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Okay I have like 9 hours to do 11 more write ups and not gonna lie I had enough fun tonight to currently be eating tzatziki with a spoon so gently caress it here we gooooo 1) One Cut of the Dead 2) Castle Freak 3) The Void 4) Knife + Heart 5) Spookies 6) Hell Night 7) Amsterdamned 8) Who Can Kill a Child? 9) Seventh Curse 10) Lake Mungo* 11) Halloween 2018 12) Terrified 13) The Mutilator 14) Viy 15) Mystics in Bali 16) Effects 17) Zombi* 18) Bad Moon 19) The Guest* 20) The Lighthouse 21) Deep Red: Little did I know five or so years ago when I tried to decide if I really didn't like giallo that I saw a poo poo cut of this film. Turns out it's probably the best Dario Argento. It's weird and janky but well acted and there's a plot you can cleanly follow which is slightly more than I can say for... 3.5/5 22) Suspiria: Welp, this is the third time in about ten years I've tried this and it was the final try. I feel like I'm objectively wrong about this one but I've tried and tried and read analysis and watched youtube videos with names something like: "Suspiria! The Technicolor Nightmare" or some bullshit. Even though I acknowledge it might be something I'm missing, I honestly think this movie flat out sucks. Any time someone points to the concept of style over substance they are pointing to Suspiria. Good thing we got that remake cause it's a masterpiece. Seeing this in a post-remake world actually made me appreciate it more cause at least it meant anything. 2/5 23) The Church: There's almost a good movie here but instead it plays like a bar band cover of Prince of Darkness. Sloppy and nonsensical with no characterization for anyone. What I've learned is that I am kind of into Argento's whodunits but his supernatural stuff is pants. 1.5/5 24) Train to Busan: Almost the best zombie movie ever made? Then the third act comes in and sweeps away most of what the movie had been building up to at that point. And it doesn't feel like they ran out of time or budget, certain seems just don't seem to belong to the same movie and it suffers greatly or it. 3/5 25) A Cure for Wellness: So I totally get why this bombed. That said I think this is gothic horror sculpted with a fairly precise hand. The twists and turns are a bit on the nose but it doesn't matter. If you're willing to devote headspace to the world this movie takes place in I think you come out with a fairly rewarding experience. Plus, it's extremely about how capitalism sucks people dry and the only way to cure that disease is for the youth to burn it all down. Hell yeah. 4/5 26) Haunt: The last slasher I liked this much was You're Next which this seems to share some DNA with. The kills are all samey but how you get there is always interesting. The way the lead survives and what she does in the aftermath make me feel like she's a top ten GoaT final girl.4/5 27) Exorcist III: When I saw this previously it was a few years ago. A workprint cut was floating around that re-established much of what happened prior to studio intererence. That cut was demonstrably worse. Dourif and Scott both give incredible performances and build to a pretty decent ending. Of course I'm referring to the portions right before the exorcist proper cause that kind of blows.4/5 weekly font fucked around with this message at 09:04 on Nov 1, 2019 |
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Nov 1, 2019 08:56
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 Evil Dead II, 1987 Do I even have to write anything? I saw the original not that long in this marathon and it was great. This on will always be my favorite movie of all time. It will always be funny. It will always be entertaining. Yet, the horror is so amazing among the jokes and gags. What is wrong with you if you don't watch this regular basis? gonna make something to eat before I hit on a third movie.
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Nov 1, 2019 09:06
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I have been not been posting as much as I should have but I did reach my half challenge. 8) The Wolfman - George Waggner, 1941 A classic Universal horror movie. Loved Lon Chaney’s make-up. 9) Freaks - Tod Browning, 1932 I have been meaning to watch this one for some time. It was nice seeing the performers just existing as people, not performing for a crowd. 10) Galaxy of Terror - Bruce Clark, 1981 Rip Sid Haig. This one was gets pretty wild. It’s a sci-fi horror film where a ship crew goes on a rescue mission and is forced to confront their fears. James Cameron was second unit director, and this film help start his career. It also features a really young Robert Englund. 11) The Lighthouse - Robert Eggers, 2019 “Why’d you spill yer beans?” This one was completely nuts and it was great. Robert Pattinson plays a lighthouse keeper who assists an old salt played by Willem Defoe. Don’t want to get into too much detail because its still in theaters, but see it if you can. 12) The City Of The Dead - John Llewellyn Moxley, 1960 “Superstition, fear, and jealousy.” In the town of Whitewood, a witch and her coven are burned in the 17th century. Before she dies, she offers her soul to Satan to eternally carry out his rituals. Christopher Lee plays a professor In the modern day who sends one of his students to the town to help her in her research into witchcraft. Little does she know that the coven never really went away. Will Satan or the power of the Cross prevail? 13) Witchboard - Kevin Tenney, 1986 A woman summons a long dead serial killer through a ouija board. This was a powerfully 80s movie. The director also did Night of the Demons which I really liked. These next films I did tonight as a Vincent Price triple feature. 14) Shock - Alfred Werker, 1946 “I hate you!” With those words a psychiatrist played by Vincent Price kills his wife. Unbeknownst to him, a woman in the hotel room opposite his sees it all. She goes into shock, only to end up being treated by Price’s character himself. A murder mystery unfolds, with Price trying to eliminate the woman who could incriminate him. This one features a baby (and completely unshaven) Vincent Price. 15) House of Usher - Roger Corman, 1960 “In Cinemascope and color” Vincent Price plays an aristocrat who believes he and his sister are cursed by the sins of their ancestors. When a young man comes to marry his sister, he does all he can to stop it. This was the first Edgar Allen Poe adaptation Roger Corman did with Vincent Price, and I think it’s one of Price’s best performances. 16) The Haunted Palace - Roger Corman, 1963 This is an adaptation of the Lovecraft story The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Vincent Price plays Joseph Curwin/Charles Dexter ward. This film is an amalgamation of several Lovecraft stories. In this case, Ward is possessed by the spirit of Curwin, rather than being resurrected through his essential saltes.
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Nov 1, 2019 09:11
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Franchescanado posted:Like I said, the deadline for posting reviews isn't until 1PM tomorrow, so hopefully that helps ease the burden. This deadlines is BS, hoss. Everyone cool is gonna be nursing a halloween hangover until November 2nd.
