ThirstyFly
Member
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is probably going to be the mandatory movie next year, depending on how well White Zombie works out this year.
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31 Days of Horror 4 |OT| The October Movie Marathon
- Thread starter ThirstyFly
- Start date
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is probably going to be the mandatory movie next year, depending on how well White Zombie works out this year.
Infernostew
Member
I'm all for that! Great film.
Rhomega Beta
Member
Yes it is, even though sometimes you can tell it's being filmed on a stage.
8BitsAtATime
Member
These 2 will be added to my list. Inner Depravity is a short....
That's the case for nearly the entire movie, but it's a deliberate stylistic choice. It also works with the plot of the film.
Conflict NZ
Member
I have about 8 days to fill, what are some overlooked 90s horror movies?
Infernostew
Member
In the Mouth of Madness
Cube
Cemetery Man (Dellamorte Dellamore)
People Under the Stairs
Frankenhooker
Hardware
Shadowlink
Member
Can it be October already?
Plasticine
Member
I've more or less settled on my list:
1 Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers
2 Halloween 666: The Curse of Michael Myers (Producer's Cut)
3 Texas Chainsaw Massacre III
4 Friday The 13th Part 6
5 Slumber Party Massacre II
6 Scream
7 The Burning
8 Slaughter High
9 Silent Night Deadly Night
10 Friday The 13th Part 5
11 Superstition
12 The Phantom of the Opera
13 Nightmare on Elm Street Part 4: The Dream Master
14 The Hills Run Red
15 Dark Ride
16 The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014)
17 Nightbreed: The Director's Cut
18 Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh
19 Hatchet
20 See No Evil
21 See No Evil 2
22 The Last Horror Film
23 Nightmare
24 Midnight Movie
25 Sorority House Massacre
26 I Know What You Did Last Summer
27 Urban Legend
28 The Orphan Killer
29 Wrong Turn
30 House of Wax
31 Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
The bold represents a first time viewing. I have seen the theatrical versions of H6 and Nightbreed, but never watched the versions on my list. As usual, I'll probably make some last minute changes, but hopefully not too many.
1 Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers
2 Halloween 666: The Curse of Michael Myers (Producer's Cut)
3 Texas Chainsaw Massacre III
4 Friday The 13th Part 6
5 Slumber Party Massacre II
6 Scream
7 The Burning
8 Slaughter High
9 Silent Night Deadly Night
10 Friday The 13th Part 5
11 Superstition
12 The Phantom of the Opera
13 Nightmare on Elm Street Part 4: The Dream Master
14 The Hills Run Red
15 Dark Ride
16 The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014)
17 Nightbreed: The Director's Cut
18 Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh
19 Hatchet
20 See No Evil
21 See No Evil 2
22 The Last Horror Film
23 Nightmare
24 Midnight Movie
25 Sorority House Massacre
26 I Know What You Did Last Summer
27 Urban Legend
28 The Orphan Killer
29 Wrong Turn
30 House of Wax
31 Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
The bold represents a first time viewing. I have seen the theatrical versions of H6 and Nightbreed, but never watched the versions on my list. As usual, I'll probably make some last minute changes, but hopefully not too many.
Conflict NZ
Member
Your Avatar tells me you have good taste, so I'll definitely watch some of these, cheers!
ThirstyFly
Member
Seconded. Great choices on those 3.
"Wanna date? Got any money?"
Yessssss!
I would definitely put this on my list, but it's coming out the Tuesday before Halloween and doesn't give me enough time to include it. Very excited for it's release! It's definitely a movie that has deserved a second life for a long time. The director's cut might finally establish it as the cult hit Nightbreed has deserved to be.
Is it that time? It's finally that time.
RIDLEY'S SIXTH ANNUAL HALLOWEEN HORROR MOVIE MARATHON
A little bit more of a back-to-basics approach than the past ones have been, I decided to scale it down from ~50 films of the ones in the past couple of years to just thirty-one films. These will all be first time watches.
WEEK ONE (Oct 1-4): FEARFUL FORESTS
Ahh, the forest. More than just one of the cheapest locations that you can shoot in, it's often been at the forefront of a lot of our fears and anxieties. No matter how often we watch nature documentaries to console ourselves that bears aren't as common as we might think, and the probability that there aren't families of inbred zombie redneck killers waiting for us to take a vacation at a friend's cabin is somewhat low, there remains an intangible aspect to them that we're never going to be quite comfortable with. This week's films put that fear to good use, both from the dangers we expect to be there, and those that we don't.
Just Before Dawn
Rituals
Southern Comfort
Without Warning
WEEK TWO (Oct. 5-11): MEDICAL ISSUES
The connective tissue here (har har) concern films that utilize aspects of the field of medicine in some way. Some are about doctors who probably shouldn't be anywhere near human beings, much less around instruments designed to slice them open. Some are about the patients that could very well be better off dead, or at least locked away. Some are even about improper use of medical equipment, because even the sharp and pointed pieces of hardware aren't necessarily the scariest ones. A wide range of films are on display here, which is rather fitting for a field that has so many extraordinary ways to terrify us.
