smurr05

Still trying...not sure if I will make that magic #!

Undeadcow

I find myself feeling burned out by the constant adaptations of Bram Stoker's Dracula so listened to the historian, Davis Skal, commentary on the Universal Monsters disc. It was interesting discussing the climate around the 1931 release, etc.

I took a week off work in late October because I love the season so plan to cram some movies into the festivities.Very nice, I'm jealous. Make sure to report back...

mrcellophane

Got in two Hammer vampire flicks this afternoon: The Brides of Dracula (1960) and The Kiss of the Vampire (1963). The first had Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, protecting a French teacher who has fallen under the spell of a vampiric Baron. It's a pretty standard Hammer film so I enjoyed it quite a bit. The former is about a pair of newlyweds who fall into the trap of a cult of vampires. It devolves into pure silliness so I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Yesterday, I watched the first episode of Thriller from the new set I blind-bought from Amazon. (I'm a sucker for the DotW.) Boris Karloff is the perfect narrator, creepily presiding over a tale of madness that has straight-laced Leslie Nielsen hounded by crazy people from work. I'm excited about delving into the set more.

Gobear

I bought the set last year during another DOTW; so worth it! It's like "The Outer Limits" of horror; "Pigeons from Hell" and "A Wig for Miss Devore" are two of my favorite episodes.

If anyone is looking for a good vampire film for today's theme, Werner Herzog's 1979 remake of Nosferatu is on Youtube with a remarkably clear picture. If you are interested in getting the Scream Factory blu next year, this is a nice "try before you buy" opportunity.

Trevor

I love horror and sci-fi anthology shows, but never seem to make time for them. Maybe I'll make the next few TV Challenged all horror to catch up on those sets.

Just found my unopened Kino DVD set of Nosferatu. I should sell it and wait for the BD.

Didn't do much on the theme besides the subset weirdness. I wanted to try a FTV vampire film as I go to bed here, and put in the DVD Way of. The Vampire. But then I noticed I had rated it 1/10 on IMDB at some point in my life, so hit the open button. Put in a disc of some weird Dracula documentary I picked up years ago, that also has a disc or two of public domain type vampire films. The film I chose, Messiah of Evil, doesn't seem particularly vampiric so far, or linear.

Gobear

A small thread digression: I really hate when Kino gets its mitts on films because they just don't seem to take the same care towards restoring them and presenting them with scholarly context that Criterion does. Hell, Shout Factory gives films more TLC than Kino.

SethDLH

I only got 1 in today for the theme, I'm okay with it. I think it will help me make a strong push over the last 10 days.

SethDLH

I think Kino will do a good job with Nosferatu, their DVD was good. That said, they won't have the extras and probably won't be able to quite match the Eureka release in the UK.

Giles

when over to the Silver and saw Escape From Tomorrow - what a weird, weird film... how the hell did they film some scenes without being too blatant in their filming. The green screen scenes though were pretty obvious.

SterlingBen

Was unable to get my hands on any Dogfish Head but did find this one:

rbrown498

I'm a wee bit miffed at the IMDB. Tonight I watched The Norliss Tapes as part of the theme night, as the IMDB page for the film said something about vampires in the synopsis and also had the word "vampire" as a keyword. Well, I watched it (and it was excellent, by the way), but there were no vampires to be found. I should have trusted my gut when I had the thought that the synopsis at IMDB sounded a bit too much like The Night Stalker. Here's what it says: "An investigative reporter stumbles onto a group of modern-day vampires." The only reason I'm pissed is that this is the first film that I've watched for the Challenge that didn't fit the theme of the day. I watched the subset film, so I'm okay as far as completing the theme night list, but it irks me that the IMDB caused me to break the perfect record* I had going.



*Well, I HAVE snuck in two films that didn't fit the theme nights (and one of those is only sort of a horror film), but I hadn't listed them due to wanting to keep the theme nights pristine. I guess that I could have not listed this one either, but I need it to come close to hitting my goal. So, since the cat's out of the bag, so to speak, I'm going to go back and list the one that I'm sure is horror as well. I'm still a bit disappointed, however.

SterlingBen

OK, stiff drink then Devil Times Five and then it is off to bed. Long day of chores tomorow but will sneak at least a themenight pick in, Carrie remake or something.

Undeadcow

Scanners II: The New Order is better than you'd expect for a direct to video sequel.

Ganga and Hess was pretty melodramatic with the most untraditional (but crappy) ending ever.Crap. Just put Devil Times Five down on the floor and walk slowly away, you do not want to do it. Although there is a fuzzy sepia tinted slow motion kill scene that you may never be able to forget no matter how hard you try.

Julie Walker

I finally got a couple more titles viewed after a lengthy break. Tonight I watched Deep Rising, and The Lost Boys: The Tribe.

I only saw Deep Rising once when it was first released on VHS. I enjoyed it at the time, and thought it was time to revisit it. It's an entertaining monster mash, and the CGI wasn't as bad as I originally thought upon my first viewing(only some moments near the end looked bad, but most of it held up well). It's about monsters attacking a large fancy one of a kind ship on it's maiden voyage, and a team of thieves who happen to be plotting to rob the ship or more at the same time, and well they're in for a surprise once on board. Oh and Famke Janssen is smoking hot with a fun personality in her role and Treat Williams was cool as the hero who kicks ass when called for. A fun B movie romp.

