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Post by DSR on Aug 21, 2020 0:49:42 GMT -5
50 states horror project: Florida
KILLING SPREE (1987) comes from writer/director Tim Ritter (maker of other direct-to-video horrors like TRUTH OR DARE?: A CRITICAL MADNESS). Ritter was in his late teens at the time the film was made.
KILLING SPREE tells the tale of Tom Russo (Asbestos Felt, a frequent Tim Ritter collaborator). Tom is a scrawny, shaggy-haired man with a big bushy beard and wild eyes. He's also the husband to a real cutie named Leeza. Tom reads his wife's diary one day and discovers that his wife is cheating on him. Several times over, with delivery men, repairmen, and even Tom's best friend. This causes Tom to snap, and he proceeds to call these people over to his house, one by one, and slaughter them in over-the-top gorefest action: body parts get chopped off, intestines get pulled out, and blood splatters everywhere, all while Tom cackles like a loon!
All is not as it seems, though. With bills piling up and Tom forced to take a paycut at his work, Leeza decided to take perfectly ordinary interactions with these men in her life and fabricate from them fantasy stories of infidelity so she could sell them to a trashy romance magazine! When Leeza comes home with the check for selling those stories, she and her husband reveal to each other what they've been doing JUST IN TIME for the victims of Tom's murderous rampage to rise from their graves, hoping to enact their bloody revenge upon these incredibly stupid people...
I was originally planning to compare this film to a standard-issue porno plot, but with a twist: the film repeats a pattern of Tom reading a story in the diary and envisioning his wife's affair (though no nudity is shown) followed by a scene of Tom brutally killing a man. The film denies a sexual payoff for the viewer, but "blows its load" on the blood and guts. But midway through the film, Perry Monroe's synth-heavy score blatantly steals a passage from CREEPSHOW (specifically, the music from the "Something to Tide You Over" segment). From that point on, I noticed that Asbestos Felt's constant scenery chewing was deliberate. I noticed that the film's color palette shifted to stark blues and reds during murder scenes and during Tom's "visions" of Leeza's cheating. And I noticed the camera angles occasionally went a little slanty.
I swear I didn't plan to reference CREEPSHOW for two reviews in a row, but this is a super-low-budget CREEPSHOW homage! It's not my fault!
The film isn't scary, but it is darkly humorous, and I found it very enjoyable. If you like gore, give it a go!
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Post by Jumpin' Jesse Walsh on Aug 21, 2020 18:57:11 GMT -5
So the decision has been made and I may as well crank it out before the season ends . . .
My review of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)
Plot: Set one year after the events of the first film, the murderous fisherman returns to stalk a group of college students at a luxurious resort in the Bahamas.
I’m honestly not a huge fan of I Know What You Did Last Summer. I know it gets plenty of nostalgic Millennial love, but I personally find it pretty routine and basic, even though I concede the Sarah Michele Gellar chase sequence is an all-time great one. Regardless of what I think, the film was unquestionably a huge hit and a sequel was quickly greenlit with the even longer title I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. While the first coasted on the success of Scream and the charm of its main stars, a lot of that sheen had dissipated by the time the sequel came out. It was savaged by critics and quickly forgotten.
But here’s the thing: I think I like it more than the first one?!?!? Let’s not get things confused here⏤ it’s completely stupid and unrealistic. It’s loud and shiny and chock full of late ‘90s slasher tropes. You would die of alcohol poisoning if you took a shot after every jump scare. The first movie was not quite as vapid (though still pretty vapid), but it also kinda played things safe in its quest to be Scream lite. I Still Know ups the ante on just about everything in the way all horror sequels do and while it’s never going to make the list of all-time great part twos, it does at least make for some entertaining trash.
When it’s not diving into the book of cliches, it works overtime to show the year is in fact 1998. The soundtrack alone could tell you that. There’s a lovely club sequence set to Orgy’s “Blue Monday,” for example. If that’s not enough, the film makes the smart choice to cast Brandy Norwood, whose fame had reached its zenith. She’s actually a lot of fun here! “The Boy is Mine” was one of the biggest hits of the year and thanks to the casting of Mekhi Phifer, the music video makes for an amusing companion piece to the movie. Freddy Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt are back, and their line delivery is thankfully campier this time around. Our gal pal Jen even does that moronic bit where she calls out the killer again. Bless her!
