There is an actual live-action adaptation of the games that came out in Japan, but I don't think it ever officially released stateside. It seems like it turned out quite decently, too.
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31 Days of Horror (2018) - The October Movie Marathon
- Thread starter ThirstyFly
- Start date
Matango is great, and it really is better than most of Honda's Godzilla films, the only exceptions being the original Godzilla and Mothra vs Godzilla. Funny you mention the production design, one of the cast members lamented how cheap it looked on set and it was a beginner who did it, but Honda and his longtime director of photography Hajime Koizumi make it work. Honda managing to make mushroom men creepy is an achievement in and of itself, but the pay off with the last 6 minutes or so is fantastic. Check out The H Man, it's nowhere near as emotionally engaging as Matango as it's more of a police thriller, but it also has some really great directing, build up, and horror set pieces. The lesser known Human Vapor is better than both H Man and Matango, and is one of the few critically acclaimed Toho sci fi films but it was never released in the US in Japanese with English subtitles so watching it is a bit hard. It's absolutely worth the effort though, and if you have trouble finding it just PM me.
I don't really have viewing limitations. If the movie is good and enjoyable, I will find a way to watch it.
I've seen all of those suggestions and enjoyed them all as well!
#22 Creep (2014)
Inside of the wolf is this beautiful heart.
I'm not a fan of found footage films. I find they have at best, two premises; people making a documentary, or someone inexplicably filming everything usually for a flimsy reason. They tend to be contrived and feature people filming in dangerous situations long after it's reasonable.
With that tangent out of the way, this was a decent one. It's somewhere between the two premises mentioned above, as a videographer responds to an ad requesting someone to film a man all day, ostensibly to document one of his last days as a terminally ill man for his unborn child. This doesn't hold up long, and it's rather obvious the man is not on the up and up from the start.
Unfortunately this requires the protagonist to be about the least cautious person on the planet as this clearly strange and unsettling guy gets chance after chance from him. Even the man himself thinks the protagonist is unusually trusting. I don't think you'll find too many surprises here plotwise, and there's a few too many cheap jumpscares, though they gradually dissipate and much more effective jump-free suspenseful scenes populate the second half of the film. But it's shot and edited in a successfully spooky manner, without feeling like it's trying hard.
For aficionados of found footage, give it a look.
Inside of the wolf is this beautiful heart.
I'm not a fan of found footage films. I find they have at best, two premises; people making a documentary, or someone inexplicably filming everything usually for a flimsy reason. They tend to be contrived and feature people filming in dangerous situations long after it's reasonable.
With that tangent out of the way, this was a decent one. It's somewhere between the two premises mentioned above, as a videographer responds to an ad requesting someone to film a man all day, ostensibly to document one of his last days as a terminally ill man for his unborn child. This doesn't hold up long, and it's rather obvious the man is not on the up and up from the start.
Unfortunately this requires the protagonist to be about the least cautious person on the planet as this clearly strange and unsettling guy gets chance after chance from him. Even the man himself thinks the protagonist is unusually trusting. I don't think you'll find too many surprises here plotwise, and there's a few too many cheap jumpscares, though they gradually dissipate and much more effective jump-free suspenseful scenes populate the second half of the film. But it's shot and edited in a successfully spooky manner, without feeling like it's trying hard.
For aficionados of found footage, give it a look.
#22 Creep (2014)
Inside of the wolf is this beautiful heart.
I'm not a fan of found footage films. I find they have at best, two premises; people making a documentary, or someone inexplicably filming everything usually for a flimsy reason. They tend to be contrived and feature people filming in dangerous situations long after it's reasonable.
With that tangent out of the way, this was a decent one. It's somewhere between the two premises mentioned above, as a videographer responds to an ad requesting someone to film a man all day, ostensibly to document one of his last days as a terminally ill man for his unborn child. This doesn't hold up long, and it's rather obvious the man is not on the up and up from the start.
Unfortunately this requires the protagonist to be about the least cautious person on the planet as this clearly strange and unsettling guy gets chance after chance from him. Even the man himself thinks the protagonist is unusually trusting. I don't think you'll find too many surprises here plotwise, and there's a few too many cheap jumpscares, though they gradually dissipate and much more effective jump-free suspenseful scenes populate the second half of the film. But it's shot and edited in a successfully spooky manner, without feeling like it's trying hard.
For aficionados of found footage, give it a look.
Give Creep 2 a shot. It really plays around with the first one's premise well.
OP
OP
Body Horror Weekdays
These are going to be shorter reviews so I can catch up.
15) Altered States (1980) (Oct 16)
I appreciated how serious this was treated considering all the expected Ken Russell weirdness on display. Solid performances from everyone and the GOING APE scene was crazy fun (Warren Graham would be proud). Outside of that, it kind of drags though. Too much of the characters yelling at each other and just being miserable in general. I kind of hated the finale too.
Decent. 2.5 / 5
16) Jacob's Ladder (1990) (Oct 17)
Absolutely loved this. Even though the actual horror content is rather light (and it even being a horror movie is debatable), this was haunting and unsettling. Incredible performance from Tim Robbins and masterful direction from Adrian Lyne. A true masterpiece that I look forward to revisiting again in the future. Easily the best movie of the month I had watched up to this point.
Highly recommended. 4.5 / 5
17) Starry Eyes (2014) (Oct 18)
Loved this one too. Really brave performance from Alex Essoe. Shame I haven't seen her in anything else, she definitely deserves more roles after this one. Starry Eyes is another slow burn movie, but it definitely pays off in the end. Maybe it did show a bit too much in the final scenes, but overall this was another pleasant surprise as I went in knowing nothing about it. I did have more to say about this one, but I've put the review off for so long I've totally forgotten what I wanted to say. Whoops.
Highly recommended. 4 / 5
18) Rabid (1977) (Oct 19)
The movie I had attempted to watch for this day turned out to be the first movie in the 8 years I've been doing the marathon that I just could not sit though. Rabid was a last minute substitution because it was the last unwatched body horror movie I had. Luckily, David Cronenberg delivered again.
This was bleak as hell and I loved it. I wouldn't have minded a little more character development, especially to introduce the characters before the accident at the start, but it's nothing that kept me from enjoying everything else. Definitely a creative and bizarre take on the subject matter.
If you watch only one armpit vampire zombie movie this month, make it Rabid.
Recommended. 3.5 / 5
19) Upgrade (2018) (Oct 19)
I didn't pay much attention to Upgrade since it was in and out of theatres so fast, but positive word of mouth made me add it to the list. I'm glad it did because this was really good. It could definitely have used more world building, but I guess it had a rather modest budget so that wasn't possible. Hopefully it has better luck on home video than it did in theatres because it deserves to be seen.
Recommended. 3.5 / 5
These are going to be shorter reviews so I can catch up.
15) Altered States (1980) (Oct 16)
I appreciated how serious this was treated considering all the expected Ken Russell weirdness on display. Solid performances from everyone and the GOING APE scene was crazy fun (Warren Graham would be proud). Outside of that, it kind of drags though. Too much of the characters yelling at each other and just being miserable in general. I kind of hated the finale too.
Decent. 2.5 / 5
16) Jacob's Ladder (1990) (Oct 17)
Absolutely loved this. Even though the actual horror content is rather light (and it even being a horror movie is debatable), this was haunting and unsettling. Incredible performance from Tim Robbins and masterful direction from Adrian Lyne. A true masterpiece that I look forward to revisiting again in the future. Easily the best movie of the month I had watched up to this point.
So, what's the general consensus on Gabe? Was his death before Jacob went off to Vietnam or was he never real in the first place? I didn't quite pick up on the time frame, if there even was one.
Highly recommended. 4.5 / 5
17) Starry Eyes (2014) (Oct 18)
Loved this one too. Really brave performance from Alex Essoe. Shame I haven't seen her in anything else, she definitely deserves more roles after this one. Starry Eyes is another slow burn movie, but it definitely pays off in the end. Maybe it did show a bit too much in the final scenes, but overall this was another pleasant surprise as I went in knowing nothing about it. I did have more to say about this one, but I've put the review off for so long I've totally forgotten what I wanted to say. Whoops.
Highly recommended. 4 / 5
18) Rabid (1977) (Oct 19)
The movie I had attempted to watch for this day turned out to be the first movie in the 8 years I've been doing the marathon that I just could not sit though. Rabid was a last minute substitution because it was the last unwatched body horror movie I had. Luckily, David Cronenberg delivered again.
This was bleak as hell and I loved it. I wouldn't have minded a little more character development, especially to introduce the characters before the accident at the start, but it's nothing that kept me from enjoying everything else. Definitely a creative and bizarre take on the subject matter.
If you watch only one armpit vampire zombie movie this month, make it Rabid.
Recommended. 3.5 / 5
19) Upgrade (2018) (Oct 19)
I didn't pay much attention to Upgrade since it was in and out of theatres so fast, but positive word of mouth made me add it to the list. I'm glad it did because this was really good. It could definitely have used more world building, but I guess it had a rather modest budget so that wasn't possible. Hopefully it has better luck on home video than it did in theatres because it deserves to be seen.
Recommended. 3.5 / 5
New Scream Factory release. Incredible work done on the remaster. I'm in awe (I attached a couple to this post)
https://letterboxd.com/kinggroin/film/creepshow/
MY REVIEW:
When planets align, and every single segment of a horror anthology not only works - but works well - you have Creepshow. A delightfully macabre genre powerhouse that could only come from a gusto-driven Romero-King duo, the film continues to stand the test of time while simultaneously making its inspired contemporaries mostly look amateur. Vengeful ghoulish fathers, man-eating plants, seaweed ghosts, nightmarish Tasmanian devils, and of course *shivers* cockroaches - this to me, encompasses everything I love about the genre. It is "grinning horror" at its best most purest form, and one of my favorite films ever.
https://letterboxd.com/kinggroin/film/creepshow/
MY REVIEW:
When planets align, and every single segment of a horror anthology not only works - but works well - you have Creepshow. A delightfully macabre genre powerhouse that could only come from a gusto-driven Romero-King duo, the film continues to stand the test of time while simultaneously making its inspired contemporaries mostly look amateur. Vengeful ghoulish fathers, man-eating plants, seaweed ghosts, nightmarish Tasmanian devils, and of course *shivers* cockroaches - this to me, encompasses everything I love about the genre. It is "grinning horror" at its best most purest form, and one of my favorite films ever.
