Re: ***Official 7th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge***
I'm in...
First time viewings in
bold
10/1
1)
Alien - My first time with the DC and the first viewing in quite a few years. Doesn't scare me like it did the first time in the theater, when I was 14. Still, it blazed so many trails, even if one of them was the degradation of Sci-Fi into Horror/Action.
4.5/5
2)
The Haunting - 1963: I know this is considered a classic of horror and is also a fave of Mod Jack Briggs, but as much as I like psychological horror, it still leaves me flat.
2.5/5
3)
The People Under the Stairs - For the last couple weeks I have been wanting to revisit Wes Craven's profoundly twisted tale of a couple living in a huge house, who are holding several children captive, one of whom has gotten loose and is being a general pest roaming around inside the walls. This is a truly dark comedy with a couple seriously cringe-inducing moments.
4/5
"Your father is a real sick mother, you know that?
Actually, your mother is a real sick mother too."
10/3
4)
The Killer Shrews - Dug into my 50 movie Horror set with this no budget thrill-less, horror-less flick from 1959, starring James Best and Sydney Lumet's father, among a few others. A group of people is "trapped" on an island during a hurricane, in which the wind hardly blows. Unfortunately, Sidney's father plays a scientist who has created a killer breed of giant shrews (the rodent type, not the ex-wife type) and they must go through all sorts of absurd things to escape. Basically what you would expect from a 50 movie DVD set that costs $16.
1/5, though rates fairly high on the camp scale.
10/4
5)
The Fly - Watched David Cronenberg's revisit of the classic for the first time in nearly 20 years. Doesn't hold up quite as well as I might hope, but that wasn't a surprise. Kind of amusing to see Jeff Goldblum honing the ranting scientist schtick which would treat him so well for
many years to come. He never turned it up quite as far as he did here, though. Pleasant reminder of Geena Davis' sex kitten days as well.
3/5
6)
White Zombie - Finally watched the 1932 classic. All these old horror flicks are positively quaint by modern standards, yet most modern horror still fails to actually be scary. I can't help wondering how radical the zombie idea was over 70 years ago. There sure were a lot of movies about them back then. In the end, Bela Lugosi contributes copious amounts of hamming for the camera and love conquers all. We also learn that shooting a zombie just doesn't have much of an effect. Good, campy fun is had by all.
3/5
10/5
7)
Black Sunday (aka, The Mask of Satan) - I can see why the horror freaks like this one so much. It is an interesting blend of the classic Universal horrors which preceded it and the Giallos which would follow. Nice twists and great atmosphere and cinematography mixed with a decent story. Not "scary" by modern standards, but a fine movie all together. I'm not entirely certain, but I think this is the first Bava film I've seen
4/5
8)
Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter - Certainly one of the more odd Hammer entries. We have a vampire hunter, his hunchback, professor assistant, various buddies (including the luscious Caroline Munro) and some generations old mysteries. Didn't seem as odd the second time around.
3/5
10/6
9)
Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde: 1920 - After being made to feel ashamed about his goodness, the benevolent Dr. Jeckyll (John Barrymore) concocts a potion to bring out his evil side in the form of Mr. Hyde. Unfortunately, soon after, the pesky Hyde keeps showing up on his own at the most inopportune times and things go tragically wrong, several times. Barrymore is absolutely fabulous, particularly in the Hyde incarnation. A real top notch piece of silent horror. One interesting thing I noticed is that even though Hyde is not the most pleasant sight to behold, nobody gives him a second look.
Special note: The version in my 50 movie horror pack has a comically unsuitable soundtrack (can't identify it specifically, but it sounds like either Haydn or Handel) which often seems to hit peaks of joy right as the worst things are happening. Obviously, it was just grabbed from a recording with no consideration to how it fit the subject matter.
