So what makes Horror of Dracula stand above the rest for me is that when Lee isn't on-screen you have Peter Cushing completely carrying every other scene. That's why I'm really looking forward to Dracula AD, its the first time since this first film that Cushing and Lee both participated in a Dracula entry. Anyway the sets and costumes in Horror Dracula are amazing. Some of the outfits Cushing wears are ridiculous, but I mean that in the best way possible. Lee bounds around like an animal, this most recent viewing I had a thought that Mads Mikkelsen's movements on Hannibal are very similar. Another thing that's really fun about Horror of Dracula is that it uses a lot of the characters from the Stoker novel, but changes their roles around. So if you know the book well it will keep you guessing and surprise you at a few points. Dracula Has Risen From the Grave: I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, especially going directly from a Cushing Dracula to a non-Cushing Dracula. Christopher Lee doesn't really have much to do until the last 30 minutes or so, but it turns out the movie has a bunch of really fun characters that I ended up rooting for. The main couple(the Jonathan Harker and Mina Murray stand-ins I guess) are actually very good and I shockingly ended up giving a poo poo about their romance. Dracula's death scene was also really good, as it was in Horror of Dracula. In this DVD set I still have The Blood of Dracula and of course Dracula AD, so I'll be working on those in the next day or so. The List so far: Creepshow, Creepshow 2, Chillerama, Body Bags, Trick r Treat, Horror of Dracula, Dracula Has Risen From the Grave.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 7, 2014 15:20
|
|
|
Nemesis Of Moles posted:
Have you never seen the Herzog version? If not please, please watch it. Its so goddamned good. I'll be watching and I'm sure posting about it sometime next week.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 7, 2014 17:00
|
|
|
Oh yea I didn't mean to suggest you leave either one out entirely. There are some shots in Herzog's version that are taken directly from the original so I'd say both is the way to go.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 7, 2014 18:16
|
|
|
Franchescanado posted:
loving hell yes, that episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark really made a strong impression on me. If you're of a certain age Are You Afraid of the Dark along with a few other shows and probably the Goosbumps books were probably your first introduction to horror. Especially with how heavily edited horror movies were when they were shown on T.V. back then, a really good episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark could be just as scary to a kid as anything else.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 8, 2014 16:15
|
|
|
Finished out my Hammer Dracula set with two that I've never seen before. I love Hammer and I'm running out of new stuff to watch, I'm pretty close to having seen them all. Taste the Blood of Blood of Dracula: This was really good for the most part. The typical Hammer sets look amazing as always, and this time the story plays out kind of like a revenge movie. Three guys end up murdering a man after he drinks the blood of Dracula and goes crazy, but Dracula takes possession of his body, resurrects himself and goes on a killing spree. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Christopher Lee isn't really the main focus by this point in the series but Hammer usually seems to put together casts of really interesting characters to make up for that, which is the case again here. The only thing I didn't really like about it was the ending, which to me made Dracula appear weak and stupid. Dracula A.D. 1972: I didn't realize the year is actually part of the title until the opening credits. Anyway, I wanted to like this more because it has Cushing and Lee in it, but I think I've come to the conclusion that the Hammer aesthetic works the best as a period piece. I was missing the old costumes and the horse drawn carriages, and constantly annoyed by the 70's soundtrack. That said, there were some great moments. The way Dracula is resurrected via a Black Mass was really cool, and the ending was much more climactic because its Cushing vs. Lee. Cushing's cheekbones were just ridiculous in this movie, I've never seen anything like it.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 9, 2014 15:44
|
|
|
Franco Potente posted:I watched The Curse of Frankenstein last night. I'm a big fan of the Hammer Horror of Dracula, but had never looked at the other series. I love Peter Cushing in this, and that the movie pretty much focuses entirely on him rather than on the Monster. I think I ultimately prefer the Dracula stories, but this one was also tons of fun. Keep going if you can, there are like 5 sequels and they are all really good, especially if you're a Cushing fan.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 10, 2014 15:26
