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38 minutes ago, Cameron Swift said:

Not a horror film at all, but it's a decent watch.

I'm not much of a horror buff, and when I browse the horror section on Netflix, there are tons of shitty looking stuff, so help me separate the wheat from the chaff. Any recommendations for films from the last 5-10 years? Recent stuff I've liked - It Follows (loved), The Witch, Oculus, The Haunting, Afflicted. Big fan of tension and suspense rather than gore.

I've heard the Evil Dead remake was surprisingly good. Is there truth in that? (I barely remember the original, so have no special love I need to overcome)

Of what I've watched the last few weeks, and mentioned in other threads:

I liked It Follows

I thought Goodnight, Mommy was boring and played a shitty unfair game with the audience that wasn't as clever as it thought it was

I loved We Are Still Here

I really liked Dead Silence although it is pretty absurdly over-the-top goofy

I was genuinely unsettled by Berberian Sound Studio

 

Since then we've been revisiting old favorites: Re-Animator, F13 Pt. 4, Hellraiser.

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OCTOBER 1

001. Cujo: I had somehow never seen this, and it was about to roll off Netflix Streaming, so I went the Stephen King adaptation as my first entry for October 2016.  It's pretty standard, with the dog and Danny Pintauro being the best actors in the film.  Gotta say, Dee Wallace Stone is on my shit list for being one of the worst movie parents I've ever seen.  She cheats on her husband with his longtime friend who turns out to be an obsessive asshole.  She treats her kid like a bag of potatoes, as is she can't really be bothered to actually care about him.  She screams at poor Tad when they're trapped in the car and he asks for his dad.  Heifer, the kid realizes that depending on your sorry ass is a one-way ticket to pain and disappointment.  Do better, trick!  At the end, I wanted Cujo to finish her off with a bite to the jugular.  Anyway, the movie was OK but obviously dated.

002. Dark Night of the Scarecrow: this is a rewatch for me of the 1981 TV movie featuring Charles Durning as sleazy postal worker Otis P. Hazelrigg who leads a group of vigilantes to wrongly murder a special needs man.  The killers then find themselves being chased down by a mysterious scarecrow and answering for their misdeeds one by one.  A fantastic little film with good acting from Durning, Larry Drake, and Jocelyn Brando (Marlon's sister).  No gory kills here, but they're not needed as the movie hits the perfect notes as a dark and sinister piece of work.  Highly recommended.

003. Who Killed Teddy Bear: more of a psychological thriller, Juliet Prowse plays Norah, an aspiring actress working as a DJ in a two-bit disco owned by Elaine Stritch.  Sal Mineo plays Larry, a waiter and coworker of Norah's. Norah is receiving crank calls that become more disturbing and eventually require police investigation.  The movie tells us midway who the stalker is, which ratchets up the sense of dread as the viewers know poor Norah doesn't have a clue and is going to suffer at his hands.  This film deals with some pretty kinky stuff for its time, and shows the isolation all the characters experience as they're consumed by NYC's filth. Also look for Borscht Belt comedian Jan Murray as the serious vice squad detective who takes too personal of an interest in the case.

Watch this movie, if only to imagine seeing it through Martin Scorsese's eyes and using it as a template for Robert DeNiro's turn as the delusional Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver.  Scorsese did better, but director Joseph Cates (Phoebe's dad) and Who Killed Teddy Bear did it first.  The full movie can be seen on YouTube.

OCTOBER 3

004. The Sacrament: as S.K.o.S. pointed out, this is a recent movie that's loosely based on the Jonestown Massacre but provides no twists or new insights to the story.  The first half of the movie was good, as they outline a photographer bringing along two colleagues so they can document the mysterious Eden Parish, where the photographer's drug-addicted sister now lives with a commune led by the enigmatic Father.  While there's nothing wrong with the second half of the film, I kept waiting for something unique to happen.  It didn't.  It's a decent interpretation of Jim Jones leading people to the abyss, but there are documentaries on the subject that are much creepier in tone.  So if you're interested in the topic, I would suggest looking at those.  Curt is correct that actor who plays Father really captures the essence of an evangelistic preacher who's just too kind and good to be true.  Any of who live in the Southern US has likely seen some of these guys in action up close.  It's some freaky shit, and best avoided whenever possible. On Netflix through October 20.

