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October 31 - Shin Godzilla Time to bring the curtain down on the 2020 challenge with a movie I've been trying to watch for years, only to be stymied by it being unavailable when October rolled around. Well, I've got it now so it's time for some very belated thoughts on Shin Godzilla.  When a giant monster emerges from Tokyo Bay, it's time for governmental action! There's a lot of walk and talks along hyperactive editing as information and commands pass up and down the chain. The Japanese government's response is inadequate and it's up to a team of young go getters to deal with Godzilla. It's fascinating watching this movie immediately after the Heisei series because there's a lot of commonality between them. Shin doesn't fit with the Millenium series very well as those movies shoot over the top and it's use of Godzilla as a disaster that has to be addressed doesn't fit in with the bulk of the Showa era. The Heisei films, OTOH, with their often adversarial Godzilla, focus on the people trying to stop Godzilla, and political messages match closely. Godzilla's final form resembles the meltdown Godzilla in Vs. Destroyah, too. And let's talk about those politics. You'd have to be blind to not notice that the film series often dives into political waters. To use an example I watched this month, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah was a movie steeped in ultraconservative Japanese politics, fetishizing Japanese superiority and imperialism. Shin Godzilla is also embedded in Japanese politics and latches onto the idea of Japanese determinism, but in a more nuanced way. The post-war period that the original Godzilla was made in still looms over the film, but Japan as a member of an international community is significant. Shin Godzilla says, "We won't be owned by the US or anyone else, but we will stand beside them." It's significant that the final plan to defeat Godzilla is very Japanese in nature but still requires the cooperation of many countries. The shadow looming over Shin Godzilla are the events of the 2011 Touhoku earthquake where the government response was clumsy and hampered by conservative political culture. I wonder if there was also some inspiration drawn from the 2014 South Korean ferry disaster where a similarly bureaucratic and irresponsible government response resulted in hundreds of deaths. The unwillingness for anyone to make a decision because they might be accountable for it is central here and I was a bit concerned that it would extend to presenting the solution being a strong man taking the reigns. It's a kind of fascist, authoritarian message that's way too common in a lot of media. But in Shin Godzilla, the solution wasn't bold, forceful leadership, it's building a diverse team of individuals that won't defer to the old men in charge. Something that's been bothering me as I watch Godzilla movies is how bloodless they are. In the Heisei films in particular, there's this tendency to take street scenes and add Godzilla to the background so you have people going about their everyday business while death and destruction are occurring a few hundred feet away. You don't get that here and I appreciate it. How people deal with Godzilla as an unfolding natural disaster is one of the things that's always tickled my brain in the series and having a movie where that's the plot was great for me. One of the things I heard about Shin Godzilla was that the monster looks goofy initially, but I kind of like it. It looks like a deep sea creature that has emerged from the depths. It would have been a good monster for any Godzilla movie. The dorsal laser array on the other hand... If there's one significant flaw with Shin Godzilla is that there's too much plot here to the point that it drowns out everything else. We don't really get to know these characters because we're so busy rushing from plot point to plot point. Maybe cut the deciphering the code subplot which was basically nonsense and give the characters a few small scenes to breathe. It's not your daddy's Godzilla movie, but I like Shin Godzilla taking the series in a different direction. I was wondering about a sequel, but I'm not sure I need one even with the last second bait. I can't see this film expanding into giant monster battles without losing the things that made it interesting. That's it for my 31. I'll write up a conclusion post in a bit. Thanks everyone who has read these reviews!
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Oct 31, 2020 20:04
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BisonDollah posted:45 - Wait Until Dark
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Oct 31, 2020 20:08
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Don't think I'm gonna make it to 31. I'm only at 20 and might get one or two more in tonight but I'll post about what I did manage tomorrow and do better next year.
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Oct 31, 2020 20:09
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It's Halloween and I met my challenge number so I'm fully abandoning the production order thing at this point 73: RWD  The movie starts, it's two dudes in the woods. I'm like, OK. I like found footage movies, two dudes in the woods is fine. Then it starts hinting at a timeloop and I'm like, ehhh, I've seen a couple timeloop found footage movies before and both of them just used the timeloop as a dumbass stinger at the end and both times made me angry. But RWD doesn't do that. It has a horror idea and it goes full tilt into it. RWD is, and this is no mild praise from me, dumb Primer. Once it got going I really enjoyed the hell out of RWD. I heartily recommend it, especially to found footage fans who will love this breath of fresh air in an all too often repetitive genre. I gotta track down the sequel 73 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*, Slugs8, Devilman, Chupacabra Terror, RWD* denotes rewatches ALL FRAN CHALLENGES COMPLETE
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Oct 31, 2020 20:31
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40)Demon House So, yea, Ghost bro made a documentary movie. It's a feature and R rated and he takes advantage of swearing like crazy. One guy being interviewed bites his tongue and censors himself, and Zak is all: dont worry you can say whatever you want. And, even if you believe all the supernatural goings on, he's such an rear end. Stop tracking down the people who deliberately don't want to talk to you. That said, some weird stuff happens to people in this house health wise. Though, as the home inspector points out in the beginning, this house is also full of carbon monoxide and black mold, so honestly that's probably what's going on. That and poverty and gentrification and the general economic problems that lead to a house being full of mold and carbon monoxidee. I used to watch Ghost Adventures all the time, and this isn't as entertaining. I think this was made after the gang broke up, and his buds went a long way toward tempering Zak's obnoxiousness. At an hour and a half, it stretches a little long. Not the worst spooky doc /540/31 haunt,bridge curse,#alive, the strings, amber's descent, papi ramirez vs giant scorpions, black lake, displaced, danni and the vampire, woman of the photographs, witches of hollywood, bleed with me, hell house, death drop gorgeous,A nightmare wakes, leni,occupants,last thanksgiving,threshhold, it cuts deep, cold wind blows, the return, ghost stories, cleansing hour,dracula’s daughter, cabinet of doctor caligari, the ring, dagon,uncaged,fall of the house of usher,extremity,dark night of the scarecrow, paranormal activity the ghost dimenion, the wailing,images,elvira mistress of the dark, adventures of ichabod and mr toad, halloween at aunt ethels, tomb of ligeia, Demon House
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Oct 31, 2020 20:42
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41. One Missed Call (2003) Two pieces of difficult to avoid knowledge that I think actually make this a more interesting experience: 1. it's almost two hours long and 2. it's directed by Takashi Miike. The reason these things matter is that it's a Japanese ghost movie that seems to have explained all the rules, killed half the core friend group, and more or less told us what the ghost's deal is within half an hour or so. A big portion of the runtime, then, is spent wondering whether there actually is a mystery at all or not - there are a couple of threads that aren't all tied up neatly, but are they actually clues to anything at all? Or are we just observing that, yes, vengeful spirits tend to be kind of assholes and we're watching inevitable doom creep up on these people? It's a much more plausible question here than in...pretty much any Western production, where we know to a near-certainty that 1-2 people are going to make it through. It's mostly a really fun ride, although it's also all about trauma and child abuse and not particularly interested in being subtle so kind of unfun at the same time. Sometimes. There's this big setpiece where one of the doomed friends gets sort of kidnapped onto a live broadcast of the foretold moment of her doom and it's an absolute joy in the moment and also just fantastically bleak in its view of Japanese society. At this point it kind of feels like all the movie really has to say is "So, hey, child abuse and trauma? That stuff sucks and we don't do much of anything that isn't destructive about it. Probably there's nothing to do." Though again at this point you have almost a full hour of movie to go and three endings later I honestly don't know what to make of it messaging-wise. One of them is pretty fun re: just how much of an rear end in a top hat this ghost is. Miike, though, so I also know I got off easy on the whole interpreting the ending thing. I also know there are like three sequels to this and they're not going to but I desperately want them to follow the story directly and immediately. I don't even need a new ghost or anything you can just show me what life is like for these characters now and it's either zany and heartwarming or much more intense than another ghost movie. In short this is a billion times more interesting then you'd expect from the premise, but that's kind of a low bar. And then they apparently did a PG-13 remake with a bunch of goofy bug-eye makeup? This ghost doesn't even come close to making sense outside of a Japanese cultural context. It's almost comforting how consistently pointless and stupid the post-Ring Japanese horror remakes were.
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Oct 31, 2020 20:43
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29. Fran Challenge #12: Ourorboros - Eaten Alive (1976) 2/5 I decided to scroll backwards from my last post and watch the first film I didn't recognize and hadn't seen. Turned out that I would knock another off my Tobe Hooper list. Much like Texas Chainsaw was loosely inspired by the story of Ed Gein, this film is loosely based on the murders of Joe Ball. Neville Brand is excellent as the creepy, manic Judd, and his physical acting reminded me somewhat of what you'd see Bill Moseley doing as ChopTop. It's always fun to see Robert Englund playing a character that isn't Freddie, despite him being fairly bland as a sleazy redneck in this. Overall, I have a lot of good to say about this movie, but for some reason, I just didn't like it. It never clicked with me and made me want to watch Texas Chainsaw instead. 30. Fran Challenge #13: It's The Time of the Season for Spook-a-Doodles - Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale 3.5/5 This was awesome. I've been putting this off for years, as I've never had much luck with Christmas-themed Horror, outside of Krampus, and I'm glad I finally got around to watching it. I need to track down the original 8 minute short this was based off of and give it a go. All Fran Challenges Completed!31. From Beyond 4/5 Double-dipping on Stuart Gordon. Fran, thank you for putting this together. It's been fun completing the challenges and knocking movies off my list that I should have seen forever ago. From Beyond might be the highlight of everything I've watched this month. I don't know HOW I slept so long on a Lovecraft-inspired, Yuzna/Gordon Joint, starring Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ken Foree, and Ted Sorel. I think maybe I always confused it for The Beyond? I don't know, but I'm glad I've seen it now. It rules, satisfied my Re-Animator itch, and features some of the most impressive/gross body horror effects I've ever seen. Personal goal of 31 movies met!Now to see if I can sneak in 1-2 more after work tonight! Several Goblins fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Oct 31, 2020 |
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Oct 31, 2020 21:59
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Spook-a-Doodle Double Feature #48: Vincent and Boris And Roger and Edgar and Whale and Pretorious and Barbara. Its funny because a few months ago I’m not sure I’d ever seen a Roger Corman film and a few years ago I’d only barely seen a little of Price or Karloff. But now it wouldn’t feel right to celebrate Halloween without them. And they make for wonderful afternoon before the sun goes down warm ups. I was going to watch the Raven and really double up but that turned out to not be available to me and I accidently deleted my TCM recording, so I went with a rewatch I’ve been wanting to do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goXi7w-1dCA 83 (95). Pit and the Pendulum (1961) Directed by Roger Corman, Screenplay by Richard Matheson, Based on "The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe. Watched on Prime. The exact fun warmup for Halloween horror that I was hoping from Price and Corman. I’m quickly becoming a big fan and I think this was one of my favorite teamups. Price throws 110% into his character and its maybe the most complete journey from normal guy to dangerous mad man I’ve seen. Barbara Steele is a great bonus and honestly I think I’ve been sleeping on her. She’s so incredibly expressive and such a wonderful foil for Price, I’m disappointed they didn’t have more time on screen together but grateful for what they did. I think she’s one of my next big deep dives to fill holes. Its got all the stuff you expect. Stylish, colorful, great gothic setting. Price vamping it up and Steele matching him. A solid little story and a great bunch of visuals. Big fun Halloween spook a doodle time. - (96). The Old Dark House (1932) Directed by James Whale, Written by Benn W. Levy and R. C. Sherriff, Based on Benighted by J. B. Priestley. Watched on Kanopy, available on Shudder. A rewatch I’ve had on my mind for awhile. I went into it the first time expecting something much more sinister. I was imagining a great KARLOFF madman up to some real Vincent Price like madness. That’s not what this is, but that’s fine. I just needed to watch it clean to fully appreciate that. This has more of the James Whale devilish comedy that we’d see in Bride of Frankenstein and The Invisible Man in the years to come complete with a preview of Ernest Thesiger being a delight before he’d become the groundbreaking mad scientist Pretorious and even kind of a proto Una Conner in Eva Moore’s incredibly put upon and letting everyone know about it lady of the house. KARLOFF is seen a little less than I’d like but then there’s the delightfully wacky brother Saul and decrepit Dad. Its a very fun and wacky family and while I really enjoy the short run times of these old films (especially as I try and fit a bunch in on Halloween) I think this is definitely a film that could have benefited from being longer and having more time with all the members of this disturbed family. The folks on the other side are pretty good too. Charles Laughton walks this fun line of a guy you think you’re maybe gonna hate at the start but is actually kind of a fun and lovable decent guy. The romance is a little odd and rushed but totally fine and probably more charming than the old married couple who aren’t old enough to be that snippy. They’re fine too and all but its really just more of the same thing. This movie’s filled with characters who are fun enough but feel like they could be more fun if they had more time. But the old saying is to leave them wanting more, and Whale succeeds in that. He puts together a tight and chaotic little spooky house adventure that never gets too spooky but also never gets too silly either even though its got plenty of silliness and comedy. Its got a very modern feel and style especially in the character and dialogue department. It blows me away what a steep learning curve Whale had from Frankenstein to his other films. Frankenstein is a classic and has probably been one of my most rewatched films of the Universals but its flaws are obvious and its clearly a bit of a work in progress to everyone. Whale, Karloff, talkies. The Invisible Man and Bride are remarkable for how well they hold up as modern films and Invisible Man might genuinely be one of my favorites but The Old Dark House shows all of that skill and ahead of his time vision developing at an incredibly rapid pace. He still doesn’t have it all perfectly put together to create the classics he would, but you can see it in there and its a fun watch and prototype for things to come both for Whale but also the “old dark house” sub genre.
