Recent Viewings, Part 2

[FatFreddysCat]

"Elvira, Mistress of the Dark" (1988)
The slinky horror hostess inherits a creepy old house in a quaint Massachusetts town. She just wants to sell the place quick in order finance her move to Vegas, but soon she's mixed up with a supernatural super villain and a horde of little old ladies lookin' to do a little old-fashioned witch burning, led by the great Edie McClurg. 
This cult favorite horror comedy is corny in all the right ways and of course, Elvira's always fun to watch. Followed by a disappointing, years-too-late sequel ("Elvira's Haunted Hills").

"House" (1986)
A writer (William "Greatest American Hero" Katt) moves back into his old family home, hoping that the solitude will help him complete his latest book. A combination of his lingering Vietnam flashbacks and some spooky/monstrous happenings around the house complicate these efforts.
This goofy, tongue extremely-in-cheek horror comedy was a surprise hit in '86 that led to several sequels. Produced by Sean "Friday the 13th" Cunningham, full of cool/cheap looking monsters and featuring a great cast that includes George "Cheers" Wendt and Richard "Night Court" Moll. Not scary in the slightest, but a lot of fun.

[Trevor]

RAWHEAD REX: I was really underwhelmed. That monster looks like a bad cosplay outfit.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Tales of Halloween" (2015)
A cool anthology film featuring ten spooky stories that all take place on Halloween in the same town. Segments include a demon with a sweet tooth, a kidnapping that goes horribly wrong, a Jason-style serial killer who meets his match, and jack o lanterns with a taste for humans. Not every story is a winner (there are a couple of clunkers in the middle) but overall this is a fun collection of comic horror tales, with numerous in-joke nods to classic flicks and cameos from horror royalty like Adrienne "The Fog" Barbeau, Barry "Rocky Horror" Bostwick, John Landis, Joe Dante, and more. This one has become an October perennial for me.

[Alex]

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Standard Marvel fare. You know what you are going to get and either you like this stuff or you don't. Nothing in this one is going to change your mind. Enjoyable if undemanding.

[Dr. Whom]

Palm Springs (2020)

A screwball comedy take on Groundhog Day. Andy Samberg is stuck in a time loop, where the same wedding plays out over and over again, when he inadvertently brings Cristin Milioti in the loop as well. The whole thing is basically an excuse to have them do their stuff in a romantic comedy. The movie only aims to be entertaining, and for me, it succeeds. Whether you like it will depend on how much you like the main actors, but I found it pretty enjoyable.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Famously Haunted: Amityville" (2021)
Tubi's latest foray into original programming is a documentary about the famed Long Island house whose long, lurid history of mass murder and supposed hauntings spawned a mass media franchise that started in the 70s and continues to this day.
Interviewees include legal experts, a Catholic demonologist (!), journalists, and neighbors who witnessed the events on Ocean Avenue as they unfolded.
There have been dozens of previous "Amityville" docs (and this one doesn't reveal anything really new or shocking), but I've been fascinated by the story since I was a kid so I will always make time for another one.

[RCMerchant]

^ I worked on the docks in the Hamptons, and visited the real Amityville house. It was empty with a 'for sale' sign in the yard. This was like in 1984?

[pacman000]

Hero Dog: The Long Way Home

A movie about a blind man walking a dog in the woods. They meet mild peril on their way home.

He's trying to use the dog as a guide dog after surfing a boat crash, but it looks more like a Sunday afternoon outing.

Cool concept, but characters keep making dumb decisions. Probably needed a few more drafts before filming.

[Jim H]

I got the Shout factory Friday the 13th set, so I've been watching those a bit.

Friday the 13th 1-3: I hadn't seen these in a few years and ya know what...  They're consistently engaging and entertaining start to finish.  After watching some other, lesser 80s slashers (many of which are excruciatingly boring) they shine even more.  Not like they're legitimately good movies really, but they succeed in their goals more than they get credit for I think.  They're very dumb, but they're fun dumb.  I also have to comment on tone - they really get the tone right in these movies.  Try watching Gutterball in comparison some time, where you just feel bad after watching it.

It's also interesting seeing the changes to continuity over time again.  Like Jason's depiction is significantly different in 2 VS 3.  He's a lot sneakier in 2, almost like he's HUNTING people rather than just murdering them if that makes sense, and consequently seems like more of an actual character in performance than 3, where he is more monstrous and force of nature in style - which of course is mostly what he remains from 3 on.

