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I’ll try for 31, why not. #1 Class of 1999 1990 Watched via Tubi This one definitely backloads the horror elements. It draws a lot from movies like 1990: The Bronx Warriors and Escape 2000 in its depiction of a dystopian US landscape where teenage gangs run the terrain. Towards the end, after introducing the murderous android faculty, it starts cribbing a lot more from Terminator. This isn’t an amazing picture, but I was impressed by the degree to which they work to make this weird demilitarized dystopia feel authentic. More than that, though, it reminds me of what really draws me to horror: more than any other genre, horror movies tend to be interested in justice. Because they’re tawdry and obscene, they aren’t obligated to adhere to the values of a society that is, let’s face it, murderous and tyrannical. It won’t surprise anyone to hear that the killer robot teacher movie isn’t brilliantly scripted, but it does anticipate the Clinton administration’s aggressive push towards a school-to-prison pipeline, and insightfully points out the way in which waging inhumane war abroad fundamentally changes the way we view ourselves at home, and how that’s borne out in our policing and our schooling. Coward respectable movies never bother with this kind of poo poo. This movie’s alright by me. If you like dystopian sci-fi, you could do worse. It’s rarely boring, the effects are fun, and it clips along okay. 3/5 Anonymous Robot fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Sep 30, 2019 |
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Sep 29, 2019 05:28
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Popelmon posted:4. Class of 1999 (1990) If you liked this, check out Hardware.
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Sep 30, 2019 00:01
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 #2 Creep (2014) Netflix Creep begins with a videographer being hired by a dying cancer patient to film a video diary for the man’s unborn child. As the day wears on, it becomes clear that not all is right with the man, and the videographer is drawn into his off-kilter world. This is a pretty good movie, despite a lackluster ending. Creep manages to entertain and arrest one’s attention for the whole of its lean runtime primarily by subverting the viewer’s expectations with dashes of humor, and by ratcheting up the tension in the two character’s relationship. This really works because everyone knows someone like Joshua- someone whose open-hearted and caring persona is tinged with something manipulative, who just never feels quite right to talk to, with whom one can never really have an even dealing. This movie is best when it’s in that zone, and it does a good job at staying its hand and letting the viewer twist and cringe from the second-hand awkwardness and creeping dread. Unfortunately, when Creep goes full throttle, it gets a little generic. It kept me questioning if it was playing with genre conventions and was going to delight me by going some other way at the last second, but then it doesn’t. Still, it’s a solid and entertaining film throughout. 4/5 Anonymous Robot fucked around with this message at 04:13 on Sep 30, 2019 |
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Sep 30, 2019 04:08
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STAC Goat posted:Definitely check out Creep 2. Thanks for the heads up, I will!
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Sep 30, 2019 04:12
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 #3 Zombie (aka Zombi 2) 1979 Hulu It’s easy to see why this is a classic of the zombie genre. All of the archetypical elements are here, and done well, before they were ossified into cliche. The makeup and effects are great- many of the zombies seem weirdly crispy and juicy, like roast chicken, but it plays up the visceral feeling of the violence. A lot of the soundtrack was funky and moody at the same time, much like Romero’s pictures, and the photography of the zombies really serves to make them feel like an inescapable, unstoppable tide. One distinctive element of this film is the focus, at least early on, of solving the zombie crisis. That’s sometimes a plot element in zombie pictures, but it feels both more important and more distant here. Because the heroes really haven’t the first clue of what is happening, and because their failure to make any scientific progress has the shadow of a curse hanging over it, it’s not a challenge of finding a particular pathogen or antibody, but a greater question as to the nature and meaning of suffering. For better or worse, you won’t find any answers in Zombie. It’s a bleak and nihilistic picture, again in keeping with its reputation as an emblem of its genre. The hopelessness certainly builds the mood, but I also tend to bounce off movies like this. They don’t serve any purpose to me. There’s nothing specific in Zombie that I would’ve wanted to rework to make it a more valuable picture- it is what it is, and it’s technically competent and a solid example of that type. But I don’t believe that I’ll cleave to it as I do more personally resonant films. 3/5
