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Franchescanado posted:I'm almost caught up! Does anyone know any good classic horror movies anywhere from the 1950's to the end of the 1970's? I'd love to watch more Hammer Horror films, but I can't spend the money on them. I have Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus, HBO Go, and Netflix. I'd prefer anything from the Criterion Collection (I watch it on an Xbox 360, and some of the movies that should be on streaming--Flesh for Frankenstein, Blood for Dracula--don't show up), but I'll take anything interesting. This seems stupidly obvious, but make sure to check YouTube. There is quite the selection and the quality is usually passable. I actually just started Burnt Offerings there. Dr.Caligari fucked around with this message at 18:40 on Oct 29, 2014 |
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Oct 29, 2014 18:37
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October 25th, 26th and 27th: Storm of the Century (1999) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0135659/ I decided to do something slightly different and watch a 3 part mini-series. A rare original screenplay by Stephen King, rather than an adaptation. Long story short, some nasty magical fellow comes to a small island community in Maine and terrorizes the residents. It's pretty typical of King's TV stuff, lots of fun and ham. There were perhaps a few too many characters, and with only 4 hours I felt like we don't get to know most of them very well. Maybe it would have been better off as a single season show, though I don't believe such things were done on purpose back then. It might not be his best, but if you're a King fan, I don't see why you wouldn't enjoy this. Otober 28th: Daughter of Darkness (1990) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099368/ A young woman having strange dreams goes to Romania to search for her absentee father, and crosses paths with a clan of vampires, her father among them. It makes one novel change to vampire physiology; rather than fangs, they have a sort of spiked "straw" hidden in their tongues that they suck blood with. However, you don't get to see much of this as this is a TV movie that's low on blood and gore. The film is a bit slow at times, but it isn't too bad. Plus, watching Anthony Perkins doing a Romanian accent and letting his eyebrows go into overdrive was fun.
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Oct 29, 2014 22:00
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Haven't made an update since the 21st, so I'mma do this quick: Week 1 1) Re-Animator (1985) 2) Isle of the Dead (1945) 3) Full Moon High (1981) 4) The Innkeepers (2011) Week 2 5) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) 6) Galaxy of Terror (1981) 7) Lair of the White Worm (1988) 8) Nosferatu (1922) / Shadow of the Vampire (2000) 9) The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976) 10) The Asphyx (1973) 11) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) Week 3 12) Carrie (2013) 13) Shivers (1975) / Class of Nuke ‘em High 2: Subhumanoid Meltown (1991) 14) House on Haunted Hill (1959) 15) The Legend of Hell House (1973) 16) Une nuit sur le Mont Chauve (1933) / Begotten (1990) 17) Monkey Shines (1988) 18) Witching and Bitching (2013) Week 4 19) Big rear end Spider! (2013) / The Deadly Mantis (1957) / Mothra (1961) 20) Monster on the Campus (1958) / Attack of the Puppet People (1958) 21) Mine Games a.k.a. The Evil Within (2012) 22) Pontypool (2008) This was really good. 23) Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988) This was surprisingly good. 24) Deliver Us from Evil (2014) This was unsurprisingly a piece of poo poo. 25) The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014) This was good. Week 5 26) The Frighteners (1996) This is good, but not as good as I remembered. 27) Return of the Fly (1959) / The Fly 2 (1989) These both sucked, for their own special reasons. 28) The War of the Gargantuas (1966) This is better than I remembered it.
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Oct 29, 2014 22:26
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Day 29 - The Living Skeleton might be the most western Japanese horror film I've ever seen. Most of the main characters are Christian (there's a Christian burial right at the start of the movie which is exceptionally rare in Japan). The imagery of skeletons, bats, and ghost ships aren't horror elements there. It feels like a script for a European horror film from the same period. And a priest murders a woman and hides her body in a suit of European armor. Definitely no message here! A freighter carrying millions in gold is hijacked by four of its crew who murder and throw overboard everyone else. Three years later the lost ship appears off the ghost of Japan. The sister of one of the victims boards it and this sets off a ghostly revenge plot against the four conspirators who have been living the high life after escaping. The production values in this film leave a bit to be desired. The chained up skeletons underwater are clearly aquarium decorations. It also features the worst dog acting I think I've ever seen (please note, I have not watched the Buddies movies); the dog is beaten to death and at the point where it is supposed to die, it sits up to check with it's trainer and then flops back down on the side. And don't get me started on the "bats". Despite that, however, I wound up liking the movie a lot. It's creepy, has some fun deaths, and the revenge scheme is pretty cool (albeit horror movie style insane). The whole thing becomes very Tales From the Crypt and it works. Tomorrow I'm watching Blair Witch 2. With the distance of fifteen years between the original and seeing the sequel, I'm wondering if the fact that it's a completely different type of movie will bother me...
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Oct 30, 2014 00:23
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Day 29 - The Conjuring This movie kept popping up on lists of great horror movies and far be it from me to argue with the great and powerful internet on what should or shouldn’t be considered great horror. It was directed by James Wan, the same guy that did the Insidious movies, so I figured that it would be at least visually interesting if nothing else. He brought along Patrick Wilson from those movies as well, which is fine since he can just stand around looking pensive and it works somehow. All of these also combine with a plot that has a lot of similarities between it and Insidious such that I’m starting to worry if Wan doesn’t have a demons and ghosts double-team fetish.
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Oct 30, 2014 01:41
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Random Stranger posted:Day 29 - The Living Skeleton might be the most western Japanese horror film I've ever seen. Most of the main characters are Christian (there's a Christian burial right at the start of the movie which is exceptionally rare in Japan). The imagery of skeletons, bats, and ghost ships aren't horror elements there. It feels like a script for a European horror film from the same period. And a priest murders a woman and hides her body in a suit of European armor. Definitely no message here! Christianity is actually pretty prominent in Japan, Catholicism especially. Also, sexual shame isn't precisely an alien concept, culturally speaking. You observe the same psychosexual fascination with Christianity in the more explicit and sadomasochist The School of the Holy Beast.
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Oct 30, 2014 01:46
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K. Waste posted:Christianity is actually pretty prominent in Japan, Catholicism especially. Also, sexual shame isn't precisely an alien concept, culturally speaking. You observe the same psychosexual fascination with Christianity in the more explicit and sadomasochist The School of the Holy Beast. To go with what I pointed out as something unusual, over 99% of funerals in Japan are performed in the Buddhist tradition with cremation. Less than 1% of funerals are burials of any kind, let alone Christian. And any depiction of western religion in Japanese films without an explicit outsider bringing it in is uncommon; not unheard of, just rare.
