It's October baby....Horror flick time!

[DrNgor]

26 minutes ago, sifu iron perm said:

i always thought tales witness madness and even Monster club were non AMICUS?

 

*Checks IMDB* Okay, you're right. I'd read a review years ago saying that TALES was a follow-up to ASYLUM, that's why I assumed it was Amicus.

[Secret Executioner]

@sifu iron perm Off those you listed I only saw Dr.Terror's House of Horrors and The House that dripped Blood (which I watched earlier this month). I find Dr. Terror's House of Horrors slightly better. And since you mentionned it Monster Club is IMO pretty fun in its framing device and the stories are overall pretty good. Not the best horror anthology, but definitely an enjoyable film.

 

Today's watch: Boogeyman (USA/New Zealand/Germany, 2005)

A young man has to deal with childhood trauma involving the Boogeyman murdering his father - or did it happen that way ?

 

The premise of the film sounds interesting on paper but the execution ends up being a mess. There are elements that could lead one to think the main charater "created" his father's death in his mind to cope with him leaving his mom (who's played by Lucy Lawless in an extended cameo) and that would have been much better than all the supernatural stuff the movie decides to throw in when it doesn't feel necessary. The movie isn't helped by a lot of tropes that are among the most annoying from the genre - a ton of jumpscares, characters acting stupid (when they aren't total jerks), annoying camera work... 

Edited October 24, 2020 by Secret Executioner

[Secret Executioner]

Stay Alive (USA, 2006)

A group of obnoxious pseudo-gamers investigate a game that's sstill at the beta-release state, the titular Stay Alive. It seems to have a strange ability to kill in real life those who played and got killed in the game.

 

The premise of a haunted game that murders you in real life the same way you died in it sounds like a creepypasta, but while the movie is better written and more efficient than any of those it's still fairly weak. Lots of potential ruined by poor writing (lots of incoherences and inconsistencies) and terrible character development, along with horror elements that one could describe as fairly tame (a few jumpscares here and there but they aren't too annoying, though the game in itself is fairly atmospheric and I liked those parts) and not that much gore (in spite of reality mimicking fiction and the characters dying like in the game - which sometimes seems more funny if not ridiculous than scary).

Random fact: the main character and his boss have a scene early on where they are discussing how to defeat a boss in a video game. But according to Phelous' review, the dialogue seems to mix elements from a boss in Silent Hill (which apparently can be defeated simply by coming without any weapon) and the possibility of dropping items in Silent Hill 4.

[Secret Executioner]

Friday the 13th Part 2 (USA, 1981)

Five years after the events of the first movie (which makes this movie take place in the distant future of 1984) a new camp is set near Crystal Lake and a group of councelors are there in training. But the "legend" of Jason Voorhees is back to haunt them as a murder spree is occuring once again.

The introduction of Jason. And following a pretty good first film I found this one still solid, though below parts 1 and 3. The characters aren't too grating, there's good suspense and tension... The movie may rely a bit too much on the references to the first movie (from multiple retellings of its event to the finale where a young woman poses as Jason's mom Pamela) but these overall make sense on a narrative standpoint. It's also possibly the only one that addresses the fact there remains something from the old camp. Gotta love too that possibly the best known scene is one that got trimmed by censors - the two lovers getting impaled while having sex in bed.

[Super Ninja]

17 hours ago, Secret Executioner said:

Friday the 13th Part 2 (USA, 1981)

Five years after the events of the first movie (which makes this movie take place in the distant future of 1984) a new camp is set near Crystal Lake and a group of councelors are there in training. But the "legend" of Jason Voorhees is back to haunt them as a murder spree is occuring once again.

The introduction of Jason. And following a pretty good first film I found this one still solid, though below parts 1 and 3. The characters aren't too grating, there's good suspense and tension... The movie may rely a bit too much on the references to the first movie (from multiple retellings of its event to the finale where a young woman poses as Jason's mom Pamela) but these overall make sense on a narrative standpoint. It's also possibly the only one that addresses the fact there remains something from the old camp. Gotta love too that possibly the best known scene is one that got trimmed by censors - the two lovers getting impaled while having sex in bed.

My favorite part of the series, despite Jason doing his thing without the iconic hockey mask.

