October 31st, 2015 - Last Shift (2014)

There's definitely some shared DNA between Last Shift and Let Us Prey (which was one of the more enjoyable flicks I watched in the last couple of months). Other than the plot similarities - female rookie cop encounters crazy shit on her first night on the job - they were also purchased by me shortly before they showed up for "free" on Netflix. With Last Shift, it was like the next day or two. Oh well. Both are definitely worth your time. I think I liked Let Us Prey a little more though.

But that's not to say that Last Shift isn't enjoyable. It's just a little less ambitious and a little more contained. Basically, we're with Officer Jessica Loren (Juliana Harkavy) on her first night on the job. Her assignment? Working the Last Shift at the old police station. There's a brand new station just a few blocks away, and all calls/emergencies have already been routed there. She's the only one in the building and is just there to make sure nothing crazy happens (oops! it does!) and to wait for the cleanup crew to show up and clear out the few remaining items.

October 30th, 2015 - Lucifer's Angels (2015)

Lucifer's Angels is an effective microbudgeted ($3,000 if you believe imdb) indie that plays to its strengths and hides its weaknesses well. It manages to deliver some decent tension, has a good creepy vibe, and has enough going on story-wise that it moves by pretty quickly - you never have the chance to get too bored over the 60-some minute runtime.

There are quite a few moving parts to the film, but it's far from confusing. It starts out many years ago in a mental institution, where four doctors are arguing over their most violent patients. Several staff members have been killed, and the doctors are trying to find a way to deal with these maniacs. Flash forward to the present day. Four friends head out to the mountains for a camping trip - they manage to get some good partying in, but at one point a local boy stops by and tells them a campfire ghost story about the the large number of people that have disappeared in these very woods, how they may be haunted, and so on. The boy's Pop shows up and tells him to "Git!" but the seed has been planted. But it's cool - Pops likes to drink too, so the party continues.

October 29th, 2015 - The Mummy Theme Park (2000)

Watching a movie a day is kind of a stupid thing to do. It's occasionally a slog, and being a year into this thing I can't help but think that my time may be better spent on other pursuits. But at the same time, I kind of love it. And films like The Mummy Theme Park are a big reason why.

Don't get me wrong - Mummy is a bad, bad movie. But it's my kind of bad. Bad dubbing, cheesy (yet charming) & very over-used special effects, and a plot that makes you shake your head and laugh. I'm not a huge supporter of the term "so-bad-it's-good" - that's kind of an oversimplification. But it's a good catchall for a film that manages to be extremely enjoyable despite the fact that it doesn't succeed in what it sets out to do. Or, in the case of The Mummy Theme Park - maybe it does. It's a fun, fun movie. But maybe not in the way it's supposed to be.

October 28th, 2015 - Alien Valley (2012)

I was pleasantly surprised by Alien Valley. I'm not sure if it was because of low expectations after being disappointed by Area 51, or if it was how the filmmakers craftily used the blueprints of my "beloved" found footage ghost hunting genre and super-imposed it on an alien flick. Or, just maybe, they did an okay job generating scares and had a unique story to tell. What a novel idea! Whatever the reason, I had a pretty good time with it.

Anyways, it's about a Ghost Adventures-esque show called "Paranormal Mysteries." They go around investigating just about anything "paranormal." But there's not a lot genuine concern amongst them about solving any actual mysteries - it's more about getting ratings than actually discovering anything. (Say what you will about for real ghost hunting shows - the folks on them are nerdy enough that it seems like at least a part of them goes into it with good intentions.) Their producer is actually a pretty big asshole about it, and is clearly most concerned about getting good shots of his attractive cast reacting to rigged scares.

October 27th, 2015 - Tales from the Dark 1 (2013)

Tales from the Dark 1 is a kind of interesting anthology from Hong Kong. There isn't that much of a connecting thread running between the three stories - other than the fact that some people in them can see ghosts, and all three tales are mildly confusing. Each individual story works well enough on its own in a kind of Masters of Horror/long-short film way. And they are all on the longish side (about 40 minutes a pop), so as a whole the film tends to drag a bit. The stories never really go for jolting scares or crazy twists, so that was kind of refreshing. But there just wasn't much of anything that made me think these stories needed to be told together, you know?

