Rowland's October Horrorfest

[Rowland]

Inspired by Adam Lemke's (http://www.moviemiser.com/) annual Halloween Horror Challenge, by my seasonal hankering for maximum horror-related mayhem, and by my eagerness to delve into as many unexplored works from such a rich genre as time permits, I will try to watch at least one horror movie a day until Halloween and post whatever I'm compelled to write about each; at the very least a glorified twitter response, hopefully more for most of them. And without further ado...

Oct. 4 - /House of 1000 Corpses/ (Rob Zombie, 2003) *** (http://www.match-cut.org/showpost.php?p=291112&postcount=2)
Oct. 5 - Halloween: Director's Cut (Rob Zombie, 2007) *** (http://www.match-cut.org/showpost.php?p=291613&postcount=10)
Oct. 6 - Scarecrows (William Wesley, 1988) **½ (http://www.match-cut.org/showpost.php?p=291808&postcount=18)
Oct. 7 - When Strangers Appear (Scott Reynolds, 2001) **½ (http://www.match-cut.org/showpost.php?p=291916&postcount=20)
Oct. 8 - Freddy vs. Jason (Ronny Yu, 2003) *½ (http://www.match-cut.org/showpost.php?p=292135&postcount=24)
Oct. 10 - Frozen (Adam Green, 2010) *** (http://www.match-cut.org/showpost.php?p=292474&postcount=31)
Oct. 11 - Vampires in Havana (Juan Padrón, 1985) *** (http://www.match-cut.org/showpost.php?p=292640&postcount=37)
Oct. 14 - Rampo Noir (Jissoji/Kaneko/Sato/Takeuchi, 2005) ** (http://www.match-cut.org/showpost.php?p=293161&postcount=41)
Oct. 17 - Raw Meat (Gary Sherman, 1972) ***½ (http://www.match-cut.org/showpost.php?p=293758&postcount=42)
Oct. 19 - Shock Waves (Ken Wiederhorn, 1977) *** (http://www.match-cut.org/showpost.php?p=294164&postcount=59)
Oct. 22 - Jungle Holocaust (Ruggero Deodato, 1977) *** (http://www.match-cut.org/showpost.php?p=294856&postcount=70)
Oct. 22 - Wisconsin Death Trip (James Marsh, 1999) ***½
(http://www.match-cut.org/showpost.php?p=295042&postcount=78)Oct. 26 - The Resurrected (Dan O'Bannon, 1992) **½ (http://www.match-cut.org/showpost.php?p=295960&postcount=96)
Oct. 28 - Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster (Robert Gaffney, 1965) **½ (http://www.match-cut.org/showpost.php?p=296528&postcount=104)
Oct. 29 - End of Days (Peter Hyams, 1999) ** (http://www.match-cut.org/showpost.php?p=296896&postcount=119)
Oct. 31 - Screamers (Christian Duguay, 1996) **½ (http://www.match-cut.org/showpost.php?p=297023&postcount=125)

And Beyond:

Giallo (Dario Argento, 2010) *½ (http://www.match-cut.org/showpost.php?p=297812&postcount=130)
Häxan (Benjamin Christensen, 1922) **** (http://www.match-cut.org/showpost.php?p=299080&postcount=145)
House (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977) ***½ (http://www.match-cut.org/showpost.php?p=301493&postcount=151)

[Rowland]

/House of 1000 Corpses/ (Rob Zombie, 2003) ***

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/4365/house5.jpg

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http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/1/house1.jpg

Oft-compared unfavorably to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Zombie's feature debut shares more in common with Hooper's delirious Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, both imbued with expressive carnivalesque lighting schemes and rigorous camp sensibilities. Employing an arsenal of formal techniques, ranging from tracking/crane/steadicam shots, rack focuses, split screens/diopters, dolly zooms, and slow motion montages, down to arguably less reputable devices like varying film stocks (including self-shot camcorder footage), solarisation effects right out of an Adobe program, and inserts from old horror movies (including The Old Dark House, The Wolf Man, many others) that expose the writer/director's roots as both an auteurist-bent cinephile and a sample-heavy glam rocker, Zombie whips his film into a cinema-savvy, media-mad frenzy. If never particularly tense, let alone scary, nor coherent in any apparent intent to impart meaning or thoughtful emotion, House of 1000 Corpses is best understood as an Id-derived projection from Rob Zombie the irreverent heavy-metal persona. Thus, if his film is just as frequently irritating as it is compelling, it remains an obviously personal exercise in haunted house theatrics, ghoulish showmanship, skeevy vulgarities, and garish rednecksploitation, infused with obvious reverence for its lineage and revealing flashes of the full-blown filmmaker to emerge with his immediate follow-up. Sid Haig is the obvious MVP, sharing a hilarious scene with... is that Rainn Wilson?

[MacGuffin]

I'm watching.

[MadMan]

I do something like this every year on Icine. House of 1,000 Corpses is one movie I should probably get around to viewing sometime.

[megladon8]

Awesome!! I will be following this thread closely!


I, too, liked House of 1,000 Corpses. A lot, actually.

I think Rob Zombie is a pretty exciting filmmaker.

[B-side]

Cool. I need to see House and Superbeasto to complete Zombie's filmography, but I've liked everything I've seen so far to varying degrees.

Bit more interested in your thoughts on Stolen Painting, though.;)

[Winston*]

I hated the movie and its sequel, but House of 1000 Corpses looks pretty neat as screenshots.

[Bosco B Thug]

Adam Lemke's (http://www.moviemiser.com/) This guy's website is like a haystack, but his taste isn't too bad and I'm liking the cut of his gib (i.e. the fastidiousness of his website).

Those Ho1C stills do look very TCM 2.

[Dukefrukem]

Ahhh I LOVE that third shot. It was my background on my PC for months.

[Rowland]

Halloween: Director's Cut (Rob Zombie, 2007) ***

http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/6144/h12iz.jpg

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I hadn't seen this since its release cut in theaters, where my response was muted but modestly impressed by Zombie's reconfiguration of the material into less a horror movie than some twisted sort of melodrama-biopic, infused with his uncanny ability to render the violence in his films with a visceral, disquieting ugliness and a vividly permeated sadness. My discovery and subsequent wonderment over Zombie's widely underestimated Halloween II DC inspired me to reevaluate his earlier films, hence my viewings of House of 1000 Corpses and now this, which is my first exposure to its Director's Cut form, and as was the case with the sequel, it's an improvement over the theatrical cut. The large cast of ably performed characters are afforded more grace notes, both Michael's period in the asylum and his subsequent stalking of Boo are given further space to breathe and develop an organic trajectory, the character turn by Loomis in the sequel that was derided by most as incongruent is further justified, and the climax is reconfigured so that it now integrates coherently with its follow-up. Furthermore, the existence of the sequel clarifies, amplifies, and deepens the empathy of Zombie's vision, the two making for a fine diptych, which is far more than can be said for Carpenter's brilliant original when pared with its very silly sequel. Unlike most contemporary horror, remake or otherwise, Zombie rarely glosses over or trivializes the traumas of his characters. Also, I've grown to rather enjoy Zombie's dialogue, which is frequently crude but often very funny, humanizing, deceptively thoughtful, and just as clearly stylized as that of his contemporary QT.

[Scar]

Subscribed.

[megladon8]

Great write-up on Halloween, Rowland. I actually rewatched this the other night, myself.

His dialogue, while self-aware and as you said very stylized, still bothers me. Some of it is just dreadful at times, particularly in scenes involving Laurie and her teenage-girl friends. Stylized or not, it just feels forced. And while I know that teenagers (and people in general) tend to swear a lot, at times it felt like he would squeeze another "fuck" or two in there just for the heck of it.

I found both of his Halloween films to be deeply flawed, but still good. I enjoyed the second slightly more than the first, perhaps largely in part to the fact that it's just so very different from anything else we've seen in this series of films.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I've found that individual images from Zombie's pictures look welcoming and stylized, but I dislike his editing style, which speeds through them to the point that it feels like I've watched two hours of chewed up Skittles.

