|
|
Post by teleadm on Oct 9, 2020 17:16:09 GMT
As usual I get inspired to watch some movies more than usual during the Horror Challenge Week, and I watched two silents that I remember seeing pictures from and being mentioned from my old horror movie book. After watching them they might not be horror movies in the modern sense.  The Golem or Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam 1920, starring and co-directed by Paul Wegener. Based on legends about the Prague Jewish community from the 16th century. Using wizardry, astrology and the underworld, building/moulding a clay giant man to help from a Royal decree from blaming all problems on Jews. There is also a kind of Romeo and Julia love story, the Golem is also used to do ordinary things like going errands to the grocery, before being used by the wizard who awakened him to scare and then save the Prague nobility and get total amnesty. It's an impressive production in it's visuals and tinted colours. I've read that how the Golem walks was the inspiration of how Frankenstein 1931 Karloff walks, could be coincidental too, there is a scene with a little girl too, but the outcome is different. It's fun to have seen it, at last.  The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1923 directed by Wallace Worsley and starring the man with a 1000 faces Lon Chaney. This was also an impressive production, seen in tinted colours, that is much more than just about the hunchback, since it's more about all the men falling for the beauty of Esmaralda, who might have been child-napped in infancy. The actress who played Esmaralda, Patsy Ruth Miller, lived well into the 1990s, so I hope some classic horror movie historians got to interview her. This was also fun to have seen at last, though I must say that Lon Chaney's mask is a bit over obvious, especially in the famous whipping scene, but I liked the way he played him, since he can figure things out. Thank you Horror Challenge to inspire me and finally getting me to see those old silents I've only read about! |
|
|
|
Post by Ass_E9 on Oct 9, 2020 18:29:39 GMT
 House (1986)
|
|
|
|
Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Oct 9, 2020 18:43:20 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Oct 9, 2020 18:44:01 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Oct 9, 2020 18:45:09 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Oct 10, 2020 4:21:52 GMT
Rupture (2016). 
|
|
|
|
Post by Prime etc. on Oct 10, 2020 5:42:06 GMT
THE NIGHT STALKER 1972 As tv movies go, 10/10.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lebowskidoo 🎄😷🎄 on Oct 10, 2020 11:05:41 GMT
The Grudge (2020) 
|
|
|
|
Post by stefancrosscoe on Oct 10, 2020 15:03:02 GMT
October Horror Challenge - 2020 - Day 09:
21. Night Life aka Grave Misdemeanors (1989) by David Acomba
Well, I was kind of hoping it might turn out to be a pleasant surprise, having browsed around on Youtube for a few hours (or more) this week, but there is just too many films, and I do not have time nor the interest in trying to watch as many unseen films, as I have sadly too often ended up with rather poor or bad impulse choices.
So this time around, I tried to use the help of some rather interesting movie articles, which highlights underrated, forgotten or just not very popular horror releases of the 80s.
Of course, a lot of these articles tend to focus on films that often are anything but "underrated", in fact I have several times seen horror classics like Scream, Poltergeist, The Evil Dead, Videodrome and even The Exorcist lying around, and if those are considered to be forgotten or underrated, then I wonder how much input or time the writer of the article have really put down.
Luckily there are far better and more interesting recommendations around the net, and suddenly I ended up with a promising title of Night Life aka Grave Misdemeanors, which sadly was anything but a gem in my eyes. As it opens up as kind of typical teen-sex comedy, where the sport jocks makes fun of the outsider/horny geek (Scott Grimes), who works at the local funeral home.
Sadly, even in death, his bullies will not leave him be, as they return after a horrible accident, only to continue on terrifying and trying to kill their "beloved" victim.
The 30-40 first minutes, is not very impressive, too much slapstick and unfunny comedy, but it was nice to see John Astin in a not so very pleasant part.
Thankfully, the movie kind of begin to take off after 45-50 minutes, but still the first opening let it down too much, and it ended up as an uneven film, not boring, but a long way from being any near good.
5/10
22. The Funhouse (1981) by Tobe Hooper
A small group of party going teenagers, have decided to visit the local carnival which have arrived town. As a meaning of having some extra bit of fun, the gang ends up spending the night over at the funhouse. But sadly for the new guests, they end up with a whole lot more than they ever bargained for, when a murder takes place, and all of a sudden the fun time ends, and a desperate nightmare begins, as they must now fight for their lives to get out of there alive, which is easier said than done.
