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Basebf555 posted:The acting in this movie is absolutely atrocious. Not like The Resurrected kinda bad either, we're talking high school play level delivery here. This just reminded me that my favorite part of The Resurrected is when the villain says one of the steps to his evil plan is basically "Then I'll get my teeth fixed! Claire will be totally cool that I've replaced her husband!" Chris Sarandon sells it, and it's very funny. I'm very excited to watch these now, hopefully they'll get picked. Especially Venom. It keeps sounding more awesome.
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Sep 19, 2017 13:49
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Franchescanado posted:The thing I really liked about this movie that most people don't mention is that all the major characters arcs are about losing a child, but they all deal with it different ways: "I blame you", "I blame myself", "I blame the world", "I blame God", etc.. It's not the most original theme, but I think it's cool to put it in a Lovecraftian context. Good point. I didn't really think about it that way because they downplay what happened between Daniel and Allison. Basebf555 posted:Slugs I remember watching this late night on HBO or some other channel that didn't censor the violence in the early '90s when I was a teenager, and that I actually turned away from what was happening because I couldn't handle it. The funny thing is I know I've seen more disgusting stuff than what's in that movie but at the time...yikes.
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Sep 19, 2017 14:30
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Bruteman posted:Good point. I didn't really think about it that way because they downplay what happened between Daniel and Allison. The ending is bittersweet because they won't survive the situation, they're trapped in this hell, but they got there together and are stuck together, and that makes it bearable.
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Sep 19, 2017 14:35
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Franchescanado posted:
If I did, I'd watch Hawk the Slayer again. Re: Slugs, I wish more Shaun Hutson novels would get adapted. Assassin would make a fantastic crime/horror movie.
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Sep 19, 2017 14:37
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I don't think I'm really going to start 'counting' until October, but I've been watching a lot of horror movies in the last week or so and I might as well talk about them a bit. mother! Hated it. Didn't pick up on the biblical stuff because I am bad at allegory, but knowing that now doesn't make the movie-going experience better. 1/5 Masters of Horror: Incident On and Off a Mountain Road Meh. I thought this was mostly bland, and I don't particularly like movies that use rape as motivation. 2/5 The Return of the Living Dead Gloriously self-aware, with great zombies and gratuitous nudity. A remarkably fun watch. 5/5 Patchwork Comedy horror about three women who get abducted and combined. Entertaining, though I don't think most of the humor landed. 3.5/5 Jeepers Creepers 2 So much teen male half-nudity. The director sure knows what he likes!  I could do without the homophobia and racism, but it was still a pretty fun movie about being trapped on a bus.3.5/5
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Sep 19, 2017 14:49
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Forgot to include this in my post last night, the Demons main theme is really good https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMFOGrkfV_g&t=196s
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Sep 19, 2017 15:24
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I got this crazy friend who wants to know if rewatching The Paul Lynde Halloween Special would count for this? I'm asking for a friend.
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Sep 19, 2017 16:45
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To make things extra special I try to watch at least one thematically appropriate short film and a few trailers before each movie I watch. And to make things even harder (because I love making arbitrary rules I have to follow) I want to watch at least one movie/short/music video/trailer of all of the top 50 horror directors on this They Shoot Zombies list. First up the Robert Rodriguez short Sock 'Em Dead: while waiting in make-up, an actress in a vampire movie encounters an actual vampire that she eventually fends off using here socks. Nothing groundbreaking, but considering that it is essentialy a 6,5 minute sock commercial it's pretty fun with some decent action and even a Danny Trejo cameo. I also watch the From Dusk Till Dawn trailer, curious if they would maybe reveal the twist at the end, and wow, it actually came about 30 seconds in and the next minute shows pretty much as much different vampires as possible. Next up another short: The Fearless Vampire Killers: Vampires 101. A promotional video for Polanski's Fearless Vampire Killers shot as mockumentary with a vampire expert explaining to the viewer how to fend off different types of vampires. I did not care for this at all, it wasn't very funny and the footage of the actual film was just a bunch of the slapstick scenes slapped together without any sort of line or indication of the plot in them whatsoever. Then following trailers for Near Dark and The Lost Boys came the main event:  1. Fright Night 1985 Tom Holland This was just a blast to watch! Recently in the horror thread it came up that Fright Night is a perfect movie for horror novices and I wholeheartedly agree. All the characters are instantly memorable, it doesn't waste any time setting things up and the comedy hits all the right notes. But it never forgets that it is very much a horror movie, with some genuinly tense moments and some fantastic creature & special effects and some pretty cool gore with the melting scene. The acting is execllent but Roddy McDowell as the reluctant down-on-his-luck vampire expert and Chris Sarandon as the smug, charming yet menacing vampire steal the show. The queer undertones were also a nice touch.  Definitely shot straight up to one of my favourite horror flicks, highly recommended! And the theme is great too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re_IEpPFdmA Next up tonight: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 4k remaster on the big screen!
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Sep 19, 2017 16:49
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Drunkboxer posted:I got this crazy friend who wants to know if rewatching The Paul Lynde Halloween Special would count for this? How long is it? Purno posted:
I'm glad you enjoyed it! I like your structure for how you watch it, I basically do the same thing for my horror movie nights that I host for my friends.