Altered States
Anatomy
Dead Ringers
Monkey Shines
Pin: A Plastic Nightmare
Re-Animator
The Sender
WEEK THREE (Oct. 12-18): THE FEMALE PERSPECTIVE
Contrary to popular belief, horror films aren't the misogynist trash that some critics have painted them in the past, and it's often the films that focus on women that tend to yield some of the genre's most potent and unforgettable images and ideas. Since I've often gravitated to many in the past, it's way past due that these perspectives get their own week to themselves, highlighting everything from extreme circumstances to the slow gnaw of lives wasted and ignored.
Amer
American Mary
May
Ms. 45
Proxy
Season of the Witch
We Need to Talk About Kevin
WEEK FOUR (Oct. 19-25): THE LAND (WAY) DOWN UNDER
By my highly scientific research, the only thing about Australia that isn't able to kill you is the map, and even I'm not sure that's true. Suffice it to say, the unique geographical qualities and boasting enough deadly flora and fauna to murder our galaxy many times over has rubbed off on its filmmakers, who find inspiration to deliver some of horror filmmaking's most unique entries, or at least add their own spin to familiar concepts that manage to feel fresh again.
Long Weekend
The Loved Ones
Patrick
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Razorback
Road Games
Rogue
WEEK FIVE (Oct. 26-31): CULT FOLLOWING
For the marathons I've held, I've noticed a trend of the last week often being reserved for decidedly more upscale fare, be it via older films made before ratings boards made it possible to show substantially more obscene content, or those films of a substantial critical appraisal. This is not happening this year, as I've selected seven films that are said to have their merits, even if they're of a somewhat dubious nature.
The Baby
Brain Damage
Night of the Creeps
Nightmare City
Pieces
Street Trash
Torso
You may have noticed that there aren't any specific days set for any of the films I'm watching this year, outside of the weekly theme that they're a part of. It's not from lack of trying, as I feel like trying something a bit different with them by not having any set expectations going into that day with an appetite for the uncertain. As much research as I've done, I made a conscious effort to not go too far into diving into nearly all of these films as I have done in the past.
RIDLEY'S SIXTH ANNUAL HALLOWEEN HORROR MOVIE MARATHON
A little bit more of a back-to-basics approach than the past ones have been, I decided to scale it down from ~50 films of the ones in the past couple of years to just thirty-one films. These will all be first time watches.
WEEK ONE (Oct 1-4): FEARFUL FORESTS
Ahh, the forest. More than just one of the cheapest locations that you can shoot in, it's often been at the forefront of a lot of our fears and anxieties. No matter how often we watch nature documentaries to console ourselves that bears aren't as common as we might think, and the probability that there aren't families of inbred zombie redneck killers waiting for us to take a vacation at a friend's cabin is somewhat low, there remains an intangible aspect to them that we're never going to be quite comfortable with. This week's films put that fear to good use, both from the dangers we expect to be there, and those that we don't.
Just Before Dawn
Rituals
Southern Comfort
Without Warning
WEEK TWO (Oct. 5-11): MEDICAL ISSUES
The connective tissue here (har har) concern films that utilize aspects of the field of medicine in some way. Some are about doctors who probably shouldn't be anywhere near human beings, much less around instruments designed to slice them open. Some are about the patients that could very well be better off dead, or at least locked away. Some are even about improper use of medical equipment, because even the sharp and pointed pieces of hardware aren't necessarily the scariest ones. A wide range of films are on display here, which is rather fitting for a field that has so many extraordinary ways to terrify us.
Altered States
Anatomy
Dead Ringers
Monkey Shines
Pin: A Plastic Nightmare
Re-Animator
The Sender
WEEK THREE (Oct. 12-18): THE FEMALE PERSPECTIVE
Contrary to popular belief, horror films aren't the misogynist trash that some critics have painted them in the past, and it's often the films that focus on women that tend to yield some of the genre's most potent and unforgettable images and ideas. Since I've often gravitated to many in the past, it's way past due that these perspectives get their own week to themselves, highlighting everything from extreme circumstances to the slow gnaw of lives wasted and ignored.
Amer
American Mary
May
Ms. 45
Proxy
Season of the Witch
We Need to Talk About Kevin
WEEK FOUR (Oct. 19-25): THE LAND (WAY) DOWN UNDER
By my highly scientific research, the only thing about Australia that isn't able to kill you is the map, and even I'm not sure that's true. Suffice it to say, the unique geographical qualities and boasting enough deadly flora and fauna to murder our galaxy many times over has rubbed off on its filmmakers, who find inspiration to deliver some of horror filmmaking's most unique entries, or at least add their own spin to familiar concepts that manage to feel fresh again.
Long Weekend
The Loved Ones
Patrick
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Razorback
Road Games
Rogue
WEEK FIVE (Oct. 26-31): CULT FOLLOWING
For the marathons I've held, I've noticed a trend of the last week often being reserved for decidedly more upscale fare, be it via older films made before ratings boards made it possible to show substantially more obscene content, or those films of a substantial critical appraisal. This is not happening this year, as I've selected seven films that are said to have their merits, even if they're of a somewhat dubious nature.
The Baby
Brain Damage
Night of the Creeps
Nightmare City
Pieces
Street Trash
Torso
You may have noticed that there aren't any specific days set for any of the films I'm watching this year, outside of the weekly theme that they're a part of. It's not from lack of trying, as I feel like trying something a bit different with them by not having any set expectations going into that day with an appetite for the uncertain. As much research as I've done, I made a conscious effort to not go too far into diving into nearly all of these films as I have done in the past.
