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[ThirstyFly]

#5) Anthropophagus: The Grim Reaper (1980) (Oct 5)

"He's dead... he's meat... I will survive from him!"

Seriously, how cool is that poster? Crazy stuff.

So here's one from everyone's favorite Italian sleaze peddler, Joe D'Amato. I'm not sure if I've actually seen any of his work before and looking at his IMDb, it's 200 Italian titles and only a few appear to be horror flicks, so I probably haven't seen any.

Anyway, I've read that Anthropophagus (or Antropophagus as the movie's title card misspells it) was one of the most gory movies ever made so I decided to check it out. I must have gotten that confused with something else though because this sure isn't it.

While there's two really disturbing scenes, the first is ruined by an effect so poorly done/shot it isn't convincing at all, and it cuts away before fully getting to sicken the audience. The second gets the job done, but again is too brief to have the full impact it should in this type of exploitation cinema. The rest of the gore is your standard 70s-80s low budget schlock you'd expect from an Italian movie of this nature.

That aside, there isn't much else to the movie. The characters have no depth. Aside from one guy hitting on Tisa Farrow's character, another girl being jealous and one being pregnant, there's nothing to these paper thin characters. Hell, I couldn't even remember if one of them was killed off, or just stopped being in the movie until the end. The majority of the scares are very predictable, though to the movie's credit there are a few that worked really well. Music is a mixed bag. Some of it is awful and bizarre, some of it is actually really effective and reminded me of Coil's more experimental/dark material.

There's almost nothing to keep your attention in the first hour of the movie. I kept finding myself losing interest and getting distracted by other things because it was so dull. The last half hour picks up because they decided to shove everything into it, but man, that first hour... skip this one. It's too bad too, because all of the elements are in place for a pretty disgusting exploitation movie, they just forgot to exploit stuff.

But hey, at least the poster is cool.


Final Viewed List:

#1) The Cabin in the Woods (2012) (Oct 1)
#2) Piranha (1978) (Oct 2)
#3) Piranha DD (2012) (Oct 3)
#4) The Living Dead Girl (aka La morte vivante) (1982) (Oct 4)
#5) Anthropophagus: The Grim Reaper (1980) (Oct 5)

 

[Ridley327]

Anthropophagus is definitely one of those films that writes checks that its ass can't cash. Even the notorious scene that got the film its reputation in the first place is dumb because 1) it doesn't look a damn thing like what it's supposed to be and 2) it looks exactly like what you think it is.

 

[ThirstyFly]

Anthropophagus is definitely one of those films that writes checks that its ass can't cash. Even the notorious scene that got the film its reputation in the first place is dumb because 1) it doesn't look a damn thing like what it's supposed to be and 2) it looks exactly like what you think it is.

Heh, yeah that's exactly what I thought. I just read it was a

Spoiler

skinned rabbit

. Oh well, I'm sure it won't be the worst movie I watch this month.

 

[Aske]

i feel like our tastes in horror are pretty similar so this is especially worrisome for me as this was probably going to be one of the films i watched this weekend. but like you remarked about apollo 18, i feel the same way about GE2. i liked the original so much i think i'm going to have to watch the sequel regardless.

If our roles were reversed, I'd feel the same way. The film felt like such wasted potential to me, since the original was one of the best haunted house movies in recent memory. Really, I'd have been very happy with more of the same if there had been a few creative twists. But it's like all the creativity was blown on the set-up plot, and once the characters are finally lined up the movie doesn't have enough steam to knock them down, either with creepy visuals or a devastating plot revelation.

Regarding the promo image, in fairness to whoever's responsible, I did choose one of the less common ones. The image most often associated with the movie spoils one of its few attempts at a good scare, so I figured I'd use 'generic female dragged away on night vision cam' rather than 'when you see the movie, this scene will have even less impact'.

October 5 - Movie # 3 - [REC]

The greatest weakness of [REC] is also its greatest strength, the found footage conceit. The movie starts with no credits, not even a title, with no indication of where it's going, and that proves to be a wonderful, tension-inducing feeling, as the movie pulls you into a chaotic situation and refuses to let go. The way it ratchets up tension while returning again and again to genre touchpoints is very effective--it's that feeling of "oh shit, I know what this means" that you get time and again, aware of what will probably happen in the next minute (and sometimes you're wrong) but never knowing what will be happening ten or fifteen minutes from now. The result is a claustrophobic, economical sub-90-minute rush through a particular subgenre's greatest hits. The government paranoia is a great touch and the final sequence of the movie is clever as hell, truly excellent. Despite some shakycam issues and some thin characterization, the movie is quite scary, and feels very real--right up until the last few moments, when some extraneous voice-over is added and then there are credits with rock music. Had me wishing the movie had simply cut off and ended, a true piece of footage found, sans context, clues, or relief from the fear it inspires. Still, it's well worth your time.

