Recent viewings

[lester1/2jr]

Help me Eros - Who's up for a good old fashioned pretentious indie movie with a weak story that takes 3 days to watch? What if I throw in some hot Asian babes and a (not hot) babe who somehow pleasures herself by sitting in a tub full of eels? starts to get a little more tantalizing doesn't it. I generally don't have time for this sort of thing in 2014. If I do, it's much better to see in a theater on a day when you didn't do much and don't mind something that takes it's time and that you can't pause. Visually, it's definitely a cut above and has style to spare. It's just not really workin man's stuff. Also, without the hot girls there would NO reason to sit through this so can't give the director too much credit there.

Help Me Eros - Original trailer

There were some excellent creative choices and the director is obviously talented but this one is kind of a mess and not much fun to watch. I'm sure it impressed critics though. 2.5 /5

[JaseSF]

Count Dracula's Great Love (1973): After losing the wheel off their stagecoach, a group of travelers made up of four young woman and a young man must seek refuge in the nearby sanatorium, long abandoned but recently purchased by a mysterious Austrian named Dr. Wendell Marlow (Paul Naschy). The place is reputed to have long ties to the legendary Count Dracula.

This gothic horror thriller has some good moments here and there. There's a great atmosphere and look to this film. Also many of the vampire attacks do come across as evil, animalistic, surprisingly fast-paced, and very aggressive. The ladies cast, especially Rosanna Yanni and Ingrid Garbo, do look very good and often we do see several of them in states of undress. It does however prove a tad bit slow-moving and has some other problems. For one, some of the day for night scenes are unconvincing. The surprise twist ending comes across as somewhat corny, and one is left wondering how anyone could love and fall for anyone as evil as Count Dracula especially how he's basically lied and conned this woman throughout the film. Naschy does well here and gives a decent performance. It's too bad though that this film comes across as pretty much a type of softcore gothic horror vampire movie. The vampire sucking scenes take on surprising erotic overtones. Is decent enough I suppose for the trash it is but perhaps could have been something more. I have to admit really enjoying this on Elvira's Movie Macabre where Elvira gave this the type of response it really deserved. Still it's trashy enough entertainment for me to give it *** out of ***** stars.

[Mofo Rising]

Alien (1979)

I grew up with Aliens, which is a completely different movie. One I think is great, by the way.

So the first time I watched this I was tired, and the slow pace put me off. Then I watched it again, and was disappointed because I was used to the kinecticness of the xenomorphs. If you go back and watch the first movie, the alien hardly moves at all. So looking through that filter I was disappointed again.

But I watched it again the other night because I'd been wanting to see it again for a while. It's a fantastic movie. I loved it.

First off, everything that is now considered "space horror" is evident in the film. Why are there chains hanging everywhere? And do future spaceships just have giant areas which drip water for no reason? The answer is yes, because that is atmospheric as f**k.

The pacing is fantastic. Starts off slow, but by the end you are basically watching a visual soundscape of terror, which would mean nothing if the movie hadn't laid the groundwork at the beginning.

This movie, I wish I could have seen it when it premiered in the theaters. Every moment of Dead Space is taken directly from this movie. I would pay good movie to not know about the chest-burster scene, and see it when that s**t was unheard of.

It's incredible that Ridley Scott went from The Duelists to this. Even the opening credits: Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, and Ian Holm. That is an insanely good cast.

I kind of want to spend the next three months of my life having this movie playing constantly in the background.

[Newt]

Alien (1979)

This movie, I wish I could have seen it when it premiered in the theaters.

It was awesome - quite literally.   

(...and also one of my first dates with my now husband!    )

[Jack]

Alien (1979)

This movie, I wish I could have seen it when it premiered in the theaters.

It was awesome - quite literally.   