Have seen it once, but that was back in 2013-14, and somehow I had almost forgotten about it, and realized that I only gave it a 5/10. Not sure why, but maybe I was not in the right mood, as last night, this little slasher gem surely lit up the dark and was a very enjoyable and nice surprise and felt it deserved a much better rating, and ended up with a more rightfully:
7/10
October Horror Challenge - 2020 - Day 10:
23. The Creeping Terror (1964) by Vic Savage
I had all these "great" plans, for at least seeing 1-2 more horror movies, but this absolute pile of waste that was The Creeping Terror (I wrote a bit about it the progression thread earlier) pretty much killed off any of those plans, as my taste for more horror had been put to sleep.
Surely one of the worst monster-movies ever made, so bad, that it actually makes a whole lot of far more famous "worst movie" contenders look like cinematic masterpieces, which is quite something.
Still, the carpet-monster and some rather hilarious cheesy and silly stuff that takes place, kind of saves it from ending up as yet another Sweathouse (2009) nightmare, for me that is.
2/10
|
|
|
|
Post by stefancrosscoe on Oct 11, 2020 13:39:59 GMT
24. Silent Rage (1982) by Michael Miller Chuck Norris vs Frankenstein, or is it Michael Myers? Anyway, this murdering son of a bitch, just won't stay dead, that's for sure! Have seen this before, but since it sure do have a lot of slasher-vibes going, I thought it was about time to give it another re-watch, and as I mentioned, the slasher influence is all over the place. From the obvious and unstoppable killer-psycho, who even has a similar suit to that of Myers, claustrophoic hospital hallways, along with a creepy synth-dominated score of pulsating and minimalistic sounds, not unlike what John Carpenter did so much of at that time. Then you have the rather dark and grisly murders, so I believe this is actually a rather interesting approach by trying to combine action, sci-fi and horror, and I think it manages to succeed best with the horror/slasher part. Anyway, the film tends to overdo the more silly slapstick/comedy routine, with the rather "jolly" (how the hell did he end up as Chuck Norris partner?) sidekick, to the rather cheesy romantic drama which seems to just go on and on, but I guess it was mostly done to try and fill in between the killings and of course towards the final battle. Norris seems to have thing for doing this kind of stories, I am very sure a similar theme also made it into an episode of Walker Texas Ranger, and then he did a horror-thriller later on in the 90s, which I have yet to see, but I might just have a go at it later this month. All in all, not really a "great" Chuck Norris adventure, but I liked that he tried to mix it up, by combining action and horror, even though it might end up a bit uneven at times, still I liked the horror stuff, and thought it was well done. 6/10
25. Shock 'Em Dead (1991) av Mark Freed "Why is it that every retard thinks he is a rockstar?" A pleasant surprise (at least for the first half that is) that I found lying around on Youtube, and since I have a thing for these horror-metal movies, and because so few of them tend to be any good, I thought Shock 'Em Dead was actually not all that bad. It features the story of a young geeky loser, who constantly gets picked on and who seems to be a complete failure at everything he tries. Yet, he will be given an opportunity to make things right, as he meets up with an voodoo priestess, and all of a sudden this Jimi Hendrix wannabe pizza-worker ends up living the whole rock 'n' roll dream and lifestyle, with hot babes, luxurious house, cars and all the talent in the world. Still, there is price to pay, and that is not money, but human blood!  As I already mentioned earlier, I thought the film opened up very promising, cheesy as hell yet enjoyable and with lots of fine looking women, T&As, Traci Lords, great and catchy music, some ridiculous stuff and characters as well, but somehow the second act was a bit of downer for my part, not bad, but just not close to the first 45-50 minutes or so. Still, it was surely one of the more entertaining of these many late 80s and early 90s horror-metal releases, and there is of course also something rather fascinating about how this movie not only looks but sounds, as it feels like the time had stood still while they were making it, or even releasing it. Everything about it screams the glory days of the hair metal era 1986-1987, where make-up, lots of hair, the feel-good party vibes are through the roof, endless guitar solos and spandex-suits and so much more, that just oozes the more "glamarous" style and attitude of the late 80s rock and metal period, and still, the lead character sold his soul to end up like a rock god who would be admired and adored, but just around the corner a whole new musical style would soon vipe out the entire hair-glam scene, and it would or could have been a pretty cool sequel, to see how the main lead had to adjust himself (if he were to return that is) towards this new shift of scenery within the music business, where grunge, rap, hip-hop, techno, dance, boyband and girlband would soon dominate the airwave and tv-channels.
