What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[BigDoddyKane]

Blindspotting

Set in Oakland over a few days. I liked this movie. Its a bit different even if the stories about race and gentrification are familiar. It walks the line on nearly being a bit corny at times but always stays on the right side. Thats down to the acting and performance. Its quality stuff being delivered. I got tne feeling its maybe been a play to some extent before movie was made or some live performance, as it seemed quite polished. Oakland is shown well in it, lots of local stuff it seems is in it location and lines wise. Well worth a watch.

 

[accies1874]

153. Clovehitch Killer (2018)* - Prime Video

The boringness of this was its biggest quality, as it completely grounds the nasty moments and subject matter which makes it feel like an indie drama where those things were simply taking place. It’s quiet, the camera is always(?) on a tripod, the colour scheme is flat – all of these combine to authenticate grim parts. I quite liked how the script unfolded, too, consistently giving the impression of overplaying its hand but remaining surprising throughout.

154. 8 1/2 (1963)* - Prime Video

I feel pretty comfortable in saying after one watch that this is incredible. It took about five seconds for me to know that I was in for a wild ride, and it delivered.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film that has better utilised the limitations of black and white cinematography and how you can contrast the two extremes of a colourless image to create something unbelievably striking.

My brain was on the verge of exploding come the end (hence why I watched the next film, as a head-clearer) as you’ve got so much packed into so many images and lines of dialogue, not least one of the final monologues which you could spend hours unpacking and trying to decipher how key it is to the whole piece.  

Wonderful stuff. 

155. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)* - Film4

This is what I watched to clear my head after 8½ and I kinda hated it. It’s way too smug and runs any funny moments into the ground. 

156. REC (2007)* - DVD

It fell into the fun and exciting horror categories rather than psychological or creepy, but it’s definitely a good time.

157. Jaws (1975) - Digital Rental

The first half of this definitely falls into the GOAT conversation for me but the second doesn’t hold my interest quite the same. I think it’s because of how frenetic the first is that the second half’s slowness feels jarring despite being really good in its own right.

158. Bergman Island (2022)* - MUBI

Completely forgettable to me. 

159. Zombieland (2009) - Film4

Zombie hangouts are interesting to me as the world is, essentially, your oyster; it’s the apocalypse so no rules apply. That can lead to inventive set-pieces or scenes where characters take the time to appreciate what they’ve got. Zombieland didn’t achieve that quite as well as I was hoping for, maybe because of its short runtime added to it also being an ‘origin’ of how they came together. The characters are also a bit meh to me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jesse Eisenberg not be annoying; it just depends on whether or not your aim is for him to be annoying.

160. Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)* - Film4

This has pretty all of the bad things about belated sequels and makes you ask why the heck it exists. It’s quite sensational how awful the script and editing are. Zero interest in storytelling – completely pointless.

Emma Stone, you were in a Best Picture winner and have won Best Actress – why are you here?

161. Dawn of the Dead (2004)* - Digital Rental

Actually quite a cool Zack Snyder film. Probably the only one that feels insane to me – in a good way – as it abandons any notion of making much sense and just wants to be experienced. I know it’s still got some of his religious malarkey but it’s far less invasive than it is elsewhere.

[BFTD]

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (entirely legal download) - tl;dr: this is a bad film.

This is the new 2022 film, which is a direct sequel to the original 1974 film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and completely ignores 1986's horror-comedy The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. I presume it also ignores the notoriously poor Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, neither of which I've seen. It's also got nothing to do with the Michael Bay-produced remake The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and its sequel The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.

Then there was the reboot Texas Chainsaw 3D, which ignored all of the sequels and remakes, and acted as a direct sequel to the original as well, only to be ignored by this new film. Finally, there was a prequel to the original called Leatherface that came out a few years ago, which I don't remember even hearing about, and certainly don't remember seeing. But, hey, it's possible; at this stage, it's all just a huge mess of big guys running about with chainsaws in my head. If you're keeping track, we've now got three different films called The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and a fourth called Texas Chainsaw, plus two other films called Leatherface. They're essentially making films with the same name in the hope that someone will get them confused with the original when looking for something to stream.

