Recent viewings

[alandhopewell]

My Schlock-Tober hasn't been very schlocky thus far so I'm gonna try to make up for it from here on out. Tonight's feature presentation:

The Fear: Halloween Night (aka The Fear: Resurrection, 1999)

http://www.youtube.com/v/RDX9hJvWaIk

(For some reason, the only trailer I could find for this flick on YouTube is in German. No biggie. It probably makes about as much sense in German as it did in English, which is to say... not much at all.  )

In this who-asked-for-it sequel to a forgettable mid 90s direct-to-video fright flick, a gang of twenty somethings head to a country estate for a Halloween party topped off by a special Native American conquer-your-fears ceremony. Naturally things go horribly wrong, and they end up getting stalked & picked off one by one by a walking wooden dummy named 'Morty.' Yeah, I know. If I were going to try and create a new horror icon I wouldn't name it 'Morty' either.

This is a weird combination of psychological horror and slasher flick that doesn't make much sense but at least it wasn't boring. Horror nerds will be pleased to see Betsy 'Mrs. Voorhees' Palmer in a prominent role.

     I used to own a copy of that; What can I say?

[alandhopewell]

     CURSE OF THE UNDEAD (1959)

     I haven't seen this Universal vampire-western in nearly forty years....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6hzi5_AwFw

     Swengoolie showed it last Saturday. Even though a 50's cheapie, Universal managed to imbue it with some atmosphere; I enjoyed seeing it again.

[FatFreddysCat]

The Stuff (1985)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cADzGsrXxs

America's gone crazy for a new no-fat, no-calorie, great tasting yogurt like dessert product called 'The Stuff' -- but as a private investigator soon finds out, the tasty goo is actually a highly addictive, mind controlling parasite. Don'cha hate when that happens?

This goofy horror comedy (written and directed by Larry 'It's Alive' Cohen) creeped me out when I was a kid, but this bizarre mix of "Blob" style creature feature and consumerism satire hasn't aged very well at all.

[lester1/2jr]

I can't deal with having two different recent viewings things so I'm posting this here

The Hypnotic Eye (1960) - This was a very cool little movie. It would make an interesting double bill with Nightmare Alley, also based on mind tricks though it's not on that famed carny noir's level. It is well done with likeable characters though,  kind of like William Castle but good.

Women all over town are disfiguring their own faces for some reason. A detective is on the case but has no leads till one of his girlfriend's close friends becomes a victim. Suspicion soon falls on a popular hypnotist with a night club act. It's a pretty gruesome concept and they don't flinch from it. There's a pretty racy sequence where the cop's girlfriend goes undercover and gets frisky with the hypnotist. There are some debatable choices: the beatnik club performance felt self indulgent and the dour psychiatrist's role could have been reduced to a scene or two.

There's a "hypnotize the audience gimmick" that's golden. An unpretentious fun horror movie with strong noir cop movie sensibilities. big thumbs up

4.5/5

[FatFreddysCat]

Nazis at the Center of the Earth (2012)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QrQ8vMoeow

The Asylum jumps on the 'Nazi-sploitation' bandwagon (see also: Dead Snow, Iron Sky) with this low budget little sickie in which the members of an Antarctic research team (led by Jake "Gary's Son" Busey) are captured by a squadron of Nazis who live in a secret base deep beneath the ice. The Nazis are led by the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele, who needs the newcomers for spare parts ... not only to prolong his own life and the lives of his men, but also to finally complete his Robo-Hitler.

...yes, you read that right. And believe it or not it only gets MORE insane from there.

Utterly ridiculous plot, hilariously cheap special effects and some truly sick gore equals perfect Schlock-Tober entertainment.

