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Tonight was The Lair of the White Worm, which is an intensely silly movie that I have enormous amounts of affection for. Peter Capaldi battling zombies with his bagpipes! Amanda Donoghue chewing absolutely every inch of scenery! Hugh Grant at his Hugh Grant-est! It's incredibly campy, and not particularly scary at all, but man, it is extremely fun. And a catchy theme tune, too!
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Oct 3, 2014 04:00
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That movie is insane.
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Oct 3, 2014 04:03
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The story so far: 1) Reanimator (1985) 2) Isle of the Dead (1945) This movie is so good. I'm watching on a train and the part where she screams from waking up in the coffin still got under my skin. Glad I followed up a gory film with a more suspense driven picture. There's also this interesting common theme of "death is good."
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Oct 3, 2014 04:08
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Franco Potente posted:Tonight was The Lair of the White Worm, which is an intensely silly movie that I have enormous amounts of affection for. Peter Capaldi battling zombies with his bagpipes! Amanda Donoghue chewing absolutely every inch of scenery! Hugh Grant at his Hugh Grant-est! It's incredibly campy, and not particularly scary at all, but man, it is extremely fun. And a catchy theme tune, too! Oh poo poo, the bagpipe guy was Peter Capaldi? I'm moving this up on my list, I haven't seen it in a few years. #1 was House of the Devil. Atmosphere was okay, nostalgia for the 80s was decent, but between this and The Innkeepers I feel like Ti West movies are all buildup and too little payoff. #2 was House on Haunted Hill (1959). I love Vincent Price. It's not precisely a good movie, but it's fun. Also, who the hell keeps a trap door full of acid in their basement? I'm waiting for the weekend to watch Never Sleep Again, since it's four hours long.
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Oct 3, 2014 04:23
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Franco Potente posted:Tonight was The Lair of the White Worm, which is an intensely silly movie that I have enormous amounts of affection for. Peter Capaldi battling zombies with his bagpipes! Amanda Donoghue chewing absolutely every inch of scenery! Hugh Grant at his Hugh Grant-est! It's incredibly campy, and not particularly scary at all, but man, it is extremely fun. And a catchy theme tune, too! That is such a brilliantly terrible and yet amazingly memorable movie. It's like someone was trying for "true art" despite not being very good at it and everyone else was going, "Yeah, we're making a horror film!" I wonder if the DVD has a commentary because it would almost be worth a rewatch to hear the people who made it try to explain it. sithwitch13 posted:#2 was House on Haunted Hill (1959). I love Vincent Price. It's not precisely a good movie, but it's fun. Also, who the hell keeps a trap door full of acid in their basement? I have dreams of one day doing a William Castle marathon with some friends but rigging up all the gimmicks in advance and making them buy life insurance policies in case they die of fright while watching the movies. Or offer a free coffin if anyone does. The trick with this one would be concealing the skeleton until the right moment... Random Stranger fucked around with this message at 04:33 on Oct 3, 2014 |
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Oct 3, 2014 04:28
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I had only ever seen the tv version of the original Carrie and never really liked it all that much. Just watched the blu ray, and wow, that is quite the beginning of the movie. Five minutes of naked high school girls and that shower scene. I liked it, but it had some things I didn't like, like the excessively evil high school girl, and the zany music that plays. Yesterday was Creepshow, not a big fan of the whole movie, but I really liked Liam Neeson and Stephen King in it. Also it has some amazing lighting and colors.
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Oct 3, 2014 04:34
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  Ooooo! I'm hosting a horror stream for October! Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, until the end of the month, we'll be watching two horror films per night! This year's theme is sequels. It starts Friday October 3rd, at 8:30 PM Eastern, and it's hosted at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/scream-stream-part-2! The featured films on this inaugural night will be: Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Meyers and  Return of the Living Dead: Part II But there's more... there'll be extra spooky stuff playing after the films. And there's going to be a raffle... a raffle for...  Tune in for the details!
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Oct 3, 2014 04:34
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I'll be there because Return of the Living Dead Part II owns and this saves me from digging out the DVD.
