Horror RECOMMENDATION or WARNING Thread: It's Alive!

I enjoyed The Wolf of Snow Hollow, which is a bit surprising given the ending, as I tend to hate fakeouts like that. But I totally get people not liking it.

Werewolves Within is entertaining enough, but I'm not nearly as enamored with it as everyone else. It DOES have an actual werewolf in it though. So there's that.

The Cursed is way more my speed. It's basically a Hammer flick with some body horror thrown in for added flavor. It's not perfect, but it hits a LOT of my sweet spots.

HP Pufncraft wrote:

The first movie on The Last Drive-In tonight is Black Sunday. Classic Bava.

Second movie is....Def by Temptation? That's a witch movie? Okay Joe Bob.

He's always fudging stuff, which is why my guesses had been Black Sunday and Night of the Demons. Sure, there's not an actual witch in the latter, but Angela is accused of being one by her classmates...which is just as close to actual witchery as a succubus is. Still, I had a lot of fun with that double-feature. Can't wait to see what next Friday holds!

I'll get around to both at some point - Werewolves Within probably sooner, since it's on a service I'm already paying for. But this thread has helped me tamper expectations.

Will retain some more hope for The Cursed.

It's pretty amazing that the two best werewolf movies of the last 50 years are both over 40 years old.

THE EXORCISM OF GOD (2022)

Trash -- and not the good kind -- that has very little to offer beyond some shock value. The exorcism/possession tropes we’ve come to expect since THE EXORCIST are present and accounted for (quite shamelessly), and it’s peppered with some truly weird strains of perversity that serve nothing other than the aforementioned shock value.

I can’t imagine I will see many worse horror movies this year, so consider this a WARNING!

I really enjoyed Def by Temptation (1990) on The Last Drive-In last week. The story follows a succubus who's murdering black men in New York and trying to seduce the son of a minister (a cameo by Samuel L. Jackson). Some of the kills are legitimately disturbing, like one scene where the lead's best friend is eaten by his tv while a Ronald Reagan dummy laughs maniacally (The Fuck?). It's clearly ripping off Videodrome but I actually found this version of that iconic scene to be creepier. 

This week's clues:



Host from 2020 seems like a given since it's a Shudder exclusive. As for the other one, I'm gonna guess Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum. While almost all of the dialogue is in Korean, one character speaks English. Joe Bob's clues have been super deceptive lately (Train to Busan is cosmic horror?) so I could totally seem him doing this.

The new Firestarter is a misfire (har har).

Some of the updates to the source material are really interesting, particularly in regards to the character of Rainbird, but the film never gives anything a chance to breathe. The actors are all doing their best, but it's so stripped down and fast-paced that it's effectively only a 2-act story. The script could have used another pass or two, but even beyond that, it feels like a solid 15 minutes of character scenes were left on the cutting room floor.

At the end of the day, the FX work is good (almost all of the fire FX are practical and some of the burn makeup is pretty gnarly) and John Carpenter's score for it is great, but it misses the mark. The 1984 adaptation is ultimately better, even though it too has many flaws. Thus far, we have yet to receive a definitive adaptation of King's novel.

I won't dissuade the curious from seeking it out, but I will at least go so far as to say that you should probably just watch it at home on Peacock (where it already is) or wait for it to hit another service, instead of trucking out to a theater to see it (unless you have Regal Unlimited or AMC Stubs).

I'm checking out FIRESTARTER tomorrow.

I kept waiting for commercial breaks because the whole thing felt like a TV production.

I was able to start The Last Drive-In early tonight on the Roku.

Movies are The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane and Housebound.

Schedule changed and I ended up seeing FIRESTARTER tonight!

Definitely has a heavy “made for television” vibe to it. Whatever one might want to say about the 1984 adaptation (I happen to be a fan), at the very least it feels like a movie. This iteration has little texture or sense of scope, and it’s rather curiously paced, spending a long time setting the stage and then rushing to the finale. It also departs from the novel in ways that are highly questionable (the handling of Rainbird is particularly controversial), though mileage may vary depending on your personal fondness for/familiarity with the book.

The performances are all -- at worst -- fine, there are some good fire effects moments alongside some grisly injuries and deaths, and it’s fun to hear a new score from John Carpenter (and company) in a “gun for hire” capacity, but the overall package is fairly lifeless.

Firestarter? More like FIRESHARTER!

Which, admittedly, would be a much more interesting film.

Last night I watched The Sadness, a new "zombie" film from Taiwan that just premiered on Shudder. The film begins with a scientist warning about a viral pandemic, only for people to say it's fake news. That changes when those who are infected turn into black eyed, grinning, sexually depraved monsters. This felt like 28 Weeks Later mixed with Cronenberg's Shivers with the depravity of A Serbian Film thrown in. I'd say it lives up to all the hype I've read online as it's gory and disturbing as hell. One of the infected is a creeper who harasses the film's heroine on a subway before shit hits the fan and stalks her for the rest of the movie (hence the 28 Weeks Later comparison). He's fucking terrifying and every time he shows up in the movie he does something even worse than before. While it's the most effective horror film I've seen this year, I don't plan on revisiting it anytime soon as the depictions of rape and infanticide are too hard to watch.

This week's Last Drive-In hints...

"This week's clues for one of our strangest #TheLastDriveIn episodes: Our first movie is an anniversary tribute celebration and our second movie is our tribute to someone else's tribute. As usual,
@kinky_horror  accepts entries and breaks ties and awards prizes."

I'd almost bet money that the second film is Popcorn, which just recently hit Shudder. The first one is trickier, especially since he's been running a lot of older films this season. I went ahead and guessed White Zombie, which turns 90 this year, but it really could be anything.

