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Franchescanado posted:I'm a fool for waiting on this, but here's a fun thing about Spirited Away! That's all very interesting and probably speaks to some of my issues with engaging with the film. Its possible I just need to get more familiar with that narrative structure to appreciate it.
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Apr 8, 2021 16:12
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In general I really seem to click with films that have something along the lines of that structure, if not maybe exactly that. Like, anything where the majority of it is just experiencing the world of the film and learning about it through watching the characters movie through it, I tend to love that. It's a big reason why I fell in love with Robert Altman's films recently, for example.
Basebf555 fucked around with this message at 16:31 on Apr 8, 2021 |
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Apr 8, 2021 16:21
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I don't need a 3 act structure but its probably true that I tend to engage with stuff instinctually on those standards. There's definitely films I like that don't work like that and who knows how much of the success or failure comes from my rigidity, the film's failure, or just what I had for dinner that day. But being at least aware of it improves the odds. Also as a general note, I've actually been sleeping like a human being the last few days so tomorrow's matchup might be a "when I wake up" thing finally. Its sobering to have demonstrative proof that I've been awake at 3 AM every Friday in 2021. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 16:37 on Apr 8, 2021 |
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Apr 8, 2021 16:29
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Forcing yourself out of unhealthy sleep habits is tough, I wish you success with that. I was deep into that problem like mid-pandemic and I was finally able to stop taking daily afternoon naps at some point in December/January.
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Apr 8, 2021 16:45
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I wish there was a Terminator 2 style thumbs up but sinking into a vat of radioactive toxic waste for when Troma eventually loses this matchup.
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Apr 8, 2021 16:53
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TrixRabbi posted:I wish there was a Terminator 2 style thumbs up but sinking into a vat of radioactive toxic waste for when Troma eventually loses this matchup. I have hope! My filthy, stinky, nasty friends won't let me down. Also Porco Rosso, Ponyo, and Pom Poko are a delight and definitely need to be seen. Every Dad will probably get a kick from Porco Rosso.
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Apr 8, 2021 17:48
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My instinct from the discussion is it's going to be a close matchup decided by like 2 or 3 votes at most. Depends on how many of the Troma supporters actually voted for this particular movie and how many were just trying to defend Troma in general but still voted for Cursed.
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Apr 8, 2021 17:59
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For what it's worth after reading the arguments all week I definitely consider myself more on the "pro Troma" side of the argument now, but I still think this specific movie was pretty lovely and I don't want to vote for it because it was pretty lovely. Cursed was also pretty lovely.
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Apr 8, 2021 18:29
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Debbie Does Dagon posted:I have hope! My filthy, stinky, nasty friends won't let me down. Porco Rosso is such a fun, charming little old-Hollywood style adventure. It’s so pretty and often silly and even as a rare Miyazaki film set in real clear time and place it still manages to that setting magical. Never thought I’d want to spend so much time hanging out with an anthropomorphic pig and some plane flying pirates in pre-WW2 Italy. Super underrated.
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Apr 8, 2021 18:52
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All the Ghibli films are on UK Netflix and I'm currently in the middle of a chronological watch through. If you've got access to them all I highly recommend it, both to see the growth in confidence as a studio, and also for the pleasure of alternating between Miyazaki's dreamy fantasy worlds and Takahata's grounded slice of life character studies. The latter aren't really horror relevant but I know most of us here have broader interests.
