|
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. Tomorrow I'm doing From Dusk Till Dawn.
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 08:04
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 12:52 |
|
|
This is a great opportunity to remind folks that, while unrelated, The Beyond and From Beyond are both awesome and worth seeing. Here's what I'm gonna try to roll with: Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight House by the Cemetery Night of the Creeps Halloween Tombs of the Blind Dead Galaxy of Terror Demon Seed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Jacob's Ladder Tetsuo: The Iron Man Maniac Exorcist III Bride of Frankenstein Bad Taste Lost Highway You're Next Phantasm II Jigoku Nightmare on Elm Street III: Dream Warriors Hardware Zombie 2 The Gate Dog Soldiers The Fly Creepshow Onibaba The Thing 28 Nosferatu 29 Nosferatu the Vampyre 30 The Evil Dead 31 Monster Squad Neo Rasa fucked around with this message at 08:28 on Oct 2, 2014 |
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 08:07
|
|
|
I never seem to pull this off. Always get distracted with stuff, but I love trying. I jumped the gun this year and watched a few movies the last few weeks. I won't include them in my 31 tally but I'll quickly cover them here. The goal is 31 movies I've never seen before. The "never seen" thing is what always trips me up since I always end up wanting to watch movies I love during this, but I like pushing myself to try new movies and discovering new favorites. Ok, my September movies? Warmup Night 1 was a double feature of V/H/S and [v]V/H/S 2[/b]. I actually watched V/H/S last October and enjoyed it but didn't love it and was kind of let down from the hype. I decided to rewatch it before the sequel since I didn't remember it too well and wanted to see if I felt better about it the second time around. I think the lack of expectations helped because I appreciated it a little more for the general creepy atmosphere and strong effects, especially in Amateur Night and 10/31/98. I enjoy the anthology format but I think five stories was a bit much along with the bumpers, because I think most of the stories were hurt a bit by not having a little more time to develop. But overall it was an enjoyable and somewhat creepy viewing. The sequel seemed to trade in some of the creepiness for campiness but not to the point where I thought it turned the corner into camp. There was still some solid atmosphere and affects in Phase I Clinical Trials, Safe Haven, and Slumber Party Alien Abduction although I thought Trials suffered from a lack of time, Haven got a little campy at the end (and then a lot campy with "Daddy"), and Slumber Party just didn't fully click with me and was more just an assault on the senses. I can only imagine what that must have been like in the theater. Overall, I still enjoyed the anthology approach to seeing not only different kinds of stories but also the creative ways they use to justify the found footage concept. A Ride in the Park wasn't anything great but I had to applaud the basic idea of a a zombie with a Go Pro. On Night 2 I decided to go all in with the sort of movie that gets to me (haunted house/ghost/demons) Sinister and Jesus, that freaked me out. I wasn't really expecting it, maybe some kind of response to seeing Ethan Hawke as the star and not expecting him to deliver in a horror for some reason. But he delivered well on the idea of a guy desperate enough for a break that he'd ignore some glaring moral and supernatural signs he should turn back. And the movie was a creepy overall feel that had me jumping out of my seat quite a bit. It also somehow managed to pull off an ending that I kind of saw coming early on but it somehow kept me guessing right to the end whether they'd pull the trigger or not. Ultimately even though I was half expecting it I wasn't really expecting it when it happened. I chalk that up to a well paced film. If nothing else the movie passed my basic horror movie test. I watched it in my basement at night and when I turned off all the lights to go upstairs I felt a slight chill and ran up the stairs, glad no one could see me to laugh. Up next on Night 3 was a bit of a gamble with Quarantine 2, as all zombie movies tend to be a gamble. I'm a massive fan of Quarantine as well as [REC} and I vaguely remember [REC] 2 fondly so when I saw this on Netflix I went in with solid hopes. But really this was just a super generic zombie film that abandoned the really effective part of Quarantine/REC (the found footage) and instead choose to expand on the less compelling explanation (which Quarantine also changed from REC into a less interesting direction). Just your basic "guess who makes it out alive" horror in the end. Yawn. I followed that up the same night with another zombie film I randomly found on Netflix, State of Emergency. I'd never heard of it, seen a trailer, or anything. This was a simple case of me following Netflix's recommendations and wanting to theme the night. Overall it was a step up from Quarantine 2 but it was still another generic zombie (or "infected") film. Although I'll give it points for a decent mood and a slight variation on the zombie without going overboard. The biggest mistake the movie made which just had my scratching my head was showing us the very last tense scene at the start of the film. I spent the entire movie thinking "Well, that guy won't die here because he has to be alive for that scene I already saw." Then it finally comes and not only is it basically the last scene but nothing really happens. Solid mood but just no story to speak of and a bizarre directorial choice. A very disappointing turn from my prior two nights. Night