Horrorcram XV: Let's Scare Corrierino To Death

[Rump]

Sorry if this has already been posted...

[Wooley]

Sorry if this has already been posted...

Pretty cool.

[DaMU]

Think I wanna go see Dr. Sleep again just to watch Rebecca Ferguson's villain work as Rose the Hat.

[Takoma1]

Rose the Hat.

Hee.

I mean, I'm sure she's scary. But . . . Rose the Hat. Hee.

[DaMU]

Hee.

I mean, I'm sure she's scary. But . . . Rose the Hat. Hee.

Laugh now, Tak.

[Takoma1]

Laugh now, Tak.

How could I not?

[Takoma1]

And what is the word on Doctor Sleep? I thought the trailer looked okay, but I haven't read any reviews with much of a strong opinion. It's all been like C+/B sounding responses.

[DaMU]

I think it's worth going to see in a theater.

It's not great, most likely because it's in a super-tricky position (honoring both King's novel-sequel and Kubrick's film) and does its best to meet them in the middle. Which means it can never quite carve out its own identity. The middle section is the most King-y, while the final act veers more into Kubrick's iconography.

But it is shockingly well-done within those self-imposed boundaries. I thought McGregor had an easy empathy, Ferguson was delightfully evil, Flanagan's usual talent for craft is on display. I liked that the flick earned its 150-minute length, really building up the lead character and the premise so it never got too schlocky (and there's a real potential for that with a psychic vampire named Rose the Hat who drives around in an RV filled with jars full of human souls).

Honestly, there's a sequence of astral projection that's worth a matinee price all by itself.

[Takoma1]

I think it's worth going to see in a theater.

It's not great, most likely because it's in a super-tricky position (honoring both King's novel-sequel and Kubrick's film) and does its best to meet them in the middle. Which means it can never quite carve out its own identity. The middle section is the most King-y, while the final act veers more into Kubrick's iconography.

But it is shockingly well-done within those self-imposed boundaries. I thought McGregor had an easy empathy, Ferguson was delightfully evil, Flanagan's usual talent for craft is on display. I liked that the flick earned its 150-minute length, really building up the lead character and the premise so it never got too schlocky (and there's a real potential for that with a psychic vampire named Rose the Hat who drives around in an RV filled with jars full of human souls).

Honestly, there's a sequence of astral projection that's worth a matinee price all by itself.

See, I don't know how I missed that this was a Mike Flanagan film! He's got a really good track record with me.

McGregor's vibe was what stuck out to me in the trailer (though I'm a total sucker for protagonists who work with/help children, for obvious reasons).

Gosh, maybe I need to try and catch it before it leaves my local theater.

[Wooley]

Anybody tell me with certainty what this is from?



Thanks.

[Captain Terror]

Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers

[Wooley]

Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers

Seriously?

[Apex Predator]

I peek on here and I get something spoiled from Dr. Sleep.

Thanks!

[Captain Terror]

Seriously?

Yep, check out the first 10 seconds of this video

https://youtu.be/y_iDhSSYsu8

(wait- are you doubting me? ME, the second-place finisher of the Ghouliath Guess Fest thingy? I'm positively indignant, sir!)

[Wooley]

Yep, check out the first 10 seconds of this video

https://youtu.be/y_iDhSSYsu8

(wait- are you doubting me? ME, the second-place finisher of the Ghouliath Guess Fest thingy? I'm positively indignant, sir!)

I actually just sorta can't believe that's a movie. Or that a movie with that title could look as cool as that frame. Should I see it?

Edit: Whup, never mind, watched the YouTube link, answered my question.

[Captain Terror]

I actually just sorta can't believe that's a movie. Or that a movie with that title could look as cool as that frame. Should I see it?

Edit: Whup, never mind, watched the YouTube link, answered my question.

Yeah, I've never seen it. I have SOME standards, after all.

[DaMU]

I peek on here and I get something spoiled from Dr. Sleep.

Thanks!

I'm sorry, I honestly thought all of that was information one can gather from trailers and public synopses. I'll spoiler-wrap.

[Takoma1]

Yeah, I've never seen it. I have SOME standards, after all.

Let's not kid ourselves here.

[Apex Predator]

I'm sorry, I honestly thought all of that was information one can gather from trailers and public synopses. I'll spoiler-wrap.

No problem. Besides, it's not like you spoiled the end of the movie or anything.

[Captain Terror]

Let's not kid ourselves here.

*pauses Prank Encounters*

What are you getting at?

