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Post by Baixo Astral on Mar 31, 2011 9:04:55 GMT -5
One day I'll write my horror movie - Cold Slab. It's about an insane doctor with a grudge against society, who is reviving corpses and turning them into living bioweapons - it's 40% horror/action, and 60% haunted house-ish story, as the main characters are trapped in the doctor's house and threatened with his experimentation.
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Post by YellowJacketY2J on Mar 31, 2011 9:17:14 GMT -5
Does anybody have a link to that MPAA shirt that said "Must Punish All Artists"? Also, mysterydriver, your voice is awesome! How you don't have a job as a voice over actor is beyond me. www.horrorshirts.com/mpaa.htmlAnd thanks for the compliment. Thanks and your welcome!
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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 Apr 1, 2011 10:13:03 GMT -5
First new IHR induction in three weeks (no overly dramatic pre-introduction introduction this time)... Time for your humble host to share an opinion that's almost completely gutless, since there's plenty of people who feel the same way and even people who disagree almost universally pitch in that it's not far from being truth - I think that Alfred Hitchcock is the single greatest film director...ever. Sure, there's directors who have made it their prime directive to bring home as much Oscar hardware as possible (not looking at you at all, Darren Aronofsky), while Hitch doesn't have any statues in his cupboard ( Rebecca's Best Picture award went to the film's producer), his filmography reads like the history of Hollywood - over six decades, there's just very little that the guy did not do, churning out classic after classic and showing an unprecedented, influential flair for shooting his films along the way. More on that later. It comes as no surprise, then, that there have been plenty of movies that paid direct and/or indirect tribute to Hitchcock. In fact, there are two gentlemen who owe pretty much their entire career on imitating him, both of whom came to prominence in the early '70s. There's Dario Argento, an Italian film-maker who took the mystery aspect of many of the Hitchcock plots and slathered on previously unseen levels of gore to popularize a style of horror movie known as the giallo thriller. And then there's Brian De Palma, the director of several very popular films in the '70s and '80s that feature camera work and themes which were not slightly underivative of the Master's work. While films that predate it on his filmography (most notably Sisters, Carrie and The Fury) have some very familiar cinematography tricks, Dressed to Kill was De Palma's full-fledged ode to the man who inspired his career, emulating the visual style and as well as plot elements and direct scene references from Hitchcock's films. As both an homage and an original work, it's a dynamite movie, unfortunately not as remembered today as it should be, but still held in high circles by horror fans and film scholars alike as a good scary film and a tribute piece. [/masturbatory introduction] THE MOVIE!! First things first, this movie has some cast. Angie Dickinson is the first person we see in this film. Or rather, Angie Dickinson's body double slathering her naked body up with soap, setting in motion the Psycho-like theme connecting sex with death that runs throughout the entire movie. Dickinson portrays a bored housewife who serves as this movie's Janet Leigh; she is given loads of screen time in the early goings of the movie, with the script giving us a lurid episode in her daily life. She visits her psychologist Robert Elliott (played by Michael Caine in one of the finest performances of his distinguished career), going into detail about her sexual frustration. The following scenes pay off the angle, as she is stalked by a man in an art gallery and later gropes him in the back seat of a taxi cab. So how does the first act of the movie comes to a close? She sneaks out of random stranger's apartment in the dead of night, and is summarily slashed the f*** up in the apartment building's elevator. Oh yeah, spoiler alert. This scene, by the way, is an absolute masterpiece. It's genuinely unexpected, it's graphic, and it's got that indefinable creepy factor added to as high-priced prostitute Liz (Nancy Allen, in a Golden Globe-nominated performance, and looking quite hot in her young days, I must say) finds herself unwittingly tied to the death. During the murder scene, there's this one particular shot that works very well, as Liz almost - again, I say, agonizingly, ALMOST - enters the elevator, while the killer, plastic face and all, stands above the dead body of Dickinson, perched behind the door, ready to strike at Liz. Awesome stuff, and still one of my favorite scenes in all of horrordom. An important cog in the plot of