Drag Me To Hell is great!
Mother! I hated it. I did like Black Summer
Temple - Japan, temples, haunted, creepy shit. Some nice visuals, but no. Not remotely worth occasionally nice visuals. Also so dark in places I couldn’t tell what was happening but that might be something weird on my end.
It Chapter Two - I know there’s a 2019 thread but I’m putting this here anyway. I was not a fan of the first, which was interesting at times but I thought struggled with the impossible task of cramming what was hard to do in 4 commerical-break television hours into two movie hours (and change). Also, god bless them for not doing the orgy. But the sequel felt like I mess, and meandered. And the stuff they added didn’t work for me (they really should have done the smoke ritual as kids and stuck to that). But like I get why people like it, and it does some stuff well. But the sequel I think was just very weak overall. I think the biggest issue was the clear desire to use the child actors as much as possible. We had to watch them all have personal conforntations with IT again, to no obvious benefit and a lot of filler screen time. At least I got to play Path of Exile throughout.
Incident in a Ghostland - Mom and a couple of daughters moving into Mom’s sis’ place (looking for a new start) get home invaded. It was ok I guess. I didn’t particuarly like it but it seemed reasonably well filmed and acted. Notiing especially new or interesting. The most noteworthy thing about the movie is Taylor Hickson (the gal Ryan Renolds does the job for in the beginning of Deadpool) received a massive, permanent scar due to a scene going horribly wrong (she was repeatedly urged and instructed to beat on a window harder and harder after being told it was safe; it broke and she fell through and gashed her face on actual glass) and has apparently sued over it.
Ruin Me - some people go do a fun “get stalked by slasher movie slashers” adventure and uh don’t bother.
Channel Zero seasons 1-4 - ok so it’s not a movie. But I did watch all 4 seasons over the past 6 weeks and ultimately really liked the whole thing. Would love to see more in the futre. Favorite bits are probably mostly Season 2 (I in fact had a dream/nightmare the other night copying elements of season 2 regarding the haunted house), Season 3 just taking a crazy hard left turn into “what the fuck did I even just watch”, and the one dude making a massively delicious breakfast in season 4 that looked like it included him consuming over a pound each of bacon and sausage mmmmmmmmm delish.
Would recommend all 4 seasons. While they each have their flaws I think they are largely forgivable.
What Keeps you Alive - I didn’t finish this. I got bored part of the way through. I don’t know why. I don’t think it’s bad. I was just not interested. May try to finish it sometime before Christmas (post-Christmas is busy in the peacedog household with a new season of Leterkenny and also The Witcher to watch).
Lining up: Us (finally), Ready or Not, Mandy
I really liked the first episode of Black Summer, the way it showed how all the different characters stories interacted, and not necessarily in order.
But the next couple episodes I didn’t find as interesting. Mostly because the actions of all the non-zombies makes no sense. Why would you follow a car around all day? The main characters imply it’s to steal their gas, but there are hundreds of cars sitting around they could siphon gas from. Why would you turn a school into a complex deathtrap for other humans? Why would you hang around a random alley waiting for someone to drive by so you can throw bricks at them? How long were they waiting there??
Anyway, stuff like that made me lose interest.
Yeah I watched the first two episodes of Black Summer and I am not convinced there is enough story there to keep me going back.
Black Summer’s biggest failing was that it was very subtle in some of it’s story telling and it didn’t properly highlight some important information.
Black Summer takes place six weeks into what is a recognized zombie apocalypse. Which means things were problematic for longer. The call to evacuate comes because the horde or the tidal wave of whatever it was is on their doorstep, if memory serves. Meanwhile, there is the constant threat of outbreaks flairing up anywhere and everywhere, although the suggestion (deliberate or not) is that we’re still coming to grips with the mechanics (several characters are surprised to learn that you come back no matter how you die; it’s possible outbreaks were occuring before that was true everywhere).
This part of the picture is not as well painted as it could be IMO, but there’s no way this is a fully functioning society at this point (ti is, to quote a bard, entering into “slippage”). This is speculation granted, but my guess is that not every store or gas station was getting reliably restocked (but that some were, although enforced rationing seems likely, especially for things like gas). The best evidence of this? People only grabbing cars in desperation, and most people ignore cars all together. Having one seems lucky (we only see a couple of working non military vehicles in the series).
I think there’s a missed opportunity when Worst Survivor Ever enters the store in the little suburban downtown area. I would have some stuff there, but not had it fully stocked/given away some clues as to the state of the world (although maybe I missed some). No widespread looting just yet because the Military has clearly been around and trying to keep order. Although also increasingly stretched thin.
Also, I can’t recall if the people from the other car actually say “we wanted your fuel”, but IMO it was also clear they wanted something to play with. Because again, the military had already been stretched thin and then we get a sudden, terrible shift from “things are tense and worrisome to” “the shit has hit the fan”.