2 I also found to be mildly progressive for an early 80s slasher.  Notably the final girl has sex and survives, a real rarity in slashers from then as I recall.  And of course, most will remember the wheelchair bound character, which is lightly discussed by characters in plausible ways but is never the butt of jokes like in a lot of movies back then.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Madhouse" (aka "There Was a Little Girl," 1981)
A teacher's insane twin sister escapes from the hospital a few days before their mutual birthday and starts killing off all of the "good" sister's friends, leading up to a special b-day "celebration."
An obscure, slow-burning Italian-made slasher flick with a couple of decent gory bits, though some glaring plot holes derail the grand finale. Overall, a decent watch for Italo-horror fans.
Fun fact: this movie was the first and only acting credit for leading lady Trish Everly, who played the imperiled "good" sister and then promptly disappeared from show biz... which is a shame cuz she was kinda foxy.

"Citizen X" (1995)
A Russian police inspector (Stephen Rea) investigates a grisly series of murders of women and children. His suspicions that a serial killer is at work is initially dismissed by his superiors, who would rather cover the case up than admit that their communist paradise has produced a psycho, until the body count becomes too big to ignore.
Essentially this made-for-HBO thriller is a Soviet "Silence of the Lambs," based on the actual case of serial murderer Andrei Chikatilo, aka "The Rostov Ripper," who killed more than 50 people before he was caught.
The movie is a bit dry and talky in spots, but the performances are great and you feel bad for Rea's character, who spent nearly a decade constantly butting heads with the USSR's institutional bureaucracy, corruption, and police ineptitude while bodies kept piling up.

[lester1/2jr]

I watched the Amityville documentary mentioned above by FatfreddysCat   "spoiler alert  

I'm a fan of true crime, but not a fan of Ghost hunting and that sort of thing so it was initially a mixed bag for me, at least for the first 3/4. It has an interesting and kind of funny structure in that it really goes head over heels into speculation and belief in the supernatural element then, at the last moment in the last chapter, says "but actually..." and nonchalantly shows how the whole thing was a total scam from the beginning, making all the various psychics and tiktok spiritualists look ridiculous.

I almost turned it off because I was so annoyed at all the rank speculation, but it made the cold water at the end that much more satisfying. 5/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Absurd" (aka "Horrible," aka "Anthropophagus 2," aka "Monster Hunter," 1981)
A seemingly indestructible psycho - the product of a science experiment gone wrong - escapes from a hospital and proceeds to kill a whole bunch of people in various gory ways, with a cop and a priest hot on his trail. Yes, that's the entire plot.
This sleazy Italian horror flick reunited director Joe D'Amato and actor George Eastman (who also wrote the script) of "Anthropophagus" infamy (and in some countries it was marketed as a sequel to that film) but aside from Eastman playing the same kind of character (a hulking, silent psycho killer) in both movies, they are not related.
It seems like they were trying to go for an American style slasher flick ala "Halloween" here, but "Absurd" just kind of stumbles along, with idiot characters and lots of dead air in between the kill scenes. The gore effects, which are plentiful, are nice n' splattery but other than that "Absurd" is pointless junk.
"Anthropophagus" was not a great movie by any means, but this one makes it look like the Royal Shakespeare Company.
AVOID.

[lester1/2jr]

Hex Hollow -

very ( VERY ) folksy low budget doc about a murder that took place in the early 20th century and it's relation to "Powwow" a type of faith healing practiced by the Pennsylvania Dutch. A guy got it into his head that he was being hexed and that's why his luck was so bad. A different faith healer type person indicated that it was this one guy who was doing it to him... so he went and killed him, with the help of two young toughs he worked with at a cigar factory. America: what a country!

5/5 highest rec

[Trevor]

"Absurd" (aka "Horrible," aka "Anthropophagus 2," aka "Monster Hunter," 1981)
A seemingly indestructible psycho - the product of a science experiment gone wrong - escapes from a hospital and proceeds to kill a whole bunch of people in various gory ways, with a cop and a priest hot on his trail. Yes, that's the entire plot.
This sleazy Italian horror flick reunited director Joe D'Amato and actor George Eastman (who also wrote the script) of "Anthropophagus" infamy (and in some countries it was marketed as a sequel to that film) but aside from Eastman playing the same kind of character (a hulking, silent psycho killer) in both movies, they are not related.
It seems like they were trying to go for an American style slasher flick ala "Halloween" here, but "Absurd" just kind of stumbles along, with idiot characters and lots of dead air in between the kill scenes. The gore effects, which are plentiful, are nice n' splattery but other than that "Absurd" is pointless junk.
"Anthropophagus" was not a great movie by any means, but this one makes it look like the Royal Shakespeare Company.
AVOID.

Wasn't this one of the "video nasties"?

[RCMerchant]

^ It was. I enjoyed it, myself.