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bitterandtwisted posted:It's an interesting movie. It's far less violent than the VHS cover implies and I liked the slow build in the first half, but I don't know what it's trying to say with Reno specifically targeting the homeless them rather than the musicians whom he might have had a motive against. My take is that like a lot of serial killers, he's starting with the easy targets. A murder of a homeless person will be treated with lower priority by the police, it's harder to trace because the victim was off the grid, etc. I interpret Reno as not really having a motive, he's just compelled to do it.
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Oct 12, 2020 04:18
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#14: Frightmare (1974) This one's a little hard to summarize because of the way it's put together. It starts with two unseen murderers being committed to an insane asylum until they're deemed fit to rejoin society, and cuts forward to the present (well, 1974) where a young woman is having problems with her 15-year-old sister who's a juvenile delinquent, and also making visits to an old couple out in the country, the old woman having some trouble adjusting. The woman's prospective boyfriend, a psychiatry student, is frustrated by her constantly being called away and starts delving into her domestic troubles, which isn't gonna end well. It's not really a mystery, per se, we learn soon enough who's doing murders and to whom, but the construction of it is interesting, a lot of little details being fleshed out on the way. It's a solid, very British thriller, with a solid amount of blood and guts but still a certain restraint. (Though the film did fall afoul of a few snips by the BBFC, that have since been restored.) It's not super-sleazy or lurid, just very nicely ghoulish. The very end's a little underwhelming, but overall I enjoyed it.
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Oct 12, 2020 04:45
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 #70) Deadly Friend (1986) This movie is such a nutty mess. Yeah, a lot of that is because of studio interference, but I can't imagine any recognizable version of this that wouldn't be a weird, disjointed mishmash of conflicting ideas and tones. Brainy young boy moves to a new town, his robot sidekick in tow, and tries to make friends while dealing with mean neighbors and bullies. Sounds like a 180-page kid's novel, but what we ended up with was something so stretched and distorted as to be hilarious. Totally ineffective at the attempted drama or horror (though Kristy Swanson does some good stare-acting at points), so the fumbling comedy might as well be appreciated as the one thing that works.  Rating: 6/10Watched on Scream Stream.  #71) The Return of the Living Dead (1985) They just don't write scripts like this anymore. Normal people reacting in reasonable (if uninformed) ways to some crazy poo poo happening. Things progressing naturally each step of the way, action scaling up organically, characters showing what they're like just through their behavior and interactions with each other. And a main character casually strolling around naked for a good chunk of the movie. Great soundtrack, on top of all that, along with great makeup, creature effects, and sets. Part of my Essential Horror Films canon. “Whatever happens, don't name it after me!” Rating: 9/10Watched on Dollar Tree Blu-ray, also available on Tubi.  #72) Return of the Living Dead III (1993) And Yuzna goes back to the undead love interest well he dug with Bride of Re-Animator. Starting to think he's got a preoccupation there. Most of the good will I've got for this movie is due to the costuming effects, as the metaphor for Julie's condition is handled rather hamfistedly. The overall zombie exploitation plans that develop later on are handled to better effect, despite being much broader in scope, but compared to the first film in the series, it's so rushed and under-developed as to be more annoying than intriguing. Ditto for the Street Fighter knock-off arcade machine. Rating: 6/10Watched on Scream Stream, also available on Tubi.  #73) Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) Why the gently caress is Frankenstein committing sexual assault in this film? It's a disgusting, out of character non sequitor, and wildly detrimental to everything around it. There's some fun parts with brain transplants (and a great realization scene from the transplant receiver), Frankenstein wrassling a kid a third his age, and Cushing playing Frankenstein as tremendously catty when he overhears people denigrating his work, but it's not nearly good enough stuff to overcome that repulsive, pointless elephant in the room. I wish Cushing had managed enough push-back to get it cut from the script. Kind of a train-wreck of an ending, too, but at least that part is an interesting mess, and uses actual fire to burn down a set. Rating: 6/10Watched on digital copy.
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Oct 12, 2020 06:29
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Anisocoria Feldman posted:15) Possession (1981)
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Oct 12, 2020 07:07
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18. The World of Kanako - The Father of the Year (Lifetime Achievement Award) searches for his missing daughter, and in the process grows closer to her as he learns more about her life. There's no animal cruelty and not too too much gore so you're good on that front, but if there's any other kind of content you find personally upsetting you should probably give this a pass. Otherwise, if you'd like to spend two hours watching a very stylish depiction of terrible human beings taking each other apart, this has you covered. Bonus points for featuring the smuggest cop in movie history. I love this bastard.   19. Deep Red - I expected a lot more. I know some people cite this as their favorite Argento but I can't imagine how. It's not bad, certainly - there are lots of beautiful shots, a few genuinely funny bits, and briefly even an interesting mystery in a beautiful old house. Daria Nicolodi is still great. But after a strong early couple of scenes she kind of falls out of the movie and Mark sucks out loud the entire way through. Apparently there's a terrible cut and a good cut and I don't know which one I watched on Arrow, but I'd be pretty disappointed in them if it's not the good one. Either way, if you were to tell me you thought this was more fun than Phenomena or more interesting than Suspiria I'd be left with no choice but to call you a liar. Update: Cross-checking runtime with IMDB, those fuckers apparently put up the bad version. What is even the point of these garbage streaming services if they can't get at least that much right? I can't say I'm excited to give the longer version a watch but I suppose I'll have to one of these days.
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Oct 12, 2020 07:51
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Irony.or.Death posted:19. Deep Red - I expected a lot more. I know some people cite this as their favorite Argento but I can't imagine how. It's not bad, certainly - there are lots of beautiful shots, a few genuinely funny bits, and briefly even an interesting mystery in a beautiful old house. Daria Nicolodi is still great. But after a strong early couple of scenes she kind of falls out of the movie and Mark sucks out loud the entire way through. Apparently there's a terrible cut and a good cut and I don't know which one I watched on Arrow, but I'd be pretty disappointed in them if it's not the good one. Either way, if you were to tell me you thought this was more fun than Phenomena or more interesting than Suspiria I'd be left with no choice but to call you a liar. I can say this. A) I made the same mistake you did and watched the bad version first. B) I don't really like giallo at all. C) I definitely prefer Argento's supernatural stuff. D) I begrudgingly resigned myself to rewatching it with the right version even though I didn't really want to. E) It was totally worth it. There's way more Daria and she openly clowns Mark the whole way and is the heart of the film. The people who cut her out of it and then spread that version everywhere are nuts. And like it seems like its the version on every streaming service even ones like Kanopy that I expect more of.