Four stayed on "cannibalism" but off "zombie" with We Are What We Are. I was super excited for this but I'm not really sure why. I think I must have just responded well to trailers or something and it stuck in my head. Overall I felt pretty satisfied and it was a nice bounce back from the bad zombie flicks. Good acting, story, and mood kept me tense and unnerved even without excessive gore or any kind of traditional scares. I genuinely never really knew what to expect from the players and the ending knocked me on my rear end. No major surprises, nothing deeply inspired, just a horrifying idea presented in a plausible enough and well executed way. That mostly concludes my September warm up except for the first two episodes of Penny Dreadful I re-watched after realizing that I had never actually finished that series even though I enjoyed it while I was watching it. I'm just bad with weekly television but this seemed to be a good time to rewatch/catch up on the show and see how it all played out. Those first two episodes had me engaged again as I love a competent monster mash up, am a sucker for the Victorian setting, and Eva Green is amazing. Ok, onto tonight. October 1st 1) Insidious I flipped through a lot of movies on my DVR, DVD shelf, and Netflix streaming trying to decide where to go with this but ultimately I decided I want to start with a haunted house/demon story because (as I said) those are the ones that really get under my skin. I've had this one sitting on a shelf for awhile and ended up choosing it over a couple of other contenders. Ultimately I'm content although a little underwhelmed, although I'm not sure if it was expectations that underwhelmed me or that the final act of the movie just couldn't deliver on the setup. The first half+ is very effectively creepy even if it showed a little more than I like to see in a ghost story, but once the movie started explaining things with [spoilers]astral projections and parallel dimensions[/spoiler] it just started to fall a little flat for me. And I think ghosts and demons are more effective in quick glances and spooky noises like the movie had for the first two acts, so when it just starts becoming all about dancing through their dimension and getting into fist fights with them it all just started to become way less scary to me. I will give it credit for a strong ending. I found myself thinking two things through most of the final act. 1) "This sure reminds me of Poltergeist." and 2) "So I guess the sequel is just the same story over?" That ending threw a wrench in things a little and makes me kind of interested in checking out Insidious 2 later in the month. And it passed the basic test because I caught myself peering over my shoulder once or twice (including just now while I was typing this). Any movie that has me wondering even for a second if there's a scary old woman or red faced demon behind me or in the darkened corner of the room had to be doing something right. I also watched Episodes 3 and 4 of Penny Dreadful. Again, I'm a fan of the show even though these were slower episodes and I believe were the last ones I saw when it first aired. Still, I'm not sure why I lost interest in the show because I'm still engaged in the story and want to see what comes next. I look forward to finishing out the season with "new" episodes over the next few nights.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 08:50
|
|
|
October 1st: Of Unknown Origin (1983) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086036/ Peter Weller is left alone in his newly renovated house while his wife and son visit her parents for a while. However, he is soon driven to the brink of insanity by an exceptionally intelligent and malicious rat that's taken up residence in the home. Weller's performance is the focus and driving force of the movie. His portrayal of a fairly average man, trapped in the rat race of the business world (get it? GET IT?) and taken over by paranoia and obsession is a delight to watch, and more than makes up for the occasional shot of a goofy looking puppet. His monologue at his boss's dinner party is one particular highlight. Needless to say, I recommend it. I'll be doing my usual routine this year. Mostly new movies, with a few I haven't seen in a long, long time. I've got high hopes for some of these, so I can't wait to see which ones will surprise, disappoint, or be just what I expected. MachineryNoise fucked around with this message at 09:09 on Oct 2, 2014 |
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 09:07
|
|
|
Just finished watching The Den as my third movie. Willow Creek didn't remind me, but watching this definitely did - the thing I most dislike about found footage movies is video "glitching out". I haven't seen a movie yet where I feel that they truly "earn" it and it's always just the laziest way to show that "something spooky is happening!". I'm all ears if anybody has suggestions for FF movies that don't use that crutch. The inconsistencies in the way "The Den" worked also bothered me. Why does it sometimes say that the other person is typing, but not always? Why does the video chat sometimes start automatically while most of the time she has to press accept? Yes, I know, I am a huge, goony nerd who likes to pick nits, but that kind of stuff just makes me feel like they didn't pay enough attention or think things through. The last act was pretty good though and I have to agree with axleblaze - the very ending was great and what made it. Franchescanado posted:You're more than welcome to post what you watch in here. I'm not trying to nit-pick, it's supposed to be a fun challenge (I only managed to get to twenty-something last year). Thanks, will do!
