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Also bailed on JeruZalem, boring. I watched Would You Rather and it had moments but was a cop out in storytelling. People being maimed, beaten, tortured, but the pretty blonde girl just has to hold her breath for 2 minutes. And the ending was extremely predictable.
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Oct 7, 2016 08:55
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 The ListThe Big Four 16. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) 17. Halloween (1978) 18. Friday the 13th (1980) 19. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)  A number of posters attached to this one, but this guy is my favorite. Second verse, same as the first. Kinda interesting to watch a film in this series whose goal is 'Be a horror movie that's a sequel to Friday the 13th.', rather than 'Be a Friday the 13th'. Plus, nice to see the Proprietor character return (only to be killed off right after). Otherwise, not a whole lot to say, other than the film makes great use of a physical actor's presence in the stalking/kill scenes. [ Meanwhile the first seemed to try to keep any presence of a killer as off screen as possible. The use of an actual Jason is exemplified the reverse psychology scene, which manages to be one of the most iconic scenes in horror despite the film it's in. Plus, bonus points for bringing back Betsy Palmer. I will say it's kinda insane that this film was released less than a year after the first. Kinda funny that before anyone else could capitalize on this film the producers did it first. If you like the first, then you'll probably like this. Still not a great film overall. Next up: Halloween 2
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Oct 7, 2016 09:13
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wormil posted:I tried Dead Snow Red vs Dead and made it ten or fifteen minutes. Gory but boring. Aw man, the movie is unpredictably fun as it goes. Did you even get to the Americans by that point?
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Oct 7, 2016 13:22
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BioTech posted:7. Creepshow 2 Thanks for the ride, lady!!
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Oct 7, 2016 17:09
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17.Drag Me to Hell I'm doing a run of "modern classics" before I dive in to the all-time greats that I usually save for closer to Halloween. Sure, not everyone will agree with me that Drag Me to Hell is a classic, but those people hate fun. The one and only criticism that I can understand is a small handful of gross-out effects that used out-dated CGI as opposed to the practical techniques from Raimi's earlier work. Its a minor thing that has never really hurt my ability to have a great time watching this movie. Its wacky and over the top, but at the same time it has a very genuine relationship between Lohman and Long at the center of it, which for me is very important. I guess if you hate Justin Long, you won't agree with me. Some people apparently can't stand him. There are some really great scenes in this that are worthy of standing next to Raimi's greatest moments from the past, like the séance and the parking garage brawl. All of the supporting actors do a great job of playing stock characters and making them their own. From the bank manager to the mystic/shaman dude, and Mrs. Janosh, who spends half the movie as a corpse. There's probably at least one person in this thread who's never seen Drag Me to Hell because its actually not very well known. Check it out. 18.It Follows This one's been discussed a ton in this forum since its release, and for good reason. Its a great example of how the literal and metaphorical can be combined in interesting ways, the titular "It" working as a metaphor for several different things other than just STD's. The director, David Robert Mitchell, is definitely one to keep an eye on because this movie is expertly shot. The repeated use of the 360 degree camera movement is pretty unique, and almost every individual shot is really nice to look at for one reason or another. Great lighting, great cinematography, a great score, and a genuinely creepy premise. What's not to like?
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Oct 7, 2016 17:30
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I've said it before and I'll say it again, one of my favorite minor things about It Follows is the weird fashion the girls are wearing in most scenes, a combination of booty shorts and sweaters. It might seem fairly absurd, but it allows the camera to dictate modesty. When they're shot from the top down, they seem like fully dressed individuals, but when the angle is lower, suddenly you're reminded their legs are exposed and the inherent sexuality of young women and all it implies in the context of the film. Just like how the characters themselves tend to act a bit younger and a bit older than their age depending on some of the scenes.
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Oct 7, 2016 18:10
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Dammit I should have suggested the Cabal Cut of Nightbreed.
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Oct 7, 2016 18:24
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10/5 - Tenebre. Really dug this one. It took me a lil bit to kinda get into the vibe of the flick, but after that I was all-in. I'm often put off by the slow pacing of Italian stuff, so I was stoked when this one pretty much got started immediately. This is the only Argento flick I had planned for the month, but if I make my way through my list I might try to get a couple more in. The only other flick I've seen of his is Suspiria. 10/6 - The Keep. Wow, this one is crazy. Going into this, I didn't know about the production woes and the 3 & half hour cut that got chopped in half by the studio, all I knew was "horror movie by Michael Mann with a Tangerine Dream score" and that sold me. Well, even without that knowledge it became very clear early on that this movie had been cut down considerably. The thing moves at such an insane pace because of it, and it often feels like they tried to patch over the narrative gaps by making the score louder in the sound mix. It makes for a very strange experience. It's like watching a movie on fast-forward. That said - I still really enjoyed it. Now, maybe I'm just a sucker for Mann's aesthetic and have a hard-on for Tangerine Dream, but I was really enjoying the breakneck ride of this movie. It wasn't until about halfway through where it kinda started to collapse on itself - and the big finale definitely suffers from how rushed everything is - but overall I still enjoyed this a decent amount, and I hope that within my lifetime they dig up the longer version of the film and give it a proper release.
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Oct 7, 2016 18:32
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If you liked Tenebre and Suspiria, then definitely check out Deep Red and Inferno. Some people really like Opera as well.
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Oct 7, 2016 18:35
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Opera is really good. The Stendhal Syndrome is coming to Shudder the 16th and it's probably Argentos last really great film.
