Let's Talk About Horror Fiction and Film

[RJDiogenes]

Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2010!

Rats. I was out seeing Blithe Spirit, so I missed them all-- except for the end of Gorgon, which I've seen before. I don't think I've seen any of the others.

 

[Captain Craig]

Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2010!

I just got Zombieland which I haven't seen as well.
After that its the Evil Dead trilogy. The original is actually the only I've seen completely and that was years ago.

The Raimi movies are a treat, the highlight (in my opinion) being Evil Dead II. They're best watched with some friends, if you can arrange a night to have some over.

As noted I watched Evil Dead a few nights ago. Got Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn and watched it last night. First time I've ever seen it.

Keeping in mind I just saw Evil Dead 5 days ago I maybe making the mistake of wanting some continuity between ED-I and ED-II.

Why is Ash returning to the same cabin acting as if he's never been there? The movie is 75% the first movie with some parts rearranged and some added exposition about how the book was found. Showing the Professor, his wife and kids. It fleshes out more backsory on the demons which is good. Would have preferred if one of the demons had had and exchange like this during the second act.
Ash - Why are you doing this to me?
Demon - Because you agreed to it.
Ash - Agreed to it?
Demon - Last year you came and in exchange for your life you agreed to bring us new souls. Knowing we couldn't trust you we wiped your memory and implanted you with the idea of coming back. *insert sick laugh here*
Ash - No, no, no---never again.

Overall a good film despite the F/X limitations of '87. Up next is Army of Darkness. Having run my only above issue by an offline friend he's already instructed me to not ask about why the chainsaw never runs out of gas. Just go with it, its one of those movies he said.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2010!

Heck, I miss the effects limitations of 1987. But I'm aware that I'm fairly alone in that aspect.

I meant to warn you about that Evil Dead/Evil Dead II thing. I'm not even sure you can call the second one a sequel so much as a remake with a slightly higher budget. That, or you can just view Campbell as playing two different characters between them. Heck, their names aren't even the same. In the first one, the character is called Ashley, but in the other two he's Bill Ash. Continuity's never been Raimi's strong suit.

I subjected my wife to Trick 'R Treat a few nights ago and she enjoyed it, to my relief.

For reading, I'm alternating between Something Wicked This Way Comes and my favorite stories from the fantastic Halloween Horrors collection edited by Alan Ryan.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2010!

Heck, I miss the effects limitations of 1987. But I'm aware that I'm fairly alone in that aspect.

I miss the effects "limitations" of all decades. This is why I love stuff like the silent Call Of Cthulhu and the retro-style House Of Wolf Man; actually, one of the reasons I liked Supernatural from the start was the way it echoed those grainy low-budget horror movies of the 80s.

I meant to warn you about that Evil Dead/Evil Dead II thing. I'm not even sure you can call the second one a sequel so much as a remake with a slightly higher budget. That, or you can just view Campbell as playing two different characters between them. Heck, their names aren't even the same. In the first one, the character is called Ashley, but in the other two he's Bill Ash. Continuity's never been Raimi's strong suit.

I'm not sure if I even noticed the name thing. My feeling at the time was that II lacked the spark of the original. Evil Dead had a raw energy similar to the original Night Of The Living Dead; the sequel just seemed to be going through the motions.

I subjected my wife to Trick 'R Treat a few nights ago and she enjoyed it, to my relief.

I love that movie. I plan to watch it again this year for my Marathon.

For reading, I'm alternating between Something Wicked This Way Comes and my favorite stories from the fantastic Halloween Horrors collection edited by Alan Ryan.

I'm also going to try to read Bradbury's Halloween Tree, which I just bought.

 

[Kirkman1987]

Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2010!

Love the Evil Dead series. Each film is better than the last IMO. Bubba Ho-Tep is great too.

My greatest love is reserved for Universal Horror though. I watched The Black Cat earlier today. Great pre-code horror flick with Karloff and Lugosi. Karloff is pure evil. The performances along with the craziness (Karloff is a satanist who preserves dead women in glass containers) make it a treat.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2010!

