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Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
It's just an unusual situation because with most directors like Fulci, who are revered, the films they're most synonymous with are also their best and most impressive.

One comparison that comes to mind is Cronenberg's Scanners. I think most people would agree that it's not his best film and probably not in his top 3, but it will always be one of the first things people mention when they talk Cronenberg because of that head explosion.

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Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
Watched Singapore Sling today. What can I say? It's completely bizarre. Part of the bizarre quality definitely comes from how great it looks. Like, it feels like I should be watching these things on a grainy bootleg but actually the production design and cinematography is excellent.

My instinct is that there's no way See China and Die is going to be as unique or memorable, so it's looking like my vote will be Singapore Sling.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
If Fulci loses in the first round I'm gonna tell Kvlt! on you all.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe

Franchescanado posted:

It's their fault for not voting. :colbert:

If it's a 1 vote margin then yea I'm gonna go rub it in Kvlt!'s face in the horror thread.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
I get that this is mostly about watching new and interesting stuff but I also want to see my faves make it to the later rounds.

Also Fulci made a lot of movies, so it's not like the Gates of Hell trilogy is the only stuff left he has to draw. I'd love to see people's reviews of A Cat in the Brain, for instance.

STAC Goat posted:

Although in this case Fulci got his #1 most popular film on Letterboxd so like... if he loses he ain't got no one to blame.

Yea I mentioned before how it's just a weird situation with Fulci. Zombi is the film he's most widely known for, but I find it hard to believe that anyone who really goes through his filmography would consider Zombi to even be in his top 3.

Basebf555 fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Jan 27, 2021

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
Not that I support eating horses(or cows for that matter) or want to watch them killed, but I did read an article about Hour of the Wolf that said the horse's killing was filmed in an actual slaughterhouse. And horse meat has been popular in some places at various points in time so maybe the horse was going to be killed and eaten anyway?

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
Well that's a relief.

For this weeks matchups, I think The Faculty is gonna be somewhat like Bones where people will be pleasantly surprised by how well it holds up. The cast is actually pretty stacked, and it delivers some pretty cool stuff in the final act so I think there's a good chance I'll end up voting for it. I want to do a rewatch before I decide though, because I do really like Ghostbusters II as well.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
I spent way too much on a Ghostbusters combo steelbook a few years ago so you're drat right I'm gonna rewatch GB2.

Actually I think that steelbook might be the most valuable "piece" in my collection because I think it's out of print.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
Well the main criticism of GB 2 is that it's too much of a rehash of the original(guys are all off doing their own thing, they are brought together by circumstances and (re)open the Ghostbusters, Dana brings them a case, and it turns out the case involves a whole bunch of spiritual energy being concentrated in one place, the guys have to stop it from exploding like a frog on a hot plate, roll credits).

So watching them both back to back might actually hurt your opinion of GB 2 because the similarities will stand out a lot more.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
When you're 5 years old, Winston busting down that door to save Ray and Egon when the darkroom fire starts is like the coolest thing you've ever seen. Winston was always the GB that I wanted to be. No nonsense, and totally ready at all times to bust the hell out of some ghosts.

Anyway I can rewatch GB2 just for that scene alone.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
When you're a kid it's a tougher decision because you don't(or at least I didn't) realize how much of an rear end in a top hat Venkman is. But he's the one who is always talking poo poo to the ghosts and he even tells Viggo to gently caress off so he seemed pretty awesome at the time. Like, he was the character that made Ghostbusters watchable for me when I was like 2 years old because without him it would've been too scary.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
I'd love to say that it's a tough decision but I was probably always going to vote Ghostbusters. The Faculty is really an enjoyable movie, especially so if you grew up in the 90s but the GB nostalgia is just too much to overcome.

