Family
Quite liked this one. It is about a neighbor who has a certain way with his family. He meets the next door neighbor and falls for her. The twists and turns are quite good. 3/5
Sounds Like
Great acting by the main character. It is a father dealing with his troubles. Along the way, he starts to hear many sounds. Overall I only disliked the ending. 4/5
Cigarette Burns
John Carpenter sure has talent. It is about a film theatre owner struggling with his father-in-law's business. So he gets a task to find a rare film with strange reactions by those who watch it. Surreal and strange, I liked it. 3/5
Reviews catch up time! I'm going to be more brief on these and just to clarify my scoring, 2.5 out of 5 Michaels should be considered decent/average. I'm not going by the gaming's side scale where anything lower than a 4.5/5 is an abomination.
07) Swamp Thing (1982) (Oct 7)
The first movie in my Wes Wednesdays, Swamp Thing is one of Wes Craven's early films and it's a little rough around the edges.
I loved how they made Cable (Adrienne Barbeau) a smart, tough character but was disappointed when she regressed to the standard damsel in distress when it was time for Swamp Thing to come and do whatever a Swamp Thing does.
I also got a kick out of how even in a movie with David Hess (Krug in The Last House on the Left), that Ray Wise still managed to be the creepiest guy on screen. Good job, Ray!
Overall, it's not a great movie, but it is a fun one so it's worth checking out. Just not something I see myself re-watching.
Rating:
out of 5 Michaels from Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror.
08) Lust for a Vampire (1971) (Oct 8)
I'm a Hammer noob and decided to start with the Karnstein trilogy last year because it's shorter than their Dracula series, and certainly not because of all the bosomy women. How dare you suggest that, sir!
So another year, another movie in the series. This time the 2nd in the series, Lust for a Vampire. My understanding is that this was made when Hammer was having a bit of an identity crisis trying to keep up with the success of the American horror movies so they had made the decision that to get more As in the seats, they needed more Ts on screen as evidenced by the increase of sexuality in the Karnstein trilogy.
Lust for a Vampire suffered a fair amount of production woes and is considered the worst in the trilogy, suffering cast/crew changes at the last minute, and a very campy feel. I actually kind of enjoyed it though. It's true there's quite a bit of unintentional comedy with the womanizing lead and the hilariously placed “Strange Love” song, but I felt that gave the film a charm of its own.
It's well shot and the script is perfectly satisfactory for a Gothic horror movie. The character relationships could have used a little fleshing out though, mainly the lead Richard Lestrange's relationships with both Mircalla and Janet Playfair.
Overall, Lust for a Vampire is worth checking out if you're looking for some campy fun. It may not be a great movie, but I'd take it over contemporary tripe like Paranormal Activity any day. And yes, it is very, very bosomy.
Rating:
out of 5 Michaels from Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror.
09) Zombeavers (2014) (Oct 9)
When the trailer for Zombeavers first came out I was incredibly excited to see it. It seemed to take forever to come out though, and when it finally did it just seemed to come and go without any fanfare, so I never got around to watching it.
Man, do I regret that now. Zombeavers was hilarious. An excellent attempt at recreating the fun of Evil Dead 2 and a huge improvement over something like Black Sheep. I was really surprised at how natural the comedy felt and it never seemed like they were trying too hard.
Especially notable was the progression of Cortney Palm's character, Zoe. I love what they did with her and Palm is great in it. It's nice to see her with a more substantial role than “naked model” in the Silent Night, Deadly Night remake. I definitely hope to see more of her as she makes a great scream queen.
Highly recommended.
Rating:
out of 5 Michaels from Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror.
I knocked half a Michael off because
that Haley Joel Osment-looking mother fucker sacrificed the dog! Fuck that guy!
