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I'm in for 31. Do you have cable subscription or Vue? TCM has a pretty great Halloween lineup this month. Almost everything is on-demand the next day and stays for at least a week.The app and site will also let you watch live East or West coast feeds. quote:Available Now
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Sep 28, 2019 02:07
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 19:25 |
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Windows 98 posted:2. Hard To Die (1991)
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Sep 28, 2019 19:51
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1) The Reptile It's a traditional Hammer period piece with really nice sets and acting. It falls into the monster movie trap where it focuses too much on the investigation of what the audience knows is the titular reptile. Renaming this to The Black Death would help but I would be thrilled with one early, graphic reptile kill to deliver on the title. 🐍🐍 2) The Comedy of Terrors  This is fine and sometimes very funny but it's not a feverish delight like The Raven (1963). The physical gags are very good but the wordy jokes don't land as well. Karloff is underused and the middle drags but the third act does a lot of save this one. ⚰️⚰️⚰️ 3) Cujo  It's fine for what it is (a confined psychological horror movie) but nowhere near the bloodbath I want. Dee Wallace is good and and Danny Pintauro is amazing for a kid but I'm not watching a rabid dog movie for the acting. The handful of action scenes are quite good. 🐶🐶 4) God Told Me To  I'm shocked by how good this is. I hate most supernatural detective stories outside of The Omen but this is gripping. The movie lives on Tony Lo Bianco's performance. My only complaint is that I wish the abduction sequence was something more than the composite shot and stock footage. It's not a bad sequence but it doesn't have the guerrilla vibe of Cohen's New York. 🏙️🏙️🏙️🏙️🏙️ 5) Dead Snow  A good time but not really a good movie. This is a fun group watch and has lots of nice gore but the tribute scenes are tiresome and everything between the kills is awful. It's a solid base for a sequel but this one is not a classic. 🧟 🧟 🧟 5/31 Movies 4/10 Decades: '60, '70, '80, '00
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Oct 5, 2019 06:02
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6) Viy (Challenge #1 - movie of the month) Great colors and sets. There's a charming weirdness to this folktale horror. You can see how Jack Frost (1964) came from a similar tradition. I love the comedy of the ghouls running away at dawn. It's nowhere near as crazy but it reminds me of Hausu at times. ⛪⛪⛪⛪ 7) Alucarda Blood soaked and crazy. Lots of effort behind the weird costumes in this one. Sets are good and spooky. The story is mostly horny and comedic. One of the doors has the greatest creak in film history and there's an amazing pratfall down a set of stairs. 🔥🔥🔥🔥 8) Who Can Kill a Child? (Challenge #2 - director died June 2019) The pacing is unfortunate but a well edited, breezy cut of this movie could be pretty great. The mobs of kids are suitably creepy and the action scenes are all pretty great. Overall Dagon is the superior barren coast town horror movie. The long news reel of war crime footage at the start is awful and does not add nearly as much as the director thinks. 🎣🎣 9) The Seventh Curse Delightful goopy romp. Puppets fighting humans. Puppets fighting humans in rubber suits. Crazy action and a great time all around. 💀💀💀💀 10) White Zombie A fun little spooky story. Lugosi is entertaining but plays it a bit too evil when I think he's best at being a hypnotic manipulator. The rest are very 1932 studio film performances. Some of the sets are dodgy mattes and paint jobs pretending to be 3D elements but they are more charming than flawed. Nothing feels completely realized but you can trace a line from this to countless Gothic horrors and Hammer stuff. 🧟🧟🧟 11) The Uninvited Everyone talks like they are in a 1940s movie and I cannot deal. The rapid tone shifts between scenes are not a great choice but some of the comedic scenes are fun. The comedy sailing scene masking a family history infodump was very clever. 🕯️🕯️ 12) Haxan Not very spooky but it's a really interesting film. The coin vignette has a bunch of neat shots and stop motion animation. I am a sucker for double exposure ghosts in old movies. The TCM version's score is overpowering and bad. Dial the volume way back. 😈😈😈
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Oct 13, 2019 08:13
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13) Killer Condom Absurd comedy horror/AIDS allegory. Good effects work and design by Giger and the Nekromantic guy. Lots of dumb gags and fun. This could stand to lose 10-15 minutes and be breezier. 🍆🍆🍆 14) Addams Family (2019) It's bad. The designs are ok and I like the bouncy animation but the script is obsessed with the laziest kids movie tropes instead of creepy weirdos. I don't love Hotel Transylvania films but they're streets ahead of this. ⚰️ 15) Zombieland Very fun with a thin plot and the greatest cameo in history. Basically Shaun of the Dead but laser focused on physical comedy. There's a reason why a Chaplin look-a-like is the zombie killed on Hollywood Blvd. The dramatic beats work but the narration is unnecessary after the introduction. 🎢 🎢 🎢 🎢 16) Zombieland: Double Tap (Challenge #6 a horror sequel) It's barely worth your time but I don't hate it. Seeing it in Dolby makes the constant CGI blood look terrible. Zoey Deutch makes a lot out of a one-note character but maybe they should have given some development to Little Rock? I don't know when this was shot but oh dear at the stinger where a beloved Today Show figure turns into a grotesque monster. Might have been less awkward to use that spot to resurrect Billy Bush's career. 