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Anisocoria Feldman posted:23) Fright Night (1988) The remake slaps its really good . David Tenant is fantastic , Anton Yelchin is great, and Colin Farrel is amazing.
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Oct 19, 2020 00:48
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 17. Deadly Bees (1966) dir. Freddie Francis  FRAN CHALLENGE #8: When Animals Attack!Outside of a lot of the newer stuff I've been watching, some Universal movies, I've been watching a lot of early 80s things. So, breaking out into the 1960s was a nice change of pace. I was not looking forward to this challenge because I don't really love animal horror outside of obviously excellent films like Jaws. It just feels very mundane. But this movie is a loving hoot! It's a gothic whodunnit and WHAT a whodunnit. You find out that there is an evil beekeeper at the start of the movie who has created killer bees that he will unleash on the world if not taken seriously. The film then moves to focus on a singer who needs a mental break. So, she travels the country to get some fresh air. She stays with a couple that raises bees, but there is also another guy who raises bees! Who has the killer bees? It's fantastic. It's a B-movie, but also directed by Freddie Francis who won two Academy Awards for cinematography including for Glory. So, it looks surprisingly good. It's very brisk, charming, and fun. Give it a shot! Apparently there is an MST3K episode of it that I never saw. I might rewatch it during Thanksgiving with that version, but it's really worth a straight viewing.  /5
Timeless Appeal fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Oct 22, 2020 |
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Oct 19, 2020 01:00
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https://twitter.com/hkasof/status/1317888175734280193?s=20
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Oct 19, 2020 01:48
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26. Shakma, for Fran Challenge #8: When Animals Attack - Having read nothing about this movie other than the description on Prime I somehow got it into my head that 1. there would be a tiger and 2. it took place in a much more medieval cylindrical-type tower. So there was a rough patch early on while I adjusted expectations. This was helped along a little by what seemed like a potentially interesting and unusual premise - some medical students are locked in a building after-hours for a kind of puzzle-based LARP session being run by one of their supervisors. They have walkie-talkies but he's the only one they can contact on them. That could go a whole bunch of wild directions and the movie explores none of them, opting instead for a billion scenes of people split up and then reconvene and college building tactics. There are two different extended scenes of trying to throw poo poo at a car outside to get the driver's attention, a "subplot" which ends with failure, then the driver getting bored and taking off. If you cut 30-50 minutes out of this movie it might be a fun novelty just for the number of unusual decisions it makes, but as is it's a boring slog. 27. The Night of the Hunter, for Fran Challenge #6: Tomb of the Blind Spots - Pretty cool but not as great as I'd been lead to expect. All of the good here rides on Robert Mitchum's performance and he does a great job with it, but the movie keeps going for most of an hour past what feels like the climax. The latter half feels like it is overtaken by the character of Rachel Cooper staring directly into the camera and talking to herself. I am normally sympathetic to movies that have no interest in subtlety, but there are limits and we definitely exceed them here. Still, there are a couple of standout scenes near the end (especially that duet) that make the journey feel worthwhile even if it doesn't all come together the way I expected from all the praise this gets. Would probably do more for me if I were interested in children, I guess.
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Oct 19, 2020 02:02
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Franchescanado posted:Fran Challenge #7: Dearly Departed  134) My Name is Bruce - 2007 - DVD My choice is Dan Hicks with the most recent role of his that I can find without going through too much trouble that oddly enough, I haven't seen yet. I chose him because compared to some of the others, at the time of this post, I don't think a supporting actor's been represented. Supporting actors are important to selling the setting. Support doing a bad job is jarring enough to offset good leads and script. Support doing a good job can often make even a clunker of a film watchable. With certain directors, they have a group of steadily relied on support actors. While Dan Hicks did have some lead roles such as in Evil Dead II and Intruder, he was support in enough films to earn a 'Hey, it's that dude.'. With horror films, having good support actors is critical. Dan's role in this film is a dirt farmer which fits for a small town under demon assault and turning to Bruce Campbell thinking he's like the characters he plays in movies. This film was good. Plenty of meta humor and a lot of the usual Campbell/Raimi regulars are here. This was a good one.
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Oct 19, 2020 02:26
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#53: 1975 The UFO Incident The true story of Barney and Betty Hill, who recovered memories of being abducted by aliens. The real meat here is Barney's story. Not the story of alien abduction, just his life. He's a politically active middle-class black man married to a white woman, living in a white neighborhood. He is under constant stress and lives with constant fear. When a car passes him on the road he's afraid they'll force him off the road. When he goes on a trip with his wife he's afraid that they'll be refused service somewhere. He knows all the time that his choice to marry the woman he loves had put them both at risk of social ostracism and violence, and it constantly eats at him. And then he gets abducted by loving aliens. The movie is a lot weaker when dealing with pure alien stuff, unfortunately. It's very standard alien abduction content, which makes sense considering that the Betty and Barney Hill abduction is basically the type specimen of the phenomenon. And that's mainly what the second half is about. The first half is the Barney stuff, and then once that's established it goes mainly into the alien abduction memories. I can't recommend it as an alien abduction movie, because it's not very good as that. But as the story of Barney Hill, a black man married to a white woman in the early 60s, who then has to deal with a loving alien abduction, it's pretty good. 53 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, Ghidorah Horror of the Deep, Berserk!, Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters, Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, All Monsters Attack, Taste The Blood of Dracula, Godzilla vs Hedorah, Nosferatu5, Feardotcom3, Godzilla vs Gigan, Dracula AD 1972, Godzilla vs Megalon, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla, The UFO Incident
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Oct 19, 2020 02:28
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21. The Greasy Strangler (2016) A woman comes between a father and son... with spooky results. This is more a surreal, subversive comedy than a horror movie. An awful lot of dread is built up around what disgusting, ugly thing it will show you next, though. Everything in this movie is ugly, on purpose. The actors are ugly, the sets are ugly, the lighting is ugly, the music is ugly, there's even an ugly tree. The principal actors spend so much time naked, not a moment of it welcome in any way. There is so much grandpa dick. The titular monster is just an angry man covered in grease. I can't say if this is a good movie or not. It's 100% successful in what it sets out to do. It does things no other movie does. There are moments that are genuinely funny. There are wonderfully absurd moments. There are disgusting moments. It's not easy to sit through the whole movie. Several times I wondered if it was going to be worth finishing. It is, the end has a couple moments worth waiting for. No idea/5
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Oct 19, 2020 02:35
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 Village of the Damned, 1960 I remember watching the John Carpenter remake from 1995 on VHS way back when that movie was still new and have since then gotten that version on DVD a few years back. But it is only now, tonight, that I watched the original, and I think I might like this version a tiny bit more. Everyone in a small English village pass out at the same, everyone that tries to enter pass out too. Then after a few hours, they all wake up with no clue on what happened. All the women find out they are pregnant and go through the pregnancy unusually fast. All the children born are blond and have something unusual going on with their eyes. They age unusually fast too. They are extremely intelligent, but are emotionally cold, lack empathy and possess great mental powers to read and control minds. While the Carpenter remake have a better focus on character development, like the relationship between the mom and the one that slowly learns more empathy, more violent scenes and so on that makes it a better movie, the original just have that 50s sci-fi feel that I love. Scientists sitting around talking about whats going on, the government and military trying to figure out how to deal with the situation and so on. That's not to say the original version don't have character development or anything like that, just that the older film charm wins me over. It is just the kind of poo poo I happen to dig.
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Oct 19, 2020 03:23
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13. Possession Well that was something. The first like half or so seems to take a million years - not in a bad way, I just kept pausing it to catch my breath and was always astonished at how little time had gone by. Downright panic inducing. The movie started to lose me eventually. The 11/10 acting style eventually wore a bit thin and by the time “the scene” happened I was detached enough that it came off as... silly. With Carlo Rambaldi working on the movie, I couldn’t help but wonder if there was any connection to The Tourist, an unmade movie with a few similar elements that Giger did some artwork for. I don’t know if Giger and Rambaldi kept in touch after Alien or not, though. The creature certainly has some Gigeresque qualities anyway. I saw somebody use this movie for the Blind Spots challenge but I don’t think I’ve heard of this movie outside the forums so I’ll save that for something else. david_a fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Oct 19, 2020 |
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Oct 19, 2020 03:34
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Fran Challenge #6: Tomb of the Blind Spots #21 Invasion of the Body Snatchers Phillip Kaufman, 1978 The Criterion Channel  Whenever I hear about this film it's always receiving glowing praise, but strangely I don't actually hear about it very often. For example, it's rarely mentioned in the same breath as The Shining, Halloween, The Thing, Alien or The Exorcist. But it ABSOLUTELY ought to be. This is top tier horror from Hollywood's hayday and what I consider to be the greatest decade for film. Maybe it gets lost in the mix of the countless remakes? I don't know, but it's a shame. The script is as intelligent as it gets for high concept sci-fi/horror like this. The screenwriters understood how NOT to underestimate the intelligence of the audience. At any given point, the characters either understand or are suspecting everything the audience is. There's never a moment where I was one step ahead of what everyone in the film knew. These are suitably smart characters who behave in logical, rational ways. This makes the situation that much more horrifying. When Donald Sutherland's character takes in new information, even speculative, we see the glint of understanding in his eyes. And the fear. And that hopelessness is the key to what makes this film so god drat scary. At about the 90 minute point I considered the situation these people were in and I began to wonder how in the hell this was going to get resolved. The answer, of course, is that it wouldn't be. This ending is as dark, nihilistic and scary as it gets. That final shot. Oh god. I had seen the GIF of Donald Sutherland's gaping maw and pointing finger many times (unfortunately), but it still didn't prepare me for what a shock it would be. And the way it's set up is so brilliant. We're in doubt until the last second and then it's like a punch to the gut. And that's what this film does so well, and why it's incredible. It kept me guessing the whole way through, and I loved every second of it. 5/5 Fran Challenges (5/8): Films watched: 1. Halloween II (2009), 2. The Tomb of Ligeia (1964), 3. Eyeball (1975), 4. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), 5. House of 1000 Corpses (2003), 6. Climax (2018), 7. Lifeforce (1985), 8. The Devil’s Rejects (2005), 9. Short Films, 10. Ginger Snaps (2000), 11. The Legend of Hell House (1973), 12. House on Haunted Hill (1959), 13. Us (2019), 14. The Lighthouse (2019), 15. Torso (1973), 16. Child’s Play 2 (1990), 17. The Masque of the Red Death (1964), 18. The Skin I Live In (2011), 19. Dante’s Inferno (1911), 20. 3 From Hell (2019), 21. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
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Oct 19, 2020 04:07
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27. Ghost of Frankenstein (1942, Peacock) After the tonal shift in Son, I was a little more ready for it here. Ygor and the monster go off looking for Frankenstein's other son, hoping he's as much of an idiot as the rest of his family (he is). Lugosi is really compelling as Ygor here. While the beard helps, he's much more distinct here than he is in Dracula and the Poverty Row films I've watched this month, where I'm not entirely sure he's acting. Chaney took a while to grow on me as the monster, but having watched the 3 Karloff films in the past few days probably had me overly sensitive to any little difference. Tightly plotted and fast-paced. While it's lacking an "It's Alive" scene (probably for plot reasons), they do make up for not blowing up any buildings in Son by blowing up two here. 4.5/5 28. L'Inferno (1911, Youtube) Fran Challenge #5: Silent Scream First off, I made a huge mistake by watching this with a score by THNTS because it sounded more classical in the first few seconds than the Tangerine Dream one. It starts screeching during the Beatrice scene, when there's absolutely no reason for it, drops the wubwubs a couple of minutes later, and just continually escalates from there with no regard for the film. Afterwards, sampling a couple of scenes from the Tangerine Dream one and finding that it is available on Youtube with a classical score, I regret every second of not switching over. The film itself is beautiful. The sets are consistently great, and I really like the design of the demons. There's some great use of dual exposure here - a man carrying his own head reminiscent of Melies pulling the same stunt and the reptile transformation in particular. (Judas in Lucifer's mouth, not so much.) Even the less impressive aspects - the practical effects with the beasts in the forest and Cerberus - at least provide insight into this era of filmmaking, even if they look like taxidermy from, well, hell. As a movie, it's basically a listicle, but given the source... Ignoring my awful selection of a score, 4.5/5.
