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 Punishment Park(Fran Challenge: Motm) This was very refreshing in how up front it was about it's message and themes without having to filter it through a sci-fi scenario or some sort of tortured metaphor. There are multiple scenes where the victims of the oppressive police state basically look straight into the camera and argue their case, and for a very low budget film the acting is actually pretty impressive. For 1971, it's surprising to see some of this stuff just put out there without any sugar-coating whatsoever. America is built on violence and genocide, and those that have the power have always wielded violence to maintain their position while acting as if defensive violence on the part of the oppressed is vile terrorism. Punishment Park openly states this fact and doesn't shy away from it like so many other films. Honestly I don't see the scenario presented as all that unrealistic, as sad as that may be. We worship police in this country(at least a certain contingent of us do) to such a ridiculous extent, would it be outlandish to say that a law could be passed allowing police to summarily execute those that are deemed to be "terrorists"? Especially if it's deemed to be an important part of their training? I wish I could say it could never happen but sometimes it feels like we're only a step or two away from that already. Police execute people all the time and are rarely held accountable, the only thing left is to make it official by passing a law.  The Being(Fran Challenge: Horrible Holidays) I chose this just because it's something I hadn't seen and it features Easter(the movie isn't about Easter, but it takes place on Easter and there is an egg hunt scene). But actually it was a lot of fun. It's about a creature stalking a small town, and when it picks people off it leaves a tell-tell puddle of slime behind. And we all love slime don't we? It sort of turns into a Jaws situation where the town wants to cover it up so that it doesn't get bad press, and somehow Martin Landau is cast as the guy putting the cover story together. Apart from him, nobody really stands out but the Being itself is a great bit of goofy 80's creature work and really that's all I need. I do wish there was a nicer version of this available though, the one in Prime is not great and I think the movie would actually benefit quite a bit from a proper 1080p transfer, if one exists somewhere. 1. The Leopard Man 2. The Curse of Frankenstein 3. The Old Dark House(Fran Challenge: Sometimes They Come Back) 4. The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb 5. Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 6. Mother's Day(Fran Challenge: Mother's Day) 7. Madman(Fran Challenge: Camp Blood) 8. The Legend of Boggy Creek(Fran Challenge: Myths & Legends) 9. Smoke and Mirrors: The Story of Tom Savini(Fran Challenge: Behind the Mask) 10. Nightbreed(Fran Challenge: Playing with Power) 11. Fear(s) of the Dark(Fran Challenge: Cavalcade of Creepiness) 12. Witchboard(Fran Challenge: Dead and Buried) 13. Punishment Park(Fran Challenge: MotM) 14. The Being(Fran Challenge: Horrible Holidays)
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May 24, 2021 17:17
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Franchescanado posted:
 20) Scream, Queen! My Nightmare On Elm Street - SHUDDER - 2019 I'd held off watching this because I knew it'd be a rough watch. But with being back to work and my head's improving along with a Fran Challenge, watching it now is as good a time as any. Having sat through it, WOW. If there was ever a need to see documentary, it's this. To start, Mark Patton is an inspiration for everything he persevered through. This documentary also confirmed my stance that Chaskin and Sholder are lying sacks of poo poo. If watching NoES2 back as a teen with my horror movie friends and all of us from a traditional Italian/Sicilian upbringing can see the gay themes in the movie, then there's no way in hell those two didn't. I felt both were still weasling around, but if Mark's okay with the apology he got from Chaskin, that's the main thing. If it was me, I would've also made a call to a legbreaker to settle further. I did want to reach through the screen and throttle Sholder when he had the audacity to tell Mark he was overreacting. Who the hell is he to decide that? The rough part for me was the coverage of the AIDS panic since I remember living through that. I had family die from GRIDS, and I lost friends who were sure I'd catch it being in the same room with AIDS patients. The fear mongering by the media was a nightmare. I thought the documentary did a good job covering early 80s Hollywood attitudes for the time allotted. It makes me want to look for what documentaries are out there on Hollywood's on again-off again attitudes regarding LGBT+. Overall, this was a great documentary and I freely admit to being jealous that Mark got kissed by David Bowie.
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May 24, 2021 19:19
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It's really an infuriating documentary, you're right. It's very effective in that way, I feel like a lot of people probably decided to watch it thinking it was just going to be a surface level look at the production of NOES 2 and then they get somewhat blindsided by the issues it's dealing with. I don't think anyone really came out unscathed, even Englund. Like, obviously Englund isn't a bigot or anything I think that much is clear but on the other hand he was the star of the franchise and I think there must have been opportunities for him to step in and improve the situation but he never did. And he doesn't seem to really have any regret for that inaction, he's basically like "oh wow it's terrible that Mark was treated that way, that's messed up" without any consideration for how powerful his voice could've been.
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May 24, 2021 19:34
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hit my goal of 31!  Still have a couple of challenges left though. 30. Army of the Dead (2021) dir. Zach Snyder Netflix When a zombie-like creature escapes a government facility, it starts an outbreak in Las Vegas that quickly grows out of hand. Unable to defeat the hordes of the undead, the US government instead quarantines the entire city, successfully containing the threat. However because the city was abandoned so rapidly, everything was left behind - including hundreds of millions of dollars in casino vaults. One such casino owner hires a team to perpetrate a heist to recover the money before the military nukes the city, but when they enter they discover the zombies aren’t quite what they thought they were… I thought this was really fun! It follows pretty standard heist movie beats for most of the film - assembling a team, putting together a plan, having things go horribly wrong, etc. In the final act it becomes more like what you might expect from a zombie action movie, but it does have some interesting twists on the formula. I liked that the “alpha” zombies behaved more like vampires. Not everything about the film is totally original - in fact it is full of action movie clichés - but it’s all put together in a fun way that I don’t think has quite been done before. It’s maybe a little on the long side, but it’s paced well enough and I never thought it dragged. Dave Bautista makes a good lead, and most of the cast is solid. Some of them aren’t much more than stereotypical tough guy/gal types, but I like Tig Notaro in everything and I thought the relationship between Dieter and Vanderohe was actually kind of sweet in a way you don’t normally see in movies like this. I wish so many of the effects weren’t CGI, but they mostly looked decent enough. As someone who really enjoys both heist movies and zombie movies, I really enjoyed this. It’s often dumb, but it’s a really fun kind of dumb, like one of the later Fast and the Furious movies if you took out the cars and added zombies. 4 zombie tigers out of 5  31. Who Can Kill a Child? (1976) dir. Narciso Ibáñez Serrador blu-ray This Spanish film opens with actual newsreel footage of atrocities committed against children - genocide, famine, disease, etc. It's trying to drive home the point of how children always suffer the most for the sins of adults, and it is very effective in that, but it's also a bleak and disturbing way to start a genre film. It sets an interesting mood I guess. The actual plot concerns two British tourists, Tom and Evelyn, who travel to an isolated Spanish island for a vacation. Evelyn is quite pregnant and spends most of the movie very uncomfortable, so I'm not sure why they thought traveling in her state would be a good idea. They aren't the most rational people. When they arrive at the island, it seems almost deserted - there are no adults around at all, and the few children they meet behave strangely and with hostility. They soon realize why - the kids of the children all at once decided that the adults all deserved to die, and went around at night murdering them one by one. The adults tried to flee but were unable to aggressively fight back, because, well - who can kill a child? This is mostly pretty good. There are some genuinely scary parts and I like the premise of it a lot better than most of the other "killer kids" movies I've seen. Everything from the strange behavior of the kids to the emptiness of the streets gives the film a really creepy and effective atmosphere. The characters are insufferable though - Tom refuses to be honest with Evelyn about what's happening, and as a result she spends most of the film oblivious to the danger and whining about her feet being tired or whatever. If the characters had been written better this could've been a stone cold classic, but I really didn't like them and it put a damper on the experience a bit. Still, if you like '70s European horror I think this is very solid and worth a watch. 4 canned hotdogs out of 5 Edgar Wright's Top 100 Horror: 99/100 Slant Top 100 Horror: 98/100 TSZDT 2020: 677/1000 Total: 31 Watched: White Zombie | M | Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter | The Demoniacs | The Addiction | The Fall of the House of Usher (1928) | The Queen of Black Magic (2019) (FC#2) | Warlock | Prince of Darkness | A Record of Sweet Murder | The Neon Demon | The Day of the Beast (FC#13) | The Devil Rides Out | The Taking of Deborah Logan (FC#7) | Short films (FC#1) | Don't Panic (FC#5) | The Hitcher | Resident Evil: Retribution (FC#6) | Saint Maud | Stranger by the Lake (FC#9) | Frenzy | Spirits of the Dead (FC#12) | Spiral: From the Book of Saw | The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire | Madman (FC#3) | Dream Demon | Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde (FC#4) | Wolf (FC#8) | The Last Broadcast | Army of the Dead | Who Can Kill a Child? Fran Challenges:
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May 24, 2021 19:56
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Can you claim two Fran challenges for one movie or is it one each?