[Secret Executioner]

The Tomb of Ligeia (USA/UK, 1964)

A widower has been acting strange since the death of his wife, the titular Ligeia. And after he remarries weird behavior on his part and bizarre events in his home keep happening.

 

A Roger Corman adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe short story starring Vincent Price. Price is of course very imposing and delivers a great performance as the widower haunted by the memory of his deceased wife - he comes across as mysterious but also seems a bit off as he has sudden temper changes and seems to randomly forget things he does, though he remains sophisticated. The other characters are likeable, and we are as confused as they are concerning Price's character. The movie has some great atmosphere, feels very elaborate (especially for a Corman film) and I couldn't help but feel like the main character was reminiscent of Boris Karloff's baron from The Terror - a guy haunted by the memory of a former flame and other characters come and bring that back. Both films also have twists and turns involing secret passages in a big building (a castle in The Terror, an abbey here) and there's a big reveal towards the end that may be fairly predictable but still is well executed enough to stay strong. And both are from the same era (1963/1964), which makes it even more sensible to want to watch them in some sort of double feature.

This movie also throws in a black cat whose purpose seems to be hissing all the time, randomly clawing people and acting like a jerk through most of the time. I found this one more convincing - in that you can buy that it's pissed and hissing - than the one seen in Lucio Fulci's The Black Cat.

[Secret Executioner]

Wes Craven's New Nightmare (USA, 1994)

Actress Heather Langenkamp (star of NOES 1 and 3) finds her daily life plagued with incidents reminiscent of her biggest role. And her son acting up suggest Freddy may be trying to leave the fictionnal realm to cross into the real world - unless Wes Craven comes up with a new script to keep the monster in the fictionnal world.

 

Heather Langenkamp and Wes Craven return to the franchise for its tenth anniversary. And this seventh episode sees the franchise return to its dark and psychological roots, as nightmares and traumas are heavy themes (Wes Craven is said to be writing again because of nightmares, a nurse only knows of talking about the NOES movies when Heather brings her son to a hospital...) while dream and reality mesh to give us very poignant scenes that often turn out to be dreams yet some consequences are very real (deaths, scars...). We went 180 degrees from the cornier and lighter direction the series had taken with the sequels, especially parts 5 and 6. 

Beside the heavy atmosphere and a very elaborate cinematography I feel what makes this movie so unsettling is the child actor who plays Heather's son Dylan. He pulls off a very disturbing performance that gives classic horror cinema creepy kids Damien and Regan a run for their money. Another interesting aspect is Freddy himself. While we don't get a Freddy vs Robert Englund scene (sadly) he is slightly revamped to be made much more threatening. The head and glove look a lot like props rather than attempt realistic looks, but this bizarre aesthetics coupled with a much quieter and agressive performance (no more puns or maniacal laughter, we're dealing with someone who's pretty much supposed to evil incarnate) make him very intimidating.

 

 

Feardotcom (UK/Germany/Luxembourg/Canada/USA, 2002)

A police detective and a member of the Department of Health investigate a series of mysterious death, all having one thing in common in that the people visited a website called feardotcom.com 48 hours prior.

 

A mess of a movie that tried to cash in on the Ring craze and eventually came out a couple of months before the American remake. The movie feels rushed and a lot of elements don't make sense, characters keep doing (yet again) the stupid thing and there's also a story involving a guy broadcasting murders on the Web that doesn't amount to much - the ebsite graphics are okay, but the way the interaction works is confusing as it works like some of those video games, giving the player a choice between multiple options when only one actually gets things moving.

One of the few positives is that the creepy little girl randomly showing up works okay but if you want good movies with people getting killed after being haunted by creepy little girls dressed in white, go watch a Nightmare on Elm Street movie or Kill, Baby... Kill ! AKA Operation Fear (original title: Operazione Paura).

[Secret Executioner]

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (USA, 1988)

10 years after the events of the first two films a comatose Michael Myers is transferred from an institution to another only to wake up during the trip and go on a new killing spree in his hometown of Haddonfield. He is notably after his niece Jamie who eventually goes trick or treating with her foster sister wearing a familiar clown costume.

