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29: À l'intérieur Challenge 11:foreign language One of the French extremist horror films that were all the rage a few years ago. This is a home intruder one about a widow about to give birth who has to deal with a woman trying to steal her baby. This is one of those movies that takes a while to get going, but once it does man oh man. This is a blood soaked film that does not pull any punches. It's also neat in that the widow, Sarah, doesn't make the typical stupid choices; she calls the cops and a friend, she arms herself, she fights back (and how), and the battle between the two is kept pretty balanced. There's one really weird dumb horror movie decision mid way through made by a cop, but it at least sets up a call back for later. It's no martyrs, but it's still absolutely brutal throughout.
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Oct 25, 2020 05:49
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Fran Challenge #6: Tomb of the Blind Spots 29. Don't Look Now (1973) What a brilliantly edited movie. It was a fun exercise to try to find the reoccurring imagery throughout the film. Just like a grieving parent, everything reminds us of the last moments in, and we pour over every frame trying to find signs of their presence. Are they simply coincidences and paranoia, or are supernatural forces at play? The cinematographer did a good job making Venice, which typically looks so beautiful, into an alienating, eerie maze where danger lurks behind every damp corner. The film provides an interesting exploration of two different stages of grief. Ms. Baxter finds solace in faith. The skeptical Mr. Baxter initially seems to want to protect her from being duped by the two strange women who brought her peace of mind. It soon becomes apparent that his dismissal of her newfound serenity is actually discomfort over her ability to let go of her grief, as he still struggles to accept his daughter’s death. This is symbolized, among other things, by his refusal to leave Venice, a constant reminder of his daughter’s watery demise, and by his literal chasing of her. All that to say that I think that this was a brilliantly constructed film. There were times where I was mesmerized and couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. But, other times, the plot felt a little meandering. And while I thought the ending was thematically appropriate, it didn’t connect with me. I did accidentally see a picture of the ending before viewing the film, so that may have lessened its impact.
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Oct 25, 2020 06:07
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1. Scary Movie 2. Scary Movie 2 3. From Beyond 4. Phantasm 5. Idle Hands 6. Maniac 7. Ernest Scared Stupid 8. The Amityville Horror (1979) 9. Ghoulies II 10. Frankenhooker 11. Trick r' Treat 12. In The Mouth Of Madness 13. Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning 14. Jennifer's Body 15. The Gate 16. Thinner 17. Class of Nuke 'Em High 18. The Addams Family (1991) 19. Candyman (1992) Fran Chan #2: Short Cuts Watch 60+ minutes of shorts For the first part, I want to highlight a very popular channel that I still think is underrated. Local 58 ran by Kris Straub, the creator of Candle Cove and part of his vaguely connected horror universe. Consisting of a series of supposed recordings of a small local television stations, each suggest a bizarre a terrifying reality viewable only through a tiny window. You Are On The Fastest Available Route  3:38 This opens up with a station ID, followed by the night's programming. Upnext is the midnight movie, followed by paid programming. Except, the paid programming is being deleted off the schedule. Possibly a broadcast mistake, or something is taking over and changing what is supposed to happen? This is the first of a number of running themes in Local 58. The actual content of the short is of dashcam footage. This is our supposed "midnight movie", though whether it is intentional programming or replacing it by malevolent force is uncertain. As for the actual footage, it's pretty simple. Footage of a road, with a voiced GPS system guiding him. Blindly, the driver listens to the system, as it constantly reroutes, changes its mind, and lies how much longer the trip will be. Kris Straub is two things, one is a webcomics artist for a number of comedic strips, and a horror creator. I first knew him as the former, and most probably know of his latter work. But horror and comedy is a very fine line. Tension, release, and exploring how stupidly irrational humans can be. In this case, someone who blindly trusts technology as it guides him to increasingly unsafe places under more and more dubious validity. It's suggests something that has hijacked the system in order to bend it towards it's will, to find a new victim. And in a package that's simple, but highly effective. Contingency  3:06 (Total: 6:44) This is a very different video. Where the previous was video recording of a 2000's station, this is a film recording of the same station in the 70's. Complete with a late night sign off, paired with Star Spangled Banner. Which soon is interrupted by a disturbing message, brought to us by the United State's Government, but the details are off. What follows is an urge for Americans to do their part as a siege of the entirety of America has taken place. The wording is implicit, yet indirect. Everyone knows what they must do, but we don't. Not until the implications become more refined, as the demand to act becomes more urgent. It's the duty of every American to make sure there is no one left to read this message. There can not be any American, no exception, left in order to achieve America's duty. And it ends, with a message confirming the previous message was a hoax, with implication suggesting something more. But the intention is clear, a mistake had been made, and we are left wondering what might have been the result in this universe we're not a part of. But the message is clear, The US Government is ready for any Contingency, and even have Contingencies for their Contingencies. Again, this demonstrates Straub's ability to create highly effective horror with very little, basically consisting of stock footage, simple yet perfectly done graphics, and a decent video and effects editor. And with it creates an entire world much darker and sinister than the one we live in. Weather Service  2:33 (Total: 9:17) We're back to the video recording to a station of someteen years ago, and this one's ID confirms the station services the Mason County area, notably Ichor Falls, the home of a number of horror tales by Kris Straub. Confirming that the events of this series is not exactly atypical to the world it documents. This one can be considered a combination of the previous two videos. Once again, we are presented with a regulatory message, one based off the Emergency Alert System familiar to anyone who watched plenty of TV in the 90's and 2000's. This one issuing a meteorological alert, warning not to look at the night sky. Until another emergency alert seemingly lifts it, though crude and rushed. Suddenly it becomes a battle for control, as the implications for what is happening become clearer and more frightening. Again, very little creating so much. And it introduces a Lovecraftian element of something that is unstoppable, and seemingly impossible to avoid. And it introduces a recurring theme/sinister element, the untrustworthiness of the Moon. Show for Children  3:11 (Total 12:28) This one is a favorite of mine. It seems like the most high effort, creating original animation in the most original short. As well, this one is a crossover with a webcomic I really like, Broodhollow also by Kris Straub. Broodhollow is perhaps the work most reflective of his style, being a somewhat light, corny comic with very sinister worldbuilding. And is where the subject of this cartoon, Cadavre came from.  The short is rather repetitive, Cadavre seeks either the one he loved or aspires to love, and he looks in 4 successive graves for her. And where a traditional cartoon would punctuate each grave with a gag, in this case each one presents a new horror. The horror of the unexpected, the horror of the unsettling, the horror of the unknown, and the horror of finality. And as he journeys on his unsettling venture, he is watched over by an increasingly unsettling moon with a visage. It's not especially deep, but it's unsettling. And it continues on the thread of the moon's inherent threatening presence, even as far back as 1929 (which is what the roman numerals stand for in the opening title card. Real Sleep  5:10 (Total 17:38) Not a super exciting one. It's presents a possible phenomenon where people are capable of sleeping without dreaming, and the bizarre and upsetting process that is required to do so. It begs a question of if this process is medically sound, if it has legitimate benefits, if it's necessary for survival, or if it's a mad doctor's dangerous experiment. It's creepy and effective, but not a whole lot to say about it. Skywatching  4:15 (Total 22:53) This one starts interesting, as now we're on a 90's version of the station, still recorded as a video tape. It really gives the feel that these are all being recorded by some sort of archivist. Either internally at the station, or a tape trader who is compelled to record and share whatever freaky stuff on this channel. The program seems to start into a retro 70's educational program, before being taken over by an amature, much more unsettling program of the same name. It's goal, to show you the night sky and all of it's terrible secrets. It gives the vibe of someone with sinister, terrible knowledge feeling compelled to share it against everyone's will. This one does a bit to confirm what the situation with the moon is. That it's not the same as our moon. It might be organic, or something organic might have taken over. There may be things living on it, and it might be a society. The moon is a threatening presence to those on earth, and it is aware that they are watching it. Some fear it, some might be in rapture of it. But it is certain, the moon is to be feared. And that's the last of the current Local 58 crop. I hope that we might get more sometime in the future, especially with Halloween coming up. Horror Brunch  4:54 (Total 27:47) Just wanted to highlight this as we just watched it for Lurdiak's Scream Stream the other night. What it is just