Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,406
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Oct 2, 2022 15:20:50 GMT -5
2. Dolls by Stuart Gordon (1987) I believe Stuart Gordon is infallible for me. There's something playful about his films that I've never seen from any other horror director. "Dolls" is an excellent example of this. The set design is so vivid, the characters suitably overdrawn, that sympathies are immediately distributed properly, and Gordon's direction oscillates somewhere between gothic and kid-friendly horror. Yet "Dolls" is not at all child-friendly. Only the stop-motion animations could have been sped up a bit so they wouldn't seem so stiff. My favorite film of its kind, even before "Puppet Master 2". Dolls was a great film. Waited what felt like forever to get a DVD release. I cant think of Stuart Gordon movie I flat out hate.
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Post by prettynami on Oct 2, 2022 16:26:10 GMT -5
4. Blood and Lace (1971) - A woman is sleeping with a man is murdered by a hammer wielding maniac who then lights the house on fire. It turns out that woman was the "whore" mother of Elle, a young woman who loves to wear the shortest of skirts. Anyways, she is under evaluation because she is not old enough live on her own. This eventually leads her into being kept at a house for orphan children or something after a few attempted runaways and a social worker and police investigator (Calvin) who banged Elle's mom track her down. Anyways, this house is run by an old matron and her "handyman" (Who also banged Elle's mom I presume). These two run a racket where they collect the checks for all these kids to "upkeep" their place and distribute the funds - but they really keep it all to themselves and use the kids and forced labor. They keep a bunch who tried to escape either tied up dying in the attic or already dead and frozen in the locker (So they can drag them out and put them in beds when the social workers comes around - so he thinks everyone there!). Anyways, Elle instantly starts fighting with everyone over variuous things like boys and what not, which eventually leads her to finding out about the big secret. At the same time the hammer killer has resurfaced and his apparently casing the joint. One thing leads to another and handyman (who uses a cleaver to kill) and hammerman face off in a battle to the death!
There is a fun twist at the end (with a glorious freeze frame and audio bit) that is helped by the bizarre dialogue split throughout the movie ("LOOKING FOR GOOD BREEDING STOCK!"). The movie is surprisingly deft at tying up all the loose ends and dangled possibilities it sets out. There are a few good gore chunks. It has a very TV movie feel in how it is shot. It gets a little slow at parts and all the kids beyond Elle are sort of frustratingly one note, bland, and annoying. Overall I quite enjoyed this one, I give it a 3.5 out of 5.
5. Devil's Express (1976) - A New York Kung Fu master, Master (Sifu) Luke, travels to China with his top student who steals a mystic pendent sealing away an ancient demon. The demon wants the pendent for itself to achieve full power so it travels from corpse to corpse, stealing the bodies of its' victims, to make its' way to New York where it hides in the subway because of its one great weakness (light). Here the demon makes a new home, murdering people left and right as the cops want to blame a turf war between the Asian and Black gangs. Eventually, Luke has had enough a goes to challenge the monster in a kung-fu battle for the ages!!!!!
IMDB claimed this wasn't a horror - but the music, gore, and way it was edited tell me otherwise. Anyways, the gore is pretty good (the best is a SHOCKING electrocution after effect) albeit sparse and often under-lit. The music is great, some real funk for the non-monster scenes (Which have their own odd electric beep soundtrack). The movie basically cuts between kung-fu street battles and sort of "slasher POV" kill scenes until the end when Luke has had enough and his one cop student begs him to intervene. And WOW what a battle it is! We see ZA WORLDU, Shadowclones, and a man battle a train with his kung-fu! You have to watch this for the end showdown!!!! Another one I liked a lot - 4 out of 5!
6. Opera (1989) - A Dario Argento movies about a young opera singer understudy who gets the chance to shine when a woman gets hit by a car. Soon, she finds herself at the mercy of a relentless killer who insists she bear witness to all his crimes by binding her and keeping her eyes open with a needle and tape contraption. The usual Giallo twists and turns occur.
This felt like a real regression for the director, particularly concerning how the film looks and feels. Argento still manages a few wonderful shots and some nifty camera work here and there but it still feels sort of generic and without his usual touch. One of the kills in particular is spectacularly nasty (a knife through the jaw that we see in the mouth). The twist ending is just annoying - it makes the cops look completely incompetent and a guy gets killed needlessly and no one seems to care (Which is sort of par for the course with the rest of the movie where every time a murder is committed no one cares that much!). How they corner the killer though is REALLY fun and neat and easily the best part of the movie - with its own bit of violence (Though the scene immediately following it is baffling). This was okay, but still really disappointing. I give it a 3 out of 5.