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Sep 19, 2017 17:15
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Franchescanado posted:How long is it? 50:37  Guess it doesn't count, but it's a loving shitshow and it's on YouTube if anyone wants to see it: https://youtu.be/4psTeRpQ-1o
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Sep 19, 2017 17:23
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Drunkboxer posted:50:37 It's Halloween related, so I'll let it slide.
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Sep 19, 2017 17:33
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I didn't watch this next one with anticipating it would be part of this, but it's the most horrified I've been so far in this thing, so I'm tempted to include it. If it's too much of a stretch let me know and I won't count it in my total. Movie #5: We Need To Talk About Kevin This movie's take on the well-known bad seed narrative and intensifies it through the relative mundanity of Kevin's actions and Tilda Swinton's wonderfully grounded performance. There's no out that this kid is possessed by the devil or whatever. He's a kid with issues with the wrong set of parents. I was initially surprised how much time we spent with Tilda Swinton post-tragedy, but the continuity of her being trapped in her situation both before and after the incident, culminating in Kevin's final act of cruelty at the very end of the movie, was heart-wrenching.
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Sep 19, 2017 19:39
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I have not personally seen it, but by many accounts it's considered a horror film, so it counts.
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Sep 19, 2017 19:56
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5: Green Room (2015) One of a bunch of more recent films I have in my backlog and will be working through this month. It was very well made, but hampered by not being able to give a toss about any of the leads. It also has no real sense of closure, and a Very Unbelievable Thing happens in the last third. On the whole, less than the sum of its parts.
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Sep 19, 2017 22:27
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1. Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972) So my plan to continue going through the They Shoot Zombies Don't They list was stymied by De Dødes Tjern being pretty difficult to find. So, I went on shudder, clicked "Giallo!" and picked out the movie that the horror thread is named after. The only other Giallo(ish) movie I've seen was Suspiria (which I bought tickets to see this Saturday at a Midnight showing!). So, I wasn't really prepared for how rapey this movie ended up being. The male lead, Oliviero, is a physically and sexually abusive piece of poo poo. I was honestly put off a bit by how grody the movie is about leering at every actress in it. However, in the spirit of bringing some of my personal perspective to the film, I will offer some psychological interpretations of the characters, short-form. Please note that these are nothing like an actual psychological report, and more just me having fun. Oliviero: Oliviero is physically and sexually aggressive, with all of his negative impulses regarding women. Every attractive woman in the movie is leered at first by the camera, and then by Oliviero, whose creepy gaze we get a lot of in the film, sometimes staring directly at us. Evidence indicates that he had a very emotionally charged relationship with his mother. In particular, Oliviero has a strong fixation on breasts, especially those of his mother. It would be worth exploring the possibility of abuse from Oliviero's mother in his childhood, including that of a sexual nature. Treatment for Oliviero would probably consist of helping him recognize the connection between his sexuality and past trauma, and finding ways to separate the two. There would of course be treatment for alcohol abuse and anger management training, as well. Irina: Irina could possibly be seen as suffering from "battered woman syndrome," given her treatment by Oliviero. However, other behavior later in the movie indicates a streak of premeditated manipulation, possibly decided on before Oliviero's abuse even began. There is a hint that Irina is responsible for Oliviero's breakdown into an abusive partner from day one, with the desire to see him devolve as a human being. What could Irina's reason for this be? We do not have many hints about Irina's past. Maybe it was a coincidence that she chose Oliviero. Maybe it was something that Oliviero did to someone else? Floriana: Floriana comes into the movie acting as a catalyst for increased conflict between Irina and Oliviero. However, there is mention before she arrives about her spending time with him when she was a child. Oliviero of course leers at Floriana as soon as she's off the train, and gropes her leg as soon as he is alone with her. There is a familiarity there. The movie does not directly state it, but perhaps Oliviero himself sexually abused Irina when she was a child. There is some mention about Oliviero's "students" all having a crush on him. This would reflect a sort of curse passed down from Oliviero's mother. And, of course, this could be the broad catalyst for Irina's decision to destroy Oliviero and his mother. The sexual abuse that they both inflicted is a sin too great for her, and she decides that she must fully destroy and decay their memory and their home. However, she comes to see that the "curse" has been passed onto Irina as well, and so she must also die. Satan, the cat: He's a cat. And so, after giving it some thought, I've decided that this kind of sleazy movie is partly about the culture of sexual violence within families and countries, and the way it can drat all of those involved. The explicit violence and false intimacy between adults is implicit violence toward children. The film does not give a solution to this curse, however, instead choosing to stop at revealing it. The end of the film is of course the idea that this sexual violence will decay all touched by it, with no clean and happy endings. gently caress, now I kind of like this movie.