happens to be a four minute effects reel along side a number of popular horror references, slapped together under the premise that it's brunch and horrific things happen. It's incredibly silly, kinda shoddy, a little slapdash, ridiculously bloody, and just a delight. It feels like a bunch of horror buddies got together and decided to have a great weekend of coming up with some grizzly effects and how to make them happen. And all the actors are going ham wild with their characters, forcing you not to take it seriously in a really fun way. It's just an incredibly fun, highly recommendable short. Midnight Snack  5:00 (Total 32:47) An animated short with interesting presentation, having animated characters over a physical miniature set. The story is of a homeless man that finds a condemned apartment to squat in, and finds something to eat. Turns out, he really shouldn't have eaten it. Though to be honest, the style of the short is more interesting than the story. Sometimes it doesn't quite work, like the physical light not quite matching the animated flashlight. Sometimes it leads to really cool looking shots as the camera follows a character across a number of rooms. Worth a watch just for that, I'd say. Spook Train: Curtains  7:37 (Total 40:24) Oooh boy, Lee Hardcastle. You need a stomach for violence towards and against everyone to watch his stuff. You might have seen him for the faux Simpsons Couch Gag riffing on You're Next, where Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearney kill the Simpsons. Or maybe is Short in ABCs of Death (T for Toilet, I think). Or ads he did for Adult Swim. He's kind of prolific, despite his content. Anyways, this is him unleashed. If you don't want to see a gay biker obliterate his skull in a motorcycle accident, or see a Grandma torn from limb to limb, or someone vomiting on someone else, might not be for you. But what is there, is shockingly well done, if animated a little crudely. It looks gorgeous, and the gore is surprisingly detailed. The story is weird, weirdly crude, and just a hanger on for an incredibly gory sequence and dumb joke at the end. Overall, I personally think it's solid. Spook Train: Cell  9:10 (Total 49:34) So, I guess this and Curtains were supposed to be part of a series of horror shorts. I guess he abandoned the concept, as these were the only two produced. This one at least feels less iffy, dealing not with helpless grandmas and queer folk, but overly violent prisoners and guards. In this case, three men in one cell, and a toilet that they don't want to (and should not) use. It's gross and gory as hell, and continues to show off Hardcastle's stylistic eye (as well as his subdued gross out humor). Otherwise, more of the same as before. Recommendable for the most part. Rabbit  8:54 (Total 58:28) So this is an odd one. It's arguably not horror, but it deals with the amorality of kids, leading to the death of several animals for sociopathic reasons. So I personally count it. The short takes place in an old school children's book, of very anglo saxon illustrations with each drawing being labelled. And in this case, it's about two small children, seemingly parentless, chasing after a rabbit. After cutting it open, they find a small goblin-like creature that they are inclined to treat like a god. Cue bizarreness. It's an inventive story, told with style and frankness without a single (spoken) word. And it is it's own kind of upsetting, not overtly but quietly in the back of your mind. Highly recommendable. Batmilk  1:46 (Total 60:14) I just wanted to finish this up with one more animated short that would push me just over the hour mark. Thus, this one. And in a way, it's kinda more bizarre than the last one, but it has bats and caves and a bit of body trauma so it counts. Basic plot, a guy and his attached buddy hop off a bat, eat some stuff, go through a cave, then his buddy becomes a ghost, falls off and dies. Guy dispairs, falls over, melts his fingers, and dies, releasing a swarm of fireflies. Then a new buddy from above falls down, attaches himself to guy, and the guy revives. It's weird, and I'm not sure what to take from it. Something about how the body controls the mind, rather than in reverse? It might just be oddness for oddness' sake. --- Anyways, done, boo yah, what's next?
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Oct 25, 2020 06:46
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Gripweed posted:I am tired of this Day Break erasure, and it won't end until people stop using Groundhog Day as the only reference for time loop story lines. Daybreak was so good.
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Oct 25, 2020 07:41
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Debbie Does Dagon posted:I feel like this is accurate. I tend to be tripped up by films which don't have characters I can empathise with. We were having a similar discussion on the Discord a few days ago, regarding In the Mouth of Madness and Altered States, two admittedly very good films which just left me feeling cold. I think, despite the abstract distance, we're meant to empathize with Fred, at least until his actions are recontextualized through Pete's. And Pete is likeable enough until his story gets Noir. There's definitely a purposeful detachment to both of their inner lives, though, the purpose of which becomes apparent in the resolution.
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Oct 25, 2020 08:22
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35.  964 Pinocchio, for Fran Challenge #12: Ourorboros  This doesn't have quite the same energy as Tetsuo, but it's very much cut from the same cloth - low-budget, high-enthusiasm, sexually-charged Japanese body horror. Almost every scene lasts five minutes longer than it would in a more conventional film. Every actor present is fully committed to what they're doing. You already know whether you need to watch this or not, just temper expectations a little - nothing is going to live up to Tetsuo. And I think it has to be said - if this is the only way you've got to create mindless sex slaves, maybe you don't really need mindless sex slaves all that badly. Maybe this is one of those projects you scrap.
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Oct 25, 2020 08:24
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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. Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2 (1987)  I knew two things about this movie going in: 1) it uses a lot of footage from the first film 2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7gIpuIVE3k Ricky's parents are murdered by Santa when he's a baby. His older brother becomes a serial killer in movie one. Now Ricky is the killer. I was reminded of Dexter even thought the character really isn't similar. I haven't seen the first film. I really don't like watching a film series out of order if there's even a small amount of continuity, but I skipped ahead for this one. I soon felt I'd made a big mistake. The flashbacks made the first movie look pretty good and I was watching a clipshow. Once it reaches the new material however, it picks up the pace. We get some inventive kills and the last act is a blast. I don't know if I'd say it's a good movie, but it made me chuckle. 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; Baskin FC#11; The Clovehitch Killer FC#12; Silent Night Deadly Night 2 FC#13; (total: 29ish)
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Oct 25, 2020 11:45
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 152) Dracula: Prince of Darkness - 1966 - DVD I know I've talked about the two movie making attempts of mine when I was a kid. Pretty much it was snag someone's parents' Super8 camera or if we were really lucky get hands on a VHS camcorder, slap together some costumes and we're making a movie! Script optional and effects cobbled together on the fly. My Zombie film was successful thanks to my Mom's contribution of lasagna noodles with her homemade gravy for entrails even with some of the zombie victims eating themselves and the occasional zombie belch. The other was my 'Dracala' film, which was a very stripped down version of this one since I didn't have the incentive perk of my Mom's cooking for effects. We filmed in the woods around the Trailside Museum in River Grove with the museum doubling as the outside of Dracula's lair. Inside was my best friend Frankie's basement since his parents fixed it up to be a party room and had a bar with faux stonework that became Dracula's crypt. I did get in trouble on this one since our Dracula ended up coming down with the sniffles and his mom insisted it was my fault having him run around the woods without a coat on. I bet Terence Fisher never had to deal with something like that. Obviously this one's a fave since I made a knockoff of it. There's apparently a novelization of it out there which I need to track down. While there is a distinct lack of Van Helsing in this one, it balances out with having Christopher Lee back as Dracula even though he has no lines. Depending on who you believe, Lee refused to speak his lines because they were awful or Sangster never wrote any insisting vampires don't chat. I'm leaning on Lee's version of why. Definitely one of my recommendeds.  153) Godzilla (Cozzi rerelease) - 1977 - Archive.org Soon as I saw Whang! on Youtube do an upload on this, I had to track it down. I recommend giving that a watch for the backstory on this one. It's called the Italian Godzilla, Godzilla: Eurotrash Edition, Cozzilla, and the psychedelic version. Luigi Cozzi did some adjustments with this rerelease of the American version, adding color to the black and white print along with additional footage from other films and newsreels. Some of the newsreel footage of the aftermath of Hiroshima was used so there are parts where it is real dead people on screen. If you've taken any classes on WWII or History of Atomics, it's nothing you wouldn't've seen already in class. As much as the tinting's been called psychedelic, I have to disagree. It comes across more like an attempt to copy the mood tinting in the old silents. And if you hear some strong Zombi influence in the soundtrack, you're hearing correct since Fabio Frizzi along with Franco Bixio and Vince Tempera worked on it. The upload on Archive.org is the Geno Cuddy restoration and is in Italian though there has been an addition of subtitles. This is worth sitting through as a piece of film history.
