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23: Skull: The Mask An ancient mask is inhabited by an Incan god who possesses some crime scene dude and goes around ripping people's guts out as sacrifices, I guess so the god can manifest in our world but I don't recall that being explicitly stated. The plot is super convoluted. There's a 1940s military experiment, an evil corporation, a priest who kicks arse for the lord, a child abduction ring and a cop with a chequered past. There's a lot of threads for a not very long film. The subtitles were strangely off at times. Mostly they were fine but just on occasion it felt like it was done via google translate The gore is nicely done and I really like the monster design. The movie is fun and over the top, but takes itself seriously enough. It's not Psycho Goreman. As a gory demon monster movie it's pretty good. Competed: 23 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; Skull: the Mask
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May 30, 2021 15:11
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29. Brahms: The Boy II (2020) The boy do I never learn my lessons. William Brent Bell should only be directing people to their seats, good lord,  .5/5
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May 30, 2021 16:48
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I need a ruling asap, would The Devil and Father Amorth count for the Behind the Mask challenge? E: too late I’m doing it Opopanax fucked around with this message at 22:28 on May 30, 2021 |
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May 30, 2021 17:21
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13. Mausoleum Fran Challenge #7 10 year old Susan attends her mother’s funeral only to find herself possessed by the same demon that has possessed every first born member of the Nomed (that’s right) family. That’s how Mausoleum starts off and this one turned out to be a pretty fun piece of campy schlock horror. It’s stars Bobbie Breese, who was in a few similar movies in the 80s and she does a good job hamming it up as the demon possessed seductress. It’s a real basic movie, Susan finds a victims, usually seduces them, kills them, and moves on. Eventually B-Movie regular Marjoe Gortner and her therapist find the book of exposition that explains the demon curse and how to end it. It has the sweaty, hairy, poorly acted feel of a late-70s porn.  But it’s not without its charm. In particular it has a variety of fun special effects courtesy of the late-great John Carl Buechler. Glowing green eyes, ribs bursting out of chests, people being tossed off of the second floor of a mall, and Susan herself who eventually transforms into a full-on rubber demon. It’s awesome and of course her breast turn into two little demon puppets and that’s just some quality filmmaking. If you like this brand of sleazy, goofy, trashy 70s/80s horror, it’s worth checking out.  And I’m done! I might sneak one or two more in tonight.. 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. Mausoleum () 9. Army of the Dead 10. Victor Crowley 11. Scare Package ()12. Jason Goes to Hell 13. Verotika *=rewatch = Fran Challenge- #2, #7, #9, #12WeaponX fucked around with this message at 17:56 on May 30, 2021 |
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May 30, 2021 17:47
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26. Fried Barry Shudder If Under The Skin felt even more surreal but also far less violent and more...downright compassionate at times? A couple scenes where I almost teared up. A prick gets abducted by aliens, ends up inhabited by one, and adjusts to life where he doesn't really know how to speak, what to speak when he does, or how to run. Eventually he learns to love (in more ways than one), and he just doesn't really stop even when confronted by people who were pricks just like his ordinary-original-human self Gary Green's debut feature role is incredibly done and he definitely has potential in the genre if he wants to make more films ***** 27. The McPherson Tape  Shudder The McPherson family gathers for a birthday party celebrating Michelle McPherson turning 5 years old. Eventually the dopey men (one of whom is commemorating the occasion by recording all the proceedings with his new camcorder) head outside for a walk and accidentally see alien visitors, and their presence gets noticed I appreciate the history of this being one of the first, if not the first, found footage horror films. That said, I still hate the genre and the instant the shakycam started, my interest was fading faster than it ever did hearing that annoying grandma overreact to everything ** 28. A Quiet Place Part 2  I didn't believe my friends who tried watching the first A Quiet Place and their main takeaway was "these characters were pretty dumb". 1) I liked it despite that, and 2) I'm a horror fan, I liked to think characters being dumb is something I'm used to and it can't sincerely detract from a film or cause disinterest I liked to think that Every character in Part 2 is astonishingly dumb (in general and in comparison to that film). Nearly every scene, nearly every action. The two scenes where I didn't feel that was currently the case were the first ten minutes (which was still partially spoiled for me by one of the trailers), and the final three minutes (which was still an even more abrupt ending than the first film had) If you wanted jump scares, they're there, and if you wanted to see more of the Cloverfield monsters from the first one, they're there, frequently and up close I think I'm done. Didn't want to end the month/challenge on a bad note, but definitely didn't expect this to be my least favorite theater-film of the month either Happy I decided to double feature this and a rewatch of Cruella, and my showing of Cruella is starting shortly. I get to wash the taste of this out pretty quick * 28/13 (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, The Unholy 2021, The Unholy 1988, Skull: The Mask, Fried Barry, The McPherson Tape, A Quiet Place Part 2) Chris James 2 fucked around with this message at 01:20 on May 31, 2021 |
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May 30, 2021 22:05
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 #28. The Babysitter: Killer Queen (Netflix) 2 years after the events of the first film, a traumatized Cole is once again attacked by the Satanic blood cult from before... including the 4 stupid-but-dangeous members he killed before. This was a lot of fun. The original Babysitter movie was a fun and inventive little thriller, anchored by a decent teenager performance by Judah Lewis but mainly carried by Samara Weaving as the titular babysitter. This one still has a mostly good turn by Lewis, but doesn't benefit by having Weaving on hand to keep things working for the most part. To compensate, they bring back the original group of antagonists and amp everything up to 11, so that the whole thing turns into an outlandish Gremlins 2-style live action cartoon. I love the one musclehead jock character who spends the whole movie with his shirt off, but can't even be too made at main character Cole, even when he gets killed a second - or third - time. I also really like the goofy Dad character, who wants to be supportive of his son while also trying to avoid the heavier responsibilities of a possibly mentally ill son by regressing to playing games and smoking pot. It's a fine line to tread to keep a character like that sympathetic, and I think it mostly works. Character work is strong across the board - that's the film greatest strength. I will say it's bad at twists, though - I was mildly surprised that they went with the "best friend from the last movie was secretly evil and in on it all" angle, but the other two twists - the non-surprising return of Bea at the climax, which was undercut by the constant appearances of her as a temptress to the returning baddies, and the "we need the blood of a virgin, whoops he's not a virgin" reveal, which was undercut by the "tons of visual metaphors for sex" gag when he and the New Girl started making out. I used to hate McG when he was making overblown, un-interesting action movies in the 2000s; I actually think I kinda like him, when he's directing horror-comedy movies 15+ years later. I guess with time and growth comes the courage to stop working in genres you're terrible at and try something different. /5Oh, hey, and speaking of someone working in genres that he's terrible at and needs to do something different...  #29. A Quiet Place Part II (Movie theater) Picking up immediately from the ending of the first film, the Abbott family goes on a quest to find fellow survivors and maybe fight back against the monsters. I'd say this film benefits by having less clunky visual exposition compared to A Quiet Place 1 - you don't have the head scratching "white board of obvious information" or the questionable "wall of newspaper clippings in a society that stopped caring about newspapers a decade ago, easily". However, there are still some baffling decisions in the film that end up dragging the whole thing down, and gigantic questions that I was left with upon exiting. The biggest one: Which was the bigger waste? The pointless John Krasinski intro thanking us for coming to the theater, or seeing a movie that is like 50% quiet incidental noises in a Dolby Atmos-enabled theater? The weirdest feeling is that Krasinksi was heavily influenced by "The Last of Us" when writing and planning this film, since big chunks of it are set in non-descript open factory settings and dotted with occasional sound-activated monster action event. Weirdly, the story is also largely split in two again: the b-plot revolves around Superhero Mom Emily Blunt and the irritating little poo poo middle brother hanging out in a tube and watching their oxygen meters go down. (Okay, so maybe Krasinski worked in some play sessions with "Dead Space" and stole the one universally derided thing from that to graft in here, too.) For the most part, the film is Budget Joel and Deaf Ellie going on a rip-snorin' adventure to solve The Mystery of "How Were You Able to Run a loving Radio Station But Never Think to Send a Verbal Message to the Potential Survivors Listening, You Useless Lazy Shits?" Seriously, the major thrust of the film is Cillian "Trading Up from John Krasinski" Murphy and the Daughter From the First One decoding a braindead message from a repeating loop of "Beyond the Sea" - meaning they need to trace the signal to some nearby island that is completely self-sufficient and also has a working power grid to sustain a radio station - and wandering through medium peril of medium interest to investigate. Of course, when the heroes get cornered by a monster in the station in the end, it shows that the message was running by pointing a microphone at a record player - meaning none of these survivors, in the 480+ days that they've apparently been there, ever thought to go in and talk to the people, "John Connor in Terminator: Salvation"-style, and actually say anything like "hey, we're at this island, if you can hear us come find us" or "hey, these things don't swim, get to a boat and you'll be okay." And that just raises FURTHER questions: like, I remember in the first one that it was shown that the monsters could swim, as one did so by slipping underwater to stalk Emily Blunt when the basement was flooding in the final act. When did that change? And then how did the monsters get to the island at the climax anyway - are they able to work boats now? Did that one just HAPPEN to drift to the island right after We Have Joel and Ellie At Home did? And what was that digression with Annoying lovely Middle Brother going wandering around the empty factory to be scared by a Psycho-style desiccated corpse upstairs... when we already knew Cillian Murphy's wife had died earlier and could surmise that he might not have buried her, since that takes time and energy and make sound? Was Krasinski just not able to figure out a cleaner way to shove everyone into that tube? Why are you trying to build thrills over people sitting around in a tube?! God, this movie was a mess. I know I'm generally happy to be able to go back to the movie theaters these days, but this was such a waste of time and effort for me to do so. Don't make my mistakes - wait to see this at home. Or don't, that also would work. /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, Vampyr (FC #4), Black Christmas (2019) (FC #13), A Quiet Place, Lifechanger, Saint Maud, The Babysitter: Killer Queen, A Quiet Place Part II Class3KillStorm fucked around with this message at 22:56 on May 30, 2021 |
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May 30, 2021 22:36
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Challenge 10: behind the mask 13: The Devil and Father Amorth William Friedkin (director of The Exorcist) attends a real life exorcism by Chief Exorcist of The Vatican, Gabriele Amorth. At first I was worried this wouldn't count for the challenge, but I feel good about it after watching it; the first third delves into a lot of behind the scenes stuff from Exorcist and talks about the real life case Blatty based it on. The next third is the exorcism itself, then the final part is Friedkin showing the footage to various professionals and getting feedback. There are two big issues with this documentary. First and foremost is the exorcism itself; while I can't really fault him for showing the whole thing uncut, it's all pretty mundane and uninteresting (though I'm not religious, maybe it would have more of an effect if I were). There's also the insane choice to give the possessed woman a digitally altered demon voice during it, which is just so obviously fake and adds nothing of value. The other major issue that really effects the whole rest of the movie is that it's all present uncritically. Friedkin is 100% on board with the whole thing, and doesn't question Amorth in any way. This also results in his asking very leading questions of the various professionals he meets. The first bit was interesting and if this had been less biased, it could have been interesting, but the last two thirds just drag it down into a ludicrous and dull slog.