10) The Battery (2012) (Oct 10)
I'm a big zombie guy. Starting to collect zombie movies is probably responsible for the seriousness of my horror fandom these days, however I'm so over the whole infected human movies which plague the sub-genre these days. Oh, what I wouldn't give for an 80s style zombies rising from the grave movie. How I thirst for a montage of rotting corpses pulling themselves from the dirt in a mist filled cemetery…
For that reason, I probably never would have even taken note of The Battery which is yet another infected human flick if Ridley327 had not sang its praises way back in year 3 of the marathon.
The Battery is an ultra low budget character piece rather than an all out zombie apocalypse story. Think what The Walking Dead could be (or wants desperately to be) if they didn't have to keep throwing zombie attacks in for the ADD crowd.
Basically the entire thing rests on the shoulders of actors Jeremy Gardner (also the writer/director) and Adam Cronheim who play baseball players forced together more by necessity than by friendship. Cronheim can feel a little “reading off a script” at times, but Gardner gives a nice, natural performance.
The movie is low budget and very indie feeling. The zombie makeup is pretty poor but never really distracts. The indie nature rears its ugly head when on multiple occasions the movie stops dead in its tracks to showcase some indie songs. It becomes pretty obnoxious and could have been handled better.
Without giving anything away, the final act is phenomenal. Really powerful stuff. Though I could have done without the
additional shot during the credits
. It would have been more effective without that.
Rating:
out of 5 Michaels from Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror.
11) Hellraiser: Revelations (2011) (Oct 11)
I watched the first Hellraiser way back in the first year of the marathon and loved it so much I decided to go though the entire series. Now on the 5th year and the anniversary of my viewing of the original, I'm finally done. It's been an interesting ride.
Hellraiser: Revelations is the first movie since the 4th (Hellraiser: Bloodline) to actually use a script written as a Hellraiser movie and for that reason it feels most like the original than any of the sequels to the point where it's very, very derivative.
The movie opens with an abysmal found footage sequence where we're introduced to the characters Nico Bradley (groan) and Steven Craven (double groan) and I was all ready to make a bad “I feel like I'm the one who opened the puzzle box and was banished to a 75 minute hell” joke for my review, but having found something interesting in all the sequels even if I didn't like them all, I persisted.
Now I can't believe I'm going to say this, and this is by no means a recommendation, but Revelations isn't as bad as the fan base makes it out to be. The best way I can describe the movie is “it is what it is”. A movie rushed into production by Dimension to maintain the rights to the series and according to IMDb, only had roughly three weeks of production time with an eleven-day shooting schedule.
The whole thing is flat. Flat direction, flat acting and worst of all, a flat, almost unnoticeable score. The story is serviceable though. With a second draft of the script it could have been a pretty decent home invasion style Hellraiser movie. Actors Nick Eversman and especially Tracey Fairaway do their best with what they're given and the gore effects are surprisingly good, though mostly copies of what you've already seen and done better in the original.
Pinhead himself seems is the biggest flub of the movie. The actor is much too large and looks downright silly in the awful makeup and was his voice dubbed? The whole thing just didn't work. Even Pinhead's trademark dark poetry dialogue is poorly written and uninteresting.
Overall though, it's not good and there's nothing here you need to see, but it is a functional movie. I'm not quite sure why the Hellraiser fan base has such venom for it because it's not like anyone has anything good to say about any of the sequels and Doug Bradley's opinion on the quality shouldn't mean much since he was fine with doing 7 other inferior sequels. Where does the franchise loyalty come from? I don't get it. They're all downhill after the excellent original.
Rating:
out of 5 Michaels from Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror because I'm feeling generous.
13. The Abominable Dr. Phibes (watched on 10/13/15) - Prior to today I personally had not seen this movie, but after a friend of mine found that out they kept insisting that I see this movie. So I decided to finally watch it even though I was more in a slasher movie kind of mood due to the Friday the 13th: The Game announcement. I gotta say even though the version of the movie I watched (it was via Youtube since it wasn't available on Netflix and I didn't care to purchase/track down or rent/borrow a copy of the movie) was missing a section of audio (about 3 minutes worth) near the end of the movie I really liked it more than I expected to mostly due to the almost comedic and (imo) Hitchcockian nature of the scenes involving the cops (Frenzy specifically comes to mind) trying to figure things out.
