Just Watched Movies (2012)

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Carnival of Sinners-Down on his luck and trying to change it, a man acquires a cursed hand said to accomplish that and finds it to come true, only for the devilish owner of the hand to appear to him looking to collect on the final aspect of the deal. Overall, this was a very puzzling effort as there's some great stuff here and some really troubling stuff. The troubling stuff is off to a start right away, as the main gimmick of this is that it's supposed to be the lead recounting his story to the group in a remote mountain lodge, yet it takes a good while to start off the story-telling which really throws the pacing to this one all over the place. Rather than be introduced to everything quite quickly, the dragged-out pace early on makes the first half seem quite overlong as it sets up his new lifestyle change and the resulting situations that spring from that. After that, it gets a lot better when the Satanic angle finally gets played and that sets off a lot of good stuff, from being tormented by the ever-increasing amount needed to end it all to the string of luck that comes to an end through his meddling is all in good fun, and when that gets to the finale with the assembled owners in masks recounting their fates, it's when this one really gets going and delivers some fun. All in all, it's problematic but not too bad.

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Added uncut copies of Dark Ride and Perkins' 14 to the collection.

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Added uncut copies of Autopsy and Mulberry Street to the collection.

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Game of Werewolves-Assumed to be returning to his rural home-town to continue work on a new novel, a struggling writer learns that his trip was by design and intended to lift a monstrous curse on the residents of the area and must battle it's deadly effects in order to escape. This here manages to be one of the more enjoyable and entertaining efforts in the genre in a long, long time and is thus one of the newest classics to be included. One of the best aspects to this one is the utterly enjoyable plot that reeks of old-school Gothic flair updated to modern times, containing a gypsy curse on a small town, the secretive nature of the village regarding the contents of the curse, the oblivious bloodline and the village itself looking like a relic from a Hammer film out in the wilderness and provided a perfect backdrop for the settings to occur. On top of that, the film introduces a vicious and incredibly imposing villain in the main werewolf down in the crypt which is just utterly chilling and gets a stand-out sequence to introduce it in front of the man and his frightened friend. Though, the film really hits it's stride in the second half with the introduction of a second curse that results in the last third of the film and gets some incredibly fun sequences together that have more of a horror edge to it and dropping the comedy. Not that the comedy isn't good, but for once is actually a lot of fun and truly hilarious, with word-play and sight gags combined together to create several riotous scenes that mesh well together with the more serious tone in the rest of the film. Combined with truly spectacular werewolf make-up and a frenetic pace that's never really boring at all, this one is one of the all-time top werewolf films.

The Scream Team-In a small-town to bury their grandfather, a pair of kids find the town's celebration haunted by a dangerous local spirit and must band together with several ghosts helping spirits in the afterlife to stop him. This one turned out to be quite an entertaining and enjoyable children's style horror film. One of the better aspects here is the fact that it tries to ditch the comedy in favor of more traditional horror-related themes and manages to get pretty good at incorporating them. The scenes of the ghost in the underground pit, the first chase through the woods and the encounter in the burnt remains of the former house are all quite exciting encounters that are based around the spirit itself being something to be feared. He's treated seriously by everyone and there's no jokes or gags built up around him, so it allows him to be a serious threat, judging from his actions is well-deserved and gives him a serious aura that's deserving in a horror film. The few injections of comedy are handled by the bumbling ghosts and a few wise-cracks from the kids, which aren't terrible surprisingly and actually add a little bit to the movie's opening when they discover the secret world and how it all works out, and by mixed together with the strong plot that's pretty chilling and could serve as the basis for a more adult-themed effort by removing the ghostly helpers but still save everything else is a strong suit, and really all that's really wrong here is the story's hectic nature, containing a lot of ideas but not really allowing them to each get fleshed out so it feels all-over-the-place, but overall this one isn't that bad.

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Atrocious-After arriving at their family's mansion home in the wilderness, a guy and his friends decide to investigate the local legend of a ghostly woman in the area only to come upon something far more sinister than any legend. This here managed to be quite a troubling effort, more so for the potential on display rather than the actual results. The fact that this one starts off with a rather creepy ghostly mystery is pretty nice, with a simple-enough folk-tale that could've been started in any small town in the world has a nice way to go about getting it's start, and with the creepy house and woodland setting where this takes place, it has a creepy, chilling vibe that's found in most of these ghostly haunting films. As well, some of the scenes are quite creepy, with the death of the dog, the attack on the sister in the gazebo and finally the house stalking provide this with some generally enjoyable scenes that can generate some nice shocks. However, there's several things that undermine this, not the least of which is the found-footage angle this employs, which means that a lot of the scenes captured never really should have because trying to hold a video camera up to capture them during such moments is quite ludicrous, unless it happens to them you can't see anything so a lot of time is spent running from something we can't see and thus nothing happens, and then the final reel is so insanely stupid it knocks a lot off the film right off the bat. It's also so short that hardly anything happens as well, a product of the camera style and as well really hurts this one, a shame with the potential offered.

