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 21. Invitation to Hell (1984) dir. Wes Craven  FRAN CHALLENGE #10: TerrorVisionIt is so weird at first to watch this movie that came out the same year as A Nightmare on Elm Street. The film is about the corniest people in the world moving to a place somehow whiter than them. Dad has invented a space suit that can spot aliens and also has a laser blaster thing. I bet you can guess how Chekov's alien-detecting-suit gets used. The movie has a very after school special vibe to it which is fun when the Dad is complaining about corporate greed at his office. It's just a find and replace for drugs for capitalism, and I dig it. It goes places despite the low budget. The film doesn't gently caress with any mystery. Susan Lucci, the main baddie, ices a dude with her evil powers in the first like two minutes. There's some really fun to be had as his family is corrupted, and for a moment the movie is like a reverse shining. It's a movie that ends with some dorky dude in a space suit firing lasers at Erica Kane as he fights his way to hell to rescue his family from what can only be described as the most 1980s take on the Upsidedown from Stranger Things. And it's a Wes Craven movie, so you better believe evil is destroyed by the power of pure emotional catharsis. What's funny about this movie is that i think it illustrates WHY A Nightmare was the real breakthrough film for Craven. He finally had a actress and protagonist with the charisma to really carry the spooky fairytales of catharsis that are at the heart of the best Craven stuff. It's obviously not a great movie, and I'm sure there were people in the 80s aghast that the dude who made The Hills Have Eyes was working on this schlock. But it's fun, and Craven's creativity cannot be constrained by a TV budget. It's on Prime with IMDB TV.  /5
Timeless Appeal fucked around with this message at 01:52 on Oct 23, 2020 |
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Oct 23, 2020 01:48
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10. Peeping Tom (1960) - Netflix DVD Hooptober Challenge: Films From 6 Different Decades 1 of 6 - 1960s    "I don't trust a man who walks quietly." - Mrs. Stephens I'm not sure why it took me this long to watch Peeping Tom but I'm glad I got around to it. Sadly ahead of its time in the sense that it was misunderstood and damaged the director's career but was one of the films that set the stage for the later surge of slasher films. Released the same year as Psycho, they deal with adjacent themes but I feel like Peeping Tom is the better film. There is a lot more character development and I really got a sense of who Mark was and what motivates him compared to Norman in Psycho. Overall this was really well done. 4/5 11. The Cleansing Hour (2019) - Shudder Fran Challenge 3: Feardotcom   The Cleansing Hour is about a man who goes by "Father Max" and performs fake exorcisms in search of sweet streaming fame and money. I honestly expected this to rely on stale exorcism/Catholic tropes so I was glad it turned to be decent. It started out slightly entertaining but I was fully on board when the fire extinguisher shot flames all over the already burning crew member. There was a good deal of switching back and forth between "online" and "live" but it wasn't too distracting. The action could have been a little tighter but I appreciated the craziness and scope of the ending. 3.5/5
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Oct 23, 2020 02:06
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Debbie Does Dagon posted:
Well I toxxed myself with a tarman tattoo but I happily gave the artist license to just riff on the idea, and walked out with this. Behold my horror marathon 2020 commemorative tattoo 
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Oct 23, 2020 02:47
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 Blade II, 2002 I've reached the portion of the marathon where I'm no longer watching poo poo I never seen before and resorting to poo poo I've seen before. This one I saw pirated when it was pretty new and I found it on DVD in a thrift store some time ago. I remember even as a dumb teen, I found this movie silly with its goofy over the top action and in your face 2000s fashion. Now I still find it silly, but in a sort of nostalgic way. Blade, a vampire immune to sunlight that hunts vampires, get contacted by the vampires he hunt because they want him to hunt a new breed of vampires that hunt vampires. Bunch of over the top action with over the top flashy martial arts moves that would impractical in a real fight ensues. Obviously, what makes this horror are the vampires, and the monster design on these new mutated vampires is pretty cool. It is a movie you just watch for fun and shut off your brain when you do. Otherwise, you'll just get pissed they designed a light bomb, and instead of it, you know, have the light move at the speed of light, it acts like an explosion. In all this nu-metal looking monster action, it is easy to forget this is a superhero movie based on a Marvel superhero. This and the first movie paved the way for what would be later become the Marvel cinematic universe. So if you are looking for someone to blame for that, the Blade movies are just as guilty as the Spider-Man movies. But don't be too angry at Blade II. It is just a fun action horror movie. Just grab a few beers and have fun with it. I strongly recommend it for that.
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Oct 23, 2020 02:51
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NUMBER 1 FULCI FAN posted:Well I toxxed myself with a tarman tattoo but I happily gave the artist license to just riff on the idea, and walked out with this. Goddamn that's awesome
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Oct 23, 2020 02:53
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NUMBER 1 FULCI FAN posted:Well I toxxed myself with a tarman tattoo but I happily gave the artist license to just riff on the idea, and walked out with this. so good!
