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

The craft is superior in Dracula. I can’t see anyone that makes films or is familiar with the process debating that point.

I didn't find many of the techniques in the film joyful. I found them distracting.

And if the film were an exercise in style that took my breath away with its techniques and visuals, I might have different feelings. But there's something almost desperate about how much is happening on screen. Again, I strongly felt a lack of coherence in the film. And I think that it connects to something that was said in the video you linked. At one point one of the speakers (maybe Coppola himself) sort of waves his hands and says "It all adds to the strangeness of the film".

But putting such scattershot strangeness into a film with a very complex narrative is a bad combination. This isn't a film where I felt that the story was being told in atmosphere and feeling. It was multiple, interweaving storylines with a different technique or effect being pushed on screen every 5 minutes.

If they wanted this to be an exercise in atmosphere and technique, then they should have simplified the story, not made it more complicated and also dumber.

In a film that does things well, I don't find myself asking "Why did that happen?". Dracula has strange, abrupt editing, poor character development, and a host of other elements that fight a sense of flow. It's a mess, but not a fun mess.

You are correct on both counts.

Well, I wasn't trying to be snippy, I've read maligning of its third act dozens of times, in fact often enough that there's just a lot of internet nodding around how it's probably still a great movie despite it's stumbly third act. You may not malign it, but I am certainly not on an island in doing so.

Maybe people who make them wouldn't but people who have to watch that masturbation-session that is Coppola loving himself whether he's making a movie worth seeing or not, we may have some time for debate. Or maybe not cause the movie just isn't even worth it.
I think Coppola is capable of great craft and it may be that great craft occurred during the making of this film but the film as a whole is not.
My parallel would be that I am a guitarist and musician. If I am crafting a song, or lets just say a solo for the sake of ease, I may use good craft throughout, I may make clever nods to Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, and John Coltrane, I may use perfect bends and pulsing vibrato, I may go modal for a moment over the one chord just to surprise everyone, and I may end it with a big ascending lick that is a culmination of the styles of many guitarists, eras, and genres. But that doesn't mean it's a good solo. There are guitar-wankers who will marvel at it (and I want to be clear that I am not calling YOU a wanker, but guitar-wankers are a particularly annoying lot that are applicable here) and will argue the live-long day that my "craft" was great in that solo, but if my solo didn't succeed in being coherent and cohesive then it doesn't matter. It's not good. And I've done that many times and I fully admit it. I try not to now. Coppola should have spent less time being clever and cute and maybe "crafty" if you'll allow it, and actually made a good movie. Which he did not.

Oh yeah, no worries. I wasn’t implying you were being snippy. Didn’t take it that way either. I know you’re not by yourself in that critique. Just wrong 😜

I owe Coppola's Dracula a rewatch so will hesitate to comment on it, but I do think Argento in his better movies ties his flamboyant style to a sense of narrative progression. In Suspiria we process much of this flamboyance through Jessica Harper's POV so that the style has actual value, even putting aside his strengths re: visual storytelling within individual set pieces.

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I didn't realize you posted here, Des. It's good to see another familiar face from my old RT days. I just joined a couple weeks ago.

I have nothing at all interesting to add to the current conversation other than to say that I prefer Suspiria over Dracula. (I do like both, though)

I am mostly just glad this thread exists.

Carry on.

‘Aquaman 2’: James Wan Says Sequel Is “Very Heavily Inspired” By Mario Bava’s ‘Planet Of The Vampires’

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What could possibly go wrong?

So DC ends up just flipping the table.

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Get working on your custom lists, people !

I don't know what to say about this. I hated Aquaman. I love Planet Of The Vampires. James Wan falls somewhere in the middle.

Not only do I post here I created the thread.

Aquaman was an odd duck for me. I went in expecting to absolutely abhor it...Like, obnoxiously so. I was basically reveling in my assumed hatred for this movie. Like an *******. So of course I saw it in theaters, and while there was a lot terrible, I kept enjoying bits and pieces of it like some kind of dink and then Julie Andrews showed up as an ancient all powerful giant sea monster and I guess it won me over?

Well, it's not like Planet already influenced one of the greatest Horror movies of all time or anything...

Do people have any thoughts on Trick or Treats (1982)? I see Captain Terror gave it a , which is much higher than most people on my Letterboxd network. Is it worth checking out?

I liked it well enough: https://madman731.wordpress.com/2020...2-gary-graver/

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Also it's that time again: Horrorfest 2021

Wow, those reviews are brutal! ha ha

I'd be lying if I said I remember much about the film, but here are some thoughts you can factor in--

1. When it comes to slashers, it's not uncommon for my rating to differ from the norm (sometimes higher, sometimes lower) because evidently I respond to all the wrong things. In the case of ToTs, I remember liking that it felt like a Halloween movie; the holiday, not the film series.

2. I watched this during my All-80s October. Remember how much I hated Slumber Party Massacre II? According to my LB diary, on October 20 I watched SPM 1 & 2 followed by Trick or Treats. In that context, I could've watched time-lapse footage of a dog turd and given it a higher-than-deserved rating.

I seem to remember that another esteemed member of our ranks also liked it, but I don't want to throw anybody under the bus so I'll keep them anonymous.

I have seen Trick or Treats more recently than Trick or Treat but remember the latter much better.
I think the former is best viewed as one of those filler slots in a line-up of other movies. I think.