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Oct 25, 2020 13:10
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quote:#42. In Fabric
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Oct 25, 2020 13:23
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 37) Tales From The Crypt Presents Demon Knight (1995) Trailer Seen on: Scream Stream A drifter (William Sadler) trying to prevent the end of the world is on the run from a powerful demon lord (Billy Zane); both end up in a small town fleabag hotel with a bunch of colorful characters and carnage ensues. This was a really fun film, with plenty of great practical FX and gore, a real horror comic come to life via Ernest Dickerson's directing. To be sure, the characters here are mostly the usual horror movie caricatures, but the cast of character actors (Sadler, Jada Pinkett, CCH Pounder, Dick Miller and others) make them engaging. Zane's charismatic demon steals the show, and it's great how he's both disarmingly funny and brutally violent, often in tandem. I actually would have preferred a direct sequel to this than what we got with Bordello of Blood, but thems the breaks.
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Oct 25, 2020 14:05
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Fran Challenge #11 - Öskur heyrðust um allan heim - The Vanishing Another classic film that I've been meaning to watch forever. I recall there was a US remake of the film, too, though that one seems to have vanished without a trace.  Rex and Saskia, a couple from Amsterdam, are on vacation in the south of France. They stop for gasoline and Saskia goes for drinks. She never comes back. There's a man who has been meticulously planning to abduct a woman for a long time before setting his eyes on Saskia. Three years later, Rex is still looking and the man is toying with him. The way I pictured this film in my head, Rex would be hunting for the kidnapper while terrifying serial killer threats abounded. I wasn't expecting Saskia to just be gone from the movie like that. As the audience, we get an immediate flashback to the abductor's years of planning so we know more about what happed than Rex, but we're just as in the dark as he is. Could she have been held captive for three years? Is she long dead and the only thing that could be found is closure? Skipping ahead makes what happened even more mysterious. Knowing the killer as intimately as we do in the movie also lets us see his mistakes. He can't resist playing it like a game and while he's good, he's not perfect. There's tension in knowing that the movie could turn at any moment. And that is one of the most terrifying killers I've ever seen on film because he's so natural. This guy could be your neighbor... or the person you bump into at a highway rest stop. I could see why this film is so talked about. It's a unique take on the then just starting serial killer genre and it's completely gripping. I'd talk about the absolutely amazing final act of the film but that would be unfair to anyone going in blind.
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Oct 25, 2020 14:57
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Spook-a-Doodle Double Feature #37: Challenge Sampler Sometimes you’re just not in the mood for a whole meal. You just ate too much maybe or just want little tastes of a bunch of things. Luckily my last two fran Challenges have just the right sampler collections available to meet the mood. 63 (73). The Mortuary Collection (2019) Written and directed by Ryan Spindell. Watched on AMC+, available on Shudder. Fran Challenge #12: Ourorboros A decent little anthology. I don’t think it every fully clicked. Clance Brown as the host felt stronger on paper than in execution. He was fine but kind of in the middle ground where he wasn’t campy enough but not serious enough. Go bigger or go smaller, but don’t sit there. I actually think I enjoyed Caitlin Custer as Sam more, or at least as a foil to Brown. Maybe its because she served as an audience voice to lampshade some of the segments flaws. Nothing was terrible or anything but nothing super stood out to me either. Nothing really subtle or overly imaginative, but all perfectly competent. I guess the marriage segment was my favorite but the babysitter one was solid too. I think that those being the only meaty ones hurt it a bit. I like my anthologies in the 3 solid story range, although I guess the frat one might work more for some. Or really the framing story was more of a cohesive story than in most anthologies. I don’t know, I guess I’m nitpicking. I was tired and dozed off during it but that wasn’t its fault. I was just exhausted. Maybe that helped keep me at a distance. I definitely enjoyed it more when I backtracked and picked back up after waking up. A good, fun anthology. You can do a lot worse. Just not much I really one away with as worth talking about or probably remembering. 64 (74). Trick ’r Treat (2007) Written and directed by Michael Dougherty. Watched on AMC+. Fran Challenge #13: It's The Time of the Season for Spook-a-Doodles Holy crap, that was good. I know that won’t come as much surprise to most but it surprised me. I came into this 100% convinced I’d seen this movie a couple of times and just didn’t like it. But people like it so much I wanted to give it another try. And it starts up with that Leslie Bibb opening and I’m like “yeah, this…” and then Anna Paquin and I’m like “yeah, I remember this. Bunch of young hollywood pretties in flash quick nothing stuff.” And then the kid story happens and I’m like “wait… this is new and nothing like what I thought and good.” And then the Paquin story plays out and I’m like “that was pretty cool.” And then the Sam thing plays out and I was 100% sure I knew the Sam story and this absolutely was not what I thought it was. And it was much better. What the hell was I thinking? Its now completely clear to me that I never saw this movie. Or maybe I started it once and stopped? Or passed out drunk or something? 2007 lands it firmly in my “drinking too much, partying too hard” period were memories are fuzzy. I was convinced I remembered this movie and I’m remembering a completely different movie all together. I have no idea what that movie is. Maybe its not even a movie, maybe its a bunch of different things. Maybe I imagined it. I dunno. But it wasn’t Trick ‘r Treat. I don’t think I’ve seen at least 90% of Trick ‘r Treat before this viewing. Now that I have I get it. Its real good. I really want to rewatch it. Shake away those false memories and expectations I had, watch closer for the interweaving of the narrative which was really interesting and again not at all what I thought it was. I really liked the bulk of it and its a great Halloween mood piece. One of the first movies of this month that really FELT Halloween to me in a deep way. I’ve actually had a bit of a hard time getting into the season. I’ve barely decorated. Quarantine, real world stuff occupying my time, some health/mortality stuff that made horror less fun and skulls and ghost decorations feel a little too tempting fate. But like… now I just want to spend the rest of the day eating candy and watching horror movies and finally properly decorating. I get it now. I have been badmouthing this movie for years for no good reason. I am ashamed. This is really, really good. gently caress, I might go buy it so I can watch it when I want since it always seems so hard to track down. Or maybe just renew this AMC+ free trial past its free trial period. Because I might want to watch this again Halloween night. Gooble, gobble, one of you. I wonder what the hell movie I thought this was. That finishes up Fran's Challenges for me. 4 more Hooptober Challenges is my last official marker. Although I didn't get in my Svengoolie episodes last night so now I have 5 to watch by Halloween if I hope to catch up on that by then. And there's like a million other movies on my list. And I want to get a bunch of AMC+ movies in before my trial runs out Monday/Tuesday. So many movies, so short a month. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Oct 25, 2020 |
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Oct 25, 2020 15:12
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STAC Goat posted:Holy crap, that was good. Yeah, I finally saw it for the first time this year and was blown away. Totally get it now lol.
