Rate the Last Movie You Saw

[sholloman81]

God bless Vinegar Syndrome. Those guys put out some incredibly weird and obscure stuff. Not a lot of it is in in my wheelhouse and the price points make it difficult for me to blind buy stuff, but I always keep a close eye on what they put out. Arrow tends to be my go-to, but occasionally VS and Severin will but out something that I just have to have. I picked up Penitentiary and Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff quite a while ago that is still in my To-Watch pile. I have been eyeing their Villages of the Damned set so I might need to pull the trigger on that one as well.

Yeah, I personally love me some Vinnegar Syndrome! Their stuff is usually right up my alley. I usually wait until one of their sales and then stock-up. So many of their titles are the kinds of movies that I used to rent at the local videostores with my dad when I was a kid. Those awesome covers in the horror/sci-fi sections would always draw us in and give us a reason to try some truly low-budget gems & trash. So many good memories...

As for the other half of the dual disc Blu-ray, "Schizoid", I enjoyed it a lot but was also extremely frustrated by it. For the positives: it had loads of cool kills, the right amount of T&A for these sorts of Giallo/mysteries, and a very cool cast with some unexpected surprises such as a very young Christopher LLoyd as well as a very young Donna Wilkes. What truly frustrated me and what holds it back from being a classic Imo is that they basically give away the killer at the beginning of the movie. They show a good quarter of his face. This is especially problematic as you are supposed to buy multiple female characters as potential options as the killer. No way was that face shown earlier in any way able to be passed of as potentially female. It looks exactly like the male actor who turned out to be the killer. Excluding this issue, which is a biggie for A Giallo, it's still a pretty cool film with lots going for it. Overall, I'm glad to have seen it and add this dual disc to the vinegar syndrome/horror section of my Blu-ray collection.

[Sock Monkey]

Recently picked-up the dual-feature Blu-ray of Schizoid/X-Ray as a part of a Vinnegar Syndrome sale. Had never heard of either film but decided to give it a go since it was on sale. Just got around to watching the first half, X-ray, and was very impressed. I mean, it's obviously low budget but there were tons of cool kills and the lead actress was very easy on the eyes. Also love hospitals as a horror film location. Really this film has just about every element you could ask for in a good 80's slasher. IMO, the biggest thing holding it back from being a true classic is that the main villain is so non-threatening looking. Just your basic crazy guy. Nevertheless, this film is still very enjoyable!

I plan to watch the second half, Schizoid, tonight. Hopefully, it will be as good as X-ray was!

God bless Vinegar Syndrome. Those guys put out some incredibly weird and obscure stuff. Not a lot of it is in in my wheelhouse and the price points make it difficult for me to blind buy stuff, but I always keep a close eye on what they put out. Arrow tends to be my go-to, but occasionally VS and Severin will but out something that I just have to have. I picked up Penitentiary and Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff quite a while ago that is still in my To-Watch pile. I have been eyeing their Villages of the Damned set so I might need to pull the trigger on that one as well.

[sholloman81]

Recently picked-up the dual-feature Blu-ray of Schizoid/X-Ray as a part of a Vinnegar Syndrome sale. Had never heard of either film but decided to give it a go since it was on sale. Just got around to watching the first half, X-ray, and was very impressed. I mean, it's obviously low budget but there were tons of cool kills and the lead actress was very easy on the eyes. Also love hospitals as a horror film location. Really this film has just about every element you could ask for in a good 80's slasher. IMO, the biggest thing holding it back from being a true classic is that the main villain is so non-threatening looking. Just your basic crazy guy. Nevertheless, this film is still very enjoyable!

I plan to watch the second half, Schizoid, tonight. Hopefully, it will be as good as X-ray was!

[Hermit]

looks like ive got a lot of catching up to watch specially some of the recent Stephen king movies. Im not an avid movie fan, I much prefer to watch serialised stuff. but I do want to have a look at The Boogeyman.

[Ben Staad]

I recently re-watched this as well. I enjoyed it even more the 2nd time around and caught a few DT easter eggs in it. I would give this a solid B+ and rather liked the adaption from the book.

Halloween Movie #3: DOCTOR SLEEP

Since we just watched THE SHINING, I figured the best follow-up would be the director's cut of the Mike Flanagan-directed sequel, DOCTOR SLEEP. On a side note, I did consider doing THE BOOGEYMAN, but the middling reviews kept me away. Anyways, while I wasn't a big fan of THE SHINING, my hopes were elevated for this one as I'm a big fan of Flanagan and tend to enjoy Ewan McGregor. I enjoyed picking up with young Danny Torrance and seeing where he wound up as an adult was compelling. Actually, I found all the stuff with adult Danny seeking sobriety and finding his place as "Doctor Sleep" very compelling and would have loved to live in that world a little bit longer. When the movie slides into its main plot with Abra and the True Knot, it feels a little disjointed from Danny's narrative, almost feeling more like a dark action movie. The movie works hard to marry those together, but I kinda feel if the story had stayed a smaller story in scope, dealing with just Danny, it would've been more powerful. Maybe watching this and THE SHINING close together didn't help. THE SHINING is claustrophobic and SLEEP becomes rather expansive, so maybe that created some dissonance for me. Also, save one particular scene, the movie isn't particularly scary. The True Knot are evil, but I never thought they were scary. I will say, though, that Rebecca Ferguson was fantastic in the movie.