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Oct 30, 2014 02:02
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K. Waste posted:27) Return of the Fly (1959) / The Fly 2 (1989)  Classic! I'll probably always have a softer spot for the second one, since I saw it about a decade before the first, but this one has a madness that none of the follow-ups have really managed to capture. Got to watch it with a friend who'd only seen it a couple times before, which helped make all the familiar details seem raw again; he felt it was more unrelenting than the original Maniac, and though I can't quite agree with that, it's a close thing. After a little break, we rewatched it with commentary, and hearing Gunnar Hansen's amused recollections about the making of the movie helped take some of the bite out of the first viewing, at least until he got to the part about getting so frenzied from the heat and exhaustion that he pulled the safety tape from a knife and slashed Marilyn Burns up for real just to get the take in the can.
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Oct 30, 2014 02:34
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Caught a triple header tonight: 33: Let's Scare Jessica To Death (1971) A trio of ex-hippies move into a farmhouse in upstate Connecticut, most notably Jessica, who's recovering from a nervous breakdown. She hears voices in her head and she tends to have hallucinations. Shortly after moving in, they discover an intruder in the form of Emily, but the three decide to welcome her into their home. Both of the men are clearly attracted to Emily, despite one of them being married. Jessica meanwhile begins to see and hear things again, not to mention feels menace from the older townsfolk, and takes to heart local urban legends about a vampire that bears a striking resemblance to her new housemate. Is Jessica going crazy, or is there truly something sinister going on? I'll be honest, I didn't like this film. However, it's the sort of dreamy and ambiguous film of the time that others would. It has the same sort of repressed dream-state style that I would compare to say, Repulsion, another film whose quality was lost on me. Nonetheless, if that's your bag, than I'm sure you'll like it.  /Five34: The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) Laura Mars (Faye Dunaway) is a hot fashion photographer, who mixes sex and violence graphically in her work. Suddenly one day she starts getting psychic visions where she sees through the eyes of a madman as he kills those in her immediate circle, stabbing them in the eye. As she begins an affair with the chief detective on the case (Tommy Lee Jones), the investigation finds itself racing to discover who the culprit might be. Could it be her faye manager (Rene Auberjounois)? Her seedy limo driver with a violent criminal past (Brad Douriff)? Maybe her ex-husband, who was dating the first victim (Raul Julia)? Maybe someone completely unrelated? Regardless, Laura must find out before she's the next victim. I'm really surprised this film doesn't get more attention. It was written by a young John Carpenter, and has a star-studded cast in what is essentially an American version of a giallo. It even has a theme song by Barbara Streisand that should make it high profile. The film has a breakneck pace that keeps up the tension, and the atmosphere has a remarkably clean, upscale feel that very much is in line with the world the film takes place in. If I had to complain, it would be about the reveal at the end of the film. In typical giallo fashion, there is very little foreshadowing for the twist ending, and even less time to make sense of it. It's a very dissatisfactory final five minutes to what is otherwise one of the few American offerings in a sub-genre often overlooked in this country. /Five.35: Don't Look Now (1973) A family loses their little girl in a tragic drowning accident. The brother is sent off to boarding school in England, and the parents Laura and John go off to Venice, so John, an art restoration expert, can work on a cathedral there. Laura meets a pair of elderly sisters, one blind and claiming to be psychic. She also claims to see their daughter and comforts her, saying she's happy. John doesn't believe in that sort of thing however, but the sisters insist that he also has a gift (or curse) of sight as well, but he doesn't know it. Perhaps that is why he keeps seeing a figure in a red raincoat like his daughter wore when she died? Also, there's a murderer on the loose in the city whose path seems to repeatedly cross John and Laura's as well... This is an incredible film, that I feel like I didn't get the entirety of on my first viewing. There is clearly much in the way of metaphor and layered imagery throughout, such as how the color red seems to prefix whenever bad things happen. Not to mention how deeply the mix of the sacred and profane intertwine throughout the film. And finally, the title itself seems to be one of import, as eyes and seeing are a heavily used visual motif. I would really like to sometime go back and look at this study of how grief forms madness again, from a more analytical perspective. /Five
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Oct 30, 2014 06:46
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Choco1980 posted:
This is a great film. Upon repeat viewings, there's a ton of foreshadowing that you don't pick up on. It's really, really good. 10/28: Stagefright (the older one) A bunch of dubiously talented people are practicing for a play about a serial killer. The main actress attracts the attention of an actor who had previously had a psychotic break, and the film goes from there. Unabashedly '80's and ridiculous, but the film is rather surprisingly gory. The kills are pretty great. Since it's on a weird, dilapidated warehouse broadway set there are a bunch of intriguingly unique setpieces which are used inventively throughout the film. Enjoyed this one. The music goes from Kenny G to weird rock to lovely hip-hop breakbeats to some bad Dario Argento poo poo but it works rather well with the film. The inept cops who are sitting in a car in the rain who don't see or hear anything that's going on in the movie are hilarious. 10/29: Exorcist 3 This was so goddamn entertaining. It's a seriously funny movie but when poo poo hits the fan it's pretty awesome. Everyone in the movie gets their own chances to shine. I love the dialogue in this movie. It's related to the other films but it only makes passing references to Pazuzu, and by seeing this I can rest easy finally forgetting Exorcist 2 ever happened. It's a completely different film from Exorcist, which quite works in its favor. It reminds me most of Fallen, but it's probably more entertaining in every way. I just can't believe how funny the dialogue in this film is, which juxtaposes nicely with how tense some of the scenes are.
