Hahaha, I just knew when I posted my thoughts that you would respond and say you liked Freddy's Dead. I find it hilarious how we often agree completely on some horror movies and then go in complete opposite directions on others.noiseredux wrote:Nightmare 5 is the grossest in my opinion.
I actually LOVE Freddy's Dead. But it was my first Nightmare movie, so there's a lottt of nostalgia for me there. It's one of those movies that I could probably recite every line.
noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
Re: noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
-
prfsnl_gmr
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 12410
- Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:26 pm
- Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Re: noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
Last night, my wife and I went with the English horror classic:
Fiend Without a Face (1958), which has been described as the goriest movie of its era (meaning its kind of gross, but not all that gory). In it, mysterious deaths occur around a U.S. Air Force base (in Canada...and surrounded by locals who have a hard time concealing their British and Scottish accents). The deaths are caused by invisible "mental vampires" that were conjured up by a local professor of psychic research and given form by the radiation emitted from the Air Force's classified activities on the base. Eventually, the radiation from the base renders the creatures visible, and they appear as human brains with two antennae, six legs, and a spinal cord tail. (The creatures also behave very similarly to the head crabs from Half-Life, and I wonder if the movie inspired some aspects of the game.) The film is actually remarkably solid, despite its limited budget, and I enjoyed it. The Criterion restoration also looks fantastic, and anyone with Hulu+ can watch it instantly (along with other Richard Gordon classics, The Haunted Strangler, First Man in Space, and Corridors of Blood).
prfsnl_gmr's 2015 LIST OF TERROR!
Fiend Without a Face (1958), which has been described as the goriest movie of its era (meaning its kind of gross, but not all that gory). In it, mysterious deaths occur around a U.S. Air Force base (in Canada...and surrounded by locals who have a hard time concealing their British and Scottish accents). The deaths are caused by invisible "mental vampires" that were conjured up by a local professor of psychic research and given form by the radiation emitted from the Air Force's classified activities on the base. Eventually, the radiation from the base renders the creatures visible, and they appear as human brains with two antennae, six legs, and a spinal cord tail. (The creatures also behave very similarly to the head crabs from Half-Life, and I wonder if the movie inspired some aspects of the game.) The film is actually remarkably solid, despite its limited budget, and I enjoyed it. The Criterion restoration also looks fantastic, and anyone with Hulu+ can watch it instantly (along with other Richard Gordon classics, The Haunted Strangler, First Man in Space, and Corridors of Blood).
prfsnl_gmr's 2015 LIST OF TERROR!
Re: noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
Leprechaun: Origins
"Reborn" my a$$.
Four backpacking collage kids visit a remote village in Ireland. While there, they’re tricked into staying in a remote cabin for the night and end up being stalked by a ferocious local leprechaun.
Lets go to Ireland, they said. It’ll be fun, they said…
I went into this movie trying to keep a relatively positive outlook. I’d seen some of the poor review scores, but was determined to give it a fair shake. Then, before the movie even started, I saw this:
Uh oh….
Apparently WWE star Dylan “Hornswoggle” Postl plays the titular character mentioned in the title. Though one wonders why they even bothered to advertise that, as the villain in question has no lines, personality or characteristics what so ever, beyond those of a flesh-eating, feral beast, consisting of hazy movement, growls and briefly glimpsed claws. He’s rarely on screen for more than a second, and when he is there’s no way to get any sense of scale. Hell, with how little he’s on screen and the lack of personality they could have used a puppet and still got the same effect.
So basically, if you go into this expecting something close to the movies that Warwick Davis starred in, than you are going to be vastly disappointed. Apparently in these filmmakers’ minds, rebooting the series meant reducing the clever, wisecracking, horn dog, impish title character we were all familiar with-
Admittedly not the best villain in cinema…
-into…whatever the hell this thing is supposed to be.
Well…Okay then.
So, really, I’d call this less of a reboot and more of a complete re-imagining. But the story is so generic they could be re-imagining just about anything. Placing the story in Ireland and having the monster be a leprechaun has no bearing on how the story plays out whatsoever. You could change the monster and the location to any combination you choose, and you would have still ended up with the same generic movie. The only thing distinguishing the monster as a leprechaun is its attraction to gold, but the thing kills so indiscriminately anyway, whether the victim has gold on them or not, that it comes across as a useless and inconsistent plot point.
Of course the rest of the plot plays out similarly, so perhaps 'inconsistent' is the wrong word...
Another thing I couldn’t figure out is what exactly this is supposed to be an ‘Origin’ of. Other than repeating one line (I think) from the original film, there is absolutely no connection to the other films in the series, either as a prequel or a psudo-sequel. Now I’m not saying the other Leprechaun subtitles were great, but at least when the earlier films used lines like “In Space” or in “tha Hood” you knew what you were getting into.