4/5
10)
The Ring - This movie didn't exactly strike me the first time around. I got too caught up in the perception it was just an elaborate copy of
The Changeling. I know, it's based on a Japanese "original" but I find it hard to believe
The Changeling wasn't a
major inspiration for
Ringu. Anyway, I've watched it a couple times since, and I think it is one of the better, modern American horror flicks. Good atmosphere and genuine dread and not too many loud "trying to make you jump" tricks. The horse scene still seriously gives me the creeps in many different ways.
3.5/5
10/7
11)
A Bucket of Blood - A wimp busboy at a 50s Beatnik cafe dreams of being part of the "in" crowd. A fantasy which comes true when he accidentally kills his landlady's cat, encases it in clay and becomes a bit of a phenomena among the snob "creative" types whose tables he used to clear. He soon moves on to larger subject matter, which causes certain problems. A fun, early Corman flick starring Dick Miller.
3/5
12)
Dracula's Daughter - Shortly after Prof. Van Helsing stakes her father, Dracula's daughter shows up looking for his body. She is hoping his death, if it actually happened, will release her from his curse. Pretty typical fare for Universal of the time. Interesting aspects, but not especially eventful.
3/5
13)
Maléfique - French thriller has four men sharing a prison cell when they discover the journal of a previous inmate from 1920. They soon discover the journal is filled with magic spells and believe it will enable them to escape. Nicely done, low budget talky flick. Doesn't quite live up to its potential. This is the type of movie that snobs like to tout as proof American films are always inferior to foreign ones, when it ends up being more unfulfilled potential than anything and lets them feel superior because they can be pretty certain nobody they tell about it will have seen it. Kind of an updated version of
The Monkey's Paw.
3/5
14)
Trouble Every Day - This erotic slice of arthouse weirdness from filmmaker Claire Denis seems to present love, lust, sex and the often accompanying inability to become genuinely intimate as entirely consuming, in the Alferd Packer sense of the word. Then again, maybe it is just an excuse to have people get together, shag, and then eat each other. Typically blood and sex isn't a very appealing combination, but it does make an impression. Typical arthouse slowness.
3/5
10/9
15)
Frankenstein: 1931 - Wonderful, classic Universal horror flick. Enough has been said about it, but I have one
major point to add. It has absolutely no understanding or respect for Mary Shelley's brilliant novel and probably began a 75 year bastardization of it. Very few versions since have made the slightest effort to do it right, but the 2004 version with William Hurt does a pretty good job.
4/5
10/10
16)
The Black Pit of Dr. M - Why do foreign movies get absurd English titles so often? The literal translation is more like
Mysteries from Beyond. OK, that title sucks too. This is my first venture into Mexi-Horror, that is other than the more modern ones like
Cronos. A doctor dies, and has made a pact with a colleague to get back to him and let him know how to get to the afterlife and return. Beyond that, it doesn't make a lot of sense. The dead doc seems pissed about something, because he appears to cause trouble for those still alive. In the end, this movie was quite melodramatic in a soap opera way. Neat atmosphere, but otherwise didn't do too much for me.
2/5
17)
The Last House on the Left - I figured I'd visit the "Revenge Trilogy" of this one,
Chaos and
The Virgin Spring, which I have already seen. After
Last House I'm not sure I want to go on. Four sickos torment, torture and murder two girls and then find themselves staying the night in one of the girls' houses. The parents find out what they have done and get down to business. All I can say is, do people actually like to watch this stuff? I know they do, and I'll reserve comment on what type of psyche it must require to actually enjoy them. This is Wes Craven's adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's
The Virgin Spring, which I have to say, I'm not that fond of either, but it's a hell of a lot more meaningful than this one.
