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I have been excited for this for like, a full month. I started three years ago where I Ironman myself for watching only horror films that are new to me (ie, haven't watched before) and try to top the number in the 31 days that I hit the year before. Right now my bar is set for  60 films let's see if I can top it!Also, there are a few more big screen flicks to watch for. Phantasm Ravager (ie part 5) will be in select theaters on select days, I'd check the distributor, Well Go USA to see if it'll be near you. The Alamo Drafthouse near my mom is playing it Saturday the 8th, and she's been wanting to visit soon, might have to visit her instead that weekend. Also, Shin Godzilla is playing in select theaters the week of October 11th, and I'd definitely call that one of the more horror tinged entries in the epic franchise. Also, also, is someone going to start an all-purpose Halloween thread this year as well separate from the challenge reports?
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Sep 20, 2016 09:04
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Franchescanado posted:The original Puppet Master has such a great concept for a weird dark comedy: Four different psychics (dream psychic, sex psychic, clairvoyant, and telepath) spend the weekend at a dead colleague's mansion trying to find a secret fortune he has hidden, which turns out to be murderous puppets. It's a shame that this concept probably will never be executed as well as I'd like, because it's way better than the actual movie (which isn't bad). Put like that, yeah it has the potential to be The Haunting crossed with Ten Little Indians. (and suddenly I'm reminded of a screenplay idea I had once that I never really got anywhere with writing wise of a similar stripe) I still like what we got however, and am unashamed to be a major geek about the whole franchise. Number eleven is filming presently! As far as warming up, I bought myself subscriptions to Shudder and Full Moon Streaming with birthday gift money. The other day I watched a film on Shudder's livestream channel called The Squad about a Colombian platoon sent into a mountaintop base that has stopped responding to calls. Something Very Bad happened there, and in their investigation discover a woman behind a freshly built wall with prayers on it. Logbooks indicate they believed she was a witch. As the day wears into night, tensions build between the men and trust and morality start to drop. It was pretty good at building tension and feelings of claustrophobia, using tight spaces and fog in ways reminiscent of Silent Hill. 4 out of 5 Spooks. Also I've been slowly holding myself over by catching up on Netflix tv stuff. I'm ridiculously bad at this. Right now I'm nearly done with season three of American Horror Story, and to put things in perspective, I'm also watching Twin Peaks for the very first time. I'm cutting edge! By the by, I asked about a proper Halloween thread because I decided the other day to make myself a "mixtape" of sorts of horror/halloween songs, and I put it up to be downloaded by whomever wanted to, and that would seem a better place for a link than here...
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Sep 20, 2016 15:58
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aaannd signing up for Spotify. My mix, which is CD length is here if anyone wants it: http://www.filedropper.com/thingsthatgobump
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Sep 20, 2016 16:57
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I remember months ago hearing that Shudder was going to have the exclusive rights to Sadako vs Kayako, maybe their big October thing is bringing in all the Ju-On and Ringu films?
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Sep 21, 2016 04:20
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Oh, another musical thing to add to the list, one of the strongest features of I-mockery's annual Halloween coverage is their "Jack-O-Juke" of Halloween/horror music. It's a pretty big list of songs they have.
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Sep 21, 2016 18:14
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One of the few movies I had to seriously take a break from because of how dirty it made me feel. That's quite an accomplishment.
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Sep 22, 2016 04:10
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Yeah, 31 definitely proves that Zombie is kind of a diamond in the rough, but is still in that rough. Like, if he had a talented or savvy collaborator, he could write and direct some of the greatest horror we've ever seen. As it is, we get to see little glimpses of his greatness hiding under all this other flawed material. Every time.
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Sep 22, 2016 21:16
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He kinda touched on that lightly in the Q & A feature that was aired after the movie at the fathom event I saw it at. Where basically he said that LoS did kinda strangely because it was so outside of what people expected from him, but he really enjoyed making it, and he was really curious how reception was going to be for him going back into his expected territory and making something extra dark, even for him. He also compared the two movies in that the former was a big long expensive production, and 31 was fast and dirty, having come up with the story on a whim after the movie he was trying to get made for TWO years he decided was dying in preproduction hell.
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Sep 22, 2016 21:37
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I rather LIKE TCM 4. It's better than 3 at least. Also, I think the first horror film is Georges Melies' The Haunted Castle (1896). It's on youtube and less than 4 minutes long, so if you really want to see horror film's roots, it's not hard.
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Sep 23, 2016 03:09
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Personally I don't plan a drat thing for my ironman challenge. I completely improv off the cuff. Last year I found the  method of searching out shady streaming sites was a big help to me (make sure to have an ad-blocker active!) and I hope this year to delve into some more obscure stuff like I did last year. My only real goal is to exceed the highbar set last year of 60 films that are new to me. The highlights last year were seeing how mindnumbingly bonkers Tomb of Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned was for an early 80s cartoon, and getting to add Malefique to my list of very few films that seem to be trying for the same tone as Hellraiser
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Sep 24, 2016 02:01
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Have a potato!
