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

I recently watched The Severed Arm, and am now telling everyone who will listen that it deserves to be mentioned in the list of "first slasher" movies. It's not great, but as far as I'm concerned it is an 80s slasher that happened to be made in 1973. Complete with synth soundtrack. So far I've only convinced Rock to watch it so I'd like to know what others think.

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Ooh, I do love Goblin, especially their soundtrack to Suspiria (which I'm ashamed I slept through a crucial portion of and need to rewatch as a result, but I digress...)

Black Mountain Side, 2nd and 3rd watch (A)

First time I watched it, I didn't care much for the reveal of the thing, but then it occurred to me that it was probably lying, and the movie went back to being a solid, claustrophobic experience that didn't blow the ending. Love it and will probably watch it again.

l'Aldilla, 3rd or 4th watch (A+)

One of these days, I'll get the ending. I swear I will.

Contamination, 1980 (B)

Very silly, very over-the-top and gets into a bit of a slump, stretched out by a lot of slow motion. It's too stupid not to like, and The Alien looked amazing. Too bad they wouldn't light it properly most of the time, and it didn't show up enough.

The Robot vs The Aztec Mummy (C+)

I was expecting so much more Aztec and so much more Robot that was is there. It's somewhat eventful for the genre in that period, but it's just not that worth it in the end. Very disappointed.

Burial Ground, 1981 (A)

Grotesque, gratuitous, excessive and indulgent, this is one of the few zombie movies I enjoyed. The zombies themselves are awesome, and every overly long killing scene is amazing. The scythe and the breastfeeding scenes are real standouts here. I'll definitely watch this one again.

The bad reputation this has with a lot of horror fans is baffling to me. It's easily one of the superior zombie films.

I was also reasonably pleased with this. It needed the breastfeeding and all that came with it to push itself over the hill but it all worked for me in the end.

I also enjoyed Burial Ground a good bit. Most of the deaths were telegraphed far ahead of time, but the breastfeeding scene and the build up leading up to it definitely made up for its weaker moments. In retrospect, I might've rated it a bit too high, but I did get the sense that the journey was ultimately worth it in the end by the time I finished it.

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It's been too long since I watched it, but I just must have had a different viewing experience with Burial Ground than the rest of you. I mean, yes, the breastfeeding scene, and pretty much any shot of "the kid," was memorable, but I found much of the rest of the movie was a lot more difficult (in a dull, inept sort of way that I did not find enjoyable. As opposed to dull, inept that I do find enjoyable). I don't know how much the fact I had heard that there was a breastfeeding scene caused it to not overcome my opinion of the rest of the film played into it.

Return of the Living Dead (A-)

Not the most comedic comedy I've ever seen, but a tremendous zombie movie. The zombies were fast, smart, talked, ate brains. So much more than just quiet murderers. Shout out to some of the most gratuitous nudity I've seen in a movie. They don't even try to justify it.

Night of the Demons, 1982 (B)

Good parts here and there, but it's overall not that much more than a haunted house movie, just a bit different.

Next of Kin, 1982 (B)

I didn't really get where this was going at first. I liked the early vibes, interspersed with some odd happenings, and then the last act when all hell breaks loose. Very interesting movie. I'll be watching it again for certain.

Don't Look Away, 2023 (D+)

A film about a killer mannequin that kills you when you look away. But not every time. Sometimes he just disappears. That's mostly what he does actually. The editing is the real monster here. The movie goes nowhere at a breakneck pace. Coupled with how dark it is overall and how cramped it is, it just doesn't work. No atmosphere is created, no scare is effective, no character is interesting. It's like a hastily made youtube video introduction got stretched out into a feature film.

Yeah, I was totally shocked by it and it was what the movie needed to amp it up. Once it becomes a psycho-sexual zombie movie it's a whole different animal and, to me, reframes everything before it too.

RotLD is probably my favorite zombie movie of all time and it keeps jockeying for my favorite Horror movie of all time. If I only had a week to watch movies and then I'd die, RotLD would get watched and possibly if I only had 24 hours.

