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 - (34). Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) Watched on DVD, available on Shudder and Fubo. Exactly 10 years after the night Michael Myers returned to Haddonfield Micheal is still alive in a mental institute, Dr. Loomis is terribly scarred and considered a madman by his peers, and Laurie Strode has died in an accident and left behind a daughter Jamie Lloyd. But this is a horror movie that must mean Micheal escapes and goes after his niece while Loomis once again tries to stop the Boogeyman. You gotta respect a town of people who just accept they’re in a horror movie, no questions asked. I mean, drunken, trigger happy lynch mobs are obviously a bad idea but I got a lot of respect for the fact that the town Michael Myers tore apart 10 years ago goes immediately into panic mode the second poo poo gets funky on Halloween night. Even the Sheriff just recognizes Loomis on sight, spends maybe a minute being skeptical, and then just goes “ok, lets collect the kid and barricade ourselves in a house with some molotov cocktails.” And hell, even the lynch mob ultimately makes the rational decision of “ok, lets just drive the gently caress away with the kid.” Its an entire town just completely mentally prepared for “the boogeyman is here to hunt a little girl.” After this night you gotta imagine the 1998 crew will just be used to running “Michael Myers Drills.” That or they’ll have shunned all Myers/Strode/Lloyds forever. Ok, its not really a good movie obviously. I mean, its not terrible but its not good. The script was apparently written in 11 days in the shadow of a writer’s strike and it plays that way. 90% of it is basically “uh, lets do what worked in the first one” and it mostly does in a diluted form. Perfect autumn/Halloween feel, kids in danger on a night when they’re all out wandering, Boogeyman killing for reasons only he knows, genuinely likable and sympathetic protagonists, Loomis out of his mind. Its a cover but its a competent cover and the original was great. I think I probably feel the same way about Halloween sequels that a lot of the board do about Friday the 13th sequels. Yeah, they can be redundant but I like what they’re doing and grew up on it. Carpenter and Hill were apparently working on their own script with Dennis Etchinson and Joe Dante where Haddonfield goes even more hardcore and bans Halloween and tries to erase the memory of Micheal but was rejected by the studios for being “too cerebral.” Its sounds a bit like the direct the Nightmare on Elm Street movies went but its weird imagining what would have happened if Carpenter/Hill stayed on and brought Dante/Etchinson.s The ending is… cheesy? Fun? Dumb? Random? I dunno. Pleasance sells it, I think. I stand by what I said with the first film. The Halloween series kind of works best as Dr. Loomis’ nightmare and the ending is just his absolute worst nightmare and Pleasance sells it like crazy. The whole film was worth it just for that final 10 seconds of Donald Pleasance. Its a great scene, however it fits into the whole.  27 (35). The Man Who Laughs (1928) Watched on Daily Motion, available on Flix Fling. Disfigured as a child and given a “permanent smile” by the King as punishment to his father Gwynplaine lives his life as The Laughing Man - a sideshow clown - and loves the blind Dea. But when he returns to his home he is recognized and unwittingly becomes part of royal court games of money, power, and sex. This really isn’t horror. Like the other Victor Hugo adaption The Hunchback of Notre Dame its really just a big ole melodrama romance with a palace intrigue setting that has a disfigured character at the center. Its listed as horror by like everyone. Universal considers it one of its first. Roger Ebert argued that its basically a horror because its “so steeped in Expressionist gloom.” I’ve kind of come to peace with the fact that I’m gonna have to count some films that don’t really feel like horror to me for these long years ago because there’s just not a lot else to choose from and its clear that the definition of horror was different then it is today. Maybe I should cheat and go back and counted Haunted Castle even though it didn’t feel like a horror to me at the start of the month, but now I’ve absorbed enough of this that I don’t know if I’d make the same call if I watched it tonight. Either way I guess I’m counting this one even if I don’t really think its a horror. To the film itself… I just don’t think I’m a huge fan of german expressionism or Hugo melodrama. The movie is good. With a nearly 2 hour run time it moves well enough. Director Paul Veni (Waxworks; The Cat and the Canary) does a great job with everything. Conrad Veidt (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) does a fine job in the main role. Olga Baclanova (Freaks) has a ton of charismatic presence. I just didn’t really care about the story, at least not in the horror mode I’m in now. Maybe in a different mind space or something but I kept kind of waiting for Gwynplaine to go all Joker or Barkilphedro to start doing some really evil poo poo or something but its basically just about how much it sucks to be Gwynplaine. Which don’t get me wrong, I’m sure it does. Like Hunchback it does get a little more horrory feeling in the final act so like, ok. And I guess the Hugo ending is even more so but Universal made the ending softer. I dunno. There’s honestly nothing I see that would have been a better option for the year. And I really didn't dislike it. I think I was just expecting something very different and ended up disappointed. September Pre-Game Tally - New (Total) 1. NOS4A2 (2019); - (2). Splice (2009); - (3). Drive Angry (2011); 2 (4). The Twilight Zone (2019); - (5). Event Horizon (1997); - (6). BrainDead (2016); 3 (7). The Dark Tower (2017); 4 (8). The Collector (2009); 5 (9). The Bad Batch (2016); - (10). Rose Red (2002); - (11). Salem’s Lot (1979) October Tally - New (Total) 1. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920); 2. Nightmare Cinema (2018); 3. Dead of Night (1945); The Queen of Spades (1949); 5. Tragedy Girls (2017); 6. House of Wax (1953); SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #1: The Best Month: 7. The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016); 8. In the Tall Grass (2019); 9. The Night of the Hunter (1955); 10. The Thing (1951); - (11). The Thing (1982); 11 (12). The Thing (2011); - (13). Halloween (1978); 12 (14). Dracula (1931); SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #2: Dead & Buried: 13 (15). Q (1982); 14 (16). The Black Cat (1934); 15 (17). The Unknown (1927); - (18). Halloween II (1981); 16 (19). The Seventh Victim (1943); 17 (20). The Beast With Five Fingers (1946); 18 (21). The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923); 19 (22). The Curse of the Cat People (1944); - (23). George A. Romero's Land of the Dead (2005); SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #3: Horror Noire: 20 (24). Ganja & Hess (1973); 21 (25). Drácula (1931); 22 (26). Universal Horror (1998); - (27). Happy Death Day (2017); 23 (28). The Phantom of the Opera (1925); - (29). Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982); SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #4: Inktober: 24 (30). Velvet Buzzsaw (2018); - (31). Frankenstein (1931); 25 (32). The Mummy (1932); 26 (33). The Raven (1935); - (34). Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988); 27 (35). The Man Who Laughs (1928)
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Oct 19, 2019 06:07
