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Violence Jack · Oct 13, 2016

#16 Return to Sleepaway Camp (FTV) (2008) - I can't believe that I'm going to say it, but this is my favorite FTV so far this year. It perfectly captures the tone and setting of the original film in all its mean-spirited, raunchy, gory glory. It was an absolute blast to watch. However, I wished they'd hidden the surprise at the end a little better. I'm sure it had a shoestring budget, but damn it was too obvious who the killer was from the beginning. It also has by far the worst acting I've seen in any horror movie maybe ever. But the cheese-factor just added to its enjoyment for me. Definitely recommended if your bar is set pretty low.

Rating: 7.5/10
Genre: Camp slasher

lordxar · Oct 13, 2016

Fancy Clown said:
I mean, I guess that's the point and it definitely succeeded in having a visceral impact, so I don't really know how to critique the movie any further haha.

I know. It's like being beaten with a sledgehammer. There's no nuance or misunderstanding there. You know exactly what your getting and that's that.

Pamplemousse · Oct 13, 2016

Violence Jack said:
#16 Return to Sleepaway Camp (FTV) (2008) - I can't believe that I'm going to say it, but this is my favorite FTV so far this year. It perfectly captures the tone and setting of the original film in all its mean-spirited, raunchy, gory glory. It was an absolute blast to watch. However, I wished they'd hidden the surprise at the end a little better. I'm sure it had a shoestring budget, but damn it was too obvious who the killer was from the beginning. It also has by far the worst acting I've seen in any horror movie maybe ever. But the cheese-factor just added to its enjoyment for me. Definitely recommended if your bar is set pretty low.

Rating: 7.5/10
Genre: Camp slasher

Yeah I liked this too. The death scenarios are the best part. 2 has to be my favorite, though, just because of how campy it is.

GK86 · Oct 14, 2016

Is anyone using Shudder.com?

Am I missing something or is there no way to make the video full-sized? Or have basic controls for play/pause? I tried right-clicking and selecting the option to 'show controls.'

I'm using Chrome if it matters. I tried Firefox and the site doesn't even load.

afternoon delight · Oct 14, 2016

I also think Hellraiser is easily the best, though II really goes places. I've never seen any of the Camp sequels... but my most recent rewatch was a sequel!

15. Demons 2 (1986)
Holy fuck does this movie believe in the adage of "sequels mean more". Everything's upped from the sexiness, the number of victims, the sets, the effects, and camp. Maybe the gooiest film I own and I love it for it. Unabashed creature feature fun.

John Rabbit · Oct 14, 2016

GK86 said:
Is anyone using Shudder.com?

Am I missing something or is there no way to make the video full-sized? Or have basic controls for play/pause? I tried right-clicking and selecting the option to 'show controls.'

I'm using Chrome if it matters. I tried Firefox and the site doesn't even load.

Fullscreen Chrome (F11) and you'll see the controls. Their player is real bad.

GK86 · Oct 14, 2016

John Rabbit said:
Fullscreen Chrome (F11) and you'll see the controls. Their player is real bad.

Thank you so much! And I agree, it is shocking how bad it is. It might prevent me from keeping the subscription. I hope they fix it soon.

Rhomega Beta · Oct 14, 2016

15. The Blob (1958)

To start, I love the opening theme. It's not what you'd expect from a man-eating jelly blob from outer space. This is really more of a character-driven movie with Steve, his girlfriend, the police, the doctor, and other people while the Blob appears sporadically until about the hour mark. The production does a good job with miniatures while making the Blob have a presence, even if you rarely see the Bob and a person in the same shot. Nice cheesy creature feature, but don't expect too much of the monster.

Full list

BuddyJoeHooker · Oct 14, 2016

#11 Jacob's Ladder (1990)
Director: Adrian Lyne

This is an interesting film. The way it cuts back and forth from Jacob's time as a soldier to his post war experiences are done well. Jacob begins experiencing hallucinations that are done with great effect. The Subway scene was unnerving, the dancing scene was grotesque, and the hospital scene was horrifying. That hospital scene knew exactly how to prey on the fears of experiences at hospitals. I almost thought it was just going to keep going and going down hallways and the environment was just going to keep getting worse. This film was able to completely engross me at certain moments.

CharminUltra · Oct 14, 2016

BuddyJoeHooker said:
#11 Jacob's Ladder (1990)
Director: Adrian Lyne

This is an interesting film. The way it cuts back and forth from Jacob's time as a soldier to his post war experiences are done well. Jacob begins experiencing hallucinations that are done with great effect. The Subway scene was unnerving, the dancing scene was grotesque, and the hospital scene was horrifying. That hospital scene knew exactly how to prey on the fears of experiences at hospitals. I almost thought it was just going to keep going and going down hallways and the environment was just going to keep getting worse. This film was able to completely engross me at certain moments.

I frickin' love JL. Severely underrated IMO.

Vincent Grayson · Oct 14, 2016

My daughter and I watched "The Shallows" (2016) today.

It was not good. The effects were cheesy, every plot element was contrived and laughable, and it was never really tense.

This is what I get for letting my daughter pick the movie. Tomorrow, Cabin in the Woods, which we've seen, but everyone loves.

GK86 · Oct 14, 2016

Burying the Ex - Interesting premise that falls flat on it's flat. Which is a shame since I love Anton Yelchin (RIP!).

The Thing - Such a classic horror movie. It is thrilling from beginning to end. The best part is how amazingly well the effects hold up.

The Last House on the Left - Nice little revenge movie. Acting isn't the greatest, but it is a horror movie.