DAY 34
We Are What We Are: For my fifth annual marathon, I had watched the original take on this material. To put it mildly, I didn't think very highly of it, to the point where I found it to be the worst film that I had seen for the first time that year; a feat made all the more impressive considering that The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) was another film I had watched that October. Even then, I had the simple expectation that the remake undertaken by Jim Mickle had to have been a better film by default simply because I couldn't imagine how it could get worse than what I had already witnessed. Flash forward five years, filled with procrastination and lot of streaming service changes, and I finally got to find out just how much of a superior work this turned out to be. Rather than confusing obtuseness with mystery and intrigue, the story here makes a potentially hazardous play early on by explaining the why behind the ritual that our family must partake in every year, only to give the film a rather fascinating undercurrent of religious fervor that gives the film a thematic charge that simply did not exist in the original and helps to give this a real depth to it without coming across as preachy one way or the other. Jim Mickle already impressed me quite a bit that year with Stake Land and how he was able to wrangle an impressive production on a threadbare budget, so the larger one he got to play with here pays off with its evocative rural New York setting, especially with the dreamy atmosphere that the heavy raining and flooding provides. But perhaps the single biggest improvement are the characters themselves, as Mickle and cohort Nick Damici throw out everything but the general structure of the family and instead creates a family already fraying at having to uphold the traditions that they were born into even before one of the parents die. They weren't interested in merely gender-swapping the roles here, as the decision to kill off the mother in the opening scene winds up with some strong implications as to how the family is run, creating a tension that the actors here are able to tap into with convincing results. If Bill Sage is the weakest performer here as the patriarch, it's because his role is a bit more clearly defined as a villain rather than a lack of meat to this role, as the focus is squarely on the mounting pressure on his daughters Iris and Rose have with their roles in the ritual, of which Ambyr Childers and Julia Garner play beautifully. You can see just how much it's killing them to do the things that they do in just the ways their eyes move, and the body language that they understand of one another helps to create a real sisterly bond when the dialogue quiets down. Really, I don't have much bad to say about this film, other than a couple of moments towards the end that speed along the story from its dreamily languid pace that seem out of place otherwise, and certainly not strong enough complaints to detract from how well made and executed the film is. On its own merits, this is a very, very strong film and an excellent example of taking a strong premise and doing something unexpected with it, but as a remake, this joins the small list of films out there that are superior to their sources and leaves them completely in the dust. Make no mistake here: this is the We Are What We Are that you need to watch.
WolfCop: Truth in advertising! With a title like this one has, it should not come as any surprise that it delivers on just that. High art enthusiasts need not apply, as this is as ridiculous, trashy and absurd as one would expect it to be, and even goes past them with a surprising amount of foundations being laid down for a mythology (no, really!) for our quasi-heroic lawman-turned-lycanthrope and the strange little corner of Canada he lives in, as well as some genuinely creative practical effects work for some fun gore effects and at least one jaw-dropping transformation effect. Of course, it's also not as polished as one would expect it to be, either, with that usual overlit look that a lot of small budget productions are fond of, as well as a lot of close-ups that can obscure the action, werewolf or otherwise. The story is unsurprisingly scattershot, with it not really ever finding much of a pace so much as it keeps moving onto something else, so it can flag the pacing for something that's sub-80 minutes in length. This isn't to say that the writing is bad, as there's at least one terrific joke that cleverly incorporates the imagery of the Three Little Pigs tale and there's a nice amount of wit to the one-liners that WolfCop spews, but there is nevertheless an eagerness to get to the cool stuff as quickly as possible, rather than building up to it. The film does wisely avoid being too zany for its own good, giving the jokes a good diversity that does keep interest high even when it's not being particularly graceful, though one does wonder just how graceful a film like this really could have been in the first place. In that sense, then, it's as good as it really could have been and does offer up some pleasant surprises along the way. It's not great, and really, it's only kinda good, but within its aims, it accomplishes everything that it sets out to do.
7 films are officially left, but there will be more before the end!
We Are What We Are: For my fifth annual marathon, I had watched the original take on this material. To put it mildly, I didn't think very highly of it, to the point where I found it to be the worst film that I had seen for the first time that year; a feat made all the more impressive considering that The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) was another film I had watched that October. Even then, I had the simple expectation that the remake undertaken by Jim Mickle had to have been a better film by default simply because I couldn't imagine how it could get worse than what I had already witnessed. Flash forward five years, filled with procrastination and lot of streaming service changes, and I finally got to find out just how much of a superior work this turned out to be. Rather than confusing obtuseness with mystery and intrigue, the story here makes a potentially hazardous play early on by explaining the why behind the ritual that our family must partake in every year, only to give the film a rather fascinating undercurrent of religious fervor that gives the film a thematic charge that simply did not exist in the original and helps to give this a real depth to it without coming across as preachy one way or the other. Jim Mickle already impressed me quite a bit that year with Stake Land and how he was able to wrangle an impressive production on a threadbare budget, so the larger one he got to play with here pays off with its evocative rural New York setting, especially with the dreamy atmosphere that the heavy raining and flooding provides. But perhaps the single biggest improvement are the characters themselves, as Mickle and cohort Nick Damici throw out everything but the general structure of the family and instead creates a family already fraying at having to uphold the traditions that they were born into even before one of the parents die. They weren't interested in merely gender-swapping the roles here, as the decision to kill off the mother in the opening scene winds up with some strong implications as to how the family is run, creating a tension that the actors here are able to tap into with convincing results. If Bill Sage is the weakest performer here as the patriarch, it's because his role is a bit more clearly defined as a villain rather than a lack of meat to this role, as the focus is squarely on the mounting pressure on his daughters Iris and Rose have with their roles in the ritual, of which Ambyr Childers and Julia Garner play beautifully. You can see just how much it's killing them to do the things that they do in just the ways their eyes move, and the body language that they understand of one another helps to create a real sisterly bond when the dialogue quiets down. Really, I don't have much bad to say about this film, other than a couple of moments towards the end that speed along the story from its dreamily languid pace that seem out of place otherwise, and certainly not strong enough complaints to detract from how well made and executed the film is. On its own merits, this is a very, very strong film and an excellent example of taking a strong premise and doing something unexpected with it, but as a remake, this joins the small list of films out there that are superior to their sources and leaves them completely in the dust. Make no mistake here: this is the We Are What We Are that you need to watch.
WolfCop: Truth in advertising! With a title like this one has, it should not come as any surprise that it delivers on just that. High art enthusiasts need not apply, as this is as ridiculous, trashy and absurd as one would expect it to be, and even goes past them with a surprising amount of foundations being laid down for a mythology (no, really!) for our quasi-heroic lawman-turned-lycanthrope and the strange little corner of Canada he lives in, as well as some genuinely creative practical effects work for some fun gore effects and at least one jaw-dropping transformation effect. Of course, it's also not as polished as one would expect it to be, either, with that usual overlit look that a lot of small budget productions are fond of, as well as a lot of close-ups that can obscure the action, werewolf or otherwise. The story is unsurprisingly scattershot, with it not really ever finding much of a pace so much as it keeps moving onto something else, so it can flag the pacing for something that's sub-80 minutes in length. This isn't to say that the writing is bad, as there's at least one terrific joke that cleverly incorporates the imagery of the Three Little Pigs tale and there's a nice amount of wit to the one-liners that WolfCop spews, but there is nevertheless an eagerness to get to the cool stuff as quickly as possible, rather than building up to it. The film does wisely avoid being too zany for its own good, giving the jokes a good diversity that does keep interest high even when it's not being particularly graceful, though one does wonder just how graceful a film like this really could have been in the first place. In that sense, then, it's as good as it really could have been and does offer up some pleasant surprises along the way. It's not great, and really, it's only kinda good, but within its aims, it accomplishes everything that it sets out to do.
7 films are officially left, but there will be more before the end!
24. Curse of the Werewolf (1961) (rewatch) - I remembered this as being better than it really is. Its bizarrely structured. The fully-grown main character doesn't show up until halfway through the movie, so his whole plotline feels rushed. And you don't get to see the full werewolf until the last ten minutes. The elements were there to make a really good movie, but in the end it feels like wasted potential.
18) Rabid (1977) (Oct 19)
The movie I had attempted to watch for this day turned out to be the first movie in the 8 years I've been doing the marathon that I just could not sit though. Rabid was a last minute substitution because it was the last unwatched body horror movie I had. Luckily, David Cronenberg delivered again.
This was bleak as hell and I loved it. I wouldn't have minded a little more character development, especially to introduce the characters before the accident at the start, but it's nothing that kept me from enjoying everything else. Definitely a creative and bizarre take on the subject matter.
If you watch only one armpit vampire zombie movie this month, make it Rabid.
Recommended. 3.5 / 5
Just watched it myself for the first time, and I agree. A bleak and creative outbreak story that doesn't waste much time with the set up. A remake has apparently started filming this year.
I'm watching Shivers next for the first time.
1-22
23-25
26- V/H/S The camera in this was making me a little ill. As an anthology the segments vary in quality and the framing narrative is bit useless. Most of it's run of the mill, but the video chat one had an interesting idea even if it wasn't executed that well. Overall a disappointment = 2 out of 5 stars
27- The Happiness of the Katakuris The listing said it was horror but it's a great dark comedy. Musical numbers, karaoke, claymation, and surrealism and multiple corpses seems like it would be a disaster. I couldn't stop watching. Very inventive and right up my alley = 4.5 out of 5 stars
23-25
26- V/H/S The camera in this was making me a little ill. As an anthology the segments vary in quality and the framing narrative is bit useless. Most of it's run of the mill, but the video chat one had an interesting idea even if it wasn't executed that well. Overall a disappointment = 2 out of 5 stars
27- The Happiness of the Katakuris The listing said it was horror but it's a great dark comedy. Musical numbers, karaoke, claymation, and surrealism and multiple corpses seems like it would be a disaster. I couldn't stop watching. Very inventive and right up my alley = 4.5 out of 5 stars
#23 Tragedy Girls (2017)
We have to like, treasure the time that we have or whatever.
A pretty good horror comedy that owes a great deal to Scream and its ilk. Two teenage girls want to promote their "Tragedy Girls" (hey, that's the name of the movie) twitter, but lack tragedy in their sleepy town, so they manufacture some slasher film serial killings themselves. The girls are played by two actresses underutilized in comic book films, Alexandra Shipp (Storm in X-Men Apocalypse) and Brianna Hildebrand (Negasonic in Deadpool) and they carry the film well. Hildebrand in particular has plenty of charisma and it's nice to see her in a lead role.
It's more or less Scream from the perspective of the killers, with some modern social media obsession thrown in. While it takes a lighthearted approach to offset the grisly slaughter and frankly quite evil protagonists, I'm not sure it's quite silly enough to completely offset the nihilistic story, which ultimately comes off as fairly meanspirited by the end.
However, it's a very watchable, energetic time, and I'd give it a solid recommendation.
We have to like, treasure the time that we have or whatever.
