4. The Visitor (Giulio Paradisi, 1979)
The Visitor is a film about god and the devil, other dimensions, killer birds, possessed children and telekinesis. It stars Lance Henriksen and John Huston with cameos by Sam Peckinpah and Franco Nero (playing basically Jesus). The film is very entertaining and wildly ambitious but seems to make very little sense. Lance Henriksen even admits in the accompanying featurette that he had no idea what the film was about when shooting. Still there is something very intriguing about the film. 7/10
5. Knock Knock (Eli Roth, 2015)
A mediocre home invasion thriller starring Keanu Reeves. The film could work as a 45 minute short but as a feature it gets way too repetitive. I really don't get why Eli Roth is held in such high regard in some circles. I still haven't seen a film by him that shows any original ideas. 4/10
My girlfriend and I are doing this for our second year we started Saturday and plan to watch one a night all month, except on Mondays when we watch two since I work too late on Fridays. This year instead of starting with the least scary and working our way up, we are alternating between scary and not scary movies. I will be using this post to update my list as well as posting new reviews separately.
1. The Mummy
Overall:
2 out of 5
Holy shit does this movie not hold up super great. I used to love it when I was a kid, but now it is incredibly average at best. The cast is great, but there's no substance and all flash.
Scare Factor:
1/5
This is a family friendly adventure movie. Small children might be scared of the bugs and some of the special effects, but it's incredibly tame.
2. The Exorcist
Overall:
4 out of 5
I had never seen this movie in its entirety until last night, and man oh man am I glad I got to experience it finally. It does a really great job of setting up the mood, and slowly increasing the creepiness until the eventual full possession. The mother was set up perfectly, from being calm cool and collected to losing all of her shit as Regan's condition becomes worse. It's very disturbing for its time, but the ending seems like it was written to combat a runtime. The movie spends so much time building everything up slowly, only to crash and burn hard during the final sequence. It just feels like the producers wanted it cut short. But man, the rest of the meat is too good to really care that much.
Scare Factor:
4/5
This movie was hellishly scary and grotesque for its time, and sparked a lot of controversy for it. Today it still holds up fairly well. I was creeped out from the beginning, and the feeling of dread lasts until the very last second of the climax. The subliminal flashes of the demon are insanely creepy,
except for the flash onto the hood vent, which is goofy as hell.
3. Scream
Overall:
5 out of 5
Another one that has taken me way too long to get around to. This movie is perfect for someone like me as a slasher movie fan. The tropes hit you over the head so hard, and my girlfriend and I were practically laughing the entire film. Craven does such great job of letting you know it's just a movie, and it really seems like everyone involved had a blast. Spoilers about the ending:
Matthew Lillard and the other guy were perfect psycho dudes, and their spiel at the end was really great
. I loved every minute of this movie.
Scare Factor:
3/5
There are a couple good jump scares, but overall the movie doesn't build up any scary atmosphere which lightens a lot of the death sequences. The gore is excellent, but there isn't a whole lot. You will definitely be laughing more than you will be scared.
4. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Overall:
4/5
This fucking movie. It's been many years since I have seen it, and I had forgotten how incredibly brutal it is. It starts off relatively slow save for the hitchhiker sequence. Once things get going, they never stop. You are never left with any breathing room between sequences, and the insanity builds and builds and builds until the very last second. The acting is much better than I remember, but the characters aren't really given enough time to establish themselves. It kind of takes away from the deaths, but I feel like you are only meant to feel for the main girl and her brother as they have the most screen time. Without getting into spoiler territory I want to say that Leatherface is a much more sympathetic villain than the other 70s slasher icons with zero exposition about him. It's actually quite impressive how much you learn about him through visual cues alone. This one is a can't miss for any horror fans.
Scare Factor:
5/5
It's not scary per se, but the mood that this movie sets is so incredibly uncomfortable, and it will leave you feeling gross. The kill scenes, even though they show very little gore, are incredibly brutal. The movie moves so quickly through its victims that you have no time to recover at all. The torture scene is one of the most creepy things you could ever experience. I had a little trouble sleeping last night.
