What are you watching?

[BW Haggar Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BW Haggar]

Here, just for my own satisfaction, is a list of the thirty best films I watched for the first time in 2024 - including a few music documentaries and TV things, because why the hell not.

1. The Boy and the Heron (2023)
2. Cisco Pike (1971)
3. Karate Warriors [‘Kozure Satsujin Ken’] (1976)
4. The Hot Spot (1990)
5. Red Rock West (1993)
6. Stardust (1974)
7. I Am The Blues (2016)
8. Return to the 36th Chamber (1980)
9. X (2022)
10. Zone Troopers (1985)

11. Giants and Toys (1958)
12. Disco Dancer (1980)
13. Naked Alibi (1954)
14. Prey (2023)
15. Doc (1971)
16. My Young Auntie (1981)
17. Winter Kills (1979)
18. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
19. The Stabilizer (1986)
20. Curtains (1983)

21. I Giochi del Diavolo: La Venere d’Ille (1979)
22. The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962)
23. Oddity (2024)
24. The Panther Women (1967)
25. Santet (1988)
26. The Frightened City (1961)
27. China Girl (1987)
28. Cowboy in Sweden (1970)
29. D.O.A. (1978)
30. The Facts of Murder [‘Un Maledetto Imbroglio’] (1959)

Beyond all these however, it's probably worth noting that some of my overall best cinematic things of the year were not first viewings, but revisits of films which I had strictly-speaking seen before, but that I was returning to after a very long time - 'Wild At Heart' on the big screen, the restored 'Peeping Tom' on blu-ray, ditto 'Boxer's Omen' - all surpassed memories/expectations to a fairly huge degree, becoming transcendent experiences of one kind or another.

[BW Haggar Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BW Haggar]

And, just for the sake of being mean, here are five of the films I enjoyed the least in 2024;

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy [‘ûzen to sôzô] (2021)

Watched reluctantly after several years of listening to loved ones and work colleagues banging on about how great this Hamaguchi guy is… suffice to say, if all his films are like this one, I don’t get it. Not saying that just to front as a contrarian or a philistine, but seriously - if there is anything here which rises above the level of a bunch of filmed one-act plays produced by a half-bright drama class, it’s lost on me I’m afraid.

Paganini (1989)

In view of its director/star’s character and mental health at the time of this film’s production, I wasn’t expecting it to be objectively ‘good’ exactly… but fucking hell, I had no idea. I pity the poor editors charged with trying to pull a salvage job on this footage, presumably with Kinski leering over their shoulders, and suspect a film about that process would prove more compelling than anything herein.

Give me ‘Paganini Horror’ any day.

The Mask of Satan (1989)

I always want to try to stick up for late ‘80s Italian horror when I can, and I always want to try to enjoy Lamberto Bava films when I can, but honestly, this was tough going - a frustrating, ugly and uncomfortable watch, with precious little in the ‘plus’ column.

Give me ‘Paganini Horror’ any day.

Howl (2015)

Likewise, it pains me to slag off a low budget British horror with a seemingly fool-proof premise, but this was a stone drag; feels too much like actually being stuck on a broken down commuter train, werewolf notwithstanding.

A Bullet is Waiting (1954)

Call me closed-minded, but I kind of prefer it when a movie with a title like ‘A Bullet is Waiting’, marketed on blu-ray as a Film Noir, does NOT end with the entire cast jumping into a jalopy, complete with a cute dog and pet lamb, and happily driving off into the sunset together like the fucking Beverley Hillbillies. (Sorry, spoilers.)

[Cody Layne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cody Layne]

Paranormal Activity 3: The last of these movies that I've seen before, and my least favorite of those. I still enjoy the film to some extent, and there are some more creepy moments and instances of eerie atmosphere, but this is where I feel like they start to reveal way too much about the backstory concerning this demon and its relationship to these girls. Kind of has me anxious about what comes next.

[Newt Cox Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Newt Cox]

Been working my way thru the Full Moon EUROCINE VOL 1 blu ray set

Angel of Death-Not as sleazy as I figured but still decent.
Downtown Heat-Makes no sense really and I didnt care. Worth seeing if you like Jess Franco.
Night of the Eagles-Decent WWII Drama that I thought at first was gonna be a Salon Kitty ripoff.
Panther Squad-Great cover great concept,not so great film.
Mania/Manic Killer-MUST SEE!!