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May 24, 2021 20:07
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gey muckle mowser posted:31. Who Can Kill a Child? (1976) Yeah it was frustrating how he kept lying to her. If I just witnessed some children using an old man as a human pinata you can bet your rear end my wife would be the first to hear every detail about it.
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May 24, 2021 20:09
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27. Critters 2 Fran Challenge Horrible Holidays This takes place over Easter so it counts for one of the Fran Challenges. This is a good entry , also boobs in a PG 13 film. Overall the tone of this is a lot more humorous I felt than the first film. Its still basically a rip off of Gremlins . Its kind of a low budget affair but it makes up for it with the great puppetry and the Critters are really entertaining. Overall I can see why this is a cult classic its got a lot of thingss going for it. That not quite good performances of every actor , etc.. Anyway a good sequel to a movie that ripped off Gremlins.
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May 24, 2021 20:11
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WeaponX posted:Can you claim two Fran challenges for one movie or is it one each? Just one for each challenge. Although one of these years we should take that rule out and challenge people to hit as many of them as they can with the smallest possible # of films. See how low people can go, like if you can somehow find a movie that checks all 13 boxes you win.
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May 24, 2021 20:14
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Hollismason posted:This takes place over Easter so it counts for one of the Fran Challenges. This is a good entry , also boobs in a PG 13 film. Overall the tone of this is a lot more humorous I felt than the first film. Its still basically a rip off of Gremlins . Its kind of a low budget affair but it makes up for it with the great puppetry and the Critters are really entertaining. Overall I can see why this is a cult classic its got a lot of thingss going for it. That not quite good performances of every actor , etc.. Anyway a good sequel to a movie that ripped off Gremlins. Critters 2 is still the best thing Mick Garris has ever directed.
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May 24, 2021 21:02
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 10. High Tension (2003) ‘Haute tension’ Directed by Alexandre Aja Watched on date night  I was warned off of High Tension for many years due to the, and I don't want to spoil anything here, possibly homophobic script. And while I can certainly see why so many people might be hesitant in recommending this film, I loved it, I loved every moment. I loved the lead, I loved the killer, I love the suspense, I loved the gore. It was just absolutely dreamy  The basic plot is that Marie and Alexia, two best friends, decide to take a trip into the countryside to visit Alexia's parents. Marie is the window through which we view the events of the film, and she's openly gay, or at least she's winning no prizes for hiding her sexuality. Alexia on the other hand is straight, or at least has a friendly non-romantic and non-sexual relationship with Marie, and this state of affairs seems to satisfy everyone. That is until Marie accidentally catches a glimpse of Alexia showering. Marie retires to her bedroom, and what follows is an extremely sensual and intimate masturbation scene, which is largely free of the male gaze. While there is a panning close-up, which can often be used to indicate a certain voyeurism on behalf of the filmmaker, it feels a lot more intimate than that, more sympathetic, and primarily expressing the intense sexual yearning of the scene. Upon the moment of orgasm, a van pulls up outside the home, and what follows is a murderous home invasion reminiscent of Halloween, in which a stoic shape moves slowly through a home, dispatching each member of the household without emotion, and with moments of precise and icy cold brutality. We then follow Marie in her attempts to stay hidden, unnoticed, and alive, and it's in these moments that the film shows itself to be incredibly intelligent, as the methods of survival are extremely atypical and surprising. Going into the film I actually knew the twist going in, so these scenes of evasion and pursuit worked in two ways for me, first as a first-time viewer experiencing the raw thrills, and second, as someone who is aware that what is occurring on screen is an internal struggle. That might seem like it would ruin the film, but for me, it provided an added dimension of complexity that was incredibly enjoyable to parse. Now there is of course the tricky subject of the internal struggle. It's quite clear from the text that Marie's sexual attraction and orgasm caused a mental break, and so it's then only a question of ascertaining what the mental break symbolises. I think the last few shots make clear that Marie was undergoing some form of jealousy or separation anxiety from her friend, which of course lays the ground for accusations that the film is trading in some nasty predatory lesbian tropes, and if that's your reading I'm not here to disabuse you of them, I did, however, have a different reading of the film. I think it's significant that Marie imagines the killer as an older man, gruff, unemotional, reactionary, a clear symbol of toxic masculinity, repression, and of her internal struggle to accept herself. I could easily imagine this man as a kind of father figure, who withheld love from Marie as a child, and taught her that she wasn't worthy of love or affection, and it is the disgust of having a tender, sensual, delightful, innocent moment of self-love, that sends her spiralling into this split personality, and struggle over her identity. Later, in the car chase scene, we see Marie driver a car with Confederate plates, earlier we hear her wonder aloud if a man chose a Brazilian girlfriend because he wanted something "exotic". She is clearly a woman who has embodied much of the toxicity of the world around her, and uses she it as a vehicle in which she navigates the world, and tries to make sense of it, and as much as this strategy has helped her to make sense of her role in society, it cannot help her in connecting with another person, Alexia, in the way she wishes, and it is this contradiction that causes the break, and not a simple matter of predation. When we last see Marie she is repeating a phrase similar to "I'll never let them keep us apart", and there's a sadness in this, even as Marie smiles the words. It shows that she has come to accept her sexuality and her love of her friend, but the tole for her was already too large. She has already internalised too much of the world that tells her that she should hate herself, and within that internalisation, she has hurt those who she cares about most. To me, it's sort of like the classic tale of Heracles preceding the trials, and the sadness and tragedy of hurting those we love through an altered mental state. Or it could be just mad homophobic  5/5 Official: 10/13 X-Files: 23/x Fran Challenges: 2/13
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May 24, 2021 21:27
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 37. 1996. The Craft Directed by Andrew Fleming Watched on HBO Max The Craft starts out as a pretty straightforward story about outsiders becoming empowered and turning the tables on those who have mistreated them. We see the girls as the heroes because the “victims” are all objectively bad people — a racist classmate, an abusive father, a date rape enthusiast. It pulls a switcheroo pretty quickly though.  Instead of a morality tale about the consequences of abusing power, The Craft becomes a movie about the resentment we feel when our otherness is defined for us. Nancy sees Sarah as a threat to her position within their clique, making her an outsider in a group of outsiders. This drives her to pursue more power to reassert her dominance of the group. This works pretty well at first, but it doesn’t last.  Then end is kind of a mess, but the rest of The Craft is entertaining and relatively well done. All four of the leads do a decent enough job, though it feels like Fairuza Balk needed to overact to compensate for Robin Tunney’s underwhelming performance. The Craft is also very 90s, so do what thou wilt with that information.  1/2Time Travel Challenge: 37/31 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), 37. The Craft (1996) 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 21:32