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Oct 3, 2014 05:06
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Im so in. Now I have a valid excuse to see Holloween movies
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Oct 3, 2014 05:33
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October 2: The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976, dir. Charles B. Pierce, d.p. Jim Roberson) I'm really not sure how I feel about this movie. The basic gist, as many here probably know, is that Texarkana, TX, immediately following World War II, is terrorized by a serial killer who wears a sackcloth bag over his head, and police attempt to stop him. The problem with The Town that Dreaded Sundown is that it feels like two different movies kludged together by a faux-documentary narrative laid over them; the half that deals with the killer carrying out his crimes is largely fantastic, and rivals (and slightly resembles) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974, dir. Tobe Hooper, d.p. Daniel Pearl). The half that deals with the cops trying to find them, however, is absolute loving excrement. In theory, it's a good idea. Especially since the case is noteworthy for being an unsolved mystery in real life, it helps to have the cops as characters working out how to catch him. The problem is, the scenes with them are largely comic relief, and it's extremely jarring comic relief. The stuff with the killer is horrifying, and yet it immediately precedes a brutal murder with a crossdressing joke that comes uncomfortably close to being a sexual assault joke. Even when it's not making uncomfortable and crass jokes, the B-plot with the police is just outright boring; it's essentially them just kind of sitting there going "do we have anything yet?" "no, we don't have anything yet" or trading clunky exposition (the scene where the Texas Ranger protagonist is introduced must be seen to be believed) or driving around doing one of the aforementioned things. It's bad, it's really goddamn bad, and it drags this movie down a huge amount. That said, though, when this movie is firing on all cylinders, it's the best goddamn thing ever. The murders have actual dramatic tension, which seems rare in a movie like this; not every victim dies, the killer isn't invincible, and even though we're not given a lot of time to get to know each target, we're given just enough to hope that they get away. It really does feel like a different film, to the point where it's even more technically well-executed than the police segments- in one murder scene, the bits where we're seeing the victims are filmed at night in the rain, then when the cops catch wind of it, suddenly we only hear the rain and it's a (terrible-looking) day for night effect. That pretty much sums the film up in a nutshell, I think; it's half of a movie that someone gave a lot of a gently caress about, and half of a movie that nobody gave a gently caress about at all. Final Grade: C Final Thoughts: - It gets a C because it's half an A+ and half an F. - My dad is from Texarkana, so I feel like this should have been more interesting to me on that level, but it didn't seem to really do much with its setting. Shame. October Challenge Table of Contents Oct. 1: The Den (2013) (B) / Oct. 2: The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) (C) / Oct. 3: The Last Days on Mars (2013) (C+) SALT CURES HAM fucked around with this message at 09:07 on Oct 11, 2014 |
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Oct 3, 2014 05:42
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sithwitch13 posted:#1 was House of the Devil. Atmosphere was okay, nostalgia for the 80s was decent, but between this and The Innkeepers I feel like Ti West movies are all buildup and too little payoff. sithwitch13 posted:I'm waiting for the weekend to watch Never Sleep Again, since it's four hours long. My schedule is sort of erratic right now, so I can't commit to a movie a day, but I'm trying to hit 31 before Halloween. I've watched four so far. #1 Shivers (Cronenberg, 1975) A venereal disease aphrodisiac designed to turn humanity into an orgy of sex zombies. What's not to love? Cronenberg clearly had a bigger imagination than he did a budget, but he still manages to make a creepy and effective film. The slugs are a little silly sometimes, but the little girl vomiting into the security guard's mouth is still pretty gag inducing. B+ #2 Rabid (Cronenberg, 1977) This movie started out strong. The plastic surgery clinic setting, with patients wrapped and bandaged wandering around, has a lot of potential. Once we leave that setting, though, it devolves into a pretty generic zombie movie. The main character isn't ever given a personality (I think it's notable that, once she wakes up from her coma, we're shown her breasts before we hear her voice), and her boyfriend is annoying. C- #3 The Brood (Cronenberg, 1981) If this film had dubbed dialogue and a Goblin soundtrack, I think it could pretty convincingly be an Argento movie. Like all of his horror movies, Cronenberg explores a pretty interesting form of body reimagination/mutilation, in the form of a psychotherapy which causes you to manifest your trauma physically on your body. The ending is disgusting and tense and very surreal, and the film is up there with Cronenberg's best. Nola licking the blood off the baby is... unsettling. A- #4 Re-Animator (Gordon, 1985) What can I say? A nearly-perfect classic. I still wonder why Dr. Hill has a padded room with a one way mirror in his office. And is this Richard Band's best soundtrack? A
