29. The Seventh Victim - I'll admit, the film didn't have my full attention at the time but this wasn't a particularly enthralling Lewton movie to me. I might give it another go when I'm less distracted. Still, it has an unusual premise. A woman finds her sister is missing and eventually learns that she's mixed up with a society of devil worshippers who want her dead. But even stranger, the devil worshippers have a policy against murder, so instead, they want to peer pressure her into suicide. It's a quirky, weird, dark picture. I might like it one a second go through.
30. Fiend Without a Face - As b-movies from the 1950s go, this is definitely one of the better ones. It has cool, stop motion monsters (though they don't show up visually until the last act) and is surprisingly bloody for the era. In an American army base in Canada, a series of mysterious deaths begin, prompting a high ranking official to investigate and discovering a weird threat. Surprisingly, the monsters aren't aliens or even genetically engineered creatures, but an entity created and given flesh by psychic powers. It feels a bit like its due for a Cronenberg style intelligent body horror-style remake. The film itself isn't... intelligence, but it isn't super dumb either. It's got some good news and the well-intentioned mad scientist's actor is doing good work. The ending is weird, in that it has a classic "I love you" Hollywood happy ending despite the copious death and gore through the film. This one is fun.
31. The Final Girls - I wish I liked this one more than I did. It does a LOT right. But as a horror comedy (or a comedy about horror) it has too few laughs and I feel it doesn't understand the genre it is parodying beyond the tropes that are already well known through pop culture. The premise is a group of friends see a cheesy 80's slasher and their's a fire in the theatre. In an attempt to escape they cut through the screen and end up in the movie itself. Pretty simple stuff. But also, one of the actresses is the mother of one of the characters, and she wants to help her survive the film, as her real mother died three years prior.
What does the film do right? Well, it has funny people in it, particularly Alia Shawkat and Thomas Middleditch. It knows to give the film a strong emotional core with the lead characters plight wanting to help someone who is not her mom but she sees her mom in their and wants desperately to protect her. It does swing for the fences in terms of style and mechanics of the laws of the film. Early on, they see the characters pass them by in a van, repeating the same words and actions every 92 minutes (the film's running time). At one point, they escape the killer by creating a flashback, only to have the killer be in the flashback, getting hit by a car and knocking over the title cards proclaiming the year. As either an experiment in film making and an homage/parody to Sam Riami's crazy camera work, there is a series of murders shot with insane zooms and pans (its a bit much but it is also fun). The film really is swinging for the fences and is clearly trying to create a movie that is a complete package creatively, comedically and emotionally.
Which is a shame for what the film doesn't do right: hold together very well. I think the film wants to say something about the depths of seemingly shallow character but I don't think it gives us enough time for it to work. As a comedy, its amusing, but not really very funny. Its also PG-13 and not all horror comedies need to be rated R but I think considering what this film wants to do, it should have been. Granted, the film tries to get around it some interesting way, such as one character dying a way without blood but where he is horribly and painfully contorted. Some wild deaths are hinted at, they are bloodless and cut away from quickly to keep its rating. But I feel like there should have been some comedic shocks and a lot of over the top blood and guts would have helped.
And, as I said, I feel like it doesn't know what it is trying to emulate. The film is too colourful when it is trying to emulate a time when film looked a little rougher. Those films usually looked a bit ugly and cheap and this film doesn't. The action scene in the end feels more like a parody of a late 90s action scene rather than a mid-80s horror movie. The film doesn't feel specific enough about what those movies where. They try to include intentionally over the top acting from the camp councellors, but it doesn't read genuine to me and is too mannered rather than natural unnatural acting. Having seen a lot of MST3k movies, bad acting and scene chewing comes in a lot of different styles but this feels too broad.
But, overall, the film just didn't make me laugh as much. Its not a "bad" movie, but it is only OK, which is frustrating when I can see a MUCH better movie around the fringes, especially when it tries to focus on character. Still, this is much better than The Final Girl (singular) which is just bad.
32. It Ended my Halloween viewing here. Hadn't seen it before but I liked it a lot. I will say, I didn't find it very scary but as a fun popcorn flick, it was a delight. I'd seen the mini-series a decade ago and my thought then was "Tim Curry aside, this isn't good, but the bare bones of the story is good." and this film feels like the realization of that. I feel like this film gets how scary it is to be young, to be subject to other people who may not have our best interests at heart. To have less of a fear filter, making them more vulnerable not only physically but mentally. Ironically, this also gives them their strength, as the adults seem set in their ways and are literally unable to see the problem while the kids can grow, adapt and use each other to become stronger both as a group and as individuals.
Its been a while since I've seen the mini-series but I like what Bill Skarsgaard is doing. Tim Curry's Pennywise is a sadist (the way I remember him) but Skaarsgard plays him as truly alien, mimicing humanity in a way that is off. I don't know if he entirely understands the fear he is using to break people down or bend them to his will. He's just knows the fear in the broadest sense and how to use it to great effect.
The film also feels very Speilbergian. Its a horror story but also, despite being rated R, its a kids adventure movie. (I also sppreciate that this was a film that was 100% greenlit due to Stranger Things existance and even stars Finn Wolfhard AND is set in the 80s despite some superficial elements, feels like a very different animal, not trying to ape it tonally, which would have been easy, even if just to appease film execs). The story is a horror epic but it feels more intimate. At the same time, its shot big in a lot of scenes, like the ariel shot when Ben is being chased through the river by bullies.
I hear the sequel is a disappointment, which is a shame, but I still look forward to checking it out sometime.
Topic: October 2019 Horror Movie a Day (Read 3765 times)
