Same here. There are only a few I have really enjoyed (i.e., The Bay, The Blair Witch Project, and The Last Exorcism).Ack wrote:You're not the only one. At this point I groan out loud when I hear a movie is found footage.Forlorn Drifter wrote:I'm getting to where I hate found footage movies.
noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
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prfsnl_gmr
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Re: noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
Re: noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
I remember I watched Paranormal Activity 2 in the theater and kept shouting, "It's the pool cleaner robot!" By the end of it, the audience was laughing about it. It was the only reason the film was worth watching it.prfsnl_gmr wrote:Same here. There are only a few I have really enjoyed (i.e., The Bay, The Blair Witch Project, and The Last Exorcism).Ack wrote:You're not the only one. At this point I groan out loud when I hear a movie is found footage.Forlorn Drifter wrote:I'm getting to where I hate found footage movies.
I've heard Banshee Chapter is worth checking out, but I just can't bring myself to track it down since it's found footage.
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prfsnl_gmr
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Re: noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
Banshee Chapter is very good, and only parts of it are found footage.Ack wrote:I've heard Banshee Chapter is worth checking out, but I just can't bring myself to track it down since it's found footage.
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noiseredux
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prfsnl_gmr
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Re: noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
Based on Michi's review, my wife and I watched:
The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014). I was not disappointed. It is a very stylish, wonderfully directed, and beautifully shot, American giallo film. (The tracking shot at the beginning is fantastic, and IMO, it is a clear tribute to Orson Welles' Touch of Evil.) Moreover, and even if it wasn't made in Italy, it is easily the best giallo film in years, and it surpasses some of Argento and Bava's best work. Finally, it is a smart film that borrows some ideas from Wes Craven's New Nightmare. (That is, the movie is the sequel to a movie that exists within its world.) I enjoyed it tremendously, and I highly, highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great giallo/slasher film.
prfsnl_gmr's 2015 LIST OF TERROR!
The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014). I was not disappointed. It is a very stylish, wonderfully directed, and beautifully shot, American giallo film. (The tracking shot at the beginning is fantastic, and IMO, it is a clear tribute to Orson Welles' Touch of Evil.) Moreover, and even if it wasn't made in Italy, it is easily the best giallo film in years, and it surpasses some of Argento and Bava's best work. Finally, it is a smart film that borrows some ideas from Wes Craven's New Nightmare. (That is, the movie is the sequel to a movie that exists within its world.) I enjoyed it tremendously, and I highly, highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great giallo/slasher film.
prfsnl_gmr's 2015 LIST OF TERROR!
Re: noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
I am very glad you enjoyed it. This may end up being the most interesting (and surprising) gem I find this month.prfsnl_gmr wrote:Based on Michi's review, my wife and I watched:
I love when that happens
Re: noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
I'm at that weird point in my holiday marathon where I've watched so many horror movies in a row I feel like they're beginning to ooze out my ears.
Basket Case 2
Basket Case 3
I intend to talk about these both at the same time because they form one continuous plotline that really can't be separated. The series continues directly on from the first Basket Case, and in both cases the first five minutes are the previous five minutes of the last movie. It's a bit of a jump from the first Basket Case to the second due to the amount of time between movies(a decade), but BC3 followed BC2 by only a year.
Basket Case 2 and 3 feature the continuing misadventures of the Bradley twins, Duane and Belial. Duane looks like a normal guy, but Belial is his super-strong, super-violent, telepathic but deformed conjoined twin that has since been separated and lives in a basket. In the first film they fight at the end and fall out of a building, presumably to their deaths. In BC2, it's revealed that they survive, and they are rescued by a woman named Granny Ruth, a doctor who acts as savior to deformed individuals. Belial fits right in and finds love with a girl named Eve, but Duane feels adrift and sinks into depression and eventually mental illness. Meanwhile, rag journalists seek them out and discover Granny Ruth's community, so her children are forced to fight back to protect themselves. At the end, Belial gets freaky with his girl(in what I suppose could be considered an explicit sex scene), while Duane has a complete psychotic break and forcibly sews his brother back onto himself.
In Basket Case 3, Belial is now happy and expecting children with Eve, while Duane is kept in a padded cell. But Eve's pregnancy is troublesome, so Granny Ruth takes everyone down to Georgia to see her friend Big Hal and her son Little Hal. Once there, Duane escapes and gets tricked into the hands of the police by the sheriff's dominatrix daughter while Belial savages Big Hal in a PTSD-fueled rage against doctors and Eve gives birth to 12 children. The sheriff's deputies sneak in, kill Eve, and kidnap the children, so Granny Ruth's children are forced again to try and get them back. Belial and Duane escape, and Little Hal builds Belial an exoskeleton so he can take on the sheriff and his last two deputies. In the end, Granny Ruth decides to reveal her children to the world and does so in spectacular fashion by acting like a jerk to everyone.