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Oct 19, 2020 04:20
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 Tales from the Hood (1995) (first time watch, DVD) I first heard about this from Horror Noire as surprisingly good despite its title and marketing poster of a skull in sunglasses. I was expecting to kind of like it. Then Nina Simone starts in with "Strange Fruit" in the first story and I was blown away. Each of the stories takes a different trauma of black and marginalized experience from police violence to the ongoing trauma of slavery to toxic male and gang violence and filters it through a semi-corny, semi-serious lens that hits all parts entertaining and serious. The framing story is wonderful with Clarence Williams III going whole hog as the horror host right out of the gate. The film embraces the low budget and cheesy effects that adds a great dose of surreality that only highlights the serious underlying themes. Everything feels just as relevant now, and the mix of self-aware corniness makes its didacticism entertaining. I was not surprised to see Spike Lee's production company had a hand in this and am so sad that the director's career kind of stalled after. This is masterclass in how to mix moods and create schlock with an aching heart. My favourite anthology ever I would rewatch this every year it is amazing. 5/5 1. Eyes Without a Face 2. Come and See 3. Cat People 4. Repulsion 5. Sisters 6. Inland Empire 7. Butterfly Kisses 8. Cube 9. The Velocipastor 10. One Cut of the Dead 11. The Ruins 12. Seance 13. The People Under the Stairs 14. From Beyond 15. Starfish 16. Seconds 17. Candyman
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Oct 19, 2020 04:25
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 22. Raw (2017) The story revolves around Justine, a coddled, self-effacing brainiac starting her first year at vet school. After being forced to eat meat during an initiation despite her lifelong vegetarianism, a deep, unquenchable hunger for meat awakens inside her. Raw is the typical coming-of-age horror serving as a metaphor for the intoxicating power and danger of unbridled female sexuality. It’s a theme that’s been done ad infinitum, but I never seem to tire of it. This time it gets filtered through the lens of the New French Extremity Movement. The result is stylishly exploitative. It doesn't bring anything too new to the genre, but it’s a slow burn to some pretty good body horror. There are a few too many lingering crotch shots, but considering the film was written and directed by a woman, I’m assuming they’re meant to be thematic rather than titillating.
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Oct 19, 2020 05:36
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#22: The Dead Pit Man, on paper, this should be my poo poo. Years after a mad doctor doing experiments on the patients in an insane asylum got shot in the head and dumped in his titular well of corpses, a woman arrives at the institute with no memory. Jane Doe (as she comes to call herself) is insistent that she's not amnesiac, that someone *took* her memories, and the pedant in me wonders how that doesn't qualify as amnesia, but whatever. There's an earthquake as soon as she arrives, she starts having visions of the dead doc wandering around alive with a hole in his head, and staff and patients start being picked off by a monstrous killer. I think the major problem is, the asylum setting is used by the filmmakers to have 90% of the cast doing weird "crazy" poo poo. The soundtrack's full of howling and moaning and a mad nun reciting litanies and it wears on you pretty quickly. The female lead spents a lot of time whimpering and pleading, and also a lot of time wandering around in very skimpy underwear. Something about the tone of the film is just off, it's too schlocky to work as serious horror but lacks the intensity or imagination of good sleaze, and while it's aspiring to the absurdity of something like Demons or The Beyond, when you aim for that and miss the results can be outright grating (I didn't even like The Beyond that much but it's better than this). I had trouble staying awake for some of this, and that may not be entirely on the film, but everything about it seems so half assed. It also doesn't help that it's over 100 minutes long. The gore effects are solid though.
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Oct 19, 2020 07:32
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20. The Wolf of Snow Hollow gently caress yeah, this was fantastic! A small-town deputy wrestling with alcoholism, his ex-wife, his daughter, his stubborn dad and probably unable to cope with daily life anyway now gets the added stress of having to solve killings that people are convinced were done by a werewolf. Absolutely loved this. The guy is the worst at his job and takes it out on everyone, but I was torn between feeling sorry for him and hoping he'd turn into less of an rear end in a top hat. Great monster, good cast, very enjoyable mood, short and sweet. 21. Psycho Fran Challenge #6: Tomb of the Blind Spots  I opened up the They Shoot Zombies list, started at the top and blammo; Psycho. I knew about the shower scene, the reveal of the mom and that was about it. For the first thirty minutes or so I was really doubting I was watching the right movie. The crime, the tension with the cop, the love affair, it wasn't what I expected at all. A good idea, well executed and everything looked so crisp and clean, I loved it. 22. Altered States  I am terrible with names, but during the first vision in this movie I just had to look up if it was by the guy who did The Lair of the White Worm, and it was! I didn't care too much for that movie, some great visuals lost in a messy bore, but here it worked very well. The wonky CGI at the end had some difficulty showing me what was going on, but everything else was amazing. 23. Audition  A man uses a dishonest way to find himself a wife, but despite have no bad intentions gets punished gruesomely. It took a loooooooong time before this got to the horror stuff, but it was worth it. The build up is interesting and keeps you engaged, even though the scene with the ballet teacher felt really out of place. I dug this
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Oct 19, 2020 10:30
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Spook-a-Doodle Double Feature #26: Svengoolie  Sunday means… more Svengoolie? Gotta burn them off. Someone got lazy with the sign. Tonight I got one wild card in Dr. Cyclops, looks like one of those B sci fi things he loves. And Son of Dracula, which probably sucks but its actually the one Dracula Universal film I never got to so I’m glad to take it off the list. That’s all I got. What do you want? I’m not picking the movies. I’m just the audience. Oh poo poo, maybe I should put myself in a seat. 45 (51). Dr. Cyclops (1940) Directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack, Written by Tom Kilpatrick, Based on "Dr. Cyclops" by Henry Kuttner. Watched with Svengoolie, available on Peacock. SVENGOOLIE WATCH-A-LONG #12 I love the basic premise of this that this mad scientist is conducting his brilliant experiments in the jungle but his eye sight goes so he calls in some top rate scientists to read a telescope for him and then go. And they get so mad about it that they poke around and make him mad enough that he shrinks them because he thinks they’re trying to steal his work. Which they are! Seriously. The good guys are actually trying to get rich by taking advantage of the mentally unstable bad guy and steal his work. And his solution is to shrink them and feed them to his cat! Svengoolie jokingly compared this to The Smurfs but I think he might actually be onto something. Dr. Cyclops even looks a little like Gargamel. And everyone’s dressed in togas. Some french guy watched this movie late one night while high and created a billion dollar franchise. This is a pretty standard “shrunk people” movie but apparently it was the first shrunk people movie so its historic. You know how it works. They climb and handle comically large items. They run away from small animals which are now monsters. For some reason they try to open a can of beans. It rains. You know the deal. Its well enough done and was probably impressive for its day but its been seen a million times since then so doesn’t have much of an impact to 21st century eyes. But its silly and light and only 76 minutes so you can do a lot worse. And I was genuinely amused by the absurdity of the plot unfolding. My only problem is I have no idea why he was called Dr. Cyclops. But I kind of liked the guy. He seemed like the kind of mad scientist who would use his shrinking ray to avoid taking out the garbage or something. Also Svengoolie made a joke about fans being nerds about the bolts on his prop pipe not matching up and now I can’t unsee them. 46 (52). Son of Dracula (1943) Directed by Robert Siodmak Watched with Svengoolie, available on Peacock. SVENGOOLIE WATCH-A-LONG #13 This is the one Dracula Universal film I haven’t seen, which is weird because I’m usually a stickler for completing stuff and not “skipping” films. I don’t know if this just fell through the cracks when I was going through the “Larry Talbot Saga” of connecting Universal films or if I just actively skipped it because seeing Larry as Dracula is weird. That was probably a proper instinct because its definitely odd. Chaney’s not a great actor but I think his kind of droopy sad guy thing works incredible well for Larry Talbot and makes him a deeply sympathetic character through all those films. But as Dracula he’s just kind of an odd sad guy who doesn’t seem to have his heart in this whole vampire thing. In my head I told myself to take the title of the film to heart and imagine he’s like the bored, entitled son of privilege and power who is just sleep walking through what’s expected of him. I don’t know if that was intentional but it made the performance better to watch. Truthfully he’s barely in it, which kind of fed into the whole “affluenza failson” narrative I had going. But I suppose Daughter-In-Law of Dracula doesn’t have the same ring to it. Its not exactly a good movie but I don’t think it was really a bad one. The story is a little different and not half bad and everyone who isn’t Lon Chaney does a solid job in their roles (you know, if you don’t accept my rationalizing interpretation of Chaney’s brilliant performance). Its all kind of silly. I enjoy that it takes like 10 minutes into the film for someone to decipher the incredibly clever “Alucard” code name. And half way through one of our “heroes” kind of acknowledged that he basically covered up a murder and deserves to be seen as a suspect of the police. Really… ok, you happen to be right on this one… but if your sister starts dating someone new maybe its not the right instinct to want to put her in the asylum? And if her ex’s first instinct is to threaten him and shoot him… And if your buddy comes to you and confesses he shot his ex girlfriend maybe you don’t cover for him and obstruct the police investigation… Ok yeah, he happens to be a bloodsucking monster but you didn’t know that at all. Alucard might be the bad guy but who’s the good guy here? But I don’t know. None of these Universal sequels are terribly good - aside of course from Bride of Frankenstein - so like in the grand picture I think this is right there in the middle spot between the Universal classics and the dregs. Its not a must watch by any imagination unless you’re filling out your Lon Chaney Monster bingo card or an obsessive completionist like I. But its not a bad little movie. Its a little different, it keeps moving, and it runs under 90 minutes. I kinda liked it.