Be sure to watch REC 2 for a continuation sequel done right. When I watched it, I felt it made the original story so much stronger and far more meaningful. I think of the two movies as a single film at this point. Don't expect anything comparable from REC 3. It's goofy fun, about as different in tone as it's possible to be, and only tenuously related to the originals. Aside from about one scene, it could have been given a new title and you'd never know it was part of the franchise.

 

[big ander]

5) Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI 10/5 (well basically, I go to bed at 3am every night anyway)
Finally the series commits to self-conscious humor, at least in parts. People realizing that this is what they'd do in a horror movie, or commenting on the nature of legend alone, and so on. some of that works (the dad/sheriff character I think). and while the methods of murder aren't incredibly creative, they actually are pretty horrifyingly set up. for example, the

Spoiler

very nice counselor that gets reeeeeal butchered after consoling the scared little girl? her death was tense and well edited. got me.

so it's probably the scariest film since maybe 1 or 2 (none are that scary though). it's paced well and Jason's make-up is great. acting is bad even for this series, though that's looking to be the average level for here on out. Alice Cooper's "He's Back (The Man Behind The Mask)" closes out the film appropriately: pretty damn cheesy, feel like I've heard this 1000 times before, but a little funny and barely menacing and I don't mind listening to it.
**

 

[meppi]

Would you recommend all the sequels. If so, just watch them in chronological release order?

I would say so yes.
Do keep in mind that after seeing a bunch of them it will become a bit formulaic though.
Also Ju-On The Curse 2 is more or less only half a movie since it literally retells the first one during the first half of it.
You can find some good info on these films and many more here.
That site helped me a lot when I started getting into Asian movies, especially horror and extreme stuff.

After about 2 years of looking, I finally found both movies on a small asian webshop that sadly is long gone now. They were out of stock, but I ordered them anyway as they gave you the option to reserve them for when they got more stock in.
7 months later or so, I suddenly get an email from them asking me if I still wanted these as they got some more in.

These are the ones you're looking for btw:

The third one (Loft) is also very good and creepy. Not quite horror.
Doesn't have anything to do with Ju-On btw.

I bought the first and second US Grudge films at the same time, but after I watched the first one and hated it, I never even bothered watching the second one. Never buying the third...
Pretty terrible stuff and just does the exact same things from the Japanese ones.

I would! The Grudge 3 is the only one i dont own.

Katasumi and 4444444444 (takes place during the Curse)
Ju-On The Curse
Ju-On The Curse 2
Ju-On The Grudge
Ju-On The Grude 2
The Grudge: Old Lady In White
The Grudge: Girl In Black
The Grudge
The Grudge 2
Tales from The Grudge (takes place during Grudge 2)
The Grudge 3

I never even knew about Old Lady in White and Girl in Black until yesterday when I bumped into them on wikipedia of all places.
Found out they were released in the UK as well under the name Ju-On White Ghost/Black Ghost, so I ordered a copy for €6.

How are they? Any good?
I know they have little to do with the originals, but oh well.

 

[Kayo-kun]

2. Chernobyl Diaries (Oct 5)

Surprisingly I found Chernobyl Diaries to be a quite decent film. I remember hearing about all the negative reception it got when it came out in the cinemas and how I decided to not go and watch it back then. The story is about a group of teenagers going to Ukraine and deciding that they would like to participate in something called extreme tourism, which means traveling into Pripyat which was the town abandoned after the Chernobyl disaster. Well you can figure out what happens when they arrive and find out that Pripyat wasn't fully abandoned. The movie reminded me of the REC/Quarantine series and had its moments. The thing that I mostly appreciated was the atmosphere, especially when I am fascinated by ghost towns and abandoned places like Pripyat.
6/10

 

[Divius]

#10 - Chernobyl Diaries (2012)
Needless to say, this was terrible. The one thing it really has going for it is the absolutely terrifying location of the abandoned (?) town of Pripyat, but even with this as a given, the atmosphere wasn't even that creepy or tense. Everything else that happens is just bad, from the acting to the cheap scares. Whoever commented on this movie being visually too dark was right, when you finally get to see whatever is chasing them the movie is so dark you still don't what they exactly are. And no, this does not add to the mystery either, it just sucks. 2/10

 

[Astaereth]

Be sure to watch REC 2 for a continuation sequel done right. When I watched it, I felt it made the original story so much stronger and far more meaningful. I think of the two movies as a single film at this point. Don't expect anything comparable from REC 3. It's goofy fun, about as different in tone as it's possible to be, and only tenuously related to the originals. Aside from about one scene, it could have been given a new title and you'd never know it was part of the franchise.

Thanks! I wasn't planning on doing so but I will now.

--

So I went over to a friend's house and caught a couple of movies on Netflix.

