The Horror Thread - Part 4

[bullets]

I most recently watched the Childs Play series. Chuck is easily one of my favorite characters. Even if the film isnt as good he's entertaining as always. The original is a classic and the sequel was about as good. The third is a lot weaker but I liked the garbage man kill and Chucky meeting his demise in a haunted amusement park ride was an interesting way to end it. The set design on that was really cool. Bride of Chucky was a great way to breath new life into the series. It's a guilty pleasure of mine. Seed of Chucky was awful , there were a couple funny moments , but this killed it for awhile. Curse is a nice return to the Chucky of old but it takes awhile to get going. There's a great bit of fan service throughout the film and I like how it ties into the other films. They might do another sequel but I'm not sure where they could go from here. I'm ok with them ending it based off the mid credit scene in Curse of Chucky.

 

[BH/HHH]

I most recently watched the Childs Play series. Chuck is easily one of my favorite characters. Even if the film isnt as good he's entertaining as always. The original is a classic and the sequel was about as good. The third is a lot weaker but I liked the garbage man kill and Chucky meeting his demise in a haunted amusement park ride was an interesting way to end it. The set design on that was really cool. Bride of Chucky was a great way to breath new life into the series. It's a guilty pleasure of mine. Seed of Chucky was awful , there were a couple funny moments , but this killed it for awhile. Curse is a nice return to the Chucky of old but it takes awhile to get going. There's a great bit of fan service throughout the film and I like how it ties into the other films. They might do another sequel but I'm not sure where they could go from here. I'm ok with them ending it based off the mid credit scene in Curse of Chucky.

The first film is great, I though 2 & 3 were awful though as was Seed. Bride was a lot of fun and exactly the sort of film Chucky needed at the time and Curse brought back what made the first film so good combined with what made a Bride so good.

 

[Goshdarn Batman]

I'm impressed by the boy's acting in the first movie.

 

[Thundarr]

I kinda sluffed off on my 31 days of horror. With my job being at night, I tend to spend a lot of my free time sleeping. But October 30th & 31st I managed to make up for some lost time.

October 30th I watched Knight Chills (which is pretty bad, but a guilty pleasure of mine as I'm a D&D geek).

I also watched Night Train To Terror, which is a cheesy late 70's/early 80's horror trilogy, kind of like Creepshow. It basically took three unfinished horror films, then filmed scenes to set them up. The set up takes place on a train (hence the title). There's a group of breakdancing musicians in one car, while in another car God and Satan are debating whose philosophy is best, as well as discussing who gets the souls of certain people, whose lives we get to see played out in the three horror films. There's the story of a man who is drugged and hypnotized into kidnapping women to kill and sell their body parts on the black market. The second story is about a young man who falls in love with a porn star whose boss won't let her quit. He invites them to join a Death Club, where the members come up with creative ways to play with death (like Russian Roulette, but different). The third is about a surgeon who is a devout Catholic who is married to a man who claims to have proven that there is no God. A demon from Hell tries to recruit the husband to spread the Word of Satan, while God recruits the surgeon to kill the demon. In the end, the train crashes and all the breakdancing musicians die.

Then to lighten things up I decided to watch Hotel Transylvania. Not a horror movie, but certainly Halloween themed. It was pretty fun.

Halloween night I watched the extended cut of John Carpenter's Halloween, it's 1981 sequel Halloween 2, then Halloween H20. I also watched the documentary His Name Was Jason.

 

[Kane52630]

My review for The Babadook

Spoiler

A really solid horror flick...it pretty much felt like old school Tim Burton production wise mixed with a James Wan direction of storytelling. The acting was really good all around especially the kid, because I don't think I've ever wanted to punt a kid so hard before, so good job. The Babadook himself was creepy enough, they really did a good job on creating really interesting shots. Even though you might spot a few familiar story/horror elements, they made sure to keep it fresh and new.

9/10

 

[StarLord]

Just saw this on Bloody Disgusting and I'm so excited. I adore Carpenter's scores.

Details For John Carpenter’s ‘Lost Themes’ Released

On Halloween, horror legend John Carpenter released a stream of “Vortex”, the first track from his upcoming album Lost Themes, which comes out February 3rd on Sacred Bones Records.

Tracklist:

1. Vortex
2. Obsidian
3. Fallen
4. Domain
5. Mystery
6. Abyss
7. Wraith
8. Purgatory
9. Night

Listen to the track ''Vortex'' on SoundCloud. So awesome!

https://soundcloud.com/sacredbones/john-carpenter-vortex

 

[StarLord]

A Nightmare on Elm Street celebrates it's 30th Anniversary this month. (Sunday the 16th to be precise)

[YT]dCVh4lBfW-c[/YT]

It still remains my favourite of the series.

