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#4 Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers Joe Chappelle, 1995 Blu-ray (owned)  In an attempt to check off my list all the Halloween films I haven't seen, as well as trying to chop away at my owned/unseen pile, I watched Halloween 6. It was... not very good. The first major issue is Paul Rudd. Maybe he seemed fine back when he was an unknown, but watching him act in a serious role after having only known him as a comedic actor (and a drat good one), he just clashes here. Every time he's onscreen I was distracted by what seems to be a concerted effort on his part to keep from making a smart rear end wisecrack. He's just not a serious actor. The second enormous issue is the bloated story line. Michael coming home to kill the last remaining person in his bloodline (in this case a newborn baby) would have been plenty to fill the movie, but they had to throw in some ridiculous druid constellation worshiping cult, or something. Honestly I kinda tuned out. But believe me when I say it was unnecessary. Third problem. Donald Pleasence. The poor guy. This is one of, if not the last of his film appearances. In fact he died before the film was released. Knowing his, I just felt sad watching him.  He's old as hell, his role is relatively superfluous, and his line delivery feels labored and unnatural. Similar to the Paul Rudd thing, reality came crashing in to distract me whenever he was on screen.But there was one thing I loved about this. There's a kill in the third act that's truly one of the best I've seen. Like, no foolin' top 10 slasher deaths of all time. I'll describe it in spoilers because it's worth the surprise if you haven't seen this. The rear end in a top hat father exploring the dark basement. Michael stabs him in the stomach, lifts him off the ground, spins him around and pins him to a breaker box. The dude gets electrocuted as gently caress. Smoke billowing, eyes bulging, skin roasting, mouth frothing. And then his head loving EXPLODES. gently caress I'm laughing right now just thinking about it. Bravo, otherwise lovely movie, Bravo. 2/5
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Oct 2, 2020 03:49
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 23:06 |
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 Friday the 13th Part III, 1982 Said I had more slashers for the marathon, so why not watch the next one the same night? Been doing a Friday the 13th movie each year the last two years, so obviously I got to the third one this year. This is the one where Jason finally get his hockey mask. This is the one made for 3D viewings, which is super obvious in some scenes. The plot? Who gives a gently caress. Some people goes to Camp Crystal Lake. They play the end of the previous movie at the start and the chick that survived that movie goes back with a bunch of friends to confront the trauma or something. What matters is that Jason kills a bunch of people in brutal ways. This was before he was undead, so he is still some deformed loner. He just happened to survive the previous movie. Not much to say than this was a lot more fun than the previous slasher I watched tonight. Hot Dog Day #89 fucked around with this message at 12:51 on Oct 2, 2020 |
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Oct 2, 2020 03:51
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That's not the girl from the previous movie lol. It's an unrelated girl who happens to have crossed paths with Jason before.
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Oct 2, 2020 04:00
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Lurdiak posted:That's not the girl from the previous movie lol. It's an unrelated girl who happens to have crossed paths with Jason before. I stand corrected.
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Oct 2, 2020 04:04
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WeaponX posted:I have a soft spot for that movie. I remember it really scared me when it came out. They certainly look cheap but I like some of the ghost designs and the house in general. I remember the dvd had a great special feature with backstories about all the ghosts. The design of everything is really great. And as cheap as the ghosts sometimes look, thank goodness they didn't use 2001 cgi to make them. And Matthew Lillard is a treat as usual.
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Oct 2, 2020 04:08
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duz posted:The design of everything is really great. And as cheap as the ghosts sometimes look, thank goodness they didn't use 2001 cgi to make them. And Matthew Lillard is a treat as usual. It’s biggest sin is not doing more with those ghosts.
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Oct 2, 2020 04:18
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Iron Crowned posted:With how much Vinegar Syndrome you're watching, we'd totally get along   #25) Legacy of Satan (1974) Aw yeah, an off-brand black mass for the entire duration of the opening credits, that's one way to get me on-board from the start. So there's this kooky cult looking for a new female figurehead, for reasons that don't much matter, and they settle on a young woman named Maya, who's already struggling with her self-confidence. Lot of groovy dirty synths throughout the film, but to call this a slow burner would be charitable. Plenty of circular conversations, standing around staring with glazed eyes, and scenes which do very little to move anything along. But there's also some interesting costuming (a few of the cult members are wearing crescent moon necklaces the length of a hand), clever lighting and a few tricky shots (the purple hallway scene in particular did some great playing with angles), and a nice medium between moody and corny material. The acting is the weakest point, followed by the lackluster resolution, but at least all the performers are roughly on the same level of quality and commitment. Oh, and Satan's not involved at all.  Rating: 6/10Watched on Tubi.
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Oct 2, 2020 04:18
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 Eyes Without a Face (first time watch) Starting this challenge in October unlike the rest of y'all, and with a rather gentle classic. Dating from 1959, it's slow, but excellently moody, using periods of silence to build tension and with a rather gothic feel to the house scenes. A blend of horror and thriller, the concept of a mad scientist stealing faces from young women to repair his daughter's is treated seriously, with plenty of space to let the characters breathe and evolve beyond stereotypes. There's a humanity behind the doctor and his assistant, showing their love for the girl along with ambition and corruption. This added depth really helps the creepy vibe along, raising the stakes and letting you dwell in it, particularly the ending. The creepy mask and some great shots (particularly the blurry "reveal" of her ruined face beneath it, the ending scenes) add a level of confident artistry where things are held and not jump cut so again their effect really sinks in. The only distraction is really the police scenes which are necessary but are a bit too mundane and grounded so they bring the horror back down to earth a bit. You can absolutely see where Almodóvar drew for The Skin I Live In and they'd make an excellent double feature. 4.5/5
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Oct 2, 2020 04:27
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First off, thanks to everyone who offered suggestions. You've pointed me into some solid directions that if I will definitely find a few options to roll with. 44) The Beast of Yellow Night - 1971 - TubiTV Pretty much a 'From most of the people who brought you the Blood Island series'. In this one Satan saves a WWII deserter on the condition he becomes his servant. He accepts and occasionally turns into a scaly looking wolfman. This one was okay enough. I'd fit it in any of the 'shot in the Philippines' horror movies from that era marathon.  45) The Asphyx - 1973 - Youtube I first heard of this one in Fangoria's 101 Best Horror Movies You've Never Seen. It's a good book and it pointed me towards many films I might never've known about like The Ugly and Day of the Beast. This one has a unique premise of during the Victorian era, a scientist philanthropist notices an unusual smudge on the photos he takes of people at the moment of death. The parapsychology society he belongs to take it as evidence of the soul leaving the body, but the scientist isn't so sure. Some experiments later and he comes to the conclusion that the smudge is an 'asphyx' which claims the soul at the time of death and that theoretically if he's able to trap an individual's asphyx it will grant immortality. We've all seen enough films about quests for immortality to have an idea where this goes. For so long I thought I was pretty savvy on the films from the Hammer/Tigon/Amicus heyday glut, so this one not even being on my knowledge radar was a kick to the hubris even though there was practically little to no mention about this film in the various horror mags of the time or about this period in horror film history. My theory on why this is, is because it didn't quite fit in with the horror trends at the time of monsters and madmen. This touches on the questions of the cost of pursuing extended life/immortality, the nature of death and the soul, and is immortality something worth pursuing. For a horror film of the time, that's some pretty heady stuff to wrap the mind around. Still is, but we're a bit more used to horror dealing with meaty concepts. I can't recommend this one enough, and to slightly spoil things, the guinea pig is pretty much the only one who has a good ending.  46) Werewolf of Washington - 1973 - Dailymotion The US Press Secretary is a werewolf. Well, since 2020's not over this is still on the table with murder hornets and Italian cocaine boars on the rampage. This is a horror-comedy of sorts that satirized several politicians from the Nixon era. While at the time this film was really funny, now it comes across painfully dated at best and really confusing at worst. Unless you know the relevant people of that time and what was going on, the humor doesn't really work. It illustrates a point that gets made towards films centered on a topic du jour tend to either not age well or get dated faster than fresh milk can spoil in the heat. At this point in time, this film's more of a curio from the past. Unless you're already knowledgeable about the era or are going to do some prepwork reading up beforehand to watch this, I'd say skip it to watch something else.