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Oct 30, 2014 09:11
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I didn't watch a new horror for my list on the 28th. I did watch a bunch of horror that day as I was home all day doing chores and stuff and had some great horrors on in the background the whole time. Fright Night, Evil Dead 2, Tremors, the Evil Dead remake. It was a lot of fun but I've seen all of those before so none of them make the list. Then I just crashed hard and never got a chance to stay up late and watch one. And I nearly repeated that today. It was a loved one's birthday and Game 7 of the World Series so by the time i got alone with the chance to watch something it was already after 1 AM. I made myself stay up and watch one because i missed yesterday and it just felt wrong not to. Even though I've missed two days without a new film for the list I haven't gone a single day in October without watching a horror movie until the 29th. So at 1 AM on the 30th I put on one to make sure I didn't go any longer. 40) The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014)  Its been popping up a lot in the thread so I assume like me a lot of people were seeing it on their suggested lists a bunch. I actually watched it because it fell in a sweet spot for me tonight. It wasn't something that was too long or demanded 100% of my mind (like a subtitled film) but also wasn't one of the really lovely films I had on my watchlist that I abandoned within the first 10 minutes because I just couldn't see myself sitting through them. This one looked solid, seemed to be getting good reviews, was found footage so would probably start slow so I could be slightly distracted, and was only 90 minutes or so. Winner. Its a decent film, not great. Mind you its like the 10th or 12th possession film I've watched this month so the bar grows higher with each one as they all end up compared against each other. It had good performances and creepy imagery and moments. The decision to go with an older, frail woman was an interesting choice since the emaciated shots of her were pretty chilling and tying the possession story to old age and alzheimers instead of the usual stuff like puberty or youth was an interesting spin on a well tread territory. I liked the man approaching the window stuff a lot and it wasn't over done at all, and overall I thought they generally found a nice line between "Is this a woman losing her mind or something else?" The one misstep I'd say was her "levitating" to the kitchen counter which felt kind of out of place with the rest of the tone and sort of felt to me like they said "We're making a found footage film with a ton of cameras so we need to catch something supernatural at night because that's what happens in these movies." I also think the daughter jumped to "possession" pretty drat quickly. Besides the aforementioned bit nothing really seemed like something that couldn't be explained with her poor mom losing her mind. But I suppose I'm being harsh on a daughter looking for answers for her mom. Also a LONG time was spanned during the film, like two months. These found footage films usually happen over shorter time spans or have more individual days go by, so I guess I can conclude that a lot of time was spent wondering what was going on that simply didn't make the final cut. I'm going to chalk this up to questionable pacing. And the characterization of the people around Deborah left a lot to be desired. The only person I felt like I knew was the douchebag and all I knew was he was a douchebag. Everyone else felt kind of shallow to me and they spent way too much effort hinting to us that Sarah was gay. We get it. Its not that important. And it makes it a little odd that she shows virtually no reaction to her possessed mom killing her apparent girlfriend so I question why it was not only included but pressed on so much. The final sequence was a little "horror movie characters making questionable decisions" but the imagery was great, especially that shot of Deborah swallowing the child like a snake. And I enjoy the resolution even if I'm not sure it makes sense. But whatever. I've nitpicked enough on a generally enjoyable movie. Like I said, it was decently good. I'm just 40 movies in and at least 25% of them have been possession films so I'm going to be nitpicking. When I hit my 30 early I decided I set a new goal for 50 but that's going to be hard now, especially since I have family and friends calling on me for social time. But I'm going to try and squeeze in lesser films during the day and hit my big movies at night. Maybe I'll get close enough to binge on Friday night to hit my number. The Tally Pre-October Warm Up V/H/S (2012) / V/H/S 2 (2013) / Sinister (2012) / Quarantine 2: Terminal (2011) / State Of Emergency (2011) / We Are What We Are (2013) Week 1: Oct 1st to 7th 1) Insidious (2010) / 2) Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) / 3) Enter Nowhere (2011) / 4) The Nurse (2013) / 5) American Mary (2012) / 6) Re-Animator (1985) / 7) The Lords of Salem (2013) Week 2: Oct 8th to 14th 8) Paranormal Activity (2007) / 9) Trollhunter (2010) / 10) The Woman in Black (2012) / 11) 1408 (2007) /12) Dead Before Dawn (2012) / 13) ParaNorman (2012) / 14) Paranormal Activity 2 (2010) Week 3: Oct 15th to 21st 15) The Hole (2009) / 16) The Den (2013) / 17) Ravenous (1999) / 18) All The Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006) / 19) John Carpenter's The Ward (2011) / 20) The Devil's Pass (2013) / 21) Blood Glacier (2013) / 22) You're Next (2011) / 23) The Coed and The Zombie Stoner (2014) / 24) Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) Week 4: Oct 22nd to 28th 25) Torment (2013) / 26) Paranormal Activity 4: Unrated Edition (2012) / 27) Ghoulies (1985) / 28) The Day (2011) / 29) The Barricade (2012) / 30) The Last Exorcism (2010) / 31) Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010) / 32) Antisocial (2013) /33) Odd Thomas (2013) / 34) Rapture-Palooza (2013) / 35) The Last Exorcism Part II (2013) / 36) House at the End of the Street (2012) / 37) Zombie Hunter (2013) / 38) Alyce Kills (2011) / 39) The Possession (2012) End Run: Oct 29th to 31st 40) The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014)
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Oct 30, 2014 09:17
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Eyes of Laura Mars is still somehow super-underrated.
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Oct 30, 2014 14:15
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:Eyes of Laura Mars is still somehow super-underrated. Right. Having finally seen it yesterday, I can't really see why. Distribution woes? I mean, a lot of the time when people talk about the giallo's inspiration on us films, they're talking straight up slasher/dead teenager flicks. This film was made when they were at the height of their initial cycle, and seems to hit all the notes of the formula just right. That and a star studded lineup, in front of and behind the camera both, make me really wonder why it's still so obscure.
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Oct 30, 2014 14:42
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When I think of American Giallo, I think of this, Cruising, Looker (to some degree), DePalma's early stuff and Hitchcock's Frenzy.
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Oct 30, 2014 14:54
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Well I followed up the best horror-comedy of all-time with the second best, An American Werewolf in London: When you really get down to it this movie doesn't have a whole lot of werewolf action, and what little there is doesn't look all that great. Landis manages to cut away at exactly the right moments that leave you scared of what you aren't seeing. For instance the wolf leaps at a police officer in the movie theatre and for an instant we see its fangs make contact with the guys skull right before it cuts away. The next time we see the officer he's barely recognizable as human. Of course Landis knows when to make an exception to that rule and the transformation scene shows everything in the middle of a brightly lit living room. That scene is of course one of the groundbreaking effects scenes in movie history, even today its difficult to figure out how most of the shots were done. As scary as An American Werewolf in London can be at specific moments, it really is a comedy. I've never heard him talk about it but I'm convinced Landis specifically asked for Jack's makeup to include a little dangly bit that would flap around every time he speaks. Its just too funny not to be intentional. The climax is hilarious because the wolf barely touches anyone(although those he does "touch" don't last long), everyone freaks out at the sight of it and people are squashed in the streets by a multiple car pileup. The part of the movie on the moors is great, the Slaughtered Lamb is right out of a Hammer film, which I'm sure was no accident. All of the English actors are really good, and David Naughton could easily have been a bigger star, I'm not sure what happened there. As famous and iconic as this movie is I feel its still somehow underrated.
