|
Stink Billyums posted:1) Dreadnaught (勇者无惧) - 1981 Hell yeah, there's just not enough kung-fu horror to go around. Go check out Human Lanterns and A Chinese Ghost Story if that sounds like an appealing genre mash up to you.
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2020 17:43
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 15:36 |
|
|
Should soylent green be considered horror? Or are we getting closer to documentary since it’s debut is in 2 years.
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2020 17:54
|
|
|
#1 1931 Dracula  I had never seen Dracula before, but I had seen this ten minute long analysis of the cardboard in Dracula. So I might be the only person in history to be eagerly awaiting seeing the cardboard as they watched Dracula. And it did not disappoint. That cardboard is very obvious. As to the rest of the movie, it's good.
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2020 18:21
|
|
|
Technically watched these two yesterday, but I’ll put up reviews anyway since I’m running some errands and am not likely to watch anything today. 1. The Beach House (2020)  Dir: Jeffrey A. Brown It feels like there's not enough of a transition from "oh, things are getting weird here" to "oh gently caress, oh gently caress everything's on fire", but still enjoyed my time with this! When it does have body horror going, it's really effective for its budget and scope. Kinda wish we got to see more into the characters' psychology. Strong ending, at least. 2. The Psychic  Dir: Lucio Fulci This is probably my first encounter with giallo-era Fulci vs the “mind-bending eye trauma” era I’m so used to by now. Might not have been the most representative example to start with, but I was still into it! Probably the “classiest” film I’ve ever seen from him. Shockingly little gore, but it’s still as rife with dream logic as his best work. Another very strong ending.
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2020 19:22
|
|
|
married but discreet posted:Hell yeah, there's just not enough kung-fu horror to go around. Go check out Human Lanterns and A Chinese Ghost Story if that sounds like an appealing genre mash up to you.
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2020 19:29
|
|
|
God, The Boxer’s Omen is so good. I would kill for a high-quality Blu of that film. Last time I watched it, it looked like it was streaming from a potato
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2020 19:32
|
|
|
 4) Fall of the House of Usher - 1929 - Youtube House of Usher was never one of my favorite Poe works. Not sure why since I'd read the story before I learned of the relative of mine who was buried alive way back when. Going from what I remember of the story, this adaptation is substantially trimmed down but it does make it up in setting and ambiance. Some of the scene shots would make lovely desktops.  Le Diable Au Couvent - 1899 This one's just over three minutes but it is a very packed three minutes. Not even needing storycards, it's a concise well paced plot. Storyline is a devil comes out of the baptismal fount, masquerades as the priest, scares a group of nuns coming to service, calls up a variety of demons and devils while transforming the church into something with more of a diabolic aesthetic and start partying it up. I'm pretty sure one of the devil kids is flipping the camera off. The arrival of holy spirits manages to clear out the devilparty, but not the devil who started it all. Attempts by others to shoo him out fail until St. Michael gets involved. I enjoyed this one a lot and it makes me wonder in I had more enjoyment of this three minute film than I've had in some two hour+ epics on how much one can do with so little. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozGOB67V4lc  The Haunted Castle - 1896 Best I've been able to research, this is the first horror film. It's little over three minutes and is concise with it's plot. Essentially a couple soldiers are exploring a castle and have to deal with an assortment of specters, witches, and other horrors. To our jaded horror sensibilities, this isn't scary by any stretch. I've coughed up scarier stuff than this film. But to the audiences then, the camera effects probably had them fainting in the aisles. I did have to chuckle at the appearance of the devil since it came across like he'd been told last minute that Azazel called in sick so he's got to cover a 3pm haunting and ends up winging it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPmKaz3Quzo
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2020 20:49
|
|
|
Fall of the House of Usher is one of the creepiest silents I've seen. One of my favorites.
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2020 21:04
|
|
|
M_Sinistrari posted:The Haunted Castle - 1896 I'm much more of a fan of the 1897 remake. It's nowhere near as flashy, but it's a lot more coherent. https://youtu.be/ftEDCkFhpp4
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2020 21:19
|
|
|
 2. Lord of Illusion - Dir: Clive Barker - 1995 Not as horny as I was expecting but I did get Famke Janssen so it wasn’t all lost. There’s some fun bits and bobs, but if this was the quality of the directors cut I’m really glad I didn’t watch the theatrical. This is the definition of a hangover movie. You could easily fall in and out of sleep during this thing and see the best parts when the loud bits wake you up and fall gently back asleep for another 20 minutes.
