Saturday, November 3, 2018

Weekend Open Thread

Welcome back.

17 comments:

  1. The best new-to-me movies I saw during #ScaryMovieMonth:

    5 Hell Fest (2018)
    For years, horror fans have been saying we want a new slasher movie that’s a straightforward, lean-and-mean slasher like they used to make, without being all meta and tongue-in-cheek. This October we got two of them… in theaters! This isn’t exactly a smart movie, but it’s fun, with really likeable characters.

    4 Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)
    On the other hand, if you must go all meta and tongue-in-cheek, this is the way to go. I loved how this one stuck to its premise while also throwing crazy surprises at the viewer every couple of scenes.

    3 Phantasm 2-5 (1988-2016)
    I’d seen the first one many times, but this was my first journey through the sequels. It’s nice to see them in much the same tone as the first, and you know any time the characters enter a mausoleum, some crazy dream logic is about to happen. I love how part 4 pays off a lot of stuff introduced in part 1, and the CGI in part 5 isn’t as bad as everyone says.

    2 Halloween (2018)
    This is the other lean-and-mean slasher of the month, and I’m so happy it lived up to the hype. Yes, the unhinged doctor was a bit much, but the mother-daughter-granddaughter relationships made up for it nicely. And I still say it’s possible to head-canon this movie so it’s in continuity with all the other sequels.

    1 Vampire Circus (1972)
    Can I get a “holy crap!” from the crowd? Hammer Studios delivers 90 minutes of nonstop sex n’ violence, and it is glorious. It reminds me of the first time I saw Evil Dead 2. They’re two different movies, but I’m left with the same feeling of, “This makes no sense but it’s completely over the top and I’m loving every minute of it!”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I watched a few early 1970s Hammer films during the month. The studio was definitely shaking up its storytelling formulas during that time. While maybe not as crazy as Vampire Circus, Blood from the Mummy's Tomb has plenty of head-scratching moments. The funny thing is that it is not a mummy film at all.

      Delete
    2. Thanks! I'll add that to my to-watch pile.

      Delete
  2. I saw 55 movies during Scary Movie Month, exactly the same number as last year. Carrie is definitely the highlight of the new-to-me stuff. I'd never bothered to see it because I pretty much knew what happens through osmosis from popular culture. I'm really glad I did though, it's a really powerful movie and it looks amazing.

    I've spent the days following Scary Movie Month coming down from the high, watching hockey (the Panthers and the Jets visited Finland, which was a great experience) and buying tickets to upcoming genre festivals. Gonna see four older movies next week at my local festival, Cinemadrome. Then two weeks after that, I'm traveling to Helsinki for a few days for Night Visions Film Festival and seeing 10 brand new movies plus Argento's Opera. Highly excited, especially for Abrakadabra, a movie by two Argentinian brothers billed as an homage to giallo movies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I saw Carrie for the first time this year too. I too thought I had basically seen it already too, but all my favorite parts about it were parts that aren't well known. Particularly William Katt's performance. Same thing for Misery and They Live.

      Delete
  3. The Other Side Of The Wind:

    Maybe not the greatest movie ever made, but certainly an interesting one, from one of the best movie director ever. It felt a lot like i was watching a Robert Altmam movie. I'd be curious to see what Welles would'ce done if he did finish it. But that also can be said to a lot of his other movies

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And the documentary on the making of the film is very interesting. Titles They'll Love Me When I'm Dead, also on netflix

      Delete
  4. Some watches of note from yesterday:

    The unfinished Welles film "The Other Side of the Wind" is just that and I had a really hard time connecting to it. I thought it was pretty blah. I couldn't help but think that if Welles had actually finished it that I would have seen a totally different film. It did not feel like Welles IMO with the exception of a few things.

    Killer Party (1986) - Such a fun mess of a film that has no idea what it wants to be but that makes the 90 minute ride so much fun.

    Channel Zero: Dream Door - I'm kinda a fan of this series 1. cause it's 6 episodes and 2. I like the set and creature designs. This one is like all of the others. It was fine for what it is.

    The Nun - holy hell (pum intended) was this bad.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Killer Party was a highlight of Junesploitation 2017. I loved how it went from college sex comedy to horror film.

      Delete
    2. Awesome. Yeah, it's a crazy flick.

      Delete
  5. The Other Side of the Wind felt like a movie made just for me. I don't blame anyone who only kinda likes it, felt like they didn't get it, or outright hated it. I can't even say that if I hadn't read the book about the production that I would have liked it half as much as I did. This movie was one of those Hollywood legends that always fascinated me. I love Welles and never understood how he couldn't really move on from Citizen Kane. OSOTW felt like the window into his mind that I always wanted to see. This was the F For Fake sequel we deserved.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm super happy you liked it man. F For Fake is my favorite Welles film and I did not respond to this one as a sequel to that by any means, except for some of the editing and Oja, of course.

      Delete
  6. I just realized if they ever remade the Lost Boys the perfect replacement for sexy saxophone hunk would be asshole rob gronkowski. he looks just like that dude! I miss scary movie month!

    Sat hello Thorn.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sorry, was looking for a Batman #14.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I fit in some non-horror viewings during SMM. There are a couple of films worth mentioning.

    GIMME DANGER (2016, dir. Jim Jarmusch) – While Jarmusch’s documentary about the groundbreaking band The Stooges (near the top of my list of favorite rock groups) perfectly captures the band’s devil-may-care attitude, it doesn’t break new ground in the rockumentary realm. As you would expect, Iggy Pop is the center of attention, but interviews with the other band members are included when available. Iggy, amazingly, has survived longer than all but one of them. On Amazon Prime.

    THE DEVIL’S 8 (1969) This was prime B-movie entertainment from American International Pictures. It is a combination of The Dirty Dozen with backwoods moonshine action, resulting in a film that feels like a moonshine western. Christopher George is in badass mode as the group’s leader, only one of many memorable characters. Although the ending sputters into predictability, my enjoyment of the film up to that point made this one of my favorite watches of the year.

    For any Something Weird Video fans, there is an interview with Lisa Petrucci on the Supporting Characters podcast. She has run the company since the death of Mike Vraney. Something Weird has been a part of my life for a decade now, starting with the now-defunct cable on-demand channel and moving on to countless DVDs borrowed through Netflix when it actually stocked those kind of titles. Not many are still available now. Although Vraney's death seems to have ended new releases, the company has a unique place in the preservation of exploitation cinema.

    ReplyDelete