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Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Trying to set some extra challenges for myself. No sequels, no remakes, first-time viewings only, and nothing coming out in theaters counts towards the list.

Aiming for at least 31, but I'll probably go over since the cool rep theater in DC's showing all horror movies this month.

Here's my tentative list:

October Challenge 2018

Looking for some suggestions, especially in regards to newer movies. Might be a bit too giallo-heavy right now.

Friends Are Evil fucked around with this message at 20:45 on Sep 14, 2018

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Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Basebf555 posted:

Assuming you haven't seen them, you should add The Ritual and The Eyes of My Mother, which are both on Netflix.

Seen The Ritual, but I haven't seen The Eyes of My Mother. Might put that one on the list.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



That's a hell of an idea, but man, 2017 Mummy is loving rough. Kinda surprised '99 Mummy didn't take it's place.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Anyone else thinking of coordinating their challenge with Hooptober? https://letterboxd.com/cinemonster/list/hooptober-cinco-your-terror-is-a-locked-room/

I'm considering it, because I love giving myself ever-increasing, arbitrary rules to follow.

Friends Are Evil fucked around with this message at 21:54 on Sep 14, 2018

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Rejiggered my list to fit with Hooptober's weird constraints.

I'll probably add some of the films back on as I keep going this month.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Evolution (2015)
1/31
Directed by: Lucile Hadzihalilovic


A distressingly wet film. As a piece of body horror, there's something to be appreciated about the subtle ways in which the body horror manifests, though I'm not sure it ever quite clicked for me. The cinematography/production design is drat great and adds immensely to the uncomfortable vibes this movie exudes. If you're looking for something with quietly unnerving Shadow Over Innsmouth vibes, you'll find things to like here.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Jedit posted:

Night of the Demon is 1957. It also happens to be pretty much the best horror movie of the 1950s.

Yeah, if you haven’t seen it, Night of the Demon ought to be on the list. It crushes.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats




Nightbreed: The Director's Cut
2/31

Directed by: Clive Barker

Charming in its own way, but it's a bit of a mess and a let down from Hellraiser. I get what Clive Barker was trying to go for, and I'm sure more of his vision shines through here than it did on the theatrical release. It still kinda feels like Little Monsters with gore effects. David Cronenberg is a surprisingly effective villain and maybe my favorite bit of the film. At times, it almost seems like Nightbreed was an excuse for Clive to hang out with him (which in Barker's defense, was probably hella tight).

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Basebf555 posted:

Unfortunately as a director I don't think Barker ever realized that potential he showed with Hellraiser. I agree that Nightbreed is over-ambitious and a bit of a mess.

One of the folks I follow on Letterboxd called it a 2-hour long cantina scene and I think that’s a good way to sum it up.

Friends Are Evil fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Sep 15, 2018

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



graventy posted:

What I like about Grave Encounters 2 is that it just takes the idea and runs with it. I like meta-sequels a lot, where the first movie exists in the world, and I like the dumb things it does with found footage.

3. Ghost Stories (2017)


A professional TV skeptic begins to investigate three unexplainable and interconnected spook-a-doodles. The tales are all competent and pretty spooky but the wrapper doesn’t really follow through on the premise. I mean, he goes, hears the story, moves on to the next one, with very little in the way of follow-up by the skeptic. At no point did it really feel like an investigation. This kind of makes sense by the end, but was kind of unfulfilling during the film.

:spooky::spooky:.5/5
Yeah, the wrapper really killed Ghost Stories for me. I thought the ending setup also got real hacky real fast.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats





Carnival of Souls (1962)
3/31

Directed by: Herk Harvey

I put this one off for way too long. The David Lynch comparisons have been non-stop since this got rediscovered, but it's legit staggering how much of his style you can see hearken back to this film. The film uses really ingenious methods to compensate for the miniscule budget, creating an entrancing atmosphere and pretty much an entire style of horror. It's honestly kind of fitting that Herk Harvey came out with this absolute banger and then immediately decided to do PSA films for the rest of his career (including the terrifying Shake Hands With Danger).

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Xenomrph posted:

I’m in this challenge for 31 movies (if not more), just like the last two years.

This year for a more “rounded” horror movie experience, I was thinking of putting together a 25-space “bingo card”, and I’d love suggestions.

