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 9 (10). The Invitation (2015) I can't think of anything cute to say. This was interesting. I feel like I enjoyed it less than the others who have watched it in this thread. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it. I thought it was incredibly well done and had me completely engaged. I just wasn't loving it. I think the big issue is I just didn't feel the tension through out the movie. Don't get me wrong, I agreed with Will that these people were nuts and probably in a cult. But I didn't really feel the danger he was feeling and I actually just totally bought into the idea that he was just grieving. So it never really felt like a horror movie to me. But it was an amazing portrayal of grief and pain. Will's otherworldly shock of being back in the home where he lost his child and his anger that he felt that Eden was trying to minimize it. The absolute helplessness all of Will's friends feel as one-by-one they awkwardly apologize to him for not being able to do more or even know what to do for him except say "I'm here." Even the appeal for Eden to throw herself into a crazy faith just to find some relief from the pain and some sense of purpose. Its really a beautiful, horrible film about what is really the hardest part of life. Another small criticism I have is I just simply didn't buy the red lantern signifier that this cult had brainwashed and murdered half of LA. It just seemed like a bridge too far and not terribly plausible and really the whole thing would have worked more to be (and felt more ominous) if it had just stayed with 1 brainwashed couple doing these things and really playing up the random madness of it all and mirroring the random madness of the death of a child. But I'll give it this, this was the wrong movie to watch before I went to bed last night. I spent at least an hour tossing and turning with the ideas of this movie in my head. The Invitation, its your fault I feel like crap today. October Tally - New (Total) - (1). 30 Days of Night (2007) / 1 (2). It Follows (2015) / 2 (3). Frankenstein (1931) / 3 (4). The Visit (2015) / 4 (5). Red State (2011) / 5 (6). The Forest (2016) / 6 (7). Ava’s Possessions (2015) / 7 (8). Phantasm (1979) / 8 (9). Willow Creek (2013) / 9 (10). The Invitation (2015)
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Oct 17, 2016 20:22
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Crap, sorry. Double post.Random Stranger posted:I know you were criticizing the film and I have seen a few found footage movies that use the build up effectively. I was replying because that comment does reflect something that an awful lot of found footage movies do poorly. I mean, its a double edged sword. Its funny, I think "why is this scene here" scenes kind of work in found footage because it theoretically builds up the "found footage" approach that there was no editor cutting off unnecessary scenes. Obviously, it can go too far and if you actually do include scenes that don't need to be there you have to limit them. But theoretically they not only beef up the genre premise but they SHOULD be used to help build your connection with the characters. I think some of those scenes in Willow Creek worked because they kind of showed us those personal moments between the couple and helped us understand them and their relationship a little better. It may not be important to the plot to know that Kelly is an aspiring actress who wants to move to LA and Jim doesn't want to but is a little more in love with her than she is with him so will probably do it to be with her, but in theory that stuff helps us care when they're in danger. But it always comes down to whether its well done or not, and as we all know the horror genre tends to have a higher ration of bad-to-good films than most. Found Footage probably has an even higher ration since its so cheap and easy to make, in theory, so invited any fledgling filmmaker to grab a couple of cameras and give it a try. The fact that you can basically film an entire movie on a weekend with 2 cameras and a couple of friends is both cool and a recipe for terrible movies.
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Oct 17, 2016 20:30
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Gonna make this a quick update. 18. Wolf Creek Didn't do much for me. John Jarrat is fantastically terrifying, but he was the only part of the movie that I really cared for.  /519. Wolf Creek 2 I watched the first movie because I heard this one was good, and I'm glad I did. This took John Jarrat's over-the-top villain and matched it with the tone of the film. For such a nutso villain, the first movie really needed to be a little less by-the-numbers. /520. Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-o-Rama Continuing catching up on my 80s shlock and cult film backlog. This was a ton of fun and was totally ridiculous. /521. Maniac Cop 2 Speaking of movies where the sequel is way more over-the-top. This was great and also completely ridiculous. /5
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Oct 17, 2016 20:36
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#36. Patrick (1978) Kathy is a nurse looking to work at a private hospital. They assign her to Patrick, a patient who is completely comatose and presumably brain dead, despite his wide open eyes. However, it becomes more and more clear as the story continues, that Patrick is in fact aware, and what's more, has developed psychokinetic abilities that can reach quite far. He's also very violent and possessive it turns out, lashing out at the men in Kathy's life... From a production standpoint, I have no complaints in the acting or writing or whatever. The title character being a vegetable that can do no more physically besides spit, yet stares unending with his big eyes can be unnerving on the other hand. Also, this does of course raise distressing concerns about the whole life support quandary in medical situations that I'm not really equipped to discuss here... I give Patrick  out of Five#37. Killjoy 2 (2002) So we have a group of inner city juvenile delinquents, whose alternative sentencing is to take a 2 hour trip out to the hills and build a charity halfway house. On the way, the car breaks down, and while investigating the wrong property, one of the teens-Ray Ray-gets shot. Seeking shelter, the group finds the home of a voodoo queen, and one of the girls tells the story of how her grandmother told her all about Killjoy and the events of the first film. Ray Ray's buddy Nic convinces her to summon the monster, in the hopes that he can save or bring back Ray Ray. Spoilers, he doesn't. You know, I really wanted to hate this going in. The first film was such dreck after all. But this film on the other hand has some actually okay writing and acting. Not all of it is great, Debbie Rochon (who I've met irl) for instance shouts almost every single one of her lines in an attempt to sound like a tough authority figure, and it totally doesn't work. Also, Nic has almost zero reasoning to summon Killjoy, and it makes zero sense. However, much of the movie comes off as the characters not being dumb, and I appreciate that. Finally, Killjoy is now played by Troma alum Trent Haaga, who is clearly having far more fun in the role than the previous portrayal. I give Killjoy 2  out of Five
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Oct 18, 2016 00:05
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Random Stranger posted:Day 17 - I've wavered on watching Tetsuo: The Iron Man forever. I knew that it was exceptionally gruesome and featured a lot of metal going into and coming out people which hits my nerves even more than the standard slasher killing does, so that made me keep away even though it's also supposed to be pretty good. But this month my viewing is all about trying to hit things that I should have watched a while ago. I also watched Tetsuo: The Iron Man for the first time this year and just didn't care for it at all. The film has a lot of visual style, but the lack of characterization or any driving plot element just makes the whole thing feel empty. It's like watching a seventy-minute music video with the audio muted.
