Let's talk about US

Not US magazine. Not the United States. This is Jordan Peele's US. If his last movie was any indication, this movie would be okay at best. And it is. Okay.

I still think it's funny that this comedian is taking over horror. This movie will probably win two or three oscars. Even if I don't think "Get Out" was great, I still respect the guy for conning those Oscar nuts into giving him an Oscar for best screenplay on a movie that's quite similar to a few other titles and has a foggy story to it. He did it though, and that's why it's a hilarious joke on the cinematic standards of their whole award system.

Don't get me wrong. I do like Jordan Peele, and I look forward to his take on the Twilight Zone. That might be worth tuning into.

So what's this movie "Us" about anyway? Jordan Peele was seemingly inspired by the doppleganger episode of Twilight Zone, "Mirror Image" (1960). That was a good episode. Not particularly about much, but it leaves you pondering.

Dopplegangers are a very interesting concept, and I think this movie has a unique way of going about it. It has a twist, or does it not? Why aren't there more movies on dopplegangers? That could be a whole subgenre there.

For what it's worth, the performances are top notch. The family unit plays well. You like the characters, they put up a good fight, and the actors put forth a good effort.

As I watched this movie, set by the beaches and boardwalks, I thought of Carnival of Souls. It has a strong parallel or two.

Jordan Peele is a blueberry pie.

2010's Horror Movies

Don't worry, I know a lot of us don't respond well to long posts - so I am not putting pressure on anyone to reply to this. I won't throw a hissy fit like one particular former user ! I thought I would create this post here in case anybody is looking for modern recs, and for personal reference. It goes without saying, it is all subjective. Obviously some may disagree with some listed or not listed.

The 21st century has been, overall, an extremely healthy one for horror. There's been the usual amount of dross, of course, but the genre has branched out in a number of interesting new directions as well.

This is a list of the horror films from each year that I think are worth checking out:

2010
The Dead
Trollhunter
Frozen
Devil
Beyond the Black Rainbow
Insidious
Rammbock
Atrocious
Predators
Paranormal Activity 2
The Crazies

I would still like to see: I Saw the Devil, Let Me In, Julia's Eyes, Rubber, A Serbian Film, We Are the Night

2011
Grave Encounters
Inbred
The Skin I Live In
Apollo 18
The Divide
The Tunnel
Harold's Going Stiff
Apartment 143
The Rite
Quarantine 2: Terminal
The Innkeepers
You're Next
Paranormal Activity 3
Midnight Son
Fertile Ground
Husk
Absentia

I would still like to see: Juan of the Dead, Kill List and Livid.

2012 - Solid year
Chronicle
Kiss of the Damned
The Bay
The Possession
The Woman in Black
I Am a Ghost
The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh
The Conspiracy
Inhuman Resources
Evidence
Byzantium
ATM
Grabbers
Sinister
Cockneys vs Zombies
Berberian Sound Studio
When the Lights Went Out
Paranormal Activity 4
The ABCs of Death
Resolution
Prometheus
V/H/S

I would still like to see: The Battery, Maniac, Excision, Antiviral

2013
World War Z
Contracted
Oculus
The Dead 2: India
Under the Skin
Grave Halloween
Horns
A Field in England
Shadow People
Warm Bodies
Dark Touch
Devil's Pass
V/H/S/2
The Sacrament
An Irish Exorcism
Almost Human
Dark Circles
Dark Skies
13 Eerie
The Conjuring
Only Lovers Left Alive
Coherence
Banshee Chapter

I would still like to see: Witching and Bitching, Wer, The Purge, Mr. Jones

2014
Spring
What We Do in the Shadows
The Taking of Deborah Logan
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
From the Dark
Housebound
Unfriended
Digging Up the Marrow
Life After Beth
It Follows
Last Shift
The Black Water Vampire
As Above, So Below
Annabelle
The Possession of Michael King
Haunt
The Babadook
Creep
Ouija
Jessabelle
The Mirror
Deliver Us from Evil
Starry Eyes
Honeymoon

I would still like to see: Goodnight Mommy, Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead, Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead, Late Phases, Let Us Prey, Tusk, Die Präsenz