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A whole bunch o' write-ups to catch up on, mostly challenge completions and the rest of my friend's Godzilla crash course. SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #2: Dead & Buried RIP Julie Adams. Creature From the Black Lagoon: Wouldn't put this quite on the level of the first two Frankensteins or Invisible Man, but still quite enjoyed it nonetheless. The story and characterization are more basic by design than the former films, and the ending felt pretty abrupt to me, but as everyone else has pointed out, it more than makes up for it through underwater cinematography and costume work that still looks phenomenal to this day. The environmental angle was also used well to lend a bit more humanity to the creature than your average monster movie. Godzilla 2000: Definitely the most mindless monster movie spectacle of the Godzillas my friend showed me, but one hell of a fun one. Some super dated CGI to be sure, particularly on the alien spacecraft, but the suit and miniature work is still as strong as ever. Shin Godzilla: After delving into a couple of the more spectacle focused outings, we capped off with the most recent live-action Toho outing. This one goes all-in on the nuclear allegory that the franchise was founded on, in this case serving as a criticism of the government handling of the Tōhoku earthquake and Fukushima nuclear disaster.The shift from citizen to bureaucratic level is an interesting shift in perspective, and the monster sequences, for as sparingly as they're used this time, are spectacular, with the Tokyo destruction scene being one of the most visually arresting I've seen in recent memory. SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #3: Horror Noire Overlord: Jovan Adepo stars as Private Edward Boyce in an alternate history World War II where one of the conceits is that the American army has already been desegregated, nor is it ever brought as an issue for that matter. Truth be told, I'm not entirely sure how to feel about it on first blush. On one hand, it serves its purpose as a clear signifier of the alternate history that the film takes place in, as well as allowing more diverse casting than a traditional historical setting would allow, but there's also a very real argument to be made that by altering the history without acknowledging it, it downplays racial tensions of the time and the real world contributions of black soldiers during WWII, especially in the face of an enemy force as racially driven as the Nazis. I'd be interested in hearing somebody else's input on this. Those split feelings aside, this movie is real good, thanks in no small part to Adepo's strong performance as Boyce, and one that works particularly well as a viewer proxy. Overlord leans into its pulp influences hard, and surprisingly, the monsters in the bunker conceit is used more service to the film's pulp action side than its horror one. One particularly grisly body horror segment aside, it's genuine horror is reserved more for it's less fantastical and more human portrayals of war and the Nazis, several of the sequences involving Wafner in the home getting to be genuinely unsettling. On that note, I was also surprised to see how small the scope of the setting was, the bulk of the action for much of the movie taking place in a single homestead. SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #4: Inktober Krampus: Opted to link #17. Ornament to Christmas and watch some Christmas horror, in this case, Krampus. And as it turns out, malicious ornaments play into the film's big setpiece. Honestly, the biggest compliment I can pay this movie is how much fun it seems to be having. Like Trick 'r Treat before it, I get the distinct impression that the crew just had an absolute blast finding ways to corrupt the holiday trappings (albeit nowhere near as gruesomely as in Trick 'r Treat), and the enthusiasm really shines through in the production design, especially in the aforementioned setpiece. It's also less nihilistic than I had anticipated going in, showcasing a good deal of genuine warmth beneath the macabre imagery and subject matter. Zombieland: Double Tap: Went out to the theatre to see The Lighthouse only to realize that I had misread the schedule and that it doesn't open in my area until next week, so I ended up seeing this instead. Anyway, this one was real fun, and I honestly don't have much more to say than that. Having not seen the original in a number of years, I went in expecting and hoping for just a fun revisit of the characters and setting in something new, and that's more or less what I got. I have my criticisms, much of the side cast is way more one-dimension than anything I recall from the first, and it uses maybe a few too many call-backs and meta jokes for those who want something a bit more original, but the core cast is still strong enough to make up for it. Movies Watched (18): Stereo, Crimes of the Future, Perfect Blue (Challenge # 1), Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Event Horizon, Ernest Scared Stupid, The Invisible Man, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Thing (1982), Godzilla (1954), Godzilla vs. Biollante, Creature From the Black Lagoon (Challenge # 2), Godzilla 2000, Shin Godzilla, Overlord (Challenge # 3), Krampus (Challenge # 4), Zombieland: Double Tap Samhain Challenges Completed: 4/5 Trash Boat fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Oct 19, 2019 |
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Oct 19, 2019 07:23
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Hit my goal of 31, now time for the overrun. I made it to 44 films for my overrun last year, no promises I will do this because my last set of night shifts is next week (which is how I beat my challenge only midway through October). 32. Mandy (2018)  Cinemassacre has Monster Madness going on this year which is how I found out about this one. Mandy is a Nicolas Cage movie (come back) about a man and his wife who live in the middle of the wilderness when they are attacked by a cult. The wife is killed and the man goes on a revenge crusade. Sounds like your typical revenge film but Mandy is anything but “typical”. It’s a pure retro 80s throwback film with HEAVY use of color/lighting and music to maintain atmosphere. It’s also surreal and violent as all hell and just work so well for me because Nicolas Cage’s known insanity just drives the art (and absurd insanity) of this film. This is great watching especially for the final battle where a chainsaw duel happens but the villain pulls out a literally six-foot long chainsaw  /5Total: 1. One Cut of the Dead (2017), 2. Chopping Mall (1986), 3. All the Creatures Were Stirring (2018), 4. Creepshow 2 (1987), 5. Black Christmas (1974), 6. Dracula (1931), 7. Frankenstein (1931), 8. The Monster Squad (1987), 9. All Hallow’s Eve (2013), 10. The Addams Family (1991), 11. Grizzly (1976), 12. The Mummy (1932), 13. See No Evil (2006), 14. The Invisible Man (1933), 15. Why Horror? (2014), 16. Bad Moon (1996), 17. Head Count (2018), 18. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), 19. House of 1000 Corpses, 20. The Wolfman (1941), 21. Body Bags (1993). 22. Us (2019), 23. The Craft (1996), 24. Thankskilling (2008), 25. Beetlejuice (1988), 26. Psycho (1960), 27. Gacy (2003), 28. Malevolent (2018), 29, Day of the Animals (1977), 30. Overlord (2018), 31. Train to Busan (2016), 32. Mandy (2018) Super Samhain Challenges:
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Oct 19, 2019 07:38