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 20. Eyes of a Stranger [1981] - Dir: Ken Wiederhorn This one took me by surprise. It's definitely not the best thing ever, but its got some good tension, despite feeling overly soap opera-y and overly maudlin I thought the performances were strong and the cat and mouse play was interesting and kept me engaged. The killer and his motivations are a bit hackneyed now, but in 1981 I'm sure it probably went over a lot better. Definitely an unknown gem in the rough. 3 and a half Skulls out of 5    21. Demons 2 [1986] - Dir: Lamberto Bava I really liked the first one, so with a sequel I could only imagine "Hey just go bigger". While we get bigger I also didnt expect at all that we would abandon the first ones ending and basically redo the premise of the first one (a demon hellscape is unleashed by viewing this movie), but this time in an apartment building and it would be even better dare I say than the first one. Better no meaning it eclipses the first totally, but I think its a much more highly refined take on the first ones successes and walking back some of the draggy bits and trying something different here (lots more humor also). It's a seige movie where the threat is within and there's tons of goopy gags and dumb characters making brash decisions. The gore and goop effects are even better in this too. I just really appreciated demon movies now so I'll definitely be adding to the library when I see a good deal on both. 4 Skulls out of 5  22. The Resurrected [1991] - Dir: Dan O'Bannon The finest Stuart Gordon picture that he never directed. I dont know where this movie has been all my life, but I'm glad I did a blind purchase and watched it. What a ride. It's a bit slow to get goin, but once it does it just zooms around and does a bunch of unexpected things and its just a straight blast. Especially with everyone playing their parts well. Either you're the cast who is doing the 'straight man' role and are going to get tossed around a bit by the script and the creepers in the movie or you're in on the gag and you're chewing every inch of scenery Chris Sarandon. What a picture. 4 Skulls out of 5  23. House on Haunted Hill [1999] - Dir: William Malone Listen, hear me out. Not that bad. For a late 90's horror remake property it could've been a lot worse, but I think everyone involved had a lot of reverence for the original and for Price so they didnt stray too far, but they gave it this oddball angle that I think really worked for the most part. The whole third act needs restructuring and a better big bad evil thing to show its face (and to stop reminding me about LOST). Chris Kattan is also a hidden gem in this one. Real drat shame what SNL did to him because he has such a great presence for oddball character work and would've been a great horror fixture going forwards if he was given the work and time to build his chops a bit more in the acting world. 3 Skulls out of 5  24. Funny Games [1997] - Dir: Michael Haneke This one is still tough. It's chew down to the bone rough. It still has so much going for it though and its such a tone setting and hard film to sit through sometimes that it can be lauded for really pushing the viewer past a breaking point. It's one thing for a movie to have fun goofy violence for characters you probably despise because they're poorly written or dumb for the sake of dumb. The victims of this movie are not any of those things. They're a family. We dont see so much of them we can build a concrete perception of who they are and give ourselves an out for whats about to happen to them. We dont get to escape the future we're going into with them by brushing them off as the bossy wife or the dopey dad or the mean spirited kid. They're not fully blank slates either. We get just enough to connect and then for that connection to be strong enough that their pain is ours and their grief is ours. It's an amazing tight rope to walk. The fact the movie handles the shock and horror so well, but also leaves you with a lot of internal questions you need to ask yourself as a viewer and as a person is just a very big compliment to Haeneke and everyone involved in the production. It's the foundation of what we would start seeing in the next century with "Torture Porn" and all those movies that could fall under that label. It's just unfortunate that the movie does get a answer to its question years later is that people are content or dont think too much about their consumption and the role they play. That's why the Saw series is now a billion dollar franchise: https://variety.com/2021/film/news/spiral-saw-franchise-billion-dollar-box-office-1234979765/ 4 and a half Skulls out of 5  25. The McPherson Tape [1989] - Dir: Dean Alioto What a sack of poo poo. Just bad, not even like cute bad, but it was just bad, boring and dull. 1 Skull out of 5
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May 24, 2021 21:34
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Franchescanado posted:10. Behind the Mask  21) To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story - SHUDDER - 2017 I'd always thought well of Kane Hodder. From the people I knew who met him, they had nothing but good to say. After sitting through this documentary, my respect for him's grown. I was pretty familiar with his film career, but the rest was new to me. Good God this man's been through a lot. I winced a bit at his telling of his burn recovery. Overall, the documentary's on the long side but it doesn't particularly feel it since Kane's a good storyteller. Definitely recommend this one.
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May 24, 2021 22:19
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28. Tales From the Crypt (1972 ) Fran Challenge 12. Cavalcade of Creepiness An Amicus anthology I had not seen yet , and it features Peter Cushing in a small role. Overall I really liked this its quick and to the point. At only 92 minutes it doesn't overstay its welcome. It was also fun seeing Tales from the Crypt stories that had later been adapted by the TV Series. Its a pretty standard set up but overall its really enjoyable. All the stories are short and to the point with predictable results! AnywaY I really enjoyed this. I've only got 3 more movies and I'll make it to 31 and I've done most of the Fran Challenges!
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May 24, 2021 23:07
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Cushing as Arthur Grimsdyke is one of my favourite revenants in media. I have a soft spot for walking corpses with no eyes.
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May 24, 2021 23:28
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 47 (53). Cropsey (2009) Written and directed by Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio. Watched on Kanopy, available on ARROW, Plex, Pluto TV, Tubi TV, and VUDU Free I’m not happy about this. For one, I had intended to use it for a challenge but I didn’t read the details closely enough and it doesn’t apply at all. That’s on me. For another this is billed as an exploration of folklore that gradually expands into true crime, but that’s a dishonest representation. Sure it starts talking about “Cropsey” and urban folklore but it nearly entirely abandons that angle about 10 to 15 minutes in and I didn’t think the name “Cropsey” is uttered at any point after that. I feel tricked. Finally my problem is… this a bad documentary. I don’t know if its intentionally manipulative to try and make a compelling “horror movie” out of a decades old true crime case or if the filmmakers just got themselves caught up in the investigation and lost in the whole mess or what. But I found the entire thing frustration and aggrativing and just really shoddy journalism. I mean, the sheer volume of random people with random baseless claims and speculation about Andre Rand would take forever to list and catalogue. The filmmakers do a terrible job creating any kind of chain of evidence or anything to separate actual credible information and just some random cop speculating that he thinks Rand is satanic because “well, Son of Sam.” Say what? At one point they interview a woman who leads a fringe religious group that spreads literature about visions of Black Masses and satanic cults hunting them in the city. I think they actually just randomly found her on the street. There is absolutely no reason given as to why this woman is credible or relevant to this topic or even a hint of whether we should be taking her information uncritically or not. They say stuff like “separate fact from folklore” a lot, but really they kind of just are collecting gossip. Now I don’t know if Rand is guilty. I don’t know if they think Rand is guilty or not. But this whole thing feels like such an uncritical naive deep dive into satanic panic that I almost feel like they accidently made a case for Rand being set up. And they do kind of dance around that question with a few of the hundred people pointing out that you know… there’s no actual evidence whatsoever that this guy worshipped Satan. But they never seem to really explore that question. They’re too busy excitedly following another “lead.” And there’s some real questions I have. Like the key witness that came forward after a decade and identified Rand even though she says he was wearing a full mask and she couldn’t see his face. But the doc kind of blows right past that because it wants to go do a late night paranormal investigation of a satanic mass hotspot. Where they of course dramatically find… drunk teenagers. There’s this moment after they find the teenagers and are like “did you hear about the satanic child killer from twenty years ago?!” that they seem to sober up and point out that they’re doing the same thing they did as kids and spreading stories. And this would have been a good place to try and pull this thing together and critically explore the question of fact vs stories. But then they just start following more stories before ending with a “Is he innocent? Is he guilty? Did he sacrifice children to Satan? Everyones got an opinion. You decide.” So what the hell was your job here? Bad documentarians can be dangerous just as any bad journalists. I’m just saying.  