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Oct 3, 2014 06:37
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SALT CURES HAM posted:October 2: The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976, dir. Charles B. Pierce, d.p. Jim Roberson) There's a ton of 'jap' stuff in it because it's the '40's too. All the cop poo poo reminded me of something they'd watch on MST3K with the narration and the wooden acting. I think it's period, so I kinda gave it a pass. The amazingly creepy killer scenes are '70's style, while the cop poo poo is all '40's style. It's a drat great idea, but they didn't pull it off and it brings the movie down. Edit: Oct 2: The Burning Rather by-the-books Friday the 13th ripoff. Admittedly, I can't remember anything about any of the Fridays because it's been awhile. There are long stretches of guys being absolute pieces of poo poo to women in this film, but I enjoyed the poo poo out of this movie. Cropsy is generic as gently caress, but they do a great job of making him an unknowable maniac and the kill scenes are shot very competently. The movie never completely drags at any point. I'd recommend this to people who want a decent summer camp slasher and can withstand a rather distressing amount of misogyny. That being said, the movie never paints the guys as good people and it definitely knows what it is. I'd much rather watch this than most of the slasher sequels. As an added bonus, smarmy young George Costanza with hair is in this movie. Jigoku fucked around with this message at 07:59 on Oct 3, 2014 |
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Oct 3, 2014 06:48
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October 2nd: The Mask (1961) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055151/ An ancient cursed mask gives those who wear it strange hallucinations, causes them to become addicted to it, and turns them into insane killers. I feel like this movie is actually a feature length anti-drug PSA. The first Canadian film that was widely distributed in the United States, and possibly the first Canadian horror. Historical significance aside, I found it to be a fairly interesting watch that doesn't feel too slow (most of the time) and has some pretty neat things going on in the 3D hallucination sequences.
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Oct 3, 2014 08:49
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Ah, nice! I started the challenge over on my podcast's website this month, but I'm glad I found this thread! Love talking about this stuff! So far, I'm 7 flicks (soon to be 8!) Film #1 - Friday the 13th Classic, of course! One of my all time faves. Film #2 - Friday the 13th Pt. 2 Again, classic! The way it continues from the first blew my gourd when I was a kid. Film #3 - Friday the 13th Pt. 3 Oof. this is full of 3D gimmics. The magic slipped some in this one. Film #4 - Friday the 13th The Final Chapter The start Tommy Jarvis! This one was a fun one, especially after 3. Film #5 - Night of the Creeps Again, classic! One of my faves. You've got aliens, parasites, zombies, blood, gore, co-eds and the best Tom Atkins performance ever. THRILL ME! Film #6 - Shivers Not Cronenburg's finest, but decent and weird little flick all the same. Film #7 - Slither This movie's still hilarious, even after watching several times. Great cast and effects. I'm doing write ups of my challenge over at Bloody Good Horror if anybody's feeling froggy: http://www.bloodygoodhorror.com/bgh/31-days-of-horror-day-1 Skywalker OG posted:
The Burning is pretty great! Underrated for sure when people start talking about classic slashers! Costanza Hair is a site to see.
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Oct 3, 2014 11:43
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Oct 2: The Denflashy_mcflash posted:Whomever said that The Den is the only film to really 'get' the internet is spot-on. More than the preachy 'internet is s-s-s-scary' (non-horror) movies that have dropped recently like Men, Women, and Children and Disconnect, The Den seems to start by understanding and effectively using the technology first while using it for brutal, brutal outcomes. It occasionally suffers, like most FF films, of 'why is the camera here'-ism but far less than most. I kind of can't believe I waited this long to watch it, actually. Tonight: Either The Legend of Hell House (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070294/) or Detention (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1701990/)
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Oct 3, 2014 14:21
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Oct. 1: From Beyond Oct. 2: Reanimator Figured I'd stick with Stuart Gordon and check out Reanimator. It's been a decade since I've seen this film, and it's far more methodical than I remember. You read about Reanimator and you get this image in your head of some sick, nonstop gorefest, but Gordon constructs his setpieces very carefully. Not subtly, mind you, but carefully. Jeffrey Combs plays Herbert West a bit like Norman Bates until poo poo just flies completely off the rails at the end. Not quite as visually outlandish as From Beyond, but still pretty spectacular in its own right. Reanimator's fun as hell.