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Nov 1, 2019 09:27
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#44 Tales from the Hood (1995)Franchescanado posted:SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #3: Horror Noire Was kinda surprised how much this hammered on black-on-black violence. The doll segment, which is more of a straightforward revenge story, was definitely the most enjoyable. https://i.imgur.com/Ecj2vkk.mp4 #45 Baskin (2015) Franchescanado posted:SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #5: Tourist Trap A lot of this seemed a bit thin, with characters that didn't feel particularly developed, unless that's just me struggling with not having a lot of familiarity with Turkish culture. But the big villain was captivating and the ritual stuff suitably creepy, so a fine one to go out on. New (31): #1 The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016), #3 Escape Room (2019), #4 Aniara (2018), #6 Overlord (2018), #7 Replicas (2018), #8 Antiviral (2012), #9 Higher Power (2018), #10 A Simple Favor (2018), #11 What Still Remains (2018), #12 Joker (2019), #13 Bad Samaritan (2018), #16 In the Shadow of the Moon (2019), #17 Fractured (2019), #19 Suspiria (1977), #20 Happy Death Day 2 U (2019), #22 Ma (2019), #24 In the Tall Grass (2019), #26 Phantasm (1979), #29 Personal Shopper (2016), #31 The Perfection (2018), #32 White Chamber (2018), #34 Child’s Play (2019), #35 Pooka (2018), #38 Westworld (1973), #39 Monster Squad (1987), #40 Ghost Stories (2017), #41 Castle Freak (1995), #42 Bone Tomahawk (2015), #43 Gremlins 2 (1990), #44 Tales from the Hood (1995), #45 Baskin (2015) Rewatches (14): #2 Brightburn (2019), #5 Cloverfield (2008), #14 Constantine (2005), #15 Chronicle (2012), #18 Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), #21 Predators (2010), #23 The Predator (2018), #25 Us (2019), #27 Triangle (2009), #28 Glass (2019), #30 Death Proof (2007), #33 From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), #36 Underworld (2003), #37 Underworld 2 (2006) Super Samhain Challenges (12/13): (#1 The Best Month) Gremlins 2 (1990), (#2 Dead & Buried) Bone Tomahawk (2015), (#3 Horror Noire) Tales from the Hood (1995), (#4 Inktober) Personal Shopper (2016), (#5 Tourist Trap) Baskin (2015), (#6 Sometimes They Come Back) Child’s Play (2019), (#7 Monster Mash-up) Monster Squad (1987), (#8 Happy Holidays!) Pooka (2018), (#9 Hackers) Westworld (1973), (#11 All Hail The King) Castle Freak (1995), (#12 Cavalcade of Creepiness) Ghost Stories (2017), (#13 Maniac) Underworld (2003) Sir Kodiak fucked around with this message at 10:33 on Nov 1, 2019 |
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Nov 1, 2019 10:31
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 52 Body Snatchers (1993) [Alabama] Solid version of the story with some very unnerving scenes and cool visuals. Body snatching is a premise that lends itself well to slowly building up the creepiness but clocking in at under 90 minutes, this moves a little fast. The army base setting also didn’t do much for me but I did appreciate that they went all in on the goofy pointing and screaming, love that. Overall, it was good but I still prefer the ’78 version.  53 The Stepford Wives (1975) [Connecticut] Talking about building up the creepiness, this movie spends almost 2 hours doing just that to great effect. Its social commentary is as blunt as a brick to the face and I like that. The finale is a real gutpunch, especially the men’s motivation for what they are doing: “because we can”.  54 Husk (2011) [Nebraska] Nebraska = corn, so it makes sense that most horror movies set in the state involve corn in some way (Children of the Corn, 1922) and this is no different. A group of friends crash their car next to a cornfield when they enter it to reach a house to seek help, something comes after them. The premise is quite similar to Into the Tall Grass which I watched earlier this month, and there’s even two characters from the movies that look very much alike. Husk however, is much less high concept than ITTG. It also suffers from characters acting like idiots and one of them somehow becoming able to see the past solely to deliver the backstory. Still, not a terrible killer scarecrow movie.  55 A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985) [Ohio] A decent sequel with some good body horror. Going in I was mostly curious about the gay-angle which everyone always talks about. It is interesting to compare it to the first film I watched for this challenge Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker. There are obvious similarities with both movies having cute blond twink protagonists who spent significant amount of time shirtless and both have gay high school gym coaches. But whereas in Freddy’s Revenge the entire gay-angle is only implied, in BBNM it is addressed explicitly. It would make an interesting double bill.
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Nov 1, 2019 10:33
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27. Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994) (DVD)   "This is still a script, right Wes?" - Heather Langenkamp This was the only entry of the original run of the Nightmare movies I had never seen before. In this movie Heather Langenkamp and other actors play themselves as the specter of Freddy Krueger starts to bleed into the real world. I liked this one quite a bit and I'm sorry I missed it back when it came out. 4/5 28. Freddy vs. Jason (2003) - Rewatch (DVD)    "I've been away from my children for far too long." - Freddy Krueger Freddy Krueger tries to get back his power by convincing Jason Vorhees to kill for him in order to take credit for the killings and get young people to remember him again. Overall this is a pretty fun movie, and when Freddy and Jason eventually fight it's really fun. 3/5 29. A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) (Netflix DVD)    "He brought us here so that we would remember what he did to us." - Nancy Holbrook I went into this with an open mind, but after being cautiously optimistic for the first 10 minutes or so it soured on me the more Freddy showed up. Jackie Earle Hayley appeared to be doing his best Mickey Rourke as Marv in Sin City impression and there was just no life to his portrayal. I understand and appreciate he didn't want to exactly replicate what Robert Englund did but there was no personality to his lines. Some of the scenes are taken directly from the original, but there is a lot of crappy cgi on display here. 1.5/5
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Nov 1, 2019 10:55
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Here's the summary of my challenge this year. I watched 39 movies in total - 5 more than I did last October! All but one were new to me (one rewatch for the final Samhain challenge, and in the three years I've done this now, the ONLY rewatch of them all). HOUSE, HOME and/or ROOM OF HORROR - self imposed challenge to watch a bunch of movies with "house," "home" or some other room or part of a house in the title. I did this thinking I was clever, but I ended up regretting it - it really limited my choices and there's a lot of not-good movies with those words in the title  House (1985) Demon House (2018) Madhouse (1981) Ghosthouse (1988) The House of Seven Corpses (1974) House of Exorcism (1975) The Horrible House on the Hill (1974) The House That Dripped Blood (1971) The House That Screamed (1969) The House Where Hell Froze Over (1974) Don't Open the Door (1974) Don't Go in the House (1979) Don't Look in the Attic (1981) Don't Look in the Cellar (2008) Don't Look in the Basement (1973) Hausu (1977) My favorite five: House, Madhouse, Ghosthouse, Don't Go in the House, Hausu S.F. Brownrigg movies watched ranked from best to worst: Don't Open the Door > Don't Look in the Basement > The House Where Hell Froze Over gently caress Off: Don't Look in the Cellar AMITYVILLE ENNUI - watched all of the Amityville Horror movies from the 1979 original through the 2005 remake (nine movies). For years I had heard about how terrible the sequels were, but I found nearly all of them were way more entertaining than the original in some way or another, so these were interesting to watch. There was honestly only one here that I'd tell someone to avoid - The Amityville Curse, because out of all of them, its relation to the series is in-name-only. Three of these movies also go on the Super Samhain Challenge list. The Amityville Horror (1979) Amityville 2: The Possession (1982) Amityville 3-D (1983) Amityville: The Evil Escapes (1989) The Amityville Curse (1990) Amityville: It's About Time (1992) Amityville: A New Generation (1993) Amityville Dollhouse (1996) The Amityville Horror (2005) Personal ranking from best to worst: Dollhouse > 2005 remake > It's About Time > The Possession > The Evil Escapes > 3-D > New Generation > 1979 original > Curse Best cursed object: the clock from It's About Time Worst cursed object: the mirror from New Generation Most likely to appear on the front page of PornHub: The Possession SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGES - all 13 completed. My escape valve from my self-imposed challenge. Really enjoyed some of these, particularly Horror Noire, One Cut of the Dead and The Night Flier. CHALLENGE #1: The Best Month Evilspeak (1981) CHALLENGE #2: Dead & Buried Amityville: The Evil Escapes (1989) CHALLENGE #3: Horror Noire Horror Noire (2019) CHALLENGE #4: Inktober Amityville: A New Generation (1993) CHALLENGE #5: Tourist Trap Mystics in Bali (1981) CHALLENGE #6: Sometimes They Come Back Amityville: It's About Time (1992) CHALLENGE #7: Monster Mash-up Assignment Terror (1970) CHALLENGE #8: Happy Holidays! Bloody Birthday (1981) CHALLENGE #9: Hackers Alone in the Dark (2005) CHALLENGE #10: Navel Gazing One Cut of the Dead (2017) CHALLENGE #11: All Hail The King The Night Flier (1997) CHALLENGE #12: Cavalcade of Creepiness From a Whisper to a Scream (1987) CHALLENGE #13: Maniac The First Power (1990) SCREAM STREAM MISCELLANY - i saw more than this but only counted movies new to me, which was basically the first weekend. Les Affames (The Ravenous, 2017) Dead Snow (2009) Alucarda (1977) What We Do in the Shadows (2014) Best Scream Stream gif:  How I feel now that the challenge is over:  (thank you for the gifs Jet Set - consistently one the best parts of the stream) Thanks for the thread and setting up the challenge, Fran!