October 26th, 2015 - Nothing But the Night (1973)

I guess nothing with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee should ever really be considered a "pleasant surprise," but I think Nothing but the Night would count as one for me. I hadn't heard much about it, and had passed on it more than once because of the PG rating, and the synopsis didn't sound all that interesting. (Although reading it now, it TOTALLY spoils the whole effing thing!) But Nothing is a pretty interesting and well done mystery/thriller. I'd say it eventually ends up in the horror category, but it takes it's sweet time getting there. But it's got a good enough story and has solid enough performances that it manages to be a good time. And I'd imagine there was a little extra effort from Lee and his friend Cushing - this was the first (and unfortunately only) film from Lee's Charlemagne production company.

October 25th, 2015 - Point of Terror (1971)

Despite its place on the Pure Terror Budget Set - as well as being called Point of Terror, there is hardly anything terrifying about this film. Well, maybe star Peter Carpenter's outfits and stageshow... more on that later. But it's hardly a horror film. There is one out of nowhere scene of hacking and slashing, but it honestly felt like something that was just added after the fact when they realized there is no way to effectively market this film. (The poster on imdb says "A Super Shocker" and has a masked man brandishing a knife -  that's just flat out intentionally misleading.) Point of Terror isn't overtly bad... it's just a sort of odd tale about a singer guy who will do anything for stardom. But will love get in the way?

October 24th, 2015 - What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

Another day, another comedy. I think Entrails of a Virgin bummed me out on more than one level, and I overcompensated by watching three comedies in a row. Don't get me wrong - What We Do in the Shadows was on my To Watch List for a long time... and it's really funny.  But like I said yesterday, writing about comedies kind of sucks. So this will probably be a short one.

It's not a great comparison, but What We Do in the Shadows kind of reminds me of The Office, with it's documentary-style camera work and interviews, and it's reliance on awkward pauses and kind of nerdy characters. Only instead of an office setting, you have a bunch of vampire roommates renting out a house. And it's hard to deny that the set-up works. While the style may not be particularly innovative (it's got a little bit of reality show feel to it too), the jokes come in a steady flow and have a near perfect hit/miss ratio. And all of the characters are interesting, have diverse personalities, and are fun to spend time with. It's the sort of comedy where I never really belly-laughed or anything - it's just consistently clever, which worked for me.

October 23rd, 2015 - The Editor (2014)

It's hard to write about comedy movies. Humor is so subjective, and jokes from the film never translate well into the written word. So other than just saying "I found The Editor to be really, really funny," I won't go into the specifics re: the comedy. You pretty much just need to know that it's a send-up of 70's/80's Italian giallo films - it might *kind of* work if you're not familiar with those types of films, but if you're a fan... it's pretty much a must see. The Editor is a love-letter to/parody of all the things (warts and all) that you love about the genre.

The titular editor here is Ray Ciso (Adam Brooks). He was one of the most sought-after editors in the industry, having edited well-respected giallos like The Cat with the Velvet Blade. But after a horrible editing accident cost him the fingers on one hand, his confidence is shot and he's stuck editing cheap B-movies. He's having relationship troubles with his wife Josephine (Paz de la Huerta), and when people start getting killed on the set of his latest picture, he's the number one suspect. (The killer, you see, is mutilating his victim's hands to be just like Ciso's.) Wonderfully mustachioed Peter Porfiry (Matthew Kennedy) is working the case... but can he solve it before everyone involved with the film ends up dead?

October 22nd, 2015 - Stalled (2013)

Stalled has a very simple premise: zombie apocalypse, from the view of a guy is stuck in a bathroom stall. And it's certainly not overly complicated - it sticks to that premise (aside from a brief hallucinatory number) until the very end of the film. But surprisingly, it moves pretty fast and doesn't drag as much as one might expect from the one-note premise. There is a bit of a cheat - one (mostly unseen) person is also stuck in the same bathroom with our hero. But I'll give that a pass... without that there would be literally nothing for our hero to do. Anyways, the bulk of the film is the two of them talking - giving each other a hard time and getting to know each other while gut-munchers continue to fill up the bathroom.

The premise pretty much sums it up. But to go into a little more detail... sad sack janitor W.C. is working during the big office Christmas party, and is fixing something in the women's room. And since he's a little pervy, when someone comes in to use the facilities, he hides in one of the stalls. And when another woman comes in and the two start to make out, ol' W.C. thinks he's witnessing a pervy Christmas miracle. (Having actually written this down I really wish Stalled would have starred the Ghetto Heisman himself - rapper WC from the Westside Connection.)

