Undeadcow

...if I can just make it through Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare I'll be almost done with my Nightmare on Elm Street marathon... I can't give up now, I can't, I can't... kill me please.

Edit: Made it through, maybe if there is a next time I'll just fastforward to the lukewarm final 10 minutes.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

When the director said he wanted to change the actor that plays Jason to someone with more sympathetic, soulful eyes that could reflect pain and loss, that's not a good sign and yet another indication that he hadn't watched any of the movies where Jason killed people. Even his wife said he was naive going into the project without already knowing the character.

I think the idea of Freddy using the his mother to manipulate him is fine but Jason should've been Jason. That and the stupid narration at the beginning instead of just showing us the action instead, wasn't all that great. For me it felt like what would happen if Freddy and Jason were not in their normal universes but instead in some sort of I Know What You Did type film. Things just seemed oddly out of character, sort of like the crappy Batman sequels. Yes, that's Batman and those are the villains but there must be something in the drinking water because that stuff just isn't right.

Travis McClain

Last night we finished off our "Price/Lee Horror Collection" with Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride (a.k.a. The Satanic Rites of Dracula). This was a perfect example of franchise fatigue that has been discussed with other series in this thread. There's a scene in Tropic Thunder where Ben Stiller is forced to perform on stage for his captors, and Christopher Lee's performance here has a strikingly similar feel--only less intentionally comedic. It's like they had his family held at gunpoint off screen, because he doesn't seem to want to be there at all. Peter Cushing gives it a go, but you can tell his heart's not in it, either.

One question, though: The plot revolves around a plan scheduled to take place on the "sabbath of evil" (I forget the name they gave). Would this count for "takes place on a holiday?" I mean, it's not one I recognize or anything, but the characters do and it's important to them. Thoughts?

Oh, and I, too, enjoyed DickLaurent's reminisces from the projection booth. That was a genuinely delightful and charming post to read.

SterlingBen

Damn, just outbid on Never Sleep Again on ebay. Guess I'll have to wait until Nov at this point.

Chad

Infection.

EDIT. I think I just found my new favorite Netflix review:

"WOW did not know it was in another language and WE had to read the whole movie... HATED It because of that.....looked like an awesome movie but not the whole " HAD TO READ" part.."

SethDLH

I just popped in Motel Hell. This will be my 2nd viewing of it, and I wasn't super crazy on it the first time. I found it entertaining and all, just not mind blowingly awesome like many people do. We'll see if feelings change.

Undeadcow

+1 to recommending Infection, it's a good film. I've got it on DVD and hope to revisit it this month if I can find time. Surreal J-horror.

Dick Laurent

"Lukewarm"? You must not of had your 3-D glasses on.

Trevor

I'll begrudgingly admit that I've come around to really liking the theme night idea. I think I totally ignored them last year, thinking them a bad idea since we already had two tools to help guide our selections.

My OCD compelled me to try them this year, but I only planned to do one per day, as sort of an extra subset or checklist. But now I find myself trying to stick to the theme all day. It's interesting viewing similar films back to back and comparing how well they work.

It is cramping my personal goals though, not sure how I'll be able to "check everything off" this year.

dcrw6

It's been a crazy few days but I've managed to get a few movies in here and there, like showing Psycho to my wife for the first time. I do regret missing out on the discussion that's been going on. From what I've seen, this has had the most engaging discussions out of the previous horror challenges and I always spend a good chunk of time catching up. My thoughts on a few things:

Completely agree on what was said about The Children, an amazingly effective movie.

Disagree about The Strangers, boring piece of tripe that relied on the exact same scare over and over. I hope whoever dp-ed that movie gets thrown out of the union. There was no call for such shitty camera work.

Any Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm St. sequel can be enjoyable with alcoholic beverages.

I also regret not being able to watch and comment on the movie of the day that I picked. I'm sorry that so many didn't enjoy Sheitan. It's a very divisive movie but it's one I enjoyed a lot, mainly because of Cassell and the lunacy that goes on at the end. But I picked it because it was different and I think that's the most important aspect of picking the films of the day, exposing others to films that slip by without being noticed.

