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Fran Challenge: Short Cuts Because I'm extra, I'm doing horror cinema (that I haven't seen before) in chronological order. A Terrible Night (1896) - 1 mins Directed by Georges Méliès https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmQmZw4YP24 A very early Méliès featuring a sleeping man being crawled upon by a puppet spider, the man then attacks the spider with a broom. Fin. It's very cute, but it's clear that Méliès is still exploring and learning his craft here. 3/5 A Nightmare (1896) - 1 min Directed by Georges Méliès https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEdh-6_ZwE4 A man experiences a nightmare, in which the world transforms and twists around him in magical ways, and we begin to see more of who Méliès would later become. There are two notable things about this, first, this appears to be a dress rehearsal for Méliès' later film The Astronomers Dream, which is almost identical if not for the improved effects. Second, it also appears to be the first instance of blackface on-screen, unfortunately. 1/5 The Hallucinated Alchemist (1897) - 2 mins Directed by Georges Méliès https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcBCh8qxT-w I think this would be my favourite film if I were alive in 1897. The camera is static, but there's so much vibrancy and drama and magic on screen. The basic plot is of an alchemist being tormented by his chameleonic creation, a homunculus, maybe? Very cute and humourous, and evidence that horror needn't be scary, it can be whimsical and fantastic too. 5/5 The X-Ray Fiend (1897) - 1 min Directed by George Albert Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gMCkFRMJQQ A couple canoodling on a bench are peeped upon by an x-ray camera, revealing their ghoulish skeletons! The man then gets a little too fresh and is abandoned by the woman. Maybe the first rape-revenge film, if you want to stretch definitions to incredulity. 3.5/5 The Dancing Skeleton (1897) - 1 min Directed by Louis and Auguste Lumiere https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85ea9NB2y6I Credited as the first animation, it's somewhat strange to me as it's clearly a puppet being moved with strings. Perhaps I'm missing something? Either way, it's a cute dancing skeleton. What more do you want?  3/5 The Devil in a Convent (1899) - 3 mins Directed by Georges Méliès https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-1a8N6Bq5Y This is basically Ken Russell's The Devils, right? The devil appears in a convent, letting loose all manner of mischief. This is more like Méliès in full swing, as the first magician of cinema, the Zack Snyder of his time, if you will. 4/5 Maple Leaf Viewing (1899) - 6 mins Directed by Tsunekichi Shibata https://meiji.filmarchives.jp/works/01_play.html "A reel was shot of the Noh drama Momiji-gari (Maple Leaf Hunters, or Viewing Scarlet Maple Leaves), in which Danjuro played opposite Onoe Kikugoro V (1844-1903) as an ogress who has disguised herself as the Princess Sarashina." The film begins with an exquisite display of Japanese fan dancing, in fact, the bulk of the film is traditional Noh dancing, the nuances of which are completely lost on me as a layman, or laywoman? As someone who gets laid? The short culminates with a great battle between two swordsmen, one of whom looks extremely demonic, twirling a long main of hair, that looks something between a whip and a great fountain of blood. It's hard to comment on something so unfamiliar beyond surface impressions, but it was very beautiful and visually dramatic at least. 4/5 Davey Jones’ Locker (1900) - 1 min Directed by Frederick S. Armitage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKi0ygCEo6M It's the skeleton dance, but now with a backdrop of a ship. Maybe technically the first kaiju film? At a stretch? Regardless of how simplistic it is, it's definitely a successful experiment. 3/5 Faust and Marguerite (1900) - 1 min Directed by Edwin S. Porter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXRueUYaadg A poor and confusing impression of Méliès' style, though at least it shows the spread of ideas. The plot doesn't really relate to Faust at all, but there is some form of a struggle over the heart of a woman, involving teleportation. It's an Edison film, and going through early cinema has taught me that Edison labs are a bunch of hacks mainly, so not too much of a surprise. 2/5 Uncle Josh in a Spooky Hotel (1900) - 1 min Directed by Edwin S. Porter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rflFdWP7lqk A ghost irritates two easily angered men into fighting, before scaring one away and taking their place. Again, not up to par with what's happening in Europe, but at least there's comedic potential here. 2.5/5 Turn-of-the-Century Surgery (1900) - 2 mins Directed by Alice Guy-Blaché https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc26VmL4rYo Several surgeons perform their art on an unsuspecting 4.5/5 Explosion of a Motor Car (1900) - 1 min Directed by Cecil M. Hepworth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHYb0D1PPv0 The first film today to actually get an audible belly laugh out of me. A car races down a street, only to explode, and the investigating policeman is showered with falling gore and body parts. Just wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. 4.5/5 How It Feels to Be Run Over (1900) - 1 min Directed by Cecil M. Hepworth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAxuOygjr_0 After the absolute triumph of Explosion of a Motor Car, I had far too high hopes for this, especially given the title, and while it's nowhere near as good, it's fun enough. We have a static shot of a car approaching, and the immortal words of "Oh, mother will be pleased!" It's cute enough though, I can't hate. 3/5 The Haunted Curiosity Shop (1901) - 2 mins Directed by Walter R. Booth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKV7YK_hzBk An old man is haunted by a ghost who turns themselves into a black lady in order to scare them? Honestly, it's well-done and kind of cute in parts, but I'm far too much of a sensitive baby for this era sometimes. 1/5 The Devil and the Statue (1901) - 2 mins Directed by Georges Méliès https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJVlZ9rF50s This is remarkably restrained for Méliès, with fewer quick effects, instead focussing on beautiful sets and the growing effect. It also tells a much more straightforward story of a devil appearing and being vanquished. It's fine. 4/5 Bluebeard (1901) - 10 mins Directed by Georges Méliès https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg_nWW-TgFg A 10-minute long film!? It's absolutely indulgent of Méliès to think people would wish to sit in a cinema for a whole 10 minutes. What's next, a 20-minute director's cut!? This is the classic Blue Beard tale of marriage and forbidden rooms, only now with the benefit of a large cast, multiple gorgeous sets, and effects used more sparingly to advance the story. That's right, this feels like an actual film! And it's kind of wonderful. There's also a wonderful scene in which Blue Beard manhandles his wife, and she's briefly exchanged for a ragdoll, and dragged around hilariously. 4.5/5 The Treasures of Satan (1902) - 3 mins Directed by Georges Méliès https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jTPLQ5L4ms But aren't the real treasures of Satan the friends we made along the way? This is a return to the Méliès of the 1890s, with lots of quickfire effects, little plot, but now a gymnast! Eh. It's fine. 3/5 The Infernal Cauldron (1903) - 2 mins Directed by Georges Méliès https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgBiAF8ZHT8 Two devils cook a person in a cauldron, releasing spirits in the process. There's some nice experimentation with colourising the film, but nothing much else to comment upon. 3/5 Faust and Mephistopheles (1903) - 2 mins Directed by Alice Guy-Blaché https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAr0434PgsY A quite comprehensive, though obviously extremely truncated, telling of Faust. It's quite mesmerising how Guy-Blanché has woven the story with the effects in such a seamless and beautiful way. It's also notable how sensuous and erotic the film is in parts, which is an aspect not often touched upon in film up until this point, and when it was, it was often very clumsy with a male gaze. 4.5/5 The Mistletoe Bough (1904) - 3 mins Directed by Percy Stow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io1HkQ2hNA8 A very cute film about the hide-and-seek world champ. A newlywed woman hides in a chest, and there she lays undiscovered for 30-years until a premonition persuades her partner to seek out her body. The conclusion is quite sad, but the story and execution here are remarkably simple. It's fine. Apparently, there's a 9-minute version out there, but it currently eludes me. 3/5 The Merry Frolics of Satan (1906) - 20 mins Directed by Georges Méliès https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MqjjOViD0E The plot here seems reminiscent of The Hallucinated Alchemist, as we follow the many tribulations of a magician until of course, that magician reveals himself to be Satan. We then veer off into a magical fantasy journey of circus exploits, and practical humour, all with Satan in pursuit. The film is tremendously cute and inventive, it's also nice to see that Méliès' experiments in colourisation have reached a very convincing quality, and the sets equally are mesmerisingly beautifully. Can you tell I'm exhausted? It good. 4.5/5 Official: 9/13 X-Files: 23/x Fran Challenges: 2/13 Debbie Does Dagon fucked around with this message at 23:03 on May 22, 2021 |
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May 22, 2021 22:58
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I love you, Deb.
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May 22, 2021 23:24
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You're not too bad yourself 
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May 22, 2021 23:32
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Definitely going to add a bunch of those filmsto my watcch list for the short cut challenge
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May 22, 2021 23:34
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If you watch nothing else, watch Explosion of a Motor Car, it's delightful.
