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This looks fun. Gonna shoot for 1 movie a day, though I don't have a list planned out.
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Oct 1, 2016 03:53
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 21:08 |
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October 1st - Dark Star Probably a stretch to call this "horror," but it was on Shudder so I'm countin' it. Reviews seem pretty mixed on this one, but I enjoyed it well enough. It's certainly a bit rough around the edges, but for a student film it really holds its own, and the special effects aren't nearly as bad as I was expecting them to be. I'm also pretty impressed by how restrained the movie is; it's perhaps not the most cerebral movie, but it has enough confidence in itself not to get really bogged down by the cynical, overwrought stuff that usually comes with satirical student film projects. You can definitely see a bit of the blueprint for Carpenter's later work here, as well as the influence on Alien. I wouldn't be surprised if it influenced Douglas Adams, too. Nothing about this movie was really scary, though. It does a good job of building a tense atmosphere and playing on the claustrophobic setting, and I guess maybe you could make a case for it being some low-grade existential horror, but that's about it. It's honestly got a good bit of humor in it. Still a good start to the month!  .5 / 5
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Oct 2, 2016 06:38
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October 2nd - The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears What a pretty, bizarre movie. This is kinda like someone stuck a bunch of Bava / Argento movies in a blender and strained out all of the plot. That probably sounds like a bad thing, but I dug it quite a bit. It owes a pretty heavy debt to Suspiria in particular, but there are certainly worse movies to crib from. It was hard to follow at times (most of the time, really) but it feels more like a movie where you are meant to just let signs and symbols and style wash over you than to puzzle out the narrative thread. There's a hallucinatory quality to the camerawork that is very cool - it reminds me a bit of Hausu in how willing it is to just take a shot and play with it in a way that should feel pretentious, but doesn't. I will say that it leans a bit heavily on some of its stylistic tics by the end - I think it's just a little bit longer than it really needed to be, and as a result it goes back to the same well a couple times, visually. Also random aside, but it weirds me out how much Klaus Tange looks like someone smashed Guy Pearce and Willem Dafoe together. I can definitely see how someone might be disappointed if they went into this expecting, well, a plot, but as a giallo sendup and a visual treat, it's worth checking out at least. I'm a pretty big mark for this kind of movie, though. I give it /5Watched So Far: Dark Star (3.5/5), Strange Color of Your Body's Tears (4/5)
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Oct 3, 2016 06:10
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October 3rd - Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) Watched on Shudder  This is one of those shameful "how am I just now watching this?" movies for me. Everything about this was great. That pulsing industrial soundtrack, the grimy, lo-fi aesthetic, the sheer energy of the whole thing. The movie doesn't ever stop to take a breath, which might be a good and a bad thing. Lots of grotesque imagery, but it's not really gory, exactly - some of it is pretty Giger-ish. The arrhythmic editing and high contrast give it a really disorienting atmosphere that pulls a lot of weight when things get crazy, and boy do they get crazy. Things really start ramping up at the halfway point and never stop, and at times it becomes so frenetic that you can't even really digest the imagery, and it just starts hammering you. The acting is very expressive and almost stagelike, probably to make up for the fact that there's really very little dialogue. It must have been fun as poo poo to work on the set / costume design for this movie. A wonderful bit of post-industrial body horror. I give it / 5Watched So Far: Dark Star (1974), The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears (2013), Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
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Oct 4, 2016 09:02
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October 4th - Faces of Death (1978) Watched on Shudder  I saw this way back in middle school, recorded at double speed so that Cannibal Holocaust could also fit on the tape. Me and my friends argued about which parts were real for days, so when I saw this one I knew I had to rewatch it. Surprising probably no one, it has not held up well. A lot of the movie's "charm" (for lack of a better word) gets lost in translation when you're no longer watching it on a lovely VHS tape filtered through a tiny CRT screen. A lot of the use of stock footage and practical effects becomes much more obvious - my favorite is probably a few shots in the alligator attack scene where you can see that one of the news cameras is made of cardboard. There are definitely a few real bits in here, but the film has completely lost its shock value in that respect. Now its more of a curiosity than anything. As with Cannibal Holocaust, the hardest parts to watch are probably the scenes with animals, just because (aside from the famous monkey scene) they are real. The only interesting thing this movie really has going for it is the weirdly hopeful narrative vein running through it. There are seemingly sincere monologues about the possibility of life after death, environmental protection, and the way the prison system perpetuates violence that feel very out of place compared to how cynical and nihilistic a lot of other mondo films are. Of course they are juxtaposed with scenes that are supposed to be people slowly getting electrocuted to death and stuff, so. Honestly, I think a movie like this would have been more effective if it had been made a few decades later. That brief period of time where cell phones first got video capability but were still kinda grainy and lovely would have lent itself well to this (has any found footage film used that as its central conceit? I don't know much about the genre), especially when you start to wonder why, say, a random bear attack in the woods has a three-camera setup. Anyways, not a good movie. Mildly interesting in the historical context of cult films / the "video nasty" panic, and as a nostalgia trip for some people, but I can't think of any reason I'd ever watch it again. /5Watched So Far: Dark Star (1974), The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears (2013), Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), Faces of Death (1978) Grizzled Patriarch fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Oct 5, 2016 |
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Oct 5, 2016 04:46
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Choco1980 posted:#16. Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006) The premise kinda sounds like Man Bites Dog, if you are ever looking for something in the same vein. Thanks for reviewing this though, it sounds neat and I'm gonna check it out.