The stream really breathed some new life into GB2, not every movie lends itself to chatting and that sort of thing but GB2 worked really well as a communal experience.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
Yea I don't think it gives anyone an advantage one way or the other so just throw them in.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
I really don't have a strong opinion either way so if including them will annoy some people then probably better to just leave them out.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
Both matchups ended up being tougher than I thought, I just voted a few minutes ago. Neither Ghostbusters 2 or The Faculty are original, so there's no advantage either way there. But The Faculty feels like a movie that the people involved had a lot of fun making, versus Ghostbusters 2 where it's hard to get out of my head that half the cast didn't want to be there. I don't think there's any denying that GB2 is a lazy sequel on some level, even if I have a knee-jerk nostalgia reaction to it.

That said, I still voted Ghostbusters 2, after going back and forth for a few days. Six year old me would've kicked my rear end if I didn't vote for Ghostbusters.

The other matchup was just as hard because neither film is really my thing at all. Trouble Every Day just never impressed me that much so I figured Rabid had a good shot. But Rabid was never one of my favorite Cronenberg films and this one didn't wow me either. I ended up up going with Trouble Every Day just because it's not a remake and it's more memorable, but that was more of a tie-breaker than anything else.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
I don't see why it even matters, Louis thinks he helped and the crowd thinks he helped. Louis is a character who seems to never get a break except for that one time when he turned into a dog and the guys helped him, and finally here's a moment where he feels like he can finally repay them and even be one of them! It's a feelgood moment for him, who cares if he really made a difference or not. He didn't gently caress it up, he didn't make it worse, he didn't lock himself out or step on a rake or anything that his character would normally do. He put the gear on and got the gently caress over there and tried his best to help. A true Ghostbuster.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe

Franchescanado posted:

I don't know why it gave me such a strong negative reaction. Maybe because he could have actually helped? It just seems like a lot of effort to put into a joke, and the punchline is "None of this matters, but he thinks it does." Which could be good. The Coen Bros love that kind of set-up and delivery. But something about it just really frustrated me.

Maybe that's the encapsulation of the whole thing. Louis could have an effect. He could help. The Ghostbusters could be hosed, Vigo could be winning, but then Louis actually helps out and saves them. It'd be a nice change from him being one of the dog keys from the first movie, and would be a nice punctuation to his character arc. Instead, the joke is "nothing happened", which feels like a lame duck. Kinda like so much of the movie's potential.

I think what Louis represents, and this plays into what STAC already brought up, is positivity and an honest desire to do good and help people. That's what saves the day in the end, regardless of whether Louis himself had a direct hand it in. But he's with the crowd on the outside of the building for a reason, he is like the avatar of goodwill towards the other members of your community, he embodies being a Good Neighbor. And it's those good intentions that really win out, that's the deciding factor much more so than the proton packs.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
Ohh this will be an interesting week because I've seen and enjoyed Doctor Sleep and Ghostwatch, but not so much that these other films don't have a chance. I've heard a lot of good things about Human Lanterns and I love the wuxia/horror combo so yea that one definitely has a good chance at winning my vote, and Audrey Rose has also been on my radar for a long time. Plus I own Doctor Sleep on blu ray so it's always nice to be given an excuse to actually use something I've already spent money on.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
Human Lanterns was good but it didn't knock my socks off, it didn't blow me away like I thought it might. The horror was probably the most effective aspect of it, because when it wanted to do that it was pretty goddamn horrific. But overall every element felt like a B or maybe B+, there wasn't any A stuff in there. The fight scenes, the sfx, the characters, the story, it was all solid but not overly impressive. The most compelling thing about the movie is that as a total package it's weird and somewhat unique but for me Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires(made 10 years earlier) and The Seventh Curse(made 4 years later) are a lot better.

I still might vote for it but now the rewatch of Doctor Sleep is important because I could go either way at this point.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
Doctor Sleep 4k digital code: 7NEJOL3JYFS4CHA3

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
I rewatched Doctor Sleep last night and I actually liked it more the second time.

