Page 9 of 11 FirstFirst ... 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 LastLast
Results 201 to 225 of 267

Thread: Horror Flicks?

  1. #201
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Last Best City in the Last Best Place
    Posts
    7,272
    The Night Stalker. The original TV movie that spawned the series. Haven't seen it since I was a kid but it holds up well (despite marginal picture quality). Darren McGavin was great. Classic vampire tale. There was a second movie, The Night Strangler, that was just as good, maybe even better. Can't wait to watch that one. Awesome these are on YT for free!




  2. #202
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    SF & the Ho
    Posts
    9,299
    KOLCHAK!!! Simon Oakland was the great a-hole boss. That series only lasted a year on TV but man, it scared the crap out of me a lot that year

  3. #203
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Last Best City in the Last Best Place
    Posts
    7,272
    Quote Originally Posted by mcski View Post
    KOLCHAK!!! Simon Oakland was the great a-hole boss. That series only lasted a year on TV but man, it scared the crap out of me a lot that year
    Yeah Oakland was great. I see the one season is available on Prime for about twenty bucks. It's twenty episodes long, so that's a pretty good deal, I may have to purchase that. I recall some of those episodes being cool but I don't remember them well.

  4. #204
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    SF & the Ho
    Posts
    9,299
    The series is peak 70s for sure. I'm too cheap to pay for it but want to check it out again sometime. Oakland had a lock on the bad boss heavy roles in the 70s. It was on MeTV for a while, but they change rotation of their shoes pretty frequently.

  5. #205
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Truckee, CA
    Posts
    8,785
    Spiders always freak me out...not sure if this will be the next Arachnophobia, but it looks decently creepy...

    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

    https://www.blizzard-tecnica.com/us/en

  6. #206
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Truckee, CA
    Posts
    8,785
    Slowly picking my way though this list: https://www.pastemagazine.com/articl...vies-2019.html



    The Hole In The Ground - 2.5/5
    Meh.
    Visually arresting and well acted, but it feels really incomplete; as if it needed another 30 minutes of exposition and a wee bit more character development.
    I think the thing that rubbed me the wrong way was the glaringly obvious plot hole (yes, pun intended): when the protagonist discovers the titular hole in her backyard she doesn't feel the slightest bit compelled to ask her neighbors or anybody in the nearby town about it. There is a really short dinner scene where her friends (we have to guess who these people are as at this point in the filn we haven't seen the mom interact with anyone other than her son) tell her about a crazy woman who lives in the hills, but nothing is said about the hole.
    The way the story unfolds provides for the faint possibility that the writer/director meant for the whole film to be a dream/nightmare, but even that allusion is weak and half-baked.
    Granted, there are a couple of really solid jump scares, but, yeah, overall not worthy of inclusion on a "Best Of list, imho.
    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

    https://www.blizzard-tecnica.com/us/en

  7. #207
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Truckee, CA
    Posts
    8,785
    MIDSOMMAR
    4.5 / 5

    Continuing to mine the folk horror sub-genre, writer/director Ari Aster side steps the dreaded sophomore slump and delivers yet another taut exercise in grinding, slow-burn intensity and gut gnawing apprehension. While he treads somewhat familiar territory by having yet another psychologically damaged female protagonist a la the disturbing and dividing Hereditary, Midsommar switches things up by taking the action abroad and creating a scenario in which one might seriously think twice about traveling in the rural areas of Sweden (or any other Scandinavian country, for that matter).
    The proceedings come out the gate with a muted, yet no less jarring “bang!” and then the quietly creepy sensibilities never really let up for the film’s 2 hour-and-27-minute duration. Aster is rather deft at building tension and creating a smoldering kind of subdued terror which is delivered with a confidently even pace.
    One of the many interesting aspects of the film is just about everything that happens onscreen is easily predictable to the discerning horror/thriller fan. Yet despite the fact that stuff happens just as you’d guess it would, there is still sufficient built up around the action so that when things do happen as expected, they still manage to resonate with shocking elements of surprise.
    Another cool thing Aster relies on is that he has a lot of action happen off-screen, using audio to impart what’s going on. He also has off-screen/out-of-shot characters talking over other characters who are in the frame at the time, making for a nice, rich aural tapestry that is like a mutant riff on Robert Altman’s signature chaotic approach to dialogue in films.
    In terms of the cast, Florence Pugh is great in the lead role of Dani, expertly becoming the uber cute, yet dreadfully cloying girlfriend. Will Poulter continues to amaze at his dexterity playing complete asshats (he’s so good at portraying whiny, bloated Americans that I never knew he was a Brit until a few years ago; in many ways he reminds me of a young BIll Paxton in terms of the types of characters he seems to gravitate towards). The acting of Jack Reynor left me a little flat, but then again his character is supposed to be a wishy-washy douche, so perhaps he nails it after all.
    As with Hereditary, the ending of this film definitely goes for shock and awe(fulness) in terms of its twisted gore factor. In many respects, the film could have easily ended 10-minutes earlier than the bloody and fiery finale, taking the very last shot and transposing it on the final portion of the May Queen ceremony; it would have made the film a bit more enigmatic, leaving the ending up to the audience, but also being no less potent and malevolent.
    When all is said and done, Midsommar is a thought provoking, little horror film that eschews jump scares and over-the-top blasts of gore in favor of a more nerve-wracking and harrowing sense of paranoia and uneasiness.

