Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Oct 5, 2024 9:09:28 GMT -5
I tried to do the Nightmare on Elm Street movies a few years ago, I think #4 is about as far as I got before I threw in the towel. I couldn't tell you one thing about it these days but I don't regret putting the series down. Did you try marathoning it? I think going one a year is the way to do it. That was my method too, one a year. Even so, I just got tired of the franchise on the whole and don't really feel the need to finish it off. |
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Oct 5, 2024 9:29:15 GMT -5
And now, Doomsday continues his ongoing series of watching horror movies he's never seen before for Halloween......Children of the Corn (1984)
 I'm not overly familiar with Stephen King's literary works but I've seen enough of his film adaptations to know that they're very hit and miss. I feel much of that is probably be due to the limitations of a feature length runtime but that doesn't really stop other movies from being successful adaptations given the right material and filmmakers. Children of the Corn is one of those adaptations that feels like there's a fun idea at its core, it just lacks in execution. It introduces ideas that aren't really explored and relies more on violence than a building tension. We watch as a doctor and his girlfriend (a pretty cute Linda Hamilton) drive through a desolate, seemingly abandoned town after being given bad directions by the stock 'old man working at an empty gas station.' They soon find out that the only inhabitants of the town are children who have murdered all the adults and worship a...demon god thing? Their leaders are Isaac who has certain powers that aren't really explained, and the teenage muscle Malachi. When Hamilton is kidnapped and offered as a sacrifice, the doctor teams up with a couple 'non-believer' kids to stop Isaac and save the...empty town? Of course they come out on top and we're treated to some very dated and silly animation of the demon thing being destroyed while the corn field burns. While the movie isn't plainly bad per se, it's not exactly scary and it was kind of fun nitpicking all the little issues with it. How could children survive on their own for years after murdering the adults? Where do they get their clothes? What about the food? Do they just eat corn? How did society completely forget about this small town? Wouldn't someone investigate after a while when several families and businesses stop paying their taxes all at once? And why did they kill the old man at the gas station? He didn't do anything. I like to think though that Isaac was used as a direct inspiration for Joffrey in Game of Thrones both in terms of looks and temperament. Children of the Corn is an inoffensive movie that doesn't move the needle when it comes to horror movies or film adaptations, it just kind of exists in the spectrum of horror films.
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IanTheCool
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Post by IanTheCool on Oct 5, 2024 9:50:59 GMT -5
Oct 4 The Day of the Triffids 1963
Day of the Triffids is a movie about the whole world being blinding by meteors. No wait, or is it about killer plants? Wait, its both! This film mashes two somewhat interesting apocalyptic sci-fi ideas into one, whether they fit or not damn it! I was actually more intrigued by the mass blindness idea; the killer flowers felt oddly like an after-thought.
The movie has the general formula of following a group of survivors, connected by the fact that they can still see, across the landscape to find some place of help or safety. Menawhile, these fatalistic flora are constantly after them, moving very slowly with their newly mobile roots. The killer plants don't look great, to be honest. The puppetry is cool, but also boring at the same time. Some parts are neat, like the electric fence and blasting them with a fire hose.
Mildly entertaining.
5/10
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frankyt
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Post by frankyt on Oct 5, 2024 10:12:11 GMT -5
Children of the corn was made in my dad's hometown. Said it was huge news when they started filming.
Didn't come back for the sequels though. Hollywood always using you up and leaving the carcass.
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PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on Oct 5, 2024 10:51:52 GMT -5
Day Five: House (1977)
What the hell is this movie...? No, seriously, what the hell IS this movie? I had heard beforehand that House was pure, unadulterated insanity, but still, nothing could have prepared me for the experience that is this film. I almost don't know how to talk about it, other than to express my utter WTF bewilderment, because this truly is unlike anything I've ever seen. Which, in all honesty, is something that helps distinguish House and makes it feel wholly unique and singular, so there's that. And to be clear, I'm not saying that I necessarily disliked it, either. If anything, this movie had me constantly glued to the screen, wondering just what bonkers decision it would pull out of its gonzo hat of tricks next. So, on an aesthetic and experiential level, House definitely delivers a wild and interesting ride. It's like an unhinged music video on steroids a lot of the time. As a horror movie, well...I mean, it certainly has its fair share of freaky imagery and whatnot, although a lot of that can also border on goofy, too. Then again, this IS a horror-comedy, and not straight-up horror. But at the same time, I have no doubt that this is the work of a director who knows precisely what they're trying to accomplish, and if anything else, the way that Nobuhiko Obayashi imagines and executes his version of a haunted house -- or house of horrors, whatever you want to call it -- is something that's bound to stay with you, and the tone he strikes for the film as a whole is equally singular. Does that all mean that I enjoyed House enough to call it a good movie? I don't know... One thing's for sure: I absolutely respect and admire the hell out of it, and it is very much a confident piece of work in its own right, and absolutely worth seeing just to say that you've experienced it. Beyond that...I'm not sure that House's particular brand of madness ever came together in a way that completely worked for me but I'm still glad I watched it.