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Oct 31, 2020 22:13
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#13: It's the Time of the Season for Spook-a-Doodles Either of these movies would count for this challenge! My only two re-watches of the challenge too, although I haven't seen Hocus Pocus since I was a kid.  43. Hocus Pocus (1993) re-watch Disney+ 300 years ago, a trio of witches known as the Sanderson Sisters were executed by the people of Salem, but not before they cast a spell that will resurrect them when a virgin lights a magic candle during a full moon on Halloween. In present day Salem, well... a virgin lights a magic candle during a full moon on Halloween. Wacky witch hijinks ensue! This is cute and has some really fun spooky atmosphere in it. The costumes and sets look great (especially the witches' home and the cemetery), and the effects when they cast spells or fly around on their broomsticks are really fun. Bette Midler is absurdly hammy and over the top, and gives the role 110% even when some of the dialogue is bad. Her schtick gets a bit old by the end though. For a kids' movie this spends a weird amount of time emphasizing that the teenage protagonist is a virgin, and it's even more bizarre that his little sister constantly brings it up to tease him. Is this Disney movie implying that it's so lame to not be sexually active at 15 that even literal children will mock you for it? I'm imagining some awkward conversations between kids and their parents after watching this movie. Also Sarah Jessica Parker's character is weirdly horny and keeps asking to "play" with the boys, who once again are high school students. Anyway this is fine for a children's movie, although there are probably better options for a kid-friendly Halloween film nowadays. 3.5 virgins out of 5  44. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) re-watch blu-ray This was a flop upon release, mainly because audiences wanted another movie about Michael Myers and instead got a bizarre story about an evil mask company, pagan sacrifices, killer robots, and Tom Atkins hooking up with a woman who is WAY too young for him. Time has been kind to it though, and horror fans have largely accepted it as a good film that was a victim of its own marketing. I love how bonkers this movie gets. Microchips powered by pieces of Stonehedge that cause children's heads to turn into piles of snakes and insects? Hell yeah. Conal Cochran is a good villain and when you think about it he might have the highest body count of any horror movie villain ever. Tom Atkins is great even if he does play pretty much the exact same character he plays in every movie I've seen him in. This also has really great atmosphere and feels more appropriately Halloween-y than possibly any of the other films in the franchise besides the original. There is some commentary on consumerism and the commercialization of Halloween in here too - the kids are very easily manipulated by the ubiquitous Silver Shamrock advertising and even dance around singing the jingle from the commercial. The bad guys basically carry out their evil plan just by spending a boatload of money on TV and radio spots. It does take a bit to get going - most of the crazy poo poo doesn't happen until the third act, and the start of the film isn't all that memorable apart from some good gore. Still, it's more hits than misses and I'm glad that public opinion of this has come around. If you like '80s horror movies this is a classic. 4 days til Halloween out of 5 Total: 44 Watched: Peeping Tom | Cry of the Banshee | The Loved Ones | The Tenant | Get Duked! | Sugar Hill (FC #1) | Ma | Shivers | Onibaba | The Black Cat | Beyond Re-Animator | Short films (FC #2) | The Hunger | The Skin I Live In | Santa Sangre | Blood Beat | The Witch in the Window | Possession | Inferno of Torture | The Legend of Hell House | Scare Me | The Wolf of Snow Hollow | Daughters of Darkness | A Chinese Ghost Story II | FearDotCom (FC #3) | What Keeps You Alive (FC #4) | A Page of Madness (FC #5) | Boar (FC #8) | Four Flies on Grey Velvet (FC #7) | Seconds | Sputnik | Let's Scare Jessica to Death | Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (FC #10) | Bit (FC #12) | Someone's Watching Me! (FC #9) | Dracula's Daughter (FC #6) | The Mortuary Collection | Long Weekend | Unfriended | Alice Sweet Alice | Terrified (FC #11) | Wolf Creek | Hocus Pocus (FC #13) | Halloween III: Season of the Witch Fran Challenges: SIDE QUESTS: Edgar Wright's Top 100 Horror: 96/100 Slant Top 100 Horror: 94/100 TSZDT Top 100: 100/100
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Oct 31, 2020 22:25
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 38. The Shining (1980) (rewatch) All the Scatman Crothers parts rule. The blood elevator looks amazing in 4K. Riding a big wheel around an empty hotel looks pretty fun tbh. 5/5  39. WNUF Halloween Special (2013) They really nailed the look and feel of VHS and local tv for this movie. Though I think in some ways it feels too much like a local tv broadcast in that I wanted Frank to quit stalling and get to the spooky stuff. The call-in seance segment is great. 3.5/5 40. Fran Challenge #2: Short Cuts  The Strange Thing About the Johnsons (2011) (28 min) Well this is pretty uncomfortable to watch. I knew the premise going in but I still cringed hard at the reveal at the end of the opening scene. A couple of pretty good scenes where you can see Aster’s talent but there’s not quite enough to this for a half hour runtime.  Frankenstein (1910) (14 min) Always interesting to see a piece of film history. The shot of the monster in the mirror was pretty cool. I also liked the sequence of the monster being formed with his lil skeleton hand waving at the camera (I was waving back).  Teeth (2015) (6 min) This is gross as hell. The bit where he runs the serrated knife over his teeth will stick with me. Good punchline at the end.  Geometria (1987) (9 min) I probably would have liked this more if the version I watched on YouTube wasn’t sub-144p quality but this was a decent monkey’s paw variant.  The Pact (2011) (11 min) Some creepy ambience but the story goes nowhere. This story needed a bit more room to breath I think. It was apparently adapted into a feature length movie, so maybe that's more interesting, but this was a bit dull. By my count that's 68 minutes worth of short films and my last Fran Challenge fulfilled. I'll prob get 2-3 more movies in by the end of the night, well exceeding my goal of 31. It's been fun!
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Oct 31, 2020 22:38
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I think I’m going to tap out now. I’ve met (and exceeded) my goal and I got to take part in a few Fran Challenges. I just want to thank everyone in the thread for giving me the opportunity to explore a genre I don’t normally watch that much. I had a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed reading all your write ups. I look forward to next years challenge! Final Total: 27/20 New: 21 Rewatches: 6 Fran Challenges (not in order): 1. Horror Noire (Horror Noire) 6. Tomb of the Blind Spots (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) 7. Dearly Departed (From Beyond) 11. Öskur heyrðust um allan heim (Evil) My Letterboxd list (complete)
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Oct 31, 2020 22:39
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Happy Halloween Challenge Thread! #45. The Grudge (2020) (Starz) A house is cursed by a vengeful ghost that dooms those who enter it with a violent death, and confusing timelines and edits. I've never seen a Grudge movie before this one, so I'm not one that can really speak to whether this is a good representation of that series. I can speak to whether it's a good movie on its own or not, and it pretty much isn't. The acting and scripting are all okay, and it looks decent enough. I think the big thing is the structure - the film is full of overlapping stories that feel less like intercut side stories than they do unrelated digressions for far too long. It tends to obscure the relationships and interrelated storytelling too much, so it feels like nothing hangs together all that well. I understand that this is the first film in this series without the principal director; maybe that explains why nothing works all that well, but it doesn't make me want to check out any of the other Grudges.  /5 #46. Silence of the Lambs (Netflix) A young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims. This is still a masterclass in acting and tension, and there's a lot going on in regards to gender politics simmering away under the hood that I'm not the most adept to speak to. There's a reason this film is in the rarefied air of films that won the "Big Five" awards. Check it out if you've somehow managed to avoid it. /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, Demon Knight, 3 From Hell, Dark Night of the Scarecrow, Dr. Giggles, Werewolf of London, The Wolf of Snow Hollow, The Mummy's Ghost, Halloween: Resurrection, The Mortuary Collection, The Grudge (2020), Silence of the Lambs
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Oct 31, 2020 23:03
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Spook-a-Doodle Double Feature #48.5: Cats and Dogs Sun’s still up and it wouldn’t be Halloween without some of the childhood favorites. Maybe no kids this year for trick or treating (still none as of this moment) and TV ruined great tradition and didn’t air it, but I can still get some Great Pumpkin in on my own and I toss in a little Garfield. Neither's long enough to count for the challenge but they're the perfect length to run out the clock until the sun sets. - Garfield’s Halloween Adventure (1985) Directed by Phil Roman, Written by Jim Davis. Watched on Youtube. Long before I ever discovered John Carpenter I was watching, loving, and being more scared than I would let on by Garfield’s Halloween Adventure. So revisiting it as a grown up so long later its a revelation but not a surprise that the part that scared me so much and made it so memorable seems like its maybe a little bit inspired by maybe my favorite horror film of all time The Fog. Its not a knockoff or anything, not that I would have at all minded a Garfield adaption of The Fog. But it does feel a bit familiar like maybe Jim Davis was watching some Carpenter when he dreamed up this story. Like I said, this was a childhood favorite so I was very glad to see it on Youtube and available for an easy rewatch. I always loved Garfield. I guess he spoke to my inner lasagna loving lazy bastard. Its always risky revisiting stuff you loved as a kid but Garfield still works for me. Sarcasm and snark is timeless I guess, toss in some solid music and horror. I even remember having the book of this special and treasuring that. Its nothing revolutionary or anything but its a nostalgic favorite and I think one that still holds up and is a lightly spooky and fun watch at 25 minutes. The perfect thing to run out the clock until the sun sets for the real stuff. And something I wouldn’t hesitate to watch with some kids. - It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966) Directed by Bill Melendez, Written by Charles M. Schulz. Watched on DVD, available on Apple+. I’ve always loved the Holiday Season which starts right here with Halloween for me and works its way through to the New Year and Super Bowl. And a big part of the season are those Charlie Brown specials. Its not Christmas without seeing that sad tree and its not Thanksgiving without wondering what a toast, popcorn, pretzel, and jelly bean Thanksgiving would be like. And it wouldn’t be Halloween without the Great Pumpkin, Linus’ non-denominational focus of childhood belief. It genuinely bums me out that TV broke the tradition of airing it. I mean, I have no idea who really relied on needing to watch it on TV and was still doing it in 2020, but what did 30 minutes on Halloween night really cost? Its a shame. Probably not very high on the list of societal shames we’re all witnessing and experiencing these days, but still. Kinda lame. Peanuts are one of those cartoons you go back and watch and not only don’t get struck with the idea that you were a stupid child and your memories are crap, but you actually watch and go “wow, I didn’t pick up on half this stuff when I was a kid.” I’m just laughing at a dog doing things dogs shouldn’t do, I don’t know a think about him being a WWI bomber downed in France. The Peanuts cartoons really nailed that sweet spot between childhood innocence and stuff every kid could fundamentally appreciate and have feelings for and something adults could watch along with and laugh at jokes that went way over the kids’ heads. Charlie Brown always kind of made me a little sad. Here’s this socially awkward kid who gets bullied all the time and gets the short end of the stick. I mean, things tend to work out for him in the end but no one ever retains the lessons to next special. They’re all just being dicks again led by that mean Sally. But hey… this excerpt from the Wikipedia entry made me feel a little better. quote:Schulz wanted Charlie Brown to get a rock at one house. Melendez suggested it happen three times, and while executive producer Lee Mendelson said no, he was overruled.[9] According to Schulz in the book and retrospective TV special Happy Birthday, Charlie Brown, after the program first aired, bags and boxes of candy came in from all over the world "just for Charlie Brown. Awww.