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May 30, 2021 23:54
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30. Scanners (1981) What Stephen Lack lacks in acting chops he makes up for in spooky Scanner style staring. The sound design in this movie is menacing, whenever someone is about to scan it gets thumping. Next to JFK probably my favourite movie centred around a head exploding. /5
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May 31, 2021 03:20
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 Fran Challenges complete Fran Challenge #13: Horrible Holidays #34 Silent Night, Deadly Night (rewatch) Charles E. Sellier Jr., 1984  I first watched this five or six years ago and wasn't all that impressed. I don't know if I was in a bad mood, or because I watched the edited theatrical cut, but clearly something was off on that viewing because this movie owns. I said in my original review that I didn't buy Bobby as a killer. Ridiculous. He's probably the most fleshed out slasher villain in history. Literally half the film is setting up and explaining his psychological condition. Sure his actions may not hold up to real life psychiatric scrutiny, but by the movie's own well-established logic it works just fine. I was totally on board once the slaying began. And once things get going they REALLY get going. So much mean-spirited murder and mayhem, and a good dose of quality gore (though don't expect much from the theatrical cut. The extended cut is the one to watch.). I will say the last act drags a bit and doesn't supply the world's best payoff (why'd we need to focus so much on that cop at the end?), but there's so much great stuff here that I can overlook that. This is probably in my top five Christmas horror movies. 4/5 34 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), 29. School of the Holy Beast (1974), 30. Skull: The Mask (2020), 31. The Invisible Man (2020), 32a. Whistle and I'll Come to You (1968), 32b. The Signalman (1976), 33. The House by the Cemetery (1981), 34. Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) 13/13 Fran Challenges completed: 1. Short Cuts, 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, 13. Horrible Holidays
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May 31, 2021 03:45
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#35 Z Brandon Christensen, 2019  I watched this completely randomly on Shudder, which is something I rarely do. I hadn't even heard of it. I liked the poster so I hit play. It's about a couple and their son. The son is beginning to have some trouble in school, and he's also starting to talk to his imaginary friend. The imaginary friend, named Z, just might be a tad malevolent. Does this sound familiar? It should, because the movie apes from just about every horror movie from the last 15 years. If you've seen Insidious, Sinister, The Babadook, and all the countless others of that ilk then you've basically seen this movie. It's just about as derivative as it comes. But with that said, I didn't hate it. It kept me entertained and was mercifully short. There were one or two effective scares and the last act didn't do the whole CGI-blobs-a-plenty thing that lots of these movies devolve into. And thank god for that because the small amount of CGI it does use was absolutely atrocious looking. There's really no good reason to watch this unless you're absolutely dry on horror recommendations and you've seen every other spooky kid/haunted house/creepy presence/etc/etc sort of thing. It's watchable. That's about the best I can say about this movie. But honestly I'll probably forget about it by the time I finish writing this review. 2/5 35 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), 29. School of the Holy Beast (1974), 30. Skull: The Mask (2020), 31. The Invisible Man (2020), 32a. Whistle and I'll Come to You (1968), 32b. The Signalman (1976), 33. The House by the Cemetery (1981), 34. Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), 35. Z (2019) 13/13 Fran Challenges completed: 1. Short Cuts, 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, 13. Horrible Holidays
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May 31, 2021 05:06
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 65 (74). Firestarter (1984) Directed by Mark L. Lester, Screenplay by Stanley Mann, based on the 1980 novel by Stephen King Watched on Internet Archive, available on Cinemax King Spring 12/13 I watches Scanners for the first time last week and while it was new to me that 70s/80s silly “ESP X-Men and shadowy governments” thing that was so popular at the time was very familiar. Someone said King’s Firestarter was the best of them, although i’m pretty sure they were talking about the book. Still, I think this might be my favorite of the ones I’ve seen. But I say that saying this whole sub genre isn’t something I really enjoy so when I say I enjoyed this the most I’m absolutely grading on a curve. I probably like it the most because of the King factor. King always seems about characters, while guys like Cronenberg always seem about the weird ESP and pseudo science nonsense. The characters here aren’t deep or rich, but they felt real enough to me. Drew Barrymore is very solid and likable in a role that asks a lot of screen time for a kid. David Keith is always fun and its cool seeing him with hair. Martin Sheen is always an effective corporate/political/suit wearing slime ball. And George C. Scott is excellent as the biggest villain of the story who knows he’s pretty crazy and is ok with it. Its really a great cast. I even loved the surprise quick appearance from Heather Locklear. But the film is so flat and dull. It pains me to read that this was supposed to be John Carpenter’s film but was taken away after The Thing bombed. I mean, that’s dumb on so many levels. The notion that someone watched The Thing and decided to take a job away from the director and give it to the guy who made… Roller Boogie? What the hell, Hollywood? Ok, I’ve never actually seen Roller Boogie or any film Mark Lester’s made but this one just had no life, tension, or pacing to it at all. I put that all on him. The cast is good and do good jobs. The story has plenty of room for tension and drama. This thing just feels like a TV movie too much of the time. The finale kind of kicks rear end though. Little Drew lets loose and its pretty hardcore and ages well. Don’t piss off a little girl with fire powers. And I really did enjoy all the Barrymore, Keith, and even Locklear stuff. I just wish there was something meatier as connective tissue here. Ok, ESP makes X-Men and shady fucks want those powers. Its been done a million ways. King’s characters and the strong cast could have elevated it but all I can think of is how good this thing could have been if Carpenter had made it. Man.. that sucks.  - (75). Devil’s Due (2014) Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, written by Lindsay Devlin Return of the Fallen 13/13 Radio Silence ; Eliminated in 1st Round by Mario Bava’s Black Sunday Apparently I’ve seen this before but I don’t remember it. The big story moments and premise did seem kind of familiar like I might have seen then before, but the rest of the film felt very unfamiliar. But the problem is it also felt very familiar because it just felt kind of generic, especially for found footage. You get a lot of little looks at weird stuff, some hints of something spookier, the occasional scene of something outright evil or supernatural, and a lot of people being pensive and just living. I don’t hate that and I actually didn’t dislike this movie. It largely kept me engaged and its a tight enough run time to never wear out its welcome. But I also get why I might have forgotten this entire film and can see myself forgetting it all again. Because its all kind of just forgettable. Also the cool movie poster image isn’t in the movie. That’s just uncool. The film also falls into the found footage trap of too many cameras, too many cuts, and “who the hell edited this?” The movie gives a pretty passing answer for most of the cameras and you can infer answers to the rest from that. Actually I really like the idea in my head that as the film begins with the newlywed couple justifying their use of cameras as wanting to start their “family history” so too does the satanic apocalypse cult wanna remember the good times to show the antichrist when he gets over. The former is sweet and nice and the latter is kind of meanly funny. The film doesn’t actually say that though, and even if it gives a passing answer that doesn’t really explain everything. Like if the cult went through all this trouble to plant cameras and get security footage from grocery stores and police stations and hospitals… how come they also selectively edit everything to leave out the good parts? Is someone in the cult a hacky film school dropout? How come the cult wants to maintain the suspense by not showing us stuff? None of this is actually a SERIOUS problem. Its a movie, I can suspend disbelief. But the problem is that this stuff kind of lingers during the film. Found footage can be very effective in really drawing you in and allowing you to ignore the cameras or editing. So a film like this that kind of does all the traditional film cuts and angles in the found footage format just kind of serves as a distraction that pulls me out. All that said, I really didn’t mind the film. Like I said, I stayed engaged and it stays at an acceptable pace and length. I like the two leads and thought they were a likable enough couple that I felt for what they were going through. Allison Miller is so tiny and seems vulnerable and sweet and Matt from Friday Night Lights remains the doofy guy every man. They have good chemistry and seem happy and that’s what found footage really needs. Protagonists you can stand living with and feel bad for. “Found Footage Rosemary’s Baby” is a nice idea and the execution is perfectly competent. But it never really does anything special, never really elevates itself