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Sep 24, 2016 10:24
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Hey, I liked Boxing Helena!
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Sep 24, 2016 19:25
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Franchescanado posted:1. Creepshow The remake is also good, despite removing literally all the subtext and just making it text.
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Sep 26, 2016 15:45
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Basebf555 posted:When I really sat down and watched Psycho for the first time, what struck me was how expertly Hitchcock had crafted the first third of the film to fool the audience into thinking it was going to be one of his more standard thrillers. Its a woman who's having an affair with a man who won't marry her, and in her desperation she steals a bunch of money and you think its going the traditional route where her plans will go awry somehow and maybe there will be some mistaken identity along the way but she'll bumble and stumble her way out of it like the guy from Foreign Correspondent. I can place myself in a theatre in 1960 as people were seeing Psycho for the first time, and the shock of the shower scene is so much more powerful when you realize how completely set-up the audience was to expect something totally different. Even knowing the twist, it's still so drat amazing that it happens. There's next to no suggestion that Leigh will be anything but our focus for the whole movie, and even knowing she gets offed you still end up being pulled into her personal plot and wondering where it's going to go. Hell, the scene with the cop pulling her over is as tense as anything else in the film.
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Sep 29, 2016 16:41
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Fun fact: The special effects process for making the monster on camera is the same one they used for Frank coming back to life in Hellraiser, and Freddy in NoES 3: Melt a wax dummy with layers to it, and film it in reverse!
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Sep 30, 2016 18:58
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Raxivace posted:I'm not familiar with either of those other two films, but that's interesting to know! Welp, now you know what you're watching this month.
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Sep 30, 2016 21:32
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IT BEGINS #1: The Wicker Tree (2011) Beth Boothby is a former pop country star, now born again Christian. Her and her fiance Steve are chosen to go to Scotland in a combination missionary/singing endeavor. Their benefactor for the tour, Sir Lachlan Morrison invites them to come ply their faith in his mostly pagan village (which quietly seems bereft of children), which he oversees from his power plant (which happened to have a small accident ten years prior). While there, Beth and Steve are nominated to be the "Queen and Laddie of May", prestigious positions in the local Mayday ceremonies that aren't really explained to the visiting Texans. Some things seem hidden and off about this village, as the pair are soon to find out... Robin Hardy is a unique footnote in horror history. Starting out doing small time plays and commercials and the like internationally, he exploded on the scene with 1973's "The Wicker Man", a film about faith and religion of different stripes that remains intense and searing even upon repeat viewings. But mostly that was all he did. He directed another movie and wrote a third in the 80s that both sound interesting to me but I have not seen, and that seemed to be it, with him preferring to work as a novelist. Then, in 2006, his film was remade starring Nicolas Cage, and has become legendary in its unintentional comedy. In reaction, Hardy wrote a thematic followup to his film, entitled Cowboys For Christ, seemingly in protest. Five years later he adapted the book into this film. Updated to nearly 40 years later, this film shares much of the same subject matter and plot progression as its predecessor, yet does just as much to make things its own unique thing. I feel like much of the film seems to be attempting to address how very little is different between religions, as shown both in the way hymnals feature prominently on both sides of the debate given, and in the way much of the proselytizing is responded to with politeness more than understanding. At the same time, much like in the original, there is a deep undercurrent of warning of the dangers of blind faith, and how much it belies self reliance and critical thinking (it is pretty much flat out said about a third of the way in that the power plant accident tainted the water table and has made the men of the village infertile, but the villagers instead put their faith in their goddess to repair the damage). It is not subject matter to be taken lightly, for sure. Also like the first film, even suspecting what is to come by the climax, one can't help but feel dread, as if the leads are being pulled along in a whirlpool, and nothing can change their fate. Technically, the film is a delight for the eyes, with beautiful open Scottish countryside, and interiors with several stories worth of decoration and detail. Curiously, the soundtrack is a bit of a throwback from before John Williams conquered Hollywood, with a strong focus on woodwinds and flutes rather than bombast and horns, it's a sort of sound one might expect from a film made in the 70s than one made only five years ago. I give The Wicker Tree /5.