I certainly do enjoy a few of the sequels, they are entertaining, but I always preferred the darker and more sinister Fred Krueger.

 

[Naked Shia]

was the badabook released not long ago? It does sound interesting.

I've seen the collector. I'm not a fan of saw (I've only seen the first one, which I liked, and the second one which I hated) and torture porn as a genre.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. It was more interested in building tension and suspense than showing torture. It's still filled with nasty traps and a lot of gore, but it makes you care about Arkin. The dude is a loser, but a sympathetic one, and he's quite smart. He's the mcgyver of horror movies. The part where he understands there is a psycho and plays hide and seek with him is really amazing. It's well shot and edited, and you get a real feeling of suspense. The pacing was really good. The end fight was quite intense too.

Animal lovers must hate this movie. The ending was chilling as hell. I was disturbed to see Madeline Zima's breats, since to me she's still the little girl from the nanny names Fran.

I'm planning to watch the collection now, especially since Lee Tergersen is in it. But I read it was more of a gore fest.

 

[Thundarr]

A Nightmare on Elm Street celebrates it's 30th Anniversary this month. (Sunday the 16th to be precise)

[YT]dCVh4lBfW-c[/YT]

It still remains my favourite of the series.

I certainly do enjoy a few of the sequels, they are entertaining, but I always preferred the darker and more sinister Fred Krueger.

I feel the same way. I only have Numbers 1 through 4 in my collection, as well as Freddy vs Jason.

The original is the best of the bunch. Always has been, always will be. Freddy's Revenge? I can see why a lot of people hate it, but I like that Freddy was still creepy and sinister in this one. Dream Warriors is a lot of fun. Still pretty creepy and scary, but I like that the kids decide to fight back. Unfortunately, this is also where the bad puns start to appear. Dream Master is my least favorite of the first four. Where the bad puns were introduced in Dream Warriors, they're used to excess in this one. Then Freddy vs Jason was pretty bad. It's only saving grace was the final fight between Jason and Freddy at the end. Like Star Wars Episode 1, it's almost worth sitting through the whole crappy movie just to see that showdown at the end.

 

[Heretic]

Just watched Starry Eyes (2014)

2014 has managed to turn into a decent year for Horror, with Only Lovers Left Alive, The Babadook, Honeymoon, Under the Skin, Coherence, Housebound, Stage Fright, and now Starry Eyes all bringing something interesting to the genre.

I discuss the main theme of the movie, but don't reveal any plot details.

Spoiler

Sarah is a waitress who wants nothing more than to become a famous actress. Then again...I get the feeling that the lead actress might be in a similar situation. That's kind of the point of the movie...how far would a wanna-be go to make it. This movie has quite a bit to say about that, as well as the movie industry and the people in it.

The lead actress delivers and probably has just launched a nice career for herself. Everything about the film is done well. Eh...maybe it loses a step when it gets into the climax...but I'm a sucker for Horror movies with a point, so I can get over that.

There is one scene that reminded me A LOT of one of last years better Horror movies, but I won't say which because it would spoil both films. I'm positive that this was purely coincidental (this film was likely well into production before anyone involved could have seen that film)...and it just occurred to me that they both are kind of "Los Angeles life" type movies.

All in all...expect to see this on many Horror critics "Top 10 of 2014" lists. Barring a sudden barrage of great releases, it will certainly be on mine.

 

[Victarion]

How was Mama?

 

[StarLord]

Heretic, I watched Starry Eyes also.

I liked the character 'Sarah' (played by Alex Essoe) and a few of the effects scenes were great and looked good, but the story was quite bad in my opinion. It came off as a really badly written Bret Easton Ellis novel. The other characters were cookie cutter too.

I was looking forward to it after reading so much about it, but perhaps it just wasn't for me.

 

[Heretic]

Heretic, I watched Starry Eyes also.

I liked the character 'Sarah' (played by Alex Essoe) and a few of the effects scenes were great and looked good, but the story was quite bad in my opinion. It came off as a really badly written Bret Easton Ellis novel. The other characters were cookie cutter too.

I was looking forward to it after reading so much about it, but perhaps it just wasn't for me.

I get what you're saying. Like I said...I'm willing to overlook stuff when Horror makes a broader point. That one movie that I said it reminded me of in one scene had some TERRIBLE acting and script issues galore, but I still really liked it. It's a weakness. Obviously it was pretty heavy handed with the story, but I just didnt care (maybe because I appreciate this particular message). Like I said, it's a top 10 for me (probably) but I think a lot of horror critics will have it in their top 3 or 5 for the year.