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Oct 18, 2016 02:01
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23. Class of 1984 (1982):well, this wasn't really a horror, but for some reason it's on the 80shorror.net YouTube playlist. This was a pretty entertaining exploitation pic about an idealistic teacher opposing his punk students. It's depiction of teen punks is hilarious, and this movie doesn't slow down for a second. 24. Hush (2016): a deaf woman is stalked by a killer in her remote home. I dug this one too. The use of sound was clever throughout, and the protagonist being such an underdog made her so easy to root for. Watched (24): 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, Bone Tomahawk, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, The Zodiac Killer, Horror Express, 976-Evil 2, cabin Fever, The Others, The Unholy, Halloween 2, The Descent, class of 1984, Hush
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Oct 18, 2016 02:59
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1. Body Melt 3/5 2. Video Violence 2.5/5 3. New York Ripper 2/5 4. The Witch 4/5 5. Under the Skin 3.5/5 6. Turkey Shoot 3/5 7. Cannibal Holocaust 3.5/5 8. The Church 2.5/5 Falling behind a bit on my goal, but I still have time to catch up hopefully. 9. The Neon Demon A wannabe model goes to Hollywood to try to find fame and finds something else entirely. I wanted to like this movie. It has Refn's typical style and everything looks wonderful. It just didn't seem to do much with all that style. The whole thing just kinda meanders along for the majority of it without anything much happening. There's these huge pauses between much of the dialogue that just makes it feel like the movie is both too long, and that it also needs more time to actually develop anything. The last 20 or so minutes shows a lot of promise for what the movie could've been, but it's just too little too late. .5/510. Phantasm Remastered A tall man takes recycling to the next level. This is a movie that seemed to disappear for awhile but has recently gotten a lot of attention due to a remastered version and a new sequel. I always wondered how this fell off the radar so much-it seemed to have the same kind of following like Poltergeist/Hellraiser/Child's Play and other horror series that weren't quite at the level of popularity as Friday the 13th/Nightmare on Elm Street. It definitely stands up with them quality wise-the Tall Man makes for a striking villain, the protagonists are definitely people you can get behind, there's lots of little quirks and oddities that give the whole thing a surreal feel to it. Real fun movie. /5
alansmithee fucked around with this message at 03:46 on Oct 18, 2016 |
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Oct 18, 2016 03:32
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SO, 5 more, and then I should be caught up. Before I forget about this thread for another week and get way behind again. 19) Tremors 2: Aftershocks - A mediocre little creature feature, obviously done for much cheaper than the first. This time Kevin Bacon gets replaced by not-Kirk Cameron, and the buddy interplay that was so integral to making the first Tremors work is kinda lost in translation. The mini raptor-inspired Graboids are okay, though not as iconic as the first ones; I also wish they had been introduced way earlier, so we get more of a chance to see them in action. As it is, they're almost more of a third act surprise than a set of proper antagonists. I know there's a bunch more Tremors sequels, but honestly, this one kind of spoiled any small desire I had to see them. 2 out of 5. 20) The Blob - A much better creature feature, even if the "creature" is a puddle of pink snot stolen from Ghostbusters II. I love the gonzo energy of this film, and so many other equally bizarre 80s horror films; I love seeing how many different ways the filmmakers can invent to melt some poor sap and crush their corpse into places it shouldn't go. I even love Shawnee Smith and Kevin Dillon here, and they've never done much for me in many of their other projects. I do wish a sequel had been made, starring the scarred preacher going all Ezekiel Rage on the world with the few Blob remnants still in existence. Too late for a series reboot with that idea? 4 out of 5. 21) Late Phases - I was surprised by this one. I liked that it ended up showing its werewolf early on, not teasing us with its eventual reveal; I also liked that the lead immediately twigged onto what it was and proceeded logically down that path, rather than spending a lot of his time questioning his sanity or wasting it trying to convince others. That said, I think this would have worked better as a short film than the 90+ it ended up being, as a lot of the middle section felt repetitive. There was also some weird pacing concerns I had, especially when multiple werewolves start showing up, even going so far as to injure the lead, but he can still spare some time to dress his wounds and leave his son a touching voicemail before needing to go all Werewolf Rambo on the situation? I think it ultimately didn't ruin the experience; I'm interested to see what else this director has done. 4 out of 5. 22) A Nightmare on Elm Street, Part 5: The Dream Child - In my head, I prefer the latter Nightmare films because of their willingness to use the premise to go for some gonzo set pieces; far more interesting than yet another trip to Freddy's Boiler Room Of Mild Terror And Cost-Saving Location Shooting. That said, I think they are still ultimately weaker films, which is saying something, considering that of the first 3, only Nightmare 1 is really any good. Case in point: the lead in this film does nothing and accomplishes less; it may be more thematically important to have Krueger's mom or the lead's unborn son show up and save the day, but this neuters any interest I had in the picture when a mom ex machina can show up to cram the villain back in her womb. Would that the film had any idea on how to exploit that Freudian/Oedipal imagery, too. Ah well, I can still enjoy the set design, right? 2 out of 5. 23) 10 Cloverfield Lane - I don't know if the attempt to tie this to the original Cloverfield helps or hurts, here. On the one hand, despite being an effective little bottle room thriller, I probably wouldn't have bothered watching this movie without that name. On the other hand, I did enjoy the primary story so much, that when the whole connection is finally revealed to be nothing, I can't say I wasn't a little miffed, despite J.J. Abrams' insistences that this wasn't a direct sequel. Since all we see are unrelated alien ships and space worm things, this is like an unrelated-in-all-but-name Godzilla sequel using the name but only focusing on the Space Gorillas from Planet X... only we to have to wait 4 or 5 years for Godzilla vs. Mecha-Godzilla to come out and explain any drat connections. My complaints are probably petty, when considering the main thing is supposed to be rooting for Mary Elizabeth Winstead (not Mastrantonio, like my brain kept saying) to get out of the John Goodman Doomsday Bunker (Of Mild Terror And Cost-Saving Location Shooting), but I can't deny that the whiffed ending didn't sour me on the whole enterprise somewhat. 3 out of 5.