Rise of the Zombies-As a zombie plague overruns mankind, a group of survivors decide to leave the supposedly fortified Alcatraz and make for the mainland in search of the scientist working on a vaccine cure and must battle the relentless undead hordes to get there. This one wasn't that bad of a zombie effort, and while flawed this one offered up some pretty good moments. This here is mostly effective whenever dealing with the zombies on the attack as that allows for the nice zombie make-up to be on display and for the graphic gore to be displayed, which here is quite gruesome and really worthwhile, and the fact that there's a lot of action scenes, many of them quite extended which makes them all the more fun, giving the film a rather frenetic pace due to the zombies being front and center. While the frequent interjections back to the compound studying the effects of the virus are quite original and slow the film down somewhat, the only real problem here is the rather cliche nature of it all, managing to feel as though it's all a rip-off of the current state of zombie-dom rather than doing anything original or creative with the material, and that hurts this somewhat. Not enough to be completely damaging, but it is present and lowers what could've been a great entry either way.

Frontier(s)-Trying to escape a local revolution, a group of thieves escape the city and arrive at a secluded motel in the countryside to regroup, only to stumble upon the sinister truth about the owners there and try to get out of the area alive. Overall, this was a very interesting if flawed effort as there's some great stuff here and some really troubling stuff. The troubling stuff isn't all that damaging yet features prominently in the film, mainly the fact that the film's several big action scenes are edited with the ultra-annoying and jarring quick-cut editing that renders the whole scene nearly impossible to make out, as if it had a chance with all the camera-jerking and shaking going on. This one, then, features both tactics during these scenes, and they're the big action chases so those are supposed to be the sequences you want to see, so it knocks itself down a bit for that. However, the rest of the film is highly entertaining and utterly enjoyable starting off with the introduction of the Nazi family which is pretty chilling given the relationship with the group, and their series of chases and confrontations are quite fun. As a bloodbath, it's got a lot to like as this one really lets it flow numerous times with it's graphic depictions of bodies getting torn open, dismemberments, decapitations and more, which are pretty realistic at times and generate a lot of fun. As well, there's some nice suspense at times included within, with one stand-out sequence where several victims crawl through an increasingly narrower tunnel guided only by a cigarette lighter and see they're being chased through by something or someone, and they're mixed nicely with the dirty, depraved goings-on to create a rather fun entry that happily stands among the good new French splatter-fests.

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Added an uncut copy of Borderland to the collection.

Macabre-Learning of a great treachery against his daughter, a man and his wife race to the graveyard containing her before a deranged madman can win out in his quest for revenge. An exceptionally flawed and not really all that worthwhile William Castle gimmick effort, only this time the gimmick isn't that great and the movie's little better. The central premise to this one is quite chilling, with the abduction of the daughter and being buried in a grave that requires a man and wife to find her, means we get some incredibly wonderful Gothic atmosphere with the scenes in the cemetery that are quite creepy in design and chilling in how the story's built up. These scenes here and their bantering about where she is and where to dig are really the only parts of this that's worthwhile, as the rest of the time it doesn't have a whole lot to really get interested in. As it goes around with all the potential suspects and why they're interested in seeking revenge, the flashback nature of these participants and why they're out for revenge is not in the slightest bit interesting and drags the movie to a halt as it goes about this section of the movie, dropping all potential horror angles and does so for the majority of the film's running time. Even more so, the fact that the central premise doesn't allow for a lot of time dealing with the graveyard search forces this upon the viewer, a rather unfortunate handicap right off the top. It's got its moments, but not a whole lot of them.