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Post by DSR on Oct 2, 2022 21:55:03 GMT -5
My next watch was SON OF DRACULA (1943), the third film in Universal's Drac series. I reviewed it way back in 2018 right here in this thread, so I figured I'd just repost that review now (I'm lazy, sorry). Tonight I re-watched SON OF DRACULA (1943), directed by Robert Siodmak and written by Eric Taylor from a story by Robert's brother Curt Siodmak. This, the third film in Universal's Dracula franchise, is set in then-present day Louisiana at a plantation house. There, a young woman named Kay (Louise Allbritton) obsessed with death and the occult, marries and lives with Count Alucard (Lon Chaney Jr., of THE WOLF MAN). Her family and friends sense there's something off about the Count, though their disbelieving minds rule out the possibility of bloodsucking until incontrovertible evidence presents itself. Can sister Claire (Evelyn Ankers of THE MAD GHOUL) and former fiancee Frank (Robert Paige of ABBOTT AND COSTELLO GO TO MARS) save Kaye? Does Kaye even want to be saved? Chaney Jr. doesn't have the sex appeal of a Bela Lugosi, but I like the quiet menace he imbues the count with, seldom raising his voice. He's very matter-of-fact about his willingness to get rid of those who interfere in his plans. He's helped out by some neat effects, transitions from bat-into-man (the first time this is shown in cinema) and mist-into-man and back. It's not a perfect picture, though. The bat prop itself isn't very convincing, but I've grown used to that in these films (Hell, Fulci couldn't get a convincing bat in THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY). Aside from that, they really beat you over the head with the "Alucard is Dracula spelled backwards" bit, and then they're vague about whether Count Alucard is the SON of Dracula as the title declares or if he's Dracula himself. It's a brisk 80 minutes, and it's not the best of either Chaney Jr.'s work or the Dracula franchise, but it's a fun picture, with atmospheric cinematography, moody shadows and whatnot. I will say, however, that this most recent viewing I was more keenly aware of the very "1943" attitudes. It was a bit difficult for me to root for rich white protagonists living in a plantation house, who casually refer to their black servants as "boys". I still think the film is a worthwhile exercise in moody gothic atmosphere and Chaney Jr.'s performance is enjoyable. Just be aware that it is very much of its time. *nervously tugs collar*
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Post by ace on Oct 2, 2022 22:00:28 GMT -5
Art is always of its time. It can’t be judged by modern standards. And, more importantly, it’s better to have a record of what used to be acceptable so people don’t forget why it shouldn’t be.
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Post by DSR on Oct 2, 2022 22:03:03 GMT -5
Art is always of its time. It can’t be judged by modern standards. And, more importantly, it’s better to have a record of what used to be acceptable so people don’t forget why it shouldn’t be. I agree, I just felt it was a noteworthy aspect of my experience watching the film this time.
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Post by ace on Oct 2, 2022 22:06:59 GMT -5
Art is always of its time. It can’t be judged by modern standards. And, more importantly, it’s better to have a record of what used to be acceptable so people don’t forget why it shouldn’t be. I agree, I just felt it was a noteworthy aspect of my experience watching the film this time. It makes reviewing old things interesting. The sensibilities and sensitivities were in a different place. Now someone would either do those things as a commentary or out of a bad place. Then… it just was the way. I like to look at it the same way I look at modern film techniques. I can’t hold it against them that the steady cam hadn’t been invented yet. And In a weird way I like that the change of context let’s you look at it through different lenses now.
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Post by DSR on Oct 3, 2022 0:21:59 GMT -5
Third film of the day for me was THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US (1956), the conclusion of Universal's Gill-Man trilogy!
Jeff Morrow (THIS ISLAND EARTH) plays Dr. William Barton, a scientist looking to experiment on the Creature. He believes that this monster from the past could help solve the riddles of mankind's future!
The Creature as a being deserving of sympathy is extrapolated further from the previous film REVENGE OF THE CREATURE: not only is he captured, his gills are badly damaged in the effort of capturing him, and the only way to save his life is to awaken dormant lungs in his body. Thus, he is forced to live on the land as an air-breather, returning to his home underwater would kill him!
