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Comments
Susan George — cute as the Dickens with her jacked-up British teeth. Honor Blackman and Ian Bannen. — they all did a bang-up job.
I absolutely love Roger Ebert’s review of this. Please read his thoughts.
1. El Conde*
3. No One Will Save You*
5. Bone Tomahawk*
8. Reptile*
9. Maximum Overdrive*
10. Duel*
11. Westworld
12. Hell Night*
“Vivia Mandore, an heiress, enlists the services of a paranormal investigator to look into a suspected case of haunting involving the spirit of her deceased mother-in-law.”
1. El Conde*
3. No One Will Save You*
5. Bone Tomahawk*
8. Reptile*
9. Maximum Overdrive*
10. Duel*
11. Westworld
12. Hell Night*
Hand sculpture that lets those who grasp it be possessed by wandering spirits. What could go wrong?
A24 studios once again gives us something fresh in the horror genre, and let’s get this out of the way: by all means you should see this movie. Talk to Me combines elements of the “Bloody Mary” dare with the lure social media fame as the ultimate form of peer pressure. Despite the novelty of this angle, I can’t really say anything here was particularly new in the actual scares department, and this was arguably the least arty of the A24 films. Still, Talk To Me is an entertaining ride from beginning to end, but it seems a bit afraid to give the audience much time to think or figure things out for themselves.
Not too surprising when you consider this was made by a pair of Australian YouTube stars used to making content for shortened attention spans, but you’d be hard pressed to find a better horror debut this year that’s not based on existing intellectual property. There’s already talk of a sequel and/or prequel, but I’m interested to see what direction these guys go artistically now that they have the confidence of a success on their resume. Or, Hollywood will come knocking and slowly destroy them like M. Night Shyamalan.
4 out of 5 stars.
Bob's October 2023 Horror Movie List
*FTV denotes first-time viewings
1. Ghostwatch 4/5 (FTV)
2. Wendel & Wild 4/5 (FTV)
3. Dolls 3/5 (FTV)
4. Society 3/5 (FTV)
5. Tombs of the Blind Dead 3/5 (FTV)
6. The Brainiac 3/5 (FTV)
7. The Visitor 3/5 (FTV)
8. Talk To Me 4/5 (FTV)
Kurbens Horror movie list!
1. Beneath Us All (2023) 2,5/5 FTV
2. The Flood (2023) 3,5/5 FTV
3. Island Escape (2023) 2/5 FTV
4. Vampires vs The Bronx (2020) 4/5 FTV
5. V For Vengeance (2022) 4/5 FTV
6. Love and monsters (2020) 2,5/5 FTV
7. Night Teeth (2021) 3,5/5 FTV
8. The Nun (2022) 3,5/5 FTV
9. Night Flier (1997) 3,5/5 FTV
10. Pet semetary: Bloodlines 1,5/5 FTV
11. Scream of the Wolf (2023) 2/5 FTV As can be guessed from the title this is a werewolf movie. Not a good one. People who are trying to shot a vampire movie in an old house in the english countryside. Then they are besieged by a werewolf. The actors werent much to write home about, the story fairly basic so this will be forgotten quickly.
Kurbens Horror movie list!
1. Beneath Us All (2023) 2,5/5 FTV
2. The Flood (2023) 3,5/5 FTV
3. Island Escape (2023) 2/5 FTV
4. Vampires vs The Bronx (2020) 4/5 FTV
5. V For Vengeance (2022) 4/5 FTV
6. Love and monsters (2020) 2,5/5 FTV
7. Night Teeth (2021) 3,5/5 FTV
8. The Nun (2022) 3,5/5 FTV
9. Night Flier (1997) 3,5/5 FTV
10. Pet semetary: Bloodlines 1,5/5 FTV
11. Scream of the Wolf (2023) 2/5 FTV
12 The Boogeyman /2023) 4/5 FTV Dont know why people have dissed this one. I found it rather effective and easily the best so far. Sophie Thatcher is real good as the eldest daughter Sadie. Perhaps not originel but well executed and well directed and acted.
Watched.....
