What was the last movie you watched? Part 2

[Milk Tray Guy]

The Ghost Walks (1934)

Low budget, US 'old dark house' horror/murder-mystery/comedy. One night, during a rainstorm, a car carrying a theatrical producer, his assistant, and a budding playwright crashes into a fallen tree. The three men take refuge in a nearby mansion, whose occupier tells them that all the roads are out due to the weather, and invites them to stay the night. They prepare to sit down for dinner with the occupier and his friends, one of whom begins to ramble about the murder of her husband in that very house two years earlier. She believes his ghost walks on the anniversary of his death. Things then take a turn that must have been very unexpected at the time, and is still a surprise. What follows is uncertainty over what is and isn't real, a labyrinth of secret passages, and an escaped mental patient. The cast (no big names) are solid, although the acting is of that 'stagy' style of the period, and the script is clever (with elements that went on to appear in several of those Amicus anthology horrors of the late 60s/early 70s). Unfortunately the direction is rather staid, dialogue is sometimes muffled (possibly due to the quality of the print), and - despite the film's short (69 min) runtime - it drags at times. But it does have that moody atmosphere, unique to those old, b&w, 'stormy night' films. 6/10

 

[Frodo]

Agatha (1979)

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

none
To Catch a Killer (2023)	Crime, Thriller
No One Will Save You (2023)	Sci-Fi, Thriller
Stage Fright (1950)	Thriller
The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1964)	Mystery, Thriller
Hotel Dunsmuir (2022)	Horror, Thriller
Hypnotic (2023)	Mystery, Thriller
Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep (2006)	Action, Horror
The Lair (2022)	Horror, Action

 

[Batgirl0202]

Bring It On: Cheer or Die (2022)

Full disclosure: This is the only Bring It On movie I've ever seen.

I'll say this much though: it's actually better than I was expecting.

And before anyone starts questioning my sanity, I'm not even going to attempt to argue that this straight-to-video production is a 'good' movie. It's completely predictable, not even remotely scary, and the small amount of gore in the film is nothing to write home about. However, for a script that clearly started life as something else and was later retrofitted for franchise inclusion, the film is surprisingly enjoyable.

The movie scores major points for actually taking place over Halloweekend, and for a general sense of nastiness that caught me off guard. Unfortunately, it also loses points for being yet another example of a winking, smirking, post-modern meta horror-comedy that sadly has been prevalent in the slasher genre since at least Scream, going on almost three decades now...

I dunno, maybe it's because this was my first horror movie watch this year for Spooky Season but I kinda sorta enjoyed this...

6/10

 

[Captain Tired]

25th Hour (2002)

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

Caught this on TCM last night. Still fun.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

 

[Hunter Rider]

It's got a good concept but it's so ridiculously overblown and far fetched in it's execution, with a hammy performance from Ron Silver, that the potential is wasted.

5/10

 

[ObiWanCon]

Expend4bles (2023)

 

[C. Lee]

BATMAN BEGINS (2005) Starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson

The best BATMAN movie ever made.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Polaroid (2019)

Supernatural horror based on director Lars Klevberg's 2015 short of the same name. A girl named Bird (Kathryn Prescott) comes into possession of an old Polaroid camera. When she uses it to take pictures of her friends, a mysterious, blurry figure develops on the photographs behind them. Soon afterwards, they die. As Bird and her rapidly dwindling group try to unravel the mystery and solve the cause of the deaths, she discovers that whatever 'it' is is coming for her too.

Elements of this reminded me of The Ring, Final Destination, Shutter, and Lights Out. But despite it being derivative, the story isn't bad, and it takes a couple of unexpected turns (I guessed twist A - I didn't see twist B coming). There is an over-reliance on jump-scares, but there are some creepy scenes, too. The cast of 'pretty young things' do well, with solid support from old hands Mitch Pileggi (The X-Files, Return of the Living Dead Part II, Supernatural), Grace Zabriskie (Twin Peaks, Child's Play 2, The Grudge), and Javier Botet - who seems to have just about cornered the market in spindly, jerk-motion, demonic entities. The only thing that puzzled me was the pre-credits sequence, which whilst fine in itself, doesn't really connect with the rest of the movie beyond its premise. Anyway, I'd heard bad things about this, but it was better than I expected. 6.5/10

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

BATMAN BEGINS (2005) Starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson

The best BATMAN movie ever made.

hell yeah

Polaroid (2019)

Supernatural horror based on director Lars Klevberg's 2015 short of the same name. A girl named Bird (Kathryn Prescott) comes into possession of an old Polaroid camera. When she uses it to take pictures of her friends, a mysterious, blurry figure develops on the photographs behind them. Soon afterwards, they die. As Bird and her rapidly dwindling group try to unravel the mystery and solve the cause of the deaths, she discovers that whatever 'it' is is coming for her, too.

Elements of this reminded me of The Ring, Final Destination, Shutter, and Lights Out. But despite it being derivative, the story isn't bad, and it takes a couple of unexpected turns (I guessed twist A - I didn't see twist B coming). There is an over-reliance on jump-scares, but there are some creepy scenes, too. The cast of 'pretty young things' do well, with solid support from old hands Mitch Pileggi (The X-Files, Return of the Living Dead Part II, Supernatural), Grace Zabriskie (Twin Peaks, Child's Play 2, The Grudge), and Javier Botet - who seems to have just about cornered the market in spindly, jerk-motion, demonic entities. The only thing that puzzled me was the pre-credits sequence, which whilst fine in itself, doesn't really connect with the rest of the movie beyond sharing it's premise. Anyway, I'd heard bad things about this but it was better than I expected. 6.5/10

I liked it enough to pencil it in for a rewatch some day.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

I liked it enough to pencil it in for a rewatch some day.

Just read what you said about it on your linked post - absolutely

 

[Ash J. Williams]

Ju-on: The Grudge 2

The Iron Super Man

 

[C. Lee]

HIDDEN STRIKE (2023) Starring Jackie Chan and John Cena

If you want to kill a couple of hours with some crazy action fights and stunts, this is worth a look. No one's winning any drama awards for this.

 

[Spider-Fan83]

 

[MilkmanDan]

Being the Ricardos

 

[emielaen]

 

[The Shape]

 

[DyeLorean]

No One Will Save You (2023)

Simple yet totally effective, creepy and very well done from the visuals to the sound design. This movie is right up my alley on a Saturday night with the lights off.
One of my favorites of the year.

★★★★

 

[Captain Tired]

Cromwell (1971)

Restoration (1995)

 

[Batgirl0202]

Halloween Kills (2021)

This was my third viewing of Kills. I like the movie more and more each time I see it.

And I think that pretty much sums up my relationship with the Halloween franchise. After my initial viewing, each new entry metabolizes as a hang-out movie that I can enjoy year after year during Spooky Season, quality be damned.

I guess that explains why I can enjoy something like The Return of Michael Myers just as much as John Carpenter's immortal original during this time of year, despite the fact that the two films aren't anywhere near each other in terms of quality and cultural significance.

After I watch Ends I'll be able to formulate a proper opinion about Green's trilogy once I can see the big picture

8/10

 

[Frodo]

Starship Troopers (1997)

 

[ObiWanCon]

Confess, Fletch (2022)

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Quatermass and the Pit