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Post by guttersnipe on Oct 28, 2023 9:17:05 GMT -8
37) Halley (2012, Sebastián Hofmann) - 6/10 38) The Wizard of Mars (1965, David L. Hewitt) - 3/10 39) The Slime People (1963, Robert Hutton) - 4/10
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Post by guttersnipe on Oct 29, 2023 15:03:04 GMT -8
40) Invasion of the Animal People (1959, Virgil W. Vogel and Jerry Warren) - 4/10 41) Giant from the Unknown (1958, Richard E. Cunha) - 4/10 42) Zontar, the Thing from Venus (1967, Larry Buchanan) - 3/10
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Post by guttersnipe on Oct 30, 2023 12:05:05 GMT -8
43) The Devil's Hand (1961, William J. Hole Jr.) - 6/10
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Post by Jeremy on Oct 30, 2023 16:30:14 GMT -8
I am comforted by the thought that William Hole did in fact make a good movie.
Still have to see a few more films before I hit 31, but I think I can get it done by tomorrow night. I have to say, though, that 2023 has been kind of an underwhelming year for new horror films. Talk to Me is the only real standout I've seen from this year; everything else has been decent at best.
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Post by guttersnipe on Oct 30, 2023 16:43:57 GMT -8
Yeah, I was expecting another shocker, but in a different way. This one actually had a bit of solid grounding, and at least remembered to include some horror elements instead of feeling like it was an afterthought in the final act of the script. I'm hoping I can squeeze in a genuinely appealing film tomorrow in the form of the Estonian film November (right before the event itself); in the meantime, why not a bit more sadomasochism courtesy of the dread hand of Jerry Warren?
44) Attack of the Mayan Mummy (1964, Jerry Warren and Rafael Portillo) - 4/10 45) Curse of the Stone Hand (1965, Jerry Warren, Carlos Hugo Christensen and Carlos Schlieper) - 5/10 46) Face of the Screaming Werewolf (1964, Jerry Warren, Rafael Portillo and Gilberto Martínez Solares) - 2/10
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Post by guttersnipe on Oct 31, 2023 0:04:12 GMT -8
47) Knife + Heart (2018, Yann Gonzalez) - 6/10
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Post by Jeremy on Oct 31, 2023 8:08:00 GMT -8
Oh yes, I finished watching all the Nightmare on Elm Street films this month (from the original series anyway - haven't seen the Freddy vs. Jason spinoff or the 2010 remake).
It's not a series I had originally planned to see through when I watched the first film a couple of years back, but it's more entertaining than the average horror/slasher series, despite being rather uneven, with a sense of staleness setting in over the later films. Robert Englund is really fun as Freddy (it helps a lot that he is a maniac with a personality, unlike Jason or Michael Meyers) and there are some imaginative sequences with terrific practical effects throughout the series.
I'm not sure that any film in the series would qualify as a "great" movie, since the series is kind of shlocky even at its best. But at its peak (probably the third film, which is well-paced and features some of the best visual effects in the series), it's a wild and fun time. It's also interesting to watch the series grow, with one early installment (the second film) feeling like an oddball fit from a different, Body Snatchers-esque franchise (and suffering because of it), and the later sequels adhering too rigidly to the formula established by the prior films, ultimately leading to its end (even if The Final Nightmare wasn't actually "final" at all.)
I also got a kick out of Wes Craven's New Nightmare, which despite its bloated runtime and disappointing climax, is one of the more fun films in the series, and was clearly ahead of the curve with regards to its meta-humor and fourth-wall comedy, setting the stage for Craven's work with the Scream series. One horror franchise ends while setting up another to begin. It's the circle of life! But, y'know, with more blood and death.
Elm Street films ranked: 3>1>7>4>5>2>6
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Post by ThirdMan on Oct 31, 2023 11:10:43 GMT -8
Though Heather Langenkamp was far from a great actress -- she's probably not even a good one -- the acting, in general, in New Nightmare is, to the best of my recollection, a bit sounder than in the original six films, the best of which (#3, indeed) get by more on visual inventiveness than writing or acting. Robert Englund, though, is a classically-trained actor (The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, in London), so it's not much surprise that he'd be able to bring some personality to such a role, as hammy as his performance often (deliberately) is.
