The Horror Thread - Part 4

[Hellion]

Well, maybe for the ANOES reboot that's where they went wrong...I love Friday the 13th, it's the one series I enjoy all the films...original, sequels, reboot...again...the ANOES reboot...drab and dull...too serious for it's own good...

...I think it came down to the acting...

 

[Donnie Darko]

I still think Rooney Mara is completely full of ****. I remember some interview around the time Girl With The Dragon Tattoo came out, where she was saying she was mad that she got the role in the A Nightmare on Elm St remake. Like she knew that it was awful and didn't want to do they kind of movie. I just hate that since she all of a sudden became a "serious" actress with Dragon Tattoo she had to act like she wasn't excited to land her first big film role.

 

[Kane52630]

31 Days of Horror Marathon
Day 1: The Night Flier - 8.5/10
Day 2: John Carpenter's Body Bags - 6/10
Day 3: Annabelle - 4/10
Day 4: Resolution - 7/10
Day 5: Suspiria - 8/10
Day 6: Frankenstein's Army - 6/10
Day 7: Ju-on - 8/10
Day 8: The Dead 2: India - 8/10
Day 9: Witchfinder General - 5/10
Day 10: Hellbound: Hellraiser II - 7/10
Day 11: Christine - 8.5/10
Day 12: Dead Silence - 9.5/10 [Rewatch]
Day 13: Gremlins - 8.5/10
Day 14: Nightbreed - 8.5/10
Day 15: The Howling - 7.5/10
Day 16: The Nightmare Before Christmas - 10/10 [Rewatch]
Day 17: Black Sunday - 7/10
Day 18: Jinn - 7.5/10
Day 19: White Zombie - 8/10
Day 20: Birth of the Living Dead - 9/10
Day 21: Creepshow 2 - 8/10
Day 22: Halloween (1978) - 9.5/10 [Rewatch]
Day 23: Wolf Creek - 9/10
Day 24: V/H/S: Viral - 3/10​

As a big fan of V/H/S 1 & 2, Viral sucked ass.

 

[NDX]

Just finished Troll 2 @ Legends. Fantastically horrible or horribly fantastic? Lotta fun, and Plan 9 From Outer Space is next!

 

[Kane52630]

Nilbog! It's Goblin spelled backwards!

 

[Enriquespy]

There is no anabelle thread?

 

[Resistance61513]

Watched "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" (2014) yesterday and was pleasantly surprised. I think Heretic hit it on the noes. The first 2/3 of the movie is REALLY good. Like, throw back to old slasher film good.

The story was interesting and entertaining. The cast was fun to watch and it was a great murder mystery type movie. Then the ending kind of deterred from what made the beginning so appealing. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the film and would definitely recommend it if you're looking for something to watch.

Tonight I watched a movie called "All Hallows' Eve". From the trailer, it looked SUPER promising. I was so excited to watch it. Unfortunately, it's nothing like the trailer led you to believe. Instead, it's a film done in a similar vain as "Trick R Treat". However, not nearly as good.

I'm disappointed. There was so much potential and they just kind of threw it away. I've never been creeped out by a clown before. The one in "All Hallows' Eve" was just awesome.

 

[Hellion]

Just finished Troll 2 @ Legends. Fantastically horrible or horribly fantastic? Lotta fun, and Plan 9 From Outer Space is next!

Nilbog! It's Goblin spelled backwards!

 

[Heretic]

Watched "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" (2014) yesterday and was pleasantly surprised. I think Heretic hit it on the noes. The first 2/3 of the movie is REALLY good. Like, throw back to old slasher film good.
.

Thanks! Yeah...I wish the end had been stronger. No spoiler for people, but it was obvious that they REALLY loved a certain popular Horror franchise. I liked how they handled the first movie, and it was a fine, not spectacular slasher film (and I think I mentioned that its one of the few recent Horror films with a score that I enjoyed) but the end was pretty lame. I still think that Slasher fans should watch it because the VAST majority of Slasher films are total garbage.

 

[NDX]

I near soiled myself.

 

[DarKush]

Checked out See No Evil 2. I wasn't impressed. I liked the first one more than I thought I would. With #2 I didn't think the kills were that inventive or impressive and the movie didn't have as much gore as the first one, from what I recall. WWE's Kane does have a big, physical menacing presence, and the two leading cast members (one being Danielle Harris) were likeable enough.