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Oct 12, 2020 08:01
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Spook-a-Doodle Double Feature #15: Svengoolie Presents Hammer Night Two Pt 1 After an enjoyable night of Svengoolie and Peter Cushing I’m up for another Hammer night, even if that does mean more Mummy. Oh in the name of sacred gods of Egypt, the dread horror of Set, and the mighty power of Aman-Ra who’s anger can shatter the world let there not be any talk of tana leaves. Just to be safe lets space out the Mummy movies this time. 27 (29). The Mummy (1959) Directed by Terence Fisher, Screenplay by Jimmy Sangster. Watched on HBOMax Hooptober Se7en: 4/6 countries (UK) Off… is that Christopher Lee in brown face? That’s awkward. Well at least we now know its possible to tell a Mummy story without talking about old leaves a bunch. Just say some magic and be done with it. Of course it seems like its still impossible to make a Mummy movie without way too much backstory and flashbacks. I’m not against this whole Egyptian thing and maybe it wouldn’t be as bad if I hadn’t watched 4 Mummy movies in a row the other day. But did you really have to take us through EVERY step of the funeral process with such detail? Cushing really method acting the long drawn out professor lessons. Also, Ok, so you’re a slave. That sucks. And you’re a lady slave so you know you’re getting raped a lot, which really sucks. But then your master dies and like you don’t get freed or anything, you just get ritually murdered so you can keep being her slave in there afterlife That super sucks. Lee’s Mummy looked good, even if dipping in mud might have been cheating a little. Wait, did you just flashback TO the film we’re watching?!?! I don’t know. I want to like Fisher’s Hammer films more than I do. Theres a lot about them I do like. They look great, they’re incredible stylish, great casts. Cushing is great, Lee is imposing. The action scenes are great. But the pacing. Every one of these films is 60-80 minutes of talking for 10-20 minutes of action. And I don’t mind a lot of talking and setup but the balance is so off and I always end up feeling like I wanted more of one and less of the other. Certainly me oding on Mummy films wasn’t a help, and I can say with confidence that the Mummy formula is pretty suspect after all this immersion. But Terrence Fisher never met an action conclusion he didn’t want to stretch out with more exposition. I dunno if I can fairly judge this one right now. I might be watching too much Hammer. I’m definitely watching too much Mummy. 28 (30). Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968) Directed by Freddie Francis. Written by Anthony Hinds. Watched on HBOMax. The power of the church. A priest walks into the bar and says “I want to talk alone to this guy” and all the drunk locals just get up and leave. Is this the first Hammer film I’ve watched not directed by Terrence Fisher? It might be. That seems nuts. The stranger thing? I think this might be my favorite of them. At least my favorite of the Hammer Draculas. I wasn’t expecting that at all but here I am. Don’t get me wrong, its not a great film. Its not doing anything incredibly different or great that the other Hammer films don’t do. Lee snarls and its stylish and sexy and pretty. But it fixes a lot of the problems I’ve had with Fisher’s films, the key amongst them being the pacing. There’s none of that hour of research and investigation and exposition that seems to be the blueprint of all these films. This one seems to give us the benefit of the doubt that we get the basics of Dracula and the characters can figure out out when confronted by it. No one needs to have it researched and argued to them. We keep the ball moving with action and actual advances in the story, and when we get to the film’s climax it isn’t a long build to a short burst, its a well laid out - if not anything amazing or mind-blowing - end run. All the rooftop stuff is really fun and visually striking and the movie does a great job setting it up the whole way and paying it off. The other thing it does really well is the extended cast of characters, especially Dracula’s minions. That’s a huge problem I have with the Hammer Dracula’s. They really neglect the value of Dracula’s lackeys. Renfield is really the start of the Universal classic and its all those other supernatural creatures and ghouls and brides and such that really make Dracula to me. He’s this arrogant overlord and he needs servants, and the more ghoulish and monstrous they are in the face of Dracula’s nobility the better. Lee’s Dracula is less noble and more animalistic but he’s still helped by having his enthralled minions and seduced brides. It makes him all the more compelling and evil and gives the movie more poo poo to happen when he’s napping. The good guys are pretty solid too. Paul and Maria seem nice and reasonable and I’m able to enjoy them and root for them. Zena’s fun. The Monsignor’s a dick but he’s balanced. Its all just a nice balance. Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee are great but a movie that doesn’t need one of them carrying the whole thing is better for it. Also its a great poster. Again, not a great film by any means but really, I think my favorite of the Lee/Hammer Draculas. Each time I’ve found myself disappointed by Lee not being given enough support or time and finally one of these movies feels like it gave him something to work with. Not a masterpiece or anything, but a solid little Dracula story. And for once it actually took a fight to take him down. Lee’s been way too easy to kill up to now but a movie finally made him a bit of a bad rear end. I’m just realizing I also saw Dr. Jekyl and Sister Hyde from Hammer and I’d rank that one high on my Hammer list too. Do I prefer non-Terrence Fisher Hammer? Is this heresy? Letterboxd List October Tally - New (Total) 1. Eaten Alive (1976); 2. The Hills Have Eyes (1977); 3. The New York Ripper (1982); 4. Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970); 5. Life After Beth (2014); 6. Child’s Play (2019); 7. Blacula (1972); Fran Challenge #1: Horror Noire: 8. Bones (2001); 9. The Hills Have Eyes Part II (1985); 10. Two Evil Eyes (1990); 11. Creature with the Atom Brain (1955); 12. Night Monster (1942); 13. Vampires vs. the Bronx (2020); - (14). Attack the Block (2011); 14 (15). Spirits of the Dead (1968); 15 (16). Tales of Terror (1962); 16 (17). As the Gods Will (2014); - (18). Gothic (1986); Fran Challenge #2: Short Cuts: 17 (19). Tim Burton’s Doctor of Doom (1979)/Vincent (1982)/Hansel and Gretel (1982)/Frankenweenie (1984); 18 (20). Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (2005); 19 (21). The Mummy’s Hand (1940); 20 (22). The Mummy’s Tomb (1942); 21 (23). The Mummy’s Ghost (1944); 22 (24). The Mummy’s Curse (1944); 23 (25). Rabid (2019); 24 (26). The Crazies (1973); 25 (27). The Curse of Frankenstein (1957); 26 (28). The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958); 27 (29). The Mummy (1959); 28 (30). Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968)
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Oct 12, 2020 08:31
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#7) i'm thinking of ending things A woman's having thoughts about ending her relationship with her boyfriend Jake on the way to visit his parents. They arrive, only things aren't entirely as she expected. I had heard about this awhile ago and while the vague things I heard made it sound like something that should be up my alley, it just didn't hit. I don't think it's bad necessarily, and I could see a lot of people actually really enjoying it. I just found it overly long and self-indulgent. I just had a feeling that a lot of the goings on weren't actually for any purpose but showing how smart the writer/director was. Which I'm not entirely adverse to, but it felt like a detriment in here oftentimes, and the rest of the movie didn't really seem strong enough to keep my attention. There was some really nice moments, and a few times you can almost feel dread building, but it just doesn't really seem to come together as a whole. 2.5 / 5 Total: 7 1. In a Stranger's House / 2. The Loved Ones / 3. Scare Me / 4. Scare Me / 5. Egg / 6. Alien Abduction: Incident In Lake County / 7. i'm thinking of ending things
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Oct 12, 2020 09:38
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 20) Sleepwalkers (aka Stephen King's Sleepwalkers; 1992) Trailer Seen on: Scream Stream A mother and son flee a California town and move to Indiana after some unwanted attention from the police. Par for the course for a horror film, right? Now, what if I tell you they're incestuous shapeshifting vampiric cat beings with magical powers of illusion and telekinesis who feed on the souls of young virgin girls? Oh, now I have your attention! It gets better, as their one weakness is house cats and they leave baited bear traps for them in their front yard - as Dave Barry says, I am not making this up. In the new town, the son sets his sights on Twin Peaks' Madchen Amick as his new victim to feed to his mother. But what none of them counted on was crossing paths with Clovis the police cat...  So I think there are three types of Stephen King films - the good ones, the bad ones and the batshit insane ones. This is firmly in the last category, chock full of weird editing, terrible early '90s CGI morphing effects, horniness off the charts, horror director cameos out the rear end, and dialogue that only Stephen King could write. Alice Krige as the cat demon matriarch is good as always when playing the sultry horror woman (see also Ghost Story and uh Star Trek: First Contact, I guess) but everyone in this is over the top and it doesn't always work, particularly when the son goes full evil and starts spouting Stephen King villain one-liners. There are also a lot of dead housecats in this, which is definitely not fun. BUT holy poo poo the housecats are the best part of the film, and the film's hero cat in particular, Clovis, was the Stream favorite. He leads an army of housecats to take out the demon people! Lots of crazy gore in this too (pencil in the ear, corkscrew in the eye, corn cob in the back). A very weird, very violent movie, but you wouldn't expect any less from something dreamed up by ol' Stevie King. -- Halfway through the challenge for me - trying to watch 40 films, all new watches (Fran Challenge 2 short films not listed below) 1) The Strangeness 2) Blood Beat 3) The Evil 4) Black Mountain Side 5) Twice Dead 6) The Flesh Eaters 7) The Terror Within 8) Ganja & Hess (Fran Challenge 1) 9) Mausoleum 10) Maniac 11) (The) Dead Pit 12) The Power 13) In Search of Darkness: A Journey Into Iconic 80s Horror 14) Mortuary 15) Panic 16) Paganini Horror 17) The Dark Side of the Moon 18) Deadly Friend 19) Shadowzone 20) Sleepwalkers
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Oct 12, 2020 10:56