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Oct 18, 2016 04:33
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10 Cloverfield Lane was not written to be a Cloverfield-universe film. The makers loved the concept they secured and decided to change the title to draw viewers. Hell, Cloverfield was billed as a monster movie and gave audiences a flimsy if enjoyable quest for love in a place where monsters get in the way, instead. so it's not like there was no precedent, anyway. Oh, 32. Some movie about dinosaur-ish-not-really creatures terrorizing a desert town: Can't be arsed to lool up the title but it was free with Prime. It sucked. I do want to see someone competent make a good movie with the idea of a drunken sheriff about to be voted out of office when poo poo goes down and they do their best to protect and serve. And still have the townspeople say that it doesn't change the alcoholism and they will still vote for removal.
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Oct 18, 2016 05:17
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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) 6. The Ring (remake) 7. Scanners 8. The Brood 9. The Babadook 10. Splinter 11. Vampyr 12. Cloverfield 13. Jennifer's Body 14. Pet Sematary 15. Day of the Dead (original) 16. Dawn of the Dead (remake) 17. Zombieland - I liked this more the second time around than the first time I watched it, it's fun and escapist while still having danger and stakes. I think I kind of prefer it to Shaun of the Dead because it's self-aware without being super duper on-the-nose about it, or hokey. 18. Shaun of the Dead - I hadn't watched this movie in like a decade, and I'm not sure how well it's aged. It certainly feels like it comes from a pre-Walking Dead (TV series) era, and the tone is a little bit uneven and borderline-corny. I think Zombieland does a better job of juxtaposing danger and gore with absurd silliness without as much tone-whiplash as Shaun of the Dead has. Like don't get me wrong, Shaun of the Dead is still a good watch and it's got a lot of really brilliant, well-executed stuff, but it's rougher around the edges than I remember it being.
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Oct 18, 2016 06:09
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K. Waste posted:Day 16 Day 17 Started off early-early morning with A Page of Madness, which is not only a fantastic film, but might be my new favorite of the '20s. More recently this evening, I got to finally check out City of the Dead (1960), or Horror Hotel. Serendipitous little movie with some uncanny parallels to Psycho. Works great as both a supernatural horror and a film noir.
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Oct 18, 2016 06:19
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Day 1, the Cloverfields: Cloverfield: 8.5; 10 Cloverfield Lane: 9.5 Day 2, the Not As They Seem: The Thing: 10; They Live: 8.5 Day 3, the Rest of the Trilogy: Prince of Darkness: 7.5; In the Mouth of Madness: 8 Day 4, the Big Planners: From Beyond: 9; The Lords of Salem: 6 Day 5, the Obvious: Hellraiser: 9; Hellraiser II: Hellbound: 7 Day 6, the Not Quite Human: Beyond the Black Rainbow: 9.5; Under the Skin: 10 Day 7, the Hotels of Horror: The Shining (extended cut): 10; 140:8 Day 8, the Hauntings: Noroi: 8; Housebound: 9.5 Day 9, the Reruns: Triangle: 9; White: 4.5 Day 10, Humanoids in Space: Alien (Director's Cut): 9; Pandorum: 7.5 Day 11, Humanoids on Earth: The Descent: 9; Splice: 5.5 Day 12, From the Shallow: Shin Godzilla: 8.5; The Bay: 7.5 Day 13, Campfire Stories: Friday the 13th: 9; Sleepaway Camp: 8.5 Day 14, Sleep Tight: A Nightmare on Elm Street: 9.5; A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: 6.5 Day 15, Slashers of a Sort: Predator: 8; Scream: 9 Day 16, Wingard Day: You're Next: 9.5; The Guest: 10 17.1: Welp, Maniac (2012) was a roller coaster. Can't say it wasn't effective at sticking me inside his head. I was ready to zone out and just try to make it through the grossness, but it didn't even let me do that. I feel dirty now. For making me feel for the guy and hope for a happy ending, 8/10.  17.2: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is fine for what it is. Not quite as engaging as it was on the first viewing and now that I've seen Man Bites Dog, and sometimes it cherry-picks whether the characters are self-aware, but it's definitely worth a watch for just about everyone, especially with the comedic aspects early on being so great. Leslie puts in a solid performance. You also can't go wrong with the cameos, including Robert Englund as Dr. Loomis. 7.5/10 and that's being harsh on it. 