The first half is very strong. Certainly a big part of that is Mcgregor, he was a great choice for the role and he injects a lot of emotion into basically every scene and almost every line. But the True Knot as well, they're just very cool villains and it's interesting to watch them and learn their habits and their rituals. Rebecca Ferguson was another excellent casting choice, because she's stunningly beautiful, which feels important for this character who is obsessed with maintaining her physical peak. But she's also a legit actress and is able to play the other side of that coin too, when you find out how dangerous she is.

Watching the movie on UHD, there's definitely a clear difference in the way the Overlook appears here vs. The Shining. And sure, some of that is because the place has been mostly untouched for decades, it's supposed to be decaying. But even with that taken into account, it's just not on the same level as Kubrick's Overlook. There's even a rehash of the elevator/blood scene and you can do a direct comparison. The blood in The Shining is almost startling with how deep it is, just how red red can actually be. The blood in this film is just there, it's a very muted red that doesn't really stand out. I feel like a better way of handling these scenes would've been to start out with the dilapidated Overlook, and then as Danny "wakes it up", it returns to it's former glory and you see everything as if it were in it's heyday.

In terms of story and themes though, I think the return to the Overlook works. It's fanservice, but it's not just fanservice. Danny really did need to go back there and face his past, he needed that final victory. Locking the ghosts of the past up inside his head was only ever going to be a band aid. I love the way he confronts his father and says no, I won't be like you, I will learn from you in order to be better than you were. And that's a very relatable message.

I think I'm gonna actually vote for Doctor Sleep here, which is unexpected. I love martial arts and combining it with horror can be amazing but Human Lanterns just didn't do enough to make me want to ever see it again or even think about it again. It was decent, sometimes genuinely fun to watch, but not enough to overcome what I consider to be a legitimately good movie with real pathos and excellent performances.

Basebf555 fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Feb 9, 2021

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
I watched Audrey Rose, and I definitely didn't dislike it as much as some did, although in the end the vote for Ghostwatch is an easy decision.

I think both Anthony Hopkins, and also Marsha Mason elevated it from bad to at least mediocre. Any scene they're in has real intensity to it, and that emotional intensity is really all there is to latch onto in the film. There are some atmospheric and stylish moments, but not enough in a 2 hour runtime to overcome Ghostwatch.

Still, I'm glad I watched it because seeing Hopkins in his prime is always a treat. Anyone in this thread who hasn't seen Magic definitely needs to check it out.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
Gah I forgot to vote!

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
I'm definitely gonna watch The Woods just because it's easily accessible.

We'll see about Salo, it'll depend on if I can make it to the stream. I've seen Ms. 45 though, it's really good and I love Ferrara and NY Grime so it'll probably be two easy decisions in the end(assuming I remember to vote this time!).

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
I voted for Re-Animator and Ms. 45 because I'm 99% sure that's the way I want to vote and I'm scared of forgetting like I did last week.

I am gonna try to catch at least some of Salo tonight though. I think it's gonna be close to impossible for it to win my vote though just because of the type of movie it is. Deb was saying in the stream the other night that Ms. 45 is "fun", and in a vacuum maybe that sounds a bit odd but from what I've heard about Salo I do think Ms. 45 is probably fun by comparison. And that's not to say that Salo is some sort of obscene abomination that's beyond what I've seen before(I'm pretty sure it's not), but I'm expecting it to be relentlessly dour. And that's not something you'd ever say about an Abel Ferrara film, there's a manic energy to Ms. 45 and all Ferrara films that does add that "fun" element, or whatever you want to call it.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
Deb's stream is really the only way I'm gonna see Salo this week so I'm gonna try my best to be there and stick with it to the end. I wouldn't tap out due to the content or anything it's just tough sometimes on weeknights to stay up and engaged that late in the evening depending on how tired I am.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
The only thing Abel Ferrara has ever done that might rival the grossness of Salo is that pizza from The Driller Killler.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
That last quote is a particularly convincing defense of Salo, although I haven't seen it yet so I can't say if I agree. I definitely agree with it as a general concept though.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
So the Salo vs. Ms. 45 matchup is definitely a very interesting one, even though my vote isn't changing.