ThirstyFly
Member
Yeah, I really wanted to include it since I've never seen it, but that release date means I won't get it until November. Oh well, I'll post my opinions in the general horror thread when I get to it... if I'm not too burnt out by the end of the marathon.
Good God, man. All those in one week? Get that Jackie Chan "full of fuck" jpg ready.
And from your medical week, I'm really surprised you haven't seen Re-animator yet.
Funny enough, that was the last thing I had figured out. The last week had been proving somewhat troublesome for me, since I had been thinking in that mentality of saving "the best" for last. But the more I got down to it, the more I realized that this is a lot more evenly spread out in terms of films of unimpeachable praise than it has been in the past, and I realized that I ran the risk of being something of an implacable snob if I kept trying to wrack my brain over how I could find even higher quality films. I don't consider it to be slumming at all, though: with how eclectic my tastes run, to the point where I've dumped on films with a fairly sterling reputation (*cough*cough*Frailty*cough*cough), I welcome the challenge of a week where I'm running substantially more blind than I normally am, and I do think I'm likely to find a couple of those films mildly amusing, at the very least.
ThirstyFly
Member
Oh, don't get me wrong about those titles, they're all quite charming in thier own way.
The only one I personally didn't care for was
Street Trash, but I wasn't really into that type of film when I watched it. I'm sure I'd enjoy it much more now. I should really do a rewatch since I own it on DVD.
I can't wait for your opinions on all if them (esp. The Baby). It's a really interesting batch of movies. It's just a lot of crazy for one week.
Plasticine
Member
I ordered directly from Scream Factory because they're shipping it out on the 14th. I'm super excited to see it. I remember reading Clive Barker's Shadows in Eden years ago, and just shaking my head about how badly Nightbreed was treated by the studio. I've been wanting to see Clive's real version ever since. I really hope it delivers.
You've got some really great flicks lined up. The Aussie horror selections are nice to read. Road Games, in particular, is really good. You'll also have a blast with your final week. Street Trash is amazing.
mariachi507
Member
Well, I have a new addition to my horrorthon this year, and it is the ultimate horror.
College.
Between that and work it's going to be very difficult to even watch twenty films. However, I will get my horror on or I will die trying. I'll spend the weekend forming my list in between study sessions and we'll get this party started!
List from last year if anyone is interested.
#1 White Zombie
#2 Demons
#3 The Night Flier
#4 Hellraiser
#5 The Gate
#6 The Dark Half
#7 Ravenous
#8 Brainscan
#9 Salem's Lot
#10 The Stuff
#11 Prince of Darkness
#12 Critters
#13 Night of the Creeps
#14 Silver Bullet
#15 Tales from the Darkside The Movie
#16 Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
I was thinking about something like this. My goal is to watch a movie every other. So what do you guys think about my list?
I know there are alot of Stephen King movies on my list this year.
#2 Demons
#3 The Night Flier
#4 Hellraiser
#5 The Gate
#6 The Dark Half
#7 Ravenous
#8 Brainscan
#9 Salem's Lot
#10 The Stuff
#11 Prince of Darkness
#12 Critters
#13 Night of the Creeps
#14 Silver Bullet
#15 Tales from the Darkside The Movie
#16 Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
I was thinking about something like this. My goal is to watch a movie every other. So what do you guys think about my list?
I know there are alot of Stephen King movies on my list this year.
Blue Submarine No. 6
Member
Which version of The Phantom of the Opera are you watching? The original 1925 Chaney silent is the most faithful to the novel, but Universal's 1943 version with Claude Rains and the 1962 Hammer featuring Herbert Lom are worthy successors despite their liberties with the source...
Plasticine
Member
None of the above, actually. I'm watching the Robert Englund slasher version from 1989. I've never seen it before, but I'm sure it takes more than a few liberties with the material.
So here's my list thus far:
1. Devil's Backbone
2. Blood and Black Lace
3. Last Man on Earth
4. New York Ripper
5. Life Force
6. Phantasm
7. Maniac (2012)
8. Basketcase
9. Grave Encounters
10. Kill Baby Kill
11. Kaidan
12. American Mary
13. Mama
14. The Horde (2009)
15. Testament of Dr. Mabuse
16. Dream Home
17. Noroi the Curse
18. The Inn Keepers
19. Bird with the Crystal Plumage
20. From Beyond
21. Sleep Away Camp
22. White ZOmbie
23. Ravenous
24. V/H/S 2
25. The Shrine
26. Would You Rather
27. Honeymoon (2014)
28. What Have the Done To Your Daughter (if I can find it in time)
28 Alt - Friday the 13th (1980) - I've never actually seen this.
29. Jug Face
30. Strange Circus
31. Anti-Viral
Almost all culled from lists here on GAF, so thanks guys. They helped a lot. Not going to stick to an order, just try to get them all in.