VROOM VROOM fucked around with this message at 07:50 on Nov 3, 2016 |
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Oct 18, 2016 09:28
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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) 20. Halloween 2 (1981) 21. Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982) 22. Halloween 3: Season of the Witch (1982) 23. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) 24. Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) 25. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) 26. Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985) 27. Friday the 13th Part VI Jason Lives (1986) 28. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) 29. Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors (1987) 30. Friday the 13th part 7: The New Blood (1988) 31. Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) 32. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)  My god, this version of Myers just does not look good. On the poster, he looks just as imposing as ever. But in the film, he doesn't looks scary, instead he looks like a normal dude. Like Bob from accounting, cowering from any human interaction. And I place the blame squarely on the fact that they've hosed up the mask. I can also say that this the film that I've noticed the editing the most, mainly editing around everything that would've cost money (aside from one explosion). And I kinda get the sense that it was squarely money that drove pretty much every decision in this film. If it cost money, then they cut around it, or gave a plot excuse on why not to pay for extras. As much as I poo poo on Friday the 13th, at least they have the balls to show people getting killed. And the fact that it feels like everything is being pennypinched feels so rediculous, considering that this was budgeted for the same amount as 2 and 3 combined, two much more expensive looking features. Aside from that, there's a kind of a weird flow to the film. Like the film only has a beginning and end, and the middle is just a bunch of ideas tossed to the wall. It doesn't feel good, and you don't get a cohesion that a lot of movies like this have. And what tissue you have connecting it all makes the Myers siege feel improbable. It's not a fun movie at all, and it's not that suspenseful. Especially when the filmmakers decided to make Michael a superhuman whose able to pretty much accomplish anything. And that goes against what is one of the secret tenants of the best horror films, is the conflict of one powerful-yet-vulnerable presence descending on a group of even more vulnerable victims. And you sit, waiting for that presence to make their presence known, and for them to make a mistake. And from moment one, the entire cast is pretty much aware of Michael, and as far as we're aware Michael is an omnipresent ubermensch. Michael-as-Jason isn't fun, Michael-as-hunter wielding a knife is fun. When he earns that kill, it satisfies that narrative of Michael as the hunter. When he slaughters a police precinct offscreen just because 'we say so', it doesn't. And when it comes down to it, it's a film not held together by internal logic, but by 'we say so'. They do stupid things cause we say so, they die because we say so, they don't die anyways because we say so, Michael is able to accomplish inhuman and logically improbable things because we say so, he has superhuman strength because we say so. It's a film that is wanting to be Halloween so badly, and yet it doesn't want to follow the rules at all because it turns out they didn't want to be a Halloween film. It wants to be Friday the 13th part 'x', only without having to build up parts 'a-y'. It's perhaps the most creatively bankrupt film, and may infact be even lazier than any of the Friday the 13th films. Meanwhile, if there's anything that proves that Donald Pleasence was the greatest gift bestowed upon this series, it's the way he makes every other actor look like poo poo in this film. Next up: Friday the 13 part 7: Jason Takes Manhattan Edit: Next up isn't going to be Halloween 4 again. gently caress that noise. SomeJazzyRat fucked around with this message at 06:28 on Oct 19, 2016 |
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Oct 18, 2016 09:47
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SomeJazzyRat posted:32. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)[/b] Glutton for punishment, eh.
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Oct 18, 2016 09:50
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I'm kind of a Halloween 4 apologist, but can see why people don't like it. That said you didn't mention the opening credits which are some of my favorites of all time, and like with Watchmen the high water mark of the film
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Oct 18, 2016 11:25
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SomeJazzyRat posted:32. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)[/b] I can't think of a worse time loop to be trapped in than Halloween 4. Unless it was Halloween 6.
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Oct 18, 2016 13:08
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Well, we're over halfway through the month and here's what I have to show for myself since October 1. 1. The Bad Seed (1956) 2. Frankenhooker (1990) 3. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988) 4. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) 5. Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993) 6. Jason X (2001) 7. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) Rewatch 8. The Pit (1981) 9. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985) Rewatch 10. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) 11. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) So my trudge through both these series is shaping up fine to finish before the month's over and I've got time to catch up to hopefully make 31 by the end of the month, although I'm fairly behind. That's okay though because the all night horror marathon I'm going to on the 29th will help catch me up so long as I can stay on target from now until November.
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Oct 18, 2016 13:59
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28. The Gorgon This is a lesser known Cushing and Lee collaboration for Hammer, and its directed by Terence Fisher so you know its good. A somewhat unique monster, especially for Hammer, its a fun take on mythology and its nice to see something other than werewolves and vampires. Lee plays an unambiguous good guy here, which is also a change of pace, but of course he pulls if off easily. I mean, really you could just watch this movie for Christopher Lee chopping a gorgon's head off with a huge saber, who needs anything else? TrixRabbi posted:So my trudge through both these series is shaping up fine to finish before the month's over and I've got time to catch up to hopefully make 31 by the end of the month, although I'm fairly behind. That's okay though because the all night horror marathon I'm going to on the 29th will help catch me up so long as I can stay on target from now until November. Yea I never worry about how far behind I am because I know that between the 29th and the 31st I'm going to pack like 8 movies in. I always save some real heavy hitters for the home stretch(Halloween, American Werewolf in London, Return of the Living Dead, etc.)