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19. The Witch Who Came From The Sea Weirder and artier than I expected. Molly (Millie Perkins, bearing some resemblance to Alison Brie) is a woman who idolizes her late father, despite flashbacks indicating he was sexually abusive, and she has developed some very strange, violent attitudes towards men, pursuing telegenic hunks and killing and castrating them when she gets the chance. The way this plays out is odd, the first murder we're shown looked to me like a fantasy until much later scenes confirm what happened. (We don't see much in detail, anyway- the film was actually rated X at first and several minutes were cut to secure an R rating, I'm guessing the version on Amazon is cut.) There's not a whole lot of story here, it's mainly a kind of strange character study, allowing Perkins to play up her character's psychosis, which she does pretty well. It's not a lot to hang a feature on, but it's weird and perplexing and engaging. Also George "Buck" Flower plays a detective in what may be the least-scruffy role of his career.
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Oct 19, 2019 07:51
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 Night of the Living Dead, 1968 Wasn't sure what movie to pick next, so I just went with one of my all time films of all time. Not just horror, but movies in general. It's one of the best and most important horror movie ever made. Not just because it created the zombie genre, but because it's such a masterpiece. One of those low budget movies made at the time by a nobody that just changed everything and pushed boundaries. It's not just great looking despite being in black and white, it looks great because it's in black and white. Seeing those shambling dead come out of the pitch black night into the light of the house where the protagonists are trapped will always look eerie and creepy. There's nothing new I can add that hasn't been said a billion times before. If you are a horror fan and never seen this, then you are like a jazz fan that's never hard Miles Davis or John Coltrane, or a metalhead that's never heard Black Sabbath or Darkthrone. It's that iconic and great.
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Oct 19, 2019 09:46
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#25: The Tunnel (2011) I seem to be watching a lot of found footage stuff, which has been completely unintentional, I've just been watching movies recommended in the Horror thread and trying to go in as cold as I can. This was another Australian film, and while I did enjoy it very much, the fact that I've watched "Lake Mungo," "Behind the Mask," and yesterday the Norwegian gem "Troll Hunter" hurt this one by comparison I think. Again, I really liked this movie. It does so many things very well, and at first glance I think it's the most well-shot found footage movie I've seen in terms of film quality. That is both a positive and a negative, because while many of the shots in this look amazing, they look like they're fully produced film-quality footage passing itself off as shaky-cam, and it makes a jarring contrast to the lesser-quality night vision second-cam stuff. It's just a weird mix of traditional cinematography and shaky-cam techniques that kept throwing me for a loop while I tried to get my bearings. The story is about a journalist who wants to uncover a government conspiracy that is displacing the homeless residents of the abandoned subway and WW2-era tunnels under Sidney by turning them into a water filtration reservoir. The characters drive the entire story, and the "office politics" between them both help and hurt the character development, because it feels very authentic for its time but from a 2019 lens it comes off as a core group of guys on a film crew constantly belittling and shaming the sole woman in the movie who is assigned to them, and it gets frustrating at some points. There are some great moments and genuine scares here. It feels a lot like a more metro version of "The Descent," complete with claustrophobic set pieces and creepy as gently caress underground monsters that never get explained. It's a tense, creepy journey into the underground labyrinth of Sidney's forgotten underground tunnels, and they even give a believable reason for why somebody would keep filming things using a camera once poo poo goes south the camera has the best source of light, and they're caught in the darkness of the tunnels. It's a good entry into found footage horror, but "Lake Mungo" is still the best Australian example by far. 3.5/5 Watched: Midsommar; One Cut of the Dead; Apostle; Wolf Creek; Lake Mungo; Viy (Challenge #1); Demon Knight; Witchfinder General; Razorback; Joker; A Quiet Place; Spider Baby, or the Maddest Story Ever Told (Challenge #2); Hereditary; The First Purge (Challenge #3); Killer Condom; Road Games; Next of Kin; Zombie, aka Zombi 2; Suspiria (1977) (Challenge #4); Phantom of the Paradise; In Her Skin; Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon; Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead; Troll Hunter aka Trollhunter (Challenge #5); The Tunnel Total: 25 T3hRen3gade fucked around with this message at 10:06 on Oct 19, 2019 |
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Oct 19, 2019 10:00
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Movie 8 of 31: Annabelle I don't have anything remotely related to take a pic of with the movie. Purchased: On Amazon, in a bulk buy of horror movies. Status: It was still in it's clear plastic. Annabelle is an awful movie. Absolutely awful. It takes the goodwill I had from The Conjuring and just throws it away. The Conjuring Extended Universe is so loving dumb. You can't base 0 "Spin-off potential!" out of 5
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Oct 19, 2019 10:22
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22)Tigers are not Afraid Shudder  Excellent. It's very Guillermo Del Toro in spirit, but not like a rip off kind of thing, and the magical realism/dark fantasy done this well is right up my alley. Between this and One cut, shudder has killed it this season  /5
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Oct 19, 2019 12:51
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#37: Puppet Master 2 What a strange series this is. How is there another Puppet Master movie after this? How are there eleven more Puppet Master movies after this? Once again the movie starts out with non-puppet magic that ends up not mattering at all. A paranormal research team goes to the hotel from the first movie to investigate paranormal stuff. The puppets show up eventually and kill a couple of them. Toulon was pretty firmly established in the first Puppet Master as a gentle, kind-hearted old man. Now he's an evil wizard. Dressed exactly like the invisible man, except that the bandages on his face are soiled, and to distract from that he's also wearing a fur cape. No one comments on this. I love the new flame thrower puppet. His design is fantastic and he makes furnace noises. All the puppets are good, they even improved the Jester's design and destroyed the baffling Eel Woman. Overall, I think I enjoyed Puppet Master 2 more than the first Puppet Master. It didn't have the weirdly offputting psychic characters, and the constant presence of a bandage-wrapped wizard that all the other characters just accepted without question was a kind of omnipresent weirdness that kept me entertained. I liked that at the end the guy has a long list of very reasonable questions about all the weird poo poo that happened, including "Why was my mother murdered, and by whom?" and the woman is just like, "let's leave it" and he accepts that and they move on.
