Recent viewings

[lester1/2jr]

chainsaw - yeah I don't get lovecraft

[indianasmith]

DEADPOOL 2 - Ryan Reynolds is back as the wisecracking, fourth-wall breaking, murderous superhero with the complexion of a diseased avocado and a love of 80's music!  We saw this in the theater this afternoon, and all of us were cracking up at the non-stop mayhem and one-liners.  Lots of inside jokes for movie lovers, and some hilarious hijinks during the closing credits.  4/5

[indianasmith]

TERRIFIER (2016) - This is a sequel to ALL HALLOW'S EVE, which  I rented at Hastings (moment of silence, please - stifled sobs - blows nose)  -
Sorry, where was I? Anyway, ALL HALLOW'S EVE was a pretty scary Halloween flick which featured a terrifying clown in white and black makeup.  Now he is back, dispensing blood, gore, and mutilation in some of the most nauseating ways imaginable to two stranded girls and the sister who comes looking for them - as well as the owners of a pizzeria, two exterminators working in an old building, and a crazy cat lady.  This gore fest includes the most brutal variation on the old "sawing a girl in half" trick I have ever seen, and a villain that is truly terrifying.  Brutally gory, almost torture porn in its scope, only horror fans with strong stomachs need apply.  3.5/5


Oh - and one lesson learned:  If you are being stalked by a creepy psychopath in a clown costume and you take him down with a single stab wound, blow to the head, or gunshot, DON'T turn around and try to run away.  DON'T check to see if the girl is still alive or not.  DON'T try to unlock the door or call the police.  Keep stabbing, cutting, bludgeoning, until the psycho is beheaded, dismembered, his skull crushed, and, if possible, set him on fire and reduce him to ashes.  Otherwise, he WILL get up and come after you again.  A couple of the victims in this movie really were idiots.

[indianasmith]

THE DOMICILE (2017)  - A glacially slow paced ghost story about a playwright named Russell, whose wife Estella falls down the stairs and breaks her neck while pregnant with his twins.  Her ghost haunts him, and finds out about his past infidelities, and drives him slowly insane.  Lots of abandoned plot points, unnecessary characters, and long spans where nothing really happens.  Honestly, barely worth my time. 2/5

[indianasmith]

DEATH WISH (2018)  Bruce Willis plays a mild-mannered doctor named Kersey whose wife and daughter are shot in a home invasion robbery.  Frustrated with the indifference of the police, he sets out to clean up the streets of Chicago and avenge his wife's death.  Pretty standard by the numbers revenge flick, but well done overall.  Not as good as TAKEN but better than most of the genre. 4/5

[indianasmith]

I have been in kind of a movie drought (for me at least) these last couple of months, so this week I am binging on whatever RedBox has to offer.
Tonight's feature film was STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT, a loose sequel to the incredibly scary 2008 film, THE STRANGERS.
A family of four are heading out to drop their difficult daughter off at a boarding school program, and spend the night in a lakeside trailer park run by the mom's aunt and uncle.  They get there late and find the key to their guest trailer lying on the counter with a note.  As they get settled in, a young girl knocks on the door with a question: "Is Tamara here?"  They send her away, and not long after that, creepy masked figures begin to terrorize and murder the family one by one.
  No explanation, no backstory, just four people desperately trying to survive an assault by three masked strangers who want to kill them.  Other than the cheesy jump scare at the end, this is a pretty solid horror/suspense tale; not as good as the original but not bad either!  The teenage daughter is a particularly well-played character.  4/5

[indianasmith]

BIGFOOT'S WILD WEEKEND (2016, I think) -

Beer, bikinis, bigfoot - what could possibly go wrong?
A low budget, DTV shlock-fest that I watched on Amazon Prime for free at 2 in the morning.
Replete with Joe Bob Briggs' "three B's", it was everything a bad movie should be. 4/5

[indianasmith]

Wow, I feel like I am the only one watching movies this week . . .

THE RITUAL (2017) is a pretty cool Netflix Original movie.
Four friends go hiking in the Swedish mountains to commemorate the life of a friend who had died in a brutal robbery.
When one of them injures his leg, they decide to take a shortcut through the forest and cut about 12 miles off of their hike to the lodge.
But there is something in this ancient Scandinavian forest, something ancient and evil and hungry . . .
Great suspense and buildup, very cool setting, and one of the BEST monster designs I have seen in a long, long time!
Two great horror movies back to back!  Another 5/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Detroit 9000" (1973)
Two Motown cops - one white, one black - are assigned to solve a theft from a political candidate's campaign fund. They mix it up with a variety of pimps, hookers and smugglers along the way in this ultra-violent blaxploitation action flick. Silly but entertaining.

[lester1/2jr]

conflict - this is the bogart movie where he plots to kill his annoying wife to try and get with her cute younger sister. it was good 4/5

[dean]

A quiet place. Somewhat illogical in parts, but a tense thriller that taps into something primal; make a noise and you die.

I guess this is a world in which people who get a cold don't exist?

4.5/5. Lots of great stuff here.

[indianasmith]

ABRAHAM LINCOLN vs ZOMBIES (2012)  - This was my second viewing of one of my all-time favorite Asylum films - one of the rare "mockbusters" that was actually better than the film it parodied.  Throw in Abraham Lincoln, a 9 year old Theodore Roosevelt, two hookers, and a gang of secret service agents against a couple hundred of the undead and how could you not have a bundle of fun?  Highly recommended.  4/5

[Trevor]

DEATH WISH (2018)  Bruce Willis plays a mild-mannered doctor named Kersey whose wife and daughter are shot in a home invasion robbery.  Frustrated with the indifference of the police, he sets out to clean up the streets of Chicago and avenge his wife's death.  Pretty standard by the numbers revenge flick, but well done overall.  Not as good as TAKEN but better than most of the genre. 4/5

I missed that when it was in cinemas here: guess I'll have to wait for the DVD.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Lightning Bolt" (aka "Operation Goldman," 1966)
! No longer available
A secret agent is assigned to investigate rocket sabotage on Cape Kennedy, and discovers a plot to dominate Earth by a beer-baron super villain with his own secret headquarters at the bottom of the ocean. Yikes!
This campy, cheesy-but-fun Italian spy flick is one of the better James Bond knock offs of the mid '60s, with lots of pretty girls and cheap but effective sets and special effects.

[indianasmith]

I CAN ONLY IMAGINE (2018) - Bart Millard is one of our home town heroes, a really nice guy who wrote a song that topped not just the gospel charts but also the secular billboards a few years back. "I Can Only Imagine" is a lovely and unforgettable tune, but the story behind it is even more remarkable: how the child of an abusive father overcame his broken relationship and experienced healing and wholeness with his dad.  I loved this movie, all the more so because I know the man whose story it tells.  5/5


THE LODGERS (2017)  Twin siblings share a creepy old mansion with the unseen "others" who force them to live by three simple commands: They must be in their beds by midnight, they must never let another person cross the threshold, and they must never leave each other all alone.  Well written, with a creepy, incestuous vibe, this Irish movie smacks a bit of FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC and WUTHERING HEIGHTS.  A ghost story that makes you think! 4/5