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Speaking of which... SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #7: Monster Mash-up Thanks to Friends Are Evil and Dr. Puppykicker for designing this torture device   Watch a horror film that you haven't seen that features two different monsters.-"Man" and synecdoches for man-kind do not count as a monster. So you can't watch Day of the Dead and say the "two monsters are zombies and military"  Try and pick something with distinct, unique creatures.
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Oct 21, 2019 14:11
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Now I’m really wishing they would’ve made my fan script for Creep 3: annoying northern California guy vs annoying Brooklyn guy
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Oct 21, 2019 14:22
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Franchescanado posted:
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Oct 21, 2019 14:26
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Franchescanado posted:Speaking of which... I assume anthologies are also disqualified.
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Oct 21, 2019 14:42
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Basebf555 posted:I assume anthologies are also disqualified. You know what? I hadn't considered that. So I'll say horror anthologies are technically fine, because it still has to be a film the person hasn't seen. And if they go with an anthology film, it'll make a later challenge more difficult.
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Oct 21, 2019 14:52
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26. Halloween III: Season Of The Witch (1982) - Rewatch #7 I remember thinking this was cheesy but liking it the first time I saw it years ago. This time, whether it be mood or having friends watching it with me that it was bouncing hard off of, it just didn’t land. It still had its moments, but overall I’m less positive on it. 27. The Witch (2015) - Rewatch #8  Another rewatch. This is the first time I’ve seen this on a good TV and setup, so that certainly made it a fresh experience in terms of the haunting beauty of the movie. The minimal soundtrack with the austerity of the forest shots really creates a particularly isolated mood. 28. Jason X (2001) - Rewatch #9  Always a blast, I love introducing this to friends who haven’t seen it and don’t know what to expect. Much like Halloween III earlier in the evening, this takes series expectations and turns them fully on their head (though admittedly less so here.) This movie is having so much fun you just get caught up in it. 29. WIthout Name (2016) - New To Me #13  Another in the folk horror list, I thought this was effectively creepy, but there wasn’t really enough to justify its run time. Eventually I felt like Toad Road or other movies like that covered similar ground more interestingly - this movie needed a more charismatic lead or something. It does look good, and the soundtrack is great, but overall there are better examples of what this movie does.. Movies So Far - 29: Rewatches: 9 - Deep Red, One Cut Of The Dead, The Endless, Train To Busan, TCM 2, Zombi 2, Halloween 3, The Witch, Jason X New To Me: 13 - Dolls, Borderlands, Child’s Play (2019), Memory: Origins Of Alien, Who Can Kill A Child?, The Seventh Curse, Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde, Hell House LLC 2, The Red Queen Kills Seven Times, Bones, Hobo With A Shotgun, Without Name Finally Watching Owned Movies: 7 - Werewolf Of London, She-Wolf Of London, Isle Of The Snake People, Creature From The Black Lagoon, Revenge Of The Creature, Paranormal Activity, Eyes Without A Face
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Oct 21, 2019 15:03
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T3hRen3gade posted:#27: Body Melt (1993) One of my favorite behind the scenes bits on Body Melt is that they apparently hired a kangaroo wrangler who had a kangaroo that for some reason was trained fall over on command. On the day of shooting they pulled up, and the kangaroo promptly ran off never to be seen again.
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Oct 21, 2019 15:05
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Franchescanado posted:You know what? I hadn't considered that. drat. Some of these challenges are pretty hard as it is. I never thought my volume of horror movie watching would get turned on me.
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Oct 21, 2019 15:13
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28. Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972) Watched On: YouTube The first Phibes movie definitely stretched the bounds of overall believability, whereas this one snaps those bounds almost immediately. It's not about vengeance this time, it's about magically resurrecting his dead wife through an Egyptian river convergence. It's a movie that throws gallons of the things you loved about the first one at you and just expects you to roll with it. The elaborate stage sets and mechanical orchestra of the original return, only this time they were secreted away inside of an Egyptian mountain, presumably a decade ago. The deaths are even more elaborate and even more arbitrary. Vincent Price has something like three times as many monologues as he does in the original. The stiff-upper-lip British police stereotypes are now joined by do-you-know-who-I-am British aristocratic stereotypes. Vulnavia is back, absolutely unchanged by the acid attack at the climax of the first movie and ready to do whatever Phibes asks of her. It's more of the same for Phibes and if you want an elaborate and camp as hell murder movie, they're top-tier.