October 21st, 2015 - Sodoma's Ghost (1988)

I'm not sure why they went with a font that made it look like it was a made-for-cable-access film. The rest of the film at least looks more professional.

If you're anything like me, the phrase "Nazi Ghosts" will instantly make your ears perk up. As soon as I came across the description of Sodoma's Ghost, I knew I had to check it out. And it's a Lucio Fulci joint? Even better. So despite having a rough couple of days with torturey/mean-spirited and bad movies, I went ahead and checked it out - knowing full well that Fulci can be pretty mean-spirited himself. But Sodoma's Ghost was not too rough in that respect. I'm not going to say it's a blast, but as far as Fulci's films go? It's pretty fun. It's certainly not all that good of a film, but it's not all that boring either. So that's a perk.

October 20th, 2015 - Darkroom (2013)

Darkroom is a mess. And not an interesting or fun mess. Just a plain old messy mess. Michelle was involved in a car accident where she killed three of her friends. For some reason, this lands her in some sort of a treatment program... if the law or courts were involved, Darkroom doesn't bother to fill you in on it. Michelle is just there, and Dr. Rachel needs to "sign off" on her recovery before she can leave. But is she even an actual doctor? If so, Darkroom doesn't bother to let you know. Dr. Rachel has two brothers - one is a little meek and maybe suffers from some sort of mental illness, and the other is an Eli Roth-esque crazy guy. They just happen to run a torture chamber on the side. So Dr. Rachel lets the patients out, and then using the promise of a job, lures them to a big mansion that houses said torture chamber. Then the three siblings torture them, because God, I guess.

Now, I'm all for religion-bashing in horror movies. But what you get in Darkroom is so weak that it hardly counts. The siblings make reference to "purging your sins," but it's basically just lip service to being a "religious crazy." Where are the wild-eyed rants about the godless state of modern society? It's like they didn't even bother to research any *actual* religious crazies. Just google the WBC and switch up a couple of words, you know? Even saying the siblings are half-baked as characters is overstating it.

October 19th, 2015 - Entrails of a Virgin (1986)

Simply put, I was not prepared for Entrails of a Virgin. Per imdb, the plot is: "Members of a film crew making a soft core porn are dismembered by a demon in a warehouse." That sounds like it could feasibly be up my alley. Wrestlemaniac was okay, right? What is should say on imdb: "Semi-consensual rape-porn with a "demon" in it, and some demented visuals." It's easily the most pornographic thing I've watched for this movie a day project - I was worried about the sex-noises waking up my wife. And honestly - getting porn when you are expecting a horror movie is kind of weird... I guess any "surprise porn" would be. I assumed the first sex scene would be quick... but then it just kept going, and going, and going... and then there were more. And I'm no international pornography expert, but I'm not sure what the Japanese consider "soft-core." Other than genitals being blurred out, it seemed pretty intense to me. I don't think you can have as much semen in a movie as Entrails of a Virgin has and still be considered "soft core."

October 18th, 2015 - Evidence of a Haunting (2010)

While it kind of looks like it's going to be your standard ghost hunting found footager, Evidence of a Haunting has a couple of interesting things going for it. (At first, at least.) At the very outset, there's this text:

October 17th, 2015 - Revenge of the Living Zombies (1988)

aka Revenge of the Living Zombies on my VHS copy

Whelp - Revenge of the Living Zombies sure is a zombie movie. Provided your definition of "zombie movie" doesn't include things like interesting characters or an engaging plot. Bottom line, it delivers the requisite zombie goods and nothing else. You get some solid late-80s gore effects and lots of the undead shambling around. So if that's all you want, you'll be fine. Honestly, I expected it to be terrible... and *no* story is better than a terrible story, right?

Anyways, before being retitled, the film was called FleshEater. It was written/directed by and "stars" Bill Hinzman, who managed to build a career out of being (arguably) the most recognizable zombie from Night of the Living Dead. Hinzman is the titular FleshEater, who is released from his grave when a farmer removes a stump and reveals some weird satanic stone alongside a locked coffin. Of course, he opens the coffin, and who should be inside but the FleshEater himself. The FleshEater bites the farmer (as zombies are wont to do), and the undead plague begins.

October 16th, 2015 - Nightbeast (1982)

Not sure why they went with the 80s cop
show font, but what can you do?

