love

Author Topic: Building the Horror/Thriller 1000  (Read 63132 times)

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36129
  • Marathon Man
Re: Horror: A New Beginning
« Reply #380 on: October 15, 2018, 12:10:18 AM »

Grizzly (1976)
aka. Claws
★ ★
It's so Jaws that I could never let the film stand on its own merits. Moving the story to the woods and First Blood's color palette of green and brown, there isn't a single good shot involving the damn bear, which is described as being twice as big and strong as any bear in existence, but when you see it, it's just bear-sized. Christopher George does a good William Holden.


Island of Death (1976)
aka. Killing Daylight
aka. Cruel Destination
★ ½
A couple on vacation in Greece. The film reveals that the two are actually serial killers with no moral boundaries. This hits you fairly early in a simulated scene between the man and a goat. It’s one of those button-pushing films, and sometimes I could see an attempt to be Buñuel and Pasolini by way of Gaspar Noe. It’s not complete garbage, though the filmmaking only occasionally rises to the occasion and seems to run out of ideas by the end so that the couple and everyone they meet are only interested in non-consensual sex.


The Haunting of Julia (1977)
aka. Full Circle
★ ★
The intense opening where a couple loses a child reminded me of Don’t Look Now and The Changling. What follows however is less about horror and more about being overwhelmed by grief. Mia Farrow gives a strong performance, but the director is more interested in watching her being sad then handling the supernatural moments, which pop in like an unwanted intrusion even though that’s the only time the film comes to life.


Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)
★ ½
Faye Dunaway plays an edgy fashion photographer who inexplicably has visions from the point-of-view of a serial killer. John Carpenter wrote the heavily altered script – 5 other writers credited on IMDB – but was busy making Halloween. (Ha!) I’d be interested in a remake of his original draft because the photography angle is interesting. The cop thriller with a number of suspects (and Dunaway falling in love with Tommy Lee Jones while everyone around her dies) is a barely coherent mess.


Prophecy (1979)
★ ★
Environmental pollution creates a mutated grizzly bear. Film wastes 75-minutes on one-dimensional character building, with only a couple of brief attack scenes. However, the final half-hour is Insane!!! The creature is far more extreme than the films ‘PG’ rating would suggest, and director John Frankenheimer flexes his muscle with tension and a couple of the biggest scares I’ve had all month. The film is also unintentionally hilarious (see above clip), and it’s impressive that the movie is able to thrill and chill amid such bad moments and stupid character decisions.

smirnoff

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 26251
    • smirnoff's Top 100
Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #381 on: October 17, 2018, 10:32:55 PM »
The Devil’s Rain (1975)

 The inexplicable star power includes Tom Skerritt, Ernest Borgnine, William Shatner, Eddie Albert, Ida Lupino and John Travolta.

Wow, has any other film come close to that density of big names?

I just watched Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), and the cast includes...
Faye Dunaway
Tommy Lee Jones
Brad Dourif
Raul Julia
Rene Auberjonois

Powerful names. Too bad it was only good for 2 stars. :(



Quality sleeping bag death. Very satisfying poof.

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36129
  • Marathon Man
Re: Horror: A New Beginning
« Reply #382 on: October 23, 2018, 12:04:57 AM »

The Boogey Man (1980)
½
Man this is bad. A girl sees her brother commit murder through a mirror. Years later, the woman finds the mirror and shatters it, only to have the pieces commit inexplicable evil deeds as they are scattered around. (Kind of like Oculus but terrible.) Poorly filmed with little money and a bad script, it’s the kind of film whose inclusion in They Shoot Zombies makes me question the entire list.


Zombie Holocaust (1980)
aka. Doctor Butcher M.D.
★ ½
I’ve seen a few (too many) of this type of Italian Horror, but this one throws everything into the stew. An organ thief at a hospital leads to an expedition into the jungle where cannibals live in fear of a mad doctor and his zombie army. The gore effects are really well done, and the movie moves quickly through all the sub-genres, but this is still only for people into this type of extreme film. Frequently mentioned on Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast.


Bloody Moon (1981)
aka. The Saw of Death
★ ½
I’m not instantly against sleazy filmmaker Jesûs Franco. I was a fan of Paul Verhoeven once. There are a couple of memorable violent kills in this slasher, but most of it captures the inane plotting and stupid characters that’s bad about the sub-genre. It’s Giallo without the flash.


Amityville II: The Possession (1982)
★ ½
Most of the movie is very grim, with an abusive father and the demon possessing the son lusting after his sister. The haunted house scares are standard fare. (Doesn’t helped that I just watched Netfilx’s Haunting of Hill House.) The final third is a pretty good Exorcist knock-off with good special effects supporting the battle between Priest and Demon.


976-EVIL (1988)
aka. Dial the Devil
aka. Horrorscope
½
Hard to believe this was directed by an actor. While Robert Englund will never be nominated for an Academy Award, he’s one of the best within the Horror genre. The ‘acting’ here (by some pros as well as amateurs) is across the board terrible, as if they were trying to invent a new type of performance art. I’m talking Gigli bad, less believable than those scenes of Nicholas Cage in The Wicker Man, except here it’s all the time (and not even a fraction of it is entertaining.) The cheap production and nonsensical story might have bothered me more, if I could’ve gotten past the people.

