Recently watched movies!

[jellydonut25]

[XvGojira]

[jellydonut25]

[XvGojira]

[Dr Kain]

The Mummy's Hand - Or as I call it, "NOT Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy" since that is what Steven and Babe seem to be as the movie appears to be more comical than a horror movie. Still, the mythology behind Kharis is pretty cool, especially with there being an order who are there to protect a tomb from being found. I just wish the movie actually had the atmosphere to surround its dark story. Oh, and the stock footage usage was extremely lame. Overall, I give this movie a 6/10 because it does have a lot of great ideas, it just those who made it did not want to take the source material seriously.

The Mummy's Tomb - It isn't enough that the movie is only an hour long, making it shorter than all of the other movies, but they spend the first 10 minutes as a clip show. -_- WHAT A BRILLIANT IDEA!!!! I like the idea of seeing what the characters are like years after their exploits, but the rest of the movie is pretty subpar. The notion of moving a mummy to kill in the US is just down right stupid. That is like turning a water monster into a human. Oh wait... It also doesn't help that eve with it taking place in the US there is still nothing that makes this scream horror movie. Finally, the make up on Kharis looks down right stupid. I know he is supposed to have been burned, but the new head is just dumb. I give this movie a generous 4/10 stars and that is only because of its continuity with the previous movie.

Son of Dracula - What is it with taking monsters out of their home towns and putting them in the complete opposite of scary?! And to New Orleans of all places!! It is already bad enough that I just think Larry is dressing up as Dracula because he does not even have the persona to be a vampire at all. He looks so sad and mopey the entire time that it is hard to believe he is even in love. This movie just sucks. The only thing I can say good about it is that at least the main female does not miraculously survive the entire ordeal. Oh, and that it is at least better than Daughter, which is why I give it a 3/10 stars.

[jellydonut25]

^I'm very willing to forgive old movies for stock footage sequences, because there was no home media (or even thought it would exist) in the 1940s.

[Dr Kain]

[jellydonut25]

[lhb412]

The Fall of the House of Usher and The Haunted Palace... not the greatest films (certainly not as good as the Universal and Hitchcock films I've been watching), but these Vincent Price/Corman/Poe movies are like a comfortable old Halloween blanket. Great atmosphere and Price are always mentioned as the big pluses of these films, but I'd also like to mention the effective scores these films have.

Is Palace the first movie where Cthulhu is mentioned?

[Dr Kain]

[jellydonut25]

I disagree that they are boring. Well, some of them are, but I liked Mummy's Hand and Mummy's Tomb quite a bit

[Dr Kain]

The Mummy (Lee version) - This was my first time ever seeing this movie and it was quite enjoyable. I liked how it took the best ideas from the Universal sequels about Kharis and made it its own thing in the process. My favorite scenes are the detailed flashback to ancient Egypt and then when Banning goes to visit Kharis' keeper with their whole discussion on what is right and wrong. The ending itself felt a little rushed though, as they could have easily cut 5 minutes out from an earlier part of the movie to give the movie a better satisfying conclusion, but all in all, it was good. It had atmosphere to go with it. My only complaint is pulling a mummy out of an Egyptian setting because that defies the point, but England works a whole lot better than America at least. Overall, I give it a 7/10 and I'll look forward to watching it again next Halloween.

BTW, I am really kicking myself for selling off my Dracula 4 films DVD because I kind of want to watch Horror of Dracula now.

Also, is Steve Banning played by the PM in A Clockwork Orange?

[lhb412]

Witchfinder General

This really does feel like a transitional film between '60s horror films (like Hammer films and Price's Poe films) and the more grisly '70s ones. Price goes more subtle on this one and it becomes much more unsettling. One will want to go back and watch one of his reassuringly campy horror villains if they want the icky cleansed from their Price-pallet!

[Dr Kain]

Riff Tracks Night of the Living Dead - I'm going to be straight up honest here, I do not get the appeal in this movie. I understand it started the zombie genre, but I do not find any of the characters likable, the zombies don't even look undead for the majority of the movie, and it seems more about how many nails you get hit than zombies. I applaud for what it started, but I just don't get the love for this movie at all.

With that said, the Riff Tracks portion was down right hilarious. I have never seen anything Riff Tracks before, so this was a treat. I just loved how they ripped the movie apart and pretty much hit on all of the points I have against in the movie. Barbara being one of the main retractions from the movie as her character serves no purpose whatsoever. I think my favorite joke though was doing some short called Norman Speaks and the main character drops his papers into the toilet and one of the guys said, "And this is where Michael Bay found the script for Transformers 3." I give the movie itself a 4/10 while I give the Riff Tracks a 9/10.

[XvGojira]

[Dr Kain]

The Invisible Man's Revenge - This movie sucks. That is all I really have to say about it. The plot is boring. The worst characters outlive the bad character. 2/10 stars and that is only because of he invisible dog effects.

[Silver Kamen]

[jellydonut25]

[Dr Kain]

I haven't bothered to rewatch Invisible Women or Agent since I first saw them in 2004 because they pretty much sucked ass. I've been thinking about rewatching them since I have been watching all of the other Universal movies, but I just can't bring myself the motivation to do so (nor She-Wolf of London).

Anyway:

The Mummy's Ghost - For what it is, this movie is not all that bad. I'd give it a 4/10 as it is not better or worse than the previous one. I don't care for how Kharis has become a mere joke of a monster though at this point, creeping through forests, backyards, and the like. However, the ending is quite shocking because it does something different for a change. Unfortunately, Amina was such a flat character that it is kind of hard to even give a crap about her unfortunate end. In fact, this movie pretty much does not have any likable characters at all as it doesn't even bother to develop anyone, it just jumps around between them and unnecessarily adds more pointless characters to the fold.

The Mummy's Curse - Wait... wha... when did New England suddenly have southerners and lushes swamps like Louisiana or something? And how does Amina go from being covered in mud and rising in the water to suddenly having perfect hair in perfect curls with make up on? None of this even makes sense, but the movie doesn't care, it just adds in more pointless characters just as the previous one did. Thank Set and mighty Osiris this is the final movie in the Kharis saga, as the plots have become as stale as a mummy's ****. I give this movie a 1/10.

[lhb412]

Masque of the Red Death

At this point I've seen half of these, and this is certainly the best Corman/Price/Poe film I've seen. It's a much more lavish film and it also feels a bit tighter story-wise and more capably directed by Corman. It's packed to the gills with as much gothic horror macabra as possible: Satanism, Orientalism, dungeons, a vengeful jester, a deadly masquerade ball, anthropomorphic personifications of death... all that's missing is a secret passageway and/or trapdoor. Maybe there was one and I missed it?

[DannyBeane]

I watched Movie 43 today before coming in to work. It was terrible. Stay away from it.

[Dr Kain]

[Shonokin]

TOEI's Satomi Hakkenden 1959. Interestingly this is an epic fantasy trilogy that has lavish production values, yet is obviously made for kids. It follows Bakin's story reasonably well, though some of the darker elements are changed to be more suitable for all audiences. Loving it!

[jellydonut25]

[jellydonut25]