Garth wrote:I rewatched The Ring (US version) last night because a 4K disc was just released. I've seen it plenty of times before, but I wanted to see what it looked like in 4K (it looks gorgeous and sounds appropriately creepy); I generally avoid American remakes, but this is just so damn good.
There are moments in movies where I find myself just completely transfixed and in the movie's zone. The scene where Naomi Watts first finds/watches the tape--man, so unsettling and uncomfortable. I was in that zone...not all movies that are 22 years old can do that.
What happened to Gore Verbinski? Is he in director's jail? He hasn't directed in ages.
I was just wondering the same thing. He is working on a film right now, but yeah, he hasn't done much recently outside of A Cure for Wellness.
Watched The Devil Rides Out. The rare Hammer movie with Christopher Lee in a heroic role, he finds his friend's fallen in with a group of satanists led by Blofeld, and a drag-out fight over the friends soul ensues.
It's got the usual chintzy effects, but the script written by Richard Matheson moves like a freight train, so it's hard to care. Just a blast.
Looking forward to The Substance. Although some body horror can be too much for me. Might be a fun one to watch from between my fingers with my mate Karen. Although I don’t think she’s seen anything that extreme.
Speaking of which: Horror movie night was The Omen II. Wasn’t sure if I was going to be into this one at the start. There was one early death that I remember as jaw dropping that seemed contrived, over telegraphed and suffering from ‘obvious mannequin’ syndrome, which made it a bit silly. I was into the film by the end though and Karen and I were rooting for them to finally perforate Damien.
We also had fun noting or anticipating when the ominous ladies singing Latin would come in.
I think this movie scarred me as a child when my sister and I stumbled upon it one Saturday night when we stayed up too late flipping through the channels.
Did the scene in question involve a truck and a sheet of glass? I may be getting my Omens mixed up it's been so long...
Watched House the other day. The American one not the terrible Japanese movie. It's a surprisingly entertaining goofy '80s horror movie. The creature effects were somehow simultaneously really well done and hilariously dumb.
I'm pretty sure I've seen House 2: The Second Story before don't remember it at all. Might try to watch it sometime this weekend since it's on Tubi.
Higgledy wrote:…There was one early death that I remember as jaw dropping that seemed contrived, over telegraphed and suffering from ‘obvious mannequin’ syndrome, which made it a bit silly. I was into the film by the end though and Karen and I were rooting for them to finally perforate Damien.
We also had fun noting or anticipating when the ominous ladies singing Latin would come in.
I think this movie scarred me as a child when my sister and I stumbled upon it one Saturday night when we stayed up too late flipping through the channels.
Spoiler:Did the scene in question involve a truck and a sheet of glass? I may be getting my Omens mixed up it's been so long...
It wasn’t that one. That’s the first film The Omen ( Not to be mixed up with The First Omen a prequel that just came out recently!) that death still works well. The one I was talking about is:
A woman in a striking red coat. Her car breaks down, she gets out and is attacked by crows. It gets worse from there! I’m pretty sure what deflated it for me this time was knowing the course of events. When you first see it you get the building horror as you realise what’s about to happen.
There’s a similar death to the one you saw in this film and it’s still superb from a special effects point of view. It also has a nice fake out i.e. what you thought was going to kill them doesn’t and you have that moment of relief before the true threat comes into play.
It’s a man in a lift/elevator. It drops uncontrollably but the brakes kick in at the last moment. He’s thrown to the floor as a cable breaks. Another section of cable anchor on either side of the elevator shaft by weights breaks loose and thunders down towards him bisecting the elevator and the guy inside.
Watched House the other day. The American one not the terrible Japanese movie. It's a surprisingly entertaining goofy '80s horror movie. The creature effects were somehow simultaneously really well done and hilariously dumb.
Oh man, I LOVED this movie as a kid.
Watched Slugs.