[daakmore]

Dr. Sleep - B / B+

Shockingly not-bad, not because Flanagan was a source of doubt, but because (a) I heard bad things about the novel and (b) imagined a film (from trailers) that drenched itself too much in Kubrick's iconography to the point of playing like karaoke. Instead, the more Kubrickian touches (like the final return to the Overlook) play like a solid cover (even if it often creates an "uncanny valley" effect. But where the film really worked for me was during its middle sections, which allow Flanagan a bit more space to play in the Stephen King mode, which has more of a fantasy / comic book sensibility at times (a delirious sequence of astral projection at midnight proves the film's highlight). Like Darabont, Flanagan has a talent for finding the best elements of a King work, paring it down to those essentials, and then giving the story room to breathe, the characters time to build in our mind as characters before the could-be-campy supernatural tomfoolery kicks into high gear. It's that patience and attention to character that allows Danny Torrance to exist as a plausible alcoholic, and Rebecca Ferguson's electrifying Rose the Hat to feel like a formidable threat instead of a Valley Mom lookin' punchline. At times Flanagan's style is so careful that it risks feeling workmanlike. You can feel the sweat as he tries to tell a story that honors three competing visions (the original novel, the film, King's new novel), and so he at times sort of half-commits to Kubrick's ice-cold camera motion, which can make it a bit jarring when that style breaks. (You imagine that Kubrick would've laughed and waved off some of these special effects and medium shots with no background definition.)

On casting choices of more... familiar characters:

Casting Henry Thomas as Jack Nicholson's Jack Torrance... doesn't not work, and it's infinitely preferable to some kind of CG effect, but that creates the biggest moment of "uncanny valley" effect that I mentioned earlier. Alex Essoe, however, completely nails Shelley Duvall's Wendy (with that floppy body motion and all) without coming off like a Saturday Night Live impression.

On things that King junkies might notice:

The busses were from the Tet Corporation!!! The dead baseball boy is #19. The address for Abra's house is 1980, the year of the original film's release. There's probably a lot more, I'm sure. The train in the park evokes Charlie the Choo Choo from The Dark Tower, but that's maybe too big a leap.

I think King fans will appreciate the film, people who mostly tolerate King but love Kubrick's film will have a mixed reaction, and filthy casuals will like the film but be a bit confused by it all by the end. But it's made with a sense of integrity. It's good-faith good work. And Rebecca Ferguson. Again. Electrifying.

I saw this the other night and I agree with just about everything you said. Rose the Hat is amazing and the middle section of the film really had me thinking the film could rise to the occasion, but the ending definitely feels a bit of a let down.

[Takoma1]

*pauses Prank Encounters*

What are you getting at?

*takes a break from writing review of The Eleventh Commandment*

Nothing.

[Wooley]

Let's not kid ourselves here.

Ha!
This makes me wonder, What Is The Worst Movie I Actually Really Like?

[Takoma1]

Ha!
This makes me wonder, What Is The Worst Movie I Actually Really Like?

Fun question!

Okay, I looked for the biggest gap between a rating I gave a film and its general IMDb rating.

I genuinely though that The Sand was a fun and funny horror/comedy. (3.8 on IMDb)

But when it comes to films that I enjoy unironically (and that aren't spoofs or horror/comedies)? Hmm. I'd have to think on it.

[Wooley]

Fun question!

Okay, I looked for the biggest gap between a rating I gave a film and its general IMDb rating.

I genuinely though that The Sand was a fun and funny horror/comedy. (3.8 on IMDb)

But when it comes to films that I enjoy unironically (and that aren't spoofs or horror/comedies)? Hmm. I'd have to think on it.

Yeah, you know I respect you, but you were out of your fucking mind on The Sand, which I also saw.

[Popcorn Reviews]

I enjoyed Beneath and thought it was a real breath of fresh air in terms of shark/sea monster movies, which has a 3.7 on IMDb. I gave it a 7/10.

[Wooley]

I mean, we've just been over my affection for C.H.U.D. last month, and I've always been a fan of Spacehunter, hell, I even kinda liked The Warrior And The Sorcerer but those movies pale in comparison to something like Starcrash when it comes to badness. And then there's obviously a lot of DTV stuff.
I gotta really give this some thought if I'm gonna come up with something I know is genuinely, truly bad.
I mean, maybe Forbidden World would work, but I just thought it was better than I thought it would be and kind of engaging, I don't know if I actually really liked it.
Hmmm...

[Apex Predator]

Maybe The Room? Or the 1998 Avengers? I enjoyed both more than the IMDB crowd.

But that's a tough question to answer.

[Takoma1]

Yeah, you know I respect you, but you were out of your fucking mind on The Sand, which I also saw.

I mean, I laughed hard every time they showed the overweight guy trapped in the barrel. It's such bottom of the barrel (PUN INTENDED) humor, and yet it just worked for me. Maybe I was just in a really charitable, easily-pleased mood that night.