I was thinking broad horror tropes/genres/styles/time periods, so some bingo squares I’d thought of included:

Creature feature
Sci-fi horror
Psychological horror
Ghost story
Body horror
Horror-comedy
Remake
Multi-movie series
Slasher flick
Black and white movie
Foreign film
Different decades (2010s, 2000s, 1990, etc)
Zombie movie

Any other suggestions?

The Hooptober challenges on Letterboxd are a pretty good way to throw a wrench in things. Maybe look into some of the stuff on their challenge for ideas?

https://letterboxd.com/cinemonster/list/hooptober-cinco-your-terror-is-a-locked-room/

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats




Rabid (1977)
4/31

Directed by: David Cronenberg

Nowhere near Cronenberg's best, but you can see aspects of his voice and style begin to crystallize here. I wish the rabies aspect was explored a little further rather than serving as a new twist on the zombie formula. The body horror use feels like more of an aesthetic choice at this point in his career, rather than carrying the psychological weight his films are known for. Marilyn Chambers is great here and I appreciate how much of a downer this ends on. It's a good trashy movie and one of the more effective zombie films of it's time, but probably on the lower tier of Cronenberg's filmography.

Do ratings matter here?

Friends Are Evil fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Sep 19, 2018

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats




Terrifier (2018)
5/31

Directed by: Damien Leone

Woof, this one really didn't resonate with me. Terrifier felt preoccupied with letting you know how *twisted* the filmmakers were in a way that seemed pretty grating. It's a shame because I think the idea of a monster/killer that's basically the protagonist of a Chaplin film could be really cool and effective in the right hands. The film isn't really paced like a Chaplin film, though, so it comes off as somewhat awkward. Every character who wasn't Art the Clown felt like a sketch of a character, with only the vaguest of traits to set them apart. The VFX work is nice, I guess? There's clearly love put into it, so I don't want to spend too much time ripping this apart, but I guess their idea of what horror should do radically differs from what mine is. Probably the first dud I got.

Friends Are Evil fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Sep 19, 2018

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats




The Nude Vampire
6/31
Directed by: Jean Rollin

I have a huge soft spot for horror that leans more towards surrealism/abstraction, so it's kinda surprising this is my only experience with Jean Rollin so far. It doesn't disappoint. The craft involved feels incredibly confident and interested in formal experimentation, willing to go long stretches without dialogue or music. It can be a tad slow at times, but I think it allows for some subtly creepy moments. I want one of those creepy animal cultist masks.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats




7. Monkey Shines (1988). Directed by George Romero.
My first exposure to Romero's non-Dead, non-anthology work. It's filled with so many bizarre ideas and concepts, and while it's kind of a mess and half of the ideas don't work, I still enjoyed myself. It goes a little more body horror than I expected, with the turning monkeys into brain junkies and seeing through it's eyes bit. The pacing is rough, though giving the main character enough time to adjust to his disability was a good call and adds a lot of tension to the film. He calls the monkey a gently caress face, so it can't be all bad.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats




8. Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977)
Directed by: George Barry

Been fascinated with Death Bed's existence for a long time, in part because of that Patton Oswalt bit, but I was not prepared for how genuinely bizarre and hallucinatory this film was. I wasn't prepared for half the movie to be Audrey Beardsley's ghost who's trapped in a painting shittalking the stomached demon bed. It owns so hard.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Choco1980 posted:

So. There's one week left til the month starts, and I can actually begin my watching of stuff I've never seen. As I said earlier, I'd love if this year I would get some major goon input what to watch. This is difficult, because as you can see from My Letterboxd which is I'm sure by no means 100% accurate, (not to mention the site has a whole separate section for "thrillers" whatever that means) I've watched quite a few, so this marathon challenge of my personal rules gets harder each year. Anyways, I'm basically asking for your help. I'll let any goon command me in October to watch a horror movie I haven't. Only one title per person, so as not to make a mess of things. I'll do my best to include it in my lineup. There's no toxxing or anything here, it's just for fun, I just like the idea of you all making up my mind for me. To make things least error-filled, I guess you can go through that Letterboxd list linked above. If you name something I've already seen but is missing from the list, we both have a laugh, and you get to choose again. I don't care where you suggest the title to me; here, in the scream stream discord, in my pm inbox, whatever floats your boat. Thanks for the help!

