Spun's Netflix Instant Horror Marathon 2011

[Spun Lepton]

I'll probably post in chunks.

10/1
The Horde (2009) (Dahan & Rocher)
Very melodramatic. Good gore effects, most moments work. Geared to be scary and involving, but the acting is so over the top, you can't take any of it seriously. A lighter tone probably would have worked in its favor. Didn't like the old man, actor had no chemistry with other actors, seemed out of place. 3/5

10/2
Blood Creek (2009) (Schumacher)
Joel Schumacher has really let himself go. It's a zombie movie, more-or-less. Although the lead bad guy is basically a vampire. Lots of voodoo hoodoo and hocus-pocus fills the script to 90 minutes, all of it meaningless and directionless. It's not scary or suspenseful at all. The blonde chick can't act. Bonus: Zombie Horse! 2/5

BONUS:
The Quick and the Undead (2006) (Nott)
Holy fuck. How do things like this get funded? All of the acting is sub-porno. The main villian is awkward and laughable. Scenes drag on and on with no sense of pacing. The director doesn't seem to give a fuck about connecting shots. When the dialogue isn't busy aping better zombie and western flicks, it's flat and amateurish. Story is directionless. It's like something vomited from the deepest bowels of Night Flight. I'm leaving this unfinished at the 50 minute mark. It's really quite painful. 1/5

10/3
Undead or Alive (2007) (Phillips)
I feel like somebody just kicked me in the nuts with diamond-toes boots. An idea that probably would have worked had they not cast Chris Kattan as tHe WAckY SiDeKIcK and played the comedy so broadly. The film is a mish-mash of tones, bad pacing, awkward editing. The soundtrack is terribly out of place, I nominate it for Worst Zombie Soundtrack Ever. I mean, the film takes place on the open range, turn of the century! What's with all the shitty alt-rock? Most characters speak like moderners. Zombies argue. There are maybe 2 inspired scenes in the whole thing. The ending pissed me off. 1/5

[Rowland]

Blood Creek (2009) (Schumacher)
Joel Schumacher has really let himself go. It's a zombie movie, more-or-less. Although the lead bad guy is basically a vampire. Lots of voodoo hoodoo and hocus-pocus fills the script to 90 minutes, all of it meaningless and directionless. It's not scary or suspenseful at all. The blonde chick can't act. Bonus: Zombie Horse! 2/5
Yeah, I thought this movie was awful, could hardly conceive of a redeeming quality besides the stripped down propulsiveness of its siege narrative, a nifty concept or two, and the inexplicable presence of Fassbender in the prologue. It was ass-ugly to boot IIRC.

[Dukefrukem]

I liked The Horde. Liked it enough....

[Dead & Messed Up]

10/3
Undead or Alive (2007) (Phillips)
I feel like somebody just kicked me in the nuts with diamond-toes boots. An idea that probably would have worked had they not cast Chris Kattan as tHe WAckY SiDeKIcK and played the comedy so broadly. The film is a mish-mash of tones, bad pacing, awkward editing. The soundtrack is terribly out of place, I nominate it for Worst Zombie Soundtrack Ever. I mean, the film takes place on the open range, turn of the century! What's with all the shitty alt-rock? Most characters speak like moderners. Zombies argue. There are maybe 2 inspired scenes in the whole thing. The ending pissed me off. 1/5

Oof dude. It's so bad.

[Dukefrukem]

Not to be confused with Undead (2003) which is awesome and has THIS scene

FQrpx13SK7k

[Raiders]

Horror is such a tough genre to predict... I am amazed at the punishment you fanatics put yourself through.

[Dukefrukem]

Horror is such a tough genre to predict... I am amazed at the punishment you fanatics put yourself through.

Horror is a genre that gets it wrong so many times, you kinda need to watch them pretending nothing else exists, have an open mind and try to be entertained. In the end, you’ll have your favorites, your guilty pleasures, your cheese your camp and the movies you’ll never forget.

[Spun Lepton]

Horror is such a tough genre to predict... I am amazed at the punishment you fanatics put yourself through.

I knew exactly what I was getting into. It was the decision to watch only movies I hadn't seen before that put me here. I expect the overwhelming majority of films to be bad, but I hope for an occasional gem. Who knows.

Writing the bad reviews is quite fun.