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Oct 25, 2020 15:29
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Fran challenge #4 Scream, queen! 12) Bit  Summary: A trans teen goes to the big city and meets vampires. Problems ensue. This might be the best vampire movie I've seen. I went in expecting some trans-ploitation but instead the themes were heavily focused on power dynamics. The main character's growth is the focus throughout, and her gender is barely a factor. Or is entirely the metaphor. It's about realization of self, in the context of vampirism - realizing one's own potential. She crosses so many milestone moments here and her gender identity is the least of them - that gets a throwaway scene in the first act, but the rest of the film is devoted towards the challenges associated with maturing as a person and coming to grips with all that entails. 9/10 Completed Fran Challenges: 1, 4, 6, 8 Tubiween: 12/31 First viewings: 12/31
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Oct 25, 2020 15:55
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Weekend catch-up time. #33. Bride of Chucky (Digital copy) Chucky is stitched back together and resurrected by his old flame Tiffany, another homicidal psychopath. After a fight, Chucky kills her and transfers Tiffany into a doll body of her own. The two then hitch a ride with a pair of young lovers, on the run from an abusive uncle, and end up framing them for multiple murders. I was looking back over my watchlist for the month and realized that I had accidentally watched the fourth entry for most of the big slasher series, so I figured I may as well keep that streak going. Bride of Chucky isn't necessarily a great movie, but it is still a lot of fun. It holds a special place in my heart as the first Chucky entry that I could watch uncut and contemporaneously, as I was a teenager when it came out after being traumatized by the originals as a child. (Those I could only watch after years of "exposure therapy," namely being able to watch the cut for TV versions since they played on USA all the time in the early 90s.) It looks like a time capsule of late 90s filmmaking, with director Ronny Yu's trademark blue lighting filter over everything set at night and his viscous, pure black blood getting spilled at any opportunity. This is the first of the deliberately "funny" Chucky movies, and a fair number of the jokes do land. I think some of the stuff around the stereotypical gay best friend didn't age all that well, and the actor's performance ends up dragging a flimsy character down even further. I also think some of the movie's "road trip" element ends up feeling half-baked, like they don't get out of the van enough or get a good sense that they have actually traveled all that far. Still, the big kill scenes work really well and the animatronics are impressive. The film ends up being a lot of fun, which is all I ask for in a movie about a doll possessed by a serial killer trying to kill people in extravagant ways. (Well, dolls, now.) Recommended.  /5Franchescanado posted:Fran Challenge #12: Ourorboros  #34. Angst (1983) (Amazon Prime) - suggested by Kvlt! A disturbed, psychotic young man is released from prison, and he immediately sets out to try and kill again. He ends up invading a secluded home with plans to torture and kill the occupants, but his plans start to go awry. I actually had this title down on the list of potential titles to watch that I drew up at the beginning of the month, mainly from osmosis from the regular horror movie thread. So when Kvlt! recommended this one for me, I was intrigued. Had I known what this film was about, I probably would have demurred - I'm not a big fan of the "home invasion" subgenre, in general, and I was not a fan of the whole Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer experience. I tend to avoid the "feel bad" horror movie experience when I can. Make no mistake, Henry is also probably the closest analogue that I can think to make for this movie, though even then there's some amount of base charisma that Michael Rooker is able to impart on that character. Watching a scene where Erwin Leder, the unnamed main character, circles around the targeted house multiple times, all I could think to liken him to was a shark, some unfeeling, uncaring predatory animal. (This gets reinforced several times by the way he ends up couching around and moving in the back half, looking like something feral more than human.) Since Leder rarely speaks on screen, and communicates to the audience purely by a dispassionate, cold fish narration, there really doesn't seem to be anything human in him at all. It's an incredible performance, even if it's entirely designed to shove the audience away. I can also say the film is something of a technical marvel to look at at times, the way that the camera glides in and around the character, often framing him from above or below and almost always at middle distance or further. It seems the film wants to keep you separated as much as possible (when it doesn't go in for nauseating close-ups, abstracting human elements into grotesqueries). Were this made in modern times, it would probably seem like half the film was shot via drone camera. There's also a pervasive jitteriness imparted by the handheld and boom shots, so the film seems to match the fractured, barely contained sensibilities of the killer. Also, the score is incredible - I can say that's probably the element that ends up imparting a sense of urgency and unfolding horror more than anything, especially in the aftermath. I can say the film succeeded at what it set out to do, and I can also say that I don't normally go for the types of films this one wanted to be. A different audience member may get something more out of it. I can say that I am glad that I saw it, from an exercise in purely technical cinematic execution; I can also say I will never watch it again. /5 #35. Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (Shudder) A promiscuous girl is burned to death on Prom Night, 1957, after winning the title of Prom Queen. 30 years later, her spirit returns and begins trying to possess a new body, so that she can win the title again... and will kill anyone who gets in her way. Needed something entertaining and light-hearted after watching Angst, to try to put a capper on the night. Unfortunately, I don't think this one fit the bill. I saw that it had been likened to A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 for the inventive, fantastical elements of that film; really it's a mash-up of that one and ANoES 2, considering the plotline of Mary Lou Maloney wanting to steal a living body to use (which she's probably more successful at than Freddy was, even). It's a film about a ghost trying to win the Prom Queen crown through murderous means, which is ridiculous on its face. Unfortunately, the film is too stilted and po-faced to run with that as a joke, trying to take everything way too seriously. You knew the film was going to go that way with the very graphic death by fire of Mary Lou at the beginning; there was probably no way back to something fun and light after how that was handled. There are one or two fun gore scenes in the back half (especially a death by locker crushing that is pretty perfectly timed), but for the most part this is bland, cheap-looking and stone-faced. Not what I was looking for at all. Not recommended. /5Watched so far: The Ghost of Frankenstein, The Happiness of the Katakuris, Rabid (1977), A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Blacula, Night of the Demons (1988), The Phantom of the Opera (1943), The Mummy (1959), Over Your Dead Body, Halloween 4, Frankenstein (1931), The Ice Cream Man, multiple shorts and specials, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, Blood Quantum, The Hideous Sun Demon, The Raven (1935), Final Destination 2, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Invisible Man (2020), Countdown, Nosferatu (1922), Boar, Diabolique (1955), Bit, Friday the 13th Part IV, Needful Things, The Wasp Woman (1959), Arachnophobia, Maniac Cop 3, The Lure, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Bride of Chucky, Angst, Prom Night II
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Oct 25, 2020 15:56
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Peacoffee posted:with rotating images, whirling dress hems, echoes and double exposures and raw skin and whispers. This is such a fun sentence to read, and just turn over in the mouth. I want Raw Skin and Whispers to be the title of my autobiography.
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Oct 25, 2020 17:15
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 #126) Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) This film's just never connected with me. Maybe because it feels like such a rehash of the first one, with just a couple of character additions to serve as the main distinguishing changes. Maybe because I'm still irritable over how much of Giger's design work for this movie was unceremoniously ditched (and how much better it would have been than what we got). Maybe because the performances from the family members seem weirdly downgraded from their previous outing. Julian Beck and his solidly creepy presence is the high point of the movie, personally speaking, and it's nice to have Zelda Rubinstein back, but outside of them, it's a pretty forgettable movie for me. “I love gettin' around!” Rating: 6/10Watched on Scream Stream.  #127) Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995) This movie rides almost entirely on Billy Zane's performance. Sure, Dick Miller is there, as are CCH Pounder and William Sadler, but everyone besides Zane is effectively overshadowed by BZ's excellence across a wide range of moods. Coyly insulting, seductive, over-the-top antagonistic, and a calm veneer over impatience are some of his more memorable modes in this, but he has more, and they're all wonderfully played. There's a bit too much time spent in the middle of the film with people running back and forth through the hotel while screaming, but most of the supporting characters are adequately fleshed-out for empathizing (outside of Thomas Haden Church's wooden performance), and the special effects aren't overused. Too bad the follow-up TftC films failed; thanks, Dennis Miller. Rating: 7/10Watched on Scream Stream.  #128) Demonic (2015) Dopes go to a haunted house, get haunted. The movie flops between footage from the investigators' cameras and 'normal' footage without much reason, other than the monochrome camcorder footage looking mildly spookier. Characters are flat and generic, doing the sort of dumb poo poo that people make jokes about characters in haunted house movies doing. It's shot and lit well enough, I guess, and the sets are suitably decayed, but virtually every part of the plot and 'mystery' is just terrible and bland. There's a little bit of spicing up with forensics people coming in after the ghost violence to try and figure things out in a rational way, but this too flops, because it's played like an underfunded wannabe CSI show. And then the finale is obnoxiously dumb. One to avoid. “Why are you slamming doors?!” Rating: 4/10Watched on Netflix.
