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October 21 - Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for the Earth Should I have saved this one for the third film in the franchise challenge? It's the fourth or fifth film in the series depending on if you want to count 1954 as part of the Heisei continuity.  A long time ago, there was a civilization that screwed up the planet. The earth's guardian Mothra turned bad and became Battra who then destroyed the civilization. Now an evil company is destroying the environment and a new Mothra egg has been found. Godzilla is a bit of a dick, though, and decides to get that egg. Monster hijinks ensue. So for the first half hour I was hating this one. It felt like a left over 70's script and the human action that dominated was just awful. Then the giant monsters showed up and the action never let up. Holy gently caress is this film packed with kaiju smashing stuff. It's a common complaint that there isn't enough Godzilla in Godzilla movies. Well there's no problem with that here. And it's good monster wrestling action, too. The only problem with the monsters is that Mothra (and to a less extent Battra) are kind of doofy. A big woolly moth has always been a problem when compared to the G-ster. Battra is more scaly and comes across better, but there's a lot of flying by the moths and it doesn't look great. I was worried with King Ghidorah last film that this series was getting lighter on Godzilla being the natural disaster threat that the Heisei films initially returned him to. Well, GvM keeps Godzilla in the antagonist position. I'm not sure having an obviously good monster works for the new direction, though. Despite stumbling initially, Godzilla and Mothra wound up bringing everything I wanted in my monster mash and I had a lot of fun. I am wondering why the psychic girl is still in these movies... Turns out my DVD box I was watching from pulls its third film from the middle of the Millennium series (Giant Monster All-Out Attack). I haven't seen that one so I could watch it, but now that I'm this deep in and can use a couple of the movies for challenges, I grabbed the rest of the Heisei films. I don't know if I'll reach Destroya, but I guess we'll find out.
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Oct 22, 2020 00:42
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30) As Above, So Below (2014) Fran Challenge 12: Recommended Horror Proposal: Watch a movie recommended in this thread by another goon. Reality: A film crew falls through the earth and into Parisian catacombs. Taking a torch from the wall they see row upon row of skeletons. The nearest one grasps them by the shoulders and shakes them wildly, shouting "My dudes, have you tried not inserting a jump scare every five minutes?" Seriously, why? Their movie already had a cool premise of the characters finding their own personal hells, they were shooting in one of the most naturally spooky locations in the world, this could have been a classic. But then they added half a dozen highly telegraphed scenes of things leaping out of the dark and going "raarg". Did they not understand that what you imagine in the dark is more frightening than what you see?
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Oct 22, 2020 00:44
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14. The Guest (2014) I thought this was... fine. Dan Stevens was suitably charming and creepy at the same time. I immediately recognized the son from Color out of Space because he looks basically identical. I wished there was a bit more depth to David. His change seemed pretty abrupt - maybe a bit more foreshadowing would have helped, some more small creepy things for him to do, etc. Lance Reddick gets even less depth which doesn’t make you care about his character very much. It was entertaining overall, probably B-/C+ in my book. The soundtrack was probably the most notable part.
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Oct 22, 2020 00:56
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Spatulater bro! posted:Fall of the House of Usher (1928) Need to be more specific... but since the American one is only 13 minutes, I guess I'll just have to watch them both. 33. Fall of the House of User (1928, Voustube)  Fran Challenge #12: OurorborosThis one, specifically - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvgvpbHGl-k - for the score, although the one that's only in French is visually cleaner, and I can at least read enough French to know that "le brave champion" does not translate to "the grave champion." And they kind of gently caress up the ending by translating "I have heard for a long time, since the first day." to "I have not heard." And there are typos. Maybe don't watch this one. The score is very good though. A pretty liberal adaptation of the Poe story, with a dash of "Ligeia," "Dorian Gray," and any story where the villagers are afraid of the castle thrown in for good measure. This does get off to a slow going. We start with the unnamed narrator attempting to get to the House, to the consternation of the local villagers. Once there, there's a lot of talking, without titles, as well as a lot of shots of the hall curtains blowing. Once Madeline dies, it picks up steam immensely, and there's a quartet of very powerful scenes: her death itself, the burial, the mysterious noises, and the titular event itself. 3.5/5 Lesson learned from this month's selections: It shouldn't even count as a horror movie if they don't burn down a building at the end of it. -. Fall of the House of Usher (1928, Y'alltube) This one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxjCWleWXf4 Incredibly powerful, surrealist adaptation that is much more faithful to the Poe story. Beautifully designed, and there's an excellent repetition of hammer imagery: The shadow of a clock hammer strikes down on Madeline during her death scene, a literal hammer repeatedly drives in her coffin nails, and a final blow from a metaphorical hammer is what brings down the House. Also, Madeline's return is Grade A Nightmare Fuel. 5/5
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Oct 22, 2020 01:18
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 Gau ji/Dumplings, 2004 Earlier this year, long before the marathon, I got my hands on some horror films for my collection. One was the Asian anthology movie Three Extremes from 2004. The first feature was the Hong Kong movie Dumplings. A morbid story a woman that sells dumplings with aborted fetuses that preserve youth and beauty. She is super old, but looks like she is 30 years old at most. This retired TV actress keeps seeking her up because she needs to feel young and pretty. It was a neat story for the anthology and I was wondering how'd they stretch this story into a feature length movie. Turns out they didn't. In fact they already made the movie, then edited it down for Three Extremes. Which explains how both the movie and the anthology came out the same year, and how both look the same with the same actors, sets and scenes. Getting back to the plot of the movie, there's more to it than "ew, they are eating fetuses". It is a slow movie taking its time with the horror, building up the disturbing aspects. I'm desensitized to the core, so none of this disturbed me, but I still enjoyed the story, characters and setting. It is not a horror movie you put on for instant spooks or whatever, but it is very much worth a watch if you want a slower morbid drama.
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Oct 22, 2020 02:15
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Franchescanado posted:Fran Challenge #10: Run This poo poo Into The Ground  137) Phantasm: Ravager - 2016 - Shudder When I saw the challenge my first thought was I figuratively shot myself in the rear end when I did a past movie challenge by just watching franchises. But checking my list of total films watched, apparently I've never done any Phantasms. The Phantasm films have always been kind of an odd duck with it's blend of dreams and reality. Ravager ups the ante with adding timelines into the dream/reality mix. I know some consider this the worst of the franchise, but I beg to differ. It's a perfect endnote to the surrealism of the series. We have our goodbye cameos, and an ending that works as a true end or a continuation on into a different format like novels or graphic novels. From my understanding, this is edited down from a three hour version. God help me, I wanna see that three hour version. I recommend this as part of a full on Phantasm marathon.
