Recently watched movies!

[lhb412]

[MekaGojira3k]

Watched Friday the 13th 4-6 for the first time.
4 is more garbage, 5 wants to be....like...Halloween or something?
6 is the first good film in the franchise. It's such fun. So goofy.

[lhb412]

^I've never watched any entirely, but isn't Part 4 like the most popular or highest regarded of them?

[Benjamin Haines]

Happy Death Day (2017) - I saw this in the theater on Friday the 13th. It's marvelous fun! It's like a slasher movie version of Groundhog Day and it takes the concept and just goes for broke. The editing and pacing are perfect and there's not a second of the film that's wasted. It kind of feels like an Edgar Wright picture with the way star Jessica Rothe appears in every scene. She carries the story with gusto from beginning to end. This movie rocks.

It Comes At Night (2017) - I rented this from Redbox. It's awesome in a different way, intense as hell and palpably bleak. It's a film that puts you in the characters' shoes and then dares you to think about the events from their individual perspectives and consider how their choices affect their fates. The ending is pretty abrupt but it works to highlight the bleakness of those people's situation. It's very effective horror that lingers after the movie is over.

[Dr Kain]

[klen7]

^ Happy Death Day has been getting pretty solid reviews.

The Babysitter - decent concept with an execution that is at times cringe-worthy. There's enough good in there that I wonder how this film would have played out with a different director helming it.

[jellydonut25]

[Dr Kain]

[jellydonut25]

Night of the Living Dead 1990 - There are some nice touches and flourishes here that, were they added to the original, would make that film even more perfect. Barbara's a little better (many would say MUCH better, but I actually don't mind the unraveling of the character in the original as it gives us a look into how this sort of event could cause you to just implode), the rationale behind Cooper and Ben killing each other is a little stronger, and the idea that Ben was not just wrong, but actually foolish is sewn a little stronger (there's a great moment where a zombie is shown ambling around aimlessly until it hears the house being boarded up and then heads towards the noise).

BUT (there's always a but, isn't there?)

It lacks the immediacy of the original. By being more cinematic, it feels less tense, and the scenes where everyone is just standing or sitting around feel a little more dull and less like everyone is frantically trying to figure out the situation. The social commentary is less prevalent too, and it's odd that while the makeup is obviously better, the movie feels a little less visceral (the scenes of zombies feasting for sure are more pulled back and less grotesque).

Still a really good zombie film, and a lot of fun to watch (and at 88 minutes, it won't suck your time away too bad), but it's not up to snuff with Romero's seminal works.

[Dr Kain]

Since when does Night of the Living Dead have to be a social commentary? It's a zombie movie.

[lhb412]

^Romero's films, especially his Dead films, are famous for their social commentary.

[eabaker]

[Geno]

[lhb412]

Pulse (2001)

The bandwidth of the spirit world having exceeded, spirits begin seeping into our world via computers and people begin to disappear and commit suicide.

Man, third J-horror in a row and this mournful sadness melancholy is beginning to get to me. I seriously feel depressed after watching this one!

[Dr Kain]

[jellydonut25]

[Dr Kain]

I prefer Zack Snyder's remake of Dawn. It's what the Resident Evil movie should have been.

I couldn't even watch the original Dawn in its entirety. Not only did I find it boring, but the effects were so damn horrible. It was like the zombies were biting into Hostess cakes whenever they bit a person.

Although, to be fair, I did try to watch Dawn about 15 years ago. There have been plenty of movies that I couldn't get into then that I enjoy now.

[lhb412]

The original Dawn is a terrific film and the best thing about the (in my opinion vastly inferior) remake is the opening.

[eabaker]

Watched The Babadook last night. I really like the concept, but it was kind of monotonous, and I felt like it over-explained its own metaphor; too much of the subtext was rendered as text. Glad to have seen it, but not something I'll feel compelled to watch again. I do wonder if it might have worked better told primarily from the kid's perspective, rather than the mother's; a lot of the themes could have been overheard in snippets rather than so thoroughly explicated, and there might have been a little more ambiguity about what was really going on. It was definitely a movie that could have benefited from a lot more ambiguity.