Nightbeast is a pretty fun independent monster movie from the great Don Dohler (of Galaxy Invader and Fiend) fame. I don't know what it is about his films - they've got a cheap, regionally shot, straight to home video feel... but there's some heart and love of the genre in there too. They are not "great" in the traditional sense, but there's enough passion and effort on display that I find his films extremely charming and hard not to like. When I think "cheesy monster movie," I naturally look back to the black and white creature features of the 50s and early 60s - your Attack of the Crab Monsters and Giant Gila Monsters of the world. But there were still spiritual siblings of those films being made long after that - which is where Nightbeast fits in. While it's a little more gory and the effects are (a little) better, it's heart is in the same place... which is why I think I liked it so much.

Nightbeast starts like so many a creature feature - an alien spacecraft crashes in the middle of a small town. The titular Nightbeast (not actually called that in the film, as far as I can remember) wastes no time and starts to kill off the townsfolk. He's got this chintzy looking laser gun that can disintegrate who or whatever gets shot with it in a flash of cheap animation. (Or at least as it fits in with the story - it doesn't disintegrate walls or rocks or anything, but it will take out a car and the people inside. That's alien technology for you!)  But don't worry - Nightbeast can also rip people in half if he has to.

October 15th, 2015 - Hardware (1990)

I've heard a lot about director Richard Stanley in the last year or so. The 2014 documentary about his ill-fated attempt at making The Island of Dr. Moreau (called Lost Soul) is supposed to be really good, and I'm looking forward to checking it out. And despite a small body of work (two feature films and several shorts), he's the type of filmmaker that often gets the "visionary" label. Before today, I had only seen Dust Devil (I really liked it), but now having seen Hardware (his first feature) as well, I'm on board with the "visionary" thing. While people have (maybe rightfully) criticized Hardware for being a bit boring in the story department, it's clear that the story/characters are not really where Stanley's interests lie. It's the kind of film that really bears the filmmaker's fingerprints... and in this case, those fingerprints are a unique post-apocalyptic/creepy vibe and generally drugged-out feeling. Hardware exists in a well-constructed universe - a grimy, cyberpunkish sort of place; one of the characters makes art from welding scraps of metal and old machinery together - that actually describes the tone of the film better than anything. And as weird as it sounds, that tone is the film's strength.

And, the gory bits. Gore is far from plentiful in Hardware, but when it hits, it counts. It was listed in the horror category on Netflix, but I usually see it classified as an action/thriller. And that sort of misses the point - if you go in expecting action and crazy set-pieces, you'll be disappointed. It doesn't seem like the budget was there to do anything too crazy action-wise, and at any rate it would feel out of place. That just isn't what the film *is* - and they wisely don't try to force anything where it doesn't fit.

October 14th, 2015 - Unfriended (2014)

I don't want to out myself as a lame old man, but I don't have Facebook. So I was a little concerned about not understanding what was going on in Unfriended - the entire film unfolds on a laptop screen, mostly via Facebook and Skype. The film is able to do some interesting things with the set-up, and the story is much more fleshed out than you think it would be when you hear it consists entirely of a half-dozen kids talking on Skype. But you learn enough through side conversations, web browsing, and youtube videos that it's as easy to follow as a traditional narrative.

So for the first half of the film, Unfriended is pretty effective and occasionally creepy, as some sort of malicious, computer controlling spirit has it out for our teenaged friends. But it doesn't put that set-up to good use, as the film eventually devolves into a half hour of kids screaming at the camera. I think the idea is screaming/noisy = tense/scary, but it just doesn't work.

October 13th, 2015 - Valley of the Zombies (1946)

Not really even a zombie movie. And not in the White Zombie vein of 'this was before Night of the Living Dead and we don't recognize these things as zombies...' there's just no zombies here at all. (Nor is there a valley, incidentally.) The closest you get is Ormund Mercks (Ian Keith). He's technically dead, I guess, but walks/talks/generally operates like a normal, living person. He needs blood to survive - I'd guess he drinks it, but it's never explicitly mentioned. So I guess if "zombie" is a catchall for "scary dead guy," then Mercks counts.

Anyways, Mercks is at the hospital looking for blood. It doesn't hurt that the doctor who institutionalized him prior to his death is there also - so he can get a little revenge at the same time he gets his fix. Mercks doesn't *want* to kill the doctor, but it just so happens he's got the blood type he needs. And wouldn't you know it? The hospital blood bank is out of it. So murder it is, courtesy of unseen strangulation.