[Yxklyx]

I knew exactly what I was getting into. It was the decision to watch only movies I hadn't seen before that put me here. I expect the overwhelming majority of films to be bad, but I hope for an occasional gem. Who knows.

Writing the bad reviews is quite fun.

So, you've watched all the good horror films? Have you seen ... Flesh and the Fiends?

[Spun Lepton]

So, you've watched all the good horror films? Have you seen ... Flesh and the Fiends?

I haven't. I'll take a look at it.

[MadMan]

I imagine that as the years go on I'll be simply grabbing whatever I can get my hands on, too. First you go through all of the really famous/great/legendary ones, then you get to the hidden gems and the merely very good ones, then its simply viewing anything you haven't already seen that's well known, and then you end up with just viewing new stuff that may or may not be decent.

[Skitch]

Hated The Horde.

Hope New Years Evil makes an appearance! :)

[Dukefrukem]

I imagine that as the years go on I'll be simply grabbing whatever I can get my hands on, too. First you go through all of the really famous/great/legendary ones, then you get to the hidden gems and the merely very good ones, then its simply viewing anything you haven't already seen that's well known, and then you end up with just viewing new stuff that may or may not be decent.

There's this list of course too (http://www.icheckmovies.com/list/horror).

[MadMan]

There's this list of course too (http://www.icheckmovies.com/list/horror).I've seen 26 of those so far, with a couple of them on my DVR/in my possession. I don't agree that King Kong (1933) is a horror movie, though.

[Dukefrukem]

I've seen 26 of those so far, with a couple of them on my DVR/in my possession. I don't agree that King Kong (1933) is a horror movie, though.

I've seen 29.

But then of course there's THIS list (http://www.icheckmovies.com/list/top+500+horror+movies/dukefrukem/).

[Spun Lepton]

Skitch, here's the list I created before I began. I've already gone off the list, but I'm making sure to stick within the weekly genre. This week I'm on zombie movies.

I'm sure I'm going to change out some of the titles here, too, since Netflix just got some new horror titles that fall nicely within these categories.


NETFLIX INSTANT HORROR MARATHON 2011!!

Week 1: Sat 1st - Fri 7th
ZOMBIES!!
The Horde (2009)
Colin (2008)
Sugar Hill (1974)
Undead or Alive (2007)
Doghouse (2009)
DIEner (2010)
Dance of the Dead (2008)

Week 2: Sat 8th - Fri 14th
PSYCHOS!!
Santa Sangre (1989)
Dream Home (2010)
The Comedy of Terrors (1963)
The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
Deranged (1974)
Red Dragon (2002)
Theater of Blood (1973)

Week 3: Sat 15th - Fri 21st
MORE MONSTERS!!
Altered (2006)
Shiver (2008)
Mullberry Street (2006)
The Thing with Two Heads (1972)
Interplanetary (2008)
Dark Floors (2008)
Vampyr (1932)

Week 4: Sat 22nd - Fri 28th
SUPERNATURAL!!
The Baby's Room (2006)
Deathdream (1974)
Burn, Witch, Burn (1962)
Deathwatch (2002)
Black Death (2010)
R-Point (2004)
The House of the Devil (2009)

Week 5: Sat 29th - Mon 31st
GRAB-BAG!!
Let Me In (2010)
Daybreakers (2009)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

[Spun Lepton]

I've watched Colin and Doghouse, neither are recommended. Watching DIEner tonight. I'll post my reviews tomorrow night after Dance of the Dead.

[MadMan]

Spun I think you'll dig Dance of the Dead alot. It became a new favorite of mine when I viewed it last year, and its really very good. Plus it has teens actually playing teens, which is refreshing all things considered. "But I don't know how to shoot a machete"=heh.

[Spun Lepton]

Holy crap biscuits, avoid DIEner at all costs. Wow. So unbelievably bad. It makes Troll 2 look professional.

