Yeah, I was going to whole heartedly recommend Bodies Bodies Bodies, but… come on now
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Help me choose a spoopy movie a day for October
- Thread starter Johnny Unusual
- Start date
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Encounters of the Spooky Kind is the kind of delight you want from a Sammo Hung jiangshi movie. The first two spooky bits don't land but as soon as he gets locked up with a hopping zombie, the movie hums along with insane set pieces. Even the non-supernatural fight is pretty impressive. I also literally cannot tell if the last scene is supposed to be a meant to be funny or not. It plays it real straight.
As for tomorrow:
Freaky - A horror comedy that's Freaky Friday but instead of a teen switching bodies with mom, it's Vince Vaughn... who is a serial killer.
Pearl - X was probably my least favourite Ti West movie... and it's still REALLY REALLY GOOD. And from what I hear, Pearl, a prequel made in the same year, is even better. And Mia Goth does kick ass.
Clock - No idea what this is. It came out this year, though.
Equinox - A weird creature feature made for $6,500 from the special effects team who would go on to do Star Wars and Jurassic Park.
Kuso - I get the feeling this might be a more gross-out audacity fest than an actual horror movie. Anyone see this one? I mean, it's got a lot of Adult Swim-types you might expect from something like that, like Hannibal Buress and Tim Hiedecker.
As for tomorrow:
Freaky - A horror comedy that's Freaky Friday but instead of a teen switching bodies with mom, it's Vince Vaughn... who is a serial killer.
Pearl - X was probably my least favourite Ti West movie... and it's still REALLY REALLY GOOD. And from what I hear, Pearl, a prequel made in the same year, is even better. And Mia Goth does kick ass.
Clock - No idea what this is. It came out this year, though.
Equinox - A weird creature feature made for $6,500 from the special effects team who would go on to do Star Wars and Jurassic Park.
Kuso - I get the feeling this might be a more gross-out audacity fest than an actual horror movie. Anyone see this one? I mean, it's got a lot of Adult Swim-types you might expect from something like that, like Hannibal Buress and Tim Hiedecker.
I watched Pearl but I really don't know how to compare it to X or even his other movies. Serious horror prequels/sequels that are actually trying to be good or do meaningful building off the original are just so rare. So I can at least say it's a horror prequel movie that does that.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
I liked X but Pearl was amazing. Man, I liked X but Pearl was amazing. The last act of that movie is one of the best I've seen in any genre of movie, let alone horror. The end credits are the weirdest feelings of creeped out and sad and almost laughing I've ever felt. Every filmmaker should be trying to get Mia Goth and every actor should be trying to be in a Ti West movie to get scenes that good. By far my favourite movie of the season. If you go in expecting "terror" you may be disappointed. Instead it's a 1950s melodrama that gets completely unhinged.
OK, what's on tap for tomorrow?
Malignant - The big reveal is spoiled for me but people say the last act of this is a good movie. And the first two are... acceptable.
Totally Killer - Man, people like making movies about the 80s.
The Crucible - OK, this is a drama about witch trials but CLOSE ENOUGH.
ExistenZ - I suspect this is more like a mind-fuck sci-fi movie but I do like Cronenberg and I haven't seen it yet.
Luz - The only thing I know is that it's German and it's 71 minutes. The latter part is a plus in my book.
OK, what's on tap for tomorrow?
Malignant - The big reveal is spoiled for me but people say the last act of this is a good movie. And the first two are... acceptable.
Totally Killer - Man, people like making movies about the 80s.
The Crucible - OK, this is a drama about witch trials but CLOSE ENOUGH.
ExistenZ - I suspect this is more like a mind-fuck sci-fi movie but I do like Cronenberg and I haven't seen it yet.
Luz - The only thing I know is that it's German and it's 71 minutes. The latter part is a plus in my book.
Malignant did not land for me at all, but that doesn't mean it won't land for you. But I'm voting for eXistenZ because more people should watch it. It's not top tier Cronenberg but it's still interesting.