Hollismason fucked around with this message at 18:40 on Oct 7, 2016 |
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Oct 7, 2016 18:37
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The List The Big Four 16. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) 17. Halloween (1978) 18. Friday the 13th (1980) 19. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) 20. Halloween 2  Once again, same as the first. Though Friday the 13th wasn't that great of a film, and was followed up by one of equal caliber. This one, well I've written about my reverence of it. This one, I guess the simple way to say it is that I'm not. And the disappointing carpenter cover that kicks it off doesn't help. It definitely tries to be smarter than either of the Friday films though. And where the first one stays bloodless, this one kind of revels in it. And it certainly signals it with the boy with a razor in his mouth (which feels almost too far, the hit and run come explosion, the boiling water drowning ripped straight from Deep Red (and personally the most gruesome from both that film and this one), the person whose blood was drained onto the floor, etc. Point being, there's a lot of blood. Though I don't think any of the deaths were nearly as effective, at least in a story sense. The extended cast wasn't utilized as well as they could, pretty much becoming interchangeable like a Friday film. Meanwhile the first film had a much leaner cast, who you could actually point to and say who they were and their relation to Laurie. And speaking of, can't really say that her sibling relationship with Michael was needed or really adds anything. And I guess that all I can really say about this film, it doesn't add anything to the first. Where the first is a classic of the 70's, this is disposable cinema of the 80's. It unnecessary, and I kinda wish that we had Season of the Witch in it's place. Though I am kind of a sucker for anthologies. Next up: Friday the 13th Part 3
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Oct 7, 2016 20:47
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Lurdiak posted:I've said it before and I'll say it again, one of my favorite minor things about It Follows is the weird fashion the girls are wearing in most scenes, a combination of booty shorts and sweaters. It might seem fairly absurd, but it allows the camera to dictate modesty. When they're shot from the top down, they seem like fully dressed individuals, but when the angle is lower, suddenly you're reminded their legs are exposed and the inherent sexuality of young women and all it implies in the context of the film. Just like how the characters themselves tend to act a bit younger and a bit older than their age depending on some of the scenes. It also places the film basically at summer's end--cool enough for long sleeves, maybe not quite cool enough for long pants--which has its own metaphorical implications. It Follows fuckin' rules.
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Oct 7, 2016 21:25
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Taking a moment to add my ratings to these and throw numbers on the first few I didn't rate. 1.1: Cloverfield: 8.5/10 1.2: 10 Cloverfield Lane: 9.5/10 2.1: The Thing: 10/10 2.2: They Live: 8.5/10 3.1: Prince of Darkness: 7.5/10 3.2: In the Mouth of Madness: 8/10 4.1: From Beyond: 7.5/10 (but this is wrong, updating to 9/10) 4.2: The Lords of Salem: 6/10 5.1: Hellraiser: 9/10 5.2: Hellraiser II: Hellbound: 7/10 6.1: Beyond the Black Rainbow: 9.5/10 Now on to the main attraction. 6.2: Gah. Even on a rewatch, Under the Skin manages to consistently always have something around the next corner and maintain a continuing sense of wrongness that is unmatched by anything else I've ever seen. To the extent that horror films are supposed to scare or disturb the viewer, this one makes it seem like basically all the others are just missing the point. Despite being a character study and making a complete reversal from the beginning to the end, it does it so incrementally and manages to grant no relief while it does so. It even sets up a big final conflict that just happens to never materialize. For making a naked seductress Scarlett Johannson unsexy, and including Darude - Sandstorm while managing to make it offputting and creepy, I'm going to give this one a 10/10 because I can't imagine it being more effective in any way at doing what it does. That being said, I invite everyone (preferably those who have seen the film) to partake in my essay that won the fourth (and final?) Subtext Game on this very forum, because as it turns out, this film happens to be about how the US government was responsible for the crack cocaine epidemic of the 80s. I never did get that Godzilla trailer reel in the mail, but oh well. Choice reviews from the thread: "I gotta say though that Under the Skin essay loving killed it given how out of left field the subtext...was and how well it was implemented." "it made my heart pound - like 'holy poo poo this movie's actually about crack! It's right there on the screen!!!' Being a conspiracy theorist, even for pretend, is totally fun." "Under the Skin really is about cocaine.  "
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Oct 7, 2016 22:20
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10. The Beyond (1981) My knowledge of Fulci begins and ends with Zombi 2. I didn't really care for that film, aside from a couple of notable scenes. Despite being continuously told to check out more Fulci, I've never gotten around to it. I'm glad I saw The Beyond and it's definitely got me wanting to explore more of his backlog. It's a solid, spooky horror flick with fantastic (and gross) practical effects. The film follows a woman who has purchased a hotel that was built on one of the seven gateways into hell and her remodeling has somehow reawakened that gate. I'd highly recommend it. If anyone has a recommendation for the next Fulci I should look into, I'd love to hear it. Trust me, I'm a doctor.  /511. Xtro (1982) Phew, this was a wild ride. Xtro tells the story of a man who vanished and returns several years later, seemingly unchanged but with amnesia. His wife (now dating someone else) believes he walked out on their family, and his young son vividly recalls him disappearing in a flash of light, but no one believes him. It starts off with terrific and disgusting practical effects and some genuinely scary creature designs. For those who have seen it - The creature on the roadside jump-scare and the birthing scene aren't going to leave my memory any time soon. By the end of the movie, things get weirder and weirder, escalating into a mixture of hilarious and spooky. I liked it. (insert tentacle here) /5
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Oct 7, 2016 22:55