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Oct 31, 2020 23:13
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 #147) The Recall (2017) A group of 'young people' with haircuts and clothing options from 2010 (one guy has a Peter Petrelli cut) are on a weekend lake trip. They run into rural-mode/former-astronaut Wesley Snipes, and after a little fake-out where things look like they're going to turn into a Wrong Turn-ish slasher, aliens show up. Snipes is, without a doubt, the best part of this film, largely because he gives no shits about how dumb it is. He blasts an alien with a shotgun, then laughs while dancing in place. He's utterly condescending to the idiot kids who stumbled onto his property. When he's showing off scars the aliens gave him, he's just like 'Yup, look at these.' In contrast, the 'young people' are as boring as dishwater. There's some good body horror on the alien ship, too, and the aliens themselves have a cool, creepy design, but the film takes a while to get there, and doesn't stay there very long. And things really start to get interesting about ten minutes before the movie's over. Oh well. You get what you get with 21st-century Canadian sci-fi horror. “Keep yappin', see what happen.” Rating: 5/10Watched on Blu-ray.  #148) Apartment 143 (2011) Ghost investigation squad goes to check out the gigantic apartment of a single-parent family, and things get weird. Ghostly weird! I started out liking this, because it gave the ghosthunters some good sense of personalities, letting us spend some time with them before they even arrived at the haunted locale. And the family members got some similar characterization; the four-year-old practically ran away with the show, being just cute as heck (“How old are you?” (holding up five fingers) “Four.” (realizes mistake, quickly folds a finger down). But as the film went on, everyone seemed to get kind of flattened out, being squished into the usual roles that go with this type of plot. By the time we got to an anguished confession, I was feeling let down. And that's without going into how shittily shallow the exploration of the abusive relationships was. Left me feeling a little revolted by the script-writer's choices, and while the technical side of the film wasn't spectacular (a bit too much switching between assorted video types and angles, to the point where some of the shots didn't really make sense to have been captured by the ghost squad's set-ups), it was good enough to deserve better than the directions the script ended up going. “It's all my dad's fault.” Rating: 6/10Watched on Blu-ray.  #149) Addams Family Values (1993) Absolute classic. Everyone in the family knows their characters thoroughly by now (even if Pugsley gets less than a dozen lines of dialogue, and ditto for Carol Kane), Joan Cusack brings her A-game, and the script is just bursting with sly lines and clever touches. Some of the story developments are less than sensical (even if Gomez is susceptible to fits of naivete, Morticia would know better than to believe her kids wanted to go to summer camp, so a little something more to intimate that she was knowingly getting them out of her hair would be nice), but the movie barrels along with such fun and verve that those little snags are easy to forgive. Some Rube Goldberging in the finale, a sympathetic villain (Malibu Barbie? Really?!), Marc Shaiman doing fantastic work on the score (even if there's nothing on the level of “The Mamushka”), and more interactions of the Addamses with the outside world. Shame about trading down from Hammer to Tag Team, but you can't have everything. “Why are you dressed like someone died?” “Wait.” Rating: 8/10Watched on DVD.
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Oct 31, 2020 23:17
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30) Night of the Living Dead (1968) Blu-Ray - Rewatch It's Night of the Living Dead, it's a classic for a reason. I think the thing that I find most impressive about NotLD (and there's a lot to be impressed by) is just how well it holds up today. An entire subgenre of horror films was birthed from this one film, but it still has characters and themes that are not only still relevant, but it explores those characters and themes in a way that still applies to the culture today. Ben is the ideal protagonist of a zombie outbreak. He's what all those people who have their bug-out bags and escape plans ready "for when the zombie apocalypse happens" think they would be: he's resourceful, inventive, determined, and he always has a plan. In reality, though, they'll probably be Barbara. Losing their mind after seeing loved ones die and the dead eating the living. Or they'll be a member of the posses happily roving the country to kill the zombies - or anything else they don't like. And that's why this film still works over 50 years later. In the end, it doesn't matter how good Ben was at surviving a night of flesh-eating ghouls, he still can't survive the society he lives in. I think it's important to note the ending shots where you see Ben's corpse piled next to the corpse of the first zombie we see in the film on a bonfire. In the eyes of the posse, they're the same thing. Also the great cast, amazing direction, make-up effects that are still creepy today and legitimate scenes of horror (especially with a child eating her parents!). That's also why it works. The music is a bit much these days, but still. Oh, also, there are two scenes I really want to highlight: The scene where Ben tells Barbara about the encounter he had as the gas station, and the short scene where a scientist on television talks about dismembering a zombie, only for it to still live. They both paint a really good picture of scenes that this film obviously didn't have the budget to show, but I think it's all the more effective because of it. They're two great examples where telling was better than showing. 4.5/5 31) The Invisible Man (2020) Prime Video - First Watch That's it! 31 films! The final one! And what better way to end this challenge than how I begun it: with a Man that is Not Visible. This was really solid. A great performance by Elizabeth Moss and some really amazing direction from Leigh Whannell. It was a really smart move to change the focus of the story away from the fantastic science of the Man himself and instead frame it as a story of a woman escaping her abusive partner. I was a bit worried that the film would keep Moss' character in the dark about what was going on for too long, but luckily she figured it out pretty fast. We as the audience know that, yes, we're watching a film called The Invisible Man so all these goings on are most likely the result of a Man Who You Cannot See, so it would have been frustrating if the characters didn't figure that out too. Whannell's direction really is the stand-out here. He's able to make shots of empty rooms feel incredibly creepy just by hinting at the idea that someone might be there. When it's revealed that this is all due to a high-tech suit (and not a potion or anything), Whannell is able to shoot that with the same high-technology stylishness that make Upgrade so good. I did like the twist near the end. It did very much feel like the film was coming to an end naturally, so it was a really good swerve in the narrative to have it continue. Ultimately, though, I wish they had done more with how they actually ended it as I felt that was the weakest part of the film. Overall though, a great way to finish this challenge! 4/5 Final List: 1) The Invisible Man (1933) - 3.5/5 2) The Blair Witch Project (1999) - 4.5/5 3) Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000) - 1.5/5 4) Blair Witch (2016) - 2/5 5) Martyrs (2008) - 4 (I think? I'm still not sure how I feel about this one)/5 6) Jennifer's Body (2009) - 4/5 7) Blacula (1972) - 3.5/5 8) FRAN CHALLENGE #1: Horror Noire - Scream Blacula Scream (1973) - 3.5/5 9) Bad Taste (1987) - 3/5 10) Island of Lost Souls (1932) - 3.5/5 11) Alien - Theatrical Cut (1979) - 5/5 12) Hellraiser (1987) - 3.5/5 13) Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) - 4/5 14) Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992) - 3/5 15) FRAN CHALLENGE #3: Feardotcom - Ghost in the Machine (1993) - 2.5/5 16) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) - 5/5 17) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) - 3.5/5 18) Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990) - 1.5/5 19) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995) - 1/5 20) Eraserhead (1977) - 4/5 21) FRAN CHALLENGE #6: Tomb of the Blind Spots - Carrie (1976) - 4/5 22) FRAN CHALLENGE #5: Silent Scream - Faust (1926) - 4/5 23) FRAN CHALLENGE #12: Ouroboros - Häxan (1922) - 4.5/5 24) Hereditary (2018) - 4/5 25) Midsommar - Director's Cut (2019) - 4.5/5 26) FRAN CHALLENGE #10: Run This poo poo Into The Ground - Son of Frankenstein (1939) - 3/5 27) Suspiria (1977) - 3.5/5 28) Suspiria (2018) - 4/5 29) FRAN CHALLENGE #11: Öskur heyrðust um allan heim - One Cut of the Dead (2017) - 4.5/5 30) Night of the Living Dead (1968) - 4.5/5 31) The Invisible Man (2020) - 4/5 Best new (to me) film: Häxan, with One Cut of the Dead as a good second. Worst film: Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation I didn't get all the Fran Challenges, but I am happy with the ones I did get! Thank you all! I'm done!
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Oct 31, 2020 23:24
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Recap post time! October 1st - Hereditary October 2nd - Frankenstein Created Woman October 3rd - Page of Madness October 4th - It's Alive October 5th - Dracula Has Risen From the Grave October 6th - Adams Family October 7th - The Lighthouse October 8th - Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed October 9th - Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? October 10th - Midsommer October 11th - Taste the Blood of Dracula October 12th - Beware! The Blob October 13th - Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah October 14th - The Horror of Frankenstein October 15th - Don't Look Now October 16th - Splice October 17th - Errementari: The Devil and the Blacksmith October 18th - Save the Green Planet! October 19th - Scars of Dracula October 20th - Die, Monster, Die! October 21st - Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for the Earth October 22nd - We Need to Talk About Kevin October 23rd - Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell October 24th - Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter October 25th - The Phantom Carriage October 26th - The Lure October 27th - Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla October 28th - Satanic Rites of Dracula October 29th - Godzilla vs. Destroyah October 30th - Deathdream October 31st - Shin Godzilla And for completeness, here's the Fran Challenge movies I watched: #1 - Def by Temptation #2 - La Noira, Foxed!, The Skeleton Dance, The Haunted House, The Friendly Ghost, Toe, Memoria, Ghost Wanted, Scrappy's Ghost Story #3 - Feardotcom #4 - Dracula's Daughter #5 - L'Inferno #6 - Picnic at Hanging Rock #7 - Death Valley #8 - Crawl #9 - The Anatomist #10 - Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II #11 - The Vanishing #12 - Frightmare #13 - Black Christmas Where to start with this. I guess the themes for this month was 70's horror and foreign language films. I'm glad I made that last second swerve into watching a bunch of Godzilla movies; I was watching a lot of bleak films and even when they weren't good (SpaceGodzilla  ) having something tonally different to watch helps break up the challenge.I was getting worried for a while that I was getting too grumpy about my movie viewing, but I feel like not counting the shorts, I have about a 75% success rate in film selections. I also hit a ton of films that I've needed to watch forever so this was a very fruitful month there. Best film I watched this month is tough, but I'm going to go with The Vanishing. It's disturbing in a way that films about slimy monsters can't be and that is some ending. I think for worst movie I'm going to go with Death Valley. The movie was trying to be multiple things and failing at all of them. At least Adams Family was coherent despite being awful and SpaceGodzilla had SpaceGodzilla. Best surprise has to go to Frightmare which I hadn't heard of before it was suggested to me and that turn about two-thirds of the way through was crazy. As every year, I've enjoyed reading everyone's comments on the films they watched! The October Challenge is a bright light in these bleak times. And now, I'm probably going to watch Videodrome again. I haven't seen it in forever and it's been taunting me on the Criterion Channel all month.
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Oct 31, 2020 23:36
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Happy Halloween (2007) everybody!
