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Alright Fran you motherfucker. I'm awake, I'm hungover, I got a bloody mary, Halloween candy, and a few more recaps to write. You ain't givin me no goofus avatar this year. 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 22) Suspiria 23) The Church 24) Train to Busan 25) A Cure For Wellness 26) Haunt 27) Exorcist III 28) Rosemary's Baby 29) Mandy 30) Revenge 31) A Quiet Place 32) Climax 33) Halloween 28) Rosemary's Baby: We were talking in another one of the threads about Midsommar and The Witch being a good double feature and I think this would pair well with either of them too. Absolutely brutal and heart-wrenching to watch Rosemary's agency being taken away from day one. John Cassavettes plays a great scumbag. I always forget there's another five minutes after she sees the baby - in my head it's just hard ending there. The rest adds so much. Hail satan. 5/5 29) Mandy*: Mandy is not a revenge film, it's a power fantasy for the mourning. Mandy is about watching someone you love wither away before your eyes. Of course you would do anything you can for someone you love, even kill to protect them, but you can't shoot or decapitate cancer. You can only watch helplessly as it the amorphous, demons within them win. But in Mandy he can, and he does. And it's awesome and violent and trippy and metal as hell. I adore this movie. 5/5 30) Revenge: It certainly is a rape revenge movie. Feminism means now women can make mediocre ones! But seriously, this is pretty decent and that last sequence is genuinely tense but you've seen this movie a million times. There's nothing special here but I didn't regret my time. 3/5 31) A Quiet Place: I suppose I missed the hype train, or needed to see it in theaters to be immersed. But I didn't. And this sucks. It's paced quite well but other than that it's a real dope of a movie that keeps coming up with contrived, forced ways for someone to do a whoopsie and make a noise so the Demogorgon can show up and have the exact same stalking sequence 3-4 times. 1.5/5 32) Climax: Gaspar Noe doesn't know when to stop. There's a line that you get to when you're doing in your face edgelordy poo poo and if you get right up to it you're making a (good) Lars von Trier movie. If you cross it you're making Human Centipede 2. Much like with A Quiet Place the stupidity of some of the events and the repeated use of contrived situations eventually pulled me out of the film. The upside down poo poo at the end was obnoxious. The dancing at the beginning was heckin rad and I wish it was in the service of a better movie. 2/5 33) Halloween 1978: Five stars. This year. Every year. Forever. There were a couple other movies I caught through Scream Stream or going back through some of the Joe Bob Drive Ins now that I have Shudder but if I didn't put them here it's cause I was in and out of them and didn't/couldn't give it my full attention. Favorite New Watch: The Lighthouse Worse New Watch: A Quiet Place weekly font fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Nov 1, 2019 |
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Nov 1, 2019 17:22
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With everything going on in my life, this October just didn't quite feel like October so I didn't get to watch all the horror I wanted. My roommate is no longer sleeping on a hospital bed in the living room, so I'll catch up November - February. 1) Cat's Eye, 1985, 3/5 2) In the Tall Grass, 2019, 3.5/5 3) Night of the Living Dead, 1969, 4.9/5 4) A Vampire in Brooklyn, 1995, 1/5 5) Galaxy of Terror, 1981, 3/5 6) Pledge Night, 1990, 2/5 7) The Shining, 1980, 5/5 8) The Vineyard, 1989, 4/5 9) The Night Stalker, 1972, 4/5 10) Crawl, 2019, 4/5
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Nov 1, 2019 17:25
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Final write-ups incoming. #43. Dr. Giggles (Vudu) A psychotic asylum patient who imagines himself a medical doctor, nicknamed "Dr. Giggles," escapes and returns to his old hometown. There, he sets his sights on Jennifer, a girl in need of heart surgery, as a substitute for the mother who died of heart failure, so that he can "cure" her... and he'll kill anyone who gets in his way. It's odd... I normally hate puns as humor, but I'm willing to give Dr. Giggles a pass on a lot of that. I think it's all down to Larry Drake, the reason to seek this movie out. All the other actors are fine, but Drake is the main show here and he's obviously having a blast throughout. The gore effects are suitably cheesy and over the top, and the whole thing knows it's a goofy romp more than anything truly scary. Which makes it a perfect Halloween choice. (Well, that and I had to go to the doctor's office in the morning - who schedules stuff like that for Halloween?! - and I actually started this movie before going and continued part of it on my phone while in the waiting room. So, it's also perfect for alleviating stress before you go see your doctor.) Also, I never noticed this until last night, but Dr. Giggles is basically Evil Felix the Cat in this movie: He's always carrying around a little black bag that is always conspicuously carrying more than it could feasibly hold. Which I guess fits with the Nightmare on Elm Street 4-style violent live-action cartoon vibe that the film is going for.  /5 #44. Zombieland: Double Tap (Theatrical) The four survivors from the first Zombieland hole up in the White House for a while, but Little Rock, the youngest, splits from the group when she meets a pacifist hippy her own age. The rest pursue her to Babylon, a pacifist commune on top of a building, that has become a magnet for even stronger zombies. It's even more Zombieland, with pretty much the same strengths and weaknesses. It's fine for what it is, but I think we're past the point where "smugly clever zombie comedy with all sorts of attention-grabbing graphic inserts and over-the-top gore" would stand out as novel. Or necessary. I laughed a few times, but it's not terribly funny throughout - the best bits were saved for the end credits sequence, where Bill Murray ends up fighting off zombies during a fictional 2009-era Garfield 3: Flabby Tabby promo tour. It was fine as a time waster, but I just felt that with this much time away, they could have spent a lot more working on the script. /5 #45. The Slumber Party Massacre (Shudder) A crazed killer with a giant drill sets his sights on a group of girls having a slumber party, and starts picking them off one by one. So, I get the point of this, and how broad the filmmaking team was going with the "drill-as-phallic metaphor" thing. And that element works, in a broad, Carol Clover "Men, Women and Chainsaws" sort of sense. And since the behind-the-camera team was largely women, I can appreciate that any sort of titillation and nudity was more organically worked in and less male-gaze-y. (Though, as a low budget 80s slasher, it is still very present.) I just wish a lot of the stuff outside of those elements worked, but it all kinda doesn't come together as well as it should. /5 #46. Freddy vs. Jason (Vudu) Freddy Kruger is in Hell - literally - and can't escape because the residents of Springwood have begun a program to erase him from memory. To reinstill the fear that allowed him to operate, Freddy resurrects Jason Voorhees and sends him to kill some teens in his place. But when Jason won't stop killing Freddy's intended victims, Freddy will have to take matters into his own hands. Ok, I can't be objective about this movie, I just love it so much. It's my favorite Nightmare movie, my favorite Friday movie, one of my favorite horror movies, hell, one of my favorite movies period. I know, on an intellectual level, that there's stuff about it that doesn't really work, like a lot of the acting jobs and some of the reliance on broad color-coding in the back half ("dreams are red, vans are blue," etc.) doesn't really make a lot of sense or play that well. But I don't really care about those elements, either - the film is just a ton of fun and you can tell the filmmakers have a lot of love for both Freddy and Jason and their respective series. Considering how badly this sort of project could go (see the Alien vs. Predator movies for proof of that), it's a minor miracle this came out as good as it did. I watch this pretty much every Halloween, and it's always a treat when I get to do so. Super highly recommended. /5Watched so far: The Curse of Frankenstein, Villains, Horror of Dracula, You're Next, House on Haunted Hill (1959), Halloween 4, Army of Darkness, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), The Fly (1986), Joker, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Beyond the Gates, The First Purge, Rodan, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Halloween II (1981), The Addams Family (2019), The Mummy (1932), Jason X, It Stains the Sands Red, The Invisible Man (1933), Zombieland, Terrified, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, Chopping Mall, Halloween 6, Thirteen Ghosts (2001), The Wolf Man (1941), Brainscan, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Pet Sematary (2019), Insidious, Wounds, Body Bags, House of Dracula, The Seventh Curse, Child's Play 3, Silent Night, Deadly Night 3, Frankenstein (1931), Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein, Dr. Giggles, Zombieland: Double Tap, The Slumber Party Massacre, Freddy vs. Jason
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Nov 1, 2019 17:37