The Creature's plight isn't really the main focus of the film, but rather he serves as a metaphor: he represents the baser, animalistic side of man. A member of Barton's expedition party, Dr. Tom Morgan (Rex Reason, also of THIS ISLAND EARTH) believes that mankind is at a crossroads "between the jungle and the stars". Where we came from vs. where we hope to go. The Creature's accidental evolution is seen as moving towards the stars, in juxtaposition to Dr. Barton's jealous rage when his wife (Leigh Snowden, ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS) so much as talks to another man representing regression. Dr. Barton sees infidelity where there is none, causing him to lash out. With words and later with violence...
There's some really beautiful underwater cinematography, acting is solid across the board. It's a bit depressing seeing the graceful gill-man of the water turned into a hulking brute on land, but that's kinda the point. The Creature will always be one of my favorite classic monsters, and I think I rank this film above REVENGE OF THE CREATURE (but below the original, obviously).
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Post by tntchamp on Oct 3, 2022 9:40:26 GMT -5
Day two for me
Saw 2: A very worthy follow up then manages to up the stakes and takes good advantage of having Jigsaw now up front and center as the focus to which Tobin Bell runs with it. The movie moves a entertain pace and manages to stay tense. The traps are still creative and not quite at that point to being over the top. I will say I don't find Detective Matthews to be particularly interesting to watch which I think pales more in contrast to the dynamic with Dr. Gordon and Adam in the first one. Also the movie can never quite replicate what worked for the first one to at times like I am seeing a slightly lesser version of the previous one. Still overall a very fun worthy sequel and probably the best of all the saw sequels.
Dracula (1931): A true classic though maybe not without its flaws. For the positives the most rightfully praised thing about this is Bela Lugosi iconic performance as Dracula which regardless of one might feel, has left almost everything associated with the character in pop culture tied with his portrayal of Dracula. He certainly did put his heart and soul into the character. Edward Van Sloan likewise makes for a good Dr. Van Helsing and makes for a good contrast to Bela. Finally Dwight Frye is delightfully campy and menacing as reinfield. The movie is certainly entertaining and has a nice gothic atmospheric feeling around it. That being said the other actors are kind of flat or unremarkable compared to the trio mentioned. Because too of this film being based off the stage play instead of the book (something that wasn't supposed to be the case but the great depression and studio issues said otherwise) the film does at time feels too stagey instead of film which makes things feel anticlamtic such as the ending which feels like it just all of the sudden ends. Still as a whole the stuff that works really works and it doesn't hamper the film and combats the weaker areas. I will say people have brought up the Spanish version of Dracula and for years talked about it being the superior version. At the time younger me wrote it off as the actress who said just hyping up her movie more but when I finally saw it years ago, I will say it is true. The Spanish version is superior as it takes far more advantage of doing creative things even as it is basically replicating the movie, it still does more with the camera and other little things.
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Post by DSR on Oct 3, 2022 16:08:05 GMT -5
Just finished watching KING KONG VS. GODZILLA (1963). The third film for each of those franchises, Toho handled production. Ishiro Honda is back directing The Big G, and Eiji Tsubaraya continued to handle special effects. Though I watched the re-edited "Americanized" version of the film, produced by John Beck
Godzilla emerges from a giant iceberg North of Japan and heads south towards Tokyo. Meanwhile, the owner of a television network desperate for ratings sends two of his reporters to an island south of Japan. On that island, the natives worship an unseen god believed to be a giant in his own right. Turns out that giant is King Kong!
A long stretch of the film concerns the Japanese government and military officials trying to hold back Kong and Godzilla from reaching major Japanese population centers, and civilians rushing to evacuate before the monsters can end their lives. When the military strategies all prove useless, they resort to one last plan: let the monster fight in the hopes they'll kill each other!
The image of Godzilla emerging from the iceberg is dope. There's some comic relief with one of the reporters being a buffoon. King Kong has a brief but fun battle with an octopus before drinking a berry juice the island natives make that gets him drunk! That's all good, and then there's all the bland human characters talking and planning and reporting about stuff. Then the fight at the end, which has its moments but doesn't really reach a satisfying conclusion. They didn't even use Godzilla's theme music! Instead they went with a three-chord "sting" sound that I more closely associate with the Creature from the Black Lagoon!
The more recent GODZILLA VS. KONG movie stuck the landing better. This had a fun premise but got bogged down in its execution.
