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Post by prettynami on Oct 30, 2018 19:05:37 GMT -5
Just got done watching a chinese movie called "Centipede Horror" (1982) about... Well, a centipede horror of sorts! A lady and her friend take an ill-advised trip to "South Asia" where they run into a swarm of centipedes! One of the women, the sister of our main character, makes it back to a hospital where the poisonous bite of the centipede is causing her flesh to decay. Her brother, endowed with a protective amulet, and his girlfriend come around to see what they can do to help, but they find that they have stumbled into a world of black centipede magic where a crazy dude wants revenge on his family!
This movie certainly delivers on the centipedes. Movie starts out pretty action packed, what with the initial centipede action then sorta slows down as our main character bumbles about (He's pretty much useless throughout the whole movie) witnessing the decay of his sister and some magic rituals here and there. The magic rituals are pretty neat; we get a naked lady stamped with symbols to make her vomit up blood and scorpions (wouldn't be an Asian magic movie without the vomiting!) and some other stuff like the ritual that causes his girlfriend to become the next victim of the centipede. This leads to a pretty epic final showdown where a benevolent magic dude channels his powers through the dudes magic amulet to stop the centipede magician... All the while the our hapless hero just makes out with his girlfriend (Who he knows has been stricken by centipede) as an army of centipedes storms the hotel he is in (And man are there a lot of the creepy little bastards!). The good sorcerer uses every trick in the book including skeletal chickens, flaming skeletal chickens, and super snake to fend off the centipedes in the final duel to the death.
The special effects vary from actual centipedes (with the poor actress playing the girlfriend throwing up living wiggling ones by the mouthful), subcutaneous centipedes, marionette skeletal chickens, a flaming balls on wires, and a snake that erupts from a dudes skull. The actual centipedes are pretty gross, but they do an interesting job of corralling them (Some are probably stapled in place, but many times they move across the set like an advancing army) in what I have to admit are pretty cool looking scenes of centipede onslaught. Needless to say there wanton animal cruelty in this, including chickens beyond the bugs. The wire-work is kinda corny, but still fun. Some of the scenes are surprisingly well shot all things considered. This includes a scene where the flaming chicken ball chases the black magic dude; we get shots just behind the ball (sorta its perspective) as he runs away in terror, and we also get shots of it looming just over his shoulder as he stumbles about trying to get away.
Overall I had a good amount of fun watching this movie (It even had a narrator at the beginning, one of my favorite things), so I would give this one a 4 out of 5. The final battle definately raises it up to that level, though, so if one sees it you gotta make it to the end.
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Post by Jumpin' Jesse Walsh on Oct 31, 2018 7:54:03 GMT -5
So I saw Halloween 2018 last night. I loved it! I won't try to give away too many spoilers, so I'll keep it brief. Jaime Lee Curtis is fantastic and ultimately proves why she's still the best final girl in this damn business. It's not hard to imagine Laurie as one of those people who built a Y2K shelter. A part of me was surprised they kept the brutal violence from the Zombie films, but it didn't feel so off-putting here, mainly because it felt like it was done with much more panache. Plus, I loved the callbacks to all of the previous movies. They even addressed the brother/sister subplot in a moment that literally made laugh me out loud. Again, without giving away too much, I also marked out so hard for the Silver Shamrock reference. I know this should be the definitive end of the series, but it also kinda left me wanting more. Maybe that's how it's supposed to make me feel.
By the way, am I the only the one who caught Ray and Cameron discussing former NFL player/alleged landscaper/Survivor: Guatemala contestant Gary Hogeboom?
And thus concludes this trip to Haddonfield. What an adventure. It's been a blast. When you watch these films in succession, it's amazing to realize just how many different creative directions this franchise has taken on. Some of them weren't good, some of them were incredibly out of left field, and some of them were downright repulsive. But they were all different and, in a way, that's what makes them great. I feel like Mr. Rogers when I say that.
Anyway, today is Halloween and it's time to seize the day. I'm thinking of hitting up Vincent Drug to get a discount Halloween costume, then maybe read some Tarantula Man comics, and then tune in to that Silver Shamrock giveaway airing tonight!
