Halloween 2015

[lhb412]

I've been meaning to watch Mad Love (1935) for ages, and thanks to TCM this evening I finally have! Brilliant surgeon becomes obsessed with actress in a Grand Guignol-style horror play (he seems especially excited by her torture scenes), actress' pianist husband gets his hands mangled, surgeon grafts the hands of a knife-throwing murderer onto the pianist, and then things become ever more strange. This is a deeply weird, beautifully shot film, and is surprisingly twisted for a movie made after the production code was up and running. Directed by Karl Freund (The Mummy) and starring Peter Lorre, Frances Drake, and Dr. Frankenstein himself - Colin Clive.

[klen7]

Saw Monster Squad for the first time ever. Was excited to see Shane Black as the writer... but without any nostalgia to help this movie it falls pretty flat. I can see it's probably very targeted at a preteen male demographic. Its interesting how much of this film would be too offensive to be greenlit today. Also blackmailing a high school girl with naked pictures taken outside her window is pretty f'd up no matter when the film was made.
The highlight of the film is the mummy and gillman, but gillman's design definitely feels like he's the younger brother of Predator, especially the front torso and legs. Kudos to Rick Baker, but I watched this film 20 years too late

[Dr Kain]

Thank you. I watched the movie a few years ago as I bought the BD since i was told it was fantastic and I thought it was mediocre at best. I then sold off the BD to a store for $2 only to have it now worth about $80 for some reason. I saw it is on Netflix though, so I might give the movie another shot.

[klen7]

Spring - This was listed as Romance/Horror with an ambiguous description... It's kind of like "Under the Tuscan Sun" but with a creature. More romance than horror. Some interesting cinematography, a solid long take and a number of drone shots of a scenic Italian town. Odd flick

[jellydonut25]

I don't think nostalgia is required for Monster Squad. It's the best Universal monsters mashup there is. The movie gets better to me the more it ages as the makeup and effects all remain great and the stuff with the kids starts to take on an ironic level of fun, especially Rudy as the cool kid. Eminently quotable, excellent makeup, and willing to put kids in actual peril, it's Goonies for Halloween and I love nearly every second.


As for Spring, didn't care for it for multiple reasons. I'm growing sick of this recent trend I'm seeing where a standard, uninspired story about a relationship gets a scifi twist just to make it feel different and the twist ultimately doesn't add anything. Spring isn't a huge offender there but it definitely feels like "scifi for people who don't like scifi"
Then there's the much bigger problem of the relationship at the core of the movie. I have a pretty hard time buying it, given what we're ultimately told about the characters.

I wasn't mad I watched it, but I'd never bother again.

[klen7]

I've also been watching plenty of children's fair with baby girl. We got Harry Hugglemonster's Halloween special, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey's Monster Musical and Doc McStuffin's newest Halloween episode..and older Doc McStuffin's Halloween special.

[klen7]

[jellydonut25]

Well, I mean, you mentioned The One I Love, which was just 'meh' to me. I thought it squandered its premise. There was also Age of Adaline, and Spring, and Maggie, and those are only the ones that (a) I remember off the top of my head (b) I actually saw and (c) definitely irritated me. There have been others with a similar "Super cool premise that doesn't go at all down the sci-fi/horror/fantasy route I would have wanted" feel that wound up being good (like Safety Not Guaranteed).


As for Spring:

[Dr Kain]

Never seen Goonies.

Anyway, I've watched a couple of the Simpsons THoHs today and the following movies:

Halloween 4 - A decent follow up to bring Myers back. It does have some great moments of suspense and cool death scenes. Also Jaime's actress is really really good for being 8. Unfortunately, it is hindered by a garbage mask for Michael (well okay, he had to grab what he could from the store, but from a visual perspective, it is dumb looking) and the ever changing scar on Loomis' face. Nevertheless, it is one of the better sequels out there, so I give it a 6/10.

Halloween 5 - There are parts I enjoy in this one and there are parts I hate. Tina's voice is just so god damn annoying. The whole plot with Jaime not actually going psycho is a complete cop out and the telepathy is lame as hell. Nevertheless, the death scene are cool, the music is good, and I do like the ending despite it being a cliffhanger. The biggest problem though is the movie is about 15 minutes way too long, dragging its score down to a 5/10.

Nightmare on Elm Street 4 - This wasn't as bad as I remember it being, but it still isn't great. Killing off the cast of the previous movie was insulting when they couldn't even be bothered to bring Patricia Arquette back. It just completely ruins continuity and also screws up her character because the mannerisms were not even remotely similar. The idea that Freddy needs to go after new kids was interesting, and I do like the dream sequences, but some of them were way too short. That aside, Freddy is losing his scare factor and becoming a joke. I give it a 5/10.

[jellydonut25]

If Halloween 4 had ended with the stick of dynamite like it has at the beginning of 5, I think it'd be a little bit better even, and I'd call it a day on that one, ignoring 5 and 6.