So, in this one, Leatherface disappeared at the end of the 1974 film and was never caught. We don't care about what happened to the rest of his family and they're never mentioned. The lassie who escaped became a Texas Ranger, and has spent the past fifty years unsuccessfully trying to track down our favourite chainsaw warrior, but she's not terribly important and pretty much just turns up for a face-to-face with our hero. The plot's actually about a bunch of (presumably rich) millennials who buy an almost-abandoned isolated town in Texas in order to sell parts of it to other rich millennials, I guess? Sounds legit; luck with that.

Turns out that one building, the orphanage, is still inhabited by the owner and her last charge, an enormous man who, according to the film's own timeline, must be well into his seventies, but certainly doesn't look or act like it. Spoilers: it's Leatherface! Somehow a fully-grown man ended up being taken in by a home for children? It's not explained, just go with it. His elderly 'mama' dies during her eviction, so it's time for our boy to go on a rip-roaring rampage of revenge, at which point the film's plot ends about halfway through.

This film doesn't make any sense, and is only worth watching if you fancy seeing strawmen get chainsawed into pieces; the makers appear to have a huge chip on their shoulder about those woke millennials they heard about on Fox News. The original was about the counter-culture being exposed to the dark underbelly of rural America, but this just seems like an excuse to jerk off over people they don't like dying in horribly painful ways. If that sounds like fun, you might get something out of it, but there's really nothing else of interest going on here.

Oh, after a multitude of films in which Leatherface is just a big dude with a power tool, this film also establishes that he's now a Michael Myers/Jason style immortal who can't be killed. Because that was what this franchise was missing.

[accies1874]

That sounds infinitely worse than I imagined it would be.

[BFTD]

5 minutes ago, accies1874 said:

That sounds infinitely worse than I imagined it would be.

There's a scene whether Leatherface appears in a room full of young people, all of whom immediately raise their camera phones, like they think it's a shield that will protect them. One of them says, "try anything and you're cancelled, bro".

I'm still trying to unclench my sphincter.

[MSU]

136 Blonde -- Ana de Armas is exceptional in this attempted Oscar-bait not-really-a-biopic that is as bleak as it is long. Some of the camera work and scene design is impressive. This version of Marilyn comes across as intelligent and aware but it's not enough as she's eaten up and spat out by the Hollywood machine. Depressing and sad and not exactly entertaining and not something I'd care to watch again, but it's not as bad as some reviews would have it. 5/10

137 Eighth Grade (#69 in A24 series) -- As I embark on my 50th tour of the sun, I'm probably ill-equipped to assess the authenticity of how 14 year olds are portrayed in this. Elsie Fisher plays Kayla and we follow her through her last week of Middle School before starting High School. She gives life advice she never follows on a YouTube channel no one watches and is a shy, awkward, anxious wee thing. Frequently uncomfortable to watch but it never goes in the obvious direction. A wiser Breakfast Club for a new generation and I absolutely loved it. 10/10

138 The Marc Pease Experience (#4 in the Anna Kendrick series) -- Good God, this is bad. Jason Schwartzman plays a school-musical kid who suffered embarrassment in the end of year show and has never got over it. Eight years later, he still hangs around the school, is dating a senior (yikes) played by Kendrick, who seems to be having a relationship with her teacher (double-yikes) played by Ben Stiller. None of sketchy behavior is addressed and instead it focuses on Schwartzman trying to get his a cappella band off the ground. Eyebrow raising stuff. 2/10

139 Grand Hotel (#5 in the Best Picture Oscar series) -- I vant to be alone. A galaxy of 1930s stars feature in five intertwined stories that all happen at the Grand Hotel, bookended by an observation that nothing ever happens there. It's lots of fun, pretty easy to follow, and while the acting isn't up to much, as was the style of the day, it's an amusing romp. 6/10