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Oct 23, 2020 03:03
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#27: Girls With Balls Fran Challenge #12: Ourorboros M_Sinistrari posted:On Netflix, Girls with Balls. I'm sitting through it now. After winning a local championship, a minor-league girls volleyball team gets lost in the woods and runs afoul of a group of crazies who hunt them for sport (and meat.) I feel like continental European comedy has trouble travelling sometimes, and this Belgian flick certainly has its idiosyncrasies- right at the start we're introduced to a singing cowboy type who sings a song about what's gonna happen, but it's not really that funny and more just lol wacky. (He shows up a couple more times and generally adds nothing.) There's also some weird frenzied editing to early scenes, most notably the opening credits which play out with a bunch of speed-ups and split screens for no good reason. Eventually it settles down but the editing is overall kinda off. The film does a very good job establishing the team dynamics- you've got a trash-talking spiker who doesn't really fit with the group, you've got two who are a couple and one's very protective of the other to the point it gets them in trouble, there's one girl who isn't really pulling her weight but she's trying her best dammit, etc. The scenes of them interacting generally work pretty well. However, I think this leads to one of the first real tonal clashes of the film, when it feels like we're supposed to care about what happens to them, but two major deaths are played for laughs. More than anything I think it's leaning towards a broad, over-the-top kind of humor, hence a battle with a chihuahua and a gag run-in with a Christian youth group. But honestly it works better in the little moments, like the group jumping at the sight of a chicken or, when one of the girls is reunited with her cell phone, calling not the authorities, but her boyfriend to yell at him for cheating on her. I honestly would have liked this more if it had played a little drier and less to-the-rafters. Generally I think horror comedies work best when they're built on a strong story, but it feels this gets a little sloppy as the girls are scattered in their pursuit. Like there are a couple of major characters we lose track of for a while, another just sorta shows up at the climax, and there's a late twist which, well, it makes sense for the character but the precise way they do it feels odd? (OTOH one bit I like is that the hunters use some actual hunting techniques, like putting up dummies, trying to "corral" the girls by driving around them in their motorcycles, etc.) Overall it's pretty rough and sloppy, but it does have its moments, and the ensemble in particular is strong enough that it may be worth checking out just for them. (Manon Azem as the toxic Morgane does a pretty good turn.) Very nice location work- it was filmed in Tenerife off the coast of Spain, so nowhere near Belgium, but it looks really cool. I'm on the fence. See it if it sounds like your kinda deal. Maxwell Lord fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Oct 23, 2020 |
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Oct 23, 2020 03:07
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 (64) The Plague of the Zombies (1966) dir. John Gilling A small town doctor is flummoxed by the mysterious deaths happening around him. His instructor joins him from London to assist in the investigation and discovers the bodies are missing from the cemetery. The local squire has taken to making zombies for profit! A stand alone Hammer Horror film. Also pretty mid tier.  (65) Doom: Annihilation (2019) dir. Tony Giglio Scientists discover a mysterious transportation network connecting Earth and Phobos, moon of Mars. When they do a test transportation from Earth to Phobos, something unplanned comes out. Turns out the transportation network is connected to a demon planet. But they can’t escape, they can only turn some of the scientists into demon creatures? It’s not really explained well because it’s not a very good movie.  (66) Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead dir. Don Coscarelli Reggie and the original Mike are back on the trail of The Tall Man after he came back to life. He ends up kidnapping Mike and Jody returns as a blackened silver sphere to lead Reggie to where Mike is. Quite a bit of backstory is added about The Tall Man and his doings. While a decent movie, I’m not sure it would make any sense if the previous ones aren’t fresh in your mind.  (67) Scanners III: The Takeover dir. Christian Duguay A set of scanner twins react very differently to having scanner powers. One goes to Thailand and becomes a monk after killing his best friend who was dressed as Santa. The other goes mad with power and goes on a murder spree. It’s an incredibly dumb movie with some hilariously great kills.  Challenge #9 (68) The Night Stalker (1972) dir. John Llewellyn Moxey Kolchak is a reporter working the Las Vegas beat when young women start turning up drained of blood. Despite saying that maybe the killer just thinks he’s a vampire, he’s treated as if he thinks vampires are real and ignored as much as possible by the police. A fun little movie that you can see why they’d turn it into a monster of the week tv series.  (69) (nice) Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988) dir. James Signorelli The bad movie host Elvira gets her own movie. She quits her movie hosting show for a Vegas gig but first has to raise $50k. Luckily she inherits her great aunt’s house in the tiny town of Falwell, MA. It’s a very conservative town run by a woman named Chastity Pariah. While trying to fix up her new house, the town tries their best to get rid of her and her non-conformist ways. Also she has very large breasts. It’s very much a stock 80s comedy starring a TV personality. It’s not bad, it’s just something I’ve seen plenty of times already. 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) #4 (53) Bit (2019) #5 (54) The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog #6 (1927) (55) The Exorcist (1973) #7 (56) Queen of Blood (1966) #8 (57) Frogs (1972) (58) Warlock (1989) (59) The Dead Zone (1983) (60) Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) (61) Body Snatchers (1993) (62) Phantasm II (1988) (63) Ghosts of Mars (2001) (64) The Plague of the Zombies (1966) (65) Doom: Annihilation (2019) (66) Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (67) Scanners III: The Takeover #9 (68) The Night Stalker (1972) (69) Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988) Computers: 1, Death: 1, Demons: 5, Ghosts: 2, Man: 13, Monsters: 19, Serial Killers: 8, Vampires: 10, Werewolves: 1, Witches: 2, Zombies: 6
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Oct 23, 2020 03:08
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Yes I know I watched two part 3s. No I'm not counting either them for challenge #10. I'm doing the challenges in order because I need the motivation to hit 100.NUMBER 1 FULCI FAN posted:Well I toxxed myself with a tarman tattoo but I happily gave the artist license to just riff on the idea, and walked out with this. That looks amazing!
