Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

WELCOME TO HALLOWEEN HAVOC 2019 - The Reviews


RIPPA

Recommended Posts

On 10/7/2019 at 11:06 AM, RIPPA said:

DEMONIC TOYS (Manoogian, 1992)

(Editor's Note: Movie can be found on Amazon Prime and Youtube)

And even better it's on Elvira's 13 Days of Halloween on Amazon Prime so you get Elvira pop-up video to add to the absurdity of the film. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, RIPPA said:

THE BABYSITTER (2017, McG) 

IMDB: ROTTEN TOMATOES (72/60)

(Editor's Note: It's on Netflix. Not to be confused with the Alicia Silverstone movie. Or the Patty Duke one. Or the Patricia Wymer one.)

SELECTED BY: @The Unholy Dragon

It's got everything you want out of a classic horror film. It's funny, violent, wild, with a great cast including a standout performance from Robbie Amell...just a real good throwback to the slashers of yore while maintaining a modern flair. Really enjoyed it when I watched it and hope whoever gets it does too.

REVIEWED BY: @No Point Stance

This is only the 2nd McG film I've seen (far as I know), the first being 2000's Charlie's Angels, which I have a real soft spot for. He has his quirks, for sure. 

"This would get so many views! Nobody's done human sacrifice before"
"Uh, yes they have."
"Not in America, with hot people."

Essentially what we have here is a 12 year-old boy with a serious crush on his hot 20-ish babysitter and looking forward to spending a weekend with her until he witnesses her and her friends butchering a much nerdier guy in order to ritualistically drink his blood. I was pretty much on board from the start when I saw that the kid's parents were a very hot mom who I know from something else and likeable goofball dad, who I know from also being a likeable goofball on Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The kid himself is fine but Jesus, how many Michael Cera clones are out there these days? Anyway, this flick doesn't waste any time getting the setup out of the way (probably wise, since any thumbnail synopsis will likely have given pretty much the whole premise away to potential viewers), though having said that, the early scenes between the boy and the sitter show a nice rapport.

Once things kick off the events escalate in a rapid and blackly comic fashion that reminded me of the fantastic, Halloween-set MURDER PARTY (2007 - and if you've never seen that it's a high recommend for this pumpkin season). The many bombs shown under many tables in the establishing scenes all come together in style, if in a slightly clunky, one-bad-guy-at-a-time manner, and the finale is pretty satisfying. Could've down with maybe outlining what exactly the babysitter was seeking from the whole sacrifice / blood drinking thing but no big deal. Generally a fun ride, and doesn't wear out its welcome at a lean 90 minutes. 7 outta 10 from me. I'd been meaning to see this one since it debuted, so my thanks to whomever picked it.

Would make a good double-bill with the Christmas-themed Better Watch Out from 2016.

I keep skipping over this to watch the other movies on my Netflix List of Shame like Under The Skin or revisiting stuff like All The Boys Love Mandy Lane, but I am going to have to bite the bullet and check this out.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

THE RITUAL (Bruckner, 2017)

IMDB : ROTTEN TOMATOES (74/60)

(Editor's Note: Not to be confused with the 24854 other movies named "The Ritual")

SELECTED BY: @J.T.

I thought it was really good AND it's only about a ninety minute time investment.  That's half as long as IT! Chapter 2.

REVIEWED BY: @The Unholy Dragon

Going into this, I was a bit apprehensive. I saw the words “Based on a book by Adam Nevill" and having recently read a novel of his to…mixed feelings, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Fortunately, the screenplay managed to capture all the best aspects of his writing while dropping some of the worst. The film opens with five friends having a get together and a sudden, random act of violence leaving one of them dead. Given how important this becomes as the film goes on, it’s incredibly well handled. Luke, our lead, is stuck behind a shelf pondering how and when to act as two strung out dudes rob a liquor store. His friend hesitates on giving up his wedding ring and Luke hesitates to act, leaving his friend beaten to death with a pipe. The way the scene plays out is brutal and intimate and rightly sets the stage for where Luke’s head is going forward.

Six months later the remaining friends are off on a hiking trip in Sweden. Everyone is mourning in their ways and Luke clearly blames himself, a sentiment that’s obviously shared quietly with some of his friends. Someone’s leg gets fucked up and they decide to take a shortcut through the obviously haunted as hell forest and that’s when things go…sideways. I don’t want to talk in too much depth about how things unfold because I think this is definitely a film you want to enter as blind as possible, but it’s really great. There’s a sense of reality coming out from under you as everyone slowly gets more unwound, and when it starts becoming clearer what the evil in the woods is and what’s really happening the story takes a firm twist. I came into this expecting a sort of slow possession and ambiguous evil and I was quite pleased to discover it wasn’t that kind of film at all. Old gods, creepy cults, and the question of letting your guilt over something that wasn’t your fault consume you or fighting to move on with your life in spite of it. A real good piece of classic horror, delivering on the themes it presents while still having a lot of scares and unsettling moments to get you there.