A pretty good horror comedy that owes a great deal to Scream and its ilk. Two teenage girls want to promote their "Tragedy Girls" (hey, that's the name of the movie) twitter, but lack tragedy in their sleepy town, so they manufacture some slasher film serial killings themselves. The girls are played by two actresses underutilized in comic book films, Alexandra Shipp (Storm in X-Men Apocalypse) and Brianna Hildebrand (Negasonic in Deadpool) and they carry the film well. Hildebrand in particular has plenty of charisma and it's nice to see her in a lead role.
It's more or less Scream from the perspective of the killers, with some modern social media obsession thrown in. While it takes a lighthearted approach to offset the grisly slaughter and frankly quite evil protagonists, I'm not sure it's quite silly enough to completely offset the nihilistic story, which ultimately comes off as fairly meanspirited by the end.
I think the girls are not likable enough in that cool villain way for the film to totally pull off them getting away with everything, including mass murder. You'd rather see at least some comeuppance.
However, it's a very watchable, energetic time, and I'd give it a solid recommendation.
#26 - The Autopsy of Jane Doe
It's rare that a film disturbs me so much I have to pause it a couple times to collect myself. While I think The Autopsy of Jane Doe somewhat loses it's magic toward the end, the first half of the film is excellent and pretty damn scary (that bit where the lights go out was sooo good). The frequent close ups of Jane Doe's dead eyes staring into the camera, the vivid shots of some rather realistic gore and the generally eerie atmosphere make it quite an unsettling experience. Highly recommended, though certainly not for the squeamish. Lots of guts and stuff. Charming.
Yeah it was spoiled for me too, I wish it hadn't been cuz that scene is so unexpected compared to the other scares in the film.
Oh and if you haven't seen it already, A Tale of Two Sisters is a must-watch if you're looking for Asian horror/ghost stories.
It's rare that a film disturbs me so much I have to pause it a couple times to collect myself. While I think The Autopsy of Jane Doe somewhat loses it's magic toward the end, the first half of the film is excellent and pretty damn scary (that bit where the lights go out was sooo good). The frequent close ups of Jane Doe's dead eyes staring into the camera, the vivid shots of some rather realistic gore and the generally eerie atmosphere make it quite an unsettling experience. Highly recommended, though certainly not for the squeamish. Lots of guts and stuff. Charming.
Yeah it was spoiled for me too, I wish it hadn't been cuz that scene is so unexpected compared to the other scares in the film.
Oh and if you haven't seen it already, A Tale of Two Sisters is a must-watch if you're looking for Asian horror/ghost stories.
26. The Witch
That is one mangy rabbit! Haven't seen this poster before, initially thought you made it yourself!
I really appreciate you guys doing these lists.
The last several years it's felt like I've been running out of new horror movies and you all always help me discover something new.
The last several years it's felt like I've been running out of new horror movies and you all always help me discover something new.
#26. Jason X: This week's Giant Bomb commentary and boy, it's a doozy. I watched Part 1, Part 6 and now Part 10 of the Friday the 13th series so I'm a bit all over the place but I've got an honest question. Are any of these films considered good? It's unfair for me to be so judgmental of a series I've seen less than a third of but it really seems like tripe. Anyway, Jason is space was slightly more entertaining than Pinhead in space and it got a few laughs out of me which may have been more due to the commentary than the film. The face shattering kill was cool enough and Jason's robot suit was decent looking if I'm to say anything positive.
OP
OP
My favourites of the month so far are Alligator (1980), Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye (1973), Jacob's Ladder (1990), Starry Eyes (2014), Rabid (1977), I Am a Hero (2015) and Seoul Station (2016).
Since you liked Train to Busan, I strongly recommend I Am a Hero and Seoul Station.
Yeah, I see that the Soska Sisters are handling the remake. That's a pretty interesting choice, in my opinion. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with it.
I watched Shivers for the marathon back in 2014 and wasn't too crazy about it at the time. It's definitely more rough around the edges than Rabid is. It's one I've been meaning to revisit though.
#23 Tragedy Girls (2017)
We have to like, treasure the time that we have or whatever.
A pretty good horror comedy that owes a great deal to Scream and its ilk. Two teenage girls want to promote their "Tragedy Girls" (hey, that's the name of the movie) twitter, but lack tragedy in their sleepy town, so they manufacture some slasher film serial killings themselves. The girls are played by two actresses underutilized in comic book films, Alexandra Shipp (Storm in X-Men Apocalypse) and Brianna Hildebrand (Negasonic in Deadpool) and they carry the film well. Hildebrand in particular has plenty of charisma and it's nice to see her in a lead role.
It's more or less Scream from the perspective of the killers, with some modern social media obsession thrown in. While it takes a lighthearted approach to offset the grisly slaughter and frankly quite evil protagonists, I'm not sure it's quite silly enough to completely offset the nihilistic story, which ultimately comes off as fairly meanspirited by the end.I think the girls are not likable enough in that cool villain way for the film to totally pull off them getting away with everything, including mass murder. You'd rather see at least some comeuppance.
However, it's a very watchable, energetic time, and I'd give it a solid recommendation.
Agreed. I really enjoyed Tragedy Girls, but the ending felt too mean spirited and felt off point for what the movie was trying to say (or what I thought it was trying to say, anyway). It just soured me on the whole thing. I'd go as far to say I wouldn't even recommend it anymore because of that. Really enjoyed Brianna Hildebrand's performance though.
OP
OP
Asian Zombie Weekend
20) I Am a Hero (2015) (Oct 20)
Hideo Suzuki is an aspiring mangaka stuck in a dead-end job as a lowly mangaka assistant. After being rejected by his editor and thrown out by his girlfriend he returns to work to find his co-workers in a rather violent situation and soon finds himself trying to escape a strange outbreak. After meeting up with a young woman, it's time for the loser to step up and be a hero. But is Hideo up to the task?
I'm a big zombie guy, and while I love the bitey little bastards let's be honest, these days there's little to no variety with them. You get the choice of fast or slow and that's about it.
Based on a manga (which I have not read), I Am a Hero is pretty much Japan does Dawn of the Dead/Shaun of the Dead, but they surprisingly manage to put their own original spin on the zombies, making them fresh and exciting again.
I am completely shocked that this movie has seemingly gone unnoticed. I thought it was phenomenal! Normally, I find live action Japanese stuff a bit budget starved, and maybe it's just the cultural differences, but the characters are frequently stiff and wooden. I Am a Hero avoids all that. They put some real money into this one with some amazing action set pieces that put some bigger budget North American movies to shame. It also features a great score and perhaps best of all, vibrant and exciting characters. Hideo is definitely one of the more realistic and relatable characters I've seen in a long time.
This is my favourite movie of the month so far and honestly, one of the best zombie movies I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot). I've already ordered the first volume of the manga because I need more. Don't miss this one.
Highly recommended. 4.5 / 5
Bonus 02) Train to Busan (Busanhaeng) (2016) (Oct 20) (rewatch)
I was on such a high from I Am a Hero, I decided to toss in Train to Busan because I needed more Asian zombie carnage, and I figured a rewatch of it before my next movie wouldn't hurt.
If you haven't seen it (why?) it's another fantastic modern zombie spectacle.
Perhaps suffering from being a little too overly dramatic (a common problem with Korean movies) and the usual problem of the characters committing stupid actions that cause unnecessary deaths, the small flaws don't diminish what is one of the most exciting and fun zombie films in decades. A great cast of varied characters including one of the biggest assholes you'll ever see and an incredible use of limited sets/space really make this one shine. This was obviously made with a lot of effort and care.
I like to consider Train to Busan what World War Z would have been, had the producers focused more on great amounts of talent rather than great amounts of money.
No score because this is a rewatch, but it is highly recommended.
21) Seoul Station (Seoulyeok) (2016) (Oct 21)
Seoul Station is an animated spin-off of Train to Busan that was released only a month later in South Korea and deals with an alternate group of people during the start of the outbreak.
I'm just going to get this out of the way... this thing is ugly. The character designs and colour scheme are suitable for the material, but the animation itself appears to have been done by animating 3D models and then the frames were rotoscoped for a more hand drawn appearance. It's stiff, jerky and just unattractive to look at. The animation did get less distracting as the film went on, but it never stopped appearing robotic and that really caused a disconnect as you're expected to care about these automatons.
Once you get past that though, Seoul Station is quite interesting. There's a pretty big contrast to Train to Busan, as even though that was incredibly over dramatic, it was still bright, exciting and very fun. Seoul Station is dark as hell, and one of the most bleak movies I've seen in a long time. It's like going from Romero's Dawn of the Dead to Day of the Dead, only even more extreme. This shit is GRIM.
The film doesn't introduce any new information about the infection and there's some slight inconsistencies with the zombies from Train to Busan, but this is a nice companion piece and definitely recommended if you can get past the ugly animation.
Highly recommended. 4 / 5
20) I Am a Hero (2015) (Oct 20)
Hideo Suzuki is an aspiring mangaka stuck in a dead-end job as a lowly mangaka assistant. After being rejected by his editor and thrown out by his girlfriend he returns to work to find his co-workers in a rather violent situation and soon finds himself trying to escape a strange outbreak. After meeting up with a young woman, it's time for the loser to step up and be a hero. But is Hideo up to the task?
I'm a big zombie guy, and while I love the bitey little bastards let's be honest, these days there's little to no variety with them. You get the choice of fast or slow and that's about it.
Based on a manga (which I have not read), I Am a Hero is pretty much Japan does Dawn of the Dead/Shaun of the Dead, but they surprisingly manage to put their own original spin on the zombies, making them fresh and exciting again.
I am completely shocked that this movie has seemingly gone unnoticed. I thought it was phenomenal! Normally, I find live action Japanese stuff a bit budget starved, and maybe it's just the cultural differences, but the characters are frequently stiff and wooden. I Am a Hero avoids all that. They put some real money into this one with some amazing action set pieces that put some bigger budget North American movies to shame. It also features a great score and perhaps best of all, vibrant and exciting characters. Hideo is definitely one of the more realistic and relatable characters I've seen in a long time.
This is my favourite movie of the month so far and honestly, one of the best zombie movies I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot). I've already ordered the first volume of the manga because I need more. Don't miss this one.
Highly recommended. 4.5 / 5
Bonus 02) Train to Busan (Busanhaeng) (2016) (Oct 20) (rewatch)
I was on such a high from I Am a Hero, I decided to toss in Train to Busan because I needed more Asian zombie carnage, and I figured a rewatch of it before my next movie wouldn't hurt.
If you haven't seen it (why?) it's another fantastic modern zombie spectacle.
Perhaps suffering from being a little too overly dramatic (a common problem with Korean movies) and the usual problem of the characters committing stupid actions that cause unnecessary deaths, the small flaws don't diminish what is one of the most exciting and fun zombie films in decades. A great cast of varied characters including one of the biggest assholes you'll ever see and an incredible use of limited sets/space really make this one shine. This was obviously made with a lot of effort and care.