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Post by guttersnipe on Oct 31, 2023 16:43:09 GMT -8
48) The She-Creature (1956, Edward L. Cahn) - 5/10 49) Zombies of Mora Tau (1957, Edward L. Cahn) - 5/10 50) Voodoo Woman (1957, Edward L. Cahn) - 4/10
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Post by Jeremy on Oct 31, 2023 16:48:29 GMT -8
Though Heather Langenkamp was far from a great actress -- she's probably not even a good one -- the acting, in general, in New Nightmare is, to the best of my recollection, a bit sounder than in the original six films, the best of which (#3, indeed) get by more on visual inventiveness than writing or acting. Robert Englund, though, is a classically-trained actor (The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, in London), so it's not much surprise that he'd be able to bring some personality to such a role, as hammy as his performance often (deliberately) is. I thought Langenkamp was quite good in New Nightmare (even if she's technically just playing "herself"). She's not a great actress overall, but I don't think it's entirely a coincidence that the best films in the series are the ones featuring her. Most of the other acting in the series ranges from okay to bad (with occasional bright spots, like the young Johnny Depp); Englund is often better than both his costars and the material, and makes the most of it.
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Post by guttersnipe on Nov 1, 2023 1:17:46 GMT -8
So my partner wasn't well enough to venture out to see the original Exorcist on the big screen, so we decided to spend Halloween watching a double-bill of films that we each wanted to see.
51) Talk to Me (2022, Danny and Michael Philippou) - 6/10 52) Gwleđđ (2021, Lee Haven Jones) - 7/10 (or maybe 8/10; easily the best film of the Challenge)
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Post by guttersnipe on Nov 1, 2023 1:34:28 GMT -8
Despite subjecting myself to several films by Jerry Warren, Ron Ormond and Herschell Gordon Lewis, I never quite had it in me to sit through all the Elm Street films, because I realise that an overview of what I have seen is an entirely downward trajectory: the original > the fun gay one > the one bizarrely soundtracked by Dokken and Angelo Badalementi > the one with the Depp cameo > the meta one > the one with the crossover. I don't seen to have logged the 2010 remake although I'm 99% sure I watched it :/ Obviously it made quite the impression.
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Post by Jeremy on Nov 1, 2023 7:30:52 GMT -8
Yeah, it's not a film series I can broadly recommend, just one with a few standout entries (by the genre's standards) and some generally nostalgic '80s vibes. But it sounds like you've seen the best ones, anyway. I'm glad that Talk to Me did so well (A24's biggest box-office hit outside of EEAaO), particularly as it's from a pair of directors who had formerly just been known for YouTube videos. Quite a success story. I sincerely hope the sequel will not actually be called Talk 2 Me, though. I'm happy to say I hit 31 horror movies this month! Less happy to say that some of them were quite bad, although thankfully I got the worst one out of the way right at the start.
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Post by ThirdMan on Nov 1, 2023 10:57:27 GMT -8
Well, I didn't watch any horror movies this October, but I did watch the ~20 Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episodes that I hadn't seen (and also the Thanksgiving of Horror one). Homer engaged in cannibalism quite a lot in these episodes, particularly in terms of eating his own body. I'll soon try to get cracking on the better regular episodes that Jeremy listed on this site a while back (i've already watched the Eternal Moonshine episode, which I wasn't as impressed with as I'd hoped to be (it was good, though)).
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Post by Jeremy on Nov 1, 2023 16:08:34 GMT -8
I loved "Eternal Moonshine," though it's been a long while since I watched it. Curious about revisiting it, especially now that I've seen Eternal Sunshine.
Did you include "Not It" in your Treehouse of Horror marathon? That seems to be one of the most popular episodes in recent years.
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