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Oct 31, 2020 23:37
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I made it to 28 horror movies this month, pretty good as last year I managed 2
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Oct 31, 2020 23:49
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Hey y'all, decided to forgo my write-ups this year on account of moving house this months, but I've still been following the thread as best I can, completed a chunk of the Fran Challenges, and just hit the 31+ movie threshold. Hopefully I can find the time to do write-ups on at least the Fran Challenges I completed, even if it's post-deadline, but in the chance that I can't, I still wanted to post my list for posterity's sake. 1. Wes Craven's New Nightmare 2. The Raven (1935) 3. Child's Play (1988) 4. Hell House LLC 5. From Beyond 6. Hellraiser 7. Killer Klowns From Outer Space 8. Candyman (FC #1: Horror Noire) 9. The Creeping Terror 10. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer 11. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (FC #5: Silent Scream) 12. Nosferatu (FC #4: Scream, Queen!) 13. Scream 14. Doom 15. The Babysitter 16. Planet Terror 17. Death Proof 18. They Live 19. Body Bags (FC #9: Terrorvision) 20. WNUF Halloween Special 21. Gremlins (FC #13: Season of Spook-a-Doodles) 22. Gremlins 2: The New Batch 23. Halloween (1978) N/A. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm 24. Scooby-Doo On Zombie Island 25. The Lost Boys (FC #7: Dearly Departed) 26. Saw (FC #6: Tomb of the Blind Spots) 27. Cube 28. Color Out of Space 29. Son of Frankenstein (FC #10: Run This poo poo Into the Ground) 30. King Kong (1933) 31. Dawn of the Dead (1978) 32. Possession (FC #12: Ouroboros) Huge props again to Fran for continuing go above and beyond in running the thread each year.  And now I go to spend my Halloween finally playing through Until Dawn and probably watching Rocky Horror with a buddy tonite.
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Oct 31, 2020 23:57
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Time for my wrap-up post! I watched 40 movies for the spooky season (beating my goal of 31) - and 7 other random movies (some animated ones, a Star War, and both Borats), for a total of 47 movies in October. That’s the most I’ve ever watched in a month, and it was kind of exhausting! Of the 40, 26 were new to me and 14 were rewatches. My favourites of the first time watches - Host - Train to Busan - The Wolf of Snow Hollow - The Craft - One Cut of the Dead My favourites of the rewatches - Signs - The Frighteners - Zodiac - Scream - Hocus Pocus The scariest ones - The Babadook - Host The stupid but immensely fun ones - Blade: Trinity - Van Helsing The worst one - Hotel Transylvania The rewatch my opinion changed the most on - Beetlejuice - thought it kinda sucked in 2018, but I really got into it this time and now I’m eager to revisit it The ones I want to order on blu-ray now - The Haunting - Van Helsing - The Craft - One Cut of the Dead The best kill - Nightmare 3: “Welcome to prime time, bitch!” The best practical effect - The severed wrist/forearm in Green Room The best CGI effect - Probably the werewolf transformations in Van Helsing, those were awesome! The worst CGI - The beast covered in fire in The Relic The effects I was surprised hold up - The grim reaper coming out of the mirror in The Frighteners - The talking cat in Hocus Pocus The most impressive shot/s - The montage of a totally empty London in 28 Days Later Most insanely creative movie overall - One Cut of the Dead Movies I planned to watch but missed - Midsommar (director’s cut) - as the month was drawing to a close I just couldn’t find space for a 3 hour movie - In Search of Darkness - ditto for a 4 hour documentary Now it’s November, I’m diving head first into holiday films and cozy favourites 
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Nov 1, 2020 00:15
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Two more to cash out, then I'm going to watch Night of the Demons at least once. 62. The Raven (1935, Peacock) Meta-Poe, which gives Lugosi, who is evil (duh), an excuse to roll out every torture and murder device in Edgar Allan's oeuvre. One of Lugosi's best, and Karloff is awesome as always. 4/5 63. Island of Lost Souls (1932, Peacock) Another non-official Universal Monster movie, but this has a lot of what the official films have - "monsters" who are sympathetic, and arguably the protagonists. 4/5 64. Night of the Demons (1988, DVD) :bauhaus: 5/5
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Nov 1, 2020 00:18
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I went a bit past my goal of 31 movies and finished the last of the challenges yesterday. These last few months have been hectic, so I didn't set any kind of extra theme for myself. I just wanted to be able to pick whatever caught my eye without trying to stick to a plan. The challenges made that a little tricky towards the end of the month because I let them pile up too much, but I got some great recommendations for a few of them thanks to other folks' write ups. About three-quarters of these were rewatches. Of the new to me stuff, my favorites were Nightmare Beach for the fun factor, Knife + Heart for how pretty it was, and Images for something I'll be thinking about for a long time. I'm also planning to watch those sequels to The Doll because the first one threw in a neat twist towards the end of the formula. Thanks to Fran for organizing, and thanks to everyone for their writeups and suggestions! (Also, I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but if I could get a spook-a-doodle tag in the place of the top tag I have now, that would be badass.) 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) 17. The Rift(1989) 18. Witchboard (1986) 19. The Relic (1997) 20. Challenge #11: The Doll (2016) 21. Halloween 4 (1988) 22. Halloween 5 (1989) 23. Dead & Buried (1981) 24. Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter (1974) 25. Challenge #3: Phase IV (1974) 26. Challenge #9: A Cold Night’s Death (1973) 27. Challenge #13: Halloween 6 (1995) 28. Challenge #6: Insidious (2010) 29. Challenge #7: Nightmare Beach (1989) 30. Challenge #4: Knife + Heart (2019) 31. Challenge #5: Häxan (1922) 32. Challenge #8: Frogs (1972) 33. Mimic (1997) 34. Challenge #10:Amityville 1992: It’s About Time (1992) 35. Challenge #12: Images (1972)
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Nov 1, 2020 00:22
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Still going! 72. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) Dario Argento’s first film as director sees him establish some of the giallo motifs for which he will become famous. So what happened to me with Argento is: I saw Zombie Flesheaters at university and my friend said oh if you like Fulci you should try Argento, so I watched Cat o’ Nine Tails and thought wtf is this, where my zombies and gore at I saw Suspiria earlier this year, loved it, and vowed to watch lots of his films for the challenge. So, those motifs. A murder involving some form of art? Well it literally happens in an art gallery. Witnessed by the only American man in the film? Check. Investigated by said man even though he’s not a detective? Yep, he’s a writer who goes hunting for the killer. A twist that, while fun, doesn’t quite make sense? Yeah, to go into details would be a spoiler. The characters and look of it are fun, but it’s a bit lightweight and doesn’t reach the majestic stylistic heights of something like Deep Red. An enjoyable history lesson nonetheless. 73. Seconds (1966) - Fran Challenge 12: Ouroboros This was a real revelation! It feels like highly experimental film-making but stays just the right side of the line that it still works as a mainstream movie. The title sequence is nightmarish and might be the best opening of the month. For large portions of the film, everything is shot on steadicam which provides a powerful sense of paranoia as the main character is followed through crowds, and of becoming gradually unmoored from reality. Rock Hudson is perfectly cast here as the man our main character becomes, and the parallels to things he went through in his own life are remarkably prescient. Definitely watch this. 74. Prince of Darkness (1987) In my last post I talked a bit about the potential pitfalls of films without any likeable characters, and I think this helped solidify my thoughts a little. We’re introduced to a diverse cast of scientists brought in by the church to study a big glowing tube that might contain Satan. In an attempt to humanise them beyond their function in this team, we see various scenes of them chatting, quipping and ribbing each other. The problem is, every one of those scenes reveals one or more characters to be racist, sexist, ableist, or generally just unpleasant. So I think for me it comes down to intent: are these characters unlikeable because of traits they reveal in an attempt to make them relatable? If so, I’m probably going to struggle to enjoy the film. It’s a shame, honestly, because the location, the effects, and the idea are all great. It just ends up being a lot more unpleasant than I think Carpenter intended. 75. Society (1989) The final sequence is incredible, but it doesn’t justify the preceding 70 minutes of bland high-school drama. 76. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) I know this is a much-loved film around these parts, and for that reason I’m prepared to accept that I was just in the wrong mood to watch this at the time. So I’ll give it another chance at some point down the line. First watch impressions? A potentially fun chaotic ride is undercut horribly by seemingly improvised dialogue/muttering/monologue depending on the scene that goes on and on and on and on. By the end I just wanted everyone to die so they would shut the gently caress up. 77. Under the Skin (2013) Here’s a film that’s been hanging around my watch list for a long time. I do this thing where I hear a film is great and every time I consider watching it I second guess my mood and assume that I’m not in the right frame of mind to do it justice. This film will now go in my personal folder of evidence against that idea. This is a film that shows you everything and tells you almost nothing, and I absolutely love it for that. I’ll get to some specifics later about how I think this helps the film achieve one of its key goals, but right from the opening the viewer is required to piece together narrative from a series of beautiful and often abstract images along with a nightmarish soundtrack. We see what appears to be a spacecraft of some kind, and hear our main character receive a crash course in English phonemes. Then she’s in the outskirts of Glasgow, dragging the corpse of a prostitute into the bushes and stealing her clothes in what felt weirdly like a Terminator reference. “Give me your clothes, your boots, and your handbag”. There’s even a motorcycle in the same scene. We then get to see Scarlett Johansson cruise the streets of Glasgow in a white van, using some film-star charisma to engage lone men in conversation and to try to get them into the van. A setup we’ve seen in other films with the genders flipped, that invites you to consider the power dynamics at play. If the van driver was a man, and the pedestrian a woman, would we expect the woman to get in the van? Or to see the parade’s-worth of red flags and run like gently caress? This theme will continue throughout the film. When she does eventually convince someone into the van, she gets them to come back to her place, a run down tenement (again red flag central) they end up… somewhere. And definitely not in bed with ScarJo like they were expecting. Most of the men have that swaggering bravado like nothing bad could come of this, and ScarJo’s alien knows exactly how to hijack this and turn it around. My favourite thing about Under The Skin is, because nothing is explained about the alien verbally, you become very aware of behavioural patterns in an effort to figure it out. Then your brain starts applying the same process to the human behaviour on display. It becomes clear early on that the alien’s conversational tactics are all slight variations on a powerful script, then the film flips it around and shows humans replicating the same behaviours en masse, their own scripts designed to throw a veil of civility over biological urges.The whole film has an uncomfortably neutral stance that invites you to see what's going on as an interplay of food chains and biological processes, and it's absolutely fascinating to me. When I finished the film I found myself having to put off the fact that I felt kind of hungry, because it made me feel weird about eating. The theme of predation in all its forms is constant throughout the film and never one sided, and the gradual shifting of power dynamics is fascinating to watch The soundtrack is a powerful contributor to the constant atmosphere of unease and veiled threat. One of the valves on the radiator nearest my sofa will occasionally make a high pitched droning noise if I don't nudge it. It was doing it for maybe 15 minutes before I realised it wasn't part of the soundtrack. Not sure if that comes across as a positive, but it definitely is. I loved the contrasts between urban, suburban and highland areas. I won't say "every frame a painting" because the shopping centre at the start made me feel a bit queasy just looking at it, but there's beauty in the grime. Shots of a particularly desolate beach in particular are just gorgeous I'm very into the type of film that seems to use music, imagery, sound, and thematic suggestion to make your brain extra malleable for a few key moments that stay with you well after it's finished, almost like a form of hypnotism. If any of that sounds even vaguely appealing to you, I urge you to watch this film. Best of the month for me. 78. May (2002) An incredibly sweet film about a woman living with the aftermath of damaging, oppressive, and violent parenting. She tries everything within her limited capacity to make human connections, as the film carefully sows obfuscated seeds of what’s to come in a very enjoyable third act. Lots of fun, this one. Great performances, fun soundtrack, Angela Bettis is a powerhouse. 