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Oct 19, 2019 12:56
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15. The Cell The Cell has some truly brilliant imagery and the pervading dreamlike quality of scenes both in the mind and in the real world is excellent. The story suffers some from a lack of focus at times, but overall a great film well worth a watch. 16. Digging Up the Marrow  Found footage films are often really bad, which is a shame because this overshadows true gems like Digging Up the Marrow. This is a fantastic film that features some truly scary monsters. quote:1. The Shining [5/5 Spooks]
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Oct 19, 2019 13:31
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Untrustable posted:Movie 8 of 31: Annabelle I agree that this move sucks, but the second Annabelle isn't that bad.
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Oct 19, 2019 14:22
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STAC Goat posted:
The book is definitely a lot better than the movie, since the movie doesn't really ever seem to want to get into the psycho-political stuff as much. But the idea definitely is what gave the Joker his smile. Interestingly Heath Ledger's as well as Phoenix's Joker have gone even further in exploring that, what with Joker's adoption drama plotline .
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Oct 19, 2019 14:49
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Gripweed posted:#37: Puppet Master 2 I got through as many Puppet Master movies as I could last October, so I'm glad to watch someone else going through it this year. Stick with it, it gets... better... and then worse...
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Oct 19, 2019 14:53
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#38: Puppet Master 3: Toulon's Revenge I cannot express how much I was not expecting Puppet Master 3 to be an actual movie. But it is! It has an actual plot, and every scene drives the plot forward. There is a sympathetic main character, and the hings he does or happen to him matter to the plot. Richard Lynch is in it! The first Puppet Master movie that has an actor who there is even a chance anyone might've heard of! And not only is Puppet Master 3 an actual movie on it's own, it also tries to bridge the gap between Toulon's character in Puppet Master 1 and 2! It doesn't get there, Puppet Master 2 Toulon is way too evil, but at least by the end of Puppet Master 3 Toulon has begun to take please in killing, even if it's only in the killing of people who deserve it. It also gives an explanation for the Leech Woman. Not a great explanation, because a puppet that spits out eels is a weird and dumb idea, but at least there is now a reason for why it's there. I don't want to go crazy here, Puppet Master 3 might be the first Puppet Master to rise to the level of being a real movie, but it's still not a fantastic movie. There are parts that drag. Despite trying to iron out the characterization of Toulon in the previous two movies, it also creates new continuity errors concerning when some of the puppets were made and when Toulon was killed. There's a child character who sucks and is played by a not super talented child actor who I'd guess was like 15 but still somehow looks like a 30 year old man. It's weird and, I know this is a very mean thing to say, but it's kinda depressing to look at him. But even so, Puppet Master 3 is a competently made movie about a guy killing nazis with puppets. And that's pretty good. Every Puppet Master movie I've seen so far has been better and shorter than the last one. If this trend continues Puppet Master 9 will be 25 minutes long and better than The Shining.
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Oct 19, 2019 14:54
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COOL CORN posted:I got through as many Puppet Master movies as I could last October, so I'm glad to watch someone else going through it this year. Stick with it, it gets... better... and then worse... I've already decided to watch the 11 canonical Puppet Master movies, since I have the first 9 in a DVD set and 10 and 11 are on Tubi. If I can find where to watch Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys and Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich for free I'll probably do those too just for the sake of completionism.
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Oct 19, 2019 14:56
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17. Eli This was just released on Netflix yesterday. From the makers of House on Haunted Hill, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Eli is the tale of a boy who mysteriously becomes “allergic” to the world (a bubble boy essentially) and his parents attempt to get him treatment and save him. For the first 80 minutes of its 100 minute run time I was prepared to say that this movie was very well made but as cliché as a ghost/haunted house movie can be. The last 20 minutes take it somewhere I was not expecting at all and I loved it. Other might not like it but I personally did not see the end coming at all and that scores big points with me even if the rest of the movie was mostly mediocre. This is a solid watch and I’m interested to see what others think of it. 18. Spider Baby Super Samhain Challenge 2 RIP Sid Haig. I could have used House of 1k Corpses since I didn’t review it until after the challenge was posted but I did watch it before so it didn’t feel right. I also watched Lords of Salem after but I had to freaking google where he was in the movie after it was over so that didn’t feel right either. And I’m glad, because this movie is completely my poo poo. It starts with kind of an animated goofy song in the beginning and immediately follows that up with a poor messenger being caught in “the spiders web”. It never slows down and is just balls to the wall strange and silly and I couldn’t have asked for more. Spider Baby is a great flick.