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Oct 18, 2016 14:22
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Haunter I enjoyed it a lot, but I wish the main character didn't spend most of her time completely scared out of her gourd. It led to a lot of scenes where interesting things happen but she couldn't be relied upon to follow-up because she was too busy peeing her pants. Felt like an artificial way to extend the story. Minor complaint, though. Fun haunted house story. 4/5 Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer Pretty disappointing. Lots of gooey effects, goofy plot. Fun scenery-chewing by Robert Englund. 2/5 Witchfinder General Kind of an unpleasant film to watch, what with the torture and all, but Vincent Price is a treasure. Maybe man is the true horror after all. 3.5/5 The Manitou The racism detracts, but otherwise it's a really entertaining movie that goes to completely unexpected places. Like, seriously. If anyone actually predicted a final fight in space between a nude woman throwing electricity and Satan with photon torpedos and metors I would be drat impressed. 4.5/5 The Haunting (1963) Holy hell this movie is gorgeous. Like, just beautiful to look at and beautifully shot. Solid spooky story that relies a lot on the weirdness of the house itself. Classic for a reason. 5/5 rewatch Pontypool I enjoyed this a lot more the second time around, freed to pay more attention to the details. Fun movie about a small-town radio presenter during the middle of an outbreak. 4/5 22. Fright Night (1985) Annoying characters, but pretty great makeup/transformation scenes. It got better as it went along. 3/5
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Oct 18, 2016 14:49
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Day 18 - I'm running into the problem that some of the movies I have on my list are vanishing from streaming services before I get to watch them. Fortunately for me, Viy could be found on Youtube with English subtitles. The Soviet Union produced very few horror movies. The list is essentially Viy and Den' Gneva. (FWIW, Den' Gneva is set in the United States and now that I know about its existence I really want to see a Soviet horror film about the US). Viy is based on a short story and was made in that period when Soviets were doing fantasy films which probably explains how it got made. A young seminary student stays one night in a barn where an old witch finds him, climbs on his back, and rides him through the night sky. He invokes God which brings them to the ground and then beats her with a stick. Just before killing her, though, the witch turns into a beautiful young woman and he flees. The next day, some men come to the seminary to say that the daughter of a rich man was dying after being beaten and she insists on a particular student coming to pray for her soul for the three nights. I found the first half of the film to be kind of weak. The film is very stagy in presentation and that first half in particular suffers for it. And the tone in the ride over to the estate feels like they don't know if it's supposed to be funny or unnerving and winds up being neither. But once they get to the estate, the film turns around. The people on the estate know something is up but not exactly what and the father has a great performance where he's always shooting nasty glances at the student. The night scenes are great because the limited location lets the presentation work better. The final segment where the monsters start pouring out of the walls is especially great.
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Oct 18, 2016 16:35
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33. Black Scorpion: This has always been one of my favorites of the '50s monster films. They threw every trick the effects department had at it and were quite ambitious. Yet the script/acting are just weak enough for some campy laughs. The partly see-through scorpion shadow resulting from insufficient time and budget to stop motion a lot of the film has its own charm. My son was glued to the screen and loved it. graventy posted:Pontypool This came with my copy of Dead Snow and I watched it with a friend knowing only what was on the brief back cover blurb. Fully expected lame schlock as filler for the collection disc and got a really good movie instead. The remedy they come up with in associating the word wih nonsense was a bit eye-rolling but the rest is a great execution of a simple and unique budget premise. I also like that it could easily be adapted to a live stage. Anyway, I'm planning an outdoor projector movie night for the 29th with campfire and table of mulled cider, pumpkin pie, popcorn, a couple growlers of beer, and some other goodies. It will be mixed age fron six to grandparents but primarily kids around ten or so. Thinking of opening with Curse of the Were-Rabbit for the youngest ones, a brief intermission for some grilled food. Next up either THEM! or The Black Scorpion as a classic that is still kid friendly enough and has a drive-in vibe. The young ones should be gone by the end of the second feature so on to Dog Soldiers to cap the planned evening with one of my favorite seasonal regulars. Any night owls can feel free to continue from there if they want more. Soind a decent plan or any other suggestions for a movie lineup?
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Oct 18, 2016 16:37
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K. Waste posted:Day 17 Day 18 Was gonna stay up to catch the whole Christopher Lee marathon, but ended up settling for just The House That Dripped Blood and The Creeping Flesh. The House That Dripped Blood kinda blows. The Creeping Flesh kinda owns. That's all she wrote, really.
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Oct 18, 2016 16:44
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K. Waste posted:Day 18 Just a heads up, this is another great weekend for TCM. Friday you can watch Eyes Without a Face, then Saturday they're playing Jaws, and Sunday its two Hammer Frankenstein films starring Peter Cushing. One of them, Frankenstein Created Woman, is maybe the best of all of the Frankenstein sequels.
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Oct 18, 2016 16:51
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Basebf555 posted:Just a heads up, this is another great weekend for TCM. Friday you can watch Eyes Without a Face, then Saturday they're playing Jaws, and Sunday its two Hammer Frankenstein films starring Peter Cushing. One of them, Frankenstein Created Woman, is maybe the best of all of the Frankenstein sequels. Oh, I know. I've been keeping TCM as a pretty fixed rotation this season just because it's easy, and it's a good way to keep my threshold of quality at a relatively consistent higher level. I've never seen Eyes Without a Face except for a brief clip once on IFC, so I'm deffo looking forward to that one, and the trailer that TCM has been showing for the '41 Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde which is on before it makes it look really stellar as well.
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Oct 18, 2016 16:59
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Random Stranger posted:...Fortunately for me, Viy could be found on Youtube with English subtitles... Just watched this while cleaning up afted a project and making dinner. I rather liked the stage feel in the first half and the wagon ride was subtly funny enough to keep interest. I absolutely.loved just how Soviet the design of Viy was. I'm also somewhat surprised a movie with a Christian figure as the protagonist even got made in that era. Possiboy because his god doesn't save him and the rest of the church figures are comic caricatures. Might be worth keeping in mind how head over heels the Russians were with the stage around this time and I woupdn't be surprised if the director had most evperience with plays. E: I'm up to 34.
