Author Topic: Shocktober Group Marathon 2012  (Read 66128 times)

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36129
  • Marathon Man
Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2012
« Reply #20 on: September 28, 2012, 11:43:13 PM »
Absentia and The Awakening, both added.

Konnel, glad to see you'll be watching The Mothman Prophecies, one of my favorites from the 00s.

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36129
  • Marathon Man
Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2012
« Reply #21 on: September 29, 2012, 09:51:08 AM »


The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)

Vincent Price horror from the 60s and 70s is its own sub-genre I've mostly left unexplored. This is a small bit of campy fun, not as ambitious as The Masque of the Red Death which I watched last year, but more enjoyable thanks to some spiffy art direction and a focus on ritual with the murders. Each is inspired by an biblical curse and has a repetition of steps with slight alteration that reminded me of Peter Greenaway.

Price is a touch more morbid and less hammy than I hoped for, though he does get one tick that lets him go B-I-G. His Dr. Phibes is unable to speak so he plugs a device into his throat which then plugs into various phonograph amplifiers (done in silver and gold) around his house. You hear the echoing voice of Vincent Price, while Price provides scowls and glares to match the dialogue. The films has to stretch to make this work when they need Phibes to speak, but I liked the effect. His mute assistant and her willingness to help his revenge remains too much of a mystery. Since his plan comes from such a personal backstory, why would she take part?

For a long time, the film is split into thirds, and each section draws out a SNL sketch of material to a total 90+ min of film. Besides Phibes, there are two bumbling detectives that remind me very much of Thompson and Thomson from Tintin and Joseph Cotton, who up to the end seems to be in a different movie. It's like they added his scenes after the film came up way short in the running time. A name actor wedged into the plot to imply dramatic credibility and help sell tickets. The bulk of his role is in one room and was probably filmed in one day. This is a mixed bag, but I enjoyed the staging of a couple of the murders and the direction is disco stylish when it gets the chance to be.
RATING: * * 1/2

Bondo

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 23082
Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2012
« Reply #22 on: September 29, 2012, 08:32:03 PM »
Friday the 13th (1980)

As I go through the classic late-70s/early-80s slasher films, it'll be interesting if any of them don't suck. There's a quality to these films that apparently I don't see that earned them endless sequels and a lasting reputation. Friday the 13th feels unique in a few ways, and not good ways.

Compared to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, this does have a higher level of production quality and acting. This doesn't really change that it is a paper-thin plot designed to let us watch broad characters we don't really care about be slaughtered. Going further here is that the characters generally never know about the death of others. They might be a bit creeped out by the looney saying there is a curse combined with the isolation, but they never have to think about their death for more than a couple seconds leading up to it. There's something less terrifying in this.

The other factor is that Mrs. Voorhees, the legendary Jason's mother, is basically a non-presence in the role of the killer. We see her work (these aren't memorable kills), but we don't see her until the end. The ending is by far the best part of the film, if a bit expository. Not that TCM has any more sense about it, where it was a rougher film, it did at least maximize the creepiness of the setting and the panic of the individuals. Both of these classics are bad in their own ways. We'll see if any of the others on my slate can earn their status.

2/5

P.S. This is probably the least useful film in Kevin Bacon's filmography for six degrees of Kevin Bacon.

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36129
  • Marathon Man
Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2012
« Reply #23 on: September 29, 2012, 10:54:55 PM »
Of your list of "Horror Classics", Friday the 13th is my least favorite. I'll be surprised if you don't have good things to say about Halloween and Hellraiser. The first showcases directorial bravado and the second has editorial bravado and a lot of imagination regarding the concept.