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Post by DSR on Oct 31, 2018 8:29:24 GMT -5
Happy Halloween, everybody! Last night I watched a trio of Hammer horrors. VAMPIRE CIRCUS (1971) is about a plague-riddled little town that is visited one day by a traveling circus, little suspecting that said circus houses a cadre or a clan or a gaggle or a swarm of vampires! The vampires are suave and sexy but I love how they're total monsters, even preying on young children! Some very nice gore effects. The vampire transformations into bat and panther (!) are handled with simple trick photography, which doesn't always work but gets the point across. The circus itself is minimalist but colorful and weird. There's a full dance routine from a naked woman painted in tiger stripes and a "tamer" that's fun even if it doesn't advance the plot in anyway. Plus, STAR WARS fans can see what David Prowse looks like outside of the Darth Vader costume. Basically this flick is sexy and weird and badass and I love it. Favorite Hammer Horror! DRACULA A.D. 1972 (1972) features a group of hippies who decide to resurrect that caped Count (Christopher Lee) for kicks! When will they learn? One member of that young group is Jessica Van Helsing (Stephanie Beacham) who will require the help of her grandfather, Lorrimer (Peter Cushing), to defeat the ancient evil. A fun opening presents the final battle between Dracula and the Victorian Professor Van Helsing and then jumps to then-Modern Day London for some hippie shenanigans. Shortly after the reawakening of Drac, though, the story turns into Law & Order: Special Vampires Unit as the police investigate one of the girls from the group (Caroline Munro) who died the night of the summoning. This middle portion is slow and overly talky before the final showdown comes, which was rather enjoyable. I also liked the funky soundtrack to the flick, but the film overall isn't a high watermark for the series. I prefer TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA, though I've not seen most of the other Hammer Dracs. Speaking of Hammer Dracs, we finish off with THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA (1973), which begins with shots of London set to some James Bond-style score work. This makes sense as our story concerns a secretive government organization investigating a Satanic cult. With the help of Lorrimer Van Helsing (again Cushing) and his granddaughter Jessica (this time played by Joanna Lumley), they learn of a conspiracy spearheaded by Dracula (again Lee) to bring about the End of the World! The few action sequences sprinkled throughout the investigation are pretty fun. Drac's got a group of assassins working for him that drive around on motorcycles and wear aviator sunglasses and brown furry vests. They're endearingly goofy-looking. But this one had way too much talking, and a lot of it was the dry, clinical type you expect from unemotional government agents. I actually started dozing off partway through the picture and had to return to it as soon as I woke this morning (though I still count it for yesterday since I started it before midnight). Not the best swansong for Lee's Dracula, though it's no fault of the man himself. That concludes my little Hammer-thon. I've got work later today but I'll be watching at least one more horror for Halloween itself! I'll see if I can squeeze any more in throughout the day.
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Post by The 1Watcher Experience on Oct 31, 2018 9:37:09 GMT -5
I’m finishing up in Belgium here on Halloween with last movie on my list which is Daughters of Darkness (1971). Spoilers ahead. Stefan and Valerie are newlyweds that after traveling through Europe and witnessing a dead girl being loaded into an ambulance end up at a hotel on the coast of Ostend in the winter season. The hotel is empty except for the concierge. Shortly after a countess and her secretary arrive. The concierge recognizes the countess from forty years ago when he was a bellboy there. He says she looks exactly the same. She tells him that wouldn’t be possible but he didn’t forget her. Valerie urges Stefan to call his mother to let her know about their wedding. Stefan avoids it but eventually calls home. His “mother” is actually a wealthy older man that mockingly dismisses their marriage. The countess invites them to have a drink with her. They discuss the recent murders of girls in the area and her ancestor who was known for killing women and draining their blood to stay young. Stefan seems turned on by all this as does the countess. Valerie is disgusted by their conversation, Stefan’s reaction and by the countess herself. A retired detective is also hanging around looking into the murders. Stefan seems to have the hots for the secretary. Valerie wants to leave but Stefan won’t go. Stefan has a fit towards Valerie and beats her with a belt until they both pass out. Valerie tries to sneak away to a train to leave but the countess follows and takes her away back to the hotel. Once they return Stefan has had sex with the secretary who was killed after an accident in the bathroom where she was trying to avoid being brought into the shower by Stefan. The countess encourages them to drive out to the beach and bury the body. The detective is watching in the distance but he gets run down by the countess while she’s driving the couple back to the hotel. Valerie decides to spend the night with the countess in her room while Stefan stays in their room alone. The countess says everything will be different tomorrow. The countess seduces Valerie and she’s quite different the next day. Now Stefan tries to convince Valerie to leave but she doesn’t want to leave. The countess enters the room and Stefan has a fit and attacks Valerie. The countess grabs a glass bowel and they break it over Stefan’s head. The glass scatters and slits both of his wrists. Both the countess and Valerie drink the blood pouring from his wrists. They wrap up his body, dump it and drive off. The countess tells Valerie to go faster because they must reach their destination before sun comes up but the glare from the sunrise causes them to crash. The countess is thrown out of the car and impaled on a tree branch. The car explodes in fire which also burns up the countess. The scene returns to the hotel where a character in black sounding very much like the countess is talking to a couple staying there. Only it’s Valerie taking on the countess persona now.