The movie was attempting to make Kane's Jacob Goodnight a horror icon. I think they gave him a 'distinctive' mask, and he does have a cool fleshing knife which stands out, but I think the movie largely failed to make Goodnight distinctive enough to be an icon and the horror was pedestrian and the kills nothing to write home about.

 

[TheDreamMaster]

Just finished Troll 2 @ Legends. Fantastically horrible or horribly fantastic? Lotta fun, and Plan 9 From Outer Space is next!

I actually watched the "Best Worst Movie" documentary on Netflix a few days ago. It's really well done, and pretty fun. Two things that stand out though for me though that sucked. The first, the director, I'm glad he sort of embraces that it's considered the worst, but yet he is a absolute a-hole about it. He is like the mirror Tommy Wiseau, in that he accepts what it's become, But defends to the death that it was meant to be much deeper, mean more. And he also is extremely critical of the actors, calling them liars on stage, and insulting them when he has the camera alone.

The second thing was the actor who played the mother. Ill let people see it for themselves, but when they eventually track her down, it's very sad. And honestly, a little creepy and uncomfortable. I'd say life hasn't exactly dealt her the best hand.

 

[bullets]

Well, maybe for the ANOES reboot that's where they went wrong...I love Friday the 13th, it's the one series I enjoy all the films...original, sequels, reboot...again...the ANOES reboot...drab and dull...too serious for it's own good...

...I think it came down to the acting...

I think it was a mistake to lead into a backstory and try to create a mystery around Kruegers death when there was no payoff. We all knew the reveal so it was a waste of the audiences time. What's even worse is that they tried to recreate somewhat iconic moments from the original and didn't do a good job of it. Some of the practical effects of the original looked better than some of the cgi that was used. The main actress was dull , but I didn't mind the rest of the cast. Haley was a great Freddy and I really wanted to see him in a sequel that did it's own thing. Now it's going to be a long time before we ever see a Freddy again and it sucks because there was a lot of potential there.

 

[Heretic]

Watched Exists (2014) from Eduardo Sanchez, director of The Blair Witch Project, a movie that I found to be boring as all get out, that spawned the terrible found footage genre. However, he also did the more recent Lovely Molly, which wasn't found footage and featured the VERY strong lead performance by first time actress Gretchen Lodge. Lovely Molly is not a perfect film (its biggest fault is betraying its own ambiguity near the end), but Gretchen knocked it out of the park, giving one of the best lead actress performances in a Horror film in years. It's worth watching just to see a brand new actress fully commit to a very challenging role.

But with Exists, he's back to found footage...let's see how it goes...

Virtually zero spoilers inside...

Spoiler

A group of people are out in the woods with the flimsy excuse of filming some Youtube clips. It isn't long before Bigfoot shows up angry.

There is a lot more action in this than there was in Blair Witch. They dont waste time getting to know the characters or anything, so dont expect to actually care about any of these people. It's all about Bigfoot here.

However, since this is found footage, who edited it together? Why is it that when one camera shows Bigfoot, the editor chooses to instead switch to the camera NOT showing Bigfoot? There are several scenes where the room is practically full of cameras, with the editor switching back and forth between views. Why even have the found footage conceit if you're going to have camera cuts like that? There's even one scene where a monologue is placed over a montage of the friends blockading doors etc. Why is this documentary of people being attacked by a groundbreaking scientific discovery being edited together like it's a movie? Oh wait...because it IS a movie...and every time someone grabbed a camera instead of run for their lives, I was taken out of whatever suspense they were trying to build.

On the plus side...the bigfoot itself is certainly done better than some of the other animal-type movies I've seen this year (Like Bigfoot Wars and Werewolf Rising). Apparently the guy playing Bigfoot is the same guy who played Harry in Harry and the Hendersons. Also, there are a few cool looking shots amid the 80 minutes of dark shaky cam footage.

In short, if this were a standard Horror film about Bigfoot, it would be a cliche, but fairly entertaining movie. As found footage, it is frustrating to watch and impossible to buy into.

 

[NDX]

Just got back from a midnight viewing of Cannibal Holocaust with my friend.

Never again.

 

[Hellion]

Just got back from a midnight viewing of Cannibal Holocaust with my friend.