**1/2 /****
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on Oct 5, 2024 11:41:38 GMT -5
Children of the corn was made in my dad's hometown. Said it was huge news when they started filming. Didn't come back for the sequels though. Hollywood always using you up and leaving the carcass. Lotta stories about movies being filmed i people's hometowns lately. |
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Dracula
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Post by Dracula on Oct 5, 2024 11:48:40 GMT -5
Film Five: The Vampire Lovers (1970)  The Vampire Lovers is the first of three movies Hammer Horror made in the early 70s that are collectively known as the Karnstein Trilogy revolving around an aristocratic family of vampires and particularly a lady vampire played here by Ingrid Pitt named Carmilla. That character and much of the film is said to be inspired by Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 novella “Carmilla,” which is sort of the ur-text for female vampires and more specifically lesbian vampires and indeed Sapphic themes are to be found here though perhaps not for the “right” reasons. In a lot of ways the Karnstein trilogy exists in order to let Hammer delve into the greater sex and violence allowed in the 70s without having the weirness of seeing our boy Christopher Lee involved in anything tawdry. That guy’s not here but Peter Cushing is as a vampire hunter type but he’s not really the focus. Instead this is definitely a movie centered on the ladies, ladies who have sexual tension and occasionally get topless. The movie isn’t really a skin flick though, only really “going there” occasionally and otherwise you’ve got a pretty textbook Hammer Horror film with some fun vampire imagery. In fact I’d say it mostly fits in with the rest of Hammer’s movies and skews closer to what they were doing in their golden age than the cheap and shoddy work they’d be doing in the near future. *** out of Five
Bonus Film: Lust for a Vampire (1971)  The Karnstein Trilogy is not really something with a particularly dedicated continuity and the stories don’t pick up directly after one another and it also doesn’t have a consistent cast. This time around Ingrid Pitt is replaced by Yutte Stensgaard, who’s playing another blonde vampire named Carmilla but it’s not entirely clear that it’s the same Carmilla from the last movie. This time around we’re focusing on a private school for girls, probably a decent setting for a vaguely Sapphic female vampire flick, but the lesbianism is toned down a bit here and while there is some nudity here it’s mostly in the first half and they almost seem to cut it out at a certain point after they hit their (fairly low) titty quota. I’d say this is probably the weakest of the trilogy as it has some fairly dull stretches and at times doesn’t quite seem to know what it wants to be. I also found it hilarious that they have the main male count here played by Mike Raven who looks like a total dime store Christopher Lee wannabe and is probably wearing one of Lee’s old Dracula costumes. It’s a decent enough watch all told but definitely second rate as these things go and probably could have used a bit more of that titular “lust.”
**1/2 out of Five
Bonus Film: Twins of Evil (1971)  This is the third and final film in the Karnstein trilogy, and while I don’t think continuity should be taken too seriously with this series you kind of can view this as being a prequel as it starts with Count Karnstein being a wealthy human aristocrat who’s turned to devil worship and human sacrifice out of deranged decadence only to accidentally summon a female vampire who “turns” him, presumably starting this whole accursed line. The movie’s not really told from his perspective and the ostensible protagonists are a pair of twins played by Mary and Madeleine Collinson, a pair of twin models who were cast in the film after appearing in Playboy magazine. Despite that I’d say that this is probably the least sexual of the Karnstein films and the one with the least lesbianism, it’s more interested in violence. The film has kind of an interesting dynamic as Peter Cushing is featured as a town preacher who is the sworn enemy of Karnstein but who goes about this by engaging in puritan witch trials that almost certainly killed innocent women through mob violence, so the movie is kind of like Witchfinder General Vs. the Vincent Price character from The Masque of the Red Death with a pair of sexy twins stuck in the middle. That description probably makes this sound a bit more interesting than it actually is, there are some good ideas there but the script probably needed a bit more time in the oven to really meet its potential rather than being cranked out within the same year as the previous Karnstein film. There’s some good stuff in there through, as Hammer deep cuts go it’s well worth a look.
