Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Junesploitation 2016 Day 21: Eco Horror!

Today the pond...tomorrow the world!

63 comments:

  1. Anaconda (1997)

    Jennifer Lopez and a group of other people you'd recognize decide to travel down a swamp river to… it's not important. What is important is they pick up madman Jon Voight and run into a man-eating Anaconda! The movie is not that good, but it's worth checking out if only for the craziest Jon Voight performance you could imagine. I enjoyed the movie and definitely found things to like. The cgi is obviously massively dated, but I appreciate the filmmakers going practical as much as possible and all that stuff holds up beautifully. Some times you just need to see a giant snake swallow people whole. This movie delivers on that.

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    1. I remember liking Anaconda (though I was a teenager when I last saw it), but the sequel (Anacondas: Hunt for the Blood Orchid) is just terrible. I saw it last Junesploitation, and it was probably the worst movie I saw the whole month (and I saw a lot of crap).

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    2. Ha! I had no idea it had a sequel. Well, you have given me no desire to seek it out.

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    3. I'm sure the three movies that come after Blood Orchid are much better. You should watch them all and then check back in here and let us know.

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  2. Long Weekend (1978)

    In general, one should not screw around with Australian wildlife regardless of how shitty your marriage happens to be going at the time. In this case, Spiders, snakes, birds, and what is essentially an undead sea cow will apparently all conspire against you if you're a bad camper. Good slow build and the humans in this movie kinda have it coming.

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    1. Wanted to watch this, but could not get a hold of it. Will have to try and get it for next year.

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    2. Stay away from the bad 2008 remake.

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  3. The Birds (1963)

    Last week while walking home I was swooped by a magpie. What I am saying is that birds are arseholes. Just the way Hitchcock is able to build tension with these seemingly long shots, silence and the occansional caw is impressive. So I guess it is time to board up the windows again.

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  4. The Wicker Man (1973)

    Okay, I admit it this is more rural folk horror and not eco horror. But listen, there is something about how this movie twists a pictureque landscape into something much darker and wilder, which is a great British tradition. Almost every frame has lush green plants, animals, fleshy naked women, Christopher Lee's hair. It is incrediably primal. I cannot rememeber where I read it, but The Wicker Man was described as nightmare for those who feared environmentalists, and feared this is what would happen if they took over. Everything is connected, sex, death, animals, nature, Christopher Lee's hair. It is a place where nature has taken over and the rules of society no longer apply. I loved it, and I am very happy I watched it.

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    1. Thumbs up for Christopher Lee's hair.

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    2. I watched this last year and loved it. Great choice.

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  5. Roger Corman's THE WASP WOMAN (1957, 73 min.) on Amazon Prime.

    Before he helped turn Pam Grier into a blaxploitation/genre superstar, Jack Hill had to feed his family and pay his bills like everyone else. He provides the only bits of actual eco terror in Corman's "The Wasp Woman" via 20 minutes of footage he shot to pad the length of the flick for TV syndication purposes. If you see 60's cars cruising L.A. streets or outdoor footage of beekeepers, wasps and/or bees in this movie set in 40's or 50's New York City (depending on which piece of stock footage you choose to believe) then you're looking at Hill footage. It's an exclamation point in an otherwise expected display of Corman's B-movie handiwork (including the man himself playing an emergency doctor in a quick scene): cheap sets, cool poster, outlandish premise and a guaranteed slot in a drive-in double feature. What Corman saved on special effects (there are none) or stars (fading starlet Susan Cabot in her final feature) he probably would have invested into another movie or set, except it probably wasn't enough coin to invite the crew to an In & Out burger.

