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Post by Kash Flagg on Dec 25, 2013 18:54:38 GMT -5
Not to double-post, but did anyone get anything horror-related this Christmas? I got: "The Slasher Movie Book" by JA Kerswell A Jason T-shirt (my sig image is emblazoned on the front of it) And my older brother bought me 45 movies...some of which are horror flicks, but the bulk of the set is the "Drive-In Cult Classics" 32 film set. If anyone remembers, I had the first set of 8 of those flicks, and out of that, I only liked 2 movies. So fingers crossed that I don't spend the next few nights angry or bored. Is it the one with Christopher Lee on the cover? If so, there's some fun movies in that 50 pack.
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Post by DSR on Dec 25, 2013 22:39:02 GMT -5
Not to double-post, but did anyone get anything horror-related this Christmas? I got: "The Slasher Movie Book" by JA Kerswell A Jason T-shirt (my sig image is emblazoned on the front of it) And my older brother bought me 45 movies...some of which are horror flicks, but the bulk of the set is the "Drive-In Cult Classics" 32 film set. If anyone remembers, I had the first set of 8 of those flicks, and out of that, I only liked 2 movies. So fingers crossed that I don't spend the next few nights angry or bored. Is it the one with Christopher Lee on the cover? If so, there's some fun movies in that 50 pack. No, sadly. There's some artistic renderings of scantily clad ladies on the cover. This one has flicks like MALIBU HIGH, CINDY & DONNA, THE PICK-UP, THE HEARSE, and THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN.
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Lick Ness Monster
Dennis Stamp
From the eerie, eerie depths of Lake Okabena
Posts: 4,874
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Post by Lick Ness Monster on Dec 31, 2013 11:15:17 GMT -5
Last Horror Movie Mayhem blog of 2013. Hopefully I'm able to keep doing these every week in the upcoming year. 1987 Directed by Clive Barker Starring Ashley Laurence, Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Sean Robinson and Doug Bradley Now here's a poster that everyone out there in Lick Ness Monster Land should be more than familiar with. If the blood-red title didn't give it away, that is. Hellraiser is a flick that is pretty damn close to being on the "have seen" list of even the most casual fan, but for whatever reason, I've never posted a review of it here on the blog. I "inducted" the first sequel (which I consider to be ever-so-slightly better) back when I was still doing the "International Horror Registry" thing (and looking back, good God, could I have possibly picked a less appealing name?), but since it's about time to write something positive, this flick is getting the fun-size treatment this week. Expedited background information that even the most casual horror fans should be more than aware of: Hellraiser was the directorial debut of one Mr. Clive Barker, one of the two or three best horror writers of the latter-half of the 20th century. It's hard to explain the style that the dude has; he isn't very big on leaving nasty details up to your imagination, that's for sure. There's also this prevailing theme of sex and pain that runs throughout his work, and never was this more apparent than it is here - an adaptation of his novella "The Hellbound Heart" that brings a whole lotta blood, death and S&M gear onto the big screen with a vengeance. PLOT: While the sequels would much more heavily feature the dude in the theatrical poster, this first film is actually much more about two very decidedly HUMAN villains. The first character we meet is Frank Cotton (Sean Chapman), a sort of adventurer on the trail of the ultimate in pleasure. Most of the film takes place after he finds what he's looking for. His brother Larry (Andrew Robinson) and his new wife Julia (Clare Higgins) have just moved into Frank's old duds. Apparently the piles of garbage, maggots and gigantic blood stain in the attic aren't enough to dissuade them from moving in, because soon enough, Julia is getting flashbacks to her pre-marital (as in the events happened before her marriage to Larry) affair with Frank. As it turns out, Frank's spirit is alive and well in the attic, and after being revived by Larry's blood (yes, really), he is begging Julia to bring him some fresh meat to revive his skin. But escaping death means escaping the things that did this to