(...and also one of my first dates with my now husband!    )

I saw that in the theater with my mom, and she fell asleep during it 

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Howling" (1981)

The Howling (1981) - Trailer

After suffering a traumatic experience, a TV reporter (Dee Wallace Stone) is sent to a remote "therapy retreat" to recover. Unfortunately, she soon learns that the place is infested with werewolves. (D'oh!)
Joe "Gremlins" Dante's lycanthrope saga takes a while to get going, but once the cool wolf transformation FX kick in, the last half hour is a ton of fun.
"The Howling" was followed by approximately seven thousand direct-to-video sequels, none of which are worth a crap.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Tamara" (2005)

http://youtu.be/s30fNXs5o9o
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Entertainingly gruesome high-school horror that can best be summed up as " I Know What Carrie Did Last Summer."
A nerd girl who dabbles in witchcraft is accidentally murdered by a gang of "populars," who bury her in the woods and swear never to speak of it again. Imagine their surprise when she sashays back into school the next day, having undergone an apparent Extreme Undead Hottie Makeover, and proceeds to exact terrible vengeance on them all. Sadistic fun!

[JaseSF]

Legacy of Blood (1971): In this old dark house thriller, a family of oddball heirs must spend a week in the mansion of their recently passed father Christopher Dean (John Carradine), who was apparently a mean-spirited bastard who hated them all. In pretty short order, someone starts picking off the potential heirs one by one in rather gruesome fashion.

Now this movie is painfully bad. Between bad acting, completely unlikable and unsympathetic characters, bad lighting, cheesy FX and make-up, twisted exploitation angles and assorted bizarre wackiness, a dull pace, an all too obvious surprise twist ending and then another and another, well yeah, this is bad and not really in a good way either. It's dull as dishwasher for a lot of its running time too. Faith Domergue (as Veronica Dean), Carradine, and John Russell as handyman/jack of all trades give the best performances here but you could tell that these actors had their best days behind them at this point appearing in this embarrassing low-grade trash. Also on hand are Jeff Morrow, Brooke Mills, and Richard Davalos as the rest of the Dean siblings, two of whom apparently got a bit too close for comfort sending them over the edge. Buck Kartalian plays the demented servant Igor while Ivy Bethune plays the equally spooky Elga. Obviously this takes the traditional old dark house plot and throws it on its ear adding in elements of slasher, twisted lurid melodrama, and general sleaziness. Sadly it's never as good as I perhaps made it just sound because it's so predictable and dull for a lot of its running time. I'm glad I watched this on Elvira's Movie Macabre as I'm not sure I would have made it through this in one sitting without her. She definitely made watching this trash a lot more fun. I'll give this ** out of ***** stars which is perhaps being a tad generous.

Count Dracula (1970): A young man named Jonathan Harker (Fred Williams) finds his life and that of those around descending into horror after he travels to Transylvania to visit the castle of Count Dracula (Christopher Lee). Upon his return, a weakened and mentally exhausted Harker is placed into the care of Dr. van Helsing (Herbert Lom) and Dr. Seward (Paul Muller). Soon his fiancee and her friend visit him and they find themselves the potential prey and pawns in the games of horror played by Count Dracula.

This adaptation of Stoker's novel directed by Jess Franco was somewhat better than I expected. It is atmospheric and creepy and relatively true to the spirit at least of its movie predecessors. Like the classic 1931 film however, this is perhaps a tad too slow-moving at times. Still I really enjoyed the acting performances in this one especially Lom as van Helsing and Lee as the Count. Klaus Kiniski is also on hand to give his take on Renfield which was interesting to watch although not quite as good as Dwight Frye IMO.  This film though has a definite badass edge going for it with a surprising level of aggressiveness from both the Count and those who try to stop him. The stuff with the taxidermy animals at times seemed cheesy, at other times it felt creepy. Overlooking that, I kind of dug this edgy take on the old story. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Blacula" (1972)

Blacula Trailer (1972)	Small | Large

"His bite was outta sight!"
An African prince who was bitten by the original Count Dracula awakens in modern day L.A. and pursues a woman who resembles his long dead wife.
This cult classic mashup of the blax-ploitation and horror genres is played straight, but after all these years it's become a campy, retro hoot. Turn off your brain and groove on the funk-tastic fashions, the music, and the slang.

