|
|
Post by slayrrr666 on Dec 6, 2012 11:52:53 GMT -5
Episode 50-After being asked to check the truth about an infamous haunted sanitarium for their show, a group of paranormal investigators find the building haunted by a series of malicious ghosts and try to find out why they're being haunted. A pretty decent though flawed effort that manages to get some good things amongst it but which has enough flaws to really lower it. One of the main flaws is that this one feels the need to introduce the secondary investigative team on the rounds for no real reason other than to give them a point of shouting contests with each other and it's quite tiring when they stop the investigation to go into yet another spiel about how the two groups can't stand each other. As well, the fact that this has one of the lamest endings possible that doesn't generate any kind of suspense or scares and the brevity and suddenness of it clearly gives away the fact that it ran out of money before fully fleshing out it's vision. However, there's still some great points here, from a genuinely creepy and chilling location that's the perfect hiding spot for ghosts and such to appear from out of nowhere and generate some thrills, a couple of pretty gory deaths and a lot of thrilling action in the last half as the story finally unwinds and is allowed to go all out. These really help the movie out, but there's still a few problems to hold it down.
|
|
|
|
Post by slayrrr666 on Dec 7, 2012 11:20:59 GMT -5
Added an uncut copy of Anacondas: The Search for the Blood Orchid to the collection.
|
|
|
|
Post by Fenril on Dec 7, 2012 20:19:26 GMT -5
- Cabin in the woods. Five young friends intend to spend the weekend at the titular location, unaware that there is an evil presence in there. Sound familiar? The people behind the cabin itself hope so, because this time there is much more at play than just some random deaths. If the story doesn't go *exactly* as a slasher / creature feature is supposed to, things are gonna get very bad for everybody in the entire planet, indeed....
Finally saw this movie that I had been looking forward to since I first heard of it. In my opinion, this was quite good, and essentially does what Kevin Williamson *wishes* he did with slasher movies: bring up standard clichés (in this case, clichés of American pulp horror), more or less deconstruct them, and use them to build something unique yet still genuinely scary.
My one complaint: the bits we see of the Japanese equivalent were good and hilarious --but I really wish we had seen at least a little bit more of the Argentinian, Spanish and Swedish counterparts, just to see what kind of cast they would have (I imagine at least one of those had a posh family fighting something evil in satin gowns or something...).
Also saw The godfater digitally remastered. The remastering itself wasn't very impressive (it looked as what it is: a movie from the 70's), but this film is still one of the best drama / crime movies ever lensed. Through seeing how much of it is still present in popular American culture and how it is used, I wonder if a lot of people didn't take the wrong lesson from this....
|
|
|
|
Post by slayrrr666 on Dec 10, 2012 11:42:52 GMT -5
Added uncut copies of Phantoms and Watchers to the collection.
|
|
|
|
Post by slayrrr666 on Dec 12, 2012 11:31:58 GMT -5
Dracula's Daughter-When a strange series of deaths in a London suburb point to a vampire's activities, the police reluctantly call upon a vampire hunter to aid in their quest to bring them to justice only to find the real culprit isn't who he thought it to be. This happened to be quite a disappointing sequel though it does have it's own positives. Some of the best areas here are in keeping with the original, where the Gothic atmosphere is really played up quite high such as the opening in the crypt or the Black Mass burial ceremony in the cemetery that's quite unnerving and really chilling. Sadly, the only other good stuff is found in the rather rousing finale where it becomes a race to get to the castle and both the hero as well as the police figure into the mix trying to get there and then the final confrontation that's pretty much all the action in this effort. The rest of the time is quite dull and languid, content to go along at quite a relaxed pace without really doing anything creepy since all the attacks take place off-screen or are basically just endless scenes of her trying to get the doctor onto her side without revealing her vampiric nature. None of this stuff is really interesting because it takes too long to play out, and then the lame subplot about keeping Van Helsing sitting in the police lietenant's office the whole movie as they question him about the attacks just eats up time in an otherwise quick movie. While there is stuff to like here, not much of it can overcome the flaws.
|
|
|
|
Post by slayrrr666 on Dec 13, 2012 11:31:01 GMT -5
Got around to my DVD of Howling II, which wasn't as bad as it was the first time around when I saw it years ago. Decent enough and filled with some nice cheese and sleaze, the low-budget nature of it all and the rather flimsy plot devies are a little hard to get past, lowering this enough to put it at the bottom of the franchise only because I value the others a lot more. It's not a bad effort, as it's watchable enough (anything is with Christopher Lee in it) but there's just too much good stuff elsewhere for it to really make an impact.