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Oct 30, 2014 15:20
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 It's not over yet! The very last Scream Stream broadcasts on Halloween! We're doing things a little differently, mostly because, well, I do hope most people won't be able to tune in for a full showing on All Hallow's Eve. Y'all should have better things to do! (Unless you're handing out candy or something!) So I'll be showing things that are easy to drop in and out of, which mostly means some anthologies. I'll also be starting much earlier than usual! You could conceivably have this running in the background during a Halloween party, if you're into that sort of thing. So, starting at 5 PM Eastern, Friday's features will be...  Creepshow and  Creepshow 2 followed by   Halloween (/w Red Letter Media commentary) and finally...  WNUF Halloween Special I'll also be showing various SPOOOOOKY things in between each film, including episodes of  Tales From the Crypt So if you have time, and courage, this Samhain, drop by and watch some of the SCREAM STREAM!
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Oct 30, 2014 20:17
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Day 30 - Phantasm Phantasm was probably the last of the great, classic horror franchises that I had yet to watch. I didn’t really know anything about the plot other than there was a tall guy and some sort of silver orb that would stab your head. This is also apparently the only thing that the movie knew about the plot, given that it just sort of meanders around introducing and dismissing characters and plot points at will. I should have known when I saw that it was made in the 70s. Goddamn you, 70s horror. You did it to me again. How did this end up being popular enough for a sequel let alone a whole franchise?
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Oct 30, 2014 21:28
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Grnegsnspm posted:Day 30 - Phantasm I watched Phantasm last night for the first time, and admittedly, at first I found it dull, but it won me over as it developed into its full weirdness. I thought it was a unique movie, in the best way. It feels like a lot of strange parts put together in a jagged way, where the incongruities add to the overall dreamlike feeling of the movie. It doesn't really set up expectations or cliches because it keeps jumping around everywhere in an unconventional way and adding little unexpected touches, and that tends to really suck me into a film if done well. The brother characters and the leather vest wearing ice cream man were likable, and the cinematography was really good. The biggest plus for me was the soundtrack, it has a lot of character and really stands out. This movie was apparently inspired by dreams the writer-director had, and he also shot and edited this film, so it feels like a very personally crafted dream. My main critique is it could have used more brain-boring flying silver balls, those were really cool. If I had to give a rating, I'd say B- Babs Johnson fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Oct 30, 2014 |
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Oct 30, 2014 22:24
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I've been wanting to watch Phantasm for years but it seems weirdly hard to get ahold of. I never can find it on TV or streaming and when I look up the DVD its some ridiculous price like $40. I'm not paying that much for a horror movie more likely to be bad than good. I can but a dozen horrors for a quarter of that price.
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Oct 30, 2014 22:34
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I love love LOVE Phantasm and its sequels. The ending to part 4 is amazing, but only if you've liked and watched the whole series and kept in mind how far apart the movies were made. Spoiler plot analysis ahead: Mike is dreaming the whole thing. It's a nightmare in reaction the grief over his parents, and in turn Jodie's death. He idolizes first Jodie, then Reggie, turning the latter from a comic relief sidekick to a capable, rear end-kicking badass. Also however, as time goes on he starts accepting death as something natural and the Tall Man gets sympathetic, and Mike himself starts turning into him. Finally, once he moves on and accepts his family's death, he wakes up, again a child, but suddenly okay with he and Reggie being alone. He hears the last bits of his fantasy dying and assures Reg that it's only the wind.. I'm really curious how the fifth movie, that they just finished, will affect that reading....
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Oct 30, 2014 22:36
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 27) Night Breed: The Director's Cut (1990)- There's something to be celebrated about film restoration- especially when you live in an age of digitally enhanced deluxe reissue nonsense (I'm looking at you, George). So it should come as no surprise that this loving treatment of an abused, familiar film was dear to me from the onset. But Night Breed isn't still without its limitations. The over abundance of restrictive close-up photography might have worked in the haunted house setting of Hellraiser, but it doesn't suit Midian at all. Barker doesn't venture far from very pedestrian and almost "made for television" filmmaking and this is especially noticeable coming fresh from watching Nicolas Roeg's almost delirious camera treatment in The Witches. But the sets and story are quite imaginative and just being able to watch a "true" version of this favorite is something special. The fantasy of his novels, and not just the celebrated cenobite gore, are much more prominent in this cut and it's a real shame it took this long to see the light of day. /5
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Oct 30, 2014 22:56
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STAC Goat posted:I've been wanting to watch Phantasm for years but it seems weirdly hard to get ahold of. I never can find it on TV or streaming and when I look up the DVD its some ridiculous price like $40. I'm not paying that much for a horror movie more likely to be bad than good. I can but a dozen horrors for a quarter of that price. Phantasm is actually more likely to be good, than bad
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Oct 30, 2014 23:13
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Uncle Boogeyman posted:Phantasm is actually more likely to be good, than bad for reals 
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Oct 30, 2014 23:21
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Grnegsnspm posted:Day 30 - Phantasm The Phantasm movies have this weird auteur thing about them. Unlike the other horror franchises where after one or two installments, everyone behind the camera has rolled over, the Phantasm series is essentially a labor of love for Don Coscarelli. And every sequel gets stranger and stranger. Apparently they even secretly shot a fifth film that is yet to be released... The series really toes the line between horror and dark fantasy. STAC Goat posted:I've been wanting to watch Phantasm for years but it seems weirdly hard to get ahold of. I never can find it on TV or streaming and when I look up the DVD its some ridiculous price like $40. I'm not paying that much for a horror movie more likely to be bad than good. I can but a dozen horrors for a quarter of that price. That's always been the case with the Phantasm movies. They have gone up for streaming at sites on occasion, though. Day 30 - I went to see The Blair Witch Project on its opening day; there was so much hype around that film. I still like it even if I think it would have been a better half hour film than a 75 minute one (well, maybe if they made it an extended version of the fake documentary they aired on A bunch of people sign up for a tour of famous locations connected to the Blair Witch. They have a big revelry as they camp out in the site of her old house and in the morning their camp site has been destroyed and none of them remember anything they've done, including things that film has shown the audience that they did which makes an already confusing movie more confusing. Plot contrivances keep them together as they keep having visions of murder and horror. Let's get over the first hurdle. With or without the original film casting it's shadow, this is a horrible movie. The cast is awful. The script is from one of those people who saw Scream and copied it but didn't have one-third the talent. The nicest thing I can say is that I liked the idea that this movie takes place in a world where the original Blair Witch movie exists and the characters all get dragged into the plot because of it. There's a germ of a good a idea there, though maybe for a film made ten years after the first instead of one year. What was it with the post-Scream horror films and their need to fill their cast with "cool kids with attitude"? Of course, they're actually loving annoying assholes that I wouldn't want to spend five minutes around, let alone 90 minutes. When everyone is the snarky one it becomes annoying really fast.