I really enjoyed Malignant
Purple
(She/Her)
Malignant is really fun to stumble into blind or close to it and just go "we're really doing this?" by the end. Meanwhile eXistenZ is... a movie about putting your brain in a videogame from someone who actually has some idea of what it's like to play a videogame, with some incidental gross biotech stuff. It's worth watching at some point, but also, not really horror.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
I ended up enjoying Malignant a lot more than I was expecting. It's very hokey but... good hokey. Like, there's something about the whole endevour that made it feel adjacent to a modern TV movie but with everything stronger than it should be overall. It was never boring and ended up being a wild, over the top ride. I wasn't expecting it to basically turn into a martial arts movie near the end. And a lot of the visuals with the villain are just really good.
Tomorrow
Scary Movie - Dare I watch what people in my graduating class considered funny?
The Vampire Lovers - Oh, 70s era vampire movies. I'm 95% confident there will be sapphic content.
Deep Rising - I'm told this is a real fun monster movie. Perhaps the kind of movie I was hoping Leviathan would be.
The Face of Another - A surrealist Japanese existential horror movie from the 50s about a face transplant.
Mill of the Stone Women - A 1960 Italian horror film!
Tomorrow
Scary Movie - Dare I watch what people in my graduating class considered funny?
The Vampire Lovers - Oh, 70s era vampire movies. I'm 95% confident there will be sapphic content.
Deep Rising - I'm told this is a real fun monster movie. Perhaps the kind of movie I was hoping Leviathan would be.
The Face of Another - A surrealist Japanese existential horror movie from the 50s about a face transplant.
Mill of the Stone Women - A 1960 Italian horror film!
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
The Mill of Stone Women was... an OK Italian film that reminded me very much of Hammer horror. Basically a retelling of House of Wax with some slight vampiric elements, it has a big finale but I was literally falling asleep through the middle. That said, this is rarely evidence of bad quality for me these days, simply that I am now an old man who watches movies too late. Fun fact, it credits itself from being a short story in an anthology called Flemish Tales which... just doesn't even exist.
As for tomorrow, here are my options:
Malevolent - I feel like this one is just made up. Like, someone is supposed to list this alongside Insidious, Sinister, and Malignant to make a point about the samey-ness of modern horror titles.
Hell House LLC - I think this is a found footage thing... or maybe an actual documentary?
Devil's Due - I think this movie was greenlit based entirely around wordplay.
The Exorcist III - I'm told this is a secret REALLY REALLY GOOD movie.
Noroi: The Curse - No idea except it's Japanese.
As for tomorrow, here are my options:
Malevolent - I feel like this one is just made up. Like, someone is supposed to list this alongside Insidious, Sinister, and Malignant to make a point about the samey-ness of modern horror titles.
Hell House LLC - I think this is a found footage thing... or maybe an actual documentary?
Devil's Due - I think this movie was greenlit based entirely around wordplay.
The Exorcist III - I'm told this is a secret REALLY REALLY GOOD movie.
Noroi: The Curse - No idea except it's Japanese.
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Hell House LLC why not?
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Finished Exorcist III. I liked almost all of it but, and keep in mind I'm older now and sometimes drift a little bit, but I have no memory of the set up to the actual exorcism scene. If anything, it felt a little too convenient to end what was a much more tense scene. Overall, I do like it. It's interesting to read the synopsis of the novel which is far more anticlimactic. Brad Dourif and George C. Scott are both crushing it. Dourif is also doing a lot of heavy lifting in adding charm to what is essentially an exposition dump.
it's not what I expected; there's definitely weird, wild stuff and a very idiosyncratic approach but it's also a shockingly sober, subdued procedural that occasionally goes to wild places. And like Blatty's other directorial feature, the Ninth Configuration, it is a very sad movie. I'm also seeing recurring themes about "madness" that doesn't entirely jibe with today's view of mental health. I think he wants to say something about our fear of bad mental health and it's certainly more nuanced than a lot of contemporaries but so far it's still "crazy people are weirdos and that's scary."
Next:
The Conference - A new Netflix movie. Meaning if I don't watch it soon, it's probably going to get very, very buried. Though frankly, no idea if that's a good or bad thing with this one.