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 09:14
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
Started off the month with The Woman in Black (1989), which I had never seen before... It was a really well done, creepy little ghost story! It really proves that you don't need a ton of make-up or special effects to create a bleak, oppressive atmosphere, just some really good actors with presence. Pauline Moran really kills it as the titular Woman... Still haven't seen the new one with Daniel Radcliffe... Might watch it sometime purely for academic interest.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 13:13
|
|
|
Random Stranger posted:Oh cool, I'll be interested in hearing what you think about it in the context of a horror movie. Hey Fellow Gojira watching bud. I actually almost watched it last night as Movie 1, but was outvoted by the other people watching with me. I'll post my thoughts on that context after tonight.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 14:09
|
|
|
I don't usually do this challenge but I ended up at a screening of Annabelle last night so I think I'll give it a go. Crossposting from the horror thread: flashy_mcflash posted:Annabelle is a mess and has about one scene that I'd charitably call 'scary'. It just throws so much poo poo at the wall -- Manson cults, the actual devil, several characters that are introduced for no reason at all, and a lot of shameless cribbing of Rosemary's Baby plot points (they even name the main character 'Mia' for pete's sake). Not a good start but I have plenty to get through before the month's out.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 14:56
|
|
|
October 1st: I had some friends over, and we all agreed to watch the documentary Nightmare Factory, which is about Greg Nicotero, horror movie special effects extraordinaire, and his company. If you like the behind the scenes look at monster effects and gore while seeing some of the business side of things, it's a fun quick 90 minutes. /5Tonight I'm going to do a double feature, but I'm not sure of what yet. I'm trying to watch as many new movies as I can and save the classics for the last week. Lurdiak posted:Hey I'm going to do a horror movie stream this month, is it appropriate to post it in here? I'm going to show at least 24 films. I don't think it's worth making its own thread but it seems like it fits this one? Idk. Yeah, you're good to go! Edit: Double check the list of movies on Netflix streaming. They just added a few new horror movies, (including the hard to find Cronenberg debut Shivers), and I'm going to be updating the list. Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Oct 2, 2014 |
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 15:21
|
|
|
Okay, Yesterday I got 3 out of the way so here I go: Edit: forgot to number them 1) Absentia C Why was this a horror film? On the surface we have a pretty good film about loss and the long term effects of having a love one disappear without a trace and then for no conceivable reason the movie also decides to be about giant bugs that live in walls and steal people. Like there's no feeling of connection between these two halves. It's unfortunate too because the non-horror stuff is quite well done and the horror stuff just drags it down and makes it all feel less true. It just doesn't do all that much with it. It's just sort of there, driving the movie towards a conclusion that feels incredibly unsatisfying. The horror part has one pretty okay, really hosed up payoff but that's it. Never does it feel connected or interesting to the other parts of the movie. It would be one thing if the movie just sort of transitioned but it just brings up it's horror part and then goes back. Even the ending is this whole thing about the mindset of dealing with missing persons that is just undercut by the presence of a giant bug. It's weird, I probably wouldn't have watched this if it wasn't horror, so I guess it got me there but man, why was this horror? 2) The Den B+ The Den is a clever found footage film that seems to wonder aloud what if all those people that comment on the internet weren't all talk? Despite some hacking abilities that can mostly be described as "magic", this is the rare movie about technology that has some idea how technology works and it was almost odd to see actual web services like gmail being used because I've grown so used to movies not using those for no real reason. I liked the little touches like some editing software having a trial countdown and just the endless "thank you for purchasing" e-mails that can be seen in the main characters gmail. It is quite often really clever in the way it uses tech and creates interesting shots that would only really work in this kind of context. After awhile I did find it to be a oppressively mean spirited and it started just getting annoying to me rather than actually scary, but the ending sort of contextualized it in such and absurdly banal way that it somehow made it work for me. 3) Silent Hill: Revelations F Watching this movie I picture an producer drunk somewhere talking about how he really liked Silent Hill and he really tried to make a movie true to the games but they kept changing stuff to make it have a broader appeal. "At least I got them to keep the vest" he says while resting his head on the bar. "We had to add a line insulting the vest but at least it's still..." and then he passes out, dreaming of a movie better than this one. Oh boy, where to even begin? I don't think I know what the plot of this movie was. It was just a bunch of horribly delivered exposition that didn't really explain much because the plot was the already kind of hard to follow Silent Hill stuff filtered down through what feels like half-hearted attempts to make it more palatable, which of course just makes it worse. I don't know why anything in this movie happened other than it was sort of the plot of Silent Hill 3. This movie just isn't scary at all. It's just ugly and dumb, The monsters look like someone was described Silent Hill, thought of Hellraiser and made something that was way, way worse than either of those. Everything just looks laughable. All the moments of "3D" just look so incredibly ugly and worse than the graphics of the actual games. All the characters are bland as hell and the love interest they cram in for no real reason is king bland of bland mountain. The dialogue is some of the worst and clunkiest I've ever seen in a movie and the stiff acting does it no favors. Then of course there's the fact that loving Pyramidhead saves the day in the end. Even the good things they take from Silent Hill are just painful to see in something this bad. Akira Yamaoka deserves better than this. gently caress, Heather's vest deserves better than this. All I will give this movie is there's a scene with a Mannequin monster that's sort of cool. In general I'm trying not to judge this compared to the games but it's so reliant on those that it's hard not to. It's almost so bad it's good but, no, it's just bad. Avoid at all costs. axelblaze fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Oct 2, 2014 |
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 15:37
|
|
|
axleblaze posted:
Yeah, this was bad...really bad, I'd sooner watch someone play Silent Hill on their xbox than ever watch that garbage again.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 16:02
|
|
|
One of my favorite things about Silent Hill Revelations that I forgot to mention is they try to bring up the whole "Silent Hill is different for everybody" thing from Silent Hill 2 and then they back it up with nothing. Like the town is pretty much exactly the same as it was in the first movie and no one claims to see anything that the characters don't see. They just sort of mention it a few times because they to remind the audience Silent Hill 2 and then they don't actually apply it to any part of the plot what so ever. Who even does that?
