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31 days of Horror part 4: Citizens on Patrol

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  • Originally posted by Ignatius View Post


    I saw it in the theatre a few months ago and the first half was the most tense, upsetting viewing experience I've had in a long time. Felt like I was going to have to rush outside to catch my breath the moment it was over. As soon as the film started explaining what was happening it lost all its power. By the end I was rolling my eyes.
    100% this.
    "Ah! By god's balls what licentiousness!"

    Marquis de Sade, The 120 Days of Sodom.

    Comment


    • Day 21.5: Apostle

      The first half is like Sunday night BBC drama, the second half is a mess. You can't set out to make a successful folk horror movie, the whole point being that it was never really a genre to start with. 129 very long minutes.
      I'm bitter, I'm twisted, James Joyce is fucking my sister.

      Comment


      • Title-Amityville Horror A New Generation
        Source-DVD-R

        About 5 years ago I decided I wanted to see every Amityville Horror film. At the time I had seen the first 2,6,8 and the remake. I looked around online and some of the middle films in the franchise were going for way more than I wanted to pay for a DVD of a film I haven't seen. Thankfully I found a torrent that had the first 8 of the films. I burnt all the ones I didn't already own to DVD.

        Amityville Horror A New Generation is the 7th film in the official Amityville Horror franchise. Going direct to video in the early fall of 1993. A pro photographer is given a creepy looking mirror from a homeless man. He brings it back to the apartment complex he lives in and weird stuff starts to happen. After a bunch of stuff our lead learns the mirror is possessed. By the spirit of a man who killed his family on Thanksgiving Day in the Amityville house.

        The FX work isn't bad. For a early 90s DTV film it is pretty decent. There is a few decent scares. With one that actually made me jump. What really saves this movie is the cast. None of the cast are household names,but 4 of them are people that most of the general public knows.


        We have Julia Nickson as Suki the love interest of our lead. She is an artist. While watching the movie I knew she looked very familiar. Then I looked her up. She is best known for playing Co-Bao in Rambo First Blood Part II. I have always thought she was a good actress. But it seems like she rarely gets a good role.

        Terry O'Quinn is Detective Clark. A cop who is investigating the weird happenings at the apartment complex. O'Quinn is best known as Locke from Lost. But horror fans will remember him from the Stepfather film. He is an actor that is always good. Even in the shittest films he is worth seeing.

        Pauli is played by Richard Roundtree. Sadly he isn't given much to work with in this. It would have been great to see Shaft get a bigger and better role. But he does the best with what he is given to work with.

        Finally we got David Naughton as Dick Cutler. Naughton is an actor that sadly either gives it his all or sadly seems to just be there for the check. Amityville Horror A New Generation is one of the latter. The film would have been better with Naughton in the lead. But we get some no name as the lead.

        Now that I have seen all the official Amityville Horror films I can say that New Generation AKA part 7 is in the top 5 of the Amityville series. It isn't as good as parts 1 and 2. But better than most of the others.

        It looks like the DVD of this is out of print. So good luck tracking down a copy. I have seen that on Daily Motion and Vimeo someone has uploaded the unrated version. Yep this is one of those 90s horror films that has a R rated and Unrated version. My copy is the Unrated version. And I don't seem much in it that would go past a R rating. But from my research lots of 90s horror films ,especially DTV movies,will keep a few scenes out of the R rated cut. Thinking that when people see a film is released unrated they will be more inclined to rent it.

        Amityville Horror A New Generation gets a B-.



        Title-I Know What You Did Last Summer
        Source-Sony Pictures Triple Feature DVD

        Roughly 21 years ago the first film in the I Know What You Did Last Summer was released. Not sure why but I never saw it. At the time I was seeing most horror films that got a major theatrical release. But somehow I didn't see it until today.Sometime in late 2017 I found a triple feature DVD set at Dollar General. It was all 3 IKWYDLS movies and only cost 7 bucks. My plan at the time was to cover all 3 films in 2017's 31 Days of Horror. Then I just never got around to watching them,

        After having breakfast today I wanted a horror movie I had never seen to watch. I like slashers and saw this triple feature pack sitting on my shelf. When I started the movie I only knew a few things about it. One was that it is based on a novel from the 70s.Secondly it was based on a script by Kevin Williamson. Back when he was still hot off Scream. Thirdly was the cast was a decent mixture of young stars that were just starting to get known. And finally that the killer used a giant hook to kill people.

        Let's take a look at the cast. We got Jennifer Love Hewitt as the lead.


        This was back when she was mega popular cause of Party of Five.Before this I had only seen her in comedies and she is good at comedy. But this movie showed me she can do drama also. And seems to have all the skills she needed to become a modern Scream Queen. Sadly as of this writing she has only done the two IKWYDLS films and no other horror films.


