Halloween Horror Marathon '15

[jkholm]

I'll be watching my own Halloween marathon today at my local Alamo Drafthouse which is showing four movies, the titles of which will not be revealed until they show them. Hopefully there will be at least one genuinely good movie although knowing how the Alamo works I'm more likely to get a quartet of cheesy 80s flicks. (I did not go last year and read later that they showed Return of the Living Dead, Halloween III, Night of the Creeps and The Monster Squad.)

[AndyDursin]

Sounds like fun John! Enjoy it . I promise to watch something this week!

[Monterey Jack]

-Tusk (2014): 0/10



Not requiring a review so much as an autopsy, Tusk is one of the worst films I have been in recent memory, a witless horror/comedy with no scares and no laughs, a one-joke podcast reference stretched out for 104 interminable minutes, and proof positive that someone needs to man up and give Kevin Smith more pot money, because he's lost his everloving mind, and needs an intervention before making another movie. And -- along with Mortdecai -- it may be the worst thing Johnny Depp has ever agreed to appear in. Utter, indefensible trash, the kind of flick cult movie fans while defend with whines of "C'mon...you just don't get it!" Well, I got it...if "it" means a raging headache and an upset stomach.

[Monterey Jack]

-The Masque Of The Red Death (1964): 7/10



More vintage Vincent, with Mr. Price as a cruel, Satan-worshipping prince in a land plagued by the Red Death treating his servants and the lowly townspeople as mere tools for his amusement. Directed by Roger Corman, based on a story by Edgar Allen Poe and lushly photographed by future Don't Look Now director Nicolas Roeg, Masque is more concerned with atmosphere than narrative drive, but with Price delivering the purple prose, why carp?

[jkholm]

I enjoyed half of the movies in the Alamo's horror marathon today. First was Popcorn, sort of a horror version of Matinee with some students presenting a horror marathon featuring William Castle like movies but with a crazed killer lurking in the theater. Not perfect but enjoyable.

Next was Nightmare on Elm Street 3. The effects work still holds up. very imaginative and creepy.

The next two were low-budget trash. I walked out of The Deadly Spawn about disgusting looking aliens eating a bunch of people. Unwatchable.

Finally was the utterly bizarre, sleazy, repellent and unbelievably insane Night Warning about a woman with, shall we say, unnatural feelings for her nephew who kills anyone who gets in her way. I believe the collective jaws of the entire audience dropped at nearly every scene. It was definitely not to my taste. You have to be one of those people who love obscure cult films to enjoy this.

So 2 out of 4 isn't bad. And I had a coupon for a free pizza.

[Monterey Jack]

I enjoyed half of the movies in the Alamo's horror marathon today. First was Popcorn, sort of a horror version of Matinee with some students presenting a horror marathon featuring William Castle like movies but with a crazed killer lurking in the theater. Not perfect but enjoyable.

Never seen that one, but I've always remembered the tagline, "Buy a bag, go home in a box".

[Paul MacLean]

Corpse Bride

Likable, sweet and touchingly macabre in the the way that only Tim Burton can pull-off. I didn't think it was as good as The Nightmare Before Christmas, and I have to say it is a bit grotesque for a children's film. The visuals -- sets, photography and most especially the characters -- are probably more impressive than the story itself, but I enjoyed it overall. Danny Elfman's score is also one of his best (why didn't he score one of the Harry Potter sequels???).

[Monterey Jack]

-The Babadook (2014): 9/10



Wildly unnerving film about a single mother named Amelia (the excellent Essie Davis) left sole caretaker for her young son Samuel (the remarkable Noah Wiseman), who was born the night her husband died, driving her to the hospital. Refusing to acknowledge Samuel's real birthday due to the painful associations, she has begun to drift away from her child, his frequent flights of fancy involving invisible monsters and an obsession with magic tricks wearing down on her patience and, eventually, sanity. You see, Samuel has become convinced that the "Babadook" (a creature from a mysterious, disturbing pop-up book) has come for him, and despite Amelia's assurances that it's all make believe, his increasing bouts of aggressive terror are beginning to push her already stressed mind to the breaking point and beyond. Written and directed by Jennifer Kent, The Babadook is a psychological thriller of exceptional craftsmanship and skill, and a potent metaphor for the trials and emotional trauma any parent of an especially unruly child must undergo frequently. Whether or not the titular monster actually exists or is just a projection of Amelia's fracturing psyche is immaterial...either way, this is a horror film guaranteed to raise gooseflesh, with tremendous sound design and stylish direction.

[mkaroly]

DARK SHADOWS (TV Show) - I have not watched every episode, and this is a TV "soap opera" as opposed to a movie, but this weekend there is a channel I get on free TV called Decades TV, and they are showing lots of episodes of the show. Since it has a vampire and ghosts and stuff I thought I would put my thoughts in this thread. I had never seen it before, but I watched maybe six or seven episodes in between football games and I have to admit that there is something very creepy and alluring about the show. Barnabas looks ominous, and the old TV style makes it even more unsettling. I can't even begin to say what the show is all about, but there is an effective ghost character by the name of Sarah (a nine year old kid) that creeps me out. The sets are gothic and the music is really good. At times the show is campy and the over-acting is a bit much but I wish I could watch the whole series. Lol...I was tempted to buy the full DVD set with all 1200+ episodes but on Amazon it costs something like $300, and I'm sure I can spend my money in better ways. Anyone familiar with this show? I'd love to get opinions on it.