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Post by tntchamp on Oct 3, 2022 17:42:41 GMT -5
Just finished watching KING KONG VS. GODZILLA (1963). The third film for each of those franchises, Toho handled production. Ishiro Honda is back directing The Big G, and Eiji Tsubaraya continued to handle special effects. Though I watched the re-edited "Americanized" version of the film, produced by John Beck Godzilla emerges from a giant iceberg North of Japan and heads south towards Tokyo. Meanwhile, the owner of a television network desperate for ratings sends two of his reporters to an island south of Japan. On that island, the natives worship an unseen god believed to be a giant in his own right. Turns out that giant is King Kong! A long stretch of the film concerns the Japanese government and military officials trying to hold back Kong and Godzilla from reaching major Japanese population centers, and civilians rushing to evacuate before the monsters can end their lives. When the military strategies all prove useless, they resort to one last plan: let the monster fight in the hopes they'll kill each other! The image of Godzilla emerging from the iceberg is dope. There's some comic relief with one of the reporters being a buffoon. King Kong has a brief but fun battle with an octopus before drinking a berry juice the island natives make that gets him drunk! That's all good, and then there's all the bland human characters talking and planning and reporting about stuff. Then the fight at the end, which has its moments but doesn't really reach a satisfying conclusion. They didn't even use Godzilla's theme music! Instead they went with a three-chord "sting" sound that I more closely associate with the Creature from the Black Lagoon! The more recent GODZILLA VS. KONG movie stuck the landing better. This had a fun premise but got bogged down in its execution. In terms of versions I have yet to see it yet (but will soon since I bought the Criterion Showa Godzilla collection) but they say the Japanese version is superior. I can believe it because the last time I watched the American cut, I could see how much the butchered the original cut.
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Post by Jumpin' Jesse Walsh on Oct 3, 2022 22:15:05 GMT -5
Up next in my focus on black & white horror . . .
Cat People (1942)
Plot: A woman believes she’s stricken with a curse that will turn her into a bloodthirsty cat if triggered by a moment of passion.
Let’s just get it out there: Cat People is all about sex. Yeah, yeah, there’s an ancient curse and all that, but the story is mainly driven by repressed sexuality. The tension feels like it entirely hinges on whether a woman will be physically intimate with her husband. That’s not even factoring in her psychologist who is willing to break all sorts of ethical boundaries in trying to bed her himself. Yikes!
As you could imagine, this was spicy stuff back in 1942. Even the sight of Lon Chaney Jr. in an undershirt in The Wolf Man was enough to get theatergoers hot under the collar. But while the restraints of the Hays Code only allows for Cat People to dance around its subject matter, it ultimately makes for a more lurid experience as a result. I feel like it has the kind of premise that would be rendered exhaustingly camp in modern day, all of its subtleties mangled as if it had been torn to shreds by real kitty claws. The film substitutes exploitation for atmosphere, casting Simone Simon’s Irena in shadow and the setting in crystalline rain and snow. If it cannot be outwardly ravishing, it can still certainly feel like it.
The best scene is its most famous—Irena stalking Jane Randolph’s Alice on her way to a bus stop. You’ve likely seen it imitated in several other movies without even realizing where it originated. The source of terror in the scene is usually pointed toward its sequence of footsteps, but I personally think this is where its strong atmosphere shines the brightest. The scene is ominously lit and smoky. An otherwise normal brick alley is twisted into a corridor leading to Hell. It’s only a few seconds in length, but the anxiety makes it feel like an eternity. Just really, really great work all round. No wonder it’s been imitated a thousand times over.
And the funny part we actually never see Irena turn into a beast. In fact, we don’t see a single cat person in this movie! Even when it shows us remarkably little, Cat People is proof that black & white movies can be just as seductive as any Technicolor extravaganza.
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mystermystery
Dennis Stamp
Still in the White Hummer
Posts: 4,381
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Post by mystermystery on Oct 3, 2022 23:02:48 GMT -5
So far, my October viewing has been
1. HOCUS POCUS 2 Because the original was shown a million times when I was in middle and high school during the month of October. I do wonder how the original film's scriptwriter, Mick Garris, feels about this one taking the horror characters he created and giving them an incredibly Disney twist. It was fine for a goofy film relying on nostalgia. One half decent jumpscare during a song, though.
