|
Post by the knife on Oct 6, 2023 18:07:14 GMT
17. Tales from the Gimli Hospital (Guy Maddin, 1988) 8/10 Guy Maddin's first feature and his distinctive style was there from the beginning. After at least ten years of hunting this down, I'm very happy to finally cross this one off my list. Pleasantly had more ghosts, necrophilia, and synchronised swimming than I could have hoped for. It's a passionate intensely homoerotic Canadian film about an incel and a chad hallucinating while recovering from the plague in a barnyard hospital in the fishing village of Gimli in the unspecified past. The facial expressions, mannerisms, and makeup are delightfully exaggerated, and everyone is obsessed with fish. Also features a woman dying with a Big Gulp beside her. This should be a Canadian classic. The movie's distorting Romantic score matches perfectly the bagpipes and roaring wind and static crackling. It's probably just me, but movies are automatically good if they are very very weird. Being unique is one thing, but being unique in a purposeful way is another, and this film is very much so purposeful. It is tender, nostalgic and humorous while also being bleak, brutal and melancholic. Nightmare shit right here. Guy Maddin is a madman and I adore him.
|
|
|
Post by the knife on Oct 7, 2023 1:18:46 GMT
18. Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (Guy Maddin, 2002) 9/10 I wanted to watch Guy Maddin's Dracula for a while now but much like Tales from a Gimli Hospital, it was hard to track down unless I paid fuckloads of money for their DVDs and shipping it to Europe. Yeah no, not an option for me, since I usually don't purchase and hoard hard copies/DVDs of movies cuz I'm a poor pirate and don't have the space. Finally someone uploaded the full film on Youtube, so this was my chance now. Somehow Maddin's style is perfect for this movie. There have been so many adaptations of Dracula that no matter how the story is told there is nothing new about it. Everyone knows what's going to happen and Maddin's unique style and the idea to tell the story as a ballet and performance art is a great way to dissociate his movie from the countless other adaptations and brings a breath of fresh air to the Dracula story. The hazy, dreamy look is beautiful, and I loved the flashlight scene so much. Wei-Qiang Zhang is a fantastic Dracula - never really understood the whole sexy vampire thing, I do now! He has such an imposing and graceful presence here. The only drawback to this, for me, is the first third of the film, done under by editing that doesnβt serve either the story or the performances. Now, that hyperactive compulsion to constantly change perspective is something Maddin does often in his other films, and it continues throughout the runtime here, but the opening stanza of this cannot support that. I donβt know how to open this, so Iβm not trying to say, βhe should have done this or that,β I just know that this didnβt work. But if you can make it to the graveyard dance between Lucy and Dracula and into the start of Minaβs story, you are in for a real treat and the film reaches tremendous heights. Once the film hits that point, Maddin starts to give the ballet more space to explore, and the combination of the physicality of the dancers, the sensuality bordering on raw sexuality of the story, and the visual sense start to mix beautifully. The camera feels like another dancer, swinging this way, pushing that way, and you can really sink into the power of the performances. In the early parts of the film, I was missing Maddinβs quirky sense of humor, but, while it never really shines through, it gets replaced by a fantastic sense of awe at what youβre watching. I'm pretty sure I will rewatching this film a lot of more times in the future. I really loved this. Maddin surely isn't for everyone but his style and the way he uses techniques from the silent film era to create something new makes him one of the most exciting directors working today.
|
|
|
Post by the knife on Oct 7, 2023 5:28:31 GMT
19. Pearl (Ti West, 2022) 8/10 Late to the party and I surprisingly enjoyed this more than X, since I already surprisingly enjoyed X. Ti West has an unique voice in contemporary horror genre and it shows. Like West's The House of the Devil and X before, this one is also a really well realised recreation of cinematic period settings, tropes and ideas, and I found myself always curious about where it all is gonna end up going. The titular character of Pearl is compelling, and Mia Goth is fantastic, her monologue is great and that final shot is absolutely one of the most chilling and unsettling things I've seen and was the most I felt for Pearl. Mia Goth is of course the standout. Between Suspiria, Pearl and Infinity Pool this year, she'll definitely become the go-to star when you want to hire an actress who will absolutely go for broke. Am I bad for loudly cheering Pearl during all the kills?