The finale features one of my least favorite tropes of the late ‘90s slasher cycle, which is the reveal that not only one of our whitbread characters is in cahoots the killer, but also suddenly an uber charismatic wise guy. The line “What your favorite radio station, Julie?” may as well be “What’s your favorite scary movie, Sidney?” except our villain doesn’t have the Skeet Ulrich charm to pull it off. Like virtually every slasher movie, it’s hard to tell if the characters are hapless college students or full-fledged adults. They’re living the dorm life and attend class, but then they go clubbing and drink dark and stormy’s. In my college experience, I was usually too poor and not cool enough to do much of the latter. Then again, it’s safe to say nobody will accuse this of being an honest portrait of collegiate life anyway.
So, yeah, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer will absolutely meet your low expectations but if you’re able to lower them to a certain point, you’ll get a little fun out of it. At the least, compared to its predecessor, I suggest you dig your hooks into this one instead.
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Post by DSR on Aug 25, 2020 0:37:07 GMT -5
50 states horror project: Tennessee
SAVAGE VENGANCE (1992) - Yes, the title is misspelled, that's how it shows up on the screen. Donald Farmer (VAMPIRE COP, SHARK EXORCIST) wrote and directed this unofficial sequel to I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE. Camille Keaton (star of the original I SPIT) plays Jennifer (whose last name is conspicuously edited out of the dialogue because Meir Zarchi threatened legal action), who survives a gang-rape by what looks like a Bon Jovi cover band in the opening credits. Five years later, we learn Jen got revenge against her attackers, went to trial for it, and was found not guilty. She's now a law student, but she decides she's had it with college and grabs a friend, Sam (Linda Lyer), and drives off to the country.
Along the way, Jennifer and Sam stop at a convenience store where a creep (Donald Farmer, the aforementioned writer/director) hits on Sam and doesn't take "no" for an answer. Sam is saved by a man with an Elvis impersonator haircut and offers to show her gratitude if the guy stops by the place where the two girls are staying. Well, turns out wannabe Elvis and the creep were in cahoots. They get the two girls secluded, rape and kill Sam and then rape Jennifer and leave her for dead. Before the film is over, they'll wish they finished the job...
I've never seen Meir Zarchi's own sequel I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE: DEJA VU, nor have I seen the 2010 remake or its 2 sequels, but I've gotta believe they at least diverge into some new territory for the premise. This is just the first movie over again, with worse actors and poofy 80s hair. I mentioned two musical acts in my synopsis above because the film's music is the only really unique thing about it: we get bar scenes featuring a hair metal band and a country band, and each performs a full song (presumably to get the movie up to feature length). The movie's score, such as it is, consists of casio keyboard acid jazz...I think. It's mostly a lot of overbearing keyboard noodling.
There's one good gory kill and I sorta kinda like the music, but this SOV flick is altogether unnecessary. According to IMDB, Camille Keaton left the project before it was finished AND had her name taken off (she's credited under a pseudonym). I can't say I blame her.
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mystermystery
Dennis Stamp
Still in the White Hummer
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Post by mystermystery on Aug 27, 2020 19:10:49 GMT -5
Had a Shudder double feature
30 MILES TO NOWHERE is a psychological horror film that follows a group of old high school friends (And one college aged girl dating one of the older guys of the group) reunited for the funeral of one of their own, dealing with old flames, guilts, and heldover tensions from decades before...all the while strange things start happening. Blood in the sinks. Animals in the basement. Dead dogs just about everywhere.
It really wants to drive home an idea of shared psychosis, hinting at supernatural while some entity is playing on the character of the characters.
Doesn't really deliver on the build and the reveal is fine, but the ending is beyond predictable the moment the third act starts. I'd probably give it a 2 out of 5, 4 out of 10, or a sink full of blood out of tripping into the burial hole.
RANDOM ACTS OF VIOLENCE follows a comic book writer who is finishing up the very profitable run of his best selling slasher book based on a literal serial killer who never caught. There's only one problem, he can't figure out the ending.
Oh, and the killer is killing again. And now, he's targeting the writer's tight-nit group of friends.
Directed by Jay Baruchel, the film really flirts with the idea of "Is the creator responsible for the reaction to the creation" but I feel like it really pulls its punches and becomes a metaphorical mess by the end. It's a very brutal film, but in the end I didn't find it all that engaging. Jordanna Brewster is really good in it, though.
