oh I saw it quite a few years back on dvd and remember liking it. Heavily atmospheric and moody from what I recall. Looking forward to seeing it again with improved picture quality!
That's a good way to describe it. I was watching it on Prime which isn't in HD for that one. Still looked nice but of course Blu-ray would be much better.
Hold The Dark (2018)
It's not as good as Green Room but this is definitely my thing and it's definitely horror. Well, maybe not, but I've got a feeling that most horror fans will want to see this (if they haven't already; I mean it is on Netflix).
Compared to the tight narratives of Blue Ruin and Green Room, this one has an odd structure, with a lot of supporting characters taking center stage during a series of violent and suspenseful setpieces. What you get is a rich, complex experience, with different riffs on a handful of assorted but related themes (grief, parenting, instinct, rage, vengence, regret). The trade off is that there is no strong POV and no clear message in the end (although as I've thought about it since last night, more things are starting to make sense... there's something here about how we make choices: do you dwell on mistakes and agonize over your decisions, like most of us do, or do you savage your way through life, ignore the consequences, and move on, like the animals? This movie might be a "grower").
Very brutal and entertaining, and of course very well made. The cast is great, but Jeffery Wright is a weak link, both in the way that his character is written and in his meek performance (some of which literally consists of trying to hide from everything, including the camera). I get what he's supposed to represent here, but that doesn't mean that he's interesting to watch.
I was surprised to see at the end that this one wasn't written by Jeremy Saulnier. I assumed that it was while I was watching it, since he wrote the previous two films. In fact, I was thinking while watching that this was sort of like his Pulp Fiction or Once Upon a Time in Mexico, what with all of the supporting characters and the long runtime, and echoes of some of the elements from his other movies. But now that I know that it's based on a novel, that analysis doesn't really make sense. Anyway, I'll be excited to see whatever he does next. In the meantime, protect ya neck!
The first two Scream films are the first slashers I saw as a kid. A lot of fun and I like all of the "meta" commentary on the horror genre.
What I've Watched So Far:
[Show spoiler] September Fade to Black*
Slaughter High*
Truth or Dare*
The Howling*
Cult of Chucky*
Maximim Overdrive*
Predator 2
My Boyfriend's Back*
The Predator*
The Nun*
He's Out There*
Jurassic Park: 25th Anniversary
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom 3D
The House with a Clock in It's Walls* w/Thriller - IMAX
Slither*
The House with a Clock in It's Walls w/ Thriller - IMAX
Buffy the Vampire Slayer*
The Craft
9/5 - Alien vs. Predator (2004)
9/7 - Annihilation (2018)
9/10 - Upgrade (2018)
9/11 - A Quiet Place (2018)
Cooties (2014)
9/12 - I Am Legend (2007)
9/13 - Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
Signs (2002)
9/17 - The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Annabelle: Creation (2017)
9/18 - mother! (2017)
9/19 - The Sixth Sense (1999)
9/22 - Hannibal (2001)
9/25 - Hereditary (2018)
9/27 - Poltergeist (1982)
10/1 - Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers [Producer's Cut] (1995)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
10/01 - John Carpenter's Halloween (1978)
10/02 - Halloween II (1981)
I watched Halloween yesterday at 10:40pm and I was sooooo tired I was falling asleep, but I still loved it. Halloween II is good, but not that good. The school part was silly, but it was still enjoyable.
9/7 - The Nun (Theater Showing)
9/8 - Day of the Dead: Bloodline
9/10 - Verónica
9/28 - Killer Klowns from Outer Space
9/29 - BEDEVILED
9/30 - Cabin Fever (2016)
10/1 - All Hallows' Eve
Documentaries:
TV Shows:
9/8 - The Purge: Season 1 - Episode 1 - What Is America?
9/10 - Fear The Walking Dead: Season 4 - Episode 13 - Blackjack
9/11 - The Purge: Season 1 - Episode 2 - Take What's Yours
9/13 - American Horror Story: Season 8 - Episode 1 - The End
9/18 - Fear The Walking Dead: Season 4 - Episode 14 - MM54
9/18 - The Purge: Season 1 - Episode 3 - The Urge to Purge
9/24 - Fear The Walking Dead: Season 4 - Episode 15 - I Lose People ...