him in the first place...and these guys don't like to be conned. At all. If you're not intrigued by that plot, go ahead and blame me, because ol' Clive's artful camera and sharp details do a phenomenal job framing this dark story about all kinds of foridden things. Ladies and gentlemen, my attempt at being poetic. PLOT RATING: **** out of ****. CHARACTERS AND ACTORS: This is a flick with a lot of memorable characters, including an outstanding triumverate of main villains. You've got Frank, wonderfully played by a very slimy Chapman, as a kind of evil seducer; you've got Higgis' great turn as Julia, who turns into a full-blown serial killer in her quest to bring back her lover; and then you've got the Cenobites, with their leader (Doug Bradley) being front and center as the guy that you don't want to mess with. Bradley doesn't have many lines in this movie, but when he does, he makes them count. The Cenobites (each of which have a VERY defining look that makes their credited names all the more identifiable) are without a doubt Clive Barker's most famous creation, eternal agents of Hell/Satan/Leviathan/whatever deity you're comfortable with who reside inside a tiny puzzle box called the "Lament Configuration" that serves as their pied piper to anyone who wants to see everything life has to offer the hard way. If there is one thing I can bitch about with this movie, it's that the babyfaces are nowhere near as fascinating as the heels. Larry is a good guy, but Robinson is milquetoast as all hell in this role and does little to get us on his side. He comes across more as a gigantic oblivious tool than anything else. Eventually, we're left with Larry's daughter Kirsty as our "final girl" to wrap up the plot, and while she becomes a much better heroine in the second film, she's also pretty drab in this one. CHARACTERS AND ACTORS: *** 1/2 out of ****. COOL FACTOR: There's a lot of coolness abound in Hellraiser. All manner of debauchery is present and on display in this flick, from brief snippets of nudity, plenty of really gruesome imagery, awesome makeup effects, and one of the best and most memorable scores that any horror movie has ever had. Oh, and the Cenobites. The only reason that I have to dock it slightly is because the scenes focused on the life and times of Kirsty Cotton make me instantly want to push the fast forward button. COOL FACTOR: *** 1/2 out of ****. OVERALL: This movie is considered a classic, and it definitely deserves the distinction. A genuinely fascinating and tense plot that is easy to get wrapped up in, more than its fair share of classic characters and a couple truly legendary murder set pieces amount to a pretty damn good time on the couch. Also, if you're in the mood for a movie to have a good time in a small group setting, this movie along with Hellbound: Hellraiser II make a pretty Roman Reigns-esque Superman Punch-Spear combination. OVERALL RATING: *** 1/2 out of ****. If by some chance you haven't checked this one out, Joe Bob already has a contract out on your ass, so hop to it bitch.
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Post by DSR on Jan 3, 2014 14:02:34 GMT -5
RIP Mike Vraney, founder of Something Weird Video. Mike/SWV gained a loyal cult fanbase by constantly seeking out obscure exploitation cinema and giving films like BASKET CASE, THE BLOODY PIT OF HORROR, and THE WIZARD OF GORE the kind of "Special Edition" treatment normally reserved for Hollywood blockbusters.
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Post by dablueboy on Jan 3, 2014 21:04:13 GMT -5
On the horror related Christmas presents thing, I got the Universal Monsters 8 disc Bluray set which is fantastic, haven't got round to watching any of them yet as I'm working my way through my WWE ones first. The postcards with the original post art are great additions to the set as well as the booklet with some nice production photos and bios on the likes of Lon Chaney Jr, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff
Also got the Return of the Living Dead Special Edition Steelbook Bluray which has awesome artwork on the case, never seen the film but what sold me on getting it was the 2 hour documentary More Brains! as I had seen the trailer for it on the Crystal Lake Memories Bluray. The third horror title I got was the Evil Dead 2 Special Edition Bluray off my girlfriend, which looks good. Just need the Army of Darkness Blu then I can sit down and watch the full trilogy in HD.