or really does something with the Rosemary’s Baby thing besides a few vague references. All in all the film is fine. Just fine.  66 (76). Maximum Overdrive (1986) Written and directed by Stephen King, adapted loosely from the short story “Trucks” by King. Watched on Internet Archive. King Spring 13/13 What better way to end a King Spring than with King doing King? Earlier this month I watched Trucks a Canadian TV movie adaption of this same King story that was a surprisingly solid little film that managed to balance the comical absurdity of its premise with a genuinely tense little story. I debated a bunch over which of the two films I should watch first and after seeing Trucks was a little worried I had chosen poorly because it was so weirdly enjoyably I thought this might be a disappointment. It turns out this version makes that version look like the most normal thing ever because this movie is just completely and totally deranged. King obviously isn’t a director and this obviously isn’t a good movie. But my lord its a watch. Surely coked out of his mind it shows in this completely nuts thing. Where Trucks would years later work hard to retain some silly fun while trying to make the core premise possible to take seriously King just don’t give a gently caress. I don’t know if this is “camp” exactly because camp assumes some self awareness and intention to be bad. I don’t think King’s doing that. I think King’s sincere. I’ve read enough King stories to know the man’s kind of insane and really weird. And boy that comes through here in his auteur piece. The funniest thing to me about this story is the realization that structurally its the same story as The Mist. And that means Stephen King had this idea but two years before he thought of Lovecraftian monsters hiding in a trans dimensional mist he thought to himself “alien possessed trucks.” I love how that man’s mind works. An immensely stupid film but just a hilariously good time. I’m so thankful that Marvel was selling off all its rights so easy because that Green Goblin truck is just icing on the cake. And speaking of selling your rights cheap, thanks AC/DC! I’ve read and watched a lot of Stephen King over my lifetime. I’ve watched a lot of really D list King adaptions this month. But I really and truly can’t think of a single better way to wrap it up with this absurd nonsense of a movie. 🎶”For those about to rock, we salute you!🎶 And with that I’ve completed my four main challenges. I started out saying “13 King films, 13 from my fallen teams.” I got distracted with Bracketology, Svengoolie, Fran Challenges, and other random movies and i really thought I was gonna finish these two og challenges earlier. But I got them done, and I got them done before Memorial Day. I still will probably get a few movies in tonight and tomorrow night, I still got two Bracketology films this week and like half a dozen other films I’d like to get in if I had the time. So I’ll do a few. But now I can barbecue tomorrow and drink my beer and pass out from both of it when I do without any pressure to sit down to squeeze in movies. 🌻🎈Spook-A-Doodle Half-Way-To-Halloween ’21: Return of the Fallen & King Spring🎈🌻 King Spring: 13/13🎈Return of the Fallen: 13/13👻Fran Challenges: 13/13🐺Svengoolie: 13/13 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 (24). Death Walks on High Heels (1971); 22 (25). Maniac (1980); - (26). The Beast with Five Fingers (1946); - (27). Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954); 23 (28). Summer Camp (2015); 24 (29). Man Made Monster (1941); 25 (30). Earth vs. the Spider (1958); 26 (31). Vampyr (1932); 27 (32). The Black Scorpion (1957); 28 (33). The Wild Boys (2017); 29 (34). City of the Living Dead (1980); 30 (35). We Are What We Are (2010); 31 (36). Mercy (2014); 32 (37). Baba Yaga: Terror of the Dark Forest (2020); 33 (38). Cell (2016); 34 (39). Sightseers (2012); 35 (40). Trucks (1997); 36 (41). Dead Hooker in a Trunk (2009); 37 (42). BloodRayne (2005); 38 (43). Big Driver (2014); 39 (44). The Body Snatcher (1945); 40 (45). Run (2020); 41 (46). Paganini Horror (1989); 42 (47). Army of the Dead (2021); - (48). The Invisible Man (1933); 43 (49). Scanners (1981); - (50). The Invisible Man Returns (1940); 44 (51). PG: Psycho Goreman (2020); 45 (52). Kindred Spirits (2019); 46 (53). Daughters of Darkness (1971); 47 (54). Cropsey (2009); 48 (55). The Girl (2012); 49 (56). Mermaid Isle (2020); - (57). Hellboy (2004); 50 (58). The Field Guide to Evil (2018); 51 (59). Devil Doll (1964); 52 (60). The Thing That Couldn’t Die (1958); 53 (61). A Good Marriage (2014); 54 (62). The Wicker Man (2006); - (63). Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933); 55 (64). The Shadow of the Cat (1961); 56 (65). Nightmare Detective (2006); 57 (66). The Beast Must Die (1974); 58 (67). The Undead (1957); 59 (68). She Dies Tomorrow (2020); 60 (69). Body at Brighton Rock (2019); 61 (70). Carrie (2013); 62 (71). Gretel & Hansel (2020); 63 (72). I Saw What You Did (1965); 64 (73). Prevenge (2016); 65 (74). Firestarter (1984); - (75). Devil’s Due (2014); 66 (76). Maximum Overdrive (1986);
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May 31, 2021 05:14
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Challenge 12: Cavalcade of Creepiness 14: Mortuary Collection As with every anthology ever this has some ups and downs, but nothing runs long enough to wear it’s welcome out and the wrap around was pretty good, as Clancy Brown is a treasure. That’s all the Fran challenges and my personal target hit right on time. Going to have to pick something good to wrap it all up tomorrow
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May 31, 2021 07:35
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 16. Next of Kin C Too slow for my taste but there are some gorgeous shots in this and all the slow motion is done perfectly. The ending is very strong but I can't recommend it. The whole Changeling-type genre is just not my thing beyond appreciating the technical aspects. The ending really is tremendous.  17. Tales from the Crypt C It's not the best Amicus or even Francis anthology but it's ultra breezy and a good time. Cushing is fun as a benign and guileless sanitation worker or "dustman." All the stories feel short and kind of pull away early like one strong gore shot is missing. Watch Dr. Terror's House of Horrors instead.  18. The Dentist D I'm not a rabid Yuzna fan but this felt below average for him. Bersen is great as the crazy dentist and Baby Ruffalo is fun but there's just not a lot here. It's technically on par with Jack Frost or The Ice Cream Man but I love both of those.  19. A Quiet Place Part II D Extremely ok. It's shot and edited to make you forget how weak the script is. The macro is very flat but the micro can be very good at times. I like a lot of the monster shots but the frequent parallel editing started to make me groan rather than ramp up the tension. Cillian Murphy as a suburban dad was a fun choice. Stick with the original and don't bother.  20. Train to Busan B Not a lot to say about it other than it's very good. Good action and great zombie acting. The emotional beats work and the script is very good if 20-30 minutes too long. I enjoyed the mix of characters coming together unlike recent zombie action films...  21. Spookies B A great bad movie. Really nails the feelings of Italian films where nothing makes sense even under dream logic. The creatures are not good but there are a lot of them! Lots of fun little moments and effects. The latex slab of stone above the haunted grave is very funny.  22. The Haunting of Julia D I'm usually a sucker for mother and child horror but this did nothing for me. About every five minutes I thought to myself "I bet this worked better in the book." Nothing really happens but someone dies in a very cliche manner every 20 minutes. Ghost Story is a far better Straub adaptation and obviously Farrow has done better. That's a wrap for me. 22 films with a goal of 16.  Best Movie: Cemetery Man Please Watch: Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo! May watch list
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May 31, 2021 08:25
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Yep, already did more.  Something with Bite (2009) Directed by Ernest Dickerson, written by Max Landis Watched on DVD Return of the Fallen BONUS! Block Party; Eliminated in 1st Round by John Carpenter’s The Thing “Nine lives my rear end. You ain’t gonna make it.” I love Ernest R. Dickerson. If you don’t know who he is or think its odd that I’d single him out, check out his resume. Not just as a director but as a cinematographer. Dickerson is lowkey one of the most important black filmmakers of his time. And I actually didn’t know he made an episode of Fear Itself, but when I was listening to his great director commentary on his Masters of Horror episode and he mentioned coming back I looked it up and was pumped to find another new piece from him. MoH episodes could be a bit hit or miss and Fear Itself ones even more so. Even though its the same Mick Garris creation and production its network censoring compared to Showtime and clearly lower budget stuff. It also never even finished making air and this is one of the episodes that never made TV. Which is a shame because Dickerson’s definitely one of the more talented directors of that season and this grabs Wendell Pierce fresh off The Wire. Oh, and its written by Max Landis. The pedigree can’t be perfect. Pierce is a bored middle aged veterinarian who gets a stray werewolf brought in and gets bit and life starts getting interesting. What we get is a fun little werewolf story that doesn’t really do anything new but has solid fun with the concept. It being network tv it scamps on the gore and transformations, which is of course a lot of what people expect from werewolf stuff. That’s unfortunate. This is actually the rare short piece that I think could have been an effective feature length film if you add an extra a 30-40 minutes of transformation, gore, and sex that kind of fit here but aren’t there. But I had a good time. Its light when it needs to be and gets a little more monstery and horrory as it goes. Dickerson’s good at that kind of balance and he avoids any of that edgelordiness that people tend to know from Landis. Its nothing to go out of your way for but its some solid werewolf fare. It definitely wouldn’t have saved Fear Itself if it aired but this kind of fun short doses of horror is really what I miss from horror tv anthologies. Its a tv episode under an hour though, so it doesn’t count. But I watched it and reviewed it anyway.   