This one is beautifully shot and has a great atmosphere to it. I enjoyed picking up on some samples here from one of Rob Zombie’s albums with the lines “What are you thinking about?” “The same thing as you are” and “Don’t lie to yourself, it gave you pleasure.” Valerie looks a lot like Rob Zombie’s wife so I kind of wonder if she was a crush of his at some point. The secretary is quite beautiful and rumored to be a German adult film star. The movie is considered an erotic thriller for the most part but the whole lesbian vampire theme puts it in the horror category for me. It plays out over time but it’s not that much of a slow burn. It kept me watching and interested. I’d recommend giving it a look.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,447
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Oct 31, 2018 10:44:14 GMT -5
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Oct 31, 2018 13:03:57 GMT -5
I watched two sort of horror movies in Monster Squad and Robot Holocaust a couple days ago. Despite the name and some classic horror icons, Monster Squad is more action/adventure though. Pretty much the Goonies with some horror window dressing. Robot Holocaust has an awesome name that it totally doesn’t live up to. It’s still a pretty fun sci-fi/adventure movie from regular horror makers Full Moon. Also, featured on MST3K before the show really came into its own. They’re a heck of a lot closer to horror than the last thing I watched Adam Sandler 100% Fresh so they’ll probably be the last horror related things I watch this month. I was going to see Halloween in the movie theater yesterday since I missed the after credit scene the first time I went. But I had to drive 4 hours out of state and decided just to sleep before rather than watch a movie. I did bring my big Hammer Horror Box Set with me though. If I’m in the mood later maybe I’ll watch Rasputin the Mad Monk or something else
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,447
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Oct 31, 2018 14:47:20 GMT -5
Out of the 31 films/whatever I reviewed the worse is a tie between Satan's Storybook,which got a F,and Amityville Exorcism,which also got a F.
The best was a Svengoolie mini marathon of classic Twilight Zone episodes. Which got a A-.
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Post by prettynami on Oct 31, 2018 15:36:57 GMT -5
Just gonna chill and watch movies today... So probably the last one I will mention here will be "The Carrier" (1988). It's about a guy who contracts a mysterious disease (power?) that changes any object he touches into one that will merge with the next living thing that it touches, somehow. Oddly enough this is more just the backdrop for the bulk of the movie, which is how the town (which for some unknown reason is isolated from the rest of the world) falls into chaos and a faction war over CATS ensues! Everyone wanders around the movie dressed in trashbags and what not (so they don't touch contaminated items directly) so you can't tell who half the people are - not that many of them have real discernible characters anyways. The main thing they do is argue and fight, especially after some guy suggests that they "Go out there and get me some cats!" so they can test items for contamination (by seeing if it merges with the cat). Cats are in limited supply though (why the hangup on cats!?) so soon they split into factions, a militant faction and a religious faction and they begin a war over cats using items they have found that are dangerous (marked with red). Meanwhile the main character is insufferable, basically letting hundreds of people die because he has no interest in turning himself in (He pretty much realizes he is the cause in the first 1/4 of the movie). He goes about whining about life to anyone that will listen, particularly his new "girlfriend". Somehow they are able to interact without her merging to stuff, probably because the writers were hacks.