9/24 - American Horror Story: Season 8 - Episode 2 - The Morning After
9/25 - The Purge: Season 1 - Episode 4 - Release the Beast
9/26 - American Horror Story: Season 8 - Episode 3 - Forbidden Fruit
10/1 - Fear The Walking Dead: Season 4 - Episode 16 - ... I Lose Myself
Non-Horror Halloween:
9/29 - G.I. Joe: Season 3 - Episode 18 - The Phantom Brigade
9/29 - Duck Tales: Season 1- Episode 26 - Curse of Castle McDuck
I knew what i was getting in to, so the comedy aspect didn't bother me. I went to the theater to have fun and that's what I got. Lots of action, pure popcorn.
October is here! After a 30 film September warm up, it's time for the main event!
Blue = blu-ray, * = first time viewing
SEPTEMBER WARM-UP
[Show spoiler]
The Orphanage (2007) A well-made, creepy, slow burn Spanish horror film. Very effective, and surprisingly moving at the end. This got our annual MonsterFest off to a great start! Village Of The Damned (1960) Hadn't seen this in a few years. I forgot how very well-made and effective it is. Terrific movie, and a great looking new blu-ray from Warner Archive. *The Devil's Daughter (1973) 1/2 (YouTube) My wife and I are old enough to have seen a lot of silly 70's TV movies as kids and we have a soft-spot for them. This is a completely predictable "Rosemary's Baby" rip-off -- campy, and a LOT of nostalgic fun. Decent cast too, with Shelly Winters, Joseph Cotton and a post "Dark Shadows" Jonathon Frid. We liked it ... but if you grew up after the '70's, you'll want to knock a couple of skulls off. The Dead Zone (1983) Easily my favorite SK adaptation -- great story, great cast. Brooke Adams is beautiful! A favorite. Imported the Australian blu-ray. A little disappointing. The audio is definitely an upgrade, and the picture is too, but it's subtle. Ghost Story (1981) 1/2 Another old favorite. I'm a sucker for slow-burn, well-crafted ghost stories ... and this one has those qualities in spades. Cool to see these old-time actors -- the cast is excellent -- along side Alice Krige, who is perfection as Eva/Alma. Loses half a star for over-reliance on shock cuts to gooey dead faces. They get a bit repetitive after a while, and they're not necessary in this movie -- it's strength is "eerie", not shock. *The Little Stranger (2018) theatrical Gee, I wanted to love this. It looked like the kind of subtle ghost story that's right up my alley, but I guess even subtle can be overdone. EVERYTHING is laid between the lines, to the point that I really didn't understand what happened in the film. Had to read about it afterwards to figure out what I missed. Good premise, well made and well acted ... but it needs at least a LITTLE more overt storytelling. A big disappointment. *Cronos (1993) :1/2 This didn't do much for me either. Some nice moments early on, but mostly gooey and pointless. *sigh* *Cat Creature (1973) youtube 1/2 OK, I knew this wasn't going to be good, but I thought it would be entertaining. As I said (see: The Devil's Daughter) I have a fondness for campy 70's TV movie horror. I don't mind if they're silly, over-acted, unbelievable ... but this one was dull. How do you take a plot about a 2,000 year old cat creature stalking Los Angeles and make it boring? Simple: all "cop investigation" and very little cat. Interesting cast though -- Peter Lorre Jr? Who knew? (NOTE: OK, this is weird! Peter Lorre Jr wasn't related to Peter Lorre! Check this out: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0521137/bio) The Grudge (2004) 1/2 The best of the 4 we saw this weekend ... and the only one I had seen before. Not a great movie by any means, but fun and entertaining. (Are you listening, Cat Creature?) The Fog (1980) A favorite, and IMO, one of JC's best films. However, I might skip this one for the next few years. No fault of the movie, but I've seen it many times and it's become so familiar that it didn't do as much for me this year. Still, it earns it's 4 skulls. Asylum (1972) Boy, did I enjoy this! Never had the DVD, so I hadn't seen it since the VHS days. I love all the old Amicus anthologies, and although I had forgotten some of it, this is one of the best. The wrap around story is much better than most, and each tale worked quite well. Decent blu-ray too -- some nice extras. Silence Of The Lambs (1991) What a powerful movie this is. Jody Foster and, especially, Anthony Hopkins are so perfect in their roles. Controlled, understated, underplayed and completely chilling. Also, for a film with such gruesome subject matter, it's surprisingly restrained -- it's dark and oppressive, but most of the violence is off-screen. A smart, well-made, grim thriller. My wife and I tend to stick to lighter, "fun" horror movies, but this one is too good to miss. *Ghost Stories (2018) 1/2 I can't stop thinking about this movie! Too many jump scares perhaps, but there is a lot more here than shock. This film demands to be watched closely with no distractions, and the closer you watch, the more you'll get out of it. Plus, it's a lot of fun! I hate it when people say "You