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Oct 30, 2014 23:31
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The opening to the second Phantasm movie gave me the worst nightmares of my life when I was a kid. Still nothing gives me the heebie jeebies quite like The Tall Man and his dwarf slave minions. I haven't brought myself to watch the 2nd one again in its entirety, but I adore the first movie. It's probably the most perfect example of dream logic I've ever seen, probably due to its intense atmosphere and insane pacing.
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Oct 31, 2014 00:43
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I've only seen Phantasm 1 and 2 but they're really, really good movies. It makes me sad that someone could see them and not enjoy them at least on a technical level.
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Oct 31, 2014 00:45
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Speed Crazy posted:The opening to the second Phantasm movie gave me the worst nightmares of my life when I was a kid. Still nothing gives me the heebie jeebies quite like The Tall Man and his dwarf slave minions. I haven't brought myself to watch the 2nd one again in its entirety, but I adore the first movie. It's probably the most perfect example of dream logic I've ever seen, probably due to its intense atmosphere and insane pacing. Yeah, I remember watching it once as a kid and it giving me absolute nightmares. I really don't remember much at all about the films besides the Tall Man and the death ball things so I've been wanting to rewatch them for years. But I just looked on Amazon and its SEVENTY dollars. Why? Starting the push to the end to try and hit 50. Gonna be some crap in here as I find things to watch in the background as i do stuff. Start with one that I've failed to finish twice already this month. 41) The ABCs of Death (2012)  Absolute complete piece of poo poo. It took me three attempts to sit through this piece of garbage and I repeatedly questioned why I was even doing it except because of some "sunk cost" fallacy nonsense and a number for this list. And because the nature of the movie meant that by the time I really wanted to quit I could just say "only X more segments left" and countdown to the end of my agony. Just wall to wall trash and vile poo poo masquerading as something with any kind of purpose or humor. I almost imagined this was a bunch of filmmakers trying to troll the audience and see who could outsuck each other but then I decided that to credit the majority of these people with that level of awareness or to even call them "filmmakers" would be a joke. The one segment I got ANY appreciation out of was Q (which was not surprisingly by one of the few directors I recognize) just because it had some kind of self awareness about what garbage this whole thing was and took a clear chunk of fun at the movies' expense and themselves. Congratulations, Zombie Hunter. You're no longer the worst thing I've watched this month.
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Oct 31, 2014 01:00
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Lurdiak posted:I've only seen Phantasm 1 and 2 but they're really, really good movies. It makes me sad that someone could see them and not enjoy them at least on a technical level. The enjoyability of a Phantasm movie can be directly calculated using an equation based on the number of barrels on Reggie's shotgun and the amount of midgets blown away with said shotgun.
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Oct 31, 2014 01:59
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Darthemed posted:Would you be willing to expand your response to The Fly 2? Basically, The Fly 2 is one of those movies that fails on every conceivable level despite the wellspring of opportunity. Ultimately, it and Return of the Fly share the same problem, in that they need to find some way to realistically integrate a really specific horror movie premise, that being Fly-Man. But what David Cronenberg's film and, thus, any sequel that follows it, has going for it is a perfect ending that doesn't leave us with sappy, bullshit resolution. Veronica blows off BrundleFly's head. The end. There's no resolution to her carrying his child, and there's a man whose foot and hand have been melted off literally lying only a few yards away from the entire scene. It's the type of ending you can do any loving thing with. So, of course The Fly 2 does the exact loving same thing as Return of the Fly, i.e. Son of the Fly somehow just happens to also become a Fly-Man. Now, Return of the Fly is at least laughably obtuse about how this happens: Francois tells Phillipe about what happened to his father, and then Phillipe develops a weird phobia of flies, that his lab partner-turned-assassin just randomly decides to exploit for the sheer sadism of it. Basically, Return of the Fly is a film that doesn't even attempt to get around how unnecessary it is. The Fly 2 actually starts off on relatively good footing in this regard. Veronica was afraid the child would be like its father, so she wanted an abortion, but the evil corporation that funded and assisted Brundle's experiments wants the Fly-Man science. Or something. The movie is actually incredibly unclear about what the specific motivations of Bartok and his company are. Does he, like, know that Son of Fly-Man will become so smart that he can complete his father's experiments? Or is that just a happy coincidence on their way to, what he implies only at the climax of the film, get, like, Super Fly-Man Soldiers? Basically, this is only the first sequel to the film, but every character's motivations are already convoluted as gently caress. In particular, there's the subplot about Brundle, Jr.'s 'childhood dog' being used in a failed telepod experiment that leaves it hideously deformed. What's flabberghasting is that the only reason Bartok seems to keep this creature alive is just so that the writers can have a wraparound excuse for tormenting the audience's sympathy for a dumb animal. Notice how the original film played off this much better by showing us a monkey that was turned inside out and having Brundle be thoroughly disgusted with himself. The Fly 2 uses the same motif, but doesn't actually succeed in making any statement about its character except that he likes animals. The implication is that, once he begins to perfect his father's technology, Brundle, Jr. can teleport all the living things he wants! It's just that evil Bartok who gets in the way of 'true' science! This is made worse by the fact that, since Brundle, Jr. is aging at an accelerated rate that will eventually make him into full Fly-Man, this doesn't actually have any effect on his emotional or cognitive capacity to do things, which, you know, is the entire loving point of Brundle 'degenerating' at the very same time that he is becoming stronger than any human being. Again, the movie's sympathies are a convoluted means of making a one-dimensional critique of capitalism while redeeming scientific progress: Bartok is bad for exploiting people for his own gain, including Fly-Man (although if Bartok didn't do anything, Fly-Man would have been aborted, and doesn't an unborn Fly-Man have rights?), but big strong Fly-Man is actually just an ugly hero. This would actually be a brilliant loving movie if Fly-Man actually hurt innocent people, but because he only hurts explicitly bad people, what we're effectively being given is ugly Spider-Man. This all comes to a head in the ending of the film when Fly-Man takes Bartok through the telepod (which now has a built in setting for gene splicing, rather than just accidentally combining people), and essentially 'trades bodies' with him. Bartok becomes revealed for being a queer, pudgy, amorphous monster, while Brundle, Jr. is 'reborn,' to never again have to go through the horrors of... being ugly. It's Beauty and the Beast, basically. The Fly 2 doesn't seem to be drawing as much from Cronenberg as Paul Verhoeven. There's a Total Recall and RoboCop vibe throughout the whole movie, but, again, it channels this aesthetic in order to give the audience what's basically a particularly gruesome and sadistic variation on the same puerile moralizing that doesn't actually acknowledge the complicity of science in oppression and not merely as a means of it. For all intents and purposes, Brundle, Jr./Fly-Man is RoboCop, but in a film that isn't satire.
