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So CriterionChannel is getting a stacked line-up for October. Of the streaming services, it is the one I'm most impressed by. Here's what will be available and when: If you'd like to read the full line-up, including non-horror, yourself, it's here: Criterion Channel October Available Oct. 2nd Peeping Tom (part of "Prying Eyes" Double Feature, with Odd Obsession (1959), which doesn't count for the challenge) Available October 4th: 70's Horror Showcase quote:In the 1970s, everything was wilder, weirder, and more far-out—and horror movies were no exception. In North America, a new generation of maverick directors like Tobe Hooper, George A. Romero, Wes Craven, Brian De Palma, and David Cronenberg responded to the decade’s heightened political anxieties and Vietnam War–era sense of disillusionment by pushing the genre’s psychological intensity and visceral violence to shocking new heights. Across the Atlantic, Britain’s legendary Hammer Films continued to serve up old-school gothic spine-tinglers, while auteurs like Nicolas Roeg wedded spellbinding terror to art-house experimentation. Bringing together some of the decade’s most iconic slashers, chillers, and killer thrillers alongside low-budget cult rarities and camp-tastic oddities, this tour through the 1970s nightmare realm is a veritable blood feast of perverse pleasures from a time when gore, grime, and sleaze found a permanent home in horror. Trog (Freddie Francis, 1970) The Vampire Lovers (Roy Ward Baker, 1970) Daughters of Darkness (Harry Kümel, 1971) Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (John D. Hancock, 1971) The Nightcomers (Michael Winner, 1971) Dracula A.D. 1972 (Alan Gibson, 1972) Images (Robert Altman, 1972) Death Line (Gary Sherman, 1972) Season of the Witch (George A. Romero, 1972) The Crazies (George A. Romero, 1973) Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973) Ganja & Hess (Bill Gunn, 1973) Sisters (Brian De Palma, 1973) Theater of Blood (Douglas Hickox, 1973) The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973) Black Christmas (Bob Clark, 1974) Deathdream (Bob Clark, 1974) It’s Alive (Larry Cohen, 1974) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974) Shivers (David Cronenberg, 1975) The Tenant (Roman Polanski, 1976) The Witch Who Came from the Sea (Matt Cimber, 1976) The Hills Have Eyes (Wes Craven, 1977) Rabid (David Cronenberg, 1977) Coma (Michael Crichton, 1978) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman, 1978) Long Weekend (Colin Eggleston, 1978) The Brood (David Cronenberg, 1979) The Driller Killer (Abel Ferrara, 1979) Available Oct. 7th We Need To Talk About Kevin Available Oct. 8th Videodrome Available Oct. 9th Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942) Double Feature: Slime Time The Blob and Beware! The Blob Available October 11th Joan Crawford Showcase (25 films, only listed are qualifying films for the challenge) The Unknown (Tod Browning, 1927) What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (Robert Aldrich, 1962) Strait-Jacket (William Castle, 1964) Trog (Freddie Francis, 1970) Available Oct. 21st Women Filmmakers of New World Pictures showcase The Velvet Vampire (Stephanie Rothman, 1971) Humanoids from the Deep (Barbara Peeters and Jimmy T. Murakami, 1980) Slumber Party Massacre (Amy Holden Jones, 1982) Available Oct. 25th New Korean Cinema showcase (11 films, list limited to what counts for the challenge) quote:As Korean pop culture continues its worldwide ascent, now is a perfect time to catch up with the wild, genre-defying pleasures of the seemingly unstoppable movement known as the New Korean Cinema. Bringing together essential works by major directors like Bong Joon Ho, Park Chan-wook, Kim Jee-woon, and Ryoo Seung-wan, this sampler of modern classics and cult favorites spotlights the innovative artists who have powered the commercial and creative renaissance that completely transformed South Korea’s film industry from the mid 1990s through the late 2000s. Characterized by an ingenious mixing and subversion of genre conventions and an effortless blending of art-house and commercial sensibilities, these visceral, audaciously constructed films deliver both high-octane thrills and biting social and political critiques of contemporary Korean life. The Quiet Family (Kim Jee-woon, 1998) Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Park Chan-wook, 2002) A Tale of Two Sisters (Kim Jee-woon, 2003) Lady Vengeance (Park Chan-wook, 2005) The Host (Bong Joon Ho, 2006) Mother (Bong Joon Ho, 2009) Available Oct. 30th "Twice Bitten" Double Feature Nosferatu (F. W. Murnau) and Nosferatu the Vampyre (Werner Herzog) Available Oct. 31st The Devil's Backbone (Guillermo del Toro, 2001)   As of right now, here are all the qualifying films available on Criterion Channel: note: the Herschell Gordon Lewis films may be removed on Oct. 1st) Ishiro Honda kaiju series (including OG Godzillas) Alfred Hitchcock thrillers Antichrist (2009) The Blob (1958) Blood Feast (1963) The Brood (1979) Carnival of Souls (1962) The Cars That Ate Paris (1974) Color Me Blood Red (1965) The