Watched Crawl yesterday was kinda ok if you need some more Alligator fun worth 90mins of your time.
Crawl was how I kicked off this year's Horror Month a couple weeks ago
Figured I better watch this one again before I try the (probably totally unconnected) sequel.
#23 - Doom (2005)
Space Marines™ head to a research facility on Mars to investigate some shady happenings. Another one I remember being very disappointed with on first release. What does it say about me that I actually really liked this now. I mean it's got Space Marines™ ffs, fighting mutant creatures, on Mars! Karl Urban just starting out on his long journey playing the same po-faced badass that we came to know and put up with, Rosamund Pike wearing a tight top on a cold set, relatively good fx and gore, half a Dexter Fletcher and best of all a positively svelte Dwayne Johnson chewing the scenery and eventually going full bad guy. Lots of fun to be had here despite the movie's one real indisputable failing; it's terrible soundtrack, but I expect no less from the director who mixed rap and Steven Seagal, then mixed rap and Jet Li, then didn't do much directing for the next 15 years. All that and a truly kickass FPS sequence. We really enjoyed this crap!
The Devil's Backbone (2001)
12-year old orphan, Carlos, is left in the orphanage run by Marisa Paredes and Federico Luppi in the middle of a plain in Spain. The civil war is coming to an end with Franco poised to take power. An unexploded bomb sits in the middle of the orphanage's courtyard, a sign of the impending doom awaiting them all, echoed by the warnings from the ghost of a murdered child who stalks the hallways. Guillermo del Toro crafts a dark, emotional tale of murder, betrayal greed and supernatural revenge from a child's eye view.
Quote:
Casares: What is a ghost? A tragedy condemned to repeat itself time and again? An instant of pain, perhaps. Something dead which still seems to be alive. An emotion suspended in time. Like a blurred photograph. Like an insect trapped in amber.
__________________
"It's always funny until someone gets hurt...
and then it's just hilarious! "
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A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
A massive step up in quality that makes this nearly as good as the original. I'm sure it's helped no end by having Wes Craven back behind the scenes, but for me it was such a joy to see Heather Langenkamp return as Nancy. The hospital kids are all over-the-top in a cheesy way that only works to make things fun and I actually cared when some of them met their demise.
There's also a good amount of actual storytelling delivered here. Compared to the second film, it felt like the actual relationships between various characters were developed a hell of a lot better. Nancy and Dr. Gordon made a good team.
The biggest thing was the beginnings of some dark comedy making its way in to the franchise. Freddy becomes more sarcastic and delivers some lines that raise a chuckle when he goes in for the kill and the unexpected angle of the Zsa Zsa Gabor skit really made me laugh. The dream sequences are delightfully creative and there's some impressively grotesque imagery. I found the puppet string kill quite uncomfortable to look at.
So, Freddy's dead now? Right...?
The NeverEnding Story (1984)
Strange choice? Nope! I'm including this here simply because it absolutely terrified me as a child, and I think it still has enough of an edge today.
A film I adored as a child, a quintessential '80s fantasy. I have to wonder if this was one of the reasons for my love of books. It still has a lot of impact, especially in the music score and many of the visuals. It isn't afraid to contain elements that may upset or scare the crap out of kids and contains meta elements that feel ahead of their time. Watching it as an adult is easy to see some of the issues. The puppetry and creature work is fine but pales in comparison to the sort of things the Jim Henson company were doing at the same time. It goes for some ambitious stuff and doesn't quite get there, but the effort should still be applauded.
I like the actors too, especially since it relies so heavily on kids in main roles. They all do a pretty great job with the slightly awkward script.
It does feel like the film packs in a bit too much without giving it room to breathe. We don't get much of an explanation for things - who is Gmork and who is his master? The reveal behind The Nothing goes into very abstract territory, but I actually quite like that. The film's ending is bizarre and almost feels like the makers couldn't be bothered with it. A random narrator appears out of nowhere and essentially says, "more stuff happened, bye!".
I think the main compliment I can give the film is that it's authentic. The emotion is genuine, a lot of effort and care was put into making it and it doesn't dumb anything down for a young audience.
Homecoming (2005)
A speech writer for Dubya's White House hooks up with an Ann Coulter stand-in and invokes the sacrifice of dead veterans for war propaganda. The dead veterans return but call ******** on the GOP. Joe Dante's first Season entry of Masters of Horror is an entertaining satire with plenty of excellent, bad taste, lines (mostly uttered by the always brilliant Robert Picardo). Only problem with political satire these days is how do you compete with the shear insanity that assaults us daily in real life?