I'd probably give it a 2 out of 5, a 4 out of 10, or a blood splattered comic page out of kill van diorama.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,404
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Aug 29, 2020 0:00:38 GMT -5
With it being a bit over a month until October,I have been collecting up what I am gonna watch each day in October.
Got 17 of my 31 things picked out. But have ran into a snag. Last year I found a vhs copy of Sleepy Hollow High.A 2000 horror film that appears only got a VHS release.
The issue is right now my VCR isn't hooked up and I rather not have to dig it out,unhook something from the tv ,plug the VCR in and all that to watch one movie. I have already searched Youtube and Dailymotion and it isn't on either.
If anyone knows of a legal streaming app or site the film is on. Or hell if it is out on DVD and I just didn't search well enough let me know.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,404
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Aug 29, 2020 0:47:50 GMT -5
And I found Sleepy Hollow High on DVD for cheap and ordered it.
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Post by DSR on Aug 29, 2020 12:59:06 GMT -5
50 states horror project: Rhode Island
INKUBUS (2011), with its title (stylized in the film to feature a backwards K) makes me want to make a bunch of nu metal jokes. Ironically, the star of the film is one Joey Fatone, most famous as a member of the boy band NSYNC. Fatone plays Detective Tom Caretti of the Wood Haven Police Department. On the last night of work before the closure of the old police station, Caretti and a small cadre of cops have a young man in custody. They question him about an incident: he's covered in his girlfriend's blood and the man says that a mysterious figure decapitated his girlfriend while he was making love to her. The police officers find this highly unlikely, as there's no evidence at the young man's home of a break in.
While the interrogation occurs, a man dressed in black (horror icon Robert Englund) arrives at the police station, carrying the head of the aforementioned girlfriend! The mystery man identifies himself as Inkubus (again, backwards K, "to differentiate me from other incubi") and gleefully takes credit not only for this murder, but for several other unsolved murders dating back centuries. While Caretti and his crew don't believe he committed all of these murders, there are some cold cases linked to a figure known as Inkubus, and the since-retired Detective Diamante (William Forsythe, DICK TRACY) who worked those cases is called in to help out.
We find out Inkubus isn't lying when he says he's a demon, and he uses his powers to mess with the heads of the police officers on duty this night. He won't rest until he finishes his business with Diamante. Also, this film's story is told in flashback, as Detective Caretti is strait-jacketed and being interviewed by a psychiatrist at the start, and he's telling the story of what happened that fateful night, so finding out what exactly drove him crazy is a pretty big priority.
A demon playing mind games with a small crew of police officers has potential to be intriguing, but INKUBUS never lives up to that potential. There are decent gore effects, and Englund and (especially) Forsythe give great performances. But there's nothing really inventive about the film. Direction is standard, the color pallet is de-saturated. Every bit of demonic imagery on the screen is just so obvious, like there's no subtlety to it AND it's not over-the-top enough to be enjoyed in that way.
The whole film is just middle-of-the-road. There's one demon baby puppet that's kind of funny on accident, but otherwise this is just an average, average movie.
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mystermystery
Dennis Stamp
Still in the White Hummer
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Post by mystermystery on Aug 29, 2020 16:58:29 GMT -5
50 states horror project: Rhode Island INKUBUS (2011), with its title (stylized in the film to feature a backwards K) makes me want to make a bunch of nu metal jokes. Ironically, the star of the film is one Joey Fatone, most famous as a member of the boy band NSYNC. Fatone plays Detective Tom Caretti of the Wood Haven Police Department. On the last night of work before the closure of the old police station, Caretti and a small cadre of cops have a young man in custody. They question him about an incident: he's covered in his girlfriend's blood and the man says that a mysterious figure decapitated his girlfriend while he was making love to her. The police officers find this highly unlikely, as there's no evidence at the young man's home of a break in. While the interrogation occurs, a man dressed in black (horror icon Robert Englund) arrives at the police station, carrying the head of the aforementioned girlfriend! The mystery man identifies himself as Inkubus (again, backwards K, "to differentiate me from other incubi") and gleefully takes credit not only for this murder, but for several other unsolved murders dating back centuries. While Caretti and his crew don't believe he committed all of these murders, there are some cold cases linked to a figure known as Inkubus, and the since-retired Detective Diamante (William Forsythe, DICK TRACY) who worked those cases is called in to help out. We find out Inkubus isn't lying when he says he's a demon, and