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Oct 7, 2016 03:18
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Forgot to update yesterday. October 5th - Ravenous (1999)  Loved this. Not even remotely a subtle movie, but it's really stylish and fun and it's amazing that a movie like this got a big studio budget put behind it. This is a crazy stew of different genres, and the result is a Western horror-comedy that is only a few shades of black lighter than American Pyscho. The performances are wonderful, especially Robert Carlyle, who has to occupy a pretty high spot on the "greasiest characters ever put to film" list. I don't want to say too much else about this in case there are other people who haven't seen it yet, but it's just a really giddily gruesome meatgrinder of a movie that manages to mix legitimate horror with legitimate humor, something not a lot of films can pull off. I give it .5 / 5October 6th - The Neon Demon (2016) Watched on Amazon Streaming  drat this movie has a lot of cool posters. This was another great one. Refn feels pretty locked into his style at this point, so if you didn't dig his other movies, this isn't going to change your mind. It's a gorgeous movie, and from the very first shot there's this excellent, oppressive tension that never really lets up, even as the film is reaching its conclusion. The mortuary scene is probably one of the most uncomfortable scenes of the year, and that final scene is just amazing. It feels very much like a vampire flick - the bits towards the middle with three women in the empty mansion (and a stuffed wolf, to boot) immediately felt like a Brides of Dracula thing to me. This is kinda like Only God Forgives in that there probably isn't as much going on under the hood as you might expect, and I'm not sure there's anything particularly insightful about it, but it takes something trite and dresses it up in such a way that I don't really care. I give it: .5 / 5Watched So Far: Dark Star (1974), The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears (2013), Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), Faces of Death (1978), Ravenous (1999), The Neon Demon (2016) Grizzled Patriarch fucked around with this message at 09:03 on Oct 7, 2016 |
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Oct 7, 2016 08:07
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October 7th - Jacob's Ladder (1990) This was a rewatch, because I hadn't seen it since high school and I wanted to see how well it held up. The answer is: really well. This movie is really atmospheric and does a tremendous job of tapping into the feeling of paranoia. In that regard, I can't think of many movies that are a match for it. Great performances all around - Elizabeth Peņa in particular knocks it out of the park in what is probably pretty easily her best role. This movie knows when to hold its punches, and it makes the moments of horror that much more effective - this movie's fingerprints are all over a bunch of the horror that came after it, and a lot of people are probably familiar with it because it was a big influence on the Silent Hill games. A horror film that is both disturbing and oddly comforting in it's conclusion - definitely check this out if you get a chance. I give it /5October 8th - Shivers (1975) Watched on Shudder  Decided to catch up on some of the Cronebergs that I've missed. This film has a wonderful opening, but sadly the rest of the movie never quite hits that high note again. It's not a bad film by any stretch, but the pacing feels a little off - there are some bits that just drag a little, and most of the characters don't get enough breathing room to really muster any sympathy when things start inevitably going downhill. There are also a few places where the editing just feels very rough, in a way that pulled me out of the film for a brief moment. For an early film made on a pretty lean budget, it does a pretty good job. It's really pretty clever how much space they are able to imply while really only filming in a few small areas, and there's a lot of care taken with the lighting to make the prosthetic work look realistic. The plot is kinda goofy, and there aren't really any super memorable scenes, though the film is bookended by its creepiest parts. A lesser Cronenberg film, but that's still not half-bad. I give it .5 / 5October 9th - The Brood (1979) Watched on Hulu  Knowing that this was made while Cronenberg was going through a difficult divorce definitely colored my perception of it. Apparently this is considered to be one of his worst movies, but I don't really see why. The plot is as bit weak, yes, but the film itself just feels so personal and so full of energy (even if it is painful, very angry energy) that I'm baffled when I see people say it was boring. The horror here is largely allegorical, and it's not subtle about it. There are some legitimately creepy moments sprinkled throughout, but a lot of the horror depends on the oppressive feeling of helplessness that it layers up. This isn't a pleasant film to watch, and there's a lot of stuff to unpack here w/r/t some pretty nasty commentary on motherhood. It's honestly kinda hard to rate this one, and I'll probably change how I feel about it after I have more time to think it over. For now, I give it / 5Watched So Far: Dark Star (1974), The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears (2013), Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), Faces of Death (1978), Ravenous (1999), The Neon Demon (2016), Jacob's Ladder (1990), Shivers (1975), The Brood (1979) edit: vvvvvvvv  
Grizzled Patriarch fucked around with this message at 09:35 on Oct 10, 2016 |
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Oct 10, 2016 09:29
