The Official Horror Thread

[Rip]

Just finished “Bird Box” on Netflix.  I just read the book a couple months ago so I’ve been really looking forward to the film ever since.

 

It was pretty damn good.  They really changed a whole lot though.  And I know it’s hard to fit a whole books worth of material in a 2 hour film, but goddamn it felt like everything happened in a very short period of time when it was actually months (or even years) in the book.

 

But really though, it’s worth checking out.  If you don’t know anything about it, think “The Quiet Place” except with sight instead of sound.  Like I said, it really is good.  I just think reading the book left me wanting more out of the film.

[radiatorhums]

On 12/22/2018 at 10:57 PM, stranaspank said:

Gremlins - Classic, you know what happens. The creature effects are still rad.

Gremlins is one of my favorite movies ever.  I think the sequel is pretty strong and very clever too.

 

I'll post my holiday horror roundup in the next few days.  There's some overlap with what you've watched.

[Rip]

This looks absolutely incredible.  Merry Christmas everyone.

 

 

[radiatorhums]

Here's what I've watched over the last week.  Mostly holiday horror, since they kind of have a shelf life.  I also watched Black Christmas last night, but I had a little too much holiday cheer and kept getting distracted by other things.  Guess I'll revisit next year!

 

Christmas Evil - This is one of the better ones overall.  Not as memorable or fun as Silent Night, Deadly Night, but it's the better movie as a whole.
Silent Night, Deadly Night - This one is fun and trashy and has some clever holiday themed kills.  This'll be my go-to one.
Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 - As mentioned before, the first half of this is literally flashbacks of the previous film.  The back half is pretty fun and there's a great rampage at the end.  Even with the fact that they only made half a movie, I mostly enjoyed it.
Silent Night, Deadly Night 3 : Better Watch Out - Woof, this one is a real dog.  Borderline unwatchable.
Silent Night, Deadly Night 4 : Initiation - I feel like there were some re-writes to make this take place around Christmas.  There's no killer Santa and the plot involves a witch coven.  It's definitely bad, but it's kind of charming in a late night cable sort of way.
Silent Night, Deadly Night 5 : The Toy Maker - Decent idea with ok execution.  Gets real weird in the last 20 minutes (there's some obvious foreshadowing, but it's still surprising that they take it in such a strange direction).
The Children - This has some fun kills and overall decent story.  Biggest issue I had is it looked and felt really cheap and that took me out of it a lot.

 

The House That Jack Built - I thought this was great all around.  It held my attention for the entire 150 minute runtime and seemed to move pretty fast.  There were a couple nice little nods to a few real serial killers too.
Hell Fest - I didn't care for this, but I also feel like it was geared towards people in their late teens and not someone in their 30s.  It might not be bad as a group watch.

 

Eli Roth's History of Horror - People I like talking about movies I like.  This doesn't really deep dive into things, but it's fun and I learned a few things.  I'd recommend it.
Wellington Paranormal  - Not nearly as essential as What We Do In The Shadows.  It it pretty amusing and if you want more of this world, you most likely won't be disappointed.

 

Hope everyone had a good holiday!

[maxnadz]

I’m looking to sell an It Follows shirt by the company RuckingFotten if anyone wants to buy it. Size large. Tried it on but it doesn’t fit

[stranaspank]

Nice list jonrawks, I think I'm going to go ahead and finish up the Silent Night, Deadly Night series just to be a completionist. Did a little research and there are good amount of holiday movies left, but I'm pretty sure I've watched any that have any hope of being good. Except for Sint, which looks good but I can't find it anywhere online.

 

Rare Exports - Put this one off for a while because I'm too lazy to read subtitles, but finally did it. Really fun, I loved the look of the monsters, and the main kid is great. Could've used more scares for sure, but well done.

[radiatorhums]

9 hours ago, stranaspank said:

Rare Exports - Put this one off for a while because I'm too lazy to read subtitles, but finally did it. Really fun, I loved the look of the monsters, and the main kid is great. Could've used more scares for sure, but well done.

