Choconado
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Post by Choconado on Oct 1, 2018 8:42:59 GMT -5
IT BEGINS.
As some of you may recall, every October, I challenge myself to as many new-to-me Horror films as I can fit in. Last year I hit 78. Today is October First. It's Showtime.
#1. Ravenous (1999) A team of soldiers manning a California fort in the 19th century find a haggard man who tells a harrowing tale of his own survival, that has great and terrible impact on the men in the days to come.
For years this has been a guilty blindspot in my viewing history, and I regret it's taken this long for me to see it. It's an immaculate movie, full of atmosphere, great acting, top notch music, and a strange way about it of directing where the violence comes quick but never seems expected or even accented by the music, keeping the viewer constantly off-kilter. It's an amazing movie, and definitely recommended.
5 out of 5
#2. Ghost Stories (2018) A famous TV paranormal debunker has presented to him three cases by his lifelong idol that were never solvable, and tasked with getting to the bottom of things. These seemingly normal instances prove to be anything but.
This one wasn't bad at all, though I suspect that Martin Freeman being one of the stars had much to do with its notice in most circles. For the most part, I'd say it's a very by-the-book spooky story film, and the third act feels very rushed together. That said, it's not BAD, just not really groundbreaking in any way.
3 out of 5.
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Post by Deeky on Oct 1, 2018 9:12:44 GMT -5
That Ravenous score is a collab between Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn, and it's bonkers. I've never seen the movie but that album is great.
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Post by Killer Goldfish on Oct 1, 2018 10:36:42 GMT -5
I look forward to your future choices, Choco. How many out of a given October's viewing are totally new to you? Or I should say what percentage of the ones you watch are new?
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Oct 1, 2018 13:31:05 GMT -5
How frickin' eerie. I had my hands on a print of Ravenous just last night, but decided against watching it then. I'll have to pop it in when I get off work later tonight.
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Choconado
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Post by Choconado on Oct 1, 2018 16:54:58 GMT -5
I look forward to your future choices, Choco. How many out of a given October's viewing are totally new to you? Or I should say what percentage of the ones you watch are new? 100%. I only count new-to-me for my challenge. I will see some classics in group settings that are rewatches I'm sure (I have a friend that runs a stream on October Weekends for instance) bu those don't count towards my tally. Speaking of my tally... #3. Insidious (2010) Soon after moving into a new house, a family starts having terrifying encounters, and one son goes into a deep coma. Soon they discover that it is not their house that is what's haunted, but their boy... I was challenged to watch something I knew I wouldn't like, and James Wan's low effort, sterile, Hollywood ghost flicks fit the bill. Having never got more than a couple minutes into this, I finally watched the dang thing today. Everything about it feels very much like they're trying to pay a very low cost to scare you, from the child endangerment, to the shaky camerawork, to the "demon" painted up like Darth Maul. If it weren't for Lin Shaye as a psychic trying to help the family, carrying every scene she's in, the film would be a total loss. As it is, I can't in good conscience recommend this film. 1 out of 5 4. Baby Blood (1990) A French woman gets impregnated by a strange alien parasite, and then becomes helpless to the entity growing inside her, commanding her to feed it blood to grow and survive. This was a wild and weird one in many ways. It's not at all afraid of the red stuff, and is in fact pretty over the top with it. The story was strange and continued to escalate as it went, keeping me at attention, up until its bizarre climax. One surprise to me was how well done the English dub performance was, where if you squint, you'd almost think it was the natural actors acting (except for two bits where the track suddenly lapses into French again oddly. This seems true of every copy I could find). Anyways, if you're looking for something odd and gory, you can't go wrong here. 4 out of 5 5. The Tenderness of the Wolves (1973) Set in post-war Germany, Fritz is a man of many labels. Thief, black-marketeer, police officer, pedophile, cannibal. Through this failing town of poverty, he indulges in his vices of young boys in near plain sight while the police grow ever more suspicious of the man. Based on a very real serial killer of the 1920s, this movie is crawling with grime and sleaze as we watch Fritz continue to seduce underage boys, and commit various other crimes, while those around him celebrate his friendship. It's a depiction of a town whose policeforce is understaffed and overcorrupt. It's the kind of film you want to take a shower afterwards from. 4 out of 5 |
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Post by Deeky on Oct 1, 2018 17:36:42 GMT -5
And Fritz boning boys was the least of his crimes.