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2020 22:08
|
|
|
 The Girl on the Third Floor (2019) 3/5 A man who looks like discount John Hamm laced with Henry Rollins moves into an old house to renovate it and eventually move in with his pregnant wife. The house is gross and oozes viscose liquids out of holes in the walls. The man sticks his hands into all kinds of slimy holes and crevices in the house. A female ghost lives in the house. There are themes of jealousy, inadequacy, frustration. I thought this was going to be about the man and the house having some kind of sexual relationship, and it is kinda there, but the movie goes in a different direction. Which is a shame, because I was hoping for something weirder, like a gross man/house romance. An interesting watch anyway, but I was disappointed.
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2020 22:11
|
|
|
1. Don’t Look Now 1973 | dir. Nicolas Roeg  Restore the fake, or let it sink into the sea A couple’s daughter accidentally drowns at their home. They travel to Venice where John, an architect, is restoring a church. After an encounter with a psychic who claims to see their daughter, Christine, John starts to see things too. From the start, this is a movie constructed and edited to build tension, dread, and unease. The opening sequence is horrifying to me, and I don’t have children. Watching this as a parent must be rough. As a big fan of David Lynch, it became clear pretty early on that this would be a film I enjoy. Heavy use of symbolism, with recurring motifs like the red of the daughter’s raincoat, and the constant running water everywhere (who goes to Venice while still grieving the death of a child by drowning?), and lots of edits designed to draw associations between what’s happening in the present and the emotions barely contained beneath the surface As the film goes on, it becomes clear that John has hardly begun to process his daughter’s death. This is all about the physical versus the spiritual: Laura is lifted by the idea that their daughter, wherever she is, is happy. John obsesses over the minutia of building materials for the church that he is restoring, with one sequence showing the building literally collapsing around him as he compares replacement stones for a mosaic up in the rafters. He dismisses Laura’s belief in the psychic, but can’t help voyeuristically following to listen in when she goes to visit them. Eventually, things begin to spiral out of control, time and space become confused, and the film builds to a pretty spectacular ending. I’m sure there are some religious themes and parallels that someone more knowledgable than me could dig into. The church and the local bishop are a constant presence. At one point John is told that “Milton loved this city”. Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie are both superb in the lead roles. They are utterly believable in both their separate and shared grief. Sutherland’s gradual detachment from reality is hard to look away from. The rest of the cast do a fine job of maintaining the impression that something is just a little bit off at all times. Venice is, as you might imagine, a perfect backdrop to all of this. A city of great beauty and also constant decay, both aspects captured expertly here. The cinematography shifts naturally between long slow pans and frantic handheld as we duck down alleys and hop across moored boats. Everything just feels so wet, so utterly saturated from the moment Christine falls into the pond to the final shot. I love psychological thrillers, and this is one of the best I’ve seen 2. Frankenstein 1931 | dir. James Whale  I made him with these hands, and with these hands, I’ll destroy him I remember reading Frankenstein on holiday when I was around 12. I’ve never watched a single Frankenstein movie, so I guess I liked the book so much that it didn’t seem necessary. But this is the October challenge, James Whale’s Frankenstein is a classic, so it’s finally time. The film opens with a master of ceremonies on stage to pass on a “friendly warning” from the film’s producer: this film will thrill, shock, and maybe even horrify! I’m in. The opening sequence in the graveyard sets the tone perfectly. This is a film that builds a looming gothic atmosphere in very little time. At only 71 minutes, there’s no messing about here. Frankenstein’s tower, home to his laboratory, is all sharp angles and crazy geometry. The sets really are fantastic to look at and most scenes are lit beautifully. So much is achieved with good use of light and shadow and a few simple practical effects. Colin Clive is wonderfully intense as Henry Frankenstein: equally convincing as the wild-eyed ambitious scientist and the repentant man trying to undo his mistakes. Boris Karloff is suitably tragic and pitiful as the monster, while also being such an intimidating physical presence that you really do fear for any character sharing a scene with him. This feels like nitpicking, and I fully expect that it’s down to technical limitations at the time, but the audio mix is a mess in a lot of scenes. Dialogue is routinely drowned out by thunder, or too echoey to understand. I had to switch on subtitles. My only other complaint was that the aftermath of the scene with the young girl at the lake felt very rushed, with no time for the awful thing we’ve just witnessed to land. Just a quick couple of shots of Karloff running panicked through some trees, and then next scene. It’s saying a lot that those are my only two complaints because I loved everything else about it. I guess if you’re a weirdo like me into horror enough to do a challenge on the internet but somehow haven’t seen this iconic film then you should probably get on that. Movies Watched: Don’t Look Now | Frankenstein Rewatches: 0 Total: 2 They Shoot Zombies Don't They: 29%
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2020 22:45
|
|
|
Stink Billyums posted:1) Dreadnaught (勇者无惧) - 1981 This sounds rad as hell, I love this kind of thing
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2020 23:02
|
|
|
 #2) Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988) I think the first time I saw this was for last year's challenge, and I'm still kind of put out with myself for having taken so long to get around to seeing it. This is just a delightful film, and so clearly made with passion and love for the crafting of it. The clown costuming and design is stupendous, so full of life and little details. The matte shots are downright beautiful, as are the big top interior sets. And while a lot of the movie is one gag scene after another, it also manages to string those individual joke ideas into a ramp towards the stellar finish. For something that's essentially 'Here's a joke! Here's another one!', they keep the pacing sharp, especially with how they draw the disbelieving cop into the action just as his distancing starts to wear thin. There's so many clever touches that not only entertain, but also enrich the world of the film, and it breaks my heart a little that the Chiodo Brothers haven't had another theatrical film since this one.  Rating: 8/10Watched on Dollar Tree Blu-ray
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2020 23:06
|
|
|
fenix down posted:I also saw Boxer's Omen on someone's list, which is indescribable but great. Might've been mine. Dittoing the recs for this movie. It's incredibly gross, but a smorgasbord of creative practical effects. A lot of fun if you're into stuff like that. Captain Jesus posted:The Girl on the Third Floor (2019) 3/5 drat, now I too really want to see a movie about a gross man/house romance.
