A scary thing happened on the way to the Movie Forums - Horrorcrammers

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Not sure how I feel about that, but more power to him! Take Shelter was great.
*fistbump*



The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)

Wow. This was much worse than I expected. It's like a supernatural detective story where every single plot development is done through Lorraine's special ability. No suspense, no surprises, no creativity.

And why not rank the universe myself, too:

Conjuring
Annabelle Creation
Conjuring 2
Annabelle Comes Home
The Nun
The Curse of La Llarona
Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
Annabelle
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Had a Joe Mazzuca double feature Friday night (just call me Party Boy).

A Man For Hanging (1972) was brought to my attention by @Thief, and I am now the 13th person to have logged it on Letterboxd. This one's an odd duck, not exactly a horror film but certainly feels like one in spots. Our villain has been disfigured in the past by a woman and now roams the countryside raping and murdering those unlucky enough to encounter him, while our good guys form a posse to hunt him down. You'll notice from the poster that this was rated PG, so the violence is mostly tame or off-screen. (The "rapes" consist of some torn clothing.) Whether that's a good thing or not is up to you to decide. I wasn't in the mood to watch anything particularly nasty so this went down pretty smooth and I thought the villain was effectively evil despite the lack of real violence. And it all ended in a satisfying manner. I'm giving it a thumbs-up with the warning that a predilection for low-budget 70s fare is recommended for best results. Good call on this one, Mr Thief.

Sisters of Death (also 1972, but not released until '76) concerns a reunion of some sorority sisters, seven years after an initiation ritual ended in the death of a pledge. This one starts with the mildly effective initiation scene and ends with three or four plot twists in the final 10 minutes or so. That middle section, however, will no doubt prove to be a challenge for the attention-span-deficient among us. This is the kind of movie that considers a tarantula crawling onto someone's bed a Major Plot Point. And the visible mic boom gives a more spirited performance than any of the cast. Also, Amazon's print is incredibly blurry and washed-out. At one point I spent a solid two minutes wondering why one character wasn't wearing pants, until a closeup revealed that she was. I later discovered a slightly better print on Youtube, so I'd recommend looking for that instead. So again, a high tolerance for slow-moving 70s snoozers is a must, but all the twists at the end made me glad that I hung in there. Probably best enjoyed with some inebriated friends.
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Captain's Log
My Collection



In today's edition of Sunday Afternoon Horror Club, my friend and I watched Attack of the Crab Monsters.

(Very enjoyable a second time around and highly recommended at a brisk, entertaining 63 minutes).

Anyway, her 3-4 year old daughter was in the room with her, mostly playing on her iPad. She looks up at this part:


Her mom says, "Maybe don't watch this part." The little girl goes, "Why? The crab got a little hungry, so he ate the man. *shrug*"

She also greeted the sight of any crab with "It's a crab!", and summed up the end of the movie with "The crab broke the land and the sea. He wants the world!". So, yes, this child had a very firm grasp on the film.



In today's edition of Sunday Afternoon Horror Club, my friend and I watched Attack of the Crab Monsters.

(Very enjoyable a second time around and highly recommended at a brisk, entertaining 63 minutes).

Anyway, her 3-4 year old daughter was in the room with her, mostly playing on her iPad. She looks up at this part:


Her mom says, "Maybe don't watch this part." The little girl goes, "Why? The crab got a little hungry, so he ate the man. *shrug*"

She also greeted the sight of any crab with "It's a crab!", and summed up the end of the movie with "The crab broke the land and the sea. He wants the world!". So, yes, this child had a very firm grasp on the film.
Of all the 50's sci-fi I've seen, this is one of the wackiest. Giant crabs made of (liquid?) radiations so they're invincible and they cause earthquakes? It's a good one though. Loved it, like most cheap monster movies of the era.



The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)

Wow. This was much worse than I expected. It's like a supernatural detective story where every single plot development is done through Lorraine's special ability. No suspense, no surprises, no creativity.

And why not rank the universe myself, too:

Conjuring
Annabelle Creation
Conjuring 2
Annabelle Comes Home
The Nun
The Curse of La Llarona
Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
Annabelle
Does it crescendo into some messy CGI ending like they tend to do?



Of all the 50's sci-fi I've seen, this is one of the wackiest. Giant crabs made of (liquid?) radiations so they're invincible and they cause earthquakes? It's a good one though. Loved it, like most cheap monster movies of the era.
Not vulnerable to guns, but vulnerable to rocks and knives. And electricity.

The scene where the
WARNING: spoilers below
crab talks to them psychically through the gun is my favorite, bonkers thing
. And this is a film FULL of bonkers things.

Three favorite quotes (SORT OF SPOILERS!!!!!):

#1: "Hearken unto anything metal, for there you may find me."

#2: "Ah, so I must regrow a limb. I can do it in a day. But can you all regrow your lives?!"

#3: "Why would they want to kill us?" "Survival instinct. They were men. Now . . . they are land crabs."



Rewatched Romero’s original trilogy with my brother-in-law (he’d never seen them).

I think… I’ve finally fully converted to Dawn of the Dead being the best in the trilogy. Maybe it’s just my current 4K obsession or it’s connections to Italian horror but despite it being the messiest and most tonally spastic, it’s ambition, scope and characters have won me over.