|
|
|
This weekend I finished up my run of Dracula films with four very different versions of the story. After watching a bunch of Hammer in a row it was fun to jump around a little bit. Dracula(1931): Several people have posted about this just in the last few pages and I don't have much more to add, but when you watch it you can see why its a classic. The lighting really stands out, there are a lot of pretty amazing shots of Lugosi that are lit perfectly. And I agree with what others have said about the Renfield character, he's more creepy here than in any other adaptation I can think of. Nosferatu The Vampyre: I saw this for the first time only three of four months ago but I just had to watch it again for October. I'd never be able to choose one favorite Dracula film but this one would certainly be up there. Kinski is the most inhuman Dracula ever, I really don't understand how the guy did what he did in this movie. Knowing Kinski I'm sure he made some people uncomfortable on the set with this character. Every shot is beautiful, which is to be expected from Herzog, and there are a few moments in this that are flat-out scarier to me than any other Dracula. I can't come up with any criticism, as far as I'm concerned Nosferatu The Vampyre is perfect. Dracula(1979): I find this version to be underrated, for the most part it seems to be ignored. You can tell a decent amount of money was put into it, the sets and costumes are great. Langella is more romantic style Dracula, which I think works here because of how over-the-top everything about the production is. Of course it doesn't hurt that you have Donald Pleasance as Dr. Seward and Lawrence Olivier as Van Helsing. As a horror fan is was somewhat satisfying to watch Pleasance overwhelm Olivier's presence in the film; to me the Dr. Seward character was much more memorable than Olivier's Van Helsing. This isn't the best but is far from the worst and probably deserves more praise than it gets. Bram Stoker's Dracula: People often make fun of this movie, most often because of the presence of Keanu Reeves, but in the early 90's when I was growing up it made a big impression on me. The makeup effects used on Gary Oldman are unbelievable; he is an unnaturally old man, a young man, a man-sized bat, and a wolfman at different points. The first portion of the story when Harker meets Dracula for the first time while staying in his castle are as good as any version of those scenes, and Oldman's performance carries the whole movie from start to finish. Its also pretty drat scary, and has its fair share of blood and gore. I only find Keanu's accent to be noticeably bad in a few specific scenes, and overall it never bothered me. I've always felt that this movies faults are vastly outweighed by all the great stuff in it. List so far: Creepshow, Creepshow 2, Chillerama, Body Bags, Necronomicon, Trick R Treat, Horror of Dracula, Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, Taste the Blood of Dracula, Dracula A.D. 1972, Dracula(1931), Nosferatu The Vampyre, Dracula(1979), Bram Stoker's Dracula. So far I'm on pace to finish this thing.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 13, 2014 15:36
|
|
|
I'm going to start watching my "ultimate Halloween movies" in about a week, so until then I'm going to watch some stuff I have never seen. Oculus: I'm a horror fan and a Dr. Who fan, so I've been interested to see how Gillan would do in a leading role with an American accent. She was fine, not particularly bad but didn't really carry the film either which is probably what was called for here. I think this could have been better if there was a more charismatic, frenetic actress in the part and Gillan is too subdued in my opinion. It has a lot of fun ideas but not really any scares, and you can kind of see the ending coming from a mile away(although maybe that was the point). I'm also not sure I really put together what, if anything, the film was trying to say about domestic violence. I thought it was just showing that its a cycle of violence that is very difficult to break out of, but the characters committing the violence are literally hallucinating, which would seem to place the blame for domestic violence on some outside force(society?), which doesn't make sense. I'm not good at reading movies though, so maybe I'm missing something. Overall it was a competently made film and was entertaining enough, but I wasn't overly impressed.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 14, 2014 15:26
|
|
|
Amber Sweet posted:
Yea the Nightmare series doesn't really have a clear trajectory. They(multiple people involved in the production, you can get the full story in Never Sleep Again) hosed up the first sequel by making a few really boneheaded decisions. Then both 3 and 4 turned out much better, but after that the series goes downhill again until New Nightmare which most people agree is one of the best.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 14, 2014 16:17