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Are You Scared 2-Attempting to find a special cache for a scavenger-hunt game, a group of friends stumble upon the sinister truth about the targeted cache being owned by a sinister madman who tortures and films his victims, forcing them to fight back to survive. This was a marginally better effort than the original, but with that one being so bad it's not a great sign for this one. The main factor in this one is the incredibly lame and pretty stupid exploits of the controller's game, which makes no sense at all as to how it got so far along without being stumbled onto since it's a fairly complex system for such an innocent-looking game, the characters' utter stupidity in the situation leading them further and deeper into trouble for no reason other than to continue the movie, and a twist in the last half that comes from nowhere and makes so little sense that there's no reason for it's inclusion. As well, the fact that nothing is ever given about what's going on with the different participants within, why they're there or what the overall purpose of the game is supposed to be as there's hardly anything given about the purpose of it all. While those issues, along with it's obvious low-budget look and feel that shows itself at the worst times, provide the film's flaws there's some fun to be had in here regardless. The stalking in the building are pretty tense at times, the killers have a great look about them in their masks and though cheap, it's plenty bloody. Still, this one has a lot of problems for it.

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Added an uncut copy of The Mummy's Hand to the collection.

[Fenril]

- Red lights. Two paranormal debunkers are faced with the challenge of their lives when a famous psychic, Simon Silver, comes out of retirement after an incident that left his harshest critic dead. The stakes might be more personal and far more dangerous than Margaret, Tom, and their new assistant Sally might like. But is Silver an incredibly dangerous phony or something much worse than that?

So this year I couldn't do a scary movie marathon for the season, due to both personal and job-related situations. Nevertheless, I managed to catch this surprisingly good thriller just now. The main attraction here is the cast (Robert De Niro, Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver), all of whom do a pretty solid job --Weaver in particular makes her "Margaret Matheson" a delightfully bitchy character that's still fairly sympathetic. There are a lot of jump scares here (through, not enough to call this "horror" by any stretch of the imagination, it's just a mystery with some scary touches), which surprised me. And the ending is... intriguing, even if it kind of clashes with most of what the movie had been building up to.

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End of Days-While attempting to solve a banker's attempted murder, a disgraced cop gradually learns that he is becoming involved in a ploy by the Devil to conceive his child in an Earth-bound woman and usher forth the Armageddon. This one was surprisingly a lot of fun. One of the main interests in this one is the fact that it comes off so much like a normal Action movie rather than a straight-up Horror film. From the assassination attempt and the chasing of the shooter over rooftops and into the sewers to a fantastic fireball-filled assault on his friends in a parked van, to other big action scenes with the mind-controlled minions with shoot-outs, brawls and racing to escape big explosions and things blowing up that make for a lot of fun overall. This is helped along by a fairly interesting plot line that allows for such high-energy action scenes to come forth, not that it's original or anything but it has more than enough applications to allow for quality moments to barrel forth, never once dragging despite it's rather long running time or allow for repeats of scenes, with the first half employed as a chase to get to her first while the second half is all about the protection she needs, with both him and the priests getting involved and generating some really good times. The extreme religious nature of such a story might turn some off, as the endless parade of Bible quotes in the middle and reapplications of faith do grow tiresome due to the quantity of such scenes, and the finale with a hokily-conceived CGI Devil isn't anywhere near convincing. Overall, this one comes across better-than-expected, though it's more for Action fans than Horror fanatics.

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- Trespass. A rich family is held hostage by a quartet of robbers, who intend to simply take all the money in the vault and leave. Unfortunatedly for everyone involved, this is the kind of movie where nobody is quite what they seem to be at first.

An okay popcorn movie of a suspense thriller; while it's full of implausible plot twists and generous overacting from everyone, it still manages to pack in just enough action to remain entertaining all the way through. Just remember not to take anything in this movie even remotedly seriously.

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Stephen King's Storm of the Century-When a serious and damaging storm signals the arrival of a mysterious stranger on a small island off the coast of Maine, his rampage of terror across the inhabitants forces them to make a horrifying decision when they learn his true intentions for arriving. This one turned out to be quite decent and pretty enjoyable. The setting is great, as the snow-fallen town looks suitably chilling and provides a wonderful blanket for the events to follow, generates some nice suspense and generally works well. The development of his plan and why he's there are both chilling, with the first half being devoted to his arrival and incarceration, the second a demonstration of his power and the third being his whole plan creating a very nice ark that culminates in some good stuff through each offering. With a lot more deaths on hand, the second is generally more entertaining than the others as there's some pretty nasty deaths on hand as we get to see him assert his power over the town in the middle of the storm so there's plenty of good times throughout this part, though again most of the segments do have a great scene throughout. It does have a couple of rather big flaws, though, mainly in the fact that it takes forever for the secret of what he wants to come out, and when it does, it feels a little underwhelming since a lot of time has been spent on it being this big secret yet it's entirely underwhelming. As well, a lot of stuff here seems padded out due to it's mini-series origin with a lot of scenes that really don't need to be there at all or could've been shortened to keep this moving along at a little swifter pace. All in all, not one of his better efforts in the field but certainly worthwhile enough.