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Oct 1, 2019 03:54
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 #4 Deadtime Stories 1986 Tubi An anthology series premised around the conceit of a drunken uncle resentfully telling twisted bedtime stories to his nephew. A fun theme, but it falls short in execution. The first short is alright, a generic “fairy tale witch” story lifted from mediocrity by some imaginative effects work, chief amongst which is a sequence of a corpse being revitalized which I believe may have been executed partially by reversing footage of the body’s outer layer being dissolved by hydrogen peroxide. But there’s no weight to this short, it lacks thematic content and is really just an effects showcase. The second short, themed around little red riding hood, is a slight thing with nothing interesting to speak of. It took me a moment to even realize that it was over and hadn’t just bled into the next short. The third short, patterned after Goldilocks and the three bears, is a tonal mess. Way too much camp, with a zany, cartoony pacing, but nothing to ground the picture at all. It feels like this short never actually gets started because the narrative is just so flimsy; everything feels expository. This one’s not very good. There are surely better anthologies to be watching. 1/5
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Oct 1, 2019 15:52
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 #5 The Unholy 1988 Tubi Were it not for a shocking phantasmagoric sequence of the protagonist’s descent into Hell, this would’ve felt like a movie tailor made for Catholic moms to catch on TV. I dig that, though; I’m a mark for movies that make priests out to be mystical figures that engage in occult struggle. I liked the huckster club promoter who plays up his satanic practices to draw crowds to his BDSM club. I wish they would’ve done more with this character, but he disappears in the third act. In the end, this is a movie that calls out for a protagonist that’s experiencing a crisis of faith, who has to reckon with doubt in the face of terrible tragedy. But the priest in this movie seems pretty resolute the whole time. Yes, he’s investigating a tragic murder, but there’s never a point where you get the sense that his faith is wavering, or that his convictions have changed. His temptation towards evil is a very straightforward “horny temptation” scene that doesn’t really read as believable. Because of that, the core of this movie is just missing something to add depth and relatability to the fantasy battle between good and evil taking place. It’s still a fun enough watch, with some splashy effects to reward viewers towards the end. 2/5
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Oct 2, 2019 04:02
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 #6 Brain Damage 1988 Shudder This one feels like someone gave a feature budget and runtime to one of those cartoons they used to show us in school to warn us about the dangers of drugs. And you know what? Those shorts were always kind of spooky and bizarre, so it works alright. And it feels a little less gross to be denigrating drug users in such a way when it’s an allegory by way of malevolent brain parasite. There isn’t much about this one that is very interesting; it feels like they did the bare minimum with the fun and inventive premise they had. It’s a letdown that the resolution comes not from any growth or insight on the part of the characters, but instead a sort of karmic comeuppance when the parasite is simply accidentally mangled by one of his dejected former hosts. I would’ve appreciated seeing characters overcome addiction, rather than the sort of tragic morality play we get in the end. It is kind of funny that this movie hints at an equation between total enlightenment and a self-gratifying psychedelic lightshow. Early on, I couldn’t help but think that this picture might be more engaging if it always showed us what the main character was seeing, rather than only giving us glimpses of psychedelia in cutaway shots. 2/5
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Oct 3, 2019 04:25
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Butch Cassidy posted:
I loved the classic devil costume in this movie.
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Oct 3, 2019 13:15
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Hey Fran, would a horror doc like King Cohen or Haunters count?
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Oct 3, 2019 23:49
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Is the good Oujia movie people are talking about Oujia: The Insidious Evil?
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Oct 4, 2019 02:05
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STAC Goat posted:Oujia: Origin of Evil. Its a Mike Flanagan film so like, it depends on if you dig his style or not. But I hated the first one and avoided the second one for a long time but its a pretty decent ghost story. Too bad, doesn’t look like this one is streaming anywhere.
