Got about 2 minutes into Cabinet of Caligari before I gave up on it. But I did watch it long enough to notice that this guy could be saying "To get into this boy's hole you gotta pay the troll toll."
31 Days of Horror Pre-31 Days of Horror 1 - Behind the Mask Pre-31 Days of Horror 2 - Unfriended Day 1 - The Hills Have Eyes (2006) Day 2 - The Thing (1982) Day 3 - The Cabinet of Dr. Calagari Day 3 Double Feature - Dead Silence Day 4 - Black Death Day 5 - Maniac Cop Day 6 - The Omen (1976)
The Omen (1976)
This has been on my radar ever since watching the Exorcist. It was okay. I wasn't really wowed by anything aside from the awesome score. I did take not that a lot of films were influenced by this movie which is cool. And what the fuck was up with
the Priest's death? Couldn't he have moved out of the way? lol
Overall, I thought it was okay but wasn't left in awe as I was when I first viewed the Exorcist. Still, I recommend checking it out solely for the awesome score.
My spouse and I watched it the other night as well. We both felt as if it was half of a good movie. The first half or two thirds, to be exact. It really fell apart in the third act.
Edit: Tonight's viewing was of "The Vatican Tapes."
No, just no. Dumb and preachy and boring. And the ending was basically cut and paste from The Last Exorcism 2. Pass.
#4 Trick 'r Treat (2007)
The only movie from that Kotaku "beginner's" list that I hadn't ever seen... this harks back to those 80s anthology movies even if it is presented somewhat differently, the whole thing felt a bit uneven and didn't do much that I hadn't seen done better. I felt they could have done more with what they had.
Meanwhile I'm still behind on the schedule... should do some double features next weekend to catch up.
Ethan Hawke plays a non-fiction crime writer that moves his family into a new house that saw a whole family murdered to write a new book on that crime. When he goes to the attic he finds a box of Super-8 films, projector included, that show not just the murder he’s investigating, but several more.
Oh boy, this was a wonderful film, Ethan Hawke plays a wonderful character, that is a lot less one-dimensional than most horror-movie characters, which is a nice change. This movie has a great eerie atmosphere about it, helped by the composition, the shots that are chosen, but mostly because of the soundtrack, which is absolutely glorious in its effectiveness, when he watches the Super 8 movies, they play this dreadful music that chills you to your core. It’s so good.
The movie finds a nice balance between creepiness, slow reveals and keeps the jump scares to a minimum, which is pretty unique for such a recent Hollywood-movie in this genre. I won’t go into much detail on the plot, because who on Earth wants a horror-movie spoiled, right? But if you haven’t watched Sinister yet, go do so now, it’s everything you want a “haunted house”-horror flick to be.
Okay, never saw the original but what we get here is a "meta-sequel," film within a film setup and ..... it fails horribly. Should known better from the guy who wrote the Carrie reboot...The slasher himself is menacing enough but has almost no presence outside the admittedly brutal kills. The kills that are so far and few in between though and just happen it such a cliché/random fashion (they're supposedly copy-cat kills... but this is only lightly explored). There's no real gimmick or style to them, and at worse, they even splice footage from the original film during them, Uwe Boll House of the Dead style! I guess what I'm trying to say is the slasher has ZERO character and is just an asshole... and when the identity is revealed, it's even worse.
That's only part of the problem though, the bigger problem is the wretched story. Don't know if they really thought it would be clever or what (film is actually produced by Ryan Murphy of American Horror Story/Glee fame), but the whole premise of the actual film having existed and this town is hauted by it... well it just ultimately doesn't work. Everything it painted with super broad strokes, characters are infuriately one-note/lack any kind of personality and the lead herself sort of ruins the film due to her constant narration (HINT: it's hard to have any tension when you know your lead lives right off the bat).At a mere 82 minutes, the movie feels like it goes on for fucking ever.... which, is quite an accomplishment actually.
There's also some intersting casting choices such as Gary Cole and Anthony Anderson, but they ultimately add nothing to the film other than being some peculiar familiar faces.In the end, this film feels like the producers/studio just wanted to pick something from the slasher heyday and everything else had been spoken for.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) - The mixture of cheesy and unintentionally funny makes for an entertaining combo. The dialogue in this is great, Welcome to Primetime Bitch got a good laugh out of me. The creativity to the effects heavy dream scenes are fun but only about half of them work well to me, too many ideas that don't seem to be thought out enough. The acting is pretty damn terrible, the actress that played Nancy still can't act, Patricia Arquette whom has never given more than a serviceable performance in her entire career is worst of the bunch and has the most annoying sounding scream ever. Fun film but I enjoyed the first one more.