48 (54). The Girl (2012) Directed by Julian Jarrold, written by Gwyneth Hughes Watched on HBO Max. Fran Challenges 10/13 Franchescanado posted:10. Behind the Mask This is a film with a lot of controversy. Its based on Donald Spoto's 2009 book, Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies where Tippi Hendren accused Hitchcock of stalking and assaulting her. As you can imagine there’s been many people who dispute this account of the Hollywood powerbroker from family and friends to other Hitchcock leading ladies like Kim Novak. They poke holes in Hendren’s various accounts over the years and detail changes and her continued praise for him was a director over the years. But of course we’re all familiar with this kind of thing in a MeToo world and how difficult and complicated it is for a woman to speak out against a powerful and manipulative man. From my understanding this is an accurate portrayal of Hendren’s claims to Spoto. Her only objection to the film seems to be that it didn’t cover more of Hitchcock’s influence over her career, which she credits him for both giving her and taking from her as he had her under contract and kept her on ice allegedly turning down roles including Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451. This film focuses on their time working together on The Birds and Marnie and it gets very ugly very fast. Notably no one seems to despite the non-sexual aspects of Hitchcock’s abuse. Hendren/Miller is quickly and routinely blindsided by and pressured into (if told at all) the unsafe, dangerous, and painful conditions of filming - getting cut open on phone booth glass that was “accidently” broken in her face and undergoing dozens of takes over multiple days of the infamous live birds attic scene. The film is unflinching and unforgiving to Hitchcock about this. “Did you hear what I said? They clawed her eye. She was told one day with mechanical birds and special effects, instead she got five days with real birds thrown at her pecking and making GBS threads.” Again, no one seems to dispute these things. Hendren was lied to and manipulated by Hitchcock and tortured physically, mentally, and emotionally. Miller dealt with live birds to recreate the scene and portrays Hendren as a woman traumatized by Hitchcock. The key point of the film comes after the birds when production is shut down by doctor orders to give Hendren time to recover. Hendren knows Hitchcock has been lying to her and her friends advise her to walk away but she instead resolves herself to make a statement to Hitchcock by dealing happily with the birds and finishing the film. The film is structured well. The moment when Hendren chooses to not let Hitchcock see her hurt is the moment it all starts to fall apart for him. His obsession shifts from dangerous to pathetic as he makes desperate passes at her, harasses her home phone at inappropriate times, and drags his crew into uncomfortable situations where they have to mend his lovelorn ego and make careful pleas for him to refocus his attention on the film and his sick and devoted wife Alma. Alma’s partnership with Hitchcock is legendary and I would have liked to see more of her impression of this, but ultimately this is Hendren’s story. Alma is clearly shown to know what’s happening as everyone knows what’s happening, but no one has the power or strength to do something about it. Ultimately Hendren’s only choice is to just walk away from it and tell Hitchcock she won’t work with him again, a choice that Hitch makes clear will end her career since he has her under contract and she’ll be known as the actress who Hitchcock tried everything with but just couldn’t make it work. Miller’s Hendren never shows hesitation on that though. She’s already made the decision to put up with Hitchcock’s abuse in the name of her career. She’s now chosen the opposite. Its a powerful and effective ending for the film that leaves Hendren walking away from her upstart career with joy and relief and Hitchcock finishing his “last great masterpiece” broken and feeling small. I think Miller does a very good job in the role and while Toby Miller’s performance might feel a little too “imitation” on the nose at first he plays the legendary director in a nuanced and emotional way that is incredibly effective despite the film giving Hitchcock’s perspective very little time. There’s are a few scenes told away from Hendren’s knowledge but almost all from the perspective of Hitchcock’s assistant director Jim Brown. Filmmakers say they spoke with Brown and he backed up these accounts, but sadly he passed before the film was finished and his widow disputes them. That’s ultimately going to shape a lot of how you feel about this film. If you believe Hendren’s claims against Hitchcock and that things got as bad and overt as she says. But again, no one disputes that the abuse and obsession was real. The more controversial sexual elements are known only between Hitchcock and Hendren. And like so many powerful men of Hollywood man will defend and choose his side of that he said, she said. And like many possible women victims Hendren’s account will forever be poked at and questioned and expected to be able to prove what she can’t prove. This film isn’t quite as tense and powerful as something associated with Hitchcock would make you expect, but its got strong performances and a horrifying story that sucked me in and made me feel Hendren’s journey. I wouldn’t call this a much watch or anything, but I would say its an aspect of Hitchcock that any fan should probably consider.  49 (55). Mermaid Isle (2020) Written and directed by Jason Mills Watched on Hoopla, available on Tubi TV Fran Challenges 11/13 Franchescanado posted:11. Myths & Legends This was allegedly made for $500 and boy does it show. Mills owns a decent camera and understands the basics of lighting but that’s more or less where his movie making competency ends. In particular I was driven half mad by the terrible audio mix of this film that had ambient noise at like 10x the volume of dialogue. Oh also this film for some reason gives its characters almost no details or depth at all but then throws some passing exposition into the credits after it no longer matters. Also there’s this bizarre long epilogue scene that goes absolutely nowhere. Also the ending of the main story is laughably bad. Also the main story is terrible. Also one of the characters randomly yells out “that’s so gay!” much later than such casual homophobia was “acceptable.” This is one of the worst films I’ve ever seen. 🌻🎈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: 11/13🐺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); 47 (53). Cropsey (2009); 48 (54). The Girl (2012); 49 (55). Mermaid Isle (2020);
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May 24, 2021 23:40
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11. Seed of Chucky Fran Challenge #9: Scream, Queen! Previously in this thread when I talked about Bride of Chucky I mentioned that while that film was the first to introduce meta themes to the series, it wasn’t as much meta craziness as you’d think. Well if that film was Scream level of meta, this one goes full Gremlins 2 Chucky and Tiffany are now animatronic props used to make Chucky films, Jennifer Tilly now plays herself and just happens to have a striking resemblance to human-Tiffany, and of course- the crew goes to Hollywood. It’s a full throated satire of the industry and much more.  Don Mancini, the series creator, writer, and here as first time director is an openly gay man who said in interviews that Universal turned down this script because it was “too gay”. The titular “Seed” is a non-binary character whose struggle to deal with their gender drives the plot. They openly ponder ”Sometimes I feel like a boy, and sometimes I feel like a girl..hey! Can I be both?” The child is a Ziggy Stardust lookalike who is eventually named Glen...or Glenda (really). For 2004, it’s amazing to see a series already so established take such a public risk. It’s also refreshing to see the sympathetic attitude the movie eventually adopts- Chucky wants a boy, Tiffany wants a girl, but in the end they realize it’s Glen/Glenda’s decision to make. They facilitate this in the only way that Chucky and Tiffany could, by kidnapping Tilly, inseminating her with a turkey baster, and drop a voodoo curse on her so Glen/Glenda can transfer themselves into the child’s body. In a stroke of great luck, Tilly has twins- one boy and one girl I won’t speak for non-binary horror hounds, but I hope they were excited to see this representation at the core of the plot of the film and not just a throwaway character.  It’s shockingly heartfelt. But it’s also rude, crude, nasty, and very silly. It doesn’t nail every joke (hilariously dated Britney Spears reference included) but it’s a really fun watch. I think I still prefer Bride since I like Ronny Yu’s style, the 90’s aesthetics, and I feel like the kills are more memorable but man I love this series and these 2 in the middle of the run are really interesting.  Also shoutout to the lovely John Waters cameo as the pervy-paparazzi Pete Peters. It’s unconfirmed but I just have a feeling that John took one look at this script, read the scene where he spies on a masturbating Chucky and exclaims “Oh god, bless the little people!” and said IM IN! Watchlist ranked Best to Worst 1. Bride of Re-Animator* 2. Ginger Snaps 3. Frankenhooker* 4. Bride of Chucky* 5. Seed of Chucky ( ) 6. House on Haunted Hill ‘99 () 7. Rawhead Rex 8. Victor Crowley 9. Scare Package ( )10. Jason Goes to Hell 11. Verotika *=rewatch = Fran Challenge- #2, #9, #12WeaponX fucked around with this message at 23:58 on May 24, 2021 |
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May 24, 2021 23:56
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I could use some recommendations for Cinco challenge. I'm not familiar with Mexican horror. I've seen Cronos but its been a long time. I'd rather something that is not really intense.