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Oct 21, 2019 15:23
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#23. Deathwatch I just finished a book on WW1 and something that was described to me as "Event Horizon in trenches" sounded pretty cool. It still sounds pretty cool, but this movie is nothing like that at all. The setting is great, everything looks the part, but horror barely plays a role. There are maybe a handful of supernatural moments, quite unoriginal ones, spread throughout a lot of unnecessary drama and uninteresting repeats of conflicts you see coming a mile away. The sets were pretty nice, but completely wasted on this slog. It was like two separate movies fighting for control and they both ended up losing.
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Oct 21, 2019 15:24
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Franchescanado posted:SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #5: Tourist Trap  93) To Kako - 2005 - Youtube I was sweating this challenge since going through the horror movies by country list I was discovering I've sat through a lot more horror from around the world than I thought. I wasn't sure about Greece since I wasn't sure if it'd be much different than Italy. Thankfully I've been proven wrong. To Kako, or Evil is Greece's first zombie film. It begins with some workmen getting pounced on by something in a cave, then cuts to an average night in Athens where we see the workmen going about as normal until they suddenly attack whoever's around them and soon all of Athens but a handful are zombies. There's definitely a different energy with this one compared to the zombie films of other countries. The copy I was watching had serious audio troubles so I'm not sure what context I might've missed in places, but overall, the film was enjoyable. The deserted to the point of not even strays are roaming streets of Athens was unnerving, I did watch the trailer of the sequel and that looks really good too and that's not just because Billy Zane's in it. I feel good recommending this one.  Franchise: Friday the 13th Suffice it to say, I need a palate I have to admit I wonder if when that original ad popped in Variety for Friday the 13th if anyone had the vaguest idea that it would end up being a franchise of multiple movies, books, toys, comics, clothes, and games. That's Star Wars level of merchandising. It certainly set a lot of the trends slasher films would follow.  94) Friday the 13th - 1980 - DVD So many of the classic elements came together here. I lost count how many horror movie groups I was in where our gatekeeping question as to who was a true horror fan was asking who was the killer in the first Friday the 13th film. It was unfortunate to learn that the snake death in the film was real. I'd thought we'd advanced past that sort of poo poo. The novelization's pretty good. In the first twenty pages, you already have the feel of the sleepy town of Crystal Lake and the 'legend' of Camp Blood like you would the next town over from your own. Siskel & Ebert came down hard on this one to the point of spoiling the ending and doxxing Betsy Palmer when they reviewed the movie on their show. Since so many have seen this, I can't really say more than what's been said. If you haven't seen this already, why are you reading this and not watching it?
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Oct 21, 2019 15:35
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 Halloween Typically I watch this on Halloween night, but I felt like that was getting a bit stale and wanted to mix things up. This also gives me the chance to do something I haven't done in years, watch every single Halloween film. The original 1978 film is an iconic all-time great horror film and watching it taps into that part of me that is still a little kid seeing it on t.v. and having nightmares of being stalked by Michael Myers. The 4k/UHD is really nice. Not as face melting as The Shining, but it firms everything up and in a film where darkness and shadow is so important, HDR really does make a difference. Although I suppose that cuts both ways, because the vivid greens of the "Illinois" neighborhood pop like they never have before, and you could argue that isn't really what Carpenter would've wanted.  Halloween II More important than whether or not this is really a Carpenter film, this is most definitely still a Dean Cundey film. In a featurette from the blu ray, director Rick Rosenthal lays out how the goal here was to reproduce the style of the original so as to give the impression that this really is taking place just moments after the original's ending. And I think it definitely succeeds in that. The body count is higher, and the hospital setting doesn't seem ideal at first, but Cundey shoots the hell out of it and the overall look of the film is very solid. Much like the houses of the original contained deep, dark shadows for the Boogeyman to hide in, Cundey did the same thing with the hospital to pretty great effect.   Halloween III Probably the most Halloween spirit per second of screentime of any horror movie I can think of. That alone is reason enough to watch it every year. Throw in a solid Carpenter score and one of the most batshit scripts ever written and yea, I love this movie. I got into it with a co-worker about this last week, he asked me if Halloween III was good and I said yes. He pressed me, "but is it actually good??" gently caress yea it's good. Don't be ashamed to like good things. Watched: 1. Child's Play(1988) 2. Child's Play(2019) 3. VHS: Viral 4. Tales From the Crypt 5. (SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #1)Viy 6. House of Frankenstein 7. Van Helsing 8. The Shining 9. Salem's Lot 10. Poltergeist 2: The Other Side 11. Pumpkinhead 2: Blood Wings 12. The Ravenous 13. Alucarda 14. Horror of Dracula 15. Dracula: Prince of Darkness 16. Midsommar 17. Candyman 18. Hellraiser 19. An American Werewolf in London 20. Bad Moon 21. Prince of Darkness 22. The Fog 23. (SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #2)House of 1000 Corpses 24. The Devil's Rejects 25. 3 From Hell 26. (SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #4)Crawl 27. (SAMHAIN CHALLENGE# 3) Ganja & Hess 28. Aenigma 29. City of the Living Dead 30. Halloween 31. Halloween II 32. Halloween III Basebf555 fucked around with this message at 15:45 on Oct 21, 2019 |
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Oct 21, 2019 15:42
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I’ll save y’all challengers some time and let you know that Sadako vs Kayako is not nearly as fun as you’d think, though there are like fifteen minutes of dope poo poo in there towards the end.