I like to consider Train to Busan what World War Z would have been, had the producers focused more on great amounts of talent rather than great amounts of money.
No score because this is a rewatch, but it is highly recommended.
21) Seoul Station (Seoulyeok) (2016) (Oct 21)
Seoul Station is an animated spin-off of Train to Busan that was released only a month later in South Korea and deals with an alternate group of people during the start of the outbreak.
I'm just going to get this out of the way... this thing is ugly. The character designs and colour scheme are suitable for the material, but the animation itself appears to have been done by animating 3D models and then the frames were rotoscoped for a more hand drawn appearance. It's stiff, jerky and just unattractive to look at. The animation did get less distracting as the film went on, but it never stopped appearing robotic and that really caused a disconnect as you're expected to care about these automatons.
Once you get past that though, Seoul Station is quite interesting. There's a pretty big contrast to Train to Busan, as even though that was incredibly over dramatic, it was still bright, exciting and very fun. Seoul Station is dark as hell, and one of the most bleak movies I've seen in a long time. It's like going from Romero's Dawn of the Dead to Day of the Dead, only even more extreme. This shit is GRIM.
The film doesn't introduce any new information about the infection and there's some slight inconsistencies with the zombies from Train to Busan, but this is a nice companion piece and definitely recommended if you can get past the ugly animation.
Highly recommended. 4 / 5
Gah, bit behind here on what I have seen this week.
11. Halloween (1978) Rewatch
Saw it last year for a rewatch as I was diving into more John Carpenter stuff, and saw it again for this year to prep for the new Halloween. Maybe I will make it a tradition or something, with it being such a fitting name. Anyway, this film is still a classic, with a lot of great shots, music, and still some nice tension. That moment with him getting up in the background while Laurie is taking a breather is so damn good, and that kind of thing would probably have a loud sound effect nowadays. :P
And happy 40th anniversary to the film.
12. Halloween (2018)
Now fast forwarding to 40 years later, and Micheal just ends up killing even more people as he comes back. XD There was little chance to have that spark that makes the original special, but at it's core, it is a really nice follow up to the original, with the Shape being as intimidating as ever, and Jamie Lee Curtis rocking as Laurie after all these years. Some of the other characters didn't turn out quite as well through, particularly one that plays a huge role of the events of this Halloween, but on the other hand, the family drama turned out least better than what I was expecting. This film has a few nice nods to the original, and oh man is the music SO FREAKING GOOD!
11. Halloween (1978) Rewatch
Saw it last year for a rewatch as I was diving into more John Carpenter stuff, and saw it again for this year to prep for the new Halloween. Maybe I will make it a tradition or something, with it being such a fitting name. Anyway, this film is still a classic, with a lot of great shots, music, and still some nice tension. That moment with him getting up in the background while Laurie is taking a breather is so damn good, and that kind of thing would probably have a loud sound effect nowadays. :P
And happy 40th anniversary to the film.
12. Halloween (2018)
Now fast forwarding to 40 years later, and Micheal just ends up killing even more people as he comes back. XD There was little chance to have that spark that makes the original special, but at it's core, it is a really nice follow up to the original, with the Shape being as intimidating as ever, and Jamie Lee Curtis rocking as Laurie after all these years. Some of the other characters didn't turn out quite as well through, particularly one that plays a huge role of the events of this Halloween, but on the other hand, the family drama turned out least better than what I was expecting. This film has a few nice nods to the original, and oh man is the music SO FREAKING GOOD!
#23 Tragedy Girls (2017)
We have to like, treasure the time that we have or whatever.
A pretty good horror comedy that owes a great deal to Scream and its ilk. Two teenage girls want to promote their "Tragedy Girls" (hey, that's the name of the movie) twitter, but lack tragedy in their sleepy town, so they manufacture some slasher film serial killings themselves. The girls are played by two actresses underutilized in comic book films, Alexandra Shipp (Storm in X-Men Apocalypse) and Brianna Hildebrand (Negasonic in Deadpool) and they carry the film well. Hildebrand in particular has plenty of charisma and it's nice to see her in a lead role.
It's more or less Scream from the perspective of the killers, with some modern social media obsession thrown in. While it takes a lighthearted approach to offset the grisly slaughter and frankly quite evil protagonists, I'm not sure it's quite silly enough to completely offset the nihilistic story, which ultimately comes off as fairly meanspirited by the end.I think the girls are not likable enough in that cool villain way for the film to totally pull off them getting away with everything, including mass murder. You'd rather see at least some comeuppance.
However, it's a very watchable, energetic time, and I'd give it a solid recommendation.
You keep mentioning Scream, and I get it, but have you seen Heathers?
A couple of them are ok, that's all I've got sorry. It annoys me way more than it entertains.
I don't feel the same way about anything (ID2 and latest 2 JPs notwithstanding) with Goldblum in it
turns out there are 3. One with the goat, one with the rabbit, and one with the crow
Fair enough. I don't like everything's he's done. His contribution to The ABCs of Death is indeed absolutely terrible. But I love "The House of Devil" because it's not one of those win-wink 80s homages. It takes the material seriously.
1. Wrong Turn (N)
2. Valentine (N)
3. Urban Legend (N)
4. Ghost Team One (N)
5. Constantine (R)
6. Monster House (R)
7. Warm Bodies (R)
8. Scream 2 (R)
9. Most Likely to Die (N)
10. Tragedy Girls (N)
11. The Windmill (N)
12. All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (N)
13. The House on Sorority Row (N)
14. The Invisible Maniac (N)
15. Clown (N)
16. Halloween (R)
17. Ruin Me (N)
18. Hide and Go Shriek (n)
19. Hatchet (N)
20. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (NR)
21. Drag Me to Hell (N)
22. The Funhouse Massacre (N)
23. Revenge (N)
24. The Witch (N)
25. Caesar and Otto's Summer Camp Massacre (N)
26. Sleepaway Camp 2 (N)
27. Last Girl Standing (N)
28. The Scarehouse (N)
29. As Above, So Below (n)
30. Stage Fright (N)
31. Creep 2 (N)
32. Friday the 13th (R)
33. Scream (R)
34. Halloween h20 (N)
35. Stage Fright (N)
36, Black Christmas (1974) (N)
37. My Bloody Valentine (1980s) (N)
38. Halloween (2018) (N)
39. Dead Body (N)
40. Murder Party (N)
41. No One Lives (N) - Well the movie lives up to its name. And is quite the bloody romp. Really solid movie, though hard to really cheer for a side in all of this.
42. Summer of 84 (N) - I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about this movie. I guess it all comes down to the final 15-20 minutes or so of the movie, and it goes into a dark territory after a slow build. But fascinating.
43. Jason X (R) - It's over the top, it's silly. It has some great kills and one-liners and Uber jason.
2. Valentine (N)
3. Urban Legend (N)
4. Ghost Team One (N)
5. Constantine (R)
6. Monster House (R)
7. Warm Bodies (R)
8. Scream 2 (R)
9. Most Likely to Die (N)
10. Tragedy Girls (N)
11. The Windmill (N)
12. All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (N)
13. The House on Sorority Row (N)
14. The Invisible Maniac (N)
15. Clown (N)
16. Halloween (R)
17. Ruin Me (N)
18. Hide and Go Shriek (n)
19. Hatchet (N)
20. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (NR)
21. Drag Me to Hell (N)
22. The Funhouse Massacre (N)
23. Revenge (N)
24. The Witch (N)
25. Caesar and Otto's Summer Camp Massacre (N)
26. Sleepaway Camp 2 (N)
27. Last Girl Standing (N)
28. The Scarehouse (N)
29. As Above, So Below (n)
30. Stage Fright (N)
31. Creep 2 (N)
32. Friday the 13th (R)
33. Scream (R)
34. Halloween h20 (N)
35. Stage Fright (N)
36, Black Christmas (1974) (N)
37. My Bloody Valentine (1980s) (N)
38. Halloween (2018) (N)
39. Dead Body (N)
40. Murder Party (N)
41. No One Lives (N) - Well the movie lives up to its name. And is quite the bloody romp. Really solid movie, though hard to really cheer for a side in all of this.
42. Summer of 84 (N) - I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about this movie. I guess it all comes down to the final 15-20 minutes or so of the movie, and it goes into a dark territory after a slow build. But fascinating.
43. Jason X (R) - It's over the top, it's silly. It has some great kills and one-liners and Uber jason.
#24 - Funny Games (1997)
Watching this, it seemed really familiar yet it also totally didn't. It took me a while to figure it out, but you guessed it; I've seen the remake! So the original wasn't that new or mind-blowing, but it sure was cruel and mean-spirited. Contrary to what the title would have you believe, the games being played in this movie are not that funny. This made me feel bad :( 6/10
Whoa, that is amazing and very cool! I thought that Russell as Robert was a bit stiff especially considering his character's role and the impact of the story to his character. I figured with what transpired, his character would have been a bit more emotional, ragged or desperate like Jim was.
You never really know that your reviews may actually be read by someone involved and that it could impact them to do better, or worse, or even affect them at all but when it does, it must be an amazing feeling to be heard. Congrats to you and your site!
24) Tragedy Girls (2017)
★★1/2
"We're about to graduate and go to college, and we haven't even started our first killing spree!"
Two obnoxious self-absorbed high-school girls conspire to commit a series of murders to grow their personal brand, the new currency of the social media era. A millennial update on Heathers and American Psycho, this dark comedy takes the hollow attention-seeking shenanigans of Jake Paul and his ilk to its extreme conclusion.
Despite some funny moments, aided by the great chemistry between the two leads, the broad satire is never as clever as it thinks it is. The premise wears thin after a while, and the hashtag speak of our snarky serial killers in training gets annoying real fast. The name-dropping, too, goes way overboard, with references to everything from Breaking Bad, to Final Destination, Martyrs, Dario Argento, and Cannibal Holocaust. Naturally, the surnames of the teenage girls are Cunningham and Hooper (wink wink). Omigod, they sure know their classics! Hella awesome!
Focusing on a pair of insufferable narcissists is, of course, quite representative of our times. But like its protagonists, Tragedy Girls is all surface. Entertaining enough, a heightened visual style, but not saying anything too insightful about the subject matter. Ingrid Goes West did it better. #Disappointed
25) Death Line/Raw Meat (1972)
★★1/2
Don't let the thoroughly misleading poster and tagline fool you. There is no tribe. There are no cannibalistic orgies featuring any of these half-naked characters. Instead, the London subway system is haunted by only two troglodytes covered in boils and sores, with one being incapacitated from the very beginning.
The underground dwellers lurk in an old station where decades ago a group of trapped miners were abandoned, their company deciding that rescuing them would be too costly. Social inequality, then, is a major theme that runs through the entire movie. The disappearance of a posh civil servant, for instance, is treated as much more important than the vanishing of the many faceless blue-collar workers.