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Oct 31, 2014 02:55
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^: Even more than I'd hoped for, thanks! I haven't seen The Fly 2 in a while, so I mainly just remember it as a dumb mess with a few wasted interesting ideas (e.g., the accelerated maturation angle) leading up to Brundleboy going killer. Some people hate The Blair Witch Project, some people are indifferent. I like it, though I really can't say how I'd feel about it if I hadn't experienced the buzz around it when it first came out. For what it is, I think it holds up. Aside from some minor background music and the make of the cameras, the movie has kind of a timeless feel to it; if moved to a modern-day setting, they could throw in something about cell phones not having coverage or GPS, and things would flow much the same way. It's not like people getting lost in the woods is too far outside the reach of regular horror movies, but I'd say the ambiguity is what really helps the situation work. Is it rednecks, a time-traveling serial killer, a witch?  It doesn't particularly matter, and if they'd made one of these concrete (well, except maybe for an obscured appearance by the witch), it's doubtful there would have been as much of an impact with those final scenes.
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Oct 31, 2014 03:38
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Time to wrap this thing up! Movie 30: The Return of the Vampire This is a movie that's more interesting than good. For all intents and purposes, it's a sequel to Dracula. Bela Lugosi even plays the vampire. But Columbia pictures did not have the movie rights to Dracula, so we get Lugosi playing a vampire named Tesla instead. This is ionteresting as it was set in contemporary times, and WW2 is directly influential on the plot. It's a pretty dull flick though, and really not something going out of your way to watch. There's also a werewolf in this, but the werewolf is more of a slave to Dracula than anything else. I guess monster rallies don't work without a Frankenstein monster! Movie 31: Scary Movie By the mid-90s, horror had become very stale. The slasher genre had been done to death, monster movies, such as Tremors, were almost exclusively comedy, and serial killer movies were branded as “thrillers” rather than horrors. The Scream came along. Scream was like an atom bomb on the horror scene. It’s meta-references, young & hip cast, and relevant feel reignited the horror genre. As can be expected, it inspired a number of imitators such as I Know what You Did last Summer, Urban Legends, The Faculty, and more. Perhaps the biggest and most blatant imitator was 2000’s Scary Movie. This movie is less of an imitator and more of an out right rip off of Scream. The plot is pretty much identical, and this pads it's run time out by lifting scenes from other movies. I guess if you make a mish mash of various films it doesn't count as plagiarism. The killer even has a similar appearance to ghostface. The mask is slightly different. This one even tries to be "meta" by having a character reference Scream and how it is similar. The characters are absolute idiots, and their actions make no sense. At one point a girl named Drew (no doubt in reference to Drew Barrymore) is confronted by the killer. She has access to a table full of weapons, including a gun and a knife. So what does she grab? A banana! Why would anyone do this you ask? No one can answer that question, as she proceeds to do nothing. She just tries to run away. She could have at least tried to make the killer slip on a banana peel. The movie is full of idiot character actions such as that. The editing is awful as well. At one point an actor from a different show pokes his head onto the set and remarks that he must have the wrong show. Why this gaffe wasn't edited out in post-productions I will never know. Finally, I found myself bothered by the racism, ableism, and homophobia in this movie. I expected more from the geniuses behind In Living Color! Several of the characters in this movie are just walking stereotypes. Well that's it for this year. I still have about 20 movies sitting on my DVR, and I just realized tonight that Crackle has a ton of movies on there worth checking out, but I'm a bit burned out on the genre for now. I'll watch a few tomorrow night, but I'll be taking a break after that. At least for a few weeks.  Last year when I finished up I ranked my choices from best to worst. It's definitely a better crop overall this year, but I was focusing on some classics as well. I still feel I watched a diverse slate of movies. The only major type of horror missing is zombie movies, but I marathoned a bunch of those a few months ago and I'm still feeling burned out on those. 1. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. Halloween (1978) 3. The Creature from the Black Lagoon 4. Gremlins 2 5. The Exorcist 6. The Devils rejects 7. The Mummy 8. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre part 2 9. Tales From The crypt 10. Halloween (2007) 11. Lords of Salem 12. Eraserhead 13. Saw 14. VHS: Viral 15. Night of the Lepus 16. Friday the 13th part 3 17. Scary Movie 18. The Funhouse 19. Sleepaway Camp 20. The Amityville Horror 21. Annabelle 22. Friday the 13th part 2 23. Return of the Vampire 24. Scream 4 25. Thinner 26. Curse of chucky 27. Poltergeist 28. Mr Jones 29. The Haunting 30. Finders keepers 31. Firestarter
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Oct 31, 2014 05:00
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I figured people would rally behind Phantasm. It very much did have that dream quality but it also didn't have anything that hooked me so I was on board with the weirdness. The music and cinematography were admittedly well done but it's so 70s slow. Maybe I was just grumpy this morning but I seriously could not get into it.
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Oct 31, 2014 08:52
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cthulusnewzulubbq posted:
I watched this yesterday and was very disappointed. The whole thing was incredibly disjointed, jumping all over the place and while I think it could have been done on purpose to match the mental instability of the main character it really came across as inability to tell a coherent story. Aside from the one that reminded me of a Hieronymus Bosch-like creature all the monsters looked fake, the movie lasts way too long and while it has some great ideas the execution of those ideas is so lackluster that everything feels cheap. If this was the cut the director had in mind I really don't want to know what the original version was like.
