Just Watched Movies (2010)

[slayrrr666]

The Grudge 3-When a couple living in an apartment complex find themselves the victims of Kayako's rampage, they turn to the newest occupant in the building, her sister, to learn how to stop her from carrying on her path of tormenting and killing all she comes across. Not all that bad, but it did have some glaring problems in here and although there was some good stuff, it's not as great as the other two, or even the weakest of the originals. Decent enough, but not nearly as spectacular as the others.

[slayrrr666]

Night of the Bloody Apes-Concerns a woman wrestler who accidentally kills her opponent during a match, then discovers that her body is being used to control the experiment of a mad scientist who has transplanted an ape's heart into a human who then goes on a brutal, violent rampage. Utterly cheesy, nonsensical, violent, sleazy, action-packed and riotously offensive, this was a blast and a real joy to watch. A couple minor quibbles brought up by the fact I never saw it in English so a lot of it was lost, especially long meeting sequences where they discuss what's going on, I think, and a low-budget clearly on display, but overall it was quite good.

[slayrrr666]

Angel of Light-A man becomes possessed by a demonic spirit and fights off the bully's tormenting his friends, drawing a government agent to his situation and forcing them all to escape their clutches. A little talkier than the others I've seen so far, so I have no doubt at all I missed a ton of stuff here, but you can't really pass up a lot of what's going on through lack-of-understanding: there's some good action scenes, a couple really good deaths and the resulting gore and some rather creepy possession sequences make it quite interesting when I did know what was going on. Again, an understanding of Spanish would no doubt up the score to this one considerably.

The Beast is Alive-A group of grave robbers searching for a legendary expanse of gold resurrect the supernatural guardian in charge of protecting the loot and must escape both the gang-lords on their trail and the killer slowly making his way through the group. Now, again, a lot is probably lost in the lost-translation, but I have a feeling this one was a lot better to start with. Some great Gothic imagery, plenty of suspense, some nice gore and plenty of action, while I can mainly say in present viewing the only flaw was the lack of understanding Spanish.

Halloween Night-After gathering together for a party in the woods, a group of friends finds that the recently-escaped serial killer who used to live in the house has begun killing them off one-by-one and must escape his bloodied clutches. Surprisingly decent slasher, with a fantastic mask, some cool murders and a heaping boat-load of nudity, though there was almost no suspense since the killer never stalked anyone and just seemed to show up randomly behind someone and then kill them, and it takes an eternity to start wiping people out since it tends to focus on the party more than the killing in the early parts, so it has a long build-up, but overall it's quite decent.

Legion-While gathered at a remote truck-stop diner, a small group of inhabitants finds that the mysterious stranger who arrives is a Angel of Heaven looking to keep a pregnant member of the group alive as God sends forth an army to wipe them out as part of his planned Armageddon plans. Lots of great action, tons of bloodshed and some creepy moments here and there make this a rather enjoyable experiments, if only it eased up on the religious talk. Way too much of it and not really something that appealed to me.

[slayrrr666]

Terror at London Bridge-When a strange spate of murders occurs in small-town Arizona, a sheriff finds that the murder patterns are identical to the legendary Jack the Ripper and comes to believe that the recently-completed London Bridge in their town has brought the figure back to life in the town and must stop his rampage. Surprisingly decent made-for-TV slasher, some nice action scenes, a couple decent murders and a fun finale, hurt by the lack of gore in the violent kills (apparently, this Jack forgot the well-known fact that he's supposed to be a sexual deviant when cutting up corpses, so all he does his slit throats and nothing else, but even though it's made for TV, a couple mentions about the state of the corpses while not showing them was done in Jaws, so it's not unheard of) and the insistence on making it a mystery leaves a large section without much of any suspense or attacks, and there is some gaping plot holes, but overall, I can say I've seen a lot worse.

[Fenril]

Seen a couple Spanish films:

- El espíritu de la colmena (1973; aka Spirit of the beehive). After attending a screening of "Frankenstein", two girls living in a small town during the Spanish Civil War start looking for the Monster himself and seemingly find him in an abandoned farmhouse... An antecedent of "Pan's labyrinth" that is both a subtle political drama and a haunting exploration of childhood fears.

- La novia ensangrentada (1972; aka The blood splattered bride). A newly married woman grows weary of her husband's constant sexual demands while becoming fascinated with the legend of one of her husband's relatives, a woman named Micarlla who slew her husband on their wedding night... One of many (loose) adaptations of the classic vampire tale Carmilla, by Sheridan Le Fanu; this one amplifies the lesbian subtext and the feminist allusion of the original novel. The result is a gorgeous movie that is equal parts splatter horror, gothic drama, GLBT allegory and erotic film.