 

Not much to say here, except that it's a decent slasher movie loaded with often not-so subtle nods to parts 1 and 2 - references to the events happening in said movies, Donald Pleasance's Loomis reusing lines... Even the ending feels very similar to the opening scene of the original, though much like the conclusion of Friday the 13th Part V the ending suggests a possible plotline no further sequel would try and explore.

 

 

Zombi 3 AKA Zombie 3 AKA Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 (original title: Zombi 3) (Italy/Philippines, 1988)

A virus resurrecting the dead (and turning them into gruesome, blood thirsty zombies) becomes airborne and causes a mass infection on a tropical island, forcing the army to intervene while the scientists who created the virus try to find an antidote.

 

Some more horror that feels relevant nowadays - a virus escaping, people in charge trying to contain the epidemic (often resorting to drastic measures)... But also some usual horror tropes like people going on vacation only for said vacation to be ruined and people incessantly calling when the place they're at is obviously deserted (two very annoying scenes). An interesting "device" is a recurring radio DJ who anounces the news (thus keeping the plot going and the audience aware of what's going on) but also has some eerily topical words (scientists know what's going on, we have to listen to them is more or less an early statement of his) and plays some overall pretty cool music. The soundtrack of the film I found pretty enjoyable, though between the very "80s actioneer" style of the opening theme, the not-so-great condition of the copy I have (very dark) and the English dub sounding hokey at times I felt like I was watching a Filmark production at times (and it doesn't help the movie is from the late 1980s AKA the time period when Filmark was the most active).

That said, the main characters are overall likeable and not too stupid (save for calling a gazillion times for someone when nobody answered the first time and the place is obviously empty) or jackass-ish (though the group of soldiers startoff rather annoying), the special effects are well crafted (gross at points) and the zombies are smarter than usual with them ambushing people or having a remote strategical sense in their attacks (seems they partially retain their intelligence and memories).

Overall, a decent time-killer (though at 95 minutes it may seem a bit long) but it's clearly not the best effort by director Lucio Fulci. And while it's said he directed the majority of it with a few parts directed by writer Claudio Fragasso and Bruno Mattei the movie feels closer to Mattei's Hell of the Living Dead (originally titled Virus and that also has to do with a virus escaping and causing a zombie outbreak...) than a Fulci film like Zombie (Zombi 2) or City of the Living Dead (La Paura).

[Secret Executioner]

Uninvited (USA, 1987)

A cat escapes from the lab he was being a test subject in and joins a group of people boarding a yacht heading to the Caribbean. The cat of course causes a killing spree.

A DTV movie by director Greydon Clark (notably known for MST3K classic Final Justice). The movie is fairly cheap with not so great effects, bad acting and poorly developped characters but it's pretty entertaining in how "so-bad-it's-great" it is.

 

Robo Vampire (HK, 1988)

Drug dealers use Gyonchis to keep their stocks safe from the police. A cop who is killed is brought back to life as a cyborg to fight the vampires and bring down the drug cartel. A female ghost is pissed at the Taoist (I think) priest controlling the Gyonshis for cursing her lover who's now some gorilla-thingy and preventing their afterlife union.

I discuss this Filmark production here because it has supernatural elements and of course vampires. But it may as well be considered an actioneer in that it blatantly rips off Robocop (though with a much lower budget) and it is of course one of them cut-and-splice that adds the Gyonshi/Robocop footage and plot over a Thai movie starring Sorapong Chatree called Paa Lohgan (according to IMDb). The plot is naturally confusing, the special effects not so great but the Gyonshi are okay, the Thai part provides some solid action (and it's always nice seeing Sorapong Chatree) and the movie gets so batshit insane and OTT that it becomes unintentionally funny at points.

Random observations:

• Joe Livingstone is - according to IMDb - an alias of Godfrey Ho. I've also seen it suggested that Tomas Tang may as well be the actual director of several Filmark films, provided he and Godfrey Ho are not the same guy (a theory that I think got debunked).
• I feel Filmark unwillingly made Sorapong Chatree a familiar face as he is not only in a lot of their movies - usually their Ninja stuff - but I also never fail to spot him and it instantly makes me like the movie.
• The movie can be found on YouTube via Wu Tang Collection: 

 

Random fact for the comedy fans: these movies have a RiffTrax commentary by former MST3K stars Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy. I actually got to see Uninvited thanks to their riff.

https://www.rifftrax.com/uninvited

https://www.rifftrax.com/robo-vampire

Edited October 27, 2020 by Secret Executioner

[Yihetuan]

@Secret Executioner, so true about Sorapong Chatree! He's probably the second most recognized Thai actor after Tony Jaa for me just due to my exposure to him in these IFD films.

