Horror

[RegularKarate]

has anyone reviewed "eraserhead" in these threads?

is eraserhead considered horror?

only by people who want to seem cool when asked about horror movies

ex

Me: What's your favorite horror movie?
Man: Eraser Head
Me: Oh, I get your costume now, you're an asshole

[MacGuffin]

Now that you bring Lynch, would any of you (mac, squints, etc) consider TP: Fire Walk With Me a horror film or some of the episodes in the series for that matter*?

For me it has a lot of horror elements but I don't know if it can be categorized as such.


* I'm thinking the last episode of S2 and moments in the black log and when bob appears.

I would. Because at its core, the macguffin, if you will, is a serial killer.

edit: Can't believe mod hasn't reviewed one single film, did he run out of skulls? Maybe this year he's skull-less...

He left us for his celebrity friends. 

[w/o horse]

has anyone reviewed "eraserhead" in these threads?

is eraserhead considered horror?

only by people who want to seem cool when asked about horror movies

ex

Me: What's your favorite horror movie?
Man: Eraser Head
Me: Oh, I get your costume now, you're an asshole

Who doesn't think RegularKarate would actually be the asshole in this circumstance?  And I don't mean because he makes Eraserhead into two words, though it doesn't help his case. 

Regardless of the hypothetical situation RK has produced in which some unknown taste offender has accidentally placed the obviously genre identifiable (musical) Eraserhead into horror, and mentioned it to RK with hopes of starting a horror related conversation that doesn't follow along the typical lines of discussion, I think it's perfectly fucking acceptable to label Eraserhead horror, Twin Peaks horror, The Elephant Man horror, and The Straight Story horror, etc, because it's fucking David Lynch, and at this party RK can go ahead and talk to someone else.

But rather than take my word for it:

It's assholish to call this out though because anyone who asks that question is setting you up to be judged by them based on what you pick.

[MacGuffin]

Day 23





Another classic; another recommendation. This is Roger Coman's adaptation of three Edgar Allen Poe stories with Vincent Price starring in all three. In Morella, Price is a man long mourning the death of his wife until his forgotten daughter returns. In The Black Cat, he and Peter Lorre give perfect performances as men in love with the same woman. And in The Case Of M. Valdermar, Basil Rathbone hypnotizes a dying Price on his death bed and controls his soul that's in limbo. All three stories are like three great episodes of Tales From The Crypt put together.

[RegularKarate]

Who doesn't think RegularKarate would actually be the asshole in this circumstance? 

Haha... horse, sorry.  I was totally making a joke... you even quoted the thread (that I had made about ten minutes prior) that I was referencing.

It's funny too... I posted it, then realized I had written Eraserhead as two words and thought about editing it, but then said to myself (outloud even) "Someone's going to get all mad about that" so I left it.

I watch Twin Peaks at Halloween.

[john]

Round-up:

Pumpkinhead

Began with a wonderfully rural gothic tone, but fell victim to repetition and sloppy editing. The premise, the creature effects, and the first forty minutes are all commendable - and I can see why this has established itself loving fan base twenty years later. It's unfortunate that the last half of the film negates everything that came before it, degenerating into a pick-em-off-by-number teen slasher flick. Stan Winston has a keen directorial eye, and I would have loved to have seen what else the man had up his sleeve.

Night of the Demons

Now here's another one that, after twenty years, still has a supportive fan base. Though, this time, it completely befuddles me. Trite, cheap, and tedious - even by the standards of bottom-barrel horror, a genre I can usually give myself over to with great ease. It had all the elements for an enjoyable ninety minutes, too: an abandoned mortuary, Bauhaus, teenage punks from the eighties. Maybe I'm just getting too old to indulge in crap like this the way I used too...

Sleepaway Camp/Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers

...or maybe not, because I really enjoyed both of these. A bit tedious, and filled with stock directing and characters - but so much more enjoyable than most "high-concept" ghost stories and overblown CSI episodes that have been getting theatrical releases in the last five years. The first one had a wonderfully trashy twist, the second was in on it's silliness without being too presumptuous.

Trick 'r Treat

Twisted, absurd, and nostalgic without inducing sentiment. I've been hearing a lot of praise lofted at this in the last few years. Mostly due to Warner's complete disregard of this title. Luckily enough, the praise is warranted. Basically a hodgepodge of horror sub-genres skillfully weaved together. There are a couple of storylines that don't stick as well as the others, but I've really came to expect that when dealing with horror anthology. Add to this Dylan Baker giving his most embracingly sleazy performance since Happiness and Brian Cox channeling a completely fucked-up Rip Torn and you've got a really enjoyable Halloween viewing experience.... that you can't see.

Feast 2: Sloppy Seconds

I saw the first one a year ago and, after it slowed down on it's incessant need to be clever, it was actually kind of watchable. Unfortunately, it wasn't too memorable, because I was completely lost in regards to what character's were returning for this one. A sporadically enjoyable, gory, and occasionally funny effort if you wade through the completely self-conscious bullshit the writers and director are continually lofting at the audience.... so pretty much just like the first one with a larger, slightly more enjoyable, set piece.


I've seen more. I'll post more... but looking at most of these titles right now, I just kinda feel a bit ashamed of myself for sitting through them, let alone writing about them. With the exception of Trick 'r Treat... that was pretty fucking enjoyable.

[w/o horse]

Who doesn't think RegularKarate would actually be the asshole in this circumstance? 