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Post by Killer Goldfish on Oct 1, 2018 20:24:36 GMT -5
This last one could only have been about Fritz Haarmann. I never knew there was a movie about that guy. Choco, you are a goldmine of movies, seriously.
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Post by Deeky on Oct 1, 2018 21:54:09 GMT -5
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Choconado
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Post by Choconado on Oct 2, 2018 0:02:41 GMT -5
And Fritz boning boys was the least of his crimes. Well yeah, considering he was EATING them afterwards. (And yes, it was about Harrmann, Cliffster. Directed by Ulli Lommel, who made the Boogeyman films about the haunted mirror) Meanwhile... #6. The VVitch (2015) A 17th century Puritan family becomes beplagued by mystical doings, festering mistrust for each other, especially the eldest daughter. This one has been talked up for a while for me, and I think I got the right impression of what it would be like--deeply realistic to the hard, miserable life settlers had trying to make this country livable for them. This almost seems more the point of the film than the occult influences, especially with how very little special effects to that end are seen. The film is incredibly bleak, with harsh, realistic lighting that chills you to the bone. Also, the film's script strives for accuracy in language of the time, living in the point where English was in-between its Middle and Modern structures, which can in fact make the film sometimes hard to follow. 4 out of 5 #7. The Rosary Murders (1987) Donald Sutherland plays a Detroit based priest, where a serial killer is slowly picking off area priests and nuns one by one, and leaving a black rosary chain in their hands. Halfway through, Sutherland discovers the identity of the killer through the Seal of Confession, and then begins attempting to discover the why of everything, as well as attempting to figure out how to stop the madman without breaking the seal and destroying the faith in the church. It's funny, so many movies are set in New York, or LA, or whatever, and they may as well be a fantasy land as far as I'm concerned. However, this film being solidly a Detroit creature gives a strange feeling in me. I may not live in Detroit, but I live close enough that it's all quite familiar to me. As far as serial killer mystery-thrillers go, this film is also a little out of the ordinary. It's much more a character piece than it is a chase or a mystery. Most of the plot just falls into place while the protagonist struggles to make sense of it all--in fact, it stops even being a whodunnit halfway through the runtime. I did like the film, but it's very much an 80s melodrama at times, and those can be rough to get through with modern sensibilities. 3 out of 5 #8. The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) A father and son team of morticians are delivered an unidentified woman's body found at a crime scene and tasked with determining the cause of death as soon as possible. As the night wears on, more and more strange details start being discovered, and the danger for the pair of examiners grows more and more... It's crazy how well Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch go together as a father and son team. They look close enough alike, they have close enough speech mannerism, and they have great chemistry together, and I could honestly believe they were family. Which is good, because this is a bit of a "bottle" story, mostly consisting of the pair working together within a small number of setpieces. If you're squeamish at all, I can't in good faith recommend this film, as it is extremely graphic in accurate detail of the inner workings, but like its main characters, much of it is shown in a highly analytical manner. The first half of the film has not really even any scary elements so much as the pair slowly trying to unravel the puzzle before them in a highly professional manner that is extremely satisfying. Once the spooky stuff starts up however, it ramps quite deliberately and continually. I enjoyed the crap out of this film, probably because it was so small scale yet detailed. 5 out of 5 |
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Oct 2, 2018 1:08:02 GMT -5
What-the-Hell, dude? You're already eight movies in and we're only on October 2nd. Choconado is crushing it.  I just downloaded Autopsy of Jane Doe and I'm about to go watch Ravenous! |
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Oct 2, 2018 4:03:10 GMT -5
I basically don't like holidays of any kind, since they disrupt the routine ebb and flow of my daily life.
Long ago, I realized that All Is Contradiction, the second tenet of the Crapulous Creed that I have lived my life by.
Reading the interview with Uncle Forry that started in Famous Monsters # 24, he, like myself, said that a typical day to him was the same, including holidays.
But, on the other hand, Forry described FM as bringing Halloween to the kids of America 6 times a year, with each bi-monthly issue.
This was, of course, in contradiction to Forry's Number One belief in Science Fiction, and his disdain of belief in demons such as those of Halloween.
I've read some of the fanzines Forry wrote for, and he did not observe Christmas.
He said that it would be better to observe the birth day of Hugo Gernsbeck, or H.G. Wells, than that of Jesus Christ.
And, for the height of Contradiction and undeniably hypocrisy, Forry and James Warren both went gagga over the story of Lon Chaney Sr's "Face 1,001," with a photographer's seeing the face of Jesus in one of Mr. Chaney's Monster Makeups.