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Had enough time to watch, but not to post. 12. Shadow of the Vampire  A rewatch, though it has been 15 years. After seeing Nosferatu the Vampyre I couldn't skip this one. I still dig it! For me the highlight is Dafoe eating a bat and monologuing about Dracula, but while nothing else is as good it is all still very decent and enjoyable. Won't blow your mind, but definitely worth your time. 13. Vampires vs The Bronx  This was pretty light, but it remained fun throughout. Another solid movie I didn't mind watching at all. The butter store had me laugh out loud and "white people with canvas bags" being a thing is too true. Fran Challenge #2: Short CutsThis challenge was made for me, the guy who will watch every lovely anthology in hope of finding some gems, but never really dug into shorts on their own. I didn't know where to start, so I scrolled through what others saw and just clicked what they recommended or interested me. Took a few days to do this in between work, but I enjoyed it immensely. Instawolf - 1:50 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=himXCg1pF4Y Okay, that was really funny. Toby - 2:33 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYaCEL2mhUo Well, that was disturbing. The Cop Cam - 2:15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvSlUgSKEuc Shaky cam and jump scare *sigh* The Devil's Passenger - 4:29 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHMm6cEdfwY Great idea, perfect length, very enjoyable. video man - 0:35 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVddN_nr1CI Freaky. I rewatched this a few times. Daemonrunner – 4:41 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyNF7mXH3aY Demons on the internet, a 3D slime printer building them bodies…….is this Nektrotronic? It is, but played straight and far more enjoyable. Pokopokopikotan – 4:14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSER3yml1iM It’s like Rejected, one of my favorite things ever, but it involves farting mushrooms and gets real dark. Love it! Beau - 6:22 https://vimeo.com/23026704 Started off as an affirmation I should always keep my keys on me, went really weird places. Fun! Miner's Mountain - 17:19 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYRyYs4SHqc Very nice, had good production values and it felt like a modern day X-files episode Zombie in a Penguin Suit - 7:22 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtdEKIsnEkM Very enjoyable slice-of-zombie-life clip, I really dug this. The Sky - 11:13 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln4lDjT8Ab0 Nice idea, but it didn't really work for me. Leftovers - 16:43 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ7vdqR4Mqg I was too lazy to press stop and just came on after the previous clip. The idyllic life of a woman living alone on a remote, self-sustaining farm during the apocalypse was nice. Sadly, it ends with a painfully predictable twist that soured me on the whole thing. 14. Dave Made a Maze  Very creative movie about....well....creativity. It was fun, it was original, it was interesting and I can really recommend this. It could've used a bit more horror to balance out the comedy, but still a great time. 15. The Lure  I haven't really been feeling it this challenge. Maybe the best is still ahead, but I decided to rewatch something solid. The Lure still kicks rear end. It is delightful, it has catchy songs, it has a weird vibe, it presents questions you don't mind never seeing answered and it does all of that in a tight 92 minutes. Definitely the best Polish musical about man-eating mermaids I have ever seen. 16. Tenebrae  I loved, loved, loved, loved, loved Suspiria, but every giallo I've seen afterwards fell flat. Each year I give at least one of them a try during October, just to see if something changed. Deep Red, Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Your Vice is a...visually they work, but there is nothing else and it just feels like a chore. Random killings, last minute completely nonsensical reveal, credits. I don't think I'm looking for a detective where I can solve the mystery, but at least there is something to solve there which gives it depth. Either way, surprisingly, Tenebrae worked for me. I am not sure why, because looking at what I just wrote it really suffers from the exact things I criticized, but here it was a very enjoyable experience. Can't put my finger on it and this is really going to bother me for some time.
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Oct 12, 2020 11:00
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Spook-a-Doodle Double Feature #16: Svengoolie Presents Hammer Night Two Pt 2 Hammer Weekend continues and will until the sun comes up because I’m a crazy insomniac who woke up from a sleep coma late in the day. The interesting thing is the first 3 films of this were by no intention all Terrence Fisher films. But the last three will not. So find myself inadvertently finding a real test of “Terrence Fisher” vs “Hammer” and see what aspects I associate with Hammer are really ones that belong to Fisher. This is a lot of words about a director I won’t be watching this round. but that’s appropriate for a set of 6 movies I said were presented by Svengoolie where he only actually hosts 2 of them. But at least its the first and last one. The… Mummy ones. How I’ve come to dread you so. At least there’s Peter Cushing. And hey, 31 films total. On October 11th. Oh, god, I’m gonna watch 100 films. 29 (31). The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) Directed by Freddie Francis, Screenplay by Anthony Hinds. Watched on Peacock. I am HEARTBROKEN that Hammer abandoned continuity. Truly and honestly heartbroken. A greater disappointment couldn’t have been had if they had recast Frankenstein, and honestly that would have been better because either a new guy would have done the new continuity or it would have followed the continuity at the end of Revenge. I was so digging Hammer’s alternative approach to this series focusing so much more on the continuity of Frankenstein as the villain, making the monster less Karloff like and more corpse/human like, and the crazy twists and turns it took at the end of Revenge. I went and changed my viewing plans and bumped this film into the rotation solely because I was enjoying it so much. And then… reboot. We’re just remaking Universal’s stuff now. We’ve abandoned our creativity and originality. Why? Was it a money thing? Was it really just the legal reasons making you creative? Is this Freddie Francis’ fault? Was Terrence Fisher the key all along and I besmirched his name? Frankenstein’s not even evil. Some guy named Zoltran is. Its not a terrible film. Its just so generic and uninspired after so much promise. I can’t even get excited about the return of the Burger Master. I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed. 30 (32). The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (1964) Written and directed by Michael Carreras, co-written by Alvin Rakoff. Watched with Svengoolie. SVENGOOLIE WATCH-A-LONG #9 Hooptober Se7en: 4/7 2nd films of franchises You know what the Mummy movies really needed? Random, unnecessary dubbing. My biggest takeaway from each progressively later Mummy movie is that they all seem like they’re building to the Brendan Fraser 1999 The Mummy. That’s weird to say. For a lot of reasons. For one its Brendan Fraser. For another its not really a horror movie strictly speaking. But the main thing is how rare it is for us to consider the remakes superior to the originals. And people don’t talk about Mummy ’99 in the way we talk about something like The Thing or The Fly. But each of these not good Mummy movies I watch seem to have like one key element that works and Mummy ’99 seems like it was the film that finally put all those pieces together. So here we got probably the best comedy of the franchise, a bit of an action hero lead, and even a boat scene. I feel like if you really tried you could take scenes from each Mummy movie and create the one movie that ’99 actually remade. And it probably would have been better than any if the previous ones. I actually think I’m gonna make a point to watch the ’99 film just to see if it spends nearly as much time with Ancient Egyptian flashbacks and history lessons. It might have. I certainly remember some scenes and maybe it was just better effects and Rachel Weisz made it go easier. Or maybe its just that everything else was more satisfying. I sure am talking about a totally different movie a lot, aren’t I? That’s probably saying a lot. Fred Clark is hilariously slimy and did a lot to keep me engaged with this when Svengoolie wasn’t. And what the hell was that subplot about convincing the female lead not to throw away her life on professional and intellectual pursuit and instead embrace the potential of being a housewife? But seriously, the MVP of this movie is Clark. He’s just completely entertaining throughout the whole, long, LOOONG wait for something to happen. Honestly, I didn’t even hate this. It wasn’t as dry as a lot of the other Hammer films I found to be slow crawls to something. For whatever reason the quick action movie pacing, quick scene framing and cutting, and star performance of Clark kept me well enough engaged through. For the life of me I can’t tell you why or give you anything meaningful that happened. But if it was dumb, mindless entertainment it amused me enough that I never got antsy. It honestly got a little sillier when the Mummy showed up and just started lighting shoving people and casually bludgeoning them in slow motion. But that happens so late in the film that its just in for the big finish at that stage. I dunno. Its not a good film, I don’t think. Maybe I’ve just become delirious on Mummy movies and the bar’s been super lowered. Maybe its my bemusement at the love triangle where the male lead kind of didn’t seem to care he was losing his fiancé. Maybe it was how incredibly unimpressive the Mummy actually seemed when he finally showed up that wrapped around to being fun. But something just worked for me that I can’t put my finger on. Maybe it was me doing the math in my head and being sure Fred Clark couldn’t actually be Howard Hesseman. Maybe I’m just delirious. Letterboxd List October Tally - New (Total) 1. Eaten Alive (1976); 2. The Hills Have Eyes (1977); 3. The New York Ripper (1982); 4. Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970); 5. Life After Beth (2014); 6. Child’s Play (2019); 7. Blacula (1972); Fran Challenge #1: Horror Noire: 8. Bones (2001); 9. The Hills Have Eyes Part II (1985); 10. Two Evil Eyes (1990); 11. Creature with the Atom Brain (1955); 12. Night Monster (1942); 13. Vampires vs. the Bronx (2020); - (14). Attack the Block (2011); 14 (15). Spirits of the Dead (1968); 15 (16). Tales of Terror (1962); 16 (17). As the Gods Will (2014); - (18). Gothic (1986); Fran Challenge #2: Short Cuts: 17 (19). Tim Burton’s Doctor of Doom (1979)/Vincent (1982)/Hansel and Gretel (1982)/Frankenweenie (1984); 18 (20). Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (2005); 19 (21). The Mummy’s Hand (1940); 20 (22). The Mummy’s Tomb (1942); 21 (23). The Mummy’s Ghost (1944); 22 (24). The Mummy’s Curse (1944); 23 (25). Rabid (2019); 24 (26). The Crazies (1973); 25 (27). The Curse of Frankenstein (1957); 26 (28). The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958); 27 (29). The Mummy (1959); 28 (30). Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968); 29 (31). The Evil of Frankenstein (1964); 30 (32). The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (1964);
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Oct 12, 2020 12:44
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STAC Goat posted:29 (31). The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) Evil of Frankenstein was such a disappointment. However, they do change direction with the series again after this movie. Frankenstein Created Woman (spoiler protected vague thoughts just in case you want to go in completely blind) was also disappointing since it didn't really fit as a Frankenstein movie. But Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed takes it back to the original style.