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5. The Pack (1977): This is a decent movie. It's about a group of people on a vacation destination island that are being terrorized by stray dogs that were left behind by vacationers. The movie gets pretty brutal at times. The sound design is really well done, and my dog kept on looking at the screen every time the pack attacked or a dog cried. The attack scenes are quite well shot as well. It looks like there's a remake of this on Netflix now, but I'm not sure if it's any good. 6. Emelie (2015): I found this one of Netflix. It's about a new babysitter watching over 3 kids. She has ulterior movies for watching them. I'll admit this one got pretty disturbing at points, but the plot is somewhat nonsensical and the scenes of the parents having ironic conversations during their date gets old after a while. 7. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998): Mike Myers is back, and he's trying to kill Lorie, again. This one starts out promising enough, but after the prologue it really goes downhill. Mike Myers has never looked less menacing. It's really far from it's roots too. The original Halloween worked because it took place in a typical neighborhood. This one takes place in a boarding school and I just couldn't relate. Not the worst Halloween movie, but it's down there. 9. The Taking of Debra Logan (2014): I liked this one. It's done found footage/documentary style. It's about a woman (the titular Deborah Logan) who has alzheimer's disease, and as her disease progresses, strange things start happening, leading the viewer to question if her behavior is changing due to illness or outside forces. [spoiler] I really thought this needed to be more ambiguous in this aspect. It becomes clear that it's supernatural, and it hurts the film a little[/spoiler[ 10. Ghoulies 3: Ghoulies go to College (1991): Silly movie. The ghoulies go to a college, where all the kids are in the same class, and there's only one professor. There's a prank war between two frats, and of course they blame each other for the ghoulies actions. Everyone in this movie acts like they're 8 years old. 11. CHUD 2: Bud the Chud (1989): The loving ruled. It has nothing to do with the first CHUD. It's about a zombie outbreak, but with smart zombies, and the main zombies are all distinct from each other. It's really similar to Return of the Living Dead, but the punk culture is absent, and this one doesn't balance horror and comedy as well. It is really funny though, and I highly recommend it. 12. Waxwork (1988): This one was pretty good too. There's a new wax museum in town, and teenagers get pulled into the exhibits. It's lots of fun, and features a lot of classic monsters and murderers. It's really gory too! Watched (12): The Walking Dead, Most Likely to Die, Trick or Treats, Black Sabbath, The Pack, Emelie, Halloween H20, The Taking of Debra Logan, Ghoulies 3, CHUD 2, Waxwork
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Oct 7, 2016 23:07
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Oh, hey, I haven't been keeping up on this. Once again, I'm following the Scarecrow Video Psychotronic Challenge list, which has been pretty tough but rewarding so far. Day 4's challenge was to watch the 4th film in a series; I hosed up and watched the 5th instead, because I'm a genius. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning: This was my first F13 aside from the original, and it was a lot of fun. The weird doo-wop greasers added a nice air of surrealism. The kills are goofy but occasionally brutal. It's got a stereotypically 80s attitude towards mental illness, which is gross but to be expected. The plot (as I imagine with most franchise slashers of this era) is super loose and meandering; at times the pacing feels more like a comedy with the transition from setpiece to setpiece and interaction to interaction. I did love the greaser kid nervously singing to himself repetitively and also the character named Demon. I'm giving this a mercifully short Corey Feldman cameo/10 The Ouija Experiment: Up next was to watch something based on a video or board game, which (correct me if I'm wrong) leaves one with woefully few options. I went with this because it was the most easily accessible board game movie and I wanted to watch some modern trash. Hoo boy was this a slog. 4 our of 5 main actors are painful to watch, especially Shay, while the charismatic one with the most interesting storyline dies very early, which for some reason no one notices for a while There was a somewhat fun moment of boring rear end 28 year olds discussing their favorite viral videos, but otherwise the found-footage majority of the film was dire and forgettable. The REAL reason to watch this (and I will Not spoiler tag this) is the incredible flashback scene, featuring community-theatre rejects failing to convey any emotion and a dude basically pretending to be Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys. This scene is a gem of Neil Breenesque filmmaking and elevates the pap around it. White Zombie: Day 6 involved a movie based on a book. This one is.....interesting. Haven't really seen any pre-code movies before this, so the overtness of the cruelty and sexual tones struck me in a way I wasn't expecting. The entire film has a thick cloud of old-timey racism, up to and including copious blackface. It's strange to watch almost a century later and see how little thought went towards people of color being actual, y'know, people. Aside from that I loved that the main villain was named Murder, but mostly just wanted to be watching Tomb of Liegeia for some reason? Tonight's prompt is natural disasters; I'm considering either The Crazies or Take Shelter.
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Oct 8, 2016 00:23
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SEX HAVER 40000 posted:Oh, hey, I haven't been keeping up on this. I can't think of many board games, but for video game adaptations there's all the Resident Evil and Silent Hill movies.
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Oct 8, 2016 00:42
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I've got a jumbled goal for this October but want to make sure I set time aside to watch something seasonal each day and allow myself to consider T.V. series as a valid way to cram on tight days. Also want to introduce my kids to some old black and white horror/monster flicks, revisit a few that I don't properly remember that I watched as a kid, catch up on some newer movies I missed, and have a coue movie nights to cover my personal yearly musts. So far: - Gravity Falls, both seasons: Loved the series. - Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress season one: Cool concept, tiring exefution by the end. No desire to see the next season. - Plan 9 from Outer Space: Sucked but the few chuckles were worth background status while clearing a former storage room zoned as my new workshop. - Mosquito: Hell of a lot of fun. Young me was correct to love it. - The Mist: Bullshit CGI. Bullshit.
