General Horror Films & TV Discussion Thread

[Valeyard]

I really didn't like Exorcist 2. The biggest problem is that it was a weak Exorcist movie when it could've been an interesting standalone of something different. When I saw it as something else completely I liked it much more but you just can't hang the Exorcist name on it and have it be that movie.

3 I know was Blatty's passion project to right the ship and it looks really interesting. From what I gather the director's cut (Legion) makes infinitely more sense than the theatrical, just with shitty un-mastered scenes/alternate scenes inserted. Prime has the theatrical up and I'll get to it this weekend.

Is there anything worth watching the prequels from the 2000s?

Also Max Von Sydow is legit one of my favorite actors. No reason to mention it but he's so fucking good.

 

[Gary]

Is there anything worth watching the prequels from the 2000s?

The prequels-"Dominion" is a movie where the idea of it (Paul Schraeder directing an "Exorcist" prequel) ends up being better than the actual movie. "Exorcist: The Beginning" is the worst one-a soulless, grotesque cash grab with no vision or momentum. Say what you will about "Exorcist II", but at least John Boorman was trying.

 

[Valeyard]

Some movies just should stand alone. The Exorcist was just perfect and didn't need to be a franchise or need a universe, really. I could argue the same for Texas Chainsaw Massacre (I know 2 is fun but still) and Halloween. Radically different movies but total masterpieces in what they are and the impact they had.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Re-watched It Follows and I finally got the creepiness/scares factor that I hadn't gotten on previous viewings. Even with that said, I still think it was just a fine movie at best (bumped from 5/10 to just 6/10) and not really warranting the hype sell it had gotten when it was first released. It's the kind of movie where the directing pushes the movie way above & beyond its script/characters, which mostly works but I felt myself wanting more at the end of the movie. After a while, there can only be so much tension strung from shots of people walking and to the director's credit, even the end scene still worked and was tense.

The only shot I thought was kind of stupid was the

Spoiler

quasi-jump scare moment of the old man just standing randomly on the rooftop as they drove off to the pool

.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

The COMET Channel airs episodes of Ray Bradbury Theater on Sunday Mornings. Caught a few episodes, typical late 80s horror anthology fare of the time period, not as good as stuff like Amazing Stories IMO but fun nostalgic trips (a couple eps had a young Jeff Goldblum and a post-ET, slightly older Drew Barrymore). The channel will also be debuting Farscape in January.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Comet was literally the only upside to having Cox over Verizon FiOs when I lived in Providence. It was like watching UPN38 on a rainy Sunday afternoon again.

 

[Gary]

When we had a TV at work, it would play Comet. Needless to say, it was interesting to see "From Beyond" (albeit edited for television) when you were on break. By the time we got rid of the TV, they started showing shitty Asylum movies, so it wasn't a great loss.

 

[Gary]

This looks a pinch different than the usual A24 horror movie in that it seems...fun? I'm sure it'll have a lot of what you expect from them, but there actually seems to have a decent sense of humor. That and it's from Ti West.

 

[SFH]

They definitely have a trend for the weird. They deliver most of the time.

 

[Angle-plex]

New Scream was good. Probably the best of the sequels.

These movies are better when they are farther apart, so they have different things to satirize.

 

[Gary]

Bored, so here's what's coming to Blu/UHD

Feb 1st

-Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)-Kino Lorber
-Spine of the Night-RLJE
-Superhost-RLJE
-Slumber Party Massacre remake-Scream Factory

Feb 8th

-Don't Go in the House-Severin
-Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City-Sony
-Legend (Standard Edition)-Arrow
-Surf Nazis Must Die!-Troma
-Paranoiac-Scream Factory
-The Antichrist-Kino Lorber
-Hiruko the Goblin-Mondo Macabro
-Sukkubus-Mondo Macabro
-School of Death-Mondo Macabro

Feb 15th

-The Howling 4K UHD-Scream Factory
-Versus (Standard Edition)-Arrow

Feb 22nd
-Alligator 4K UHD/Blu Ray-Scream Factory-
-Night of the Demon (the Bigfoot one)-Severin
-Bloody Pit of Horror-Severin
-Black Candles-Severin
-Dead Heat 4K UHD/Blu Ray-Vinegar Syndrome
-The Devil's Men (aka Lair of the Minotaur)-Powerhouse Films
-Alligator 2-Scream Factory
-Deadly Games-Arrow
-Forgotten Gialli Vol 3-Vinegar Syndrome

