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The Baby is so bonkers and awesome.
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Sep 22, 2016 03:10
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One of the few movies I had to seriously take a break from because of how dirty it made me feel. That's quite an accomplishment.
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Sep 22, 2016 04:10
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3. Rob Zombie's 31: I'm glad I tempered my expectations on this one, because I'm probably the biggest Rob Zombie fanboy around here, but sadly 31 is not one of his best efforts. Its still head and shoulders above anything most of the hacks working today have done, but even so, it doesn't live up to the promise of Lords of Salem. There are some fun characters, which is something you can always count on Zombie for, and the movie has a definite momentum and doesn't overstay its welcome. So there are definitely positives, and overall its a solid horror flick, just not quite what I was hoping for. In a way this feels like the movie Zombie wanted to make with House of 1000 Corpses, and in that I would have to say he succeeded. Its less meandering than House of 1000 Corpses, the acting is better, and all of the technical aspects of filmmaking are improved upon because Zombie is a much better director at this point in is career. It doesn't feel original though, it feels like Zombie settling into his old comfort zone, which is especially disappointing considering how amazing it was to see him step outside it for Lords of Salem. I'd still recommend 31, but probably not for this year's Halloween season considering its a $10 rental from Amazon. I'd say that's too much for anyone but the most rabid Zombie fans.
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Sep 22, 2016 16:30
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Yeah, 31 definitely proves that Zombie is kind of a diamond in the rough, but is still in that rough. Like, if he had a talented or savvy collaborator, he could write and direct some of the greatest horror we've ever seen. As it is, we get to see little glimpses of his greatness hiding under all this other flawed material. Every time.
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Sep 22, 2016 21:16
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Choco1980 posted:Yeah, 31 definitely proves that Zombie is kind of a diamond in the rough, but is still in that rough. Like, if he had a talented or savvy collaborator, he could write and direct some of the greatest horror we've ever seen. As it is, we get to see little glimpses of his greatness hiding under all this other flawed material. Every time. I'd like to hear a candid interview where he gets into how he feels about the reception that Lords of Salem got. I really wish that movie had made more of an impact because I'm worried he sees it as a failure, and that 31 is some sort of response to that, like he thinks he's "getting back to his roots" or whatever. I would rather have seen him transition into making more restrained, but visually impressive films instead of going back to his Texas Chainsaw Massacre-on-crack days. His next movie will be very telling, I've heard people say its a Groucho Marx biopic but I don't know for a fact that its actually happening.
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Sep 22, 2016 21:23
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Basebf555 posted:I'd like to hear a candid interview where he gets into how he feels about the reception that Lords of Salem got. I really wish that movie had made more of an impact because I'm worried he sees it as a failure, and that 31 is some sort of response to that, like he thinks he's "getting back to his roots" or whatever. I would rather have seen him transition into making more restrained, but visually impressive films instead of going back to his Texas Chainsaw Massacre-on-crack days. People keep talking about a Groucho Marx movie, but he's also stated he wants to do a gritty football movie, which is such a strange idea.
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Sep 22, 2016 21:31
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He kinda touched on that lightly in the Q & A feature that was aired after the movie at the fathom event I saw it at. Where basically he said that LoS did kinda strangely because it was so outside of what people expected from him, but he really enjoyed making it, and he was really curious how reception was going to be for him going back into his expected territory and making something extra dark, even for him. He also compared the two movies in that the former was a big long expensive production, and 31 was fast and dirty, having come up with the story on a whim after the movie he was trying to get made for TWO years he decided was dying in preproduction hell.
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Sep 22, 2016 21:37
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I really loved Lords of Salem and it felt like such a classicly well down horror film to me and really surprised me. I try to make my marathon about "first viewings" but I have kind of a secondary list of "second viewings" for movies I liked but want to watch again and see how they hold up, and LoS is near the top of that list. I enjoyed his other stuff for what they were but LoS definitely seemed to show an extra layer for the guy which I wish he'd explore. Its clear he's got the love and understanding of the genre and enough creative chops and filmmaking skills to really do something great if he got the right mix of talent, collaborators, and ideas.