New Nightmare (1994) - Good deconstruction of the Elm Street franchise, the writing is sharp, and the acting is good even from Heather. Out of the three Elm Street film that I have seen this is probably my favorite. I'll probably re-watch the Scream series later in the month, this felt like a prelude to those films, meta, & self aware of the typical horror tropes.
#4 Trick 'r Treat (2007)
The only movie from that Kotaku "beginner's" list that I hadn't ever seen... this harks back to those 80s anthology movies even if it is presented somewhat differently, the whole thing felt a bit uneven and didn't do much that I hadn't seen done better. I felt they could have done more with what they had.
You know I quite liked the film. It does the "creepy" child thing right and is subtle, two things which Case 39 did not get. Don't have much complaints except the deaths were pretty cheesy (except the first one). I recommend it. Would say more, but do not want to spoil it. 4/5
4) The Nightmare
Just don't go in expecting some deep or intricate documentary. It's basically people telling their stories with recreations being acted out.
Pretty cool little documentary. If you have ever had sleep paralysis I recommend giving this a chance. Not every dream will be relatable but it was a fun ride with some well done recreations. It's up on Netflix now. Just don't go in expecting some deep or intricate documentary. It's basically people telling their stories with recreations being acted out.
#4 Trick 'r Treat (2007)
The only movie from that Kotaku "beginner's" list that I hadn't ever seen... this harks back to those 80s anthology movies even if it is presented somewhat differently, the whole thing felt a bit uneven and didn't do much that I hadn't seen done better. I felt they could have done more with what they had.
31 Days of Halloween. The Road so far....
#1 - A Nightmare on Elm St [1984]
#2 - Wes Craven's New Nightmare [1994]
#3 - Scream [1996]
#4 - Scream 2 [1997]
#5 - Scream 3 [2000]
#6 - Scream 4 [2011]
#7 - The People Under The Stairs [1991]
#8 - Tales from the Darkside: The Movie [1990]
#9 - Children of the Corn [1984]
A bunch of children go insane thanks to a young preacher named Isaac and his executioner Malachai leading them to believe anyone over 18 must die. The story begins with the children killing off all the adults in their town of Gatlin and establishing a society where they worship the god "He Who Walks Behind The Rows". The movie is average but doesn't have much for kills outside of the initial adult slaughter in the beginning. Alot of the movie towards the end is them running around in the cornfields trying to figure out whats going on. Worth a watch just for the creepiness factor of the kids and their cult like society. 6/10
Another edition to my Criterion Collection Scary Movie Week continues with an unexpected pleasure. Just like with Don't Look Now, I've had my eye on this movie and I'm glad I held off watching until the marathon. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and this also had a great build up with a fantastic and somewhat uncomfortable climax. Those of you who may have seem this film, know what I'm talking about.
Mother gives birth to another demon child and proceeds to lick the blood from the newborn's head.
The Last Man on Earth (1964)
Wasn't feeling this one at all. There's an opening montage of empty buildings, streets, cities that sets the atmosphere perfectly and comes off as genuinely creepy in just a few seconds of establishing shots. But once that ends, it becomes extremely clear that this movie was shot for cheap as fuck -- and not in a charming way, like a lot of horror and grindhouse flicks. It just comes off as lame and amateurish.
Normally love Vincent Price, and he does have some good moments here, but for the most part he feels very miscast in the central role; his very flimsy attempts at staking vampires is probably more a failure of editing/choreography than his, but it still makes him look like he's an actor badly faking it than a real character.
Not completely irredeemable, but overall it was pretty much a dud. I've got one more Price movie lined up for tonight, but I think it'll be a good one for capping off this cycle of the marathon.
12. R.L. Stine's Monsterville: Cabinet of Souls (2015) The most recent movie in the list.
You know I knew the 4.5/5 rating on both Amazon and Netflix was going to not be right. Well, I was right. However, I enjoyed this TV movie.
I would have given this a 5/10 on a normal scale. However, I have to judge it.
The female actors were really good with Beth being an outstanding lead. The male actors were just bad, except Dr. Hysteria (who was a riot). It does try hard a bit with random rapping.I quite like the role reversal of the "damsel in distress". The police officer scene was pretty great.
It is hard since I am 15 years older than the people who this movie is intended for. The last 40 minutes were pretty gripping though. Overall I would recommend this movie if your family needed a horror movie for all ages. For adults though, avoid it. It is flawed so I will give it 2/5
The reason for the rating I think is because people give films a 5 if they enjoyed it. I think this movie is enjoyable despite the flaws.
9. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985): I have never seen any of the Elm Street sequels so I was curious to see how they are. There was quite a bit that I liked in this, particularly those guard dogs which were hilariously creepy. Overall the movie lacked dream sequences and kills, but there were some good ones: the way Freddy burst out of the kid whose name I already forgot looked great. Not a bad sequel, really, even though it really did not capitalize on the idea of being afraid to go to sleep as well as it might have. I expected worse.
10. The Conjuring (2013): A bit more serious than I like my horror, but even with the overabundance of jump scares this was pretty good. I can see how the idea of some woman being an actual witch who sacrificed her baby during the Salem witch trials might be a tad offensive, and as a radical atheist I of course have to take issue with some of the ham-fisted religiosity in this film, but considering this is based on the work of a pair of charlatans I'm not too bothered. When stuff got all crazy at the end with people getting dragged across the floor and demons showing up, the words "based on true events" kept flashing across my mind. Goddamn Hollywood. I hate dolls and old ladies, by the way.
Okay, finally stole some time so I can do a catch-up post... I knew I wouldn't be able to post daily this year but I think I'll do it weekly just to keep it convenient with my current schedule... I couldn't really think of a theme this year, but I wanted to check out some Wes Craven films for obvious reasons, so I decided to do "Four by Four" (four films from four choice directors) which is currently Craven, Hitchcock, Tourneur and Carpenter (but might expand to "Four by Five") and fill out the space with the mandatory films, required viewing like Trick 'R Treat and Halloween, and recommendations for some modern films I haven't seen from my kids and even here... My kids came through with a lot of titles that suit my antiquated tastes (I've no interest in "torture porn" or uber-gross crap) so there should be plenty to fill out the month...
Anyway, presenting the first seven days for 2015:
Oct. 1
Cabin in the Woods (2012) - I finally caught up with this Joss Whedon/Drew Goddard spin on the slasher genre and horror films in general at the insistence of one of my daughters. She and her fiance raid my movie collection for thier own horror marathon every October, but they tend to supplement the old-school fare from my DVD library with a lot of contemporary films, the best of which they'll share with me. Zoe absolutely insisted we launch this year's 31 days at her home with this film, and I have to admit I loved the ride... So many tropes and past films referenced with a wink and a nod! The script is fast-paced fun with some good scares and terrific acting; no way I can watch this just once! It gets put into the annual rotation...
Oct. 2
The Leopard Man (1943) - One of Val Lewton's RKO thrillers that helped the studio survive the '40s, Tourneur's direction doesn't quite manage the brilliant atmosphere of Cat People or I Walked with a Zombie here, but there are still some wonderfully effective scenes (four words: blood under the door!)... a relatively conventional serial murder mystery with a some horrific elements, competently executed.
Oct. 3
The Host (2006) - Frightening, funny and tragic by turns, this South Korean monster movie deserves it's reputation. The characters are well conceived, the monster interesting, and the story alternately hillarious and horrifying. Some limitations with the CGI occasionally rear their head, but the gripping story, biting satire and downbeat ending make it a compelling effort well worth the ride.
Oct. 4
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) - This beautiful German Expressionist film is a lunatic's fever dream. Every set is an expressionist work of art; churchyard, country road, fairground, village street, prison - all the sets are warped and twisted distortions... a little creaky but still plenty creepy with a twist neatly supported by the art direction that must have seemed revolutionary a century ago... I have a terrific Image disc of this and enjoyed the chance to watch it again.
Oct. 5
Rear Window (1964) - Not really a Horror movie, admittedly, but with Hitchcock the suspense can be knife-edged nonetheless... and I needed a fourth from Hitchcock with my "theme" of "Four By ..." this year. With this film, Hitchcock masterfully makes the audience willing accomplices in Jimmy Stewart's voyeurism, and so we're drawn inexorably into the mystery that propels us toward the final, desperate conclusion, without ever leaving Stewart's tiny apartment. One of my 20-something daughters asked me to watch this one with her because it's one she hadn't seen, and she enjoyed it immensely.
Oct. 6
Swamp Thing (1982) - Wes Craven's first mainstream Hollywood effort was reportedly plagued by budget cuts during the shooting that required working rewrites and more than a few shortcuts, but DC's titular monster could have been handled much worse, and the final film is B-movie fun from the start. Adrienne Barbeau is the worthy focus of the monster's (and audience's) attentions as the human hero of the story. By this time in her career, Barbeau is a rising scream queen with The Fog, Escape from New York and Creepshow to her credit (not to mention a marriage to John Carpenter), and she carries the role of kick-ass government agent Alice Cable with aplomb. The rest of the cast can be hit or miss but Louis Jordan as the evil Dr. Anton Arcane is palpably serpentine. The monsters are strict man-in-a-rubber-suit B-movie standard, but that's half the fun. I haven't actually seen this since it's theatrical debut, so it was a treat to sit through it again; I picked up the Scream Factory Blu-ray and was pleasantly surprised by some credible extras and a really decent transfer with excellent audio.