October 5th - Movie # 4 - Pulse

The first was the original Japanese movie Pulse. I watched it based on this review:

When The Social Network came out, it was tagged with suspicious unanimity as the movie of "our moment." But nearly a decade earlier, Kiyoshi Kurosawa pretty much wrote the ultimate obituary for the concept that there would ever again be an "our" anything, moment or otherwise. A neo-Invasion of the Body Snatchers in ghostly J-horror trappings, Pulse is a mournful techno-eschatology in which the world ends with not a bang, but the quiet murmur of billions of modems snatching away the souls of all who use them, and leaving all who opt out feeling even more alone than the throngs doing purgatory on the other side of the monitor. Coming, as it did, almost concurrently with the onset of "death of cinema" alarm bells, Pulse's desperate plea for real, messy, analog emotions is all but unbearable, and should send a chill through anyone who's found themselves absently caught up in YouTube roulette.

Those themes seemed exciting, particularly for a horror film. Unfortunately, although the thematics are really nice, the movie doesn't make a lick of sense on a plot level; it's very incoherent and difficult to follow. Essentially it's like somebody took The Grudge and decided it had too much story and not enough theme. Even though it bothered me the whole time I was watching it, the more I think about it, the more I want to see it again, now that I have a somewhat better grasp on what was going on. I think maybe it should never have been pitched as a horror film; it's more like a supernatural drama. Maybe I'll revisit if I have time this month.

October 5th - Movie # 5 - Insidious

The second movie I watched was Insidious, and it sucked. It's as though somebody took Poltergeist and decided it had too much meaning. The characters are extremely thin, their situation is unrelatable after a certain point, and although it tries to appear savvy by skipping past some of the genre tropes (the disbelieving police, the "we can't move! it's too expensive!" argument), it doesn't really have anything of value to skip to so most of it just ends up being perfunctory. Critically, the film has severe tonal issues; about halfway through it goes from being a Paranormal Activity-esque realistic movie about a haunting to being a del Toro-esque hyperstylized fantasy action movie about astral projection. It's a really weird shift, but both halves are crippled by the lack of any character I could possibly give a shit about--the first half, because the haunting isn't as scary, and the second half, because the visual invention has nothing to connect to. Great horror touches on mental pressure points, finding deep fears or taboos or areas of conflict and forcing you to confront them on the screen; but Insidious isn't tapping into anything, so the outre ghosts simply feel like the imaginings of some production designer or concept artist. The movie is also 90% cheap jump scares, so on basically every level, it's not worth your time. I regret watching it.

 

[bjork]

I watched Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl. It was pretty stupid, but the title is a sheer giveaway of that. The vampire girl is pretty, so there's that. But what the hell... there's some super racist shit going on in that movie! I'm surprised they could even put that out with those scenes in there. Not too cool, Japan.

 

[meppi]

October 5th - Movie # 4 - Pulse

The first was the original Japanese movie Pulse. I watched it based on this review:



Those themes seemed exciting, particularly for a horror film. Unfortunately, although the thematics are really nice, the movie doesn't make a lick of sense on a plot level; it's very incoherent and difficult to follow. Essentially it's like somebody took The Grudge and decided it had too much story and not enough theme. Even though it bothered me the whole time I was watching it, the more I think about it, the more I want to see it again, now that I have a somewhat better grasp on what was going on. I think maybe it should never have been pitched as a horror film; it's more like a supernatural drama. Maybe I'll revisit if I have time this month.

Oh Kairo/Pulse is much better on a second viewing, especially when you go into it the first time with incorrect expectations.
What you say about being a supernatural drama is pretty much spot on.
I went in thinking it was gonna be psychological horror with ghosts and all that good stuff.
But the movie is very different and goes much deeper than that and focusses on the destruction of civilisation as people drift away in depression and loneliness and finally fade into nothing.
Episode 24 of the VCinema Podcast gives various interpretations about this film and the themes that run through it.
*edit* scrap that. Not the podcast I was thinking of. :-/

I watched Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl. It was pretty stupid, but the title is a sheer giveaway of that. The vampire girl is pretty, so there's that. But what the hell... there's some super racist shit going on in that movie! I'm surprised they could even put that out with those scenes in there. Not too cool, Japan.

What do you mean racist? ;P

To be fair those things were put into the movie to laugh at the whole ganguro subculture and not really to make fun of black people.

 

[AgentOtaku]

There's that and so much more! Doooo eeeeeeeeeeeeet~

and i'm off to find it (^____^)

 

[harSon]

Oh Kairo/Pulse is much better on a second viewing, especially when you go into it the first time with incorrect expectations.
What you say about being a supernatural drama is pretty much spot on.
I went in thinking it was gonna be psychological horror with ghosts and all that good stuff.
But the movie is very different and goes much deeper than that and focusses on the destruction of civilisation as people drift away in depression and loneliness and finally fade into nothing.
Episode 24 of the VCinema Podcast gives various interpretations about this film and the themes that run through it.
*edit* scrap that. Not the podcast I was thinking of. :-/



What do you mean racist? ;P

To be fair those things were put into the movie to laugh at the whole ganguro subculture and not really to make fun of black people.