Cremator (1969) Cronos (1993) Cure (1997) Diabolique (1955) Equinox (1970) Eraserhead (1977) Eyes Without A Face (1960) The Face of Another (1966) Fiend Without A Face (1958) Funny Games (1997) Ganja & Hess (1973) Genocide (1968) Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (1968) The Gore Gore Girls (1972) The Gruesome Twosome (1967) The Haunted Strangler (1958) Häxan (1922) Hour of the Wolf (1968) Hausu (1977) I Was A Teenage Zombie (1987) Jigoku (1960) Knife in the Water (1962) Kuroneo (1968) The Living Skeleton (1968) Long Weekend (1978) The Lure (2015) Carnival of Sinners (La main du diable) (1943) M (1931) Night of the Living Dead (1968) Sightseers (2012) Sisters (1973) Spirits of the Dead (1968) Three Cases of Murder (1955) The Ghost of Yotsuya (Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan)(1959) Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees (1975) Vampyr (1932) The Vanishing (Spoorloos (1988) The Wizard of Gore (1970) The X from Outer Space (1967) Criterion Channel currently has a 2 week free trial available. Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Sep 30, 2020 |
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Sep 30, 2020 20:39
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Franchescanado posted:So CriterionChannel is getting a stacked line-up for October. Of the streaming services, it is the one I'm most impressed by. Here's what will be available and when:  there's a ton of good stuff in there, I haven't tried the Criterion Channel yet because I have so many streaming services already but I'll probably do the trial at least this month.Equinox (1970) is a cool one that people should check out, it's basically a prototype The Evil Dead with really fun stop-motion effects  And absolutely everyone needs to watch Hausu if they haven't already 
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Sep 30, 2020 21:07
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3. The Evil Dead (1981) As mean as ever. 5/5 4. Evil Dead 2 (1987) One of the greatest late night group films ever. Horror mixed with looney tunes playfulness. My biggest knock on it is that I prefer the mean streak of the first movie a bit more, but the changes Raimi made help this reach a bigger audience so I get it. Bruce is an absolute delight to watch, and the effects still hold up. 4.5/5
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Sep 30, 2020 21:19
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10. The Last Man on Earth (1964)  The First adaptation of Richard Matheson's I am Legend novel. This one is starring Vincent Price. The other adaptations are The Omega Man, and then I am Legend. Of the adaptations I like this one the most. Price really plays up the lonelyness of being the last man on Earth, he goes from depressed to manic to anger. In fact all we have is Price alone with a voice over for nearly a hour of the film , which normally you'd think itd be boring to watch just one person for that long but Price pulls it off. The film is rather bloodless as movie go even though it was made in 1964. It's well directed and the pace is that you don't get bored so it kept my attention the full run time of 87 minutes. Well worth checking out 10/31 30% Complete!!!
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Sep 30, 2020 21:44
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 Next of Kin (1982) "This is my house." Shout out to forums user 'married but discreet' for posting about this one in the general horror thread, that post is the reason I checked this out on Shudder. A woman named Linda moves to her hometown after many years, to inherit her dead, estranged mother's house-turned-retirement-home. She finds her mother's diary and spookiness ensues. This is a stylish, moody Slow Burn with incredible camerawork, great score from original Tangerine Dream member Klaus Schulze. Your patience will be rewarded - not sure I blinked during the last 20 minutes. 5/5SA October Horror Challenge Count: 7/40
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Sep 30, 2020 22:08
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BisonDollah posted:I'm quite proud of this Pictionary, no guesses!? Hell House 2? Something something monopoly
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Sep 30, 2020 23:23
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lol I knew what it was supposed to be but couldn’t figure out how the bottom part fit in, I forgot about the second half of the title a Mafia don with ripped abs holding a hotel piece from Monopoly = The Abbadon Hotel
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Sep 30, 2020 23:46
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 7. Leprechaun 3 - Dir: Brian Trenchard-Smith - 1995 HBOMax So this is the best one so far out of the 3. We got David Byrne turning into a leprechaun, an overly long sex scene with a big boobied robot, a woman blowing up with her best features and a body guard who cant keep his eye on the prize. Really though this was probably the most thought out of the three so far and had some great gags, shot well enough for the budget and actually had character and charm for everyone and not just Warwick. Official Leprechaun Ranking: 3>1>2