[FatFreddysCat]

Mars Attacks! (1996)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC5O9NFWZCs

Earth is thrown into turmoil when bug-eyed, big-brained, hostile Martians invade, and lots of cartoonish mayhem follows in Tim Burton's kitschy-on-purpose salute to '50s sci-fi flicks (based on the classic trading card series from TOPPS). Features an all star cast including Jack Nicholson (in a dual role), Pierce Brosnan, Glenn Close, Gentleman Jim Brown, Annette Bening and Rod Steiger (to name just a few).

Nothing spectacular but good, goofy fun.

[indianasmith]

Last night I watched REEL EVIL, a Full Moon picture that I grabbed from the local redbox.

Ever since the runaway success of the microbudget indie horror film GRAVE ENCOUNTERS several years ago, every studio has jumped on the "reality crew in a haunted asylum" bandwagon.  This was Full Moon's contribution to the genre, and it was better than some but still pretty laughable.  In this case, an actual feature film is being shot inside the abandoned asylum, and the documentary crew is ostensibly there to create the "Making Of" video that will accompany the movie in its DVD release.
But the stars, and the director, are constantly giving them the brush-off, so they wander around the empty wings of the building looking for (and finding) ghosts.
Of course, since this is a Full Moon picture, the movie is chock-full of their favorite special effect - female nudity! But it also features a few semi-decent scares and some cool visual effects, so I found it overall to be worth the rental.

[FatFreddysCat]

Halloween Night (2006)
http://www.youtube.com/v/GCJSJCtfBKw

A psycho escapes from the mental hospital on Halloween night and returns to his home town to embark on an all new killing spree.

...gee, where have we heard that plot line before?

This s**t house slasher movie was The Asylum's attempt to piggy back onto Rob Zombie's "Halloween," in case it wasn't painfully obvious. As usual for an Asylum production, the story is paper thin, the acting and dialogue suck and the characters are all idiots who deserve everything they get.

On the other hand, this flick has an absurdly high body count, plenty of gore, and even some totally gratuitous girl-on-girl action (!!)  so slasher movie fans should find it entertaining as long as they're not too picky.

Soooo, yeah....this movie sucked, but it was still better than Zombie's "Halloween II" or the last couple of 'real' "Halloween" sequels. Of course, that's not exactly high praise.

[alandhopewell]

     A great double feature, courtesy of....




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/'It's_Alive!';     (Sorry, no usable YouTube.)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5twP_19CEA

[FatFreddysCat]

Tremors III: Back to Perfection (2001)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w7rGb8VGc

Michael (Family Ties) Gross returns for a third go round as survivalist Burt Gummer, back in action against another outbreak of those pesky Graboids around his home town. As viewers of the "Tremors" flicks know, the critters have an annoying habit of mutating into new forms each time they reappear, so this time out Burt and his neighbors have to deal with flying Graboids (!!) which they dub "ass-blasters." (When my kids heard that, they laughed till they nearly pee'd.)

Hilarious action packed monster mashing fun for the whole family!!

[FatFreddysCat]

Last night I watched two seasonally appropriate documentaries on Netflix: Nightmares in Red, White and Blue and American Grindhouse.
http://www.youtube.com/v/6S2k_FpDhk8
http://www.youtube.com/v/AndtsMdk2fc

Nightmares traces the history of American horror films from the silent era to the present day, while Grindhouse explores the seamy, low budget, sexy-n-violent independent films (and the inner city theatres which played them) whose hey day lasted from the 30s through the 70s.
Both docs were packed with tons of clips from classic - and not-so-classic - films (lots o' gore and boobies!!) and commentaries from luminaries like Larry 'It's Alive' Cohen, John 'Halloween' Carpenter, Joe 'Gremlins' Dante, Roger Corman, and many more. Educational and entertaining!!!

[indianasmith]

Finally got to see THE CONJURING last night.  Incredibly well-done, creepy possession film.  I can see why some people had trouble sleeping after watching it!

[Rev. Powell]

THE RABBI'S CAT (2011): The adventures of a talking cat owned by an Algerian rabbi, who innocently blasphemes, wants to be bar mitzvahed, and tags along on a quest to find the black Jews of Africa. Unique, witty, and brilliant at times, but patchy; the story is adapted from a series of graphic novels loses coherence as it tries to fit in too many plotlines. 3.5/5.