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2020 23:19
|
|
|
1. Salem's Lot (1979) Directed by Tobe Hooper. Wow, what can I say about this fantastic movie. Well first off I realize now its been so long since ever seeing this that I don't remember anything at all about it . It's interesting to me that for a Television movie directed by Tobe Hooper its surprisingly scary. Also , Barlow the main vampire is not like any vampire you would see in todays film. He doesn't glitter in the sunlight , he's a vicious infectious animal / beast that is a plague upon the town. Sure there are the classical depictions of vampires in this film that do speak but the main villian Barlow is just a unseen presence all the way until nearly the two hour mark. Vampire in this aren't sexy they're vicious creatures that have otherworldly powers. It's easily one of the most disturbing and scary potrayal of vampires you'll see really. The other thing I love about this movie is the ending, it does not end well for our heros they don't beat the vampire then go back to their lives. The film ends with them continuing to be hunted by vampires, when we see them at the end and at the beginning of the film their clothes are filthy they're disheveled. The movie doesn't wrap things up in a bow. 1/31 Hollismason fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Sep 27, 2020 |
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2020 23:20
|
|
|
 The Merry Frolics of Satan - 1906 Mostly a variant telling of Faust. An engineer working on developing high speed global travel is approached by an alchemist who sells him a trinket that can make this happen. Turns out the alchemist is Satan so we know this isn't going to end well. The engineer goes home and uses the trinket which manifests a trunk that servants in livery pop out and pull out another trunk until there's several trunks and servants who promptly pack up everything in the house including the engineer, his family and his assistant and turns the trunks into a a high speed train. There's an accident on a bridge which kills the engineer's family, but he's more about continuing on the trip which ends in his going to Hell and getting roasted on a spit. This one leans more dark fantasy than what I'd consider pure horror. There are some creepy art in the scenery, particularly in the inn where the engineer and his assistant try to get something to eat and the engineer's not phased at all over his family's death is unnerving. The tinting's a nice touch, especially during the surreal parts like the space carriage flight. I love the look of the enchanted horse, it's the right mix of alien and plausible. I don't know who's playing the engineer's assistant but he hams it up to where he's more of a focus than the engineer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I36uHkb9YE4  Frankenstein - 1910 For me growing up, this was considered a lost film. How it was found is probably enough of a story to make a film on that alone just due to all the controversy that still gets debated. The bare bones is that the surviving print came into the hands of Alois Dettlaff, from there, the rest of the story depends on what you read and who you talk to. The story I first heard was he found it in his barn back in the '70s where they had a lot of silent films stored from when his family ran a theater and he made copies with his name plastered all over it to make a buck. Variations claim Dettlaff was a film preservationist who had no clue about how significant a film he'd found, that the film was part of a collection he'd bought off a relative, his copies are from a 16mm print/35mm print, he got the film in the early '50s and didn't store it in a proper preservation environment, he refused to make a preservation copy until he was at risk of the film degrading to unviewable, he tried to get a preservation copy made but no one would do it, the only maintenance he did on the film was a yearly hand cranked unspooling, he would light up single frames from his collection in his pipe to show they wouldn't burn easily so he couldn't've been a film preservationist or collector, and he would hold private showings of the film while boasting he'd make a fortune off it. There's probably more but that's what I recall off the top of my head. I do call bullshit on his not knowing what he had since a copy of Frankenstein that's older than the one seen on the Saturday afternoon horror movie's going to stand out as a something even if you don't know it's considered lost. I will also presume Dettlaff had a knack for pissing people off just going from some of the vitriol in the story variations. As far as the movie goes, it's public domain, though the copies Dettlaff had made are not because of his additions. It's definitely an unusual adaptation of the novel. I did have to smirk at Victor's discovering the Miracle of Life after two years in college when I know people three years into college and still iffy on what their Major is. Instead of the monster being crafted from corpse parts, it's brewed in a vat and it's an impressive scene even watching with modern eyes. The monster's look completely works after you see his brewing up scene, though the only horrifying bit's that hair. I should know as I have that same bedhead, and yes, it's horrific. Overall, it's not bad, but the feeling of watching a movie you never thought you'd see in your lifetime is something special. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67ENQibFW9w  5) L'Inferno - 1911 - Youtube First off, much thanks to Spatulater bro! for finding a much better upload of this than the one I had. This is one I've been wanting to see since I first heard about it. I'd seen stills and loved the style resembling the Gustave Dore art I really like. I did not expect how incredibly faithful to the Dore art this film was. It's gorgeous, but as it took three years to make this, it had better be gorgeous. This was Italy's first full length film. Most I've found in researching describe this film as being three hours long and had two intermissions. Looking around online, I've found uploads going from little over an hour or less so I'm not sure which is the more accurate. I was kinda surprised and impressed with the volume of nudity in the film. This had the most side boob, front boob, behind sack, and bare rear end I've seen outside of porn. I highly recommend this one not only for its place in film history, but also because it's a gorgeous film.
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2020 23:40
|
|
|
#2 1931 Dracula They made two Draculas! They filmed Dracula during the day, and at night they filmed Dracula again, but in Spanish. So which one is better? English Dracula has two big advantages. The first is obvious; Bela Lugosi. You can't beat Bela Lugosi at a Dracula off. But it's not a huge difference, Carlos Villarías does a good job. The real advantage the English version has is Renfield. English Renfield has a lot of depth, he's a tortured soul and it comes across really strongly in the performance. I found him to be a much more unnerving character than Dracula. But Spanish Renfield is just nuts. Big points to English Dracula for Renfield. But beyond that, Spanish Dracula is generally better. The visuals are a little more energetic. Like when Renfield meets Dracula, in the English version it's just a big flat shot. But the Spanish version has this great push in from below that really enhances the power of Dracula. Spanish Dracula is also almost a half hour longer, and that helps a lot. Especially with So I gotta give Spanish Dracula the edge. But Bela Lugosi and a fantastic Renfield keep English Dracula almost neck and neck with it. Movies Watched: 1.Dracula 2.Dracula
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2020 23:44
|
|
|
1)Haunt-2019, Shudder So I'm kind of conflicted. The atmosphere is pretty great, better than the film deserves even, when they aren't in the haunt. The extreme haunted house that's bad for the people involved is a genre I like. Houses that October built, and Hellhouse LLC are both very much my jam (well aside from hellhouse llc 2). So it has all that going for it. Except...it also makes the final girl a victim of domestic abuse, and it's not something that it really handles well or does anything with for that matter. Kind of irks me when it isn't even used as a badass revenge motivator. The abusive boyfriend gets killed by the attraction, the abusive father isn't in the picture, and when she goes to save her mom at the end, theres no connective tissue between the guilt she felt as a helpless child and the final tacked on scene. Doesn't ruin the film, but it's a missed opportunity to do something, though maybe it's better they didn't try then screw it up. Perfectly fine middle of the road halloween flick. /5
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2020 23:54
|
|
|
1) Robocop (1987) If you leave out the gore and body horror this is only horror-adjacent, but I like a good take on Frankenstein and this is one of the best. It's famous enough that I don't feel obliged to go into great detail about it. Apart from computer graphics and all the TVs being cathode it's aged pretty well. I'm a bit annoyed with Arrow for saying the main feature was the Directors Cut; I didn't notice anything different from the cut that has always been on UK release. Possibly the international cut is what Verhoeven wanted and the "theatrical" cut is what screened in the US. The difference in length is less than a minute so it may be something as simple as putting gorier versions of scenes back in.