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Oct 18, 2016 19:26
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Butch Cassidy posted:Just watched this while cleaning up afted a project and making dinner. I rather liked the stage feel in the first half and the wagon ride was subtly funny enough to keep interest. I absolutely.loved just how Soviet the design of Viy was. I'm also somewhat surprised a movie with a Christian figure as the protagonist even got made in that era. Possiboy because his god doesn't save him and the rest of the church figures are comic caricatures. It was definitely hard to not read Soviet propaganda into the film just due to the time that it was made. Similarly, the treatment of people by the rich father seems to reflect that. The stage style presentation was only a problem in some of the scenes for me. The design, blocking, and camera work seemed to reflect the idea that there would be a person in a physical audience watching rather than something more dynamic. Later on when they have more physical exteriors and the interiors are where the action is centered, I think it winds up working better for me. Edit: While we're on the topic, I'm now trying to dig up a copy of Den Gneva so that I can say that I've watched every horror film that the Soviet Union made (okay, there's probably a few more than my cursory search didn't turn up). I'm not having any luck finding it beyond the fact that TCM aired it at least once, but I did find this East German poster for the film: 
Random Stranger fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Oct 18, 2016 |
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Oct 18, 2016 20:36
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Basebf555 posted:I'll give Koontz credit, in the book I think he totally pulls off the twist that really should be predictable, but it completely got me and if you're legitimately surprised its a big emotional punch to the gut. #17.) Playback (2012)  Eh, some neat ideas in this one, but not too hot in the presentation and padding. I like the bits about Lucifer inventing motion pictures, and soul transference through recorded video, and the decay makeup on the 'bad' vid kid, but the rest of it had that undistinguished DTV sheen and inertia to it. The early bits in '94 were nice and grimy, in contrast to the glossier modern-day stuff. Christian Slater as a skeezy cop was a fun presence, as was Toby Hemingway playing a glue-huffing tape archivist, but the rest of the performances were mostly on the level of a SyFy or Fangoria movie (right down to the clearly-adult high-schoolers). The tape archives felt like something of a wasted location, with how easy it was to imagine the villain stalking someone through the stacks, since the scenes in there basically stuck to the computer room the whole time. The bits directly involving video transmission and playback were the most interesting (short as they were), with the parts that played like a straight-faced slasher (and the multiple ~5-second cuts to gluehead driving his van and blasting gothy electrorock) losing that spark. Not too memorable, but at least it managed to lay out its story and proceed through it clearly, showing some flair on occasion.  / 5
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Oct 19, 2016 03:38
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Today, just for fun, I did a triple feature of live action Japanese films based on video games. #38. Siren (2006) A writer, his grown daughter, and his sick young son move to a remote island village. The daughter thinks the locals seem weird and suspicious, and it's hard adjust to the very rustic and impoverished locale. One day a friendly neighbor stops by, and while talking, tells her among other local things to know, to never go outside when the siren wails. This seems extra odd, but soon, she starts to hear it, and there are definitely things out in the nearby jungle that she doesn't want coming in... I'm a pretty big fan of the game Siren. It's frustratingly hard, but has one of the best told stories I've ever seen in a video game, with remarkable gameplay mechanics, and an impressive amount of "show don't tell" narrative, not to mention one of the best modern Lovecraft style stories around. (There's an incredible and long time coming LP of the game just finishing up over in the subforum by Egomaniac I highly recommend. There's a second LP significantly further behind it, that is more casual too) This is not that game. It's just not. The story bears some slight similarities--the siren, a hard to reach town, sorta similar "monsters", but it's entirely its own story. And not a very well written one. It meanders without really going anywhere, and the ending is a total cop out. What a shame, as a good adaptation of the game would be amazing. I give Siren  out of Five#39. Corpse Party (2015) A group of students, while throwing a going away party for a classmate, perform what is supposed to be a silly kid ritual to ensure they remain friends always. What it actually does is send them to a different dimension, housing a legendary school where several children were murdered. Now the class is trapped within this school with killer ghosts, and must try to find a way back home. I'll admit, I knew nothing of this game going in, I just found the title on a list of games turned into live action movies in Japan. That said, it's a fun supernatural stalk and slash type. It's super mean-spirited, and super gory. Apparently the game is a "visual novel" which for those of you who don't know, is a video game equivalent to the old choose-your-own-adventure games, with mostly static imagery. That said, looking things up briefly via wikipedia and google images, this movie looks like it's pretty darn accurate, with all the characters coming from the game, and even the way they look being close approximations. Again, this looks like an extremely violent set of games. I give Corpse Party  out of FiveParasite Eve (1997) A talented microbiologist working on a super-strain of liver-based mitochondria loses his wife in a tragic car accident. After much internal conflict, he agrees to have her kidney donated to a 12 year old girl on dialysis, on the condition he can have the liver to work on. As he works on his liver cultures in mad isolation, they begin to rapidly mutate, and the kidney recipient starts acting strange as well... This one is technically cheating for the theme, as it's based on a book that the video game is also spun off of. That said, the stories of the game and the movie/novel are very different. I'm not sure what to say about having one be highly melodramatic and have its climax involve the power of twue wuv, and having the other be about a NYC cop who has to fight a super monster aboard an aircraft carrier, but I know which is the better spectacle. This film is a mishmash of overdrawn sentimentality, surprisingly graphic violence (particularly the surgical scenes shown in loving close up) and special effects that looked dated for 1997, let alone 2001 when the film was finally released. It's two hour run time is a long way to go for such a short trip. I give Parasite Eve  out of Five
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Oct 19, 2016 04:04
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Choco1980 posted:
I'm guessing the movie is improved by not starring RPG maker default assets.
