@Scherp
Yes, Kill List is a good one I think. Starts off as one thing and then becomes something completely different. I liked it.
Dust Devil (1992) - A demon wanders between bodies and lands, taking the lives of people who have lost all hope in life. Finally got around to watching this and really enjoyed it. This is a really different kind of horror film, its got a feeling all of its own and really progressively builds into some crazy stuff.
Watched this on netflix streaming and it is listed as the final cut, but appears to be about 20 minutes shy of the runtime listed on the final cut DVD⊠its also in fullscreen whereas the final cut DVD is wide, so I guess it must be the cut version. Will have to see how much different the full version is. Luckily this will be one that is easy to rewatch.
31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 3
Tonight, I am giving an airing to Skew (Schelenz, 2011), one of the seemingly thousands of micro-budget first-person found footage numbers that have utterly swamped the horror genre in the last decade. But, IMO, this oneâs not too bad. Quite a creepy little pic IF youâre prepared to run with it. Youâve got to be in the mood, you know?
My Family Frightener for today is the Keanu Reeves demon-em-up Constantine (Lawrence, 2005).
31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 4
A genre classic tonight: Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (Raimi, 1987). As horrors go I prefer the first one tbh, but this sequel rides that line between goreflick and funride really well. And the almighty Bruce Campbell truly owns the picture, of course. EVERYTHING is better with more Bruce Campbell. Groovy!
Todayâs Family Frightener: The Monster Squad (Dekker, 1987).
Ha! Thatâs a coincidence last.caress, I watched Evil Dead II as well yesterday. Had only ever seen the original before and, like you, I also prefer that one to the sequel. More of a comedy horror really for me but had some fun with it.
My other 2 horrors so far this month have been Carpenterâs The Thing (Not first time viewing for me obviously but introduced it to my 16 year old and she loved it) and Jess Francoâs The Eyes of Dr Orloff.
Yeah, it was THE must-see movie when I was 15 but it hasnât held together too well going by how I felt watching it last night. Still some nostalgic kicks to be had from it, though. Mrs.caress seemed amused by my reciting the lines right along with Big Bruce.
31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 5
Today Iâm going for David Sladeâs terrific, underappreciated vampire comic adaptation, 30 Days of Night (2007). Pretty much a last hurrah (along with 2010âs Stake Land) for vampires as genuinely scary antagonists before Twilight and The Vampire Diaries and such turned bloodsuckers into THE tweenie girl heart throbs for the noughties, alas. I guess our vampires are now destined to sparkle forevermore.
My Family Frightener for today is going to be the mag-fucking-nificent Plan 9 From Outer Space (Wood, 1959).
Oasis of the Zombies (1983) - Super cheap Jess Franco nazi-zombie flic. Undead Nazi soldiers are guarding secret treasure in the African desert. I thought this was going to be pretty bad, but ended up enjoying it. The military styled action sequences are pretty good, and it was just a perfect sleazy watch for 4 in the morning. The version I watched was a low quality VHS recording with English audio, and I notice that none of the uploads at CG have the English dub. There is a recent blu ray rip though, so may have to add the English on this one
[b] Madhouse /b - Fun horror film with Vincent Price and Peter Cushing playing on a career of genre flics. Fairly light stuff but handled well with lots of great scenes and just a easy movie to watch.
Humanoids from the Deep (1980) - A scientific experiment in feeding Salmon âDNA5â to increase their size produces rapidly evolving sea monsters that want to make sweet love to big breasted females. Lots of skin, lots of pretty good gore effects, and not so great fish monster costumes. Wasnât really digging this one much until it picks up towards the end where things start getting crazy. The film has 2 directors, one female and one male(uncredited) and from what I gather, the dude did all the exploitative styled scenes, which explains a lot as I was surprised a woman directed this film while watching. This one is a toss-up for me, great ending, first half is a bore.
Carrie (2013) - Went into watching this movie thinking this title is the epitome of not needing a remake - the original film basically nailed it. After watching, I pretty much feel the same. The remake is quite a bit better than I thought it would be though, and does a good job of modernizing this tale. The addition of the new-technology ala âcyber-bullyingâ really fits the nature of the story quite well, and probably makes the film quite relatable to a modern young audience. The finale of the film benefits also from modern technology, with all the effects at hand for Carrieâs explosive rage, and this last half hour is the most impressive aspect of the movie. The final scenes with Carrie and her mother at home are great, probably more-so than the prom stuff. ChloĂ« Grace Moretz & Julianne Moore both put out a good performance as Carrie & mother, but IMO just donât match up to the original, particularly Sissy Spacekâs Carrie was perfect. Canât say Iâd ever choose to watch this remake again over the original, but its not too bad.
[b]The Sacrament /b - Ti Westâs latest entry is a mostly scene-for-scene faux documentary rip off of the Jim Jones / Jonestown story. If youâre familiar with the documentary footage from this, then youâll recognize most of this film. Interesting that Ti West makes use of the current VICE fad and presents as a VICE documentary, it looks exactly like one of their videos, is edited the same and uses the same kind of music. If it wasnât for the credits at the start, a lot of people would probably be fooled initially. Eli Roth appears to have produced the film or something, whatever âpresentsâ means in this case, and appears to be some obvious influence from Cannibal Holocaust which Roth is a huge fan of. Movie is alright, kind of a bore to me as its just a total re-telling of the Jonestown story. I liked Lenziâs Eaten Alive better.