0.5/5
10/11
18)
Ginger Snaps Back - The final installment in the
Ginger Snaps series is, in my opinion, the best of the bunch. Where the original used lycanthropy as an analogy for teen hormones and
Unleashed (my least favorite) as drug addiction, this one goes for more mainstream, gothic horror, though it takes plenty of jabs at religious fundamentalism. Jump back to 1815, and Ginger and Bridgette are wandering through the mountains of Western Canada (yeah, I know, just go with it) when they come upon a remote outpost. Turns out it is surrounded by werewolves, supplies have not come through as expected and the inhabitants are getting a bit edgy. Katharine Isabelle is as saucy as ever as Ginger and the whole story is just fun, and surprisingly, the least gooey of the series.
4/5
19)
May - Now
this, folks, is my kind of horror flick. One of the most innovative Frankenstein adaptations I have ever seen exchanges the egomaniacal doctor for an outcast young woman who finally decides to try making some friends. Unfortunately, she discovers that no matter how much parts of the people she meets appeal to her, other parts are disappointing. You get where this is going? the deliberate pace may not to to some people's taste. It's just effectively setting up May's frustration in preparation for the fabulous, darkly funny, and unconventional finale. In the end, there is plenty of blood, but this is a real character driven horror flick. Also, Anna Faris adds the type of femo-erotic factor that is usually reserved for vampire flicks.
4.5/5
This is weird, May.
You like weird
Not that weird
20)
Resident Evil - Revisited a personal guilty pleasure. Evil corporations, paramilitary mercinaries, zombies and Milla. What could be better?
Movie rating: 3/5
cheesy fun rating: 5/5
10/12
21)
Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter - I was tempted to watch this last week, but decided not to. After Steve G watched it, I figured what the hell. I was half expecting to keep falling asleep, a problem I have been having with a lot of these movies, but it was actually one of the most engrossing movies I have seen so far in this challenge. Engrossing because it is so unbelievably cheesy. I chuckled a lot.
Movie rating: 2/5
Cheese factor: 4/5
10/13
22)
The Woods - A girl is deposited in a remote boarding school and immediately begins having terrible nightmares. This is like
Jane Eyre meets
The Village, only a lot worse. Unfortuantely, Lucky McKee's followup to the outstanding
May is a crappy mess of absurd crappycrap, crap, crap. Did I mention this is a bad movie?
1/5
10/14
Two real treasures so far today.
23)
Paperhouse - This nifty little British flick involves a young girl who discovers she can escape into a fantasy world created in drawings she makes. It simply starts off as an empty house and she gradually adds extra elements, trying to fix things she gets wrong the first time around. Soon, she starts believing the drawings are affecting the real world. Wonderful little psychological bit that is sadly little known. The ending is a bit mushier than I care for.
3.5/5
24)
The Cell - What can I say, sometimes Ebert gets it so right from the start. It took me 2 or 3 viewings to fully appreciate how
great this film is. And I mean great in a way that should never apply to horror. Jennifer Lopez plays a psychiatrist who specializes in helping the hopeless, with the aid of a device which allows her to essentially enter their minds. Meanwhile, a psychotic killer is capturing women, locking them in a chamber where they are tormented for 40 hours and then killed. Just as the Feds are closing in on the killer, he suffers a massive seizure and goes into a chronic vegetative state. Enter Jenny-from-the-block to merge with him and find the location of his latest victim before the cycle is completed and she dies.
I think a lot of people were so blinded by the almost overwhelming visual style of this film they missed out on what was really going on. You could remove all the depth, chartacterization, duality and surreal visuals and you would still be left with a far better than average slasher flick. As it is,
The Cell is intense, profoundly character driven and entirely engrossing, plus it is just COOL to look at. I think on the first viewing I was a bit overwhelmed by it all and it took another viewing to really soak it all in. This is, quite likely, the best horror film I have ever seen, but be aware, while it is not as "extreme" as the most gory horror movies made these days, it is rather disturbing.
