As with yesterday’s offering, a bunch of people trapped in a building chased by demons. I adore this flick something fierce. I also have a long review in the archives that I’m now thinking of scrapping for something NEWER.
Might be interesting.
3/31. I have one more in a sort of series, then I really need to find something not demonic related to watch.
God, I love this picture.
People are given tickets to see a nameless movie in a brand new theater by a guy who looks like he’s depriving an Opera house of a phantom. This proves to be a mistake, as it’s some sort of plot to unleash Hell on Earth.
I am so not impartial with this one. It’s one of those “Can watch anytime” flicks.
So we are now 2/31 in terms of reviews for the Sister Site. So far so good.
I had a crazy thought.
This Month of Horror is an annual thing for me. I don’t always make a whole month, but I try. And with each day I write a review.
Last year, on whim, I started rating the films using the system I use for the Sister Site, Welltun Cares Reviews. It felt pretty good, so I thought I’d do it again this year.
This isn’t crazy.
About four days ago I started making up a list of movies to watch. Why keep that to the last minute? Am I right or am I right? Might keep me from missing days if I had it all planned out ahead of time. Pretty brilliant, I thought.
And as I made the list, I realized I was doing all movies.
Welltun Cares Reviews was all movies. More or less.
Why–and I know this is a bizarre thought–but why not post the reviews on my review site?
Madness, I know.
The initial idea was post them as I finished, like I did here. Then the thunderclap came. Am I nuts? Every other review pops up on Fridays. I’ve been doing this for most the year. Why, therefore, should I post a review every day instead of scheduling them all as a massive buffer?
So that’s the plan. I review one movie a day for 31 days. That should give me thirty one weeks, plus four more weeks from Golden Oldie reviews I’d already set up in case I failed. A hell of a buffer.
Long enough so that I should be able to crank out my preferred longer reviews without fear.
So what does that mean for this site?
I still intend to talk about the films, but in a really, really abbreviated form. I see no point in spoiling my efforts on one site by posting on another.
So. Today’s feature was As Above, So Below, a 2014 flick. Another of my goals, I should add, is to put out more reviews of more current flicks. My opinion of modern Horror has been low, which has kept me from it. And as this film has proven, that’s a mistake.
It’s a good flick. Well written, very little fat. Found footage style, so if you have a beef with that subgenre you might have one here. I don’t care for it myself, but to be honest I’ve had a string of good luck with them so far and this continues the streak.
Last review spoiler: 3.5 points.
So. The Winnie the Pooh slasher movie made enough money for a sequel. BUT! The Banana Splits horror movie did not. What does that tell us? Beside the fact that some people are so desperate for ideas they’ll try anything?
This weekend I had the distinct pleasure of watching The Bloodthirsty Trilogy, three Seventies movies dealing with the Undead.
First it was The Vampire Doll/Legacy of Dracula (you’ll note a theme here). A man heads out to see his fiancée and never returns, mainly because she’s become a yellow eyed undead fiend. This one has less to do with Bram Stoker and more to do with another Gothic writer whom, if I mention his name, might spoil some of the movie. I didn’t see where this one was going and as far as I was concerned at the time, it made getting the collection worth the money for it alone.
Next was Lake of Dracula, where a past close encounter leads to heartbreaking danger for a young woman in the present. This is Grade A Vampire action here, with more yellow eyed Undead and a decent grasp of Vampire lore. The main Vampire, played by Mori Kishida, is great and I really think Kishida should be listed up there with Lugosi and Lee. He has a great presence.
Oh, and Dracula is only mentioned twice, in passing. And the Lake really doesn’t have much to do with things.
Finally there’s Evil of Dracula, where a new teacher at an all girl’s school learns that his charges are in dire danger from the Undead (and he’s not in any safe place himself). In my opinion the best of the three, it has Mori Kishida returning as a different Vampire. He seems to be having a blast in the part. Again, no connection with Dracula.
I don’t want to oversell these movies. They have their problems here and there. But they are delightful films, and not a one with sparkles.
Yes, I’m still irritated about that. Can’t be helped at this point.
An evil landowner pushes his luck once to often and awakens the ire of the Yokai.
Here’s a fun little flick. While I was unable to ascertain whether the title was misleading or not, it does have plenty of monsters in it. Not the best special effects, mind you, but most entertaining nonetheless.
Watching this, I was reminded of Daimaijin, which perhaps isn’t surprising. Not only was this made by the same company, it was directed by the same guy.
Anyways, both this film and Daimaijin follow the same structure in terms of story. The bad guy has a host of henchmen who run rampant across the medieval Japan. They more or less have their way about things until they offend the local supernatural agency. Said supernatural agency then starts acting up, leading to the climax.
Of the two, 100 Monsters is probably the more kid friendly. The monsters are plentiful and come far more frequently than in Daimaijin, which not only has just the one but reserves him completely for the finale. It’s a bit dark. Not too much so, just enough to mention.
Were I to compare the two, though (as if I’m not doing so now), I’d give the win to Daimaijin. There’s an awful lot of padding in this movie, and no real rhyme or reason why which Yokai appears where. The finale, which is deeply satisfying in Daimaijin, doesn’t have the punch.
A tighter structure would have helped enormously. There are also two short stories buried in this movie that should have either been removed or made more a part of the over-all narative.
To summarize, it’s a good flick (1.5). I rather liked it (1.5) and will watch the sequels.
But there’s better variations on this plot out there.