|
|
|
|
Post by slayrrr666 on Dec 17, 2012 12:15:13 GMT -5
The Dead-After a world-wide apocalypse leaves Africa the home of a deadly epidemic that brings the dead back to life, an American soldier and an African peace-keeper try to wade through the destruction to find his long-missing family and curtail the zombie plague. This was a really troubling effort that could've been something special but instead is an overblown, misguided effort. The main factor in this is the incredibly lengthy running time this has, which goes on for well over twenty minutes past it's welcome because it has to feature scores of scenes where they're overcome by the futility of their mission or the hopelessness of the situation, and it doesn't create a grandiose, epic feel like it was intended to be but rather an overblown and entirely overlong effort. There's still some good stuff here, such as the incredibly effective zombies in here which are among some of the best non-Italian ones ever created in terms of screen-presence, make-up and effective scariness, as these slow, shuffling beings with their glowing eyes and dark, blood-stained skin create quite an impact and that they're taken seriously is another big effect. With plenty of confrontations packed within and lots of blood and gore, there's a lot to like here but it's undone by it's self-imposed grandiosity.
Dead Season-After escaping civilization rampant with a zombie virus, a couple find themselves on an island sanctuary with a barbaric overlord ineffective in keeping the zombie epidemic off the island, forcing them to find a way out before they get overrun by the beings. This was a fairly enjoyable and entertaining zombie film that thankfully had a lot going for it before it gets bogged down by several flaws. One of the biggest flaws is the rather ham-fisted nature of the community on the island, not really serving much use as the rules are explained as need-to-know yet nothing ever gets mentioned due to the zombie attacks as well as the brevity in detailing how it functions since it gets overrun quite easily and not just because it's required to for the story to work. also, there's a huge flaw in the film's unneeded scene of command where they harvest a fallen comrade for meat but it's turned into an agonizing moral dilemma for the main guy for no reason and is then dropped altogether from the film as a whole, leaving it feeling rather curious for it's inclusion. Otherwise, there's a lot to like here as there's plenty of great gore, a host of great effects for the zombies, some impressive swarming scenes with the creatures around them and plenty of action to beef things up as well as a pretty innovative tactic for getting both slow, shuffling zombies and running zombies into the film,and aided by a great pace and beautiful locations, it's a strong effort.
|
|
|
|
Post by slayrrr666 on Dec 19, 2012 11:35:39 GMT -5
Added an uncut copy of Ginger Snaps to the collection.
|
|
|
|
Post by slayrrr666 on Dec 20, 2012 12:05:00 GMT -5
Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural-Returning to her hometown to tend to her father's death, a young woman finds the area overrun by a vampiric cult of witchcraft practitioners and their zombified slaves and forcing her to find a way out of town alive. This turned out to be an interesting if severely flawed effort that has some good stuff going for it but is ultimately overrun by it's flaws. One of it's biggest flaws is the absolutely irritating inability to understand what's going on through it all since the entire film's dream-like atmosphere and pacing make it impossible to know if we're in a dream world or reality, and as nothing really prescribes to an established set of rules or preconceptions it makes for a hard time getting into this one, especially since there's a lot of time spent where nothing happens and we follow her around doing absolutely nothing. This makes it pretty hard to understand the villains motives and purposes since they never really explain them, and as a whole it's pretty hard to make anything out in here. That said, the positives are really good, as the dream-like atmosphere here is perfectly played and creates a rather haunting quality that makes this imminently watchable. Also, the sheer creativeness of it all, incorporating a virgin-like heroine with vampires, witches and zombies in a decrepit town makes for a real blast, and overall it's generally good parts are found when those are being utilized, especially the climax where the vampires appear as hallucinogenic fragments of her imagination and begin launching a vicious attack on her that makes for a really rousing time. Still, though, they're not enough to make this overcome it's flaws.