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Apr 9, 2021 03:00
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I slept!   Wes ekes by Kaufman. Cursed might have all but killed Craven’s theatrical career but it manages to give him his first tournament win and keeps him alive into the second round for the first time. Although much of that is certainly owed to a bad draw for Kaufman as even many of the fans of Troma seemed to agree that his 2017 offering was compromised in some way from what they love. It still had its passionate fans and defenders though and very nearly knocked off the second 2 seed in a row. But instead Kaufman goes home in his first go and Wes movies on to face Deb’s Family Friendly team who advances so easily that honestly the only surprising thing about this is probably that I wasn’t the lone vote for Mama. But its enough votes to send Miyazaki and Spirited Away into the Top 5s of Vote Totals and Ballot % (and knock The Incredible Shrinking Man out of the latter). However the math all works out the result is the same as Family Friendly move into the second round with Wes and Andres Muschietti and Kangra’s Sister Act get sent home with Lloyd. Watch his hands. Time for the last 2 seed and the first Play In team to make a second appearance in this tournament. And a really random double appearance from a legendary scream queen. 2. Mario Bava’s Black Sunday vs. 15. (STAC Goat’s Radio Silence) Glenn McQuaid’s I Sell the Dead  Mario Bava is consider by many to be the “Master of Italian Horror” but he only advanced to the second round last year, first knocking off Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space with Kill Baby Kill but then his Bay of Blood lost to Larry Cohen’s Q. This time he draws arguably his most famous film Black Sunday, a classic gothic story that launched the career of Barbara Steele. Can the horror master put in a better showing this year? He’ll have to move past a team that has already notched up one win as my Radio Silence team advanced from the very first play in back in January when Joe Swanberg’s Silver Bullets knocked off Ruggero Deodato’s Last Cannibal World and Mary Lambert’s Urban Legends: Bloody Mary. That was Swanberg’s only solo film on the team so the baton is handed off to Glenn McQuaid, probably better known for the “Tuesday the 17th” segment from V/H/S. Its gonna be a big task for this largely unknown film to knock off a classic but this tournament has a history of irreverence. So can the team that first won people over with mumblecore make it two in a row or does Bava get his chance at redemption? Weird link with the Radio Silence teams? Non competing director Larry Fessenden appeared as an actor in Silver Bullets and now in I Sell The Dead. I did try and build teams with natural links between them. I Sell the Dead is on Youtube. Black Sunday is on Shudder and free on Kanopy and TubiTV in the US. 7. Roger Corman’s The Pit and The Pendulum vs. 10. Kôji Shiraishi’s Teke Teke  Amazingly this is a completely random rematch from last year! I swear, poo poo just happened and I didn’t realize it until the moment I started writing this up. Last year the 5 seed Corman’s Masque of the Red Death took down the 12 seed Shiraishi’s Shirome. Corman’s Haunted Palace fell next round to Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II. Corman and Vincent Price team up a third time here against an opponent they’ve already sent packing once, but they don’t come alone because Barbara Steele is also in here. Which just seems like an insane amount of chance and coincidence. Can Shiraishi overcome all this serendipity and get revenge for last year’s defeat or will history repeat itself for the Corman, Price, and now Steele horror supergroup? The Pit and The Pendulum is on Amazon Prime and free on TubiTV in the US. Teke Teke is on Youtube. That’s the week. Last week for the 2 seeds. Just a month left of the first round after this and the #1s come up. Although the 1s and 2s were random, so you know… Point is, home stretch! Vote until 3 AM EST Apr 16th (or when I wake up) Bracket & Noms Spreadsheet Letterboxd List Next Week! - 1. Takashi Miike vs 16. Team Vulgær (Gaspar Noe & Lars Von Trier) - 8. William Friedkin vs. 9. The Brutal Brits (Ben Wheatley & Neil Marshall) STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Apr 10, 2021 |
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Apr 9, 2021 11:02
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Those are some powerful draws for Bava and Corman
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Apr 9, 2021 11:10
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Happy birthday, Roger Corman!
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Apr 9, 2021 14:41
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Pissed off to find out that my AMC+ sub, which is supposed to include Shudder, for some reason doesn't include Black Sunday. So I bought the blu ray, it should be here by Monday or Tuesday.
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Apr 9, 2021 14:46
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Black Sunday is loving dope and this should be a runaway for Bava.
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Apr 9, 2021 15:01
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Tough sledding for Koji again. My beautiful boy 
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Apr 9, 2021 15:57
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Now I'm gonna spend the entire next year debating whether to rig it for a 3rd matchup between them or show mercy on Shiraishi.
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Apr 9, 2021 16:22
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STAC Goat posted:Now I'm gonna spend the entire next year debating whether to rig it for a 3rd matchup between them or show mercy on Shiraishi. Then I'll be sure to nominate only the bleakest anime films I can find!
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Apr 9, 2021 16:39
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Like you're not all gonna do that anyway! I mean if we run it enough we gotta get a good Shiraishi film vs a bad Corman film, right? I know the latter exist. Mental note: May challenge theme.
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Apr 9, 2021 16:41
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That's a great idea, next Bracketology I'll make as many anime teams as possible. We're bound to eventually find one that you click with.
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Apr 9, 2021 17:06
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Either that or I have endless embarrassing meltdowns so win/win.
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Apr 9, 2021 17:13
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I'm starting to think STAC might be the one genuine anime disliker. Kon didn't do it, Miyazaki didn't do it, whats left? Akira, Jin-Roh, Grave of the Fireflies?
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Apr 9, 2021 17:14
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Time to kickstart a Troma anime!
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Apr 9, 2021 17:14
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Directed by Gaspar Noe!
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Apr 9, 2021 17:15
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I love you all. And you're always hurt by the ones you love.