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Oct 19, 2020 10:46
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Some two cents I spilled in the horror thread but would probably be better suited in this thread.Kart Barfunkel posted:Hosted a vampire double feature tonight and it was awesome. For some reason this years crop of horror movies have been quite the bangers:
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Oct 19, 2020 11:00
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Fran Challenge #7: Dearly Departed The Phantom of the Opera (2004)  Joel Schumacher's adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical of 1986. It's too long and none of the main cast really clicked for me. I never saw the stage show. I have to give some of the blame to Lord Andy, not least because I just didn't care for the music. The main theme is cool, especially when they add guitar riffs and crank the cheesiness up to 11, but mostly it's kind of dull. It's no Phantom of the Paradise. It's lacking in peril. Butler isn't very menacing compared to other Phantoms and the makeup is lackluster. I've met people in real life with worse skin conditions. It looks nice, with lavish sets and costumes. Some of the comedic bits worked for me, like the letter reading scene. The poodle didn't die. They introduce a poodle that's beloved by the snooty prima donna and they didn't kill it. That's against horror law. This is horror-adjacent romance. For a while I was worried the Phantom wasn't going to murder anyone. RIP Joel Schumacher and your wildly inconsistent career. At least you'll always have The Lost Boys to cement your place in horror history. Watchlist: Tenebrae; Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; Body Melt; In Search of Darkness; The Monster Club; Twilight; The Beyond; Scream Blacula Scream FC#1; Raw; The Invisible Man (2020); Hotel Transylvania; a bunch of shorts FC#2; Sharknado; Vampires vs. the Bronx; Dave Made a Maze; Gamera the Giant Monster; The Driller Killer; La Llarona; Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street FC#4; Pulse (2001) FC#3; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) FC#5; Hostel FC#6; The Phantom of the Opera (2004) FC#7 (total: 22ish)
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Oct 19, 2020 11:04
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my 31st movie, which you may have previously seen mistakenly posted in the scream stream thread, because I am quote "a dingus" 31)Extremity  Horror is no better than pornography. It's smut dressed up as entertainment. it serves no greater purpose. It's death on sale, and on sale cheap. Which yea, if they were all like this. This movie is a piece of misogynistic poo poo- There's an extreme haunted house. Two people go in. We really only know one-she's going to get over some past trauma. The dude, I guess is there for a good time. There's a japanese film crew doing a documentary on the whole thing.have you seen any mccamey manor footage? Well that's the idea but our protagonist is so goddamn crazy. Lots of people working the haunt worry she's too much of a psycho bitch-her psychologist doesn't recommend doing the haunt, she loves what appears to be an august underground knockoff, her girlfriend rhink is real. The haunt makes her think she killed someone, and then brings her father who used to sexually assault her in on things and she goes off the rails and murders everyone. Like it's not the most vile film I've ever seen, and it feels of an era-like an early aughts nu-metal video. I'm not the biggest Rob Zombie fan, but this is like a Rob Zombie film sans grace and dignity. And what might be the worst part is that there's fertile soil for a good horror movie here. A russ mccamey type breaking someone who goes after revenge could be good. But the guy who runs the haunt is like an edgy teen in a skull mask. Russ might be a sociopath, but he comes off as an affable guy who just loves his dogs and torturing people. And he's real! You could make the same movie with characters who are actual characters and not just an edgelord and crazy incest victim. And to be clear, that's the film's portrayal She's been sexually abused and now she's so goddamn crazy. It's gross Like there are movies where I don't think abuse is handled well, or used to add unearned gravity. There are films that have problematic content or views I disagree with. Then there's this. Like Street Trash is a repugnant little film, that I think tries hard to be too offensive, but it at least has flashes of creativity. This has none of that. 0/5 31/31 haunt,bridge curse,#alive, the strings, amber's descent, papi ramirez vs giant scorpions, black lake, displaced, danni and the vampire, woman of the photographs, witches of hollywood, bleed with me, hell house, death drop gorgeous,A nightmare wakes, leni,occupants,last thanksgiving,threshhold, it cuts deep, cold wind blows, the return, ghost stories, cleansing hour,dracula’s daughter, cabinet of doctor caligari, the ring, dagon,uncaged,fall of the house of usher,extremity
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Oct 19, 2020 11:05
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#46) Thinner (1996) This is not a very good movie. Even looking past the fact that the very plot relies on some pretty harsh racism, the story just isn't very compelling or exciting. Billy's not a good person, and he's supposed to be the protagonist. Just a really mean spirited movie. 1 / 5 #47) Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986)  This movie is so fun. It's Troma, what do you expect? It never drags, you just get scene after scene of overacting, bad acting, wild effects, and straight up lovable goofiness. Also it's weird how much the lead actor looks like John Mulaney. Love it. 3.5 / 5 Total: 47 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) / 36. Return of the Living Dead (1985) / 37. Megan is Missing (2011) / 38. Chainsaw Sally (2004) / 39. Thelma (2017) / 40. Häxan (1922) / 41. Fright Night (1985) / 42. From Beyond (1986) / 43. The Fly (1986) / 44. Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) / 45. The Corpse Grinders (1972) / 46. Thinner (1996) / 47. Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986) Fran Challenges Done: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
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Oct 19, 2020 14:00
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19. Dracula (1931) Blu-Ray Fran Challenge #6 This one ended up being a backup blind-spot, since the real one isn't on streaming anywhere. I had actually not seen any of the Classic Universal Monsters up to this point. Not exactly sure if there is one singular reason. This one is interesting, as it's difficult to gauge it properly almost 80 years later. In short it's the barebones Dracula story, and we all know it from either seeing one of several retellings, or just through cultural osmosis. Even the image of Bela Lugosi as Dracula is pretty much the canonical "generic" image of Dracula. All in all, despite feeling like old hat in TYOOL 2020, it's worth a watch, one of my favorite elements was that Van Helsing just looked like a regular rear end dude, and not some kind of grizzled monster hunter, the way he tends to be portrayed in everything else Dracula I've seen. 5/5 20. Unfriended (2014) Netflix Fran Challenge #3 The most aggravating movie I've ever seen. This movie came out around the time I ditched Facebook and all that stuff, so yeah it reminded me how much I don't miss it. It does make me grateful that when I was growing up the equivalence of hanging out on SKYPE, was I had someone with threeway calling call me when I was playing SimEarth, and they eventually called someone else with threeway calling. Every time YouTube popped up, I was wishing I was watching one of the other videos such as "my cat does a backflip! AMAZING!" 0.5/5 21. Frankenstein (1931) Blu-Ray Another movie that is part of the cultural osmosis. This one felt a little fresher than Dracula, because it seems that this story hasn't been retold nearly as much. Once again you have an iconic image that has lasted in the public consciousness to this day, this time of Boris Karloff as The Monster. After watching my first two Universal Monsters, I have been surprised at how straight they've been played so far. I remember when I was growing up, in the 80's and 90's, they had been played as goofy and antiquated in other medias, so it's been surprising how much they're not. I am looking forward to continuing to watch them in chronological order, but I am concerned that they will succumb to the sequelitis that we all know today, where there is diminishing returns. 5/5 22. Child's Play 2(1990) Blu-Ray A few years ago, I had thought I had seen the first Child's Play before, but no, that was the first time I had seen it. So I just assumed that it was one of the sequels. After watching Child's Play 2 for the first time on Saturday, I can safely say that nope, I had not seen this one before either. Chucky Returns in another attempt to switch souls with Andy. It's not terrible, but it's not nearly as good as the first one, which had some genuine scares. In the end it was fun, and apparently my roommate had a doll as a child that looked a lot like Chucky, so she wasn't having any of it. 3.5/5 23. Grave Robbers/ Ladrones De Tumbas (1989) Blu-Ray A Mexican horror film from Vinegar Syndrome's September package. A group of grave robbers unleash a monster that wants to knock up the police captain's daughter to bring conceive the Antichrist. I had fun watching it, there was some decent gore effects and a cool scene where the monster's hand comes out of one of the victims. Also a good monster that is mostly just a big monk hood wearing hulk. In the end, nothing groundbreaking, but it was a fun watch. 4/5 24. Knife+ Heart (2018) Prime Fran Challenge #4 There's a lot to unpack on this one, and I'll need to revisit it in a couple years to see how things fit. I also wish I had Lois's Seattle t-shirt. 5/5 25. Child's Play 3 (1991) Blu-Ray Another attempt at figuring out which Child's Play I had previously seen as a kid comes up blank. This of course means that up until the last few years, the only Chucky movie I had actually seen was in fact the scratched up copy of Seed of Chucky that I fished out of a dumpster back during the mid-2000's SA dumpster diving craze. Chucky is rebuilt and once again wants to steal Andy's body. This time Andy is in military school, and Chucky sets his sights on another kid. The entries up to this point are interesting in that the plots revolve around the fact that it's about the main characters trying to convince everyone else that the Ghost of Brad Dourif is trying to kill them with a doll, at least not until the poo poo hits the fan and no one else can deny it. 3.5/5 26. Crawlers (2020) Hulu A Hulu/Blumhouse Into the Dark installment. The Into the Dark series is for me something I put on when I have other things to do, because they're not groundbreaking, and they're basically TV movies, so you can mostly duck in and out of things without missing much. This time it's aliens invading during St. Patrick's day. This one is a little bit aggravating in the first part when it stops the movie for character introductions, but once they're out of the bar, it picks up. 3/5
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Oct 19, 2020 14:06
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Fran Challenge #7: Dearly Departed RIP Ennio Morricone  29. Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971) Digital Roberto, a rock drummer, is being stalked by a strange man. One day after rehearsal he confronts the stranger and accidentally kills him in a brief scuffle. Unfortunately there was a witness, and Roberto finds himself the target of a blackmailer who begins killing his friends. Even worse, the killer seems to have total access to his home and may be someone very close to him. This early giallo from Dario Argento is pretty solid, even if it's not on the same level as his other work from the '70s and '80s. He was such a talented director, and he makes great use of lighting and camera movements here to create some really visually impressive shots. Great music from Ennio Morricone too (RIP). Argento adds a touch of humor that I don't normally associate with his style - it's not a comedy by any stretch, but there are a couple of comic relief characters throughout the film. What really holds this back from being a top-tier Argento film is that the resolution of the mystery is pretty dumb. It pulls a stupid "the last thing you see before you die is burned onto your retinas" thing, even though nothing in the film was leading up to that, and then Roberto figures out who the killer is because of a really lame clue. Other Argento classics from this time like Deep Red or The Bird With the Crystal Plumage have clever endings, and this feels really weak in comparison. Still, I enjoyed it and if you are also a fan of Dario Argento you'll probably enjoy it too. 4 flies on grey velvet out of 5 Total: 29 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 | The Wolf of Snow Hollow | Daughters of Darkness | A Chinese Ghost Story II | FearDotCom (FC #3) | What Keeps You Alive (FC #4) | A Page of Madness (FC #5) | Boar (FC #8) | Four Flies on Grey Velvet (FC #7) SIDE QUESTS: Edgar Wright's Top 100 Horror: 94/100 Slant Top 100 Horror: 92/100 TSZDT Top 100: 100/100