Oct. 7
Rogue (2007) - saw a recommendation on GAF for this last year(?) and thought I'd give it a shot... It's pretty straightforward; in the Australian outback a big croc decides to chow down on some clueless tourists and the usual fun ensues. It's not too long and after a kind of uneven start, keeps rolling rather neatly. Nice to see Sam Worthington and Radha Mitchell in something a little less familiar...
4. The Omen. It's decent, but kind of plodding and hokey honestly. Like they cast the most evil looking lady possible for Damien's made, and there are lots of creepy smiles pointed directly into the barrel of the camera. Rosemary's Baby's is a much subtler, creepier, and artful rendition of the antichrist tale, but that's okay because The Omen is at its best when it it isn't trying to be subtle at all: ie the very memorable, over the top, Depalma-esque death sequences, that are complete with slow motion and operatic devil chanting music. But in between these blood pumping moments, you have to sit through a lot of Gregory Peck plodding around taking way to long to figure things out.
There are not enough werewolf movies out there. And after being burnt by the piece of shit movie 'Wer' last year I was hesitant going into this one because besides Wolfcop majority of the wolf outings nowadays are pretty meh. The trailer looked good enough and with the film being on Netflix I decided fuck it.. Why not. The story focuses on a blind Vietnam vet who moves to a new town and some crazy werewolf shit starts going down. The film really starts off pretty cool and actually had me excited to see where things would go... Sadly after the opening scene things come to a screeching halt. The setting really didn't do it for me and the whole grumpy old man schtick just really didn't work imo. The conclusion was actually pretty satisfying so this movie definitely had some potential but for me everything in between the start and finish just killed the overall experience.
I'm gonna stop with number scores not really my thing anyway. I'm just gonna share my feelings on the films from this post on
7. The Pit and The Pendulum (1961) - Second straight day that I've watched a Vincent Price/Poe adaptation film. I don't think I enjoyed this one as much as Masque of Red Death. I found the performances to be lacking, and Price didn't seem to really start enjoying his role until
he goes insane from seeing his supposedly dead wife coming out her grave
. The last 30 minutes were definitely entertaining. 6/10
Now that I've watched some classic thing-from-space movies, it's remake time!
#14 - Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
I liked the original, but this was a considerable improvement. It fleshed out the premise and shifted it to a city rather than a small town, giving it a greater sense of scale. The camera work and score are excellent and the practical effects are seriously impressive. The Kevin McCarthy cameo was a nice touch too. I did think
the dog man
was too over the top, though, and in general it lacks some of the subtlety of the original film due to its larger scale and more gruesome, in-your-face effects. Still, it's a very well-made film that remains faithful to the original in most of the important ways while doing new and interesting things.
#15 - The Blob (1988)
This one was a blast. It takes the ridiculous premise of the original and just goes nuts with it. There are plenty of throwbacks to the original, but for the most part it does its own thing. And hey, a female character who's an actual character! And the teenagers actually look like teenagers this time around...well, at least more so than Steve McQueen did. And Jack Nance was in it! I liked that
the "protagonist" was killed off early on. Also you don't really see young children die in horror movies these days, especially not in such gruesome fashion.
The practical effects start to show their age toward the end when shit really hits the fan, but that just adds to the charm. A ton of fun all around.
#16 - Cat People (1982)
So much for subtlety, suggestion, or nuance. No ambiguity, no threats that may or may not be lurking in the shadows. I suppose it's not a downright awful movie in its own right, but as a remake of the 1942 classic it fails pretty spectacularly and captures absolutely none of the magic. And at nearly two hours, it drags on waaay too long. And that attempt at a Lewton Bus homage? Please. They even butchered the pool scene. But hey, on the other hand, Nastassja Kinski.
#17 - The Thing (2011)
I've already seen John Carpenter's The Thing many times and I adore it, and I generally try to avoid rewatches during these marathons, so I decided to go with the recent remake/prequel instead. Overall, I enjoyed it. The characters were serviceable though not as memorable as those in Carpenter's film - I love Mary Elizabeth Winstead and I thought she did a great job, but Kurt Russell she's not. I liked that they didn't just completely rip off every scene from the 1982 version either. Sure, there were lots of similarities, but there kind of needed to be. I thought it was interesting that there were some similarities to the 1951 film as well, in that this film also focuses on the group that actually finds and extracts the Thing from its ship. I also liked the implication that
the creature they extracted from the ice was a different alien that had been mimicked by the Thing, rather than being the Thing's "true form" or whatever. That's the only way it really makes sense, after all.