5. The Fly
Overall:
5/5
I expected this movie to be a lot more horror than what I got. What I got was a tragic tale of an awkward man who takes his experiments a little too far. This was my first Cronenberg film, and I was totally ready to be completely grossed out by the end. I was not expecting the story and the characters to be so compelling. I did not expect to feel sympathetic for Seth Brundle. The pacing of this film is incredibly quick, and I think it works really well as there is no filler here. The story remains front and center the entire film without any gratuitous attempts at scares. The climax is where things get into more traditional horror, but it never gets as scary as it does sad. I wasn't ready for the movie to end as suddenly as it did, but I am kind of happy that everything with Ronnie is left unresolved and up to interpretation. I loved this movie, and the only thing I can complain about would be the baboon that just sort of disappears halfway through the movie.
I read about the cut scene about the monkey/cat, and I'm really glad it isn't in the film. Brundle isn't portrayed a mad scientist at any other point during the film, he still retains most of his humanity through his transformation, and this scene would ruin any sympathy the audience had for him.
Scare Factor:
2/5
This movie is not scary, it's pretty gross toward the end, but nothing too crazy. I expected way worse.
Sweet ass picture right? Yeah Beyond the Black Rainbow isn't that picture. It starts off amazing like Lost was at certain times, some mysterious unknowns, some awesome sci-fi stuff...then it kind of doesn't do shit. There was a cool horror film here but this just didn't live up to its potential.
Edit:
Citadel was pretty cool. It has a Last of Us vibe and some thick tension. Nice and short too they tell a cool story without lingering.
For this week, I'll be watching all Mario and Lamberto Bava films, alternating between father and son.
02) Black Sunday (La maschera del demonio) (1960) (Oct 2)
Starting off with Mario's first solo directorial effort, Black Sunday, or more accurately, The Mask of Satan as that's the version I watched, we have a fun little gothic vampire/witch tale starring Barbara Steele.
I don't really have much to say about this one. It was solid all around and I can't think of anything majorly negative to say, but for some reason it didn't quite grab me the way Blood and Black Lace and Black Sabbath did.
It is surprising (or maybe not) how much more accomplished Black Sunday was both artistically and technically than The Last Man on Earth, even though it predates that movie by 4 years.
Overall, beautifully shot and directed as usual for Bava and surprisingly gory for a movie from 1960.
Rating:
out 5 "What's in the basket?"
03) A Blade in the Dark (La casa con la scala nel buio) (1983) (Oct 3)
A Blade in the Dark is Lamberto's second solo feature and my first giallo of the month. It was originally filmed as a four-part mini-series for Italian TV, but then released as a theatrical movie after being rejected from TV for being too violent.
Showing more more influence from Dario Argento's gialli than Mario Bava's, right down to having the protagonist work in an artistic field, A Blade in the Dark doesn't have the usual flair you'd expect from an Italian 80s movie. It's fairly flat and dull looking due to its TV roots and aside from a couple of great pieces of music, rather quiet. It also has a slower pace and smaller body count due to originally being an episodic piece.
That's not to say it's completely devoid of style though. Lamberto works around his limitations quite well by taking his time to draw out the suspense making it really effective when the kills begin to happen, and man, he goes nuts with those. No wonder no one wanted to air it on TV!
While it may not be as flashy or risque as other 80s gialli, I was thoroughly entertained and would easily recommend it for giallo fans.
Watched this last night and really enjoyed it The concept was original and I thought the acting was pretty good all around. I felt like it dragged a bit, maybe could have been shorter but it was still a pretty solid horror film.
3 out of 5. Don't know what I'll watch tonight, I guess I'll get on netflix and look for something.
First day, second film and already my carefully ordered list has been cocked up. My darling wife asked if we could watch this tonight, and who was I to argue? So here we are, 18 days early, Crimson Peak.
I was a little concerned by a few negative reviews earlier in the thread, because Ive been saving this film all year, and Im a big GDT fan. I neednt have worried though, this was just my cup of tea. The usual gorgeous visuals, coupled with a story that while not groundbreaking, was perfectly serviceable, provided just what I wanted and expected from the movie. The fabulous Hiddlestone and the even more fabulous Chastain were also predictably great, and seeing Jim Beaver made me realise it will soon be time to watch Harpers Island again. Very enjoyable.