The film is beautifully shot. Long takes let you take in what’s happening while the lifeless greys of the light shots don’t offer any more comfort than the darkness of night. As someone who’s tired of blue filter desaturation, I appreciated that the tactic was totally absent here. The film uses the settings to mirror Luke’s depression in a way that doesn’t require any gilding to work. It does a really strong job with pacing too. The strange visuals are spread out well and the question of just what is in the woods is hinted at and worked around before being thoroughly answered.

I didn’t know what to expect with The Ritual, but I was happy to find a movie that epitomizes what I like about horror. It didn’t talk down to me, it had something to say, and it knew how and when to be creepy and when to let the hammer drop. Big recommendation.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

Going into this, I was a bit apprehensive. I saw the words “Based on a book by Adam Nevill" and having recently read a novel of his to…mixed feelings.

Me too.  I've read both The Ritual and Under The Skin and I am happy that they the movies that were inspired by them are very different from the books.

Edited by J.T.
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The beginning of that (the robbery) sounds extremely familiar, but the only way I'd have seen it is drunk at a friend's on their Netflix. Is there another film that's opened like that? 

EDIT: Yeah, I'm pretty sure I saw that drunk at a friend's house on his Netflix.

Edited by Curt McGirt
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

BONUS REVIEW

Bravos 100 Scariest Movie Moments Part I (75-51)

By RIPPA

(The List from this episode - #75-51)

Spoiler

75. Candyman
74. Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
73. Blood Simple
72. Them!
71. The Sixth Sense
70. The Stepfather
69. Re-Animator
68. The Black Cat
67. Duel
66. The Tenant
65. Marathon Man
64. Near Dark
63. Deliverance
62. The Wolf Man
61. The Devil’s Backbone
60. The Beyond
59. Fatal Attraction
58. Cujo
57. House of Wax (1953)
56. Single White Female
55. The Vanishing (1993)
54. The Changeling
53. Demons
52. The Phantom of the Opera
51. The Dead Zone

I am blaming Fowler for my inability to unsee the fact that most of the times they just said "Uhh.... here is the climax of the movie!"

  • I am gonna argue that the original HOT TAKE~! can be traced back to here and the inclusion of Willy Wonk and the Chocolate Factory as it pretty much is "THE BOOK IS REALLY FUCKED UP AND GENE WILDER SINGS WEIRD~!" Instead of flying monkeys, I am now shocked they didn’t claim that Wizard of Oz was on the list because Glinda is the true evil witch. 
  • Less than 2 minutes into this episode, Elizabeth Pena pops up and I got really really upset because I remembered she was dead and how much that sucks.
  • When I was young – I would take random books about the library talking about old horror movie classics (Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman, etc). For some reason, they tried to make a big deal about how scary THEM! was. I was like “yeah, whatever. Giant ants. Fuck that.” Now as a right thinking adult who has seen some shit, I am all “Fuck right off with them giant insects”
  • In my head cannon – Locke from Lost and The Stepfather from… well… The Stepfather are the same person and it explains Lost so much more.
  • The Re-Animator scene REALLY doesn’t age well. And it was is a clear sign of the times – you can tell all the people who were interviewed for this who were clearly turned on by the scene. Oh and titties were still blurred. Free the nip, Bravo.
  • Of course – Deliverance doesn’t necessarily age well either. But of course, this scene was always treated with horror and disgust. Because poor Ned Beatty but them women folks deserve it. Let me see those titties!
  • And why can’t the cancel culture uses these clips of Rob Riggle using no longer accepted language to get him off of my TV on Sunday afternoons?
  • Then both Fatal Attraction and Single White Female show up in this section of the list. Boy – there is a lot to unpack with the themes of these movies - especially as it gets further into the distance. I am not the man to do it.
  • I will ignore the easy joke about what the real horror of a Roman Polanski movie is.
  • Why is I can suspend my belief in a lot of horror movies but I can’t suspend it for the giant massive plot holes in Duel that you could drive… well… a semi through.
  • Why the fuck were/are the Coors Twins a thing? I blame men and their stupid penises.
  • Cujo proves that they are not all good dogs, Brent.
  • BTW – It is in this where Steven King say that the scariest moment in any of his films (I think meaning movies based on his books) is when Cujo appears at the car window. Who knows if he would still say that like 15 years later but there ya go.
  • Today in movie critics who look like they should have been cast in horror movies – Mark Kermode. Or at least cast as evil Nazi #2.
  • Spoiler Alert – one of the movies in this part will reappear as a review this go around.
  • The Dead Zone is the most terrifying episode of the West Wing ever
  • Guillermo del Toro is on this part a lot so you started to get a sense of what fucked him up.
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

When I was young – I would take random books about the library talking about old horror movie classics (Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman, etc).