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Oct 21, 2019 15:52
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19) The Fog (1980) (rewatch) I love Carpenter's version of The Fog. This movie manages to create a real dense atmosphere that fits in really well with the weather in October in my part of the world. The radio station broadcasting from the top of the world is also a really neat way to tie the different characters and their stories/interactions together. 4/5 20) Extra Ordinary (2019) Basically a good version of a female lead Ghostbusters. Really funny, doesn't get boring at any time, great characters, good special effects and Will Forte is great as a satanic has-been rockstar. 100% recommendation. 3.5/4 21) Waxwork (1988) Dope! 22) Don't Look Now (1973) Finally got around to this classic, unfortunately I kept getting phone calls while I was watching it so I couldn't really get into it as much as I would have liked to. Still a fantastic movie with some stunning cinematography. I'll most likely like this a lot more when I can rewatch it in peace. 4/5 23)  SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #5: Tourist Trap The Cremator (1969)Just loving wow. I'm so glad this challenge finally pushed me to watch The Cremator, I had it on my watchlist for years but I thought it would be more of a straight holocaust movie like Son of Saul. It is not! Rudolf Hrušínský as Kopfkringl has to be one of the best acting performances of all time, he sells the weirdo protagonist so well. The cinematography and editing are absolutely stellar too, this movie was way ahead of its time. Go watch The Cremator, even if you don't need the challenge anymore. It will be the best movie you have seen all year. 5/5 24) Santa Sangre (1989) Delightfully weird! Great colors and music, really neat sets and a bunch of gore. The story didn't do too much for me but that doesn't really matter when the individual scenes are so interesting. I'll probably like this more on a rewatch when I know what to expect. 3.5/5 25) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #6: Sometimes They Come Back The Night of the Living Dead (1990)I'm kinda running low on horror remakes I haven't watched yet and I really didn't want to watch the 2015 Poltergeist so I decided to go with the Tom Savini movie. It kinda sucks. For most of the runtime it feels competently made but unnecessary but for some reason they decided to ditch the original ending. The replacement is fine but there is no comparison to the legendary ending of Romero's original. Also: where is the gore Savini? I came expecting more blood! 2/5 26) Deep Red (1975) (rewatch) This was the first time that I watched the 120 min version. I always liked this movie but I also always felt that it could use more Daria Nicolodi and so I was really happy when I saw that a ton of the restored scenes had her in them. I still don't really get how the relationship is supposed to work, she is SO much cooler than David Hemmings (that cigar twirl!). Hell, her lovely little car is cooler than him. 4/5
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Oct 21, 2019 16:09
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Basebf555 posted:The 4k/UHD is really nice. Not as face melting as The Shining, but it firms everything up and in a film where darkness and shadow is so important, HDR really does make a difference. Although I suppose that cuts both ways, because the vivid greens of the "Illinois" neighborhood pop like they never have before, and you could argue that isn't really what Carpenter would've wanted. UHD really is amazing isn't it? If there's one thing I tell everyone about upgrading to 4k, it's that the resolution bump doesn't really do anything for me, but the colors are what sells it for me. I swear every time I watch a UHD, I just have a stunned amazement about how it looks for the first 5 minutes or so.