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Oct 2, 2020 04:47
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5. Saw-2004: 8/10 The one with Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannell trying to be the worst actor in a room (Leigh wins). 6. Saw II-2005: 8/10 One of the Wahlbergs that isn't Mark gets all mad at John Jigsaw and looks very unhappy. 7. The Babysitter-2017: 9/10 McG can actually direct a good movie, I'm sure people hated it but they're wrong. Also gave us Samara Weaving and Robbie Amell being a murderous dickhead and a very encouraging guy at the same time. 8. The Babysitter: Killer Queen-2020: 9/10 Just as good, proof you shouldn't start a Satanic blood cult with a bunch of idiots. Not as much Samara but we do get a little more of Robbie Amell being both a dickhead and supportive. 9. We Summon the Darkness-2019: 8/10 3 idiots get hosed up by 3 women who I guess are part of some church cult, I don't know, oh and Johnny Knoxville shows up for like 5 minutes. it's actually not bad, the cast is good and the soundtrack is even better. New Watches: Boar, The Babysitter: Killer Queen, We Summon the Darkness Rewatches: High Tension, Pontypool, The Poughkeepsie Tapes, Saw, Saw II, The Babysitter
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Oct 2, 2020 04:54
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6: Nightmare Before Christmas Wanted something good and halloweeny for the 1st. I wasn’t planning on doing this one since I’ve seen it dozens of times and know all the words by heart, but it certainly fit the theme and my kid’s been asking to watch it again lately. What more can be said about this one? It’s a landmark film that set most of our aesthetics for the next 2 decades. The only bad thing I could say about it is that it’s too front loaded and all the best songs are at the start.
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Oct 2, 2020 04:58
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Retro Futurist posted:6: Nightmare Before Christmas I decided long ago that this is a December movie for me rather than an October one but ymmv November is just wrong though Nothing on the soundtrack beats “What’s This?”
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Oct 2, 2020 05:28
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I have no real plan this year in terms of how many movies I intend to watch, I'm just going to post about the things I end up watching. I did 44 movies last year and there is no way I'm going to top that, so my only rule this time around is to watch things I've never seen before. I'm starting with: #1: Scare Me (2020)  I reinstated my Shudder account last month because I figured it would come in handy as October rolled in, and this was the first thing that caught my eye today. It stars Josh Ruben and Aya Cash, who I immediately recognized while scrolling through the Shudder thumbnails as Stormfront from the current season of The Boys, and the description labeled it as a horror comedy. I haven't seen Aya Cash before her current role in The Boys, so I wanted to check this out. Basically I wanted to see her as something other than a super-powered racist piece of poo poo. I was not disappointed. Ruben plays Fred, an introverted self-proclaimed writer/producer/actor who arrives at a secluded upstate New York cabin so he can "work" on his story ideas. He meets Fanny (Cash) while jogging, and finds out she is actually a successful horror author who is staying in the cabin across the street and is basically there to do the same thing. A storm rolls in and knocks out their power, so Fanny comes over and challenges Fred to a game of telling scary stories to each other. What ensues is a crazy funny and entertaining series of actual performances by both actors who literally act out the stories they are telling. There are no cuts to fictionalized versions of their stories; they literally act them out, with sound effects, in their cabin. And it's a lot of fun to watch. More things happen {including the inclusion of a pizza guy who joins in on the fun) but the entire movie has, literally, four characters in total. I won't spoil the ending it doesn't end well for Fred but this movie was a blast. The dialogue is snappy and fun, and both of the main characters literally carry the movie on the strength of their charisma alone. Definite recommend. e: I say "literally" a lot. I will literally try to stop doing that.  4/5 Watched: Scare Me T3hRen3gade fucked around with this message at 06:30 on Oct 2, 2020 |
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Oct 2, 2020 05:50
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4. Patrick (1978, Shudder) Watched this based entirely on the cover making my wife and I laugh really hard. I mean, come on, loving look at it! He looks like he just came to terms with making GBS threads in his bed.  Either way it was a fairly australian horror movie about a man in a coma who had psychokinesis. He uses it for some mundane poo poo, like really low stakes poo poo. He only manages to murder like 3 people. Highlight of the movie is the end, where Patrick dies, and then springs out of bed and slams into a medicine cabinet and the doctor standing nearby is like, "No. No. He's quite dead. That's just a muscle spasm. Happens all the time when people die.". Overall a goofy Ozsploitation film and I can appreciate what they tried to do. It just fell a bit flat. 1/5 5. House of 1,000 Corpses (Netflix) Hahahaha there are maybe two good Rob Zombie movies. Who let's him keep making them? I distinctly remember liking this movie at some point in the past, but on rewatch, I really have an overwhelming feeling of, "This is a two hour Rob Zombie music video inspired by Natural Born Killers and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". What's hosed up is there are moments of good filmmaking there! The scene with Walton Goggins getting shot that lingers for so long before the trigger pull is good. The constant negative footage and cutaways to random poo poo are not good. I'm glad he toned himself down a bit. I'd watch a Doctor Satan movie because that's a cool concept that Zombie absolutely wastes in the last 10 or so minutes of the movie. 0.5/5 List: 5 of 31 1. The Blair Witch Project 2. Z 3. The Invisible Man 4. Patrick 5. House of 1,000 Corpses
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Oct 2, 2020 05:57
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2. Blacula, for Fran Challenge #1: Horror Noire - Like almost everyone else until Horror Noire gave it a shout out, I ignored this because it was called Blacula. With that setting expectations, it's actually really good! But once I got over being pleasantly surprised I spent a bunch of time wishing they'd done a little more work on it, because it could have been absolutely fantastic. I think the biggest problem, and this is going to sound a little silly if you've seen the movie, is that it needed more of Mamuwalde as a pre-vampire character/more of his inner life. I can't complain too much because the movie told me right from the (really cool) opening credit sequence that it was going to be all about vampire chasing woman, but it's such a singular focus that I can't tell whether this was Mamuwalde being destroyed by obsession or whether he's always just been kind of a gently caress-up despite his sophistication. Maybe-spoilers in the rest of this. He acclimates to modern society and technology in a single off-screen evening and apparently knows instinctively that he's going to have a problem with photography, but despite making two bodies the instant he wakes up he can't be bothered to move his resting place until someone says to his face "So, seen any vampire coffins around here lately?" He's flippant about his existance, and defends it to Tina with "They are nothing to me" without, apparently, ever wondering what happened to old Dracula and why there aren't any other vampires around even though the film points out that they reproduce geometrically. That he's travelling to Europe in the introduction to try to bring an end to the slave trade suggests that he used to take a broad view of things, but it's such a brief glimpse that I really wanted to see some of that in his post-vampire character. Or else see a little more attention on how he's let his obsession with his lost wife change him. And it seems like there's a really obvious way to work this into the movie by having Tina be more of an actual character, but instead she needs to go rest off-screen so the men can resume their conversation. On the...what, seventh now? hand, that feels like a petty complaint when it's the kind of sidelining I wouldn't blink at if I were just watching this as "a horror movie" instead of "a black horror movie that I watch while paying attention to minority issues" so maybe that's all on me. The climax is also frustrating; enraged vampire vowing to murder every motherfucker in the building is great and seems like a thing we should see much more often in horror, but it only works because despite these being some of the weakest vampires in movie history they couldn't be bothered to dig up more than one crucifix for the entire raid. And then he just kind of gives up on the entire revenge thing after stashing Tina's newly-vampirified body in the place most likely to get her accidentally double murdered gets her double murdered. If they'd managed to tighten that section up just a little bit more it could have been a really poweful ending; the walk upstairs into the sun is a great vampire suicide. I like it a lot, but I wish I loved it.
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Oct 2, 2020 06:07
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 #26) Sweet Kill (1972) Tab Hunter plays Eddie, a man with some sexual hang-ups, who finds that the accidental death of a woman while they're having sex solves his performance issues, and subsequently starts trying to reproduce the incident. The directorial debut of Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential), it's also produced by Roger Corman, and according to the Wikipedia page, Hanson was very unhappy with the changes Corman 'requested,' even after Corman dropped his part of the funding from two-thirds to one-third less than a month before filming began. As the poster claims, there's some similarities to Psycho, via mommy issues and psychosexual mishaps (plus a faint bird motif), but despite the Corman edicts, there's some impressively deft work shining through in the final product. Respect to the cinematographer(s?), as there are a couple of very striking slow pull-and-pan retreats from Eddie's most absorbed moments of catharsis. There's also some good use of the Venice, CA, setting, with repeated excuses to get out on the beach and show off Tab Hunter's physique (shot more lovingly than those of the women, I feel it should be noted, despite their push to the advertising's fore when this was rereleased as The Arousers). But the film isn't altogether successful in maintaining the examination of Eddie's psyche, and veers off into some dull territory at times, usually when dealing with the police who are trying to track Eddie down. Tab Hunter's glee when he starts really losing it gives the film a shot of energy towards the end, but it's not quite enough to salvage things from the preceding slump. Rating: 6/10Watched on Tubi. Darthemed fucked around with this message at 07:20 on Oct 2, 2020 |
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Oct 2, 2020 06:45
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#2: Misery (1990) I'd seen this before but it's probably been close to 10 years, so I was looking forward to revisiting. Misery lives and dies on the shoulders of Kathy Bates. Like yes, everything else is good too, but whenever I think about this movie the only thing that actually pops into my head is Annie Wilkes. She's the movie. Everything about it is built to add to her characterization. You're never rooting for her, but you also don't ever really want her to leave the screen because of how much fun she is to watch. That might actually be my one real complaint about the movie. The scenes with the sheriff feel so plain in comparison to the scenes with Paul and Annie. They're not bad, he and his wife even have some fun moments and lines, but they're not why I'm watching. 1. #Alive (2020), 2. Misery (1990)
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Oct 2, 2020 07:13
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Fran challenge #1: Horror Noire brings us to. 6. Attack The Block I don't know why I put off watching this for so long. It's such a great alien invasion movie. I initially thought it was a teen horror movie until one of the teen's head got ripped off and later a dude's face gets eaten. Still really great, with lots of really funny bits. Also as is required in all british horror comedies, Nick Frost is there for a bit. A very cool, violent, funny movie. Alien design was cool and the actors had fantastic chemistry. 4.5/5 List: 6 of 31 1. The Blair Witch Project 2. Z 3. The Invisible Man 4. Patrick 5. House of 1,000 Corpses 6. Attack The Block
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Oct 2, 2020 07:50
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Will be joining in, just going for the basic 31 movies challenge since I've never successfully completed it before, already started one movie and will finish it later today, probably will watch at least one more after that so I will be on track, have no set schedule for this but will probably try for at least one to two movies a day since I don't have a job or school to eat up my schedule at the moment
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Oct 2, 2020 09:33
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 Ok. You know this one. Have a hit global horror movie and those international “sequels” are gonna start. Are they attached? Are they knockoffs? We’ll never truly agree. But two of Italy’s most famous get into things. Mario Bava has become one of my favorite directors of late with each film I see of his either becoming a favorite or surprising me by improving on a sub genre I don’t like. Lucio Fulci I’ve only seen a bit of and hasn’t been my thing, but New York is my city so lets see what he can do when he’s let loose on my town. 3. The New York Ripper (1982) Written and directed by Lucio Fulci, co-writen by Gianfranco Clerici, Vincenzo Mannino, and Dardano Sacchetti. Watched on Kanopy, also available on Tubi. Hooptober Se7en: 2/6 decades (The 80s) Do you hate women? Like do you just really want to watch them stalked, assaulted, turned on by it and treated like sex objects, dehumanized and embarrassed by it, cut up, mutilated, and murdered? Well have I got the movie for you. Ok, maybe I’m being unfair. I mean its not like one of his co-writers said that Fulci “nurtures a profound sadism towards women." Let me get on the good stuff first. I’m glad it wasn’t much more than 90 minutes. Ok, back to what I didn’t like. Basically everything. I haven’t seen enough Fulci to tell you what he does or doesn’t think of women or how he treats them in his movies. To this date I think the only Fulci film I’ve seen was The Beyond and while that’s not exactly filled with strong female characters they’re not being notable mishandled either from what I remember. So I’m not reading any deeper into this than is necessary but I have no idea what the point of this movie was except to do all of that. Its following two fairly significant “exploitation” movies and I found good in both of them and didn’t feel like the brutality was the point or was directed at anyone or anything in particular. But beyond the bad dubbing, the silly murder mystery too thin or convoluted to invest in, or the amazing ability to make New York City feel so lifeless and empty I just don’t get the appeal of 90 minutes of Donald Duck cutting women up with razorblades and sexually assaulting them. Maybe I’m a prude. 4. Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970) Directed by Mario Bava, screenplay by Mario di Nardo. Watched on Kanopy. Hooptober Se7en: 1/6 countries (Italy) I wasn’t totally sure if this was horror, but it was included on someone’s horror list and I love Bava so I’ve had it on my list from the start. I wasn’t even really sure as it was going on but I was thinking to myself “it doesn’t feel like a horror, but a lot of giallo doesn’t really feel like horror to me.” But that’s when it hit me. This is basically an anti-giallo. On paper its all the same things. A very stylish, sexy who dun it where people are being killed off mysteriously. But it like handles everything in the exact opposite way as all those other giallo films. Instead of dark and sleazy, everything is bright and pretty. Instead of brooding and sinister, everyone’s just aloof and barely seems to care. Instead of lingering on bloody death scenes they’re show and shifted to something else in almost a comedic sense. Even the sexuality so common is reversed. Instead of women laid out in an often perverse feeling sense everything has a more erotic feel here and the women often feel in control. There’s no leading man to be a bit of a pig and go about the story, because all the men are just kind of terrible and we know it. Hell even the killing mystery itself is less of a serial killer and more of just this bizarre series of different kinds of deaths including possible suicides. It all feels so deliberate against type that it had to be a kind of experiment for Bava. Turning the sub genre on its ear while doing the same basic thing at its skeleton but in an entirely opposite way. I kind of love it. Of course I’m not a giallo fan myself so maybe I enjoy the “anti-giallo” more than fans would. But this isn’t the first time for Bava and me. Folks told me I wouldn’t like Bay of Blood because it was a photo slasher and they knew I didn’t really like most slashers, and the inspiration for Friday the 13th and I hate those movies. But Bava really did the slasher thing a different way there, more like a slasher/giallo merger where the mystery and characters take center stage and the slashings are punctuation points. So I really appreciate this thing Bava seems to do where he takes the sub genres I don’t love and finds ways to make them more my thing. He’s like a horror translator for me or something. Still, I didn’t love this piece. There were elements of it I loved. The whole anti-giallo thing for one, but also how incredibly stylish and slick it was. Everyone was just beautiful and unconcerned about the madness going about them. They’re rich and beautiful and cursed with affluenza just frolicking about their gorgeous beach home as the bodies pile up. And that’s kind of fun and slick and easy to watch but it also spreads that aloof feeling to the viewer, I think. Nothing really feels like it has great weight because no one really treats it like it does. This is all just a kinda lame holiday weekend but we’re gonna enjoy what we can of it until we have to drive home Sunday night or someone kills us and hangs us in the meat locker. La de da. But still, I really enjoyed it. Not enough to call it great or terribly solid, but enough to recommend it if you like giallo and want to see a different kind of twist on it or don’t like giallo and want to see it done differently. That’s what it is. Giallo done in a different, unique way that feels very stylish and cool. Also, fun note, I watched it with subtitles over the dubs and they really disagreed. Most of it was unimportant stuff, just character details or small line differences. But quite a bit of the lines in the subtitles that weren’t dubbed are really dark stuff. It goes from “I’m gonna go out there and drown you” to “I’m going to pour water down your bag.” Its a weird thing because it seemed like those lines were more fitting in the juxtaposition of how terrible all the men were and how horrific this scene should be but how everyone just was too busy being rich and pretty to care. But then maybe whoever did the dubbing decided the lines needed to be more rich and pretty or something. It was odd but also fun to have the subtitles on and see it. Letterboxd List October Tally - New (Total) 1. Eaten Alive (1976); 2. The Hills Have Eyes (1977); 3. The New York Ripper (1982); 4. Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970);
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Oct 2, 2020 09:43
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7) The Beyond (1981) It wouldn't be October without some nasty nasty Fulci fare. We start with a lynch mob crucifying a suspected warlock in his hotel room, interrupting his creepy painting, and this causes a curse on the hotel. Decades later the hotel is being renovated and workers start dying in gruesome ways. Then the dead rise. The gore is great, the music is good, the dubbing is bad. Faces melt, eyeballs are gouged, dogs and spiders eat people and nothing makes a huge amount of sense in this surreal nightmare of a film. Watchlist: Tenebrae; Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; Body Melt; In Search of Darkness; The Monster Club; Twilight; The Beyond (total: 7)
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Oct 2, 2020 10:37
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15. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) Watched On: BluRay A fun fun ride. I personally rate it above the original since I could just pick up and watch this one any ol' time. My only complaint is I wish we got a little more Dennis Hopper than what's there. I also noticed for the first time that Stretch is wearing some drat denim boots and it's just great. 16. Re-Animator (1985)  Watched On: Shudder What a fantastically fun piece of cinema. I never get tired of it and also never get tired of showing it to people that have never seen it. 17. Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 (1990)  Watched On: DVD Never ever seen it and I've never heard a decent thing about it... Actually, I take that back, the trailer is amazing. I'm guessing that New Line really wanted reboot this series hence the odd title order and rehashing bits from the original film early on. I mean there's just a whole new family and I didn't catch any explanation. Plus doing the whole, "twisted American family" thing for a third time in a row is just blah for me. Even worse, they don't even come off a fraction as crazy as before. What also seems like a step back is that Leatherface has no interesting character elements like he did in the previous two movies, he's become another paper thin slasher villain. The further I got the more it seemed like the writer watched the first two movies and took only the most base level things from them, "Wow, cool chainsaw.". Thank goodness for Ken Foree though, he's trying his best and his scenes are the most enjoyable for me because of it. When all is said and done I just don't feel like it's worth anyone's time, it's dull, everything about the premise is less interesting, and the ending is obviously a re-shoot because what the gently caress? How?!
