I told my Mother that the Atticus Institute was a documentary. The joke ended up being on me. And not so much funny as it was unintended invited torture. For the rest of the movie and too long afterwards, I got a loud & angry earfull of "signs of an approaching Biblical apocalypse / are you prepared?" rant. Most of which came after I came clean with the joke just a few minutes into her spiel. But, Ha, of course she wouldn't believe me, turning a gag meant to last a couple minutes into uuuggghhh. The moral of the story - Don't prank your mammas.
Thanks, knowing The Abandoned is on showtime means I can watch it when I have time this weekend and see what you and M are talking about.
Finally broke down and streamed The Final Girls off of Amazon. I hate paying to stream because inevitably the movie ends up on Netflix in a month or two, but figured I'd waited long enough to watch this one. Got a gift card for my birthday so it didn't sting as much. The movie was fun, had some decent meta humor, but the PG-13 rating kept it from being great. The double entendres would have been that much sharper, and the death scenes all the better, if they could have, "gone all the way." I'd been wanting to see this since I'd seen the trailer with It Follows, and was a little underwhelmed. I guess I'm just too jaded a horror movie fanatic, nothing seems to satisfy anymore. The horror-comedy angle got me thinking about an oldie but goody, so I sat down with Vampire's Kiss. Man, it's hard to believe this was Cage's next movie after Raising Arizona and Moonlighting. I actually get a kick out of his over-the-top performance in this one. Love it when he strides through the dance club with his Nosferatu gaze.
Hah, that's exactly where I was watching them from! My cable provider doesn't let you only subscribe to HBO, and that's all my parents are really interested in... So bam, we have a premium package. (And our TV's sound system is somehow incompatible with HDMI, so no Chromecast unless we want to call someone in to rework our entire sound system. FML.) ANYWAY. Really interesting to hear your take on all three! Afflicted did definitely drag on a little farther than it should have, but I did like the end. I felt like it wrapped it up in a way that was satisfying, Spoiler because you know the main character is still out there, but he's using his vampirism for vigilante justice. I kind of like that aspect of it. Despite the fact that he had to cut himself off from his family and killed his best friend by accident, he's found a purpose. It's rare for horror movies to actually end that way, and I welcomed the change. The Abandoned WAS very moody, haha. Like I said, you either love the artsy-fartsy moodiness, or it grinds on your nerves. I loved the moodiness, but I guess that's because I've spent so much time playing the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series of games. (For a quick summary, it's an FPS in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl + Pripyat) Exact same musical style, a bleak Russian atmosphere, abandoned buildings... It was all really familiar so I was sitting giddily on the sofa enjoying all those elements in a movie. Atticus Institute... I'm totally with you there. The female lead, I felt, should have been more humanized before the movie spiralled into its horror elements. I was kind of glad she was pretty average-looking instead of some glamorized young actor, though. It seems every movie that comes out has some beautiful woman suffering from something. William Mapother WAS completely uninteresting. I literally was like "is that the guy from Lost? -googles the guy- Yeah, it's that guy." and that was that. But can we talk about the freaking ending? Spoiler WHY did they have to pull a Paranormal Activity like that? You have a supposedly powerful demonic entity in a human host that can influence other people's behavior, kill people telepathically, do all this crazy stuff... And it accidentally gets transferred into the doctor and it just kills its former host and walks out? That's it? After suffering through religious torture and gassing and all that crap, it just walks away to never be heard from again? The military doesn't launch some kind of search and retrieval operation? I DON'T GET IT. None of it makes any sense. And holy dang Boon, I don't know whether to laugh that you manage to trick your mum, or feel bad that she actually believed it was real. As long as you can survive the earful of fire and brimstone talk, I guess that's what matters. ALSO! I finally saw Killer Klowns from Outer Space. What a messed-up, funny movie. I probably enjoyed it more than a lot of people because I absolutely can't stand clowns, so every clown scene was a little uncomfortable for me. But gawd, just the whole premise, the 80's special effects, the music and acting... It was just a fun, bizarre ride.
hellointerloper - Ummmm... did you miss the actual ending of the Afflicted movie? Spoiler I think it was one of those during the credits scenes but his friend Cliff who you think he killed is a fully turned vampire and he kills some teenagers trying to sneak into a swimming pool somewhere. So yeah the main character is out there killing bad guys I guess but he created a monster himself who is also out there killing randomly. Killer Klowns is supposedly going to be a new mini-series or actual show and it'll be done by the original guy behind the first movie!