140 Bros -- Supposedly the first gay rom-com, it suffers somewhat from not being funny, and having Billy Eichner play a very unlikeable lead as the insufferable Bobby. He's host of a million-subscriber podcast that we see him do once right at the start, perpetually single, channeling his inner Woody Allen as he has a speech for any occasion, except the occasion where one would actually want a speech. At the club, he meets Aaron, who is painted in such broad strokes all we really know about him is he hates being a lawyer, wants to be a confectioner, and also is perpetually single. It's just a very obviously written movie because no one really behaves this way, or speaks this way. The editing is a mess, which isn't something I normally notice but there was nothing else going on so my attention had to wander somewhere. It's been favoured by critics but avoided by audiences, which is weird for a supposed comedy; usually you'd expect it the other way. Harvey Fierstein deserved so much better. 4/10

[accies1874]

162. Paranormal Activity (2007) - Prime

The last five minutes would make a good horror short film. Everything else is garbage. 

163. Paranormal Activity 2 (2010) - Netflix

Back when I was younger, me and my friends thought this was the scariest shit of all time. One still doesn’t like horror because he was freaked out by this so much, but we’d regularly watch it when staying at folk’s houses. I’ve not seen it since then so I’m really surprised we found so much rewatchability as it’s painfully boring. I suppose it’s quite good from the pov of watching it with friends as a youngster, as you’ll talk through all the boring shit and then get prepared to be frightened by a loud noise. Also, how did they get away with not having a conclusion? Fair play for the folk behind this series for being the ultimate grifters. Onto PA3!

164. Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) - Netflix

This one isn’t actually as terrible – but still not good. The demon’s behaviour actually makes a wee bit more sense which makes it feel like more of a film than a vehicle for teenagers to be startled by every so often, but they put a greater emphasis on the idea of it actually being a physical being doing the haunting which adds both confusion and comedy to it. They’ve also added a pan to the ‘footage’ – which, given this is supposed to be shot on video 20 years before the other two, looks remarkably like a cheap film released in 2011 – and that adds a modicum of filmmaking to the procedure, even if they don’t utilise it.

The ending’s decent. I find creepy old cult ladies much scarier than moving furniture and it’s actually quite a surprising turn that still makes sense. I also felt the dad’s helplessness which is the first time I’ve felt something about one of these characters that isn’t “what a pain in the ass”. There’s also a very interesting twist that this time it’s the man of the house who believes there’s paranormal activity and the woman who doesn’t.

165. Dawn of the Dead: Theatrical Cut (1978)* - Prime

What a picture. It’s a beautiful feeling when you watch a film and realise very early on that you’re in capable hands. A lot of the crowd-pleasing classics of this period tend to have a genre-blend of horror, action and comedy and they work on every single level. Shit like Terminator, Robocop and Jaws – all of your dad’s favourite films – all manage to take something horrific, make them exciting and then make them entertaining while still having something to say (invariably about capitalism). Dawn of the Dead defos does it too and you know it will right from the off – it starts at 100mph with a crazy opening that combines seedy law enforcement, catastrophic broadcasting and then zombies which is a hell of a way to settle into a film.

I was a bit concerned that watching the remake first might ruin the surprise factor of this but tbf they’re almost entirely different. There are zombies, there’s a mall and that’s pretty much it. What impressed and surprised me so much was how the slower moments were the backbone of the whole thing both in terms of character and satire. There’s the exciting zombie shit, of course, but it’s often in service of the story and is only exciting zombie shit because of the time you spend chilling out with the characters who have surrounded themselves with dubiously acquired goods.

166. Paranormal Activity 4 (2012) - Sky Cinema

This is the worst one yet, although Kathryn Newton might actually be the first actor from one of these who’s gone on to be in good things (although I didn’t know she was in Lady Bird) as last year’s Freaky was really enjoyable. The Map of Tiny Perfect Things less so, although it has a really clever twist. 

167. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014)* - Sky Cinema

Speaking of Freaky... 

This is the first proper director of a Paranormal Activity instalment. He also did the two Happy Death Days, so he’s done alright since. I quite liked the first maybe 30 minutes or so, when it isn’t a Paranormal Activity film, as the scene-setting isn’t simply boringness before the loud noises; it gives a bit more care to the characters, although I think it might be a bit racist at points, and has a decent tense sequence in a church. It’s all downhill from there though.