And the ending was great.
Of course, it wasn't all good. Compared to Carpenter and Morricone's minimalist score, this film's score felt a tad overwrought,
though I enjoyed the throwback at the end
, and I felt the film overall didn't have the consistent escalation of tension that the previous one had. And of course, the absolute worst part of the movie was the Thing itself, design-wise. Not only was the CGI terrible, but the designs themselves were just nowhere near as inspired as the 1982 film. And the worst insult of all is that they actually had all those brilliant animatronics and scrapped them for CGI instead. I don't know how much they actually filmed with the practical effects, but if someday we got a director's cut with those scenes restored, it would be a dream come true and it would make the film, like, several times better. In the meantime, I guess I'll just have to check out Harbinger Down.
There are a lot of disappointments here, but I found it just strong enough to be a good movie. I mean, despite all its flaws, it's still a far better sci-fi horror prequel than Prometheus.
It's a movie about zombies, but not really a zombie movie. This is about a world where they've stopped the zombie outbreak and have controlled it with medicine that prevents people from turning into zombies. The problem is, a person has to keep taking medicine to stop it from happening and now the supply is starting to dwindle. So it's a movie on how society deals with people who are infected and how things start to change as the medicine becomes scarce and there is a fear of what will happen when it does and what danger the people who are infected pose. I thought it was pretty entertaining and the main actress kind of reminds me of Kate Mara. Available on Netflix and I recommend it anyone looking for something different in the zombie genre.
Going to post impressions tomorrow, if I can, for the five films I've seen so far. The most recent I watched was Stage Fright (1987), and it was really good.
Think the next on my list is the The Loved Ones.
What cut of The Exorcist should someone watch, if they've never seen the film before? Extended, or the original theatrical cut?
Not a fan of most found footage type films so I was bound to dislike/be indifferent to this. It was really slow at parts but the lead actress/character is likable which helps as she's on screen for like 90% of the run time. This was actually really uncomfortable for me throughout most of the film and I considered turning it off multiple times. This is probably a good thing for a horror film but I didn't have a great time viewing things through the eyes of a stalker for an hour and a half.
The House at the End of Time. First hour drags. Was about to shut it off but read some reviews and persisted. Its ok I guess. I will give it three slow moving Jason's for a score. Well made movie with a good story overall but fucking boring.
13. Would You Rather (2012)
Liked the idea more than the movie. It is Saw meets Hostel in that rich people screw around with poor people. First 30 minutes dragged on. Movie is quite well shot and acted so some points for that.
The film that would start a horror genre all of it's own. I've never seen this one before, but I've seen many of the sequels and other films it inspired. Not bad for such an old and budget film. I find it interesting that the formula for zombie movies has largely stayed the same right from the beginning to the present. Amazing how the zombie genre is still going so strong, as I would have expected everyone to get tired of it.
Not a movie I would exactly recommend for your movie night, as it shows its age. But definitely worth checking out if you're a horror fan as a piece of history. Also not a bad film to just have on in the background at like a Halloween party. The black and white gives it charm, and there's lots of scenes people will recognize even if they haven't seen it before.
Also, this movie is public domain and you can watch it right on YouTube!
7. The Ring (2002)
[Or, The alternate history of Wanda Maximoff]
This movie makes more sense if you believe that the girl in the movie is that world's Scarlet Witch. She inherited her father's magnetic powers and absorbed her twin in the womb to gain a fraction of his powers. Then she was orphaned. This explains
her magnetic powers that can effect Xrays, Cameras, and vhs tapes. Super speed accelerates her metabolism and keeps her from sleeping. Her reality altering powers can pretty much explain everything else.
As far as horror movies go, this one was ok but lacked the death count I'm used to in many other movies I've seen so far. If I can count the number of deaths on one foot then it has failed me.
This movie gets 2.5 refrigerator sized VHS players out of 5.
8. The Ring Two (2005)
[Or, How I met your Mother]
Wanda is back and she isn't taking no for an answer! Someone somewhere figured out the trick behind the VHS death trap and it wasn't just switching to DVDs. This movie fails on a very important factor. The decimation of the VHS is known to be important, but the effects of this are never touched on. No one ever talks about the pyramid scheme of death that would grow exponentially to plague the nation. Instead it's about the same surviving characters from the first movie. More characters are introduced, but never fleshed out to make me care about them. But the truth is I don't mind. The mother child bond expressed in this movie was easily relate able as a parent. The effects were good, but they needlessly had to reinvent the wheel by reintroducing another 'VHS' style vision to guide the character. I'm kind of sad that I never get a clear view of what the dead people's faces look like. The resolution is just about as final as the last DVD/vhs combo sold.