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May 22, 2021 23:43
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 34. I Saw the Devil (Kim Jee-woon, 2010) I have mixed feelings about this "consumed by revenge" story. Jang Kyung-chul is a school bus driver and serial killer. The movie opens with him murdering a woman who was stuck with a flat tire. It is brutal, and he dismembers her body and gets rid of the pieces. However, a kid later finds an ear while playing near a stream, and an investigation beings. Of course, Kyung-chul didn't count on being hunted by Kim Soo-hyun, an NIS agent who vows revenge, as the woman who got fridged in the opening minutes was his pregnant fiancee (btw the whole movie is full of women who exist pretty much only to be kidnapped, tortured, raped, murdered, or some/all of the above). Soo-hyun eventually finds Kyung-chul when he's about to rape and murder a girl who rode his bus, and after an incredible fight in a greenhouse, our protagonist (???) chooses to knock out the killer, shove a GPS down his throat, and leave a letter on his unconscious body basically saying that he's going to make his life hell. This becomes a bit of repetitive business (the movie is 2.5hrs) as the killer goes somewhere, murders more people or does other awful things, and then the hero shows up to, uhh, beat him up some more and then let him get away and continue doing terrible things. It lost me a bit here because the hero's choices are so stupid - if you're that consumed by a desire for revenge, get your revenge, already! Instead, his nonsensical toying with the killer lead to numerous murders, including the father and sister of the dead fiancee from the beginning. Nice work, you dopey poo poo. In the end, our killer is tied up in his own guillotine, while our hero leads the killer's elderly parents, and his estranged son, to the warehouse he's tied up, and when they open the door the guillotine drops. I guess they deserved to be totally traumatized for no reason. Anyway, despite all of my problems with the script, it's a beautifully shot film with some truly awesome sequences that made it worth watching... but god did it ever irritate me.  3.5/5At this point, I just have to do one more Fran Challenge (the MOTM one - probably going to watch The Cremator), and watch Hangover Square to complete the top 50 from indiewire's top 100 horror movies of all time list. Challenge Count: 34/31 Fran Challenges: TSZDT Challenge: 100/100 Indiewire Challenge: 49/50 (Remaining: Hangover Square) Debbie Does Dagon posted:Explosion of a Motor Car (1900) - 1 min lmao
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May 22, 2021 23:51
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The Berzerker posted:
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May 22, 2021 23:54
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STAC Goat posted:Thank you for confirming my long held suspicions that I should not watch this film. It's a good movie but it is really intense and the og poster makes some good points about the film. I overall really enjoyed it.
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May 22, 2021 23:59
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Judging from Berzerker's review I feel comfort saying I'd loath the film.
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May 23, 2021 00:03
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STAC Goat posted:Judging from Berzerker's review I feel comfort saying I'd loath the film. I feel like I know your tastes and boundaries fairly well at this point, and yeah, I don't think you would have a good time. I do agree that it's a good movie though! I mean I gave it a 3.5 despite hating the script which says a lot for the quality of the overall filmmaking. But goddamn I was wandering around the house ranting about it afterwards.
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May 23, 2021 00:09
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God I love those early Melies and Melies-esque shorts. Seeing filmmakers literally figuring out how to make movies is incredible.
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May 23, 2021 00:30
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Spatulater bro! posted:God I love those early Melies and Melies-esque shorts. Seeing filmmakers literally figuring out how to make movies is incredible. I know, right? I thought maybe I wouldn't get anything out of the Actualities, why would a 4-second film of a man turning a corner be interesting? But it's amazing placing yourself in the shoes of these pioneers and watching them learn how to crawl, then walk, and at last run. It's also wonderful getting to know some of the early performers, like Loie Fuller who innovated the Serpentine dance and pops up in numerous places.
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May 23, 2021 00:50
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Debbie Does Dagon posted:Explosion of a Motor Car (1900) - 1 min lol that was funnier than I expected, the way he just casually inspects severed limbs and jots stuff down in his notebook made me laugh
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May 23, 2021 00:58
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20. The Retreat 2021 Renee and Valerie fight off homophobes and strengthen their relationship during a stay at a retreat I'll now proceed with my spoilery part of the review because I need to gush about this film for a second and can't do that without spoiling: an openly-queer You're Next written and directed by a gay and starring lesbians portraying lesbians, where there's no queer death depicted onscreen, the straights/killers get their asses thoroughly kicked, the lesbians triumph, And the "bury your gays" trope gets told explicitly to gently caress off? gently caress yeah. I'll forgive occasionally-bad acting and unoriginality in twists (the straights hijacked the retreat location and turned it into a livestream session for sickos like themselves on the dark web? Could have been interesting if I'd never seen the Unfriended sequel, which I'd also say is worth a watch) along the way. Completely. In a heartbeat! I do not for a minute care. I have wanted this poo poo since i was a kid! Very biased five star ***** 20/13 (The New York Ripper, Gwen, Sleepless Beauty, The Head Hunter, 13: Game of Death, Deerskin, Curve, The Incredible Melting Man, Starry Eyes, Eyes Without a Face, In the Earth, Macabre 1958, Macabre 1980, Oxygen 2021, The Djinn 2021, Wer, Spiral: From the Book of Saw, Moonstalker, Army of the Dead 2021, The Retreat 2021)
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May 23, 2021 01:07
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gey muckle mowser posted:lol that was funnier than I expected, the way he just casually inspects severed limbs and jots stuff down in his notebook made me laugh It kind of reminded me of the beginning of Nekromantik, which is a connection I didn't expect to make
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May 23, 2021 01:52
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 - (47). The Invisible Man (1933) Directed by James Whale, Screenplay by R.C. Sherriff, Based on The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells Watched on Svengoolie Svengoolie Episodes: 6/13 Did you know the Invisible Man's girlfriend was old Rose in Titanic? Svengoolie teaches things. This is a film I first saw just two years ago but have seen it half a dozen times or more since then. I absolutely love it and can watch it casually on autopilot like I did today just kind of reciting lines under my breath as I do chores and then subconsciously timing my actions for the really great scenes I know are coming. Claude Rains is an absolute marvel and in many ways both the most human Universal monster and the most monstrous of them. Whale has such a wonderful dry sense of humor that makes the entire film so much fun and that Rains adds such a manic devilishness to it as he quickly detoriates mentally. Una O’Connor is an absolute delight. A lowkey favorite to me is William Harrigan as Rains’ spineless, pathetic assistant who is introduced to us by him boorishly hitting on Rains’ girlfriend as she’s overtly disgusted by him and tells him to go away forever. He’s just this contemptible slime ball that the movie doesn’t even try and make us like or sympathize with, serving as this curious foil for the Invisible Man. IM is unquestionably more evil than this idiot but at least he’s fun and a victim of his own experiments. This other guy’s just an rear end in a top hat and there’s something amusing about watching the monster torture him. Honestly, Una kind of fits that role as well. I love her but she’s of course this nagging, shrieking overbearing landlord. Whale is very particular to make sure that Griffin’s most visible victims are comedic characters who kind of deserve it so you can feel comfortable just enjoying it. And the guy who’s pants he stole was a cop so that checks out. All of course until Griffin is reunited with his girlfriend who is holding on to the hope that she can get the man she loved back until Griffin shows that whoever he was before the experiments is tragically gone and he’s truly lost his mind. That’s I think a very key and powerful scene because it makes the Invisible Man’s antics less fun and more truly monstrous. After that he starts killing and the serious attempts to stop him rise and the comedy dies down. But all peaks at a moment that’s perfectly blended with the madcap comedic energy and the deranged psycho energy Rains is bringing. ”Even the moon's frightened of me! Frightened to death! The whole world's frightened to death!” God I love this movie. The ending of the film is always interesting. Someone joined me for the last 15 minutes of the film and had never seen the film and they were surprised at how small the finale was. And they weren’t wrong but I had to explain how rally its intentional. That after all of Griffins delusions of godlike powers, him doing monstrous acts of murder and derailing trains. All of his ranting of being so much more than a man he’s ultimately defeated not by some clever scheme or epic fight but by his basic human need to sleep. Its done in more of a snarky, dryly humorous way and it just works perfectly for me as part of the whole picture. Even if that’s hard to sell to someone who just showed up at the end. Also this episode of Svengoolie includes a pretty lady sax solo which just confirms that The Invisible Man is the absolute coolest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2quUXHOSp5k&t=137s  43 (48). Scanners (1981) Written