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Oct 1, 2020 00:22
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#6: 1933 Son of Kong As a sequel to King Kong, it's pretty bad. As a movie that somehow was made and released eight months after King Kong, it's way better than it has any right to be. Just by itself, it's OK. First off, there's way less monkey action. King Kong shows up less than half an hour into the 100 minute long King Kong and from then on it's almost non-stop action. Son of Kong shows up more than 40 minutes into the 29 minute long Son of Kong, and there are many stops to the action. But although there is much less quantity, the quality is still there. The miniatures look good, the stop motion looks good, and honestly the stop motion miniatures and real humans are matted together way better than in King Kong. There's a great sea monster and a fantastic island collapsing into the sea sequence. Son of Kong has quality monster and miniature action. Story wise, it's mostly a boat and island adventure. Denim has been humbled, he's being sued by a million people, he's flat broke, but he gets a very obviously fake story about there still being some treasure on Skull Island so back he goes. The weird thing is that it's kind of cast as Denim's redemption? He's been humbled, he saves and then is saved by the son of the monkey he killed, etc. But at the end he steals a diamond necklace from a temple and the second they get it out the door the loving island collapses into the sea. He has killed every single native not killed by Kong's rampage, he has killed Son of Kong, he has literally wiped the island off the face of the earth. But it's not really presented like that at all. Son of Kong's last gesture is to hold Denim above the waves, so Denim is forgiven for killing King Kong, so it's fine. There is an honest to god communist revolution in this movie. It's the same boat and same crew from the first movie, so halfway through they mutiny about going back to the island where half the crew was killed by a giant ape and dinosaurs less than a year ago. As they're sending Denim and the captain away in a rowboat they literally say "Row, you bourgeoi!" And then the leader of the mutiny tries to become the new captain, and the sailors literally say they don't need captains anymore, throw him overboard, and say "that's where all captains belong!" After how thoroughly problematic King Kong was, I was not expecting Son of Kong to show anywhere near that level of ideological correctness. 6 Movies Watched: Dracula, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, King Kong, Son of Kong
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Oct 1, 2020 00:25
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gey muckle mowser posted:lol I knew what it was supposed to be but couldn’t figure out how the bottom part fit in, I forgot about the second half of the title Yeah that second part is where it completely lost me. Also I guess the description, because I thought HH2 was waaaaay worse than the first one.
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Oct 1, 2020 00:27
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Heck yeah, it's on! This year I'll be watching 31 movies, including finishing the Hooptober challenge, and trying to peck as much as I can at my pile of unwatched owned movies - at least 15 new-to-me movies. And all the Fran challenges natch.
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Oct 1, 2020 00:35
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Okay posting my list in non-image format. Mostly this order, although some might shuffle a little in the middle. Ones I've never seen in bold. 1. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 (opener) 2. The Babadook 3. Absentia 4. The Ruins 5. Blade: Trinity 6. Paranormal Activity 7. Dracula (1930s one) 8. Signs 9. Friday the 13th (original) 10. 28 Days Later 11. Midsommar (director’s cut) 12. Beetlejuice 13. The Craft 14. Train to Busan 15. The Final Girls 16. The Haunting (original) 17. The Frighteners 18. Zodiac (not really horror) 19. Host (2020) 20. Blair Witch Project 21. The Relic 22. Green Room 23. Fright Night 24. The Birds 25. Scream 26. Frankenstein (1930s one) 27. Oculus 28. One Cut of the Dead 29. Ghost Stories (anthology) 30. Summer of ’84 31. Hocus Pocus (Halloween night closer) Plus a few extras to slot in if I get time: - The Ruins - V/H/S - Hotel Transylvania - Dead of Night (1945) - In Search of Darkness (80s horror documentary) TV shows to complete the season: - The Haunting of Bly Manor - All 31 Treehouse of Horror episodes (the 31st airs this year) Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 01:12 on Oct 1, 2020 |
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Oct 1, 2020 00:52
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Didn't realize this had already started, but I'll be joining again, with a goal of 31 again. Living with my partner now so probably will pull out more rewatches than previous years, but I'll make sure at least 13 are new.