Edited by Burgundy LaRue
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@Cameron Swift, The Evil Dead remake is super gory, so I don't know if it'll be your thing. If you enjoyed the original two, you may like this one but it's a lot less hammy and doesn't have the humour of the originals. I still thoroughly enjoyed it and was kind of shocked how good I thought it was.

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Ditto on Evil Dead. If you want to turn your brain off and bathe in blood (literally) then it's for you. Incredibly well-made and fairly well acted but it is nothing but pure shock factor. It will put you through the grinder for sure. 

*sigh* I just saw a commercial on TV for Boo!: A Madea Halloween. Not joking. Tyler, go away

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I just saw the end of The Boy (2015, Jared Breeze, David Morse, Rainn Wilson -- not the movie about the doll) on Chiller. What did any of the rest of you think if you saw it? Since I bit the bullet and let myself be spoiled, is the rest worth watching if it comes on again? Supposed to be pretty slow. Love me some David Morse though.

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5 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Burgundy reminded me of The Sacrament which is a must-see from the last couple years. 

I think you gotta know going in that there are pretty much no twists to the story - it's exactly what you would expect upon hearing the premise.  There's nothing wrong with the movie but I came away disappointed because I already know that story and was expecting something more.

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6 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Burgundy reminded me of The Sacrament which is a must-see from the last couple years. And speaking of found-footage, also watch Trollhunter and The Bay. 

And NOROI: The Curse and the original {REC]!

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6 hours ago, S.K.o.S. said:

I think you gotta know going in that there are pretty much no twists to the story - it's exactly what you would expect upon hearing the premise.  There's nothing wrong with the movie but I came away disappointed because I already know that story and was expecting something more.

It was still wonderfully creepy watching it unfold, and the leader reminded me waaaaaay too much of my Southern Baptist relatives, especially one of my grandmothers.

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20 hours ago, piranesi said:

Of what I've watched the last few weeks, and mentioned in other threads:

I liked It Follows

I thought Goodnight, Mommy was boring and played a shitty unfair game with the audience that wasn't as clever as it thought it was

I loved We Are Still Here

I really liked Dead Silence although it is pretty absurdly over-the-top goofy

I was genuinely unsettled by Berberian Sound Studio

 

Since then we've been revisiting old favorites: Re-Animator, F13 Pt. 4, Hellraiser.

I watched We Are Still Here at your suggestion, and thought it was really good. Didn't overstay it's welcome, was clever but not too clever for its own good, just a good little horror movie. 

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Kolchak is the perfect way to get the season started.  I just watched the amazingly insane werewolf-on-a-boat episode of Kolchak the other day where Victor Newman from Young&Restless is the werewolf and I love how much they just don't give a shit about nuance.  No "hide in the shadows to obscure the bad effects."  Nope. 

tv_30-2.jpg

 

Guy in a suit with gorilla gloves and a wolf mask running around throwing people in the ocean in plain view. Roaring and growling.

The cast is every Kolchak is a gold mine.  If I had a talk show I would only interview character actors like Henry Jones who played the ship captain. Dude was in:

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Vertigo

3:10 to Yuma

All the way up to The Grifters and Arachnophobia.

That was followed by a genuinely creepy one where a guy could make people burst into flames if they fell asleep.

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Horror in the Heights was the best all around episode with Spanish Moss Murders running in distant second.  Legacy of Terror aka the Aztec one was pretty klunky and The Youth Killer was just plain bad.

The Sentry would've been awesome if they'd spent more money on the monster costume and the effects.

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On 5-10-2016 at 9:33 AM, Curt McGirt said:

I just saw the end of The Boy (2015, Jared Breeze, David Morse, Rainn Wilson -- not the movie about the doll) on Chiller. What did any of the rest of you think if you saw it? Since I bit the bullet and let myself be spoiled, is the rest worth watching if it comes on again? Supposed to be pretty slow. Love me some David Morse though.

I thought it was perfectly fine. They set up the twist nicely, although there were some plotholes that annoyed me. I think it's worth a watch. If you know the twist, then it'd be interesting to connect everything to that as you watch the story unfold.