    RIYL:
    Hereditary; The Killing of a Sacred Deer; Rosemary’s Baby; The Wicker Man (the 1973 original); It Comes At Night; Us; The Lair of the White Worm; “The Lottery” short story by Shirley Jackson
    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

    https://www.blizzard-tecnica.com/us/en

  8. #208
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Truckee, CA
    Posts
    8,785
    HOUSEWIFE (streaming on Amazon Prime)
    3.5/5
    Writer/Director Can Evrenol’s sophomore full-length is a strange beast. It’s disjointed and confusing, and I’m not entirely sure if that was on purpose or if it’s just poor screenwriting/direction or if something got lost in translation (this is Evrenol’s first English language film). All of that said, I tend to think it’s the former given the disorienting nature of his hypnotically freaky first feature, Baskin.
    From start to finish this film is keeps you guessing with a lot of the confusion emanating from the fact that the location of the story is never divulged (it looks European, but in a distorted, surreal way). Additionally, the cast is a mishmash of French, Danish, and Turkish actors, yet everybody speaks broken, heavily accented, and really awkward English.
    To add to the mix, the story flips liberally between memory, dreams, and nightmares so we, the viewers, are never quite sure what is real. In short, we are consistently kept off-balance. Again, it’s either purposeful or something was lost in translation.
    With Baskin you kind of knew where you stood, which, albeit, was on terribly loose ground, bogged down in a wonderfully macabre mire of hallucinatory madness. Here the film tries to wade between grounded reality and nightmarish dreamscapes.
    While nowhere near as over-the-top gonzo as his previous film, Housewife eventually succeeds by just being weird and off-kilter, creating a dizzyingly surreal landscape that is interrupted here and there with quick bouts of unnerving gore.
    It all culminates in an HP Lovecraftian blaze of WTFness, augmented with a bit of a nod to Phantasm just for good measure.
    If nothing else, the film is visually arresting and strange enough to hold your interest, especially compared to some of the generic horror fare circulating the streaming services these days. In shore, this is a welcome breath of strange air.

    RIYL: In The Mouth of Madness; Hereditary; The Sentinel; Susperia (the Dario Argento version); Baskin; Rosemary’s Baby; HP Lovecraft

    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

    https://www.blizzard-tecnica.com/us/en

  9. #209
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Truckee, CA
    Posts
    8,785
    Just watched the trailer for UNDERWATER.
    My thoughts?: It looks like Alien-meets-The Thing underwater with a heaping dose of Leviathan-meets-Deep Star Six-meets-The Cave-with-the-bends.
    I'll totally gonna go see it!


    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

    https://www.blizzard-tecnica.com/us/en

  10. #210
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Truckee, CA
    Posts
    8,785
    Not sure how this slipped under my radar, but I just learned that
    3 From Hell, the sequel to The Devil's Rejects, is screening Monday 9/16, Tuesday 9/17, and Wednesday 9/18:

    https://www.fathomevents.com/events/...es-3-from-hell
    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

    https://www.blizzard-tecnica.com/us/en

  11. #211
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Bellevue
    Posts
    7,431
    Quote Originally Posted by dookey67 View Post
    MIDSOMMAR
    4.5 / 5

    Continuing to mine the folk horror sub-genre, writer/director Ari Aster side steps the dreaded sophomore slump and delivers yet another taut exercise in grinding, slow-burn intensity and gut gnawing apprehension. While he treads somewhat familiar territory by having yet another psychologically damaged female protagonist a la the disturbing and dividing Hereditary, Midsommar switches things up by taking the action abroad and creating a scenario in which one might seriously think twice about traveling in the rural areas of Sweden (or any other Scandinavian country, for that matter).
    I watched the extended cut when it was doing the short run in theaters, never saw the first version. I think I liked it but the best word I can think of is stressful. I'm admittedly not a big horror fan in general but I'm glad to have seen it.