#3 Cooties
Directors: Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott
Fun movie, fun time
This was good, it reminded me of Tucker and Dale with just how much comedy is being thrown at you. There's some good moments but it also feels like it was holding back, like maybe the directors didn't really know how to properly construct horror scenes.
I had a fun time watching it and would recommend, if you are in a mood for a comedy/horror film.
This one was decent. After a few wealthy figures are brutally murdered, Albert Finney's cop character is assigned to the case. Autopsies prove inconclusive, but wolf hairs are found on multiple bodies. The procedural elements cover quite a bit of story. I liked the use of wolf-cam at points, showcasing the wolves' heightened senses and abilities. The main characters are kind of bland, but Wolfen's strength is its many themes and subtext. The film touches on issues like urban decay and gentrification. Overall the atmosphere of the movie is appropriately creepy.
What Lisa and the Devil lacks in total narrative cohesion, Mario Bava is able to make work through his sheer talent, as the film has a nice and pretty consistent level of disorientation that creates a strong atmosphere, along with his usual explosion of colors and delightfully cockeyed camera angles. A kind of a "woman wanders into a haunted house story" tale, the film works best when it's not trying to dole out narrative details that seldom go anywhere beyond their utility in the particular scene they're introduced in, as the story never seems to want to ever make up its mind on anything. As it exists from moment to moment, it fares much better, as Bava is able to find a nice little flow to string the scenes together that don't really need to rely much on logic as he is just bursting with ideas he wants to realize on screen, along with a fair few macabre details that help shape somewhat familiar moments into new ones. Telly Savalas makes for a rather nice little puppet master, both figuratively and literally, with his undeniable charisma masking his considerably less noble intentions, while Elke Sommer brings an ethereal presence that makes the most of her natural beauty without having to being a verbal performance. The rest of the cast is of wildly uneven talent levels, but as tools at Bava's disposal, they do what's needed of them in a satisfactory way. It's interesting to watch this film, knowing that a few years later that Bava disciple Dario Argento would embark on his own supernatural horror film that was long on style and perhaps a bit lacking in the story department, drawing a pretty straight line that makes it a highly interesting film from an academic standpoint. On its own merits as entertainment, it does well for itself as a series of strong scenes; just try not to think about it too terribly hard.
Film for October 8: While Bob Clark was best known for the unlikely two-shot of Porky's and A Christmas Story, Black Christmas is a treasured proto-slasher that helped open up some rather big doors for the genre's mainstream growth in its wake. But did you know that it wasn't Bob Clark's first crack at a horror film? I investigate his Vietnam War-tinged zombie shocker Deathdream to see what other tricks he had up his sleeve.
Ok, I think this is the scariest movie I've ever seen. Being psychological horror, I can't help but compare this to Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (GCN), but without the sanity meter, weapons, or magic. It starts with Amelia's son Samuel being annoying. I wanted to brush that aside, being that I don't like kids, but it becomes a plot point. Amelia has to contend with her husband's death, raising her son, and then she stumbles upon the pop-up book "Mister Babadook", which features disturbing pictures and rhymes.
Then the sanity slippage kicks in. What makes this movie work is that, for the most part, you don't see the Babadook, and when you do, it's a scary sight, thus falling under the Nothing Is Scarier trope. In particular, the knocking on the door reminds me of Eternal Darkness, which on top of everything else from the game, kept me away from it for a few days. Is there really a Babadook, or is Amelia going insane from the stress? And Samuel's having problems too. Oh, and the book comes back after Amelia tears it up and throws it away. All setting up for a climax and an ending I did not expect.
I'm confident this will make my Top 5, if not #1 spot in my rankings at the end of the 31 Days. I also feel parents would be more affected by this than me.
I was a little apprehensive going into Tremors 5 as I didn't care for the last two Tremors movies (Back to Perfection and The Legend Begins) and this one also happens to co-star Jaime Kennedy who I found to be tolerable in Scream 1 & 2, but nothing else. So I went into this movie with low expectations and well, after watching it I gotta say I really enjoyed it despite the (imo) bad CGI creatures (it's kinda along the same lines as the CGI shriekers in Tremors 2 & 3) and occasionally horrific bad jokes. Also oddly enough one of the things I enjoyed about this movie are the (imo) few moments where Jaime Kennedy is not only tolerable, but actually kinda likable and kinda funny also the redesigned @$$blasters & Grabboids are imo kinda bad@$$ looking despite the bad CGI.
For my watch list/thoughts on the movies I watched on days 1 - 6 please see my OP
6. Killer Klowns From Outer Space (Amazon) another absolute classic. Only way I can keep up is by supplementing new movies with ones I can watch at work that I'm familiar with. I can watch this again and again.