Pandorum - I loved the first half over the second half. I thought the first half had a much better atmosphere. It made you feel alone on a ship.

What We Become - A zombie movie without the zombies. Ok, they are there, but not until the end. A family is right smack in the middle of ground zero for a zombie outbreak. The film follows them as they try to figure out what is going on.

Nina Forever Another interesting premise, but for me, it was confusing. The story was a bit of a mess I felt.

mariachi507 · Oct 14, 2016

Fancy Clown said:
These bad boys finally arrived from across the pond, so I can resume my Bava-thon.

Very nice! Bay of Blood is a blast while The Beyond is my favorite Fulci.

Ridley327 · Oct 14, 2016

October 13

The premise behind Of Unknown Origin, that being a battle of wits between a man and a rat, is pretty damn silly. Thankfully, so did everyone else that worked on the film, as it manages to amp things up to be not unlike something that would be more at home with Loony Tunes. More specifically, there's a big Wile E. Coyote component to the character of Bart (played with charming deadpan and then unbridled insanity by Peter Weller) as he goes about finding ways to take care of his rat problem in the most needlessly convoluted ways possible, only to find failure waiting for him in rather spectacular fashion. It quickly becomes a film where rooting for the villain makes the most sense: the rat here is smarter and more sympathetic than Bart, whose upper middle class aspirations become all the more remarkable for how poorly he handles nearly all life decisions that turn to fixate on his pest problem. George P. Cosmatos, just before Hollywood started giving him big budgets and bigger casts, has a lot of fun drawing parallels to other tales of human futility (a copy of Moby Dick here, a televised adaptation of The Old Man and the Sea there) as Bart's obsession with the rat winds up at an amusing level of respect, in between bouts of elaborate trapping and expert trolling. The special effects are simple, but they generally work quite well and boast some fun camerawork in an attempt to give you a rat's eye view of the chaos that ensues. Throw in a gaggle of Canadian character actors, some genuinely hilarious reaction shots (including one towards the end that signifies the end of all rational thought from that point forward and gets the biggest laughs that the film has to offer), a relatively quick pace and touching on some slight social commentary on climbing the corporate ladder (the restraint this film has to not once call it a rat race!), and you have yourself a really fun and solid corker of a good time.

Films for October 14: It's a double shot of Troma trauma! While I'm generally on the end of the spectrum that could not possibly want to spend the money on the drugs it takes to enjoy most of their output, their rise to power in the 80s made it all but impossible to ignore them entirely this year. And what better way than to do that than a pair of films that they more or less picked up after the fact? First, there's something wrong with The Children, and I suspect that their parents won't survive long enough to find out what it could be. Then we turn our focus to the rare deadly serious film with Combat Shock, which aims to mix the dark urban reality for war veterans with a touch of Eraserhead.

BuddyJoeHooker · Oct 14, 2016

#12 The People Under the Stairs (1991)
Director: Wes Craven

One thing I particularly love about this movie was how quotable it was. Fool (Brandon Adams) and Leroy (Ving Rhames) were a joy to see interact. In this film Fool's family is in danger of being evicted so Leroy decides to bring him in on a heist to steal from their landlords. Turns out the landlords were a couple of crazies (gimp suit out of nowhere), and tries to murder the trio of burglars. Pretty enjoyable film.

EmpressInYellow · Oct 14, 2016

A few days ago I watched Pod (which I wasn't a fan of), but I thought I'd give the director's other work a look. As a result, last night's double-feature was Films by Mickey Keating.

Carnage Park

Summary - A pair of bank robbers pull off a heist in a small, rural California bank in the 1970s, taking a woman (Ashley Bell, best known for The Last Exorcism) hostage in the process. After one of the robbers dies of injuries sustained during the robbery, the remaining robber and his hostage find themselves stranded in the middle of the California countryside. Unfortunately for them, a deranged army veteran and marksman named Wyatt (Pat Healy, who played Luke in The Innkeepers) has set up his own personal murder playground/hunting lands in the area.

Thoughts - If Pod was Keating's homage to The Twilight Zone, this is him doing...Peckinpah, maybe, or Tarantino meets the Coen Brothers. The film has a self-awareness to it that's sometimes grating, with its highly stylized (and sometimes ironic) use of music, its editing, its title screen (complete with strobing lights), and so on. It has an ironic detachment, a deliberate grindhouse-ness that undermines the actual horror of what's going on. In a way, it reminds me a bit of House of 1,000 Corpses - it doesn't reach quite the same level of grotesque excess, admittedly, but it has that same sense of winking at the audience and throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall to see what might get a reaction.

It's a shame, too, because lots of the elements, taken on their own, work. The slightly sleazy, grimy 1970s setting is a perfect fit, evoking other (stronger) films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, and The Last House on the Left. The sun-drenched, bleached desert color palette of the film makes a refreshing change from the constant darkness of many horror films, and it helps to sell the isolation of the main character as well as accentuating the explosions of violence.

The problem is that the film is so caught up in its style and self-awareness that it never takes the time to get us invested in what's going on. The film itself plays out in a fairly rote, paint-by-numbers fashion, with little surprise and even less tension. You already know how this film is going to end, and chances are you have a pretty good idea of what the plot beats are going to be along the way.

I wanted to like this movie more than I did, but it's ultimately an exercise in style over substance.

And on that note...

