Horror

[modage]

yesterday i watched the original Village of the Damned and its sequel Children of the Damned and then Carnival of Souls, none of which i had seen before.  in Village of the Damned, all the women in town become pregnant on the same day whether or not they've mated and all give birth to blonde-haired children who are emotionless and have mind control abilities.  suspicion and panic insues. i hadn't seen either damned movie nor have i seen the john carpenter remake so the idea was original to me.  i will admit to having a slight prejudice against horror movies featuring evil kids or evil puppets/dolls.  because for me, its really hard to make a child or doll scary, and not many movies can find a way to do it.  the exceptions for myself being The Omen (for a creepy kid) and Poltergeist (for a scary doll).  (exorcist too for kid, but i think when possession comes into it, its a whole other thing).  so, while the damned movies are old, which dates most of their creep-factor, they are surprisingly well made, especially considering their budgets.  (50,000 i think for the first one?)  so, the first one was a good original story and a pretty decent movie (except for the fact that the terror lies in little blond children with funny eyes).  the second one was a little lame but still well made (acted, shot, etc.)  it had just been done and they didnt expand on the idea very much except for making the children 'international' and not all blondes.  Village is MILDLY RECOMMENDED. children is NOT RECOMMENDED.

Carnival of Souls, cited as being one of Romero's main influences in making Night of the Living Dead, was one i was looking forward to since last year i didnt get around to it.  in it, during a drag race that goes awry the lone survivor of a car accident starts seeing visions of a creepy guy (from macguffins old avatar) everywhere she goes.  from the beginning of the movie i was hooked.  i thought the film was really 'cool' in that low budget 60s kind of way and the first few times she saw the Man, it was really freaky!  but, after an hour of the same thing without really going anywhere or exploring deeper it became evident the movie had run out of ideas.  and with an ending that (probably mind-blowing in '62 but) today you can see coming from the opening minutes thanks to dozens of twilight zone episodes etc. it just doesnt have enough to keep itself together.  while i can appreciate the film for being EXTREMELY low budget (11,000 i think?), i had hoped for a gem to put alongside Night of the Living Dead, which this is not.  so if for nothing else, thank god for this movie because without it we wouldnt have one of the greatest horror movies of all time!   its MILDLY RECOMMENDED

[modage]

briefly since its late.  i watched Night of the Creeps and The Stepford Wives recently.  for some reason i had a real itchin' to see night of the creeps this year and i dont know why.  the closest reason i can find is that the guy who wrote and directed it, fred dekker, did one of my childhood favorites the awesome, MONSTER SQUAD!  this was like the year before and i read a good review of it somewhere so i wanted to check it out.  it was pretty bad in a total cheeseball 80s way.  it was actually somewhere between a bad john hughes movie and a bad horror movie, kind of like the worst of both worlds.  haha, but the only thing that made it interesting was seeing a few gags/setups/themes that he would re-use/recycle/re-improve upon in his masterpiece the following year.  stepford wives was pretty good, but (once again, all together now!) not a horror movie.  also, the films impact was ruined since i knew the ending before i watched the film.  katherine ross was good.   so, see stepford wives for its groovy womens lib message (just dont see it in october) and skip night of the creeps but watch monster squad again.

[MacGuffin]

stepford wives was pretty good, but (once again, all together now!) not a horror movie.

How are you defining "horror"? The movie does have a mystery/suspense factor in finding out with the Ross character what the secret of the town is. And that is where it is kind of like "Rosemary's Baby" (since both novels are written by the same author). And if you think about it, there's also an "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers" twist to what the secret is.

[modage]

stepford wives was pretty good, but (once again, all together now!) not a horror movie.

How are you defining "horror"? The movie does have a mystery/suspense factor in finding out with the Ross character what the secret of the town is. And that is where it is kind of like "Rosemary's Baby" (since both novels are written by the same author). And if you think about it, there's also an "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers" twist to what the secret is.

i thought about the rosemarys baby last night as a good comparison (but didnt know it was by the same author).  although i would consider rosemarys psychological horror and this more like a mystery thriller, so umm, i dont know.  i have a set of guidelines but its not as strictly defined except for 'ill know it when i see it'.  the movie definitely had mystery/suspense but i dont know that its goal (till the very end) was really to be a horror film?  i think it had other interests than playing up the horror angle with more of a social commentary.  whereas body snatchers is commentary but the terror is still in the forefront?  does that make any sense?

[modage]