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Oct 2, 2020 10:42
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 6) The Flesh Eaters (1964) Trailer Seen on: free on Tubi. Also on Amazon Prime; there's also a copy on YouTube that adds in a cut scene that doesn't add much to the original film Stop me if you've heard this one before: a washed-up alcoholic actress, her beautiful young assistant and the pilot they've hired to fly them from New York to Connecticut This is a pretty entertaining low budget horror film with a surprising amount of gore for 1964 - there's lots of skin melting and even some intestinal gut-busting here! The idea of not being able to touch the water or risk being eaten brings up a couple of tense "the floor is lava" style situations. The creature effects are pretty effective for most of the film (they're just glittery little things) until there's a twist revealed near the end that involves some laughable model work. The characters are pretty standard for a horror movie of its time - helpless ingenue; bitchy over-40 woman; square-jawed pilot etc - but the actors are good. You can tell its the 60s because a hippie (think Maynard Krebs from Dobie Gillis) also shows up to the proceedings about halfway through and is about the most stereotypical version of a hippie possible (and dies the most horrible death in the film). Fun fact: per Wikipedia, this is the movie that forced George Romero to rename "Night of the Flesh Eaters" to "Night of the Living Dead" to avoid copyright issues. Bruteman fucked around with this message at 11:20 on Oct 2, 2020 |
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Oct 2, 2020 11:08
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 47) The Norliss Tapes - 1973 - Youtube This was another of the TV Movie of the Week entries. A fair amount of the time, they were also used as a sort of test ground for TV pilots such as The Six Million Dollar Man and Get Christie Love!. Norliss Tapes was another though it never made the jump. The plot is essentially a found footage. Norliss, a writer who's been working on a book debunking all things supernatural goes missing, leaving behind a bunch of audio tapes detailing his recent investigations and his disappearance. His friend and publisher finds the tapes and we watch the events he's listening to. The first tape involves a widow swearing she's seen her dead sculptor husband lurking around his studio. As Norliss investigates, bodies start turning up drained of blood... If this sounds a bit similar to Night Stalker, it does. Dan Curtis who was behind so much of TV Horror at this time, including Kolchak was behind this as well. Had this been picked up for a series, it would've followed the format of one of the tapes being played with a different investigation by Norliss with potentially learning more about why he's disappeared. As to why Kolchak ended up with a series and not Norliss, who knows. It could've easily been Kolchack the underdog was more relatable. There are some really good moments in this such as the undead sculptor. He's not quite a zombie, ghoul, or vampire but he's definitely a force to be reckoned with. I recommend this in a classic 70s era TV Horror marathon.  48) The Sentinel - 1977 - DVD From what little I remember when this came out, the critics weren't fond of this one. Doing a bit of Googling to double check, there were plenty of comparisons to The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby and The Omen and/or calling it an incomprehensible mess. Shows what they knew, they were making the wrong comparisons. With those films, the focus was on a specific singular such as Satan's child or a specific possession. The Sentinel is a different thing altogether. The storyline starts with Alison, a successful model who's got issues managing to get a great deal on an apartment in a brownstone. Her neighbors are a special level of strange and at the top floor is a creepy looking blind priest who spends his time staring out the window. Strange things soon start happening like unexplained noises and Alison starting to have fainting spells. When she gets in touch with the rental agent to complain about her neighbors making noise, she's told there are no neighbors, it's only her and the priest who are tenants. From there, things only get more ominous and goes off the rails closer to the end. The Sentinel has more in common with the haunted/possessed house subgenre. For those of us who've sat through a ton of horror films, we already know how it's going to play out for the most part, but at the time this was released, it was introducing several new concepts such as perhaps the Catholic Church isn't quite looking out for Alison's best interests. The film also faced the same criticism Freaks had in hiring several real physically unique people to portray the damned from Hell. The cast list is pretty impressive, there's some definite notables and early appearances of some who would move on to bigger roles. For example, the couple at the end are Tom Beringer and Nana Visitor in what I think are their first movie roles. I do feel it's worth seeing at least once. After all, how often are you going to see a cat birthday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gLYQBuguhs
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Oct 2, 2020 11:12
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Fran Challenge #1: Horror Noire 5/31 (1st October)  (some props from the movie) Gangja & Hess - Guessed by DDD This 1970's black vampire story is a different experience than Blacula, for sure! With as many great acting performances as most vampire films have cloves of garlic, a powerfully art-house disposition and one of the most affecting soundtracks/sound editing I've experienced. I was gripped by this and at times really disturbed and scared. Phenomenal film that ticks 3 of the four challenge boxes (I have seen Horror Noire and liked it a lot). The Hausu Usher fucked around with this message at 15:28 on Oct 2, 2020 |
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Oct 2, 2020 11:41
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8. Rabid (1977) After receiving experimental plastic surgery after a motorcycle crash, a young woman develops a vampiric hunger and a strange phallic organ under her arm, and the people she feeds off develop a mutated form of rabies. I've watched this film before and enjoyed it, but it's interesting to re-watch it now during the current covidpocalypse and see how things in the movie mirror some aspects that we're living through in real life right now. Granted, no-one with covid-19 is drooling yellow fluid and trying to eat people, but things like Rose's refusal to accept that she's contagious/Patient Zero and deliberately breaking quarantine to infect people, and the behaviour of many in the face of the government's measures to try to contain the virus are quite interesting. I also still feel that Rose's new phallic appendage is something of a feminist statement, as with it she becomes quite the sexual predator, but this is also one of the film's shortcomings as we don't know if she was anything like this before the crash. As it is she's something of a cypher. 3.5 out of 5 9. Teeth  A teenage girl who has made a promise of no sex before marriage discovers that she has a case of vagina dentata. When this movie started there pretty much wasn't a character, protagonist Dawn included, that I didn't want to take by the shoulders and give a good shake to. I'm not knocking anyone who wants to wait till marriage or anything, but when they're being so prudish that they won't even watch a PG-13 movie in case it has "making out"... Yeah, you're wasting your teenage years with being so goody two-shoes there. But I suspect that was the point, because as the movie progressed and Dawn discovered her "hidden" talent, through an uncomfortably true-to-life scene that makes the end result quite satisfying indeed, she began to change. I don't want to use the term "grow up", but she certainly becomes more mature and takes control of her own body, feelings and destiny. It's definitely a movie about female empowerment, although it did also fall into the trap of there not really being a single sympathetic male character aside from her stepfather. It's okay, you can show the occasional male who's not a rapist, sleezebag or general waste of skin and still get your message across. The clearly practical effects are very good and suitably wince-inducing, no matter how little sympathy you might have for the victims. 3.5 out of 5 10. Body Melt  A pharmaceutical company's secret tests of a new vitamin pill on the residents of a cul-de-sac have deadly - and very messy - side-effects. This movie was made by a pair of art punks, and I have to say, it shows. There's a definite grunge-y, splatterpunk aesthetic to Body Melt, from the soundtrack to the frenetic pace to the entirely practical and frankly stomach-turning (which is exactly what they should be, so well done there) effects. It's definitely not a movie I'd recommend to my emetophobic niece. But it's got some serious shortcomings as well. Chief among them is an extended scene where two of the cul-de-sac's residents end up at an isolated gas station run by a family of inbred hicks (Ozbillies?), and this whole section goes on for way too long and adds nothing to the story except for a way to dispose of two characters. Later on we briefly revisit the family, who apparently have some connection to the doctor behind the deadly vitamin pill, but again there's nowhere near enough explanation as to just what the connection is or why we should care. But if you're looking for a body horror film that has the meltiness of Street Trash without all the rape, this is good enough. 2.5 out of 5 Letterboxd Totals: 10 8 new (The Abominable Dr Phibes; Session 9; The Curse; Curse II: The Bite; Curse III: Blood Sacrifice; Catacombs; Teeth; Body Melt) 2 rewatch (The Grapes of Death; Rabid (1977))