March 1st

-Demonic-RLJE
-Silent Night-RLJE

March 8th

-Phenomena 4K UHD-Synapse
-An American Werewolf in London 4K UHD-Arrow
-Agnes-Magnolia


March 15th

-The Sword and the Sorcerer 4K UHD/Blu Ray-Scream Factory
-The Boy Behind the Door-RLJE
-Nightmare-Scream Factory

March 22nd

-The Forbidden Door-Severin
-Rise of the Machine Girls-Media Blasters
-Modern Vampires-Ronin Flix

March 29th

-Mary Shelley's Frankenstein 4K UHD-Arrow
-House on the Edge of the Park-Severin
-Screams of a Winter Night-Code Red
-Edward G Ulmer Sci-Fi Collection-Kino Lorber

April 5th

-2LDK-Unearthed

April 12th

-VHS 94-RLJE
-New Years Evil-Kino Lorber

 

[RedJed]

There's a Slumber Party Massacre remake? Oh boy.....I better look into that one and rewatch the old ones.

A new Howling release has me thinking a franchise rewatch of those is also on going to be on tap

 

[Brocklock]

https://www.cnet.com/news/sundance-...y-is-horror-film-with-a-heart-piercing-twist/

This just shot up to the top of my most anticipated list.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

"...while a supernatural presence..."

Aaaaaaaand pass.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

The Curse of La Llorona is such hot garbage that I want to weep for Linda Cardellini. What decision was so terrible in her career that she'd be relegated to such drivel?!

 

[Gary]

On one hand, Dario Argento hasn’t made a good feature length movie since “Sleepless”, and that was over 20 years ago. On the other hand, this will likely be his last film, so…I dunno. At this point, watchable would at least be nice

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Watched Countdown on Netflix starring Elizabeth Lail about an app that shows when a person will die and how the protagonist tries to escape her fate. A bit of a Final Destination style concept but not pulled off as well in part because it's largely around a singular protagonist until the 2nd half of the movie and the setup is pretty limiting. Worth a rainy day watch but pretty forgettable on the whole.

5/10

What helped FD stand out was it centered on a well established group of characters and wasn't focused on the killing off of them as opposed to setting up their relationships then pacing the deaths well.

 

[RedJed]

For hardcore Elm Street marks like myself, fun news that Freddy's Nightmares finally has hit a streaming service this week. It's on Screambox, both seasons. I just got it through Amazon Prime, since Screambox is connected there much like Shudder is ($4.99/mo, 7 day trial).

Anyhow, the vid quality is pretty rough, looks like they were pulled from some pretty awful masters, no digital remastering here....honestly I kinda feel like the quality is worse than I saw when it was on El Rey and Chiller eons ago. But hey, all of the episodes are there which is what matters. Now if they would ever do an uncut version of these episodes (I think most were cut pretty heavy to make TV, especially the second season)

Onward to a TCM marathon, since the new one is out this weekend on Netflix.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) 3/10

Good if you like gore. Awful in every other way. Calling these characters paper-thin would be too high praise as the movie is largely a vehicle for Leatherface to just kill everybody off with a high body count. The script was very simple with some themes that went incredibly underexplored that could've proved interesting (one of the main characters being a school shooting survivor, the impact of the old woman being kicked out of her home & its aftermath on the actual main characters, etc.) There were two sorta likable characters and one of them got killed off pretty early in a 70-minute movie.

Just go watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 or 3 again instead.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Just saw The Cursed (2022) as literally the only person in the theater.
Written & Directed by Sean Ellis (The Broken, Anthropoid)

It was good (question mark). It had some solid gore and surprisingly good prosthetic creature effects mixed with CGI. Boyd Holbrook plays John McBride, a pathologist who comes upon a French village to help hunt a creature he believes killed his family. The creature that has cursed the village, however, is hunting Seamus Laurent (Alistair Petrie) and his family for the crime he's committed upon a Gypsy clan.

5.5/10 The atmosphere is great and the direction really good. Solid gore and prosthetics/CGI mix but the pacing and script never quite converge to make this as standout as the concept wants to be.

