What's the latest movie you've seen?

[Guybrush]

Nice one, @jimmy jazz 🙂 I loved Threads.

We saw this tonight:

Poltergeist II from 1986



It has a score below 6 on IMDb, so I've just assumed it was pure trash, but a while ago I found out its reputation is better than its score would suggest and a not insignificant portion of Poltergeist fans prefer it to the original.

I still think the original was better, but this positively surprised me still. It still feels a bit like a Disney take on a horror movie, but I do feel like it's scarier in parts. The character of the villainous Kane, while in his human shape and played by Julian Beck, is probably creepier than anything in the first movie.

I also like that it's about this family where they love eachother and try to protect one another. It gives the movie a nice emotional core and horror movies work better when there's a contrast to the dark and scary, like how Braindead is a love story between Lionel and Paquita.

The movie is definitely flawed in places, like it goes completely Lovecraft with monster designs for some reason, but I don't really mind it because it's still entertaining. Bring on the schlock.

Best scene for me, I think, was possessed dad.

[Psy-Fi]

Johnny Stool Pigeon (1949)

B&W film noir flick about a narcotics detective going undercover to infiltrate a heroin smuggling operation. He convinces a prison inmate, who he helped convict, to join him to help him get inside the gang. Along the way, a woman joins them at the insistence of the convict, and various complications arise.

[Guybrush]

Also saw this:

Poltergeist 3 from 1988



I'll admit the reason I saw it is it autoplayed after Poltergeist 2 and I was like alright, let's take a gander.

It's definitely the weaker of the three, but I still had fun watching it. There's a lot of mirrors in the movie and some clever special fx. It does become very predictable, but then again I don't expect to be scared, only mildly entertained.

Child actor Heather O'Rourke is back as psychic child Carol Anne, this time visiting her aunt and uncle who lives in what looks to me like a skyscraper or very tall high-rise. With her, the old man ghost Kane also comes visiting, yay. Also Tangina, the heroic medium from the previous two movies. The guy who played Kane previously sadly died. The rubber prosthetics filled character they replaced him with has none of the previous actor's presence or creepiness. Ah well.

What follows is a bit of a farce with lots of randomness, fun practical effects and the name Carol Anne being loudly shouted roughly 300 times. Lots of fake snow and fog/smoke machines. No blood, though. The dead in Poltergeist are always kinda dried up, the old raisins.

The movie has a glaring plot hole in that we see two important characters being replaced by evil versions, but the makers of the movie never address this again and seem to forget it. It's on the level of American Horror  story (where similar things happen repeatedly). It seems this was due to the extremely sad death of Heather O'Rourke during the production which created a need to redo the ending. So tragic.

Anyways, I enjoyed the schlock and seeing Lara Flynn Boyle in her first big role, so I feel generous.

[Psy-Fi]

Vice Squad (1953)

B&W crime film about the hunt for a cop killer which leads to information about an upcoming bank heist and the gang behind it. Various moments of comic relief are sprinkled throughout the film despite the underlying theme of violence.

[Psy-Fi]

Velvet Smooth (1976)

Crime flick about a detective agency comprised of 3 women, hired by the head of a criminal gang to find out who's behind a series of attacks and robberies targeting his organization. Sort of a ripoff of a Pam Grier flick combined with 'Charlies Angels.' Lousy script, lousy acting, mediocre (at best) directing, and ridiculously cartoonish fight scenes comprised of the type of kung fu fighting which was popular in a lot of action movies at that time. Disappointing to say the least. The poster is by far the best thing about this movie.

[Trollheart]

Been meaning to watch this for years and with it being shown on the BBC this week (they picked the right time to scare people  ), I thought it would be a good time.

Threads.



It managed to shock me in places.

I really enjoyed it.

5/5 from me.

Freaky! I almost missed it too, just checking the EPG night before and I saw it. Couldn't believe it. I watched it when it was originally released (Channel 4 I think) and it shocked the hell out of me. The two burning images I had from the first time I watched it were of course the mushroom cloud over Sheffield (though I remembered it wrong; thought yer man was looking at it over his shoulder as he ran, when in fact he was under the van with the other fella) and the end scene. Terrifying. And all true. Best real-life, facts-based apocalyptic scenario film ever made. I read that when it was finished, the crew didn't even celebrate; most of them couldn't sleep for weeks after. Successful, but terrifyingly so. Fair play to them for showing it again on its 40-year anniversary. As relevant now as it was then, sadly.

[Trollheart]

Other movies I watched:

The Godfather (1972)

What can I say that hasn't already been said? Well, maybe this:

Took me a long time to watch this, and of course I was glad I did. No point in going into a long review: if you've seen it, you know, and if you haven't, then make it your next urgent piece of business to do so. Could have watched another three hours of it, is the finest compliment I can pay. Changed the way we think about both gangsters and the Mafia, and Italians in general. Maybe an over-romanticised view of all three, but that's what we got now. Movie history, a true classic.
(Well, what else did you expect?)

The Godfather Part II (1974)

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the sequel is that they almost made it better than the original. Almost, not quite. The scenes of Michael's taking over of the family on the death of his father intercut with the young Vito's rise through the Mafia in New York work perfectly, and the eventual breakdown Michael's marriage as he realises he can't serve two masters is tragic but entirely realistic. Plus you get Pacino AND De Niro! What's not to like?