|
|
|
You people that are making GBS threads on From Beyond are nuts. Inferno: I decided I need to get into more Italian horror, and this seemed like an obvious choice since I've already seen Suspiria. Visually its amazing, as expected, but I didn't enjoy the story or the characters as much as Suspiria. Also the dance school in Suspiria kind of became a character of its own, and there wasn't any setting in Inferno that was as memorable as that. Still, it had its moments and I'm finding I really do enjoy Argento's style, I'll have to track down Deep Red at some point soon. The one thing this movie has over Suspiria is it goes even further with the ending and you have a giant grim reaper chasing after the protagonist. Gotta love that. List so far: Creepshow, Creepshow 2, Chillerama, Necronomicon, Body Bags, Trick r Treat, Horror of Dracula, Dracula has Risen from the Grave, Taste the Blood of Dracula, Dracula A.D. 1972, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Nosferatu The Vampyre, Dracula(1931), Oculus, Inferno Basebf555 fucked around with this message at 14:43 on Oct 15, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Oct 15, 2014 14:41
|
|
|
Choco1980 posted:Well I would argue that the tenement building is most certainly supposed to have the sort of character that the school does in Susperia. But yes, this is a bit of a letdown compared to the first movie. If you think that's bad though, you'll be extra disappointed by Mother of Tears the third film in the trilogy. I have plenty to go through before I'm reduced to watching Argento's more recent stuff. I need to see most of Fulci, Bava, and several more Argento films including Deep Red and The Bird With The Crystal Plummage.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 15, 2014 20:50
|
|
|
Night of the Creeps: I've been watching stuff I've never seen before this week, and Night of the Creeps has been on my Netflix queue for like 6 months. I had my hopes up because this movie starts out with a bang. You have midget-sized aliens running around their spaceship and a black and white sequence set in the 50's. But then once the main portion of the movie got going it never really went anywhere. Tom Atkins was good as always, but the alien slugs were kind of boring and things just kind of plodded along for a while. The effects were nothing special, there was nothing that really pushed the envelope like some of the stuff in The Blob remake or Slither or a Stuart Gordon movie. All in all I was disappointed. Edit: Oh yea and it got kind of stupid how every single character was a reference to a horror director. They even ran out of characters and had to make a guy's last name "Carpenter-Hooper". Its funny at first but they went to far with it. Basebf555 fucked around with this message at 15:29 on Oct 16, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Oct 16, 2014 15:20
|
|
|
InfiniteZero posted:
Absolutely, I can definitely see that after watching Creeps. But for me it feels like the people who did Slither saw Night of the Creeps and set out to go even further(they had more money and better technology), and they did. When the movie is about alien slugs I want there to be some gooey disgusting scenes and I didn't think Night of the Creeps delivered that.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 16, 2014 18:09
|
|
|
InfiniteZero posted:I wouldn't normally spoiler a movie from 1986 but people are actively discovering these films in this thread so I think it applies this time. Now that we're halfway through October I'm looking to watch really good poo poo, and I'm 0-3 now with this run of first time viewings. I was hoping to at least discover one new favorite but now I'm down to just The Conjuring and the Carrie remake so my hopes aren't very high. I really wish I agreed with you about Night of the Creeps because I normally can't get enough of 80's horror and at this point I've seen the majority of it.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 16, 2014 19:04
|
|
|
The Conjuring: I'd resisted watching this for quite a while because I hate the Warrens and what they stand for, but I knew I'd cave at some point. For someone going into the movie with that attitude it can be distracting how much focus there is on how heroic and amazing the Warrens are. It wasn't just that they're in the movie, but they are the two heroes of the story and are pretty much one dimensional characters in that way. That part got old and did grate on me. Still, I have to say I enjoyed it. It was slow at first, but I was fine with that and it paid off because poo poo really ramped up towards the end. There were a few solid jump scares, but not too many in my opinion. Some of the sound effects were amazing, like when one daughter