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 16:16
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
axleblaze posted:Absentia C Me and my roommate watched this two weeks ago since it was brought up in the Netflix thread. We stopped at the last 20 minutes of the of movie and took a break to see if we could guess how all the loose ends tie up, trying to guess the big pay-off. We were pretty disappointed that, despite our best guess work, the pay off just wasn't there. It's an interesting movie about grief, but I agree that giant bugs is a weird aspect of the movie, especially with the Brothers Gruff allusions. The worst part of the movie is this guy:  Detective Lonergan. In every scene he's in, he is chewing gum. Loudly. Something like this normally wouldn't bother me, but the fact that he's chewing gum with an open mouth, his ugly teeth are showing, and the sound design decided to make sure there was chewing gum sounds, was completely distracting. I don't think I would care if the character wasn't already a complete douche bag, but I hated every scene he was in. That's the only clip I could find to show this.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 16:49
|
|
|
Okay, why not. I'm in. I'm going to try to watch at least 31 new-to-me movies by the end of the month. I won't try to prevent myself from watching things I've seen before, but they won't count for the big 3-1. I'm also not going to try for 1 a day, because sometimes I won't have time for that. I'll just average it out, heck I'm already a day late. I'll be sure to report back here as I should.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 17:06
|
|
|
The Den was just way too cruel for me, to the point where I'd usually hate it unequivocally. I have to at least give it a pass just for the dick-puppet, and the fact that they somehow made it thematically appropriate.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 17:20
|
|
|
Oct. 1: Watched Children of the Corn and absolutely hated it. As a palate cleanser, I tried The Town that Dreaded Sundown. What an interesting movie. The slasher scenes are creepy and alive and very '70s, while the rest of the movie feels like a wooden 40's movie complete with bored narrator. For some strange reason, it worked for me.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 18:01
|
|
|
You know what, I think I'm going to make a go of it this year: Oct 1 - Pontypool I watched this one originally about... six years back and I'd forgotten just enough about it to fully enjoy the film once again. Its a zombie movie but with a weird twist on the 'why' and without a lot of the typical zombie movie action. It has a decent second half and an amazing opening. Right up until they reveal the twist about why there are zombies it is just handled as an incredibly unique take on the genre, with the story of whats happening being told as the cast's radio broadcast. You don't see the violence, or the chaos of a usual zombie flick, you merely hear about it and know that it is happening. Overall its a pretty solid movie that strikes me as frustrating solely because the writer of the original book and the screenwriter for the film didn't realize that the concept they had going for the first half of it was infinitely more interesting than the word zombies plot that they included in the second. Still, I'd say 7/10.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 19:17
|
|
|
Fermat's Room was a fun time, glad to watch something not-that-depressing for a change, and with likable characters to boot! Not a big fan of solving those kinds of logic puzzles myself, but do not mind hearing their solutions. 4 down.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 19:50
|
|
|
I'm using this month to watch horror films that I can find uploaded on Youtube. What I'm hoping is to find some older unknown films along with the films I remember picking up from Blockbuster and Hollywood Video when I was young. Oct.1st - Sleepaway Camp = still great. The entirety of the last scene is still unnerving. Oct.2nd - Mosquito = watching this tonight. I remember picking this up at Hollywood Video, at think moreso because I was a boy wanting to see tits and cheesy horror films were my easy access.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 20:00
|
|
|
First film down-- Half-Caste (2004). In which an American film crew goes to South Africa to make a fake documentary about the titular creature that is a half-man half-leopard ala werewolves. In case you couldn't guess it, the real deal comes along and carnage ensues. Man, what a mess this film is. Most of it feels like when you see like, an MTV show that goes on a vacation, and you get the bits of travelogue mixed with the main characters dicking around, often in faux-found footage style. It's dull and boring. And then this is mixed with a flashback narrative that seems to be embedded in a SECOND flashback. The plot itself is a jumbled trashheap where it's difficult to follow exactly what's going on and where the plot is leading, with all sorts of stray strands popping around and confusing us. Is the plot about a local monster? Local superstition? Drug-induced insanity? Just plain old fashioned regular insanity? The movie can't decide for itself. It's a textbook example of what happens when you have an interesting idea utilized by people who have no talent on either side of the camera (In this case, writer-director-star Sebastian Apodaca). And even then, you get weird glimpses of what could have been a good movie--like testimonials from scared locals, or the scenes where the cast is far too close to very wild looking animals for instance (there's one scene with a lion attack that is actually kind of terrifying for instance, but it has no bearing on the rest of the plot). I really can't in good faith recommend this film, as it's just terrible and un-enjoyable. /5--One out of five, just because there's a couple glints of interestingness among the crap.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 20:18
