Movies: Horror Movie Discussion

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

100% agreed. I remember watching Contagion and thinking I could save the world just by shooting that virus in its face with a shotgun and sending it back from wherever it came from. Which according to my geopolitical knowledge is whichever country the US happens to be feuding with at that time.

Elsewhere, do you all really recommend Hausu? It's made it to my short list to watch this week and if someone gives me another endorsement of it then it will seal the nomination

Hausu endorsement here too!

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

ROTLD in a theater with other fans of movie would be fun experience I imagine

Wonder if you will get this as one of your mystery movies



Such a weird movie experience to watch as a kid and still weird as an adult. Tone was completely different from 1st movie

Of note it is also stars Sandra Bernard before her Wings success and the drill killer is son of Mike Ilitch

I could see SPM2 being a fun theater experience just for its absurdity and camp

I'd be very happy if that's one of the mystery movies.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

That’s Crystal Bernard. Still such an awesomely bizarre film.

Got my Bernard names mixed up

Thank You

 

[Osprey]

Got my Bernard names mixed up

It's actually Sandra Bernhard... but Bernhard, Bernard, Bedard... what's the difference?

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

It's actually Sandra Bernhard... but Bernhard, Bernard, Bedard... what's the difference?

Well haven't seen either one in anything since 90's at end of day

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

Dogs (1976)

I forgot all about this movie until seeing it listed on Prime. It was one of many 'Natural Horror" films to come out in 70's especially after Jaws runaway success. If I recall it appeared on TBS (Back when they showed old movies on weekend mornings) among films like Night of the Lepus, etc

Upon rewatching this I was reminded why it was so forgettable. One of the worst entries in the Natural Horror genre of time

Predictable, poorly acted and the dogs attack scenes are essentially just dogs giving people hugs

David McCallum as star in this film gives zero effort. A phoned in performance for a check is best way to describe it

And of course, the ending ties up nothing with no explanation of why Dogs are suddenly attacking. Just some lame 'Scent" that gets thrown in there without much explanation

Ends on very predictable note (So many of these films in 70's end on this) of radio broadcast revealing it is occurring elsewhere and only effecting dogs. Then a cat walks onto side of road and roars (Well not really, just some noise that doesn't sound like a cat hiss/meow/etc) implying Cats are going to soon start attacking

2/10

If your fan of genre its something you will want to watch once at least. But its very weak entry into genre

 

[kihei]

Yeah, considering I'd never seen anything like it and my film tastes veer toward the highly unusual, I was afraid it would be the only thing I'll ever see like that.

Try Survive Style 5+ (2004) directed by Gen Sekiguchi.

 

[kihei]

Very curious to see what you guys make of The Substance.

 

[Primary Assist]

Ok, watched Hausu. I have some thoughts. Kind of impossible to watch this movie and not have thoughts.

It was OK. Very well made, it's clear the director and crew were very deliberate when crafting every scene. They also had a game plan and they stuck to it. Really I can't think of anything bad to say about this film - I am clearly not its target audience.

The whimsy at the beginning was great. The closest comparables I can think of are the video game Earthbound meets the Wizard of Oz. The purposely fake backdrops add a lot of charm, and I can't tell if the director intended the paintings to not fill up the entire frame, or if that was due to a change in aspect ratio 35+ years later on streaming compared to film. If it was deliberate, hey that's a tasteful wink to the audience that this guy really knows what he's doing.

The film starts to go downhill, both for the characters and for me as the viewer, once the haunted house aspect kicks in. It's certainly not a flaw that it's mean-spirited, if you will pardon the pun, but it didn't add much to me as part of the viewing experience.

The one-dimensional characters are a bit grating, but that again seems deliberate. Perhaps a meta commentary on the one note cannon fodder characters in the horror genre - especially female ones.

The movie seems to have strong roots in a post-Hiroshima world. The clash of the not-quite-right Western rock meeting the monotonous piano score is jarring, something I like in a horror movie.

To wrap this up, there is one really cool character (Kung Fu, who knows Kung Fu) and a few really funny scenes. Including one where a cat just randomly jumps into the villain's lap. But overall, there were a lot of parts of the movie that just didn't do it for me. Probably more a reflection of myself than on the acclaimed filmmaker.

Either way, thank you Hockey's Future for introducing me to a film I never would have seen otherwise. I truly have not seen anything like it. The movie was certainly not a waste of time even if I didn't enjoy it that much, and a great start to the spooky season for me.

