Slotherhouse is possibly my favorite of the year
I give it three toes up!
#RushSloth #KillerSloth
Influencer was a decent indie spooker, fresh faces, nice soundtrack reminiscent to some of the 2012 era songs I would find while browsing Soundcloud, makes use of trendy tech of now, parts of it reminded me of Shutter and Cast Away, I'd give it a Yes
Come get some!
Evil Dead Rise was a bloodbath! It's a vicious non-stop roller coaster ride all the way, and I enjoyed every bit of it. Aside from the Ash vs Evil Dead show, it's possibly the bloodiest of the past films thus far, practical effects galore, with the fresh grittiness of the previous 2013 entry, Evil Dead. A person sitting to the right for me was a bit skirmish by some of the body horror that occurred, so the film is definitely doing what it's set out to do. I was smiling and nodding much of the way through at how dark, creepy, and gruesome some of the scenes were. Maybe not to the level of The Sadness (2021 Taiwanese spooker), but still pretty well done. Alyssa Sutherland (Ellie) and Lily Sullivan (Beth) did grate :wink: and I look forward to seeing more of their work in future films. To have most of the event take place within the old LA-based apartment building reminds me of a lot of other spookers like Argento's Demons films, Child's Play, Rosemary's Baby, and even some Archive 81 with the extended lore. Some of the hallway, elevator scenes, and a child in mind remind me a lot of The Eye 2, Dark Water, and The Shining while the parking level was like P2 (2007 holiday horror). I did enjoy some of the punchlines from the character dialogue, especially from Kassie. I and few others in the theater couldn't help but giggle and laugh at some of the lines while still maintaining some of the bleakness of the 2013. A few nods here and there to past Evil Dead films are noted, which is always nice. Though, I was expecting to see more lore about the past of the building like what happened in the later half of Archive 81 (which had sadly been cancelled by Netflix). You can definitely see the contrast of how the family is like at the beginning to how they are like by the end of the film. Having this Evil Dead entry focus on a family is a good direction for the franchise that I feel would hit home for a lot of folks, so I'm glad they went this route. It would also pave way for even more strange hellish (Silent Hill-like) deadite designs for future iterations. By now, I've already heard and seen interviews with the cast members stating how some of the alternate endings would've been like, some of which didn't make it to the final cut of the film, but I'm hoping they would add them to the Blu-ray release at some point. Otherwise, I look forward to even grater Evil Dead films in the future! :cheese::cat:
F*CK SPACE!
Kids vs Aliens was a blast! It was everything I was expecting from the V/H/S/2 segment with even more neon, Nickelodeon slime, monsties, and post-The Goonies/The Gate/Fire in the Sky/Stranger Things action! :space_invader: Expect a lot of F-bombs and practical effects. It would be cool to see Sam meet up with Sienna (from Terrifier 2) within a crossover realm of indie spookers ⚔
Just got back from The Super Mario Bros. Movie, 'twas a FUNtastic family film, lots of neat Easter eggs for life-long fans of the old-school (like myself)! :spades: Having Jack Black cast as Bowser is probably one of the best things about this because character-wise they match so well (along the rock music which made me think of his band Tenacious D and School of Rock). Charles Martinet voiced a couple of side characters as well; sharp listeners will know whom :wink:. I always thought that if they could make an original animated film like Wreck-It Ralph, imagine if there would be a new Mario movie in similar fashion; well finally this would be it. This time, Illumination with Nintendo's involvement, it's done just right. I grew up with the games, the Super Show animated series (along with Captain N and Legend of Zelda), as well as the 1993 live-action Super Mario Bros. movie, so having the Mario Rap at the beginning couldn't have been more perfect. This 2023 reboot is more in line with the 1986 Japanese animated film, Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach but done in modern 3D-CG style. The pacing is a bit on the quick side, but I think it works well to keep the audience, especially the younger ones, more attentive, as there's always something happening, with a couple of resting points here and there. The music cues were on point, and I think original games' composer Koji Kondo must be proud to hear each of the classic melodies orchestrated as each character and areas are introduced on screen. There are some licensed classic 80s pop/rock songs thrown in too for general fun (The Beastie Boys, A-HA, Bonnie Tyler). Story-wise, it's as simple as one would expect where the hero(es) fights the villain, resulting in a satisfying ending much like recent video game related films such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Pokémon: Detective Pikachu. NES era references can be spotted like Kid Icarus, Punch-Out!!, Wrecking Crew, Pauline (from Donkey Kong), Duck Hunt, Ice Climbers, as well as the Arwing from (Star Fox), Luigi's ringtone is the GameCube intro, DK Rap from Donkey Kong 64, Super Mario Bros. 3/World/64/Sunshine/Galaxy/Odyssey, and of course the Mario Kart series. There were even some older Nintendo references in there like the Nintendo Playing Cards Spade logo on one of the buildings, "Help Me, Jump Man", and a "Disk-kun" on one of the shops which is a reference to the Famicom Disk System. There's also a mid-credits and a little something at the end of the credits, so stick around for those. :egg::star:
- knocks on door seven times * :door:
Knock at the Cabin was alright for me, simple but still an interesting topic; good to see on a Sunday as it taps on certain beliefs, but I probably won't see it again for a long time.. a couple of amusing moments though, and mentions of Boston/Massachusetts, and I noticed Shyamalan's been using those second-person shots lately like in Old and Servant ⛱
There were moments where it reminded me a bit of American Ninja (1985) and the Hannibal TV series, and then Bryan Fuller's name scrolls up during the Special Thanks credit hah, pretty fun but okay watch :deer:
Catching the original classic '54 Godzilla on Shout! Factory TV just now hosted by John Carpenter as part of the Masters of Monsters marathon for Godzilla Day! (November 3, 2022).
