kept putting off writing about what i watched and the more i put it off the bigger the list got and the less i felt like doing it. but here's what i've watched since i last checked in:
The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973) Peter Cushing is the reason to watch Hammer Dracula movies so much more than Christopher Lee. This one is sort of like a less interesting Prince of Darkness with its technological approach to evil. still, any movie that has Dracula planning to wipe out humanity for, uh, some reason has to be worth watching.
Fantom Kiler 3 (2003) / Fantom Kiler 4 (2008) okay all four of these are horrible woman-hating pieces of shit but part 4 really turns it up to 11 by moving to hardcore sex (sort of) and having the killer (who is sort of different in each movie but really i think they just don't care about a mythology in this series) dedicated to humiliating professional women. like i knew this stuff wouldn't be good but i didn't expect something i would hate this much. so there's that.
The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe (1974) kinda like Soderbergh's Kafka approach - Poe stuck in a Poe-like story when his fiancee goes catatonic and is institutionalized but Poe gets bad vibes from the place and sneaks around and investigates. it isn't exactly good but it's interesting enough.
Tomie: Rebirth (2001) the fourth one. definitely love this series so far and each entry gets slightly better. i am pacing myself here because i know by part 9 it has to start sucking. right?
Mother's Day: What a Horror! (1995) this is a comedy and it's not a good one but it is an oddball film with some zombies and if you ever are thinking of checking it out, you can stop after the opening credits, which contain the best thing: a theme song that imagines what Goblin filtered through C+C Music Factory would sound like singing/rapping about Deep Red
Passengers (2008) Anne Hathaway in one of those horror movies Hollywood makes for people who don't like horror movies. i've seen worse films but this is very bland. and okay, it's the second time i've seen it so i guess the joke's on me, but i have to rewatch these films i only half-remember from the time years ago when i would watch films drunk
The Wicksboro Incident (2003) a decent faux documentary about aliens. decent as in so-so. on my stupid rating scale it's a 4.5/10
American Burger (2014) swedish people pretending to be americans visiting a swedish place called American Burger where the ingredient is... i'll let you wonder about that. this films is all stalk and slash with a cast so huge you can't keep track of anyone or give a shit about them. also it's a "comedy"
Night School (1981) not a very memorable 80s slasher but still a pretty decent one
The Unseen (1980) from the director of Friday the 13th: A New Beginning! so-so tale of reporters covering an Oktoberfest parade and staying in a museum that used to be a hotel with a crazy family. the climax goes on way too long.
Panga aka Curse III: Blood Sacrifice (1991) white people in africa cause problems and get a curse put on them. i liked Christopher Lee in this and there's some fun effects. okay.
Cover Girl Killer (1959) a very loose proto-slasher with a killer who only kills models who have been on the cover of a particular gentlemen's magazine. more interesting than entertaining.
Death Magic (1992) a confederate ghost/zombie soldier versus satanists. pretty entertaining sov
Evil Streets (1998) sov anthology with a theme of stalkers/assault. not good but i don't regret watching a musclebound hunk in a gstring stalking a stripper in the halls of a school. because that's some high concept right there
Superstition II (1989) excruciatingly irritating teens run afoul of a witch and she cannot kill them fast enough
Halloween II (1981) every time i watch this i find more things wrong with it but i still enjoy it despite its myriad flaws
Symptoms (1974) Angela Pleasence is great in this (and reminiscent of her father) sorta moody gothic piece. watch the extras on the bluray and find out that jose ramon larraz is a huge asshole.
Zombie Cult Massacre (1998) some of the zombies have an interesting look in this and the concept of a christian doomsday cult causing a zombie apocalypse is interesting but this movie sucks
The Old Dark House (1932) didn't suspect i would completely love this movie nor did i expect to find it so (intentionally) funny. awesome.
Crimson Peak (2015) holy shit i hated this.
Annabelle: Creation (2017) this also sucked, which is too bad since I liked Lights Out. but at least it had that funny YOUR SOUL moment. could someone explain to me why this couple chose to take orphans in?
Can't Take It Back (2017) basically what if supernatural forces punished you for facebook bullying. 3.5/10
Day of the Animals (1977) still not sure how all these animal attacks are so boring. leslie nielsen as a creep makes it worth watching, hotshot.
Totem (2017) while the end goes on a little too long this is a very solid horror movie with good characters. dad's girlfriend is moving in and the dead mom's ghost is showing up to his youngest daughter.
Leatherface (2017) i'm probably in the minority that i found most of this series enjoyable save The Beginning. Well this is worse than that one. so pointless. and i even liked Teas Chainsaw 3D
Wake the Dead (2017) haunted house, seance, possessions, not very good
Cherry Tree (2016) pretty good witchcraft tale from ireland
The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) first time watching this after seeing the Richard Stanley documentary and i still can't bring myself to hate this. i find it entertaining at least.