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Nov 1, 2019 11:08
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30. Friend Request (2016) (Netflix Streaming) -  Super Samhain Challenge #9 - Hackers    "Unfriend that dead bitch!" - Olivia Friend Request sure is a movie. It starts with a strange girl sending a friend request to her classmate and then essentially stalking her. It starts out okay, but probably peaks around the time of the video of Marina hanging herself. The rest of the movie is fairly predictable and just isn't the most interesting. 1.5/5 31. XX (2017) (Netflix Streaming) - Super Samhain Challenge #12 - Cavalcade of Creepiness    "I'm not hungry." - Danny Jacobs An anthology with four segments all directed by women. The first, "The Box," based on story by Jack Ketchum is the best of the bunch but was hard to watch for me. (I had actually started this movie before but stopped when I saw what kicked it off.) The story, which I had read before, triggers feelings of dread in me. The idea of starving yourself is very disturbing to me, and the idea of watching your children/spouse die of intentional starvation doubly so. The second segment, "The Birthday Party," directed by St. Vincent, is the most fun. Although, were we meant to think that the wife had anything to do with her husband's death? "Don't Fall," the third segment, is decent as a little creature slasher, but it would have been nice to get a slightly deeper story. The last segment is intended to be a continuation of Rosemary's Baby. Again, it's okay but this one could benefit from being fleshed out. The scene in the principal's office was decently disturbing. This doesn't really have a wrap-around but has some interesting visuals that reminded me instantly of a Tool music video. 2.5/5
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Nov 1, 2019 11:09
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Last reviews. I'll post a summary sometime later today. 32. Sadako vs. Kayako (2016) (Shudder) - Super Samhain Challenge #7 - Monster Mash-up    I couldn't find anything else that fit the challenge in time, so I chose this out of inertia. I haven't seen a Ring movie since the second American one, and I only saw the American remake of the Grudge. This movie is somehow the 12th movie in each of these franchises. I feel like I was missing lots of understanding in terms of some of the characters, who seemed like they might have been from other entries in the other movies. There's a lot of build up to the actual fight between these two ghosts and it's okay, lots of hair and weird noises. Just as a side note, I'm not sure if it's supposed to be this way, but I laughed out loud a couple times whenever the Grudge-related kid opened his mouth and cat noises came out. 2/5 33. Jigsaw (2017) - Rewatch (Amazon Prime) - Super Samhain Challenge #13 - Maniac    "You want mercy? Play by the rules." - John Kramer The Saw movies are my guilty pleasure films I guess. The series is one of the more internally consistent horror series, although things do get a little ridiculous with how many Jigsaw apprentices there are. This entry pulls a familiar twist (the main game story wasn't happening in the present, it was happening 10 years ago!) but is still pretty decent. Taking a glance at Wikipedia it looks like the Chris Rock involved movie is happening, scheduled for a May release. 3.5/5
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Nov 1, 2019 11:14
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 Bubba Ho-Tep, 2002 The third movie of my drunken binge. drat, I love this one. Bruce Campbell, no other, plays Elvis Presley stuck in an nursing home for the elderly. Turns out he changed places with an impersonator to get away from it all, only to loose the paperwork in a BBQ fire and the impersonator's death loving him over. Turns out JFK survived the assassination, but was turned into an black man through surgery. But the main thing in this movie is that's there's ancient Egyptian mummy sucking souls through anuses. A nursing home for the elderly is a perfect cover as the mummy can kill every night without being suspected. With Elvis and JFK on the case, they fight to stop him. It's very much a horror comedy, but few movies get the tear flowing like this one. Partly in how badly and disrespectfully the elderly are treated, but that scene at the end. Elvis looking up at the sky as he is dying. I was in tears the moment I picked the DVD of the shelves for this rewatch.
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Nov 1, 2019 12:03
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 32. Häxan (1922): This movie is structured a bit like a university lecture. Part of it is just scholarly discussion of folklore surrounding witchcraft and the practices of witch hunters of the Middle Ages. There’s some interesting stuff in these parts, but the meat of the movie is in the narrative segments. The most compelling is the story of an old woman accused of bewitching a printer and her subsequent torture and confession. This movie has some really cool imagery and I’ve never really seen anything quite like it.  33. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2: This movie gets automatic points for having the first of Leatherface’s victims be a couple of deranged Longhorn fans shooting up roadsigns and making harassing phone calls on their way to Dallas for the OU-Texas game (I’m an OU alum). Dennis Hopper plays a lawman who is related to the victims from the first movie and wants revenge, but our main protagonist is a radio DJ played by Caroline Williams who hears the Longhorn fan murders over the phone. This movie is definitely much more comedic than the original, with Chop Top providing a lot of the comedy. I found myself thinking that he felt like a character who would be in House of 1000 Corpses and whaddayaknow, the same actor played Otis in that movie. Hopper disappears for long segments of the movie, which I didn’t like, but overall this was pretty fun.
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Nov 1, 2019 12:45
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Couple quickies 34. THE VVITCH - Netflix Second time seeing it and loved it as much as the first time around. For a slow burn thriller with 5 people, it felt like not a frame was wasted in ratcheting up the tension. 5 out of 5 orgasmic ecstasies 35. SORORITY BABES IN THE SLIME-BALL BOWL-A-RAMA - Shudder - Joe Bob Briggs Trash, and not even good trash. This is the worst movie I saw this October and not even Doctor Briggs could save it. There's about 30 minutes of "movie" here stretched out endlessly, the characters are all unlikeable, and instead of feeling like 80s schlock that has aged into a fine camp, it just feels tedious to me. I can't believe I ended the month on this. 1 out of 5 haunted bowling trophies
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Nov 1, 2019 13:03
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Maxwell Lord posted:Never fully bought into the first, because Yeah it kills the date rapist and also the girl he was molesting. You can't make an omelet without absorbing a few eggs.
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Nov 1, 2019 13:06
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 56 Assassination Nation (2018) [???] I was pretty interested when I first heard of this movie but for some reason it never made it to Dutch theaters. So I was happily surprised when I saw the DVD sitting in the new arrivals section of my local library and after seeing it I'm pissed I didn't get a chance to see it on the big screen since this movie rules! I was a little apprehensive going in since I wasn't sure if it would be an edgy, "controversial" movie just for the sake of it, or if it actually had something to say. Luckily it was the latter, and it's not at all subtle with it. It is a scathing attack on the hypocrisy and misogyny in America, as well as dealing with a whole bunch of other issues. It is one of the most blatantly radical and feminist movies I’ve seen in a while. This doesn’t come at a cost of the horror elements thought which are extremely effective. There is a one-shot home invasion scene in particular that is really incredible and brutal. The cinematography, sound, editing & acting are all excellent. I saw this a week or two ago, but there is so much going on, and it touches on so many different issues, I already want to watch it again. Very highly recommended!  57 Super Dark Times (2017) [New York] When a gruesome accident leads to a cover-up, the secret drives a wedge between two friends and propels them down a rabbit hole of escalating paranoia and violence. Watched this a few weeks ago but forgot to review it pretty much all I can remember is that it is much more drama than horror and the ending didn’t really feel earned.  58 The Giant Gila Monster (MST3K) (1959) [Texas] Wanted to get at least one MST3K in this month and this was a pretty good one. The movie itself is terrible. Made by the same guy who did The Killer Shrews, this is much more boring. At least there the monsters were dogs in costumes so they could interact with the actors, here the Gila Monster (not actually a Gila Monster) is just a lizard walking around miniature sets, and some really unconvincing cutting back and forth with the actors’ reactions. Also, way too much songs about Jesus. Ok, finally caught up with my backlog, that only leaves my Halloween quintuple bill to write up.
