Halloween Horror Marathon '15

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AndyDursin
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15

#91 Post by AndyDursin »

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Looking forward to ASH VS EVIL DEAD on Starz this weekend!

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Monterey Jack
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15

#92 Post by Monterey Jack »

AndyDursin wrote: Looking forward to ASH VS EVIL DEAD on Starz this weekend!
I'm not subscribed to Starz, so I can't watch. :cry:

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Monterey Jack
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15

#93 Post by Monterey Jack »

"My fair lady, HUH!" :lol:


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AndyDursin
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15

#94 Post by AndyDursin »

Hasn't even premiered yet -- but already renewed for Season 2!

http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/ash-vs- ... 201628923/

esteban miranda
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15

#95 Post by esteban miranda »

Doctor X (8/10)
Some comedy relief to dilute the somewhat grotesque horror elements. Some scenes more effective than others.

Tales of Terror (7/10)
Satisfying trio of horror tales spiced with a little humor and Vincent Price is always worth watching.

Black Sabbath (7/10)
I first saw this movie about 45 years ago and I suppose I must have seen it again some time later because I remembered quite a bit of it after all those years. Three episodes, the first kind of spooky, the second pretty sexy (at least for the child that I was when I first saw it). The third story still seems to drag on and reminds me of a (not very successful) Night Gallery episode.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932) (8/10)
Very good rendering of familiar story. Lots of fancy cinematic touches. Not my favorite story but my favorite version of it.

Dracula (1931) (8/10)
I caught the recent theatrical showing. On the big screen, and without a music score, this seems even more static than at home. Still, we fans enjoy all the familiar scenes, and Dwight Frye seemed the most popular character with the tiny audience I sat with.

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Monterey Jack
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15

#96 Post by Monterey Jack »

-Mama (2013): 7/10

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Effective ghost story about a pair of young sisters (Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nelisse) found in a near-feral state in a dilapidated house in the woods, left there alone for five years when their distraught father (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) stole them away and then committed suicide...or did he? Left in the care of his twin brother (Coster-Waldau again) and his punk-rock girlfriend (Jessica Chastain, almost unrecognizable under a severely unflattering Joan Jett hairdo), the two girls are gradually weaned back into the fold of humanity, but remain entranced by their "imaginary" guardian "Mama", a vengeful spirit connected to a tragedy in the past that is looking to gain closure through the two girls. Produced by Guillermo Del Toro and directed by Andy Muschietti (who co-scripted with his sister Barbara, based on a short film by the two), Mama is full of the tropes that fuel Del Toro's own films (children in key roles, spooky lullabies, insect imagery, tormented spirits with tragic backstories), and offers up many crisp chills, although it falls a bit short of the best of Del Toro's own cinema. Still, well worth a look.

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Monterey Jack
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15

#97 Post by Monterey Jack »

-Oculus (2014): 8.5/10

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You ever have that experience, when watching a scary movie, when the person you're sitting with spends the entire time with crossed arms, harrumphing about how "I'd never do that!", or "Why don't they just leave the house?", playing Logic Police throughout the entire film? One of the many pleasures of Oculus, a sinuously creepy haunted mirror thriller, is that the leading character (played by Karen Gillan) is precisely that kind of person, the one who arrives with a ton of research about said mirror's sinister history and those who fell prey to its psychologically caustic aura and is loaded for bear, outlining exactly how she's going to be the one to "outsmart" it and bring its hundreds of years' worth of terror and misery to an end. And yet, for all of her meticulous planning (and a lot of it comes across as actually sound and reasonable), she still cannot find a way to outmaneuver its evil presence. Gillan plays a young woman who, shortly after her younger brother (Brenton Thwaites) is discharged from the mental hospital he's been incarcerated in since he was ten, comes to him with her plan to both chronicle the history of the mirror that drove their father (Rory Cochrane) and mother (Katie Sackhoff) to murderous insanity eleven years earlier and to destroy it to bring it's reign of terror to an end. Returning to their childhood home, she sets up a seemingly airtight system to keep the mirror's influence at bay, but soon, events of the past begin to seep into the present, and the two are assailed by memories of their younger selves (played by the terrific Annalise Basso and Garrett Ryan) as they were forced to stand by helplessly as their parents slowly lost their grip on sanity over a decade ago. Juggling two time periods with disorienting skill, writer/director Mike Flanagan and co-writer Jeff Howard never let the audience settle into a proper groove, keeping them on edge and questioning if what they are seeing is "reality", or just psychic projections of the mirror sent to torment the protagonists (there's a moment involving a light bulb that truly made me cringe). Recalling vintage Stephen King, Oculus is a truly creepy and effective supernatural shocker.

