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I'm starting off very front-heavy to leave some wiggle-room later in the month. 1. Yellowbrickroad - This is practically found footage month. In 1940 most of a town got up and walked north, and disappeared. Now (uh..now-ish) a researcher and his crew are following their path. It was ok. It felt very fever-dreamy but formulaic and didn't really offer any surprises. (2/5) 2. The Visit - A brother and sister visit their estranged grandparents. I liked it. The kids do a good job of carrying the movie, and the tension and creepiness mounts in a believable way. However, I think it relies too heavily on the idea that mental illness is confusing and creepy. (3.5/5) 3. Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead - The lone survivor of the original movie has returned, and so have the Nazi zombies. Someone in the main horror thread called this the Evil Dead 2 to the original's Evil Dead. I'd go so far as to say this is the Army of Darkness. It really ramps up the comedy and becomes a really entertaining gory romp. Also, easily the best Nazi doctor in a movie ever. Fun movie! (4.5/5) 4. Unfriended - A group of friends meet in a Skype chat, and are joined by... SOMEONE ELSE. Better than I expected it to be, but still not all that great. It does a pretty good job of being realistic with the technology. Well...pretty good. Better than most movies, anyway. Logically there isn't a lot holding it together though so don't think too hard about it. (2.5/5) 5. As Above, So Below - An archaeologist and her team search for the Philosopher's Stone in and under the catacombs of Paris. I enjoyed this. The main character is basically a badass Lara Croft solving puzzles and exploring tombs. And maybe stumbling into hell. (3.5/5)
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Oct 3, 2015 21:34
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| # ¿ Apr 23, 2024 20:54 |
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6. Insidious: Chapter 3 - A prequel to the first two, this tells the origin story (sort of) of Elise the psychic. Here she has to help a young girl and her family deal with a haunting and possession. If you like the characters, it's all right. I like the characters. The first was better, but they all fall apart when they get to the Dream World anyway. (2.5/5) 7. We Are Still Here - A couple move into a new home, but the previous occupants ARE STILL HERE. Ugh, I do not understand the love for this one. Very ham-fisted dialogue that I guess is meant as a knowing wink at the genre conventions. However, this isn't just a typical haunting story, it's also a cult story, and mashing up the two like this means character motivations are completely confused and nonsensical. (1/5) 8. Black Christmas (1974) - A crazy stalks a sorority house on during the holidays. Oh man, this is a classic. Remarkably deep characters. Great fun slasher movie. (5/5) 9. Black Christmas (2006) - A crazy guy escapes a mental facility and stalks a sorority house during the holidays. Ugh, terrible reboot of the original. All it retains from the original are names and settings, all of the subtlety and characterization of the first is completely lost in this one. (1/5) 10. Candyman - A researcher into urban myths gets in over her head. This isn't anything like I expected it to be. I expected a fairly traditional slasher type, but there's a lot more going on here. Papers could (and probably have) been written about what this movie has to say about race. Neat stuff. (4/5)
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Oct 5, 2015 14:43
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11. Resolution - A city dude heads to the backwoods to help a high school friend recover from drug addiction. While there mysterious poo poo begins to happen. I don't really think the mysterious poo poo works the way it wanted it to work. The mystery is laid out but I didn't really buy the way it was pieced together. That said, the two main guy's were well-acted and I believed their jokey 'gently caress you man/no gently caress you man' relationship. Funny and slightly creepy. (3.5/5) 12. The Pyramid - An archaeologist and his team explore a recently discovered pyramid in Egypt. It does not go well. Boy oh boy when found footage sucks it sucks. It has a significant amount in common with As Above, So Below, except here it isn't handled nearly so well. Also, lots of exposition and lame enemies. (1/5) 13. Wrong Turn 2: Dead End - A reality show decides its setting should be the ol' Wrong Turn Woods, where all those crazy cannibal hillbillies live. Other than crazy cannibal hillbillies this has little to do with the original, but, honestly, it's not like there was a complex plot to reference. Cliches and gore abound! It's kind of a fun romp, but it didn't do much for me. (2/5) 14. Grave Encounters - A ghost hunter reality show encounters actual ghosts. I like FF movies, and this went places I didn't expect it to go. The ending felt like it really dragged, though. (3.5/5)
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Oct 6, 2015 12:59