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2020 23:56
|
|
|
Jedit posted:1) Robocop (1987) The director's cut is not really that different than the theatrical. The boardroom scene where the guy gets smoked by ED 209 is a little longer and more gratuitous, the scene where Murphy gets gunned down is a little longer with more blood , and the scene where Robocop spikes the dude has a blood spatter that's more gratuitous , but otherwise there's not much changed in the film.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 00:03
|
|
|
 #3) Beastly Boyz (2006) Another DeCoteau film, another shirtless young man in white boxer-briefs within the first five minutes. Aside from that, the first ten or so minutes of this are really dull. Just the main character flexing, exercising, and steeling himself to take revenge, while a near-ambient light drone loop plays and the cameraman figures out the zoom function. Then there’s five minutes of him having flashbacks and dreams of his dead sister, intercut with him sliding a knife around his oiled, candlelit body. Then his sister tells him who to kill, and we get a five minute shower scene of that soon-to-be victim, without so much as a butt shot. And so on. It kind of feels like an exercise in minimalism. There’s hardly any dialogue, and when it does come, it tends to be one word repeated by a character to themself. But on the flip side, things get drawn out so much there’s no drat edge to any of it. The main character draws a knife blade up and down a sleeping victim’s body for ten drat minutes (I wish that was hyperbole). And then he does it again in a subsequent scene, to a different victim. And the characters all have the same general body type and hair color (as shown on the poster), but that doesn’t matter, because aside from main character, the others are introduced one to a scene, killed, and then the next one is introduced. It’s like the audio gently caress-up from A Night to Dismember got crossed with the narrow focus of the revenge scenes from I Spit on Your Grave, run through a twinkifier, filmed in one three-acre patch of woods with a cabin, and then time-stretched to feature length. It is almost unbearable to sit through, because it’s so unrelentingly boring, and the rare moments in which something is happening are smothered by the failed emoting of the actors. I generally like DeCoteau’s output, but there’s only one positive thing I can think of to say about this. That one thing is that this would be kind of a neat musical experience to put on with the screen covered, because the dearth of dialogue frees the composer to just go on a free-flowing trip from style to style. Rating: 2/10Watched on Tubi Darthemed fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Sep 28, 2020 |
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 00:40
|
|
|
M_Sinistrari, I'm immensely impressed with the films you're watching (and also the pace at which you're watching them). This is going to be an amazing thread.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 00:53
|
|
|
This is just the list of what I want to make sure and watch this year. More than likely I'll just tag along with what darthemed's watching some days. Goal is 31 films, no real criteria. I'd like to do some drawing studies of the cooler ones too, but I'm not gonna promise that. (Nuking all my mainstream social media soon though, so maybe I will!) Watched List: 1) Killer Klowns From Outer Space [Blu-ray] 9/27 2) Annabelle [Blu-ray] 9/28 shrimpwhiskers fucked around with this message at 01:23 on Sep 29, 2020 |
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 01:00
|
|
|
 1) Killer Klowns From Outer Space This is just a fun movie. I adore the design of all the clowns and the set design. Their whole spaceship makes sense, the design matches perfectly to its inhabitants. And of course the matte painting when they see the central power lightning ball is amazing. I really do feel like they put a good amount of thought into the Klowns as a species. I like that they aren't over the top with gore, but still have a menacing presence. The scene where they're parading through town picking everyone up is my favorite because it's so wrong. The soundtrack is a bop as the kids say. Bechdel Test: pass 4/5
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 01:31
|
|
|
 3. World War Z - Dir: Marc Foster - 2013 I mean come on. It’s the biggest dumbest zombie movie ever produced and was a complete dumpster fire of a production and yet it still turned out ok for what it ended up being. It’s not smart, it’s not particularly scary but it’s a simple turn your brain off and enjoy Brad Pitt running amok, weird water bodied zombies and the dude in my header blowing his own head off because he tripped and fell on his gun with his finger on the trigger.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 01:34
|
|
|
2. Dracula (1931 , English) There's a lot to say about this film. First off it's fast , like it clocks in at little over a hour at 74 minutes and moves at a brisk pace. I think this suits the film , you get lots of time with Dracula and the film doesn't mess about with any sub plot really at all. Other's have pointed out that this is the OG of Vampire films where Bela Lugosi Lugosi's all over the film with his wonderful Hungarian Accent something that would later become a detriment to him trying to not be type cast. Other have pointed out the the stand out of the cast is Renfield. I agree with that assessment. The movie just oozes style , and its gothic architecture is some of the best. 2/31
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 01:41
|
|
|
I'm in for at least 31 this year. I fell off of the last two challenges, summer and last October, for various reasons. Back with a vengeance this year. My usual method - no theme, but I am going to try and aim high on quality this year. My last attempt had quite a few stinkers on it. And I'll be trying to do as many of the thread challenges as possible.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 02:12