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Oct 8, 2016 01:14
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4. Belladonna of Sadness (Amazon Prime) This first popped up on my recommendations after purchasing Angel's Egg, a film I will probably watch this month at some point. At first I thought it was a lost Amano animation or even something coming from Moebius as the art style reminded me of his work on Dune. But the movie's fate, and the pedigree of Yamamoto as one of the prominent pillars in Japanese animation (Astro Boy, Kimba, Space Battleship Yamamoto) it was interesting researching the threads that went from the failed Mushi productions line. And while I can't recommend it on a casual viewing I think it's good for people learning Japanese. A lot of dialog is sung or spoken slowly making it easy to follow casually. It's a good art house film completely unbridled in its vision and execution. It's an erotic animation, and certainly exploitation, but presented in a completely un-sexy fashion. There are some allusions to Macbeth as well where women hold the true power behind the leading men although the script is completely blunt about its intended message. I wish I knew more to elaborate further but I'd argue there are some traditional Japanese meaning behind the color effects. Red, black, blue, and white were historically considered "pure" colors in ancient Japan and the palette sticks largely to these except when it depicts the king's men or the results of Satan's power. Blue has a traditional secular meaning, often representing winter and the deadly nightshade the film references. Grey, interestingly, is found in a lot of words used to describe mice. The queen wraps herself in blue and the men are largely cool greys. There's a great contrast in shades that I rarely see utlized in animation with negative space forming shapes and figures. Jeanne and the queen in particular stand upright, and the film certainly doesn't shy from its phallic imagery, while the men are short, haunched figures. I can't stress enough the attention paid to the character design. I struggle to call it a good movie but definitely one of the most interesting pieces of animation I've seen. I really don't know what to make of the anachronistic psychedellic interstitial but I'll settle on saying it's the animators stretching their legs. I liked the nod to the original with a character named Michel, obviously named after Jules Michelet. 5. The Pied Piper (1986) (Jiri Barta: The Labyrinth of Darkness DVD) A brief ramble, Jiří Trnka is one of the unsung names in stop motion animation. In an era where Rankin Bass was delighting audiences with its saccharine holiday specials, he was making puppet animation intended for adults. From his school came other pioneers in stop motion Jiri Barta, Kihachiro Kawamoto, and obvious influences on Jan Svankmajer and the Quay Brothers. Barta's The Piep Piper was the logical next step for me following Belladonna as both movies share some DNA. Here we see a hedonistic village led by corrupt lords where the rape of a woman acts as the catalyst for its downfall. But instead of the woman selling her flesh for power, her destruction is the final pillar which tears down the city. There's a lot of DNA with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in its expressionist aesthetic and plot. As the story goes the Piper is hired to rid a city of rats while falling in love with the one pure soul. Cheated of his money and love he turns the citizens into rats and completes his job by driving them off a cliff. Barta worked primarily with hand carved wooden puppets lending a unique aesthetic to the design. The pieces move like gears in clockwork, the animation crude yet evocative. The lighting highlights natural shadows in the tangible sets and like Belladonna it climaxes in a beautiful paint-on-wood animated sequence stylistically separate from the main plot. Another shallow, if not interesting film. A work of great artistic vision and definitely worth watching. The whole thing is probably on youtube. al-azad fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Oct 8, 2016 |
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Oct 8, 2016 02:53
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Evil Vin posted:1. Trauma (1993) - 7.Demons (1985) - This was so promising. It kept a great pace for quite awhile even though it had pretty goofy looking monsters, but then it felt as if they didn't know where to go with it once they killed most of the cast. /5
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Oct 8, 2016 03:04
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Day 7 - There's a lot to be said for a simple idea executed well. Horror films in particular seem to benefit from this. 10 Cloverfield Lane is a good example of that since it takes it's simple story and does it really well. After a car crash a woman wakes up in a paranoid man's doomsday bunker and he tells her that everyone on the surface is dead. And then things get tense. I'm not really sure about John Goodman's performance in this film. It's definitely an intentional choice to be so restrained in most of his dialog, but it doesn't land right for me. It may be that he just plays it too flat. Also, that final sequence felt completely unnecessary to me. I would have been fine with the movie if it ended on that long shot with the alien spacecraft in the distance. The action sequence felt tacked on, like a studio exec said, "Sure, she used her wits to escape from the psychopath who was holding her prisoner for her own good, but we need to see her fight the real threat." Overall, though, pretty drat good. That dinner table scene was intense...
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Oct 8, 2016 03:12
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Forgot a few in the So Far list: - Young Frankenstein: My wife likes this one despite hating it when we first got together. Our marriage is now valid. - It Follows: There are some astonishingly beautiful shots in this. I loved it, my wife liked it a lot, and it stuck in a friend's mind for a few nights. Not sure how I feel about the score, however. - Blood Moon: Bank robbers take a stage hostage in a ghost town. Then the werewolf shows up. This is a fun one to play in the background while cooking or whatever. Over-acted, a few characters were too shallow, could have been better written, looked fine, and I liked the facial design of the werewolf. Solid little movie and I'll watch it again next season. - Whichever King anthology features shorts about a grad student summoning a mummy, crazy rich gently caress hiring a hitman to off a cat, and man terrorized by a winged creature he can't tell anyone about. The usual with King screenplays in featuring interesting oddball concepts that are adequately made.
