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I'm aiming to watch 31 new-to-me movies. Last year I watched a lot more but was poo poo at writing anything down about them so fell off this challenge like Chris falling into the sunken place. This year I'll jump in with more gusto, like jumping into a room full of barbed wire. I'll have more words for movies when I start writing these closer to when I've seen them, but I'm writing these up now, days later, since I watched them after the start of this here challenge: Reanimator (1985) - REWATCH Reanimator is a movie I keep coming back to and highly recommend to folks with a stomach for subversive and gory violence. It had a wonderful disregard for science, an over-the-top camp sensibility and an intensely great performance from Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West. Absolutely one of my favorites. 5 Savageland (2015) - This was great. Savageland evoked movies like Lake Mungo, but where Lake Mungo builds and builds the tension and dread, Savageland puts it out there at the beginning - even before the title we know we're going to see some creepy photos as the climactic evidence. Ultimately, though, the movie stays true to its zombie roots and has a lot to say, about scapegoating. Ghostbusters (2016) - Melissa McCarthy gave a fun performance, and Chris Hemsworth was good comic relief, but I thought the rest of the cast swerved from unremarkable to annoying (Kate McKinnon’s character). Despite that, the movie clearly had a lot of fun with a fresh take, and it was nice to see the various cameos from original cast members. The ghosts were fun, the additional weapons were stupid, but its hard to find comedies that know how to tell jokes without running them into the ground these days - a one-liner with dead-pan delivery vs. just keep talking, keep hammering the joke home. 3 Creep (2014) - Found footage movie that kept me on edge pretty much all throughout, as you expected the weird guy to, well, be weird. And the movie didn’t disappoint. There were a few twists and turns and red herrings to keep it interesting. Overall, it was a pretty fun/uncomfortable ride. Vampyr (1932) - Vampyr had a strange atmosphere, and it seems like the way it was filmed, it comes across to me as earlier than it actually was. There is very little dialogue, and coupled with the way it was shot (sometimes gauze was placed across the cameras, apparently!) I was always surprised when someone did speak a line - it feels very much like an older silent movie. There were other things as well, camera movements, and certain staging and props, that didn’t add to the silent era feeling and thus lended an off-kilter feeling to the movie, but it all gave the movie a unique atmosphere that worked very well. List (4): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr smitster fucked around with this message at 03:16 on Oct 3, 2018 |
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Oct 2, 2018 04:29
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5. Hereditary I really liked this. It seemed to shift three gears on me while watched - three times I thought I knew what kind of horror it was going to be, and was wrong(ish). Great acting all around, I found myself pretty lost in the characters' anguish and tension was kept high. The jump scares felt earned and surprising, and the movie gave you a chance to breathe afterward and soak in the dread of what just happened. Pretty cool! List (4): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary
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Oct 3, 2018 03:20
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6. Frontier(s) While often mentioned in the same breath as new extreme classics like Martyrs or Inside, this movie just doesn't hold a candle to those. It checks off the extreme violence and gore boxes, but misses the originality, well-written characters, and interesting plot boxes, instead offering what felt like a gory derivative mashup of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Hostel. It clearly wants to say something about the experience of an immigrant in France and is critical of right-wing governments, but it feels like the message gets lost in the generic mess of clichés. List (6): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary, Frontier(s)
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Oct 4, 2018 15:46
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FRAN CHALLENGE #3: Hometown Horror 7. Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations Well, this was certainly a movie set in Detroit. Well, an alternate timeline Detroit where Michigan still had capital punishment in 2009. It wasn't good. It maybe wasn't completely awful. It was, however, terribly mediocre and forgettable. I don't remember enough of the first one to compare the two in terms of quality, and I didn't see the second. I only watched this to hit up the hometown challenge, as it's set in Detroit, and I wanted to try and stick with new-to-me movies. The time travel shenanigans follow the same trajectory I remember - the more you travel through time, the more things get hosed up. So far that's pretty similar to the first. The twist here is what if there's someone else leaping and murdering people?!?! It's the evil leaper from Quantum Leap, basically. But ultimately it doesn't do anything much for the formula the first movie followed - it's still every leap bringing a new level of misery to his life. List (7): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary, Frontier(s), Butterfly Effect 3 Challenges Fulfilled: #3 Hometown Horror: Butterfly Effect 3