Bubba Ho-Tep is a classic.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2010!

I just watched this interesting video: CineMassacre: Top 10 Lost Horror Films.

A few of them, like London After Midnight and The Cat Creeps are obvious choices, but there were several I didn't know about, like Japanese King Kong movies from the '30s.

Check it out if you've got about 15 minutes to spare.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2010!

Lost as in not getting the props they deserve, or lost as in no copies exist? I hate when things get lost forever like that...

I'll definitely check this out over the weekend. Japanese King Kong. Wow.

 

[Kirkman1987]

Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2010!

I just watched this interesting video: CineMassacre: Top 10 Lost Horror Films.

A few of them, like London After Midnight and The Cat Creeps are obvious choices, but there were several I didn't know about, like Japanese King Kong movies from the '30s.

Check it out if you've got about 15 minutes to spare.

James Rolfe's monster madness series is great fun every year. I'm a fan.

Going through my universal titles still. Watched Bride of Frankenstein yesterday. Near perfect movie, way better than the first.

 

[Starbreaker]

Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2010!

I'm reading Lisey's Story by Stephen King. I haven't decided what I'm going to watch for my yearly horror-thon yet. I'm running out of stuff that's supposed to be good that I haven't seen.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2010!

Lost as in not getting the props they deserve, or lost as in no copies exist? I hate when things get lost forever like that...

I'll definitely check this out over the weekend. Japanese King Kong. Wow.

No (known) copies exist. There's always hope that they'll pop up in a private collection or a vault somewhere, like the missing Metropolis footage.

I've read that London After Midnight wasn't that great a movie, but Chaney was pretty freaky in it, which is easy to imagine from the surviving stills.

Lots of info in that video I didn't know. There was a version of Phantom of the Opera before Chaney's? I had no idea.

I was really surprised that The Golem was the third movie in what was basically a trilogy. It works as a standalone movie because it was a prequel showing the Golem's origin. And Paul Wegener even played the Golem in all three.

 

[Greg Cox]

Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2010!

LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT was remade (by the same director) as MARK OF THE VAMPIRE with Lugosi, which probably gives us some idea of what the original was like. Still, it would be great to see it.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2010!

I liked The Golem; in fact, I have the DVD. I had no idea it was part of a trilogy, either. And the other two are lost? Damn.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2010!

I wish TCM wouldn't limit their Hammer Films to Friday night; it's not a good time for me. But I did manage to record Blood From The Mummy's Tomb last night.

When I went looking for Hammer on their On Demand section, I was disappointed in that, but I found some excellent stuff: Carnival Of Souls, which I highly recommend; 20 Million Miles To Earth, which I also recommend; and the original Blob, which is a classic. They also have Mad Love from 1935, which I'm not sure if I've seen yet, so I will check that one out.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2010!

I just got an email notice that the Amazon price for Thriller: The Complete Series has been dropped a whopping 63% for 24 hours. That's a drop from $149.98 to just $55.99.

It was on my Christmas wishlist, but screw it. Now I'll be able to watch some eps for Hallowe'en!

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2010!

Crap. That's still a lot of money, but I really want this.

Temptation, temptation....

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2010!

It's going to sell out quickly, at that price. $56 for a 14-disc set!

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2010!

I bought it. I justified it by also getting an 8gig memory stick for $16. I'm in desperate need of a new memory stick and the one I was looking at was $40, so I saved $24. That means I got the Thriller DVD set for just $32.

That's logical, right?

 

[Captain Craig]

Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2010!

I just watched Army of Darkness. I've now completed The Evil Dead Trilogy. Don't get me wrong AoD was watchable but I've seen better "bad 'B' movies". I don't get all the love for this one. Frankly TED:II was better imo.

Anyway my next Horroqueue film from Netflix is the new direct to DVD sequel 30 Days of Night: Dark Days. I should get that by Wed.

 

[Kemaiku]

Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2010!

I love Army of Darkness, I didn't watch any of the other ED's until this year, got II on DVD and enjoyed it as well. I dunno, its just the campy fun of AoD that makes it more memorable and enjoyable.