Watched some horror films this weekend

[Mr_Vindictive]

Just a few quick reviews this morning.



The Burning - Picked up a bootleg DVD of this film from Ebay, and it was worth it.  I've heard good things all of thse years, so I figured it was time to search it out.

The film is about a camp caretaker who gets terribly burned during a prank by a few kids in the camp.  Five years later, he is released from the burn unit and decides to take revenge on a new group of campers.  

This film is mainly known for a certain scene involving fingers being cut off by a pair of garden shears.  I'll not give away the whole scene, as it's a bit of a surprise when it happens, but it did live up to it's legend.  The film really does work, and I was surprised at just how much I enjoyed it.  I think the main reason I enjoyed it so much was because it was one of those films that would have worked as a camp comedy as much as a camp slasher.  There's one murder within the first 10 minutes and then everything is a cheery comedy for about the next 30-40 mins or so.  Then, it jumps head first into the horror.  It's not scary by any means, just entertaining as hell.

I was quite surprised when I first put it in because the first credits are: "A Miramax Production".  This took me aback since the film was made in 1981.  I had no idea the Weinsteins had been making films that long.  Soon, it made sense as the credits showed that the film was written and produced by the Weinstein brothers.  Not only that, but Jason Alexander is in the film and has a fairly large part.  I was quite surprised to see him in the film.

Rating - 9/10


Ghost Story - I've seen bits and pieces of this one over the years, but never had a chance to watch it from beginning to end.  Yesterday morning, I was flipping through the channels and got a chance to watch it on what is apparently a new channel - The Slueth Channel.

The film is about a group of elderly men who are the self-proclaimed "Chowder Society".  They sit around each night and tell ghost stories to each other.  It seems that all is not well though, as each man is having terrible nightmares, with each man's nightmares being the exact same as the other men.

A son of one of the gentlemen falls from his high rise condo.  His brother comes to check on the father and see how he's taking everything, and he slowly finds out about a dark secret that the Chowder Society share, and learns about his own place in the happenings.

Overall, it's not a bad film at all.  Of course pieces were cut for cable, which was good as I didn't have to see a naked Craig Wasson.  If you haven't seen the film, it is quite an interesting watch.  Fred Astaire puts in an excellent job with his role here, which was sadly his last.

Rating - 8/10



Boo! - I've had this one in my netflix queue after reading a favorable review over on Beyondhollywood.com.  My wife saw a commercial for it on SciFi as they were touting it to be one of their originals, and asked me to go ahead and throw it at the top of the list.  We ended up watching it last night.

I'm not sure if anyone has seen this, or if anyone saw it on SciFi.  If so, I'm curious if you were as disappointed as I?

The film is about a group of teens that decide to spend Halloween inside an abandoned mental hospital.  Also in the hospital is a man looking for his sister who disappeared there recently and a b-movie star, turned police officer.  There is a battle going on inside the hospital between a dead patient and his equally dead nurse.  

The movie starts off with a lot of cliches, but I figured it'd pick up soon.  Then, there was a scene with a reanimated, skinned corpse of a dog that really got me liking the film.  Unfortuantly it didn't hold any of the momentum from that scene on.  By the end, I was barely able to hold my eyes open.

I can't really recommend this one to anyone.  It's bad, really bad.  I was bored, and the film seemed like a waste of time considering so many other films have had similar subjects and have done so much better.  Go rent Session 9 instead.

Rating 2/10

[Just Plain Horse]

I caught Ghost Story last night, and it had a few nasty touches. I couldn't find sympathy for the ghost, though. But then, I think such was the intention, especially the way in which she was portrayed. The way the ending is done- or at least what was shown- suggests that the woman somehow remained clinging to life while her frozen/decayed body gradually wasted away. Creepy.

[ulthar]

The book by Peter Straub was really creepy.  It has so many layers of flashback upon flashback that I wondered if they could capture the effect in film.  The movie is good, but for under-your-skin creepiness, I recommend the book.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Yeah, I really enjoyed Ghost Story.  I'll have to check out the Straub book.

[Just Plain Horse]

I thought it was based on one of Straub's books!

I haven't read that one, but it seems somewhat similar to "Koko", which is by the same author but the prominent themes are Vietnam, flashbacks, and alternative lifestyles (some of the darker elements of). The hallucinations are done in vivid detail; one wonders what kind of research the author did on this one... :)

[tat2gurl]

I have to agree with you on 2/10 on BOO!! It sucked on so many different levels. The acting was horrible! Was not scary or even entertaining at all. I am glad I didn't have to rent this. I was able to catch it on the Sci-Fi channel. I still haven't seen Session 9 like you told me  a long time ago. Maybe I will get the chance to check it out this weekend.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Tat,

Yeah, check out Session 9.  I still say that it's the best supernatural horror film I've ever seen.  Highly recommended.

[tat2gurl]

The BEST? Really? Now I know I am going to have to check this out REAL soon.

[peter johnson]

Melvyn Douglas
Fred Astaire
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
John Houseman
This was the last hurrah for a lot of guys who'd done a whole lotta films -- Houseman was the co-founder of The Mercury Theatre with Orson Welles.
Douglas and the others have done too many movies to count.
Yeah, great picture --
peter johnson/denny crane