I've seen the US cut with the typical inaccurate English dub back when it aired on TV in the early 90s which I believe was a marathon on the TNT channel. Really neat to see it again in its original uncut Japanese form, thanks to the recent remaster/edit from Criterion. As Carpenter mentioned, it's a great representation of the post-war "somber" portrayed on film. :popcorn::dragon_face:
We're continuing Masters of Monsters on ShoutFactoryTV's Twitch tomorrow with Rodan (1956) and Carpenter commentary!
Loved it! Gore, lore, Art, and music from The Midnight and Miami Nights 1984 :sunglasses: I paired Terrifier 2 (currently on Screambox) along with the new Simpsons Treehouse of Horror XXXIII (on Hulu) tonight and found a couple of coincidences :clown::knife::gun::hamster::jack_o_lantern:
These Halloween films will always be a mixed bag, like a bag of Halloween candy. I thought it was fine; plot-wise probably not everyone's cup of tea, and I recognized a few surprising faces that appeared in Ends that probably would fly over folks' heads (original actor for The Shape and Darcy :wink:), some neat little details and references sprinkled in there (transition of the jack-o-lantern pumpkins in the classic style intro, The Thing '82 on TV, old photos from the '78, reflections on the knife and blood, key notes on the piano, camerawork). Overall, I still think the trilogy of sequel films is a nice alternative timeline told by Blumhouse, and it was just neat to see one way of how one would tell an ending to this story.
Lock the doors or let
himitevil inside :knife:
Anyway, I'm already waiting for there to be a Season of the Witch trilogy! :jack_o_lantern::mage::skull:
Prey was prey-ty decent and met my expectations knowing the premise. I would place it at third, Predator '87 still best and Predator 2 at number two (big fan of them as a kid), then the others after, and there's one cool connection in Prey to the older film that I'm glad about that most probably won't catch :gun:
Watching in Comanche language reminded me of another similar film with native action, The Dead Lands (2014), got it on Blu-ray, which I think was one of the first in Maori language. This one's definitely different, but I didn't notice it using the iconic Predator theme at all, could be the audio selection. One scene also reminded me of The NeverEnding Story (1984), you'll know once you get to it :wink:
Good thing I decided to watch Rumble today as I solved today's Wordle! Owe it to this King :dog: #RumbleMovie #ParamountPlus
The Summit of the Gods is a definite yes for me :white_check_mark: I've always been fascinated by French animation, and this one offered something different with a great message at the end, left me teary-eyed. The art/animation style and soundtrack are great. It features an old-fashioned camera (obscura?); at least I think it's a more compact camera obscura since I've been replaying a Fatal Frame game as of late. :camera: It also reminded me a bit of Cursed Mountain, the survival horror game on Wii, that I played and live-streamed on an old streaming site (Ustream) back when the game launched in 2009 and was among the first to upload gameplay footage of it (on YouTube). But yeah, this one pairs nicely with A Boy Called Christmas, both are on Netflix. There was also the 2015 Everest if you want more like this story and feel (in live-action) starring Jason Clarke, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Josh Brolin - the three J's! :sweat_smile: and the 2016 live-action take on the manga that this was based on called Everest: The Summit of the Gods :snow_capped_mountain:
It's a slow one, more on the drama side with close to no action, some pop references thrown in (Bram Stoker's Dracula, Blade), nice visuals though and lots of neon, so unless that's what you're looking for, have at it. Two of these actors could go well as Leon and Ada Wong for the live-action Resident Evil movie. Night Teeth is another one to pair this up with, kinda similar, but not sure if I should.. sink my teeth into it hah. Meanwhile season three of What We Do In The Shadows tho :eyes:
They really set the tone for the 90s slasher film right from the get go; very Scream and Urban Legends style mixed with Goosebumps, and rightfully so because director Leigh Janiak did a couple of episodes of the Scream TV series. I find it to be a perfect fit for this three-part Fear Street film series based on the books by RL Stine. The pacing is great, keeps you interested throughout, but do expect the typical horror tropes of this era. I was able to spot a Stephen King novel and a few of the Fear Street books (as Robert Lawrence aka RL Stine :wink:) in that book store, a Nintendo Game Boy at school, Josh using AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), wearing an Iron Maiden shirt, playing Castlevania on Sega Genesis, and soundtrack included songs from Nine Inch Nails, Garbage, Radiohead, Cypress Hill, The Prodigy, White Zombie. It was oozing with 90s nostalgia, even if they were inaccurate with them. I liked the use of colors reds and blues, and the lighting for the night time scenes. I won't say much about the story, but these three films do involve going through different periods of time which I find really intriguing. The end of 1994 got me really excited for the next two installments which will have us go to a 1978 camp setting :camping: and then 1666 when the cursed started :mage:. That's also what I noticed on the movie poster art is that each of the weapons represents the generation or year that each of films are set in. It's a fun one, so I recommend watching this (and the rest of the trilogy) with a friend who also enjoys spooky time if you can. :knife:
Superdeep definitely had The Thing vibes and reminded me of other similar ones like The Void, Alien vs Predator, and a little bit of Pandorum. I'm super glad Shudder picked this up 'cause the premise sounded super intriguing. The directing style and soundtrack was interesting, and the practical special effects were very well done. Expect a lot of dark scenes and lots of red. Be warned, it's a slow-paced sci-fi spooker (all the S'! :sweat_smile:), but still an interesting and solid one from Russia. The English dub matched the characters well though.
I watched this new Conjuring on June 6th, 6PM :smiling_imp: thanks to HBO Max! It has a more detective-y mystery vibe going here kind of like what they had in The Conjuring 2 film except it takes place in Massachusetts (my area :sweat_smile:). At least you get to see more of the Warrens and a peak of the couple's history in this. I noticed a lot of reds used in this whereas the first Conjuring was yellow, and the second Conjuring was blue, primary colors, which is quite symbolic for the trilogy. The red may have symbolized the love/passion, and I noticed some of that in the characters here. There was an under-the-house scene that made me think of Dead Silence (2007), the James Wan film. Objects that spawned the spin-off films can be spotted in the cursed objects room of course. A popular 80s song by Blondie is played in one of the scenes too. :telephone_receiver::wink: Overall, this was alright! I think my favorite of the series is probably still the first or second one.
My friends and I (safely) saw A Quiet Place II yesterday, and it was as good as the first one! It's been a while since we've been to the theater to see a movie. The last one we saw was Sonic the Hedgehog (February 2020), so it was nice to be back in my local theater again (even though there were only about ten other people in the room hah :sweat_smile:). We saw the first film in the theater the weekend it came out in April 2018, and it was definitely one that is best experienced in a theater full of people because of the fantastic use of sound for the film :shushing_face:. (I'll need to write a comment/review for that first Quiet if I ever plan to rewatch it). So we're greeted with a thank you message from John Krasinki thanking the audience for coming out to see the film in theaters which was nice. Oh, there was also a trailer for Old which is the new one from M Night Shyamalan, and it looks really interesting! This one has just about the right amount of tension and feels as the first Quiet. Though for the story, it is highly recommended to watch the first Quiet before seeing part II so you know what the characters have to deal with and how they approach the situation using certain techniques and strats. Emily Blunt still plays the strong mother who does her absolute best to protect her children. It still has those The Walking Dead vibes and even a little more Stranger Things vibes now because of the kids who are integral to this entry and the choices they make. I noticed the duality during the tense moments, and how the scenes from two of the characters were edited together; This occurred twice in the film which was significant for this second installment. Again, I really like the use of sound and the song that plays repeatedly on the radio now has a meaning. There's a bit more action going on in this one than what I remember from the first Quiet, well paced, definitely more body counts for sure. I like where the story and the characters are headed so far. If they ever do a third installment, I hope we see the characters reunite to close it up as a trilogy or maybe a fourth since there are still four family members. :wink: Oh, and we saw this in Showcase XPlus for the Dolby Atmos surround sound experience. :sound:
I watched this yesterday and live-tweeted along with the producers and cast of the film with hashtag #RunFilm. Run is a decent suspenseful thriller about a mother and (a disabled) daughter; that reminds me very much of Castle Rock season two (both of which are Hulu originals) and a little bit of Curse of Chucky. There are plenty of neat references to other Stephen King related things within this film that you might catch on your own. :wink: Having just finished watching The Queen's Gambit (Netflix) and seeing Run, I noticed the use of green pills again making it a great segue between the two (one of those coincidences again, I tells ya!). Also, note that there's a deliberate use of the colors green and purple too, so keep a look out on that. :purple_heart: Sarah Paulson (mother) was wonderful in this, and so was new-face, Kiera Allen (daughter).
Pretty fun, but not outstanding; reflects on older properties like The Lost Boys (1987) in a hood setting like Attack the Block (2011) and a few awkward moments thrown in. One of the kids is seen reading Salem's Lot (Stephen King novel), and they watch Blade (1998). The vampires here aren't very bright (no pun intended) and are defeated easily. I was a bit surprised to see Sarah Gadon though, who I last saw and admired very much in season two of Castle Rock. :heart_eyes:
There once was a little girl
who had a little curl
right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good, she was very, very good,
but when she was bad, she was horrid.
I like the smooth transitions from character to character, scene to scene. It definitely has some Home Alone and John Wick vibes. Each of the kill scenes has this percussive rapid heart-beating score attached to it and fits so well. Kevin James plays the lead goon and it was interesting seeing him take on a serious role.
I loved the contrast between the two brothers here. I teared up more times now as an adult with a better understanding than I did when I saw it as a younging. The change in Tom Cruise's character through the course of the film along with Raymond (Rain Man)'s dialogue just gets me in the feels every step of the way. It's very similar to I Am Sam (2001) and Heart of Dragon (1985) both of which I also haven't seen for over fifteen years. I admire the scenes in Las Vegas with the typical shimmering "sparkly" city night lights and the view of the sunset across the city through the apartment window. I dream of going there someday and spending time with a special someone and connecting with them. The soundtrack is really nice too, especially the main theme from Hans Zimmer, having a calming melodic flute lead and tribal percussive drums just add to the atmosphere. Prepare for an emotional ride before diving into this one folks. :heart_exclamation::cry:
My friends and I saw the Sonic the Hedgehog movie yesterday and we enjoyed it! I'm so glad the portrayal of Sonic was spot on, and that the delay to redesign the look of the character for the film was worthwhile. It was great seeing Jim Carrey back on the big screen and doing silly things. Though the pacing was zig-zaggy through the first half of the film, a few played-out jokes thrown in, but it amps up with some good action and fanfare later. Seeing Sonic go against Jim Carrey (Robotnik) was the best part! It's definitely a fun family-friendly film with a good message. I spotted a few hidden Easter Eggs and references including the classic emblem from the games, a Sega Saturn logo, and a little piano melody of the Green Hill Zone theme. Mid credits scene had me hopping out of my chair clapping and shouting the name of a familiar character and stoked for a possible sequel. :fox: For a video game adaptation, it's decent and worth seeing if you're a fan of SEGA/Sonic the Hedgehog or even enjoyed similar films like Detective Pikachu. Also,
"Guac!"
:santa::mrs_claus: Saw this one on Vudu. I was expecting a more modern-looking version of Christmas Evil or Silent Night Deadly Night and it turns out to be as bad as I thought it would. The killer Santa in this film did not look like how he does on the cover, but he does use an axe like the other films. I think what's important with these killer Santa films is the look of the characters. The beard especially was just a normal gray beard which wasn't very Santa-like. However, there is a killer Mrs. Claus in this one who resembles a holiday Harley Quinn so much; crazy pig-tied blonde hair and she uses a bat! So the duo would go on a slashing spree together like Joker and Harley. They don't even go by the naughty or nice trope in this. The one thing I did find kind of interesting was, as the mystery unfolds much later, how the killers killed in numbers and counting by the Christmas carol, 12 Days of Christmas. The end result isn't all that great, but the highlight for me was definitely the holiday Harley Quinn style Mrs. Claus. Next up on the naughty list, I guess I'll check out Santa's Slay (2005).
