Just Watched Movies (2013)

[slayrrr666]

I've always thought Prom Night was overrated myself for much of those exact reasons as well. The lack of slasher action, continuous references to the other genres rather than as a slasher and a set of fairly routine and predictable kills that aren't as creative or enjoyable as some of their contemporaries, seeming to glide by on the reputation of it's stars and when it came out than anything else. Perhaps it also had to do with the fact that the copy I had was so badly worn-out by the time I got a hold of it that it was too dark to see anything. Night-time scenes were shot like pixelated blobs when I saw it, so that could be another factor as well.

BloodRayne: The Third Reich-Joining up with allies in WWII Germany, the half-human/half-vampire finds that one of her victims was a Nazi officer now bestowed with her powers and intends to use them in a plot to make Hitler immortal. An incredibly enjoyable and entertaining entry to an already fun and entertaining series, though this one doesn't reach the heights of the original. Still, this contains enough bloodshed, gore-drenched slaughters, limb-ripping and throat-slicing to give it a try, as there's a ton of blood in this including the other tortures inflicted on the vampires which adds more bloodshed. That's due to a high number of action scenes here as the confrontations with the different groups lead to a number of ambushes, firefights and martial arts displays that make for a pretty enjoyable time. As well, the increased amount of nudity certainly helps this one along, and altogether with a fast pace and enjoyable, simple story it gets a lot of good grace, only with the nagging problem of it's way too short running time to count as any sort of real flaw here. This is quite a bit of fun overall.

The Psychopath-When a series of strange murders is found to contain a miniaturized doll next to the victim, the resulting police investigation leads to a mysterious doll collector and her deranged son that has far more connections than they expected. Not all that particularly memorable 60s-era slasher, as it's mostly helped along by a clever little twist that adds immensely to the chill-factor of the film by having the dolls' be a likeness of their victim left at the murder scene and they're quite creepy when shown. Several of the stalking scenes are overall above-average and rather thrilling, and the ending revelation is overall one of the better parts of the film, though there's several difficult areas here. The biggest is the slow-pace involved where it tends to focus on the police investigation and their rather laid-back nature that doesn't make for a real exciting time, the series of red herrings doesn't have any real value since they don't impact the investigation at all, and there's a few mishandled scenes that don't really need to be there. Overall, there's a lot to like and not a lot to dislike here.

[Fenril]

Jan 21, 2013 12:12:59 GMT -5 slayrrr666 said:

I've always thought Prom Night was overrated myself for much of those exact reasons as well. The lack of slasher action, continuous references to the other genres rather than as a slasher and a set of fairly routine and predictable kills that aren't as creative or enjoyable as some of their contemporaries, seeming to glide by on the reputation of it's stars and when it came out than anything else. Perhaps it also had to do with the fact that the copy I had was so badly worn-out by the time I got a hold of it that it was too dark to see anything. Night-time scenes were shot like pixelated blobs when I saw it, so that could be another factor as well.

My copy had that exact same problem with the night scenes and I have seen at least one online review pointing that out, too, so add poor cinematography to the list of flaws.

One thing I didn't mention, through: the killer using a shard of glass for the first kills is pretty creative (given that it ties in directly to his / her motivation). But yeah, overall this one is more than a little overrated.

Haven't seen the sequel or the remake, through I hear they are completely different movies.

[slayrrr666]

I'd avoid the remake, typical dross that was produced at the time of the remake craze and really doesn't do anything of any interest with the formula other than keeping it centered around a prom. Yeah, it's worthy of being bashed but why subject yourself to it? The sequel is actually much better (not that there was a lot of room to work with, but still) even though I've always felt it should've been the sequel to 'Carrie' as it explores similar themes and feels a lot more in common with that one than 'Prom Night.' I'd look into that one myself.

The Bad News Bears-Forced to manage a pee-wee baseball team, a boozing manager uses his estranged daughter as a ringer when the hapless team is considered an embarrassment and soon find themselves playing for the championship. A little strange to see this one now as I've seen more parodies of this film (and Baseball movies in general) that most of what happened seemed to be more of a checklist of the cliches found being ticked off more than anything else. The baseball games being played are far more enticing than anything else going on but it seems to be just going through the motions without really doing anything else with them. There's some funny quips here and there and some of the slapstick of their game-play is good, but seems to be a tad overrated as a great baseball classic.