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Oct 21, 2019 16:09
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Iron Crowned posted:UHD really is amazing isn't it? If there's one thing I tell everyone about upgrading to 4k, it's that the resolution bump doesn't really do anything for me, but the colors are what sells it for me. I swear every time I watch a UHD, I just have a stunned amazement about how it looks for the first 5 minutes or so. It's one of those things where if you don't know what you're missing, it doesn't seem all that important. But if you watch a bunch of movies on a streaming service or something, then throw on a quality UHD, the depth and stability of the colors is really striking and once you're used to it then watching something without it is very noticeable. Watching something like Halloween with deep, dark shadows, and having zero artifacts or banding whatsoever, feels very luxurious and I never really expected a home media format to every really achieve that.
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Oct 21, 2019 16:28
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 34. Phantasm III (1994) DVD I continue to love this series so God drat much. Watched - 1. Get My Gun (2017), 2. The Last Man on Earth (1964), 3. It Stains the Sands Red (2016), 4. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), 5. Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil (2017) *Tied for Current Favorite*, 6. Halloween (1978), 7. One Cut of the Dead (2017), 8. Phamtasm II (1988), 9. Ramekin (2018), 10. Les Affamés (2017), 11. Braindead (1992), 12. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), 13. The Haunting (1963) *Tied for Current Favorite*, 14. House of Wax (1953), 15. Shock (1946), 16. Annihilation (2018), 17. Westworld (1973), 18. Kuroneko, 19. In the Tall Grass (2019), 20. Sound of Horror (1966), 21. Rubber's Lover (1996), 22. Bubba Ho-Tep (2002), 23. The Similars (2015), 24. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), 25. The Mummy's Tomb (1942), 26. Drag Me to Hell (2009), 27. Deathwatch (2002), 28. Wake in Fright (1971), 29. The Mummy's Ghost (1944), 30. City of the Living Dead (1980), 31. The Ritual (2017), 32. [REC] (2007), 33. [REC]2 (2009), 34. Phantasm III (1994) Decade - 1920s, 1930s, 1940s (III), 1950s (II), 1960s (IV), 1970s (IV), 1980s (II), 1990s (III), 2000s (V), 2010s (X) Black & White:Color:Hybrid - 10:23:1 By Country - Australia (I), Britain (I), Britain/Gremany (I), Canada (II), Italy (I), Japan (III), Mexico (I), 'Murica (XIX), New Zealand (I), Spain (IV) New:Rewatch - 28:6 Super Samhain Challenge - 1. Westworld (1973), 2. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), 3. N/A, 4. The Mummy's Ghost (1944), 5. N/A, 6. [REC]2, 7. N/A
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Oct 21, 2019 17:22
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Oh God I'm behind on everything. 11: Joker ABCs: J I'm a pretty big comics guy, but when this was announced it seemed like the worst idea ever. Then Phoenix was cast and Scorcese was going to direct and I was interested, and then it went to Todd Philips and some rather disastrous interviews happened . I've been going back and forth on it and probably would have waited for it to be streaming, but it was my buddy's birthday and he wanted to go. It actually turned out a lot better than I expected. I think with someone else behind the wheel this could have been a major classic. As is, it's entertaining and Phoenix really is terrific, but I feel like it suffers from its source material; if it were its own thing it would have been a lot better (although it also wouldn't have made 800 million dollars) 12: Kuntilanak ABCs: K Challenge 4: inktober: Ornament This was ok, pretty straightforward little story about a group of kids who come across a haunted mirror. The monster look was actually pretty effective but nothing else really stands out. I do kind of love how they defeat her though They have to drive a nail though her head. Not the most supernatural of weaknesses I was going to use this for the tourist challenge but then I realized The Raid is Malaysian and I've seen that plenty. It does however suit the ibktober challenge nicely, either for Ornament (the mirror itself is very ornamental) or bait (the Kuntilanak lures children who need a mother's love) 13: The Addams Family (2019) Challenge 6: Sometimes they come back Hopefully this counts as a remake, if not I can try and make it up later I have a few on my list that could work. I enjoyed this, but it's definitely geared towards a younger crowd (my 7 year old liked it a lot but he didn't really remember the Raul Julia version). I appreciate them using the more classic designs, and the cast was pretty spot on. A friend and I have a long standing debate on who would be the best live action Gomez in a full remake, and Oscar Issac was our current pick before this was announced, so it's nice to see (Er, hear). Theron is also a great pick for Morticia, though I'm not a fan of the accent she's using here. 14: Mercy ABCs: M I'm skipping L for now because I really, really want to see Lighthouse and I'm holding out hope that my lovely small city will get it next weekend. This is a Netflix original from a few years back where a pair of brothers come back home to see their dying mother. Also there are their stepfather and 2 half brothers. There's some intruige around an inheritance, and things quickly escalate into kind of a home invasion movie. There's some pretty solid twists and turns here, although I don't quite get the last twist at the end. One note though is to skip the trailers, there's a pretty clever twist midway through that the trailer goes and shows you. 15: November ABCs: N Challenge 5: Tourist Trap I feel pretty sure that I've never seen anything from Estonia before so this should count. This is one of those movies I want to like more than I did, but it's actually grown on me a bit over the last couple nights since watching it. It's got that fable quality a lot of eastern European stuff does, and it is absolutely gorgeous in super saturated black and white. The story is a bit meandering, but if you like that sort of dreamlike Bergman feel this is a pretty solid choice.