7. Terrorvision (Amazon) this is a new one and holy cow it's great. I feel like the entire world of this movie came from an 80's music video. Pretty fun all around. A few draggy parts but there's nothing I've seen like it.
The final film to complete Criterion week is the outstanding bluray edition of the King of the Monsters. This and King Kong are the films that laid the groundwork for future monster movies and sfx. It mixes elements of horror, action, and science fiction. It runs a little slow at some points. Great effects for a film of its age.
Wasn't too hot on this one. There were parts that made me chuckle, but a lot of the humor didn't work for me, and it felt like it was trying a little too hard to be bad. I guess I was expecting it to be more subtle. The kills were perfect giallo tributes, though. The scene with the door and the ax was 100% Fulci, as were the scissors and the spiders. And the Three Mothers book was a nice touch too. And the Inferno reference near the end. Overall though, there was a lot to the film that didn't really feel "giallo," and the parts that didn't seem like parody just seemed like bad comedy instead, like a poor imitation of Anchorman-style non sequitur humor. I guess I was expecting something more like a funnier Berberian Sound Studio. Meh.
#19 - The Serpent and the Rainbow
I had to include a couple of Craven flicks, considering his unfortunate recent passing. This one was certainly interesting. The story is kind of all over the place, but I found it a lot like Altered States in that the story didn't really matter, because I was more impressed with the strange, hallucinatory visuals. It gets pretty silly toward the end, but again, I didn't really mind all that much, I just sort of enjoyed the ride.
I felt it tried to be many things, but ended up exelling at nothing, it could have been funnier or scarier or both. For the record my favorite horror anthology is Cat's Eye.
#5 The Pact (2012)
Trying to mix up the haunted house genre, but failing to actually bring suspense to he table, this film is let down by lacklustre pacing, uninteresting characters and a flimsy plot (that had some potential tho). Not really recommended.
31 Days of Horror Pre-31 Days of Horror 1 - Behind the Mask Pre-31 Days of Horror 2 - Unfriended Day 1 - The Hills Have Eyes (2006) Day 2 - The Thing (1982) Day 3 - The Cabinet of Dr. Calagari Day 3 Double Feature - Dead Silence Day 4 - Black Death Day 5 - Maniac Cop Day 6 - The Omen (1976) Day 7 - Creep (2014)
Creep (2014)
This is the second of the mandatory films for this years 31 Days of Horror. I don't know how I feel about this one. I'm indifferent about found footage type films in general, but they tend to be on the low end of the horror genre for me. I was laughing my ass off in the first half of the film because of how stupid a lot of it was. I'm not sure if I was supposed to be creeped out in the second half of the film, but I just thought the main character was so stupid. Why do people make terrible decisions in horror movies? The protagonist in this film seems to have mastered making stupid decisions. Still, I did enjoy certain parts of the film and while I didn't necessarily find the film scary, I know shit like this can happen and does happen to people in real life which serves as a reminder for how bat shit insane some people in this world are.
I felt it tried to be many things, but ended up exelling at nothing, it could have been funnier or scarier or both. For the record my favorite horror anthology is Cat's Eye.
I'll check out Cat's Eye. I haven't seen that one, but yeah I agree with you on that the movie sort of had an identity crisis and could have been fleshed out much better.. I don't think it was either, but I found it to be enjoyable overall. I feel like, with the tone of the film being dark, they should have went for it to be straight up scary.
Sleepy Hollow (1999) - Very eye pleasing. Other than that I have nothing good to say about it. I don't even know where to start. It's like one of those mysteries that's a mystery for the sake of it. Strings the audience along with scraps of false information only to tell everything at the end in plain speech. Christina Ricci is apparently a love interest, but it's done so flatly that I begun to suspect that she was playing him the whole time and had motives of her own. Nope, it's just poorly done. That's what happens when a mystery movie gives you nothing concrete to hold onto to. You start filling in blanks that were never there. Instead of being engaging it fills my attention with how little it's trying to engage. "What am I missing?" Nothing. The horsemen shows up, someone loses their head, the mystery is no closer or further away from being solved other than the fact that the movie will have to end some time in the next hour or so. Danny Elfman does the music, but you wouldn't know it unless you paid attention to the intro credits.
5/10
Witchfinder General (1968) - Vincent Price turns in a good performance as a manipulative con artist who travels the English countryside torturing and murdering people for profit under the guise that they have been accused of witchcraft and that he is providing an important service to God and country. Most of the movie is a simple revenge story though and not a very satisfying one either. There are so many more interesting themes that can go along with a topic like this and it never really gets into any of them. The behavior of the townspoeple is baffling. Only those directly affected by the accusations seem to care. Everyone else just stands by and says nothing, does nothing. It may be because they're afraid he could accuse them of witchcraft or any number of things, but this is never hinted at. I suppose everyone can relate to awful situations where it seems like you're the only one that cares. At this point I'm digging deeper than the movie does though.