Silent Hill - Once me and a friend saw the second Silent Hill in theatres because nothing else was playing. We should have chosen nothing else.
The Empty Man - Oh, they made a movie about me...
Frankenhooker - I love that Criterion Channel is the art film streaming service that also has Frankenhooker this month.
Puppet Master - I did see this forever ago. For everyone who wants three minutes of William Hickey.
it's not what I expected; there's definitely weird, wild stuff and a very idiosyncratic approach but it's also a shockingly sober, subdued procedural that occasionally goes to wild places. And like Blatty's other directorial feature, the Ninth Configuration, it is a very sad movie. I'm also seeing recurring themes about "madness" that doesn't entirely jibe with today's view of mental health. I think he wants to say something about our fear of bad mental health and it's certainly more nuanced than a lot of contemporaries but so far it's still "crazy people are weirdos and that's scary."
Next:
The Conference - A new Netflix movie. Meaning if I don't watch it soon, it's probably going to get very, very buried. Though frankly, no idea if that's a good or bad thing with this one.
Silent Hill - Once me and a friend saw the second Silent Hill in theatres because nothing else was playing. We should have chosen nothing else.
The Empty Man - Oh, they made a movie about me...
Frankenhooker - I love that Criterion Channel is the art film streaming service that also has Frankenhooker this month.
Puppet Master - I did see this forever ago. For everyone who wants three minutes of William Hickey.
Purple
(She/Her)
Oh sure, you do a few days where I have no good input then this happens.
The Silent Hill movie is... honestly a reasonably decent... post-Ring horror thing, and the first like... 10, 15 minutes are remarkably faithful to the source material... and then the rest is shockingly NOT, so, it's an interesting watch.
Frankenhooker is straight up trash... and therefore if we're voting, yeah, Frankehooker.
The original Puppetmaster kinda has that thing going where there's this long meandering series of Charles Band movies I have a warm nostalgia for but then oh right the first one is trying to actually be a movie not a weird TV show and take itself quite seriously and such. Not as fun as the ones where they're killing nazis.
The Silent Hill movie is... honestly a reasonably decent... post-Ring horror thing, and the first like... 10, 15 minutes are remarkably faithful to the source material... and then the rest is shockingly NOT, so, it's an interesting watch.
Frankenhooker is straight up trash... and therefore if we're voting, yeah, Frankehooker.
The original Puppetmaster kinda has that thing going where there's this long meandering series of Charles Band movies I have a warm nostalgia for but then oh right the first one is trying to actually be a movie not a weird TV show and take itself quite seriously and such. Not as fun as the ones where they're killing nazis.
I enjoyed Silent Hill well enough, no familiarity to the source material so I had nothing to judge it against.
Almost hits the “Everything is Bad and Weird” level that Prince of Darkness landed so well, but then it explained it so it didn’t work.
Almost hits the “Everything is Bad and Weird” level that Prince of Darkness landed so well, but then it explained it so it didn’t work.
This one has some interesting and unusual ideas, but I don’t think it quite comes together. Everybody here has seen some variation on “what if the Abrahamic God were evil,” but The Empty Man tries to do “what if shunyata were evil.” That’s a really original cosmic horror premise, but it’s also pretty abstract and cerebral, and the filmmakers decided that the best way to give it some bite was to add a big helping of The Ring. That mixture doesn’t gel super well.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Frankenhooker. I've only seen one Henenlotter movie before and it was the bleak addiction horror comedy Brain Damage. By comparison, this is a MUCH broader film, one I'm not surprised was distributed by Troma Films. I feel like this was a movie not without merit but I feel like the stuff I do like is brief or pushed into the background. Like, has a bit talking about legalizing prostitution as something to really help but the movie doesn't really want to say anything about the plight of sex workers. I know this is a very dumb comedy but you can sort of see that the director has a genuine talent for trash.
The first two thirds aren't unwatchable but it really does take a long time to get to the titular (no pun intended) Frankenhooker. It feels more like they had a 55 minute movie they needed to stretch out. The only part that really strikes a chord, aside from Patty Mullen, who is very fun as Elizabeth, is a final scene where weird monstrosities made of the parts of exploded sex workers show up. Then it feels like an even more cartoony Re-Animator and I wish there was more of that.
