Chad

Undeadcow

Watched Son of Dracula tonight, blasphemy it may be but I've never been a big fan of Dracula stories (vampires are neat but the painstaking re-tellings of Bram Stoker's story get stale imo). It is interesting to me how Dracula is more of a real estate mogul in these than a fiend of the night and that one of his threats is to family property. Apparently this is the first time he is seen transforming to a bat on screen. Son of Dracula does an efficient job of keeping the same tone as earlier Dracula offerings but not being redundant. The dissolving at the end is a cool effect and it stands out that Dracula is more aggressive in this one.

Undeadcow

Caught The Washing Machine, which is stranger than the title alone lets on. My favorite is when as a sexual euphemism a woman spills salad dressing on a guy's pants then wipes it off with her panties, that might be the strangest thing I've seen recently; nevermind not one but two refrigerator themed sex scenes. I was a little disappointed there was not literally a killer washing machine at first and the characters are so far out but it had a nice fever dream witchcraft feeling to a group of sisters taunting a police investigator. It's stylishly made and more a series of soft simulated sex scenes strung together around a framing device, which I think gives rise to the focus on imagery that looks cool in isolation but doesn't really come together immediately until the end where the odd slowburn comes together.

Undeadcow

Fangs of the Living Dead was very good, it had the right mix of gothic and camp. How come we don't see a lot of castle setting like this anymore? Not only was it a clever plot but FoLD didn't take itself too serious and had nice humor.

DaveyJoe

I think Rifftrax did Fangs of the Living Dead at some point but it's easy to mix up all the vampire films of this era.

numbercrunch

My choices so I hope folks like them. As far as my thoughts:

Fangs of the Living Dead (first time watch) - Stylish Euro gothic setting bogged down with a clunky story that takes too long to get going. 6/10

Son of Dracula 7/10 - Lon Chaney is not the ideal physique for a vampire, but I think it works. The film plays to his strengths. He is powerful and the film moves briskly along.

jholmes

I watched all three and they were all decent. The best was Washing Machine, which I was really expecting to be cheesy and bad based on a trailer I saw a while ago. But it was actually quite good. It had a little Diabolique flavor to it, with mind game confusion throughout, and I liked the Buddapest setting. The Inspector made it for me. He was quite hot. In a lot of these films, they'd have some older guy that wouldn't be believable as an object of interest for all the sisters, but with this actor, it works. The sound was a little muffled or something on the DVD, and there were no subtitles, so it was frustrating trying to catch all the dialogue. But in generally I quite liked it. A nice discovery.

Fangs of the Living Dead was pretty cheesy, but I like gothic horror, so I enjoyed it. As an aside, I watched Fearless Vampire Killers last night, which is a parody of all these old Euro vampire movies, and I loved it even more than I remembered loving it. It's STUNNING on blu ray.

Son of Dracula -- I agree with whoever said Lon Chaney Jr was miscast. He's SO uncharismatic and stilted and... puffy. But overall it was a nice film with an unusual storyline, with the girl trying to gain immortality and then kill the vampire. I loved the tragic ending.

DaveyJoe

I immediately recognize the director of The Washing Machine as the guy who made Cannibal Holocaust so if I wasn't sure what to be prepared for before, I'm surely disoriented now.

This guy Yuri could solve so many problems if he just stopped engraving names on the gifts for his mistresses.

(Throws shoe at cat)
"Stupid cat, now who's supposed to clean up that mess?"
Um... You are, you stupid idiot, that's how the cat-human dynamic works. The cat's not the one who decided to have sex with the fridge door open.

DaveyJoe

You know all that blood is going to ruin the shade of their whites. I'm a bachelor and even I know to save your corpses for the darker colored loads.

"Allegged victim, Inspector Stacev..."
Wait, are they keeping a theory open that the guy ran the washing machine on himself??

"Have you forgotten who brings home the real money? Maybe it's you Ludmilla with your drugs. Or is it you Maria with your blind people?"
I'm going to need more information on how Maria is making money with blind people...

DaveyJoe

"Have you forgotten who brought us the washing machine, refrigerator, stereo?"
Yeah it was Sears Italia.

"So we wasted all this time on the hallucinations of an alcoholic."
Well how else am I supposed to get through The Washing Machine?

"What happened to the people in this country? They used to respect authority."
Now they're dubbed in English.

DaveyJoe

"Yuri was a pimp for you, correct?"
"Times are tough, seems like everyone has another job these days."
When the 2008 recession hit I got a job at a sushi restaurant, I didn't hit the streets... Though I never looked that good in a bustier...

(Ludmilla watches Inspector Stacev from the shadows)
"Inspector, did you enjoy the rehearsal, sir?"
Wow, officer cock-block over here.

"Sissy, your scent enflames my senses and fires my hunger..."
I've used this same line on buffalo chicken Mac and cheese.

WillieMLF

Plan on getting in all 3 before the challenge is over. Watched Fangs of the Dead, and I was entertained. I would have like a bit more Fangs, and a lot more Dead, but I didn't see the ending coming, and it worked. I kept on expecting the comic relief to get killed off in the last third, but he survived, as did most everyone.....

I thought that Shout blu looked really good.

DaveyJoe

This bartender just poured random-ass wine into two martini glasses. What the hell is going on in low-budget Europe??

(Ludmilla banging cymbals at Inspector Stacev's door)
"You drunk or what?"
(Neighbor spying and judging the commotion)
"You never seen a pair of cymbals before?"
This was pretty much Philadelphia's extreme bewilderment and ultimate embrace of Gritty the mascot.

The very special panty and butt scene while Inspector Petyr Baelish is on the phone choreographed by the one and only Sir Mix a Lot.

DaveyJoe

This guy trying to score in the middle of a field trip at the blind art museum is more dangerous than the time I got laid at my family reunion.

I love how Inspector Littlefinger is accruing jealous women faster than I racked up credit card debt.

"You're all I have in my life, I swear I'll kill myself!"
I said the same thing when Taco Bell discontinued the Nacho Fries.

DaveyJoe

The people in this movie can't have sex without leaving the fridge door open. Imagine just being a hungry person in this apartment. "Well my leftover shrimp scampi went bad, who got laid last night?"

Okay this is why cops need partners, this guy's investigation is equal parts solving the murders but also getting his dick wet.

Me: I can't believe Inspector Baelish got played by three crazy sisters.
(Maria pulls out a titty and twirls around the pole)
Me: Go on and get it blood (pulls out phone and texts ex)

Trevor

It was nice to watch a chronological spectrum of 50 years there. Nice addition to the Challenge that. I did a “backup” theme/subset choice for each as well, so a six film marathon on a work day was tough. None of the three chosen films are awful, just sort of average. But fwiw, I absolutely loved my 1968 backup, Targets. Perfect film for today’s subset too. Great later Karloff performance.

clckworang

I commented about Son of Dracula in the main thread, but I'll repeat here. Overall, I liked the film. I especially liked the story as I thought it had a different hook to it. The biggest issue was the casting of Dracula. As much as I usually love Cheney's presence, he just didn't work for me as Dracula.