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

There's something special about encountering something scary/weird in a horror movie that just isn't the brand of weird you were expecting.

It really is great.

Also, one of my main associations with the film is that it had an absolutely rotten IMDb board just filled with misogynistic hot takes about the movie such as (1) her character OWED Goodman's character companionship/sex because he saved her, (2) Gallagher's character was too nice and therefore was probably actually a murderer, and (3) Goodman's character was just really misunderstood, because if you paid attention, he clearly just loved women and his only character flaw was his kind heart. LOL.

I actually prefer this film to the original, I kind of lost interest in the first Nightmare when I realized that the answer to the question of are they dreaming was always yes, just killed any tension for me. So the fact that outside of one scene this one never wastes your time on that and is just "yeah they're dreaming" worked way better for me. Also I liked the characters in this film way more and was way more invested in them hopefully getting out alive than the original. I honestly don't even remember Freddy even being overly quippy in this one and he stilled felt pretty menacing to me. But then again I'm not a huge fan of Slashers and have some pretty blasphemous opinions on the classics of them that I've seen.

Deadly Friend. Wes Craven directs and Kristy Swanson stars. A teenager puts the brain of his goofy ‘80s robot into the girl next door after she almost dies. This was delightful! I don’t know why nobody told me about this. I had to find it through stupid In Search of Darkness. I kinda get why it never caught on though. It’s the got the tone of a kids movie but a buncha R-rated gore in it. A few other things to note: the robot sounds like a gremlin, Nester from Tremors gets to be an abusive dad, and Mama Fratelli from The Goonies is a gun-toting shut-in. Everyone looks like they’re having fun, especially Swanson.

Interesting.

West, 2022





I had heard good things about this, here and around the 'net. While I would agree with some of those takes that this is a well-made and well-shot film, as well as also concurring with the praise for Goth's performance, I bounced off of this one. I understand it was sort of a love/hate letter to a bygone era, but I just didn't find it entertaining. I found myself checking my watch about halfway through, and just as the film seemed to be gaining steam, it ended abruptly, and left both my wife and I shrugging our shoulders and moving on. Perhaps more of a for me, but I gave it a little bump up for the craftsmanship.

__________________

__________________
Captain's Log
My Collection

The Menu -

Adam McKay and Will Ferrel love eating the rich, don't they? I don't mind because they're not bad at it. In this one, they at least let them eat first. Various elites not far removed from the ones in Glass Onion get on a boat and travel to an island home to the most exclusive restaurant imaginable. Our guides are Tyler (Hoult) - who worships the ground that head chef Slovik (Fiennes) walks on - and Margo (Taylor-Joy), his more skeptical date. Their fellow diners range from a critic who would scare Anton Ego to the kind of finance bros the producers love to skewer. Does everything go according to plan and do all the guests have a nice time? Umm, yeah, sure.

While it may be redundant to praise Ralph Fiennes at this point, it's still worth mentioning that half the fun is simply watching him work. Does Slovik have the tics and mannerisms of a stereotypical Michelin-starred chef? Yes, but Fiennes makes him out to be more interesting and human than that and in surprising ways. Unpredictability is the name of the game here - a dinner down the rabbit hole, in other words - with the courses and the cast's varied and equally praiseworthy reactions to the craziness making the surprises even more fun and shocking (or in the case of Tyler, lack thereof since he hilariously buys whatever Slovik sells). Also, in true Ferrell/McKay fashion, each guest personifies a modern demon, and as broad as they may be, each one proves that subtlety is not always a virtue. All the while, there's Taylor-Joy's straight woman, who made me feel like I was a guest myself since her responses approximated my own. For the ways the movie lovingly skewers fine dining and the kinds of people who explain why we cannot have nice things, it's a very fine horror comedy for our time. I am just surprised - and maybe a little scared - that I was hungry after it was over.

This in my top three for vampire movies.

Agree on all counts. Was pleasantly surprised by this, it was not as predictable as, well, predicted.

And I was definitely ready to spend half the film with my eyes rolled into the back of my head on the trite skeet shooting of the wealthy, but I'll give 'em credit, they took aim at elites of all persuasions and it didn't feel like any particular type was singled out.

I could pick apart maybe a few of the things around the end, I think this was another "the ending I was expecting was better than the one I got," but still a really solid film. It builds just the right amount, pulls the right number of rugs at the right moments, and ramps up admirably and effectively.

Seriously, Fiennes is such a fantastic actor, he was really the whole reason for my interest in the film.

Why not? Jerry Dandridge is one of the top 3 vampires ever.

It might be the only vampire film I really, really love that isn't a demystification of the whole vampire mythos (Blood of Dracula, Martin, Near Dark, Vampires Kiss being my other favorites). Which is funny considering it's played almost as much as a comedy as it is a horror.

One of the many movies my grandmother chose to bring me to in the theater that I didn't know anything about, but that tapped right into exactly what I was looking for as an eight or nine year old social reject.

Not much to say here, Halloween Classic at this point.


I believe this was my 11th viewing. To learn, watching a video about the film this morning, that there were still several things I missed just absolutely blew my mind. I mean, this is a movie with so many things to catch and I watch for them carefully and there were still more. Crazy.

He's my favorite actor and this movie is another reason why. I'll never forget how he describes his distate for what they have for dessert.

I wasn't able to fit in a shoutout for Hong Chau in my review. It's hard to think of another performance where someone was so creepy while emoting so little.

Near Dark is still rather mystical. It's a blood disease, but one that comes with inexplicable powers and vulnerabilities. I guess it demystifies being a hobo (that "van life" is not looking all that glamorous for our vamps)--you'd think that with all that extra time on your hands, you could figure out how to live more like The Highlander/Forever Knight and get your lurk on as a prosperous "gray man."

Fright Night Part 2

It was a bit of a surprise for me to learn that there was a Fright Night sequel. Like, maybe I already knew this but if so it's not something that was really on my radar. IMDB tells me that the release was somehow disrupted by the Menendez murders and the film only played in a couple of cities before heading to home video. And apparently even Mr Wooley hasn't seen it.

So anyway, this one suffers from a lack of Sarandon but I think it does a decent job of capturing the spirit of the first film. Sequels in the 80s had a tendency to take everything from the original and make a joke of it, so I was pleased to find that was not the case here. Charlie and Peter are the only returning characters and this might be sacrilege but I think I preferred Charlie's new college girlfriend to the first film's Amy. Just a more interesting character. The spooky bits are shot just as nicely as Part 1 and the effects are up to the same level. And there's a werewolf this time. This is a film that features a roller-skating vampire with Duran Duran hair and not only manages to make that not seem ridiculous, but in fact films it with such flair that it was one of the highlights for me. No one is more surprised than I at that last sentence.

Most would agree that it's the lesser film but it doesn't tarnish the original in any way and I'm confident recommending it to fans, with the understanding that it's gonna be a step down.

I watched it on Youtube in this very nice-looking upload:




ps-- Also, bonus points for featuring Johnny Slash from Square Pegs

Two things I forgot:
1/ Thanks to Wooley for giving me the kick in the pants to finally watch this thing.
2/ Roddy McDowell is awesome and if Fright Night was a real show I'd watch the hell out of it

Replacing Jerry is tough. Trying to do a female Jerry might have been the wrong move. They did their best with casting. There are some top-shelf actresses of the time who could've done it, but this film didn't have the budget for that sort of thing. So, we get a gender flip (the vamp). We get a role flip (Charlie is the skeptic and Peter the panicky believer). And we get a brand new pair of roller skates. It's worth the watch if you loved the first, but alas 'tis a sequel.