Funny Games [Psychological - Home Invasion]
Santa Sangre [Psychological - Fanaticism] Session 9 [Psychological - Phobia & Isolation]
Berberian Sound Studio [Psychological - Madness & Paranoia]
The Howling [Monster - Werewolf]
Thirst [Monster - Vampire]
Day of the Dead [Monster - Undead]
The Fog [Monster - Animals & Nature]
The Battery [Monster - Virus] Critters [Monster - Small Creatures]
Dracula [Monster - Classic]
Them! [Monster - Giant Monsters] Creature from the Black Lagoon [Monster - Neo Monster]
Invasion of the Body Snatchers [Monster - Aliens]
The Perfection [Gore - Torture]
Phantasm [Gore - Splatter]
The Neon Demon [Gore - Cannibal]
Ichi the Killer [Gore - Extreme]
Possession [Paranormal - Possession]
Midsommar [Paranormal - Witches & Occult]
Carrie [Paranormal - Supernatural]
The Haunting [Paranormal - Haunted House]
The Beyond [Paranormal - Devil/Demon/Hell]
Tigers Are Not Afraid [Paranormal - Ghost & Spirits]
The Hills Have Eyes [Killer - Backwoods & Redneck]
Peeping Tom [Killer - Slasher]
Opera [Killer - Crime & Giallo]
One Cut of the Dead [Misc - Meta]
The Love Witch [Misc - Horror Romance] Pet Sematary [Misc - Creepy Kid]
The Skin I Live In [Misc. - Body Horror]
Irreversible [Misc - Revenge] Creepshow [Misc - Anthology]
Inside [Misc - French Extremity]
Vampire's Kiss [Misc - Comedy Horror] As Above, So Below [Misc - Found Footage]
Dracula [Misc - Gothic Horror]
Beyond the Black Rainbow [Misc - SciFi Horror] Pulse [Misc - Technology]
So fun fact, I realized about a quarter through this movie that I had seen the American remake back when I was a kid. I think I tucked it away into my memory as just another one of those bad 2000's horror movies.
I thought the concept was really heavy. I'm starting to realize that old Japanese horror has very slow pacing to it. Ringu and Ju-On are the same way. This movie has some very disturbing and dark visuals but doesn't really care too much about big horror moments rather than creating a type of atmosphere. It's very bleak and depressing but then the end still leaves some feeling of hope which prevents it from being a straight up BUMMER. It's basically just a movie talking about death, suicide, purpose. Unlike the remake, the dead feel less like demons/monsters and more so spirits or ghost stuck in the physical realm. I enjoyed it as a movie with something to say, but can't say it'll ever be one of my favorites. It's almost TOO slow for my taste with little payoff and a bit repetitive.
Critters
+
Last year we watched Gremlins, this year is Critters. I'm not looking forward to our small creatures pick next year. I wasn't BLOWN away by Gremlins. I thought it was a bit too hokey and I wasn't invested in any of the main characters. I did, however, enjoy some of the deaths and thought the Mom v Gremlin scene was really fun.
Jump to Critters and I can't help but feel that it was an even more stripped down version of Gremlins. Aside from some really funny moments of "Critter dialogue" I couldn't help but get a little bored. I think this movie takes a little too long to set up. None of the deaths are very memorable, the only death I can remember is the boyfriend's, where they just munch on his neck and stomach? IDK! I just couldn't help but remember the Mom from Gremlins putting one of the creatures in the microwave. I was waiting for that moment in this movie and it never really came.
I thought the overall writing was FINE. We get the bum/baseball player's redemption moment where he blows up the spaceship. I thought the alien bounty hunters were totally pointless and unnecessary. They could have fit in so much more Critter action in the time they wasted with the fish out of water alien material. It'd be willing to watch the sequels, especially the one with LEO, to see if they improve the series, but overall I thought this was pretty lackluster.
Creepshow
+
I was looking forward to the pairing of King/Romero. There aren't a lot (if any) good horror anthologies out there, so I went in hoping for the best.
I thought Creepshow was a lot of fun! I love the way the stories are intermixed with each other through animation. I thought every story was mostly entertaining. The Beach and Box stories were probably two of the slowest ones but once they get going, they're pretty fun.
The cockroach story is easily my favorite. I love that it's one location. The white rooms work perfectly to help highlight the color and quantity of the bugs. The ending is fucking GROSS and classic Savini.