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Oct 19, 2019 15:00
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Gripweed posted:Every Puppet Master movie I've seen so far has been better and shorter than the last one. If this trend continues Puppet Master 9 will be 25 minutes long and better than The Shining. e: And Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys is up on Youtube. Darthemed fucked around with this message at 15:07 on Oct 19, 2019 |
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Oct 19, 2019 15:04
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Darthemed posted:Before you hit a particular one of the sequels, I've gotta ask, have you seen The Room? If you have, it'll definitely color the experience. I've seen clips from it. Does Tommy Wiseau appear in one of the Puppet Masters? Darthemed posted:e: And Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys is up on Youtube. Sweet, thanks. omg it's only 73 minutes! The series might actually stick with the shorter and better trend from the first three Puppet Master movies!
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Oct 19, 2019 15:09
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SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #5: Tourist Trap #22) Errementari (2017)  (I can safely say I've never seen a Basque movie before) Wow, this one met and exceeded my already high expectations. I'll echo what other reviewers said and agree that the lighting and character/monster design was absolutely delightful. There's something really fun about how they leaned into the whole "the devil is a big red guy with horns and a pitchfork" motif, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. It's proof that you don't need a spooky scary gory design to effectively tell a story. Not only that, but having that ultra-traditional design helped cement the fairy tale feel. Something about this movie reminded me A LOT of Pan's Labyrinth. (Well, obviously: It takes place during/right after a domestic war, it features a child going through basically a horrific fairy tale, and it has wonderful creature design.) By the end I was completely emotionally invested. Well filmed, well-told story that hits you in the emotions in just the right way. Absolutely highly recommended. And it's not every day you see a movie where where the characters speak Basque! 5/5Challenges completed: 1, 2, 4, 5 Challenges not completed: 3 Count Thrashula fucked around with this message at 15:51 on Oct 19, 2019 |
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Oct 19, 2019 15:20
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 16 Colossal (2016) [???] netflix Until about halfway through I wasn't sure if this would qualify for the challenge, but the back-half is definitely horror. Jason Sudeikis was just completely loathsome. There've been villains committing horrendous acts motivated by political or ideological beliefs, by monetary gain or simply by sadistic pleasure, but him killing hundreds of people out of pure spite was pretty horrific. However, it is also very funny, mostly hinging on a great performance by Anne Hathaway. The scene with Sudeikis stomping around a playground to the sounds of hundrerds of people brutally dying was one of the greatest bits of black comedy I've seen in a long time, horrifying but absolutely hilarious.  17 Vamp (1986) [Kansas] youtube A couple of college kids want to hire a stripper to get into a frat, to do this they travel to a strip club in the bad part of town where it turns out the strippers aren't who they appear to be. Of course with a title like this, the reveal is not going to be as big of a twist as that other movie that does the same thing 10 years later. I really enjoyed this, sure, not all the comedy lands, especially the character of Duncan is mostly just very annoying, but there are some good laughs ("Formica, can you believe it!"). The vampire action if pretty cool, but I wish that Grace Jones go to do more. The style of the movie, lots of green & pink lighting and Dutch angles, was also very much my poo poo. After watching it I found out that Billy Drago, who has a minor but memorable role, passed away in June so it can be used for samhain challenge #2 as well.  18 The Perfection (2019) [China, Massachusetts] netflix Charlotte was a talented young cellist who had to cease her studies at a prestigious private cello academy in Boston to care for her sick mother. 10 years later she gets back in touch with her former mentor and befriends the woman who replaced her. Excellent performances, a bunch of twists and turns and some nasty moments make this one of the best Netflix original horror movies I´ve seen. It does get pretty dark in end, with some pretty disturbing implied child abuse, so be warned.
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Oct 19, 2019 15:56
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14. Happy Death Day 2 U Christopher Landon 2019 This was a lot of fun, and like the original got better as it went on. It still ultimately feels like a fan fiction version of the original version. It ensures to get the band back together, explores ideas from the original, answers questions. Oddly though, it does ask some questions that don't really get answered like the origin of the alternate Ryan or what happened with the alternate version of Tree. Jessica Rothe is really the star of the show, but her performance is hindered by the fact that her Groundhog's Day growth just isn't the same. Even her exasperation of being back in the same situation again is a bit of a retread of the last film's ending. They go back to the live action Loony Toon aspect with a literal Wile E. Coyote moment. 2.5/5 15. Halloween (2018) David Gordon Green 2018  This was good, but similar to the previous film, it really lives and dies on the performance of its lead. It was nice to see such a great slasher. There was just really great scenes of Michael just going for it. It was also impressive how the flashbacks to the original film worked so well with the modern one. It is so weird how Halloween is such a meat and potatoes slasher series, but has the most complicated timline We have the OG Timeline: Parts 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 The Part 3 Timeline where Halloween is a fictional film The H20 Timeline of Parts 1, 2, H20, and Resurrection The Rob Zombie remakes The New Timeline of 1978 Halloween and 2018 Halloween 4/5
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Oct 19, 2019 16:01
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19. El Santo and Blue Demon Against The Monsters (1970) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqWH474DnCc A friend streamed this. El Santo and Blue Demon fight all kinds of monsters and their own clones and drive around in cars the same color as their masks. 15/5        20. Three From Hell (2019)  Rob Zombie and Quentin Tarantino both watched that one Manson doc from the seventies lol For a while, this is a pretty direct follow up to Devil's Rejects despite uh, undoing the most memorable single scene from that film. The complicated empathy Zombie has for the protagonists and their both noble and deeply flawed victims, the blacker than pitch black humor, the unrelenting seventies dinginess. Then they go to Mexico and get in a gunfight with luchadors. A pretty wild, uneven mix of genuinely fascinating, repellent stuff and stupid bullshit, with the caveat that I also like the stupid bullshit. The key to Rob Zombie's style is that the gunslinging Mexican midget with an eyepatch turns out to be pretty sympathetic with some nice character shading. And who but Rob Zombie would include a scene where the characters watch Bella Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla? Danny Trejo is in this movie exactly long enough to get shot and he has his own character poster, I respect this more than I can tell you. 3.5/5 
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Oct 19, 2019 16:02
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El Santo contra las mujeres vampiras is dope as well. The vampire henchmen just sort of drive around in muscle cars and beat people up. El Santo defeats the vampires by going into their crypt in the daytime, setting them on fire, then just booking it to his car and peeling out.