|
|
|
Oct. 1st- I watched Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer last night, and I was completely floored. I knew that it was supposed to be grim, but I always expected it to be a heavy B-movie in the style of the Video Nasties. Anyways, I loved it, and I thought it was perfect. It was definitely really unnerving, but it was also really artfully executed. I really liked the recurring style of showing a corpse while doing an audio flashback to the murder. And speaking of, I thought the sound engineering was spectacular; I was watching it with earbuds, and I felt like I could feel every blow. It was really, really visceral. Also, I was really unprepared for how darkly hilarious it was. Oh my god, the TV goon had me in stitches so bad. Anyways, if you haven't seen it yet, and you like serial killer movies, crime dramas, and/or character studies, I would definitely check it out. I haven't been that thoroughly creeped out in awhile. /5 - Five out of Five. I'm going to be walking around with my key sticking out between my knuckles all week.Next up: Night of the Hunter EDIT: Here's my list. Everything up to #28 are movies I've never seen, or never seen all the way through. quote:1. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer discoukulele fucked around with this message at 02:08 on Oct 3, 2014 |
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 20:35
|
|
|
Alright, got Movie 1 out of the way, here's the mini-review Movie #1 - Oct. 1 - V/H/S 2 Found footage movies are kind of a like or hate subgenre of horror online. Some people hate them because they are often too choreographed to believable (a valid complaint) and others like them because they get you deep into the protagonist's perspective when done right. The first V/H/S film tried very hard to get into the latter by having very raw video and low-budget horror to bring the audience in. It was a mixed bag but overall the anthology format linked by a main storyline worked well enough. The sequel repeats the structure of the previous film by having a couple protagonists, who record videos for personal gain (profit in this one, deviant behavior in the original), get hired by someone to go into a house. This time, instead of retrieving a tape they are asked to find a student who went missing so they head to his dorm. Without spoiling anything but it's obvious they find a bunch of VHS tapes they start watching. The first one is about a man who gets a literal eye-camera installed into his eye socket and sees supernatural figures, this one is alright. The second is the best in the entire series, I thought, and shows a cyclist who gets attacked by zombies in a park and we see the resulting carnage with his GoPro. I would seriously pay full price for a zombie film done from this perspective, drat. The third is honestly loving NUTS and depicts a camera crew documenting an Indonesian cult and needs to be seen to be believed. The fourth and final is a pretty lame story about aliens abducting a bunch of teenagers, meh. Overall, I liked it, it's a good mix of scares with one short film being the biggest highlight and worth watching the entire film for it. .5/4Going to be checking what Netflix has recommended for me next for tonight. Basebf555 posted: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. It was also made before the PG-13 rating came about which makes its PG rating very deceiving especially today. It's a pretty drat intense ghost/haunted house kind of movie and I recommend it to everyone. It's not on the list this year for me because I've seen it already, though. Justin Godscock fucked around with this message at 21:43 on Oct 2, 2014 |
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 21:35
|
|
|
Franco Potente posted:I opened the month (my favourite of all months) with The Lords of Salem. I think its foreboding sense of autumnul doom is the perfect way to kick off the month. I'm not a Rob Zombie fan at all, but I find this movie to be a refreshing departure from his other stuff: Sherri Moon Zombie does a great job in the lead role, all the other characters are strong, and the sense of atmosphere is built up really well, so that when poo poo gets nuts, it feels earned rather than gratuitous. Plus, that song is haunting. Great way to kick off the month! I saw this a year ago and just picked it up at the local library for a rewatch. It doesn't feel anything like his other films, in my opinion. "Foreboding sense of autumnal doom" is a great way to put it. This is one of my favorite modern horror movies. It has great cinematography, and something that too many newer films of the genre lack: likeable characters. Sheri Moon Zombie's best role. Also, the setting is great. It made me want to move to Salem but where I live in southern Maine isn't really much different... I watched VHS last night and it's one of