I think 5 might be the worst. I know 6 (Curse) is technically a worse movie, but I find it much more entertaining than 5, which is just boring and looks bad.

Nightmare 4 is more or less enjoyable to me due to the death sequences and body horror. The gore is good and it's a pretty film to look at.

[lhb412]

Next watched The Creature From the Black Lagoon. Not much to say about this except it has the best monster suit in film history and it's influence is wide, with fingerprints all over Jaws and Alien and, well, basically every small group vs. monster film made after.

[Dr Kain]

Nightmare on Elm Street 5 - Good god, what did I watch? The plot was utterly so damn stupid. It felt like they just rehashed the plot of the second movie, but tried to have there be a reason for it working this time instead of doing something different. Except for the comic book dream, the death scenes were bland as hell as they are clearly out of ideas. Of course, I only like the comic book scene because of its black and white scenery and I am a comic book fan. However, it was way too over the top and goofy to be in a horror movie, which means it failed on being scary. Hell, it wasn't even suspenseful. They should have done something more in tone to a Tales from the Crypt comic or something over a super hero one. Alice is really the only thing holding this movie together. Even the whole Amanda plot was resolved way too quickly and easily without any effort involved. This movie sucks and is worse than the second one. I give it a 3/10.

[jellydonut25]

5 is the worst. It's a rehash more of parts 2, 3, and 4, repeating the Amanda sub-plot that was featured in 3, and the Freddy wanting to come back into the world from 2 and bits and pieces from 4 as well. It's unoriginal, uninteresting, ugly to look at, has bad/boring kills, and Freddy's not even really "funny". I mean, he's acting comical, but it's not funny. At least in Freddy's Dead, it's kinda funny (albeit in a somewhat ironic way, with Freddy using a PowerGlove)

[jellydonut25]

Some of my recent watches:

Ginger Snaps - it's not QUITE as good as I remember it, but I still enjoy that it's a unique spin on the werewolf genre, with some solid characters and a good story. I still like it a lot. 4/5

Evil Ed - I just thought it was boring. It actually put me to sleep. 3 times. I thought I was just really tired, but I put on something right afterward and stayed awake the whole time. There's a lot of elements for something I SHOULD like here, but it doesn't come together in an interesting way. 1.5/5

Suck - A pretty fun vampire movie that is really funny and cooks when it's working and clicking and just a little boring when it's not working. It's got some really funny moments and characters though, and Malcolm McDowell's character is great. Seeing him in this kind of role is a lot of fun. 3.5/5

Demons - It's got issues in plot, acting, and story, but it's also got a guy on a motorcycle driving around a movie theater slicing people up with a katana...so, y'know...it's pretty crazy. 3/5

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark - I kinda liked it, but I think some familiarity with Elvira is probably required to get full enjoyment here. It was okay, but I never watched her host horror movies or anything and I have no real attachment to the character. 3/5

Rogue - Sometimes, a movie doesn't have to do anything super special or unique or different or crazy to be good. It can just have a killer croc, and be well-acted and scripted and directed and paced and be a really good watch. It's pretty tense and just a solidly done, good movie. 4/5

Fright Night (2011) - I liked this. The dodgy CGI kinda takes it down a couple pegs, and there are a few other issues (I wish it was a little funnier) but I liked it. It's well-done, and a good vampire movie. 4/5

Fright Night Part 2 (80s) - It's not good. It's got a couple good ideas (like flipping the relationship between Roddy McDowell and the main character) but it also has some REALLY cheeseball comedy and winds up feeling like more of a rehash of part 1 than a true sequel willing to do anything different. 2/5

Fright Night 2: New Blood (2013, DTV) - This is awful. It's not a sequel, it's ANOTHER Fright Night remake. Evil Ed is alive at the beginning of the movie, and none of the actors return. It's got a host of other issues, but as yet ANOTHER rehash of the basic Fright Night story, it fails on just about every level. 1/5.

[lhb412]

^ I delivered some furniture to a suburban house the other day. It was one of those couples whose baby has taken over their house. Everything in the place was related to the baby, with preschool toys littered about, a wall of baby photos - the only thing that reflected the adults within were two framed pictures: the couple (in slightly younger form) taking a picture with Elvira and, below it, a signed publicity photo of Elvira.

Got my Vincent Price Blu-Ray set the other day (Volume 2!) and decided to get the most lackluster ones out of the way first, so I watched two sequels: Dr. Phibes Rises Again and The Return of the Fly. The eccentricity of Phibes is still here and is appealing, but the film is a meandering rehash of the tightly plotted original. The Return of the Fly is an even bigger step down from the original quality-wise, but it's quite fun to watch a monster whose entire performance is to carefully keep its giant head on.