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Sep 20, 2017 01:19
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Little Evil (2017) I watched this a few nights ago but haven't had a chance to do a write up. I'm just going to put spoiler tags over this, just in case it gives too much away. I was expecting Eli Craig's follow up to Tucker & Dale to be another meta-commentary, and I was surprised when it wasn't. It still has the humour I expected, but it presented an actual "true" situation this time. Some of the characters were pretty lame, but. Last were good enough or grew on me as time went on. It's also a very predictable movie at times, and the plot seems full of cliches. This works if you're familiar with Tucker and Dale and are expecting a swerve, but once you realize the swerves not coming the movie drags a bit. It's still good, but I don't think it would lend itself well to a rewatch. The only other thing I want to point out is that this film is heavily influenced by Edgar Wright. There's a lot of shots that are homages to his rapid editing style, and a lot of elements in the story are similar to Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Rewatches (2): Maniac Cop, Friday the 13th 3 First time watches (2): Mortuary, Little Evil
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Sep 20, 2017 01:41
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 1a. The Creep Behind the Camera (2015, Pete Schuermann) 1b. The Creeping Terror (1964, A.J. Nelson) It almost makes sense for a movie about one of the worst movies ever made to get a "tell-all" docudrama. While this is nowhere near the quality of something like Ed Wood, after finding out what director A.J. Nelson was really like... he didn't deserve a warm, passionate love letter. As this movie shows, he's an absolute creep. Wife-beater, hustler (sex and money), bigamist, pedophile, junkie... hack. What I did like is that The Creep is made with the same logic as a bad movie. Worth seeing at least once since it's nice to see a Kickstarter film work out. As for the original... I first saw it on Mystery Science Theater 3000, like most others who experienced this. This time, I watched the Synapse Films Blu-ray, which includes a "sparkling" 2K remaster of the original film as an extra on the disc along with The Creep Behind the Camera. What's funny is that this higher quality reveals even more shortcomings. It's obvious that screaming is just one clip looped for minutes. That ridiculous swing music pops up in the background a dozen times (The Creep features a new recording, which made me laugh). I don't know why I should be too critical about the film since it's obvious the movie only existed as a hustle for Nelson to scam a bunch of people out of money. Any competence is likely due to a real cameraman being used. Editing is horrific, no continuity, and the narration is laughable. Also, there's plenty of other horrible scenes. Why did there need to be a scene where a mother takes a baby's temperature? Why are there endless shots of people dancing to the same music? And the monster is clearly meant to look like giant sex organs (and yes, there's erotic fan art). Even with this good quality print, the riffing on the MST3K episode is some of their best and lightens the depths of badness this movie offers. BOBBY? BOBBY? BOBBY? BOBBY? BOBBY! BOBBY?
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Sep 20, 2017 03:10
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Bonus: REC (2007) Trying to get ready for Halloween by forcing my girlfriend to watch all the movies take place before the movies I want to watch this year. Last night we watched REC, which I've seen this like 3 times before but it's probably like 8 or so years since I last saw it. I remembered it being short but I didn't remember it being as short as it is (75 minutes). I still enjoyed it knowing where it was going in the end. I honestly think it might be my favorite found footage movie I've seen, and like that for the most part no character feels too dumb. I plan on watching REC 2 tonight (which I guess shouldn't be too full of surprises since I thought pretty the whole plot of it was the plot for REC 1)   /5
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Sep 20, 2017 03:36
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IT (2017) A very good start to the challenge. Just a really solid horror film. The scares are good and it somehow manages to cram a ungodly amount of material into its running time without it ever feeling too slow or overstuffed. All the kids absolutely nailed their roles and all the adults were appropriate gross and off putting. Though the new Pennywise design might've leaned a bit too much on the "evil grungy clown"-look I liked this interpretation a lot. It really feels like It is some barely restrained predator. I really love the gnarly teeth and how It seems to be constantly drooling. Tim Curry's version made more sense from the standpoint that he could lure children easier since he seems normal right until he gets you. The 2017 Pennywise seems to put the emphasis more on feeding on fear and the 1990 Pennywise on luring the kids in. A bit like the contrast between the suave foreign creep Bela Lugosi Dracula and the more animalistic Christopher Lee version. The film lost me a bit near the end once they enter the sewers to confront Pennywise. . I can't quite put my finger on why but it just felt a lot less scary at that point. Other than that I am not quite sure about them taking the history buff traits from Mike and giving them to Ben since that meant Mike had a lot less to do. My friend, who has never seen the 1990 IT or read the book, agreed and said they probably could've combined Mike and Ben into one character without losing anything and the same for Stanley and Ritchie since Stanley doesn't really do all that much other than stand around and be Jewish. I personally wish they'd have gone a bit more into the strange cosmic stuff from the book, they hint at it a few times, but maybe they're saving that for Chapter 2. I really hope It's wild success will mean we get more big budget (by horror standards) R-rated horror.
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Sep 20, 2017 03:38
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 #5 Demons 2 - Maybe watching it right after the first wasn't the best idea, but after Demons I needed more. The first bit wasn't quite drawing me in as much as I expected but at about an hour it really gets going. With the strobe lights and the child demon and why are there so many neon signs in that apartment? It's basically the first film over again and in this case I don't think that's a problem at all. It's still a ton of high energy fun, but just doesn't quite do as much for me as Demons did. Soundtrack is just as good as the original. 4/5  Total: 5 Butterly Murders [4/5], Candyman: Day of the Dead [1/5], The Fog [4/5], Demons [5/5], Demons 2 [4/5] Letterboxd list
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Sep 20, 2017 03:38
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FreudianSlippers posted:The film lost me a bit near the end once they enter the sewers to confront Pennywise. . I can't quite put my finger on why but it just felt a lot less scary at that point. I mean, if you're feeling remotely charitable there's a pretty clear case for that being exactly how it should feel. edit because I watched a movie before anyone else posted: 8. Spider Baby, or The Maddest Story Ever Told - Spider Baby is cool and good: A love story in .gif     Unrelated: I totally forgot about it when it was staff pick time, but everyone please watch The Evil Within, it's full of super cool visuals. 