okay, since i'm working late the next few days i had a little mini-marathon today: vampires, werewolves, haunted houses and giant bugs!  
first up was William Castle's House on Haunted Hill with vincent price.  the only other william castle flick i've seen before is 13 ghosts which i also enjoyed.  if anyone else has seen the movie Matinee with john goodman, thats loosely based on the kinds of things he did for his movies.  anyways, this was fun and probably my favorite new discovery this year so far.  i'd seen the remakes of this and 13 ghosts neither of which were very good (or faithful) to the originals so it didnt matter much. RECOMMENDED!  
Them! was a pretty good sci-fi B movie about giant ants that must be destroyed.  again, surprisingly well shot/acted/written considering its subject matter.  B movies were actually done with a lot of care back then i guess.  the highlight of the film (for me anyways) was a scene where they go into the giant ants cave underground and find the queens lair with a bunch of eggs lying around and a bunch of fog on the ground and they torch the eggs, hmmm.... where have i seen this before?  ALIENS!  it was great, cameron MUST've seen this movie when he came up with that scene.  and aliens is one of my favorite films of all time, so that was a minor thrill.  movie was RECOMMENDED!
Werewolf of London, which apparently was the FIRST werewolf movie ever made.  for some reason although i'd always seen pictures from it, i'd never seen the film.  it was pretty good (although i still prefer Wolf Man), had good werewolf makeup and a few cool transformation scenes.  the main guy was sort of unlikable and the fact he put on a coat and hat as a werewolf was a little silly but overall it was pretty good.  MILD RECOMMENDATION!
The Night Stalker, starring Darren McGavin who will forever be Dad from a Christmas Story for me, but thats a different holiday... anyways, this TV movie apparently was so huge it spawned another tv movie (the night strangler) and went onto be a successful tv series, which Chris Carter has cited as being one the the main inspirations for the X-Files.  supercool, also script by Richard Matheson.  it was great!  i want to see more of this character, even downbeat 'the mans got us down' 70s ending.  the only thing that stunk was a few of the fighting scenes with the vampire and the 'fadeouts' to commercial breaks.  probably the second best thing i've seen this halloween, RECOMMENDED!
Silver Bullet, based on Steven Kings 'cycle of the werewolf' story was a movie that probably could've been better had a different director been on the case.  as it was it was decent, watchable but not great werewolf story.  corey haim and gary busey were in it.  NOT REALLY RECOMMENDED BUT NOT TERRIBLE!

[cowboykurtis]

just watched carpeter the thing -- wasnt impressed quite boring

[grand theft sparrow]

just watched carpeter the thing -- wasnt impressed quite boring

Should you ever get a chance to see it on the big screen, give it a second shot.  Its impact is kind of lessened on TV unless you have a surround sound system cranked up to 11.

But if you still don't like it, THEN there's something wrong with you.  ;)

[modage]

last night was some classic sci-fi with War of the Worlds, and tonight was a Vincent Price is horribly burned beyond death and seeks revenge double feature with House of Wax and The Abominable Dr. Phibes.  war of the worlds was interesting, and certainly set the stage for movies like Independence Day or Mars Attacks.  the last 40 minutes or so of the film is pure carnage and destruction with nary a moment of silence without something blowing up or being blasted by death rays.  although the action was relentless and there were a handful of good moments in the film (like the first appearance of the aliens, very reminiscent of Signs), there just wasnt enough character even for this 'type' of film.  FOR FANS OF THE GENRE ONLY.  house of wax stars vincent price as a sculptor whose studio is burned down with him inside it.  he seeks revenge on the man who burned it down and attempts to re-create his works. but since his hands are horribly scarred he finds another way to capture likenesses.... it was watchable, and again had a handful of moments but nothing classic.  abominable dr. phibes was very thin on plot, not quite sure when it took place and seemed to be made under the influence of mind-altering 70s drugs.  NOT RECOMMENDED!

[Ghostboy]

I watched Riding The Bullet tonight, a decision based on the quotes on the poster from Stephen King and Frank Darabont and stuff. Man, it was AWFUL. So bad that I left fifteen minutes before it was over because I couldn't conceive of wasting any more time. It's horror at its cheesiest. I think it's a cable TV movie that somehow managed to get a theatrical release, but even still, it's pretty insipid. I'm glad I was theater hopping tonight or else I'd have wasted six bucks.

[eward]

so yeah, i just finished watching dead alive and it was one of the most disgusting/hilarious things ive ever seen

[modage]

so yeah, i just finished watching dead alive and it was one of the most disgusting/hilarious things ive ever seen

yeah i havent seen it in a few years but i remember it being good.  i'm holding off buying it because the only version available in america is cut down by about 10 minutes, even the 'unrated' or whatever.  maybe mac can help me out with the specifics...  the lawnmower scene is great.



so over the past few days i saw a few more movies for the first time including two from writer Richard Matheson (he's all over this holiday!) and my first Ken Russell film.  Legend of Hell House was a haunted house movie that started off promising but didnt have anywhere to go and since there are so many others that are better its NOT RECOMMENDED.  Trilogy of Terror was a horror anthology with three stories all starring Karen Black.  the first two were watchable but very predictable as we've (now anyways) seen tales like these 1000 times.  the third was the most famous involving a doll that comes to life and attacks, which MUST be the main inspiration for the Treehouse of Horror where the krusty doll comes to life, probably moreso than any Chucky film.  Lair of the White Worm was apparently based on a Bram Stoker story, but i cant imagine he had anything in mind like this!  some of the dream sequences were way out there. i had been curious about seeing it though forever because of images of the snakewoman i had seen from the film.  overall the movie wasnt terrible, but seemed like 'if david lynch werent very good, he might be ken russell'.  but really thats just a first impression, i dont really know what the hell i'm talking about.  none of these are recommended.  

haha, this is a terrible idea.  apparently the best way to try to get people to watch horror movies is to watch a dozen or so and not like any of them.  i'm the worst.

[cine]

take your girlfriend out sometime..

[modage]

take your girlfriend out sometime..

what like, out to a movie?

[cine]

Might be wise to get off the movie kick.. you've been having bad luck with those lately..

[MacGuffin]

haha, this is a terrible idea.  apparently the best way to try to get people to watch horror movies is to watch a dozen or so and not like any of them.  i'm the worst.

Being that your dad is such a horror fan, at what point will he officially disown you for all these negative reviews of the 'classics'?