None of the subsequent ones seem to be available on any of my subscriptions so it's sayonara to the franchise for now. 

[BFTD]

If you didn't appreciate the Paranormal Activity films up to The Marked Ones, you're not gonna have a good time with The Ghost Dimension!  

I'd no idea there was another one released direct to streaming in 2021, Next of Kin, and one coming out next year. There was a Japanese spin-off years ago called Tokyo Night, but I don't think it was released here.

[Miguel Sanchez]

"Parasnoremal Inactivity"

Kermode is clearly a P&B poster

[BFTD]

I like that series of films, as I am a boring person, but #4 was rank rotten. Marked Ones was fun, then Ghost Dimension should've killed it stone dead. Absolutely no ideas left, and the only idea to start with was "things move when people leave a room".

[DA Baracus]

The Wicker Man

No, not the 1973 classic but instead the insane 2006 remake with Nicholas Cage, who goes full Cage in a tremendously mental performance. There are spoilers bow.

Cage plays California traffic cop Edward Malus, who is sent a letter by his ex asking for help looking for her missing daughter. He heads over to Summerisle, an island commune in Washington where his ex resides, to search for her.

It should be noted that Malus wears a full suit with shirt and tie (and formal shoes), despite it being summer and despite going to a rural location. He wears this for the rest of the film (until he wears a bear disguise at the end).

Malus is immediately very rude, arrogant and condescending to everyone he meets for absolutely no reason. He continues this for the rest of the film.

Despite being a traffic cop from California, he regularly chucks around threats of arrest and wildly oversteps his authority, including threatening to arrest the entire island for murder.

We quickly learn that Malus is a bit thick. He is repeatedly lied to by everyone but his ex, who tells him that he is the father of her daughter (Rowan), he immediately and unquestioningly accepts (although it turns out this is the truth). Whilst he knows he's being lied to, the clues are liberally seeded as to why and he doesn't come close to grasping the truth. I guess that's why he's just a traffic cop.

As he becomes increasingly flustered (at least take the jacket off man!) he tears around the island in a manic fashion, imagining that he sees Rowan everywhere, shouting out her name at even the hint of anything. A rustle of wind? Rowan! Something under the dock? Rowan! A noise in the crypt? Rowan! An empty desk in the classroom? Rowan! A fucking madman.

Thicky Malus still doesn't figure it out. Even when he 'finds' Rowan and 'rescues' her from a sacrifice, only for her to lead him back to everyone, he still doesn't understand what is going on. They prettt much have to spell it out for him; he is the one to be sacrificed. They capture him, break his legs ("MY LEGS ARE BROKEN!!") and chuck him in the eponymous Wicker Man, as Cage gives a frankly hilarious performance of being burned alive by a load of mad fuckers.

A truly ridiculous film but an outstanding tour de force of nonsense from Cage, delivering an heroically absurb peformance with some iconic lines ("Not the bees!", "How did it get burned, how did it get burned, HOW DID IT GER BURNED?!", "I'm not one of you!!").

Also, for some reason, the film is dedicated to Joey Ramone.

Edited October 13, 2022 by DA Baracus

[accies1874]

If you didn't appreciate the Paranormal Activity films up to The Marked Ones, you're not gonna have a good time with The Ghost Dimension!  
I'd no idea there was another one released direct to streaming in 2021, Next of Kin, and one coming out next year. There was a Japanese spin-off years ago called Tokyo Night, but I don't think it was released here.

"Parasnoremal Inactivity"
Kermode is clearly a P&B poster

I like that series of films, as I am a boring person, but #4 was rank rotten. Marked Ones was fun, then Ghost Dimension should've killed it stone dead. Absolutely no ideas left, and the only idea to start with was "things move when people leave a room".

I think the lack of ideas is pretty evident considering they made five films (that I've seen) and only one of them was a sequel.