[JaseSF]

I've been super busy lately and haven't had time yet for any real Halloween viewing (hope to remedy that later in the week). Here's what I have caught over the last few weeks:

The Little Mermaid (1989): A young mermaid princess and daughter of King Triton named Ariel is fascinated by things from the surface world. Eventually this even translates into falling in love with a human prince. Wishing to fulfill this forbidden love, she makes a Faustian bargain of sorts with an evil sea witch who's looking for great power.

Surprisingly good romantic action-adventure animated film, albeit clearly aimed at kids primarily young girls, from Disney with some decent laughs and fun songs thrown in for good measure. This has a sort of epic fantasy feel to it as well and actually would be interesting to view alongside some adaptations of the epic Greek, Roman and Scandinavian legendary tales. The ending has a monstrous type showdown but everything does seem to end a little too quickly and easily. Still, I'll give this a solid **** out of ***** stars.

Enchanted (2007): Giselle, a classic Disney style animated princess, falling victim to the machinations of an evil queen/witch suddenly finds herself cast out of her magical fantasy realm and thrown into the harsh reality of the real world in the form of New York City.

This was very cleverly done and a great, original idea. Clearly it does borrow many ideas from the classic Disney films Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White and does a fun job of parodying those while throwing many classical style Disney characters suddenly into a real world setting. Amy Adams is excellent here and thankfully proves very likable in the lead role of Giselle in the human world. Also quite memorable is Susan Sarandon as the evil Queen Narissa and Timothy Spall as her doting henchman Nathanial. James Marsden is a hoot too as the classic Prince Charming style Disney prince while Patrick Dempsey plays his typical romantic comedy clueless lead. While there's much to enjoy here, in the end it proves a tad bit too predictable, the CGI FX are less than convincing, and the ending comes a bit too rapidly. Still a very enjoyable escapist fantasy and true to the Disney princess tradition. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

Car Wash (1976): A group of mostly happy go-lucky car washers go to work day in and day out at their dead end jobs in a car wash where most of the cleaning is actually still done by hand instead of by machine. This details their daily lives and the strange events and characters that make up a typical day for them.

This surprisingly upbeat, fun little slice of the 1970s is a bit of a delight to watch. It's not that it's particularly all that funny although it does have moments here and there. It even in many ways tackles some real world issues about consumerism and trying to survive in a capitalist world at that time dominated by WASP but the real magic here comes from the fact the characters feel surprisingly real (yes, even the stranger ones), look and behave the way you expect ordinary friends to behave, and the music keeps one feeling upbeat and wanting to move. Interesting choice of music too designed to keep one moving or perhaps keep one working. Despite Richard Pryor being all over the DVD cover for this one, his role is really a short, bit part as a con-artist type preacher man who nevertheless gives some hope. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960): A recently successful and in high demand theater critic named Larry Mackay (David Niven), his wife Kate (Doris Day), and their fours sons decide to move out of the big city and into an old country house. For Larry, he is reluctant to make the move having recently just found fame and success as a critic especially after getting slapped by Deborah Vaughn (Janis Paige), an actress who he gave a bad review. Wife Kate however and her boys (often terrors to others non-family) are loving life in the country but as Larry gets more success, he also seems to be growing further apart and away from his wife.

This drama/comedy has some fun moments going for it with great leads in Day and Niven who have good chemistry together and Paige makes for an interesting third wheel as sultry actress Vaughn who takes an interest in Mackay despite their previous fireworks. Will Larry see the error of his ways or be led astray? Day also sings some delightful songs and breathes a fresh, pleasant, light-hearted energy into the mix. Not too bad at all for what it is. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

[lester1/2jr]

the Conjuring had a kind of odd thing where it didn't lead up to a big scare there were all these scares intersped throughout