October Halloween horror-athon continues...
Uninvited (1988)
A mutated pussycat makes its way on to a yacht headed for the Caribbean with bimbos, preppies and evil rich guys, one played by George Kennedy, who may or may not have been blackmailed into appearing in this movie.
I really don't know what to say about this movie. Was it made as a joke? Or were they serious but couldn't make a proper movie to save themselves? It's premise is wacky, but it's how the movie was actually made that brings it down in terms of quality.
The cat gets angry and another, meaner, littler cat crawls out of his mouth and then attacks people who tick the cat off. I mean, I just had to see that! But the cat puppet is terrible, not to mention, the real cat was played by I don't know how many different cats, it's easy to tell. The script ran out of ideas near the end of the movie, watch it, you'll see what I mean. Also, the budget must have been spent by this point because the "yacht" is then played by a bath toy!
This is a real howler of a movie, great for laughing at. It's difficult to tell what the filmmaker's intentions were, but it has wound up being a so-bad-it's-good sort of deal.
From a Whisper To a Scream (1987)
Anthology tale starring Vincent Price, who tells the tales of his cursed town. Starts off promising, soon turns underwhelming. Probably the best story was the first one. At least it has the good taste to have Vincent Price in it.
Fright Night Part 2 (1988)
Charley Brewster and Peter Vincent are back in a sequel that is quite good, but not as great as the original. That first movie would be tough to beat, it's just so perfect.
This movie doesn't drift too far from the pattern set out by the first, but it does have a few surprises, such as the vampire becoming a bat, which looks cool. It lacks the momentum and mystery of the first movie but it's a good continuation.
It's been a lifetime since I first saw this. This movie is notoriously difficult to find, we can blame the Menendez brothers for that (yes, really). I wound up rewatching it on YouTube.
Child's Play (2019)
"Are we having fun now?"
A remake I was mostly indifferent towards...and then I watched it, and really loved it.
The term reimagining really applies here. They took the basic idea of the original and more than made it their own in many different and surprising ways. This time Chucky is a victim himself, of intentional faulty programming. You start to feel for the little guy. The old Chucky was just some evil little bastard stuck in a doll's body!
It's funny and gory and has a lot of sentiment too, which I was not prepared for. This movie has layers! Could it be (dare I say it?) better than the original?
Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
Annabelle the doll just looks evil, why are people still falling for her crap?
This movie has some creepy moments, none of them add up to making this movie better than the first two Annabelle movies, but it's still alright. Mckenna Grace (currently starring in everything, it seems) plays the Warren's daughter, Judy. She and some friends have a wild and crazy night with the spooky artifacts the Warren's have collected. Naturally, Annabelle is the ringleader.
I was a bit disappointed that Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga were not in it more, but that's my own fault for assuming they would be. I should have realized Vera would be off fighting Godzilla and Patrick would be working on world domination by attempting to appear in every movie ever.
Nightmare Cinema (2018)
Another horror anthology, all the stories held my interest, but the first one was the best, loved the slasher in the welding mask!
Mickey Rourke seems wasted in his minor role as The Projectionist.
The demon dude on the poster is only seen briefly, also seems like a wasted opportunity.
Phenomena (1985)
I originally saw this as "Creepers" years ago. I was not ready then for Dario Argento's crazy vision, and just thought it was okay, although a bit far out there. I did wonder why it seemed to disappear, but then I realized it was now known as "Phenomena" instead. Now, my film tastes have been expanded over the years and I was more than ready for this experience again.
This movie strives hard to appeal to me: The Swiss setting, a serial killer on the loose, a girl who can control insects, Donald Pleasence and his pet chimp, it's a real jambalaya of unusual things coming together to make one movie! There's the ever-present Argento death-through-broken-glass scene, one of his best. The true highlight for myself was a young Jennifer Connelly (already so gorgeous at a young age) falling into a pool of murdered and rotting corpses, what an iconic horror sequence!
Did I mention the maggots? Yeah, there's a lot of maggots in this movie, not for the squeamish!
Wildling (2018)
Seemed like
Room with a twinge of horror. Starts strong but grows weaker as it progresses. Still, it held my attention because I was already invested in the story.
Bonus points for casting Brad Dourif, who never fails to deliver.
Suspiria (1977)
I originally saw this so long ago, and my tastes have changed so much since that I just knew I was more than ready for a rewatch.
This is the Argento we love, not that guy that gave us
Dracula 3D! This movie is perfectly designed to throw you off centre and disturb you on all levels.
The score sounds like a combination of someone banging on a baking pan with a choir of
Gremlins singing "lah lah lah" over it. It seems both silly and sinister at the same time.
The story at times seems like more of a back-drop to the Argento movie making tricks that never stop (that I love!) but it's easy enough to follow. Witches at a ballet school are up to no good, and it's fantastic.
At times I was reminded of
The Shining, all the camera angles focused on the school itself, and the vibrant colors within. All that black and red together, and long shots of the lobby etc....did ole Kubrick see this movie? Hmmm...