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Oct 23, 2020 03:11
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 53. Soft Matter (2018/USA) Fran Challenge #12: Ouroboros  Soft Matter follows the events within a newly abandoned hospice, in which a small collection of mad scientists attempt to combine humans with sea creatures in order to attain immortality. Meanwhile! A young graffiti artist and his friend/promoter, plan to use the abandoned hospice as a space for their latest show. When the two groups collide, they discover that they have a common enemy, one which threatens to destroy them all, and for pretty convincing reasons in all honesty. Let's start with the good. I enjoyed how cute and inventive the film was. It's a mixed media landscape of digital recording and animation, including original songs and dance sequences, goopy gooey "monsters", old ladies with superfluous crab claws, adorable young artists creating art with spray cans in front of our eyes, and even a little piano sequence in the finale. It's absolutely charming. It even got a couple of laughs out of me. Now for the bad. It only got a couple of laughs out of me, and it's a comedy. I will not say that the comedy is bad, it just does not work for me in the least, on the same level as The Mighty Boosh does not work for me. In fact, if you like the Boosh, or Tim and Eric, or any of that stuff you'll probably love this. Personally, the last film that had me laughing from start to finish was The Strange Thing About the Johnsons, so my sense of humour is fundamentally broken. 4/5 without humour 2.5/5 with humour Total: 53 Queer Interest: 28 Scream Stream: 8 new, 6 rewatches Fran Challenges: 11 | Horror Noire | Short Cuts | Feardotcom | Scream, Queen! | Silent Scream | Tomb of the Blind Spots | Dearly Departed | When Animals Attack | TerrorVision | Öskur heyrðust um allan heim | Ouroboros | Countries Visited: 21 | USA | Hungary | Portugal | Vietnam | Georgia | Switzerland | Nigeria | United Kingdom | Lithuania | Germany | Finland | France | Spain | Japan | Monaco | Ireland | West Germany | Czechoslovakia | India | Canada | Estonia | Hong Kong | Australia | NUMBER 1 FULCI FAN posted:Well I toxxed myself with a tarman tattoo but I happily gave the artist license to just riff on the idea, and walked out with this. Holy poo poo, that's incredible! Debbie Does Dagon fucked around with this message at 03:44 on Oct 23, 2020 |
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Oct 23, 2020 03:15
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October 22 - We Need to Talk About Kevin I'm not sure how I feel after watching We Need to Talk About Kevin. Not how I feel about the film, it's amazing. I mean how I feel about the situations depicted in it. And that's absolutely intentional and I think I'm going to use this post to talk through some of it.  The basic premise is that we are following a suburban mom Eva in three timelines of events: the birth and raising of her son, her destroyed life in present, and day that Kevin killed most of his classmates. I'm going to be pretty open with my discussion of the film, more than I usually am, so if you're interested in the movie at all, you might want to skip the rest of the post. The biggest question hanging over the film is where does guilt lie. Eva wallows in self-flagellation over Kevin, absorbing the abuse of her neighbors who torment her. She has Lady MacBeth scenes, unable to wash away the red paint that is splattered over her hour and staining her hands. It leans into the interpretation that Eva as the mother and guardian of Kevin carries some of the guilt for the events. That if she had made some different choices that maybe all those kids would still be alive. And while she may not deserve forgiveness, the petty torments are something else. Jasper Newell plays young Kevin and is disturbing as gently caress. In many scenes he's casually doing something threatening like breaking a box of crayons as he talks getting a new sibling. He turns on the charm when he's with his father and spins to open disdain for his mother. Kevin is a manipulative gently caress. There's scenes where you can see the cogs turning in his head and know what tragedy echoed later on is coming. The parental relationship reminds me a lot of The Babadook, where the mother is stressed to the breaking point by her child. Kevin and Eva have a mutually abusive relationship as Eva's barely held contempt for Kevin is reflected in his desire to dominate her. There's an unsubtle bit in the film where Eva has decorated her own room and Kevin responds by splattering paint across the walls to mark it as his. But watch the background later on and you see that Kevin has Jackson Pollock pillow cases on his bed, decorating his own room. If there's one major flaw in this movie, it's the massacre scene. It's bloodless, we see no victims during it despite seeing their bodies removed from the school in previous sequences. It's just Kevin drawing a boy and releasing. The thing is, given that a significant portion of the movie was about the community's visceral reaction to the massacre, we needed to see something more than the implication of it. The way it's shot does a disservice to the movie's themes. It didn't need to revel in it or turn it into an action thriller, but we needed to see the harm being done if they were going to show us Kevin committing the act. The alternative there is to keep with Eva as our viewpoint character and never let us see anything that occurred in the school. The other problem with that scene is that the movie has Kevin use a bow as his weapon. It feels like a cop out, trying to dodge the gun issue that surrounds school shootings. But the mass killings are intrinsically tied to the gun culture in the United States. Even without the absurdity of Kevin killing an entire class with just a bow and arrow, it separates the school shooting movie plot from the reality of school shootings. Perhaps they felt that not being aware of her son building an arsenal of fire arms would make Eva less sympathetic. The whole movie built up to the final question. The question that is always left in the wake of these murders and had to be building in the whole time for the audience: why? And Kevin's answer is probably the only one possible. He is a nihilist through and through. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be a happy ending, if the final farewell was supposed to be a moment of cathartic bonding and a breakthrough in understanding between parent and child. My feeling is that it was bleaker, that they're damned to torment each other forever. So yeah, I liked We Need to Talk About Kevin. Watch it. Thumbs up.
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Oct 23, 2020 03:46
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NUMBER 1 FULCI FAN posted:Well I toxxed myself with a tarman tattoo but I happily gave the artist license to just riff on the idea, and walked out with this. Oh gently caress. That's a perfect tattoo.