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Oct 12, 2020 13:07
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Okay I have a few days of reviews to catch up on! I won't do it all at once. Here's the first few: 10. Dracula (1931)  First time watch Had some fantastic production design, like all the matte paintings in the opening act. But after we get to London it turns into a pretty laborious adaptation of the book. There's nothing remotely scary about the movie... but it still feels like horror. It's like standing in some really old building: you can appreciate the weight of history in the bricks around you. Every time Bela Lugosi made a face I couldn't help but see him as Fred Armisen though, and it made me laugh. I can't explain it. Scariest moment: None, sadly. I've been told I need to watch the silent film Nosferatu for some real terror. --- 11. 28 Days Later  Rewatch Hadn't seen this for years, and it's still mostly pretty good. First impression was how ugly it looks, even on bluray, because it was shot on early 2000s handheld DV camcorders. It's a blurry mess until the final scene, which was shot on film instead. I wonder if it can ever be restored to look better or if it's permanently limited due to how they shot it. The part at the start is glorious, where he's walking around an empty London and the music is getting more and more intense. Absolutely perfect and eerie. I think this movie has one of the best first acts of any horror movie ever. I don't think the rest of the movie lives up to that terrifying first third though. I think every time I watch this I kinda begin to tune out when they reach the soldiers. The movie becomes one of those "but humans were the real monsters all along!" stories and I really don't care for those. I like monsters to be the real monsters. I think I would have preferred another 40 minutes of the London crew driving through rural England having frightening encounters with the zombies. Oh well. I'll have to rewatch the sequel sometime soon as well. Scariest moment: All the tense moments in London where they're being chased by hordes of rage zombies. Even scarier, the terror of being truly alone in a gigantic city and having no idea what the gently caress is going on. --- 12. V/H/S  First time watch I decided to watch a shaky-cam found footage anthology on a car trip and I felt so goddamn sick. Best segment: The final one with the dudes who show up at the wrong house on Halloween. Had some fantastic practical horror effects with all the arms emerging from walls. Another good segment: The one with the murders at the lake but the camera is glitching the gently caress out. Some really scary digital effects in this one. The beefy shirtless dude was also appreciated  Worst segment: The one with the webcam conversations between a couple, and the woman thinks her apartment is haunted. The idea and twist were okay, but the acting was atrocious. Especially the guy. Weirdly 4 out of 6 of the segments (I'm including the wraparound as one) involved dudes being really gross to women, or doing worse. Maybe cishet dudes were the real monster all along! I did like the idea for the anthology and liked the movie overall. It had some creative scares and the filmmakers did well with the limitations imposed on them. I'm looking forward to watching V/H/S 2 next year. --- Treehouse of Horror continued VIII - By now the spoofs are getting lamer but there's still some good jokes to be had in each one. The Fly parody was the best. IX - I love the line "Look out Lisa! A skeleton!" X - Oh no this is getting really bad. Especially the superhero one. The Y2K one was okay, but I have to wonder what the writers have against Spike Lee to put him in the death rocket.
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Oct 12, 2020 13:35
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BioTech, if you like Suspiria and Tenebre, you'll probably love Opera. Opera is more grounded and cohesive than most of Argento's giallos, and it still creates a believable world like Suspiria. The classical music / operatic music have a lot to do with it.
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Oct 12, 2020 13:35
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Hedrigall posted:Weirdly 4 out of 6 of the segments (I'm including the wraparound as one) involved dudes being really gross to women, or doing worse. Maybe cishet dudes were the real monster all along!
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Oct 12, 2020 13:50
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It turns out that there is good stuff on Tubi! 11. Q: The Winged Serpent (1982) Tubi Someone has summoned Quetzalcoatl to New York City, and it's flying around eating people. It's a fairly straight forward movie with an 80's stop motion giant monster starring David Carradine, Richard Roundtree, Michael Moriarty, and several character actors you've seen in a million movies. 3.5/5 12. The Beast Must Die (1974) Tubi A Millionaire has summoned several people, one of which he suspects is a werewolf, to a mansion in the middle of nowhere. This one has a gimmick that you're the one who needs to figure out who the werewolf is. Not a lot that I can say about it, as it's mostly straight forward. 4/5 13. Spellcaster (1992) Blu-Ray The Best way I can sum this one up is, it's some fun, criminally underutilized creature effects that belong to a better movie. This is from Vinegar Syndrome's September drop, and more specifically it's a VSA, which Vinegar Syndrome describes as such: quote:celebrating forgotten cinematic oddities from the video store era. This collection was inspired by our own video store, The Archive in Bridgeport, CT. Anyway, a group of strangers wins a MTV knockoff contest, to spend a weekend in a spooky castle, with the chance to find a check for one Million Dollars. It mostly just meanders about, with people getting killed mostly bloodlessly, or offscreen with no real rhyme or reason. None of the characters are particularly memorable except for Rex, because his actor looks a lot like Billy from Melrose Place. Of course that was really only entertaining if you've been listening to We Hate Movies and their recaps of Melrose Place. 2.5/5 14. The Zodiac Killer (1971) Tubi This is an interesting one, made when the Zodiac Killer would have still been a literal public boogeyman. There's a lot missing from what we now know, and can at least speculate about who he was, and there's a lot of interesting choices that were made to turn it into a narrative. There is a certain authenticity that comes with a film being made so close to the actual incidents. The first thing I noticed is just how garish everything is from backgrounds to clothes, which tends to get cast by the wayside when you make a movie 40 years after the events. The other thing that I found jarring was just how much gross misogyny shows up, like there is dialogue that really could have been cut because it added nothing, but it's there, and it makes you realize just how bad the early 70's had to have been. 2.5/5 15. The Stepford Wives (1975) Tubi A man who's tired of life in the city, uproots his family and moves them for a quiet life in the town of Stepford, only there's something very wrong with Stepford. Thanks to cultural osmosis, or the universally panned Matthew Broderick remake, I'm probably not spoiling anything but the men of the town are turning the women into subservient robots.. It's a bit of a slow burn, but it all pays off in the final scenes, which are very chilling. 4/5 16. Scream 4 (2011) Hulu How do I go about talking about Scream 4? It kinda sucked IMHO. Riding on the wave of horror remakes that was happening in the decade up to this, it's a good idea, with a lackluster execution, and I was just ready for it to be over when it was finally over. I will say that it did at least follow the rules that it set out to follow. One of the things that I thought was really interesting is the sheer variety of cellphones that were around in 2011. You had flip phones, brick phones, flip out keyboards, sliders, and iPhones all featured. I do think that the prominence of cellphones was actually a fairly clever addition, to let you know that it was a "remake" story, but I think it's lost in TYOOL 2020. The other thing I found that was interesting is that it was predicting what we know now as influencers. Maybe it was happening back then too, but it's very much front and center part of life unless you have your head in the sand these days. In the end, if there was anything I would have changed, I would have gone full bore on the remake angle, and limited the screen time of the three survivors of the original 3 films to a cameo, because remakes don't usually have the original actors as the main stars. 2/5
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Oct 12, 2020 14:08
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 121) Happy Death Day - 2017 - Hulu This film pretty much proves my point that PG13 Horror can be good when the effort's put in to bring a solid story. Essentially this is a horror version of Groundhog Day. The focus is on Theresa aka Tree who is an awful person, she ends up in a time loop that repeats when she's murdered by a killer wearing a mask of her college's mascot. I really liked Tree's development arc. Her personal growth felt believable. The story was engaging and the ending satisfying. Definitely recommend this one.  122) Happy Death Day 2U - 2019 - Hulu While this one was okay, equally this one didn't need to get made if that makes any sense. The point of this one is explaining how Tree ended up in the time loop. As far as that goes, it's okay and it does work, but it's one of those things that there really wasn't a pressing need to have explained. The first film handled everything pretty satisfactory. The ending leaves off for a possible next film. From what I've been able to find out, a third film's been on and off the table with most recent word being it was on as of September 2020.
