October Horror Movie Marathon

[Nordicdusk]

After dipping in to some modern horror so far it's time to go back a few years tonight with

the_haunting_poster.jpg

Review coming up later.

[trebor8273]

Young Frankenstein.

Mel Brooks does for horror what he did for westerns with blazing saddles and gives us whats is perhaps the greatest horror spoof of all time, with young frankenstein a wonderful love letter to the universal horrors of the 30s and 40s, fantastic atmosphere that mirrors those moves thanks to the direction, use of sets etc from those movies and being shot in black and white. added to that a great cast and script with many hilarious makes for a classic movie. 9.4/10







now watching Its alive

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

House of Frankenstein (1944)

I'll keep this brief. Seeing as this was playing in the Firefly household i followed House of 1000 Corpses with this Universal monster fest. As much as i love these monster mash ups they all tend to blur into one with me, i did however know there was a bit of a turkey among them and this is it.

How can a film starring Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr reprising his Larry Talbot / Wolf Man role and John Carradine be a bit of a turkey? Well the answer is the monsters don't make an appearance until the final ten minutes and the only one that does, Carradine's Dracula is a sloppy parody.

Karloff, Chaney Jr and J. Carrol Naish as the faithful hunchback Daniel, try their best with a workmanlike script that plays more like a portmanteau than a straight forward film with the dalliances with each of the famed monsters in each tale. Dracula for example doesn't even make it past the half hour mark. The quicksand ending is frankly embarrassing to boot. Thankfully things would be better with the following years House of Dracula.

[trebor8273]

Its Alive.

Meh. i remember this scaring me as a kid but now its just laughably bad and about as scary as Scooby Doo, a couple's newborn is a mutant and escapes from the hospital and goes on a murder spree . mind i did kinda feel sorry for the poor little tyke at the end 5/10

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

If anyone wants a dvd of House of 1000 Corpses send me a PM.

I bought mine from Blockbuster, ex-rental, years and years ago. It's full frame and bugger all special features. But it is perfectly watchable. I've seen it dozens of times and always thought it was released full frame

I just ordered the out of printTartan release today as it's DTS, widescreen, and has tonnes of extras.

[Nordicdusk]

Film No. 5

the_haunting_poster.jpg

Hill house has a very strange and mysterious past. Over the years there have been many horrible events from suspicious deaths to the insanity of a past resident. Dr. Markway is an anthropologist with an interest in psychic phenomena. Doing some research he discovers Hill House and its turbulent past he gets a small team together to investigate the strange goings on at the house. One of the women he takes along is Eleanor a very odd eccentric almost childlike lady who always seems to be right on the edge of insanity.Eleanor is still in the grips of her mother who died recently who she spent her whole adult life looking after. Then there is Theodora a real tough smart ass lady with an attitude and then there is Luke the heir to the mansion and cynical big mouth asshole. As soon as they enter the mansion they feel like they are not alone and it does not take long before its obvious they are right with banging ,voices and other strange noises. It seems like the house has more of an interest in Eleanor than the rest of the group.

Just one look at the dark exterior of the house you get a real creepy feeling before we ever step foot inside which is where it get much worse. The more time Eleanor spends at Hill House the more her mental state deteriorates always mentioning her mother and quickly shying away and refusing to discuss her with anyone but her rapid descent not only takes the form of insane ramblings but in extreme temper tantrums towards the other members of the group. Eleanor feels she belongs in Hill House but does Hill House want Eleanor?

The Haunting does a great job of keeping you on the edge of your seat and keeps you guessing what terror waits around the next corner behind the next closed door and within the walls of Hill House. This really is a fantastic psychological horror film we never see anything physical apart from a door handle turning from time to time or a bulging door but there is no creature or ghost or man in the shadows everything that happens is as much in the viewers minds as it is in the minds of the people present in the house itself. The fear we create in our own minds is far more terrifying than any boogey man and thats what The Haunting does so well it takes you to that place a place that no one really wants to go.

8/10

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

If anyone wants a dvd of House of 1000 Corpses send me a PM.

I bought mine from Blockbuster, ex-rental, years and years ago. It's full frame and bugger all special features. But it is perfectly watchable. I've seen it dozens of times and always thought it was released full frame

I just ordered the out of print Tartan release today as it's DTS, widescreen, and has tonnes of extras.

There are a number of Easter eggs on this disc

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I
I just ordered the out of printTartan release today as it's DTS, widescreen, and has tonnes of extras.

That's the release I have.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

If anyone wants a dvd of House of 1000 Corpses send me a PM.

I bought mine from Blockbuster, ex-rental, years and years ago. It's full frame and bugger all special features. But it is perfectly watchable. I've seen it dozens of times and always thought it was released full frame

I just ordered the out of printTartan release today as it's DTS, widescreen, and has tonnes of extras.

Originally Posted by bizarre_eye@Cult Labs

That's the release I have.

As i recall something weird happened with this film. It was originally released by someone (Prism?) as a cheapo, 4:3 barebones disc, then later as a packed SE by Tartan, then oddly that went Oop and it was put back out by the original label with all the stuff from Tartans disc.

[MacBlayne]

The Babadook

Much to JHarker’s dismay, everybody here has had a pop at this film. And I’m sorry, but I didn’t care a lot for it either.

This may be the most frustrating film I’ve seen in a long time as I can see the brilliance within. But, it’s drowned out by a load of art-school bollocks (ironic, considering director Jennifer Kent refused to go to film school), and the most irritating child I have seen in a long time. I get what the film is doing and that the Babadook is a metaphor for the mother’s growing resentment of her child. Yet, this nonsense could have been averted if she would just tell her child to shut the #$*! up.

It probably doesn’t help that I did not find the Babadook itself scary. Kent does an admirable job at building suspense but I ended up giggling when it showed its face. I feel that the film may have been better if the Bababook was only hinted at in the book, instead of manifesting itself physically.

There is something amazing here but it is definitely the work of a first time director that feel that they need to show off (I can easily imagine Kent’s mentor, Lars von Trier, pausing the film every two minutes and asking “what’s this shite about?”). But, I look forward to seeing Kent’s next film. Well, I thought I was looking forward to that but I looked up The Babadook and who Jennifer Kent was.

Critics masturbated themselves over who could deliver the most praise. It wasn’t like those other horror films that relied on gore or scares (apparently, they never saw any Japanese or Korean horror), it was about a lone woman struggling (um, isn’t there a lot of horror films with that as a theme), the perils of raising a child (you’d swear Wes Craven never made New Nightmare), and that it was a woman that directed this horror film (I suppose the Soska sisters, Claire Denis and Kathryn Bigelow aren’t that famous). And Kent seems quite happy resting on her laurels, judging by interviews.

So, I don’t know. Kent is quite talented but I believe she can do much better. Yet, everyone has told her she’s magnificent and she seems to agree that she doesn’t need to do better. I hope she surprises me but I’m getting the horrible feeling that she won’t.

Thanks, critics!