Knocked Out Loaded

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1914
  • I might remember it all differently tomorrow.
Re: Horror: A New Beginning
« Reply #383 on: October 23, 2018, 05:10:34 AM »
The Boogey Man (1980)
½
Man this is bad. A girl sees her brother commit murder through a mirror. Years later, the woman finds the mirror and shatters it, only to have the pieces commit inexplicable evil deeds as they are scattered around. (Kind of like Oculus but terrible.) Poorly filmed with little money and a bad script, it’s the kind of film whose inclusion in They Shoot Zombies makes me question the entire list.
In Decemer 1980 there was a debate on Swedish television on the influence of violent movies availible on VHS at that time and the destructive effect they had on young people. I remember that The Boogeyman was one of the titles that were singled out on this program. Other movies that were mentioned in this context were The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Driller Killer, Tourist Trap and a few others. Btw, The Boogeyman has the scene with the girl and the pair of scissors in front of the mirror, right?
Extraordinary (81-100˚) | Very good (61-80˚) | Good (41-60˚) | Fair (21-40˚) | Poor (0-20˚)

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36129
  • Marathon Man
Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #384 on: October 23, 2018, 09:52:36 AM »
It does. Before stabbing herself with the scissors she slices her top open because this is a terrible film.

Some of you may be wondering what I'm still doing over here. Truth is, while I have a list of Horror titles not on the They Shoot Zombies list, most of them are similar recommendations from other lists and reviews. The titles I most wanted to see for Shocktober, I already have. I'm 19 films away from 100% completion, including a few titles I want to see - such as A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), Black Christmas (2006) - and one my wife has nostalgia for, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988).

Much as I respect They Shoot Zombies, you can see by my reviews this year's update has weakened the list quite a bit. It's a sentiment I see echoed on the ICM Forum by others who aim to complete. There are already ideas in place for how the list is compiled that will hopefully weed these lesser horror films back out.

Knocked Out Loaded

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1914
  • I might remember it all differently tomorrow.
Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #385 on: October 23, 2018, 04:16:05 PM »
Horror is not my go-to genre, but I for one still very much appreciate your capsules from the bottom of the barrel. :)
Extraordinary (81-100˚) | Very good (61-80˚) | Good (41-60˚) | Fair (21-40˚) | Poor (0-20˚)

oldkid

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 19044
  • Hi there! Feed me worlds!
Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #386 on: October 23, 2018, 06:15:07 PM »
I saw the first half hour of Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) by accident.  That first half hour made a worse mistake than the whole of the original Nightmare-- it was dull.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36129
  • Marathon Man
Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #387 on: October 23, 2018, 08:00:16 PM »
Horror is not my go-to genre, but I for one still very much appreciate your capsules from the bottom of the barrel. :)
Thank you. Part of my fun with this Marathon is expressing my reaction in as few sentences as possible.

Jeff Schroeck

  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 982
Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #388 on: October 24, 2018, 03:19:23 PM »
Horror is not my go-to genre, but I for one still very much appreciate your capsules from the bottom of the barrel. :)
Thank you. Part of my fun with this Marathon is expressing my reaction in as few sentences as possible.

It's kind of like the grim bastard cousin of Roujin's "70s US" marathon.
« Last Edit: October 24, 2018, 07:06:55 PM by Jeff Schroeck »

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36129
  • Marathon Man
Re: Horror: A New Beginning
« Reply #389 on: October 25, 2018, 11:33:35 PM »

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988)
★ ★ ½
Read Full Review


Brain Dead (1990)
aka. Paranoia
★ ½
A brain specialist (Bill Pullman) is hit by a car and starts having hallucinations. He might be suffering from intense paranoia or he might be a victim of his own experimental surgery. The script takes great pleasure confusing fact with fantasy but has no interest in finding a conclusion to all the weirdness or giving the characters any layers or thematic resonance. Just weird for the sake of being weird.


Child’s Play 3 (1991)
★ ★
You can note the filmmakers who get the joke of the killer doll versus a film like this where director Jack Bender just ignores what makes Chucky absurdly unique and goes through standard slasher icon motions. It makes for a pretty boring film, a haunted house where the creators are doing it for paychecks and not for love.


Subspecies (1991)
aka. In the Twilight
aka. The Night Has Fangs
★ ½
It's hard for me to like the films of producer Charles Band. He's a cheap motel promoting quality. What's wrong with producing more modest scripts or wear your cut corners on a more charming sleeve. He's the DC Universe of Indie Horror, eyes always on the product and never on the art.


The Pit and the Pendulum (1991)
aka. The Inquisitor
★ ★
Charles Band again, only this time Stuart Gordon directs. That’s not a mark of quality, but experience puts it a step up from the last film, which is good because the script here is even worse. Like something Uwe Boll would be a part of. It’s all over the place in terms of story and tone. The horror is mostly torture porn, but some individual scenes are interestingly played and most of the cast knows to treat it tongue in cheek.

 

love