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Wrap up time. It was a super different experience going from last year's target of 15 to a full 31 this year. Last year I started strong, realized how easy it was going to be to hit my goal, slacked off for most of the month, and then finished strong in a post-procrastination frenzy. I didn't really feel much pressure outside of the start and end of the month. This time I knew it was going to come down to the wire since there were a bunch of days I knew way ahead of time I wasn't going to have any time to watch something. That meant I sometimes forged ahead with something even when I wasn't in the mood, or prioritized a movie over some other activity I'd been looking forward to. I don't mean that as a negative though, because to me it was part of the fun. It was nice to have a goal like that that required me to keep moving, and I discovered some really great new stuff this year that I might not have otherwise watched, or at least might not have watched any time soon. Another observation; I on average got way more enjoyment from the movies that didn't need to fit any requirements than I did from the challenges. I was trying to figure out why that was and I think it's because of the way I was approaching the challenges. I mostly used them as an excuse to watch things that seemed culturally relevant but that I'd been putting off for some reason, whereas the other stuff I watched was largely just going through my ever-growing impulse backlog of stuff that looked interesting to me. I think that's a positive thing though, because expanding the type of stuff you watch doesn't just mean watching things that are weird or obscure. I don't usually make an effort to see blockbuster horror, so in my case it was cool to have an excuse, even if I didn't always love it. Some breakdowns! Countries: USA (10) Japan (6.5) Hong Kong (2) Italy (2) UK (2) Canada (2) Soviet Union (1) Belgium (1) India (1) North Korea (1) Sweden (1) Czechoslovakia (1) Spain (1) Australia (1) Some of these are debatable (does Seven Golden Vampires count as UK or Hong Kong?), but I generally went with the first listed option from the IMDB page (generally... I'm not counting Resident Evil as German). But anyways, 14 countries isn't too bad! That's almost one new country every other movie. Unsurprisingly USA takes first by a landslide, and Japan comes in second. I've delved into Japanese horror way more than horror from other countries, so that makes sense too just from an awareness standpoint. Top 5 (not ordered): One Cut of the Dead: If you've paid any attention to this thread at all, there's really nothing more for me to say. The Lighthouse: Incredible theater experience. Gorgeous. Overwhelming. Funny. Oppresive. The Boxer's Omen: If you don't like this (which is fine), our tastes in horror are most likely fundamentally different. Incredible goopy fun. Cremator: Maybe the best movie I saw as part of this challenge. Not specifically my favorite, and not really a Halloween romp, but extremely good nonetheless and absolutely worth seeking out. Anguish: Also extremely good and a ton of fun. I honestly think that most people in this thread would really dig this, and that it deserves to be way more talked about than it seems to be. Mother wants eyes. Misc Recommendations: Gozu: Not for everyone, but this was a strong way to start things off and it really stuck with me. Lynch parallels. Slow, surreal, funny, disturbing. Viy: Worth recommending for the final bit alone, but I thought it was charming and fun the entire way through. Possum: I keep thinking back to this. It's got some problems that stop me from recommending it unequivocally, but what it does well, it does extremely well. This movie is grimy. I think maybe the right way to pitch it is to say that if you like Salad Fingers you should check this out. EGG.: Very strange, kind of slow, but super interesting and worth checking out if you're the type of person who values weirdness and concept over most else. Adventures of Electric Rod Boy: Really fun and pretty short precursor to Tetsuo. House of 1000 Corpses: Everyone seems to have a very different reaction to this. I can't help but think about one of my old high school friends every time I think about this movie. I feel like I know the exact sense of humor and aesthetic that lead to this movie being made and that's very charming to me. Q: Giant flying monster eats the city! It's fun! Halloween (2018): Really enjoyable and well-put together. Tonal shifts between the start and end I think lead a lot of people to feel lukewarm about this, but I really enjoyed it the whole way through. The Phantom Carriage: My attention span isn't always what it needs to be to watch a silent movie, but there's some extremely cool stuff here and it's worth your time. Occult: Haunting and spooky beyond its constraints. Enjoyable fake documentary that does some neat stuff. Mixed Feelings / Bad: Mondo Cane: Exploitative and mean-spirited. Not really worth watching unless you're a fan of this type of thing. Pulgasari: Extremely interesting cultural context, but fairly boring as a movie. The monster's great but not in it nearly enough to justify the watch. The Oily Maniac: High highs and low lows. It's a movie I desperately wanted to love but couldn't bring myself to. Should be fun but a lot of it left me feeling gross, and not in a good way. Most frustrating watch of the month. I don't think I'd try and shoot for more than 31 next year, but I do think I'd like to try and do it again. I cleared out a ton of stuff I'd been wanting to watch for a while, and nearly all of it was worthwhile. Only a few duds, and even those had something interesting about them. The real horror here is that my watchlist has somehow gotten larger from all this, not smaller. It's actually a good thing, because I love finding new stuff, but ever expanding lists always hit me with a little bit of existential dread. Had a really fun time this year and I hope everyone else did too! Discovered a bunch of new stuff from all of you, and I really enjoyed reading everyone's reviews, even if I didn't comment on too many of them. blood_dot_biz fucked around with this message at 18:19 on Nov 1, 2019 |
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Nov 1, 2019 18:04
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Final Thoughts I set out to watch ten movies this year and hit 11, though the specific movies ended up being different than planned. I watched: Phantom Of The Paradise Viy Candyman Hellraiser Vampyr One Cut Of The Dead Bram Stoker's Dracula The House That Dripped Blood The Old Dark House Horror Express Equinox Outside of Horror Express these were all new to me. I ended up liking each movie and don't think there was a bad one in the bunch. If I had to pick a favorite I would have to go with Candyman. It stuck with me the most and I think was the most interesting thematically. Phantom Of The Paradise is a very close second. Least favorite was Equinox, though even then I still liked it overall. This is the first year I've participated in the challenge and I had a great time with it. Thanks for organizing Fran, I'm looking forward to next year!
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Nov 1, 2019 18:15
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deety posted: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. Just as a suggestion, don't worry about picking a theme but accept that you won't want to watch 31 on that theme. Watch a block of things or keep going back to it when you're in the mood. There's a lot of fun to be had with the challenge in saying, "I want to see what [theme/person/whatever] movies are like so I'm going to do a deep dive into them this month," where that deep dive is five or six movies. It doesn't even hurt to make it span a few years of the challenge, especially for ones where the movies are really tough to find. You're right that it doesn't hurt to plan ahead, though. Having a list of things that you want to watch with some gaps for discovery works really well to keep you on track.
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Nov 1, 2019 18:27
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Epilogue Edit: forgot to mention I met my 31 goal and 85% first view goal. Total was 34. 90% were first viewings. TOP 5 5. Mandy / Hereditary (tied!) 4. The Exorcist III 3. The Sixth Sense 2. The Omen (1976) 1. Rosemary 's Baby BOTTOM 5 - these movies hosed me up! 5. Ghosts of Mars 4. Slugs 3. Monster from Green Hell 2. Creepozoids 1. The Loch Ness Horror (this gave me a migraine) Most Delightful: The Phantom of the Paradise, Attack of the Crab Monsters, One Cut of the Dead (tied!) Most "Meh": Insidious Most Surprisingly Decent: A Nightmare on Elm St 3 Best Monster: The Satanic Fluid in Prince of Darkness, if that counts Mokelumne Trekka fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Nov 1, 2019 |
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Nov 1, 2019 18:51
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Random Stranger posted:Just as a suggestion, don't worry about picking a theme but accept that you won't want to watch 31 on that theme. Watch a block of things or keep going back to it when you're in the mood. There's a lot of fun to be had with the challenge in saying, "I want to see what [theme/person/whatever] movies are like so I'm going to do a deep dive into them this month," where that deep dive is five or six movies. It doesn't even hurt to make it span a few years of the challenge, especially for ones where the movies are really tough to find. Yea I like to take a loose, yet still somewhat organized approach. It's not fun to feel obligated to watch a certain movie on a certain night just because that's what my plan says I should do. But at the same time, getting home after a day of work and having zero idea which movie I'm going to watch is a killer because I end up sitting there for 20 minutes trying to decide and that's valuable viewing time wasted.