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Oct 3, 2014 14:55
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"Random Stranger posted:I have dreams of one day doing a William Castle marathon with some friends but rigging up all the gimmicks in advance and making them buy life insurance policies in case they die of fright while watching the movies. Or offer a free coffin if anyone does. The trick with this one would be concealing the skeleton until the right moment... That would be amazing. Put drapes and stuff around the living room to be atmospheric and hide the skeleton behind one of them? tickle monster posted:I'm curious, what do you think of his short films, particularly his segments in V/H/S and The ABCs of Death? I've seen lots of people with the same complaints you have who think that his technique work way better in short form, but personally, I hated the segments he made for those and love his features. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground. I've had ABCs of Death on my instant watch forever but haven't got around to watching it yet. I thought Second Honeymoon was okay, but it wasn't my favorite of the shorts on V/H/S. I really do think that he does a good job building up a suspenseful atmosphere, it's just that the payoff never really quite works for me, either in Second Honeymoon or the two movies I've seen. The Sacrament is still on my list, so I'll see how that goes. tickle monster posted:And completely worth it. More film series deserve to have such a well made and compelling documentary made about them. Another one that's been on my instant watch for a while. I love documentaries and behind the scenes stuff on movies. The fact that this one seems so well regarded in addition just makes me all the happier. Still trying to decide what to watch today. I'm between Exorcismus (recommended by a coworker), Lizzie (recommended by my best friend because "Gary Busey... just wow.), and The Sacrament.
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Oct 3, 2014 15:14
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3.5) Silent Hill B Not really counting this because I've seen it before but I just needed to watch it to get the taste of the sequel out of my mouth. It isn't a perfect movie by any means. The dialogue is clunky as poo poo (though better than the sequel), the plot is a 20 hour game plot condensed into a two hour movie, Pyramidhead still shows up for no reason and, well, y'know Sean Bean but it's still probably the best video game adaptation there is. It just nails the atmosphere of dread so well and the creatures are so creepy that it's shortcomings don't seem to matter as much. 4) Jug Face C+ Not really bad I guess but just felt sort of pointless. It's a movie where it's just sort of dull if taken straightforward but I for the life of me couldn't really figure out what it was trying to say. Acting was fine and it looked good for the apparently non-existent budget but as I said, I just didn't see the point. It was kind of like a fable but fables usually have obvious points that can be drawn from them and the only thing I could draw from this was COMFORM! 5) The Legend of Hell House C I don't think haunted house movies are really my genre. It's taken me awhile to realize this because I usually like found footage haunted house movies well enough but I think that's my love of found footage more than anything else. I dunno, this wasn't bad per se, I just didn't find it scary at all and I often just found it to be really, really, really silly. It could also be that the notice at the start that had a psychic assure me that while nothing in the film actually happened it all could happen put me in an already bemused state of mind that the movie now had to overcome and it just couldn't. 6) Entity D Haunted asylum movie, the bread and butter of found footage, done in a none found footage manner despite also being about a film crew making a documentary. It occasionally goes to the camera's perspective but more often than not it's just to assure us that they are filming rather than using it to any effect. As I said above, I just don't think I like non-found footage haunted house movies and this just bored the hell out of me. It was all just stuff I've seen dozens of times before done not really that well.
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Oct 3, 2014 15:33
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So far I'm three down. I'll be going to Halloween Horror Nights tonight, so I had to do a double feature last night. 1st: Nightmare Factory: 3/5 2nd: The Town That Dreaded Sundown: 3/5 3rd: Shivers Shivers was wonderful. I love watching debuts of great directors. Cronenberg is one of the greatest horror directors around, and his movies always unnerve me (especially Dead Ringers). I've been a fan ever since I watched his remake of The Fly during a fever and it made me want to vomit. Here, he has no budget and no good actors. You can see he's developing his trademarks: gore, sexuality, body horror, and dark endings. I'm glad I finally managed to watch it.  /5I updated the movie list to show what's on HBO Go right now as well. And anyone who watches Never Sleep Again is in for a treat. It's one of the best horror movie documentaries, it's a huge labor of love, and the enthusiasm is so infectious that I wanted to watch all of the Elm Street movies immediately after watching it. I wish the Friday the 13th documentary was as good, and I want them to make one for the Halloween series. I'll be watching more on Saturday. Edit: I added movies that are only on Amazon Prime free streaming to the movie list. Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 16:03 on Oct 3, 2014 |
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Oct 3, 2014 15:36
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Here's my Oct. 2nd movie: http://letterboxd.com/neoraven/film/from-dusk-till-dawn/ From Dusk Till Dawn and all my dumb words about it are at the link too.