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Oct 19, 2019 16:04
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 17. Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972): This is a pretty decent giallo. It takes some time to get going and doesn’t really pick up until the final act, but that final act is pretty good. There is a good creepy cat in this. Also the cat is named Satan. Super Samhain Challenge #5: Tourist Trap 18. Lupt (2018): I was curious if Indian horror movies had musical numbers in them. This one has one for the opening credits. Sadly, it’s the best part of the movie. Harsh is a cutthroat businessman who starts having hallucinations due to lack of sleep, so he decides to take a vacation with his family who he never spends any time with. During their road trip, the car breaks down and weird spooky things happen. I had a hard time with this movie. The characters felt very broad and one dimensional. The son makes annoying jokes. The dad is distant. The daughter, uh, has asthma? I dunno, it felt like a 90s sitcom family. I started to nod off a couple of times toward the end of this. I will say the ending was kind of interesting but I wouldn’t recommend this.  19. 31 (2016): This is the third Rob Zombie film I’ve watched for this challenge, and I’m starting to develop a fondness for his style. I’m sure others have made this observation, but he’s kind of like a horror version of Tarantino in that he has a distinctive look and feel to his movies and is also clearly paying homage to the B movies he grew up with. I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. A group of carnies on the road to their next gig are abducted and released into a sort of labyrinth to be hunted for the amusement of some people dressed up like old timey European aristocrats. It’s similar to The Running Man in some ways, but definitely has a Rob Zombie feel to it (the hunters include a dwarf dressed as Hitler and a pair of chainsaw wielding clowns, among others). The final villain, Doomhead, is the highlight of the movie thanks to a good performance by Richard Brake. I enjoyed this quite a bit. Solid recommend. Alfred P. Pseudonym fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Oct 19, 2019 |
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Oct 19, 2019 16:37
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 20. AMSTERDAMNED - Shudder A series of grisly murders haunt Amsterdam's scenic canals and a local detective is under pressure to solve them quickly. This is one of those old thrillers that I think was just okay but that I enjoyed watching, if that makes any sense. I thought the visual palate was interesting and some of the kills and reveals were pretty amusing. The opening sequence/reveal is next level poo poo. I saw the dubbed version and I didn't think the dub was that great. Also, unfortunately, a combination of tiredness and whiskey causes me to lose focus in the back third of the film. I think if I had watched this on my big screen with subs instead of dubs, it would push it to four stars for me. YMMV! 3 out of 5 scuba murderers
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Oct 19, 2019 17:20
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 87) Amityville: Exorcism - 2017 - TubiTV First time watch. A half point to this one in stating it's Evil Transference to explain why objects from the house bringing hauntings/demons with it. I think this is the first time I've heard evil lumber used in a movie. It's also a skipper like most of the others.  88) Amityville Prison - 2017 - TubiTV First time watch. I said earlier that they weren't even trying anymore with the franchise, well, this one takes that title. No connection with Amityville unless Philly now counts. Plot is a group of friends go to an abandoned prison to do a paranormal investigation and poo poo ends up happening. I'll grant there's potential in the story concept, but drat it's a challenge to see it with how inept this film is. The lighting's way too dark, camerawork's atrocious, and the acting's horrible. The tagline's "For God's sake break out!", it should be "For God's sake Skip this!".  89) Amityville: The Awakening - 2017 - Prime First time watch. Apparently this one was filmed in 2014 and didn't get released until 2017. I'll give it a point for attempting to tie back to the original story. Plotwise, a family moves into the house and the evil takes over the son who's been in a vegetative state from a brain injury. It's okay enough as far as the franchise goes.
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Oct 19, 2019 17:33
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#39: Puppet Master 4 An evil race of subterranean puppet men! I'm not going to say that Puppet Master 4 is better than Puppet Master 3. It replaces the sympathetic Toulon and his quest for revenge with a group of stock horror movie douchebags, and it's the first Puppet Master movie without boobs. So points off for that. But I'm willing to say it's slightly more entertaining. So the streak continues, every Puppet Master movie is shorter and more entertaining than the one before it! Puppet Master 4 returns to the Puppet Master tradition of having completely unrelated psychic powers, but for the first time they actually matter to the plot! The evil puppets look fantastic. Best puppets in the franchise so far. The puppet vs puppet fights are adorable. The whole sequence of the puppets bringing a new puppet to life, Frankenstein style, is so cute. My one big strike against it is that I thought there was going to be robots. They set up robots, I was so excited for a three corner contest between good puppets, evil puppets, and robots, and it never happens. Disappointing. You guys were so down on the Puppet Master franchise, but I'm four movies in and I'm having a moderately sized blast.
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Oct 19, 2019 17:38
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One fun thing about the Puppet Master franchise is that all four of the first four movies involve the application of the Puppet Master franchise for non-puppet related purposes. Becoming immortal, replacing your damaged body, creating zombies, speaking to the dead, using puppets as drones. Straight from the get go, it's like, OK, we can bring puppets to life, but what else can we do with that magic? Compare that to the Alien franchise. 8 loving movies that all mention a potential military application of Aliens but never do anything about it and just go back to doing the same thing. It's lame as hell! So yes, I am saying that in that one way at least the Puppet Master franchise is superior to the Alien franchise.