I think I like Basket Case 2 the most in the series; it escalates the story in spectacular fashion, does a complete role reversal for Duane and Belial, and does its best to promote an attitude of tolerance towards deformity while understanding it can be a difficult thing to come to. It also shows that deformity is not necessarily something limited to the physical, as Duane's mental problems manifest in spectacular way when he realizes he will never be normal. Basket Case 3 drops the ball though, with Granny Ruth adopting an "accept us or die" attitude by the end and treating other folks like dirt while Duane foils the acceptance message by never finding a place to fit in, either in the real world or with Granny Ruth's family. Belial loses Eve and one of his children, but keeps his family and his friends. Duane is a pariah, a freak to the freaks, stuck in limbo between societies and completely alone to bear his mental illness; even his brother refuses to talk to him for most of the movie. It's tough for me to buy the acceptance line when the characters who loudly shout for it appear so hypocritical about it.
Still, for the costume and effects junkies, both movies are likely to entertain. I was constantly reminded of the likes of Clive Barker's Nightbreed, where so many characters had wonderful work done with prosthesis, makeup, and special effects. That's good, I enjoyed Nightbreed, and I enjoyed the work I saw here.
My progress so far:
Basket Case 2
Basket Case 3
I intend to talk about these both at the same time because they form one continuous plotline that really can't be separated. The series continues directly on from the first Basket Case, and in both cases the first five minutes are the previous five minutes of the last movie. It's a bit of a jump from the first Basket Case to the second due to the amount of time between movies(a decade), but BC3 followed BC2 by only a year.
Basket Case 2 and 3 feature the continuing misadventures of the Bradley twins, Duane and Belial. Duane looks like a normal guy, but Belial is his super-strong, super-violent, telepathic but deformed conjoined twin that has since been separated and lives in a basket. In the first film they fight at the end and fall out of a building, presumably to their deaths. In BC2, it's revealed that they survive, and they are rescued by a woman named Granny Ruth, a doctor who acts as savior to deformed individuals. Belial fits right in and finds love with a girl named Eve, but Duane feels adrift and sinks into depression and eventually mental illness. Meanwhile, rag journalists seek them out and discover Granny Ruth's community, so her children are forced to fight back to protect themselves. At the end, Belial gets freaky with his girl(in what I suppose could be considered an explicit sex scene), while Duane has a complete psychotic break and forcibly sews his brother back onto himself.
In Basket Case 3, Belial is now happy and expecting children with Eve, while Duane is kept in a padded cell. But Eve's pregnancy is troublesome, so Granny Ruth takes everyone down to Georgia to see her friend Big Hal and her son Little Hal. Once there, Duane escapes and gets tricked into the hands of the police by the sheriff's dominatrix daughter while Belial savages Big Hal in a PTSD-fueled rage against doctors and Eve gives birth to 12 children. The sheriff's deputies sneak in, kill Eve, and kidnap the children, so Granny Ruth's children are forced again to try and get them back. Belial and Duane escape, and Little Hal builds Belial an exoskeleton so he can take on the sheriff and his last two deputies. In the end, Granny Ruth decides to reveal her children to the world and does so in spectacular fashion by acting like a jerk to everyone.
I think I like Basket Case 2 the most in the series; it escalates the story in spectacular fashion, does a complete role reversal for Duane and Belial, and does its best to promote an attitude of tolerance towards deformity while understanding it can be a difficult thing to come to. It also shows that deformity is not necessarily something limited to the physical, as Duane's mental problems manifest in spectacular way when he realizes he will never be normal. Basket Case 3 drops the ball though, with Granny Ruth adopting an "accept us or die" attitude by the end and treating other folks like dirt while Duane foils the acceptance message by never finding a place to fit in, either in the real world or with Granny Ruth's family. Belial loses Eve and one of his children, but keeps his family and his friends. Duane is a pariah, a freak to the freaks, stuck in limbo between societies and completely alone to bear his mental illness; even his brother refuses to talk to him for most of the movie. It's tough for me to buy the acceptance line when the characters who loudly shout for it appear so hypocritical about it.
Still, for the costume and effects junkies, both movies are likely to entertain. I was constantly reminded of the likes of Clive Barker's Nightbreed, where so many characters had wonderful work done with prosthesis, makeup, and special effects. That's good, I enjoyed Nightbreed, and I enjoyed the work I saw here.
My progress so far:
Re: noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
Theatre of Blood
Edward Lionheart, a classically trained actor, takes sinister revenge on the guild of critics whose reviews savaged him, causing him to loose the Best Actor of the Year award to a young upstart. He’s going to make them pay, damn it. And he’s going to do it via the most relevant and horrible theatrical device imaginable: Shakespeare.