[MacGuffin]

Rowland, have you seen this (http://www.hysteria-lives.co.uk/) horror movie-related site? It's one of my favorite new websites.

[Dukefrukem]

Rowland, have you seen this (http://www.hysteria-lives.co.uk/) horror movie-related site? It's one of my favorite new websites.

YES it's not blocked by work!!!!!!

edit: too bad the discussion link is borked

[Rowland]

Rowland, have you seen this (http://www.hysteria-lives.co.uk/) horror movie-related site? It's one of my favorite new websites.Nope, but I'll check it out.

[MacGuffin]

YES it's not blocked by work!!!!!!

edit: too bad the discussion link is borked

The reviews (linked to by time period) are the key interest for me.

[Rowland]

Scarecrows (William Wesley, 1988) **½

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/2831/scarecrows1.jpg

http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/1757/scarecrows2.jpg

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As far as cheaply made '80s schlock is concerned, this isn't too bad. It clocks in before credits at a merciful 75 minutes, writer/director Wesley and ace cinematographer Peter Deming (his portfolio featuring such an assorted lot of great looking movies as Evil Dead 2, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, From Hell, The Jacket, I Heart Huckabees, Married Life, and Austin Powers in Goldmember) manage to wring some atmosphere out of what appears to be one rather generic location lit with a floodlight or two, and the legitimately ominous score reinforces this mood. Regarding the movie's namesake, they are sufficiently creepy in appearance (if overused to a damaging extent through cutaways), the gore effects they fulfill are reasonably solid in execution and conceptually imaginative in one resourceful, if nonsensical, instance, and the exact nature of their existence as what appear to be demonic scarecrows is left tantalizingly suggestive.

Unfortunately, for all these qualities, this remains cheap schlock, without a single recognizable human being amidst its cast of almost uniformly annoying characters, performed by some of the actors with the emotive capabilities of a pornstar. Furthermore, every one of them is saddled with idiotic dialogue (samples: "God to Bert - your birthday has been cancelled!"; "Yeah Bert, I think I'm gonna have to write you out of my will!") and boneheaded behavior suggesting how an alien may react to any given situation (example: your partner-in-crime has apparently been cut open, gutted, and stuffed full of the stolen money he double-crossed you for, after which he proceeds to attack you while being invulnerable to bullet fire. Your response? "OMG, he ate all the money!"). Wesley also succumbs to serious lapses in creative judgment, the worst decision probably being to give the scarecrows the ability to mimic any voice, which proves more silly than creepy, especially when they begin barking like a dog to lure one particularly gullible character.

Again though, with moderate expectations, this is an adequate no-budget B-horror, provided you ignore its cult reputation as some sort of unheralded masterpiece, as is the wont of typically overzealous horror fans. It's available on Netflix Instant View for anyone interested.

[Bosco B Thug]

Scarecrows (William Wesley, 1988) **½ I've seen this... all I can really remember is, I remember people comparing it to Dog Soldiers and I remember thinking that was about right.

[Rowland]

When Strangers Appear (Scott Reynolds, 2001) **½

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/8587/strangers2.jpg

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http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/1379/strangers1.jpg

"The star of PITCH BLACK is fighting back!"

That uninspiring tagline adorns the DVD cover of this film, which is admittedly amusing in a sad way, but it deserves better. Most of the credit goes to Reynolds, whose muscular directorial craft alone results in a consistently engaging and frequently tense viewing experience. He knows how to frame, where to focus, and when to cut to amplify the affect most any given scene demands, most notably during early sequences masterfully orchestrated by Reynolds to introduce the main characters (just over half a dozen populate the entire picture), establish their relationships, and sow the seeds of doubt that set the narrative wheels in motion, all with great care for maintaining an air of suspense through the perspective of our protagonist played with charm and cunning by the great Radha Mitchell. Later cat-and-mouse sequences are also adroitly executed, suggesting that Reynolds, who hasn't directed a movie since this, has great potential.

If he does return to filmmaking, I hope however that he has a better script at his disposal. While his self-penned screenplay effectively introduces compelling characters and provides ample scenarios for him to methodically construct tense set-pieces, it's increasingly riddled with cheats and blatant holes as it progresses, so that all the misdirections and reversals begin to feel overly contrived, this air of artificiality extending to subplots and characters that are never sufficiently paid off. The climax swerves into all-out action mode, which is vigorously handled but only partially justified on thematic grounds by the film's internal logic, not to mention completely implausible in its conception. I was thrown off guard however by what struck me as a clever retooling of the ending from Robert Harmon's The Hitcher, even if I'm not sure it amounted to much of anything. In any case, I'd like to see this guy resurface, hopefully with a more streamlined, full-blown horror thriller along the lines of something like Joy Ride, where I feel his skills would be better served.

[MadMan]

I'm curious about revisiting the Zombie Halloween movies. Just because I though the first one was solid, but the second one was quite disappointing. I saw both in theaters, so I haven't viewed the director's cuts for either one of them.

Haven't heard of the other movies listed. Scarecrows looks at least somewhat entertaining, so I may give it a chance. I added to my Instant Viewing queue The Prowler, which pikes my interest a bit although I'm not sure if I'll bother watching it or not.

[Scar]

Tried watching Scarecrows years ago on a really shitty VHS copy. Didn't last long, just due to the static.

Its streaming to me right now.

[Scar]

I've seen this... all I can really remember is, I remember people comparing it to Dog Soldiers and I remember thinking that was about right.

Just finished Scarecrows, and I can easily say that Dog Soldiers is much better.

[Rowland]

Hate to break the trend, but I didn't manage to grab screen captures for this one. Oh well, the movie hardly inspired me anyway.

Freddy vs. Jason (Ronny Yu, 2003) *½

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/8054/fvjc.jpg

I didn't expect something so boring from Yu, he of the great The Bride With White Hair (and it's not-so-great sequel). The first hour and change is an endless procession of flat exposition explicating an elaborately senseless backstory, featuring an even flatter cast of characters performed by a wholly unremarkable ensemble (the worst offender being the woefully awkward, trash-talking Kelly Rowland). The direction is competent on its own comic book terms, but never particularly successful at building suspense or evoking any tangible atmosphere, and it's only rarely exciting on a formal level, coming to life during a mid-film cornfield rave and the concluding Vs. match, which echoes the otherwise similarly unimaginative, anticlimactic uber-brawl from AVP a bit too closely for my liking. And hell, it can't even bother to pick a winner, ending with a literal/figurative wink that, besides being incoherent, is indicative of a particularly lazy form of crass cynicism. Some of the kills are solid, but they're overly reliant on badly dated CGI effects, as are the uninspired Freddy-centric nightmare sequences. So yeah, it's a tolerable enough exercise in dutifully processed fanboy gratification, sometimes even marginally clever - most notably with its color-coding conceit, even if Jason has never exhibited any aquaphobia while wading through water in search of kills during any of his previous installments - but for the most part, this is a pretty snooze-worthy effort. Where's the trashy exuberance this high concept called for?

[jenniferofthejungle]

I can't believe other people have seen Scarecrows.

Rowland, I agree with every one of your complaints. I think I'd like to try watching the proper DVD release because my copy was ripped from an old VHS tape, which was probably why it looked so dark.

I could see this one being remade.

[Rowland]

I think I'd like to try watching the proper DVD release because my copy was ripped from an old VHS tape, which was probably why it looked so dark.Yeah, I can imagine a VHS copy of this film, especially a really worn one, being borderline-unwatchable. Most of the movie is cloaked in darkness, albeit with just enough light to be coherent, which I suppose has more artistic integrity than over-lighting it into the appearance of a flat made-for-television aesthetic.

[Scar]

Your review of Freddy vs Jason makes baby Jason cry.

[D_Davis]

Your review of Freddy vs Jason makes baby Jason cry.

Yep.

It's an amazing flick.

Totally Yu, and totally rad.

[megladon8]

I'm very eager to read what this 2010 film was that you saw!!

[Chac Mool]

/House of 1000 Corpses/ (Rob Zombie, 2003) ***

[...]