    It's impossible to look at the gender roles and corporate culture depicted in "The Wasp Woman" and not think of "Mad Men." There's even a pipe-smoking character, a dead ringer for John Slattery, who snoops into the boss dipping too much into the queen wasp royal gel to get herself looking... exactly the same as she did before, minus the human-sized wasp bug she turns into whenever the movie feels like it. Michael Marks Zinthrop's has to be the nicest and kindest mad scientist ever to appear in a movie. He genuinely wants to help Janice Starlin reverse her age so she can stick it to the board. Things have to turn to shit because it's that type of movie (#Needlepornsploitation!), but the subtext of "The Wasp Woman" (a cosmetics diva choosing to become her own guinea pig because of societal peer pressure) could have been something other than an amusing dated filler in the hands of a director that actually cared enough to try. But that takes time and money, and Corman's always been in self-imposed short supply of either.

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  6. The Day after Tomorrow (2004)

    "It's going to happen two days before the day after tomorrow"

    "Oh my god that's today!"

    That ridiculous line is from the South Park episode that parodies this movie although honestly you could have told me it was slap direct line from the movie. This movie is super dumb and what makes it a delight at times is that everyone is trying their very best to make the ridiculousness work. A minor spoiler is at one point Fiona from Shameless saves a Mom and her kid from a flooded car and is in the clear but has to go back to the car to not get the family pet or some heirloom but their passport, not her passport but the other peoples passport. Emmy Rossum your lucky your a crazy cute lady.
    As for Dennis the E-quator (TM F this movie) he actually I thinks gets a little bit above the Equator on this one, he will keep your attention through the nonstop weather jargon. It's not a great movie by any stretch but I'd watch this two more times in a row before 2012.

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  7. "I Drink Your Blood" (1970) Dir. David E. Durston

    I'm going to adopt the Scary Movie Month 7-word review scheme for the rest of Junesploitation...so here it goes.

    "Well guess who's coming to din din!"

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  8. Earth vs the Spider (1958)

    Pretty much what you'd expect from a low-budget AIP monster movie from the '50s. It's not a masterpiece that would become a classic, nor is it hokey enough to have become a cult classic. Passes the time, and at 72 minutes it's brisk enough not to get boring.

    The giant spider effect is surprisingly good but why the hell would they make the spider shriek, hiss and gurgle like that? It's ridiculous.

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  9. Long Weekend (1978)

    Don't piss off nature and where The Happening had a sinister breeze this movie has Aussie wildlife.

    From the outset Peter and Marccia don't really come across as the most likeable characters and as the movie progresses we learn that they are pretty much self indulgent dicks so it's easy to root for nature over the humans. They don't respect nature and as a consequence to their actions are set upon by birds, a possum, snakes, spiders and what can only be described as a zombie sea cow.

    The pacing of the movie is slow but works perfectly to build the tension as you await the humans getting their comeuppance.

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  10. Grizzly (1976) (first time viewing)

    Well, I think I'm gonna have myself a #Junesploitation MVP actor and director. This is my 3rd Christopher George acted movie, and also my 3rd William Girdler directed movie. That said, I dug this one. It's pretty much a slasher flick with the Grizzly being the killer. You even get a lot of first person (bear?) view shots as he stalks his victims. The kills were pretty good for the low budget. We even get some limbs lopped off. Even though Day of the Animals came out a year later (which I watched for Animals day), I would like to consider that maybe a prequel to Grizzly. In my mind I'd like to believe that this is the same bear that Leslie Nielson tried to wrestle in DotA.

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    1. Saw all those in the cinema, they have aged better than expected...chris' voice still curdles me after all these years.

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    2. Saw all those in the cinema, they have aged better than expected...chris' voice still curdles me after all these years.

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  11. The Last Winter (2006)

    Well, that wasn't a very good idea. I've seen this one before and didn't care much for it, but I really dig Larry Fessenden so I wanted to give it another chance. Turns out I was right the first time.

    Ron Perlman (dependable as ever) leads a team of oil workers in the Arctic where they're besieged by hauntings, wendigo (is that plural or should it be wendigos? I'm too lazy to look it up), and other assorted supernatural goings-on. It's very slow, and while the performances are solid there's just not enough substance to leave an impression. Also, some terrible cgi on the wendigo(s) makes what should be horrifying come across as very silly. Still totally Team Fessenden, though.