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Oct 25, 2020 17:22
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30) John Carpenter’s Vampires (1998) Watched on Amazon Prime  I think I’m James Woodsed-out for the year. Jack Crow is a walking Levi’s ad with a crossbow and a hatred for vampires due to prior family issues. His crew includes Doughnut Baldwin and a bunch of randos who lay waste to a vampire nest, only to then get wasted on booze and then get wasted by a master vampire. Jack Crow asks the Catholic church which raised him why they have forsaken him, only to be further forsaken. Jack Crow succeeds despite this. My poor Sheryl Lee. She’s given at least a little more agency than she had as Laura Palmer, but most of that is slapped out of her by a lesser Baldwin. I’ll try not to hold that against this movie, but there are too many other things to hold against it, including a horrible score and James Woods. The cinematography, however, is top notch and really makes you appreciate the oppressiveness of the southwestern sunlight. I also can’t hate on Father Adam, who’s just so cute and becomes a badass in a very short amount of time. But still, it’s hard to forgive the way Sheryl Lee is treated here. It’s like From Dusk Til Dawn with a head injury. I can’t say I wasn’t entertained, but I was also a few beers in when I watched it. Overall, it’s one of those movies that I didn’t regret watching, but I will actively avoid ever watching again. 31) Dial code Santa Claus aka Deadly Games (1989): Fran Challenge #13 It’s The Time of the Season For Spook-a-Doodles Watched on Shudder  Young Thomas lives in a rad mansion with his mother and grandpa. He’s not sure whether or not he believes in Santa Claus and his classmates have instilled some doubt in him. As an only child with an endless amount of toys and an apparently genius IQ, he’s well equipped to face down Santa on Christmas Eve…except this Pere Noel is actually a crazy person with a vendetta. After Thomas realizes that this intruder is not benevolent, he goes full Rambo/Macaulay Culkin and brings the pain to protect his half-blind diabetic gramps. I certainly did not expect a Rocky montage right from the get-go with a Christmas-themed ripoff of Eye of the Tiger. It certainly sets the tone for the eventual face-off between Thomas and faux Santa, showing all of the resources that this precocious pre-teen has at his disposal. These include a portable Simplisafe camera system that he wears on his wrist which I’m sure would have been on the Christmas lists of every US child in 1990 had this been an American release, a la the Talkboy of Kevin McCallister. Seriously though, the mansion that Thomas and his family live in is geometrically insane; it’s like House of Leaves. Here’s a fridge that leads to a secret passage that contains the toys of all the previous generations of Thomas’s family. Here’s a Pacman-like maze of hallways. Here’s a weight room with a sauna that has the world’s weakest handle. And hidden doors out the wazoo! The only thing less believable than the house blueprint is the resilience of crazy Santa. Dude takes darts to the neck and immolation and gunshot wounds like a champ and keeps on ticking. The comparisons to Home Alone are apt in that this guy is comically invincible. The third act setpieces in which he just absorbs punishment only to keep on truckin’ are a little disjointed. Well, a LOT disjointed. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the battle between youthful innocence and batshit crazy random dude, and might make this an annual Xmas watch. And my personal goal of 31 new watches plus all Fran challenges is complete. For a cherry on top, I watched 2020's Host to see what all the hubbub was about. It's not bad! I think as a future historical artifact of the year of COVID it's easy to grant it more leeway than other films of its ilk; that is, this is more or less Paranormal Activity: Zoom Edition. I think the story behind how the actors were directed as a result of the pandemic elevates it and rightfully so. Plus, it's runtime is just right.
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Oct 25, 2020 17:39
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Franchescanado posted:Fran Challenge #10: Run This poo poo Into The Ground Challenge Movie #5: Leprechaun 3 (1995) This is the point I noticed that they were cranking these things out one a year, and watching it, well, I can believe it. Like the second one, this is better than the godawful first movie, but it's not good by any means. I don't think I'll be getting to #4 in the series this year, so the state of the franchise as I see it after three: * These things live or die on how much Warwick Davis is in them, so the series learning to give him time to ham it up is the smartest decision it has made. * In contrast, the leprechaun himself is only vaguely motivated (he's obsessed with gold, but just generally treats people like a dick outside that) and is poorly defined as a threat. * As I understand it, the first was intended to be PG-13 and was gored-up to R late in the process. This helps the second and third by making them more tonally consistent. Unlike as was pointed out with the first, you cannot believe the subsequent movies were intended to star children. * The down side of the tonal consistency is that the franchise goes from not knowing what to do with its female characters to knowing all too well: treat them as sex objects. Between the second and the third there seems to be a pattern to how these can work. Take a couple of cliched plotlines (young adults on the grind, a gambler in debt), that have some connection to money, then throw an evil leprechaun into the mix to spice things up. Just wish it was a little better executed on.
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Oct 25, 2020 17:41
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Anisocoria Feldman posted:30) John Carpenter’s Vampires (1998) Vampires is deeply sleazy and has kind of terrible people behaving terribly with terrible on and off screen politics and I feel dirty and wrong watching it. But God help me, I kind of love it. I think its just how absolutely gritty and no fucks it is. Like IF there were vampires and IF the Catholic Church financed people to hunt them you just know it would be exactly this shitshow of an operation with these scumbags doing the Church's work. Its Supernatural except instead of pretty well groomed, well behaved nice brothers who treat the pretty ladies with respect and save the day heroically its just drunk misogynistic probably racist rear end in a top hat drifters who get their rocks off killing things, getting wasted, and then mistreating prostitutes. Which kind of makes more sense.
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Oct 25, 2020 18:06
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Still looking for guessers of these Bad Pictionary games!BisonDollah posted:
Pictionary guesser league of winners: 5 - DebbieDoesDagon 5 - The Berzerker 4 - gey muckle mowser 3 - Darthemed 2 - Maxwell Lord 2 - bitterandtwisted 2 - Kvlt! 1 - szary 1 - Irony.or.Death 26/31 - 12th-19th October I had a busy couple of weeks at uni so very rushed on these iconic scenes and I have more films to come in a later post. Apologies! 19 -  Return to Oz - guessed by The Berzerker This family-friendly psychological horror adventure is available on Disney+ and has some great moments and characters. Jack the Pumpkin boy is a silly fucker but you have to love him, the WHEELERS are legendary for scaring kids since the 1980's and a very young Faruiza Balk kicks off an iconic career. 20 -  Taking of Deborah Logan - guessed by Kvlt! This is a very weird found footage film that ramps up the energy in the last half hour but kicks off as being quite a sorrowful depiction of mental deterioration. I'm not quite sure they nail the flip when it goes from one to the other but I certainly don't regret watching it. 21 -  The Spiral Staircase - guessed by Darthemed Ye olde thriller that has a proto-slasher murder in the first five minutes which is set above a turn of the century moving-picture house. It's a great sequence and then we move into the manorhouse out in the country and a main character who has a problem speaking ever since witnessing a tragedy... which is a problem as this murderer targets women who have some sort of affliction. 22 -  Madhouse - guessed by The Berzerker Vincent Price in a predicable yet fun film that pays homage to his career (as well as some other horror legends) as his horror character that made him famous DOCTOR DEATH gets picked up for a UK produced television show. VP rules. 23 -  The Blackcoat's Daughter - guessed by Kvlt! An early a24 picture that I really didn't enjoy watching but for a few moments, it is about two college girls who are left on campus during xmas break and weird psychological poo poo ensues. This one definitely stuck with me though and on reflection it's much better than I originally thought. 24 -  Body Parts - guessed by Darthemed A 1990's Doctor Frankenstein type tale involving limbs being resown onto amputees. Brad Dourif's small supporting role lit it up a little, it was fine. 25 -  #5 Silent Scream Hands of Orlac - guessed by The Berzerker A 1920's Doctor Frankenstein type tale involving new hands being sown onto a pianist who was in an accident. This German silent horror has pretty wonderful cinematography and Conrad Viedt does some very cool work here. 26 -  #11: Öskur heyrðust um allan heim The House With the Laughing Windows - guessed by Darthemed One of the very best Giallo I've seen. A thriller/mystery that is a slow burn but my oh my when the scares and the stabs happen do they ever happen! The Hausu Usher fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Oct 25, 2020 |
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Oct 25, 2020 18:35