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Oct 19, 2016 04:34
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Lurdiak posted:I'm guessing the movie is improved by not starring RPG maker default assets. Well yeah, that and being live action means the teenagers look like, 17, instead of anime 10 year olds (and the movie doesn't accentuate the curves of the ACTUAL 10 year old, dammit). Apparently a sequel came out this past summer. I don't know if it's any good, but this film, like I said, was super mean-spirited, and extra gory. I have no idea how closely the plot itself follows the game, but I saw one major setpiece in GIS that looked pretty much identical to something that happens in the film.
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Oct 19, 2016 04:47
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What I've seen of the game makes the child deaths in it look pretty gore porn-y(in the literal 'someone is beating off to this' sense), so it sounds like the movie follows the spirit of the game faithfully.
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Oct 19, 2016 08:22
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Day 1, the Cloverfields: Cloverfield: 8.5; 10 Cloverfield Lane: 9.5 Day 2, the Not As They Seem: The Thing: 10; They Live: 8.5 Day 3, the Rest of the Trilogy: Prince of Darkness: 7.5; In the Mouth of Madness: 8 Day 4, the Big Planners: From Beyond: 9; The Lords of Salem: 6 Day 5, the Obvious: Hellraiser: 9; Hellraiser II: Hellbound: 7 Day 6, the Not Quite Human: Beyond the Black Rainbow: 9.5; Under the Skin: 10 Day 7, the Hotels of Horror: The Shining (extended cut): 10; 140:8 Day 8, the Hauntings: Noroi: 8; Housebound: 9.5 Day 9, the Reruns: Triangle: 9; White: 4.5 Day 10, Humanoids in Space: Alien (Director's Cut): 9; Pandorum: 7.5 Day 11, Humanoids on Earth: The Descent: 9; Splice: 5.5 Day 12, From the Shallow: Shin Godzilla: 8.5; The Bay: 7.5 Day 13, Campfire Stories: Friday the 13th: 9; Sleepaway Camp: 8.5 Day 14, Sleep Tight: A Nightmare on Elm Street: 9.5; A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: 6.5 Day 15, Slashers of a Sort: Predator: 8; Scream: 9 Day 16, Wingard Day: You're Next: 9.5; The Guest: 10 Day 17, Up Close and Personal: Maniac (2012): 8; Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon: 7.5 18.1: "It is a unusual story."  Resolution is possibly my favorite horror movie of all time. Somehow it manages to stuff in a ridiculous managerie of spooky things: satellites, drug dealers, corrupt tribal security, cultists, escaped mental patients, a "we buy houses" guy, homeless people, not to mention the "13 mountain lions per person" while providing an ending that is better than anything it seems to promise. The premise by itself is a compelling drama, and combined with the rest becomes something truly amazing and unique, including a comedy with fantastic dialogue and timing. The whole cast nail their roles, and the two main leads especially knock out what must have been incredibly difficult performances, though my favorite character may have been one that only shows up for a few minutes.  A good film marathon day would be to watch Triangle three times and then this three times, with how much there is to see and process in both. Go watch this and then watch it again as many times as you feel like.  10/10 (will catch up on Hush tomorrow)
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Oct 19, 2016 09:01
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I watched a few 80s B-movies, since they tend to fly by and are usually at least entertaining: 17. The Brain is a bizarre and fun romp through Canada. Let me quote the Wiki summary here, which should tell you if you should check this out or not (you should): Dr. Blakely runs a TV show called "Independent Thinkers", which is a Scientology-like self-help/religion program. But he's not making his audience think any more independently - with the help of an alien organism he calls The Brain, he's using brainwashing and mind control. The only thing that stands between them and world domination is a brilliant but troubled high school student with a penchant for pranks. It doesn't have much in ways of stars, but David Gale (the bad guy from Reanimator) plays Dr. Blakely and the guy who voiced Hank McCoy/Beast is his henchman. On top of that, it's pretty bloody at times. And unlike a lot of other lesser known B-movies, which often have the flaw of a strong start/end with a flabby middle, The Brain hits the ground running with a scene of the titular monster coming through reality itself to eat one victim, set a room on fire, and send the other tumbling out of a second floor window to the pavement and basically never loving stops. There's maybe 5-10 minutes near the 1 hour mark that could qualify as downtime, but other than that its all surreal visions, awkward car chases, and heads getting punched off. Favorite line, from the stuffy principle to the prank loving high school student: "This isn't America! It's high school." /518. Cellar Dweller: Also quite strange, its biggest crime is having the climax sort of fall apart and hiring Jeffery Combs to do a single 9 minute scene at the beginning. (Maybe it's just me, but it seemed primed to have him show up in ghost/comic form at the end to help out.) On the plus side, its a lean 1 hour 15 minutes. Like a true 80s B-movie sort-of classic, there is a lot of gore, plenty of bizarre moments (one of the characters is a method actor who is trying to play a role in a crime film, so when someone disappears he starts sleuthing about, smoking cigars, and putting together a case), and not exactly a lot of sense being made. (Where did the book come from? What is the beast?) Written by Child Play's Don Macini under the pseudonym Kit Dur Bots, it has the sort of off-kilter dark humor that some of the better Chucky sequels display. The Blu-Ray that's available has excellent picture quality, if you can get ahold of that. /5
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Oct 19, 2016 12:05
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35. Tales of Terror: One of Price's Poe-ish anthologies. Good background viewing and actually rather good at pacing and setting tension. Morella is surprisingly effective as a short gothic horror and ages alright. 36. The Fly (1958): The bluray transfer sucks in three or so points and I'd stick with a DVD or digital version if purchasing it over again. Anyway, the film is dated and has some pacing issues. Can't fault the clunky exposition as it was pretty standard at the time. The adult actors were all solid but the special effects man who made the fly mask is the real star. A shame it didn't get more screen time because it was great with the twitchy bits and detail. "Help me! Hellllllp meeeeee!" Ages very well and is still a very well done and unsettling scene. My wife was cringing through it and went a little wide-eyed when the shocksd inspector smashed the spider and mutant with a large stone. The movie has never been a real personal favorite but the scenes from head reveal to end make it worthwhile. As for one of my goals, introducing the kids to more classic creature features that I have always loved, it's going swimmingly. They both enjoy them in black and white or color. My son is particularly enamored of them and prefers black and white to the point he will goran and mildly gripe when a color movie plays. It has some family friends annoyed because their kids/grandkids/whatever refuse to watch black and white movies.