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Oct 22, 2020 02:15
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8. Tusk (2014) - DVR (Showtime) Hooptober Challenge: 4 Body Horror Films 1 of 4  "It'll be all right, Mr. Tusk." - Howard Howe Tusk, a.k.a "The movie where Justin Long gets turned into a walrus," came from an idea from Kevin Smith's podcast. I had avoided watching this when it came out due to negative reviews and poor reception around the internet. It was not nearly as bad as I was expecting, but still wasn't the greatest movie. Justin Long plays a douchey podcast host who mocks viral videos. After heading to Canada to interview his latest focus of mockery he runs into a dead end. Not to be thwarted he calls the phone number on a flyer he finds in the bathroom of a bar and ends up at the home of Howard Howe, who most certainly has ulterior motives. There is definitely some good here. Michael Parks is always worth a watch, and the walrus transformation and all its implications are certainly creepy. However, the good has to have a ripe underside, this being a Kevin Smith movie. Justin Long's podcast is called "The Not-See Party," and Johnny Depp is in the movie as "Guy LaPointe," a former police officer who is chasing Howard Howe and monologues about diarrhea. Ultimately there may be a decent movie buried in here but it could have used some trimming. 2/5 9. Body Melt (1993) - Amazon Prime Hooptober Challenge: 4 Body Horror Films 2 of 4    A drug company creates a new dietary supplement and decides to do some unlicensed human testing on the people of an Australian suburb. What should have been relatively harmless turns into wave of strange and fatal mutations due to a missing ingredient. After reading that the filmmakers intended this to be anthology makes sense, since most of the movie feels very episodic. Parts of it are fun, and the body horror and effects are pretty decent. The only thing I found distasteful was the random gruesome child death. As a side note, I've seen Body Melt and Street Trash mentioned together a lot but I feel like Street Trash has more actual melting. 3/5
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Oct 22, 2020 02:16
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 33) The Cremators (1972) Trailer Seen on: Tubi A sentient extraterrestrial fireball crashes into a lake hundreds of years ago. In the present day, a scientist unknowingly discovers fragments of the alien as they begin to wash up on the shore. When people and animals start messing with the fragments, the alien fireball comes rolling along to turn them into ashes. Can the small lakeside community be saved? The real question is "who cares"! Wow, the poster above is some serious B.S. See the large groups of people and national landmarks being set aflame? Welp, there's none of that here! After a solemnly narrated opening with the alien fireball becoming an Indian legend, the credits roll with a guy running around the beach with his cat to dramatic music, which really is about the right tone of this cinematic cheapie. The whole thing feels like it was shot as day for night, its padded to hell and back and there's a ton of ADR. There's only one alien fireball and a bunch of glowing rocks that move around on their own a bit, and anyone who touches them gets invisible :jordy verill voice: METEORSHIT on their hands that draws the alien to them. This also includes a very long autopsy of a cat (man this is a terrible October challenge for me this year with movies featuring cats dying and/or being autopsied - my second one in the last week alone!). There are interminable sequences of the alien fireball rolling around on the water chasing characters on boats, and its easily disposed of in the end. Meh.  34) Neon Maniacs (1986) Trailer Seen on: Tubi A group of teens in San Francisco are menaced by the titular group of diverse slasher creatures who live under the Golden Gate Bridge. The police won't believe them and its up to a young horror film fan to outwit the creatures before they are sliced and diced at their high school's Halloween battle of the bands. I distinctly remember being a preteen listening to the local top-40 hits radio station in late 86/early 87 one night when they played a radio ad for this movie announcing it was coming to video. It sounded creepy to me then, but after watching it now, I can firmly say it's just a really bizarre film. The Maniacs are like a makeup school's portfolio come to life (the first victim in the film finds slickly photographed headshots of them outside of their lair! I am not making this up!), and while some of them look pretty good - there's a pre-Wishmaster Andrew Divoff as one of the killers here - others are just some poo poo tossed onto the actor to make them look spoopy. They are also apparently of the same race as the aliens from Signs because water kills them, which is weird because they live in a storage facility under the Golden Gate Bridge and are thwarted more than once by passing drizzling rain, rain puddles and water guns! From some trivia I saw online, apparently the filmmakers ran out of money and shut down production for 3 months, which explains why it seems so scrapped together. I like the shorthand they use for the young horror film fangirl who figures out how to deal with the Maniacs - she wears the Alien Nostromo hat that you used to be able to order from Starlog Magazine and its sister publications in the early 80s, so you know she's got her poo poo together. The first setpiece where the Maniacs kill a bunch of horny teens and a chase through a subway train are pretty good, but the rest of the movie is slow-paced and it spends way too much time on random teen stuff. It's worth a watch if you like seeing a bunch of themed monsters but even then, it might not be worth it.  35) Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010) Trailer Seen on: Shudder Never Sleep Again is a four-hour documentary covering the entire Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, including interviews with series creator Wes Craven, New Line Cinema head Robert Shaye, and a ton of actors, writers, directors and FX people who have been involved with the series (most notably lacking Johnny Depp and Patricia Arquette, perhaps unsurprisingly) over the years. I few years ago, I watched the similar Crystal Lake Memories documentary that covered the Friday the 13th series for the October challenge, so I figured I'd give this one a go. It's a great documentary, considering they get nearly all of the most important people (Craven, Robert Englund and others) and include a ton of background info and behind-the-scenes art and footage that I'd never seen before (I had no idea David freaking Warner was going to originally be cast as Freddy, and they even have pictures of him in test makeup!). The conversations are pretty candid here too - creative and business clashes between Craven and Shaye are given a lot of detail, they touch on the controversy and themes of the second film (I didn't get around to watching Scream, Queen! yet), and talk about how the series became a cultural and marketing juggernaut after the third film onwards, which is sort of awkward when the character being marketed is a child-molesting killer. They even talk about Freddy's Nightmares a bit, which I remembered watching with friends as a kid during that weird late-80s period where syndicated horror television was actually pretty gruesome. It's a really well-produced doc and I learned a lot about the series and the films, and even though I haven't seen the entire franchise, I'd recommend it to just about anyone with a passing interest in it.
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Oct 22, 2020 02:27
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Fran Challenge #4: Scream, Queen! #59: 2011 Into The Lion's Den  I gotta start knocking out these Fran Challenges before I forget. So here it is, the first result for LGBT horror on Amazon. First off, there's two explicit rape scenes. One is rape and torture, the second is a woman raping a gay man. And that's basically it for the horror, and really the plot in total, so if you aren't game for that, the movie has nothing else for you. The first half just straight up isn't a horror movie, it's an incredibly boring and bad gay drama. Three gay guys, two have ~issues~. Guess what issues they're grappling with. Go on, guess, take a loving guess. Oh wow, you're right, one is HIV positive and the other is getting too old to party, how'd you guess? The third one is black so that's character complete. These three stumble into a seedy straights-only bar. Well, no they stumble into a perfectly nice if cheap bar. It's fine. The small town they're in is fine. There is nothing to hint that they're gonna be in some kind of Green Room situation, except for the fact that the characters keep saying, out loud, directly to the bartender and the townspeople, that they will. Like, I genuinely don't know if this was a failure in set design and acting, that it was supposed to be a seedy bar full of hostile straight people but they didn't have them filmmaking ability to pull it off, or if the characters are just supposed to be assholes. But then we get to the horror twist, that the bartender is a closeted gay man who along with his wife lures gay men to the bar through Grindr, drugs them, rapes them, roofies them, and then leaves them on the side of the road. This is where the explicit rape scenes come in, yay. The acting is across the board terrible. And to make it even worse, two of our three characters spend a good chunk of the movie drunk, so it's terrible drunk acting. Fantastic, great to watch. Not a single redeeming feature, utterly repellant, garbage filmmaking, obnoxious, godawful, the worst movie I've seen Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich. Stay the gently caress away from Into The Lion's Den. 59 Movies Watched: Dracula, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, King Kong, Son of Kong, The Bride of Frankenstein, Werewolf of London, Dracula's Daughter, Son of Frankenstein, The Mummy's Hand, Son of Ingagi 1, The Wolf Man, The Corpse Vanishes, The Ghost of Frankenstein, The Mummy's Tomb, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, Son of Dracula, The Mummy's Ghost, The House of Frankenstein, The Mummy's Curse, The House of Dracula, She-Wolf of London, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Godzilla, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Godzilla Raids Again, Five Short Films About Bigfoot2, Abbot and Costello Meet The Mummy, Horror of Dracula, Psycho, King Kong vs Godzilla, Blood Feast, Mothra vs Godzilla, The Creeping Terror, Ghidorah The Three-Headed Monster, Orgy of the Dead, Invasion of Astro-Monster, Ghidorah Horror of the Deep, Berserk!, Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters, Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, All Monsters Attack, Taste The Blood of Dracula, Godzilla vs Hedorah, Nosferatu5, Feardotcom3, Godzilla vs Gigan, Dracula AD 1972, Godzilla vs Megalon, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla, The UFO Incident, Terror of Mechagodzilla, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, King Kong, An American Werewolf in London 6, The Evil Dead*, Into The Lion's Den4* denotes rewatches Fran Challenges left: 7,8,9,10,11,12,13
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Oct 22, 2020 02:44