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Sep 22, 2016 22:25
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So for the last couple of years, I've tried to finish watching every film in what I consider the big 4: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street, plus Scream. My reasoning is that those four all left a huge mark on the genre of both horrors and slashers, either by influential first installments that influenced the others, or by codifying what a slasher franchise is and influencing the former's sequels. Then there's Scream, which revolutionized the stale slasher and gave new life into everyone of these franchises. Plus, at least two of them are decent films in their own right. Plus, for the most part they're uncharted territory for me. I want to get a crash course into what a slasher is and what the genre was defined by for over a decade. And so, I'm going to watch every one of them up to, and maybe past Halloween. For the past couple of years, the farthest I've ever gotten is 6 movies in, up to the third Friday film, and before even touching Nightmare. This year, due to circumstances that allow me more time during the day, I think I might be able to do it this year. Basically my rules are, I must watch everyone of them in release order (wide release if need be). I shall watch one every night and do at least one paragraph write up about them. Officially the list will start with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and will end with Freddy vs Jason. The first Texas, while intended as a one-and-done exploitation film, is what I consider the start of the slasher genre. It featured a 'masked', unstoppable brute of mysterious/uncertain back story, but not a mystery in and of themselves. It has a group of promiscuous co-eds of varying levels dickishness. And it was promoted on gore and senseless killings that the genre would be defined by. It's follow ups would end up more in line with their contemporaries than the original anyways. And the cap-off of Freddy vs. Jason is a kind of symbolic climax to the whole experiment. It was the last entry in both of the original series, and it was the swan song for the second wave of post-Scream slashers. It certainly was the most successful of any slasher since (counting for inflation). Afterwards, slashers would be defined by remakes and reboots, trying to tie themselves to their respective first entries than a lineage of sequels. Plus, this year I'm preceding all of this with a series of proto-slashers to give some sense of where these films came from. And if I'm feeling up for it, I will do a follow up series in November of the remakes of these films.  Here is my current list of filmsNow since November 29 is fast approaching, I don't have a lot of time to watch all of them one-a-night. So I'm just going to try to watch all of them before the 30, doing a couple everyday or so. And that brings me to Proto-Slasher 1. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)  Theorized to be the first horror film, and certainly the first German Expressionist film, I was absolutely struck by the film's aesthetic look. I've always head about the film's expressionistic style, painted on canvas to create shadow and strong shapes. But seeing it on celluloid, oh my god. There is a reason it is considered one of the finest technical accomplishments in cinema. And it's not just the settings, the roles of Caligari and Cesare are played with such otherworldly conviction, that the poses and expressions feel just as iconic to the film as the sets and props. The one thing that really did make it stand out was the visceral shooting of it's death and murders. It's probably just a reflection of it's position of a foreign film in a pre-Hays Code era, but the sinister portrayal of the murder weapon being threatened against another person fairly shocking, especially in a silent feature. And the shot of Alan's shadow struggling against the murder's shadow is haunting. It's simple story is elevated by such a style and energy, that I can not recommend this movie enough if you haven't yet. Next up: Fritz Lang's M
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Sep 22, 2016 22:52
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SomeJazzyRat posted:So for the last couple of years, I've tried to finish watching every film in what I consider the big 4: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street, plus Scream. My reasoning is that those four all left a huge mark on the genre of both horrors and slashers, either by influential first installments that influenced the others, or by codifying what a slasher franchise is and influencing the former's sequels. Then there's Scream, which revolutionized the stale slasher and gave new life into everyone of these franchises. Plus, at least two of them are decent films in their own right. Plus, for the most part they're uncharted territory for me. I want to get a crash course into what a slasher is and what the genre was defined by for over a decade. And so, I'm going to watch every one of them up to, and maybe past Halloween. This is a really cool idea, and I know it's already a long list, but I'd recommend throwing in some one-off slashers and maybe even Child's Play. There are a lot of really great one-off slashers that you'd miss out on. It's kind of an important facet of the genre, since the idea seemed to evolve into making an identifiable killer-mascot and pray for big bucks and sequel deals. You get interesting movies like Sleepaway Camp, The Burning, etc. Also, I feel bad that you have to watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre 4: The Next Generation, aka Cyborg Nascar Redneck McConaughey.