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Oct 1, 2016 15:10
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1. The Wicker Tree (2011) #2. Mexico Barbaro (Barbarous Mexico) (2014) Okay, this is an anthology of 8 (!) different Mexican filmmakers making horror shorts to highlight the culture and mythology. It would be wrong to judge them all en masse. Plus the shorts themselves even have individual poster art if you go looking for it. This feels less like one big wrap-around set of tales, and more like a mini film festival. So I guess I have to judge accordingly. But I'm still counting it as only one film in my tally. Also, for those of you watching at home (it's readily available on Netflix and Shudder), there's FIFTEEN MINUTES of closing credits!! Anyways, in order: Tzompantli (Dir: Laurette Flores Bornn) A reporter gets in contact with a gang member who promises to fill him in on stories of a return to ancient Aztec ways of dealing with enemies. More than anything, this one feels like it's there mostly to set the tone. These are stories of cruelty and strangeness, with no happy endings. It's so so. Jaral de Barrios (Dir Edgar Nito) Two bandits are fleeing after robbing a bank, one of whom is badly shot. They find themselves taking shelter in an infamous haunted hacienda, and they are not alone. This one made me pause as I think it was letting me know what I was in for. There's some very graphic sexual content, and possibly some misogyny, but it's not quite on the surface. This is paired with surreal action, and a hauntingly beautiful setpiece of the hacienda. I can dig it, I suppose. Drena (Drain) (Dir Aaron Soto) A girl first steals a cigarette from a corpse she finds, then after smoking it encounters a strange monster demon who commands her to steal her sister's period blood, else face some serious consequences. Um, what? This one isn't based on any myths, and seems deliberately made just to confuse and shock the audience. Interesting visual design at least. La Cosa Mas Preciada (The Most Precious Thing) (Dir Isaac Ezban) A teen couple skip school and go rent a cabin in the woods to have their first time together. She especially wants it to be special. However, the elderly groundskeeper tries to warn them off, speaking of things in the woods that like to steal from people. This one needs a serious trigger warning. It's gross, and plays things off as sorta comedic. It's awful. I'm getting a bad feeling about this anthology at this point. Lo Que Importa Es Lo De Adentro (It's the Inside That Matters) (Dir Lex Ortega) A single mother finds herself split between her son that she dotes on, and her special needs daughter that actively enrages her, who is fixated on the idea that a homeless man that lives outside their building is El Cucuy, ie the Boogeyman. Is she correct? Oh dear, this keeps getting into some absolutely tasteless territory in this anthology. This one is no different. It's exactly as bad as you're hoping it's not in this segment. I feel like I need a shower after this and the last one, despite both being technically well-shot. Munecas (Dolls) (Dir Jorge Michel Grau) we open with a woman desperately trying to fight off a hulking madman in a swamp before ultimately he takes her to his hut on an island covered in dolls. This one is simple, with almost no dialog, which is fine. Grau has made films internationally, and seems the most accomplished director of the bunch. This piece feels very much like a brief concept piece for a much larger film, and is fine in that regard. It's refreshing after the rough content previous. Siete Veces Siete (Seven Times Seven) (Dir Ulises Guzman) Rabbit, a man with half his face horribly burnt and scarred, takes a body from an overcrowded morgue, then brings it to a barren lake, where he proceeds to perform magic to bring this person back to life for his own reasons, as he flashes back to how he got his horrible injury. Wow, this one might be the best of the bunch. It has a great deal of ambitious effects work and stunning imagery, and a great, dark story. I loved it completely, and want to see more of this man's work. Dia de los muertos (Day of the Dead) (Dir Gigi Saul Guerro) A harsh madame runs a strip club celebrating the titular cultural holiday by having all the employees (and herself) in traditional sugar-skull makeup. These girls also have...other plans for the foul patrons of the club. This one is pretty straightforward by the end, and is a refreshing bit of feminism after some of the prior entries. I liked it, though I don't have much to comment about it due to its brevity. And that's all the pieces. Considering most of the filmmakers have only done shorts up until now (and many are collaborating again for another upcoming anthology called Aztech) I like to think what we're looking at is a new wave of Mexican horror that's only on the rise. That said, I would not really advise that this set of films is for everybody. Again, there's some pretty awful content seen here. That it's mixed with more feminist centric pieces is truly an odd dichotomy. Enter at your own risk
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Oct 1, 2016 19:35
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Oh just wait til you get to part 4 which is all kinds of whackadoo, as it finally starts trying to explain things (spoilers: it does a terrible job of it, only raising further questions). It's clear that Coscarelli was already having trouble securing funds for the films, and this one was a bumper film meant to get interest in the story he really wanted to make that he was saving for 5 (we'll see if that remains true). The plot has Mike out in the desert on a sort of spirit journey with The Tall Man as his Tulpa, and Reggie out looking for him and blasting dwarves. Tim from part 3 is never mentioned and seems to have disappeared from existence. Rocky apparently is coming back for part 5 however. I saw the remaster of 1 in theaters recently, and next saturday I get to see 5 on the big screen too, so I've recently refreshed myself before the month's challenge began.
