Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Oct 24, 2016 7:11:11 GMT -5
31 DAYS OF HALLOWEENTHE BRIDE (1985) I've hit the bottom of the Frankenstein barrel - or at least of movies that have some level of Mary Shelley in them. The Bride is a very confusing adaptation. It's two stories happening at the same time and neither are appealing. Why was this made? The first story is Frankenstein creating the Bride and then wanting to have sex with her. That's fine if you commit to it. Here, they cast Sting at the height of his career and post-Flashdance Jennifer Beals and all they do is talk. Where's the romance? Where's the sex? There was more action in Young Frankenstein and that wasn't sold on the premise of two 80's heartthrobs doing it. The second story features Clancy Brown as the monster. He escapes the castle, after the bride rejects him, and roams around until he meets a midget. They become best friends and then join the circus. What? Is this a comedy? Frankenstein's monster is a circus freak? Really? Is this movie fucking with us? It has to be. It had to be a prank. Sting punk'd us. SILVER BULLET (1985) When a town has a werewolf on the loose the most unlikely heroes are born: Corey Haim in a motorized wheelchair, an overly dramatic teenager girl and Gary Busey. You may be laughing, but in actuality, this is a really good movie. The characters are great. The werewolf is badass. There's exciting action scenes. Silver Bullet had no right being this good, but it is, and ya'll should definitely check it out. HIDER IN THE HOUSE (1989) He sees you when you've been sleeping. He knows when you're awake. He knows when you've been naughty or nice, so be good for goodness sake. O! You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout. I'm telling you. Gary Busey is living in your attic. If you went to a studio and said, "I wanna make a movie about Gary Busey secretly living in someone's attic", they would give you a blank check. Unfortunately, some poor filmmaker got this idea WAY too early and the result isn't too great. The concept in general is great, but you gotta cast it well. 80's Gary Busey is not the answer. A few years earlier, a similar movie was made. It's called Crawlspace and starred Klaus Kinski. Now THAT was a brilliant. Watch that one instead.
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Dracula
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Post by Dracula on Oct 25, 2016 6:10:00 GMT -5
Film Twenty-Five: The Masque of the Red Death (1964)This was one of a series of movies made in the early 1960s by Roger Corman based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe, most of them starring Vincent Price. Corman is generally known for making corner cutting low budget movies, and while this isn’t exactly Lawrence of Arabia it is actually a pretty decent production which features some good sets and features color cinematography by Nicolas Roeg. The presence of Vincent Price is also quite the asset as his general glee at playing a truly dastardly evil king is definitely fun. That having been said, the movie has to really strain to turn an extremely short story into a feature length narrative and it kind of squanders a story that works really well in its brevity and mystery. *** out of Five
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Post by Ramplate on Oct 25, 2016 7:47:03 GMT -5
I actually liked The Bride. While not true to the original work, I found it an interesting idea
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Post by IanTheCool on Oct 25, 2016 19:15:20 GMT -5
What should I watch tonight: The Omen or Gremlins?
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Post by Dracula on Oct 25, 2016 19:16:41 GMT -5
What should I watch tonight: The Omen or Gremlins? Gremlins |
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Oct 25, 2016 20:06:06 GMT -5
What should I watch tonight: The Omen or Gremlins? The Omen |
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Post by PG Cooper on Oct 25, 2016 20:35:15 GMT -5
What should I watch tonight: The Omen or Gremlins? The Phantom Carriage. |
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Oct 25, 2016 20:52:31 GMT -5
What should I watch tonight: The Omen or Gremlins? The Phantom Carriage. The Phantom Menace |
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Post by Ramplate on Oct 25, 2016 20:56:59 GMT -5
Only if its the original Omen
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Oct 25, 2016 21:00:26 GMT -5
Only if its the original Omen Ian would only watch a Michael Bay remake of The Omen. |
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Post by Dracula on Oct 25, 2016 21:20:22 GMT -5
Only if its the original Omen I don't think anyone has watched the remake of The Omen since about two weeks after it came out. I bet half of the cast and crew don't even remember that they made it. |
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Post by Neverending on Oct 25, 2016 21:22:12 GMT -5
Only if its the original Omen I don't think anyone has watched the remake of The Omen since about two weeks after it came out. I bet half of the cast and crew don't even remember that they made it. Only thing I remember about The Omen remake is it's 6-6-6 release date. |
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Post by Ramplate on Oct 26, 2016 3:11:39 GMT -5
Unfortunately it was on Syfy the other night and nothing else was on so... yeah, that happened
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Dracula
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Post by Dracula on Oct 26, 2016 6:12:45 GMT -5