As for It Follows: excellent cinematography, but the story completely fell apart about halfway in and the uneven pacing grated on me. I'd recommend it just for the camera work and the framing, but as a story, I thought it was below average.

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Knocked two off the list tonight. Nobody could figure anything out since one party has been working in the abyss this week, another is in the middle of a nasty breakup I as yet don't know what's all about yet, and another just wanted to get it over with and sleep, so we settled on Tucker and Dale vs. Evil which was hilarious and kinda cute for all the splatter. Loved the role reversals.

After that everyone passed out (probably one of the first nights anyone ever got a head start in on me -- not sleeping, but drinking. I'm getting old and responsible please help) and I watched Baskin which is just FUCKED. Imagine a solid EC horror story with the familiar moral comeuppance wrapped in Fulci/Barker style told by a bunch of Turks. It literally takes you to Hell. Enjoy the ride...

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Good Bad Flicks covered Tucker and Dale recently and it's worth a watch. Aside from the film production having an interesting story, there's a ton of references I didn't get. I also need the Blu Ray as it includes a 20 minute cut showing the teens perspective.

 

Best of all, while the movie was in distribution limbo, a rough cut leaked with alternate dialogue...and the score from The Dark Knight, which was used as a placeholder until they got the real score.

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So I'm watching for the first time a bunch of famous movies that I've either definitely not seen or maybe have seen bits of and my mind has made me think I have seen.


Trying to watch them in some sort of chronological order too, so I can see the history of the horror / teen slasher genre as it evolved. 

1.) Halloween (1978): I love everything John Carpenter's ever done, but don't think i've ever seen arguably his most famous work:

Spoiler

Donald Pleasence is roaring like a dragon through this, he is in his grizzled old vet stage of his career and is all the more awesome for it. 
Jamie Lee Curtis is so young in this, but I'm guessing her and all the other teenage girls average out at least mid 20s. She's already smoking hot.

I'm 35 minutes in, and no character with a name is dead yet. My bet is on the promiscuous blonde. Loving how this movie is only 90 mins long, not all films have to be 2hr30min epics you know! *Shakes fist at sky*

The Donald Pleasence© just sold a broken window like it was an Undertaker sit up, and he has a gun! So good.

Hahahaha! Sassy brunette friend just took all her clothes off because of a minor spill during a popcorn cooking session. 

The product placement for washing powder Tide is off the charts here, and oh there's Annie's bum stuck in a window for seemingly no reason. What a delightful bum it is too.

And now she's dead. That death scene was terrible, she actually went cross eyed like her feet were being tickled during her death throes.

Guys if you're going to make out on someone's couch, at least take your shoes off first.

Now they're getting beer cans on the bedroom floor? And stealing food from someone else's fridge? They deserve to get killed. 

Douchebag guy has been stuck to the door by a 8 inch blade that has gone halfway in him. Makes sense. Slutty blonde acted more orgasmic in her death scene than her sex scene. 

She too had the cross eyes going on as she was strangled, and again later when you see her dead body. Lazy eyed people across the world must have been co-sponsors with Tide to increase awareness of this terrible affliction.

Finale included Myers being injured by knitting needles and clothes hangers, but at least he manned up after The Donald Pleasence© unloaded a full revolver into him and did his disappearing trick, so he didn't get buried too much before the sequels.

 

2.) Friday the 13th (1980):

Spoiler

This one time at band camp, we sang Christian songs then went to the barn to make out and get killed. Oh hey way more blood in this than Halloween, I approve.

The slow motion and eventual freeze-frame death scene is probably a better idea, to prevent the same lazy eyed shenanigans from the terrible actors.

The synth violins during the intro are giving me an inner ear problem. Much as in Halloween we have time-warped to present day, or erm, the 1980s. 

This good samaritan who offers to give our protagonist a lift to camp got awful handsy helping her in the truck. 

Wait, is that Kevin Bacon? I'm immediately distracted by that by the near naked man wearing a handkerchief cutting firewood. ...And he's a paedo too. 

Although I am confused on the age of the characters, due to them again all being played by people in their mid 20s regardless.

