Horror Movie a Day: October 2011

[dignan]

Day 18: Let The Right One In
Day 19: The Descent
Day 20: Dead Set (all 5 eps)

Dead Set clocks in at about 2 hours and 20 minutes, so I figured that counted.  I really enjoyed it!

[D.B. Barnes]

#18 - EXORCIST III

I think this is an extremely underrated movie. I enjoy this one just as much, if not more, than the first. The acting is superb from the entire cast. Scott is just great as the curmudgeonly old cop, and Brad Dourif and Jason Miller are phenomenal. That cell confrontation is absolutely chilling. I'm a sucker for super creepy horror imagery and this movie's got some good stuff. Also, the death of Nurse Keating is one of the scariest, visually cool, and well-paced horror deaths I've seen. It even made my Greatest Deaths list. I just love this movie.

MOVIE GRADE: A


# 19 - BIRDEMIC: SHOCK AND TERROR

I decided I would attempt to watch this without the riff, which at first I thought was going to be pretty horrible but actually turned out fine because MKB were inside my head belting out riff after riff. I've watched the Rifftrax so many times, I lost count, and this was the first time I've experienced an entire movie that riffs itself in your head. It's pretty damn cool. Anyway, yeah, Birdemic.

MOVIE GRADE: F


# - 20 END OF THE LINE

Wow. How disappointing. This had good reviews on Netflix and a 6.0 on IMDB (Exorcist III is a 5.9. What a joke!) Again, much like Frozen, I feel like I'm missing a joke or something. For me, this was just stupid schlock with a message so heavy handed it was dragging its knuckles. Terrible, hack performances, stupid characters, and just overall bad. And don't get me wrong, I don't need my horror movies to be masterpieces by any stretch; I just found this stupid and annoying with a lame ending.

MOVIE GRADE: D+


Hey, I'm finally caught up!

[JimJ]

Movie #20: Paranormal Activity 3

I really wasn't enjoying this for most of the movie.  A lot of that is because the audience was full of complete morons who wouldn't shut the fuck up, but also because the Paranormal Activity movies are starting to really wear out their welcome for me.  So much just felt like more of the same.  Plus they have some REALLY lame fake out jump scares, like the mother running out of the closet with a mask on.  It is kind of redeemed by the ending, though, which is by far the most effective ending of any of the PA movies.  It does leave a pretty huge continuity hole, which can (and probably will, in the inevitable 4th movie) be explained away by saying that the girls blocked it all out or something. It's pretty clear from the first scene that they have no idea what is on the tapes, so I assume they just have no memory of these events.  The biggest question I had when I first heard the premise of this movie was "How did the existence of these tapes never come up in any of the previous films?" which it kind of answers in the beginning when we see the adult Kristi and Katie moving the boxes of tapes into Kristi's basement, then we get some retconning as they show us the scene from PA 2 where their house gets wrecked and they think someone broke in and they say "The only thing missing is those old tapes.".  Kind of lame, but at least they addressed the biggest issue I had going in.  Overall, I enjoyed it.  The formula is getting tired, but there are some cool moments and the ending is genuinely creepy. It also helps that the characters are probably the most likable we've had in one of these movies.  The 2 male characters in the movie are kind of annoying at times, but nowhere near Micah levels, who is thankfully completely absent from this one.  I recommend seeing this if you enjoyed the first two. 3.5/5

Editing this to quote the last paragraph of this review I just read, which perfectly captures my feelings about the audience I saw this with.  I've had some goddamn annoying audiences in my film-going career, but I think the one tonight was one of the worst.  The one thing this quote doesn't say is that a lot of the "scared" half are just as annoying.  It's not so much when they jump and scream that bothers me, it's the 5 minutes of giggling and talking that follow their reaction.  Also, a lot of the jumping and screaming feels forced to me.  I blame those stupid night vision shots of audiences in the trailers.  Anyway, here's the quote:

A note about the film-going experience: Like no other film series in recent memory, the Paranormal Activity movies have a tendency to bring out the worst in movie-going audiences, as has been my experience with all three movies (judging by comments from readers, it's a near universal experience). Typically, half the audience is scared shit-less and the other half is bored senseless. I can sympathize with the bored half; if I weren't so vulnerable to paranormal tropes, maybe I'd be exhausted by the films as well. They don't work on everyone. But if you are one of those bored or restless individuals, do us all a favor: Don't be an asshole. If you didn't like the first two movies, stay at home. And if you decide to go anyway, or someone drags you to see it, then don't be a dick. Don't sigh audibly, don't check your phone two dozen times, and don't laugh at inappropriate times. The universe doesn't revolve around you, douchebag. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean you should ruin it for the entire theater. If you must express disapproval, wait until after the movie, and the rest of us will do you the courtesy of waiting until after the film to tell you that we don't give a shit what you think, you asshat bucket of dicks.

[Relaxing Dragon]

Paranormal Activity 3. JimJ seems to have beat me to this one (he must be in an earlier time zone; us Pacific-enders always get in late on these things), but I'll spill out what I want to say anyway. At this point in the series you really fall into one of two camps: either these films are painfully dull and full of characters that make you root for the demon, or they are ultra-tense, blood-pressure-raising experiences that make sleeping at night difficult, For the first two movies, I honestly was one of the latter. I'm the sort whose imagination gets away from him when I'm drifting off to sleep, so stuff like what this series has to offer is something that freaks the peace-loving piss out of me. And really, this third film does its best to do the same. Technically it's very well put together; I'm a big fan of minimalist effects, and if nothing else this series knows how to make a little go a hell of a long way. Thing is, it all seems to be wearing a bit... thin, by now. It's gotten to a point where you can effectively predict which scare is coming up, and there's a heavy reliance on the invisible-creature-grabbing-folks-and-tossing-things-around thing by now. It's fast, it's effective enough, but it doesn't linger like it once did. I will give kudos to this film for really going along with the whole mythology angle (OK, it's mostly faintly teased at for most of the movie until the last 10 minutes or so), but overall it just doesn't seem to have the same snap as the other ones. I enjoyed it well enough, and as Jim said it does have some cool moments (it sort of aped the kitchen scene from the second one, but I like where they went with it enough to let it slide). Just not sure if it truly scared me... though as I'm about to go to bed, I guess how much sleep I get tonight will truly be the judge of that.

On the audience front: I had a packed house, mostly teens and folks around my early-twenties age as best I could tell. Pretty much all of them were really into it, lots of screaming and moving in the seats and shouting of "No, don't do that! Get out!", as well as a number of folks who were *very* eager to leave the theater one the credits started rolling. Sounds like the making of a horrible audience, right? For about any other movie I'd say yes (well, more like "Good GOD yes"), but for this one, I actually enjoyed it all. Everyone was enjoying themselves, and it took me right back to my first screening of the original, way back when it was in its super-duper-limited release and the hype train had barely left the station. This is a crowd picture, and it's nice to get some reassurance that everyone is still around you, even if they're super scared (and in this case, far more scared than me. This movie got me tense and made me jump a few times, but not nearly the level of the folks around me). I've actually got no problem with a crowd like that at a movie like this... so long as it doesn't spill over into other screenings of stuff, of course.

Best Bit: The part where things were being tossed around the bedroom was pretty slick, although I must admit that particular trick this series has is really getting old. Back in the original, when the chick was grabbed and pulled down the hall, that was really shocking. Up until that point, the demon had been been pretty passive, restricting himself to mindgames and small movements on inanimate objects. When the movie was nearing a close and the hallway drag occurred, it caught us all off-guard and let us know that things just got real. The sequels seemed too into it, and now it seems like they can't go ten minutes without tossing something violently or grabbing someone and pulling them into a closet. What I'm trying to say is, I dig the little things. And this one actually had a fantastic one, where one of the little girls is running upstairs and through her room... only to smack right into an invisible "something", right in the middle of her room, in broad daylight. She just stands in shock, looking at... something. I may not be describing it well, but trust me, it was good. That's what I'm after. And then a few seconds later something grabbed her by the hair and pulled her up. Still not bad on the shocking scale, but sorta gave me that "Eh, been done" feeling that I'd been getting all too much in this movie. Plus, with her hair like that she looked like Cindy Lou Who, which made me giggle.
Death Count: 2