67 (77). Horns (2013) Directed by Alexandre Aja, Screenplay by Keith Bunin Based on Horns by Joe Hill. Watched on Netflix. King Spring BONUS! I kinda loved that. I been meaning to watch this for awhile now and while it ain’t Stephen King and I couldn’t justify slotting it into one of my 13 films (as much as I definitely wanted to watch it over some of those movies) its still A King. Specifically Joe Hill King, son of the legend. And I’ve read a bit of him and seen a bit of his show adaptions in NOS4ATU and Locke & Key and he’s definitely got a similar style to his father with his own hand. I also have a bunch of Alexandra Aja on my watchlist so this one just keeps bouncing on and off my list for some reason. Not exactly a horror in the traditional sense. Its obviously got heavy supernatural elements but its definitely the kind of film that would get the “its not horror!” crowd going. Not quite a murder mystery. Really kind of a gothic romance? An absolute heartbreaker tragedy. Set it in an old castle and I don’t think there’d be any question. The film’s unique north western green and wet setting definitely sets it apart from most films I’d think to compare it to. The closest I can think of is The Crow and its very visually and stylistically different. But it felt like the same kind of story of love lost and a supernaturally driven justice crusade. In the early part of the film I think it had a little bit of a hard time finding its tone. It played a bit like a silly dark comedy that felt at odds with the serious core but as it moves that heart really takes hold and by the last act the movie had me transfixed and fighting tears. There’s a cathartic scene towards the end that the entire film very indirectly builds to and its absolutely devastating to watch. Daniel Radcliffe deserves a lot of the credit for that as he’s just remarkable in this. Its a great cast overall. I’m a big fan of Joe Anderson and David Morse is incredibly powerful in a handful of pivotal scenes. But Radcliffe is just great, carrying all the grief and anger and confusion through the entire film and really selling its occasionally confused tonal conflicts. A film like this sinks or swims on its lead and I can’t imagine anyone doing better than Radcliffe did. He’s able to play the angry devil while also playing the heartbroken boy. I’m a big fan of the kind of horrors that use the genre to tell more emotional and human stories instead of just slashing up some teenagers or scaring a family. I’m also a big fan of the kind of fairy tale takes on the genre that directors like Guillermo del Toro bring. All of that feels like what Joe Hill and Alexandre Aja pull off here. Maybe not to a full home run and definitely with some stumbles. The special effects heavy finale stands out. I’m not sure the story needed it so overtly and it didn’t look great. But I really fell in love with this film through its run time. I felt for the characters a lot and really bought into the premise despite how utterly unexplained and fantastical it was. I wouldn’t recommend this for everyone but if you like the more gothic, romantic, human interest side of horror I’d definitely say its worth a watch. And while a lot of Hill’s work has reminded me in ways of his father this really feels all his own. I’m really glad I squeezed this one in and it might have been one of my favorite movies this month. 🌻🎈Spook-A-Doodle Half-Way-To-Halloween ’21: Return of the Fallen & King Spring🎈🌻 King Spring: 13/13🎈Return of the Fallen: 13/13👻Fran Challenges: 13/13🐺Svengoolie: 13/13 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 (24). Death Walks on High Heels (1971); 22 (25). Maniac (1980); - (26). The Beast with Five Fingers (1946); - (27). Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954); 23 (28). Summer Camp (2015); 24 (29). Man Made Monster (1941); 25 (30). Earth vs. the Spider (1958); 26 (31). Vampyr (1932); 27 (32). The Black Scorpion (1957); 28 (33). The Wild Boys (2017); 29 (34). City of the Living Dead (1980); 30 (35). We Are What We Are (2010); 31 (36). Mercy (2014); 32 (37). Baba Yaga: Terror of the Dark Forest (2020); 33 (38). Cell (2016); 34 (39). Sightseers (2012); 35 (40). Trucks (1997); 36 (41). Dead Hooker in a Trunk (2009); 37 (42). BloodRayne (2005); 38 (43). Big Driver (2014); 39 (44). The Body Snatcher (1945); 40 (45). Run (2020); 41 (46). Paganini Horror (1989); 42 (47). Army of the Dead (2021); - (48). The Invisible Man (1933); 43 (49). Scanners (1981); - (50). The Invisible Man Returns (1940); 44 (51). PG: Psycho Goreman (2020); 45 (52). Kindred Spirits (2019); 46 (53). Daughters of Darkness (1971); 47 (54). Cropsey (2009); 48 (55). The Girl (2012); 49 (56). Mermaid Isle (2020); - (57). Hellboy (2004); 50 (58). The Field Guide to Evil (2018); 51 (59). Devil Doll (1964); 52 (60). The Thing That Couldn’t Die (1958); 53 (61). A Good Marriage (2014); 54 (62). The Wicker Man (2006); - (63). Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933); 55 (64). The Shadow of the Cat (1961); 56 (65). Nightmare Detective (2006); 57 (66). The Beast Must Die (1974); 58 (67). The Undead (1957); 59 (68). She Dies Tomorrow (2020); 60 (69). Body at Brighton Rock (2019); 61 (70). Carrie (2013); 62 (71). Gretel & Hansel (2020); 63 (72). I Saw What You Did (1965); 64 (73). Prevenge (2016); 65 (74). Firestarter (1984); - (75). Devil’s Due (2014); 66 (76). Maximum Overdrive (1986); Something with Bite (2009); 67 (77). Horns (2013);
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May 31, 2021 09:05
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27 A Quiet Place Pt 2 (2021) I wasn't hugely interested in this, but it was on at the movies, and I figure a movie challenge should involve the cinema if possible. My thoughts, from the main horror thread: Kazzah posted:Anyway, I saw A Quiet Place Pt 2 the other night. It was alright. Essentially More Quiet Place-- it picks up like a minute after the first movie ends-- and I thought the first one was fine but not great. I liked that it kept the stakes small; the family is mostly just dealing with normal (post-apoc) problems: injuries, safety, a journey of a few miles. There's no new tougher super-monster, no mother-ship that's about to drop ten times as many monsters on the earth, no monster-queen that they can kill and live in safety forever. It does that thing a lot of sequels do where it splits the cast up and we get to see how each one does on their own, and the end of the movie does a pretty good job of weaving them all together, keeping the emotional beats synced up. Cillian Murphy's character may as well have been named Joel, honestly, his entire plotline with Regan is the most Last of Us thing ever. 28 Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)  Alright, we got all the meat off of Michael Myers, now here's an unrelated story about a doctor investigating a conspiracy involving a toy company and an evil TV broadcast. I was surprised at how much I liked it-- much better that H2, definitely. It had this weird tone where it felt like a low-rent Bond movie, except the evil plot relies on magic. It's got the secret base, the emotionless suited goons, the significantly younger love interest; most of the runtime is our somewhat doughy protagonist investigating the front organisation while playing nice for the sinister boss. Quite a good ending, too. 29 3 From Hell (2019) Two ex-cons (and a cousin), finally out of jail, set out to restart their lives with a change of scenery. I watched the first two Fireflies movies for the last challenge; hated #1, thought #2 was much more entertaining. I'd say this was not as good as the second movie. It lacked the strong adversary that movie had; Danny Trejo's son, Aquarius, is just kind of honourable and boring, while Sheriff Wydell was fascinatingly lovely, a man rejoicing in getting the chance to kill someone righteously. You need something to balance out how hideous the Fireflies are. The movie was kind of aimless; once they're all out of jail, they decide to go to Mexico and lay low. The subplot with the gangsters pursuing them didn't feel urgent to me; everyone who comes into contact with these people dies, so there wasn't much tension to it. Anyway, it wasn't terrible, but it was unfocused and seemed to have no point. 30 Starry Eyes (2014)  A struggling young actress passes a deeply weird audition, which leads to a bunch of cult stuff. Eh, I didn't think much of it. It would have benefitted from me being invested in the other young people Sarah lives with, and I really didn't care about them. A lot of the narrative depends on her relations with them, namely being unable to get support from them, and ultimately blaming them for all the poo poo that's being done to her. And none of that connected for me. It had good parts; the casting agents were good and creepy; I liked the scene where the diner manager explains how the lame potato theming is his sincere artistic vision. But the rest of it didn't come together. Up next... Skull: the Mask
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May 31, 2021 14:36
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12) Psycho Goreman (2020) Wall to wall homage to 80s B-movies. Yes, Mimi is extremely annoying even though that is the point. No, it's not a great movie. But I enjoyed the way that everyone just leaned back and accepted the ever-increasing weirdness, and the ending creased me up. General verdict: no regrets.