To be fair though, Japan doesn't exactly have the best track record in terms of representing black people in a way that isn't completely stereotypical, offensive and indicative of age old racial caricatures.

 

[MattyH]

after the fun that was #5 - Hocus Pocus which is pretty dark in places for a kids film tonights film is gonna be #6 - City Of The Living Dead and a thanks to a friend a few eps of the simpsons treehouse of horror

 

[BattleMonkey]

Time for a bit more sleaze up in here!

#11 Hard to Die (Sorority House Massacre 3) (1990)

- So here we are with the 3rd entry in this odd ball slasher series. The interesting part of this film is that it's not really part 3, it was originally released simply as Hard to Die. Certain home video versions including current dvd releases have the Sorority House Massacre 3 tagged onto it. The movie though really does seem to be spiritual sequel as its set in the same universe (lol) as the original. Essentially it's a repeat of the 2nd film, most of the same exact cast is back playing the same roles (even though they mostly all died in 2). They even redo the whole flashback scene from part 2 which uses footage against from Slumber Party Massacre 1! Movie is again self aware and probably even more so, as its making obvious jokes to redoing stuff in Sorority House 2. Difference here is it's a skyscraper, where the girls work for a lingerie company.... and of course they are stuck working late and an accident gets all their clothes wet so what do they do? Well get naked and wear lingerie of course! The movie also plays up that they have a shower in the office and each girl in the movie takes a turn for a full nude shower scene... including fun squeaky noises as the girls lather up their boobs. So as you can tell the movie just is having fun and someone opens up by accident a mistaken delivery to a museum that unleashes the spirit of the first killer in the building to possess someone. Folks get killed off, girls frolic around naked, and by the end they find a floor of the building belonging to a gun dealer so everyone has AK-47's suddenly. Much of the finale involves lots of girls in lingerie blasting away at each other with assault rifles..... brilliant! It's funny to see the home video back of the box as it has random pics of characters and scenes not in this movie, and it's advertised as female Die Hard.

#12 Dolls (1987)

- So going on to something not sleazy for once after my marathon of shlok films, I went with this old classic. This was just a good fun movie. Car breaks down near an old mansion which is home to an old couple of toy makers. House is full of creepy dolls who eventually reveal to be alive and killing bad people... at least that's what it seems like they do since they don't kill all, and are cool with kids. Some good gore, excellent stop motion, and just good stuff here. While it is gory at points, the film feels very light hearted really, so the tone of the film feels like it fluctuates. The killer giant teddy bear sequence early in the film just makes the film for me, the whole shrug the bear gives was great.

 

[SephriJ]

10/5 - Movie #2 The Phantom of the Opera(original) I really enjoyed it. Was never a big fan of silent films, but that one was good, and the effects for those days was pretty amusing.

10/6 Movie#3 - Blood Feast - Cheesy. Acting sucks, the bloody graphic stuff is very far out there, but entertaining.

Movie #4 Tales from the Crypt Ritual - It was...okay, Demon Knight is still probably my fav. TFTC movie.

Movie #5 - The House of the Devil - I really like this movie, a lot of people hate the ending, but the movie itself is fantastic, highly recommend.


It's the weekend, so I am sure there will be more added to this before the day is over. My girlfriend is joining in this fun, sadly she will probably beat me in the movie watching. But she did vow to watch Human Centipede 1 and 2 this month(she has been to freaked out and disgusted to watch them), but she is going to this month. Exciting for me because I think both of them are hilarious.

 

[Darkgran]

#4 Cabin in the Woods (Oct 4)

The first hour is fantastic...then I feel like it fell apart a little bit. I still enjoyed it but it kinda turned campy for me. Sure there were some great moments in the last 30 minutes but it wasn't executed very well.

7/10

 

[Coxy]

#9 The Objective

US soldiers on a mission in Iraq or Afghanistan or someplace like that get orders to track down an artidfact. The artifact they're looking for it an actual real world out of place artifact called the Quimbaya airplanes which was kinda cool. It's very solemn and slow paced, lacking in scares but has a real feeling of weirdness. It has a good sense of mystery going on but not much else going for it.

** out of *****

 

[nicoga3000]

I don't really have time to watch 31 movies this month, but I am going to watch a few when time permits. I got to watch Cabin in the Woods last night. Nothing like what I expected, but I loved it. I really loved

Spoiler

all of the monsters at the end.

That was a lot of fun. Perfect? No, but a really fun experience.

 

[haikira]

Cheers 8BitsAtATime and meppi, for the information on the Ju On Sequels.