79. Inferno (1980) The sequel to Suspiria doesn’t quite capture the tight efficiency or the striking beauty of the original, but it still brings a lot to the table. For a film that changes main character every twenty minutes while caring little for the constraints of time and space to hold together as well as this does is a minor miracle. I was disappointed not to see Goblin on the soundtrack, but Keith Emerson does a fine job here and the bombast with which his score leads into the chaos of the finale is entirely appropriate. 80. Lifeforce(1985) This is a lot more fun than the goofy setup suggests. The lede isn’t buried all that deep considering the opening credits tell you it’s based on a book called “The Space Vampires”. Said vampires are discovered on a ship hidden in the corona of Halley’s Comet, brought back to Earth, and would have guessed that we do a bad job of keeping them contained. Knockoff Daniel Craig leads the quarantine effort as he tries to chase a vampire around England, while London turns to total poo poo in his absence. Fun performances, goofy but entertaining effects, lots of apocalyptic imagery, and all the phallus-substitutes you can cram into 95 minutes. 81. Tenebre (1982) Probably my final Argento of the month, and it’s a tough call between this and Deep Red for my favourite of his gialli. The main themes, both by Goblin, are neck and neck. Performances and cast are probably slightly better in Tenebre. Daria Nicolodi somehow makes some atrocious 80s fashions look good. The kills here are gorier, flashier, and more inventive, but the resolution is slightly weaker than Deep Red. Too close to call, watch both and then watch them again. Films Watched: Don’t Look Now | Frankenstein (1931) | Nosferatu | The Changeling | The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari | The Haunting | Cure | Freaks | Repulsion | Goodnight Mommy | Dracula (1931) | The Innocents | Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) | The Ruins | From Beyond | Black Sunday | Phantasm | Idle Hands (Rewatch) | The People Under the Stairs (FC1) | Spiral (2019) | Maniac (1980) | Ernest Scared Stupid | I Walked with a Zombie | The Amityville Horror | Ghoulies II | Chopping Mall | Over Your Dead Body | Gothic | As the Gods Will | Altered States | Them | City of the Living Dead | Alucarda | The Black Cat | Island of Lost Souls | Come to Daddy | Hider in the House | Halloween III: Season of the Witch | The Beyond | Deadly Friend | The Vanishing | Sleepwalkers | The Wolf Man | Splinter | The Old Dark House | Deep Red | The Brood | Eyes Without a Face | Eaten Alive | The Return of the Living Dead | Screamers | Jennifer’s Body | The Phantom Carriage | King Kong | Dagon | The Fog | Carnival of Souls | Rogue | Tourist Trap | Diabolique | The Exorcist III | The Night of the Hunter | Martin | In the Mouth of Madness | Dead Ringers | Shin Godzilla | Blood and Black Lace | The Masque of the Red Death | Don’t Torture a Duckling | Salem’s Lot | Scream 4 | The Bird with the Crystal Plumage | Seconds | Prince of Darkness | Society | The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 | Under the Skin | May | Inferno | Lifeforce | Tenebre Rewatches: 1 Total: 81 They Shoot Zombies Don't They: 38% Fran’s Challenges:
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Nov 1, 2020 00:40
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74: Black Rat Well that was a bummer. I set myself up for failure here because I'm a big fan of one of the directors other movies, X-Cross. I was expecting Black Rat to be like X-Cross, which starts as a generic J-Horro movie but builds up energy and humor as the movie goes along. Black Rat starts grim, stays grim, and ends grim. It's not bad, is the thing. The Rat killer is very entertaining early on, I liked that she didn't have any powers or plot armor and is only successful at first because she's hunting scared high school students. I liked that the tests she sets for them aren't complicated Saw type deals, but actually really mundane tasks they could probably achieve if they weren't scared for their lives. And I liked that the flashbacks didn't have cartoonish bullying, just the casual thoughtless cruelty that people, especially young people, do so easily. There's even a really good rooftop fight scene. My problem is that it's such a downer. A fairly grounded story about suicide and bullying. I was hoping for X-Cross style chainsaw battles. Now I'm just sad. I might need to dig up some last minute pick me up to end this Challenge with, Black Rat put me in a funk. 74 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*, Slugs8, Devilman, Chupacabra Terror, RWD, Black Rat* denotes rewatches ALL FRAN CHALLENGES COMPLETE
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Nov 1, 2020 00:48
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I'll do 31 without binging trash from the bowels of Prime. - Mission complete. Fact of the month: Night of the Demons is the only good movie made since 1964. Surprise of the month: Comedy. You wish you had a relative as cool as Uncle Josh, Arsenic and Old Lace is the best Halloween movie ever, Master Minds is the best movie ever, and most of the Abbott & Costello films are better than average for the franchise they're riffing on. Surprise of the month, Part Deux: Most of the standalone Universal films are at least on par with the official "Monster" sequels. Shoutout to the shewolf of London. As something that's been mythologized so much, the Creature films were a huge let down. And the third one is horrendously awful. Thing that's going to drive me nuts of the month: The Devil and the Statue - It's too early to pull this off via double exposure, but it could probably be done with a moving platform. Except the design of the floor in the foreground prevents this. Bloodbath of the month: Killer High - Holy gently caress. Apparently, you can graphically murder 50 or so people and freeze-frame on all the murder as long as you don't have any nudity or cursing and still get a TV-14. 1. Scary Stories - 1/5 2. Verotika - 1/5 3. The Most Dangerous Game (1932) - 5/5 4. White Zombie (1932) - 3/5 5. Witchcraft (1964) - 5/5 6. The Human Monster (1939)- 4/5 7. Midnight Shadow (1939) - FC1 - 3/5 8. The Devil Bat (1940) - 5/5 9. Master Minds (1949)i - 5/5 10. Bowery at Midnight (1942) - 1.5/5 11. The Corpse Vanishes (1942) - Tubi - 5/5 12. Fear in the Night (1947) - Tubi - 4/5 13. Dead Men Walk (1943) - Tubi - 3/5 14. Voodoo Woman (1957) - Tubi - 1.5/5 15. The Monster Maker (1944) - Tubi - 3.5/5 16. Hubie Halloween (2020) - Netflix - 2/5 17. Bluebeard (1944) - Tubi - 2/5 18. Frankenstein (1931) - Peacock - 5/5 19. Fran Challenge #2: Short Cuts FC 2 The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1895) A Nightmare (Méliès, 1896) A Terrible Night (Méliès, 1896) The Bewitched Inn (Méliès, 1897) The X-Ray Fiend (1897) The Alchemist's Hallucination (Méliès, 1897) The Haunted Castle (Méliès, 1897) Faust: The Apparition of Mephistophiles (Méliès, 1897) The Cavaliers Dream (1898) The Four Troublesome Heads (Méliès, 1898) The Devil in a Convent (Méliès, 1899) Cinderella (Méliès, 1899) Faust and Marguerite (1900) Davy Jones’ Locker (1900) Explosion of a Motor Car (1900) How It Feels To Be Run Over (1900) Uncle Josh's Nightmare (1900) Uncle Josh In a Spooky Hotel (1900) Uncle Josh At the Moving Picture Show (1902) The Devil and the Statue (Méliès , 1902) The Haunted Curiosity Shop (1901) Blue Beard (Méliès, 1901) The Treasures of Satan (Méliès, 1902) The Infernal Cakewalk (Méliès , 1903) The Infernal Cauldron (Méliès, 1903) The Monster (Méliès, 1903) Faust and Mephistopheles (1903) The Mistletoe Bough (1904) The Black Imp (Méliès, 1905) The Merry Frolics of Satan (Méliès, 1906) Is Spiritualism a Fraud? (1906) The Haunted Hotel (1907) The Red Spectre (1907) The Clock-Maker’s Secret (1907) The House of Ghosts (1908) 20. The Ape (1940) - Prime - 4/5 21. Man Eater of Kumaon (1948) FC8 - 4/5 22. The Dark Mirror (1946) - FC7 - 5/5 23. Dracula (1931, Peacock) - 4/5 24. The Invisible Man (1933, Peacock) - 5/5 25. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) - FC 4 - 5/5 26. The Son of Frankenstein (1939) - FC 6 - 3/5 27. Ghost of Frankenstein (1942, Peacock) - 4.5/5 28. L'Inferno (1911, Youtube) - FC 5 - 4.5/5 29. Things to Come (1936, Prime) - FC 3 - 1/5 30. 1984 (1954, Dailymotion) - FC 9 - 5/5 31. The Murderer Lives at No. 21 (1942, Criterion) - FC 11 - 5/5 32. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944, Dailymotion) - FC 13 - 5/5 33. Fall of the House of User (1928, Voustube) - FC 12 - 3.5/5 -. Fall of the House of Usher (1928, Y'alltube) - 5/5 34. The Invisible Man Returns (1940) - 5/5 35. The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944) - FC 10 - 4/5 -. The Invisible Woman (1940, Peacock) - 3.5/5 -. The Invisible Agent (1942, Archive.org) - 2.5/5 36. Dracula's Daughter (1936, Peacock) - 4/5 37. Son of Dracula (1943, Peacock) - 2/5 38. Werewolf of London (1935, Peacock) - 5/5 39. She Wolf of London (1946, Youtube) - 4.5/5 40. The Wolf Man (1941, Peacock) - 5/5 41. Phantom of the Opera (1934, Peacock) - 4/5 42. The Mummy (1932, Peacock) - 5/5 43. The Mummy's Hand (1940, Peacock) - 4/5 44. The Mummy's Tomb (1942, Peacock) - 2.5/5 45. The Mummy's Ghost (1944, Peacock) - 2/5 46. The Mummy's Curse (1944, , Peacock) - 3.5/5 47. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943, Peacock) - 4/5 48. House of Frankenstein (1944, Peacock) - 3.5/5 49. House of Dracula (1945, Peacock) - 3.5/5 50. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948, Peacock) - 5/5 51. Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951, Peacock) - 4/5 52. Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1953, Peacock) - 3.5/5 53. Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955, Peacock) - -4.5/5 -. Abbott and Costello Meet the Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954, Youtube) - 3.5/5 54. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954, Archive.org) - 3/5 55. Revenge of the Creature (1955, Archive.org) - 3/5 56. The Creature Walks Among Us (1956, Archive.org) - 1.5/5 57. Neverknock (2017, Peacock) - 3/5 58. Killer High (2018, Peacock) - 4/5 59. The Strange Case of Dr. RX (1942, Peacock) - 3/5 60. Dr. Cyclops (1940, Peacock) - 3.5/5 61. Night Monster (1942, Peacock) - 3/5 62. The Raven (1935, Peacock) - 4/5 63. Island of Lost Souls (1932, Peacock) - 4/5 64. Night of the Demons (1988, DVD) - 5/5
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Nov 1, 2020 01:12
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40. Hereditary (2018)  The grandmother of a family with a history of mental illness passes away... with spooky results. Last October I saved Midsommar for last because I assumed it would make everything else pale in comparison. I was right, I thought it was amazing and it left me exhausted in a way I still don't understand. This year I decided to do the same with Hereditary. I think that was a mistake. I've seen so many better movies already, this let me down by comparison. What this movie does well, it does extremely well. The lead actress steals the show. It has a great, spooky, unsettling tone. A lot of the imagery is beautiful and well thought out. The plot though... we've done this before guys. It feels like it wanted there to be a question about what was truly going on, but it doesn't spend the time to make that happen. As soon as things get weird you find out why they got weird. It's also not slow. It moves pretty quickly. I can see some people feeling like the first part of the movie is slow, but I felt it was just a different tone. It's setting up a juxtaposition. I also kinda felt like it wore mental illness as a costume? Something about the family's history actually being a weird cult manipulating them felt disrespectful to people with real troubles? 3.5/5 Well, that's it for this year. 40 new horror movies in 31 days. It's been a great time and I've already got a list of recommendations from this thread longer than 31 for next year. Happy Halloween everyone! I hope all the spook-a-doodles stay happy and healthy... without spooky results. Skrillmub fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Nov 1, 2020 |
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Nov 1, 2020 01:18
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Taking a break between writing up reviews but I've already watched 100. (93) The Visitor (1979) dir. Giulio Paradisi Satan is an alien from outer space and is currently a little girl on Earth. John Huston is sent by Space Jesus to stop his current plan. Meanwhile Satan girl is using her psychokinetic powers to shoot her mother in the spine and cause her bird to peck out the eyes of the cop investigating it. It’s an interesting movie with some nice shots but then the soundtrack will start up with some Mod Squad sounding music. It’s a real mishmash of a movie, kind of Omen crossed with Close Encounters. Still found it enjoyable.  (94) Horror Express (1972) dir. Eugenio Martín Christopher Lee discovered a fossilized ape-man in Manchuria and is bringing it back to the UK via train. Peter Cushing is also riding the same train. Then mysterious deaths start occurring with the victims having solid white eyes. It turns out the ape-man isn’t quite so fossilized. After Cushing performs an autopsy on one of the victims, they find out the creature is also draining knowledge from the person during the attack. Based on the same book as The Thing, it varies significantly and yet still shares some of the key points. It’s an alright movie even if the effects are rather cheap.  (95) The Bride (1985) dir. Franc Roddam A modern retelling of The Bride of Frankenstein with Sting as Dr. Frankenstein. After a rather explosive giving life to the bride sequence, the creature gets chased off as the doctor wants the bride for himself. The doctor plans to teach the bride, Eva, manners and introduce her into high society. The creature, Viktor, meanwhile teams up with a little person and they go join the circus. The original Bride of Frankenstein is much better in every way. Not really worth watching.  (96) Transylvania 6-5000 (1985) dir. Rudy De Luca After a tabloid editor sees a video tape of a Frankenstein monster, he sends his two top reporters, Jeff Goldblum and Ed Begley Jr., to Transylvania to investigate. Jeffrey Jones as the mayor greets them and tries to dissuade their investigation so they don’t ruin the tourism. Unfortunately the hotel they are staying at is a converted castle home to the Frankenstein monster and a bunch of other monsters including Michael Richards. Comedy abounds as the two reporters try to figure things out while Jeffrey Jones tries to keep things hidden. Not good comedy, but they are trying. Jeff Goldblum is really the only good part, the rest is merely ok. Totals: (1) Tombs of the Blind Dead (Spanish) (1972) (2) Child’s Play 3 (1991) (3) The City of the Dead (1960) (4) Count Dracula’s Great Love (Spanish) (1973) (5) The Phantom Carriage (Swedish/Silent) (1921) (6) Dracula 2000 (2000) (7) BloodRayne: Deliverance (2007) (8) Slugs (1988) (9) Red Riding Hood (2011) (10) Thir13en Ghosts (2001) (11) Frankenweenie (2012) #1 (12) Blacula (1972) (13) BloodRayne: The Third Reich (2010) (14) Night of the Demons (1988) (15) City of the Living Dead (1980) (17) Ticks (1993) (18) The Pit and The Pendulum (1961) (19) The Nest (1988) (20) Zombeavers (2014) (21) Human Lanterns (1982) (22) The Phantom of the Opera (1962) (23) Tower of Evil (1972) (24) To the Devil a Daughter (1976) (25) Lake Placid (1999) (26) Deep Blue Sea (1999) (27) Anaconda (1997) (28) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) (29) Vampires (1998) (30) Bats (1999) #2 (31) Shorts Shorts Shorts! (32) Taste of Fear (1961) (33) Wishmaster (1997) (34) Sisters of Death (1976) (35) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) (36) What Have You Done to Solange? (1972) (37) Death Line (1972) (38) Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971) (39) Cat Girl (1957) (40) Day of the Animals (1977) (41) The Haunted Palace (1963) (42) Requiem for a Vampire (French) (1971) (43) Return of the Blind Dead (Spanish) (1973) (44) The Last Man on Earth (1964) (45) What Have They Done to Your Daughters? (1974) (46) The Iron Rose (1973) (47) Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell (2018) (48) Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020) (49) Prom Night (1980) #3 (50) Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) (51) From Beyond (1986) (52) Scanners II: The New Order (1991) #4 (53) Bit (2019) #5 (54) The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog #6 (1927) (55) The Exorcist (1973) #7 (56) Queen of Blood (1966) #8 (57) Frogs (1972) (58) Warlock (1989) (59) The Dead Zone (1983) (60) Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) (61) Body Snatchers (1993) (62) Phantasm II (1988) (63) Ghosts of Mars (2001) (64) The Plague of the Zombies (1966) (65) Doom: Annihilation (2019) (66) Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (67) Scanners III: The Takeover #9 (68) The Night Stalker (1972) (69) Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988) #10 (70) Bride of Chucky (1998) (71) The Masque of the Red Death (1964) (72) Coraline (2009) (73) Castle Freak (1995) (74) Uninvited (1988) (75) Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965) (76) Body Melt (1993) #11 (78) The Lure (Polish) (2015) (79) Creepozoids (1987) (80) Sleepy Hollow (1999) #12 (81) Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (1999) #13 (82) Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 (1987) (83) Van Helsing (2004) (84) She Killed in Ecstasy (German) (1971) (85) The Night of the Hunter (1955) (86) Looker (1981) (87) Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998) (88) StageFright: Aquarius (1987) (89) Blind Woman’s Curse (1970) (90) House of the Long Shadows (1983) (91) Demons of the Mind (1972) (92) Queen of the Damned (2002) (93) The Visitor (1979) (94) Horror Express (1972) (95) The Bride (1985) (96) Transylvania 6-5000 (1985) Computers: 1, Death: 2, Demons: 7, Ghosts: 3, Man: 21, Monsters: 27, Serial Killers: 13, Vampires: 12, Werewolves: 1, Witches: 2, Zombies: 6
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Nov 1, 2020 01:27
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39) Halloween (1978) 40) Halloween (2018) Wrapping up by watching these two back to back again, as is my occasional wont. The original movie still stands up, of course, even if after so many years and so many viewings it's more comfortable than frightening. It would be interesting to live in one of the parallel universes where Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee didn't turn down the part of Loomis, but on the other hand I don't think either of them would have brought the same sense of fear to the role. Pleasance's Loomis isn't a Van Helsing-like hero, or even the Ahab hunting his white whale that he becomes in the sequels. He's a man who is in terror of what he's come to warn about, desperate to make those warnings heard. It's a great performance. The return to the well 40 years later is as good as it can be. I've heard criticisms about the pacing, how it doesn't take off until near the end, but that's how the original worked as well. If H2018 has a fault in that regard it's the podcasters, who do something that makes nearly every movie in all three major franchises poo poo - they make you root for the slasher. During those scenes Michael even does things that he would never have done in the original, like terrorising Dana with the teeth. Once you get past them, though, it's nearly all good. Jamie Lee Curtis plays the older Laurie as a child of two fathers, born on Halloween 1978 from the events of that night. Several times her dialogue reflects or even quotes that of Loomis in the original movie, but her actions - appearing across the road from the school, disappearing after a fall, looming into view from a dark doorway - are those of Michael. I could wish that we didn't have to wait for the sequels an extra year. Trivia: in H2018 a clip from Voyagers!, the shortlived TV series starring the equally shortlived Jon-Erik Hexum, is shown on TV. One guest star on Voyagers! was Robert Phalen, who played Dr Wynn in H1978. I wonder if they used the episode in which he appeared for the clip? Anyway, that's me done. I might have made 31 new movies, but my Annihilation disc doesn't work, The Last King of Scotland was a bit long on the night I'd planned to watch it, and I didn't have the motivation to watch either Stoker or Haunter. Still, I'm not upset with 28 new views out of 40 watched (also my PB, I think). Jedit fucked around with this message at 01:34 on Nov 1, 2020 |
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Nov 1, 2020 01:30
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 Wrap Up Time! Total 180 films watched and reviewed. All Fran Challenges done. I was aiming to see if I could hit 200 again even though I set no max limit for myself, but my landlord deciding NTV everyone in the complex who'd been there for a decade + , I had to not only find a new place fast, but also get moved out in time. I know everyone here would've understood if I stepped out of the Challenge, but with that much miserable I had dumped on me along with how rough lockdown's been on me, and that October in the Horror thread with Scream Stream is one of the few really happy things for me, I plugged on the best I could. I can try again next year.
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Nov 1, 2020 01:45
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75: WNUF Halloween Special It's alright. I'm not elderly enough to remember 80s broadcast television, so I can't say for sure how realistic it s but they are certainly very committed to the bit. Maybe a bit over committed, nothing happens for the first half hour and the frequent commercial breaks kinda undercut any growing tension. I gotta say, I didn't find the twist very satisfying. Just make it demons. Crazy Christians who are also serial killers for the lord? That's a premise, not a twist. You make a whole movie about that, you don't drop it at the end of something that's supposed to feel real The obvious comparison is Ghostwatch, and it's not as good as Ghostwatch. But it's a fine bit of nonobjectionable spooky time viewing. 75 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*, Slugs8, Devilman, Chupacabra Terror, RWD, Black Rat, WNUF Halloween Special* denotes rewatches ALL FRAN CHALLENGES COMPLETE
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Nov 1, 2020 02:17
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Snuck in just under the wire this year! Breaking this up into two posts so it doesn't take up half the page.Fran Challenge #12: Ourorboros 21. One Cut of the Dead (2019) - Watched on Shudder  Everyone in this thread has been talking this up, and I have to admit I was wondering what the hell everyone was thinking for the first 30 minutes or so, but man I am glad I stuck it out. I don't want to reveal anything and if you're gonna watch this you should absolutely go in blind, but suffice to say it's an incredibly creative, fun, and well-executed film that anyone but the most dour and joyless horror fan should be able to appreciate. An excellent love letter to horror films and the people behind them that never falls into the trap of turning into pandering jumble of winks and nudges. Amazing how much tension the back half of the movie manages to create given what it is. 4 / 5 --- Fran Challenge #13: It's The Time of the Season for Spook-a-Doodles22. The Wicker Man (1973) - Watched on The Criterion Channel  Another shameful gap in my watch history, though I have seen the remake. The original is much less absurd / unintentionally funny, though there is obviously still a hint of those elements - it's just juxtaposed with the more menacing elements to create a more distinct feeling of unease. Woodward puts in a great performance as the sergeant, and watching his authority and moral surety slowly disintegrate in the lead-up to that final scene is really effective - he sells the hell out of the terror that would come with realizing what is about to happen. Christopher Lee is great too of course, and man it's weird seeing him so young without Dracula makeup on. I didn't realize just how immense the influence of this movie was on folk horror in general, so it was cool to see how many modern films have very obvious bits of this one's DNA in them. The only part I wasn't sold on was the music - the diegetic songs worked very well but the other tracks were kinda goofy and just felt tacked on in weird spots and didn't really contribute to the mood it felt like everything else on screen was trying to evoke. 4 / 5 --- 23. Dagon (2001) - Watched on Tubi  Probably the most grounded of Stuart Gordon's movies that I've seen so far, which is not to say that there isn't still a healthy dose of camp. This is probably the dampest movie I've ever seen, and the set design is really excellent without every really calling attention to itself. I genuinely wish more horror movies were filmed in sleepy, isolated fishing hamlets because it's just such a perfect setting, and the movie makes great use of it to create a claustrophobic / alienated feeling. A few great practical effects (jesus, that flaying scene), a dash of extremely bad CGI, and a few bad performances by actors that just don't gel with Gordon's style very well. All in all it feels like it's straddling the line between a movie that wants to be fun and one that wants to be a darker adaptation of the source material, and never quite decides where to land, but it's got a big heart. Also, it really feels like the dev team behind Resident Evil 4 should be paying some royalties. 3.5 / 5 24. Big Bad Wolves (2013) - Watched on Tubi  Tarantino called this the best movie of 2013, and while I can't say I agree, I can kinda see why he said it - this pretty much feels like what would happen if you let Tarantino direct Prisoners. It's well-paced, has some strong performances, and it does a good job of constantly ratcheting up the stakes / tension, but I think where it falls short is on the basic narrative level. It's really not working in a space that dozens of revenge movies haven't already mined, and it feels like it's trying to be overly ambiguous at times just for its own sake, which is then completely undermined by a completely unambiguous ending. I remember reading a statement by the director when this first came out about wanting to use the film as an allegorical representation of the current state of Israel and particularly its relation to violence, which sounded intriguing enough to put it on my radar, but I can't say any of that really comes across except maybe for a few brief lines about learning torture techniques in the IDF. In fact, other than a few characters making disparaging remarks about living in a neighborhood "full of Arabs," it feels like it goes out if its way to elide those politics - notably, the only Palestinian in the film is an opaque, almost supernatural figure who basically pops in for one scene to establish his existence and then another scene to conveniently help set up the twist. It's a good film, but I wish I'd gone in blind because the combination of that director's statement and the Tarantino hype definitely primed me for something that this didn't quite deliver on. 3.5 / 5 25. Impetigore (2019) - Watched on Shudder  Now this is what I was hoping Warda would be - a classic horror story told from a fresh perspective, incorporating the history and culture of the country it originated from. This is a really stylish film, and the director does an excellent job of pacing things out, starting with a really tense opener before transitioning into a slow burn that just keeps building. There's a lot of interesting not-quite subtext going on with the clash between urban / rural and modern / traditional attitudes, and those elements just get mixed in the pot with the actual horror to create a really strong atmosphere of unease and dread. It's a surprisingly restrained film too, which makes the bloody bits really effective when they come. It gets bogged down a bit towards the end with some exposition-heavy flashbacks, and there's a frankly unnecessary epilogue, but it does also come with probably the most outright shocking scene in the film. Really cool film from a country with some excellent and underappreciated folklore and the perfect scenery to set this kind of movie in. 4 / 5 Total Watched: 25 - Ganja & Hess | L'Inferno | Mandy | A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night | Phantasm: Remastered | Tigers Are Not Afraid | Videodrome | The Ninth Configuration | The Changeling | Knife + Heart | Train to Busan | The Lure | A Page of Madness | Psycho | Lake Mungo | From Beyond | Alligator | When A Stranger Calls Back | The Exorcist III | Warda | One Cut of the Dead | The Wicker Man | Dagon | Big Bad Wolves | Impetigore Fran Challenges Complete: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 Decades Covered: 1910s, 1920s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s Countries Visited: United States, Italy, Iran, Mexico, Canada, France, South Korea, Poland, Japan, Australia, Egypt, United Kingdom, Spain, Israel, Indonesia Grizzled Patriarch fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Nov 1, 2020 |