|
|
|
 #4) Harvest of Fear (2004) Someone in a mask is killing people at harvest time! This may have been shot flatter than a Lifetime movie, and had no memorable characters, but at least there was dialogue and scenes which didn't take five minutes for a single action to finish. It's not the worst film I've seen off of a Dollar Tree double feature disc, but it might be the blandest. One very pretty shot of flowers in the foreground of flowing water, but it lasts about three seconds. The end twist reveal was so lifelessly delivered, it was like the actor was reading the ingredients from a cereal box. It wasn't much of a twist, though, so I can't knock him too much for the low interest. rating: 4/10Watched on Dollar Tree Blu-ray
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 02:18
|
|
|
Spatulater bro! posted:M_Sinistrari, I'm immensely impressed with the films you're watching (and also the pace at which you're watching them). This is going to be an amazing thread. Since one of the things I've been doing to pass time is transfer over my reviews from past challenges to my letterboxd, it's had me thinking of really digging around at so many I haven't reviewed for the challenge.  6) House of Mystery - 1934 - Youtube Pretty much a standard killer ape film of the era and so painfully dated it physically hurts. It gave me a headache. I always go into watching one of these and expecting they're going to mangle things when it comes to non-western cultures, but here they go a special level of ignorant. Storyline's an archaeologist goes to India, steals treasure and a dancer from a temple of Kali and dissappears. Naturally his investors who didn't get repaid are ticked off and track him down. They find him twenty years later. He's in poor health and states there's only two million left of the treasure. He states the treasure is cursed and when he tried to pay back a couple investors years back and they died shortly after. They still want their money so he offers for them to stay at his mansion for a week to prove the curse is real and if they still want the money after the week, he'll fork it over. Sit through enough of this subgenre and you know the rest. Red herrings, fumbling detective with a competent detective, goofy characters, and a couple that falls for each other by the end of the movie. Where this film tanked for me was the cultural mangling. India being called Asia, that's expected, but when it veers into mixing Native American cultural elements with India, a Scotland Yard detective with a clearly American accent, repeatedly mispronouncing the name of Kali, and having gorillas in India, well, my brain can only handle so much before it starts hurting. Even taking into account this is from the '30s, that's still no excuse for the degree of mangling here. I'd only recommend this as a 'you won't believe this poo poo' watch.  7) The Old Dark House - 1933 - Youtube After the last film, I really needed this one. Nothing like some James Whale to make everything better. The title pretty much says it all. Some travelers end up taking shelter from a downpour at the Femm mansion. The butler's hesitant to let them in but he does and we meet the Femm family. As we learn quickly, the Femm family's got issues to put it mildly. Whale said this film was his favorite of his works and it shows. The dry wit's given that perfect touch of camp which just pulls you in. The cast is on their A game here, and just by the cast and performance alone, one can consider this a companion film to Bride of Frankenstein. I do consider it one of the finer pre-Code films out of the few I've seen so far, and it's one of the pre-Code films I recommend to friends who don't belive me about the sort of content in them compared to the films made after the Hayes Code. From Rebecca's unmistakably thirsty lingering gaze on Margaret while she's changing out of her wet clothes, the casual fooling around between Roger and Gladys, Rebecca's describing the 'lustful' behavior of her relatives years back, Sir William's asexuality, Morgan's bond/relationship with Saul, Horace's atheism, and Sir Roderick are all the sort of things that would've put the authors of the Hayes code into seizures and weren't uncommon in pre-Code films. I do have to question the story stating that the casting of Elspeth Dudgeon as Sir Roderick was due to no elderly man having the right look. Seeing Sir Roderick face on and hearing the voice, it's clear it's a woman in the role. I believe the casting choice was deliberate by Whale. It fits the enclosed world within the mansion. It's queer in both definitions of the word which makes a good case for this film to be a companion to Rocky Horror Picture Show. It also fits Whale's critique through subversion style. I can't recommend this movie enough. It's Whale at his A game.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 02:35
|
|
|
When I was younger, my grandmother, who was born in 1920, would tell me about seeing Dracula and Frankenstein at the theater. She said she found Dracula scary, but thought Frankenstein was silly.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 02:49
|
|
|
 2. High Tension-2003: 4.5/5 Hadn't watched this since...well, I bought the DVD back in like 2004 or '05. Still holds up, absolutely one of best of the "New French Extreme" movies with some unrelenting violence and a twist that pisses people off but makes me love the movie even more. Watched on DVD New Watches: Boar Rewatches: High Tension
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 02:56
|
|
|