I found out about this a little to late to make it into my schedule.  Going to make it high priority next year!

 

Eden Lake - Real solid survival horror movie.    It's tense and savage.

 

Into the Dark : New Year, New You - Another good entry into the series.  Don't have a whole lot to add except that each installment seems to deliver.

[radiatorhums]

New Year's Evil - Trashy little slasher from the very early 80s.  Not bad enough to be fun and not good enough to be entertaining.  Probably would be completely forgotten if it wasn't NYE themed.

 

Avenged (aka Savaged) - Save for a little bit of fun gore, I didn't care for this one bit.

 

Hellraiser V : Inferno - Slowly going to be working my way through series now that the holidays are over.  This has a decent psychological horror / detective noir vibe too it.  Different from the previous four quite a bit.  Mostly a swing and a miss, but at least they tried something different.

[Rip]

Over the past few days I’ve watched:

 

Annihilation - Maybe not “horror” per say, but goddamn if it didn’t have its moments.  I felt an incredible uneasiness throughout the whole thing as well.  Very strong “Last of Us” vibes too.

 

Strangers: Prey at Night - Meh, it was alright.  Definitely not as good as the first (I personally love the first one.  I know it’s nothing special really, just something about it), but it had its moments.  The whole pool scene in particular.  Really wasn’t a fan of how The Man in the Mask turned out being a Jason-like character who just wouldn’t die at the end though.  Felt like an odd choice.  Oh, Music was really top notch too.

 

Dead Ringers - Been wanting to see this for so long.  Saw it was on Prime so thought it was a good chance.  Really good.  I love Cronenberg’s stuff and even though I was expecting (and hoping for) more of his effects, the story was good enough to make up for it.  Really creepy at times and Jeremy Irons acted the hell out of the role(s?).

 

Mandy - FINALLY.  Don’t know how else to describe this besides “insane.”  Really, really beautiful as well and that soundtrack is out of this world.  Plus it’s always a treat to see Nicholas Cage go all out with his craziness.  Check this one out if you haven’t yet.  It’s a hell of an experience.

[stranaspank]

Also watched New Year's Evil for the holiday, thought it was kinda fun.  Very few kills as I recall though. The main killer guy is really swinging for the fences with his role. Agreed, not too memorable, but I am a sucker for any depiction of punks or metalheads in any 80s horror flick, so those parts were pretty cool.

[dawhizz]

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but I'm going to shout out a movie I saw a while ago called Lake Mungo.  It's an Australian movie (it's positioned as a documentary and is very believable in presentation) if from about ten years ago maybe.  It's not super horrific, more of a creepy supernatural mystery maybe, but I watch a fair number of horror movies, most of which I literally never think about again, but I keep thinking about the movie every once in a while.  Seek it out.

[Rip]

9 minutes ago, dawhizz said:

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but I'm going to shout out a movie I saw a while ago called Lake Mungo.  It's an Australian movie (it's positioned as a documentary and is very believable in presentation) if from about ten years ago maybe.  It's not super horrific, more of a creepy supernatural mystery maybe, but I watch a fair number of horror movies, most of which I literally never think about again, but I keep thinking about the movie every once in a while.  Seek it out.

 

Love this movie.  Got a very “Twin Peaks” vibe when I watched it.

[chunkrock]

On 1/4/2019 at 1:44 AM, stranaspank said:

Also watched New Year's Evil for the holiday, thought it was kinda fun.  Very few kills as I recall though. The main killer guy is really swinging for the fences with his role. Agreed, not too memorable, but I am a sucker for any depiction of punks or metalheads in any 80s horror flick, so those parts were pretty cool.

I watched this last week myself and I actually had a great time with it! Once the reveal happens it looses a bit of steam but the first hour or so I thought it was super fun.