The merging is accompanied by smoke and the sound of sizzle burgers when it occurs, and it mostly occurs off camera. However there are a few cool shots, like the woman who merges with a mirror and the guys our "hero" deliberately kills by touching their trashbags. Oh and the guy who merges with his toilet is good for a laugh. Oh yeah, to avoid death people just cut their limbs off without a care in the world! So not only has he killed countless people, our hero has also established his own wing of amputees in a hospital. Very lame made for tv sounding music, and pretty mundane and boring shots and cinematography. The acting, however, I believe to be on the so bad its good side of things. Overall, I would give this one a 2.5 out of 5 on the latent cheesefactor and and fairly interesting premise.
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Post by DSR on Nov 1, 2018 0:55:12 GMT -5
IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! *epic keyboard solo* Today I went weird. Let's just dig in already: South of the border, down Mexico way, El Santo and the Blue Demon battle Dr. Frankenstein in SANTO Y BLUE DEMON CONTRA EL DR. FRANKESTEIN (1974). This mad Dr. is the grandson of the original monster maker, and he likes to switch people's brains. They don't usually survive the experience, but then Dr. Irwin Frankenstein (Jorge Russek) simply animates them by remote control to do his bidding. He hopes to amass an army of the suckers and wants to enlist legendary luchadore El Santo into that army, by force if necessary. Santo and his frequent tag team partner, the Blue Demon, aren't going to go without a fight though! Despite being made in the 70s, this feels a lot like the Adam West Batman series from the decade prior. Fight scenes are mostly perfunctory, which is odd considering these dudes staged fights for a living! Blood and gore are also minimal. The most enjoyment I got out of this film was how dumb Dr. Frankenstein seemed to be. He's got his wife preserved in a glass case like Mr. Freeze's wife, so you think he'd be a sympathetic character, NOPE. He wants to rule the world. He's also discovered a secretion the body stops producing which causes aging, so he can administer the secretion to others and cause them to regain their youth. He squanders this discovery just so he can have young doctors on hand to help him with this dumb remote-controlled zombies plot. Oh well! A cheesy bit of fun. We then head back up to the southwestern United States for NIGHT OF THE LEPUS (1972), in which a scientific experiment designed to curtail rabbit overpopulation instead creates giant, man-eating rabbits. Thanks again, science! On hand to stop the galloping horde of hairs are Janet Leigh (yes, from PSYCHO), DeForest Kelley (Bones from the original Star Trek), and Rory Calhoun (from a million projects). The threat of overpopulation is pretty scary and they've got a more than credible cast to add weight to the drama unfolding, but I'm sorry, BUNNIES are not terrifying. Put them on miniature sets, zoom in super close on their faces, cover them in red paint/"blood", I'll still hug the adorable f***ers all the way to the grave. CUTEST INFESTATION EVER! The entire film rolls by without the slightest hint of camp, which I don't know if that makes it better or worse. Either way, I had a good time, even if it wasn't in the way the filmmakers intended. And finally, in the blaxploitation sci-fi shocker THE THING WITH TWO HEADS, racist Dr. Maxwell Kirschner (played by Ray Milland, of X - THE MAN WITH X-RAY EYES and PANIC IN YEAR ZERO) has developed a life-saving procedure that grafts one man's head onto another man's body, then the original head is discarded and the new head can go on living. When this doctor finds himself at death's door, the only way to save his life is to have the procedure performed on himself. The only available body is that of wrongly convicted death row inmate (and obviously African Amerian) Jack Moss (played by Rosey Grier, a former NFL football player and bodyguard to Robert F. Kennedy who's appeared in numerous TV shows). Moss will make a run for it, with Kirschner's head still attached to him, in an effort to clear his name of the crime he never actually committed. A touch of body horror (as Kirschner and Moss fight for control of the same body), a large dose of action (as the police spend the middle third of the movie chasing the titular THING), and some enjoyable comedy (though with the premise of a black man and a racist white man sharing the same body, don't be alarmed if it's not all politically correct). Plus some early effects work by Rick Baker! You'll have a good time, even if a major plot point or two aren't resolved by the end of it. I hope you guys have enjoyed my October ramblings. Final tally: 61 movies watched!