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15. The Collection - The sequel to The Collector, it's about a serial killer with a penchant for traps. During a weird, convoluted scene at a rave club, the surviving thief from the first movie escapes, and a girl is kidnapped. The thief leads a team of rescuers back to his trap-filled hideout. The setup makes a bit more sense this time, but I didn't really feel like the traps were well thought out or interesting, and there were an awful lot of scenes where "the velociraptor gets distracted". (2.5/5) 16. The Descent - A longtime group of female friends goes spelunking. But they spel the wrong unk. The film does a great job of setting up a series of relatable, connected characters who end up making (relatively) believable mistakes. I think it would have been better with less monster and more scary-rear end tight spaces. (3.5/5) 17. A Field in England - During the English Civil War, a hapless assistant flees from his master. He joins up with several other deserters, and they are directed and drugged into finding a treasure. It was a fever trip of a movie, but it really didn't do anything for me. I found it disjointed and not all that interesting. (1/5) 18. Grave Encounters 2 - A group of college auteurs investigate the mysterious story behind the film Grave Encounters. Could it be a true story!? But the effects were so lame! Fully up it's own rear end with the metacommentary, it basically repeats a lot of the scares from the original. I enjoy convoluted self-referential world-building, though, even when it's not terribly well done. (3/5) 19. American Mary - A down-on-her luck med student takes on a few side jobs as a street surgeon. When one of her teachers takes advantage of her, she takes revenge using her special set of skills. She descends quickly into a world of body horror and revenge. Entertaining movie. Her deleting her Nana from the contact list was the most unintentionally hilarious scene in the movie. (3.5/5)
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Oct 7, 2015 03:24
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20. Starry Eyes - A young actress does everything she can to land an career-making role. Everything she can. Do you get it? Do you? It's a dark satire on Hollywood! It was ok. The main actress was good. It just took it too far, to a point where it got goofy. (2/5) 21. I Spit on Your Grave (2010) - A young woman rents a remote cabin in the woods to work in peace, but the locals take advantage of the situation. I don't like revenge fantasies. Also not a big fan of long rape scenes. Most of the second half of this movie completely leaves reality, as she becomes a spirit of vengeance. Lots of repeated dialogue, turning lines back on the villains. Ebert was right, there are no good guys here. (1/5) 22. I Spit on Your Grave 2 - A young woman gets taken advantage of, and then becomes the advantage taker. Like a lot of horror movies, this is basically the exact same plot as the first film, with a different location. (1/5) 23. I Spit on Your Grave 3 - The survivor from the first movie tries to cope with the aftermath of her actions. In group therapy, she struggles with the stories of other girls and decides vengeance is the best answer. A remarkably different take on the series. No rape this time, just descriptions of rape! I think they could have had some interesting things to say here about trauma and PTSD, but, like the other films, this is only interested in violent deaths. An extra star for no rape. (2/5) PROTIP: Don't watch the I Spit on Your Grave movies.
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Oct 10, 2015 14:47
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24. Last Days on Mars - Time on Mars is going swimmingly until the crew discover life and the life turns out to not be very human-friendly. Eh. Zombies on Mars. (2/5) 25. Ghosthouse - A group of kids are drawn to a house with creepy goings-on. I enjoyed it a lot, though there are a a number of scenes in the middle where scary stuff happens to someone and then they don't tell other people about it. (4/5) 26. The Final Girls - A girl and her friends get trapped inside a classic slasher movie. I think it's a great premise, and I was disappointed with what they accomplished with it. It had too much sappy heart for what should have just been a goofy slasher parody. Maybe this would have worked if it had been better acted. I still enjoyed it, but it is definitely flawed. (4/5) 27. Knock Knock - A father home alone for the weekend answers the door and is nice to drifters. Too nice. I thought this was all right, although at times it borders on completely absurd. Creepy and yet completely unrealistic. (3/5) 28. Hardware - In a post-apocalyptic future, a space scavenger brings back more than he bargained for. Terminator, if Terminator took place in an apartment. I like my post-apocalypses, but other than setting this has nothing to offer. Terrible janky robot villain with an incredibly discombobulated plot. There are at least two scenes where the heroine is quite obviously dead, or filmed as if she was dead. It's very weird, slow panning camera work, and it's very confusing. But the entire last act doesn't make any sense, so I guess it's par for the course. (1/5) 29. The Monster Squad - A gang of kids obsessed with monsters forms a squad to fight them, coincidentally shortly before monsters come to town searching for an ancient book. Totally and completely Goonies with classic monsters. I've never seen it before, but it would have been fantastic to see as a kid. Though, lots of swearing for kids, and more homophobic content than is necessary. (3/5) 30. Society - A high school kid starts to see things that can't possibly be real. Or can they? PS they're real. Creepy and effective body horror, but...uh... not a very subtle metaphor. Really solid dad joke. I'm not really all that sure how he got to be this old without noticing anything weird. (4/5)
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Oct 14, 2015 01:26