is trapped in a room with the ghost/demon/entity banging on the door to get in. The sound they used for the loud door pounding felt like a someone was using a 2-ton door knocker or something, it was pretty cool. I'm also fine with the way it ended; I don't mind a happy ending, sometimes horror movies bend over backwards to go bleak with endings when its not necessary. All in all it was very solid and would maybe be even better if I didn't know anything about the Warrens. In a day or two I'm moving on to the true classics of the season, so I won't have to deal with any more "decent" or "solid" films, only the best of the best. Looking forward to it. Basebf555 fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Oct 17, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Oct 17, 2014 15:21
|
|
|
Pope Guilty posted:
If you haven't yet you should watch the Never Sleep Again section about NoES2. The guy that wrote the script is surprisingly up-front about the fact that he had no intentions of doing anything related to what Craven had done and basically just took it as an opportunity to write a screenplay with as much gay subtext(if you can even call it subtext) as possible. Its also hilarious to hear Craven's comments about it because he talks about the ridiculous pool party scene and how incredulous he was when he saw it. He had created this dark, suspenseful slasher movie with an instantly memorable iconic villain, and in the first loving sequel here he is showing up at a pool party cracking jokes and randomly hacking up teenagers. It must have been a surreal experience for Craven to see that.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 17, 2014 16:29
|
|
.
|
I had no power for half the weekend so I feel a little behind. On Sunday I decided to just jump right into the home stretch. Everything from here on out are my personal favorite Halloween movies, although I'm not planning on any particular order. The Howling: Possibly the best werewolf movie of all-time. Before CGI a full-sized werewolf had to be a man in a suit, and this is one case were I'd argue CGI is inherently worse because I like how the man-in-the-suit werewolf moves. For an example of how a CGI werewolf typically moves watch Van Helsing; the wolf is leaping thirty feet in the air and running at 50mph, etc. Before any of that was possible the main in the suit had to do it, and stuff like the famous office scene were the wolf takes the file from the woman's hand are better for it. Every movement of the werewolf takes on more meaning, every snarl is given more emphasis, and close-ups of the monster are held for a long time because the make-up is amazing. There is less of a focus on action because the suit wouldn't be able to handle any real action, but for me that restriction works in the films favor. I've always felt like The Howling has two main protagonists. I find myself rooting for the journalist just as much as the news anchor, and when one of them doesn't make it through the movie its very sad. When the journalists boyfriend shows up with the silver bullets and starts shooting, that's a real fist pumping moment because you want revenge for her death. The only other contender for best werewolf movie is American Werewolf in London, and I'll be watching that later this week. Evil Dead 2: Watching this again after a few years its fairly obvious what Raimi was trying to do. He shows you the necklace that Ash gave his girlfriend in Evil Dead as an indicator that this is the same Ash and the same girl, just slightly different circumstances. The movie rockets along at an insane pace, much moreso than the original. There's no arriving at the cabin and having a little fun before the poo poo hits the fan, the poo poo is hitting the fan pretty much the minute they step foot inside. This movie has a bigger budget than the first, but really the effects are just as dated so I think the goofier tone works and fits with those kind of effects better than the more serious original.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 20, 2014 14:44
|
|
|
Coming down to the last 10 days now, here's the list so far: Anthologies: Creepshow, Creepshow 2, Chillerama, Necronomicon, Body Bags, Trick r Treat. Dracula: Horror of Dracula, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, Taste the Blood of Dracula, Dracula A.D. 1972, Dracula(1931), Nosferatu: The Vampyre, Bram Stoker's Dracula. First Time Viewing: Inferno, The Conjuring, Oculus, Night of the Creeps, The Town that Dreaded Sundown. Ultimate Halloween Movies Evil Dead 2, The Howling... Night of the Living Dead: Well most of the stuff from here on out will be all-time classics, so I don't know what I can add that hasn't already been said a thousand times. It has one of the most likeable protagonists in horror movie history, and the zombies a scarier in this than anything else that would come later. I think the black and white has something to do with it; the zombies feel older and more decrepit, yet still at the same time more alive than you'd expect compared to some other famous zombie stories. The guy who plays the first zombie in the graveyard is probably the best film zombie of all-time. I've heard some people say that the famous scene with the little girl and her mother in the basement is overrated, but I don't agree, it creeps me out every time. Tonight I'm going to try to do a double feature of Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 21, 2014 14:39