 

[Gary]

You know what movie is just all together really fun? "Alligator". Has enough humor without going too far into "horror comedy", awesome creature effects, some gore, Robert Forester being great and the titular beast killing conservative politicians and big pharma figureheads. Also, fun bit of trivia-Bryan Cranston was a production assistant in it.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

You know what movie is just all together really fun? "Alligator". Has enough humor without going too far into "horror comedy", awesome creature effects, some gore, Robert Forester being great and the titular beast killing conservative politicians and big pharma figureheads. Also, fun bit of trivia-Bryan Cranston was a production assistant in it.

Alligator is one of those movies that I always remember as being great from when I would watch it as a kid around 6 to 7 years old, then I watch it and it's fun but just okay. Then my brain is like, "Alligator was a pretty great horror movie!" and the cycle just repeats, lol.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

The pool scene scarred me as a kid. Now I think it's absolutely hilarious.

 

[Super Leather]

I've been extolling the virtues of Alligator as a cult horror classic for years. Stoked that it's finally been re-released, although I'm somewhat balking at paying $29.95 for the Blu-Ray.

 

[RedJed]

Studio 666: Supposedly this bombed hard over the weekend, bit of a surprise (not that I expected a huge return, but since nothing came out this weekend, I expected better) since I thought the Foo Fighter fanbase would come out for this one. But maybe the connection of FF fans to horror comedy isn't one that is really a thing? I gotta admit I was taken back at this whole idea in the first place, I was intruiged going into it but confused how or why this was happening. Apparently the idea occured after they did a new album in some old house with some urban legends within it, Dave Grohl had the general idea down in some pet project kinda thing he's been wanting to do for awhile. But seeing all of this go down....it was kinda weird. If you are a fan of the band, I think its worth a check out, but there was a far more excessive amount of gore than expected, and whew, the acting was pretty terrible with some of the band members. The dude that did Hatchet 3 directed this, so I guess no surprise on the gore factor. I can't say there was much for actual legit comedy in this, but Whitney Cummings had some fun moments, but that's reallly all I got.

 

[Gary]

"X" is an A24 horror release done somewhat differently. By that, I mean it has the same slow burn approach and artful camera shots, but there's no metaphors or trauma narratives. More than anything, it's Ti West doing another homage to 70s/80s horror films, but here he just wants you to enjoy yourself. Which I did. It's also a current movie that's a wide release that unapologetically has sex and nudity, and I'll take that.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

It's Ti West? I'll give it a shot, then. Even if I don't end up liking his work as much as it gets hyped, he's extremely talented, and the idea of an A24 sexploitation bend is at least more interesting than the "2 hours of yuppie drama and then 10 minutes of horror" formula they've fallen into.

 

[RedJed]

Yeah, X was pretty fucking good. It was a wild strange trip of a film that unapologetically went full tilt on the sex and gore factor, didn't feel fully like a grindhouse style but it was pretty close to it. There was certainly tones of TCM and even Friday the 13th a bit, and I liked how they went kinda slow burn on developing what the antagonist characters intentions were. All in all, probably Ti West's best film he's done by a large margin. The editing of this film was very unique too with the cuts in and out of certain religious tropes, etc.

 

[RedJed]

Another strong film I caught in theaters recently was The Cursed. I wont get into it too much other than saying it was a very darker take on the werewolf genre than expected. Heavy atmospheric elements really moved this film along at a really slow pace sometimes, which was really my only real qualm about it....being set in the time period it was also didnt help with that pace. Forrunately, the last act of the film was pretty balls out crazy and it turned less into a period piece of sorts and more into a full on monster movie by that point, which helped alot.

 

[Gary]

Yeah, X was pretty fucking good. It was a wild strange trip of a film that unapologetically went full tilt on the sex and gore factor, didn't feel fully like a grindhouse style but it was pretty close to it. There was certainly tones of TCM and even Friday the 13th a bit, and I liked how they went kinda slow burn on developing what the antagonist characters intentions were. All in all, probably Ti West's best film he's done by a large margin. The editing of this film was very unique too with the cuts in and out of certain religious tropes, etc.

There's also a nod to Tobe Hooper's TCM follow up "Eaten Alive" in

Spoiler

the alligator