[Bladew1ll1s1sdead]

Watched Dead Alive back in October and I really enjoyed the zany gore. That lawnmower scene tho. 

[radiatorhums]

Here's what I went through over the last couple weeks.

 

Scream 4 - This was surprisingly good.  Doesn't quite top the original, but I think it's the next best entry into the series.  A nice redemption from the rubbish that was Scream 3.

Dead Girl - This is the first movie I've been repulsed by in a very long time.   I kept watching in hopes that it'd redeem itself at the end, but it just doubled down on the misogynistic rape  fantasy that it portrays the whole film.

Lifechanger - Real cool concept, very mediocre execution.  The main character gets itself into some real amusing situations and I think it would've worked better if it dove into that and presented itself as a horror comedy.

Rust Creek - I was expecting this to be more of a survival horror movie.  What I got was an ok, if not predictable drama.

Murder Party - Nothing amazing, but it was fun.  I usually like seeing the early work of film makers I enjoy, especially when they're working on real low budgets.

Happy House - This was neither the horror nor the comedy it was billed as.  Don't bother.

I Know What You Did Last Summer - Hadn't seen this since it came out.  It didn't age nearly as well as Scream did and definitely was far worse than I remember it being.  Even though some of the logic here is bad even by horror standards, it was still fun to revisit.

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer - Significantly worse than the first, but it does cross into so bad it's good territory.  I had a pretty fun time with this one.

Swamp Thing - This was awesome in a late night monster movie sort of way.  Not Craven's best work and definitely not a great representation of Swampy as a character though.

Suspiria (4k remaster) - I haven't seen this in about 15 years and figured I should refresh myself before the new one gets a home release.  The use of sound here is so good and I think it really makes the movie.  Additionally, it seems like a lot of care was taken in the remaster and it looks gorgeous.

Good Manners - More of a dark fantasy than a horror film.  My friend and I both liked this quite a bit.  It tells a werewolf story in a way I'd never seen before.  The runtime is a little long, but it seems to go fast due to how the movie is structured.  I'd recommend it pretty highly. 

[radiatorhums]

Channel Zero got cancelled today, kind of a bummer.

[Rip]

13 minutes ago, jonrawks said:

Channel Zero got cancelled today, kind of a bummer.

 

Saw this last night.  Pretty bummed about it.  Yet we’ll get 10 more seasons of Americans Horror Story.  So fucking dumb.  Hopefully Shudder or someone picks it back up.

[The Butcha]

That really sucks. Really enjoyed the newest season. 

[radiatorhums]

Suspirira (2018) - This was very well crafted.  It mostly maintains the original story, but presents it in a different way.  It doesn't try to emulate Argento's style either and definitely has it's own feel to it.  It's a bit bloated at 2:30 hours and there was one subplot that I didn't think added much.  Additionally, Yorke's score isn't too impressive.  I'd say I like the original more, but I think this has plenty of merit and is worth watching.

 

Hellraiser VI : Hellseeker - There's some decent psychological horror ideas here, but overall this isn't a very good movie.  With some minor rewrites and replace the cenobites with nudity and you'd probably have a Cinemax softcore porno.

Edited January 19, 2019 by jonrawks

[Rip]

Just finished up Suspiria (2018).

 

Oh man I loved it.  Might sound blasphemous but I might’ve liked it even more than the original.  Although I’d say it’s hard to even compare the two.  Loved the look of the remake so much.  Very “Lars Von Trier” in style and visuals.

 

Gonna be one I’ll need to watch more than once to full grasp everything that happened cause man, it’s insane.

[Rip]

New trailer for “Us”:

 

 

2 short “Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark” teasers:

https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3544672/videos-scary-stories-tell-dark-super-bowl-spots-introduce-films-creatures/

 

[Rip]

Last night I watched the new Into The Dark movie “Down.”  Not too bad.  Pretty predictable for the most part, but all of these movies so far have been fun watches so I guess that’s what really matters.