Darling

Summary - A young woman named Darling (Lauren Ashley Carter) is hired by an older woman (Sean Young) to take care of her house while she's away. The house has a somewhat checkered history - it's supposedly haunted, and the previous caretaker killed herself by jumping off of an upstairs balcony. As Darling settles in, she becomes increasingly unsettled and disturbed. After meeting a man on the street one day, she grows more and more paranoid and erratic.

Thoughts - Like Keating's other films, this one feels like a homage, this time to Polanski (with maybe a touch of Kubrick). It's shot entirely in black and white, with long stretches of silence as the camera lingers on the featureless corridors of the house. As with Kubrick's films, there's a certain sense of coldness and emotional alienation from what's happening on screen.

I admit that I wasn't a fan of Carter's performances in either The Mind's Eye or Pod, which I thought were hugely over-acted and unconvincing. Here, though, she does a better job, turning in a reasonably restrained performance (until later in the film) as the central character. That's a good thing, too, because we spent the overwhelming majority of the film alone with her.

Unfortunately, there's just not that much there. The film falls back on somewhat trite portrayals of mental illness and tries to build up a sense of tension and dread from only the barest hints. That just isn't enough to really grab on to, though, and when the climax comes, it feels abrupt and unearned. As with Carnage Park, there are some individual elements and even some moments that work, but the whole thing just doesn't really hold together.

When you see enough of these indie horror films, though, connecting the dots between various actors becomes its own little minigame. Larry Fessenden has been in at least a quarter of the movies I've watched so far (including all of Keating's). Carter also appeared with Sean Young in Jug Face, and the man in Darling appeared alongside her as Martin in Pod.

excelsiorlef · Oct 14, 2016

Oct 13

16. Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971)
A freaking masterpiece. This is a film with next to no graphical horror and yet it's scarier than anything I've seen in ages.

Every frame is infused with dread. Brilliant sound design, a fantastic minimalist score, great acting. Great concept, just a beautiful film. Super recommend it, if you're ok with an intentionally slow paced film

CharminUltra · Oct 14, 2016

17. Ghoulies 2

I think I enjoyed this movie more than part I. It felt like a slight improvement over the original movie (which admittedly isn't saying much) in many ways. The setting was better (creepy carnival), the special effects were better (Ghoulies were more convincing), and music was also much more fun. Above all, however, the titular critters actually do stuff during the movie, which results in the body count being MUCH higher this time around. Also, the main protagonists are a whoooole lot more likable; I'm not talking GotG levels of likeable here, but still orders of magnitude more relatable than the original's cast of dumb kids. All in all, worth a watch for the dumb laughs at least.

1/4 stars

Steamlord · Oct 14, 2016

I honestly feel like Let's Scare Jessica to Death would be looked back on much more fondly if it just had a different title. Because that's really the only thing wrong with it.

CharminUltra · Oct 14, 2016

Steamlord said:
I honestly feel like Let's Scare Jessica to Death would be looked back on much more fondly if it just had a different title. Because that's really the only thing wrong with it.

LSJ2D is a gem. I fully expected it to be some silly nonsense based on the title, but instead I got an incredibly solid horror film with actual depth.

excelsiorlef · Oct 14, 2016

GK86 said:
Is anyone using Shudder.com?

Am I missing something or is there no way to make the video full-sized? Or have basic controls for play/pause? I tried right-clicking and selecting the option to 'show controls.'

I'm using Chrome if it matters. I tried Firefox and the site doesn't even load.

Show controls worked for me so that would have been my first suggestion.

I've noticed that if you have your browser not maximized like if it's just a square that you can see the bottom of the video and the control bar appears.

Steamlord said:
I honestly feel like Let's Scare Jessica to Death would be looked back on much more fondly if it just had a different title. Because that's really the only thing wrong with it.

I love the title, it always peaked my interest (even if I just only finally saw it now) but with a normal title it'd have never stayed in my conscience as much as it has over the past 15-20 years, always intended to watch it just never got around until now, with a different title I'm not sure that'd be the case.

ridley182 said:
LSJ2D is a gem. I fully expected it to be some silly nonsense based on the title, but instead I got an incredibly solid horror film with actual depth.

It's the sweetest slow burn for sure.

Only other movie I've seen pull of that level of slow burn was The Innkeepers and LSJTD was even slower than that one

mariachi507 · Oct 14, 2016

Ok, it's time to catch-up.

9. Shivers

Despite his impeccable reputation as an incredible filmmaker, up until now I had only seen two David Cronenberg films, those being A History of Violence and his iconic remake of The Fly. I'm going to remedy this by watching many of his earliest film's during this month. While not technically his debut, Shivers is typically seen as the entry point of Cronenberg's filmography. He has two earlier productions, Stereo and Crimes of the Future, that are seen more as his "learning" works where he first got his feet wet with directing (They could be full blown student films for all I know, I can't confirm this though). Even if Shivers isn't Cronenberg's official debut, it is his first horror movie. This was made during a time that Canada would use taxpayer money in an effort to build a film industry. Shivers, even though it's very low budget, was one of these projects. Needless to say, the government was not happy with the results of their investment.

At the time of it's release, Shivers was seen as a despicable exploitation film lacking any substance and only made for the purpose to be controversial and shocking. What these critics missed (except Roger Ebert) is that Cronenberg's imagery serves a purpose. He is known for pushing the limits and being an innovator in the body horror subgenre, but serving shocks isn't the only intent of his films. Shivers works as a commentary of sexual repression (I noticed some Freudian themes) and the director's then-opinion of high class culture. Yeah, a phallic slug-like parasite that is vomited out of its host, spread like an sexually transmitted disease, and causes it's victims to turn into sex crazed zombies is disturbing, but there might be a little bit more to it than that.