I actually did not like Night Of The Demons at all on my first watch and questioned the person who recommended it to me.
I have since revised that position as I find it great fun on the low budget.

Two possession movies at my friends movie night tonight. Late Night with the Devil commits fully to it's bit about showing the tragic last broadcast of the The Night Owls with Jack Delroy, a late night talk show trying to compete with the juggernaut that is Johnny Carson. After a brief bit setting up the character the position he's in you are basically just watching a 1977 late night talk show happening on Halloween. There are multiple guests prior to the titular "devil" and while they certainly play into the themes on display and have a bit of spook to them, they are just that prior parts of a talk show. You do get footage during commercial breaks that isn't aired which helps get talking points out of the way but yeah it is just an interesting talk show in and of itself. When Lilly, a survivor of a demonic cult, and her therapist/handler June show up things get intense and then straight up bonkers but it all feels like a natural progression. This is just a great little spin on presenting a possession film and it's fun to see it outside the simple context of an exorcism.


We followed that up with My Best Friends Exorcism, which did a solid job with it's 80's setting and the actors were mostly fine but I just had a hard time getting into it. Despite a beginning that seems to say horror/comedy it spends most of it's run time seemingly more of a drama about a group of girls whose friendship starts to fall apart after weekend together goes poorly. This middle section is hard to watch just from the meanness of everything and it feels very odd with the more comedic start to things. The film starts to find it's footing when main character Abby recruits a body builder for Christ, the 80's were weird, to figure out her best friend got possessed and to do the titular exorcism. This actually brings some good humor back though the final showdown with the demon is a little stupid. A pretty mediocre film that wobbles between tones and has a generally underwhelming possession aspect that I almost wish it hadn't been and instead was just friends falling out and thinking it was possession, might have made for a more interesting ending. Still it's solid enough that if you like possession films it is again at least a bit of a different take on the subject.

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage -

The giallo genre is a bit of a blind spot for me, so I'm glad that I clicked with what is as good of a place as any to start. After all, it's not the first one, but it is the master of the genre's first. Dario Argento has been called the Italian Hitchcock and it's easy to see why. Our "ordinary hero in extraordinary circumstances," Sam, is just the guide I needed because he's not only new to detective work, but also to Italy. Also, like John Woo and Bryan Fuller (Hannibal) demonstrate, violence and beauty can coincide without diluting the former's impact. That there's ingenuity in the beauty made me appreciate it even more; for example, a fall from the top of an apartment building involved an actual camera being dropped to its destruction. The movie does not exactly rewrite the rulebook for murder mysteries, but it at least avoids some of its most tired formulas. Even though the police chief holds on to Sam's passport and thus makes him a captive, for instance, they end up having a cordial, near-bromance relationship anyway, which is a welcome change of pace from them having that certain kind of measuring contest instead. Oh, and as a certain visit with a prisoner with an unusual stutter and another one with a reclusive artist and cat...uh...enthusiast indicates, comedy and this kind of violence can also be bedfellows.

Discussing what this movie meant to me beyond its quality and stylish thrills and chills is difficult because of the possibility of spoiling the conclusion. I'll at least say that the finale will not only challenge your expectations about "who done it" or even when the movie concludes, but also about society and how we treat each other. Is this an ideal introduction to giallo? I don't know, but I am inclined to watch them all now, and to paraphrase Obi-Wan Kenobi, I feel like I've taken a first step into a larger world. I only wish I could have watched it with others or in a theater because I found myself talking to the screen and guessing who I thought did it out loud.

Yellowbrickroad, 3rd watch, (B-)

A group of people investigate the mysterious disappearance of a whole town in the 1920s.

There's something good in this movie, but I don't know that the movie itself is good. I usually don't let lack of technical ability come in the way of a good idea, but here there's a sense of rush and claustrophobia that don't feel intentional, and certainly don't work in concert with the rest of the movie. A shame, because the movie has such a strong concept too.