But sadly, the movie's ambitious ideas, never fully explored, are far better than the sometimes clunky execution.
The overlong opening takes us on a strange psychedelic journey through London's red-light district set to a sleazy skin flick soundtrack. Later, we are treated to a technically impressive but painfully slow camera pan through the cannibals' abode. This scene, however, does give us a surprisingly gory and nasty look at how the missing people have ended up.
None of the different storylines come together in a natural, satisfying way. Donald Pleasance, definitely the highlight here, seems to be in a different movie altogether, cracking silly jokes and going on about his disdain for teabags. Christopher Lee pops up for an amusing little scene and is never seen again. In fact, the entire police investigation has no effect whatsoever on the eventual outcome.
It's a unique treatment of what would usually amount to lurid trash, I just wish it would have done much more with its intriguing concept.
1) Terrifier (2018) ★1/2
2) Child's Play 2 (1990) ★★1/2
3) Motel Hell (1980) ★★★
4) Wolfen (1981) ★★1/2
5) The Devil's Candy (2015) ★
6) I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House (2016) ★★★1/2
7) Lake Mungo (2008) ★★★1/2
8) Child's Play 3 (1991) ★1/2
9) Dead Night (2018) ★★
10) The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976) ★
11) Bride of Chucky (1998) ★★★
12) XX (2017) ★1/2
13) Seed of Chucky (2004) ★1/2
14) Stake Land II/The Stakelander (2016) ★★1/2
15) Curse of Chucky (2013) ★★1/2
16) The Old Dark House (1932) ★★★
17) Cult of Chucky (2017) ★★
18) The Devil Rides Out (1968) ★★1/2
19) The Innocents (1961) ★★★1/2
20) Emelie (2015) ★★1/2
21) Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) ★
22) Witchfinder General (1968) ★★★1/2
23) Satan's Little Helper (2004) ★★★
★★1/2
"We're about to graduate and go to college, and we haven't even started our first killing spree!"
Two obnoxious self-absorbed high-school girls conspire to commit a series of murders to grow their personal brand, the new currency of the social media era. A millennial update on Heathers and American Psycho, this dark comedy takes the hollow attention-seeking shenanigans of Jake Paul and his ilk to its extreme conclusion.
Despite some funny moments, aided by the great chemistry between the two leads, the broad satire is never as clever as it thinks it is. The premise wears thin after a while, and the hashtag speak of our snarky serial killers in training gets annoying real fast. The name-dropping, too, goes way overboard, with references to everything from Breaking Bad, to Final Destination, Martyrs, Dario Argento, and Cannibal Holocaust. Naturally, the surnames of the teenage girls are Cunningham and Hooper (wink wink). Omigod, they sure know their classics! Hella awesome!
Focusing on a pair of insufferable narcissists is, of course, quite representative of our times. But like its protagonists, Tragedy Girls is all surface. Entertaining enough, a heightened visual style, but not saying anything too insightful about the subject matter. Ingrid Goes West did it better. #Disappointed
25) Death Line/Raw Meat (1972)
★★1/2
Don't let the thoroughly misleading poster and tagline fool you. There is no tribe. There are no cannibalistic orgies featuring any of these half-naked characters. Instead, the London subway system is haunted by only two troglodytes covered in boils and sores, with one being incapacitated from the very beginning.
The underground dwellers lurk in an old station where decades ago a group of trapped miners were abandoned, their company deciding that rescuing them would be too costly. Social inequality, then, is a major theme that runs through the entire movie. The disappearance of a posh civil servant, for instance, is treated as much more important than the vanishing of the many faceless blue-collar workers.
But sadly, the movie's ambitious ideas, never fully explored, are far better than the sometimes clunky execution.
The overlong opening takes us on a strange psychedelic journey through London's red-light district set to a sleazy skin flick soundtrack. Later, we are treated to a technically impressive but painfully slow camera pan through the cannibals' abode. This scene, however, does give us a surprisingly gory and nasty look at how the missing people have ended up.
None of the different storylines come together in a natural, satisfying way. Donald Pleasance, definitely the highlight here, seems to be in a different movie altogether, cracking silly jokes and going on about his disdain for teabags. Christopher Lee pops up for an amusing little scene and is never seen again. In fact, the entire police investigation has no effect whatsoever on the eventual outcome.
It's a unique treatment of what would usually amount to lurid trash, I just wish it would have done much more with its intriguing concept.
1) Terrifier (2018) ★1/2
2) Child's Play 2 (1990) ★★1/2
3) Motel Hell (1980) ★★★
4) Wolfen (1981) ★★1/2
5) The Devil's Candy (2015) ★
6) I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House (2016) ★★★1/2
7) Lake Mungo (2008) ★★★1/2
8) Child's Play 3 (1991) ★1/2
9) Dead Night (2018) ★★
10) The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976) ★
11) Bride of Chucky (1998) ★★★
12) XX (2017) ★1/2
13) Seed of Chucky (2004) ★1/2
14) Stake Land II/The Stakelander (2016) ★★1/2
15) Curse of Chucky (2013) ★★1/2
16) The Old Dark House (1932) ★★★
17) Cult of Chucky (2017) ★★
18) The Devil Rides Out (1968) ★★1/2
19) The Innocents (1961) ★★★1/2
20) Emelie (2015) ★★1/2
21) Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) ★
22) Witchfinder General (1968) ★★★1/2
23) Satan's Little Helper (2004) ★★★
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Film 35 - The Maus
The Maus is a story, at least on the surface, about a naive couple called Selma and Alex who get lost in the Bosnian woods and subsequently fall foul of some unfriendly Serbian guys. Caught in a horrendous situation, Selma, the timid little mouse of the title, eventually finds her inner strength. Look a little harder and you'll see the film's also a representation of the lacklustre European response to the conflict in the Balkans in the early 1990s, specifically the response to the plight of Bosnian muslims faced with brutal ethnic cleansing. It's also a study of how PTSD can fracture minds, and create unreliable narrators. Plus there's some Bosnian folklore/magic thrown in for good measure.
With such a lot going on beneath the surface, the movie isn't a straightforward watch, and under normal circumstances I probably wouldn't try to comment on it having only seen it once. No film I've watched this month has rattled around in my brain afterwards quite like this one. So many aspects of the movie are ambiguous that I haven't yet decided what really happened, and what was just imaginary, and this goes for the ending in particular. What I can say is that knowing what happened in Srebrenica in July 1995 is probably a prerequisite for getting the most out of the film, as it makes the characters behaviour towards each other much more understandable.
I'm conscious that I've possibly made the film sound a bit earnest and boring, which is very far from the case. It's dark, tense and gripping, and it has a fantastic central performance from Alma Terzic as Selma; having a female Bosnian muslim as the main character is not the sort of thing you see every day in horror movies and makes a refreshing change. I enjoyed the film, and would recommend it. If I had to pick fault I'd point to the political aspects of the movie not being as subtle as they might be. The Serbian bad guys nickname Alex, Selma's largely ineffectual and unempathetic German boyfriend 'Europe' from the word go, and some of Selma's lines to Alex are pretty clearly meant to be from a nation of people to the continent at large. But I'm just nitpicking here really. It's a good film.
One last thing, if you are contemplating watching this movie, don't watch the trailer first; it's jammed with spoilers.
Films I've watched so far
The Maus is a story, at least on the surface, about a naive couple called Selma and Alex who get lost in the Bosnian woods and subsequently fall foul of some unfriendly Serbian guys. Caught in a horrendous situation, Selma, the timid little mouse of the title, eventually finds her inner strength. Look a little harder and you'll see the film's also a representation of the lacklustre European response to the conflict in the Balkans in the early 1990s, specifically the response to the plight of Bosnian muslims faced with brutal ethnic cleansing. It's also a study of how PTSD can fracture minds, and create unreliable narrators. Plus there's some Bosnian folklore/magic thrown in for good measure.
With such a lot going on beneath the surface, the movie isn't a straightforward watch, and under normal circumstances I probably wouldn't try to comment on it having only seen it once. No film I've watched this month has rattled around in my brain afterwards quite like this one. So many aspects of the movie are ambiguous that I haven't yet decided what really happened, and what was just imaginary, and this goes for the ending in particular. What I can say is that knowing what happened in Srebrenica in July 1995 is probably a prerequisite for getting the most out of the film, as it makes the characters behaviour towards each other much more understandable.
I'm conscious that I've possibly made the film sound a bit earnest and boring, which is very far from the case. It's dark, tense and gripping, and it has a fantastic central performance from Alma Terzic as Selma; having a female Bosnian muslim as the main character is not the sort of thing you see every day in horror movies and makes a refreshing change. I enjoyed the film, and would recommend it. If I had to pick fault I'd point to the political aspects of the movie not being as subtle as they might be. The Serbian bad guys nickname Alex, Selma's largely ineffectual and unempathetic German boyfriend 'Europe' from the word go, and some of Selma's lines to Alex are pretty clearly meant to be from a nation of people to the continent at large. But I'm just nitpicking here really. It's a good film.
One last thing, if you are contemplating watching this movie, don't watch the trailer first; it's jammed with spoilers.
Films I've watched so far
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October 26, 2018
Exeter
Synopsis: A once active but now abandoned Exeter asylum is the location of a roaring all night party that ends up with Patrick, his younger brother Rory, and his few friends dealing with a demon who resides there and corrupts and possesses some of their souls. However, there is something far more sinister about the asylum and its history.
Review: This one was unfortunately a tough one to watch. I was hoping for the best but there are just too many things wrong with this one. Thin story, unlikable characters, awful character decisions and various non-logical situations ruined what I initially thought was going to be a decent film about bad evil asylums. Asylum movies are a dime a dozen and this one made no effort to stand out against any of the others. Nothing unique, nothing special. I will say though, that the asylum itself was spot on creepy and Stephen Lang performed well with the role he had. Hard to recommend this one.
- 2/10
Exeter
Synopsis: A once active but now abandoned Exeter asylum is the location of a roaring all night party that ends up with Patrick, his younger brother Rory, and his few friends dealing with a demon who resides there and corrupts and possesses some of their souls. However, there is something far more sinister about the asylum and its history.
Review: This one was unfortunately a tough one to watch. I was hoping for the best but there are just too many things wrong with this one. Thin story, unlikable characters, awful character decisions and various non-logical situations ruined what I initially thought was going to be a decent film about bad evil asylums. Asylum movies are a dime a dozen and this one made no effort to stand out against any of the others. Nothing unique, nothing special. I will say though, that the asylum itself was spot on creepy and Stephen Lang performed well with the role he had. Hard to recommend this one.