Although...there are some movies, like Bigfoot Wars for instance, that were SO HILARIOUSLY AWFUL that technically I enjoyed them more than this...but I just can't bring myself to reward a movie by placing it in my top 10 just because of it being so poorly done that it made me laugh.

 

[Heretic]

How was Mama?

Mama is garbage. The year it came out (what was that...last year?) I saw about 100 movies...and Mama was in my bottom 10 of the year, if I recall.

 

[Victarion]

Can you be more specific about what kind of garbage? Like, Paranormal Activity level garbage?

 

[Matt Mortem]

Mama shot itself in the foot once it fully revealed the ghost. Once we see it, we become numb to a fairly boring design and the movie runs out of gas. The story was pretty lame too. Points for trying I guess.

 

[Kane52630]

It's decent but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

 

[Victarion]

Shame. Thanks for saving me a bad buy.

 

[Heretic]

As Matt said, the ghost is awful. It looks like a cartoon and we see it way too much before the goofy anti-climax comes.

Another thing is...it starts with the adopted father or whoever, then he disappears from the movie and the adopted mother type becomes the star, then the dad figure shows back up to explain/perform a key plot point and the race is on to the end...and then he ceases to be a factor and kind of hangs out for the rest of the film. It feels like maybe they did the movie and then decided to go another route so they filmed like half of a different film.

Plus...its just yet another boring ghost movie.

 

[TheDreamMaster]

As Matt said, the ghost is awful. It looks like a cartoon and we see it way too much before the goofy anti-climax comes.

Another thing is...it starts with the adopted father or whoever, then he disappears from the movie and the adopted mother type becomes the star, then the dad figure shows back up to explain/perform a key plot point and the race is on to the end...and then he ceases to be a factor and kind of hangs out for the rest of the film. It feels like maybe they did the movie and then decided to go another route so they filmed like half of a different film.

Plus...its just yet another boring ghost movie.

Also the ending tries to be deep and sad, and really I'm just like "You guys aren't gonna try and stop this?"

 

[chamber-music]

New The Woman in Black 2 Angel of Death Official Trailer
[YT]/6lywwh2uBrM?list=UUi8e0iOVk1fEOogdfu4YgfA[/YT]

 

[Heretic]

Watched Jessabelle (2014)

It's a Blumhouse movie...so if you've ever seen a Blumhouse movie then you've pretty much already seen this one.

No real spoilers inside...

Spoiler

Rising Star Sarah Snook stars as Jessabelle...but she was in the much more interesting sci-fi movie Predestination this year as well so you could just watch that instead. Anyway, she gets in a car accident (and her injuries prevent her from walking for awhile) and has to move in with her dad until she heals. Her dad didn't raise her and he's a REAL jerk, so I guess she didnt have any friends who could put her up for awhile. Anyway...obviously there's a ghost that shows up and ghosty stuff happens.

Also, the actor from this year's 13 Sins (a not great, but for some reason entertaining movie) is also in this.

Not only is this movie by-the-numbers, it's also boring. I mean..sure...I guess there's a few decent scenes involving the ghost...but it's all just so cliche and the climax was just silly.

Also, this is a classic example of telling us stuff. Pretty much every plot detail, every new discovery etc is told to us...like, they place an actor on the screen to read info to us.

While not OFFENSIVELY bad, it's cliche and forgettable. There are better haunted house/possession movies this year, such as The Babadook, Housebound and Oculus.

 

[chamber-music]

As Above, So Below was the Blair Witch Project in Paris. The film was ok.

 

[Heretic]

Watched The Purge: Anarchy (2014)

This franchise has one thing going for it...concept. It's just an awesome concept. I mean...the budget is good enough to make it look good...the acting is decent enough (and hey, Crossbones is in this!)...but it isn't like this is high art. The script kind of sucks. The complaint with the last one (which I didnt have) was that it focused on one house instead of what was going on outside. This one takes it to the streets, and raises the scope (which I assume will continue in sequels). I mean...it's okay...kind of stupid...but whatever.

 

[Heretic]

Just watched When Animals Dream (2014) a veeeery sloooooow Danish Horror drama about a young woman who is helping to take care of her mom, who is disabled, when the girl begins to go through some physical changes of her own.

No real spoilers inside...

Spoiler

There are no vampires in this, and maybe it's just because they are both foreign films, but it seems like the director saw Let the Right One In and decided to take some of the story beats and flip the script a bit.

I've read some reviews that it's an allegory on relationships and girls becoming women...and I guess I get that...but it's so slow moving that I had a hard time really caring. I don't mean to sound like I'm bashing it. It's a well made movie...I was just expecting it to be one of my favorites of the year and it didn't quite reach my expectations.

In short, I'm underwhelmed due to the fact that not much happens very slowly...but I can't say that it's a bad movie at all.