 

[J-Roderton]

I wish Netflix would put The Grudge on instant.

 

[Divius]

Thinking about doing a Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 and 1978) back to back viewing for tonight. Good idea/bad idea?

 

[Ridley327]

Thinking about doing a Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 and 1978) back to back viewing for tonight. Good idea/bad idea?

Good idea; they're both damn fine films, and it's great to see how they handle the story differently from each other.

 

[Endo Punk]

Still haven't started the marathon :/ If I gotta do something I don't end up doing it, just gotta come naturally. Though today I plan on watching Monster Squad.

Thinking about doing a Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 and 1978) back to back viewing for tonight. Good idea/bad idea?

What about The Invasion 2007?

 

[John Rabbit]

day 05. movies 4, 4.5 and 5. ju-on: the curse, katasumi and 444444444, ju-on: the curse 2
--

these films have already been covered fairly extensively in this thread, so i'll keep this more brief than my other reviews.

to date, i have only ever seen the grudge 2, the american sequel to the remake. the grudge 2 is also the only film i have ever walked out of the theater on. after 40 minutes that seemed like 2 hours, i'd had enough of the nonsense plot and basically nothing actually happening. also amber tamblyn and smg were about as evocative as potted plants. i was hoping with the japanese originals that would change.

if there is one word to describe these films it would undoubtedly be: creepy.

even the two short films (which, along with both "the curse" films are readily available on youtube) invoke the tiniest sliver of creep-factor. like another poster said, these films actually seem to work because of their direct-to-video, low-budget aesthetic. it lends a sense of realism to the proceedings and the in-camera audio puts a blanket of fuzzy "dead space" around everything that really helps push the dread when things are quiet; and in these films there is a LOT of quiet. the music is also quite effective as most of it is just angelo badalamenti style droning and buzzing and only serves to push the atmosphere harder instead of being an audio-cue as to when something is about to happen. those are left to the throat-clicking and cat-noises of the two ghost spirits; which i still think are pretty ridiculous ways for them to 'announce' themselves, but it ends up working well.

i didn't find the acting as poor as others seem to, and in general i felt everyone did a moderate to good job with their roles. i wasn't taken out of the film at any point, and by the penultimate segment for nobuyuki in the curse 2, i was thoroughly creeped-the-eff-out. there's a horror in the fact that both ghost-lady kayako and cat-boy toshio seem unconcerned with what time it is, where they are, and generally just break the laws of time-space. there is no safe place in these films. at any moment a phone will ring, a cat will meow, or that throat-noise will start, and you know shortly shit is about to hit the fan.

the films are also relatively bloodless which i appreciated. it makes the moments of gore and violence much more effective. i can see how watching more of these films might start to get formulaic and boring, but i am looking forward to watching ju-on: the grudge here in a few days. i am honestly stuck a little bit with some of the images from these films that i might need to watch something else before moving on.

katasumi and 4444444 - 7/10 (i watched these after the curse, but before the curse 2 and i would probably recommend you do the same, having more context makes them more effective)
ju-on: the curse - 8/10
ju-on: the curse 2 - 7/10 (docked one point because the first 30 minutes are two segments from the first film verbatim, but the 40 minutes of new in the curse 2 is every bit as good, maybe better, as the entirety of the curse. nobuyuki's short segment has my favorite shots of the entire 2 films:

Spoiler

the kayako army pawing at the windows and the courtyard of them chittering away

)
--------------------------------------
good for atmosphere, creep-factor, effective story-telling; bad for in-the-moment scares, cohesion of plot, some may be put off by the TV movie look

 

[Count Dookkake]

Hey, harSon. Nishimura's latest, a short in ABCs OF DEATH, references Kunta Kinte. That may be the least offensive element on display.

 

[bjork]

Watching The Mummy's Curse right now. I kinda wish I could watch these movies with the mindset of someone in the 40s who hasn't seen shit like tubgirl and beheading videos, I bet the mummy was really scary back then.

 

[Blue Submarine No. 6]

#5 Killer Clowns From Outer Space (1988) (Oct. 5) - This film is inspired silliness with some clever chills, an enthusiastic and likeable cast and plenty of "wink, wink" moments to Monster Kids everywhere. One of my favourite horror films from the '80s.

 

[J-Roderton]

I think I may shell out the $5 to rent The Loved Ones on my Apple TV tonight.

 

[MattyH]

I think I may shell out the $5 to rent The Loved Ones on my Apple TV tonight.

the loved ones is awesome

 

[sophora]

#7. "The Host" - Enjoyed the movie, the characters at first I didn't like but over the course of the movie I grew to like them. The sense of loss and how it affected them is one of my favorite aspects of the movie. Definitely would recommend it to those who haven't seen it yet.