5/5
25)
Flatliners - I actually saw this one in the theater and it has always been a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. The critical thing is to just "go with it" because it is so absolutely freaking absurd. A bunch of medical students decide to stop their hearts and get revived in search of the meaning of life or some damn thing. Never mind that people are revived every day, so it's nothing new, and never mind that the medical school they attend is actually an art museum. Anyway, in the past I've always done a lot of chuckling watching this flick. I mean, for anyone who has never seen it, it's outrageously absurd in so many way. However, it does have a pretty decent message and delivers some genuinely creepy moments, if you allow yourself to get into it. It is also the first screen appearance of übercutie Hope Davis, so it has that going for it. I just didn't get into it this time...
3/5 if only for the camp factor.
10/16
26)
Angel Heart - I saw this in the theater when it originally came out and have probably only seen it once in its entirety since. It's impact has gradually declined over the last 20 years. It also doesn't hold up as well as some others when you know "what is going on". Still, nice atmosphere and especially nice juicy bits. I've always like the "altered perception" aspect.
3/5
10/17
27)
The Omen: 2006 - Sure, the obvious question is, Why? Still, it was decent enough, didn't have too many demons in the mirror and sound queues, though just one is probably too many for my tastes. Has enough respect for the original and does ramp up certain scenes nicely, particularly the finale. Admit it, you're all wondering how a certain character is going to lose his head. Sucker didn't even see it coming. Excellent cast.
3.5/5
28)
Eyes Without a Face - Interesting B&W French thriller involves a doctor who is consumed with guilt for having a car accident in which his daughter basically lost her face. Now he finds young women, imprisons them and removes their faces in an effort to restore his daughter's looks. Interesting idea and some good moments, but was a bit of a disappointment in the end. The ending was a bit too easy.
3.5/5
10/18
29)
eXistenZ"My dog brought me this"
It's some time in the not too distant future and gaming has reached the virtual reality level. You no longer simply play a game, but live it, by "jacking in" through a port installed directly into your spine. Jennifer Jason Leigh is Allegra Geller, the greatest game designer in the world. While premiering her newest game, an attempt is made to assassinate her, with a gun made of flesh and bone that uses human teeth as projectiles, as Cronenberg returns to his flesh fetish of
Rapid and
Videodrome.
eXistenZ is a bizarre trip through the surreal and not to everyone's tastes. Personally, I love it. It's weird, abstract and doesn't entirely make sense. Once, another HTFer criticized me for considering it horror, but it is distinctly horror to me.
4.5/5
10/20
30)
From Dusk Till Dawn - The truth is, more often than not any movie by Robert Rodriguez, in the words of SteveGon, sucks donkey balls. Of course, when he is fun, he is
really fun, and
From Dusk Till Dawn is his first example. This squishy, schizophrenic freakshow is an absolute blast and has the guts to include all the goods that are so often missing in the tamed down, PG-13 entries these days. Naked chicks, demented humor, trainloads of blood and, everybody say "HOO-YAW, Salma!!!". Crank it up, grab a piece of apple pie and don't give a crap what the neighbors think.
Movie Score: 3/5
Good cheesy fun score: 5/5
10/21
31)
Lifeforce - I saw this one in the theater when if first came out, and not since. I seem to recall it was supposed to be some enormous bockbuster and Tobe Hooper's entry into the big bucks mainstream. It's actually a cheesy piece that feels more like a late Hammer entry. Of course, that's not entirely a bad thing. Turns out Vampires of ancient times are actually descendents (or leftovers) of a race of aliens living in a 150 mile long spaceship hidden in the head of Halley's Comet and a space expedition has unsuspectingly discovered them. The crew is infected and/or killed and the infection is brought back to London. Hidden among all that is the brilliant excuse to have the incredibly juicy, 19 year old Mathilda May walk around naked draining the life force out of every man she meets. I'm sure there is some analogy buried in there.
Lifeforce isn't exactly good, but it sure is fun. The only thing I don't understand is, once you have established an excuse to have lovely Mathilda walk around naked, why would you come up with a reason to have her
stop walking around naked. Dock 0.5 naked chick points.