Next up on the list: HBO's documentary on stealing the election. Not a traditional horror movie of course, but one that will likely frighten me to my core.

 

[CDJ]

Didn’t see the 2022 Danish version so I can’t speak to what’s better but the 2024 American version of Speak No Evil was quite good I thought.

Don’t let people walk all over you folks!

8.1/10

Very curious to see what you guys make of The Substance.

I’ll be checking it out at some point in the next week I hope, looks very interesting

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

One of the worst entries in the Natural Horror genre of time

I don't remember if I've seen it. Worst than Squirm?

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Very curious to see what you guys make of The Substance.

Going to try to see it this weekend. Will report back.

 

[Satans Hockey]

Chucky was just canceled after 3 seasons, really disappointing because the show is great.

 

[shadow1]

Seed of Chucky (2004) - 3/10

A struggling actress looks to regain the spotlight, while killer dolls Chucky and Tiffany find out they have a child.

Jennifer Tilly stars as a fictionalized version of herself that's struggling to land big movie roles. Tilly ends up in the movie "Chucky Goes Psycho," where she acts with the dormant dolls of Tiffany (also played by Tilly) and Chucky (Brad Dourif). When Chucky and Tiffany's genderfluid child Glen/Glenda (Barry Boyd) sees the two on TV, they travel to Hollywood and resurrect their parents. Now together as a family, the trio schemes to get out of their dolls bodies, while Tiffany and Chucky make a pact to stop killing for the sake of their child...

Seed of Chucky was written and directed by Don Mancini. This marked the directorial debut of the longtime series writer, who took this entry further in the direction of dark comedy. The film plays partial homage to the 1953 Ed Wood film, Glen or Glenda. How does Seed of Chucky fare?

This series has officially jumped the shark. Seed of Chucky tries to do several things all at once: it attempts to have a scathing take on Hollywood; it attempts to be meta; it attempts to tell an LGBTQA+ about gender identity; and it attempts to be a raunchy dark comedy. In that sense, this movie feels like a mash-up of Scream 3 (2000), Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994), the aforementioned Glen or Glenda (1953), and any John Waters movie (Waters plays a major supporting role in this film, by the way).

It's all half-baked, though. Seed of Chucky introduces all these concepts, but there's no (or very little) payoff to any of it. For exmaple, the most interesting concept, gender identity, devolves into a Jekyll and Hyde act by the end of the movie. Most of everything else introduced fades away as the movie progresses, aside from the raunchiness. Seed of Chucky is a film that tries to cover up its faults by being outrageous and edgy, but it doesn't work. The story is so fundamentally unengaging that at times the movie feels like a vignette of over-the-top scenes loosely tied together by two dull plots (the Jennifer Tilly meta plot and the doll plot).

Once the two plots merge, things don't feel like they reach their logical conclusion. Character motivations bend and change, culminating in an unsatisfying mess of an ending. Of significant note, Chucky takes a back seat in this movie. He's in it the entire run time, but is firmly a supporting character that's more jester than slasher icon.

Furthermore, despite a relatively decent budget ($12M) that should've gone further due to being shot in Romania, Seed of Chucky looks very rough at times. In the still image above, the scene is out of focus, and though most of the time the dolls look great, there are multiple times when they look off. I'm not sure if this is a stop-motion thing or a computer graphics issue, but certain scenes look cheap. This movie was released in theaters, but to me felt more like an MTV made-for-TV movie.

Overall, Seed of Chucky is a mess. A quick search revealed the film seems to have some cachet with fans of the series, largely due to its progressive characters and John Waters-esque qualities. For me, those things don't override the numerous and significant flaws this movie has, but your mileage may vary. Seed of Chucky was the final Child's Play/Chucky movie released in theaters, and the series went into a 9-year hiatus following this entry. It earned $24.8M against its $12M budget.

 

[Satans Hockey]

Had no idea that the Glen/Glenda stuff actually stemmed from a preexisting movie, that's interesting.

I was not a fan of this movie either and agree with a lot of what you said.

Do you plan on watching the reboot movie that stared Mark Hamill as the voice of Chucky? That one has nothing to do with the rest of the movies and TV show.

 

[Osprey]

Do you plan on watching the reboot movie that stared Mark Hamill as the voice of Chucky? That one has nothing to do with the rest of the movies and TV show.

