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

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If I recall correctly, there was a poster of some esteem who ranked it their best film of the year. Which is why I watched it? My memories of what it was are almost non existent, but I wouldn't count on me hating it. There could have been some dumb reason I gave it a pass.


I remember wondering about the similarities between the poster design and just assuming it was a remake. But I don't think there is many similarities, beyond the haunted ship element. Death Ship is a low budget Canadian affair I can't imagine any American production company would have cared a tit about.

Whenever someone mentioned Death Ship, I'd get confused and think they were talking about Ghost Ship and then couldn't keep the title straight (and looking at the poster for one wouldn't clarify things).


I've seen the trailer for Ghost Ship. That is all I can say about it. If a local revival horror group showed it, I'd probably go. If it came on Shudder's live channels I'd probably leave it on out of curiosity. I'm not sure I'd seek it out as an evening's viewing. Based on your assessment, I probably gauged it correctly. And I'll keep getting their names mixed up.


In terms of unexpected remakes from the later 2000's, someone did remake The Town that Dreaded Sundown. (I was unaware at the time the remake was happening and being very confused why everyone in the Horrorcrammer's thread was talking about it - it just seemed weird that everyone was talking about this somewhat obscure movie from the ~70s. Another movie that I've only seen the trailer of).



Victim of The Night
Due to all the bullying, I mean, uh, encouragement I experienced in the past several days in this thread, I finally decided to watch Final Exam to atone for my sins.

Overall, I don't have a whole lot of thoughts to say about this film. Many of the characters are cliché college students, it contains a bunch of horror film clichés, and most of the deaths are telegraphed far ahead of time, so I found it to be a pretty mediocre and run-of-the-mill slasher film. However, I did appreciate the motif of pranks which ran throughout the film, mainly how the frat prank in the opening act was contrasted with certain parts of the slasher scenes in the later parts of the film. For example, one of the pranks indirectly lead to a student being killed, the police refuse to help the students after they assume their 911 call is a prank, and another student briefly mistakes a dead body as the student pranking her. I felt the film could've done a lot more with this theme, so I wouldn't say I loved it per se, but I did enjoy the few extensions of the theme we got, even if they ultimately felt half-baked.
Did it not strike you as note-worthy that
WARNING: "big spoylah" spoilers below
the killer, who turns out to be completely random, is borderline supernatural, with no explanation whatsoever?



Victim of The Night
So I watched Return of the Living Dead last night and it was a blast. Funny when it wanted to be yet still full of dread, not sure if I found it scary per se but it's brand of hopelessness against the rising undead tide was gripping.
One of my favorite movies of all time.
To say I watched it more than 20 times when I was a teenager might actually be underestimating.



Victim of The Night
Alright, which movie about a Ship are we talking about here?
'Cause I seriously thought y'all were discussing the 1943 Ghost Ship, which is the only one of these three (Death Ship, Ghost Ship 2002) that I have actually seen.



Did it not strike you as note-worthy that
WARNING: "big spoylah" spoilers below
the killer, who turns out to be completely random, is borderline supernatural, with no explanation whatsoever?
I'm not quite sure what you're referring to. Are you referring to
WARNING: spoilers below
how he survived the fall at the end?



I watched two movies on Shudder starring children.

The Boy Behind the Door is about two kids trying to escape a kidnapping. It’s well made and the main boy is a damn fine actor for being so young. Characters do some stupid stuff occasionally and there’s a couple scenes lifted right out of The Shining but overall not bad, if a bit standard.

I also watched Psycho Goreman. This was the greatest movie ever made. Not up for debate.



I also watched Psycho Goreman. This was the greatest movie ever made. Not up for debate.
A friend recommended that to me a couple of months ago. I asked if it was better than the title. "Oh yeah."



Victim of The Night
I'm not quite sure what you're referring to. Are you referring to
WARNING: spoilers below
how he survived the fall at the end?
Definitely that, and the arrow, and I can't remember if there was one other thing. Just good humor to me.



