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I'm in for 62 this year. Gonna try and set a new record for myself. I was in for the Horror challenge earlier this year, in...May? But had to drop out of that due to sudden emergency gallbladder surgery knocking me out of commission for a while, so it's time to make up for that. I'm gonna kick things off tonight and follow my usual plan of "Random stuff that catches my eyes." But this time, with Shudder! Been getting into the spirit of thing by watching Castle Rock for the past couple of days. I like it a lot - tons of fun and King Easter eggs. Only about halfway through, but I'm impressed so far. Several Goblins fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Sep 25, 2018 |
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Sep 15, 2018 00:28
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1. Mandy (2018) Just like everyone else, I watched Mandy, and it was awesome. A visually stunning feast for the eyes with an incredible soundtrack. I don't have anything to add that hasn't already been covered except that it is well worth a watch.  /52. Patient Zero (2018)  This movie began casting in 2014 and languished in development hell until being unceremoniously dumped onto VOD this year. I figured I'd give it a shot. I like Matt Smith, Stanley Tucci, Natalie Dormer, and John Bradley. The end result is a by-the-numbers zombie film that manages to combine 28 Days Later with Dawn of the Dead minus all the charm and originality that came with it's predecessors. After an outbreak that causes a majority of the populace to become rage zombies, Matt Smith, who was bitten but did not turn, lives underground with survivors and military, trying to find the patient zero that will allow them to manufacture a cure. The bite that failed to turn him gave him the ability to speak to, and thus interrogate, captured zombies. That, in and of itself, isn't an awful concept, but the plot limps along in entirely predictable ways until having the audacity to end on a cliffhanger and a monologue. /53. Castle Rock (2018)  This was a delight. If you're an unabashed Stephen King fan, like myself, and are willing to enjoy something that is so referential, up to and including typical King failures, then this show is for you. The story is intriguing, the performances are a lot of fun (Particularly by Bill Skarsgård and Sissy Spacek) and you'll spend each episodes searching for the insane amount of King universe Easter eggs. My only complaints are some slow story points and I'm not entire sure if the ending sticks the landing. However, it almost feels...right? King has a long and storied history of having his work fizzle in the final act and it almost feels true to form that Castle Rock's ending comes to a not entirely satisfying close. /5
Several Goblins fucked around with this message at 07:48 on Sep 16, 2018 |
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Sep 16, 2018 07:44
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Full Moon Trash Night! 4. The Gingerdead Man (2005)  I have a soft spot for Full Moon. They've made some really fun flicks and a few genuinely good ones. The majority of them, however, are hot garbage. The Gingerdead Man falls into that latter bit. Filmed with a potato after travelling back in time to 1993, Gary Busey stars as a hand-puppet channeling Chucky who seeks to murder a drunk grandma, some bakers and Papa Roach. 0.5 /55. The Killer Eye 2 (2011)  This was a weird one. I ended up finding it repackaged on the Full Moon streaming service as Halloween Horror House. It turned out to be The Killer Eye 2, but I don't understand what's up with the name change. I also noticed that Zombies VS Strippers had been repackaged as Decadent Evil. About a third of the way into this movie, I made the joke that I'd like to film a movie's sequel, and include the entirety of the first film right in the middle of it. I didn't realize The Killer Eye 2 was about to do exactly that. It wasn't quite the entirety of the first film, but I'd guess around 15 minutes of this 70 minute movie is just scenes from the first, being watched on DVD by the characters in this film, while they make inane commentary. I did get a couple of laughs out of some of the eye-rolling self-referential jokes to rest of the Full Moon catalog though. /5 Unnecessary Remake Night! 6. Martyrs (2015)  It's Martyrs lite! Now with half the brutality, half the acting, half the plot and none of the emotional impact! Martyrs (2008) was a brutal, cruel and uncomfortable film that, though not exactly a happy fun romp, has stuck with me since I saw it years ago. It also kicked off my interest in the French New Wave of Horror that lead me to watching Ils, High Tension, Calvaire, Inside (2007) and quite a few more excellent horror films. This feels toothless in comparison and I've forgotten the majority of the film since last night. It was put together just fine, but is just wholly unremarkable and inferior to the original in every conceivable way. /57. Inside (2016)  À l'intérieur is one of the most brutal and unsettling home invasion films I've ever seen and was also part of my exodus into French Extreme Horror in the late 2000s. It, along with Martyrs, are films that I hesitate to even call "good films" just because they are so nihilistic and hard to watch, but I still hold them in a high regard for having enough of an impact on me to stick with me for so many years. This 2016 remake carries the general idea of the first film with none of the spirit. The 2007 film that had me feeling ill to my stomach for a pregnant woman when her home is invaded by a woman bent on stealing her unborn child translates to another boring American remake. 0.5 /5
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Sep 18, 2018 01:03
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Spatulater bro! posted:That they managed to make a killer gingerbread man movie starring Gary Busey completely un-fun is perplexing and criminal. Part of me hates myself enough to continue watching the series...just to know.