the best found footage horror movies I've seen. The anthology aspect was well executed and even the weakest entry at least kept my interest. The first 'found' video, with the "I like you" demon succubus lady, was fantastic. Just finished You're Next and wow, been a while since I saw a newer slasher film this well made. Starts off slow but when it picks up, has a decent pace with some genuinely interesting twists in the story. Crazy-Aussie-survivalist-protagonist seemed a little too good at staying alive but I'm probably just used to far too many people in these sorts of movies act completely brain dead. Also, a lot of people will probably watch Detention this month thinking it's a horror movie. You definitely should watch it, and it certainly contains elements of horror, but it sort of defies genre...the Netflix description is laughably inaccurate.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 21:56
|
|
axleblaze posted:I also watched this tonight and I'll post more later but I just want to say that I felt the opposite. I wasn't fully on board until the ending. Contextualizing the whole thing as a crappy little porn site complete with lovely animated gif banner ads and bullet points of features of the videos brought the whole thing home for me. It took it from something that just seemed to be about how horrible the internet was (a noble message) to something more broadly about the sexual exploitation of people for profit online. It brougth the ridiculousness of the movie and just sort it tied it down to a mundane reality and I found it really effective. I really love that last shot of the kid walking in on his dad starting to watch a snuff film and him just quickly closing the window like he had been caught looking at porn. Skywalker OG posted:The Den is Internet the Movie and I think the ending brings the whole thing to its logical conclusion. That being said, the opinion that the film may have been better without that last part is very plausible. I don't disagree with any of what you said, axleblaze, but really my biggest thing was that the movie seemed to be setting up a really out-there explanation for the events then pulled out something really mundane at the last second. It still works as subtext, I would just be much happier about the movie if they'd paid off on it. Really, the key to the Lovecraftian aspect is that the protagonist is attempting to study and understand the seedy side of the internet; the killer is one of the first people the site brings her to, almost by divine providence. It's really no different than At the Mountains of Madness, except it's Chatroulette instead of Antarctica; the expedition crew attempts to chart that which cannot be charted by human minds, and end up hoist by their own petards. They learn nothing, except that they should have stayed complacent in ignorance to avoid the consequences they brought on themselves.
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 22:30
|
|
|
Here's my list for the month. I went with a mix of stuff I had and hadn't seen before. 1st: The Addams Family (1991) 2nd: The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) 3rd: Bad Dreams (1988) 4th: Kwaidan (1964) 5th: The Dunwich Horror (1970) 6th: The Devil's Hand (1961) 7th: The Ring (2002) 8th: Marker (2005) 9th: Blood of Dracula's Castle (1969) 10th: Clownhouse (1989) 11th: Love Object (2003) 12th: I, Madman (1989) 13th: V/H/S (2012) 14th: Tesis (1996) 15th: Night of the Living Dead (1968) 16th: Kairo (2001) 17th: Stir Of Echoes (1999) 18th: Dressed to Kill (1980) 19th: Sinthia: The Devil's Doll (1970) 20th: Suspiria (1977) 21st: The Evil Dead (1981) 22nd: Terrified (1963) 23rd: Scream (1996) 24th: Terror (1978) 25th: Frankenweenie (1984) 26th: Idle Hands (2003) 27th: Satan's Slave, a.k.a., Evil Heritage (1976) 28th: Wolfen (1981) 29th: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) 30th: The Blair Witch Project (1999) 31st: A Bucket of Blood (1959) e: edited to account for a broken BluRay player. Darthemed fucked around with this message at 04:11 on Oct 4, 2014 |
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 23:07
|
|
|
Seems like we have quite a few more participants in this thread than last year, awesome. Day 2; I occasionally peruse IMDB looking for interesting movies I don't know about, so when I came across this early 60's movie staring Lon Chaney Jr, Mantan Moreland and Sid Haig, I was more than intrigued. That movie of course is Spider Baby. What a cool, strange movie. It has the feel of a 'family' horror, but the contents are surprisingly shocking. But overall the whole ride is a hoot, and the ending is excellent (not to mention the intro, sung by Lon himself!). This deserves more of a cult following than it seems to have.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 23:08
|
|
|
For our first movie last night, the wife and I watched Jeepers Creepers. Jeepers Creepers is a movie about a brother and sister who are being hunted by the Creeper. The Creeper is a creature that wakes every twenty-three years and hunts for twenty-three days before going back into hibernation. When it hunts, it eats body parts from its victims, and then those parts replace his. It finds something it likes on one of the siblings, and we have our movie. It's a fun movie that starts out with a good premise, but I wouldn't call it a masterpiece. I think tonight might be Zombieland, House, or Stake Land (which I have never seen).