 

”Velvet Buzzsaw” was pretty great.  Visuals were nice and I enjoyed the story.  Only complaint is that it seemed like it wasn’t sure what kind of movie it was trying to be.  Some of the dialogue at points was a little ridiculous so I couldn’t help but think “is this supposed to be funny or not?”  Pretty original film regardless though.

[radiatorhums]

Been watching a lot of older things I hadn't seen / trying to tough out some bad sequels of bigger franchises.

 

Ghosts of Mars - I recently revisited Escape from NY/LA and figured I'd give this a go.  I could've swore I saw it when it came out, but also have no memory of it.  Anyway, it probably wouldn't have been much better if it was a Plissken movie, but I think I'd have wanted to see that more.  There are still a few late period Carpenter movies I haven't seen, but this is definitely the worst one that I have.  There's some cool Mad Max stuff in parts and that's about the only redeeming factor.

Let the Right One In - Hadn't seen this somehow.  I liked it quite a bit, but I feel like so much has treaded on similar territory since it came out that it felt a little too familiar.  More the fault of me watching it 10  years late than on the movie itself though.

I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer - About as bad as you'd expect an 8 years later straight to video sequel with none of the original cast.

Dead Ant - Expected this to be a dumb / funny creature feature and I was mostly satisfied.

Dry Blood - Low budget psychological thriller that fell pretty flat.

Animas - This was ok.  The twist wasn't super surprising and it went downhill a bit after.

Hellraiser : Deader - Worst one I've seen yet!

Final Destination - I saw this when it was released and the concept stuck with me more than the actual movie.  After revisiting it, I'd stay that largely still rings true.  Decent idea, very forgettable specifics.  Definitely feels dated too.

Final Destination 2 -  This one is fun as hell.  Takes the premise and just runs with it.  The original takes itself pretty seriously, this one doesn't seem to at all.  Whole lot of gore and explosions and clever kills.

Nailbiter - Decent idea that's completely ruined by terrible acting.

Shocker - This was pretty fun.  Not a great Craven movie, but if you like Freddy's one liners, you'll find a lot to enjoy here.

Hellhouse LLC II : The Abaddon Hotel - I'd say if you like the original, you'll probably enjoy this, just don't expect it to be better.  The first had a creative way to do found footage with there being an actual reason for cameras and this achieved that as well, but in a different manner. 

Bride of Re-Animator - I didn't hate this, but I'm not sure if I'd go too far out of my way to watch it again either.

Braid - I wasn't expecting such a mind fuck when I went into this and think I need to rewatch it because of that.  I liked it, but don't think I grasp it either.

Ginger Snaps - Although I liked this, I also didn't feel like it aged very well.

[Rip]

Oh man @jonrawks, Bride Of Re-Animator and Ginger Snaps are a couple of my favorites.  So damn fun.

[radiatorhums]

On 2/5/2019 at 4:38 PM, Rip said:

Oh man @jonrawks, Bride Of Re-Animator and Ginger Snaps are a couple of my favorites.  So damn fun.

It might have been my mood when I watched Bride, not sure, haha.

 

Velvet Buzzsaw - Completely agree with what @Rip said.  I thought it was interesting and fun, but I also have no idea how I'd describe it to anyone.

 

Climax - I keep seeing this being listed as a horror film and I don't feel like that's accurate.  Either way, it's a pretty wild and hypnotic movie and I enjoyed it immensely.  Some of the visuals in it are so fucking cool.  Definitely seek this one out.

 

Final Destination 3 - Seemed to take itself a little more seriously and felt more like the first one.  It did keep the gore level of the second.  Fun watch, but there we some diminishing returns here.  

 

Overlord - Although I mostly liked this, the story structure was painfully by the books and didn't offer any surprises because of it.  It also seemed to take a really long time to get to the good stuff.  It made for a nice lazy afternoon watch, but it didn't blow me away.