October Horror Movie a Day 2013

[d00hickey]

I hear allot people using Stephen King adaptations as a measure of how bad something is. My favorite movie of all time was the Stanley Kubrick directed The Shining. The Green Mile, Stand by Me and Shawshank Redemption were all great movies. Most of the S.K. stuff released on T.V. was awful but not all adaptations.

[SJP]

Day 10: MST3K: Revenge of the Creature (1955/1997)

Ah, first riffed movie of the year.  One I only saw the first 10 minutes of (I fell asleep watching it when I got the box set initially...I'd already watched the other three in a row, cut me some slack!) until today.  And like the rest of the Sci-Fi era, regardless of what may be said of the in-between segments, this is the crew running with years of experience behind them.

John Agar, wearing shorts far too small for any human being to wear, goes to the Amazon to bring back the Creature from the Black Lagoon alive, for study.  By study, this means chaining to the bottom of an open air aquarium in Fake-Sea-World, filled with sharks and shocking him with a huge pipe, all the while dangling a beautiful woman in front of him.  How could things possibly go wrong?

Riffing is good, movie is more ridiculous than I thought it would be, since it is a Universal mid-50s horror flick.  You'd think, even for a slapdash sequel, that they'd make something a little bit more interesting.  But no...when the only way you can make your creature scary is by having your actor swim right up to the camera lens over and over again, you're not trying hard enough.

RIFFABILITY: It's a riffed movie.  What more can I say?

[Johnny Unusual]

Creepshow

Probably the best horror anthology horror movie around, though it is far from perfect.  It's just really fun in the way that captures the EC feel better than anything

The premise is that a young boy (Joe Hill, of course) has his horror comic thrown out by his mean daddy (Not Stephen King for some reason).  The rest of the movie are the stories from those comics.

* Father's Day:  Easily the weakest story, but I can't deny that this very basic story is such an archetype for the EC model, I couldn't imagine the movie without it.  Still, it's pretty insubstantial (apparently, King originally imagined it as 5 minutes long, tops).  It really does hit all the bases for about half of the EC stories: a gold digging family, a woman killing her love (which really doesn't matter to the story so much, except to take it off the check list), the dead coming back to avenge its murder and a twist at the end.  The story, though, isn't that tense.  The corpse look appropriately silly (like he just popped out of a comic) but it also takes away any horror.  Still, I think the story is supposed to be more fun than scary: an entry point.  It works in that respect, but as a standalone, it is a little lukewarm and overlong.  Still, I always like to think about the anti-climax of an ending like this: does zombie dad just eat the headcake and everyone stand around awkwardly.  When he finishes the cake, does he start killing other people, go back to his grave, or does he just... hang around.  I like the idea of an anti-climactic second scene with some follow through.

* The Lonely Death Of Jordy Verrill: Stephen King is certainly no actor, but I still like this fun, comic story.  All the stories are kind of comic, but this one turns it up ridiculously high.  Now, most EC stories are about bad people getting their comeuppance, but occassionally, stupidity and thoughtlessness is the characters sin.  That is the case here, where poor Jordy just keeps on making bad decision after bad decision when a meteor brings a strange mold that starts growing all over his house... and him.  Though the story itself isn't scary, there is something unsetting about the strange plant life that I find interesting.  But I think a lot of people will find it a little TOO broad, and for that I don't blame them.

* Something to Tide You Over: This is where the movie gets much better.  From here on out, things are much better.  Leslie Nelson (doing a fantastic job) tells his wife's secret lover that he is going to do something to here, if he doesn't come to the beach with him.  I really like the way this plays out.  Comparing this to the Poetic Justice story from Tales from the Crypt, this really draws out the villains fear and comeuppance and the audiences fear.  We want the bad guy to get what's coming to him, but we still are scared about what we are going to see.  When the horror does come, it's great, but not so scary, but the anticipation is drawn out really well.  Nice and tense.  The one problem is that while it is better than the first story, it kind of covers the same ground... but better.

* The Crate: This one might be the most fun.  It's a bit overlong, but it's got a great monster and that counts for a lot.  It's also one of the tensest stories and, again, uses anticipation to create tension.  You know someone it going to get attacked, but when is it.  Is it when a character is going for a shoe?  A flashlight?  My one problem about the ending is I think it wants you to think that the monster is going to come back and kill the hero, but I got the feeling that this was not a vengeful monster so much as a "get away from my stuff" monster.  Still, pretty cool.

* They're Creeping Up on You:  Easily, the most unsettling story, if bugs make your skin crawl, like me.  It certainly builds really well with a despicable villain who gets a really nasty comeuppance.

At the end of the story, it turns out that before the comic was thrown out, the boy sent away for a little revenge on his daddy.

Far from a great movie, this is a very fun and delectable little Halloween treat.  I also love the details.  The exaggerated comic book backgrounds during the "snap endings" and the ads and letters page which are very true to the source material.  Great stuff.

MST3k - Tormented

TOM STEWART KILLED ME!  TOM STEWART KILLED ME!  TOM STEWART KILLED ME!  TOM STEWART KILLED ME!

I actually kind of like the movie.  It's silly and dumb and worthy of being mocked, but it is consistently entertaining.  I basically just feels like a Tale from the Crypt that went on a little too long for too little payoff.  Still, it's a fun ghost story.  And Vi gets really good at haunting.