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Oct 1, 2020 00:57
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 3. Pontypool-2008: 4.5/5 Another rewatch, I assume most of you have seen this so all I'll throw in is it is easily among the most underrated Horror films in recent memory and Stephen McHattie should be in more movies. Watched on Plex New Watches: Boar Rewatches: High Tension, Pontypool
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Oct 1, 2020 01:01
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 35) The Ghost - 1963 - Prime This was a nice period murder mystery. The very wealthy Dr. Hitchcock dies while taking a risky cure which has to be given in a very precise dosage leaving a few smiling faces that fall when the Will gets read. Then it's a whirlwind of betrayals, stabbings and lies in a rush to find Dr. Hitchcock's wealth. When it comes to murder mysteries, I'm kinda picky. Comes from my introduction to them being Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes. This one was right up my alley.  36) Blood Beast Terror - 1967 - Youtube Over the course of time we've seen plenty of werewolves, werecats, weregators, werespiders and such. Here we have a blood sucking weremoth. Film's pretty decent overall, though it does have pacing issues in some parts. Peter Cushing's a delight as always. It worked really well when I converted it to a Ravenloft session way back in the day. It'll fit fine in a random Hammer/Tigon/Amicus monster marathon.  37) Scream, Baby, Scream - 1969 - DVD Holy poo poo, a film Larry Cohen was involved with that I didn't know about. Here we have the team up of a mad artist and a mad surgeon, psychedelics, zombie-like men and more. It's Cohen's writing so you know it's going to be something to watch.  38)Theatre of Death - 1967 - Youtube I think I spent near half the runtime of this one wondering if I'd seen it before. It's one of the downsides to having watched so many horror movies over the years. I hadn't seen this one and my fiance's still smirking over the idea there's a Christopher Lee film I haven't seen. This was pretty good. Lee runs a Grand Guignol style theater and murders start happening in the area making it a question about if the theater's involved. While it's not a Hammer film, it does kinda have a hint of a Hammer feel if that makes sense. Very much worth a watch in my opinion.
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Oct 1, 2020 01:10
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3. Demons Watched On: Hoopla This movie felt like the fever dream of a 12 year old boy, with all the good and bad that entails. The premise is engaging:movie monsters attack a moviegoing audience after someone is possessed by a spooky mask. But ten minutes after the screen is ripped open and all hell breaks loose, the movie starts its shambling drag towards an anticlimactic ending. I tend to give horror movies a lot of leeway as far as believability goes but the ‘deus ex helicopter’ that just happens to crash into the ceiling AND has a grappling hook gun is one of the goofiest things I’ve ever seen. The real stars of the movie are the great practical gore and special effects. Fangs pop out teeth, heads get scalped and goop pours out everywhere. If I ever watched this again, I’d throw it on in the background at a party, where the effects can be appreciated without having to worry about the incoherent story.
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Oct 1, 2020 01:23
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I like Demons and don't worry about believability in the slightest bit for it, but I do kind of laugh when I think about the unexplained 45 minutes or so outside the theater when the punks break in everything seems pretty normal and when they get out and we're in full blown post apocalyptic war mode.
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Oct 1, 2020 01:32
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 The Lighthouse, 2019 My first movie of the all October horror marathon, and oh boy, what a movie to start it all with. I been planing to watch The Lighthouse ever since it came out, and it was everything I hoped for and more. Never a boring second, never a scene that dragged on. And that despite it was just about two men working at a lighthouse back in the day. All in black and white, with 4x3 aspect ratio to evoke the time period it takes place in. A great movie to get this marathon going for me, a terrible one for me to write about. Because this isn't a typical horror movie and there's little to be said without spoiling or trying to analyse what was going on at the tiny island the plot takes place. It is just one of those movies you are better off just watching with as little info as possible. Bit of a cop-out for my first review, but I trust tomorrow's horror feature will give me more I can talk about. Just watch this movie, it is great.
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Oct 1, 2020 01:38
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STAC Goat posted:I like Demons and don't worry about believability in the slightest bit for it, but I do kind of laugh when I think about the unexplained 45 minutes or so outside the theater when the punks break in everything seems pretty normal and when they get out and we're in full blown post apocalyptic war mode. And they don’t even do anything! They just show up, Lenny and Squiggy their way around and then get turned into demons within like five minutes!
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Oct 1, 2020 01:41
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Well to be honest no one in that movie really does anything except stumble around and get turned into a demon. Its a movie that knows what it is and leans in hard.
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Oct 1, 2020 01:47
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STAC Goat posted:Well to be honest no one in that movie really does anything except stumble around and get turned into a demon. The movie isn't called "People Doing Things" is it? 
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Oct 1, 2020 01:55
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4) I, the Executioner (みな殺しの霊歌) - 1968 The movie opens with the brutal murder of a woman, and the murderer is quickly revealed to be the protagonist of the film. And he kills again. But this is more noir or crime drama than straight horror. It has that moral ambiguity of noir, but the main character already knows the answer to the mystery the viewer has to piece together, his motivation for killing. He isn't demented, he doesn't seem to have a personal connection to the victims, but as the title implies, he acts with purpose. It's shot in black & white, and almost every shot in the movie is from an unusually low angle, or a close up. It's very blatantly made to feel claustrophobic, for reasons that become obvious by the end of the movie, but it gives it a very different feel from similar works. 7/10. Recommended. Stink Billyums fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Oct 1, 2020 |
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Oct 1, 2020 02:00
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STAC Goat posted:Well to be honest no one in that movie really does anything except stumble around and get turned into a demon. Very strong ”Maybe there’s some in this truck!” energy.
