Halloween Horror Marathon '15
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AndyDursin
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15
That's just how I felt about it too. I've also wanted to hear what Haslinger wrote, I can only imagine how it would've changed the tone of the film.
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Monterey Jack
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15
Beware of the Blobs that creep...
-The Blob (1958): 6.5/10
The lead acting debut of "Steven" McQueen (playing a 28-year-old teenager with a rededing hairline), the 1958 Blob is a film with an irresistible concept (what's more frightening than an amorphous, formless shape that can ooze through the smallest of entranceways and can swallow you up?), and it's fun to see McQueen at the beginning of his career (coming off a series of supporting bit roles), and yet it’s a movie that's simply hampered too much by the inherent deficiencies of special-effects technology of the day. Just when you're hoping to see the titular monster really go to town with an epic rampage, the film sputters to a stagy halt, with too many moments where the Blob just an immobile matte painting. The early scenes are somewhat promising (especially when the Blob attacks and absorbs the local doctor and his nurse as McQueen witnesses...and questions what it is he actually saw), but the movie is kind of pokey, with way too many scenes of McQueen and his delinquent buddies trying to convince the unimpressed local law enforcement of the danger. Compared to other genuine 50's sci-fi classics that were remade in the 70's and 80's (like Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and The Thing From Another World), The Blob is an interesting curiosity, but not much of a movie.
-The Blob (1988): 8/10
Now this is more like it...director Chuck Russell (coming off the franchise high of A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors) and co-screenwriter Frank Darabont -- armed with what were state-of-the-art F/X of the day -- made a version of the same basic idea that was truly innovative, briskly-paced, and very scary. Even today, the techniques used to realize Russell's Blob impress, and the film stands as one of the high points of 80's genre cinema when it comes to animatronics and puppetry. This Blob truly has movement and purpose, rather than the simplistic gravity gags used to make the original film's title mass ooze around languidly. And even looking past the impressively yucky monster scenes, The Blob '88 plays around with genre conventions with a wink, offing likable characters left and right and upending cliches while still paying tribute to all of the expected gross-out payoffs. The only disappointment is Dov Hoenig's dull, tinny synth score (which actually cribs "Kay's Theme" from Jerry Goldsmith's Capricorn One at one point)...after all of the money spent of the creature, I'm sure the producers only had a buck thirty-five left to throw at a music budget, and it shows. Otherwise, this Blob creeps and crawls with gooey panache.
-The Blob (1958): 6.5/10
The lead acting debut of "Steven" McQueen (playing a 28-year-old teenager with a rededing hairline), the 1958 Blob is a film with an irresistible concept (what's more frightening than an amorphous, formless shape that can ooze through the smallest of entranceways and can swallow you up?), and it's fun to see McQueen at the beginning of his career (coming off a series of supporting bit roles), and yet it’s a movie that's simply hampered too much by the inherent deficiencies of special-effects technology of the day. Just when you're hoping to see the titular monster really go to town with an epic rampage, the film sputters to a stagy halt, with too many moments where the Blob just an immobile matte painting. The early scenes are somewhat promising (especially when the Blob attacks and absorbs the local doctor and his nurse as McQueen witnesses...and questions what it is he actually saw), but the movie is kind of pokey, with way too many scenes of McQueen and his delinquent buddies trying to convince the unimpressed local law enforcement of the danger. Compared to other genuine 50's sci-fi classics that were remade in the 70's and 80's (like Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and The Thing From Another World), The Blob is an interesting curiosity, but not much of a movie.
-The Blob (1988): 8/10
Now this is more like it...director Chuck Russell (coming off the franchise high of A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors) and co-screenwriter Frank Darabont -- armed with what were state-of-the-art F/X of the day -- made a version of the same basic idea that was truly innovative, briskly-paced, and very scary. Even today, the techniques used to realize Russell's Blob impress, and the film stands as one of the high points of 80's genre cinema when it comes to animatronics and puppetry. This Blob truly has movement and purpose, rather than the simplistic gravity gags used to make the original film's title mass ooze around languidly. And even looking past the impressively yucky monster scenes, The Blob '88 plays around with genre conventions with a wink, offing likable characters left and right and upending cliches while still paying tribute to all of the expected gross-out payoffs. The only disappointment is Dov Hoenig's dull, tinny synth score (which actually cribs "Kay's Theme" from Jerry Goldsmith's Capricorn One at one point)...after all of the money spent of the creature, I'm sure the producers only had a buck thirty-five left to throw at a music budget, and it shows. Otherwise, this Blob creeps and crawls with gooey panache.