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Oct 31, 2014 09:04
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42) Hostel (2005) Ok, confession. I often quote Hostel as part of the reason I lost interest in horror around that time. I say "The torture porn that popped up around Saw and Hostel turned me away." But the truth is not only do I kind of like Saw but I'd never seen Hostel before tonight. So I figured I'd correct that finally. Its not terrible. Its not great. Its definitely not as bad "torture porn" as the movies that followed but at the same time a huge part of the film is just that and I have no interest in that. In fact I basically turned away from the screen half a dozen times like a little kid. I just have no interest in watching someones toe cut off or eyeball cut out. It disturbs me that someone would. But there is some story beyond that, and I was a little surprised by that. Not a lot, but enough to carry the film. In fact, I was surprised at how briskly the story moved and there was never really a totally dull moment. There was enough tension and worry in the early part watching the stupid Americans stumble around and waiting to see what kind of situations they recklessly led themselves into by doing things like taking drugs from strangers or picking fights with people in foreign lands. And pacing out the actual events the way they did allowed the story to grow where it would have really dragged if it had all happened at once. Still, just an ok film and I don't get the fanfare or the trend that followed it. But it sits comfortably next to Saw as movies that I thought were decent but brought on such poo poo that they probably weren't worth it. 43) Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010)  After the last two films I really needed something fun and this delivered. I went in without looking at the cast or anything and was a little skeptical since I was kind of expecting some of that Blue Collar Humor stuff so I was pleasantly surprised when I realized Dale and Tucker were Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine, both of whom I'm a fan of. The story is funny and creative. I was actually expecting something supernatural by the name but again I was pleasantly surprised by the serious of misunderstandings ending horrifically for the dumb kids as the one douche grew more and more mentally disturbed and became "the Evil". I don't have a ton to say about it. Its funny, but not up roaringly so. It had heart, but wasn't overly sweet. It was absurd, but not ridiculously so. It worked. And it pulled me out of the funk the last two movies put me in. I half watched Prowl earlier in the night but it didn't hold my interest and I was just watching The Hills Have Eyes but it didn't either. I might finish them tomorrow to count them since that will put me up to 45. If I can do that before night then I may have a shot at 50. But I have a few ones I really want to see saved so I don't want to waste time with the rejects and screw it up on those. The Tally Pre-October Warm Up V/H/S (2012) / V/H/S 2 (2013) / Sinister (2012) / Quarantine 2: Terminal (2011) / State Of Emergency (2011) / We Are What We Are (2013) Week 1: Oct 1st to 7th 1) Insidious (2010) / 2) Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) / 3) Enter Nowhere (2011) / 4) The Nurse (2013) / 5) American Mary (2012) / 6) Re-Animator (1985) / 7) The Lords of Salem (2013) Week 2: Oct 8th to 14th 8) Paranormal Activity (2007) / 9) Trollhunter (2010) / 10) The Woman in Black (2012) / 11) 1408 (2007) /12) Dead Before Dawn (2012) / 13) ParaNorman (2012) / 14) Paranormal Activity 2 (2010) Week 3: Oct 15th to 21st 15) The Hole (2009) / 16) The Den (2013) / 17) Ravenous (1999) / 18) All The Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006) / 19) John Carpenter's The Ward (2011) / 20) The Devil's Pass (2013) / 21) Blood Glacier (2013) / 22) You're Next (2011) / 23) The Coed and The Zombie Stoner (2014) / 24) Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) Week 4: Oct 22nd to 28th 25) Torment (2013) / 26) Paranormal Activity 4: Unrated Edition (2012) / 27) Ghoulies (1985) / 28) The Day (2011) / 29) The Barricade (2012) / 30) The Last Exorcism (2010) / 31) Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010) / 32) Antisocial (2013) /33) Odd Thomas (2013) / 34) Rapture-Palooza (2013) / 35) The Last Exorcism Part II (2013) / 36) House at the End of the Street (2012) / 37) Zombie Hunter (2013) / 38) Alyce Kills (2011) / 39) The Possession (2012) End Run: Oct 29th to 31st 40) The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014) / The ABCs of Death (2012) / 42) Hostel (2005) / 43) Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010)
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Oct 31, 2014 10:15
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K. Waste posted:Fly stuff You want a good Fly sequel? I strongly recommend Curse of the Fly (1965). Holy cats is it better than it has any right to be. Ignore the poorly written synopsis on imdb and watch this, you'll be pleasantly surprised. Meanwhile, last night while pumpkin carving, I hunkered down to movie 36: Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010) A 4 hour documentary, detailing the making of the entire A Nightmare on Elm Street series, warts and all. The thread has discussed this ad nauseum at this point, and I really don't have anything to ad, but I do Nth the recommendations behind this awesome documentary.
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Oct 31, 2014 13:51
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Down to the end here, I watched The Exorcist last night. There's nothing I can really say about it that hasn't been said a million times, but I did notice something for the first time that really creeped me out. When Karras goes to the library to listen to the tapes of Reagan's backward speech, I always just heard it as indistinct moaning, but actually at one point the voices very clearly call out Merrin's name. I wasn't expecting to hear that, so it was pretty scary.
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Oct 31, 2014 14:10
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1st: Nightmare Factory 2nd: The Town that Dreaded Sundown 3rd: Shivers 4th: ABC's of Death 5th: Re-Animator 6th: Creepshow 2 7th: Nosferatu (bonus movie: Virgin Witch) 8th: The Stuff 9th: A Nightmare on Elm Street 10th: Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy 11th: Eraserhead 12th: Demon Knight & Bordello of Blood 13th: Sorority House Massacre 14th: ABC's of Death 2 15th: House on Haunted Hill 16th: Evil Dead 2 17th: Stitches 18th: Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Meyers 19th: Dracula (1934 20th: Night of the Creeps 21st: Cabin Fever 22nd: The Awakening 23rd: The Mansion of Madness 24th: Friday the 13th Part 4 25th: House (1977) 26th: Shadow of the Vampire 27th: Black Sunday October 28th: SLiTHER James Gunn is one of my favorite filmmakers right now, even though he has only directed 3 movies (officially). SLiTHER is where it all started for me. It really bothers me that this movie is such a hidden gem. It's frequently in the bargain bin at the movie stores, or comes in a multiple movie pack with some direct-to-DVD movies, which puts a lot of people off. It's such a great movie. Alien slugs turn people into hive-mind zombies lead by an alien symbiote that has infected a man (named Grant Grant) bent on world destruction in a small town of rednecks. But the alien symbiote experiences something for the first time: love. It's an over-the-top premise that works so drat well. James Gunn is a man always fighting for his movie. Much like Super, he had a small budget, a strict schedule, a risky movie, and a big idea. And he nails it. The cast is fantastic and work so well together. The special effects, mostly physical with digital enhancements, are great. The sense of humor is sick and goofy. It's just a blast, from beginning to end. If you've never seen it, but you enjoy 1980's horror comedies, this is one of the best throwbacks out there. James Gunn knows how to make a fun movie with characters you love (and thank goodness he was able to land Guardians of the Galaxy, where he could finally play in a sandbox big enough for his ideas). And there's so many great quotes. He's had several horror projects start and end since SLiTHER, which is a shame, but if he ever returns to the genre, I'll see it opening day. (Also, you should get the DVD. The behind-the-scenes features and director's commentary are some of my