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Oct 2, 2020 12:42
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 What draws in the audiences more than a good scream queen? Strong, beautiful, vulnerable, sexy, bad rear end, vixen. They run the gamut and there’s a lady for everyone. Aubrey Plaza is one of those ladies for everyone, unique in her own way and appealing to a lot of people for her deadpan hate the world style and she’s done a little bit of horror. Two I’ve never seen which makes it the perfect place for a double billing. Even if I’m not sure she’d actually be willing to scream to get the title. Not sure she cares that much. 5. Life After Beth (2014) Written and directed by Jeff Baena. Watched on Hoopla, also available on Kanopy. Hooptober Se7en: 3/6 decades (The 2010s) I was gonna use this for one the Hooptober “illness” challenges but it ain’t that kind of zombie movie. What kind of zombie movie it is? I don’t know. I can’t think of another quite like it. There’s other comedies sure but this one’s got a style that I’m not really sure how to describe. Just a very dry wit and matter of fact handling of just increasingly crazy poo poo. The whole thing could be very goofy and if the movie reacted to the jokes it could be madcap and I think a lot less fun. Or it could be more over the top and crazy and maybe be something else entirely. But it kind of just walks this line where the stuff happening and the poo poo people are saying is kind of darkly funny but the characters in the movie are still reacting exactly how they should be in the face of a zombie in your house. We might be able to laugh at it from our distance but for them this poo poo is tragic and horrifying and mind blowing. And that’s also kind of darkly funny? Everyone’s suffering a slight psychotic break and is a bit traumatized but hey, some people are having epiphanies. “The shooting? Maybe that’s not the best dream?” I sometimes like to start or end one of these reviews with a line like that which kind of stands out and sums up the style of the movie real well, but there were like a half dozen of them I grabbed onto in this one. The cast is filled with veteran comedians like Anna Kendrick, Paul Reiser, Cindy Hynes, Molly Shannon, and John C. Reilly and they all do a great job of delivering their very dry lines and humor well. Garry Marshall also appears in his final movie. RIP. Its a weirdly loaded cast for a first time film that actually looks a tad cheap (but not in a bad way). But I guess Beana is super connected, co-wrote I Heart Huckabees, is buddies with a bunch of comics like Alison Brie and Adam Pally, and has been dating Aubrey Plaza for a decade. All of it pays off for a lot of talent all over the film that helps things a lot but Baena’s script also seems very witty and fun if not a blow away idea. And Plaza is great. She commits like hell to the premise and just goes all out. If the movie was bad I’d still probably recommend it for her performance, but I don’t think that’s all its got going for it all. Is it a great film? No, I wouldn’t go that far. But I think its a lot of fun and unlike most anything I’ve seen. Certainly unlike most zombie films. Zombie films are all over the place and all my horror fan friends say they’re sick of them, and i get it. I love zombie stuff but sometimes it gets too much for me too. But there’s stuff out there that does something different and fun with the idea and I’d put this movie on that list. I enjoyed it a lot. Definitely puts Baena’s other films on my radar. “Things seem to be back to normal after the most curious series of events to befall this community since the fall…” The fall of what?!?! 6. Child’s Play (2019) Directed by Lars Klevberg, Screenplay by Tyler Burton Smith, Based on Child's Play by Don Mancini. Watched on Prime, also available on Hulu, Epix, and DirectTV. So you came up with a sillier premise than a serial killer putting his soul into a doll with voodoo? “Was that a joke?” “It was an attempt. Its not landing…” That’s actually one of the jokes i think did land but I think its an accidently self aware comment on the problem. This movie’s a little TOO aware its silly and leans a bit too hard into that while also trying to be a straight horror film. Its an odd tonal thing and the comedy doesn’t really land for me. Its not bad, its just… off a little because its not entire sure if its funny or creepy. Its both at times but they also sometimes take away from each other and I could never really settle into either. The film never fully takes itself seriously and is always kind of tipping its hat that it knows its dumb. So like, when it tries to get serious and scary its just a tougher sell. You gotta commit. Andy’s friends are especially guilty of this as they kind of feel like way too self aware caricatures rather than characters, just there to make snarky lampshade comments or something. I’ll give it this. The animatronic “smart” Chucky is beyond insanely creepy. I have a lot of love for Chucky and the original Child’s Play. I think people probably don’t give the first one enough cred. Its genuinely a good horror film that manages to sell the killer doll thing really will largely with the kind of Jaws/Alien trick of only showing us the monster in little glimpses for much of the buildup and letting our imagination do most of the work. I think that gets forgotten in what Chucky became through the sequels and how in your face he was. This Chucky is very much in your face and just all over the screen. Just front and center being a loving terrifying thing you should never ever let in your home and the nightmare of a wide cross section of every uncanny valley fearer, every person worried Alexa is spying on them, and just anyone with a proper sense of what is right and what is so very, very wrong. And that’s before it gets all weirdly possessive. And is it weird that I was actually kind of hoping Plaza would play against type in this one? She really, really didn’t and that’s fine. I like Aubrey Plaza. I like her thing. Its fun. I didn’t dislike it really. It was a perfectly fine watch and I bet with some people it would be more fun to just laugh at the silliness of it all. It doesn’t fit with the original series but that’s fine. I mean Mancini’s Chucky will always be superior and the franchise is amazing for how it evolves over time and adapts to try and keep itself working. But the reboot/remake does what a good one should and goes a completely different way with the idea to justify its existence and give the audience something new. Its not something I loved but it might work for some in a way that the original doesn’t. As just a kind hokey weird Alexa horror film. I’d definitely watch a sequel about killer teddy bears, though. If anyone’s asking me I say that’s the way to go with this reboot. Forget Chucky, leave him to Mancini. Creep us out with different killer toys and gadgets. The sky’s the limit. And no. She never really screamed. Still a queen. Letterboxd List October Tally - New (Total) 1. Eaten Alive (1976); 2. The Hills Have Eyes (1977); 3. The New York Ripper (1982); 4. Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970); 5. Life After Beth (2014); 6. Child’s Play (2019);
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Oct 2, 2020 13:11
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Sareini posted:a family of inbred hicks (Ozbillies?) We call them "Western Sydneysiders"
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Oct 2, 2020 13:38
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2. Blade: Trinity First time watch (I’ve seen the other two a few times each though) A really dumb closer to the trilogy, but has some fun action scenes and all the CGI vampire explosions are cool to see. Some really funny dialogue at times, both intentionally and unintentionally. Thoughts: - I was so confused when Deadpool started narrating at the start. And then by the time Ryan Reynolds actually showed up in the movie I’d forgotten he was in it again, so I was totally surprised by his entrance. - Dracula kinda sucked as a villain. Great cartoonish side villains though. “When the gently caress did you see my dick, fuckface?” *kick* - What city is this meant to be? Where is there a market for a full-rear end dracula merchandise shop selling everything from Count Chocula to vampire dildos?? - I wish Patton Oswalt had more scenes. - The music is so 2004 that it brings me joy, but I also love how all the scenes of making playlists in iTunes and transferring them to an iPod makes the movie a time capsule - Best insult: “you cock-juggling thundercunt” - Creepy dog! Oh no don’t fall out the window  - Triple H died so good - How is "The thirst will always win" not a meme - That’s it, I’m ordering the trilogy on blu-ray (need to complete my GDT blu-ray collection with Blade 2 anyway) Scariest moment: The blood farm with all the living “donors” sealed in plastic. Truly hosed up. --- Also I’m watching a Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode each day, here’s the first two days: THoH I: Absolute classic. “The Raven” segment is one of my favourite Simpsons things ever, it’s just so brilliant, and introduced so many kids to great poetry. THoH II: Another great one, with the Twilight Zone “It’s a Good Life” parody being the best of the three segments, even though it ends abruptly on a bit of a dumb gag.