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Nov 1, 2019 18:59
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32. Happy Birthday To Me (1981) Super Samhain Challenge #8: Happy Holidays! - Watch a slasher that you haven't seen named after a holiday or a well-known cultural event. At an expensive private school, someone is stalking and killing off the "Top Ten" - the richest and snobbiest of the senior class, and it all seems to be centred around Virginia, the newest member who recently recovered from a severe brain injury after a car crash. I predicted that the movie's inevitable twist involving the killer's identity would be a twin thing and it turned out that I was half right. As it is, while the murders are relatively original (although not quite as bizarre as the poster would have you believe, there are so few likeable characters that it makes it difficult to actually get concerned when they start getting bumped off. Am I really supposed to feel sorry for the guy who breaks into Virginia's house at the start of the film to steal her underwear, then taunt her with it later on, when he gets a motorcycle tire to the face? Not that Virginia's much better, as she reacts to this and several other events with only mild annoyance. 33. Dellamorte Dellamore (1994)  Francisco Dellamorte works at the local cemetery with his assistant Ghnagi, tending to the graves and dealing with the "Returners" who come back nearly every night. His life is thrown into turmoil, however, when he encounters the beautiful widow of one of the recently deceased, and falls desperately in love with her. This is another one of those terribly beautiful yet quite baffling movies. Why are the dead rising? Never discussed. Why does no-one else in the town seem to notice? Buggered if we know. It might as well be existential nilhism: the movie for all the sense it sometimes makes. And while Francisco and Ghnagi are great protagonists, there's a suspiciously misogynistic theme that runs through the film that's a bit off-putting. 34. Train To Busan (2016)  A zombie outbreak in South Korea hits, and a disparate group of people find themselves trapped on a train heading to the city of Busan, said to be one of the last places of safety in the country. I feel that this movie isn't so much a zombie movie set on a train as it is a disaster movie where the disaster just so happens to be zombies. It certainly has all the character tropes - a pair of old ladies, an evil businessman you just know is going to screw everyone over to save himself, at least one family drama, some teenagers, someone with some sort of medical condition to add to the danger (pregnancy!)... All that's missing is a dog. And it's brilliant in every way - paced perfectly, with characters that all affect you in some way, and keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout. I love it. 35. Lake of the Dead (1958)  A group of people go to an isolated cabin near a lake to look for the missing brother of one of their group. While they are there strange things seem to happen, that may or may not be linked to a ghost story about a murderous brother who once lived there... I think this movie was trying really hard to be a Norwegian version of a Hitchcock film, what with the ghost story and the mystery of what happened to the missing brother and the psychiatrist periodically wandering in to psychoanalyse someone. And it might have succeeded, if it hadn't suddenly decided to explain everything at the film's climax rather than show us. 36. Night of the Living Dead (1990)  A small group of people find themselves trapped in a farmhouse and under siege from zombies. Tom Savini's remake of George Romero's classic film is not nearly as bad as you might expect. According to Savini, this version does things that Romero originally wanted to have in his original film but couldn't, for various reasons - primarily turning Barbara from passive victim to Action Girl. And maybe it's a little overdone, but hey, when you've got Patricia Tallman in the role you're going to use her to the best of her ability. Tony Todd is also great as Ben, and Harry Cooper is still as unpleasant as ever, played by Tom Towles. 37. Creepshow (1982) Five short stories from a horror comic, brought to life in film. Zombies want cake, monsters are in crates, and Stephen King becomes a walking vegetable, among other things. My favourite short from this movie is the one with Leslie Nielsen, because not only is it quite horrific to me (being slowly drowned on a beach as the tide comes in!) but because Nielsen is such a good actor. It's easy to forget that he can do serious roles if you grew up on his roles in Airplane! and The Naked Gun. The other four stories are pretty good as well, to varying degrees - there's a certain amusement in watching Stephen King turn into a Lovecraftian plant and wondering just how high he was when he agreed to do it, for example, or the cringe-inducing scenes of cockroaches overrunning a Howard Hughes-a-like's apartment. 38. Creepshow 2 (1987)  Another three stories from the Creep, framed in a horror comic wraparound. Not as good as the first film - partly because it only has three stories instead of five, and partly because the stories just aren't as strong this time around. "Chief Woodenhead" is a bit too silly to be scary, "The Raft" was a good short story from King but is truncated and tainted with some rape in the movie, and while "The Hitchhiker" is the best of the lot, it can't really carry the film by itself. New: (27); Jacob's Ladder (1990); Dead Ringers (1988); Prom Night (1980); Exists (2014); Cure (1997); Ravenous (2017); Alucarda (1977); Who Can Kill A Child? (1976); The Seventh Curse (1986); God Told Me To (1976); Blacula (1972); The House That Jack Built (2018); Viy (1967); Mystics in Bali (1981); Eyes Without A Face (1960); Killer Condom (1996); Next of Kin (1982); This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse (1967); Satan's Slave/Pengabdi Setan (1980); Velvet Buzzsaw (2019); Cemetary of Terror (1985); End of the Wicked (1999); Rabid (2019); Battle of the Damned (2013); Happy Birthday To Me (1981); Dellamorte Dellamore (1994); Lake of the Dead (1958) Rewatched: (11); Exorcist III (1990); Halloween (2018); Dead Snow (2009); What We Do In The Shadows (2014); Zombie/Zombi 2/Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979); Deep Red/Profundo Rosso (1976); Rabies (2010); Train to Busan (2016); Night of the Living Dead (1990); Creepshow (1982); Creepshow 2 (1987) Letterboxd list Well, I technically made 31, but I did say it was going to be 31 new films. I blame spending too much time at cat cafes for my birthday and then catching a head cold that aggrivated my sinusitis.
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Nov 1, 2019 19:03
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Final thoughts: I got to 45 movies, of which exactly 31 were new to me, which I'm quite pleased with. I was up to 4:00 am, but I got it done. My number one new movie would probably be Phantasm, though Gremlins 2, Overlord, Aniara, and Castle Freak deserve honorable mentions. Worst new movie was easily Monster Squad; just awful. I named seven movies I was hoping to get to and got to five of them. There was a middle period of the challenge where I was basically just checking out middling Netflix/Amazon poo poo where I probably just have peppered in those last two, but it's actually better than I did last year on the called shots, so some improvement there. Did 12/13 Samhain challenges, missing #10 Navel Gazing. If there was a movie I'd first heard of in this thread I would have gone for it, but everything interesting I saw first somewhere else, like in the horror or genchat threads. Could have done a wildcard, but I have no interest in being given a specific assignment by some random person. So I'm happy with my performance here. All in all in a fun year that got me to watch some movies I really enjoyed that I otherwise might not have put in the effort to put on. Thanks to everyone who participates and makes it such a fun community event.
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Nov 1, 2019 19:05
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Random Stranger posted:You're right that it doesn't hurt to plan ahead, though. Having a list of things that you want to watch with some gaps for discovery works really well to keep you on track. Thanks for the tips. One big issue was that it was relatively easy to find out about things that I was interested in and would fit the various challenges, but some of those were impossible to find even at the video rental place nearby that has tons of rare or OOP movies. I didn't focus my searches enough on availability, which led to too much wasted time. I'm totally awe-struck by how many people managed to get to 45, 60, or more movies this year. With a better strategy (and honestly, just waffling less when it comes to getting a movie on), I may be able to get into the 40s next year, but even making it to 31 meant I had to cut out a lot of other activities.
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Nov 1, 2019 19:11
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deety posted:Thanks for the tips. One big issue was that it was relatively easy to find out about things that I was interested in and would fit the various challenges, but some of those were impossible to find even at the video rental place nearby that has tons of rare or OOP movies. I didn't focus my searches enough on availability, which led to too much wasted time. Yea I mean you can't really watch 50+ movies AND have a job AND have an active social life all in the same month. My social life goes down to basically zero in October, but I'm in my 30's so it's not like I've got ten different Halloween parties to choose from like it was in my younger days.
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Nov 1, 2019 19:21
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I will say, even having gotten to just 31 movies (not counting Alien last night and an unlogged MST3K episode before I realized that they didn't count this year) alongside starting a new job just beforehand, I'm certainly looking forward to getting some quality gaming time in over the next while.
Trash Boat fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Nov 1, 2019 |
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Nov 1, 2019 19:48
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I managed 32 this month. I really wasn't able to keep up with the Super Samhain challenges because of how incredibly busy this month was for me. New to me: 22 Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom | Annihilation | Evil Bong 2 | Overlord | Dead of Night | The Ruins | Don't Go In The Woods | Body Snatchers | Island of Lost Souls | Village of the Damned (1960) | Wrinkles the Clown | The Dead Zone | One Cut of the Dead | Ma | The Devil Rides Out | 3 From Hell | The Neon Slime Mixtape | Frenzy | The Skin I Live In | The House That Screamed | The Lighthouse | Prevenge It's hard to pick a favorite, so I'll just do brief rundowns of the ones that stuck with me the most. Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom has given me a lot to think about. It's a movie that glues so many images to your mind, and the themes haunt you days later. While I don't know if it's nice having these heavy ideas to have to ponder, it's a testament to great filmmaking. Overlord was an excellent pulpy WW2 adventure The Ruins now is one of my favorite movies from 2000-2010. I can't wait to do a group watch of this. Body Snatchers is my favorite version of this story now. One Cut of the Dead was really sweet. 3 From Hill was an amazing theatrical experience. Glad to see Rob Zombie doing his crazy poo poo. The Lighthouse was also an amazing theatrical experience. Prevenge was a fun reconstruction of slashers with great cinematography and dry sense of humor. Frenzy is a new favorite Hitchcock film. Rewatches: 10 Under Wraps | Attack The Block | The Fog | Halloweentown | Bride of Frankenstein | Halloween | The Little Vampire | Hell Night | Hocus Pocus | The Evil Dead 4k restoration Pretty much all worth it except for The Little Vampire, which, in my write-up, still has a lot of production designs that I like. The best of these? The Evil Dead 4k restoration with new score and sound design, for sure, which I maintain is a must-watch if you get the chance. Edgar Wright's 100 Favorite Horror: 7/20 I hadn't seen. Island of Lost Souls | Village of the Damned (1960) | The Devil Rides Out | Frenzy | The House That Screamed | The Ruins | The Skin I Live In These were all excellent. It's plainly clear that Edgar Wright loves horror movies and has great taste. He has an emphasis on unique stories and unique visual styles. I highly recommend using his list as source material for future challenges. I'd like to finish out the last 13 films I haven't seen. Favorite of these? Probably a tie for The Skin I Live In and The Ruins, both of which are going for very different things, but are incredibly effective an fun. Frenzy and The House That Screamed also deserve shout-outs, because I absolutely loved them as well. Super Samhain Challenge: 1 Total: 32
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Nov 1, 2019 19:58
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Well the timing on this bit me in the rear end, I got my own challenge done but failed on the samhain stuff (rare company yesterday + scream stream + therapy the morning after Halloween meant I just wasn't willing to spend Halloween night writing reviews). But I enjoyed all the movies regardless. First time doing the challenge and I at least made my own goals. The great pain is that I watched Sequence Break for nothing (what a terrible movie!). Watched: 32/31 1. The Fog, 2. Evil Bong, 3. The Silence, 4. Death Ship, 5. Cannibal Women and the Avocado Jungle of Death, 6. Scream, 7. Who Can Kill a Child, 8. The Seventh Curse, 9. Killer Condom, 10. Zombie, 11. Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, 12. C.H.U.D., 13. Satan’s Slaves, 14. Scooby-Doo and the Mask of the Blue Falcon, 15. Deep Red, 16. Cemetery of Terror, 17. End of the Wicked, 18. Scooby Doo: Camp Scare, 19. Carrie, 20. Mother!, 21. Gremlins 2: The New Batch, 22. Scream 2, 23. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 24. Viy, 25. Hausu, 26. Train to Busan, 27. Baskin, 28. Lake of the Dead, 29. Possession, 30. Scooby-Doo: Abracadabra-Doo!, 31. One Cut of the Dead, 32. Get Out Super Samhain Challenges: Favorites were definitely The Fog, Cannibal Women and the Avocado Jungle of Death, Scream, mother!, Hausu, Train to Busan, One Cut of the Dead, Possession and Get Out
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Nov 1, 2019 20:15
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Basebf555 posted:Yea I mean you can't really watch 50+ movies AND have a job AND have an active social life all in the same month. My social life goes down to basically zero in October, but I'm in my 30's so it's not like I've got ten different Halloween parties to choose from like it was in my younger days. Yeah, the only reason I hit my number is because I was on night shifts for the month of October (work has us do one month a year and I swear names are drawn from a hat). I was able to pound out 2 movies a shift most nights. I'll likely only be able to target 31 films next year.