Haha... horse, sorry.  I was totally making a joke... you even quoted the thread (that I had made about ten minutes prior) that I was referencing.

It's funny too... I posted it, then realized I had written Eraserhead as two words and thought about editing it, but then said to myself (outloud even) "Someone's going to get all mad about that" so I left it.

I watch Twin Peaks at Halloween.

We laugh at all the same things!

[MacGuffin]

Day 24





So, instead of seeing W., I watched Oliver Stone's The Hand. If you can get past the cheesiness of the concept of a severed hand on a killing spree and see it as the metaphor that it is (if you've seen Secret Window, you know what I'm talking about), it's an alright thriller. Stone does a worthwhile job at a horror film, although still resolving to cheap scares (he employs the cat scare twice), and makes a slight comparision to Sam Raimi/Evil Dead. It would be interesting to see Stone, being the most skill director that he is now, go back and do another horror film.

[MacGuffin]

Day 25





Not much to say. Not scary or suspenseful. Felt like two movies with the reshoots; just didn't jive well together. Not worth remaking when the '56 and '78 versions are superior.

[john]

Wind Chill

Gregory Jacobs seems to be establishing a directorial career making quietly passable time-fillers. His last film, Criminal, would have been a pretty exceptional debut, had it not been a remake of the much better Nine Queens. He loaded that film with actors competent and watchable enough to almost forget you were watching yet another "Clever Grifting Film". Wind Chill doesn't has a prestigious cast to carry it, with the exception of the always reliable Martin Donovan. And, as a story involving two college students tormented by ghosts (literally) on a road trip, it could be classified as a remake as well.

Thing is, it starts out intriguingly enough. The two leads played by Emily Blunt and Ashton Holmes, their characters unnamed, are traveling home from college. It's winter, they've met through a ride sharing program, and his intentions don't exactly seem honorable. The tension between the two has a really watchable, natural ascension that immediately crushed my cynicism towards this film. In addition to that, it's beautifully shot. For a while, it balances it balances this time-honored male/female distrust with some genuinely creepy elements of the supernatural.

The problem, however, is that the supernatural takes over and all balance is lost. Everything is explained with the level of depth and mystery usually saved for the kind of horror novels written especially for preteens... but until then, it's an engaging, measured, ghost story.

[modage]

i've been bad, sorry everyone!



Childs Play

You know, amazingly enough I had never seen this before.  Which is because I really had no interest in it, until a few weeks ago when I realized (via an AICN interview) that it was done by Fright Night's Tom Holland.  Well, it's hard to believe it was done after Fright Night because it was pretty bad.  The effects with Chucky are good, and it's a simple idea that could've been scary (for kids maybe) but the execution is pretty terrible.  Unlike Freddy Krueger who takes a few films before he starts spouting clever dialogue, Chucky arrives a fully realized asshole.  If you don't have some fuzzy memory of seeing this in middle school, it's not worth revisiting.

[modage]

Night of the Demon

Well shot and decently acted, this was notable for being one of the earliest films I've seen to deal with Demons and Satanic elements.  The lead investigator into these happenings is a skeptic who attempts to disprove a murder to be the work of supernatural elements.  He's also a self centered asshole, which makes him easy to watch.  The weirdest thing about this film is it's setup like a mystery but we're shown the demon in the first few minutes of the film and spend the next hour waiting for the investigator to realize he's wrong.  If they removed this scene you'd be skeptical like the investigator instead of ahead of him and the film would work much better. 

[Stefen]

Easily one of the greatest movies of all time. The transformation scene alone is the greatest scene ever committed to film. Rick Baker is fucking god. That poster still scares the shit out of me. This was the ONE movie I could not watch by myself until I was in my late teens. The ending is quite possibly the greatest ending in history. Still the scariest werewolf of all time. When the werewolf is running amock in Piccadilly Circus ripping limbs off and causing mass chaos - I don't even think I need to say it. AWESOME. That scene in the porno theater that goes " I've never met you before in my life!" Oh, sorry" = HILARIOUS.

[MacGuffin]

Had birthday party yesterday so I missed a day, but intend to make up that day up with a double-feature sometime this week.


Day 26





Did I miss something? For all the hype and controversy that looms over this film, I was somewhat disappointed. I was even starting to question if I have become desensitized to horror now. But I don't think so. I so wanted my "senses to be raped" like I haven't had in a long time, but I just wasn't shocked by anything shown here. And I don't blame it on my own expectations; I just think that the film just isn't intense as it's been made out to be. Factors of this could have been that it never felt "real" to me; sure the actual killing and skinning of animals were not faked, but I think all of that just made one not one-up'ed when it finally came to humans. Also, the acting is just so awful and below even B movie acting. I totally saw where Blair Witch got their inspiration, but that movie I bought into; here it just all felt staged.

[MacGuffin]

Day 27





Hard to believe that the guy that would be in charge of the special effects for the original Star Wars trilogy and Jurassic Park and win multiple Oscars made this cheese ball, grade Z flick. Then again, the Ray Harryhausen type effects are the best thing about this movie. But unlike say Jason And The Argonauts or The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, this film is missing a story that stretches for the entire film to make the film more worthwhile; it plays more like a demo reel stretched out. But I can't fault the film for its Ed Wood type production (and I'm saying that with much respect to Mr. Wood) since it was made on a showstring budget and the filmmakers went out and just did it.