Irony.or.Death fucked around with this message at 06:03 on Sep 20, 2017 |
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Sep 20, 2017 04:07
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Got a chance to watch a couple movies with my partner yesterday afternoon- one was new to both of us (I'd seen it well over a decade ago and barely remembered it), the other was new to me and a first watch for her. #1 - Wrong Turn (2003, dir. Rob Schmidt)  An insufferable douche T-bones a bunch of backpackers on an old country road in West Virginia. While trekking off to find a phone to report the accident, they get attacked by a group of... essentially Uruk-Hai from Lord of the Rings (external materials claim they're inbred cannibal hillbillies, but the film never actually outright says what their deal is, and they look and act like Uruk-Hai). A slasher movie ensues. What struck me about this movie is how much of a throwback it is. Had this film been released ten years later, we'd be talking it up as part of the new wave of 80s homages; really, all it's missing is a synth score. The cinematography, writing, and overall feel of the movie is straight out of a mid-tier 80s slasher, the effects are mostly practical with very little CGI (and they look loving awesome), and if it weren't for Eliza Dushku as the final girl I might have actually mistook it for a late-80s film. However, there is a weird little dark side to this movie. It's classist as all loving hell. Like, to an absolutely unbelievable extent. Seriously, it goes right up to the basic premise of the movie: a yuppie and a bunch of trust-fund hippies do battle against inbred Appalachian orc-men who want to quite literally eat them. This film gets compared to The Hills Have Eyes, but at least that film had people living in the area who were seemingly normal; in Wrong Turn, even the gas station attendant who warns the douche is a toothless, deformed hillbilly. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre films treat the family with some measure of empathy, even; in Wrong Turn, the cannibals exist to slaughter and then to be slaughtered. It seems like the film just actively hates the rural poor, and is intended to act as a polemic against them; while I enjoyed the movie in the moment, the more I think about its political implications, the more gross they get. Rating: 3/5 #2 - Suspiria (1977, dir. Dario Argento)  ...come on, really? Do I really have to go into detail on this one? It's loving Suspiria. Suspiria is arguably the greatest horror film ever made. It is a perfect movie. If you haven't seen Suspiria, stop reading this and go watch it, and if you have seen Suspiria you don't need me to tell you why it owns. Rating: 5/5 Total: 2 Wrong Turn (2003), Suspiria (1977)
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Sep 20, 2017 06:01
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Oh poo poo I just remember I needed to post. Put me down for 31 and uh I'll throw down a gauntlet challenge .. I'll do 31 years of horror challenge so I'll watch one movie from each year from this year so 2017 , 2016 , 2015 all the way back to 1986. Who wants to challenge me? First one to 31 from a film from each year wins. Starting October 1st of course. Hollismason fucked around with this message at 07:06 on Sep 20, 2017 |
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Sep 20, 2017 07:03
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1. Get Out B I was too spoiled on this one so it felt a lot like Hostel but the third was fantastic. Probably too many "Something's not right" scenes but they were shot well. It's impressive how Georgina can be framed to look so imposing. 2. Witchboard 2 C  Flanagan's Ouija prequel was good so I investigated the genre. The highlight was one great but completely out of place car chase toward the end. A few good kills and a lot of broken windows. 3. The Boogens D  Critters escape an old mine and attack a winter cabin...eventually. The characters weren't good enough to sustain a creature feature that held back for an hour. Do not trust the endorsement from cocaine-era Stephen King. 4. Death Spa B  Much better than Killer Workout with several bizarre subplots including a potentially evil computer running the gym. This had a great variety of kills and the woman with two eye patches being sensually fed asparagus was the most viscerally unpleasant thing I've seen in a while. 5. Brain Damage B  Gory fun. A lot of cool visuals when the protagonist was doped up. Few things are as consistently enjoyable as people losing fights to puppets. (Cult of Chucky in 2 weeks!) Wildcards: Recommend some European horror that's not giallo or silent. I've seen basically nothing outside of British stuff, Demons 1&2 (good), Angst (fantastic) and The Vanishing (good). 5 of 31 movies. 5 of 31 years
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Sep 20, 2017 10:05
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1. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2003 2. TCM: The Beginning  I imagine at some point someone had the interesting idea of doing a cradle to the grave style faux-biography of Leatherface. Honestly exploring his birth, his motivation, his tragedies, and his 'triumph' when he finally revs up that chainsaw to gut someone. This period was probably very brief, as the producers decided it would be much cheaper and cost effective to make just another slasher. I can also imagine that this shift in production was well after they pre-sold the movie to investors, foreign markets, people who bought the tv and home video rights, etc, based on the poster alone. So by 20 minutes into the movie, you're already left with a sour taste in your mouth with the flaccid excuses used as 'explanations' for why Leatherface and his Family are the way they are. The scenes will set up a Point A, and take a wild leap of logic to create Point B. Leatherface kills because someone is a little mean to him. Which less reads as the event the pushes him over the edge, and more like a psycho killer whose been slashing long before the film started. And thus providing no real 'birth' to the character that we're promised. As well, R. Lee Ermey turns his family into cannibals just because the taste of blood wasn't immediately revolting to him. The film pays lip service to it all being a result of his service in Korea, but the way the action is presented in the film suggests otherwise. Also, he's a sheriff not out of years of service, but because he came across a badge and decided he liked it. It's paper thin, and it all just comes across as unreasonably unbelievable. Add on top of that a pointless Vietnam draft subplot and a wasteful biker gang element, and you got a film that has little reason or rhyme to it. Simply, it's real bad. Even when the film starts to get to the meat of the grisly violence, I can't really seem to care. It's guesome and bloody in it's wanton killing and maiming. It really puts a focus on the result of the destruction, giving close up to mangled flesh. Yet the film lost me so early on, the only reaction it gets out of me is an apathetic '... well that's gory'. It just comes across as a film that has a surface level idea of what people want out of horror movies, but not any craft or talent or understanding about what makes people enjoy these types of movies. And I just want to bring back up the two things I liked about this film's predecessor, the visuals and R. Lee Ermey's character. This film looks awful, with a mediocre visual style and none of the interesting sets the pervaded the first. And maybe I didn't really take notice of the use of light and dark in the previous one, but it's super noticeable here. Namely it's awful use making everything indistinctly dark or washed out by all of the light. As for Ermey, any professionalism or depth his character may have had is dropped out the window to make him an enraged loony. Even in the calmest of scenes this characterisation pervades him. You can tell he's trying his drat hardest with the material, but good acting can't save a thoroughly terrible script. Or awful directing, terrible cinematography, terrible acting by the rest of the cast, etc. As much as I disliked the original remake, at least it had some effort that screamed 'this is a professional production'. This one is thoroughly mediocre, uninteresting, and cheap.