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Oct 1, 2020 02:01
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Hot Dog Day #89 posted:
It really is a fantastic movie. Watching it on the big screen in a very air conditioned theater really helped with the atmosphere as well.  (7) BloodRayne: Deliverance (2007) Dir. Uwe Boll Billy the Kid is a vampire and camping out in a town with his vampire gang waiting for the railroad to arrive so he can get more victims. Rayne is a half vampire hunting regular vampires. After getting her rear end kicked by Billy and his gang, she forms a posse to try again. Old west vampires is a cool idea but the combination of Uwe Boll and direct to video keep it firmly from getting all the way there. There at least there was cowboy vampire action so it was not a total write off.  (8) Slugs (1988) Dir. Juan Piquer Simón Extra large carnivorous slugs start invading a town. They start killing people in increasingly slippery and messy ways. Incredibly messy ways. One guy bursts from being full of slug parasites. It’s fantastic. Also the slugs manage to blow up a greenhouse. This is a really wonderful movie that’s worth watching. Totals: (1) Tombs of the Blind Dead (Spanish) (1972) (2) Child’s Play 3 (1991) (3) The City of the Dead (1960) (4) Count Dracula’s Great Love (Spanish) (1973) (5) The Phantom Carriage (Swedish/Silent) (1921) (6) Dracula 2000 (2000) (7) BloodRayne: Deliverance (2007) (8) Slugs (1988) Death: 1, Monsters: 1, Serial Killers: 1, Vampires: 3, Witches: 1, Zombies: 1
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Oct 1, 2020 02:16
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 5.The Platform (2020) Dir: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia The imagery of a platform that descends every day containing less and less food as it goes down isn't neccessarily subtle, but it's still an effective to base your film around. Clearly influenced by Bong Joon-ho (particularly Snowpiercer), I don't think it quite pulls off the thematic mastery of his work. Still a pretty neat film! The single set they use is amazingly thoughtful use of a low budget, and it's fun trying to work out the geography of this tower. Ambitious Spider posted:Saw it opening night on my 18th birthday. Wasn’t a fan, but I was still a burgeoning horror nerd, so I should give it another shot Probably would be in the same boat if I had seen it when I was just starting out watching horror. It's very goofy, but you can see a lot of love for the genre.
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Oct 1, 2020 02:54
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I guess I’ll try this out. Maybe I can hit 10 movies if I try really hard  1. Cold Hell (2017) - Shudder  (All the covers looked dumb and you’re really watching this for Violetta Schurawlow whether you know it or not) More of an action thriller with horrific elements than outright horror. Özge is an Austrian taxi driver who’s got the world on her back, both by unfortunate circumstance and her seemingly stubborn and self destructive refusal to depend on or ask help of anyone. Add to her normal Troubles being a witness to a brutal murder next door where the killer saw her face and the walls start closing in real fast. The killer gets virtually no backstory or depth to him; he’s just someone that shows up from time to time to add to her woes. Budget isn’t super high since it’s a Euro movie but it didn’t feel like it constrained anything, other than the action scenes looking Very Digital Video. It’s a crisp 90 minute runtime but the sets themselves fill in a lot of the backstory. Recommended. david_a fucked around with this message at 16:44 on Oct 18, 2020 |
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Oct 1, 2020 03:26
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#3 Eyeball 1975, Umberto Lenzi Blu-ray (owned)  I had less than sterling expectations for this giallo. I'm not exactly sure why. Possibly its relative obscurity, or possibly director Umberto Lenzi's penchant for doing what all the other directors were doing, only doing it not quite as well (Cannibal Holocaust > Cannibal Ferox, Dawn of the Dead > Nightmare City). But I'm happy to say Eyeball fits in quite well alongside the rest of its more well known contemporaries. It delivers all the giallo staples: a whodunnit plot where every character is a suspect (and truthfully, I couldn't guess it. It could have been anyone), lots of first-person kills from the pov of a black (in this case red) gloved killer, gratuitous violence, gratuitous nudity, dubbing so poor it would make most Shaw Brothers films cringe, dialogue seemingly written by fifth graders, and the most incompetent police investigation imaginable. So yeah, it delivers. 4/5
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Oct 1, 2020 03:35
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 "Oh, you're not done yet. Now you'll really eat it. Come on, lick my culo!" 6. Greta, the Mad Butcher AKA Ilsa: Absolute Power AKA Wanda, the Wicked Warden AKA Ilsa, the Wicked Warden AKA Ilsa, the Mad Butcher (1977) In a way, this is my first Jes Franco film. I have seen The Castle of Fu Manchu before, but we all know that’s not what people imagine when they think of Jes Franco. When I think of Jes Franco I think of naked women in horrible situations being tortured, usually set against very boring stories which don’t matter. I’ve spent many years reading and watching reviews of his films, and being quite content to let other people expose themselves to him, and then report back with all the gruesome details. I think it’s fitting then that I choose Spooktober to break my vow of chastity, and allow Jes to do whatever he wants with me. Which, as it turns out, isn’t so terrible apparently, because I actually enjoyed Ilsa, the Mad Butcher. My only other exposure to the Ilsa films was Ilsa, the Tigress of Siberia. The only thing I remember about that film is that it was shot on a potato and padded to filth, I hated it. That was some years ago now, so perhaps it’s time to revisit it? This time we find Ilsa working at a hospital for “sexually depraved” women, operating in some vague South American