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Oct 3, 2014 15:53
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Yesterday I watched Zombieland. I've long thought of this as Left 4 Dead: The Movie. My opinion on this still holds. It is the only movie where fast zombies have ever been acceptable to me.
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Oct 3, 2014 16:47
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Film 2: Gojira. I have to echo the last post on this, this wasn't a horror movie, not really. I knew that going in but I was struck by how on the nose some of the social commentary is, and how pervasive it is throughout the film. It was a really rewarding watch and made me notice a lot of references and homages in other films I love to this (the whole ending of Pacific Rim, for example, is basically the ending to Gojira).
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Oct 3, 2014 17:20
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A short and quick one October 2, 2014 - Film #2 - The Exorcist (1973) I decided to watch this one because it's the freaking Exorcist and I realized the other day I've never seen it. All I have to say is it holds up really well, has some great performances and is creepy as all gently caress. /4In summary, quote:1. V/H/S/2 (2013)
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Oct 3, 2014 21:19
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Oct 2 - The Possession It says a lot about this movie that I had to skip through it a few times to remember enough plot to even write a review. A married couple has split up, Dad takes his daughters for the weekend and among other happy wholesome fun they stop at a garage sale wherein they buy a fancy old wooden box for the younger daughter. The box apparently doesn't have any seams when the dad looks at it, but clearly opens later on, so the dad needs glasses. Strangely for a horror film the devil/ghost/whatever inside of it happens to be of Jewish origin. To be more specific, the demon/thing/whocares was trapped inside the box by jewish Rabbis, and an investigation of the box with a local university professor who's skill set I am not entirely sure of, causes the dad to seek out an orthodox Jewish Rabbi to help fix his daughter. There is a bunch of plot stuff that I've sort of glossed over. The daughter goes nuts a few times, punches her classmates, stabs her dad pretty brutally with a fork all of which culminates in her faking child abuse to be kept away from him since he is suspicious about her evil box and tried to throw it away. The mom wants dad to keep away from the kids after that but thankfully comes around after, and I poo poo you not this is real, the demon thing appears as a ghostly apperition on an MRI scan. Like literally a demon face on the MRI. I'm honestly not sure if that was good or bad. It was certainly the most memorable and unique scene in the film, and a good excuse to have everyone accept that they need the Rabbi's help. They do... I dunno a jewish exorcism? Is that still an exorcism? The daughter runs away and has a slightly creepy 'standing motionless in the dark' scene only for dad to take the demon into himself to save his daughter. Then they do an exorcism on him and he's fine... so I don't know why they had to have it hop from her to him. Extend the run time? Family gets back together. Wife dumps her new dentist boyfriend who was nothing but a nice guy throughout the film. Also the dentist had all his teeth fall out due to the devil girl, so it really loving sucks to be that guy. The devil is trapped in the box, but in a twist ending he gets hit by a semi because he was talking on a cell phone while driving... which is the real horror! 5/10 It isn't bad, it isn't good. It hits a bunch of weak notes that don't go anywhere at all, and then ends. Oct 3 - ATM My movies are hand picked by my wife, and right now I'm beginning to think that she's harboring some unspoken resentment. My original guess was that this would be a Saw ripoff, but I was sadly mistaken. The film opens with a guy doing a bunch of amateur drafting regarding the films titular ATM. It then immediately jumps to follow an investment banker as he goes about his day. He argues with a customer, then talks a whole bunch with his douchebag of a best friend about some girl who he wants to ask out who is quitting. I feel like I should know these actors. Its like they are the dime store versions of actors who are actually good. The two of them head to a party and the main guy asks out the girl and offers to drive her home. She accepts and his cockbocking friend insists at being given a ride home. On the way they stop at an ATM to get cash because they need cash to buy food from a shady pizza joint. Also this movie expects me to believe that an investment banker drives what appears to be a used 2001 Sunfire with broken door locks. Their suits appear to be worth more than his car. They go into the ATM booth and upon trying to leave see a creepy guy in a parka staring at them. They hesitate to leave and parka guy stabs the poo poo out of a random passerby and resumes standing and waiting. They all have a little freak out and then hero guy goes outside in an attempt to pay the creepy hobo to leave them alone. Hobo doesn't take the money and chases him to the car where the 'hero' discovers the wires have been cut to prevent it from starting. He manages to get back inside and they try to come up with another plan. The heat is turned off in the booth which risks them freezing to death because