Things are getting quieted down family wise, but things with my senior thesis film are ramping up as high as they can get since we're shooting next week. I've got to drive myself crazy getting everything ready, but once it's over I'll have one whole glorious week to completely veg out and de-stress by watching horror movies.

bse

Bought a new blu-ray player last night, watched a double feature of Frozen and Piranha...I loved Frozen, the first half is whatever...but once it gets going, I thought it was great.

Now that I have a functionally blu-ray player again, time to order Galaxy of Terror, Forbidden World, and Humanoids from the Deep blu's.... I spent 4 hours going through the Piranha blu-ray last night, amazing stuff, god bless Shout Factory.

bse

you can give me all the booze in the world, it would not make Jason Goes to Hell enjoyable, unless the booze made me pass out during the opening credits.

brainee

The irony being, if they had only read the part on the Netflix page that stated the movie was in Japanese this problem would've been avoided

Undeadcow

I'm planning on calling Legion (2010) "action horror" but haven't seen it, is that off the mark? Would anyone discourage it's viewing for the challenge?

SethDLH

I finished up Motel Hell with similar feelings to my first viewing. It certainly is entertaining and it has a couple great scenes, but the whole package just isn't there for whatever reason like it is for some people.

SethDLH

Forbidden World was awesome, the whole package is incredible. I have no idea what the next one on my list is now though, probably Humanoids. The DVD only releases they put out are calling my name as well... decisions decisions.

kthnxbai

It's available on Amazon.

chuckd21

The thing about Jason Goes To Hell, for me, is that if you take out Jason's stupid animal noises in the opening scene, it would be my favorite scene of all the F13 films. Well maybe aside from the sleeping bag kill.

Dimension X

I guess that's enough good reviews (you two, and I know I've seen people recommending it before - maybe during last year's Challenge) for a blind buy. I keep seeing this in one of the places I buy cheap used DVDs, and I'm always tempted to get it. Now, of course, they won't have it next time I go in there.

bse

I got the new version (2 disc w/ poster) from Blowitoutahere.com for $13.xx shipped.

Yeah man, I really should pick up some of the DVD releases (Slumber Party Massacre for sure) - I really want to support these releases, Shout Factory did an amazing job, and they deserve to be rewarded with my cash, all the poor treatment Corman releases got, and to get these films with basically a Criterion treatment...is so awesome!

davidh777

I was including it in my mental list of possible watches

asianxcore

Add me to the list of folks who liked The Children (2008)

Scary kid films are usually a dime a dozen, but the film manages to separate itself slightly.

Chad

Well, I'll admit last year's was pretty lackluster because I threw it together last-minute and didn't put in near the effort. But yeah, I've really come to appreciate both the subset and themes. I literally have over 150+ titles reserved for this challenge, yet my indecisiveness won't allow me to settle on any one particular film ...with the exception of those that arrive from Netflix, which take top priority. This way I at least somewhat of an idea and don't have to stare blankly at my collection for an hour every night.

Sorry to feed your OCD, BTW.


Hey, don't apologize. My selection didn't over 100% either. I could have easily picked a "classic" that probably would've garnered a lot more discussion, but instead opted for an essentially unknown film that flew under the radar. It's always nice to discover something you might not have otherwise given a chance, despite if you were wowed by it or not.


And yeah, The Children was one hell of a nail biter. Easily one my favs from last year.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

And that's how I've also been doing my picks. There was a bad one, which I knew was bad going in but that monster suit just mesmerizes me with how bad it is. Plus it was an instant stream, which other than that, there's pretty much no other way to see it other than a download off one of "those" sites.

But people got to see something new that they otherwise could have lived without ever knowing it existed

Travis McClain

We're 26 items in as of right now and I'm starting to feel zapped. It might be time to start breaking out some TV content or re-watching some favorites (like Shaun of the Dead) to re-energize. Maybe as a wild card, I'll pull out that episode of The Sopranos where Christopher screens "Cleaver" for everyone.