[slayrrr666]

Murders in the Rue Morgue-When a string of vicious murders on former employees brings the attention of a traveling circus owner, he realizes they're being done in the style of a thought-deceased associate's suspected death and that he may be out for more than revenge with his rampage. An overlong, needlessly epic retelling of the story that tends to meander on for a good twenty minutes more than necessary simply because there's far too much useless stuff at the very beginning with it's exaggerated pace that really keeps things from building up too quickly or really reveling in it's more grotesque moments. As it stands, though, there's still some good parts here as the masked phantom creates an imposing presence during his sequences, there's plenty of rather fun Grand Guiginol-style theater scenes of the troupe putting on violent, splatter-drenched performances that really gives the film a sense of fun and excitement early on, and several of the murders get particularly nasty, especially when they're combined with fantastic set-ups and execution to create a memorably nasty scene. Again, there's problems but it's not so bad.

[slayrrr666]

Cult of the Cobra-After unintentionally insulting a sacred ceremony while overseas in the war, a group of soldiers return back to America and find themselves stalked and killed by a strange creature with the powers of the cult inflicted upon them. An overall enjoyable 50s Horror effort that's better than expected but still mildly flawed, the best part here is the film's rather entertaining attack scenes. Using the camera to showcase the snake's approach is quite nice by getting around the troublesome topic of how to show that in the time-period while not really doing anything graphic or such, and several of them get pretty creepy especially the apartment attack. It's also a lot more modern-feeling than expected, which is due to utilizing the modern theme in this of the revenge-rampage of the cult to set-up the later actions, which is still being done nowadays and gives it a nice touch, as do the scenes inside the meeting which give it a creepy middle-eastern vibe that works well in making it seem foreign and exotic. There's some flaws here, including the conflicted agent of the cult storyline that's a cliche by the time it was featured here, and comes across moreso even now and seems shoehorned into the film for no reason, as well as the cheap special effects that really denote the low-budget nature of this one quite clearly. It's not all that bad, but it's definitely not all that great either.

[Fenril]

The "Prom night" sequel is starting to sound interesting, maybe I'll check it out.

- Django unchained. A freed slave joins forces with a german bounty hunter to find his estranged wife and rescue her from a cartoonishly evil southern family.

So Quentin Tarantino and Brian DePalma have one thing in common: each has built a mega sucessful career making cinema pastiches... but they are *good* pastiches, or at least they never fail to be entertaining. Such is the case with this westen that blatantly steals from pretty much every spaghetti-western ever made (and then some); so yeah, it's much more of a broad comedy than the satire it intends to be, it's about twenty minutes too long (and yet, it still feels like a lot of stuff was cut out of the final movie), it's ethics are questionable to say the least and the female characters might as well be cardboard cutouts (not because of bad acting --in fact, the actresses involved here each do a terrific job -- but because the script doesn't really give them anything to do besides weeping and screeching a lot). And yet, it's such a fun splatter comedy (splatstick?) that pretends to be smarter than it is. (Also: yes, the script examines how pervasive racism can be, but in the most crowd-pleasing way. "Inglorius Basterds" was hardly an intelligent examination of antisemitism. "Pulp fiction" hardly says anything relevant about redeption or honor. Really, Tarantino movies aren´t worth taking too seriously, through discussing their themes might be).

All in all: entertaining, not great.

[slayrrr666]

The House of Seven Corpses-Attempting to shoot a horror movie on a cursed location where the real life murders they're emulating occurred, a film crew accidentally conjures a deformed being that slowly begins killing them off one-by-one. A slightly disappointing but overall quite creepy effort, this one really could've been great with the fixing of a few minor details. The main issue at hand here is the remarkably slow-paced offering, as there's just hardly anything going on but the movie shoot for the entire running time in the first hour, leaving this to rely on it's other efforts to work but basically doesn't even get started with it's killing until the hour mark or even making any mention of the killer until then and it causes the film to go along quite slowly. This is the most disturbing feature since the rest of the film is quite nice, with a large Victorian house serving as the basis for both the film and the movie being shot there giving off an incredible atmosphere, the slow-building set-up making for a chilly time and the rampage by the decomposing corpse being quite bloody and enjoyable, but overall it's just really hurt by it's slow set-up.