As a 13 year old eighth grader, I read that story with a complete and total attitude of cynicism.
Oh, well, in the past, I probably did enjoy Halloween, and look forward to it, but those days are long gone.
For Dr. Kobb, and anyone else who can still have a ball and enjoy Halloween, I say:
GO FOR IT ! ! !
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Post by Deeky on Oct 2, 2018 4:24:11 GMT -5
Do I even want to ask what the Crapulous Creed is?
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Oct 2, 2018 4:33:12 GMT -5
Do I even want to ask what the Crapulous Creed is? Deeky, probably best to err on the side of caution and not ask. |
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Oct 2, 2018 13:17:24 GMT -5
That Ravenous score is a collab between Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn, and it's bonkers. I've never seen the movie but that album is great.
It is a strange score, but it fits the movie. They could have gone for a harrowing, mordant feel for the film, but instead, there's a humorous tone throughout.
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Post by Deeky on Oct 2, 2018 13:40:38 GMT -5
What-the-Hell, dude? You're already eight movies in and we're only on October 2nd. Choconado is crushing it. I just downloaded Autopsy of Jane Doe and I'm about to go watch Ravenous! If it's any consolation, I'll probably watch zero movies this month. |
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Oct 2, 2018 14:02:41 GMT -5
What-the-Hell, dude? You're already eight movies in and we're only on October 2nd. Choconado is crushing it. I just downloaded Autopsy of Jane Doe and I'm about to go watch Ravenous! If it's any consolation, I'll probably watch zero movies this month.
No movies this month? What kind of crapulous creed is that?!?
If you include re-watching MST3K's It Lives By Night on the 1st and Ravenous on the 2nd, then I'm actually on track thus far, although I am not officially playing the 31 movies game this year. BTW - Ravenous takes second place in my "Favorite Wendigo Films"-list to 1981's The Ghostkeeper.
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Post by Deeky on Oct 2, 2018 14:15:21 GMT -5
No movies this month? What kind of crapulous creed is that?!? Kobb, probably best to err on the side of caution and not ask. |
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Choconado
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Post by Choconado on Oct 2, 2018 22:19:31 GMT -5
#9. Count Dracula (1970) Do I really need to summarize this one? Count Dracula takes solicitor Johnathon Harker prisoner and goes and invades England. Hijinx ensue.
Jess Franco is legendarily awful in many movie circles, though I have a soft spot for him, due to my love of out-there filmmakers. This is said to be his best film, and I think from a conventional sense it certainly is. It has a name cast, with high production values, despite his penchant for pointless zooms like, constantly. Christopher Lee calls it his favorite Dracula film, and besides some trimming of things for speed and brevity, it's one of the most accurate adaptations to the book surprisingly. Also it's got a great soundtrack with an eerie mandolin springing along.
3.5 out of 5
#10. 1922 (2017) A Nebraska farmer feuds with his wife over land she has inherited, and he conspires with their son to murder her. Her death however leads to misery to come...
Up until this point, there's very few Stephen King feature adaptations I've yet to see. I must say, this one is not one of the best. Thomas Jane as the lead mumbles his lines in a thick drawl and the plot just seems to drag on and on despite not much going on. Meh.
2 out of 5
#11. Belladonna of Sadness (1973) In a medieval land, a woman is savagely raped by her king on her wedding night, leading eventually to her making a deal with the devil to grant her the power of revenge.
Well. People like to recommend this one because of its classic horror plot, and its surreal imagery. It's a Japanese made animated movie, taking after the psychedelic styles of the LSD generation of work. However...it's probably more than half just graphic sexual imagery back and forth that gets super old super fast, and makes me rather embarrassed to watch. Approach with caution.
2 out of 5
#12. Soft Matter (2018). Young art punks break into a closed up nursing home to put on a street art show, and discover the place holds a secret lab where the scientists are attempting to merge humans with fish to find the secret to immortality, which angers a sea god, who feels they're stealing her secrets. Yeah.
Holy shit.
18 out of 5
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Oct 3, 2018 0:42:14 GMT -5
No movies this month? What kind of crapulous creed is that?!? Kobb, probably best to err on the side of caution and not ask.  |
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Choconado
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Post by Choconado on Oct 4, 2018 0:37:55 GMT -5
Everything kinda got bunched together at the end of the day ha ha
13. Pet (2016) A lonely shy man that works as a janitor at the local dog pound meets a woman on the bus and immediately, obsessively falls for her, stalking her every move. Eventually he builds a cage and locks her in it, however his motives might not be as cut and dried as they appear...