Never again.

That films been on my to-do list...yay or neigh?

 

[Motown Marvel]

Just got back from a midnight viewing of Cannibal Holocaust with my friend.

Never again.

ha ha ha awesome. It's definitely a film worth seeing, its good. but you really only need to see it once, ha.

 

[TheDreamMaster]

That films been on my to-do list...yay or neigh?

Yay, but probably only once.

 

[NDX]

That films been on my to-do list...yay or neigh?

Yeah, you should see it at least once. I've seen it twice only because I wanted to see it in theaters as well as own it (one of the most ****ed up gifts I ever got). But I might never watch it again. Those animal deaths are just too much.

 

[Black Narcissus]

i enjoyed the **** out of Drag Me To Hell.

 

[Grievous]

V/H/S Viral was better than 2 but still bad. None of the found footage stories were scary. One even had me laughing. The wrap around story was beyond stupid.

V/H/S 1 is one of my favorite horror movies but ever since it the franchise has headed downhill.

 

[Hellion]

Yay, but probably only once.

Yeah, you should see it at least once. I've seen it twice only because I wanted to see it in theaters as well as own it (one of the most ****ed up gifts I ever got). But I might never watch it again. Those animal deaths are just too much.

Cool...already ordered and should be here by Halloween.

 

[Goshdarn Batman]

i enjoyed the **** out of Drag Me To Hell.

It's okay, but it relies too much on cheap jump scares.

 

[ShadowBoxer]

I am actually sad that Paranormal Activity 5 got pushed back into next year instead of being out in time for Halloween. I mean the movies aren't that good and the only REALLY good one is Paranormal Activity 3. The Marked Ones was decent enough and is the second best. Paranormal Activity 1,2,4 are garbage in my opinion. But seeing the paranormal activity movies opening night or opening weekend with a packed crowd was some of the funniest times I had at the movies. The crowd really adds something to the movies for me, watching them at home on netflix is lame in comparison.

 

[Heretic]

Watched V/H/S Viral (2014) the third movie in the franchise (and for the record, I did not enjoy either of the first two). Meanwhile, this movie is getting trashed by fans of the other two. I'm a fan of some of the contributing directors, so lets see how this goes...

I'll give the basic concept behind each short, and give my opinion of it, but wont actually reveal any story spoilers.

Spoiler

The wraparound story is from the director of Deadgirl. I really liked Deadgirl, so I was looking forward to this. It seems like too many of these shorts are about a guy videotaping a female's body parts and then Horror happens. That is not a story. However, it soon gets weird, then it gets stupid, then bad voice acting turns it to crap and it ends really stupid. The wraparound story sucked on the last one too. This was all over the map and seemed to be mostly filler (not a good idea when its a short). I really wish they'd knock it off with these wraparound stories because they have to really reach to get where they want to go.

The first complete short is from director Gregg Bishop, who I'm not really familiar with. It's a mockumentary about a loser who becomes a famous magician. This was goofy (and predictable), but entertained me more than the vast majority of segments from this series. Because the idea was that the magician had people filming him, they were able to take a more traditional filming style with the climax scene. It felt like some of the old anthology tv series in that it wasn't "horror" in the sense that VHS stories usually are...just a stand alone story that deals with a Horror concept.

The next story is from Nacho Vigalondo (Timecrimes, Open Windows). It's a sci-fi story about a guy trying to invent something. I can see where the people who loved the first few would hate this one now...but I actually liked the concept behind this story as well. It kept my interest. This gets pretty crazy, and really kind of stupid...but again...I was intrigued by the beginning and I smiled at the absurd end...so that counts as entertainment.

The next story is from the directors of Resolution...one of the best Horror movies in years (and my favorite film of ANY genre last year). It's about skateboarders filming their stunts. This is the most similar to the previous VHS films...introduce some people we don't like, then have a Horror genre type event happen to them. Yeah...I tried to like this one but didn't. It's just a dud.

This question comes up a lot for me in found footage...but who in the heck edited these shorts? They are supposed to be evil tapes or whatever...did Satan take the time to switch camera shots etc?

So...a mixed bag. There is definitely less of a focus on Horror this time, so I can see where people don't like it. At least a few of the shorts kept my attention this time...but the wraparound story keeps ruining it, and the last short is forgettable.