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 51. Ghostwatch (1992/United Kingdom) Fran Challenge #9 TerrorVision Famously Orson Welles panicked the United States with his docudrama radio production of The War of the Worlds. Following in that spirit, Ghostwatch is a film that presented itself very realistically as a light, frothy paranormal TV show to the British public, and "terrified" them in the process. This is technically a rewatch for me, but I'm not counting it as such as the last time I watched Ghostwatch was as a six-year-old during the original broadcast. I don't recall a great deal of detail from my original viewing. I do remember watching it with my three older siblings, aged 17, 16, and 9, and my parents. I recall it feeling like a special event at the time, presumably because it was built up by a media campaign. It really did feel like a programme that everyone in the country was watching, and not just because we only had four channels. I have a very clear image of my oldest brother taking every opportunity to debunk the paranormal angle of the show, before growing quieter once the real drama unfolded. I also remember the suggestion within the film that children should go to bed and not watch on, and my looking hurriedly at my parents, not wanting to miss out. My parents looked back at me as if to say "I can't be bothered moving, and even if I could, I don't want to miss out either." Six is probably a little young for this film, and looking back on my childhood, I had a somewhat serious issue with recurring nightmares. I also loved horror though, and once someone was silly enough to put a 6" b&w telly in my room, even going to bed wasn't an escape. I remember my first time watching Night of the Living Dead was on that tiny screen, wrapped in blankets so the flicker wouldn't show under my door. Before this review turns into my autobiography, let me get back to the point. I have a lot of nostalgia for Ghostwatch, but it's also fresh and new to me in an odd way. The plot follows a literal ghost-watch television special, in which cameras intrude upon a family's council house, and film the goings on, as the traumatised occupants attempt to explain their ghostly experiences. Growing up with these kinds of programmes, and even these very presenters, it felt remarkably realistic to me. There's even the faintly embarrassing moment in which the overly middle-class presenter attempts to be chummy with the nonplussed camera and sound crew, which felt very true to life. It does veer a little toward Alan Partridge at times though, especially in the in-studio segments. The tone, atmosphere, and plotting are very effective throughout, and by the finale I was absolutely hooked on the unfolding horror, and broader implications regarding the national séance. The film of course borrows liberally from The Exorcist, which is perhaps unavoidable given the subject matter, but is also quite welcome. The two Regan stand-ins do an excellent job of communicating creepiness and vulnerability. The overall effect is something like Quatermass via Koji Shiraishi and just as good as that sounds. 4.5/5 would get spooked again E: How did I forget to mention that the ghost turns someone trans!? I'm slipping. Total: 51 Queer Interest: 28 Scream Stream: 8 new, 6 rewatches Fran Challenges: 9 | Horror Noire | Short Cuts | Feardotcom | Scream, Queen! | Silent Scream | Tomb of the Blind Spots | Dearly Departed | When Animals Attack | TerrorVision | Countries Visited: 22 | USA | Hungary | Portugal | Vietnam | Georgia | Switzerland | Nigeria | United Kingdom | Lithuania | Germany | Finland | France | Spain | Japan | Monaco | Ireland | West Germany | Czechoslovakia | India | Canada | Estonia | Hong Kong | Australia | Debbie Does Dagon fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Oct 22, 2020 |
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Oct 22, 2020 02:54
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26) Threads (1984): Fran Challenge #9 TerrorVision Watched on Shudder  Oof. This starts off like a mix of Cloverfield and the Chernobyl series, and ends up more like a Ken Burns documentary on Pompeii with a dash of Children of Men. I was very engaged at the beginning as the narrative weaved the news reports of US vs. Russia in Iran into the background as we follow the more personal story of boy impregnates girl and subsequently decides to wed her. The awkward meeting of the couple’s parents and the search for an affordable flat contrast so well with the larger global build-up that is always looming within earshot. poo poo hits the fan at just the right time before the personal drama gets stale, and there’s so much poo poo flying into such a big fan that no one is left unsoiled. The whole thing goes pear-shaped so quickly that I was just left gawking. I mean the first hour is like Here are these two youngsters facing adversity while international tempers are flaring and then loving BOOM have some misery porn and stare at the screen with your jaw hanging agape at the tonal shift. We then come dangerously close to Riddley Walker territory by the end and if they ever make a Threads 2 it might as well be an adaptation of A Canticle for Leibowitz. I really enjoyed this. Maybe it’s perverse, but watching something so drat bleak made me feel a little better about 2020. At least our flesh isn’t sloughing off and we aren’t acquiring instantaneous cataracts, he said with two more months looming in the year. I doubt I will ever watch this again, but I came to it at the right time. It also led me to ask for recommendations of something similarly dire, which leads me to… 27) Punishment Park (1971): Fran Challenge #12 Ourorboros Watched on Youtube Recommended by Gripweed and seconded by MacheteZombie!  Oh deary me. I wasn’t as taken aback by the hopelessness here as I was by Threads, but 50 years after it was filmed this is much too resonant. It’s bleak to be sure, but whereas the bleakness of nuclear fallout and the relative improbability of that lent me some comfort, the timeliness of this one left me unsettled. We have an alternate history in which Nixon arrests draft dodgers, war critics, and civil dissenters, and then gives them the option of either federal prison sentences or three days in Punishment Park, an area of the California desert that reaches over 110 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and the low 60s at night. If these “convicts” can reach an American flag that’s 53 miles away (that’s two marathons) with no water or food, then their sentence is commuted. Oh also these hippies are being hunted by Army reserves and police-in-training two hours after being given a head start. The jump cuts between those currently enduring Punishment Park and the courtroom scenes of the group that will follow them keep things interesting. The politics of this film are not subtle, but the impassioned pleas of those on trial give a human face to the political views. This is 1970 in America: they had police brutality, anti-feminism, overt racism. Praise be that we’ve moved on from that. Throughout its swift runtime, I did continually ask myself whether I should consider this a horror movie. Horrific events are definitely occurring at intervals here, but its status as a pseudo-documentary kind of helps you keep your distance from everything. Then when we see the documentarian himself becoming so disturbed by what he’s seeing that he begins pleading with these officials who think they’re in the Most Dangerous Game, and the lead-up to the ending that is reminiscent of the end of Night of the Living Dead, in which those who have gone through hell to save themselves are rewarded with bullets to the head, I felt much more certain that this is horror. Thanks to SA posters Gripweed and MacheteZombie for giving me what I asked for. You have made me regret it. e: I meant that last part in the most grateful way possible. I love you goons. Anisocoria Feldman fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Oct 22, 2020 |
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Oct 22, 2020 02:55
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I forgot to do thread write-ups for a while, so I'm gonna spam some for a little bit. 1. Scary Movie 2. Scary Movie 2 3. From Beyond 4. Phantasm 5. Idle Hands 6. Maniac  So, the things I knew going into this. 1) The song 'Maniac' from Flashdance was not inspired by this movie. And 2) A guy's head gets blown off at point blank range. Also serial killer, but that was probably evident. So I wasn't exactly expecting a kind of document on the life of a severely ill and disturbed individual like Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. It's a very gross and grimy movie, even without the gruesome kills, being filmed and set in 70's New York and featuring a very unglamorous subject. And in between moments of humanity, you either get to see glimpses into his well past broken mind, or you get lengthy and drawn out sequences of him terrorizing and murdering innocent women. It's an upsetting but not uninteresting watch. Not exactly a film that calls for you to shout from the rooftops "This film has killed my soul and I shall never watch it again" ala Come and See and Requiem for a Dream, but one where you might conclude one watch was enough. In some ways it's sloppy, and in other ways it's absolutely captivating. It's not amature, it's not professional, and it's not workmanlike. It's filmmaking laser focused on it's end goal. They knew what they were making and put all their focus and effort on the thing that would sell the picture, and worked in enough around it to support those ideas. And perhaps accidentally, they made something immortal by being so specific to a time and place, and by being so universal with the subject and fears that work today. And of course, the starring role belongs to Tom Savini's absolutely over the top special effect work, especially the aforementioned head splosion scene. His work certainly did a lot to help keep this film going and give it the reputation it has today. 7. Ernest Scared Stupid  I was too young for Ernest. Most I know from him comes from a video podcast that some internet comedy persons whom I like did, Ernest Roulette. So I get it, this film isn't for me, and the time I would have enjoyed it has long past. But I will acknowledge that this film is an ambitious work that you can feel the effort and the art trying their damndest to elevate it. Especially from Jim Varney and Ertha Kitt. So in a way, I can't really poo poo on this movie, and I have to concede that everything everyone else loves about this movie is valid. Just unfortunately, it never hit me at the time in my life that it would have worked the best. 8. The Amityville Horror (1979)  Speaking of not hitting at the right time. The Amityville phenomenon just feels like something that is so specific to an era. And this movie being a hit feels like you had to be there, as it existed in a completely different realm of horror. And now a days, it's 2 hours long, it feels sluggish paced, and it feels so beholden to the actual events. It's not straight and professional enough to be classy, and not schlocky and horrific to be a fun horror film. It's not exactly recommendable, despite being part of the horror cannon. But in all honesty, it's fine. It's fine, it is fine. It's fine. ... but. And that 'but' just kills it for me. 9. Ghoulies II  Somehow Ghoulies 2 is a better movie that Amityville. It's a dumb Gremlins knockoff, with stereotyped characters and a paperthin plot. But it knows that, and they get some really fun character actors to go over the top in their roles. And the film certainly doesn't lack in mischief from three more than adequate puppets that borders on silly and spook-a-doodle. And plus, a carnival with a walkthrough haunted house is a great place to get up to some deadly and silly mischief. And the film certainly provides on the toilet shenanigans that the poster promises. 