Dressed to Kill arises in the form of Caine's Dr. Elliott, who earlier had received a threatening phone call from a former patient named "Bobbi" who desired a sex change operation. It seems that said patient is now mightily pissed at Elliot, as the good doctor refused to endorse the operation, resulting in a wannabe transgendered individual with a severe murderous streak for the women in Elliott's life, as well as Liz, the witness to his brutal crime in the elevator. Up until this point, Dressed to Kill didn't have many likable characters, but from this point on, we get several. The movie becomes a very high stakes game of cat and mouse between the killer and a small group of people attempting to track him/her down. Liz becomes the star and the focal point of the character development, but the movie's true heart comes in the form of Peter (Keith Gordon), Dickinson's college-aged son who takes it upon himself to track down the murderer. Liz and Peter join forces due to the police predictably being none too believing of the various accusations that this smart-mouthed hooker is making regarding the murder case. Along the way, there's another meeting with the killer in a subway (and that scene, just like the elevator sequence, is absolutely riveting), and eventually, a big finale in Elliott's office where all becomes clear. Dressed to Kill is a movie with outstanding directorial and acting work, but my favorite thing about it is the character arc that Nancy Allen's Liz goes through. Years before Saw and the like-styled movies made "forced attrition" a genre unto itself, Dressed to Kill featured a much more subtle version of the storyline. Throughout much of the movie, Liz is a very unrepentant character, and while we're never given a beat-you-over-the-head conversion scene, the audience leaves the film with a sense of satisfaction, knowing that the incidents - and the close friendship with Peter - have changed her for the better. And the ending scene? Horrific, powerful, and absolutely perfect. Compared to other movies inducted into the IHR, I have a relatively short history with this particular film. A few years back, I was looking for nothing other than a good time waster on a Friday night while browsing the video store; a few hours later, I had a movie that comes damn close to being on my top ten horror films of all time list. The characters are well-defined and memorable (in addition to all the names mentioned above, there's Dennis Franz doing his trademark foul-mouthed cop role to perfection as the antagonistic investigator who refuses to believe our main characters), but it's the overall experience of viewing Dressed to Kill that rings the most true. Visually, it's an absolute feast, but is also disconcerting and disqueting to watch...just like the best Hitchcock movies.
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Post by YellowJacketY2J on Apr 3, 2011 16:17:33 GMT -5
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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 Apr 4, 2011 15:37:46 GMT -5
Either nobody else has seen Dressed to Kill or they just agree with me that it's muthaf***in' boss. At any rate, a threadkill of epic proportions, I must say. Maybe my greatest threadkill EVER.
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Post by Young Game on Apr 4, 2011 15:46:17 GMT -5
Either nobody else has seen Dressed to Kill or they just agree with me that it's muthaf***in' boss. At any rate, a threadkill of epic proportions, I must say. Maybe my greatest threadkill EVER. I think I've seen "Dressed To Kill". I'm not really sure. It would have been when I was a wee young lad. The clips of it that I saw in "Terror In The Aisles" looked rrrrreally familiar. It's definitely one of those movies where I'm not sure if I should be scared, aroused, or both. Speaking of which, why can't I find "Terror In The Aisles" on DVD? What gives?
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Post by GuyOfOwnage on Apr 4, 2011 15:52:52 GMT -5
Don't feel bad, TR, I've killed this thread more times than I can count, but not unlike a particular horror subgenre I know you're not too fond of, it just keeps coming back from the dead As for Dressed To Kill, I'll come clean - I've never sat through it in its entirety. But your review does make a persuasive argument, so who knows, maybe I'll hunt it down one of these days.
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Post by DSR on Apr 4, 2011 18:08:36 GMT -5
Either nobody else has seen Dressed to Kill or they just agree with me that it's muthaf***in' boss. At any rate, a threadkill of epic proportions, I must say. Maybe my greatest threadkill EVER. I was busy...studying your choice of pics.
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Post by YellowJacketY2J on Apr 4, 2011 21:01:46 GMT -5
I haven't seen Dressed to Kill, but am planning on doing so after your review.