[losingmydignity]

Help me out, guys. I want to watch a silly B monster/horror film tonight. Something obscure, has to be on youtube (full movie). Exploitation films are fine. Nothing more recent than the 80's. 60's/70's a plus.

[TeamRAD]

Blood Diner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWdxWlXP02Y

Have fun!

[TeamRAD]

The third segment, following a group of reporters as they look in on a cult compound... this is the big one. I thought I figured out where it was going, but then it got completely crazy and caught me way off-guard. There's a ton of super cool imagery and creativity in this one, and that's before things take a dive into such madness that you've just got to see it for yourself.

The crazy in that short is off-the-charts. It's such a treat.

I just wish I hadn't all but ruined the ending of it by watching the redband trailer. Whoops.

4. John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness

I revisited that in the summer, and man is that a creepy little film.

Scott, Lords of Salem, good stuff? I'm going to be checking it out next weekend. Everything I've read/heard about it sways negatively, but the We Hate Movies gang gave it heaps of praise last week. I'm finally going to check it out.

In short...telekinetic girl kills Dad by accident.  Back at Crystal Lake in therapy with her doctor, she causes a second accident by yanking a sleeping Jason out of the lake.  Hijinks ensue.

I also enjoy that telekinetic-girl is a necromancer! Wait, what?!!

I really enjoy House of the Devil and recommend it to anyone who likes horror.

Best.Dance.Scene.Ever.

[Relaxing Dragon]

Lords of Salem is a very... particular film. It's definitely Zombie working outside his comfort zone, and I've seen plenty of people heap a lot of praise on it as a rather daring slice of horror.

I am not one of those people, however. I found the movie rather dull at times, and outright goofy at other times. Doesn't help that Sheri Moon Zombie simply isn't strong enough an actress to anchor a movie.

[losingmydignity]

Blood Diner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWdxWlXP02Y

Have fun!

`



That was great. Really fun. Reminds me of Thanksgiving movie nights with some friends at the apartment of a friend who makes films like this.

I particularly liked Uncle Anwar's black and white flashback, the fact that Detective Jackson looked like....a Jackson (and her line delivery was really something), and the archaeologist scene.
"Maybe the streets will be free from fiends and freakos for a while"

[Relaxing Dragon]

Blood Diner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWdxWlXP02Y

Have fun!

This is a deliciously fun movie that has one of my favorite kills of the genre (it features a fryer and a bat, as I recall). I used this one to get an achievement or two on last year's list, if I recall correctly.

[Raven]

Haven't updated in a couple days.

6th- The Hamiltons 4/5- Saw someone else watched this for the horror movie a day and felt like watching it again.  No discussion on content as it's a movie that's different the 2nd time you see it.  Highly recommend for checking it out.
7th- Pacific Rim 3/5(as Horror movie anyway)- Picked this one as a giant monster movie realizing that it's not really a horror title.  Liked it a whole lot.
8th- Frighteners 4/5- A little bit of an old school horror movie.  Jake Busey in anything automatically makes it scary and it's pretty weird seeing Michael J Fox as a dickhead.
9th- This is the End 5/5- Laughed my ass off at this one but I really like Seth Rogan and Danny McBride.  The possession aspect and somewhat tense moments were well done. 
10th- Mothman Prophecies 5/5- My favorite scary movie and one of my top 10 favorites all time.  Can't recommend this one higher.  Seriously freaky.

[Compound]

The Comedy of Terrors

A struggling undertaker strikes upon the idea to increase his business by speeding the process  of people dying along. Until he comes across someone who just won't stay dead.

Okay, listen to this cast: Vincent Price. Peter Lorre. Boris Karloff. Basil Rathbone.  That's a pretty damn good cast there. Unfortunately, it's not that great of a comedy. There are some laughs but it's nothing uproarious. Which is a shame too as the film was written by Richard Matheson, who's got a hell of a pedigree when it comes to screenplays. (I am Legend and Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, for example.) Still watching the performances of the actors is probably well worth the running time.

[Johnny Unusual]

Yeah, I had the exact same impression.  It has some fun moments and I like the Harvey Kurtzman feel to it, but it's a little... thin.

[Darth Geek]

Blood Diner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWdxWlXP02Y

Have fun!

I still really need to check this one out. Maybe this weekend.

[Darth Geek]

The Comedy of Terrors

A struggling undertaker strikes upon the idea to increase his business by speeding the process  of people dying along. Until he comes across someone who just won't stay dead.

Okay, listen to this cast: Vincent Price. Peter Lorre. Boris Karloff. Basil Rathbone.  That's a pretty damn good cast there. Unfortunately, it's not that great of a comedy. There are some laughs but it's nothing uproarious. Which is a shame too as the film was written by Richard Matheson, who's got a hell of a pedigree when it comes to screenplays. (I am Legend and Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, for example.) Still watching the performances of the actors is probably well worth the running time.

With that cast (and that setup), how the hell have I not seen this before?

[ScottotD]

Why can't I quote??

I thought Lords of Salem was okay, the middle dragged for me and the acting was patchy but it was probably the most 'fun' movie Zombie's ever made and felt very Hammer-esq to me at times.