its winter and they don't understand basic survival skills. Apparently three able bodied people would freeze to death in suits and jackets in the 4 hours before sunrise. I call bullshit. A security guard comes around in his car, and is promptly murdered by Parkahobo. Apparently seeing a smashed car window and the word help written in lipstick doesn't cause him to immediately radio in, and no one is concerned to check on him in the following four hours during which he does not respond to calls or radio. A random guy in a parka shows up to take out money and the two main guys strangle him to death with one of those pen on a rope things thinking he is the villain. Did the villain plan this? Or is it just oddly coincidental. Why don't the main guys go out and try and beat the poo poo out of the real parka man? The world may never know. The dumbass sidekick decides to make a run for it (which they should all do at once) and hits a wire placed at neck level. How they missed it being put up is anyone's guess. Bad guy stabs him but fails to kill him. Eventually they run out to save him, but don't just keep running in an attempt to find help... for some reason. Main character tries to smash the ATM to call help after parka hobo parks a car in front of the door to lock them in. This will be important later. Parka hobo attempts to flood them to death through the air vents, but they manage to start a fire and turn on the sprinklers. Both supporting characters die, from blood loss and a failed piggy back ride, and parka hobo crashes the car into the atm booth. The police show up and arrest the main guy who looks like Wilson from House, and a bunch of security footage intersperced with movie footage makes it appear like the main character is going to go to jail for everything that happened. There are a ton of problems with this, including the fact that they are in an atm booth for like.. four hours and neither of his friends seem scared of him. Hot blonde cuddles up to him after the friend runs away and its clear they are scared of something. Hilariously they edit out the visual of the car parked in front of the atm when those scenes are shown, which is basically the only way the plot makes sense. The implication is that parka guy does this a lot, meticulously planning scenarios where he gets to kill a bunch of people and blame it on some poor sap while he is standing out of the frame, but there is no way the police are going to buy that this guy somehow locked himself into an ATM booth from outside via a car, then decided to flood himself and his friends to death etc. That is a lot of words... but this movie was jsut awful and deserved every bit of it. 3/10 Next on the list, Candyman! Which might actually be good!
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Oct 3, 2014 21:26
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Actually one more thing about Godzilla was how surprised I was at the level of destruction, terror and powerlessness that came across in the film. Some of the effects were clearly just toys and minis but parts of the film, maybe aided by the lowish film quality itself, really invoked this sense of, oh, poo poo, Tokyo is hosed.
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Oct 3, 2014 21:59
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Movie #3: The Host(2006) Pollution in the Han river creates a mutant monster, which during its rampage abducts a young girl, whose family attempts to rescue her, despite the beauracracies of the local authorities. This movie is an odd bird. It bounces back and forth between "how can things get worse" downbeats, and wacky hi-jinkery that is weirdly jarring. The monster, made by The Orphanage looks great, something that can't be said for a lot of visual effects that are now 8 years old. It's worth a look if you haven't seen it. /five
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Oct 3, 2014 22:05
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Oct 2nd- Last night, I watched Night of the Hunter for the first time. I normally love old movies, and I was really looking forward to this one, but I was a bit disappointed. The set up was great, but it just seemed to run out of steam about 2/3rds of the way through, and kept getting more and more implausible as it went on. /5 - I respect it for what it is, but I didn't think it was that great. Tonight, I'm watching Maniac (2012) EDIT: Lurdiak posted:
This is such a great idea! I'll be there for sure. discoukulele fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Oct 3, 2014 |
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Oct 3, 2014 22:47
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I generally end up with over 31 horror movies by the end of the month, but I'll miss a few days here and there. I'm trying to do mostly movies that I haven't seen before, so it's going to be a lot of sequels and movies I've been meaning to see for years. Oct 1st - Halloween - I've seen it a hundred times, and it's one of my favorites. John Carpenter and Jamie Lee Curtis did a Q&A at a screening in Hollywood. Both very funny people, with a lot of interesting stories to share. I'd never Halloween on the big screen and it was really great to see it with that kind of crowd. Oct 2nd - Child's Play 3 - I am pretty sure I'd never seen this one all the way through, just bits and pieces here and there. Considerably worse than the first two. I bought the blu-ray set w/ all the films, so I'm going to go through all of them. Looking forward to getting to the really ridiculous ones now.