|
|
|
It seems like Scream has been getting some poo poo around here lately, but its definitely an excellent slasher movie regardless of anything else. With that said, I will talk a little poo poo about it as well. One of the things it got credit for on release and in the years since is how shocking it was that Drew Barrymore was killed in the first scene. When you hear people talk about it today its as if Scream broke new ground with that idea. "Scariest Movie" countdowns always mention that in their entry about Scream as if it wasn't already an established trope just like everything else in the movie. There are countless slasher films that use that structure starting obviously with Psycho, but then you have Suspiria, Friday the 13th and a lot of others that have done something very similar. I can only assume it was a direct homage by Craven to Janet Leigh in Psycho, he must have been surprised that nobody seemed to notice.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2014 16:03
|
|
|
Junkie Disease posted:Psycho is wholly different it's the first act almost second when she dies, and it was to establish how different a criminal mind was from an insane one. Scream had a Drew Barrymore cameo that's all it is. I mean I see how they aren't exactly the same but I wouldn't say they are "wholly different". Leigh was cast specifically so that the audience would think she'd be a featured character for the whole movie, which is exactly why Barrymore was cast.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2014 20:27
|
|
|
Dawn of the Dead: Of course this is a classic, however I think I'd have to rank it as my least favorite of the main three "Dead" films. I love the opening, where the racist SWAT guy is rampaging through the project housing indiscriminately gunning people down. That may just be the scariest scene in the whole movie. Anyway, the main draw of the movie for me is the novelty of being in a mall during a zombie apocalypse. As a kid I thought that idea was just awesome, so for some years Dawn was my favorite of the series. The characters are alright, but I found them to be not as likeable as some of the characters in Night of the Living Dead or Day of the Dead. Because of that the portion of the movie where one of the SWAT guys is infected and the other has to wait for him to come back before putting him down falls kinda flat for me. The story never really goes anywhere, the main group of protagonists never have a clear goal beyond defend themselves and maybe at some point leave the mall. Overall its still great though, the zombie effects are a big leap forward from Night of the Living Dead and at the very least nostalgia keeps me coming back to this year after year. Day of the Dead: For whatever reason I've seen Night and Dawn about 50 times each, but only ever watched this one maybe two or three times. Over the past few years I've come around to the opinion that this is the best of the series. I root for the good guys much harder in this one, and it has a great villain, something Dawn of the Dead was missing. The helicopter pilot and his alcoholic buddy are two of my all-time favorite horror characters, and the whole dynamic between the science team and the military guys really carries the whole movie. There is so much tension built up even without the presence of any zombies, the idea of being down there with those people is very scary all on its own. The "Dr. Frankenstein" character is great too, he steals every scene he's in, and his experiments are grotesque. Then of course there's Bub. Bub's storyline may be one of the most satisfying in horror history; from when Rhodes first refuses to salute him, to Bub giving him one final sarcastic salute, its a real fist pumping moment. So there is more to this movie than just splattering some zombies, which for me makes it probably the best thing Romero has ever done. I need to see Martin though in order to cement that opinion.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 23, 2014 14:26
|
|
|