or Caribbean tinpot dictatorship. At the opening of the film, a girl named Rosa escapes the hospital, and flees through dense canopy jungle, finally finding safety in the arms of a doctor played by Franco, but not before becoming wounded first. Jes treats Rosa’s wounds but also informs the hospital of her whereabouts. Rosa is escorted back to the hospital, but when Dr. Jes follows up with her sometime later, he discovers Rosa has died, and he suspects foul play, He then teams up with Rosa’s sister, and sends her into the hospital undercover to discover the truth. Honestly, that’s far too much plot for a skin flick, and I think the film agrees, as it’s mainly just nudity and torture from here on out. If you want nudity, you’re certainly not going to be short-changed. The film opens with not only a shower scene involving most of the patients, and a few lascivious female guards who grin manically whilst licking their lips. We also catch our first glimpse of Ilsa, played by the wonderful Dyanne Thorne, enjoying a bath, and enjoying it a bit too much really. There’s a lot of people being bizarrely turned on by nothing more than soap and water here, but I guess that’s where the suspension of disbelief comes in. It’s not all fun and games however, as Ilsa finds plenty of time to treat her patients with conversion therapy, which takes the form of acid douches, shock treatment, and corrective rape. A lot of these events are also captured on video and sold to local perverts for a profit. I do wish the film would have focused on the conversion elements a little more, and explored it as a serious issue affecting LGBTQ+ people, but what can I expect? Quite a lot as it turns out, as there’s some interesting trans representation. A trans inmate named “14” discusses her shifting gender identity and sexual preference after coming out, in a way that felt honest and resonated with me. It gave me the impression that the writers must on some level have exposed themselves to trans people or literature, which is an impressive feat given the release date. 14 is also a nuanced character, who whilst having a violent past, is presented as the heart of the film, and our protagonist’s chief confidant. There are also hints that the film might have a deeper message. The sole black character named “20” has a quite impressive speech, declaring that the patients are actually political prisoners. Which I thought, absolutely, gently caress yes, the personal is political. Let's get militant. As the film goes on though there seems to be very little clarity on the issue, and it might just turn out that they’re more generic freedom fighters who are imprisoned for reasons other than their sexuality. It probably doesn’t help that I watched the dub version with subtitles just in case, and the dubs and subs disagreed with each other constantly. I’m also vaguely aware that the film was reworked on several occasions, so who knows. There’s a reason I’m not focusing on plot details, they really felt superfluous, especially given the jarringly sudden ending which doesn’t really wrap up any of the loose ends.  This review is already far too long, but I just want to discuss a couple of the film’s failings. As I mentioned, I watched the dub, which is hilariously amateurish. It honestly sounds like they pulled in a few bemused non-actors, thrust a script into their hands, and their first line reading was the one which made it into the film. It’s probably a bit old hat to complain about poor dubbing, but I can’t help but comment on it given how distracting it was. There’s also a very uncomfortable scene in which a patient describes molesting school children, and it seems to be played for titillation purposes. There’s also a scene of Ilsa seducing a political official, and because the filmmakers presumably measured the focus for a close-up, she's blurred out for half of the scene as she lounges on the bed. Otherwise, it's actually a really nicely shot scene, with beautiful lighting and framing. I have no idea how this review ballooned into a thousand words, and I still don’t feel like I’ve scratched the surface of this film. It’s a fun movie, I enjoyed it, I’m hoping for more trans representation in the two other Jes Franco films I have on my Spooktober list, so come join me in my inevitable disappointment. 3.5/5 Total: 6 Queer Interest: 3 Countries visited: 6 USA, Hungary, Portugal, Vietnam, Georgia, Switzerland Debbie Does Dagon fucked around with this message at 03:44 on Oct 1, 2020 |
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Oct 1, 2020 03:41
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11. House of Usher ( 1960 )  Another in the Poe Cycle of Roger Corman starring Vincent Price . Its also written by Richard Matheson. Special mention has to go to Mark Damon who delivers a phenomenal performance. It's a gorgeous color film with everyone bringing their best to the screen . Vincent Price is fantastic, the music is fantastic, there's even a trippy dream sequence. Corman really does well with the Poe cycle and it's probably Corman's best work. Its fantastic Gothic Horror. Really loved it and you have Price as a Blonde! 11/31
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Oct 1, 2020 04:00
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 #21) Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return (1999) Oh boy, Isaac's back! Who's Isaac, you ask? He's the child prophet from five movies back in this series, played by Josh Franklin (The Addams Family, Tanny and the Teenage T-Rex), and he's brought Stacy Keach and Nancy Allen with him for his return to CotC. Anyway, Isaac's been in a coma for nineteen years, but the return of a second-generation corn child to Gatlin has him stir back to consciousness. At this point, he thinks it would be a great idea for his son, who's grown to adulthood while Isaac was comatose, to mate with the prodigal returnee, thereby fulfilling some vague prophecy. Stacy Keach is terribly underused. Contains the line “How dare you castrate my words, you gently caress?!” delivered by the incarnation of He Who Walks Behind The Rows. Not worth the time spent to watch it, honestly. Rating: 4/10Watched on VHS.