didn't get it" if you don't like a certain movie. However, in this case, if all you see is what's in plain sight ... you didn't get it. Or at least you missed the best part. A new classic. Trick Or Treat (2007) 1/2 I love the way this movie looks, and the way the stories intertwine. I like the Sam character, and all the Halloween iconography too. It's a fun film, that loses half a skull for me for being a bit too sleazy in spots. (Really don't enjoy hearing a 10 year old say "butt-f***.") Still, very enjoyable. The Funhouse (1981) 1/2 This gets off to a really lunk-headed start -- dumb characters, cheesy dialogue -- but once they get inside the funhouse and the main story starts, it really goes! We see the "monster" close enough and long enough to realize that it's an immobile mask, but this works as a fun, simple horror movie. Captures the whole garish carnival atmosphere nicely too. Turn off your brain and go for a ride. *Unsane (2018) (Amazon streaming) 1/2 This has ... *ahem* ... a few problems. It's impossible to like the main character -- she's obnoxious -- and it's really, really far-fetched. Unless, of course, she imagined the whole thing (which I tend to believe. She's obviously nuts.) I like the ambiguity of the ending, but this was pretty "meh.". The most impressive thing was that the whole movie was shot on an iPhone! Looked pretty good too. Near Dark (1987) I've always liked this one -- it's a really cool reworking of the whole vampire mythology. Great cast -- Lance Henriksen is amazing. So is Bill Paxton -- first time I've seen it since he died. Funny that neither of the leads, Adrian Pasdar (Caleb) or Jenny Wright (Mae), went on to much movie success. They're both quite good -- and she was gorgeous! A favorite ... even if the whole
[Show spoiler]"vampires are cured by a transfusion" idea
is a little unconvincing! Repulsion (1965) 1/2 This movie takes its time -- there's a lot of mundane details of our main character's life. But there's also a growing sense of unease, the sense that things are not right. By the final third of the movie, she has left all reality behind and what happens is all the more shocking because the first half of the film is so restrained. Maybe not a "fun" movie -- but a disturbing and effective portrait of mental illness. Very chilling. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) I've seen this many times, but I still have such mixed emotions about it! It's fun to watch, and as eye-candy it's an easy 5 skulls, but as an adaptation of Dracula ... well, it's far more concerned with over-the-top style than substance. It's fun (and occasionally very good, when it calms down a bit) but I wish more of the talent and money had been aimed at the story instead of the flash. (Although it's fun to watch Keanu's hair constantly change color!) The Fly (1986) 1/2 Watching this last night, I was really admiring it -- it has a literate, witty script, great performances and incredible make-up. I always forget how good it really is. Then the final act hits and pulls me out of the movie. All the sympathy the film has built for the characters is forgotten under a ton of (incredibly well-done) gore. It's still fun in a "Ewww! Look at that!" way, but it's so much more than that before the ick hits the fan. A 5 skull movie that loses 1 and 1/2 under the glop. (Fun fact: I never noticed before that Jeff G says "Help Me, please help me" to Geena D -- that must be a nod to the original film.) A Quiet Place (2018) 1/2 Who would have thought that a PG-13 film with no profanity, no gore, and no nudity would become such a big hit -- and be so intense? When this came out last spring it was a real breath of fresh air, and it plays just as well at home. Incredibly fun old-school monster movie with an amazing sound design. Yeah, it's got a few plot holes ... but who cares? The most fun I've had at a monster movie in ages. Psycho (1960) Not a lot to say about this movie, except that it still holds up. Big time. It doesn't matter that everyone knows the reveal -- the acting, the cinematography, the tight construction all really work. Why on earth didn't Tony Perkins get nominated for an Oscar? A classic that I admire more every time I see it. *Psycho IV (1990) A first time watch, and a disappointing one. The worst of the sequels by a long shot, and surprisingly, where it fails most is the writing. Joseph Stefano, who did the original Psycho script, also wrote this, but it has some truly cringe-worthy dialogue. ("That's all that thing of yours is for, making wee-wee!") Sadly there was potential here, and a few decent ideas, and even a decent moment or two, but it never takes off. It's always good to see Anthony Perkins as Norman, and it's worth owning just for that, but Tony AND Norman both deserved a far better farewell. City Of The Dead (1960) Quick! Name the movie: a 1960 black and white thriller with a pretty blonde that stays in a lonely hotel, and disappears from the movie halfway through after being
[Show spoiler]stabbed to death by the owner.