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Oct 21, 2019 17:33
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Writeup time. I had a Saturday of hell so I didn't get as much movie time in as I would have liked. 9) The Night Stalker (1972, Blu-Ray) The movie that spawned the series Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and then went on to inspire the X-Files. It was a made for TV movie about the titular Kolchak investigating a vampire in Las Vegas. I enjoyed it a lot and Darren McGavin is a treat as always. I think the biggest weakness is that the vampire lore just seemed worn out to me, but I'm also in 2019, this may have very well been new ground in 1972. It made me wish that there were more vampire movies in modern times that are more like the classical monster than these humanized things we have come to know in the last few decades. Score: 4/5 10) Crawl (2019, Blu-Ray) During a hurricane an alligator terrorizes a father and daughter. I didn't expect this to be a mostly 2 person film taking place nearly entirely in a crawlspace. IT was very effective that way though, and flooding worked pretty well as a timer. My bigger complaint is that the crawlspace setting would have been more effective if it didn't seem like more of an unfinished basement, it just didn't feel claustrophobic enough. Score: 4/5
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Oct 21, 2019 17:49
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Franchescanado posted:
My hint for this challenge is to look to Hong Kong horror, as there's usually a ghost or wizard thrown in somewhere with the main physical threat.
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Oct 21, 2019 17:59
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Anonymous Robot posted:I’ll save y’all challengers some time and let you know that Sadako vs Kayako is not nearly as fun as you’d think, though there are like fifteen minutes of dope poo poo in there towards the end. I've not seen it, but does it top this promotion they did for it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHqWHD9hqG8
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Oct 21, 2019 18:02
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Which terrible SyFy giant monster vs movie should I sit through?
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Oct 21, 2019 18:05
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Retro Futurist posted:Which terrible SyFy giant monster vs movie should I sit through? Just watch almost any Godzilla movie.
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Oct 21, 2019 18:06
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duz posted:I've not seen it, but does it top this promotion they did for it? The best part of the movie is that the protagonist’s response to ghosts in a house is, if I remember right, to like blast them with shrapnel grenades from outside. But the movie doesn’t pop like that for very much of the runtime, it’s a lot of flashbacks and stuff.
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Oct 21, 2019 18:16
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 23 Trigger Man (2007) [Delaware] Three friends from New York go to the Delawarean woods to hunt, only to become hunted themselves. This is ultra-low budget, filmed on a shaky camcorder, inaudible dialog, zero character development and 15 minutes worth of plot stretched to 80. The vast majority of the movie consists of people slowly walking around in silence and could easily skip the first 30 minutes and not miss anything at all. The only thing it has going for it is the cool setting in the second half (an abandoned factory on a river in the woods) and some (very brief) decent gore effects. The main reason this movie is noteworthy is that it is directed by (native Delawarean) Ti West, two years before he did The House of the Devil.  24 The Beast Within (1982) [Mississippi] A couple get into a car accident in the boonies, when the man gets help the woman gets raped. 17 years later their child suddenly gets severely ill. To find out what could be the cause the parents travel back to the small town the incident occurred in. This one starts rough with a rape and a brutal dog death in the first few minutes. However, the subsequent investigation and weirdness that occurs is pretty intriguing. The small southern town and the surrounding swamps make for a good setting. The finale has some excellent body horror and monster action (even though despite an exposition dump at the end the plot doesn’t really make much sense) but then right at the end the movie fucks it all up by ending on another rape scene. I was enjoying it quite a bit until then but that scene just ruins it.  25 The Boneyard (1991) [North Carolina] You would expect a movie that has a character named Ms. Poopinplatz and where a key scene of the finale is a fat woman trying to squeeze through a small opening while being pursued by a gigantic zombie poodle to be a comedy. You’d be wrong. After a comedic opening scene, the next half hour is plodding set-up dealing with topics such as depression, child murder and suicide, fun! When the poo poo hits the fan things do get interesting. The initial set of monsters, a bunch of Asian zombie children, are genuinely quite frightening and it’s interesting to see this concept in a movie before J-horror really became a thing. The subsequent monsters, while cool on their own, seem to belong in a totally different movie. The result is tonal mess where the sum sadly doesn’t live up to the cool individual parts.
