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J.T.

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Well, I finally sat down and watched Hulu Hellraiser. 

I thought it was okay overall.  It definitely did right by the look and feel of the Cenobites, but it felt a bit empty.   It totally lacks the sensuality of the first movie and the novella.  The "be careful what you wish for" theme is still there, but the sting of forbidden pleasure is implied rather than put on open display.  This kinda sucks because without that, Hellraiser once again just devolves into slasher movie / torture porn territory and the Cenobites are little more than evil genies.

I do approve of the Film Theorists hypothesis that:

Spoiler

the new Pinhead is Kirsty Cotton taking over for the late Captain Elliot Spencer.

I also thought that the bad guy's mansion was pretty awesome.  It reminded me a lot of the glass house in the 13 Ghosts reboot in that the house was also a part of the summoning equation in addition to the Box.  It gave the impression that the bad guy had more than just studied up on the Cenobites.  They were a well-scouted obsession that he THOUGHT he could prepare for, but we all know what folly that is..

Edited by J.T.
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Halloween Ends might be a miss. My buddy has Peacock and another good friend absolutely roasted it, saying "I would beat the fuck out of the makers of this movie if I had paid for it". This plus work bullshit meant he passed on our plans for Sunday. However! I did make it out to Nosferatu and had a good time so there is a review forthcoming. 

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If I do watch it, it won't be for a bit.  I think I am taking on the task of reviewing 101 Scary Moments for Secret Satan and I'll be watching episodes all week and maybe turning in my review by this Sunday.

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On 10/15/2022 at 11:37 AM, (BP) said:

I’m inclined to agree with that without having watched Ends yet just based on the response so far and the way Curse of Michael Myers and Zombie’s Halloween II have both aged into cult classic territory. 

Audience’s relationship to the HALLOWEEN franchise is fascinating to me. The sequels that stick to the formula tend to be received well on release but quickly fade from memory/affection, and the oddballs that dare to be a little (or a lot) different are initially rejected but eventually find their places in people’s hearts.

Like, I don’t know anyone who has great affection for H20 in 2022, but there are people who will ride or die for SEASON OF THE WITCH or the ones you referenced.

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7 hours ago, J.T. said:

Well, I finally sat down and watched Hulu Hellraiser. 

I thought it was okay overall.  It definitely did right by the look and feel of the Cenobites, but it felt a bit empty.   It totally lacks the sensuality of the first movie and the novella.  The "be careful what you wish for" theme is still there, but the sting of forbidden pleasure is implied rather than put on open display.  This kinda sucks because without that, Hellraiser once again just devolves into slasher movie / torture porn territory and the Cenobites are little more than evil genies.

I do approve of the Film Theorists hypothesis that:

  Hide contents

the new Pinhead is Kirsty Cotton taking over for the late Captain Elliot Spencer.

I also thought that the bad guy's mansion was pretty awesome.  It reminded me a lot of the glass house in the 13 Ghosts reboot in that the house was also a part of the summoning equation in addition to the Box.  It gave the impression that the bad guy had more than just studied up on the Cenobites.  They were a well-studied obsession that he THOUGHT he could prepare for, but we all know what folly that is..

I felt similarly. It was competent which for Hellraiser makes it one of the better entries in the series. But as an update, when one has a chance to really make something wild, it felt only half-in. There's a moment that kind of triggers the final set piece that as soon as it happened I thought "oh no, they just broke it." And from there it really did devolve into a standard slasher chase down, which I thought was ludicrous given how everyone else up until then had died.

The deaths were also mostly just exploded bodies. I didn't get the sense of suffering and what pleasure could be derived from that, which I thought was the whole deal with the cenobites.

I liked the new Pinhead, but I also felt like they didn't film her particularly well. She was just kind was another Cenobite with lines.

And I know it sounds like I really didn't like it, but really it was just okay, and my complaints were that it didn't go further.

It felt like content and not a statement.

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I want there to be a new forensics doctor with a monkey and halfway through Jennifer Connelly says, “You’re the new forensics doctor with a monkey!” Then for reasons not really explained the new monkey doctor is evil. 

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V/H/S/99 debuts today on Shudder.  I knew I shoulda called in sick this morning.

It was announced that V/H/S/85 was secretly filmed during the shooting of /99 so it should be out sometime soon after final edits are done.

Edited by J.T.
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Two quickie reviews:

Significant Other (on Paramount + i think) - This was pretty good since I didn't see the twist coming. I mean, I knew we had a twist coming, but they pivoted and went in a totally different direction with it, and I ended up liking it by the time the credits hit.

Hulluraiser - I liked the concept about having to complete multiple puzzles to get to the "final" wish, so to speak. My sister joked it reminded her of having to gather all the dragon balls to make that wish, and that had me cracking up. Liked the designs of the Cenobites and that mansion especially, was miffed that we didn't get to see some of the kills.

Spoiler

Loved the ending where the dude got turned into a cenobite. Was marking out hard for that scene. Something about this series and the Cenobites being fine with sacrificing each other to appease Leviathan was pretty cool, am hoping they end up meeting and fighting the Nightbreed eventually ?