There's jumps in the vibe, but no real progression. Everything feels disconnected like a song without rhythm, and even though music plays a big role here, I don't think it's intentional at all.

Night of the Seagulls (B)

An amusing enough movie about a reclusive village on an island where, somehow, this 20 people community has to sacrifice one of their hot virgins every night or so to stave off the Templar zombies. I haven't seen the other movies in the series, but they probably wouldn't add too much to this one anyway.

The Rift, 1990 (B)

A submarine is sent to look for another submarine real deep in the ocean. Monsters ensue.

Some great monsters here, hindered only by the fact that they are shown for a grand total of less than 5 minutes in earnest, aside from some wall thingies. Otherwise okay.

Exists (D-)

From the director of The Blair Witch Project, another movie about people yelling in the wood and the audience not seeing much. Includes a super jarring Wilhelm scream that drags you straight out of the experience. You can see bigfoot in this one, where you couldn't see the witch in the other one. Not that it does much to improve the experience.

New Horror movies I've seen starting from the beginning of Feb - April 30 2024

(First time watches)

Terror Train (1980) - Slasher -
Motel Hell (1980) - Horror/Comedy -
The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) - Slasher -
The People Under the Stairs (1991) - Horror/Comedy -
Trick r' Treat (2009) - Anthology Horror Tales -
Kristy (2014) - Survival Horror/Thriller-
Housebound (2014) - Paranormal Horror Comedy -
Green Room (2015) - Survival Horror -
The Babysitter: Killer Queen (2020) - Horror Comedy -
Bloody Hell (2020) - Australian Horror Comedy -
Malignant (2021) - Supernatural Slasher -
The Blackening (2022) - Slasher Horror Comedy -
Renfield (2023) - Horror/Comedy -
Lisa Frankenstein (2024) - Horror/Comedy -
Night Swim (2024) - Supernatural Haunted Pool movie -
Abigail (2024) - Vampire Horror/Comedy -

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Yikes.
I'd bump Terror Train up by two full popcorns from you and add at least one each for Motel Hell and Slumber Party while Trick 'r Treat is actually a never-miss Halloween movie for me.
But that's what makes life interesting.

A new Resident Evil movie has been announced

https://insiderfandom.com/new-reside...ems-exclusive/

Well after a long delay finally getting around to the All the Haunts be Ours box set. Gonna go disc by disc, starting with #2 as I want to save the actual documentary til the end so as to not risk influencing any of my viewings. So that means I started with Eyes of Fire. The story is about a preacher run out of town and the folks that follow him into Shawnee/french territory where they find an seemingly abandoned homestead and decide to settle there, from there things start to get weird. The film does a good job with the set up and things escalate nicely til they reach a pretty explosive crescendo, like literally there are way more explosions in the this film than I would ever have expected. While those explosions tend to stand out and feel out of place the rest of the effects do a good job of setting the mood and lending a creepy atmosphere to things. The cast is pretty game and there are plenty of interesting characters, the standout however is Leah who seems to have her own special powers. She is presented in such a striking manner and the actress has a magnetic presence that it's hard to look away from her, really helps elevate the weird but also give you a hope they can survive. So definitely a great start to the set with beautiful foggy landscapes and weird horrors soaked into the land. There is a longer cut re-titled Crying Blue Sky that I will also try and watch, possibly at the end of this endeavor to see how it compares.

I bought the box set, but keep wanting to work at it in small chunks with friends, which means it could take up to a decade for me to get through it all. Though I have seen some of the movies on there before, and have watched a few on my own since (Witchhammer is a good political allegory, horror-adjacent movie).


It's been a while since I've seen Eyes of Fire. I recall there was something in the execution I was somewhat down on, but overall, I really liked the premise (and the idea of colliding mythologies). Did you also get some Aguirre the Wrath of God vibes when they were on the raft or was that just the virtue of "people in period costume traveling down river on a raft."