The whole idea of things moving in the corner of the frame can be fun, and I actually think the 2020 Invisible Man film is a better Paranormal Activity than any of the Paranormal Activities. When it works, it becomes a game for the audience to play along with which was why I was quite interested in revisiting them, but I suppose you might need a director and cinematographer to make it work too. I know this is a bit of tangent, but it surprises me that video game adaptations almost always try and replicate the spectacle of the source material rather than getting the audience to play along. I've been playing a lot of Hitman lately (again) and think that there's so much good inspiration you can take to make a good adaptation. Structure it like Kill List in James Bond settings with the cinematography of something like The Invisible Man or It Follows and Roma's sound design. Watch the box office (or the studio) explode.

[BFTD]

Host (Shudder) - during the pandemic, a group of friends decide to have a séance over Zoom. Hijinx ensure.

Online meeting horror became the replacement for found footage for a while. Apparently this one was filmed by the cast on their own equipment during lockdown, and you can tell - it has all the worst aspects of every video call you've ever been on. Watery, garbled, and screeching high-pitched sound, stuttering video, audio drop-out, participants constantly talking over each other, the works. The plot's about as simple as they come, and it's reasonable enough for an evening's limited viewing if you like jumpscares, but it doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone that an "authentic" presentation wouldn't make for a pleasant viewing experience in this scenario.

The Reckoning (entirely legal download) - after her husband dies from plague, a young woman is accused of witchcraft by her lecherous landlord, and is faced with the choice of submitting to his desires, or being tortured and burned to death with her infant daughter.

Neil Marshall can be a bit hit-and-miss, being responsible for a few genuine genre classics, and a few considered more disappointing, such as the recent reboot of Hellboy. This wasn't bad, conjuring quite a dense period atmosphere and doing a good job of highlighting the miserable existence of women during the witch trials, but it could've used a more interesting script IMO. Well made though, with some nice performances, especially from lead Charlotte Kirk and Marshall regular Sean Pertwee.

Also, I'd be remiss not to mention that Charlotte Kirk's arse is quite something.

[Lyle Lanley]

Halloween Ends. Not as good as the other films. Worst of the lot. 

[BFTD]

3 minutes ago, Lyle Lanley said:

Halloween Ends. Not as good as the other films. Worst of the lot. 

Worst of the more recent trilogy, or worst in total?

Without looking, I think they must be up to...thirteen films now? I'd probably put one of the ones between 4-6 as worst if I could remember them. Or maybe that piece of shit with Busta Rhymes.

[Lyle Lanley]

9 minutes ago, BFTD said:

Worst of the more recent trilogy, or worst in total?

Without looking, I think they must be up to...thirteen films now? I'd probably put one of the ones between 4-6 as worst if I could remember them. Or maybe that piece of shit with Busta Rhymes.

Worst of the more recent ones. 

[pittsburgh phil]

The Wicker Man
No, not the 1973 classic but instead the insane 2006 remake with Nicholas Cage, who goes full Cage in a tremendously mental performance. There are spoilers bow.
Cage plays California traffic cop Edward Malus, who is sent a letter by his ex asking for help looking for her missing daughter. He heads over to Summerisle, an island commune in Washington where his ex resides, to search for her.
It should be noted that Malus wears a full suit with shirt and tie (and formal shoes), despite it being summer and despite going to a rural location. He wears this for the rest of the film (until he wears a bear disguise at the end).
Malus is immediately very rude, arrogant and condescending to everyone he meets for absolutely no reason. He continues this for the rest of the film.
Despite being a traffic cop from California, he regularly chucks around threats of arrest and wildly oversteps his authority, including threatening to arrest the entire island for murder.
We quickly learn that Malus is a bit thick. He is repeatedly lied to by everyone but his ex, who tells him that he is the father of her daughter (Rowan), he immediately and unquestioningly accepts (although it turns out this is the truth). Whilst he knows he's being lied to, the clues are liberally seeded as to why and he doesn't come close to grasping the truth. I guess that's why he's just a traffic cop.
As he becomes increasingly flustered (at least take the jacket off man!) he tears around the island in a manic fashion, imagining that he sees Rowan everywhere, shouting out her name at even the hint of anything. A rustle of wind? Rowan! Something under the dock? Rowan! A noise in the crypt? Rowan! An empty desk in the classroom? Rowan! A fucking madman.
Thicky Malus still doesn't figure it out. Even when he 'finds' Rowan and 'rescues' her from a sacrifice, only for her to lead him back to everyone, he still doesn't understand what is going on. They prettt much have to spell it out for him; he is the one to be sacrificed. They capture him, break his legs ("MY LEGS ARE BROKEN!!") and chuck him in the eponymous Wicker Man, as Cage gives a frankly hilarious performance of being burned alive by a load of mad fuckers.
A truly ridiculous film but an outstanding tour de force of nonsense from Cage, delivering an heroically absurb peformance with some iconic lines ("Not the bees!", "How did it get burned, how did it get burned, HOW DID IT GER BURNED?!", "I'm not one of you!!").
Also, for some reason, the film is dedicated to Joey Ramone.