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Oct 1, 2016 20:53
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1. The Wicker Tree (2011) 2. Mexico Barbaro (2014) #3. I Can See You (2008) Three young privileged hipster 20 somethings are starting an ad agency, and their first big client is a window cleaner whose spokesman recently died. Frustrated with the pictures they have on hand, the men (and one girlfriend) decide to go out camping and take their own. The first night they have friends join them for a bonfire party, and one guy hooks up with an old flame who decides to stay the weekend with them. The next day two members of our group go missing, and everyone starts losing their goddamn minds less than 24 hours out of the city. As you can tell from my glowing synopsis, I certainly enjoyed this film that tried oh so hard to be edgy by combining a faux mumblecore aesthetic with trippy attempts to replicate I dunno, being on a bunch of drugs? There's a big difference between trying to say something with surreal imagery and actions, and just throwing in nonsense because you think it makes something bland look deeper, but you don't actually have anything worth saying. Guess which this is?  /5
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Oct 1, 2016 23:23
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K. Waste posted:What's the limitation on how non-horror movies apply for the "horror season"? I think it's weird if a lot of comedies that also happen to have literal monsters count, but, say, Roar doesn't. I'd call it completely subjective to the viewer what is and isn't a horror to you.
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Oct 2, 2016 15:37
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4. Demonic Toys 2 (2010) Okay, bear with me here. The opening credits show someone fixing the remains of Jack Attack and Baby Whoopsie (among the Demonic Toys destroyed when the evil warehouse was blown up at the end of Dollman vs Demonic Toys). Next we see them in the hands of the greedy and ultra rich collector of oddities, Dr. Lorca (Last seen in Hideous! and bearing scars from that encounter), being brought with him as he goes to acquire a new piece from a supposedly haunted Italian castle. Along with him is his golddigging fiance, her adult step-son from her previous marriage, their dumb cowboy assistant, and Dr. Lorca's personal psychic. They're met at the castle by the beautiful young representative of the seller of the piece, and a toy appraiser (played with bitchy delight by Leslie Jordan) The piece is an ancient mechanical doll in the shape of a devil called Demolitta. Naturally it's secretly alive, and it brings back to life the Demonic Toys, who then all run amuck (I'm told in the credits that Jane Weidlin voices Baby Whoopsie!), and the three of them run amok. The gold digger and cowboy are conspiring to steal the valuable doll. And finally, the evil ghost of the castle owner possesses the psychic. If you've seen many Full Moon films, we're pretty much paint by numbers at this point. For the record, I LOVE Full Moon with a passion. That said, I've never liked the Demonic Toys. They're just obnoxious and not really on the same level as many of the other oddities of the company. So I had pretty low expectations coming into this. On the other hand, Hideous! might be one of their best weird films, so eh. Dr. Lorca is such a weird character, in that he's not so much evil as he is what you'd call Chaotic Neutral. He just wants his stuff and doesn't care about anything else. Which puts him head and shoulders above the average Full Moon paper doll characters of the innocent and attractive young good guy and girl, greedy philanderers, just plain scenery chewing villains that tend to make up the lions share of their humans in their films. I hope to see more of him in the future. Unfortunately, this one was not one of Full Moon's greats. It takes around 2/3rds of the running time to start getting interesting, and is otherwise the all too common trope in their filmography of unlikeable people faffing around in a big empty castle. Blah. I give Demonic Toys 2  /five
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Oct 2, 2016 18:45
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#5 The Grudge 2 (2006) In the last installment of the series (actually the fifth installment, but the first US film in the epic series) Karen, an American born social worker living in Japan came across the whole mess of Kayako and Toshio being killed by her husband and causing ghostly terror and death to spread like a virus from person to person. She tried to stop things by burning down the house that acts as a sort of "patient zero" for the curse. Didn't work. Nearly killed herself in the process too. Now her younger sister Aubrey travels to the country to find out what happened to her. There she meets up with Chinese reporter Eason, and together they try to solve the mystery of Kyako and her curse. Meanwhile, there are two other stories being shown as well. Allison is a girl trying to fit in at a Tokyo school for foreign exchange students. Two girls, Miyuki and Vanessa, convince her to go with them to the house as a sort of popularity hazing ritual, leading to all three being terrorized, naturally. Finally, we also move to Chicago, where a family is adjusting to life with a new step-mother/wife in the household. The youngest, Jake, starts seeing and hearing weird things, seemingly centering on the apartment next door. The Grudge/Ju-On is such a strange and unique film series, especially with how much it's lumped in with other J-Horror long haired ghost stuff, without actually being a thing like them. It's a series that bends time and space at all costs to the expectations of both the characters and the audience. It has a cruel sense of humor with its creative effects. It has a running story that almost seems to not be there unless you're paying close attention, even with events seemingly just re-used from film to film Honestly, Kyako's origin with her stalking the handsome teacher of Toshio is the only thing I really accept as "re-made" rather than "repeated" across the series. You'll find connections if you're watching closely, and also there's the house itself which has been pretty much the same (with some slight exterior remodeling) from film to film. That Takashi Shimizu directs more than half of the films thus far (and even the pretty blah Wii game) and has after stepping down still stayed in pretty heavy creative control makes this very much an auteur series. And this installment in particular has a lot going on under the surface. The previous US film felt very much like it was just another Japanese film that in this case just happened to have a lot of American characters in it. This time, he swaps the balance and tries to really have the US and Japanese differences in ghost stories butt heads. See, in the US, we often put things so that there's a reason behind hauntings, and that there's a way to set things right and end it. In Japan, the more common style to folklore is that haunting and curses are more like viruses, where they just spread, and no, there's nothing you can do to inoculate yourself. Much of the plot of this film has Americans trying to figure out how to stop the curse, and figure out why burning up the house didn't slow things down, when the harsh truth laid out by the end is that no, there's nothing you can do. You're just up doo doo creek by no fault of your own. Sorry. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a factor in why the film series started losing steam in the states so quickly. There was a third straight to video US film, but mostly the series has just continued to thrive in its home country, with the most recent film (a cross over with Ringu) coming out just this past Summer. I'll get to it, but my chronological OCD means I have to watch the series in strict release order. The only exception I've made to this has been the Wii game, which doesn't have a whole lot of story really, it's just different members of a family that end up having the curse hit each of them after one member goes to the house. Otherwise I'm literally at this point only half way thru the series, with 6 more films to watch. I give The Grudge 2: and a half out of five
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Oct 2, 2016 22:13
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My random selections continue unabated: 1. The Wicker Tree (2011) 2. Mexico Barbaro (2014) 3. I Can See You (2008) 4. Demonic Toys 2 (2010) 5. The Grudge 2 (2006) 6. Laserblast (1978) Billy is a bit of a loner as a teenager. He gets picked on by bullies (including Eddie Deezen?! What world is this?!) he gets harassed by his local cops regularly, his mom is never home, his girlfriend's grandfather hates him, etc etc. One day, while farting around in the desert he finds a necklace and strange gun that are alien in nature. He decides to take them, not knowing that when he sleeps at night the necklace turns him into a sort of ghoul, with pale skin and eyes and jagged teeth, and has him start using the laser cannon against people that wrong him. As he starts turning more and more into a monster, the aliens who created the gun (that are like the halfway point between ET and big ol dinosaurs) and a strange government agent are both hot on his trail. I have no idea why it's taken me so long to see this film. It reeks of 70s culture, while still having a total whackadoo plot. The cast surprises me too, with people like Keenan Wynn and Roddy McDowell popping up out of nowhere. I appreciate that Billy seems to get less and less human in his mannerisms the more he uses the gun, until by the end he seems like some primitive caveman, shooting things at random to assert his dominance. If you like 70s cheese, I strongly recommend this flick. I give Laserblast:  /5
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Oct 3, 2016 00:15
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Lurdiak posted:Do yourself a favor and check out the sequel, which is one of the best low budget action movies out there (yet still has enough horror elements to count towards the challenge). I think you showed it the very first scream stream I came to. How's part 3 by the way?
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Oct 3, 2016 00:36
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TrixRabbi posted:Yeah, it's bullshit. It's an art director mocking us for liking visceral story telling, the high end equivalent of moral crusaders getting up in arms over video nasties. I've never heard a single quote from Haneke that didn't sound like he was up his own rear end and likely was self-hating. (For example hearing him say once upon a time that he hated horror and that his films don't count as being in the genre)
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Oct 3, 2016 15:34
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#7: Mark of the Astro-Zombies (2004) So, once upon a time a mad scientist created cyborg undead he called Astro-Zombies. Now, in the first sequel made 35 years later, aliens have coopted this technology and are using it to start killing off humanity. The president tries to gather the best minds in the country, but this just results in the aliens kidnapping them to steal their brain patterns. Meanwhile, an evil woman (Tura Satana! ) starts running a con game with her lacky using the astro-menace to her advantage, and kidnaps a reporter (Brink Stevens!) to attempt to extort information out of her Fed boyfriend. Also, some good aliens come to stop the bad aliens. A lot of people like to say they're a fan of "bad" movies. These people often have no idea what they're talking about as to what the bottom of the barrel is. Ted V. Mikkels is one of the filmmakers that lives down there. We have monsters that are definitely dime store masks. We have the same gore effect used literally dozens of times throughout the film. We have actors that aren't even up to community theater snuff. We have lines of banal conversation painstakingly worked on. We have shot after shot (on home video) of things that make no difference to anything in the film, such as a secretary going to make coffee, or countless interviews with a "celebrity" (Liz Renay! ) who claims to have been abducted by aliens, repeated several times. This kind of film is mindnumbing after a while, and is only for true cinemasochists. At least the wave after wave of gore is fun to watch, so I'll give it that. I give Mark of the Astro-Zombies  out of Five (that's one half)
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Oct 3, 2016 19:10