I always enjoy an ending that has the main characters screaming with insanity. Also murder and revenge.
I had high hopes for this one. See The Masque of the Red Death (1964) instead.
I watched this last night, and it's great. I'm not including it in the tally for the marathon though, because it's not a horror movie. I'm posting about it because I thought it was quite an interesting example of how the marketing for a film can massively misrepresent it, and as a warning on the off-chance that anyone else was thinking about checking it out. I'm going to try and find the Sci-Fi now review they use at the bottom of the cover, to see what the whole quote is. I'm guessing it's something like "This film looks like it's going to be a fantastical horror movie but it's actually nothing of the sort".
While looking for the image of the DVD case I found the original theatrical release poster. It's the same image more or less, only without the ominous flock of birds behind the girls' faces, or the pentagram...
If you want to see a beautifully shot, brilliantly acted and directed movie about love and loss and coming of age, set mainly in a British girls school in the late 1960s, check it out. Maisie Williams is fantastic in it, and newcomer Florence Pugh is even better. If you want to see a horror movie though, steer well clear.
I'm going to try and find the Sci-Fi now review they use at the bottom of the cover, to see what the whole quote is. I'm guessing it's something like "This film looks like it's going to be a fantastical horror movie but it's actually nothing of the sort".
I wanted to watch it since I saw it included in some horror lists, but I am going to put this (and also Snowtown) on the backburner as they don't qualify, for me, as horror movies.
I wanted to watch it since I saw it included in some horror lists, but I am going to put this (and also Snowtown) on the backburner as they don't qualify, for me, as horror movies.
Thanks for the link - I can't believe that quote isn't even from the body of the review! Cheeky buggers.
The review itself is actually pretty accurate, though I think the reviewer is making too much of the way the film references British folk horror. I mean, the references are there, but it's pretty clear to the viewer what's really going on from very near the beginning.
I'm still glad I watched it, because it's so good, but I should have left it until November.
absolute trash. it's a classic non-medy, they try so hard to make jokes and they all fall flat. they had a gay joke in it, which was literally a flamboyant dude saying "I'm gay". that's it. ha ha, I guess. all characters are caricatures of caricatures. the horror part had some decent visuals/effects at the beginning and turned into looney tunes at the end.
if you want to feel miserable but don't like lars von trier movies, I guess you could try this one.
I've been occupied with a bunch of other things and haven't really been able to watch horror movies. But I should be able to watch a few over the coming weekend.
This is a rewatch, but it has been so long I forgot the plots honestly (much like Saw 1-4 when I get to them).
Overall I am going to judge each segment since this is an anthology.
Intro/Epilogue: A clever way to introduce each story. Nice twist of the classic witch/children story. 3/5
Lot 249: I did not like this segment. Every character was terrible so I didn't feel bad for Andy. Had some moments, so will just say flawed. 2/5
Cat from Hell: Got to give it to Romero, he can make a pretty great story about a cat. Easily my favorite one. 4/5
Lover's Vow: I quite liked this one. It deals with a Yuki-onna inspired creature (look it up) and the main character trying to not spill his encounter with it. The twist is also great. 3/5
So overall with just one meh segment, I highly suggest this film to any horror fan. 3/5
Akumu Tantei (2006)* - Tsukamoto Shinya's take on a straight horror film that ends up being everything other than straight. The story is much more convoluted than I remember, not exactly a well developed plot, worth a watch if your a fan of Tsukamoto, & want to see him go a slightly more commercial route. The editing & cinematography is chaotic, the camera spends half the time shaking, but it does somehow work in the film's favor, gives the cheap budget more personality. The acting from the lead actress is honestly complete shit, no emotions, she's is either squinting or not. Matsuda Ryuhei hams is up slightly in the title role but plays it natural for the most part in the introverted character moments. Overall not bad, I liked it better the first time I watched it, the climax of the film is oddly great but the build up is a little too run of mill.
Soseiji (1999)* - Tsukamoto's adaptation of a Edogawa Ranpo novel is lush & grotesque story of a young doctor's downfall at the hands of his long lost brutal twin brother. The direction & cinematography is overtly stylized, great use of colors, oddly framed at times & some abrupt editing from shot to shot make the the film that more strange and stunning, the over the top use of make up (every actor in the film has bleached eyebrow) makes everyone look ghastly or sick. The acting in this is quite good, Motoki Masahiro is able to play role of the twins with earnestness or with a feral quality well. By far my favorite Tsukamoto film.