#6 - The House of the Devil : B
I liked it a lot but the setup took way too long... that payoff was worth it though. Oh and that movie had styyyyyyyyyle
Not as good as the first. Doesn't really start getting good until Michael gets to the hospital. It's nice that it picks up right where the first one left off like Bride of Frankenstein or Back to the Future II. What I also like is that the news is talking about Michael Myers and the killings. Did they ever do that with Freddy or Jason? It's a good thing they never resurrected Michael Myers and left it at my next movie: Season of the Witch.
#3 film of my NeoGAF 31 Days Of Horror (6) challenge. I'm bothered by the fact that when the credits rolled I actually thought to myself that I enjoyed "The Drownsman" more than this.
Not as good as the first. Doesn't really start getting good until Michael gets to the hospital. It's nice that it picks up right where the first one left off like Bride of Frankenstein or Back to the Future II. What I also like is that the news is talking about Michael Myers and the killings. Did they ever do that with Freddy or Jason? It's a good thing they never resurrected Michael Myers and left it at my next movie: Season of the Witch.
Later tonight we watch Tobe Hooper's excellent Texas Chainsaw Massacre; I haven't seen it since I was in middle school, but I remember it being a psychological slow burn, and loving it. My girlfriend has never seen it, and she has refused to every time I suggest it, but she isn't in charge of the list lol
02) Black Sunday (La maschera del demonio) (1960) (Oct 2)
Starting off with Mario's first solo directorial effort, Black Sunday, or more accurately, The Mask of Satan as that's the version I watched, we have a fun little gothic vampire/witch tale starring Barbara Steele.
I don't really have much to say about this one. It was solid all around and I can't think of anything majorly negative to say, but for some reason it didn't quite grab me the way Blood and Black Lace and Black Sabbath did.
It is surprising (or maybe not) how much more accomplished Black Sunday was both artistically and technically than The Last Man on Earth, even though it predates that movie by 4 years.
Overall, beautifully shot and directed as usual for Bava and surprisingly gory for a movie from 1960.
Bava really nailed the gothic atmosphere in that one. I believe the budget was incredibly low as well. After revisiting it last week I think the intro of the film could possibly make a top ten list from me. Another moment that really impressed me was
when Javuto (sp?) suddenly appears from out from the darkness. It's very similar to the Myers face reveal in Halloween but of course predates that film by close to twenty years.
Bava really nailed the gothic atmosphere in that one. I believe the budget was incredibly low as well. After revisiting it last week I think the intro of the film could possibly make a top ten list from me. Another moment that really impressed me was
when Javuto (sp?) suddenly appears from out from the darkness. It's very similar to the Myers face reveal in Halloween but of course predates that film by close to twenty years.
Yeah Black Sunday is great. No one captures that gothic atmosphere like Bava, with his steady tracking shots with lots of gnarled branches in the foreground and all the fog you could ever hope for.
I prefer Blood and Black Lace and Black Sabbath to it as well, but that's no knock on this film at all considering how great they all are.
I'll just get to it right away: for my money, Poltergeist feels way more like a Tobe Hooper film for most of its running time than it does a Steven Spielberg film. It certainly bears a lot of Spielberg's fingerprints throughout, but it was interesting to see the kind of lens that Hooper would shoot it through, in a manner of speaking. The biggest thing is the humor, with a lot of the blackly comic undertones that Hooper was known for (and would sadly soon turn into overtones of the "beat you over the head" variety), poking fun at yuppie culture virtually every step of the way and having some nasty fun with the characters as the disturbances start to move into a more violent direction. There is a distinct feeling that there are basically two movies that collide with each other on occasion: the more darkly humorous thrill ride, and the more emotional parts that serve also as the film's biggest exposition dumps, as we find out more about the circumstances of how the poltergeists themselves would work. In those bits, the hand of Spielberg feels much more pronounced, with the extreme close-ups of characters as they're practically holding back tears as they feel so overwhelmed with the situation that lays at their feet. Zelda Rubinstein seems like a particularly interesting case: she seems like the kind of small-town oddity that Hooper was known for pushing to the forefront, but the way she actually goes about her role feels like a Steven Spielberg impersonation of a Tobe Hooper character, putting her more along the lines of someone who is oddly endearing than endearingly odd. Truthfully speaking, it's not a bad thing that the more emotionally-centered elements stick out as much as they do, but this film has the incredibly strange problem of having back-to-back third acts. There's a massive climax that happens as our family is finally reunited with Carol Anne, after her time in the next world (which seems to be filled with giblets?), and the stage is set for it to end right there... only for it to go on for nearly 30 more minutes, as we get the special effects-driven anarchy that Hooper would become known for in the rest of the 80s, throwing everything at the Freeling family that he can find, concluding on a hell of a zinger in a film already filled with them. I do think that Hooper's sensibilities does help to enhance the more quietly sinister moments, and for as few in number they total, they do have a big impact whenever they do show up. I do find it to be an ultimately fun and largely satisfying film: in spite of the messy structure and having a character or two too many (the Dana character may as well have not existed, though I do have a sneaking suspicion that Hooper thought the same and was able to mine that for some good fun), there are definitely a lot of nice technical features that both men brought to the table, and regardless of the mode the film is in, both Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams do pretty great jobs as the heads of the family, making their relationship feel natural and the wear-and-tear of their crisis look genuine. It's the rare blockbuster horror film that works pretty well, and it's nice to be able to finally get my two cents in on the controversy it generated over the years.