October 12th, 2015 - Coons! Night Bandits of the Night (2005)

Coons! Night Bandits of the Night is a damned silly movie. It's cheap, it's ugly looking, it's sophomoric and tasteless, and very much has the feel of a guy who got his friends together and was like "hey! Let's make a movie!" But the funny thing? Coons! is actually pretty good. Or at least, it's funny enough to be good. Considering how many jokes are in the film, the hit-miss ratio is incredibly good. (Amazon has it listed as a spoof - and the sheer number of jokes would support that claim. Although horror-comedy was my initial reaction.)

The catch? If it's not your style of comedy, it's likely to be insufferable. The characters overact about as loudly as possible, and seem to have the craziest/fakest costumes/looks that they could (cheaply) get away with. Facial hair in particular. Many actors play multiple roles, so the bad costumes (kind of) hide that. And the raccoons are very clearly inanimate and taxidermied - there is no attempt to fake anything else. But Coons! is the sort of movie that uses it's cheapness as a joke. And yeah, hearing that makes me shudder a bit, as most movies that try to do so are really quite bad. But every once and a while it works - and it does here. It's just fun, plain and simple. But I concede that it's not for everyone.

October 11th, 2015 - Mr. Hush (2010)

Well... I've had my eye on Mr. Hush for quite some time. The box art is pretty cool, and the description on Amazon says it's a "frightening throwback to the slasher films of the 1980s..." I don't think it is. Mr. Hush plays like someone asked the following question: "What if we made a horror movie, but instead of the villains being scary or intimidating or cool, we just made them really annoying?" It tries to be funny and clever, but ends up just being grating. I won't spoil just *what* Mr. Hush is supposed to be - hence the question mark label. But the screencap above gives you a hint. And it isn't rabbits - that's what I guessed at first. Because they look like carrots, yeah?

Anyways, it's odd that Mr. Hush unfolds as comedically as it does, because the first act is basically a somber tale about a Man Who Has It All (a loving wife, a great kid, always happy, and celebrating Halloween) And Then Loses It. Holland Price (Brad Loree) is chilling at home on Halloween night when a priest comes to the door, saying his bus has broken down and asking if he can use the phone. Except I don't think he's a real priest, because he kills Holland's wife and daughter. Holland just gets bonked on the head, and the assailant lets him live.

October 10th, 2015 - Creep (2014)

Creep is a breath of fresh air as far as found footage horror films go. It's not dependent on a dilapidated building, or bumps in the night, or people getting dragged away from the camera by an unseen force. Instead, Creep focuses on the relationship between cameraman Aaron and his employer for a day (by virtue of a Craigslist ad) Josef. They are the only two people in the film, aside from some disembodied voices on the phone. And as you may have guessed, one of them is indeed a creep.

Aaron heads up to Josef's cabin to shoot a days worth of footage. Josef has terminal cancer and a pregnant wife, and has been inspired by the Michael Keaton movie My Life to make a video for his unborn child. Josef seems like kind of a weird dude. He invites Aaron to film him in the bath tub and is prone to hiding and jump-scaring Aaron (and by extension, us) at random times. But Aaron needs the money and probably feels a little sympathy for him. And the two even seem to have an okay time at some points throughout the day. But as the time comes for things to wrap up, things get weirder - and we make our way into full-fledged horror movie territory.

October 9th, 2015 - I'll Be There with You (2006)

Here's the synopsis for I'll Be There with You, courtesy of Amazon: "An idyllic spring break road trip turns into the vacation from hell as Aki, Annie and their friends find themselves crossing paths with numerous dangerous characters, including a band of escaped mental patients." That's *obviously* a horror movie, right? Well, it veers far more into the thriller category - people die, and there's a little gore here and there, but writer-director Akihiro Kitamura doesn't seem particularly concerned with scares, atmosphere, or building tension. I'm not sure what he *is* interested in though... I'll Be There with You is a strange, strange film. It's got this rambling/semi-experimental style that is watchable, but maybe not in the way it was intended. The synopsis says "genre-bending," but that just might be a nice way of saying "unfocused."

