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

I vaguely remember Tough Guys Don't Dance from its HBO run, at the end of Ryan O'Neal's career as an actual movie star. Don't remember the movie that well but I remember O'Neal was petering out after a helluvan HBO run (I swear he had 10 movies on that channel in the early to mid 80s).

Should be #1 on the MoFo Top 100 Comedy List.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
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Dial Code Santa Claus is a movie I've had sitting around for years and actually forgot I have. I imagine I should probably watch it at some point..


Finally watched Incredibly Strange Beings the other day and it's a miracle. Like, it's inexcusably lame on so many levels, and there is so much singing. But I actually sort of liked a couple of the songs and it is kind of hilarious how the film feels less a horror movie than some alternate universe talent show. And yet, their is always weird shit going on in the periphery of this stupid at the county fair.

Stephen King's got a Cujo follow-up in the works


Uh-oh, @ThatDarnMKS...

I mean, I’m a huge fan of the novel, so it’s alright by me.

I've never actually read it, to be honest with you.

One of King’s best books with one of King’s worst adaptations. There’s an elegant and ruthless simplicity to the novel, while tying in powerfully to the Dead Zone (another favorite of mine) that is undercut at every turn for a hackneyed and toothless interpretation.

Though, I do owe the film a rewatch. I may have been too hard on it for it’s failures as an adaptation (of which there were many) to where I couldn’t see its value as a stand alone film.

I'm halfway through Don't Answer the Phone and...it's not great.

Is that the Carol Kane movie from the early 80s or am I thinking of a different title?
(I can't speculate on the film's quality beyond the trailer made me curious about it).

Carol Kane is When a Stranger Calls . This one has no actors that I recognize.

That's right. It's always a title that my memory can confuse with other similar titles (ie titles that acknowledge the existence of phones).

That one got a shoutout in Sleazoid Express, so I'll probably give it a shot at some point.

OK, now that it's over I'd say my main problem with the film was the tone, or lack thereof. The director only made this one film, and it has the feel of an artist that has nothing to say.
The killer is a giant doofus, but he's not pathetic in a Joe Spinell kind of way, which would at least give us something to latch on to. But he's not charismatic in any way either, so we're not going to root for him like we might a Jason or M Myers.



Meanwhile the "good guys", ie the homicide detectives, are making crass remarks about the victims at the crime scene, so who am I supposed to be pulling for here? If I was being kind I'd say that maybe the message is that the women are on their own and men suck. But the murders are full of nudity and occasional jokey bits that I think we're supposed to find funny, so the women aren't being treated with any respect either.
Again, if it was deliberately mean-spirited even that would be something, even if it's not my thing. But this just felt like it was made with no thought for any of that. "Show some boobs, kill some girls, roll the credits". No suspense, no style, no visual flourishes. (To be fair, the print I watched was horrendous but I didn't get the sense that a restored print would reveal some hidden classic of cinematography.)

I don't remember how it got on my watchlist, so if one of you recommended it I apologize for my harsh words. It's not completely without entertainment value if you're in the mood to wallow in sleaze, but don't expect to be impressed by any of it. (this is where Crumbs shows up and declares it his favorite film )

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I mentioned it not too long ago as a movie that should probably be avoided. It's the kind of movie you can't help but watch and wonder what exactly you are supposed to be getting out of it.


But watching it can be a kind of experiment. In consideration of the Visiting Hours talk in another thread, where Siskel claimed only to see the violence and exploitation, this is actually what this kind of movie looks like when you strip it of everything else but the base elements. No mystery. No suspense. No insight. No motivations. No cinematic skill. No humor or irony. No good performances. And even once stripped down like this, it still doesn't function as some nihilistic machine operating on violent brute force.
Really, all it is is a reason to passively watch women be strangled, and it is this element that makes the movie particularly squeamish for me. I've seen more debased or violent films before, but none where the murder is just really something that just happens, without emotional investment, without meaning. It's just ugly and for what purpose?

Oh, good. When I ask for recs, like I did a few months ago, I usually just add everything that's mentioned, even when the mention is negative. But by the time I get around to watching the stuff, I've forgotten which is which. So here we are.

We're in complete agreement, then.

There's the one character that confesses to her therapist that she was sexually abused by her father as a kid. Moments later, she's raped and murdered by our killer. It's certainly unpleasant to watch this character having to endure such misery, but what was more offensive is that the film didn't acknowledge how horrific this was. The abuse survivor was treated no differently than the next random naked girl that he murders. Again, if the goal was misery-porn that would at least indicate that the film maker had some sort of vision, even if it was a mean-spirited one that I hated. But this was the work of a guy who'd put no thought into any of this. Blah.

Yep, that's the guy. I haven't seen Swamp Thing since childhood so I didn't know that until after the movie was over.

Yeah, I watched Swamp Thing like 20 times when I was young so I recognized him immediately.

Because I am weak and they dangled a $5 coupon in front of me (with the promise of a future coupon, see, it's an investment), I also grabbed My Chauffeur and the Camille Keaton box set.


No more! I'll be good...until the next sale.

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Almost grabbed Don't Answer the Phone! as well, but then looked again at the shirtless schlub in Captain Terror's post and decided against it.