A Spanish production set in the US, it's about slugs. Mutated, flesh-eating, killer slugs. Because toxic waste can do anything. What mystical mutant powers do the slugs now have to be such a threat? Eating flesh. It's not like they move faster, they just have the director on their side. And it's actually really well directed, if you can put aside the persistent tonal oddness, pacy, with some excellent effects work. You'd think a movie about killer slugs couldn't find a way to have a guy's face implode in a body horror sequence at a power lunch, but you'd be wrong.
Slugs! What a magical movie.
Was Teacup mentioned? Drama on Peacock. Now, that has some body horror. Yikes. Interesting so far.
Thanks Higgledy. Yeah the elevator kill from The Omen is one of the most memorable. Again, not the best thing to see when I was a kid but whatcha gonna do, lol.
I've read some buzz about Smile 2. I could have swore I saw the first Smile available on Netflix but came up empty when I went looking for it. It's a different kind of vibe when your horror involves people becoming possessed and offing themselves in various gruesome ways. The last one of these I saw was years ago with the Japanese film, Suicide Club. That was not a fun time, that one.
I checked out Talk To Me a couple weeks ago. Not bad.
I also accidentally rewatched The Girl With All the Gifts and partway through began asking myself why these scenes felt so familiar. Then I remembered I had basically tried watching it a year prior but had fallen asleep for most of the runtime. I guess you could describe it as British The Last of Us with more military, featuring Glenn Close.
I really enjoyed The Girl With All the Gifts, one of my favorites that I’ve watched in recent years.
I could have swore I saw the first Smile available on Netflix but came up empty when I went looking for it.
For some reason, it's on Disney Plus in the US.
I really enjoyed The Girl With All the Gifts, one of my favorites that I’ve watched in recent years.
Yeah that is a great movie.
I guess there were multiple books. Although with that ending not sure if they basically just knew it was going to be one and done.
Watched The Green Inferno. It's an Eli Roth film where a group of student activists get captured by cannibals. It's basically a more modern Cannibal Holocaust.
I was not expecting to like it but for some reason I did. The students are so silly with their righteousness I didn't feel too bad for what happened to them. But I think I view this more in the vein of a dark comedy than pure horror. Not sure if its supposed to be taken that way.
In any case some pretty bloody scenes and some unexpected deaths kept me interested. Even my wife sat down and watched the movie once the students got captured.
So I'm putting this in the "good" category. But probably not for everyone.
Watched Kwaidan, an anthology of four classic Japanese ghost stories.
The first thing anyone mentions in a write up of this one is how good looking it is, and it really is. Gorgeous colors, really impressive and surreal set designs - just a marvel to look at. It could've been trimmed down a bit though, because three hours is too long.
Watched Lake Placid. It's never as good at is should be with that cast, but it was ok. I can't hate a movie where Betty White curses like a sailor.
To me Lake Placid is like Deep Blue Sea, its not a great movie but its a great time.
Watched Cat Soup a 30 minute short you can watch on youtube. Not horror more weird. A cat dies. Her little brother tries to get her soul back but only gets half of it. The two walk around until the figure something out. The visuals are odd. I gather different people will take different meanings from what is shown. The creator killed herself. After watching the short I watched some stuff about the creator's life. She seems to put a lot of herself into her work.
Watched Delirium. Former nude model turned magazine owner starts getting her models offed, then posed with her old photos. It's got some nice cinematography and some surreal visuals when it's the killer's POV looking at his victims, but it's pretty inert. Demons aside, Lamberto Bava doesn't really have his father's chops.
Watched Oddity and liked it. Someone is murdered and we have to figure out who did it. Ghosts, magic, and murderers of my.
Not very bloody but it is creepy.
I liked that one a lot!
Oddity is one of my favorites of the year. It could be in part because it just kind of snuck up on me and was a really competent, well-paced ghost story. It also kind of felt like a longer Tales from the Crypt episode, which I am always going to appreciate.
Watched Smile the other night and am wondering if the marketing people who keep sticking smiling people at sporting events actually watched the movie and realize what the curse actually involves.
