October Horror Movie a Day 2013

[Compound]

A quote from the current movie I'm watching:
"I was fighting a bat and I was turned on by it."

This actor won an Oscar, BTW.

[SJP]

You're watching the 1989 Batman?

[Compound]

Maniac Cop
A mysterious person dressed as a cop is randomly killing people in New York City.

Ooh. Great cast. Tom Atkins from Night of the Creeps and every cop show ever made. Bruuuuuce Campbell and Robert Z'Dar, from Souuuuultaker.  And it's a pretty well done film too. Yeah, there's no real explanation for some of what goes on in the film, but it's decent enough so that I ended up not caring.

Vampire's Kiss
After a bat interrupts a date, Peter is visited by a vampire who turns him into a creature of the night as well. As he turns, his behavior becomes more and more erratic. And since Peter is played by Nicholas Cage, this means he's acting erratic by Nick Cage standards, not by mere mortal ones.

However, after a while a plot twist emerges. It becomes increasingly evident that the vampire isn't really there. Nick's just going increasingly insane.

Yeah, this isn't a very good film and the only bit of interest in it is watching Cage give an increasingly wacky performance and adopt an accent of indeterminate origin. There are much better films by Mr. Cage that you should probably watch instead. Even Ghost Rider is a better choice.

Yes, I just said Ghost Rider is better than this.

[d00hickey]

Compound, have you seen the rest of the Maniac Cop series? I liked the first one when I saw it many years ago, I kind of want to see them but never new anyone that could recommend them.

[Compound]

I have not. However, since they seem to be uploaded, I'll likely be watching them soon since I'm just desperately trying to watch things that I haven't seen yet right now.

[Darth Geek]

Yes, I just said Ghost Rider is better than this.

Or better yet, watch it with the Quiptracks riff!

[SJP]

I've only seen Maniac Cop 1, but what befuddled me was finding out one time when I thought I was watching Maniac Cop 2, I was actually watching Psycho Cop 2.  Yes, there is actually a completely separate, unrelated series of killer cop movies that also has a bevy of sequels.  And no, I don't know how that's possible.

Anyway, Day 23:
Burke & Hare (2010)
I put a Rifftrax in the middle of a John Landis sandwich.  Starring some of the same people, oddly enough.

William Burke and William Hare (Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis, respectively) are con men who find out that the recently budding medical field in England is needing corpses for their medical autopsies, and the fresher, the better.  After sending along a tenant of theirs who has just died of natural causes, they find that the best way to make a fresh body is to kill them off themselves.  16 murders later, the two are not only being hounded by the head of the local militia (Ronnie Corbett, who is clearly having fun), but by Hare's entrepreneurial wife, Burke's new lady friend whom he's sponsoring as an actress, and the growing protection racket.

There's a lot going on in this dark comedy, and as a horror/comedy it works on a way broader level than Werewolf in London.  In that regard, everyone is fun to watch and there are some memorably funny scenes (one involving a cliff, a tree, and a speeding stagecoach come to mind).  As a fictional depiction of true events, it's enjoyable.

However, if you're looking for historicity, you're going to be very, very pissed off.  Pegg's Burke is a sympathetic everyman who gets dragged into murder kicking and screaming.  The real William Burke would approve this whitewash, as not only was he not doing the murders out of love for a sweet-natured girl, but was the mastermind behind the whole plot.  But I'm willing to forgive it because the movie isn't TRYING to be an accurate biopic; it's taking the true story and turning it into a mangled romantic comedy of errors, which means it is should be used in teaching a history class about as much as using Happy Gilmore as an accurate depiction of both the NHL and the PGA.

Plus, it has Tim Curry spouting one-liners.  Who can't love a movie where, after performing surgery, a gout of blood hits someone in the face, and Curry dryly replies, "THAT would be an artery?"

[Compound]

Prom Night 4: Deliver Us From Evil
A demon possessed priest goes around killing fornicating teens.

Sigh. Dull. Humorless. Utterly without wit or suspense. Completely by the numbers and the numbers aren't very good. About the only notable thing is the lead actress went onto play Ezri Dax on DS9. Skip it.

Maniac Cop 2 and 3
2: See the writeup from Maniac Cop. Repeat. Oh, but add in someone doing a Chuck Manson impersonation.
3: After a female cop is framed for a murder, Matt Cordell decides to take her as his bride.

Well, the good news- these two films keep the same tone as the first film. There's no real ramping up of the humor as you'd see in practically every other slasher film franchise. Otherwise, 2 is pretty close to the first film in plot. 3 is a little goofier, but still played pretty straight. So to Answer Doohickey's Q, yeah if you liked the first you'll probably like these too. There's a slight fall off in the quality from film to film, but it's not as bad as, say, Aliens to Aliens 3 or even the Oceans series.

[Johnny Unusual]

Seed of Chucky

This one actually has a promising start with two fake out openings that are far more interesting and well directed than the rest of the film.  But then then it went a route that had no scares (not that they were trying to that this time around) and zero laughs (something they went for hard and failed at).  I actually kind of like Jennifer Tilly, but watching her play herself is painful.  In fact, pretty much all the acting not done by a doll is awful.  I like the character of Glen/Glenda, but it belongs in a funnier movie.  Or even a funny movie.