I still wish Romero were more technically adept but his composition and aesthetic is more developed than I ever gave him credit for (thanks HDR!).

Big fan of all 3 though.



Rewatched Romero’s original trilogy with my brother-in-law (he’d never seen them).

I think… I’ve finally fully converted to Dawn of the Dead being the best in the trilogy. Maybe it’s just my current 4K obsession or it’s connections to Italian horror but despite it being the messiest and most tonally spastic, it’s ambition, scope and characters have won me over.

I still wish Romero were more technically adept but his composition and aesthetic is more developed than I ever gave him credit for (thanks HDR!).

Big fan of all 3 though.
Finally.


Now with a few more viewings, Flyboy can become your favourite character.



Finally.


Now with a few more viewings, Flyboy can become your favourite character.
That will only happen if Hugh Laurie finally admits that he played the character under an American persona for a goof.



Rewatched Romero’s original trilogy with my brother-in-law (he’d never seen them).

I think… I’ve finally fully converted to Dawn of the Dead being the best in the trilogy. Maybe it’s just my current 4K obsession or it’s connections to Italian horror but despite it being the messiest and most tonally spastic, it’s ambition, scope and characters have won me over.

I still wish Romero were more technically adept but his composition and aesthetic is more developed than I ever gave him credit for (thanks HDR!).

Big fan of all 3 though.
I've only seen Night & Dawn to date, but out of those two, I'd have to go with Dawn as my current favorite, since a rewatch of the former a couple of years ago alerted me to certain shortcomings I had overlooked the first time, like with its sometimes slack pacing, lack of sufficient tension, or the occasionally amateur-ish bit of acting, while Dawn, though it still suffers from some cheap-looking zombie make-up/gore effects, still holds up better as a more energetic, focused, and entertaining experience, one where you can definitely feel the additional decade of filmmaking experience that Romero gained in-between entries.



Aww, too bad. I've been excited to see Saint Maud ever since Mark Kermode said it's his favorite movie from 2020. What is its biggest sin (no pun intended...well, maybe a little)?



Aww, too bad. I've been excited to see Saint Maud ever since Mark Kermode said it's his favorite movie from 2020. What is its biggest sin (no pun intended...well, maybe a little)?
Some of us like it



What is its biggest sin
Without spoilers? I dunno. See Duke of Burgundy for a better example of the same subject matter.


With spoilers?
WARNING: spoilers below
Sex ain't the end of the world, bitches, calm down.



I've only seen Night & Dawn to date, but out of those two, I'd have to go with Dawn as my current favorite, since a rewatch of the former a couple of years ago alerted me to certain shortcomings I had overlooked the first time, like with its sometimes slack pacing, lack of sufficient tension, or the occasionally amateur-ish bit of acting, while Dawn, though it still suffers from some cheap-looking zombie make-up/gore effects, still holds up better as a more energetic, focused, and entertaining experience, one where you can definitely feel the additional decade of filmmaking experience that Romero gained in-between entries.
I can’t fault anyone for being perturbed by those elements but they strike me more as a feature and artifact of being a cinematic landmark and work of pioneering. Much like taking issue with rudimentary framing, archaic editing and a lack of sound in silent film, Night’s faults are usually linked to the shortcomings of kickstarting both indie filmmaking and a horror subgenre at the same time.

Dawn has a similar roughness that comes with its own ground breaking territory of which that I’m now much more forgiving.



Without spoilers? I dunno. See Duke of Burgundy for a better example of the same subject matter.


With spoilers?
WARNING: spoilers below
Sex ain't the end of the world, bitches, calm down.
But to see a better Duke of Burgundy, watch Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant.

Though neither seem to be the primary inspiration or genesis of Saint Maude, which falls squarely into the Repulsion emulators. It falls shorter than Eyes of My Mother, Black Swan and the Blackcoats Daughter but not so much to where I disliked the film.



Though neither seem to be the primary inspiration or genesis of Saint Maude, which falls squarely into the Repulsion emulators. It falls shorter than Eyes of My Mother, Black Swan and the Blackcoats Daughter but not so much to where I disliked the film.
I don't see the point of comparing the film to Repulsion or any of those others. It's well beneath them all in terms of psychological integrity. It's a very bland critique of a fundamental religious worldview that has lesbian inclinations. I couldn't discern any deeper complexity involved. Since I don't consider lesbianism to be potentially demonic, I guess I just lost the thread of the narrative. But good for her nonetheless.



I don't see the point of comparing the film to Repulsion or any of those others. It's well beneath them all in terms of psychological integrity. It's a very bland critique of a fundamental religious worldview that has lesbian inclinations. I couldn't discern any deeper complexity involved. Since I don't consider lesbianism to be potentially demonic, I guess I just lost the thread of the narrative. But good for her nonetheless.
It compares not in quality but in goals, tone and content, which it bares far more similarity than with DOB, which is about domination and submission, more than anything. Even lesbianism is more prevalent in Black Swan and Eyes of My Mother than in SM.*

I don’t think SM was equating lesbianism with being demonic but that being an extension of any sexual deviance, which is a motivating factor of her religious guilt and psychosis.