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Oct 1, 2020 04:04
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I'm in! I am aiming for 31 films this year, as was my goal for last. The one challenge I see is that honestly this pandemic weirdness has worked on my attention span so I sometimes find it hard to sit down and watch a whole movie, but hopefully this challenge will help me focus. Oh and also last year I had the advantage of local theaters doing movie marathons and that ain't happening, gotta roll my own this year.
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Oct 1, 2020 04:22
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 4. The Poughkeepsie Tapes-2007: 4/5 Solid Found Footage entry, I know it's hit or miss with people but with the exception of some iffy acting, I still find it to be a pretty well done true crime mockumentary. Watched on Prime New Watches: Boar Rewatches: High Tension, Pontypool, The Poughkeepsie Tapes
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Oct 1, 2020 04:31
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#9) The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001) Wow. Where to even begin? I feel like I missed a lot, not being the most well-versed in Japanese culture. But at the same time, I feel like I would be similarly lost even if I were. The story is bonkers, but the music numbers are genuinely very good. And something about how dreamlike and weird the whole thing was really resonated with me. I had a blast. 4 / 5 #10) Poltergeist (1982)  Another classic that I hadn't seen, rectified. Okay, so, I've seen bits and pieces, enough to basically know the story through osmosis. But it was still nice to put all those pieces together into a coherent viewing. I get why this is a classic (and I mean, come on, it's Tobe Hooper), but it still falls solidly into "yeah, it's fine" for me. I can't quite put my finger on why, but it never quite clicked. Maybe it is the fact that I knew all the story beats, the quotes, the scenes, etc. Who knows. It was good though, and I'm glad I can cross it off my list. 3.5 / 5 Total: 8 1. Don't Look Under the Bed (1999) / 2. Mom and Dad (2017) / 3. Daughters of Darkness (1971) / 4. Snuff (1975) / 5. Southbound (2015) / 6. The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974) / 7. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) / 8. Last House on the Left (1972) / 9. The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001) / 10. Poltergeist (1982)
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Oct 1, 2020 04:44
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 #22) Hannah, Queen of the Vampires (1973), a.k.a., Crypt of the Living Dead Yo, this movie ruled. I was originally going to qualify that, but as the film went on, I realized that wasn't necessary. Hits on some of the same vibes from The Wicker Man and The Witches (1966). A man named Chris is drawn to an island by the death of his father, who had converted that once-abandoned place into a comfortable fisherman's isle. Oh wait, turns out the place used to be called VAMPIRE ISLAND. Yeah, back in the Second Crusade, Louis VII lost a woman he loved, Hannah, to the vampiric curse, and had her sealed in a subterranean crypt on the isle. She still has a couple of devotees, 700 years later, and they engineered the death of Chris' father to lead to Hannah's release. The movie doesn't rush things, and gets some savory delight out of the non-believing Chris' realizations that the world of the supernatural may be realer than he thought. Virtually everyone who lives on the island takes Hannah's interment and continued unlife as fact, and Chris butts his head against everyone with his demands that they join him in comfortable faith in science. The blind fisherman who catches on to Chris' dangerous plans before anyone else is a little on the nose (“I am blind, and yet I am the only one who sees what is happening.”), but considering the time of production, I'm willing to cut it some slack. Once things reach a tipping point, events start popping off rapidly, but without losing the measured atmosphere built before that turn. Some great sets, occult flavor, and '70s costuming (skin-tight ribbed brown sweater with Chuck Norris-style action slacks, oh my) add further flair to the proceedings, and it all comes together to press a number of my horror buttons the right way. Admittedly, the final scene is an eye-roller, but the ride before then is a thrill. I know other people may not have as good a time with it as I did, but if you've got a taste for relatively small-scale, Hammer-styled horror, you should give it a shot. Rating: 8/10Watched on Tubi, turned out to be the Vinegar Syndrome restoration. Might have to pick up their double feature Blu-ray for this next time I have some extra dosh.
