Horror Movies

[UVA_Guy81]

Watched 2 similar "fest" movies this weekend:

Hell Fest (2018) & Blood Fest (2018)... Both deal with a group of friends that go to a horror-themed festival/amusement park. Hell Fest took itself a lot more seriously in a more traditional slasher styled movie, while Blood Fest was more of a campy horror comedy. Hell Fest had a bigger budget, but honestly you wouldn't be able to tell after watching both. Supposedly HF spent a great deal on their makeup & effects team (same team responsible for the look of TWD out of Atlanta). Blood Fest spent more on its set designs.

Seeing this sort copycat thing happen more often, where it seems like 2 or 3 movies released within a few weeks or months of each other with VERY SIMILAR concepts or plot lines. Some times producers will delay the release of such films so as not to appear like a copycat. These 2 "fest" films are clearly not ripping off one another, because the only similarity is the theme-park/festival idea. The plots and concepts are different. Maybe these films were being developed simultaneously & independently in homage to some horror festival that was happening in real life. No clue.

I vaguely remember there being something similar that happened back in the early 80's when I want to say both Friday the 13th part 2 and Madman (really enjoyed that one and underrated in my opinion) were both coming out around the same time and had very similar themes. If I'm wrong, let me know.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Saw this, enjoyed the Kevin Costner/Anthony Quinn version so much more.

Interesting... Never seen that

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Hell Fest (2018)


As previously mentioned, this movie is going to draw obvious comparisons to Blood Fest (2018) for its similar theme-park/festival premise but I'll exclude that for my review since I already brought up the similarity point.

The beginning of this film was your typical rocky start with teenage slasher films where they script all the dialogue to push character development. As they enter the theme-park they really don't do much of anything important for 10-15 minutes, but merely try to submerge you in the atmosphere of the park. I think they were trying to sell a more ominous tone than they achieved, because all of the misdirection & false scares later in the movie felt like they should have been more dramatic when they weren't. The killer stalking his prey had some moments of promise. It established a motive to enable this killer's hunt, which was one of the better scenes in the film, where the killer got his first kill in front of the female protagonist thinking it was a theme-park gag. I couldn't quite tell if the killer was hopeful to find another murderer amongst the crowd, or if he was merely stalking her for his end-game. The way they showed his curiosity of Natalie's reactions during his first kill made it seem like he was intrigued with her more than seeing her as sheep. Not really that important as the rest of the movie is mainly presented in traditional slasher style. The pacing was a little slow at times, but it inevitably picks up towards the final act.

The suspense was somewhat lackluster. The pacing, the boring atmosphere, some less-than realistic moments and all the false scares took some of the fun out of it. As a result it somewhat lacked that menacing feel that most top notch slasher films have. Some scenes seemed to drag on & on, with senseless dialogue. I liked the cliffhanger ending where we are left with the haunting theme of "killers amongst us". Far from original, but still very effective IMO. Looked like the spent a lot of money on the gore & set designs in this film, but they weren't very well framed which made most of it go unnoticed. They hired the same makeup & effects team responsible for the look of The Walking Dead out of Atlanta. My guess is that is where most of their budget went. It was disappointing that the director failed to effectively capture some of the awesomeness that was on display. But it did feature some very cool set designs.

The acting was ok, but none of the characters were very likable. Natalie didn't really sell her role at times, but mostly believable. I find Bex Taylor-Klaus (The Last Watch Hunter (2015), or Audrey in Scream: TV Series) to be very annoying so her character was DOA for me. Tony Todd's cameo was nothing more than a gimmick cliff-note during one of my favorite scenes in the film where Taylor almost loses her head. All of the male cast were douchebags so didn't care at all for their survival.

Overall it wasn't a bad movie. It just lacked suspense & tone. Even with a bad cast & bad script I felt it was still worth the watch. It had some decent creativity. But I'm a softie for slasher films. I'm sure the mainstream horror fans won't care for it.

Unsuspenseful slasher film... 5.5/10

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Blood Fest (2018)


This movie took a less serious approach to the horror theme-park to produce a campy meta horror-comedy. It holds back nothing with its influences nor its seriousness, and just has fun with all of the madness. The theme-park setup allowed them to encompass a wide variety of horror villains, which ended up being my favorite highlight of the film. They paid homage to many killer genres: hillbilly, chainsaw, clowns, vampires, zombies, dolls, etc. There was loads of silliness to it all, but gladly it never took itself serious in the first place so it ends up being harmless fun.

The cast was decent. They did a much better job of making their characters more likable, even if some were incredibly stupid at times. The background intro where the mother dies didn't really carry as much weight into the climax as it should have. Which led me to not really caring much for when it did finally get a little more serious with the mastermind twist & climactic finish. There just wasn't much of any emotional connectivity there. Maybe because they didn't spend any time building any connection between the father & son? Nor did I think the mastermind motive worked very well, but that could very well be the writer's way of poking fun at They even poked fun at the "horror/violence corruption of youth" subtext. Jacob Batalon (Ned in the newest Spider-Man films), who appears to have been eating his success lately, harnessed his all-too familiar beta-friend (with tech-proficiency) performance to comedic effect.