- 2/10
i really enjoyed Summer Of 84 great synth soundtrack moving on to more shudder stuff tonight with #27 Grave Encounters ive got a soft spot for found footage
16. The Old Dark House
James Whale really was, by far, the best director working on these classic Universal horror films; a shame he only did four, but they're all really good. This was the second of the four, where he reteams with Boris Karloff -- both of whom are just coming off Frankenstein -- for the archetypal 'old dark house' type of film. A bunch of travelers get waylaid by a thunderstorm and have to hunker in this creepy old mansion for the night, replete with creepy old people and a mute strongman of a butler played by Karloff (doing something of a reprisal of his Frankenstein performance, but slightly different and actually more menacing). The script is surprisingly funny and the way the characters bounce off each -- and then physically bounce off Karloff -- is pretty engaging. While some of these old-school Universal films feel every bit their age, Whale's have a vitality and wit to them that has helped them stand the test of time.
7/10
17. The Silence of the Lambs
I've always liked this movie, but it wasn't until now -- watching it from start to finish for the first time in I don't know how many years -- that I really appreciated just how masterfully made this whole thing is. Everyone is firing on all cylinders -- Demme, Foster, Hopkins, Levine, even the ones with smaller roles like Glenn and Heald. Just an extremely well done movie on all fronts, the thing just flies by in no time.
9/10
18. The Devil Rides Out
I've always wanted to like Hammer films more than I do, but they miss more often than hit for me. The only one I've really liked so far was Horror of Dracula, but this one was almost as good. It's nice to see Lee in the lead here -- most of the time in these movies he's playing the silent monster, but here he's a full character, and is actually a good guy for a change! Charles Gray also makes for a good foil for Lee, as the head of a devil-worshiping cult. I think one of the main things I dislike about some of the Hammer films I've seen is that they often have the characters just waiting around for bad things to happen to them. What I liked about Dracula, and now this, is that the lead characters are immediately on the ball about what's going, what they need to do, and how to stop whatever the threat is; they're proactive and propulsive right out of the gate. Like other Hammer films, this one also boasts some really lovely technicolor and set design. The ending is a bit of a cop-out and the sudden leanings into Christian imagery and invocations, which makes sense, is also kind of corny. But overall this is a good flick, and one of my favorites of both Hammer and Lee.
7/10
I'll have to look into these, thanks!
James Whale really was, by far, the best director working on these classic Universal horror films; a shame he only did four, but they're all really good. This was the second of the four, where he reteams with Boris Karloff -- both of whom are just coming off Frankenstein -- for the archetypal 'old dark house' type of film. A bunch of travelers get waylaid by a thunderstorm and have to hunker in this creepy old mansion for the night, replete with creepy old people and a mute strongman of a butler played by Karloff (doing something of a reprisal of his Frankenstein performance, but slightly different and actually more menacing). The script is surprisingly funny and the way the characters bounce off each -- and then physically bounce off Karloff -- is pretty engaging. While some of these old-school Universal films feel every bit their age, Whale's have a vitality and wit to them that has helped them stand the test of time.
7/10
17. The Silence of the Lambs
I've always liked this movie, but it wasn't until now -- watching it from start to finish for the first time in I don't know how many years -- that I really appreciated just how masterfully made this whole thing is. Everyone is firing on all cylinders -- Demme, Foster, Hopkins, Levine, even the ones with smaller roles like Glenn and Heald. Just an extremely well done movie on all fronts, the thing just flies by in no time.
9/10
18. The Devil Rides Out
I've always wanted to like Hammer films more than I do, but they miss more often than hit for me. The only one I've really liked so far was Horror of Dracula, but this one was almost as good. It's nice to see Lee in the lead here -- most of the time in these movies he's playing the silent monster, but here he's a full character, and is actually a good guy for a change! Charles Gray also makes for a good foil for Lee, as the head of a devil-worshiping cult. I think one of the main things I dislike about some of the Hammer films I've seen is that they often have the characters just waiting around for bad things to happen to them. What I liked about Dracula, and now this, is that the lead characters are immediately on the ball about what's going, what they need to do, and how to stop whatever the threat is; they're proactive and propulsive right out of the gate. Like other Hammer films, this one also boasts some really lovely technicolor and set design. The ending is a bit of a cop-out and the sudden leanings into Christian imagery and invocations, which makes sense, is also kind of corny. But overall this is a good flick, and one of my favorites of both Hammer and Lee.
7/10
I'll have to look into these, thanks!
1. The Mummy (1932) (rewatch)
2. Extraordinary Tales (2013)
3. Justice League Dark (2017)
4. The Wicker Man (1973) (rewatch)
5. The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
6. Godzilla: King of the Monsters! (1956)
7. It (2017)
8. mother! (2017)
9. The Void (2016)
10. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)
11. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
12. The Mummy (1999)
13. Constantine (2005)
14. The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
15. The Omen (1976)
16. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
17. Corpse Bride (2005)
18. The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
19. Phenomena (1985)
20. Paranormal Activity (2007)
21. Black Sabbath (1963)
22. Carrie (1976)
23. Evil Dead II (1987) (rewatch)
24. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
25. Alien: Covenant (2017)
26. Eraserhead (1977) (rewatch)
27. Scanners (1981) (rewatch)
Not as good as I remembered, but still very entertaining in its own way.
2. Extraordinary Tales (2013)
3. Justice League Dark (2017)
4. The Wicker Man (1973) (rewatch)
5. The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
6. Godzilla: King of the Monsters! (1956)
7. It (2017)
8. mother! (2017)
9. The Void (2016)
10. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)
11. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
12. The Mummy (1999)
13. Constantine (2005)
14. The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
15. The Omen (1976)
16. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
17. Corpse Bride (2005)
18. The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
19. Phenomena (1985)
20. Paranormal Activity (2007)
21. Black Sabbath (1963)
22. Carrie (1976)
23. Evil Dead II (1987) (rewatch)
24. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
25. Alien: Covenant (2017)
26. Eraserhead (1977) (rewatch)
27. Scanners (1981) (rewatch)
Not as good as I remembered, but still very entertaining in its own way.
#27 - Mother!
I usually enjoy artsy and ambiguous films. I did not enjoy Mother.
While boasting a star-studded cast and some interesting themes, Mother is a frustrating film with an increasingly ridiculous plot and annoying characters. Perhaps this is a film I need to rewatch to appreciate, but I just feel like Aronofsky could've implemented all these complex themes without making the film such a chore to watch. I was holding out hope that things would get better as it went on and lead up to a satisfying conclusion, but it only gets worse. Dreadful.
I usually enjoy artsy and ambiguous films. I did not enjoy Mother.
While boasting a star-studded cast and some interesting themes, Mother is a frustrating film with an increasingly ridiculous plot and annoying characters. Perhaps this is a film I need to rewatch to appreciate, but I just feel like Aronofsky could've implemented all these complex themes without making the film such a chore to watch. I was holding out hope that things would get better as it went on and lead up to a satisfying conclusion, but it only gets worse. Dreadful.
01. Before I Wake (3/5)
02. 47 Meters Down (3/5)
03. Little Evil (3/5)
04. Sharknado (2/5)
05. The Shallows (3/5)
06. The Lodgers (1/5)
07. IT 2018 (4/5)
08. Apostle (2/5)
09. Halloween 1978 (5/5)
10. Halloween 2018 (4/5)
11. Death Note (4/5)
I seem to remember that this movie got bad review but I really liked it, although the ending was a bit of a stretch. The depiction of the demon was spot on and everything I would expect from a demon like that. It creates magical objects just to see humans fuck up.
12. Resident Evil Retribution (3/5)
One of the better resident evils if you can stomach that every fight scene is in slowmotion. Usually that effect is used to showcase the fight choreography but it is nothing special in this movie. I liked the different environments, especially the suburbian one.
13. Death Machine (1/5)
Not as good as I remember when watching it back in the day. Apparantly there's a 1hour 40min cut but I watched the 2hour one and it was WAY too long, super edge lordy and super 90s cringe. Brad Dourif was good though.
14. The First Purge (2/5)
Worst of the Purge movies in my opinion. I was expecting more of an explaination as this was the first experiment but they glossed over that pretty fast...
15. Ghost Stories (5/5)
Never heard of the movie before but got it recommended by a friend. Wow, what a surprise. This movie was brilliant and is about a professor who seeks out physics and people claiming to have seen ghosts etc. and exposing their bullshit. Well, he is handed 3 cases he has to explain away and interesting stuff happens. Recommended.
16. Summer of 84 (5/5)
Brilliant movie about 4 kids on summer break who thinks their neighbour, whos a cop, is a serial killer. Think The 'Burbs, Fright Night and Stranger Things mixed together. Ending was awesome.
17. A Quiet Place (5/5)
Have been looking forward to watching this and I had a blast. I like this style of movie and MAN was it tense! The monster design was good and one can see why rumors had it that this was a part of the cloverfield franchise.
02. 47 Meters Down (3/5)
03. Little Evil (3/5)
04. Sharknado (2/5)
05. The Shallows (3/5)
06. The Lodgers (1/5)
07. IT 2018 (4/5)
08. Apostle (2/5)
09. Halloween 1978 (5/5)
10. Halloween 2018 (4/5)
11. Death Note (4/5)
I seem to remember that this movie got bad review but I really liked it, although the ending was a bit of a stretch. The depiction of the demon was spot on and everything I would expect from a demon like that. It creates magical objects just to see humans fuck up.
12. Resident Evil Retribution (3/5)
One of the better resident evils if you can stomach that every fight scene is in slowmotion. Usually that effect is used to showcase the fight choreography but it is nothing special in this movie. I liked the different environments, especially the suburbian one.
13. Death Machine (1/5)
Not as good as I remember when watching it back in the day. Apparantly there's a 1hour 40min cut but I watched the 2hour one and it was WAY too long, super edge lordy and super 90s cringe. Brad Dourif was good though.
14. The First Purge (2/5)
Worst of the Purge movies in my opinion. I was expecting more of an explaination as this was the first experiment but they glossed over that pretty fast...
15. Ghost Stories (5/5)
Never heard of the movie before but got it recommended by a friend. Wow, what a surprise. This movie was brilliant and is about a professor who seeks out physics and people claiming to have seen ghosts etc. and exposing their bullshit. Well, he is handed 3 cases he has to explain away and interesting stuff happens. Recommended.
16. Summer of 84 (5/5)
Brilliant movie about 4 kids on summer break who thinks their neighbour, whos a cop, is a serial killer. Think The 'Burbs, Fright Night and Stranger Things mixed together. Ending was awesome.
17. A Quiet Place (5/5)
Have been looking forward to watching this and I had a blast. I like this style of movie and MAN was it tense! The monster design was good and one can see why rumors had it that this was a part of the cloverfield franchise.