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May 31, 2021 18:23
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With the May Challenge winding down, would anyone care to share their favorites from the month? I'd say my top five (in release order) were: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) The Cremator (1969) The Vanishing (1988) Santa Sangre (1989) The Day of the Beast (1995)
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Jun 1, 2021 03:16
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I watched Prevenge today for the bracket thread but am too lazy to do a write up so I'll just say I did 40. Best of the month for me were The Cremator, Suspiria 2018, House 1977, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, and Pulse. Oh and the documentary on Video Nasties should be on there too.
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Jun 1, 2021 03:34
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31. C.H.U.D. (1984) There's a real lack of C.H.U.Ds in this until the last half hour, just fast forward till then you aren't missing anything but a bunch of characters not interacting with C.H.U.Ds /5Top 5 The Cremator Haxan Tremors All-American Murder Cruising
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Jun 1, 2021 03:52
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31 Skull: the Mask (Skull: A Máscara de Anhangá) (2020, allegedly) An ancient Incan mask finds a host and carves a path across São Paulo, harvesting hearts and blood to sate its master. I went in with sky-high expectations, and... it was okay. It was very gooey, and I loved the little glimpses we got of Anhanga's realm. Surprisingly plot-heavy; while it was interesting enough, a lot of it was clumsily delivered. For instance, early on we get a newscaster introduce the main-ish character, hardass cop Beatriz, and then immediately after we get the same info in some newspaper headlines. I also thought the sound kinda sucked. All the impacts and gunshots felt weak, the world felt dead, the music wasn't good enough to justify drowning out the rest of it. Anyway, all that could have been better, but the main attraction here is clearly Mr Mask, which was solid stuff. The transformation from heavyset guy in forensic whites into unstoppable brick-shithouse was well done; often with this sort of movie you take one look at the before- characters and immediately know which one's getting taken over. I just wish he was a little more interesting. Most of his scenes are systematically harvesting random people he comes across; it's repetitive. The peak of the movie comes in the church fight scene, where the movie finally gets a bit more weird with it. I wish they'd kept the momentum of that scene going. /5And that's that.
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Jun 1, 2021 04:01
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15: The Dark and The Wicked Phew, definitely not the feel good movie of the year. Some cliche defying moments, I liked that it kicked off pretty quick, and that both leads are immediately involved and there’s no “you’re seeing things” bits to cut through. Very good but The Dark sure is right. Final: YouTube shorts for Challenge 1 10 Cloverfield Lane The Gift (2015) [REC] Challenge 2: Sometimes they come back [REC]² Dial M for Murder (1981) Challenge 8: dead and buried Serial Mom Challenge 7: Mother’s Day Stage Fright Challenge 3: camp blood The Hallow Challenge 11: myths and legends Viy Challenge 4: motm The Similars Challenge 5: Cinco What Keeps You Alive Challenge 9: scream queen Hosts Challenge 13: holidays Plan 9 from Outer Space Challenge 6: playing with power The Devil and Father Amorth Challenge 10: behind the mask The Mortuary Collection Challenge 12: cavalcade of creepiness The Dark and the Wicked 15 total, only one rewatch which is cool. Glad I set a low bar though, and greatly appreciated having all the challenges ASAP as it was a struggle even to hit this mark.
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Jun 1, 2021 04:16
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#36 The Haunted Palace Roger Corman, 1963  This is the only film in Roger Corman's Poe cycle that's based on an H.P. Lovecraft story rather than a Poe story. In fact he signed on to do the film with the understanding that it was solely an adaptation of Lovecraft's "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward". Only later did American International decide to pretend it's based on Poe's poem "The Haunted Palace" despite it having nothing to do with it. Oh well. It's Lovecraft, it's Poe, it's Price and Corman. And it's loving awesome. The sets and costumes are great. The music is great. The cast is great - Price is joined by Lon Chaney Jr., Eliza Cook Jr. and Debra Paget. And the story is, well, great. Vincent price plays a complex dual role and it's one of his best performances (though it's not like the man has put on a bad performance). The effects and makeup are wonderfully macabre, and the Lovecraftian elements add some delightful weirdness. I've now seen all of Corman's Poe cycle, and I do believe I saved the best for last. 4.5/5 36 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 (1997), 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), 29. School of the Holy Beast (1974), 30. Skull: The Mask (2020), 31. The Invisible Man (2020), 32a. Whistle and I'll Come to You (1968), 32b. The Signalman (1976), 33. The House by the Cemetery (1981), 34. Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), 35. Z (2019), 36. The Haunted Palace (1963) 13/13 Fran Challenges completed: 1. Short Cuts, 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, 13. Horrible Holidays
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Jun 1, 2021 04:48
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And that's a wrap. 36 films watched (37 if you include the shorts separately). 4 rewatches and 33 new. All 13 Fran Challenges complete. And I made a big dent in the They Shoot Zombies, Don't They? list - I'm now at 583 / 1000. My five favorite discoveries: Cure What We Do in the Shadows Let's Scare Jessica to Death School of the Holy Beast The Haunted Palace My least favorites: Resident Evil Demonia The Reckoning Z Prince of Darkness I had a blast with this. These challenges are always one of the highlights of my year. Can't wait 'till October!