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Sep 18, 2018 01:24
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8. The Bride (2017) This may be one of the weirdest movie experiences I've ever had. I realized a few minutes in that the subtitles of this Russian film were...ignoring most of the dialogue? Entire conversation would be replaced with inane stuff like [DOOMSDAY MUSIC], which wasn't exactly helpful. So I switched to the English dub, which may be one of the funniest things I've ever heard. The dialogue is rushed in delivery and absolutely, mind-bogglingly terrible. I think I would have enjoyed the film overall if it wasn't for the marred viewing experience. It plays out like a Russian filmmaker attempting to create something inspire by James Wan with a little bit of the fairytale gothic thing that Del Toro does. The plot is predictable, but there was just something charmingly average about this movie and it's goofy dub that I enjoyed. /59. The Predator (2018)  Oof. I went into this blind, not knowing anything about the plot, the trailer or the tumultuous production history. I still would have seen it, being a Predator fan, but the only difference would be going into it with different expectations. The end result is still an awful film and one of the worst I've seen this year. Being rushed, poorly edited, having a cringe-worthy script and ridiculously terrible plot are just a few of the marks on this movie for me. The casting is uninspired and good people are given nothing to do. Keegan Michael Keye is the soldier who tells "Yo Momma" jokes and not much else. Thomas Jane has Tourette's Syndrome, and that's the extent of his characterization. I've never thought Olivia Munn was a decent actress and she certainly doesn't carry this film either, but in her defense, her dialogue is atrocious to begin with. And one of the biggest plot devices is an autistic child who's portrayal comes across as downright offensively stereotypical. It's bad. 0.5 /510. Hell House LLC (2015)  For the longest time, I mistook this for The Houses October Built, a film I didn't care for at all. Found-Footage and I have a weird relationship. I like very few of them, yet I'm compelled to watch all of them that get released. I like the concept so much that I want to see it done well, and this one does that! Replaying the events of a tragedy at a haunted house attraction, we see what lead up to the night in question through the documentation of the crew preparing the house for opening night. It's eerie and well put together, leaving just enough questions to really have a lingering effect on wondering what really happened inside Hell House. I highly recommend it. /5
Several Goblins fucked around with this message at 15:33 on Sep 19, 2018 |
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Sep 19, 2018 15:30
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Random Stranger posted:Don't be absurd. If they did that he'd have to be called HalbHELBhalb. I appreciate this joke. 11. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)  Crossed this one off my list of shame. I've seen the original Frankenstein several times, but never seen the sequel. I loved it. They really did a wonderful job at adding to the tragedy of the concept behind The Monster. I also didn't expect it to be so...silly? Campy? The character of Minnie and the tiny Homunculi both got some serious eye-rolls for me, but the movie is overall a terrific experience. And now I understand the hermit scene in Young Frankenstein. .5/512. The Mummy's Tomb (1942)  Maybe I missed something here, but this movie bored me to death. I had a lot of trouble paying any attention to it whatsoever in it's scant 61 minute running time. It doesn't help that the first 10 or so minutes is just a recap of the previous film, which I've also seen several times. I don't have much to say for this one - I just didn't care for it. /5
Several Goblins fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Sep 21, 2018 |
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Sep 21, 2018 13:06
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Lurdiak posted:This might be the lowest score I've seen anyone give that film. Oops! That's because it was supposed to be 4.5/5.
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Sep 21, 2018 16:18
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Short on time, no frills update. 13. Hell House LLC 2 (2018) I missed out on Hell House LLC until earlier in this marathon, and I was blown away at how good it was for a found-footage film, a genre I typically feel is far more miss than hit. Not only had I not heard of Hell House, I was unaware a sequel was only a few days away, so I was hyped to jump back into the Abaddon Hotel. Too bad this stay wasn't as fun. Whereas the first film thrived on simplicity and mystery, this sequel goes a little hard into explanations, even to the point of being excruciatingly, pointlessly detailed. It wasn't an awful film, but a poor sequel to a solid spook-house movie. And something happened to the acting along the way. Man, that's rough this time around. .5/514. The First Purge (2018) The Purge franchise is hilarious. What it lacks in subtlety, it more than makes up for in enthusiasm. In this prequel, we get to see the very first attempt at the "All Crime Is Legal" formula we've seen in the previous films, this time with a heavy dose of making America great again. I wouldn't so much call it ham-fisted, as much as ham-armed. Or ham-entire-bodied. It's stupid, it's over-the-top, and cathartic to see a bunch of white supremacists get owned. This movie rules. .5/515. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) (4k ReWatch) I love this movie. I love all it's ridiculous faults, of which there are many. For every Winona Ryder hamming it up or bad, tired Keanu Reeves accent, there's visually stunning set pieces and charmingly bizarre costumes. And Gary Oldman chewing the scenery and necks of everything in sight while Anthony Hopkins waddles around as a fantastic Van Helsing. It's a dumb, grimy fairy-tale and just a good time that straddles a fun line between terrible and beautiful. The 4k treatment for this movie didn't blow me away, but did add a good amount of detail and pop to the already beautiful and textured costuming. The shadows got a nice little bump to that added to Gothic ambiance, as well. .5/5
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Sep 25, 2018 20:54