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Oct 19, 2019 17:41
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 27. TerrorVision (1986) Dir: Ted Nicolau (Amazon Prime) This is such a weird movie tonally. There's an elaborate staginess to that I kinda really dig. You can tell everything's being shot on a soundstage, right down to the drapery for a sky. The colors in this movie whip. It tries to go for a weird blend of a hammy 50's b-movie tone and 80's excess, and I'm not sure if it quite works? The constant 50's "gee willikers" brand of dialogue gets pretty obnoxious after a while. It feels like it's trying to say something about our connection to television, and to be fair, the conspiracy theory grandpa is shockingly prescient. Admittedly, I have not gone down the deep dark hole of Charles Band films yet. Fancy seeing my previous challenge fodder, Robot Monster show up on the TV at some point. Watched: 1. Candyman 2. The Wailing 3. Spookies 4. One Cut of the Dead 5. Viy 6. The Driller Killer 7. Tammy and the T-Rex 8. Friday the 13th Pt VI: Jason Lives 9. Scary Movie 10. Ice Cream Man 11. Freaks 12.The Hills Have Eyes 13. Spider Baby 14. Lady Terminator 15. All The Colors of the Dark 16.Tales From The Hood 17. Man Bites Dog 18. Prime Evil 19. Bride of Re-Animator 20. The Phantom Carriage 21. Thinner 22. Robot Monster 23. Color Me Blood Red 24. A Bay of Blood 25. Errementari: The Devil and the Blacksmith 26. The Lighthouse 27. TerrorVision Friends Are Evil fucked around with this message at 18:00 on Oct 19, 2019 |
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Oct 19, 2019 17:47
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Is Lighthouse a limited release or something? It's my most anticipated one this month but all I can find is a single showing 3 hours away
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Oct 19, 2019 17:53
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October 19 - Split https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84TouqfIsiI (drat it, youtube, stop recommending me cinemasins when I go to these trailers.) Shyamalamania is continuing as I get into a movie I've wanted to see for a while. People were saying this was his first good movie in years. I enjoyed The Visit, so I'm fully expecting to like this one. Three girls are abducted from a mall parking lot and awaken in a cell in an underground facility. Their kidnapper exhibits multiple personalities and those personalities are waiting for one they call "the beast" to arrive to deal with them. Even though I'm positive I'm just repeating what everyone has said before: James McAvoy is amazing. This is a role that could have gone so badly, but he keeps it grounded. I thought it a bit odd that for a person with 24 personalities it was rare to see anyone past four of them. I can understand why, changing behavior ever scene would quickly become overwhelming. Still, I'd like to see more entirely because McAvoy was so good with what he had. This is a small movie with a cast of essentially five and only one significant location. It doesn't feel confined, though, mainly due to breaking out to the kidnapper's therapist and flashbacks to a very bad camping trip. McAvoy might be the standout in the cast, but the rest of them aren't exactly slouches. They play off his performance well. Shyamalan is a director who I've always put in the "good but not brilliant" category (his writing on the other hand...). He definitely has some skill, but lacks the flare that makes him really memorable. Split demonstrates that; it's a well made movie but the directoral choices don't really stand out. The best thing Shyamalan did as a director was get some great performances from his actors. I'm wasn't interested in Glass since I never liked Unbreakable (good scenes, but I felt that movie as a whole didn't hold together). Now I think I'll watch it sometime just to see more of McAvoy in this role. Split turned out to be pretty good. It's not the best Shyamalan movie, but I think it's a solid second best without that much competition.
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Oct 19, 2019 17:55
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Retro Futurist posted:Is Lighthouse a limited release or something? It's my most anticipated one this month but all I can find is a single showing 3 hours away I think the run this week is. It's supposed to be coming to more theaters next week.
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Oct 19, 2019 17:59
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edit: somehow quoted myself trying to edit a post?
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Oct 19, 2019 17:59
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COOL CORN posted:You're so close to the end! nothing ever ends
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Oct 19, 2019 18:22
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 Creepshow Rewatch Creepshow is one of my favorite movies, and I got to watch it with a couple of friends who had never seen it who also loved it. The tone, visuals, humor, spirit—everything about it is just about perfect. Do I wish the first segment had a little something more going on? Sure. But other than that, this movie is just the best. So, so fun, creepy, cool, and wildly comic book-y. The perfect love-letter to EC comics and I wish more modern stuff tried to replicate what it was doing rather than lazy 80s Stranger Things kinda stuff. I resent the hell out of the October Challenger for not giving me any time to watch TV, because I really want to watch the new Shudder show. Rating: 10/10 Creepshow: 10/10, Beetlejuice: 10/10 (rewatch), Sleepy Hollow: 10/10 (rewatch), Ghoulies II: 9/10, Hobo with a Shotgun: 9/10, Parasite: 9/10, Demons: 9/10, The Fog: 8/10, Critters 2: 8/10, Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter: 8/10, Demons II: 7/10, Ghoulies: 6.5/10, Slugs: 6/10, The Changeling: 4/10, Critters: 2/10
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Oct 19, 2019 18:24
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Gripweed posted:I've seen clips from it. Does Tommy Wiseau appear in one of the Puppet Masters?  #118) Noroi: The Curse (2005), a.k.a., Curse Rewatch, picked by my partner, who'd never seen it. I think I've only watched this once since I first came across it in research for my thesis, and it's just as good as I remembered. It's technically found footage, but footage gathered and edited together before it was found. It pulls together interviews, TV show footage, exploration in the woods, home movies, and a few other styles (with different film stocks, in a nice bit of attention to detail). It all stems out of a woman complaining of strange noises coming from next door, and the paranormal expert who goes to check it out pulls together numerous threads in his resultant investigation. The editing and collage of so many sources is what sets this apart from most other found footage horror films. While the occasional replays of footage, with slow-downs and zooms to highlight the spooky element, would normally drain tension, in this, they serve to maintain the atmosphere and (sometimes) heighten the creepiness. It's explicitly a video-based document, even more so than something like The Blair Witch Project; we're shown the protagonist double-checking his camcorder's playback, different cuts of recordings, talking to the camera-man, and video disruption. The narrative we're shown is stitched together from the disparate sources, and by not only acknowledging that but making it a core part of the structuring, Noroi rises above the problems that hold back so much other found footage horror. There's no question of 'why are they still filming?' (there is a specific command to "Stop the camera!" at one point) or 'why would they place themselves in this danger?', partially because what we're being shown is footage recovered after the fact, when those shown had no reason to expect the documented occurrence. And for all the different types of characters that are brought in, they all feel real enough, in their own way. As much as there is to dig into on a conceptual level, Noroi functions perfectly well as a story, too. Its creeping dread is drat effective, even when you've seen it before and are familiar with the twists and inevitable end. The movie tells you how it ends, right at the start, and it still works. And it's maybe the first horror movie since The Birds to make pigeons unsettling. I admire this film more each time I see it. rating: 9/10"What's this? Is it oozing from the tree?"