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Oct 5, 2018 04:36
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Knocked a couple of challenges off the list, still sticking with new-to-me movies. FRAN CHALLENGE #1: Love Something You Hate 8: Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) This was a surprise. I don’t like Jarmusch - most of the time watching his movies feels like tedium brought to life on the silver screen. Granted, I've seen only Ghost Dog, Dead Man, and Down By Law. But, nothing much seems to happen and it takes forever to happen. But OLLA had a dynamic that I didn’t feel in the other Jarmusch movies I’ve seen. The realistic dialogue felt natural. While vampirism played as addiction isn’t new, it had a world-weary rock-n-roll theme to it that worked well (reminded me of A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, coming out the following year). The leads were fantastic, they *felt* like they had been in a relationship for hundreds of years. The movie was also very good looking. It was also a very Detroit movie. I like to think that every movie that uses the abandoned Packard Plant in a scene is happening simultaneously in different buildings or sections.  FRAN CHALLENGE #5: Birth of Horror 9: The Tenant (1976) This was an interesting movie - it didn’t hold together as well as, e.g., Rosemary’s Baby for me, because I didn’t find the main character very engaging. He was a creep from the beginning, and I don’t think the movie intended him to be much more than somewhat opportunistic. But maybe it did, it was later and I was tired while watching this so there was probably a lot that passed right over me. Overall I’m glad I finally saw it, some good performances from other actors in the movie. I knew he fled the US on a guilty plea to statutory rape, but after watching this I read the details, which I had never read about before. Ugh. The poster above has a really unfortunate tag line. List (9): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary, Frontier(s), Butterfly Effect 3, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Tenant Challenges Fulfilled: #3 Hometown Horror: Butterfly Effect 3, #1 Love Something You Hate: Only Lovers Left Alive, #5 Birth Of Horror: The Tenant
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Oct 8, 2018 05:01
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 10. The Screaming Skull A pretty bad drive-in spook-a-doodle. I didn't even need the coffin they offered to buy for the viewer at the beginning of the movie. There were a few scenes of surprising eeriness, but otherwise not a whole lot to recommend it. Clocking in at just over an hour, it still felt too long - would have been a decent part of an anthology film. I did like the titular skull rolling around like a critter, though. And if peacocks really scream like that, Crispin Glover is not gonna be able to sleep much at all. List (10): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary, Frontier(s), Butterfly Effect 3, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Tenant, The Screaming Skull Challenges Fulfilled: #3 Hometown Horror: Butterfly Effect 3, #1 Love Something You Hate: Only Lovers Left Alive, #5 Birth Of Horror: The Tenant
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Oct 9, 2018 05:44
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 11. Hell House LLC (2015) - This was pretty good. I’m discovering I’m a sucker for cult movies, so the plot was great, and there were some pretty cool visuals towards the end. The construction of the movie seemed like a mess - given the nature of the event, I’m not sure how else it could’ve been done, but I would have liked less of the talking heads at the front and into the behind the scenes footage quicker. The random spooks, moving things around so they’re there one minute and not the next also seemed out of place - I guess without those you don’t actually have any scares, but I’m just imagining the thought process the cult must have used - ‘let’s not do anything yet, but move that clown over there’ seemed pretty silly. it was forgivable though, and I enjoyed the movie quite a bit.  12. Ringu 0 (2000) - Not nearly as scary as the first Ringu was when I first saw it - I think going into the origins of Sadako robs the whole idea of the curse of some of its spooky power. I think they understood that and so made sure there was also something else going on, but