Bonus Movie # 2. Friday the 13th Part 6 (watched on 10/13/15) - Since I was (still) in a bit of a slasher movie mood from earlier in the day (see above) I decided to pop this bad boy (it's one of my favorite movies in the series) into the ole DVD player after watching The Abominable Dr. Phibes.
What an awful film. Abysmal 90s TV movie acting all around, ridiculous premise, annoying internet slang conversations, and super boring. I don't even know what this film is trying to be, a live jasmine thriller? Avoid
I give this film 1 bag of popcorn (out of 5)
#16. Contracted (2013)
Viewed On: Netflix
Another IFC Midnight stinker. I usually don't get too angry about illogical and stupid decisions people make in films, especially horror films. But this one is just too much, it takes the cake. I think there was some potential here with the premise, but this film definitely does not fulfill that potential. Some OK attempts at body horror are found here, but the character seems like she couldn't be bothered to worry about her "transformation". Maggots found in your vagina, fingernails falling off, eyes bleeding? Guess I better head to work. Even when she does see a doctor he's like, "hmm kinda weird, wait on it and come and see me again in a week." Everything about this film is really idiotic and not even funny idiotic. Props for Simon Barrett though, even if he is blurred out. Avoid.
I give this film 1 bag of popcorn (out of 5)
#17. The Final Girls (2015)
Viewed On: VOD
Quite enjoyed this one. It seems a lot of films are going for the play-with-horror-tropes Cabin in the Woods style. This one does it well, maybe not as masterful as Cabin in the Woods, but still certainly entertaining. It does a pretty good job of deconstructing the tropes and nuances of the slasher genre. Overall pretty funny and surprising. I think many here will like it and so will slasher fans. It kind of trails off near the end and is less memorable than when the film is getting set up. Solid.
I knew this was supposed to be good, but not much beyond that as I managed to luckily go in blind. If you haven't seen it, I'd recommend doing that as well.
I don't want to say too much about it, but damn this was an intense movie. And Tyres is in it!
I did have some issues making out quite a bit of the dialogue with combination of the thicker accents than I'm used to and the characters mumbling a lot of their lines, so I had to watch it with subtitles which is not the ideal way to watch a movie. I also thought the
squealing of the cult members and Wilhelm scream was a bit too silly for such a dark movie.
Other than that, a very powerful film that lived up to the praise.
Rating:
out of 5 Michaels from Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror.
Same. I think I've had it sitting here for about 3 years now. It's one that's always just not quite made it into my marathon. Glad to have gotten it taken care of now so I can fit in more complete garbage next year!
The Others - Much better than I expected. A bit predictable except I was unprepared for how hot Nicole Kidman is in this.
Sleepy Hollow - One of the better Burton movies, imo. I think his style worked great with the story. The only thing that is really, really stupid is the choice of Christopher Walken as the Hessian. Overall, the story of Sleepy Hollow is woefully underused horror fodder.
16. Crimson Peak (2015) I won tickets to an advanced screening of this tonight, and it turned out to be pretty good. I would say that this is his most entertaining horror films in a while, but it the story felt like it was missing something. The truth behind the plot was made blatantly obvious throughout the film, which made left the expected climax lacking, and the film loses much of its intensity from that point forward. However, that's not a reason to avoid this film. It's creepy, bloody, has beautiful visuals, and never really gets boring. Just don't expect anything particularly original when it comes to the reveal. 7.5/10
Really good film by Jacques Tourneur. Stunning camera work - shadows galore enhance the mood. The death scenes are brilliant in how the focus is on the tension and buildup. You don't see what's happening, and that's the real terror.