I wasn't really expecting Salo to be as good as it was on a technical level. It has cinematography that felt reminiscent of The Leopard(1963) and other "epic" style films. In that way it's sort of the opposite side of the coin to Ms. 45, because Ferrara's films go for grime over grandeur. It's a completely different path to what I think are similar goals. I think the difference between Salo and pretty much anything the horror genre has to offer today is how matter of fact it is. There's really not a whole lot of traditional drama to it, or the kind of stylization that we're used to with a lot of extreme horror. Compare it to Von Trier's The House That Jack Built, where there are incredibly disturbing and affecting scenes but always with layers of stylization between the film and the audience. Whether it be quick cutting flashbacks or hallucinations or a literal descent into Hell, Von Trier gives you an out by using the tools of film to maintain a separation between the audience and Jack's actions.

Of course, The House That Jack Built is one of the more matter of fact and plainly disturbing films of recent years. In terms of stylization it's nothing compared to the average slasher where almost nothing reflects reality and the audience is given license to sit back and enjoy the mayhem. Salo gives you none of those things that pretty much all modern horror provides as a safety valve or pressure release. Is that better? Maybe not, I'm voting for Ms. 45 after all. I love NY Grime and I want to see more, and Ms. 45 is an excellent film so I'm voting for it. But I'm glad Salo exists and I'm glad I saw it. Thanks Deb!

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
I need to watch The Incredible Shrinking Man first, but there's a good chance that I'll try to put up a defense for 3 From Hell. While it's not perfect, I do think it's still extremely Rob Zombie and an excellent representation of the crazy poo poo that goes on in that mad genius' head.

The Sig Haig thing is tough. It's hard to watch the movie without thinking about how much better it would've been if Sid could've been there full time at full strength. At the same time, I can't imagine anyone doing a better job filling in than Richard Brake, so there's a bit of a silver lining there.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
The Incredible Shrinking Man was actually very interesting considering the simple premise. I enjoyed the documentary style narration, which is something that often takes away from a movie but here I thought it added an extra, almost existential layer to the story and the main character.

If you're just in it for the spider action, yea the movie does take it's time getting to all that but I really enjoyed the different phases as he's facing new challenges each time he shrinks. At first it's basically about ego, "hey I used to be 6 feet and now I'm 5'9'', this sucks!" Then it becomes about his relationship with his wife, after all how can you really be a husband to your wife when you're the size of a housecat? And then, of course, at a certain point it becomes about survival because all of the sudden you're smaller than the housecat and it sees you as prey. Finally he shrinks so much that he almost literally enters a different world, one where the regular sized people don't even know you exist and survival means learning the rules of this new world and "mastering" it.

And throughout this whole progression you get fun little bits of set design, like at a certain point when the man is using a small coffee table as a desk, or when he uses a pencil but for him it's oversized so it fills his entire hand. Or when he battles a mouse-trap in an attempt to get some food. Almost every scene in the movie has little extra things in it to emphasize his changing size. So I dunno, I just had a lot of fun with The Incredible Shrinking Man and I'm seriously considering voting for it. Which hurts, because Rob Zombie is one of my guys and it's not like I even dislike 3 From Hell. But I now need to rewatch it and really take a serious look at which film I can honestly say I like more. It's certainly possible that 3 From Hell will click with me on rewatch in a way that it didn't before, that's not uncommon. So we'll see.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
Now that Fran is no longer a mod I can admit that I don't love Eraserhead. It's value as a work of surreal art and as an important moment in a great filmmakers career is obvious, but as a movie that I would want to sit down and watch, no for me it's not on the same level as a lot of Lynch's other work.