2. PHANTOM OF THE MALL: ERIC'S REVENGE That's right, it's the Phantom of the Opera, but in a mall and Eric is getting his revenge. Who is Eric? Shut up. He's revenging. An 80s film with a relatively tame performance by Pauly Shore as the side character friend and a completely wasted use of Ken Foree as a security guard. The fact that they have the "Phantom" steal exercise equipment so he can stay in shape for fight scenes with karate fight choreography is enough to let you know this thing is pure nonsense. I found it fun but would never describe it higher than "okay."
I was tempted to watch this one after listening to an old podcast episode of THE BEST MOVIES NEVER MADE with the original screenwriter who is absolutely appalled with the existing film. If you ever want to hear someone argue with their full heart how their version of The Phantom of the Opera set in a mall would've been much better and impactful, check it out. (Also, you'll find out that the guy playing Eric the Phantom was signed for multiple movies because someone was convinced he'd be the new 'it' Horror icon).
3. BAD MOON Yo, what if you had a werewolf movie but it was mainly from the perspective of the family dog who realizes he's going to have to have a daggone showdown with a monster? It's barely 80 minutes with credits and bare bone presentation of the story. The non-transformation werewolf moments were amazing. Most of the performances were iffy at best. The dog rocked and should be in a movie dog Hall of Fame.
This was apparently based on a book titled "Thor" by Wayne Smith which my preliminary Googling tells me is hard to find. Bummer. I'll keep looking.
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Post by DSR on Oct 4, 2022 0:57:44 GMT -5
My next watch was a break from the Part 3 theme. Instead I went with one from my unwatched Severin DVD pile, a standalone Aussie horror pic.
NEXT OF KIN (1982) concerns Linda, a young woman who has inherited a retirement home from her deceased mother. In between handling day-to-day admin at the home and reacquainting with a former lover, Linda slowly becomes paranoid. She feels as though someone is watching her and she repeatedly has visions of a repressed memory from when she was in the retirement home as a small child. Longtime staff members/trusted family friends seem to be keeping a secret from Linda. A secret that could have deadly consequences...
Severin's DVD art features a quote from the American Genre Film Archive, likening NEXT OF KIN to "SUSPIRIA Down Under." This quote sullied my entire experience watching the film. SUSPIRIA is a film that exhudes dread from the very beginning and a film that is simply oozing with style. NEXT OF KIN tries to be a "slow-burning dread" experience, but I feel like it is far too slow. The first half is sprinkled with hints of dread, but they feel more like isolated incidents rather than a build up. Even the repressed memory is too vague to elicit a sense that something bad was going to happen.
I genuinely couldn't tell what the actual plot of the movie was until about the halfway point. From there things ramp up nicely, but without giving too much away, the threat in this film is nothing like SUSPIRIA's, as well. The only connection to SUSPIRIA is the idea of a woman moving into a new place where a threat exists, which is basically a thousand other horror films' idea.
So yeah, way to go Severin and AGFA. You put me in the wrong frame of mind. Some years down the road from now I'm gonna rewatch this movie and at least know what I'm getting into. Maybe I'll like the movie more on that future viewing. On this one I just felt like the first half could've been removed or edited down significantly and the second half should have been the whole movie.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,406
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Oct 4, 2022 1:45:52 GMT -5
Night of Anubis cut of NOTLD68. Love how it is a battered print but the sound is that nice sound from the great version on this same blu ray.
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Post by tntchamp on Oct 4, 2022 6:37:10 GMT -5
Day 3
Dog Soldiers: A ton of fun to watch and probaly one of the best werewolf movies. Kevin McKidd makes for a good lead an likewise Sean Pertwee is likeable as the gruff but caring leader and Liam Cunningham (per Davos) as the douchebag Special Ops leader. The movie manages to work well with its obvious low budget and knows how to work in it favors. Yeah The werewolf costumes may not be top notch but they are decent enough and using them as more of a shadowly figures it is a good way to do it.
Frankenhooker: Another fun movie. Frank Henenlotter to me is like Lloyd Kaufman in terms of being a guy who can make b-movies that strangely have heart and charm. The movie is twistedly wild yet still restrained. James Lorinz is actual a good lead and Patty Mullen has good comedic chops as Frankenhooker. The ending is also a hilarious and a fitting conclusion. Defiantly a movie that lives up its title.
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Post by Finish Uncle Muffin’s Story on Oct 4, 2022 6:55:14 GMT -5
I saw Smile on Sunday and liked it more than expected. It was more than just a clever marketing campaign.