A little bit Eating Raoul, a little bit Mad Max (thanks in no small part to a featured role for good old Bruce Spence) and a whole lot of Ozzie strangeness combine to make The Cars That Ate Paris, a horror comedy that leans more towards the latter, though not without some gruesomeness along the way. It is a bit difficult to take a lot of the film seriously, especially as it opens with a thinly veiled advert that soon becomes several of them back to back as a young and affluent couple drive countryside, hocking whatever product the shot calls for until the inevitable car wreck happens and crushes each piece of advertising just as thoroughly as its passengers. It has that unmistakable mark that a lot of cult films from Australia bare, in that it tries on just about anything that comes to mind, regardless of how well it actually fits; in a way, this film feels like a puzzle set that is cobbled together from several different ones, never quite coming together as a coherent image. It's funny, but never too funny, and while it dabbles a bit in gore and shock imagery, it never feels committed to horrifying, despite the fertile premise of an entire community being involved with murders and medical experiments to make a dishonest living. While the story never comes together and its characters feel too thin (seeing future Waterloo enthusiast Terry Camilleri was neat, though his character and performance isn't good lead material by any stretch, despite his sweetness), Peter Weir was certainly already quite adept behind the camera, given the film a nice visual look that it probably didn't deserve and having a capable hand in editing it together, making it feel fast paced even as there's not really much going on. Similar to Sisters earlier in the month, it's always interesting to see a director at work just before such a massive leap forward in prowess and quality happens, and while I feel Weir certainly had a great deal more confidence in his abilities than De Palma had on that film, there's something lacking in The Cars That Ate Paris that puts it in a category almost exclusively for those seeking out curiosities in the early days of great directors rather than being something I would generally recommend as a good, solid time. Calling it a noble failure seems appropriate enough, but its definitely not because of incompetence; it just doesn't really come together well.
Film for October 14: An important milestone is to be set on this day, as it represents the 300th film I've seen this year! Such an occasion calls for a heavy hitter, starring the late, great Christopher Lee. There was one film that was decided upon so early on in the process of making my list that it could very well have been the first film that was locked in, due in no small part to only catching brief moments more than 10 years ago. It is finally time to make sure that The Wicker Man will finally be given the respect it deserves and to cross off one of the biggest marks on my record.
I'll start off by saying it's not as good as Amer. Amer has meticulous pacing in addition to its gorgeous visuals and sound, and it focuses on a single character, which keeps it coherent in spite of its emphasis on theme over narrative. The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears, on the other hand, essentially has no plot. It has various thematic elements sort of randomly scattered throughout but none of it really adds up to anything that I could discern. Despite that, I enjoyed it. The cinematography, editing, and sound design are even crazier and more ambitious than Amer's, which results in a wildly disorienting yet fascinating experience. Every second of the film is drenched in classic giallo style, but it has no substance. And that's fine, though it gets a bit tiresome toward the end and probably could have benefited from a shorter runtime.
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) Day 8 - The Taking of Deborah Logan Day 9 - The Return of the Living Dead Day 10 - ATM Day 10 Double Feature - From Dusk Till Dawn Day 11 - The People Under the Stairs Day 11 Double Feature - The Strangers Day 12 - Stake Land Day 13 - Fright Night (2011)
Firght Night (2011)
A remake of one of my favorite movies, I went in with low expectations and came out pleased. It wasn't great by any means but it wasn't bad either. The fact that they didn't just copy everything 1:1 was cool I guess, but the original has it's charm and this movie failed to replicate that charm. It could have done without a lot of the teenage stuff, but I guess that's how movies are these days so it's to be expected. Also, Practical Effects >>>>>> CGI.
#10 Rovdyr (2008)
Started quite promising, liked that it was set in the 70s, but then nothing is really done with that, and it turns into a very standard slasher in the woods affaire. Very unlikeable characters make it difficult to care. I mean, shut up and take some cover already. I have seen everything in this movie done better before.
#11 Dance of the Dead (2008)
I never turn off movies, but I almost did with this. A styleless, very amateurish and honestly just lame attempt at horror comedy spiced up with a horrible kiddie punk soundtrack. I advice everyone not to waste 80 minutes on this.