I have been bait and switched as the main protagonist is killed first with a practical effect that didn't look half bad. Was that the first ever bait and switch in a teen slasher?

Ralph is awesome, as is the wardrobe manager's decision that none of these girl's should wear bras under their blouses. Do these girls know that their nipples are so prominently displayed when they are acting, or do they just find out at the premier?

Nevermind I assume they know and get paid appropriately for it. It seems like the brunette with the impossibly massive eyes only job is to be under Kevin Bacon. Lucky gal.

OH MY GOD, Bacon is dead and it was amazing!! A fucking arrow killed him through a bed! Being the pro that he is, he keeps his eyes dead straight. Feels more like a John Carpenter film than Halloween did with this sort of bloodiness.

This brunette is super fine, no airbrushing required. Not stick thin either an actual normal weight! The film industry sucks in how it portrays women nowadays. <---- Understatement.

Holy fuck it, now she has an axe in her forehead. Cool.

The older paedo guy is dead now, making his character pointless the whole time barring from adding to the body-count and padding out the runtime. Act 2 is kind of boring considering it's been non-stop deaths.

I guess it's going to pick up now, Bill has been found arrowed to the door and we only have one character left, the nice blonde girl...

Haha, so in these films the survivor must find all the other bodies in a row to add to the extra shock value. Mrs Voorhees is creeping me out!

Neat little cat fight as the creepy mommy gets her ass handed to her. Like 3 times, but she keeps coming back, it's pretty cool actually.
At one point she has blondey in a rear naked choke and I had visions of a MMA company, but for only 50+ year old women. I'd watch that.
My vision was abruptly cut short however, as mommy got cut short, by about a foot, as her head got chopped off. She sure had manly hands in the close up.

OK, when Jason jumped out from behind the dilapidated rowing boat I did do a small poo I have to admit. 

I thought they were going to give me the old it was all a dream thing for second there, but the scene in the hospital was actually well done and I'd be more looking forward to that sequel than Halloween 2, so I can presumably actually see Jason in the next one.

 

3.) A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984):

Spoiler

I have time travelled 4 years into the future to 1984 and I still haven't even been born yet, to see the Wes Craven directed classic.

Immediately I can tell by the first few scenes that the production is a lot more professional than the previous 2 films. Although transparent blouses still seem to be abundant, some things never change.

It's Johnny Depp with massive front hair playing a normal character. No idea how old these kids are meant to be again. Although judging by their fake orgasms this might be a werewolf movie.

The actors in this are a lot more made up than in the other two old films. Werewolf blondie girl is going to die first, and her perfect make up after being shagged senseless annoys me. Pretty cool death scene though, a bit reminiscent of the exorcist. Someone over diluted the fake blood, making it look..faker.

Colour is a problem here, as we cut to the police station where the cop (John Saxon) with brown eyes and the mum with green eyes are the parents of the cute brunette with bright blue eyes. I liked how she said she looks 20 in the mirror, the actress actually was 20 at the time, which makes her quite young compared to the other movies.

Don't fall asleep in the bath you idiot! I desperately want to know how they got Robert Englund in the bath and fitted him 'down there'. I'm guessing there was a water slide of some sort, but I'm just going to pretend the entire of Robert Englund was in her vagina. That's method acting. I need to see a making of documentary.

Ewww she had a bug in her mouth who's sick fuck idea was this? Some really cool practical effects in this, the carpet on the stairs being all spongy was original. 

Did Freddy just have a Michael Myer's mask on? Haha, brilliant! Nancy lives to see another night, for now...

This mum seems dodgy, she's way too overprotective. John Saxon looks absolutely pimping in his funeral suit.

Incompetent doctor is complete antithesis of the suave doctors in the Exorcist. Way more gripping and a better plot than the previous 2 movies, actually genuinely enjoying it, instead of mostly laughing at it.

"He's dead honey, because mummy killed him." Might be my new favourite quote from a movie ever.

Depp's dead via a guy with scissors for hands. Foreshadowing! Sort of.

Saxon is a suave motherfucker, I need a Piranesi style fashion watch for him. His beige leisure jacket is both comfortable, yet stylish and I want one. I think I could make it work in 2016.