[klen7]

Near Dark - Another movie, i had never seen but kept hearing about... It seems like it works much better as a Western than a vampire flick. The pacing is not ideal for a horror movie, but the second half of the film has some interesting sequences, the highlight being a shootout where sunlight and bullet holes play a big role. I didn't care for the cinematography, so much of the film takes place at night, and the tech probably wasn't there for doing that when this was made. Some scenes are too washed out, others are too dark...maybe it's a movie that would greatly benefit from a restoration. If it gets a restoration, i'd be interested to see how the movie fairs otherwise i'll mark it as "seen" and move on

[jellydonut25]

I haven't seen Near Dark in too long to tell you how wrong you are, but it's actually on my list of movies I intend to watch this year.

[klen7]

^ i'll be interested to see your take. I didn't hate it, other than the unconventional pacing for the first half, most of my complaints were the video quality, so it could have been a bad print that my cable company was using.

I did finish up Fear the Walking Dead... it was more of an "outbreak" show than a zombie show. The emphasis being this infestation and how people/military react. The zombie parts actually felt REALLY cheap though. they did them with CG, so they pale in comparison to the zombies on TWD. Maybe its because they are more freshly undead, but even then there were a couple scenes were infected were repeatedly shot and the actor didnt react to any impacts and a series of blood spots appear. TWD gets sloppy with cartoon blood as well, but this was a notch below. Overall not that many zombies in the show so its kind of a moot point. One of the main characters is a heroin addict and had a groan inducing analogy in the final episode that made think the entire show was based around that one monologue. Overall it's fine as a miniseries, a full season might have been a bit much. I did come out appreciating TWD's overall production values a lot more.

[Dr Kain]

Halloween 6 Producer's Cut - A tad better than the fifth movie, but not by much. Light years better than the theatrical one, that is for certain. They clearly had no idea what they wanted to do with the series thanks to the bonehead director putting them into a corner with the last one and it shows. This movie has it all, incest, child rape, cults, randomized nonsense about constellations and crap, and worthless parents. Thank the gods the father gets what he deserves. Oh, and I forgot to mention plot holes/retcons. How much more can you cram into a 90 minute movie? I don't know, but Akkad clearly thought he didn't have enough and added as much as he could to the mix. This movie barely feels like a Halloween movie and the change in studios is also obvious. The movie no longer feels like unique, but just another generic slasher movie in the long line of forget-ability if it didn't have the words Halloween and Michael Myers in its title. It is a shame that this was Donald Pleasance's final movie because he gave it his all for a mediocre movie at best. Overall, it gets a 5/10.

[Henry88]

[lhb412]

[jellydonut25]

[Dr Kain]

[jellydonut25]

The Hidden - I'd never even heard of this until this year and it was crazy, and I feel bad for never having heard of it. Solid cast, good story, great effects, it's like if Men in Black were a serious film instead of a comedy, mixed with Fallen (that movie with Denzel Washington where the killer can transfer his soul to people). 4/5

Ed Wood - This is one that's been on my "to see" list for a LONG time, and I'm glad I finally gave myself an excuse to kinda force myself to sit down and watch this. Everything here is amazing. Acting, directing, script, score. Martin Landau is SPECTACULAR. 4.5/5

Demons 2 - It's disappointing that they didn't actually carry on with the story and go for a full-on sequel, but as a basic rehash of the first film, it's got enough differences to make it still fun. 3/5

The Rocky Horror Picture Show - I get it, but I think I would need more time around the songs to really LIKE it. 3/5

Ginger Snaps: Unleashed - It's not like I'd ever AVOIDED this, but I saw the first, and the third (knowing it was a prequel and not a sequel) and this one never came around on TV or anything where I wound up seeing it...it's surprisingly good. Continues the story in an interesting way and takes the premise to some new places. 3.5/5

Zombie (aka Zombi 2) - The Romero influence is obvious here, but there are enough twists and turns along the way to keep it from feeling like a complete ripoff. Romero has always been more concerned with showing how this outbreak affects our society, while Fulci shows us a society unaware that this is taking place, and thrusting its citizens into the maw. It's an interesting enough of a turn, and combined with some great makeup, and the only zombie vs. shark fight I've ever seen, it's very entertaining. 4/5

Ernest Scared Stupid - I know this movie came out when I was six, and Ernest was around before this, but my personal introduction to Ernest came at a poor time, for me. I was a tween, locked into thinking everything but "HARDC0R3!" was stupid, and Ernest just seemed dumb to me. I was (and am) too old to enjoy the stuff that's obviously slanted towards much younger viewers, but I was also too thick-headed to see the occasionally clever pun, witicism, or play on words, chuckle at the humor that's funny because it isn't, and recognize how difficult it is to make a film that has a broad appeal to FAMILIES, and not just KIDS.

This movie has a lot of little great moments to keep parents engaged and enough high-energy, physical humor (which I'm still a sucker for to this day) and goofiness for kids. Great bit of Halloween fun. 4/5

Society - Now my brain is broken and I need to lie down. 4/5.

[klen7]

I was about to respond to your Ernest write up, but lost it immediately upon reading your review of Society.