Rate the Last Movie You Saw

[sholloman81]

Finally got around to watching the first season of Yellowjackets. Glad I gave it a try as I thought it was fantastic. Loved the dueling timelines, and all of the actors were fantastic. Definitely haven't seen many shows like this on television. Will probably give season 2 a try soon. Am hoping that there isn't a noticeable decline in quality.

[Sock Monkey]

Man, I'm behind on posting these two, but I figured better late than never.

Halloween Horror Movie #14: THE BLACKCOAT'S DAUGHTER

This was a re-watch for me and I recalled being really impressed with the film when upon the initial viewing, but I think that the movie plays even better the second time around. Oz Perkins's tale about the creepy events surrounding two girls that are left behind in their boarding school over winter break relies mostly on atmosphere and the slowly building sense of dread. Couple that with a dash of editing time jumps (especially those during a pivotal reveal) can make the viewer focus on trying to figure things out versus let it wash over them, but on a second viewing with all of the guessing of what's going on out of the way (even though that is fun), I was just struck on how well-crafted the film was and how perfectly restrained Kiernan Shipka's performance is. The film is not for everyone (and it wasn't really for my wife), but those that appreciate these slow burns, it is a compelling film.

Grade: B+ (Watched on Blu-Ray, also streaming on Netflix)

Halloween Horror Movie #15: TALK TO ME

I had heard all kinds of buzz surrounding this film, the latest horror offering from A24, and was rather keen to check it out, saving it for the prestigious Halloween night slot (plans went sideways and we didn't get to watch it until November 1st, but I'm still counting it, darn it!). The film follows Mia, a teenage girl whose mother had committed suicide a couple years prior, who joins her friend and her friend's younger brother at a party where a severed, embalmed hand is used as a gateway to allow people to be possessed by the spirits of the dead. Mia allows herself to be possessed and then things go sideways. The first half of this movie is absolutely fantastic. There's an interesting amount of world-building, the effects used when a person is possessed are creepy and the possessions juxtaposed next to the rambunctious teenagers watching all this as if it is just a gag is unsettling. The premise is also an interesting metaphor for drug abuse. And when that violence hits, it really hits. Unfortunately, the second half seemed to muddy the mythology's waters quite a bit leaving me a little confused as to how each haunting element led to the next, taking me out of the film. Since a prequel was purportedly filmed concurrently with this one and a sequel also on the way, I'm sure more of the mythology is going to get ironed out. The first half was so solid that my grade is mostly based off of that.

Grade: B (Watched on Blu-Ray)

[dannyboy121070]

Five Nights at Freddies...

Well it was a movie which was too long. It was okay, a little empty, but decent enough. I think if they trimmed this down by 30 minutes I would have been much happier.

2 out of 5 stars.

There really isn't much to discuss with this one. A lot of head scratchers, assumptions, and lack of info lead to a miss. On a side note I have no idea about the video game this movie was developed from.

 My son has been crazy about the games for years, so we took him to see it last week. He loved it (He's since watched it again on Peacock), and I thought it was a lot better than I was expecting. Sadly, it was a LOT better than any of the Horror films I've seen in theaters this year (The new EXORCIST and INSIDIOUS films, along with a few others I've mercifully forgotten....). If you have Peacock, you can see it for free, so give it a try, if you're interested.

[Ben Staad]

I am on board with you. My frustration with Smile is that it could have been very good. It was there and so very close to being something memorable for a good reason.

Man, I actively hated SMILE. The contrast of my response to the movie versus the general consensus was so marked that I began to think I had been burned out on horror movies.

[Sock Monkey]

Finished up Smile after 2-3 days of watching on and off.

This was a big miss for me. There were ideas, scenes, and cinematic moments which were very good however they were all ruined by how the wrapped this one up. The ending was not ironic, smart, and did not contain an ounce of creativity. It honestly felt like the writer(s) just gave up and mailed it in.

The writer(s) should have at least taken a cue from Fallen.

1 out of 5 stars for me.

Leaving here in a few to go watch Five Nights at Freddies. I have no clue what I'm getting into with that one but will report back. A PG-13 horror movie likely doesn't have much teeth.

Man, I actively hated SMILE. The contrast of my response to the movie versus the general consensus was so marked that I began to think I had been burned out on horror movies.