Everything about the film is absolutely mental. Like a fever dream. Does Cage, dressed as a bear obvs, not rampage around uppercutting a woman off a bicycle at one point?

[DA Baracus]

19 minutes ago, pittsburgh phil said:

23 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

The Wicker Man
No, not the 1973 classic but instead the insane 2006 remake with Nicholas Cage, who goes full Cage in a tremendously mental performance. There are spoilers bow.
Cage plays California traffic cop Edward Malus, who is sent a letter by his ex asking for help looking for her missing daughter. He heads over to Summerisle, an island commune in Washington where his ex resides, to search for her.
It should be noted that Malus wears a full suit with shirt and tie (and formal shoes), despite it being summer and despite going to a rural location. He wears this for the rest of the film (until he wears a bear disguise at the end).
Malus is immediately very rude, arrogant and condescending to everyone he meets for absolutely no reason. He continues this for the rest of the film.
Despite being a traffic cop from California, he regularly chucks around threats of arrest and wildly oversteps his authority, including threatening to arrest the entire island for murder.
We quickly learn that Malus is a bit thick. He is repeatedly lied to by everyone but his ex, who tells him that he is the father of her daughter (Rowan), he immediately and unquestioningly accepts (although it turns out this is the truth). Whilst he knows he's being lied to, the clues are liberally seeded as to why and he doesn't come close to grasping the truth. I guess that's why he's just a traffic cop.
As he becomes increasingly flustered (at least take the jacket off man!) he tears around the island in a manic fashion, imagining that he sees Rowan everywhere, shouting out her name at even the hint of anything. A rustle of wind? Rowan! Something under the dock? Rowan! A noise in the crypt? Rowan! An empty desk in the classroom? Rowan! A fucking madman.
Thicky Malus still doesn't figure it out. Even when he 'finds' Rowan and 'rescues' her from a sacrifice, only for her to lead him back to everyone, he still doesn't understand what is going on. They prettt much have to spell it out for him; he is the one to be sacrificed. They capture him, break his legs ("MY LEGS ARE BROKEN!!") and chuck him in the eponymous Wicker Man, as Cage gives a frankly hilarious performance of being burned alive by a load of mad fuckers.
A truly ridiculous film but an outstanding tour de force of nonsense from Cage, delivering an heroically absurb peformance with some iconic lines ("Not the bees!", "How did it get burned, how did it get burned, HOW DID IT GER BURNED?!", "I'm not one of you!!").
Also, for some reason, the film is dedicated to Joey Ramone.

Everything about the film is absolutely mental. Like a fever dream. Does Cage, dressed as a bear obvs, not rampage around uppercutting a woman off a bicycle at one point?

He cracks a lassie off a bike before the bear suit, as well as having a quasi kung fu fight with a young woman where he ends it by Spartan kicking her in to a wall. He also knocks an old crone out with one punch.

When he's in the bear suit he does deliver an uppercut to one woman, but she's sadly sans cycle. Whilst in the bear suit he comically 'reveals' himself to his ex, despite the suit having a big gap where the face of the wearer can clearly be seen.

[coprolite]

A Field in England (2013)

Some stragglers from a civil war battle wander off for a beer, but it turns out one of them is in cahoots with a magician who they pull out of the ground while mushied out of their nuts. 

There's basically one set and five actors (six including Julian Barrett briefly peering over a hedge) and it's in black and white. Large parts are either implied offscreen or barely comprehensible. 