Anyways, Kitamura starts as Aki, a young Japanese man living in America who is very much in love with his girlfriend Annie. Aki is a bit anxious about his expiring visa, but he's not going to worry about it too much because SPRING BREAK! He's heading out to some weirdo resort/ranch type place with Annie and their random group of friends - Annie's friend Jill, another Japanese guy who speaks very little English but is Quite The Joker, an angry drunk guy, and some random loner that they invite at the last minute. Since the film opens with all of them dead in a field, you know that the trip isn't going to go well for them. But the "fun" is getting there, I guess.

October 8th, 2015 - Deathmaster (1972)

Good name, not so good of a movie. If you were wondering what Robert Quarry (aka Count Yorga, Vampire) would look like as a hippie/Jesusy vampire instead of a suave/classy one, Deathmaster will give you that answer. Instead of debonair Yorga, Quarry's Khorda here is more of a new-agey guru who more or less takes over a group of hippies living in an old, rundown house. There's no doubt he's a smooth talker and telling them what they want to hear... "he's FAR OUT, MAN!" And they aren't even *that* nervous when he disappears into thin air. No one is really that concerned about this stranger except for Pico... most of his friends are easily swayed by the charismatic vampire. But when Pico notices his friends behaving oddly and a little zombie-like, he tries to get his girlfriend Rona out of there before they become a part of Khorda's undead crew.

I have to assume Deathmaster exists because Quarry's previous forays into vampirism were so successful (Yorga in 1970 and its 1971 sequel The Return of Count Yorga). So it's hard not to compare the two. (In fact, the art for the the two Yorga films have claims of "Mistresses of the Deathmaster" and "The Deathmaster is back from beyond the grave!") Other than some groovy music and the occasional silly hippie moment, Deathmaster is never really all that effective or even that fun. The victims all come across as being weak-minded goofs - even considering Khorda's "charisma" (in quotes, because it's clearly intended but never comes across) the hippies are taken over way too easily - all it takes is a dance, apparently.

October 7th, 2015 - The Beast of Xmoor (2014)

Oh, The Beast of Xmoor... you weren't what I thought you'd be, and then you were something even more different. Let me explain - I had assumed we were talking about some sort of Bigfoot thing, or at least a monster. That's just where I automatically go when I hear "Beast" - at least if I'm in an optimistic mood. But not here. Our intrepid documentarians - couple Georgia and Matt - are searching for the Beast of Exmoor. Which apparently a Real Thing in cryptozoology. Most people (if they believe in at all) assume it's a black panther/puma type big cat roaming the hillsides of Exmoor in southwest England. So I guess it's technically a "beast," and I like cryptozoology, so let's go with that. But then, when Georgia and Matt get out to Exmoor woods with Fox, an expert big game hunter they've hired, they stumble across a stash of dead bodies. So they end up dealing with more of a metaphorical beast - a serial killer who uses Exmoor as his dumping grounds.

So there's a little back and forth between our trio - Georgia and Matt want to get out of there and notify the cops, but Fox tries to convince them that they can be heroes if they can capture/kill the serial killer. They've got all of the equipment they need (including a bunch of game cameras to keep an eye on the woods) and a big-ass gun. And if they can document it, all the better. Plus, it's a long hike back, and it could be dangerous terrain to cover at night. Georgia and Matt aren't convinced that it's a good plan, and Matt even thinks Fox might know more about the victims than he's letting on. But luckily/unluckily/conveniently/whatever the serial killer guy happens to be making an appearance tonight. And as you may expect, he's a step ahead of our trio... and havoc ensues.

October 6th, 2015 - Alter Ego (2002)

Sometimes, when you're watching a movie every day, you are way more concerned with a movie being short than being good. And luckily for me,  Alter Ego did a fabulous job fulfilling that requirement. It's 63 minutes long, which is about as short as I'm willing to go runtime-wise and still consider it a feature film (at least for anything made in the last half-century). But it's a good thing Alter Ego is short, because man, is it ever bad.

imdb kind of cracked me up with its synopsis. The first line:

From Takashi Shimizu, the famed director behind The Grudge and Ju-On horror franchises comes one of his undiscovered films.

First off, it makes it sound like it's worth watching because it's "undiscovered." Maybe there's a reason it's undiscovered, you know? You should at least put "terrifying" in there or something. But wait, that would be a lie. Also, Takashi Shimizu is listed as a Supervising Producer on Alter Ego. I don't know an awful lot about behind the scenes roles, but I think that's stretching the "from" description about as far as it can go.