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Oct 2, 2020 13:51
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The Berzerker posted:
The 12 year old me would find that worth the price of admission, nothing funnier than farts at that age. I should add the Wishmaster series to the queue.
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Oct 2, 2020 14:27
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Dominic Purcell has done some decent things since Blade Trinity but I'll never be able to see him as anything other than the shittiest Dracula to ever appear on film. I challenge anyone to name a worse Dracula.
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Oct 2, 2020 14:28
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Basebf555 posted:Dominic Purcell has done some decent things since Blade Trinity but I'll never be able to see him as anything other than the shittiest Dracula to ever appear on film. I challenge anyone to name a worse Dracula. I’ll look for worse Draculas. Nope, no worse Draculas here!
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Oct 2, 2020 14:33
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duz posted:The 12 year old me would find that worth the price of admission, nothing funnier than farts at that age. I should add the Wishmaster series to the queue. I've heard they get worse after the second one because they place Andrew Divoff as the djinn, so I'm jumping off that series after 2. Honestly you could just watch the last 15-20 minutes to see all the casino carnage and be satisfied, while skipping all of the nonsensical stuff about rituals and whatever.  Satanic Panic (2019) "Death to the weak. Wealth to the strong." A Pizza Delivery Person who happens to be a virgin stumbles upon some satanists in need of a virgin for a sacrifice. The script is terrible, it wants to be a horror comedy but fails at both. Rebecca Romjin is enjoyable, at least. I then learned who Adam Donaghey is when reading other reviews, gently caress that guy. 1/5SA October Horror Challenge Count: 10/40
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Oct 2, 2020 14:34
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Fran challenge #1: Horror Noire 7. Witchdoctor of the Living Dead (1985) https://youtu.be/jJIGz0tVq-U Witchdoctor of the Living Dead is notable primarily because it’s the first horror film produced in Nigeria by Nigerians. Of secondary note is, beyond the badass poster, it’s actually a very fun so-bad-it’s-good SOV satanic-panic zombie movie.  The film wastes no time, opening with a shot of a man being harassed by a demonic spirit wearing a wide-brimmed hat at a roadside. Suddenly all hell breaks loose, quite literally, as the man is beset by a horde of zombies. Upon fleeing in his car, the spirit now suddenly appears in the back seat and fires a snake from its mouth at the man, which in turn travels down the man’s throat. From there, our story follows the plight of a Nigerian farming community, who are split between the worship of the church and the worship of the old Gods of the forest. The titular Witchdoctor has taken it upon himself to let the villagers know the dissatisfaction of the old Gods, by unleashing supernatural goats to lay the village’s crops to waste, and summarily cursing anyone to death who questions the will of the old Gods. Cue the local priest, who reminds the villagers and the audience that the Christian God conquers all. Frankly, I’m down with the forest spirits. They have goats, zombies, and demonic snakes, what does the church have, eternal life? Lame. There’s one fantastic scene in which the Witchdoctor curses a man to die and “disappear without a trace”, to wit a coffin promptly springs from the ground, enveloping the man, and then dragging him back into the earth, entombing him forever. I also want to take a moment to heap praise onto the priest’s daughter, whose wardrobe and exasperated expressions gave me life.   Now I’ve covered the good, let me sink into the turgid acrid ooze of the bad. The filmmakers shoot a little precious baby goat with multiple arrows, and the poor thing cries in fear, agony, and distress for a prolonged period. They then tie it up by its little legs, and graphically slash its throat, lingering on the shot. I do get that there's a cultural and nutritional context to this stuff, but it just knocks the wind out of my sails. The arrows are especially unnecessary and are simply there to prolong the pain of the poor thing. The film is also fascinatingly bad. This is definitely the work of someone who knew what they wanted to make but had neither the means nor the background to accomplish what the wanted. For example, all of the edits appear to be done in-camera. The filmmakers also didn't seem to know how to have dialogue and music together simultaneously, so the music and sound effects promptly disappear whenever an actor speaks, and then start up again shortly afterward. You can also see the camera man's shadow in many shots. 0.5 /5 with animal cruelty 3 /5 without animal cruelty, it’s a lot of fun!  8. Blacula (1972) I’m not sure I can really top what has been said already in the thread about this film, so I’ll try to keep this short, which is apparently a challenge for me so far. Blacula uses the trappings of the vampire subgenre to tell a story about the ongoing African Diaspora. Mamuwalde is stripped of his homeland, his wife, and even his name, cursed with the name of his new “master”, Dracula, and trapped in bondage within his castle for hundreds of years. The parallels to slavery are dense and ongoing throughout the film, reaching even into the contemporary world of segregated funeral homes, and racist police. Mamuwalde is eventually freed by an interracial couple of highly camp antique dealers. The queer representation isn’t great on the face of it, and this is a blaxploitation film, so you know they’re going to pepper “faggot” into the script liberally. I kind of liked them though, how often do you get to see upwardly mobile interracial gay couples in the media? And while I’m sure their femininity was meant to be stereotypical and insulting, femme men are real, they’re beautiful, and I want to see them on screen. This isn’t The Boys in the Band levels of positive representation, but I’ll take it. The film itself is good. There are definite standout scenes, mainly involving vampires running or gliding towards the camera, or William Marshall’s impeccably crisp delivery, and expressive relatable performance. It does drag a little for me however, I don’t feel like the stakes were particularly high. I feel like it would have been a better film if Dracula had a larger role reaching into the contemporary period, but perhaps that would have been overpowering. 4 /5 Total: 8 Queer Interest: 4 Fran Challenges: 1 Horror Noire Countries Visited: 7 USA, Hungary, Portugal, Vietnam, Georgia, Switzerland, Nigeria Debbie Does Dagon fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Oct 6, 2020 |
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Oct 2, 2020 14:41
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Friends Are Evil posted:Does Ax 'Em count towards this challenge? I'll probably watch a good film for the Fran Challenge regardless, but still. Yes, definitely.