Interloper: Yes the end of Atticus was lame. Also, had some really cheesy CGI at the end there. Booo!
Hah yes, I almost forgot that. I didn't take it too seriously because it just seemed like a bridge for a possible sequel... Which there probably won't be because the movie lost money in the box office, despite winning awards at movie gatherings. I hope they make/made their money back from purchases/rentals/etc, so many shitty horror movies make millions. Just doesn't seem fair, but it's all about advertising... And we all know how well Hollywood can misrepresent their crap movies with a good trailer.
Yes! Saw it a few weeks ago and loved it. It's a collection flick kind of like VHS but more intertwined sort of. Most of the shorts were awesome and they tied together well. There was only one I didn't like much. Check it out for sure if you get the chance.
Cool! I think I'll watch it on Monday. I kept seeing it on Amazon, then my buddy told me to check out the trailer, and I thought it looked pretty dang cool. Plus, I've got a little bit of a crush on that girl whose face is on the trailer there.
You're right and it sucks that distribution can make or break any low budget horror movie. Some of the shittiest movie studios have great distribution and it lets their shit movies make decent money while the independent flicks that are actually good lose money because no one will push it anywhere that matters. People always talk about how the slightly bigger studios make payoffs to keep the independent stuff off the radar. It's bullshit.
You will dig it! Well if I've learned anything about your taste in horror you will. If you hate it I have failed at paying attention haha.
Yup it was REALLY good. Not great, but definitely REALLY good. Most of the reviews I read complained about the one not-so-great story (called Jailbreak, I think) but I thought it was fine. Especially since it was the shortest one. Definitely high on the creep factor, good effects, and those creatures were effing awesome! Favorite story of mine was with the girl-band. The added bonus was seeing Dana Gould in that one. I'm gonna get my money's worth and watch this one again.
So, I saw Patrick last night. I seriously don't know how I feel about this movie. On one hand it starts out so intriguing, and feels like it has so much potential, but then it suffers from a lack of an explanation for certain things. I would have gladly sat through a longer film just to have some of the key points in the movie more fleshed out. The ending was pretty damn "meh" as well. Another movie that could have been really good but was just not executed right. EDIT: Seems that this film is a remake of a much older film from 1978. Not sure that makes it any better, hah...
Starting with Southbound had a pretty good horror-filled week. --Murder Party. Valiant first effort from the guy who made Blue Ruin, and the upcoming Green Room, which looks pretty intense. Murder Party is a no-budget comedy-horror with some solid laughs and decent effects. --The Beyond. Holy moly, the gore in this Fulci classic is insane! All previous versions I'd seen were heavily edited, and very poor transfers. Really solid flick. --The Green Inferno. Was prepared to hate it, but it wasn't bad. The acting is atrocious, and the first third of the script is so bad it's laughable. But once the shit hits the fan it's a fun, gory, ride. --Starry Eyes. I wrote about this last year or so, and how much I liked it. Still really dig this one. I know some people don't care for it, but man, this one works for me.
The beyond is killer and starry eyes was fun! Going to try to watch the invitation this weekend. Anyone catch it yet? Reliable sources are liking it.
The Invitation looks good! Couldn't figure out where I knew the bearded dude from till I saw he was the guy from Prometheus.