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    1. Watched this one myself! Dug Perlman and Britton, agree the CGI kind of detracted from the film. Kind of odd to take such a slow burn thriller and have those ugly things as a payoff. The more atmospheric stuff worked so well and, in my opinion, probably would have carried the film so much more effectively. Will likely rewatch when I'm more awake, as it did lose my attention pretty intensely about 65 minutes in.

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  12. The Happening (2008)

    I hated this movie when I saw it upon it´s release, but since Shyamalan somewhat restored his reputation for me with last years The Visit I gave it a second chance for Eco-Horror-Day.
    Bad idea.
    It´s still a terrible movie in every conceivable way.
    It´s a badly written movie with a story beyond silly. It´s badly acted, especially by the very annoying (not only in this movie) Zooey Deschanel, seconded by the clearly clueless Mark Wahlberg.
    Even the long takes, often great in Shyamalans movies, lead to nothing, maybe because watching windswept trees isn´t very exciting.
    No, this viewing leads only to the confirmation, that this is his worst movie. Whatever drove the late Roger Ebert to reward it with 3 stars is beyond me.

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    1. Mark Wahlberg's delivery of the line "What? Nooo" is one of the greatest things in existence.

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    2. Also a classic is "you know hot dogs get a bad rap" or "you eyeing my lemon drink?"

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    3. This movie is AMAZING! How dare you:)

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  13. THE RUINS (2008)

    An amazing, hardcore, terribly underrated & perfectly executed (YES) horror flick that I am convinced is a new classic.

    Read Scott Smith's novel if you haven't -- it doesn't fuck around.

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    1. Been hovering around the thought of watching this.

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    2. Saw this in a empty theater in 08 and thought it was pretty darn good.

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    3. Yeah, it did nothing theatrically (which confuses me because the book was a best-seller, you'd think that'd be SOME kind of built-in audience, but no). I guess it's slowly gained a cult following, though.

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    4. Yeah, that´s a really good and very underrated flick. Great visuals, fine performances by a solid cast, a good story with a surprising twist and some hard to watch gore effects.
      By the way, author Scott Smith also wrote the novel for Sam Raimi´s A simple plan.

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  14. SNOWBEAST (1977)
    Pretty much a remake of Jaws, only with “beach” replaced with “ski resort,” “shark” replaced with “yeti,” and “suspense” replaced with “boredom.”

    THE FOREST (2016)
    Generic, predictable studio horror. Natalie Dormer deserves so much better than this.

    MAN’S BEST FRIEND (1993)
    Where is this movie’s cult following? Everybody’s falling over themselves to make jokes about sluice like Sharkado and Birdemic, when this movie out-crazies those by a hundred to one. It’s not just a killer dog, it’s a killer dog… with superpowers! There are so many WTF moments I just don’t have space for them all. Definitely my fave of #Junesploition so far.

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    1. The Forest is a garbage movie. I'm definitely going to check out Man's Best Friend.

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    2. "He's trying to kill me!"

      "Who?"

      "My girlfriends dog!"

      Mans best friend rocks.

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    3. It's so great! I'm cracking up right now just thinking about it.

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  15. SAN ANDREAS (2015):

    Ok, so I don't have time for an official eco horror pick today, but I DID see this for the first time last night, so I'm counting it. I had a good time imagining the development meetings on this one:

    "Ok, so The Rock flies a helicopter."
    "Great. Can we also get him in a plane?"
    "Sure!"
    "A truck?"
    "Oh yea, easily."
    "Good. Bob, what you do you think?"
    "How about a boat?"
    "Definitely! The Rock in a boat is the most goddamn genius thing I've ever heard!"

    And so on.

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    1. I love it when he holds up a stadium - awesome.

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    2. Super fun disaster movie schlock. I really enjoyed it.