[Malt]

Oct.15th-The Brain That Wouldn't Die (mst3k) - I'd seen about half of the actual movie before. Pretty good riffs. Funny ending with Dr. Forrester & Frank.
Oct.16th-Manos: The Hands of Fate (mst3k) - Crow's Torgo impersonation kills me every time, and the Torgo's Pizza bit was great as well.
Oct.17th-Earth vs The Spider (mst3k) - Wow, a great episode. Enjoyable and fun to watch, great host segments,  really funny riffs, and even the movie itself is semi watchable from time to time. Mike & Joel both on camera in the same scene. All this and a bonus short subject. This really seems like one of those 'perfect' episodes.
Oct.18th-Soultaker (mst3k)
Oct.19th-Hobgoblins (mst3k) - Wow, that movie was a real piece of shit. I don't think I could ever be on enough coke to make a film that bad. Extremely childish. Great riffs though.
Oct.20th-Revenge of the Creature (mst3k) - This isn't the first Creature from the Black Lagoon sequel I'd seen before, but this one had none of the charm or adventure that the original has. Good riffs from Mike & the bots though, loved the riffs during the cattle prod scene.
Oct.21st-House on Haunted Hill (Rifftrax) - I'd seen this movie a few times before and always sort of trailed off somehwere and lost track of what exactly is going on, but I found with the rifftrax audio I was actually more engaged with the plot. Loved it. Also really enjoyed the acoustics of the movie coming from the tv and the riffs coming from the stereo, but that's just a minor plus.
Oct.22nd-The Stuff - I stumbled upon this movie after seeing it mentioned in a horror film documentary, so I figured I'd give it a shot since I had access to it. It seemed like a cheesy 80's movie and it definitely lives up to that. Slow start, you can't really tell it's a horror movie until about halfway through. The movie seems like it's basically just the same message repeated over and over, with some gore effects thrown in to sell tickets. Not offensively bad, just not really a keeper. Riffability seems very high. It really begs for it, it's one of those movies where it's hard not to, and makes it more fun to watch when you do. The main character is basically a cartoon character, and his attempt at an accent even makes him sound like Snagglepuss.
Oct.23rd-Re-Animator - Another one I actually hadn't seen before, although I was familiar with it through word of mouth. Very glad I finally had a chance to see this one. The main character reminds me of a nerdy anti-social mad scientist version of Bruce Campbell, which is just as fun to watch as it sounds. Aside from that, even though he is fundamentally an unlikable person by design, you just can't help but not hate him, which is of course due to a very enjoyable performance by the actor who played him. The special effects are quite nice and entertaining (well, sans the cat), the gore and spectacle is more than up-to-par for the time it was made, along with the gags and new directions taken with pre-existing genres. In fact this film is pretty well made all-around. It seems like something that would've released around 1990/91 but it was actually made in '85. I would say it has aged well. Also this movie has the advantage of not taking itself too seriously, even the color of the blood states this at times. At the end of the very first scene the film lets it's guard down and sets the tone nicely. The setup efficiently lets you know it will be a very fun watch.
Oct.24th-Night of the Living Dead (Rifftrax Live) - No review necessary, duh, but worth mentioning I'd seen the movie a few times before. Also, I sat in a spot where whenever someone would randomly get up and walk out (bathroom break or whatever) their sillhouette would walk off to the right, wich made for some surreal moments. Anyways I had a blast and really look forward to ScCTM.
Oct.25th-Monster A-Go-Go (mst3k) - That has to be the worst ending in any movie I've ever seen. So bad it's actually funny on it's own.
Oct.26th-The Giant Gila Monster (mst3k) - I remember seeing that exploding Gila Monster clip a lot on Talk Soup. Was a fun episode to watch in full.
Oct.27th-The Mole People (mst3k) - I've always kind of liked the idea of mole people so I enjoyed watching this one beyond just the riffs, but the costumes are admittedly annoying. Also the spelunking scene was classic.

[Darth Geek]

Oct.22nd-The Stuff - Riffability seems very high. It really begs for it, it's one of those movies where it's hard not to, and makes it more fun to watch when you do. The main character is basically a cartoon character, and his attempt at an accent even makes him sound like Snagglepuss.

Hor-Riff-ic Productions did a really good riff of this already.
http://www.rifftrax.com/iriffs/hor-riff-ic-productions/hor-riff-ic-stuff

[SJP]

Day 24: Rifftrax - Night of the Living Dead (1968/2013)

Guess I won't be needing to say much about this one on these forums.  I'm just very happy that there appears to be a bottomless pit of short films about Norman.

[Johnny Unusual]

MST3k - Samson Vs. the Vampire Women

One of my favourites.  I wish they did more Mexican movies, the odd dubbing is amazing.

[Malt]

MST3k - Samson Vs. the Vampire Women

One of my favourites.  I wish they did more Mexican movies, the odd dubbing is amazing.

I'll be looking for this one now. Thanks.

[Compound]

JU- you've seen the spate of dubbed Spanish films that Rifftrax has done in the last year or two, correct? (Just making sure that some folks do know that Neutron, Brainiac and others were those types of films.)