Movie Diary 2018 by pahaK

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The Dead Pit (1989) r

American zombie film that has the unmistakable US B-horror feel but also reeks heavily of Fulci fanboyism.



A mad doctor does his experiments in mental hospital. The head of the institution finally gets tired of covering his tracks, kills the doctor and seals him along with his work into basement. 20 years later past comes literally back to life.

The Dead Pit is at its heart a very standard B-horror with above average concept. It is somewhat raised above many of its brethren by heavy influences from Italian cinema and especially Lucio Fulci. Its visuals and cinematography in general never reach the fulcian heights but even the clumsy and simplified imitation is often pleasant to watch.

Acting is mostly wooden but Jeremy Slate is OK as the doctor running the hospital. Script has its issues and the film isn't dreamy enough to get a pass on that (honestly though the script isn't even that bad when compared to competition). There's not that much gore and some of the effects are pretty weak (like the melting heads) but the pin scene near the end is quite good. Some of the after effects of violence do look pretty nice like the scene the picture is from.

Decent horror with above average ambition. Not nearly as good as the films it seems to idolize but still not an unpleasant way to spend hot summer afternoon.




Poison for the Fairies (1984) R

A rewatch of my own nomination for HoF16. Two girls building their friendship on the shaky foundation of witchcraft and bullying.



Flavia is a pampered and naive girl who comes to new school mid-year. She gets acquainted with Verónica mostly by chance and initially thinks she's found a friend. Flavia doesn't know that her new pal isn't too well liked by other girls because she's a known liar and generally little mean.

After Verónica finds out that Flavia's parents are rich she becomes jealous for the other girl. Verónica doesn't seem to be poor by any means but her parents have died when she was just a little and now she lives with her grandmother and nanny so it's not only money she envies Flavia for but also love.

Verónica is deeply intrigued by the stories her nanny tells her. She's especially interested about the more macabre things like witches, ghosts and mummies. Again by chance she fools naive Flavia to believe she's an old witch. From that moment on their friendship turns more and more into selfish and calculating Verónica bullying weaker Flavia to do her bidding.



Poison for the Fairies is often labeled as horror but despite meddling with horror themes and having some tense scenes from Flavia's nightmares it's almost pure drama. It's a story of two girls and how their relationship evolves and finally leads to its not so surprising end. On surface level it's a story of envy and bullying and as such it works almost perfectly because its two leading characters are written so well.

Beneath the surface is another, more politicized, layer about class battles, religion and distribution of wealth. Like many artists in Latin America Taboada seems to be leaning left but unlike, for example, Mr. Freedom his work doesn't preach and ram its ideals down the viewers throat. He even leaves it open to interpretation which of the girls presented the common people and which the upper class (at least I can explain the end both ways). I much prefer the style where viewer is left with questions instead of trying to offer him truths from a pedestal.

Cinematography is solid but nothing too fancy. Its gimmick of never showing the adults (Flavia thinks the old woman is actually Verónica and the piano teacher is just a corpse) works pretty well and strengthens the atmosphere by focusing on the world through children's eyes. Gimmicks rarely work but this time I have no real complaints. Soundtrack works well but isn't exactly memorable. Both girls are great in their roles.

Great film that relies on solid script, capable (child) actors and intriguing character dynamics. It's been less than a year since I saw this for the first time and it's still just as good as it was then.




Midnight Cowboy (1969) N

Adventures of Texan dunce and local swindler in New York City.



One of those films where I just don't get where all the praise comes from. It's not bad by any means but besides acting there's nothing special either. Characters are kinda real but there's not much depth in them and their eventual camaraderie feels unwarranted. There are nice individual scenes like the drug enhanced party but as a whole the story was somewhat disjointed.

I wasn't particularly bored but I don't think the movie will stay with me either. I don't know what else to say, maybe it just wasn't for me.




Pitch Black (2000) R

This popped up in some thread and I decided to give it another look after defending it.