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Oct 19, 2020 14:24
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Spook-a-Doodle Double Feature #27: The Twisted Twins Remember the Soska Sisters? They were like kind of a thing awhile back, weren’t they? Seems like they came along towards the end of the “Splatter Pack” era of horror and got some buzz for being female directors at a time when the genre seemed dominated by men like Eli Roth? But I’m not sure if they’ve done anything of note. It probably doesn’t help that for whatever reason the two of them are linked up with “WWE Studios” so are making wrestler movies for a D rate studio. But I watched Rabid earlier this month and it was alright, and I remember kind of liking American Mary, and I hear See No Evil 2 is much better than the original which I absolutely loathed. And the films star Katherine Isabelle and Danielle Harris, two of my favorite scream queens. So hey… lets give them a try. I need a sequel for Hooptober anyway. - (53). American Mary (2012) Written and directed by Jen Soska and Sylvia Soska. Watched on Tubi, available on Hoopla. Its been years since I saw this and I remembered kinda liking it but wasn’t really sure about that. I can understand why. I was really on the path to loving it. I LOVE Katherine Isabelle and I think she puts in a really great performance in a very interesting role. Starting as just a down on her luck med student desperate enough to dance for money who stumbles into a world of big paying underground surgery jobs that may or may not be ethical or legal, its an interesting journey as she’s assaulted, raped, traumatized, and gradually loses all her connections to the world outside this new one and stops doing any of this for money but instead for thrills and power. Her relationship with Billy is interesting. He’s completely infatuated but what she feels for him is very confusing. It doesn’t appear to be romantic or sexual in any way. It doesn’t really seem to be loyalty or appreciation for him being protective of her. But she feels possessive of something. Just the power she has over him? Maybe its not even really about him. Maybe its just about an excuse to flex her muscles and hurt someone else. Maybe its a further step into the madness developing her in her trauma, grief, and isolation? Its all set up in a very interesting way. And then its just kind of over. To say this film doesn’t stick the landing would be to suggest there was an ending. I mean, the film ended and in a very matter of fact way. But I don’t think there was a Third Act to this film. There was all this setup for what Mary was doing, experiencing, and becoming and then… that. I suppose the Soska Sisters meant for it to speak to the world she had become part of. It wasn’t any of the malicious acts or dangerous acts or even illegal acts that caught up with her. Not the killings or tortures or assaults. Just an rear end in a top hat. And I guess its kind of the world she was in because she made a choice to start swimming with sharks, and while she felt like a big and dangerous one herself and was in no danger in her little world she was still dealing in a world of psychopaths and landmines. I can kind of appreciate the idea of that. But it still feels deeply unsatisfying as an ending. There just felt like there was so much left on the table when it was done that I have no idea how I feel. There’s a whole lot I liked about this. The performances, the ideas, the world, the look, the escalation. On the "first time" curve its a really impressive outing. It just deflated at the end. Not enough to kill the movie or anything. As I said, I can find some peace in what I think it was trying to do. But I don’t think it was the right call and I think it kept this from really jumping up a level. 47 (54). See No Evil 2 (2014) Directed by Jen Soska and Sylvia Soska, Written by Nathan Brookes and Bobby Lee Darby, Based on Characters by Dan Madigan. Watched on IMDB, available on Tubi and Pluto. Hooptober Se7en: 7/7 2nd films of franchises What’s scarier? That time Kane was an undead serial killer with mommy and daddy issues or now when he’s an elected official calling for violence against people who say we should take precautions during a pandemic? I got serious deja vu from this film. I’m 99% sure I never saw it but every once and awhile there’d be a scene where I just got that feeling like I’d seen it before. So the question is did I watch this film sometime in the last 6 years and just completely and totally forget except for a few lingering memories in my subconscious? Or was this super derivative and had a bunch of scenes that could have been pulled from other films of the like? I mean I guess you could argue that the sexy drunk assholes behaving inappropriately and having sex at bad times in a city morgue is relatively unique but is it really? Its just your typical deal with the sexy drunk people making the worst possible decisions at the worst possible time so some generic guy with mommy issues can kill them. You know what the weirdest part is? They ask Kane to act. Like he has flashbacks and lines and emotional scenes and everything. Like… a LOT. Why would you make that decision? In case you were wondering, he’s not good. This was very disappointing. I mean I HATED The first film and I’m not much of a slasher fan so my expectations were low. But I recently watched both American Mary and Rabid and while neither were home runs I liked a lot of stuff in both of them. So I was hoping the Soskas could do that again and give me stuff to appreciate. The obvious difference is that they didn’t write this one so maybe they were handcuffed by the script and a studio that wanted to showcase a wrestler as an actor. I don’t know how much they could add. It looks decent and like their other films. But poo poo drags. When things pick up I felt like it was really late into the film and was surprised to look and see I was only at the half way point. Its not even an overly long movie at only 90 minutes, its just very dull. Awhile after that first time I checked the time I checked again and only 15 minutes had passed! That seemed impossible. This film literally slowed down time for me. The only other credits this film’s writers have are other WWE Studio films so I’m definitely gonna blame these guys. Also I don’t really understand the building they’re in. Like its a city morgue. It was just sent a dozen bodies and a serial killer. Its not some abandoned hospital. This isn’t the last day of the place and its shutting down. So where the hell is everyone? Its an active hospital and there’s not a single nurse, orderly, security guard, or nothing. There were EMTs there earlier. I know this place isn’t abandoned. Where the hell is everyone? Why are all the lights off? And why did she escape the building, go one way, see the bad guy, and then go back in instead of just… going the other way? She was outside. Outside is not limited in directions. Is it just me or does this not really make any sense? 8 minutes have passed. Its unfathomable to me. This movie must be playing at half speed or something. This film has slowed down time and will onlyy grow increasingly longer and never end. Nothing in this film makes sense. Not the geography. Not character’s decisions. I don’t think it understands what a hospital is or how the human body works. Kane starts teleporting eventually and ending up in places it makes no sense he’d be. Actually at one point he kills someone completely out of nowhere and then just isn’t there for a couple of minutes so there can be a dramatic death. Its a bad movie that makes no sense, that wastes an actually decent little cast, moves slower than any film I’ve seen in some time, and makes the completely perplexing decision to give its generic rear end slasher played by a moron wrestler the second deepest acting role of the film. The ending makes absolutely no sense at all and is capped off with like a never ending montage that literally just repeated shots like it had to fill the song length or something. What the hell? And I can’t excuse the Soskas from this no matter how bad WWE/the writers are. They made this piece of crap too. But I didn’t viscerally hate it like the first one? So I guess technically it WAS an improvement after all. Letterboxd List
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Oct 19, 2020 15:10
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A productive weekend spent doing the challenges. (51) From Beyond (1986) dir. Stuart Gordon Jeffrey Combs and another scientist create a machine that allows them to see the reality just beyond ours. The other scientist is merged into it and Combs is blamed for his murder. Barbara Crampton is willing to believe him if he fires up the machine again. Being Lovecraft, this makes things much worse for everyone. Not as comedic as Re-Animator but just as horrifying. Excited to keep watching the rest of their Lovecraft movies.  (52) Scanners II: The New Order (1991) dir. Christian Duguay A cop is trying to control scanners so that he can control the government. First he gets the main scanner to force the mayor to make him chief of police. When he rebels and tries to fight back, he ends up in a scanner v scanner fight against one of the cop’s evil scanners. I can see how this is heading to the Scanner Cops this series turns into. It’s an alright sequel, nowhere as good as the first.  Challenge #4 (53) Bit (2019) dir. Brad Michael Elmore A clan of female vampires in LA have one rule, no male vampires. They say men can’t be trusted with power. Starring Nicole Maines as their newest recruit who falls hard into vampirism the way someone from a small town falls hard for their first new thing in a big town. A really enjoyable movie except that the third act wrapped things up too quickly and left some important things on the ground.  Challenge #5 (54) The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) dir. Alfred Hitchcock I didn’t know Hitchcock made a silent film so that was an easy pick for the challenge. This is a Jack the Ripper type mystery involving a killer calling himself The Avenger. The titular Lodger is a fellow staying at a place owned by a couple whose daughter is dating the lead investigator in the Avenger murders. First he becomes envious and then suspicious of the lodger as his girl is finding the mysterious lodger more and more entertaining. A good little movie.  Challenge #6 (55) The Exorcist (1973) dir. William Friedkin There’s a lot of good movies I haven’t gotten around to. Time to cross this one off that list. The young daughter of an actress is complaining of odd things happening to her and her bedroom. The actress herself is hearing noises and notices the swing in her daughter’s behavior. After exhausting medical science, an exorcism is suggested. I mean, it’s in the title, you know what’s actually wrong with her. Despite knowing most of it from pop culture, I was still impressed by how much things kept escalating, even after the church gets involved. A really excellent film.  Challenge #7 RIP John Saxon and previous RIP to Dennis Hopper (56) Queen of Blood (1966) dir. Curtis Harrington A signal is received from approaching aliens but then their ship crashes on Mars. Luckily our space program is developed enough that we can easily send a pair of ships to rescue them. Dennis Hopper and John Saxon are among the teams of astronauts sent to rescue them. Luckily one alien has survived, unfortunately she is a vampire and starts feeding on the crew on the way back. A pretty standard mid 60s space movie and not a good one at that. The effects look kinda nice but they were stolen from a movie made in the USSR so that doesn’t count. John Saxon and Dennis Hopper are two Corman regulars and appear once again in this film of his. Hopper is an early kill but Saxon manages to survive the vampire attack and makes it back to Earth. Both of them went on to do some amazing films and are sorely missed.  