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Oct 23, 2020 03:55
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Week 3? 16) Dogtooth It's ok. A 75 minute cut would be great. Nothing really happens until minute 40 but the back half is very good. It really tries to climb out of the hole from a bad first act. 17) Cube It's good. Hellraiser for engineers instead of normal perverts. The story and acting aren't very good and I would recommend watching the first ~10 minutes and bailing if you don't fall in love with the set. 18) Dr. Terror's House of Horrors It's ok. It's every Amicus anthology. The murderous vine is hilarious. The rest is pretty flat with some ok twist endings. I enjoy how aggro everyone is in the short about the art critic. I don't know why Cushing is made to look so haggard but it's a fun choice. 19) The Beach House It's ok. The scariest scene is Emily driving in dangerously heavy fog. I can't decide if I should credit the filmmakers for one great scene or be upset nothing else hits that hard. This is two rewrites and some heavy cuts from being more memorable. It's not truly bad and there are very nice visuals once things start to happen but it sure takes a while. 20) Theater of Blood It's great. A great time. Price is hamming it up and the kills are fun. Lure an English major friend into watching this low brow horror. TRAMPOLINE SWORD FIGHT!!! 21) Cube 2: Hypercube It's ok. It's not good but it's very easy to watch. Everything looks a lot more digital and the portals no longer make a big mechanical clunk every time. Other than a good head smash the kills are no better than the first. 22) The Mortuary Collection Fun anthology with lots of gore. The wraparound is a highlight.
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Oct 23, 2020 04:01
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 The Innocents (1961) (first time watch, DVD) This is just perfect gothic horror. It even starts with creepy children's voices singing! I've never read The Turn of the Screw so I found the whole ambiguous descent into madness/haunting fascinating. It's prefectly paced for that slow burn creepiness and ratchets up the tension until it's unbearable. Deborah Kerr sells it amazingly and it holds up so, so well, particularly the score. 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 18. Tales from the Hood 19. Crash 20. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit 21. Blood and Black Lace
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Oct 23, 2020 04:12
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Oh man, I know I haven't posted in a while but goddamn did work kick me in the rear end for the last week. I came so very close to tapping out of my 50 movie challenge but found a second wind. Here's what I managed to watch. 24. Idle Hands (1999)  If anyone goes into horror in the late 90s you’re going to find a trend: they are all “teen horror movies” inspired by Scream. You know, featuring popular teen actors from the time being sarcastically self-aware teenagers in high school with a soundtrack driven by MTV. It’s really a YMMV time for horror films. I enjoy them just out of nostalgia but some are really dated and were killed off after torture porn took off in the 00s. This one is more of a black comedy horror film than a slasher film like most of them were. Idle Hands is a pretty tasteless film going for shock in the form of gore and gags. It kind of relishes in being that with characters that are jerks to one another. But at the same time, I kind of like that kind of exploitative nonsense. .5/4Franchescanado posted:Fran Challenge #6: Tomb of the Blind Spots 25. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)  Yes, I’ve never seen this one and admit the fourth film (The Next Generation) was the first TCM film I ever saw (don’t ask why). This is a goddamned magnificent horror film. It ticks off all the boxes. It has a great small-town Texas atmosphere that feels like the fall which is a perfect ambience for Halloween. It is an exploitation film but uses its images to shock just right without feeling edgelord about it. The camera effects are great, the mood is remarkable and the characters are all just right for a film involving chainsaws and screaming. It works so well in telling a story for so little. I can see why this is popular among low-budget filmmakers because of all the lessons it has Just a great film, sad I didn’t see it until now. /4Franchescanado posted:Fran Challenge #7: Dearly Departed 26. The Human Centipede (2009)  Dieter Laser, who played the infamous surgeon in this film, passed away in Feburary 2020. Yeah, it’s THIS film that I’m watching for this challenge. I know a lot of people are going to revolt at this one and for good reason: this is a drat bleak, grim, repugnant and nihilistic film to major degrees. But, I have a bit of a soft spot for it because of the serious effort that was put into it. Like, the director knew his idea of people’s anuses being sewed to people’s mouths was a disgusting idea but he went for it. He made his film and accurately captured just how vile such an idea is and the film understandably doesn’t hold back. I kind of commend a director for having an idea, sticking with it, seeing it to the end and having an end product that captures what he was going for (no matter what). That being said, it’s so very difficult to watch at times because of how hopeless the film feels and really has no happiness whatsoever in it. Dieter Laser (RIP) has to be mentioned for the devotion he put into the role. He had such an unnerving presence in the film and showed just an actual amoral character in Dr Josef Heiter. Like, he wanted to make his creation (like the director) and saw it through no matter what. He’s just goddamned creepy and fascinating at the same time. If it sounds like I’m supporting this film I’m really caught in a weird kind of limbo here. I mean I respect Tom Six for having devotion to a creative idea but at the same time...WTF? Maybe I should balance it out by saying avoid both sequels to this film: they are just pure shock exploitation poo poo that feels strangely against what the original was about. Franchescanado posted:Speaking of 27. The Meg (2018)  I’m pretty sure this one counts. It is about an extinct shark called the Megalodon...but it really is just a giant shark at the end of the day. This film is just gloriously aware of what it is but doesn’t beat the audience over the head with it. It’s about an underwater rescue team that comes across a giant shark thought to be extinct and decide it’s their job to kill it. The film contains pretty much every kind of trope from the shark attack genre complete with shots of people being swallowed alive by giant sharks whole (which never gets old, I crack up). The film does some pretty obvious pandering to China at times which gets distracting. Overall, though, a goddamn fun little romp. /428. Prom Night (1980)  A horror classic with Jamie Lee Curtis in her prime “Scream Queen” days. This one feels like a bad high school movie but with a sense of charm to it. Like the writers knew making a movie about high school prom, especially a horror movie, opened it up to the usual tropes and had a blast. It’s all there; the cliquey girls, the scumball dude hitting on them, the nerd, the weird drama that outmatched all of our experiences and the rest. This film also is another entry in “Canadian slasher” films that feel strangely surreal despite being set in real times. If that makes any sense, a lot of low-budget Canadian horror and sci-fi films from those times fits this bill. It’s great, it’s cheesy and surreal but manages to work with it. /429. Army of Darkness (1993)  I love this film. I really do. It’s just Bruce Campbell being a wiseass for an hour and a half with endless quotes and quipes. Evil Dead found its voice with him just being a dark joke cracking motherfucker with demons he can’t comprehend. And those demons are trying to comprehend him at the same time. Seriously, this is just such a great film that relishes in itself. It doesn’t give a gently caress if the go-motion is obvious (one of the last films to use it in earniesty before CGI took over) or how goofy it is. It’s also a great film to watch as Halloween approaches because I found it really got me into the spirit the close I see it to then. I found myself just laughing in both comedy and appreciation in how serious everyone involved took this crazy little film. /4Total: 1. Alien (1979), 2. The Blair Witch Project (1999), 3. Zombieland (2009), 4. Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (2018), 5. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019), 6. Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (2019), 7. Mimic (1997), 8. Contagion (2011), 9. Shaun of the Dead (2004), 10. Maniac Cop (1988), 11. Night of the Living Dead (1968), 12. Scream 2, 13. Fran Challenge #2, 14. Dawn of the Dead (1978), 15. The Purge: Anarchy (2014) 16. Horror Story (2013), 17. Slither (2006), 18. Leprechaun (1993), 19. #Alive (2020), 20. Scream 3 (2000), 21. The Lawnmower Man (1992), 22. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), 23. Nosferatu (1922), 24. Idle Hands (1999), 25. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), 26. The Human Centipede (2009), 27. The Meg (2018), 28. Prom Night (1980), 29. Army of Darkness (1993) Fran Challenges: Justin Godscock fucked around with this message at 04:58 on Oct 23, 2020 |
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Oct 23, 2020 04:51
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Skrillmub posted:Are there two non-English films called The Oily Maniac? The only one I can find is the 1976 Hong Kong movie, which has a pretty different plot than your description. Cut and paste error, that was actually my recap of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I've changed it, thanks for pointing it out.
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Oct 23, 2020 05:18
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 27. Suspiria (2018) So my opinion is complicated. While I enjoyed the first Suspiria, I was not so attached to it that I would be bothered by any changes made to it. In fact, by the time we get to the first dance macabre, I was ready to proclaim it the superior movie. I thought its grey and earthy tones were a perfect way to demarcate it from its predecessor and signal to the audience that the movie was jumping the track. I really enjoyed that the focus had shifted to the witches, while Susie’s motivations were the ones left obscure. There was some exquisite body horror that turns the dancers’ contortive skills, so beautiful in a dance context, into ghastly dark mirrors of themselves. The witches also seemed much more menacing than their previous counterparts. The fact that Susie is a willing participant throughout was also a very interesting choice. The (art deco?} sets were beautiful and the dance scenes were fantastic. The entire film is suffused with horny energy. An almost animalistic intensity oozes from every frame, particularly during the dancing scenes or anytime Madame Blanc and Susie are in each other’s presence. When Blanc touches Susie’s back in that one scene, I literally had a full-body shiver. The camera’s abrupt POV changes helped build an atmosphere of paranoia and mystery. Every crack in the wall seems to be listening in at all times. Susie’s beautifully grotesque dreams are straight out of a Beksinski painting. The entire movie is essentially a feast for the senses. Also, I saw two Halloweenies this time! At some point, I had devised an interpretation that the film was about the exploitative nature of dance companies, which are notorious for chewing up their talent and spitting them out. The victims’ injuries seemed to reflect more extreme versions of typical dance injuries (e.g. dislocated body parts, broken bones, collapsing), which I felt bolstered my argument. I’d noted that Susie and Blanc’s hairstyle mirrored each other in most of the scenes and posited that there’d be some kind of cyclical narrative (the exploited eventually becomes the exploiters). There was also the issue that they seemed to uphold her to the detriment of the other dancers (e.g. the poor jumping girl). Susie’s complicity with the events reminded me of how most professional dancers are all fully aware that their dancing days have an “expiration date,” but they seem undaunted by the prospect that they will pay off the debt of their talent with their bodies. In a nutshell, I thought I had made sense of the piece to myself. I was fully prepared to declare this to be an excellent movie. And then the colour burst happens and I lost the whole thread of the story. Part of me enjoyed the chaos. The frantic nude dancing and chanting were exactly like what I imagine a witchy cabal is like. Another part was disappointed by the bad digital blood effects. The whole scene somehow didn’t feel like a satisfying enough culmination of all that tension and intensity. I’m sorry to say that I completely disconnected. Afterwards, they focus a good chunk of the last minutes in the film on the old man whose relevance in the story I still fail to grasp. I was left feeling unsatisfied, like I’d just had a frustratingly weak orgasm. Yesterdays Piss fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Oct 24, 2020 |
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Oct 23, 2020 05:26
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Yesterdays Piss posted:
I'd absolutely agree that the end is the weakest part. It felt to me like a swerve for the purpose of having a swerve, and I would have far preferred a "willing sacrifice" down ending, to fit into the themes you just so eloquently explored. I didn't mind the old man so much in retrospect though, he's a bit of an exposition dump character, but he's also our window into the world beyond the dance studio. His story is one of constant pain in a city divided by a wall, just as he has been divided from his loved one. His presence also allows Susie to neglect the mystery aspect in favour of pure emotional development, as he largely takes over those duties. I can see an argument for losing him, but I'm also glad that he's there. P.s. I love your writing 
Debbie Does Dagon fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Oct 23, 2020 |
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Oct 23, 2020 05:30
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 142) Yummy - 2019 - Shudder Well...that was a something.  I'm really not sure what to make of this one. I don't know if it's because I've sat through a shitload of zombie films, tons of effects heavy films, or oddly paced ones but it's hard to come to a somewhat insightful review for this one. It feels like it should've been released back before zombies became the monster du jour of Hollywood. The effects are delightfully over the top, and the film's pretty much an easily forgettable fluff over until we get to the zombie secured in the basement's release, then it's an effects extravaganza on the order of someone was definitely trying their all to come close or top the party scene from Braindead. I wouldn't say this is a bad film, but it does have me wondering if much like an awkward breakup, "Film, it's not you, it's me."