01. The Meg 2 (absolute drivel)
02. No One Will Save You ( really good)
03. Pet Sematary;Bloodlines (jesus this was bad)
04. Talk To Me (really good)
Classic Mel Brooks comedy where a descendant of Dr. Frankenstein follows in the family footsteps.
What can I really say about this movie, it’s a classic and I’m sure you’ve all seen it or at least have familiarity with it. Gene Wilder is at peak lunacy and the supporting cast of characters are memorable and hilarious. Many great quotes from this one: “Frau Blucher”, "Walk this way", “Abby Normal”, “Puttin’ on the Ritz”, and of course anything with Marty Feldman’s “I-gor” never fails to get laughs. And it's all in glorious black and white thanks to Mel Brook's persistence with a reluctant studio.
The ending’s sexual hijinks sound a false note to a modern audience’s eyes (you know what scene I’m talking about), but hey that was the 1970’s and Mel Brooks is gonna Mel Brooks. Essential viewing for comedy fans and horror fans alike.
5 out of 5 stars.
Bob's October 2023 Horror Movie List
*FTV denotes first-time viewings
1. Ghostwatch 4/5 (FTV)
2. Wendel & Wild 4/5 (FTV)
3. Dolls 3/5 (FTV)
4. Society 3/5 (FTV)
5. Tombs of the Blind Dead 3/5 (FTV)
6. The Brainiac 3/5 (FTV)
7. The Visitor 3/5 (FTV)
8. Talk To Me 4/5 (FTV)
9. Young Frankenstein 5/5
October 2023 Horror Movie Marathon!
01. The Meg 2 (absolute drivel)
02. No One Will Save You ( really good)
03. Pet Sematary;Bloodlines (jesus this was bad)
04. Talk To Me (really good)
05. Haunted Mansion (not too bad)
Four years after the events of the original, an ancient demon returns to threaten Regan and a priest.
This is perhaps not only the most maligned sequel of all time, but also one of the most hated movies of all time. I’m not here to defend this as some sort of overlooked gem, but having seen many terrible horror movies, this is quite far from the worst. Director John Boorman (Deliverance, and perhaps more apropos here, Zardoz) was no fan of the original and wanted to take things in a different direction. Maybe it wasn’t the best decision by the producers to hire someone who disliked the original, but Boorman deserves credit for being bold rather than just repeating what was done in the original. This movie is more concerned with why the most innocent and “good” person (Regan, again played ably by a then 18-year-old Linda Blair) would attract the most evil entity, and the role that goodness plays in keeping the moral balance of the world.
Unfortunately, the original script was passed around and re-written so many times, the story is crowded with at least two major elements that don’t belong. One is a sci-fi aspect where a therapist uses a strobe machine to essentially “mind meld” with patients. It doesn’t help that the therapist is played by a more or less catatonic Louise Fletcher, hot off the heels of an Oscar win (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) but apparently suffering from a gallbladder infection. (She would later appear as a scientist in “Brainstorm”, another intriguing but imperfect film involving a consciousness-sharing recording device). This part of the film is not essential to move things forward and feels like the remnants of another script adapted to fit (poorly) into this one. We don’t need to “science up” The Exorcist.
The second thing that doesn’t belong in a sequel to The Exorcist is a flashback subplot involving the original priest Father Merrin (again played by Max von Sydow) that takes us to an unnamed African country plagued by locust swarms, and the young boy who grows up to be a scientist who studies ways to get the “good” locusts to influence the “bad” ones to prevent disaster. Did you get all that? I see what they were trying to do here, but this has to be the clunkiest allegory ever crammed into a movie script. Once again, I suspect one of the producers was influenced by the success of all those 70’s “animal disaster” movies and forced them to include this in the story. The Exorcist doesn’t need bugs, not even if James Earl Jones wears a silly tribal bug costume.