and directed by David Cronenberg Watched on Deb's Bracketology stream and HBO Max The entire first act of this film feels intentionally designed to introduce you to a compelling villain in Michael Ironside all so that he can complete disappear for the rest of the film as you follow a pretty boring dude follow a string of conspiracy exposition clues for like an hour before Ironside shows back up to finish the movie with some flare. After another extended exposition conversation. I don’t vibe Cronenberg truthfully. I find his stuff very cold and alienating. He’s got a fascination with the idea of humans being experimented on or evolving into other forms of life, that always end up murdering and sometimes raping. It could be a deep distrust in medicine and science that makes him see it all as evil and butcher like but as a friend watching the film with me said there aren’t necessarily “good” or “evil” in a lot of Cronenberg films, just “subjects”. And that’s definitely how Cronenberg feels to me. Like his own mad scientist who just sees all his characters and their silly concerns and lives and sexual agency or whatever as interesting test subjects. And I mean, I certainly have no reason to think that mirrors his view of humanity or anything but it creates these very alien film moods that turn me away. Now this wasn’t the most guilt of his films of that kind of thing. There’s actually fairly defined “good guys” and “bad guys”, although the “good guys” murder and have sketchy connections to shady conspiracies that include experimenting on women’s bodies and pregnancies without their knowledge… whoops… there’s that thing again. But this is about as straight a “good vs evil” layout as I’ve seen from him. But its not that deeply invested in that but more in its very elaborate and seemingly shaky conspiracy. I say seemingly because truthfully, I zoned out during a few of the extended, stacked exposition conversation scenes. Its just paced in a very deliberate way and you get this nonstop list of clues and steps to the point where it all kind of started to feel silly to me. I dunno. There just doesn’t feel like there’s a whole lot here. There’s two good gore affects bookmarking the film. There’s a strong antagonist that is barely in the film. There’s a love interest who kind of just shows up in the third act. Then there’s a very poor lead performance and a long chain of conspiracy. If you like that 70s/80s sci fi/ESP shadowy government conspiracy stuff… then yeah, maybe this is your thing. But its really, really, really not my thing and the film didn’t really have much of anything else. 🌻🎈Spook-A-Doodle Half-Way-To-Halloween ’21: Return of the Fallen & King Spring🎈🌻 King Spring: 9/13🎈Return of the Fallen: 8/13👻Fran Challenges: 8/13🐺Svengoolie: 6/13 Watched - New (Total) 1. Riding the Bullet (2004); 2. Cat’s Eye (1985); - (3). Vampires vs. the Bronx (2020); - (4). The Thing (1982); 3 (5). Sleep Tight (2011); - (6). Dark Shadows (2012); 4 (7). The Wicker Man (1973); 5 (8). Varan (1958); 6 (9). The Roost (2005); 7 (10). The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007); 8 (11). The Leech Woman (1960); 9 (12). Sometimes They Come Back (1991); 10 (13). Varan the Unbelievable (1962); 11 (14). 1922 (2017); 12 (15). What Keeps You Alive (2018); 13 (16). On the Silver Globe (1988); 14 (17). The Phantom of the Opera (1998); 15 (18). Nina Forever (2015); 16 (19). Area 51 (2015); 17 (20). Carrie (2002); 18 (21). The Stylist (2016)/Stucco (2019)/He Took His Skin Off for Me (2014)/Zygote (2017); 19 (22). Mark of the Vampire (1935); 20 (23). Tigers Are Not Afraid (2017); 21 (23). Death Walks on High Heels (1971); 22 (24). Maniac (1980); - (25). The Beast with Five Fingers (1946); - (26). Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954); 23 (27). Summer Camp (2015); 24 (28). Man Made Monster (1941); 25 (29). Earth vs. the Spider (1958); 26 (30). Vampyr (1932); 27 (31). The Black Scorpion (1957); 28 (32). The Wild Boys (2017); 29 (33). City of the Living Dead (1980); 30 (34). We Are What We Are (2010); 31 (35). Mercy (2014); 32 (36). Baba Yaga: Terror of the Dark Forest (2020); 33 (37). Cell (2016); 34 (38). Sightseers (2012); 35 (39). Trucks (1997); 36 (40). Dead Hooker in a Trunk (2009); 37 (41). BloodRayne (2005); 38 (42). Big Driver (2014); 39 (43). The Body Snatcher (1945); 40 (44). Run (2020); 41 (45). Paganini Horror (1989); 42 (46). Army of the Dead (2021); - (47). The Invisible Man (1933); 43 (48). Scanners (1981); STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 04:21 on May 23, 2021 |
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May 23, 2021 04:15
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5. Scream (1996) Watched On: HBO Max A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a new killer, who targets the girl and her friends by using horror films as part of a deadly game. A classic. A favorite. One I've slotted into challenges many times over the years because it's something comfortable to reset me when I'm not exactly feeling the things coming up on my list. It also just happened to be a nice follow up with The Faculty. As usual, I'm left with a good feeling and memories of the Halloween season in the late 90s. One thought I'll go out on is how drat good the the villains are in Scream and none of the rest from the sequels come even close.  6. Scream 2 (1997)  Watched On: HBO Max Two years after the first series of murders, as Sidney acclimates to college life, someone donning the Ghostface costume begins a new string of killings. The survivors of the Woodsboro slayings are going to college! Scream 2 certainly gets a little more fanciful than Scream but I think it maintains a level of quality just a notch or so below it. The surviving characters have grown from their experiences (most of them anyway) and we get the addition of a newly free Cotton Weary who's out chasing his fifteen minutes of fame, which is one of my favorite parts of the movie. Another favorite thing of mine is the introduction of the slasher Franchise, Stab, based on the events of the first film. I also have to appreciate the effort in the story and in real life that was put in to try and keep the actual killers a mystery until the climax. There was a apparently a leaked ending that would have brought the series to an end that's kind of interesting and I'd be interested to get a peak into the world if they'd actually used it.  7. The Craft (1996)  Watched On: HBO Max A newcomer to a Catholic prep high school falls in with a trio of outcast teenage girls who practice witchcraft, and they all soon conjure up various spells and curses against those who anger them. Ok so maybe I'm on a Neve Campbell kick. I hadn't really sat through The Craft since the very late 90's and it was a treat. It's very late into the last shift of my week so I didn't watch with a super critical mind but I would love to read or watch any analysis on The Craft if anyone knows some good ones. Superficial stuff though, The Craft has so much atmosphere. There were times I was just lost admiring some of the sets and how lightning and thunder were used in scenes. I fully intend to come back around to The Craft when I'm less exhausted.  TheKingslayer fucked around with this message at 11:06 on May 23, 2021 |
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May 23, 2021 09:30
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21: The Phantom Carriage (1921) FC13. Horrible Holidays Happy New Year  The last person to die before the year ends has to serve as Reaper for the next year. As the midnight bells toll, Drunkard David Holm is killed and his soul is greeted by last year's Reaper, his old friend Georges. What follows is David's life story in flashbacks. We see the good times and the tragedies and mistakes that brought him to the point where we find him and this retelling forms the basis for his redemption. I was reminded a lot of A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life. The structure is interesting. We open on a sickly woman calling for David to come see her, like all her hopes depend on him but we only slowly learn why during the course of the story. The ghostly effects are very good for the time and the music on the copy I saw (from Criterion) was well made. It was I've heard a big influence on Ingmar Bergman's Seventh Seal. He also cast the lead actor, Victor Sjöström, in Wild Strawberries. I liked this film a lot. Here's Johnny!  Competed: 21 Four Flies on Grey Velevet; Gods and Monsters FC9; Alice, Sweet Alice, Witchfinder General; Street Trash; Cannibal Holocaust; C.H.U.D; Raw Force; In Search of Darkness 2; The Crazies (2010)FC2; Tigers are not Afraid FC5; Trilogy of Terror FC12; Smoke and Mirrors: The Story of Tom Savin FC10; Goodnight Mommy FC7; various FC1; Friday 13th (2009) FC3; The Lure FC11; Resident Evil: the Final Chapter FC6; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) FC4; Deep Red FC8; The Phantom Carriage FC13
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May 23, 2021 11:44
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 - (49). The Invisible Man Returns (1940) Written and directed by Joe May, co-written by Lester K. Cole, Curt Siodmak, and Cedric Belfrage Watched on Svengoolie Svengoolie Episodes: 7/13 You know what the weirdest part about this is? Vincent Price doesn’t really sound like Vincent Price. I mean you do hear that delightful horror legend every now and then, especially as Radcliffe starts to go mad. But its so early in Price’s career it seems like he hasn’t even really developed that amazing voice that is so memorable to any horror fan. It will be another 6 years before he does a horror film and nearly 20 before he truly has his career renaissance as the master of macabre we all know him as. Its kind of an amazing twist of fate that he’d be cast so long before that as an unknown in this Universal sequel of its classic. Now this really doesn’t hold a candle to Whale’s original and Claude Rains’ performance is impossible to match. But just being able to say that Vincent Price was next in line is something rally remarkable to look back on. Price may not yet be the Price we all know and love but he’s still the same man and there’s definite hints of that delightful madman as his Invisible Man begins to fall apart mentally just like Griffin did previously. This doesn’t really feel like a repeat of the first film in large part because we meet Griffin when he’s really already quite mad and never really have any idea of the man he was before that. But we meet Radcliffe just as he’s taken the formula and while he’s still the stable man he started as. But at the same time while that