This was a very cheesy movie through & through, but it was campy fun. Even during the more serious scenes it doesn't hesitate to pull more silly punches. It is loaded with harmless satirical fun, and displays loads of visual gags to celebrate the killer horror genre. All that said however, I don't feel as though this was a particularly memorable film. It had a hard time executing its more dramatic death scenes to better effect.

Meta Splatter Comedy... 6/10

 

[Chef99]

Interesting... Never seen that

Not a horror movie per se, but it was a pretty brutal (in a good way) flick. I think you'd enjoy it. Revenge is a dish best served with torture.

 

[Myles]

Late to the thread.
Is there a movie (on Prime or Netflix) that you think is truly scary? I've watched many horror films. The gore doesn't do anything for me. In fact I find too much gore to be annoying and it's never been scary to me.
I've seen most older horror flicks up until around 2010.
One of the scariest for me was Candyman, but I am not a horror movie aficionado.

 

[Taddy Mason]

Late to the thread.
Is there a movie (on Prime or Netflix) that you think is truly scary? I've watched many horror films. The gore doesn't do anything for me. In fact I find too much gore to be annoying and it's never been scary to me.
I've seen most older horror flicks up until around 2010.
One of the scariest for me was Candyman, but I am not a horror movie aficionado.

hmm, i know this is before 2010, but from what i gather of you, you're afraid of a black character killing white characters. give the blade series a spin.

 

[Myles]

hmm, i know this is before 2010, but from what i gather of you, you're afraid of a black character killing white characters. give the blade series a spin.

Naw. Race doesn't matter to me. Blade isn't a horror movie. At least I didn't think so.

 

[Taddy Mason]

Naw. Race doesn't matter to me. Blade isn't a horror movie. At least I didn't think so.

okay, so it's more about the bees. a melissophobiac, have you seen My Girl?

 

[Myles]

okay, so it's more about the bees. a melissophobiac, have you seen My Girl?

Ok so you are not going to help. Good to know.

 

[Taddy Mason]

Ok so you are not going to help. Good to know.

i can help, so it's more about scares or just a good movie?

don't find much scary and don't know what you like, so it's hard to say. If you want my "scariest of the year"off the top of my head
2010 - Insidious
2011 - Abesntia
2012 - Sinister
2013 - Conjuring/Insidious2/Mama/Oculus
2014 - Annabelle/Babadook/As Above, So Below/The Canal/Clown/Creep/
2015- The Hallow/Hell House LLC
2016 - Conjuring 2/Ouija: Origin of Evil
2017 - Terrifier

of course then i'd have to start to cross reference that with what's available to stream.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Late to the thread.
Is there a movie (on Prime or Netflix) that you think is truly scary? I've watched many horror films. The gore doesn't do anything for me. In fact I find too much gore to be annoying and it's never been scary to me.
I've seen most older horror flicks up until around 2010.
One of the scariest for me was Candyman, but I am not a horror movie aficionado.

Right now my favorites on Netflix:

The Ritual (2017) - 9/10... Creature feature. Great mix of scare & suspense.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) - 9/10... One helluva underrated supernatural horror gem. Crazy story meshed with great amounts of scare & suspense.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) - 9/10... More suspenseful & psychologically terrifying than outright scary. And a very slow burn. Strangely visceral experience though that leaves you feeling disturbed.

Insidious (2010) - 8.5/10... Supernatural horror with a very clever story. Lots of jump scares, but good tense atmosphere throughout.

The Ring (2002) - 8.5/10... Everyone's seen this.

The Girl With All the Gifts (2016) - 8.5/10... Zombie flick done right.

The Boy (2016) - 8/10... Sort of a run of the mill supernatural horror film with the same scare tactics you've seen hundreds of times until the final act that blows up the formula. Honestly if it weren't for the ending I wouldn't be mentioning this film lol. I loved it for it, but most people were pretty "meh" about it.

The Invitation (2015) - 8/10... Psychological thriller with good twists & turns. Tense & unnerving.

The Babysitter (2017) - 8/10... Not scary or suspenseful, but wicked fun. Horror comedy featuring Samara Weaving (Ready Or Not).

As Above, So Below (2014) - 7.5/10... Found footage survival horror/thriller. Great supernatural elements.

Hush (2016) - 7.5/10... Home invasion thriller. More suspense than scare, but well worth it. Some unique elements at play that sets it apart.

The VVitch (2015) - 7.5/10... Period horror done right. Slow paced, tense atmosphere, creepy & uneasy. Not everyone's cup of tea.

Would You Rather (2012) - 7.5/10... Probably too gory for your tastes, but pretty wild movie.