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Nov 1, 2019 20:57
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Well, that was fun! Meant to include some Lynch, but... Those were intended to be shared with my partner, and her anxiety this month was so high that I didn't think she'd be able to have a good time with them. Managed to plow a considerable amount off of my watchlist (everything that wasn't a rewatch, actually), and while that did knock off some duds, the bulk of it was enjoyable. Would have preferred to watch more 'respectable' horror, and fewer DTV and budget box scrapings, but on the up-side, items like Bigfoot and The Corpse Grinders 3 are behind me now. Time to start shifting out of horror marathon mode, and start preparing for trashy Christmas movie binging. Ratings (* indicates a rewatch) 10/10 The Shining (1980) * 9/10 The Cat and the Canary (1927); The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) *; The Thing (1982) *; Evil Dead II (1987) *; Noroi: The Curse (2005) *; Get Out (2017) * 8/10 Bride of Frankenstein (1935); Son of Frankenstein (1939); The Spiral Staircase (1946); The Thing from Another World (1951); Eyes Without a Face (1960); To the Devil a Daughter (1976); The Evil Dead (1981) *; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) *; Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988); Remote Control (1988) *; The People Under the Stairs (1991) *; 7/10 The Phantom of the Opera (1925); Dracula's Daughter (1936); Phantom of the Opera (1943); Invaders From Mars (1953); Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954); The Phantom of the Opera (1962); The Kiss of the Vampire (1963); The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964); Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966); Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968); The House that Dripped Blood (1971); Daughter of Dracula (1972); Tales from the Crypt (1972); The Hills Have Eyes (1977); The Burning (1981); The Killing of Satan (1983); Children of the Corn (1984) *; Night of the Demons (1988) *; Two Evil Eyes (1990); Mirror Mirror (1990); Wicked City (1992); Hocus Pocus (1993) *; Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995) *; Ju-On (2000); The Eye (2002); Satan's Little Helper (2004); Santa's Slay (2005); Cold Prey (2006); Scooby-Doo! Pirates Ahoy! (2006); Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur (2011); Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire (2012); Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon (2012); The Crone (2013); Clinger (2015) 6/10 The Cat and the Canary (1939); Shock (1946); The Phantom of the Operetta (1955); Not of This Earth (1957); Blood of the Vampire (1958); Earth vs. the Spider (1958); Horror House (1969); The Bloodstained Lawn (1973); Return of the Evil Dead (1973); Terror Circus (1974); Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978); Slave of the Cannibal God (1978); The Visitor (1979); Trick or Treats (1982); Mausoleum (1983) *; The Initiation (1984); Invaders from Mars (1986); Necropolis (1986); Howling III (1987); Jack's Back (1988); Return of the Killer Tomatoes! (1988); Slugs (1988); The Dead Pit (1989); The Horror Show (1989); Satan's Storybook (1989); The Vineyard (1989) *; There's Nothing Out There (1991); House IV (1992); Mikey (1992); Mindwarp (1992); Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1993) *; Beg! (1994 [festival]/1999 [home video]); Ice Cream Man (1995) *; Not of This Earth (1995); The Craft (1996) *; Ju-On 2 (2000); House of 1000 Corpses (2003) *; Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster (2004); Boy Eats Girl (2005); Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King (2008); Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo! (2010); Scooby-Doo! Camp Scare (2010); Big Top Scooby-Doo! (2012); Wish Upon (2017); Daphne & Velma (2018); Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich (2018) 5/10 The Ghost Walks (1934); One Frightened Night (1935); The Ape (1940); Dead Men Walk (1943); Tarantula (1955); The Screaming Skull (1958); Atom Age Vampire (1960); Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory (1961); Monstrosity (1963); The Horror at Party Beach (1964); Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967); The Doll of Satan (1969); Sex of the Devil (1971); Blackenstein (1973); Schlock (1973); Enter the Devil (1974); Night of the Howling Beast (1975); Mansion of the Doomed (1976); Sweet Sixteen (1983); Future-Kill (1985); Dreamaniac (1986); Not of This Earth (1988); The Terror Within (1989); Seedpeople (1992); Halloweentown (1998); Talisman (1998); Valentine (2001); Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire (2003); Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico (2003); Aloha, Scooby-Doo! (2005); Scooby-Doo in Where's My Mummy? (2005); Oneechanbara: The Movie (2008); Scooby-Doo and the Samurai Sword (2009); Demonic Toys 2 (2010) 4/10 Revolt of the Zombies (1936); King of the Zombies (1941); Bowery at Midnight (1942); Hideous Sun Demon (1958); Orgy of the Dead (1965); Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966) *; Bigfoot (1970); Brain of Blood (1971); Evil Come, Evil Go (1974); Shriek of the Mutilated (1974); Robo Vampire (1988); The Terror Within II (1991); The Creeps (1997); Urban Menace (1999); Witchouse (1999); Medley - Brandelli di scuola (2000); Jigsaw (2002); Evil Bong (2006); Hybrid (2007) 3/10 Horror of the Hungry Humongous Hungan (1991); Camp Blood 2 (2000); Zombie Transfusion (2006 [festival]/2008 [home video]); The Legend of Bloody Jack (2007); Late Fee (2009); The Corpse Grinders 3 (2012) 2/10 None 1/10 None Rewatches: 23 Years watched: 1925, 1927, 1934-1936, 1939-1943, 1946, 1951, 1953-1955, 1957-1958, 1960-2018 SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #1: The Best Month: Son of Frankenstein (1939) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #2: Dead & Buried: Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #3: Horror Noire: Blackenstein (1973) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #4: Inktober (#14: 'Overgrown'): Earth vs. the Spider (1958) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #5: Tourist Trap: Cold Prey (2006) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #6: Sometimes They Come Back: Wicked City (1992) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #7: Monster Mash-up: Night of the Howling Beast (1975) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #8: Happy Holidays!: Santa's Slay (2005) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #9: Hackers: Oneechanbara: The Movie (2008) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #10: Navel Gazing: Occult (2009) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #11: All Hail The King: Dagon (2001) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #12: Cavalcade of Creepiness: The House that Dripped Blood (1971) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #13: Maniac: Ice Cream Man (1995) Bonus Awards Best assistant: Cemetery Man Best dance: Ice Cream Man Best doggo: Devil Dog Best gay vibes: Daphne & Velma (honorable mention: The Woods) Best hands: Manos Best robot: The Bloodstained Lawn Dumbest plan by a villain: The Ape (honorable mention: The Creeps) Favorite non-rewatch: The Cat and the Canary (1927) (honorable mention: Killer Klowns from Outer Space) Most disappointing: Future-Kill (honorable mention: Bigfoot) Most incomprehensible: Sex of the Devil Most psychosexual: Terror Circus Most twists: Housebound (honorable mention: The Spiral Staircase) Most wasted title: Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory (honorable mention: Orgy of the Dead)
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Nov 1, 2019 20:59
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LifeLynx posted: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. Let the record show that only posers don't like The Dead Don't Die, but that the horror thread welcomes and accepts even posers. Anyway, my recap: 1. Death Machine (1994) 2. Suspiria (2018) 3. Train to Busan (2016) 4.  Super Samhain Challenge #1: The Best Month - Peeping Tom (1960)5. Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988) 6. Joker (2019) 7. Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil (2017) 8. Tigers Are Not Afraid (2019) 9. Creep 2 (2017) 10. Await Further Instructions (2018) 11. The Endless (2018) 12. Loft (2005) 13. P (2005) 14. SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #2: Dead & Buried - Dead & Buried (1981)15. SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #3: Horror Noire - Bones16. Hell House LLC (2015) 17. The Furies (2019) 18. Deadtectives (2018) 19. Polednice/The Noonday Witch (2016) 20. Kwaidan (1960) 21. Creepy (2016) 22. Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan (1959) 23. SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #4: Inktober - Over Your Dead Body (2016)24. SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #5: Tourist Trap - November (2017) 25. One Cut of the Dead (2017) 26. SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #7: Monster Mash-up - The Monster Squad27. SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #6: Sometimes They Come Back - The Exorcist II (1977)28. SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #10: Navel Gazing - Mansion of the Ghost Cat/Black Cat Mansion (1958), recommended by Random Stranger 29. SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #8: Happy Holidays! - Maniac Cop (1988), set on St. Patrick's Day 30. SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #9: Hackers - Daemonium (2015)31. The Lighthouse (2019) 32. SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #12: Cavalcade of Creepiness - Little Deaths (2011)33. SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #11: All Hail The King - Doctor Sleep (2019)34. SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #13: Maniac - Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)I'm a lot less satisfied than I thought I'd be, and I think it's mostly down to having a stronger start than finish/having to cram almost all the challenges into the last week since I was out of town when they were posted. Losing a week is not great for this, and while I really like the challenges for guiding my watching in directions it might not otherwise have gone I didn't do a very good job with my picks for them this year. This was also the