5/10
|
|
|
|
Post by Lebowskidoo 🎄😷🎄 on Oct 11, 2020 14:51:40 GMT
3 From Hell (2019) 
|
|
|
|
Post by Ass_E9 on Oct 11, 2020 15:04:58 GMT
 The Flesh Eaters (1964)
|
|
|
|
Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Oct 12, 2020 8:55:22 GMT
Don't Breathe (2016). 
|
|
|
|
Post by stefancrosscoe on Oct 12, 2020 12:45:18 GMT
October Horror Challenge - 2020 - Day 11:
26. Species (1995) by Roger Donaldson
During an attempt on recreating the "ingredients" sent from outer space, along with human DNA. A team of scientists decide that things have gone a bit too fast, and that their project SIL has to be "cancelled". However, SIL end up escaping into the real world, and not long after, a team of agents is brought together to hunt her down and dispose of SIL, before she can reproduce herself.
A very enjoyable and sexy sci-fi/horror film, surely on of the better made during the 90s, and of course, much of it has to do with a very solid gallery of actors such asBen Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Forest Whitaker, Alfred Molina, Marg Helgenberger and Michelle Williams. However, the real star of the show is of course the stunning Natasha Henstridge, as one of the most sexy movie aliens ever created.
Seen it before, several times and I have always liked it, and it also comes with some rather creepy and nasty scenes as well, so I remember it was quite "confusing", watching it as a teenager, from seeing a naked SIL, then suddenly weird stuff was going on, and yet most of the special effects have hold up very well, even though some of the CGI use at the end, kind of looks a bit dull
Along with Mimic (1997) I think this and the Species II (1998) are among some of the better made sci-fi/horror releases made during the second half of the 90s.
7/10
27. Vampire Knights (1988) by Dan Peterson
A pathetic and at times very annoying Fright Night rip-off, which barely is watchable, but some very cute Vampire ladies makes me survive the experience. But I will stay far away from more of this Shot-On-Video stuff in the future, as most of these films have been so lousy and poor, that I am surprised they even made it onto the VHS market.
Still, I guess there are som kind of charm about it, but I have big trouble finding anything more positive to say about it.
2,5/10
October Horror Challenge - 2020 - Day 12:
28. Warlock (1989) by Steve Miner
Another re-watch, and one I hade not visited since fall 2011, and somehow I have forgotten most of what went on, beside the actors and name of the film.
Sadly, this one did not do much better a second round. Some cool scenes, here and there, but overall I think I enjoyed the sequel more.
5,5/10
|
|
|
|
Post by stefancrosscoe on Oct 13, 2020 11:26:38 GMT
29. Watchers II (1990) by Thierry Notz Once more, there is trouble down in some rather doubtful high-tech laboratory, when the unstable experiment, which is meant to be the future of military warfare, escapes and leaves a pile of dead bodies all over the place. Always had a soft spot for the original, maybe because of the feel-good tone, but still it did feature some creepy moments as well, which I guess was much down to the performance to that of Michael Ironside, yet I rated it very good. However, this "sequel" is of course no where near in quality, as it is classic Roger Corman b-movie stuff, where the monster just is among some of the least "scary" ones that I have seen for a while, and makes the creature from the first film, to look like something Stan Winston could have made. Anyway, there is much more focus on the action part, which I guess is to cover up for the lousy plot, but still it kind of works I guess. Speaking of the monster effects, I know I have seen that ridiculous rubber-suit beast, at least once or twice, but I guess it is by no "accident", as the director Thierry Notz did another sci-fi/horror movie a year before (also a Roger Corman release), where I am pretty sure the same monster was being used Of course, that is how Corman works it out, cheap and very effective, using the same props, sets, actors, directors and even monsters. Marc Singer and Tracy Scoggins actually does a pretty good job, with what little they end up with, and it turned out that I had seen the film, over 8 years earlier, and I had given it a not so very good rating, which might have something to do with the fact that it was up on Youtube, in 10-12 different chapters, as I think the maximum runtime of Youtube videoes back then, was around 8-10 minutes, and also the picture and sound quality were not all that impressive. Still, the one I caught last night, surely have improved upon all that, and I think the film benefitted of having been seen a second time. Yeah, not so much that it all of a suddenly makes it out to be "great", but I ended up getting a bit more out of it now, and ended up giving it a bit of a higher rating than last time. 4,5/10
|
|
|
|
Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Oct 13, 2020 21:08:56 GMT
Life (2017). 
|
|
|
|
Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Oct 13, 2020 22:50:34 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Oct 13, 2020 22:52:51 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Oct 13, 2020 22:53:16 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Oct 13, 2020 22:53:36 GMT
|
|