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Fell behind on reviews. Revenge (2017) "Women always have to put up a loving fight." Jen is having a romantic trip to the middle of the empty desert with her married boyfriend. His two hunting buddies show up early, one of them rapes Jen while the other watches it happen, and the boyfriend throws her off a cliff when she threatens to expose it all. When they go back to retrieve her body, she is gone. I enjoyed this - writer/director Coralie Fargeat is thankfully not gratuitous when it comes to the act that kicks it all off and it's easy to root for someone so tough who has been so wronged. There is little dialogue but some cool gore and of course, all of the lovely men get their comeuppance, and in fact all get penetrated by Jen in different ways which is interesting. There is a shotgun fight that is really tense and great. 3.5/5 Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) "Listen. The children of the night make their music." Glad I watched this excellent interpretation of the Nosferatu story, it's so moody and dark, everything is just covered in plague. Kinski is beyond incredible in this, the scene where he watches Jonathan eat while not blinking is just so good I had to rewind and watch it twice. 4/5 Nightbreed (1990) "What is below, stays below. That is the Law." Clive Barker has so many cool ideas and desperately needs help organizing them. As a kid who loved Labyrinth and Little Monsters because of the cool looking creatures, this would have been right up my alley. But watching it now, it's just disjointed and not very good, especially Craig Sheffer as Boone. I do really like the killer mask (there is a wrestler called The Blade who used to wear something like it) but this was disappointing for something I was "saving" all month. 2/5SA October Horror Challenge Count: 53/60 First Time Watches: 45/50 Fran Challenges Complete: 13/13
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Oct 25, 2020 18:39
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Fran Challenge #11: Öskur heyrðust um allan heim #68: 2001 Stacy  All over the world 16 year old girls start going through a period of manic happiness at the end of which they die and then come back as a flesh eating zombie called a Stacy that can only be killed by cutting it into at least 165 pieces. The government sets up "Romero" units of the army to destroy the Stacies, but also encourages families to kill their resurrected daughters themselves This is a weird fuckin movie. From that description I bet you imagine it's gonna be a gross out splatterfest. And it is, there's plenty of dismemberments and barrels of quivering zombie parts and just blatant ripoffs of scenes from Day of the Dead. But the tone is completely not what you'd expect. The major theme of the movie is how sad and lonely everyone is. There's a ton of time spent on how insanely traumatized the members of the Romero units are from their job of dismembering teen girls. There's a scene where a lady argues with a guy because he's putting out bags of Stacy parts on Sunday when Stacy pickup isn't until Friday so he's gonna stink up the whole neighborhood, which sounds like a comedy scene but it ends with the guy screaming at her about how he just chopped up his girlfriend so he doesn't care. There are three teen girls who are doing illicit Stacy killing to raise enough money to hire a hot guy to kill them when they become Stacies because that is the closest thing to romance they will ever be able to experience. It's a grim fuckin movie I don't know what to make of Stacy. It's a weird movie. 68 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, Critters, Tyler Perry's Boo! A Madea Halloween13, Critters 2, Critters 310, Happy Death Day12, Critters 4, The Night Staulker9, Stacy11* denotes rewatches Fran Challenges left: 8
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Oct 25, 2020 18:40
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BisonDollah posted:Still looking for guessers of these Bad Pictionary games! Hostage to the Devil, Return to Oz, Madhouse, the Hands of Orlac
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Oct 25, 2020 18:42
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BisonDollah posted:Still looking for guessers of these Bad Pictionary games! Taking of Deborah Logan and Blackcoats Daughter for 20 and 23
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Oct 25, 2020 18:47
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BisonDollah posted:Still looking for guessers of these Bad Pictionary games! #19: Return to Oz #21: The Spiral Staircase? #22: Madhouse #24: Body Parts #25: Hands of Orlac #26: The House of the Laughing Windows
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Oct 25, 2020 18:51
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quote:#43. Knife + Heart and with that I'm past 40/40 +13 challenges. Now to, uh...just go back to watching more movies and talking about 'em anyway.
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Oct 25, 2020 19:03
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28. Bride of Re-Animator (1989) Dr. Hunk and Dr. West are back... with spooky results. I liked this sequel more than the original. It has a much more comedic tone and gets to the action much quicker. The ending even goes bigger and more off the rails. I would have liked to see more time spent with the Bride. Overall, she feels like a plot point instead of the titular character. Dr. Cool Hair is once again kinda just the straight man. I really didn't gel with his arc and he kinda gets lost among all the stronger, scenery chewing cast members. Story nitpicks aside, the special effects and monster designs are top-notch. Crazy poo poo straight out of Hellraiser. 4.5/5
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Oct 25, 2020 19:17
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#27 Xtro Harry Bromley Davenport, 1982  You have to wonder how movies like this ever got made. Who in their right mind would read this script and think "yep, we need to make this movie!"? Whatever these filmmakers were smoking, I commend them because Xtro is goopy, sloppy, bizarre fun and I had a blast with it. 4/5 Fran Challenges (8/13): 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), 25. Found. (2012), 26. Pulse (2001), 27. Xtro (1982)
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Oct 25, 2020 20:04
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STAC Goat posted:Vampires is deeply sleazy and has kind of terrible people behaving terribly with terrible on and off screen politics and I feel dirty and wrong watching it. But God help me, I kind of love it. I've probably recommended it before, but this short story is a pro read and I wish to God someone would adapt it for the screen.
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Oct 25, 2020 20:05
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 56. The Changeover (2017/New Zealand) Let me start by saying, go and watch this film. Go and watch this film. No, really, go watch this film. I have to say such a huge thank you to Popelmon on the Discord for recommending this because it was completely off my radar, and I imagine everyone else's too? The Changeover is set in Christchurch, New Zealand following the recent earthquake. Whilst not factoring into the plot, the evidence of destruction is ever-present within the film, and beautifully mirrors the tumultuous home life of our lead, Laura, played wonderfully by Erana James. Laura is a teenage girl who has taken on the role of the parent in her household, following the suicide of her father. I would just like to point out how beautifully, realistically and understatedly this situation is handled and presented. When we are introduced to Laura it is as a teenager having fun with her friends. We are then introduced to the fact that she acts as if she were the sole carer of her younger brother, Jacko, and that she quietly mourns the fact that she can no longer be a child. She also quietly mourns when the daycare insists that her mother should take a more active role in Jacko’s life. She quietly mourns when her mother glances at her with resentment, knowing that Laura is becoming more of a mother to Jacko than she is, and I repeat “quietly mourns” because none of these facts are overstated, or dwelled upon, or make an impression upon the actresses’ face. They’re all carried with the quiet persistence of a child who is forced to grow up too quickly. The real core events of the film are set off when Laura encounters Timothy Spall’s Carmody Braque. Spall is, easily, one of my favourite actors. His ability to embody a role at a cellular level is breathtaking, and here he does not disappoint for a second. I don’t want to spoil who his character is, and his purpose within the story, other than to say that his character is fantastically creepy, amazingly disturbing, and yet all wrapped in an almost charming veneer of kindness, which constantly threatens to tear and reveal the unfathomable reality of what lies beneath. Suffice to say there is a heavy subgenre element at play here, which may or may not entice you further into the film, depending of course upon your proclivities. The elephant in the room is that this is a young adult supernatural romance, in a post-Twilight world, which will undoubtedly be off-putting to some, but it really needn’t be, and shouldn’t be. Speaking personally, I love the subgenre. I want to see teenage girls ingratiate themselves into mysteries beyond the ken of human understanding, and battle through taut, labyrinthine emotional situations, and discover the kind loving embrace of another, even if that lover is flawed, especially if that lover is flawed. There’s an honesty and sincerity to YA fiction that I feel is often lost in the obfuscation of adult social norms, where love, and emotion, and tenderness is buried in a mire of social one-up-manship and manners. I’m just babbling at this point, but it stands, YA fiction is good, it has the power to surprise and deserves a chance, which I hope it will receive. Thematically, The Changeover is not simple. Obviously there are themes of loss, lost parents, lost childhoods, lost cats and lost children, lost responsibility, and responsibility found anew. There is also an undercurrent of serial child abuse, just seeping in at the edges, not overt enough to require a content warning or increased age rating, but just present enough to create a constant subtle disturbing tone. Of course, this is a YA supernatural romance, so we also have the theme of found family, and while I don’t think the romance here is really the focus, they did do a great job with the cute love interest. They are present, they are cute, there are kisses(!), but this is very much Laura’s tale. I’ve honestly barely scratched the surface, but I don’t want this review to be twenty-thousand words long. It’s a fantastic work, and perhaps it suffers in a couple of places, just a few tweaks here and there to bring it up to the next level, but honestly nothing to get upset about. I hope everyone watches it because the distribution on this film was nonexistent, and it deserves to be seen, and enjoyed, and cherished. 