[Monterey Jack]

-The House At The End Of Time (2013): 8/10



Ingeniously-plotted Spanish chiller about a young mother (Ruddy Rodriguez) accused of murdering her husband (Gonzalo Cubero) and missing young son (Rosmel Bustamente) in 1981. Thirty years later, she's released from prison and put under house arrest in the crumbling, abandoned domicile where the events took place, where she, with the assistance of a priest (Guillermo Garcia), attempt to understand the potentially supernatural occurrences that happened there three decades ago and unravel the mystery. It's hard to get into plot specifics on this one without spoiling everything, but suffice it to say that House is one of those "horror" films that gradually peel back layers like an onion, revealing a far more complex and emotional core than you'd expect. It's definitely a film that will require another viewing or three to suss out the details, but the film is highly effective in delivering the requisite spooks and more, with Rodriguez delivering a terrific central performance (despite some poor old-age makeup).

[Monterey Jack]

-Eyes Without A Face (1960): 8/10



A mad doctor (Pierre Brasseur) kidnaps young women and surgically removes their faces so he can transplant them onto the ruined visage of his daughter (Edith Scob) following a car crash in this eerie French shocker. Sporting crisp, B&W photography and a fine Maurice Jarre score, Eyes is a poetic, mournful film, with the bone-white mask that Scob wears to hide her true face from the world a truly haunting, memorable image. A slowly-paced film, but a rewarding one.

[Monterey Jack]

-Creature (1985): 1/10



Horrendously cheapjack Alien ripoff is good for a few stray laughs, but hard to believe this came out over a half-decade after Ridley Scott's classic, as it looks about as chintzy as a 60's episode of Star Trek. The godawful, full-frame DVD that Netflix sent me was no help, although its 1986-era VHS quality was sort of nostalgic, as this is the way I watched a lot of the formative classics of my youth...on some crummy VHS or cable showing (or, worse, an edited-for-TV network broadcast) with the widescreen image butchered to fit a 500-lb, 20 '' tube TV and with so much streaky interference it was almost impossible to make anything out. You know a movie had a buck ninety-eight production budget when, aside from an extended Klaus Kinski cameo, the most recognizable name in the cast is 80's Joe Dante regular Wendy Schaal.

-The Quiet Ones (2014): 7.5/10



An Oxford professor (Jared Harris) in the mid-70's wants to collect scientific evidence that so-called ghosts and spirits are mere physical manifestations conjured up by the human mind, so he takes a test subject in the form of an unwanted orphan (the sad-eyed Olivia Cooke from Me, Earl & The Dying Girl), a pair of student assistants (Eric Richards, Rory Fleck-Byrne) and an impartial observer (Sam Claflin) to document the proceedings, and takes the four to a secluded house where their experiments will not disrupt the lives of the other students and faculty. Soon, they discover that whatever is possessing the girl is quite real, and may have a sinister connection to horrible Satanic rituals from the past. A chilling, atmospheric supernatural thriller (from the recently-resurrected Hammer studios), The Quiet Ones has some fine performances (especially from the remarkable Cooke) and plenty of bump-in-the-night frights, but falls just short of true greatness, despite the goosebumps it delivers as it unspools. Still, a worthy effort, and one of the few recent films to make effectively sparing use of the beyond-tired "found footage" trope.

[Monterey Jack]

Creature also has some of the most blatant lifts from various Jerry Goldsmith scores of the period (Outland, Twilight Zone: The Movie, The Secret Of NIMH) that I honestly thought that Richard Band was the composer.

[Paul MacLean]

Creature also has some of the most blatant lifts from various Jerry Goldsmith scores of the period (Outland, Twilight Zone: The Movie, The Secret Of NIMH) that I honestly thought that Richard Band was the composer.

Speaking of Richard Band (and family), have you ever seen Puppetmaster III? Your's truly is actually in one scene. My big claim to fame (or infamy).

[Monterey Jack]

-Army Of Darkness director's cut (1993): 8/10 (theatrical cut: 8.5)



Now out on a groovy 3-disc Blu-Ray set from Scream Factory, this is the first time I've taken in Sam Raimi's third Evil Dead picture in its longer "director's cut" version, and -- truth be told -- the shortened theatrical cut is superior. There are bits in the extended version I like, and the editing of key sequences is less choppy (especially the windmill sequence where Bruce Campbell's befuddled Ash is set upon by an army of tiny little ticked-off versions of himself, with additional, Three Stooges-esque slapstick), but the original conclusion is the rare case of studio insistence on a "happy ending" being the better choice as opposed to the director's initial vision. Ash's comeuppance in the director's cut just seems arbitrary and a needless bummer, lacking the "Hail to the King, baby" satisfaction of the theatrical version. Still, no matter what version you watch, Army is big-time fun, replacing the geysers of gore from the previous films with a more fantasy approach in the vein of a vintage Ray Harryhausen epic (nothing beats stop-motion skeletons in my opinion) and a sharp uptick in great one-liners delivered with gusto by Campbell (sadly, some of them are replaced with lamer alternates in the director's cut). Gimme some high-def sugar, baby.