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Nov 1, 2020 02:50
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38. 1BR (2019) - Netflix Hooptober Challenge: Films From 6 Different Decades 2 of 6 - 2010s    1BR involves a young woman searching for an apartment and moving into what she thinks is a safe, supportive community. Of course there is a sinister undercurrent and she ends up with her hands nailed against the wall as she is vetted as a potential addition to the apartment complex. There's nothing that seems super new here, but I did kind of laugh at the cat in the microwave, just because I'd imagine it would be something a crazy HOA would do (and the smell would never come out!). Decent yet without any big surprises, this movie is worth a watch, even if its ending seems to hit a lot of the same beats as The Invitation. 3/5 39. Deadtime Stories (1986) - Youtube Hooptober Challenge: Films From 6 Different Decades 3 of 6 - 1980s  A slightly fun anthology film with its own rockin' theme song, Deatime Stories doesn't really tread any new ground but is decently okay. The frame of the story is a man telling stories to his nephew so the boy will go to sleep. There are three other stories in the movie: One about some witches using a young boy to bring them victims to resurrect their sister, one dealing with a werewolf and a strange riff on Goldilocks and the Three Bears. While there is nothing super awesome here (beyond the opening sequence) this is an okay anthology movie. 2.5/5 40. Dogs Don't Wear Pants (2019) - Shudder Hooptober Challenge: Films From 6 Different Countries 3 of 6 (Finland)    "More." - Juha Years after the drowning death of his wife, Juha, a surgeon, is raising his daughter as a single parent and drifting through life. He takes his daughter to get a piercing and wanders through the wrong door, encountering an aggressive dominatrix who proceeds to start to strangle him. This awakens something in Juha, who dips his toe into the waters of BDSM. I have little to no interest in the BDSM subculture, but divorced from those trappings there is a strong character journey here. We go from Juha tentatively taking off his clothes at Mona's request to the almost triumphant sequence of him being admitted to the club to his dancing and smiling (sans tooth) at Mona. The only real complaint I have is that the daughter's story line just seems to trickle out and not really go anywhere by the end of the movie. 3.5/5 41. Shrew's Nest (2014) - Shudder Hooptober Challenge: Films From 6 Different Countries 4 of 6 (Spain)    Shrew's Nest is one of those films like The Eyes of My Mother that is well-made but definitely hard to watch and not a very good time. The plot, set in the 1950s, involves two sisters living together. The older sister, Montse, is strongly agoraphobic and won't leave the apartment while the younger sister has encounters in the outside world. Macarena Gómez is excellent as Montse and brings an uneasy intensity to the role. There is nothing enjoyable here, but even as the story gets more grotesque the performances stay top shelf. Worth watching at least once, this is a solid and horrific movie. 3.5/5
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Nov 1, 2020 02:57
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 #30 Coraline (2009) (rewatch, Netflix) One of the rare ones that didn't hold up as well on repeat viewing. It has a lot of great ingredients, from art direction to world building to humour and scares. But the plot feels slapdash, with a lot of sudden reversals and rescues that don't feel organic. It has the feel of an old-school fairy tale where there's not much character growth, moreso actions that propel plot, and there's a general life lesson in a rather gruesome, entertaining package. But it feels more like setpieces, and the finale collecting three necessary pieces felt more video game like than folkloric. I really wanted to like it more because it has a general creepiness and mood that are excellent, but the structure they're hung on is drat rickety. It's less than the sum of its parts. 3.5/5  I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020) (first time watch, Netflix) Claustrophobically grim and surreal to the point of obtuseness, with long stretches of tedious soliloquy, this was a lot for a final movie. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either. Kaufman's standard existential angst is omnipresent of course, this time turned even more in on itself questioning the stories we tell ourselves, our expectations, construction, and how we are formed, but packaged in a dream logic that goes out of its way to obscure. It could be a trans narrative, though I'm unsure whether MtF of FtM, the imagined partner, the creation of a lonely janitor, a meditation on authorship itself basically something I'm going to have to read and think on for a while. It is frustratingly, ambitiously ambiguous. It's visually and thematically arresting and then dull for stretches, but the performances are amazing obviously. One of those things that may haunt me or anger me depending on my mood. 3.5/5 Also holy poo poo I'm never doing 31 movies again. But at least it got me to see a bunch of classics. Thank you, thread! 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 21. Blood and Black Lace 22. The Innocents 23. Diabolique 24. Under the Shadow 25. Videdrome 26. Bride of Re-Animator 27. Revenge 28. A Dark Song
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Nov 1, 2020 03:52
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Fran Challenge #7: Dearly DepartedFran Challenges complete #35 Dagon Stuart Gordon, 2001  This was terrible. I don't mind that it's low budget; cheap doesn't necessarily equate to lovely. But in this case something went horribly wrong. The story is nothing but people running around being chased by boring, lovely looking monsters. The characters are awful (the main guy looks like the lead singer of Weezer and acts like a complete jackass), the CGI is - without hyperbole - some of the worst I've ever seen, and half the characters speak in either un-subtitled Spanish or with an accent so thick they're impossible to understand. And this includes vital exposition dialogue. Luckily the story is so lame that I didn't care about what I was missing. Everything about this film rubbed me the wrong way and I loving hated it. 1/5 Fran Challenges (13/13): 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), 28. The Cremator (1969), 29. The Wizard of Gore (1970), 30. Salem's Lot (1979), 31. Piranha (1978), 32. Candyman (1992), 33. The Lords of Salem (2012), 34. Dead of Night (1945), 35. Dagon (2001) Spatulater bro! fucked around with this message at 04:01 on Nov 1, 2020 |
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Nov 1, 2020 03:58
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And the last set of reviews. 100 entries just as I had hoped I could make. I will say the 75 from last year is a much more realistic number for me if all businesses aren't plague houses. This 100 was only doable because I didn't get to go out. I'm glad I did this as it's a good way to force me to clear out a chunk of my backlog. (97) The Skull (1965) dir. Freddie Francis Peter Cushing is a collector of occult oddities when his less than legitimate source offers him up a special skull. He says it’s the skull of Marquis de Sade. This skull also seems to be cursed, the man who originally stole it killed himself as soon as he had cleaned the muck off it. His friend who was getting his estate into order killed the man’s girlfriend shortly after finding the skull. After Peter is offered the skull, he blacks out and when he comes to, the man offering it to him is dead with his jugular ripped out. The skull has some sort of curse / possession thing going on. It’s an Amicus Productions and pretty decent.  (98) The Ghost Galleon (1974) dir. Amando de Ossorio The blind dead are back but this time they are interred on a ghost ship floating in the ocean surrounded by a fog. A businessman has a brilliant idea to hire two models and have them float out in a shipping lane waiting for rescue. Instead they are “rescued” by the blind dead. They were on the radio with the businessman and their manager at the time so he quickly organizes a rescue mission which also ends up on the blind dead’s ship. A real step down for the blind dead series and a confusing one since they are suddenly on a ship now.  (99) The Happening (2008) dir. M. Night Shyamalan Marky Mark is a Philadelphia science teacher who is having some issues with his wife. All of a sudden people in NYC stop, walk backwards and start killing themselves. It starts spreading from there so people assume it’s a terrorist attack and flee the cities. Marky Mark and his friends keep fleeing to smaller and smaller groups while people keep committing various forms of suicide around them. Despite being a Shyamalan movie, there’s no real twist that people assume all his movies must have. Some of the characters suspect the suicides are caused by plants but it’s not proven. I think he just wanted to make a movie with a bunch of interesting kills and people were expecting too much. Also Marky Mark isn’t a good actor.  (100) Ernest Scared Stupid (1991) dir. John R. Cherry III A troll is buried under a tree and in the process he curses the town. Many years later Ernest accidentally releases it. The troll needs to capture several kids so he can release the rest of his troll troupe. As a kids movie, naturally the kids are on the frontline of fighting it and the parents just won’t believe them. The trolls are recycled from Killer Klowns from Outer Space so they actually look pretty good. The rest of the movie is not shooting beyond kids movie level. Totals: (1) Tombs of the Blind Dead (Spanish) (1972) (2) Child’s Play 3 (1991) (3) The City of the Dead (1960) (4) Count Dracula’s Great Love (Spanish) (1973) (5) The Phantom Carriage (Swedish/Silent) (1921) (6) Dracula 2000 (2000) (7) BloodRayne: Deliverance (2007) (8) Slugs (1988) (9) Red Riding Hood (2011) (10) Thir13en Ghosts (2001) (11) Frankenweenie (2012) #1 (12) Blacula (1972) (13) BloodRayne: The Third Reich (2010) (14) Night of the Demons (1988) (15) City of the Living Dead (1980) (17) Ticks (1993) (18) The Pit and The Pendulum (1961) (19) The Nest (1988) (20) Zombeavers (2014) (21) Human Lanterns (1982) (22) The Phantom of the Opera (1962) (23) Tower of Evil (1972) (24) To the Devil a Daughter (1976) (25) Lake Placid (1999) (26) Deep Blue Sea (1999) (27) Anaconda (1997) (28) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) (29) Vampires (1998) (30) Bats (1999) #2 (31) Shorts Shorts Shorts! (32) Taste of Fear (1961) (33) Wishmaster (1997) (34) Sisters of Death (1976) (35) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) (36) What Have You Done to Solange? (1972) (37) Death Line (1972) (38) Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971) (39) Cat Girl (1957) (40) Day of the Animals (1977) (41) The Haunted Palace (1963) (42) Requiem for a Vampire (French) (1971) (43) Return of the Blind Dead (Spanish) (1973) (44) The Last Man on Earth (1964) (45) What Have They Done to Your Daughters? (1974) (46) The Iron Rose (1973) (47) Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell (2018) (48) Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020) (49) Prom Night (1980) #3 (50) Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) (51) From Beyond (1986) (52) Scanners II: The New Order (1991) #4 (53) Bit (2019) #5 (54) The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog #6 (1927) (55) The Exorcist (1973) #7 (56) Queen of Blood (1966) #8 (57) Frogs (1972) (58) Warlock (1989) (59) The Dead Zone (1983) (60) Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) (61) Body Snatchers (1993) (62) Phantasm II (1988) (63) Ghosts of Mars (2001) (64) The Plague of the Zombies (1966) (65) Doom: Annihilation (2019) (66) Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (67) Scanners III: The Takeover #9 (68) The Night Stalker (1972) (69) Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988) #10 (70) Bride of Chucky (1998) (71) The Masque of the Red Death (1964) (72) Coraline (2009) (73) Castle Freak (1995) (74) Uninvited (1988) (75) Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965) (76) Body Melt (1993) #11 (78) The Lure (Polish) (2015) (79) Creepozoids (1987) (80) Sleepy Hollow (1999) #12 (81) Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (1999) #13 (82) Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 (1987) (83) Van Helsing (2004) (84) She Killed in Ecstasy (German) (1971) (85) The Night of the Hunter (1955) (86) Looker (1981) (87) Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998) (88) StageFright: Aquarius (1987) (89) Blind Woman’s Curse (1970) (90) House of the Long Shadows (1983) (91) Demons of the Mind (1972) (92) Queen of the Damned (2002) (93) The Visitor (1979) (94) Horror Express (1972) (95) The Bride (1985) (96) Transylvania 6-5000 (1985) (97) The Skull (1965) (98) The Ghost Galleon (1974) (99) The Happening (2008) (100) Ernest Scared Stupid (1991) Computers: 1, Death: 2, Demons: 8, Ghosts: 3, Man: 21, Monsters: 29, Serial Killers: 13, Vampires: 12, Werewolves: 1, Witches: 2, Zombies: 7
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Nov 1, 2020 04:23
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Challenge Completed! 31. The Evil Dead (1981)  Capping off on Halloween with a classic. You know what this is. Eighty minutes of pure homemade, tasteless, goopy, infectious madness. It's not a perfect movie, the sequel would refine the formula more and Campbell is weirdly less convincing when he's *not* a cartoon character with a chainsaw arm. But still, the melting people, the book prop, the blood, the woods, the trapdoor, the camera itself coming out of the woods to getcha? This is what it's all about. 4.5/5  Before I go to bed I'll be doing my annual rewatch of my favorite horror movie Night of the Living Dead. Happy Halloween all.