Quote:
Donald Trump: All American soldiers are away from the site. Syria and Turkey can fight... They’ve got a lot of sand over there... There’s a lot of sand that they can play with.
__________________
"It's always funny until someone gets hurt...
and then it's just hilarious! "
Xbox Live Tag - "Weaselfierce360"
PSN - "Weaselfierce72"
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In a complete 180 to the usual horror films, two rednecks try to have a peaceful time at their cabin in the woods when a group of teenage kids ruin their time suspecting that they are inbred killers.
i won't say too much more, but if you haven't seen it, please do, it's hilarious
Tucker and Dale is great, I may add it as a rewatch
Me too
#24 - Doom: Annihilation (2019)
Space Marines™ head to a research facility on [a moon of] Mars to investigate some shady happenings. Nope, nope, nope. This is how you don't do it. Lots of tedious stalking down dark corridors. A complete lack of charisma/charm/humour from any of the budget cast, including Aberdeen's own Amy Manson sadly, who I've enjoyed in various other things, so it's not her fault. But yeah, this was pretty bad. It captures the feel of the old straight to video 90's action/horrors, well the crappier end of the spectrum anyway. All that said the last 5 mins thru the dimension portal was fun, oh yeah cliffhanger ending, boooooo! Avoid. Still glad I revisited the 2005 Doom tho.
#25 - Poltergeist III (1988)
Carol Anne goes Die Hard! Took me a while to get around to this one after the poopfest that was Part 2, but just goes to show; lower expectations sometimes make for a better viewing experience. The wee girl's been (understandably) packed off to live with her auntie's family in a futuristic (80's) high rise apartment/work/shopping complex in NYC so the family from the first couple flicks has been replaced by a fresh faced bunch of folks who have no idea what they're in for; Tom Skerrit, Nancy Allen and a pre Twin Peaks Lara Flynn Boyle playing a girl called, wait for it, Donna. The change of cast makes for a welcome start but this flick's real strength lies with lots of clever, creepy, mirror based practical FX and pretty damn original scare setups. Of course it's pure schlock and not a patch on the original but it's more entertaining than it has any right to be. My one complaint would be the guy they hired to play an inferior version of the old spook Kane. Oh and someone needs to make a drinking game out of the number of the times people say "Carol Anne" in this, you'll get properly f00ked for sure
The doc is back, although this time he’s got a captive group of test subjects in the prison with him and a young doctor as an assistant., whilst a rat faced prison governor who seems to enjoy abusing his power watches over them and is suspicious of what’s going on.
I watched the first two last year so had a pretty good idea what was likely to happen, and whilst the effects were not as gruesome at first as I remember from the first two (that changed later on), the death count is up, and the serum seems to be getting better, at least intermittently.
This was a fun watch.
I’m going to try and watch The Quiet Place next, as I’ve had it for months but not had a chance to sit down with the headphones on and nothing to interrupt me, so this is a good excuse to turn
Not another teen slasher movie!
Someone is going around killing the local teens, but this time it’s the ones who have been good.
This is one that I remember wanthing to watch back when it came out, but never got round to.
I’m quite glad I didn’t go to the cinema for it
It’s well shot, and a fun variation on the teen serial killer theme but whilst most of the primary actors were ok, and it was competently done, it didn’t really have anything special, even the killings were nothing special or graphic (I guess they were trying to keep the rating down).
It’s an ok watch, but certainly nothing special.
This has been sat on my in my “to watch” pile for nearly a year, having seen the reviews of it, and bought it cheap last November but not having had a chance to sit down with some hope of no interruptions (I failed at that)
This was very good, it’s one of the first horror type films I’ve watched in a while where I’ve really felt the suspense building up.
The story was good, the suspense aspect really works well as do even the bits you can see coming
The nail on the stairs really made me wince, as I’ve stepped on one that fortunately was much smaller (and went through a shoe) and I remember swearing like a sailor at the pain), let alone the idea of giving birth without making a sound
.
The actors did a great job given they had to do it all without saying more than a handful of spoken words (or any other noises) throughout the film, and the creatures were very well done with, I think some good thought into their anatomy
it seemed that they opened their head flaps up to help focus and locate sound better, but only when they got nearer the prey as it left them vulnerable
.