[Sock Monkey]

Watched Stuart Gordon's "Dolls" for the first-time last night. Enjoyed the heck out of this one and am annoyed that I waited so long to see it. It really does feel like a horror fairytale. It has such a good horror-tonal feel to it from the setting to the sounds, and the look of the characters. You can tell that every last dollar ended up on-screen and that it was a blast to film. This movie really should have been a hit. Perhaps the Child's Play films took the wind out of this one which is a shame as they really are going for different things plot-wise and tonally. The ending also leaves it open for a sequel which I'm surprised never happened, especially as they do that to death now. Gordon really does these sorts of low-budget horror films as well as anyone and should have been a bigger name. Would love to have seen what he could do with a real budget, but perhaps that would have killed the charm/spirit of his productions.

The covers to DOLLS just used to freak me out. I've never seen the movie and, in fact, I think the only film I've seen by Gordon, not counting his two episodes of Masters of Horror, was EDMOND, which I remember liking when I first saw it, but don't know if I could vouch for it now. I have a blu of RE-ANIMATOR on the To Be Watched shelf, but it's been there for years at this point.

[sholloman81]

Watched Stuart Gordon's "Dolls" for the first-time last night. Enjoyed the heck out of this one and am annoyed that I waited so long to see it. It really does feel like a horror fairytale. It has such a good horror-tonal feel to it from the setting to the sounds, and the look of the characters. You can tell that every last dollar ended up on-screen and that it was a blast to film. This movie really should have been a hit. Perhaps the Child's Play films took the wind out of this one which is a shame as they really are going for different things plot-wise and tonally. The ending also leaves it open for a sequel which I'm surprised never happened, especially as they do that to death now. Gordon really does these sorts of low-budget horror films as well as anyone and should have been a bigger name. Would love to have seen what he could do with a real budget, but perhaps that would have killed the charm/spirit of his productions.

[sholloman81]

Five Nights at Freddies...

Well it was a movie which was too long. It was okay, a little empty, but decent enough. I think if they trimmed this down by 30 minutes I would have been much happier.

2 out of 5 stars.

There really isn't much to discuss with this one. A lot of head scratchers, assumptions, and lack of info lead to a miss. On a side note I have no idea about the video game this movie was developed from.

Have no desire to see this movie and had no idea it was based on a videogame which cements it further for me. Just something about the look of the film that turns me off. Glad to see that perhaps my bias is justified!

[Ben Staad]

Five Nights at Freddies...

Well it was a movie which was too long. It was okay, a little empty, but decent enough. I think if they trimmed this down by 30 minutes I would have been much happier.

2 out of 5 stars.

There really isn't much to discuss with this one. A lot of head scratchers, assumptions, and lack of info lead to a miss. On a side note I have no idea about the video game this movie was developed from.

[Ben Staad]

Finished up Smile after 2-3 days of watching on and off.

This was a big miss for me. There were ideas, scenes, and cinematic moments which were very good however they were all ruined by how the wrapped this one up. The ending was not ironic, smart, and did not contain an ounce of creativity. It honestly felt like the writer(s) just gave up and mailed it in.

The writer(s) should have at least taken a cue from Fallen.

1 out of 5 stars for me.

Leaving here in a few to go watch Five Nights at Freddies. I have no clue what I'm getting into with that one but will report back. A PG-13 horror movie likely doesn't have much teeth.

[Ben Staad]

Thank you for all those deep dives into the horror genre. So many interesting sounding films which I had never heard of before.

[Sock Monkey]

Typically for our Halloween viewing, we have a rule that at least one of us has to not have seen the film for it to be included in the viewing, but this year, or the day before Halloween, we decided to break that rule and pick two of our favorite horror movies to revisit.

Halloween Horror Movie #12: LAKE MUNGO

Released back in 2008 as part of the fourth year of After Dark Film's mostly forgotten "8 Films to Die For" series, this film just silently disappeared from sight. While it definitely was probably one of if not the best movie of all the After Dark films (though I do remember quite liking Dread), it did not quite fit into their mold. While most of the films were more in-your-face, Lake Mungo is the a low-key, quiet ghost story of a horror film. Presented as a documentary about the Palmer family's experiences after their daughter Alice mysteriously drowns at while swimming on an outing with her family. What happens is a winding trail of how a family both uncovers what was going on her with the teenage Alice before her death, but also how they work their way through their own grief. What makes the movie work so well is that it feels like a documentary. The film is mostly talking heads and their are not huge bouts of histrionics. Just a slow, deliberate pace and the creeping dread of the potential supernatural happenings. It's a movie that doesn't cheat the viewer and it's chills are not generated by jump scares, but by slow lingering reveals. I absolutely love this movie. It's a shame that the director has not done one since. Highly recommended for those that love their horror more on the quiet side.