1. Devil's Backbone
2. Blood and Black Lace
3. Last Man on Earth
4. New York Ripper
5. Life Force
6. Phantasm
7. Maniac (2012)
8. Basketcase
9. Grave Encounters
10. Kill Baby Kill
11. Kaidan
12. American Mary
13. Mama
14. The Horde (2009)
15. Testament of Dr. Mabuse
16. Dream Home
17. Noroi the Curse
18. The Inn Keepers
19. Bird with the Crystal Plumage
20. From Beyond
21. Sleep Away Camp
22. White ZOmbie
23. Ravenous
24. V/H/S 2
25. The Shrine
26. Would You Rather
27. Honeymoon (2014)
28. What Have the Done To Your Daughter (if I can find it in time)
28 Alt - Friday the 13th (1980) - I've never actually seen this.
29. Jug Face
30. Strange Circus
31. Anti-Viral
Almost all culled from lists here on GAF, so thanks guys. They helped a lot. Not going to stick to an order, just try to get them all in.
canoli2006
Member
And on the Lord's Day, Amazon graced my doorstep with...
I asked for standard shipping between 10/1-10/4 but oh well...
I asked for standard shipping between 10/1-10/4 but oh well...
canoli2006
Member
Ok so the first week or so will be Scary movies brought to you by The Criterion Collection. I have a select number of films from either bluray/DVD or online streaming. In no particular order I plan on watching:
Carnival of Souls
Scanners
The Devil's Backbone
The Vanishing
Repulsion
Rosemary's Baby
The Uninvited
Vampyr
Eyes Without a Face
I would like to find The Living Skeleton as well.
Carnival of Souls
Scanners
The Devil's Backbone
The Vanishing
Repulsion
Rosemary's Baby
The Uninvited
Vampyr
Eyes Without a Face
I would like to find The Living Skeleton as well.
That is a daaaaaaamn good week. (I prefer The Innocents over The Uninvited but no matter)
ThirstyFly
Member
Man, everyone picked good stuff this year. I was looking forward to reading some reviews on real pieces of crap
Oh well, I still have ThanksKilling on my list. That's sure to be garbage.
Oh well, I still have ThanksKilling on my list. That's sure to be garbage.
I dunno, man. Dracula Untold looks to be as much of a horror film as the Twilight series.
So here's my (uncut) list so far, in approximate release order. I'm only watching movies I haven't seen before. It kind of surprised me how many classics I haven't seen, but that's why there are so many sequels on the list but not the originals. Anyway, I kind of went overboard:
White Zombie
Bride of Frankenstein
Cat People
I Walked With a Zombie
Dead of Night
Jigoku
Blood Feast
Black Sabbath
Blood and Black Lace
Kwaidan
Let's Scare Jessica to Death
The Wicker Man
The Omen
Martin
Phantasm
Zombi 2
The Fog
Inferno
The Beyond
The Burning
Halloween 2
Halloween 3
Creepshow
Tenebre
Phenomena
House
Night of the Creeps
Opera
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3
The Gate
Prince of Darkness
Fright Night 2
The Blob
Society
Cemetery Man
Scream 2
Ravenous
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
Slither
Frontier(s)
Tucker and Dale vs Evil
The Thing (2011)
The Woman
American Mary
V/H/S
V/H/S/2
I won't watch them all in that order I don't think, and I'll probably just cut/skip some as I go along instead of trimming 16 movies off the list right now.
White Zombie
Bride of Frankenstein
Cat People
I Walked With a Zombie
Dead of Night
Jigoku
Blood Feast
Black Sabbath
Blood and Black Lace
Kwaidan
Let's Scare Jessica to Death
The Wicker Man
The Omen
Martin
Phantasm
Zombi 2
The Fog
Inferno
The Beyond
The Burning
Halloween 2
Halloween 3
Creepshow
Tenebre
Phenomena
House
Night of the Creeps
Opera
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3
The Gate
Prince of Darkness
Fright Night 2
The Blob
Society
Cemetery Man
Scream 2
Ravenous
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
Slither
Frontier(s)
Tucker and Dale vs Evil
The Thing (2011)
The Woman
American Mary
V/H/S
V/H/S/2
I won't watch them all in that order I don't think, and I'll probably just cut/skip some as I go along instead of trimming 16 movies off the list right now.
Watching Pieces (It's exactly what you think it is!) yet again. It could be the ultimate "So bad it's good" Slasher film but the interesting thing about it is that it still fullfills the quota of a Slasher. Namely tits and gore but the pacing is good, there's rarely a boring moment, and you can't knock it so much on a technical level. But man that dialog...
This is the best WTF scene ever.
Bad Chop Suey.
This is the best WTF scene ever.
Bad Chop Suey.
Remember when I said I'd be starting on Wednesday?
I LIED
WEEK ONE (Sept 28-Oct 4): FEARFUL FORESTS
One of the frustrating things about some horror films is that they're often good ideas often held back by weak or outright terrible execution. For example, the idea of a story taking place in the ruins of the Chernobyl power plant seems like it could write itself: the remnants of a town trapped in time due to the pressing need to evacuated immediately; the surrounding wilderness beginning to reclaim its lost territory over the intervening years; the wandering thoughts as to what could possibly lurking in the wake of the fallout from the leak, both familiar and unknown. But if something like Chernobyl Diaries proves anything, it's that you can royally fuck up a can't-lose concept like that by falling into too well-worn of tropes, a drastic lack of imagination, and a criminal misuse of one of the most haunting locales in all the world. It happens time and time again: good ideas being mangled by people not talented enough to handle them. Such is the fate of a film like Sleepaway Camp.