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Oct 8, 2016 03:14
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K. Waste posted:Day 6 Day 7 This one bled over a little into Day 8 because I stayed up to watch Turner Classic Movies' late night billing. I watched Nosferatu for the third time, and I think this time I've finally come around to it. It's loaded with so much uncomfortable, even xenophobic imagery, but I think what's essential to the whole thing is just having a proper restoration of it with a properly foreboding score. The Kino DVD I used to have had pretty lovely options in terms of music, but the one TCM played with the score by James Bernard really stuck the imagery for me. I missed Caligari, but I did happen to peep this Russian silent short by Pyotr Chardynin called Queen of Spades (1910), which is based on an opera and I'm including only because it technically does include a vengeful ghost/apparition, and thus qualifies in a kind of 'proto-horror' vein like a lot of early film. The second feature wasn't really horror. In fact, it ended up being a rather quaint and inexpressive thriller, Tod Browning's The Unholy Three (1925). The movie is basically a dry-run for Freaks - it shows all the same fascination with "circus-life," but it possesses none of the same social criticism or atmosphere. Worth it for Lon Chaney, Sr. hamming it up dressed as an old granny, but not really an essential thriller, even.
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Oct 8, 2016 05:19
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#6.) Extraordinary Tales (2013) Kind of a mixed bag with this one. Set to a framing device of Edgar Allan Poe (incarnated as a raven) having a graveyard argument with Death, this film took five of Poe's stories and gave them each their own animation style while (except for the last segment) narration was provided by a lone speaker. Christopher Lee opened with "The Fall of the House of Usher", which had sort of a Nightmare Before Christmas-meets-papercraft look to it. Then Bela Lugosi with "The Tell-Tale Heart", done in a sharp monochrome CGI fashion (my personal favorite on both audio and visual counts). Julian Sands followed in "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar", which used sort of a color-smear approach (not quite watercolors, more like leaky but non-sloppy markers). A fairly normal CGI style (with some dodgy object interaction) was used for Guillermo del Toro's reading of "The Pit and the Pendulum". And lastly, "The Masque of the Red Death" opted to not use any of Poe's prose except for some dialogue spoken by Prince Prospero (voiced by Roger Corman, who I hope was paid well for his three or four lines), translating the story's description into a virtual tour of the doomed party and its mostly-mute attendees.  Generally, I don't think the animation really rose to the level of the stories (although the "Tell-Tale Heart" segment seemed to be going for more than the literal interpretations of the others, by making the police officers look like sci-fi dystopia enforcers). And "Masque", which might have dodged that problem, actually made it stand out the most to me (although I would have been comparing it to W.S. Burroughs' reading, so I was biased from the start). According to this interview (which also explains the style inspirations), the Lugosi reading was an unreleased work that the director bought a cassette copy of from Ebay, before contacting Lugosi's estate and getting more details, which apparently spurred on the rest of the project. While it seems like there was quite a bit of enthusiasm and creativity put into making the visuals for these shorts, most of it didn't add much beyond what an audiobook rendition of the same would have delivered (personally speaking, and with the note that all of the stories receive some shortening in these renditions). And the exchanges between Death and Poe in the interstitials felt undercooked in their discussions of 'Why were you so into writing 'bout death, Poe?' 'Beats me.' If not for enlisting the voice acting that was present, it would have felt (even more) like a style demo collection instead of a full-fledged film.  / 5
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Oct 8, 2016 05:36
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1. The Last Exorcism 2. Quarantime 3. Afflicted 4. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) 5. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) - I'm going to come right out and say it: as effective and groundbreaking as the 1974 movie is for crafting unrelenting balls-out terror in its last act, the remake improves on the original in every other regard. The movie is paced better, the characters (both the protagonists and antagonists) are better executed and have actual personalities, and it still shows a remarkable amount of restraint when it comes to gore. It's as if the original movie is a proof-of-concept, and the remake is a full realization of that concept. That isn't to say the remake isn't without its missteps (Erin mercy-killing one of her own friends felt unnecessary, and Erin hacking off one of Leatherface's arms with a cleaver was pretty hokey), but watching the two versions back-to-back is an interesting showcase of the evolution of horror filmmaking sensibilities over the course of 30 years. The remake keeps what worked from the original, enhanced it with lessons learned in the interim, and managed to not become a self-parody or go crazy with gore. The remake does predate both 'Saw' and 'Hostel', so I guess that's not too surprising. 6. The Ring (remake) - I hadn't watched this movie in like a decade, and it's still loving great. It does this great balancing act between insane horror and largely grounded, investigative mystery for most of its runtime, and just when you think it's going to definitively tip to one side, it tips to the other in the craziest, most effective way possible and poo poo just gets loving crazy. The opening and ending are real goddamn scary, so much so that I'm still kind of blown away that they pulled off a PG-13 rating. Like yeah it's within the letter of a PG-13 rating, but it sure as poo poo isn't within the spirit of one (similar to 'Jaws' being rated PG). If I'd seen 'The Ring' at 13 I'd have been scarred for life.
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Oct 8, 2016 06:10
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The remake works largely on the strength of its cast. R. Lee Ermey is genuinely intimidating but also you see the whole family and they're oddball characters with great details that go beyond hysterical laughing. Even Leatherface's backstory makes no sense, sure he's disfigured so he crafts human masks but what is this extended cannibal family in the middle of nowhere?? But who cares, the abandoned slaughterhouse and dilapidated structures just add mystery to the film. Don't watch the prequel Beginning. It's everything wrong with prequels where they try to explain every detail. The Sheriff's backstory is legitimately loving stupid and I don't know how anyone writing this thing didn't say "no way they carried on for the 4 year time gap." And narratively it recycles every plot beat from the original and remake right up to its lovely and pointless ending that pisses over everything. I like bad movies but Beginning is insulting. Please don't waste your time.