Vin Diesel is a murderer and generally violent person with enhanced night vision. When the ship transporting him crashes on seemingly lifeless planet he gets a chance to become a reluctant messiah for the survivors by helping them escape the monsters that rise from under ground after solar eclipse darkens the planet.

Pitch Black looked little cheaper than I remembered but it uses the darkness well to hide the weakness of its effects. Setting is pretty nice but there's little overuse of color filters. The film builds suspense better than most of its kin and the fact that teen aged kids are among the first victims means it's at least little surprising too.

It's not exactly character driven film but I liked how they were written. Especially Riddick is good (though I'd remember the next film kinda ruins him) and I was surprised how well "Jack's" transformation to Kyra (?) was already set up here. Definitely above average writing when it comes to characters. Otherwise it's logically on par with your average monster films (cannibalism by monsters was nice touch because realistically it would have been necessary).

A solid scifi-horror that could have spanned much better series than it eventually did.




Dawn of the Dead (1978) R

Romero vs the consumerism co-starring the zombies.



Zombie apocalypse is spreading and a small group of survivors finds sanctuary in a shopping mall. After little difficulties they manage to make the place pretty comfortable hideout but in typical Romero style things change for worse with the arrival of the greatest monsters of all, humans.

I didn't have super positive memories of this and I can see why. The not-so-subtle consumerism critique weighs the film down and it drags badly during the middle. Also Romero's zombies don't feel threatening enough to cause an apocalypse and because of this he writes his people to do very stupid things (especially the looters in the end). This is pretty big issue too because otherwise his film is aiming for much more realism than Italian zombie films.

Acting is OK but despite of its length there's surprisingly little depth in characters. Cinematography is kinda proficient but also very basic. Effects are decent but I'd remember the next film in the series takes them to a whole new level. Soundtrack is awful. I'd really need to see the Argento's version for Italian market - I have a hunch I'd like it more.

Pretty good beginning and occasional nice scenes every now and then but for the most part it's outright boring. I still don't know if my rating is too kind.




28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
I'm a fan of both Pitch Black and Dawn of the Dead. Pitch Black to me is an underrated series, which had ambition with the sequel. It tried to switch genres from space horror to epic space opera. People didn't go with it, but I did. I had fun with those two films. The third reverted back to the low budget roots of the original. I didn't hate it, but it had a familiar feeling that made it somewhat stale.
__________________
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews



I'm a fan of both Pitch Black and Dawn of the Dead. Pitch Black to me is an underrated series, which had ambition with the sequel. It tried to switch genres from space horror to epic space opera. People didn't go with it, but I did. I had fun with those two films. The third reverted back to the low budget roots of the original. I didn't hate it, but it had a familiar feeling that made it somewhat stale.
I need to rewatch Chronicles of Riddick at some point but I'd remember the first half was alright (up to Kyra's release or something) but the latter part was messy Dungeons & Dragons in space (probably because Diesel, to my knowledge, is an avid D&D player). And I agree with you on the 3rd film.



The Goddess (1934) N

A prostitute is trying to raise her son in Shanghai but faces multiple obstacles.



The Goddess is definitely among the best silent films I've seen. Its story of a prostitute mother trying to give her son a better life than she's had is not very unique and most of the twists are very predictable but it tells its story very well. It also manages to avoid the usual issues of silent film - it actually manages to give some depth to its characters and conveys emotions without horrible overacting.

Cinematography is quite nice for such an old movie and acting was superb for a silent film (especially Lingyu Ruan as the prostitute). It's little heavy handed on its social critique but it doesn't really hurt the story so I'll mostly give it a pass on that. Script's biggest issue is "The Boss" who to me looks more like a loser (why is he a boss of anything when all we ever see of him is losing his money by gambling and being broke unless he manages to steal "The Goddess's" stash?).

Well acted and slightly depressing drama that doesn't offer much new but builds a pretty package of the same old.