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 23:15
|
|
|
Day 2 - Donovon's Brain is not your typical 1950's creature feature. You can see all the bits and pieces of those films, but the stakes are much more human. It gives the film a more interesting hook than most. The broad strokes of the plot are obvious enough: you've got a crusading scientist doing bold experiments who peppers in God's lo mein. His goal is to extract a brain from a monkey and keep it alive in a tank. On the day of his first success, a plane carrying the businessman Donovon crashes near his home. He can't save Donovon's life, so instead he decides to use the brain in his experiment. The brain survives, grows, and begins to dominate the scientist. And here's where the film gets interesting because the brain doesn't set out to conquor the world or get revenge on its creator. Instead, Donovon was an amoral businessman in life and decides to continue where he left off as everyone struggles to regain control. It's a fun concept that's not as well produced as I would have liked. Donovon is an interesting character but the rest of the main cast isn't. They try, and there's hints at a script that could have given them more to do (the alcoholic doctor who is essentially blackmailed into helping remove Donovon's brain sets up parallels with Donovon in the scientist blackmailing everyone). They just can't manage it. On the subject of the cast, I should mention its most famous alumn. Nancy Reagan plays the wife of the scientist. So is it a horror film? It's definitely SF, in fact the story it's based on was published in an SF magazine. But I also think it is horror. It is a story about possession by the malevolant dead and the innocent people who cannot escape it. As for worth watching... yeah, I'd say it is. Kind of a borderline case, but I think watching Donovon as the scientist be an evil dick to everyone is interesting. I'm not sure what I'm going to watch next. I did a quick poke through what's available on the subscription streaming services and the stuff that I haven't seen and I'm interested in are ones where I know/suspect are kind of borderline cases (I know something is up with the genre definitions on some films when Hulu puts Oldboy in in the horror section). After my first two days were movies on the borders of the genre, and may have even been well within those borders before they re-incorporated the limits for tax purposes, I feel the need to watch something very firmly in the horror genre. Maybe one of those endless sequels to some film that sane people don't realize went on forever. (Edit: Oh wow, digging really deep into Amazon Prime's horror catalog I found Daimajin, a film I've wanted to see forever. But from what I know I don't think it was even intended as a horror film when it came out, let alone how it would be viewed today.) Random Stranger fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Oct 2, 2014 |
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 23:22
|
|
|
Yesterday I watched Fire Walk With Me. Definitely one of the most disturbing movies I've ever seen. It's not so much the content that gets me, but the tone, and atmosphere. It's so unnerving. I love it. Today I watched Cabin in the Woods, a favorite around here. But for me, snappy clever dialoge makes me laugh, and meta horror is about my favorite thing. I love the horror genre as much as I hate it. So I like to alternate between films that tell the genre to go gently caress itself, and the films who revel in what it is. No idea what I'm going to watch tomorrow. I'm thinking The Town That Dreaded Sundown. But who knows!
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 23:29
|
|
|
discoukulele posted:Oct. 1st- I watched Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer last night, and I was completely floored. I knew that it was supposed to be grim, but I always expected it to be a heavy B-movie in the style of the Video Nasties. Anyways, I loved it, and I thought it was perfect. It was definitely really unnerving, but it was also really artfully executed. I'm not watching 31 movies due to lack of time but I do like to watch a bunch of horror movies because it's October and of course I would like to, and god drat if the camcorder scene during this isn't effective.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 23:31
|
|
|
What I've seen since yesterday... Don't Panic-1989: 6/10 Most notable thing about this (besides some decent gore) is that the main character, despite being a guy in his late teens, wears dinosaur pajamas for a good portion of the movie and it's more distracting then you'd thing. The Being-1983: 10/10 A gem from Jackie Kong (Who also directed the equally amazing Blood Diner), it's classic '80s monster movie mayhem with a good helping of gore, I loved it. Big rear end Spider!-2013: 8/10 Giant spider movie, very much in the same vein as Eight-Legged Freaks but with a lower budget, they do a lot with what they got though. Blue Monkey-1987: 8/10 More giant bug madness, this time in a hospital. Not particularly gory or anything but it's pretty funny and it does have Steve Railsback. The giant bug is kinda cool, too. The Redeemer: Son of Satan!-1978: 7/10 A Slasher with some weird loving poo poo thrown in for absolutely no reason as far as I can tell.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 23:34
|
|
|
Actually, I should watch Henry, because Michael Rooker is one of my favorite actors, and I never finished the movie due to leaving to go somewhere.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 23:35
|
|
|
Random Stranger posted:I don't think I can really call Gojira scary, but it's definitely effective. From a while back, but you've gotten to the heart of the question, "What is horror?" Technically, the dictionary definition is "an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust." I think sometimes we play up the 'scare' aspect of horror too much. Just as much of it is about the traumatic gnosis of something that we can't really comprehend. Gojira is that feeling.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2014 00:41