Film for October 4: What do you get when you mix up Chinese supernatural mythology with a little romance, a little sword fighting and the hyper kinetic filmmaking style of Sam Raimi? Why, it must be some kind of A Chinese Ghost Story that we're about to see!
I didn't intend on re-watching this one, but I was visiting my mother and she wanted to. As it stands, it serves as a pretty entertaining end to the Universal Monster lineage of films. It's got some good comedic bits, and at this point Universal was having no problem shoving their cast of creatures into these monster mashups, so why not throw in Abbott and Costello while they're at it. This movie is the last hurrah with Dracula, the Wolfman, and Frankenstein's monster. Of course, Boris Karloff had long left his infamous role behind, so we get the generic Glenn Strange interpretation that I'm no fan of. Lon Chaney Jr. does his best as the tortured lycanthrope Lawrence Talbot, many of his wolf scenes feature Chaney tripping over every obstacle in sight unable to reach his intended victims. As a result, his character doesn't really have the bite (hahaha) that it once did.
The role of Dracula was played by John Carradine in the films immediately proceeding A&CmF. The powers at be did the smart thing though and brought back Bela Lugosi to reprise the role that made him famous 17 years before. It was reported that behind the scenes Lugosi was treating this reprisal very seriously. He is the main reason that the film doesn't devolve into straight parody. Despite the noticeable frailness from old age and other issues, Lugosi simply brings it as Dracula. He still has the eyes, the voice, and the little ticks that made his performance legendary.
Outside of that, there is some good gothic imagery, and it's quite funny at times.
Citadel is a weird movie. There's a lot I like about it, but the social subtext is...really uncomfortable, especially when you learn that the movie was inspired by the filmmaker himself being attacked by kids in hoodies. So then he makes a film in which kids in hoodies who live in council flats are literally inhuman monsters and the only solution is to burn them all to death. It's weird.
One of the things I like to do in these threads is weirdly-specifically-themed double features. I normally prefer Friday or Saturday, but because of when the start of the month fell, I ended up doing the first one last night. And the theme is:
People Making Documentaries About Cults
Honestly, if I hadn't already seen it, The Sacrament would've been a perfect fit here - it would've paired perfectly with either of the two films I watched, for different reasons.
First up, we have:
The Triangle (2016)
Summary - Not to be confused with Christopher Smith's excellent Triangle from 2009, this is a faux-documentary that follows a group of filmmakers who, after receiving a postcard from a friend living in a commune out in Montana, take him up on his invitation to visit and see what's going on. Of course, because it's both a horror movie (sort of?) and a not-quite-found-footage movie, there's more to it than that. Several members of the commune clearly don't want them there, and the filmmakers are outright told that there's stuff going on that they're simply not privy to yet. Members of the commune begin to come down with unexplained headaches and bouts of fainting, and there are murmurs of some shared quality that links certain members of the group...
Thoughts - This is one of those films that's really only a horror movie via implication. There's no explicit violence, and the most graphic that the on-screen illness gets is some vomiting and passing out. Instead, the horror comes from the implied, only partially explained cause of what's going on.
First things first: the film's biggest strength is, easily, its naturalistic performances and dialogue. It feels very much like an actual documentary of an actual commune. There's nothing particularly staged or scripted about it. If you didn't know better, you'd probably think you were watching a legitimate documentary.