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Apr 9, 2021 17:17
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The Berzerker posted:Time to kickstart a Troma anime! I've got the next best thing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tj1QJThytM
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Apr 9, 2021 17:20
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married but discreet posted:I'm starting to think STAC might be the one genuine anime disliker. Kon didn't do it, Miyazaki didn't do it, whats left? Akira, Jin-Roh, Grave of the Fireflies? I won't accept Miyazaki didn't do it until he's rejected the one true nexus of love and joy, My Neighbour Totoro
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Apr 9, 2021 17:31
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Tarnop posted:I won't accept Miyazaki didn't do it until he's rejected the one true nexus of love and joy, My Neighbour Totoro And Kiki’s Delivery Service. That movie is like hugging a warm sunny Saturday Morning.
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Apr 9, 2021 17:47
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I feel like when you reject Spirited Away there's no hope
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Apr 9, 2021 18:21
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Mario Bava’s Black Sunday vs. 15. (STAC Goat’s Radio Silence) Glenn McQuaid’s I Sell the Dead I Sell the Dead is really forgettable. I like the cast (Hellboy! Tall Man! The LOST Hobbit! The Creepy Weirdo from Until Dawn!) and the premise is fun (grave robber hijinks), but it doesn't really go anywhere, there aren't any real laughs, I had trouble paying attention at points because it just felt like it was sauntering along towards the finish. Black Sunday on the other hand is extremely good. I only watched it for the first time a couple of months ago. The opening to Black Sunday is one of the coolest openings in horror, period, and it's just such a cool, atmospheric, witchy spooky goth masterpiece. Basically: TrixRabbi posted:Black Sunday is loving dope and this should be a runaway for Bava.
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Apr 9, 2021 20:11
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I dislike most Bavas I've seen and might have turned off Black Sunday at one point. Despite all my love for Italian horror, the man does not work for me.
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Apr 9, 2021 21:15
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The Record Committee (me) of this tournament wishes to inform the beloved voters and participants that a clerical error was made in the tabulation of some statistics. The matchup inners and losers remain the same however there were 17 ballots while only 16 were recorded in the spreadsheet. As a result Spirited Away has fallen out of the Top 5 Win % and The Incredible Shrinking Man has returned. We apologize for this mistake and in the name of accuracy for utterly meaningless statistics and assurance against possible anti-anime biases by the committee (me) we will be performing an audit this week. The tournament will be unaffected but spreadsheet stats may change. My apologize for this confusion and inconvenience.
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Apr 9, 2021 23:37
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 Week 15 Bracketology Streams!  Only on the CineD Discord All times are in EST and may not reflect reality. Saturday, April 10th  1900 Black Sunday 2035 I Sell The Dead Monday, April 12th  1900 Teke Teke TBA The Pit and the Pendulum Content Warnings Black Sunday Moderate violence and gore I Sell The Dead (2008) Contains strong language and gory horror Teke Teke ??? The Pit And The Pendulum Contains moderate violence and horror Debbie Does Dagon fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Apr 10, 2021 |
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Apr 10, 2021 01:38
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Basebf555 posted:Pissed off to find out that my AMC+ sub, which is supposed to include Shudder, for some reason doesn't include Black Sunday. So I bought the blu ray, it should be here by Monday or Tuesday. Genuinely surprised you didn’t already own this. Kino Lorber has a ton of Bavas movies, and they were dirt cheap in their most recent sale, so I grabbed Black Sabbath, Black Sunday and A Bay of Blood for like nothing. Keep a lookout for their next sale cuz they’ve got a lot of great horror like Bava.
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Apr 10, 2021 15:30
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Franchescanado posted:Genuinely surprised you didn’t already own this. This is actually a really common way that I end up buying blu rays. A movie I love will be available to me on a streaming service for years and I get used to that, then all the sudden it's gone so I get annoyed and buy the blu ray.