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#8. Deathrow Gameshow (1987) Chuck Toedan is the host of the hottest game show on the air, Live or Die! wherein death row inmates play games to try to win a reprieve on their sentence. If they fail, they get executed live! Chuck has lots of fans, and just as many haters, but neither slow him down one inch. After a talk show debate with one Gloria Sternvirgin (groan) and a mixup on the game show, the pair find themselves on the run from a wronged mafia boss, with danger on their heels. Okay, I'm skirting the "horror" definition here. What we have is more a jet-black comedy, but one of a decidedly horrific nature. This is from the same guy who brought us the lovely "Curse of the Queerwolf" after all. And just like that film, this one is filled to the brim with awful to offensive humor of every stripe. Also half the time the jokes fall flat. Really, the only thing the film really has going for it is the extreme satire of tv. It reminds me of the film Video Vixens, which was loaded with fake commercials and wry commentary on television standards, all of which through the lens of adult entertainment. Here instead you have the same idea, only with violence. They're kinda reaching for the same destination from different directions, and both quite lesser seen for it. I give Deathrow Gameshow:  out of Five
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Oct 3, 2016 22:37
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1. The Wicker Tree (2011) 2. Mexico Barbaro (2014) 3. I Can See You (2008) 4. Demonic Toys 2 (2010) 5. The Grudge 2 (2006) 6. Laserblast (1978) 7. Mark of the Astro-Zombies (2004) 8. Deathrow Gameshow (1987) 9. The Grudge 3 (2009) We open with Jake from the previous film, now in a pediatric institution, where his doctor doesn't believe his stories about the angry ghosts now living in his old apartment building. Besides that, in the building itself we have the super, 20 something Max, and his teen sister Lisa, and their younger, chronically ill sister Rose. They're almost all that's left in the now dying building as people don't want to stay where a disturbing murder happened (too bad the curse doesn't work that way). However, a new woman from Japan, Naoko, moves in. Turns out she's the SISTER we never had heard of of Kayako, and she might have a way to save the family from the impending death. Maybe. Ugh. You know how I said the other day with my piece on part 2 how the series' strongest point was the auteur cohesiveness holding it all together? Well boy is my face red. This film gets a token executive credit thrown Takashi Shimizu's way (he was busy helping make the next two films back in Japan at the time) and instead relies on a couple of heavily inexperienced Westerners to pick up the slack, and apparently the company that picked up the rights after Columbia and Village Roadshow dropped out moved things to Bulgaria for cheap filming. At least they were able to keep the apartments looking the same. That and I was impressed with the child actress playing Rose are about all I have to say positive here. There is 100% a lack of understanding for how the series works, and what makes the films good. Kayako is presented as a knock-off of the girl from The Ring, at one point even crawling out of a painting in near identical fashion to the famous tv shot of the other franchise. The story is told completely linearly with much more blood and gore and no subtlety at all. And then, they make it clear by halfway through that they weren't even paying attention to the story previously. In part 2, one of the things I liked a lot was how they started building up for the American perspective, that Kayako's childhood as the daughter of a sort of exorcist is what led to the curse, and that she could do something to make things right, only to have the elder woman spit in our faces and call us dumb for thinking things worked that way. Then in this film we get introduced to an unmentioned character that was part of her family who instead travels to America to assure the white people that no, that's exactly how it works, and we're going to have an exorcism to make everything right. It's a 100% about face on everything the series' lore stands for and it makes me actively angry how much it misses the point. At least the cast are trying to make the best of their situation, so I can't fault them there, there's a lot of genuine feeling interaction at play. I give The Grudge 3  out of Five.
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Oct 4, 2016 01:45
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If I remember right, The Ring was really the first major US film to be doing that washout effect for dread in horror. It kinda started that trend we still haven't bucked. I really think there's a lot to be said for pretty much any version of the film, even the Korean one. But then, I'm kinda a nerd on the subject so what do I know?
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Oct 4, 2016 03:40
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#10: The Black Cat aka Demons 6 aka di Profundus (1989) Marc Ravena is the hottest name in Italian horror. He's working on a new film that is set to be a sequel to Dario Argento's Supsiria (!) and will have his wife, Anne, in the lead. The film is about the third of the "three mothers", named Lavinna, who Anne will play. Lavinna meanwhile is a real centuries old witch, and she had other ideas about Anne portraying her. Slowly she finds herself seeing more and more disturbing sights, and trusting those around her less and less. Is Anne just losing her mind and hallucinating, or is the witch for real, and how does Anne and Marc's baby fit in to all of this? Luigi Cozzi is an interesting guy. He mostly directed in the 80s, but was notorious for his ripping off of other material (he first got his name on the map in 1977, taking the original Godzilla film and adding psychedelic colorization to it). However, I would argue watching this particular film that shameless doesn't mean talentless. Cozzi could have picked a worse role model than Dario Argento to ape (after retiring from film, Cozzi now runs a museum and gift shop dedicated to Italian horror, and Argento in particular, located in Rome), as much of the auteur's style is copied here, from daring use of color to long ambitious tracking shots. Even much of the music is borrowed from other sources (including the score of Suspiria itself! ) However, what we have here is a movie with an unpredictable story and striking visuals, and surprisingly realistic acting coming from Italy, especially with how the ADR sounds. If you're a fan of Italian supernatural horror, I recommend this not be ignored. I give The Black Cat  out of 5
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Oct 5, 2016 15:20
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Basebf555 posted:Definitely do check out the second one. Its definitely not as good as the first but still a lot of fun and it takes place in New Orleans. I even kinda liked the third one. Like, you could tell they were at least trying to make a good film, even if often they fell short on the effort. I did like the idea of the death cult worshipping Candyman from afar, trying to keep his legend alive.