[JimJ]

On the audience front: I had a packed house, mostly teens and folks around my early-twenties age as best I could tell. Pretty much all of them were really into it, lots of screaming and moving in the seats and shouting of "No, don't do that! Get out!", as well as a number of folks who were *very* eager to leave the theater one the credits started rolling. Sounds like the making of a horrible audience, right? For about any other movie I'd say yes (well, more like "Good GOD yes"), but for this one, I actually enjoyed it all. Everyone was enjoying themselves, and it took me right back to my first screening of the original, way back when it was in its super-duper-limited release and the hype train had barely left the station. This is a crowd picture, and it's nice to get some reassurance that everyone is still around you, even if they're super scared (and in this case, far more scared than me. This movie got me tense and made me jump a few times, but not nearly the level of the folks around me). I've actually got no problem with a crowd like that at a movie like this... so long as it doesn't spill over into other screenings of stuff, of course.

I'm fine with people having genuine reaction to something scary, but my audience didn't shut up for a second.  As anyone who's seen a PA film knows, there are a lot of quiet moments, but my theater was never quiet.  I'm all for people flipping out at the parts they're supposed to flip out about, but the quiet moments are there to build tension, which is destroyed when morons are talking incessantly through the whole movie (not to mention texting, whole lot of that in my theater too).  Your audience sounds like it would've been fun to be part of, I just wanted to murder a lot of the people in mine.  One douchebag in particular apparently thought it was his job to do a live riff.  He just had to share such witticisms as "What are you doing you little fuckers!" when the mom opens the tent with the girls inside, and "Where'd you come from you little brat?" when one of the girls suddenly appears in front of the camera.  It was just a terrible experience and it definitely effected my enjoyment of the movie.  I think if they do a 4th, I'll wait a week or two to see it.

[Relaxing Dragon]

There was a moderate amount of chatter in mine, but they did quiet down for the quiet parts (most of the talk was immediately following scares, or just before they happened when you knew one was right around the corner. Defense mechanism for trying to calm down, I imagine it was).

I'm good with pretty much any crowd, so long as A) everyone is enjoying themselves (i.e. not dragged there and just being sullen and whiny) and B) everyone is really into the movie and actually watching it. You get these two key parts in, and then the general atmosphere of the theater is such that you can let a lot slide. It just feels more right.

[Russell]

# 19 - BIRDEMIC: SHOCK AND TERROR
I decided I would attempt to watch this without the riff, which at first I thought was going to be pretty horrible but actually turned out fine because MKB were inside my head belting out riff after riff. I've watched the Rifftrax so many times, I lost count, and this was the first time I've experienced an entire movie that riffs itself in your head. It's pretty damn cool. Anyway, yeah, Birdemic.
MOVIE GRADE: F

You kidding me? Birdemic was hilarious! As a comedy, I'd give it a solid B+

[D.B. Barnes]

# 19 - BIRDEMIC: SHOCK AND TERROR
I decided I would attempt to watch this without the riff, which at first I thought was going to be pretty horrible but actually turned out fine because MKB were inside my head belting out riff after riff. I've watched the Rifftrax so many times, I lost count, and this was the first time I've experienced an entire movie that riffs itself in your head. It's pretty damn cool. Anyway, yeah, Birdemic.
MOVIE GRADE: F

You kidding me? Birdemic was hilarious! As a comedy, I'd give it a solid B+

Nope, not kidding. Show me where the "filmmaker" claims it as a comedy. I'm not grading the movie on how I perceive it in my mind.

[Compound]

Went out and rented "Wicker Man" from a local store... and it died 10 minutes in. Sigh. Mr. Lee is being quite elusive.