Shivers is interesting to watch because even in such a low budget early project you can see the potential Cronenberg possessed. There are some missteps taken in terms of directing and writing, but Shivers is still an effective little movie. Of course it doesn't hold a candle to the likes of The Fly, but is shows where the foundation was built to be able to reach that plateau. I'm looking forward to watching more of his films.

Verdict: 7/10

10. Carrie (Rewatch)

I wasn't planning on including this on my list this month, but I couldn't resist after receiving the new blu-ray release. Despite the numerous amounts of remakes/sequels of Stephen King's first novel, none of them have hit the nail on the head like Brian De Palma's adaptation did. My only big issue is that I wanted more of this word and the character's in it, so it's not really a flaw. I've noticed how the marketing of this movie always plays up the terror of Carrie herself as if she is a sort of slasher villain. Aside from a couple of scenes at the end, the horror of the movie comes from the bullying and mistreatment of her. I view the film more as a teen drama with horror in its DNA. Also, Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie are amazing in their roles, how Hollywood could ever think that they could be matched is ludicrous.

On a sidenote: similar to Cronenberg, I'm not really all that familiar with De Palma's filmography. I'm going to have to dive into that as well.

Verdict: 9/10

DeathoftheEndless · Oct 14, 2016

11. Black Christmas

I watched Black Christmas (1974), which was pretty disturbing. The film starts off with the killer sneaking his way into the house, so the tension is immediately built as we know he's sitting up there in the attic. There's a bit of a mystery as the police try to trace his creepy phone calls and there is a character who is a potential suspect. The way the one police officer fails to take the case seriously reminded me of how rape accusations are sometimes handled. In fact, a lot of the movie seemed to be about how women are treated in a male-dominated society. Its an effectively unsettling thriller.

MattyH · Oct 14, 2016

#14 Clown - ive heard a lot of good things about this and im a sucker for body horror

Ivan A Nguyen · Oct 14, 2016

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

13) Friday the 13th

How did I go so long without having this movie spoiled for me? It seems like one of those iconic things that would have made it's way into pop culture by now. I knew about Jason, but I knew nothing about the twist. I was only half paying attention to the movie until the final act. Once things kicked off there I couldn't look away. This classic still only gets 3 out of 5 camp counselors.

14) Friday the 13th 2

Did you miss the first movie? That's ok. The final act is recapped in the first ten minutes and promptly never addressed again. They didn't need to touch on the ending of the first movie. It could have easily skipped to the new cast. It seems like a part that was probably added afterward. This one flows exactly like I'd expect a slasher movie to go. The expanded cast is a nice touch, but I have a hard time keeping track of people so I don't know who all died. This movie is clearly better than the first despite the naked skeleton scene. 4 makeshift masks out of 5.

15) The Veil

This mixture of found footage and cast deaths is worth a watch. I don't want to go into the plot because I feel the movie it's self is best served by going in blind. 5 VHS tapes out of 5.

16) Night of the Living Deb

It's ranked criminally low on Netflix. I don't know why. I found the charm in this movie and the cast does a good job carrying the rest of the story on their backs. At it's heart its a love story and probably the only time where I was happy with the romance. It was central to the plot and wasn't tacked on as a reward for the male lead. The female lead has this entire "nice girls finish last" kind of quirk that kept me invested in her to the very end. 5 America frosted brownies out of 5.

Fancy Clown · Oct 14, 2016

20) A Bay of Blood - (Mario Bava, 1971)

"If you kill for killing's sake, you become a monster."

A Bay of Blood (also titled Carnage, Blood Bath, and --my personal favorite-- Twitch of the Death Nerve, along with a host of others depending on when and where it was released) sees Bava at his silliest, or at least most ironic, and certainly his goriest. It begins in typical giallo fashion with an absurdly stylish murder...only to moments later flip our expectations no less than a minute later as to who the murderers and who the victims really are. And that's sort of how the whole movie goes, as this playful deconstruction of the genre Bava kickstarted himself a decade earlier essentially forgoes plot (until a few exposition flash back dumps late in the film explain what the hell is going on) for gleefully gory kill sequence after kill sequence, where nearly everyone is both killer and victim all in one. Bava's lack of interest in story in this film kind of hurt it in that there are stretches where there's really not much to engage with until the next kill, and it's bookended by its strongest sequences (the ending is totally absurd and unexpected, but actually super brilliant), but what the movie does well it does really well, and there's a sharp wit underlying all the silliness. Definitely one of the stronger Bava films of the 70's along with Hatchet for the Honeymoon. And I know I keep saying this for all the Italian movies--but it's true--this movie has a great soundtrack.

Violence Jack · Oct 14, 2016

#17 Blood Feast (FTV) (1963) - Some good gore scenes aside, I just couldn't get into this one. It's camp and cheese factor were off the charts, but I think the parts of it that tried to piece together a story just brought the enjoyment down. Wizard of Gore remains my favorite HGL film. RIP.

Rating: 4/10
Genre: Campy gore film

pitcairn55 · Oct 14, 2016

14/10/16
Film 17
Two Thousand Maniacs!

I watched this story of six unsuspecting northern types being lured into a sinister backwoods town (where they experience rather more southern hospitality than they really want) in honour of the late Herschell Gordon Lewis, and while it was a fun movie, Ive got to be honest, I didnt like it nearly as much as the 2005 remake. And the 2005 remake isnt great. Still going to try and seek out some of Lewiss other work though.