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Oct 12, 2020 14:20
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Not doing anything crazy this year, just devoting my film-viewing to the spookies for the month. So far the household has watched: Sisters (1972): This remains an underappreciated de Palma. I can't think of anyone I wouldn't recommend it to, and frankly, wouldn't want to associate with anyone that I couldn't. 85/100 Jennifer's Body (2009): I think this film is missing a little bit of connective tissue that would make its themes resonate more; the most culpable piece is likely the underdeveloped friendship angle. But it also just somewhat undercuts its own criticism of patriarchy by making Jennifer mean before and after her transformation. Still, I think the movie belongs in a museum for preserving the 00s high school experience so authentically. 70/100 Diabolique (1955): Can't say much about a hallowed classic other than yes, the ending gave me big-time jibblies. 80/100
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Oct 12, 2020 14:42
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I wish I'd been able to watch more Scream Stream so far, y'all are making me jealous. I'm just so starved for human company this year that I have to jump at it any chance I get, and that's happened to line up with the Stream. But based on trying to hype the uninitiated up on Possession, I accidentally hyped myself up. So...  Possession - rewatch As others have pointed out, this is a tough one to review because it's just a singular masterpiece that I may never fully unpack. Neill and Adjani are just astounding. It' no wonder that they look back on their time making the film as arduous at best, because they are throwing their souls into the performances and creating something raw and very real. I'm not sure if being a child of divorce helps you connect with the film more, but it certainly evokes the emotionally wrenching nightmare that is watching a marriage fall apart into bitterness and despair. It perfectly captures the madness of being utterly and completely lovesick as your life is falling apart. Every new viewing just pulls back more layers for me. I never want to read someone else's thematic analysis of this film, because I want to peck and hunt and scratch in the dirt for meaning over a dozen or more viewings. I'm not sure if the film is entirely knowable, but there would be a disappointing magic if I found some grad student's essay that broke down in excruciating detail the bare answers to the thematic puzzle. But I doubt that's really possible because I'd probably start reading the essay and roll my eyes at their oversimplication. The thing that really gets me with Possession, performances, emotional content, and thematic richness aside, is that it balances all of those with also being incredibly engaging and fun. It's not some difficult to watch drama throughout, it's also a bizarro ___monster___ movie and has so many delightful, funny, and fascinating moments and characters. 11/10
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Oct 12, 2020 14:44
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Still looking for guessers of these Bad Pictionary games!BisonDollah posted:
Pictionary guesser league of winners: 5 - DebbieDoesDagon 4 - gey muckle mowser 2 - Maxwell Lord 2 - bitterandtwisted 1 - The Berzerker 1 - szary 1 - Irony.or.Death 18/31 - 8th-11th October I'm enjoying drawing with different brushes, opacities and creating a little shadow. I long for the day I can draw without reference but that's a few years away yet I think.  God Told Me To - Guessed by DebbieDoesDagon Larry Cohen is an art-house GOD. This film is absolutely crazy, operating in a kind of frenzied dream logic at times it's not a cheap Dirty Harry kind of knockoff. We see New York at it's grimiest again, the opening scene on the water tower is very memorable. The plot is loving batshit, what else did we expect?  Slugs! - Guessed by bitterandtwisted I actually thought this was the dumbest idea for a movie but the special effects and blood really went all out and reigned it in from the moments where it was a bit too much Mayor From Jaws scene.mov. It's really, REALLY got some amazing death scenes.  Vampires vs. The Bronx - Guessed by Irony.or.Death This feels like the first draft of something Netflix really should have made much better and more fun. Cool concept of vamps representing gentrification and a local community banding together to take them on but it feels like Netflix greenlit the first pitch and they made a movie from there. I think 10 year olds will dig it, though.  Taste of Fear - Guessed by gey muckle mowser Hammer Horror's thriller/horror that's comparable to Diabolique. A mystery with a generous helping of twists and turns as the wheelchair bound daughter of a rich man returns to his estate and finds him missing, her step-mother's friendship with a stylish Dr. Christopher Lee and the suspicions of the family driver unleash a slow burn with a fantastic finale. The Hausu Usher fucked around with this message at 18:59 on Oct 12, 2020 |
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Oct 12, 2020 15:02
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 Scream (1996) "What's your favorite scary movie?" I probably rewatch this movie every October. I don't think it's the first horror movie I ever watched, but it's definitely the first movie I saw that had some 'believable' gore (Steve tied up in the chair during the opening is burned into my brain as a result). This is tight, great pacing, throws enough twists at you to keep you guessing, and has a solid payoff. Neve Campbell rules in this, the meta moments with Randy are still funny, and the kills are vicious. So many iconic lines and moments. 5/5 What Keeps You Alive (2018) "You only kill what keeps you alive." I'm pretty conflicted about this one. The story is about a married lesbian couple celebrating their anniversary at a cabin in the woods, and I don't want to say much more to avoid spoiling anything. The performances are great across the board - both Hannah Emily Anderson and Brittany Allen are fantastic. It's also a beautiful movie, every shot is just nice to look at. With that said - the plot of this movie, the twists in the story - absolutely annoying. I think it's still worth watching, but if you're the type who gets frustrated by characters making braindead decisions in horror movies, this one will have you grinding your teeth. 2.5/5SA October Horror Challenge Count: 29/40 First Time Watches: 26/31 Fran Challenges Complete: 2/2
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Oct 12, 2020 15:02
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BisonDollah posted:
Slugs! e: love this guy 
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Oct 12, 2020 15:08
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feedmyleg posted:I never want to read someone else's thematic analysis of this film, because I want to peck and hunt and scratch in the dirt for meaning over a dozen or more viewings. I'm not sure if the film is entirely knowable, but there would be a disappointing magic if I found some grad student's essay that broke down in excruciating detail the bare answers to the thematic puzzle. I've mentioned the director's commentary already, but it's worth listening to because Zulawski does exactly this, and it's the worst interpretation imaginable so it's eminently ignorable. The film according to Zulawski is about how women are awful and will drag you down to their level if you let them. He made the film after his divorce, and apparently the Sam Neil character is a self insert, with many of the conversations being based on real life conversations he had with his ex.