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Oct 23, 2020 05:32
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#18) The Triangle A group of friends receive a postcard from someone they knew asking them to come to the commune where he lives and document the proceedings. This is set up as a found footage film, and while oftentimes these types of movies have somewhat of a larger buildup, this one takes too long to get anywhere and the place it goes isn't even all that interesting. There's hints of friction in the group who invited the film crew in the first place, but nothing actually escalates enough to really apply any tension or dread. It just seems like your stereotypical Burning Man event (one of the characters even mentions going there as part of what made him decide to come to the commune). The first big reveal is even very lackluster-I had to rewind to make sure I was seeing what they expected me to see. 1.5 / 5 Total: 18 1. In a Stranger's House / 2. The Loved Ones / 3. Scare Me / 4. Scare Me / 5. Egg / 6. Alien Abduction: Incident In Lake County / 7. i'm thinking of ending things / 8. The Clovehitch Killer / 9. Ganja and Hess / 10. Trilogy of Terror / 11. Short films / 12. Feardotcom / 13. Frankenstein '80 / 14. Boar / 15. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) / 16. The Oily Maniac / 17. The Cleansing Hour / 18. The Triangle Class3KillStorm posted:Dunno what you've seen and what you haven't, so here's some options. alansmithee fucked around with this message at 05:48 on Oct 23, 2020 |
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Oct 23, 2020 05:35
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26: Wolf of Snow Hollow Challenge 12: ouruboros I miss movie theatres so much. They’re technically open again but if I can’t stuff my face with popcorn, what’s the point? With them out of commission and me unwilling to pay $20+ for On Demand stuff, I haven’t paid much attention to any of the new movies coming out, but people have brought this up in the thread a few times and I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing some new horror. I enjoyed this quite a bit. I’m not familiar with Jim Cumings’ other movies but I dug his take here on the world’s most stressed out man trying to stop a werewolf. I do agree the ending could have been a bit more played up, the junkie was an obvious red herring, so you don’t need to drag out the fact that it’s not over and try to surprise us. You don’t need to hand us the clues on a silver platter, but at least show the killer’s face on screen at some point if you’re going try and do a twist
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Oct 23, 2020 05:38
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Debbie Does Dagon posted:I'd absolutely agree that the end is the weakest part. It felt to me like a swerve for the purpose of having a swerve, and I would have far preferred a "willing sacrifice" down ending, to fit into the themes you just so eloquently explored. I didn't mind the old man so much in retrospect though, he's a bit of an exposition dump character, but he's also our window into the world beyond the dance studio. His story is one of constant pain in a city divided by a wall, just as he has been divided from his loved one. His presence also allows Susie to neglect the mystery aspect in favour of pure emotional development, as he largely takes over those duties. I can see an argument for losing him, but I'm also glad that he's there. Aw, thanks! I feel the same about your writing. I've been worried that you'd think I'm a creepy butt kisser for liking so many of them on Letterboxd, but I think we just have similar sensibilities.
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Oct 23, 2020 06:46
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NUMBER 1 FULCI FAN posted:Well I toxxed myself with a tarman tattoo but I happily gave the artist license to just riff on the idea, and walked out with this. That rules, congrats!
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Oct 23, 2020 09:00
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Late start, but I wanna finish up the month by completing the Fran Challenge. Think it might be fun way to cap this lousy month off. 1. Scary Movie 2. Scary Movie 2 3. From Beyond 4. Phantasm 5. Idle Hands 6. Maniac 7. Ernest Scared Stupid 8. The Amityville Horror (1979) 9. Ghoulies II 10. Frankenhooker 11. Trick r' Treat 12. In The Mouth Of Madness 13. Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning 14. Jennifer's Body 15. The Gate 16. Thinner 17. Class of Nuke 'Em High 18. The Addams Family (1991) 19. Candyman (1992)  Fran Chan #1: Horror Noire Wow. I blind bought this film knowing that people like it, but it certainly wasn't the product I was expecting. I knew it was a slasher-ish pic of the titular villain and people who unsuspectingly summon him. But I wasn't expecting it to be crossed with very different horror, of losing your own self. And then waking up from a trance, realizing you might have committed an unspeakable act, terrified at what might have been caused by a you-who-was-not-you. And you are set into that mindset, desperately wanting to wake up from the nightmare. And knowing the world will never accept that anyone but you caused it. That was what made me fall in love with this film. And it is a film that is all about the mindset, putting you right into people's minds with scant actions and words. It's incredibly empathetic film, dedicated to exploring humanity and how we treat each other. It's a film that wants to, needs to slow down and get right into the character, their thoughts, their emotions, their belief and disbelief at the absurd situation they found themselves in. It feels like a prototype for the current A24 style of Arthouse Horror, though with perhaps more jumpscares and blood. And as popular this film is among the Horror Canon, it is a travesty that this film isn't more widely acclaimed and appreciated. Maybe it was from a time that was trying to be aggressively more post-racial, maybe the horror trappings were too much. But this film deserves to be considered one of the greatest movies of all time. Because my god, this film is just exquisite.