then it all just felt muddy and arbitrary. So much of what made Ringu scary was when they thought they had figured it out, but it kept happening. Here, instead of being given a mystery that the protagonists solve and then discover were dead wrong about, we have a few different ghosts and/or psychic entities who are all kinda hanging around, walking slowly and pointing at each other. For the new Once In A Lifetime challenge, I think Ravenous would also count. List (12): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary, Frontier(s), Butterfly Effect 3, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Tenant, The Screaming Skull, Hell House LLC, Ringu 0 Fran Challenges Fulfilled(4): #1 Love Something You Hate: Only Lovers Left Alive, #3 Hometown Horror: Butterfly Effect 3, #5 Birth Of Horror: The Tenant, #7 The World Is A Scary Place: Ringu 0
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Oct 12, 2018 21:04
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Last night I had some folks over for a horror movie night, a sequel to last year called "Shameful Omissions" - classic horror movies that folks kinda know through cultural osmosis but haven't seen. We tend to get a couple movies that are new to at least half the people attending, and a good time is had by all. This year we had Cat People (not really what I would call a shameful omission, but I wanted to be sure to have a classic I haven't seen yet), Nightmare On Elm Street (1984), and Halloween (1978). Then after folks left I watched another one on my own. 13. Cat People (1942) - Fantastic looking movie, I love the noirish light and shadow playing throughout the movie. The frights are, understandably for a 1942 movie, not too scary. The movie plays with sexuality as a frightening, lethal thing in a less direct way I didn’t expect - I had expected more of a traditional lycanthrope movie, but the movie never directly implies whether that's real or not (until the end). This is a tragic movie about a woman who has lived with, and continues to live with, a fear that prevents her from getting close to anyone, even the man she married. REWATCH - Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) - This is my third rewatch. A classic. The people I was showing it to on my “Shameful Omissions” horror movie night (watch classic horror movies you really should have seen - Cat People I don’t think is quite at the same level, but I wanted to make sure to watch a new-to-me movie too). Folks were riffing on the movie at first, pointing out how its dated, etc., but by the end were into it. REWATCH - Halloween (1978) - I’ve seen this countless times, but again, several folks came over and hadn’t seen it yet. I think this is a stronger movie, and held people’s attention. The scares weren’t as scary to them as a newer movie, but it was still effective. The slow burn before the stabbin’ starts I think started to irk some people, but once it got going they were into it, and even forgot their earlier criticism of “there’s no way those are high school students”  14. Banshee Chapter (2013) - Fun romp through number station and MKULTRA conspiracy theories. If Hunter S. Thompson and Timothy Leary spent the weekend getting high, reading HP Lovecraft and then sobering up and making a movie, it might end up something like this. Maybe with a larger budget we could have gotten more views of the weird, but what is in the movie is used well. The actors do a fine job with their characters and the scares are legit. List Of New To Me Movies (14): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary, Frontier(s), Butterfly Effect 3, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Tenant, The Screaming Skull, Hell House LLC, Ringu 0, Cat People, Banshee Chapter Fran Challenges Fulfilled(4): #1 Love Something You Hate: Only Lovers Left Alive, #3 Hometown Horror: Butterfly Effect 3, #5 Birth Of Horror: The Tenant, #7 The World Is A Scary Place: Ringu 0
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Oct 13, 2018 19:45
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 15. Critters 2 (1988) - This was just dumb critter fun. The gremlin knock-offs are doing their thing, the bounty hunters are doing their thing. A few gags here and there for the chuckles, a couple of mildly bloody parts, and we have another Critters movie. I know I’ve seen the original as a kid, I wasn’t sure I had seen this - rewatching it, I’m fairly confidant I did not see it so I’m counting it as a new-to-me movie. List (15): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary, Frontier(s), Butterfly Effect 3, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Tenant, The Screaming Skull, Hell House LLC, Ringu 0, Cat People, Banshee Chapter, Critters 2 Fran Challenges Fulfilled(4): #1 Love Something You Hate: Only Lovers Left Alive, #3 Hometown Horror: Butterfly Effect 3, #5 Birth Of Horror: The Tenant, #7 The World Is A Scary Place: Ringu 0
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Oct 13, 2018 21:59