Unless it’s on the list and I just missed it, I’d go with City of The Living Dead. Gotta complete the trilogy.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



I was in New York most of last week to go see the Pig Destroyer record release and the Printed Matter book fair at MoMa PS1, so I'm just trying to make up for lost time right now.


9. The Devil Rides Out (1968). Directed by Terence Fisher.
This doesn't have quite the same punch as it might have in it's initial release, but this still rips. It's interesting to see a character in one of these Satanic movies fulfill the "skeptic proven wrong" trope, but still be depicted as respectably intelligent rather than a strawman. Christopher Lee rules in this as the good occultist, the magic circle scene still holds up as being incredibly interesting and effective (even if some of the effects work doesn't), and the Goat of Mendes is one of the most intimidating onscreen devils I think I've seen. Imagine how hardcore folks thought this was back in 1968.


10. Jacob's Ladder (1990). Directed by Adrian Lyne.

So far, the biggest blind spot on my list. I don't think it's quite as smart as it thinks it is with the purgatorial references, but it's still very effective. The way it mixes it's iconic body horror scares with New York grime is something I still haven't seen very many horror movies attempt, much less this well. It's super obvious in retrospect how much influence this had on Silent Hill.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Spatulater bro! posted:

So what's up with the theatrical run for Climax? Is it getting a wide-ish release?

US rights got picked up by A24, so I think it's at least getting the same treatment those get. It'll probably show up at some AMCs nationwide in addition to the obvious independent theaters. No idea when it's actually releasing here in the US, though.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Question about the third Fran Challenge. If you live in the DMV/DC metro area, are you limited to films from whichever side of the metro you’re on or do you get to tap into DC films too? I technically live on the VA side, but DC’s in this ambiguous middle ground between states.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



COOL CORN posted:

Look, if you wanna watch The Exorcist just go for it


It's tempting, but I'm keeping it to first time watches to make things interesting. Hollow Man it is!

Friends Are Evil fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Sep 26, 2018

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Basebf555 posted:

Don't kneecap yourself with overly stringent rules I say. Look at what's doing to you, you're about to watch Hollow Man instead of The Exorcist.

Allow yourself a few exceptions.

Honestly, my big goal with this is to keep exposing myself to new horror (even if it's poo poo). I may relent on some of the rules I set for myself next year, but I'm all about schooling myself this time of year.

Speaking of which:



11. Lifeforce (1985). Directed by Tobe Hooper.

This is maybe the most wildly ambitious thing Tobe Hooper's ever made, though not anywhere near his best. I love the lo-fi space goth aesthetic it tries to pull off, and the amount of crazy poo poo going on at once while still feeling cohesive is downright respectable. Wonder how much crazier this could have gotten if it didn't suffer from the disease of being a Golan-Globus film. The effects work is a mixed bag, as can be expected. Probably the best-shot movie Hooper's ever done?



12. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014). Directed by Ana Lily Amirpour.

I think there's some definite pacing problems, but I still love the concept. The idea of a skateboarding Iranian vampire killing terrible men is pretty much right up my alley. The punk vibes are great and it has really gorgeous black and white photography. Got a shocking amount of Jarmusch vibes from it. Curious to know what the rest of the Iranian ex-pat horror scene is like. Under The Shadow's also on my to-do list, but still.

Is The Bad Batch good?

Friends Are Evil fucked around with this message at 00:55 on Sep 27, 2018

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Franchescanado posted:

:siren: FRAN CHALLENGE #3: Hometown Horror :siren:

This is gonna be a harder one, but there's plenty of time to find one that applies.




:ghost: Watch a film that takes place in the state* you currently live in

Bonus points if you can find a film that takes place in the city you live in, but don't feel pressured to get specific with sharing your personal details if that makes you uncomfortable.