I think that’s where Doomschool lies. It’s probably as much set up the way it is for funsies as anything else. But I think it exists before the call to evacuate goes out, slowly being changed to become what it is in ep 2. Where were the parents? shrugs. I can think of reasons enough that there would be some kids there. There’s more than I would expect but given the panic during the evacuation I expect the numbers swelled a bit as kids who lost parents gravitated to the school.
Black Summer does a lot of great background story telling. But I think it missed some opportunities to do some of that in these areas. There’s some clues there, but not many.
Just my .02 of course. I can totally understand finding those specific things off-putting.
Patient Seven
- Starring Michael Ironside. Directed by Danny Draven.
It was one of those cheap little anthology movies. It was obviously made by scooping up student film projects and indie film festival shorts and bundling them up with a quickie story wrapper.
Usually, you can find at least one gem in an horror anthology. One short story that has an interesting idea or a neat little trick that makes you think “Hey, someone here might have some chops developing.” Not here. It’s all firmly low rent and mediocre. Zombies! Bad makeup! Ghosts! Cheesy effects! Killers! Dubbed foreign sequences! Old and bored Michael Ironside, clearly not giving two shits about his acting, still gives a better performance than anyone else in this movie.
Trick
- Starring Omar Eps. Directed by Patrick Lussier.
Lussier gets credit for making a straight-up slasher with copious stabbings and killings that doesn’t shy on blood, but the story is hot garbage that makes zero actual sense. Some kid wearing a pumpkin mask loses his shit at a teen Halloween party and stabs a bunch of people. He’s killed, but comes back the next year to wreak terror! Then the next year, and the next! How can this be happening? Don’t think about it. Just enjoy appearances by Jamie Kennedy and Tom Atkins.
Ready or Not
The story of a young lady being hunted by rich demon worshipers so that she can be sacrificed in a ritual meant to maintain their wealth. Contains:
- hiding and sneaking in and around a giant mansion
- an eerie and lurking demonic presence
- a creepy aunt
- violence against (evil, violent) children
- human sacrifice
- a ritual gone awry
Satanic Panic
The story of a young lady being hunted by rich demon worshipers so that she can be sacrificed in a ritual meant to maintain their wealth. Contains:
- hiding and sneaking in and around a giant mansion
- an eerie and lurking demonic presence
- a collection of creepy aunts and neighbors
- violence against (evil, violent) children
- human sacrifice
- a ritual gone awry
Of the two I liked Satanic Panic more. The humor was more on the mark, it has bunnies, and the female lead looked healthier and stouter and like she could more plausibly fight off an HOA of cultists. Ready or Not leaned more into the elements of family and relationships, while Satanic Panic leaned more into humor and gory witch spells and violent witch politics.
Just got back from another AGFA Secret Screening at the Alamo. Turns out it was 1988 killer cat movie Killer Cat - I mean, Uninvited (but seriously it is also called Killer Cat in some releases). Was it any good? Nooooope. But it’s really entertaining in definitely unintentional ways. For starters, it really wants you to find this adorable fluff
wandering around and being the heck out of a cat frightening in any way whatsoever. Just not happening. Add in hilariously unconvincing practical effects, the director being a definite non-actor in an early scene, a couple of girls in skimpy swimsuits for no particular reason except male gaze (but a comical level of refusal to show any actual nudity despite all the leering), comically inept dialogue (written by the director, of course), and so on and so on, and…yeah. It’s prime Rifftrax fare. And hey, turns out they’ve done just that.
Oh my god, One Cut of the Dead is delightful. Just an absolute pleasure. So glad I went into it blind, other than knowing it had a particularly impressive single take shot. I might have to revise my 2019 Best Of list.
Was it 2019? I saw it on DVD mid-last year, so assumed it was an earlier release.
I agree, it’s a gem.
I have been working through the horror subreddit’s “best of 2019” list.
Watched In The Tall Grass on Netflix the other day. Based on a Stephen King/Joe Hill story, and it feels like it (in a good way). Pretty simple story, simple set (uh… tall grass!) and decent acting. It’s worth a watch.
The movie actually ignores most of the (much superior, IMO) story to do some weird horror cliche nonsense. I’m glad you liked it, though.
Oh, maybe I should read the story then. Or maybe I’m just easily satisfied. Or both!
Just watched Ready Or Not. If you’ve seen the trailer you know what to expect - new bride is forced to play a lethal game of Hide and Seek. There is plenty of violence/gore in this, as people die pretty spectacularly, but there were also a few strange violent inclusions that didn’t need to be there. Really liked the bride, played by Samara Weaving. Strange to see she doesn’t get top or second billing on the posters etc. for the movie. Regardless, it’s a good flick if you want a pretty straightforward gorefest.
She was wonderful in SMILF. The gratuitous violence definitely diminished any enjoyment I might have had when I tried to finish the movie.
Just watched this as well, coincidentally, and it was so clever, wildly creative and funny. Wow.
Apparently it’s original Japanese release was in 2018, but it didn’t make it to the US until late 2019.