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Nov 1, 2019 13:15
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I've more then met my goal, but I couldn't get through Halloween night without watching a horror movie! Not gonna write a lot though, I'm tired and most folks here should already know about this one. 37. Horror Express (1972) (re-watch) (blu-ray) Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing on a train with an evil ancient creature that can absorb the memories and knowledge of its victims - what's not to like here? This is a Horror Thread favorite for a reason, it's just a blast from start to finish. Lee and Cushing are both wonderful (as usual), but Telly Savalas as the Cossack Captain might steal the show. The absurd science is awesome and hilarious. It's a Spanish film, but everything is in English except for the opening credits. If you haven't seen it, and you're a fan of Hammer films and Lee and/or Cushing, get on this ASAP! 5/5 Total: 37 Watched: Dead of Night | Child's Play (2019) | Escape Room | Hell Night | The Wind | Evil Dead (2013) | Cure (Challenge #1) | Tigers Are Not Afraid | The Craft | Tower of London | In Fabric | Popcorn | Cube | Uninvited | Galaxy of Terror (Challenge #2) | Brightburn | Body Bags | The Tingler | The Wax Mask | Cube 2: Hypercube | Dark Water (2002) | The Ruins (Challenge #4) | Viy | The Haunting | Bones (Challenge #3) | A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) (Challenge #6) | November (Challenge #5) | The Monster Squad (Challenge #7) | April Fool's Day (Challenge #8) | Fido (Challenge #10) | In the Tall Grass (Challenge #11) | Trilogy of Terror (Challenge #12) | The Lighthouse | Resident Evil (Challenge #9) | Halloween (2007) | The Faculty (Challenge #13) | Horror Express Samhain Challenges:
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Nov 1, 2019 13:28
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I’m so ashamed . I broke my something like 5 year streak. Not been a good month : <
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Nov 1, 2019 13:36
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Here is my tally. I wanted to hit 41, but starting a new job hosed with my watch plans. Saw some fun ones and some poo poo, but it was all worth it for my favorite time of year. #1. The Evil #2. One Dark Night #3. Necromancer #4. Final Exam #5. Tourist Trap #6. Scream 2 #7. Hereditary #8. The Gravedancers #9. Black Christmas #10. Head Count #11. Slugs #12. Witchboard #13. The Dead Pit #14. The Lair of the White Worm #15. Haunting on Fraternity Row #16. The Horror of Party Beach #17. Little Evil #18. Horror Hospital #19. Doom Asylum #20. Spellcaster #21. Return of the Living Dead #22. Blood Feast #23. Halloween #24. Nightmare on Elm Street 3 #25. Legend of Hell House #26. Cemetery Man #27. Night of the Demons #28. Night of the Demons 2
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Nov 1, 2019 14:26
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Sigh. The most depressing day of the year. I made the most of the final night though.  From Beyond Can't do spooky month without From Beyond. An underappreciated classic. I love that I got home after work, put the disc in, cracked a beer, and within 2 mins I'm watching space eels. It's one of those movies where you'll never feel tempted to check your watch or wonder how much of it is left. Because when it ends you'll just want more. And not that I've never noticed it before, but goddamn does Crampton's leg get messed up at the end.  Creepshow The best anthology, because I think 5 segments is the ideal number and none of them really drag the way they do in Creepshow 2. I've seen this probably ten times and I really wouldn't be able to choose a favorite segment. They're all good in their own way.  Return of the Living Dead Much like From Beyond and Creepshow, Return of the Living Dead is a movie I didn't grow up with. These are movies that I discovered some years ago because of the horror thread, and they immediately became some of my yearly favorites. Just thought I'd point that out because nostalgia is great too, but these movies are even better. Return of the Living Dead is a big reason why I'm not all that into zombies these days. Because it's perfect, there will never be another one like it and no other zombie movie could ever top it. They all are disappointing by comparison.  Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein At this point I was losing some steam so I went with something light and fun to (I thought)finish up. I saw this for the first time last year and as others have said, it really delivers on the whole monster-mash aspect. You'd expect it to just be non-stop Abbott and Costello antics, which it is, but the monsters weaved into the story so well and everything surrounding Abbott and Costello is pretty straight-faced so it creates a very entertaining mix. Definitely don't skip this one if you're going through the Universal Monster films.  House of Usher Getting ready for bed I noticed that TCM was doing a Corman/Price marathon so I couldn't resist throwing this on as the last gasp for the season. The story here is that Corman made the decision to actually put some money into a project for once, in an effort to make it feel more serious and prestigious, something that would draw the audience's attention. It paid off, and these Price/Corman collaborations became a string of hits. My personal favorite is Masque of the Red Death, but they're all worth checking out, including this one. Watched: 1. Child's Play(1988) 2. Child's Play(2019) 3. VHS: Viral 4. Tales From the Crypt 5. (SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #1)Viy 6. House of Frankenstein 7. Van Helsing 8. The Shining 9. Salem's Lot 10. Poltergeist 2: The Other Side 11. Pumpkinhead 2: Blood Wings 12. The Ravenous 13. Alucarda 14. Horror of Dracula 15. Dracula: Prince of Darkness 16. Midsommar 17. Candyman 18. Hellraiser 19. An American Werewolf in London 20. Bad Moon 21. Prince of Darkness 22. The Fog 23. (SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #2)House of 1000 Corpses 24. The Devil's Rejects 25. 3 From Hell 26. (SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #4)Crawl 27. (SAMHAIN CHALLENGE# 3) Ganja & Hess 28. Aenigma 29. City of the Living Dead 30. Halloween 31. Halloween II 32. Halloween III 33. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers 34. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers 35. (SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #6)Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers(Producer's Cut) 36. Halloween: H2O 37. Halloween: Resurrection 38. Halloween(2007) 39. Halloween II(2009) 40. (SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #8) Santa's Slay 41. (SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #9)The Lawnmower Man 42. (SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #10)The Mutilator 43. (SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #5) Pizza 44.(SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #11) The Mangler 45. (SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #13)The Mummy(1999) 46. (SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #12)Nightmare Cinema 47. Frankenstein 48. Bride of Frankenstein 49. (SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #7)Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman 50. Bram Stoker's Dracula 51. Trick 'R Treat 52. From Beyond 53. Creepshow 54. Return of the Living Dead 55. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein 56. House of Usher
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Nov 1, 2019 14:31
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 Bad Boy Bubby, 1993 I did not mean to end my horror marathon on this movie, but being Europe and it being the first of November in our time zone, it turns out I got a family gathering in a about hour and i I got to finish on this. A movie only loosely related horror at the start. It's horror the same way Pink Flamingos is horror movie. A guy, whatever the technical term for autism brought on by neglect, has been raised in isolation discover there's a world outside of his apartment after killing his mom. Look, this movie is one of my all time favorite movies and I got to finish it here without the time to write a proper review. Just loving watch it. Now I got to take a shower and pretend I haven't drunk three six pacs + booze. What end to this when I had so many movies planed. I'll score all I've seen later.
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Nov 1, 2019 14:38
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This is my first year doing this. I work from home, and watch things on another screen. When I do watch movies by myself, it's usually horror movies because my fiance hates them and I don't get the guilt of "Oops, I watched this very funny movie without you, sorry!". If I'd known this was a yearly thing, I would have saved some of my August and September watches for October! Only got to 21 this year, and probably could've made it to 31 if real life things didn't come up and I planned better instead of fussing around on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Shudder trying to find something that sounded good or I obviously overlooked. The Great: The Autopsy of Jane Doe - My only two complaints were the father putting two and two together too fast and the ending not mattering. Everything in between though was creepy! Body Bags - How did I ever overlook this one? It was corny, but presentation was everything. IT: Chapter 2 - While not as good as the first one, Pennywise doin' clown poo poo with his grown up friends was everything I wanted. Midsommar - When I say I'm not looking forward to ever watching this again, that's a compliment. Realistic tension and realistic gore used to great effect. Nothing in the runtime is wasted. I could see how this would absolutely ruin a couple's night if they watched it together, dang. Nightmare Cinema - First, fourth, and maybe I'll even give the fifth segments lots of praise. Out of all the horror anthologies I've watched this year, the first segment is my favorite. One Cut of the Dead - Have enough people said "go in blind" so often that even that gives away too much? It's only that it's not in English that I can't recommend to more people. Well I could, I just know they wouldn't watch it. The Good: The First Purge - Like I said, I was already sick of the Purge concept after the first movie. They were just an excuse to film mayhem and carnage. This was good political commentary that turned into Die Hard in the last act, but even that was entertaining. In the Tall Grass - It's Stephen King's Cube. The Taking of Deborah Logan - The Visit was better at building tension, but this movie had a crazier ending. Trilogy of Terror - Apparently I missed this somehow. Suffered a lot from being made for TV, I think. The Okay: The Box - A good way to stretch out a short story. The accents were terrible. Crawl - Just your average creature feature. Fun to watch, easy to forget. The Gate - Campy 80's fun. Haunt - There's some genuine tension with things like the characters reaching into holes in the wall and not all of the villains reading out of the same playbook, but once the slashery stuff started happening it stopped doing anything original. Lake Mungo - A somber tale of loss and accepting death would have been better if any of the girl's family showed any emotion. Tales from the Hood 2 - Keith David is great, the rest of the acting not so much. The Bad: The Dead Don't Die - I should have known that with a cast full of people whose work I usually love that this was going to be a dud. It is so dull, and the fourth wall breaking isn't nearly as cute as they think it is, or cute at all. Eli - The plot didn't make sense at all. It was a by-the-numbers "is the patient really insane or is he haunted?" until the plot twist which didn't do anything original. Phantasm - Bad, awkward acting and a terrible plot. No wonder it spawned a bunch of sequels. Terrifier - Gore porn. Not for me. Trick 'r Treat - Way too mean-spirited for me. Innocent kids or animals getting murdered in horror movies is hard to sell to me unless there's some emotional meaning to it.