I guess I don't consider any of the films I like to be bad. I suppose there might be some film that I like because of nostalgia or some other super subjective element (such as loving an actor or actress in it), but I'm struggling to think of one.

It's much more common for me to like mediocre films a notch or two above other people. Like, October Gale was a romance-thriller with Patricia Clarkson (love) and Scott Speedman (like more than the average bear), and so I'd probably give it a 7/10 where most people would give it a 5 or 6. But it's not *bad*.

[Wooley]

Maybe... the 1998 Avengers?

[Wooley]

I mean, I laughed hard every time they showed the overweight guy trapped in the barrel. It's such bottom of the barrel (PUN INTENDED) humor, and yet it just worked for me. Maybe I was just in a really charitable, easily-pleased mood that night.

I guess I don't consider any of the films I like to be bad. I suppose there might be some film that I like because of nostalgia or some other super subjective element (such as loving an actor or actress in it), but I'm struggling to think of one.

It's much more common for me to like mediocre films a notch or two above other people. Like, October Gale was a romance-thriller with Patricia Clarkson (love) and Scott Speedman (like more than the average bear), and so I'd probably give it a 7/10 where most people would give it a 5 or 6. But it's not *bad*.

No, I agree, that's the tricky part. That's why I bring up Starcrash. Starcrash is a bad movie. There's just no way around it. But I'm sure there are people out there who like it.

Hell, Apex liked the '98 Avengers.

[Wooley]

Also, I mean really like.
Like you will watch it again for the pleasure it gives you, not just you rated it a lot higher than other people might have when you saw it that one time.

[Takoma1]

Also, I mean really like.
Like you will watch it again for the pleasure it gives you, not just you rated it a lot higher than other people might have when you saw it that one time.

Right. And at the same time staying away from ironic views or films that are meant to be bad (like Velocipastor).

I guess the 80s My Little Pony Movie is kind of garbage but when I watched it a year or so ago I enjoyed it as a mix of nostalgia and some of the images that were kind of neat and very 80s. But movies that I watched as an adult? I really can't think of any.

[DaMU]

I enjoyed Beneath and thought it was a real breath of fresh air in terms of shark/sea monster movies, which has a 3.7 on IMDb. I gave it a 7/10.

This'll be my temp until I find something else. I also enjoyed it.

[Jinnistan]

The Daughter of Dr. Jekyll

This modest production takes a really dumb idea - turning Mr. Hyde into a werewolf while suggesting it's an hereditary condition - and manages to suffuse it with enough lovely B&W gothic atmosphere and some impressive visual montages to succeed in being a nice addition to the seasonal canon (unfortunately, in my case, a bit too late this year). All of the praise should go to director Edgar G. Ulmer (Black Cat, Bluebeard, Detour) here in his later years working for what looks like scale and producing efficiently chilling work.


Slaughter of the Vampires

Early Italian entry of the post-Black Sunday school, this film isn't quite as effective as peers like Castle of Blood or Terror in the Crypt, but it respectfully holds its own in their company. Like the above film, it works almost entirely on pure mood and atmosphere. If you can't ignore how silly the main vampire is (and I hope he was favorite inspiration for Udo), then it's still a lot of fun.

[Wooley]

Slaughter of the Vampires

Early Italian entry of the post-Black Sunday school, this film isn't quite as effective as peers like Castle of Blood or Terror in the Crypt, but it respectfully holds its own in their company. Like the above film, it works almost entirely on pure mood and atmosphere. If you can't ignore how silly the main vampire is (and I hope he was favorite inspiration for Udo), then it's still a lot of fun.

I love Castle Of Blood.

[Apex Predator]

No, I agree, that's the tricky part. That's why I bring up Starcrash. Starcrash is a bad movie. There's just no way around it. But I'm sure there are people out there who like it.

Hell, Apex liked the '98 Avengers.

If you're going to give me bad, give me fun, silly bad. Not boring bad.

To be honest, it's more 2.5/4 like than one of the best of 1998 like/love. But I dug a good deal of it, enough that I ended up buying the DVD.

I'd also include Bubble Boy in the unironically enjoy camp, with the similar rating.

Finished watching the Netflix original The Ritual. This did a decent amount right such as the slow build to the monster reveal and being convincing in the "I can see them hanging around each other for years" sort of way.

But there was too many smart characters make idiotic choices scenes for my taste and the ending was something. Just don't think it was something good.

[Popcorn Reviews]

So, what did you guys think of Us? I'm still mulling over the final half hour which I felt could've used some more editing, but I enjoyed the rest of it on a scale of well enough to quite a lot. I liked Get Out more though.

[Deschain13]

So, what did you guys think of Us? I'm still mulling over the final half hour which I felt could've used some more editing, but I enjoyed the rest of it on a scale of well enough to quite a lot. I liked Get Out more though.