🎆🎆 17) Deep Red Italian cut. It's not Suspiria but there are some very good shots and colors. The comedy beats work but the main plot grabbed me less than Opera or Phenomena. The Goblin score is wonderful, of course. 🔪🔪🔪 18) Necronomicon (Challenge #4 a book of Legend) Watch this for the goopy special effects. They are incredible. The individual stories are bogged down with flashbacks and don't reach the heights of your favorite Tales From The Crypt episodes. 📖📖 19) The Funhouse The third act is wonderful but I lost interest after a slog of a first hour. A huge disappointment. Tobe has made some incredible movies but this can't even hang with second tier Location Slashers like The Initiation or Intruder. The carnival score is a highlight. 🎪🎪 20) Demon Knight (Challenge #3 mentioned in Horror Noire) A great time. Give Billy Zane an Oscar. This one has lots of good characters and a cast that elevates the material like every beloved Tales From The Crypt entry. It gets the most out of one weird location and some external shots. The Crypt Keeper wraparound is a delight. The bluray (original film?) is kind of rough. It's shot and lit nicely but the transfer does not pop and has a fair amount of dirt or black spots. 🤠🤠🤠🤠 20/31 Movies 9/10 Decades: '20, '30, '40, '60, '70, '80, '90, '00, '10 5/?? Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6
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Oct 24, 2019 02:50
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 19:25 |
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21) It! The Terror from Beyond Space The script is not very good but I love the absurd 1958 view of space. A giant galaxy is visible from the Martian surface. There's an automatic airlock that's just a regular door controlled by a very visible fishing line. The monster is a dude in a suit and he doesn't even act like anything else. 🚀🚀 22) Countdown (Challenge #9 a spoooky app and a hacker) A fantastic bad movie. This is a dumb movie with a goofy premise. You know what you're getting and it's your own fault if you end up disappointed. The middle drags a little but it's consistently amusing. If this was a WB production the smoking priest who eats communion wafers as a snack would get a spin-off. 📱📱📱 23) The Lighthouse Dafoe channels Karloff and Pattinson his many foils in a gorgeous film. There comes a point where the movie is intentionally disorienting and it's not a feeling I enjoy. Eggers is fantastic director and a writer I mostly tolerate. The front lit interior shots are incredible. This movie constantly justifies the use of B&W film stock and doesn't look washed out like so many half-assed attempts at modern B&W. The only flaws in cinematography are the wide outdoor tracking shots where the sky and rain wash out the image and detail. 💦💦💦 24) Tigers Are Not Afraid The kids are great and there are some really strong scenes but the movie feels like less than its parts. My biggest complaint is that it's more depressing than scary. It's a good take on a violent cartel story but not my favorite dark fairy tale. The Pan's Labyrinth comparison does this movie doing no favors other than setting expectations of the type of horror and tone. 🐅 🐅 25) Little Monsters The rarest of zombie comedies that is just as enjoyable in the ~20 minutes before zombies show up. The tractor loving boy and his deadbeat uncle would make a fine comedy on their own. Josh Gad is fine but his subplot isn't nearly strong enough to justify the tired trope of the salty children's TV star. There are a lot of suspiciously out-of-frame decapitations for an R-rated movie. Effects work is hard, I guess. 🚜🚜🚜🚜 26) Lake of the Dead Ok psychological thriller. It's probably better presented as a crime drama than horror. There's something here but the pacing is off and I don't really like mystery stories. 🏞️🏞️ 27) Possession (Challenge #5 a movie filmed in West Germany) Unbelievably good. One of the few movies to perfectly blend grounded, domestic horror and monster poo poo. The camera is constantly moving and tilted to find terror in simple arguments inside a kitchen. Neill is always good but Adjani gives an incredible physical performance and manages two play 2 roles as distinct people beyond a wig swap. ⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵ 28) Dead Hooker in a Trunk Student films should come with a warning label. This isn't good and the Soska sisters are not at a point where their formative work is a worthwhile artifact. 💊 29) Ganja & Hess I love the introduction but the movie inches forward at an unbearable pace. Vampirism as addiction and oppression is an interesting take. The mix of art-house editing with poorly shot and barely audible scenes is baffling. 🔪🔪 30) Neon Maniacs (Challenge #10 a thread recommendation) Very goofy monster movie with a crazy score. The teen protags are fine and all the monster stuff is shot in a fun way. The scariest part was when I realized the heroes were armed with pre-Super Soaker squirt guns. 🔫🔫🔫 31) Creepshow 2 (Challenge #12 an anthology) The stories are way too long and the tone is weird. This is not a good one. The hitchhiker story almost redeems the movie. The animated sequences are hideous. Draw a few rotoscoped comic book pages from film frames. I don't need animation! 👍👍 10/10 decades since 1920. 8/13 Challenges
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Nov 1, 2019 06:03
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