he uses his powers to mess with the heads of the police officers on duty this night. He won't rest until he finishes his business with Diamante. Also, this film's story is told in flashback, as Detective Caretti is strait-jacketed and being interviewed by a psychiatrist at the start, and he's telling the story of what happened that fateful night, so finding out what exactly drove him crazy is a pretty big priority. A demon playing mind games with a small crew of police officers has potential to be intriguing, but INKUBUS never lives up to that potential. There are decent gore effects, and Englund and (especially) Forsythe give great performances. But there's nothing really inventive about the film. Direction is standard, the color pallet is de-saturated. Every bit of demonic imagery on the screen is just so obvious, like there's no subtlety to it AND it's not over-the-top enough to be enjoyed in that way. The whole film is just middle-of-the-road. There's one demon baby puppet that's kind of funny on accident, but otherwise this is just an average, average movie. I actually did an (poorly) animated review of that one a long, long time ago...and I'm just going to share it.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2020 20:28:18 GMT -5
www.shoutfactory.com/product/friday-the-13th-collection-deluxe-edition?product_id=7444Scream/Shout Factory is releasing the ENTIRE Friday the 13th saga on October 13th. List of most features are in the link but it has a ton of new features. Unfortunately it doesn't look like the deleted footage that they had to cut for the MPA is going to be included, but still, this looks incredible. 1-4 is getting 4K transfers and even Part 3D is getting a Real 3D transfer as well, so no more red and blue glasses. Any surviving uncut footage, outside of Part 1 and JGTH, is either in incredibly poor shape (battered VHS workprints of 6 and 7) or flat out no longer exists. Paramount cleaned out their vaults in 1991 and most, if not all, of that uncut footage was lost. So you're never going to see a box set with uncut versions of anything outside of the aforementioned. This box set looks awesome though, and is about as definitive as it gets for Friday fans. HOLD THE F***ING PHONE! bloody-disgusting.com/home-video/3630231/scream-factory-fully-details-friday-13th-collection-blu-ray-release-uncut-gore-footage-part-2/They've announced the special features and they FOUND THE UNCUT GORE FOOTAGE FROM PART 2.
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Post by prettynami on Sept 2, 2020 21:15:13 GMT -5
I'd like to imagine they found it in a shoebox in a stable or something random. Like you always hear in these "found lost footage" things.
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Post by DSR on Sept 2, 2020 22:08:21 GMT -5
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Post by DSR on Sept 4, 2020 1:25:43 GMT -5
Sorry to double post but...
50 states horror project: North Dakota
THE ABORTED (2010) comes to us from Down Twisted Studios, a no-budget SOV troupe led by writer/director/editor/actor/musician Sonny Fernandez.
Morose Tyson and geeky Tom investigate the mysterious death and mutilation of Tyson's younger sister (everyone in this movie looks to be college-aged). Their amateur detective work leads them to goth girl Raven, who discretely performed a bathtub abortion for the young woman because her parents would kill her if they found out she had the procedure done. I imagine the parental punishment wouldn't have actually been as severe as what she got: aborted babies coming out of the toilet and tearing her to shreds! Tyson's sister, it turns out, is but the first of many victims of these babies: girls that had the procedure performed on them AND the guys that got them pregnant in the first place start turning up dead and disemboweled. As if losing his sister wasn't bad enough, Tyson learns that Tom recently lost his virginity, and the girl he lost it to also recently had an abortion. Can Tyson save his best friend before it's too late?
After I finished the movie, I listened to a tiny bit of Sonny Fernandez's audio commentary (as an aside, his voice sounds like a cross between Dusty Rhodes and Boomhauer from King of the Hill), and he's well aware this movie isn't technically any good. Special effects consist of baby dolls covered in duct tape, tinfoil, and what appears to be paper mache. Killings are typically shown in fast motion, with pre-recorded baby giggles on the soundtrack and fake blood splattering in every direction. The same home office is used as a location in three different characters' homes (with a homemade wooden sign with "Down Twisted" printed on it hanging from the wall). Acting is clearly non-professional, and the actors frequently drop an f-bomb when they can't think of any other word to use (which is often).
As mentioned, Fernandez knows this, he just hopes undiscriminating gorehounds will appreciate his enthusiasm and not take the film itself too seriously. He says this, but the opening credits feature pictures of actual aborted fetuses and the film gets heavy-handed whenever a female character questions whether or not she did the right thing in terminating her pregnancy. It's seemingly a pro-life morality play that also wants you to laugh at bloody baby dolls getting hit with baseball bats. I wouldn't recommend this film to anybody ever, but for good or ill it kept my attention.