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May 25, 2021 00:23
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Hollismason posted:I could use some recommendations for Cinco challenge. I'm not familiar with Mexican horror. I've seen Cronos but its been a long time. I'd rather something that is not really intense. Alucarda and El Vampiro are both strong recommends.
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May 25, 2021 00:24
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Hollismason posted:I could use some recommendations for Cinco challenge. I'm not familiar with Mexican horror. I've seen Cronos but its been a long time. I'd rather something that is not really intense. The Devil's Backbone is an absolute masterpiece but if you didn't like Cronos you might not like that. Its all about children in danger in a tense situation so probably too intense. Tigers Are Not Afraid is great, but again very similar to Guillermo del Toro's work and Devil's Backbone and the children in danger thing specifically. We Are What We Are is a "spiritual sequel" to Cronos. Its a different story and I think a bit of a softer tone. But still maybe "intense." Boris Karloff and Jack Hill filmed some quick and dirty roles for some Mexican films right before Karloff died. I've only seen Alien Terror/The Incredible Invasion and its not good, but its got a cheesy appeal. The others are Isle of the Snake People, Fear Chamber, and House of Evil. Alurcarda is interesting. Kinda 70s euro exploitation in nature? I dunno.
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May 25, 2021 00:37
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Hollismason posted:I could use some recommendations for Cinco challenge. I'm not familiar with Mexican horror. I've seen Cronos but its been a long time. I'd rather something that is not really intense. El Santo and the Blue Demon vs The Monsters is good clean fun. The Mummies of Guanajuato featuring El Santo, Blue Demon, and Mil Mascaras is even more bonkers.
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May 25, 2021 00:42
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Thanks for the recommendations!
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May 25, 2021 02:22
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Another crop 6. Fried Barry (2021) - This was a wtf movie. An alien takes over an addict’s body for a wild night on the town. It was violent, gonzo and nuts. Bold, bright, bizarre and more than a little disconnected. At times I had an Under The Skin feeling while watching it. 7. Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962) - A classic I had never seen. Outside of a few somewhat out-of-touch moments where someone just really needed to yell out of a window for literally crying out loud, it was an intense ride, and Bette Davis was downright terrifying in her nonchalance. Watching this also led me to learn of the genre label “psycho-biddy” and the even better label “hagsploitation.” 8. Goodnight Mommy (2014) - FRAN CHALLENGE: MOTHER’S DAY - A mother of two has facial surgery after an accident, but soon her sons start disbelieving that she is who she is. This movie telegraphs it’s reveal quite a bit, but that didn’t really release any pressure - the movie stayed as intense as ever. Part of the movie is this traumatized woman also having to be a mother while dealing with her recovery, and dealing with her offspring. 9. Dead Of Night (1977) - FRAN CHALLENGE: CAVALCADE OF CREEPINESS Mediocre anthology with no wraparound, this felt *heavily* like it was simply 4 episodes of Tales From The Darkside, with all the good and all the bad that entails. 10. After Midnight (2019) - This may have been a more interesting movie had I seen it on a night not earmarked for group-watching-horror-goodness. A man’s girlfriend leaves him and he starts hearing and seeing evidence of a monster lurking on his porch at night. It toys a lot (too much) with his friends questioning the reality of the monster, and then at some point we learn that his girlfriend returns after the long separation of… wait, what? 4 months? Didn’t take long for him to start seeing monsters…. This is more of a mumble-esque relationship drama than the monster movie I was hoping it would be. [subscript]Total: 10[/subscript] [subscript]The Roost, Under The Shadow, Luz: The Flowers Of Evil, The Damned, Ava’s Possession, Fried Barry, What Ever Happened To Baby Jane, Goodnight Mommy, Dead Of Night, After Midnight[/subscript] [subscript]Fran Challenges: 2 - Mother’s Day, Cavalcade Of Creepiness[/subscript]
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May 25, 2021 02:33
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 38. 1997. Cube Directed by Vincenzo Natali Watched on Tubi Cube is really interesting because of how much it does with so little. There are six characters on a single set. The characters themselves are not super interesting and the dialog is painfully awkward at times, but it’s very stylish and well executed.  In the first few scenes, I thought that there was just too much camera movement. It was as though the director was compensating for the lack of physical action by flinging the camera around. In retrospect, it was a good way to depict disorientation. Overall, it’s not especially scary, though there are a few tense moments. As a metaphor for the pointlessness of human existence, it’s decent.  The practical effects are solid, though the early CGI hasn’t aged well. With a larger cast, there could have been more cool trap kills, but there’s almost no way they could pack more people into those cubes. It’s almost like they painted themselves into… a corner. 1/2Time Travel Challenge: 38/31 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), 37. The Craft (1996), 38. Cube (1997) 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 25, 2021 03:03
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3. The Student of Prague (1913) - Another loose variant on Faust (although Wikipedia says it's Poe's "William Wilson"), but in this case, our protagonist Baldwin sells his reflection to the devil. Much like my earlier Faust-alike, Satan's Rhapsody, this has similar pacing problems - spending almost the entirety of the movie with rather utilitarian shots of Baldwin's romance with the Countess, before going all out with some very expressionistic shots as things turn bleak and we head for the final confrontation with the devil. 3/5 4. Malombra (1917) - Marina moves in with her uncle, only to be possessed by the ghost of his wife Cecilia, whom he murdered. Sounds great, but practically speaking, it means Marina/Cecilia spends 70 minutes of a 75 minute movie moping about before we get to the last five minutes and, again, go to the fireworks factory. That said, it's very, very pretty with great set designs. 3/5 5. Fear (1917) - Robert Wiene before Caliguri. Maybe Faust-alike? Art collector Graf steals a Buddha statue from a temple, returns home to Germany, and immediately orders the castle barred to everyone. The head of the "terrible Buddhist priests" tracks him down in spectral form, and when Graf begs for a quick death, the priest instead curses him to live well for 7 years before dying at the hands of his beloved. There are three acts here, and they're all well done - Graf's manic paranoia at the beginning, when he's expecting to be tracked down and (justifiably) murdered at any moment, the party scenes of the "live well" period, which aren't as excessive as they were in Satan's Rhapsody, and then the return of the mania when he knows it's death day and is trying to figure out who's going to kill him. 5/5 6. Arrival from the Darkness (1921) - Czech film about a Baron who's gifted a book by his wife's spurned lover that leads to a secret alchemist laboratory underneath The Black Tower in his castle, where he revives one of his ancestors using the elixir of life. Said ancestor thinks the Baron's wife is the reincarnation of his beau, so now everybody in the movie is macking on this dude's wife. Wonderfully shot and creepy through out - the neighbor is a double-crossing sneak, and the ancestor is a more direct threat. I almost want to ding it because they cop out on the ending (It was all a dream), but 5/5. 7. The Bells (1926) - 13. Horrible Holidays - Lionel Barrymore plays Mathias, an innkeeper who is very much in debt due to his generosity at the bar and his campaign for BURGO MASTER, straight up murders a character named "Baruch Koweski, The Polish Jew" for his gold. Mathias quickly comes under triple threat: his policeman soon-to-be son-in-law is hoping to solve the case to get a promotion, Baruch's ghost is haunting him, and Baruch's brother has shown up with a 30,000 franc bounty and this creepy motherfucker: Guess who? Boris Karloff, practically an infant at this point (39 years old). Great acting throughout, great pace, and a satisfying ending. Also, takes place at Christmas, I should probably mention that. 5/5 8. The Headless Horseman (1922) 2. Sometimes They Come Back - Does it count for having been remade if the original is a short story? Will Rogers stars in a fairly faithful adaptation of the story. The problem is that when you remove the quality of Irving's prose, you mostly have the story of a guy who stands in front of kids teaching all day, sits in front of kids telling stories all night, and occasionally tries to court Katrina. They do add a scene where Brom Bones has one of the students accuse Ichabod of witchcraft and the villagers get ready to tar and feather him, but it comes far too late in the film to add any excitement.The final chase sequence is shot very dynamically... and that's about the only good thing I have to say about the movie. They also remove any ambiguity from the end of the story by having The Horseman break the fourth wall and reveal himself as Brom Bones. 2/5
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May 25, 2021 03:40
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Sono posted:3. The Student of Prague (1913) - Another loose variant on Faust (although Wikipedia says it's Poe's "William Wilson"), but in this case, our protagonist Baldwin sells his reflection to the devil. Much like my earlier Faust-alike, Satan's Rhapsody, this has similar pacing problems - spending almost the entirety of the movie with rather utilitarian shots of Baldwin's romance with the Countess, before going all out with some very expressionistic shots as things turn bleak and we head for the final confrontation with the devil. 3/5 This is one of the most interesting set of reviews in the thread so far. Every one of these has piqued my interest, especially The Bells. What made you decide to watch these particular silents?