        Freddie Prinze Jr is the male lead. I have never found him to be a great actor. But he is much better in this film than he has been in the other films I have seen him in.


        Sarah Michelle Geller,and this was months before Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show started,is decent as the prom queen archtype.Now I have said many times that on the show Buffy I loved pretty much everybody but Sarah Michelle Gellar. I was shocked that she was damn good in I Know What You Did Last Summer. She is great playing the self absorbed rich girl.

        Ryan Phillippe is great as the rich asshole kid. You know the type. The kid that got a sports car the day he turned 15. The kid that was a dick but cause he had money people were friends with him.

        That is our main four, but there are two others that stand out to me.


        Up first is Johnny Galecki.Before this I just knew Johnny as the guy that always plays nerds and wimps. He was David on Roseanne,the nerd of Big Bang Theory and the son in Xmas Vacation. I was a bit shocked at how well he is at playing against type in this movie. You believe that he is a tough guy. And don't think of the wimps he normally plays.


        Bridgette Wilson plays the older sister of Sarah Michelle Gellar. I do wonder why a actress with the talent Ms Wilson has why she doesn't do more movies. Hell I bet if you asked 10 people maybe 2 of them tops would even know who Bridgette Wilson is.

        The plot is fairly simple. Our 4 leads are out partying on 4th of July 1996. Freddie ends up driving Ryan's car. Because Ryan is shitfaced. They are going down a twisting road right by the ocean. Ryan is standing up halfway out the sunroof. And they end up hitting someone who appears out of nowhere. They decide to toss the body into the ocean.But right before they do this they find out the person is still alive.


        Skip ahead a year. Jennifer Love Hewitt is home from college for the summer. And she receives a note that says I Know What You Did Last Summer. So she gathers the other 3 and they try to figure out who sent the note and why.

        So while the movie is a slasher it is also a mystery. After going thru a few red herrings we finally get the reveal on who the killer is. Now I have seen piles of horror movies and read bunches of horror novels. And I didn't manage to guess who the killer is. And of course the final scene sets up the sequel.

        I am shocked at how much I enjoyed the movie. I figured going into it I was gonna get a Scream ripoff. And the best part of the film would be seeing JLH in tight tops,and seeing her in tight tops is a nice added bonus of the movie. So I was majorly surprised at how well written and acted the movie is. It is almost as good as the original Scream.

        The DVD has a few extras. The best of which is a commentary. Which is packed with info. This triple feature set has each film on it's own DVD. I am guessing this is just a repacking of unsold copies of original releases. I might before the month is over watch at least the second film. From what I have read the third film is barely related to the first 2 and was made years after them and went DTV.

        I Know What You Did Last Summer gets a B+.

        Comment


        • Day 22: Deepstar Six

          If you want a fun, cheap deep-sea monster movie then this fits the bill. The FX are a bit shoddy and the monster is stupid but you get exactly what you expect. Much better than Leviathan.

          Comment


          • Day 22: Venom (1971)

            This one's pretty intersting. Always get a kick out of films written by the Ford brothers, they penned some really interesting British horror in the 60s/70s. Derek Ford's porn films are also a cut above the usual crap that was being churned out in the UK.
            I'm bitter, I'm twisted, James Joyce is fucking my sister.

            Comment


            • 01)Pigeons From Hell-Thriller
              02)Madhouse(1974)
              03)Horror Island
              04)The Skull
              05)The Robot Vs The Aztec Mummy
              06)Delirium (2018)
              07)Curse Of The Doll People
              08)Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things
              09)Midnight Man(US)
              010)Midnight Man (UK)
              011)Xtro
              012)Destination Inner Space
              013)Jeepers Creepers III
              014)Tales From The Hood 2
              015)One Dark Night
              016)Hangman(2017)
              017)Sugar Hill
              018)The Invisible Man
              019)Trick 'r Treat
              "The popcorn you're eating has been pissed in. Film at 11".

              Comment


              • Halloween (2018)



                I really liked this one. For me, all it had to be was better than parts 4-8 and the Zombie movies and it achieved that. Great picture.
                "Ah! By god's balls what licentiousness!"

                Marquis de Sade, The 120 Days of Sodom.

                Comment


                • Title-Die ner (Get It?)
                  Source-Echo Bridge 10 movie DVD set

                  Remember just 3 years ago? Back when the $5 DVD bin at Walmart was packed with Echo Bridge and Mill Creek Horror multipacks. Lots of these packs I would buy to see one movie. Or I would buy one when I knew I was going on a long trip and would need a few things to watch.