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 16. The Endless (2018) - Amazon I really liked Resolution, so I was looking forward to The Endless, and I was not disappointed. It expands on some of what was going on in Resolution, but you don’t need to have seen Resolution (though maybe it helps). The larger scope of this movie hit all of the right cool buttons for me. I also apparently like movies about cults, so I’ll need to watch more of those (I’m definitely going to try and see Apostle this month), but what was cool about this is how the cult fits into the larger picture. It doesn’t have much in the way of gore or jump scares, but relies on an unsettling experience in the woods. I definitely liked this.  Fran Challenge #6: Video Nasties 17. The Witch Who Came From The Sea (1976) - Amazon I picked this one because of the bad-rear end cover, promising the supernatural, witches, sickles and beheadings. None of those are in the movie. The plot is simple, a woman seduces and then kills several men for unknown reasons at first, though she clearly is not living a happy life. Flashbacks gradually tell us the reason for these murderous urges - her father was abusive, and had raped her as a child, and this had broken her. Despite that spoilered part, it definitely isn’t a super gory movie or anything - I haven’t seen a whole bunch of the 72 video nasties, but this doesn’t fit in with Cannibal Holocaust or some of the others, for example. The acting and production are all low budget. it wasn’t the most awful thing I’ve seen, but wasn’t particularly great, either.  18. Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon (2006) Behind The Mask started out with promise, the first two thirds being a lighter-hearted Man Bites Dog look at slashers that deconstructed the tropes in a fun documentarian way. The third act, though, really just wanted to be an actual slasher movie, and this is where it became pretty boring. Deconstructing slashers, and then just giving us the by-the-numbers slasher being described in the documentary-like portion, just seems... pointless. It also ended up not showing us, but literally telling us what was going to happen in the planning of the slash, showing us in the imagined visuals, then when it all went down telling us again as the crew tried to remember the plan - and then showing us again when they inexplicably followed the plan despite wanting to escape! Maybe that’s the point, that slashers are so rote we just keep watching them over and over again so why not watch a series of events over and over again in the same movie. The pieces were all pretty well done, though, and it was fun to see the switches from documentary style to “real world” third person. There were a couple of fun cameos from some horror luminaries, as well as Robert Englund with a real, if small, role. List (18): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary, Frontier(s), Butterfly Effect 3, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Tenant, The Screaming Skull, Hell House LLC, Ringu 0, Cat People, Banshee Chapter, Critters 2, The Endless, The Witch Who Came From The Sea, Behind the Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon Fran Challenges Fulfilled(4): #1 Love Something You Hate: Only Lovers Left Alive, #3 Hometown Horror: Butterfly Effect 3, #5 Birth Of Horror: The Tenant, #6 Video Nasties: The Witch Who Came From The Sea, #7 The World Is A Scary Place: Ringu 0
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Oct 15, 2018 05:23
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Drunkboxer posted:One thing thats weird about this movie is how instead of Final Girl they say “survivor girl” like the real term is copyrighted or something. Yeah, I meant to say something about that. "final girl" is such a well understood term that every time they said "survivor girl" I felt like, despite appearances, Leslie really was an amateur at this whole thing. How do you get such a basic technical term wrong? What a scrub.
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Oct 15, 2018 17:23
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 Fran Challenge #2: Queer Horror 19. The Old Dark House (1932) For challenge #2 I saw James Whale’s The Old Dark House. I liked it quite a bit, and had a queerness throughout, from the family’s name Femm, the bed-ridden patriarch played by a woman, Horace hitting on one of the male guests as someone here pointed out, and of course, James Whale was openly gay throughout his career. I’ll need to watch Bride again soon, but I may even like this more than it (gasp! probably just the high off this one hasn't worn off).  