[Spun Lepton]

10/4
Colin (2008) (Price)
Everything that happened in this movie went on for a lot longer than it should. Forty-five minutes in I was convinced 1-plus hours had passed. By 90 minutes, I understood why animals knawed off their legs to escape traps. Colin is a dude who changes into a zombie in the first 5 minutes of the movie. He'd been bitten before the opening scene. The story follows his wild escapades. Mostly eating people. And then a random series of events which were neither interesting nor entertaining. Just drawn out and boring. And filled with the most nausea-inducing shakey-cam you'll ever see. Fuck You Award: Netflix, for thinkg I'd give this a 3 rating. 1/5

10/5
Doghouse (2009) (West)
Well, the acting is all right. It's pretty nicely shot. The story is about a town full of women who turn into zombies, and then into zombie-demons, and kill men. Our band of lovely nitwits are a particularly misogynistic group. A nice platform for the men to learn the error of their ways? Not really. The movie pretends it's satarizing something Important, when it's actually that very thing. The surviving men learn nothing in the end, in fact, there is no end! The movie just seems to stop like the budget fucking runs out. Slap a still before some credits, and you're ready to go! 2/5

10/6
Die-ner (get it?) (2010) (Horvath)
Holy asscrack of hell. Please note that the cover art of this film does not show the correct title. It just says DIEner, which is a lot more clever that the film itself. The title Die-ner (get it?) appears in the opening credits. What a sad display of amateur filmmaking. The script is total random nonsense, no drama, no comedy, just flat, poorly-written dialogue that drones on and on and on. And on and on and on! It really does drag on for a very long time. Outstays its welcome very quickly, that droning dialogue. Geez, it just goes on and on and on and on. I just can't say enough about how much that dialogue drones on and on and on and on. Seriously though, I fucking fell asleep. 1/5

10/7
Aaah! Zombies! (2007) (Kohnen)
A bunch of kids get turned into zombies, but from their point of view, they're still normal, and it's the rest of the world that has changed. The film flip-flops between what they see and how the world sees them, and it's pretty damn funny. Nicely shot and framed, the actors are able to do faux-melodrama and goofy comedy very well. The zombies are hilarious much of the time. I really liked it. It's not a perfect movie, however. The dialog scenes tend to drag, the movie does seem a little longer than 90 minutes, but when it's funny, it's very funny. Worth checking out. 4/5

[Spun Lepton]

So, I've fallen behind by 1 movie. I fell asleep early on Friday and never got around to watching my movie. Then, on Saturday, in an attempt to catch up, I watched my final zombie film, then attempted to watch The Dentist, but fell asleep.

Then, last night I decided I didn't want to watch Dream Home, so instead watched Them. Not bad. A little slow, but interesting. Probably better than Dream Home.

Hopefully I'll be able to catch up before the weekend.

[Irish]

These reviews are so entertaining that they make watching this stuff sound fun; pretty much the opposite of your intentions, I'm sure. :P

Keep em coming, SL.

[Spun Lepton]

I tried to watch The Comedy of Terrors last night. I was not expecting it to be a rollicking slapstick comedy. The humor was dated, I laughed at nothing. Peter Lorre had no comic timing. I fell asleep maybe half-way through.

[Spun Lepton]

These reviews are so entertaining that they make watching this stuff sound fun; pretty much the opposite of your intentions, I'm sure. :P

Keep em coming, SL.

Watching DIEner was anything but fun. It's the kind of movie you show to your enemies.

[Irish]

Watching DIEner was anything but fun. It's the kind of movie you show to your enemies.

:lol: that second line is just killing me.

[Spun Lepton]

Masque of the Red Death is probably the best movie I've watched since I began. That said, all of the Satanism mumbo-jumbo that was used to fill the script went nowhere and the finale was a serious disappointment. It's a Rainbow of Death! Yaaay!

[MadMan]

Masque of the Red Death is probably the best movie I've watched since I began. That said, all of the Satanism mumbo-jumbo that was used to fill the script went nowhere and the finale was a serious disappointment. It's a Rainbow of Death! Yaaay!I'll be watching that one sometime next week, as I have fall break. Roger Corman was awesome back in the 1960s.

[Spun Lepton]

Deranged -- 3/5

Hopefully I'll have some short reviews for this week by the weekend. Nothing from this week has even approached the sheer crapitude of last week's line-up. I suspect my reviews will be less fun to write.

[Irish]

Watching DIEner was anything but fun. It's the kind of movie you show to your enemies.

Just wanted to quote this aain. Such a fun blurb.