[SJP]

21: House on Haunted Hill (1999)

I probably shouldn't like this movie as much as I do, but I think nostalgia has a heavy effect on it.  This was the first horror film I was old enough to see in theaters without needing a parent to get me in (I did see Scream a few years earlier, which is technically the first, and not one that bothered me all that much), and it is amazing how much more effective a horror film can be on the big screen.  I don't think there were too many people there, but I tell you, the scene where the 'shaky ghost' runs up to Bridgette Wilson had me freaked out for months.  It was one of those "I know something bad is going to happen, but I don't know what...AAAAAHHH IT'S SCREAMING RIGHT INTO THE CAMERA LENS" sorts of moments.

Now that I've seen it a bunch of times, its shock factor has worn off, but I still think it's aesthetically well-made.  Sure, it ripped off Jacob's Ladder, but I think it was the first one to rip off Jacob's Ladder, and suddenly every damn ghost movie in the world decided to copy it.  The house is creepy as can be, and the sound design is top rate, with all the little whispering going on even when nothing creepy is happening onscreen.  The ending is a little goofy, but I will admit, if I can give credit to any CG ever...

It's the ghost at the end of the movie.  Since ghosts are ethereal anyway, it's okay in my book if they look sort of 'not there.'  That design, however, is one of the best ghost designs I've ever seen in a movie, and I don't think I've felt as tense watching a chase scene.  The only thing that comes close is playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent, but that doesn't count since it's a game.

EDIT:

Went out and rented "Wicker Man" from a local store... and it died 10 minutes in. Sigh. Mr. Lee is being quite elusive.

If you have Netflix, Dracula A.D. 1972 is on there streaming.  It's not Wicker Man, but it still counts.

[Russell]

Nope, not kidding. Show me where the "filmmaker" claims it as a comedy. I'm not grading the movie on how I perceive it in my mind.

Actually, I think the director labeled it as part of his patented "Romantic Thriller" Genre. If that
doesn't spell comedy...

[D.B. Barnes]

Nope, not kidding. Show me where the "filmmaker" claims it as a comedy. I'm not grading the movie on how I perceive it in my mind.

Actually, I think the director labeled it as part of his patented "Romantic Thriller" Genre. If that
doesn't spell comedy...

It's not trying to be a comedy. Unlike other so-called "romantic thrillers", it makes no attempt to be intentionally funny. Sure, it's unintentionally funny, the keyword, of course, being "unintentionally." Again, I'm grading on the intent, not what I perceive.

[shodan]

Nope, not kidding. Show me where the "filmmaker" claims it as a comedy. I'm not grading the movie on how I perceive it in my mind.

Actually, I think the director labeled it as part of his patented "Romantic Thriller" Genre. If that
doesn't spell comedy...

It's not trying to be a comedy. Unlike other so-called "romantic thrillers", it makes no attempt to be intentionally funny. Sure, it's unintentionally funny, the keyword, of course, being "unintentionally." Again, I'm grading on the intent, not what I perceive.

but the perception of intent is relative.

[D.B. Barnes]

Nope, not kidding. Show me where the "filmmaker" claims it as a comedy. I'm not grading the movie on how I perceive it in my mind.

Actually, I think the director labeled it as part of his patented "Romantic Thriller" Genre. If that
doesn't spell comedy...

It's not trying to be a comedy. Unlike other so-called "romantic thrillers", it makes no attempt to be intentionally funny. Sure, it's unintentionally funny, the keyword, of course, being "unintentionally." Again, I'm grading on the intent, not what I perceive.

but the perception of intent is relative.

Unless it's one long joke, then the movie's intent was not to be a comedy.

And as for romantic thrillers spelling comedy, I've seen Inception, Eyes Wide Shut, The Reader, and Blade Runner classified as such. We all know how much of a scream those movies were.

[JimJ]

Movie #21: Halloween 3

Ugh, this was fucking boring.  I always heard how this got a bad rap simply because there was no Michael Myers in it, and that it's actually a decent movie if you give it a chance.  Fuck that, this thing sucks.  I thought the concept was kind of cool but the execution just wasn't there.  Plus, they have the audacity to show a damn commercial for the original Halloween (in which they refer to it as a "timeless classic", was Halloween already considered a timeless classic when the third one came out?), taunting us with images of a much better movie.  I almost watched this with the Hor-RIFF-ic Riff, but decided to watch it unriffed instead.  I really regret it.  1/5