20. Cold Moon (2016) This movie was all over the place. Some really cool pieces followed by scenes that left you wondering if everyone involved was completely incompetent. A mystery is set up, only to be resolved a third of the way into the movie, moving from mystery to ghostly revenge story, which to be fair is what the description promised - but then why set it up as a mystery at first? Some reaction shots were bizarre, the camera operator couldn’t leave the drat zoom alone for more than 3 seconds, the dialogue was at times incomprehensible, the soundtrack sometimes was great in a subdued John Carpenter way and at other times sounded like the composer fell asleep on his keyboard but not in a good way. List (20): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary, Frontier(s), Butterfly Effect 3, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Tenant, The Screaming Skull, Hell House LLC, Ringu 0, Cat People, Banshee Chapter, Critters 2, The Endless, The Witch Who Came From The Sea, Behind the Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon, The Old Dark House, Cold Moon Fran Challenges Fulfilled (6): #1 Love Something You Hate: Only Lovers Left Alive, #2 Queer Horror: The Old Dark House, #3 Hometown Horror: Butterfly Effect 3, #5 Birth Of Horror: The Tenant, #6 Video Nasties: The Witch Who Came From The Sea, #7 The World Is A Scary Place: Ringu 0
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Oct 17, 2018 04:30
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 21. Rec 2 (2009) Basically more of the same, taking place immediately after the events of Rec 2, but it fills out some of the demon virus background just hinted at in the first movie. It had similar scares, though maybe not as effective as in the first movie. I did like the direction they took with the events of the first, seemed a natural progression in the story. List (21): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary, Frontier(s), Butterfly Effect 3, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Tenant, The Screaming Skull, Hell House LLC, Ringu 0, Cat People, Banshee Chapter, Critters 2, The Endless, The Witch Who Came From The Sea, Behind the Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon, The Old Dark House, Cold Moon, Rec 2 Fran Challenges Fulfilled(4): #1 Love Something You Hate: Only Lovers Left Alive, #2 Queer Horror: The Old Dark House, #3 Hometown Horror: Butterfly Effect 3, #5 Birth Of Horror: The Tenant, #6 Video Nasties: The Witch Who Came From The Sea, #7 The World Is A Scary Place: Ringu 0
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Oct 18, 2018 19:52
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 22. Phenomena (1985) This was bonkers. Everytime it slowed down and I thought it would simply plod through some visually interesting but narratively boring scene, something absolutely nuts would be introduced. Telepathic insects. Monkey hero. Pit full of dead bodies and sludge. Mutant child. Decapitation. Very bizarre and entertaining movie.  REWATCH: Dead Snow 2: Red v. Dead This movie is just a whole lot of gory hilarity. So much fun to watch, and I showed it at a movie night with 4 people who hadn’t seen it and were primed for something as silly and grotesque as this, so it was a perfect start to the evening.  Fran Challenge #10: Fear And Now 23. Mandy (2018) Phenomenal. Every shot was an album cover for a metal band. All of the leads were perfectly cast. Nic Cage’s lead role called for him to Cage out in that particular insane way he can. The cultists were all great and believable, Mandy was great. The action was awesome. A Heavy Metal comic come to life.  24. It (2017) I don’t remember a whole lot of the Tim Curry miniseries, and I never read the book, but this was pretty good. The kids were believable, Pennywise was suitably scary. His bonkers way of rushing the camera was a little goofy, but worked in this material. Watched List (24): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary, Frontier(s), Butterfly Effect 3, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Tenant, The Screaming Skull, Hell House LLC, Ringu 0, Cat People, Banshee Chapter, Critters 2, The Endless, The Witch Who Came From The Sea, Behind the Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon, The Old Dark House, Cold Moon, Rec 2, Phenomena, Mandy, It (2017) Fran Challenges Fulfilled(7): #1 Love Something You Hate: Only Lovers Left Alive, #2 Queer Horror: The Old Dark House, #3 Hometown Horror: Butterfly Effect 3, #5 Birth Of Horror: The Tenant, #6 Video Nasties: The Witch Who Came From The Sea, #7 The World Is A Scary Place: Ringu 0, #10 Fear And Now: Mandy
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Oct 21, 2018 22:23