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May 25, 2021 04:01
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Franchescanado posted:11. Myths & Legends  22) CarousHELL - Prime - 2016 To absolutely no surprise here, I watched the killer carousel unicorn movie. Storyline follows Duke, a unicorn on a carousel ride. He hates the job, hates the kids, and he snaps when one rubs a booger on him and then it's a trail of carnage as he's determined to get That Kid. This was delightfully schlocky. The dialog cheesy and the gory practical effects nicely done. There's even human/unicorn sex that I didn't expect them to go there, but they did. I wasn't sure how they'd make it work with the unicorn being solid crafted, but they pulled it off. There is also a sequel that's in the works. Overall, I liked it, but then I do love my cheesy horror.
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May 25, 2021 04:15
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Fran Challenge #6: Playing With Power #28 Resident Evil Paul W. S. Anderson, 2002  I've been putting off watching this. And I don't just mean recently. Like for nearly 20 years. I played the original game back in the mid 90s and loved it, but I knew the movie adaptation would fail to live up to the game. And hey! I was right on the loving money. What I wanted:  What i got:  But I'm not just going to poo poo talk the movie by comparing it to the game. Truthfully I don't care about that anymore. No, I'm going to poo poo talk it based on how terrible of a movie it is. The best word I can think to describe it is "cheap". Everything about this is cheap as gently caress. The script, the sets, the effects, the zombies, the casting, the music. It all screams made-for-syfy with a slightly larger budget and some cursing. It's a movie that has one and ONLY one demographic: 15 year old males in the year 2002. If you're not currently a 15 year old male in 2002, you won't like this movie. The badass CGI zombie effects will be too extreme for you. The gun-wielding, poo poo-talking, takes-no-guff-from-nobody Michelle Rodriguez will be WAY too badass for you. And the fuckin SICK nu metal soundtrack will definitely rock your loving face off just a bit too much. So unless you've very recently experienced both puberty and 9/11, I suggest avoiding this. 1/5 28 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), 28. Resident Evil (2002) 11/13 Fran Challenges completed: 2. Sometimes They Come Back, 3. Camp BLOOD, 4. Movie of the Month, 5. Cinco, 6. Playing With Power, 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 25, 2021 04:26
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And with these my reviews have caught up to what I've watched this month. Hit my 13 new-to-me, but it's gonna be hard pressing to finish the Fran challenges as I won't be able to watch any over the weekend... 11. The Day Of The Beast (1995) - A whole lot of fun packed into a tale about the end of the world. A priest finds out when the Antichrist will be born so attempts to commit comically inept acts of evil in order to meet Satan and find out where that will happen. He teams up with a metalhead and a stage magician. This was a ton of fun and had a unique set up and feel that kept the whole gang entertained. 12. The Cremator (1969) - FRAN CHALLENGE - MOVIE OF THE MONTH I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this, but I’m certainly glad I saw it. A cremator in Prague starts out with some well-intentioned ideas about death and cremation relieving suffering. Then as the Third Reich encroaches and eventually envelops his country he slowly turns into a murderer and mass executioner. There is a lot to unpack in this movie, and I definitely need to see it again, but it all hinges around the performance of the titular character. The actor Rudolf Hrušínský plays the titular character with a quiet sociopathic charm as he espouses Tibetan philosophy and fills his own empty self with other people’s thoughts and ideas, comingling with his own odd takes. It’s a powerhouse performance. 13. The Astral Factor (1976) - A fairly forgettable small take on The Invisible Man. I say forgettable because I’ve forgotten most of what happens in it. But essentially a convicted murderer learns an occult method to render himself invisible and then goes after the women who convicted him and also hamfistedly remind him of his mother. Meh. 14. The Haunted Palace (1963) - Roger Corman, Vincent Price, a looooose adaptation of Lovecraft’s The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward. What’s not to love. Of course Price was great. Of course the sets are wonderful. Of course the atmosphere drips with gothic tones. 15. Demonoid: Messenger Of Death (1981) - FRAN CHALLENGE - CINCO Ok, I’ll let Fran decide if this counts. Starts out in Mexico, has a Mexican director, and some Mexican crew, but after a while it’s back in the USA for the rest of the runtime. I’m not likely to hit all the challenges by the end of the month, so I’m not going to argue too much. A mine owner and his wife accidentally unleash an EVIL AND SATANIC hand from the mine. It then jumps from murder victim to murder victim to get back to her after he dies, going by a kind of It Follows logic, except instead of sex it’s, er, presence when it was unearthed? A lot of the reviews I saw talked about how slow this was - I didn’t have that experience! A lot of absolutely (unintentionally) ridiculous poo poo happens and the movie had me laughing the whole way through - whether for poor acting decisions to sound effects when the killer hand jumps to inexplicable choices in the writing. I had a great time. [subscript]Total: 15[/subscript] [subscript]The Roost, Under The Shadow, Luz: The Flowers Of Evil, The Damned, Ava’s Possession, Fried Barry, What Ever Happened To Baby Jane, Goodnight Mommy, Dead Of Night, After Midnight, The Day Of The Beast, The Cremator, The Astral Factor, The Haunted Palace, Demonoid: Messenger Of Death[/subscript] [subscript]Fran Challenges: 3? - Mother’s Day, Cavalcade Of Creepiness, Movie Of The Month, Cinco?[/subscript]
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May 25, 2021 05:05
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Challenge 5: Cinco 10: Los Parecidos (The Similars) One of those movies that would have been a great 40 minute short but got turned into a decent 90 minute movie. The pacing winds up being pretty interesting, it takes a bit to get going and then things kick off at about the half hour mark, then shortly after that there's a huge exposition dump that pretty flatly explains what is happening and why, and then the movie goes on for another 45 minutes. The less said about the plot the better I think, this one that would be better gone into blind. I really liked the colour palette in this. The whole thing is a riff on Twilight Zone, including a Serling narration at the beginning and end, and it's done with this super saturated look where it's almost black and white, but has some colour popping in  It's very neat.