13. Hollow Man (2000). Directed by Paul Verhoeven
Yikes. It feels like there was a whole lot of studio interference on this one. There's some really good body horror in here, let down by the effects aging poorly. I actually like that Bacon's character was already kind of a shithead before he turns invisible, but I think it needed to make Bacon's character more obviously unethical to make his descent more believable? Probably Verhoeven's worst movie, all things considered.
On the plus side, an obviously lovely scientist getting high on his own formula and turning into an invisible rapist is an incredibly Washington DC character motivation. Can't say he got the setting wrong. Parts of it were also shot at the Pentagon, so it's technically an Arlington film too!

ketchup vs catsup posted:

One request: can you post with your blurb where you found the movie? Netflix, prime, shudder, YouTube, dvd, etc?


I'll do this with my watches so far.
Evolution - Netflix (streaming)
Nightbreed (director's cut) - Shudder
Carnival of Souls - FilmStruck
Rabid - Shudder
Terrifier - Netflix (streaming)
The Nude Vampire - Shudder
Monkey Shines - Hulu
Death Bed: The Bed That Eats - Shudder
The Devil Rides Out - YouTube
Jacob's Ladder - Netflix (Blu-Ray)
Lifeforce - DVD
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night - Netflix (Blu-Ray)
Hollow Man - Netflix (DVD)

Friends Are Evil fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Sep 28, 2018

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Guess I’ll throw in stuff I see in theaters too, because why not.

14. Hell Fest (2018). Directed by Gregory Plotkin.

Interesting that they made a slasher film focused around the worst people you see at Halloween Horror Nights every year. The folks who mess or pose with the props, loudly try to predict the scares... All it needed was one of those drunk dudes who reflexively punch the scareactors.

Otherwise, I actually didn’t hate this! It’s completely disposable as a horror movie, but sometimes that’s all you need. Would probably hate on this way more if I didn’t spend a good amount of my teenage years at all these seasonal haunts like Horror Nights and Howl-O-Scream. This got me more nostalgic than I was anticipating.

seen in a theater

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Franchescanado posted:

Not only is this okay, but it's encouraged.

There seems to be more Challenge-appropriate movies in theaters this year than previous years. (That's from memory, though, I'm not curious enough to google the hard facts.)

Then again, I go to the movies at least once a week.

Yeah, I just set that up as a limitation for myself. Whenever I do these, I mostly try to focus on covering my horror blind spots.



15. Repulsion (1965). Directed by Roman Polanski
Saw via: Netflix DVD

Put this one off for ages because Roman Polanski is a bad person. The dude could make a hell of a horror film, I'll say that. Repulsion's such an intimately crafted pressure cooker of a film that it kinda makes me mad I like it so much. The cinematography is next level poo poo, impressively claustrophobic and unnerving. I know hundreds of people have made this point before, but there's something cruelly ironic about a series of incredible films about the horror of being a woman viewed by men (this and Rosemary's Baby) being made by a known sexual predator.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats




16. The Invitation (2015) . Directed by Karyn Kusama
Seen on Netflix (streaming)
I thoroughly enjoyed this, though it's one of those horror movies where the very end dampens things for me. For the most part, the film does a great job of turning polite awkwardness into something more overtly unnerving and I actually love the cult reveal, but the shot of other cult members across the city executing the same plan really took me out of it. Regardless, I hope Karyn Kusama gets to do more genre films like this.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



For anyone who somehow hasn't seen the first Halloween or is trying to rewatch it, Shudder just added it (and just 4 and 5 too?) and a whole bunch of Hitchcock stuff.

Also, FilmStruck just loving added The Devils, so I guess that's on my to-do list. No idea what cut it is.

Friends Are Evil fucked around with this message at 06:12 on Oct 2, 2018

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



17. The Boxer's Omen (1983). Directed by Chih-Hung Kuei.
Saw via super low-quality YouTube upload



Maybe my favorite discovery of the challenge so far? I don't think I've seen anything like this grotesque day-glo Buddhist body horror nightmare in my life and I want more of it. This movie is out of its drat mind. It's a shame every home release of this is either long out of print or looks like it was posted in 2006. I will gladly offer up one of my limbs to Criterion or Shout Factory if it means they'll track down a print and get the rights to release it on Blu-Ray.

Can anyone recommend more Shaw Brothers films like this?

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



18. The Devil's Candy (2015). Directed by Sean Byrne.



The Devil's Candy is pretty effective and well-crafted. The family's dynamic feels very emotionally resonant and you really sympathize with them very quickly. However, I have a bunch of hangups (admittedly personal ones) with it that keep me from truly being on board.