Also, over the weekend, re-watched The Mummy's Hand and A Nightmare on Elm Street, both movies I've seen probably dozens of times over the last three decades.

It had been longer since I last watch The Mummy's Hand. It's a very strangely paced movie; it takes a long time to set-up characters and situations, and then once Kharis actually goes into action, everything happens in very rapid succession. It's not a bad pace, per se; everything is fun and engaging. It's just that, at the end, Kharis himself feels a bit... minor, I guess.

Jenn and I re-watch ANoES a lot, as it's one that we've both really dug since childhood, and it totally holds up. None of the sequels, even the oft-praised Dream Warriors, even comes close to touching the original for me. One element that I'm kind of sorry to have lost in the sequels is Freddy's masochistic side; I love it when he does things like slice off his own fingers or cut into his own chest. In some ways, this movie covers a lot of the same thematic ground as The Babadook, and Wes Craven's English professor background definitely shows itself, but the story and characters are compelling enough that it doesn't feel too didactic or expository.

[jellydonut25]

[jellydonut25]

Night of the Living Dead
Dawn of the Dead
Day of the Dead
The Crazies
Land of the Dead
Season of the Witch
Monkey Shines
Martin
Two Evil Eyes
Bruiser
Diary of the Dead
Survival of the Dead
Monster Squad
The Final Girls
The H-Man
The Human Vapor
Secret of the Telegian
Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters
Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare
Yokai Monsters: Along with Ghosts
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
Night of the Living Dead 1990

The Great Yokai War - Miike essentially remakes Spook Warfare to great success. Lots of fun, and though I don't know if I would have liked it as a kid, I feel like kids in Japan who are lucky enough to have seen this movie probably love it. It's a great kids film. 4/5

Dawn of the Dead (2004) - It lacks the oomph of Romero's film (doesn't stick with you when it's all over) but it's still a really fun movie in its own right. It's got a solid cast, some good set pieces, solid gore, and fun twists on the zombie sub genre. I'd say it's a shade better than the NOTLD remake, and somewhere around Land in terms of just being a great bit of zombie fun. 4/5

Circle (2015) - Not to be confused with the woeful Tom Hanks, Emma Watson film THE Circle, this is a bottle movie that is almost entirely set in one location, where 50 people are placed in a room, and have to vote on which one of them dies next. It's not too long, but I wonder if a rewatch would have it start to feel like it's overstaying its welcome, as it might be better served as like a 50 minute episode of Black Mirror or something. Still, it's pretty enjoyable, honestly, and manages to work its premise very well. The bit at the end feels like something more worthy of a show, where the director might lack a touch of confidence that the idea has been gone through effectively and can point to the stinger as "opening the world to more potential exploration," but hey, it doesn't ruin the movie. 3/5

Cult of Chucky - Wow. First of all, no seventh film in any series has any right to be (a) still pulling through continuity, (b) still able to make its audience guess or (c) so creative, but Cult of Chucky does it. I wonder if it'll hold up on repeat viewings, knowing more the end-game (because I'll be honest...it was a bit of a let down, and the climax didn't feel like a good blowoff, more like a set up for a future film), and being less engrossed by being genuinely uncertain of where everything was going, but Brad Dourif still has some great moments, there are still some fun kills, and it's a visually pretty unique film...maybe not particularly beautiful, but unique, and I can appreciate that after nearly 30 years, something so earnestly stupid is still going this strong and trying to pave new ground. In an era of remakes, and grounded realism and nostalgia porn, Don Mancini dares to do something different....and yet at the same time, comfortable and warm and familiar. Remember when these long-running franchises used to essentially force themselves to forge FORWARD instead of just hitting the reset button every few years? Mancini remembers...and he's willing to put himself "in" that box, which oddly enough forces one to think OUTSIDE the box. You can't just repeat yourself because you have to reconcile everything that came before. I dunno, even with this one definitely not being my favorite entry or anything, I feel like every Chucky film since 3 has made me appreciate the franchise more and more...and that's as someone who absolutely HATES Seed. I still feel like I'd rather see a franchise TRY new things than just be enslaved by its first outing or two and constantly bow to the past. Cult of Chucky doesn't always hang together as a film, and it's one of those "that was somehow amazing and terrible at the same time" movies, but it was a wild ride. I'm gonna give it a 3.5/5 until I figure out whether that's going to be adjusted up or down.