 

[NekoFever]

#6 The Last Exorcism (Oct 6)

While I'm not going to give away story specifics here, I'm going to talk about the general direction of the events of the film, so you might want to skip this post if you're planning on watching it any time soon.

I'm not usually a fan of the whole 'found footage' conceit, but it's far less obnoxious here, presented as a documentary. Yes, it doesn't make sense that it was recovered given the events of the movie, but that's the least of its problems if you're going to think about it that hard.

The Last Exorcism feels quite fresh in a crowded sub-genre, avoiding some of the cliches while also not recalling The Exorcist at every turn. I would have been on board even if it had turned out to be as straightforward as I would have guessed beforehand as I liked the characters and the treatment of the priest's crisis of faith, but that I enjoyed it anyway made the false ending and the ultimate twist all the better.

4/5

 

[Napoleonthechimp]

Thanks to this thread I've watched a lot of crappy horror movies and the ending to Sleepaway Camp.

Does anyone remember a movie set in the west where monsters came out of the ground, paralysed people, buried them and then later came back to eat them? It was -- wait, I've found it:

The Burrowers (2008)

"A band of courageous men sets out to find and recover a family of settlers that has mysteriously vanished from their home. Expecting the offenders to be a band of fierce natives, the group prepares for a routine battle. But they soon discover that the real enemy stalks them from below."

7/10

I found it more horrifying than most because I have a deep fear of being buried alive and find the concept to be disturbing, also being eaten alive doesn't seem fun.

 

[ThirstyFly]

#5 Killer Clowns From Outer Space (1988) (Oct. 5) - This film is inspired silliness with some clever chills, an enthusiastic and likeable cast and plenty of "wink, wink" moments to Monster Kids everywhere. One of my favourite horror films from the '80s.

I just finished watching that too. Will post impressions when I'm on my computer.

 

[canoli2006]

List so far:

1) The Monster Squad
2) The Living Dead Girl
3) Halloween (1978)

#4 - The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Probably one of the more sophisticated movies that will be on my this and the only Oscar winner. Not exactly a full blown horror movie, it's dramatic and suspenseful throughout and it features one of the most iconic characters in cinematic history. 10/10

 

[Jill Sandwich]

#6 - Witchfinder General

Time for a Hammer classic! No wait, it's Tigon British Film Productions. Well they did do a lot of Hammer-style horrors, such as The Creeping Flesh, Blood On Satan's Claw and Curse of the Crimson Altar (I could have sworn The Creeping Flesh was Hammer.)
Despite it's cult status and acclaim in horror circles, I've never seen Witchfinder General, and was quite eager to see some sadistic scenes of torture and witch burning of which the BBFC sliced to bits*. How bad can it be for a 1968 production? After all, last night's morsel from 1972 was tamer than advertised. And so it is with Witchfinder General, where the worst is that people get stabbed in the back with an obvious retracting prop needle and people sprayed liberally with that neon ketchup blood you see in films of this style, even if they've just been punched in the stomach. Allen Bennett said this of the film:
"the most persistently sadistic and morally rotten film I have seen. It was a degrading experience by which I mean it made me feel dirty."
Pansy. I should show him The Hills Have Eyes or The Devil's Rejects sometime. What was he expecting from this film? Vincent Price extracting confessions using THE COMFY CHAIR?

It is the year 1645 and England is in the grip of civil war, and the clashes between Loyalists and Roundheads leaves the country to sort it's own laws out. Self proclaimed Witchfinder Matthew Hopkins and his brutish oaf sidekick/muscle John Stearne ride around the land ridding the parishes of innocent women witches by extracting confessions out of them using said retractable prop needles, face slapping and blackmail. One of their victims is Sara, a comely niece of Priest John Lowes, both of whom are accused of barking at the moon and listening to albums containing swear words, thus must be witches. Bad things happen to both of them.
Sara's fiance comes home and is not best pleased, and vows to find Hopkins and kill him until he is dead, and goes off on his trail.

Despite it not being very horrific by todays standards, I did quite enjoy Witchfinder General. I do have a soft spot for Hammer/Tigon productions, and Vincent Price did invoke a sense of casual menace as Hopkins, and they don't make them like this anymore.
It gets bonus points for Albert Steptoe popping up in it too!

 

[BuddyJoeHooker]

Carpenter considers The Thing, Prince of Darkness and In the Mouth of Madness to be his 'Apocalypse Trilogy', so they're kind of thematically linked.

There was an article about them on The Verge recently.

Yeah, I heard it was part of a trilogy. The Thing will always be one of my favorite horror movie of all time and I would put In the Mouth of Madness next. That movie was great. I liked Prince of Darkness, but it is the weakest of the three.

I'm loving the gifs.

Thanks, I'll keep trying to include them.

