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Monstrous. A lady and her son move into a house by a lake to get away from the father, but there's a ghost in the nearby lake. Thought this was gonna be a la llorona knockoff, but it thankfully wasn't. The twist was pretty good, the ending kinda meh. I honestly only watched it because Christina Ricci was in it and I hadn't seen her in something in forever. I'm not a ghost film guy, but this was ok I guess.

Hatching. A "happy" family that isn't so happy. Mom is cheating on dad, dad just does his thing, son desperately wants the attention his sister gets from the mom, and the daughter is dealing with the mom being overbearing and demanding about her gymnastics. The girl finds an egg and decides to hatch it, but it keeps getting bigger. What comes out is a giant bird thing(not cg, an actual puppet, though there's a bit of cg used later) that starts "fixing" the girl's problems. You know the drill. The ending didn't go how I expected, which is always a nice surprise. Good film, worth a watch.

The Northman

Yeah, this movie was awesome, makes me wish I saw it in theaters to get those Braveheart vibes from as a kid. Brutality is very nice, even had one scene that made me squirm. I'll be paying attention to Eggers stuff.

Suicide for Beginners. A guy is trying to make it seem like a girl killed herself after killing her boyfriend. Absolutely silly film, in a good way. It's mostly one of those everything that can go wrong, will go wrong films where the killer is the one with the bad luck. Sid Haig has a small part, but is great. Corey Feldman popped up for a cameo, too, which was unexpected. Much more fun than I had anticipated. Worth a watch.

Reign in Blood wrote: ↑Sun May 22, 2022 12:25 pm The Northman

Yeah, this movie was awesome, makes me wish I saw it in theaters to get those Braveheart vibes from as a kid. Brutality is very nice, even had one scene that made me squirm. I'll be paying attention to Eggers stuff.

I cant wait to see this

The Sadness. Went into this thinking no way the description could be true. It delivered. Gory fun ride. Only thing that I didn't care for was the ending. Really abrupt but no way was that going to end happy.

The Northman was very good with excellent violence

Dashcam. Lady that streams herself rapping visits a friend in the middle of covid and runs across a weird lady. Absolute garbage. Credits roll at the 1:08 mark, but I still felt like I had been watching it for hours. The first twenty minutes or so is essentially the main girl rapping and being a cunt to everyone. There's about ten minutes that are decent and there's at least thirty minutes of just her rapping to the camera that can be skipped. I haven't hated a character this much since the kid in Satan's Little Helper, but at least that film was good. Fuck this "movie".

Watched Hansel & Gretel Get Baked (2013)

Not as heavy on ridiculous comedy as you might think, which was a positive. Even so, it's not a particularly memorable film, aside from the mildly interesting plot. Below average, but not terribly so. 6.5/10. (Full review available in a year and a half or on demand. )

Invitation to Hell (1982)

Not to be confused with the 1984 Wes Craven film of the same name, this 41 minute short was directed by Michael J. Murphy. It's rather low budget, and the quality is pretty poor. Performances weren't that great, but there was at least a solid kill, being a crucifixion of sorts. I'd really only recommend it to fans of low budget British Satanic horror, though.

Manichithrathazhu (1993)
aka. The Ornate Lock
★ ★
The problem with Bollywood recommendations is they over-rate their films on IMDB and Letterboxd. So, while looking for a hidden gem, I'm frequently recommended something from India like this: 8.7 on IMDB and 4.1 on Letterboxd. The closest I've come to recommending a Bollywood Horror/Thriller is 1993's psycho-drama Darr. This is a bland domestic drama with mentions of spookiness for over two-hours, with a horror climax that's still nothing special. At least Tumbbad (2018) - another film of this type - has visual imagination.

Admittedly, I did enjoy Mahakaal, if only for the fact it was a blatant rip-off of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Still, it had some creepy and original scenes of it's own.

Just finished Blue Demon y Zovek en La invasión de los muertos (1973).

Known in the USA as The Invasion of the Dead, this Mexican zombie movie was slow. Admittedly, I have seen this before, but not with subtitles, so it was nice to understand more of it. Even so, not great. 4.5/10.

In the Spider's Web (2007).

All-in-all, this was decent. Still below average, but it had a few good characters, an okay story at times, and rather realistic spiders 95% of the time. Not a movie for those afflicted with arachnophobia, but overall, wasn't a bad rewatch. 6/10.

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021)
★ ½
Easily the most popular title in this post, it's a bit of a Catfish. A portrait of living alone online disguised as a Horror movie. (It's more Horror than the documentary Catfish, but not by much.) I was mostly okay with the extremely minimal presentation, and there's an excellent lead performance by newcomer Anna Cobb, but there's a 2nd lead who largely mumbles in the dark and takes up space. Over time, he becomes the focus that limps everything to the end instead of Anna's more intriguing, "am I being paranoid or are they really out to get me?"