With that setup, critics and audiences were justified in hating this movie, because they expected a sequel to The Exorcist and were instead given three movies, only one of which felt like a continuation of the original story, and nothing really scary. So why watch it at all? Despite these structural flaws, we’re left with Boorman’s flair for visuals, which in itself is a reason for watching. We also get a haunting score by Ennio Morricone, an apparently drunk Richard Burton who still manages to convey intensity while obviously reading cue cards, and a baby-faced Regan tap dancing and nearly falling off a New York high rise (no stunt double was used). This movie was a bit of a mess, but it’s not an incoherent mess—it just made some bad choices in story. If you watch this movie, make sure you watch the original theatrical cut, not the hastily shortened cut that they forced Boorman to do after the critics howled.
3 out of 5 stars.
Bob's October 2023 Horror Movie List
*FTV denotes first-time viewings
1. Ghostwatch 4/5 (FTV)
2. Wendel & Wild 4/5 (FTV)
3. Dolls 3/5 (FTV)
4. Society 3/5 (FTV)
5. Tombs of the Blind Dead 3/5 (FTV)
6. The Brainiac 3/5 (FTV)
7. The Visitor 3/5 (FTV)
8. Talk To Me 4/5 (FTV)
9. Young Frankenstein 5/5
10. The Exorcist II: The Heretic 3/5 (FTV)
Two seasons, 13 episodes plus a Halloween special — a very eccentric cast of characters. Each receive a letter that reads, “I know what you did.”
1. El Conde*
3. No One Will Save You*
5. Bone Tomahawk*
8. Reptile*
9. Maximum Overdrive*
10. Duel*
11. Westworld
12. Hell Night*
15. Psychoville*
4) Stillwater* (2021 - Netflix)
5) The Lincoln Lawyer* (2011 - Netflix)
6) Reptile* (2023 - Netflix)
7) M3GAN* (2022 - Prime)
8) The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
9) Mind Games (2001 - Prime)
I agree, there are far worse movies out there, Boorman wanted to do something different than the original movie but it just didn't work out, its a bad movie but there are interesting bits in it.
October 2023 Horror Movie Marathon!
01. The Meg 2 (absolute drivel)
02. No One Will Save You ( really good)
03. Pet Sematary;Bloodlines (jesus this was bad)
04. Talk To Me (really good)
05. Haunted Mansion (not too bad)
06. The Exorcist: Believer ( its a dud)
1.-Death Note (Netflix)
From Wikipedia:
Death Note is a 2017 American supernatural crime thriller film directed by Adam Wingard from a screenplay by Charles Parlapanides, Vlas Parlapanides, and Jeremy Slater, loosely based on the manga of the same name by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. The film stars Nat Wolff, LaKeith Stanfield, Margaret Qualley, Shea Whigham, Paul Nakauchi, Jason Liles, and Willem Dafoe. The plot follows an American high school student named Light Turner (portrayed by Wolff) who finds a mysterious supernatural notebook known as the Death Note, which can kill anyone whose name is written in its pages, using it to murder criminals under the alias of Kira, while a secretive detective only known as L (portrayed by Stanfield) seeks to find him.
.....best thing about the movie was Willem Dafoe as a porcupine looking, apple loving demon.....
Anthology of short horror films with characters that overlap between storylines.
Made in 2006 on a low budget by filmmakers who seem to specialize in making low-budget sequels to George Romero films (they also made “Day of the Dead 2”), Creepshow is really only a sequel in name only. It didn’t have Stephen King’s, George Romero’s or Tom Savini’s input or blessing. The original Creepshow is a near-perfect horror film, the sequel has its weaknesses but is still a decent watch, so I was hoping that Creepshow 3 would at least be average. Sadly, it’s pretty far below even that low standard.
The stories are stupid, uninvolving, non-intriguing, highly predictable, and populated by annoying and loathsome characters. The acting is often embarrassing. Like the original, there is some animation, but the animation in Creepshow 3 looks nothing like comic book art, more like Adobe Flash animation that someone made on their laptop over a weekend. Like the original, there’s some attempt to put humor in the horror, but the humor mostly falls flat.
There are five short films plus a wraparound story, but by the time we got to the middle of the second story I really just couldn’t even bring myself to care about what was going on. One of the tales (where two students suspect their professor’s wife is a robot) had potential to be like an old EC comics story, but the gory practical effects were wasted on bad characters with no story. The whole thing has the feel of a crappy made-for-cable movie made by people who don’t really understand what made the originals so fun. They would have been better off using the movie's budget to buy bread to feed ducks.