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Nov 1, 2019 14:55
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Friday the 13th Part 2, 1981 4.5/5 Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers 4.5/5 The Most Dangerous Game, 1932 4.5/5 Mandy, 2018 4.5/5 (might get higher on rewatch) The People Under the Stairs, 1991 4.5/5 The Old Dark House, 1932 3.5/5 The Autopsy of Jane Doe, 2016 4/5 Annihilation, 2018 4.5/5 30 Days of Night, 2007 4/5 Maniac Cop, 1988 3.5/5 The Little Shop of Horrors, 1960 3.5/5 Little Shop of Horrors, 1986 5/5 Bone Tomahawk, 2015 4.5/5 The Vampire Lovers, 1970 4.5/5 The Fog, 1980 4.5/5 Suspiria, 2018 5/5 The Wolf Man, 1941 3.5/5 The Wolfman, 2010 4/5 The War of the Worlds, 1953 5/5 Night of the Living Dead, 1968 5/5 Creature from the Black Lagoon, 1954 4/5 The Invisible Man, 1933 5/5 Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, 1920 4.5/5 Jaws, 1975 5/5 Teen Wolf, 1985 4/5 The Rocky Horror Picture Show, 1975 5/5 It Came from Outer Space, 1953 4/5 The Evil Dead, 1981 4.5/5 Lady Frankenstein, 1971 3.5/5 The Others, 2001 5/5 Peeping Tom, 1960 5/5 Curse of the Fly, 1965 4.5/5 Death Proof, 2007 4/5 Intruder, 1989 4/5 Evil Dead II, 1987 5/5 Bubba Ho-Tep, 2002 5/5 Bad Boy Bubby, 1993 5/5 Not a single bad movie this year. Nor sure if I did any of the challenges.
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Nov 1, 2019 15:12
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Well I finished with 19 of 31. All physical media I owned except Evil Dead The Musical, which was fuckin great. Best I've done. Final tally edited in shortly. Dude Bro Party Massacre III (actually watched 4 times this month showing it to different people) Prometheus Cabin Fever 28 Days Later 28 Weeks Later Alien: Covenant The Shining Annabelle Ghost Ship House of Wax Return to House on Haunted Hill Mama The Thing 1982 The Thing 2011 Dreamcatcher Cats Eye Creepshow It Evil Dead The Musical I loved all the reviews I read and added ever more obscure films to a list of things to watch in the future. Goons have the best taste in horror, and it was a fun challenge. Next year I'll aim lower. That's the great thing. There's always next year. Keep it spooky ya' fucks. Seeya in the Horror Thread. Untrustable fucked around with this message at 15:27 on Nov 1, 2019 |
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Nov 1, 2019 15:18
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Maxwell Lord posted:Never fully bought into the first, because Yeah it kills the date rapist and also the girl he was molesting. A flawed hero to be sure.   23. Centipede Horror This loving rocked! I say this as someone who hates creepy crawlies. Yes there are centipedes, and yes there is plenty of horror but it has so much more to offer. It was made in China and is supposed to take place in “Southeast Asia.” I’m not sure exactly where because no one is ever more specific then that. The movie follows a guy as he investigates the mysterious illness and death of his sister. This leads to some cool scenes depicting various forms of Asian mysticism. The movie eventually becomes Dragonball Z by way of Asian mysticism and it is awesome! Oh yeah and there are also centipedes. How can you not love that an actress swallowed live centipedes and vomited them on camera. My final stupid thoughts: Clearly this movie was made with the use of time machines as the male lead is wearing polo shirts with Vineyard Vines logos even though the movie was made in 1982.
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Nov 1, 2019 15:27
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At 10pm, I finally completed the last of the Samhain challenges. I took them in order, so that made planning more difficult. I'll have a more complete write-up/thoughts post later about my challenge, Samhain challenges and Hooptober challenges, but here are the final two for the challenges: SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #12 - Cavalcade 49. Nightmare Cinema (2018) - New to me #26  I’m working through the Post Mortem podcast, and I’m at the point where Nightmare Cinema is still in production, so I thought what a great time to hit this next challenge with this movie. Overall, it wasn’t *bad*, but only a couple of the shorts really sang. The wraparound is basically so thin that it can be ignored. Another issue is with 5 segments packed into 2 hours, you get 20-30 minutes per segment, and the ones that fell flat really seemed like with another 15 minutes they may improved. But anyway, the first segment was paced very oddly, with a mid-segment twist that basically started the segment over, so you end up with even less time to tell the story. The second segment was riffing on the “Eye of the Beholder” episode of Twilight Zone, but really telegraphed where it was going. The third segment. “Mashit” from Riyuhei Kitamura was bonkers and easily my favorite - a demonic presence at a Catholic school. Bright lights and a bloodbath, who can kill a child indeed. The 4th segment felt very Lynchian, and I liked it hinting at what’s really going on without really telling you. The last segment was just very ok. Over all, I didn’t think it was a strong anthology, but “Mashit” makes it worth the price of admission. SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #13 - Maniac 50. Anaconda (1997) - Rewatch #14  This seemed to fit the criteria - fairly low rated movie that I love. I probably haven’t seen it often enough to really rate as a guilty pleasure, but close enough. It’s a perfect movie about a documentary crew going down the Amazon and getting wrapped up with an insane snake hunter and his white Movies So Far - 50: Rewatches: 14 - Deep Red, One Cut Of The Dead, The Endless, Train To Busan, TCM 2, Zombi 2, Halloween 3, The Witch, Jason X, Piranha, The Ritual, As Above So Below, Critters, Anaconda New To Me: 26 - Dolls, Borderlands, Child’s Play (2019), Memory: Origins Of Alien, Who Can Kill A Child?, The Seventh Curse, Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde, Hell House LLC 2, The Red Queen Kills Seven Times, Bones, Hobo With A Shotgun, Without Name, The Doll, The Hitch-Hiker, Hatchet 2, Sadako vs. Kayako, Phantom Of The Paradise, Brightburn, Critters Attack!, Howling VI, Uncle Sam, Extra Terrestrial Visitors, Pulse, Forbidden World, Beyond Reanimator, Nightmare Cinema Finally Watching Owned Movies: 10 - Werewolf Of London, She-Wolf Of London, Isle Of The Snake People, Creature From The Black Lagoon, Revenge Of The Creature, Paranormal Activity, Eyes Without A Face, Phantom Of The Opera, Brightburn, Tomb of LIgeia Challenges Completed: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13 I also had another couple of hours before going to bed so I threw on another "guilty pleasure" that I wasn't sure would count for horror, but coincidentally enough has shown up twice in the last two pages, Death Proof. It's my favorite Tarantino. However, I didn't count it towards the challenge since ending on a Samhain challenge and with an even 50 seemed.... nice.
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Nov 1, 2019 15:31
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Better to be burnt-out by the horror genre than melancholic and yearning for more on Nov 1st, and I'm at the former point! Crazy, fun year. Final quick reviews to throw in: # 33 PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1987) I'm sure it has been said before, but this is the John Carpenterest John Carpenter film. What I found most intriguing was the New Age Christianity which almost seemed derivative of The Urantia Book - such as Christ being an extraterrestrial. This movie has no apologies and goes all out in kookiness. Plenty of tension and creepily angled and lit shots in this. SCORE: 7.2 / 10 *** #34 HEREDITARY (2018) At last, I got to see this. I have never felt such devastation and dread and terror in a movie as I did when the girl, well, you know what happened... Beautifully shot and deeply in love with classic horror like The Shining, this film is smooth from beginning to end, if not ultimately thin on story and a bit muddled in its concepts of inherited mental illness and an evil spiritualist cult. It pushed its luck a bit too far in the last minute, and I would have been happy to see it end with Peter going up into the treehouse. SCORE: 7.7 / 10
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Nov 1, 2019 16:02
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 24. Death Spa I think they were trying to go for the record of having the most bewbs per capita in a horror movie without just being straight up soft core porn. It’s filled with pure distilled 80s gym fashion including leotards, spandex, headbands, and of course even more bewbs. The script managed to take a fairly simple premise of a Spa that kills people and make it overly complicated. Were people dying because of a computer malfunction, insurance fraud, a creepy nerd, ghosts, or satan? After watching this, I’m still not exactly sure myself. It did feature a guy getting killed by a Pec Fly machine so that was pretty rad. It also featured my new favorite 80s burn:  “why don’t you show off for me?” “I never waste effort in the gym, besides I’m Betamax, you’re VHS.” 25. Phantasm The final movie of this year’s Dismember the Alamo and my second rewatch of the challenge but I’m not complaining. Phantasm stills holds up as good as the first time I saw it. It finds a sweet spot for me between teen action/adventure and horror. One thing I noticed on this viewing was the lighting. There were several scenes where everything is black with the exception of a small area in the middle of the scene where the actors are. I thought this was a really cool way to create a sense of isolation and dread on a limited budget. Another thing I noticed this time around was how frequently the characters’ plans involved splitting up, only to immediately get into trouble. Then as soon as the trouble is resolved, everyone wants to split up again. I wonder if this was intention to go along with the dream-like atmosphere of the movie. I felt similar to this in a dream last night where I kept doing the same thing over and over again.