                  The pack Die Ner is on I bought cause of one film. That film is Zipperface. A fairly obscure slasher from 1991. After watching and loving Zipperface the pack got put back on my shelf. Today I needed something to watch. So I grabbed a bunch of those multipacks and picked a film at random.

                  Die Ner starts off with Ken entering a roadside diner out in the middle of nowhere. Ken makes small talk with the waitress,in this small talk he reveals he is a serial killer. He then kills the waitress and the cook. He is about to leave when a arguing couple comes in. So Ken poses as the cook. Thinking he can cook their food. And either kill them or wait till they leave and leave himself.


                  But there is a twist,anyone that dies comes back as a zombie. So we got a serial killer along with an arguing couple who have to face off against zombies in a tiny rural diner.

                  The film tries it's best to blend horror and comedy. And manages to work about half the time. The acting is decent. It being a DTV horror I don't expect much from the actors and I got more than I expected. The FX work is pretty decent. Looks like it is mostly practical FX work.

                  What I find odd is outside North America this movie goes under a different title.

                  Yep at least in the UK Die Ner(Get It?) is known as KFZ Kentucky Fried Zombies. No idea why. Hell I don't even think the movie is set in Kentucky. The area the diner is in looks like desert country and I don't think there is any deserts in Kentucky.

                  Die Ner(Get It?) gets a D+.

                  Comment


                  • 01. The Night Stalker (1972)
                    02. The Devil's Wedding Night (1973)
                    03. Zombie (1979)
                    04. The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
                    05. Scream and Scream Again (1970)
                    06. The Black Sleep (1956)
                    07. Nightmare City (1980)
                    08. Animal (2014)
                    09. The Incubus (1982)
                    10. The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971)
                    11. Twins of Evil (1971)
                    12. Night of the Demons (1988)
                    13. Count Dracula's Great Love (1973)
                    14. Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)
                    15. Bloody Pit of Horror (1965)
                    16. The Night Strangler (1973)

                    Comment


                    • Day 23: Slugs

                      Glorious trash.

                      Comment




                      • Terrifier

                        A no nonsense back to basics slasher. No likable characters but has good gore. A must for those that like killer clown pictures.
                        "Ah! By god's balls what licentiousness!"

                        Marquis de Sade, The 120 Days of Sodom.

                        Comment


                        • This weekend we watched Halloween, Halloween III, Near Dark and The Hunger.

                          We actually tapped out 20 minutes into Halloween 3.

                          First time seeing all of The Hunger, and I loved it.

                          Comment


                          • TERRIFIER was awesome. One of my favourite new horror movies of the year.
                            Why would anybody watch a scum show like Videodrome? Why did you watch it, Max?

                            Comment


                            • Originally posted by Matt H. View Post
                              TERRIFIER was awesome. One of my favourite new horror movies of the year.
                              I don't normally like the new age of slasher homages that have come out in the last decade or so. But I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this one. It wasn't really a wink and nod picture show with hipster appeal. It was just a back to basics kind of slasher picture. Ironically, by stripping everything down to their base level it becomes a refreshing experience in the slasher pantheon.
                              "Ah! By god's balls what licentiousness!"

                              Marquis de Sade, The 120 Days of Sodom.

                              Comment


                              • Dagon (Spain, 2001) 6/10
                                I'm surprised I enjoyed Dagon as much as I did. The leads, Ezra Godden and Raquel Meroí±o, are incredibly unlikable and I'm not sure there's a moment when one isn't onscreen. The film is a 90 minute chase scene with characters I didn't like, but I still enjoyed the film immensely (weird?). It's the townspeople (bad guys) and the setting that are interesting. It also helps that the pace is so fast that the film was over before I started checking the time. Its easily one the fastest 98 minutes I can remember. Not sure why the obvious CGI effects didn't bother as that is often a deal breaker for me. I did like the ending and a few other things I won't spoil.



                                Let the Right One In (Sweden, 2008)
                                While I can recognize that this is a “good” film, Let the Right One In didn't entertain me the way I'd hoped. Films that center on the kid who gets picked on don't resonate with me quite like they do for others. The kids did a fine job acting but I often don't care for kids in film so spending 2 hours with Oscar wasn't enjoyable. I like it's take on the vampire film, but I could have used more tense moments. It was easy to see how the film was going to end early on so there was some dread in watching Oscar's decisions lead him to the obvious conclusion. I think for me to have enjoyed this film I needed some victims that I cared about. That said, I see why its popular.



                                Death Row Diner (USA, 1988) 5/10
                                I could happily watch a VHS tape of Michelle Bauer reading the phone book and look no further than Deathrow Diner for proof. There are some amusing moments, fun gore gags and just enough Michelle that I found 70 minutes of entertainment. Not a good film, but I enjoyed it for what it is.

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