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Fell a movie behind, gonna try to catch up this weekend. October 10th - Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010) Watched on Shudder  What a bizarre movie, in the best way. A very interesting, hyper-sensory film (the sound design is wonderful, and I wish I could have experienced it in a theater) with an extremely bare-bones plot. I've heard a lot of people compare it to a Kubrick film, which I can see a little bit of. Honestly there are little bits and pieces from all sorts of directors, and I love it, because it will go from one scene that feels like a giallo movie directed by Tarkovsky to some weird Carpenter-esque psuedo-slasher. I think my favorite thing is how fully immersed you get in the weirdness, to the point that the very brief moments where the real world intersects with it, it honestly feels jarring and even a bit intrusive. It's a neat effect. The cinematography is excellent, and a few of the more surreal scenes are just incredibly effective and well-composed. It's not a "scary" movie so much as an unsettling one, but I'm very glad I watched it. I'm also surprised I've never seen the male lead in anything else, because he's very good at the micro-expression thing and particularly great at that sort of dripping contempt for the people around him. It seems this director hasn't done anything else, so I hope he didn't stop making films, because I'd definitely check out anything else he put out. I give it .5 / 5Watched So Far: Dark Star (1974), The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears (2013), Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), Faces of Death (1978), Ravenous (1999), The Neon Demon (2016), Jacob's Ladder (1990), Shivers (1975), The Brood (1979), Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010)
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Oct 12, 2016 08:34
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Doctor Teeth posted:Horror is the genre I've watched the least of, so I'm using this month to catch up on a lot of classics I've been sitting on for a while. I don't have a lot to say about a lot of these as everything that can be said has been many times before, but a few things nonetheless. Tuesdays are the "bad luck" day in a lot of Latin America, and I think also Greece. I've heard it's because the day (martes) is named after Mars, who is associated with war and bloodshed, but I dunno if that's the real reason or if it's just one of those things someone came up with after the fact to try to explain some random folk belief. There is a folk saying in Chile (and other places I'm sure) that says you shouldn't get married or go on a voyage on Tuesdays. As for why it's only Argentina that did that, I have no idea. Pretty interesting. edit: Now I wonder if it was marketed as "Friday the 17th" in Italy for the same reason. Grizzled Patriarch fucked around with this message at 03:07 on Oct 13, 2016 |
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Oct 13, 2016 03:04
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ThePlague-Daemon posted:What are the best Criterion horror films on Hulu? I don't think I have time to watch a lot of them, but I just got a Hulu account and then going out Criterion is getting their own separate streaming service in the next couple months, so I'd like to try to get a few in at least, especially from their Japanese collection, which is massive. I'm open to movies from anywhere, though. I've seen House and Jigoku recently, and Kwaidan is probably next on my list. Carnival of Souls is definitely a must-watch. There's also Eraserhead and a few of Lynch's short films, Scanners, and the Brood. Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell might be up your alley if you are looking for Japanese stuff in particular. There's also Cronos and Haxan, which I have in my list for this month but haven't seen yet.
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Oct 13, 2016 19:34
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October 11th - Begotten (1990) Watched on Youtube  The only other Merhige I've seen is Shadow of the Vampire, which was great. This was radically different, and I would probably never guess they were made by the same director. This is a brutal, lurid sort of genesis story, and it's probably pretty close to as abstract you can get while still having a plot that people would at least partially grasp if they went in blind. There is no spoken dialogue, and the rest of the audio is very subtle and starts to bleed into the background (which is not to say it's not effective - it's actually very good, and after seeing it, I definitely disagree with the few people I've seen suggesting to watch it with some album or another playing alongside it). The footage is all super high-contrast black and white, and it looks like it was dragged through a gravel pit after filming. Not many films could get away with this, but it works here, making the imagery even more grotesque by making it indistinct. My only real issue with this is that it feels like a short film stretched just a little too thin - I can get down with plodding, meditative scenes, but at times scenes seemed to go on past the point of their effectiveness. Not even a remotely pleasant film to watch, but for fans of experimental horror, it's probably not a movie you'll ever forget. I give it .5 / 5October 12th - Re-Animator (1985) Watched on Shudder  This tagline just about sums up the tone this movie is going for This turned out to be a pretty good movie to watch after Begotten. Just a refreshingly fun B-movie vibe that has enough confidence in itself not to go out on a note of coolly-detached cynicism, which is what I was kinda expecting. I don't know how faithful it is to the Lovecraft story it was based on, but I don't really care. It's horror-comedy, I guess, though the humor is pretty dry. Most of the entertainment comes from how much energy the movie has, and how much fun and passion obviously went into making it. Without that, some of the goofier stuff (like the cat) would have probably fallen flat. Combs' performance is great - nobody is bad, but he is the only one who sorta trancends the B-movie expectations. If you like Evil Dead, you'll probably dig this - it does a great job at the same back-and-forth strategy of building tension, using something funny or absurd to dispel it, and then cranking the tension up right back up again. I give it / 5Watched So Far: Dark Star (1974), The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears (2013), Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), Faces of Death (1978), Ravenous (1999), The Neon Demon (2016), Jacob's Ladder (1990), Shivers (1975), The Brood (1979), Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010), Begotten (1990), Re-Animator (1985)
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Oct 14, 2016 08:55
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