The second half of the film has her sibling searching for her and finding out the shocking truth about the innkeeper. Psycho, you say? Nope. City Of The Dead! A fun, old school horror movie with fantastic atmosphere, and Christopher Lee to boot. A low-budget, but very effective and eerie little film, with an especially chilling prologue set in the 1700's. A real Halloween treat, and a great blu-ray too! Fade To Black (1980) : (Amazon Prime) I'm tempted to call this a first viewing -- it's been over 30 years, and I didn't remember much of it ... if I had, I wouldn't have watched again. There's actually a very good idea here: a movie obsessed kid, killing his enemies in the style of characters from films. There are several cool movie clips, movie references and memorabilia, plus a few nice shots. And Dennis Christopher is pretty good. But everyone else is awful, and the script is a complete mess. A missed opportunity, but at least it was fun to watch. The House That Dripped Blood (1971) Another old Amicus anthology movie ... but one of the lesser ones. The best story is probably the third, about Christopher Lee and his voo-doo practicing daughter, but none of the four tales have quite the punch of the stories in Asylum, or Tales From The Crypt. Still, a good time ... and a wonderful blu-ray. Great colors on all those cheesy 70's era ascots that everyone wears in this. The Sentinel (1977) 1/2 Geez, what an incoherent mess! Very campy movie (with an amazing cast!) that tries really hard to horrify ... and misses. A few decent moments, but mostly silly. HOWEVER: If you've always wanted to see Beverly D'Angelo as a mute, nude, cymbal-playing, brain-eating lesbian from Hell ... this film gets my highest recommendation. The Undying Monster (1947) The first 15 minutes of this are so good, and so atmospheric and so well shot that it could easily give the best Universal horrors a run for their money. Unfortunately, it settles into a talky mystery film. It perks up near the end, but it never lives up to the promise of those wonderful opening scenes. Black Sabbath (Italian version - 1963) This is absolutely one of the best (and scariest!) anthology films ever made ... and the original Italian version is the way to see it. The American version completely rewrites one of the stories (The Telephone) to remove the lesbian element of the story. They did a clever editing job, but it's not the same story, and not as good. In the original, all three stories are really strong, and surprisingly creepy. The dead witch in A Drop Of Water is still frightening after all these years. Karloff is great as a Wurdalack (Romanian vampire) preying on his family. Sometimes They Come Back (1991) :1/2 Really enjoyable TV movie. Almost gave it 4 skulls because I really like the story and the film works well for me ...but there's enough cheese in it that 3 1/2 is more realistic. A great way to wrap up September!
Previously Watched In October:
Dark Night Of The Scarecrow (1981) 1/2 Started off October with a fun one. Not exactly a classic, but quite good for a 1981 TV movie. Lots of effective moments and a good story over-all. Surprisingly good blu-ray too.
Last edited by charlieray1; 10-02-2018 at 04:32 PM.
