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Also the theme for the original Fright Night is very kick rear end. https://youtu.be/re_IEpPFdmA TheKingslayer fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Apr 28, 2017 |
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Apr 28, 2017 18:22
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 10:25 |
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1. Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy I've probably watched this about four or five times now and there's always something I either have forgotten or missed and I'm also reminded on this go around I haven't seen Nightmare on Elm Street 5 many times, so maybe that will be one of my 13 movies... Anyway, if you're a fan of the series this doc is really incredible. Tons of interviews with cast members and directors from every movie up to Freddy vs. Jason. Clu Gulager (Jesse's dad from Nightmare 2) is especially a hoot. Robert Englund also seems like a lovely guy who always has something nice to say about people he worked with or films he worked on. Some of my favorite parts of this are the scenes highlighting the special effects work. Such as the giant Freddy torso or the rotating room from Nightmare. Some original scripts get talked about too, like Peter Jackson's original script for Nightmare 6 I think where Freddy is all decrepit and powerless and has to get his groove back. This is a great companion to Crystal Lake Memories which is also very good. Might have to go watch that in a little while. 4/5, this is probably something I'll watch many more times. 2. Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 It has been many years since I watched this from start to finish and I wonder why it took me so long. I might say I even like this more than the first film, but not by much. This even has one of the most incredible scenes of gore and horror I can recall in the bed scene. I was a few drinks in at that point and completely grossed out from start to finish. Also the early brain surgery scene is so twisted looking and makes me think of a torture chamber, just really effective. There are parts that feel a little disjointed and out of place, like the early scene where Pinhead solves the box as a human. But I've heard the movie was chopped up heavily because of censors and an actor not wanting to return for the sequel. Though the end is completely bonkers and fun. It's a good way to end the series if you can just forget any sequels were made after it. Hellraiser 4 might be the only one worth anything. 3 1/2 out of 5 3. The Houses October Built This is a second viewing with friends. Full disclosure, I hated it the first time through despite wanting to like it because a lot of the haunted houses featured were familiar. My friends hadn't seen it yet so I figured we could at least pass time. I was surprised to find that I liked it a lot more this go through. The basic ploy is a group of friends are piled up in an RV with cameras everywhere filming their search for the most real and extreme haunted house during the Halloween season that allegedly moves and is said to contain real corpses and the like. Personally I have no idea why this really pedestrian looking people would be looking for such a thing especially considering it sounds incredibly dangerous, but whatever, it's a movie. One of the things I liked is how natural a few of the characters felt and I actually liked most of them and were rooting for them to not have anything bad happen. There are also a lot of "interviews" with Haunt owners and footage from inside the actual haunts thrown in to lend the found footage some authenticity. I also appreciated that it doesn't fall into the pit of, "why are these people still filming?" since many of the incidents are captured by static cameras or the characters aren't aware something potentially dangerous is occurring, it's all just an adventure. It feels like there are some long gaps between anything that actually moves the story forward or that really grabs your attention, but in a group watching I didn't notice them quite as much as viewing it by myself. The characters also make some horrible decisions that I don't think any normal person would, which took me out of it towards the end. The movie hadn't really set up that the characters had any skin in the game other than just doing it for fun, so it didn't make sense for anyone to do anything they would risk their lives over. I would say it's worth checking out if you want to see a little bit of some cool haunted houses, which it captures the atmosphere around well. But no one is missing anything at all if you pass it up. Totally average. One more qualifier is that my tastes tend to give movies with a Halloween theme a little more leeway and this one delivered that at the very least. 2 1/2 out of 5
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May 6, 2017 15:03
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Locked in the office for the next ten hours with nothing of substance to do. So let's watch more stuff. 4. Tank 432 I didn't really know what to expect going into this and was still pretty let down. It was a pretty dry movie without a lot going on. A group of mercenaries ends up trapped in a tank after being stalked by... something. I felt like this should have been driven a lot by the characters interactions while trapped and I honestly didn't feel like that happened. Everyone was playing an archetype and even then they were rather thin. Hard rear end squad leader, caring medic, rookie, surly veteran, etc. The movie keeps everyone mostly in the dark right up until the end for a pretty cliche twist that made me feel like I had wasted my time. There are some great shots over all, but the movie ultimately fails to deliver tension or horror. There just wasn't anything compelling here. If I could compare it to anything, I would say it's Cube 2: Hypercube with all the cool ideas stripped out. 1/5
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May 6, 2017 16:55
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Just go find the scene of the guy getting flattened by the tank and call it a day. A 5/5 tank squishing.