|
|
|
|
Post by slayrrr666 on Dec 26, 2012 11:51:56 GMT -5
Traditional Holiday fare with the family:
Jingle All the Way
The Santa Clause
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Home Alone
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Christmas with the Kranks
|
|
|
|
Post by slayrrr666 on Dec 27, 2012 11:35:11 GMT -5
American Ninja 5-After learning his girlfriend has been captured by renegade Philippine military commander and his army of ninjas, an American ninja's rescue attempts stumble onto their proposed release of a nerve gas and he attempts to stop them. An energetic 80s style Golan/Globus effort only done in the 90s but still has that spirit about them, from the endless army of faceless ninjas that are mowed down without any difficulty to the ridiculous plot twists and side tangents that serve no purpose only to extend the running time and a flimsy story devoted only to getting more fights and shootouts on-screen, so overall this is a highly-entertaining piece with a lot to like about it. While the final fight isn't as good as some of the others in the series, it serves well enough and definitely keeps it from being a downer of an ending as there's a big finale on display. Again, several useless tangents (If you're on a rescue mission against time, why stop in the middle of it to teach your sidekick kung-fu? Why waste the time of him being caught by the authorities on espionage charges?) and a been-there, done-that feeling permeate this one, but overall there's far worse ones out there.
|
|
|
|
Post by Fenril on Dec 27, 2012 21:10:49 GMT -5
Re-watched:
- Targets. Byron Orlok (Boris Karloff in his last good movie role), once revered actor specialized in sinister roles, is retiring as he feels that the kind of monsters he used to potray on screen are no match for the monsters of modern times. Which is probably correct, as a mad sniper has just gone on a killing spree that will culminate on the same theater where Orlok is set to make his last public appareance...
One of those B-movies that use good scripts to make up what they lack in production values, and of course this one remains of interest for the subject matter (and the sniper scenes are still quite horrific). While the minimum buget shows up a lot, this remains a solid thriller.
- Duel. A meek salesman is chased across the desert highway by a relentless, seemingly demonic truck driver.
This is pretty much the only Spielberg movie that I actually like from start to finish (I simply loathe his endings, and that most certainly goes for all features from the guy, including "Saving private Ryan", "Jaws" and the first Indiana Jones movie), and it's quite an influential thriller --in no small part thanks to Richard Matheson's simple yet super-effective premise (I don't think the guy gets quite enough acknowledgment of his influence on horror and fantasy, as much as he himself resents it).
Saw The hobbit on theaters... this is a rare case where I agree with both sides of a movie's reputation: yes, it's visually impressive and one of the best movie spectacles of the last five years or so; but yes, stretching a 100-page book meant for children to a nine-hour movie aimed at teenagers in adult bodies was not a good idea in terms of story.
|
|
|
|
Post by Fenril on Dec 28, 2012 16:03:13 GMT -5
- Stalker. A writer and a scientist hire a guide (nicknamed "Stalker") to take them to a place known as "The zone", the site of an asteroid collision wherein lies an alien force that is said to grant people their heart's desire. Unfortunately, what people consciously desire and what they truly want aren't always the same thing. Then there's the matter of the deadly traps the Zone itself sets up for any potential visitor...
Sort of an "art" sci-fi movie from russian director Tarkovsky (whose earlier "Solaris" was in a quite similar vein, and indeed this was inteded as a virtual remake); very ponderous and will probably drive away most sci-fi fans due to its' glacial pacing and complex symbolism. It's very rewarding for those who have the patience, through, displaying impressive surreal landscapes, a very thought-provoking ending and even a hell of a twist in the last scenes.
|
|
|
|
Post by slayrrr666 on Dec 31, 2012 11:28:20 GMT -5
Area 407-After surviving a plane crash and landing in a strange facility, a group of people find themselves stalked throughout the area by a ravenous creature that's part of a government testing operation and must find a way to get out alive. An utterly annoying and aggravating found-footage film which really goes to show that this is a genre which really needs to go away and quickly with an endless series of useless and quite terrible ideas on display that are only possible in such a film. As with the majority of these films, the fact that there's very few times where, realistically, a person would be filming in such a situation really destroys the credibility of the film as who would be concerned about filming when a monster's attacking members of their group or making sure that the person who stumbled and fell gets back to their feet, and at one point even doubling back to grab it after being left behind are just some of the pointless scenes on display here, and then it contains all the usual trappings of the genre with an inability to focus on anything resulting in tons of blurriness throughout and shaking camera scenes that are really annoying. The lack of explanations don't help, and it's not until the end that anything gets resolved at all, and with only a few genuinely creepy and suspenseful moments brought on by it's action-packed second-half, there's not a lot to like here.
|
|