first year I tried to lean heavily on streaming services, and it turns out they still loving suck and I hate them. I'll pay you like fifty bucks a month but I expect the Library of Congress in return - like fine maybe you can get away without having every single Shaw Brothers movie, but if I decide I want to watch Exorcist II (bad call) or Halloween III you can't drop the ball on that and all of Prime/Netflix/Shudder did. They also suck out loud for both broad search and browsing. Like oh ok I need to watch an anthology for one of the challenges; there should be a dedicated category for that to make the browsing easy, but no. They don't even appear to have functional tag systems. Five dollars a month for your random pile of easy-rights garbage with no infrastructure beyond a single cutesy ML algorithm? gently caress off. This impression was definitely not helped when Spectrum died halfway through my watch of November, so it hurt both my viewing of the movie and my schedule. I now have like five blu-ray box sets in my amazon cart and I'm really tempted to pull the trigger even though I hate physical media and want less stuff in my apartment. Gross. I also had a few major disappointments content-wise; movies I've been hearing about forever and expected to love, but was indifferent to or actively hated. The Monster Squad in particular was just a tragedy. I thought maybe I was just too old and grumpy for a kids' movie these days, but I caught like half of Hocus Pocus at Halloween event last night and it holds up pretty well. Similarly I thought I was going to be in love with the Suspiria remake, and while I mostly enjoyed it the experience was still a major disappointment. I will never understand why they hosed up the finale so badly after coming so close to gold. At least Killer Klowns really was as good as everyone claimed. Other highlights: Brad Dourif is great in everything, including Death Machine. Peeping Tom deserves its classic status, and has a lot more going on than I expected. Dead & Buried managed took what looked like a too-familiar setup and managed to surprise me a few times. Great movie and I'm glad I finally got around to it. Bones vastly exceeded expectations. My Japanese ghost story sequence was a lot of fun even if it didn't leave me totally enamored with Nakagawa. Surprise Miike is always a joy and they were all visually outstanding. The Lighthouse was a fantastic theater experience; I grabbed tickets at the last second and ended up in the front row, which I usually avoid. It seemed even worse than I remembered when the previews started, really having to slouch down/contort my neck to catch everything. It turned out to be absolutely perfect for this movie in particular, though, and I'm really glad it worked out that way. Halloween III is still the best Halloween and that's a killer loving franchise in the alternate reality where it didn't stick with Michael. Looking forward to a bunch of stuff I didn't fit in, with a more relaxed pace over the next month. This remains one of the highlights of my year and I still get regular use out of the Camp Crystal Lake shirt Fran sent me after my ill-advised franchise binge, back in the days before M_Sinistrari started blowing us all out of the water. I feel like I should be reporting self-harm somewhere after that Amityville thing. Thanks again, Fran!
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Nov 1, 2019 21:20
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28. Creepshow A horror classic that is always worth a re-watch! Leslie Nielson's acting in his bit is especially great. 29. Creepshow 2 Sadly not as good as the original. The Hitchhiker has some fantastic makeup work and the Raft is a fantastic concept, too bad they had to change it from the original story and add rape for some cheap boob shots. Chief Woodenhead sucks. Also, why'd they change the Creep into an old man with chin balls? #NotMyCreep 30. WNUF Halloween Special Just as good as I remember it being. You gotta enjoy this movie for what it is, however. If you go in expecting an action-packed horror movie with lots of gore and monsters you're going to be disappointed. 31. The Sixth Sense Substitute taught a Film as Literature class today and they were watching this one. Forgot how good it is, great at building up tension and a sense of unease. quote:1. The Shining [5/5 Spooks]
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Nov 1, 2019 23:52
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Ok here's the real reviews for last night loggings. 27. Incarnate (2016) This is pretty much just a nu-metal exorcism movie. This guy and his alt friends can Inception into people's minds and beat up demons. 3.5/5 28. The First Purge (2018) I really enjoyed the last 2 Purge films (and season 1 of the tv series) so not liking this one really disappointed me. I didn't really connect with any of the characters. Maybe it was because of a switch in directors with this one. 2/5 29. Halloween 5 (1989) Mike Myer's niece is now psychic and it doesn't really add anything other than scenes of a little girl squirming as kills happen. A step down from 4. Myers does get to chase someone down with a car in this. 2/5 Bonus: Phantasm (1979) (via Shudders Last Drive-Thru) - Super Samhain 13 - Maniac I think my watching of this series has made understand Coscarelli's other movies, I think I need to rewatch John Dies at the End and Bubba Ho-tep now. I know this isn't considered an awful movie, I just don't think its a good one. I do enjoy the adventure of this story. 3.5/5 30. Spookies (1986) The choices in this movie are pretty odd. The sorcerer guy speaks like a robot for some reason and there's that whole kid plot that's just there to pad time. Though for how incomprehensible it is, it was great to zone at and then look up and notice some weird new monster was showing up. ???/5 31. Hell Fest (2018) A night at a haunted carnival goes wrong when a serial killer is going around killing. This movie wastes most of its runtime with our protagonist being scared by props at the carnival. Yawn. 3/5 That's all folks. Watched: 1. Halloween 2 (1981) 3/5 2. Belladonna of Sadness (1973) 3/5 3. Boar (2018) 3.5/5 4. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Part 2 (1986)2/5 5. Dead Snow(2009) 3/5 6. Ghost Stories (2018)3/5 7. SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #1: The Best Month:Evilspeak (1981) 1/5 8. One Cut of the Dead (2017)4/5 9. The Grudge (2004) 3.5/5 10. Joker (2019) 3.5/5 11. Annabelle: Creation (2017) 3/5 12. SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #2: Dead and Buried: House of 1000 Corpses (2003) 3.5/5 13. The Devil's Rejects (2005)2.5/5 SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #3. Horror Noire : 14. The People Under The Stairs (1991) 4/5 15. Dude Bro Party Massacre III (2015) - SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #4 Inktober Mindless 4/5 16. Pet Sematary (2019) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE # 11 Hail to the King 2/5 17. Xtro (1982) 2.5/5 18. Doom Annihilation (2019) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #9 Hackers 3.5/5 19. Predators (2010) 3.5/5 Rogue (2007) 2/5 21. The House at the End of Time (2013) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #5 TOURIST TRAP 4/5 22. April Fools Day (1986) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #8 HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2.5/5 23. Halloween 4 (1988) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #6 SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK 24. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #12 CAVALCADE OF CREEPINESS 2.5/5 25. The Hunger (1983) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #10 NAVAL GAZING 26. Godzilla Vs Mechagodzilla II (1993) SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #7 MONSTER MASH 2.5/5 27. Incarnate (2016) 3.5/5 28. The First purge (2018) 2/5 29. Halloween 5 (1989) 2/5 30. Spookies (1986) ???/5 31. Hell Fest BONUS: Halloween (1978) Phantasm (via Shudders Last Drive Thru) - Super Samhain 13 - Maniac SUPER SAMHAINS DONE: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
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Nov 2, 2019 00:31
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This was my second year actually finishing this. I liked that for all the challenges except the last we had to watch a movie new to us. 1. Truth or Dare (2017) 2.5/5 2. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) - Rewatch 4/5 3. Brightburn (2019) 3/5 4. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) 2/5 5. Apostle (2018) 3.5/5 6. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985) - Rewatch 2.5/5 7. Child's Play (2019) 4/5 8. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) 2.5/5 9. The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) 3/5 Super Samhain Challenge #1 - The Best Month 10. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) - Rewatch 3.5/5 11. The Ranger (2018) (Shudder) 2/5 Super Samhain Challenge #4 - Inktober 16. Wild 12. Tremors (1990) - Rewatch 3.5/5 13. Pet Sematary (2019) 2.5/5 Super Samhain Challenge #6 - Sometimes They Come Back 14. Orphan (2009) - Rewatch 3.5/5 15. Creepshow (1982) - Rewatch 4.5/5 16. The House That Jack Built (2018) 3.5/5 Super Samhain Challenge #2 - Dead and Buried (Bruno Ganz) 17. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) - Rewatch 3.5/5 18. One Cut of the Dead (2017) 3.5/5 19. A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989) - Rewatch 3.5/5 20. In the Tall Grass (2019) 2.5/5 Super Samhain Challenge #11 - All Hail the King 21. Midsommar (2019) 3.5/5 Super Samhain Challenge #8 - Happy Holidays! 22. The Noonday Witch (2016) 3/5 Super Samhain Challenge #5 - Tourist Trap (Czech Republic) 23. Deadbeat at Dawn (1988) 3/5 Super Samhain Challenge #10 - Navel Gazing 24. Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) - Rewatch 3/5 25. Us (2019) 3.5/5 Super Samhain Challenge #3 - Horror Noire 26. Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) - Rewatch 3.5/5 27. Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994) 4/5 28. Freddy vs. Jason (2003) - Rewatch 3/5 29. A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) 1.5/5 30. Friend Request (2016) 1.5/5 Super Samhain Challenge #9 - Hackers 31. XX (2017) 2.5/5 Super Samhain Challenge #12 - Cavalcade of Creepiness 32. Sadako vs. Kayako (2016) 2/5 Super Samhain Challenge #7 - Monster Mash-up 33. Jigsaw (2017) - Rewatch 3.5/5 Super Samhain Challenge #13 - Maniac