October 5th, 2015 - The Hidden (1987)

The Hidden is just really fun. I mean, maybe I'm easy, but I was pretty much on board the moment two workers were carrying a giant pane of glass across the street, and a car chase comes through and smashes through it. I haven't seen that done in earnest in a film for quite some time - and man, this was earnest. Honestly, that earned a lot of goodwill from me.

The film has pretty unique action/comedy/sci-fi vibe to it. I feel like there was a window of opportunity in the late 80's where you could get away with having serious action but being kind of goofy at the same time. The Hidden throws some sci-fi into that mix (our baddie is an extra-terrestrial), and there's just enough nasty creature work that you have to toss horror in there too. My biggest issue is that it felt like it peaked a bit too soon - it's a solid story and it's fun getting to know the characters, but it sort of runs out of steam by the end of the film.

October 4th, 2015 - The Riverman (2004)

"Funny" story. I was looking for a movie about the Green River Killer because I was at a Blitzen Trapper concert this evening (they're not necessarily my bag, but it was still pretty good). I *thought* they had a song about the Green River Killer, but it turns out it's called Black River Killer. It's a good, but really weird song, mixing folk with some g-funk synths. So it's ultimately unrelated, but I ended up watching The Riverman anyways. And it was pretty good - so I guess it was a happy mistake.

I don't really do much research for this blog - a movie a day is enough for my fragile little mind. So when I watched The Riverman, I couldn't help but think how it was a huge rip-off of Silence of the Lambs. Just substitute the Green River Killer for Buffalo Bill, Ted Bundy for Hannibal Lecter, and an older man for Clarice Starling - and it's pretty much the same thing. (And note - it *does* say "Based on a True Story" at the outset, but I pretty much just assume that's always a lie in horror movies nowadays.) Well, color me surprised when I *did* end up looking into it a little bit - it turns out that this is actually a true story, and Thomas Harris based Lambs on the events depicted here. So who's ripping off who now?

October 3rd, 2015 - The Psychic (1977)

I figured I was in for another Lucio Fulci gore/sleaze fest when I started The Psychic (released in Italy as Seven Notes in Black). Sure, anyone can throw a dummy off of a cliff. But it takes a special filmmaker to make sure you see her face bloodily hit the side of the cliff multiple times on the way down. So... good start?

But The Psychic ends up being more of a detective tale in the guise of a horror film. There's a little blood here and there, and feels a little unnecessarily mean at times, but overall it's a pretty interesting (if somewhat convoluted) and well-directed mystery/thriller.

October 2nd, 2015 - Evil Clutch (1988)

In honor of the release of my favorite band's new album, I decided to watch Evil Clutch today. That band, for the record, would be Clutch. Psychic Warfare came out today, and I have to say it's pretty darned great. Generally speaking, it takes a while for albums to grow on me, but there are a couple tunes on there that are already all-timers.

Although the "clutch" in Evil Clutch seems to imply a grasp - as in being in clutches of evil. And that's pretty evident, because it takes no time at all for a guy to get his dick ripped off by the clutch of a giant bird claw coming out from between the legs of our main zombie/vampire woman. So at least it starts "strong." But as for the rest of it? Well, this screen-cap sums it up nicely:

October 1st, 2015 - Dark Was the Night (2014)

One year! Hey-o! Happy anniversary to me. I was trying to think of something special to do - but after a cursory search of any horror movie with "anniversary" in the title, the only one I could find was The Anniversary at Shallow Creek - a flick about six best friends and a serial killer who has "more in store for them than death." I would have watched it, but it was only available to buy for $12.99. And that's not going to happen. Maybe I can save that for another anniversary. And for a while, I was like "what if I only watched good movies in October?" But that's a fruitless task too - tomorrow's movie is already chosen, and I have a feeling it will be stupid. So, I scanned around on Netflix, and Dark Was the Night was one that they actually e-mailed me about - "Jesse, we just added a movie you might like." They were right!

Dark Was the Night is one of those monster movies that pretty much lives and dies on *not* showing you the GD monster. And honestly? It kind of works. The lack of monster gives the film a pretty slow pace, but it's got some good performances/character work and a semi-decent dramatic subplot to fill in the non-monster spaces. It's actually kind of refreshing how seriously it takes itself. It's a little on the long side at 100 minutes and would probably bore some people to tears, but I for one dug it. Even if it is a little depressing for a monster movie.