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Oct 3, 2014 23:06
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Choco1980 posted:Movie #3: The Host(2006) Lair of the white worm shivers we are what we are body snatchers 78 devil pontypool hellraiser 2 satan's little helper I have not seen any of them so it should be sweet!
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Oct 3, 2014 23:45
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Day 3 - There's no denying that Brian de Palma's Carrie is an exceptional film. Unfortunately, I watched the remake. When they announced that they were remaking Carrie my reaction was, like most people, "Why? The original is just as relevant today as it was in the 70's. Will shoehorning in social media really add anything to the story?" As I was watching the movie, I was thinking that it was a decent enough version on the strength of the story but not really distinct enough to justify the remake. But the longer it went on, the more I felt like it lost strength. I think there were to things where Carrie failed for me. One was the cast. Standard Hollywood casting of pretty twenty-somethings as high school students undermined the main theme of the story. De Palma has similar problems but not to the extent that this version does. The other problem was that Carrie feels more like a superhero than an out of control force. I also felt like there wasn't a likable character for me to latch onto and follow the thread through the movie. It seems like Carrie herself is supposed to be that, but the foreknowledge that she's going to go crazy and kill everyone at the prom makes it hard to like her. The character Sue in the original film had this role, but she's so diminished in this version that the movie doesn't even need her. In a vacuum, I probably would have liked this movie better. But it has to be compared to a great movie. On it's own, I'd say it was okay with a really great theme, but why watch this version when the original exists? Tomorrow for me is The Brood.
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Oct 4, 2014 00:16
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Oct 2: #2, Insidious: Chapter 2 An uninspired choice but I figured I'd follow up on the satisfying if not great first movie while it was still fresh in my heard. Sadly the movie really underwhelmed me. I suggested that Insidious is kind of two movies, the first half being a very creepy and well executed haunted house film and the second being a kind of convoluted and more actiony alternate death dimension movie. Insidious 2 pretty much follows up that second idea and mostly abandons the first one except for some mild scenes in the house and maybe the side plot of the goofy ghostbusters investigating the case. I thought Insidious might have made the mistake of explaining a little too much of what was going on which made things feel less scary and mysterious and a little more grounded, which in turn made it feel a little sillier. Chapter 2 definitely explained too much, in my opinion, turning the movie into almost a cop or detective story just trying to get to the bottom of the mystery and pinpoint the suspect. All told The Old Woman was way scarier than a crossdressing serial killer with a crazy mommy. I did enjoy the goofy comic relief ghostbusters a little more this time around. I didn't mention it but I thought they were a poor inclusion in the first film as their antics seemed out of place with the tone of the film and I can't imagine WHY you'd want to break the tension of a haunted house film with comic relief. But they turn it down a little in Chapter 2 and since its less of a creepy haunted house film and more of an investigation/adventure it fits a little better. Its not a bad movie, its just a different sort of movie that went with my least favorite parts of the first one at the cost of my most favorite, and I dare say the more "horror" elements. If Insidious got maybe a B+ from me Chapter 2 probably comes in at a C or C+. Maybe B-. Edit: Although I guess I should probably admit that in the middle of the film a very large bug ran across my shoulder at the precise moment that q ghost popped out of a shadow in the film and I pretty much hit the ceiling. So the movie was obviously doing something right. I also caught Episodes 5 and 6 of Penny Dreadful and still really enjoying it. Its not great but Eva Green is remarkable and I think its one of the better executed attempts to merge monster stories. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 00:37 on Oct 4, 2014 |
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Oct 4, 2014 00:21
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Lurdiak posted:
We're live in 20 minutes! http://www.ustream.tv/channel/scream-stream-part-2
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Oct 4, 2014 01:10
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I think I made a mistake by starting out with Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed because I'm not sure anything else I'm planning on watching is going to top Peter Cushing as Baron Frankenstein. He was STONE COLD. I'm used to more sympathetic portrayals of the Frankenstein, so seeing a performance that was so grim, merciless, egomaniacal, and so utterly devoid of any kind of humanity just blew me away. The sets were particularly good and had some very pretty lighting too. It was also cool to see Hammer branch out a little bit in terms and style by incorporating some pretty giallo-like shots in the opening (which was my favorite part of the movie). For the 2nd, I watched You're Next. It was pretty good, but I didn't love it. My friend guessed the final plot twist because the college professor would use the correct 'you're.' Heh.