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Oct 8, 2016 07:07
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The List The Big Four 16. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) 17. Halloween (1978) 18. Friday the 13th (1980) 19. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) 20. Halloween 2 (1981) 21. Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982)  Well that was fun. And it reminds me of that one quote from the Simpsons about camp, describing it as "The tragically ludicrous[.] The ludicrously tragic[.]". And while not really reaching those heights, it certainly lands among them. From the twenty somethings not really playing teenagers that well, the 3D imagry (which is lost in most modern editions), and the attempts at scares that land flat. It's fun to watch, and out of the first three the best to laugh at. From the really fun opening, featuring the surprisingly prolific Steve Susskind (RIP) portraying a really fun character. And maybe not really intended by the filmmakers, when Jason finally dons the mask and just walks on screen, you are just glued to the screen. That's the kind of Film magic that most can only dream of making. It is kinda neat to see how the film series is starting to develop and solidify what a Friday the 13th film is, continuing more directly off of 2 than how 2 did to 1. In any case, I imagine my low expectations for the franchise is coloring my leniency, but I do think they're all decent distractions, if maybe best used as background noise than experiences in and of themselves. Next up: Halloween 3: Season of the Witch
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Oct 8, 2016 08:03
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So I watched Devil's Rejects for one of my days, and I'm embarrassed that I never noticed how blatantly their trip to Ken Foree's whorehouse mirrors Han and Leia's trip to Cloud City. Spaulding decides to go there and hide. When they arrive, his brother acts hostile, but then reveals he's joking around. They're followed by the bounty hunters (DDP and Danny Trejo), who tell the Sheriff their location. The Sheriff then forces Spaulding's brother to turn on his brother and give them up. And at the end of the movie, the brother even shows up to try and help the main characters so he can redeem himself. So that was kind of cool. It had been years since I actually watched the movie, and having just watched the Halloween remake and absolutely hating it, I was afraid it would taint Devil's Rejects. It held up, though, and is still the best movie Zombie's done.
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Oct 8, 2016 12:29
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SomeJazzyRat posted:21. Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982)[/b] Out of curiosity, did you watch one of the 3D home releases? I know there have been a few. Thinking about it has made me want to watch a 3D horror movie like that this month, though one that doesn't require those terrible 3D televisions. I know there have been a few releases that just come with the tinted glasses...
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Oct 8, 2016 14:02
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Hibernator posted:10/5 - Tenebre. Really dug this one. It took me a lil bit to kinda get into the vibe of the flick, but after that I was all-in. I'm often put off by the slow pacing of Italian stuff, so I was stoked when this one pretty much got started immediately. This is the only Argento flick I had planned for the month, but if I make my way through my list I might try to get a couple more in. The only other flick I've seen of his is Suspiria. Tenebre is my favorite Argento. That legendary pan around the building, with that amazing Goblin tune is amazing. John Saxon and the suprise arm chop thru the window just solidifes it's place mas my personal favorite. I really should rewatch it this month
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Oct 8, 2016 14:33
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Just watched Open Grave with my wife and we both went in totally blind. I really liked it. The scoring was subtle and not at all overdone, color balance nicely crisp if still dark, acting was solid, premise was a good concept exercise and well executed, and I'll gladly throw it in the annual October binge rotation. A hard one to talk about without making it a bit less interesting to view or spoil as much as you can spoil something so fundamentally basic. The mystery angle of Resident Evil with the production quality of 28 Days Later and it could easily hold up if considered a part of the 28 universe.
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Oct 8, 2016 15:23
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Random Stranger posted:Out of curiosity, did you watch one of the 3D home releases? I know there have been a few. I have a 3D tv, and Creature of the Black Lagoon looks amazing on it. It's better 3D than most modern releases.