Look at them. They're holding the guns and even they seem confused.
Leprechaun: Origins is clearly an attempt to add a heaping dose of darkness to an already established franchise, but the end result falls horribly flat. Yes, kiddies, they failed. They failed, bad. The four main characters are dull and you can pick which one will be the ‘last one standing’ within the first five minutes. Though in their defense, I did find that person to be the least insufferable, so there’s that. The one headlining ‘star’ of the film is completely unrecognizable in his TV movie quality monster suit, but there were so many shaky/blurry jump cuts and camera angles that you wouldn’t have been able to recognize him even without a mask. Hell, I’m not entirely convinced he was even in that thing to begin with. It could have been anyone in that suit – Me, Ack, Noise – With the way the murderous bugger is portrayed here there’s no earthly way to tell. The humor of the original films is gone, and instead replaced with dark and gritty, which normally I’d find all well and good, except they didn’t manage to pull off. The story is lackluster, full of clichés and sometimes incoherent. There is no suspense, no hero to cheer for and you could probably predict most of the plot points well before you reach them.
Still, all that said, it’s not necessarily a bad monster movie. It is definitely a predictable and middling monster movie, but most of its production values are high enough for me to not go so far as to call it bad… but just barely. As a monster movie, it’s a solid ‘meh.’ Something the likes of which I might catch on the Sy Fy channel. But as a Leprechaun movie? It’s bad, ya’ll. Had it not tried to link itself to an already well-established franchise and do its own thing, it might not have been so bad. But since it does?....*shakes head*
If you don’t mind generic monster movies, than by all means, give this a go. But if you’re a fan of the Leprechaun franchise in any way, than don’t waste the hour and a half of your life necessary for this. Trust me, you won’t be pleased.
"Reborn" my a$$.
Four backpacking collage kids visit a remote village in Ireland. While there, they’re tricked into staying in a remote cabin for the night and end up being stalked by a ferocious local leprechaun.
Lets go to Ireland, they said. It’ll be fun, they said…
I went into this movie trying to keep a relatively positive outlook. I’d seen some of the poor review scores, but was determined to give it a fair shake. Then, before the movie even started, I saw this:
Uh oh….
Apparently WWE star Dylan “Hornswoggle” Postl plays the titular character mentioned in the title. Though one wonders why they even bothered to advertise that, as the villain in question has no lines, personality or characteristics what so ever, beyond those of a flesh-eating, feral beast, consisting of hazy movement, growls and briefly glimpsed claws. He’s rarely on screen for more than a second, and when he is there’s no way to get any sense of scale. Hell, with how little he’s on screen and the lack of personality they could have used a puppet and still got the same effect.
So basically, if you go into this expecting something close to the movies that Warwick Davis starred in, than you are going to be vastly disappointed. Apparently in these filmmakers’ minds, rebooting the series meant reducing the clever, wisecracking, horn dog, impish title character we were all familiar with-
Admittedly not the best villain in cinema…
-into…whatever the hell this thing is supposed to be.
Well…Okay then.
So, really, I’d call this less of a reboot and more of a complete re-imagining. But the story is so generic they could be re-imagining just about anything. Placing the story in Ireland and having the monster be a leprechaun has no bearing on how the story plays out whatsoever. You could change the monster and the location to any combination you choose, and you would have still ended up with the same generic movie. The only thing distinguishing the monster as a leprechaun is its attraction to gold, but the thing kills so indiscriminately anyway, whether the victim has gold on them or not, that it comes across as a useless and inconsistent plot point.
Of course the rest of the plot plays out similarly, so perhaps 'inconsistent' is the wrong word...
Another thing I couldn’t figure out is what exactly this is supposed to be an ‘Origin’ of. Other than repeating one line (I think) from the original film, there is absolutely no connection to the other films in the series, either as a prequel or a psudo-sequel. Now I’m not saying the other Leprechaun subtitles were great, but at least when the earlier films used lines like “In Space” or in “tha Hood” you knew what you were getting into.
Look at them. They're holding the guns and even they seem confused.