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Nov 1, 2020 04:29
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 #150) A Disney Halloween (1983) I always thought this was called Disney's Halloween Treat, as that's the theme song used, but apparently that's because this is a stapling together of the 1977 Disney's Greatest Villains and 1982's Disney's Halloween Treat. So, that's one childhood memory sharply corrected. This is effectively a themed clip show, with pieces pulled from Disney's movies and cartoon shorts. Some are more fitting than others (the Siamese Cats song from Lady and the Tramp feels like a stretch, for instance, while the Kafkaesque Pluto's Judgement Day slots right in), but some excellent narration helps guide things along smoothly. Basically Halloween comfort food, with a few weird picks in the mix like unwanted candy in the end-of-night haul. Rating: 7/10Watched a wobbly copy on Youtube.  #151) Jezebeth 2: Hour of the Gun (2015) Slight improvement from the first Jezebeth. I guess. This time, there's vampires in the old West? But the sets and costuming are very obviously modern. Eventually, you're clued in to the fact that the movie is ping-ponging between past and present, but it doesn't do much to clue viewers in before that outside of shade tinting. That might have been more of a tip-off if the characters hadn't been wearing the same clothes in both eras. There's a mute kid who's been turned to a vampire, and she looks utterly bored in every one of her scenes. Oh, and they're vampires that are unaffected by sunlight. As in the first Jezebeth, we get a lengthy and inexplicable music-video-like interlude in a club; this time, it's not a strip club, though. To be honest, the reduced level of technical incompetence takes away the trainwreck entertainment the first film had, leaving this just dull and amateurish. But they ride horses at one or two points. “I swear unto you, Billie, you will know whence the hour of the gun.” Rating: 3/10Watched on Tubi. Watched on Tubi. Darthemed fucked around with this message at 15:53 on Nov 1, 2020 |
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Nov 1, 2020 04:46
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Coming down to the wire. Here's Fran Challenge 2, leaving just one Fran challenge (which I'm watching as I post this up!). The writeups are, well, a bit brief. Like the films! Fran Challenge 2: Shorts Tunnelen (The Tunnel) - 14:29 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOwKExagzdQ&ab_channel=ShortoftheWeek The Tunnel was incredibly tense. What kind of hell hole do you have to live in to think a couple hours at a beach is worth that gamble. Very interesting dystopia. Recorded Live - 8:46 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMEwtE2WEz4&ab_channel=Tremors Recorded Live was a very silly film about video tape attacking someone. Cool stop-motion effects, and the kind of student video I wish I had made. My house walkthrough - 12:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWXnt2Z2D1E&t=3s&ab_channel=nana825763 Super creepy - this had a very Silent Hill vibe to me. I loved the mounting dread and tension, and with no jump scare payoff, it left me feeling on edge afterwards. Meliere - The Devil In A Convent - 3:10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GnEKY-ktKU&ab_channel=iconauta Watching Meliere is always fun - these early movies are super ool to just see what they were trying to do with limited technology. Local58 - Contingency 3:06 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c66w6fVqOI&ab_channel=LOCAL58TV-COMMUNITYTELEVISION Local58, the entire series, is terrifying. This is the only one I saw in October, I think - very dark, very apocalyptic, very cultish, and way too close to home. Special Day 7:07 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkO6ppcvFro&ab_channel=ALTER A fun take on cults and coming of age meaning a very special gift. That goes very wrong. It was a bit sudden, which is something that comes with the territory of the movie equivalent of sudden fiction. It was fun and creepy. The Open Window - 9:42 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdtJZ0e0jnQ&ab_channel=PoisonedDragon1964 Another creepy short - possible ghosts that turn out to not be ghosts OR ARE THEY. Sarah’s Channel - 4:31, 4:54, 5:16, 3:56, 4:46, 5:09 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deLiDLkQzio&list=PL0M6rJJZbZTsUcNoOrjxUjsg48czkamCt&ab_channel=ABCCOMEDY I wasn’t sure this one counts, but more folks need to see it. A video series that mocks youtube makeup tutorials but in an apocalyptic setting, waiting for… something… to come back. Very cool.
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Nov 1, 2020 04:53
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Finished the thirteen challenges yesterday, and this gets me to thirteen new movies on top of them. Rewatch #11: Robot World (2011) https://i.imgur.com/F5EGyi2.gifv Hadn't realized this was actually a rewatch until I got into it. Decent enough micro-budget movie about a man being marooned on an alien world overrun with robots. It has the post-Planet of the Apes problem, where if you land on a post-apocalyptic world, then there can be a chunk of time where you're just waiting around to find out if it's Earth in the future or not. The answer, that it's the Earth in the future, but the dude is an alien (with a neat effects shot showing we might only be perceiving him as human because he's the POV character), is a fun third option that I had forgotten was the twist until it happened. Solid freshman effort from a visual-effects person that makes me want to check out his second movie now that I remember I've seen his first. New #11: The Head Hunter (2018) http://i.imgur.com/OZurvxQ.gifv Reminded me of The Witcher but with the fantasy elements cranked even lower. The first half where we're only seeing how his domestic life works, not his hunts, is interesting, though I'm glad that they gave us an actual confrontation with a monster in the second half. Neat little movie. New #12: Vivarium (2019) Could have gotten up to speed slightly faster, but once the kid shows up it's a creepy little situation that I enjoyed watching, even if it ends up exactly the way you expect. Imogen Poots is quite good. New #13: The Vast of Night (2019) The radio DJ is a bit much at first, but seeing an alien abduction story through a series of phone calls and interviews is clever and gives a real feeling of place. Not sure what to make of the whole TV-show-within-the-movie deal, though. Just a nod to its inspirations?
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Nov 1, 2020 04:56
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#6 Dracula (1958) 2020/10/06  It was pretty good, though I didn't love it. First Hammer Horror I've seen. I loved the sets, how much detail they crammed in, and the lack of closeups makes you have to look for the details. The movie felt like it was made three years after the invention of the shadow, and they were determined to use shadows in every conceivable way, in every single shot. Anyway, I found their take on van Helsing interesting. He's more than a little vampy himself: all-knowing, manipulative, solitary, driven (and seemingly unconcerned about killing two dear friends after they become vampires). The whole thing was incredibly fast-paced, to its detriment. At one point Mina seemingly gets killed, and within ten seconds vH is setting up a blood transfusion to save her. I mean jeeze, let us feel despair for a minute or two. Honestly I was surprised at how much everyone talks about Christopher Lee in this; he had a pretty good presence, but just wasn't in it much; Cushing I found much more memorable. /5#7 Near Dark (1987) 2020/10/08  I thought it was pretty good. A young man in Oklahoma falls in with a wandering band of vampires, but is unwilling to kill for his supper. Very different feel to Dracula; no-one ever explains what vampirism is to the audience, and I don't think the word "vampire" even appears in the first half-hour, even though the vamps show up right away. Most of the movie is set at night, but it's that clear blue-filtered sort of night like in Terminator 2, whereas the day scenes are all ugly, muddy, heat-hazed. The vampires Caleb winds up with felt like the inspiration for the Firefly Clan, except played straight. They're unusual, by vampire standards: they're quite practical, and while they like to play with their food they also just use guns and knives. I liked how the ending came down to Caleb just being a nice boy, relying on his family and paying attention to that one truck-driver talking about how gears work. /5#8 The Clovehitch Killer (2018) 2020/10/10  "Maybe you don't know what a normal dad is like" I loved it. This kid, Tyler, starts to find evidence that his father, Donald, may be a former serial killer (to the extent that anyone can be a former serial killer). I found it really fascinating, the son's unwillingness to believe coupled with the need to know (and prodded along by Kassi, a girl his age who has an interest in Clovehitch). It felt like Breaking Bad from Flynn's perspective. You start examining every little detail of Donald's personality, like how he occasionally headlocks Tyler. In one scene, Tyler breaks into his shed, and Donald immediately knows because Tyler didn't reset the padlock to 0-- it's the sort of thing a serial killer might do to test if they're being watched, but it's also the sort of compulsion you might find in a normal person. The real meat of the movie comes from the nature of the relationship between them: can a psychopath genuinely love his own son? And the answer is no. Donald seems to enjoy Tyler's company, and tries to preserve their life together, but when it gets right down to it he chooses himself.  /5#9 The Nightingale (2018) 2020/10/12  It was really good. Not really horror, but horrific enough. An indentured convict, Claire, hires an Aboriginal guide, Mangana, to help her track down and kill her rapist in the Tasmanian wilderness, on the eve of what's known as the Black War, 1820ish. I found it interesting for how strange everything was: reject-soldiers guarding deported convicts on the far side of the planet, serving alien interests for tiny rewards. As small and hopeless as these men are, they have absolute power over whoever is below them. Much of the evil that takes place here isn't orders from on high or colonial policy, it's just the whims and impulses of Hawkins and his subordinates-- but of course, who put Hawkins here in the first place? There's a neat subplot in which we see Hawkins try to perpetuate himself by inducting a little boy, Eddie, into his fellowship of violence, and another one in which one of the soldiers is temporarily demoted to being black-- he doesn't learn anything from it, of course, and is only more vicious once there's someone beneath him again.  In the end, Mangana kills both of the surviving rapists. Their acts of violence are spur-of-the-moment, while his is careful and premeditated, which I honestly liked. A less confident filmmaker would try to dress it up, have him challenge them to duels or something honourable, to avoid the risk the audience might look down on his actions. No chance of that here. Of course, the tragedy of it is that no-one will understand why he did it; it'll just be one more piece of petty violence to them, one more justification.  They didn't try to make the ending happy. How could they? 4/5 #10 Clown (2014) 2020/10/13  aka The Clovvn That was a lot of fun. A guy puts on a clown-suit, which causes him to start transforming into a clown-demon, driven to eat children. It wastes absolutely zero time with set-up; the guy gets clowned 4 minutes in. I liked that they didn't play it too wacky. It's a black comedy, obviously, you can't make a serious movie about a man turning into a clown, but the actors generally play it straight, which is necessary for the whole thing to work. There's this amazing scene where the guy shoots himself, only to spray rainbow-coloured blood on the bathroom wall, and get a headache. The movie then segues into him building a series of elaborate suicide-machines, all of which fail. There's also this great gag where one of his potential victims, who's like 10 years old, tries to defend himself with nunchucks. I loved how Peter Stormare's character can apparently recognise a 7-year-old's jawbone just from looking at it. /5
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Nov 1, 2020 05:06
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