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Jun 1, 2021 04:58
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 - (78). Death Proof (2007) Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino Watched on Amazon Prime, available on Plex, The Roku Channel, Tubi TV, and VUDU Free. I dig Death Proof but its definitely got some problems. Its paced real weird with a ton of talking and Stuntman Mike disappearing for much of the film and an unbalanced split. I get what Tarantino is doing. The first half of the film is a 70s exploitation film and the second half is a modern film sticking it to the exploitation. I like it. Its got a great finale. Its got lot of good parts. It just takes an odd route there. A lot of this might just be explained by the reality that this wasn’t made to be a single film release but rather part of a greater whole in Grindhouse. I think the pastiche of exploitation and sendup of it in the second half makes more sense in that context, as do a ton of the gags like damaged film, missing reels, director cameos, and even character crossovers from Planet Terror. The bigger picture even gives more context for some of the more indulgent male gazing and excessive sexualization. I think that’s all kind of intentional and feeds into the final act payoff. I don’t know if doing it on purpose makes it ok or not, but it does seem more obviously about the grindhouse exploitation genre in the bigger picture of the grindhouse exploitation full feature. Then again its also a Tarantino film and its a lot of feet. I do really like it on its own though. Its stylishly a lot of fun even if maybe a little too gimmicky at times. The cast is tremendous and loaded with talented women even if some of them don’t get a ton to do. People always wasting Mary Elizabeth Winstead. I especially love Zoe Bell. Her enthusiasm is adorable and he stunt work is not only the best part of the film but adds a great element of real physicality by actually being her. Kurt Russell isn’t in the film enough but he’s a fun truly despicable villain. And there’s Eli Roth. But he’s playing a scumbag bro scheming to get women wasted past the point of consent. Tarantino really knows how to cast. He also writes fun if sometimes hyper real dialogue so for as much as talking as there is its all mostly fun, easy talking. And the car stunt work is just really excellent. Honestly the last twenty minutes or so of the film probably makes up for a lot of the problems of the rest of the film. I think as long as I can watch those stunts and Bell yelling “I’m ok!” I forget a lot of the small nitpicks before and antsy pacing. I actually ended up watching that part twice tonight since some friends were streaming it after i watched. I was just kind of following along to comment but then i ended up just going all in again for the great finale. So flawed, for sure. Probably fair to call the worst Tarantino film, although its also fair to say its not meant to be stand alone. I definitely think the best way to watch it is in the original Grindhouse format, and hell its 2021. 190 minutes is kinda nothing. Movies are routinely jumping the two hour mark all the time now and its still an hour shorter than the Snyder Cut. So that’s definitely the way I’d encourage people to watch it at least as a first watch, but I think its still a fun little film on its own.  - (79). American Psycho (2000) Written and directed by Mary Harron, co-written by Guinevere Turner, Based on American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis Watched on DVD, available on Pluto TV. American Psycho is unquestionably a great film led by an absolutely amazing performance from Christian Bale but for whatever reason something about its never really clicked with me or always left me feeling a little uneven. I was talking about it with a friend who tends to have the total opposite film viewing tastes and approaches and figured that the issue is really that its somewhat confusing hyper reality and resolution, unreliable narrator in Bateman, and very heavy themes and metaphors just feel too much like an exhibit I’m watching rather than an immersive film to me. For me my favorite films are once I just lose myself in and the best ones are ones I only really “get” after its over because I was too engrossed in the ride to really think about the themes or messages during the film. During American Psycho I’m just kind of hyper aware of everything the film’s doing. Bateman’s little music reviews and overt Reagan references. I get it all, but I’m too busy getting it and thinking about it to just 100% engage in the film. But that’s not to say that I don’t really enjoy it. A lot of that is really Bale’s deranged and iconic performance. He so fully commits to this facsimile of a person wearing a mask of humanity that gradually fades away to nothing. Bateman almost seems most human at his most deranged when he shows the first hints of guilt of a conscience. But I also have no idea what to do with that conclusion. Is it just the easy answer that its just a metaphor for the lack of accountability and consequence for the privileged or the lack of concern for toxic masculinity or misogyny or the fates of homeless or gay people? Does that mean that Bateman imagined all of this and the whole story was a delusion? Or did it happen but maybe its just exactly what he told us at the start, Patrick Bateman doesn’t actually exist. Maybe he’s an elaborate false identity and/or delusion and he’s really Marcus, Mr. Smith, or Mr. Davis? Or maybe there’s some massive rich guy conspiracy to cover up the murders of the people who don’t really matter like women, the homeless, gay men, minimum wage doormen… and Jared Leto. That does break the patter but its just Jared Leto. These questions and theories don’t really concern me. I get that its supposed to be ambiguous and it obviously works that way. I just think its that one thing that affects me. The lack of closure or clear answers or something. The feeling that I watched something that’s more themes than story. But that’s just a personal taste thing and this is absolutely a great movie that I enjoy a ton despite some small misgivings that don’t let me love it.  68 (80). You Can’t Kill Stephen King (2012) Written and directed by Ronnie Khalil and Monroe Mann, co-directed by Jorge Valdés-Iga, co-written by Bob Madia Watched on Amazon Prime, available on Plex, The Roku Channel, Tubi TV, and VUDU Free King Spring BONUS! This weird rear end film popped up on my radar awhile ago and I felt all month like it would be kind of a silly perfect way to end my King Spring. I knew it was gonna suck but what’s a horror binge without some terrible B horror? I watches some real low quality King adaptions this month, so what’s the harm? But the most disappointing thing about this film is how little it does with its Stephen King premise. i don’t know what I really expected from that premise but all we really get are a few references to really obscure King stories. All it really seems to be is a lampshade thrown over the fact that this is just a cliched horror story. Its not especially funny and I’m not really sure its supposed to be. There’s some jokes here and there and it labels all its characters horror cliches up front. But that sort of feels less like parody and more like an attempt to cut off criticism by just acknowledging the problems up front. Most of this film plays like a pretty straight slasher you’ve seen a million of. I guess maybe if you’re more in tune with its dumb bro humor and stuff like “I have PTSD from being a line cook in Iraq” or “I’m not a killer, I’m just a perv who masturbates watching people in the shower” it might work more for you. And hey there’s that classic standard of “I’m a token black guy, where’s the white girls?” Yay. Its actually perfectly competently made and the actors are all perfectly serviceable. Even though everything about the film is decidedly uninspired and uninteresting and kind of tonally confused, its actually a perfectly easy little watch. Definitely not something I’d ever recommend anyone seek out for any reason. I mean, really, I can’t think of a single positive thing to say. But I’ve had much worse viewing experiences this month. And hell, there’s actually something really satisfying about just ending this thing on a film like this. I’ve basically watched 3 horror movies a day for a month and I am VERY burnt out. So sure, I could have ended the month on a great film that had me wanting more but maybe its better just ending on a real clunker piece of crap. Not one that offended me or got me upset, just a bad b horror. Because now I’m good and ready to end this King Spring and Halfway-to-Halloween Marathon. I think we’re good now. 🌻🎈Spook-A-Doodle Half-Way-To-Halloween ’21: Return of the Fallen & King Spring🎈🌻 King Spring: 13/13🎈Return of the Fallen: 13/13👻Fran Challenges: 13/13🐺Svengoolie: 13/13 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 (24). Death Walks on High Heels (1971); 22 (25). Maniac (1980); - (26). The Beast with Five Fingers (1946); - (27). Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954); 23 (28). Summer Camp (2015); 24 (29). Man Made Monster (1941); 25 (30). Earth vs. the Spider (1958); 26 (31). Vampyr (1932); 27 (32). The Black Scorpion (1957); 28 (33). The Wild Boys (2017); 29 (34). City of the Living Dead (1980); 30 (35). We Are What We Are (2010); 31 (36). Mercy (2014); 32 (37). Baba Yaga: Terror of the Dark Forest (2020); 33 (38). Cell (2016); 34 (39). Sightseers (2012); 35 (40). Trucks (1997); 36 (41). Dead Hooker in a Trunk (2009); 37 (42). BloodRayne (2005); 38 (43). Big Driver (2014); 39 (44). The Body Snatcher (1945); 40 (45). Run (2020); 41 (46). Paganini Horror (1989); 42 (47). Army of the Dead (2021); - (48). The Invisible Man (1933); 43 (49). Scanners (1981); - (50). The Invisible Man Returns (1940); 44 (51). PG: Psycho Goreman (2020); 45 (52). Kindred Spirits (2019); 46 (53). Daughters of Darkness (1971); 47 (54). Cropsey (2009); 48 (55). The Girl (2012); 49 (56). Mermaid Isle (2020); - (57). Hellboy (2004); 50 (58). The Field Guide to Evil (2018); 51 (59). Devil Doll (1964); 52 (60). The Thing That Couldn’t Die (1958); 53 (61). A Good Marriage (2014); 54 (62). The Wicker Man (2006); - (63). Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933); 55 (64). The Shadow of the Cat (1961); 56 (65). Nightmare Detective (2006); 57 (66). The Beast Must Die (1974); 58 (67). The Undead (1957); 59 (68). She Dies Tomorrow (2020); 60 (69). Body at Brighton Rock (2019); 61 (70). Carrie (2013); 62 (71). Gretel & Hansel (2020); 63 (72). I Saw What You Did (1965); 64 (73). Prevenge (2016); 65 (74). Firestarter (1984); - (75). Devil’s Due (2014); 66 (76). Maximum Overdrive (1986); Something with Bite (2009); 67 (77). Horns (2013); - (78). Death Proof (2007); - (79). American Psycho (2000); 68 (80). You Can’t Kill Stephen King (2012)
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Jun 1, 2021 06:32