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Oct 8, 2016 16:10
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#7.) The Fly (1958) I'd only seen the '86 remake of this movie (and the '89 sequel) before last night, so it was neat seeing the original. It turned out to be much more of a romance than I'd expected, and I was also surprised to find that Vincent Price wasn't the main character, given how his was the only name I'd ever really heard in association with it. Nice shock early on before doubling back for the retelling of the events, and I was genuinely on edge at the ending, wondering if they'd really go for a non-happy conclusion.  The sweet home life was presented enough to establish it without dragging on, and while I have to admit to being kind of disappointed that the mutant never ventured out of the basement to intrude on that safe setting, having the wife be the only one to know her husband's horrible secret (until she shared it) was an effective route. I was kind of put out with the cat mishap, especially since aside from being incredibly ambitious and focused with his scientific break-through, the father didn't show any other signs of being likely to do something so thoughtless, even if it did set the precedent for his own warp.  The score was interesting too, with its mixing of lush, Ferrante & Teicher-like 'traditional' romantic music with more standard horror style brooding. The fly-vision shot was pretty cool, and the monster costuming wasn't too shabby, though it did get kind of blown away by the fly in the web. I also liked how resilient Helene was, only fainting once, and justifiably, before trying to do everything she could to help her husband. And Al/David Hedison did a pretty great job with handling his turn into a non-verbal character, especially with how long that condition lasted. Overall, I really enjoyed the movie, but more than anything, it made me want to watch Cronenberg's remake again.  / 5  
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Oct 8, 2016 18:33
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10/7 - Friday The 13th (remake). I'd seen this one before and thought it was decent, but I had a little less fun with it this time around. Maybe I just wasn't in the right headspace for it today. I remember enjoying the antics of the teenagers a little more the first time I saw it, whereas this time I found them to be a bit annoying. That's not really what hurt it for me, though. Ultimately the stalking & kill stuff just didn't feel very creative. I dig the moment when the girl is hiding under the dock and she gets stabbed in the head, but the rest all felt really run-of-the-mill. Not a bad time, but I was just a little disappointed because I remember enjoying it more in the past. 10/8 - Leviathan. This was a lot of fun for the first 45 minutes and then kinda started to break at the seams. Ultimately I think this is a pretty well-written Alien/Thing ripoff that could have been better in the hands of a different director & editor. The creature effects are good, the crew dynamics are fun and entertaining, and the setup is cool. But I think the performances just feel a little off for much of the film, and once the creature starts wreaking havoc the movie really starts to feel wonky and chopped-up. You can really feel them cutting around the effects, instead of making it feel natural. This happens in group scenes, too. The editing is really choppy, like they couldn't get a decent sustained take out of the cast. And it's a bummer because you've got a lot of cool actors here. That said, it's still a fun time. These complaints don't sink the film or anything, they just keep it from being something really kinda transcendent and rad. Final note: I am in love with Peter Weller's stilted delivery of "Say 'ah', motherfucker!"
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Oct 8, 2016 19:20
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Got a little behind the past few days, but now I should be mostly all caught up now on my schedule. Gonna try and get another movie in later today. 9. Son of Frankenstein (1939) - Every bit as good as the first two James Whale films. It follows Wolf Frankenstein (Son of the original Dr. Frankenstein, played by Basil Rathorne) as he comes into town with his family to claim his father's estate. Wolf meets up with an old Ygor (Spelled with a "Y" for some reason, and played wonderfully by Bela Lugosi), and together they continue the old Doctor's research and revive the Monster. Acting and set design is wonderful all around, and it's a neat exploration on legacy and how it can corrupt future generations. The title is a play on words- the Monster as the Doctor's metaphorical "son", Wolf as the biological son (The monster is even described as his brother), and Wolf's own son who is potentially endangered throughout the film. If you've seen the original and The Bride of Frankenstein, you owe it to yourself to give this one a watch too. 10. The Man They Could Not Hang (1939) - The same year he was in Son of Frankenstein as the Monster, Boris Karloff starred in this lesser seen film. It's kind of a reversal of the typical Frankenstein story actually- Karloff plays a mad scientist who believes he has discovered a way to bring the dead back to life. A man volunteers to die for the experiment, he is killed, and right as Karloff is attempting to bring him back...the police bust in. Karloff is put on trial for murder, unsuccessfully tries to argue the man willingly volunteered for the experiment and then is sentenced to die via hanging. This first part of the movie kind of resembles euthenasia debates today, which give the whole premise relevance to the world today. The second half takes a turn. Karloff is revived by a colleague using his strange resurrection machine, and vows revenge on those who tried to have him killed. He tricks them into coming into a strange mansion and traps them there, promising to kill one of the "guests" every 15 minutes. It kind of reminds me of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, though despite the great premise for this part of the movie I don't think it's quite as strong as the first half. Still, Karloff is strong in his performance (He gives an interesting speech on how science is constantly misused for evil, hatred and bigotry that works as a kind of dark echo of the one Charlie Chaplin would give the next year at the end of The Great Dictator), and I do think it's fun to watch still. There's another interesting parallel here to Son of Frankenstein. Part of Karloff's plan in The Man They Could Not Hang involves using the fact he's legally dead to avoid being detected and investigated by the police. This is precisely the same thing Ygor does in Son, as he's also survived a hanging in that movie though under very different circumstances. Not sure if any kind of connection here is intended, but I thought it was worth noting. 11. Bluebeard (1944) - An artist kills young women after painting portraits of them...but eventually he suffers a dilemma once he falls in love with an unsuspecting patron who wants their portrait done. Despite really liking the previous two films I've seen by Edgar G. Ulmer (The Black Cat and Detour, both of which are masterpieces), I couldn't really get into this one. I don't really think it's a flaw of the filmmaking (Much of the framing and period costuming looks good from what I can tell) as much as the print on Amazon Prime that I watched was in such a muddled condition that I could never quite get drawn into the film. If someone like Criterion were to give this one a solid restoration, I'd probably enjoy the movie quite a bit more. As it is though, Bluebeard really does little for me. I will say it's pretty funny though that the painter is also a puppeteer, and at the beginning of the movie he does a puppet show version of Faust. Amusing, since I watched Murnau's Faust adaptation earlier for the October Horror Challenge. Unexpected connections like that make projects such as this fun!