Also, this isn't "found footage", in the sense that it's not an "everyone dies and the footage was found later" thing. It's implied that the filmmakers themselves edited together the footage from the various cameras, added in music, etc.
It's...interesting. A lot of what it's doing was clearly constrained by its budget, but if you want a kind of capsule summary - think "Burning Man" meets Lovecraft or maybe "The Enigma of Amigara Fault", without the tentacles and body horror.
The ideas at play are interesting, but I feel like the execution is hit and miss. The performances, as I said, are great; I just think the film was a little too committed to being vague about the root cause of the events. Being vague isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the problem is that we don't see enough of the fallout to really sell the weirdness the way it deserves. I think the film could've used maybe one or two more major beats of escalation before the ending, as well as some kind of post-script beyond the rather abrupt ending that we actually get.
Still, it's got some interesting ideas. I'd toss it in with stuff like Yellowbrickroad and The Corridor, though it also reminds me a bit of Resolution insofar as it combines naturalistic acting and horror/supernatural stuff that's more implied than overt.
Which brings us to...
The Veil
Summary - Sarah, the survivor of a Jonestown-like cult called "Heaven's Veil" that committed mass suicide a couple of decades earlier, is approached by a documentary crew to revisit the compound where it all happened. The siblings leading the crew are the children of the FBI agent who led the raid on the compound in the aftermath, and they're convinced that there are old recordings made by the cult that were never discovered by investigators. Together, they set out to discover what led to the cult's suicide and why Sarah was left alive at the age of 5 when everyone else died.
Of course, the twist is that Jacobs was actually on to something. He really CAN cross over into death and return. This means the filmmakers aren't alone on the compound, even though everyone else is dead.
Thoughts - Initially, two things got my attention about this film. The first was the writer, Robert Ben Garant (of The State and Reno 911 fame). He's known primarily for his work in comedy, though his writing has ventured into horror territory a couple of times before (Hell Baby and Jessabelle). The second was one of the lead actresses, the always fantastic Lily Rabe, who plays the cult survivor Sarah. She's joined by Jessica Alba as the leader of the documentary team and Thomas Jane in a fantastically charismatic, magnetic, scenery-chewing performance as the cult leader, Jim Jacobs.
This film was apparently pitched first as found footage, only to be rewritten later when it was decided that found footage was overused. Those roots show through pretty clearly, from the documentary crew in the present day to the heavy use of old films made by the cult of their experiments and sermons. I'm still not entirely convinced that the change was for the better. The final version of the film has a few unnecessary jump scares, and when the violence/weirdness finally happens in earnest, it feels undercut by the fairly formulaic editing and directing approach. I can't help but feel like a more documentary style, with long takes and an unflinching, unmoving camera, would have done a better job of selling the horror and fundamental wrongness of some of the stuff that happens.
Also a minor annoyance: when the cult's old films are being shown, it's like we're transported back into that past reality, meaning the film continues in its standard continuity editing, shot/reverse shot sort of setup. However, we keep the film grain and washed-out sepia tone of the old film, which makes it feel like we're still watching the old films. That would mean, however, that the old films are really slickly edited, with multiple camera angles (including angles that make no logical sense for the cult to be filming from). It's made even more confused by the fact that the characters are watching at the same time we are, so...what exactly are THEY seeing?
Overall, I liked it, especially thanks to Jane's performance as Jacobs. It's got a nicely nasty edge to it, enough so that I'm willing to forgive a few cheap jump scares in the first half. I do think it suffers a bit from the obvious shift in framing, as it can't quite commit to being one thing or the other.
Louisa Krause has a spooky first day as a night-shift security guard to some huge building (with a dark past) with Jason Patric. Pretty generic and light on thrills. Would not recommend.
EDIT: LOL wrote this review a bit too early (about 10 mins from the end). The ending is such a shit attempt at a Shyamalan twist ending, had to laugh.
It's beautiflly lit and shot, the acting is solid, and there's a lot of fantastic creature effects and designs. That's it for the good stuff. I've never wanted the protagonist of a horror film to die horribly as much as the total raving dipshit in this. This was fucking awful.
The two leads of this film do absolutely everything they possibly can to fuck themselves over. If there's a bad idea to do, they'll do it. If there's a miscommunication to have, they'll miscommunicate it. If something happens to one, they don't tell the other. The are morons and I was rooting for their death from the 20 minute mark onward.