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Oct 4, 2019 02:17
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 #7 Big Legend 2018 Tubi I’m more of a fan of Bigfoot movies in sentiment than in practice. I feel compelled to watch them, but I have yet to find one that gives me what I want. Hell, the closest one I can think of is Cry Wilderness, with its mystic noble bigfoot. At its base, I think the sasquatch myth speaks to our feelings of humans’ base nature, and I like to believe that it’s something higher. Well, there’s none of that here, and that’s fine. The sasquatch is a big brute killer. There’s a scene where he hits a guy in the leg with a boulder launched from off screen that’s just a riot. The thing about bigfoot movies that makes them so often disappointing is the low barrier to entry. If you have one actor, a camera, some wilderness and maybe a cheap suit, you can make a bigfoot movie. At least they do give us some full-on glimpses of the sasquatch in this one. This movie is nothing but wasted potential. They caught my interest early on by implying that the sasquatch’s presence was tied up with some secret shady laboratory, but this never pays off, except as a truly shameless plug for a sequel in which the real interesting stuff happens. It’s downright insulting. There’s a character in this movie that has a quirk where he starts literally every sentence with “chief.” Stupid. Don’t bother with this one. Watch Cry Wilderness instead. 1/5
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Oct 4, 2019 02:59
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Adlai Stevenson posted:Big Legend was on my list of movies to roll the dice on but as someone who didn't have fun with Cry Wilderness this is a really stinging rebuke. Let me save you some time. Big Legend ends by finally giving us a lingering glimpse of the sasquatch, cutting to the protagonist in a hospital bed being approached by some mysterious old man, and a hard cut to a title card that reads *these two stupid characters* WILL RETURN IN BIG LEGEND 2: BIGGER LEGEND
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Oct 4, 2019 17:43
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 #8 Tales of Halloween 2015 Tubi I’m a sucker for Halloween-themed movies, and for anthology series. Trick ‘r Treat sets a high bar, but Tales of Halloween ain’t bad! It ain’t all bad, at least. The shorts vary in tone, length, and quality, but that wide variation gives it a fun grab bag kind of feel. While some pictures are exactly what you’d expect them to be and nothing more, the better shorts throw in some clever tricks, whether by taking the narrative for a twist, or messing with formal elements by introducing, say, a GoPro skate video into a feature-style short, or a claymation alien into a slasher story. In one fun short, a boy is bullied into egging the house of a neighbor who doesn’t celebrate Halloween, only to be caught by said neighbor, who turns out to be an actual devil that’s never home on Halloween because he’s out reveling in causing mayhem, now with the protagonist in tow. There’s another short where a couple who lost their child on Halloween have a traumatic fight on Halloween night when the husband tries to cajole the wife into celebrating. The next year, the wife is suddenly overbearingly enthusiastic for Halloween, down to reciting an elaborate routine for every trick or treater that comes to the door. Things get stranger when a child that looks identical to her late daughter comes to the door. This has all the makings of an interesting, trippy little Halloween psychological flick, but instead they layer on comedy and try to make it a monster show. They also played their hand with the monster in the first minute if the short. Too bad, there was some real promise buried here that a more restrained hand could’ve dug up. I also liked the slapstick short where two men try to ransom a costumed child on Halloween, only to find that they’ve inherited a mini nosferatu that daddy doesn’t want back. Not every short fires, but this is a fun one, and has the spirit of the season. It also packs a lot of shorts into its modest runtime, so nothing overstays its welcome. You can definitely do worse than Tales of Halloween! 3/5
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Oct 4, 2019 20:40
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 #8 The Autopsy of Jane Doe 2016 Netflix This movie starts so strong, with a really arresting premise of a pair of coroners investigating a corpse found in vexingly bizarre circumstances. As the movie pivots from procedural to supernatural thriller, it has to leave this conceit behind. They sort of lost my partner there, and it doesn’t feel quite like a cohesive whole, but I dug both halves of this movie on their own merits. I love the idea of this body that’s just a curse tk everyone around it, which can’t be gotten rid of. The movie approached an interesting point in the third act where these coroners, who dissect and penetrate bodies and try to draw forth secrets from the dead, are met with a still-living corpse, and launch into one of the most essential and original inquiries of their vocation: what is the nature of life, and where is the seat of the soul? Unfortunately, they don’t really pursue this very far. There’s a ton at work in this picture, and though it may not come together completely, I like all of it. 4/5
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Oct 5, 2019 06:33
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Etuni posted:
One of our own posters was an extra in this movie (the double amputee zombie in the medical scene,) and I’ve always been interested in hearing their take on the movie as a whole, as I found it to be remarkably spiteful towards the differently abled.