*** out of Five
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Oct 5, 2024 14:28:37 GMT -5
And now, Doomsday continues his ongoing series of watching horror movies he's never seen before for Halloween......
 Released in the heyday of Universal's monster pantheon, The Black Cat's main attraction is the advertised Lugosi vs. Karloff showdown which made it a big hit when first released. There aren't any hallmark monster appearances, in fact there's not a whole lot of anything other than mostly half baked ideas or suggestions but there are enough fun elements at least presented to make the 65 minute The Black Cat worth watching. It follows a newlywed couple on their honeymoon in Hungary (why?) who quickly get mixed up with Lugosi's Dr. Werdegast. Soon their car crashes and their driver is killed, something that hardly affects anybody. They find shelter in the home of Poelzig (Karloff), an architect who Werdegast also knows from World Wari I. He also knows Poelzig is a maniac who kidnapped his wife and child. Also Poelzig is a Satanic priest. And the house is filled with dynamite. Oh, and Werdegast is deathly afraid of black cats and even kills one by throwing a knife at it which elicits no reaction from anybody. So The Black Cat throws a lot at you over the course of an hour but there's just not a lot of glue there holding it together. It's not a great movie and it definitely could have gone through a few more rounds of rewrites but it's always fun watching Bela Lugosi chew the scenery with Boris Karloff and his telltale lisp. At the very least you won't be bored and watching these two horror titans go at it for the first time it makes for a fun time even if the script is rather flimsy. Bonus Film: The Black Cat (1934) Criterion Channel brought back its Universal Horror playlist this October and I figured I should check out The Raven, the only film in the collection I hadn't seen. But before that, I also thought it would be worth revisiting the first Edgar Allan Poe adaptation to team up Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, The Black Cat. I'm glad I did because the movie played a lot better than I remembered. The Black Cat may not have the same production value or sheer iconic visuals of the more famous Monsters, but Edgar G. Ulmer's direction is a lot more precise and stylish than I initially gave credit for. The movie in general is a really effective bit of horror filmmaking even discounting Karloff and Lugosi, who are both quite fun here. The story itself doesn't really amount to much and the point-of-view characters are pretty stock (even if they serve their function well enough) but The Black Cat delivers in the areas it most needs to and the result is a very fun horror movie. B+ Meh. You can look at Black Cat in two ways. One, it’s a pre-code movie that stirred the pot. Or two, it has a super messy script that makes little-to-no sense. If you’re watching it for the historical context, I can respect that. If you’re ignoring the script to enjoy the pairing of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, I can understand that. But having just watched Rue Morgue, which at least did some interesting stuff cinematically, this just came across as a stiff early sound era movie. Even though it was released two years after Rue Morgue, it feels like a way older film. I could have looked past that if the script weren’t so silly. |
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Oct 5, 2024 14:36:17 GMT -5
Children of the corn was made in my dad's hometown. Said it was huge news when they started filming. Didn't come back for the sequels though. Hollywood always using you up and leaving the carcass. Lotta stories about movies being filmed i people's hometowns lately. You clearly win this one. |
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PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on Oct 5, 2024 14:49:25 GMT -5
Did you try marathoning it? I think going one a year is the way to do it. That was my method too, one a year. Even so, I just got tired of the franchise on the whole and don't really feel the need to finish it off. That's exactly the same thing I'm doing, too, with the three heavyhitters: Friday the 13th, Elm Street and Halloween. Though, in the case of Friday the 13th, especially, I really don't see those getting any better. |
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on Oct 5, 2024 16:18:04 GMT -5
That was my method too, one a year. Even so, I just got tired of the franchise on the whole and don't really feel the need to finish it off. That's exactly the same thing I'm doing, too, with the three heavyhitters: Friday the 13th, Elm Street and Halloween. Though, in the case of Friday the 13th, especially, I really don't see those getting any better. Part VI is the best film of the series by a wide margin. |
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PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on Oct 5, 2024 17:17:48 GMT -5
That's exactly the same thing I'm doing, too, with the three heavyhitters: Friday the 13th, Elm Street and Halloween. Though, in the case of Friday the 13th, especially, I really don't see those getting any better. Part VI is the best film of the series by a wide margin. I'll get back to you on this in two years. |
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thebtskink
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Post by thebtskink on Oct 5, 2024 20:34:37 GMT -5
Just finished "Oddity." Really liked it, parts of it feeling like old British horror movies from the 70s, but the engine of the story seemed unique. Well acted, well shot. Just a little too short.