So Summer of 84
Anyways, good movie. Final act could have driven the film's main theme a little harder, or perhaps to a more shocking effect, but it's still pretty darn good.
I was convinced there was going to be the twist of Nikki being the killer, or perhaps Mackey's concubine. Like Mackey wasn't actually the serial killer, but he and Nikki had been caught by her parents and they had to kill them and were about to skip town. I was so convinced of this I was blindsided by the final act, which while not necessarily surprising, was a much better ending than the one I had drawn up.
Anyways, good movie. Final act could have driven the film's main theme a little harder, or perhaps to a more shocking effect, but it's still pretty darn good.
#32 - Wicked City (1987) - One of my favorite anime films, Wicked City is an immensely enjoyable Sci-fi Horror tale from the great Yoshitaka Kawajiri. However, the sex, rape, and graphic nudity on display might prove to be too much for some viewers to handle.
At the end of the 20th century, Earth has been split into two worlds: humans and demons. As violence between the two sides escalated over the years, a peace treaty was signed between the two. And while relations have been mostly peaceful, a group of radicals from the demon world believe that humans are inferior to them and will go through any lengths to wipe them out. To protect the human world from these radicals come secret agents who are bound to protect them: The Black Guards. Taki Renzenburo is one of the best of the Black Guards, and must partner with a guard from the demon world to ensure the peace treaty ceremony takes place while guarding the signer of the document with their lives.
Wicked City is like taking the creature designs from The Thing, mixing it with an episode of the X-Files, while including the softcore porn of something like Red Shoe Diaries. That last part tends to turn viewers off of the film as it's never quite egregious, but borders on this being a solely adult title. Both the Japanese and English language options are good, and one of the few times that I actually prefer the English dub. Wicked City ends up having a pretty wicked twist that doesn't become apparent until the last 10 minutes of the film. The action sequences are very good, and this contains some of the smoothest animation ever. Way ahead of its time in that department. Finally, the creature designs are great, and I can't help but feel that they might have "borrowed" from The Thing quite a bit. Nonetheless, they are creative and imaginative designs that add an extra bit of creepiness to the villains.
Wicked City is an anime film that should please both fans of anime as well as fans of horror. It tells a good story (even if it's a bit rushed at the end), has great action, and decent character development. Recommended, but it has a lot of sexual themes that can be over the top at times.
8.5 spider women sexual encounters that goes horribly wrong out of 10.
I didn't rate it that high, but yeah, there's a lot to love about Wicked City that winds up making the hentai pandering all the more unfortunate when it does crop up.
Grave Encounters is great! Funny and freaky.
Glad it's still streaming
#24 Supernova (2000)
Last time we did this I didn't shit right for a month
A mishmash of various sci-fi films, a bit of Event Horizon here, a dash of Alien there, but crunched into a safe test audience model. Apparently this film got massively cut up and redone by the studio in post-production, and it shows.
In a very dim future where lightbulbs have been outlawed, a drunken cameraman stumbles about attempting to film some generic crewmembers of a spaceship ambulance, who respond to a distress call in deep space, and find a totally not evil survivor on a mining colony. There's a lot of very irritating shaking, wavering camerawork and dodgy editing going on here, and the ship is so darkly lit that I couldn't tell if the production values were any good.
There are a few slightly intriguing parts, mostly early on in the film when it initially seems to be ripping off Event Horizon, such as some very strange hyperspace travel that goes wrong for one crewmember and mutilates him with some neat body horror. Perhaps there was a lot more of this in the earlier versions of the film. However, it all turns into a rote slasher movie by the third act, and the plot never really goes anywhere. Some of the kernels of ideas left present in the film would wind up being done vastly better and more completely in Sunshine, thankfully. But not here.
It's a stinker. But it did lead me to notice how much a younger James Spader with stubble looks like Jensen Ackles.
Last time we did this I didn't shit right for a month
A mishmash of various sci-fi films, a bit of Event Horizon here, a dash of Alien there, but crunched into a safe test audience model. Apparently this film got massively cut up and redone by the studio in post-production, and it shows.
In a very dim future where lightbulbs have been outlawed, a drunken cameraman stumbles about attempting to film some generic crewmembers of a spaceship ambulance, who respond to a distress call in deep space, and find a totally not evil survivor on a mining colony. There's a lot of very irritating shaking, wavering camerawork and dodgy editing going on here, and the ship is so darkly lit that I couldn't tell if the production values were any good.
There are a few slightly intriguing parts, mostly early on in the film when it initially seems to be ripping off Event Horizon, such as some very strange hyperspace travel that goes wrong for one crewmember and mutilates him with some neat body horror. Perhaps there was a lot more of this in the earlier versions of the film. However, it all turns into a rote slasher movie by the third act, and the plot never really goes anywhere. Some of the kernels of ideas left present in the film would wind up being done vastly better and more completely in Sunshine, thankfully. But not here.
It's a stinker. But it did lead me to notice how much a younger James Spader with stubble looks like Jensen Ackles.
- Godzilla (1954)
- Godzilla Raids Again (1955)
- King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
- Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
- Ghidorah The Three Headed Monster (1964)
- Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)
- Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966)
- Son of Godzilla (1967)
- Destroy All Monsters (1968)
- All Monsters Attack (1969)
- Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)
- Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
- Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)
- Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)
- Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)
- Godzilla 1984 (1984)
- Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)
- Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
- Godzilla vs. Mothra : Battle for Earth (1992)
- Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1993)
- Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994)
- Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)
- Godzilla 2000: Millennium (1999)
- Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000)
- Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)
- Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002)
- Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)
This film is the only direct sequel in the Millennium series, continuing the story begun in very successful G. Against Mechagodzilla the year before (because TOHO - like any studio - is always willing to follow the money). Godzilla's healing his wounds in the Pacific Trench while Kiryu (Mecha G) is undergoing extensive repairs at the JXSDF hanger... Meanwhile, Mothra flies her fairies to Tokyo to ask that humans return the bones of the original Godzilla to the sea where they belong as using them in a war machine flies in the face of the natural order of things; in return, Mothra promises to protect Japan from Godzilla... Of course, the military refuse to give up their ultimate anti-Godzilla weapon (hell, the last time they saw Mothra in this timeline, back in '64, she trashed Tokyo herself), and massive kaiju battles ensue involving Godzilla, Mothra, Kiryu and two Mothra larvae... In the end, the spirit of the original Godzilla in Mecha G wrenches control from the humans again and ultimately sinks itself and a crippled Godzilla in the depths of the ocean as the Mothra larvae swim back to Infant Island with the fairies. It's a satisfying romp over all; perhaps not quite as rousing as its predecessor but worthy of the rest of the Millennium series, a decent G-film gives no hint at all at the gonzo craziness that will define the series finale...
DAY 35
Boo, I'm a bonus film!
Creep: Fun with found footage! The concept here is pretty simple and seems to have only one real conclusion that could happen with it, but I have to give a lot of props to the filmmakers here for finding some fun and devious ways to make a foregone conclusion a little more unpredictable than you were expecting. A lot of credit goes to the structure of the film itself, which does everything in its power early on to make it go in the expected direction, only to reveal something a bit more playful halfway through. It's not a comedy per se, but there's a jovial attitude to the film's tone that keeps you guessing as to how this will eventually sour into something darker. It's not so much a film you go into expecting a big revelation, but one that will interested to see just how it gets to that point. The other big part of the equation is Mark Duplass himself. A real everyman kind of actor, Duplass has always been a really interesting talent to watch simply because he has a wide range of roles that he takes on, and in this film, he taps into all of them to give Josef both the manic glee and the unpredictability that he needs to be the kind of villain that he needed to be, making him oddly endearing while still being clearly capable of truly horrific things. There definitely some, well, creepy moments that crop up later on to remind you of what genre this ultimately belongs to, but I have to admire that this didn't turn into some kind of showcase of violence in order to get that point across: just enough perturbing details surrounding our subject whose kind face hides a wicked heart. The found footage format is used pretty well here and manages to come up with a nice explanation as to why it winds up being edited the way that it is, though it does struggle a bit with why the camera keeps rolling after the threat has been established. Not enough to diminish both the wit and the threat, but it is one of those logical oddities that sticks out in a film that otherwise has a place for everything else. This won't change anyone's mind on the format and its potential strengths, but this is a well executed film all the same, and one that has me eager to see just how they followed up on this for what might turn out to be a most unexpected franchise.
Evolution: Arthouse horror is nothing if not evocative. With this film, the seaside setting makes for an intoxicating setting of seemingly alien environments, almost feeling like we keep walking from one planet to the next as we get familiar with the surroundings that young Nicolas must traverse. The cinematography is gorgeous throughout and tricky to boot, having to consider the environment's impact on the man-made buildings for a proper waterlogged appearance that feels like each structure is under constant threat of being taken back into the sea. This is such an easy film to sell on the strength of its visuals that it almost wouldn't matter if there was much meat on its bones otherwise. Almost. Here, however, we're faced with a dilemma on two fronts. The first is a more obvious problem that you can tie back to the emphasis placed on the visual appearance of the film: when everything looks so otherworldly, it comes as no surprise then that's the direction its heading in early on and does little to divert from that course. Sure, Nicolas is learning a lot of this stuff for himself, but the audience is constantly ahead of him as a result of the visual choices, rendering the surprises inert when they do occur and leaving some otherwise striking imagery a bit empty in their purpose. The other issue isn't as immediately obvious, but it's one that hurts the film the most, as there's a lot to how they approached the storytelling that only makes sense if the events that are depicted here are the first time that they had ever happened, despite the clear indications that we're well into the process of whatever it is that the folks in this community are up to. This leads to an ultimate mystery that never really feels like it's worth the pursuit as it doesn't seem to have any idea what it wants to do with itself once enough cards are on the table. There's certainly a lot of virtue in not spelling everything out for viewers, but this film left me with the sensation that it had little to spell out in the first place, feeling like a work that was so hellbent on capturing its striking seaside vistas that it didn't seem particularly caring of anything else. It's a real shame that this fizzled out as it did, since it has a lot of impeccable craft that went into its audiovisual makeup, leaving me with the feeling that the resources on hand should have been spread out better. It's a creepy film, no question there, but this is the kind of work that should have haunted me instead.
Six more, and then some!
Boo, I'm a bonus film!