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Monterey Jack
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15
-Byzantium (2013): 7.5/10
Visually striking vampire tale from Neil Jordan (Interview With The Vampire) about a former prostitute (Gemma Arterton) who has existed for over 200 years after stealing the chance for immortality from one of her cruel regular customers, and the daughter (Saorise Ronan) she has raised in the centuries since, who has finally begun to tire of their nomadic existence. Like the earlier Interview, Byzantium is a lushly-presented, engrossing film that's well-performed by the two leads, but it ultimately doesn't offer much to the overall lore of the vampire legends. Still, for what it is, it's well-made and enthusiastically gory.
Visually striking vampire tale from Neil Jordan (Interview With The Vampire) about a former prostitute (Gemma Arterton) who has existed for over 200 years after stealing the chance for immortality from one of her cruel regular customers, and the daughter (Saorise Ronan) she has raised in the centuries since, who has finally begun to tire of their nomadic existence. Like the earlier Interview, Byzantium is a lushly-presented, engrossing film that's well-performed by the two leads, but it ultimately doesn't offer much to the overall lore of the vampire legends. Still, for what it is, it's well-made and enthusiastically gory.
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Monterey Jack
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15
-My Soul To Take (2010): 1/10
Seriously...what the hell, Wes?! This is AWFUL...catastrophically inept and incoherent and just depressingly inert from a filmmaker who was capable of so much better. Seriously, I defy anyone to make sense of this movie's plot.
Seriously...what the hell, Wes?! This is AWFUL...catastrophically inept and incoherent and just depressingly inert from a filmmaker who was capable of so much better. Seriously, I defy anyone to make sense of this movie's plot.
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Monterey Jack
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15
-Ghost Story (1981): 8/10
Classy supernatural tale about a quartet of old friends (played by Fred Astaire, John Houseman, Melvyn Douglas and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) haunted by a tragic misdeed from their past, who comes back in the form of an alluring young woman (a stunning, frequently nude Alice Krige) who attaches herself to the twin sons of one of the elder gents (both played by a pre-Body Double Craig Wasson). Adapted from the Peter Straub novel by screenwriter Lawrence D. Cohen (Carrie), Ghost Story is a lavishly-produced film with ace contributions from cinematographer Jack Cardiff, visual effects supervisor Albert Whitlock and composer Philippe Sarde, plus a nicely mounting sense of dread courtesy of director John Irvin's steady hand and the fine performances of the film's cast.
Classy supernatural tale about a quartet of old friends (played by Fred Astaire, John Houseman, Melvyn Douglas and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) haunted by a tragic misdeed from their past, who comes back in the form of an alluring young woman (a stunning, frequently nude Alice Krige) who attaches herself to the twin sons of one of the elder gents (both played by a pre-Body Double Craig Wasson). Adapted from the Peter Straub novel by screenwriter Lawrence D. Cohen (Carrie), Ghost Story is a lavishly-produced film with ace contributions from cinematographer Jack Cardiff, visual effects supervisor Albert Whitlock and composer Philippe Sarde, plus a nicely mounting sense of dread courtesy of director John Irvin's steady hand and the fine performances of the film's cast.
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Monterey Jack
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15
The Sentinel (1977): 0/10
What in the flaming fudge was THAT?! Here's a movie that makes The Legacy look like The Exorcist. Featuring an Irwin Allen-ready cast brimming with slumming legends (Ava Gardner, Burgess Meredith, Eli Wallach, Martin Balsam) and soon-to-be-famous up and comers (Chris Sarandon, Christopher Walken, even a weirdly-dubbed Jeff Goldblum), it's a movie that's almost willfully nonsensical, unintentionally hilarious, and so bizarre it would be fascinating were it not so deadly-dull.
What in the flaming fudge was THAT?! Here's a movie that makes The Legacy look like The Exorcist. Featuring an Irwin Allen-ready cast brimming with slumming legends (Ava Gardner, Burgess Meredith, Eli Wallach, Martin Balsam) and soon-to-be-famous up and comers (Chris Sarandon, Christopher Walken, even a weirdly-dubbed Jeff Goldblum), it's a movie that's almost willfully nonsensical, unintentionally hilarious, and so bizarre it would be fascinating were it not so deadly-dull.