[slayrrr666]

The Ripper-When a vicious killer's streak of murders is stumbled upon accidentally, a detective tries to protect the witness from the killer's advances while trying to solve the increasing total of kills in response to the situation. Absolutely terrible, quite possibly the worst film ever made about Jack the Ripper. One, he's shown ten minutes in doing the damage to one of his victims, so there's no investigation into who he is, nor is there any suspense derived from that search. Two, the kills are all off-screen and again require stumbling upon the bodies afterward, yet again are kept to a prudish minimum without showing anything. At least they describe the bodies, which was a problem with the last one, but perhaps the most telling flaw, it spends the absolute majority of the time as a drama about the detective trying to establish a good working relationship with the people in power at the time, focusing on him attending parties or black-tie events that he is then drawn away from to respond to the latest kill, and these have no place at all in a horror film. Coupled with a prostitute who won't do anything sleazy since they hired a name actress to play the lead and no real suspense, action or anything of interest, this one just really, really sucked.

[slayrrr666]

Exorcism: The Possession of Gail Bowers-A young woman who goes to live with her religious relatives after her parents death comes under the possession of a strange demon and a priest with prior experience dealing with the creature is called upon to drive it out of her. Highly enjoyable exorcism film driven by it's extreme sleaze and gore, as it rightfully makes the girl into a huge slut and is jammed-pack with nudity and sexual scenes in order to help sell the idea of possession, and then everyone that comes across her is violently dispatched in gruesome ways, so it's a lot of fun, even though the actual exorcism scene comes off a little weak and rushed since it doesn't really build like the others do, it just sorta happens and it's a little underwhelming. You also have a sense of deja-vu through the whole thing since it hits all the required spots along the way in one of these movies without fail, but the sleaze and gore make it a lot more entertaining.

[slayrrr666]

The Objective-A group of soldiers sent to the Middle East to obtain footage of a respected freedom fighter endorsing the US's presence in the country get lost in a top-secret section of the desert and are soon convinced supernatural forces are at work to prevent them from reaching their objective. Wow, was this bad. One of the worst films in the genre, this one barely, if ever, focuses on horror to instead make it a war movie where they're totally inept despite being called professionals, and that's when it's supposed to be a horror film. It barely makes it feel like it's supposed to be, and despite some decent ideas here and there, there's no terror, no suspense and most of what happens just feels dull and tired.

Beast Within-A group of friends travel to one's grandfather's house to clean up the estate and get it ready to sell, and while throwing a party to celebrate, end up encountering the mutated zombies created from a genetic experiment he was working on and must get away from the bloodthirsty ghouls. A newcomer from Germany in the zombie sweepstakes, also a bit topical in that the bird flu is the cause for their contagion, in that the released virus is supposedly a cure for the disease only it makes the inhabitants a lot more feral than expected. We get a lot of action, blood and gore in the last half of this, as its pretty much dead from the beginning. Not a whole lot of stuff going on that's all that interesting, and it rarely feels like a horror film in those parts, so it leaves a lot to be desired in those sections. Overall, it needs work but it's still a lot more watchable than expected.

Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2-Michael Myers returns from the dead and continues a bloody path of terror back to his hometown looking for his sister, unaware of her legacy and the maniac coming for her. By no means is this a great film, just one with a shit-ton of flaws: the constant cursing for the sake of it, the unbearably long time it takes for a kill to finish off, the failure to derive suspense from the stalking scenes, the utterly unneeded character of Loomis in the story, the complete lack of being able to see what's going on in the kills, the nonsensical finale, what was going on with the ghost of the mother and son, the family relationship at the beginning just being flat-out boring, and so much more. I did like parts of it, as the body count was quite nice, the gore is quite brutal when we see it, and a few scenes were a little exciting, but overall, this one was still a mess.

[slayrrr666]

The Ape-Seeking a cure for a love's incurable disease, a rash of murders from a circus ape gives him the cover needed to acquire the necessary ingredients to finish the cure, but as the rampage continues, he seems a little too eager to acquire the subject matter. Short, barely has enough time to do anything and it tends to keep the horror elements, which are the ape attacks, off-screen for the majority of time so as to focus on the relationship between the two and how he's ostracized in the village, but when it does focus on the action, this isn't terrible, and for the time period quite decent. Just, like I said, barely has any due to time constraints and censorship status.

The Ghoul-Having died from a mysterious ailment, a professor safeguards a valuable Egyptian artifact in his possession after death, but when the object is stolen by graverobbers, he rises from the dead to take revenge on those who have stolen it. This one is just torturous to get going, as scenes either go on far too long than they should or are just not that interesting to watch, but it makes up for these slightly once the killer is up and loose. Some nice Gothic imagery, his burial and resurrection scenes mostly, and him stalking around in the shadows coming up on the unsuspecting victims are quite nice, so there's some good stuff here. It's just got way too many flaws to keep it up.

