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  #2071  
Old 11th October 2018, 10:54 PM
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I had a truly amazing experience yesterday. I watched Halloween 1978 on the big screen and it was amongst the best cinematic experiences I've ever had, if not the best.

I know a lot of films get hailed as masterpieces but in this case, I don't think its even up for discussion. Even people that aren't horror fans or don't like the movie seem to admit, at least in my experience, that the film is made exceptionally well, even if its not their thing. I think the best way to describe it, besides it being the "ultimate experience in terror" or something, is that its a one off, in the sense that its highly praised universally. Even Gene Siskel, who normally hates all films like this, gave it high praise and explained he had to call a taxi home that night because he was to scared to walk!

IGNORE the sequels that came out between 1981-2001 (much as I like them)for a second. Because they ruin a crucial aspect of how the original works. Why does Michael Myers kill people? Good question: I'm glad I don't have an answer. Jason kills because councillors helped cause his death, because he was bullied and because his mom got murdered. Freddy kills because he got burned alive by the parents. Why does Michael kill? Well we never know. He somehow just snaps and kills his sister for no reason. And that is terrifying, far more than if he had motivation. Why does he kills the others in that film and attempt to kill Jamie Lee Curtis? Who knows, he just does.

But, and its so well known by now so it’s not a spoiler, the sequels make her and Michael brother and sister, giving him a reason to be going after her. Why? Why dilute your killers scare potential like that? I don't need to see this guy have any reason to kill her: it was scary when he did it for no reason besides doing it. I love Halloween II, its one of the best horror sequels, but that was unnecessary. He even hears where she's held on the radio and that's why he goes after her in the hospital: that's all they needed to do to get him after her, not add in some weird wannabe Empire Strikes Back twist. Now this new one re-cons the whole thing and undoes their blood connections, so its, by all accounts, the original Michael going after them again. I hope it does well.

Donald Pleasance is a genius: he doesn't carry the movie alone because he is thankfully surrounded by talent (unlike in Part V where it just barely passes as watchable, really only due to him, despite the fact that he's alongside possibly the most annoying horror character ever there. You shouldn't even have to ask who i'm talking about if you've seen it) but having him in there just makes it so much better. These movies always seem to have a veteran actor amongst them. Here it’s Donald Pleasance. In Friday the 13th its Betsy Palmer. In A Nightmare on Elm Street it’s John Saxon. In Terror Train its Ben Johnson. In Just Before Dawn it’s George Kennedy. In Texas Chainsaw II its Dennis Hopper. None of them disappoint and Donald excels.

The final chase is amongst the best ever.
SPOILER:
From Laurie walking over to the house (slowly, with the ominous music playing), her walking into the room with her dead friends, Michael emerging from the shadows behind her, Michael rushing across the street as she pounds on the door to get in… She thinks she kills him then he gets back up again and corners her in the cupboard: she stabs him but he gets up and strangles her, only for Loomis to shoot him out the window… Where he disappears. This could have been basic stuff, an average slasher chase. But it’s thanks to the acting, the directing, the score, Michael Myers as a great (still scary before Busta Rhymes beats him up) slasher that helps sell it.


Can’t recommend it enough but also you have to see this in a cinema. I’d already seen it 20ish times but that was the best viewing yet. 10/10
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  #2072  
Old 11th October 2018, 11:04 PM
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I just re-watched Terror Train 1980. For the sake of convenience I'm just gonna paste the old review from last year, posted on Gallifrey Base. But I'm gonna add a few things afterwards.

"2017- Terror Train 1980

“A masked killer targets six college kids responsible for a prank gone wrong three years earlier and who are currently throwing a large New Year's Eve costume party aboard a moving train.”

Outstanding, this is the best film on my list so far (yes I consider it better than Psycho)

What is there to hate here? Its 80’s slasher cinema at its near best, the only slasher films I can think of from this decade which either match or surpass it are A Nightmare on Elm Street, My Bloody Valentine and perhaps two or three of the Friday the 13ths (arguably The Fog but its debatable whether or not thats a slasher film).

Jamie Lee Curtis is in this at the very height of her horror career. One of few redeeming qualities in Prom Night she doesn’t disappoint here either. She is really strong in this movie and genuinely likeable along with most of the other characters, or good enough as their characters so you hate them like with Doc. Ben Johnson is in this also as the train conductor and he does a good job here as an authority like figure trying to keep everything under control. David Copperfield, the real life illusionist, is also here. He’s playing a character just called “the magician” so basically he’s playing himself. The magic scenes he performs in are pretty cool to watch.

The cinematography is fantastic here, which is expected, given that John Alcott previously worked on A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon and the Shining. It really looks fantastic and is shot very well, helping add a lot of claustrophobia, as you would expect in a train setting.