Film Twenty-Six: Saw V (2008) I’ve watched more than half of the Saw movies at this point and I haven’t had much nice to say about any of them, but my hatred of them has been cooling a bit with the last couple. Part of that may be that I am now associating them with the Final Destination and Resident Evil movies I’ve been watching in Octobers as well and compared to those franchises these movies are downright respectable. What’s more, out of all the lame Saw movies this fifth installment is definitely one of the better ones, in part because the new director David Hackl calms down the annoying music video camerawork of the earlier films considerably. Also I like the fact that the victims this time around are well aware of the Jigsaw murders from media accounts and are dealing with these deathtraps with foreknowledge of how these things often work and react in ways that are closer to how the film viewers often imagine reacting to them but doesn’t get too cute about it just the same. That having been said, the acting here is just as weak as it has been in previous Saw movies and the new villain who’s replacing Jigsaw and Amanda is just not a very scary looking guy, which is a considerable problem. ** out of Five
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Post by Neverending on Oct 26, 2016 8:01:58 GMT -5
Bram Stoker's Dracula doesn't seem like a movie that's going to stand the test of time. I really dig Coppola's Dracula. other than his brilliant 70s work I consider this Coppola's best film. BRAM STOKER'S DAN CURTIS' DRACULA (1973) People who talk shit about Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula should watch Dan Curtis' Dracula. Both portray Dracula as Vlad the Impaler and both are about Dracula going after the reincarnation of his wife. But one is made by the director of The Godfather and the other from the producer of Dark Shadows. Whereas Coppola's version is stylish and energetic, Curtis' adaptation is dull and derivative. Curtis took an interesting script by Richard Matheson (Twilight Zone) and turned it into a poor man's Hammer Film. That's what Coppola tried to avoid. When he went into production there had been at least 50 movies and they were mostly the same. If you've seen Bela Lugosi's Dracula, Christopher Lee's Dracula and Blacula, you don't really need to watch anything else. Coppola changed that by bringing new life to the brand. You can criticize him for borrowing from Matheson's script, but you can't deny the craftsmanship. His film is the best-made adaptation of Dracula. From the sets to the costumes to the make-up to the cinematography to the special effects to the music, it's the best of ANY Dracula movie. That's not even an opinion. It's a fact. But... but... but... Vlad the Impaler and reincarnation and Keanu Reeves. Watch the Dan Curtis version. You'll realize how wrong you are. Coppola may not have made your preferred version of Dracula, but his film is a fucking masterpiece. |
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Post by Neverending on Oct 26, 2016 8:45:58 GMT -5
31 DAYS OF HALLOWEENASH VS EVIL DEAD: SEASON ONE (2015) Call me crazy, but I'm not sure we needed a TV version of the Evil Dead. I would have taken Evil Dead 4 or even a sequel to the remake over this. The pilot, directed by Sam Raimi, is A LOT of fun and proves there's juice left for another movie, but the series drags in the next six episodes and then gets mildly interesting for the last three. The problem is something that should have been obvious to everyone: audiences don't watch Evil Dead for the story. They just wanna see Ash kill a bunch of demons. We don't need 10 half-hour episodes (5 hours of content) of Ash & Friends. A simple 90-minute movie is enough. Although the season did end on an intriguing cliffhanger. It's possible season 2 is good. I guess I'll let ya'll know next Halloween. MANIAC COP (1988) If you're ever teaching a screenwriting class and want to show an example of a movie where the writer ran out of ideas halfway through the script, show them Maniac Cop. It starts with New York City terrorized by a man dressed as a cop who's killing random people. It gets so bad that citizens are shooting actual cops thinking it's the killer. The police, naturally, launch an investigation and the killer frames a cop (played by Bruce Campbell) to throw them off. Now here's where the story goes off the rails. The detective believes the framed cop is innocent and continues with his investigation. He then discovers that the killer is a murdered ex-cop who's risen from the grave and is seeking revenge on the system. So the movie goes from a whodunit thriller to a supernatural slasher film with no transition whatsoever. Even if the director had managed to balance the two genres, it still comes across as lazy. The writer is basically admitting he couldn't come up with any answers and just threw in a Jason Voorhees and called it a day. Incredible.
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PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on Oct 26, 2016 14:01:47 GMT -5
Day Twenty-Six: Gremlins (1984)
Gremlins has always been a film that's sort of been on my radar, but never really a top priority. Having now seen it, I can say that it's an interesting little movie that passes 105 minutes in a pretty entertaining fashion. It mixes comedy with some mild horror elements fairly well, and Chris Columbus's script has a decent hold on tone throughout, always walking the fine line between its two genres well. Director Joe Dante is also in-tune with that balance, and it's interesting to see his directing style take on a more sinister edge once the Gremlins start turning evil and causing havoc. This is a movie that was made before the invention of the PG-13 rating, so it was oddly amusing to see just how far it went with some of the violence, but that also ends up helping the effectiveness of those scenes in the second half; it doesn't feel too watered-down, and I liked that. In fact, it's everything related to the Gremlins themselves that keep this movie as entertaining as it is. The rest of the film is kind of run of the mill and thinly-developed, populated by characters who are there solely either to fight against the Gremlins or to be their victims. Pretty standard monster movie elements. If the main characters had been developed a little more, I feel that could've helped the movie a bit. But as it stands, Gremlins is still a pretty fun film and a neat little mix of genres. **1/2 /****
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Post by thebtskink on Oct 26, 2016 20:57:33 GMT -5
Just cause:  |
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Post by Deexan on Oct 27, 2016 7:02:14 GMT -5
That Gremlins poster is just the best.