1: The Frighteners Starting with a rewatch, this is a favorite of mine; it's been in my pvr since July as my son and my partner haven't seen it and we haven't had a chance yet, so this seemed like the perfect excuse. Such a great, fun movie. The cast is all great, especially Jeffery Combs who just chews every scene he's in but in that great Combs way. The effects are pretty bad even for 1996, with the exception of the ghosts which they smartly keep simple and still look pretty good. Also that switchblade scythe is still one of my all time favourite movie weapons. The music works well here too; I'm not always an Elfman fan, but he's the perfect fit for a movie like this.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 02:57
|
|
|
1. The Seventh Curse Watched On: Amazon Prime Wasn’t going to do any rewatches this challenge but fate intervened. A friend came over for drinks and after a couple of Rum Runners, he wanted to watch a spooky movie and I threw it on. Still as crazy as the first time I watched it. It is a movie that starts in 5th gear and somehow ends up in 9th after 80 minutes of run time. My new favorite things in the rewatch were the giant ceiling net and ornamental stream going through Dr. Yuen’s apartment and one stuntman getting absolutely WRECKED by a Jeep in the rescue attempt. If you haven’t seen this one, rectify that. It loving rules.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 03:12
|
|
|
M_Sinistrari posted:
gently caress yes. This movie owns.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 03:29
|
|
|
 1. The Hunger (1983) Miriam promises her lovers the gift of eternal life, but John, her companion for centuries, suddenly discovers that he is getting old minute by minute, so he looks for Dr. Sarah Roberts, a researcher on the mechanisms of aging, and asks her for help. This is a terrible admission, but I’m rolling a d100 to determine which film to watch. Today the die chose The Hunger, and I guess it makes sense that I should begin with a film that I have been meaning to see for a very long time, and never quite got around to watching. The hunger is a classic vampire love story, but instead of focusing on the beginning and moving toward the end of a relationship, it focuses instead on the end of one relationship and the blossoming of another. As a result, we don’t really have a great deal of time to get to know our characters before they leave us, and when they do, it doesn’t really strike a fulfilling emotional chord. In fact, the overall effect is that the film feels very cold, aloof, and yet exquisitely beautiful, much like the undead characters we spend such fleeting moments getting to know. The film opens with Bauhaus playing live, which is loving rad. Then we’re treated to a montage of beautiful and expressive shots, capturing our vampires as they hunt for young vibrant party goths. When the time comes to feed, flashes of the b-plot come into frame, as one monkey attacks another in a fit of rage and blood lust. The effect isn’t subtle, and neither is this film really. The overarching theme of the perils of immortality is reduced in part to the fate of these monkeys, who reside in a test facility manned by a group of stoner doctors and Sarah, our soon to be blossoming second love interest. Sarah’s research concerns the rapid onset of aging and the question of whether it can be slowed, or even stopped. John, our male vampire played by David loving Bowie, discovers to his horror that he is aging at an accelerated rate, so naturally the two are fated to meet. John unfortunately is not long for this world, and Miriam, our vampiric matriarch, informs him that there is no death for the deathless, only an eternal agony as a desiccated husk. With John now out of the picture, and Sarah’s research looking still so intriguing, Miriam seduces her and offers her a gift that is tinged in an unknowing and distant torment. For as unsubtle as the film is, it does respect the audience to draw their own conclusions. The moment of seduction between Miriam and Sarah consists of a couple of sentence fragments, a glance, and that’s it, yet what’s communicated is absolutely clear. We understand from the briefest of exchanges that Sarah is doomed to fall in love, and that this love is tinged by the supernatural and the uncanny. Similarly, the backstories of the vampiric characters aren’t told as laborious historical epics, as they might be in Interview With The Vampire, instead they’re presented in brief snapshots, and fragments of memories, which appear as quickly as they vanish. What is quite wonderful and charming is the bisexual romance between Sarah and Miriam. It appears as a chased unknowing middleaged awakening, and upon being consummated feels almost like an excited teenage rush of discovery. I also appreciated that while there is nudity and a sex scene, there’s no leering, or obviously prying male gaze. Sarah is what she appears to be, a middleaged woman who discovers something new about herself within the arms of another woman, after decades of presumed inhibition and insecurity. It’s a story I wish was more common on screen. Without giving away too much more of the plot, the finale is well worth the price of admission. It would perhaps fit better into a subgenre outside vampire films, namely mummy movies, but it’s a welcome addition anyway. Overall I love this film, it’s beautiful, exquisitely shot, wonderfully performed, with such fine attention to sets, make-up, and wardrobe, little niceties like that. If you wanted to you could really get into the dirt of what it means to be immortal within the framework of the movie, and whether the corpses we carry with us are our own memories, and then the more concrete horror of real immortality and cosmic dread that represents. What hurts the film is the coldness, the lack of heart, empathy, and pathos. It just doesn’t nourish me in the way that I hoped, then again, perhaps that’s the point. 4.5/5 Countries visited: 1 (USA)
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 03:42
|
|
|