Stephen King's story is pretty funny. I love how over the top and corny he is, it works perfectly for the tone of the entire movie. I'd love to watch the sequels and see how they hold up.
This movie has some pretty powerful themes, a few big moments, and never suffers from bad pacing or boredom. Unfortunately, that's where it ends for me. This movie feels like a very sloppy version of the Handmaiden, which I think was the inspiration for the story structure and style.
This movie loses me in several ways.
Allison Williams is a very stone cold actress. She can play heartless and cold really well and I think that's part of what made her performance so haunting in Get Out. It just doesn't work for me here. I thought the acting, which could have suffered more so from the overall writing, was very half-assed and lifeless. I just didn't really believe anything they were trying to sell.
I thought the overall story and character behavior made absolutely no sense and were somewhat insulting. Does Charlette seriously believe that tricking Lizzie into cutting off her arm is the ONLY way...the ONLY WAY to convince her that being repeatedly raped was horrible? Are these character's minds so absolutely brainwashed by trauma that the only way to overcome and move past that trauma...is to experience more trauma? Does the movie really think it can convince me that this is okay, by including a line from Lizzie that says "this is the only way you could have convinced me" which felt so incredibly forced and lazy?
Why wouldn't Charlette initially plan to go after Anton in the first place? Go after the root of the problem! Until Lizzie goes to confront Charlette, it looked liked Charlette was just going to stay at home and give herself a pat on the back from "saving" Lizzie. Like...she knows Anton is just going to keep doing this to other women, right? Hell, Lizzie wasn't even going to turn her back on Anton until he completely kicked her out of the academy. Narratively this is just all over the place and completely takes you out of the movie IMO. I couldn't buy into the relationship and the ending because I wasn't invested in the steps that got me there. I also HATED the editing decisions with the VHS-esque rewind. Take that shit out. It's corny. Just have the title card for the new chapter, and start the story where you want to.
This feels a little ranty but I just had a lot of strong reactions to it. I think there was a lot of potential here and a good concept to start, but the execution was just too messy to forgive.
Session 9
+
Session 9 was very...boring. I can appreciate the Perfection for it's pacing and few fun moments, but with this movie, I was just totally out of it.
It waits too long to answer its questions. I'm not saying that a movie has to show us its cards, but at least sprinkle some clues to keep us engaged. I had no idea what was going on for almost the entire movie, and even when they explain everything in the last five minutes, I STILL had to google what really happened.
I would say that this movie definitely benefits from rewatching, but I almost don't care enough to even give it another shot. Nothing about this movie pops for me. Yea the recordings are creepy, but why doesn't Mike let the rest of the crew know what he found? Why is it MIKE that finds the tapes and not someone more prominent to the story like Gordon or Phill? This movie would benefit so much more by having these characters slowly discover the mystery of Simon and what he is. Was he a ghost? A demon? Was he not just a personality? I don't think a movie has to answer every question, but not answering enough leaves the experience unsatisfying and frustrating.
Also, there's a shot of David Caruso saying "fuck you" that might be the most unintentionally funniest thing I'ver ever seen in a movie. The shot is zoomed in and so overdramatic. It's hilarious.
It's difficult to really enjoy a movie for the first time when you pretty much know every single beat of the story. I knew about the deaths and I knew about the twists, but in spite of that I still enjoyed it. Jud's death is so brutal, it's a great payoff from an otherwise slow story. The scenes with the dead sister were super weird especially because they had a man play her? I really liked the ending. The visual of the husband kissing his rotting wife is just so painfully gross, it's a great image to end on.
The acting was pretty ROUGH. It was just a weird mix of performances. The dad was just brutally stale and Jud's delivery was in the same tempo every...single...sentence. The daughter was also a LOT too, every line was delivered super over the top.
I'd actually be interested to see how the remake holds up. I didn't like how the dad made the decision to revive his son and then just went to bed, only reacting to the results after they happened. It seems like there are a lot more layers to the consequences in the remake. I wasn't so in love with the original to the point where I thought it was impossible to improve upon.
As Above So Below
+
A few years back, I went on a date with a girl and we were talking about our favorite horror movies. She had some critiques on the Shining, my favorite, and when I asked her what her favorite was, she replied: "As Above So Below." I couldn't really say much because I had never seen it, but I vowed that one day I would watch it so I could talk shit about it. That day has finally come.
It's not AWFUL. Not the worst found footage I've seen. It's actually a pretty interesting concept and although the "see your greatest fear/regret" element is pretty overdone, some of the memories were visually haunting (the burning car, the hanging father).