I'm not one to dump on films for fun and pleasure, as there are people who get paid to do that who are far more wittier than I could pretend to be, because I really never want a film to be bad. I can't really enjoy myself even under the guise of ironic attachment, because I'm just too damn genuine in both my admiration and distaste, and in this case, I can't count myself as one of the many fans this film has attracted since its release in 1983. It's not that I don't see the appeal, either: a film like this certainly was going to stick out from the rest of the slasher pack in 1983, taking a familiar concept as the "kids go to camp and have a worse time than most" and turning it off-kilter enough with some of the narrative decisions it decides to make and also being brave enough to have a cast of actual kids going through some of this stuff normally reserved for the college set that are still baby-faced enough to be only a tiny bit embarrassing in trying to convince us otherwise. Some of the bizarre humor it employs also works, especially whenever Desiree Gould is on the screen, whose batshit insane performance as Aunt Martha toes a mighty fine line between sincere and self-knowing ever so precariously. And while she's not one of the finest scream queens of the era, Felissa Rose as our heroine Angela possesses a great ineffable intensity in just her gaze that even when struggling with the dialogue, it's not hard to find a lot to like about what she brings in terms of her physicality.
That's what makes it painful that the production as a whole was treated like a slightly raunchier ABC After School Special, complete with kids that don't act so much as Exclaim! and Emote! as if they're putting on a play like they were back in elementary school (which, I'll be fair, is fitting for the actors that are actually still in elementary school). It exhibits a lot of the same problems that a lot of the me-too slashers did back then: dull staging, subpar editing, merely perfunctory photography. Where a lot of those films really didn't aspire to be much more than a cheap way to get some gore and maybe a boob or two for maximum ROI, Sleepaway Camp aspires enough to be more than that for the lack of technical proficiency to be a big problem in enjoying the film. But there lies a bigger problem, in that the script never feels fully formed enough to really to sell what could have been rather forward-thinking concepts for the genre, leading to perhaps not even quarter-realized concepts that went into its revelations, and its tone veers too closely to unintentional camp at all times for there to be any real sense of horror to be had. There's a sincerity to the whole thing that I won't deny, but I find this to be an especially frustrating film because its problems run deeper than just being on a tiny budget.
One of the reasons I hate saying "I want to like this film," is because I often have to follow that immediately with "but I can't," and as much as I find myself often trying to qualify successes to be stronger than what tend to be much stronger negativity in other departments, it's really hard for a film like this to dig itself out of so deep a hole. Good ideas will only get you so far on their own.
I want to like this film, but I can't.
Next film: I don't know yet, and that's the point. Sleepaway Camp was an off-the-cuff view, and that's the way I want to keep it. I have a list for films during the following weeks here, but this week is special since I only had four selected, so that means there's two more films this week to watch. I'm just as excited to find out what they are as you might be!
I LIED
WEEK ONE (Sept 28-Oct 4): FEARFUL FORESTS
One of the frustrating things about some horror films is that they're often good ideas often held back by weak or outright terrible execution. For example, the idea of a story taking place in the ruins of the Chernobyl power plant seems like it could write itself: the remnants of a town trapped in time due to the pressing need to evacuated immediately; the surrounding wilderness beginning to reclaim its lost territory over the intervening years; the wandering thoughts as to what could possibly lurking in the wake of the fallout from the leak, both familiar and unknown. But if something like Chernobyl Diaries proves anything, it's that you can royally fuck up a can't-lose concept like that by falling into too well-worn of tropes, a drastic lack of imagination, and a criminal misuse of one of the most haunting locales in all the world. It happens time and time again: good ideas being mangled by people not talented enough to handle them. Such is the fate of a film like Sleepaway Camp.
I'm not one to dump on films for fun and pleasure, as there are people who get paid to do that who are far more wittier than I could pretend to be, because I really never want a film to be bad. I can't really enjoy myself even under the guise of ironic attachment, because I'm just too damn genuine in both my admiration and distaste, and in this case, I can't count myself as one of the many fans this film has attracted since its release in 1983. It's not that I don't see the appeal, either: a film like this certainly was going to stick out from the rest of the slasher pack in 1983, taking a familiar concept as the "kids go to camp and have a worse time than most" and turning it off-kilter enough with some of the narrative decisions it decides to make and also being brave enough to have a cast of actual kids going through some of this stuff normally reserved for the college set that are still baby-faced enough to be only a tiny bit embarrassing in trying to convince us otherwise. Some of the bizarre humor it employs also works, especially whenever Desiree Gould is on the screen, whose batshit insane performance as Aunt Martha toes a mighty fine line between sincere and self-knowing ever so precariously. And while she's not one of the finest scream queens of the era, Felissa Rose as our heroine Angela possesses a great ineffable intensity in just her gaze that even when struggling with the dialogue, it's not hard to find a lot to like about what she brings in terms of her physicality.
That's what makes it painful that the production as a whole was treated like a slightly raunchier ABC After School Special, complete with kids that don't act so much as Exclaim! and Emote! as if they're putting on a play like they were back in elementary school (which, I'll be fair, is fitting for the actors that are actually still in elementary school). It exhibits a lot of the same problems that a lot of the me-too slashers did back then: dull staging, subpar editing, merely perfunctory photography. Where a lot of those films really didn't aspire to be much more than a cheap way to get some gore and maybe a boob or two for maximum ROI, Sleepaway Camp aspires enough to be more than that for the lack of technical proficiency to be a big problem in enjoying the film. But there lies a bigger problem, in that the script never feels fully formed enough to really to sell what could have been rather forward-thinking concepts for the genre, leading to perhaps not even quarter-realized concepts that went into its revelations, and its tone veers too closely to unintentional camp at all times for there to be any real sense of horror to be had. There's a sincerity to the whole thing that I won't deny, but I find this to be an especially frustrating film because its problems run deeper than just being on a tiny budget.