 

[ChoklitReign]

#3: Empire of the Ants
Terrible movie, saved by it's famously poor special effects of real ants superimposed on people and swamps. I had seen the swamp scenes dozens of times on SciFi but this was the first time I watched all of it. All of the characters are awful and the ending was bizarre. 2.5/5

#4: Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
AWESOME! It was hilarious, superb acting by the hillbillies and Allison, and her friends are evil and stupid to a comical degree. 4/5

#5: Mimic
Better than I was expecting. The cinematography, score, and practical effects are all trademark Del Toro. The giant roaches are menacing and well-designed. I liked the spoon-playing kid and the black cop the best out of the otherwise wooden actors. 3.5/5

 

[Ridley327]

Oct. 6: The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (dir. Jorge Grau)

I can think of at least one thing wrong with the title.

All kidding aside, the film is surprisingly much more of a slow burn than you might expect; the real zombie action doesn't start until about an hour in, and prior to that, you have an hour of Ray Lovelock being an absolute bastard to Cristina Galbo, and Arthur Kennedy wishing he could forget his duties as an officer of the law and just shoot everyone who isn't in high moral standings in the head. I did like that the scale of the zombie outbreak was so small and insular; after all, it is a town with a tiny population, so it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for there to be dozens of the things. Once the zombies start making a mess of everything, business certainly picks up, even at the expense of having everything coming down to people having just the worst luck, rather than anything logical. Not bad, but it could have stood be a bit more interesting throughout.

Day 7 preview: Some directors enjoy their niche; Romero loved his socially relevant messages wedded to classic haunts, Cronenberg loved his gory visions of the future which felt surprisingly prescient in retrospect, and Argento loved how unfaithful that the mind can be when witnessing horrific acts. Jean Rollin found his niche in the realm of the cinema fantastisque, blending contemporary themes with the supernatural in a realistic way. Rollin focused in particular on vampires, so we will be watching two of his works, Lips of Blood and Fascination.

 

[Count Dookkake]

FASCINATION is awesome.

 

[harSon]

Movie #22 - Cemetary Man, dir. Michele Soavi (1990)

I am completely baffled at the cult status of this film, because I honestly failed to find any redeeming qualities embedded within this deceiving pile of horse crap. I was told it was comedic, campy and quite deceptive, but nobody warned me that it would be misleading in such a horrifically disappointing manner.

I'll start with the film's strong qualities, which unfortunately do not amount to much. The practical effects are top notch, and while there were a few instances where budget and age were apparent (noticeable swaps between real heads and dummies during headshots), I found this to be one of the better films in terms of splatter effects. I really dug the small town, Italian cemetary location, but I do admit, I wish the filmmakers would have crafted a contained narrative within this setting and ignored their appetite to create something a bit more wide reaching and expansive. And I enjoyed the main character, whose care free attitude and complete indifference to his predicament meshed perfectly with the initial premise of the film. Unfortunately they completely abandoned that, and his personality takes a complete 180 with the emergence of his new found insanity. Oh, and the main character's love interest 3 times over was absolutely gorgeous, and outside of the practical effects, her nudity is probably the only thing I'd recommend someone to watch the for.

The plot is pretty simple, a man must kill the dead a second time when they awake within his cemetary. An admittedly simple, albeit extremely unique and cool premise, and the film would have been perfectly entertaining had the filmmakers stayed somewhat within those boundaries. Unfortunately, he doesn't. Despite having some issues with it, I actually quite enjoyed the first act of this film due to the fact that it was fairly faithful to my expectations regarding the premise that I was promised. But for some reason, the narrative begins to drift further and further from the initial premise; bringing in half-baked romantic sub-plots, confusing surrealism and the out-of-left-field addition of an unreliable narrative through the protagonist, completely destroying any good grace that the film was able to garner through its opening minutes.

The romantic sub plot, if you can even call it that, was some of the most bizarrely brainless hogwash that I've ever seen within a film. I can't help but mention the absurdity of the filmmaker's refusal to allow believable development to take place between these women and the protagonist before love is established. Instead of something rooted within any form of reality, we're force fed love that happens at the blink of an eye, and the scenarios under which they happen, while amusing at times, are completely stupid and serve no worthwhile purpose other than some indecipherable deeper meaning and additional tidbits of dark humor. Although I do admit, the idea of a woman who is miraculously reincarnated is at least thematically relevant to a zombie film, but I felt it was lazily handeled none the less. This aspect of the film, similar to a lot of other parts of the film that I absolutely loathed, seemed to be symbolic of some underlying theme, and I believe it was this decision to ultimately value thematic storytelling over the solidification of a logically sound narrative that ultimately makes this film not work.

I'm assuming the character of Gnaghi was supposed to be comedic relief, but I couldn't help but find him completely annoying and borderline disgusting. His stupid looks, constant slobbering, creepy fascination with young girls, moral justifcation of a relationship with the dead (that seems to be a constant within the film, and it just comes off as completely off-putting), etc. Mental retardation aside, the character is incredibly nauseating, despite the fact that he does have some likable qualities.