There's also a really effective scene where someone gets stuck in a tunnel full of bones and the movie does a great job of making you FEEL the claustrophobia. The scene is just long enough for you to get uncomfortable but not too long for you to get bored.
The problem with this movie is that after the midway point, it gets so fucking messy. The pacing feels incredibly rushed and it's like the movie doesn't really know what else to do except wrap itself up. You just have no idea what's going on, which you could argue is the point...but with an exploration/found footage movie, you can only show me a shaky cam of some rubble for so long before I get frustrated.
I would have loved for them to further develop the characters and their past. Outside of the main explorer, we really don't know anything about anyone else. They wait very long before killing off anyone, and then they kill three people in what feels like the span of 10 minutes. Can't we get a little more context about what these individual's inner demons are? Why do some characters see visions and others don't?
By the end of the movie, the plot just feels petered out and unsure of where to go. I get that it's not guaranteed that they're back in their normal realm, but to end it the way they did...where they kind of just stand there and awkwardly walk away...just feels lackluster. This movie waits too long to do anything unique, and because of that it feels repetitive and pointless, then when it tries to do something, it's rushed and half baked. I wouldn't say this was as bad as I thought it would be, but it doesn't mean I wasn't disappointed with it overall.
Overall Ranking
Creepshow
Pet Sematary
Pulse
As Above So Below
Critters
The Perfection
Session 9
I've been on a HUGE classic monster movie kick recently. Bride of Frankenstein and Frankenstein have been my favorites (I also really enjoyed the Invisible Man). So, I was pretty excited to add this one to my list. Obviously, it's a 1950's monster movie, so you have to go in with your expectations pulled back a bit. There are a lot of fun underwater shots and sequences, and the monster design is classic.
It feels like one of the very first movies with the "group goes into a location, must battle a dangerous entity in order to escape" movie. The characters are all written pretty well, you know what everyone wants and what separates them. The Monster got ROBBED IMO. Homie was just trying to live his life until these scientists barged into his home. I was rooting for the monster the whole time.
It feels a bit drawn out for its length. It definitely feels slow at times and wouldn't be surprised if people might find it a bit boring. The movie has definitely grown on me the more I think about it, and I think having watched so many other older monster movies helped me go into this with the right expectations.
when u see a human cutie and don't know how to approach her
+
Opera
+
Opera is textbook Argento. Overdramatic Italian acting in a murder mystery with some brutal kills sprinkled about. The acting is PRETTY rough, but if you enjoy over the top horror then you might be able to look past it. But seriously, one of the kills has one of the most overdramatic performances I've ever seen.
There aren't a LOT of deaths but the first few are pretty graphic. There's a great death that involves a giant pair of scissors. You don't see much but the audio is just so grating. It's super unnerving. I also love the scenes with the "eye torture". It's such a small and simple device that puts the main character in such a fragile state of panic and harm. It's AWFUL! Love the shots where you see the POV of the main character with the needles under her eyes.
The mystery/narrative itself is fine. I feel like they tried to add in some weird mother/daughter/stalker relationship that felt a little shoehorned and underdeveloped. I didn't really care about about the story and thought the ending was really ridiculous. I also thought the way they discovered the killer was kinda silly. Like they just KNOW the crows are gonna be able to pick out the murderer? What if someone in the audience had some crackers in their jacket and the crows flocked over to them? It just seemed like a reach.
Doesn't hold a torch to Argento's other movies (Suspiria/Inferno) but I found it to be an okay watch.