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Oct 23, 2020 11:55
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Yesterdays Piss posted:The (art deco?} sets were beautiful and the dance scenes were fantastic. I’d call the original Suspiria Art Deco inspired, the aesthetic of the remake is more brutalist. Retro Futurist posted:26: Wolf of Snow Hollow The movie does actually show the killer a couple times, which I totally missed as it was pretty much in passing and I didn’t make the connection that the taxidermist was also the landlord of the place the first victim was renting
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Oct 23, 2020 12:08
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Fran Challenge #11: Öskur heyrðust um allan heim Watch a horror film that is in a language you do not speak. Baskin (2005)  Turkish. Suggested by Tarnop Cops explore an abandoned Ottoman era police station. I suppose I would describe this as a modern day Fulci film. It's surreal, nightmarish, it doesn't make a lot of narrative sense, and it is really loving nasty. Don't watch if you have a thing about eye trauma. It was strange to me that they introduce the cops as a bunch of assholes - one is a straight up psycho and the others find it funny to encourage him to abuse his power. It doesn't lead anywhere, but I felt less bad about what happens later. It has a superb creepy atmosphere and the lead baddie is cool. He's got a Marlon Brando's Colonel Kurtz vibe. 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; Piranha (1978) FC#8; The Descent; Duel FC#9; Hellraiser 3 FC#10; Baskin FC#11 (total: 27ish)
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Oct 23, 2020 12:10
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bitterandtwisted posted:It was strange to me that they introduce the cops as a bunch of assholes - one is a straight up psycho and the others find it funny to encourage him to abuse his power. It doesn't lead anywhere, but I felt less bad about what happens later. I think that's the point, they are bad people and the film literally sends them to hell
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Oct 23, 2020 13:13
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gey muckle mowser posted:I think that's the point, they are bad people and the film literally sends them to hell Yeah that makes sense.
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Oct 23, 2020 13:47
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Yeah, my reading of the film is that they're already doomed from the start, and we're finding out why. Glad you enjoyed (?) it!
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Oct 23, 2020 13:48
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Tarnop posted:
I did, thanks!
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Oct 23, 2020 14:09
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gey muckle mowser posted:I’d call the original Suspiria Art Deco inspired, the aesthetic of the remake is more brutalist. It felt way too ornate to be Brutalist, so I checked (like I probably should have the first time. Oops). The building is apparently Bauhaus-style https://www.dezeen.com/2018/11/01/suspiria-sets-luca-guadagnino-modernism-production-designer-interview/.
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Oct 23, 2020 14:41
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 143) Ghoul - 2015 - Prime This found footage was pretty uninspired, but then as I'd already read up on Andrei Chikatilo, and the cannibalism that happened during the 1930s era famines that sort of real world horror's just going to steamroll over anything a movie can come up with. The turned inside out cat also put me a bit off this one. If you're into found footage films, give this one a go, otherwise I'd say you're better off sitting through Citizen X for some serious unsettling.
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Oct 23, 2020 14:42
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29. The Mummy (1932) Blu-Ray I think this one ended up being the weakest of the Classic Universal Monsters so far. It just felt a little slow for me, I didn't dislike it, but it just didn't grab me. I can see why this one, while it did stick in the public consciousness, it's not nearly as popular as Drac or Frank. Some years ago, I was at the museum with my friend, and while looking at the mummies, my friend asked me how mummies kill, because you could totally outrun them. I now know the answer, they think really hard, and then you have a heart attack. 3/5
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Oct 23, 2020 14:49
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A mummy just poisons everyone with ancient spores. Duh.
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Oct 23, 2020 14:53
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I’ll take some recommendations for the Fran Challenge, plz!!! (I follow along w/this thread basically every year, I’m just really bad at having time to do write-ups!! This year, having literally nothing else to do, I’ve been watching a ton of new-to-me scary movies and it’s been delightful!!!) Recent watches are: Slugs, Body Melt, Dagon. Tubi has been especially bountiful this year, but I have access to all major streaming services. I’m a big fan of goopy films. My fave horror of all time is The Thing. Hit me with those good recs!! Also I can’t wait to watch TerrorVision later today. That was already on my “to watch” list this year!!
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Oct 23, 2020 14:58
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That's where the 1999 Mummy really elevated itself to another level because it took full advantage of the relatively new special effects techniques to give Immotep these huge, grand scale powers where he's bringing down all the ten plagues of Egypt on people. It's kinda lame to go back and see the older versions of the Mummy where he's basically just throttling people until they pass out.