Those thin orange/black/white ones? I think those have come up in conversation here before if so. 

Speaking of Polanski, is Repulsion on the list? 

I remember being over the moon that they brought up The Beyond and Demons.

EDIT: Oh, and I had a double take looking at that screencap, thought it was Keith Richards but no it's vampire Lance Henriksen. 

Edited by Curt McGirt
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Those thin orange/black/white ones? I think those have come up in conversation here before if so. 

Yeah - and I couldn't tell you why I was drawn to them considering its not like I really have a fascination with horror or anything.

Some of it might have been - that at an early age (we are talking like 6 or 7) I was thrown in the deep end with Trivial Pursuit so I purposely researched things that came up in answers a lot (Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney and Bela Lugosi to be specific)

4 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

EDIT: Oh, and I had a double take looking at that screencap, thought it was Keith Richards but no it's vampire Lance Henriksen. 

I meant to go back and mention that for whatever reason I always remember Lance telling the story from the set of Near Dark with Bill Paxton fucking with people when he had his full gore makeup on

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I found those books surprisingly fast. It's the Crestwood House Monster series. 

crestwood.jpg

https://www.brandedinthe80s.com/6757/a-more-in-depth-look-at-the-crestwood-monster-series

I can probably draw my obsession with retrospective books on film and music back to these. 

Shame that Repulsion isn't on the list because it's about ten times scarier than Rosemary's Baby (which is practically a comedy IMO) and The Tenant.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My go to black & white old horror books were this:

ThingsAboutMonsters-Cover.jpg

which was under my bed forever as my late night flashlight reading and this:

 

monsterbook1a.jpg

The booklet that went along with the 8Track "Monsters Myths and Legends" for the 2XL robot that I loved more than anyone else on earth.

2xl.jpg

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

Attack of the Queerwolf did a pod on Single White Female that is worth listening too (all of their episodes are worth listening to)

SWF is on the rotation for The Movie Channel this month.

16 hours ago, RIPPA said:

There are two Polanski movies on the list - neither is Repulsion

I have no idea why not since IMO Repulsion is by far the creepiest of his apartment building set piece movies.

Rosemary's Baby is the best pure horror story and The Tenant is plain weird and surreal, but Repulsion was a proper study in madness and trauma before such things were a thing.  

Given today's heightened focus on the lack of social awareness of mental health issues, I think Repulsion is far more relevant today than it was when it was filmed.

Repulsion definitely deserved to be on that list somewhere.

Edited by J.T.
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

Well again remember the list was basically created by three people and I think a lot of movies were dictated by what movies people wanted to talk about

If that's the case then I can see why Repulsion didn't make the list.   It is kinda hard to talk about that movie.  I'm still grappling with Under The Skin.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

One has to wonder how many movies would be knocked off and replaced by newer stuff in the meantime if that list was remade today. 

I am planning on doing the two addendums too so that will be interesting whats on them (since I haven't looked at what they actually included)

But that is kinda what I was hinting at in Part II - I feel like movies wouldn't appear or other scenes would be selected just to avoid talking about certain subject matters

Link to comment
Share on other sites

BONUS REVIEWS

CREATURE (1985, Malone) 

IMDB : ROTTEN TOMATOES

HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE (1973, Naschy)

IMDB : ROTTEN TOMATOES

Both by @Curt McGirt

QUICKIES~!

CREATURE (1985, Malone) 

Your garden variety dimly lit outer space alien romp. Two multinationals, an American and a West German (apparently the Wall still hasn't fallen in the 3490's or whenever) are competing over mining or somesuch on Titan, one of Saturn's moons (thus the original title of this, The Titan Find). The Yermens find what is later described as a "butterfly collection" of alien species from several thousand years ago and one infects them and kills off the crew. An American crew responds to a distress signal (sound familiar yet?) and crash land, finding Klaus Kinski as an only survivor. The alien is a total Xenomorph ripoff but looks way worse and it uses brain slugs to control and zombify people. At least in this one they have guns, however useless. There's also a scene where a shipmate describes watching The Thing from Another World and they actually try and fry the alien using the same method. You can't underline how much of a ripoff this is any better. I was gonna do Mutant AKA Forbidden World too but after this and Leviathan I'm pretty cashed out on Capital-A Aliens for the moment.

HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE (1973, Naschy)

I can only find this free online in Spanish with no subs, but always wanted to see it, so fuck it. Paul Naschy (he of the Waldemar Daninsky Spanish werewolf film empire) made this gory little piece of madness. He plays Gotho, a homicidal-yet-tender hunchback who works in a morgue. This poor guy is mocked, stoned by children, and beaten in public before his childhood friend and love of his life dies on him from a chronic illness. He takes her corpse to his underground lair where it's attacked by rats which he fends off with fire (so you get live rats crawling on him and running around in flames). The coroner upstairs is a Frankenstein trying to conquer death so he tells Gotho he can help with his love. They create a bubblin' tub of guts that needs fresh bodies to feed off of and grow, so why not raid the local women's sanitarium? This has it all: a vat of acid, torture rack, an Iron Maiden, decapitations and disembowelments, you name it. Gotho is also appropriately sympathetic as he's roped into being a killer by the mad doc. Really wish I owned this one on DVD, it's great. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Creature

When thinking about that title change from The Titan Find I'm reminded of True Romance and the producer bemoaning the name change in his film: "I've got more taste in my penis."

It's been doing the rounds on Comet (in fact it's coming on again in less than half an hour) and you can find a bunch of versions on Youtube. Just don't go for the totally muddy one I unfortunately chose because you won't be able to see a damn thing. 

Hunchback is on the Scream Factory Paul Naschy Collection II as seen above

Edited by Curt McGirt
Link to comment
Share on other sites

THE ADDAMS FAMILY (Sonnenfeld, 1991)

IMDB : ROTTEN TOMATOES (63/66)

SELECTED BY: @Ultimo Necro

I hadn’t thought about this movie in god knows how long, but I seen the trailer for the new animated Addams Family and thought I would go back and rewatch it.  I really enjoyed it and the nostalgia kick took me back to Halloweens of yesteryear.  Also, Raul Julia is phenomenal in it.

REVIEWED BY: RIPPA

I wanted to be all smart and post this review in conjunction with the new animated Addams Family movie that just hit theaters. I am not smart and forgot to do that on Friday so here we are on Monday after the new movie was savaged by critics but didn’t really well with movie goers. Hey! That sounds familiar.

Okay – let’s get this out of the way first. The plot of the movie is absolute dog shit. OH! AMENSIA! OH! LET’S INTRODUCE GRIFTERS! OH! IT’S ME ALL ALONG! Get the fuck out of here with all of that. I mean the cast sure as fuck brings this to watchability (it really helps that Raul Julia and Christopher Lloyd are two of my all time faves). I mean Angelica Houston was nominated for a Golden Globe for fuck’s sake. God Bless them all. (I almost started to rant about Julia was the King of dragging shit to enjoyablility whether it wanted to go there or not but then I would start crying again over the Street Fighter story.)

To be fair - I have a soft spot for the "villain starts to like his victim" trope with Fester and the kids. And honestly, the entire movie could have been the Addamses trying to have normal jobs. I would have been all for that.

I was a sophomore/junior in High School when this movie came out so I was in a weird limbo in terms of an audience. Not young enough to think this was the new big thing. Old enough to have grown up on the original TV show but not old enough to have nostalgia to want to race out to the theater to see it. For me – this manifests in just constantly comparing the TV show cast to the movie cast and that Carolyn Jones was probably my first on screen crush and then later learning that she died in 1983 at the age of 53 of colon cancer. And I am crying anyway. God Dammit.

Well there is no real way to transition out of my tears so… Barry Sonnenfeld really was in over his head in his first directorial gig. You could argue that Sonnenfeld was always in over his head in any of his movies (His IMDB page is fucking bleak.) He was only directing because Tim Burton bailed and, funnily, that probably was for the best. Could you imagine Helena Bonham Carter playing Morticia? Actually it is really easy to imagine. It just wouldn’t have been good. But yeah – when you need Christina Ricci to tell you that you need to change the ending maybe stick to being the Cinematographer.

Production was a shit show but the movie did well. Plus it didn’t have the fucking MC Hammer theme. So that’s a win.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

But yeah – when you need Christina Ricci to tell you that you need to change the ending maybe stick to being the Cinematographer.

I was shocked to read about this

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

Plus it didn’t have the fucking MC Hammer theme. So that’s a win.

And good lord thank you for THIS. We had to learn that fucking song in music class at school. I'd rather have been waterboarded. 

As I posted in the horror thread I had a blast rewatching this recently. However I remember the sequel being better (despite that goddamn song) and wish some channel would play it this month. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The cast in that movie is just so godamn great.

The sequel slightly improves the already great cast, gives the movie a way the fuck better story, and gives Ricci more to do and it's one of my favorite 90's movies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought I would be able to accept no other actress in the role of Mortiica Addams other than the stunning Carolyn Jones, but then Anjelica Huston became a force of nature and then she and Raoul Juilia turned in performances far better than that movie deserved.

I also think the sequel is much better.  Addams kids at summer camp and Wednesday in love is the best.

Also the jokes are funnier.

See?  He has my father's eyes.

Take those out of his mouth, Gomez.

Edited by J.T.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...