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Nov 2, 2019 01:05
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This was fun. I managed to end up with about 50% extra watches than I had signed up for, which was better than I was expecting. So hours later, here's a summation post, for anyone that's interested. Bolded entries are brand new watches for me; italicized entries are films I haven't watched in over 5 years; and underlined entries were theatrical watches. 01. The Curse of Frankenstein - 3/5 02. Villains (2019) - 4/5 03. Horror of Dracula - 2/5 (SS Challenge 1) 04. You're Next - 4/5 05. House on Haunted Hill (1959) - 5/5 06. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers - 2/5 07. Army of Darkness - 3/5 08. A Nightmare on Elm Street - 3/5 09. The Fly (1986) - 5/5 10. Joker - 3/5 11. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms - 1/5 12. The Creature from the Black Lagoon - 3/5 (SS Challenge 2) 13. Beyond the Gates - 2/5 14. The First Purge - 4/5 (SS Challenge 3) 15. Rodan - 2/5 16. Killer Klowns from Outer Space - 4/5 17. Halloween II (1981) - 1/5 18. The Addams Family (2019) - 2/5 19. The Mummy (1932) - 2/5 20. Jason X - 1/5 21. It Stains the Sands Red - 4/5 (SS Challenge 4) 22. The Invisible Man (1933) - 3/5 23. Zombieland - 3/5 24. Terrified - 2/5 (SS Challenge 5) 25. A Nightmare on Elm Street, Part 3: The Dream Warriors - 2/5 26. Chopping Mall - 3/5 27. Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers - 1/5 28. Thirteen Ghosts (2001) - 3/5 (SS Challenge 6) 29. The Wolf Man (1941) - 2/5 30. Brainscan - 3/5 (SS Challenge 9) 31. The Rocky Horror Picture Show - 3/5 32. Pet Sematary (2019) - 2/5 (SS Challenge 11) 33. Insidious - 2/5 34. Wounds - 2/5 35. Body Bags - 3/5 (SS Challenge 12) 36. House of Dracula - 1/5 (SS Challenge 7) 37. The Seventh Curse - 4/5 (SS Challenge 10) 38. Child's Play 3 - 3/5 (SS Challenge 13) 39. Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out! - 1/5 (SS Challenge 8) 40. Frankenstein (1931) - 3/5 41. Bride of Frankenstein - 3/5 42. Son of Frankenstein - 5/5 43. Dr. Giggles - 3/5 44. Zombieland: Double Tap - 3/5 45. The Slumber Party Massacre - 2/5 46. Freddy vs. Jason - 5/5
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Nov 2, 2019 03:15
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Here is my final breakdown. I don’t like giving movies a numerical score but I thought I could break it down into tiers. Great: A Nightmare on Elm Street Exorcist III Killer Klowns From Outer Space Texas Chainsaw Massacre Really Good: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 Lords of Salem Trollhunter The Ritual Predator Spider Baby Good: Pet Sematary (2019) Viy Night of the Comet House on Haunted Hill Silent Hill Trick R Treat Videodrome Bones The Ruins House of 1000 Corpses Midsommar The Changeling It was Alright: Godzilla King of Monsters Knock Knock Case 39 Eli Suspiria (1979) Marrowbone Mayhem The Tall Grass Body Bags So Bad It’s Funny: Unsullied Never Watch This Crap: Pulse (2006) The Haunting of Connecticut
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Nov 2, 2019 16:00
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My final breakdown on my selection: Owns Bones: Evil Dead II One Cut of the Dead Onibaba Eyes without a Face Krampus Troll Hunter really good: It Comes at Night Train to Busan Happy Death Day Black Sunday good: The Fog Slugs Jason X The Tingler Brain Damage Son Of Frankenstein House of 1000 Corpses Horror Noire Chopping Mall Shivers The Bird with the Crystal Plumage Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein The Pit and the Pendulum Phantasm III it's alright I guess: Creepshow II Anaconda Insidious Lair of the White Worm Monster House Inseminoid Parents V/H/S Phantasm IV don't bother: Pieces Lawnmower Man Species Phantasm V gently caress right off: Canibal Ferox
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Nov 2, 2019 17:11
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I managed 18 new-to-me films(56 total), which is pretty good, I usually lean towards old favorites in October but the challenges were a nice way to get out of my comfort zone. I have to say though, the best discovery of the season for me was Viy, which was one of the first movies I watched. Hopefully Shudder keeps the rights for a while because I could see myself rewatching that at some point in the next year. Final List: 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 2, 2019 17:20
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I had a lot of fun doing this and ended up watching 63 movies, all new to me. More than double my goal of 31! My initial personal challenge was to watch a movie set in 25 different US states, since I suspected that all 50 would be too ambitious and to leave some room for foreign movies. However, when I reached 25 rather easily, I decided to push on and go for the full 50. This left me very busy in the last week, and really made me regret some choices I made earlier in the month. But in the end I managed it! And because I chose movies based on geographical location what better way to show what I watched than with a map: Not pictured (because set abroad or setting unclear): I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, The Giant Gila Monster (MST3K), Alice Cooper: The Nightmare, The Video Dead, Nudist Colony of the Dead, Colossal, Assassination Nation, Tales from the Crypt, The Seventh Curse, Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare & Deathgasm. This was a really fun challenge, and I didn’t miss watching foreign movies nearly as much as I had expected. It was quite tricky to find a movie for some states that also was actually available somewhere, which led me to some pretty obscure picks that I otherwise would never have watched. Also, picking movies on the setting still allowed me to watch moves from any era and genre as long they were set in the US, which managed to provide plenty of variety. Although I would’ve liked to include some more older movies, but there aren’t a lot of those clearly set in a specific state. I also noticed that not a single movie I watched was directed by a woman, which is kind of a shame. While in a bunch of movies the setting was somewhat inconsequential and could easily be changed without any effect, many used the setting to their advantage and gave me a great view of America; from scorching deserts, snow-capped mountain tops, deep caves, swamps, salt lakes, woods or endless corn fields to big cities, ordinary suburbs, small towns, ghost towns, colleges, strip clubs and an army base. There was also a nice variety in monsters, from regular serial killers & psychopaths, zombies, vampires, ghosts, aliens, werewolf and monsters to body snatchers, trolls, giants, scarecrows, a bed and a giant zombie poodle. The only thing I missed was a bigfoot movie, which sadly I realized too late to be able to fit one in. I also ended up completing all the Samhain challenges. It was a lot of fun to try to find movies that could be used for those as well as for my personal challenge, but I managed for most of them. I watched some real classics for the first time such as King Kong, Return of the Living Dead, The Hitcher, The Thing from another World and Carnival of Souls. All of which were really great. Some other favorites of the month include Assassination Nation, The Stepfather, The Reflecting Skin and Ernest Scared Stupid. Biggest surprises were the very first thing I watched: Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker, Eye of the Cat and The Conjuring. The first two because I had never heard of them before and were just really entertaining and the latter because I went into it thinking I wouldn’t like it at all, but turned out to be great. Overall though, I was impressed with the quality of the movies I watched and quite liked most of them. There were only 5 real duds (The Messengers, Mountaintop Motel Massacre, Chosen Survivors, Deathmoon & Trigger Man). So, thanks Fran for organizing this, and for everyone who participated! I had a real good time watching and reading along with everyone. I’m sad but also quite glad it’s over. Finally, I’ll finish things off with my favorite scene of the month: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JGfjbdkPQI
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Nov 2, 2019 17:42
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4 hour delay double post
TheBizzness fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Nov 2, 2019 |
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Nov 2, 2019 19:12
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Didn't quite make. I'll post write ups of what I actually managed tomorrow
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Nov 2, 2019 21:30
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Might as well write up my final flick despite not making my goal! Halloween III: Season of the Witch This is a very good movie. Right from that amazing opening credits sequence I was in. Then Tom Atkins shows up, and I'm even further in. Then a face-melting laser beam showed and up it took me for a wild ride. I knew some of the crazy I was in store for when I sat down to watch it, but I wasn't expecting stonehenge computer bug laser injections. The thing moves at a clip, has a ton of weird and fun elements, great music, great cast, wonderfully bizarre premise. Sure, this is yet another film where Atkins beds a wildly younger woman and nobody seems to blink, but that's all I can really see wrong with this thing. I can't imagine not digging this movie if you like Carpenter and Carpenter-adjacent stuff. I know some folks in the horror thread were getting down on it, but man does it hit all my favorite horror movie things. Rating: 9/10 Final Tally: 18 films, 13 new, 2 in theaters. Most surprising: The Changeling being so low, or Ghoulies II being so high. Most fun while watching: The Lighthouse took me for a crazy ride. New film I'll be watching yearly: The Fog. Film I most want to be adapted into a TV show: Captain Kronos. Hey, beat last year, at least! Creepshow: 10/10, Beetlejuice: 10/10 (rewatch), The Lighthouse: 10/10, Sleepy Hollow: 10/10 (rewatch), Halloween III: 9/10, Ghoulies II: 9/10, Hobo with a Shotgun: 9/10, Parasite: 9/10, Demons: 9/10, The Fog: 8/10, Critters 2: 8/10, Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter: 8/10, Demons II: 7/10, Ghoulies: 6.5/10, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad: 6.5/10, Slugs: 6/10, The Changeling: 4/10, Critters: 2/10 feedmyleg fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Nov 2, 2019 |