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Monterey Jack
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15
-30 Days Of Night (2007): 7/10
Slick, kinetic tale of slavering, animalistic vampires (who speak in a guttural "language" that sounds like the "Ack-Ack-Ack" Martian dialogue from Mars Attacks! played backwards) who lay assault to a small, remote Alaskan town that is about to see its annual, month-long twilight before the sun rises again, allowing them free reign to turn the terrified, helpless populace into a blood buffet. Stylishly directed by David Slade (Hard Candy, TV's Hannibal), 30 Days could have teased out the reveal of the vamps a little longer for my taste...the central orgy of murder and feeding takes place barely a half-hour into a movie that pushes 120 minutes. It also doesn't do an especially good job making it seem like it takes place over the course of a month...feels more like 3 Days Of Night. That said, it's enthusiastically vicious and has a great, sadly brief turn by Ben Foster as the movie's "Renfield" stand-in ("That cold you feel ain't the weather...that's death approachin'"), plus horror and action movies set in the snow and the cold always appeal to me for some reason...maybe it's seeing those arterial sprays of red blood soaking the pristine-white snow, which is always a great visual.
Slick, kinetic tale of slavering, animalistic vampires (who speak in a guttural "language" that sounds like the "Ack-Ack-Ack" Martian dialogue from Mars Attacks! played backwards) who lay assault to a small, remote Alaskan town that is about to see its annual, month-long twilight before the sun rises again, allowing them free reign to turn the terrified, helpless populace into a blood buffet. Stylishly directed by David Slade (Hard Candy, TV's Hannibal), 30 Days could have teased out the reveal of the vamps a little longer for my taste...the central orgy of murder and feeding takes place barely a half-hour into a movie that pushes 120 minutes. It also doesn't do an especially good job making it seem like it takes place over the course of a month...feels more like 3 Days Of Night. That said, it's enthusiastically vicious and has a great, sadly brief turn by Ben Foster as the movie's "Renfield" stand-in ("That cold you feel ain't the weather...that's death approachin'"), plus horror and action movies set in the snow and the cold always appeal to me for some reason...maybe it's seeing those arterial sprays of red blood soaking the pristine-white snow, which is always a great visual.
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AndyDursin
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15
That one was OK, but the ending sucked.
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Monterey Jack
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15
Yeah, the ending was a letdown (of course, having an actor better than Josh Harnett might have helped 
).
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AndyDursin
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15
Glad you have experienced the horror of THE SENTINEL for yourself. lol. That one is an all-time stinker!
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Monterey Jack
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15
I honestly thought I was hallucinating watching that.AndyDursin wrote:Glad you have experienced the horror of THE SENTINEL for yourself. lol. That one is an all-time stinker!
Dear God!-
Monterey Jack
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15
-Alice, Sweet Alice (1976): 8/10
Disturbing shocker about a young girl named Karen (Brooke Shields, in her film debut) who is viciously strangled to death at her First Communion and burned with a votive candle. Was the culprit her jealous, disturbed sister, Alice (Paula Sheppard), or is someone else to blame? Brimming with religious imagery and sporting one of the more memorable "masked killer" disguises (a yellow rain slicker, with the killer's face obscured by an eerie, transparent doll mask...and this two years before Halloween made this kind of iconic gimmickry commonplace amongst horror film villains), Alice, Sweet Alice has some truly vicious kills (and a bit involving a kitten that would have the ASPCA up in arms today) and unexpected twists, and boasts an effective, spooky lullaby of a score by Stephen J. Lawrence.
Disturbing shocker about a young girl named Karen (Brooke Shields, in her film debut) who is viciously strangled to death at her First Communion and burned with a votive candle. Was the culprit her jealous, disturbed sister, Alice (Paula Sheppard), or is someone else to blame? Brimming with religious imagery and sporting one of the more memorable "masked killer" disguises (a yellow rain slicker, with the killer's face obscured by an eerie, transparent doll mask...and this two years before Halloween made this kind of iconic gimmickry commonplace amongst horror film villains), Alice, Sweet Alice has some truly vicious kills (and a bit involving a kitten that would have the ASPCA up in arms today) and unexpected twists, and boasts an effective, spooky lullaby of a score by Stephen J. Lawrence.
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Monterey Jack
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15
Time for something a little lighter...