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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 Apr 4, 2011 23:37:34 GMT -5
I'm going out on a limb here...I really can't wait to see Dylan Dog: Dead Of Night. Looks like fun!
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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 Apr 4, 2011 23:41:14 GMT -5
I hope that's actually the version that's going to be re-written, because not only does it seemingly forget about the mega-piranhas at the end of the first one, but it's also....retardedly easy to avoid the motherf*****s in that scenario. It's quite easy to hop out of a pool, drain the thing, and then fill it with bleachwater. End of movie. Also..."plumbing"? I'm calling it right now: there's going to be a scene of someone (either a gross fat guy or a hot chick) sitting down to take a s*** on a toilet when one of these things pops out and bites them in the ass. Or somebody gets their wang chung bitten off while taking a leak. ;D Or the guy gets eaten all the way through...right to the mouth.
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Post by YellowJacketY2J on Apr 5, 2011 22:28:48 GMT -5
I was never a big Scream fan, but I'm finding myself getting excited for the fourth one. I don't know if it's because not many horror films are showing in theaters this year (I regret missing The Rite and am on the fence for Insidious) or if I simply think it's going to be fun. It seems to still have it's snark know-it-all attitude to it, which I always hated, but think it'll be more like Scream 3. Which, for me, is a good thing. Though the first is the best, I thought the third being more like a regular slasher was more entertaining than 2, which I hated. Here's hoping that's how 4 turns out.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2011 16:01:42 GMT -5
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Post by mysterydriver on Apr 6, 2011 22:40:25 GMT -5
Dean Cain stars in Maneater
Yeah. Not the most original title and story. But it's going direct to DVD so I'll probably end up seeing it. Wanted to share the trailer.
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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 Apr 7, 2011 13:39:25 GMT -5
Dean Cain stars in ManeaterYeah. Not the most original title and story. But it's going direct to DVD so I'll probably end up seeing it. Wanted to share the trailer. * insert obligatory Hall & Oates reference *
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Post by DSR on Apr 7, 2011 18:36:19 GMT -5
* insert obligatory Hall & Oates reference * Dammit, ya beat me to it!
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Post by YellowJacketY2J on Apr 8, 2011 10:19:03 GMT -5
Finally seen Cujo. Honestly, I didn't like it. I didn't hate it, by any means, and did find Cujo circling the car to be frightening. However, I thought a golden opportunity was missed. The plot of the film centers around the Trenton family and their problems. Donna and Vic are having a marital spat, while their son, Tad, is afraid of monsters in his room. Oh, and there's a psychopathic dog thrown in. Instead of having Cujo be one of their neigbors' dog, I would have made it their dog. Have them get Cujo to protect Tad and make him feel safe, only for him to contract rabies and become the monster. Hell, there's a spot in the film where Tad screams that Cujo is the monster from his room, which would have been a more trembling phrase had the dog actually been his. {Spoiler}Think of it as the end of Old Yeller, except Yeller's getting some offense in. Overall, not necessarily a bad film, just a missed opportunity. I'd give it a C.
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BearDogg-X
Vegeta
Still lurking in the shadows....
Posts: 9,382
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Post by BearDogg-X on Apr 8, 2011 11:27:06 GMT -5
* insert obligatory Hall & Oates reference * Dammit, ya beat me to it! Watch out, boy, she'll chew you up!
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2011 13:17:16 GMT -5
You know, that's a pretty great idea when you think about it. It would've definitely made the movie a bit more frightening and actually a bit more depressing. Of course, it would be MORE depressing if they followed the ending of the book instead. {Spoiler}I believe Tad dies in the book, not in the movie. Either way, it's one of the movies that I forbid myself in seeing, just because it involves a dog. Yes, i'm like that. It just bothers the hell out of me. Yet i'll watch a movie where a meteor crash lands on Earth and causes a zombie-like attack.
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andrew8798
FANatic
on 24/7 this month
Posts: 106,084
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Post by andrew8798 on Apr 8, 2011 13:41:31 GMT -5
{Spoiler}Yeah The kid dies in the book
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