You know when you go on IMDB and see an actor's "Known For" movies? It says 3 and I think John Saxon may have the best 3 ever. Nightmare on Elm Street, Enter the Dragon and From Dusk Till Dawn. What a fucking trio that is.

I wonder how many stuntmen they toasted in the basement. That was a lot of fire retardant red and green jerseys they went through.

Saxon takes his wife's cremating very well, like a boxer with a granite chin.

Wait what? Was it the mum's nightmare the whole time or was it still Nancy's and she's been driven off to death in the Kruegermobile? I don't know I'm just going to assume they're all dead. 

 


I've got Hellraiser (1987) and IT (1990) to watch next, seen IT before, but only once a long time ago. After that I think I might work on some sequels. Never seen Exorcist 2 or From Dusk Till Dawn 2, and I've been told to avoid both like the plague. However I also enjoy watching bad movies, so there's that.

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4.) Hellraiser (1987):

Spoiler

I know literally nothing about this movie, past the pinhead poster and that apparently it came out in the year of my birth, so that's reassuring.

This lady with the Mary Poppins voice is really obsessed over Frank, good actress too, had to look her up to remember her though - Clare Higgins.

The American guy too has one of those working actor's faces where he's been in a lot. The practical effects in this are revoltingly gruesome and cool.

Surprised how good the acting is.

Holy shit! I will never go into a creepy attic with 80s Mary Poppins ever.

This doctor looks like Prince, and the daughter looks like Winona Ryder, especially in the eyebrows.

"We'll tear your soul apart!" That's going in my Undertaker cosplay as my new catchphrase.

I have a question, is this where the phrase "Come to Daddy" actually came from? If so that is mind blowing and so random.

When she's hiding from daddy and the maggot man falls on her - That was fucking disgusting! I love it.

Jesus Wept! Haha! What a fucking scene that was! This girl's going to need therapy. I wonder if she gets it in Hellraiser 2.

Adam Ant seems pretty unfazed by the whole thing and his technicolour dream-shirt steals the final scene for me. 

I don't think chucking that Jumanji box in the fire is going to be enough. Sure enough there's tramp man / the devil to steal it away for the sequel.

 

 

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The Hellraiser series is such a roller coaster ride. After part two every production seemed to have a completely different opinion about not only what people wanted from a Hellraiser movie but what the Cenobites' motives are. I'd recommend all of them just to see how weird it gets. Except for the last two, which are garbage.

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They're Watching (2016) turns the found-footage gimmick into a comedy, which I guess is the only place for the gimmick to go since it's been played out. Cute in parts, and it has some ominous moments...but it drags along in spots and has almost no scares. You'd think Spongebob writers would've put together something funner...like Transylvania 6-5000, which is hilarious.

MV5BMTQ4MzI1NzkyMl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMzA1

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On ‎10‎/‎4‎/‎2016 at 9:46 AM, J.T. said:

 

3. Nosferatu (1922) - Yep, we're talking the original silent classic.  How awesome is that?

4. Pontypool (2008) - I haven't seen this movie since we reviewed it at Movie Feast.  Time for a revisit.

 

I really like the idea of watching these two back to back.

 

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I once again failed to watch A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night when faced with free time and a Netflix account because I was exhausted after navigating Indianapolis and watching two of my favorite bands, so I watched Nightmares in Red, White and Blue again. Fairly decent documentary with some good talking heads like Romero, Dante, Garris etc. that hits some good notes and gives a nod to stuff out of the usual realm like Deathdream. They ignore the fact that Cronenberg is from Canada and then ignore his subsequent US output however. Lance Henriksen is a fine voiceover guy. John Carpenter, of course, gives the best analysis of the timeframe they're working with. It isn't as good as this, however, IMO:

EDIT: I had to watch that again because I hadn't seen it in so long. 16 years old, good lord... Anyway, the short shrift given to Carpenter (who comes off like the most disenfranchised and cynical of all here) where he took the other doc by the horns is balanced by the late great Wes Craven knocking it out of the ballpark. Also, Godspeed You Black Emperor! make an appearance which is always welcome.

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