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Post by The 1Watcher Experience on Nov 1, 2018 8:14:36 GMT -5
Guess I’ll recap my movies from October here. I just barely made it to the 31 days so I met the challenge. Haha. The ones that impressed me the most were Deep Red and Beyond the Darkness. Deep Red gives you a lot to think about. It’s a unique slasher film. Beyond the Darkness is so out there that it’s a must see it for yourself movie. The most fun was Demons. It has that classic horror movie feel like Evil Dead or Friday the 13th. It falls below those but it’s good enough to be in that category. Harbinger Down was the most ambitious. It starts a little rough due to a couple characters but it definitely gets better. Elizabeth Harvest was a nice surprise. Went in blind and came away liking it a lot. It Comes At Night is what zombie shows should aspire to be. I guess they were the six that made the best impression on me. It was a fun challenge and a great excuse to catch up some horror movies I haven’t gotten around to watching. 1. Demons (1985) 2. A Bay of Blood (1970) 3. Deep Red (1975) 4. Hellraiser: Judgment (2018) 5. All The Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006) 6. Demons 2 (1986) 7. Piranha 3DD (2012) 8. Inferno (1980) 9. The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970) 10. The Belko Experiment (2016) 11. Leatherface (2017) 12. Harbinger Down (2015) 13. Splinter (2008) 14. Phantasm (1979) 15. Phantasm II (1988) 16. Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994) 17. Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998) 18. Phantasm V: Ravager (2016) 19. It Comes At Night (2017) 20. Human Centipede 3: Final Sequence (2015) 21. The Predator (2018) 22. Wildling (2018) 23. The First Purge (2018) 24. Pet (2016) 25. Beyond the Darkness (1979) 26. Halloween (2018) 27. Starry Eyes (2014) 28. Elizabeth Harvest (2018) 29. The Beyond (1981) 30. Maniac (2012) 31. Daughters of Darkness (1971)
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,447
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Nov 1, 2018 11:22:12 GMT -5
Checked my list,including stuff I watched while listening to the commentary, I saw 86 movies in October.
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Chainsaw
T
A very BAD man.
It is what it is
Posts: 90,480
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Post by Chainsaw on Nov 1, 2018 13:37:58 GMT -5
IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! *epic keyboard solo* Today I went weird. Let's just dig in already: South of the border, down Mexico way, El Santo and the Blue Demon battle Dr. Frankenstein in SANTO Y BLUE DEMON CONTRA EL DR. FRANKESTEIN (1974). This mad Dr. is the grandson of the original monster maker, and he likes to switch people's brains. They don't usually survive the experience, but then Dr. Irwin Frankenstein (Jorge Russek) simply animates them by remote control to do his bidding. He hopes to amass an army of the suckers and wants to enlist legendary luchadore El Santo into that army, by force if necessary. Santo and his frequent tag team partner, the Blue Demon, aren't going to go without a fight though! Despite being made in the 70s, this feels a lot like the Adam West Batman series from the decade prior. Fight scenes are mostly perfunctory, which is odd considering these dudes staged fights for a living! Blood and gore are also minimal. The most enjoyment I got out of this film was how dumb Dr. Frankenstein seemed to be. He's got his wife preserved in a glass case like Mr. Freeze's wife, so you think he'd be a sympathetic character, NOPE. He wants to rule the world. He's also discovered a secretion the body stops producing which causes aging, so he can administer the secretion to others and cause them to regain their youth. He squanders this discovery just so he can have young doctors on hand to help him with this dumb remote-controlled zombies plot. Oh well! A cheesy bit of fun. We then head back up to the southwestern United States for NIGHT OF THE LEPUS (1972), in which a scientific experiment designed to curtail rabbit overpopulation instead creates giant, man-eating rabbits. Thanks again, science! On hand to stop the galloping horde of hairs are Janet Leigh (yes, from PSYCHO), DeForest Kelley (Bones from the original Star Trek), and Rory Calhoun (from a million projects). The threat of overpopulation is pretty scary and they've got a more than credible cast to add weight to the drama unfolding, but I'm sorry, BUNNIES are not terrifying. Put them on miniature sets, zoom in super close on their faces, cover them in red paint/"blood", I'll still hug the adorable f***ers all the way to the grave. CUTEST INFESTATION EVER! The entire film rolls by without the slightest hint of camp, which I don't know if that makes it better or worse. Either way, I had a good time, even if it wasn't in the way the filmmakers intended. And finally, in the blaxploitation sci-fi shocker THE