Movie rating 2/5
Cheese rating: 4/5
Naked chick rating: 4.5/5
32)
The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Ranked #51 at the imdb Bottom 100, this is the second lowest imdb ranked movie I have ever seen, and yeah, it's pretty bad, but not really that bad. I was just curious to see Renée Zellweger in a early role. she apparently had an uncredited role before this in
Dazed and Confused but I have no idea who she was. Anyway, she is the prom dressed girl victim to Matthew McConaughey's sadistic tow truck driver. Apparently, this is awful slasher fare, but hell if I can ever tell the difference between the highest level of "slasher art" and the unacceptable ones. Weird sense of humor.
1.5/5
33)
The Beast of Yucca Flats - This one only ranks #79 in the bottom list, but damn if it isn't infinitely worse than Renée's little starring premiere. Tor Johnson is an escaped Russian scientist who is chased into a nuclear testing site just as a test is performed. Apparently this causes him to get rippled skin and start, well, not much else. Basically, this is just 54 minutes of people roaming freely around the same testing site. Weirdly bad movie that was shot without sound and what very little dialog there is was added later. When there is dialog, the characters are usually far off in the distance or they noticeably turn away from the camera before they speak. There is also a regular narrator, who mostly gives us fascinating little bits of wisdom such as, "A man runs, someone shoots at him" and "Boys from the city. Not yet caught by the whirlwind of progress. Feed soda pop to the thirsty pigs".
0.5/5
34)
The House on Haunted Hill 1959 - Pretty decent thriller has Vincent Price as a vengeful millionaire who invites 5 people to a haunted house overnight, when they will be awarded $10,000 each. Mind games and mayhem ensue. Maybe I missed something, but it's never clear why most of the guests, none of who actually know the host personally, were selected. Plus, why was poor Nora singled out for most of the torment while the others mostly sat around. Anyway, enjoyable, so long as you let a lot of aspect go.
3.5/5
10/23
35)
Dementia 13 - Fair Hitchcockian thriller from Coppola has a somewhat crazed Irish family (most of who don't have accents) carrying out an odd ritual due to the death 7 years earlier of the youngest family member. Is it my imagination, or was it pretty obvious from early on what had happened and what was going on?
2/5
36)
The Exorcist - I figured it was about time
somebody watched it. Deosn't provide many scares anymore, for me at least. Of course, after digging into the philosophy and psychology of "evil" a few years ago, it does take on a whole different flavor. I am impressed how it works on this level as well, with the stifled misery and vulnerability of Regan playing as a factor in her predicament.
4/5
10/24
37)
Mad Love - Definitely good early thriller, which has already been talked about enough here. Lorre is amusing and creepy, and how about that getup and his ranting late in the movie. I know I saw another version of this story back in the early 70s. Pretty sure it was an episode of
Night Gallery or one of the similarly themed series.
4/5
38)
Disturbing Behavior - Funky, clunky story about the "Blue Ribbons", the best and brightest at Cradle Bay High School. They live clean, study, play fair and don't embibe in, well anything. Problem is, they tend to kill people when faced with normal human conflict. Kind of a
Stepford Wives/Body Snatchers thing with some pretty cheesy stuff thrown in. Bill Sadler is a walking caricature. Get into the spirit, and this one is actually kind of fun, if not exactly good.
2.5/5
10/25
39)
Stay - A depressed art student (Ryan Gosling) finds his world disintegrating as he copes with his suicidal thoughts and the guilt over the belief he killed his parents.
Stay was pretty much panned across the board by critics I am convinced didn't want to put the effort to actually pay attention. Ebert is a notable exception, and his comment that once the movie is over, it warrants a great deal of thought, shows he is one who was willing to accept what it is. With a talented director (Marc Forster) and big name cast, including Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts and Bob Hoskins, it's a bit surprising it never seemed to have a chance. Of course, it is one of those deceptive movies. It is easy to get to the end, say "oh, OK, that's what was going on" and not go any further. To me, it is an incredibly powerful idea and downright difficult to deal with, even if the execution could have been better. It should have been more subtle (that kid shows up, saying the same thing over and over) and from Forster, I would expect it to have been. This movie really
gets to me.