[B] Dark Night Of The Scarecrow (1981) 1/2 Started off October with a fun one. Not exactly a classic, but quite good for a 1981 TV movie. Lots of effective moments and a good story over-all. Surprisingly good blu-ray too.
It has been quite a few years since I last saw Dark Night of the Scarecrow, but I remember it being really good. I need to revisit it this month.
I used random.org to select the first film from my list of 31 to kick off October, and of course it would be the one that started it all for me, how appropriate.
I watched this film for the first time when I was about 7 years old, around 1983, when my older brothers asked if I wanted to watch it (on VHS of course). I'm pretty sure they invited me to join them just to see how scared I'd get (they'd seen it before), but much to their surprise, I loved it, only jumping or hiding my eyes a few times. I did have nightmares for a few days (weeks?) after, but I was soon renting it again and after that, I'd head straight to the Horror section at the Video store, renting such classics as The Shining, Poltergeist, Halloween, The Fog, Alien, A Nightmare of Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Carrie, etc.
From then on, all throughout my teens, I'd get one of my brothers or my mom to take me to rated R horror films at the theater. I saw every A Nightmare on Elm Street from Dream Warriors on in the theater, as well as Hellraiser, The Lost Boys, Child's Play, and most of the Friday the 13th films from 4 on.
So yeah, in short, The Exorcist is where my love for Horror films began.
Excited to see what random film from my list is selected tonight.
[Show spoiler]Halloween The Exorcist
A Nightmare of Elm Street
Hereditary
The Thing (1982)
The Silence of the Lambs
The Shining
Poltergeist
The Lost Boys
Friday the 13th Part 3
A Nightmare on Elm Street part 3
Alien
Fright Night (1985)
Carrie (1976)
An American Werewolf in London
Misery
Videodrome
The Conjuring
It (2017)
The Witch
The Entity
Let the Right One In
Hellraiser
Rosemary’s Baby
The Night of the Hunter
Creepshow
Psycho
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The Howling
Evil Dead (1981)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
*after discussing the list with my wife and daughter last night, a couple of adjustments have been made (gotta love a wife that asks "Where's Hellraiser on this list?" and a daughter that says, "Dad, you have to have the original Evil Dead on here"), they're doing this with me afterall, it's only fair to allow some of their favorites in as well.
[Show spoiler]9/06/18: The Little Stranger * (2018):
9/07/18: The Nun * (2018):
9/10/18: Predator (1987):
9/11/18: Predator 2 (1990):
9/12/18: Predators (2010):
9/14/18:The Predator * (2018):
9/21/18: Fade To Black * (1980):
9/23/18: The Hidden (1987):
9/24/18: Season Of The Witch * (1972):
9/25/18: Assassination Nation * (2018):
9/27/18: Thriller (1983): The House With A Clock In Its Walls * (2018):
10/01/18 Night School * (1981): Body Bags * (1993): Pumpkinhead * (1988):
10/02/18:
When Jenny cheated on her husband, he didn’t just leave…
…he SPLIT
-Raising Cain (1992):
-Split (2017):
A whole stadium full of fractured personalities fills today’s psychological double feature. In Raising Cain, John Lithgow plays Carter Nix, a well-to-do child psychologist who learns that his gorgeous doctor wife, Jenny (Lolita Davidovich), is carrying on with a former patient’s hunky husband (Scarface’s Steven Bauer) behind his back. Stressed and heartbroken, his “twin bother”, Cain (Lithgow again) abruptly shows up, and things rapidly progress from bad to worse, with several kidnappings, murders and twisted secrets from the past coming to light. One of veteran suspense filmmaker Brian De Palma’s most playful features, Raising Cain is best appreciated if you’re a fan of the director’s winking, self-aware brand of cinematic gamesmanship (I plead guilty). Cain is a film that starts off slow (especially if you’re watching the superior “director’s cut” edit assembled for the excellent Scream Factory Blu-Ray release, which hews closer to what De Palma originally intended before Universal ordered him to alter the film’s chronology to get to the thriller aspects of the plot right off the bat) and, about a half-hour in, skews off the road into a rat’s nest of absurd plot twists, overheated dream sequences (or…ARE they…?!) and a bonkers suspense climax that seems like it was choreographed by Rube Goldberg. No wonder mainstream audiences rejected the film…it’s a thriller that walks a tightrope between genuine shocks and outré comic elements that might be mistaken for just plain Bad Filmmaking unless you were aware that it’s all a put-on, an aging suspense master riffing on his own back catalogue with a postmodern cackle. I’ve always enjoyed the movie (particularly Lithgow’s peerless gift of switching between meek and sinister with the tiniest flicker of his facial muscles), and the director’s cut edit presents the film as it should have been from the start.