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Sep 20, 2017 10:12
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1. The Mutilator (1985, dir. Buddy Cooper, d.p. Peter Schnall) I'm almost disappointed that the opening scene is attached to this film, because it is fantastic and sets expectations that the rest of the movie never attempts to fulfill. Long-brooding revenge over matricide is an excellent setup for a slasher, but outside of the opening scene it isn't really addressed in any meaningful way, let alone that the killer is the one of the student's fathers. You could have just as easily replaced him with one of his hunting buddies, and nothing about the plot would be significantly different. Given how heavily this plot element was emphasized in the promotional material I saw, I felt shortchanged in that regard. That isn't to say that there isn't stuff to like here. The soundtrack and sound design are extremely effective, particularly before the initial killings where there's the nice back-and-forth between cliched beach music as the college students wander around inanely and dark-ambient as Big Ed lurks beneath the floorboards. There's also a lack of seriousness to the whole thing that bleeds over into several small directorial flourishes that make the best moments of the film. The parts where the film bogs down are when the focus shifts to the inane interactions between the college students, which unfortunately make up a significant part of the first half of the run time. The actors do enough with wafer-thin characters to keep the viewer vaguely interested, if not particularly compelled for their survival. There isn't anything interesting that stands out about the cinematography, either good or bad. The killings themselves are all well-done, and each character is at their best right before they're about to die. The worst thing you can say about them is that all of them seem frivolous to the scenario, aside from the movie happening to take place along a beach. The best one, and most gruesome, comes from the infamous gaffe through the crotch, which works both for and against the film. It is easily the most distinctive death, and is one of the few elements that vaguely calls into place a lingering recollection of the opening, but the abject cruelty of the kill is at odds with the lighthearted thrill of the others. The film really needed to go all-in one way or the other; I would have preferred they kept that kill and reworked everything else, as I think there were building blocks in place to go darker with the concept, but in the end we're stuck with what we have. The climax is just massively disappointing, wasting any narrative potential until it is too late, and devoid of creativity aside from one last manic note before the denouement. This certainly wasn't the movie I expected going in, but there's plenty to enjoy on its own merits, even if those parts are terribly distinct. 6/9
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Sep 20, 2017 11:30
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UltimoDragonQuest posted:Wildcards: Recommend some European horror that's not giallo or silent. I've seen basically nothing outside of British stuff, Demons 1&2 (good), Angst (fantastic) and The Vanishing (good). The Beyond, City of the Living Dead, Eyes Without A Face, The Blood Spattered Bride, The Church, Black Sunday, Man Bites Dog, Zombie. If you want to give another giallo a try, watch Opera, which is the best "giallo for people that hate giallos" I can think of. What don't you like about giallos? Irony.or.Death posted:Unrelated: I totally forgot about it when it was staff pick time, but everyone please watch The Evil Within, it's full of super cool visuals. This is the movie that was made or funded because the director/producer was on heroin, right? FreudianSlippers posted:IT (2017) I believe that it was intentional, since the whole idea is to not be controlled by fear, and how having friends that are basically family to you can help overcome trauma. Whether that works for you is up to you, but it worked for me. FreudianSlippers posted:Other than that I am not quite sure about them taking the history buff traits from Mike and giving them to Ben since that meant Mike had a lot less to do. My friend, who has never seen the 1990 IT or read the book, agreed and said they probably could've combined Mike and Ben into one character without losing anything and the same for Stanley and Ritchie since Stanley doesn't really do all that much other than stand around and be Jewish. I personally wish they'd have gone a bit more into the strange cosmic stuff from the book, they hint at it a few times, but maybe they're saving that for Chapter 2. From what I've read, the cosmic stuff was in both drafts of the script used for this production, but the producers would not change the budget to fund those scenes. The director has said it was the best part of the script, and that he wants to use it, so we'll see.