Day of the Dead (1985) R

Another highly politicized zombie film by Romero that, unfortunately, feels like it could have been made yesterday.



This time our survivors are in a mine/bunker. There's bunch soldiers protecting some scientists who are researching zombies. Not a bad premise at all. Sadly lots of potential is wasted, again, because Romero just wants to preach.

Scientists are in awe when some zombies show traces of memories from their lives and rudimentary intelligence; we must learn to co-exist with them, they say. Evil (white hetero male) soldiers aren't impressed and for some weird reason get angry when they find that their fallen comrades have been fed to pet zombies as a reward for good behavior. Internal struggle follows and amidst the chaos the one enlightened (zombie bitten Latino) soldier realizes that the only way to deal with zombie invasion is to open up the gates and curl up to die.

So I hated the films political message (reminded me of the current multiculturalism / mass immigration). Other than that it was slightly better than Dawn (being 30 minutes shorter probably had something to do with it too). Acting was mediocre at best, script had again some oddities (yes, I get Romero hates military but shouldn't they still know how to shoot instead of switching their AR's to full auto and blasting the zombies to torsos until they're out of ammo) but the setting was fine.

I guess the biggest change for better between Day and Dawn is the effects. Day has still some of the best gore / splatter ever made. A true testament to Savini's greatness.

Slightly better than Dawn mostly because of Savini's work but its political pathos is obstructing reasonable storytelling. I'm still thinking my ratings for both of these might be too kind but lets leave them at that for now.




Leptirica (1973) N

Had high hopes for this Serbian vampire film but it didn't meet my expectation.



In a small village millers have been dying. After four deaths a young man takes the job and survives the nightly attack. Villagers become convinced that the killer is a vampire and start searching for its grave. From there on the story goes on according to vampire legends that I haven't heard of before so I won't spoil them.

It's an old TV movie so I don't complain about production values. Acting was pretty bad by everyone (actually reminded me of old Finnish TV productions which isn't a good thing). Settings were beautiful and the village felt kinda timeless (I have no idea when the film is supposed to happen). The few effects in the film were good enough and I guess the sounds made by the vampire were interesting (I'm pretty sure they just used crane's song).

Film is very short, only 63 minutes, so the story is really rushed and characters don't have much room to grow. Also the vampire mythology in the film being so unique (I thought I've heard most of them but nope, not his one) I would have preferred little more details about it.

Interesting idea but it feels very hastily put together. I'll need to see if I can find the novella somewhere as I see lots of potential here.




The New York Ripper (1982) N

Fulci brings us one of the most violent and sleaziest gialli ever.



Young women are killed in New York and cynical detective is trying to catch the killer with some assistance from psychology professor. The only other thing worth mentioning about the plot is the hilarious duck voice used by the killer (quak quak) which fortunately is given at least some kind of an explanation by the end.

From what I quickly read this is considered Fulci's most violent film and it's hard to disagree. All of the effects aren't too convincing but the murders are very bloody and sadistic. When you combine that with multiple unpleasant and sleazy characters the whole film has kind of a disturbed atmosphere. It's also considered misogynist and I guess it's not completely baseless accusation but it doesn't bothers me.

Cinematography is solid Fulci quality, script is mediocre, acting mostly decent and soundtrack's pretty nice too. I can't help myself but the duck voice is really distracting. I'm not entirely convinced that all the sex scenes were needed (they felt more like filler material) but on the other hand it was somewhat refreshing to see giallo combined with borderline pornography.

Quite solid giallo with some extreme violence. Cut the duck voice and make better script that doesn't need softcore porn as a filler and it could have been great, now it's OK.

+



The Childhood of Maxim Gorky (1938) N

I'm on a roll, third film for today. Sadly it's probably the worst too.



Technically the film is solid but to me it seemed that Gorky's childhood didn't make too interesting story. Also events flow by too fast and everything becomes a fragmented mess, a collection of separate scenes from his early life with very little to connect them.