If never particularly tense, let alone scary, nor coherent in any apparent intent to impart meaning or thoughtful emotion, House of 1000 Corpses is best understood as an Id-derived projection from Rob Zombie the irreverent heavy-metal persona. Thus, if his film is just as frequently irritating as it is compelling, it remains an obviously personal exercise in haunted house theatrics, ghoulish showmanship, skeevy vulgarities, and garish rednecksploitation, infused with obvious reverence for its lineage and revealing flashes of the full-blown filmmaker to emerge with his immediate follow-up. Sid Haig is the obvious MVP, sharing a hilarious scene with... is that Rainn Wilson?

Well said. I agree word for word.

What do you think about "The Devil's Rejects" -- it's as good a serial-killer-glorification film as I've seen.

[Rowland]

Frozen (Adam Green, 2010) ***

http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/8251/frozen1.jpg

http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/1425/frozen3.jpg

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/4497/frozen2q.jpg

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/1474/frozen6.jpg

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/7599/frozen4.jpg

Wow, I didn't see this one coming. I knew in advance that soitgoes hated it, that it was by the guy behind Hatchet (which I've previously ignored but will have to watch now), and that its premise (three college-aged kids stranded on a ski lift) reeked of the sort of high-concept/low-budget stunt that was far more likely to be botched than work to any significant degree. But boy does it really work, as Green manages to extract almost unbearable tension and surprisingly graceful pathos out of his material, transcending its inherently gimmicky nature to reveal itself as one of this year's most pleasant surprises.

The first act is its weakest, as the main trio of characters are just a bit too abrasively callow to earn much immediate sympathy or even active interest, but they are still more credibly written and performed than these character types tend to be. Furthermore, this is proven to be an effective ploy on Green's part when the remaining two acts so effectively tear this barrier down, exposing the cruel indifference of nature, the capriciousness of life, and the existential awareness that proceeds the acceptance of mortality, all elements that could (and probably very well should) register as cliches but here speak to a common shared humanity that is uncommonly poignant.

The direction is technically polished and all-around proficient, with tightly controlled mise en scene and a pervasive aura of anxiety sustained throughout, only erring with some unmotivated crane shots he falls back on during stretches of heavy dialogue, an excess of overly sentimental scoring, and some moments that linger on images of body horror and arguable debasement longer than may have been necessary, but one never gets the impression that Green is out to trivialize or leer. Furthermore, not only does he develop his scenario in a manner consistent with reality and rooted in believable behavior, he filmed it on the side of an actual mountain (no obvious greenscreen work here) that does wonders for the atmosphere without sacrificing a distinctly cinematic sensibility.

So yeah, I've written about as much as I can without giving away more than I'd like to for those who haven't seen it. As if this isn't obvious, consider it highly recommended.

[Bosco B Thug]

Frozen (Adam Green, 2010) *** Aw, for a minute I was convinced you went and saw My Soul to Take.

I've seen this one get a good amount of snark, and I accepted it, but now I'll hopefully go in with my biases set back to neutral.

[megladon8]

Oh wow, I guess I'll have to see this one.

I'll try to track it down while I'm in NYC.

[soitgoes...]

Frozen (Adam Green, 2010) ***

Wow, I didn't see this one coming. I knew in advance that soitgoes hated it, that it was by the guy behind Hatchet (which I've previously ignored but will have to watch now), and that its premise (three college-aged kids stranded on a ski lift) reeked of the sort of high-concept/low-budget stunt that was far more likely to be botched than work to any significant degree. But boy does it really work, as Green manages to extract almost unbearable tension and surprisingly graceful pathos out of his material, transcending its inherently gimmicky nature to reveal itself as one of this year's most pleasant surprises.

The first act is its weakest, as the main trio of characters are just a bit too abrasively callow to earn much immediate sympathy or even active interest, but they are still more credibly written and performed than these character types tend to be. Furthermore, this is proven to be an effective ploy on Green's part when the remaining two acts so effectively tear this barrier down, exposing the cruel indifference of nature, the capriciousness of life, and the existential awareness that proceeds the acceptance of mortality, all elements that could (and probably very well should) register as cliches but here speak to a common shared humanity that is uncommonly poignant.

The direction is technically polished and all-around proficient, with tightly controlled mise en scene and a pervasive aura of anxiety sustained throughout, only erring with a few unmotivated crane shots during a moderately shapeless series of dialogue scenes later in the film, an excess of overly sentimental scoring, and some moments that linger on images of body horror and arguable debasement longer than may have been necessary, but one never gets the impression that Green is out to trivialize or leer. Furthermore, not only does he develop his scenario in a manner consistent with reality and rooted in believable behavior, he filmed it on the side of an actual mountain (no obvious greenscreen work here) that does wonders for the atmosphere without sacrificing a distinctly cinematic sensibility.

So yeah, I've written about as much as I can without giving away more than I'd like to for those who haven't seen it. As if this isn't obvious, consider it highly recommended.
Stupid characters spouting stupid dialogue (Yay! Let's tell stories of our best friend and boyfriend being fat as a kid, laugh about it, a short while after he was eaten by wolves 30 feet below you.) Dumb. The girlfriend is someone I want to punch in the face every time she opens her mouth.

Awful setup. I really had a hard time getting by how the three ended up stranded on the mountain. Like you said, the first act was weak, but with me it cast a cloud over the rest of the film.

The location shooting and the idea behind the film might be great, but with so much awful there, it just ruined the film. Granted I tend to rate low on horror so this will likely be a hit with some. That being said, everyone should do themselves a favor and check out the much superior The Loved Ones for good, new horror.

[jenniferofthejungle]

:lol:

I'll read your Frozen review on the weekend.

[Rowland]

Stupid characters spouting stupid dialogue (Yay! Let's tell stories of our best friend and boyfriend being fat as a kid, laugh about it, a short while after he was eaten by wolves 30 feet below you.) Dumb That was obviously an affectionate reminiscence, and not at all about the character's weight. Not sure how you were offended there.

Awful setup. I really had a hard time getting by how the three ended up stranded on the mountain. It didn't test my suspension of disbelief to any significant degree. Then again, as a horror fanatic, I've let far, far more dubious setups slide. This was a model of credibility by comparison.

[Rowland]

Vampires in Havana (Juan Padrón, 1985) ***

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/3389/vampires1i.jpg

http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/7760/vampires3.jpg

http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/2183/vampires7.jpg

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/9808/vampires5.jpg

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/4080/vampires6.jpg

Anarchic exuberance is the order of the day in this Cuban animated amalgam of Prohibition-era American gangster pictures and Euro-Horror, lampooning both genres with a raucously bawdy sensibility befitting its charmingly crude style. If it somehow manages to feel overlong even at a scant 69 minutes, that isn't for a lack of invention or liveliness, discharging gags with a reckless, unhinged abandon that channels the film's revolutionary spirit, being set amidst the burgeoning germs of communism in 1930's Cuba. Just glance at those last two images I posted above for a taste of the sophisticated incendiary spunk this thing exudes, complemented quite harmoniously by its joyful embrace of low-brow humor across its entire spectrum, from slapstick violence to explicit prurience and shameless caricature. Cheers as well for the trumpet-heavy afro-cuban jazz score that tonally unifies the sometimes-overwhelming chaos. I'm surprised this isn't more well-known, as a cult item or otherwise, because it's just the sort of bonkers curio seekers of the singularly offbeat should presumably be all over.

[Dukefrukem]

Wow, I didn't see this one coming. I knew in advance that soitgoes hated it, that it was by the guy behind Hatchet (which I've previously ignored but will have to watch now), and that its premise (three college-aged kids stranded on a ski lift) reeked of the sort of high-concept/low-budget stunt that was far more likely to be botched than work to any significant degree. But boy does it really work, as Green manages to extract almost unbearable tension and surprisingly graceful pathos out of his material, transcending its inherently gimmicky nature to reveal itself as one of this year's most pleasant surprises.