3 out of 4
Only one short tonight. Lost track of time.
A young woman comes home one night and finds something bad in her house.
A problem I’ve noticed with a lot of these shorts is lack of context. The protagonist encounters something weird seemingly without rhyme or reason and it’s never explained.
This might seem unfair. There’s not a lot of time to get into things in under, say, fifteen minutes. However, it can be done.
Take Trick or Treat! for instance. It isn’t much longer than Vicious, and yet you know why what happens to the protagonists happens. Oh, not the whole story behind what happens, sure. Enough, though, that it makes a degree of twisted sense.
Here, something bad happens. You don’t know why. And when dealing with the Supernatural, as you are here, an explanation of some sort would be nice.
Carping done. This is a very good short (2.0). My one complaint aside, it does everything right in terms of atmosphere, acting, and all. It was a pleasure watching it (1.5), though I don’t think I liked it quite as much as Trick or Treat! Which makes it feel a little strange that this has the higher rating.
Oh well. Never said the rating system was perfect.
3.5 out of 4
A psychiatrist with the ability to absorb the illnesses of his patients comes upon a situation that may be more than he can handle.
Yes, I cribbed that summary from the show’s Wikipedia page.
Yes, I am ashamed of myself.
One confession done, here’s another.
At some point I grew tired of TV shows. Could not force myself to watch them. Told myself something had to give between the reading, the tv, and the videogames, might as well be the TV.
Watching Now He’s Coming Up the Stairs, it occurs to me this apathy started around the same year this series came out.
There is something entirely too familiar about this story. The acting, the direction, I don’t know what. It just felt too much like something I’ve watched a thousand times before. Or struggled to watch a thousand times before.
How bad did it get? Well the episode comes with two stories and I’m only talking about one. How bad do you think it got?
I had a similar problem earlier in the month. I tried to watch an episode of Ghost Story staring Jason Robards (of all people) and I didn’t make the halfway point. Too dull.
Or seemingly dull. Same thing, though, when push comes to shove.
All of this might seem to point towards me carping about Now He’s Coming Up the Stairs. And I did have problems. The script could have used a rewrite, maybe even shortening. Certain parts to my mind didn’t add up. There was entirely too much Luke Perry.
Entirely.
Too.
Much.
Those, though, might be considered Cullen Carps and discarded. The moment Our Hero begins his latest attempt to help someone on is gripping stuff. Well worth the wait getting there.
In other words, it does it’s job. Maybe not a great episode, but certainly a good one (1.5). I kind of like it (1.5) and might seek out some more. Especially the ones directed by the Great Joe Dante and Not Really That Bad Toby Hooper.
Though I’m not finishing the episode Now He’s Coming Up the Stairs belongs to. That story just ain’t clicking with me at all.
Oh, and Henry Rollins as Rod Serling? Really? Nothing against the guy, but really?
3 out of 4
A couple of kids open up a gate to Hell. Typical weekend, actually.
This is yet another one of those films I can slip on and watch anytime and still get a kick out of it. Yeah, the effects can be lame, and yeah, the acting is only just adequate. Watching it this time I thought it would have worked better if it was a wee bit shorter.
And more Italian leaning. If you catch my drift.
But you know what? When it works, it works. It’s funny most of the time, and it has more than a few truly nightmarish moments. The final monster is one of cinema’s best.
It’s a good movie (1.5) that I love (2.0).
Oh, and the Dark Gods as malicious pranksters? I can almost see that.
3.5 out of 4
An agent of death comes to a backwaters town.
I didn’t like this cartoon short the first time I watched it, and I can’t now say why. It’s perfect, nasty in the way Horror should be nasty.
Great stuff (2.0). But do I love it? Yeah, maybe I do. (2.0)
Oh, and the Undertaker’s smile? Yeesh.
4 out of 4
A young woman and a young man wait for a ride in the dark of night.
Same premise as with our previous subject, Waiting, with a young woman experiencing difficulties while waiting for a bus. Short, well acted, but not particularly scary.
Good (1.5), but I didn’t get the same kick as the earlier film. So maybe a meh (1).
2.5 out of 4
A couple faces a persistent Trick-or-Treater.
This one, though, is a delight. Well acted, decent story, it made me wish it was longer. Not scary but creepy, very creepy.
I’ll say good (1.5) and liked (1.5)
3 out of 4
One might think I’m pushing it including TV episodes. However, the rule here is that whatever show I discuss has to be an anthology. Thus mini-movies.
So Tales From the Darkside gets a pass, but Buffy the Vampire Slayer does not.
Sound good? Great. Knew I could count on you.
student goes to class early to bring his classmates a vital message.
I stumbled over this series on Netflix while looking for something to watch. Here was a series from Thailand done by Thai Horror directors. Too tempting to pass up. This happens to be the first episode.
To give a little more meat to my summary, the student, Q, goes to school to take a picture of a chalkboard. There’s a book title written there, and any student who doesn’t have the book by 8 is killed by a ghost. The other school mates forget about the hapless student, but there are reminders that someone is missing.
And that’s all I’m saying about that.
7 AM has it’s problems. It’s central premise could do with some fleshing out. The forgetting part hampers thing. You see way too much of the ghost and learn too little about her. And, to make everything worse, there’s an over reliance on bad CGI.
That said, it’s a well done episode (1.5) that heads in a direction I didn’t see coming. I liked it (1.5) and no doubt will watch more of the series.
3 out of 4
WELLTUN CARES PRESENTS 