I recently re-watched Alexander Aja's Haute Tension because my gf has never seen it before. I remember there was a time I was enamored with the whole New French Extremity wave of body horror and I still feel this is Aja's best effort before he made the leap to Hollywood.

 

[Super Ninja]

11 hours ago, Secret Executioner said:

Joe Livingstone is - according to IMDb - an alias of Godfrey Ho. I've also seen it suggested that Tomas Tang may as well be the actual director of several Filmark films, provided he and Godfrey Ho are not the same guy (a theory that I think got debunked).

Defo not the same guy. Besides, there's an interview with Tang done by Toby, should be on YT. Also, Ho never directed a movie for Filmark, so Joe Livingstone is not one of his aliases.

[Secret Executioner]

@Super Ninja Yeah, I said according to IMDb and mentionned the alias thing even though I myself am questionning the involvment of our man Godfrey in Filmark productions. They did have stars that worked with Filmark under different aliases (Stuart Smith was called Stuart Steen), but IIRC Ho was an associate of IFD's Joseph Lai. And while Tang was also an associate of theirs, there was a fallout between him and Lai leading to Tang doing his own thing (or rather using the same MO as IFD) on his own with Filmark. And I think Tang also cameoed in some movies like playing an old master in one of Stuart Steen Ninja films.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

ParaNorman (2012: Chris Butler, Sam Fell)

Laika, who also produced Coraline and Corpse Bride, are making well-made animated and stop-motion macabre films.  All of these are too scary for the youngest ones and will be more appreciated by older viewers.  I tend to like the aesthetics of design more than the storylines as well.  Here we have an oft used plot of a boy Norman (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who can see and communicate with dead people like in The Seventh Sense.  He is a confused and isolated boy who is mocked by his schoolmates and bullied by Alvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) who reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes comic strip bully Moe.  Luckily he is befriended by the corpulent Neil (Tucker Albrizi) who is an unbelievably optimistic force and is one of the funniest characters in the movie.  

Norman looks like a younger version of Matt Dillon.  He also has a bizarre zombie obsession though you would think he would get enough of the ghosts in his life including his grandmother who sits on the coach and occasionally spies on the family.  Does she ever have to use the bathroom?  Maybe he prefers rotting corpses to the translucent, but better looking, ghosts that comprise his everyday existence.  Maybe I am over thinking this.  Norman also has to deal with a Mr. Prenderghast (John Goodman, his voice is so easy to recognize) his crazy uncle with a bad heart who is pestering him about some curse upon the town that only he can solve.  Norman has a lot of problems.

I wonder about the overuse of dysmorphism in character body design.  There is a grotesque effect that distracts more than enhances the characters in this film like Norman’s sister’s bizarrely huge hips and her love interest Mitch (Casey Affleck) whose legs are insanely small compared to his bodybuilder upper physique but whose anvil shaped chin seems the most abnormal.  I do not know what to think of Norman’s dad’s missile shaped head.  Early on I paid more attention to the bizarreness of the appearance than the plot, backgrounds and more important aspects of the film.  Subsequent viewings and I paid a lot less attention to this. 

ParaNorman is an enjoyable and breezy affair.  The humor is somewhat dark for youngsters, but not for us curmudgeon and surly movie lifers who have been scarred by everything from Rob Zombie, Takashi Miike to Michael Bay.  So I definitely enjoyed much of the jokes. Also, its heart is in the right place with a not-so-subtle parable about how you should not treat others who are different than you because you might cause their death and a gigantic curse will be put upon your decomposing carcass.*  Sometimes the plot seemed to cover too much worn territory, especially after the zombie’s come in. But toward the end the most effective and emotional scene was with Norman and the young witch which is incredibly sad if you think about it.  Here is a young child who was murdered for what she saw.  Then you start thinking about how in real life there would be no coming back.  That is depressing.  But I am a fan of stop-motion cinematography (the Wallace and Gromit shorts and films are some of my favorites) and I liked this movie.  If you liked Coraline I think you will like this as well.