Funny Games [Psychological - Home Invasion]
Santa Sangre [Psychological - Fanaticism] Session 9 [Psychological - Phobia & Isolation]
Berberian Sound Studio [Psychological - Madness & Paranoia]
The Howling [Monster - Werewolf]
Thirst [Monster - Vampire]
Day of the Dead [Monster - Undead]
The Fog [Monster - Animals & Nature]
The Battery [Monster - Virus] Critters [Monster - Small Creatures]
Dracula [Monster - Classic]
Them! [Monster - Giant Monsters] Creature from the Black Lagoon [Monster - Neo Monster]
Invasion of the Body Snatchers [Monster - Aliens]
The Perfection [Gore - Torture]
Phantasm [Gore - Splatter]
The Neon Demon [Gore - Cannibal]
Ichi the Killer [Gore - Extreme]
Possession [Paranormal - Possession]
Midsommar [Paranormal - Witches & Occult]
Carrie [Paranormal - Supernatural]
The Haunting [Paranormal - Haunted House]
The Beyond [Paranormal - Devil/Demon/Hell]
Tigers Are Not Afraid [Paranormal - Ghost & Spirits]
The Hills Have Eyes [Killer - Backwoods & Redneck]
Peeping Tom [Killer - Slasher] Opera [Killer - Crime & Giallo]
One Cut of the Dead [Misc - Meta]
The Love Witch [Misc - Horror Romance] Pet Sematary [Misc - Creepy Kid]
The Skin I Live In [Misc. - Body Horror]
Irreversible [Misc - Revenge] Creepshow [Misc - Anthology]
Inside [Misc - French Extremity]
Vampire's Kiss [Misc - Comedy Horror] As Above, So Below [Misc - Found Footage]
Dracula [Misc - Gothic Horror]
Beyond the Black Rainbow [Misc - SciFi Horror] Pulse [Misc - Technology]
Overall Rank
Creepshow
Pet Sematary
Pulse
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Opera
As Above So Below
Critters
The Perfection
Session 9
I'm torn with this movie. I think Carpenter is a great director, but there's something about his style that is very hot and cold for me. The Thing and Halloween are CLASSICS but I also could not get into Escape from New York and Prince of Darkness. The Fog might be the least enjoyable Carpenter movie for me to date.
This movie just drags for me. Unlike Halloween/The Thing, which are slowly paced movies with a few exciting beats sprinkled throughout, this movie just felt slow. There's really only two or three scenes where the zombies from the Fog attack, and they don't seem to do much with it. They're quick, hidden, and repetitive.
There are so many characters in this movie, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but they switch around them so much that I can't really invest in any of them. It's a shame because on paper the cast is pretty good! You've got Jamie Lee Curtis acting with her mother, Janet Leigh, and the two barely share a scene together. What a waste!
I understand that the core of this movie is based on the idea of a town or society reliving the horrors of it's past, and while I think that is an interesting concept, this felt very barren and unexplored. Characters take so long to discover what's going on and by the time the movie enters its climax, I just don't really care. Nothing about this movie jumps to me, which is why it's probably going to be one of my least favorites on this list. I don't think any part of it is downright AWFUL but I'd rather a movie fuck up something completely but still do something fun/exciting ie The Perfection over a movie that kind of feels flat in all categories. Not crazy about it.
Funny Games [Psychological - Home Invasion]
Santa Sangre [Psychological - Fanaticism] Session 9 [Psychological - Phobia & Isolation]
Berberian Sound Studio [Psychological - Madness & Paranoia]
The Howling [Monster - Werewolf]
Thirst [Monster - Vampire]
Day of the Dead [Monster - Undead] The Fog [Monster - Animals & Nature]
The Battery [Monster - Virus] Critters [Monster - Small Creatures]
Dracula [Monster - Classic]
Them! [Monster - Giant Monsters] Creature from the Black Lagoon [Monster - Neo Monster]
Invasion of the Body Snatchers [Monster - Aliens]
The Perfection [Gore - Torture]
Phantasm [Gore - Splatter]
The Neon Demon [Gore - Cannibal]
Ichi the Killer [Gore - Extreme]
Possession [Paranormal - Possession]
Midsommar [Paranormal - Witches & Occult]
Carrie [Paranormal - Supernatural]
The Haunting [Paranormal - Haunted House]
The Beyond [Paranormal - Devil/Demon/Hell]
Tigers Are Not Afraid [Paranormal - Ghost & Spirits]
The Hills Have Eyes [Killer - Backwoods & Redneck]
Peeping Tom [Killer - Slasher] Opera [Killer - Crime & Giallo]
One Cut of the Dead [Misc - Meta]
The Love Witch [Misc - Horror Romance] Pet Sematary [Misc - Creepy Kid]
The Skin I Live In [Misc. - Body Horror]
Irreversible [Misc - Revenge] Creepshow [Misc - Anthology]
Inside [Misc - French Extremity]
Vampire's Kiss [Misc - Comedy Horror] As Above, So Below [Misc - Found Footage]
Dracula [Misc - Gothic Horror]
Beyond the Black Rainbow [Misc - SciFi Horror] Pulse [Misc - Technology]
Overall Rank
+
Creepshow
Pet Sematary
Pulse
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Opera
As Above So Below
Critters
The Perfection
The Fog
Session 9