2015
The Enfield Haunting
Hell House LLC
Frankenstein
We Are Still Here
Baskin
Darling
Summer Camp
Contracted: Phase II
The Visit
The Devil's Candy
Insidious: Chapter 3
Hangman
Green Room
Bone Tomahawk
A Christmas Horror Story
The Lazarus Effect
Bloodsucking Bastards
Tales of Halloween
They Look Like People
The Witch
The Atticus Institute
Containment
The Invitation
The Blackcoat's Daughter
Crimson Peak
Southbound

I would still like to see: He Never Died, Krampus, Circle, Evolution, Maggie, The Boy, Jeruzalem, Deathgasm, Howl, The Rezort, Dementia, Knock Knock

2016 - Good year for horror
I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House
Train to Busan
Under the Shadow
Raw
Better Watch Out
A Cure for Wellness
The Autopsy of Jane Doe
Split
The Void
Hush
The Wailing
Don't Breathe
The Conjuring 2
The Girl with All the Gifts
The Transfiguration
A Dark Song
The Belko Experiment
The Monster
Before I Wake
Personal Shopper
Viral
The Boy
10 Cloverfield Lane
I Am Not a Serial Killer
Don't Knock Twice
Ouija: Origin of Evil
It Stains the Sands Red
The Eyes of My Mother
The Neon Demon

I would still like to see: The Forest, The Love Witch, Beyond the Gates, Holidays, Friend Request

2017
Mother!
The Babysitter
Creep 2
1922
Pyewacket
Wish Upon
Cargo
Gerald's Game
Life
The Endless
Happy Death Day
Get Out
The Ritual
Ghost Stories
The Dark Tower
The Secret of Marrowbone
XX
Mom and Dad
It Comes at Night
The Cured
Annabelle: Creation
Alien: Covenant
Jigsaw
It
Revenge

I would still like to see: Leatherface, The Bye Bye Man, Cult of Chucky, Tragedy Girls, Verónica, The Evil Within, Berlin Syndrome, Death Note, Jeepers Creepers III, 47 Metres Down, The Bar

2018
The House That Jack Built
Hereditary
Bird Box
The Haunting of Hill House
Halloween
Our House
Unsane
Unfriended: Dark Web
A Quiet Place
Truth or Dare
Overlord
Annihilation
Incident in a Ghostland
Winchester
The Night Eats the World
The Nun
The Predator


I would still like to see: Mandy, Suspiria, The Devil's Doorway, Wildling, Slender Man, Summer of '84, Apostle, The Meg, The Possession of Hannah Grace, Cam, What Keeps You Alive

2019
I haven't seen anything from 2019 yet, but I am looking forward to Velvet Buzzsaw, Pet Sematary, Happy Death Day 2U, Us, Glass and Doctor Sleep.

Captain Sparkle Fingers! (2019)

It's funny in a few ways... all the parallels to Marvel's "Captain Marvel", the various pokes to other DC characters in the shared universe, and because it's your favorite from the nerd herd, Zachary Levi as the buff red suit with a cape. What can he do? Well, that's part of the journey, to find out just that. And believe me, it's nothing original.

Interesting bit... John Glover returns to this third appearance in various DC canon over the years. This time, he's basically another Lionel Luthor from Smallville, and his son is also bald and evil.

I'm surprised this movie was set in a real city. Philadelphia. It's always sunny there. They make a few Rocky jokes, as anything good set in Philly should do. It's all about those stairs, and running up them, then jumping in joy as if you're a winner. Is this movie a winner? By the DCU's standards... yes?

If you're anything like me, you probably have no idea who Shazam is. He's some foster kid searching for his mum, fleeing various foster homes, until he's randomly bestowed superpowers. Along with his disabled sidekick, he must learn the ropes of his various powers until he has some sort of character arc or whatnot. Oh, and did I mention his disabled sidekick is disabled?

This movie is PC. An interracial family forms a strong bond after they all touch the black man's magic shaft, and bullying is wrong. Don't be a bully. Especially generic ones with zero substance, because you'll get yours, and it wont be that great.

Along with the Captain Marvel parallels, the old black man here is also in that movie, in an insignificant role. Fun facts.