The Lawnmower Man (1992) hey this still sucks. other than Jeff Fahey's outfit and portrayal of a god. should i bother watching the director's cut?
Disconnect (2010) toy phone can call the past and a woman uses it to prevent her mom's murder but just mucks shit up more. bad time travel stuff here.
Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977) still lukewarm on this one
Fragile (2005) calista flockhart in a haunted institution. okay.
Boardinghouse [director's cut] (1982) watching this made me wonder what it would be like if it was a 19 hour series on Showtime.
Creepshow (1982) / Creepshow 3 (2006) i don't know how controversial this is but i'm not really a fan of the original. but of course part 3 is worse.
Dying Day (1983) / Dark Night (1985) / Raiders of the Living Dead (1986) this is certainly interesting to see one film made into another and then another but only Dying Day comes close to being good
Night of the Demon (1957) one of those classics i've taken decades to get around to and it lives up to the hype. great film.
Anarchy Parlor (2015) like Hostel, but at a tattoo parlor! it isn't good!
Documenting the Grey Man (2011) the only good part of this bullshit documentary is when Chad the psychic/medium starts bleeding from the eyes and runs into the bathroom and shuts the door. when the others open the door the bathroom is empty. the lead investigator says "It's just Chad being Chad."
Talon Falls (2017) what if the stuff that happened at haunted house attractions was real? you know, the ones where it's just a bunch of little rooms with people being convincingly tortured and chopped up and screaming. oh you don't know what i'm talking about?
Found Footage 3D (2016) definitely worth it although at least half the fun was the anaglyph 3D,
I Am Zozo (2012) shot on super 8 - that's the best thing about this ouija board/possession movie
Scent (2014) zombie movie that breaks the fourth wall and has the director as the bad guy and it sucks
The Small Woman in Grey (2017) UK slasher that's pretty unremarkable
Black Ghosts (2015) fuck i have a feeling this will be another opinion i'm alone on but i loved this. it took awhile for me to settle into the rhythm and atmosphere but i did and i guess i'd describe it like this: what if those silly captain howdy images in The Exorcist were deeply disturbing and creepy. you know, like they were i suppose intended to be
Day of the Dead 2: Contagium (2005) when this came out i hated it so much but watching it again now i can definitely say they at least were putting some effort into it. still no excuse to try and link it to Day of the Dead, but whatever. also still not actually good.
Sounds of Silence (1989) what if you found out you inherited a haunted orphanage in sweden? this is nothing special but it looks nice and isn't a total waste of time.
The Appointment (1981) i went from chuckling to disbelief to loving this. so yeah, i love a horror movie with The Equalizer in it. that car crash! that daughter! everything in it, basically
I Saw What You Did (1988) Shawnee Smith, Candace Cameron, Robert & David Carradine (as brothers!). the cast is really the only reason to watch this remake. the original is a much better (still silly) movie
Netherworld (1992) no
Lilith's Hell (2015) let's get Ruggero Deodato to be in a found footage movie and talk about Cannibal Holocaust but make the movie utterly cookie-cutter in every other way
Fiend (1980) someone on imdb or something described this as the tale of a good ron swanson versus and evil ron swanson and that description is more fun that the movie. but it looks great
Dark Shade Creek (2012) /Dark Shade Creek 2 (2014) / Dark Shade Creek III: Trail to Hell (2017) slasher movie where the killer is a logger driven mad by lsd. unfortunately they do nothing interesting with that idea. the first movie sucks and the sound and video are awful. the technical side improves in part 2 but nothing else does. in part 3 there was one minorly amusing scene. by part 20 they'll have a good movie on their hands.
The Suckling (1990) sure seems like a troma movie. aborted fetus exposed to radioactive waste attacks back alley abortion clinic. fun trash
Dead Body (2017) a game about murder turns into the real thing! who is the killer? blah
Bloody Murder (2017) this is a lot like Dead Body but in this case it's strangers gathered together instead of friends.
all of the world wrote:Boardinghouse [director's cut] (1982) watching this made me wonder what it would be like if it was a 19 hour series on Showtime.
that looks like another amityville that they gave a fake title to like the first blair witch trailer except no one would ever care about amityville reboot
Slartisfgh is never mentioned in The Bible, but it is here, during one of the early battles, that Matthew spontaneously became liquid. Radiation trace: negligible
The interstitial stop-motion animation just felt cheap and ineffective. Like, it was sub-Tool music video shit. The segments were wildly inconsistent. The first one was really good - a nice portrait of a family unraveling. It’s total Ketchum. The last one was dece - a satanic cult/conspiracy that slowly reveals itself to the audience. The actress playing the mom was really good and the most disturbing part of the whole thing was the Satan son forcing her to get on her knees. It was debasing and a gross shift in power dynamicsToggle Spoiler. The St. Vincent one sucked and failed at being bleakly comical. It had these stupid subplots that felt like barely baked digressions (e.g., what’s up with the personal assistant drinking alcohol and maybe hating the mom?) It was bad. The monster/haunted desert one was just too trite/uninspired to be anything other than technically competent.