Gah! The horror! The HOR-OR….
This movie is essentially a collection of Shakespearian death scenes linked together by a very thin plot device. Using the plays Lionheart produced/starred in the previous year (the ones in which the critics spurned him), he and his merry ‘chorus’ of drunken, dirty street refugees kill each member of the Critics Circle based on a death scene in one of the chosen Shakespeare plays. It’s really a very simple movie, when summed up. There’s a themed death, some exposition, another death, etc… and the pattern continues as such, all while the poor police scratch their heads of course, until the climax at the end.
Though all of Price’s scenes are filled with varying levels of campyness, the rest of the film is played almost completely straight. For every scene where Lionheart is having just a grand ‘ol time dressing up and knocking people off in creative fashion there’s another where everyone is grim and serious and wondering when the killer will strike next and who the next victim will be.
Such transitions add a level of disjointedness to the film that sadly feels horribly miscalculated. I think they did try in a couple of scenes to even it out, but the efforts still mostly feel out of place and more often than not it feels like you’re watching two separate movies. It’s not a huge negative to the film as a whole, but I do wish they had found some way to smooth out that particular wrinkle.
I take great pleasure in informing you that my clothes are never wrinkled.
The reason this film works can be summed up in two words: Vincent Price. He is the backbone, nay, the supporting structure of the entire film. All those other characters? F*&# ‘em. They’ll probably be dead by the end anyway and, with the exception of perhaps two of them, they contain the base minimum of characterizatio, so it’s not big loss when they croak. No, this is Price’s show and, by god, he freakin’ knows it. Hell, I’m pretty sure everyone involved with this film knew it, too. The writer, director, the cast…Everyone. The role clearly called for someone who could pull off campy, classy and sinister and Price nails it with his familiar mixture of energetic panache and deep, festering madness. He is perfect and brilliant and being the as Vincent Price as Vincent Price can be.
Or, at least he is when he’s not dressing up as his distant cousin, Stu Price…
I love Stu.
This is of course not a knock on any of the other actors. Each critic was a big name in British film and theatre and includes Robert Morley, Arthur Lowe, Harry Andrews and Jack Hawkings. Diana Rigg also plays a prominent role as Lionheart’s daughter and is a joy to behold. But no matter how excellent each secondary character may be (and they are all excellent), they just cannot hold a candle to Price. But that’s alright. I’m perfectly content with them being the cherry and sprinkles on top of an already impressive sundae.
Sundae, Bloody Sundae
Despite a couple criticisms, Theatre of Blood is a fun film from the first frame all the way to the end. In a current era filled with dismal, dark horror movies it’s a refreshing take while still sparing no expense in the shocks and blood department. It is equal parts humor and horrifying, absurd and even touching. Price’s Lionheart comes off more as an antihero rather than a straight villain, helped along by the dickishness off all the critics and the way they treated him. And any horror movie with a classy villain who creates intricately awesome, bloody and often gory traps is a winner in my book. The effective resulting ‘cheese’ is just an added bonus.
I’ve read that Price considered this is best film.
I wouldn’t have argued with the man.
Edward Lionheart, a classically trained actor, takes sinister revenge on the guild of critics whose reviews savaged him, causing him to loose the Best Actor of the Year award to a young upstart. He’s going to make them pay, damn it. And he’s going to do it via the most relevant and horrible theatrical device imaginable: Shakespeare.
Gah! The horror! The HOR-OR….
This movie is essentially a collection of Shakespearian death scenes linked together by a very thin plot device. Using the plays Lionheart produced/starred in the previous year (the ones in which the critics spurned him), he and his merry ‘chorus’ of drunken, dirty street refugees kill each member of the Critics Circle based on a death scene in one of the chosen Shakespeare plays. It’s really a very simple movie, when summed up. There’s a themed death, some exposition, another death, etc… and the pattern continues as such, all while the poor police scratch their heads of course, until the climax at the end.
Though all of Price’s scenes are filled with varying levels of campyness, the rest of the film is played almost completely straight. For every scene where Lionheart is having just a grand ‘ol time dressing up and knocking people off in creative fashion there’s another where everyone is grim and serious and wondering when the killer will strike next and who the next victim will be.
Such transitions add a level of disjointedness to the film that sadly feels horribly miscalculated. I think they did try in a couple of scenes to even it out, but the efforts still mostly feel out of place and more often than not it feels like you’re watching two separate movies. It’s not a huge negative to the film as a whole, but I do wish they had found some way to smooth out that particular wrinkle.
I take great pleasure in informing you that my clothes are never wrinkled.