4.5/5  57. TerrorVision (1986/USA) TerrorVision is a candy-coated delight, with an oozy extraterrestrial goop-filled centre. The plot is whatever, honestly it doesn’t matter, it's all just a wonderful excuse to create a comic book plastic-reality Reagan-era-hellscape, wrapped in a vaporwave aesthetic. The effects are amazing, and incredible, and inventive, and hilarious, and horrifying. The characters are all of the worst stereotypes from this era, warped and exaggerated to the limits of credulity and beyond. The whole effect is just a manic fever dream, which doesn’t invite serious inspection, but rather love and adoration. I should really comment on the gay-panic homophobia. First I will say that the parents within the film are shown as broad stereotypes who are not sympathetic, and are instead figures of fun and ridicule. You could argue then that, as we are not meant to sympathise with them, that their homophobia is not something the film is necessarily advocating but instead is another facet of their ridiculous personalities. I take a different point of view. I think if you have unchallenged homophobia within your script, then your script is homophobic. It kind of reminds me of the discussion surrounding “ironic” racist comedians, and the odd coincidence that many of them have gone on to reveal themselves as TERFs, and serial sex-offenders. “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” 4.5/5  58. Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986/USA) Scream Stream Poltergeist II picks up where the earlier film leaves off. We find our family destitute, surviving off the kindness of family members, and struggling to find new lives for themselves. We discover all this through some honestly quite dire monologues, which are both uninteresting and uninventive. The actors do their best with the material they’re given, bless them, but it really wasn’t enough to make this film enjoyable. There are enjoyable moments however, not least of which is Julian Beck’s terrifically creepy performance as Reverend Kane, but it’s all a bit too little and too far between. There is also some uncomfortable fetishization of indigenous culture, which for the ‘80s was probably the height of progressivism, but now just seems so saccharine and infantilising. I do wish I had magical butterfly powers though, butterflies are neat. 2.5/5  59. Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995/USA) Scream Stream This film was quite the fun trip. The lore and effects are wonderfully inventive and unhinged, as is the performance of Billy Zane. I’ll have to give it another watch as I was feeling the effects of a bottle of bottom-shelf pinot grigio at the time, but I recall it being pretty good. 4/5 Total: 59 Queer Interest: 29 Scream Stream: 10 new, 8 rewatches Fran Challenges: 12 | Horror Noire | Short Cuts | Feardotcom | Scream, Queen! | Silent Scream | Tomb of the Blind Spots | Dearly Departed | When Animals Attack | TerrorVision | Öskur heyrðust um allan heim | Ouroboros | Run This poo poo Into the Ground | Countries Visited: 23 | 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 | Tunisia | New Zealand |
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Oct 25, 2020 20:26
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moths posted:Fran challenge #4 Scream, queen! I’m glad people here are digging this, I was surprised to see that it has tons of awful ratings on Letterboxd. Obviously I don’t expect everyone to like all the same stuff I do but there’s a lot of “worst movie I’ve ever seen” comments. I’d like to give people the benefit of the doubt that they gave it a fair shot and genuinely didn’t think it was a good film and the hate isn’t just due to misogyny/transphobia, but...
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Oct 25, 2020 20:31
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October 25 - The Phantom Carriage The last of my three silent films for the year. There's always a few more silents for me to watch, though I'm bound to run out eventually unless people really start emptying out those insane asylum closets. Silent films can be a rough watch, so I don't want to overdo it during the challenge.  The person who dies at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve must act as death's coachman for the upcoming year. This year it's David's turn. He's a nasty man who lived a cruel life and as he's hauled off to take his station, he's brought to the death of the woman who tried to save him. It's eerie how art can sometimes echo across the centuries (or near century as Phantom Carriage is 99 years old). I wasn't expecting a man to be intentionally spreading disease out of toxic masculinity. The thing you have to mention about The Phantom Carriage is the amazing photography work. There's a lot of double exposure work and it looks amazingly natural. Double exposure can wind up looking like bad blue screening and this never does. Visually, the look of the film is great. I wouldn't say it's creepy, but it's effective. The story is more of a mixed bag. The movie follows one of the standard formulas of the day: wicked man falls and the compassion of a good, Christian woman brings him back. It's melodrama 101. But there are quite a few good touches that give the story a bit more life. It's also a complex film, skipping around in time to reveal David's story. I felt the ending was totally unearned, though I think audiences at the time wouldn't be ready for anything that actually hit hard. I had to take a look and a restored print was made and shown in 1975, so there'd be plenty of time for Kubrick to watch the movie before making The Shining. There's a sequence in the final act of the film that's almost directly used in The Shining. This was an interesting film. I can see why it was so influential even though from a modern perspective it's not as strong as it could be.
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Oct 25, 2020 20:40
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The Exorcist (1972) There's so much that has already been said about this movie that I can only agree with: it's a masterpiece from start to finish. As a Roman Catholic myself, demon/possession movies are really the only kind that truly scare me, and the Exorcist is truly the top of the genre. Jason Miller as Caras gives a performance that truly helps capture Father Karras as he is in the book (the fact the script was written by Blatty also certainly helps). In the book, the reader has inside access to Karras's thoughts regarding his faith, but it's so incredibly difficult to pull off the internal struggle that Karras has with his faith in a movie because we can't hear his thoughts. Nonetheless, Jason Miller does it, and does it superbly. I also really appreciate how well this movie takes the concept of Catholic exorcism seriously: Blatty being a Catholic himself certainly did his research into how the Vatican handles exorcisms. It's an incredibly powerful film from a religious standpoint: Karras and MacNeil play off of each other perfectly. One, a man struggling with his faith, turning away from it; the other a woman so desperate to help her daughter that faith is all she has left. The contrast of these two characters, and the places it leads them, is just a remarkable trifecta of writing, acting, and directing. It's also loving TERRIFYING. The effects are creepy as hell, Max Von Syndow has such a dire and serious appearance. When the air turns cold, the movie makes you feel freezing. You can sense the evil coming off of the screen. You can feel the desperation of Karras, the agony of Reagan, the worry of MacNeil. It's just a movie that is filled with uncertainty and doubt and fear and the fact that you can feel these themes it's trying to deal with from the film itself really makes the viewer feel like they are part of this situation and experience all the emotions that go along with it. I also love how it's scary as hell regardless of your religion. I've watched it with non-religious friends who are equally terrified of it as me. I highly recommend everyone read the book as well (and it's sequel Legion, which IMO is even better).  10/10
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Oct 25, 2020 20:42