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Oct 21, 2019 18:26
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Franchescanado posted:Yes. I was just a little slow at the beginning of the month posting them. I watched five movies last weekend to keep pace with the challenges. Guess I'm watching seven this weekend. Anonymous Robot posted:I’ll save y’all challengers some time and let you know that Sadako vs Kayako is not nearly as It also ends right when it's getting interesting and nothing is resolved.
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Oct 21, 2019 18:41
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 23. Rabies - Scream Stream A serial killer crosses paths with a brother and sister, a group of friends, some park rangers, and two corrupt cops in a forest in Israel. I want to like Rabies, i really do. It feels like someone trying to do the Coen Brothers but thinking the bleak absurdist violence is what makes Coens movies great instead of, y'know, good writing and people to care about. This is a series of accidental collisions and misunderstandings that escalate into death and mayhem, but it's not funny enough to compete with the fact it's not saying anything valuable beyond "maybe mankind is the REAL monster." Everyone in this movie sucks except for Rona and Adi and I didn't ultimately care about anything that was happening. There are flashes of silliness that hint at what could have been, but instead it was "Assholes kill each other in the woods" in a way that left me feeling bored and annoyed mostly. ASSASSINATION NATION or DON'T BREATHE or YOU'RE NEXT are better ways to do this. CW - sexual violence and a dog dies 2 out of 5 human rights violations
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Oct 21, 2019 19:00
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#11 - One Cut of the Dead (2018) Heh heh, that was cute. Millionth-ing all the "go in blind" comments. Honestly, even referring to the movie as "cute" is probably giving too much away, good lord this movie relies hard on its formal trick.
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Oct 21, 2019 19:56
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 SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #6: Sometimes They Come Back Watch a horror remake you haven't seen.#28: Suspiria (2018)  I'm glad I waited a little bit before watching this instead of doing it immediately after watching the original, like I had planned. It gave me some time to think about the original masterpiece by Dario Argento, which I absolutely loved. I didn't think it would be possible for a remake to improve upon something already so unique and colorful, while simultaneously being pitch black. I was wrong. This is one of the best remakes I have ever seen. Period. It's fascinating to see a director take the basic concept (American girl gets accepted into prestigious German dance academy that happens to be run by witches) and go in a completely different direction with it while still paying tribute to its roots. It helped a lot that Argento helped write the screenplay. This 2018 version doesn't have the inspired lighting design and Goblin soundtrack that made the original so unique; instead it has Tilda Swinton, Tilda Swinton, and Tilda Swinton. She plays three different roles, and she gets to go full Swinton in each one of them. Dakota Johnson is fantastic as Susie, who must actually know how to dance because the girl can seriously move. That's another thing I really appreciated about this remake that the original didn't do much with: it's a dance academy, and it prominently features dancing front and center in a way that makes sense to further the plot. One scene in particular involves Susie taking control of the leading role in one dance studio, with her movements controlling another woman's body who is trapped in a hidden studio room elsewhere, effectively snapping her into a horrifying pretzel like a living voodoo doll. Holy poo poo. I also liked the subtle hint at what was to come in the finale, when Susie pulled on those black gloves before going down to the final ritual. I took it as a nod to the original spirit of the giallo style, considering there was no evil stranger in black gloves murdering girls in this version, and instead it was Susie who was the real witch all along. loving amazing twist, I loved it. The original wasn't really all that scary, and doesn't even feature much of the supernatural witchcraft until the end of the final act. Not so here; the remake is much darker (both literally and figuratively) and leans hard into the supernatural elements very early on. The ending is loving insane. It subverts expectations (especially if you've seen the original) and tosses out so many holy poo poo moments so fast that my mouth was hanging open for a solid ten minutes. Also, it was cool to see a small cameo by Jessica Harper who played the original Susie. That was a nice touch. This remake was fantastic and I can't recommend it enough. 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; Profondo Rossa aka Deep Red; Body Melt; Suspiria (2018) (Challenge #6) Total: 28 e: vvvvvvvv 
T3hRen3gade fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Oct 21, 2019 |
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Oct 21, 2019 20:28
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SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #6: SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK #21 Suspiria 2018 Prime This is yet another modern classic. Suspiria is phenomenal. I haven’t seen the original, but I’m all but certain that this is an improvement. The pacing is lean and respectful, and the script rarely feels indulgent, which is saying a lot for a nearly three hour picture. I was prepared for Suspiria to use its West German setting as aesthetic window dressing, and pleased to find that it was quite the opposite; this is a movie that is centrally and seriously concerned with its political context, and examines the struggle of the Red Army Faction, and the vacuum that we in the west now occupy in the wake of RAF and groups like them, with savage honesty. Suspiria reaches a height that horror attains more regularly than any other genre- it allows us to view our own tribulations and hardships more clearly by using distortion and excess to make them fresh to us. On top of that, there’s nothing pretentious or stodgy about it, either. Suspiria gives the viewer buckets of blood, good scares, and witch action of every flavor. This is an all-time great. 5/5
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Oct 21, 2019 20:48
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Questions I am forced to ask sometimes: How do I mod film posters with prominent chest vaginas?