-ParaNorman (2012): 10/10
This one gets better and better every time I watch it...a delightful throwback to the kinds of "80's PG" kid's adventure movies (usually under the Amblin production label) that I grew up on. Full of the sort of lightly scary wickedness (zombies, a witch's curse) that kids eat up, the movie takes a surprisingly dark and ultimately touching turn as it upends genre conventions in unexpected ways. And visually, the wizards at Laika studios have done it again...ParaNorman is an absolute triumph of character design, fluid animation and maddeningly precise detail work, a feast for the eyes and imagination. I now find this to be every bit the equal of their earlier Coraline, and that's great company to keep.
-ParaNorman (2012): 10/10
This one gets better and better every time I watch it...a delightful throwback to the kinds of "80's PG" kid's adventure movies (usually under the Amblin production label) that I grew up on. Full of the sort of lightly scary wickedness (zombies, a witch's curse) that kids eat up, the movie takes a surprisingly dark and ultimately touching turn as it upends genre conventions in unexpected ways. And visually, the wizards at Laika studios have done it again...ParaNorman is an absolute triumph of character design, fluid animation and maddeningly precise detail work, a feast for the eyes and imagination. I now find this to be every bit the equal of their earlier Coraline, and that's great company to keep.
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Monterey Jack
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15
-Corpse Bride (2005): 9/10
If I touch a burning candle / I can feel no pain
In the ice and in the sun / it's all the same
Yet I feel my heart is aching / though it doesn't beat, it's breaking
And the pain here that I feel / try and tell me it's not real
I know that I am dead / and yet it seems I still have some tears to shed.
If I touch a burning candle / I can feel no pain
In the ice and in the sun / it's all the same
Yet I feel my heart is aching / though it doesn't beat, it's breaking
And the pain here that I feel / try and tell me it's not real
I know that I am dead / and yet it seems I still have some tears to shed.
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Monterey Jack
- Posts: 9743
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Re: Halloween Horror Marathon '15
-Honeymoon (2014): 8.5/10
Disturbing, slow burn of a horror outing (perhaps too slow of a burn for some viewers) about a young couple of newlyweds, Bea (Rose Leslie) and Paul (Harry Treadaway), who travel to Bea's secluded house on the lake in order to enjoy a little marital bliss...but after a bout of inexplicable sleepwalking, Bea starts to act...not herself. Forgetting trivial things at first (like how to properly prepare French toast), her behavior grows steadily more alarming, and that's not even getting into the odd bite marks on her thighs, or the strange lights shining in their windows late at night...
Director and co-writer Leigh Janiak takes what starts off as a mundane relationship drama and quickly skews it into a gradually-accelerating nightmare, and the two leads deliver credible performances. Rose Leslie I've never heard of before, but I immediately fell in love with her...it's like someone Clutch Cargo'ed Anna Kendrick's smile onto Emma Stone's face, and in the early scenes she has a beguiling charm that slowly ebbs away to reveal a perplexing absence of character, like an Invasion Of The Body Snatchers bad dream. And Harry Treadaway makes Paul's increasingly anxiety over what's happening to his blushing bride palpable, building to a memorably squicky climax that's bound to upset the viewer of multiple levels. An impressive little movie.
Disturbing, slow burn of a horror outing (perhaps too slow of a burn for some viewers) about a young couple of newlyweds, Bea (Rose Leslie) and Paul (Harry Treadaway), who travel to Bea's secluded house on the lake in order to enjoy a little marital bliss...but after a bout of inexplicable sleepwalking, Bea starts to act...not herself. Forgetting trivial things at first (like how to properly prepare French toast), her behavior grows steadily more alarming, and that's not even getting into the odd bite marks on her thighs, or the strange lights shining in their windows late at night...
Director and co-writer Leigh Janiak takes what starts off as a mundane relationship drama and quickly skews it into a gradually-accelerating nightmare, and the two leads deliver credible performances. Rose Leslie I've never heard of before, but I immediately fell in love with her...it's like someone Clutch Cargo'ed Anna Kendrick's smile onto Emma Stone's face, and in the early scenes she has a beguiling charm that slowly ebbs away to reveal a perplexing absence of character, like an Invasion Of The Body Snatchers bad dream. And Harry Treadaway makes Paul's increasingly anxiety over what's happening to his blushing bride palpable, building to a memorably squicky climax that's bound to upset the viewer of multiple levels. An impressive little movie.