There is an additional scene at the end credits.  It is a small “building of Norman’s character” vignette that has nothing to do with the storyline but will be on an interest in those who want to see a quick buildup of a stop-motion armature or those that feel they must see everything to get their money’s worth.

This is a film I always enjoy rewatching.

* The zombies seemed rather well preserved given the amount of centuries they have been under ground, but disconnected bones attacking you are not as scary.

[Secret Executioner]

Horror Castle AKA Terror Castle AKA The Virgin of Nuremberg (original title: La Vergine di Norimberga) (Italy, 1963)

A woman is investigating her husband's castle as she believes it to be haunted by the ghost of a maniac who murdered women 300 years ago using the very props that are on display in the museum section of the castle. But when it turns out the ghost is very real suspicion turns to the disfigured servant Erich (played by Christopher Lee who's credited as "Cristopher Lee" in the opening credits) and her husband himself...

A very gothic-looking, heavily atmospheric movie that goes for a "who-dunnit" mystery - which makes it a giallo - for most of its running time before the finale in a locked castle and with various characters facing cliffhangers suddenly decides to also throw in a reveal on the killer's identity with a complete backstory - after the story was fairly bare and some scenes even seemed slow you suddenly get multiple "subplots" to follow as if they remembered they could have been telling us more (though there are some hints at elements from the backstory earlier in the film). The final moments of the movie are admitedly more of the tear-jerker kind, which is also rather surprising but also feels fresh - some horror stories have relatively sad endings (Phantom of the Opera and Frankenstein for instance) and this one is IMO on par with the aforementionned examples.

The horror here mostly comes from scares startling you as there are lots of scenes where the main lady is walking around and of course you get a noise or something that startes her (and you as well). For a giallo, I didn't think there was much gore - the titular torture device has a point early on as the main character finds a corpse inside (a corpse of which little is shown), and the otherwise seen gore amounts too little except for a scene where the maniac (called Il Giustiziere in the Italian version I saw, not sure how the English version would put it - the Executioner ? The Vigilante ?) tortures a woman by putting a cage over her head and a rat in said cage eats part of her nose (yikes). The movie also has a very good score by notable composer Riz Ortolani, though the very catchy jazz theme feels a bit weird and some themes made me think of James Bond films.

IMDb kinda spoils the identity of the killer in their (very) brief summary though it's technically not entirely correct. 

[tdb]

3 hours ago, Secret Executioner said:

A very gothic-looking, heavily atmospheric movie that goes for a "who-dunnit" mystery - which makes it a giallo

Not to be a pedant (Whoops! Too late), but it's not a giallo, it's a horror with mystery elements or an horror mystery.  The first movie to be recognized as a giallo or at least proto-giallo, was Mario Bava's The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963) (La ragazza che sapeva troppo).

Tonight I made a fun revisit to Mr. Vampire 3 (1987) and The Vampire Doll (1970).

 

[Secret Executioner]

7 hours ago, tdb said:

Not to be a pedant (Whoops! Too late), but it's not a giallo, it's a horror with mystery elements or an horror mystery.  The first movie to be recognized as a giallo or at least proto-giallo, was Mario Bava's The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963) (La ragazza che sapeva troppo).

No problem with you adding this. I hesitated adding "I guess" since I didn't feel like it was a giallo but I saw it referred to as one elsewhere.

[Secret Executioner]

Unfriended (USA/Russia, 2014)

A chat session on Skype goes awry for a group of teenagers when a mysterious visitor joins the conversation. Said visitor claims to be their friend who committed suicide a year prior over cyberbullying the group is responsible for and is out for revenge.

More or less an Internet-based rehash of the I know what you did last Summer plot that mostly stands out for its creative choice. Everything is seen from one of the character's screen, so you spend 80 minutes looking at a screen browsing from Skype to Facebook to various other windows (Gmail, Google searches, the history). The result is interesting at first, but it quickly gets old and becomes dull to watch. And the movie relies way too much on the glitches of the Skype feed to come up with cheap, annoying jumpscares. The plot (while a rehash) could be interesting as the subject matter is still very relevant (cyberbullying and its horrible consequences) and is treated in a fairly realistic manner, but it's hard to root for the characters when everyone is trying to one-up each others in how big of a prick they can come across as. And when they aren't pricks these people act like obnoxious douches. The horror is mostly jumpscares that get annoying quick, though there's a couple of brutal scenes involving a guy blending his hand (ouch) and a girl killing herself with a device that I think is a hair straightener she shoves in her mouth (whatever it looks gruesome). The ending is rather decent with the surviving bully getting her rightful come-uppance.