[Spun Lepton]

10/8
Them (2006) (Moreau)
Not a bad flick, but a little slow. It's because there's so much running. After a while you're numb. The ending is supposed to be a big shocker, I think, but I wasn't shocked. I was actually, "Yeah, and ... ?" Still, pretty well acted, nicely shot. Not bad, but not something I would go apeshit over. 3/5

10/10
The Comedy of Terrors (1963) (Tourneur)
Whoo, yay, it's a bunch of horror icons doing corny slapstick. Sign me the fuck up. I want to laugh, but the material is really dated, and Peter Lorre has absolutely no comic timing. Boris Karloff plays Grampa Simpson, only not nearly as funny. I would have many more complaints about this unfunny movie, I'm sure, if I were not asleep. No, seriously, I fell alseep. 1/5

10/11
The Masque of the Red Death (1964) (Corman)
Starts out very promising, but then becomes unhinged when you learn that Vincent Price and his court are all Satanists. For the next 45+ minutes, we're treated to a whole bunch of Satanism malarky that even Price himself didn't appear to take seriously. Then there's a fucking dance number at the end when people are dying. And then the Red Death (the character, a guy in costume) goes and hangs out with a Rainbow of Deaths, there's the Blue Death, the Black Death, the Aquamarine Death, among an assortment. WTF Corman?

10/12
Deranged (1974) (Gillen & Ormsby)
Oddly comical. Marvel fucking performance from Roberts Blossom. He made this movie worth watching. He is perfectly awkward and creepy. I wish it hadn't been shot so cleanly. This should've looked grainy like Texas Chainsaw. The humor was lopsided, sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. The blood is Suspiria blood. 3/5

10/13
Intruder (1989) (Spiegel)
Hey, it's the Evil Dead crew! Ugh, WTF? This was their follow-up to Evil Dead 2?! The lead chick is a plank of fucking wood. She and the bad-boy suck, they have zero chemistry. Ted and Sam Raimi have relatively large supporting roles, meet fairly bloodless deaths. The script is dull, most dialogue feels like filler. I hope somebody kicked the director of photography's ass. What an ugly film. 1/5

[Dead & Messed Up]

10/11
The Masque of the Red Death (1964) (Corman)
Starts out very promising, but then becomes unhinged when you learn that Vincent Price and his court are all Satanists. For the next 45+ minutes, we're treated to a whole bunch of Satanism malarky that even Price himself didn't appear to take seriously. Then there's a fucking dance number at the end when people are dying. And then the Red Death (the character, a guy in costume) goes and hangs out with a Rainbow of Deaths, there's the Blue Death, the Black Death, the Aquamarine Death, among an assortment. WTF Corman?

What? This movie rocks. It's absolutely ridiculous, and that is a virtue. Price is fantastic, the movie looks phantasmagoric. It might be my favorite of the Corman-Poe movies.

[MadMan]

Masque of the Red Death reminds me I should go back and re-read Poe's story, which the movie was based off of. I recall it being incredibly creepy, and having a most fantastic ending. So I'm quite interested in what Corman added to the story with his adaption.

PS: Hey DaMU, you need to fix your sig there guy :P

[Dead & Messed Up]

Masque of the Red Death reminds me I should go back and re-read Poe's story, which the movie was based off of. I recall it being incredibly creepy, and having a most fantastic ending. So I'm quite interested in what Corman added to the story with his adaption.

PS: Hey DaMU, you need to fix your sig there guy :P

Yeah, I've been meaning to do that for a few days now. I'm starting to wonder if I should leave it like that. This is me, raw and unedited.

[MadMan]

Yeah, I've been meaning to do that for a few days now. I'm starting to wonder if I should leave it like that. This is me, raw and unedited.Well I don't think you should, but hey that's just my opinion, man :cool:

[Spun Lepton]

What? This movie rocks. It's absolutely ridiculous, and that is a virtue. Price is fantastic, the movie looks phantasmagoric. It might be my favorite of the Corman-Poe movies.

It's easily one of the strongest of all the movies I've seen so far. I forgot to add my rating. 3/5. It was all the Satanism stuff that made me :rolleyes:.

[Spun Lepton]

I'd actually love to hear what you folks think of Deranged.

[MadMan]

I'd actually love to hear what you folks think of Deranged.I'm curious to see it. Funny enough back in high school when my buddy and I watched Motel Hell Deranged was featured as the second movie on the same disc. We didn't get around to watching it. Its the one that was really somewhat based off of Ed Gein like so many other horror movies, right?

Spun watch Dance of the Dead (2008) if you haven't already :cool:

[Spun Lepton]

I'm curious to see it. Funny enough back in high school when my buddy and I watched Motel Hell Deranged was featured as the second movie on the same disc. We didn't get around to watching it. Its the one that was really somewhat based off of Ed Gein like so many other horror movies, right?

Yup, that's the one. I'm telling you, Roberts Blossom's performance was something to behold.


Spun watch Dance of the Dead (2008) if you haven't already :cool:

It'll have to happen after the marathon. It's also going to compete with Walking Dead and Breaking Bad. I really want to watch those shows.

[MadMan]

Yup, that's the one. I'm telling you, Roberts Blossom's performance was something to behold.Cool. I'll put it on my Netflix queue.


It'll have to happen after the marathon. It's also going to compete with Walking Dead and Breaking Bad. I really want to watch those shows.Alright, fair enough. I can't wait to watch The Walking Dead, either.

[Irish]

More?

[Spun Lepton]

Good timing.

10/14
Turned on Theater of Blood, but fell asleep within 10 minutes. I was exhausted.

10/15
Altered (2006) (Sánchez)
The story turns in bizarre and unrealistic directions, as if the basis wasn't already outlandish enough. A group of good-ol-boys capture a space alien, one from a race that had abducted the hicks and experimented on them years ago. Then they argue about what to do with it. The handsome good-ol-boy is afraid if they kill it, the aliens will slaughter the entire world, after all, they have the technology. They hide the alien from the girlfriend and then tie her up instead of telling her, hey, look what we caught, there's more outside, so don't go outside. The elaboritely designed alien suit is often shown in bright light, and it looks rubbery. Sánchez has a fetish for intestines. 2/5

10/16
Dolls (1987) (Gordon)
Not bad. Stuart Gordon has turned out decent to great horror fiction and this was near his Re-Animator and From Beyond years. The dolls aren't all that creepy. Mix of puppetry and awkward stop-motion. A child actor that isn't annoying, but she's still bad. 3/5

10/17
Shiver (2008) (Ortiz)
Shot by the Director of Photography for Pan's Labyrinth, so it looks great. Story is a little angsty at first, then it gives way to some nice suspense. It builds until we see the "monster" at which point the entire film deflates. I suppose I should be fair and not reveal what the "monster" is, suffice to say it's not scary. It borders on comical. It's really too bad, because it was a 4-star rating until that moment. 3/5

10/18
The Thing with Two Heads (1972) (Frost)
Why is this in the Netflix horror section? This isn't a horror movie, it's a comedy. A bad comedy. I didn't laugh once. The lead character is an overt racist and the most unlikeable one in the film, he has his head transplanted to a black man. Wacky hijinks? If you count a 10 minute motorcycle / cop car chase scene through the same grassy field over and over again wacky. The racist never learns his lesson. Apparently, detached heads laying on tables are still able to talk. The two-headed effects are embarrassing. 1/5

10/19
SOCIAL NIGHT WHOOO!! No movies watched.

10/20
The Unnamable (1988) (Ouellette)
It's so namable. You see it on the freaking poster art. Then again, calling it Demon Chicken Lady probably wouldn't sell many tapes. I make fun of the name, but it's actually pretty good. Things start getting redundant about 50 minutes in when we've run through the same hallway nine times. The Unnamable is endearing, kudos to the actress. Much of the gore works, although there's one terrible severed head. The Unnamable's defeat is kinda silly. Wish it hadn't been shot in 4:3. 3/5

[Dead & Messed Up]

10/15
Altered (2006) (Sánchez)

10/20
The Unnamable (1988) (Ouellette)

I would flip-flop these two ratings. I found the scenes of suspense in Altered pretty well conceived and executed, although you're right to criticize that alien. It is shown far too clearly, and it's not impressing anybody. The Unnamable was on the right track, but I just got so damned bored so quickly. I think the problem was that every single hallway and room in that mansion had full-size windows, and yet people had no idea of how to escape. Also...

the unnamable is chafed into submission by tree branches. What.

[MadMan]

Yeah I also dug Altered quite a bit, at least more than I thought I would. Wish I could dig up my Icine review of it, but Icine's down right now.

[Spun Lepton]

I would flip-flop these two ratings. I found the scenes of suspense in Altered pretty well conceived and executed, although you're right to criticize that alien. It is shown far too clearly, and it's not impressing anybody. The Unnamable was on the right track, but I just got so damned bored so quickly. I think the problem was that every single hallway and room in that mansion had full-size windows, and yet people had no idea of how to escape. Also...

the unnamable is chafed into submission by tree branches. What.