I liked Us quite a bit, the exposition dump tended to raise more questions than answers and I felt like it didn’t need to really be explained at all but at the same time the rest of the movie is so good all the holes in logic don’t really matter to me.

[topherH]

So, what did you guys think of Us? I'm still mulling over the final half hour which I felt could've used some more editing, but I enjoyed the rest of it on a scale of well enough to quite a lot. I liked Get Out more though.

I remember thinking "this isn't get out."

I guess it was okay, it couldn't follow the first 5-10 mins or so.

[Popcorn Reviews]

I liked Us quite a bit, the exposition dump tended to raise more questions than answers and I felt like it didn’t need to really be explained at all but at the same time the rest of the movie is so good all the holes in logic don’t really matter to me.

With the exposition dump, I

think I have the best response to it when I assume that the info Red says is false. Since she didn't get to see the military, she could have just made an assumption on what she thought happened. Of course, there isn't enough info to back that up, but I think that's the only interpretation I can give to the scene as, otherwise, I find a decent amount of plot holes in it. The final scene could have been cut though in my opinion. I didn't think it was necessary.

Like you though, I enjoyed the film overall.

[DaMU]

So, what did you guys think of Us? I'm still mulling over the final half hour which I felt could've used some more editing, but I enjoyed the rest of it on a scale of well enough to quite a lot. I liked Get Out more though.

More thematically ambitious and fascinating than US but lacks that film's laser-focus and forward momentum. I think it's a richer text but not as good a story.

Also super-happy that Lupita Nyongo's in the conversation for Best Actress of the year. Her twin performance is just... (gestures at nothing in particular for failure to think of good words)

[Takoma1]

Just so that you all know.

Today a man told me that he was "building a woman". She can tell him the weather. She can add and subtract and multiply.

Then he got out his camera (not his phone, but a camera), and showed me.

And he is, indeed, building a woman. Will it surprise you to learn that she is pretty and blond and made of mannequin parts?

Also, she wears glasses.

I asked, "Are the glasses for distance or for up close?". It was all I could think to say because my brain was going

[Deschain13]

That’s some real Buffalo Bill shit Tak.

[Takoma1]

That’s some real Buffalo Bill shit Tak.

He seemed . . . actually kind of nice.

But like, dude.

[Jinnistan]

The Blood Drinkers

I haven't been too enamoured with Filipino horror, but I decided to move past Eddie Romero, its common champion, to his mentor Gerardo de Leon and the latter's 1964 vampie film. It's still ultra-cheap and riddled with technical flaws, but at least it carries some strong sense of visual effectiveness, demonstrated above by its liberal use of a powerful smoke machine and some inventive use of tinting to make up for what, I assume, was a limited supply of color stock. (Despite this, the film is known as the first Filipino horror film shot in color.) If the film didn't have so many issues with continuity editing and a poor script (neither are prime requisites in the genre), it could have been a very impressive effort. As it is, the only real embarassments come from a novel but idiotic explanantion for wooden crosses (the wood counteracts whatever chemical in vampire blood that makes them immortal) and that brown sock on a string that they call a bat (the smoke machine ate the bulk of the FX budget). You could do a lot worse!

[Jinnistan]

The lead actress playing dual roles in Blood Drinkers, Amalia Fuentes, known as the "Elizabeth Taylor of the Philippines", passed away two months ago, age 79.

[Wooley]

So, what did you guys think of Us? I'm still mulling over the final half hour which I felt could've used some more editing, but I enjoyed the rest of it on a scale of well enough to quite a lot. I liked Get Out more though.

I thought it was a beautiful miss. Sophomore slump that still showed a lot of talent.
Some of my friends were less kind, one actually falling asleep.

[Wooley]

He seemed . . . actually kind of nice.

But like, dude.

I hear Jeffrey Dahmer seemed kind of nice.
Avoid.
Unless you want to become part of his "woman".

[Takoma1]

I hear Jeffrey Dahmer seemed kind of nice.
Avoid.
Unless you want to become part of his "woman".

Yeah, it's a weird little community. Most people walk around in worn out clothing, and then you talk to them and they are literally geniuses and rocket scientists.

The man who was building a woman did not return for the second day of the festival (or at least not to my area). I think he was more lonely than dangerous, but the image was . . . something.

In retrospect my favorite thing he said to me was "She's started doing computations with negative numbers. I mean, ha, who knows where she learned to do that!". I think he's building/programming like a home-brew Alexa/Siri type computer program?

So to skew back on topic, favorite "building a woman" horror? Frankenhooker, maybe? Or Bride of Reanimator? I know that Bride of Frankenstein is the obvious answer here, but what takes second place?