[lester1/2jr]

LIzard in a womans skin - I couldn't really follow the plot maybe if you paid attention it was a compelling mystery I don't know. It seemed like a typical phoned in Italian movie to me. There was a decent chase seen in an huge amphi theater ? /5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Clambake" (1967)

Classic 1960s Theatrical Trailer for Elvis Presley's "Clambake" (UA, 1967)	Small | Large

In one of Elvis' lesser film vehicles, he plays a millionaire oil man's son who goes to a Florida resort and switches places with a lowly water-skiing instructor to see if he can find a girl who'll love him for "him" and not for his money. Lame songs, lots of hot '60s beach bunnies and wacky hijinks involving a boat race and a villainous Bill Bixby (with blonde hair!) follow.  Legend has it that Elvis hated this movie and only did it for the paycheck because he was in a financial crunch at the time.

My wife and I watch this movie every time it's on TV, even though it's terrible, because we have special memories attached to the first time we saw it. Plus, we love that groovy-as-hell theme song. Seriously, "Claaaaaam-bake, gonna have a clambake! Claaaaaam-bake, gonna have a clambake!" is gonna be stuck in my head for days now.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Lizzie Borden Took an Ax" (2014)

Lizzie Borden Took An Ax 2014 Trailer

Christina Ricci plays the title role in this made for TV drama about the trial of the infamous 19th century axe murderess. This well acted period piece suffers from a few dry patches, but  Ricci is still kinda hot in that bug-eyed weirdo sort of way.

"The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb" (1964)

Icons of Horror: The Curse of The Mummy's Tomb

The usually-reliable Hammer Studios produced this rather dull Mummy flick, in which an undead Egyptian prince shambles around turn of the century London, killing off the archaeologists who disturbed his tomb. This flick takes forever to get going - it takes almost an hour before the Mummy finally starts doin' his thing! - and by then I was beyond caring. Pass on this one, there are far better Hammer Horror offerings.

[JaseSF]

The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959) : A disloyal, villainous husband who portrays him as a samurai is haunted by the ghost of the wife he so greatly wronged.

This film has moments of greatness here and there. Unfortunately it never works as well as I as a viewer would like it to. It's never quite as scary as a I want it to be, or as disturbing yet it does adequately play on the conscience of wrongdoers coming back to bite them. There's a sense of classic tragedy to this story of great deception and terrible betrayal yet it is also a story of revenge, of evildoers eventually having to pay for their misdoings. The gruesome make-up in this film is particularly memorable in particular with regards to the face of the disfigured wife who constantly haunts the main villain. Good but this could have potentially been even scarier. As it is, ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

[indianasmith]

AN AMERICAN GHOST STORY (2012)
  An unemployed filmmaker moves into a house where a family was brutally murdered by the father, who then committed suicide, in order to write a book about living in a haunted house.  This movie takes a LONG time to get going, and was shot on a budget of $10,000.  No fancy special effects, no CGI, and it's not yet another found footage PARANORMAL ACTIVITY ripoff.  But I will say that the scares, when they do come, are surprisingly creepy, the performances are very solid, and the final payoff is worth the hour and forty minutes it took to get to it.  I actually jumped at the end, even though I could see it coming.  This one surprised me by how much I actually liked it once it got going, especially since I had spent the first half hour griping about how slow it was.  I'll give it a 4/5 for the last fifteen minutes alone!

[Rev. Powell]

MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER: ROCKET ATTACK U.S.A.: The experiment is cheap, drab, and nonsensical Barry Mahon propaganda, about a spy who goes to Moscow to research the Soviet missile program and somehow botches his mission so badly that the Russians nuke New York. The movie is terrible and there's not much the crew can do with it, outside of some funny Cold War-themed host segments: the Charlie McCarthy hearings, a Civil Defense quiz show, and a visit from Joel's Russian counterpart. 3/5.