might be different its not nearly as interesting or fun. Instead of watching the Invisible Man torment Una O’Connor and dance about laughing we watch those floating clothes conducting a kind of half assed murder investigation. Its an interesting idea, to try and make the IM not a mad scientist or someone seeking power or anything but just a victim seeking justice for his murdered brother. But its not really that compelling a story and Price being invisible and all makes it hard for him to get us to really connect with this emotional journey. Still, this Invisible Man eventually begins to lose it just as the last one did and things get fun then. And here instead of him just running about like a comic book super villain or raucous teenager he sets out to solve that murder. And that’s… ok. Its a tough act to follow in many impossible ways. And they wisely try and go another way with it while holding onto some of what made the first one so good. And that stuff is probably the best of it. Price’s brief descent into madness is a great taste of the legend he’ll become decades later. The film we get isn’t a bad one really, but its nothing to really write home about. If it weren’t for the miracle casting and the novelty that brings historically I’m not sure there’d be much of anything to remember this film for sadly. But hey, we still have this interesting little piece of film history from the Universal era that gives us a sneak peak at the face of the next generation of horror to come. And it did lead to Price’s wonderful cameo in that wonderful farewell to the Universal era and great collection of stars in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Again, just a kind of amazing little lucky piece of fate in horror history.  44 (50). PG: Psycho Goreman (2020) Written and directed by Steven Kostanski Watched on AMC+, available on Shudder and Hoopla. Inside ever 12 year old is a raging psychopath. Meet Mimi. And inside every smoldering barely contained raging 12 year old Mimi’s imagination is a truly deranged and bizarre and yet weirdly wholesome monstrosity. Meet Psycho Goreman. That was a lot of fun. There’s some odd tonal things in the first act when the film suddenly shifts really sharply into see really excessive sci fi lore and universe building. I actually had to kind of rewind, take a break, and rewind again to shift gears and process it and became a little worried this film that had been delighting the hell out of me was gonna lose me. But as sharply as it jumped to a galaxy far, far away it jumped back to its “scary monster god in a small town with a scary monster 1 year old in charge of it” thing and got me back. I think it can pretty fairly be argued that it stretches out its ideas and story a little bit. It does feel like it takes a bit longer to get to all the places you know its gonna get than you think it should. For as offbeat and weirdly unique it is its also kind of oddly simple and traditional at its core. Like… it has a power of Love ending. Yes, its mocking that. But its also not. There’s an absolute sincerity to it under the juvenile snark and “frig off” attitude. Its the exact attitude of a 12 year old who says they don’t care about anyone or need anyone and that love is for losers but is still a little kid who absolutely needs the love of their family. Some people hate the performance of Nita-Josee Hanna as Mimi and some people just kind of tend to hate kids in movies (or you know, wherever). I’m absolutely not one of those people. Sure, I say they’re psychos but that’s just truth. Doesn’t mean I hold it against them. Their brains haven’t developed fully yet. And I loved Mimi. Yeah, she got to be too much at times but that’s very obviously the point. This movie isn’t really about Psycho Goreman. Its about the psycho 12 year old that named an evil god Psycho Goreman and basically unleashed hell on Earth for her own amusement. Mimi is the star of this film and she’s just kind of id of this film. She is that twisted part of every kid that Steven Kostanski managed to hold onto enough to create this monument to a child’s innocent psychopathy. People compare it to Troma and I honestly couldn’t disagree more. Troma is mean and nasty and edgelordy and offensive for the sake of being offensive. PG says “heck” and “frig.” Its named “PG.” This is.. weirdly… a kid’s film. There’s some gore but its all completely over the top and insane. People get mean but they say they’re sorry. I keep saying it but I’ll say it some more. This is downright wholesome. So yeah, I loved it. I loved the charming low cost practical effects and costuming. I loved the over the top child’s imagination atmosphere of it. I loved the wholesome family story at its core. I love a horror film that brings out those “this isn’t horror” fans because it dares to be fun and sincere and borderline nice. Like I said I did think it had a little bit of a pacing issue and a weird tonal digression that felt awkward. The film was chasing 5 stars for my for a bit and then those elements felt like they brought it down to the 4-4.5 range. But then it had a rap theme song. And the rules clearly dictate a rap theme song is worth half a star. So I guess that’s 5 stars? That’s a tough one. To me 5 stars just means like the film is perfect as is and there’s nothing I could nitpick or ask to change. It doesn't mean its one of the best films of all time or even one of my favorites, just that its exactly what it set out to be to perfection. And there is that small pacing issue for me. But its small and the film still worked so do you mess with something if its working? I’m not sure anyone could conceive of this and execute it in a better way than it was done here. So I guess that’s 5 stars. Who knew? 🌻🎈Spook-A-Doodle Half-Way-To-Halloween ’21: Return of the Fallen & King Spring🎈🌻 King Spring: 9/13🎈Return of the Fallen: 8/13👻Fran Challenges: 8/13🐺Svengoolie: 7/13 Watched - New (Total) 1. Riding the Bullet (2004); 2. Cat’s Eye (1985); - (3). Vampires vs. the Bronx (2020); - (4). The Thing (1982); 3 (5). Sleep Tight (2011); - (6). Dark Shadows (2012); 4 (7). The Wicker Man (1973); 5 (8). Varan (1958); 6 (9). The Roost (2005); 7 (10). The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007); 8 (11). The Leech Woman (1960); 9 (12). Sometimes They Come Back (1991); 10 (13). Varan the Unbelievable (1962); 11 (14). 1922 (2017); 12 (15). What Keeps You Alive (2018); 13 (16). On the Silver Globe (1988); 14 (17). The Phantom of the Opera (1998); 15 (18). Nina Forever (2015); 16 (19). Area 51 (2015); 17 (20). Carrie (2002); 18 (21). The Stylist (2016)/Stucco (2019)/He Took His Skin Off for Me (2014)/Zygote (2017); 19 (22). Mark of the Vampire (1935); 20 (23). Tigers Are Not Afraid (2017); 21 (23). Death Walks on High Heels (1971); 22 (24). Maniac (1980); - (25). The Beast with Five Fingers (1946); - (26). Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954); 23 (27). Summer Camp (2015); 24 (28). Man Made Monster (1941); 25 (29). Earth vs. the Spider (1958); 26 (30). Vampyr (1932); 27 (31). The Black Scorpion (1957); 28 (32). The Wild Boys (2017); 29 (33). City of the Living Dead (1980); 30 (34). We Are What We Are (2010); 31 (35). Mercy (2014); 32 (36). Baba Yaga: Terror of the Dark Forest (2020); 33 (37). Cell (2016); 34 (38). Sightseers (2012); 35 (39). Trucks (1997); 36 (40). Dead Hooker in a Trunk (2009); 37 (41). BloodRayne (2005); 38 (42). Big Driver (2014); 39 (43). The Body Snatcher (1945); 40 (44). Run (2020); 41 (45). Paganini Horror (1989); 42 (46). Army of the Dead (2021); - (47). The Invisible Man (1933); 43 (48). Scanners (1981); - (49). The Invisible Man Returns (1940); 44 (50). PG: Psycho Goreman (2020); STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 12:08 on May 23, 2021 |
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May 23, 2021 11:59
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Hollismason posted:What movie can you watch that completes the most Fran Challenges? For me I think Friday the 13th part 2, completes Mothers Day, Video Game Adaptation, Summer Camp. Psycho (1960) covers five: Mother's Day, Horrible Holidays (it's set in the run-up to Christmas), Sometimes They Come Back, Scream Queen and - somewhat unbelievably - Playing With Power. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiJm6-PVsS4 On the subject of 1960: 8) Fall of the House of Usher (1960) I don't think this one needs any introduction. As sumptuous as any Corman movie ever was, as he took advantage of only having to pay four credited actors to spend money on sets - although he wasn't so profligate as not to save both footage and as many props as he could for re-use in future movies. As detailed in my other reviews, all three of the AIP Poe movies I've watched so far have shared either footage or sets. The movie itself is a good adaptation in that it's overwrought and melodramatic, but as usual the best beats are the ones that were added to the work. In the case of House of Usher it's Winthrop's nightmare of meeting the ghosts of the Usher clan, a marvelously creepy sequence that strikes the perfect tone of a bad dream. I can see it being a major influence on Herk Harvey's 1962 movie Carnival of Souls; Harvey's initial spark as presented to writer John Clifford was the scene of ghosts dancing in an abandoned ballroom, which the Usher dream sequence greatly reminds me of. 9) Crumbs (2015) After watching Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway, I was interested enough to check out director Miguel Llanso's debut movie. Set in a world where society collapsed after a global war, few people now remain as most of humanity stopped having children and a mysterious spaceship in the shape of an arm hovers in the sky. Candy, a scavenger who lives in an abandoned bowling alley with his wife, goes on a quest to find his way aboard the ship. Not to beat around the bush: this is by far the better movie. JSYTW has more imagination and flair, but it suffers from being too diffuse. Crumbs is tightly focused on its motifs and while the narrative is disjointed, at the same time it's coherent. The pre-war world, and childhood in particular, is mythologised and worshipped. Children's toys are used as totems, currency and even weapons while a mad old man believes he is Santa Claus and waits for the children he hasn't seen in decades. This is Children of Men years later, except killed by pure apathy rather than global infertility. Crumbs also benefits from having been performed in Amharic without dubbing into English, which gives it a natural feel that is necessary to convey the darkness and sadness of the story. Overall, I'd give this one a strong recommend.