It sounds like I didn't like the movie and that isn't necessarily the case. I rather enjoyed it and would probably be more likely to revisit it than Kubrick's THE SHINING. I guess I enjoyed more of the character study of the adult Danny more than I did the psychic vampire stuff. Grade: B[/QUOTE]

[Sock Monkey]

I've been working my way through the requisite annual Halloween horror movie viewings. I decided to kick this year off with a trio of Stephen King adaptations.

Halloween Movie #1: 1408

It's been a very long time since I watched 1408, but I do remember liking it when it first came out back in 2007. Being both a John Cusack and horror movie fan, this one was primed for me to enjoy. That being said, this time around, watching Cusack's cynical Mike Enslin endure his time in the titular hotel room just didn't do that much for me. It's not necessarily a bad movie. There were still elements that I enjoyed, but this time I found Enslin's backstory to rather perfunctory. This could be the jaded horror fan in me, but I also didn't find any of the hauntings scary. The room didn't feel evil as much as it did just an overbearing bully. It's by far not a bad movie and I definitely reserve the right to switch positions on subsequent viewing, but this time around it was pretty much just a "meh." Grade: C

Halloween Movie #2: THE SHINING

Stanley Kubrick's film has the distinction of both being famous and infamous. Famous for being considered one of the scariest horror movies of all times, while also being infamous for how much King despised this adaptation. I had always thought that I'd seen the movie, but after finally sitting down to watch it, I think I've just seen bits and pieces of it throughout the years. As for my thoughts about Kubrick's take on the Torrance family's ordeal at the Overlook Hotel? Well, I'm of two minds.

On one hand, the film is a technical masterpiece. The direction, sound design, and editing are simply astounding. For example, the rhymical sound of Danny riding his bike over the hard floors of the Overlook hotel, followed by the muffled sound as bike's tires hit the rugs, and then back to hard again has this uncanny ability to both immerse and unsettle. It's truly a great film to watch from a technical perspective. On the other hand, like some other Kubrick films I've watched, I find the movie cold and detached. I want to care about the Torrances, but I just never seem to make the leap while watching the movie. There's a lot of complaints that Nicholson plays Jack Torrance as crazy from the beginning, which I tend to disagree with. Where the movie struggles with Jack's character as they never make him at least a little likeable. Even in the car ride up to the Overlook, he's pretty much a jerk, so there is no tragedy as he succumbs to the Overlook, but rather the movie elicits a mental shrug of "Well, you shoulda known that was coming, Wendy." I will also go on the record in saying that Kubrick's ending of the movie is just so anti-climatic compared to the book and that last shot of Jack is rather ridiculous.

I will say that I picked up the new 4K version of the film on a pretty good deal on Amazon and the movie looks beautiful. Occasionally movies will get these upgrades, especially from blu-ray to 4k, and it just really doesn't make that much of a difference, but the picture on this was so good, especially for a movie this old. I can't compare it to any previous blu-ray releases as this is my first purchase of the film, but I can say that I was very impressed.

If I was grading the movie on the technical merits, I'd give it an A. On the story, I'd go a C. So my overall...Grade: C+ (I like technical stuff on films, but it never trumps story and character for me).

Halloween Movie #3: DOCTOR SLEEP

Since we just watched THE SHINING, I figured the best follow-up would be the director's cut of the Mike Flanagan-directed sequel, DOCTOR SLEEP. On a side note, I did consider doing THE BOOGEYMAN, but the middling reviews kept me away. Anyways, while I wasn't a big fan of THE SHINING, my hopes were elevated for this one as I'm a big fan of Flanagan and tend to enjoy Ewan McGregor. I enjoyed picking up with young Danny Torrance and seeing where he wound up as an adult was compelling. Actually, I found all the stuff with adult Danny seeking sobriety and finding his place as "Doctor Sleep" very compelling and would have loved to live in that world a little bit longer. When the movie slides into its main plot with Abra and the True Knot, it feels a little disjointed from Danny's narrative, almost feeling more like a dark action movie. The movie works hard to marry those together, but I kinda feel if the story had stayed a smaller story in scope, dealing with just Danny, it would've been more powerful. Maybe watching this and THE SHINING close together didn't help. THE SHINING is claustrophobic and SLEEP becomes rather expansive, so maybe that created some dissonance for me. Also, save one particular scene, the movie isn't particularly scary. The True Knot are evil, but I never thought they were scary. I will say, though, that Rebecca Ferguson was fantastic in the movie.