10. Frankenhooker  Hoo boy, a film about a guy murdering sex workers to combine them into the ultimate woman using Frankenstein-y methods. By all means, this should be a reprehensible, misogynistic, crass, and unfunny movie. And to say anything good about it should automatically discredit anything you have to say. A film only a Chud (politically) could love. ... but. I actually enjoyed this movie. It's super dumb, it's super schlocky, but it's stylistic, goofy, and it doesn't feel hateful. At worst ignorant, but I think it's heart is in the right place. And at the heart of this film is a real romance between the lead Dr. Frankenstein type guy and his wife who was killed in an accident at the start. And throughout the film, his devotion to his wife and reviving her is never undercut. And add to that an over-the-top cartooniness to the film, with John Water style upsettingly green lawn and picket fences being undercut with really cartoony body horror, and mixed in with a purple hued, scuzzy new york that is equally cartoonish. Though I will admit, the sex workers in this film are fairly one dimensional, they're owned by a pimp played by a latino actor, and a lot of characters in this film are fueled by addiction to crack. But it's also weirdly nuanced, where the film cuts to a sensationalistic conservative Talk Show where a pro-sex worker is being interrogated about her beliefs, and she brings up the point that criminalizing their work leads to at risk into abusive situations where they could end up on drugs. Which brings me back to my point that, outside of a few racist and sexist jokes, the film's heart is in the right place, but at worst may be misguided due to being a product of a more ignorant time. But it feels less like a creepazoid power fantasy, and more like a gonzo cartoon in the pages of an old Playboy. But yeah, to reiterate a third time, this is a film you expect to be the cinematic equivalent of your creepy uncles endless offensive jokes for an hour and a half. But instead it's like hearing about how your cooler, scuzzier uncle used to run a porno theatre in times square, and all the crazy stuff he had to deal with. And sometimes he reflects fondly on the "Tranny" he used to be roommates with for a few months. And sometimes he says the wrong thing, but he's willing to hear you out, and sometimes he tries to change, and sometimes he screws up. And sometimes they tell one of those really offensive jokes and don't quite get they shouldn't be said. But he's a good guy, with a good heart, and he's family and earned his right to be there. Anyways, Frankenhooker is surprisingly good. 11. Trick r' Treat  This one is a rewatch. But I come back to it because it's just a really good time. It's fearless in it's content, but it feels like it's crossing a line while also not really crossing a line. It manages to interconnect everything, and maintain a Tales From The Crypt style ironic tone to the whole feature. It feels like the ultimate anthology film, one that I honestly think may never be surpassed. This would be a terrible film to show to a kid, but would make an excellent first horror movie to a kid. 12. In The Mouth Of Madness  Man, Carpenter is a super legit dude. Not perfect, but completely solid. Sam Neill is perfectly cast in the lead role who has to play between confident everyman and deranged, hopeless victim with manic energy. It's a nice meeting point between Stephen King's destruction of a man, Lovecraft's looming Horror that's just out of sight, and Carpenter's low budget and high impact, paranoia horror. This is just a drat good time with more than a couple eldritch wrigglies making their way on screen. 13. Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning  This one is a rewatch. As I remember, this is distinctly in the middling F13 films, maybe boarding on the good parts of the franchise. It's got some fun stuff, it's kinda sloppy, some of the ideas it tries to execute are complete misfires, and some of the kills are fun and cool. It's almost everything you want out of a F13 film, minus 1 (one) Jason. 14. Jennifer's Body  This one, I'm really conflicted about. I don't want to poo poo on it because it means a lot to some people. And this film was poo poo on enough in it's time, it doesn't deserve to be a punching bag. And the film that they made is perfectly cromulent. But, Diablo Cody probably got a lot of leeway after Juno, and I think it hurt this film. From the really weird slang that feels less dated and more Alien (and I was 15 in 2009, I would have been able to tell). And the weird story structure that defies audience satisfaction to no real end. And on one hand, this film deals with a lot issues that we're still dealing with, from the weaponization of friendship and status to men's abuse of trusting women. But on the other, part of the film is dealing with female sexuality, with the two models being either chaste monogamy or promiscuous libido, and the latter is killing boys and ruining lives. Like to me, it feels a little slut shame-y and the film never really acknowledges it. It really feels like a 6/10 that could have been a lot better with either a co-writer or a second draft by someone else. 15. The Gate  Man, this film rocks. Really good special effects, spooky premise, exposition through metal records, body horror, and all in a package that's ostensibly kid friendly. Like, I kinda don't even want to talk about it, it's just my word that this film loving rules. 16. Thinner  Presented by Doritos. Man, this film loving sucks. Lead is boring as white bread, the story is based on racial stereotyping, no one is likeable, and it wastes a good body horror premise with personal drama. There's like one good horror segment in the film, and it's a dream sequence. There's one bit of actual violence in the film, and you don't even get to see the carnage except in a very languid scene. At some point, the guy who plays Fat Tony shows up and guns up a bunch of people. This film just sucks and should be skipped. 17. Class of Nuke 'Em High  Okay, back to a film that rocks. This is a tasteless movie, and only occasionally offensive. Like the one guy in brownface with a bone and a nose ring, which is unfortunate. But it's so over the top, that it goes beyond parody and satire into pure fantasy. Any right minded person who watches this movie can't take anything it says seriously because it doesn't even take itself seriously. Ostensibly a parody/riff of Dangerous High School movies like Class of 1984, but in the shadow of nuclear reactor towers. And that results in Dr Jeckyll/Mr Hyde style transformations, several foot long boners, super rapid pregnancies, and a stillbirth that develop into man-sized monsters with intent to kill. And that's on top of the Honor Roll-turned-Junk Slinging Wastoids who seek to sell Atomic (literally) joints and terrorize the school. This is a production that feels like a wild party where no idea was too ridiculous to do, and is ready to sit right there with you to laugh at it. It's loving Troma, and it's loving great. 18. The Addams Family (1991)  This film is just fun. It's a very thin premise, stretched to 100 minutes. But it works due to its commitment to the bit, and absolute inventiveness in finding new avenues to explore. Not to mention the pitch perfect cast, excellent production design, excellent special effects that, even if they aren't always great, just work. Plus, for a family movie, this film is horny as hell in a way that I approve of. Plus, despite being nearly 30 years old, it manages to stay timeless by avoiding almost anything contemporary, aside from some super 80's hip hop that's mixed throughout the film. Excellent film, all the stars, still holds up, yadda yadda yadda. --- And with that, even discounting rewatches, I have already beat my modest goal. Now I wanna see if I can manage to breach over 30 before the end of the month.
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Oct 22, 2020 03:20
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Franchescanado posted:Fran Challenge #6: Tomb of the Blind Spots 15. Carrie (1976)  I totally see why this movie is regarded as a classic even if it’s lost a bit of its sting by being copied a million times. The depiction of bullying was very effective, including the gamut of not-fully-formed high school consciences from Boy I Feel Bad About That to I’m An Absolute Psychopath With No Sense Of Proportion. The cinematography was top notch. I loved all the aggressive split focus shots and the dancing scene that makes you as dizzy and lightheaded as Carrie felt. Building up to The Bucket like it was an atomic bomb about to go off was amusing, but this is hardly a subtle movie. The jarring music queues felt close to parody at times. It’s hard to escape knowing a lot of this movie from cultural osmosis, and the rampage scene wasn’t quite as shocking 44 years later. A fire hose spraying people just isn’t the most threatening looking thing in the world. I’m tempted to look up that scene in the remakes - I’m sure the rest of the movies are way worse, but it feels like the one area where upping the ante to more modern standards might help it. Also lol to “gosh mom it’s just psychic powers, lots of people have them!” The 70s were wild I’m very happy to finally be able to cross this one off my list. david_a fucked around with this message at 03:46 on Oct 22, 2020 |
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Oct 22, 2020 03:43
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 Fran Challenge #10: Run This poo poo Into The Ground#24 Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein Charles Barton, 1948 DVD (Netflix)  It's an oddly-titled movie. Aside from the fact that the duo never meet Frankenstein himself but rather Frankenstein's monster (which is me being a pedantic nerd), the monster plays a much smaller part in this than Dracula and the Wolf Man. "Abbott and Costello Meet Dracula" would have been a much more apt title. But that's neither here nor there. Seeing the legendary Universal monsters running around together is the point, and it's a lot of fun. I like how everyone plays it straight besides Abbott and Costello. Seeing Bela Lugosi ham it up as Dracula will never get old. NEVER. I confess I'm a jaded comedy wet blanket. Broad humor doesn't make me laugh. Give me Tim and Eric over The Big Bang Theory any loving day of the week. So how does Abbott and Costello's humor fare to this humorless cynic? Not great. I laughed, I think, twice. But my attitude towards this old school comedy isn't saddled with pessimism the way it would be if I were watching something like Two Broke Girls or some other awful poo poo. I enjoy Abbott and Costello, even if I'm not rolling on the floor. Same with The Three Stooges, The Marx Brothers or Charlie Chaplin (Buster Keaton is a different story - that dude legit cracks me the hell up). I smiled a lot, and I had a good time. Greatest horror comedy of all time? Nope. But a fun movie. 3/5 Fran Challenges (7/13): Films watched: 1. Halloween II (2009), 2. The Tomb of Ligeia (1964), 3. Eyeball (1975), 4. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), 5. House of 1000 Corpses (2003), 6. Climax (2018), 7. Lifeforce (1985), 8. The Devil’s Rejects (2005), 9. Short Films, 10. Ginger Snaps (2000), 11. The Legend of Hell House (1973), 12. House on Haunted Hill (1959), 13. Us (2019), 14. The Lighthouse (2019), 15. Torso (1973), 16. Child’s Play 2 (1990), 17. The Masque of the Red Death (1964), 18. The Skin I Live In (2011), 19. Dante’s Inferno (1911), 20. 3 From Hell (2019), 21. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), 22. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), 23. Deadbeat at Dawn (1988), 24. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