 #5) Vampire Hookers (1978) Dirty, scuzzy, goofy corniness, though it could have used more horniness to capitalize on its premise. I say that even though there's a lengthy boning scene, because the actors are so visibly disinterested. There's a vampire sorta-pimp (John Carradine, as himself) in a nice white suit with red bow-tie. His costuming might be my high point for the film. Sailors looking for a good time on shore leave bumble around, getting mixed up in the vampiric entanglements of the title characters, and doing a lousy job of acting scared when under attack. Nicely visceral and spontaneous final fight, though. Little touches (like arguing among themselves over whether Walt Whitman was a vampire, or the servant who can't stop farting in his coffin) give things a surprising level of character, and the neighborhood shots (I'm guessing this was filmed in the Philippines) are a nice little slice of low-budget authenticity. The remaster from Vinegar Syndrome did a great job of elevating this from how it looked on DVD, and warmed me up to the film much more than my viewing of the rougher transfer. Brought the '70s hues out more, I guess. You've got to be in a particular mood for this one, and if you're not, it'll easily annoy and bore you. Rating: 5/10Watched on Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 03:46
|
|
|
#1 Halloween II (2009)  This was a lot better than I was anticipating, given the lackluster reviews and ratings I've seen. I think the people who dislike it must be the Halloween/slasher purists, because this definitely strays from the formula. It's way more of a "Rob Zombie Movie" than a "Halloween Movie", for better or worse. Unlike its predecessor, it's relatively unpredictable. Sure I knew where the broad strokes would land, but the details were surprising. The Loomis character turning into a money grubbing sell out was off putting at first, but the idea grew on me. I mean did we really need to see more of Crazy Old Man Loomis running around Haddenfield desperately trying to convince the town they're in danger? Watching him next to Weird Al Yankovic on a talk show plugging a book was actually way more interesting. Something else I like about this is seeing Brad Dourif in a semi-lead role. The dude has some serious acting chops despite usually being relegated to kill fodder or the town weirdo. I appreciate that Zombie pays him his due respect as the horror legend that he is. And god drat, this movie is capital B Brutal. I haven't seen the theatrical cut so I don't know how much of the violence was increased with the DC, but this was some grisly poo poo. There was a moment - I think it was the head stomp followed by the stripper head bashing - that had me laughing my "hooooly gently caress" laugh that only comes out when movies go crazy over the top. And I absolutely love when that happens. Halloween 07 was a relatively safe remake with a few interesting tweaks. Halloween II is an onslaught of brutality with a dash of Halloween thrown in. I can't say I'm disappointed. 4/5
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 03:55
|
|
|
3. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) I actually really love the Creature or Gil-Man series. It's tense it's got some excellent action sequences which were all filmed underwater! Yea, the coolest thing about the feature is the environment. Whereas most creature features are solely regulated to on water and even when the creature comes from the water like a movie like Screamers, you don't have any underwater action. The making of creatures is also very interesting as well. The way they got the underwater shots? They stuck a guy in a loving suit that weighed 60lbs stuck him underwater and filmed it. There's not any trick photography, that's the Gilman and he's swimming underwater. I think that's what really sets this film apart from all the other B Movie Monster flicks out there are the underwater sequences that are surprisingly well shot. Also, can we talk about the suit! Goddamn what a fantastic design. Sure the face of the suit is a little dopey, I mean this was before you had puppetry and some movement in faces, but its still incredibly evocative. Fun Fact! The designer of the Gil Man was a woman! Not a man. Her name was Milicent Patrick and for decades her role went undiscovered because of course it did. Out of all the Universal Monster films other than maybe Wolf Man, its got for me one of the best designs because Gil Man had huge gently caress you claws on his hands. Anyway, this is one of my favorite Universal picture films. 3/31 Hollismason fucked around with this message at 04:26 on Sep 28, 2020 |
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 04:22
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 15:36 |
|
|
1/31 Slugs I started watching this movie once and quit. The opening sequence is real bad, and I got the impression it was a parody. But friends, hear this: this film is the source material of those parodies, and it is legit.  This movie is oddly wholesome and horny at the same time. Everyone is either an abrasive drunk or a Hallmark channel refugee. The dialogue is oddly stilted - one example exchange:  You'd better not be thinking what I think you're thinking... No, I've got something better in mind! But there's nothing in the context to clue the audience into what any of this means! It would probably be just another rank and file "mutant nature monster" movie, with tones of Jaws 2 except for one thing: the deaths are full blown spectacles of gore. And they punctuate what could easily be mistaken for a low budget, low energy lifetime movie about a town's civil service workers. I'm surprised this isn't already considered a classic, it's absolutely a gem in the rough. There's a certain amateurish heartwarming charm to it, and then an intense cruelty to it. This was a perfect first draw and takes place near Halloween! I give it a 9 / 10. See it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2020 04:24
|
|
