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

Movie night tonight brought 2 very different films.

C.H.U.D - I kind of wanted to like this one more than I did. At times it's more a mystery than horror story with a pretty interesting cast of characters. Alas it's brought down by the low budget monsters just not really being very scary and some really sloppy editing that kills some of the drama and tension they are going for. Not bad but not really good either.

M3gan - I remember seeing the trailers for this and being very unimpressed and then surprised by it getting good reviews upon release. Well that trailer, which sold it as a pretty straight forward killer doll movie, really missed the mark. Sure it is a killer doll movie and most of the story beats are predictable but man it sure has a lot of fun moving along those rails. Honestly it operates more like a black comedy than a horror film most of the time. Not a game changer just a solidly entertaining film that knows what it wants to do and does it.

You're a bad person and should feel bad.

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Totally agreed. I think it does a lot more with its characters, and especially the idea of their grieving process, than you'd expect.

I may be bad but I don't in fact feel bad. My buddy that showed it really loved it and I think was a bit disappointed that I didn't really get into it more. I appreciated a lot of what it was trying to do but I just had a hard time getting invested in it.

Def By Temptation -

Besides its license to print money, horror movies were likely so popular in the '80s and early '90s because those years gave us plenty of new things to fear. This movie does a pretty good job of exploiting their one-night stand culture from its consequences to its then new complications. They're personified in a beautiful frequent customer of a popular New York hookup joint who...let’s just say covers the mirrors in her townhouse. Meanwhile, Joel, a prospective pastor, leaves his rural home to visit actor brother K in the city, and he's being haunted by some very strange dreams.

Horror about sex or that has sex scenes is hardly special, but this one has more substance than most for not only having something to say about it, but also something specific, i.e. to the Black American community. It also gets bonus points for exploring the community's moral divide between the country and big city. Bond III's salt of the Earth Joel ably represents the former, and then there's Kadeem Hardison's K, who is not far removed from his Dwayne Wayne character. The casting may be the movie's secret weapon, my favorites being Cynthia Bond's scenery-chewing seductress and Bill Nunn's hapless pickup artist. I'm also of the opinion that a horror movie is as strong as its atmosphere, and with its steamy Brooklyn alleyways, heavy use of neon, freakish dream sequences and Ernest Dickerson behind the camera, it's got that covered and then some.

Even though the movie's subject matter is unique, I wouldn't say the same for the rest of its categories. It also drags in places where it can't really afford to. The scenes where Joel and K catch up in particular have satisfying character moments, but each one lives past its sell-by date. It still proves that just because a movie is preceded by a Cannon, or in this case, Troma production logo does not mean you should expect a substance-free experience. Oh, and hopefully not to spoil it too much, but there's one death scene that is bound to make your flesh crawl, and with an emphasis on flesh if you know what I mean.

1) Just posted a review of The Manitou, and highly recommended for this crew if you haven't seen it yet. Hat tip to @crumbsroom for the nudge to actually watch it.

2) I managed to schedule my annual physical AND my annual ob/gyn appointment for today, so all day felt like this:

I enjoyed CHUD, really liked M3GAN and loved Def By Temptation.

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I did review two of those, need to cover M3GAN at some point.

Perfect Blue (1997)


Cult 90's anime thriller about a teen pop idol trying to become a TV actor, I wound up really enjoying this; reminded me of Muholland Drive in a couple of odd ways. I don't think it really does anything you haven't seen in other suspense thrillers, but it's still a pretty solid Friday night movie.

How horrorish is it? Would I need to be in a less bloodthirsty mood to watch it?

I didn't think Perfect Blue would be my thing. But I love it.

My favorite factoid about Perfect Blue is that the shot of someone screaming underwater was directly borrowed for Requiem for a Dream.

I haven't seen it in ages. It was my first Kon. I'd highly recommend you all find and check out Paranoia Agent which is horror and comedy in delightful doses.

It's not bloody at all, really more psychological horror. I will say there were depictions of sexual violence that were more intense than I expected.





There's a shot of a creepy guy with a camcorder that I could swear was a homage to Lost Highway, but they both came out the same year? Maybe just a crazy coincidence.

For me, one of the creepiest parts is when they are

Movie night at my friends on Sunday had a couple films that just missed the mark for me.

Evil Dead Rise - I loved the family and the set up and initially when things start going sideways I was down but for some reason the climax of the films just really didn't work for me. While I appreciate it going with a bit of gonzo design it just didn't really feel that terrifying. Also I thought the remake from 2013 did a much better job of using it's gore to be unsettling so a lot of what this film though at the screen didn't feel nearly as impactful. Finally the cold open, while fine on it's own, is really let down by how dumb of a way they imply to have gotten there. That all sounds really negative but it's not terrible and does have some genuinely effective shocks and moments but again I just kind of lost interest at the end.

Becky 2: The Wrath of Becky - I was pretty meh on Becky (2020), it had some decent performances but the violence was over the top enough to feel at odds with the more grounded story they were telling. The sequel pretty quickly sets a more tongue in cheek tone and it's much more consistent with that tone, it just feels weird then that outside of really one bit the gore feels toned down when it probably should have been amped up. Pair that with all the villains being one note and it makes it hard to get to invested in things. There are some nice hints at the unstable emotional side of Becky and some fun overactive imagination moments that just kind of go away in the second half of the film. I still like it more than the original but it's still feels like it doesn't know what it wants to be and that really hurts it.

That scene is pretty messed up, yes. I thought the train scene was super creepy.

I found Perfect Blue to be great, review is in my blog.

This made me laugh. Thought you guys might enjoy it.

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I feel like it's been a real, long time since I've seen Serial Experiments Lain.
Sorry, my mind wandered there.

Are there any worthwhile horror movies that take place during the summer, possibly around when school gets out?

I'm reading Dan Simmons' Summer of Night and recently rewatched Dazed and Confused, the latter not being horror, but there's something about summer's vibe of freedom, intense heat and all those empty school buildings that make it suitable for the genre.