The sound mix was also extremely good and atmospheric, although I do rather wish I’d been able to watch it with Atmos, or at least my 5.1 system rather than headphones,
This is probably one of the best, if not the best of the films I’ve watched so far this Horror season.
A young writer heads to hillbilly country to have some quiet time to herself to write, it turns out she probably should have watched some horror films first.
Whilst I knew the general gist of these films, this was a lot more brutal than I’d expected, I was cringing and struggling to watch it in places (although nowhere near as bad as I remember Hostel being*).
The deaths were inventive and it was well shot, with some good acting so it was worth watching.
Some friends head over to a cabin for fun and games, whilst across town the Army are trying to block the roads.
This may share the same name as the 1985 version but in every other meaningful way it’s different, and more of a generic zombie story.
It’s nicely shot, with good effects but it’s nothing special and pretty forgettable (I realised about 20 minutes in I’d seen it not long after release).
I'm struggling a bit to keep up with a film a day, partly because I've ended up watching Ash vs the Evil dead (which really seems to live up to the films), along with Bates Motel, and partly because I've got a little hooked on Two Point Hospital.
*I did give some thought to watching those over halloween, but I barely made it through the first one and really couldn't face the thought of watching it again, let alone 3 of them.
Another thumbs-up for Tucker & Dale and Poltergeist 3 (which I revisited to pleasant surprise a few years ago).
The Fury (1978)
Kirk Douglas is betrayed by his dodgy US agency, headed by John Cassavetes, who steal his son to exploit his psychic potential for weaponised purposes. I used to see this a lot on TV when I was younger but it's somewhat fallen off my radar in recent years. Watching it again, it's certainly an uneven movie. Kicking off with some excellent spy vs spy intrigue with a limber 60+ year old Douglas vs Cassavetes and his goons, the film slows waaaaay down when the focus switches Amy Irving's introduction to the psychic institute as a potential new star pupil. There's some distinctly de Palma crafted sequences throughout and some entertaining homicidal use of psychic powers, culminating in a spectacular finale once the storylines have connected.
Quote:
Dr. Jim McKeever: ...and what a culture can't assimilate, it destroys.
__________________
"It's always funny until someone gets hurt...
and then it's just hilarious! "
Xbox Live Tag - "Weaselfierce360"
PSN - "Weaselfierce72"
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Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988) - What did I just watch? It's like a bunch of porn stars from the 80's made their own movie. It's more a sci-fi comedy than a horror. Initially I thought this was quite progressive for the 80s with a dumb blonde male character surrounded by intelligent women who now dominate this post apocalyptic future. . . . I was wrong.**
I would recommend this to anyone who hasn't seen it as it's funny in places and even funnier in places it's not meant to be. The female frog bares a striking resemblance to the female Gremlin in Gremlins 2. Is that just a coincidence or is there a hidden reference in G2?
Hats off to Amazon for adding these lovely 80's transfers as this looked great. Speaking of which, I've just starting watching the Lair of the White Worm (another first viewing) and the picture quality* looks like it was shot yesterday. Will leave a review when I finish.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 (1988)
Pretty dull. This initially seems to begin as a direct sequel to Elm Street 3 with all the surviving characters returning. They are then quickly killed off to make room for a new group of teenagers.
I'm not sure what the point of that was. The third film created an interesting group dynamic and teased a backstory for Freddy Krueger. Absolutely none of that is followed up here. Most of the rules seem to go out the window and it's difficult to understand when/if characters are asleep or awake.
On the good side, all of the characters (both old and new) are a likeable bunch. There's a sense of genuine friendship and nobody acts like a dick. A running theme I've noticed through most of these films is that it's the adults who are the worst people.
Freddy continues to become more of a comedic character which I actually have no problem with. It would be worse if these movies were taking themselves super seriously. I wasn't at all prepared for Freddy rapping over the end credits, however.
#26 - Eli (2019)
Kelly Reilly and Max Martini's kid develops life threatening allergies to everything and has to live in a plastic bubble so naturally they take him to a creepy doctor (Lili Taylor) practicing out of a mansion/private clinic in the woods who promises a cure. Watched this on a blind whim as it just popped up on Netlfix and I quite like Kelly Reilly. For most of it's runtime it's pretty standard ghosts in the shadows, is this really happening to the wee boy, or is he imagining it type stuff but there's a twist/explanation a coming which I actually thought elevated it beyond a clone of the likes of The Conjuring. In the end this was quite a fun bit of Netflix shlockum.
worth 90mins of your time.
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