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Ok, that’s a wrap. I’m calling it. 68 new films. 80 total. That’s like 2.5 horror films a day, which I guess isn’t too outrageous. But man, I’m burnt out and ready to watch something else or nothing at all. But I had a good time as always. I set too many challenges for myself but I technically passed all of them. 13 new Stephen King watches. 13 of my Fallen Bracketology teams. All 13 of Fran’s Challenges. 13 episodes of Svengoolie backed up on my DVR. I did kind of have a 5th challenge of 13 films off the year long horror scavenger hunt I’m doing on Letterboxd that I’m way behind on, but that one flopped out hard. Just ran out of time. It was kind of insane to try all that and insane that I actually did complete all the ones I officially declared. Plus I watched 18 Bracketology films and another 8 just random ones. The question is why am I such a masochist that I insist on not double counting any of these things? Or doing scavenger hunts out of order. I probably could have cleared off have my list if I just picked and chose. I don’t know why I do this to myself. My top five rated new films this month were Tigers Are Not Afraid, PG: Psycho Goreman, Cat’s Eye, The Body Snatcher, and The Wicker Man. That feels like a pretty comfortable top five for me and a solid spread of types of film. Tigers is a modern gothic dark fairy tale that emotionally devastated me. PG is a fun schlocky romp that doesn’t take itself too seriously but works by just fully committing to its premise with full sincerity. Cat’s Eye is a fun and crazy 80s Stephen King anthology. The Body Snatcher is a spooky old classic with maybe my favorite KARLOFF performance of all time. And The Wicker Man is a cult folk horror classic I finally got around to that lived up to all the hype. I’d toss in honorable mentions of Run and Horns as really good films that might have been some of my favorites of the month. And I really loved Earth vs The Spider even if its possible that one caught me mid month when I was kind of burnt out and just ready for some dumb campy 50s b charm. My bottom five rated new films are Mermaid Isle, Varan the Unbelievable, Bloodrayne, Baba Yaga: Terror of the Dark Forest, and OG Varan. I don’t have a positive thing to say about any of them but since I doubled up on Varan I’l toss in a dishonorable mention of Cropsey. I watched a lot of other bad movies but Cropsey was (a) a disappointment, (b) false advertising, (c) entirely useless to any of my challenges or lists, and (d) a bad and irresponsible documentary. Boooo. And I’m the stat nerd so I guess I gotta do this.   So what did I learn from this besides that I’m a weird nerd that makes extra work for myself? But that’s not news. I guess I watch too many American films and not nearly enough foreign. I mean I can understand a default there given language and sheer volume, not to mention the fact that I had a bunch of Stephen King and Svengoolie films in here that tend to veer American. But nearly 60% seems excessive. I do like my years spread though. Svengoolie helped keep the old stuff in play but I really love how diverse my spread of horror eras has become without me even really trying. There is a heavy concentration to 2000s but that feels kind of natural just because I’ve put so much focus on older stuff the last few years I’ve seen a lot of the big stuff and there’s still a lot of recent films I haven’t gotten too. I could have gone for more balance but I’m ok with that one. Ok, now I’m really done. I had a great time and love these things as always. The unfair treatment and loss of one of our most beloved community members put a shadow on the end of this but the challenge also helped distract me a little. I’m still sad and upset about that and feeling less and less welcome at SA and like its the place for me. But this is still one of the places i do still kind of feel at home. Time to retire this list and move onto a new obsession. 🌻🎈Spook-A-Doodle Half-Way-To-Halloween ’21: Return of the Fallen & King Spring🎈🌻
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Jun 1, 2021 07:00
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13) Horror Express (1972) It's the 1st here now, but I watched this last night before going to bed so I'm writing it up now. I was originally going to watch two more movies before the month got in the way, sowhen I ran out of time I was left with a choice of this, Tomb of Ligiea and The Addiction to finish my thirteen. I've had my fill of melodrama and Vincent Price for a while, and after that the choice was obvious: it was time to get some Cushing and Lee down me. So: it's The Thing meets Murder on the Orient Express set in Tsarist Russia with half a dozen additional plot threads that are barely explored before people start getting killed off and/or possessed. Did it really need a spy, a Rasputin knock-off without the charisma, and a mad Cossack in addition to everything else? (Although I wouldn't trade Telly Savalas as the latter for the world. The high point of the movie is when the insulted Countess threatens to send him to Siberia for his insolence and he incredulously replies, "I'm in Siberia!") It's a cheerful mess, but it leaves very little time to explore the main story. It definitely would have benefited more from a tight focus - but then, as said, it would be The Thing. Overall it was a good time. Best and worst of the month: Best would depend on my mood. I was pleasantly surprised by Daniel Isn't Real, Most Beautiful Island and Crumbs for a variety of reasons, but nothing really stood out head and shoulders. Worst was definitely Crimes of the Future.
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Jun 1, 2021 08:00
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Thanks as always to Fran for this challenge. My final ranking: Great: Tigers are not Afraid Goodnight Mommy Deep Red Alice Sweet Alice Witchfinder General The Lure The Phantom Carriage Good: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1931) Raw Force Street Trash Four Flies on Grey Velvet Skull: The Mask Psycho Goreman Gods and Monsters OK: The Crazies (2010) C.H.U.D Friday 13th (2009) In Search of Darkness II Smoke and Mirrors Trilogy of Terror Bad: Resident Evil: the final chapter Cannibal Holocaust
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Jun 1, 2021 11:37
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For the first time I didn't complete every Fran Challenge, although I did complete the basic challenge of watching 13 films. Similar to what STAC said, my heart just wasn't in it this past week and it was hard to get motivated to post stuff. But these horror threads are my lifeblood throughout the year so I'm definitely not going anywhere. I did check some pretty big boxes this month though(Legend of Boggy Creek, Texas Chainsaw 3, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde) and also hit on a few really good unexpected discoveries(The Old Dark House, and to a slightly lesser extent Madman and Mother's Day) so as always the challenge was worthwhile and I thought the reviews and variety of selections by other posters was particularly good this time. Thanks to all who participated and for anyone who was doing their first challenge you definitely need to come back for the October thread which is an even bigger event.
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Jun 1, 2021 14:37
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This was fun and I watched a quite a few movies I probably wouldn't have watched otherwise. The challenge I set for myself was to watch 31 movies that were new to me, starting in 1960. I also had to watch them chronologically. This was actually really helpful because I pretty much always knew what the next movie would be. I went a little over and ending up getting to 2001. Like a few other people, I also decided not to overlap anything. This left me with a total of 70 full-length movies for my personal challenge, all of the Fran Challenges, and Bracketology movies. I think this may be too many and I'm assuming I won't do nearly as many in October. Dividing the movies up by country, the USA was the big winner. I thought I was watching more "foreign" movies, but I suppose my US-centric perspective makes me lump them all in together.  Dividing the movies up by decade, the 2010s made a surprisingly strong showing. Given the nature of my personal challenge I would have expected the 1960s through 1990s to leave the other decades way behind, but I ended up with seven movies from the 2010s.  For anyone curious, this should be my complete list for May: https://letterboxd.com/twernt/list/spooky-may-2021/ twernt fucked around with this message at 15:29 on Jun 1, 2021 |
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Jun 1, 2021 15:27
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I technically watched 20 movies this month, but only wrote about 12 of them in this thread. (I did a few more write-ups in the Bracketology thread, and didn't post them in this thread.) May is actually the more difficult challenge month for me. Just so much going on in my personal life. The world is opening up, so I even got to see Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 in theaters, on 35mm print. (Never seen it on the big screen before, let alone on actual film. It ruled.) Feels nice to be fully vaccinated and get back into the theater. I didn't get to write about it, but a big highlight was Arrow's 4k UHD of Tremors, which is full of great extras. The movie looks great, especially all the Nevada mountains, and all the new interviews and information provided on the 4k was awesome. Some of the worst movies I watched? Wes Craven's Swamp Thing, which seems to know it's lovely and compensates with humor, but still doesn't pull itself together. Also Ti West's The Roost and Argento's Phantom of the Opera. I did rewatch Eureka's blu-ray of Troll 2, and it's a great presentation of one of my favorite bad movies. The Utah locations really pop, and the terrible make-up and goblin effects is emphasized in a fun way. Overall, I had fun watching the movies, and wish I had more time for write-ups. It's been an interesting month, both in CineD and SA and in my personal life. I'll make another post later for the Challenge's conclusion.
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Jun 1, 2021 15:39
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I got one more movie in before the deadline but still fell short. will edit this post with it later.
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Jun 1, 2021 15:53
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Sad to see May go but happy with how the challenge turned out. I watched 31 + movies ( after I completed the challenge I watched all 4 Scream movies) completed all but one of the challenges. ALso all the movies I watched were great there was not one of them where I was like " blah". I'm a little bit horror movied out though.