18. Annabelle (2014): This movie would have made more sense if the doll had looked like the real Annabelle, because why would someone collect creepy dolls like this? Of course that would have probably been counterproductive, since the scariest thing about the movie is how creepy the doll looks. Fuck dolls. Anyway, it's not even close to being as good as the Conjuring which I have started to appreciate more and more as a horror movie since seeing it earlier this month, but it is still not as bad as the reviews made it seem. There are some effective moments, like when the girl is running towards the lady from the other room and at the door transforms into that crazy woman, but overall it's more ponderous horror. It did somewhat surprise me because I thought that book shop lady was the demon trying to get the lady to give up her soul. If you hate dolls it might be worth checking out.
Creature from the Black Lagoon
My last Universal monster movie for the year (well, kind of) and one of the better ones. What separates this is from the rest of the Universal pack is that the monster doesn't really have a personality or a character, it's basically a big, angry animal, which maybe makes for an overall less memorable monster -- since the Gillman is just a guy in a costume, you don't get a performance like Lugosi, Karloff or Claude Rains.
But for the most part the movie works overall, and the menace posed by the creature, the sympathy for its position, the unique setting, (relative) depth of the human cast's dynamic and overall production values give this movie a bit more urgency and polish than some of the others.
Looking back, I'd probably rank them as:
Bride of Frankenstein > Frankenstein > The Invisible Man > Creature from the Black Lagoon > Son of Frankenstein > The Wolf Man > Dracula > The Mummy
I had never watched the original Fly, only the excellent 1986 version, so it was about time I got around to it. I'm sure everyone is familiar with the premise, so I won't bore you with that. What remains to be said? Well, the movie is chilling and raises a few ethical questions in the process. Vincent Price is outstanding as always, as was the female lead Patricia Owens. However, most credit of course goes to the leading man himself, David Hedison, who portrays an excellent monster, despite not being able to speak.
Now, I prefer the 1986 movie over this one, storywise, but only barely.
and it's...eh. it's a movie that's not really sure what it wants to be; it cycles through a few different tropey concepts but never really latches onto one to really "ground" the film. it doesn't get into explaining much of what's actually going on, or even some of the characters and their motivations and instead is essentially a one-sided view of an unfortunate man's descent into madness at the hands of...something. or a group of somethings. again it's never made abundantly clear. it kind of feels like a Silent Hill movie in ways, most specifically referring to a man with a family losing his marbles.
the 'scene' most people refer to in this film that's a real shocker isn't really that bad, and in fact i found it to be one of the most lasting images from the film. i really enjoyed some of the more subtle changes in lighting and cinematography as the events went on, and eventually you kind of enter a Argento-esque lighting scheme near the end that I thought was really nice.
really moody film that's missing some major gaps in the plot/story department.
12. The Brood Cronenberg uses his typically disturbing body horror to tackle themes of dysfunctional marriage and abusive parents on children in this excellent horror flick. Things are kept on a slow broil until the very tense and disturbing finale, but is thoroughly entertaining up until that point as well thanks to Cronenberg's measured direction, a well paced and mysterious storyline, and excellent performances from Oliver Reed and Samantha Eggar.
13. The Pit and The Pendulum A very successful team up between Roger Corman and Vincent Price, putting their own unique stamp of the Poe classic. Price is at his best hear, able to switch between sinister and pitiable at a dime with his expressive face and unique voice. The atmosphere here is excellent as well in ornate gothic castle filled with the requisite cobwebs, hidden passages, and torture chambers--although the palette of the film remains lush and vibrant. The Poe story itself really only takes up a small portion of the film itself, and is well done, but the adaptation is quite good as the invented storyline feels of a piece with the themes and storylines that run through Poe's work; it's a tale of mystery, guilt, ghosts, and betrayal. Good stuff.
It's a similar setup to the first one where it's a bunch of short stories shown in found footage format. I think I actually liked this one a lot more than the first one. It's been awhile since I've seen the first, but I really enjoyed this one. All of them were pretty good except the last one, but overall I had a good time watching it. I think I'll do the third one next as a result.
