Recent Viewings, Part 2

[lester1/2jr]

#MissingCouple (2024) = There's something uniquely fun and challenging about reviewing a movie made this year. You know that not many people have seen it and there's no consensus yet. At the same time, it's another f**king found footage horror movie exactly like the ones I watch every night, so I'm well prepared to render my judgement. And...

It's okay. You could live a long, healthy life without seeing it, but it does enough things right to make it passably entertaining. And yet, it doesn't do enough things right to get a full rec. The plot is entirely predictable: online influencers get more than they bargained for when they buy a plot of land in the middle of Mississippi. The husband is more into it than the wife and seems oblivious to the rising level of danger. I saw a movie with this exact same plot and marital issue last week "The Whispering Man". If this was a contest #MissingCouple definitely wins, but it's a hollow victory.

It certainly takes it's time to get horror-y and they kind of fumble the ball with that aspect. I won't spoil it, but for example if someone were to break into your house and write "I'm gonna kill you" on your living room wall, would you make plans to leave and/ or call the police or would you just like go on with your daily life? It's that sort of thing.

3/5 has it's moments but the story is not unique and crucial plot movements shows lack of care in the overall product.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back" (2001)
Barred from hangin' in front of the Quick Stop, the stoner duo from "Clerks" embark on a cross country road trip to Hollywood to stop a movie from being made out of the "Bluntman & Chronic" comic book characters based on them. Along the way they hitch a ride with a foxy quartet of female jewel thieves, befriend an orangutan, and are pursued by a very determined Federal wildlife marshal (Will Ferrell).
Kevin Smith's road movie is dumb as hell but has a lot of cheap laughs, if you couldn't get enough of the foul mouthed pair in "Clerks" then you'll dig this.

[lester1/2jr]

Black Sabbath (1963) - Three creepy, (not really scary) relatively clever stories. I liked all of them. If you like Hammer movies it's like that except without the pompous actors and with more beautiful women. Director Mario Bava makes the most of the decision to go color instead of black and white. It's slow by today's standards but hard to beat if you're in the mood for it.

4.25 /5 probably deserves higher but took me a while to watch

[FatFreddysCat]

Did a Texas Chainsaw double feature last night via Peacock:

"Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation" (1994)
A quartet of teens (one of whom is played by a young Renee Zellweger) ditch their senior prom and end up stranded on a country road after a traffic accident. Naturally, they encounter Leatherface and his twisted family, including his equally psychotic brother Vilmer (Matthew McConaughey!), who apparently works for the Illuminati ... or something.
Aside from the interesting pre-fame casting of Renee and Matthew (both of whom would probably like to strike this one from their resumes!), the fourth "TCM" movie is a jumbled mess. The prom teens are such idiots that they deserve everything that happens to them, and there's lots of characters yelling at each other, but very little in the way of chainsaw massacring. I'd heard this one was bad, but woof, I had no idea HOW bad. Even the most diehard TCM fans can skip this entry.

After sitting through that mess, I had to watch a good TCM movie to get the bad taste outta my mouth...

"Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2" (1986)
A lady radio DJ is targeted by a love-struck Leatherface and his cannibal clan when she plays a recording of one of their murders over the air. An obsessed Texas Ranger (a hilariously deadpan Dennis Hopper, who really looks like he'd rather be somewhere else) looking for revenge arrives to battle the entire "Sawyer" family saw-to-saw.
Tobe Hooper's sequel to his 1974 classic is bigger, louder, and WAY goofier than the original, but it's certainly not dull. The gore quotient is increased and the tongue-in-cheek performances makes the whole thing play like a black comedy. Legend has it that the honchos at Cannon Films, who were expecting a straight up horror flick, were disappointed in the final product, but "TCM2" went on to become a cult classic in its own right.

[M.10rda]

^^^I'd argue that the tonal shift in TCM 2 just served to open the door to the ridiculous, excreable NEXT GENERATION, which is a checkmark against TCM2. But it does have a couple beautiful isolated moments.

VAMPYR (1932):
Repeated viewing but first in maybe twenty years. I revered this in high school (and still think Carl Dreyer was a certified genius). Last time I watched it, though, I remember finding it ve-e-e-e-ry slow. Well - it is. The pace may obscure, or may compound, the fact that relatively little actually happens narratively... there's more plot than some Tarkovski films, though not significantly more! Like many silent and early-post-silent-era films (VAMPYR has less than twenty lines of dialogue), it's less about the story and more about the vibes. From that perspective, it's hard to criticize Dreyer's languorous, figuratively and literally dreamlike pace. Even so, I was smart to set the play speed to 1.25x and then 1.5x this time. Once you know what's coming, no sense in taking the whole 75 minutes to get there. I might even argue that the film's two best (remarkable, astonishing) passages - the elaborate shadow-play witnessed by Allan Grey early in the film, and the terrifying POV of a premature burial - are even more gob-smacking when they march by you at a more 21st century pace.

4.5/5 - I don't know if I can justify this being one of my 25 favorite horror films, but it's impossible to deny its influence. CARNIVAL OF SOULS, HEART OF GLASS, ERASERHEAD... heck, the majority of performances in many Lynch and Jarmusch films... could any of those be possible without VAMPYR? Also, I cannot think of another film made in the 20s or 30s that looks like VAMPYR... except other films by Dreyer. Epic trailblazer.

[RCMerchant]

^ Wonderful film.

[Rev. Powell]

^ Wonderful film.

I voted for it for my list of the 25 greatest horror films (hint/reminder... https://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php?topic=159801.15)

[FatFreddysCat]

"Halloween III: Season of the Witch" (1982)
A doctor (Tom Atkins) uncovers a Druid plot to kill millions of children on Halloween night with booby trapped masks activated by a sinister TV signal.
This was an unsuccessful attempt to pivot the Halloween franchise away from Michael Myers and into an annual series of stand-alone films centered around the holiday. It didn't do much business when it was first released but it's garnered a strong cult following in the years since. I've always liked its utterly bizarre blend of sci-fi and horror, and John Carpenter's way-cool, creepy as hell synthesized score is some of his best musical work. Underrated, and certainly more enjoyable than many of the Halloween sequels that followed with Myers back in place.

"House on Haunted Hill" (1999)
Five people are invited to an all-night party at a supposedly haunted former insane asylum, with a prize of $1 million to anyone who makes it till morning. Mayhem ensues.
This stylish remake of the 1950s Vincent Price oldie has great, creepy-cool set designs, cool monster effects, and a strong cast that includes Geoffrey Rush (whose character is a dead ringer for Price), Famke "X-Men" Janssen, and even ex-"SNL" dude Chris Kattan. One of the better horror remakes of the era.

[Jim H]

La Mesita Del Comedor (AKA The Coffee Table) - Pitch black Spanish comedy about the fallout around some terrible turn of events around a new table a couple buys.  The comedy is mostly about dramatic irony, which is not going to be to all tastes.  It's well performed, well shot, and well made, but a little thin and probably would have been better off at half the run time, but still was a pretty good watch anyway.  Hard to recommend though.

[VenomX73]

Kung Fu from Beyond the Grave (1982)

I love this movie!

[Rev. Powell]

DAAAAAALI! (2023): A journalist tries to interview Salvador Dali, but arrangements with the difficult and eccentric  artist always go wrong; meanwhile, the story sometimes appears to be a cleric's dream, and Dali is played by five different actors. Quentin Dupieux is doing what he always does, but invoking the spirit of Dali reminds people that he's carrying on a long-established tradition of carefully-crafted nonsense, not just farting around randomly. 3.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Young Frankenstein" (1974)
The grandson of the original Dr. Frankenstein inherits his grandfather's castle and decides to continue his ancestors work. Wacky hijinks ensue.
Mel Brooks' dead-on parody of 1930s black & white monster movies nails the period details and is stacked with an amazing cast incl. Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Madeline Kahn, and Teri Garr (whose passing yesterday sadly leaves Mel as the only surviving member of the film's major players). A stone cold classic.

[lester1/2jr]

Chinatown After Dark (1931) - A fake Fu Manchu guy is after a rare dagger that's in Shanghai. Somehow, white people are going to help him get it (though he is of course also actually white in Chinese minstrel wear). Two different white women, meanwhile, are pretending to be Chinese and seem to have affection for the same quasi Jim Cagney.

I lost track of the mystery and it's cheap as Hell but the cast is likeable enough. Barely an hour long. A perfect example of the type of thing Alpha video would put out and Tubi would have. very mediocre print

3.75 / 5

[indianasmith]

BACKCOUNTRY (2014)  A young couple head off into the remote woods of a national park in Canada; Alex wants to take his girlfriend Jenn to a remote lake he loved visiting as a teenager.  But the trip goes awry when they meet a creepy mountain guide who seems to have the hots for Jenn; and even more so when they get lost in the mountain wilderness and wind up being stalked by an angry bear.  A bit of a slow build, but the dawning realization of just how screwed they really are, and the desperate struggle for survival that make up the last 30 minutes of the movie made it worth the buildup.  BTW, I am a longtime gorehound, but the graphic bear attack and its aftermath in this film are VERY explicit and realistic.   Not for the faint of heart! 4/5

[RCMerchant]

APOCALYPTO (2006)
 I must have been under a rock (or in a bottle) when this came out, because I never even heard of this film before last night.
 It's the story of Jaguar Paw, a Mayan tribesman's struggle to survive a devastating attack upon his people by a degenerate rival tribe and reunite with his pregnant mate and child.
 I have to give director Mel Gibson credit- the battle scenes are intense and gory, and the pursuit of Jaguar Paw threw the jungle by his sadistic tormenters is nail biting.  It's refreshing to see an original idea for once coming out of Hollywood that's not a rehash or remake.  I can't recall seeing any other film- ever!- set in this era and place in history.
 Dam. Mebbe the best film I've seen all year.