Should you move to a small Irish village, here are some signs you should move away:
Large mutilated dead animals on your property.
Flesh eating fungus running rampant in the house and forest around you.
Neighbors warning of monsters that live in the woods.
You see odd creatures in the woods around you at night.
Something throws objects through the windows at night, into the baby's room.
Creepy goo drips from the attic onto the baby.
All this happens and the couple stays. I'd leave, you know?
Then they stop talking to each other.
The wife sees said creepy goo that dripped onto the baby mutate into a weird oozing dead animal. She does not tell her husband.
Her husband is attacked in the woods driving home. Weird creepy goo growing under the hood. Something locks him in the trunk when he's trying to get the gun. He cuts through the back seat and into the car, where he sees creepy things run away. He goes outside the car and it had huge claw marks and goo all over it. He gets home on foot and does not tell his wife what happened.
He also still thinks their weird neighbor is behind it all. Still.
The wife is hiding in the attic and decides to 1) walk around, 2) rummage through stuff, and 3) shine her light down through the attic door and into the house to see if anything is there.
The creatures are clearly after the baby so they lock the baby in a different room and lock the door. There are windows in the room. Shockingly, they get the baby. They are fucking idiots.
Oh, and the father is infected, knows what the stuff does, and hides this from his wife.
I have never wanted the leads of a horror film dead as badly as I want these people dead. The film is also loaded with jump scares, mostly predictable. And remember that last, audience-insulting jump scare at the end of Sinister? This film does it too, maybe worse.
Oh, and there's a scene where the wife is calling the police on her cell phone, and the monsters cut the power to the house so the lights go off - and her cell phone stops calling the police because they cut the power to the house. I can't.
One of the most frustrating movies I've watched in years.
5. Holidays - really liked this one! And was blown away by Fathers Day, it was so original and had such an interesting eerie feel (any other full movies like that short?). Collection of 7 pretty well done and original movies and 1 Kevin Smith short.
Rating 4/5
(Wife rating 5/5)
6. Amusement (2008) - I saw this in a top thread on reddit about great unseen movies. Holy goddam shit this movie fucking sucked, like aggressively bad. The most generic garbage fucking trash pile. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
1/5
Wife 1/5
It's beautiflly lit and shot, the acting is solid, and there's a lot of fantastic creature effects and designs. That's it for the good stuff. I've never wanted the protagonist of a horror film to die horribly as much as the total raving dipshit in this. This was fucking awful.
The two leads of this film do absolutely everything they possibly can to fuck themselves over. If there's a bad idea to do, they'll do it. If there's a miscommunication to have, they'll miscommunicate it. If something happens to one, they don't tell the other. The are morons and I was rooting for their death from the 20 minute mark onward.
This was under the tags, but to put it in a non-spoiler way, I also really hate it when people in horror films stop talking to each other about important things. Like say one person sees signs of clear and present danger, and decides to not tell their spouse for no reason at all. Or has something really awful and dangerous happen, and decides not to tell their spouse about that either, when it's really important and they'd totally up and leave the country if they actually talked about it.
I was raging by the half hour mark.
The creature effects are great, though. There's that.
Also, the nature of the creatures is something that really doesn't get used enough in horror movies. Unfortunately, I felt like that aspect of things was underutilized a little, with
the fae basically standing in for bestial forest creatures with a zombie-like infection mechanism. Sure, they're afraid of iron and steal babies, but they're fairly generic creatures once you get past that.
A very strange hybrid of two genres: slasher and psychological thriller. First half of the movie we don't really have a main character, just a series of slasher kills, one in particular being probably one of my now favorites (all I will say is nail gun), then just like that the kills go away and we get our main characters and a story that is now decisively in the realm of psychological horror. The killer is revealed unceremoniously about 45 minutes in and we never see the titular toolbox in action again.
Not good, not bad, enjoyable but strange, a definite relic of its time.
WOW. I got the blu-ray for this for $5 and it came just in time for yesterday. Watched it last night and I've got to say that it's still as creepy and fun and it was when I saw it ages ago. This movie has so many insane moments that It stuck with my young mind all the way up until now. Church is amazing.
Pretty cool interview with the guy that made Citadel.