Maybe my enjoyment, or lack thereof, would have been different had the obvious moments of humor had any type of hold, but they simply did not. I understand that there's deeper meaning to be found, but the movie is so abstract and absent of solidified meaning that pretty much any interpretation can be forced upon it, and IMO, that's not a symptom of a legitimately good film. I found an 'explanation' that is actually well thought out and quite cool, but if you have to go through an incredible struggle just to apply any level of meeting to such a puzzling narrative, then you have failed as a filmmaker. I honestly don't mind surreal, intellectually busting films, but I'd prefer such a quality to be an inclusion at the onset of the film, instead of lazily tossed into the second and third acts, and handeled in a way that is somewhat reminiscent of intelligent.

Rating: * 1/2 out of ****

And that half a star was earned on the strength of Anna Falchi's beautiful figure.

 

[Count Dookkake]

Falchi is legendarily hot.

 

[ThirstyFly]

Day 7 preview: Some directors enjoy their niche; Romero loved his socially relevant messages wedded to classic haunts, Cronenberg loved his gory visions of the future which felt surprisingly prescient in retrospect, and Argento loved how unfaithful that the mind can be when witnessing horrific acts. Jean Rollin found his niche in the realm of the cinema fantastisque, blending contemporary themes with the supernatural in a realistic way. Rollin focused in particular on vampires, so we will be watching two of his works, Lips of Blood and Fascination.

What, no Zombie Lake?

Movie #22 - Cemetary Man, dir. Michele Soavi (1990)
{...}
And that half a star was earned on the strength of Anna Falchi's beautiful figure.

You sir, have wounded me! Cemetery Man is one of my all time faves and I was considering a rewatch for my reward when I hit 31 like I did with Re-Animator last year. Friggin' love that movie.

 

[harSon]

I have to ask, what exactly do you like about it? I was completely off put by the abandonment of the initial premise, and sheer indecisive nature and open endedness of the 2nd and 3rd acts.

 

[8BitsAtATime]

What, no Zombie Lake?



You sir, have wounded me! Cemetery Man is one of my all time faves and I was considering a rewatch for my reward when I hit 31 like I did with Re-Animator last year. Friggin' love that movie.

I cant believe it either, Cemetery Man is so god damn good. Its one of those films like Evil Dead 2...I cant watch a million times and never get tired of it.


WTF is going on here The Last Exorcism getting love...BLOWY JOB!!!! I was laughing the whole time I was watching this movie. hmmm whatever floats your boat.

 

[Ridley327]

What, no Zombie Lake?

I just picked two that were on Netflix!

 

[mr stroke]

#2 Monster House

Absolutely adore this movie. Really gives me a childhood memory of Halloween. Dark, charming, and spooky.


#3 Psycho(original)

First time watching this and very impressed. While the stabbing scenes seem tame by todays standards and don't really hold up, the movie as a whole works on a terror/thriller level. Final scene is perfect.


#4 Underworld Awakening 3D

Lame overall. Loved the first one, but this one(and it sequels) all seem like cash ins. No real reason for this movie to exist outside of Kate Beckensale in tight leather. (Nice 3D show piece if you have a 3D TV)

 

[BattleMonkey]

I didn't care for Cemetery Man either.

I just picked two that were on Netflix!

Probably for the best... zombie lake... *shudder* Was one of my views last year, so awful.

 

[ThirstyFly]

#06) Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988) (Oct 6) (rewatch)

"What are you going to do with those pies, boys?"

My first rewatch of the marathon. I had seen this on TV when I was a kid and liked it then but I think I enjoyed it even more now. I'm sure I had liked it then because of the premise, but the absurdity of the whole thing was probably lost on me as a youth. The ridiculousness of the dialogue is probably the best part. Every time someone says "cocoon" I start laughing, I have no idea why. It's just so silly and they're so into it.

This is one of those rare movies where everything about it, while not the greatest on its own, works perfectly in context with everything else. Highly recommended for fans of films like Night of the Creeps and Monster Squad.

I see there's a sequel in the works for next year as well, which may spawn into a trilogy of sequels (one per character from the original film) if the first does well. I don't know if they'll be able to recapture the magic in today's film climate, but it'll be interesting to see what they do with it.


Final Viewed List:

#1) The Cabin in the Woods (2012) (Oct 1)
#2) Piranha (1978) (Oct 2)
#3) Piranha DD (2012) (Oct 3)
#4) The Living Dead Girl (aka La morte vivante) (1982) (Oct 4)
#5) Anthropophagus: The Grim Reaper (1980) (Oct 5)
#6) Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988) (Oct 6) (rewatch)

 

[nicoga3000]

How's the selection of streaming Netflix horror? I really want to pop a few on, but I can't find anything good at the local video store.