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 25. Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man (1943) We follow Larry Talbot on a quest for self-annihilation, as he wants to rid himself of the immortal curse of the werewolf. He journeys to see if the good Dr. Frankenstein can help him, only to discover the doctor is dead. At that point, about halfway, the movie really loses anything it had going on and becomes just a poor rehash of themes explored in previous Frankenstein movies. The pathos of the Wolf Man really drove this, so when we aren’t focused on that it’s a bit boring. I thought I saw Ghost of Frankenstein, which this follows, but I guess I haven’t, so I’ll have to add that to my list. Watched List (25): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary, Frontier(s), Butterfly Effect 3, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Tenant, The Screaming Skull, Hell House LLC, Ringu 0, Cat People, Banshee Chapter, Critters 2, The Endless, The Witch Who Came From The Sea, Behind the Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon, The Old Dark House, Cold Moon, Rec 2, Phenomena, Mandy, It (2017), Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man Fran Challenges Fulfilled(7): #1 Love Something You Hate: Only Lovers Left Alive, #2 Queer Horror: The Old Dark House, #3 Hometown Horror: Butterfly Effect 3, #5 Birth Of Horror: The Tenant, #6 Video Nasties: The Witch Who Came From The Sea, #7 The World Is A Scary Place: Ringu 0, #10 Fear And Now: Mandy
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Oct 23, 2018 03:12
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 26. Nightmare City (1980) What a nutty mess, and I think I love these Italian low budget flicks. Intelligent radioactive zombie vampires attack a city with no warning after landing a plane. Very schlocky, most of the effects are of the smear-red-paint-on-em variety, but that’s because they are saving their efforts for a couple of key zombie gore scenes. They don’t really succeed, but you can see what they were going for. The military is useless, tvs explode when thrown, the movie’s ham-fisted themes are explained directly by characters in dialogue, and the soundtrack rocks. Ending is super cheap, I presume just to extend the run time? Or maybe they thought they were being clever.  Fran Challenge #11: Dead And Buried 27. The Ghost Of Frankenstein (1942) Dir. Erle C. Kenton, d. 1980 This wasn’t too bad, but didn’t break too much new ground. Yet another in a seemingly interminable list of Frankensteins comes on the scene, this time a second son. Ygor is good, played by Bela again, and schemes well. Some of the motivations of characters are a little mysterious. The Monster essentially plays a supporting role in this movie, which maybe should have been called Ygor.  28. The Phantom Of The Opera (1943) I really enjoyed this. Very lush, great music, and Claude Rains is as fantastic as ever. The comedic rivalry between the love interests is played well and doesn’t overstay its welcome. Very light on actual horror, but the face of the phantom when revealed is suitable gnarly. I liked it better than the 1925 by quite a lot, maybe the vibrant technicolor being used to great effect helped. Watched List (28/31): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary, Frontier(s), Butterfly Effect 3, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Tenant, The Screaming Skull, Hell House LLC, Ringu 0, Cat People, Banshee Chapter, Critters 2, The Endless, The Witch Who Came From The Sea, Behind the Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon, The Old Dark House, Cold Moon, Rec 2, Phenomena, Mandy, It (2017), Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, Nightmare City, The Ghost Of Frankenstein, The Phantom Of The Opera Fran Challenges Fulfilled(8): #1 Love Something You Hate: Only Lovers Left Alive, #2 Queer Horror: The Old Dark House, #3 Hometown Horror: Butterfly Effect 3, #5 Birth Of Horror: The Tenant, #6 Video Nasties: The Witch Who Came From The Sea, #7 The World Is A Scary Place: Ringu 0, #10 Fear And Now: Mandy, #11 Dead And Buried: The Ghost Of Frankenstein
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Oct 24, 2018 04:46
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 Fran Challenge #9: Stranger Danger 29. The Hidden (1987) This was a delight. I was a little worried when I went to Facebook and said I’d watch the first horror movie that I haven’t seen and am able to get a hold of, and someone suggested this with “it scared me as a child, but maybe it hasn’t held up.” There isn’t anything scary, but it fits in neatly with things like Critters, combining buddy cop antics with an extraterrestrial invader. Everything just works for an 80s sci-fi action movie with horror undertones - it isn’t particularly horrific, but IMDB calls it Action, Comedy *and* Horror, so I think it counts. Good mindless shoot outs, some fun violent fish-out-of-water gags, and a touch of the feels to round everything out in a weird way. Watched List (29): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary, Frontier(s), Butterfly Effect 3, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Tenant, The Screaming Skull, Hell House LLC, Ringu 0, Cat People, Banshee Chapter, Critters 2, The Endless, The Witch Who Came From The Sea, Behind the Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon, The Old Dark House, Cold Moon, Rec 2, Phenomena, Mandy, It (2017), Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, Nightmare City, The Ghost Of Frankenstein, The Phantom Of The Opera, The Hidden Fran Challenges Fulfilled(8): #1 Love Something You Hate: Only Lovers Left Alive, #2 Queer Horror: The Old Dark House, #3 Hometown Horror: Butterfly Effect 3, #5 Birth Of Horror: The Tenant, #6 Video Nasties: The Witch Who Came From The Sea, #7 The World Is A Scary Place: Ringu 0, #9 Stranger Danger: The Hidden, #10 Fear And Now: Mandy, #11 Dead And Buried: The Ghost Of Frankenstein