Films I've watched so far

Divius · Oct 14, 2016

Fancy Clown, do you have a list or compiled post of movies you've watched so far? Quite enjoying your reviews and your list seems to be awesome.

BioHazard · Oct 14, 2016

#23 The Kiss of the Vampire (1963)

Another vampire title from Hammer. It's without its usual recurring actors and roles, but still a solid entry. A recently married couple break down in a sleepy town where they befriend the local Count in the chateau. Some solid performances and atmosphere.

3/5

#24 Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)

So glad I got to see this one on 35mm (albeit a pretty color faded print). Really impressed by this one. Very much reminded me of a giallo of the same time period. Part crime/murder investigation procedural and part incredibly sleazy slasher, I would highly recommend this one. The yellow rain jacket and creepy mask combined with the unflinchingly brutal violent scenes are enough to make your skin crawl.

4/5

#25 Eden Lake (2008)

My only rewatch so far. I had forgotten that this is one of those films that is a tough watch and I feel bad for saying is great. Despite the fairly high profile cast, nice cinematography and score, I still treat it as a straight up exploitation film. I saw a review that panned the film saying that this incredibly mean-spirited film demonizes the working class and is essentially the middle class nightmare. I agree, for the most part, but I think these nightmare scenarios, however unrealistic they may be, can be exploited for film, similar to TCM and Last House. Incredibly bleak and filled with tension.

5/5

#26 Haunted Honeymoon (1986)

One of Gene Wilder's few films he directed. Essentially one big screwball, whodunit, spoof on the haunted house genre. Pretty standard and some jokes don't hold up so well but still worth a watch, especially for Gene.

3/5

List of films so far

Loop Fruit · Oct 14, 2016

army of darkness

Aiii · Oct 14, 2016

#1 - P.O.V. - A Cursed Film (2012) - 3.5/5
#2 - Satanic (2016) - 0/5
#3 - The Shining (1980) - 5/5
#4 - The Awakening (2011) - 3/5
#5 - Teketeke (2009) - 2.5/5
#6 - Teketeke 2 (2009) - 3.5/5
#7 - The Conjuring 2 (2016) 5*/5
#8 - Southbound (2016) - 2/5
#9 - The Silenced (2015) - 3/5
#10 - Evil Dead (2013) - 3/5
#11 - One Missed Call 2 (2005) - 1/5
#12 - The Neon Demon (2016) - 4/5
#13 - Sint (2010) - 3/5
#14 - Rosemary's Baby (1968) - 5/5

#15 - The Last Man on Earth (1964)
The first of two mandatory viewings, and as someone who has always had a keen interest in post-apocalyptic stories, I was rather looking forward to this. Especially because it was starring Vincent Price. Unfortunately, I didn't love it as much as I was hoping. It's a fine film, especially when you consider the time in which it was made. But I was hoping they would do more to show the desolation of being the last human being alive, much like the first half of the Will Smith-starring adaptation of I Am Legend. I missed that in this. What I did really like was

the flashback scenes of his family slowly dying, at least on the part of the adults. The kid actors, well didn't act at all. They overdubbed everything and couldn't even remotely match the kid's acting with what was going on. Definitely a candidate for worst kid actor ever. The last act is where it goes off the deep end. Revealing the angry mob that just straight up murders Price for no reason at all, despite him being the literal cure to the Vampirism... Just did nothing for me. Not to mention that the sudden love affair with this woman he only just met seemed a bit forced, even if it was the first woman he'd met in a long time, you just met her, geez.

I don't know what it is with these I Am Legend adaptations, I've never read the source material so I couldn't tell you if the third act of the book is as bad as the ones in both adaptations, but yeah, the third act was not great. I feel there's a great story to be told of being the last man on earth, and nobody has got it right, yet. Not even Will Forte, bit of a shame.

Still, a solid effort, if only the third act didn't ruin it. 3 pieces of garlic out of 5.

Fancy Clown · Oct 14, 2016

Divius said:
Fancy Clown, do you have a list or compiled post of movies you've watched so far? Quite enjoying your reviews and your list seems to be awesome.

Yessir I do. I'd link these to my posts about each movie, but GAF is running sooooo slowly for me right now, but here are the movies I've seen so far:

1) The Whip and the Body (Mario Bava, 1963)
2) The Last Man on Earth (Ubaldo Ragona & Sidney Salkow, 1964)
3) Kill, Baby, Kill (Mario Bava, 1966)
4) Spider Baby (Jack Hill, 1967)
5) Five Dolls for an August Moon (Mario Bava, 1970)
6) Hatchet for a Honeymoon (Mario Bava, 1970)
7) The Wailing (Na Hong-jin, 2016)
8) Shivers (David Cronenberg, 1975)
9) Jigoku (Nobuo Nakagawa, 1960)
10) The Cat O'Nine Tails (Dario Argento, 1971)
11) Don't Torture a Duckling (Lucio Fulci, 1972)
12) Dressed to Kill (Brian De Palma, 1980)
13) What Have You Done to Solange? (Massimo Dallamano, 1972)
14) Torso (Sergio Martino, 1973)
15) Deep Red (Dario Argento, 1975)
16) Zombi (Lucio Fulci, 1979)
17) The Driller Killer (Abel Ferrera, 1979)
18) Cannibal Holocaust (Ruggero Deodato, 1980)
19) The Witch (Robert Eggars, 2016)
20) A Bay of Blood (Mario Bava, 1971

And here's a rough list of what else I will try to get through this month (although if I keep up my current pace I'll need to add more).