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16. Halloween (1978) 4K Rewatch A classic and possibly my all time favorite, well, Halloween movie. Both the franchise and holiday. I make a point of watching a couple of specific films every year around this time - Trick R Treat, Evil Dead, and, of course, Halloween. There isn't much I can say about this film that hasn't been said since 1978, except to comment on the new 4K Blu-Ray release, and I'm certainly no expert on the matter. However, I thought it generally looked great, with some popping colors and textures during the daytime scenes and much deeper shadows once things get spooky in the latter half. The original actor who played Michael Myers said he was concerned that the added clarity would ruin a particular scene, where we're meant to see Michael slowly fade in from a darkened doorway. While I haven't see the original blu-ray release since last year, I didn't notice it lessening the effect whatsoever. Maybe someone who has both and compare side-by-side can correct me. /517. The Fly (1986)  Another one crossed from my list of shame, and one of the few Cronenberg I haven't seen. This is an incredible monster movie that truly feels like it was nabbed right out of the 1930s and given a Cronenberg coat of paint. The evolution of Jeff Goldbloom's character, both emotionally and physically, is both tragic and disgusting. The practical monster effects may be the most visceral and impressive I've seen since The Thing. It's a shame I missed out on this for so long. /518. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)  Another list of shame and I am on a roll with great Horror this week. I've heard for years that Henry was a cold, vicious (largely fictionalized) adaptation of the life of serial killer Henry Lee Lucas and they weren't joking. Henry and his cohort Otis feel both very human and completely detached from anything that can make a human good. Michael Rooker plays a great contrast to drunken, perverted and angry Otis, with Henry being quiet, cold and calculated. You can see the mental switch flip when Rooker exits being being normal Henry and becomes serial killer Henry. He also brings a terrifying vibe of just...not caring. Henry kills people. He puts a slight effort into not getting caught but at times he seems more like a cruel force of nature. And the conclusion may be one of the most heart-sinking moments I've seen on film. You can see it coming from a mile away, but that doesn't do anything to diminish it's emotional gutpunch. .5/519. Noroi: The Curse (2005)  Wow. Another one that I've heard of for years but never got around to watching. I always had a soft spot for Asian Horror. The general aesthetics always struck me as so naturally subdued and spooky, and the mythology that tends to inspire it is just foreign enough to me to stand far apart and distinct from America's own slasher and ghost stories. Noroi is told in found-footage/documentary style and follows Masafumi Kobayashi, a paranormal investigator, and his cameraman Miyajima, as they film their documentary "The Curse." We are told at the beginning that our protagonist, Masafumi, was declared missing after his home burned down with his wife's remains being found inside after the blaze. I hesitate to say more, as the story has some excellent twists and turns while being genuinely compelling and spooky. It's easy to forget the intro that our hero has already suffered a mysterious fate as we're following him through the film and all we can hope is that the documentary itself lends some answers to where he could have gone. .5/5
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Sep 30, 2018 00:23
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20. Ghost Ship (2002) I watched this because I had the same fond memories of it that I do for Thirteen Ghosts. They're guilty pleasures of dumb. But I've seen Thirteen Ghosts several times and haven't seen Ghost Ship since it came out. I thought it was terrible in 2002, but in an endearing way. In reality, I just remembered the opening scene of an entire ballroom getting bisected (Which was nuts when I was a teenager) and forgot the garbage rest of the film. I joked that this movie was so early 2000s that it's the nu-metal of horror, and Mudvayne immediately began playing in the movie. 0.5 /521. Starry Eyes (2014)  I've seen a lot of people talk about this movie lately, so I gave it a shot. I went in knowing the general consensus seemed to be "Good, but flawed," and I can almost agree. It did a lot right, but not much that I didn't feel was done better elsewhere. The story of someone who wants to get famous at whatever cost isn't touched on, or at least done well, very often. I also liked the addition of viewing Hollywood as a literal cult that rebirths people as "perfect" in the name of their chosen demon to be a good antagonist for preying upon people desperate to make it in showbiz. The fellatio for a movie part scene is a little rough to watch by any standards, but is even more unsettling and hard to watch by today's Hollywood climate standards. The pacing was a little janky, but LORD OF BOOTY put a link to his fan edit over in the Horror Thread and it solves most of those issues without hurting the film at all. I'd have to sit down and really think about it for a while, but for some reason, the movie just didn't click with me. The last 15 or so minutes were all that really caught my interest, if only for the sudden uptick in violence that seemed right out of the French Extremity wave. It's not a bad film. It's probably even pretty good. But I just couldn't really get into it. /522. Marebito (2004)  Continuing a foray in J-Horror, I went with Marebito. I've heard about this film for years but knew nothing about it going in, except that it was filmed in 8 days in between the filming of Ju-On: The Grudge and the American remake of The Grudge by director Takashi Shimizu. We follow Masuoka, a man who becomes obsessed with fear after witnessing a man commit suicide on a train platform. In trying to understand what the man's fear was like he travels into the underground tunnel systems of Japan and ends up discovering a naked girl chained to a wall. He takes the girl, who doesn't speak, eat or drink, back to his apartment, where he begins treating her like a pet. I'll leave off the general plot-line there, but the end result is a strange exploration of psychosis and paranoia with some heavy Lovecraftian themes. The question of how much of this is real, as we're seeing it, is left partially vague. Has Masuoka discovered an underground labyrinth of ghosts and strange vampire people or is he a father who lost his mind, killed his wife, and holds his daughter captive like an animal? Or a mixture of both? It's a weird flick and worth the watch. I'm genuinely surprised it doesn't seem to get talked about much. /523. Tokyo Gore Police (2008)     2 giant prehensile meat penises/5
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Oct 1, 2018 00:43
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LORD OF BOOTY posted:If you've seen my version and the original: what did you think of my change to the ending? It's simultaneously the change I'm proudest of and iffiest on. I actually prefer your cut, ending and all, way more than the original. The original ending just goes on a little too long and leaves too little to the imagination. Your cut reminds me of (spoilered just in case) the old freeze frame sudden endings seen a lot in Giallo films, or something like the end of Sleepaway Camp. You get a final image/scene that sits there with you and leaves you understanding the general gist of what just happened, and what probably will happen, but not showing you. To sum up, good work! The movie didn't grab me in general, but your version got much closer than the original to doing so.