One of the reasons I hate saying "I want to like this film," is because I often have to follow that immediately with "but I can't," and as much as I find myself often trying to qualify successes to be stronger than what tend to be much stronger negativity in other departments, it's really hard for a film like this to dig itself out of so deep a hole. Good ideas will only get you so far on their own.
I want to like this film, but I can't.
Next film: I don't know yet, and that's the point. Sleepaway Camp was an off-the-cuff view, and that's the way I want to keep it. I have a list for films during the following weeks here, but this week is special since I only had four selected, so that means there's two more films this week to watch. I'm just as excited to find out what they are as you might be!
True it does but im only going to be watching films I have never seen before so a few bad ones may slip in!
ThirstyFly
Member
Blah. My stupid Photobucket reached its 10gb bandwidth limit so I had to rehost everything. The images in the OP should be fixed now.
No idea how I hit 10gb with just this thread's logos...
I dare you to find a better spontaneous
scene in a movie. There is none greater!
No idea how I hit 10gb with just this thread's logos...
I dare you to find a better spontaneous
kung fu
WEEK ONE (Sept 28-Oct 4): FEARFUL FORESTS
With the exception of perhaps Halloween, there has never been a film that benefited more from a slew of imitators than Jaws. Jaws had already received strong critical notices and its box office power was nothing short of unprecedented, but what really helped ensure its place in cinematic history was how clearly better it was than the competition. The B-movies were now becoming A-pictures in the hands of the Hollywood studios that had once left in them in the hands of canny filmmakers like Roger Corman. It wasn't just the increase in budgets either, as Jaws was littered with characters that looked and felt like real human beings, to the point where even the bit players were more strongly realized that the leads in the films that Corman had worked on. For better and for worse, Jaws had changed the landscape for genre filmmaking forever by setting the bar so high that few could possibly hope to reach it, let alone to grab a hold of it.
But oh, did they try. Films like Orca, Tintorera, Tentacles and dozens more went right after Jaws directly by writing checks for more carefully crafted aquatic terror than they were capable of cashing in on, and even the regrettably inevitable sequels to Jaws seemed to ignore all the important lessons that it taught, focusing on idiotic characters rather than the merely outmatched and far too much of an increase in the special effects budget. Inevitably, filmmakers figured out they could do the same thing with much more budget-friendly locations like national parks, and that's what brings us to Grizzly.
Grizzly more rigidly adheres to the Jaws template than most of its ilk: it focuses on an authority figure whose efforts to rid his jurisdiction of a giant killer animal is hampered by superiors with more financially-driven motivations; he's joined by an eccentric type who has clearly spent too much time out in the wilderness and not enough around people; there's a big speech describing unimaginable past trauma related to the quarry prior to the climax. I could go on and on, but you get the picture: Grizzly tries its damnedest to be Jaws with claws that one might wonder why Universal Studios wouldn't have tried to pursue legal action.
Being like Jaws does not make you Jaws, which is the fatal flaw in many of the knock-offs, and Grizzly stands as a more unintentionally humorous hallmark of that line of thinking than most. Director William Girdler tries his best to aspire to something greater with an opening credits that features impressive aerial photography of a national park, but soon runs into pacing problems. Despite being an entire half-hour shorter than Jaws, Grizzly is so languidly paced that it feels an hour longer. Some of this is due to a very messy script, which never finds a good rhythm, leading to subplots that go nowhere, entirely worthless characters (it's difficult to call Joan McCall's role the female lead, since she contributes nothing but a vague romantic foil for our hero that is never elaborated upon beyond a peck on a cheek), and well-meaning but woefully inept social commentary about media frenzies in the wake of tragedy. Some of it is due to Girdler's inability to create suspense, let alone sustain it, in the many stalking scenes: fond of he is for the POV shot to represent the title animal, it gets quite tiring when two-thirds of any given scene is more about someone walking slowly through the brush, with very little to focus on until the last third, where the attacks happen so quickly and so haphazardly that you can barely tell what's going on. It has elements of being budget related, but a good filmmaker would have been able to recognize that the scenes that are supposed to be scary aren't scary at all. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if the actors weren't all clawing over each other to chew up more of the forest in their scenes, with Christopher George trying (and failing) to be a more badass Brody, and Richard Jaeckel focusing squarely on Quint's madness with none of the hubris.
Sometimes, though, that level of wide-spread badness can wind up endearing, and somehow, some way, Grizzly manages to fall right into that. Part of that has to do with its budget limitations providing a steady level of guffaws, particularly where it concerns the bear itself. Never seen in the same frame as the other actors, the filmmakers relied on separately shot footage of the bear, with attack shots featuring the most gloriously fake bear claw in perhaps all of cinema. On top of that, since there's no threat to the actors, the shots of the bear are often more adorable than terrifying, which adds a further layer of unintentional humor. It also can be appreciated that it certainly pushes the 70s PG rating even further than Jaws did, as it's a very surprisingly gory film, filled with death and dismemberment that is not prejudiced at all, and no one, man or woman, young or old, human or animal, is safe from the killer fake bear claw of doom.
