The All Things HORROR thread~!

[JRGoldman]

I went and saw The Final Girls yesterday. It was.....fine? I think I wanted it to be more referential and tongue in cheek. It's got a really fun set up with genuinely funny people, and then they decide to basically play it like a straight horror movie, only they know they're in a horror movie. I think it would have been better if they went full on in either direction; make it a scary tense horror film, or make it a comedy that pokes fun at the genre. By refusing to commit to either, the whole thing came across as a bit forgettable. 

[Roman]

The Green Inferno was horrible. Long-winded, boring, badly acted, stupid humour, utterly ridiculous... I had very low expectations going in given that it was an Eli Roth film, but not even those expectations were reached.

 

The one scene I did like was when a bunch of old women were sitting around in the cooking area, preparing the meat and just talking. It could have been any 'western society' family gathering with the grandmothers and aunts making food and gossiping. That was fun. Everything else... bad and boring. God, just so stupid.

[bobholly138]

Finally saw The Green Inferno and loved it. Having seen most of the well know cannibal films from decades ago this was a nice change of pace. Got better camera work,better acting and way better FX work. Sure the few comedy bits seems strange. But it is an Eli Roth film he always has bits of comedy mixed in with the horror.

 

Really only the CGI on the ants was disappointing. I guess I got very different tastes in cinema cause most reviews I have seen of it are from people hating it.

 

Might watch Hellroller today.

[(BP)]

I'm in a Dracula mood. I want to watch the Jack Palace one because I haven't seen it in probably twenty years, but I'd have to dig around for it. It'd be so easy to just try the Argento one on Netflix, even though I know it'll be horrible...

[RIPPA]

[Jingus]

I guess I got very different tastes in cinema cause most reviews I have seen of it are from people hating it.

Not just reviews, it's also the public. In a semi-wide release on 1,500 screens, The Green Inferno drew a PATHETIC total of under seven million bucks.

I'm in a Dracula mood. I want to watch the Jack Palace one because I haven't seen it in probably twenty years, but I'd have to dig around for it. It'd be so easy to just try the Argento one on Netflix, even though I know it'll be horrible...

If you haven't seen it, give the Frank Langella version a try. I've always thought it was a wee bit underrated, and I think it's aged better than a lot of other versions.

[The Unholy Dragon]

I guess I got very different tastes in cinema cause most reviews I have seen of it are from people hating it.

Not just reviews, it's also the public. In a semi-wide release on 1,500 screens, The Green Inferno drew a PATHETIC total of under seven million bucks.

On a $5 million budget to boot. Hopefully this is the thing to kill Eli Roth but it'll likely make a small profit once home releases happens.

[Curt McGirt]

The Langella Dracula is legit great. It has a moment that Stephen King talked up in his great book on horror in cinema and literature, Danse Macabre, that will freak you right out. A film that old having effects that still have that frisson is amazing. 

 

Halloween II is on right now and I have to say, maybe it's because I saw it first, but I like it just as much as the original (and no I am not talking about Rob Zombie's abortions). Maybe because it's so over the top but at the same time still similar. Even the dumb cop got some good lines.

 

EDIT: I think it also has to do with the ending having the best death of an immortal slasher villain ever

[Travis Sheldon]

I'm in a Dracula mood. I want to watch the Jack Palace one because I haven't seen it in probably twenty years, but I'd have to dig around for it. It'd be so easy to just try the Argento one on Netflix, even though I know it'll be horrible...

Amazon has the Dan Curtis Dracula for $7.99 on Blu-Ray

[MonteCarl]

Watched "Tales of Halloween". I dig the idea behind it and think this could be something they do every year. That said, none of the 10 stories really jumped out at me as all that great. There was some OK things throughout, but overall I wasn't that impressed. The good thing is that none of the stories were that long, so if one was kind of dragging, it wasn't long before it was over and a new story began.

[J.T.]

Someone needs to remind me to secretly set my parent's DVR to record all episodes of Ash vs. Evil Dead since I am too cheap to get STARZ at home.  

 

Or FiOS could be awesome and have a STARZ free preview weekend during Halloween.

[Technico Support]

I caught Insidious Chapter 3 over the weekend.  Not as good as the first two but a perfectly serviceable little horror film.  It was a prequel so it had some neat tie-ins to the earlier films intertwined with the plot.  The scene where The Man Who Can't Breathe stalks the girl in her room is fucking top notch.

[odessasteps]

Happy 133rd Birthday, Bela Lugosi

[nate]

Bela over Boris, all day every day

[Jingus]

Bela over Boris, all day every day

There are so many things which I simply do not understand about you, nate. So many things...

I caught the recent release The Final Girls, which was pretty cute. Weird to see Alia Shawkat in any kind of a horror film at all. The premise of the film is basically Last Action Hero except with an 80s slasher flick, having a bunch of modern-day teenagers getting sucked into a horror movie. Some people have given this one a lot of grief for being PG-13, claiming it's too tame; but if you remember how little gore that most 80s slasher flicks actually had (the MPAA was a harsh mistress back then), this one is about the same level of overall bloodiness.

[nate]

"That limey cocksookair can rrrot in hell, for all I care!"

[Curt McGirt]

I tried to find a .gif of Boris slapping the piss out of the murdering kid in Targets but no dice. That's my feelings on the subject, anyway. Bela's still awesome though. 

 

A question: Is Amityville 3D the only decent movie in the entire series? I even thought the first one sucked. 