Grade: A (Watched on DVD, but also streaming on Shudder)

Halloween Horror Movie #13: THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE

When I walked out the screening the first time I say this film at a festival, I was convinced that this would HUGE. This film about a father-and-son coroner team that has to determine the cause of death of physically unblemished corpse at a bloody crime scene only to find themselves way over their heads just worked for me on every level. All the characters are likeable, the hook is interesting, the mystery is involving, the scares work, and just overall, it is a fun rollercoaster ride of a film. Suffice to say I was a little bummed when it only did like $6 million at the box office. Maybe it needed a lot more of marketing push to get people into the seats or maybe my taste just runs counter to popular opinion. Either way, I never felt like the film got enough love, even though it seems to have found a second life on DVD/streaming. Man, I really like this film.

Grade: A (Watched on Blu-Ray, but also streaming on Shudder and, I believe, Hulu)

[Sock Monkey]

Halloween Movie #10: THE MEDIUM

A mockumentary that follows the events of a local shaman in the Islan region of Thailand, who is faced with mounting evidence that her niece may be slowly succumbing to a possession, the film does a great job of both weaving cultural specificity into its narrative but still being very accessible to foreign audiences. The movie is a slow burn, clocking in at just over two hours, and while this may be a challenge to some viewers and the possible death knell for other found footage/mockumentary films, the pace allows the film ample room to breathe and develop the various threads that weave through the narrative. While the ultimate trajectory of the movie--and some of its scares--are not too far removed from other films in the possession subgenre, it still provides some jolts along the way. Only a couple of awkward acting moments and the long-bemoaned complaint about found footage movies of why someone would continue to film when the proverbial crap hits the fan (and this movie has two moments that are pretty egregious and clearly to provide the gore money-shots), but overall, it was an fun rollercoaster ride and the actress playing the possessed niece really gives it her all.

Grade: B (Streaming on Shudder)

Halloween Movie #11: THREADS

Threads has built up one heck of a reputation since its initial BBC broadcast back in 1984. Crafted as a realistic take on the effects of nuclear war, the movie follows a family in Sheffield, England in the days leading up to a U.S./Russian nuclear exchange and the brutal ramifications on the town both due to the initial impact and the fallout that follows. There are a lot of television programs that had a big impact upon initial release yet find their power diluted as time passes, and I surely thought that Threads would fall victim to this as well as it surely couldn't be as bleak and disturbing as touted. I was wrong. This is one heck of a film. The first hour builds up this frantic tension leading up to the dropping of the nuclear bombs and then I was just shocked at just how brutal the film is moving forwards. The only possible drawback in recommending this film is that as the film progresses, especially in the last thirty minutes or so, it begins to jump weeks, months, and years into the future, becoming more a quick series of arthouse horror vignettes, which may turn off some viewers hoping for a more traditional narrative (as it did with my wife), but I found it captivating. Definitely not a horror movie in the traditional sense, it is still one that chills the viewer right to the bone.

Grade: A (Streaming on Shudder)

[Sock Monkey]

Halloween Movie #7: KILL LIST

Even mentioning the subgenre that Ben Wheatley's Kill List falls into ruins some of the fun of the film's twists and turns so I'll just say that the film involves two hitmen that begin to suspect something nefarious is going on behind the scenes during their latest assignment. I saw this film a few years ago and it holds up about the same. The film plays like a dysfunctional family drama for the first third before shifting into the hitman action angle during the second third and finally sliding into horror during its final fifteen minutes or so. I still enjoyed the friendship between the two hitmen and still thought the ending packs a punch. What's interesting is that this time I felt that one of the film's strengths--its ambiguity as to the where the film ends and what it all means--just as compelling, but this ambiguity and the film's rather abrupt ending also make the film's mythology rather slight. It's an angle that I'm rather torn on, but skew more towards liking it than not. Overall, the film is still an effective entry into the subgenre.

Grade: B (Watched it on DVD, but is also streaming on Shudder)

Halloween Movie #8: MOLOCH

After an excavation reveals the body of a woman buried in the bog near her house, a woman and her family are attacked by one of the excavators, leading the woman to unravel the mysteries that surround her and her family. I took a chance on this one after reading some middling reviews about it and I'm kinda glad I did. While there are a few notes of familiarity, the film takes some interesting twists and turns in its final act that make it a little more compelling. Once again, to talk it about too much would ruin the fun for anyone looking to give it watch, but if you are a fan of folk horror, then I'd say give this one a shot.