Also bought myself post Christmas, or rather yesterday, the first season of the Walking Dead on Bluray as it's a show I've never seen but want to get into. Didn't cost me anything either as I had traded some stuff I didn't need and used the credit to pay for it
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Lick Ness Monster
Dennis Stamp
From the eerie, eerie depths of Lake Okabena
Posts: 4,874
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Post by Lick Ness Monster on Jan 7, 2014 9:31:52 GMT -5
First Horror Movie Mayhem blog of 2014. Get your business cards ready... 2000 Directed by Mary Harron Starring Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Josh Lucas, Samantha Mathis and Reese Witherspoon Right before the dawn of the '10s, I made a list somewhere giving my completely fabricated top 10 horror movies of the 'ought decade. This flick was on that list. I'd like to say it was #5, but that whole time period is a little fuzzy. The only other thing I remember about that list was that it was one of an astounding TWO American films to grace the top ten, the other being the criminally underrated Lucky McKee disturbo-fest May. But that's another review for another day. Anyway, American Psycho was essentially the movie that made Christian Bale a name actor. He'd done a few things before, and it obviously wouldn't be until Batman came along that he became a legit superstar, but Patrick Bateman will forever be where this dude's bread is buttered. What? Not enough background information? Well, it's also the film version of the Bret Easton Ellis novel of the same name, one of only two horror novels that I have ever been unable to finish after reading some of the debaucheries contained within. Fortunately, this movie does not contain some of the more stomach-churning stuff from that tome. Think female anatomy and rodents. Yeah. With that, on with the show. PLOT: Welcome to Manhattan in the late 1980s. For much of the firt half of this movie's brisk running time, we get to know Patrick Bateman through a combination of looking-glass footage and what is admittedly very clever use of narration - normally a plot device that I'm not a fan of. He's very concerned about appearance, male fashion, dining out, the music of Huey Lewis and the News and Genesis...we learn quite a bit about the guy. Oh yeah, and he's very into serial murder. Sometimes, he targets homeless vagrants. Sometimes it's prostitutes. And sometimes it's business associates who happen to have the misfortune of having a better business card than him. The stakes effectively raise when Detective Donald Kimball (the always great Willem Dafoe) begins investigating Bateman in the disappearance of coworker Paul Allen ("HEY PAUL!"), beginning the slight-but-not-grating "police procedural" aspect of the film. It's slightly comedic, it's slightly dramatic, but rest assurred, this is a horror movie, and the movie gives us something very wince-worthy every 15-20 minutes. PLOT RATING: *** 1/2 out of ****. CHARACTERS AND ACTORS: People who follow my reviews very closely (and I'm fairly certain that this number rests comfortably at zero) might have noticed that I've dropped a few potshots at Christian Bale over the years. No, I'm not a particularly big fan of the guy or his films. You know, the one where he plays a dark, grizzled tough guy who is emotionally cut off from those around him. Oh wait, that's damn near all of them. This film, however, is a completely different story in my book (and this is my book, so suck it). He fits the character of Bateman like a glove, and in this rare chance to show a manic, lecherous, over-the-top side, he nails it with aplomb. You'll be repulsed by Bateman, but you also won't forget him. This movie also has plenty of name actors in supporting roles (the aforementioend Defoe, Reese Witherspoon as Bateman's girlfriend, Chloe Sevigny as his secretary/would-be side love interest). These midcarders are nowhere near as fascinating as the main eventer, but they do their job very nicely to move the plot along in the rare scenes where Bale isn't front and center. CHARACTERS AND ACTORS RATING: *** 1/2 out of ****. COOL FACTOR: On one hand, you won't find many horror movies that are more quotable than this one. I can still recite Bateman's rants about his favorite bands like the back of my hand as well as the entirety of the business card comparison scene. On the other hand, this definitely isn't the fun, happy kind of horror movie, and there are more than a few scenes that drag in between some of the more memorable bits with Bateman. I don't know if the addition of a perfectly mopped chainsaw can make up for occasional boredom. COOL FACTOR: ** 1/2 out of ****. OVERALL: As this movie unspools, we pay witness to several of the atrocities that Patrick Bateman commits in his off-hours away from the exciting world of investment banking, and Bale was definitely up to the part of making this guy a completely detestable slimeball who deserves to get his comeuppance. As such, this is a movie that has an absolutely dynamite beginning and middle chapter, but unfortunately, for me, it kind of flies off the rails in its final trimester. Maybe not completely; consider it more of a hitched derailing. Nonetheless, this is still a movie worth seeing more than once for the dialogue alone, because this stuff is just incendiary. OVERALL RATING: *** out of ****. Definitely one of the best original horror flicks of the '00s, and Bale's performance alone is worth the price of a cheap Amazon buy.