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Oct 21, 2019 20:50
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Anonymous Robot posted:This is yet another modern classic. Suspiria is phenomenal. I haven’t seen the original, but I’m all but certain that this is an improvement. It's apples and oranges, they are very different films. The remake does not attempt to recreate or improve on the original at all.
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Oct 21, 2019 20:50
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Franchescanado posted:Questions I am forced to ask sometimes:   It took me a bit to decide if you mean "mod" as in modify or moderate, and "posters" as in movie posters or forum posters, but I think i got it. Somebody fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Oct 21, 2019 |
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Oct 21, 2019 20:55
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Gripweed posted:
So then you kept in the nipples? smdh
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Oct 21, 2019 21:00
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Franchescanado posted:Questions I am forced to ask sometimes: gently caress it.
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Oct 21, 2019 21:00
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Weekend catch-up time. Was feeling pretty bleh all weekend, so spent part of it watching old 80s horror movies I'd already seen plenty of times before (so it wouldn't hurt if I zoned out during them). #25. A Nightmare on Elm Street, Part 3: Dream Warriors (Vudu) A group of teens at a psych facility are under attack by Freddy Krueger in their dreams. However, with the help of new psychiatrist Nancy Thompson from the first movie, they discover that they can fight back against Freddy with special dream superpowers. Can the Dream Warriors manage to defeat Freddy on his home turf? So, I know this is a transitional film, between the smaller scale, more "realistic" set ups of Nightmares 1 and 2, and the larger scale, more fantastical set-piece driven sequels of 4 onward. But that just means that this film sits in a weird limbo state, where they spend a lot of time loafing around and talking in the psych hospital, followed by Freddy doing a more high-concept attack against the kids, but set in non-descript back alleys or random hallways. It's a weird mishmash of styles and I don't think it ends up working all that well. I've written before about how little I care for Heather Langenkamp as the lead in Nightmare 1, and she isn't much better here. Fortunately, she is in it less. I can't say the same for the other characters, who are all annoying and all so drat talkative. At least Robert Englund and John Saxon are good, even if Saxon also transparently doesn't want to be here. But he got to fight a Jason and the Argonauts-style stop motion skeleton, so it couldn't have been all bad. I know this film gets a lot of love from fans in general, and it has a couple of the series' best death scenes. I just don't think it hangs together all that well, or is terribly interesting for long stretches of time. /5 #26. Chopping Mall (Shudder) A mall of the future unveils a trio of robot security guards to protect their stores... which promptly go haywire and start murdering mall workers and a group of teens who were just trying to party. I just wanted something fun and colorful, and Chopping Mall certainly delivers on that front. It knows exactly what it is, and just jumps to give you all of the sub-Dalek antics that "killer-robo-tank mall-security-guards" should conjure up. Plus, it's got a whole bunch of random cameos and bit parts, and I'd never say no to Dick Miller showing up in something just to get electrocuted to death. It's not a good movie, though it knows enough to not try and be one either. Recommended. /5 #27. Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers (IFC on YouTube TV) Michael Myers returns to Haddonfield in search of the son of Jamie Lloyd, who is now under the protection of Tommy Doyle and the rest of the Strode family. Will a group of non-descript cultists help Michael finally kill his last living family member? Watched on IFC, which means uncut but full of commercial breaks. Worse than watching a regular uncut copy without breaks, which is itself substantially worse than not watching at all. A mess of a film. It looks okay, but the script is all over the place and you can tell where people were hacking this thing to the bone to try to work around the dozens of bad ideas getting fronted left and right. No one has ever cared about the "Cult of Thorn" garbage, so trying to shoe-horn even more of that crap here just gets old super fast. You can also tell this is a 90s production, since no one ever needed to hear John Carpenter's moody piano-and-synth score from the original "improved" by playing it back with sick guitar