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Oct 26, 2018 02:16
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Friday night I hosted another movie night, these were all rewatches for me, so don’t count towards my challenge: Tales From The Crypt Presents: Demon Knight - still solid Mandy - A rewatch from last week, lost a touch of its shine but still bonkers Train To Busan - Still amazing.  Fran Challenge #12: Staff Pick 30. Cemetery Man (1994) What a bizarre film - it starts weird and gets weirder. It felt to me like they had two ideas for what they wanted to do with the setup, and couldn’t decide which two to go with - weird love interest, or man losing his mind. So they jammed them both into one movie. But you know what? It worked out just fine. Full of bizarre and funny set pieces, good amounts of gore (and gory make out sessions), and a memorable performance from Rupert Everett. Origami Dali said it was beautiful and absurd, and I can’t argue with that. I liked it and will definitely be seeing it again.  Fran Challenge #4: Best of the Worst/Worst of the Best 31. Sanctimony (2000) For this challenge, many took the route of taking Carpenter or Argento and watching their (arguably) worst movies. I went the other route, because I hate myself. I hopped on letterboxd, looked up movies directed by Uwe Boll, and watched the highest rated movie that was both horror and that I could get my hands on. Sanctimony clocked in at a 2.7 rating, and so, this was it. Some lucky sap no longer has this in their DVD collection. While I’m fairly certain it wasn’t meant to be, this worked well as a pitch black comedy spoof of both general serial killer procedurals like Seven, and the movie American Psycho. At least, that’s how I’m justifying an hour and a half of my life spent watching this garbage. And now my personal challenge is complete - 31 new-to-me movies have been watched! I'll still be doing the remaining Fran challenges, for sure. Watched List (31): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary, Frontier(s), Butterfly Effect 3, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Tenant, The Screaming Skull, Hell House LLC, Ringu 0, Cat People, Banshee Chapter, Critters 2, The Endless, The Witch Who Came From The Sea, Behind the Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon, The Old Dark House, Cold Moon, Rec 2, Phenomena, Mandy, It (2017), Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, Nightmare City, The Ghost Of Frankenstein, The Phantom Of The Opera, The Hidden, Cemetery Man, Sanctimony Fran Challenges Fulfilled(11): #1 Love Something You Hate: Only Lovers Left Alive, #2 Queer Horror: The Old Dark House, #3 Hometown Horror: Butterfly Effect 3, #4 Best Of The Worst: Sanctimony (Uwe Boll), #5 Birth Of Horror: The Tenant, #6 Video Nasties: The Witch Who Came From The Sea, #7 The World Is A Scary Place: Ringu 0, #9 Stranger Danger: The Hidden, #10 Fear And Now: Mandy, #11 Dead And Buried: The Ghost Of Frankenstein, #12 Staff Pick: Cemetery Man
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Oct 27, 2018 22:47
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 Fran Challenge #8: Once In A Lifetime 32. Raw (2018) This ruled. Cannibalism as a metaphor for coming of age, very well done. The balance between sympathetic and well-drawn characters and cannibalistic carnage worked was spot on. This would pair well with Ginger Snaps. Watched List (32): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary, Frontier(s), Butterfly Effect 3, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Tenant, The Screaming Skull, Hell House LLC, Ringu 0, Cat People, Banshee Chapter, Critters 2, The Endless, The Witch Who Came From The Sea, Behind the Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon, The Old Dark House, Cold Moon, Rec 2, Phenomena, Mandy, It (2017), Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, Nightmare City, The Ghost Of Frankenstein, The Phantom Of The Opera, The Hidden, Cemetery Man, Sanctimony, Raw Fran Challenges Fulfilled(12): #1 Love Something You Hate: Only Lovers Left Alive, #2 Queer Horror: The Old Dark House, #3 Hometown Horror: Butterfly Effect 3, #4 Best Of The Worst: Sanctimony (Uwe Boll), #5 Birth Of Horror: The Tenant, #6 Video Nasties: The Witch Who Came From The Sea, #7 The World Is A Scary Place: Ringu 0, #8 Once In A Lifetime: Raw, #9 Stranger Danger: The Hidden, #10 Fear And Now: Mandy, #11 Dead And Buried: The Ghost Of Frankenstein, #12 Staff Pick: Cemetery Man
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Oct 28, 2018 06:40
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 REWATCH - City Of The Dead (1960) Caught this again. Good old fashioned Christopher Lee satanic witch joint. Christopher Lee is always enjoyable to watch. Some great atmosphere, strong vampiric overtones. A lot of fun.
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Oct 30, 2018 02:21
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 FINAL Fran Challenge #13: What We’ve Been Waiting For 33. Tales Of Halloween (2015) Anthologies are always a mixed bag, and this one is no different. There were a couple of segments that I really liked (The Night Billy Raised Hell, Friday The 31st, Bad Seed), some that I thought were pretty good (The Weak And The Wicked, Ding Dong), and the rest were alright. I don’t think any were terrible, just a lot of meh - especially This Means War and Sweet Tooth, despite it’s obvious Halloween tribute ending. Overall, this wasn’t bad, but I much prefer Trick R’ Treat or the better VHS segments to this - they felt like they had given the stories more room to breathe. If three or four of these were cut and the rest given a bit more time to develop I think this would have been great. Watched List (33): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary, Frontier(s), Butterfly Effect 3, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Tenant, The Screaming Skull, Hell House LLC, Ringu 0, Cat People, Banshee Chapter, Critters 2, The Endless, The Witch Who Came From The Sea, Behind the Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon, The Old Dark House, Cold Moon, Rec 2, Phenomena, Mandy, It (2017), Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, Nightmare City, The Ghost Of Frankenstein, The Phantom Of The Opera, The Hidden, Cemetery Man, Sanctimony, Raw, Tales Of Halloween Fran Challenges Fulfilled(13): #1 Love Something You Hate: Only Lovers Left Alive, #2 Queer Horror: The Old Dark House, #3 Hometown Horror: Butterfly Effect 3, #4 Best Of The Worst: Sanctimony (Uwe Boll), #5 Birth Of Horror: The Tenant, #6 Video Nasties: The Witch Who Came From The Sea, #7 The World Is A Scary Place: Ringu 0, #8 Once In A Lifetime: Raw, #9 Stranger Danger: The Hidden, #10 Fear And Now: Mandy, #11 Dead And Buried: The Ghost Of Frankenstein, #12 Staff Pick: Cemetery Man, #13 What We’ve Been Waiting For: Tales Of Halloween
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Nov 1, 2018 03:00
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So that’s it for me - personal challenge of 31 new-to-me movies completed (and two more on top) along with a few rewatches, and all 13 Fran challenges done. I think my favorite new movies was easily Hereditary. It was tense, well done, moody, bleak, suspenseful, and culty all at once. I liked Mandy quite a bit, but ended up watching it twice, and while I still really liked it the second time, some of the shine had worn off. I could still see watching it in years to come, it captured a vibe few movies have. Raw was probably my next favorite, it was amazing. It felt free to play with it’s themes, and it was somewhat refreshing to have the lead just kind of deal with it, rather than endless horror. Speaking of The Endless, it was a fun ride. Interesting idea executed well, with some genuinely unsettling set pieces. Creep was also unsettling to be sure. Cemetery Man was probably my last really favorite movie, what a weird, sad, bizarre, fun ride. Watched List (33): Savageland, Ghostbusters (2016), Creep, Vampyr, Hereditary, Frontier(s), Butterfly Effect 3, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Tenant, The Screaming Skull, Hell House LLC, Ringu 0, Cat People, Banshee Chapter, Critters 2, The Endless, The Witch Who Came From The Sea, Behind the Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon, The Old Dark House, Cold Moon, Rec 2, Phenomena, Mandy, It (2017), Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, Nightmare City, The Ghost Of Frankenstein, The Phantom Of The Opera, The Hidden, Cemetery Man, Sanctimony, Raw, Tales Of Halloween Fran Challenges Fulfilled(13): #1 Love Something You Hate: Only Lovers Left Alive, #2 Queer Horror: The Old Dark House, #3 Hometown Horror: Butterfly Effect 3, #4 Best Of The Worst: Sanctimony (Uwe Boll), #5 Birth Of Horror: The Tenant, #6 Video Nasties: The Witch Who Came From The Sea, #7 The World Is A Scary Place: Ringu 0, #8 Once In A Lifetime: Raw, #9 Stranger Danger: The Hidden, #10 Fear And Now: Mandy, #11 Dead And Buried: The Ghost Of Frankenstein, #12 Staff Pick: Cemetery Man, #13 What We’ve Been Waiting For: Tales Of Halloween
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Nov 1, 2018 03:08
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SMP posted:This entire year I've made it a point to write reviews for everything I watch on Letterboxd, and I plan on continuing, if anyone wants to follow me. If anyone else has a Letterboxd account post it up, I like having horror-goonpinions. I tried to do the same, with mixed success. https://letterboxd.com/smitster/
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Nov 2, 2018 01:45
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Said this in DM, but thanks for the shirts, Franchescanado! And thank you for the challenges, they were great - there's certainly no way I would've watched an Uwe Boll movie or Butterfly Effect 3 on my own. I was about to add The Witch Who Came From The Sea, but truth be told, I had been eyeing that one anyway based on the cover art. This has been a blast, and participating has been way more fun than not participating!
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Nov 2, 2018 19:41
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