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Oct 19, 2016 16:26
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timeandtide posted:I watched a few 80s B-movies, since they tend to fly by and are usually at least entertaining: Cellar Dweller has an incredibly bizarre twist and if you liked The Brain, I would recommend Syngenor (also a great dumb movie with David Gale going absolutely apeshit).
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Oct 19, 2016 19:55
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Thirsty Girl posted:Cellar Dweller has an incredibly bizarre twist and if you liked The Brain, I would recommend Syngenor (also a great dumb movie with David Gale going absolutely apeshit). Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check that one out.
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Oct 19, 2016 21:40
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#18.) Queen of the Damned (2002) Watching this before writing my reactions to Playback is probably why I was so forgiving of that movie, despite it not being that well-made, since the relatively low-budget but clearly-told Playback was just so preferable to the dumb poo poo this movie pulled with a much higher budget. Up-front admission, I haven't read any of Anne Rice's books in full. Also not bothering with spoilers, since the visuals (and music, ostensibly) are much more this movie's focus than its story, but that's not gonna stop me from  ing about how dumb it was, since I sat through it.OK, so the vampire Lestat from Interview with a Vampire, now played by Stuart Townsend (Dorian Gray from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) is sleeping in a crypt for "eras" (which I guess makes this a prequel to Interview?) before being woken up by the soul-stirring sounds of music co-written by Jonathan Davis of Korn. Following the music to the band creating it (who happen to be practicing in an old house of Lestat's, amazingly and pointlessly enough), he joins them by singing one note, introducing himself as a vampire, and warping around the room. Then the band vanishes for about an hour, foregoing the potentially-interesting examination of their conflict over relying on an actual creature of darkness for popularity. Instead, we get female protagonist Jesse (Marguerite Moreau, Wet Hot American Summer, Beverly Hills Chihuahua), who overhears one of the band's lyrics in a music video and links it to a bad-reputation pub that was around centuries ago (because she's in a no-interference occult study society because whatever). For similarly-explained reasons, the society's pres has her read Lestat's mopey diary for about half an hour of non-progress in the story beyond establishing that he was slightly conflicted over being a vampire, and that there was a hibernating 'mother vampire'. This makes Jesse fall in love with him to the point of wanting him to turn her into a vampire. She changes her mind later. Turns out Lestat's Korn-y songs are so powerful that they're now stirring that 'mother vampire' back to waking life, which is a big problem for other vampires because she's so powerful and doesn't care about hiding her existence. Once she shows up, Lestat's nu-metal makes her fall in love with him, and she makes him her "consort", just like that. One night of living it up (including being able to stand in the sunlight after drinking some Aaliyah blood) is apparently enough to make him sour on what he's allegedly wanted for centuries, because he follows her to crash a vampire meeting and turns on her without much ado. Six vampires or so are enough to take her down (though she took out a whole pub of vampires with telekinetic incineration earlier), ending with Jesse's vampire aunt turning into a statue after taking the last drink from Aaliyah's veins. This is described within a few lines of each other as both "She took [the queen's] death into herself," and "She's not dead, only sleeping." Then Lestat stops being a rock star, because he's a vampire, so he doesn't care about making more music with Jonathan Davis. God, this sucked. Lengthy but pointless scenes, even in terms of building atmosphere; the music; character motivations that changed on a dime without any notable inner conflict; and self-contradictory material that I'd specify if I weren't just vomiting this up in an effort to keep it out of long-term memory. On the plus side, some effort seemed to be put into the set-building, but overall, it just made me long for the nuance and depth of Dracula 2000. / 5
Darthemed fucked around with this message at 22:11 on Oct 19, 2016 |
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Oct 19, 2016 22:08
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26The Witch Who Came From the Sea That was interesting, and also very disturbing, especially the big reveal at the end. It's definitely a movie I like more as a think piece about feminism, and sexual politics than as a horror movie. Still worth a watch. There's a lot to unpack, and better than most low budget sleeze fests 
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Oct 20, 2016 00:24
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Day 19 - I had a film I was really looking forward to watching for this evening and then I got badly time crunched (stupid Presidential debates), so I had to go to a back up plan. And this time it was Phantasm IV: Oblivion. So after the ending of Phantasm 3, the pursuit of the Tall Man goes across the desert and his origins are revealed. I'm going to be brief on my thoughts here. I liked it better than 3, but that's mainly on the fact that this film had something resembling a consistent throughline instead of aimless wandering. It still doesn't make a whole lot of sense (the cliffhanger is resolved by the Tall Man essentially going, "Oh hey, got to keep you alive for this movie. Later dude!" Showing where he came from was not a good idea; it's so much more mundane than anything it should have been. The film is showing its budget with its heavy use of flashbacks to previous films, severely limited cast, and lack of locations. And there's even less head drilling in this movie than the previous film had.
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Oct 20, 2016 04:23
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 09:49 |
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K. Waste posted:Day 18 Day 19 The X from Outer Space is way better than Destination Moon. Interesting parallels to Shin Gojira, as well.
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Oct 20, 2016 05:29
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