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Oct 12, 2020 15:11
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God Told Me To! One of my favourite Cohen films
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Oct 12, 2020 15:14
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Debbie Does Dagon posted:I've mentioned the director's commentary already, but it's worth listening to because Zulawski does exactly this, and it's the worst interpretation imaginable so it's eminently ignorable. The film according to Zulawski is about how women are awful and will drag you down to their level if you let them. He made the film after his divorce, and apparently the Sam Neil character is a self insert, with many of the conversations being based on real life conversations he had with his ex. Woof. Thank god for the death of the author.
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Oct 12, 2020 15:23
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Borderlands edit: posting this reminded me of that movie's ending, drat that poo poo was straight up uncomfortable szary fucked around with this message at 15:43 on Oct 12, 2020 |
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Oct 12, 2020 15:31
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43. Sleepwalkers (1992) This is a original film written by Stephen King. Honestly, I wouldn't have watched this if it was not on the Scream Stream which is where I watched it. Overall its a middling entry into the horror genre. Its a good bad movie though. The acting is atrocious , directing is rather poor, and the editing is something to be desired. All around on surface its just not a particularly good film. There's also some problem with early CGI used for face morphing which just looks weird now. I dunno it was fun watching it with a group of people. I think I've never actually seen the Rated R version , its a lot more implicit about the relationship between the Mom and Son which is pretty gross. Its also got a tremendous amount of animal deaths, they're not real of course but if you love cats and don't like seeing them harmed this probably isn't the movie for you. More fun to watch with a group of friends , definitely give it a pass unless you really enjoy bad movies.
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Oct 12, 2020 15:51
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#38: 1965 Invasion of Astro-Monster This kinda feels like a step backwards from Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster. There's the obvious point, that it's the same monster lineup but minus Mothra. But I also found the alien plot less compelling than Ghidorah's unbalanced world vibe. And it doesn't build as well. With Ghidorah everything built to the big bash, in Astro-Monster the final fight feels like wrapping up a loose plot thread more than anything. I don't want to come across as all negative, because I did enjoy Invasion of Astro-Monster. And while I wasn't completely won over by the alien plot, I do feel like aliens are a good addition to the universe. The alien ghost in Ghidorah was good, but now we've got live aliens running around and I hope to see more of them in future films. And one thing that Astro-Monster does flat out better than Ghidorah is the rampage. Ghidorah was all about the fight, Astro-Monster is all about the three way rampage, and it's fantastic. The miniatures are spectacular, and three monsters loving up a city at the same time is great. Invasion of Astro-monster in a mixed bag but overall enjoyable. Even if I do think there really should be a "the" in the title 38 Movies Watched: Dracula, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, King Kong, Son of Kong, The Bride of Frankenstein, Werewolf of London, Dracula's Daughter, Son of Frankenstein, The Mummy's Hand, Son of Ingagi 1, The Wolf Man, The Corpse Vanishes, The Ghost of Frankenstein, The Mummy's Tomb, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, Son of Dracula, The Mummy's Ghost, The House of Frankenstein, The Mummy's Curse, The House of Dracula, She-Wolf of London, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Godzilla, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Godzilla Raids Again, Five Short Films About Bigfoot2, Abbot and Costello Meet The Mummy, Horror of Dracula, Psycho, King Kong vs Godzilla, Blood Feast, Mothra vs Godzilla, The Creeping Terror, Ghidorah The Three-Headed Monster, Orgy of the Dead, Invasion of Astro-Monster
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Oct 12, 2020 17:14
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#32) The Beyond (1981) I love this movie so much. I watched this last year for the October challenge and absolutely forgot how fun it was. It was even more fun watching with goons! I'm tempted to call this Fulci's best movie... yeah, yeah I think I feel comfortable saying that. It's fantastic. 4 / 5 #33) Deadly Friend (1986)  Boy howdy, what a mess this movie is. I enjoyed it solely because I was watching it with other people, and, well, the famous basketball-head-explosion scene. Nothing about this feels "Wes Craven" to me, it's just a mish mash of pacing issues and story loopholes. But it's silly fun I guess. 2.5 / 5 #34) Vampires vs. the Bronx (2020)  This was a fantastic kids' movie, and I say that as a complement. It's definitely silly, it's definitely cheesy, but I have to admit I had fun. And it's nice to see Latin and Black representation in horror movies. 3 / 5 #35) Books of Blood (2020)  An absolute mess. The worst thing you can do with a Clive Barker property is make it boring. And this movie is BORING. For the very few fun effects and scares it has, it's 90% filler and meandering. Not worth the time. 1 / 5 Total: 35 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) / 11. Dead of Night (1974) / 12. The Shining (1980) / 13. Ganja & Hess (1973) / 14. Over Your Dead Body (2014) / 15. Phantasm (1979) / 16. Idle Hands (1999) / 17. Hocus Pocus (1993) / 18. The Amityville Horror (1979) / 19. Ghoulies II (1987) / 20. WNUF Halloween Special (2013) / 21. Verotika (2019) / 22. Scare Me (2020) / 23. August Underground's Penance (2007) / 24. S&Man (2006) / 25. Misc. Shorts / 26. Hubie Halloween (2020) / 27. Deranged (1974) / 28. Pumpkins (2018) / 29. The Masque of the Red Death (1964) / 30. Alleluia (2014) / 31. The Lair of the White Worm (1988) / 32. The Beyond (1981) / 33. Deadly Friend (1986) / 34. Vampires vs. The Bronx (2020) / 35. Books of Blood (2020) Fran Challenges Done: 1, 2
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Oct 12, 2020 17:26
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The Addams Family (1991) After watching the middling new animated movie, I decided to watch the 90s films. This is a fun film, and the cast is a delight, and you can tell how much of a blast everyone (particularly Raul Julia). The plot's not much (especially since the original intention was to leave it vague at the end if Gordon was actually Fester or not), but the cast make up for any short comings. Three out of Five Things. Watched on Hulu. Addams Family Value (1993) The sequel correctly recognized that Christina Ricci's Wednesday was the breakout of the first one, and gave her more to do, which was a delight. But the main plot is a bit of let down, despite Joan Cusack's performance, because once again the story focuses on someone using Fester to get to the Addams' family fortune, which was the plot of the first one. But still, one can tell that the cast are having the time of their lives, and that more than makes up for it. Four out Five Itt's. Watched on Amazon Prime. Hubie Halloween (2020) It's an Adam Sandler film, starring Adam Sandler, doing Adam Sandler things. Really, if you've seen any of his movies, then you've seen this movie. One out of Five Thermoses. Watched on Netflix. 1. Deep Rising 2. The Night Stalker 3. The Car 4. Land of the Dead 5. Bug 6. The Addams Family (2020) 7. The Gorgon 8. The Initiation 9. Sweet Sixteen 10. The Addams Family (1990) 11. Addams Family Values 12. Hubie Halloween
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Oct 12, 2020 17:33
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 31. Sleepwalkers (1992/USA) My 31st film!  And it stinks!Scream Stream Let's start with the good. I respect the desire to show a different spin on vampires, and I thought it was successful in that regard. I even thought the incest angle was a nice touch, given that you have a species with only two extant members who presumably reproduce nonsexually, are isolated, and are culturally alien to their human neighbours. Incest is a pretty good way to instantly communicate all of that information and adds something a little different to what's otherwise a pretty unremarkable film. The other nice touch is the inclusion of kitties, kitties everywhere! Including lots of kitty abuse, kitty death, kitty violence, and upset snarling kitties, so, not exactly as cute and cuddly as you might hope, but there is cuteness. The bad is that this is a low-tier Stephen King, not necessarily in terms of effects, performances, etcetera, but definitely in terms of narrative, characters, direction, and ambition. It's very much a predictable King property in which a monster is introduced, it menaces one or two people in a pretty low-stakes way, and then it's dispatched, and no-one learns anything, or grows, or develops, or anything really. There are kitties though, so that's nice. 2.5/5  31.1 Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993/USA) Scream Stream This is a rewatch, and I talked this to death recently in the Bracketology thread. I'm really glad the seemingly skeptical stream audience were eventually won around by the film, because it really is a favourite of mine, and one which improves with every viewing. I love Julie, I feel very personally invested in Julie's struggle as a young woman dealing with depression, isolation, emotionally absent parents, and self-harm. I love the tragic doomed romance angle, and how it concludes. I love Riverman, who might fit into a few unfortunate tropes, but he's such a sweetie. It's just such a wonderful emotionally resonant surprise, from such an otherwise goofy (and excellent) franchise. 4/5 Total: 31 Queer Interest: 15 Scream Stream: 7 new, 3 rewatches Fran Challenges: 2 | Horror Noire | Short Cuts | Countries Visited: 17 | USA | Hungary | Portugal | Vietnam | Georgia | Switzerland | Nigeria | United Kingdom | Lithuania | Germany | Finland | France | Spain | Japan | Monaco | Ireland | West Germany |
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Oct 12, 2020 17:34
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BisonDollah posted:
Scream of Fear! I love this one, I have the original poster framed in my movie room
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Oct 12, 2020 17:45
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BisonDollah posted:
This one has to be Vampires vs. The Bronx unless somebody's been holding out on us with another vampire gentrification movie.