I keep seeing this hailed as a movie that gets metal and that doesn't quite ring true for me. I don't think it really engages with what it means to be a metalhead beyond surface-level "Hey, you can be a metalhead and function as a normal human being!" and more accurate set decoration than usual. To be fair, that's an infinitely more preferable way of being depicted than films depicting us as Satan worshippers who need to be brought under heel. It's connection to the art making process also feels very tenuous aside from some misguided jabs at gallery culture and pretentiousness. They don't ruin the film, but I would have enjoyed this a lot more if it didn't cross into my very specific Venn diagram overlap of being a metalhead and an artist. For something that's otherwise well-observed, it bugs me that it kind of paints these two elements very broadly.

It'd also be nice if the conflict didn't revolve around a reductive depiction of mental illness, but hey.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



1991 has some solid picks. I’ve got Silence of the Lambs, Begotten, People Under The Stairs, Scorcese’s Cape Fear, and the worst Freddy movie.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats




19. Ava's Possessions (2015). Directed by Jordan Galland.
Seen via Netflix DVD

Kinda surprised this didn't get much traction from genre nerds. The concept of a post-possession movie where the host is trying to make sense of the damage they caused or what happened while they were gone is loving brilliant. It always bothered me that most of these possession films gloss over the weird, life-ruining implications of something else controlling your body. Treating it as a metaphor for addiction is a really keen angle I've never seen explored until now. I just wish the actual movie was better. They kinda back out on the premise towards the end, which is a bummer. The technical execution ranges from being adequate to being weirdly slipshod (especially when they try to convey the demon who used to possess her communicating in any way). Still recommend this.

Friends Are Evil fucked around with this message at 05:51 on Oct 4, 2018

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats




20. Martin (1978). Directed by George Romero.
Watched via Youtube rip

This would be a killer double feature with Dawn of The Dead. Both of them feature Romero exploring the hell of suburbia, albeit from differing perspectives. While the mall of Dawn is depicted as a hermetic sanctum of desire sealed from "the other", the Pittsburgh town Martin is sent to is a place of arduous ritual and regiment, ever tightening it's grip on its inhabitants. One of Romero's best.

Not counting this towards the challenge list because I've already seen it, but I'm rewatching Phantasm at the AFI tonight with Don Coscarelli showing up to introduce it.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Trying to plug away at some of the challenges.

Franchescanado posted:

:siren: FRAN CHALLENGE #5: Birth of Horror :siren:




:ghost: Watch a horror movie released in the year you were born.

or

:ghost: Watch a movie set in the year you were born.



21. The People Under The Stairs (1991). Directed by Wes Craven.
Watched via YouTube VOD.

Casting Big Ed and Nadine from Twin Peaks as avatars of gentrification and culture war panic is the most early 90's casting choice you could possibly make. I didn't think Wes Craven had a movie like this in him. It's flawed like most of Craven's films, but there's such a righteous and rightful spite for the white conformist culture H.W Bush pushed that I can overlook those problems. For a white director, Wes Craven actually does a pretty good job sifting through white privilege and using its signifiers to make the villains come off as monstrous yet recognizable.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Venom doesn’t count towards the challenge, does it? Cause I saw it tonight and lord, I have some takes.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



If Retro Futurist is counting Venom, I guess I am too.

22. Venom (2018). Directed by Ruben Fleischer.

Pretty much as big of a trainwreck as you heard/imagined, but it's shockingly enjoyable? There's a whole lot of baffling decisions and it was made fifteen years too late, but I'd see many movies with Tom Hardy doing whatever the gently caress he's doing here. It's like The Mask for edgelords. One of the better trash movies I've seen in recent years.

Also, this movie is weirdly horny about the concept of Venom. It kinda feels like someone's DeviantArt page and I honestly respect that.

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Franchescanado posted:

:siren: FRAN CHALLENGE #4: Worst of the Best or Best of The Worst :siren:




:ghost: Watch a highly regarded director's worst movie.

or

:ghost: Watch a notoriously bad director's best movie.