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May 23, 2021 12:48
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#26 Alucarda Juan López Moctezuma, 1977  In the 19th century a young woman enters a convent after losing her parents. She befriends a girl named Alucarda and together they release a demonic presence on themselves and on the convent. The result is a chaotic deluge of screaming, blood, fire, nudity and blasphemy. I really loved it. It reminded me in some of ways of The Devils only without any semblance of subtlety. And here we know without ambiguity that the possession is real. At only 74 minutes the movie doesn't gently caress around. poo poo hits the fan quickly. The production design is fantastic. The sets are strange and macabre, and the nuns look like bloody mummies. 4.5/5 26 Films watched: 1. Witchfinder General (1968), 2. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), 3. The Devil Rides Out (1968), 4. The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), 5. Who Can Kill a Child? (1976), 6. The Raven (1935), 7. A Bucket of Blood (1959), 8. The Curse of the Werewolf (1961), 9. Hunter Hunter (2020), 10. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971), 11. Prince of Darkness (1987), 12. What We Do in the Shadows (2014), 13. The Devil's Advocate, 14. Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966), 15. Madman (1981), 16. The House That Dripped Blood (1971), 17. The Evil Dead (1981), 18. Alligator (1980), 19. The Terror Within II (1991), 20. Homicidal (1961), 21. El Vampiro (1957), 22. Cure (1997), 23. West of Zanzibar (1928), 24. 29 Needles (2019), 25. The Reckoning (2020), 26. Alucarda (1977) 10/13 Fran Challenges completed: 2. Sometimes They Come Back, 3. Camp BLOOD, 4. Movie of the Month, 5. Cinco, 7. Mother's Day, 8. Dead & Buried, 9. Scream, Queen!, 10. Behind the Mask, 11. Myths & Legends, 12. Cavalcade of Creepiness
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May 23, 2021 16:09
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25. The Monster Squad Fran Challenge : Movie of the Month Despite some problematic language in the beginning of the film this is a classic 80s movie. Stephen King Rules! Honestly even though the language has not aged well couple of f bombs and homophobia aside its a great film. What you're really here for is a group of kids versus the universal monsters and their all here. Wolfman , Dracula, The Creature, The Mummy, Frankenstein. All are lovingly recreated with updated special effects. Its a great story , a great cast. Really love this movie.
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May 23, 2021 19:39
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I think low key one of the appeals of all these 80s kids throwbacks being made is that you can watch them without worry that you'll suddenly discover how homophobic and racist your childhood was.
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May 23, 2021 19:42
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Movie #14: The Final Girls  FRAN CHALLENGE: Behind the Mask  They won't be singing Kumbaya... they'll be screaming Kumba-no! Oh my god this movie was so much fun! I wasn't expecting a ton, because the whole "meta horror movie about horror movies" thing has been done a bunch of times, but rarely with everyone clearly having such a blast. When you're making a horror comedy, it's obviously a balancing act between horror and comedy, and while the very best of the bunch (like Shaun of the Dead) manage to be both great comedies and great horror movies, most tend to fall on the side of comedy. And so does The Final Girls, because as a horror movie it's not amazing. The in-movie kills are mostly blah and there's very little tension since the whole movie is intended to be a meta deconstruction of the camp slasher genre with the characters being fully aware of it and commenting on it all the time. So if the horror doesn't thrill or chill, how about the comedy? Does it work? Well I suppose that depends on the person, but I had a bunch of good, proper laughs, which is kind of rare. The movie plays with both the genre, and the "being in a movie and knowing it" things quite well and often in pretty brutal ways. If "skeevy guy gets launched through a car's windshield and lands on a gravel road so hard he turns into a human pretzel" isn't your idea of a good time, The Final Girls probably won't make you laugh. But then you're probably also not reading this thread so... Also big props to the cast, which includes a bunch of young comedians known for improv stuff so I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the movie was improvised, it definitely feels like it. In a good way. I probably would not have liked The Final Girls quite this much if I hadn't seen a bunch of camp slasher movies for the first time recently, because while a lot of the movie is on the general level of "stuff everyone knows about cheesy 80s horror movies", there's also a nice amount of deeper cuts, so I guess the writers and director have watched at least a few camp slashers in their time. Funny film, looks pretty nice, has a surprising amount of heart. What's not to like? / 5My previous movies: 1. Evil Dead II, 2. The Legend of Hell House, 3. Hausu, 4. The Haunting, 5. The Innkeepers, 6. Sleepaway Camp, 7. It Follows, 8. Tremors, 9. From Beyond, 10. Friday the 13th Part II, 11. Under the Shadow, 12. Halloween Part II, 13. The Others Shaman Tank Spec fucked around with this message at 10:17 on May 24, 2021 |
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May 23, 2021 19:54
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Shaman Tank Spec posted:Movie #14: The Final Girls drat I totally forgot about this movie and was meaning to watch it . I'll have to watch it now. Plus it look like it completes a Fran Challenge.
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May 23, 2021 20:21
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Final Girls would cover Mother's Day, Camp BLOOD, and MAYBE Behind the Mask?
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May 23, 2021 21:24
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8. Evilspeak (1981) USA Coppersmith, a geeky military school cadet, who is bullied for being Clint Howard, gets revenge on his tormentors via the power of computers and Satan. I had heard about this film before as a sci-fi horror about evil computers so I was a bit confused when this started out on a beach in the16th century with a bunch of people in robes performing a Satanic ritual after a mild scolding from a Spanish priest. As soon as it cut to the next scene in the modern day (of 1981) I figured it was just backstory but I still found it pretty interesting how the film combined Satanic supernatural horror with sci-fi elements. Or maybe the other way around, sci-fi horror with Satanic elements. In a lot of ways it's very similar to Carrie except with computers instead of psychokinesis. The bullies in this film are, in true 80s movie bully fashion, just absolutely despicable and basically pure evil. Every scene they're in they're doing or saying something horrible to Coopersmith culminating in them drunkenly sacrificing his puppy to Satan for fun . Which makes it all the more enjoyable when Coopersmith finally harnesses the powers of Darkness to destroy them all. Basically Carrie except with dudes. There's a lot of cool animations on the computer as the ritual progresses    Like the last film I watched, City of the Dead, , Evilspeak has one really great match cut: in the first scene of the film a topless lady is decapitated as a ritual sacrifice to Satan and her head flies out of flame and a soon as it does they cut to a football flying through the air. also the soundtrack rules and is really expressive and fun. Like near the start Coopersmith finds a wolf mask in the cellar of the church and as soon as he hold it up a sound that is eerily similar to a wolf howling kicks in on the soundtrack. There's also a part where there's a bunch of skeletons in the dungeon and there's what sounds like a tiny bit of xylophone, the official instrument of skeletons.   
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May 23, 2021 21:29
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21. Held (2021) A husband and wife whose marriage is on the rocks are forced to acknowledge and fix their problems when a Voice traps them inside their vacation rental. For being star Jill Awbrey's first feature-length performance I was impressed, the best among the few there were. The story itself had me feeling so-so until the twist at the start of the third act that straight men will do Anything to strengthen their marriage that almost makes me want to rewatch this again with that in mind and see if the actions of one of the characters makes more sense. As is, decent 90 minute indie watch, I've definitely seen worse *** 21/13 (The New York Ripper, Gwen, Sleepless Beauty, The Head Hunter, 13: Game of Death, Deerskin, Curve, The Incredible Melting Man, Starry Eyes, Eyes Without a Face, In the Earth, Macabre 1958, Macabre 1980, Oxygen 2021, The Djinn 2021, Wer, Spiral: From the Book of Saw, Moonstalker, Army of the Dead 2021, The Retreat 2021, Held 2021) Chris James 2 fucked around with this message at 21:34 on May 23, 2021 |
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May 23, 2021 21:31
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26. The Final Girls Fran Challenge Summer Camp / Camp Blood!, Mother's Day, Behind the Mask I'm normally not a huge fan of meta films. I always wish they were just about the film themselves , but this is a good one! The movie takes place in a fictional world of Camp Bloodbath or some such . The film has some great fun playing around with the concept of being in a Summer slasher . The funny parts are funny and while its PG 13 it still has some good gore moments. Overall it surprassed my expectations on how it was going to be. Also it completes 3 Fran Challenges. However I am only counting it for Summer Camp.