This was a fun one. More than half the runtime of the film are the two leads bouncing off each other and seeming to chase each other in mental circles, while the other half would be sudden bouts of graphic violence, and suspense at the outside world coming closer and closer to find out the truth. It's a good little mental film that I think deserves more attention.
4 out of 5
14. The Doctor and the Devils (1985) Dramatizing the real life crimes of Burke and Hare, we find Dr. Thomas Knox, a highly skilled anatomist in 19th century London, running out of bodies for scholarly study, and resorting to paying graverobbers for new specimens. Enter Broom and Fallon, a pair of ne'er-do-wells who find out of this scheme and that the fresher the bodies, the better the pay. And how much fresher can you get than newly-killed?
Despite the horrific nature of the real life case, I can't really call this film "scary". It's extremely high in its British pedigree, with an all-star cast, and the direction of Freddie Francis, famous for his Amicus horror films of the 60s and 70s. There's also a high eye for the detail of things, where each set is carefully constructed right down to the muddy slums. I mean, it's a fine film, but nothing to give you nightmares.
3 out of 5
15. Ghost Dance (1980?) After an archaeological dig finds an old mummified corpse of a Pueblo cult leader, a local Medicine Man becomes possessed by the spirit and sets about magically killing those he feel wronged him, leaving it up to the local university staff, and tribal shamen to find and stop this magical menace.
The question mark on the date is because some sources place this movie as being made in 1980, and some in 1981. As some pretty good things were created in 80 (like this guy!) I'll call it there. That said, this is a pretty poor film. I don't know if it was just my print, or a really bad lighting tech or what, but half the movie was shrouded in near complete darkness and near impossible to make out. The story seemed okay I guess, and I appreciated that while it didn't really go very far into colonialism issues, it at least felt halfway respectful of the Native cultures, and not nearly as racist as I expected from the description. That said, it'll be a pass from me.
2 out of 5
16. Creep (2015) Aaron, a videographer, is hired by Peter to follow him around for a day. However, Peter turns out to be very strange, and appears more and more dangerous as the day goes on.
It's so refreshing to see a "found footage" horror film that doesn't sit itself firmly in the ghost corner. Instead we have a very realistic horror film with no fantastic elements, but quite a bit of mounting tension. Mark Duplass does a simply fantastic job as Peter, first just seeming a little odd, only to slowly get more and more threatening as the movie continues. I've heard that the sequel is even better, and plan on watching it later this month.
5 out of 5
17. Eyes Without A Face (1960) A doctor's daughter has been horribly disfigured in an auto accident. Mad, the man and his assistant kidnap young women to attempt to use them as donors for face transplants for her.
This French film has, for years, been a sort of kryptonite for me, where it's taken many attempts to sit down and actually watch it. I seem to always try when I'm tired, and conk out like, immediately. Something about French Black and White films. Anyways, the plot here is pretty brisk and sparse, and the real meat of the film is its visual flair. Much of the imagery is strikingly dynamic for its time, such as the daughter's creepy masked face, or other quiet angles. Not only that, but there's rather graphic surgery shown (all fake of course) which is shockingly gory for the time, many years before even Night of the Living Dead. Also, for my own personal health reasons, it's always strange to me seeing films of the past about "futuristic" transplant science, where in places like this, or say "Frankenstein '80", transplant surgery, and immunosuppression are nowhere near modern style. It's very jarring to me.
3 out of 5
18. Housewife (2017) Holly had a traumatic childhood, where her mother went mad and murdered her sister and her father. Now all grown up and married, one day they couple find themselves reunited with their old girlfriend, and as the three way relationship sparks up, she introduces Holly to her religious organization, and its enigmatic leader who is some sort of psychic emotional healer, leading Holly's life to spiral into maddening chaos.
Well then. Made by Turkish Can Evenol, this film is a leaps and bounds improvement over his past film, Baskin, which itself was a darling of the horror community, but lacked much in the way of cohesion. That is not a problem with this film, which is a complete story, from alarming beginning, to rising middle, to maddening ending, without sacrificing the disorientation or fantastic eye for visual design that Evenol is clearly showing to be his auteur touch. The film reminds me of the sort of hidden gems I loved in the 90s and early 00s that are mindscrews set in lavish upscale settings, while still dripping with the red stuff. Definitely recommended.
5 out of 5
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I just downloaded Autopsy of Jane Doe and I'm about to go watch Ravenous!