4/5
40)
The Devil Doll - An imprisoned banker escapes and discoveres a way to shrink people to doll size and decides it will make it possible to seek revenge against the people who ripped him off and sent him away. Pretty cool, surprisingly progressive movie for the 30s, with some especially nifty effects. The cheesy, melodramatic ending is a disappointment.
4/5
41)
Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama - In honor of Jason's ignorance of Linnea Quigley, I decided to delve into a movie starring the Holy Trinity of Linnea, Brinke Stevens and Michelle Bauer. After a bit of hazing and a nice soap-down, two sorority pledges are sent to a bowling alley after hours, accompanied by a few leering geeks, to steal a bowling trophy. Unfortunately, the trophy they choose houses a sadistic imp, who is released and begins to wreak havoc. Pretty decent, cheesy fun, but woefully short on gratuitous nudity, and criminally, none at all from miss Quigley, which has to make this the only movie she ever appeared in and didn't give it up for the fans.
2/5
10/26
42)
The Exorcist III - I had raised hopes after what some people said about this movie, but it just shows what seems to baffle me about so much "good" horror. It has a decent atmosphere, that pretty much goes nowhere. The story is a convoluted mess of scary "ideas" thrown together into a collage that jumps from one to another. I would have thought the patient, theatrical scene near the end would have been interesting to me, but it just struck me as a series of weak gimmicks. Plus, it didn't make much sense. Despite being directed by the author, it has no sense of what made the original great.
2/5
10/27
43)
The Unknown - Is that really Joan Crawford? She looked completely different before she got her mean on. This is a top notch silent thriller, with Lon Chaney as an armless knife thrower. What a freaking weird idea. He, along with everyone else, is obsessed with the Circus owner's daughter. Anyway, there is all sorts of underhandedness and deception. I typically go out of my way
not to try to guess what is going to happen in movies, but about 15 minutes into this one, I couldn't help but realize pretty much everything that was coming. Still, cool stuff from Tod Browning.
4/5
44)
Ravenous - A mid 19th century war "hero" is sent to a remote outpost in the Sierra Nevadas, where surviving can be an all consuming occupation. The first time I saw this a few years ago, it left an unsavory taste in my mouth. Maybe I lacked the intestinal fortitude for what I was about to be served, or maybe I wasn't feeling the hunger for this juicy little bit of gristle. Apparently, in the years since, my appetite has expanded to include films I can really sink my teeth into, and
Ravenous now truly hits the spot.
3.5/5
10/28
45)
The Fly II - A women (who is obviously not Geena Davis) gives birth to a cocoon, and promptly dies from failed contract negotiations. Five years later, the contents of the cocoon have turned into Brundleseth Jr., in the form of 30 year old Eric Stoltz, who is continuing his father's transporter research, gets his freak on with Daphne Zuniga and promptly starts going all Brundlefly. In the meantime, we are treated to Oscar caliber dialog like
"Bastard!! Where's your compassion?!?" In the end, just another story of the love between a girl and her giant bug boyfriend.
1.5/5
46)
Vampyr - Carl Theodor Dreyer takes
Dracula and makes it more philosophical than usual, and
very deliberate. There is no neck biting in this feature, just a slowly paced look at the result of vampires. Damn, this movie went slow too. It was also unusual, since it is essentially a silent feature, but not entirely. There is some dialog, though not all of it even has subtitles, but mostly it uses title cards. Probably only interesting to fans of classic silent cinema.
3/5
47)
Slither - A hybrid of so many other horror movies, I can't even identify all of them. An intergalactic snail lands on earth in a bit of meteor shit and begins taking over the nearest town. Has one of the funniest lines I've heard in some time, "Margaret packs a box lunch." Good fun, but a bit too muddled.