Watched "Let Us Prey" this morning. I actually really liked it. It kept me on the edge of my seat. I just wish I had subtitles because the accents were really hard to understand. (British-Irish film, filmed in Scotland... That's a lot of accent.) I missed a HUGE plot point because of that. I only "got the picture" once I read the Wikipedia article about it. My only gripe with the movie was how unlikely the scenario was. (It was a bit of a supernatural film, but... Bah, it's hard to explain without spoiling it.) I recommend it if you like to see horrible people die in horrible ways... Because let's face it, that's oh-so-satisfying. Oh, and let's not forget Liam Cunningham is in it too.
Hoping to catch this tonight. Looks promising. I enjoyed that flick too for all the same reasons. THIS... looks fun. It's on netflix now and I have been wanting to see it for awhile.
That does look good. Adding to my List. Let Us Prey was decent. I don't think I enjoyed it as much as you two did, but I liked the lead actress at least.
I enjoyed The Invitation. Spoiler Other than ze horror, the main themes are religion n mass brainwashing, survival n coping with loss, and the selfish mask of community togetherness... Be prepared though, because although tense throughout, it is the slow burn that others say it is. It has this in common with The Witch. The difference will be if you think the payoff was worth it. And there's just as much negative feedback from those who didn't. I personally found every bit leading up to the main reveal interesting and necessary. They do an excellent job of keeping you from committing to an idea on what's going on for the majority of the film. Even though you obviously know that something is coming. The ending wouldn't have the same type of intensity had they just jumped right into it, and I think that it's the better film for it. Not sure I'd give it a second watch, unless it was with people who hadn't seen it. I'm sure that you can always pick up on things you missed, but once you know the end, the wait won't have the same impact.
Everyone check out the Invitation! It was a good one! I agree with everything you said too Boon. And the less you know the better going into it.
Anybody know of any good horror blogs? I stumbled on this one over the weekend, http://horror-movie-a-day.blogspot.com/ and have already gone back about three years. I like how this guy approaches horror, definitely a fan, but not a FANBOY. I do think he's a little too positive, but in a way that's better for reading hundreds of reviews. Have added a lot of movies to my streaming lists based on his reviews so we'll see. On Monday I watched a few flicks, nothing that mind-blowing but mostly decent horror. --Hush, per Waterbear's post. As I think I mentioned earlier, home invasion is not my favorite horror sub-genre, but the lead character being deaf (and the trailer) made me want to give it a shot. It's pretty good, but I saw some major plot-holes I couldn't get over. Or maybe I simply missed a few things that explained what I saw as holes. Anyway, this movie made me realize exactly why I'm not big on home invasion flicks. My wife and I used to watch this show called I Survived, that was all about people living through real life horrific events. Anything from major catastrophes, terrorist attacks, being lost at sea, violent rapes, and of course, home invasions. I tell you what, those home invasion stories were way more horrifying than any movie I've seen on the subject, and they never involved the cat and mouse bullshit of these films. Seriously, that show was HARD to watch, with the only redeeming factor being that the survivors are the ones telling the story. --Contracted: Phase 2. I enjoyed the first one, so what the hell. This starts right after the first, and has a lot of the same cast, which was kind of nice to see. Like the first, the transformation stuff is gross as all get out, and the acting is better than the average low-budget horror fare. Wasn't really into the police procedural aspect of this one, but it makes sense per the story at least. Will have to look back and see what other movie I watched, can't remember right now. EDIT: Now I remember. Something that kept popping up as a recommendation on Netflix and Amazon, The Monkey's Paw. Meh. Pretty lame take on this old story. When you don't care about ANY of the characters that's never a good thing. It's not really scary or suspenseful either.
Watched "He Never Died" the other day. Based on what I had seen, I thought it was a horror/thriller type of film. I was wrong. While the premise was fun, Henry Rollins was ok, the movie itself was a major let down.
Man I was hoping I'd like it as much as VHS but imo it just wasn't on the same level. The only really solid short to me was "The Accident" and even that was kinda boring compared to the ones from VHS. Siren coulda been dope but the mega-cluelessness of the lead's friends was too horror-movie cliché (like, this family is obviously insanely creepy, but only the lead sees it at all?!)
