soggy
Sophomore
@soggy
Posts: 720
Likes: 1,207
|
Post by soggy on Sept 22, 2022 14:04:11 GMT
Slender Man (2018) Poor Slender Man. You were set up to become the next great boogyman. You were an internet legend, and then within the space of a yes, you had a novel and a movie come out about you… well, the novel was a disappointment to say the least and the movie is one of the worst horror films to come out in a long time. Sorry Slendy, I guess it's just not meant to be. 1/10
|
|
|
Post by Captain Spencer on Sept 22, 2022 16:34:23 GMT
Slender Man (2018) Poor Slender Man. You were set up to become the next great boogyman. You were an internet legend, and then within the space of a yes, you had a novel and a movie come out about you… well, the novel was a disappointment to say the least and the movie is one of the worst horror films to come out in a long time. Sorry Slendy, I guess it's just not meant to be. 1/10 I agree. It was very lame.
|
|
|
Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Sept 22, 2022 19:26:26 GMT
9/10
Great classic horror film that gets better with each viewing. 10/10Extremely weird and entertaining sequel I like even better than the original. Great nasty fun.
|
|
|
Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Sept 22, 2022 19:28:37 GMT
1/10
Very boring and very dumb film has really nothing going for it. Hardly watchable.
|
|
|
Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Sept 22, 2022 19:32:50 GMT
2/10One of the last Bruce Wills film we will get to see sadly. I wish we could send Bruce's career off on a better note. His last films are terrible. This one especially. Its Bruce Willis and few others chasing then being chased by a mob like killer. Its a bore that badly directed and written.
|
|
|
Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Sept 22, 2022 19:34:52 GMT
3/10Newest Paranormal Activity film is pretty dull. Im not the biggest fan of this series in general though. Even still this is not a better one of the series.
|
|
|
Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Sept 22, 2022 19:40:20 GMT
8/10 Classic zombie horror film is a great one. Like TCM it gets better with each viewing. However I never liked the ending. 6/10The 90s remake is just not as good and lacks the freaky atmosphere of the original. However, its still more likeable than lots of other remakes out there and Tony Todd is well cast. Plus I think the ending in this film is way better than the originals ending.
|
|
|
Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Sept 22, 2022 19:43:47 GMT
4/10Taiwanese horror film has 5 teens capturing a young vampire like monster and torture it for a long time as its older sister comes looking. OK but overlong. Has one of the meanest spirted endings I seen since Halloween 3.
|
|
|
Post by theravenking on Sept 24, 2022 16:06:22 GMT
Lord Of Illusions (1995; Clive Barker) This was Clive Barker's last movie as a director. It's based on one of his own short stories, even though significant changes were made to the source material. Scott Bakula plays a private detective who gets involved in the death of a mysterious stage illusionist. The movie comes over a bit as a cross between Angel Heart (1987) and The Prestige (2006). Or perhaps we should say, that ideally it would've been a mixture of these two classics. Sadly as it is, it's mostly a pitiful mess. First of all it's suffering from some of the worst CGI I've ever seen in a mainstream movie. Like so often I'm not getting Roger Ebert for praising the movie's effects. While it's true there are some solid although hardly outstanding practical effects, the computer effects are nothing short of pathetic and completely took me out of the movie. Than there's the problem that the movie's scare tactics are far too obvious and trite with random nightmare sequences of bloodthirsty demons and ghouls thrown in. While Barker used to be a trendsetter with Hellraiser, here it seems like he's copying the cheapest kind of horror. The hardboiled dialogue is completely dull and lacks any sort of wit. There is also the obligatory femme fatale character played by Famke Janssen. But Even though Janssen was reportedly chosen from among thousands of candidates by Barker himself, she remains curiously bland throughout the movie lacking the agressive sex-appeal she would bring to GoldenEye the very same year. Poor Scott Bakula remains a likeable presence, but he's not exactly the most convincing playing a tough private eye and has zero chemistry with his female co-star. Add to this some campy villains, a plot which becomes close to incomprehensible as it goes on and a weak musical score by Simon Boswell and you have all the ingredients of a first class turkey. 4/10
|
|
|
Post by Nalkarj on Sept 24, 2022 16:32:04 GMT
Too bad to hear that about that one, theravenking. I’d heard of the movie but didn’t even know what the premise was—and it sounds like such a good premise! A mix of Angel Heart and The Prestige sounds right up my alley.