End of Days (1999) - Better than I thought the first time around back in '99. Not a very original story, but a different kind of film for Schwarzenegger and at times pretty impressive visually. The film has a late 90s style to it that I find obnoxious, particularly with the soundtrack - at the time it was cool to have a soundtrack with popular rock bands that would sell very well as an album, but in this case the music is just mixed quietly on top of the orchestral music in random scenes where it doesnât belong. Overall, I donât know⊠not really much about this film that sticks with me
Re: Oasis of the Zombies
Poor flick by Franco, but kind of entertaining.
"The military styled action sequences are pretty good"
Thatâs because those are lifted directly from Alfredo Rizzoâs war flick Il giardino del diabolo.
I have the X-Rated Kult dvd, which has English dub.
Ah, didnât know those scenes werenât original as didnât know anything about the film prior to watching. Maybe Iâll give the Rizzo film a watch
Its certainly not a good film, but for whatever reason I just had a good time with it
31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 6
LATE SUBSTITUTION
Tonightâs number was going to be The Last Exorcism (Stamm, 2010) a brilliant and underrrated bit of Satanist fare. But, a perfect copy of The ABCs of Death 2 (various, 2014) is doing the rounds so Iâm going to âtap dat assâ this evening, and probably shift The Last Exorcism to much later in the month when Iâd planned to watch the original The ABCs of Death (various, 2012).
The Family Frightener today is going to be Silent Hill (Gans, 2006). Bit of a borderline one for my ten year-old, but Iâm confident heâs going to be cool with it.
Turistas (2006)
I donât know why this is considered in the horror category, but it usually is. Itâs also sometimes classified as âtorture pornâ, but Iâm not so sure about that, either. I tend to see it as a suspense film with action and some gore. I donât like movies classed as âtorture pornâ, but I like Turistas. Rewatching it the other night, I like it more now than when it was releasedâŠbecause I noticed more things than during my initial viewing. The Brazilian locations made it interesting, and it has good villains.
My 31 days of Halloween continued with the marvellous Eyes Without a Face (Franju, 1960) and the not so marvellous Slaughter of the Vampires (Mauri, 1962).
The sublime to the ridiculous really. EWAF is almost poetic in style and Edith Scobâs fragility and poise as the disfigured, mask wearing daughter is a beautiful example of physical acting. The monster should always be pitied in stories such as these (Frankenstein etc) and she invokes this sentiment without a single facial expression. Great stuff.
On the other hand, SOTV is a straight Dracula rip off with the man himself covered in over drawn theatre make up and involves a lot of running about. Ah well, itâs Roberto Mauri so we shouldnât really expect too much.
My thoughts/ramblings/ravings on The ABCs of Death 2 HERE[url]http://letterboxd.com/lastcaress1972/film/abcs-of-death-2/[/url].
31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 7
âWendy? Darling? Light, of my life. Iâm not gonna hurt ya. You didnât let me finish my sentence. I said, Iâm not gonna hurt ya. Iâm just going to bash your brains in. Gonna bash 'em right the f*ck in!â
A classic tonight. A masterpiece. From the mind of Stanley Kubrick and to the chagrin of original author Stephen King, tonightâs spooky treat is The Shining (1980). Redrum. Redrum. REDRUUUUUUM!
The Family Frightener for this evening will be The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror Episodes V-VIII (1994-1997).
The Shining is really good stuff, even Nicholsonâs over the top hysterics worked in the context of the film (and I say this as someone who would probably watch any movie Jack made in the '70s)
This one is on the dock for tonight, havenât seen it for a very long time. âShit, where has the time gone?â
Annabelle (2014)
This is a prequel to last yearâs hit The Conjuring, featuring the possessed doll from The Conjuringâs opening scenes. I enjoyed this one as well. Although itâs very loosely based on a supposedly true story, I heard that the ârealâ Annabelle was actually a big Raggedy Ann doll. Of course, for the movie they needed a more creepy-looking doll. Like The Conjuring, Annabelle has a creepy vibe, something that can be hard to come by in most of todayâs American horror movies. Iâve seen so many horror movies that itâs hard for me to say itâs scary, but I appreciate the atmosphere that it creates and mostly maintains. And there are a couple of scenes that are particularly effective.
Only a quarter of the way through, and theyâre starting to get to me now. Had a terrifying and really lucid, vivid dream about my house (not my actual house, just a house that was mine in the dream) being possessed by something, and specific parts of that house gripping me with a paralyzing yet somehow really familiar sense of dread. Woke up in the night too scared to move. Really needed to pee though, and had to get up, which kind-of broke the spell, thankfully. Get a grip, man! Youâre 42 years old and easily the scariest thing in the immediate vicinity!
Anyway.
31 DAYS of HALLOWEEN - DAY 8
Some much lighter fare tonight: Starring Chris Sarandon in one of the all-time great vampire portrayals, itâs Fright Night (Holland, 1985). Couldâve gone with the updated version featuring Colin âEyebrowsâ Farrell in a vastly inferior portrayal of vampire Jerry Dandridge and an admittedly terrific turn from David Tennant as a sort-of âCriss Angel: Mindfreakâ version of Peter Vincent but, at the end of the day, you canât top the original with Roddy McDowellâs âDr. Shock/Deadly Earnestâ take on the character, or Stephen Geoffreysâ iconic portrayal of âEvilâ Ed. And thereâs the superb classic-80âs soundtrack too: The still-awesome April Wine - Rock Myself to Sleep[/url], Ian Hunter - A Good Man in a Bad Time, Sparks - Armies of the Night and of course [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXw8-yo0H9Y]Brad Fiedelâs Come to Me[url]April Wine - Rock Myself To Sleep (Official Music Video) - YouTube. Oh, youâre so COOL, Brewster!
This eveningâs Family Frightener will be classic fifties atomic giant ant-a-thon Them (Douglas, 1954).
Finally watched SCANNERS.
More about it later (constantly checking if my head is still there)