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31. Creepshow 2 - Anthology! An old grocery store owner and his wife get robbed. Slow and obvious. Four teens sneak onto an abandoned raft. Fast-paced and wonderfully creepy. A hitchhiker refuses to take no for an answer. Kind of in the middle, for me. Overall it's a bumpy collection, but an enjoyable watch. (3.5/5) (rewatch) [REC] - A news reporter and her cameraman get trapped in the middle of some sort of outbreak. I think it's a classic found footage movie. They do a great job of ratcheting up the tension and putting you right into the situation, without too much of a "why does he have this camera still?" feeling. (5/5) 32. ABCs of Death 2 - An anthology of 26 short movies, ABCs of Death as a series fails because the mediocre and outright terrible shorts far outnumber the good ones, to such an extent that I can never remember which if any were good by the time I get to the end of the film. The one thing the original had going for it was that it was kind of entertaining to try and guess the word 'theme' for the shorts, but this edition goes pretty drat deep into obscurity. (1/5) 33. Open Windows - A fan gets more than he bargains for when he wins a contest to meet his favorite actress. Much, much more of a thriller than a horror film. So, hacking is magic, and this movie is basically one long wizard duel. Lots of twists and turns, and fairly entertaining, but filmed in a fantasy world where hackers can do everything. (2/5) 34. Prom Night (1980) - A killer stalks a prom night. Very slow moving movie, and just in general disappointing. (1.5/5) 35. The Gallows - A tragic accident during a high school play has long lasting ramifications. I like my FF movies to have a semblance of reality in them, and this one does not. Poor motivation for the evil spirit, no reason at all for them to still have a camera, and frequent operator switching making it very hard to see/understand who's holding the camera. It had some skillful use of lighting, and was more entertaining than a lot of what I've watched this year. (2/5)
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Oct 16, 2015 22:46
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36. Suspiria - An American heads to Germany to join a ballet school. Mysteries are afoot. Deeply lurid film, really pretty fantastic. Beautiful movie, great soundtrack. (5/5) 37. The Fog - "There's no fog bank out there.....hey there's a fog bank out there." One hundred years ago, folks in this seaside town committed murder. Now the fog will get revenge. Better than I expected it to be, with more of a physical villain than the title suggests. (4/5) 38. 100 Bloody Acres - Festival goers stumble upon a fertilizer salesman who has some big plans for future expansion. This was an unexpected surprise. Good build-up, good humor, fun effects. The guy who plays Dewey Crow from Justified is just a joy to watch screw up. (4/5) 39. Burnt Offerings - A family gets a deal renting a house for the summer. OR DO THEY Kind of an interesting spin on the haunted house, though I didn't really feel like all of the character motivations made a lot of sense. Also I thought that there was a lot of buildup for not a lot of payoff. (2/5) 40. The Houses October Built - A group of thrill-seekers head cross-country on a haunted house tour, in search of a secretive one that takes it to the next level. Real dumb, kind of fun. The basic idea, of haunted house ghoulies taking it outside the house, is very cool. It devolves into shaky-cam nonsense every time they tour a haunted house, which is far too often for shaky-cam nonsense. (1.5/5) 41. Bone Tomahawk - A small group of men set off on a rescue mission against a tribe of cannibalistic Indians. It's a slow, methodical movie that felt very empty. Not a scary movie, but gory, and the gore is pretty incredible. As a genre mashup it didn't really work for me. (2.5/5) 42. Asylum Blackout - The cooks get trapped in an asylum during a power outage. Pretty disturbing, but at the same time not very good. The characters are poorly defined and basically all the same. The asylum felt like less of a place, and more of a disconnected series of rooms. The "twist" is pretty dumb, too. Still, it was pretty scary. (2/5)
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Oct 31, 2015 14:11
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Finished pretty strong! 43. Mama - A father commits a heinous crime and spirits his two children into the woods, where they are raised by a spirit. Really great, atmospheric movie about parenting. Though, I think it went on for too long. Mama seemed to alternate between vicious attacks and slightly malevolent hauntings, with not a lot of explanation for which she chooses to use. (4/5) 44. Life After Beth - A dude has to try to recover from the unexpected loss of his girlfriend. And her unexpected return. Pretty funny, and gorier than it first appears. Filled with famous funny people, which kind of accentuates how...only mildly funny it is. It's most direct comparison is Shaun of the Dead, particularly in the way clues as to what's going on happen in the background. Shaun is overall much better, but this was good. (4/5) xx. Grabbers - Aliens crash land and begin to attack residents on a small Irish island. They fight back by drinking. I like this movie a lot, but with all of the slurry drunks it's real hard to watch in a party setting, without subtitles. Still, it's a great horror comedy. (5/5)
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Nov 2, 2015 03:40
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| # ¿ Apr 23, 2024 20:54 |
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:Wow, Asylum Blackout was that good? It's probably the scariest movie I watched, except the 'squeezy' parts in The Descent and As Above, So Below. It lost a lot of its power when I had time to think about how poorly defined the characters were, and the asylum was. Still, I have permanently added "Never work in an asylum" to my list of life plans.
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Nov 3, 2015 04:52
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