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Oct 6, 2019 01:22
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Lurdiak posted:That was the sequel. Whoops, that’s what I thought that movie poster was for.
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Oct 6, 2019 02:02
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If I may ask, how did you feel about the treatment of the paraplegic character in the film? I recalled your experience when I saw it (and I generally agree with you on the “Big Bang Theory” part,) but it really stood out to me how misanthropic the picture is as a whole, and more specifically how cruel the humor is towards the wheelchair-bound character.
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Oct 6, 2019 02:37
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 #9 The Blob 1988 Crackle The Blob feels, if nothing else, like a faithful and competent update of the original, and true to the feeling of creature features of its era. I’m not super well-versed in those, as I’ve only seen a handful (not including the original Blob,) but it is interesting to note the ways in which a feeling of nostalgia for the memory of those pictures have actually made this a less “accurate” feeling remake. In addition to that, the ironic detachment of this postmodern production actually makes it feel less cynical and dark than some of the 50’s pictures I’ve seen, which tend to be much more brooding and moody than The Blob 88, which is tinged with some of the warm sentimentality of something like “American Graffiti”. The Blob is a movie that calls for a stand against conformity, not only as an aesthetic and a posture, but in active resistance to Cold War imperialism. It’s fairly light on thematic content, but that’s an admirable position to occupy. The effects work in this is top notch. The Blob is a delight to see in every incarnation, though I did feel that its depiction and its traits were inconsistent across the movie. Every shot that features the monster is imaginative and gorgeously grotesque, and they give you plenty of them by the time the picture comes to a close. If you’re into monster movies, this is essential viewing. My personal tastes desire a little more weirdness than The Blob offers- I would’ve loved to have seen the sequel implied by the stinger- but this is a skilled, respectable remake. 4/5
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Oct 7, 2019 16:34
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 Super Samhain Challenge 1 #9 Viy 1967 Shudder What a peculiar movie this is. It appeared that Shudder only had the dub, which is unfortunate. I get the sense that a fair bit was lost in the dub, because the story such as it was just feels...off. This is a comedic character drama about the internal life of a seminarian, but he’s a piece of poo poo right up until he bites it, which, while amusing, isn’t a very satisfying story. That being said, it is funny, it’s only 70 minutes, and the visual effects towards the end are simply stunning. I find myself wishing that they were featured more through the film, but at the same time, I think the effect may have been diminished if they hadn’t stayed their hand and then walloped you with them all right at the end. I’m glad I watched Viy, but I wish there was more to the story. This idea of being called back to speak prayer for 3 days over the corpse of one you killed, and being trapped in this weird little estate while you did so, is Kafkaesque and rich with potential that isn’t really investigated here. 3/5 Super Samhain Challenge 2 #10 King Cohen 2018 Shudder This is a documentary about Larry Cohen, which we’re fortunate came out shortly before he passed, and features a lot of interview footage from him. Cinematically speaking this is a stylistically flat and uninspired documentary. It mainly consists of footage from his films and full-frame interview footage, proceeding chronologically through Cohen’s career and recapping it. However, I learned a lot from this, and it is a fascinating story. I didn’t know that Cohen got his start in TV, or that Black Caesar and Hell Up In Harlem were so influential (I also feel like I may need to fact check that, tbh.) Hell, I didn’t know that Cohen was writing movies as late as Phonebooth, so maybe I actually owe that a lot! I also had no idea just how impromptu and guerilla his filmmaking style was. Plus, it turns out that the “famous Coens” gave Larry Cohen a shout out in The Big Lebowski! Who knew. This is an interesting documentary for fans of Cohen’s work, but it doesn’t stand on its own as an engaging documentary. You have to come in with having seen at least some of these films to take anything from it. 3/5