The first act is its weakest, as the main trio of characters are just a bit too abrasively callow to earn much immediate sympathy or even active interest, but they are still more credibly written and performed than these character types tend to be. Furthermore, this is proven to be an effective ploy on Green's part when the remaining two acts so effectively tear this barrier down, exposing the cruel indifference of nature, the capriciousness of life, and the existential awareness that proceeds the acceptance of mortality, all elements that could (and probably very well should) register as cliches but here speak to a common shared humanity that is uncommonly poignant.

The direction is technically polished and all-around proficient, with tightly controlled mise en scene and a pervasive aura of anxiety sustained throughout, only erring with a few unmotivated crane shots during a moderately shapeless series of dialogue scenes later in the film, an excess of overly sentimental scoring, and some moments that linger on images of body horror and arguable debasement longer than may have been necessary, but one never gets the impression that Green is out to trivialize or leer. Furthermore, not only does he develop his scenario in a manner consistent with reality and rooted in believable behavior, he filmed it on the side of an actual mountain (no obvious greenscreen work here) that does wonders for the atmosphere without sacrificing a distinctly cinematic sensibility.

So yeah, I've written about as much as I can without giving away more than I'd like to for those who haven't seen it. As if this isn't obvious, consider it highly recommended.

Yes!!! I'm so seeing this asap.... Is it available for instant stream on Netflix?

[Grouchy]

I'm surprised this isn't more well-known, as a cult item or otherwise, because it's just the sort of bonkers curio seekers of the singularly offbeat should presumably be all over.
True that, although obviously it's more well known in Spanish-speaking countries. My ex-girlfriend who is from Panama introduced me to it.

[Rowland]

An overload of work and school have taken their toll on my ability to keep this thread updated almost every day as per my initial desire, but I'll have a new entry up in the next day or two, and should hopefully regain my momentum from there. I have an eclectic lineup planned for the remainder of the month, should make for an interesting ride.

[Rowland]

Rampo Noir (Akio Jissoji/Atsushi Kaneko/Hisayasu Sato/Suguru Takeuchi, 2005) **

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/1294/ramponoir1.jpg

http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/42/ramponoir3.jpg

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/6590/rampo6.jpg

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A Japanese anthology film comprised of four shorts adapted from the literature of Japan's answer to Edgar Allen Poe, Taro Hirai, or as he dubbed himself, Edogawa Rampo (see what he did there?). I desperately wanted to like this more than I did, seeing as how, besides its four directors employing all sorts of expressive visual/editing/sound-design-related stylistic flourishes, it actually features enough tastelessly imaginative grotesqueries, freakishly fetishized eroticism, and all-around outré material, both in concept and execution, to justify the interest of any Extreme Asian Cult devotee. Unfortunately however, not one of the four stories really works, whether due to lugubrious pacing, laughable pretension, muddled storytelling, tone deafness, lack of thematic/psychological insight, or what have you. Plus, there isn't a single scare to be had in the bunch.

The first, titled Mars Canal, is only a few minutes long, featuring a naked man wandering a blasted, featureless landscape before happening across a crater lake wherein his mirror image stirs a repressed memory in which he brutally murders an also-naked woman. It's admittedly a bit inane, but it's strikingly shot and completely silent until the very end, a sort of prologue establishing the tone and thematic currency the remaining shorts will explore.

The next is Mirror Hell, a borderline incomprehensible story about female victims' faces being melted off by a mysterious shadow mirror. This one has a goofy plot that is actually pretty irresistible once it's fully revealed, but the majority of this is a poorly plotted chore, exacerbated by its self-consciously affected tone, striving for the icily operatic and failing miserably. Couple this with its absurd set design, as almost every location is literally layered from wall to wall with mirrors of varying shapes and sizes pointing every which way that sometimes allows for striking compositions, but more often results in a distracting "Where's Waldo" game wherein I searched for reflections of the camera and crew to occupy my middling interest. The solution to the mystery however is delightful nonsense, as is the villain's attempt to witness God inside a sphere he built with a mirror interior. Bonus points for creativity, wannabe-Narcissus.

The third tale is The Caterpillar, featuring a possible war veteran whose wounds have reduced him to a torso with a bald, scarred head that suggests a particularly macabre variation on a certain Monty Python bit. His perverted, power-mad wife abuses him S&M-style and rides the shit out of his limbless husk (quite an image), he attempts to fight back as best a torso could hope to manage, cheesy butterfly imagery abounds, and in the end some voyeuristic dude who considers the human caterpillar art and aspires to world-renowned-collector status steps in for a completely nonsensical climax. It feels like the first chapter of a series, with all the plot elements it introduces only to leave frustratingly, perplexingly irresolute.

The concluding segment, Crawling Bugs, is the most coherent, comic, and satisfying of the lot, ending with a real kicker of a payoff that finishes the film on a high note. Its narrative of a chauffeur who obsesses over a swanky celebrity he shuttles about almost as much as his pathological paranoia over the scum all humans carry with them forcefully justifies its surreal stylization and kitschy trappings through the delusions of its disturbed protagonist, yet it still feels stretched thin and oddly flat even in this short form.

[Rowland]

Raw Meat (Gary Sherman, 1972) ***½

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Nearly a decade before his canonized Dead and Buried, Gary Sherman had already made in his debut film this chilling, meticulously crafted exercise in minimalist, class-conscious horror that deserves a wider reputation. It demands immediate attention with an evocative four-minute opening credits of impressionistic, color-saturated rack-focus smears set to an appropriately seedy jazz-fusion theme that capture a diplomat's clandestine exploits amidst Britain's red-light district with aplomb.

From here on, one of Sherman's most immediately striking gambits is his trust in diegetic sounds to sustain his moody atmosphere, the most virtuosic example being a stunning, seven-minute panning-cum-tracking shot (segued into with a clever match-cut) chronicling a succession of the grimy, half-glimpsed horrors adorning a cannibal clan's underground lair to the soundtrack of squeaking rats, dripping water, anguished moans, and heartbeats for rhythm. Very few musical cues are relied on in this film, with long stretches devoted to almost suffocating silences, and many dialogue scenes that may have grown tedious were they not filled in by Donald Pleasance's ingratiating performance as a hilariously caustic working-class investigator of missing persons that is a masterclass in comedic timing.

Speaking of missing persons, the thrust of the loosely structured narrative pertains to subway abductions perpetrated by the lone surviving descendant from a group of century-old mining cave-in survivors who resorted to cannibalism and inbreeding after being abandoned by the state due to a lack of funding for rescue. While portrayed as a savage, disease-ridden brute, his is also the film's most sympathetic character, a tragic figure rendered more pathetic than terrifying who is revealed by the time of its The Third Man-inspired climax to also be its most tender, least corrupt figure.

Special mention as well for Sherman's nod to his cinematic lineage with a delightful cameo by Hammer Studios' Christopher Lee as a deliciously smug mouthpiece for the upper class hoping to conceal the exact nature of the disappearances for the sake of their image. Despite pacing issues and something of a non-ending, this is a mini-masterpiece.

[MacGuffin]

I've heard good things about Raw Meat. Those screenshots look grime-y.

[megladon8]

Jen's been trying to get me to see that one, insisting that it's good but what really steals the show is the performance of Donald Pleasance's career.

She also said that she wanted an entire movie of Pleasance and Christopher Lee :)

[Rowland]

I've heard good things about Raw Meat. Those screenshots look grime-y.Oh yeah, it's deeply infused with that raw '70s texture from which so many horror films of the era benefited. I'd love to see a remastered print while retaining all the intrinsic grain and grime.

[Rowland]

Jen's been trying to get me to see that one, insisting that it's good but what really steals the show is the performance of Donald Pleasance's career.

She also said that she wanted an entire movie of Pleasance and Christopher Lee :)He's amazing in it, and yeah, the scene shared by Pleasance and Lee is one of the film's highlights.

[megladon8]

He's amazing in it, and yeah, the scene shared by Pleasance and Lee is one of the film's highlights.


Well I'll be sure to see it as soon as possible.

Because of the name I often associate it with the DVD edition of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre which looks like a pound of ground beef. So I'm always a little confused when I see its fairly generic DVD cover on Amazon.