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Apr 10, 2021 15:37
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Roger Corman’s The Pit and The Pendulum vs. 10. Kôji Shiraishi’s Teke Teke Teke Teke Based on a Japanese urban legend about a woman who was cut in half, Teke Teke is a relatively tame horror mystery that follows a standard plot. A handful of characters need to follow the clues to either appease or defeat a vengeful spirit before time runs out. Along the way, there are some splashes of blood, a romantic misunderstanding, and a kanji-based plot twist. It's entertaining enough, but not especially creative or scary. I do appreciate the end though. Either the cousins failed to restore the shrine properly or restoring the shrine didn't matter at all -- it was a red herring. I haven't watched a lot of Japanese urban legend horror, so I don't know if the ending followed established conventions or not. The Pit and The Pendulum At first, The Pit and the Pendulum seems like the kind of stilted period piece I try to avoid, where the costumes and scenery are more important that the characters that inhabit them. Soon enough, Vincent Price appeared to set me at ease. As Dom Medina, Price immediately gives off all sorts of incredibly spooky vibes while John Kerr as Francis Barnard puts on a master class in failing to read the room. The way Corman concentrates on building tension and dread, as opposed to outright scares, really works. It's a slow burn that you know will go off the rails eventually. Vincent Price, of course, is fantastic. The only down side is that the rest of the cast (except Barbara Steele) seem a little out of their depth any time they share a scene. Kerr's Barnard, in particular, is a tremendous twerp. It almost makes you look forward to him meeting a grisly end involving a pit, a pendulum, or maybe even both. The ending was not exactly what I expected, but I really should have seen it coming. I love movies, but I think I'm still not very good at watching them. For me, this is a relatively easy win for The Pit and The Pendulum
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Apr 10, 2021 18:58
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twernt posted:At first, The Pit and the Pendulum seems like the kind of stilted period piece I try to avoid, where the costumes and scenery are more important that the characters that inhabit them. That's one facet I was curious about going into both of these match-ups. Both are older classics, versus more contemporary "failures". I was fascinated to see if the relative age of the films might be a hindrance in people fully appreciating them, but I'm pleasantly surprised, in this case at least, that you overcame that. The Corman/Price movies especially are so well done, I really hope they succeed. twernt posted:I love movies, but I think I'm still not very good at watching them. There's no wrong way to appreciate movies 
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Apr 10, 2021 19:10
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Might as well do my write up with the freshest impressions Black Sunday, well, it’s a Bava movie and no matter what, the man rarely works for me. Or rather I can’t make him work for me. Shocker, Blood and Black Lace, and The Girl Who Knew Too Much were the only ones I actually enjoyed. Everything else, I look at individual scenes and go ooh neat, but then immediately zone out until I catch myself, look at the pretty sets and colours (no colours in this of course), vow to not zone out again and oops it’s 10 minutes later, zoned out again, where has the time gone. Maybe this is how STAC Goats feels about all Italian horror? I just can’t connect. I Sell The Dead Now here’s a movie that’s quite baffling. I don’t think the director, DP, editor or screenwriters ever went to film school or had any training in how to make a movie, perhaps they never really saw a movie before? And they just sort of went at it with no structure at all, no idea how to frame anything or when to cut and how. Almost everyone is shot only from the waist up, as if they couldn’t afford pants or shoes for the actors. And it just keeps going until it’s suddenly over. It’s definitely not good, but also not actually bad. It’s also not mediocre, it’s odd. I’m recommending this movie just for how odd it is. Still voting Bava because he made a thing that feels like a movie, lucky bastard.
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Apr 11, 2021 04:03
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That's probably not an entirely unfair assessment of I Sell the Dead. Glenn McQuaid is a visual effects guy with Larry Fessenden's house studio. He made a short with him and Larry encouraged him to make a film and they made it on a shoe string budget with a bunch of people like Pearlman basically working for free as favors. Pearlman basically shot his parts at different times while shooting Hellboy 2. Its McQuard's only feature, although he made the Tuesday the 17th segment on VHS. I know its not terribly good and I know it has no chance to win, but its also kind of symbolic of the thing I love in my teams. These communities of filmmakers and creators who encourage each other to take chances and make their own stuff. I probably have like 3-5 teams that have all kinds of interlocking crossovers of talent and creators because that's how I made my teams, just kind of building out from stuff instead of finding the best films that fit a theme. As a guy who once tried to make films I remember these guys of communities fondly and like to live vicariously through these kinds of films. Of course that's part of why all my teams are losing but like, I still think its fun to dip into this obscure offbeat stuff and maybe pick up on the connections. I just feel kind of bad I forgot to nominate Fessenden since he's such a big part of that community and snuck onto a couple of my teams. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 12:52 on Apr 11, 2021 |
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Apr 11, 2021 12:50
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Roger Corman’s The Pit and The Pendulum vs. 10. Kôji Shiraishi’s Teke Teke I haven't seen too many of the Corman/Price films, just a couple, and this was a new one for me. It took some time to really get rolling, but the mood and the sets are so enjoyable that I didn't mind the slower pace. And once things pick up, it's a ton of fun. Price and Steele are entertaining as hell, and I love the direction the story eventually goes (having not read the story). Teke Teke was totally fine - inoffensive and I like the "teketeke" sound, but the effects are pretty goofy and there weren't a lot of memorable moments outside of the opening. twernt posted:For me, this is a relatively easy win for The Pit and The Pendulum
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Apr 11, 2021 17:30
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