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Nov 1, 2019 16:07
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Alright, home stretch, my final five movies, including the final 3 Samhain challenges, all watched on Halloween. They were some doozies! 59 King Kong (1933)  Super Samhain Challenge #3 Horror Noire [New York] Ok this takes a while to get going, and the way Ann is treated is pretty lovely. But when we get to the island things starts moving, and the back half is just non-stop Kong action. Considering that nowadays the main complaints about Kaiju movies always seems to be that there’s not enough monster action, it is amazing this movie got it so right. The makers realized that the main reason people would go see this movie is to see a giant ape fighting monsters so they delivered. I had heard about the T-rex fight, but I didn’t realize how much other dinos and monsters there would be which was pretty awesome. I also was really impressed that in many moments with Kong, you also had human characters in the same shot which really helped to give a sense of scale. The tragic ending on the Empire State Building also featured some brilliant, iconic shots. Fantastic movie.  60 The Thing from Another World (1951) Super Samhain Challenge #4 Inktober prompts Freeze, Snow & Husky (in two different ways) [Alaska] Ok, so technically only the opening scene is set in Alaska with all the rest occurring somewhere on the north pole, but this has been on my list for a while so I’m counting it anyways. This was great! It moves incredibly fast, mainly because of the near constant barrage of sharp dialogue. There are a lot of characters, but they are all fleshed out enough to stand apart and everyone gets their moment. The conflict between the soldiers and the scientist was done well and even the romance felt natural. The increasing escalation of poo poo hitting the fan was great and, having seen the remake, kept me wondering if it would go the same way or do its own thing. The actual “thing” action was cool, with the burning scene being the highlight, but this movie really shines in the interactions between the characters.  61 Martin (1976) [Pennsylvania] This was another movie that was on my watchlist for a very long time, and since a horror marathon isn’t complete without a George Romero film, I finally got around to it. A raw, realistic take on the vampire myth, I liked this a lot. The pacing, music and black and white scenes create a nice atmosphere. The home invasion gone wrong was very intense. There are a lot of themes explored with regard to family, religion and myth formation that merit a rewatch at some point not sandwiched in the middle of a 5 movie marathon.  62 Misery (1990) Super Samhain Challenge #11 All Hail the King [Colorado] Excellent thriller, with a great performance by Kathy Bates who deservedly won an Oscar for it. Really don’t have a lot to say about this one other than to recommend it.  63 The Return of the Living Dead (1985) [Kentucky] What better way to cap the month off with a movie that I’ve heard so many good things about and that seemed right up my alley but still has somehow slipped by me until now. This was a lot of fun. From the way it pays homage to its predecessor, the music, the entertaining characters and some really cool zombie designs this movie just works on all fronts.
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Nov 1, 2019 16:19
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28. Man Bites Dog Extremely dark comedy/fake documentary about a film crew following a serial killer as he goes about his day. The actor playing Benoit does an incredible job of selling the character. He's goofy like the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz, but also racist, uncaring, and at times proud and vengeful. He goes about his killings like they're no big deal and just what he does for a profession. It's progressively twisted as the movie progresses. The most unnerving thing about the whole production is how matter of fact Benoit is about what he is doing. It's worth your time. Not especially gruesome, more bleak and crushing. The budget for this movie was miniscule and the crew did such a great job of bringing this story to life. It doesn't look cheap, it looks authentic. 4/5 29. WNUF Halloween Special (rewatch) I watched this for the first time last year and really enjoyed it. Rewatched with the wife this year and she enjoyed it a bunch also. WNUF is made to look like a television broadcast from the 80's that has been recorded with a vcr complete with commercials and local political smear ads. It's all really well done. It's funny throughout and some of the commercials look completely authentic. I just love this one. The lovely thing is while it was available on Prime Streaming last year, this year it's not on anything. I ended up finding a dvd copy for the rewatch. On the plus side, the dvd comes with outtakes, commentary, and a feature on how the video was made to look older than it actually is. I highly recommend WNUF especially if you want something fun to watch with some people that aren't in to all out scary movies. 4/5 30. Slumber Party Massacre II This one is WORLDS better than the original. The villain is just hamming it up in every scene. He's quotes from rock n roll hits, plays some original tunes, and dances while tormenting the group of teens that just wanna drink and have sex. This movie also carries on a feature from the first movie of having the girl with the biggest boobs not take her top off. Oh, I didn't mention that the villain of this one has an electric guitar drill, because he does. This one is a lot of fun. It's so silly and I love it. 5/5 31. The Blair Witch Project (rewatch) I haven't seen this one since it came out back in 1999. Back then I very rarely watched scary movies and I can remember watching it in the dark and being thoroughly freaked out. A rewatch this many years later with so many found footage horror movies under my belt, well, it's still good. It's not amazing, but it's really effective and really succeeds by having the characters act like people would in a lovely situation. They get mad at each other but they're stuck together so they forego staying mad at one another to try to find their way out of the situation. In my memory, the section at the beginning with the crew talking to people in the nearby town was much longer. That whole section is great because you get a good variety of different stories about the urban legend of the witch. The end sequence was still intense and engaging. It's a really impressive movie that holds up well especially considering it was made on a tiny budget. Yay, made it to 31! I'm going to reread through the thread to put together a list for next year. Thanks to everyone else who has written up reactions and reviews. I find new favorites because of this thread each year.
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Nov 1, 2019 16:30
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 SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #12: Cavalcade of Creepiness26. XX I feel like another title for this Anthology could have been “Mother’s Day” as three of the four stories seem to be horrific spins on the depths of a mother’s love for her children. I thought 3 of the 4 stories were excellent and I would highly recommend this one. In the first short I noticed that the mother is initially depicted as uncaring as she brushes off what's going on with her son. However towards the end of the short you can see her fantasizing about how she would literally give an appendage if it meant nourishing and protecting her family. The Birthday Party depicted how even though a Mom isn’t perfect, she will still go through pretty much anything to protect her kids. Even despite not getting the respect or anything really in return. The third short, “Don’t Fall” is the only one that fell a little flat for me. It seemed like it was a pretty paint by numbers story. Kids go somewhere they shouldn’t and they’re killed because of it. Unless there is some serious subtext that I’m missing, this one didn’t feel like it fit with the rest of the anthology. My favorite short of the 4 was “Her Only Living Son” which returns to the theme of motherhood. I thought it was beautiful how it depicted the mother’s love for her son, even when anyone else would have run away and left him to his fate. I love how at the end she tells him that she did everything for him - was there for him when he was sick, helped him through his troubles, and even ran away from a satanic cult. In short, Mom’s are awesome.