[Bosco B Thug]

Dead and Buried's good, and, you know, Poltergeist III isn't bad. It's actually impressive at times. Not surprised this one turns out good.

[MadMan]

Rowland I'll have to put that one on my queue. I love 70s horror movies.

PS: Its on Netflix Instant Viewing. Sweet.

[MacGuffin]

Yeah, I'll definitely add it to my tentative horror moviegoing schedule. Actually, I think I'm going to venture into psychotronic cinema here for the next few months or so.

[Rowland]

I'll hopefully have a review up for my next movie within the next few hours. In the meantime, a guessing game. First one who accurately predicts the next entry will be rewarded with Rep, and only one guess allowed per person.

Clue: Undead Nazis

[soitgoes...]

I'll hopefully have a review up for my next movie within the next few hours. In the meantime, a guessing game. First one who accurately predicts the next entry will be rewarded with Rep, and only one guess allowed per person.

Clue: Undead NazisTwo films come to mind. Outpost?

[MadMan]

I'm gonna guess Shock Waves.

[Morris Schæffer]

The Keep?

[Raiders]

Dead Snow.

[Dukefrukem]

It's definitely gonna be Dead Snow. Which was quite a disappointment.

[EyesWideOpen]

The Haunted World of El Superbeasto

[Scar]

It's definitely gonna be Dead Snow. Which was quite a disappointment.

I should've watched that one at midnight drunk off my ass instead of while drinking coffee at 0600.

[Rowland]

Shock Waves (Ken Wiederhorn, 1977) ***

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Not zombies as typically characterized, these scientifically engineered Nazi super soldiers are simply "not dead, and not alive, but somewhere in between," as Peter Cushing's voluntarily exiled SS Commander helpfully clarifies. Resting at the bottom of the sea in the Caribbean since the end of the war, these undead Aryans are mysteriously awakened by the presence of a tourist party sailing over the remains of their sunken Nazi ship, the ragtag team of vacationists captained by an exhumed John Carradine and headlined by Brooke Adams only one year prior to stardom with her 1978 work (Days of Heaven and Invasion of the Body Snatchers).

An orange lens filter to convey the influence of cosmic forces over the film's shift into the surreal is the first of its many economical pleasures, as Wiederhorn's embrace of a less-is-more sensibility lends his film a hallucinatory vibe that achieves an almost trancelike tension when firing on all cylinders. He extracts surprising mileage from his potent imagery of seemingly impassive figures rising from the waters and portentously wandering his carefully composed landscapes, all decked out in matching goggles and uniform attire, claiming their victims by drowning in a manner that is consistently striking for its methodical brevity, its complete lack of gore (the film was rated PG!), and the ethereal stillness of its aftermath.

The writing and performances are credible enough for the material, and while there is quite a bit here that could be deemed filler, it rarely grows dull, a testament to Wiederhorn's command of tone in that he renders his languors uncommonly compelling. A flashback structure does give away the identity of the film's lone survivor mere moments into the film, but this approach is justified by its wicked sting of a denouement. In the end, there really isn't much to this bracingly minimalist low-budget shocker, but it's notably dignified by the standards of its ilk.

[Rowland]

A winner is MadMan!

[Rowland]

Next entry clue: Cannibal Exploitation

[MadMan]

A winner is MadMan!Hurray!

That's it. I gotta see Shock Waves. Rowland has convinced me.

[Rowland]

The Haunted World of El SuperbeastoLiked the first half quite a bit, felt it grew redundant and overly pleased with itself during the second half, so I settled on a mediocre score. That said, it has gained in the rearview, so I could see myself revisiting it someday.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Next entry clue: Cannibal Exploitation

Night of the Zombies.

[soitgoes...]

Cannibal Ferox

[Mr. Pink]

When Strangers Appear (Scott Reynolds, 2001) **½

. . . suggesting that Reynolds, who hasn't directed a movie since this, has great potential.

The funny thing is, after seeing all of his stuff, that he has gotten progressively worse. The Ugly is my favorite (it used to be my default rental if I'd spent too much time looking for something to rent), Heaven was pretty cool, and this was okay but could've been better.

I'll still watch anything he does in the future, though, because I like The Ugly so much.

[Dukefrukem]

Next entry clue: Cannibal Exploitation

Since you used the word "Exploitation" my first guess is Cannibal Holocaust. But I remember you hating that movie with a passion. So I'm gonna go with Cannibal Ferox

[Dukefrukem]

Cannibal Ferox

fuck....

then I'm going with The Mountain of the Cannibal God

[Russ]

Next entry clue: Cannibal Exploitation
Ravenous.

[Rowland]

Jungle Holocaust (Ruggero Deodato, 1977) ***

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For my first foray into the infamous Italian Cannibal subgenre, I opted for this, Deodato's kinder, gentler warm-up before his notorious Cannibal Holocaust. Nevertheless, I went in expecting base exploitation, and wound up being surprised by the relative craft and intelligence involved, enough so that it works as both a particularly nasty survivalist adventure and an excoriation of the base exoticism it ostensibly peddles, suggesting a blackened mirror image of the likes of Pocahontas and Avatar made palatable through the anthropological veneer Deodato successfully contrives, without sacrificing a cinematic sensibility that, while hardly comparable to Malick's The New World (as Cinepassion's Fernando F. Croce obliquely suggests in one of his more specious moments), is certainly resourceful enough. In the end, Deodato even goes so far as to contrast our hero, who is reduced to acts of depravity in order to survive, with the primitive tribe whose graphically detailed ritual of cannibalism is revealed to be an almost reverentially ceremonial affair. An abundance of male nudity - with the lead spending at least half the film fully in the buff, which Deodato to his credit never even attempts to handle with potentially spurious discretion - and, especially, footage of animals being killed, usually either by other animals or in a ritualistic context, serve their purposes, but ensure the film isn't one to be lightly tread upon.

[Rowland]

A winner is soitgoes...!

He didn't get it right, but he was the closest of the bunch. I'm not sure why Duke had the impression that I've seen Cannibal Holocaust, because if he'd predicted it, he would have won. He does however deserve credit for cluing me into the existence of The Mountain of the Cannibal God, given that I'm a moderate fan of Sergio Martino. I'm also a huge Ravenous fan for the record, so a good taste nod to Russ even if he was way off base.

[Rowland]

The funny thing is, after seeing all of his stuff, that he has gotten progressively worse. The Ugly is my favorite (it used to be my default rental if I'd spent too much time looking for something to rent), Heaven was pretty cool, and this was okay but could've been better.

I'll still watch anything he does in the future, though, because I like The Ugly so much.Wow, someone here who has even heard of the dude, let alone seen all his work. I'll have to eventually check those others out, thanks for the tip!

[Dukefrukem]

A winner is soitgoes...!

He didn't get it right, but he was the closest of the bunch. I'm not sure why Duke had the impression that I've seen Cannibal Holocaust, because if he'd predicted it, he would have won. He does however deserve credit for cluing me into the existence of The Mountain of the Cannibal God, given that I'm a moderate fan of Sergio Martino. I'm also a huge Ravenous fan for the record, so a good taste nod to Russ even if he was way off base.

I could have sworn you hated it but I might be getting you confused with Raiders.

[Raiders]

I could have sworn you hated it but I might be getting you confused with Raiders.

Yeah, I have seen it and detest it.

[Boner M]

Fan of The Ugly here, at least from my memory of being a 14yo watching one VHS after another in my friend's basement every Saturday night. I remember the bizarre opening shot quite vividly, though.

Great thread too. Lots of stuff I've never heard of til now. Gotta check out Raw Meat.

[Rowland]

Next entry clue: Not a traditional horror movie, but I think it fits. A documentary of sorts, by a filmmaker who directed another, more highly praised kinda-documentary that obliquely danced around the ghost of a certain postmillennial event.

Too obvious? Probably.

[Raiders]

Wisconsin Death Trip?