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Oct 1, 2018 23:04
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Franchescanado posted:
I'm not great at putting my thoughts about a movie into text. I could discuss a movie all day face-to-face but putting my thoughts into words was never my strong suit. But I'm going to give it a shot. Hope it doesn't suck! Fair warning, I'll get into light spoiler territory here in the general text, but I'll put larger things into spoiler brackets. Everything I talk about in this will generally only cover the first 30-45 minutes of the movie for reasons mentioned below. 24. Halloween (2007) (Rewatch)  I've got a guilty pleasure soft spot for Rob Zombie. I could dig through the ditches and burn through the witches at just about any given time. House of 1,000 Corpses is a crazy ride and I think The Devil's Rejects succeeds not only as a horror movie but as a great crime film. When Zombie signed on to remake Halloween, I was super excited. I liked it, sort of, when it came out, but it was forgettable. I was much younger, much less critical, and much less analytical. So I decided to give it another go and see how it holds up. Rob Zombie's Halloween is a movie at war with itself. It does a lot right and an equal amount wrong. We start the film by seeing the family home of a ten year old Michael Myers. He lives with his mother, older sister, baby sister, and live-in deadbeat pseudo-stepdad Ronnie. Older sister Judith is your stereotypical self-absorbed teen, his mother is a deeply flawed woman who pole-dances to provide for her children, Ronnie is an abusive foul-mouthed handicapped drunk, and his baby sister is...a baby. Right off the bat we see a tumultuous breakfast scene with Zombie's trademark swear-filled dialogue, as if Tarantino grew up in the worst trailer park on earth. Amidst breaking dishes, shouting, sexual harassment and abuse, we pan upstairs to see that young Michael has taken a pocket knife to his pet hamster. Later, at school, we see Michael bullied in the bathroom by two classmates who know his mother's night-time dancing escapades. Michael tries to leave nonviolently until the two begin to taunt his mother and show him a newspaper clipping of an advertisement for the club she works in. Michael reacts violently before being broken up by the principal who, though we barely see in the film, comes across as somewhat menacing himself. Michael's mother is called to the school to speak to the principal who has called in child psychologist Dr. Samuel Loomis. While they discuss finding a dead cat and pictures of dead animals in Michael's bag, he runs off, dons a clown mask and heads into the woods. We cut to the bully from early, who steals another teen's hat, spits into it and throws it back at him, before also heading into the woods. He's blindsided with a branch by Michael and viciously beaten. Begging for his life, Michael raises his mask, looks at him for a moment, and puts the mask back into place before finishing his work. That night, Michael's mother says goodbye and asks Judith to take her brother out trick-or-treating before leaving for work. Ronnie taunts Michael about the trouble at school before passing out drunk in a recliner. Judith tells Michael to go trick-or-treating by himself and abandons him to go have sex with her boyfriend upstairs. What follows could be a powerful scene. Michael sits alone on the sidewalk, abandoned by everyone. We've established that he obviously has had a traumatic upbringing in a broken home, but we've also established that there's very little, if any, humanity left in the boy. We're only a scant 15 or so minutes into the film and we've seen Michael murder animals and a human being. We get no escalation as a result of environment. As far as we, the viewer, is aware - Michael Myers begins just as evil as he becomes. Though you could rationalize this poor kid sitting on the sidewalk as being a product of his environment, we get nothing that edges our emotions in that direction. Zombie has done interesting character arcs before. Maybe not necessarily arcs, but humanizing of monsters. A common viewer note for The Devil's Rejects is becoming attached to the Firefly family - a group of monstrous, irredeemable killers. But spending the time with them and seeing how they interact as a family humanizes them. They aren't heroes. They aren't even anti-heroes. They're the antagonists. We're following them through this story, and in a weird way, that almost makes you want to see them succeed. It's an interesting take on viewers rooting for Freddie, Jason, or in this case, Michael Myers in the classic slashers. After Michael returns to his kitchen and eats some candy corn and circus peanuts (further proving he is beyond saving. He has the worst taste in candy), he begins the process that will officially change him from Michael Myers into The Shape. After taping Ronnie to his recliner, Michael slits his throat with a kitchen knife. He again removes his clown mask to view his work before pulling it back down. He then takes a baseball bat to Judith's boyfriend who comes downstairs for a snack. Michael continues upstairs and finds The Shape mask, left on the floor after Judith's boyfriend failed to scare her with it. He puts the mask on and stabs his sister to death. He then takes his baby sister outside and waits for his mother to return home to see the carnage. Lets talk about the mask for a second. The famous Captain Kirk mask, disheveled into what we now all know as the Michael Myers Mask, or The Shape Mask. It's iconic and absolutely necessary in any Halloween film, remake or otherwise. The way it's introduced here, however, is a bit lame. Judith's boyfriend pulls it out while they're fooling around and puts it on in an attempt to scare her. He then says he wants to leave it on while they have sex. It's later picked up and worn by ten year old Michael. Now, this is the full-sized mask later worn in the film by 6'8" Tyler Mane. Our introduction to this terrifying face is rendered a bit limp and goofy when a small child wears it, despite what he's done and is about to continue doing. Cut forward to almost a year later. Michael is in a psychiatric hospital after being court-ordered there in what an narration tells us was a trial widely covered by the media. One of the things most frightening about Michael Myers in previous films was that he was unknowable. He was a killer who was sent off to an asylum and forgotten about. Only legends continue about the Myers house, ghost stories that teens tell each other on rainy nights. When murders begin happening again, only Dr. Loomis is dead certain who is responsible. Michael Myers, in the original film, is credited as The Shape, and that's exactly what he is. He's a specter, or a force of nature. Here we are told that the entire country knows the story of Michael Myers, dramatically lessening any mystique that could have been derived from having a long-forgotten killer coming home. In this film, Dr. Loomis is also portrayed much differently. As opposed to a man who came face to face with evil and let his fear grow to obsession with stopping him, we've got Malcolm McDowell playing the worst psychologist ever. I work closely with psychologist in real life, and I'm not sure if it's bad writing or intentional, but Dr. Loomis says just about everything wrong every time he's on screen. He's blunt with Michael in a way that almost seems to be egging him on, or purposely impeding any progress that could be made. He overshares and clearly doesn't understand how to interact with any child, let alone one so deeply trouble. Normally I'd say this is bad writing, but