favorites.) /5October 29th: Tremors Another horror/comedy monster feature, and another all-time favorite. Remember that game children play, The Floor Is Lava? Same concept, but instead of lava, there are monsters that will eat the gently caress out of you. There are so many reasons to love this movie: the cast is perfect; the monsters are new, exciting, and creepy; the characters are memorable and likeable; the setting is perfect for the story; it's funny. Tremors works because Perfection, Nevada (population 17) really is a dead-end one street town. It's isolated, open, surrounded by mountains. If a monster attack happened, you're most likely hosed. The town is full of eccentric characters with strong personalities. Even Nestor, a character that gets about 10 minutes of screen time, has enough qualities to define him. This is what I like from horror movies. An interesting monster/killer (I wish we had more monster movies that were on a smaller scale, not giant monster attacks city); characters that I like and want to live (so it's actually horrifying when they die, not chainsaw fodder); physical effects that impress; a sense of humor thrown in there (not always necessary). /5October 30th: The Rocky Horror Picture Show What ever happened to Saturday Night, where you went to the movies and you felt alright? Rocky Horror, as a concept, in insane: It's the story of Adam and Eve, lost in the woods, find sanctuary in a castle owned by a transvestite Doctor Frankenstein (the Serpent) who offers them the forbidden fruit of carnal desires and lust on the night of the creation of his ultimate sexual being. It's easy to see why the movie has such a lasting impression. The story of Adam and Eve is familiar to everyone. Rocky Horror just dresses it up with the Sex, Drugs, Rock-N-Roll mentality of the late 70's and plays it with a love of B-Movies (especially Hammer Horror). Everyone involved knows exactly what they're involved with, especially Tim Curry, who was blessed with the talent to be a shining star even in the worst production (IT, anyone?). Everyone is having fun, hamming it up. When I watch a musical, I want catchy songs that get stuck in my head. Rocky Horror delivers. This seems like common sense, but a lot of movies try to replicate what works here, and fail (Repo! The Genetic Opera is the best example of a musical that does everything well except for the music, which is abrasive, annoying, and forgettable). The spectrum of fans is staggering. A Rocky Horror showing is an event. People obsess over their costumes, memorize a million lines, try to live the movie. To these people, Rocky Horror is a way of life. Going to a show is fun, but I only wade through the culture. Others dive right in. Then there's the odd fans who love the movie as if it's Citizen Kane, those who seem to miss the joke, take it too seriously. There's those that hate it, thinks it's banal trash, too weird, missing their mark. And then those that just don't get it, and never will. The Rocky Horror Show is a movie you throw on to have fun, and it's a Halloween staple for a reason. Let there be lips! /5October 31st: Halloween (1978) What is THE Halloween movie? When I was a child, Ernest Scared Stupid and Hocus Pocus. In recent years, I'd say Trick 'r Treat. The Rocky Horror Picture Show celebrates everything that makes Halloween fun, including dressing up. Everyone has their pick, one that means something to them, maybe for nostalgia, or for the energy the movies gives them, or for their love for the movie, or because it captures what the holiday means to them. But where would we be without the movie who's namesake celebrates a time of the macabre, energy, fantasies, fear, indulgence, horror? Halloween is a simple movie that seems to have happened in the right place at the right time. It's a common story in the production of horror movies: a small budget, a cast and crew of nobodies wanting to be somebodies, a project that could send them all into bankruptcy and an early grave. But an idea that sticks and a lot of hard work and love, and an intention to create a real sense of fear and dread help them overcome all obstacles. Halloween is my favorite holiday. Halloween is my favorite scary movie. Halloween is one of my top-favorite movies. I've seen it a million times, and I'll keep watching it, even if it's the middle of the summer. (I would love to see a documentary as good as Never Sleep Again for the Halloween series.) It's legacy is still in effect to this day, it still scares and influences. /5
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Oct 31, 2014 16:22
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BioTech posted:If this was the cut the director had in mind I really don't want to know what the original version was like. Like somebody threw a deck of cards down the stairs. Edit: I look at Wes Craven's People Under The Stairs the same way. They're both ambitious horror fantasies, filled with such strange and imaginative ideas that the desired product seems to be out of reach of their capabilities as filmmakers. But I laud the creativity and the vision even if it's kind of a rough mess. But I would argue that this was pretty decent makeup for '89-90. The lighting could've been better but that isn't the SFX department's job. cthulusnewzulubbq fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Oct 31, 2014 |
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Oct 31, 2014 16:39
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Despite being fully aware of its flaws,, the theatrical cut of Nightbreed is and always has been one of my favorite films (I haven't seen the new version yet, as I'm poor) . I can assure you that the sfx is definitely NOT one of the flaws. I have the coffee table book that came out when the movie was new that is basically a photo shoot, professionally taking portraits of the various monsters in high detail. Very few of them suffer from the experience.
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Oct 31, 2014 17:41
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Day 31 - Jigoku means "hell" and that's what this film is about: a descent into and tour of hell. It was the very last production by Shintoho Studios, and that may have contributed to the sense of doom that hangs over the whole thing. Obviously a film called "Hell" isn't going to be a happy one, but this is misery after misery until they die and the misery doesn't stop even then. A religious studies student is riding home from getting engaged when his friend strikes a gangster who stumbled into the road. The student is wracked with guilt over the hit-and-run while his friend who was driving doesn't care at all and says it was his fault for wanting to go down that road. Across various incidents, guilt piles upon guilt for the student until he dies and winds up in hell. In total fairness, any description of the film is going to have to mention the trip to hell since that's what this film is famous for, but it's the last act. The majority of the Jigoku is the hell on Earth that humanity creates for itself; the cruelties and punishments and pains. Even without the last third of the film, it would still be a really good, if extremely bleak, drama; the last third is what makes it a horror movie. The imagery of Jigoku is impressive even before the movie gets to Hell. Scenes tend to be dimly lit with only a bright light on the characters. It gives the world a dingy appearance. And then once you get to hell you get a brief narrative thread but it's more Enma describing what horrible thing is going to happen to that character and then showing it. These range from icky to monstrously gruesome. The effects aren't amazing, but some of the shots will stick with you. Well, that makes 31, so here's what I watched this month: 1. Gojira 2. Donovon's Brain 3. Carrie (the remake) 4. The Brood 5. Suicide Club 6. Ravenous 7. Cronos 8. The Legend of Hell House 9. The Golem 10. Friday the Thirteenth Part 7 11. The Coffin 12. Tenebre 13. The Visitor 14. Day of the Dead 15. Monkey Shines 16. Season of the Witch 17. Shivers 18. The Vampire Lovers 19. The Old Dark House 20. Bay of Blood 21. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the first remake) 22. Ju-On 2 23. The Asphyx 24. Kuroneko 25. Eyes Without a Face 26. Goke, the Body Snatcher From Hell 27. Equinox 28. Shutter 29. The Living Skeleton 30. Blair Witch 2: The Book of Shadows 31. Jigoku
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Oct 31, 2014 19:16
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