|
|
|
Post by theravenking on Oct 7, 2023 15:28:58 GMT
Screamers (1995; Christian Duguay) I still don't understand how one of Philip K. Dick's best short stories could end up as a modest Canadian B-movie, but if you take it as what it is: basically an extended Outer Limits episode, it's actually pretty good despite some unnecessary changes, among them the decision to relocate the action to another planet. It takes its time to get going and some of the dialogue, reportedly the only thing which got changed from writer Dan O'Bannon's original script, is pretty dumb with the evil androids talking like henchmen from an 80s action movie. I was prepared to hate this, because I like the original story Second Variety so much, but it's decent fun, although one can only wonder what a visionary drector like Verhoeven or Scott could've accomplished with the material. 7/10
|
|
|
Post by theravenking on Oct 7, 2023 15:48:12 GMT
Satan's Blood (1978; Juan Piquer Simon)Sleazy, satanist fun from a director whom I had already dismissed as a complete hack after watching a couple of his films, among them perhaps the worst possible version of Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island. However the spaniard shows considerably more talent when it comes to arranging depraved orgies (okay, depraved for its time, since there's nothing here most of us wouldn't have seen before, - I don't mean for real of course, just on screen in a strictly fictional context). Some could argue, that the nudity on display here is too much with the movie more of a softcore erotic flick, but the whole thing has a lovely dreamlike quality to it, and it's short enough that it's over before you could start to pick apart the various plotholes and inconsistencies of the story. 7/10
|
|
|
Post by theravenking on Oct 7, 2023 16:15:10 GMT
Raising Cain (1992; Brian De Palma)Demented, deranged, deceptive, - this does just what it says on the cover. It could well hold the record for the number of disorienting flashbacks and dream sequences in a film. Fans of the director might be having the time of their lives, while others will likely be left wondering what the hell they've just seen. 6/10
|
|
sog
Elliot Carver
Posts: 487
Member is Online
|
Post by sog on Oct 7, 2023 18:59:18 GMT
10. Tomie: Beginning (Ataru Oikawa, 2005) Years ago I read and really enjoyed the Junji Ito manga series Tomie. I had not seen any of the movies before, but having read that series I knew the general idea enough that it didnβt really matter that this wasnβt the first movie. Add in that itβs a prequel and apparently ends where the first starts I figured βwhy the hell not?β Well, Iβll say now I shouldnβt have because itβs REALLY bad. Itβs obviously shot with no budget (a single school room, a nurse station, one characterβs bedroom and some woods are the only locations and Iβm fairly certain the room is just recycled and re-positioned). The creepiness of Tomie is never really conveyed so much as the characters tell you about it, and when characters start going crazy for her it just seems so odd unless youβre already familiar with how the stories go. Not recommended. 2/10
|
|
sog
Elliot Carver
Posts: 487
Member is Online
|
Post by sog on Oct 8, 2023 4:16:31 GMT
11. Shock Waves (Ken Wiederhorn, 1977) This movie confirms something that Iβve believed for years. It doesnβt matter how ridiculous the film, doesnβt matter if the rest of the cast is terrible, Peter Cushing gave his damnedest to every role, delivering all lines as if they mattered and trying to sell the situation. This is a rather silly movie about nazi zombies who were on a ghost ship and the survivors of a holiday boat trying to escape an island where the zombies decide to attack. Itβs ridiculous but gets points for Cushing and some nice atmosphere. Also, while the budget limitations are clear throughout, it must be said that the moment the zombies come out of the water, all wearing their identical uniforms, itβs actually a well-done scene. 4/10
|
|
|
Post by Meseia on Oct 8, 2023 5:13:46 GMT
Late start for me, 1) Totally Killer (2023) - A time travel slasher movie that isn't very good at either. The acting isn't half bad and it features a Zoomer going back to 1987 so there are plenty of jokes about contrasting the two cultures and that's about all it offers. The 87 characters are over the top and there isn't much depth to the zoomer girl. It entertained just enough that I didn't turn it off.
|
|
|
Post by the knife on Oct 8, 2023 9:24:08 GMT
20. Evil Dead (Fede Alvarez, 2013) 7/10 (rewatch) Fuck yes. My face hurts. 21. Evil Dead Rise (Lee Cronin, 2023) 4/10 Not gonna lie, the opening sequence with that eerie as hell reading of Wuthering Heights really set my expectations high, but unfortunately, it never managed to live up to them. Ellie and Beth are good enough characters with an interesting sibling dynamic, but I cannot say the same about the three children and all the other pointless supporting characters who you just never convince yourself to care about. Also, this film is so scarcely lit, with all the action taking place during nighttime, it was hard to distinguish things on screen. If youβre only in it for the blood and guts then youβre sure to have a good time, but based on all the other Evil Dead movies I wanted a little more than that. 22. The Candy Witch (Rebecca Matthews, 2020) 3/10 Good make-up, but predictable and kind of boring with bad acting on top of it. It's low-budget, so one shouldnt expect much from it in the first place. 23. The Barn (Justin M. Seaman, 2016) 5/10 Lol. Very amateurish and even lower than previous low-budget production I've seen, The Candy Witch, but kind of more genuinely charming than that. Great soundtrack and good use of 80s hardrock/heavy metal and synthesizer tracks. Posters are all dope.