You Won’t Be Alone (2022)
★ ★
What's worse for me than Terrance Malick? A less talented filmmaker coping the style and hoping for similar results. Murky tale of witchcraft in the form of various people, comes to blazing life during a brief section focused on Noomi Rapace, further proving she's one of the most charismatic actors working today.

You Are Not My Mother (2021)
★ ★
The best of this bunch, though still too indirect to be effective. Solid lead performances, but some side characters are inhuman because they're written without any dimension.

Hitch Hike (1977)
★ ½
More directly sleazy, starring Franco Nero and featuring David Hess (Last House on the Left) who always plays the scummiest humans in film. Unlike Sling, I knew what I was choosing to watch, but I hoped for something that might be memorable in a good way.

Singapore Sling (1990)
aka. The Man Who Loved a Corpse
★ ½
I hated this and had to step back to research avant-garde Greek filmmaker Nikos Nikolaidis. There's enough incest, blood and gross here that I can understand it being listed as Horror, but that's not an accurate description. Much as I hated this, I won't soon forget the actress playing the daughter always moving and speaking as if on the verge of an orgasm.

Dogra Magra (1988)
★ ★
From director Toshio Matsumoto (Funeral Parade of Roses). Not-Horror in the same way as Singapore Sling, but at least I have some respect for Matsumoto's style. so it not being what I hoped for is more on me.

Unhuman. Teens going on a field trip get into an accident and run into some zombies. Starts off as a run-of-the-mill horror comedy, then gets a twist that's a bit on the serious side, before making its way back to silly town. Worth a watch if you're in the mood for dumb teen horror.

Watched three films yesterday:

A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child (1989)

Always thought that this was the worst of the series. No idea what's going on, and it's just overall drab. Horrible kills, too. While Freddy's Dead is flawed, at least it's entertaining, and I don't believe this one really is. 5/10.


The Hole (2001)

Seen this before a few times. Quality British thriller/mystery. Good performances from Thora Birch and Daniel Brocklebank. Worth seeing.


The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1994)

Known also as Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (which I admit is a better title), this honestly wasn't terrible until the last twenty or so minutes. I mean, it wasn't good before that, but that drop in quality was astonishing. Renée Zellweger did well, but otherwise, this movie isn't much my cup of tea, though still better than the second movie. 5.5/10.

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)

I slightly prefer the 1939 Rathbone version, but this is a rather solid film too, and in color. My one issue is that, as much as I love Christopher Lee, I don't think he's the right guy for the role of Henry Baskerville. Still a quality rendition of the movie. 8/10.


Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)

Honestly, while there are some problems with this film, I had an okay time. It's below average, but it probably ties as my third favorite movie in the franchise. 6/10.

Big fan of Baskervilles 59. With more chances, Peter Cushing could've topped Rathbone as the superior Sherlock Holmes.

Looking for some short Horror, I unintentionally watched three 1973 films by Serbian director Djordje Kadijevic.

Sticenik is the best of the three. Not great, plays like a low-budget short that Shutter Island might've taken inspiration from, but the black & white gives it atmosphere and a nice undercurrent of bad things waiting to spring.

I watched it before Leptirica and was immediately put off by Leptirica's flat color cinematography. It all felt like theater actors playing period dress-up in someone's backyard, and the comedy often sucked up any horror that might be attempted.

Devicanska Svirka is a little thin, like a horror director's first steps. The lead actresses' cleavage, becomes the main takeaway because nothing else in the movie comes close in terms of development and entertainment value.
Sticenik ★ ★ ½
Leptirica ★ ½
Devicanska Svirka ★ ★

Dark Intruder (1965)

Originally filmed as a TV pilot but ultimately released as a feature, this is a swift monster mystery that blends unoriginal ideas into a fairly satisfying whole. Leslie Nielsen - young, studly and serious - stars as an occult expert on the trail of a serial killer. The plot combines Jack the Ripper, Jekyll and Hyde, Sherlock Holmes and Chinese mysticism. It's clearly just trying to pass the hour with as much distraction as possible, but it's an entertaining 1960s sampler platter and once I got past Nielsen playing straight, he brings the same amused sarcasm that made David Tennant such a great Doctor Who.
RATING: ★ ★ ★ - Okay

Unearthly Stranger (1963)
One of those short British sci-fy thriller that can make big, dumb ideas seem brainy and the horror comes from unusual camerawork, often too close to the actors face. It's a technique that ages far better than monster makeup America was doing at the time. A small group of trained actors talk about the problem instead of shrieking in terror. This includes John Neville (Baron Munchausen) and Philip Stone (The Shining). The first half is too cold and book nerdish, but as the mystery reveals itself it becomes more a case of personal peril, which got me far more engrossed in the film.
RATING: ★ ★ ★ - Okay