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Sep 20, 2017 12:54
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So as part of my "practice lap" before I go full in with my Ironman in 3 weeks, I decided that as well as movies I've already seen being kosher, that tv episodes would be cool since they rarely count towards the total in my book. Yesterday I decided to dig into a series I always wanted to get around to, Freddy's Nightmares-A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Series. I remember when this was on the air back in the day, but I barely got to watch it as I was a wee Choco, and moral panic ensured that the syndicated show only aired late night. I do vaguely remember one episode my brother had taped, but mostly it's all vanished in the aether. The late night timeslot let them be a bit more permissive and "PG-13" in their content for the time, (I'm positive that oral sex was being suggested vaguely at one point for instance) but it's nothing shocking by today's standards. The format is a little unusual for an anthology show as well. With commercials, the show ran an hour, with 2 (so far) interconnected stories back to back under one title, with cutaways to Freddy giving a quick on theme one liner bookending the show and one separating the two halves. I watched the first 2 episodes. Due to the format of the show, expect some spoilers, at least for the first halves. "No More Mr. Nice Guy". The pilot is pretty straightforward. It opens on Krueger's trial, as explained in the movies several times, where the arresting police chief, rescuing his twin teenage daughters, took in Freddy without reading his rights, leading to a mistrial. This makes the local parents start a posse while Krueger immediately starts his rampage again. Initially the chief attempts to maintain law and order, but very little taunting is all it takes to light the match and burn the laughing Freddy alive. The second half has our chief trying to cover up the murder when news of the feds incoming happens, as well as getting increasing nightmares from a familiar striped sweater wearing antagonist. I found this ep pretty vanilla, with few special effects even besides a couple small gags, and a filter over Freddy's first person shots. It was oddly obvious during the pre-burn half that Robert Englund was definitely not playing Freddy, whose face was always obscured. Probably the biggest draw here is that the episode was directed by Tobe Hooper just before he would start sliding into mediocrity. Even then, it was very much an 80s horror anthology show in quality. "It's a miserable life" The first half centers around a teen (played by James "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" Cameron Mitchell!) Stuck working alone at his father's 24 hour burger joint in the graveyard shift. Unexpectedly a crazy guy on a motorcycle pulls up to the drive thru and shoots the kid, leading to a bizarre waking dream where he moves willy nilly through his life, frequently circling through his anxiety about wanting to leave his dad's business to go to college. Turns out in the second act that the guy's girlfriend showed up to keep him company right when the psycho showed up, and she also gets shot. At the hospital she gets put under and starts having a whirlwind of confusion and crazy goings on, trying to get a grip on things. This episode feels much closer to the impression I had of the series-with Freddy not even really being part of the show besides his cutaway quips, and the story being a rubber reality dream logic trip of teenagers with likely guesome finales. The conceit that most of the action is in a dream kinda deflates the confusion of the characters for me, making things a little bit routine. Nonetheless, the grim anti-moral way the stories end keep things interesting at least. Hopefully this will work as a the warm up i hope it will.
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Sep 20, 2017 13:13
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Franchescanado posted:If you want to give another giallo a try, watch Opera, which is the best "giallo for people that hate giallos" I can think of. Eyes Without A Face is great. Makes a fun double feature with The Face of Another.
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Sep 20, 2017 13:35
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UltimoDragonQuest posted:Giallo is already well represented in my queue. I should make a list and see what people think complements or fills a gap. You should! Make a letterboxd if you haven't already. There's a few goons, one who posts in the horror thread kinda regularly (I'm sorry I forget your name if you're in here), who hates giallo, but I don't know if they've elaborated why. There can be misogynistic tones in certain films, like The New York Ripper, (someone mentioned Your Vice Is A Locked Room, which has a main character who is absolutely horrible, but it's kind of the point, since his being a terrible person is what finally breaks his wife and makes her kill him, which is a well-deserved but tragic turn for her), but that doesn't apply to the entire sub-genre. I think Opera is a great example, since it's definitely a mystery first, a really good slasher, it's beautifully shot with an energetic camera (I need to do a rewatch of Suspiria and see which one I like more now, because Opera may have it beat), has excellent use of classical/operatic music and a fun cast of characters. This was me watching Opera for the first time during the May challenge thread:  The highest compliment I can give a film is if it makes me want to drop everything and go make a film, and Opera is one of them.