[lhb412]

Got my Hammer Horror on with The Curse of Frankenstein. Watching Peter Cushing's eyes dart around while feverishly deciding what psycho thing to do next is always a delight.

[jellydonut25]

Gerald's Game - For those not in the know, Gerald's Game is a Stephen King novel about a woman and her husband who give handcuff rough sex a try as sort of a last-ditch effort to save their marriage. The woman isn't into it, and (in the novel) in an effort to push her husband off and convince him she's not role-playing when she tells him to stop, she kicks him and causes a heart-attack that kills him, leaving her chained to the bed. The movie's version places less blame on our main character (not that King's version blames her very much, the film just makes her completely free of the guilt), but leaves her in the same situation.

Seems like a thin premise for a film, and despite really enjoying the book, I would have considered it an unfilmable story. A story with essentially one character just fighting for survival until a gruesome escape attempt? Didn't we already see that? Wasn't that called 127 Hours and wasn't it boring and ridiculous? While that film in fact WAS ridiculous (it had a cameo by Scooby-damned-Doo), and boring, Gerald's Game is anything but.

It's extremely well-acted, and Flanagan should be commended (as he co-wrote the film) for wisely externalizing the voices Jessie hears in her head throughout the book, not as the (what would have been silly and out-of-nowhere in a movie) characters from the book, but as an idealized version of herself and a mockery-fueled, cynical version of Gerald. This provides us with some excellent acting and slightly humorous jabs, while keeping a movie about a woman stuck in one spot for 72 hours interesting. It also serves the purpose of three voices in King's novel through only two, and though it's a slightly more obvious "devil on one shoulder, angel on the other" scenario, those kinds of tropes have lasted this long through thousands of years of storytelling because they WORK when they're done well. King's works are always at their best in adaptations when a filmmaker knows how to maintain their spirit while jettisoning some of the dialogue that would feel stilted or unrealistic when spoken aloud and trim things down overall. Flanagan is capable of doing those things with Gerald's Game.

Normally, when a movie is THIS good but with one big-ish flaw, I would give it a solid 4/5, a strong recommendation to fans of the genre, and a fairly strong, but possibly 'qualified' recommendation to general movie fans (ie, do you like horror at all? Are you okay with gore? Can you roll with a crazy person and some pretty uncomfortable things?). With Gerald's Game though...I dunno. The climax is seriously lacking. Something happens, and then it just kinda peters out. There's not a good blow-off like you might expect, and I feel like Flanagan flubbed it a little bit, because I remember it being a little more climactic and tense in the book.

I think I'd still recommend it, but it's possible I'm just bummed that it came so close to being truly great until it flubbed the ending and settled for merely being good. It's still phenomenally acted, well-paced, solidly directed, and deserves major points for crafting an enjoyable film out of such a difficult to adapt story...maybe I'll come around in a couple years when I re-watch it knowing the climax isn't what I would want it to be.
3.5/5

[MekaGojira3k]

Finished the Friday the 13th series, wow. What a cesspool.
As far as a ranking I'd say
1. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
2. Friday the 13th (2009)
3. Freddy vs. Jason
4. Friday the 13th (1980)
5. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
6. Friday the 13th Part 2
7. Friday the 13th Part III
8. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
9. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
10. Jason X
11. Friday the 13th VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
12. Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday

All in all, these are mostly trash, and I'll probably only ever watch part 6 again. Some of these were downright painful to get through. Wow. I suppose a lot of what I expected from the franchise was true, though I was convinced from schoolmates that these were scary, and there's nothing here that'd really scare 6 year old me. I suppose it's terrifying that people got paid to produce some of this. That's the real horror.

[Dr Kain]

I don't think anyone has ever denied them being a cesspool, but they are fun movies.