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Sep 22, 2016 23:14
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I rather LIKE TCM 4. It's better than 3 at least. Also, I think the first horror film is Georges Melies' The Haunted Castle (1896). It's on youtube and less than 4 minutes long, so if you really want to see horror film's roots, it's not hard.
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Sep 23, 2016 03:09
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If you're interested in proto-slashers, you should definitely check out The Abominable Dr. Phibes and its sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again, both starring Vincent Price and featuring some very inventive kills. I'd also argue that Black Christmas is more deserving of the title "first slasher" than TCM, especially when you consider its influence on Halloween.
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Sep 23, 2016 14:00
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Samuel Clemens posted:I'd also argue that Black Christmas is more deserving of the title "first slasher" than TCM, especially when you consider its influence on Halloween. I had this thought last night and I was interested to find out they were only released a few months apart. I can see the argument either way. Black Christmas was obviously much more of an influence on Halloween specifically, so it gets a lot of credit for that. Texas Chainsaw Massacre has stayed in the public consciousness for much longer than Black Christmas, and overall has had a bigger impact on the genre, but maybe isn't quite as much of a specific influence on the slasher craze of the early 80's. Of course Bay of Blood/Twitch of the Death Nerve came out in 1971, so you really can't do a proto-slasher marathon without including it, or at least one giallo. Without giallo the American slasher wouldn't exist.
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Sep 23, 2016 14:15
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Basebf555 posted:Without giallo the American slasher wouldn't exist. Blood and Black Lace came out in 1961 and it features a guy in a mask literally slashing people (and using that weird weapon) and uses first person perspective and a whole bunch of other slasher tropes.  People always say Bay of Blood is the prototypical slasher, but I think that's because it is stylistically close to the subgenre (and it helps that Tom Savini recreated some of the kills for the F13 series). I agree with you that giallo is where slashers come from, and the easiest one to point to as an obvious influence would have to be Blood and Black Lace (as it was also the prototype giallo). (Also Bay of Blood is actually a take on La Ronde, but with murder instead of sex.)
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Sep 23, 2016 14:27
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InfiniteZero posted:People always say Bay of Blood is the prototypical slasher, but I think that's because it is stylistically close to the subgenre (and it helps that Tom Savini recreated some of the kills for the F13 series). I agree with you that giallo is where slashers come from, and the easiest one to point to as an obvious influence would have to be Blood and Black Lace (as it was also the prototype giallo). There's a few reasons why I don't mention Blood and Black Lace as quickly as I would Bay of Blood, and yea the biggest one is definitely overall style. Bay of Blood seems the be the Bava film that American filmmakers took the most from, even if its not the first to feature a masked killer. Its stripped down, much more grounded than most of Bava's other work, and for me that leads to a bigger focus on the kills themselves, which puts it closer to the most well-known American slashers like Friday the 13th. Another big reason is that its impossible to find anywhere streaming, whereas Bay of Blood has been readily available for several years, so its much more practical to recommend it to people who may not want to go out and spend $25 on the blu ray.
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Sep 23, 2016 14:35
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You really should add Blood Feast, because I say so. If that isn't a proto-slasher, it's a straight up slasher.
Thirsty Girl fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Sep 23, 2016 |
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Sep 23, 2016 16:32
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SomeJazzyRat posted:So for the last couple of years, I've tried to finish watching every film in what I consider the big 4: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street, plus Scream. My reasoning is that those four all left a huge mark on the genre of both horrors and slashers, either by influential first installments that influenced the others, or by codifying what a slasher franchise is and influencing the former's sequels. Then there's Scream, which revolutionized the stale slasher and gave new life into everyone of these franchises. Plus, at least two of them are decent films in their own right. Plus, for the most part they're uncharted territory for me. I want to get a crash course into what a slasher is and what the genre was defined by for over a decade. And so, I'm going to watch every one of them up to, and maybe past Halloween. This is certainly ambitious. One of my film nerd shames is that I actually have seen very few of the major horror franchise sequels and this year I want to try to knock off at least the Friday series, of which I rewatched the original a couple nights ago. For Friday, I've only ever seen the first film and Freddy vs. Jason. For Nightmare on Elm Street I'm a little deeper with the original, 2, New Nightmare and F v. J. I also finally dug into Halloween last year when I watched the first 3 films and the Zombie remakes, but left off the poo poo sequels. You've got too many films to get through already but maybe next year consider the Final Destination series. I finished those last October and to me they represent the true final slasher series. After the genre kept forcing itself to expand the role of the killer, it had nowhere left to go but to just make the slasher death itself. Everything since then has either been a remake or an homage to the 80s, to me it's the last true original before horror gave over completely to torture porn and found footage.