Challenge #8 (57) Frogs (1972) dir. George McCowan A young, mustache-less Sam Elliott is a nature photographer who after a boating accident gets invited to a private island owned by a businessman who owns business factories that make business grade pollution. After noticing a sizable increase in the number of frogs and the quietness of the lake, Sam Elliott goes exploring and discovers that the fauna have killed the grounds keeper. The next day it starts killing the rest of the family. All the animals one would expect to see in Florida are attacking as well as some tarantulas that throw spanish moss for some reason. It’s not a very good movie but at least everyone dies in hilariously stupid ways. 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) (9) Red Riding Hood (2011) (10) Thir13en Ghosts (2001) (11) Frankenweenie (2012) #1 (12) Blacula (1972) (13) BloodRayne: The Third Reich (2010) (14) Night of the Demons (1988) (15) City of the Living Dead (1980) (17) Ticks (1993) (18) The Pit and The Pendulum (1961) (19) The Nest (1988) (20) Zombeavers (2014) (21) Human Lanterns (1982) (22) The Phantom of the Opera (1962) (23) Tower of Evil (1972) (24) To the Devil a Daughter (1976) (25) Lake Placid (1999) (26) Deep Blue Sea (1999) (27) Anaconda (1997) (28) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) (29) Vampires (1998) (30) Bats (1999) #2 (31) Shorts Shorts Shorts! (32) Taste of Fear (1961) (33) Wishmaster (1997) (34) Sisters of Death (1976) (35) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) (36) What Have You Done to Solange? (1972) (37) Death Line (1972) (38) Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971) (39) Cat Girl (1957) (40) Day of the Animals (1977) (41) The Haunted Palace (1963) (42) Requiem for a Vampire (French) (1971) (43) Return of the Blind Dead (Spanish) (1973) (44) The Last Man on Earth (1964) (45) What Have They Done to Your Daughters? (1974) (46) The Iron Rose (1973) (47) Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell (2018) (48) Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020) (49) Prom Night (1980) #3 (50) Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) (51) From Beyond (1986) (52) Scanners II: The New Order (1991) (53) Bit (2019) (54) The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) (55) The Exorcist (1973) (56) Queen of Blood (1966) (57) Frogs (1972) Computers: 1, Death: 1, Demons: 4, Ghosts: 2, Man: 10, Monsters: 14, Serial Killers: 8, Vampires: 9, Werewolves: 1, Witches: 1, Zombies: 5 duz fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Oct 19, 2020 |
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Oct 19, 2020 15:12
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Made some good progress on these challenges over the weekend.    FRAN CHALLENGE: The Cabinet of Caligari Glad to finally knock this off my list(I could've easily used it for the blindspot challenge as well), I ended up enjoying it about as much as I expected I would. Which is to say, I really appreciated the visuals and the ability to look that far into the past and see in such striking detail the way filmmaking was done 100 years ago. The restoration is fantastic, and I'm glad I went that route because that's really where the appeal of the film was for me. I enjoyed poring over every set and seeing how color and design were used to create a sense of depth. Veidt predictably stood out as well, he really was on a higher level than his peers in terms of expressiveness and emotion. The story itself didn't exactly grab me, although there are some nice little twists towards the end that were cool to see in a film that is, again, a century old at this point.  FRAN CHALLENGE: May This is another one I should've absolutely checked out years ago, but I guess these slow burn character pieces just don't always compel me to watch. This is a drat good one though, mostly because Angela Bettis is so genuinely intense. We've seen over the years that this sort of character isn't easy. Someone that is intensely neurotic, totally uncomfortable in her own skin, yet still endearing and genuine in a way that allows you to root for her. It's not an easy tightrope to walk and plenty of actors have failed at it, but Bettis really knocks it out of the park and carries the movie on her shoulders. I love the film as like an all-encompassing look at maturity and sexuality, because May doesn't represent just one specific aspect of it. I see many things to identify with in her, regardless of one's specific orientation/identity, because so many of us have felt like we didn't belong, or that for whatever reason we weren't equipped to live as a sexual being in this world the way it is. May is a tragic representation of that feeling, while also being a hearty gently caress you to the sometimes brutal world that causes it. A great movie that I may not watch again, but one that will definitely stick with me for a long 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 22. Candyman 23. I Know What You Did Last Summer 24. Horror of Dracula 25. Bram Stoker's Dracula 26.(FRAN CHALLENGE: Feardotcom) The Cleansing Hour 27.(FRAN CHALLENGE: When Animals Attack)Bats 28.(FRAN CHALLENGE: Silent Scream)The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 29.(FRAN CHALLENGE: Scream, Queen) May
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Oct 19, 2020 15:39
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18. American Psycho Mary Harron | 2000 Franchescanado posted:Fran Challenge #6: Tomb of the Blind Spots I can't say why I procrastinated this long on a well-loved movie. Maybe I wanted to read the book first? Or maybe I assumed it couldn't live up to it's hype? Maybe hesitancy from how disturbing this movie is supposed to be?  I think selling this movie as disturbing is a little disingenuous. It is disturbing, because 20 years later, Patrick Batemans are now running the USA. But tonally, the film is a dark comedy throughout. Christian Bale is channeling the same energy as the cast from Little Shop of Horrors--big smiles, a theatrical way of talking, bright eyes--for Patrick Bateman's mask. The film heavily relies on Bale's great acting (it's so drat good); the confidence he has with letting Bateman's mask slip, like when he has a cigar after axing his colleague, and his amazing phone call admitting his crimes, is genius. Sometimes it's hilarious, other times it's terrifying. Another detail that gets left out of American Psycho's praise is Andrzej Sekula's cinematography. While his post-American Psycho career doesn't seem that interesting, this is still the same guy that filmed Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. All of the iconic moments of this film--the business card conversation, the home-made sex tape where Bateman flexes at himself in the mirror, Bateman's dancing by the stereo--work so well because of Sekula's camera work. I took my time to write this review, because I had to take time to think about the film's ending. While the portrait of a toxic White Cis Affluent Man is pretty obvious, the shallowness of defining your life by materialism, Bateman's interest in fitting in with the status quo while also competing against his peers instead of any actual work, and the sinister implications of Reagan-era politics continuing to echo through pre-9/11 America (important to note that Mary Harron is Canadian) remain terrifying, I really had to think about how all, or most, of Bateman's crimes, murders and abuse being figments of his imagination relates to the rest of the film. At first, it feels like a twist for the sake of a twist. However, thanks to Faculty of Horror's American Psycho episode, I was able to understand it more. American Psycho posits that Bateman's inner world--the mind behind the smile--is rotten, cruel, evil, murderous, and that's just as evil as someone who actually commits the crimes. It is bubbling under the surface, it is barely hidden, but it is there. It also implies that there are Patrick Bateman's all around us, in positions of power, or born into power, and many of them won't keep their sinister urges under the surface. And it doesn't let Bateman off the hook; because the weight of his urges are now seemingly rewriting his relationship to the real world, it seems like Bateman may actually start living out his fantasies. : 4 out of 519. Friday the 13th Part III Steve Miner | 1982 | Rewatch Shout Factory Box Set Blu Ray I intended to watch the new 3D transfer on the recent Shout Factory blu ray release, but was unable to get the TV's glasses to work. I might be able to fix it sometime, but as of now, this review is just about the new 4k restoration.  This is my least favorite of the original 4. A lot of the dialogue is heavy on exposition and defining how the characters know each other, the cinematography is stilted because of the 3D gimmick, and the cast of characters don't really have room to breathe. Some of the gore and kills are impressive. I love the cabin with a barn as a setting. I can accept most of this film's issues, but the glaring problem with this film is the Jason. Richard Brooker plays Jason with boredom. This is what Jason looks like after one of the best kills in the movie:  And that's about how I feel after watching this movie. : 3 out of 5.20. Opera Dario Argento | 1987 | rewatch "What if the whole movie is steadicam?" -Dario Argento, sometime in pre-production of Opera  Playful, demented, gorgeous, disturbing, beautiful, mesmerizing. Just a completely wonderful experience. Argento goes absolutely apeshit with style-as-substance in this operatic giallo. His works with colors takes a step back, and instead he paints bold strokes with a constantly moving camera, giant elaborate ornate sets, and music. What makes this one of Argento's most fascinating films is how the killer torments the main character. That sounds off-color, I know. In most horror films, the character's psychological destruction is inherent to surviving the horrors they encounter. Argento changes this idea, and has the killer forcing her to watch his murders. He tapes needles under her eyes, so if she blinks, her eyelids are torn apart. The killer murders her lovers, her co-workers, and anyone that is unfortunate enough to be around when he strikes, all in front of her where she can't blink. When he is done, he cuts the ropes that bind her, and sneaks away while she collects herself. When the killer is murdering, the haunting classical music becomes stabbing rock-and-roll courtesy of Goblin. It's radical. My Argento Mount Rushmore is Suspiria, Opera, Tenebre, and Deep Red. I could genuinely watch Opera at least once a month. It is just rich with details and Argento's madcap macabre. I love it. : 5 out of 521. The Thing From Another World Christian Nyby | 1951  It's a nice little 1950's sci-fi horror movie where the monster's mostly off-screen. Not much to say, because I wasn't too impressed, but it's a fine experience. : 3 out of 522. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Rouben Mamoulian | 1931  I had avoided this movie for a long time. It's within the top 100 of They Shoot Zombies's 2020 list, which I assumed was out of more cultural importance, since Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, as a story, is so saturated by cultural osmosis, that seemingly everyone knows parts of the story without ever reading the novella. I love most of the Universal Monster movies of this era, and I assumed that Paramount's turn at the genre would be lackluster. Turns out I was wrong! This movie loving slaps, and is better than most of the Universal Monster movies. Irony.or.Death (I think) mentioned that the big flaws in Universal's 1931 monster movies, Frankenstein and Dracula, comes from the fact that they are stage plays adapted to be performed in front of a camera. They don't feel like cinematic experiences. I expected the same from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and instead got slapped in the face by Karl Struss's ambitious cinematography. The camera work is bonkers in its levels of creativity. We begin the film literally in Jekyll's POV, watching his hands play organ (this is still the era where they didn't think audiences could understand music in a film unless it was obviously diegetic, which actually gets some pretty creative uses in later, dramatic moments), while his butler assists him getting ready, eventually moving towards a mirror, where we see Jekyll for the first time. The mirror motif, while pretty obvious for a Jekyll/Hyde story, is used to wonderful effect with many of the films special effects and trick camera work. The camera work is consistently impressive, as it moves through the sets. There is a tracking shot with two characters walking down a London street (a beautiful, elaborate set I assume), where they stop and are expertly framed. I can't expound any less about how great this movie looks. It still feels fresh, despite almost being 100 years old. The special effects on the transitions also hold up incredibly well. Knowing the film would be monochrome, they use that as an advantage with the make-up and lighting, to create in-camera transitions for the majority of the film, and they are glorious. I can't separate the tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from Vladimir Nabakov's essay/lecture on the story from Lectures on Literature, where he says that people often mistakenly assume that it is a tale of Good vs. Evil, because Jekyll is not a being of Pure Good. Instead, it is a tale of an average man capable of good and evil having his abilities of being Good suppressed by a medicinal concoction. This film tries to remedy that by making Jekyll a fine upstanding character, a kind doctor who will help those in need whether or not they can pay, but it only makes the entire story more surreal, in that it feels like Jekyll has always had Hyde, and has just been suppressing him. The choice make Hyde's teeth that of a primate is off-putting. While I can understand the intention was probably to show how Hyde is more primitive, like the potion or whatever makes him devolve, it does feel like a caricature, like it's only a few steps away from being offensive. As the story progresses, Hyde becomes more monstrous, with sagging skin and crazed hair, which actually helps move away towards this weird caricature and shows the deterioration at work inside the Doctor. All of this works so well because of Frederic March's performance. I want to explore more of his work as an actor, for sure. Ultimately I loved this film, and it's now joining the ranks of Bride of Frankenstein, Invisible Man, and Creature from the Black Lagoon. 5 out of 523. The Hills Have Eyes Wes Craven | 1977 | Criterion Channel rewatch I continue my Wes Craven filmography dive with a rewatch of a film I didn't like very much. I like it now!  My major takeaway: since reaching the Nuclear age with the atomic bomb and subsequent bombings, (and Vietnam, and Nixon-era politics) America inadvertently poisoned and destroyed the ideal Nuclear Family. The film connected with me much more on this viewing. The camera work almost feels like it's a documentary. Craven's thoughtfulness with the characters is here, as well as his mean-streak that his early films carry. I think he's still working out issues with his parents, because the parents in this film are obnoxious. : rounding up to a 4 out of 524. Hubie Halloween Steven Brill | 2020 | Netflix  It's not high art, but it's drat funny. It had me laughing within the first two minutes, and consistently had me laughing throughout. It also has a lot of infectious joy for Halloween. I kind of appreciate a lot in this. The physical jokes are genuinely hilarious, there are some great visual gags and character-jokes. There are some UCB comedians like Betsy Sodaro and Tim Meadows that get some great jokes. I loved all the thermos jokes. And the movie looks surprisingly good, with nice colorful, confident work by DP Seamus Tierney. Everyone is saying this feels like a classic Sandler movie with the modern Sandler cast, and they're right. Sandler's still got it. I also appreciate the moralizing in this film, which manages to be funny, sincere, and somewhat refreshing? The culmination of all the bullying Hubie goes through is addressed by each of the bullies as means of overcompensating for their own issues. Again, it's not a deep message, but it's nice that the movie took the time to actually say that bullying is bullshit and that accepting weirdos for their virtues is important. I'll probably watch this every Halloween now. 3 out of 525. Fright Night Part 2 Tommy Lee Wallace | 1988  The original Fright Night is probably my favorite vampire film. I had always avoided the sequel because you can't really improve upon the original, and I'd rather save my disappointment. I was also wrong about this movie! It's great! It continues the story from the first one. Amy's sadly gone, there's no mention of Evil Ed, but Roddy McDowell returns as Peter Vincent, who is now a sworn believer and vampire hunter. Except now Charlie fully believes that vampires are fake and that he has altered his memories of his murderous neighbor with ideas of vampires. So when a new batch of vampires come to get their revenge (by turning Charlie into a vampire!) he is completely unprepared. It's missing some of the loveable throwbacks to older vampire films, it doesn't have the homoerotic undertones, it doesn't have as many exciting special effects with the creatures, but I still like what it does offer. Longtime Cronenberg collaborator, Mark Irwin, is the cinematographer, and this movie looks better than the original. The sense of humor is still intact. The vampires look great, especially Jon Gries. Julie Carmen is the main vampire, and she is incredibly sexy. I had a great time with this film. It may lack some of the original's charm, it is a solid follow-up that I will revisit regularly. Maybe as a double feature? : 4 out of 5.Total 25 New: 16 Re-Watches: 9 Halloween | Deadly Blessing | A Nightmare on Elm Street | Psycho | Don't Breathe | Let's Scare Jessica To Death | Gothic | Ichi the Killer | Altered States | Friday the 13th | The Wolf of Snow Hollow | The Haunting of Morella | Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 | The Serpent and the Rainbow | Friday the 13th Part 2 | Raising Cain | Tammy and the T-Rex | American Psycho | Friday the 13th Part 3 | Opera | The Thing From Another World | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) | The Hills Have Eyes | Hubie Halloween | Fright Night Part 2
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Oct 19, 2020 15:40
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My hot take is that Opera is Argento's most enjoyable movie, and it's the one I suggest to first time giallo viewers.
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Oct 19, 2020 15:58
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Franchescanado posted:Fran Challenge #7: Dearly Departed  #27. Needful Things (Starz) The Devil opens a curio shop in Castle Rock, ME, and begins selling the townsfolk their hearts' desires. His price, though, is a series of pranks that escalates into violence and murder throughout the town. Watched for the performance of Max von Sydow, taking on the role of Satan in the form of Leland Gaunt. This was an inspired choice, as the character of Gaunt needs to be both charming and apparently harmless while possessing a core of steel and an ability to be commanding at the drop of a hat. That mercurial ability to shift between obsequious and authoritative is something that von Sydow was known for; it's basically the reason he was so perfect for the role of Father Merrin in The Exorcist, after all. (Tempting though it was to revisit that film, I did want to watch something new for this challenge.) It's also fun to see a serious actor like von Sydow get some of the best laugh lines in the film. ("I killed my wife... is that wrong?" "Hey, you know, these things happen.") The rest of the cast, including Ed Harris, Bonnie Bedelia and Amanda Plummer, also acquit themselves well. However, the film's direction by Fraser C. Heston is pretty bland. For some reason, I always associated this movie with endless commercials for upcoming airings on TNT in the late 90s, so I thought this was actually a pretty upscale TV movie for a long time. It's sure shot and staged that way for a lot of it - I think the only thing that gives away that it's not is the profanity and some of the really big explosions at the finale. You couldn't do some of those on a 1990s TV movie budget. In the end, this is a decent enough thriller being saved from itself by its cast. Without some of those principal cast members, this would be a boring talking heads movie for a long time; the cast, and von Sydow in particular, make it fun enough to watch just by their presence. It's a middle-of-the-road Stephen King adaptation, so you can just add it to the pile of those, I guess. Wonder what it would take to get the Devil to give us another good one of those?  /5 #28. The Wasp Woman (1959) (Kanopy) A cosmetics executive begins taking an experimental drug based on the royal jelly of wasps in order to reverse the effects of aging. However, it also begins to turn her into a human/insect hybrid that will murder her subordinates indiscriminately. This reminds me of a slightly more upscale version of The Hideous Sun Demon, in that it's supposed to be about humans dabbling in science they cannot control and becoming monsters but really being a boring chatfest for like 90% of the run time. It works slightly better here - credit to Roger Corman for being a decent director, unlike THSD's director Some Guy. However, for a film that's barely longer than an hour there still feels like a significant chunk of padding, and some of the film's attitudes feel damned patronizing these days. The film is about a woman executive who has tied her cosmetics empire to herself and is now aging out of the ability to command people's attention. You'd think that would be a thematic hook to drat both the cosmetics industry and Americans' obsession with image, but the film takes it as a given that a woman's worth is tied to her beauty and that an older woman cannot be beautiful. Moreover, the film basically contains multiple scenes of slow moving corporate espionage treated as a positive, as multiple times her subordinates end up stealing her notes and letters as a way of "helping" and "protecting her from herself." You'd think that this would make it a positive turnaround when she gets bug powers and starts to fight back, but no. The film never really shows you a proper transformation sequence; once or twice I had to wind the film back to make sure that yeah, she was just in her office as a human and then just showed up somewhere else as a bug mutant to kill a guy and then was next shown back in that lab as a human, no worse for wear and seemingly not aware that anything had happened. It's like a terrible version of The Wolf Man, unsatisfying and dull. Then everything concludes with a bottle of acid to the face and a drop out a high rise window, the end. Blech. I'm giving this a slightly higher score than something like The Hideous Sun Demon for three reasons. One, Roger Corman was a better director than of that movie, and could better pace his film and get a more sensible plotline together, if only just. Two, Susan Cabot is a better actress than whoever was in THSD in general. Three, the wasp lady makeup effects were better here, but still pretty lackluster compared to what Hammer was doing with the Mummy that same year. In the end, this is still a movie that's not really worth your time and effort to seek out... unless there's some goofy robots in the bottom quandrant clapping back at the whole stupid affair. /5Watched so far: The Ghost of Frankenstein, The Happiness of the Katakuris, Rabid (1977), A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Blacula, Night of the Demons (1988), The Phantom of the Opera (1943), The Mummy (1959), Over Your Dead Body, Halloween 4, Frankenstein (1931), The Ice Cream Man, multiple shorts and specials, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, Blood Quantum, The Hideous Sun Demon, The Raven (1935), Final Destination 2, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Invisible Man (2020), Countdown, Nosferatu (1922), Boar, Diabolique (1955), Bit, Friday the 13th Part IV, Needful Things, The Wasp Woman (1959)
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Oct 19, 2020 16:01
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married but discreet posted:My hot take is that Opera is Argento's most enjoyable movie, and it's the one I suggest to first time giallo viewers. I think it might be the best intro to Argento. Period. Maybe even the best intro to Italian horror, besides Demons.