What should I see tomorrow?
Freddy Vs. Jason - The only Jason film I've not seen. Also the only Freddy if you aren't counting the remake. Wait, maybe I didn't see Dream Master. They kind of run together.
Strippers Vs. Werewolves - ...I think I missed all of both franchises here.
Frankenweenie - Seems like a sensible follow up to Frankenhooker.
Frankenstein Vs. Baragon - Or maybe this one, where Frankenstein is a kaiju now.
Sadako Vs. Kayako - Remember when we all asked "who would win in a fight, the pale girl ghost from the Ring or the pale girl ghost from The Grudge? Well know we will have an answer.
I assume you, all the Vs are an AMAZING coincidence.
The first two thirds aren't unwatchable but it really does take a long time to get to the titular (no pun intended) Frankenhooker. It feels more like they had a 55 minute movie they needed to stretch out. The only part that really strikes a chord, aside from Patty Mullen, who is very fun as Elizabeth, is a final scene where weird monstrosities made of the parts of exploded sex workers show up. Then it feels like an even more cartoony Re-Animator and I wish there was more of that.
What should I see tomorrow?
Freddy Vs. Jason - The only Jason film I've not seen. Also the only Freddy if you aren't counting the remake. Wait, maybe I didn't see Dream Master. They kind of run together.
Strippers Vs. Werewolves - ...I think I missed all of both franchises here.
Frankenweenie - Seems like a sensible follow up to Frankenhooker.
Frankenstein Vs. Baragon - Or maybe this one, where Frankenstein is a kaiju now.
Sadako Vs. Kayako - Remember when we all asked "who would win in a fight, the pale girl ghost from the Ring or the pale girl ghost from The Grudge? Well know we will have an answer.
I assume you, all the Vs are an AMAZING coincidence.
Freddy Vs. Jason was near the top of my list for both franchises, though it’s aged like you’d expect a movie from the early aughts to have.
Frankenstein Vs. Baragon
This is the stuff right here!
This is the stuff right here!
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
I'll be honest, I'm shocked you are the only person to say "watch the kaiju Frankenstein"
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Freddy Vs. Jason. Does it work? Well, I feel like the nu metal in the movie kind of sums up my issues with the movie. Too polishy in it's overall look, jokes that aren't funny, and though it makes sense for a crossover of two major franchises to be meta, it's kind of cheaply meta with pretty obvious "teens murdered for sex and drugs" gags that feel really stale. But it's also not without merit. When the film goes practical, it looks good. Some of the kills are too cartoony but some of the set pieces are really neat (which makes sense that director Ronny Yu has done some action fantasy films in Hong Kong). So the film is a mixed bag; when it works, it's solid but there are lots of things that are just a little too eye-rolly. That said, for both franchises this isn't a high point but it also isn't nearly the lowest of the low for either by a wide margin.
Tomorrow's picks...
Doom - Yep, that Doom.
Knock at the Cabin - This is M. Night so probably a twist and some questionable depictions of mental illness but people say it's one of the better ones.
Fresh - All I know is it came out a year ago or so.
Funny Games - A film where the literal message of the movie is "don't watch this movie". To be clear, this is the original, not the remake.
Skull: The Mask - Another unknown except it's from Portugal.
Tomorrow's picks...
Doom - Yep, that Doom.
Knock at the Cabin - This is M. Night so probably a twist and some questionable depictions of mental illness but people say it's one of the better ones.
Fresh - All I know is it came out a year ago or so.
Funny Games - A film where the literal message of the movie is "don't watch this movie". To be clear, this is the original, not the remake.
Skull: The Mask - Another unknown except it's from Portugal.
F v J was the only one of those movies that I've seen...
I guess technically this is an action horror movie but I have seen it and I vaguely remember it being a case of big A, small h. (However I saw it years ago and my memory could be off about that.)
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I will corroborate that. I went in pretty skeptical but it ended up being pretty solid. I think it's largely carried by the cast, but the script and story also don't really go off the rails like some of his other movies.