Chad

These "2009 DVDTalk Horror Challenge Day #" threads are for the discussion of the films in the 31 Films in 31 Days subset.

General discussion on the 2009 DVDTalk Horror Challenge goes here, your list for the Challenge goes here.

The plan is for everyone to watch this film on the October day in the thread title, and to start discussing it the morning of the following day. You may start discussion early if you want, but the preferred plan is for this to be as much of a group exercise as possible, with all of us viewing it "together" and discussing after.

Of course, you are totally encouraged to participate in these threads even if you haven't watched the movie on the designated day. Even if you haven't watched it in years, or are not participating in the Horror Challenge, please feel free to chime in.

Spoiler tags will not be needed, as it will be expected that anyone here has seen the film.

Do not read this thread if you have not seen the film, unless you don't mind the ending being spoiled for you.

sandra89

I Don't like scary movies at all =//

Trevor

Very fun choice Riotinmyskull! More comments tomorrow, back to the earlier choices to catch up with the rest of you.

Kurt D

OK, come on, people! Where's the love for The Manitou? I rented this on VHS about three days before it, unbeknownst to me, made its DVD bow.

What a terrifically ridiculous movie! Tony Curtis is spectacularly bizarre as a really weird character, and the special effects are atrocious (especially compared with contemporaneous efforts like, say Star Wars).

But that Manitou is kind of creepy in its own way.

Really fun so-bad-it's-good movie, but the book is actually a good scary read.

Trevor

I jumped the gun a bit Kurtie Dee. Technically, we're not supposed to talk about it until tomorrow, as today is the group viewing day for it. I'm sure there will be some more comments in the next couple days.

Kurt D

D'oh! I thought since today was Oct 4 that it was OK ... my bad!

smashthesymbols

Well I watched it today for the first time and had a lot of fun with it. I love that the powerful medicine man they've been fearing turns out to be a naked midget. The final battle, if you can call it that, was amazing simply for how ridiculous it was. Oh, and am I the only one that thought John Singing Rock looked an awful lot like The Rock at times?

J. Farley

I think it's a pretty decent flick for the majority of it's running time, but it goes way off the rails in the big climax. Oh yeah, and the scene with the old lady yelling in another language and floating down the hall cracked me up big time. Of the characters, I did feel bad for the night nurse. Wrong place, wrong time.

Trevor

Not bad at all, it is kind of confusing with the date in the thread title. I was just pointing out that many hadn't watched it yet and wouldn't join the discussion until the next day.

Last year, we tried to be super careful with spoilers and only discussing it at certain times, since all 31 titles were discussed in one thread. But this year, with separate threads, feel free to start the discussion early.

I think we plan to always start the discussion threads at least a day or two ahead of time, if not more.

And feel free to discuss the films from the previous days everyone, conversations aren't limited to just the one day. I'm wondering if putting the dates in the thread titles is more harm than good actually.

Trevor

Very interesting movie in that much of it was extremely campy, yet it seemed like they were all playing it straight. I'd be interested in knowing what the actors and crew were thinking at the time of filming. The special effects at the end were so bad. Did they run out of money? At least Susan Strasberg looked quite fine in those scenes.

But some scenes were fairly creepy, if not scary. I'll disagree with the above and say that the old lady getting possessed actually creeped me out. I thought it was well done. The Manitou was a bit campy after seeing him for awhile, but the initial appearance was quite creepy, and his eyes were well done.

I've read a few comments about people liking the book (books?). So you'd recommend it/them, KD?

Drake

My brother in law gave me a copy of this because Amazon sent him two by mistake so I figured I would give this a spin.
I thought the first 45 minutes were pretty good I liked Curtis with that crazy cape he wore and that scene with the lady levitating down the hall was great.
What turned out to be promising went bad very quickly, the doctor was bad and what was up with that giant computer behind his desk and the Indian was so wooden (no pun intended) and it seemed that Curtis changed by the end as if he couldn't believe he signed up for this mess.

Also The Manitou ripped that lady's skin and yet at the end she was fine ?

riotinmyskull

glad everyone seemed to get some enjoyment out of my pick.

Kurt D

I've only read the first one, when I was a teen, but it was really evocative but a pulpy, fun read. Apparently Graham Masterson turned the idea into a series of books.

smashthesymbols

The best part of the scene with the possessed old lady is Tony Curtis in his sorcerer's robe and fake mustache running down the hallway after her in slow motion.

MrTerrific

I really enjoyed this until the end. The end was a little too much.

I enjoyed Tony Curtis in the lead role.

clckworang

An interesting film. I wasn't sure what to expect from the description. I didn't think it really upped the camp factor until toward the end of the film. Interesting to see all the actors play it so damn straight, though.

The highlight of the film for me? That would probably be this exchange in dialogue:

John Singing Rock: Gichi Manitou? Harry, you don't call Gichi Manitou. He....
Harry Erskine: Oh, yeah, well he's going to get a person to person call from me....collect!

But he was a really muscular midget!

I must admit that I laughed pretty heartily during the old lady's possession as well.

llandros

This movie really was ridiculous at the end. I had forgotten just how bad that ending was. It seemed like they used old Battlestar Galactica effects for the big showdown. And Burgess Meredith's scene was just funny - like he knew it was crap and was just doing improv on the set. Still, fun to watch.