My biggest problems with Altered were the decisions made by the characters.

Big plot hole from The Unnamable:
The unnamable is bound to the inside of the house, but it crashes into the house through a window near the end.

[Spun Lepton]

Honestly? I'm really ready to end this marathon. I currently don't have time to research IMDb for dates and director names.


The Call of Cthulhu
The Call of Dr. Caligari. Extremely low-budget, but novel and interesting despite being a silent, black-and-white film shot in the aughts. Very loyal to the source material. Choppy stop-motion. Shots are reused. Cthulhu is pencil-necked. Fans of Lovecraft will probably take a lot more away from it. Non-fans will probably be bored senseless. 3/5

The Ward
Is this an insane asylum or a sorority? Performances are excellent all-around. Beautifully shot. Some tension, some suspense, some decent jump-scares. Great pacing. Carpenter is a still a master craftsman. However, the script has a few plot-holes. Some scenes simply do not work. The ending is a disappointment. Still head-and-shoulders above Ghosts of Mars. 3/5

Paranormal Activity 2
Probably the strongest film I've seen this month. I admire the way they do not direct the viewers eye, which builds an enormous amount of tension and suspense. An entire cast of unknowns pulls very believable performances. Story integrates itself cleverly into the first story. Really enjoyed this. 4/5

Case 39
Clone of The Omen. Nicely shot, well-acted. Music is bad enough to draw attention to itself. Pacing is odd, fast when it should be slow, slow when it should be fast. One character disbelieves the child is a monster until the hollowest of evidence is presented, at which point he decides the child must die (!!). Writers setup rules that are ignored later. Ending is predictable and kinda dumb. 2/5

The House of the Devil
Surprisingly engaging and briskly paced for a feature where not a whole lot happens for the first hour. Excellent performances. One very well-executed shock scene in the middle. Always happy to see Dee Wallace and Mary Woronov getting work. Film actually begins to fall apart the moment it gets most interesting, which is unfortunate. 3/5

The Baby's Room
Breakneck pacing, it wastes no time getting going. Good performances, nicely shot, keeps the viewer engaged. Mid-story twist drives it in a non-sensical direction that is never explained. Lacks an effective ending. 3/5

[megladon8]

Glad you dug The House of the Devil, Spun, despite the involvement of Larry Fessenden :lol:

[Spun Lepton]

Glad you dug The House of the Devil, Spun, despite the involvement of Larry Fessenden :lol:

The House of the Devil
What a boring pile of crap. Nothing happens for 60 minutes, and then we're treated to 20 minutes of problems, one major problem is glossed over in the laziest way possible, and the second major problem is a glaring cliche. It needed a Satanic deer. 1/5

:D

[megladon8]

:sad:

I liked the use of "One Thing Leads to Another".

[Spun Lepton]

Case 39
Clone of The Omen.

The Clomen?

:D

[Spun Lepton]

:sad:

I liked the use of "One Thing Leads to Another".

I KEED I KEED. I was pretty impressed by the use of music, too.

Since I'm biased, I'll heap the praise on Ti West instead of Fessenden.

[MadMan]

I'm not really a fan of Lovecraft (haven't read any of his work) and I loved The Call of Cthulhu. However I'm not a fan of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

[Spun Lepton]

I'm not really a fan of Lovecraft (haven't read any of his work) and I loved The Call of Cthulhu. However I'm not a fan of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

I watched it with a friend who told me he thought it was boring, which is why I wrote that. Despite the issues I had with it, I did enjoy it. My rating might have been lower had it been a full feature, however. I can't say I'm a fan of Caligari, either.

I admired the decision to have the film look and feel like a film from the era when the story took place.

[Scar]

Paranormal Activity 2
Probably the strongest film I've seen this month. I admire the way they do not direct the viewers eye, which builds an enormous amount of tension and suspense. An entire cast of unknowns pulls very believable performances. Story integrates itself cleverly into the first story. Really enjoyed this. 4/5


Unknowns?! Why, the new mother played the President's daughter in the later seasons of 24.

Thats all I got.

Rather enjoyed the movie.

[megladon8]

I KEED I KEED. I was pretty impressed by the use of music, too.

Since I'm biased, I'll heap the praise on Ti West instead of Fessenden.