A better monster get-together than Hotel Transylvania. This movie reminds me of Explorers: kids who obsess over one topic and get more than they dreamed of. I also liked Phoebe's friendship with the Frankenstein monster, which reminds me of the 1931 Frankenstein movie. A fun movie, give it a watch.
How similar are Evil Dead 1 and 2? I was planning to watch the whole trilogy toward the end of the month, but apparently 2 is partly a remake of 1? Wondering if it might be worth it to swap out 1 for something else this year and shuffle it off for some other time.
How similar are Evil Dead 1 and 2? I was planning to watch the whole trilogy toward the end of the month, but apparently 2 is partly a remake of 1? Wondering if it might be worth it to swap out 1 for something else this year and shuffle it off for some other time.
13. The Pit and The Pendulum A very successful team up between Roger Corman and Vincent Price, putting their own unique stamp of the Poe classic. Price is at his best hear, able to switch between sinister and pitiable at a dime with his expressive face and unique voice. The atmosphere here is excellent as well in ornate gothic castle filled with the requisite cobwebs, hidden passages, and torture chambers--although the palette of the film remains lush and vibrant. The Poe story itself really only takes up a small portion of the film itself, and is well done, but the adaptation is quite good as the invented storyline feels of a piece with the themes and storylines that run through Poe's work; it's a tale of mystery, guilt, ghosts, and betrayal. Good stuff.
I've been watching a bunch of Vincent Price movies this year and have loved the corman Poe films. The two Vincent Price scream factory bluray collections are great watches.
#14 Event Horizon this film to this day scares me just as much as it did when i was a kid everything about it is just perfect the whole more is less really works for it although it would of been cool to of seen some more of what happened to the original crew
I was looking forward to my first ever Fulci movie, City of the Living Dead, very much before I watched it earlier this month. In the end I didnt have as good a time as I was expecting with it. I approached this evenings entertainment with some trepidation therefore, but I shouldnt have worried. The Beyond is bloody fantastic.
Im not entirely sure why I enjoyed it so much more than City of the Living Dead. Perhaps knowing exactly the kind of thing to expect going in changed my attitude, allowing me to embrace the often nonsensical glory of Fulcis vision and relax into the madcap pattern of the movie. Perhaps The Beyond is just a better movie. I expect Ill have to rewatch City to find out.
Whatever the reason, I loved The Beyond so much. I loved the hokiness of the sepia toned intro being blown apart by the accursed warlocks brutal murder. I loved Joe the Plumbers Jesus is the answer bumper sticker, his relaxed attitude to knocking bloody great big holes in basement walls without asking the homeowner if that was ok, and the fact that when
his reanimated corpse rammed moody Marthas head onto the nail sticking out of the bathroom wall, that nail wasnt nearly long enough to push right through her skull and pop her eyeball out the way it so gorgeously did.
I loved the lost in translation DO NOT ENTRY sign outside the morgue. I really, really loved the terrible spider models - it was like they had enough cash for a couple of tarantulas and they just got a five year old to make the rest out of pipe cleaners and cardboard tubes from the inside of toilet rolls. Beautiful. I loved the way the doctor guy had a magically reloading revolver, and that when he
accidentally killed his co-worker by shooting at a glass door, the co-worker started bleeding from a different part of the head than the glass shard was sticking out of.
What a great movie. The House by the Cemetery will need to be pretty special to beat this.
EDIT: Reading this back it sounds like I'm taking the piss, but I'm not. I really did genuinely love the film, despite the fact that it's bananas.
I was looking forward to my first ever Fulci movie, City of the Living Dead, very much before I watched it earlier this month. In the end I didnt have as good a time as I was expecting with it. I approached this evenings entertainment with some trepidation therefore, but I shouldnt have worried. The Beyond is bloody fantastic.
Im not entirely sure why I enjoyed it so much more than City of the Living Dead. Perhaps knowing exactly the kind of thing to expect going in changed my attitude, allowing me to embrace the often nonsensical glory of Fulcis vision and relax into the madcap pattern of the movie. Perhaps The Beyond is just a better movie. I expect Ill have to rewatch City to find out.
