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

The Rule of Jenny Pen, 2024

Stefan (Geoffrey Rush) is a judge who, after a debilitating stroke, is put into a care facility. But soon Stefan’s physical and mental recovery isn’t his biggest problem, as he realizes that the care home is basically ruled over by a demented resident, Dave (John Lithgow). Stefan’s roommate, Tony (George Henare), is a particular target of Dave’s cruelty, and when Stefan refuses to give in to Dave’s bullying, he steadily escalates his assaults.

While a bit overlong, this claustrophobic horror makes the most of a great cast and a haunting premise.



I did a review in my thread, would recommend.

I think I might owe an apology here. Or a retraction.


Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is kinda shit.


And as sporadically successful as I think the original Nightmare still is, it's probably better than this mostly hack job.



Now, I still like the general idea of turning Freddy into a wisecracking, 80's icon that sells surfboards and Big Macs to the American public...but the actual filmmaking on display here is so flat and dull. It's almost like my 17 year old brain (the brain that probably last watched this one) didn't know anything.


It's still mostly entertaining, but it's also mostly just a movie that peddles the kind of lazy cliche'd images I would skewer most horror films for these days.

Wow.

I'm ten years late and it's nowhere near Halloween but I kind of liked Hell House LLC. Empty calories maybe but I can dig a simple sight gag, like a mannequin's head turning as the camera pans. The footage of the panicking crowd was pretty tense.


I fully expect the sequels to ruin the fun by introducing a bunch of backstory that I'm not interested in, but I'm watching them anyway.

>Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is kinda shit.

I think every one but the first is kind of shit. Sure, they have their moments but it's otherwise the same movie over and over. Freddie would get less scary each time.

Are we finally gonna disagree on something?! I thought the day would never come.
And yet, I suspect, from your description and knowing you a bit, we like the same things about the movie (there were things about the movie I liked).
Ultimately it committed too many of the most stereotypical crimes of the found-footage genre, some of the acting was appallingly bad, and it dragged a good bit. But I actually loved the ending.
The moment I realized, and I picked up on it earlier than anyone else in the room, that I bumped the movie up a star.
Much better than the abysmal Haunt whose catchy set-pieces could not overcome the fact that all it had was catchy set pieces.

I think you just described every Horror franchise, and maybe ever franchise period, ever.

Presence -

I expect to see something innovative every time I watch a Steven Soderbergh movie, and with this ghost story, the streak continues. "See" is the key word here: set entirely within a single family home, we witness everything from the perspective of the ghost who haunts it. Long empty, the house is now home to the Paynes: Rebekah, Chris and their teenagers, Tyler and Chloe. What follows proves that viewing a haunting is just as unsettling as viewing the daily lives of a divided and dysfunctional family.

So, who is the ghost and how did they get there? I won't give that away, but I will reveal that they take no joy in freaking the Paynes out. After all, there's not much joy in witnessing the roots of dysfunction play out, namely favoritism and enablement. Tyler is a champion swimmer, which makes him essentially above the law to Rebekah and makes Chloe feel invisible. There's a scene where Tyler tells a story about bullying a female classmate to a much too amused Rebekah and to a uselessly objecting Chris that is among the cringiest in recent memory. As for dad, he does what he can to make Chloe feel loved, but he can only do so much. Again, while we don't leave the house of Paynes (sorry), Soderbergh and screenwriter Koepp find ways to prove that the effects of dysfunction are hardly relegated to the home. I'll just say that on top of seeing all of the above play out, the ghost has to witness how both the desire to join the in crowd and the vulnerability of neglect can be exploited.

Despite the story's elegance and clever concept, this is a better than average, but not spectacular ghost story. Neither quality does enough to make up for the Paynes being mostly uninteresting, and even though their dilemma is true and timely, I cannot see its outcome leaving a lasting impression. I'm still glad I watched this and still walk away believing that Soderbergh and Koepp is one of the most reliable duos these days. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to reinforce the shelves in my closets (you'll see what I mean).

Ha, I tried to find your past thoughts on this one but I couldn't locate them. I remember a story about some friends convincing you to watch something that you didn't like and I thought this might be it.

Yes to all of this. Note I used the phrase "kind of liked". I thought it was enjoyable in the same way as the Youtube "Top 10 ghosts caught on camera" videos that I watch too many of. As with those videos I'm content if I get some creepy moments ("OMG that doll's arm just moved!"), and they don't require any context to be effective. I was less interested when the hooded figures started to show up. I'm assuming the sequels are going to ask me to care about their "lore" or something but I couldn't be less interested in that part. I thought the footage of the mayhem in the basement was pretty tense (the opening night thing), and I, too, was a fan of the reveal at the end.

Watched part 2 last night. I don't recommend it and probably won't revisit it, but I can see myself putting this first one on again in another few years.

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Yeah, the third act was the strength of it, for sure, and as I said, I did like the ending. I saw The Director's Cut where the ending is apparently flipped slightly (in the order in which things are revealed to the audience).
Yes, my friends had been pestering me to watch two movies about Halloween spook-houses and I wasn't thrilled with either, though I was genuinely angry at Haunt whereas I was merely disappointed in HHLLC. And some of that is expectations. They had been on me about HHLLC for nearly a decade so even though I tried to keep my expectations low, when your Horror-movie-loving friends tell you for nine years that a movie is so good you just can't help but have your bar set fairly high.
Haunt I just eviscerated where as I don't think I was that hard on HHLLC, just not impressed.

OK, I was definitely thinking of Haunt because I remember you were basically rethinking your friendship. I haven't seen that one yet.

Your mileage may vary. They are not the only ones who loved it. I could not forgive it its sins.

Dream Warriors rocks. I saw it again two years ago so I'm pretty confident in my opinion.

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Dream Warriors is what it is. If you like it, you like it. I'm glad it rocks for you.

How do we feel about Vampire Hunter D?

It's in the theater here tomorrow and I'm trying to decide if it's something I would want to do.

I watched it a couple months ago just because I was jonesing for some old school anime. I honestly still really enjoyed it, it's definitely got a bit of that try hard edginess that ova anime can have but but it's got style and atmosphere to spare.

The original 80s one?

My over-a-decade-old memory echoes of it are:

Visually strong, good action, too much sexist garbage for my taste. I rated it a 7/10. I'd say go check it out.

I was a bigger fan of the sequel Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.

I really liked Vampire Hunter D when I was a teen getting into anime in the 90s and had very little in terms of discerning taste when it came to anime.


I saw the ad about it returning to theaters recently and cringed a bit about remembering how much I liked it at the time.
I don't know if it ages well or not, but my guy is that it doesn't. I guess it depends on how you feel about anime in general these days and not stuff that crosses over like Miyazaki or Your Name.

I think I saw one film or the other about 20 years ago but I'm not sure.
I have tentative plans to attend the 5pm show

I really liked Haunt, I haven't seen Hell House yet.

Vampire Hunter D is one major animated one I haven't gotten around to, yet.