(I didn't bother with the third part. Saw it once, and very much regretted it. Like, I think, most people who watched it. Sometimes one sequel is enough, capische?)

Margrete, Queen of the North (Margrete den Første) (2021)

Kind of a film-long episode of Vikings, I felt. A lot of Game of Thrones palace intrigue, jockeying for position, betrayal and treachery, and a lot of guys running around with big axes and swords, but ultimately I found it slow and dreary, a little confusing and really probably only of interest to those who have a genuine need to know about Scandinavian history. Which I do, but I still found it boring. Expected more. Shock ending, admittedly. Almost woke me up. Also in Danish, so if your attention span isn't great you're not going to want to be reading subtitles as you resist falling asleep. And yes, you guessed it, 93% approval on Rotten Tomatoes.



The Invisible Woman (2013)

Not, as you might think, another superhero movie, but the tale of the woman Charles Dickens had an affair with, but kept hidden away as a dirty secret. It takes place after the great author has died and evokes her memories of the time she spent with him. Now she's trying to come to terms with his legacy, while also continuing to keep their relationship from public knowledge. Again, I must admit I started with high hopes but was quickly bored, and found my attention wandering. The critics loved it, of course.

[Psy-Fi]

The Frogmen (1951)

Action/war film about a commanding officer assigned to replace the well-liked commanding officer of a Navy underwater demolition team, who died in combat. The new commander starts out with a strict no-nonsense approach which the men under his command see as being too rigid and impersonal. He eventually relaxes his demeanor and proves himself to be a selfless leader, earning the respect of the rest of his men and the crew aboard the ship they are assigned to.

[Gandalf]

While watching the film I thought it was a nice story, set in the late-90s, about a father (Calum) and daughter (Sophie) enjoying some time with each other on a holiday in Turkey. It was a good opportunity for her to know her father more, assuming that her parents were separated. The acting is excellent and and the film is shot really well.

But it's the ending which is really stuck in my head...

Spoiler

It wasn't until after the film had ended that I realised what it all meant. The final shots of adult Sophie re-watching the recordings she made from that holiday strongly suggest that her dad is no longer alive. While it's never directly addressed in the film, it's likely that her dad took his own life shortly after their holiday in Turkey. There are hints throughout the film that her dad was suffering from depression, combined with the overall nostalgic tone of the film. The film is an account of their last time together, and when she said goodbye to him at the airport, it was the last time she ever saw him.

[close]

[Guybrush]

Saw When Evil Lurks which I think was from Argentina.



It made a small splash when it came out last year, so it's been on my to-do list for a little while.

In a world where possessions are a thing, the government seems to have had some system of "cleaners" in place, but this service has eroded over time. This bit of information isn't given to the viewer explicitly, but can be inferred.

Two brothers investigate a murder and end up finding a possessed person. To save their community and loved ones, they try to deal with the situation, but basically end up making everything worse.

I wasn't really that fond of the story or the setting or the somewhat inflated melodrama. Also, I think the information about how evil kinda works and the setting could have been given just a little more clearly. I wasn't quite sure what was going on at times. And there was a lot of shouting.

For positives, there was some excitement and grisly scenes, particularly with some violence against children. It does feel like a genuine attempt at making something where both the dramatic parts and horror parts both work.

I like the ambition, but it wasn't quite for me so the spooky and violent scenes didn't feel quite as impactful to me as they seem to have been for some other reviewers.



Halloween fodder for me, but I can see how many would probably rank this Higher.

[SGR]

Saw When Evil Lurks which I think was from Argentina.



It made a small splash when it came out last year, so it's been on my to-do list for a little while.

In a world where possessions are a thing, the government seems to have had some system of "cleaners" in place, but this service has eroded over time. This bit of information isn't given to the viewer explicitly, but can be inferred.

Two brothers investigate a murder and end up finding a possessed person. To save their community and loved ones, they try to deal with the situation, but basically end up making everything worse.

I wasn't really that fond of the story or the setting or the somewhat inflated melodrama. Also, I think the information about how evil kinda works and the setting could have been given just a little more clearly. I wasn't quite sure what was going on at times. And there was a lot of shouting.

For positives, there was some excitement and grisly scenes, particularly with some violence against children. It does feel like a genuine attempt at making something where both the dramatic parts and horror parts both work.

I like the ambition, but it wasn't quite for me so the spooky and violent scenes didn't feel quite as impactful to me as they seem to have been for some other reviewers.



Halloween fodder for me, but I can see how many would probably rank this Higher.

Did you ever see Demián Rugna's earlier film Terrified (Aterrados)? Compared to When Evil Lurks, I'd say the highs are higher, but the lows are also lower. Definitely some great scenes in the movie though.

I will say, both films struggle a bit in terms of plot, but that can be excusable sometimes for horror films.

[Guybrush]

Did you ever see Demián Rugna's earlier film Terrified (Aterrados)? Compared to When Evil Lurks, I'd say the highs are higher, but the lows are also lower. Definitely some great scenes in the movie though.

I will say, both films struggle a bit in terms of plot, but that can be excusable sometimes for horror films.

I haven't seen it, but I have read that some liked it and it was part what helped generate the buzz for Lurks..

If dramatic elements don't work in horror movies, then I think I prefer it if the movies are funny 🙂 not necessarily overt or intentional. The Poltergeist series mentioned above is a good example. Like when the graves start shooting up from the ground in the first and she falls into the pool with the dead bodies.. That's hilarious 😄