Due to all the bullying, I mean, uh, encouragement I experienced in the past several days in this thread, I finally decided to watch Final Exam to atone for my sins.

Overall, I don't have a whole lot of thoughts to say about this film. Many of the characters are cliché college students, it contains a bunch of horror film clichés, and most of the deaths are telegraphed far ahead of time, so I found it to be a pretty mediocre and run-of-the-mill slasher film. However, I did appreciate the motif of pranks which ran throughout the film, mainly how the frat prank in the opening act was contrasted with certain parts of the slasher scenes in the later parts of the film. For example, one of the pranks indirectly lead to a student being killed, the police refuse to help the students after they assume their 911 call is a prank, and another student briefly mistakes a dead body as the student pranking her. I felt the film could've done a lot more with this theme, so I wouldn't say I loved it per se, but I did enjoy the few extensions of the theme we got, even if they ultimately felt half-baked.
I was going to review King Kong which I finally finished yesterday. But then I saw this and felt like I needed to add some thoughts to this.

WARNING: "Spoilers" spoilers below
I felt like Final Exam was trying to be a commentary on violence and how it had affected our society. Contrast the prank involving terrorists which was largely staged so that its leader could pass chemistry with the more brutal kills displayed by the killer in the second half. It all might have been done for laughs early one, but nobody was laughing later. Part of the reason FE spends so much time getting to know the people better is to make us care when they are later on killed.

Speaking of the killer, I think it's important to realize it's much like what Radish had to say about serial killers...one day, they'll wake up and snap and kill other people. It's meant to contrast that with the killers we get in the franchises we loved, no memorable masks and no supernatural mumbo-jumbo at work here (I presume that it's not easy, but people have caught arrows with their hands before). You don't get the name or the motivation why he's doing what he does. Sometimes in the real world, we don't know why people kill others. Which leads to the other point Radish makes about people being killed for no reason every day.

I definitely saw what they were going for here and although I think it owes more than a little bit towards Halloween (the final girl, the score, the slower pace), to just call it a by the numbers slasher is doing it a bit of a dis-service. I mean it is a bit by the numbers, but I think the filmmakers were going for more than that even though it doesn't always work.



I enjoyed The Changeling quite a bit. It's a satisfying ghost story, mystery and haunted house flick. I admire its maturity, that it takes its time and has little to no "cheese horror" like jump scares. There are some trauma-level scares in it, but I'd go so far to say it's a horror movie you could enjoy with friends or family - especially parents or grandparents - who aren't really into horror. I also had no idea how many other horror properties this movie apparently influenced, whether it's Stir of Echoes, The Conjuring (houses with buried secrets), Session 9 or the Silent Hill games (creepy, empty wheelchairs, ascending a burning staircase, etc.) Oh, and having two of the best actors of all time in George C. Scott and Melvyn Douglas doesn't hurt. There's also something oddly satisfying about watching people do pre-Internet research like reading microfiche.



A friend recommended that to me a couple of months ago. I asked if it was better than the title. "Oh yeah."
The title makes sense in the context of the movie, it’s far from a perfect film but it’s loads of fun.


And to catch up on other comments in this thread:

Love Return of the Living Dead.

Changeling is also a solid ghost movie.



I watched two movies on Shudder starring children.

The Boy Behind the Door is about two kids trying to escape a kidnapping. It’s well made and the main boy is a damn fine actor for being so young. Characters do some stupid stuff occasionally and there’s a couple scenes lifted right out of The Shining but overall not bad, if a bit standard.

I also watched Psycho Goreman. This was the greatest movie ever made. Not up for debate.
Psycho Goreman is the heckin' best, me and my roommates pretty much have a mission to introduce it to as many people as we can.



Oh hey, I guess this is where we talk about horror? Anyway, every October I watch a horror movie I've never seen before everyday of the month so I'll drop what I've been watching and some popcorn ratings since I don't have anything to say.

