What movies did you buy or watch the last two weeks? (10-22)

Besides the long-awaited blu-ray of Kill Baby Kill I picked up Poughkeepsie Tapes, Inconceivable and Devil's Mile. I don't know anything about the last two.

Raymond Did It (2011)

Anyone seen this? It's supposedly a slasher film about a mentally challenged kid who gets blamed for a murder, sent to an asylum, then gets out years later and starts killing the people who framed him. It also has a female villain with a Bettie Page hairdo named, appropriately, Paige.

It sounds like it could be worth checking out so I wondered if anyone here knew about it.

Movies that shift between beauty and horror?

I have Hannibal (the movie) playing right now... I am struck by the contrast between the beauty of many shots, especially of Florence, Italy, and the horrifying ugliness of other scenes. Florence is so beautiful... I think I actually get a (very small, but real) attack of Stendhal Syndrome, just watching Hannibal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stendhal_syndrome

Does anyone here have any other movie that comes to mind, in terms of shifting back and forth between great beauty and great ugliness and horror? It could be any kind of beauty, architectural, artistic, natural (sunsets, the Grand Canyon, etc), female... whatever.

Back in 1922...

Netflix has been on a roll with their original movies, lately. Gerald's Game, The Babysitter, and now... 1922.

It's another Stephen King story, because the dude apparently has infinite stories. Tom Jane returns for his third King collaboration (Dreamcatcher, The Mist) to play the conniving farmer, and he hits it out of the park. He's always been an under-appreciated actor, and he plays this character wonderfully. The story is alright, but you're watching this movie to watch him.

Plus, you even have that grating music that shows when a person is going mad, just like in The Shining. Not much horror for the most part, but it's a slow burning process. He's great in it, there are some real downer scenes, and the sets and locations are fantastic. Recommended to any Stephen King fan.

Nowhere: The History Of The Doom Generation



Out of all the many Exploitation sub genres, there's one that doesn't get brought up nearly enough. Generation-X-Ploitation. Yeah. I just made that up. But go ahead and watch Gregg Araki's 1995 sex-fueled cult comedy, The Doom Generation, and tell me such a thing doesn't exist. The Doom Generation was Araki's second part in a trilogy of dark, offbeat, homo erotic comedies based in L.A. which starred James Duval. The Doom Generation being much more dark than homo erotic. A rather chaotic movie with some very random occurences. A movie supposedly meant to shock and offend. And I don't doubt that it works on a certain level for some. Not so much myself. But it is entertaining, and even hilarious, at times.

Amy Blue and Jordan White (played by Rose McGowan and James Duval) are an 18 year old couple who are as different as night and day. Amy is a hot-tempered meth head. An ornery little bitch who wouldn't think twice about kicking someone's ass. Jordan is a typical movie stoner. Kind of peaceful. Actually a pretty chillin' guy. But an idiot just the same. Despite being so different, the two teens are totally in love. And one night in Amy's car out in a parking lot, the two are finally about to get it on for the first time until a young drifter named Xavier Red gets thrown on Amy's car and is quickly beaten and stabbed by a pissed off bunch of people for a reason that is never explained. Xavier jumps in the car and quickly recommends Amy get them out of there, which immediately starts an arguement between the two, and lasts up until the point when Amy kicks him out a peace down the road. Soon after that, Amy and Jordan head to a convenience store for some food, only to be held at gun point by a psychotic clerk after they forgot their money. Seconds away from being blown to hell, Xavier jumps out of nowhere and saves the day, accidentally blowing the clerk's head clean off. A head which insists on talking shit to them even after being blown off. The three hightail it.

Not taking a second to realize how possible it would have been to explain things to the authorities, Amy and Jordan immediately become fugitives, along with their new friend, whom Amy still despises. Although, once he whips his dick out in a motel one night after Jordan falls asleep, Amy starts to warm up to him a little, and they soon become lovers, which Xavier isn't shy about discussing in front of Jordan, who honestly seems to not give a shit. Or is just that nice of a guy. Everywhere the three go, chaos follows. Xavier either kills someone (in self defense), or one of Amy's psychotic ex-lovers spots her and tries to make trouble for them. Amy always insists these people are crazy, but it's never confirmed whether she was lying or not. Despite being a bit of a psycho, Xavier seems to be a pretty swell guy, at times. Despite that, he is very much poison to these two aimless teens. Despite what his true motives may or may not be, Xavier is very much the Serpent to their Adam and Eve. And the longer they keep running aimlessly with this snake, the closer they come to their own destruction. But you just know they're all going to find a way to fit in a threesome before anything major goes down, which is what the whole movie seems to be leading towards.

The three, young up and coming actors is what makes this stupid movie not so stupid, and very much watchable, I remember thinking, when watching this for the first time, what a cool character James Duval's Jordan was. Not unlike Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times At Ridgemont High, and that other long-haired guy from Dazed And Confused. Being older, now, this guy just seems more like a dumbass little pussy, which is actually more entertaining, now that I think about it. Rose McGowan's character, Amy Blue, is that of a hateful little bitch. A person I'd probably not want to be associated with in real life. But even now, this is by far my favorite of all her roles. She does have something special about her, and watching Rose in this, it's clear she has a bright future post-Doom Generation. And Johnathon Schaech (Xavier) would of course move on to much bigger things as well. Namely, a marriage to Christina Applegate. Enough said, there.