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Oct 8, 2016 19:24
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1.1: Cloverfield: 8.5/10 1.2: 10 Cloverfield Lane: 9.5/10 2.1: The Thing: 10/10 2.2: They Live: 8.5/10 3.1: Prince of Darkness: 7.5/10 3.2: In the Mouth of Madness: 8/10 4.1: From Beyond: 9/10 4.2: The Lords of Salem: 6/10 5.1: Hellraiser: 9/10 5.2: Hellraiser II: Hellbound: 7/10 6.1: Beyond the Black Rainbow: 9.5/10 6.2: Under the Skin: 10/10 7.1: Actually, speaking of pervasive senses of wrongness...The Shining (extended cut) maintains its dread not just with impossible geometry and ghostly apparitions, but also with a strikingly normal depiction of an abusive household. Part of what makes it so effective is how difficult it is to tell how much of Jack's descent was caused by supernatural forces and how much was just him getting frustrated and falling back into his old ways. I hear Wendy's meekness and panic is a change from the novel, but it's a perfectly normal reaction to what she was being put through, and a pattern that plays out in real life all too often. Pair this with 10 Cloverfield Lane to be put into the shoes of people that are terrified of a human being. 10/10 but I could imagine giving the standard cut a lesser rating as it cuts out some of the parts that I think are essential to those themes, especially the meeting with the doctor at the beginning. 7.2: Despite following a tough act to follow for me here, 1408 does a fine job at doing what it does, and does a lot more with its premise than it could have. It takes the standard "skeptic enters a spooky situation" formula but fleshes it out into a character study with larger themes of denial and acceptance. Honestly, the room itself doesn't seem that interesting to me, though I do love all its goofy little quirks from the winking Mike on the computer to the professionally-sassy front desk clerk on the phone at the end, but it's good that it establishes pretty early a sense of how doomed Mike is, whether he himself realizes it or not, and it's how he interacts with the whole situation that really makes this. The version I watched was the one that ends with the manager seeing Mike's charred corpse in his car, which didn't quite click with me, and Mike's apparition in the room hearing his daughter, which I loved. 8/10
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Oct 8, 2016 22:10
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13Poltergeist II Which certainly isn't as good as the first. There are bits I like, the whole old-timey apocalypse cult/native-southwest spirituality doesn't real gel with me. I think both ideas individually could have worked, and maybe somebody more talented could have written a script that explores christianity vs native spiritualism with a lot more deftness. That said, while muddled I didn't hate it and it had some cool scenes.  /5
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Oct 8, 2016 23:22
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Day 8 - If I had been a child in the UK in 1992, Ghostwatch would have scared the piss out of me. As an adult who knew what it was going in and has seen way too many found footage movies, it lacks that impact but it's still really good. On Halloween night in 1992, the BBC aired a live broadcast of a paranormal investigation. As the night went on, the event gets out of hand. Of course, it wasn't really live, but it was presented as though it were. There was a phone panel where people were calling in with their creepy stories which devolves into people saying they spotted something strange in the footage and that the broadcast is having a strange affect on their homes. There's B-list celebrities doing hosting duties which don't go quite right because the broadcast is "live". An in studio expert gets deflated as the show goes against her. And if you watch closely, you can get occasional glimpses of things happening. My biggest complaint about Ghostwatch is that it gives up the game just a little too early. I'm fine with it ending with the supernatural events spreading to the studio, but they could have gone to just a blackout with the teleprompter still working instead of the wind effects and people fleeing as the cameras roll around. Just playing it straight a bit longer would have been really effective. Still, very neat to watch and I can see why this show scarred a generation of kids in Great Britain.
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Oct 9, 2016 00:56
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I fell way behind in reporting, but not watching. Time to catch up! 7. The Wailing - Pretty great, weirdly creepy movie. It's a slow build that starts as almost a slapstick comedy. This connects you to the main characters, and when the poo poo finally hits the fan, it hits pretty hard. /58. The Eye (2008) - I find it very hard to take any of these kinds of movies too seriously, after the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror with the evil replacement hair. Anyway, a blind woman gets new eyes, and the new eyes allow her to see spirits. Not bad, but it felt pretty rote. Also, easily one of the happiest endings of a horror movie I've ever seen. /59. Deathgasm - A couple of high school headbangers stumble upon a song that summons a demon, and then they have to deal with the consequences. Stylish, very bloody. I got tired of the one dimensional characters, though, which really dragged down what could have been a fun clever flick. /510. Shivers - Fun stuff. Early, classic body horror by Cronenberg. An isolated living complex runs into a, um, parasite issue. /511. Baskin - I really liked the way this movie started, with a good sense of comradery between the characters and a general sense of unease. It lost me after the actual horror begins, and it becomes kind of a boring slog. Kind of an insufferable twist ending that just made me roll my eyes. /512. Kairo - There's a ghost in the machine! And, everywhere else too! Very slow moving, and at times VERY unsettling. At other times, just a wee bit boring. The unsettling wins out, but I ended up disappointed overall. The ending is pretty great, though, for how far it takes everything. /5
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Oct 9, 2016 01:00
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I'm about to put another one in to watch with my nightcap but today's pair: - The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms: Ray Harryhausen animated the beast while Ray Bradbury was a script advisor who noted the studio may want to pay him for the Foghorn callout they had written in. The acting was good, sets a nice blend of artistically sparse arctic staging and surpriaingly complex miniature features like the wooden roller coaster. Action was well done, especially for the period. Riding a roller coaster while a goant tears bits of it down before launching a nuclear rifle grenade into its open wound was very ambitious and paid off. The costumes may be one of my favorite bits of the film, though. It's a classic and deserves to be. My kids absolutely loved it and got excited when I told them the beast was stop motion like used in Kubo/Coraline/Boxtrolls. - Jeepers Creepers 2: I stilp like it though its less campy than I remember. My wife loves the first movie and merely likes the very different sequel. I appreciated the wire work and makeup work on the creeper. It's a solid, largely clausterphobic monster movie if nothing really special.
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Oct 9, 2016 03:13
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