Explain Jamie Bamber’s accent.
I dare you.
Because of this thread I watched Underwater, a Deep Star Six remake with T.J. Miller as Miguel Ferrer. It was pretty good, at least in terms of cool looking monsters. If you don’t mind a movie where the plot consists of “We are at point A, and we have to get to point B without getting et by monsters” (and I don’t), then it’s worth a watch. Oh, but lots of jump scares. So many jump scares.
On the other hand I also watched The Monster, a Cujo remake where I guess they couldn’t think of a good name for the movie. It starts out with a pretty interesting depiction of a messed up mother-daughter relationship, but pretty rapidly falls apart once the actual monster shows up (no, the monster in the title is not a metaphor for anything), which is really bad. Like, I’m not sure what they were thinking with this monster design. They probably should have left it in the shadows more. Also, lots of jump scares.
The Oak Room - bartender/owner (Peter Outerbridge, syfy) about to close up gets a surprise when the estranged son of his deceased, longtime friend (R.J. Mitte, Breaking Bad) shows up out of nowhere. Outerbridge is pretty chapped at the son because he skipped out on the funeral (both forcing Outerbridge to pay for shit, and he also views the son as having basically dragged the father/friend downward). But, through some tense back and forth agrees to listen to a story which the son swears will serve as adequate repayment. Mitte is ok, Outerbridge is pretty good, and the other characters (we get to “watch” the story in several parts) more than get the job done.
I liked it.
Something In The Dirt
I actually don’t know if this really counts as horror at all. Probably not. But it’s bonkers. Same directors (and actors) of Resolution and The Endless.
It’s much more a weird fiction sci-fi movie about two dudes trying to make a documentary about unexplainable phenomenon happening in one of the dudes weird apartment room in LA. I mention LA because it’s mentioned a lot, but you also see both traffic and a smoke blum for no relevant story reason adjacent to the weird ass apartment. Anyways it’s one hell of a rabbit hole of a movie.
Oh, thanks for that, always down for something from those folks. And it’s on Hulu!
Me too, I love some Benson and Moorhead (Phrasing?). I’ll admit it, I even like their VHS entry.
I also did a rewatch of Banshee Chapter after seeing it pop up again in the thread. I hadn’t been able to find it streaming last time I looked but it’s back on Prime. Great movie, I really like this one.
I’ve recently watched both Skinamarink and The Outwaters. I had been looking forward to both and was really dissapointed. I mention them together because I saw both within a week of each other and both feel very disjointed, I’m not sure if that is the right word but close. I feel Skinamaink should have been a 20 minutes short and it would have been great. I’m not sure about the Outwaters. I think I get what it was trying to do but just didn’t care for it. It probably doesn’t help I heard it described as cosmic horror and I don’t think that was it at all so it might just have been a me thing and my expecttions.
This weekend I watched Ghoulies, Ghoulies II, Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go To College, and Ghoulies IV.
Putting aside the question of whether these decisions are grounds for a psychiatric hold, I actually had a pretty good time? The first film is pretty terrible, and the fourth doesn’t even have any Ghoulies in it, but the second and third entries were enjoyable–the former as a puppet-centric horror comedy set in a carnival, and the latter as college boob comedy with not a whole lot in the way of jokes, but a whole lot in the way of boobs.
My official, comprehensive, and final ranking goes 2 > 3 > 4 > 1.
Not the hero we deserve, etc…
Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College has the distinction of being Matthew Lillard’s credited film debut, so it’s got that going for it.
Basket Case. It’s my first go with Henenlotter, and I loved every second of it. It’s a perfect B-movie.
It makes me sad to think that there’s no way you could make anything like it today. We live in an age of cellphone cameras and mass information that makes everyone entirely too self-aware. No one looks goofy enough to fill out these roles anymore.
Production values are too high, even for amateur productions, and I’m not sure where you’d find amateur actors who could pull off something like those performances without irony or self-awareness, but it’s that innocence that makes it so fricken good.