There's some pretty heavy-handed communist symbolism and propaganda spread along the way but that's hardly surprising and it's actually embedded quite well to the story. What bothered me the most was Maxim himself - whether it's because of acting or the script but he felt so remote and detached from surrounding world, like he had no personality at all when compared to everyone else around him.

So instead of, I don't know, coming-of-age film about the famous writer we have something more like an icon of a young cultural hero who's destined for greatness. There's no feeling of growing to be the famous writer but merely following this stoic boy who only awaits to put his words on paper. It just feels weird and somewhat boring.

-



Castle Freak (1995) N

Yet another inept horror by Stuart Gordon. I used to like his work as a kid but lately all of the rewatches have been disappointing and this previously unseen film continues the trend. During the latter half I had to skip quite a bit because I was so bored.




Leptirica (1973) N

Had high hopes for this Serbian vampire film but it didn't meet my expectation.
Sounds interesting.



Even the Wind Is Afraid (1968) N

Another traditional ghost story by Carlos Enrique Taboada.



In a boarding school a girl, Claudia, sees nightmares of hanging girl and hears someone calling her name in the night. When she and few other girls get grounded at school for the spring break they get involved in school's dark secrets and revenge from beyond the grave.

Like other films by Taboada Even the Wind Is Afraid is very slow paced. It doesn't rely on any jump scares and it doesn't try to trick the viewer with ton of false clues (more like it wants the viewer to always know what's happening a little before it happens). There are little too many characters for such a short film but despite their limited screen time they have decent amount of depth.

Story is, like already mentioned, very traditional and somewhat cliched but script has a nice, steady flow that carries familiar events steadily onward. Windy outside shots looked great, otherwise cinematography seemed alright (copy I saw was apparently an old VHS rip with wrong aspect ratio and pretty bad picture quality so it's hard to judge finer visual elements; also the audio was quite bad so soundtrack seemed to be nice).

A tad too predictable ghost story with little flaws here and there but overall it was almost good. For those who like ghost stories I think I can recommend it even though it barely misses my good mark.

+



The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) R

I still don't understand how they ended from Pitch Black's scifi-horror to this Conan the Barbarian in space.


"Yeah, that's pretty much how I felt too."

Umm, what? So Riddick is now a last survivor of some mystical warrior race and is prophesied to kill this space faring Thulsa Doom wannabe who got magical powers from visiting another dimension and is on a quest to destroy the Universe. That's pretty big leap from Pitch Black.

As you might have guessed the absolutely biggest flaw of the film is the script which doesn't make the least amount of sense. It takes all the worst cliches of run-of-the-mill fantasy and just moves them to space (not to mention rather shameless copying of Conan as well). There's no sense in people's actions, there's no inner logic at all. It doesn't feel like it happens in the same world as the first film.

Technically the film is pretty uneven. Some effects are fine, some sets are fine, there's a decent shot every now and then but often it looks like a B-movie. Action is often really bad, many of the sets and costumes are horribly generic and dialogue is worth a few laughs (in the end unintentional humor prevents me from giving even worse rating).

Really, really disappointing sequel to good scifi-horror. Maybe Diesel had few too many D&D sessions between the two movies?




From what I remember it was pretty equal with Pitch Black (I seem to have given it same rating on IMDb at least).
I enjoyed it – I was always aware of the danger in a way of them trying to repeat elements from Pitch Black but I think it worked really well. I liked The Chronicles of Riddick myself but I appreciate it could feel like a big leap in direction from the original.



I enjoyed it – I was always aware of the danger in a way of them trying to repeat elements from Pitch Black but I think it worked really well. I liked The Chronicles of Riddick myself but I appreciate it could feel like a big leap in direction from the original.
I don't really mind that Chronicles wanted to be different but it doesn't feel like the same world at all. Pitch Black was scifi while Chronicles is pure fantasy which just doesn't make any sense.