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May 25, 2021 05:13
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22. Tooth Fairy: The Last Extraction Briefly on Youtube  Tooth Fairy: The Last Extraction (aka Tooth Fairy 3) is the third part in a super low-budget horror series I haven't seen the first two parts of about the Tooth Fairy being real and also an unstoppable killer monster. Some but certainly not all of the "Highlights": This being the only part I've seen, and having seen it purely because despite having a planned for-purchase release date 4 months from now, its distributor accidentally randomly put it up on their Youtube page for free and I was able to view it there before they realized the error and it was taken down Me forgetting about it for a full week despite almost always logging or taking notes of stuff right after viewing because aside from kinda-liking the look of the monster/Tooth Fairy, there was nothing content-wise worth even immediately remembering Multiple fight scenes consist of someone being shoved down and it incapacitating them almost completely to the point of near-death, I guess that's something? Also multiple near-middle-age actors playing teenagers. Really wanted to forget that "The Last" being in the title, and having frequent flashbacks from the prior two films, yet having multiple scenes in the last ten minutes heavily implying this in fact may not be the last in the series. At least when Friday the 13th had two films with "The Final" in their title, one of them was actually originally planned to be the final one A star because the monster doesn't look bad compared to everything else. I can see why they'd try to get a couple films' use from that design. Also it has this great line: “There's a killer out there they haven't been able to catch for decades. All I'm gonna say is I believe it's the goddamn tooth fairy”. Also I'm glad I was able to see at least one bad horror film this month, it just wouldn't have felt natural otherwise * 22/13 (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, Tooth Fairy: The Last Extraction) Also I thought Spiral would be my only theater experience for the challenge this month But I'm evidently seeing A Quiet Place 2 with friends this weekend, so I'll have one more. Excited 
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May 25, 2021 05:34
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A double dose of (spooky) documentary for today. Fran Challenge 10.) Behind the Mask Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue (Watched on Amazon via Prime) A little behind the curve on this one, which I seem to recall the main horror thread checked out a while back. I enjoyed the little personal anecdotes from various creators, especially when they placed their exposure to the genre in the timeline of horror history. Ultimately, though, I don't think a decade-by-decade periodization is a convincing or useful way to really get a pulse for the various "threads" which make up the spooky tapestry. The segments for the 70s-90s were the most coherent and had the most clear continuity between arguments. (The book this draws from is from 2004, so while the documentary is 2009 it's not really armed to know what the 00s would look like.) Fran Challenge 9.) Scream Queen Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street (Watched on Amazon Prime via Shudder)  Again, I feel way late on this one. Glad to have gotten around to it, though - it was spectacular. Beautifully shot and staged, great sound, with the narrative broken into coherent phrases. A strong recommend as a documentary in general, even outside the narrower category of horror doc. Any bio is going to have to map a story onto the senseless and often inconclusive and unsatisfying events of real life, which is part of why Sholder and Chaskin's squirmy and noncomittal contributions are so drat frustrating - they break a viewer's stride. Still, while this is a rough and aggravating watch at times, the earnest and emotional beats from Patton and the fandom are ultimately about progress and discovery. That's what movies do - they manipulate people. 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], 9.) Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue [FC10: Behind the Mask], 10.) Scream, Queen! [FC9: Scream, Queen]
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May 25, 2021 06:00
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Scream, Queen is one I tell almost everyone I know even loosely into horror to watch. Mark Patton kicks rear end and I think some of the topics touched in the documentary could enlighten some people.
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May 25, 2021 06:07
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22: Psycho Goreman (2020) A little girl finds a gem that controls an intergalactic warlord. This seems a polarising film here. The girl is for sure incredibly obnoxious, and this is a deliberate choice. It worked for me. If they'd had a more typical movie child protagonist (eg Eliot from ET) they just wouldn't stand out enough among the gore and goofiness of this movie. In fact, as I type this I wonder if that was the whole point of including the brother character, who is very passive and a running joke is P.G. being unable to remember his name. There's no emotional weight to the movie, it's all very surface level. I liked the monster costumes and effects, which had a charming "low budget but they put effort in" quality. The humour mostly worked. The pitch I'd heard was "what if Power Rangers was R-rated" and that's fairly accurate. I found it a fun, light movie Competed: 22 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; Psycho Goreman
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May 25, 2021 11:27
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STAC Goat posted:The Devil's Backbone is an absolute masterpiece but if you didn't like Cronos you might not like that. Its all about children in danger in a tense situation so probably too intense. The Devil's Backbone isn't a Mexican film. It takes place in Spain, about a very important moment in Spain's history (Spanish Civil War). It was produced by a Spaniard (Augustin Almodovar, Pedro Almodovar's brother). It was film in Madrid. All of the actors are from Spain. Literally the only Mexican involved is Del Toro, I believe. It was originally written about the Mexican Revolution, but Del Toro did a whole re-write once it was funded by Spain. The distribution company is even in Spain.
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May 25, 2021 12:38
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11 Dave Made a Maze (2017) This doofus builds a maze in his living room out of boxes, which unaccountably becomes an endless cardboard labyrinth populated by monsters and deadly traps; his girlfriend and some friends go in to rescue him, accompanied by an amateur documentary crew that happens to be present. Alright, this is really not a horror movie, but it has some elements of horror, and the word "horror" appears in the wikipedia description, and hell, it's not like this is the October challenge, so gently caress it. Anyway, it was pretty fun. The maze is the main star, and it's a very distinctive and varied setting. It's often drab, as you would expect from endless cardboard, but they try to mix it up as much as possible. They have a lot of fun with the documentary film director, and his attempts to take control of the situation. Anyway, it was some nice light fare, which was good because in retrospect the movies around it were pretty grim. /512 Die Hölle (Cold Hell) (2017) No screenshot. A cab driver is pursued by a serial killer after witnessing one of his crimes. Eh, it was alright. Again, more thriller than horror, but I heard about it in the horror thread, so it counts. It's not the most original movie; it borrows a lot from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Özge is a boxer; the villain is motivated by his misogyny; she falls in with this older guy who helps, but she still needs to finish things alone. Honestly, I think it benefits from the comparison. I found Berlin to be a more interesting setting than rural Sweden, and I prefer a character who's a regular fuckup that relies on others over an omni-competent loner like Lisbeth Salander. The pacing dragged sometimes; a lot of the movie is spent just sort of figuring out what to do with her niece, which was just less interesting than the conflict with the murderer. /513 Kill List (2011)  A pair of middle-class British hitmen accept a series of jobs from what turns out to be a cult. My third rewatch of the month. Movie rules, though I've got to admit I had to turn on the subtitles. The uncanniness of their lives - suburban melodrama that comes from having a job where you get large but irregular paychecks, for killing people - sort of tricks you into not noticing the deeper weirdness of the people they're dealing with, until it's too late. Like there are all these tells that in another movie would make you go "Oh, he's going to betray them, and she's in on it too", and they barely register because the normal people in the movie are so volatile themselves. It does a good job making you feel the stakes of smalltime violence; killing a single person feels like a huge deal, even though they do it for a living. Anyway, it's top shelf. /514 The Wretched (2019) No screenshot because of Netflix's copy protection This kid, working at his dad's marina for his summer vacation, comes under attack by some sort of shapeshifter-wendigo-witch that can edit people's memories. Also it wants to eat him or something, but the memory-editting is way more interesting. It was solid. The movie starts out alternating between a cozy summer working-holiday, and a horror movie-- and I really mean alternating, it just bounces between a normal scene (involving the kid) and a spooky scene (involving his neighbours). It would have benefitted from integrating these two together better; as it was, it reminded me of a TV show where one plotline is just way more engaging than the others. Anyway, they do eventually come together, and there's a neat twist that did a lot to redeem the first half of the movie for me. /5Up next: Gretel and Hansel...
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May 25, 2021 13:10
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Spatulater bro! posted:This is one of the most interesting set of reviews in the thread so far. Every one of these has piqued my interest, especially The Bells. What made you decide to watch these particular silents? No real grand strategy. Working off this list, looking for things that are not lost, close to an hour, available on the Internet, with English titles or subs (btw, the copy of Arrival from the Darkness on YouTube that says it has English subs does not; the copy with the description purely in Czech does), and avoiding things that look more crime than horror narrows the field considerably.