Whatever the reason, I loved The Beyond so much. I loved the hokiness of the sepia toned intro being blown apart by the accursed warlocks brutal murder. I loved Joe the Plumbers Jesus is the answer bumper sticker, his relaxed attitude to knocking bloody great big holes in basement walls without asking the homeowner if that was ok, and the fact that when
his reanimated corpse rammed moody Marthas head onto the nail sticking out of the bathroom wall, that nail wasnt nearly long enough to push right through her skull and pop her eyeball out the way it so gorgeously did.
I loved the lost in translation DO NOT ENTRY sign outside the morgue. I really, really loved the terrible spider models - it was like they had enough cash for a couple of tarantulas and they just got a five year old to make the rest out of pipe cleaners and cardboard tubes from the inside of toilet rolls. Beautiful. I loved the way the doctor guy had a magically reloading revolver, and that when he
accidentally killed his co-worker by shooting at a glass door, the co-worker started bleeding from a different part of the head than the glass shard was sticking out of.
What a great movie. The House by the Cemetery will need to be pretty special to beat this.
EDIT: Reading this back it sounds like I'm taking the piss, but I'm not. I really did genuinely love the film, despite the fact that it's bananas.
I didn't like City Of The Living Dead at first either. Though most of Fulci's movies get better and better as you rewatch them because you know what to expect which allows you to appreciate them on a much more technical (cinematographic) level.
House by the Cemetary is one of my personal favorite though I think The Beyond is better. That movie makes much more sense if you take it as if it is from the boy's perspective.
You should really try to fit in Don't Torture A Duckling. IMO it is his best work.
Son of a bitch, it looks like The Wicker Man is a no-go tonight. I didn't realize that the streaming version on Amazon was the original theatrical cut, which seems to be everyone's last choice these days. Looks like I'll have to postpone it until Friday at the earliest.
But hey, it's a good thing I'm less than halfway into the marathon with quite a few remaining films to watch!
New Film for October 14: Did somebody say "more vampire films?" The common thread with the ones watched thus far are more or less unofficial adaptations of Dracula, so why not something new? Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural certainly seems promising enough with a rather unique premise and while it hardly sounds explicit, it seemed suggestive enough to be condemned by the Catholic Film Board, which makes this a first in any of my marathons!
Bonus: Prince of Darkness. Not a bad movie. I'd watched it years ago and after seeing people mention it here thought I'd watch it again. Kind of a dark movie overall. I'd say its worth four possessions.
Extraterrestrial (2014) - a recommendation from my kids and their cohorts, this one takes the cabin in the woods motif and adds some interplanetary visitors for a twist... It's competent if uninspired, it leans a little too heavily on familiar tropes to ever really feel fresh, but overall I rather liked it... Michael Ironside is great as the 'Nam vet come pot dealer living next door.
Oct. 9
Monsters: Dark Continent (2014) - This movie isn't as inspired as the first, but it's far from bad. Like the original, the Monsters drive the primary narrative while remaining ancillary to it, and overall the film feels like a low-budget Blackhawk Down meets Cloverfield set in the war in Afganistan, with a touch of Apocalypse Now. The mix is a pretty effective examination of the chaos and confusion of 21st Century warfare (with Monsters, of course). Worth seeing, I think.
Oct. 10
The Colony (2013) - Another recommendation from my son, this one with the proviso "it's not that good really but it's done well", and that's a true enough assessment. Overall, it's starts promissingly enough with a decent setup but devolves into a pretty cliche scenario quickly, and nothing particularly scary happens, but it in the end it didn't feel like a complete waste. I'm a Bill Paxton fanboy from way back (he was awesome in Near Dark), so I was willing to sit it out, which didn't take that long at all... in fact, if they'd given a little more time and script over to some character development they might have had a pretty good movie here, but as it is, I wouldn't recommend it.