Sounds like it should be a load of pretentious shite but i was absolutely sold.  Was completely fascinated. Still not entirely sure what went on though. 

7/10

Sing (2016)

Anthropomorphic animal entertainment. Stock characters do a singing contest with heartwarming redemption arcs.  

Solid family watch. 

6/10

Earth vs the Flying Saucers. (1956)

I only watched this because i saw that Ray Harryhausen did the special effects. 

Pretty much the plot of Independence day but done in the wooden style of American post war films. Special effects were ok for the time i guess. 

5/10

 

[accies1874]

168. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920)* – BFI Player
Amazon had a version with full sound which I was quite intrigued by, but I thought it would be best to just watch it as intended. I’ve spoken before about how, when done right, I like when the look of a film verges on being stagey and this is probably the clearest example of that. German expressionism etc etc. Despite that, the lighting is mega cool, especially when boxing faces, and the imagery can be wonderfully unsettling.

169. Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)* – MUBI
A depressed vampire starring alongside Tilda Swinton, John Hurt and Mia Wasikowska who may well actually be irl vampires. This feels like it should be every edgy/emo kid’s favourite film – I loved it.
It’s hard to put my finger on why, but sometimes a character or tone or idea just works so much in quite an indescribable way.

170. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)* – Netflix[mention=38705]BFTD[/mention] what have you made me do? There’s a good scene on a bus and a couple of neat visual things, but it really is utterly disposable trash. Completely pointless both as a sequel to the original (actually the only sequel/prequel/remake of it that I’ve seen) and as a film in general. Absolutely none of the intensity or tension or oppression, and while it tries to have slightly more rounded characters, they seem to confuse roundedness with just one simple trait. It takes something truly horrible yet wonderful and turns it into a Netflix movie that one subscriber out of a million might stumble upon on a Friday night looking for a cheap horror.

171. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) – DVD
This is one that gets better with every viewing and was added to my October rotation a few years ago now. I think what makes it so scary to me, as a concept more than anything, is the reality of it all. It’s just a family of mentally unstable hillbillies who have been left behind by society committing horrible acts in the countryside. We really don’t need Leatherface as an invincible monster as with the remake. The main characters stumble into this hell as somewhat inadvertent, naïve poverty tourists and the subsequent horror builds in a matter-of-fact way from the chilled out vibe in the van that turns into something quite disturbing, then the first death has no real cinematic flair to it, however it’s not long until you’re experiencing some of the most intense horror ever put on screen that feels like a natural progression and all the more terrifying because of that buildup. When I first saw it a good few years ago – I think I actually posted a review on here – I didn’t really think the pre-massacre stuff had much of a purpose because the characters were so thin and I also didn’t quite appreciate the world building in the background, however I’m fully converted now.
Like I said, I’ve watched this many times but everything from the final kill onwards still provokes the same reaction from me. The dinner scene is incredible – I’d probably credit most of the mastery of that scene to the sound design but the imagery + performances do play a big part – and the way that it even has a slight moment, a pretty cool transition, to break the tension before ramping it all the way up again almost immediately just goes to show the skill of those involved. I quite like watching it on a cheapo DVD as it, somewhat ironically, adds to the video nasty/home video vibe but it’s a really good looking film too without being overly glossy like the remake. A couple of the final shots are obvs iconic and that’s probably to do with the glow of the sunrise. There’s something about daytimes – esp mornings – in horror that I find effective, partly because it lulls you into a false sense of security and often think the danger is over with. This has that and a couple of civilians kicking about to provide a sense of safety yet it feels as scary and intense as it did before – and that’s impressive.

172. 28 Days Later (2002)* – DVD
I think I might have watched this at a friend’s house but all I could remember was a scene with a crow so I’m putting it in the ‘never seen’ pile.
I don’t quite know what to make of it. It has some brilliant character moments, some bad performances (that girl’s accent – wtf), an awful sense of geography in its action scenes and an unevenness that actually kinda lends itself to post-apocalypse movies. Other than Trainspotting, I’ve never really loved Danny Boyle’s films despite them all having varying degrees of merit. This is just too ‘mid-2000s BBC drama’.