If for nothing else, the film needs to be seen for its finale. After killing one of the leads (and then killing them again, because why not), our remaining heroes finally have the bear on the run, and set their helicopter down. Faster than you can say "Jason Voorhees," the bear magically teleports in front of them without them noticing, trashing the helicopter and scuttling them in what should have been a desperate act of survival, which is played by both actors as more of a merely mild annoyance. This is supposed to be it, and it's not playing out any differently than the previous attack scenes. What happens next can only be described as Chekhov's Rocket Launcher, which is a shame since there was also the possibility of Chekhov's Flame Thrower in the mix, but it's no less memorably ridiculous or absurd. Then comes what was intended to be a downbeat ending, but ends up more funny than anything else. It's the perfect summary for a film like this: it's a serious film undone by how seriously it takes itself, but it takes itself seriously enough to be funny and, on rare occasion, just fun enough to not be a waste of time. The bear may be 15-feet tall (or 18, going by the poster), but that's clearly not tall enough to grab the bar Jaws set. Sometimes, it's just fun watching a film like Grizzly try.
With the exception of perhaps Halloween, there has never been a film that benefited more from a slew of imitators than Jaws. Jaws had already received strong critical notices and its box office power was nothing short of unprecedented, but what really helped ensure its place in cinematic history was how clearly better it was than the competition. The B-movies were now becoming A-pictures in the hands of the Hollywood studios that had once left in them in the hands of canny filmmakers like Roger Corman. It wasn't just the increase in budgets either, as Jaws was littered with characters that looked and felt like real human beings, to the point where even the bit players were more strongly realized that the leads in the films that Corman had worked on. For better and for worse, Jaws had changed the landscape for genre filmmaking forever by setting the bar so high that few could possibly hope to reach it, let alone to grab a hold of it.
But oh, did they try. Films like Orca, Tintorera, Tentacles and dozens more went right after Jaws directly by writing checks for more carefully crafted aquatic terror than they were capable of cashing in on, and even the regrettably inevitable sequels to Jaws seemed to ignore all the important lessons that it taught, focusing on idiotic characters rather than the merely outmatched and far too much of an increase in the special effects budget. Inevitably, filmmakers figured out they could do the same thing with much more budget-friendly locations like national parks, and that's what brings us to Grizzly.
Grizzly more rigidly adheres to the Jaws template than most of its ilk: it focuses on an authority figure whose efforts to rid his jurisdiction of a giant killer animal is hampered by superiors with more financially-driven motivations; he's joined by an eccentric type who has clearly spent too much time out in the wilderness and not enough around people; there's a big speech describing unimaginable past trauma related to the quarry prior to the climax. I could go on and on, but you get the picture: Grizzly tries its damnedest to be Jaws with claws that one might wonder why Universal Studios wouldn't have tried to pursue legal action.
Being like Jaws does not make you Jaws, which is the fatal flaw in many of the knock-offs, and Grizzly stands as a more unintentionally humorous hallmark of that line of thinking than most. Director William Girdler tries his best to aspire to something greater with an opening credits that features impressive aerial photography of a national park, but soon runs into pacing problems. Despite being an entire half-hour shorter than Jaws, Grizzly is so languidly paced that it feels an hour longer. Some of this is due to a very messy script, which never finds a good rhythm, leading to subplots that go nowhere, entirely worthless characters (it's difficult to call Joan McCall's role the female lead, since she contributes nothing but a vague romantic foil for our hero that is never elaborated upon beyond a peck on a cheek), and well-meaning but woefully inept social commentary about media frenzies in the wake of tragedy. Some of it is due to Girdler's inability to create suspense, let alone sustain it, in the many stalking scenes: fond of he is for the POV shot to represent the title animal, it gets quite tiring when two-thirds of any given scene is more about someone walking slowly through the brush, with very little to focus on until the last third, where the attacks happen so quickly and so haphazardly that you can barely tell what's going on. It has elements of being budget related, but a good filmmaker would have been able to recognize that the scenes that are supposed to be scary aren't scary at all. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if the actors weren't all clawing over each other to chew up more of the forest in their scenes, with Christopher George trying (and failing) to be a more badass Brody, and Richard Jaeckel focusing squarely on Quint's madness with none of the hubris.
Sometimes, though, that level of wide-spread badness can wind up endearing, and somehow, some way, Grizzly manages to fall right into that. Part of that has to do with its budget limitations providing a steady level of guffaws, particularly where it concerns the bear itself. Never seen in the same frame as the other actors, the filmmakers relied on separately shot footage of the bear, with attack shots featuring the most gloriously fake bear claw in perhaps all of cinema. On top of that, since there's no threat to the actors, the shots of the bear are often more adorable than terrifying, which adds a further layer of unintentional humor. It also can be appreciated that it certainly pushes the 70s PG rating even further than Jaws did, as it's a very surprisingly gory film, filled with death and dismemberment that is not prejudiced at all, and no one, man or woman, young or old, human or animal, is safe from the killer fake bear claw of doom.