As for Split, it’s the work of another suspense vet, M. Night Shyamalan, making his first coherent and watchable thriller in over fifteen years. James MacAvoy is excellent as a man who kidnaps a trio of teenage girls (Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson & Jessica Sula), locks them in a room in an anonymously industrial basement somewhere, and reveals that his body is host to a myriad of personalities, from a silky-smooth, patrician woman to a stuttering, shy nine-year-old boy (”I have red socks”), and that his various personae are battling to determine the fate of the girls while the man’s psychiatrist (Betty Buckley from Carrie) begins to suss out that her patient is hiding something dire from her in-between their increasingly-frequent sessions. Shyamalan – a gifted visualist – got his head inflated by all of the “New Spielberg” hype that swirled around him in the early 00’s thanks to the phenomenal success of his breakout smash The Sixth Sense and promptly disappeared up his own ass with increasingly self-indulgent and absurd fare like Lady In The Water, The Happening (the one where Mark Wahlberg asks forgiveness from a rubber plant) and his howlingly wrong-headed adaptation of The Last Airbender (one of the all-time worst movie versions of a classic television program I can think of). But Split seems like the work of a man who has actually listened to all of the criticisms and jokes that have been made at his expense, rolled up his sleeves, and got to work crafting the kind of tight, well-constructed thriller that made his a household name in the first place, and it’s bracing to see a movie by him that has actual suspense, good acting, and a bare minimum of his trademark awkward, almost autistic dialogue exchanges (the fact that he saves the weirdest exchange in the film – a florid description of his choice of reheated fast food -- for his own cameo makes it obvious he’s taking the piss out of himself). MacAvoy is tremendous in his variety of guises, and Taylor-Joy – whose giant, expressive eyes make her resemble a stop-motion Tim Burton puppet – is equally good as the most resourceful of his captives. Even if the last little sequence in the film might seems like it was tacked on in hindsight to connect this film to a larger “cinematic universe” Shyamalan is currently finishing up (and that will be baffling to anyone who doesn’t remember what it’s referring to), it’s a tiny flaw in an otherwise extremely well-made suspense piece.
I really like Fiend Without A Face! It's campy, sure, but so much fun. And although they take forever to show up, those little flying brain creatures are great.
Last edited by charlieray1; 10-02-2018 at 05:36 PM.
I'm going to be watching quite a bit of Bava and giallo this month so decided to start off with the original OG slasher flick. Fun movie! I see alot of this movie in other slasher movies made still to this day. I also love the fact that there really isn't any true protagonist, just a lot of nastiness. I wish the very ending wasn't such a letdown though.
10/1: Summer of '84
Last edited by moviebuff2; 10-02-2018 at 06:48 PM.
...You did not like Tales of Halloween? Shame, it is hit or miss but I enjoyed it myself. I thought ToH is an excellent anthology film with a spot on ghoulish vibe. I like more plentiful shorter segments in anthology films like this and some of the crossover between segments was nice. There were a few lackluster segments but many were especially good and it's frantic enough to keep things well paced.
All countries
Argentina
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Chile
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Finland
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Hong Kong
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Iceland
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Israel
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Philippines
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Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
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South Korea
Sweden
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Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
31 Days Of Horror 
Still, it earns it's 4 skulls.
It's impossible to like the main character -- she's obnoxious -- and it's really, really far-fetched. Unless, of course, she imagined the whole thing (which I tend to believe. She's obviously nuts.) I like the ambiguity of the ending, but this was pretty "meh.". The most impressive thing was that the whole movie was shot on an iPhone! Looked pretty good too.
Linear Mode