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Post by DSR on Sept 6, 2020 21:47:05 GMT -5
Oh no, I'm triple posting! 50 states horror project: Indiana BACKWOODS (1986) also known as GEEK, was directed by Dean Crow (TWICE UNDER) from a story he came up with (script written by Charles Joseph, who also wrote TWICE UNDER). A city-dwelling young couple, cautious Jamie and adventurous Karen, are vacationing in the Kentucky woods (I never said the films in this project had to be set in the states in which they were shot). Despite every effort on the part of a local ranger to dissuade them, Karen insists that she and Jamie take the "unlucky" path. Things go well enough that night, but the morning sees our protags waking up to the sound of gunfire. They rush out of their tent to find a weathered old man standing over a badly choking young girl. Jamie, it turns out, is a doctor, and he quickly performs a tracheotomy, saving the young girl's life. The old man, Eben, is grateful for the help to his daughter, and offers to repay the young couple with a home-cooked meal and a place to spend the night. Jamie is reluctant, but Karen insists, thinking it rude to turn down Eben's hospitality. The next day (our third overall) sees Karen startled by the appearance of a wild-eyed, bearded, drooling man. This seemingly feral man chases Karen back to Eben's house, where it turns out Eben is the father of this mentally handicapped man (whose name is William). Jamie has had a bad feeling about this place from the start, and is now fully ready to hoof it back to some main road somewhere. Karen insists that the couple stick around at least until they can determine that Eben's little girl will be alright. Karen says that, while initially startled by William's appearance, she now has a better understanding and will be alright. Still, when Jamie and Eben go hunting in the woods, Karen is scared both for herself and Eben's little girl when William starts creepily sneaking around the house and watching her. While hunting, Eben tells Jamie why William caused him to become a widower, and Jamie suddenly fears for Karen's safety and runs back to the house. When he arrives and sees William attacking Jamie, he fires his gun at the man. Eben suffers a heart attack and dies. William attacks Jamie. Eben's daughter tries to break William off of Jamie. Karen picks up Jamie's gun and fires it at William, but kills Eben's daughter by accident. Our cast of characters is now down to two: Karen and William. The same adventurous spirit that got Karen into this mess in the first place is now the only hope she has of surviving her ordeal with the animalistic William... The alternate title GEEK comes from William's habit of biting the heads off of a number of chickens that walk around Eben's land. Chickens are a recurring theme throughout the film, as those chicken heads are seen multiple times throughout the woods before William is introduced. Also, any time Jamie tries to be cautious about the couple's situation, Karen taunts him about being cowardly, or "chicken". The small cast and crew of BACKWOODS typically have only this film to their credit OR this film and the aforementioned TWICE UNDER (which is an action revenge film). But for seeming amateurs these people all do a great job. Dick Kreusser as Eben is a highlight, as even though his character is truly grateful for the help he's received, there's just the slightest hint of menace in his voice where I felt like the young couple saying the wrong thing could flip a switch within Eben and turn him against them. The overall feel of the film is a slow-moving dread. I said earlier that Karen's attitude is what causes the problems for the couple to begin with, but Karen and Jamie are portrayed as a sweet, loving couple, so you still wind up rooting for them. It feels like there could have been a version of this story where the city couple and the rural family could've had a pleasant interaction and gone their separate ways, but simply because we know things will inevitably go sideways, we're left waiting for the trap to spring. Human gore is kept to a bare minimum, but when it does show up it is simple and effective. Though I believe at least one actual chicken was harmed in the making of this film, so animal lovers might not be willing to check it out. I thought the overall film was pretty good, though, with a few interesting camera shots, a creepy opening credits song, and, as mentioned, a game cast.
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Post by Jumpin' Jesse Walsh on Sept 11, 2020 20:23:50 GMT -5
My review of Alone in the Dark (2005)
Plot: Based off the popular video game series of the same name, a paranormal detective and an archaeologist battle creatures from an ancient civilization who are invading present day.
My first Use Boll movie! Dare I say I’m a little excited? Such a degree of infamy proceeds him. To be given chance after chance, millions of dollars, and fairly name casts to produce one turkey after another is truly something to behold. That’s not even including his extreme defensiveness toward his critics (going so far to challenge them in legit boxing matches) or his massive delusions of grandeur that I honestly can’t tell are just his way of trolling. There’s a lot to unpack with the Raging Boll, so I might as well start with his most well-known film Alone in the Dark, a key fixture on the IMDB Bottom 100.