Venus is a 2022 Spanish movie from Jaume Balagueró, who had previously mad the REC movies. Supposedly based on The Dreams in the Witch House, but the story so derivative of other stories and movies it could equally be said to be based on Rosemary’s Baby, Suspiria, and probably a dozen others.
A girl steals a bag full of drugs from the nightclub where she works as a dancer, and runs to her estranged sister’s apartment to hide from badguys looking to get them back. But could the creepy apartment building be more dangerous than the criminals? Spoiler warning: Yes, it could. Also, a new planet has suddenly appeared in our solar system.
The movie mostly works. The mystery isn’t particularly interesting, the criminals aren’t that threatening, but it’s got a lead actress that gives a good performance despite playing a fairly cliched horror movie character type, and some pretty gruesome and unpleasant scenes. One weird thing I noticed: Venus is in 2.39:1 ratio, but looks like maybe it was shot with a narrower aspect ratio in mind then later cropped to a wider format. Compositions feel to tight vertically and empty on the sides, and characters are constantly cut off at forehead.
I also watched The Beyond yesterday, a Lucio Fulci movie from 1981, and it’s what you might call surreal or “nightmare like”, which is a nice way of saying that nothing that happens in the movie makes any goddamn sense. But it takes the viewer through one gory, disgusting set-piece after another before going full Resident Evil towards the climax and then gives us one final, beautiful vision of hell at the end.
I wouldn’t normally write about a 40 year old movie that isn’t even that obscure, but I feel obliged to mention this one. It is, as far as I can remember, the first time watching a movie as an adult where I just couldn’t bear watching a scene and had to skip through it. Spiders, ughhh.
I guess this is my “old man yells at cloud” moment because I despised Bodies Bodies Bodies. I think the setup of a group of zoomer/zillennials getting together to party but end up arguing because of past betrayals may be my kryptonite. I’ve seen a few movies now with similar outlines (and with a similar trick ending) and I just think the whole concept is as annoying as watching Pete Davidson try to act. I hated every character in this movie and I knew right where it was going to end up.
Well shot and nicely acted (except Davidson) but blech on the story.
Is that what they were supposed to be? I thought it was just a bunch of spoiled rich kids.
It is a bunch of spoiled rich kids, except Bee. That also happen to be zoomers generationally. I mean excepting Lee Pace (who is an older, possibly strung out, hippy dude).
Finally watched Doctor Sleep (sequel to the Shining)
Enjoyed it, and Rebecca Ferguson as Rose the Hat was fantastic
Did you watch the theatrical or director’s cut? The latter adds in like a half hour of footage, and is significantly better in my opinion.
Theatrical, but I do have the director’s cut available.
Not sure if in ready to plow 3 more hours in tho ( length of director’s cut) ;)
For what it’s worth, the Kingcast podcast has an episode with Mike Flannigan that is a commentary track for the director’s cut of the film.
I discovered a John Carpenter movie I had never heard of before! Body Bags, a horror anthology by Carpenter and Tobe Hooper! How had this slipped under my radar?! I settled down to watch it, expecting to be in for a treat!
Hoo boy. Yikes. This whole thing felt like a made for TV movie. Turns out, it was! John Carpenter is the host, a crypt keeper like mortician that drinks formaldehyde and tries to yuk it up between stories. I don’t even remember what the first one was. The second was a gut punch because it was about a guy losing his hair and trying all kinds of products to stop it. I felt that in my soul. He goes to hair club for men and it’s run by aliens or something. Third story stars Mark Hamill! Yes, Luke Skywalker himself is a minor league ball player who gets stabbed in the eye with a glass shard. They replace his eye with one from a cadaver and predictably the cadaver was a dead serial killer so now Luke tries to pull an Anakin on his wife, played by Twiggy who you may remember from The Muppet Show.
3/10, I don’t even think being wicked high will help save this one, cuz I was and I still didn’t like it.
Sir, I believe you are confused and have in fact been watching Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episodes.