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Oct 8, 2019 23:28
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 #11 Final Prayer 2013 Tubi I love the premise of this movie: a team of investigators is dispatched by the Vatican to debunk claims of miracles. In this case, a small, recently re-opened chapel has been experiencing unusual noises and vibrations during services. The investigators set up camera equipment around the church, in order to document the phenomena in the interest of disproving it, and giving us the excuse for found footage shenanigans as things take a sinister turn. I was prepared to dislike the trio of characters in this movie, but I actually became endeared to them. The actors do a good job of making these characters, two of whom are big personalities, feel recognizable and like they have a natural rapport. I was fascinated with this picture from the outset, and stayed as such through the investigation and right up until when things started to really pop off with regards to ancient evils. But I’m not a huge fan of found footage, and once the climax became guys running around in a dark cave with video artifacting scrambling everything, it started to lose me. The final scene made sense and was a reasonable conclusion to the plot, but I didn’t find it fulfilling. This movie just needed one more element, I think. The antagonist appears too near to the end, and just when the stakes are set, it’s abruptly over. I would liked to have seen the protagonists have a chance to reckon with things a little. Also, the poster tagline and art has nothing to do with the movie. 3/5
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Oct 9, 2019 06:21
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Super Samhain Challenge #3  #11 Get Out 2017 Amazon (paid rental) I managed to sleep on this one until tonight! I loved Us, and though I now understand the people that were disappointed in it as a follow-up to this picture- there’s a leanness of vision here that the freewheeling, dreamy Us can’t provide- I’m impressed by how very different these movies are. Not to mention that this was Peele’s directorial debut! I’m not going to write much about the plot, because I’m sure everyone and their mother has already written to death on it. Besides, it’s not a subtle film; it’s overt and bombastically direct in a way that horror manages to always seem to get away with. The script is gripping and arresting through the whole runtime, moving seamlessly in building a sense of dread from the cringe brought on by little off-color remarks to the point where you see this Steve Jobs looking motherfucker standing in a foyer with his failson and it sends a chill down your spine. The version that I watched featured an alternate ending, and it’s to consider the choices made in selecting the ending for the theatrical run. There’s a lot to like about the alternate ending. It feels more a piece of a whole with a film that is so overt with its social commentary, and besides that, any US citizen feels the potentially fatal presence of the police and the certain prison sentence lurking on the periphery of this film, so it feels true to experience and honest to its message that we see them as the common manifestation of the ghoulish incarnations depicted in the Armitage House. That being said, I also understand why it was the bolder choice to let the heroes win this one, and to reject the option of producing a work of defeatist black miserablism. This is a modern classic. It embodies so much of what is great about horror, and I’m so pleased to have finally seen it. 5/5
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Oct 10, 2019 03:41
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 #12 Pumpkinhead 1988 Prime The story of this one is nothing all that interesting (though I like the notion of the monster being this folk creature that’s been utilized as a dark avenger by these rural families for generations.) Instead, this one’s all atmosphere. It takes place in the 50’s and then jumps forward into the 80’s, but this setting seems stuck in the mid 19th century regardless. This movie has ample Halloween vibes, from the spooky pumpkin patch cemetery set to the syrupy orange light that filters through so many scenes. Pumpkinhead doesn’t pack much in the way of surprises, but it’s decent. 3/5
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Oct 11, 2019 05:31
