Author Topic: Building the Horror/Thriller 1000  (Read 63146 times)

Junior

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Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #170 on: March 14, 2017, 06:27:30 PM »
Yeah, that movie is quite interesting to watch in our modern context. It's hard to tell what I might have made of it had I watched it in the 80s, but now it seems like Nightmare on Elm Street 2 where it almost makes a lot of very interesting points but also pulls back in weird ways. The whole movie is weird, as you noted, but it's weird in a really interesting and fun way. The end is, of course, fantastic.

I like what you wrote about the way that the violence is not actually depicted but rather shown in aftermath only. It does feel like a budgetary decision, as you pointed out, but I think it also could be an interesting way to make a point about violence or something. Maybe in a better, more thought out movie. Or maybe it's there in this one, we just gotta look harder.
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Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #171 on: March 15, 2017, 01:15:07 AM »
I like it a bit more than you but certainly recognize that without the ending it wouldn't be as notable. I still think there are a lot of great moments/kills leading up to that last act. I particularly love the horrible fake mustache the cop has.

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Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #172 on: March 15, 2017, 01:44:19 AM »
I kept debating talking about the fake mustache but it seemed like its own paragraph, one of the obvious examples of the director's lack of experience or unintentional oddness. Obviously the actor shaved between shooting days - maybe he had another gig in between - but then he gets a close up with the mustache so fake it gleams in the lights.

When you look up Sleepaway Camp, the 3 things that come up most frequently are the ending, the mustache and some debate about whether the Aunt in the 2nd photo is a drag queen or transgendered person. (I thought for sure she was a man with her voice dubbed by a woman, which fits the theme perfectly, but there's an interview with her on youtube and now I'm convinced that's just her.)

Something that doesn't get talked about is in that first image I use, Angela is crouched just below frame. You can see her standing up to take position for the moment she's supposed to have walked in on.

It's a more interesting film than any Friday the 13th. Despite all its faults, it's not laughably bad because my reaction to all the bad filmmaking isn't to laugh at it but to engage with what the filmmaker was attempting. I can't say that about that killer elevator movie.

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Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #173 on: March 19, 2017, 12:01:25 AM »
The last couple of films lifted my spirits, but this batch of terrible titles brought me right back down.



Poison for the Fairies (1984)
* *
Two girls, witchcraft, the whole thing could’ve been done in 45 minutes. I think this was aiming to be like Spirit of the Beehive, but the visuals are too bland to support the slow pace. A del Toro premise executed with great calm.


Tenement: Game of Survival (1985)
aka. Slaughter in the South Bronx
aka. Game of Survival
½
A gang takes over the bottom floor of a tenement house determined to kill everyone inside. This has a small cult following thanks to its claustrophobic setting and cast that’s nearly all black or Hispanic, but it’s an especially nasty film. Director Roberta Findlay – that’s right, this trash is directed by a woman – is trying to push buttons with a constant stream of violent acts. It’s worth noting the more transgressive stuff happens off camera so the only line crossed is one of good taste.


Night Train to Terror (1985)
½ 
Producers unable to find distribution for two of their films edited them down into incomprehensibility. They then added a third film, which ran out of money during production and a wraparound story involving God and The Devil on a train while the next compartment has a new wave band playing dumb 80s music. A terrible cheat of a film.


Mr. Vampire (1985)
aka. Hold Your Breath for a Moment
* ½
Hugely successful Hong Kong mix of horror, comedy and fighting, best known here as the one where vampire/zombies hop around. It’s full of ideas, but the comedy drops below “not funny” into annoying. The rest isn’t great enough to make up for it, but you can understand the popularity and influence this film had in HK.


Terrorvision (1986)
* ½
I like this creature feature’s heavy Joe Dante vibe, with gumball lighting and a campy message about television addiction. (The best way to defeat this monster is to not watch TV for 200 years.) Exaggerated performances dumb down the comedy too far, but this isn’t a clever film to start with. Heavy violence is offset by the low budget, which can only afford jelly, playdough and silly string for the gore.

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Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #174 on: March 23, 2017, 01:53:49 AM »

Killer Party (1986)
aka. The April Fool
½
What little reputation the film has comes from its willingness to shift gears, taking on meta cred as it goes from slasher to demonic possession throwing in zombies and other sub-genres. While the film looks like a movie with some budget, the direction is frustratingly incompetent, forcing characters to behave in illogical ways, even more than usual for the genre. For example, someone will reach for a knife across a table and rather than take a simple step to get to it, we watch them continue to helplessly reach.


Vamp (1986)
* ½
I actively hated this film. To clarify, I’ve rated many films lower because there’s a basic competency to this story of performance artist Grace Jones as a Vampire stripper, but everything about the way this is filmed rubbed me like sandpaper, from the obnoxious d-bag Frat boy leads to the over-saturated colors that made every location look like the inside of an 80s dance club in Miami. I also find Grace Jones as appealing as Yoko Ono, but she’s not in the film as much as you might think.


Gothic (1986)
* ½
Too often Ken Russell’s attempts to film madness – which I think is the theme of all his work – ends up as off-putting weirdness, as if you could ask him what he was doing with a particular scene and he would just shrug and maybe slap you with some rice pudding. Interesting to see Gabriel Byrne and Timothy Spall so young. A lot of the score is way too loud.


Tales from the Quadead Zone (1987)
½
Shot for no money and released on VHS, this became famous as an extremely rare film to find, with copies selling on eBay for hundreds of dollars. Some people praise the filmmakers passion over the lack of a sound mix, Casio keyboard score and other horrible qualities. I came up in this era and it’s not sour grapes to say there are better examples of Trash Cinema out there. I helped a friend make one called Try a Dull Knife, which I also act in and there’s a crazy one I’ll never forget called God Made Man. Tales is just the lucky one whose hype led to a small and undeserving cult.


Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare (1987)
aka. Arch Angel
aka. The Edge of Hell
½ 
I considered taking a break from this Marathon until my morale improved, but I’m not cramming all five of these down in a day. The Boxer’s Omen, Deadly Spawn and Sleepaway Camp rewarded my hunt for the buried treasure, but it’s been a pretty crappy time since. This one, with a heavy metal hair band fighting rubber monsters from hell, has a reputation for being laughably bad, but there are not enough unintentional laughs to sustain interest.

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Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #175 on: March 23, 2017, 04:06:39 AM »
These capsules are for the ages. ;D
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Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #176 on: March 23, 2017, 04:20:04 AM »
These bad films aren't going to watch themselves.

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Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #177 on: March 23, 2017, 09:07:57 AM »
And these are the recommended Horror films, though I'm sure once this is done I'll discover a great one on my own and make some comment about how it wasn't part of this Marathon.

Short running times are my great relief. Last night I watched Quadead and Rock 'n' Roll, which combined took less than 2.5 hours. Only 8 films run over 2 hours while half the titles are less than 90 minutes.

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Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #178 on: March 23, 2017, 10:00:39 AM »
I also find Grace Jones as appealing as Yoko Ono, but she’s not in the film as much as you might think.

Grace Jones and Yoko Ono are both awesome so I don't know what you're getting at.

I really liked Gothic at the time, but it's been nearly 30 years since I last saw it, so I dunno. I saw Vamp around 2000 and I recall it being not good.

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Re: Horror: The Final Chapter
« Reply #179 on: March 24, 2017, 10:01:30 AM »
The last couple of films lifted my spirits, but this batch of terrible titles brought me right back down.

That's probably the worst string of ratings I have ever seen from you. Still going strong?
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