Baron Blood (Mario Bava, 1972)
Lisa and the Devil (Mario Bava, 1973)
Shock (Mario Bava, 1977)
City of the Living Dead (Lucio Fulci, 1980)
The Beyond (Lucio Fulci, 1981)
The House by the Cemetery (Lucio Fulci, 1981)
The New York Ripper (Lucio Fulci, 1982)
Bloody Birthday (Ed Hunt, 1981)
Sleepaway Camp (Robert Hiltzick, 1983)
Hush (Mike Flanagan, 2016)
Demons (Lamberto Bava, 1985)
Demons 2 (Lamberto Bava, 1987)
Opera (Dario Argento, 1987)
Cat in the Brain (Lucio Fulci, 1990)
Two Evil Eyes (Dario Argento & George Romero, 1991)
Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997)
Pulse (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2001)
The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961)

Rhomega Beta · Oct 15, 2016

Ivan A Nguyen said:
13) Friday the 13th

How did I go so long without having this movie spoiled for me? It seems like one of those iconic things that would have made it's way into pop culture by now. I knew about Jason, but I knew nothing about the twist.

I found out about it thanks to the opening scene in Scream.

ThirstyFly · Oct 15, 2016

John Fasano Metalsploitation Double Feature (That's a thing, right?)

13) Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare (1987) (Oct 13)

In order to produce new material, hair metal band Triton rent out an isolated farmhouse in Toronto. Yes, Toronto. Anyway… as the band goes about doing what bands do (playing bad music, having sex and washing dishes) members start to disappear (mostly killed cheaply off screen). Oh, did I forget to mention the house was infested with demons? Think Night of the Demons with worse acting and bigger hair and you've got John Fasano's Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare.

Apparently this has a bit of a fan following, but from what I can figure it's only because of the film's incomprehensibly bad ending. At only 83 minutes, this thing is excruciatingly slow. Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare is officially the first movie of the month to make me nod off. Buy the time the fascinating ending rolled around, I was struggling to keep going. It's definitely comical and bizarre, but really not enough to forgive the pacing of the rest of the movie.

Although the acting is terrible all around, you do have to give the actors credit for playing it straight. If this were a modern movie, there would be so much winking at the camera, they would have had to have an optometrist on set.

I can only recommend this if you want something to laugh at for a bad movie group viewing, and even then there's much better choices, such as my next film.

Rating:

out 5 "What's in the basket?"

14) Black Roses (1988) (Oct 14)

Hey you kids with your earrings and your loud devil music, Black Roses proves your parents were right! John Fasano's followup to Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare is a huge improvement. It's amazing what one more year and (I'm assuming) a little more money can do.

As the kids in a sleepy, little town get ready for their first big concert, the local parents group isn't so sure about the band, Black Roses. Don't you know that rock and roll is the tool of the devil?

Black Roses glam metals itself into the so-bad-it's-good pile. There's plenty of hairspray, bad demon puppets, a man eaten by a speaker, teenagers that look like they're in their 30s and an actress who seems to have 3 completely different pairs of breasts thanks to multiple body doubles.

Continuing on with the unlikable protagonists theme I seem to have going this month, the hero of this one is an English teacher who cares a just a little too much about “his” kids. This guy is one step away from being a sexual predator.

Overall, it's kind of hard movie to rate. It's terrible, but it's fun. Add an extra basket if you love bad movies, subtract one if you don't.

Rating:

out 5 "What's in the basket?"

mariachi507 · Oct 15, 2016

BioHazard said:
#24 Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)

So glad I got to see this one on 35mm (albeit a pretty color faded print). Really impressed by this one. Very much reminded me of a giallo of the same time period. Part crime/murder investigation procedural and part incredibly sleazy slasher, I would highly recommend this one. The yellow rain jacket and creepy mask combined with the unflinchingly brutal violent scenes are enough to make your skin crawl.

4/5

I loved this movie and it's really deserving of a remaster. Hopefully it gets one someday soon, I'm jealous that you got to see it in 35.

Violence Jack · Oct 15, 2016

#18 Genocyber (1994) - My favorite anime sci-fi horror OAV. The gore brought me in, and as I've gotten older, the story has started to make more sense as well. It's not something I would recommend to others as this is pretty hardcore as far as violence goes (especially the beginning of part 2), but it holds a special place in my depraved little heart.

gabbo · Oct 15, 2016

#11 The Thing

Film is always worth watching for the paranoia and monster effects. Kurt Russell is amazing as always. But for me, it was my girlfriend jumping at the blood test. Worth it.

Ridley327 · Oct 15, 2016

October 14, film 1

It's not particularly hard to see what attracted Troma to picking up The Children, as it certainly pushes the limits of good taste and goes through with some pretty gnarly stuff. Where I think this stays ahead of most of the usual output is that there is an intention here to be a genuine horror film that stays pretty serious, with only a smattering of absurd humor that breaks up the terror that they're going for, rather than being the start attraction. Not being self-congratulatory and smug like the normal Troma film doesn't necessarily mean that it's also good by default, as this is a pretty typical regional horror film made by small town folks, mostly starring small town folks and has a small town budget. It's the kind of film that's long on good ideas and short on good execution, making the moments that do approach something skillful stick out from how underwhelming the film is otherwise. You can tell that they didn't shoot a lot of coverage, sticking to interminable long shots that don't serve the storytelling or the suspense well at all, and the technical limitations of not having a expert crew creep up quite frequently when the setting of the film changes to nighttime, making whole scenes rather difficult to discern with how poorly lit those shots turn out to be. Do the neat concepts make this film bearable enough? I'd say there's a good case to be made that it's certainly worthwhile on that front, but only with the major caveats I've already mentioned. Nuclear-powered zombie kids sure are tantalizing, especially with the occasionally creepy way they go about their business, but they can go only so far on their own merits.