Leprechaun: Origins is clearly an attempt to add a heaping dose of darkness to an already established franchise, but the end result falls horribly flat. Yes, kiddies, they failed. They failed, bad. The four main characters are dull and you can pick which one will be the ‘last one standing’ within the first five minutes. Though in their defense, I did find that person to be the least insufferable, so there’s that. The one headlining ‘star’ of the film is completely unrecognizable in his TV movie quality monster suit, but there were so many shaky/blurry jump cuts and camera angles that you wouldn’t have been able to recognize him even without a mask. Hell, I’m not entirely convinced he was even in that thing to begin with. It could have been anyone in that suit – Me, Ack, Noise – With the way the murderous bugger is portrayed here there’s no earthly way to tell. The humor of the original films is gone, and instead replaced with dark and gritty, which normally I’d find all well and good, except they didn’t manage to pull off. The story is lackluster, full of clichés and sometimes incoherent. There is no suspense, no hero to cheer for and you could probably predict most of the plot points well before you reach them.
Still, all that said, it’s not necessarily a bad monster movie. It is definitely a predictable and middling monster movie, but most of its production values are high enough for me to not go so far as to call it bad… but just barely. As a monster movie, it’s a solid ‘meh.’ Something the likes of which I might catch on the Sy Fy channel. But as a Leprechaun movie? It’s bad, ya’ll. Had it not tried to link itself to an already well-established franchise and do its own thing, it might not have been so bad. But since it does?....*shakes head*
If you don’t mind generic monster movies, than by all means, give this a go. But if you’re a fan of the Leprechaun franchise in any way, than don’t waste the hour and a half of your life necessary for this. Trust me, you won’t be pleased.
Last edited by Michi on Mon Oct 26, 2015 11:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
-
noiseredux
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 38148
- Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2008 1:09 pm
- Contact:
Re: noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
oh... my....
Well, that sounds horrible. Yet you've also made me want to see it somehow. I don't know even know...
Well, that sounds horrible. Yet you've also made me want to see it somehow. I don't know even know...
-
prfsnl_gmr
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 12410
- Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:26 pm
- Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Re: noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
Great review, as always, Michi.
Also, and to be fair WWE Studios produced Oculus, which I reviewed earlier in the thread and which is awesome.
Also, and to be fair WWE Studios produced Oculus, which I reviewed earlier in the thread and which is awesome.
Re: noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
On Saturday, I watched Romano Scavolini's Nightmare, aka Nightmares in a Damaged Brain. Seen it before, was showing to a new initiate. This is the definition of video nasty, folks. Twisted psychopathy, tits, gore, weird sex, evil kids, foaming seizures, 42nd St. in all its former glory, it's all here. Highly recommended.
Re: noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
I have read good things about Oculus, but not having seen it yet, I can't really compare. However, from what I can tell, Oculus isn't connected to any pre-existing stories, so they were able to come up with whatever they wanted.prfsnl_gmr wrote:Also, and to be fair WWE Studios produced Oculus, which I reviewed earlier in the thread and which is awesome.
In Origins case, they were working with something already pre-established, and that's the part where I feel they floundered. Like I said, the movie itself isn't necessarily bad (I don't think). As a stand alone it would have been perfectly serviceable. Where everything pretty much fells apart is where they tried to make those (very loose) connections.
What it boils down to, is they changed too much, to the point where it's not even remotely recognizable as a Leprechaun movie, apart from calling the creature killing everyone a leprechaun.
If you do watch it, skip the credits sequence. It's close to 10 minutes long (probably to pad out the run time) and acts like it's building up to something at the end, but all you get is half a second of fuzzy leprechaun jump scare.noiseredux wrote:oh... my....
Well, that sounds horrible. Yet you've also made me want to see it somehow. I don't know even know...
Not worth it.
-
prfsnl_gmr
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 12410
- Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:26 pm
- Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Re: noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
Here is the AVClub's list of the 25 best horror movies since the year 2000:
http://www.avclub.com/article/25-best-h ... 000-227068
Amazingly, I have only seen 16 of these. (I may watch Cure tonight, however.) Normally, my viewing rate for these type of lists in the 90%-100% range.
EDIT: I must note that the list is missing some excellent films. (The Bay is pretty much the most under-rated horror film of all time.)
http://www.avclub.com/article/25-best-h ... 000-227068
Amazingly, I have only seen 16 of these. (I may watch Cure tonight, however.) Normally, my viewing rate for these type of lists in the 90%-100% range.
EDIT: I must note that the list is missing some excellent films. (The Bay is pretty much the most under-rated horror film of all time.)
Re: noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
*sigh* It was me...Michi wrote:It could have been anyone in that suit – Me, Ack, Noise – With the way the murderous bugger is portrayed here there’s no earthly way to tell.
-
prfsnl_gmr
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 12410
- Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:26 pm
- Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Re: noiseredux Presents THE MONTH OF HORROR (2015) (remake)
You were wearing a suit?Ack wrote:*sigh* It was me...Michi wrote:It could have been anyone in that suit – Me, Ack, Noise – With the way the murderous bugger is portrayed here there’s no earthly way to tell.