Dr. Loomis is also seen capitalizing on this story with a book tour, recounting his time with Michael and the events that turned him into a nationwide famous killer. Fifteen years later, Michael is still committed to the asylum. Michael's mother visited him one last time when he was still ten years old and witnessed the aftermath of Michael killing a nurse. She returned home, and while a home-movie of a more innocent time plays on a projector, she ends her life. Michael is left alone in the world, quietly making masks in his room at the asylum. As a child he said that he wears them to hide his ugliness. He hasn't spoken in fifteen years. I'm going to cut synopsis here, as the rest of the film continues much the same as the original film. We return to Haddonfield to meet Laurie Strode who (spoilering in case someone has managed to not see the original) is Michael's baby sister who is now a teen, adopted after her brother's murders. Zombie's biggest contribution to the franchise, up until this moment, is the movie so far. He attempts to give more of a fleshed out backstory to the origin of Michael Myers. What took minutes in the original has now been extended to around an hour. But the question is, was any of it necessary? Not really. Part of what makes Michael so frightening is that we don't know why he did what he did. He was a troubled child, obviously, he killed people, but that's all we know. And then he's locked up for years and the town forgets about him and mostly forgets about the events of Halloween night at the Myers house. Adding to the events before that night accomplishes very little, especially approached in Zombie's style. Going back to The Devil's Rejects again, the world is borderline cartoonish in it's grime. It's grim, dirty, lewd and everyone sucks. All the characters, main and side, are caricatures. Overblown filthy dialogue, bad tempers, and a thick veneer of scum all over everything. It works because everything is like this. In Zombie's Halloween, the world is fairly normal. It's a normal town and a normal school. Meanwhile, the students, families and faculty all seem like they walked out of the sleaziest brothel in the worst part of town just outside of Satan's trailer park. No one has any redeeming value. Even Michael's mother, who isn't necessarily a bad woman, and certainly cares about her children, has still put her children directly in harms way and is shown to be resistant to any sort of help. Haddonfield is still the idyllic Haddonfield, Illinois that we know, except everyone is an rear end in a top hat this time. And it just doesn't quite work. Overall, do I think Halloween 2007 is a bad movie? Well yes. Or maybe just unnecessary. But, if it was going to be remade, I'm not sure anyone could have done better. The original Halloween works because it's simple and effective. Adding any excess bloat really hurts the entire form of the original. We can see where the sequels went and how they got a bit eye-rolling. It ends up feeling like a remake more akin to shot-for-shot remakes like Funny Games or Psycho. Except the director decided to make an entire prequel film and dump it at the beginning of his shot-for-shot. I don't hate Halloween 2007. It's not the worst remake/reboot out there by a large margin and does some things well. But, at the end of the day, it feels more like something that is flat-out pointless than it feels like a bad film. I've never seen his follow-up Halloween 2, so I guess that's my next stop. Sorry if this was too long. 
Several Goblins fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Oct 2, 2018 |
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Oct 2, 2018 22:10
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FRAN CHALLENGE #1: Love Something You Hate
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No frills, short on time update again! 25. Tomie (1999) Another J-Horror with an interesting concept. Spoilered for quick plot synopsis: Tomie is a highschool teen who's beauty apparently drives people mad and, eventually, homicidal. Each time she is killed by her jilted love, she regrows herself as a new Tomie and it all begins again. Tomie's various pieces can also regrow it's own Tomie, resulting in more than one. Unfortunately, I feel the concept is wasted on a movie that is the slowest of burns with very little payoff. As I understand, it's somewhat well regarded and apparently very faithful to the source comic though, so maybe it just wasn't for me. /526. The Invisible Man (1933) Another from my list of shame crossed off! This movie was wonderful and it's a shame I slept on it for so long. Claude Rains is a delightfully maniacal antagonist. /527. The Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954) Yet another list of shame. Watching it immediately after The Invisible Man may have hurt it slightly, as I adored that movie, but this was one great and I understand why it's such a classic. The creature is fearsome and very human. And while I'm not sure if it was intentional or just how they did it, I enjoyed how much of a sense for how stout the creature himself was. He seems incredibly brutish when mauling his victims or trapping the boat in the lagoon with the log barricade and any damage he takes seems to barely hurt him. When he encounters humans underwater and gets shot with the spear gun, the spear barely penetrates him. Again, I'm not sure if this was intention at the time, but it gives a good sense that he's a powerful creature that should be feared by the human cast. /528. Pulse (2006) (Rewatch) I thought I recalled this being one of the better American adaptation of an Asian horror movie. I was wrong. /529. Await Further Instructions (2018) I'm just not sure if this movie works. I was enthralled by it, and genuinely on the edge of my seat during some of it's more tense moments, but stopping to thing about it for even a moment makes the whole thing kind of fall apart. A family (that mostly hates each other) wake up on Christmas morning to find that their house is wrapped in metallic wires and they can no longer leave or communicate with the outside. The only thing that compels them forward is the silent text reading, "Await Further Instructions," that flickers on their television screen. The characters are idiots and mostly unlikable, but it's still pretty drat tense and delves into some surprising Cronenbergian places that I appreciated. I hesitate to call it good, but I really enjoyed it. .5/530. Malevolent (2018) Some paranormal investigators who make a living by faking hauntings and conning grieving families out of money runs into some trouble when their newest job may actually be haunted. It's a by-the-numbers ghost flick that falls into disappointing torture porn poo poo by the end. /5
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Oct 10, 2018 04:52
