jholmes

I've loved horror all my life--ever since my brother-in-law handed me a paperback of Carrie when I was 12. All through high school I read horror books like they were candy--all those books with black shiny covers by King, Straub, Dean Koontz etc. My older sisters would complain to my mom that she shouldn't let me read them, that I was corrupting my brain.

These days, my husband is tolerant of a lot of horror movies though he prefers other genres. He'll sit through things like Hammer, A Quiet Place, Conjuring, The Woman in Black. But he has his limits. When I watch something that's really hardcore he'll get up and leave in disgust and I get the "you've watched so much of that kind of thing over the years--it honestly has to warp your mind" speech. Which I hate. My step daughter and her husband have no interest in that kind of thing and we neve watch it when they come over. I feel for everyone who's posted stories of sharing a horror movie with someone who then looks at you like there's something wrong with you. It sucks.

Honestly, I still haven't watched Eden Lake myself, but I plan to watch it this month in my quest to get through #1-500 of the They Shoot Zombies list. I suppose I have my limits as well, though I can usually appreciate something about those films when I finally watch them--even if I don't want to ever watch them again. I'd put Inside and Frontiere in that category, though I was surprised that I liked Martyrs quite a lot. I liked the weird religious cult aspect of it though the brutality was OTT.

asianxcore

The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020) was a fantastic surprise. Director Jim Cummings (pulling double duty here, also playing the lead role) does a fantastic job balancing the story of a werewolf in a small town and the bumbling cops within it. Very much reminded me of the Coen Brothers' Fargo (1996) in tone.

The Craft Legacy (2020) was a bit of a mess. Director Zoe Lister Jones sort of puts everything into the pot (including the nostalgia of the original 1996 film) and hits "boil". The film tries to do & say so much without any sort of consistent tone or direction. Cailee Spaeny's casting feels solid but the film's script doesn't care to ever flesh out any of the films' other characters.

The Amusement Park (1975) plays like a nihilistic educational film, which helped keep my attention through its short 54-minute run-time.

SterlingBen

I think most everyone here has it down but it's still fun to see the infographic



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brainee

It's exactly what you'd expect from George Romero in the 70s assigned with making an educational public service film I don't think I could've handled much more than 50 minutes of it. It's very effectively disorienting and disturbing in making its point though.

asianxcore

Definitely agree with you there. It was a disturbing & emotionally heavy 54-minutes. Can't imagine another 30-35-minutes tacked onto that film.

Going to try to catch-up to my goal of 31 films today, especially since I have the day off from teaching tomorrow for Indigenous Peoples' Day.

asianxcore

I was wondering this as well.

Saw it over the weekend and wanted to use a Wildcard on it.

SterlingBen

Seems like the first one counted wildcard-less and there were no objections so I just counted it. It is about a body controlling space alien fighting a serial killer?

Chad

One final reminder before trivia question #2 starts tonight. It'll probably be a few hours later than the first was, and I will take the usual last-minute entries.

Cardsfan111

Just watched a film called Open Grave after buying it within the last year (I think it was at Dollar Tree). My list includes a brief thought with everything I view, so I typed out that the premise didn't seem original to me. Then after logging it, I went to add it to my master list and noticed I had checked it out from Redobx in 2015.

alyxstarr

I finally posted my list so far, after hitting 50 earlier today. Doing exceptionally well (for me), with plenty of wiggle room to hit my goal of 100 even if I don't keep up the pace. (Insomnia FTW!) Remembering the icheckmovies banners at the top of my list, I caught up my TSZDT tally -- and as of the start of the challenge, I was at exactly 666. It'll be a little bit of a shame to update again after the challenge is over.

#s 51 and 52 will be Dracula (1931) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), in preparation for my movie club meeting on Tuesday. It's a local, very casual club that grew out of the book club most of us belong to, both of which are technically sponsored by the local library and technically aimed at millennials/people in their 20s and 30s. The movie club started during the pandemic, so nearly all of our meetings have been on Zoom, including the one this week. Anyway, the "event" was posted on the internet as being "open to the public," and some big Lugosi group on Facebook picked up on it... and so it looks like we may have a few random additions at this month's meeting.

WillieMLF

I’ve been sitting home all day today watching movies and this afternoon, my watch beeped with a message that I could still close my move ring by burning 666 calories.

Chad

The winner of The Sunday Night Trivia Question #1: Banner Edition...

tarfrimmer

Congratulations! You're now the winner of the HamiltonBook.com Prize Pack #1:



Courtesy of...



FYI, that wasn't Ash on the banner; it was "Shinji" from Bloody Muscle Bodybuilder in Hell.

Chad

Sunday Night Trivia Question II: Dead By Dawn

A return to the quick and easy questions.

October 15, 2021 marks the 40th Anniversary of The Evil Dead. The film influenced countless genre films, produced 2 sequels, a remake, a television series and has an upcoming entry (Evil Dead Rise) coming 2022. It also inspired countless video game adaptations, a stage musical and even spawned some unofficial Italian sequels. Just recently it was rereleased in theaters courtesy of Fathom Events and is currently an exhibit at The Mystic Museum in Burbank, CA . Coincidentally, one of our subset picks this year is Evil Dead II, which celebrates its 35th anniversary next year.

Name 3 of your favorite Sam Raimi films and/or Evil Dead-inspired films.

A list and an IMDB page to refresh your memory.



That's it. There are no right or wrong answers. Randomly drawn. USA only please.