Alone in the Dark’s failure is so profound because it does so little with what it was given, and it was given a lot. The movie was inexplicably rewarded a budget of 20 million dollars, most of which went to the special effects. The cast isn’t just some motley crew of Z-listers. It stars the likes of Christian Slater, Tara Reid, Stephen Dorff, etc. These are real, famous people! They even got a bunch of metal bands to compile a two-part soundtrack. None of this guarantees a great movie, but perhaps it could’ve turned out a little more fun. And that’s the thing⏤this isn’t fun. This is a movie that’s bad in that banal sort of way.
I would’ve enjoyed it more if I could make any sense of the story and I really can’t. I’m not familiar with the video game series this is based upon so I can’t say how well this represents the source material, but I doubt the story in the games is as convoluted and overstuffed. Basically a portal to another dimension opens somewhere and causes creatures from the past to unleash terror on the present? That’s all I got. I’m definitely not the only one who feels this lost. Audiences in test screenings were so confused by the plot that Boll slapped on a lengthy backstory scroll at the beginning, which only kills the buzz right out of the gate. I usually have a high tolerance for nonsense. Lucio Fulci's Gates of Hell trilogy is a bunch of nonsense, but that makes up for it in atmosphere, gruesome effects, and, y’know, fun. This movie is coated in a vague big budget sheen, amorphous and rubbery all the way through.
In many circles, Alone in the Dark is also known as The One with Tara Reid as an Archaeologist. It’s an awkward casting decision for sure but if you expected some campy goodness to come out of it, prepare to be disappointed. If you just imagine Tara Reid trying to put on her best science teacher impersonation, that’s about the extent of it. She doesn’t even get the occasional kitschy moment or two like Denise Richards’ nuclear physicist in The World is Not Enough. I’m much more uneasy about Christian Slater as our protagonist, mainly because I generally have a hard time to believing him as the good guy in any movie. I’m not sure how much of that is influenced by his offscreen exploits, but this is also the same guy in Heathers who wanted to blow up his entire class so hey.
So my first experience with Uwe Boll exactly meets my expectations, which means Alone in the Dark is shitty, boring, and kinda awkward. I wish Boll made bad movies that are just as wild and eccentric as his personality. Unfortunately, this movie is neither. Your time will be better spent, well, actually sitting alone in the dark.
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Post by DSR on Sept 14, 2020 13:56:33 GMT -5
50 states horror project: South Dakota
CHARMS (1973), also known as HEX and THE SHRIEKING, utilizes the wide open spaces and rolling hills of the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation to tell a tale set in post-WWI Nebraska.
Our main characters are two beautiful young women, Oriole "Rio" (Tina Herazo, who would change her acting name to Christina Raines and star in films like THE SENTINEL) and her younger sister Acacia "Cash" (Hilary Thompson, THE FURY). Cheerful Cash and stoic Rio live the quiet life way outside of town, but their quiet is disrupted by the appearance of a biker gang! These hooligans (including among them Keith Carradine, COWBOYS & ALIENS and Gary Busey, THE GINGERDEAD MAN) recently ran afoul of some nearby townsfolk of the gun-toting variety and ask the girls if they can hang out at their place 'til the heat dies down. I say they ask, but in actuality, they insist upon it, and the girls oblige when they see they're outnumbered (and Rio's gun jams when she tries to shoot one of the bikers).
Rio and Cash are as hospitable as they can be, but Rio never even suggests that she appreciates the new company. When Busey's character, Gibson, finds a Native American costume in the girls' house, they reveal that their father was Native and their mother was white. Later that night, Rio catches Gibson sexually assaulting her sister Cash and gets the two away from each other. Still later in the night, Gibson is attacked and killed by an owl! The following day one of the bikers finds owl feathers among Rio's belongings, but he keeps his mouth shut until he can find more evidence that the woman is using supernatural forces to attack the gang. The rest of the bikers remain blissfully unaware as they continue to hang out. Ultimately, Rio and Cash each take a liking to one of the fellas in this gang of hoodlums, much to the dismay of the lone female of their group, China (Doria Cook, THE SWARM). China will pick a fight with Rio in particular that may have deadly consequences...