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Oct 19, 2020 16:04
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Bigfoot (1970) Produced by Tony Cardoza (who produced all of Coleman Francis' films) and starring John "Never Said No To Any Movie" Carradine. So that should already tell you everything about this film. Reportedly the first Bigfoot narrative film after the reveal of The Patterson-Gimlin Meanwhile, John Carradine and his doughy friend are driving around. The busty pilot and busty girlfriend are being held captive, tied to stakes, and the pilot has come to the conclusion that they are going to be used as breeding stock for an even Biggerfoot. Carradine and the Shades of King Kong, when the smaller Bigfoots take the pilot to the top of a mountain as a gift to Biggerfoot. Biggerfoot shows up, she screams, he fights a bear, she escapes, he captures her again. Meanwhile, the The film boasts that it was shot in many locations where Bigfoot has been sighted, which must have included a couple of sound stages. No one gives anything that could be considered a performance. The And fifty percent of this film was footage of either people driving or climbing. And yet ... there is a bit of charm to this film. I think it's just how disinterested everyone seems in the events happening around them. Guy's girlfriend is kidnapped by a Bigfoot? The most he gets worked up at the sheriff for not believing him is "polite disagreement". The women realize they're going to be made to breed with a Bigfoot? They react as if someone told them there was no mail delivery today. Other than Carradine, the whole attitude of the film is "Whatever". But I watched it. Two out of Five "I didn't know until just now that Martha Plimpton is John Carradine's granddaughter." Watched on Plex. *The "crashing" plane effect was literally shake the camera outside of the plane. Not rock the plane back and forth. Keep the plane stationary, and move the camera. 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 13. Trucks 14. Eaten Alive 15. Bigfoot (1970) \/ This scene does not occur in the movie
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Oct 19, 2020 16:35
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married but discreet posted:My hot take is that Opera is Argento's most enjoyable movie, and it's the one I suggest to first time giallo viewers. I was a bit disappointed in it, maybe I just wasn't in the mood. Tenebrae remains my favorite straightforward giallo of his that I've seen thus far. The eye spikes in Opera look cool as hell but I still can't figure out how they're actually supposed to work, ha.
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Oct 19, 2020 16:55
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 44. Tumbbad (2018/India) The story of Tumbbad is centred upon a young Indian man named Vinayak as he moves from childhood to fatherhood, poverty to riches, and from British colonialism to Indian independence, all whilst keeping the deadly secret of Hastar. Whilst who or what Hastar is is explained quite early on in the film, I think it's best to allow that part to remain a mystery. Suffice to say, Tumbbad presents a richly painted world that is reminiscent of Evil Dead, The Descent, and various fairytales, or more specifically morality tales, all whilst providing a beautiful Indian flavour. There are probably rough edges to the film. You could nitpick some of the camera movements, the dialogue, the often brutal gender politics of the locale and era, and the CGI. I just love the world and mythology that's presented, and it just makes me excited to dive into more Indian cinema. 4/5  45. What Keeps You Alive (2018/Canada) This is a film with a twist, which I will attempt to preserve without any spoilers. The events are quite a rollercoaster, as they on more than one occasion lost and regained my sympathy. This is a film that requires you to leave any and all preconceptions at the door, and just let it sweep you along without too much mental engagement. What Keeps You Alive follows a newlywed lesbian couple as they visit an idyllic cabin-in-the-woods locale, and uncover a series of mysteries. While I did suffer a little disappointment that the film isn't as romantically warm as I would prefer, and that did throw me for a loop I will admit, the relationship dynamic that we do get is one that I eventually learned to enjoy, and become quite excited by. My second disappointment is maybe that I found the conclusion a little hard to swallow, but by then, I was invested enough to not care. I'm dancing around quite a lot, and I will admit that this is an imperfect film, but the nugget of good that is there is certainly worth the price of admission. The central performances of the couple are between good and excellent. I also love how the film builds tension in the opening few minutes, and foreshadows the horror to come. I also loved that it's gay as hell, and not in a Jean Rollin or Jess Franco way, but in a way that felt authentic and familiar to me, and I sincerely appreciate that. 3.5/5  45.1 Thinner (1996/USA) Scream Stream Another Scream Stream rewatch, although this time it's been more than twenty years. I remember not liking this film as a teen, and I can see why, although I do acknowledge that it's fun in parts. The real issue is that there are no likeable characters, and the characters who should be likeable have no time to become emotionally resonant. It's also racist, sexist, waspish, and the effects aren't where they should be, but it's fun I guess? 2.5/5  46. Class of Nuke ’Em High (1986/USA) Scream Stream I really need to stop trying to write all of these reviews all at once, because it is exhausting, and I'm not going to do this film the justice it deserves as a result. If you enjoy Troma, you will like this. If you enjoy genderfuck punks pushing nuclear dope of unsuspecting nerds, you will enjoy this. If you enjoy goopy effects and hilarious deaths, you will enjoy this. It's just a great fun film, and I really need more Troma in my life. 4.5/5 Total: 46 Queer Interest: 25 Scream Stream: 9 new, 7 rewatches Fran Challenges: 8 | Horror Noire | Short Cuts | Feardotcom | Scream, Queen! | Silent Scream | Tomb of the Blind Spots | Dearly Departed | When Animals Attack | Countries Visited: 19 | USA | Hungary | Portugal | Vietnam | Georgia | Switzerland | Nigeria | United Kingdom | Lithuania | Germany | Finland | France | Spain | Japan | Monaco | Ireland | West Germany | Czechoslovakia | India | Canada |
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Oct 19, 2020 17:34
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#54: 1975 Terror of Mechagodzilla aaaaaaa I'm done with Godzilla. I'm done with Godzilla, I'm done with Universal Monsters, I'm done with the two big franchises. I will have a blessed run of totally unrelated movies from now on! Until I hit the Critters in the 80s and the leprechauns in the 90s  Terror of Mechagodzilla is alright. I liked the stuff about the military trying to deal with Titanosaurs. I like that they very slightly changed Mechagodzilla's look so there's now two different Mechagodzillas. I really liked the twist with the head. But the alien invaders are the most boring alien invaders they've had so far, and I fuckin tune out when an interpol agent shows up in these movies. I like it when the crisis in a monster movie is that there is a monster. When the crisis is a guy has to break someone out of a cell or get a crystal or whatever, I start to lose interest. Terror of Mechagodzilla is alright. No that bad, not that good. I see why the franchise went into hiatus after this. 54 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, Ghidorah Horror of the Deep, Berserk!, Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters, Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, All Monsters Attack, Taste The Blood of Dracula, Godzilla vs Hedorah, Nosferatu5, Feardotcom3, Godzilla vs Gigan, Dracula AD 1972, Godzilla vs Megalon, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla, The UFO Incident, Terror of Mechagodzilla
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Oct 19, 2020 18:30
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Debbie Does Dagon posted:I really need to stop trying to write all of these reviews all at once, because it is exhausting Oof, agreed. 26. Dude Bro Party Massacre III This kinda feels more dated being made 5 years ago than it does being set in the 80s, sadly. I think I appreciated the snippets of fake commercials more than the actual movie itself, I'm sure if they had been full length it would've taken away from their charm so they did a great job with those. Otherwise for most of it, it's just a parody of a genre that already doesn't take itself particularly seriously and most of the jokes are just serviceable rather than funny. It has it's moments, but it's full of padding and runs out of steam pretty quickly. **½ 27. Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (The Last Drive-In version) First of all: if I was rating movies just based on the title alone, this would be an easy 5 stars. How could the actual film possibly live up? I'll give it it's dues though, it at least tries. When you think of movies that are of their time, SBITSBOR (an abbreviation that still takes too long to type) is definitely on the list. Lingering pointless nude shots*, and a character with racial sensibilities that would make Jar Jar Binks blush are just two factors. But for the most part it's slily fun, Linnea Quigley and the other scream queens are great, and spending far too long trying to explain the plot to a half deaf caretaker who knew everything that was going on and just hadn't done anything about it somehow feels appropriate. Always love a film where characters get to walk into the sunset without a care in the world, and no sense of followup when the police find a bowling alley full of dead bodies. *I will give director David DeCoteau credit in 'equal opportunities' stakes in that looking through his movie history it appears that a good chunk of his output revolves around half naked guys, if the covers are anything to go by. ** 28. Friday the 13th Part III After the improvement of Part 2 to the original, I was keen to see if the trend continued and Part 3 was better again. Well, no. But ugh it so could have been. The opening showed promise, a van full of people who don't appear close enough friends to be going on this trip together think they're being pulled over by the cops and have to eat their whole stash... but no, the cops pass by! An actual laugh from me, but a shame there was no fallout from the scene with a bunch of ridiculously high kids for the rest of the day. Shelly as a character exists purely to torture the audience, pulling off weak horror gags that we know will eventually get mixed in with real kills. But he provides the mask that becomes synonymous with Jason, so thanks I guess? Beyond the cheap gags, he constantly pulls the 'nobody would like me if I didn't do this dumb poo poo everyone hates' card and it's good to see the rest of the campers get tired o him as fast as the viewer. The addition of the biker gang could have been the standout feature, introducing a group of regular humans as separate foes to the kids - but they're barely on screen for a matter of minutes and barely interact with anyone. This felt like the big difference the film needed to separate it's "teens at a camp get picked off one by one" storyline from the first two films, and it just doesn't utilize them at all. Nonetheless, it's competent enough for the genre and the 3D shot portions stick out so badly (in more ways than one) they're funny, and an end that just goes for tribute over originality means it doesn't do any real damage. The true joy is finally seeing Jason's character come to be, even if his portrayal here is pretty lackluster. **½ 29. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter Previously on Friday the 13th... (mostly scenes from Part 2, with the bare minimum from 1 and 3) This is more like it! Who saw the 4th film of a franchise somehow being the best one (so far?). I'm guessing the studio weren't impressed by the constrained clothed actions of the previous cast, so from the word go everyone strips off to go to the lake, aided by twins Tina and Terri - who primarily seem to exist to take things up a notch. Trish gets a bonus point for having a defenestration stunt that kicks rear end, although it could be argued that both have a fondness for flying through windows in spectacular ways. But the highlights of the cast are obviously Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover, who was allowed to bring his personal brand of weirdness with him. The plot is still based around the same aspects as the previous movies, but at least we're closer to society now with Jason having been briefly aprehended, and having non-vacationing people as targets too. It's a start, right? While Part 3 paid tribute to the ending of the first movie, we get the bizarrest tribute to Part 2 here before easily the best 'final kill' of the four movies. A great way to close things out, and confirmation to me that Parts 2 and 4 both stand above Parts 1 and 3 with ease. And so The Final Chapter closes the Friday the 13th franchise off, because of course this was the absolute last movie they ever produced. What's that? They did 8 more?! In the words of a better man - "Jesus Christmas! Holy Jesus goddamn! Holy Jesus jumping Christmas poo poo!" ***½ 30. Phantasm Fran Challenge #6 - Blind Spots This is one I knew I'd end up kicking myself not watching sooner, mainly as when I was a kid I was all about people of my age being the centerpiece on movies and I rarely feel the same way anymore outside of coming of age movies. But I digress, as far as younger teens in movies go, Mike is pretty capable and seeing that he's part of the cast that come back to each Phantasm film I will look forward to seeing him grow up as the series does. The main selling point of Phantasm was just how bizarre and weird it was, and to be honest I was expecting a lot more in the way of otherdimensional oddities. Sure, it gets ramped up towards the end and I do enjoy the pure fun of seeing characters seemingly come back to life with little explanation. Scrimm does the legend of the Tall Man well, and I think I'm going to dig future entries in the series as his story progresses. The end of the movie is of course a big punch to the gut (but one I was fine with, I wasn't massively invested afterall), but there's no real feeling that watching it again would really reveal anything new. I get the feeling that Don Coscarelli is fine with that though, he just wanted to make his weird little film, and it's nice to see it still holds up. *** 31. Knife+Heart First off: the pure translation of the original title, 'A Knife in the Heart', is so much better. Why is it called Knife+Heart outside of France? Is it just a weird marketing thing, or did I miss something? Messing with things for the sake of it, blah. Not the films fault, of course. With that out of the way, the second I saw her trademark tooth gap it was glorious to see Vanessa Paradis show up and take firm control here. K+H takes a deep dive into the giallo world, putting it in a setting I've not personally seen before, making it something fresh and new as opposed to just mimicking movies of the past. Everything you want from this kind of film is present - shocking scenes, great music, and style up the yazoo. I don't even miss the poor dubbing I'm used to. It's great to finally get around to a film that's been hyped for some time when it doesn't let you down. **** (Can't actually believe I hit 31 already, I still have some gaps to cover for Hooptober and feeling a little burned out on horror as expected, so I'll probably slow down some now).