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May 23, 2021 22:41
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24. The Ruins (2008) A bunch of wooden blocks are stalked by killer vines (the plant not the once popular video app - I apologize in advance for conjuring the idea for another awful Ring sequel). This is a well shot piece of trash that gets quite gooey but the characters for the most part aren't likeable so who cares. /5
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May 23, 2021 23:37
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 Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla It would be more accurately titles Mechagodzilla vs Godzilla, because this is definitely Mechagodzilla's show. The pilot is the main character, and that creates a unique dynamic that I haven't seen before in a Godzilla movie. The lead character is an equal match for Godzilla. If you're one of those "the human parts in Godzilla are always boring!" people, you can't really make the criticism here. The story is about this lady getting her confidence back and piloting the giant robot to fight Godzilla. Godzilla is just the antagonist. But even if you do just want fights, you won't be disappointed. There are three fights in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla. The first two are quite good but a bit short. The third one is everything you want from a Mechagodzilla movie. Giant lizard fights giant robot lizard. It goes on for a long time, the fight takes place in this gorgeous and huge miniature set, they both pull out different tricks, it's fantastic. And for the first time too! this was the fourth Godzilla movie to feature Mechagodzilla, but it's the first one where the final fight is just Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla! No 2 on 1, no tag team battles, just two giant lizards giving it all the got. It kicks so much rear end. Goddamn I wish this has become it's own franchise. I want to see this Mechagodzilla defend Japan against more monsters! Give me a Kiryu trilogy, Toho! I recommend Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla. Good story, good lead, and the best Mechagodzilla action I've ever seen.  That's 12 movies down! I only need one more movie to complete the Challenge. But what movie will it be...
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May 24, 2021 02:13
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#27 Demonia Lucio Fulci, 1990  A group of Canadian archeologists travels to Sicily to get drunk and dance to lovely folk music around a campfire. And possibly to research ancient Greek ruins, but we don't see much of that. What we do see a lot of is one of the women in the group, Liza, going rogue and exploring a nearby convent with a seedy past. She's drawn to unlocking its mysteries - mysteries which the locals are dead set on keeping secret. Some nuns are crucified for having orgies, some more lovely Irish folk music happens, a woman has her eyes ripped out by a gang of angry house cats, and a man is graphically ripped in half in front of his young son. But despite all the awesome stuff I just mentioned, the movie's not great. Yes there are a few hilarious gore scenes that only Fulci could dream up, but the bulk of the movie is pretty dry. And while the sexy nun angle backstory is interesting, it takes a backseat to the more investigation-focused plot. It's unfortunate because the nun stuff is really great while the giallo-esque police stuff is dull as dirt. And the payoff is anticlimactic and confusing. This is low-tier Fulci, despite the cat puppets. 2/5 27 Films watched: 1. Witchfinder General (1968), 2. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), 3. The Devil Rides Out (1968), 4. The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), 5. Who Can Kill a Child? (1976), 6. The Raven (1935), 7. A Bucket of Blood (1959), 8. The Curse of the Werewolf (1961), 9. Hunter Hunter (2020), 10. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971), 11. Prince of Darkness (1987), 12. What We Do in the Shadows (2014), 13. The Devil's Advocate, 14. Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966), 15. Madman (1981), 16. The House That Dripped Blood (1971), 17. The Evil Dead (1981), 18. Alligator (1980), 19. The Terror Within II (1991), 20. Homicidal (1961), 21. El Vampiro (1957), 22. Cure (1997), 23. West of Zanzibar (1928), 24. 29 Needles (2019), 25. The Reckoning (2020), 26. Alucarda (1977), 27. Demonia (1990) 10/13 Fran Challenges completed: 2. Sometimes They Come Back, 3. Camp BLOOD, 4. Movie of the Month, 5. Cinco, 7. Mother's Day, 8. Dead & Buried, 9. Scream, Queen!, 10. Behind the Mask, 11. Myths & Legends, 12. Cavalcade of Creepiness
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May 24, 2021 03:52
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 36. 1995. The Day of the Beast Directed by Álex de la Iglesia A theology professor, Father Ángel Berriartúa, has determined the date on which the Antichrist will be born and travels to Madrid to prevent the apocalypse. HIs plan is to do as much evil as possible, then sell his soul to Satan in order to learn where the birth will happen. Once he gets to Madrid, Father Berriartúa recruits as Satanist record store clerk and a TV psychic to help him in his quest.  The setup is funny and creative. The three leads, especially Álex Angulo as Father Ángel Berriartúa, are great. The pacing is also just right, with the stakes steadily escalating as our heroes become more and more willing to do whatever it takes to stop the end of the world.  Some scenes looked kind of strange. I’m not sure if it was the green screen work or if the version on Shudder is just a bit wonky. It didn’t really detract from the experience, so I’m not sure why I’m mentioning it. I may just be trying to fill space here. Otherwise I don’t have any complaints! The Day of the Beast is a fantastic horror comedy. Time Travel Challenge: 36/31 1. Jigoku (1960), 2. The Curse of the Doll People (1961), 3. The Burning Court (1962), 4. X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963), 5. The Long Hair of Death (1964), 6. Planet of the Vampires (1965), 7. Daimajin (1966), 8. Viy (1967), 9. A Quiet Place in the Country (1968), 10. The Cremator (1969), 11. Equinox (1970), 12. Lake of Dracula (1971), 13. The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (1972), 14. The Crazies (1973), 15. Deathdream aka Dead of Night (1974), 16. Race with the Devil (1975), 17. The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976), 18. The Incredible Melting Man (1977), 19. The Grapes of Death (1978), 20. Tourist Trap (1979), 21. The Changeling (1980), 22. My Bloody Valentine (1981), 23. Human Lanterns (1982), 24. Christine (1983), 25. Night of the Comet (1984), 26. Demons (1985), 27. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), 28. Wolf’s Hole (1987), 29. The Vanishing (1988), 30. Santa Sangre (1989), 31. Bride of Re-Animator (1990), 32. The People Under the Stairs (1991), 33. The Wicked City (1992), 34. Body Bags (1993), 35. Tammy and the T-Rex (1994), 36. The Day of the Beast (1995) Bracketology: 12/? 1. Vampires vs. the Bronx, 2. The Roost, 3. Varan, 4. On the Silver Globe, 5. The Phantom of the Opera, 6. Mark of the Vampire, 7. Tigers Are Not Afraid, 8. Sightseers, 9. The House That Jack Built, 10. The Wild Boys, 11. Creature from the Black Lagoon, 12. Scanners Fran Challenges: 13/13 1. Un Chien Andalou / The Big Shave / Kitchen Sink / Foxes / Portal to Hell!!!, 2. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 3. The Burning, 4. Dead Ringers, 5. Belzebuth, 6. Fright Night, 7. The Brood, 8. Village of the Damned, 9. Cat People, 10. Birth of the Living Dead, 11. The Lure, 12. Black Sabbath, 13. My Bloody Valentine 3D
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May 24, 2021 04:35
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 45 (51). Kindred Spirits (2019) Directed by Lucky McKee, written by Chris Sivertson Watched on Amazon Prime, available on Hulu, hoopla, and Tubi Return of the Fallen 9/13 Just Two Weirdos Writing About Quirky Ladies Clumsily; Eliminated in 1st Round by Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator That was fine but… did they forget to include the ending? I mostly enjoyed it. Its less the spooky horror I kind of went in expecting and more of a thriller, but its a solidly tense and disorientating one. I thought all three ladies did a really good job and I found myself fully sucked into the story and its consequences. Its great to see Thora Birch because I haven’t seen her in something in like twenty years and while I’m entirely unfamiliar with Sasha Frolova I thought she did a really solid job as the unknowing victim of this bizarre attack who also has to feel capable of being seen as the real villain. And I really enjoyed Caitlin Stasey in a role that isn’t really that enjoyable to watch and is kind of hard to nail down. The film never does really give you a super clear idea of what she’s thinking or what is behind this or what she was doing all that time away. There’s an air of mystery around her that combined with her behavior that feels at times manipulative as hell and at other times deranged to the point of almost seeming innocent of understanding the consequences. It was a pretty confusing and compelling dance that sucked me in. And then it just ended. Like… what happened? It seemed like there’s an obvious confrontation between Stasey and Birch coming for the finale but it just never happens. Its so strange. After everything Sadie did to her sister Chloe without her knowing when Chloe finally finds out we just never see her reaction in any form. She just disappears. And there’s no reaction from anyone. That’s just the end of the movie. And how did they figure it out anyway? The film goes from one second acting like all of Sadie’s lies and manipulations were working and then the next second they’ve all been unraveled off camera. And then the movie’s just over. Its utterly bizarre. Its like they ran out of movie or Thora Birch walked off the set or they just realized their planned ending didn’t work so just didn’t bother with Plan B or something. I don’t get it. Its some solid work and solid setup and I really did feel the danger and harm being caused. But that ending just took all the winds out of it and kind of made a lot of it feel like a waste. I still like