23. John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars (2001). Directed by John Carpenter

I'm not quite sure why this one's always considered the worst Carpenter movie. Yeah, it's terrible, but some of his late-period stuff is way worse (Escape from LA and The Ward come to mind). At least this fails spectacularly.The ambitious world-building is pretty much wasted in favor of a stealth Doom movie. It's a matriarchy, but the women are still being objectified by dudes all the time? Also, I'm not sure Carpenter thought through the implications of having the characters look at the native Martian ghosts who are also stand ins for native Americans and go "yeah, let's kill them". Some of the set design honestly reminds me of B-movies, which isn't even a bad thing. Easily his worst soundtrack, but it's still kind of charming. John Carpenter going industrial metal was a mistake.

Friends Are Evil fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Oct 8, 2018

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats




24. Kuroneko (1968). Directed by Kaneto Shindo.
Watched on FilmStruck

Needed something good to wash away the trash I've been watching. I don't think this works quite as well for me as Kaneto Shindo's other atmospheric horror, Onibaba. but it's still a hell of a film that comes close. Gorgeous black and white photography and an uncomfortably bare score turn this into something really beautiful. At some points, I can't help but feel like Kuroneko may have had some kind of influence on Under The Skin. Not just in terms of the same basic "otherworldly woman/women lead men to their realm and dispose of them" premise, but in terms of the abstracted staging through which they accomplish this. Obviously, this doesn't go to nearly the same levels of formal abstraction as that film's sets, but the bamboo that surrounds their home takes on very unreal qualities.

It's also interesting that compared to it's contemporaries, Kuroneko is one of the only Japanese films of its era I can think of which unambiguously depicts samurai as being viciously entitled men who profit on and gloat about the suffering and subjugation of others. The only other thing that comes to mind, Ugetsu, that comes close to this take still takes pains to show there are some samurai who mean well. Of course, I still have a lot of gaps in the Japanese folk horror genre, so this may be my ignorance talking.

Friends Are Evil fucked around with this message at 06:24 on Oct 8, 2018

Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Franchescanado posted:

:siren: FRAN CHALLENGE #1: Love Something You Hate :siren:
:ghost: Pick a film from a horror sub-genre* that you don't like, and watch it.

I think with some exceptions, contemporary zombie movie are the most generic, voiceless genre of horror out there. They're either the store-brand cereal of horror or they're jerkoff fodder for reactionary "gently caress you got mine" types. People keep saying this is one of the good ones, so here goes.


25. Train To Busan (2016). Directed by Yeon Sang-ho.
Watched on Netflix

Thankfully, this doesn't share the same reactionary politics I mentioned. Like the best of Romero's Dead movies, the zombies are only a method to convey how we deal with each other in desperate situations. Train To Busan does a pretty succinct job showing the pack mentality you see in things like The Walking Dead for what it is, a callous tribalism that promotes needlessly endangering others. The setup to the outbreak is brilliant, telling you just enough for you to piece things together. You see lots of subtle character work which really helps sell the film. I just wish the craft was better. I appreciate the switches from the compressed space of a train to the open air of a station, but thematic flourishes aside, it's very unambitiously shot when the zombie infection begins to spread, though there are a couple impressive set pieces. Also, I think I heard some stock music cues? It lays things on pretty thick in the second half, though the character work's so good it's kind of justified?

Friends Are Evil fucked around with this message at 03:51 on Oct 9, 2018

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Friends Are Evil
Oct 25, 2010

cats cats cats



Franchescanado posted:

:siren: FRAN CHALLENGE #6: Video Nasties

:ghost: Watch a Video Nasty*

or

:ghost: Watch a film about the Video Nasties


*It must be one of the 72 films officially listed as a Video Nasty



26. The House By The Cemetery (1981). Directed by Lucio Fulci.
Watched on Shudder

House By The Cemetery tries to be more of a classical Gothic horror than his other movies and I don't know if it works out quite as well as Fulci would have hoped. A touch awkward compared to The Beyond or City of the Living Dead, but I love that his movies end up being half-remembered hallucinations of America. Freudstein is low-key an amazing name. Bob's dubbing is one of the worst dubs I've ever heard and I love it. If you made a drinking game based on how many times they say his name, you'd be dead within the first half-hour.

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