3/5
10/29
48)
Body Snatchers - Abel Ferrara takes the standard
Invasion of the Body Snatchers story and moves it to a military base. This makes a lot of sense since if you were looking to replace humans with unthinking, unfeeling automatons and go unnoticed as long as possible, what better place than a military base. Plus, it would facilitate the whole overtrow thing.
I have always liked this movie and have never understood why I seem to be almost alone in it. I like how it approaches the story from the standpoint that everyone in the audience already knows what is going on, as they watch the characters gradually figure it out. I like the surreal, occasionally Expressionistic photography from Bojan Bazelli. I love the sequence when the shit finally hits the fan, which still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Most of all, I like the subtext and how it leaves the door open to interpretation about what the real theme is. The line,
"our reaction was only human" is freaking brilliant. I would also like to personally thank Ferrara for the Gabrielle bits.
4/5
10/30 I was having "one of those days" yesterday, so...
49)
Phenomena - Groovy flick from Argento has Jennifer Connelly playing a youg girl who communes with, and occasionally influences insects. Surprisingly gore and cringe-less until the last 10 minutes or so. The regular Argento, funky soundtrack from Goblin, interspersed with a couple selections from Iron Maiden and Motorhead is trippy. More horror movies should have Lemmy singing in the background.
3.5/5
50)
They Live - I couldn't go an entire challenge without a single Carpenter, and I watched
The Thing just a few months ago, so I went with Roddy Piper battling invading aliens. Those pesky aliens have
already pretty much taken over when Roddy discovers how to detect them.
"I have come to chew bubble gum and kick ass,
and I'm all out of bubble gum."
Fun, campy, tongue-in-cheek flick has all sorts of alien ass-kicking, testosterone overload and no nudity until the final, amusing scene. This one has always made me laugh.
3.5/5
51)
The Indestructible Man - Lon Chaney plays a convicted robber (and presumably killer) who is executed, only to be restored and find he is pretty much impervious to any injury. He goes on a campaign to destroy all those who turned him in. Pretty decent flick with an unbearably sappy final scene.
3.5/5
52)
The Phantom of the Opera - Lon Chaney stars as the famed phantom, who secretly counsels and champions the understudy at the Paris Opera in order to make her a star. This movie is a bit longer and more ponderous than it really needs to be, but it works nicely.
4/5
53)
Frailty - Rather odd flick about a man (Bill Paxton) who claims to have been chosen by God to be a demon slayer. The younger of this two sons goes right along, while the older thinks he's off his rocker. All of this is related to an FBI agent by the older son, who is now an adult. This movie really sets some people off for various reason I won't reveal, but It has always worked for me. I enjoy the ambiguity of it and how it can have so many different "answers"
4/5
10/31
54)
Cemetery Man - Before
Shaun of the Dead, there was Michele Soavi's twisted little tale of a Cemetery Caretaker, who's real job is to knock off all the corpses that come back to life, and they all come back to life.
Shaun traded in the irresistably weird sense of humor here for more straightforward, British silliness. The ending is almost legendary. This also has two things
Shaun lacks. Anna Falchi.
3.5/5
55)
Alucarda - Steve is probably disappointed that my first Jadorowsky isn't
Santa Sangre. Two girls from an orphanage wander into a church of some sort, become possessed by some unknown spirit and spend the rest of the movie screaming, convulsing, and screaming some more. There is a
lot of screaming. Not much logic to the story, aside from the screaming.
2/5
56)
Freaks - Tod Browning produces what is still the weirdest revenge flick ever made. Watching this is just unsettling.
4/5
57)
Cube - Think of it as a less sadistic, more creative version of
Saw, set in space, or at least in some very weird, huge...OK, I won't give it away, for those who haven't seen it.
3.5/5
). As always, I hope you stick around and have a great time. Good luck to all!