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31. Honeymoon (2014) A couple retreats to the wife's childhood family cabin for their honeymoon, far away from civilization. This idyllic getaway ends up being a bit more bizarre after the wife begins sleepwalking. This one lost me really hard for a while, as the first half hour or so is basically cringe-worthy dialogue that leads into sex, repeat, for an almost silly amount of times. Once it picks up, it gets a bit more insane and dips into some gross body-horror that really make up for the poorly written, saccharine early stages. .5/532. Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) Rewatch  A classic of camp from Hollywood's most interesting failure, Ed Wood. I don't know what to say about it that hasn't been said a billion times over. How the hell does one rate this?/5 EDIT: 9 Plans/5 33. Troll 2 (1990)  This is a list of shame item. I love campy, so bad they're good movies. I even ended up seeing the documentary, Best Worst Movie, before seeing the actual film it's based on. And you know, I was pleasantly surprised. It's silly, it's dumb, it's poorly acted, it isn't too far from a particularly language-heavy episode of Goosebumps, but you know what? These people tried so loving hard. It's lovable, charming, and honestly, not that bad for the most part. /534. Re-Animator (1985) Rewatch  An all-time classic, in my opinion, and one of the best Lovecraft-inspired films. Re-Animator is one of my yearly rewatch movies, alongside Sleepaway Camp and Return of the Living Dead. Still fantastic, still funny, still gross (thanks Stuart Gordon), and Dr. Hill is still one of the sleaziest characters in film history. /535. Bride of Re-Animator (1989)  As much as I love Re-Animator, I don't know why I waited so long to watch this. It didn't adore it quite as much as the original, but it's the same campy, gross fun that the first one is. Jeffrey Combs returns as Dr. West and is kookier than ever, which is basically all I wanted from a sequel. /536. Apostle (2018)  A man travels to the island of a religious cult in search of his sister. If that sentence gave you Wicker Man vibes, it should. Gareth Evans, director of two of my favorite actions films (The Raid and Raid 2), brings us a slow-burn horror flick that seems to be a pretty heavy homage to The Wicker Man. We've got Dan Stevens (Legion) as our protagonist and Michael Sheen as our enigmatic cult leader. I was super pumped going in and, honestly, I was bored to tears by the first half hour to 45 minutes of this flick. It's the slowest of burns, with barely more than some creepy atmosphere to keep us going. However, once the movie kicks into gear, it really gets going and becomes something entirely fascinating, nuts and special. If I had a complaint about this movie, it's simply too long, and didn't quite need it's over two hour run time. .5/5
Several Goblins fucked around with this message at 08:04 on Oct 19, 2018 |
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Oct 19, 2018 04:40
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Sir Kodiak posted:Honeymoon (2014) [Hulu] I was so, so ready to hate it by the time I'd reached the half hour mark. The "Rest your womb" conversation might be the single dumbest dialogue I've heard in a long while. "I don't know why I said womb. I was teasing about how hard I hosed you." It's half an hour or so of the old, "Hang up," "No, you hang up!" thing that sickly sweet movie couples used to get made fun of for, but 10x worse. That being said, I can't recall a movie in a long while that swung it back around to being pretty interesting like that. Random Stranger posted:Obviously you rate it 9 plans out of 5. You are absolutely correct and I've updated my review accordingly.
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Oct 19, 2018 08:05
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37. Slumber Party Massacre (1982) Silly, campy, T&A fest slasher where escaped serial killer with a power drill Russ Thorn menaces a girl's slumber party. Not a lot to say about it, but it was a pretty good time. /538. Slumber Party Massacre 2 (1987)  Picks up with a survivor of the first film who is now older and playing in a cheesy all-girl rock band. She's plagued by nightmares/hallucinations of Russ Thorn, who is now personified as a one-liner spouting greaser with a guitar. The guitar has a loving power drill coming out of the neck of it. I mean just look at this.  2.5 Power Drill Guitars/5 39. Unfriended: Dark Web (2018)  The first Unfriended was a sleeper hit for me. It was surprisingly well done and I actually really enjoyed it. They took an eye-rolling concept and managed to make it the first non-cringy internet based horror movie I think I've ever seen. The sequel revolves around friends chatting on a Skype-alike after our main character joins the chat on his new secondhand laptop. After discovering some files on the computer that seemingly depict kidnapping and murder, things start to get dark. It's shockingly mean-spirited and nihilistic, and overrides the silliness of some of it's big, bad evil dark web tropes with being genuinely intense. It's not a masterpiece, but like the original, I find it to be better than it has any right to be. /5
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Oct 21, 2018 13:13
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40. Halloween (2018) This movie ruled. As an unabashed Halloween fan, I tried to temper my expectations and excitement, but I don't think it worked. This movie was everything I wanted it to be. Solidly structured, with a excellent soundtrack and tons of great homages and references to the earlier films. Old crabby prepper Laurie was presented as crazy and damaged, and she is, but she's also right and completely badass. The dynamics of the Strode family and the ripple effect caused by the events of the first film are an interesting direction to take. There were a few stumbles, such as some moments feeling like we were just...missing something. Apparently there was originally an extra half hour of footage, so I hope we get to see that in a director's cut release. Also, the sequence with Evil Dr. Loomis #2 making a heel turn and wearing the mask briefly came off as a bit silly, but I was still really into every second of it. The kid getting babysat is the best kid ever. .5/541. Slenderman (2018)  No. No no. No no no no. No no. Nope. No no. No no. hot trash/5
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Oct 23, 2018 23:41
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42. Summer of 84 (2018) A fun 80s nostalgia throwback in the vein of Stranger Things or certain King works. A group of young teens are convinced one of their neighbors is a local serial killer being hunted by the police and set out to prove that he is. It doesn't break any new group and it has a lot of stumbles, but it's fun and charming enough that I enjoyed my time. If you subtract the kids swearing/sex jokes and that tonally jarring grisly ending it doesn't feel all too far removed from a kid's spooky movie. .5/543. In The Mouth of Madness (1994) Rewatch  One of my all-time favorites. John Carpenter brings us John Trent, an insurance investigator sent to a small town to search for missing smash-hit author Sutter Cane. Carpenter smashes us over the head with Lovecraftian themes and a decent into madness with some of my favorite horror quotes of all time. Do you read Sutter Cane? /544. The Unborn (2009) Rewatch  I rewatched this because I recall kinda sorta liking it when it came out. I was wrong again. A young woman is fighting against a spirit slowly possessing her and stuff happens. Gary Oldman and Idris Elba show up and do stuff. It's pretty awful. I will give it the slightest bit of credit for having some cool looking visuals here and there. They'd probably be better suited for a horror video game or something, but there's some neat stuff there. 0.5 /545. Trick r Treat (2007) Rewatch  Another one of my yearly rewatches and one of my favorites. A strong contender for my favorite anthology movies, ahead of VHS and fighting Creepshow for the throne. Delightfully mean-spirited and well constructed. /5
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Oct 27, 2018 06:10
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Maxwell Lord posted:Filmstruck will be discontinued in late November I hadn't heard about this. That loving sucks.  I guess I'll transition from October's Horror marathon directly into November FilmStruck marathon.