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Oct 5, 2016 21:19
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#11 Timecrimes aka Los Cronocrimenes (2007) Hector and his wife have recently started moving into a new home they're renovating. One day while looking through binoculars at the forest behind his home, he sees a strange woman. when he goes to investigate, a man with his head wrapped in pink bandages stabs his arm with a pair of scissors. Running from the man, he finds himself at a nearby science institute where he accidentally ends up in a time machine, going backwards a few hours. Now he has to try to make sure he doesn't break his own space-time continuum and ruin everything, while still trying to figure out the mystery in the woods. I had heard for some time that this little Mexican made film was quite good. I'm glad to say the reputation was not in vain. This is a fun little mystery horror, with lots of time travel shenanigans to mess with things. It's definitely the sort of movie where everything makes perfect sense retroactively. I enjoyed this cerebral sci-fi thriller and recommend it. I give Timecrimes  out of Five
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Oct 6, 2016 00:24
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#12 & 13: Ju-On: White Ghost/Black Ghost (2008) What we have here are two separate films packed together as one. Originally they were released in theaters separately to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the franchise, but on home video are one package. In White Ghost, we have a new far reaching grudge curse, much like the original. In this case the Very Bad Thing that happened is a very Amityville style horror, where a college age man killed his extended household family after being haunted by spirits. This has naturally led to haunting of anyone who comes close to the event, with the main "ghost" attacker being the family grandma, for some reason carrying a basketball. In Black Ghost, the titular haunter seems to have sprung forth from the phenomena of a tween girl having a cystoma in her uterus area that is her twin sister, never born. The ghost is black from head to toe, which makes for some eerie moments in heavily shadowed areas. These shot on video films were just...okay. They were short so there wasn't much meat to them, though there was some surprising gore to them. The franchise's creator didn't actually write or direct these side stories, but he did heavily act as producer on them, and it shows. They feel like a throwback to the original tv movies, with their character-driven narratives that bounce around time and space, and their mean spirit (especially the latter) where nobody is safe. They're not bad if you're looking for a Ju-On itch to scratch. I only have three more films left so far that have been made, let's hope they don't let me down... I give Ju-On White Ghost/Black Ghost  out of Five
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Oct 6, 2016 05:14
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#14. Cat in the Brain aka Nightmare Concert (1990) Writer-Director Lucio Fulci stars as Writer-Director Lucio Fulci. Fulci, as I'm sure you all know, was one of the biggest names in Italian horror, particularly in the 80s. All that blood and guts meanwhile is starting to get to him, and he starts having hallucinations and revulsions often, usually involving flashbacks to his films, or ones he produced. He goes to see a local psychiatrist for advice, and the doctor hypnotizes him. Little does he know that the doctor himself is a maniac, and uses Fulci's breakdown to help swerve guilt away from his own killing sprees. This wasn't too bad. It's probably one of the more coherent of Fulci's films, and it has a fun meta-narrative. However, that usually means here an excuse to show clips from other films (especially Ghosts of Sodom and Touch of Death, his two previous films, which he is working on during the plot). The film also doesn't shy at all away from the red stuff, so if you have a sensitive stomach, you might want to turn elsewhere. Unfortunately, despite the really good idea of the story, not much is really done with it besides moving from setpiece to setpiece. Still, it beat Wes Craven's New Nightmare to the meta-horror punch by 4 years, so there's that. I give Cat in the Brain out of Five
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Oct 6, 2016 19:26
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#15 Killjoy (2000) Michael is a shy nerd type who has a crush on Jada. Unfortunately at the moment, Jada is seeing Lorenzo, who's a thug. So he and his boys end up grabbing Michael to scare him and accidentally shoot him in the process. Whoops. Little do they know that Michael was also working on black magic in his spare time, and brings to life a magical evil clown by the name of Killjoy to kill all his bullies and get him alone with Jada. Now the brought to life Killjoy starts getting his revenge by bringing people into his world (which looks like a factory with some spray paint) through his magical ice cream truck. Now it's up to Jada, her new boyfriend Jamal, and her best friend Monique to put a stop to Killjoy's reign of terror. Charles Band had a weird period to his career in the late 90s and early 00s. Most of the movies he produced in that period avoided the Full Moon banner due to money issues, and the ones that did were just clip show repackaging. The other stuff he seemed to have some mild success with were "Urban" (read: Black Inner-City set) horror films with very little budget. Killjoy was one of them, and probably the most successful. There's at least 3 sequels so far, with part 5 set to debut this month I believe. That said, this movie's pretty low bar. The acting half the time is completely stilted (especially from the character of Monique) and the writing is absolutely silly, with characters suddenly having knowledge they shouldn't, and with most of the fantastical effects happening on obvious green screens. I'll probably start watching the other films soon, but I only hope things go uphill from here. I give Killjoy  out of 5