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 #13 Creep 2 2017 Netflix This is a good sequel. It takes the premise of the first film, twists it just a little (this time, the format is a Vice-style Youtube doc and not a video diary,) and expands upon it in a way that changes the formula: in Creep 2, rather than the affable dupe of the first movie, the killer’s quarry is, herself, predatory and cunning. Sara is a videographer who, however she may like to dress it up, is trying to find the right freakshow to bring herself fame. She’s found her ideal mark in Aaron, a self-described serial killer who wants to document his trade as a means of breaking through a mid-life crisis. Though viewers of the first film will recall that Aaron is an actual murderer, Sara is less convinced. What she does key in on with acute emotional awareness are his vulnerabilities, his moments of stupidity and hubris, and his desires. The dynamic between these two characters is thrilling, and most of this 80 minute film consists purely of conversation between them. They test one another’s ethical and emotional limits and wrestle for control of the narrative. Unfortunately, like in the first film, things become less interesting when they devolve into slasher fare. Thankfully, this is considerably less of a focus than in the preceding picture. What’s frustrating about Creep 2 is that the movie is usually at its most interesting when Sara is dominating Aaron. It felt as if the natural ending of this movie would be to have Sara emerging as the victor, and revealing herself to be a resplendent predator- in whatever form, as a newly minted killer, exposing herself as a practiced murderer, or simply reducing Aaron to an emasculated video subject. Instead, we get an extended ending sequence that seems to suggest that the final conflict between these characters will take place in Creep 3. That’s tiresome and feels like a cheat. 3/5
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Oct 12, 2019 16:55
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 #14 One Cut of the Dead 2017 Shudder I’ll honor the goon embargo with spoilers on this one. I went into this one blind, as suggested, but I wasn’t as dazzled by it as others were. I wonder if those who were surprised and delighted by this one have seen much other contemporary Japanese cinema, as this sort of Brechtian postmodern construction is pretty dime-a-dozen there. Even in the diagetic film at the start, the ironic, campy style distances the audience from the “picture in picture” film. So, on their own merits, these sorts of clever lemniscate tricks don’t earn any points from me. However, I’m pleased to say that unlike many films that select this methodology, there’s nothing arch or pretentious about it in this movie. Instead, One Cut of the Dead uses this format, and its opening long-take, to build a charming gag-driven comedy that radiates affection for its craft and genre. As an aside, it’s interesting to note that this was one of the most profitable films of all time, having been shot on a budget of only $25k. 4/5
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Oct 13, 2019 18:27
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 #15 IT 2 2019 Theatrical Release The IT series has a generational trauma conceit that is fairly unique and engaging. IT 2 is at its strongest when dealing most directly with this, but it also falters most obviously when it fails to do so in a way that feels emotionally true to the characters. In particular, the ending is a whimper when it ought to be a triumphant conquest for the Losers. While IT 2 had the potential to elevate its first chapter and really make something special, I find myself wondering if the first chapter isn’t stronger as a standalone work. IT 2 is a pretty messy script that’s commendably ambitious but ultimately disappoints. Regardless, there’s plenty to like here. Pennywise steals the show with his performance (though it feels like they really did him dirty in the finale; he’s shown himself to be meaner and more resilient than that,) and all of the creature designs are great. IT combines cartoony visuals with almost nostalgic, Rite Aid Halloween costume scares. The juxtaposition of menace and fun is appropriately Halloween. The decision to animate the new flashback scenes as CG instead of getting the original cast together to shoot new scenes is simply baffling, by the way. 3/5
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Oct 14, 2019 03:48