[Rowland]

Wisconsin Death Trip (James Marsh, 1999) ***½

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Heavily indebted to the work of Errol Morris, this debut feature from Man on Wire’s James Marsh similarly approaches contemporary gloom by gazing into the past. Where that film obliquely strived to extract transcendence from monuments of tragedy, this one cannily contextualizes millennial anxieties (note its release date of 1999) by charting the collective despair that plagued the small northern Wisconsin community of Black River Falls in the turn of the 20th century. Cultivating a cumulative effect of hypnotic delirium, this ethereal reverie of highly stylized vignettes is intercut with authentic period photos to chronicle true life anecdotes that are by turns tragic, macabre, and archly humorous, collected from reports in the local paper and the records of an apparently restless insane asylum that are dryly narrated by Ian Holm directly from the original texts. Featuring everything from arson and famine to suicide and murder, the film accrues the force of a nightmarish tone poem reinforced by an eclectic soundtrack of Debussy, Arvo Part, and DJ Shadow, amidst others.

Often accused of being shapeless, Marsh structures the film around the passing of a year, each season corresponding to a different phase of life (i.e. infancy/childhood; adolescence; adulthood; elderly/death) by which the correlating stories are arranged, as well as by the recurring account of a cocaine-snorting school teacher named Mary Sweeney infamous for her compulsive fixation with shattering every window in view. Furthermore, wedged between each seasonal segment is contemporary footage of the region, shot through with a detached, alien perspective, that not only serves to reflect the staged material through shared motifs and to offer some respite from said material’s sometimes suffocating artificiality, it functions as thematic connective tissue giving lie to the idyllic middle-American myth clung to by those whose sentimental yearnings reflect an apprehension for the irrevocable tides of change. In the end, the thesis Marsh obliquely proposes is that, despite the doom-laden millennial zeitgeist, the human condition is essentially daft, no more so now than ever before, a century’s difference merely cosmetic in nature. This film is a document first and foremost of existential horror.

[Dukefrukem]

I suck at this game. Next clue!

[Bosco B Thug]

Jungle Holocaust (Ruggero Deodato, 1977) ***

For my first foray into the infamous Italian Cannibal subgenre, I opted for this, Deodato's kinder, gentler warm-up before his notorious Cannibal Holocaust. Nevertheless, I went in expecting base exploitation, and wound up being surprised by the relative craft and intelligence involved I remember this being something of a non-horror movie. It's just rugged survival-exploitation, right?

Anyway, don't really remember much about it. There's a rape scene, right? Cannibal Holocaust retains the craft and sociological concerns, but with the horror movie tropes piled on. Appreciated it somewhat.

[Rowland]

I remember this being something of a non-horror movie. It's just rugged survival-exploitation, right?Yeah, it's generally labeled as horror, but you're correct. I've been pretty open about what constitutes horror however, for the sake of variety and because people tend to view the genre through an overly narrow prism.

Anyway, don't really remember much about it. There's a rape scene, right? Cannibal Holocaust retains the craft and sociological concerns, but with the horror movie tropes piled on. Appreciated it somewhat.There is a rape scene, and it's a particularly interesting one from a sociological perspective. Looking forward to Cannibal Holocaust, if only to see what all the fuss is about.

[Rowland]

Alright, I'll have my thoughts up for Wisconsin Death Trip up in a bit, so in the meantime...

Next entry clue: Obscure H.P. Lovecraft Adaptation

[Kurosawa Fan]

The Unnameable

[Dukefrukem]

oh man. this could be 100 things...

In the Mouth of Madness

[Rowland]

oh man. this could be 100 things... Yeah, I felt that the last was a bit too specific (hell, Raiders figured it out immediately), so this one is open for plenty of guesses.

[Killed_by_Smalls]

Alright, I'll have my thoughts up for Wisconsin Death Trip up in a bit, so in the meantime...

Next entry clue: Obscure H.P. Lovecraft Adaptation

Is it Dan O'Bannon's The Resurrected?

[megladon8]

Cthulu?

[Rowland]

Finally posted my thoughts for Wisconsin Death Trip. My next entry should be up tomorrow if time permits.

[Rowland]

Alright, I should finally have my next two entries up over the next 24 hours. Life can be a pain sometimes. In the meantime, the clue for my next next entry will go up, since it will be posted shortly after the first.

Hint: ____ meets ____

[Dukefrukem]

first thing that came to mind... Freddy vs Jason

[Russ]

Boy Meets Girl

[Killed_by_Smalls]

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man ?

[Raiders]

Boy Meets Girl

As in Ray Brady's awesome-but-totally-underseen film? I sure hope so.

[Russ]

As in Ray Brady's awesome-but-totally-underseen film? I sure hope so.
Yep, that's the one. I suppose it gave birth to the whole torture porn genre, but let's not hold that against it.


There's also:

o4s-_cZNAGs

[Rowland]

first thing that came to mind... Freddy vs JasonIs that your final answer. *cough*

[Rowland]

The Resurrected (Dan O'Bannon, 1992) **½

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Not the forgotten gem I was hoping for, this isn't up to the standard O'Bannon set with Return of the Living Dead, nor is it as transgressive and nihilistic as Stuart Gordon's adaptations of Lovecraft to which it resembles, taking a more faithful approach to transplanting the author's "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" to the screen with merely solid results. While I've read much of Lovecraft's work, this hasn't been one of them, though I understand that O'Bannon apparently treats the material with great fidelity, and many of the author's pet themes/motifs are evident.

The story however strikes me as one that most likely worked better on the page, where it surely benefits from Lovecraft's distinctive literary gifts. The storytelling is clunky, with many flashbacks and awkward transitions somewhat mitigated by noirish voice-over narration, the performances are largely of a stiff, functional-at-best nature (Chris Sarandon being the one notable exception), and the production values are clearly low, though O'Bannon makes up for this with some expressive direction and a pervasive application of darkness to lend the proceedings an agreeably ominous atmosphere.

The main setpiece, a very Lovecraftian scenario involving the investigation of a vast underground catacombs and its cryptic horrors, is a proficient model of sustained suspense craft and thus clearly the film's highlight. I just wish most of the story didn't feel as though it was going through the motions, and that it amounted to more than a curiously flat climax that, besides being wildly predictable, is less existentially disquieting than simply muted.

Nevertheless, the film doesn't deserve its non-status, and is worth checking out for followers of Lovecraft, O'Bannon, and cult horror. Oh yeah, and kudos for the irresistibly tactile texture of the old-school special effects work, which are charming even when the seams show during moments that I can only presume were restrained by the budget.

[Rowland]

Killed by Smalls for the win!

[Bosco B Thug]

Man, I wish this didn't wrap up O'Bannon directorial efforts. RotLD really is a strong work, so I'll be seeing this (aware it's not up to par, of course).

IMDb lists this as Shatterbrain. Bad title.

[Killed_by_Smalls]

Killed by Smalls for the win!

Cool. I saw this pop up on Netflix Instant a few weeks ago. I've been looking forward to seeing it. Will definitely do so in the next few days. If nothing else I love special effects with tactility.

[Dukefrukem]

added to my horror queue

[Dead & Messed Up]

I dug that adaptation, and I'd probably bump it a half-star above your rating. As you point out, it's not as outrageous or risque as Gordon's works, but I thought its fidelity and emphasis on slow-burn atmosphere was faithful to Lovecraft's spirit, and Chris Sarandon offered uncommonly good work.

[megladon8]

I've tried to get my hands on a copy of this for some time now, but it's largely unavailable, and I'm not spending $40 on a blind-buy (that's used, to boot).

[Dukefrukem]

Is that your final answer. *cough*

Nah. Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman is the correct answer but i can't choose it since it's already taken.