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Post by DSR on Jan 7, 2014 15:51:27 GMT -5
I'm a fan of AMERICAN PSYCHO. I love the satire on the shallow, all-style-no-substance undercurrent of the 80s (even though I also love a lot of the stuff that came out of the 80s). And I've dug Christian Bale ever since I saw him in this flick (I was so stoked when he was cast as Batman). I genuinely don't mind that he plays similar characters. At least they're still characters that can hold my interest. Not like he's the laidback, dopey man-child in romcoms or anything. But anyway, great write-up on AMERICAN PSYCHO (and I dug your earlier review of HELLRAISER, which is one of my all-time favorite horror flicks).
Now here's something I've never done before in the ol' Horror Threads: a book review! JA Kerswell's THE SLASHER MOVIE BOOK (originally titled TEENAGE WASTELAND: THE SLASHER MOVIE UNCUT) gives a chronological overview of the slasher subgenre. Tracing its roots back to the French Grand Guignol theater, through early cinematic horrors like THE CAT AND THE CANARY (1927), the German krimi, and Italian giallo.
If you're something of a slasher aficionado, this book probably won't feature a lot of new information for you: Hitchcock's PSYCHO was highly influential, Carpenter's HALLOWEEN kicked off a golden age for slasher film production (Kerswell goes as far as to dub HALLOWEEN the first slasher film, which bothers me something fierce), FRIDAY THE 13TH was popular. As the audience for these films lost interest, supernatural elements came to the forefront with A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. The 90s saw the genre die out in popularity, while big-time Hollywood productions took elements from the genre to make films like FATAL ATTRACTION and THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE. Then SCREAM came along and resuscitated the genre, leading to a new wave of slashers with actors from The WB spouting dialogue about how genre-savvy they are. The broad strokes of this "story" are, as I mentioned, pretty well-known.
In between these major bullet points, though, are minor tidbits about the subgenre's other offerings, from the slightly more obscure but well-liked (MY BLOODY VALENTINE, THE BURNING) to the all-but-forgotten tapes that cluttered stores in the wake of the straight-to-video boom (SAVAGE WEEKEND, SATAN'S BLADE). While the book largely focuses on how American (and Canadian) the slasher subgenre is, there are tidbits about other countries' efforts to put their own spin on the slasher template.
The book gives just enough details to whet your appetite for some stuff you haven't seen before, complimented by beautiful poster and video art for a multitude of films, but ultimately doesn't dig too deeply or offer much in the way of a challenging or interesting perspective on slashers. If you've seen a handful of them and liked them, this book is of interest to you. But if you're already rooting through garage sales or looking up internet bootleggers for rare entries in the subgenre, aside from maybe a few titles you haven't heard of, there's probably not much you haven't heard before.
4 stars out of 5 if you're just getting your feet wet, 2 stars if you're already swimming in the deep end.
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Welfare Willis
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Post by Welfare Willis on Jan 7, 2014 15:54:05 GMT -5
Tell me DSR, have you read Going to Pisces: the rise and fall of the slasher film? I was curious how you felt of that book to the slasher film book.
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Post by DSR on Jan 7, 2014 16:03:03 GMT -5
Tell me DSR, have you read Going to Pisces: the rise and fall of the slasher film? I was curious how you felt of that book to the slasher film book. I have not, though I have seen the 2006 documentary film it inspired. THE SLASHER MOVIE BOOK feels largely like a rehash of that documentary, but with a paragraph or two dedicated to more obscure entries in the genre, and some info on the more recent remakes like MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D.
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Lick Ness Monster
Dennis Stamp
From the eerie, eerie depths of Lake Okabena
Posts: 4,874
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Post by Lick Ness Monster on Jan 9, 2014 12:43:53 GMT -5
Not like he's the laidback, dopey man-child in romcoms or anything. Matthew McConaughey? Highly enjoyed the book review, DSR. I'm more than familiar with the story of slasher films, but for some reason even reading familiar material makes me happy.