This movie may change your mind about the DCU, but it wont change your life. I don't think superhero movies even try anymore. The villains have no substance, and there's nothing at stake when your protagonists are invincible. Thundercrack is also one of his names, btw.

Voodoo Zombies!!

Pop culture likes the classic Romero zombie. This is a day and age when shit like The Walking Dead is all the rage, and zombies are known to eat human flesh, and sometimes... brains.

But before the flesh eaters, we had the more classic voodoo/servant type, as seen in White Zombie, King of the Zombies, and others. I've heard the name Val Lewton mentioned a lot during this era, too. Some of those images look creepy.

So why did this breed of zombies go neglected in favor of another type that is less grounded in true-ish events?

I've always thought they were an interesting idea, but since they're not inherently evil, people must not consider your classic voodoo zombie a threat enough to be dangerous. Too docile? Maybe not dead enough? If you put a lethal attack on a voodoo zombie, will they actually die from it? Their bodies aren't technically dead, and their brains are barely turned on. Still kind of alive, right? Well, after a while, it didn't even matter anymore, with movies such as Zombi 2. They just merged voodoo with Romero, and BAM. Perfect sleaze.



So is voodoo zombie stuff more popular than I'm aware of? Here's a few titles I'm aware of:

White Zombie (1932)
Revolt of the Zombies (1936)
I Walked with a Zombie (1943)

Started getting sleazier and more Romero influenced here...

Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1973)
Sugar Hill (1974)
Zombi 2 (1979)
The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)

Wes Craven took a deep look into the matter with his film investigating the voodoo zombie phenomenon, and there isn't much more to say about them... but we'll ride the wave a little longer anyway.

Zombi 4 (1989) - Kind of voodoo, but not really?
Black Demons (1991)
Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence (1993) - Matt Cordell comes back because of voodoo! As dumb as it sounds, these movies are awesome.

and most importantly...

Weekend at Bernies II (1993)

What a great fuckin' movie. Terry Kiser is the man. He's still dead, and he's dancing the night away.




Do you care about voodoo zombies? I might.

White Zombie is public domain gold

I always thought this was a great old school title featuring the legendary Lugosi, fresh off of Dracula. He plays a guy named "Murder", he has a unibrow, and he controls people (much like Dracula) through that nifty clenched grip thing he does.

Sure, there's a old-timey romance featuring some squares, and Lugosi mostly wants the woman because he's a conniving old bastard in this movie, but I love the scenes where you see your villain going about, smugly putting pieces together on how he can sabotage our heroes' efforts.


For a public domain movie, I'm still surprised that Rob Zombie never remade this title, with his own hellish brand of white trash smut. He did include it on tv in his Halloween movie, though.

Another interesting idea would be a prequel. Get some other guy with a unibrow to play Murder Legendre and showcase him building his zombie army, where he mentioned turning the executioner who nearly executed him. That stuff sounds pretty cool, and we'd later see that type of premise carried out in "Son of Frankenstein", also with Lugosi coordinating the acts of vengeance.


Basically the first (voodoo) zombie movie, White Zombie also has some great imagery. I love looking at the graveyard sets and that weird mansion on the cliff. Some of it looks pretty artsy.

Also, there's that vulture that sounds like a dying lady. Definitely worth noting...

Lugosi was always one of my favorite old school horror actors though. Sure, he was pushed into a lot of crap movies, but he's got an exotic charm, and the way he talks is fascinating. I should make my B&W Challenge all about Bela Lugosi this year. Dude is a legend.


IMDb lists "Revolt of the Zombies" (1936) as a sequel. Anybody seen it?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028174/

The Redeemer (1978)

I love this movie it's weird and so 70s and freaky and it's basically like every 80s slasher you've ever seen only not because it was made in 76/77 so it had more in common with grindhouse and exploitation movies no it isn't very gory or violent but the atmosphere is there in spades it's cruel and dark and gritty and weird and low budget there's just something about this flick i watched it again the other night I've seen it roughly 7 or 8 times now it gets better with every viewing I appreciate how ahead of its time it is I first saw it under the title of class reunion massacre on VHS yes I prefer that title but ah well you can't have everything in life ya know life is a bitch sometimes and yes i realize im writing one big ass run on sentence but fuck it man this is trash epics not english class anyway back to the Redeemer have you seen it if not get on it cuz it rules hard.