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Sep 23, 2016 17:00
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TrixRabbi posted:For Nightmare on Elm Street I'm a little deeper with the original, 2, New Nightmare and F v. J. You definitely need to check out 3, its really excellent. A lot of people consider it the best in the series.
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Sep 23, 2016 17:38
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Nightmare on Elm Street is one of the few horror series where every entry is at least decent. I don't think I'll ever revisit some of the worst Friday the 13th films, but I wouldn't mind seeing The Dream Master or Freddy's Dead again. The dream concept allows them to go in some pretty creative directions, which is something you can't really do in a more grounded slasher.
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Sep 23, 2016 17:50
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Samuel Clemens posted:Nightmare on Elm Street is one of the few horror series where every entry is at least decent. I don't think I'll ever revisit some of the worst Friday the 13th films, but I wouldn't mind seeing The Dream Master or Freddy's Dead again. The dream concept allows them to go in some pretty creative directions, which is something you can't really do in a more grounded slasher. I might be an outlier but I enjoy The Dream Child more than Freddy's Dead. TrixRabbi posted:This is certainly ambitious. One of my film nerd shames is that I actually have seen very few of the major horror franchise sequels and this year I want to try to knock off at least the Friday series, of which I rewatched the original a couple nights ago. For Friday, I've only ever seen the first film and Freddy vs. Jason. For Nightmare on Elm Street I'm a little deeper with the original, 2, New Nightmare and F v. J. I also finally dug into Halloween last year when I watched the first 3 films and the Zombie remakes, but left off the poo poo sequels. Halloween IV is at least worthwhile because you start to see Doctor Loomis's incredible transformation into a crazy bastard. Thirsty Girl fucked around with this message at 17:55 on Sep 23, 2016 |
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Sep 23, 2016 17:52
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im gaye posted:I might be an outlier but I enjoy The Dream Child more than Freddy's Dead. Dream Child is my favourite after the original. I love the way it combines 60s gothic horror with 80s practical effects.
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Sep 23, 2016 17:59
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I don't know how true this is, but I was reading the other day that the director of Halloween 6, Joe Chappelle, thought Donald Pleasances performance was "boring", and cut out like half of it. This was before any of the issues came up with re-shoots. May he burn in hell for all eternity.
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Sep 23, 2016 18:02
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A goal I'm sitting for myself is to use this year to watch a lot of the classic pre-80s horrors that I really haven't given a good shake. I have nothing against old movies. Some of my favorite horror films include Night of the Living Dead and Black Sabbath. I've just always tended to go for the flashy instead of the old black and white or whatever. So I want to correct that this year and make sure and mix a bunch of them in with modern stuff. For example, I've never seen Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and I'm a little ashamed of that. So my early list of classics includes: - Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - Cat People/Curse of the Cat People - Frankenstein/Bride of/Son of - The House on Haunted Hill - White Zombie - Maniac - Carnival of Souls That's just what I have available on my old collection DVDs or the current TV schedule and which stands out to me as movies I should have seen by now. I'll keep my eyes on TCM and I want to see a lot of Price, Lugosi, Karloff, and Chaney this October.
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Sep 23, 2016 18:24
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Maniac (1934) is hilarious.
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Sep 23, 2016 18:33
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STAC Goat posted:That's just what I have available on my old collection DVDs or the current TV schedule and which stands out to me as movies I should have seen by now. I'll keep my eyes on TCM and I want to see a lot of Price, Lugosi, Karloff, and Chaney this October. Definitely try to see as much Price as you can. Also, have you seen a lot of Hammer horror? Most of it is late 50's, early 60's, so it definitely fits your criteria. I would also highly recommend Eyes Without a Face(1960).