You're playing for the very well-stacked Hamilton Book Prize Pack #2!

Spoiler:

One extremely lucky winner will receive (USA only please):




Courtesy of...





Submit your answers to me via PM or email (one entry per person).

Contest is open until next Sunday's trivia question begins.

Good luck!

asianxcore

They Reach (2020) was well-cast and surprisingly warm & sincere but film is so derivative that it ultimate becomes a distracting experience, especially in its second-half.

Koko-di Koko-da (2019) contains a plot that is meant to be repetitive (think Groundhog Day) and its effectiveness will vary in mileage depending on the viewer. The film is effectively creepy and I appreciated the various ways the film approached the theme of grief.

Spiderbite

Had a rough go today with a creature triple feature afternoon.

Started with Dogs (1976), then Grizzly (1976) and finished with Day Of The Animals (1977).

None were great or even very good. Grizzly was the goriest but also the dullest. Day plays more like a 1970's ensemble disaster piece than a horror movie. And finally Dogs is filled with the cutest pups that are somehow supposed to be seen as menacing.

Spiderbite

Congrats tarfrimmer! That is one kick-ass prize pack!!!

I know many of your have complete TV series sets hanging around and want a good excuse to crack one now and then. Well here you go.

28 Classic Halloween TV Episodes: 28 Classic Halloween TV Episodes (ultimateclassicrock.com)

An example of one that I have to watch:

'CHiPs,' "Rock Devil Rock" (1982)

Cheesy, silly and endlessly entertaining, this 'CHiPs' episode had everything you look for in a Halloween special. The main plot revolved around Moloch, a shock-rock star - played by 'Happy Days’' Ralph Malph, Donnie Most - whose makeup and persona were clearly inspired by Kiss. CHP officers Ponch and Bobby have to protect the rocker, while also keeping the peace during Halloween. A subplot featured a young, pre-Metallica Robert Trujillo playing a teenager named Flippy. Oh, and Elvira makes an appearance, flirting with Ponch and at one point joining the officer for a tango. What more could you ask for?

Read More: 28 Classic Halloween TV Episodes | https://ultimateclassicrock.com/hall...edium=referral

L. Ron zyzzle

Wanted to chime in here after watching Gonjiam alone with all the lights out. Starts out feeling a bit gimmicky but builds dread very nicely. Though much footage is devoted to closeups of the actor's faces, the fact that each one is their own personal camera operator very much draws the viewer into a subjective experience. This jaded horror hound found the last half-hour truly punishing and almost unbearable. 4.5/5

asianxcore

I realized during this Challenge that I have not seen Urban Legend (1998) before, despite having seen many films from the 90s/00s-era of Slasher films.

Luckily for me it was free to watch on Tubi. I enjoyed the core premise of the film, as well as the first quarter it. The final act is garbage and the film feels twice as long as its 100-minute run-time, due to losing so much of its steam early on.

I haven't seen Valentine (2001) either, so I'll probably watch that one soon.

Trevor

Fwiw, Fandor is back as a streaming service with most films available free with ads. Pretty large and eclectic horror section. Haven’t streamed anything in this new iteration of the service yet.

asianxcore

Taking a break from watching films to (hopefully) finish up the first Season of Jujutsu Kaisen, which is absolutely perfect for this Challenge

WillieMLF

Congrats tarfrimmer!

Spiderbite

Have you watched one with ads yet? I looked at one movie and it had quite a bit of breaks marked throughout the stream and there were 6 minutes(!) of ads before the movie even started. Anyone know if the ad breaks are that long throughout the films for that channel? Because if that is the case, I will pay the 5 bucks or whatever for the month and then dump it after the challenge.

I don't really mind a 2 minute break or less a couple of times before and during the movie but 6 minutes of ads each break and when there are 6 to 8 breaks during the film, that is crazy annoying.

jholmes

I've been watching 4-5 a day this challenge for the most part, which is a lot for me. But so far I've had the time and been in the mood. I'm finding that by the last movie I need something that's "horror lite" and an easy watch.

Last night we ended with Embryo from 1976 with Rock Hudson. It's on Amazon Prime. I almost turned it off because it's the worst kind of SD quality. Really horrible. But we kept it on and I liked the movie itself. Surprisingly decent script and good actors. (Well, Rock was fairly wooden, but he always was.) The ending was great and made us giggle like mad. It's a shame this movie has never been restored and given a bluray or even a decent DVD, but from what I've researched, no decent copy is available.

Yesterday was overall great day with Battle Royale, Kuroneko, and The Eye (2002). I also watched A Page of Madness (1926) which had some very cool visuals but no subtitles so the story (what there was of one) was impossible to follow.

WillieMLF

I love me some Kuroneko. It such a visual film. I saw Kurutta Ichipeiji (A Page of Madness) a few years ago during the challenge. It was playing on TCM late one night and the intro added some context. After the challenge, I would highly recommend looking up the history of this 'lost' masterpiece. The history is almost as amazing as the film. One of my favorites.

jholmes

Thanks. I will. I appreciated the surreal b&w imagery, especially in the asylum. It's a gift to be able to have footage like this of that era in Japan regardless. But as a film, I found the lack of subtitles very annoying. They would have close-ups of characters talking back and forth for minutes, but never tell you what was said (in any language). As someone who is very story-focused, this was a major bugaboo. I only figured out a few details about the story from the film's wikipedia entry. But yes, it's a really interesting piece and I'd like to learn more about it.