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#28: Cure (1997) Massive treat to revisit this. I'd watched it a long while back and it made a big impression on me but I could barely remember anything about it, which is almost ideal since it felt kinda like watching again for the first time. I'd had Cure stuck in my head as an incredibly somber film, and while that's tonally true, much of the movie is almost oppressively bright. There are very few shots with standard lighting. Huge portions of the film are either veiled in heavy darkness or effectively overlit. The contrast is jarring and uncomfortable, and often even flips mid-shot. Characters will retreat from a well-lit room to one you can barely see into, and spaces sectioned off by darkness will illuminate suddenly and reveal themselves just as often. Lots of the movie's spaces are compartmentalized in that way. They flow freely into each other, but information is sectioned off. Another thing that stood out to me was the lack of music and tonal stings. Cure's filled with creepy imagery and sudden, horrifying reveals, but none of it is presented in a way meant to make you jump. Instead it's just shown, almost casually, and then cut away from when the movie feels like you've seen what you needed to. Sometimes the shots linger, but other times they're restrained and only give you a glimpse of information. What all this means is that you effectively never get a release of tension the way you do in most horror movies. There's never a point where something shrieks at you and lets you unload all your nervous energy in a jolt of adrenaline. Instead you just get a slow build off uncomfortable feelings over the course of the 2 hour runtime, and that tension continues even as the credits roll. You're just left to bake in it. The movie's hypnotism concept could've so easily have come off as goofy, but it really doesn't at all. We never quite get the rules spelled out for us, but I got the sense that the first step is answering Mamiya's questions. It's so clever to watch the scenes with him and Takabe play out with this in mind. Takabe doesn't understand what he's really doing, but his personality is such that he nearly always either ignores the question, skirts it, or answers with one of his own instead. It's like a game of cat and mouse where the mouse has no idea he's being pursued. Once someone's drawn into his trap, Mimiya seems to use consistent, repeated stimuli to impart his suggestions. Although there's no soundtrack, the movie's filled with these sorts of drones and repeated sounds, and as an audience member you feel almost like he's reaching out to you as well. Challenges (4/13): Movies Watched: 1. #Alive (2020), 2. Misery (1990), 3. Stay Alive (2006), 4. Blacula (1972), 5. The Wailing (2016), 6. 30 Days of Night (2007), 7. Dead Alive (1992), 8. Diabolique (1955), 9. Viy (1967), 10. Oculus (2013), 11. The People Under the Stairs (1991), 12. Murder Party (2007, 13. Phenomena (1985), 14. The VVitch (2015), 15. The Birds (1963), 16. The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001), 17. As Above So Below (2014), 18. The Wicker Man (1973), 19. The Midnight Meat Train (2008), 20. Creep (2014), 21. Creep 2 (2017), 22. The Boxer's Omen (1983), 23. The Innocents (1961), 24. One Cut of the Dead (2017), 25. Unfriended (2014), 26. Prince of Darkness (1987), 27. The Pool (2018), 28. Cure (1997) blood_dot_biz fucked around with this message at 22:07 on Oct 25, 2020 |
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Oct 25, 2020 21:59
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(25/31) The Howling (1981) 1/10 Wiki says: Its financial success aided Dante's career, and prompted Warner Bros. to hire Dante (as director) and Michael Finnell (as producer) for Gremlins. That's the only good thing about this movie next to Dee Wallace playing a really excellent lead. Good transformation later on too. Really not cool to see a woman (on a screen in a sexshop) getting tied up and raped. And later one Dee's husband is gaslighting Dee and hitting her. Yeah. No. Also dumb stuff like when people hear someone is bitten by a werewolf look at the TV and the first line on the TV is about someone being bitten by a werewolf. The transformation/final form of two people having sex as werewolves is soo cringy and stupid. Music is meh, too much on the organ and really not subtle. Hard pass; not rewatching this ever. Tomorrow: Dressed to Kill (1980) Watched (31): 1.The Blob (1988) 5/10 || 2.The Mummy (1959) 5/10 || 3.Basket Case (1982) 3/10 || 4.Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) 6/10 || 5.The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) 3/10 || 6.An American Werewolf In London (1981) 5/10 || 7.Onibaba (1964) 7.5 || 8.Re-Animator (1985) 6.5/10 || 9.Horror Of Dracula (1958) 7/10 || 10.The Return of the Living Dead (1985) 7/10 || 11.The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) 2/10 || 12.Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978) 5.5/10 || 13.Slither (2006) 6/10 || 14.Creepshow (1982) 2.5/10 || 15.Night Of The Creeps (1986) 5.5/10 || 16.Psycho (1960) 9/10 || 17.This Is the End (2013) 2/10 || 18.The Wicker Man (1973) 5.5/10 || 19.Deep Red (1975) 5/10 || 20.Kuroneko (1968) 7/10 || 21.The Brood (1979) 6/10 || 22.Near Dark (1987) 3.5/10 || 23.Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) /10 || 24.Suspiria (1977) 6/10 || 25.The Howling (1981) 1/10 Watched (extra): 1. Child's Play (2019) 6/10
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Oct 25, 2020 22:33
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 25. Krampus (2015) dir. Michael Dougherty  FRAN CHALLENGE #13: It's the Time of the Season for Spook-a-DoodlesAbsolutely true story about me: I get very depressed and anxious around seasonal stuff being out of order. I get very into Halloween, Christmas, and the Start of Summer. I get uneasy when I see Christmas stuff on MLK Day and I compartmentalize horror movies to after Labor Day. I've had to ease up because I got my wife into horror and now she just is sometimes in the mood for a horror movie. But Christmas Horror is tricky for me which is why I sit on it. The deal we made is that we can watch Christmas Horror on October 25th and December 13th. Just a window into my brain! Anyway... thats all to explain why I sat on this for so long despite loving Trick 'R Treat. This is great! I think it really speaks to everything I found underwhelming about Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and New Child's Play. Dougherty really has a knack for that 80s cartoony horror, but he also really plays with his monsters. I feel in some movies, they'll come up with an interesting visual or creature design but just slap it on the screen. Dougherty really considers how his creatures move, what their personalities are, what their relationships are. It's not just a matter of the creatures being puppets, even the CGI gingerbread men work because they're characters. Only knocks I would give it and stop it from getting the 5/5 I'd give Trick 'R Treat is that some of the monster designs feel a little lackluster, but it's in comparison of some great stuff. While the CGI doesn't hinder the characters from feeling lively, the textures do stick out. /5
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Oct 25, 2020 22:37
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#69: 2004 Incident at Loch Ness *REWATCH* "As I sat in the hull, it occurred to me that my film had evaporated. And your film, this study of my life, had become a sort of horror movie" A documentary crew making a film about famed director Werner Herzog capture more than they expect when Herzog's latest project, a documentary about the Loch Ness Monster, runs into unexpected developments. What a nice movie. First off, you got a ton of Werner Herzog. And everyone likes that. The other people are entertaining took, and it made me want to see more Kitana Baker, but we all know Herzog is the main draw The story develops wonderfully. You can see the path this production is going to take, and of course you know there is no movie called "The Enigma of Loch Ness", so you know this movie isn't getting made. But it's still a lovely ride to see the difficulties and conflicts mount. I don't really have much to say, it's just a lovely time seeing Werner Herzog get increasingly frustrated on a lake. I strongly recommend Incident at Loch Ness. If you're getting a little tired of horror movies, or you just got through a run of dispiritingly bad ones, or just watched one particularly emotionally draining, or just want a pleasant evening, watch Incident at Loch Ness. It's a nice little palette cleanser, and a guaranteed nice time. 69 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, Critters, Tyler Perry's Boo! A Madea Halloween13, Critters 2, Critters 310, Happy Death Day12, Critters 4, The Night Staulker9, Stacy11, Incident at Loch Ness** denotes rewatches Fran Challenges left: 8
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Oct 25, 2020 23:22
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Could someone point me to a good animal attack movie available for free on Amazon Prime or one of the free streaming sites?
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Oct 25, 2020 23:36
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12. Psycho II (1983) - DVR (Showtime) Hooptober Challenge: 7 Second Films of Franchises 1 of 7  "I don't kill people anymore." - Norman Bates This sequel, coming 23 years after the original, is probably better than it has any right in being. In Psycho II Norman Bates has spent the last 22 years in a psychiatric ward and is deemed rehabilitated. He returns to live in his childhood home behind the Bates Motel and gets a job at a local diner. Things seem to be going okay until he starts getting notes and phone calls from Mother and bodies start to pile up. Anthony Perkins does a good job in portraying Norman as he is slowly driven back to his insanity. I did kind of laugh at the end when Emma Spool reveals her identity to Norman and his response is to kill her in a "second time's the charm" situation I guess. 3.5/5 13. Psycho III (1986) - DVR (Showtime) Fran Challenge 4: Scream, Queen! "We all go a little mad sometimes." - Norman Bates This sequel takes place shortly after the events of Psycho II. Norman sets about renovating the Bates Motel and starts accepting guests again. Unfortunately for them, Mother is back calling the shots. Anthony Perkins returns as Norman Bates and Psycho III is his directorial debut (his only other directing credit is a movie called Lucky Stiff). I have distinct memories of seeing the VHS (among others) on the shelf when I would go with my parents to rent movies as a kid. My parents were never fans of horror movies, though, so I would only get to look at them until I got older and could rent them myself. This sequel is decent but a definite step down from the second. 3/5 14. Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990) - DVR (Showtime) Hooptober Challenge: Films From 6 Different Decades 1 of 6 - 1990s  This sequel functions as a prequel as well, with Anthony Perkins once more playing Norman Bates and Henry Thomas playing a young Norman in flashbacks. Psycho IV has a once again rehabilitated (we assume as it happens off-screen) Norman Bates calling into a radio show where the topic is very relevant to him - those who have killed their mothers. He talks about his childhood and the events that turned him into the killer he was. Psycho IV is another step down in quality, although it was nice to see Norma Bates actually alive. 2.5/5
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Oct 25, 2020 23:41
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