The Big Boss-Arriving at his uncle's town, a man finds the area littered with corruption and vows to fight back after unknowingly joining forces with them. The first Bruce Lee effort, and really kind a mess as this one stumbles around with a plot that never gives him a chance to let loose at all. Granted, it's the story but for this to have been the big break-through it could've been letting him off the ropes a lot earlier than this would've been a lot more useful. As well, the fighting is incredibly clumsy and doesn't really have the fluidity of the later films to come from HK in the 70s and 80s, but that can also be chalked up to the paltry fighting experience of the performers as Bruce doesn't get to go wild until the last act, which is admittedly a lot better and far more fun than it should be, leaving this one a solid mixed outing.

Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky-Landing in a brutal prison, a man's superhuman strength and martial arts skills are put to the test to survive the wicked and corrupt warden's games within the facility. Pleasantly enjoyable and ultra cheesy kung-fu epic, this one is more about the ultra-gore on display rather than the fighting, which altogether isn't that impressive since they're over quite quickly yet they unload masses doses of blood and gore during the time, from entrails being ripped out and used as fighting tools, arms ripped off, faces sliced open, heads crushed with bare bands and all sorts of sharpened objects thrust into the body, so this one really lets it fly at times. While the fighting is a little better it's still not that crisp and smooth, so it looks a little sloppy and all over the place yet overall this one works pretty well.

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The Mighty Peking Man-An expedition to the remote jungles of India to find the truth about rumors of a gigantic ape find it to be true, but when they bring it and his long-lost female handler back to civilization, it sparks a rampage of death and destruction trying to keep it from going crazy. Sleazy, high-energy HK exploitation-style imagining of the 76 version of 'King Kong' and it remains all the more fun for doing so. Following roughly the same path and storyline, just with more emphasis on the sleaze this time, especially in regards to her relationship with the ape and the addition of the love-triangle being a bit more pronounced and in-the-face of the audience. However, the real point of this one is the monster action which this is actually ridiculously good with a wild opening as it destroys a mountainside village in spectacular fashion, features the fun and exciting show in Hong Kong and of course, the highlight is the vicious rampage through the city which is all sorts of fun. With great miniature work, tons of destruction, nice attention to detail and a ton of action, complete with the military attacks from the helicopters on top of the tower and the final resolution of the creature, it's an altogether fun and enjoyable cheese-fest.

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Gymkata-Sent into a foreign land for government request, a gymnast learns that his involvement in a deadly game as part of the country's custom is threatened by rogue's trying to eliminate the contestants to start his own form of rule. One of the most hilariously awful, enjoyable 80s Martial Arts efforts, mainly due to just how ludicrous the whole thing really is. From the purpose of the game to the whole concept of his invitation to the country and how it carries out the rather flimsy story, this one just comes across as goofy and quite cheesy, yet overall that's what makes the movie so much fun. That's before we get to the movie's main point and general reason for being, the hilarious mixing of gymnastics and martial arts to be wielded by the hero as his choice fighting style, which makes sense in concept but is executed quite ridiculously as he tends to forsake speed to simply do a flip and the sound of a hit is registered on the soundtrack and the victim falls to the ground, yet there's clearly a generous amount of time for the other guy to land a hit. This comes to task in the film's crowning jewel of a scene, the pommel horse attack in the village that is just so hilarious and epic it must be seen to be believed. Overall, it's fun but incredibly cheesy.

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Chamber of Horrors-After escaping custody and presumed dead, a deranged madman starts a rampage of revenge against those he believed wrong him in sending him to jail, forcing a pair of wax museum attendees to help solve the case before his rampage is complete. A somewhat decent and enjoyable film, though this one does have it's problems. The first and most obvious one is the gimmick of the flashing red screen and siren used to indicate a potentially frightening scene, yet neither the sequence itself shows anything remotely frightening nor is the warning useful as it intrudes on the frozen frame and looks cheesy and quite fake. Onto the film itself, the biggest problem is the fact that the majority of the film is devoted to an investigation angle that's not conducted by the police but rather his friends in the wax museum as they construct an exhibit on the madman's rampage, which feels quite lame as well as intrusive to the pacing as there's not a whole lot of kills to really work this one over. That said, there's some good stuff here as the frequent trips to the wax museum give it a pretty chilly air at times, several of the stalking scenes are undertaken during a heavy fog that provides a pretty rich atmosphere during the better moments in the film and it has a fairly fun finale that certainly has it's fair share of action. It's enough to make it entertaining, but its held down by it's flaws.