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Sep 20, 2017 13:45
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Some quick house cleaning before I go to work this morning. A couple films I watched this weekend and three I powered through last night. 2. The Invisible Man (1933) dir. James Whale Excuse me for taking pot shots at superhero films, but they could learn a lot about origin stories and exposition from the Universal monsters. No time is wasted getting to the meat we want, the Invisible Man is present and mad from the first minute and we learn everything we need to know about him from before his experiment destroyed his brain in a few lines of dialogue. It's such economical filmmaking and, working with a budget, Whale is able to show off special effects constantly. I've always had a certain affection for the classic cut-and-paste matte style of doing invisibility on film, it's so jarring and surreal and captivating to watch. Rains is great in this, a real stretch for his physical and vocal acting abilities. The story is tight, features a lot of bumbling police officers looking like dorks, it's a ton of fun. Great film and one of the only major Universal monsters I hadn't seen any of the films for. I hope to dig into some of the sequels for this and Frankenstein this season. 3. mother! (2017) dir. Darren Aronofsky I mentioned in the thread for this, I have questions about this movie's role in the horror genre, but I'll count it. Anyway, I loved it, absolutely floored me and I believe time will vindicate it. I was never even a huge Aronosfky fanboy but he absolutely won me over here. I can understand some of the complaints people have, but the only one that grates me is people complaining it's too obvious and not subtle enough. gently caress that, this is meant to hit you over the head. It's impassioned, emotional filmmaking and it's completely effective and forcing you into Lawrence's headspace. I think part of the way that is achieved is by doing so much of the movie in close-up, we're consistently in her face, right next to her, getting dizzy with her. It's a real masterclass in both acting, but in revealing character through camerawork. Reading that Aronofsky was inspired by Bunuel fills me with vindication because once the film hits its second half that was all I could think about. 4. Carnival of Souls (1962) dir. Herk Harvey I'd somehow never seen this, so glad I finally watched it last night. It's hard to conceptualize it into words right now, but I feel like I may eventually have them. I'll just shout out those beautiful, horrifying scenes of the dancing ghouls, which are so dirty and serene at the same time. 5. Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990) dir. Jeff Burr I saw TCM II for the first time earlier this month. It's a trip, but I made no similar expectations for this one. What I expected to be a sloppy mess actually turned out to be more enjoyable than I thought. Still, this film does finally boil the concept down to the genre's base cliches, the ones the first two films each took side roads to avoid -- the chainsaw wielding madman running through the woods, the charming psychopath, the standard by the numbers slasher protocol. Leatherface becomes dumber and clunkier with each film, a parody of himself at this point, being played as an idiot child-man, something that feels distinctly opposed to the original depiction by Gunnar Hansen as a brute force of evil. This movie ends up decent enough with Kate Hodge and Viggo Mortensen livening up the proceedings, but ultimately stands as a key example of the slasher genre sleepwalking through the motions. 6. Dementia (1955) dir. John Parker Trippy little experiment. Like Carnival of Souls this is more difficult to wrap my head around immediately after viewing. Liked it a lot, made chicken wings disgusting. Watched: It (2017); The Invisible Man; mother!; Carnival of Souls; Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III; Dementia (Total: 6) TrixRabbi fucked around with this message at 14:37 on Sep 20, 2017 |
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Sep 20, 2017 13:52
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I started on September First, but for the thread, I'm just going to see how many I can watch going forward, both new, and otherwise (my girlfriend hasn't seen a lot of non modern horror stuff), so I'll just give some quick thoughts. 9/1 Death Note 9/2 Creep 9/3 Devil’s Candy 9/4 The Witch (rewatch) 9/6 Onibaba 9/9 Backcountry 9/10 Children of the corn 9/15 IT 9/16 The Nightmare, Pumkinhead 9/19 Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County (rewatch) Most of them were just ok. I loved IT, and enjoyed The Witch more on second viewing. I still have some minor issues with it wish they had left the reality of the witch more open until the end. I didn't really like The Nightmare (maybe I'm just a documentary snob). And while Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County freaked me out when I was like 15 and open to it being real (It aired on UPN a couple years before Blair Witch hit theaters), it's incredibly silly now, and the experts cut in debating the authenticity of the tape are groan worthy.
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Sep 20, 2017 14:18
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TrixRabbi posted:Some quick house cleaning before I go to work this morning. A couple films I watched this weekend and three I powered through last night. That's Claude Rains as The Invisible One, not Cagney. As far as I know, the closest Cagney ever got to making a horror/sci-fi film was the biopic on Lon Chaney (Man of a Thousand Faces). The sequels are alright, but Invisible Woman and Invisible Agent are awesome. Invisible Woman is a straight-up screwball comedy, while Invisible Agent is one of the goofiest Universal films. It has Nazis with Brooklyn accents. Cedric Hardwicke plays a lead Nazi agent, while Peter Lorre plays a Japanese agent (and was clearly the inspiration for Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark). Carnival of Souls took a little to grow on me. The first time I saw it, I thought it wasn't that good of a movie and more of a MST3K fodder. The second time, though, it's in the same vein as David Lynch's work in that it has this wonderful dream logic to it. It helps that the cinematography is absolutely stunning and the score makes it even more haunting.
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Sep 20, 2017 14:28
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TrixRabbi posted:5. Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990) I should point out, as I always do, that this movie got utterly (texas chainsaw) massacred by the MPAA. This was when they had decided that you weren't allowed to make real R-rated movies anymore, and as a result a lot of really brutal gore effects, entire scenes, and even a subplot were dropped from the film. Some of them simply weren't filmed at all, and others were left on the cutting room floor when the tamer version of the film was still judged too violent by the MPAA. Not saying it would've made it a good slasher if that stuff was left in, but it would probably have made it at least slightly more memorable. The director had set out to make a movie that was deliberately shocking and grotesque, and then had to cut out pretty much everything shocking and grotesque.
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Sep 20, 2017 14:33
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6. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) This is a movie I've seen a whole whole lot and one of my earlier memories as a kid. The sound of chainsaws in the distance still freaks me out because of this movie and I would frequently imagine Leatherface sawing down my front door. It also didn't help the area I lived in looked comparable and we even had a little barbecue place in a cinder block building. By far my favorite part of the movie is probably When Leatherface is having a small breakdown about how these kids keep showing up to the house and he's probably going to get in trouble. It's a weird human moment for a guy wearing another person's face.