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Post by DSR on Jan 9, 2014 13:42:06 GMT -5
Not like he's the laidback, dopey man-child in romcoms or anything. Matthew McConaughey? Highly enjoyed the book review, DSR. I'm more than familiar with the story of slasher films, but for some reason even reading familiar material makes me happy. I did not intend a specific dig at McConaughey. But it does irk me that that guy has acting talent and only rarely shows it off.
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Lick Ness Monster
Dennis Stamp
From the eerie, eerie depths of Lake Okabena
Posts: 4,874
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Post by Lick Ness Monster on Jan 14, 2014 9:36:08 GMT -5
Here's this week's new Horror Movie Mayhem review. I can't believe it's been over ten years since this flick was released. It's really a shame that Rorschach isn't around, because his rants about the movie in question are legendary... 2003 Directed by Marcus Nispel Starring Jessica Biel, Jonathan Tucker, Erica Leerhsen, Mike Vogel, Eric Balfour and R. Lee Ermey This fact is very surprising to yours truly, but the original, 1974 Tobe Hooper Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a very polarizing movie. It's very much a "love or hate" thing, with members of one camp believing it to be some sort of depraved, debauched masterpiece of macabre film-making and the other just finding it lame as all get out. Color me in with the former group. Maybe it was the sneak viewing of it that I pulled in my parents' basement circa 1995 (when I was 12 years old, for those counting), but this is a movie that got under my skin immediately and still gives me a case of the skin-crawling willies when I dig it out for a biannual-ish watch. More than anything else, the original TCM was a movie that, to me, just felt real. For starters, it was a movie that was filmed on a budget that I can't even use my standard "filet-o-fish value meal" punchline for, and I had to believe that filming a straight-up snuff film where all of this stuff was actually happening was cheaper than doing whatever Hooper did to try to fake it. And then there was Marilyn Burns. For as much as Leatherface and his ilk disturbed me as a kid, it was Marilyn Burns and her constant soul-wrenching screaming toward the end that haunted my dreams for days on end in my fifth grade summer. Which brings me to this movie. Released in 2003 by Michael F**kin' Bay's Platinum Dunes production company, this is arguably the movie that ushered in the "let's remake every popular horror movie from the '70s and '80s" tilt that continued for years unabated and has only recently died down ever-so-slightly. But that's another story. You kow, they tried. I can't fault Bay and his proto-manservant Marcus Nispel for not giving it their damndest with this flick (which is more than I can say for some of their other efforts, not the least of which being A Nightmare on Paint By Numbers Street), but the whole essence of the original TCM is something that can't be duplicated, no matter how much bronzer Nispel slathered on his camera lenses or how much dirt he threw on his cast of hot young actors. I suppose that's enough rambling. Let's get down to business. PLOT: If you've seen the original film, you know the basics. Group of 1973-era college kids find themselves taking a VERY wrong turn at Albuquerque and wind up at the residence of a group of cannibalistic meat salesman, the lead killer of which being a very beastly man wearing a mask made of human skin. That much is kept intact in this version, and it's a perfectly good, classic setup. Of course, that's based on the assumption that you're (a) into this stuff, and (b) have a pretty strong stomach. It's where this movie differs from the original story-wise that it unfortunately falls very flat, mostly because for much of the movie's running time we're blessed with this guy as a sort of secondary villain. Yup, that's R. Lee "Private Pyle, whatever you do, don't fall down" Ermey himself, playing Sherriff Hoyt. This was the aspect of the movie that stuck out in my mind the most from that theater viewing many moons ago...and it's still the movie's defining characteristic, for better or much worse. Hoyt is the man called to the scene when a hitch-hiker picked up by the college kids offs herself in the back of their van. I remember being very uncomfortable watching the scenes with Ermey in the theater, as the audience laughed at this dude's lecherous overtures and the eventually completely unsurprising surprising twist when this guy turns out to be one of the Hewitt family members (renamed from the original films' Sawyer clan). If Ermey had scaled back the skeeviness by 15%, this might have been a significantly better