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Oct 22, 2020 03:52
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 19. Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993) dir. Brian Yuzna FRAN CHALLENGE #10: Run This poo poo into the Ground!This movie's cover is burned into my brain. It's one of those movies that lived in the video store. I remember fearing it was going to be too sexy to rent as a kid. I've also never been as hot on the Return films in general. The movie itself is a bit of a sandwich of quality. It begins and ends with a lab that is trying to turn zombies into weird undead cyborg killing machines. There is some great imagery and body horror. The bulk of the movie however revolves around the son of the one of the military brass whose girlfriend dies during a poorly planned motorcycle handjob. She is revived and slowly turns into zombies. They cross some Latino folks who end up chasing them for most of the movie and find a borderline magical negro. I do not care for this part of the film at all. It definitely has some underpinnings of watching these violent minorities get what's coming to them. Mindy Clarke does play a good dirtbag hot girl. Something that obviously doesn't get on screen a lot, but is a bit of a tradition in this franchise. She honestly becomes much more boring as a zombie. I'm finishing up Santa Clarita Diet which plays with a similar concept in a much more fun way. Clarke is clearly up for being goofy and sexy with this, and the script just fails her. She just becomes a sad sack before going feral. I cannot hate the movie though. The lab scenes just elevate it to make it absolutely worth watching. /5
Timeless Appeal fucked around with this message at 05:15 on Oct 22, 2020 |
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Oct 22, 2020 04:11
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 Blood and Black Lace (1964) (first time watch, DVD I can see how this is a classic giallo. I'm just...not the biggest fan of classic giallo. You have the gorgeous, prismatic, hyperstylized sets and every shot just leaps out at you. The dubbed dialogue, overdramatic acting, and fake-looking effects create a dreamlike surreality that makes violence somehow less traumatizing and more beautiful. But the violence and its themes is just so gross. Woman-focussed, the camera drinking in the pleasure of seeing beauty destroyed and dominated by a shadowy male-presenting figure just makes me feel unclean and skeevy. The plot is threadbare but coherent, and the film just sings through its style. But that style can only do so much for the ugliness at its heart that makes me a bit nauseous. 3/5 1. Eyes Without a Face 2. Come and See 3. Cat People 4. Repulsion 5. Sisters 6. Inland Empire 7. Butterfly Kisses 8. Cube 9. The Velocipastor 10. One Cut of the Dead 11. The Ruins 12. Seance 13. The People Under the Stairs 14. From Beyond 15. Starfish 16. Seconds 17. Candyman 18. Tales from the Hood 19. Crash 20. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
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Oct 22, 2020 04:18
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Fran Challenge #12: Ourorboros Debbie Does Dagon posted:Have you seen either Man Bites Dog or Splatter Farm? #52) Splatter Farm (1987)  What a fun little movie. The acting was horrible but genuine. The plot was silly but endearing. The camera and effects work was surprisingly good consider the zero budget. If you've got a little over an hour to kill and want to watch something gross and gory without hating life afterward, this is a wonderful choice. 4 / 5 Fran Challenge #13: It's The Time of the Season for Spook-a-Doodles #53) Black Christmas (2019)  Gah, this is a tough review to write. I wanted to like this movie so bad. I wanted to believe that all the bad reviews were based on trying to live up to the Black Christmas name, and that it'd be fine if I watched it on its own merits. Unfortunately, that's not at all the case. This could have been a pretty bog standard house slasher with a fun little twist. But, it ended up having a pretty hamfisted message with some pretty cringey writing and mediocre acting. Now, I want to emphasize it's the dialogue and writing I'm talking aboutbeing bad here, not any commentary on society. As a cis male, I have no authority to talk about the plausability of a plot surrounding ... Well, evil men's rights activists and the sexual abuse inherent in the college fraternity system. I'm not here to invalidate anyone's experiences. But nothing felt like it was trying to serve the purpose of overcoming or empowering, it was just so... Bland. The bad was so cartoonishly evil that it came off more as satire than commentary. The whole thing just felt like a mess, trying to be something much deeper than it was and completely missing the mark as a compelling movie. 2 / 5 AND WITH THAT. My challenge is done. My goal was to hit 100 movies between Sep 1 and Oct 31, and Black Christmas makes #103 (53 is just since this thread started). I would have stopped earlier but I wanted to hit all of the Fran Challenges as well, which I've done! I'll still watch movies write reviews and post in the thread, but I think it's time for a break for a couple days  And tomorrow is my tarman/juicy zombie tattoo!Final figures: Total: 53 1. Don't Look Under the Bed (1999) / 2. Mom and Dad (2017) / 3. Daughters of Darkness (1971) / 4. Snuff (1975) / 5. Southbound (2015) / 6. The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974) / 7. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) / 8. Last House on the Left (1972) / 9. The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001) / 10. Poltergeist (1982) / 11. Dead of Night (1974) / 12. The Shining (1980) / 13. Ganja & Hess (1973) / 14. Over Your Dead Body (2014) / 15. Phantasm (1979) / 16. Idle Hands (1999) / 17. Hocus Pocus (1993) / 18. The Amityville Horror (1979) / 19. Ghoulies II (1987) / 20. WNUF Halloween Special (2013) / 21. Verotika (2019) / 22. Scare Me (2020) / 23. August Underground's Penance (2007) / 24. S&Man (2006) / 25. Misc. Shorts / 26. Hubie Halloween (2020) / 27. Deranged (1974) / 28. Pumpkins (2018) / 29. The Masque of the Red Death (1964) / 30. Alleluia (2014) / 31. The Lair of the White Worm (1988) / 32. The Beyond (1981) / 33. Deadly Friend (1986) / 34. Vampires vs. The Bronx (2020) / 35. Books of Blood (2020) / 36. Return of the Living Dead (1985) / 37. Megan is Missing (2011) / 38. Chainsaw Sally (2004) / 39. Thelma (2017) / 40. Häxan (1922) / 41. Fright Night (1985) / 42. From Beyond (1986) / 43. The Fly (1986) / 44. Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) / 45. The Corpse Grinders (1972) / 46. Thinner (1996) / 47. Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986) / 48. Pet Sematary (2019) / 49. Man Bites Dog (1992) / 50. TerrorVision (1986) / 51. Child's Play 3 (1991) / 52. Splatter Farm (1987) / 53. Black Christmas (2019) Fran Challenges Done: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
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Oct 22, 2020 04:43
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34. The Invisible Man Returns (1940) Vincent Price takes over the role and injects pathos into the role. Whereas Rains' Jack Griffin is pretty much insane from the start of the first film, Price's Geoffrey Radcliffe takes the serum so that he can use the invisibility to clear himself of murder, knowing that it will eventually drive him mad. It makes it a very different film from the first. Rather than a hunt for the Invisible Man, a sizable portion of the supporting cast here is sympathetic to Radcliffe while also aware that he's increasingly psychotic. 5/5 35. The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944) Fran Challenge #10: Run This poo poo Into The GroundWell, it's either the third or the fifth, depending on how we want to count. I may go back and watch Invisible Woman and Invisible Agent for the sake of completion, even if they're not horror movies. Robert Griffin did nothing wrong. This one seems to get quite beat up in reviews, but I quite enjoyed it. That said, there are a lot of inconsistencies that could very well drag my opinion down with some retrospection. Robert Griffin is introduced as an escaped mental patient, but he escapes to confront the couple that tried to murder him on an African expedition that made them quite wealthy. They somewhat deny this, but then try to murder him for money again, so it seems like he's pretty well justified in his actions here. He does become more maniacal as the film goes on, but there's another plot hole there - this isn't necessarily the serum from the first two, and the psychosis effect does not hit the serum's other recipient, who remains a very good boy throughout the film. The film wraps with a "he was always a bastard; rest in hell" coda, but it seems to me that, if it were not for the initial newspaper shot declaring him insane, he's in the right for the first half of the film. There is a lot more comedy here than in the first two, and it's hit or miss. On the plus side, the effects work is incredibly refined. 4/5
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Oct 22, 2020 04:43
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Franchescanado posted:Fran Challenge #11: Öskur heyrðust um allan heim  138) Impetigore - 2019 - Shudder Since I sat through Satan's Slaves, I figured I'd give this a go. Since it's folk horror, that's just another plus to me. That it's non-Celtic folk horror's even better since I'm really curious about other cultures' folk horror. This one starts with Maya getting the ominous statement made to her of "We don't want what your family left behind." Her friend, Dini talks her into going back to her home village to claim whatever that's her's there. Instead of the usual haunted house or artifact, this time it's a curse. This was really good. I was pulled in with each reveal as Maya learns more about the curse and tries to find a way to break it. The ending had me wrecked with the angle it took. Highly recommend this one.
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Oct 22, 2020 04:48
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NUMBER 1 FULCI FAN posted:AND WITH THAT. My challenge is done. My goal was to hit 100 movies between Sep 1 and Oct 31, and Black Christmas makes #103 (53 is just since this thread started). I would have stopped earlier but I wanted to hit all of the Fran Challenges as well, which I've done! I'll still watch movies write reviews and post in the thread, but I think it's time for a break for a couple days  I can't wait to see it!