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on Oct 5, 2024 21:00:20 GMT -5
I'm in the middle of Exorcist III and had to take a break to come type here. This movie is garbage. What the FUCK am I watching? The Exorcist III
On the other hand at about the halfway point it begins to introduce a lot of really good stuff. Peer pressure works. |
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Oct 5, 2024 21:02:55 GMT -5
I always cave to peer pressure. It’s how I got through my childhood.
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on Oct 5, 2024 21:03:06 GMT -5
Day Five: Orphan Trash, but the good kind, the kind you watch with a big smile on your face, occasionally breaking into cheers for some exclamatory horror gag. The film is generally well-crafted and the screenplay is way more layered with careful sets-ups and payoffs than you might expect from a movie like this, but the real secret weapon is the tone. Jaume Collet-Serra does not wink at the audience and there's no hint of irony to be found. Instead, the film gleefully leans into its absurd premise, relishing in Esther's villainy and the sick scenarios she, and the film itself, will put the characters/audience through. It's serious enough that this cruelty really does touch a nerve, but not so serious that you can't still have fun with it. And the film really is willing to push some uncomfortable buttons. It was during one such reveal (which clearly took some cues from Fincher's The Game) that I realized how much I was digging this. B
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on Oct 5, 2024 21:15:33 GMT -5
I always cave to peer pressure. It’s how I got through my childhood.  |
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thebtskink
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Post by thebtskink on Oct 5, 2024 21:34:09 GMT -5
Oct 3 A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master 1988
A pretty middle-of-the-road 80s slasher. Does not approach the highs of the original Elm Street, but nor does it approach the lows of Elm Street 2. Its just kinda there. The teenager story-line is pretty basic for what this series is now, and none of those characters are particularly interesting.
That being said, the dream sequences were quite inventive. I liked how they were tied into the hobbies of the characters, even if they were seeded poorly. I really liked the beach sequence (Freddy with shades is great stuff) and the waterbed sequence. Freddy's defeat was incredibly weird, and I'm not sure I got it. But, whatever. He'll be back. In the meantime... I guess I've seen another one of these, if that matters at all.
5/10
How dare you disrespect Renny Harlin amd the brilliance of the roach motel, sir? This was my entry point to the franchise in like 3rd or 4th grade, the thing that made me love the series. |
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IanTheCool
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Post by IanTheCool on Oct 5, 2024 22:29:43 GMT -5
Geez, I thought I was being generous to it.
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thebtskink
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Post by thebtskink on Oct 5, 2024 23:07:38 GMT -5
Geez, I thought I was being generous to it. Eh, I'm punchy tonight |
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Oct 5, 2024 23:37:17 GMT -5
I always cave to peer pressure. It’s how I got through my childhood.  |
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Oct 6, 2024 7:54:12 GMT -5
How dare you disrespect Renny Harlin and the brilliance of the roach motel, sir? Geez, I thought I was being generous to it. |
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Post by IanTheCool on Oct 6, 2024 8:00:56 GMT -5
I'm not watching those! Stop it!
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PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on Oct 6, 2024 11:04:35 GMT -5
Day Six: Serial Mom (1994)
Serial Mom is an interesting beast. On the one hand, its satirical dark comedy focused on our perception of serial killers feels clearly-realized and generally focused in the hands of writer-director John Waters. Framing this kind of story through the veneer of a picture-perfect suburbia serves the comedy well on a base/starting level, in terms of contrasting such vicious and gruesome violence against such a pleasant society. And the movie certainly isn't without its dark laughs, plus it has a decent sense of pacing and offers up some good setpieces. The courtroom section at the end also feels like a biting piece of commentary in and of itself. And Kathleen Turner's whole performance is tuned to just the right level of bonkers to sustain itself for a whole movie. On the other hand...well, the comedy doesn't always work as well it could have. I realize "subtlety" most likely wasn't a word in John Waters' vocabulary while making this movie, and if anything, I do respect him just going for it a lot of the time here. But it can often be very hit and miss with a lot of the gags and jokes, and mixing in a bit more nuance might have helped balance everything out? Although, I dunno, maybe that's just not John Waters' style, and that's fine. It's not like Serial Mom is an outright miss, and I do respect all of it and even enjoy some of it...it just could've maybe used a little more work.
**1/2 /****
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Post by PG Cooper on Oct 6, 2024 11:10:12 GMT -5
I'm not watching those! Stop it! They're pretty good. |
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