It sounds like I didn't like the movie and that isn't necessarily the case. I rather enjoyed it and would probably be more likely to revisit it than Kubrick's THE SHINING. I guess I enjoyed more of the character study of the adult Danny more than I did the psychic vampire stuff. Grade: B

[Ben Staad]

Fantastic. I will keep an eye out for it. Looking forward to tracking this down and watching it.

[brlesh]

Sounds cool. I hadn't heard of that one. My local theater isn't very robust with it's selections.

Same here.  
I don’t know if it’s due to the Hollywood strikes, but my movie theater rarely runs these indie, foreign horror movies.
When I saw this was playing I jumped on it, as it was in & out in less than a week.
B

 

[brlesh]

I caught this one at Fantastic Fest a few weeks back and I agree that no punches are pulled in this flick. There's that scene--I mean, THE scene--that literally sent a jump and a gasp through a theater full of pretty hardened horror fans. Though liked the movie overall, I did have a few small quibbles with the movie, but I'll wait until I post my review when I finally get around to doing all of them from the festival.

I do agree with you in that I would absolutely recommend the film for horror fans. My minor quibbles aside, I was engaged all the way through.

Yeah, I left the theater thinking ‘damn, I need to see that again’.
 Certainly some things that didn’t line up.
But all in all, it’s been a long time since I’ve left a movie theater with this kind of visceral reaction to a horror movie.
B

[Sock Monkey]

Sounds cool. I hadn't heard of that one. My local theater isn't very robust with it's selections.

I believe it's going to start streaming on Shudder beginning October 27th. If you haven't checked out the director's previous movie TERRIFIED, I enjoyed that one quite a bit as well.

[Sock Monkey]

Saw When Evil Lurks the other night.

Damn, talk about a movie that doesn’t hold back.

Filmed in Argentina (subtitled), it’s about two brothers that find out that a demon (a rotten) is trying to manifest in their small town, and then doing everything possible wrong to prevent that manifestation.

The last time I left a theater with similar feelings about a movie was with Hereditary, though WEL didn’t have the bloated feeling I felt at times with Hereditary.

From the first scene to the last, every scene propels the story line forward.

No bloat in this film, as it’s 100 minute run time flies by!

Highly recommended if you are looking for a horror movie on the disturbing end of the spectrum.

B

I caught this one at Fantastic Fest a few weeks back and I agree that no punches are pulled in this flick. There's that scene--I mean, THE scene--that literally sent a jump and a gasp through a theater full of pretty hardened horror fans. Though liked the movie overall, I did have a few small quibbles with the movie, but I'll wait until I post my review when I finally get around to doing all of them from the festival.

I do agree with you in that I would absolutely recommend the film for horror fans. My minor quibbles aside, I was engaged all the way through.

[Ben Staad]

Sounds cool. I hadn't heard of that one. My local theater isn't very robust with it's selections.

Saw When Evil Lurks the other night.

Damn, talk about a movie that doesn’t hold back.

Filmed in Argentina (subtitled), it’s about two brothers that find out that a demon (a rotten) is trying to manifest in their small town, and then doing everything possible wrong to prevent that manifestation.

The last time I left a theater with similar feelings about a movie was with Hereditary, though WEL didn’t have the bloated feeling I felt at times with Hereditary.

From the first scene to the last, every scene propels the story line forward.

No bloat in this film, as it’s 100 minute run time flies by!

Highly recommended if you are looking for a horror movie on the disturbing end of the spectrum.

B

[brlesh]

Saw When Evil Lurks the other night.

Damn, talk about a movie that doesn’t hold back.

Filmed in Argentina (subtitled), it’s about two brothers that find out that a demon (a rotten) is trying to manifest in their small town, and then doing everything possible wrong to prevent that manifestation.

The last time I left a theater with similar feelings about a movie was with Hereditary, though WEL didn’t have the bloated feeling I felt at times with Hereditary.

From the first scene to the last, every scene propels the story line forward.

No bloat in this film, as it’s 100 minute run time flies by!

Highly recommended if you are looking for a horror movie on the disturbing end of the spectrum.

B

[Ben Staad]

I watched 7500 on some free app this weekend. This was an action/thriller regarding an attempted plane hijacking. Intense, brutal, and done very well. Tied my stomach into knots at several moments and I really reacted to the film. 4 out of 5 stars.

[Ben Staad]

Very cool. Hope you had a great time.

In the midst of Day 3 of four at Fantastic Fest and just finished watching Saw X. If you’re a Saw fan then you’ll probably lije this one. I’ll post a more detailed review after the festival and my vacation wraps up.