movie. Alas, he plays Sherriff Hoyt in full-on Vince Vaughn Norman Bates mode, and it derails the movie the second he shows up. PLOT RATING: * 1/2 out of ****. CHARACTERS AND ACTORS: So far, we've only mentioned Ermey's Sheriff Hoyt by name, and a lot of the others in this movie don't need mentioning. Unfortunately, that's my job, so what do we got? Well, there's Jessica Biel, who was at the peak of her post- (I think) 7th Heaven young hottie phase as one of the young college partyers whose name I can't be bothered to look up. She's the only member of the caravan that we can't immediately single out as future Leatherface fodder, and that's pretty much all you need to know. The only other cast member I recognized was Erica Leehrsen, the star of the godawful Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (how bad? it's worse than her other horror credit - the masterpiece that was Wrong Turn 2). The characters, by and large, are annoying and unsympathetic, and while that can be a good thing if you've got a likable final girl, that's not the case here. CHARACTERS AND ACTORS RATING: * 1/2 out of ****. COOL FACTOR: I remember reading a report before this movie's release that Nispel was going to be shooting for a "more suspenseful, less shocking" approach with this movie, or something else with equally flowery dialogue. I think it's safe to say that he failed big time in that regard. For a movie called The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the original film was actually pretty damn bloodless. Compare that to this movie, which featured gore and grue by the bucketload, including one wholly unnecessary scene near the end where Biel helps one of her fallen compatriots, alive and impaled on a meat hook, commit suicide. The scene is admittedly uncomfortable, but not in the good way - it's more like watching a Ryback match where he botches move after move and damn near kills the dude in the ring with him. Finally, I have to do some commenting on the big guy himself. The character of Leatherface, overgrown man-child villain who wears the skins of his victims, isn't a horror villain that lends itself to gaining rooting interest (Jason) or cracking jokes (take a guess). He's always been more about unnerving viewers. I can't fault Andrew Bryniarski for his aplomb in taking on the 'Face, as he was more than game for what it entailed. But he is onscreen MUCH more than Gunner Hansen's legendary version in Hooper's movie and doing much more murdering. Time to bring back one of my annoying personality traits and say "less is more," because he's just not a particularly scary or memorable villain in this go-round. Mystique goes a long way, people. COOL FACTOR: * 1/2 out of ****. OVERALL: I remember acutally being very stoked to see this movie in theaters back in Halloween season of 2003. It seemed like the dawning of a new age - a movie that I grew up loving that most sensible adults told me was dumb and/or depraved was getting a slick modernization seemed like a justification for my own geekiness. Instead, what we get with TCM 2003 is everything that I've outlined above - a professionally made, polished horror film, no doubt, but one that ultimately does away with damn near everything that made the original film stand out from the pack (and this is a trend that Bay and his goons Andrew Form and Brad Fuller would continue as they worked their way through slasher icons like a cheap hooker and left their own special brand of VD on each one). There's no gritty, drawn-out "dinner" scene, no skull-bashing, no creepy "family member" hitch-hiker. Instead, we've got R. Lee Ermey and a really dumb ending where wispy, model thin actress Jessica Biel managed to hack off Leatherface's arm with a meat cleaver, thus making any direct sequels pretty much null and void in the process. Oh yeah, spoiler alert. OVERALL RATING: * 1/2 out of ****. I was hoping that another viewing of this movie would be a little bit more enjoyable than that rather drab, weird experience in theaters more than ten years ago, but alas, it's just as excessive and disappointing now as it was then.
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Welfare Willis
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Post by Welfare Willis on Jan 14, 2014 12:13:06 GMT -5
I agree with your analysis on both Hellraiser II and the TCM remake.
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Post by Baldobomb-22-OH-MAN!!! on Jan 14, 2014 22:01:45 GMT -5
so my copy of The House on Sorority Row came in from Amazon yesterday. I guess Katie Lea/Winter's doing the Elvira thing now because her face is plastered all over the DVD cover and there's an alternate version of the film with her "hosting" or something. just watched the vanilla version instead.