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Oct 27, 2018 08:41
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No frills update! 46. The Night of the Hunter (1955) A terrific deep-south thriller about a killer preacher/con man who hounds two small children in search of money hidden by their father. I've heard about this one for years and have just never gotten around to watching it. I'm glad I finally did and it's a shame I waited so long. Robert Mitchum plays sleazy-charming with an air of menace incredibly well. /547. Carnival of Souls (1962) A survivor of a car accident that killed her friends, a woman moves and takes a job as a church organist to put the past behind her, only to find she's having now having strange visions of a sinister man. Another that I've heard of for years and that I may have seen when I was fairly young. I had a hunch I'd seen it, but couldn't tell you anything about it. As I watched it, more and more stuff felt familiar. I appreciated it more this time around, though. It's an incredibly solid and spooky film on it's own, but you can see so many things (Particularly Lynch, with the antagonist seemingly lifted for Lost Highway) that this film would influence since it's release. /548. Under The Shadow (2016) One of the more unique horror films I've seen in a long time. A woman and her daughter try to survive in war-torn, post revolution Tehran when they begin to experience a haunting in their apartment. I don't think I've ever seen a horror film where the ghost feels like a secondary antagonist. Under The Shadow manages to put the city of Tehran itself as the most terrifying and oppressive figure in the film. Seeing plumes of smoke in the background from recent explosions, our main characters and their neighbors spending nights in a bomb shelter in the basement of their building, and the city becoming ever more deserted as people flee their homes. When the paranormal events begin happening, it's deeply unsettling and sad as we watch a mother and daughter deal with this horror in their home, removing the last illusion of safety they have the terror outside. It's a beautiful and spooky flick, I really enjoyed it and I look forward to director Babak Anvari's new film coming next year. /549. Beyond the Gates (2016) Brothers reunite at their father's video store after their father goes missing. While cleaning out the store they come across a spoooooooky VCR board game. I didn't love this, but I've got to admit that it's a unique and fun concept. I thought the idea of a haunted VCR board game was pretty funny as I remember playing those crappy old games, especially Nightmare/Atmosfear. It's not a bad movie at all and, aside from being a bit goofy/over acted at points, and it's hard to find too much to complain about with it's 80ish minute runtime. It won't knock your socks off, but it's not entirely worth writing off either. .5/550. Venom (2018) Yeah, yeah, I know, kinda pushing it with the definition of horror here. That being said, I'm not sure if this is the Venom movie I was asking for. Hell, I'm pretty sure I wasn't asking for a Venom movie at all, but this one is fairly fun and they could have done a lot worse. They didn't do a great job, by any means, but my fiancee and I were both entertained for the run time. Venom himself was fairly cool looking, a few people's heads got eaten, and it had a few funny moments thrown in. Tom Hardy is fun as this mumbly terrified idiot through most of the film and his performance got less bumbling and more endearing as the film progressed. It gets by on mediocrity and doesn't stand alongside other recent comic book adaptations at all, but I wouldn't say it's Catwoman, Daredevil or Elektra bad either. /551. Desolation (2017) A woman, her young son, and best friend go on a hike into the wilderness only to discover they're being followed. I liked this, with one major caveat I'll get to in a moment. The characters are likable and feel realistic, at least through the majority of the movie. The lead actresses have great chemistry, the mother feels very human dealing with the loss of her husband and uncertainty in her role of what to do now as a mom, and the young son seems dejected and sad. My caveat is the antagonist. I'm fine with the villain in a horror movie being a normal human - that can easily be the scariest type of enemy. What's not scary or interesting is Rob Zombie in aviator sunglasses standing over there. If you've seen it, feel free to chime in on your thoughts, because the best I know how to word it is that I don't mind when the killer is just some loving dude, but in the movie the killer is just some loving dude. .5/5
Several Goblins fucked around with this message at 13:37 on Oct 28, 2018 |
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Oct 28, 2018 13:22
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Ambitious Spider posted:Got my suspiria tickets for Halloween. Hype! You and me, both. I've been purposefully avoiding trailers and soundtrack stuff. Trying to go in as blind as possible. 
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Oct 28, 2018 14:04
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52. The Innkeepers (2011) Rewatch Two employees of a hotel on it's last few days for business start to explore the haunted history of their place of employment. I'm a big Ti West fan, I think he really knocked it out of the park with The Innkeepers and House of the Devil. His section on VHS was one of my favorites and I even really liked The Sacrament. House of the Devil is probably the better movie, but I just really enjoy The Innkeepers. The setting is both mundane and unexpectedly spooky and the characters are likable with great chemistry. Plus, Sara Paxton is adorable. /553. Look Away (2018) A dejected teenager confides in her hallucinated twin sister that she speaks to in mirrors. Or is the mirror image more than just her imagination? It's...weird. A user on Letterboxd said it felt like Carrie meets The Dark Half and I'd say that's fairly accurate. It's a mildly interesting concept that doesn't really go very far and has a twist that isn't that shocking. There's also a lot of creepy incest undertones that could serve as something weird and unsettling, if it wasn't the focus of a tremendous amount of screen time that ended up feeling like gross sexual padding. .5/554. Slither (2006) Rewatch A small southern town is attacked and taken over by mind-controlling space slugs. I recall really liking this when it came out, and this time I was right! I've had some bad luck this marathon with going back and watching movies I saw a decade ago and can barely remember, but Slither holds up as a gross, fun and funny horror flick. I'm not even generally a fan of Nathan Fillion or Elizabeth Banks, but they're both pretty awesome in this, and Michael Rooker serves as an excellent sleazy body-horror antagonist. And as a Southerner, I really appreciate this line: Where is the Mr. Pibb? I told your secretary to pack Mr. Pibb. It's the only Coke I like. /555. Embrace of the Vampire (2013) That sure was a reboot of a movie that didn't need rebooting and is worse in every way. /556. I Still See You (2018) A really interesting concept that I don't think stuck the landing. Ten years after a catastrophic event that apparently killed a massive number a people, the world is haunted by Remnants, ghosts who appear and replay moments from their lives. They don't interact with humans until Bella Thorne notices them multiplying and receives a threatening message. It's clearly a ghost story movie for teenagers. It's a neat idea that gets watered down by feeling like a spooky movie version of Divergent or Maze Runner - not in the sense that they're thematically similar, but feels like it very clearly was geared towards the YA market. It doesn't push the envelope, isn't very spooky outside of jump scares, but is serviceable to a small extent. /557. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018) (Full season) A gritty take on the Sabrina franchise, inspired by the comics of the same name. This was pretty good. It's got the same stumbling blocks as it's sister-show Riverdale, but I think it succeeds in places where Riverdale doesn't. Like Riverdale, it's still a show about pretty people doing questionable things that are way out of their purview, but that's okay because everyone is a little too perfect and good at everything. That being said, it goes really interesting places. The characterization of Sabrina herself turns her into almost a villain. Her actions are cocky and ill-advised and frequently just hurt everyone around her, even if her plan works in the long run. The character of Ambrose is awesome and I hope his actor gets tons more work. Aunt Hilda is Dianne from Shaun of the Dead and she is awesome and precious.  The show has some meandering points and is receiving some criticism for a particularly backwards moment on it's otherwise progressive featuring of LGBTQ characters, but I'd still say it's worth giving a shot.  /558. An American Werewolf in Paris (1997) Oh, Christ, why didn't anyone warn me? 0.5/5 Several Goblins fucked around with this message at 15:05 on Oct 31, 2018 |
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Oct 31, 2018 14:58
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Adlai Stevenson posted:I've seen that criticism too and it's a shame some people are giving it guff considering it's one of the earlier warning signs that, hey, Sabrina's not exactly using her newfound resources in a wise and fruitful way, maybe that'll turn into a plot point later! I agree with this entirely. I mean it's not a good look, but it seemed deliberate. Maybe the show was that tone deaf, but I saw it as Sabrina kind of sucks and is an arrogant rear end in a top hat and that's kind of the point. Sabrina ends up being the season's most reoccurring villain in several ways. Also, you know, she's a teenager. A teenager (or really anyone, I suppose) can seem progressive and accepting but not really consider the full reach of how their actions may counter their typical beliefs. You can be accepting and still do a dick thing.
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Oct 31, 2018 15:40
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Franchescanado posted:I will probably never read the comics and I'm not too interested in the new show, but those aspects were certainly part of the sitcom character. I've never read the comics either and it's been ages since I saw the sitcom. From what I recall that aspect of the character is basically the same. Well-meaning, but not exactly using her powers smartly. It's just got a little more of a sinister coat of paint on it and the consequences can be a little more grim this time around. If you've watched any Riverdale and could tolerate the ridiculous melodrama and Twin Peaks-lite aspect it tried to pull off, you might give an episode or two of Sabrina a shot. I liked it quite a bit, but I wouldn't rush it to the front of the line to watch if you're not terribly interested in the idea of it.
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Oct 31, 2018 15:45
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My end wrap-up. Didn't have time to do my update last night because I was taking care of a sick little one, but here's my finale. All of these were taken care of before the challenge ended. Hope that's okay, Franchescanado. 59. The Meg (2018) A giant shark from the depths is unleashed by a deep sea exploration crew. It's dumb, it's fun, it's worth a watch. Nothing will really dethrone Jaws for me as greatest shark film, and nothing will dethrone Deep Blue Sea for ridiculous and dumb, but The Meg is a worthwhile combination to give a look. .5/560. Welcome to Willits (2016) A pot farmer and meth magnate gets too high on his own supply and confused a group of camping teens for invading aliens. It's a horror/comedy that manages to not be very scary or funny, while generally just being a boring, dumb romp into the stoner horror genre. The alien props look pretty neat though. /561. The Nun (2018) The newest entry in the...Insidious Cinematic Universe? The Conjuring Expanded Universe? The Annabelle Trash Fire? Normally the movies from this general franchise are fun enough to watch for me and range from pretty good to awful. This is on the latter end and I'd say it's the worst in the series so far, topping even the first Annabelle movie. It's about as scary as a wet paper bag and about half as interesting. The Nun herself is spooky looking and Taissa Farmiga is pretty awesome, but the jump scares and droning pace just don't do the movie any favors and the end result feels tiresome. 0.5/5 62. Sleepaway Camp (1983) Rewatch This movie is one of my yearly rewatches. This year I used it to finish off the Horrorthon. Sleepaway Camp has a lot of problems, but I saw it when I was young and always remembered the characters, the ridiculous kills and the now-legendary insanity of the final scene. When I first saw it, I think the shock is what kept it in my memories. By today's standards, the film has even more problems than when it was released, but what keeps it memorable for me now is the cartoonishness of it all. Everything is cranked up to 11. And the sequels just make things even weirder and dumber. It's not the greatest horror film by any measure, but even with it's downfalls, it was a watch early enough in my life that it's stuck with me. /5I did it!  I really fell behind for a minute and had to marathon a few of these in just a couple of days. My final movie was last night and barely came in under the midnight mark. Congrats to everyone who took part and had fun watching a bunch of rad (and not so rad) horror movies this year. And congrats to folks like M_Sinistrari who...well holy poo poo, really went for it. The burnout was real this year, but it was cool to finally set a new record for myself. I think next year I'll stick with a regular 31 films. And I reeeaaallly don't think I'll try to top 62. For the upcoming month I plan to marathon as much as I can from FilmStruck before it shuts down. Should be a good palate cleanser from all the horror. And I don't think I'll be cramming quite so many films in, by any means. It's been fun. Thanks again to all you folks who keep this going every year. Several Goblins fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Nov 2, 2018 |
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Nov 2, 2018 01:09
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Dr.Caligari posted:This scene ; Yeah, that's pretty amazing. I'm also a fan of when Angela gets pelted with a water balloon and Ricky shreds his vocal chords shouting at the bullying camper dudes on a rooftop. Kid sounds like a child Burgess Meredith.
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Nov 2, 2018 01:47
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