Going to see Terrifier 2 later this week and excited. It's been a pretty decent few months for original horror.
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Post by Hurbster on Oct 4, 2022 6:57:46 GMT -5
The two I not sure if count: 1. ROOM 13 (1964) - A German train heist movie with a sprinkle of blackmail and a gloved serial killer with a straight edge razor running around slashing up women! Strange upbeat jazz soundtrack and background comedic side characters breaking up scenes of heist planning and taking your girlfriend to the local strip joint... Where after the boobies and butts the crowd gets a show of arterial spray! That scene was actually pretty shocking cause its like BAM. (2 out of 5) 2. SPOOKY HOUSE (2002) - A Halloween themed kids movies so weird and cringe it has to be seen to be believed. Stars Ben Kingsley (Zamboni) at what must be a career low as a disgraced magician that may have blew up his wife, Dawn Starr (a native american lady in such a stereotypical dress she probably had just left a Land O' Lakes photo shoot). He runs into some orphans that live in a pizzeria who eat caviar pizza. They are looking for their goat who was stolen by the local roving gang of tricycle riding teens who steel silverware, candy, and cigarettes (From the cigarette truck!) on the orders of a local gypsy. Hijinks ensue with Zamboni and his bet panther teaching one of the orphans, Max, the secrets of magic so they can use it to trick the evil teens! He also reveals the greatest secret of all - that he too was an orphan and the only reason his wife blew up was because he whispered to her that he hated kids! (?) Needless to say Zamboni's final trick is conjuring the adoption papers as his panther morphs into Dawn Starr and they can be a big happy family! (wut?!). Seriously, if you just want a dumb Halloween movie to watch this HAS TO BE SEEN. (I still only give it a 2 out of 5 because its still a poopy movie) 3. NIGHTBREED (1990) - My first actually horror movie of the season! Some pretty nifty visuals, action set pieces, and special effects dot this story about a village of monsters being assaulted by the outside world. It is a Clive Barker movie so it is needlessly convoluted. The main characters has a very badly fleshed out relationship with his girlfriend - so when she morphs into the person who does and sacrifices everything for him and his new monster buddies it is a real head scratcher. All of the characters talk in riddles 90 percent of the time. There are a few good twists and turns. Some of the monsters look great - others look weird and terrible. One of the best parts of the movie is how one of the monsters looks like MAC TONIGHT (lolol). I would give this one a 2.5 out of 5. I liked a lot of the individual elements but the dialogue and characters were just so own smart smellingly insipid the movie was really dragged down. It did have plenty of MONSTER BEWBS though. Was Nightbreed where Blade (of Butcher and the Blade wrestling fame) got the inspiration for his mask, from the killer in the movie?
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Post by DSR on Oct 5, 2022 0:49:32 GMT -5
Was Nightbreed where Blade (of Butcher and the Blade wrestling fame) got the inspiration for his mask, from the killer in the movie? One of his masks was inspired by the NIGHTBREED character, yes. My latest viewing was DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1965), the third entry in Hammer's Dracula series. Two adult men and their respective wives are on holiday near Carlsbad. At a tavern, an eccentric preacher warns the quartet to steer clear of a castle that doesn't show up on any map, but he insists is on their path! As they continue their travels, their carriage driver realizes they're going towards that castle and refuses to take them any further! He kicks them out of the carriage and drops all their luggage on the ground and says he'll be back after dawn the next morning. Our hapless heroes are shortly thereafter visited by another carriage, this one with no driver. They all hop in hoping to take that carriage to Carlsbad, but the horses don't respond to their whipping. Instead they take them right up to that ominous castle! They find the door is open so they walk on in, where they see a dinner table already set for 4 people. The group snoop around and find their luggage already set up for them in two bedrooms of the castle. A somewhat sinister butler arrives and explains that his now deceased master, Count Dracula, had arranged for the castle to always be prepared for visitors. Three-fourths of our protagonists see all of this as a fortunate occurrence, but the elder of the two wives (Barbara Shelley, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED) can't shake the feeling that this castle is imbued with evil energy! She's apparently always been a stick-in-the-mud to her family, so they brush off her constant feeling of dread. Though later that night, after she's awakened from a nightmare, her husband goes to inspect strange sounds outside their bedroom...and ultimately that man gets sacrificed by the butler to revive Count Dracula (Christopher Lee, HORROR EXPRESS)! PRINCE OF DARKNESS's plot is well-worn territory by now. Don't go into this picture expecting a reinvention of the vampire subgenre. But everyone from director Terence Fisher (THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN) to cinematographer Michael Reed (ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE) to the cast to music composer James Bernard (THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT) does their best with this material. It's just a well-put-together straightforward Hammer Horror film. They knew what worked and didn't feel the need to stray from their path.