The reason this film works can be summed up in two words: Vincent Price. He is the backbone, nay, the supporting structure of the entire film. All those other characters? F*&# ‘em. They’ll probably be dead by the end anyway and, with the exception of perhaps two of them, they contain the base minimum of characterizatio, so it’s not big loss when they croak. No, this is Price’s show and, by god, he freakin’ knows it. Hell, I’m pretty sure everyone involved with this film knew it, too. The writer, director, the cast…Everyone. The role clearly called for someone who could pull off campy, classy and sinister and Price nails it with his familiar mixture of energetic panache and deep, festering madness. He is perfect and brilliant and being the as Vincent Price as Vincent Price can be.
Or, at least he is when he’s not dressing up as his distant cousin, Stu Price…
I love Stu.
This is of course not a knock on any of the other actors. Each critic was a big name in British film and theatre and includes Robert Morley, Arthur Lowe, Harry Andrews and Jack Hawkings. Diana Rigg also plays a prominent role as Lionheart’s daughter and is a joy to behold. But no matter how excellent each secondary character may be (and they are all excellent), they just cannot hold a candle to Price. But that’s alright. I’m perfectly content with them being the cherry and sprinkles on top of an already impressive sundae.
Sundae, Bloody Sundae
Despite a couple criticisms, Theatre of Blood is a fun film from the first frame all the way to the end. In a current era filled with dismal, dark horror movies it’s a refreshing take while still sparing no expense in the shocks and blood department. It is equal parts humor and horrifying, absurd and even touching. Price’s Lionheart comes off more as an antihero rather than a straight villain, helped along by the dickishness off all the critics and the way they treated him. And any horror movie with a classy villain who creates intricately awesome, bloody and often gory traps is a winner in my book. The effective resulting ‘cheese’ is just an added bonus.
I’ve read that Price considered this is best film.
I wouldn’t have argued with the man.
Last edited by Michi on Sun Oct 18, 2015 4:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
I just finished watching The Company of Wolves. It's kind of a hot mess of a werewolf movie. Most of the narrative is framed as story being told within the dream set in the past of a girl in the present. It's almost an anthology but not really. And the video quality on the American DVD is rock-bottom and it looks like the speed might have been off; as if it was shot at 24 FPS but transfered at 25 or maybe a bad conversion of a PAL video-master or something. I'd be curious to compare it to the European Blu-Ray. BUT what makes it significant/awesome is that it's the second film directed by Neil Jordan (Interview with the Vampire, In Dreams) and is absolutely dripping with his style. In some ways the movie reminds me of Legend in that it captures the feel of an old story book and aims at balls-out fantasy without any attempt to be set in the real world. It also reminds me of Italian horror films in that the film's primary concern is evoking FEELING rather than making coherent sense. The budget is obviously low, but they seemed to have pretty effectively used their sets to create a fairy-tale setting.
Also Angela Lansbury's in it.
I'd recommend it to fans of werewolves and arthouse flicks!
Last week I did see Elvira's Haunted Hills. Not much to say about it except that it's not worth watching. I should have listened to my gut feeling from when it first came out and ignored it.
Also Angela Lansbury's in it.
I'd recommend it to fans of werewolves and arthouse flicks!
Last week I did see Elvira's Haunted Hills. Not much to say about it except that it's not worth watching. I should have listened to my gut feeling from when it first came out and ignored it.
Re: noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
The Slumber Party Massacre
A lesbian feminist and author writes a screenplay satirizing slasher films, which is then directed as straightforward as possible by a young aspiring female director. The result is bizarre, with swapped genre gender roles and attitudes, a killer who speaks in rape-justification cliches and wields a massive phallic symbol to do his dirty work, and a final battle that definitely symbolizes castration as three (3) final girls take down the psychotic mass murderer in an orgy of screaming and bloodshed. I've read other reviews that argue this is a purely feminist take on the slasher film, but regardless of the ideas behind the film and how they were implemented, the most important thing is this:
Damn, this movie is pretty awesome.
The Slumber Party Massacre works best in my opinion when you realize that it was originally intended as a parody, but you then throw all of that out and say, "So what?" Because as a genre film, SPM does a damn good job of being highly entertaining. Most of the female leads are fleshed out a fair bit and given backstories and motivations, though some unfortunately don't make it long enough to really get much backstory. The guys don't fare so well of course, mostly coming across as cowards and pranksters, but there is a repeatedly accidentally scary next door neighbor who was pretty cool; I was sorry to see him go when his time came. And the killer is creepy, watching from the shadows, sneaking through windows, quick to catch people unawares, and willing to make the odd joke about how many are left. He even screws up occasionally and still makes up for it by hunting down the wounded, always while the others are preoccupied and either unable or too terrified to help.
That's one down in the Massacre series, but there are a ton of these movies. I need only 10 more films to finish my marathon... But I think I'll keep watching even after I finish. So much horror, so little time...
My progress so far: