Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

by **MouthForWar** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 9:06 pm

There's another topic about this floating around somewhere... I think a merge is called for.

Anyway, yeah, its #1 in my Netflix (I don't blindly buy movies anymore... been burnt too many times). I'm looking forward to this and dreading it at the same time. The horror community is drooling over this and praising it left and right and more often than not, movies that get that type of hype turn out to be bad (Inside, Martyrs, Hatchet, Cabin Fever, the Descent, the list is ENDLESS). I just watched the seemingly universally praised (by horror aficionados anyway) Grace and it was pretty awful... yet movies like Thirst, the Mist, Midnight Meat Train and Let The Right One In barley get any press. Thank god for Netflix rentals.

I really hope this movie is good and not another case of over hyped mediocrity. Paranormal Activity is the other one that is getting praised everywhere and I'm also holding onto my doubts for that until I see it.

by **jellydonut25** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 9:11 pm

ive heard this isnt that SCARY (but i wasnt expecting it to be) but is SUPER FUN (like i am expecting it to be)

by **MouthForWar** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 9:12 pm

by **king_ghidorah** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 9:21 pm

by **Mac** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 10:50 pm

by **jellydonut25** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 11:29 pm

by **jellydonut25** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 10:14 am

Update: Saw it. Loved it.

The way the stories are interwoven is really awesome. It makes it different than creepshow, where the stories are segmented. Just one thing I really liked.

by **MouthForWar** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 4:35 pm

by **ultrazilla2000** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 4:56 am

Not very scary, but well done to say the least. Characters were fun, and I too loved how the stories all intersected. I'd like the same film makers to make a follow up someday. There's not enough GOOD horror anthologies these days...

by **Tom R VanSlambrouck** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 5:33 am

http://clubtokyo.org/discuss/viewtopic.php?t=15967

It was on the second page.

by **jellydonut25** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 8:46 am

Little bit broader (and mostly spoiler free, tried to keep it to minor spoilers) review after now watching it twice:

Right off the bat it's a movie that is actually more adult than I'd thought it would be going in. You see a smattering of this small town on the most haunted night of the year in the throws of a halloween party that looks like one or two town-wide parties I've been to over the years.
A couple arrive at their house at the end of the night (but still relatively early, apparently) and the wife/girlfriend (the ring lead me to believe wife) is disgruntled, annoyed with halloween she begins taking down the decorations but she'll learn there are consequences to cleaning up too early on halloween. You don't want to anger any of the beasts that stalk the streets...
This might be the least fulfilling, and least EC Comics of all the stories. It's short, it's straightforward, and it serves as little more than an intro to the credits...there is one particularly cool/humorous moment when she gets creeped out by someone staring at her from across the street
The credit sequence is neat. Very Creepshow-esque, and it's even more awesome the second time as it introduces you to basically every character...
We then, more or less, are introduced to our second story. It centers around a seemingly harmless and nerdy school principal, a bullyish tween who enjoys smashing pumpkins and stealing candy, and the principal's child who REALLY wants his dad to come help him carve the jack-o-lantern
This is the segment/story that brought me into the film and let me know for sure that we weren't just in store for 'segment one...finished...segment two...finished' type of movie. There's a rather dark humor on display here that is pretty funny. "Don't forget to help me with the eyes" - I'll never hear that sentence the same again
Three kids are out trick or treating and collecting jack-o-lanterns, they claim it's for Unicef (sp?) but we know there's more to it than that, and of course, we find out it has something to do with a bus crash that involved some "troubled" children on Halloween years ago, nothing is as it seems in this story
I love love love loved this one. VERY VERY EC-esque. Comeuppances galore!
Four hotties (Anna paquin among them) are out on halloween looking for dates.
Talk about NOTHING AS IT SEEMS! WOAH! there's a couple of things that dont quite line up with the final reveal here, but the last scene in this story is truly awesome. set to marilyn manson's "sweet dreams" that just somehow completes the atmosphere in an awesome way. On a second watch, this feels like the story that has the most thought put into it. It's really really cool on a second watch too, a lot of the humor here is just phenomenal but only sinks in on that second watch.
Finally old mr kreeg is a boorish man who scares away trick r treaters and he has just shooed the wrong one off his porch...
This one's pretty cool too, ties in a lot of the rest of the stories, probably the most...ghostly of them all?

There's a TON of little details to watch for here and there that i know i havent caught all of yet, but definitely caught MORE of on my second watch
I'd list some things to watch for, but i'd be spoiling it for people...just pay attention to things like, masks, candy, quick flicks of the camera while the bully kid is walking, the opening credits, the opening sequence, some of the wording of lines that could be taken a couple of different ways, i'd like to say more, but i'll just say PAY ATTENTION!
Sam is cool, seems to be less of a harbinger of bad things and more of an observer. Rather than show up BEFORE things go bad as a sign that things are about to turn, he's often seen just AFTER situations turn gruesome, apparently to watch.

There's a werewolf concept on display in this movie, the closest analogy I can think of is from Van Helsing, but it is definitely an AWESOME idea here. The bus full of 'troubled' children is a scene that is both excellently done and extremely heartbreaking.

In the end, it's mayhem, slaughter, beasts, goblins, ghouls, and hauntings all with a dark sense of humor!
Several severed thumbs WAY up!

by **Dr Kain** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 4:47 pm

Never heard of it until last night when I looked at our copies. We are already so out, what is it about?

by **king_ghidorah** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 4:52 pm

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!

Every single fricken place in this town was sold out of this film or didn't even bother to order any!!! I just spent the past hour searching for one copy of this! I felt like Arnold looking for Turbo Man in Jingle all the way...seriously almost ripped my steering wheel off...stupid incompetent people! They had plent of Thaw and all that Ghost Picture crap for sale though...wohoo!

I spent the whole day at work counting down the minutes til I got to buy this movie and watch it with a package of Sour Patch kids to get in the mood but nooooooooooooooooopppppppppppppppeeeeee...so I went ahead and just impulsed bought it on Amazon almost out of spite at Best Buy, Suncoast, Target, Wal-Mart and Blockbuster...I hate them all now :evil:

Also bought Romero's vampire movie Martin cause I keep hearing so much about it

Grrr...day wasn't a total failure...bought Powerman 5000's new CD today and am loving it altough it is a tad short.

by **MouthForWar** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 6:23 pm

by **king_ghidorah** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 6:57 pm

by **jellydonut25** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 10:30 pm

by **Dr Kain** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 11:34 pm

by **MouthForWar** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 1:08 am

by **jellydonut25** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 8:20 am

by **Dr Kain** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 8:35 pm

by **MouthForWar** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 9:14 pm

by **jellydonut25** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 10:15 pm

by **Dr Kain** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 12:11 am

by **INVINCIBLE HASTUR** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 12:49 pm

Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

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