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Nov 1, 2019 16:37
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Summary/Final Thoughts I combined Hooptober with the SA challenge, and additionally only tackled the Samhain challenges in order. I tried, where possible, to overlap between SA and Hooptober, since Hooptober challenges allowed a movie to be used for multiple categories, but SA a movie could only count for one thing for me. My personal goal was 10 new movies, 10 rewatches, and 10 movies I owned that I hadn’t watched my copy yet, with 1 wildcard. That part was easy, and I think next year I’ll go back to 31 new-to-me movies or something else. Best New Movie Lots of contenders here. Dr. Jeckyll And Mr Hyde was great, Borderlands was fantastic folky fun, and Pulse was unsettling and heartbreaking, but I think the award goes to Phantom Of The Paradise. That movie was bonkers in all the right ways. Favorite Rewatch Again, there are a lot of contenders. Jason X is a yearly watch for me now, revisiting The Endless and The Ritual was great, but I did see One Cut Of The Dead *twice* during October, in addition to the two or three times I saw it before that, so I have to say that gets the award. Best Glad I Own It This is a two-way tie between Eyes Without A Face and Tomb Of Ligeia. Eyes was just a beautiful movie to watch, and in Tomb Vincent Price throws a cabbage at a cat. Biggest Surprise Besides the aforementioned Phantom of the Paradise, one of the more surprising movies were Pulse, which was just so haunting for a movie described on IMDB as “Two groups of people discover evidence that suggests spirits may be trying to invade the human world through the Internet.” Bones was also surprising in how good it was - I expected drek but it certainly delivered a fun watch. Weirdest Movie Either Hobo With A Shotgun or Phantom Of The Paradise. Let’s say both. Every decade from the 1920s was touched, I think, and since I was showing some old Meliere between movies on Friday nights, I’ve hit a range of movies from 1896 to 2019. Thanks again for running this and having the challenges, and thanks to everyone watching and posting, this thread has introduced me to soooo many good movies. Challenges Completed: #1 - Movie Of The Month - Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde (1931) #2 - Dead And Buried - Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954) #3 - Horror Noire - Bones (2001) #4 - Inktober (snow) - Cold Prey 2 (2008) #5 - Tourist Trap (Mongolia) - The Doll (2017) #6 - Sometimes They Come Back - Hatchet 2 (2010) #7 - Monster Mash - Sadako vs. Kayako (2016) #8 - Happy Holidays - Uncle Sam (1996) #9 - Hackers - Kairo/Pulse (2001) #10 - Naval Gazing (chosen by basebf555 and Franchescanado) - Forbidden World (1982) #11 - All Hail The King - Tomb Of Ligeia (1964) #12 - Cavalcade Of Creepiness - Nightmare Cinema (2018) #13 - Maniac - Anaconda (1997)
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Nov 1, 2019 16:39
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 27. House of the Devil This is the only one of the challenge so far that didn’t do it for me. I like a slow burn horror movie that builds atmosphere. Heck, Midsommar is my favorite new horror movie of the year. The difference here, is that I didn’t feel that the build up paid off. All we got was maybe 10 minutes of action followed by yet another Rosemary’s Baby setup. These cults really have to come up with some new material other then birthing the anti-christ. The other thing that bugs me was the amount of red flags that would have made a reasonable person in that situation “nope out.” Contrast that with Midsommar where I can see the characters getting pitched the idea of – “hey, let’s go to my village in Sweden, do some shrooms, and party on our spring break wooooo!” The characters there don’t know they’re in a horror movie and its reasonable for them to go. In this movie the red flags include: the guy hanging up and not meeting her, getting her home phone number even though she didn’t give it to him, the house being in the middle of nowhere, the guy saying he doesn’t have much money then 5 minutes later offering $400 to baby sit for 4 hours, the guy refusing to allow a second person around, lying about having a child and claiming he needs elder care, the guy not even showing her to the older woman she is supposed to care for.. Holy crap! Was this all intentionally bad, to go along with the retro film making or was this just lazy writing? I did enjoy the fact that it was filmed in retrovision and the house it took place in was gorgeous. One last odd thing I noticed was that the director made frequent use of a still camera. This resulted in the effect that made me feel like I spent an unusually long amount of time looking at Jocelin Donahue’s butt. Each scene the camera would wait patiently as she would take a long walk to exit the shot. At about the halfway mark I was thinking that it was getting a little excessive.
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Nov 1, 2019 16:51
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Final Nightmare: 1: 1922 2: Anguish (2015) 3: Body Bags 4: Cold Skin 5: Demons 6: Escape Room 7: The Fly (1958) 8: Goosebumps 2 9: Hausu 10: In the tall grass 11: Joker 12: Kuntilanak 13: The Addams Family (2019) 14: Mercy 15: November 16: Overlord 17: People Under the Stairs 18: Q the Winged Serpent 19: Silence of the Lambs 20: Resident Evil Vendetta 21: One Cut of the Dead 22: Godzilla vs Megalon 23: Silver Bullet 24: Train to Busan 25: Nightmare Before Christmas 26: Beetlejuice 27: Under the Skin 28: Not a Creature was Stirring 29: V/H/S: Viral 30: The Lighthouse 31: Westworld 32: X, the man with the X-ray eyes 33: You’re Next 34: Zodiac THE SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #1. The Best Month: Westworld #2. Dead & Buried: The Fly #3. Horror Noire: People under the Stairs #4. Inktober: Kuntilanak #5. Tourist Trap: November #6. Sometimes They Come Back: The Addams Family #7. Monster Mash-up: Godzilla vs. Megalon #8 Happy Holidays!: Not a Creature was Stirring #9 Hackers: Resident Evil Vendetta #10 Navel Gazing: One Cut of the Dead #11 All Hail The King: Silver Bullet #12 Cavalcade of Creepiness: V/H/S/ Viral #13 Maniac: Nightmare Before Xmas That was a blast. I think my alphabet challenge hurt me more than helped, but it did help narrow my focus a lot (34 movies and only 3 of them were rewatches!). A lot of my issues were just time though, I had one busy week there that put me way behind, plus I had a focus on watching stuff with my son last year and I kind of ran out of stuff I could watch with him. I had to get a little creative this week, including waking up early a couple of days to get a few in in the mornings. Still though, saw some good stuff I wouldn't have otherwise, and I enjoyed the Samhain challenges this year. Best New Movie: Zodiac was probably the best movie I watched for this, but I'd say I enjoyed Lighthouse more. Worst New Movie: I guess Cold Skin or In the Tall Grass but I didn't really see anything too awful this year. Highlights: Q, The Winged Serpent and Hausu were both new to me and both are ones I intend to rewatch in future. They're just so delightfully weird in their own ways. Movies about two men losing their minds in a lighthouse: 2
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Nov 1, 2019 16:53
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15. Drive-In Massacre - 1976 (Severin) This movie was a hoot. Really cheesy, with some funny performances. The movie lacks quality execution on most fronts, and meanders a bit too much, but the abrupt ending is one of the funniest things I've seen in a movie this month. Oh and the music in this is hilarious. 2/5 16. Bloodstained Butterfly 1971 (Arrow Video) A neat take on the murder mystery genre. I feel like cheating for counting this on my horror list since it's not a full on giallo and basically a movie length version of Law and Order: Italy. That's not a knock, it really executed well on the whole premise and had a pretty good ending as well. The forensic and court room scenes are really enjoyable. I was a big fan of the scene where they show the amount of people it took to look over fingerprints. The music, as usual, is a highlight of the film, and there's a few twists and turns to make it all worthwhile. 3/5 (My letterboxd list: Currently at 31 films total.) My full 15 bluray list: 1. Viy 2. Mausoleum 3. Night beast 4. The Zero Boys 5. Tales of Terror 6. Zombie 7. Christmas Evil 8. Mountaintop Motel Massacre 9. Evil Town 10. The Girl Knew Who Knew Too Much 11. Suspiria 12. Island of Lost Souls 13. The Church 14. The Brood 15. Drive-In Massacre 16. The Bloodstained Butterfly
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Nov 1, 2019 16:55
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1-Scream 2 Viy SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #1: The Best Month 3- One Cut of the Dead SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #10: Navel Gazing 4- Belzebuth SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #5: Tourist Trap 5- Texas Chainsaw Massacre 6- Magic 7-Dead and Buried SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #2: Dead & Buried 8-Brain Dead 9-Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #6: Sometimes They Come Back 10-Body Bags SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #12: Cavalcade of Creepiness 11-Innkeepers 12-Bad Moon 13-Dog Soldiers 14-Bones SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #3: Horror Noire 15-The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake 16-Return of the Living Dead 2 17-Suspiria (2018) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #4: Inktober 18-Suspiria 19-Inferno 20-Ginger Snaps 2 21-Poltergeist 3 22- Shadow of the Vampire 23-Transylvania 6 5000 SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #7: Monster Mash-up 24-Slugs 25-Nosferatu 26-Return of the Living Dead 3 27- Monster Squad SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #13: Maniac 28-Wolfen 29-Blair Witch Project 30-Seed of Chucky 31-Bone Eater Probably should have kept up with the challenges, instead of going back to see if they are covered. Oh well. All of these are new watches, minus Monster Squad. Only a small number of them I would not recommend. Suspiria remake, Seed of Chucky, One Cut of the Dead, and Scream were my favs. Good times yall.