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Post by DSR on Jan 15, 2014 1:08:51 GMT -5
so my copy of The House on Sorority Row came in from Amazon yesterday. I guess Katie Lea/Winter's doing the Elvira thing now because her face is plastered all over the DVD cover and there's an alternate version of the film with her "hosting" or something. just watched the vanilla version instead. I made mention of this a couple years ago in the TNA section. Winter's got a series of DVDs from Scorpion Releasing. A similar series of DVDs is available from Code Red, hosted by Maria Kanellis. And, if I'm not mistaken, Code Red is run by the brother of the guy that runs Scorpion. So...that's something. *shrug*
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Lick Ness Monster
Dennis Stamp
From the eerie, eerie depths of Lake Okabena
Posts: 4,874
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Post by Lick Ness Monster on Jan 17, 2014 14:02:14 GMT -5
I've seen one of the DVDs hosted by Maria Kanellis (Barn of the Naked Dead), and she is horrific in her badness. Elvira she is not.
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Lick Ness Monster
Dennis Stamp
From the eerie, eerie depths of Lake Okabena
Posts: 4,874
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Post by Lick Ness Monster on Jan 21, 2014 9:49:24 GMT -5
Double-post time!! 2008 Directed by Masayuki Ochiai Starring Joshua Jackson, Rachael Taylor and Megumi Okina I've recounted the story on a few occasions that the 2006 remake of Black Christmas is the only movie that I've ever walked out of in theaters, but the movie in question today came close a little over a year later. I don't know quite what it was about the stateside version of Shutter, whether it was the acting or the tone or the fact that there were two bastard kids thundering up and down the aisles throughout the duration of the flick's brisk 85-minute running time, but watching this movie was an incredibly taxing experience. Much like last week with my Texas Chainsaw Massacre redux viewing, I decided to give this flick another shot. Lo and behold, it's a little better than I remember, and certainly better than the reception that this movie got at the time of its release (myself included). Folks, this movie got a 7% on Rotten Tomatoes. 7%. That's the type of rating that should be reserved exclusively for the cinematic works of Friedburg and Seltzer, right there, not for a clear cash-grab remake that nonetheless is occasionally creepy and occasionally pretty tense. It also probably helps that I've never seen the Thai original, and thus won't be making any annoying extended comparisons between the two versions like I did last week. I will, however, point out that this movie was produced by Taka Ichise. I'm a pretty big fan of Taka, all things considered, seeing as he produced Ringu, Ju-On, and their prospective American remakes. Put him slightly ahead of Michinoku as far as coolest Japanese men named Taka. PLOT: Ben Shaw (Joshua "I don't want to wait for our lives to be over" Jackson) and his wife Jane (the certifiably hot Rachael Taylor) have just moved to Tokyo, where Ben has an oh-so-convenient job as a photographer. Upon arrival, their car hits a local woman wearing a dress in the middle of nowhere, only for the police to turn up no body, no blood, and no evidence of any vehicular manslaughter. Not soon afterward, strange things start a-brewing within Ben's photos, not the least of which being several large, mysterious lights, and it isn't long before the "spirit photography" aspect of the movie begins. As it turns out, the spirit in the photos is Megumi, ironically enough played by another Megumi. Yes, folks, it's Megumi Okina, the star of the first theatrical Ju-On film (a.k.a. the greatest horror movie ever made). The CHARACTER Megumi (confusing, I know) once dated Ben but eventually became obsessive and clingy after the death of her father. The origin scenes of the ghost combined with what is admittedly a few very tense scenes after we learn what the f**k is going on is enough to make this a fairly interesting story, even if it occasionally treads into predictability and hokiness. Not quite as hokey as the deer attack scene in The Ring Two, but close. PLOT RATING: *** out of ****. CHARACTERS AND ACTORS: Rachael Taylor is really, really, really great to look at, but unfortunately that's about all I can say for her. Her character is meant to be the center of the film, the new woman who has replaced Megumi in Josh's life and thus the source of much harassment and potential audience sympathy, but unfortunately, she isn't able to get it. This is where the movie falls short, and it's a damn shame, because Jackson was all kinds of aces as the (eventually) douchey Ben, and Okina...you know, I saw the movie in theaters before I became borderline obsessed with the Ju-On/Grudge/ series, and I really looked at her