|
|
|
Post by gspdude on Sept 25, 2022 2:01:11 GMT
The Girl with All the Gifts (2016) During a Zombie apocalypse, a small group of survivors, with a young girl who is only part Zombie and may hold the key for a cure, fight for survival. Well acted and with enough Zombie nuances to keep it interesting. 6.5/10
|
|
|
Post by politicidal on Sept 26, 2022 0:14:11 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Captain Spencer on Sept 27, 2022 2:21:51 GMT
Mosquito (1994)After a meteorite lands in a rural area, its radiation causes the local mosquitos to mutate into giant monsters. I don't know why I keep watching these silly mutant insect horror movies. I must be a glutton for punishment. Like others I've seen, this one is poorly written and with a cast that can't act their way out of a forest. The cheesiness and campiness is raised to high levels. We get annoyingly stupid characters making stupid decisions. But I suppose I was intrigued by the use of a particular bug that's never been used before in this type of movie, rather than the usual spiders, bees and scorpions. Some of the kills are amusing, such as when one of the monster mosquitos sticks its proboscis into a woman's bare buttocks and causing a bloody mess. The special effects are a combination of stop-motion animation and puppetry; some of it is OK and some of it is terrible. Horror buffs may get a kick out of a few in-jokes, especially the one in which Gunnar Hansen (playing a criminal on the run) picks up a large chainsaw and says "It's been 20 years since I've used one of these." So there is a certain degree of fun to be had out of Mosquito, but it's mostly by-the-numbers mediocrity. Oh, I have another big bug horror movie lined up for the October Challenge called Big Ass Spider! (yep, that's the title). So the punishment will continue.
|
|
|
Post by stefancrosscoe on Sept 29, 2022 14:36:22 GMT
Been a while since I have posted, or even visited this thread, and I think it might be for the "best". Not saying the films that has been reviewed here since, are bad or anything, but I would not be able to hold back on my horror watching until next month, which I have done for quite some time now, all in order to, well, not end up eating the "desert" before having the main dinner, and as a result ending up trying to eat even more, but on an already full stomach of junk food and some very good meals as well. But yeah, I do however like to browse through a few pages back, maybe finding some interesting ones, that I can put in my Halloween October Challenge watchlist, as I sure could need some potential unseen gems, every now and then.
|
|
|
Post by theravenking on Oct 1, 2022 14:46:41 GMT
October Horror Challenge Day 1 1. Shadow Of The Vampire (2000; F. Elias Merhige) I decided to kick off this year's challenge with the rewatch of a film I've recently seen popping up on several lists of underrated horror movies. On my first watch I wasn't particularly taken with Shadow Of The Vampire, I'm not sure whether I just wasn't in a right mood for it, but I do remember reading a rather unfavourable review of the movie beforehand which might have influenced my rating. It's based on the legend, that Max Schreck, the actor who played the vampire Count Orlock might've been a vampire himself. Although the cast includes several recognisable names: John Malkovich as Murnau, Eddie Izzard, Udo Kier, Catherine McCormack or Cary Elwes, this is very much Willem Dafoe's show. He perfectly embodies this weird creature of the night with all his grotesque mannerisms without sliding into obvious parody. I can think of few other actors who would've been capable of this, perhaps Christopher Walken in his prime could've done it too. It's certainly an odd little film. While Dafoe's performance is incredibly committed, the rest of the cast almost seem like vaudeville performers, with the movie revelling in silly humour and rather obvious jokes. Even Murnau is basically just an archetype of the genius artist willing to do anything for a masterpiece, with the man's complex real life personality only being hinted at. It's almost like Malkovich and Dafoe are performing some sort of weird comical double act, with Murnau as the straight man and Schreck as the absurd (albeit uncanny) clown. Even though I did enjoy it, I couldn't help feeling that a more serious telling of the story would've resulted in a more memorable film. As a companion piece to Murnau's Nosferatu it's definitely a worthwile watch though. 6.5/10
|
|
|
Post by Nalkarj on Oct 1, 2022 16:08:59 GMT
I keep meaning to watch that one, theravenking. I’m a big fan of Dafoe. Maybe I’ll take it out from the library to watch this month. _____________________________________________________________ What I watched last night, unfortunately, was Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel (2018, dir. Stephen Cognetti), which gives Halloween H20: 20 Years Later a run for its money as “clunkiest horror movie title.” I mostly liked Hell House LLC, which is apparently beloved on the horror movie subreddits. What distinguishes it from other found-footage movies is how convincing the acting is—as with the best scenes of The Blair Witch Project (all of them before the characters go into the woods), the viewer could actually believe that these people are friends who are having fun filming themselves. Hell House LLC II ain’t that. It looks cheap and rushed (despite three years between movies), and its acting is painful to watch. Blogger Ian Sedensky does such a good job analyzing the flaws that I’ll just quote him:Exactly. I was surprised that the same people made this as made the first one—seriously, it’s that bad. Structure is just baffling. We—seemingly at random—cut between maybe five different stories, totally destroying any tension (a distinguishing feature of bad, low-budget horror movies?). The first two or three minutes focus on one story that does not connect in any way to the rest of the movie. Seriously. As Sedensky says:In case I haven’t been clear enough about how bad this is, the (ahem) climax includes a “spooky” piano playing. On the piano are LED faux-candles—the kind, as Sedensky points out, that you’d buy at Target. Seriously.