[Cody Layne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cody Layne]

Paranormal Activity 4: Not bad; just rather meh. At this point, the gimmick is really starting to wear thin. And that ending was the definition of anticlimactic.

[Vincent Dawn Jr Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Vincent Dawn Jr]

Derry Girls on Netflix. This is one of the funniest shows I've ever seen. In particular the Orla character and Uncle Colm.

[f.ramses Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close f.ramses]

Dracula (1979) - This was quite a surprise because I went in expecting something on the level of a TV movie, if not a TV movie, but it was a rather nice looking production. Not all the surprises were so good though as I really didn't think the choice for Dracula was a good one and the ending was also moronic and unsatisfying. A pretty mixed bag but still more enjoyable than not, glad I stopped putting this one off.

[Cody Layne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cody Layne]

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones: Well, on the one hand, while it's still found footage, I did like the somewhat different approach, as well as the location they decided to go with. On the other hand, though, holy crap, is this concept more than played out, and I still have two more to go. And way to completely upend the ending of the original movie.

[s.chivers Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close s.chivers]

Watched Eye of the Devil (1966) last night, which I hadn’t even heard of until I unwrapped it on Christmas morning.

For anyone similarly unfamiliar, it’s a tale of paganism set in rural France and boasts a host of famous faces, including David Niven, Deborah Kerr, David Hemmings and Sharon Tate.

Shot in glorious black and white in and around a towering chateau, it looks fantastic and is recommended to anyone with a taste for British horror films of the period. There are some particularly effective sequences and Sharon Tate is almost worth the price of admission on her own, as the mysterious twin of the similarly striking Hemmings.

For the record, we watched the following films over the Christmas period:

Pranks / The Dorm that Dripped Blood; The Fearless Vampire Killers; Devil Times Five; Black Christmas; Night of the Eagle (another British chiller from the sixties) and finally Maxxxine on New Years Eve.

We also binge watched Ripley and the fifth season of Fargo over the holidays. Ripley is highly recommended and Fargo is fine, albeit very much of its time.

[Cody Layne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cody Layne]

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension: Talk about jumping the shark. Here, they get way too blatant, overblown, and just plain over-the-top with the depiction of the demon, and they've now officially revealed far too much about its relationship with the characters in the previous movies. This was so much more effective when it was at its simplest back in the first movie.

[Cody Layne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cody Layne]

Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin: Apparently, Jason Blum himself said he thought this was awful and decided it was time to put the series to rest (although, I've heard they're currently making another one). To me, while it still wasn't great and the concept is long past dead by this point, the different characters and setting, as well as the periodical breaks from the full "found footage" concept, made this different enough to where I could deal with it. I don't know whether I would say this was worse or better than the last few, though.

[Cody Layne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cody Layne]

Unknown Dimension: The Story of Paranormal Activity: The final disc in that set, this is a documentary about the franchise which is very interesting and informative, though I wish it was actually a bit longer. It's 94 minutes and they spend a good chunk of time on the first film but, while the sequels certainly don't get shortchanged, I do think that more could've been said about them. Still, really cool and worth seeing for any fan.

[Dom D Spoon! Find all posts View Profile Close Dom D]

Apocalypto. I never got round to this one till this week. It's pretty fucking good isn't it? Really stripped back, visceral action with more than it's fair share of carnage. Mel impressed me a lot here and you gotta admire the balls on the man making a film in Mayan without a single star or white face.

[Cody Layne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cody Layne]

The Terror: It probably won't surprise anyone when I say that I have seen this before. However, even though I've ended up with it in my possession due to its public domain status, this was only one of a small handful of times I've watched it all the way through. And as you all probably know, while Boris Karloff is his usual best and the movie does certainly benefit from its Gothic trappings, as well as looks good in this HD print, it's an incoherent mess of a plot and I was checked out through long stretches of it. Also, Jack Nicholson was really green and didn't really work in these sort of Gothic period pieces, with the dialogue he had to speak (I feel the same way about him in The Raven).

[Regis Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Regis]

Right now, I'm watching the Thunder/Knicks game.