[Rowland]

Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster (Robert Gaffney, 1965) **½

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Many grade-Z movies from the 60's, popular now largely for their camp appeal, prove more often than not to be simply dull. This infamous little number actually proves more entertaining than many of the more respected science fiction/horror productions, let alone the Z-movies, from the era. Cult legend John Karen stars as Doctor Adam Steele, the creator of a cyborg designed for NASA space travel named Frank Saunders who while being launched to Mars has his rocket mistaken as a missile and shot down by Princess Marcuzan and Dr. Nadir (uncannily resembling Jon Lovitz), two of the lone survivors from a nuclear war on Mars who have ventured into the galaxy in search of nubile young specimens with which to repopulate their ravaged planet. Frank the astro-android crashes in Puerto Rico and upon damaging his wiring promptly becomes a murdering Frank-enstein, so while the Martians land by his crash site along with their raygun-wielding henchmen and the titular space monster Mull to enact their nefarious abduction scheme, Dr. Steele along with his female assistant Karen and the military in tow converge in the area to put an end to their proto-Terminator.

If this sounds like prime camp fodder, you’re pretty much dead-on, though the film surprises with how legitimately engaging it is, given that at least 20% of its 75 minute running time is padded with stock footage. Edited with heat, shot with competence, scored with both incongruous 60’s rock that lends the film an oddly whimsical vibe and instances of surprisingly modern original scoring between all the delightfully old-fashioned orchestral stings, and imbued with an all-around off-kilter sensibility that suggests the filmmakers were having some fun with the nonsensical material while still playing it straight, this even manages moments of genuine cinematic ingenuity with its unsettling use of freeze frames and time-lapse photography, most notably during its funky opening sequence. The director wasn’t just any expendable hack, being credited with extensive second-unit work with Kubrick (reportedly responsible for most of the Monument Valley footage from 2001: A Space Odyssey!), and it shows. Even the obvious filler footage of John Karen and his female assistant riding around Puerto Rico on his dorky scooter, absurdly set to romantic psychedelic rock despite their otherwise chaste relationship, exudes an almost artful air, reminding me (and I know this is a stretch) of no less than the nighttime scooter footage from Apichatpong’s Tropical Malady.

Now don’t get me wrong, even with all my kind words, this isn’t a conventionally good movie, so it shouldn’t be approached with unwarranted high expectations. I could write a laundry list of all the deficiencies on display here, but given the nature of the film and what it sets out to do, it works well enough on its own terms, and I find its legitimate achievements more engaging to consider anyway. Fans of this stuff should find themselves sufficiently charmed.

[Rowland]

Only three people bothered to guess this time (one of which I already covered earlier in the thread), so the winner for being the closest otherwise is Killed by Smalls!

[Rowland]

Next entry hint: Waning superstar flames out

[Bosco B Thug]

Did you hear from somewhere that Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster is surprisingly good, or was this a major luck of the draw thing?

James Karen is a good draw, though.

[Rowland]

Did you hear from somewhere that Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster is surprisingly good, or was this a major luck of the draw thing?

James Karen is a good draw, though.I added it to my Netflix queue ages ago while looking for camp horror, and rediscovered it when compiling my lineup for this project. My decision to cover it was prompted by a four-star review by Alex Jackson at FFC, so while I can't say I share his degree of enthusiasm for the film as my inner contrarian was hoping I might, it worked for me more than it didn't.

[Dukefrukem]

Yeh I had no idea from the previous clue...


Next entry hint: Waning superstar flames out

And i have no idea from this clue either...Firestarter ?

[Bosco B Thug]

a four-star review by Alex Jackson at FFC Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.

[Rowland]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.What?

[Rowland]

I've decided to keep this going for awhile after October, not because anyone really seems to give a shit, but there are many movies I meant to cover that I didn't, and I've been using this as an excuse to brush up on my atrophied writing skills as well. So yeah, expect this to go on for a few more weeks after Halloween.

[MadMan]

Watching horror movies after or before October is never a bad thing. I just watch them the most when fall hits because its that time of year, where the leaves fall and the weather gets colder that puts me in the mood to get properly scared.

[Dukefrukem]

I give a shit!

[Killed_by_Smalls]

I've decided to keep this going for awhile after October, not because anyone really seems to give a shit, but there are many movies I meant to cover that I didn't, and I've been using this as an excuse to brush up on my atrophied writing skills as well. So yeah, expect this to go on for a few more weeks after Halloween.

I'll definitely continue following along, as I'm going to be sticking with the genre for a few weeks as well. I've got too many horror movies left on my DVR.

[Bosco B Thug]

What? Well, I for one have never even heard of the movie, much less has it ever caught my attention, so there existing an inexplicable 4-star review from a noteworthy critic provides welcome logic to why I, or anyone, would give it much notice.

And the reviewer turning out to be Jackson was hilariously foregone of a conclusion.

[Rowland]

Well, I for one have never even heard of the movie, much less has it ever caught my attention, so there existing an inexplicable 4-star review from a noteworthy critic provides welcome logic to why I, or anyone, would give it much notice.

And the reviewer turning out to be Jackson was hilariously foregone of a conclusion.Yeah, his classifying of Freddy Vs. Jason as a 4-star masterpiece was part of the reason I gave that movie a chance (in addition to Yu, my recent traipse with the Friday series, and generally solid scores both critic-wise and around these parts), and that didn't go so well. Contrarian views always catch my eye, partly because I often take the stance myself (not necessarily on purpose mind you), and even if I wind up not agreeing, it's always instructive in terms of flexing my critical faculties.

I gave the next entry a shot for similar reasons, everyone will see if worked out...

[megladon8]

Rowland you should try to seek out Altitude!

I'd really like to hear your thoughts.

[Rowland]

End of Days (Peter Hyams, 1999) **

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Alright, even though I haven't yet given a positive score to one of his films, I like Peter Hyams. He has acted as the cinematographer for his entire body of work with, given what I've seen so far anyway, a distinctive sensibility, favoring naturalistic lighting schemes, dynamic movement without being overly flashy, and a hazy warmth that, combined with his predilection for saturating the frame with darkness whenever feasible, has resulted in his work being oft-accused of excessive murkiness. I used to agree for the most part, but I've grown to rather enjoy the look and feel of his films. They aren't concerned with appearing trendy or overly polished, and they exude an enthusiasm for the process of filmmaking that is infectious, even as his finished works never cohere into a satisfying whole.

This is yet another example, and as usual, the culprits are weak performances, ridiculous special effects, and a mega-lame script, none of these facets of direction being apparent strengths of his, to put it charitably. This remains as watchable as it does for its epic two-hour length (which, for what it's worth, goes down pretty smoothly) because the script is not only deeply stupid, but also ridiculous enough that, when coupled with the tacky special effects and the absolute sincerity with which it's executed, results in late-90s camp of a rather fine vintage.

A newborn baby is whisked away by a nurse from the delivery room to Udo Keir and his shadowy satanic cult in the hospital basement, who perform a ritual with the infant involving the sacrificial blood of a rattlesnake, gutted by Udo directly above the baby, who is immediately returned to the mother none the wiser. A winged demon emerges from the fiery depths of the NYC sewer system disguised by a light-bending invisibility cloak borrowed from the Predator (as well as that film's iconic score being blatantly imitated) and decides to possess Gabriel Byrne while he's in a restaurant restroom taking a piss, who proceeds to pull a random woman's tit out of her dress in the middle of the dining area and sloppily makes out with her while groping the tit and glaring at her stunned husband with a domineering authority before finally exiting the establishment, which explodes in his wake as he struts off with an impish grin. Arnold, whose character is named Jericho Cane, is introduced pressing a gun muzzle against his forehead before his wise-cracking sidekick Kevin Pollack interrupts the contemplated suicide to pick him up for work, before which the uber-grizzled Jericho whips himself up a breakfast smoothie comprised of coffee, pepto-bismal, an unidentified dark liquor, leftover chinese food, and a slice of pizza he peels off the floor. All this happens before the fifteen-minute mark! Oh, and twenty minutes later, Bryne's Satan predates Machete by bedding poor Udo Kier's wife and daughter at the same time (see my second image capture).

None of this is to say the film works, being almost entirely bereft of dread, excitement, coherent ideas, or affecting emotion, despite its best efforts to the contrary. But it does succeed at being deeply amusing and charming for its earnest dopiness, which is better than many lousy blockbusters manage to achieve. And as for Hyams' underrated visual sense, his son John Hyams tapped into its potential by hiring his dad as cinematographer for the wonderful Universal Solider: Regeneration earlier this year.