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  16. The Mist (2007)
    Tried it again and I still don't like it. Very frustrating movie.

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  17. No no, I've seen this movie and the Black guy always gets it!

    Evolution 2001

    For some reason I like this movie, I know its not great but there are some good played out scenes and a few parts that make me chuckle, the loose the leg joke gets me every time.

    Today was a tough one, this felt close to an Eco film, I spent ages looking through my collection because I wanted to find something good, I almost did Big Ass Spider

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    1. Oh good I thought I was the only one who liked this movie.

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    2. I'll also join the Evolution Appreciation Society. That movie is fun.

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    3. This movie gets shit on but I really like it.

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    4. Big Ass Spider is not that bad... ;-)

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  18. The Boogens (1981, dir. James Conway, on DVD) First time viewing: They shouldn't have been mining there! This was pretty terrible in almost every way. Not silly enough to be enjoyed ironically. It kinda just laid there. The creatures were somewhat adorable though. #JunesploitationLow (1 out of 5 Griers)

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    1. I watched this at The Massacre last year at about 4 in the morning. I was not thrilled with it, but I did laugh everytime the crazy old man said the word 'boogens'.

      You can't make that word not ridiculous.

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    2. I agree the best part of this movie is that the word "Boogens" is hilarious.

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  19. Into the Grizzly Maze (2015)/Grizzly(1976) [I'd say both films owe Spielberg some residuals but the produced of Grizzly'76 took the profits and skipped the country...no lie] Both of them have pretty much the same bad science at their heart (though not as bad science as wolf movies like the Grey and Frozen which would have been better off telling us that the wolves where mutant wolves)... as for the Grizzlys.. the 1976 film tells us its is some sort of 18 foot prehistoric throwback the 2015 movie, just implies the bear is really pissed off and hungry... well both these bears are killing and supposedly eating way way more than normal, the woods must be hip deep in bear scat. Both bears seem to be indiscriminate in the killing, but Grizzly'76 chalks up a strong of young women, a mother and child, a bear cub, and a horse..and for good measure kill Dick Jaeckel twice. But the GrizzlyMaze bear does seem to prefer to eat up all the bad guys making him somewhat noble. Into the Grizzly Maze gives us BillyBob (why does he look like Robert Picardo now?) as a Quint-like hunter without Quint's natural charm. The budget for 2015 was 10million, 76 was 750K - both accomplished the same thing....both made me scream at the television telling people not to do stupid things that will get them KILLED...and then watch them do the thing and get eaten.

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    1. I laughed out loud at your Thornton / Picardo comment.

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    2. No way does Frozen have bad science! How dare you?

      We're talking about the Disney movie, right?

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  20. Prophecy (1979, dir. John Frankenheimer) - first viewing

    Logging company's chemical waste begets bloodthirsty, bipedal bear-monster. This one's strong on the ecological elements - plenty of 70s environmentalist proselytizing courtesy of writer David Seltzer - yet not so much on the mutant grizzly horror; leaves a feeling of wasted potential on the eco-horror front. Not a great killer bear movie, but a fine eco-drama/thriller if that's what you're looking for.

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    1. I remember David Seltzer´s book to be way better than this disappointing movie. The great original one sheet was scarier than the whole movie. I think the only thing I liked here was Leonard Rosenman´s score.

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  21. Sorceress (1982)

    The greatest Eco-Horror of them all...MAGIC!

    This is the closest thing I could come up with from 1982 so back off! Um, this movie is great. Leigh and Lynette Harris are maybe the hottest twins of all time. They weren't bad at fighting either! You say this isn't Eco-Horror and I say there are gorillas that throw coconut grenades that contain laughing gas. A guy is tortured by sliding down a wooden poll, naked, onto a spike. Just thinking about it makes my weiner hurt. One of the twins gets banged while the other one has an orgasm...twice. One of the guys sees her and says "well, at least she's not being tortured. There's a floating demon head that spits laser bombs out of her mouth. Don't worry, there's a gigantic lion bat to take care of it with lightning bolts from his eyes. Also...zombies. I watched the shitty version on YouTube and had to get the Blu-ray. Nineteen eighty motherfuckin two!