Abominable Snowman-Attempting to track down a long-lost friend, a group of skiers head off into the wilderness to find him only to find the cause of the disappearance to be a group of giant abominable snowmen in the area and must find a way to get away alive. This here was actually a pretty big disappointment as this had the potential to be one of the better efforts in the style. There's a sense of fun that comes from the attacks inside the abandoned ski resort in the later half, the discovery of the second creature is quite nice and there's a few rather inventive attacks and confrontations with the creatures throughout, but unfortunately this one is plagued by it's flaws. The main factor here is just like every other Sci-Fi Channel outings in truly abysmal CGI that is utterly blurry and impossible to determine what's going on, and the fact that it's set in the snow seems to make the impression that it's supposed to look like that totally moot when the same look is employed on the interior scenes. As well, the dearth of attack scenes in the first half is incredibly noticeable since hardly anything happens with the creatures who aren't even glimpsed at all, and that also happens to lower the body count and by extension the blood and gore. The attacks are also edited in such a manner as to be quite hard to determine what's going on, and that makes it hard to get into it even more. These problems outshine all the good stuff this one has.

[slayrrr666]

House of Blood-After surviving a prison bus crash out in the wilderness, a doctor is taken hostage to tend to a wounded inmate, only for the house they choose to seek shelter in belongs to a race of bloodthirsty demons and dispatch the group one-by-one. This was an overall enjoyable and entertaining effort, though there were some pretty big flaws present. The biggest one here is the needless circular story-telling that happens, as the two different versions of what happens are repeated again as the second half of the story to repeat the first half in order to tell everything again, and it really makes no sense as it employs the exact same set-up with the exact same outcome both times over. As well, the fact that hardly any of the characters are that likable makes for a tough watch when it's really hard to understand why they're together. Though, none of that matters when it gets going and starts to deliver the goods, and this one does a great job at producing copious and over-the-top quantities of gore and bloodshed, from crude surgeries of amputated limbs to hearts being ripped out, decapitations, gunshot wounds and much, much more here that make this a real gorehound's dream. That also means a lot of action scenes here with plenty of confrontations between the two sides, and it's quite a bit of fun especially with the peculiar group of demons present they must battle. Throw in an atmospheric house for the location and it's got enough to make it interesting.

[Fenril]

- Silent Hill: Revelation. On her 17th birthday, Sharon discovers her ties to the infamous "Silent Hill"; she must journey to this place for lost souls in order to rescue her father, dodging all sort of dangerous monsters and crazy people on the way. But first she'll have to figure out who is an ally and who is the real menace...

I have never played any of the Silent Hill videogames, but can say this is an okay sequel to the first movie (the plot picks up right where the original left off). In theory it has all the necessary ingredients for fans of schlock and / or action-gore combos: flashy visuals, lots of blood and violence, an insane plot line, hilariously bad acting... but this just wasn't much fun (well, to be fair, I certainly enjoyed the opening sequence, which is also the only truly scary part). Can't say I'd reccomend it.

[slayrrr666]

The Tattooist-After inadvertently stealing a tool and applying a native tattoo that holds special significance in their culture, a careless tattoo artist finds those he's marked under attack by a vengeful spirit and must find a way of stopping it's deadly rampage. This was an overall mildly-troubling but still enjoyable effort that really makes a lot of it's strides with the uniqueness of it's traditions and cultures that are exploited. The Polynesian culture is displayed here as being quite exotic and inviting, which is by itself hardly ever explored to begin with, and the foundations laid within make for a hearty and potentially-chilling ghost story that gets showcased here. As well, the fact that it's not a traditional ghost as far as what's commonly been utilized in such films is quite original, and it's scenes of revenge and torment on the characters in the second half gets the best scenes as the bleeding ink, opening wounds and more are quite bloody and really exciting. That said, there's still some problems here and it's mostly the slow beginning which doesn't really let on it's a horror film at all what with it being about tattoos and the such, so those who aren't into that lifestyle might find this one lacking. Also, the fact that the ghost/spirit is a CGI utilized joke takes a lot of the sting out of it's scenes when it looks so putrid and non-threatening, but overall it's still a good bit of fun.

[slayrrr666]

The Woman in Black-Arriving at a secluded mansion to handle the sale of the building, a young lawyer finds the area haunted by the ghost of a vengeful woman the locals fear has ties to the area and tries to stop her rampage from continuing. Overall not all that terribly interesting or enjoyable though it does have it's moments where it really tries. The grand Gothic house on the moors that's routinely covered in dense fog, dark, endless corridors shrouded in darkness and a strange secret from the locals are a few of the typical cliches found in this but strangely they work in creating a fantastic atmosphere here that is wholly enjoyable and impressive, especially once it gets to the second half and is allowed to really take hold as the legend becomes clearer and the action intensifies with some rather fun moments from time-to-time. The main problem here is the absolutely tedious pace this employs as it manages to plod along in the beginning of him alone in the house without anything really happening and the low-key nature of it really takes a hold. Plus, it's an abundance of cliches which leaves it feeling like a pale imitation of greater works so overall this one is quite troublesome.