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Post by tntchamp on Oct 5, 2022 8:59:21 GMT -5
Was Nightbreed where Blade (of Butcher and the Blade wrestling fame) got the inspiration for his mask, from the killer in the movie? One of his masks was inspired by the NIGHTBREED character, yes. My latest viewing was DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1965), the third entry in Hammer's Dracula series. Two adult men and their respective wives are on holiday near Carlsbad. At a tavern, an eccentric preacher warns the quartet to steer clear of a castle that doesn't show up on any map, but he insists is on their path! As they continue their travels, their carriage driver realizes they're going towards that castle and refuses to take them any further! He kicks them out of the carriage and drops all their luggage on the ground and says he'll be back after dawn the next morning. Our hapless heroes are shortly thereafter visited by another carriage, this one with no driver. They all hop in hoping to take that carriage to Carlsbad, but the horses don't respond to their whipping. Instead they take them right up to that ominous castle! They find the door is open so they walk on in, where they see a dinner table already set for 4 people. The group snoop around and find their luggage already set up for them in two bedrooms of the castle. A somewhat sinister butler arrives and explains that his now deceased master, Count Dracula, had arranged for the castle to always be prepared for visitors. Three-fourths of our protagonists see all of this as a fortunate occurrence, but the elder of the two wives (Barbara Shelley, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED) can't shake the feeling that this castle is imbued with evil energy! She's apparently always been a stick-in-the-mud to her family, so they brush off her constant feeling of dread. Though later that night, after she's awakened from a nightmare, her husband goes to inspect strange sounds outside their bedroom...and ultimately that man gets sacrificed by the butler to revive Count Dracula (Christopher Lee, HORROR EXPRESS)! PRINCE OF DARKNESS's plot is well-worn territory by now. Don't go into this picture expecting a reinvention of the vampire subgenre. But everyone from director Terence Fisher (THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN) to cinematographer Michael Reed (ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE) to the cast to music composer James Bernard (THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT) does their best with this material. It's just a well-put-together straightforward Hammer Horror film. They knew what worked and didn't feel the need to stray from their path. I enjoy Dracula Prince of Darkness quite a bit. It's a worthy follow up that mange's to stick with what worked on the last one and expand upon it. The priest (while no Peter Cushing) makes for a good foil to Dracula. It is interesting that Dracula has no real dialogue in the film which is said to be because Lee absolutely refuse to say (what he claims t least) were the terrible lines they wrote for him. Overall this was probably the third or fourth best of the series. Day 4 Smile: I liked it and thought it was fairly good albeit not as good as some of the other stuff that has came out this year. Sosie Bacon carries the film well and likewise Kyle Gallner (who I always feels stands out in any movie I have seen him in) is a very likeable character. To the movie's credit there are two actual effective jump scares that do work. There are some good creepy parts. That being said the movie at times can't quite escape the clichés surround these types of movies and near the end the film feels like it starts to lag and I found myself just waiting to get to the end which does feel like a case of "I saw that coming a mile away". Still movie is a decent good little watch. I would give it a B
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pinja
Unicron
Posts: 2,999
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Post by pinja on Oct 5, 2022 12:26:20 GMT -5
3. The Changeling (1980) by Peter Medak Finishing it took me until today, that's how disappointed I was. "The Changeling" isn't a bad movie, it's well made, has pleasent scope, an "elegant" cast in George C. Scott (of Exorcist III fame), his wife Trish Van Devere and Melvyn Douglas. Thing is: It's not much of a horror movie. The first part shows the life and troubles of composer John Russell (Scott), who just lost his wife and his daughter in a car accident. He moves into an old mansion that was empty for a long time. The second part naturally shows why it was empty: Because ghosts. It's a rather promising haunted house story until the third part kicks in, where Russell investigates the supernatural and finds a conspiracy involving Senator Joseph Carmichael (Douglas), the titular changeling. Not much haunted house from here on, but lots of John-Grisham-esque talking. It's just not interesting at all.
I hoped for a sophisticated variant of "Amityville Horror" and got a bland hodgepodge.
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