 

Jason goes to Hell: The Final Friday (USA, 1993)

Jason Voorhees has finally been destroyed. But the coroner performing the autopsy eats his (still beating) heart and becomes possessed by the spirit of the killer. A spirit that aims to go back to Crystal Lake and pass into Jason's next relatives.

4 years after Jason took Manhattan (or so it seems) the Friday the 13th franchise was finally given a new installement... That feels very different than the previous films. First off, it is now distributed by New Line Cinema rather than Paramount as the company sold the franchise to NLC after Part VIII failed to perform as expected. And strangely enough NLC apparently could make a movie with Jason and explicitely name the character Jason Voorhees but the film couldn't be called "Friday the 13th Part IX" for some reason.

The other aspect that makes it different is that... Well, just look at the plot. Jason himself barely is in the movie as it deals more with some spirit jumping from body to body murdering people and trying to possess some relatives we never knew Jason had (namely a sister, as well as a niece - that's odd, where have I heard of a slasher movie killer being after these very relatives ?). There are also some Evil Dead referrences thrown in (probably the remnants of a subplot about Pamela Voorhees involvment in the occult) and of course the ending where a famous clawed hand grabs Jason's mask (NLC also owns Freddy Krueger and they were hinting at a Freddy vs Jason film here - a film that would take 10 years to finally materialize, to the point both franchises got a sequel released between this and FvsJ).

Concerning the movie though it's a decent film. Overall likeable and competent characters, some nice effects (the gore is rather strong, notably with the bodies Jason uses decaying) and a story that may be confusing and have some plotholes (mostly because some scenes that helped character development were trimmed in favor of throwing in some random campers for Jason to kill - from what I understand, trimming development to put in more stupid and pointless elements also turned Halloween 6 into a giant mess, so thank you test audiences for those alterations). Not the worst Friday the 13th/Jason film, just a very weird entry in the series that looks right out of left field.

[Secret Executioner]

Massacre in Dinosaur Valley (original title: Nudo e selvaggio) (Italy/Brazil, 1985)

A group of characters get stuck in the jungle and has to face wild animals, cannibals and gem smugglers.

A fairly late entry in the Amazon cannibal subgenre, and while it is labelled as Cannibal Ferox 2 in some places... It's a much duller and more annoying film. The initial group of characters has some annoying people, but while those who make it through the thing are overall likeable and nice the movie barely includes the tribe and gives us some rotten assholes with a bunch of gem smugglers that come out of nowhere and manage to make you miss the assholes from early on. The little we get with the cannibals had a bit of a Lost Cannibal World vibe to it, though bloodier but it's possibly the only saving grace to this film (that and the likeable protagonist). No way it should have an IMDb rating similar to Man from Deep River, the Umberto Lenzi title is really much better. Speaking of directors, Massacre in Dinosaur Valley was directed by Michele Massimo Tarantini who's better known for sex comedies and some exploitation films, something that show in this movie that's loaded with gratuitious suggestive shots and nudity. I know nudity and sexual content have always been components of the subgenre, but the movie milks this aspect to ludicrous extremes.

[Super Ninja]

My Halloween double feature:

Highway to Hell (1991) - Cult gold! Charlie Sykes and his girlfriend Rachel are on their way to Vegas to get married when she's kidnapped by a demon cop and taken to Hell to be Satan's bride. Imaginative and unpredictable, HTH is a fun ride with cameos by Ben and Jerry Stiller, demons, midget mechanics, Prince of Darkness himself and much more. It's admirable to know that the man who wrote screenplays for Mystic River and L.A. Confidential also wrote something as wild and odd as this surreal little gem.

Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995) - I find the best Halloween horrors to be the ones that have a comic flavor, and if made on a serious Hollywood budget, all the better. Demon Knight is trashy but classy fun with cool FX and quality gore. Plus the cast is damn good.