McKee and I like Stasey. And it was fun seeing Birch again. I don’t regret the viewing or anything. But I was left feeling very unsatisfied in the end.  46 (52). Daughters of Darkness (1971) Written and directed by Harry Kümel, co-written by Pierre Drouot, Jean Ferry, and Jo Amiel Watched on Tubi, available on Vudu. Fran Challenges 9/13 Franchescanado posted:9. Scream, Queen! I owned a VHS copy of this I picked up in a random box back… well back when VCRs were still a thing. I never got around to watching it and ended up getting rid of all my VHS’s years ago once I realized I was never gonna own a VCR again but I’ve always kind of been curious about this one movie I never get around to. So I finally got around to it and I… fell asleep. That wasn’t entirely the film’s fault. I was running on a couple of hours of sleep, it was 90+ degrees, and i had a small window to either watch a movie or catch a short nap. And I made one decision and my body made another. Still some of it was probably the film. Everyone always describe this style as “dreamy” after all. A low, slow mood piece that just kind of lingers about the same way the Countess does just taking her time seducing her new victims in centuries of victims. I’ve always had a bit of a fascination with Elizabeth Bathory but I’ve never really seen a terribly strong version of her. I guess Penny Dreadful might have been the best one? I enjoyed Delphine Seyrig in the role but I didn’t really enjoy the film itself. This 70s euro erotic quasi exploitation stuff just doesn’t appeal to me at all. This isn’t as exploitative or unpleasant as many of the other ones I’ve seen. I mean its got abusers at every angle and that sort of twisted idea that one kind of predator is better than another I dislike. But mostly the film just kind of happened while I was there. 100 minutes was a long run, especially since I restarted it on my second go, but not unbearably so or anything. Really it was just kinda fine. I dunno. I just really don’t have anything to say with it even after spending nearly 3 hours with it. You probably know this kind of film. The dreamy, sexy, euro one where people get slapped around and seduced, sometimes at the same time. Very stylish to the point where its very “style over substance” for better or worse. You probably either like it or you don’t, and this was probably one of the better ones I’ve seen. Although you’d think after a few hundred years the Countess wouldn’t make such rookie vampire mistakes as she does. I guess everyone gets old. 🌻🎈Spook-A-Doodle Half-Way-To-Halloween ’21: Return of the Fallen & King Spring🎈🌻 King Spring: 9/13🎈Return of the Fallen: 9/13👻Fran Challenges: 9/13🐺Svengoolie: 7/13 Watched - New (Total) 1. Riding the Bullet (2004); 2. Cat’s Eye (1985); - (3). Vampires vs. the Bronx (2020); - (4). The Thing (1982); 3 (5). Sleep Tight (2011); - (6). Dark Shadows (2012); 4 (7). The Wicker Man (1973); 5 (8). Varan (1958); 6 (9). The Roost (2005); 7 (10). The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007); 8 (11). The Leech Woman (1960); 9 (12). Sometimes They Come Back (1991); 10 (13). Varan the Unbelievable (1962); 11 (14). 1922 (2017); 12 (15). What Keeps You Alive (2018); 13 (16). On the Silver Globe (1988); 14 (17). The Phantom of the Opera (1998); 15 (18). Nina Forever (2015); 16 (19). Area 51 (2015); 17 (20). Carrie (2002); 18 (21). The Stylist (2016)/Stucco (2019)/He Took His Skin Off for Me (2014)/Zygote (2017); 19 (22). Mark of the Vampire (1935); 20 (23). Tigers Are Not Afraid (2017); 21 (23). Death Walks on High Heels (1971); 22 (24). Maniac (1980); - (25). The Beast with Five Fingers (1946); - (26). Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954); 23 (27). Summer Camp (2015); 24 (28). Man Made Monster (1941); 25 (29). Earth vs. the Spider (1958); 26 (30). Vampyr (1932); 27 (31). The Black Scorpion (1957); 28 (32). The Wild Boys (2017); 29 (33). City of the Living Dead (1980); 30 (34). We Are What We Are (2010); 31 (35). Mercy (2014); 32 (36). Baba Yaga: Terror of the Dark Forest (2020); 33 (37). Cell (2016); 34 (38). Sightseers (2012); 35 (39). Trucks (1997); 36 (40). Dead Hooker in a Trunk (2009); 37 (41). BloodRayne (2005); 38 (42). Big Driver (2014); 39 (43). The Body Snatcher (1945); 40 (44). Run (2020); 41 (45). Paganini Horror (1989); 42 (46). Army of the Dead (2021); - (47). The Invisible Man (1933); 43 (48). Scanners (1981); - (49). The Invisible Man Returns (1940); 44 (50). PG: Psycho Goreman (2020); 45 (51). Kindred Spirits (2019); 46 (52). Daughters of Darkness (1971);
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May 24, 2021 06:16
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Fran Challenge 7.) Mother's Day Goodnight Mommy oder Ich Seh Ich Seh if that's how you roll (Watched on Tubi)  I felt like I'd seen this on several streaming services and just never considered watching it. Spooky twins doubt the woman claiming to be their mother is the genuine article. This takes a bit to get going, consisting mostly of lingering shots and awkward or ominous exchanges. The ending is strong and unsettling, and frankly I felt like this could be a short film without doing any violence to the result. It's not bad, but it certainly seemed to meander. Having the least twisty of twists imaginable didn't help in that regard. Wo ist unsere Mama? Fran Challenge 8.) Dead & Buried Cat Girl (1957, featuring the late Barbara Shelley, watched on Tubi)  Cat Girl takes us back to scenic MCMLVII, a simpler time, where men were men and women were women but also leopards. This is an entry in the (surprisingly) larger corpus of cat people horror, which I'm not really armed to discuss. Shelley's Leonora is drawn back to her estranged (and cursed) family, with her scumbag husband and useless friends in tow. With typical early film efficiency, we get the core of the cast and their various connections and disagreements fired at us before the end of the first scene. There's some wonderful skulking about in candlelit hallways and reading ominous prophecies in old tomes. Older films are a definite "sometimes" food for me, but the theatrical mannerisms and dialogue are a lot of fun, and Leonora is, if not particularly nuanced, at least as passionate and intense a figure as other horror leading roles of the era. I don't know that we should hold Cat Girl up as a high point in feminist film, but there's something to be said for how patronizing, dismissive, and insensitive basically every single named male character is - it doesn't seem accidental. As with the 1960 Leech Woman, though, Leonora's justified resentments are paired with stock murderous female jealousy, disarming the possibility for or necessity of reflection on the behavior of the male cast. "The touch of your hand makes me feel almost myself again, as though it never happened." "That'll be the sedative working." Watched: 1.) Various Shorts [FC1: Short Cuts] 2.) Pet Sematary (2019) [FC2: Sometimes they Come Back], 3.) Madman [FC3: Camp BLOOD], 4.) Vampyr [FC4: Movie of the Month], 5.) Curandero [FC5: Cinco], 6.) Resident Evil: Afterlife [FC6: Playing With Power], 7.) Goodnight Mommy [FC7: Mother's Day], 8.) The Cat Girl [FC8: Dead & Buried]
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May 24, 2021 06:27
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 10. Effects D A real slog. It's ever cabin in the woods movie but even slower and less professional. The third act is pretty fun but the movie is mostly aimless and super flat. Pilato can't salvage this. A remake could add a lot because this was a failure of execution more than anything.  11. Psycho Goreman A You're either in or out on this one. I was a Power Rangers kid and love it. Wonderful schlock with great effects work. Lots of lore and fringe creatures as spin-off bait. The kids are annoying but that's the point.  12. Maniac Cop 2 B The serial killer is a wonderful character and the ending action sequence is incredible. I don't care that he really filmed in LA but Lustig's NY still doesn't do it for me like Cohen's. Davi is good as the NY detective and everything looks surprisingly professional and high budget for a Lustig movie. I miss movies that showed scenes from the last movie to catch you up.  13. A Page of Madness D It's an experimental silent film with no title cards. There are some nice effects but the story is totally lost on me. I know it's a visual medium but I need a lot more than this. Haxan, Phantom Carriage, or Caligari are all great choices if you want silent horror.  14. Eaten Alive C I'm torn on this because it's not good but a lot of the reason I hate it is intentional. The severe lighting and background noise are effective but instead of creating anxiety they bug the poo poo out of me. Judd is top notch redneck serial killer in the genre. The gator prop is never fully satisfying but the fights are fun. The cast is really great. We've got the Phantom of the Paradise, Freddy Krueger, and the other woman from the salad cat meme.The finale does a lot to redeem this one.  15. Army of the Dead C There's some good stuff in here but it really drags and the lead relationship is flat. Bautista is just ok in this and his chemistry with his daughter is nowhere near as good as various secondary members of the team. The gore effects are nice but the fireballs almost all look like poo poo. I love Tig's weird "I am definitely in this movie!" lines when she's inserted into shots and could easily be left to blend in the background. May watch list
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May 24, 2021 07:50
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Franchescanado posted:
 20) Jaws of Satan - Youtube - 1981 Norman Lloyd passed away back in May at the age of 106. He had a pretty busy career, mostly playing doctors. The plot here is Satan or a demon takes the shape of a king cobra to wreck havoc on the latest descendant of a line of priests that were cursed by the druids back in the day. The film has some incredible cinematography, which is no surprise with Dean Cundey and Raymond Stella behind the camera. Cast features names like Fritz Weaver. I believe this is also Christina Applegate's first film. The film's okay, but for one that got a theatrical release, this has such a TV Movie of the Week feel. It's rated R but even going by the old standards for the rating, I can't see how it got that and not something like PG.