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Sep 23, 2016 19:03
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Watched a few more... #4 Dracula Untold (2014) - Not a horror movie, but since it's about Dracula I'm counting it anyway. Not a great film by any stretch, but I went into it with zero expectations and got an enjoyable enough fantasy/adventure flick. #5 Blood and Black Lace (1964) - Such a great movie. I've seen a lot of later giallo films but this is the first time I've watched this one and I absolutely loved it. Looks stellar on blu-ray, too. #6 Blair Witch (2016) - Saw this in the theater last night. Decent found footage. Borrows a lot from the original and from Grave Encounters, but isn't as good as either.
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Sep 23, 2016 19:10
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Other than going through series, I have trouble following a predetermined list, so I dunno how y'all are able to plan your entire month out in advance like this. So, in following with my "soft" pregame for October, I just watched the Duplass brothers' Baghead. It's a mumblecore pseudo-horror about four friends - with varying romantic entanglements with each other - who go out to a house in the woods to make their own amateur movie. However, they soon become paranoid that there is a man with a bag on his head roaming the woods. Ultimately, it's not so much a horror movie as it is fitting in the mumblecore genre's themes of late-twenties relationship woes. Chad likes Michelle but Michelle only sees him as a friend. Michelle likes Matt but Matt is Chad's bud and his ex Catherine still loves him. Matt is horny for Michelle and Catherine is jealous. It's one of the most complete mumblecore films out there. It's well-acted with driven characters and a strong story that threads it all together and I'm a huge fan of the homemade improv aesthetic. The horror elements make it fun and there's a few legitimate jump scares. So far my list goes 1. Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (2004) 2. Friday the 13th (1980)* 3. Baghead (2008) * = Rewatch
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Sep 23, 2016 19:24
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TrixRabbi posted:Other than going through series, I have trouble following a predetermined list, so I dunno how y'all are able to plan your entire month out in advance like this. Bringing up a blank calendar for the month of October and assigning a movie(s) to each day is probably just as fun as watching the movies themselves. Not that I stick to it 100%, but I kind of enjoy waking up in the morning and knowing "hey, its Return of the Living Dead day!"
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Sep 23, 2016 19:31
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Basebf555 posted:Definitely try to see as much Price as you can. Also, have you seen a lot of Hammer horror? Most of it is late 50's, early 60's, so it definitely fits your criteria. I would also highly recommend Eyes Without a Face(1960). Some, but not enough. Its one of those things. I've got hundreds of those public domain movies and I've seen plenty of the classic Hammer and Universal stuff over the years, but I've just never really given anything pre-80s as much as time as I'll give any random piece of poo poo horror made during my lifetime. So I want to make a point this season to watch the modern films I REALLY want to watch but instead of watching a bunch of lovely B horror in between to watch this older stuff and flesh out my experience/knowledge. Thanks for the suggestion, already added it to my list. Any other suggestions from anyone for movies pre-80s I absolutely need to watch? Basebf555 posted:Bringing up a blank calendar for the month of October and assigning a movie(s) to each day is probably just as fun as watching the movies themselves. Not that I stick to it 100%, but I kind of enjoy waking up in the morning and knowing "hey, its Return of the Living Dead day!" I never really stick to my schedule, but I basically follow 3 steps. 1) Create a list of movies I want to watch or options I have. 2) Try to space them out on the calender to group together themes or break up quality/type so I don't burn out on kind or anything and spread it out through the month. 3) Watch whatever the gently caress I feel like when the days actually come. Its a loose outline, really, not a true schedule. But yeah, its fun to sometimes get excited about watching X movie on Y day and helps keep myself from just frontloading the month and losing interest. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Sep 23, 2016 |
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Sep 23, 2016 19:57
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I've been bitten by the Halloween bug this year and I watch to watch a bunch of movies I've never seen before or have seen but don't remember. Here is my list so far. Don't Look Now The Innocents (1961) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) Repulsion The Devil's Backbone Fright Night (1985) Inside (2007) Session 9 The Phantom Carriage In the Mouth of Madness The Vanishing Audition The Cabin In The Woods Eyes Without A Face Freaks (1932) The Omen (1976) The Blob (1988) I've just been googling "best horror movies" lists and picking out things that seem interesting 