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Oct 22, 2020 04:58
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 #115) Cemetery High (1989) Starting off with a Castle-esque advisory about audio-visual signals that will be used to warn viewers of scenes containing violence or nudity, this low-budget flick from Gorman Bechard (Psychos in Love, Galactic Gigolo) is about a gang of girl friends who go around killing off scumball dudes. That's pretty much the whole movie, yeah. Allegedly, this was originally titled Assault of the Killer Bimbos, a title much more in line with the rest of Bechard's filmography (and this film's contents), but that name got shuffled off to a different Empire Pictures release. Thanks, C. Band. This could really use a Vinegar Syndrome restoration, as the copy I watched on Tubi had some weird sound issues which required me to mess around with my speaker settings to get vocals centered, instead of panned to the left. Like PiL (which gets a shout-out in a scene set in the same video store visited in that movie) and GG, Debi Thibeault (Bechard's fiance) and Carmine Capobianco (his co-writer) have roles, though Capobianco's is smaller than in either of those others. The sense of humor is intact, but the gags aren't as developed, and it wanders even more than those others. Thankfully, there's enough reflection on the media attention the killers are receiving to pump up the goofy social relevance, with headlines like "MEN SCARED SHITLESS". Some groovy dirt-synth grooves add some fun to the proceedings, and a fake commercial interlude is worth a smile, but... it's showing the seams. Still, it's Bechard, so it tweaks my dials in a way that few directors can, and I appreciate his work for that. “I really don't know how I'll ever repay you.” “Well, there is one way.” “What's that? Tell me. I mean, you're so kind, I'll do anything.” “Anything?” “Anything.” “Anything at all?” “Anything at all. Anything at all that you want.” “Anything at all that I want, and you'll do it right now?” “Anything at all that you want, and I'll do it right now.” Rating: 5/10Watched on Tubi. Darthemed fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Oct 22, 2020 |
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Oct 22, 2020 05:11
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 20. Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (2002) dir. Guy Maddin FRAN CHALLENGE #5: Silent ScreamThis is fantastic, and I would say a must-watch for Dracula fans. I have rarely been hot on attempts at modern Silent Films as they rarely feel like true silent films. This in many ways does not. It plays with color in interesting ways. I'm also not usually a fan of recorded performances. It always feels like a pale imitation for the real thing. This is such a great pairing. At its heart, it's a ballet. Old silent films have a lot of trappings of the theater, and the translation of ballet to silent movie has the effect that you get something that feels much more true to the feel of a real silent movie than modern film actors trying to impersonate the actors of the time. The silent film presentation gives an added framing to the performance. It is not simply a ballet, but plays with the medium to enhance the performance. As far as an adaptation of Dracula, it digs deeply into the gender politics of the original text as well as the inherent fears of Dracula as a seductive foreigner. Women's sexuality is presented as both monstrous and desirable of men. Zhang Wei-Qiang is a dashing and frightening Count, and it's good to see a person of color take on the role. Interestingly, I feel like how he carries himself is how I would imagine Peter Cushing play the role. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, once again, it's a ballet. But it's funny, sexy, and has really striking imagery. As someone who misses going to the theater, this was a treat. It's on Tubi which doesn't serve it well, but if you want to give it a chance. /5
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Oct 22, 2020 05:14
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I put off a lot of the really good movies I'd had picked out for this year, and now I'm scrambling to get all the challenges done. Why did I waste so much time in random Netflix garbage? 25: Exorcist 3 Challenge 10: run this poo poo into the ground Glad I didn't use this one for the blind spot challenge like I'd planned. Really good stuff here. George C Scott is of course excellent, Douriff is great with what he's given, and it's really cool that they got Jason Miller back for the bits they did. As others have mentioned it's also hilarious (that goddamned carp!) and that flows into more horror based last 2/3s nicely. I'd always thought this was a bit more standalone and was pleasantly surprised at how much it tied into the original. Very glad to check this one off the list.
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Oct 22, 2020 05:38
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#15) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) - Fran Challenge #6: Tomb of the Blind Spots A strange plant has made it's way to Earth, suddenly lots of people don't seem to be who they say they are. I was obviously aware of this movie and a lot of the narratives around it, but hadn'te ver watched it myself. And while I do think some of the impact is lost by knowing so much beforehand, it still holds up really well. One thing that was kinda unexpected was how quickly things start happening. Everything escalates a lot quicker than I had expected. And there's a real sense of dread over everything, the situation does feel hopeless. And the final scene is still quite striking. Overall a good movie. 4 / 5 Total: 15 1. In a Stranger's House / 2. The Loved Ones / 3. Scare Me / 4. Scare Me / 5. Egg / 6. Alien Abduction: Incident In Lake County / 7. i'm thinking of ending things / 8. The Clovehitch Killer / 9. Ganja and Hess / 10. Trilogy of Terror / 11. Short films / 12. Feardotcom / 13. Frankenstein '80 / 14. Boar / 15. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
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Oct 22, 2020 06:17
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10. The Mortuary Collection (Shudder) Clancy Brown plays a frustrated crypt keeper-esque teller of tales in this whimsical and surprisingly gory anthology. Brown is on fire, chewing the hell out of the scenery in every scene he's in. The stories themselves are fairly solid. Like all anthologies there are hits and misses. The soundtrack slaps and the movie has the look of like...adult Goosebumps or something. Very pretty. It does a great job of hitting that Creepshow balance of horror, comedy, and gore. Also holy loving poo poo at the babysitter segment. List: 10 of 31 1. The Blair Witch Project 2. Z 3. The Invisible Man (2020) 4. Patrick (1972) 5. House of 1,000 Corpses 6. Attack The Block 7. Child's Play (2019) 8. Scare Me 9. The Girl In The Photographs 10. The Mortuary Collection Untrustable fucked around with this message at 07:24 on Oct 22, 2020 |
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Oct 22, 2020 07:06
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Fran Challenge #4: Scream, Queen! 25. Splatter Farm (1987) I added Splatter Farm to my watchlist after it was mentioned during the Return of the Living Dead 3 stream for the horror director marathon following my lament that I had missed the zombie penis in the last act (I also missed it during the Scream Stream a little later!). This film is a juvenile gorefest that seemed to have been made using a Rolodex of depraved taboos. It feels like the personification of a man in a trenchcoat beckoning me to him. He opens his trenchcoat and whispers, “Psst, little girl, you wanna see some necrophilia? How about some scat? A little dynamite in the cooter, miss? ” And I do want to see. I want to see it very much. The film looks like a student film. You rarely see the three main characters in the same shot, most likely because one of them had to hold the camera. The effects are crude but charming and abounding in goopy goodness. The acting is entertainingly bad. I cannot say whether the plot was good or not, as I was too busy cackling inanely to follow along. I even somehow missed the promised penis. It seems that I am cursed to never gaze upon a Halloweenie. A terrible existence. Fran Challenge #9: TerrorVision  This was my face throughout the film 26. Threads (1984) "I want to watch the film that traumatized a generation," I said hubristically a little over two hours ago. As I write this, I've unclenched my jaw and unfurrowed my brows for the first time for what feels like an eternity. I am physically and emotionally drained, shell-shocked by the unrelenting bleakness that is Threads. This was a different kind of horror. It was scarily realistic, and the current state of affairs made it all the more affecting. It started calmly enough: just regular domestic scenes, all featuring the sound of the news in the background. Just ordinary, happy people going about their lives, ignoring the escalating horror (this describes both the people in the film and me). And then it hits. The endless stream of misery. I watched the film on TubiTv, which has in-built commercial breaks. This may have been the only time in the world's history when ads were a welcome addition to a viewing experience. Firstly, it provided a similar experience to that of the people watching this when it first aired. Secondly, it provided a much-needed respite from the crushing darkness of the film. Whenever an ad would start, I would literally gasp for a breath I wasn't aware I was holding in. As the film went on, I cherished my brief moments with Miss Vickie's chips, my salty, oblong angel. I cannot say that I "enjoyed" Threads in the usual sense of the word. It was, however, extremely effective in what it set out to do. I am left with the hope that I am obliterated by (rather than survive) the initial blast of a nuclear bomb and the staggering awareness of how fragile our current comforts are. Bravo. Yesterdays Piss fucked around with this message at 15:27 on Oct 22, 2020 |
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Oct 22, 2020 07:15
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 15. Vampires (1998) This one was more of a dud than I remembered. The story focuses too much on what a badass James Woods is, the only female character is helpless luggage, and the sidekick is sucked dry of any potential interest thanks to being played by some kind of Baldwin-shaped charisma pit. The lead vampire is also disappointingly generic. It would have been so easy to add a few tweaks to make this a movie about a couple of reckless adrenaline junkies who need to regain a sense of empathy and purpose, but instead the story focuses on toughening up a new member and flailing at an inept romance arc that was clearly just motivated by a vampire bite. Somehow the end of the movie does not give a poo poo about that part and treats that lesser Baldwin and the hooker he recently smacked around as an actual relationship. As if none of that is bad enough, this doesn’t even work that well on an action/horror level. The beginning builds some interest but things get boring in the middle and there’s never much sense of real danger. James Woods has a crossbow fishing habit that would have been cooler as a one-off trick, and both the vampires and the objects in the movie are only ever as strong or weak as they need to be for dramatic effect.  16. Scarecrows (1988) A group of mercenary types steal a bunch of money, hijack a plane, and then hunt the guy that double crosses them through a farm infested with haunted scarecrows. This movie is loving ridiculous. The guy that tries to make off with the money seems to have no real getaway plan and would have been screwed even apart from that whole murdered by scarecrows thing. The bad guy banter is painful, and so is that scene where the lady merc and kidnapped teen bond over makeup. There are a lot of bad, dumb elements here. So it was kind of surprising how fun this manages to be despite its flaws. Some of the kills are pretty entertaining, and there are also some good gags. The movie doesn’t waste a lot of time on explaining the scarecrows either. One of the biggest things that makes this work is that it’s got just the right level of meanness; there are some genuinely dark moments but it never turns into a total grim-fest. 1. Trick ‘r Treat (2007) 2. Threads(1984) 3. The Changeling (1980) 4. Theatre of Blood (1973) 5. The Devil’s Rain (1975) 6. House of the Devil (2009) 7. One Dark Night (1983) 8. Strange Behavior (1981) 9. Challenge #1: Black Box (2020) 9.5. Challenge 2: short films 10. Les Diaboliques (1955) 11. Leviathan (1989) 12. Madman (1981) 13. Biozombie (1998) 14. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