This isn't a bad movie by any means. It's funny and interesting, as well as sad, at times. While it's not quite as clever as it thinks it is it does get its point across, whatever the hell that may be. But I'll just say it. The Doom Generation is kind of silly. The attempted apocalyptic tone is completely out of place and not done very well. That and the 666 bullshit just seems like a lame attempt to be edgy. Qualities which are completely disconnected from the story and are never elaborated on. However, being a teenager in the 90's, I'll admit it all seemed pretty cool at the time. And after rewatching this movie recently, it did occur to me that it all works simply because it takes our minds off how bad the writing really is. I'm not bashing it, as this is one of my favorite non-Horror cult classics, and hasn't a dull moment to offer, with plenty of quotable lines as well as hot fuck scenes. Despite itself, The Doom Generation is a good time which leaves us wanting more. 6/10



#Review

Cult of Chucky, and mental institutions

As I'm watching the 7th entry in the Child's Play series, I started thinking of how horror sequels often implement mental institutions as a plot device. No, really!


- Halloween 8 (and the original film) has an asylum, '07 remake and '09 sequel have asylums
- Elm Street 3 and Freddy vs Jason have institutions
- Phantasm 2 and 5 have institutions
- Wrong Turn 4 is set at an abandoned asylum
- Friday the 13th 5 is set at a halfway house for weirdos
- Basket Case 2 is a loony bin
- Angela escapes from an institution for Return to Sleepaway Camp
- T2 is (not horror) and has an institution
- Ash vs Evil Dead season 2 has an aslyum subplot
- Hellraiser 2 is set at an institution
- Slumber Party Massacre 2 shows the first film's protagonist in an institution
- Texas Chainsaw sequels suggest Sally went to an institution, and the new film has an institution
- The Exorcist 3 has a loony bin with the gemini killer
- Silent Night Deadly Night probably has loony bin stuff going on
- Cult of Chucky is obviously set at an institution


Damn... they all go crazy after a while, don't they?

---

Also, Cult of Chucky was good. It's a lot of fan-service, but a fun insane-asylum slaughter. The plot is fun, the twists are engaging, but the ending is very abrupt and doesn't tie up any plot points, really.

Nightmares (1980)

Watched Nightmares (1980) the other night. A sleazy slasher (naked death!)/acid humour combo that must be among the wildest of vintage Ozploitation. Jenny Neumann (Hell Night) plays Helen, an aspiring actress who as a young girl called cathy caused the grisly car accident death of her adulterous mother. She gets a part, a role in a local theatre production of a curious play of dubious merit, a comedy about death. Also begins a romance with a fresh faced and friendly young co-star plucked from a soap. But then the nightmares come. Nightmares!!! Is this the right place for Helen? The cast sure is dropping. Nightmares!!!

There's some really enjoyable stuff here. The film is substantially a satire of the ineptitude, pretension and highly strung and self absorbed people of local theatre. They aren't good with their lines, the director recognises that the play is literally nonsense but insists that the words themselves are what's important, the cadences and juxtapositions, and still acts a big rude big-shot. Everybody's too busy bitching to realise the killer in their midst, and even when the killing becomes clear the show must go on, because apparently co-workers are just expendable. Lots of the dialogue is a hoot, I'm sure more intentionally so than just the obvious parts, and the pace is fast, with Brian May's (different one) relentless score bringing high drama even to quieter moments.

The performances are lively, and I particularly enjoyed Max Phipps as director D'alberg and John Michael Howson as sleazy critic Bennet Collingwood. Jenny Neumann is capably freaked out in the lead too. The killings are memorable and good in number. Steadicam, flashing broken glass, bloody slashes through naked flesh (this is one of those few slashers that's all about the slashing), blow after blow after blow. I was put in mind of the style of some of more outre gialli, though Nightmares generally owes more to the American psychotronic proto-slasher than anything European.

It could all have worked out as a classic, but unfortunately can't quite make it. The plot is crap, about the thinnest possible line to string events on. Everything feels artificial, and there's a lack of balance, of light and shade in characters and events and pace to build up real suspense or connection. And the killing is repetitive, the excitement draining after a few. Not enough imagination. So the film is initially thrilling, but by the end just ok. Would not recommend to most serious horror fans. But, you know, lots of nudity and blood and laughs and crude style. Sleaze horror enthusiasts should have a good time.

Harvey Weinstein raped me too

but I made a lot of money off it, so I don't care. I kept telling him "Yo, I'm not even human. I'm a goddamn weasel, made completely out of death," but he didn't care.

Now that I'm a millionaire with no integrity, I'm gonna donate all my money to the Stop Hurricane Harvey Weinstein foundation, where I can pretend I'm a victim, too!

Anyone ever heard of Broken Saints (2003) ?

Centered on philosophical, religious, political and spiritual themes, it tells the story of four strangers from "the quiet corners of the globe" connected by a vision they all receive of a coming evil. Their search for the truth behind the vision leads them to each other and to far larger and more disturbing truths than they could have expected.

I blind bought Broken Saints [DVD], an animated Drama|Mystery|Sci-Fi recently on Amazon and I had never so much as even heard of it before, but it looked like a good bargain, with four DVDs and a running time of 12 hours! All for like 2 pounds/Dollars 😲

Anyone ever heard of it? Cause I haven't got a clue about it 😄

2017 October Challenge Discussion Thread



Any questions about the challenge goes right here. Anything at all to say about it goes right here.