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Oct 19, 2020 18:35
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20. Psycho Watched On: Peacock God drat, how did it take me this long to see this movie? Psycho is one of those films whose highest moments (the murder, the score, the end) are so embedded in the cultural consciousness that all of the slow lingering moments that make it a masterpiece aren't really discussed. It was almost a reversal of the film's original intentions: the low-key James M. Cain beginning to the film, the off-screen monologues over Janet Leigh's subtle smile in the car, Norman's almost real time cleanup of the murder in Room 1, all these moments stood out to me as incredible filmmaking that is never remarked upon. And Norman, goddamn. Anthony Perkins plays Norman Bates as if he weren't a character at all, just a person who somehow wandered onto the film set and Hitchcock decided to make the movie about. It's such a fully realized performance. If you've been putting off watching this, there's so much more to it than what you know.
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Oct 19, 2020 18:50
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Once you realize David DeCoteau is gay, it makes the nude scenes in his films make a lot more sense. He has a very strange male gaze when filming nude scenes of women, definitely prefers filming asses more than anything else, and casts according to that. A lot of his movies have embarrassing racial caricatures in them, with Slime Bowl-o-Rama being the most memorable one.
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Oct 19, 2020 18:50
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Night of the Lepus (1972) "Calm down. The rabbit is gone." Yeah, I'm going to need to see the ASCPA report on this movie. Giant rabbits "attack" (i.e. run through) a small town. The townsfolk are less than pleased with this. I guess giant kittens were too cute, so the producers went with giant rabbits. No matter how much red paint you throw on a rabbit, it's not going to look threatening. Every single thing that involved the rabbits made me go "Aw, poor rabbits." Production wise: models were impressive, until the had the rabbits run through them. Poor rabbits. The score sounded like it was lifted from a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. The editing felt like it was done not with a film splicer, but with a hammer. Poor rabbits. The movie made DeForest Kelley pretty much quit acting except for the Star Trek stuff. One of out Five "Dammit Jim, I'm a Doctor not a ... oh, I'm a doctor in this too?" Watched on Plex. 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 13. Trucks 14. Eaten Alive 15. Bigfoot (1970) 16. Night of the Lepus \/ This is a far superior Man vs Rabbit film
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Oct 19, 2020 18:51
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Franchescanado posted:
The thing that gets me most about Part 3 is Jason can only be described as wearing slacks. Like, something straight from JC Penny's leisure wear. They couldn't get him jeans or something. Nope, our vicious killer needs to wear powder blue slacks. Couldn't be more early 80s if they were corduroy.
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Oct 19, 2020 18:55
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Franchescanado posted:Once you realize David DeCoteau is gay, it makes the nude scenes in his films make a lot more sense. He has a very strange male gaze when filming nude scenes of women, definitely prefers filming asses more than anything else, and casts according to that. I definitely have a few more of his on my watchlist, I'll keep an eye out for all those aspects!
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Oct 19, 2020 19:08
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 #100) Thinner (1996) Greasy adaptation of a book from Stephen King's meaner alter ego. Tries to go too slick with its material, and while the fundamental racism of the plot gives the film an ample coating of grossness, it doesn't indulge in enough pulpiness to mesh with the nature of the story, resulting in a film that never settles into feeling sure of itself. The fat suit for the lead is decent, good enough to be filmed under a shower, and his transformation from heavy to skinny is the film's most interesting piece, unless you're very inclined to dissect the misogyny and assorted other othering on display. The film moves fast at the start, but once it hits the actual hook of the story, the wheels start to spin, filling time with reiteration and a goofy dream sequence. The 'protagonist' gets sidelined in favor of someone with some active agency, and things plow along from there to the telegraphed finish. Things are competent enough on the technical side, and it's the dialogue, script, and performances that pull things down. As silly as the premise is, the performers put in game work, but they just don't have enough to work with to salvage the proceedings. Pretty disposable, but with a few laughs (at the film's expense) to be found along the way. “...breakfast pie.” Rating: 6/10Watched on Scream Stream  #101) Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986) Compared to Thinner, this is sleaze done right, at least to my tastes. It's energetic and playful, tends to punch upwards (mostly at bureaucrats), and fits in enough outlandish material to keep the stuff that does fall flat (largely the habitual sexism) from weighing too heavily on the overall experience. We've got toxic waste leakage, super marijuana, post-coital psychic linkage, escaped monster fetus, costumed high school gangsters, an indoor beach party, and more nonsense, piled high and served with a grin. One of the more solidly assembled visits to Tromaville. Rating: 6/10Watched on Scream Stream  #102) DeVour (2005) An ARG leads to Satanism. Man, I don't even know with this one. Lots of hallucinations and flashbacks, there's a Christian tattoo artist who used to be a Satanist, but still has a devil-head tattoo. There's an evil website that might be a red herring. People get killed off, but show back up later, unless it's another hallucination. Dominique Swain and William Sadler are there, neither getting to do much with the script. On the upside, there's five songs (counting three remixes of a single track) by Machines of Loving Grace, one of my favorite bands. I don't know who was involved in this film that was such a fan, but bless them, whoever they were. “Why this sudden interest in Satan?” Rating: 4/10Watched on Crackle. Franchescanado posted:Fran Challenge #6: Tomb of the Blind Spots  #103) Peeping Tom (1960) A serial killer thriller, released two months before Psycho, which ended up effectively costing its director his career, and has been hanging around on Tubi for years? On top of that, it's considered one of the greatest British films of all time by the BFI. Lots of reasons for me to have watched this before now. We follow a shy man named Mark, with considerable childhood trauma, who's interested in film-making, and is trying to further his art by recording women's fear as he kills them. He supports himself with softcore photography and renting out rooms in his deceased family's house, though his work with film is clearly his true, and consuming, passion. Lighting, music, sets, framing, performances, and dialogue are all sharply handled and effectively tense. Mark is a sympathetic character, even with the opening scene of the film being him killing someone, and his compulsions are compelling. The film doesn't simply use film-making as a gimmick, but explores the drive to make them, to seek catharsis through creation and viewing, and the inclination towards passivity in viewers. Carl Boehm does a fantastic job as Mark; when he's in crowd scenes, even with the camera tracking him, he's able to fade into a background character to the people around him. I think this might surpass Psycho for me, honestly. As intelligently crafted as Psycho is, it's so grounded in the location of the motel and the small cast, that the broader scope of setting, characters, and psychological inquiry here feels like it's elevated in practically every way. The color vs. monochrome dynamic might also have something to do with it. I can easily see this getting a 10/10 from me on a subsequent viewing, but at this time, I'm still digesting too much of it to commit. “I wanted to photograph you watching.” “No, no, please help me to understand this thing!” Rating: 9/10Watched on Tubi. Franchescanado posted:Fran Challenge #7: Dearly Departed  #104) King of the Ants (2003) RIP, Stuart Gordon, 1947-2020. You directed some of the most popular Lovecraft adaptations, and as familiar as those are to me, I haven't really dug further into your films, aside from some of the brighter entries in Full Moon's catalog. That felt like a bit of a disservice, so here I am, at King of the Ants, a film that's repelled me for a long time, simply because of its poster. At the start of this, I was having some doubts. It's shot with handicam, Daniel Baldwin's in it, and The Asylum released it. However, Gordon's directing and the strength of the script (by Charlie Higson) picked things up once the film found its footing. A spare-jobs guy, Sean Crawley, falls into the circle of Baldwin's character, who drunkenly hires him to kill a man. Once Sean does, he wants the money he was promised, and holds out for it, despite being told to leave town unpaid. That refusal leads to him being put through a torture regimen (with George Wendt, also co-producer, as a main henchman, doing an uncomfortably good job), and Sean begins having increasingly nightmarish hallucinations. And then things get worse. Chris McKenna, who plays Sean, puts himself right out there for this performance. He's filmed nude, in poo poo-stained underwear, in brutal effects makeup, through bouts of off-putting honesty, and through repeated violent attacks. His submission to the cruelty of the script is what lifts the film to an impressive level. In contrast to Gordon's more effects-laden films, there's some of his theatre background coming through in the more dialogue-focused interactions of the characters, and the tendency towards small set-pieces. Things spiral into a nihilistic finish, and the resignation of it all fits with the building to that point. Not one of Gordon's flashiest, but in its subtle, unpleasantly grounded way, one of his more impressive efforts in the context of his larger filmography. “Nothing matters anymore, Becket. Because you're dead.” Rating: 8/10Watched on Tubi.
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Oct 19, 2020 19:34
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