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 #16 The Void 2017 Shudder Not a whole lot to say about this one. This is a movie about a group of people who find themselves trapped in a hospital, surrounded by members of an eldritch cult. It starts out with a lot of great, striking imagery, intense pacing, and a gripping mood of paranoia. You really don’t know what side people are on, or what the sides even are, but the stakes are immediate and severe. That is the makings of a great horror movie! But from there, it seems to me like there’s two ways you can go: slow down and flesh out the ideas presented in your bombastic opening to develop the plot you’ve established in a way that ups the emotional resonance, or barrel forward, refusing to explain anything and making a break-neck splatterhouse picture. But unfortunately, The Void sort of putters around in the middle ground. While there is some great effects work in play in the second act, and a fair amount happens in the plot, it really doesn’t feel like it goes anywhere. The mystery is explored but it’s all stock genre stuff, and they really only give it a surface treatment that feels like even the filmmakers don’t care about it. The feeling I get from this picture is that everything is referential to another work, without much thought as to why. It feels written by committee. This one had a lot of promise, but it just didn’t do anything for me. I didn’t care about the characters and there’s not much craft to the filmmaking. 2/5
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Oct 15, 2019 05:44
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 #17 Uncle Sam 1996 Tubi 4th of July horror! I was surprised that I hadn’t heard of this before, as it’s just the sort of thing that would draw my eye. And what a treat to find that it’s a Larry Cohen work that’s gone below my radar. This movie starts off with a montage of imagery of Uncle Sam that really pops in terms of being menacing and alien, while really not changing anything about it but the context. Sets a great tone for what follows. On its face, this is a movie about a Desert Storm casualty returning home to the US to wreak havoc on those he perceives as having slighted him in death. Something I noted while watching this is how much the US attitude towards patriotism has changed since 1996. Here, burning an American flag and mooning the national anthem are treated as hijinks that the average rascally teen might do. I don’t think that would fly in a movie today, because we regard our nationalism much more gravely and severely, whether out of solemn deference or in ire. An interesting thing about this movie is that, though there’s a killer Uncle Sam going around doing slasher stuff, the real locus of dread in this film is situated on its child protagonist. The boy’s mother and aunt regard him with fear, because they see the seed of male chauvinist, nationalist imperialist violence that terrorized them at home taking root in him. In other words, their boy is becoming a reactionary, and this is rightfully regarded as a monstrous transformation which alienates him from his community. The conflict of the story is borne out in his having to overcome his childish disposition towards violent fantasies and hero worship to reckon with the real character of his late uncle as a domestic abuser and all-around violent scumbag. The character of Uncle Sam is interesting, as well. He’s a monster in every sense of the word, and most classically in that he’s the abject thing that we can’t get rid of: in this case, the imperialist butcher that holds up the US empire. The violence we do overseas returns to us in various forms, as police militarization, terrorist attacks, and in this most fantastical case, a stalking ghoul. Sam confronts this most directly when he accuses the public of sending him to die and then being unwilling to look upon his corpse. Things take an interesting turn, then, when his nephew agrees, takes Sam by the hand, and begins to walk peacefully with him into the daylight. The music drops away. I genuinely didn’t know where this was going, and felt that the movie was really surprising me by taking a mature and nuanced perspective of the picture’s underlying anxiety. Well, it turns out it was a ruse so they can blast him with a cannon. But, wait- it doesn’t kill him. Makes sense, why could you kill a revenant spirit of war with a cannon? Well, actually it just takes two shots. Blablow. Also, the final scene of this movie, with the protagonist burning his war toys, giving a creepy smile, and then the screen-shattering effect...what was that all about? I don’t know how to read that. 3/5
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Oct 16, 2019 20:07
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Oh, man, that could be tough. For those who’ve never seen a Nigerian film, they produce about 40,000 horror movies a year and they’re all on Youtube. I recommend October 1, a Nigerian slasher that could be found on Netflix at least as of a few years back.