character differently this time around with that additional knowledge. She was without a doubt one of the five best horror heroines ever in Ju-On and loses none of her vulnerability or likability here despite the fact that she's supposed to be a quasi-villain. There's a whole lot of other inconsequential characters (Ben's assistant and his college friends who help him in the heinous plot to ditch Megumi that shockingly goes awry after she enters her "clingy girlfriend" phase) who aren't worth wasting valuable typing energy on. CHARACTERS AND ACTORS RATING: ** out of ****. COOL FACTOR: There's actual a couple cringe-inducing death scenes in this movie (and I'll leave it up to you, loyal reader, to figure out the identities of those two deaths from the "Character and Actors" section), and a few very good scenes as Megumi begins torturing Ben and Jane. Overall, the character of Megumi is definitely not the standard bearer for coolness that Kayako Saeki is, but she has her moments. In between, the movie has its fair share of tedium, but the ending that just might stick with you for a few days after watching it almost manages to make up for it. COOL FACTOR: ** 1/2 out of ****. OVERALL: Shutter is a movie that I like to call a "half-asleep masterpiece." Namely, if it's on TV, you're tired and don't feel like paying too much attention to what's onscreen, it'll do wonders to lull you into a further zombie state yet also, amazingly, not put you to sleep. That's bound to happen when you've got a gang rape scene seemingly out of nowhere that occurs midway through your movie. Spoiler alert. I honestly can't remember if this movie came out before or after the American remake of One Missed Call, but this is a movie that actually gets a little bit better - and less generic - with repeat viewings. That, and there is one scene (that I remembered from the theatrical viewing, by the way) that manages to be gut-wrenchingly tense without a single drop of blood being spilled. Just remember what I told you about dark rooms and humming women. Anyway, not a great film, but give it a shot. OVERALL RATING: ** 1/2 out of ****. Which means, ultimately, thumbs down. But with the exception of Rachael Taylor, this is actually a pretty enjoyable little flick.
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Post by DSR on Jan 21, 2014 12:45:36 GMT -5
Sounds more like a "thumbs...sideways?" than a thumbs down.
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Welfare Willis
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Post by Welfare Willis on Jan 24, 2014 9:21:12 GMT -5
Hey everyone I know I'm late to the party (as usual with me and new horror) but I caught INSIDIOUS 1&2 last night.
I'm split on the movie because I actually saw it with friends who weren't into horror like I am. So we're sitting there and they're screaming like little girls. Me? My friend commented I was sitting through it like it was a disney film. I laughed because he was right. People who regular read this thread (DSR, Lick, Kash, Myself, etc.) will have no problem sitting through Insidious. It's PG-13 so there's nothing overtly gory to squeam at... just a lot of jump scares. In fact I found part II to be highly derivative of films like the Shining and The Entity.
However, for those who may be new to horror than Insidious is not a bad film. It's a good introduction film to the world of horror. However, I'd say start with Kubrick's the Shining first if you want real terror with a low body count.
I told my friends if they wanted to see what scares me I'd bring them Miike's Audition. But I wanted to gather everyone's thoughts on Insidious and any other ideas on a really good twisted horror movie.
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Post by DSR on Jan 24, 2014 19:07:46 GMT -5
I told my friends if they wanted to see what scares me I'd bring them Miike's Audition. But I wanted to gather everyone's thoughts on Insidious and any other ideas on a really good twisted horror movie. I haven't seen the INSIDIOUS movies. But your post brought something interesting to my mind: it sounds kind of odd, but I've never really thought about bringing someone who isn't already a horror fan into the genre. I've always sort of though about any new horror film I watch through the prism of my own knowledge of the genre (or even just film in general), but I never considered how a newcomer would react to the film. I love AUDITION, but it might depend on these friends of yours. The film really takes its time and builds, and I'd have to know if your friends have the kind of patience for a story like that. I mentioned this a year or so ago, but THE LOVED ONES gave me a very similar gut-punch kind of feeling, and it basically takes the second half or final third of AUDITION as it's entire story. Don't know if you've seen that one, but I highly recommend it.
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