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Oct 12, 2020 17:52
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44. Jaws (1975)  The first summer blockbuster. What's not to like about this film. Its got great direction , acting , characters, plot, and honestly some drat good special effects. Today it may be a little dated , but honestly its lost none of its charm. What I like most about this is that characters are given room to breath, you really care about each of them and they all have their own nuanced little quirks. The direction is perfect , Spielberg films just feel modern. Its not like anything else its just this specific feeling you get when you have a Spielberg film , he's such a expert director. Still one of the greatest horror films made.
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Oct 12, 2020 17:57
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 The Tomb of Ligeia I'd been favoring actual shots from the movies instead of posters this year but drat Tomb of Ligeia has some great posters. As others have mentioned, The Tomb of Ligeia stands out among the other Corman/Price films because a substantial amount of it takes place outdoors. The great thing is that the outdoor setting doesn't prevent Corman from infusing the film with atmosphere and striking colors, which are a hallmark of these movies. Of course, then when we do go indoors you get all of the beautiful and detailed set design you love from Masque of the Red Death or House of Usher. Although I do question the judgement of Rowena, who falls for Price's character when he treats her after an injury. I mean, yea the dude is suave but isn't it strange that his whole place is covered in dusty spider webs?    The story is actually one that you may have seen forms of in other films, and it's not entirely unpredictable, but still effective. Price is a little bit subdued, but still has an intense screen presence and gets plenty of dramatic Poe-like dialogue to deliver.  Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy Turns out this is probably my second favorite of the Universal Mummy films(after The Mummy's Hand). It's obviously not scary, and not trying to be, but the comedy is on point and you still have all the usual trappings of a mummy movie. It also benefits from a very memorable performance by Marie Windsor as one of the main antagonists. None of the other mummy films have anything quite like here and she, along with of course Abbott and Costello, make this movie stand out among the other sequels that are much too similar to each other. There's also a great gag towards the end with multiple "mummies" all circulating at one time.  1. The Mummy 2. The Mummy's Hand 3. The Mummy's Tomb 4. The Wicker Man 5. Hellraiser 6. The Mummy's Ghost 7. The Mummy's Curse 8. The Relic 9. Frankenstein 10. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein 11.(FRAN CHALLENGE: Horror Noire) Vampires vs. the Bronx 12. Dracula(Spanish Version 1931) 13. Ernest Scared Stupid 14. House of Usher 15. The Fog 16. Mimic 17. Graveyard Shift 18. House of Frankenstein 19. Freddy vs. Jason 20. Tomb of Ligeia 21. Abbott and Costello Meet The Mummy
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Oct 12, 2020 18:19
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I'm trying to watch 31 movies I haven't seen before, including alternate cuts. Here's what I've got so far for the month (I have a lot of catching up to do): 1. The Stuff (1985) Goofy fun. I mean, the acting is terrible and the editing is wonky, but the cinematography and special effects are weirdly great. 3/5 2. Alone (2020) Decent road thriller, and I love that the villain is dressed like Harrison Ford in The Mosquito Coast. 3.5/5 3. Rent-a-Pal (2020) Pretty great modern homage to the two Davids, Lynch and Cronenberg, and Wil Wheaton hasn't been this good since Stand by Me. 4.5/5 4. Possessor (2020) Speaking of Cronenberg, this will no doubt go down as my favorite sci-fi/horror flick of the year, if not the decade. I've already watched it twice and plan to watch it a third time because it's just so juicy — literally and figuratively. 5/5 5. Raising Cain: Director's Cut (1992) This used to be my least favorite De Palma film, but this director's cut all but fixes it. This is great, ludicrous trash, and John Lithgow seems like he's having the time of his life. 3.5/5 6. The Fan (1982) Starts off great and hypnotic, pulsing with mounting dread, before it turns into something else and whiffles the ending. 4/5 7. La llorona (2019) I love horror that's grounded in some kind of real political context, and this one reminds me of Under the Shadows in all the best ways. 4.5/5 8. Z (2019) One good scene, but honestly, I've forgotten everything else that happens in this movie already. I remember it being competent, at least. 2.5/5 9. Bliss (2019) If Joe Begos keeps making movies like this and VFW, he's gonna be my favorite horror director someday — and I don't usually like splattery gore. 4/5 Up next: Alice, Sweet Alice (1976) Psycho: Uncut (1960) Dawn of the Dead: Theatrical Cut (1978) Deep Red (1975) Who Can Kill a Child? (1976) The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) The Night Stalker (1972) The Night Strangler (1973) Symptoms (1974) The Ear (1970) ...plus some random sequels to franchises I don't give a poo poo about, so if you have any suggestions, I'm all...ears.
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Oct 12, 2020 18:19
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It wasn't my intention for all 31 of my films to be first time watches, but I'm already most of the way there (actually at 22, I'm one movie behind on write-ups) so I might as well make that a new goal. 20. The Legend of Hell House (1974) Amazon A paraphysicist and a psychic are hired to research the infamously haunted Belasco house in order to prove that life persists after death. Joining them are the physicist's wife and a man who was the only survivor of a previous attempt at staying in the house. They move into the house to study it and find that it seems determined to kill them at every opportunity as they race to uncover its secrets. Based on the novel Hell House by Richard Matheson (who also wrote the screenplay), this is a classic haunted house film that ups the ante in terms of sex and violence compared to most that had come before. This reminds of The Haunting (1963) in many ways and I can't help but compare the two. Besides the obvious reason (four strangers are staying in a haunted house to do research), it also has a similar gothic and baroque design to the house, with lavish wallpaper and woodwork and somewhat creepy statues everywhere. Unlike that film, this is in color, and it generally looks really nice. Roddy McDowall is the standout of the cast but everyone is solid. The Haunting is one of my favorite films of all time and in my opinion this is not on the same level, but it's still very good and I'd call it one of the better haunted house films that I've seen. Recommended for sure! 4.5 angry spirits out of 5  21. Scare Me (2020) Shudder Fred, an aspiring horror author, rents a cabin in the woods so he can work on his writing. He bumps into his neighbor Fanny, another horror author who is renting a cabin for the same reason, but she's got one up on Fred in that she has already published a bestselling novel. When the power goes out during a storm, the two hang out all night and attempt to scare each other by telling scary stories. From the setup I expected this to be an anthology film, which it kind of is, except that instead of separate segments the characters are literally just telling each other stories in the tiny cabin. The stories are occasionally embellished with some lighting or sound effects, but for the most part it's just the two characters talking to each other. This could've been dull with less talented actors, but I thought both of the leads did a great job. There are a lot of good jokes and the stories they tell are a lot of fun. Unfortunately it takes a turn in the third act that I didn't really care for. I won't spoil it, but it seemed kind of unearned and just didn't really work for me. It's not terrible or anything, just a bit of a let down after how much I enjoyed the first two thirds of the film. Still, I recommend checking this out. It does something different and mostly succeeds at it, even if it doesn't quite stick the landing. 3.5 edible arangements out of 5 Total: 21 Watched: Peeping Tom | Cry of the Banshee | The Loved Ones | The Tenant | Get Duked! | Sugar Hill (FC #1) | Ma | Shivers | Onibaba | The Black Cat | Beyond Re-Animator | Short films (FC #2) | The Hunger | The Skin I Live In | Santa Sangre | Blood Beat | The Witch in the Window | Possession | Inferno of Torture | The Legend of Hell House | Scare Me SIDE QUESTS: Edgar Wright's Top 100 Horror: 92/100 Slant Top 100 Horror: 91/100 TSZDT Top 100: 100/100
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Oct 12, 2020 18:27
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gey muckle mowser posted:Scream of Fear! I love this one, I have the original poster framed in my movie room The pool scene is very, very good and I absolutely loved the ending. Definite original poster purchase worthy, a real gem! I've updated the post with correct guesses and league of winners.