Watched Smile the other night and am wondering if the marketing people who keep sticking smiling people at sporting events actually watched the movie and realize what the curse actually involves.
I’m going to watch it again because while it may or may not be great it really fit my brain nicely. Especially one scene in particular.
Dangling head by the driver’s side door.
Watched Sweet Home. A TV crew goes into a long abandoned mansion to do a special feature on the frescoes its final owner painted in it. Alas, they disturb the restless dead, and now not all of the are going to make it out alive.
It's mostly notable for being an early Kiyoshi Kurosawa movie, and being a multimedia crossover with a NES game developed in tandem by Capcom that was one of the very first survival horror games. A game that Capcom attempted to remake for the Playstation, before it eventually morphed into Resident Evil.
On its own though, it's kinda fun, and for some reason Dick Smith (of The Exorcist fame) got brought in for doing special makeup effects, and they're goopy and glorious.
Rat Boy wrote:Watched Smile the other night and am wondering if the marketing people who keep sticking smiling people at sporting events actually watched the movie and realize what the curse actually involves.
I’m going to watch it again because while it may or may not be great it really fit my brain nicely. Especially one scene in particular.
Spoiler:Dangling head by the driver’s side door.
I watched this the other night as well, and the spoiler that you just described got me. Like got me really good.
I managed to catch The Witch which is a part of the monthly A24 IMAX re-release. Such a fantastic looking movie that I hadn't seen in a while. I also remembered it being a lot longer. I think when I originally saw this it felt like it was moving at a snail's pace. Rewatching it, it is kind of a perfectly paced movie at 90 minutes long. It has a serious mean streak that reminds you that the main characters had no chance from the very jump.
Finished watching the first season of The Terror and mostly enjoyed it. Felt a little mixed about the "supernatural" elements, but the characters were really well done, and I loved how it gave scenes enough time to really breathe. How it ended wasn't much of a shock, but it was still effective. Haven't heard much about what people thought of season 2, though I did hear a third one is on the way. A good spooky season show to watch.
I'll repeat what I said before. I didn't particularly enjoy the 2nd season of The Terror. But other people here did, so give it a go.
Same. Gave the 2nd season 3 episodes and called it quits.
Watched Children of the Corn on the Last Drive-in. It's still an ok movie, but what I was more interested in was Joe Bob's commentary. He mentioned that Linda Hamilton felt this was her worst movie. I figured that can't be right. And immediately thought of a movie she was in that I hadn't thought of in decades.
And sure enough, she was in King Kong Lives!
I actually saw that in theaters since I loved the 1976 King Kong movie which this is a direct sequel of. I found it was streaming on the Roku Channel. Figured it's been almost 4 decades, I'll give it a shot. And yes, it's pretty horrible.
You got Kong getting an artificial heart transplant in this one. But he needs blood for the transplant to succeed. So a guy comes across a female Kong and they're able to do the operation using her blood. But even though both are separated after the operation Kong is a horny bastard and smells her. So, he breaks out, frees her, and they run off to the wilderness together. There are some truly corny scenes around them fliting with each other.
In any case after watching 20-30 minutes a pop each night the movie dropped off the Roku Channel. So I was never able to finish the movie (thank god). But wow that movie has some of the corniest dialogue you could listen to. And the costumes for the Kongs were terrible. In the '76 movie Kong looked great. Here it's total cheap rubber mask. The female Kong looks even worse.
Linda Hamilton must have repressed this movie because no way Children of the Corn is worse.
Watched Die Alone which is a slow burn story driven zombie movie. Kind of like Memento with zombies. One of the main characters keeps forgetting his life. You can imagine that makes things hard during a zombie outbreak. Also he can't find his girlfriend, probably left her under the bed and forgot about her.
Anyway I really liked this movie. The zombies were of different take than usual. The non linear story telling was good. Carrie Anne Moss as the super survivor was good. She also added to the Memento feel to the movie. I wasn't impressed by the main dude but he didn't ruin the movie.
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