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Post by Dracula on Oct 27, 2016 7:06:14 GMT -5
Film Twenty-Seven: Manhunter (1986) For a while Manhunter was viewed as something of a curio amongst film aficianados either as an early Michael Mann movie or as an odd unofficial precursor to The Silence of the Lambs, but it’s increasingly come into its own and being viewed as an important movie unto itself. This is in part because the early works of Michael Mann (which had, for a little while, fallen out of favor because of their dated soundtracks) have increasingly grown in respect over the years. This is different from the other Hannibal movies in that it seems to view the story as a cop movie first and a horror movie of sorts second. The film’s style definitely stands out and Michael Mann’s boldly slick style was really innovative and strong even at this stage. The movie looks fantastic for what it is, but I will say that there’s a reason why this story never quite caught on the way Silence of the Lambs did. Will Graham, especially as played by William Petersen, feels like a rather simple character compared to Jodie Foster’s highly compelling Clarice Starling and I don’t know that I got a whole lot out of the Francis Dollarhyde/Reba McClane romance sub-plot which feels kind of like a tangential distraction here. But the film does have a number of great sequences that really work like the fate of Freddy Lounds and the final shootout set to "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida." **** out of Five
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Post by IanTheCool on Oct 27, 2016 7:57:28 GMT -5
Also, that movie was important because it allowed film contrarians to make the ridiculous claim that this movie was better than Silence of the Lambs. Right before they would tell you that their favourite band is better than yours, but you've probably never heard of them.
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Dracula
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Post by Dracula on Oct 27, 2016 9:09:40 GMT -5
Also, that movie was important because it allowed film contrarians to make the ridiculous claim that this movie was better than Silence of the Lambs. Right before they would tell you that their favourite band is better than yours, but you've probably never heard of them. I will say, both movies have a lot in common, like, to the point where Lambs might have been seen as a lazy retread if Manhunter had been more popular and the two movies had a more conventional sequel relationship with each other. |
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Post by Neverending on Oct 27, 2016 9:46:40 GMT -5
Lambs might have been seen as a lazy retread If by lazy you mean making a better movie, then yeah. |
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Post by Doomsday on Oct 27, 2016 13:47:58 GMT -5
And now, Doomsday continues his ongoing series of watching horror movies he's never seen before for Halloween...... Kwaidan (1964)
 Kwaidan is a series of spooky ghost stories set in a three hour movie. What's notable about Kwaidan is that it's much more beautiful than it is scary. The opening credits show drops of colored ink as they float and expand through water with sporadic bells until the first of the four tales begins. Each of the four stories is interesting in its own way and while they aren't all that scary and at the same time are pretty predictable, you can tell there is a very skilled and particular craft behind them. Everything from the set design (the movie was clearly almost entirely filmed on sound stages) to the music to the camera work and off-angled shots make the film wholly engrossing even if you aren't waiting for anything to jump out and shock you. After thinking on it a bit I don't think I've seen a movie that falls under the category of 'horror' that tries to hit all my other senses the way Kwaidan does. In the third story 'Hoichi the Earless' we are given a battle scene, again filmed on a sound stage pool, that cuts back and forth between fighting and a Japanese illustration, both illuminated in bright, vibrant colors before delving into the ghost story where the fallen warriors ask a blind boy to recant the battle to them. Like I said, it's a visually stunning movie to watch and the chapters help move the 3 hour film along very nicely. While not a horror movie in the way we're used to, it's a film that's worth a visit and very worthy of admiration. |
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Post by Dracula on Oct 28, 2016 6:03:04 GMT -5
Film Twenty-Eight: The Invitation (2016) Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation is a horror movie of the “is this really a horror movie or is the protagonist being paranoid” variety and focuses on a bougie L.A. dinner party that may or may not be hosted by people with malevolent intent. Our protagonist is a guy mourning the loss of a son who is attending a gathering hosted by his ex-wife, which is hard enough, but is made even more complicated by the fact that this ex-wife has started indulging in some freaky New Age Self-Help philosophy and everything about the way the night has gone just feels kind of weird… or maybe it isn’t, maybe he’s just making up paranoid nonsense out of a misplaced suspicion of his ex and her new friends. The movie is pretty cagey about what exactly it’s going to be, certainly signaling that it will be some sort of thriller through its tone and occasionally its score, but perhaps that’s all a red herring meant to place you in the head of someone who’s delusional. Personally, I’m in kind of a strange place with the film as I get what they were going for but I still don’t exactly know that I was down with it. It spends a lot of time just being a movie about yuppies doing as yuppies do and minus the tonal trickery that is not something that would impress me, also when it finally does show its hand I don’t necessarily think it becomes a particularly interesting example of the kind of movie it becomes. All that having been said I kind or really liked the reveal at the very very end and that kind of pushed the movie just into the “liked it” column for me. *** out of Five
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