Lost Boys: The Tribe I had seen on TNT late one night a few years ago. It was edited, and so I missed some good stuff, but overall I was surprised to find it entertaining as well. So viewing the DVD and seeing it with all the language and most gore intact(it's the R version I saw) was quite a surprise, since plenty of gruesome stuff was cut from TV. The language for example in the beginning scene was extremely profane almost to a Rob Zombie level of how many times can they say 'fuck' in a sentence. Thankfully the rest of the dialogue flows better, and swearing is kept mostly to a more normal level than every other word being a cuss word.

The pre-credit scene does have a nice surprise though, but I won't spoil it. It's quite clever and well done.

The film was extremely entertaining for what it was. It had a nice sense of humor, and was fairly erotic in some moments, and brutal in some violent moments, and Cory Feldman back as Edgar Frog and having a ball with the role makes for a good time.. The lead female character is gorgeous, and has a very cute personality. "You know how disgusting drinking blood is? I mean, I'm a vegetarian!"(not an exact quote, but close, and a hilarious line as the sister deals with the truth about what she's becoming). The final scene before the credits is also a hoot, and then a during end credits scene also adds some fun to the mix ending on a high note. It's worth a look.

SterlingBen

WTF did I just watch?

mrcellophane

I don't know, but dammit man, pull yourself together!

I got in a nice marathon of Supernatural episodes, including one about bugs attacking people in Oklahoma. (The episode is called "Bugs". The titles are somewhat uninspired.) This creeped me out because we often get plagues of bugs: crickets, grasshoppers, locusts, ladybugs. One spring, there were mounds of dead crickets all over the high school. Another spring, ladybugs were so dense on the side of our house, they blacked out one window. Thankfully, the show had yet to start, or I would have been even more freaked out.

I'm now halfway through the first season, and things are picking up. They episodes have been very "monster-of-the-week" affairs, but it looks like the story may be developing arcs and character development. We shall see!

ntnon

Fido is fantastic! It's like a straight take on a 1950s-60s sitcom... but with zombies. It's probably sort of an allegorical take on the slave trade, certainly partly a morality tale about exploiting things You Do Not Understand, but mostly just a brilliant black comedy about a boy and his dog, um ...zombie.

There are so many great little moments and lines it's impossible to pick a best moment, but certainly the thing that stands out to me is watching the credits and finding out exactly who plays Fido himself...! The whole time I was watching it, I couldn't place the face, but knew I knew it. But I really had no idea it was... him. Superb make-up job.

The main boy does a great job, and the bullies and school scenes are all excellent - all the children are passable, which is good, because the surreal alternate-history moments with children at the rifle ranges really flesh out the story. Plus, it took me a minute, but the boy has the perfect name: Timmy.

(And for whichever people are seeking them out, it's Canadian.. )

Mondo Kane

Which reminds me.....I don't know if it's still around, but the "Drive-in/Grindhouse" version of the movie, Blood Couple, was floating around youtube. Gotta see if it's still around because I would LOVE to see what changes were made. (Wouldn't be surprised if that ending was yanked)

Even though I'm still trying the figure out what happened at the end, this still takes the cake for the most haunting ending I've seen all month


I just watched Deep Rising for the first time last weekend. A good cast and a pretty fun first half, but then the 3rd act becomes a cliche'd Stephen Sommers-fest (Obligatory one-liners, obligatory massive explosion)

I saw both Lost Boys sequels on last year's challenge. Tribe ended up being my biggest suprise winner. Sure, it's basically a rehash of the 1st movie (A female in the Jason Patric role) but I still ended up enjoying it. Thirst is way more action-packed (A simple storyline of just "Destroy all vampires") and Feldman & Newlander make things a lot of fun.

pacaway

I've got to side with you on this one. I was kind of riveted watching it but left cold at the end. I guess the title is meant to be ironic or something? I guess I'll have to do some research or something to try and figure out what it was supposed to mean. Strange though because I really was glued to it.

SethDLH

Ebay just gave me a nice OHC laugh.... I listed my DVD of Nekromantik on there with the announce of a Blu-ray coming from Cult Epics next year so I figured I'd get as much as I could now.... my listing was pulled because according to ebay Nekromantik "contains real and graphic scenes of violence, torture, and death."

Of course Ebay did their due diligence and researched the film to find out about it before pulling my item, right? hahahaha

Giles

oh no doubt - I'm still processing what I watched but yes that ending was pretty creepy

since the film was shot on ultra-hi-rez RED cameras - I could

Giles

so does 'Pacific Rim' count? since there are monsters?

wishbone

It's not listed as horror on imdb or allmovie but you can probably use a wildcard.

shadokitty

Ready to resume the challenge on a regular basis now. Might make 60. Tomorrow going to a halloween superstore and might get a new mask.

Giles

ah, gatcha... nah... not going to waste a wildcard on it then...

I think everyone who posts a picture of themselves in their halloween costume/get up... should get an automatic 'free number' on their list ...

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