In some ways, this Itsy Bitsy reminds of The Babadook where a single mother deals with stress while moving into a new home with her child(ren). Add Dark Water, The Ring, and Lights Out to that too, I guess. I like the added "legend" behind the spider. The son reminds me of one of my cousin's sons; good intentions and has to take care of his little sister who happens to be afraid of spiders. This is something I would tell friends (who are afraid of spiders) about, haha. The creature may not be as big as the ones in Eight Legged Freaks nor normal-sized like in Arachnophobia, but large enough to be "unusual size"; what I would call, A.O.U.S. (arachnids of unusual size). Bruce Davison looks so different now, I couldn't even recognize him until credits rolled. The one familiar face I did recognize was the actor who plays the kid who works in the arcade in Stranger Things and that Skittles commercial. It's a decent indie spooker with neat practical effects for the creature and some body horror. Though it sort of suffers a bit with its much focus on the human drama aspect than the horror itself. There's potential but I hope a sequel would be better if they ever make one.
I stumbled upon this one night and thought the title was interesting, had a pretty good rating on IMDb, so I gave it a go. I love concepts like this that involves some sort of haunted art or painting; been done many times before (Velvet Buzzsaw, Killer Toon), but this one actually kept me entertained. It's got the blood, gore, humor, blonde babes, some weird sex, and trippy sequences with some neat practical effects. They made use of different elements such as fire, water, smoke. The b-horror style made it seem almost like an adult version Are You Afraid of the Dark episode. I like how each of the paintings are representative of a deadly sin and called the "Sinsation" series which sure sounds like an adult entertainment label. The acting is laughable, but I liked how it all came together in the end though in terms of plot. And I've never seen end credits that show fading solid color background in this fashion and a hilarious "No thanks to" section. Worth a watch.
Don't touch the art! :punch: (punch sound)
wakey wakey :sleeping:
My friends and I have been on a Stephen King tip all year long having seen It Chapter Two and Pet Sematary earlier this year, In The Tall Grass on Netflix, and the new season of Castle Rock on Hulu. We decided to see Doctor Sleep opening night and I find it to be quite an interesting concept which turned out to be both an adaptation of the sequel book of the same title as well as a tie-in sequel to the Kubrick classic, The Shining. This one has more of an emphasis on the shining ability and takes place when Danny Torrance is already an adult; and that's all you really need to know going in. I was steadily drawn in by the dark and eerie atmosphere throughout the film accompanied with the heartbeat sound in the score thumping hastily and slowly. It has a lot of callbacks to many of the iconic moments in The Shining (1980) film with scenes re-shot and some (re)done in such meaningful ways. One of those blink and you'll miss it things, but I was able to catch one little Easter Egg, a 217 on one of the doors which is a reference to the room number of the Stanley Hotel (that the Overlook was based on for the novel). I also want to point out that Abra is a RWBY fan seeing that she had posters on the wall and figure by the bed. Fans know that Stephen King loves his Maine a lot, and I've noticed in these adaptations lately that they've been referencing Massachusetts (or New England) a lot which is where I'm from!
Overall a decent sequel story that expands on the lore of the Stephen King multiverse/universe and pays homage to the original The Shining film. It was fun revisiting the Overlook again in a new way. 40 years is quite some time, and the popular film had been referenced and parodied in so many different media since. I still remember the fantastic segment in The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror V episode (aka The Shinning), and I remember how surprisingly tongue-in-cheek it was when it was done for Ready Player One (2018) film. Though don't expect Kubrick style directing here; the pacing felt as if it could have been a quality TV series for Hulu or Netflix, more along the lines of The Haunting of Hill House. In fact it's the same director, Mike Flanagan (who is also from Massachusetts), and even stars one of the actresses who played youngest daughter in The Haunting of Hill House. He had also done the other Stephen King adaptation, Gerald's Game, and other notable horror films in the past like Oculus and the Ouija prequel. There were other faces I later recognized including adult Danny, who is played by Ewan McGregor (of Star Wars and Moulin Rouge fame), Travis from Fear the Walking Dead, and The Giant from Twin Peaks!
If I were to sum this one with a quote from the film, it would be:
taste like whiskey :tumbler_glass:
Predictable, but at least there were some cute faces. I do like some of the songs they played for a few scenes. I'm trying to find who they are by even though they weren't in the end credits.
If Breakfast Club turned into a slasher horror film, this would be it.
Brett and Erica are perfect for each other.:wink:
This one is like B-movie level of a Black Mirror episode. It's got cloning, near-future technology, and of course, murder. :smiling_imp:
Right away, I noticed the actress who plays the mom is (Samantha Mathis) the one that played Daisy in the Super Mario Bros. movie and in The Strain (season two?). I like that the son is a weird artistic type (but also psychotic) and we get to see some nice drawings (usually done by someone else for the props). I also like that there's a secondary love-interest whose name was Marissa (I like that name :wink:). Though to no surprise, this story comes off as predictable. About 12 minutes in, I was able to guess what was gonna happen and it did! (I thought to myself that the son would be cloned, and of course it happened at the very end.)