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Nov 2, 2019 21:40
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1. One Cut of the Dead (2017) A film crew making a low-budget horror movie gets attacked by zombies for real! This was probably the movie I was looking forward the most to watching for the challenge and it delivered. It starts out looking as a really cheap b-movie that is also a bit weird so you need to stick through it but then everything makes perfect sense and is cute as hell. I think the kind of movie nerds that would watch 30+ films in a month would also be the ones who'd appreciate the last act the most as well, I certainly did even if by that point there's nothing at stake. 4/5 2. Memory: the Origins of Alien (2019)  It's a documentary about Alien, unsurprisingly. It goes through the story of how the movie got made initially - the origin of the the script, getting H.R. Geiger involved, and some of the production process. It's mostly made of present-day talking heads, though there is some behind the scene footage as well. It's interesting not not particularly mindblowing if you're even vaguely familiar with the movie. 3/5 3. Crawl (2019)  It's exactly what it says on the box, a solid creatures-attack flick. A bit by-the-book but the upside to spending some time at the beginning to establish your (two) characters and give them some depth definitely pays off in keeping the viewer engaged. Having it take place during a hurricane in Florida also gives it some extra grounding and raises the stakes, I think that was a good idea. 3/5 4. Harpoon (2019)  Three friends (or so they think) go on a boat ride to make up for a fight they had over a misunderstanding. But things go south and they end up being stranded in drifting boat. I watched this immediately after Crawl and I think in contrast it stands up much better, despite probably having a fraction of the budget and production values. If that one was a bit formulaic, Harpoon is more "baby's first Tarantino flick", there's a ton of flashblacks, chapter title cards, narration, etc. While I didn't think that adds that much, at least it's trying to do something different and it helps that there's a pretty drat solid script underneath it all. Everything is pretty much filmed in a living room, car, or a boat but poo poo keeps moving quickly (it's 83 minutes) so you never get bored. Probably one of the biggest surprises this year, definitely recommend to check this out as nobody else apparently did (it has like 700 reviews on imdb now) 4/5 5. Midsommar (2019)  That's the big horror thing this year of course. A group of college students consisting of a struggling couple and some of their friends go to Sweden to observe the mid-summer traditional festivities of a small rural community. This is a very well made film that I unfortunately just didn't find very interesting or enjoyable. It starts by doing all the homework with setting up the characters' backgrounds and it seems like it's going great but by the time they arrive to Sweden, you can kind of see it's going to be a Wickerman situation. There are really some baffling choices made by the characters like not getting the gently caress out after seeing a coupe of people jump off a cliff in a sacrifice and others finish the one that didn't split the head on a rock with mallet. Supposedly the movie is about how a bad relationship and breakup feel, but I guess I haven't been through a sufficiently terrible experience to identify with anything in the film. It's beautifully shot and the community scenes are appropriately creepy but I just didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I did Hereditary. There's apparently also a 170-minute Director's cut and gently caress that. 3/5 6. The Vanishing ("Spoorloos", 1988) Tourist Trap  No, not The Vanishing that isn't The Lighthouse, the other The Vanishing. At this point I was out of 2019 movies and realized that I might actually be able to still do Fran challenges so I got started with this one. I've seen a ton of Dutch movies thanks to Paul Verhoeven but no horrors (I guess Elle is a thriller, but officially it's a French production I believe). A couple (Rex and Saskia) is on a roadtrip somewhere in France when they stop for gas and the woman disappears after going to get some snacks. The rest of the movie is the guy trying to find her or what happened to her. Understandably he's rather obsessed with finding her and has his own little investigator's office with maps on the wall and what not. Most of the movie is his various attempts to get to the bottom of what happened through persistent investigation and PR by showing up on talk shows and so on. Eventually he baits the killer into contacting him and agrees to follow along to find out what happened to his girlfriend. While the second act dragged on a bit at times, I really liked how the movie switched perspective to the killer's occasionally to show his background, which I think was one of the more interesting of movie murders that I can think of. Some of his earlier murder attempts are downright adorable. The most powerful moment comes near the end when the killer offers to show Rex what really happened to Saskia and he agrees. This goes about as well as you'd expect. 3.5/5 7. Peeping Tom (1969) The Best Month I've already seen Viy for one of the previous challenges and I don't re-watch movies so this is what I picked and it was a great choice. We meet a focus puller (what a specific job) and amateur cameraman who goes around filming crime scenes as well as pornos for a seedy newsagent. On his off time he also murders prostitutes and actresses and probably many other women while recording their horror with his 16-mil. (note to self: hiding a knife in a tripod leg is a great idea). The film is really out there for 1960, I didn't immediately realize it was made the same year as Psycho. He eventually meets and talks with a pretty tenant of what turned out to be his building and they start dating. We learn a bit of his rather sad backstory as he tries not to murder her compulsively, but the cops start to catch up to him. While the murders are of course pretty tame by today's standards, like Psycho it works on the strengths of the psychological background, performances and just good direction and cinematography in general. There are still some really disturbing and chilling scenes even if nobody gets torn into pieces in frame. 4/5 8. The Haunt (2019)  Well I guess there was another 2019 movie I haven't seen. Some friends/roommates go to an extreme haunted house on Halloween with predictable results. I don't think there's too much to say, of course they start to get murdered, the killers are some freaky cult that isn't explained too well and there's no reason for all of it (or I forgot). There's something set up with an rear end in a top hat boyfriend but nothing much comes of it. Still, it's pretty well made, tense, and the kills are entertaining enough, so I'd have no problem low-key recommending it to a horror fan. 2.75/5 9. Exorcist (1973)  It's the loving Exorcist, which I've apparently never seen somehow before. The opening in Iraq was pretty  did I get the right movie?Unfortunately the part of the exorcist that I have seen countless times just randomly on TV, in horror documentaries or in parodies, is of course the exorcism scene itself, so having the little girl go bananas wasn't as shocking as it should've been. But everything else in the movie works and it's good. 4/5 10. Prince of Darkness (1987)  This was the only Carpenter movie from his peak period that I haven't seen so that was a perfect opportunity to fix that. A church has been keeping in secret an ancient artifact that contains some green goo and apparently Satan. A research team of students and their theoretical physics professor gets called in to investigate. This probably doesn't have a great reputation outside of Carpenter diehards but I really liked it. Nothing I've seen up to this point in the challenge really dealt with the concepts raised here, it's mostly just some assholes, psychologically damaged people, ghosts etc. Here we're facing the end of the world, if our clueless students can't figure out a solution. Somebody else who watched this mentioned that there's a big discrepancy between the scope of the horror and the available budget, and unfortunately while everything is reasonably well made, including effects, it's kind of a bummer that the ultimate evil starts its escape by... turning a few people into zombies by squirting some of the goo on them. Still, it's pretty drat spooky and fun overall. 