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May 25, 2021 13:22
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11. Edge of the Axe 1988 dir. José Ramón Larraz This had been recommended to me several times recently, and other Larraz films had been critically acclaimed by Debbie.  I predicted the twist pretty early on, but I don't hold that against the film. It sticks close to a standard slasher formula, which was already becoming rote in '88. The kills here, are surprisingly visceral, while still simple. Actors are bludgeoned with an axe and become soaked in blood. The camera is unflinching in showing this, and it really works for this film. The characters don't have much charm for me. I'd start to like them, then they'd do a weird turn where it'd distance me again. A biker who's into computers is such a strange mix, and the film heavily leans into computer-geekery. Overall, I liked it, but didn't love it. I'd revisit it again, though, and would grab a blu-ray copy for a good price. It's pretty competent. 3 out of 5  I've realized a commonality with successful slashers that unsuccessful slashers lack during this challenge. Good slashers, the ones we remember--like Friday the 13th, Halloween, ANoES, Child's Play, The Burning, Sleepaway Camp--do not have a "slasher structure". Almost all of them, whether they are aiming for being a "slasher or not" (usually not), do not aim to "be" a slasher. For instance, a lukewarm slasher like April Fool's Day, which maintains a decent amount of charm because of the premise and twist, aims to be a slasher. There is an obvious aspect in the writing where someone said "X amount of kills for Y amount of minutes/pages". Also, you can tell when there was a lot of brainstorming for a mask, and the killer's weapon. Which is all fine, there should be thought put into that stuff, but when you look at the GOATs of the genre, these questions aren't visible to the audience, because the actual film has a natural feel to it. Child's Play came out the same year as Edge of the Axe, and Child's Play is a classic, Chucky is a house-hold name who is still getting (multiple timeline) entries into his canon, and I don't remember the name of the killer in Edge of the Axe. Edge of the Axe, begins with a woman getting murdered in a car wash with an axe. (Pretty good scene, but Fulci did it a little better in '82 with New York Ripper, with a woman getting killed on a ferry.) Child's Play begins with a shoot-out between Chris Sarandon and Brad Dourif, where Dourif gets shot. (Let's ignore the star power that Child's Play casting has behind it, and let's assume that the same scene would be successful with lesser/no-name actors, if it were shot-for-shot.) I believe Edge of the Axe waits 10 minutes before another murder takes place, Child's Play takes 23 minutes before Chucky kills friend of the family Maggie. Ultimately Child's Play has 6 on-screen deaths, two of which are for Chucky, both as human and as doll, over the course of 86 minutes. Edge of the Axe has 10 in 90 minutes. Good slashers can have higher body counts, but the memorable ones kinda don't, with exception for the Friday the 13th series, which works within a structure it created itself, and so has a double whammy of contradiction by following it's own series formula, which coincides with the greater Slasher Formula being discussed. Of course there are so many aspects of slashers that must coincide for it to withstand the test of time--cinematography, special effects, casting--but all of the GOATs aren't really trying to be slashers. Friday the 13th is a murder mystery, Halloween is a thriller based on urban legends and the idea of "pure evil" invading the safety of small-town suburbia, Nightmare on Elm Street is about teenagers suffering the repercussions of absent and misguided parents, Child's Play is about the latest trends of pop culture and capitalism destroying childhood innocence, Sleepaway Camp is a middle-finger to bullying and a love-letter to the insecurities of adolescence and summer camp, The Burning is also a love-letter to summer camps while also exploring the urban legend of Cropsey in a fictionalized setting, Slumber Party Massacre is about toxic masculinity and a shift in power dynamics between genders in horror films, The Prowler's killer is a ghost of WW2 destroying a new generation, Maniac is interested in understanding a killer in a slasher setting, etc. There is no adherence to a structure, just an understanding that violent deaths will occur in the story, and will be emphasized. This is also why more proto-slashers like Alice Sweet Alice, The Eyes of Laura Mars, Black Christmas, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Peeping Tom, and others are still finding audiences to this day. They weren't called Slashers, and weren't interested in pursuing a defined structure. When I find interesting post-1980 slashers, I start to wonder why it worked when others fail. More people should know about Terror Train, it should be on the list alongside other well-known slashers. It's got a setup like other slashers, but the structure is pretty unique for the genre. The killer changes costumes throughout, because they steal the costumes the party-goers wear. There are regular murders, but they don't feel trite or like they were trying to hit beats prescribed by the genre. It has John Alcott cinematography and was made around the same time as The Shining. It has Jamie Lee Curtis. It still feels fresh and fun. I can extend a lot of compliments to New Year's Evil, which I now try to watch every year. Half of it's run-time is spent at a kickin' rad New Wave party, and the other half of the run-time is spent with an unmasked killer who talks and interacts with and tricks his victims. He is characterized in a way that you sorta root for the guy to pull off his murderous plans, and suspense is doubled because we are worried for his victims but also worried he might get caught. It's great! Then there's also Christmas Evil, which is so much a character study about a disturbed person clinging to the innocence of the Christmas spirit. There is a je ne sais quoi with good-but-not-great slashers. I can't explain why the Leprechaun franchise has as many entries as it does, other than Warwick Davis's charm transcends the films and their idiocy connects with people. Maybe the same can be said about the Puppet Master series, where the idea of killer puppets and their designs work better than the actual films. The gore of The Mutilator does make it more entertaining to revisit than The House on Sorority Row, even though the latter has more interesting camera work and the former is confusing (it's objectively Fall Break but everyone's going swimming all the time?). The Funhouse is over-the-top and elaborate and feels feverish, but more people rewatch My Bloody Valentine despite it being more mediocre in every way besides the grounded blue collar mining town setting, and neither will ever live up to Texas Chainsaw Massacre in esteem. I don't have a succinct conclusion for these thoughts. These are just contemplations I've been having lately, with watching more slashers lately. Total: 11 Films Watched: Fright Night | The Brood | The Black Cat | Varan | The Roost | Friday the 14th Part 4: The Final Chapter | They Live | The Burning | Dario Argento's Phantom of the Opera | Sleepaway Camp | Edge of the Axe rewatch | new to me
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May 25, 2021 13:41
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10. The Burning FC3 I can’t come up with the right words to describe this movie. It has the bones, and the heart, of a classic slasher but not the brains? It seems to be made by people who clearly like horror, and it has a lot of enjoyable features but it’s just missing that something to push it over the top. The setting is one every poster in this thread knows and loves, an 80s Summer Camp, and all the trappings that entails. The strange synth/saw score is effective and the heart beat sound effect stolen from The Thing will help you smile if for no other reason than you think of The Thing. There are some great shots on the water, the performances are fine and you even get to see young Jason Alexander’s butt! The film makers leave 0 mystery about who, why, how, and what is about to happen. Unfortunately they strangle the hell of the “when” as it takes nearly a full hour before any real murders happen. The second large problem the movie has, is that all the killing is boring as hell. Every kill is done with a pair of hedge clippers but always in the exact same manner and at NO point is anyone decapitated which seems like a huge miss. In summary, The Burning is a generic 80s summer camp slasher but it was so close to being more than that. 11. Nightbreed FC6 With all due respect to Basebf555, who has recommended me many good choices, this movie stinks. I’ve read some other reviews that it’s because of the lead actor, but he randomly disappears for a long stretch towards the end and it still stinks. Also he is the lead in the universally accepted 3rd best Hellraiser film “Inferno” so how can it be his fault? Half the monster designs are sub-Halloweentown levels and the plot of the movie is just Little Monsters meets Roger Rabbit but less funny and cool than both. The killers design is pretty cool looking but that is the only positive I can really think of. 12. Cronos FC5 As far as stealth vampire movies go, you could do worse! My only real complaint would be, that part makes up so little of the movie even though it’s the most intriguing. Cronos is well written, shot, acted, etc. but the truth is the mystery is no where near as interesting as the results. If wish Cronos spent less time on Ron Pearlman’s chase and explanation of what the device is, and more time showing its effects on the user. Not to say I didn’t enjoy the film though, like I mentioned it’s Del Torro so even if it’s early Del Torro, the craftsmanship is there.
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May 25, 2021 14:19
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Did I even really recommend Nightbreed? I guess I just try to be as positive as I possibly can about the stuff I watch but it's definitely a deeply flawed movie. No argument there.
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May 25, 2021 14:37
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