THING WITH TWO HEADS, racist Dr. Maxwell Kirschner (played by Ray Milland, of X - THE MAN WITH X-RAY EYES and PANIC IN YEAR ZERO) has developed a life-saving procedure that grafts one man's head onto another man's body, then the original head is discarded and the new head can go on living. When this doctor finds himself at death's door, the only way to save his life is to have the procedure performed on himself. The only available body is that of wrongly convicted death row inmate (and obviously African Amerian) Jack Moss (played by Rosey Grier, a former NFL football player and bodyguard to Robert F. Kennedy who's appeared in numerous TV shows). Moss will make a run for it, with Kirschner's head still attached to him, in an effort to clear his name of the crime he never actually committed. A touch of body horror (as Kirschner and Moss fight for control of the same body), a large dose of action (as the police spend the middle third of the movie chasing the titular THING), and some enjoyable comedy (though with the premise of a black man and a racist white man sharing the same body, don't be alarmed if it's not all politically correct). Plus some early effects work by Rick Baker! You'll have a good time, even if a major plot point or two aren't resolved by the end of it. I hope you guys have enjoyed my October ramblings. Final tally: 61 movies watched! I really wish Robert Rodriguez, or really any Latinx director, would make a modern luchador fighting monsters movie modeled around the formula of the past, but with today's luchadors. It's an artform that really needs to make a comeback.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,447
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Nov 1, 2018 15:18:07 GMT -5
I would love a modern Lucha horror film with Dr Wagner jr,Ultimo Guerrero and maybe Blue Panther.
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Post by DSR on Nov 1, 2018 21:42:14 GMT -5
The film ENTER...ZOMBIE KING (2003) is a modern take on the lucha genre, with occasional nudity and graphic gore. It's pretty enjoyable.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,447
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Nov 1, 2018 23:11:34 GMT -5
The film ENTER...ZOMBIE KING (2003) is a modern take on the lucha genre, with occasional nudity and graphic gore. It's pretty enjoyable. I will keep an eye out for it. Got on the 2 disc release of There's nothing out There? A really fun 90s Indy creature feature horror. Would love to see a Blu ray of this.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,447
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Nov 2, 2018 12:13:22 GMT -5
Stopped at Dollar General to get drinks and snacks for tomorrow. Dug thru the dvd/Blu ray shelves and got.
Poltergeist II&III Blu Ray $5 Candyman Special Edition DVD $5 Porky&Friends 18 cartoon classics DVD $4
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Post by DSR on Nov 2, 2018 19:26:10 GMT -5
Just got home from seeing SUSPIRIA (2018). It, much like the Dario Argento film it is a remake of, tells the story of a young American woman who attends a German ballet academy, only to find that it is a front for a coven of witches (I might have used this exact sentence in my brief write-up of the original in October). While the body of the new film is still recognizably SUSPIRIA, it's been broken and contorted into new shapes.
The largest non-aesthetic departure, to me, is the treatment of Germany. Argento's Tanz academy is cut off from the rest of the world, and his SUSPIRIA has the sense that it could happen anywhere at anytime, evoking the mood of a fairy tale. The Grimm Brothers were compilers of fairy tales, so perhaps that's the significance of Germany to this tale.
Luca Guadagnino's SUSPIRIA is specifically set in 1977 in "Divided Berlin" as an early title card explains. 2018's SUSPIRIA is not a nostalgic remake. It frequently refers to the political climate of the time in which it was set, and WWII also features prevalently in the narrative. Guadagnino and screenwriter David Kajganich pull from history to enhance the tale of witches...or perhaps they pull from Argento and Daria Nicolodi's tale of witches to enhance and draw attention to the horrors of history.
Speaking of witchcraft, this film doesn't skimp on any of that. The original film was told almost exclusively from Suzy Bannion's perspective, leaving the motives of the Tanz Academy largely mysterious for much of the film's runtime. We learn that the school is a front for a witch's coven, but much of the murder they commit seems out of a desire to protect their secret, without any actual goal in mind. The new film gives us moments and dialogue from the perspective of the coven members, keeping things vague and mysterious so out attention remains on finding out what they are going for, but making it very clear that they have something very specific in mind and that Suzy Bannion IS the lynchpin of their plans.