TheSadRanger · Oct 15, 2016

John Rabbit said:
The Taking of Deborah Logan
Reviewer's note: If you have any interest in watching this film after reading this review, I advise you NOT to Google a trailer, and DEFINITELY do not conduct an image search as you will ruin the film's payoff by doing so.

I don't want to tell you The Taking of Deborah Logan is a "found-footage" horror film. Technically speaking it isn't, as the footage presented to us isn't "found" insomuch as "recorded and then edited by a college student for her thesis on Alzheimer's".There's no mystery surrounding what happened to the filmmakers, or how the footage went "missing", the mystery is what happened to Deborah Logan?

--

4 darting flashlights in a dark hallway out of 5.

I dunno, I kinda feel like Deborah Logan would have been a better movie as a character drama without all the supernatural stuff.

I do agree about the last 5 minutes though,

The scene where they're in the mines and she goes full blown Dark Souls snake lady devouring the little girl whole O_O

GhaleonEB · Oct 15, 2016

#13: It Follows | via Netflix DVD

This was last night's film. It's tonight's as well, since I'm seeing it again (possibly with my wife, if she's up to it). Far and away the best non-rewatch of the marathon so far, it's a slow burn film of uncommon craftsmanship. I'll have more to say after a second watch, but I wanted to note how nice it was to see a film about teenagers where none of them are stupid, or unlikable, or clearly earmarked to be fodder. They are friends, loyal, skeptical, and afraid. What could have been a voyeuristic film is instead alternately ethereal, intense, and brimming with empathy and sadness for its characters.

***** out of five

Fox Mulder · Oct 15, 2016

#12 The Thing (2011)

This felt like the monster was trying to pass off as the Carpenter film instead of a human. You got tension and flamethrowers, but the CGI effects are bad, thrown in your face, and look worse than the original.

walkmetothelake · Oct 15, 2016

OP

---

Film #28 - The Descent (2005)

Still one of my absolute favorites. Great setting, likable set of characters, and it's actually creepy to boot. So glad we never got a tragic sequel or anything!!! :')

Film #29 - Dawn of the Dead (2004)

The first 10 minutes of this are absolutely amazing.

Everything from Ana arriving home through the arrival at the mall is a rush.

It's too bad that it's by far the highlight of the film and it isn't even close.

I generally like films that have scenes with people continuing to live their lives as/after something bad has happened but that requires likable characters. Outside of one or two people, nobody in this is all that likable or interesting. It wouldn't be too big of a deal but with so much time spent with the characters just hanging out at times, it hurts things a fair amount.

There's also a bit of trouble with the zombies themselves. Outside of the opening sequence I talked about above, there's never really any intensity to anything for me? It's like all the effort was thrown into the beginning moments of the outbreak and there was none left for later on. There were just multiple parts where things should've popped off that left a lot to be desired.

I haven't seen the original yet but I do want to give credit for seemingly doing its own thing. I'm under the impression this doesn't have much in common short of the mall setting and outbreak. I just wish the film held up more overall for me.

FIlm #30 - Evil Dead (2013)

I've been anxious to rewatch this one as it is now my first time seeing this since viewing the other entries in the series.

I'm glad to say that this is still pretty okay. It's not the amazing film I originally thought it was but it definitely could be worse. Things didn't start off too promising with that prologue. It felt really unnecessary and starts off with throwing the unfortunate deadite design in your face right off the bat.

The deadite design is actually my biggest issue with the whole film. It's really bad and I don't know how something that was so integral to the film ended up so lousy. I'd go as far as to say that if I was ranking this out of 5, the deadite design would knock .5 off alone.

Other things hold up better at least. I like the cast (Shiloh Fernandez is &#128525

and really appreciate the more serious approach this one took. I like the comedy of Evil Dead II a lot but I don't think that would be replicated too well. I think the emphasis on horror was a wise decision. The ending sequences in the blood rain are absolutely amazing as well. I wish the film as a whole felt as inspired as that section did. I was really curious to see how this would've been followed if we got another film but who knows if we'll ever see one with Ash vs Evil Dead seemingly doing well. It's too bad because I loved Jane Levy as Mia.

I feel like I'm opening up the floodgates to get dragged but I'm not sure why this is one of the remakes that gets a lot of shit thrown at it. It wasn't the greatest but it's a lot better than a lot of others (especially in the same genre).

Hell, this is a better watch for me than Army of Darkness is.

DeathoftheEndless · Oct 15, 2016

12. The Last Man on Earth

I really enjoy this adaptation of I Am Legend. I've seen it a few times and I love its twisted sense of morality. Its always a joy watching Vincent Price and his character's journey is heartbreaking. Its a somber story and it set the course for future survival films.

Fox Mulder · Oct 15, 2016

walkmetothelake said:
Film #29 - Dawn of the Dead (2004)

The first 10 minutes of this are absolutely amazing.

Everything from Ana arriving home through the arrival at the mall is a rush.

It's too bad that it's by far the highlight of the film and it isn't even close.

I generally like films that have scenes with people continuing to live their lives as/after something bad has happened but that requires likable characters. Outside of one or two people, nobody in this is all that likable or interesting. It wouldn't be too big of a deal but with so much time spent with the characters just hanging out at times, it hurts things a fair amount.