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May 6, 2017 17:16
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Sorry for the double post but it's a mega slow work day. 5. Scream Welp, after the last disappointing movie I figured I would go to something I know to kill some time. This is one that scratches all my itches, masked killers, Halloween feel, and slashin’! I think this is also a big favorite of mine because I was just realizing how much I liked Halloween and horror at this time as a kid and Ghost Face was the Freddy or Jason of my era and the craze for the character was everywhere in my town. Pair that with the rise of caller ID and cell phones and it draws some real nostalgia out of me. That is one of the first things I’ll comment on actually. How visceral anything involving the killer is, the killer feels more realistic in that they can be hurt, clumsy, and get frustrated. It even seems like they take their frustration out on victims who put up a hard fight. Even after repeated viewings I still think the first scene is really effective, it’s always a treat to show to new people. Thanks to the whodunnit element to the movie it’s still worth repeat viewing to catch little hints or setups you might have missed along with all the horror references scattered around. I’ll compliment the acting as well because everyone is utilized well, even Jamie Kennedy is turning in a performance I enjoy where I would usually avoid him like a plague. Henry Winkler is also a really entertaining over the top principal. All these characters really help to show that the movie takes place in a small town, with everyone spreading rumors and talking about the town’s dirty laundry in certain scenes. I think Courtney Cox might turn in my favorite performance as Gale Weathers (what a great reporter name) and I’ll give some props to David Arquette as well. And because I feel it should be stated, Rose McGowan was smokin’ in this movie, wow. Depending on the day you catch me I might say this is Craven’s best movie over Elm Street on my personal list. I’m reluctant to give anything a perfect score but this is one of the few that deserves it in my book. 5/5
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May 6, 2017 21:01
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Probably my last one for the day. 6. Hellions The second IFC movie I’ve watched today and sadly it also fell a little short. Hellions is about a 17 year old who found out she was pregnant on Halloween day, coincidentally there is a blood moon that night and group of murderous children clad in homemade Halloween costumes out of the 1930’s come to steal her unborn child. The good points. I really enjoy the concept and it does a lot with themes of fear of parenthood and raising children and trying to be a metaphor for the anxiety and struggle of young pregnancy. There are some very nice shots, especially of pumpkin patches and other such things. There’s also the pleasant surprise of Robert Patrick in the movie, who I always enjoy. Costume design for the villains are also pretty competent and creepy without seeming out of place on Halloween. There are also some honestly weird things going on that are reminiscent of Eraserhead, but they don’t have near the surreal quality. Now on to the bad. It seems like budget and maybe the amount of time the crew had to film was a hurdle. Almost no characters actually die on screen and there is little in the way of gore, despite there being some promise of violence with the bad guys wielding hatchets and electric carvers and such. The villains just spend a lot of time breaking things and standing around trying to be creepy. The movie is also very dark and it’s hard to make out details through a lot of it. Then there is a switch to this odd magenta lighting which felt like a decision the crew made to film during the day instead of night or at least in addition to. I think this movie had some good ideas going for it but there was a failure in execution that caused it to not quite come together and be just ok. Maybe with a little more money or time things could have been fully realized. I don’t regret watching it but can say for sure I wouldn’t again. 2/5
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May 6, 2017 22:51
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Tangents posted:I think I've posted about this before, but it really felt like it was leading up to it all being just another haunted house. Like, they had some points with the documentary stuff about how you have to keep raising the ante, and there was one about how 'if a guy with a chainless chainsaw doesn't scare people, is the next step putting a chain on?' So the ultimate haunted house just completely oversteps the boundaries of safety and abducts them and they're honestly afraid for their lives, but at the end there's just a card saying 'thanks for coming, tell your friends.' But then...they just die, the end. I guess if it was all a prank all the stalking and evil clown stuff up to then wouldn't really make much sense, but it's still just a letdown to me. I can agree with that. The ending we got was boring and uncreative.
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May 7, 2017 18:43
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7. Beyond The Gates Wouldn’t you know, another IFC film… Now from the trailer I really am going in wanting to like this one. I love board games, especially the cheesy old VHS ones. Also nothing can capture the nostalgia of the movie rental store days. This checks a lot of boxes for me on premise. But I really have to ask… Was this a script for an Are You Afraid Of The Dark episode that someone beefed up and put a little violence in to make feature length? None of the actors had any chemistry and the pacing was so bad. The movie felt like it took forever to actually get anything going with it’s premise. There are jump scares and very little in the way of tension to be had. There was even a totally juvenile bully in parts of the film. But what really set it over the top and into “this had to be written for kids” territory was the shop owner towards the middle. This guy is putting in some kid’s show spooky guy acting you have to see to believe, at that point I just felt like the movie was trying to swerve into some horror comedy territory but not pulling it off well. Barbara Crampton though is a ray of sunshine for managing to be the best performer despite never being physically present with any characters and also for being very beautiful. Once again, I really liked what this movie could have been and some of the ideas going on. But it felt there were some character building sections and plot points that were maybe cut or just not fully explored that really could have helped the movie. Like maybe more about why Gordon was so… well the way he was and Gordon and John’s relationship with their father. It just felt like nothing was touched upon enough to be satisfying. It wasn’t horribly bad, it just fell really short of my expectations from the trailer, so maybe that’s on me. It was perfectly middle of the road and with a smidge of editing you could actually just play this for kids around Halloween or something, it might actually be better that way. Then again I watched some screwed up stuff as a kid. 2/5
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May 13, 2017 19:23
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I also fell short of my goal and am willing to review things as penance. I have no hang ups about movies. Being on streaming is nice but I'm willing to dig for physical copies of things.
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Jun 12, 2017 02:44
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Basebf555 posted:What's the biggest stone-cold classic that you haven't seen? Watch that. Hellraiser and An American Werewolf in London are available on Netflix, just as a few examples. That's a fantastic idea. I shamefully own but have never seen The Exorcist.
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Jun 12, 2017 16:50
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 10:25 |
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I actually just realized I have the complete anthology set so I do have the theatrical version. Woo hoo!
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Jun 13, 2017 19:10
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