Best surprise in a rental you expected crap from

[Mofo Rising]

A while ago I decided that I would watch every single horror movie that the local Blockbuster had in stock.  It was going to be an alphabetical thing.  Of course, I never managed the time that would take, although I did end up seeing every Amityville and Children of the Corn movie.

I'm still sort of doing the thing now.  If I have nothing else to rent, I rent the next horror film I haven't seen in the alphabet.

As you could expect, this caused me to see some absolutely atrocious films.  The worst I still count as AUDREY ROSE.  If you ever have the chance to watch this film, contract gonorrhea instead.  It will be more fun.

At any rate, there was at least one pleasant surprise.  One was BULLETHEAD, which wasn't really a horror film, but was entertaining nonetheless.

No, the one film (and yes, I mean *one* film) that was horror that entertained me was ANGEL OF NIGHT.  Yes, this is not really a great film.  But it had an energy and inventiveness that surprised me.  This film was what the sequels to FROM DUSK TIL DAWN should have been.

Any other surprises?



Post Edited (06-05-04 21:35)

[Mr_Vindictive]

My biggest surprise would have to be Das Experiment.  I had read a few good reviews when it was making it's rounds at festivals when it first came out and eventually rented it on DVD about a year after.

It turned out to be a truly 100% amazing piece of film, and in my top three foreign films of all time.  Deep characters, extremely tense and based on a true story.

[Susan]

Mofo Rising wrote:

> A while ago I decided that I would watch every single movie
> that the local Blockbuster had in stock.  

holy crap! Netflix might be a better way to save money and literally see everything ;-)

Three's been quite few movies that I've seen from the not so new release section of video stores, however of the years i've forgotten what they were. One seems fairly recent, world is gonna end and everyone has basically one night to figure stuff out. I also liked cube, honestly i'd never heard of it before until i rented it. I think that is the best kind of film, one you've never heard of - i think most people stay in the safety of the new release section and never bother with anything old. I also rented Duel, i never caught the tv debut..and really liked it. That's probably wherei 'm different from most people, i can remember being a kid and never wanting to see new releases - maybe it's because every film i saw as a kid was some old crappy movie we had on vhs or that came on tv. I went through this horror movie phase where from ages 9 to 14 I absolutely HAD to rent every single movie in the horror section of the video store. Thank god i had understanding parents

[Mofo Rising]

Susan wrote:

> Mofo Rising wrote:
>
> > A while ago I decided that I would watch every single movie
> > that the local Blockbuster had in stock.  
>
> holy crap! Netflix might be a better way to save money and
> literally see everything ;-)
>

Oops.  Make that every HORROR movie, which was only about 250-300 or so movies.

I do have a Netflix account, but watching every horror movie they have would take an even longer time (although I am working on it).  I also have the movie pass from Blockbuster, which is similar to Netflix.  I also constantly check out movies from the library.  At any given time I have about 12 movies out I need to watch.

It's slow going.

[Susan]

I still need to find a library near me and see if they really do have dvd's to rent for free ...i keep thinking it must be an urban legend

[Max Gardner]

Deep Rising was a lot of fun.  I was fully expecting it to be a total dog.

[Evan3]

I know I will get a lot of crap for this, but I really enjoyed Resident Evil after my ex girlfriend had picked it up. Also sort of mainstream but a complete surprise was Donnie Darko. My friend said a giant rabbit was in it and I was like thats not scary at all. Well he was right. The last great surprise I rented was Dogma. It was so much more serious and cool then I would ever have given Kevin Smith credit for.

[Jay]

"If the cash is there, we do not care" - Deep Rising

[dean]

Mwahahaha!!  The free dvd rental library isn't a myth.  My local libraries have a limited selection of DVDs, and even 'adult movies' to rent.  But you have to basically reserve them, since they go pretty quickly.

But the real treasure is the library at my uni.  Since they have a cinema studies course, they have in stock, to borrow for one week, a heap of really good movies for borrowing for a week.  You can only borrow one at a time, but they have an amazing collection of hard to find stuff, and mainstream stuff.  For instance, some classics that you can't find here on dvd easily at all, are at uni.  Movies such as Day of the Dead, the crazies, and night of the living dead, aren't readily available on dvd here [we are zone 4 and don't get alot of the smaller releases] so they actually get region 1 dvds from overseas.  Ever since I discovered this i haven't gone a week without borrowing a dvd or three.  Completely free, and very very satisfying!

[Darkautumn]

About ten years ago, I rented "The Boneyard," expecting total absurdity and worthless laffable schlock. I mean, the box cover featured a ridiculous-looking killer mutant poodle, with the tag-line "Keep repeating...it's only a poodle...it's only a poodle...." How could this not be "so bad it's good/funny," right? Well, what I got was a creepy little indie flick about some oriental evil, with some very effective scares (watch for the possessed ghoul kids!) The "killer poodle" element is very brief, thrown in for a little comedy (along with Phyllis Diller) but in no way undermines or neutralizes this genuinely worthwhile effort. I was very pleasantly surprised. Along the same lines was "Eyes of Fire," another unsung find.

[Yaddo42]

I remember having no great expectations of the first "Graveyard Shift" film about the vampire taxi driver (not the film based on a Stephen King work) in NYC. It was quite enjoyable with a nice sinister twist of vampires hiding among the living in workaday jobs like cabbies and cops and living by night mostly trying to avoid being found out while feeding their bloodlust. Kind of a darker twist on the "Highlander" films The second one, which involved a film being made was dull as hell, but I still like the first one.

I know most hate it, but I still think the first "Nemesis" film is a fun, if plotless, attempt at a cyberpunk thriller. The opening shootout is one of the best I've seen in a low-budget/straight to video flick. Tim Thomerson hams it up nicely as the villain. The scenes of cyborgs getting literally shot to pieces are effective. I don't even mind the hoaky stop motion/blue screen fight at the end, it has the right tone for popcorn like this, and I prefer it to the attempts at computer generated effects that the lower end fimmakers have been using since the mid 90s, just look at what passed for CGI a few years later in "Vampire Vixens from Venus" among others.

[Gerry]

Yaddo42 wrote:

> I know most hate it, but I still think the first "Nemesis" film
> is a fun, if plotless, attempt at a cyberpunk thriller. The
> opening shootout is one of the best I've seen in a
> low-budget/straight to video flick.

Agreed and agreed.  Not great, but fairly entertaining mindless fun.

[Jay]

"Nemesis" was not great, but was far better than any of it's three sequels

[Mofo Rising]

dean wrote:

>
> Mwahahaha!!  The free dvd rental library isn't a myth.  My
> local libraries have a limited selection of DVDs, and even
> 'adult movies' to rent.  But you have to basically reserve
> them, since they go pretty quickly.
>

I work for the Phoenix Public Library, and we have a ton of DVDs.  Lots of new releases and mainstream films, but also strange drama flicks, foreign films, documentaries and sometimes just plain weird stuff.  I recently checked out Dario Argento's OPERA, and I know I've seen TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD floating around.  Up to 5 DVDs and 5 videos out at one time, almost free (if you've paid your taxes that is).

I don't know why someone wouldn't frequent their library, and I'm not just saying that because I've worked in one for the better part of 4 years.

[Jay No Way!]

Pitch Black, since no one had really mentioned the film when it came out. But turned out to be really cool. Also, a total surprise film should be Arachnia. It got bashed a lot, but decided to rent it. It was a fun film, and was definetly made under 100,000. The darn film had stop motion animation spiders!