[Coliseum1972]

Halloween III is underrated

[Secret Executioner]

6 hours ago, Coliseum1972 said:

Halloween III is underrated

Most certainly. And it seems that after years of being trashed and despised it's finally getting recognition. 

I've always considered it a personal favorite, alongside the second one.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

Watched this last week:

Thinner (1996: Tom Holland):  

While not a good film it has its moments which I liked. I have not read the book, so I have no idealizations based off of that. The plot itself feels sometimes mundane like that was the most uninteresting horror dream I have seen in a while. 

I really like Robert John Burke's voice. His acting goes into sometimes hammy here but I liked it. A character that is not evil, but is not wholly good either (he veers more toward good, except ...).  I liked that Richie Ginelli (Joe Mantegna thinking of his Simpsons voice) is a stand-up guy. He goes above and beyond for his lawyer. Kind of admirable in a Frank Sinatra (see Doonesbury cartoons on this) sort of way. 

Billy Halleck doesn't fully deserve what he gets, but his character deserved a bit more than originally what he got. The curse might have been avoided if he paid a fine maybe or a suspended sentence. 

My weight loss reminded me that I needed to see this film. I kept feeling Thinner -- however, I did it by eating less and exercising and with the help of a minor curse -- but I got better. 

Cameo with Stephen King. The gypsies were rather uninteresting. The ending leaves you with a couple of possible outcomes. You know the fate of one character, but one I'm not so sure of (I wish Twitter had some spoiler tags or highlights). 

Also don't eat blood pie. 

[masterofoneinchpunch]

At some point I'll watch Halloween III.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948: Charles Barton)  

Watched this on Halloween. The A&C film I have seen the most times. So much fun. It really helps that they are reverent to the creatures. For those into Universal horror movies this is a must watch and rewatch. 

I like how they treat the horror characters with respect and allow them to be their horrifying selves. Being a big Bela Lugosi and Long Chaney Jr. fan really helps as well as they play their characters with earnestness. Of course it would have been great to see Boris Karloff in this (at this point his back problems and the fact that Glen Strange had been doing the monster for a while) but he does get his own film with the duo in Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff. 

One of the great endings as well (who could that voice be?). But it is the byplay between the two titular characters that I always enjoy as they are the best comedic duo between Laurel and Hardy and Martin and Lewis. 

Costello really works well when his character is frightened, much like Bob Hope's every-man scaredy-cat. There is a bit of Curly from the Three Stooges in him, even more apparent early in A&Cs movies. But I prefer these films over the Columbia shorts. 

I'll go off on a tangent and recommend Bob Hope in The Ghost Breakers (which was remade as Scared Stiff (1953) for Martin and Lewis) and heck The Cat and the Canary for comedic "scary" stories. 

[Killer Meteor]

22 hours ago, masterofoneinchpunch said:

At some point I'll watch Halloween III.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948: Charles Barton)  

Watched this on Halloween. The A&C film I have seen the most times. So much fun. It really helps that they are reverent to the creatures. For those into Universal horror movies this is a must watch and rewatch. 

I like how they treat the horror characters with respect and allow them to be their horrifying selves. Being a big Bela Lugosi and Long Chaney Jr. fan really helps as well as they play their characters with earnestness. Of course it would have been great to see Boris Karloff in this (at this point his back problems and the fact that Glen Strange had been doing the monster for a while) but he does get his own film with the duo in Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff. 

One of the great endings as well (who could that voice be?). But it is the byplay between the two titular characters that I always enjoy as they are the best comedic duo between Laurel and Hardy and Martin and Lewis. 

Costello really works well when his character is frightened, much like Bob Hope's every-man scaredy-cat. There is a bit of Curly from the Three Stooges in him, even more apparent early in A&Cs movies. But I prefer these films over the Columbia shorts. 

I'll go off on a tangent and recommend Bob Hope in The Ghost Breakers (which was remade as Scared Stiff (1953) for Martin and Lewis) and heck The Cat and the Canary for comedic "scary" stories. 

The voice in question is Vincent Price.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

Just now, Killer Meteor said:

The voice in question is Vincent Price.

Of course. I try not to spoil that for people who have not seen it.  Of course now I wonder how many younger people will know who Vincent Price is.  Love that scene though.