Oh, and this movie also has maggots...maggots falling from the ceiling. Argento loves his maggots! You have been warned!
Suspiria (2018)
They dared to make a new version of Suspiria...and it's awesome!
This version focuses more on the story of witches running a dance school than the original. They focus so much on the story that the movie is two hours and thirty two minutes long. I doesn't get draggy until near the end, which I felt went on and on, but until then, it's amazing and revolting and sinister and insane!
Tilda, my queen, is in full glory here, I mean, who else could they have cast?
The Horrible House on the Hill (1974)
This was kind of a mess, but it had some good ideas. Leif Garrett is the most famous cast member, if you were alive in the 70's. Otherwise, it's fun seeing Boss Hogg and Karen Walker's maid, Rosario, from Will & Grace as a married couple being tortured by five evil brats. Probably more famously known by the original title,
Devil Times Five.
Zombieland (2009)
"My mama always told me someday I'd be good at somethin'. Who'da guessed that somethin' would be zombie killin'?"
Has it really been an entire decade since this came out? This movie still seems as fresh as a Twinkie at the start of the zombie apocalypse, never takes itself too seriously and always has another snarky one-liner to drop.
The zombies are the fast and furious variety, and they are thoroughly disgusting and serve the movie well. The cast are perfect, and this remains Bill Murray's finest work within the zombie genre.
That clown zombie is sure to cause bad dreams for people with phobias everywhere!
This movie made me realize I have to stockpile junk food for the zombie apocalypse, Hostess Fruit Pies over Twinkies any day though.
Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)
"It was so sad when the Zombie Akropolis struck..."
Nearly as much fun as the first movie, and what more can you ask than that? I laughed and enjoyed the updated zombie mutations, I like to think I'd be more of a T-800, but the truth is probably I'm more of a Homer...
Zoey Deutch as Madison is adorable, just like her mom, Lea Thompson.
Bill Murray's second zombie movie appearance of 2019, and this is definitely head and shoulders (and intestines) above The Dead Never Die!
The Wolfman (2010)
Dripping in dread and gothic atmosphere, this is a solid updating of the classic story.
It's very well done, but also seems like so many other similar movies. It has a few viceral shocks but seems a bit slow at times. Del Toro never seems that tortured as Talbot, I expected more, but he's still not bad. The rest of the cast are all very good, especially Blunt, although she doesn't have much to do until near the end. Danny Elfman's score is just perfect. Love those wolf howls!
The St. Francisville Experiment (2000)
One of the first
Blair Witch Project found-footage copycat movies I remember coming out right after that movie exploded. I've waited all these years to see this, and it was just adequate, quite dull actually. Maybe since this premiered I've become more used to seeing such films, but really, I think it's that this just lacks that thing that BWP had: the believability factor. At no point did any of this seem like a genuine found film at all. It's too similar to BWP and no one is trying as hard as Heather here, not one snot bubble! Not scary, not even jump-scary.
At least it was short. Only for the curious or those driven by madness to see every movie ever made ever! (Like me!)
Berserker (1987)
A group of young people go camping in the woods and...that's pretty much the start of every 80's horror movie, really. At least this one has the class to cut together a death scene with a sex scene...oh wait, that's nearly every 80's horror movie too. But at least this one has an insane Viking bear ghost or whatever doing all the killings. Points for originality there. Except the bear is played by a giant muppet-looking arm.
Cringe to the god-awful songs on the soundtrack! Hysterically bad!
So bad it's good, but also too bad to be great, typical 80's horror product. Luckily, I enjoy this sort of thing.
The Prey (1983)
What in the Hell was this?
I think I watched some kinda extended version of this movie. It seemed too long and full of pointless filler. And by pointless, I mean a billion close-up shots of every animal known to man! There was barely any audible dialogue between the campers, some random mumblings. Way to build character, His Girl Friday this was not!
Then there was the twenty-five minute campfire story that ADDED NOTHING TO THE MOVIE, which included gypsies and not one, but two scenes of nipple sucking! It was as if a really bad gypsy porno some how had gotten spliced into the middle of a slasher horror movie. Then came the banjo playing, as if I hadn't suffered enough!
Since it was almost over, all the killing took place near the end of the movie. What a crock of
The only good thing was the Manfredini-ish score that made me think I was watching the worst
Friday the 13th sequel ever. Serious contender for the worst movie I've ever seen!
The Prodigy (2019)
Little Miles has been misbehaving lately, so naturally it's decided he may be the reincarnation of a notorious serial killer that was killed on the day Miles was born. Dontcha just hate when that happens?
A sort of
Audrey Rose meets
The Omen mashup, it's actually alright and has a few surprises in store. Taylor Schilling as the mom is perfect, and little Jackson Robert Scott as Miles definitely brings the creepy kid vibes. The movie is fine but never quite crosses over to greatness. Worth a watch though.
Campfire Stories (2001)
Pretty limp horror anthology, not funny, not scary, not even any gore.
At least we can thank this movie for helping spawn
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
This coming week will be the last of my horror-athon, can't believe it's almost over! See you all next week!