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Oct 22, 2020 07:19
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#26: Castle FreakFran Challenge #7: Dearly Departed I'd already watched one film this October by the dearly beloved Stuart Gordon, but I don't think this challenge was up yet, or if it was I wasn't aware of it. Castle Freak revolves around an estranged married couple and their blind teenage daughter, who inherit a castle in Italy after the death of a distant relation. However, there's someone else living there, a poor tortured man who's been kept in a dank dungeon for decades, and the arrival of new guests prompts him to painfully break free of his chains and start doing some unpleasant things. As others have pointed out, this is one of Gordon's grimmer efforts. Lacking the humor of the Re-Animator series, it's a fairly straightforward take on a theme of past traumas and abuses coming to the surface. The family itself is hardly normal, the father is a recovering alcoholic who was in a car accident that took the life of their son and blinded their daughter, and this trauma dovetails with the dark secret of the man in the dungeon. There's a lot of gore and some genuinely unpleasant moments of sexual violence, which complicates our feelings towards the title character- he's pretty savage, never having known anything more than torture and deprivation and meting it out in kind. There are moments that feel gratuitous, but to Gordon's credit it doesn't feel just like it's all pure exploitation for exploitation's sake- there's a story here. Jeffrey Combs is the father, and it's good to see him in what's at first a pretty "normal" role, though it becomes clear as the story unfolds that he's kind of a wreck and not always sympathetic. Similarly, Barbara Crampton as his wife gets to play a more mature and complex role than she's gotten in the past. On the downside, the plot has its odd wrinkles here and there, the daughter starts out looking like she's going to be a more important character than she is, and I don't think the filmmakers were fully able to make use of the setting. The castle's supposed to be a massive and labyrinthine thing, easy for the "monster" to hide in after his escape, but what we see of it doesn't really convey that. Apparently it was partly filmed in Charles Band's mansion and that may have limited them some. Overall it's an effective film, and shows that Gordon was capable of more than just good-natured Grand Guignol. Maybe not all it could have been but still interesting. Maxwell Lord fucked around with this message at 09:07 on Oct 22, 2020 |
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Oct 22, 2020 08:53
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11. Grave Encounters (Prime Video) This, for me, is an all time classic. When I first saw it in 2011 I thought it was terrifying. I still think it's scary. Starting this movie feels like sinking into a warm chair with a nice drink. Being a former fan of Ghost Adventures and other reality ghost hunting shows this movie absolutely skewers the genre. I'd put it in my top 5 favorite found footage movies. It's just so good. It's unashamed in its ridiculousness and plays every scare earnestly and proudly. I just dig this movie. I was going to buy the Blu-ray, but I guess it didn't get a very big release and I want something a bit beefier than a barebones release. If you are unaware of Grave Encounters, seek it out. You will love it or hate it. I love it immensely. 6/5 List: 11 of 31 1. The Blair Witch Project 2. Z 3. The Invisible Man (2020) 4. Patrick (1972) 5. House of 1,000 Corpses 6. Attack The Block 7. Child's Play (2019) 8. Scare Me 9. The Girl In The Photographs 10. The Mortuary Collection 11. Grave Encounters
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Oct 22, 2020 09:39
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Someone drop me a wild card for the Ourorboros challenge. Preferably something available on Netflix/Prime/Hulu/Shudder/Criterion.
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Oct 22, 2020 09:42
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Maxwell Lord posted:Someone drop me a wild card for the Ourorboros challenge. Preferably something available on Netflix/Prime/Hulu/Shudder/Criterion. On Netflix, Girls with Balls. I'm sitting through it now.
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Oct 22, 2020 10:30
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Fran Challenge #9: TerrorVision Watch a made-for-TV movie Duel (1971)  Spielberg's directorial debut. This one's been on my radar for a while and I didn't realise it was originally made for TV, so now seemed the perfect time to see it. A man named David overtakes a truck and inadvertently starts a vendetta. Such a simple premise. Who is this truck driver? What's his deal? Dennis Weaver gives a great performance as a meek, unassertive man who finds himself the target of a psychopath. The threat builds up as David realises the driver isn't just a jerk, he's out to kill him. The tension in the cafe when David knows one of the men in the room is the truck driver is unbearable. It becomes a cat and mouse chase between David and this man we never see. The vehicles themselves are characters and the truck has to be the most intimidating vehicle I've seen in a movie. This was thrilling. Great stuff. Fran Challenge #10: Run This poo poo Into The Ground Watch the 3rd+ entry to a franchise Hellraiser 3 (1992)  The first hour is good. Then it gets silly. But it's enjoyably silly. Pinhead is now front and centre as the baddy, and that's less interesting to me than in previous films where the villains were human and the cenobites took a back seat. Pinhead really shouldn't be seen in broad daylight, even if it is a dream sequence. It's not as good as the first two, but it's still enjoyable. I've heard later sequels get really bad. Watchlist: Tenebrae; Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; Body Melt; In Search of Darkness; The Monster Club; Twilight; The Beyond; Scream Blacula Scream FC#1; Raw; The Invisible Man (2020); Hotel Transylvania; a bunch of shorts FC#2; Sharknado; Vampires vs. the Bronx; Dave Made a Maze; Gamera the Giant Monster; The Driller Killer; La Llarona; Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street FC#4; Pulse (2001) FC#3; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) FC#5; Hostel FC#6; The Phantom of the Opera (2004) FC#7; Piranha (1978) FC#8; The Descent; Duel FC#9; Hellraiser 3 FC#10 (total: 26ish)
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Oct 22, 2020 11:47
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Spook-a-Doodle Double Feature #31: As Seen On TV If I gotta watch a TV Movie I might as well make it one of Wes Craven’s. And I need something to match with it so… what goes better with a TV movie than a movie based on TV? I mean… those things never suck terribly, right? Right? 53 (61). Fantasy Island (2020) Written and directed by Jeff Wadlow, cowritten by Chris Roach and Jillian Jacobs, Based on Fantasy Island by Gene Levitt. Watched on Starz. Hooptober Se7en: 2/2 films from this year Imagine an island where all your fantasies, no matter how impossible come true. Where your life’s regrets can be erased and you can get second chances. But it twists them and turns them into nightmares. Or really just starts that way without any kind of build up. And like even if you don’t really want it and actively reject it and learn the proper lesson that you can’t escape in fantasy or have a do over you’re still stuck in it because you signed a contract or something. Also Michael Pena seems kind of pissed off at you for some reason but he’s not telling you why. Also your dad might be kind of a selfish dick? And there’s evil doppelgangers? Also there’s zombies? Also characters have like no buildup or development at all before all this starts. Also have you seen Lost? Also there’s a slasher monster because the island is apparently like Alexa and can’t interpret figures of speech and stuff. Michael Rooker and Kim Coates show up to just like dump some exposition that doesn’t actually matter to the plot? Is there a plot? Did you see The Usual Suspects? And what’s the black goo? And super weird tonal shifts from boner humor to melodrama to horror to action? Also ha ha they said the line from the tv show twice. And wait, who’s the bad guy and why? Really? Even the movie thinks that’s dumb? Also its all a secret prequel! TWIST! Wait, what the hell is this movie? Oh yeah. Bad. One plumbing emergency later… 54 (62). Stranger in Our House aka Summer of Fear (1978) Directed by Wes Craven, Written by Glenn M. Benest and Max A. Keller, Based on Summer of Fear by Lois Duncan. Watched on Prime, available on Hoopla and Tubi. Fran Challenge #9: TerrorVision I get a kick out of that fact that The Exorcist gave Linda Blair JUST enough power in the business that she used in the very specific act of always getting to do movies with horses. I don’t know if that was the best use of influence but more power to you. This is mostly your standard melodramatic Lifetime TV movie, but with witches. And witches in a pretty banal sense in that TV movie way. And lots of implied incest. That part’s weird. Wes Craven directs but its pretty well before he’s “Wes Craven” and he probably didn’t have a ton of influence over this piece. Someone made a point to hire a horror director and Linda Blair and in the final act they ramp up the spooky a bit for a satisfying little conclusion. The journey to get there is… cozy? Its not a mad watch and its only 90 minutes but its a whole lot of teen girls being teen girls with a touch of poo poo luck and suspected witchery. And the incest. I do kinda wonder why a powerful, beautiful witch would devote all her interest in seducing Linda Blair’s dad and boyfriend. I mean, the boyfriend seems attractive and I guess they seem pretty well off. But that’s probably the main flaw of the piece. Julia’s not terrible well defined until she goes full witch. Its a whole lot of Linda Blair and I like her but she’s not even really sleuthing fo awhile. She’s just real mad at some poo poo turn of events. Its real convenient dad forgot all about trying to bang his niece and kill his daughter. You can do worse for a lazy afternoon watch. But you can do better. I’m glad I watched it because I’m a Craven fan so it fills one of the holes remaining in his catalogue but that’s mostly the only reason I’d tell you to seek this out. Unless you really like Linda Blair and horses. Letterboxd List