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Oct 23, 2020 14:59
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9. Hellbound: Hellraiser II I really enjoyed the first one last year and this is a pretty solid sequel. Picking up almost immediately after the last movie, Kirsty is brought to a mental hospital while the police try to sort out why there are so many bodies in her house. Unfortunately the hospital is run by a very evil doctor who is dead set on opening up a portal to Hell. The first twenty-odd minutes of this are a little shaky featuring a really strange amount of recapping the last movie that seems to be there just to pad the runtime. Once Dr. Channard shows his true colors thought things really kick off and never slow down again. I really liked the depiction of Hell and would loved to have seen what the filmmakers could have done with the bigger budget they were originally supposed to have. Julia is a great villain and I'm really disappointed that they stuck with Pinhead going forward. He has a good wrap on his character in this and I think making him the mascot of the franchise was a creatively bankrupt decision. I have no interest in the sequels going forward but I'd probably feel differently if they feature more of Clare Higgins being delightfully evil. Overall this doesn't have quite the same magic as the original but its an interesting expansion on the concepts it introduced.
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Oct 23, 2020 15:03
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Fran Challenge #12: Ouroboros I learned about this film from TheKingslayer's post earlier in the thread  34. Bit (2019) Amazon Laurel, a transgender girl fresh out of high school, moves from a small town in Oregon to Los Angeles where she intends to live with her brother. On her first night in the city she runs into a group of female vampires led by the charming and dangerous Duke, who offers her the opportunity to join them. Laurel has to decide between a glamorous and powerful life and her repulsion at having to drink blood to survive. In many ways this is a pretty standard vampire story, but the feminist and transgender themes make it stand out. The vampires have one major rule - never turn a man, and I thought maybe this would be a point of conflict with Laurel joining, but the film never goes there. She brings it up once and Duke immediately dismisses it as a non-issue. They may be bloodsucking vampires, but at least they aren't TERFs! They also try to feed on creeps - rapists and internet trolls mostly - and are being hunted by a group of male alt-right vampire hunters. I really liked this. It has a great aesthetic with the lighting and costumes and reminded me a bit of Bliss, another recent vampire film I loved. Awesome music too. James Paxton (Bill Paxton's son!) plays Laurel's brother and I like him a lot, even if he doesn't get to ham it up as much as he did on the last season of Agents of SHIELD. All the actors are excellent, and the characters have more depth than you might expect. The last act of the film is unfortunately kind of weak compared to the rest. It becomes more of a typical vampire story - not in an awful way, but just less interesting than the setup was. It's also a little hokey sometimes, especially in a couple of flashback sequences, but it was never enough to really bother me. It makes a couple of joke references to the Twilight movies, but honestly it's not as far off from those as you might think. It's a trans and feminist take on the same idea, only much cooler and better. It has some flaws but overall I really enjoyed it. 4 pink hand grenades out of 5 Total: 34 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) | Seconds | Sputnik | Let's Scare Jessica to Death | Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (FC #10) | Bit (FC #12) Fran Challenges: SIDE QUESTS: Edgar Wright's Top 100 Horror: 95/100 Slant Top 100 Horror: 92/100 TSZDT Top 100: 100/100 Yesterdays Piss posted:It felt way too ornate to be Brutalist, so I checked (like I probably should have the first time. Oops). The building is apparently Bauhaus-style https://www.dezeen.com/2018/11/01/suspiria-sets-luca-guadagnino-modernism-production-designer-interview/. I know nothing about architecture and hadn't heard of that style, that does line up better. Thanks! gey muckle mowser fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Oct 23, 2020 |
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Oct 23, 2020 15:29
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43. Roar (1981)Fran Challenge #8: When Animals Attack!  A man studying large cats in Africa goes to pick up his family, who are visiting him at work for the first time. He is late, so they go to the house without him, unaware that when I said "studying large cats" I meant "living in/under/around 100s of lions and tigers and panthers". Can they survive all of the affectionate bitey embraces? It's worth watching simply because it is basically the home movies of an insane rich family. Self-financed, the movie is pure bonkers, with more injuries on set than probably any other movie ever filmed. Even if you don't watch the movie, it's worth reading the IMDB trivia page. Melanie Griffith almost lost an eye! As a movie, though, it's not very good. The plot is barebones, and has an entirely undeserved happy ending. The family finds a safe place to sleep, exhausted and terrified. They wake up the next morning refreshed, and surrounded by lions, and decide that maybe all these mauling cats aren't all that bad! At the same time, it is pretty gripping to watch, knowing that the fear you see is real, and every scene quite probably features actual injuries. A fascinating artifact. 3/5 (rewatch) Friday the 13th (theatrical cut)  As they prepare to reopen a long-closed camp, the staff are slowly picked off one by one. Watched the theatrical cut on the Shout BluRay, which is gorgeous. Why the theatrical cut, you ask? Because the room was dark and I didn't notice there were two disks. It's just a solid slasher movie. I think it does a really good job of setting up the killer, both with the red herrings it throws in, and the general looks of confused relief the victims all have before the truth gets revealed to them, in grisly fashion. I forgot how much time there is with the killer revealed, and the final twist is always great. Not my favorite Friday, but a good start to the series. 4/5 44. Sightseers (2012)  Chris and his girlfriend Tina go on vacation in rural England. Along the way they develop a taste for finding an easy solution to their minor problems. That solution? Murder. It's an enjoyable dark comedy that leans heavily on the dark. It felt very British. They are both pretty awful people, but I like how one thinks there is a logical code to their madness, and gets upset when that is tested. I really liked the mom, who is toxic in her own ways. 3/5
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Oct 23, 2020 15:36
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Conrad_Birdie posted:I’ll take some recommendations for the Fran Challenge, plz!!! (I follow along w/this thread basically every year, I’m just really bad at having time to do write-ups!! This year, having literally nothing else to do, I’ve been watching a ton of new-to-me scary movies and it’s been delightful!!!) From Beyond Pieces (same director as Slugs) Brain Damage Basket Case
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Oct 23, 2020 15:44
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