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Sep 23, 2016 23:08
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I am going to watch 64 horror movies in October proper. A double-feature each day plus one more, for good measure and to make it an even 26. Also because I can't bear to take a single movie off this list. The original goal was 31. Ones I've seen (no particular order except that it starts with found-footage and ends with comedies): Lake Mungo, [REC], Chronicle, Cloverfield, Resolution, Hush, Triangle, Excision, Beyond the Black Rainbow, Under the Skin, 1408, The Thing, Predator, Alien, The Shining, Pandorum, 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead (2004), The Descent, You're Next, The Guest, Thir13en Ghosts, Tremors, They Live, Scream, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, Housebound, What We Do in the Shadows, Tucker & Dale Versus Evil, Shaun of the Dead Ones I haven't (or haven't quite sat down and watched) (starting with the classics and then vaguely in order of supernaturality, I think): [Friday the 13th (1980), Halloween (1978), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)]*, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, Sleepaway Camp, Maniac (remake), Audition, Punishment Park, Nightcrawler, Martyrs, The Purge: Election Year, Ravenous, Bone Tomahawk, The Grey, 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Bay, The Witch, Southbound, Shin Godzilla (gonna be seeing it anyway, plus it looks like it's gonna count), Train to Busan, Splice, 30 Days of Night, Trick 'r Treat, In the Mouth of Madness, Lords of Salem, Prince of Darkness, The Wailing, White: Melody of Death, Hellraiser, Hellraiser 2, Day of the Beast, House/Hausu, Noroi, From Beyond Feel free to suggest good double-features. Already thinking of: Hush/Resolution - think about it You're Next/The Guest Cloverfield/10 Cloverfield Lane - yes, I am aware they're different kinds of movies Ravenous/Bone Tomahawk Hellraiser/Hellraiser 2 A Nightmare on Elm Street/Freddy's Revenge Friday the 13th/Sleepaway Camp Under the Skin/Beyond the Black Rainbow 30 Days of Night/crawler  Plus I know I'll need palate cleansers to follow each of Audition, Martyrs, and Noroi.  to the many good movies that did not quite make the cut.*yes, I know, shame e: replaced ANoES3 with ANoES2 now that the horror thread reminded me that 2 is "the super gay one" VROOM VROOM fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Sep 23, 2016 |
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Sep 23, 2016 23:16
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Franchescanado posted:This is a really cool idea, and I know it's already a long list, but I'd recommend throwing in some one-off slashers and maybe even Child's Play. Thanks, I was not nearly expecting the amount of response to this experiment as I got. That said, I kinda just want to focus on what I have on my plate, as this is already extending well outside of October. However, I can at least say I have seen Sleepaway Camp and man, that film is so scuzzy that it's kinda admirable. Just a weird kind of hard to watch that makes the kills both satisfying and uncomfortable in and of themselves. Samuel Clemens posted:If you're interested in proto-slashers, you should definitely check out The Abominable Dr. Phibes and its sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again, both starring Vincent Price and featuring some very inventive kills. Chances are that Black Christmas is more deserving, but this is more of an exploration of how a certain subgenre of horror that once was very ambitious became very complacent. And I'm specifically looking at what was the most influential-come-complacent series of the 80's. So specifically I'm looking at what factors of the Hollywood machine can take the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and give us TCM: The Next Generation. Meanwhile Black Christmas gave us one movie, that was a factor that led to Friday, Chainsaw, Nightmare, Halloween, et al, and it gave us a remake in the post slasher boom. So, I guess to move goal posts, TCM is the first slasher franchise, despite not intending to be so. Also, God drat you. Phibes has been added to the list. The New List Now on to Proto-Slasher 1. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) 2. Fritz Lang's M (1931)  Man, you gotta love Nazi Germany's Posters So, I had a lot of enthusiasm for Caligari. For [i]M[i], I have more respect for than perhaps any other film I've seen. It may in fact be my favorite film that I've watched this year. Just finishing it, it may be my favorite film period (thought that may just be a post-great film high). It's story structure is inspiring, where a series of scenes that are wholly disconnected from one another yet can build upon the story of the city, and it's relationship to an outsider that has long disrupted it's peace. And though it has a large cast, they all feel vulnerable to the effects of one man taking away children. The whole thing just permeates with dread and horror, yet a very different kind of horror that's generally reserved for a specific kind of thriller. Yet