Night of the Warrior-A fighter attempting to free himself from a debt to a loan-shark by participating in illegal fights tries to leave the business when his new girlfriend tries to get him to focus on other areas only to get drawn back in for one last fight. Overall a rather below-average kung-fu effort mostly because there's a couple good brawls involved but those are really only at the beginning and the end which makes the entire middle section of the film quite boring and incredibly drawn-out when it's nothing but trying to get the guy to fight again while the two start their romance. Not that the tactics utilized are all that impressive to begin with and aren't in the slightest bit worthy of being someone to fear nor do they inject much action into a film that sorely needs it. Not a whole lot here really stands out.

[slayrrr666]

Added an uncut copy of The Amityville Curse to the collection.

[slayrrr666]

Predator X-Returning to her hometown to deal with her father's disappearance, a woman and her friends find he's part of a rampage of terror conducted by a monstrous prehistoric crocodile and try to find a way to end it's bloodsoaked rampage. This wasn't all that great of a creature but did have a few good points drowned in it's flaws. There's no use complaining about the lack of quality CGI here since that's to be expected with this, but the fact that it never really featured the title creature at all in this who tends to be so rarely shown in the film that there's almost a sense of it not being a real creature feature at all. By choosing to focus instead on the family drama and the different background characters first, the crocodile doesn't seem to be a big important factor in the plot and rarely seems to be a concern for them once it does show up, dramatically reducing it's effectiveness even before the lame effects used for it are brought into play. There's some good stuff in the rather frenetic finale that finally lets the creature loose and get a decent rampage on the populace resulting in some fine deaths and a bit of action, the ultimate manner of killing the beast is pretty creative and overall the second half has a nice vibe to it, but overall it's quite lacking.

[Fenril]

- Mama. Two wild children are discovered in a desolate cabin deep in the woods and given to their loving uncle and his ambivalent rocker girlfriend. How did these toddlers survive for five years in the wild? And who is this mysterious protector that keeps showing up in their crayon drawings --perhaps the same person that keeps trespassing on the uncle's house?

Surprisingly effective ghost story produced, through not directed, by Guillermo del Toro [it's not as good as "El orfanato", but it is much better than the "Don't be afraid of the dark" remake]. It has a very disturbing opening (detailing how the girls came to be on this situation) and some amazingly good acting from all involved. It has obvious nods to a lot of genre productions both recent and not, but they never distract from the overall movie, which itself is helped by its gloomy atmosphere and a lot of well-timed jump scares. Surprisingly bittersweet conclusion, too.

[slayrrr666]

Added an uncut copy of Altered to the collection.

Tasmanian Devils-Checking on extreme cliff-divers illegally in the area, a group of park rangers must help them get to safety when they accidentally awaken a horde of vicious Tasmanian Devils who begin to run wild throughout the park killing them one-by-one. This here turned out to be one of the more enjoyable creature features the channel has produced and is filled with good stuff. Most notable is the gore, which is far more graphic and vicious than expected and really gets strewn about here resulting in a lot of great gags and deaths as well. This one also features a lot of fun action scenes that feature the group being assaulted by the herd of creatures as they swarm about the area taking them on in different conflagrations, usually resulting in a sense of fun when it gets going in letting the creatures get in on the fun in the rugged landscape and keeping the film enjoyable throughout with it's various set-ups. While it gets a little bogged down with a lame romance angle that pops up and a rather convoluted origin to the creatures that gets side-swiped instead of flesh-out being this one's only problems, the rest is a lot of fun and makes it worthwhile.

Heebie Jeebies-After a haunted gold mine is reopened, it unleashes a terrifying creature trapped below that continues a rampage of vengeance against the town and forcing the local policeman and a holistic healer to find a way of bringing the rampage to a halt. This one turned out a lot better than expected and actually has a lot of good things going for it. One of the better elements is the fact that this one has a rather intriguing premise for it's monster in scaring them first before going for the kill, allowing the panic that follows to carry the suspense of the attack throughout before the main kill. Those are a lot of fun as well as there's a lot of brutality in the kills and has some real great bloodshed to go along with it, mainly because they're all done in live-action and up-close rather than lame CGI kills which would've been unrealistic. The creature looks scary enough and there's a couple really good action scenes in here that are pretty suspenseful, but it still has some problems in the creature's gold-devouring habits conflicting with it's mission of vengeance, a rather unsatisfying finale and far too much time goes by with it out killing people before they realize something is wrong, and only then they stumble upon the creature which doesn't make them look good. Still, it's a much better film than expected.