The film is certainly informative in the sense that you can see Lynch going back to it time and time again to mine it for ideas to use in his other films. And as a debut film it's extremely impressive. But I prefer Lynch when there's a bit more of a balance between the bizarre imagery and the characters/plot. I like the surreal and the bizarre as extra flavoring, not as the entire dish.

John Dies At the End is actually an impressive feat in it's own right. It's based on a book written by someone who got their start writing for Cracked.com, and he somehow parlayed that into a feature film directed by an iconic cult horror director. So the fact that it got made in the first place was very unlikely and it's actually better than a lot of what Coscarelli had been doing in recent years. It's fun, it's also got it's fair share of the Weird, and I just think it hangs together more as an entertaining film than Eraserhead does.

So I feel a bit guilty doing this, but I'm going to vote against Lynch. But I've voted this way several times before, when an "important" film goes up against something that I just simply had more fun with. Fun is a big deal for me when it comes to horror and I often use it as a tie-breaker, and that's basically what I did here.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
Definitely agreed that The Devil's Rejects is much more harrowing and intense, and tougher to watch. It's not nearly as cartoonish and as a result the violence is more affecting and there's a lot more tension.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
I just have to come to terms with the fact that some people aren't gonna have the same unconditional love for Hammer that I do. It's painful to watch an icon like Fisher go out so early again.

Very few films that we've watched for these tournaments would have a chance against Lifeforce. It's only flaw is pacing, it has a lull in the middle. So to beat it you'd need a really tight, masterpiece level film and Brides of Dracula ain't that.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe

Uncle Boogeyman posted:

Counterargument: Brides of Dracula is, in fact, that.

I hope everyone else agrees with you tbh. I'd rather see Fisher advance and have a chance to show off some of his other films than Hooper.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe

TrixRabbi posted:

I think the key takeaway from this round and last tournament is that we've vastly overrated Rob Zombie's stature within horror.

He is and always will be divisive and that's a killer in a tournament like this with 15-20 people voting. There's always going to be a significant percentage of people who just don't dig him, whereas most of the other directors have at least one or two obvious winners that they can beat people with if they're lucky enough to draw them. With Zombie, I don't care if he drew The Devil's Rejects, he was probably going to lose because his style rubs some people the wrong way. Always has.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
Looking forward to some space vampires and stuffy aristocrat vampires later tonight!

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
In fairness I have to say that I really did enjoy Brides of Dracula more this time around, maybe the company in the stream helped boost it. For one, Martita Hunt is fantastic as the mother of the boring villain. Without her, the movie would really fall on it's face because she carries the first act. Secondly, this movie has some of the best stuff Cushing ever did as the Van Helsing character. The scene where he gets bitten and then has to cauterize the wound is amazing, and in 1960 he was still young enough to be leaping around and jumping off furniture, etc.

I dunno, part of me wants to "break the rules" and just vote for Fisher because I want to see him in future rounds and have him get the opportunity to draw more movies. It's tough to do that because Lifeforce is one of my favorite movies and part of me would definitely feel dirty voting against it. Uniqueness is something I usually vote for when the opponent is more of a predictable sequel, which you could argue that Brides of Dracula is. And Lifeforce is undeniably one of the most unique combinations of elements you'll ever see in any film, let alone a big budget studio film. So my gut is telling me I will vote for Lifeforce but my heart is still trying to pull me the other direction. I'll probably vote at some point today.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
Are you gonna stream Otto first or second? I want to try to make it but if it's not starting until after 10pm I probably won't be able to.

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Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
I voted for Otto. Not because I dislike Possessor, I enjoyed Possessor quite a bit. But these are two films that are pretty hard to compare, they're not really operating on an even playing field, and their goals are completely different. And I feel like in terms of accomplishing those goals they were about equal.

The decider was just watching Otto, and seeing how weird and unique it is, it made me interested to see what else this team has up it's sleeve, whereas with the Nephilim team I kinda feel like I know what I'm gonna get there. At least somewhat. So I voted for the team that I wanted to see more of, even though this specific matchup was basically a push for me.

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