[slayrrr666]

Triassic Attack-Upset about the building on his sacred land, an Indian shaman summons an ancient spirit to stop the construction, but when they take the form of the dinosaur skeletons housed nearby, he joins with the police to stop their rampage before they eat the entire town. Sci-Fi's latest CGI-driven creature-feature crapfest, this one has the usual problem they suffer from and the same good stuff they usually have, only now there's just absolutely no gore so it falls a little lower, but it's still not all that bad.

Sisters-After a rash of strange murders, a detective comes to believe that the main culprit is his girlfriend's unstable twin sister, but as he gets closer to the truth, he begins to uncover startling secrets that not only is he with the wrong sister, but that he may be the next to die. This one really has nothing of value to offer, the violence is pathetic, the kills are lame, the sex is censored to the point of not even being recognizable what's going on or hidden by the angle chosen and it never even feels like a horror film at all. If the original is like this, I'm not in any rush to see it, and I should mention that this is a remake, not the original.

The House of the Devil-Taking a job babysitting at a remote mansion, a young woman enjoys the serenity it allows, but when she begins to think that someone other than her charge is in the house with her, she comes to find the owners have lured her there to partake in a Satanic sacrifice and she must escape before the ceremony is complete. Man, this one was just taking forever to get going, and seemed to consist of just her running around the house, opening doors or just doing absolutely nothing. Sure, we'd get the odd noise in the distance or running footsteps, but it's just absolute boredom for the first two-thirds of the movie. The last third, when the ceremony is enacted and the film shows some energy in her attempts to get free, is good and quite energetic, it's too little too late.

[Fenril]

Seen Godfrey Reggio's "qatsi" trilogy, three movies without dialogue and plotline concerning nature and human society:

- Koyaanisqatsi (1983). "A state of life that calls for another state of living"; the simplest of the three films, juxtaposes magnificent ladscapes with elaborate shots of modern cities both thriving and crumbling.

- Powaqqatsi (1988). "Parasitic life"; centered on third-word countries the world over, contrasting ancient ways of life (and architecture) with troubled modern times.

- Naqoyqatsi (2003). "Life in conflict"; the late-arriving last of the trilogy is perhaps the most misunderstood. Uses computer-enhanced and computer-generated images to show silicon nightmares, representing the Tower of Babel.

All in all, very interesting films. Most definitely not for everyone and they have to be experienced rather than explained, but it's such rewarding viewing.

[slayrrr666]

Smilia's Sense of Snow-The murder of a child neighbor forces a woman to investigate the incident, and as her search leads her closer to the truth, she begins to uncover alarming secrets about the event that make her life a lot more chaotic than she expected. More of a genuine thriller than out-and-out horror film, despite the initial starting point being one in many horror films, as this one decides to focus on the investigation of the events rather than the fact that the killer's rampage is continuing, which would've made for a claustrophobic and unsettling slasher, since the atmosphere and surroundings are perfect for that sort of thing. A little overlong as well, helped along by the truth-seeking which lets it drag out at times, but I can't say it was terrible, just not something I'd see again.

[slayrrr666]

Messengers 2: The Scarecrow-After suffering through several failures in his attempt to make a living at farming, a man plants a scarecrow in his field and begins to change his luck, only for unforeseen circumstances he never asked for to be at the root of the turnaround and tries to right the wrongs he started. A rather slow burn to get going, but it actually had some good stuff going for it that made for a rather decent time whenever it did do something, and the last half-hour is actually amazing with a ton to like about it, but it's just got several big problems along the way that hold it down somewhat. Much better than part 1, actually.

[Bartwald]

Nov 29, 2010 11:28:41 GMT -5 slayrrr666 said:

Sisters-...This one really has nothing of value to offer, the violence is pathetic, the kills are lame, the sex is censored to the point of not even being recognizable what's going on or hidden by the angle chosen and it never even feels like a horror film at all. If the original is like this, I'm not in any rush to see it, and I should mention that this is a remake, not the original.

Well, De Palma's original is better - and quite different from the remake, at least as far as the feel of the movie is concerned. But I liked the remake, too. It's weird - and you're right it's actually not a horror movie - but there's enough intriguing mystery in it for to keep me watching.

And Fenril - glad to hear you enjoyed the qatsi trilogy. I only saw the first two films and liked them quite a bit. Will have to finally see the third one as well.

[Fenril]

Dec 1, 2010 15:15:07 GMT -5 Bartwald said:

Nov 29, 2010 11:28:41 GMT -5 slayrrr666 said:

And Fenril - glad to hear you enjoyed the qatsi trilogy. I only saw the first two films and liked them quite a bit. Will have to finally see the third one as well.

Glad to hear you liked them, too. The third one is a bit different from the others (in that it's all computer images), but it has a very similar feel.