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Sep 20, 2017 14:33
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Egbert Souse posted:That's Claude Rains as The Invisible One, not Cagney. As far as I know, the closest Cagney ever got to making a horror/sci-fi film was the biopic on Lon Chaney (Man of a Thousand Faces). Haha oh drat. I knew it was Claude Rains, I have no idea why I wrote Cagney, they're nothing alike. And yes, Carnival of Souls very much seems like a major influence on Lynch. Lurdiak posted:I should point out, as I always do, that this movie got utterly (texas chainsaw) massacred by the MPAA. This was when they had decided that you weren't allowed to make real R-rated movies anymore, and as a result a lot of really brutal gore effects, entire scenes, and even a subplot were dropped from the film. Some of them simply weren't filmed at all, and others were left on the cutting room floor when the tamer version of the film was still judged too violent by the MPAA. Not saying it would've made it a good slasher if that stuff was left in, but it would probably have made it at least slightly more memorable. The director had set out to make a movie that was deliberately shocking and grotesque, and then had to cut out pretty much everything shocking and grotesque. Any good reading on this? Also, no matter what happened at the MPAA, I'm still not a fan of the clunkification of Leatherface into a goofy lump with a chainsaw. Although, the opening credits where he's sowing together his mask is genuinely unsettling. TrixRabbi fucked around with this message at 14:45 on Sep 20, 2017 |
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Sep 20, 2017 14:39
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TrixRabbi posted:Any good reading on this? Sites that obsessively compile cut content have a lot of information about what was cut, including scans of production photos. There's also this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IoTD1bNSgk But it's all half-remembered anecdotes. And yeah, I'm not excusing the flaws of the finished product, I just think when the entire point of your movie is taken out, it's not gonna be a good movie.
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Sep 20, 2017 14:53
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I had the day off yesterday, and I went completely off-script and put together a double feature I hadn't been planning on at all. And you know what, I enjoyed it so much I think I'm gonna throw out my "plan" and just fly by the seat of my pants for the rest of the challenge. Anyway yesterdays picks were: Maximum Overdrive I'm a pretty big King fan, so it seems odd that I'd never seen this legendary film. Now, it's not legendary for the reasons King probably would like it to be, but one thing I can say about Maximum Overdrive is it's never boring. The Earth passes through the tail of a comet, and that....somehow makes all complex machines turn against humanity. And boy do they, these machines have a serious bloodlust. Luckily the humans seem mostly willing to oblige and get killed in some pretty dumb(and hilarious) ways:  Yes, that's really a dude about to be beaten to death by an immobile soda can dispenser. The story tends to go that King was doing A LOT of cocaine during the production of this movie and even though I have no idea if that's actually true, it's very easy to believe it after watching. Towards the beginning a child is killed in an incredibly gruesome way, but then the tone never really approaches anything that dark again. So why even include it? Then later on a child gets is "revenge" on the machines for the death of his father by mercilessly gunning down a talking billboard. Not the most satisfying revenge arc I've never seen. I really enjoyed the overall look of the film and the inclusion of the toy company truck was genius, it's one of those instantly recognizable movie props that I'd absorbed through osmosis long before having even seen the movie.  So in the end I really did enjoy Maximum Overdrive, and I think it deserves the reappraisal it seems to be undergoing in recent years. It's reputation these days is more of an eccentric cult classic and less of an embarrassing King failure, and I think that's a good thing. Then, when the sun went down I watched....  Christine This may be the biggest revelation for me from last year's challenge, Lurdiak played it for the Scream Stream. It's just so good on a bunch of different levels, and as huge a Carpenter fan as I am it's pretty ridiculous that I'd gone that long without seeing it. If you're someone like me who allowed the premise hold you back, forget that poo poo and just watch it. Christine is probably top-3 Carpenter just in terms of visuals, only Halloween and The Fog top it in my opinion, and even that is probably arguable. It certainly has some of the best looking individual shots in any Carpenter film. The characters are great and either really likeable or hateable depending on their purpose, and the soundtrack is predictably fantastic. But, as crazy as it seems like unless you've actually seen the movie, the car itself and the way Carpenter lights it and shoots it are really the big draw here.  There's some amazing practical effects work as well, the kind where you can't quite figure out how they did it even today. There's really nothing bad I can say about Christine, it's a must-watch and I hope a few more people do so this season. Completed: The Wicker Man, Deadly Blessing, Night Creatures, Shock Waves, Slugs, Venom, Maximum Overdrive, Christine
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Sep 20, 2017 15:20
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Franchescanado posted:This is the movie that was made or funded because the director/producer was on heroin, right? Something kind of like that.
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Sep 20, 2017 16:10
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Basebf555 posted:I had the day off yesterday, and I went completely off-script and put together a double feature I hadn't been planning on at all. And you know what, I enjoyed it so much I think I'm gonna throw out my "plan" and just fly by the seat of my pants for the rest of the challenge. Anyway yesterdays picks were: We talked about this before the challenge, but having my pull-list and using random.org to pick my movies has created weird thematic links that I couldn't have planned it I had tried (at least not without spoiling the movies). It's been very fun, and it's been taking a lot of work out of trying to figure out what movie I'm in the mood for--I don't really get a say in the matter. Except for tonight, because I'm seeing a 35mm original print of Critters in theaters. (And Halloween will be seen the same way next month.) I'm very excited to watch Christine for the first time in this challenge, as well.
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Sep 20, 2017 16:11
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