He somehow made it through all of the Leprechaun and Howling movies. I think that he's committed, and that can be interpreted two different ways, both of which may be true at this point.

 

[blueandgoldguy]

I can't remember...has shadow1 covered the Jaws movies? That would be interesting to cover. Start with what is considered one of, if not, the best horror movie of all-time, and end the reviews of the franchise with one of the worst movies of any genre of all time with Jaws: The Revenge.

 

[CDJ]

Split

I’m an M Night guy so I thought as far as PG13 horror goes it was pretty solid. James McAvoy stole the show. I guess it’s a silent sequel to Unbreakable and that they made Glass to kind of merge the two. I heard Glass kinda stunk. Oh well I’ll watch sometime


7.5/10

 

[shadow1]

Curse of Chucky (2013) - 6/10

A paraplegic and her family are tormented after receiving a mysterious doll in the mail.

Fiona Dourif stars as Nica, a paraplegic who lives with her mentally ill mother Sarah (Chantal Quesnel) in a large secluded handicap accessible house. They receive a package in the mail with no return address - a Good Guy doll named Chucky (Brad Dourif). During a visit from extended family, a series of dangerous and deadly events cause Nica to believe the doll is alive...

Curse of Chucky was once again written and directed by series creator Don Mancini. Following the poor reception of Seed of Chucky (2004), Mancini decided to take the series back to the darker direction of the first Child's Play (1988). Originally planned as a remake, Curse of Chucky ended up being a sequel and was the first movie in the franchise not to be released in theaters. How does the first direct-to-video Chucky movie fare?

It's rock solid. Curse of Chucky is not only one of the best movies in the Child's Play series, but one of the better brand-name direct-to-video horror movies out there. Even without knowing the history, you can somewhat tell this film was originally conceptualized as a remake, as it follows some of the same story beats as the original Child's Play. Only this time, it's in an old dark house.

There's a scene early on that reminds me of a scene used in a Quentin Tarantino movie (I'm being vague) that's tense and uncomfortable as you're waiting for something awful to happen. What a breath of fresh air compared to the previous series entry, in which we were subjected to watching Chucky at the gas station of love using the self-service pump. There were also some fun twists to side plots that kept me on my toes that I thought showed off clever writing.

Fiona Dourif, the daughter of Chucky himself Brad, gives a solid performance as Nica, the best protagonist this franchise has had in a while. The casting isn't the only throwback, as we learn a little more about Chucky/Charles Lee Ray's past prior to his tenure trapped inside a Good Guys doll. While this is technically retconning, I have no problem with it considering we're six movies in and this is the first time the series has even attempted to flush out the character.

I don't have a ton of criticisms for Curse of Chucky, but I do have some. Though not bad by any means, the third act is probably the weakest part of the film because there is a lot of info dump and exposition, which doesn't do the tension any favors. I'm really nitpicking here, but there are scenes in this movie that scream "direct-to-video." I'm talking about that slightly overexposed, slightly too harshly lit look that uses 4000K+ white lighting. It's a product of this movie's incredibly low budget so I'm an idiot for even mentioning it, but I'm only mentioning it because the nighttime scenes (mostly) look great, but the daytime scenes look like that awful I Spit On Your Grave (2010) remake (which actually hit theaters, but had a similarly low budget... I'm rambling).

Overall, Curse of Chucky feels like a series revival for the Child's Play franchise. Though it's not as good as the original film, it honestly isn't that far off. I may rate this one higher during future rewatches. Curse of Chucky, which had a $5M budget, sold well in the home video market, earning $3.8M in the first month alone.

I can't remember...has shadow1 covered the Jaws movies? That would be interesting to cover. Start with what is considered one of, if not, the best horror movie of all-time, and end the reviews of the franchise with one of the worst movies of any genre of all time with Jaws: The Revenge.

No I haven't, I haven't seen any of the sequels... or rip-off sequels (like 1995's Cruel Jaws).

 

[Osprey]

What a breath of fresh air compared to the previous series entry, in which we were subjected to watching Chucky at the gas station of love using the self-service pump.

I already liked you a lot, but if you continue quoting Weird Al, I might have to propose.

 

[shadow1]

I already liked you a lot, but if you continue quoting Weird Al, I might have to propose.

All I can say is I'm a calligraphy enthusiast with a slight overbite and hair the color of strained peaches.