licks, brah. There's one or two cool kill scenes, but you're better off just searching those out on YouTube, rather than trying to sit through this whole pile of trash. Avoid like the plague. /5Watched so far: The Curse of Frankenstein, Villains, Horror of Dracula, You're Next, House on Haunted Hill (1959), Halloween 4, Army of Darkness, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), The Fly (1986), Joker, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Beyond the Gates, The First Purge, Rodan, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Halloween II (1981), The Addams Family (2019), The Mummy (1932), Jason X, It Stains the Sands Red, The Invisible Man (1933), Zombieland, Terrified, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, Chopping Mall, Halloween 6
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Oct 21, 2019 21:02
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Franchescanado posted:So then you kept in the nipples? smdh I'm gonna be honest, I was so fixated on the chest vagina I didn't even notice the nipples
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Oct 21, 2019 21:04
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Anonymous Robot posted:gently caress it. ...L...Literally? 
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Oct 21, 2019 21:07
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Franchescanado posted:...L...Literally? Via pulsating video cassette tape.
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Oct 21, 2019 21:17
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 13:58 |
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 Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers Halloween 4 and 5 were first starting to appear on yearly horror t.v. marathons when I was growing up. So to me, they are part of the nightmare. Part of Michael's original reign of terror. The opening scenes are a bit awkward, Jamie Lloyd lives with her foster family and the whole dynamic there could've been better/more genuine. But once Michael starts doing his thing the movie has a good momentum to it and Danielle Harris was one of the better child actresses of her generation. It's easy to root for her and she even lends some of that quality to Rachel, who kinda works as a main protagonist but also is a bit bland. Balancing out any blandness is of course Dr. Loomis, and I guess Pleasence is really the main thing that gave these movies a feeling of continuity. Because goddamn, the Michael mask sure as hell wasn't doing it. I really do not like this mask, it's featureless to the extreme and they just went too far in that direction. Overall though there's enough here to recommend if you enjoyed the first two films. And I'd say the same about Halloween 5 as well...  Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers A pretty direct continuation of Halloween 4, but this is the one where we really start down the path of the whole Samhain/cult stuff that people have so many strong opinions about. I'll discuss that a bit more in the next entry but personally it's not something I ever had a problem with. We're four sequels in here people, accept that some new ideas were gonna be brought into the mix. And the whole Samhain thing is just cool, who doesn't love Samhain? We all loved the Real Ghostbusters character didn't we? Anyway, Loomis is back and apparently Pleasence actually broke the dude's nose when he filmed the scene where Loomis beats Michael with a 2X4. The old man still had some of the magic in him. And one benefit of this being such a direct sequel is that a few of the characters return and you get to have some more emotional deaths because we've invested a little more in the characters(see also: Zombie's Halloween 2). So there's really no reason to skip this one if you watched Halloween 4, may as well consider them parts of the same story. Watched: 1. Child's Play(1988) 2. Child's Play(2019) 3. VHS: Viral 4. Tales From the Crypt 5. (SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #1)Viy 6. House of Frankenstein 7. Van Helsing 8. The Shining 9. Salem's Lot 10. Poltergeist 2: The Other Side 11. Pumpkinhead 2: Blood Wings 12. The Ravenous 13. Alucarda 14. Horror of Dracula 15. Dracula: Prince of Darkness 16. Midsommar 17. Candyman 18. Hellraiser 19. An American Werewolf in London 20. Bad Moon 21. Prince of Darkness 22. The Fog 23. (SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #2)House of 1000 Corpses 24. The Devil's Rejects 25. 3 From Hell 26. (SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #4)Crawl 27. (SAMHAIN CHALLENGE# 3) Ganja & Hess 28. Aenigma 29. City of the Living Dead 30. Halloween 31. Halloween II 32. Halloween III 33. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers 34. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
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Oct 21, 2019 21:17
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