Creep: Fun with found footage! The concept here is pretty simple and seems to have only one real conclusion that could happen with it, but I have to give a lot of props to the filmmakers here for finding some fun and devious ways to make a foregone conclusion a little more unpredictable than you were expecting. A lot of credit goes to the structure of the film itself, which does everything in its power early on to make it go in the expected direction, only to reveal something a bit more playful halfway through. It's not a comedy per se, but there's a jovial attitude to the film's tone that keeps you guessing as to how this will eventually sour into something darker. It's not so much a film you go into expecting a big revelation, but one that will interested to see just how it gets to that point. The other big part of the equation is Mark Duplass himself. A real everyman kind of actor, Duplass has always been a really interesting talent to watch simply because he has a wide range of roles that he takes on, and in this film, he taps into all of them to give Josef both the manic glee and the unpredictability that he needs to be the kind of villain that he needed to be, making him oddly endearing while still being clearly capable of truly horrific things. There definitely some, well, creepy moments that crop up later on to remind you of what genre this ultimately belongs to, but I have to admire that this didn't turn into some kind of showcase of violence in order to get that point across: just enough perturbing details surrounding our subject whose kind face hides a wicked heart. The found footage format is used pretty well here and manages to come up with a nice explanation as to why it winds up being edited the way that it is, though it does struggle a bit with why the camera keeps rolling after the threat has been established. Not enough to diminish both the wit and the threat, but it is one of those logical oddities that sticks out in a film that otherwise has a place for everything else. This won't change anyone's mind on the format and its potential strengths, but this is a well executed film all the same, and one that has me eager to see just how they followed up on this for what might turn out to be a most unexpected franchise.
Evolution: Arthouse horror is nothing if not evocative. With this film, the seaside setting makes for an intoxicating setting of seemingly alien environments, almost feeling like we keep walking from one planet to the next as we get familiar with the surroundings that young Nicolas must traverse. The cinematography is gorgeous throughout and tricky to boot, having to consider the environment's impact on the man-made buildings for a proper waterlogged appearance that feels like each structure is under constant threat of being taken back into the sea. This is such an easy film to sell on the strength of its visuals that it almost wouldn't matter if there was much meat on its bones otherwise. Almost. Here, however, we're faced with a dilemma on two fronts. The first is a more obvious problem that you can tie back to the emphasis placed on the visual appearance of the film: when everything looks so otherworldly, it comes as no surprise then that's the direction its heading in early on and does little to divert from that course. Sure, Nicolas is learning a lot of this stuff for himself, but the audience is constantly ahead of him as a result of the visual choices, rendering the surprises inert when they do occur and leaving some otherwise striking imagery a bit empty in their purpose. The other issue isn't as immediately obvious, but it's one that hurts the film the most, as there's a lot to how they approached the storytelling that only makes sense if the events that are depicted here are the first time that they had ever happened, despite the clear indications that we're well into the process of whatever it is that the folks in this community are up to. This leads to an ultimate mystery that never really feels like it's worth the pursuit as it doesn't seem to have any idea what it wants to do with itself once enough cards are on the table. There's certainly a lot of virtue in not spelling everything out for viewers, but this film left me with the sensation that it had little to spell out in the first place, feeling like a work that was so hellbent on capturing its striking seaside vistas that it didn't seem particularly caring of anything else. It's a real shame that this fizzled out as it did, since it has a lot of impeccable craft that went into its audiovisual makeup, leaving me with the feeling that the resources on hand should have been spread out better. It's a creepy film, no question there, but this is the kind of work that should have haunted me instead.
Six more, and then some!
#25 The Call of Cthulhu (2005)
I knew I shouldn't read it. Shouldn't know what happened out there. But I couldn't resist.
An intriguing experiment of a film, an adaptation of the HP Lovecraft short story done to resemble a silent film made the same year as the story's publication (1928). This isn't just a black and white filter, it extends to the credits, the props, the set design, the very theatrical acting, and so on.
The plot, as in the story, starts with a man recounting his discoveries among his great-uncle's documents after he dies, and unfolds in a Matryoshka doll of shifting perspectives and settings, gradually revealing the secret behind a mysterious cult and a hidden island of doom.
It does rather waver between looking intentionally and unintentionally cheap at different points. Sometimes it looks "1928", other times it looks more "student film". However, after a certain point it really starts to click, and it's quite compelling in the end. I especially enjoy the stage-like sets representing the island, and some of the cute perspective tricks with the camera. My favourite production detail is the hammy swinging lamp on the ship, looking like a pendulum on cocaine. Can a lamp overact? You bet your ass it can.
Overall it's a fast watch and very faithful adaptation, in fact it's probably the most faithful Lovecraft adaptation I've seen, which is sort of sad in a way. We've never really gotten those big time, proper Lovecraft film versions (and we came real close with del Toro's Mountains of Madness, RIP), and this film will certainly make you want one. Too many films are content to throw in a tentacle or two and call it Lovecraft.
Easy recommendation, particularly given it's less than an hour long.
I knew I shouldn't read it. Shouldn't know what happened out there. But I couldn't resist.
An intriguing experiment of a film, an adaptation of the HP Lovecraft short story done to resemble a silent film made the same year as the story's publication (1928). This isn't just a black and white filter, it extends to the credits, the props, the set design, the very theatrical acting, and so on.
The plot, as in the story, starts with a man recounting his discoveries among his great-uncle's documents after he dies, and unfolds in a Matryoshka doll of shifting perspectives and settings, gradually revealing the secret behind a mysterious cult and a hidden island of doom.
It does rather waver between looking intentionally and unintentionally cheap at different points. Sometimes it looks "1928", other times it looks more "student film". However, after a certain point it really starts to click, and it's quite compelling in the end. I especially enjoy the stage-like sets representing the island, and some of the cute perspective tricks with the camera. My favourite production detail is the hammy swinging lamp on the ship, looking like a pendulum on cocaine. Can a lamp overact? You bet your ass it can.
Overall it's a fast watch and very faithful adaptation, in fact it's probably the most faithful Lovecraft adaptation I've seen, which is sort of sad in a way. We've never really gotten those big time, proper Lovecraft film versions (and we came real close with del Toro's Mountains of Madness, RIP), and this film will certainly make you want one. Too many films are content to throw in a tentacle or two and call it Lovecraft.
Easy recommendation, particularly given it's less than an hour long.
October 27, 2018
I Am A Hero
Synopsis: A manga artist with no confidence and a personal life about to crumble apart, Hideo is suddenly thrust into a zombie epidemic with very short notice. Filled with fear and almost no courage he attempts to escape the city and randomly meets Hiromi. Other than the clothes on his back and his treasured but legally owned skeet shotgun, he must help them both survive to get to the top of Mt.Fuji where they would be safe. However, the zombies or ZQN, are not the only dangerous things out there...
Review: This was absolutely an incredible zombie movie to watch. My favorite zombie movie of all time is "Train to Busan" and although a bit more light-hearted and fun versus the serious tone of Train to Busan, this has become my second favorite. It had everything. It had the full spectrum of being creepy, terrifying, scary, serious, funny, dramatic, sad, somber and tense. There were characters you liked, characters you didn't like, plenty of zombie gore and some crazy wacky moments. It is like if Shaun of the Dead (now my third favorite) took place in Japan. I love the Japanese culture and their take here on zombies was quite interesting. While not being overly unique, still, there was one part to them that was and that made them creepy and fantastic. I was on the edge of my seat throughout and other than the beginning, once the apocalypse started, the pace never let up. This is based off the manga of the same name and I will definitely be looking into reading these and hoping that a sequel gets made. I simply cannot recommend this enough.
- 10/10
*** Shoutout to ThirstyFly for mentioning this movie. I did not even know it existed until I read your review and today was my first watch.
I Am A Hero
Synopsis: A manga artist with no confidence and a personal life about to crumble apart, Hideo is suddenly thrust into a zombie epidemic with very short notice. Filled with fear and almost no courage he attempts to escape the city and randomly meets Hiromi. Other than the clothes on his back and his treasured but legally owned skeet shotgun, he must help them both survive to get to the top of Mt.Fuji where they would be safe. However, the zombies or ZQN, are not the only dangerous things out there...
Review: This was absolutely an incredible zombie movie to watch. My favorite zombie movie of all time is "Train to Busan" and although a bit more light-hearted and fun versus the serious tone of Train to Busan, this has become my second favorite. It had everything. It had the full spectrum of being creepy, terrifying, scary, serious, funny, dramatic, sad, somber and tense. There were characters you liked, characters you didn't like, plenty of zombie gore and some crazy wacky moments. It is like if Shaun of the Dead (now my third favorite) took place in Japan. I love the Japanese culture and their take here on zombies was quite interesting. While not being overly unique, still, there was one part to them that was and that made them creepy and fantastic. I was on the edge of my seat throughout and other than the beginning, once the apocalypse started, the pace never let up. This is based off the manga of the same name and I will definitely be looking into reading these and hoping that a sequel gets made. I simply cannot recommend this enough.
- 10/10
*** Shoutout to ThirstyFly for mentioning this movie. I did not even know it existed until I read your review and today was my first watch.
So
Halloween (2018) - This was great. As everyone else, I loved the music. However, what I loved even more was the performance for Michael's character. The Shape was clearly shown to be a pure predator, mute but showing an innate animal intelligence. The choice of victims, the traps he set and ability to surprise and out maneuver his prey. The Shape was done great justice in this film. Laurie was also done great justice and the sub plot of three generations of survival played perfectly. I can't wait until I can see this again, during the proper Halloween season.
Land of the dead- Christ I love this film. George Romero delivered, for arguably the last time on this one. This is an engaging, provoking and appropriate film for the season. It's clearly set in a Mid Western city during mid autumn (late oct) and it's our world, with all of its materialism and greed taken to it's logical extreme. The world has ended yet we still think that 2 million dollars has actual value. Hopper is perfect and all of the actors sell this film well. You believe that the dead are coming to life and regaining their intelligence as well. Its ends with so many possibilities for a continuation but its core themes are so well played out that there isn't a need for a "Land of the Dead 2". I have a soft spot for films that wrap themselves up nicely and this movie hits the spot. I'm so glad that I got to see it when it was in theaters.
Halloween (2018) - This was great. As everyone else, I loved the music. However, what I loved even more was the performance for Michael's character. The Shape was clearly shown to be a pure predator, mute but showing an innate animal intelligence. The choice of victims, the traps he set and ability to surprise and out maneuver his prey. The Shape was done great justice in this film. Laurie was also done great justice and the sub plot of three generations of survival played perfectly. I can't wait until I can see this again, during the proper Halloween season.
Land of the dead- Christ I love this film. George Romero delivered, for arguably the last time on this one. This is an engaging, provoking and appropriate film for the season. It's clearly set in a Mid Western city during mid autumn (late oct) and it's our world, with all of its materialism and greed taken to it's logical extreme. The world has ended yet we still think that 2 million dollars has actual value. Hopper is perfect and all of the actors sell this film well. You believe that the dead are coming to life and regaining their intelligence as well. Its ends with so many possibilities for a continuation but its core themes are so well played out that there isn't a need for a "Land of the Dead 2". I have a soft spot for films that wrap themselves up nicely and this movie hits the spot. I'm so glad that I got to see it when it was in theaters.