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Jun 1, 2021 15:54
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Time to finish things off, with a Memorial Day Monster Movie Mini Marathon. #30. War of the Gargantuas (Criterion Channel) After a green furry monster begins attacking the Japanese shoreline and eating people, the military begins operations to try and contain or destroy it. Turns out, a second, nicer monster shows up, and the two eventually end up duking it out. I know that this is a sequel, of a kind, to an earlier Toho film called Frankenstein Conquers the World, which I haven't seen but understand the basic gist of. (In a nutshell: the Nazis brought the immortal heart of the Frankenstein Monster to Japan right before Hiroshima got nuked. After that, the heart grows a new giant sized human body, and the new Frankenstein ends up fighting a burrowing dinosaur named Baragon - yes, the same Baragon that became a C-lister Godzilla foe.) It's a good thing I had some tenuous grasp of that earlier film, because all of the human plotline is a mind-numbing mishmash of scientific gobbledygook about Frankenstein and his immortal cells and mutations and regeneration and on and on and on. It's so boring and borderline terrible. (Also, they apparently lost the main actors dub track the first time around, so you can tell he straight up doesn't care on the second version that had to go out. The dialogue would still be terrible, but that didn't help.) You're not here for that, though; you're here to see a pair of super-sized Christmas colored Sasquatches beat the holy hell out of each other and some model cities, and the effects scenes are almost worth it. The suits are a lot more streamlined and flexible, and the masks allow for the performers' eyes to be visible for once, so there's a surprising amount of athleticism and pathos in the performances. If you can look past the fact that the designs are basically Spirit Halloween Bigfoot costumes dyed different colors, then it kinda works. Unfortunately, while there's some interest in the two monsters being diametrically opposed on the whole "should we eat humans" thing, and the fact that they are basically half-brothers, the film never has a good payoff to their conflict; they end up punching each other into the ocean, where they continue fighting until a convenient and never-alluded-to underwater volcano shows up to apparently roast them to death. Main actress is mildly saddened whatever who cares the end. Sidenote: The presentation on the Criterion Channel is kinda poor. I'm surprised that they didn't make an effort to get the original Japanese audio for the film, or some kinda mix between the two languages, but the dub is mediocre at best, as alluded to above. The bigger issue is that there's this weird white line hit at the bottom of the frame that tends to appear on the effects shots right before that shot ends. It becomes really distracting when you have the quicker edited action scenes, as once you notice it you won't be able to stop seeing it, especially with how much of the second half is shot with murky day-for-night lighting to really make it stand out. I guess it's worth it as a curiosity if you've already scoured all of the Godzilla and Gamera movies, but I don't think that the payoff is worth dealing with the human storyline here, or the crappy presentation. Maybe someone with more patience than I could get some more out of it, but I kinda doubt it. /5 #31. Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (iTunes purchase) After a strange new species of bat/bird monsters called Gyaos begin attacking Japanese islanders, Gamera, guardian of the universe, appears and tries to destroy them. While the Japanese military tries to repel Gamera, they allow the last of the Gyaos grows to massive size. Can Gamera fight off Gyaos and the human military at the same time? Gamera's 30th anniversary film and big reintroduction after being on pause for like 15 years is fine, but it's also kinda playing things safe. Understandable to some degree, but when your hook is a giant saber-toothed turtle that can fly through space and shoot fireballs at a giant flat-headed bat pterosaur that eats people and can shoot sonic lasers, "safe" doesn't really apply all that much. The effects work is mostly competent, though there's also a seeming reticence to embrace battling in miniature cities, so there's a lot of scenes set in the ocean or on an island or up in the sky, so while the scenes they spent money on look great a lot more of it looks cheap overall. The story is kinda meh, but I did enjoy the contrast to the Toho universe, where the military has a ridiculous budget for giant gently caress-off lighting guns and bombs and helicopters and tanks and no compunctions about shooting at the big beasties when they rear their heads. Here, there's a subplot about Japanese political approval for deploying the military against the monsters and a greedy politician trying to prioritize capturing the smaller Gyaos for study and publicity. Kinda basic stuff, and if it's meant to be a satire of 1990s Japanese politics it went over my head, but it was a lot better than whatever the hell was going on in Gargantuas, at least. On the whole, things worked well enough, and I had fun with it, even if Gamera is generally a step down in all things from Godzilla, even when the Big G isn't at his best. I just wish that this film hadn't felt so much like a safe retread of the 1960s Gamera films I remembered from my youth; I understand that comes more in the sequels, so maybe those are what I should have been looking at instead? /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, Vampyr (FC #4), Black Christmas (2019) (FC #13), A Quiet Place, Lifechanger, Saint Maud, The Babysitter: Killer Queen, A Quiet Place Part II, War of the Gargantuas, Gamera: Guardian of the Universe That was fun. I ended up completing all 13 Fran Challenges, and smashing my original plan of 13 new-to-me watches (more than doubling that). FWIW, the best movies I ended up watching this month were Possessor and Saint Maud, but I also ended up really enjoying Freaky, Stage Fright 2014, Psycho Goreman and The Babysitter: Killer Queen. The only ones I ended up not enjoying were Tarantula, Vampire in Venice and A Quiet Place 2, and even then I didn't hate any of these*; I was just bored by them. *Well, ViV made me hate Klaus Kinski for apparently sexually assaulting his costars during the making of the film. Class3KillStorm fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Jun 1, 2021 |
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Jun 1, 2021 15:57
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Obligatory wrap up post: 37 movies, 3 of which were rewatches. Completed all the challenges! Best new-to-me was probably M, other highlights were The Addiction, The Devil Rides Out, and A Record of Sweet Murder. The Fellini-directed segment of Spirits of the Dead was also a favorite. Worst was definitely Resident Evil: Retribution. Made a fair dent in the lists I am working on, although I’m having trouble finding the last few I’m missing in each. If anyone knows where I can watch Trouble Every Day, hook me up! As always it was super fun, thanks for running it Fran! Edgar Wright's Top 100 Horror: 99/100 Slant Top 100 Horror: 98/100 TSZDT 2020: 678/1000 Total: 37 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? | The Shining | Demon (FC#11) | Targets | Leap of Faith (FC#10) | Skull: The Mask | 29 Needles
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Jun 1, 2021 16:37
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Trouble Every Day is on Hoopla, if your library uses it.
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Jun 1, 2021 21:49
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Servoret posted:Trouble Every Day is on Hoopla, if your library uses it. Oh sweet, my library does use it but I never think to look there. Thanks!
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Jun 1, 2021 21:54
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I'm still trying to finish up a write up for the last few movies I watched. Only 28 this month though, life got busy. Most of those were new to me though, so that's nice.
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Jun 1, 2021 23:19
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 I pledged to watch those 13 horror movies in May and by god, I did. -FAVORITES- Record of a Sweet Murder Koji Shiraishi does it again with another fantastic, unique found footage horror movie. I loved it from start to finish but there was a big stretch where I was downright enthralled wondering "where the gently caress is this going? Who are these people???" Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla It's just a good mecha movie. The girl pilot is really good, and it gives you everything you want from a Godzilla and Mechagodzilla movie. No tag team, no three way battles, just giant lizard vs giant lizard robot, and plenty of it too. Wolf of Snow Hollow An excellent movie about a lovely dude who is not qualified for his position of authority just absolutely coming apart at the seams. Great performances, it moves along at a good clip, and it's a werewolf movie that doesn't follow the stock The Wolfman formula. I heartily recommend all three to everyone. -WORST- Breach While Bruce Willis turns in a much more animated performance than is typical of his later roles, that's not enough to save a fundamentally boring movie. -BEST SURPRISE- Two unexpected Ted Raimi cameos! -BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT- Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader Not a single scene of a giant cheerleader wrecking a city. What a waste! -SPECIAL MENTION- Deep Blue Sea 3 Best shark-related death I've ever seen. All the other movies I watched but didn't mention in this wrap-up were OK to good.
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Jun 1, 2021 23:44
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The final list 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. Mausoleum ( ) 9. Army of the Dead 10. Victor Crowley 11. Scare Package ( )12. Jason Goes to Hell 13. Verotika *=rewatch = Fran Challenge- #2, #7, #9, #12Biggest Surprise - House on Haunted Hill remake was shockingly fun! Ginger Snaps is a close second (and the better film) but I went in expecting more out of that one. Best Effects Shot - Frankenhooker   Best Line - Bride of Chucky  Biggest Disappointment - If Verotika was a bit more unhinged and less boring Danzig could be the next Tommy Wiseau. Perhaps if he steps in front of the camera next time... MVP Award - Jennifer Tilly is a treasure and she is a big reason the extended Chucky universe works beyond Child’s Play. Honorable mentions to Jeffery Coombs and the big goofy muscle man in that Rawhead Rex costume. Overall a great time was had and I can’t wait till October 
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Jun 2, 2021 03:39
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 14:35 |
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This was a lot of fun! I'll definitely be participating in the future as well! The only bummer was that my copy of Tombs of the Blind Dead was borderline unwatchable, so I'll have to circle back to that in a future challenge. In the end I watched 15 spooky movies, most of them for the first time ever, so that was definitely very nice. I covered a lot of glaring holes in my horror backlog  Great movies: Evil Dead 2 From Beyond Hausu Tremors The Haunting Sleepaway Camp Good movies: Legend of Hell House It Follows Under the Shadow The Final Girls The Others OK movies: The Innkeepers Friday the 13th Part 2 Bad movies: Halloween II I also forgot to log a movie I watched a few weeks ago, Cube, because I didn't originally consider it a horror movie but of course it is one. Can I still write it up and count it?
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Jun 2, 2021 08:27
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