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Oct 19, 2019 18:31
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T3hRen3gade posted:This is awesome. In hindsight the challenge probably could have included an intro picture poster where you have to draw something, even if its a cheap MS Paint thing. The cheesier the better actually, I'm sure the entries would have been hilariously bad. I kind of tried to honor the idea of the artistic part of the challenge by choosing a "Suspiria" movie poster that looked hand-drawn instead of a promotional poster, but you did it right my friend. Great job! I thought about making people post their own drawing based on the movie they watched, but that's a lot of work and/or people would hesitate to share.
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Oct 19, 2019 18:49
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SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #6: Sometimes They Come Back Thanks to CopywrightMMXI for designing this torture device  Watch a horror remake you haven't seen.or Watch a horror sequel you haven't seen.
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Oct 19, 2019 18:53
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Lumbermouth posted:25. Stage Fright (1987) aw man, I think StageFright is great! I think it's pretty well liked around here too. It's been a while since I last saw it, but it may be one of those Italian films where you kind of have to throw logic out the window to enjoy it though  24. The Haunting (1963) (re-watch) (blu-ray) I just recently watched Mike Flanagan's TV adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix (which I thought was fantastic apart from an overly sappy ending), and even though it bears very little resemblance to the source material in terms of plot it did contain many nods and references to this classic film adaptation. I wanted to revisit this one for that reason, and also because it's one of my favorite films of all time and for my money the best haunted house film ever made. Dr. Markway, a paranormal researcher investigating the famously haunted Hill House, puts together a team of people who he calls his assistants, but are really only there because of their past experiences with the supernatural. Out of the group he selects, only two actually show up - the odd, nervous Eleanor (the protagonist of the film) and a woman with psychic abilities named Theodora. Also present are Luke, the young man who stands to inherit the house someday, and Dr. Markway, the researcher running the experiment. From the first night they experience supernatural activity (which mostly involves loud noises), and the house seems to be focusing on Nell. She is seriously off, and the line between the supernatural and her own psychological issues is heavily blurred. Besides being an excellent haunted house story, there is a lot of subtext to unpack in this film. Theo is everything Eleanor wishes she could be - strong, confident, and independent. It's not a coincidence that Theo has no family name, as Nell would like nothing more than to escape her cruel sister and the memory of her recently deceased mother. It is also all but explicitly said that Theo is a lesbian and at times it seems that Nell is in love with her - although she also falls in love with Dr. Markway and even gets clingy with the terrifying haunted house itself, so I'm not sure that actually says anything about Nell's sexuality. It's interesting to think about anyway. Just having a gay character in the '60s at all was daring, much less one that is presented in a positive way. This is a classic and an absolute essential watch, not just for horror fans, but for anyone who likes classic films. It's smart, beautifully shot, and has some genuinely chilling moments. 5/5 Super Samhain Challenge #3: Horror Noire  25. Bones (2001) (digital) Back in the '70s, gangster Jimmy Bones was loved by his community, but after he disappeared his neighborhood became run down and dangerous. Over the years he became a legend, but the locals avoid the house where he used to live - something terrible happened there, and now it may be a gateway to city of the dead. There are definitely some old creepy-looking stone buildings in lovely areas of Syracuse that look a whole lot like the one featured in this film, but I'm assuming they don't look like rad haunted gothic manors inside, and that blood doesn't drip from the plumbing. When this movie's opening credits featured a Snoop Dogg track that samples James Brown's "The Big Payback" and a '70s blaxploitation aesthetic, I knew I was in for a good time. I had always written this off as a cheesy cash-in on Snoop's popularity, but when I learned it was directed by Ernest Dickerson (who also made the stellar Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight) I got interested. It's actually pretty good - it suffers from some bad CGI, and the pacing is sometimes weird, but overall it's really fun and creative. It gets pretty wild with some of the effects, with Bones carrying around severed heads that talk and walls of twisted tortured souls reaching out to pull victims in. Oh, and lots of lots of maggots raining from the ceiling, Suspiria-style. This isn't perfect but it throws a lot of really cool ideas out there and most of them stick. Even the effects that look bad are at least creative. Snoop is a little underused in the first half of the film, but when he's on screen he's fun to watch. He's not exactly a great actor, but his normal persona is a good fit for the character. Pam Grier is in this too, although it occasionally felt like she was phoning it in a little. If you like creative supernatural horror that isn't afraid to get a little silly, I definitely recommend checking this out. Way better than I expected! 3.5/5 Total: 25 Watched: Dead of Night | Child's Play (2019) | Escape Room | Hell Night | The Wind | Evil Dead (2013) | Cure (Challenge #1) | Tigers Are Not Afraid | The Craft | Tower of London | In Fabric | Popcorn | Cube | Uninvited | Galaxy of Terror (Challenge #2) | Brightburn | Body Bags | The Tingler | The Wax Mask | Cube 2: Hypercube | Dark Water (2002) | The Ruins (Challenge #4) | Viy | The Haunting | Bones (Challenge #3) Samhain Challenges:
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Oct 19, 2019 18:57
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God, I wish I could find Phantasm 2 on any streaming service!
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Oct 19, 2019 19:01
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