2018's SUSPIRIA is a beautiful, grotesque, chilling, and powerful film. It's my favorite film of 2018. I might even say it's better than the original, though I have to see if it holds up to repeat viewings. But the fact that I'm so eager to experience repeat viewings of the film says something about my adoration of it. It is haunting.
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Paul
Vegeta
Posts: 9,264
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Post by Paul on Nov 2, 2018 20:27:37 GMT -5
Stopped at Dollar General to get drinks and snacks for tomorrow. Dug thru the dvd/Blu ray shelves and got. Poltergeist II&III Blu Ray $5 Candyman Special Edition DVD $5 Porky&Friends 18 cartoon classics DVD $4 A few public domain Looney Tunes cartoons before Poltergeist III sounds like a pretty awesome night to me.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,447
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Nov 3, 2018 1:22:36 GMT -5
Stopped at Dollar General to get drinks and snacks for tomorrow. Dug thru the dvd/Blu ray shelves and got. Poltergeist II&III Blu Ray $5 Candyman Special Edition DVD $5 Porky&Friends 18 cartoon classics DVD $4 A few public domain Looney Tunes cartoons before Poltergeist III sounds like a pretty awesome night to me. The Porky collection is a official release. After cancelling the Golden line Warner started releasing Fill in the Blank &Friends dvds. 1 disc a bit over 2 hours of cartoons. Watched Candyman earlier but dozed off about 40 minutes into it. Seen it many times before. Man Barker sounds rough on the commentary.
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Post by Jumpin' Jesse Walsh on Nov 3, 2018 20:13:30 GMT -5
My review of Diary of the Dead (2008)
I’ve long avoided Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead because I’ve considered them completely unnecessary additions to the Dead series. With George Romero no longer with us, effectively ending the franchise, the two films stand as weird appendages that, while not bereft of interesting ideas, reveal a filmmaker losing touch with the sub-genre he created.
Fortunately, Diary of the Dead is still a Romero film at the end of the day, which means there’s more to nibble on compared to other genre fare. But not much of it is savory this time. I don’t want to pile too much on the guy because he’s dead now, but Romero in his later years struck me as an old man who’d become a bit stuck in his ways. I get his complaints about fast-moving zombies and his distaste for The Walking Dead. I really do. The plot here, however, really shows his hand as someone who can’t seem to grasp the ever-changing technology around him.
First of all, the found footage gimmick clearly isn’t Romero’s thing. He just doesn’t seem to understand how to use it effectively. There are points where it seems downright unrealistic or impossible for Jason to be holding the camera. In addition, we get a monotone voiceover from Debra, which completely takes me out of the film. Debra makes it clear from the beginning that we’re watching a movie, a huge mistake considering it takes away a considerable chunk of the scare factor. We also get some weird real-time footage spliced in throughout that tonally doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the film.
As with any Romero zombie film, we get a heavy dose of social commentary, although I don’t agree with him this go-round. The film takes shots at our Youtube-obsessed culture that feels the need to document every little thing, but I’m not sure how this is inherently a bad thing. Previous Dead films saw Romero ahead-of-the-curve with his commentary, containing many things that not many other filmmakers were brave enough to say at the time. But this plot seems like he’s bellowing, “I don’t know how modern culture works!” His message is embodied in Jason, who may be the most infuriating protagonist I’ve seen in awhile but I guess that’s precisely the point. This dude won’t put down the camera, even when his friends are in crisis. It’s maddening, but it makes me want to see him die more than anything.
Maybe all of this could be ignored if the performances were realistic, but they aren’t. Most of our survivors act like typical horror movie brats. Michelle Morgan gives such a lifeless performance as Debra that you’d think she’d been a zombie the entire time. Scott Wentworth is bizarre as the students’ faculty adviser, always mumbling about something that isn’t too coherent. At one point, he mumbles about fighting in a war and it literally goes nowhere. Orphan Black fans will be happy to see Tatiana Maslany here, but she doesn’t get much to do before she’s killed off.
It’s sad, really. This could’ve been one hell of a film and perhaps work better as commentary on the found footage genre instead. I can’t stop thinking about how Romero constructed the original Night of the Living Dead. The zombies were meant to represent the new generation consuming the old and, here, Romero is one of those old, shutting himself in a farmhouse to avoid learning more about the outside world.
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