Month of Horror V: the Seed of dsheinem & noiseredux

[Luke]

PHANTASM is so much fun.

So I played and beat Dracula on the sega cd. Just so you know, I like Pit Fighter on the Genesis, so what follows is open to criticism.

Love the game. The cut scenes from the movie are some of the worst on the system, the controls stink, your enemies include pots, pans and books, the hit detection is terrible, but I still love the game.

Our hero, Mr. Harker, is clumsy, his attacks silly, and his animation rigid. So why do I love a game that is basically terrible?

The music and atmospheres.You feel like you are in Dracula's castle. Far from perfect, but still enjoyable. An ornate castle furnished with a dungeon, haunted kitchen, haunted library (every library is haunted) and drapes designed with upside down crosses.

Once you get familiar with the delay on the controls, you can indeed get a feel for the game. And it does have one of the worst opening levels, but after that it does get more interesting (and less cheap deaths).

So a big thumbs upsky from me.

[Hobie-wan]

both of you... The Banshee Chapter. Not so much a "remake" of From Beyond as much as it's an homage to From Beyond. One that actually mentions From Beyond. Also, there's a character that is pretty clearly supposed to be Hunter S. Thompson. And it's creepy.

Duly noted on my list sir.

[J T]

Though this deals with the supernatural, this show is not quite accurately classified as horror. It's more suspense and drama. It might be scary if you're Christian and the idea that you chose the wrong religion is deeply unsettling. I don't want to say much about the plot because it would ruin the suspense, other than to say this is a story about a young girl who is plagued with horrifying nightmares and her parents are disturbed by a strange man (played by a young Anthony Hopkins) who is following the family and becoming part of their lives in a way that is invasive, but not clearly malevolent. To know more than that would spoil the movie, so I would avoid reading other plot summaries that tend to give away too much. I would recommend the movie, but ratchet down your expectations for being scared. It's more fascinating than frightening. Some have called it a "thinking man's horror". Perhaps that title fits, though I've certainly seen more intelligent and thought provoking movies.

[Ack]

From Beyond is one of the films for me to consider this year. I've been meaning to watch it for a long time. Hopefully I'll finally get around to it before the month is out. And I definitely want to see Banshee Chapter now. That looks awesome!



The Giant Gila Monster

Hahahaha, oh wow. This was...well it was something all right. A regular gila monster let loose on a miniature landscape, drunk driving and alcoholism used repeatedly for comic effect, a singing mechanic wunderkind on his way to success, and apparently a town riddled with toxic salts that makes everyone put their leg up on EVERYTHING. And there's rock music, fast cars, and nitroglycerin to boot! Woo!

This movie is pretty bad, but then it's from the same guy who brought us The Killer Shrews, so I expected it. At least they didn't put rags on a dog to make it look like a lizard. But this is exactly the sort of C-list '50s schlock that I occasionally enjoy laughing at, and the MST3K version of this movie definitely fits the bill, even if it is a Joel episode(I'm a Mike kind of man myself). The acting is pretty awful, the plot jumps all over the place, the special effects are laughable, and it's all public domain!

That said, maybe I should finally launch that project to novelize some of these craptacular '50s films.

11/31

La chute de la maison Usher
Werewolves on Wheels
Opera
Satánico pandemonium
The City of the Living Dead
The Town That Dreaded Sundown
The Sentinel
Silver Bullet
Tourist Trap
Dead & Buried
The Giant Gila Monster

[prfsnl_gmr]

My wife is out of town; so, I am not watching any horror movies at the moment. I did start up Ghostbusters: The Video Game (PS3) last night, however, and I am really looking forward to playing it again tonight. (The first level requires you to trap Slimer at the Sedgewick Hotel, and I will be chasing the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man through Times Square tonight.) The voice acting (which includes all of the original Ghostbusters cast!) and script (which was written by Dan Akyroyd and Harold Ramis!) are great, and the chaotic shooting mechanics do justice to the films. (Trapping ghosts is hard work, and all of my AI companions are way better at it than me...which is what you would expect since they are experienced Ghostbusters.) Finally, the game is occassionally scary, and my favorite sequences are the ones that require me to locate hidden ghosts with my PKE meter from a first-person perspective.

[BoneSnapDeez]

That Ghostbusters game looks cool as shit. Certainly an improvement over something like the SMS game.

I gave up playing The Count on VIC-20 because I discovered I can't save my game. Why? Because saving requires the Commodore datasette and a blank cassette tape. Some day...

Anyway, I'm striking out with these horror games! Castlevania is too damn hard, The Count can't be saved... I'm thinking I may try Decap Attack next. Any thoughts?

[prfsnl_gmr]

That Ghostbusters game looks cool as shit.

So far so good on that one. Some of the graphics are a bit dated (i.e., the facial animation and lip synching is atrocious, some of the textures are a bit pixelated, etc.), but the proton beams and ghosts look great. Most importantly, it is very fun, and you definitely "feel" like a ghostbuster sneaking around with your PKE meter. (Also...howlongtobeat says that the game is only eight hours long!)

[dsheinem]

about to watch this double feature:



thoughts later tonight!

[Forlorn Drifter]

I can say that at least one of those movies is not at all related to its title.

[Luke]

Most importantly, it is very fun, and you definitely "feel" like a ghostbuster sneaking around with your PKE meter.

Hanging out in the fire house is so much fun.