There are a hundred socioeconomic reasons why I was attacked, so to have made a drama about that and said These are just regular kids would have been to say something questionable, maybe. I wanted to give myself permission to explore that dark area by creating a creature, so there was a bit of a remove there, obviously. The authenticity of the emotion I wanted to ring true, so it required me to access memories of the attack, and remembering that cold, vacuous feeling of never knowing the reason why. That was one of the scariest things about it they didnt take anything, they didnt want anything. In many ways, it informed my understanding of terror. When you know the reason why something happens, no matter how insane it may be, you can eventually make peace with it. When you dont, thats quite literally an embodiment of darkness.
I don't get that his implication was so much to burn the children as it was that he took some emotional trauma and made a cool movie about it which I love stories on how ideas come up. Also found out he did the Conjuring 2 so now I really want to see that.
#02 - The Fury (1978)
I love me some De Palma and was eagerly awaiting this one, postponing it for months to fit somewhere in this marathon. Coming fresh off the success of 'Carrie' once again he dives into the world of paranormal teens. Story-wise this had a lot of potential but went in a direction that didn't do much for me. It didn't really have a 'flow' to it, but is never boring either because it is fast-paced and there are always lots of things going on. All of the paranormal stuff is ace and allows for some creative, fun scenes. The lovely musical score by John Williams is worth noting as well. 6/10
4. King Kong (1933) Best monster movie ever. This isn't the sympathetic ape from the remake; this one will wreck your shit, no matter if you're man or dinosaur. One of my favorite movies.
#03 - The Faculty (1998)
Wonderfully cheesy and schlocky highschool teen horror where director Rodriguez takes plenty of nostalgic inspiration. It's self aware, meta and actually quite smart while paying homage to classic paranoia horror movies such as The Thing and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It never takes itself too seriously and allows for some light breezy fun. There's also a stacked 90s cast with big names and familiar faces. Yeah, this was a blast. 7.5/10
Bava really nailed the gothic atmosphere in that one. I believe the budget was incredibly low as well. After revisiting it last week I think the intro of the film could possibly make a top ten list from me. Another moment that really impressed me was
when Javuto (sp?) suddenly appears from out from the darkness. It's very similar to the Myers face reveal in Halloween but of course predates that film by close to twenty years.
Yeah Black Sunday is great. No one captures that gothic atmosphere like Bava, with his steady tracking shots with lots of gnarled branches in the foreground and all the fog you could ever hope for.
I prefer Blood and Black Lace and Black Sabbath to it as well, but that's no knock on this film at all considering how great they all are.
King Kong (1933) Best monster movie ever. This isn't the sympathetic ape from the remake; this one will wreck your shit, no matter if you're man or dinosaur. One of my favorite movies.
Season of the Witch is so much fun, I hope you enjoy one of the best kinda bad movies ever made.
7. Vampire Hunter D (1985)
Glorious rewatch, this movie fucking rocks in every regard. Sci-fi vampire wasteland fantasy action with a strong sense of mythos and atmosphere? Yes please. Incredible animation.
8. The Thing (1982)
Glorious rewatch via the recent BLU release... One my favorite movies ever. If you're even slightly interested in horror or science fiction you've either seen it or know you should.
Overall:
4/5
This fucking movie. It's been many years since I have seen it, and I had forgotten how incredibly brutal it is. It starts off relatively slow save for the hitchhiker sequence. Once things get going, they never stop. You are never left with any breathing room between sequences, and the insanity builds and builds and builds until the very last second. The acting is much better than I remember, but the characters aren't really given enough time to establish themselves. It kind of takes away from the deaths, but I feel like you are only meant to feel for the main girl and her brother as they have the most screen time. Without getting into spoiler territory I want to say that Leatherface is a much more sympathetic villain than the other 70s slasher icons with zero exposition about him. It's actually quite impressive how much you learn about him through visual cues alone. This one is a can't miss for any horror fans.
Scare Factor:
5/5
It's not scary per se, but the mood that this movie sets is so incredibly uncomfortable, and it will leave you feeling gross. The kill scenes, even though they show very little gore, are incredibly brutal. The movie moves so quickly through its victims that you have no time to recover at all. The torture scene is one of the most creepy things you could ever experience. I had a little trouble sleeping last night.