[Rowland]

Either my last hint was too obscure, or nobody cares to play along. Oh well.

The next entry will be a Philip K. Dick adaptation with a minor cult following.

[Winston*]

Screamers

[EyesWideOpen]

Imposter

[Killed_by_Smalls]

The Resurrected (Dan O'Bannon, 1992) **½

I watched this today and I agree with everything you said, but I would probably rate it slightly higher. As you pointed out, the effects, Sarandon's performance, and the catacombs exploration were the clear highlights. As much as I love Stuart Gordon's stuff, I'd like to see some more straightforward Lovecraft adaptations closer in tone to what we got here.

[MadMan]

My buddy said that End of Days scared him when he was a kid. I've never seen it, but being a die hard Arnuld fan I'll probably give it a chance against my better judgement.

[Rowland]

Screamers (Christian Duguay, 1996) **½

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One of those movies you really like while you're watching it (I was in the mid-strong *** range for most of it) until you lend it some deeper thought in retrospect and it just totally falls apart. In short, the screenplay is a clusterfuck of contrivances, baffling lapses in internal logic, and philosophical trappings that, while sometimes striking, aren't fleshed out coherently enough by the end to register as more than pretentious. Which is a shame really, because the narrative has many creepy ideas and clever details that indicate how influential PKD's original story obviously was, Peter Weller's performance as the hard-boiled hero is charismatic, the direction is exceedingly atmospheric, and the vibe of the thing is defiantly old-school, right down to the often-chintzy special effects that have nevertheless aged better than lots of mid-90s fare for avoiding that era's largely awful CGI effects work. Why then must it be soooo poorly thought out?

[Rowland]

ScreamersYeah, there weren't many options for this one. :lol:

[Rowland]

Okay, so I didn't manage to watch nearly as many movies as I'd planned, but 16 isn't too bad, and of those, I only actively disliked one, while two were just shy of mediocre, five were highly flawed but worth seeing, six I really liked, and two were excellent. I was hoping for a better track record, but I'm satisfied, and I'm going to keep this up for awhile as well so there will hopefully be some more great ones ahead, including a few I'm particularly excited about.

[Dukefrukem]

bump

[MadMan]

/Halloween/ (Carpenter, 1978) ****Indeed.

[Rowland]

Giallo (Dario Argento, 2010) *½

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Ugh. Looks, sounds, and feels cheap, without a single memorable shot or sequence, save perhaps the moment I took the second image from, in which Adrien Brody's villain (he also plays the hero to emphasize the film's hackneyed duality theme) grunts and moans while sucking on a pacifier, first paging through a graphic, tentacle-infested manga before jerking it to the photos he snaps of his victims. That may return to me in my nightmares. There isn't much that's interesting or artful going on in this made-for-television-looking turd, its striving for thematic depth and emotional pathos wholly unconvincing, and its few references to classic Argento movies only a bit less painful than the entire tracking shot devoted to giving Juno a none-too-subtle shout-out. Some amusingly colorful details and an admittedly clever dual explanation of the title aside, this is an egregiously ordinary police procedural that hits its beats with the base competence one could expect from any anonymous hack, but that's about it. Hell, even The Card Player (which this reminds me the most of) was better, and while Phantom of the Opera was surely more painful in its epic trashiness, at least it was singularly fucked up. Ditto Mother of Tears, though I actually genuinely like that film. My favorite WTF-moment here would have to be when the killer flashes back to his junkie mother shooting up while he was still in her womb. :lol:

[Dukefrukem]

Thank you. I will avoid.

Provide clues!!!

[Bosco B Thug]

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only a bit less painful than the entire tracking shot devoted to giving Juno a none-too-subtle shout-out. Dario Argento, you are outrageous.

[Rowland]

Hint: A highly esteemed horror movie from the early '20s that is not Nosferatu.

[B-side]

Cabinet of Dr. Caligari?

[Winston*]

Häxan?

[soitgoes...]

Hint: A highly esteemed horror movie from the early '20s that is not Nosferatu.The Golem?

[Kurosawa Fan]

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

[Grouchy]

The Hands of Orlac?

[Killed_by_Smalls]

Phantom of the Opera is the only one I can think of that hasn't been mentioned.

[Dukefrukem]

Faust, The Unknown, or The Man Who Laughs

[soitgoes...]

Faust, The Unknown, or The Man Who Laughs
Early 20's.

[Dukefrukem]

fine Körkarlen aka The Phantom Carriage.

[Grouchy]

The Hunchback of Notre Dame!

[megladon8]

Cabinet of Dr. Caligari?


Seconded.

[Rowland]

Häxan (Benjamin Christensen, 1922) ****

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Stunning. I've never seen anything quite like this, and considering that it was made in the art form's infancy only amplifies the enormity of Christensen's singular achievement. A meta-documentary on witchcraft that is intellectually inquisitive, profoundly humane, and acutely modern in its sensibilities, Christensen's multifaceted film is deeply studious in its scholarly aims while still imbued with a rollicking sense of humor, sophisticated storytelling techniques, layers of self-reflexive meaning, and eye-popping formal chops. This is some seriously ahead-of-its-time shit, with some remarkably outré horror imagery that is borderline unimaginable for its era and still retains the power to disturb, an essential viewing that only misses the flaming masterpiece mark by being overlong in its second half and dwelling on some arguably outdated psychoanalytical notions (that are thankfully in the service of timeless social agendas), so instead it's just your routine, everyday masterpiece.

[Rowland]

Cabinet of Dr. Caligari?
Seconded.Already seen and enjoyed this quite a bit. I am very interested in seeking out Weine's other work however, including Grouchy's suggestion The Hands of Orlac.

[megladon8]

Wow. I really need to see that.

[B-side]

Well, you've convinced me to prioritize it.

[MadMan]

Haxan is available on Criterion, last time I checked. TCM showed it for Underground one time, also.

[D_Davis]

Haxan is great.

[Rowland]

House (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977) ***½

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Sheer delirium, as committed to its unfettered anarchy as any film I've ever seen, which admittedly proves exhaustive-bordering-on-tedious at times, and yet it all feels surprisingly of a piece. There is something dangerous roiling in its belly that suggests repeat viewings will be rewarding and fruitful, as it actually seems to be about melodrama, artificiality, the generational gap, and Freudian impulses in ways that are difficult to parse but unmistakably thorny, even poignant, my favorite throwaway moment in this respect occuring during a silent-movie-stylized flashback to the WWII-era when one of the girls carelessly remarks that a mushroom cloud (cut to from the flashbulb of a camera no less) resembles a tuft of cotton candy! Anyway, on the basis of his invigoratingly dynamic and playful work here, I'd love to see an Obayashi musical.

[Bosco B Thug]

There is something dangerous roiling in its belly that suggests repeat viewings will be rewarding and fruitful, as it actually seems to be about melodrama, artificiality, the generational gap, and Freudian impulses in ways that are difficult to parse but unmistakably thorny Pretty much this. I fall short of calling the film cogent, at all, but it has a surprisingly intellectuality. Still, the film's way too all over the place I can't imagine how fruitful parsing through it would be. I do feel an unmistakable eagerness to watch it for my second time, though, which speaks to its virtues.


a silent-movie-stylized flashback to the WWII-era Yep, best part. After that, the film just yields less and less results. Well, then again, the piano scene is the apex (of course), and I do like how the film ends (the coda with the stepmom).

[Rowland]

I do feel an unmistakable eagerness to watch it for my second time, though, which speaks to its virtues.For what it's worth, I had mixed thoughts after my first viewing (was going to settle with ***), but was immediately compelled to watch it again the very next day, which bumped my score up half a star.


Yep, best part. After that, the film just yields less and less results. Well, then again, the piano scene is the apex (of course), and I do like how the film ends (the coda with the stepmom).I may actually agree. Much of the film's most interesting material occurs before they even arrive at the house, and it's that segment that had me longing for an Obayashi musical.