Day 1. Psychomania (Don Sharp, 1973) -

Day 2. Hiruko the Goblin (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1991) -

Day 3. Lips of Blood (Jean Rollin, 1975) -

Day 4. Three (Kim Jee-woon, Peter Chan & Nonzee Nimibutr, 2002) -

Day 5. The Hourglass Sanatorium (Wojciech Has, 1973) -


Psychomania and especially Hourglass Sanatorium are barely if at all horror movies but I just went by what letterboxd said lol.



I watched animal movies tonight.

First was the original Piranha which I didn’t know was directed by Joe Dante. The main woman was charming and the movie was competently made but it’s too leisurely paced and the climax is lackluster. Also you don’t see a lot of the piranhas.

The Pool is a Thai movie about a guy trapped in an empty swimming pool with a crocodile. It’s about what you’d expect, except for an unnecessary cruel moment of dramatic irony. Otherwise it was solid.

Into the Grizzly Maze was like if Jaws was a mediocre direct-to-Netflix movie about a bear. It was also weirdly old-fashioned with its women characters, The two women were portrayed as weaker, slower, disabled, injured, and constantly in need of help and saving by the men. One woman, who apparently is otherwise good at surviving alone in the woods as part of her job sets a snare and immediately gets her own foot trapped in the snare, it got laughable at points.



Um, what if I hadn't seen Nightbeast? Is that disqualifying in a way?

Anyway, like I said earlier, I finished King Kong last night. I thought it was pretty good. The first half was decent as a film crew make their way to a mysterious island with a young aspiring actress (Fay Wray). The second half? A relentless thrill ride as Kong has to fight off dangerous foes to protect the actress as a potential love interest tries to rescue her from the big ape who has kidnapped her. I think there's some blockbuster films that should be taking notes on its pacing.

Good options for her as she gets to choose between a love interest who likes her because she's not a woman and a gorilla whose idea of flirting is to pull down the strap of her dress.

Maybe not quite the eighth wonder of the world, but a pretty good view nonetheless.



Victim of The Night
Oh hey, I guess this is where we talk about horror? Anyway, every October I watch a horror movie I've never seen before everyday of the month so I'll drop what I've been watching and some popcorn ratings since I don't have anything to say.

Day 3. Lips of Blood (Jean Rollin, 1975) -
I'm a LoB fan.



Just between you and I, only one of us has actually seen Nightbeast. The rest of us are just humoring him.
You people leave my son out of this!


He just needs a loving home.



While I still think Jaws is a very good movie on the whole, since I just talked about this a bit on another forum, and I never got around to getting into it as in-depth here as I wanted to, I'd like to take this chance to revisit my biggest criticism of it that I mentioned in another thread here earlier, which is; the material not directly dealing with "Bruce" or the hunt for him aren't as gripping as the ones that do, due to the reduction of atmosphere/environmental tension in those scenes (which, to compare it to a peer movie in Alien, is the reason why that one's my favorite 70's monster movie, since it has that tension throughout, even in the scenes that don't feature, or even threaten the appearance of the Xenomorph at all).

I stand by this point because part of the reason why the "USS Indianapolis" monologue is such a great scene, and possibly the most iconic moment in a movie that's overflowing with 'em, is due to the sheer amount of environmental tension in the scene, with the steady sounds of the boat creaking, the waves crashing, and the ominous score, along with the sights of the light fixture swaying overhead, and the disorienting visual of the sea and the darkened sky continually bobbing up and down in the background all creating an incredibly unsettling mood, and setting the stage perfectly for Quint's story, so it only stands to reason that the scenes that don't have this tension lose something in the process.

Of course, that something can be replaced by other things, and, like @crumbsroom said, Jaws is under no obligation to be tense or scary in every scene just because it's partially a Horror movie, but if those other things aren't as engaging, then I can't help but find the movie to be slightly uneven as a result. I mean, it's not fundamentally different from my opinion on the secretary montage in the middle of Schindler's List, which I've always felt was an ill-advised digression into unnecessary comic relief, even though it takes place in what otherwise might just be my favorite movie of all time, you know?