|
|
|
Post by theravenking on Oct 8, 2023 11:11:16 GMT
Dagon (2001; Stuart Gordon) I've never been much of a Lovecraft fan. I find that he had some great ideas, but failed to execute them in a satisfying way. This is an atmospheric adaptation of one of his most popular works, the small fishing village with a terrible secret where our protagonists get shipwrecked, is brought to life in a creative and spooky way, but the acting is weak, almost comically so, and the story feels drawn-out. 5/10
|
|
|
Post by theravenking on Oct 8, 2023 13:49:27 GMT
X (2022; Ti West) This would make a great double bill with Michael Haneke's Amour. I'm just half-kidding. Both movies deal with issues of the elderly, it's just that X is so grotesquely exagerrated, that it's verging on parody. There could've been some dramatic irony, had these old folks been introduced as relatively normal and harmless people, before we find out that they are bloodthirsty and evil, but considering that they already look like walking corpses of the more dishevelled variety, - the geriatric make-up on Mia Goth is particularly hideous, - it's difficult to feel any sort of sympathy for them, since they also seem to lack any inner values. A weird movie that just didn't appeal to me. I liked the first scene with the crocodile though. 5/10
|
|
|
Post by the knife on Oct 8, 2023 17:14:09 GMT
24. The Nun (Corin Hardy, 2018) 7/10 The good things first: The big star of the film is the abbey and its variety of scenery: the dry forest around, the little convent outside the main building, the rustic cemetery (stage of a frantic sequence at night) and the huge and gorgeous castle where the nuns live cloistered without contact with the outside world. The greatest achievement of The Nun was to create a really oppressive and evil atmosphere where a simple walk through the corridors requires a lot of courage. I loved the scene where Sister Irene talks with another nun in the kitchen with her back to a door facing a dark corridor. The feeling is that they're eternally hiding, in an endless state of alarm and despair. This is what a horror movie should try to achieve: to make the viewer recreate a scenario and its atmosphere inside their head, having fun fantasising about the possibilities, and feeling afraid of being in that situation. The nun Valak, who first appeared in The Conjuring 2, has a presentation worthy of a horror icon and is again a sight to behold. The screen comes alive when her shadow appears in the dark corridors. Her apparitions are treated with due expectation and restraint until the climax, erhaps too much restraint in some scenes but the end compensates for the earlier lack of exposure. Taissa Farmiga delivers a satisfying performance, balancing sheer fear with great determination and courage. Just as her older sister, Vera Farmiga, does with Lorraine, Taissa keeps her Sister Irene afraid from start to finish but also always moving forward without stopping or thinking about giving up. The fault lies with Corin Hardy's simplistic and uninspired direction that lacks the elegance and perfectionist framing of James Wan or David Sandberg. There are two scenes in the third act that reminded me a lot of the famous Nurses scene in the first Silent Hill movie, but without the same impact or elegance in the making. Anyways, I still really liked this film. I know I'm in the minority but I found this film creepy and evil to the core. It is the darkest chapter in the The Conjuring universe and I can't wait to see now what the sequel is going to be like.
|
|
|
Post by Meseia on Oct 9, 2023 2:25:31 GMT
2)The Meg 2. I love shark movies, even the cheesy ones that SyFy used to make. I enjoyed The Meg, so I was excited to see Meg 2: The Trench. But I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed. Meg 2 is an average action movie with too much story and not enough shark. And of course, the shark is the biggest Meg ever. There's also a conspiracy, a kid who sneaks on board, a lot of special effects (they're pretty good) and a hint of Jurassic Park/Lost World. I don't know much about diving and submarines, so maybe that's why I didn't hate it. But I don't want to be too harsh, because I think most people know what they're getting into and will get what they want. What it's not is a scary movie.
|
|
|
Post by TheSowIsMine on Oct 9, 2023 7:27:38 GMT
These so far, first time viewings in bold.
1. The Offering (2022) 2. Scream 5 (2022) 3. Megan (2022) 4. Final Destination (2000) 5. Night of the Living dead (1968) 6. Happy Death Day (2017) 7. Christine (1983) 8. Scream 6 (2023) 9. Awoken (2020) 10. Candyman (1992) 11. Black Mountain Side (2016) 12. Radius (2017) 13. It (2017) 14. Midsommar (2019) 15. Doctor Sleep (2019) 16. Howl (2015) 17. Let the Right One In (2008) 18. Night Shift (2018) 19. Bay of Blood (1971) 20. Gothika (2003) 21. The Visitor (2022) 22. It Chapter Two (2019) 23. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) 24. The Cave (2005) 25. Incident in a Ghostland (2018) 26. The Return of the Living Dead (1985) 27. Last Night in Soho (2021) 28. Daniel Isnβt Real (2019) 29. Motherly (2021) 30. The Return (2020) 31. Black Christmas (2019) 32. Scream (1996) 33. Darkness Falls (2003) 34. Fear in the Night (1972) 35. Possessor (2020) 36. The Changeover (2017) 37. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) 38. Sometimes They Come Back (1991) 39. Scream 2 (1997) 40. Totally Killer (2023) 41. The Woods (2006) 42. Hellraiser (1987)
|
|