If for nothing else, the film needs to be seen for its finale. After killing one of the leads (and then killing them again, because why not), our remaining heroes finally have the bear on the run, and set their helicopter down. Faster than you can say "Jason Voorhees," the bear magically teleports in front of them without them noticing, trashing the helicopter and scuttling them in what should have been a desperate act of survival, which is played by both actors as more of a merely mild annoyance. This is supposed to be it, and it's not playing out any differently than the previous attack scenes. What happens next can only be described as Chekhov's Rocket Launcher, which is a shame since there was also the possibility of Chekhov's Flame Thrower in the mix, but it's no less memorably ridiculous or absurd. Then comes what was intended to be a downbeat ending, but ends up more funny than anything else. It's the perfect summary for a film like this: it's a serious film undone by how seriously it takes itself, but it takes itself seriously enough to be funny and, on rare occasion, just fun enough to not be a waste of time. The bear may be 15-feet tall (or 18, going by the poster), but that's clearly not tall enough to grab the bar Jaws set. Sometimes, it's just fun watching a film like Grizzly try.
BattleMonkey
Member
Man, everyone picked good stuff this year. I was looking forward to reading some reviews on real pieces of crap
Oh well, I still have ThanksKilling on my list. That's sure to be garbage.
Oh I plan on watching a ton of crap again this year like last two years.
Eklipsis
Member
Ok what I have so far...items subject to change. Last year I couldnt find a few off the list locally so I had to make changes and I'm guessing more of the same this year. This is the list of new to me movies I'll try to see in October.
In no particular order....
1 White Zombie
2 Lifeforce
3 Society
4 All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
5 From Beyond
6 Feast
7 Inferno
8 Suspiria
9 Ravenous
10 Blood and Black Lace
11 Deliver Us from Evil
12 Jugface
13 The Afflicted
14 The Last Exorcism
15 Purge 2
16 VHS 3
17 Resolution
18 The Battery
19 Haunt
20 We Are What We Are
21 Outpost: Rise of the Spetznaz
22 Haunter
23 Grave Encounters
24 ABC of Death
25 Cabin Fever 3
26 Willow Creek
27 Dreamcatcher
28 Wer
I will be filling the rest and any switch outs of video on demand and few of my favorites/rewatches.
In no particular order....
1 White Zombie
2 Lifeforce
3 Society
4 All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
5 From Beyond
6 Feast
7 Inferno
8 Suspiria
9 Ravenous
10 Blood and Black Lace
11 Deliver Us from Evil
12 Jugface
13 The Afflicted
14 The Last Exorcism
15 Purge 2
16 VHS 3
17 Resolution
18 The Battery
19 Haunt
20 We Are What We Are
21 Outpost: Rise of the Spetznaz
22 Haunter
23 Grave Encounters
24 ABC of Death
25 Cabin Fever 3
26 Willow Creek
27 Dreamcatcher
28 Wer
I will be filling the rest and any switch outs of video on demand and few of my favorites/rewatches.
canoli2006
Member
Are we allowed to start early? I watched Nightmare 4 yesterday as sort of a warmup but I won't include it on my list.
If I might make a suggestion, I would swap Inferno and Suspiria around, if only because Inferno is basically a sequel to Suspiria. Not in terms of anything majorly story-related (both films do revolve around the same lore), but because I feel like it's important that you see Suspiria first to get better acclimated with what Inferno is going for.
I'm not really officially participating, but I'm there in spirit with you guys/girls I'm not much for reviewing things or articulating my thoughts about things I watch/listen to. I just try to enjoy it. So, I've gotten things started too and what I lack in pace, I'll make up with in quantity on some days Hopefully I can provide commentary (such as it is) as I go along. I don't have a list prepared so I'm just kinda freestyle watching...
Watched so far since Sunday:
Return To Horror High (Netflix): Low budget fun, maybe Scream if it were made in the '80s. Saw this on VHS when it came out, but missed the beginning of the movie because of awful tracking on the VCR!
The Stuff (Netflix): Was much better than I anticipated. Fun stuff.
C.H.U.D. (Netflix): Again, much better than I expected and something I had been meaning to watch since the '80s.
Pumpkinhead (blu-ray): Had not seen this in a long time. It's much better than I remember and Lance Henriksen has always been great. Blu-ray transfer looks really good.
I'm not much for reviewing things or articulating my thoughts about things I watch/listen to. I just try to enjoy it. So, I've gotten things started too and what I lack in pace, I'll make up with in quantity on some days Hopefully I can provide commentary (such as it is) as I go along. I don't have a list prepared so I'm just kinda freestyle watching...Watched so far since Sunday:
Return To Horror High (Netflix): Low budget fun, maybe Scream if it were made in the '80s. Saw this on VHS when it came out, but missed the beginning of the movie because of awful tracking on the VCR!
The Stuff (Netflix): Was much better than I anticipated. Fun stuff.
C.H.U.D. (Netflix): Again, much better than I expected and something I had been meaning to watch since the '80s.
Pumpkinhead (blu-ray): Had not seen this in a long time. It's much better than I remember and Lance Henriksen has always been great. Blu-ray transfer looks really good.
Yep. I second this suggestion.
Eklipsis
Member
OK..... I did not know that. Thanks! I wasn't going to watch in that order I listed but now I'll make sure to watch Suspiria before Inferno.