Oct. 11
Cursed (2005) - I overlooked this last year doing my Lycanthropy edition of 31 Days of Horror, and found it while picking out Wes Craven films to watch this year. It was tamer than I expected from Wes; really pretty conventional and straight forward in a Teen Wolf meets An American Werewolf in London kind of way. Still lots of fun in my opinion, but nothing extraordinary, and I can see how it may have fallen flat with a modern audience raised on Blair Witch and Wolf Creek...
Oct. 12
Stake Land (2010) - Another recommendation from GAF I took note of last year or the year before... Grim, relentless and unforgiving, Stake Land introduces us to the apocalypse in it's first three minutes and never lets up. It's a bleak and violent future that reminded me more than a little of The Last of Us, and it absolutely works. The characters are well written, the atmosphere anxious and the narrative compelling; it's one of the best apocalyptic visions I've seen on film in years, and definitely worth a look.
Oct. 13
Night of the Demon (1957) - "Dana Andrews said prunes... Gave him the runes... And passing them used lots of skills..." I'd read of Night of the Demon (or Curse of the Demon) and seen pictures of the titular hellspawn in horror movie books and magazines for years, but I'd never seen the film before discovering The Rocky Horror Picture Show back in 1977... When I finally did catch up with Night of the Demon, I thought it somewhat ironic that after years of facination with the iconic portrait of the Demon itself, it seemed to me that the film would have been better off without it. Tourneur, after all, was the master of suggestion, the unseen and offscreen horrors, and Night would arguably work more effectively if the Demon was left off screen... I later found out, the studio wanted a monster and forced Tourneur to add one after primary shooting was completed, and so he did, if somewhat reluctantly. Still, this remains one of my favourite films; Dana Andrews is terrific as the psychologist/sceptic John Holden who is gradually convinced he has a supernatural monster pursuing him, and Naill MacGinnis is absolutely brilliant as the sinister occultist cult leader Julian Karswell. The final showdown of wits and nerves between the two is not to be missed. It's a classic for a reason, but I wish I could see it once as the director originally intended, without the monster puppet, leaving us all a little uncertain as to what "really" happened...
Oct. 14
The Thing (1982) - I saw this movie four times in the theatre on it's release (back in those days, movies often had four and five month theatre runs), and it's been a favorite ever since. I couldn't count the number of times I've watched it over the past 30 years, but I know every scene, every line of dialog, every cut by heart, and I have enjoyed it every single time.
^^ I thought Monsters Dark Continent was a cool war movie that had some monsters in the background. I loved the movie but wish it had more of its namesake. Then again...it works as is without ripping other alien invasion type movies off. Shrug
Bonus 2 Chopping Mall. What a piece of shit...that I give three pissed off robots to.
I'm looking at this list like it's Sophie's Choice.
I just got the Christine Blu-ray too and some of these new VOD releases like The Final Girls look good. The month is just too short and I'm kind of hung up on sticking to 31. It's torture.
I'm looking at this list like it's Sophie's Choice.
I just got the Christine Blu-ray too and some of these new VOD releases like The Final Girls look good. The month is just too short and I'm kind of hung up on sticking to 31. It's torture.
Bonus number 3, Sleepaway Camp. I give this three overturned canoes. Very campy 80's style horror. Some of the acting was a bit much from the kids while the adults seemed normal and not overly dramatic. First time seeing this and you can guess the twist pretty early on but enjoyable overall. The foul mouthed kid was hilarious, definitely couldn't wait to see the shit he'd spout off.
Yeah, it was pretty good. Made me realize a lot of what is lacking in the F\found footage genre and that's good characters. The kids staring were both pretty good, and had distinct characters. I know people don't like Shamelian's awkward awkward writing, but I really like it. Give his characters and interesting oddness to me. On a similar note, tragic he seems forever tied to twists. The twist here is kinda obvious, if you watch the trailer you can probably guess it. Overall, not a bad movie, lot of fun bits. Wondering if his next movie will be a back to bad form?