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May 24, 2021 14:23
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Weekend catch-up time. #21. Psycho Goreman (Shudder) A pair of kids dig up an alien crystal in their backyard, which ends up unleashing a bloodthirsty alien overlord with bizarre powers. However, as long as the little girl has the crystal, he is bound to her every whim. That ended up being a lot of fun. I grew up on "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers" in the early-ish 90s, and this was a wonderfully demented throwback to that era of elaborate monster costumes and ridiculous fight scenes. Psycho Goreman himself is a wonderful character, looking like a mash-up of Ivan Ooze and the Wishmaster, and throwing out nothing but goofy-sounding murder threats at any given opportunity. And watching his anti-Terminator 2 progression as he learns humanity from a terrible source is a delight. This is a film rich with character design and a lot of implied world building; I would love to see a sequel with a better budget that can delve into the alien worlds and things in more depth. On the other hand, the human side was kinda one note. Mom and Dad are kind of nothing characters, and get more screen time than the jokes that they provide deserve. And Luke is kind of an annoying doormat the whole time, and never ends up growing a spine from the whole thing. Main character Mimi ends up staying juuuuuust on this side of "working" for me the whole movie, which is important since basically the whole movie revolves around her performance. That said, I could see how her presence ends up turning some viewers away; she ends up acting like a live-action Louise Belcher, but minus the comedic timing and the occasional moments of humanization. The big reconciliation moment late in the picture is supposed to be her apologizing to her brother through their shared song, I guess? But the lyrics and tone are still a self-congratulatory power anthem about saying "frick you" to authority and defining yourself as being explicitly anti-order and anti-rules. So she apologizes implicitly by explicitly saying "frick off" to the concept of apologizing for her myriad fricked-up actions... and her brother buys it? He's a bigger doormat than I had thought. Still, like any good Godzilla movie or "Super Sentai" show, you're not here for the human drama, you're here for the goofy alien monster characters and their suitwork and stunts and action. And Psycho Goreman is able to deliver that in spades, all with a black-humored irony and obvious love for its original inspirations. I had a lot of fun with this one. /5 #22. Spiral: From the Book of Saw (An actual factual movie theater) A new Jigsaw Killer copycat is stalking the streets, putting crooked cops into new murder traps. Can embittered Detective Chris Rock solve the case in time to save more bad cops from getting someone's twisted sense of justice? On the one hand, I'm not entirely sure that the movie itself works all that well as a whole. I can tell Chris Rock has a lot of love for the Saw franchise; I don't think he was the right person to anchor a dramatic horror-thriller picture, especially one that pitches itself explicitly a Se7en-style police procedural thriller. Being a police procedural also ends up feeling at times contrary to the idea of what a Saw movie is supposed to be these days; it feels like a throwback to the original movie and the Detective Tapp storyline, the one the series was quickest to move past. A lot of the script is workmanlike and not terribly interesting; a lot of the direction outside of the trap scenes is fairly flat and not terribly interesting. I'm also not sold on the new Jigsaw Killer's style and presentation; without Tobin Bell's voiceover being inserted in, I'm not sure if it's worth it. (If the Scream series can manage to keep the same Ghostface voice sequel in and sequel out, I don't know why this new film was reticent to avoid that connection.) On the other hand, it's hard not to look at what the film itself is - a mid-budget film from a major studio in a notable franchise, spearheaded by a black man, that is explicitly anti-police, released in the United States in 2021, after all of the George Floyd news - and not be at least a little impressed. It's almost funny, in a way: Jigsaw had always had three semi-connected iconic "mascots" and symbols, in a way - Billy the puppet, the spiral design, and the pig mask. Spiral names itself after the second, but really centers itself around the pig imagery; you can say that's on the nose for a movie about punishing bad police, but for a massive middle finger thrown at cops to come from a studio franchise is kind of mind-boggling, especially with imagery and iconography so brazen. That ending especially - with Rock running out to try and stop the SWAT team and, as a black man, having to immediately drop to his knees and put his hands behind his head, while his father gets pulled up by puppet strings to stand and draw a fake gun on the cops - is both haunting and viscerally angry at the way the world is today. And, in a way, it could only work as an idea in a film that got released today; put the same ending in an earlier Saw movie and I don't know if that would have the same impact. I don't know if the film will have a long shelf life or be talked about much in the future (though I'd honestly welcome a similar sequel if they have ideas for a way to extend this further); I do have a feeling that ending will be discussed for quite a while, though. /5Watched so far: The Curse of the Cat People, Freaky, Vampires vs the Bronx, Rawhead Rex, Tarantula, In Search of Darkness, Ginger Snaps (rewatch), In Search of Darkness Part II (FC #10), Mother's Day (2010) (FC #7), Scream, Queen! (FC #9), House of Wax (1953) (FC #2), Vampire in Venice (FC #8), Possessor, Mandy, various shorts (FC #1), Saw (rewatch) (FC #6), Southbound (FC #12), Wendigo (FC #11), Stage Fright (2014) (FC #3), Tigers Are Not Afraid (FC #5), Psycho Goreman, Spiral P.S. Would Spiral count for the "Horrible Holidays" Fran Challenge 13? The opening kill scene is set on July 4th, and a few of the police detective work scenes in the following 30 minutes make mention of it, but it doesn't really have a ton of bearing on the story itself (outside of a few passing Son of Sam-style "we're in a bad heat wave this summer" mentions that imply that the world is getting crazier but don't actually affect anything one way or another). Class3KillStorm fucked around with this message at 15:34 on May 24, 2021 |
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May 24, 2021 15:30
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UltimoDragonQuest posted:11. Psycho Goreman A Not so much with me. I'm kinda halfway. I enjoyed it but didn't find it all that funny, and I hated the girl. I gave it a lukewarm 3/5.
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May 24, 2021 15:45
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23) Thankskilling (2008) Fran Challenge #13: Horrible Holidays  lol what is this absolute garbage 1/5 24) House of Wax (2005) Fran Challenge #2: Sometimes They Come Back  You know what? This is way better than I thought it'd be. I've gone many years now assuming this was a terrible movie but there's some really redeeming qualities to it. Granted, the acting and the plot aren't, but it's fun and the effects are really cool. 3.5/5 25) Sleepaway Camp (1983) Fran Challenge #3: Camp BLOOD  This is a rewatch for me, but the Fran challenge didn't stipulate that this one had to be new to me. It's been a while since I've seen it, and in lieu of an actual review, I'll post this interview with Joan Ford on the topic of trans representation in movies, which makes great points. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgpvW9TxWds 4/5 26) Army of the Dead (2021)  Did NOT expect to enjoy this so much. You can tell that this is what Zack Snyder loves doing - big, bombastic action with a ton of heart and very little brains (no pun intended). 4/5 Total: 26 1. Crawl (2019) / 2. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) (FC1) / 3. Vampyr (1932) / 4. I Walked With A Zombie (1943) / 5. Kwaidan (1964) (FC12) / 6. Vampyres (1975) (FC9) / 7. The Howling (1981) / 8. Torso (1973) / 9. Frankenhooker (1990) / 10. Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore (2010) (FC10) / 11. Them (Ils) (2006) / 12. Nina Forever (2015) / 13. Aliens (1986) / 14. The Cremator (1969) (FC4) / 15. Saw IV (2007) / 16. Dark Skies (2013) / 17. The McPherson Tape (1989) / 18. Saw (2004) (FC6) / 19. Mother's Day (1980) (FC7) / 20. The Lure (2015) (FC11) / 21. Belzebuth (2017) (FC5) / 22. The House That Jack Built (2018) / 23. Thankskilling (2008) (FC13) / 24. House of Wax (2005) (FC2) / 25. Sleepaway Camp (1983) (FC3) / 26. Army of the Dead (2021) Fran Challenges Remaining -- 1, 8
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May 24, 2021 15:57
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