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36129
  • Marathon Man
Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2012
« Reply #24 on: September 30, 2012, 01:17:50 AM »


Absentia (2011)

Though a terrible title, Absentia is a nice indie surprise. For such a super low-budget film with hardly any buzz, the acting and direction are quite strong. In fact, you could strip away the horror elements and there's still a compelling story here about a woman dealing with her husband's mysterious disappearance seven years ago. While going through the process of getting him declared legally dead, she is comforted by her sister, who's spent the past few years wrestling with some drug demons herself. The two actresses form a nice, casual dynamic and I really liked the cop assigned to the missing persons case.

Of course things, go weird and filmmaker Mike Flanagan does a really nice job maintaining suspense and keeping the solution to the mystery within sight but just out of reach. There are creature elements and supernatural stuff. Events are left open to interpretations, though I wasn't frustrated by the lack of definitive answers. The script gets murky in places, especially when it tries to explain events through philosophy, but this was a solid Halloween treat. I'll be keeping an eye on Mike Flanagan. He has a lot of potential.
RATING: * * *

oldkid

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 19044
  • Hi there! Feed me worlds!
Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2012
« Reply #25 on: September 30, 2012, 02:06:36 AM »
1SO has given me a number of recommendations, and I've looked up some I wanted to catch up on, so I'm joining in the fun.

On Netflix Instant:
The House on Haunted Hill
The Masque of the Red Death
The Call of Cthulhu
Audition
Sante Sangre
Hour of the Wolf

Others:
Willard
The Wicker Man
The Vanishing
Slither

We'll see how many I get to!


"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

Antares

  • Godfather
  • *****
  • Posts: 5013
Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2012
« Reply #26 on: September 30, 2012, 08:29:25 AM »
Vincent Price horror from the 60s and 70s is its own sub-genre I've mostly left unexplored.

Have you ever seen The Witchfinder General? For me, it's Vincent Price at his most menacing and least campy.
Masterpiece (100-91) | Classic (90-80) | Entertaining (79-69) | Mediocre (68-58) | Cinemuck (57-21) | Crap (20-0)

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36129
  • Marathon Man
Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2012
« Reply #27 on: September 30, 2012, 09:13:01 AM »
Vincent Price horror from the 60s and 70s is its own sub-genre I've mostly left unexplored.

Have you ever seen The Witchfinder General? For me, it's Vincent Price at his most menacing and least campy.


Last year. Price is effective and dark, but the film is dreary and pessimistic to a depressing degree.

ses

  • Administrator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 14979
    • Sarah's Kitchen Adventures
Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2012
« Reply #28 on: September 30, 2012, 11:26:51 AM »
P.S. This is probably the least useful film in Kevin Bacon's filmography for six degrees of Kevin Bacon.

That would be A Few Good Men
"It's a fool who looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart"

http://sarahskitchenadventures.blogspot.com/

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36129
  • Marathon Man
Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2012
« Reply #29 on: October 01, 2012, 12:11:58 AM »


The Awakening (2011)

It's not that I don't like ghost stories, but they give too much leeway for a filmmaker to be lazy when it comes to scares. The creeps depends heavily on the location, the production budget and how wisely the director uses these funds to create an effective atmosphere. The Awakening suffers from uninspired surroundings. As if a large manor house and the occasional fog is enough. The movie isn't spooky, but frosty. Shutting you out with a cool reserve and an air of class instead of drawing you into its darkness, this is the opposite effect of what good horror should do. As for the scares, they are the garden variety pop-up ghosts, always accompanied by a burst of music from the composer. During a forest attack, one plops into the frame as if loaded on a spring.

There's a constant battle in The Awakening between the basic function of a ghost story, which is to scare you, and the desire to use the actors to elevate the material into something more. There's a group of good actors, led by the always excellent Rebecca Hall. She plays a doubter, debunking others with their tricks. Of course, the film will put her doubt to the test. (Kermode said how all of these films have the same pattern. "There's no such thing as ghosts. Oh wait, there is.") Told with exactly that attitude, silly scares and low on atmosphere I'm left with a film more high-minded than it should be that I never engaged with. A competent but forgettable movie.
RATING: * * 1/2

 

love