It isn’t gory, not really. But like Halloween I don’t think it’s a film which really needs any gore. The suspense and everything else more than makes up for it, including yet another good film score.

And the killers reveal at the end
SPOILER:
Kenny Hampson is the killer (the guy at the beginning) which may or may not be obvious (sadly when I saw it years back I knew this in advance however when I showed it to some of my friends they were surprised). But it is done in such a way which is effective. Most killers tend to just don one mask and go from there, but Kenny kills people and takes their costumes as the film goes on. Therefore you never know where the killer is, especially if you are watching it for the first time. I mean yes it is pretty implausible for him to get everywhere he is in the film, constantly changing disguises, including dressing up as the magician’s assistant, but thats just a minor nitpick, especially when you consider that many slasher films always seem to have teleporting killers. It works well and creates suspense. The final chase is one of the best i’ve ever seen, a clear highlight. Jamie Lee Curtis is trapped in the cage and Kenny knocks out all the lights while he lurks around outside trying to stab her through the bars. The final couple of minutes with the revelation of Kenny being the killer is good, Ben Johnson to the rescue as he knocks him out the train into a river.


It’s a classic. I’d definitely recommend this.

9 out 10"

Today- My opinion of the film has gone up even more. I gave it a 9 last time but I'm upgrading to a 10. Much of what I said before still stands: obviously the killer switches disguises to get around the train so I decided this time to really focus on just how often the killer does it. The end result is hilarious because there is quite simply no way the killer can really teleport all around the place and have the exact correct disguise ready for any given time. But its not like this is new: Jason does it in Friday the 13th all the time. Its a minor criticism, definitely scrapping the bottom of the barrel. Ignoring it, I love the idea that the killer is literally in plain sight, hidden amongst a sea of masks. Michael Myers gets away with that as well: both can easily move around undetected (although Michael doesn't teleport).

So yeah give it a watch. 10/10
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  #2073  
Old 11th October 2018, 11:28 PM
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I just thought I'd share this: somebody created a parody Twitter account for Sheriff Bracket from the first two Halloweens. Whoever does it has a lot of time on their hands because they post regularly on several dozen accounts. Characters from The Thing, Halloween, Jaws, but this one is really funny.

https://twitter.com/BrackAttack78?lang=en-gb
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  #2074  
Old 12th October 2018, 10:48 AM
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Not a movie but going start the haunting of hill house on netf!ix, was going to.give it a miss as thought it would be poor ,but most of the reviews are very positive for it.



Negatives I've heard is its slow building with character driven which seems like a plus to me.
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  #2075  
Old 12th October 2018, 12:51 PM
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octoberm201804.jpg
[#04] Alucarda
Despite being a Mexican production, Juan Lopez Moctezuma’s Alucarda has a euro-horror feel. There’s an almost constant whistling wind that pervades the film, central characters Alucarda and Justine encounter a faun in the woods at one point, a nod to the darker side of European folklore. The film feels constructed to unnerve the viewer, the convent is subterranean, cavernous, the religious iconography more menacing than holy. Tina Romero’s presence as the titular Alucarda completely envelops the film, giving a possessed performance, manically spiralling, physically contorting and convulsing. Justine’s character arc, from innocence to rising from a blood-filled coffin, clawing like a beast in one of the most breathtaking sequences, further demoralizing the typical notions of spiritual protectiveness present in similarly themed films. Hysteria penetrates both the convent and the viewer. Alucarda’s vengeful retribution in the final act is a spectacular, captivating sight, the nuns spontaneously combusting to her incantations. There is no hope or luminance, only hellfire.



octoberm201805.jpg
[#05] Vampyr
There’s a spiritual foundation to much of Carl Th. Dreyer’s work, and in Vampyr this spirituality is adjoined to the mythology of the vampire, providing an almost zombie-like origin, the dead rising from their graves, unrepentant at Heaven’s gates for their sins in life. It’s a slightly more convoluted telling than the conventional legend, but the spiritual focus lends a convincing gravitas. The horrors of Vampyr are suggestive, deeds glimpsed in shadow, an ethereal terror that the viewer’s subconscious knits together from arresting sequences in the monochrome nightmare. In one exquisite section the protagonist encounters a shadow, with seemingly no physical attachment, and follows its playfully sinister jaunt returning to reattach itself to an unaware caster. Vampyr is a master class in genre cinema at a time when it was still relatively in its infancy.