Ti West is certainly the best thing to come out of Fessenden's troupe.

Have you seen The Roost? Heavily flawed, but also quite effective, and shows West's ability to hold tension to the last possible second before releasing.

I really want to see his latest, The Innkeepers.

[MadMan]

I watched it with a friend who told me he thought it was boring, which is why I wrote that. Despite the issues I had with it, I did enjoy it. My rating might have been lower had it been a full feature, however. I can't say I'm a fan of Caligari, either.

I admired the decision to have the film look and feel like a film from the era when the story took place.Oh, okay, that makes sense. To be honest as much as I like silent movies I can't watch a lot of them in one setting, or viewing them in bunches. The same thing goes for foreign movies, too.

I love how they used black and white for the movie. Looked really gorgeous. Glad to see someone else not really liking Caligari, too. Yes I get that its got amazing visuals, but the story is weak and the twist isn't really all that surprising. Maybe for 1919 it is....

[Spun Lepton]

Holy hand grenade, it's finally over. :pritch:

Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman
A Japanese town is populated with drooling morons and the only topic anybody discusses is an urban legend about the slit-mouthed woman. There's no 1st act, no characters are given a proper introduction, instead we lunge directly into the tone-deaf, rhythmless 2nd act. Clues that a goldfish could comprehend take the leads hours to figure out. The titular creature has no motivation and no consistency in her actions. Some people are murdered, some are carved up, and some she just kinda kicks around for a while. I did research on the actual urban legend, and the filmmakers took so many liberies with it, I don't know why they didn't just crreate their own. 1/5


The Last Exorcism
Strong performances, nicely shot, believable dialogue. Moves at a steady pace that keeps the viewer engaged. I really enjoyed it up until its final ten minutes. The train then derails and the filmmakers allow their homage to overtake the story in an effort to pay respects to a similar classic horror movie. I guess their hearts were in the right place, but it just doesn't mix well with modern sensibilities. 4/5


From Dusk 'til Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money
Bank robbers are turned into vampires one at a time, and yet they all still want to stealthily crack the bank safe. Why? Not even the filmmakers are able to answer the question. "Werp, I guess vampires need money jus' like ever'body else!" No. No, they don't! They're freaking VAMPIRES, all they need is blood and shelter from the sun! Anything else they need, they just take by force! Two scenes are dedicated to the leads sitting around a motel room, discussing porno. Ooh, the gravitas! Also, bullets appear to kill some vampires, while others just shrug them off. Lame. 1/5


Red State
Easily one of the best films I've watched this month, however, I hesitate to call it a horror movie. More in league with a Peckinpah movie than a Carpenter or Romero flick. Moves along at a very brisk pace, numerous characters are juggled with skill, but then, in an attempt to be ironic and humorous, it completely drops the ball in the final 10 minutes. Still, very much worth a viewing. 4/5


Pontypool
Performances are strong, nicely shot. The entire first 45 minutes or so work extremely well through simple suggestion. It's obviously very low budget, but it's handled with an admirable amount of skill and precision. As the story progresses, the leads are conveniently visited by a character in a way that might make you roll your eyes. The strange occurences are then explained by this convenient character in a way that strains the boundries of believability. From there it's a steady slip into silliness. 4/5

[Spun Lepton]

Well, I missed the goal by 2 titles. I guess that's OK.

All movies listed in order from best to worst

>>BEST
Paranormal Activity 2
Red State
Pontypool
The Last Exorcism
Aaah! Zombies!
Deranged
The Masque of the Red Death
The Ward
The House of the Devil
Dolls
Them
The Call of Cthulhu
The Baby's Room
The Unnamable
Shiver
The Horde
Case 39
Altered
Doghouse
Blood Creek
The Comedy of Terrors
From Dusk 'Til Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money
Intruder
Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman
The Thing with Two Heads
Undead or Alive
Colin
The Quick and the Undead
Die-ner (get it?)
>>WORST

[Dead & Messed Up]

Red State
Easily one of the best films I've watched this month, however, I hesitate to call it a horror movie. More in league with a Peckinpah movie than a Carpenter or Romero flick. Moves along at a very brisk pace, numerous characters are juggled with skill, but then, in an attempt to be ironic and humorous, it completely drops the ball in the final 10 minutes. Still, very much worth a viewing. 4/5

Huzzah!