|
|
|
Post by theravenking on Oct 1, 2022 20:05:54 GMT
2. Come True (2020; Anthony Scott Burns) They call it elevated horror, a term which refers to "films in which psychological manipulation takes precedence over jump scares and gratuitous violence".Even though this type of film has been around for as long as the horror genre, it's recent examples such as Hereditary, the Babadook or It Follows which led to this term being coined Come True very much fits the bill. With its deliberate pacing, lack of graphic violence and hypnotic imagery it's first and foremost a mood piece. It's about a young woman who takes part in a sleep study which leads to disturbing consequences when she finds out that there is more to this study than she's been told by the scientists. Come True takes an interesting approach to depicting dreams. These are not colourful flights of fancy, but rather simple images kept in grey, black and dark blue. But watching the film still feels like gliding into a dreamlike state that is nevertheless a bit uncomfortable, even though a nice Lovecraftian moment aside there is very little actually disturbing about these nightmares, but the movie cleverly builds up a sense of mystery and a feeling of something being not quite right. Where Come True disappoints is at the end. Here we get a completely unexpected twist which attempts to explain all that has come before. However nothing has been leading up to this twist. It basically comes out of nowhere, with no previous hints indicating that the plot could be going in this direction. Even though it's a good thing the filmmakers tried to wrap up the story, the effect of this final development is more bewildering than satisfying. Writer-director Anthony Scott Burns is definitely a talent to watch who, should he get his hands on a better script, could be capable of greatness. 6.5/10
|
|
soggy
Sophomore
@soggy
Posts: 720
Likes: 1,207
|
Post by soggy on Oct 1, 2022 21:02:36 GMT
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne (Walerian Borowczyk, 1981) A very erotically charged take on the Dr. Jekyll story. It's a little uneven in terms of editing and it's obviously going for a more arthouse feel to the tale (which will certainly influence if the viewer loves it or hates it), so it's certainly not for everyone (not to even mention the fairly constant stream of nudity) but I found it surprisingly effective. 7/10
|
|
soggy
Sophomore
@soggy
Posts: 720
Likes: 1,207
|
Post by soggy on Oct 1, 2022 22:56:24 GMT
Evil Dead Trap 2 (Izô Hashimoto, 1992) Sequel in name only to the infamous Evil Dead Trap film (the only connection other than both being Japanese horror movies are that both involve a female newsanchor as one of the main characters). This is a much more arthouse horror film than the first which was an over the top gore fest. This one also takes itself way more seriously. It's not as good as the first, but I like its ambition and that it's not afraid to go a different direction. 6/10
|
|
|
Post by theravenking on Oct 2, 2022 9:10:33 GMT
3. Final Destination (2000; James Wong)
Well, I'm a fan of this franchise, and yes I'm aware that these films are nothing but shallow entertainment, but no matter how often I see them, I still enjoy the hell out of them.
Plus I'm also a fan of director/producer duo Glen Morgan and James Wong who did such great work on season 2 of Millennium, and I like the little nods to that show they put into the movie like the sectarian bloke at the beginning at the airport who was also in a Millennium episode.
This first film is already burdened with some flaws which would keep plaguing the series in upcoming instalments such as overly silly humour and cardboard characters, but hell, you don't watch this for great interpersonal drama or to receive profound truths about human existence. No, this is about the death scenes and most of them still hold up well (the death of Kristen Cloke's teacher is really a bit too much though).
It has good atmospheric direction by James Wong and a nice, gloomy score by Shirley Walker. Devon Sawa and Ali Larter make for likeable protagonists (later films in the series sadly weren't quite as lucky when it came to casting the leads.)
I'm really looking forward to the reboot. Personally I wouldn't mind watching a more serious version of a Final Destination movie (I'm not saying it should turn into Ingmar Bergman's Final Destination, but if they could get rid of some of the juvenile humour, I believe it could benefit the franchise). 7.5/10
|
|