  12. #212
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Truckee, CA
    Posts
    8,785
    A DARK SONG
    3.5/5

    I would have given this slowburn thriller a 4-out-of-5, but I found the ending to be incredibly saccharine and a complete cop-out cum let down.
    However, up until the final few minutes, this film is tense, unnerving, and great example of how a director can keep you enthralled with close to no gore or jump scares, just tightly wound tension delivered through slow, yet steadfast pacing.
    Much of this tension is created with the aid of a great musical score and some super creepy atmosphere.
    Additionally, a huge amount of kudos goes out to the two actors, who are brilliant and suck you into their madness with off-kilter charisma.
    On the whole it reminded me a lot of The Haunting (the classic 1963 b&w version, mind you), in that it creates a serious sense of dread and a feeling of never knowing where the film is going all sans gore.
    This film is quietly abrasive and delivers the goods all the way up to the final minutes, where, sadly, it kind of falls apart. Despite the lame ending, the film is still worth watching for everything that leads up to the fizzling finale.

    RIYL:
    It Follows; It Comes At Night; The Haunting (1963);

    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

    https://www.blizzard-tecnica.com/us/en

  13. #213
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Switzerland
    Posts
    7,578
    Brightburn anyone? Saw it last weekend. Was pretty good overall. Some gnarly gore that I could done without but cool story.

    Sent from my SM-A505FN using Tapatalk

  14. #214
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Truckee, CA
    Posts
    8,785
    Quote Originally Posted by Ripzalot View Post
    Brightburn anyone? Saw it last weekend. Was pretty good overall. Some gnarly gore that I could done without but cool story.
    Only because you asked...

    I was on the opposite end of the scale from you (I did not find it to be either good or cool).

    https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...06#post5684706

    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

    https://www.blizzard-tecnica.com/us/en

  15. #215
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Switzerland
    Posts
    7,578
    Being a professional reviewer must ruin a lot of movies for you. I get it tho. For me it was a good Sunday afternoon movie with no expectations. Didnt know anything about it. Just watched cold.

    Sent from my SM-A505FN using Tapatalk

  16. #216
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Truckee, CA
    Posts
    8,785
    Quote Originally Posted by Ripzalot View Post
    Being a professional reviewer must ruin a lot of movies for you. I get it tho. For me it was a good Sunday afternoon movie with no expectations. Didnt know anything about it. Just watched cold.

    Sent from my SM-A505FN using Tapatalk


    I haven't been a "professional reviewer" for awhile now. I pay to see movies just like you.
    I just watch a lot of movies, so that tends to open your eyes to all the tropes, cliches, and whatnot.
    And when it come to horror, a genre I really dig, I can tend to be overly critical.
    At the end of the day the only thing that really matters is whether or not you enjoyed the film and got your money's worth...
    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

    https://www.blizzard-tecnica.com/us/en

  17. #217
    Join Date
    Jul 2019
    Posts
    7

    Eli

    Eli, it's a new Netflix original, I didn't get around to seeing it yet but the trailer looks pretty promising.

  18. #218
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Truckee, CA
    Posts
    8,785
    GHOST STORIES is totally worth tracking down.
    It is visually arresting and downright creepy .

    I did find the ending to be a bit pat/contrived, but the journey is entertaining...

    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

    https://www.blizzard-tecnica.com/us/en

  19. #219
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Truckee, CA
    Posts
    8,785
    Lots of intriguing looking entries on this list:

    https://morbidlybeautiful.com/50-bes...MB_WLLG8vrkfYc
    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

    https://www.blizzard-tecnica.com/us/en

  20. #220
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Truckee, CA
    Posts
    8,785
    This looks intriguing:

    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

    https://www.blizzard-tecnica.com/us/en

  21. #221
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Truckee, CA
    Posts
    8,785
    Talk about some gonzo absurdity...this looks like it could be a wacky slab of splatter satire:
    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

    https://www.blizzard-tecnica.com/us/en

  22. #222
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Switzerland
    Posts
    7,578
    This was very cool

    https://youtu.be/RlfooqeZcdY

    Sent from my SM-A505FN using Tapatalk

  23. #223
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Truckee, CA
    Posts
    8,785
    Quote Originally Posted by Ripzalot View Post
    This was very cool

    https://youtu.be/RlfooqeZcdY

    Sent from my SM-A505FN using Tapatalk
    Yeah, that has been on my radar for awhile now.
    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

    https://www.blizzard-tecnica.com/us/en

  24. #224
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Truckee, CA
    Posts
    8,785
    THE COLOR OUT OF SPACE
    3.5/5
    This is the best film that writer/director Richard Stanley has done in over 30 years!
    It is anchored by a typically gonzo Nic Cage performance and some gooey practical effects.




    PS
    If you are curious as to what happened to Richard Stanley's career, check out this intriguing doc about him on Prime:

    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

    https://www.blizzard-tecnica.com/us/en

  25. #225
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    59715
    Posts
    7,448
    Speaking of horror (or harror in my wife's Philly accent), when is Los Espookys coming back on?

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •