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Post by slayrrr666 on Jan 9, 2007 13:11:06 GMT -5
Episode 9-Right to Die by Rob Schmidt
After a car accident leaves a man's wife in a coma, her ghost appears to terrify friends and family whenever she's about to die.
Hmm, this wasn't a trainwreck episode, but it never really moved me either. The gore in here is quite nice and very realistic, which most of the other episodes can't claim. Several shots of that facial scarring starring straight at the camera is damn creepy and resonates quite well, and is the best part of the film. The gag with the killer appearing on a camera phone behind an unsuspecting victim is done far better and far more chilling than in Cry_Wolf, and the death in the magnetci room is tense and very chilling. Again, the gore is top-notch and very gruesome, including another skin-shredding after appearing in Argento's Pelts earlier this season. And the hot-tub scene is great for being erotic as well and getting some much needed nudity into it.
However, this also falls to the trap of so many of this season's episodes: there's not a foreboding sense of fear in the film whenever the killer isn't being dealt with. It's a badly done drama about the right to die and when to pull the plug on a loved one, and that doesn't really inspire terror. The fact that only a couple of scenes are good (the ones mentioned above) are the only ones worth watching in the entire episode make this a conflicting episdoe.
As with so many this season, when it's on, it's great, but the fact that too much of it is off makes for such a conflicting experience. At least they finally got back the nudity, otherwise most of them would be almost unwatchable beyond the gore.
5/10
1. Argento
2. Dickerson
3. Landis
4. Carpenter
5. Dante
6. Hooper
7.Schmidt
8. Garris
9. Anderson
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Post by slayrrr666 on Jan 17, 2007 11:17:04 GMT -5
Episode 10-We All Scream for Ice Cream by Tom Holland
A vicious prank comes back to haunt a group of childhood friends as grown-ups in the form of a murderous clown.
Well, um....hmm. Let's see, uh, the clown looks pretty spooky at times, as the face paint doesn't really fit the traditional pattern used for the occaision, but it's kinda spoiled by the fact that the more child-friendly paint-job is used more often in the film and the idea of melting into a pool of ice cream is pretty creative.
Once again, where's the horror? This offered absolutely nothing in terms of horror, scares, supsense or scares, and this is due to a plot-frame that doesn't offer any chances for it. It's more of a drama and has absolutely nothing to do with being scary. There's nothing in here that kept me waiting for scares, and it was just a plain, boring nothingness. In addition, nothing happened. Some kids slurped ice cream and their dads melted into ice cream was about the highpoint in terms of anything happening, and just sitting around waiting for something to happen. Just a boring mess.
1/10
1. Argento
2. Dickerson
3. Landis
4. Carpenter
5. Dante
6. Hooper
7.Schmidt
8. Garris
9. Anderson/Holland
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Post by slayrrr666 on Jan 20, 2007 12:41:21 GMT -5
Episode 11-The Black Cat by Stuart Gordon
Edgar Allen Poe is tormented by a strange cat while trying to write his new literary masterpiece.
I'm kind of on-the-fence about this one. There were times when it wasn't completely terrible. The cellar sequence is naturally it's best part, full of Gothic style atmosphere and mood, with the raging thunderstorm illuminating the darkened room, the chase with the cat, and it's one moment of gory brilliance, a beautiful ax to the head wound, which does result in a fairly obvious goof as the ax clearly hits the top of the head full-on when shown entering the head but there's a nice facial split when the ax is removed. Still, it didn't disrupt from the sequence.
There was a couple of things that really seemed off on this one. The major one was that this was just a painfully slow experience. The main body of the film didn't start until after the half-hour mark, which leaves the first half with some really useless and unneeded scenes. The amount of time spent in the bar is a major source that could've been stripped, and several of the times between them really could've been downed down. It suffers from the nearly inescapable error of feeling more like a drama than a horror film that so many of this season feel like. Another big problem is the film doesn't really feel too historically accurate. The constant dying of the main characters don't really feel true, and the sequence of Poe chasing a car around a darkened room don't seem too accurate either. It's only an issue to be brought up due to the fact that it's based on a real figure and not something made up, so there has to be a semblance of reality thrown in which this one didn't for the majority of the time. Even the police at the end didn't really seem realistic, and there wasn't a slam-bang ending that so many others had. It just ended, with a lot of questions still left up in the air. Not needed to be spoiled, but there definitely was some that were unanswered.
Better than the last couple, but it's still a painfully agonizing entry in what is a rapidly sinking and painfully disappoiting second season. The good news: the ending is right around the corner.
4/10
1. Argento
2. Dickerson
3. Landis
4. Carpenter
5. Dante
6. Hooper
7.Schmidt
8. Garris
9. Gordon
10. Anderson/Holland
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Post by Bartwald on Mar 5, 2007 18:22:29 GMT -5
...Another big problem is the film doesn't really feel too historically accurate. The constant dying of the main characters don't really feel true, and the sequence of Poe chasing a car around a darkened room don't seem too accurate either... Ha, ha! If Poe was really chasing a CAR in his room then this sure as hell wasn't historically accurate! ;D Just saw the episode and was disappointed with it, too. Though I liked Combs' performance a lot - and his Poe make-up as well. 6/10 for me and yeah - this season of MoH is WAAAY worse than the first one. |
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 6, 2007 11:42:07 GMT -5
Just by going through the number of times I've written a 6 or less as the final score compared to the firsat one, where I rarely went under it, no mater how much I complained about it, shows something about the two seasons.
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Post by Bartwald on Mar 6, 2007 12:12:24 GMT -5
Same with me, slayrrr. After Season 1 I thought this whole idea is brilliant and we'll get dozens of genius one-hour horrors in future MoH seasons. So not true...
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 7, 2007 10:52:45 GMT -5
Well, I completely forgot to overview the last two, but it's been so long that I don't remember them at all. I did absolutely love "The Washingtonians" as it was a load of fun, gory and actually entertaining when it wasn't trying to be scary (must be something with my love of history that caused that) and I would put it up with the top three of the second season. The finale, "Death Ship," I can't even remember who was in it, but thought it was decent enough, not terrible or anything, unless I"m getting it confused with something else.
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Post by Bartwald on Mar 7, 2007 13:47:18 GMT -5
Ah, you mean Tsuruta's "Dream Cruise" - about a man who has to get on a boat though he's scared of water. That was a good one, I think. But with "The Washingtonians" I was disappointed - in a way it was a fun episode but THIS from a director of The Changeling? Come on! And the final joke was... you know... it didn't work for me. ("Look, they swapped Georges!")
My rating of the whole season:
1. Argento - 7/10
2. Landis - 7/10
3. Tsuruta - 7/10
4. Carpenter - 7/10
5. Gordon - 6/10
6. Anderson - 6/10
7. Dickerson - 5/10
8. Medak - 5/10
9. Garris - 5/10
10. Dante - 5/10
11. Hooper - 5/10
12. Schmidt - 4/10
13. Holland - 3/10
No episode over 7/10 - shocking!
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 8, 2007 11:25:24 GMT -5
I've never seen The Changeling, so I can't compare it.
But I was entertained with it for 3 reasons:
1. I'm a huge history buff, so seeing something like this, which does have a hint of truth to it (I've read the stories that inspired this take on it) gave me a hint of being on familiar ground, and to see it with a few "creative license" scenes made for a fun watch.
2. Unlike most of them during the season, when it wasn't gory, it was fun to watch. The mystery unfolding was fun to watch, and it kept my interest level up while moving along at a nice pace (which we know doesn't apply to all of the episodes.)
3. It was pretty gory and creepy, and was actually something that, stretched out another 20-30 minutes, wouldn't have been the worst movie released to theaters.
I really enjoyed it, and would've given it a 9.5, if only for the fact that the powdered wigs and make-up looked hilarious rather than scary.
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Post by LivingDeadGirl on Mar 9, 2007 17:06:10 GMT -5
So the second season is done? I've noticed that new episodes have been showing up on Netflix when I search for MOH. I still haven't gotten through all of the first season yet...  |
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 10, 2007 11:46:03 GMT -5
Yeah, the second season was finished in late January, I just forgot to put up thoughts for it.
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Post by LivingDeadGirl on Jul 8, 2007 14:37:55 GMT -5
I really hope the other ep's of season two are better than Pelts, although I noticed that Bart rated it number one....
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Post by slayrrr666 on Jul 10, 2007 9:56:50 GMT -5
That was one of my favorites as well, for that loving, sweet gore really went a long way toward my liking it. Plus, the creepy foreboding atmosphere of whether the people were really crazy or if the creatures where behind it made for some tense moments. Only Washingtonians I liked more because it was more upbeat while this one was a little more tuned down.
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Post by LivingDeadGirl on Aug 1, 2007 18:17:40 GMT -5
Just finished watching Family, the Landis ep. REALLY liked this one, probably better than his ep from season one, although I really liked that one too. Landis does dark humor so well.
So far...
1. Landis
2. Argento
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Post by slayrrr666 on Aug 2, 2007 10:18:39 GMT -5
I'm glad you picked up on the humor in that one as well. One of the reasons why I loved it. The moments when Wendt's hallucinating about the wife's come-ons to him are just flat--out hilarious.
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