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Oct 22, 2020 12:03
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Had time to tackle some of these challenges. 24. Prooi Fran Challenge #8 When Animals Attack! There's a lion on the loose in Amsterdam! Canals, claws and caricatures! All in all this is an enjoyable movie. It does The Ghost and the Darkness in Amsterdam and has fun with it. There is some gore, some humor, some nice setpieces, but it lasts just a bit too long and the surprise during the finale really isn't a surprise at all. What makes this movie a bit different is that aside from the lead there are no real characters. Everyone is a cartoonish version of whatever role they play and it feels off to have these very exaggerated people run around in what is otherwise a pretty straight movie. It wasn't that obvious with the detective you meet first, who is portrayed as a very boring bureaucrat, but soon you have hyper-aggressive pizza delivery boys, the great white hunter with a heart of gold, the arrogant rich hunter nearly twirling his moustache, the scoundrel ex-boyfriend who made sex tapes during a two week break up and so on. For me it didn't really mesh with the rest of the movie, but it wasn't jarring enough to take me out of it either. Being a Dutch movie I think it'll be a solid pick for the Öskur heyrðust um allan heim challenge for most participants, but obviously the lion bit means it'll fit When Animals Attack! as well 25. The Abominable Dr Phibes  I dug this a lot. Traps that'll make James Bond movies envious, Vincent Price hamming it up, everything properly British and weird rooms with electric organs. I think 3 of the 9 murders take place in the first 15 minute and I had no idea how it would fill the rest of the run time, but the pacing was excellent. I never got bored and it never felt rushed. The part with the unicorn had me laughing out loud. 26. Nosferatu Fran Challenge #5 #5 Silent Scream After watching both Shadow of the Vampire and Nosferatu the Vampyre this month, there really was really only one option for my silent movie. A classic, and for good reason. Not everything surrounding the iconic scenes is interesting, but the moments everyone remembers are absolutely worth the wait. 27. The Cleansing Hour Fran Challenge #3 Feardotcom A bunch of charlatans stream fake exorcisms online, presenting it as the real thing. When their friend is possessed for real during the show things get real bad real fast. Fantastic demon design, some nice twists and turns and it definitely keeps you engaged. This was quite enjoyable. What was bothering me from the start is that I've seen a movie with the exact same premise before. Fake possession, real demon shows up, lots of panic, confessions, etc. I kept thinking it was a short in some anthology, but whenever I tried to search for "exorcism horror movie -cleansing" nothing showed up. Then, the Korean cop thing happened and I was convinced it was the same two guys, in the same scene. Turns out this is a remake, by the same director, of his 2015/2016 movie also called The Cleansing Hour. It took me way too long to find out. 28. The Final Girls Fran Challenge #12: Ouroboros Modern day teens get sucked into an 80s slasher movie. A few years back someone wrote about Leslie Vernon during the challenge. It sounded right up my alley and I watched it right away. It was one of the most enjoyable movies for me that October and The Final Girls is no different. I don't think it is quite as good as Leslie Vernon, but it does have a ton of good jokes, fun characters and a lot of heart. It knows what makes slashers work and effortlessly both mocks and applauds those things.
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Oct 22, 2020 12:26
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getting close to my goal of 40:quote:#35. Scream 3 quote:#36. The Host quote:#37. Soft Matter quote:#38. Vampire in Brooklyn Peacoffee fucked around with this message at 14:10 on Oct 22, 2020 |
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Oct 22, 2020 14:06
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 17. The Rift (1989) This is another of 1989’s competing underwater horror flicks, but it looks and feels like a cheap movie that’s a decade older. I was excited to check it out because it’s from the director of Slugs, which is an amazing, darkly funny gore fest. Unfortunately The Rift is no Slugs. The story is about Wick, an engineer who joins a mission to find the missing experimental sub that he designed. This involves exploring a deep sea canyon on his other experimental sub along with his ex-wife, R. Lee Ermey, and Ray Wise. This second sub is some kind of international operation, which is basically just an excuse to let the actors practice terrible accents. Once the sub reaches the wreck site, there are mutant monsters. Lots of ‘em. All different types, too, because what you really want to do with a more modest budget than all the other water monster flicks on the block is to complicate things with a ton of different awkward creature designs. Things get marginally more interesting once they’re dealing with trouble from both inside and outside the sub, but the story wasted enough time on random monster encounters that I was already too checked out by the time things got more streamlined. If they’d trimmed the scope back a bit, or maybe had a more charismatic lead actor, this would have worked a lot better. 1. Trick ‘r Treat (2007) 2. Threads(1984) 3. The Changeling (1980) 4. Theatre of Blood (1973) 5. The Devil’s Rain (1975) 6. House of the Devil (2009) 7. One Dark Night (1983) 8. Strange Behavior (1981) 9. Challenge #1: Black Box (2020) 9.5. Challenge #2: short films 10. Les Diaboliques (1955) 11. Leviathan (1989) 12. Madman (1981) 13. Biozombie (1998) 14. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) 15. Vampires (1998) 16. Scarecrows (1988)
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Oct 22, 2020 14:24
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24. House of 1000 Corpses Watched On: Amazon Prime Fran Challenge #12: Ourorboros (Watch a horror film that you learned about from this challenge thread) Now this was an interesting one. I'd say on the whole I'm glad I watched it, but that enjoyment is colored by how Rob Zombie develops as a filmmaker in subsequent years. It's definitely a first movie and has a lot of issues as a result (pivotal shots being ruined by inverted colors, constant cuts to unrelated vignettes, Sheri Moon Zombie's acting) but there are enough things to like about it. First off, the production design on this thing is amazing. Captain Spaulding's, the Firefly manor, the underground laboratory, all of these sets are loaded with details and texture and light that invites a close examination. The movie presents interesting antagonists in the Firefly family and Dr. Satan and then doesn't give them any compelling conflicts. They totally gently caress up these idiots that come to their house and then that's it. It's like watching the pilot episode for a longer series, where the characters aren't quite right (except for Captain Spaulding, gently caress but Sid Haig just knocks it out of the park from the start) but you can see where it's going in The Devil's Rejects. If you haven't seen that, I'd honestly suggest watching it before House of 1000 Corpses, I appreciated it more because of it.
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Oct 22, 2020 15:03
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Fran Challenge #7: Dearly Departed RIP John Saxon #60: 1980 Blood Beach  I like the premise. There's some kind of creature under the sand that pulls you down and eats you. Great, like Tremors but with a bit more Jaws because it's at a beach. And instead of the trio of qualified men like in Jaws, you have an entire police department of complete morons trying to track it down. That's fun. Unfortunately the movie is only good in theory. In practice it's quite dull. The kills are repetitive and lackluster direction kills the scariness of them. The characters are forgettable and the attempt to merge noir with a beach creature feature does not work at all. And the monster, when you finally get to see it, sucks. If your monster prop sucks that much then show it earlier. You keep it hidden all the way to the end you're just building it up which makes it that much more disappointing. If somebody remakes Blood Beach, I'll definitely check it out. But give the original a pass. 60 Movies Watched: Dracula, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, King Kong, Son of Kong, The Bride of Frankenstein, Werewolf of London, Dracula's Daughter, Son of Frankenstein, The Mummy's Hand, Son of Ingagi 1, The Wolf Man, The Corpse Vanishes, The Ghost of Frankenstein, The Mummy's Tomb, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, Son of Dracula, The Mummy's Ghost, The House of Frankenstein, The Mummy's Curse, The House of Dracula, She-Wolf of London, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Godzilla, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Godzilla Raids Again, Five Short Films About Bigfoot2, Abbot and Costello Meet The Mummy, Horror of Dracula, Psycho, King Kong vs Godzilla, Blood Feast, Mothra vs Godzilla, The Creeping Terror, Ghidorah The Three-Headed Monster, Orgy of the Dead, Invasion of Astro-Monster, Ghidorah Horror of the Deep, Berserk!, Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters, Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, All Monsters Attack, Taste The Blood of Dracula, Godzilla vs Hedorah, Nosferatu5, Feardotcom3, Godzilla vs Gigan, Dracula AD 1972, Godzilla vs Megalon, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla, The UFO Incident, Terror of Mechagodzilla, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, King Kong, An American Werewolf in London 6, The Evil Dead*, Into The Lion's Den4, Blood Beach7* denotes rewatches Fran Challenges left: 8,9,10,11,12,13
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Oct 22, 2020 15:07
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25. Trick r' Treat Watched On: Vudu Fran Challenge #13: It's The Time of the Season for Spook-a-Doodles (Watch a qualifying film that takes place on a holiday or heavily features a holiday) Up there with Halloween as my favorite holiday horror and with Dead of Night as my favorite anthology. It's a great piece of filmmaking, with the four segments weaving in and out as the movie goes. But I think the thing that makes it a must-watch is the tone. It strikes this amazing balance of funny, mean and truly spooky. Some of the segments lean further in on one of these tones than others (the Principal Wilkins segment is definitely the meanest) but they all have these elements. It's also loaded with character actors doing great work. I focused on Dylan Baker and Brian Cox in my first review of this but on a second viewing, Britt McKillip does a great job of being a believably lovely high schooler out to ruin the night of a Halloween obsessive. I think this is going to join my yearly viewing queue, along with Return of the Living Dead and Evil Dead II.
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Oct 22, 2020 15:17
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 06:14 |
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Gripweed posted:
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Oct 22, 2020 15:18
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