octoberm201806.jpg
[#06] The Changeling
Peter Medak’s The Changeling firmly plants itself in typical ghost story territory with the set up, a protagonist haunted by a familial tragedy relocating to an imposing mansion that hasn’t been inhabited for decades. The mansion holding a complexly woven history with a sinister secret that a spectral force is attempting to relay. Acting veteran George C. Scott convincingly goes through all the motions as protagonist John Russell, and Melvyn Douglas excels with an understated performance giving a depth to his character that leaves the viewer conflicted on if he is complicit in the deception, or unaware. The central mystery plays out almost like an inheritance giallo. There’s a slow deliberate pace, but the tension ratchets up in just the right places. The monstrous sight of a child’s wheelchair, symbolic of multiple tragedies, is used with chilling effect, and the final act features a breathtakingly vengeful retribution.



octoberm201807.jpg
[#07] The Murder Clinic
Elio Scardamaglia’s The Murder Clinic is a hybrid of period gothic horror and the giallo, reminiscent in tone to Mario Bava’s work, less so in execution. Scardamaglia seemingly more prolific on the production side, The Murder Clinic appears to be his only directorial output, but it is notable for a script by Ernesto Gastaldi and Luciano Martino, who had both co-wrote Bava’s The Whip And The Body, and would go on to write Sergio Martino’s Your Vice Is In A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key. Gastaldi is responsible for so many seminal entries in Italian genre cinema, and the script for The Murder Clinic is its most interesting aspect. The story is conventional, a hooded killer murdering patients in a mental hospital, a monstrous secret hiding on the third floor, the sounds filtering down and driving the already insane, further over the edge. A blackmail plot by a wicked passer-by, with some devilishly waspish dialogue, brings things to a satisfying, but perfunctory head.

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  #2076  
Old 12th October 2018, 12:54 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by trebor8273 View Post
Not a movie but going start the haunting of hill house on netf!ix, was going to.give it a miss as thought it would be poor ,but most of the reviews are very positive for it.

Negatives I've heard is its slow building with character driven which seems like a plus to me.
It's from Mike Flanagan, I'd be very surprised if it isn't good.
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  #2077  
Old 12th October 2018, 01:18 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BAKA View Post
Attachment 209940
[#04] Alucarda
Despite being a Mexican production, Juan Lopez Moctezuma’s Alucarda has a euro-horror feel. There’s an almost constant whistling wind that pervades the film, central characters Alucarda and Justine encounter a faun in the woods at one point, a nod to the darker side of European folklore. The film feels constructed to unnerve the viewer, the convent is subterranean, cavernous, the religious iconography more menacing than holy. Tina Romero’s presence as the titular Alucarda completely envelops the film, giving a possessed performance, manically spiralling, physically contorting and convulsing. Justine’s character arc, from innocence to rising from a blood-filled coffin, clawing like a beast in one of the most breathtaking sequences, further demoralizing the typical notions of spiritual protectiveness present in similarly themed films. Hysteria penetrates both the convent and the viewer. Alucarda’s vengeful retribution in the final act is a spectacular, captivating sight, the nuns spontaneously combusting to her incantations. There is no hope or luminance, only hellfire.


I've always been curious about this one, was it Mondo Macabro that put it out?
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  #2078  
Old 12th October 2018, 01:22 PM
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Evilspeak.

Stanley Coopersmith(Clint Howard) is a mild mannered nerdy chap who is the ultimate fish out of water at the army academy. and is ruthlessly bullied by a group of particulary nasty students and even some of the teachers. But when he gets sent to clean out the old church basement after yet another punishment, he discovers a old secret room with ancient Satanic books, and he finds that he can bring back a 16th century Satanist priest called Esteban. With the help of a computer he brings him back from the dead and gets the ultimate revenge on all the school bullies.

This is actually one fun movie. okay, it is a bit silly and over the top at times, especially with a load of killer pigs on the rampage in one scene eating the hot school secretery. but seeing the downtrodden Coopersmith getting his revenge was really satisfying even if it takes its time to get there. and the effects are pretty gory when them come with head choppings, a chap getting nailed in the head from a possessed Christ figure, and even a zombie ripping out a chaps heart.

veteren actor RG Armstrong also co stars as well as a incredibly creepy school care taker who is always drunk and has a few Jimmy Saville tendencies, and eventually also falls foul of Coopersmith's wrath.

Not a bad effort at all, and i give this Carrie type film, which ridiculously used to be classed as a video nasty 78 out of 100.
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  #2079  
Old 12th October 2018, 01:28 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Justin101 View Post
I've always been curious about this one, was it Mondo Macabro that put it out?
Yeah! I picked up the DVD in one of their Halloween sales. There were rumblings of a BD, but then talk that there were issues with the materials. Hopefully it gets upgraded someday.
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  #2080  
Old 12th October 2018, 02:00 PM
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I too can vouch for Alucarda.

I think i have around 12 Mondo Macabro films and not one of them is poor.
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