3.5/5 11. Dead Zone (1983) All Hail the King  This seemed to be one of the better adaptations I haven't seen yet, so I went with this. Christopher Walken gets into a car accident with a slow-motion milk trunk and is in a coma for a few years. Once he wakes up, he discovers that he can see how people will die if he touches them, and saves a nurse's child from a fire. He's then pulled into helping a murder investigation and eventually must decide what to do when he sees how a candidate for senate (?) is going to die. A King movie directed by Cronenberg, what could possibly go wrong? It's pretty good although the direction isn't particularly memorable. I was a big confused with his former date coming over one he's home, did they actually gently caress despite her having a husband and child already? It's kind of glossed over later. But anyway, it's a very enjoyable little thriller, Walken is great and it goes strong until the end. 3.5/5 12. Lawnmower Man (1992) Hackers  Pierce Brosnan plays a scientist who's training chimps to become supersoldiers with his super fancy VR tech. Eventually a chimp escapes and hides in the shack of a very Simple-Jack like Jobe Smith. The chimp is shot and killed, but Dr Angelo realizes he can continue his research on Jobe. This is really about ethics in medical research, it is obvious he could't have consented even if they did bother to ask, but the research goes ahead and is very (too) successful, and makes Jobe much smarter and stronger. Wow, so I was struggling with this challenge as I couldn't think of a qualifying movie I haven't seen yet so I stole someone's idea ITT. I must've caught a few bits and pieces back when it was relatively new and would show up on TV occasionally, but my parents correctly didn't let me watch it. The story is a very straightforward Frankensteinian one but despite being very cliche, I think there could've been more done here. Instead there is a ton of cheesy CGI and some really bizarre choice that keep this reasonably entertaining instead of just being mediocre and forgettable. Not a good movie or even "so bad it's good", but just watchable enough thanks to all the weird poo poo. 2/5 13. Don't Look Now (1973) Dead & Buried  Directed by Nicolas Roeg, who died November 23, 2018 at age 90, this was my choice for the challenge. A couple's daughter drowns when playing outside their house, and years later when they're living in Venice they meet two women who claim one of them can see their daughter. The first act has a very distinctive editing and direction but it settles to a more conventional pacing when they're in Italy. It's a pretty interesting psychological thriller kind of a movie but I have to say I must've been very tired as I don't remember much of the 3rd act, and should definitely re-watch it when it isn't 1AM. 3/5 14. What we do in the Shadows (2014) Inktober #26: Dark  A documentary crew is following some roommates in Wellington that happen to be vampires as they go about their daily (nightly) business. Arguments about chores, dinner parties, arguments with werewolves, etc. While you can tell they were working with a small budget (around 1.6m according to imdb), it's mostly based on the limited scope and locations, and the mocukmentary format works to its advantage here. Everyone seem to be taking it seriously which really makes it all work. Comedy horror is probably my favorite sub-genre and this was one of the big surprises for me this year. Definitely check it out if you haven't seen it yet. Apparently there's also a TV show. 4.5/5 15. Tales from the Hood (1995) Horror Noir  This movie has been on my radar for at least the last two October challenges but just never got to it, so this was the perfect opportunity to finally bust it out. It's an anthology move framed around a bunch of gangsters going to a funeral home to pick up some drugs that are apparently kept there. The funeral director there tells 4 stories to the visibly annoyed dudes who just want to get their poo poo. The stories are actually good if a bit predictable. There's one about police racism, corruption and brutality, abusive parents, racist politicians and violent crime. Almost everyone except for a few cops and the racist politicians are black (not to mention the director and probably crew) so this definitely qualifies. The effects are a bit cheesy but reasonable for 1995 horror flick and enjoyable. It's not going to blow anyone's mind that horror movies often tackle the real fears of the humanity so it was definitely interesting to see a more specifically black perspective, which was definitely informed by the authors' experience. 3/5 16. Exorcist III (1990) Sometimes They Come Back  A detective is investigating a series of strange murders that eventually takes him to the psych ward where the killer seems to be locked up. I watched the restored directors cut or something with inserted VHS scenes, which might've been a mistake because I feel like there was way too much monologuing inserted at some points which caused me to zone out occasionally. But still, the hack frauds were right and this is a very interesting psychological horror film, with a lot of attention paid to details, dialog and direction. Something very different from the original (haven't seen 2) but absolutely worthwhile sequel. 3.5/5 17.The Seventh Curse 1986 Navel Gazing  That's an extremely lame and unrepresentative cover but it's the default on imdb so  Saw a few people watching this one so that was my pick for Navel Gazing since I've done a few HK Cat-3 movies for previous challenges. It's nowhere near as batshit as some of the later films like Ebola Syndrome or Eternal Evils of Asia but it's a ton of fun. It really wastes no time by opening with a police hostage rescue operation which serves as an introduction to our main characters - the badass cop and a nosy reporter. The reporter girl is rich AF but not sure where the cop got Porsche 911 money. But whatever, turns out the cop was cursed on an expedition he did in Thailand a year ago (and we get a prolonged flashback) so he needs to go back there and fix it for good. There isn't that much horror and what is there is pretty funny, but there's also a ton of hand to hand fighting, guns and bow & arrow action so someone's always getting hosed up. A perfect way to wrap up October, really. 4/5 Well that's it folks. I didn't have the time to watch 31+ movies without blowing up what little is left of my social life. And still this took me a few hours to put together, wtf. Still, I did accomplish my goal of watching at least 15, so I'm gonna pat myself on the back.
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Nov 3, 2019 11:59
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Trying to fit 31 movies into 31 days has been an interesting experience. It’s a much higher rate of watching than I would usually partake in, and doing a writeup for each means that I’ve had to be more impromptu with evaluations than I normally am. Often, the movies that I most enjoy can surprise me by defying my initial response and coming back to me for weeks and months later as fragmented images, daydreams about a moment or an idea. That being said, processing so many movies and doing it so regimentally has taught me a few things about my tastes. -Class consciousness and political salience are hugely relevant to whether or not I’ll enjoy a movie. As a communist, this isn’t all that surprising, it’s more the degree to which this makes or breaks a movie that surprises me. It’s not as if I’m sitting here with a rubric deciding which pictures are revolutionary or reactionary and slapping a “good/bad movie” stamp on them, but rather, if a movie is of little political relevance to me, it is much more likely to disinterest me. I’ll take a sloppy movie with proletarian politics over a technically immaculate picture with liberal or bourgeois tendencies any day. -I tend to take the conceits presented in films “seriously,” by which I mean that I imagine their ramifications and what it means for the world of the film in a holistic manner. Because of this, I appreciate when a picture does the same, and get frustrated when it treats things flippantly. When a movie involves demons, that says something about the universe in that movie that will inform every other thing in it in a real way. This was a big issue I had with Tigers Are Not Afraid; its metaphysics felt incoherent, so I couldn’t really know what the world was like or what significance things had. -As a genre, I dislike slashers! Before this month, I would’ve said that I like slashers, because I enjoy the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, the Leprechaun films, etc, but it’s really the fantasy and creature aspects of those pictures that draw me in. Remove the supernatural element from a slasher and it usually loses my attention. -Some movies that have stuck with me over the month, for a myriad of reasons: Pulse, Get Out, The Blob (1988,) My Bloody Valentine, Suspiria (2017) -Movies I want to watch for sure in the future: Candyman, the Universal/Hammer classics, Boxer’s Omen, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Occult, Death Spa, Phantasm 2, Martin
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Nov 4, 2019 00:41
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My schedule was to watch 1 movie per day on the days I got off work early, 2 on my days off and then none when I work nights. This allowed me to always be slightly ahead since I have 2 days off and only work 1.5 nights per week (Mondays and every other Friday). Also I try to avoid anything longer than 90 minutes unless I’m certain I’m going to love it.
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Nov 4, 2019 00:57
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What's the best communist horror movie? Wolf of Wall Street?
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Nov 4, 2019 02:13
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mobby_6kl posted:What's the best communist horror movie? Wolf of Wall Street? Top of my dome? Either Us or The Stuff.
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Nov 4, 2019 02:15
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mobby_6kl posted:What's the best communist horror movie? Wolf of Wall Street? They Live
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Nov 4, 2019 02:15
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mobby_6kl posted:What's the best communist horror movie? Wolf of Wall Street? Dawn of the Dead!
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Nov 4, 2019 02:49
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mobby_6kl posted:What's the best communist horror movie? Wolf of Wall Street? DuckTales the Movie
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Nov 4, 2019 03:09
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mobby_6kl posted:What's the best communist horror movie? Wolf of Wall Street? Jingle All the Way.
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Nov 4, 2019 03:38
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TheBizzness posted:My schedule was to watch 1 movie per day on the days I got off work early, 2 on my days off and then none when I work nights. For me, depending if I'm opening or closing at work, it's two movies-work-one movie-sleep or work-two/three movies. On my off days, it's start watching when I wake up. I do take time to do stuff around the house, run errands, cook dinner.
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Nov 4, 2019 08:28
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 14:53 |
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Thanks again to everyone for participating in the 2019 October Horror Movie Challenge! I hope everyone had a fun and exciting October, and I hope each of you found a new favorite this year.
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Nov 4, 2019 13:20
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