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Oct 6, 2016 21:48
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#16. Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006) A college grad student trio of journalism majors are invited to follow around Leslie Vernon, a new up and coming masked slasher, planning his big night. Leslie shows them the tricks of the trade, and walks them through his methods and training. The film crew themselves aren't so sure how much they're comfortable with this meanwhile, but they stick to it. I've heard about this film for the past decade, but I never got around to watching it. Now I wish I had. It's one of the smartest slashers I think I've ever seen, with full on breaking down of fourth walls in the sort of clever deconstruction that the media pretended in the mid 90s that Scream was doing. Not only that, but it plays the "fill the movie with references to other great horror" while barely being in your face about it at all. Sure, there's explicit mention of several other franchises early on, but then it gets to more subtle details like set decoration and background music, then it even plays with names referencing other films, and finally it does its own level of stunt casting, with Robert Englund playing a very Dr Loomis style character, but then Leslie's own mentor, Eugene, is played by Scott Wilson, whose big break in hollywood was in the adaptation of "In Cold Blood" in 1967. This is a movie with a lot of respect for what came before it, yet not afraid to have fun with the material. Greatly underestimated by me. I give Behind The Mask  out of 5
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Oct 7, 2016 00:36
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#17. Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) Adam is an underground indie musician. His wife, Eve, lives in Tangiers, hobnobbing with Christopher Marlowe. Did I mention they were all many centuries old vampires? Because they are. After noticing her beloved's present state of ennui, she decides to drop everything and come stay with him a while, as he needs her. The two spend their nights exploring the ruins of the now dying city, and enjoying each other's company. Until Eve's sister Eva shows up unannounced. She's an out of control party girl of a vampire, the type with no respect for property or friendships. And naturally she ruins everything for our happy couple. This film barely counts as a horror film. It's more a romantic drama. That said, it very much still is about immortal blood drinkers, though they rarely kill for their meals, preferring to buy it black market from blood banks and doctors. I really appreciate the way this film portrays the immortal lifestyle. These aren't the stereotyped images of people who refuse to enjoy life beyond their lived-in original times, quite the opposite. Adam collects music and technology that is outdated but still beautiful, yet is able to jerryrig things with his accumulated knowledge, such as connecting his old land line phone so that he can facetime through his 70s vintage television. He spends his time learning new instruments and has a shrine to all the artists and scientists he's admired over the centuries. Eve even moreso shows that she absolutely adores learning new things and appreciating art--one striking moment has her speed read through five or six books, all in different languages, and completely enjoy every word. She is a woman that is delighted in every bit of life she sees in the world, from human to animal, to even fungi. These are people who know exactly what value their immortality brings, which is a joie de vivre you rarely see in this sort of film. That their love seems obvious and genuine even after so many hundreds of years doesn't hurt either. On the other side of the coin, the slowly rotting setting of modern Detroit (which I have seen first hand enough times to know is real here) is the perfect 21st gothic ruined sprawl, in answer to the old falling apart castles of Dracula's age. It's an absolute genius maneuver by director Jim Jarmusch. I absolutely love this film and everything about it. This is the kind of film I hunt down to own. I give Only Lovers Left Alive out of Five.
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Oct 7, 2016 06:07
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Grizzled Patriarch posted:The premise kinda sounds like Man Bites Dog, if you are ever looking for something in the same vein. Thanks for reviewing this though, it sounds neat and I'm gonna check it out. It is a little bit, but it doesn't stick with the documentarian/found footage style, it goes back in forth between the cameras being didactic in the narrative and handheld, or cinematic. Originally when it came out I thought it'd be kinda mediocre, but I was quite impressed with how clever the film was without being puckish about it. It's pretty much a must-see if you like slashers.
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Oct 7, 2016 06:10
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 12:18 |
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wormil posted:I tried Dead Snow Red vs Dead and made it ten or fifteen minutes. Gory but boring. Aw man, the movie is unpredictably fun as it goes. Did you even get to the Americans by that point?
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Oct 7, 2016 13:22
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