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    1. You had me at gorillas throwing coconut grenades

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  22. Birdemic: Shock And Terror (2010)

    I know this dead horse is pretty played out, but this one really makes me think about my enjoyment of "so bad it's good" cinema. It is unquestionably one of the most ineptly written, directed, acted, edited, lit and likely catered movies ever assembled. And there is enjoyment to be derived from the sheer density of failure that comes from everyone involved making the worst decisions possible at all times. I'm sure almost everyone here has seen this one, so I don't need to get into Rod's sales techniques, the 90 second applause break at the board meeting, or that underrated smash "Just Hangin Out". Here's where it gets weird, was the movie made poorly through earnest ineptitude as those involved swear it was or was it engineered to appeal to those who have the appetite for the cinematic car crash? And does it matter? I generally have a hard time enjoying most of intentionally so bad it's good movies. I enjoy the dumpster fire of wet hot garbage that is Birdemic, but I feel that if I were to discover it to be hoax-ish and manipulative then I would not enjoy nearly as much, and I'm not sure why. You have the exact same product here in both scenarios, yet for some reason how and why it was made will greatly impact the level of enjoyment I receive from it. The separating the art from the artist debate has been around for a long time. I can watch a Polanski or Allen movie without seething with rage, but if you were to tell me that those cgi birds were made shitty on purpose, it would ruin a movie for me. Anyways sorry for droning on, but Eco-Horror seems like a bit of a slow day.

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  23. Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986, dir. Richard Haines/Lloyd Kaufman)
    DIdn't get to watch a new-to-me movie today, mostly because I had to squeeze this one in for a piece I'm writing. This wasn't one of my favorite Troma movies growing up but I have since come to find it one the company's better-made movies and one that's fairly accessible even to non-Troma fans. For as silly and stupid as they so often are, I still love how political Troma insists on being in all of their in-house productions.

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    1. I'm one of said "non-troma fans" who enjoyed this movie last junesploitation.

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  24. Tentacles (1977)

    Here's an Italian/American Jaws rip-off creature feature that fails to be fun, exciting, crazy and even violent! IT'S NOT EVEN VIOLENT. This film has almost nothing to offer. It is so horrifically boring it blew my mind. Well almost. It's too boring to blow my mind. It's a good looking film (except the kill scenes) and the music is fantastic. But that's it. Even Henry Fonda gives a bad performance and flubs some of his lines.

    The film is an hour and 40 minutes. How on earth did it not occur to them to chop off at least 20 minutes? There are scenes of nothingness that go on forever! Tentacles almost killed me.

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  25. Big Ass Spider! (2013)

    A pretty fun B-Movie with unsurprisingly bad cgi made up for with surprisingly good performances.

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  26. Piranha (1978) Joe Dante

    I should've figured that Joe Dante would bring the fun, but I had no idea he was bringing stop motion and other animation. So badass. Glad to have finally seen this one.

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    1. Watched this on Masters of Horror day, it's brilliant, love me some Joe Dante.

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  27. Planet of the Apes

    I'd never seen the original, what a great film with a awesome ending (unfortunately already knew that part) Heston's acting is the best.

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  28. This was the day I had no idea what to watch, so I finished a movie I only half watched a previous Free Space day.

    Alien vs Predator

    OK, I'm nearly through the Alien movies. A vs P: Requim and the one that can't be named (but still looking forward to rewatching) are the only 2 left.
    Alien vs Predator was actually pretty enjoyable. Mostly, I just felt bored some times. Enjoyable, but not impressive.

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    1. Oh, I also read that this was the most commercially successful of all the Alien or Predator or A vs P movies.

      Must be the best?

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