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Oct 1, 2020 05:52
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 39) The Blackcoat's Daughter - 2015 - Netflix Often a good or compelling story will have me thinking about the what ifs and what happened next. Possession films tend to have me thinking as the credits roll, usually it's what happened next. Did they remember anything of what happened during the possession, did the family ever recover from the experience, was there any aftereffects from the possession? Blackcoat's Daughter scratched that mental itch for me. I was surprised that this had the same director as I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House as I didn't really like that one. It was draggy and so much of a slow burn you wanted to get up a couple times to make sure it's still lit. This one takes the route of skipping around its timeline. When I've seen this done in other films, it's either really drat good or it's a sign of bad/pretentious writing. Thankfully here it's the former. The story's mostly centered around a prestigious Catholic school where a couple of the school girls are left behind when everyone else is off on a week long break. Strange things soon start happening. It's revealed through the timeline skips that one of the girls has been so miserable and lonely at school that summoning and being possessed was her answer to not being alone. She's caught while performing a rite with severed heads in the boiler room and detained in a mental hospital where an exorcism's performed. As the demon's cast out, she begs it not to leave. Years later she returns to do the severed head rite to summon it back, but the boiler's unused and cold, the entity's long gone. Left alone again, she breaks down crying. This was really good. It highlighted the extremes someone might go when they think there's no other option while also pointing out that sometimes the option taken doesn't pan out like hoped.
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Oct 1, 2020 06:25
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5: Beyond the Black Rainbow A heavily sedated woman (Eva Allan) with ESP tries to escape from the secluded commune where she's been held captive. Or so the synopsis says, anyways. Personally I have no loving clue what happened here. I liked Mandy quite a bit but this was way too up its own rear end for me to follow or enjoy. It looked extraordinary and is probably worth a watch for the visuals alone, but I can’t say the story had much going for it.
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Oct 1, 2020 06:33
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M_Sinistrari posted:
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Oct 1, 2020 06:44
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STAC Goat posted:Did you know the director is Anthony Perkins' kid? I've only seen those two films but it seems like he's very good at setting mood but both pieces relied heavily on the payoff. Blackcoat's Daughter kind of worked, I Am The Pretty Thing was big "that's it?" I found that out when I was looking up the film during the stream to figure out how much longer we had to go. I knew Perkins' kid had done some acting, but not directing. I'm willing to give him another chance with how much I liked Blackcoat.
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Oct 1, 2020 06:47
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1. Scary Movie 2. Scary Movie 2  Just an even worse sequel. Less good jokes, still has hateful jokes, but with even more cringy jokes that don't land. Where I thought the a reworked version of the first movie could still work today, the only context this movie works in is the pop cultural landscape just before 9/11. Which is what happens when the crux of the movie is based on The Happening. It's bad, it's not worth analyzing. Though one thing that occurred to me is that some of the best jokes of these two movies are the weed jokes. And for the most part, they stand out because they are so inclusive. They're just jokes about people hanging out, being dumbasses, and having a good time. The most 'combative' they get is when a giant weed plant rolls up a dude into a giant blunt, and even that scene ends with the dude in the weed shouting "No man, don't put me out yet. I'm getting high as poo poo. Smoke it up, smoke it up, drat that's the good poo poo!" You can feel the people behind the camera really know love weed and getting high, more than they feel about anything else in these movies. Like maybe if they felt as strong as horror movies as they did weed, these could have been a lot funnier, more pointed satire about horror. But instead, they feel like lazy comedies that mistakes being anti-PC as comedy. Though this film felt more lazy than it does hateful. Edit: 3. From Beyond  Now for an actual horror movie. It's gross, slimy, unsettling, cosmically upsetting. It's exactly what I would expect an H.P. Lovecraft movie would be (except maybe more gooey than I expected). Jeffery Combs is wonderfully off Kilter, and Barbara Crampton is doing what people love best from Barbara Crampton. It knows exactly what it is, and executes it wonderfully. I think it could have stood to be more ambitious, which would have made it an excellent feature. But as is, it's a pretty drat good ideal of what a schlocky Horror movie could and should be. I don't think I actually have all that much to say other than 5 popcorns and 2 sodas. SomeJazzyRat fucked around with this message at 08:14 on Oct 1, 2020 |
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Oct 1, 2020 07:15
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14. Scare Package (2019) Watched On: Shudder Had no idea about this one but oh it was fun. Enough so I want a physical copy to go with my other favorite anthology movies, I think I could turn this on for my less than hardcore horror friends and they would have a good time. Sometimes you just want something silly but at the same time I would like to see this same type of framing story with a more serious tone at some point, there's certainly room for both styles in the world. Also I'll be damned, Dustin Rhodes (one of my favorite pro-wrestlers) shows up in this! I love it.
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Oct 1, 2020 08:13
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