Tonight: It's a non scary movie night so we are watching Beetlejuice. We have both seen it within the last few years, but it will be the first time I will be watching it for 31 days of horror.
Tomorrow: The Fly. Neither of us have seen this Cronenberg classic, and am incredibly excited.
Thursday Double Feature: Frankenstein followed by The Wolf Man. My girlfriend has never seen any of the Universal Monster movies except for Dracula, which we watched last year. She bought me the Blu Ray set a couple of years ago so it is time to bust them out.
It depends. Parts 2 and 3 have little to do with the first film, along with the actress choosing not to return for these films. They also have more comedic elements thrown in, but a lot more deaths as well. If you like cheesy B-movie slashers, you'll probably find some enjoyment out of them, but they weren't particularly memorable to me. Even though I haven't watched it yet (it's on my list for this year) Return to Sleepaway Camp is apparently more along the lines of the first film.
#4. Black Sabbath - A fine anthology film with Boris Karloff leading the way. All three shorts are good, creepy affairs. I enjoy this more and more with every viewing.
#04 - Lights Out (2016)
Based on the viral spooky short from a few years ago 'Lights Out 'has now been stretched out into a feature length movie, which often comes with the risk of it being gimmicky and overstaying its welcome, so it's a good thing it clocks in at only 80 minutes. Newcomer Sandberg puts quite heavy focus on the plot and backstory while creating a scary mood, and relying less on jump scares. That's admirable, but too bad it all felt kind of weak. 5/10
As Jack noted, the sequels aren't up to snuff. Likewise I know I've seen them, I own them in that apparently-rare box set that I bought years ago in thinking I would like them all, yet I have a really hard time recalling any of the sequels
My advice? For fun, go watch The Cinema Snob's recaps of them. I remember those recaps and Mst3k-like commentary more than I do the actual movies.
I don't have TCM on my list this year, but I wanted to chime in since it came up.
About 15 years ago, my friend and I rented TCM as neither of us had seen it and we had always heard about it. We were not prepared for how we felt when it was over. What's worse is the movie starts out kind of badly, so we were ready to just riff on it the entire time. The writing/acting is more miss than hit for the first 20 mins or so, which left us pretty surprised when the movie starts to get down and dirty. I think the wheelchair guy in particular having some sort of weird fit stood out as a real "who WROTE this?" moment but then the movie slaps you out of your comfort zone so fast you're left reeling.
Truly a horror classic. I saw the remake and appreciated what they did there, but I don't know if you can ever top the original or the experience I had watching it.
Sleepaway Camp II is dumb fun if you enjoy ultra-schlocky low-budget slashers with some crass comedy thrown in. Sleepaway Camp III really isn't worth it; it's basically a rehash of II, but with neutered violence and really boring kills (such as beating somebody to death with a stick...twice, if I remember correctly). Sleepaway Camp IV... I don't really even want to talk about it. I suppose if you don't feel like watching all of II and III, IV is sort of a decent highlight reel of those two (seriously, all but about 5-10 minutes is recycled footage, and those 5-10 minutes of new footage are absolute home movie amateur porn quality garbage).
Return to Sleepaway Camp is an odd one. I won't go so far as to call it good, but it's much closer in tone to the original film (same director), and there are some familiar faces too. It doesn't recapture the lightning in the bottle of the first one, but it's still got a bit of that oddball charm. YOUR ASS STINKS!
I for one have seen The Thing, and it's still on the list this year, and every year. A fucking incredible film. Everyone needs to see it.
My girlfriend has refused to watch it up until now because she's a wuss, but she understands that there are no safety nets for her this year since I compromised with a lot of non horror. Especially since we watched TCM last night, and I think I broke her... oops.
I can't say I'm disappointed since I had little expectations going in, but I feel like this thing was building itself up, only to just completely fart and fall down on it's way to rush to a conclusion. The motivation for the family to kill had me confused by the end as well.
Also, there's a part of this movie that I felt could have been completely cut out and it would have had no over arching effect to the story at all.
This one's another mind boggling movie that attempts to blur the lines between reality and crazy. In a recent Mega64 podcast, the crew were talking about something that is missing in modern horror films, something here in Rosemary's Baby (to know what that something is, I highly recommend seeing/listening to the podcast I mentioned). In any case, Mia Farrow played the role perfectly and the whole atmosphere felt really chilling.
