Horror Movie a Day: October 2011

[shodan]

well the original dracula from 1931 is over 75 minutes long... comparable to about 3 hours today

[SJP]

Well, it's a film that always SEEMS like it's 3 hours long every time I watch it...as soon as Renfield comes up the stairs on the deck of the ship, I inevitably tune out.  I've just never been able to watch the film from that point forward except for the ending.

Anyways, I've come up with the official list, taking into account the ones added in as well as fixing a quote on one of the achievements (I remembered it wrong, but was able to find a quote from the same movie that works even better).  The printable list is on two pages, the first one here and the second one here.  Let me know if there are any problems with grabbing them.

[dignan]

I kicked things off with Friday the 13th. 

[Artie]

Started off with Children of the Corn (w/ Hor-riff-ic Productions of course).  Never seen any of the sequels so this month seems like the perfect opportunity to do so.

[shodan]

well,got the here's johnny and he watched the tape achievements under my belt now

[D.B. Barnes]

Hoo-hoo! That's good gore.

"It makes Dawn of the Dead look like Mary Poppins!"

[SJP]

Watching that only goes to further my belief that, while Part 4 might not be the best film of the series, it certainly is the goofiest.

[D.B. Barnes]

Watching that only goes to further my belief that, while Part 4 might not be the best film of the series, it certainly is the goofiest.

Agreed. It's completely over the top.

[SJP]

Ok, so, finished my first.  Poltergeist II on Blu.  Man, I have not seen this movie in a LONG, long time (let's just say, the first and only time I saw it was well before the recommended PG-13 age range).  I actually thought it better than I remembered it being, and I don't know if it's better film stock, better storage, better effects processing, or just a better transfer, but it LOOKS better than the original movie's Blu-ray release.  The ending sort of drops the ball in the silliness area, but Heather O'Rourke did a much better job acting in this than the first one (I always thought she was kind of annoying in the first one, to tell the truth), and it's a shame that the crapfest that was Poltergeist III had to be the final thing she appeared in before she died.  And it's also a shame the guy who plays Kane died while they were making it, too; that guy was supremely creepy.  And the worm scene is still cool.

[D.B. Barnes]

[Artie]

Decided to keep going with Children of the Corn movies today watching both 2 (The Final Sacrifice) and 3 (Urban Harvest). Both are a lot of fun but Urban Harvest is worth watching just for the insane last 10 minutes when:

A monster shows up and starts killing everything in sight

[Russell]

A nightmare on elm street - 1984: I'm not sure if this movie gave birth to the whole
"Teenagers who have sex are fucking dead" cliche, but who cares? Freddie is pretty
damn scary in this film, and I guess he has control of the Matrix or something because
he can kill people because their mind makes it real... or something? Doesn't make
much sense to me, but when was the last time a horror movie made sense to
you? Anyway, Freddie chases people with the famous five knived glove(No relation
to the six-demon bag), and he slices, dices, he's basically like the ninja turtles except
he's a psychopath, he has no shell, and his face looks like he's been broiled alive, and
of course that's what happened.

Anybody who's seen the Simpson's halloween special where Willy fills in for Freddy
knows this whole story... except in Nightmare on elm street, Freddy really DID deserve
to die because he was a child molester. This is why I deplore anybody who might root
for Freddy because who in their right mind would root for freddy except the most depraved
of individuals who likes seeing women having their limbs ripped off and replaced with
cockroach arms? That's some nasty ebola-coated fucked up shit right there(to put it
mildly). But I guess that's the way the filmmakers intend for the audience to identify with
the victims, and I hate to admit it but it actually works on some level. If you want the victims
to die and you're rooting for the pederast, you're one sick fuck. If you identify with the victims
(no matter how whiny they are), then you're at LEAST feeling some tension in the film. And
honestly that kind of disgusts me because the sick ways in which people die in the films
gives me another reason to question Darwin's theory of evolution. I mean you're sitting
around a room trying to imagine new and sick ways to kill people...if that's you, please don't
invite me to your thanksgiving dinner.

A nightmare on Elm Street works as a horror film, that's for certain. However, in hind sight
many of the concepts still hold up(Freddy growing really long arms), but on the other hand
some parts are too cheesy to be scary(Freddy chasing somebody like a friggin' retard then
getting his ass pwned by a teenage girl like the bad guys in the Home Alone movies). In
conclusion... it's okay.

[JimJ]

First movie was a British horror/comedy called Doghouse. Found it on Netflix.  It's about a bunch of guys who go to this small town for the weekend to get away from their wives and girlfriends (and, in one case, boyfriend) and to help their buddy get over his recent divorce. Turns out the town is overrun with female zombies. Of course it is. Anyway, it was decently enjoyable, despite the somewhat misogynistic plot. Some decent laughs and the zombie make up and gore were pretty good for what must've been a pretty small budget. 3/5

[D.B. Barnes]

<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0285492/">#1 - CUBE²: HYPERCUBE</a>

I've been meaning to check this out for a while. It's been sitting in my streaming queue. I quite enjoyed the first one but this was one doesn't measure up. I like the premise of the hypercube, but the way in which things play out just ends up being pretty silly. A few of the performances are too over-the-top. I think there's a fine line between the eccentric performances in the first movie and these clownish performances. I thought the deaths were kinda lame. I did think the ending was pretty cool.

GRADE: B-

[Compound]

A nightmare on elm street - 1984: I'm not sure if this movie gave birth to the whole
"Teenagers who have sex are fucking dead" cliche, but who cares?

No, Halloween and Friday the 13th predated NoES by several years and the trope is much stronger in them.