one of the most remarkable things about it is the division of the film into two halves, almost an even split of the run time. The first half depicting a lot of things happening in a large period of time, jumping around from an ensemble of characters doing very disparate things in reaction to this one man. And the latter focused on one night, and on one thing, the pursuit of the murderer. And yet they're both so amazingly crafted and balanced, both incredibly engaging in very similar yet different ways. And in the latter half, the film is dominated by the killer, and portrayed remarkably by Peter Lorre. You get a very clear feeling of empathy to his plight, though not sympathy, as he is being chased by a gang of thugs and criminals who are likely to end him. Until his trial, the shining scene of the film, where Lorre gives his monologue portraying desperate neediness and loneliness of stigmatized and criminal illness. It portrays a very ugly, complicated conversation between a lot of people who are capable of doing ugly things. The film takes a very paralleled view of criminals, cops, beggars and civilians, and is very unyielding to their capability to do be ruthless and to do harm to one another. It all feels so modern and contemporary, despite creeping up on 90 years old. I do have to concede that this might be the best film ever made. Next up: The Old Dark House
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Sep 23, 2016 23:36
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I like the joke at the end of M a lot
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Sep 23, 2016 23:54
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VROOM VROOM posted:
Just wondering, why would you put Noroi with the other two? I don't recall it being super-gruesome or nearly as dark as the other two. Also if you're ever going to do a triple-header, The thing/prince of darkness/in the mouth of madness seems natural as they're carpenter's pseudo-trilogy.
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Sep 24, 2016 01:47
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Personally I don't plan a drat thing for my ironman challenge. I completely improv off the cuff. Last year I found the  method of searching out shady streaming sites was a big help to me (make sure to have an ad-blocker active!) and I hope this year to delve into some more obscure stuff like I did last year. My only real goal is to exceed the highbar set last year of 60 films that are new to me. The highlights last year were seeing how mindnumbingly bonkers Tomb of Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned was for an early 80s cartoon, and getting to add Malefique to my list of very few films that seem to be trying for the same tone as Hellraiser
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Sep 24, 2016 02:01
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I don't think that Bay of Blood actually features a masked killer or I could be misremembering.
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Sep 24, 2016 03:07
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5-Them It was pretty good. I had read a review promising a twist, so by the end I was like "that's it?" Super well made and tense, just don't expect a crazy twist. the it was kids thing... My hunch going in was that it might be her students, so I wasn't wildly surprised, when it turned out to be youngins. Totally would have smashed the kid with a rock after he kicked the dude down the ladder "I didn't do anything" my rear end.
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Sep 24, 2016 03:25
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Ehud posted:I've been bitten by the Halloween bug this year and I watch to watch a bunch of movies I've never seen before or have seen but don't remember. Here is my list so far. Hey, I'm in the same boat as you! I've been slowly collecting horror movies over the last year (my brain was subconsciously preparing for this month, I guess) and I'm just gonna go all out. The theater I work at will be showing Night of the Living Dead as well as the original Friday the 13th, Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street, one each weekend in October, and between those, the movies I own, and a few others I'll fill out the list with, I'm gonna try to do 31 movies in 31 days. The four I named are already on the list, as well as Shin Godzilla (because I'm flying out of Chicago the day after it opens there, so why the gently caress not make a quick stop to see it?) and a few others in my collection. I'll post again when I start watching them and look at the movies in my collection.
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Sep 24, 2016 03:26
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Hollismason posted:I don't think that Bay of Blood actually features a masked killer or I could be misremembering.
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Sep 24, 2016 03:27
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Ambitious Spider posted:5-Them It took me until the spoiler to realise that you were talking about Them and not Them!
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Sep 24, 2016 03:31
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