Grade: C+ (Streaming on Shudder)

Halloween Movie #9: BLACK DEATH

Sean Bean and a young Eddie Redmayne lead the cast in this film about a young monk (Redmayne) during the middle ages who agrees to guide a knight (Sean Bean) and his group to an isolated village in the neighboring woods that been purportedly spared the effects of the plague ravaging the country due to the work of an necromancer. While the film plays mostly like a medieval action drama, the final act allows the horror to seep into the film, while also deftly holding a mirror up to both the godly knights and the pagan town folk. Viewers going in looking for a full-blown horror movie will be disappointed, but otherwise it's a interesting film that expands the folk horror subgenre a little further in it's debate about Christianity versus paganism first begun in The Wicker Man.

Grade: B- (Watched on DVD)

[Sock Monkey]

Well, my posting has not kept up with my movie watching at all during this Halloween season, so I'm going to try to keep my reviews rather short.

Halloween Movie #4: MONSTER INSIDE: AMERICA'S MOST EXTREME HAUNTED HOUSE

I don't typically include documentaries in my Halloween viewing, but since Hulu presented this as part of their "Huluween" programming, I figured I'd slot it in. The documentary focuses on an "extreme haunt" called McKamey Manor, which the owner/operator Russ McKamey describes as a "survival horror boot camp experience," but the individuals in the documentary describe as more like torture. McKamey videotapes the sessions and posts them online, allowing the documentary to use that footage to show the Manor's participants being subjected to all kinds of unpleasantry, including stuff that is pretty darn close to waterboarding. There are interesting angles here for the documentary to explore, but unfortunately the doc seems to skirt along the surface of most topics. The evolution of the Manor is barely touched upon, along with no details as to why the Manor was forced to move from its last location, with the documentary citing simply that the "town made them move" or some such phrasing. Similar interesting avenues to explore like one person's journey from going to Manor to working with Russ McKamey to coming out against is brought up only for it be skimmed over. Even when the documentary tries to engage deeper into the subject like one person's military experience leaving them with PTSD and this urge to seek out extreme situations like McKamey Manor aren't really explored with any depth. The film was 87 minutes long, but it felt like very little was actually being said, except that the Manor is dangerous, which I have a hard time arguing with.

If you are interested in McKamey Manor, I highly recommend watching Haunters: The Art of the Scare instead. It includes a section on McKamey Manor and other extreme haunts and does more with less time.

Grade: C- (Streaming on Hulu)

Halloween Movie #5: DELIVERANCE

Now, I wouldn't necessarily classify DELIVERANCE as a horror movie, but it is at least horror-adjacent, touching on the subgenres of survival and backwoods horror, and without that particular scene (you know, the scene), it would be more of an action thriller, but, man, is that scene dark and brutal, especially considering that this film came out 51 years ago. For those that aren't familiar with the plot, the film follows four middle-aged professional men as they go on a canoe trip down a river before construction turns the whole area into a lake. Along the way, they wind up encountering some locals of the area and violence, both physical and sexual, is perpetrated on one of the men, leading to more bloodshed. Interestingly, as the quartet try to find their way back to civilization, the movie plays a lot more with ambiguity, causing the viewer to question whether they agree with the characters' perception of the events unfolding around them. Viewing a movie like this, one that permeated the pop culture and created a slew of imitators and knock-offs, its hard to understand the impact it must have had for viewers at the time of release. The movie still has some bite, though, and raises some interesting, if now familiar, questions about facade of the civilized man. It makes me want to read the book.

Grade: B (Watched it on Blu-Ray)

Halloween Movie #6: WHAT JOSIAH SAW

Twisted family secrets lay at the heart of this film that follows the three estranged Graham siblings as they have to face their collective past upon coming back to their father's farmhouse. The movie's strength is in its complete sense of oppressive dread and simmering violence that threatens to swallow everything, so talking about any plot points at all might just be too much. It's a pitch black movie that will definitely not be to everyone's flavor, but in a genre that can sometimes fall victim to a certain level of familiarity, the movie does offer something different. Both Robert Patrick and Nick Stahl are fantastic in the movie, but I was really taken aback by Kelli Garner as the the sister of the Graham family, whose performance is brimming with this manic desperation. Due to it's subject matter--this film goes DARK--it's hard to that it was enjoyable, but it was really well-crafted and would recommend it to those who like their psychological horror bleak.

Grade: B+ (Streaming on Shudder)