I really loved the first segment in this. I thought it was a great short film and it was cool to see a horror film that was about something unique. Very interesting / creepy take on parenthood. I liked the Kusama one too (the last segment - I think I said all this earlier in the thread), but there's a line very early that gives it away if you are, like me, obsessed with the film to which it is a "sequel." So while I enjoyed it I also thought it was a missed opportunity. Because why make a faux-sequel to that film without aping any of its style?
dan wrote:Oct. 18 - YOKAI MONSTERS:ONE HUNDRED MONSTERS (1968)
The local yôkai (Japanese spirits) interfere to avenge a murder and thwart the plans of corrupt officials.
The mad monsters of olde Japan stepping in when some no good crooks try to demolish the local r̶e̶c̶ ̶c̶e̶n̶t̶e̶r̶ shrine. It's actually much less silly than than the synopsis and screencaps would imply but still generally quite fun if you enjoy chilling in the Edo era. The director did a bunch of Zatoichi movies (and the wonderful Daimajin) so it kind of feels like one of those with rubber spirits coming in to spice things up. Human characters are pretty lacking and it's pretty lite on monsters up until the end, but overall it's got great atmosphere and doesn't overstay it's welcome so I'll be happy to check out the two sequels. B
I ride for Yokai, that Snake Neck Lady sold me pretty good.
Everybody's got a ticket to ride 'cept for me and my lightning.
By any chance does anyone have a rip of Among the Living with good subtitles? The one I have is wretched but I'm fairly certain it's on Shudder so maybe there's a good rip I just haven't found yet. Thanks!
Celiac Cruz wrote:This one has no real explanation: Image
Not a film, but from last year, the Inside No.9 Christmas special, 'The Devil Of Christmas', was really great, particularly if you're into any of the old '70s British anthology TV shows (like Beasts, Thriller, etc.). The whole thing is done in the style of a director's commentary. It's pretty great.
FourLegsGood wrote:Aside from "Black Christmas", Gremlins, and the Xmas-themed Tales from the Crypt segment from 1972, what are the best holiday-themed horror films?
watched that as part of my October marathon and thought it was just okay. but it also wasn't quite what i expected so i might give it another chance this month if i'm hanging out w/ friends and they hit me up for xmas horror
This is vague and probably impossible to answer, but there was a film that was highly rec'd in this thread a year or so ago and I got it from DB, then managed to delete it without watching. It seemed like a slow-burn, more cerebral thing. Foreign, I think. Woman director. Had the same title as another horror film. Believe it started with a "C." Possibly very wrong on any/all descriptors listed.
(I just went back through about a year of posts and couldn't find it)
been slacking on writing down. might be some overlap here with my last viewing dump:
Christmas Evil (1980) - great twisted little case file of childhood trauma. great christmas watch
Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker (1991) - glad to finally get this series over with even though it's definitely not the worst. rooney is a freak. this was a little fun, nothing i'll watch again
Deadly Games (1989) - home alone meets tales from the crypt santa story. lots of fun, super magical. and the french cover of eye of the tiger really sets the stage
Sometimes Aunt Martha Does Dreadful Things (1971) - weird florida exploitation.... fun more for the idea of it all rather than the film itself. only for fans of similar trash
mother! (2017) - beyond the heavy handed (and unnecessary imo) metaphors, aranofsky is a pro at portraying anxiety, and his seamless and surreal passage of time was perfect. enjoyed it for the ride
Creep 2 (2017) - i dunno, this was really boring. the first was only a little better.
The Suckling (1990) - now this is my shit. gory and strange and lots to chew on.
The Uninvited Guest (2004) - the premise hooked me from the beginning. a guy let's a stranger use his phone before disappearing in the house. until the tonal shift about 3/4 through i was having a blast. still a good watch overall
Horror House on Highway Five (1985) - great low budget slasher, my favorite kind of fever dream
The Boogeyman (1982) - from the King nightshift shorts collection. pretty mellow one, wish it was creepier
The Woman In The Room (1982) - same collection, same takeaway
Found Footage 3d (2016) - didn't watch in 3d, but a pretty terrible premise for explaining the 3d. "why are we shooting on 3d?" / "so we can say we're the first to do it!" would've liked something more creative. and pretty short on scares too.
Happy Death Day (2017) - pretty fun, pretty forgettable. good popcorn flick
The Borrower (1991) - loved this. John McNaughton does 'the hidden.'