My sister was disappointed with all the androgynous looks but I had to look up the wiki to point out that their looks were sorta book accurate? I haven't seen the Hellraiser movies in over 20 years, last one I saw I think was the one set in outer space? So i won't fake like I'm some diehard fan familiar with the lore, but I thought that their looks were okay

 

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Halloween Ends is okay. I liked it more than Kills, maybe more than 2018, but I’m not that high on these movies. It certainly feels like David Gordon Green and co. were trying to get through completing the trilogy rather than offering any cogent larger arc. 

Spoiler

Not too upset about whatever the supernatural shit was supposed to be, mostly because they already went there in Kills and I’ve come to accept anytime they try to expand on the story of the first movie it’s going to turn into a variation of “a wizard did it.”

Frankly the movie’s main problem is that after taking some big swings it has to return to the status quo to rap up the Michael stuff (again.) 

What a weird reboot series. The only advantage to everything being  slapdash and nebulous is that this one is pretty self contained. The real trilogy feels like 78’, 18’, and Kills, while this feels like they had some leftover ideas for a follow-up limited series and condensed it. 

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Finally got to see Pearl. Non spoiler review- Mia Goth is a fucking Oscar winning actress very fucking soon in the immediate future. Maybe not this movie but she damn sure puts motherfuckers on notice with her performance here.

One scene, she monlogues to a close friend for over 5 minutes and keep in mind this is all done in one take, that I can tell, no cuts or edits, and she just fucking goes off like I legit forgot im watching a movie, she just seems so real, life and blood pumping heart with a pulse real life and not just moving pictures in technicolor.

Spoiler

Not going to say too much about the script beyond there's a reason the director decided to give Mia Goth a movie where she eats up about 96% of the run time. This was made for her, probably co written by her, and as solid as the script is she just takes it to a whole nother level

Feel like I wanna rewatch X in the next day or two because she just adds a ton of layers to the Pearl character from X with this prequel imho

Spoiler

Also, Mia Goth in those over alls! respectfully.

Tell em bub!

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Hayabusa
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So V/H/S/99 was very solid.  All of the entries are pretty strong, but there aren't any really outstanding segments like Amateur Night (V/H/S), Safe Haven (V/H/S/2), Dante the Great (V/H/S Viral), or The Subject (V/H/S/94). 

Ozzy's Dungeon (directed by Flying Lotus) may be my favorite segment just for the visual of Stephen Ogg dancing to the hip hop intro of the kid's game show his character hosts.  It definitely goes a long way to confirm my cynical conspiracy theory about how kid's game shows like Legend of the Hidden Temple and GUTS were deliberately designed to be nearly unwinnable and the segment also takes aim at parents who relentlessly try to make celebrities out of their kids so that they can live vicariously through them.

The Gawkers and Shredding also have nice little horrific payoffs at the end.

There is also no overarching storyline so this feels more like a traditional anthology.

V/H/S/88 was shot simultaneously with this movie, so it might be out pretty soon.

Edited by J.T.
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I'm gonna try to say at least one positive thing.

Halloween Ends was.... it was.... uh.... well it lived up to the title. It definitely ends.

Now that I've done that, the movie is a pile of shit and not worth your time. Trust me. Just watch the original instead. Someone really needs to stop Danny McBride from writing new sequels to classic horror films.

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I appreciated that V/H/S/99 drops the wraparound story device since that’s usually the weakest part of the movies. This was almost like Rick and Morty Intergalactic Cable. 

It felt like the entries were getting on base with singles and doubles (which is perfectly fine) until Hell and Back, which totally ruled.    That segment sold me on seeking out the directors’ feature length debut, Deadstream. Hopefully it’s streaming somewhere. 

I liked the creativity of Ozzy’s Dungeon, but there’s an ugly cynicism peppering the violence and storytelling that I found distasteful. I get what they were going for, but they needed to develop the daughter character more for it to work for me. 

The rest were okay too. 
 

Edit: Deadstream was just added to Shudder. Hell yeah. 

Edited by (BP)
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Watched Barbarian completely blind, no trailers or reviews. Enjoyed it so much! Having listened to so much horrorcore from Detroit in my 20s, this felt like a peek into what all the fuss was about. 

Story wise, acting wise, pure bliss! ? No spoilers thoughts beyond I fucking loved this and have been hyping it up since last night to my family and cousins

Just finished two episodes of GDT's anthology show Cabinet of Curiosities, and I'm determined to binge the whole series tonight after the Lot 36 and Witchhouse episodes ❤️

Best fucking time to watch these movies too, my part of Texas has been cloudy and breezy since Thursday and it's the absolute perfect backdrop for binging horror ? Constantly feels like evening outside, and it's chilly enough to need slippers while sipping coffee ?

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41 minutes ago, Hayabusa said:

Watched Barbarian completely blind, no trailers or reviews. Enjoyed it so much! Having listened to so much horrorcore from Detroit in my 20s, this felt like a peek into what all the fuss was about. 

Yeah, it debuts tonight at 8PM EDT (about an hour from when I post this) on HBO.  My mom loves horror movies is also watching it cold.  She has no idea what will happen.  It will be great!

Edited by J.T.
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