Lurdiak posted:I think you may have missed some of the subtext of Dawn of the Dead if that's all you have to say about it. Of course I didn't miss all the consumerism stuff(this was far from my first viewing after all), but I'm watching the stone-cold classics so I figured those kind of comments are redundant. I thought the few criticisms I do have would be more interesting. Its hard not to notice when a guy is in a full-on apocalypse situation, but he runs around a department store like a giddy schoolgirl just because finally he can take whatever he wants. Its barely subtext. Basebf555 fucked around with this message at 15:07 on Oct 23, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Oct 23, 2014 15:04
|
|
|
Lurdiak posted:I also really like that unlike almost EVERY zombie movie made after it, the film shows some the slow breakdown of society as the outbreak occurs. It's not suddenly poo poo city like in Night, nor is there a lazy 28 days later/Walking Dead time skip. Nobody shows that stuff because it's really hard to do right, but to me it's a lot more interesting than the part where everyone's used to the new status quo. Yea maybe that's why I react so strongly to the opening scenes. Its something you rarely see in zombie movies.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 23, 2014 15:48
|
|
|
Dr.Caligari posted:
At the very least watch the next two or three movies in the Frankenstein series. Its pretty much one continuous story and Cushing's Frankenstein only gets more and more ridiculous as it goes on. He's completely insane. It really pays off in Frankenstein Created Woman, where Frankenstein, who we know to be basically a deranged madman at that point testifies in court at a murder trial as an expert witness. Its absolutely hilarious.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 24, 2014 14:16
|
|
|
Candyman: To me this is an all-time great horror movie. It came out when I was 8 years old, and Candyman was a horror icon to me right up there with Freddy and Jason. The sequel, Farewell to Flesh, also scared the absolute crap out of me but it doesn't hold up as well as the original. Probably the best moment is when Helen is in her bathroom, and you think the movie is going to pull that old trick where she closes the medicine cabinet door and sees Candyman behind her. So you're bracing for that, but then his giant oversized hook just comes bursting through the shelves of the cabinet and tries to grab her.. Probably one of the top-5 jump scares of all-time. There are a number of other very memorable scenes, including when Helen is being interviewed by the counselor/psychologist at the institution(hint: it doesn't go well). This is a movie that could have easily been lovely, but it gets all the little things right and the two leads are perfectly cast. The decaying inner-city setting of Cabrini Green is its own character, and the music sounds like it belongs in a Dracula movie. Of course after watching a whole bunch of Dracula adaptations this month its pretty obvious to me that's exactly what Candyman is. This maybe be my favorite horror film of the 90's. Basebf555 fucked around with this message at 16:09 on Oct 24, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Oct 24, 2014 16:04
|
|
|
Anthologies: Creepshow, Creepshow 2, Chillerama, Necronomicon, Body Bags, Trick r Treat. Dracula: Horror of Dracula, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, Taste the Blood of Dracula, Dracula A.D. 1972, Dracula(1931), Nosferatu: The Vampyre, Bram Stoker's Dracula. First Time Viewing: Inferno, The Conjuring, Oculus, Night of the Creeps, The Town that Dreaded Sundown. Ultimate Halloween Movies Evil Dead 2, The Howling, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead... Hellraiser: This series seems to be a common topic of discussion in the general horror thread, and I doubt I have anything new to add but I have to watch this at least once a year. The "reformation" scene is disgusting to watch every single time, it never really seems to lose any of its impact. I consider Frank to be one of the great horror villains of all-time, his (sequel spoilers) surprise return at the end of Hellraiser 2 is my favorite part of that movie. This is one of a handful of films here towards the end of the month that I consider perfect. There is nothing I would change about Hellraiser. Child's Play: This may not necessarily make it onto most people's "Ultimate Halloween Movies" list, but it had a significant impact on me as a kid. Chucky terrified me until I was big enough to convince myself that if he came for me I could kick his rear end. Anyway, no matter how many times I see it, Child's Play always surprises with how restrained it is. Its a much slower burn that most people probably remember, and the moment where Chucky finally reveals himself to the mother is built up to over the entire first half of the movie. The first half is full of foreboding shots of the doll, some POV shots from its perspective, and a few times he slowly turns his head in a menacing way but still uses his Good Guy scripted catch phrases. So when Chucky starts scurrying around and flying at people with a banshee scream, its actually scary and once the climax of the movie starts it doesn't let up until Chucky is in several pieces. One thing I really noticed this time is just how big the Chucky doll actually is. Its HUGE. If an animal that size was trying to attack me I'd poo poo myself, he's as big as like a medium sized dog. So I'm at 25 down, 5 to go with 4 days left. I'll be watching Halloween 1-3 on the last night so I may even go over by a movie or two.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 28, 2014 15:23