It’s not just bad as a Creepshow sequel, it’s just plain bad. A bomb, a stinker, a waste of time.
1 out of 5 stars.
Bob's October 2023 Horror Movie List
*FTV denotes first-time viewings
1. Ghostwatch 4/5 (FTV)
2. Wendel & Wild 4/5 (FTV)
3. Dolls 3/5 (FTV)
4. Society 3/5 (FTV)
5. Tombs of the Blind Dead 3/5 (FTV)
6. The Brainiac 3/5 (FTV)
7. The Visitor 3/5 (FTV)
8. Talk To Me 4/5 (FTV)
9. Young Frankenstein 5/5
10. The Exorcist II: The Heretic 3/5 (FTV)
11. Creepshow 3 1/5 (FTV)
2.-Haunted Mansion (Disney +)
....Ms. Curtis and Mr. Leto were my two faves out of this "light fright"....nothing truly memorable, but a pleasant two hour investment....
Minimalist nightmare gets under your skin without showing or telling.
It’s 1995, you’re four years old. You wake up in the middle of the night and something feels wrong, so you wander around the hallways of the house in your pajamas. It doesn’t take long for you to realize your parents aren’t in the house, leaving you alone with your little sister. Worse yet, the windows and doors have disappeared: you’re trapped inside. The flickering television beckons, playing old black and white cartoons on an endless loop. You realize there’s something else in the house, something terrible and powerful, and it begins to play tricks on you and your sister.
That’s the setup of Skinamarink. I will admit that when I heard about this movie, I was not looking forward to it and didn’t think I would like it. I didn’t feel like sitting down to watch must be a pretentious endurance fest. Every review talked about the glacial pace, the lack of story, the endless series of lingering shots of walls, ceilings, toys scattered on the floor, and not much more. People called it an “art film” or “experimental”, and also said it was outright pointless and boring, trying the patience of even the most tolerant viewer. Reviews were polarized, people either loved it or hated it. Even some of the more open-minded reviewers said didn’t really like it but admired it for what it was trying.
Not exactly encouraging, but I figured I’d give it a go. I’m so glad I did. I got sucked in immediately and fell into a sort of dreamlike state for the next 100 minutes. I didn’t fight the movie or let my inner dialog take over, I just let it play and went along with it. My guess is the people who respond most to this movie grew up with a sibling and remember the fears and helplessness that come with being a young child in a strange house. The style of the movie is not just a stunt, it’s putting you right inside the fragmented, barely developed consciousness of a 4 year-old who is just starting to make sense of the world around him. Images emerge out of the black swirl of background noise, barely formed.
Ever walk at night and think you see something out there, perhaps the outline of a body or face, only to realize it’s something else? Skinamarink puts you in that mindset, again and again. It denies the viewers the structure and comfort of conventional narrative elements, and those seeking spoon-fed answers will be frustrated. But it’s not trying to make things more difficult as much as using our desire for order and familiarity against us. Fear always comes from a lack of information. Skinamarink isn’t trying to entertain us with a diverting story, it’s trying to reach us at a more visceral, perhaps even subliminal level.
That said, I realize this is either going to work for you, or it won’t. I can’t argue with or try to convince people that they ought to have a certain reaction. I had my doubts and was pleasantly surprised that it worked for me. It’s not a perfect film, but it will likely be the one I’ll remember most this year.
4 out of 5 stars.
Bob's October 2023 Horror Movie List
*FTV denotes first-time viewings
1. Ghostwatch 4/5 (FTV)
2. Wendel & Wild 4/5 (FTV)
3. Dolls 3/5 (FTV)
4. Society 3/5 (FTV)
5. Tombs of the Blind Dead 3/5 (FTV)
6. The Brainiac 3/5 (FTV)
7. The Visitor 3/5 (FTV)
8. Talk To Me 4/5 (FTV)
9. Young Frankenstein 5/5
10. The Exorcist II: The Heretic 3/5 (FTV)
11. Creepshow 3 1/5 (FTV)
12. Skinamarink 4/5 (FTV)