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Oct 16, 2019 20:30
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SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #4 INKTOBER (This is a movie about a composer and the music industry at large.) #18 Phantom of the Paradise 1974 Amazon Prime Starting out, it’s obvious that this is a DePalma picture. The camp humor and breakneck plot pacing and pastiche of styles are highly reminiscent of early career offerings like Hi, Mom! However, I found the first act of this movie hard to get into. I felt like I was being breathlessly told what would’ve happened in a longer movie so that we could get to the good stuff. That feeling, like I’m being told about the script rather than seeing the story told naturalistically, let up when the pacing settled into a more traditional speed in the second act, but never fully went away. This movie was consistently amusing and rarely funny; I recognized that ideas were clever, but it never popped for me. Apparently, an earlier version of this script contained no supernatural element. I’d be interested to have seen that version, in another universe. But there’s a lot that I like about Phantom. I love the costuming, and there are some wonderful performances, particularly from Leach and Beef. The musical numbers span a wide variety of styles and some of it’s pretty catchy. This one gets some credit for just being goofy and weird. Some people will love this, but it didn’t fully fire for me. 3/5
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Oct 17, 2019 01:45
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 SUPER SAMHAIN CHALLENGE #5 Tourist Trap #19 Juan of the Dead 2010 Amazon (Paid) This was a tricky challenge for me. As it turns out, I’ve seen at least one movie from most countries in the world. Now I can add Cuba to that list! Juan of the Dead is a zombie movie that follows the general schema and conventions of its genre. What sets it apart is that it applies these conventions- making cultural critique, interrogating the role of individual in society, etc- in a Cuban context. The movie stars a gang of petty criminals who feel stuck between Cuba and the outside world, the security of socialism and the opportunity of capitalism, beset by foreign enemies but alienated by their own state, with family members already gone abroad. When the dead begin to rise, these antagonisms sharpen and are borne out in miniature in a day to day struggle to survive a period of chaos. This movie’s alright. Some of the comedy is black enough that it makes it difficult to empathize with the protagonists. The biggest flaw is that the movie lacks drive, it feels a little languid, despite its short runtime. Now, a zombie picture can get away with a slower pace- Dawn of the Dead is exemplary for this- but you still have to feel a sense of threat and menace, and that’s not really present here. I’d be interested to learn more about the production of this. It was a joint venture partially financed by the Spanish government, and I think you can see that in its politics, but it never goes full gusano, either. 3/5
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Oct 18, 2019 05:18
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It’s funny how everyone comes away from Errementari pumped about the red horns and pitchfork devil. That’s what the people really want!
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Oct 18, 2019 18:36
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El Santo contra las mujeres vampiras is dope as well. The vampire henchmen just sort of drive around in muscle cars and beat people up. El Santo defeats the vampires by going into their crypt in the daytime, setting them on fire, then just booking it to his car and peeling out.
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Oct 19, 2019 16:04
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God, I wish I could find Phantasm 2 on any streaming service!
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Oct 19, 2019 19:01
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 #20 Body Bags 1993 Tubi This is an anthology film that was originally made for TV. It’s surprising to me that it initially aired in August, as the vibe for this one is so perfect for Halloween. What’s interesting about this one is that, unlike many horror shorts, and even some feature films, these stories feel compelling before any horror elements enter play. Frankly, I think I enjoyed these shorts more as little character pieces than I did as ghoulish parables. There’s something intriguing about the woman’s spooky late night shift, the poor balding guy, the baseball star that undergoes an experimental eye implant to rescue his career. Honestly, I felt that the horror elements of these shorts kind of let down their expository scenes. The interstitial scenes are a treat. John Carpenter has the exact right vibe going for some creepy fun. Though, his final scene is a little weird- it seems like they’re setting it up for him to jump up and grab the coroners, but then he just doesn’t? I guess it’s his job to get autopsied? 3/5
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Oct 20, 2019 09:12
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Looks like the real puppet, is you
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Oct 20, 2019 18:35
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Now I’m really wishing they would’ve made my fan script for Creep 3: annoying northern California guy vs annoying Brooklyn guy
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Oct 21, 2019 14:22
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I’ll save y’all challengers some time and let you know that Sadako vs Kayako is not nearly as fun as you’d think, though there are like fifteen minutes of dope poo poo in there towards the end.
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Oct 21, 2019 15:52
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 15:35 |
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duz posted:I've not seen it, but does it top this promotion they did for it? The best part of the movie is that the protagonist’s response to ghosts in a house is, if I remember right, to like blast them with shrapnel grenades from outside. But the movie doesn’t pop like that for very much of the runtime, it’s a lot of flashbacks and stuff.
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Oct 21, 2019 18:16
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