I came into this film expecting a supernatural rape-revenge thriller/allegory about the plight of Native Americans, and apparently when 20th Century Fox picked the film up for distribution they tried to cut it that way. But CHARMS, by design, is a sampler platter of late 60s-early 70s drive-in cinema. It's a biker movie, it's a western, it's a comedy, and in a few fleeting moments, it's a horror movie. Director and co-writer Leo Garen designed it that way, zig-zagging from one tone to the next all in the name of entertainment.
CHARMS is a baffling movie. I don't know whether I liked it or not, but I want to rewatch it gussied up in HD with a commentary track or two. It's a fascinating picture and I think it deserves to be seen. Somebody get this flick a cult following!
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Sept 16, 2020 16:35:53 GMT -5
How many of ya’ll are doing 31 horror movies in October? For the past two years I’ve tried to watch at least 31 horror movies I haven’t seen before (or haven’t seen in so long they might as well be new to me).
I’m tempted to put in some re-watches in the mix this year. I could probably still watch all ones I haven’t seen but I’m there’s a lot of fun movies I own or have easy access to. Like the first two Creepshows, some Amicus films, and I just got that huge Herschell Gordon Lewis Blu-ray set not that long ago and still need to watch it. For new stuff I’m starting to scrap the bottom of the barrel of Something Weird’s regular horror stuff and may have to dive into my budget sets. Streaming has a ton of horror stuff I haven’t gotten to yet, but most of its newer and I’m sure a lot of it is crap.
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Post by DSR on Sept 16, 2020 19:55:53 GMT -5
How many of ya’ll are doing 31 horror movies in October? For the past two years I’ve tried to watch at least 31 horror movies I haven’t seen before (or haven’t seen in so long they might as well be new to me). I’m tempted to put in some re-watches in the mix this year. I could probably still watch all ones I haven’t seen but I’m there’s a lot of fun movies I own or have easy access to. Like the first two Creepshows, some Amicus films, and I just got that huge Herschell Gordon Lewis Blu-ray set not that long ago and still need to watch it. For new stuff I’m starting to scrap the bottom of the barrel of Something Weird’s regular horror stuff and may have to dive into my budget sets. Streaming has a ton of horror stuff I haven’t gotten to yet, but most of its newer and I’m sure a lot of it is crap. I do at least 31 (usually twice that) every year. My new job has me working LOTS of hours, so I might not have it in me to hit 60, but I'm gonna do my best. For the past few years I've done some sort of theme for the bulk of my viewing, and then thrown in other stuff that the stuff within the theme reminds me of. The theme I had in mind this year was just a bunch of flicks with "HOUSE" in the title. I also still have this 50 states horror project I've been doing, and I'm not even halfway through the country. And I'm kinda feeling some late 70s-late 80s Italian horror. So I'll probably just do a hodge-podge of things I've got laying around. We'll see.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,404
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Sept 16, 2020 20:48:37 GMT -5
I'm doing at least 31 films in october. Got about half of mine picked out. No theme this year. My buddy CodyLL is doing 31 hammer films. I will post links to his reviews here. I keep trying to get him to join.
But he had a horrible experience at another forum and has sworn off social media.
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Post by prettynami on Sept 16, 2020 21:10:11 GMT -5
I've got my stockpile sitting and waiting for october. I'm hoping not to watch anything I have already seen, but so many movies merge together in my brain you never know... Specially those ancient black and white poverty row ones. Gonna hit up the randomizer and pray for the best, hahaha.
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adamclark52
El Dandy
I'm one with the Force; the Force is with me
Posts: 8,139
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Post by adamclark52 on Sept 16, 2020 21:23:52 GMT -5
How many of ya’ll are doing 31 horror movies in October? For the past two years I’ve tried to watch at least 31 horror movies I haven’t seen before (or haven’t seen in so long they might as well be new to me). I’m tempted to put in some re-watches in the mix this year. I could probably still watch all ones I haven’t seen but I’m there’s a lot of fun movies I own or have easy access to. Like the first two Creepshows, some Amicus films, and I just got that huge Herschell Gordon Lewis Blu-ray set not that long ago and still need to watch it. For new stuff I’m starting to scrap the bottom of the barrel of Something Weird’s regular horror stuff and may have to dive into my budget sets. Streaming has a ton of horror stuff I haven’t gotten to yet, but most of its newer and I’m sure a lot of it is crap. i usually watch one movie a day and all I watch is horror and whatever my kids want, so chances are I’ll do it without trying
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