Is that the fuckin' Moondog?

Harmony Korine. You either love him or you hate him. I'm in the camp that can't look away. When he puts something on screen, I'm mesmerized. Even when I felt dirty after watching Gummo, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I watched it a few more times until I discovered a depth in its grim and hopeless redneck suburbia.

I've watched Werner Herzog drink cough syrup out of a shoe because he made it look like art. I've watched Die Antwoord roll up in their pimped out wheelchairs because Harmony Korine can make magic out of nothing. Just imagine what he can do if he has starpower and a budget to boot.



It's been a few years since we went on Spring Break with Franco and the ladies, but that seemed like a natural environment for Korine to explore more of. With The Beach Bum, he wants to show us Florida, and with a little help from McConaughey's laughter-filled performance, it's a fun trip that isn't even bogged down by sad scenes.

It's like we're all getting drunk and high and with McConaughey on the Florida coast for a few hours, drinking a LOT of Pabst Blue Ribbon and hanging out with Snoop Dogg. Sure, life tries to get in the way, but you got to keep at your own pace, and the universe will work itself out.

Films like this are about characters, situations, and art. The plot is derived from these things, and it seems inconsequential at best, because life is a rodeo, and the Moondog keeps on livin'. L-I-V-I-N.

Zac Efron plays a pyromaniac in jinco jeans who listens to Creed, and Martin Lawrence is a Vietnam vet who loves Flipper. I think this movie is set in the early 2000s. Snoop Dogg is basically playing himself. This is how I like to think McConaughey is normally, when he isn't winning Oscars. Just a bum who parties on the beach all day and all night. It's like Moondog is living by the motto of "Spring Break Forever", and we're given a hazy glimpse into his perfect world, and the idea of this perfection is contagious.

Critics consider this a flop for McConaughey's career, but he knew what he was getting himself into. This was a choice he made intentionally, to work with an auteur with vision, and you could tell he had fun making the movie.

Movies like this are a rarity, and that's what makes them important. They don't have conventional stories, because they have other things to say, and to me, it's all about that strange place they take me to. Nothing out of this world is going on, but it's hard to feel grounded when a movie makes you high.

This is my last post here.

I'm sick of this place. And you know what? I don't even like trashy movies. I'm going to go watch the latest blockbuster. Fuck you guys. 🖕

Google Your Old IMDB Sig Line

I had several, over the years on IMDB. I just googled the one I had toward the end of IMDB, and this thread came up. Good for the soul, to see it. My soul, anyway. What comes up when you google your old sig lines?
https://www.filmboards.com/board/p/2947/

Looking for Moderators!

So as many of you know Ballz is our new Challenge Moderator and I would like to fill a couple other moderation roles if I can.

Below are the Moderation Positions I would like to have:
Challenge Moderator: Ballz - In charge of the challenge host queue and ensuring challenges start and run efficiently. Also Keeper of the Trash Cup. (That's a title idea "Keeper of the Cup")

Draft Moderator: - In charge of the draft host queue. In charge of ensuring drafts start and run efficiently. Tasked with ensuring that all drafts submitted for aproval by hosts are logically sound and don't have any glaring holes.

Board Moderator: - First off this in not a sensorship role. This mod is tasked with making sure that threads tagged in the "soapbox" are supposed to be there and not in another board, IE horror or games and the same goes with the rest of the boards. I am actively trying to convince @Box that a more propper index on our home page with the boards "Movies", "TV", "Soapbox(General Discution)", "Games and Challenges", "Site Information", "New to the Site" and "Site Ideas" would be benificial and also keep this place more organized and stop the overflow of shit from rants and beefs from the "Soapbox" to the rest of the site. So, this moderator would just make sure people didn't put topics in the wrong board and if they did they would move the post.


These are the first 3 I would like to fill, well 2 since Ballz already grabbed challenge mod, but as we get more organized I would like to have individual mods for each board just so there isn't so much for one person to look through.

If anyone is interested just let me know. Also let me know about what you all think of the more divided index as a home page vs the facebook like feed.