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Nov 1, 2019 16:58
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SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #8: Happy Holidays! 28. Prom Night I saw this was another Jamie Lee Curtis horror movie but I can’t say I ever had an incredible urge to seek it out. So another Samhain challenge success! It kicks off with the creepiest game of hide and seek ever that leads to a girl dying. “We can’t tell anyone because they will say it was our fault.” Yeah, because it was. Fast forward six years later and none of the actors look like they are even remotely near 16 years old. Overall the movie feels like a quaint throwback to a time when if you were a masked killer seeking revenge on high school kids you had to stab them instead of shooting them. My favorite subtle 70s touch was the Kiss poster in the school cafeteria. SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #11: All Hail The King29. Dreamcatcher – Hail to the King It started out as such a good horror movie, then it became a stupid science fiction movie. I loved the isolation of the cabin in the woods. It had a great build of suspense with the animals getting red spots on them and running away in droves. The snake monsters were horrific even though the CG doesn’t really hold up by 2019 standards. I love the scene with Beaver sitting on the toilet containing an alien and trying to fight the need to pickup a toothpick. I totally believe that someone with severe enough OCD would eventually let this overcome his survival instinct. Then the whole thing falls apart and we lose all that great tension that was built in the first 30 minutes. I think it would have been a much better movie if it just stayed horror and the script let the intentions of the aliens remain unknown. 30. Elvira Mistress of the Dark It’s not really a great comedy. I felt like most of the jokes fell flat and the horror elements were relatively light. I was just about ready to write this one off…then I got to the last scene. It rocketed this movie back into my good graces. 5/5 Twirling Tassels
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Nov 1, 2019 17:03
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Okay, here's my summary/final thoughts. I surpassed my goal of 31 movies for a total of 37. I also completed all the challenges: Dead of Night | Child's Play (2019) | Escape Room | Hell Night | The Wind | Evil Dead (2013) | Cure (Challenge #1) | Tigers Are Not Afraid | The Craft | Tower of London | In Fabric | Popcorn | Cube | Uninvited | Galaxy of Terror (Challenge #2) | Brightburn | Body Bags | The Tingler | The Wax Mask | Cube 2: Hypercube | Dark Water (2002) | The Ruins (Challenge #4) | Viy | The Haunting | Bones (Challenge #3) | A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) (Challenge #6) | November (Challenge #5) | The Monster Squad (Challenge #7) | April Fool's Day (Challenge #8) | Fido (Challenge #10) | In the Tall Grass (Challenge #11) | Trilogy of Terror (Challenge #12) | The Lighthouse | Resident Evil (Challenge #9) | Halloween (2007) | The Faculty (Challenge #13) | Horror Express 8 of those were re-watches, so I saw 29 new horror movies this month! (Side note, Letterboxd says I have watched a total of 973 different horror movies, which is higher than I would've thought  )Out of the 37, I only rated 7 of them below a 3/5, so that's an excellent good:bad ratio. Out of the first time watches only: Best: The Lighthouse Dead of Night Viy Cure Worst: NOES remake Cube 2: Hypercube Biggest disappointments: The Tingler Trilogy of Terror Biggest surprises: Bones The Ruins Child's Play (2019) Thank you Fran for running this, as always!  also if anyone wants to follow me on Letterboxd, I always do short write ups for every film I watch and I'll follow you back as well: https://letterboxd.com/daveski/
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Nov 1, 2019 17:06
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SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #13: Maniac 31. Braham Stoker’s Dracula It’s funny, I never really thought of this as a guilty pleasure, but in the last few years I’ve noticed a lot of people badmouthing this movie. I get it, the movie took a lot of artistic liberties and as a result the title’s not really accurate. Upon rewatch, it's still visually stunning even today. It hits a sweet spot between the 90s “sexy vampires” and the classic horrific vampires. Gary Oldman’s portrayal of Dracula captured the suave of Lugosi while being about to show the horror of Dracula using the updated practical effects of the time. I even liked Keanu Reeves’ as Jonathan Harker. I remember when I read the book that Harker came off as pretty clueless, despite all of the creepy stuff that was happening around him at Castle Dracula. Reeves’ confused and semi-reserved portrayal of the character worked perfectly for me. After the rewatch, I think this movie is great and I don’t really get the hate it receives. 31 movies watched. 13 Samhain Challenges completed. Oh my God it's over. But as any good horror fan knows... it's never really over. Now I need a rap song to sum up the plots of all the movies I've watched.
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Nov 1, 2019 17:10
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I had a great time with this, though next year I’ll probably skip any attempt at having a theme. Trying to do a deep dive into folk and witchy horror worked fine at the start of the month, but as the challenges piled up and I did more theatrical screenings or movie nights with friends, my list got really unfocused anyway. I feel pretty burned out, not so much from watching movies as from researching challenge options and thinking over my write-ups, both of which took a lot more time than I expected. Next year I should really just cut myself some slack and spend September making a huge watchlist of interesting, easily streamable horror that I can pick through based on mood, runtime, the phase of the moon, or whatever. I finished 34 movies (my goal was 31) as well as all 13 challenges. At least 10 of the movies weren’t from the US (though nearly half of those were UK films), and I watched at least one movie from every decade since the 50s. Out of the movies I hadn’t seen before, my top five were The City of the Dead (1960), Next of Kin (1982), Def by Temptation (1990), Occult (2009), and From a Whisper to a Scream (1987). Three of those were challenge picks I may not have watched otherwise, so for me, the challenges were really successful at nudging me towards different types of movies. My favorites of the things I’d already seen were Halloween II (1981), Halloween III (1982), Phenomena (1985), A Return to Salem’s Lot (1987), and Slugs (1988). The biggest surprise was probably Interface (1985), which I picked because it was free on YouTube and fit one of the challenges. I was expecting a shaky student film along the lines of The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1982), something slow and forgettable that ticked off that "killer technology" box. Instead, Interface was an cheap but engaging thriller with a few solid characters and some laugh-out-loud moments. Overall I liked most of these movies, and even the ones that weren’t amazing tended to have moments that made them worth checking out. I also got a lot out of reading everyone else's reviews, so thanks to everyone who posted their thoughts, came up with challenge ideas, shared movie suggestions, or worked to put all this together. Watched: 1. Burn, Witch, Burn (1962); 2. TerrorVision (1986); 3. Evilspeak (1981) - Challenge #1; 4. Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971); 5. The City of the Dead (1960); 6. The Witches (1966); 7. The Crimson Cult (1968); 8. A Return to Salem’s Lot (1987) - Challenge #2; 9. Next of Kin (1982); 10. The Ritual (2017); 11. Def by Temptation (1990) - Challenge #3; 12. Halloween III (1982); 13. House by the Cemetery (1981); 14. The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1982); 15. Phenomena (1985); 16. Color Me Blood Red (1965) - Challenge #4; 17. Girls With Balls (2018); 18. Tarot (2009) - Challenge #5; 19. Jug Face (2013); 20. Wake Wood (2009); 21. Happy Death Day (2017); 22. Poltergeist II (1986) - Challenge #6; 23. Wolfman’s Got Nards (2018); 24. Spookies (1986); 25. The Midnight Hour (1985) - Challenge #7; 26. P2 (2007) Challenge #8; 27. Dan Curtis’s Dracula (1973); 28. Interface (1985) - Challenge #9; 29. Occult (2009) - Challenge #10; 30. Pet Sematary (2019) - Challenge #11; 31. From a Whisper to a Scream (1987) - Challenge #12; 32. The She-Creature (1956); 33. Slugs (1988); 34. Halloween II (1981) - Challenge #13
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Nov 1, 2019 17:12
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#31: Hellraiser (1987) Watched on Hulu Hellraiser is such a comfortable rewatch. There's a lot of individual things that I don't necessarily like, the effects and acting can be rather hit-or-miss, the look and sound of the movie are acceptable without enormously standing out, but the combination of all of it amounts to something special. The cherry on top are the Cenobites, Barker's S&M demons are some of the best figures in horror, and Doug Bradley's Hell Priest, Pinhead if you're nasty, is brilliant and magnetic. I wish the effects work was a bit better on the whole, because some of the Frank reconstitution bits are really effective and viscerally gross, while other bits clearly just look like latex getting pulled apart with fishhooks. Oh well. Relax, tune in, and see the sights! .5/5Watched: 1. From Beyond 2. Evil Dead 3. Phantasm 4. Candyman 5. Phenomena 6. Boar 7. Mandy 8. A Quiet Place 9. The Crazies 10. Friday the 13th 11. Ginger Snaps 12. The Collector 13. Body Bags 14. The Lost Boys 15. The Devil's Rejects 16. Slugs 17. The Midnight Meat Train 18. House of 1000 Corpses 19. Final Prayer/The Borderlands 20. Lake Mungo 21. High Tension 22. Castle Freak 23. Suspiria 24. Suspiria 25. Chopping Mall 26. The Lighthouse 27. The VVitch 28. Tigers Are Not Afraid 29. Evil Bong 30. Alien 31. Hellraiser Special credit to my newborn, he slept through god knows how many disembowelings and eviscerations without ever raising a peep! Daddy's little monster indeed.
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Nov 1, 2019 17:22
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