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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15

#98 Post by sprocket »

Crimson Peak (7/10)

Finally saw it tonight. There is a lot to like about the film. The sets and the costumes were spectacular; acting was good and I don't think there was an unlikable character in the film (including the villains!).

The trouble I had with it was that there was no sense of claustrophobia or imminent doom. For me there was too much of a sense of space, both from the film's staging and its script. I just didn't feel much tension. Some plot points were terribly obvious and I spent a lot of the movie waiting to be surprised ... but wasn't.

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Monterey Jack
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15

#99 Post by Monterey Jack »

-A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014): 9/10

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Evocative mood piece about a vampire (Sheila Vand) stalking the streets of a Persian "Bad City", and how her sanguinary nocturnal activity impacts the life of a young man (Arash Marandi), who assumes the lifestyle of a local pimp and drug dealer (Dominic Rains) that she feeds upon, leaving his stash behind. With beautiful B&W photography and fine performances by the two leads, Girl isn't a film filled with big shocks or over-the-top gore, but as a character study of a member of the undead yearning for some form of companionship, it's quietly compelling and one of the more interesting vampire tales in recent memory.

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Monterey Jack
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15

#100 Post by Monterey Jack »

-Dawn Of The Dead (2004): 9.5/10

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Still hands-down director Zack Snyder's finest film (hard to believe he went from this to the deeply incoherent, misogynist and skeevy Sucker Punch in only seven years' time), and one of the best horror remakes of all time, this turbo-charged version of George Romero's 1978 original retains nothing from the earlier film other than the basic concept of survivors of a zombie apocalypse taking refuge in the comforting bosom of their local shopping mall. Snyder's film has an entirely different cast of characters (Sarah Polley is excellent as our primary protagonist), all-new setpieces, and takes influence from other classic horror/suspense filmmakers like John Carpenter (the film's concluding lines are definitely an homage to The Thing) and George Miller (the survivors re-enforcing a pair of trucks to barrel their way through a gauntlet of the undead is right out of Miller's Mad Max series). The talented cast works well off each other, goosed along by the witty screenplay by James Gunn (who went on to write and direct the terrific horror/comedy Slither and the smash Marvel flick Guardians Of The Galaxy), and Snyder keeps the tension at a maximum without leaning on the technical flourishes (endless slo-mo, endless greenscreen) that would eventually ossify into self-parody over the last decade and change. Unlike later 70's horror rehashes like The Omen 2006 and Carrie '13, which were content to play rote karaoke with the originals and offer no new twists or any true sense of personal style, Dawn '04 is truly the best kind of remake, where seeing the original is unnecessary to appreciate the newer version's charms (although fans will enjoy some amusing cameos and Easter Eggs studded throughout). Even with the non-stop parade of zombie cinema and television that the success of this film inspired, Dawn remains near the top of the heap.

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Monterey Jack
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15

#101 Post by Monterey Jack »

-Trick 'r Treat (2007): 8.5/10

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Delightful anthology of horror tales centering around a small town on All Hallow's Eve, with the various stories overlapping in a Pulp Fiction style. In one, the wife (Leslie Bibb) of a man (Tahmoe Penikett) obsessed with the holiday finds herself assailed by an unseen killer whilst clearing away the gruesome decorations littering their front yard. In another, the psychotic high school principal (Dylan Baker) is out to carve more than pumpkins. Then, a gaggle of mean schoolkids use a town legend about a lost school bus to play a cruel prank on the local "retard", only to have their plan turn back on them. Meanwhile, a virginal young woman (Anna Paquin) plays Little Red Riding Hood and finds out who the Big Bad Wolf really is. Finally, a mean, curmudgeony old man (Brian Cox, made up to look like director John Carpenter...and, coincidentally, this is the second horror movie I've watched in a row to crib a line from Carpenter's The Thing) is attacked in his home by a bag-headed, button-eyed little ghoul named Sam for whom the gruesome tricks are treats. Writer/director Michael Dougherty has crafted the rare anthology feature where all of the various sections bear fruit, building to E.C. Comics punchlines that are equally scary as they are funny and not overstaying their welcome (in contrast, George Romero's Creepshow is two segments and a half-hour too long, and Twilight Zone: The Movie bogs down in the middle thanks to Steven Spielberg's horrendously sappy "Kick The Can" segment). The cast plays the material just right, and I love how that familiar, singsongy childhood refrain of "Trick or treat / smell my feet / give me something good to eat" is woven throughout Douglas Pipes' excellent score and even some of the source music (listen to the marching band in the town square). The perfect film to enjoy on a crisp, cool October night, and remember, always check your candy.

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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15

#102 Post by Monterey Jack »

-The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993): 10/10

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See you again next Halloween! :twisted:

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