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Oct 2, 2020 14:54
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BisonDollah posted:Fran Challenge #1: Horror Noire I'm going to guess Ganja & Hess having never seen it, just based on the context cues. Arthouse, Horror Noire, the 70s, black vampires, I'm not sure there's more than one film that fits that bill.
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Oct 2, 2020 14:57
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3. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) This is a great Dracula adaptation with two stellar performances. Kinski plays Dracula as an exhausted figure, tired of living but unable to stop himself from preying on humans and continuing to exist. This is a Dracula that is truly cursed, being both pitiable and evil. He is a wholly negative force, spreading his own vampirism as well ask the plague wherever he goes. This is an all time great portrayal of the character. Likewise Isabelle Adjani is also excellent here as Lucy, swapping roles with Mina in this adaptation. She plays Lucy as a driven and heroic character, catching on to what Dracula is immediately and proactively trying to figure out how to kill him. Adjani has an ethereal quality to her performance, coming across as Dracula's equal and opposite, as much a threat to him as he is to her. This is go say nothing of the beautiful cinematography, score, and overall atmosphere. Just an all around great movie.
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Oct 2, 2020 15:51
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 #27) Hive Mind (2009) This autographed DVD has been sitting on my shelf for close to a decade, unwatched. I couldn't really say why I held off for so long, but it did not live up to the wait. This is the second film from the director of Flatland, Ladd Ehlinger, Jr., and also his last, possibly due to the loads of (probably) unlicensed celebrity images used in the film. The basic premise is that a conservative/libertarian talk show host, Doug Trench, is the last person on Earth not assimilated into a hive mind formed from a very popular new type of cell phone. Yeah, it's about as didactic and preachy as that synopsis makes it sound. Practically the entire film is Trench sitting and talking to himself; towards the start, there's visual commentary/reactions from the hive mind overlaid on the film, but those evaporate after twenty minutes or so. There's some charm to that stagey set-up, allowing as it does for the low-budget production to focus on jazzing things up with visual presentation (zooms, text additives, collage montages, etc.), but it also puts all of the film's eggs in one basket, essentially. If you start getting sick of an old man rambling, there's nothing else in store to relieve you. And virtually all of the back-story is doled out through his monologuing, so good luck not zoning out as he grumbles about Britney Spears, J-Lo, schools misrepresenting the first Thanksgiving, his radio software's bleeping out of the word 'Christmas,' and comparing Obama's economic policies to Nazism. When he's not railing against the loss of individualism, he's fiddling with a Rubik's Cube or eating Spam from the can, or the camera is flitting around to the set detailing, which might be the highlight of the film, as the walls are veritably plastered with posters and portraits (including one of the director, with which Trench regularly has one-sided conversations). From one perspective, the film isn't actually casting Trench as a hero, since as the last autonomy-having human on Earth, his radio broadcast is very much 'old man yells at cloud,' but when you've only got one character in your film, they kind of gravitate towards that position. And the ability of this lone actor to carry on for two hours is a bit impressive, in its emetic way. But for all the visual attempts to spice things up, and the genuinely innovative approach to a feature-length film, the very nature of the film's framing leads to a tedious experience. Rating: 6/10Watched on DVD.
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Oct 2, 2020 16:08
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3) Horror Noire Watched on Shudder Fran Challenge #1: Horror Noire Horror cat pic as proof of challenge completion  I have been waiting for a while to watch this one, and the wait paid off! What a tight, historically important, and entertaining documentary. It could have been double its runtime and I still would have been glued to the screen; definitely going to have to check out the book on which it’s based. I don’t really know what to say about it because the film itself is so succinct, but I will say that this should be essential viewing for both horror fans as well as film buffs in general. Hell, it should be essential for all humans period if we’re being honest. One thought that did pass through my mind that I’m still conflicted about : when they discuss the casting of the leads in Night of the Living Dead and The Girl with All the Gifts, it’s explicitly stated in each case that said roles were not intended to be black characters, but rather the actors who ended up being cast auditioned better than anyone and just so happened to be black. While this is a great tribute to those actors, it made me a little disappointed to learn that those roles were not originally written as specifically black characters. But oh well, a win is a win. Lessons learned: A. Ken Foree and Keith David should narrate everything. B. I think if Get Out had kept its original ending I would have fallen into an inescapable depression. C. Blacula, Ganja and Hess, Bones…So many more films to add to my watchlist! Anisocoria Feldman fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Oct 2, 2020 |
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Oct 2, 2020 16:26
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 49) Demonoid - 1981 - Youtube This was the sort of film you'd see at the rental place, decide to give it a chance based on the coverbox, and end up with feeling the sting of coverbox promise. Storyline's around possessed left hands taken out of a cult's chamber in a mine. I wouldn't quite say it's actively bad. There's some decent parts in the beginning and end, but the rest of it's pretty mediocre. It feels like it was a 'pray it does better on home video' kinda thing. Overall, this is pretty skippable  50) One Dark Night - 1983 - TubiTV When I first saw this as a teen, I didn't like it. I felt it was boooooring and took too long to get to the good stuff. Revising this, it's definitely one I had to do some growing to appreciate. It begins with six girls found dead in the apartment of Raymar the occultist. It turns out Raymar was a psychic vampire who fed off the bioenergy of terrified girls. He was also a telekinetic. At the same time, Julie's drawn the ire of the snobby Sisters club for daring to date one of their exes. They offer for her to join thier group after a hazing, though it's really more for revenge over her dating choice. Of course the hazing's set to take place at the same mausoleum Raymar's just been interred. We know where this is going. This film's big strength is the atmosphere it builds. Yeah, it's got a lot of walking down corridors slowly, but it does build the tension well conveying that sense of uncomfortable quiet walking down the marble halls, and add that to the silence of the floating corpses gives that unease of genuinely not knowing what's going to be around the corner. It's definitely worth a watch.  51) This House Possessed - 1981 - Youtube It's probably a Sign that if I remember watching a TV movie but not remember what it was about, it probably wasn't good. Yeah, this one's not particularly good. Storyline starts with a couple teens sneaking on a property for some makeout time only to have the house attack them. It then shifts to a rockstar having a breakdown on stage so he decides to buy a house on the spot to go recover in with his private nurse. Guess which house he happened to buy? The rest of the story's as predictable as can be and told as bland as it can be. It turns out the house isn't haunted like most of the synopsis of this film claims, but more techno semi-sentient. Demon Seed did a better job of handling the concept. This one's pretty skippable.
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Oct 2, 2020 16:33
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