[nate]

Amityville II shows up on lists of "horror movies you need to see" from Fangoria, Rue Morgue and the like. It has its fans, it would seem. I didn't think it was terrible, just unremarkable. May need to watch it again.

[nate]

And Bela's range was much greater than Boris'. Bela put everything into his roles; Boris' sleepwalking through roles is more obvious, when it happens.

[Tromatagon]

So Paramount basically fucked their horror output this next couple of weeks.

They changed the on demand release window for Paranormal Activity and Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse to something crazy like 15 days after it goes down to 300 theatres.  Regal and Cinemark refused to even play the movies now.  All of the theatres in my area are fucking Regal theatres, so now I gotta throw in about an hour of driving round trip to see both of these the way I want to see them.

[Curt McGirt]

Amityville II is pretty goofy; I liked it when I was a kid but a rewatch years later came up short. I mean, 3D is pretty goofy too but I like it better. I think it's just a matter of preference. The effects and acting in 3D are pretty solid and the monster in the well is cool.

[Curt McGirt]

Just saw Red Dragon again. I will always prefer Manhunter -- always -- but I really liked this one after another watch. They give way more time to Francis Dolarhyde, and initially I didn't like the fact that Fiennes played him because he's too handsome, but they cover for it. Emily Watson is really, really good. The only casting issue I still have is with Ed Norton, who looks too much of a weenie for the character, and Harvey Keitel because seeing him completely takes me out of the movie and all I see is Harvey Keitel. Not that either are bad of course, I just wouldn't put them in their roles. It might be better to have just got Scott Glenn and William Peterson back if they were going all "mix up the two movies with previous cast". The end is seriously intense but I 

don't buy Dolarhyde not breaking through that flimsy door, especially when fucking Mary-Louise Parker seemed to be doing a decent job of it.

[Jingus]

And Bela's range was much greater than Boris'. Bela put everything into his roles; Boris' sleepwalking through roles is more obvious, when it happens.

How so? Specific examples, please. Because I think the polar opposite is true. Bela's grasp of English was so limited that it kept him permanently typecast in the same tiny range of parts, over and over again. Frankenstein vs the Wolf Man was infamously recut to make the Monster mute, after preview audiences howled with laughter when they heard Dracula's voice coming out of Frankenstein's mouth.

And it's weird that you say Bela always put everything into every part, because I've seen him phoning it in, in movies co-starring with Boris. 1945's excellent Gothic chiller The Body Snatcher featured Karloff being memorably awesome as a scummy graverobber with a touch of blue-collar resentment towards the aristocratic medical community that he sells corpses to; meanwhile, Bela looks sad and lost in a completely forgettable role of a murder victim, in which he doesn't even seem to be trying to emote. Knowing his problems, I wouldn't be surprised if he was completely stoned on-camera in every scene, he sometimes appears to be making literally no effort to act and just looks confused.

Meanwhile, I've seen at least a couple dozen of Karloff's movies, and I can't remember any occasions where he was "sleepwalking". Occasionally he didn't seem to quite have a handle on the character; like in Isle of the Dead, where the ENTIRE MOVIE is sleepwalking; or in The Terror, in a movie that basically had no script and was improvised in bits and pieces over the course of several months. But even when he was in impossible situations like those, Boris was always putting forth some kind of effort. And he was excellent at never quite doing the same performance twice; he played plenty of glowering stranglers and mad doctors, but no two of them were ever entirely alike.

[Curt McGirt]

http://dailygrindhouse.com/thewire/john-carpenters-halloween-1979/

 

My folks went to see Halloween with friends when it came out. It scared the living shit out of them, and if I recall correctly, my dad turned out the lights, crept up on the ladies and did the heavy breathing later that night and spooked the bejeezus out of them when they were hanging out later. 

[nate]

The "Man Who/With ..." film he did in Britain. *Yawn* "Devil Commands." Most films he starred in between the Corman films (minus "The Terror") and "Targets." And I'll take a 24 hr marathon of "Bride of the Monster" as to ever have to suffer one more time through those four Mexican films that saw Karloff into the grave.

And, sure, I'll give you "Body Snatcher;" yes, Karloff looked great cast against Lugosi, thrown in simply for novelty of the pairing, fourth billed, and on the decline. That was all Lewton.

However, Lugosi trumps Karloff in "Black Cat" and "Raven." Their at least equal in "Invisible Ray." And Lugosi's Ygor was so far beyond Karloff's performance in his signature role, he was brought back for it in "Ghost of ..."

Now, if Gregory William Mank (in "Karloff and Lugosi: A Haunting Collaboration") is to be believed, Lugosi's approach to the Monster in "Frankenstein Meets ..." was to play off the end of "Ghost" where Ygor's brain was placed in the Monster's skull and play his lines im Ygor's voice. The director shat on that idea. Lugosi delivered the lines as instructed, audiences rejected it, and the director let Lugosi's acting take the blame. Bela was on the cusp of a renaissance, until "Frankenstein Meets ..."

Bela is awesome in all the Monograms, "White Zombie," "Devil Bat," "Human Monster," "A&C Meet Frankenstein," "... Rue Morgue," his bit roles in "Wolf Man" and "Island of Lost Souls." The Chandu films. "Mark of the Vampire" ushering a hearty performance practically mute. "Return of the Vampire." Now, it's just "name all the Lugosi films." His style is just ... a style I like better than Karloff's. All I'm saying.