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Oct 12, 2020 18:57
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23. Hider in the House A disturbed man, recently released from a psychiatric hospital, moves into the attic of a house and makes his home there, unknown to the new residents of the house. The simple idea of Gary Busey lurking in your attic is creepy enough all on its own. Busey's character Tom seems sympathetic enough at first - he was terribly abused by his parents as a child until he snapped and burned down the house with them inside, and all he wants is a stable home and family of his own. Unfortunately, he decides that the best way to get this is to lurk in this poor family's attic and become more and more obsessed with the wife and kids. This film also features Bruce Glover (father of Crispin) as the creepy next-door neighbour who's also been peeping on the wife's late-night swims, and with his dyed blond hair he looks like a cheap replica Busey to add to the obsessed creeps. 3 out of 5. 24. Halloween III: Season of the Witch  Just a few days before Halloween, a doctor finds himself caught up in a murder mystery that leads to the US's biggest maker of Halloween masks and a sinister plan that will come to fruition on October 31. Quatermass' Nigel Kneale wrote a script for this. Unfortunately, he wasn't happy with the changes Dino De Laurenitis made to it (adding more graphic violence and gore) and so Kneale asked for his name to be removed from the credits. Considering how little actual gore is in the finished film compared to other horror films of the same time period, it would certainly be interesting to know what Kneale's original script looked like. While it's technically not in the same continuity as any of the Michael Myers Halloween films, this film does start the trend of evil druids and their ridiculous Samhain plans (stealing one of the monoliths from Stonehenge, bringing it to California and chipping tiny pieces of stone off it to put into magic microchips to kill the nation's children... oh, and there are androids too). 3.5 out of 5. 25. Tenebre  An American writer on a book tour in Rome becomes embroiled in a murder mystery when a killer starts murdering women and stuffing pages from his latest book in their mouth. Dario Argento returned to his giallo roots with this film, which he was inspired to make after his own experiences with an obsessed fan. It's slick, stylish, has a kick-rear end soundtrack from former members of Goblin (Argento's favourite prog rock band), and while it contains many of the traditional giallo tropes (beautiful women being menaced; a black-gloved killer whose identity isn't revealed until the end) it also has some almost meta elements to it, in the way that writer Peter Neal is drawn in and ends up investigating the murders as well (and of course another of Argento's tropes is the foreigner in Rome who gets caught up in murder and has to solve the case themselves). Of particular note is its inclusion on the UK's infamous Video Nasties list, as not only was it briefly banned. but posters for the film were changed so that, instead of the trickle of blood along the woman's neck, a red ribbon was tied instead. Because yeah, sure, that makes things all better... 26. The Beyond  Nearly 60 years after a painter and warlock was tortured and killed there, a young woman inherits a run-down hotel in Louisiana and sets about refurbishing it, not aware that the hotel sits on one of the seven gates to Hell. Something of a polarizing film, this one. Part of director Lucio Fulci's "Gates of Hell" trilogy, which all tended to be rather dreamlike in terms of story, visuals and continuity; The Beyond is another of those "style over substance" films that seemed to be so frequently coming out of Italy in the late 70s and early 80s. Personally, I like it - it's moody, atmospheric, and very much like a bad dream with its events, set-piece murders and - because it's Fulci - lots of close-ups of eyes and violence against them. Fulci never met an eyeball he didn't want to enucleate. It is also dark, kind of gross and difficult to follow if you're not paying rapt attention to it. 3.5 out of 5 27. Return of the Living Dead 3  After his girlfriend Julie is killed in a motorcycle accident, Curt breaks into his father's top secret government lab and uses Trioxin 2-4-5 to revive her, not realising that this will eventually turn Julie into a flesh-hungry ghoul. The two go on the run, trying to evade both the military and a street gang they inadvertently cross paths with, while Julie fights her urges to kill and eat any live human she is near - including Curt. I admit that at least part of my rating for this film is because I have a massive, massive crush on Melinda Clarke in the role of Julie in this. Yes, even with all the body mods, which probably says something about me. the film movies away from the comedic tones of the previous two films in favour of a more serious - and romantic - plot here, as Julie and Curt are portrayed with quite a Romeo and Juliet-esque sheen - or, perhaps more appropriately, the Bride of Frankenstein. They're two teenagers in love, and as such do several rather stupid and impulsive things. The zombie effects in this are also very good, and suitably gross, with heads bobbing on exposed spinal columns, the tops of skulls being shorn off to expose the delicious brains inside, and of course Julie's full-on self-piercing efforts to try to stave off the hunger for flesh. The plot is admittedly derivative and trite, but... Julie. 4 out of 5 Letterboxd Totals: 27 16 new (The Abominable Dr Phibes; Session 9; The Curse; Curse II: The Bite; Curse III: Blood Sacrifice; Catacombs; Teeth; Body Melt; Horror Noire; Becky; Maniac; The Last Horror Film; Ghoulies II; Midsommar; Hausu; Hider in the House) 11 rewatch (The Grapes of Death; Rabid (1977); The People Under The Stairs; Phantasm; Idle Hands; The Amityville Horror (1979); Noroi: The Curse; Halloween III: Season of the Witch; Tenebre; The Beyond; Return of the Living Dead 3) Fran Challenges: 1 (Horror Noire)
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Oct 12, 2020 19:31
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 #74) Scars of Dracula (1970) Yeah, now that's a satisfying Hammer Dracula picture. A young man on the run from a misunderstanding with an official's daughter ends up at Dracula's castle, and when he doesn't return, the man's brother and his fiance go looking for him. Plenty of screen time for Lee and the local yokels give this one a good sense of the fear cast by Dracula's nearby residence, while the romantic angle is fleshed out without being overplayed. Kind of by-the-numbers, but thanks to Lee (and the ever-reliable Hammer set-dressers), it's a comfortable sort of cliché. Rating: 7/10Watched on digital copy.  #75) The Horror of Frankenstein (1970) Much better than I expected of a Hammer Frankenstein flick without Cushing. Ralph Bates does a wonderful job as young Frankenstein, charismatic and sardonic, but with glints of cold sociopathy breaking through the charm long before he fully indulges his scientific mania. The film moves at a good clip, the comedy plays well at both deft and broad strokes, and the performances, while hardly nuanced outside of Bates', provide a satisfying conveyance for the dialogue and interactions. The sets are lushly decorated, the landscapes appreciatively shot, and Victor's array of scientific equipment is another fine touch of humor in its ambiguous simplicity. Things grow regrettably predictable once the Creature is animated, though Bates' jaunty manner adds some flair to the formula, which runs on until a startlingly abrupt ending. There's more than enough fun before that jolting drop to make the film worthwhile, though. “It's not natural for a boy of your age to be so interested in all this scientific twaddle.” Rating: 8/10Watched on digital copy.  #76) Horny House of Horror (2010) Well, there's a house, horniness, and horror, so I can't say the film didn't deliver everything it promised. Allegedly inspired by Western exploitation films, and the lack of them in the Japanese film market, director Jun Tsugita put together something with nudity, castration, farts, and jazz flute as three friends visit a brothel, only to find it's the sex parlor from Hell. The humor isn't too annoying, most of the time, and while the effects are cheap-looking, that's probably for the best. If the film had more life to it, and wasn't so thoroughly predictable once things get rolling, it might be noteworthy, but as is, it falls flat, outside of a couple of good gags. “Sorry I didn't tell you. I'm a Karate expert.” Rating: 4/10Watched on digital copy.
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Oct 12, 2020 19:35
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