|
|
|
Return of the Living Dead: The best horror-comedy of all-time. Almost every single scene is hilarious and pretty drat scary at the same time. A girl talks about how she fantasizes about being torn apart by a group of old men, and you laugh because you know that's exactly whats going to happen. Then it actually does happen and its a very scary moment, but you still kinda chuckle because hey, be careful what you wish for. Every scene is like that. When Frank and Freddy are wracked with pain because of the rigor mortis, its easy to laugh because they are making ridiculous faces and moaning in the most over-the-top way possible. Then you think about whats actually happening to them and its a pretty disturbing idea. The zombies are pretty goofy in the way they act and speak, but then you have an extended shot of a paramedic's head being eaten that is legitimately gross. The juicy zombie that comes out of the tank is pretty mind-blowing, I have no idea how they pulled that off in 1985. I'm sure its a pretty simple make-up but I'd rather not know how it was done to preserve the mystery. I just can't figure out where the actor's real head would be, I guess maybe they could have used a short person and put the zombie head on top. Usually that kind of technique is pretty obvious though, here its almost impossible to tell(the fact that its head gets lopped off in a single wide-shot was my only clue). Then of course, there's the soundtrack. I usually don't like rockin soundtracks like this in horror movies, but in this case the tone of the movie fits with the music so perfectly. There are a few scenes that are 100% dependent on the kick-rear end music, like when the guys cremate the first body and the camera slowly pans up to the sky. The music in that scene elevates it to another level, making it one of the most memorable in the movie. This is one of those movies you could show someone if they were wondering what's so great about 80's horror.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 29, 2014 15:50
|
|
|
Well I followed up the best horror-comedy of all-time with the second best, An American Werewolf in London: When you really get down to it this movie doesn't have a whole lot of werewolf action, and what little there is doesn't look all that great. Landis manages to cut away at exactly the right moments that leave you scared of what you aren't seeing. For instance the wolf leaps at a police officer in the movie theatre and for an instant we see its fangs make contact with the guys skull right before it cuts away. The next time we see the officer he's barely recognizable as human. Of course Landis knows when to make an exception to that rule and the transformation scene shows everything in the middle of a brightly lit living room. That scene is of course one of the groundbreaking effects scenes in movie history, even today its difficult to figure out how most of the shots were done. As scary as An American Werewolf in London can be at specific moments, it really is a comedy. I've never heard him talk about it but I'm convinced Landis specifically asked for Jack's makeup to include a little dangly bit that would flap around every time he speaks. Its just too funny not to be intentional. The climax is hilarious because the wolf barely touches anyone(although those he does "touch" don't last long), everyone freaks out at the sight of it and people are squashed in the streets by a multiple car pileup. The part of the movie on the moors is great, the Slaughtered Lamb is right out of a Hammer film, which I'm sure was no accident. All of the English actors are really good, and David Naughton could easily have been a bigger star, I'm not sure what happened there. As famous and iconic as this movie is I feel its still somehow underrated.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 30, 2014 15:20
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 2, 2024 02:14 |
|
|
Down to the end here, I watched The Exorcist last night. There's nothing I can really say about it that hasn't been said a million times, but I did notice something for the first time that really creeped me out. When Karras goes to the library to listen to the tapes of Reagan's backward speech, I always just heard it as indistinct moaning, but actually at one point the voices very clearly call out Merrin's name. I wasn't expecting to hear that, so it was pretty scary.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 31, 2014 14:10
|
|