There's also a bit of trouble with the zombies themselves. Outside of the opening sequence I talked about above, there's never really any intensity to anything for me? It's like all the effort was thrown into the beginning moments of the outbreak and there was none left for later on. There were just multiple parts where things should've popped off that left a lot to be desired.

I haven't seen the original yet but I do want to give credit for seemingly doing its own thing. I'm under the impression this doesn't have much in common short of the mall setting and outbreak. I just wish the film held up more overall for me.

They just had too many people to focus on. The original had four people.

I still like the movie though.

Pestilence11 · Oct 15, 2016

GhaleonEB said:
#13: It Follows | via Netflix DVD

This was last night's film. It's tonight's as well, since I'm seeing it again (possibly with my wife, if she's up to it). Far and away the best non-rewatch of the marathon so far, it's a slow burn film of uncommon craftsmanship. I'll have more to say after a second watch, but I wanted to note how nice it was to see a film about teenagers where none of them are stupid, or unlikable, or clearly earmarked to be fodder. They are friends, loyal, skeptical, and afraid. What could have been a voyeuristic film is instead alternately ethereal, intense, and brimming with empathy and sadness for its characters.

***** out of five

I've been bugging the shit out of a couple people to watch this. Saw it a couple of years ago but should give it a another watch myself.

EmpressInYellow · Oct 15, 2016

Ivan A Nguyen said:
15) The Veil

This mixture of found footage and cast deaths is worth a watch. I don't want to go into the plot because I feel the movie it's self is best served by going in blind. 5 VHS tapes out of 5.

Apparently this one was meant to be a found footage film but was rewritten when they decided found footage was kind of tired. I think it shows, as the footage in the film is kind of...inconsistent and doesn't really play by a coherent set of rules.

Still, I liked it overall, and Thomas Jane's performance absolutely makes the film.

And on It Follows - easily the best musical score for a horror film/show since Mogwai's work on The Returned.

Ridley327 · Oct 15, 2016

October 14, film 2

With more in common with the earlier works of Abel Ferrara, Combat Shock certainly sticks out from the usual Troma crop with its dead seriousness and graphic depiction of the rot and decay of the post-war life for one Vietnam vet. It is such a relentlessly grim film that it can feel much more disgusting than it actually is, with the gore being largely relegated to the film's first and last scenes. There's not much of a budget here, and it really shows in the opening set in the Staten Island version of the Vietnamese jungles, but like a lot of the better NYC-set genre films of the era, it helps lend a lot of authenticity to the atmosphere that helps to make it feel uncomfortably palpable. You can practically scoop the grit and grim right off of your screen. For me, it's always tough to be truly objective on a project like this, where some of the crudeness in the filmmaking is less important than it is necessary to really capture what the filmmakers were going for, so while I do have some genuine quibbles, including a dead-end subplot that seems to exist only to help put a gun into someone's hands, being wrong otherwise feels kinda right. If it's not the strongest example of its kind of film from that era, it is able to keep up with the rest of the pack quite well and if for nothing else, the last 15 minutes or so contain some genuinely harrowing details that are just graphic enough to make no mistake about what's going on while also not crossing the line that would have made it all too much to seriously accept. A truly gruesome film, and I mean that in a nice way.

Films for October 15: For the first time ever in HHMM history, I've programmed some animated films. For this day, a triple feature courtesy of Japan is in order, as the decade was very kind indeed for anime features, thanks in no small part to the OVA boom that helped see more explicit works come to life. First up is the bona fide cult classic Vampire Hunter D, which helped introduce one of anime's most respected anti-heroes as well as famed illustrator Yoshitaka Amano to the world at large. Next up is Lily C.A.T., heavily inspired by the likes of Alien and a staple of Sci-Fi Channel's legendary Saturday Anime programming. We cap things off with the notorious Wicked City, which helped cement Yoshiaki Kawajiri's reputation as one of the true bad boys of anime and offers up an intriguing mix of cyberpunk sci-fi and outright body horror.

Fox Mulder · Oct 15, 2016

#13 Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

Whoa..

I wanted to get into hammer films and I hate myself for not doing it sooner.

Steamlord · Oct 15, 2016

#21 - The Plague of the Zombies [1966]

An OK Hammer horror film, but nothing too special. It's fun to see pre-Romero zombie movies, and this one feels like a bit of a bridge between the old and the new since the zombies here look a little more decayed than the ones in, say, White Zombie or I Walked With a Zombie. Still, much like its titular monsters it can be a bit plodding at times, and the best scene happens about halfway through the movie.

If anyone knows of any pre-1966 shovel decapitations, let me know!

#22 - Demons (Dèmoni) [1985]

Figured I hadn't watched enough schlock this month. Demons certainly scratched that itch, but it wasn't too satisfying overall. It relies pretty much entirely on its gore, and while the effects were OK, they couldn't really carry the movie. It mostly just made me wish I was watching The Evil Dead. Still, it's reasonably dumb fun. I won't deny that I enjoyed the motorcycle bit.

#23 - The Housemaid (Hanyo) [1960]

And now back to some classier fare.

The Housemaid is a pretty intense movie. It goes to some places you wouldn't expect a 1960 film to go to. And it mostly pays off, as it's a really impressive film, crazy and melodramatic in the best way possible. I did find that I had some trouble understanding character motivations at times, and I don't know how much that has to do with my lack of familiarity with Korean culture in 1960. Maybe honor and shame were huge parts of it? I'm no expert. Regardless, for the most part it was masterfully done, even though the forced epilogue left a bad taste in my mouth and detracted from the film's impact.

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