I'm thinking the anniversary one is Nosferatu, since Darcy teased it on Twitter not too long ago.

No idea about the other one, but I've been holding off on re-watching Popcorn in case Joe Bob shows it this season.

Nosferatu does seem highly likely as well.

HP Pufncraft wrote:

Last night I watched The Sadness, a new "zombie" film from Taiwan that just premiered on Shudder. The film begins with a scientist warning about a viral pandemic, only for people to say it's fake news. That changes when those who are infected turn into black eyed, grinning, sexually depraved monsters. This felt like 28 Weeks Later mixed with Cronenberg's Shivers with the depravity of A Serbian Film thrown in. I'd say it lives up to all the hype I've read online as it's gory and disturbing as hell. One of the infected is a creeper who harasses the film's heroine on a subway before shit hits the fan and stalks her for the rest of the movie (hence the 28 Weeks Later comparison). He's fucking terrifying and every time he shows up in the movie he does something even worse than before. While it's the most effective horror film I've seen this year, I don't plan on revisiting it anytime soon as the depictions of rape and infanticide are too hard to watch.

Just watched this one myself and yeah, its pretty gnarly. Its well made - the movie looks great and the gore really is top notch - but it goes SO far over the top in parts that it starts to feel juvenile, like a 14 year old's vision of the most EXTREME thing they could think of, and by the end I was just numb to everything. I didn't dislike the protagonists, but there's not much of an emotional core to hold onto.

I do quite like the political commentary bleeding in from the peripheries; I wish there was more of it. And the subway incel businessman makes for a pretty great villain - terrific performance - but once again, the movie just takes him so far over the top. For those first few minutes on the train, I was actually kinda hoping he'd be immune to the virus, just using the pandemic as an excuse to indulge his worst impulses, but alas! Still, its an interesting, albeit extremely unpleasant movie.

I watched THE SADNESS solo, but earlier in the night, my wife and I watched HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP, another very mean, deeply unpleasant film. So I ended up doing one of the most dour double features imaginable.

HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP is delightful!

I own HUMANOIDS on blu ray, so obviously I love me some Rob Bottin monstrosities, but that movie is MEAN. So many dog deaths!

Nooooooo

Watching The Last Drive-in early on the Roku. First movie up is Nosferatu with the original Hans Erdmann score.

EDIT: Second movie is Herzog's remake.

Good double feature to see what Herzog does with the material.

Yeah I've wanted to see Herzog's version for a long time so it should be a fun night.

This might be my favorite season of The Last Drive-in yet since Joe Bob's been showing so many classics lately.

Watched a new documentary on Shudder called THE FOUND FOOTAGE PHENOMENON.

As one could expect from the title, it’s an examination of the technique, tracing its varied influences and origins (radio, the cinema verite movement, war coverage, extreme documentaries, etc.), to its fairly fully-formed emergence in CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, to the mainstream smash of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, and then up through the explosion of content that has occurred over the last fifteen-ish years.  It does do a fairly good job of articulating the appeal of the approach, especially in the horror genre, which is to supply an immediacy and allow the audience to buy-in to the illusion of reality.  

The runtime does go on a bit longer than it perhaps needs to, but it’s solid stuff.

THE INNOCENTS (2021)

Pervasively unsettling. Descended from a long line of “frightening children” films, this presents kids with a capacity for casual cruelty and makes that a central point of discomfort for the audience. Like some of the great Stephen King stories that focus on young people with unusual and remarkable abilities, this film has empathy for the experiences of these characters, yet it also understands the danger posed by power in the hands of the irresponsible, and presents that in such a way that is truly horrific.

The pace does significantly drag at times, which is the movie’s biggest issue; we eventually arrive at points where we’re seeing variations of the same scene multiple times as we wait for the truly consequential events to occur (which, eventually, they do). Trimming fifteen minutes from this would really elevate it.

I'll have to check out both Innocents '21 and that found footage doc.

Nosferatu night on The Last Drive-In was great. As HP said above, it's been wonderful seeing the show focus more on pre-70s horror this season. Not that past seasons weren't great as is, but I just love having a wider variety of titles being shown. Darcy & Joe Bob had previously spoken on Darcy's podcast about Shudder being iffy in regards to older (and/or weirder) titles being shown, but I'm guessing last season's SOV and Corman nights being a big success for them finally broke the dam.

It also helps that Joe Bob has been super engaged during both the Walpurgis Night double and the Nosferatu double this season. Not that he's never not on point, but he was particularly on fire during both of those and that level of enthusiasm is always infectious. This is perhaps the first season where I haven't seen a chunk of fans bitching about either subtitled films being shown or just whining in general that non-'80s movies are being run. I chalk that up as a big win, because either that subset of fandom has finally decided to shut-up or JB & Darcy have managed to make an actual impact on them with the curation. Either way, things are going great.

Moving on...

I caught Alex Garland's Men yesterday. A nice slice of Biblical-infused folk horror. It's not nearly as obtuse as some have said. While it is indeed allegorical as hell, it's themes are pretty straightforward. The film is absolutely gorgeous, the two lead performances (Jessie Buckley, Rory Kinnear) are great, and there's some pretty wacky body horror on display. Lots to love here. I will say that it perhaps needed on more draft to fully drive it home, as the script feels a bit undercooked. You can see all of the dots that Garland is connecting, but they don't quite fully come together in the way he undoubtedly intended. It'd make a great double-feature with Darren Aronofsky's mother!. I don't think it is as good as Ex Machina or Annihilation, but it's still a striking piece of work and I enjoyed it.