Before I Wake (2016) - 7.5/10... Dark fantasy, Archetypal fantasy stories meet traditional supernatural horror elements. Layered story with great acting. Decent scare tactics & suspense.

Train To Busan (2016) - 7/10... Zombie flick. Foreign film, subtitled in English, but well worth it. If you like Zombie flicks, then this is top notch quality (apart from maybe the acting lol).

Creep (2014) - 7/10... Psycho slasher shot in first-person style. Mark Duplass simply brilliant. The plot is fairly forgettable, but his performance was very memorable. If you like this then check out the sequel Creep 2 (2017), which is also on Netflix. Just as good in terms of Duplass' role, but they play up the strange bits a little too far.

The Endless (2017) - 7/10... Strange story that burns slowly for 30-45mins but races to the finish line. Great visuals & sci-fi elements if you can understand the supernatural elements at play. Sort of a crazy puzzle, that doesn't necessarily end up making any sense, but you're still glad you watched it. Fairly low budget, and the acting is a bit dry.

Sweetheart (2019) - 7.10... Pretty neat low budget creature feature.

If you've depleted this list, then let me know and I'll drum up a Prime list for you. I think @Taddy Mason did a pretty good Prime list some time ago... But fortunately for us, the Hoop search function has been on the fritz and we'd have to dig for it.

 

[Chef99]

Late to the thread.
Is there a movie (on Prime or Netflix) that you think is truly scary? I've watched many horror films. The gore doesn't do anything for me. In fact I find too much gore to be annoying and it's never been scary to me.
I've seen most older horror flicks up until around 2010.
One of the scariest for me was Candyman, but I am not a horror movie aficionado.

Everyone who knows me on this thread knows I'm gonna post these: As for scary, if you don't mind subtitles, Train to Busan is right up your alley.

Next up, in my mind is one of the coolest horror movies ever made, although it does help imbibing a bit while watching (right, @FaCe-LeE-uS ? ).

Either way, straight or sober, this movie is one of my guilty pleasures. Well worth a look.

ZomBeavers

 

[Taddy Mason]

Everyone who knows me on this thread knows I'm gonna post these: As for scary, if you don't mind subtitles, Train to Busan is right up your alley.

Next up, in my mind is one of the coolest horror movies ever made, although it does help imbibing a bit while watching (right, @FaCe-LeE-uS ? ).

Either way, straight or sober, this movie is one of my guilty pleasures. Well worth a look.

ZomBeavers

see, that's what i don't get when someone asks for scary. i enjoy both of those movies, i find neither of them scary (obviously zombeavers is a comedy, but train to busan was speed with zombies).

 

[Chef99]

see, that's what i don't get when someone asks for scary. i enjoy both of those movies, i find neither of them scary (obviously zombeavers is a comedy, but train to busan was speed with zombies).

It's all "to each his/her own", my friend. Like you and most of us on here, we post our opinions, some will agree, some won't. Either way, it's all good.

Unless someone dares to dis Zombeavers. Then, all gloves are off!

 

[Taddy Mason]

It's all "to each his/her own", my friend. Like you and most of us on here, we post our opinions, some will agree, some won't. Either way, it's all good.

Unless someone dares to dis Zombeavers. Then, all gloves are off!

i know. i just took offense when they said i wasn't going to help. they gave me candyland. i went with black antagonist with a hook, they said not what they were looking for. the second thing i associate with that movie is bees. obviously i was joking with each, but it's tough for me to know what one will find scary based off of one example. as my suggestions later spoke to for me, i like lore/occult stuff (as far as what is scary for me) motions where set in place, is there a solution?

 

[Chef99]

The Girl With All the Gifts (2016)

Sweetheart

Hey Face, what the hell are these? Did I miss some reviews? Bad Chef! Bad bad Chef!

 

[Chef99]

i know. i just took offense when they said i wasn't going to help. they gave me candyland. i went with black antagonist with a hook, they said not what they were looking for. the second thing i associate with that movie is bees. obviously i was joking with each, but it's tough for me to know what one will find scary based off of one example. as my suggestions later spoke to for me, i like lore/occult stuff (as far as what is scary for me) motions where set in place, is there a solution?

See, here's the thing; scary is subjective. Ever see Marathon Man? That movie scared the crap outta me. It's not a "horror movie", but to me, it was scary as hell. My point is, just post yer opinions, and let the chips fall where they may.

"Is it safe?"

 

[Taddy Mason]

See, here's the thing; scary is subjective. Ever see Marathon Man? That movie scared the crap outta me. It's not a "horror movie", but to me, it was scary as hell. My point is, just post yer opinions, and let the chips fall where they may.

"Is it safe?"

that's why i suggested my girl. and obviously that scene is pretty fucked up. from there, my biggest real life fears stem from kafka being imprisoned for a crime i didn't commit, or being committed against my will while sane, as seen in unsane.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Hey Face, what the hell are these? Did I miss some reviews? Bad Chef! Bad bad Chef!

It appears you have!