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Oct 4, 2014 01:49
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I started the month off with Herzog's Nosferatu: The Vampyre and it's one of the nicest looking horror films I've seen in a long while, it really sticks with ya. I followed that up with The Pit a stupid Canadian horror film featuring the creepiest grossest 12 year old ever put in a movie, unsettling nonsense.
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Oct 4, 2014 02:23
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Off to a late start on the 3rd with May, which I watched ages ago shortly after it came out on video. I'd forgotten about most of it apart from the last 40 minutes or so which is where the real "horror" begins. Most of the movie is almost a deliberate parody of a RomCom, with the quirky Manic Pixie Dream Girl falling for the "weird outsider guy" who otherwise has his poo poo together. But he quickly realizes she's completely unhinged and then things go bad pretty quickly. Angela Bettis and Jeremy Sisto are both pretty great in it, and I had completely forgot Anna Faris was in it but she's hilarious as May's oddball and way too touchy-feely lesbian coworker. It's a nice early October movie since it's a slow-burn horror that happens to take place during the Halloween season but keeps the overt seasonal references to a minimum. I think next I'm going to have to watch Lucky McKee's The Woman as a follow-up.
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Oct 4, 2014 03:18
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The story so far: 1) Re-Animator (1985) 2) Isle of the Dead (1945) 3) Full Moon High (1981) This was a Larry Cohen film that I only watched because I couldn't get a hold of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 in time. This is one of the most bizarre things I've seen in my life, which I should have expected from Cohen, maker of one of my favorite low budget thrillers, God Told Me To. To put it kindly, it's a hit-or-miss (mostly miss) horror comedy about a jock who goes with his father on a trip to Romania and is bitten by a werewolf. You expect it to devolve into a lowbrow retread of Teen Wolf, but Cohen actually does a pretty good job playing fast and loose with his story, which ends up being the saving grace of an otherwise disposable movie even by his own standards. It's definitely the most Troma-esque of his films that I've seen, which is to say you're better off watching a Troma movie.
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Oct 4, 2014 03:45
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Rewatched V/H/S 2 tonight. Safe Haven is still awesome papa.
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Oct 4, 2014 04:34
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 The basic plot of Bad Dreams is that an idealistic cult commits mass self-immolation. One girl survives, comatose; fast-forward 13 years, to when she wakes up and tries to make sense of her memories and her companions in a psychiatric ward. The best parts of the movie are the characters and the practical effects. The patients are distinct and odd in their own ways, with the group session scenes stealing the show as all the personalities bounce off of each other. Though the film is a little too goofy for the violence to be reliably unnerving, the physicality of the effects still gives them some punch. Unfortunately, the twist doesn't really fit with the story, flubbing things in the last act. Also, "Sweet Child Of Mine" over the closing credits. Good pieces, but disappointing overall.
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Oct 4, 2014 05:17
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Leper Residue posted:I had only ever seen the tv version of the original Carrie and never really liked it all that much. Just watched the blu ray, and wow, that is quite the beginning of the movie. Five minutes of naked high school girls and that shower scene.
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Oct 4, 2014 05:18
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October 3rd Just finished... 3) Enter Nowhere A plodding psychological tale of three strangers who find themselves randomly at the same cabin and trapped in the woods that seem to be a maze. For the first half it just drags and drags and drags as three not terrible likable people just yell at each other over their shared impotence to get out of the woods without anyone asking why no one has a cellphone. Then half way through it gets mildly interesting when they start talking to each other (on like Day 3 of sharing the same cabin in the woods) and the plot of the film is actually revealed. Turns out they're all each other's mothers/kids from different time periods and all their lives sucked because they all were raised orphans starting with great grandpa Hans who is pointing a gun at them for hanging out in his cabin. Its weird and not even remotely explained but at least something kind of happens the rest of the way as they try and Back to the Future things. Still wasn't good, though. Just picked up enough that I was able to sit through it and count it as #3 on my list. Its 1 AM but I'm debating firing up another movie just to rebound from that one. Also, time travel may explain why the 1962 and 1985 ladies don't ask about cell phones but not the 2011 guy. That bothered me. The plot should have been revealed way, way earlier in the movie. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 06:10 on Oct 4, 2014 |
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Oct 4, 2014 06:06
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