|
|
|
Movie 2: Grim (1995) Have you ever felt like a movie started without you when you came in? Grim most certainly does that. We start with two couples playing with a makeshift Ouija board, accidentally summoning some sort of orc or troll or something (it's not explained, nor is who these people are.) Then we cut to our hero, a cave expert brought into town by his ex-girlfriend to do a survey to see if the rumors are true that the local cave and mine system is making the ground unsafe. They enter the caves along with a couple that are obvious cannon fodder, and one half of the seance group who now have a weird psychic connection with the monster, as well as their psychic sister, the latter half of the group in search of a woman kidnapped by the monster. Why they think she's alive (she is) and its other victims aren't (they aren't) is a mystery. The film plods along slowly, with lots of lovingly beautiful caving shots, but when the action happens, it takes the film's title seriously: The tone here is grim and pitch black, with lots of downbeat moments. The violence is surprisingly shocking for its fantastical setting and Hensonian monster, and there's a real mean streak regarding most of the characters' fates. Though the production date is 95, the film has a real unpolished style, and had I not known its date, I would have pegged it at 5-8 years earlier. I'm surprised this movie doesn't get more attention than it does, considering how staved the mid-90s were for horror at all. It's a curiosity piece at least, I'll give it that. .5/5 I give it 2.5 out of 5--Really it's only for those obsessed with looking for something they haven't seen.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2014 00:54
|
|
|
It had been a while since I'd seen it, but I really prefer the 1960 version of Little Shop of Horrors to the 1986 version. A fair amount of that has to do with not being a musical, but the grainy Roger Corman production feels more appropriate to Skid Row than Frank Oz's bright and colorful ensemble. As goofy as Audrey Junior's voice is, there's still an edge of creepiness to things, and pressures coming at Seymour from every angle of his life. Apparently there's a remake simmering in development hell...
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2014 01:07
|
|
|
Canned Panda posted:For our first movie last night, the wife and I watched Jeepers Creepers. I've long thought Jeepers Creepers is a seriously overlooked film, maybe because of its silly name. No, its not quite a masterpiece but I think it is very, very, very good. Its a simple, straightforward concept. A tiny cast focused on the two victims and a freaky psychic. A new monster that they invented and made make sense and be very creepy without being too complicated or overexplained. A really condensed story that plays out simply and logically with a minimal amount of stupid decision making necessary to make it happen (sure, he probably shouldn't haven't tried to look down the pipe but at least he was just trying to be a good citizen and was concerned about someone's life, it wasn't just idiots going for kicks or being drunk fools.) I recently rewatched it for what is probably the fifth or sixth time just because I noticed it was on. Its become one of those kind of horror films for me, the sort I'll watch again and again for any real excuse because I think it simply delivers. I sympathize with the protagonists, i'm creeped out by the monster, and the end gives me chills. I also think it benefits from being a road movie because there's sort of isolation and desperation that the brother and sister feel that comes through. They don't know where they are, they don't know anyone, they have noone to turn to. Even though everyone around this perfectly normal they don't know these people and that makes them all alone. Every time I watch that movie end all I can think to myself is how the hell that girl is going to live with this or explain it to her parents. Her brother is gone and no matter what any cop says to back up her story it makes no sense and seems like the sort of thing that will destroy even the survivors.. I was kind of hyped to read recently that there's going to be a 3rd movie that follows up directly on this one. The sequel was disappointing but for years part of me has very much wanted to know how this particular story ends.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2014 02:13
|
|
|
I just finished The Town that Dreaded Sundown. It's the same writer and director as Boggy Creek 2: The Legend Continues (the third in the series) made famous on MST3k (one of my favorite episodes). The movie is competently made. It has an odd documentary-style narration, and it's kind of episodic, concentrating on major accounts of attacks by the serial killer. It's an interesting early slasher film, it avoids showing gore much like Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but it has very bizarre attacks (there's a weird scene where a woman is tortured by the serial killer hitting her with a trombone while trying to play it through a burlap sack) similar to the Friday the 13th series use of variety in murder objects. It kept me watching. /5I'm watching Shivers now for the first time. I like Cronenberg, and I've been trying to watch this movie for years, but it's hard to find. Glad Netflix added it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2014 03:49
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 12:52 |
|
|
Tonight I dug through the old archives and decided on Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995) It's been quite a few years since I've last seen it and although the creature effects seem a bit cheesy now, it's still a really fun movie to watch if for no other reason than to see Billy Zane obviously having a blast playing the main villain.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2014 03:55
|
|