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Author Topic: Shocktober Group Marathon 2018  (Read 31092 times)

1SO

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Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2018
« Reply #130 on: October 20, 2018, 04:04:14 PM »
The Haunting of Hill House
★ ★ ★ - Very Good
I’m having reservations because the show peaks in the middle episodes. While the ending episodes close the narrative nicely, it puts more responsibility on the writing and cast than it should. Oddly touchy-feely. I respect the different approach, not building to a battle between good and evil. I’m just not comfortable with it.

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2018
« Reply #131 on: October 21, 2018, 12:29:22 AM »
Knife + Heart

Excuse the lack of a proper review as this is now my 11th film in 3 days, and while one could debate its Shocktober merits, PFF did toss it in the Graveyard Shift section and also it knows that elements of the slasher genre are at play. Sadly, those elements get muddled, like a lot of the film, in just how big the cast gets for what is, very much, an examination of the central woman. The mystery is secondary to her development, which makes me understand why Cannes would have brought this aboard despite it not feeling quite like their fare either. Not sure that ambition is the right word to use here, but I do admire the vision.

On a scale of scary, I give this a...

oldkid

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Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2018
« Reply #132 on: October 22, 2018, 03:58:51 PM »
I Know What You Did Last Summer

If only shrieks equaled frightening and good looks equaled decent acting, then this would be a great film.  As it is, I took a break for a half hour in the middle of the climax, and then decided to finish it anyway.

2/5

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philip918

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Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2018
« Reply #133 on: October 22, 2018, 06:29:02 PM »
Pardon me, while I go write the screenplay: Good Looking Shrieks.

1SO

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Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2018
« Reply #134 on: October 22, 2018, 08:42:31 PM »
I honestly never thought Mrs. 1SO would want to watch Halloween (1978), let alone that she would like it as much as she did. She thinks the fun is with the camera playing a constant game of "Where's Michael?," sometimes in the deep background, sometimes right on top of you. She thinks the simplicity of Myers, from the blank face to the lack of any psychological motivation, makes him a perfect horror everyman. He might kill you just because... he doesn't need a reason. She also really appreciated the lack of blood and guts, which makes the tension more effective.

Junior

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Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2018
« Reply #135 on: October 22, 2018, 09:01:32 PM »
I think she identified all the qualities that make it such a classic.
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oldkid

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Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2018
« Reply #136 on: October 23, 2018, 06:17:55 PM »
I don't want to revisit Halloween because the FS podcast review reiterated the very things that killed the film for me-- no (consistent) motivation for Meyers and stupid actions on the part of the victims.  It feels like lazy writing to me.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

Bondo

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Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2018
« Reply #137 on: October 23, 2018, 08:41:20 PM »
The First Purge (2018)

While I would maintain that The Purge was an extremely well made film, the rest of this series has gotten on more based on thematic potency than on filmmaking quality. The series is reducio ad absurdum in the best way, highlighting real race and class divides by taking them to violent extremes. In going backwards from the other entries to create an origin story for The Purge, it hits on a few things that resonate.

The first was timely for me in that this morning Matt Yglesias of Vox published a piece about the hack gap, a system in which right-wing media that is more propaganda than journalism is able to drive the mainstream narratives. Thinking about the attempt portrayed here of a test of The Purge, I think of how Fox News et al would cover such an event, and I could see them ready to sell the New Founding Fathers' lines and arguments to a gullible audience. In the buildup we see how their stereotypes are at play, expecting this African-American heavy population to let loose on each other if given the chance, conceiving them as less human. We get this all the time when the All Lives Matter crowd shouts about "black on black crime." And if the community proves more resilient, distort the truth.

While there are certainly moments where I fear aspects of this film are less metaphor and more prognostication, that of a literal armed resistance having to stand up against fascists, I fear the metaphoric strength is undersold. No, the government will probably not install a system that is tantamount to genocide of poor, disproportionately non-white people. But the Republican Party is very keen on ripping apart what little safety net we have. This would have the effect of drastically increasing deaths among poor, disproportionately non-white people. It is a party that pulls environmental regs so that poor areas in particular are polluted. It is a party that puts barriers around food and housing benefits so that people are malnourished and exposed to the conditions. It is a party that seeks to put barriers around health care. Our fears of a literal purge maybe leave us insufficiently alarmed to the technocratic genocide that is represented by Republican politics.

If these are the two threads that went through my head watching the movie, that might be me doing the heavy lifting, not the film. While it is never a subtle franchise, nor is it blunt in a precise, intelligent way. Still, I forgive the series many of its weak points because it does at least engender in me such contemplation. The one thing I have difficulty with is its portrayal of Staten Island, which is 65% white and only 9% black, as overwhelmingly non-white and in need of importing its racists.

1SO

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Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2018
« Reply #138 on: October 24, 2018, 01:31:20 PM »

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988)
"There's nothing wrong with G-rated movies, as long as there's lots of sex and violence."

A surprising new entry on They Shoot Zombies, I never got into the cult of Elvira as a teen. My wife was a fan of her personality and this movie, which made it an easy pick to watch together. Watching the cult of Hocus Pocus grow with each passing year, I expected this movie to be pitched to a similar type of Halloween movie crowd, and it is but it also isn't. This is a comedy first, but the humor is much more PG-13. It goes as broad as HP, but within there are quite a few more clever and knowing lines. It's not just 90-minutes of cleavage gags and corny puns, and there's a charm to Cassandra Peterson's performance as Elvira. She gets that her character is a joke, but she also wants to be accepted for who she is, which I could see as being empowering for a teen or pre-teen who feels like an outcast.


"I must apologize for my behavior in the office, it's just that your appearance was a bit of a shock to me."
"It's okay. My appearance is kind of a shock to everybody."

Peterson is not a good actress and the film could've been much better if she acted less like a TV host and more like the person who plays a TV host. Like her look, she kind of grows on you over the movie so that even some of her corny lines are pretty funny. (After putting on a show for the kids in town, she makes a drinking toast with her friends by exclaiming, "Here's to my big opening!") The tone skirts a very fine line, coming off as wholesome and kind of sweet while also including some horror violence, a couple of scary creatures and Elvira's numerous suggestive outfits.
Rating: ★ ★ ½

- Slightly Scary

Bondo

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Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2018
« Reply #139 on: October 24, 2018, 07:39:27 PM »
Hereditary (2018)

I suppose there's a technical credit to the film in how it is shot and certain creepy aspects of its design. But I couldn't really follow the mythology of it nor derive any type of useful metaphor from it. I left feeling such a high level of contempt for every bit of it. Worst film of the year.