Horror Movies

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Damn, I didn’t think it had already been that long. Only a few tops.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Watched Anna (2013) last night. Pretty decent mystery thriller with some great acting. Pretty dry but had decent moments of suspense. Honestly almost fell asleep early on but I made it. The ending didn’t explain much of anything which was annoying.

 

[returnofjakedog]

I recently started a serious training regime and decided to watch horror movies while exercising. My first session yesterday I rewatched Halloween 2 (1981 version).

I remember really enjoying this as a companion piece to the original and if you cut out the original Halloween ending recap at the start of part 2 it does flow pretty seemlessly. Despite a new director (Rosenthal, whose career seems a bit "meh" to me with the main exception being the Sean Penn prison movie Bad Boys in '83) they specifically tried to recreate the feel of the original with the same actors, filming techniques, and a script by Carpenter. Despite these similarities it was a bit critically lambasted mainly due to the uptick in violence. Lots more graphic fxs! For me this is an improvement but '83 society was a bit more easily freaked and didn't agree.
Some notes:
The Bad-
*The security guard at the hospital is a bumbling idiot. He reads a book while Michael strolls into the hospital on the security monitor in front of him. Then he leaves a nurse in charge of the security desk(!) as he bumbles around the hospital, first falling into trash with a cat jumping out of a dumpster scare, then falling a couple of times while opening storage closets that have unlocked padlocks engaged on the outside. Did he think someone hid in the closet, then magically put the padlock back through the hasp? Is he really so surprised by empty boxes leaning against the door? Sorry about the rant but there is no reason for this crap buffoonery.
*Jamie Lee shoots out both of Michael's eyes after already poking one of the eyes out with an iconic coat hanger scene. Loomis fills the room up with gas, Jamie runs away as Loomis flicks a Bic and goes up in a huge explosion with Michael. Michael stumbles down the hallway engulfed in flames in what might be one of the best actor on fire stunts ever. Very intense flames (apparently the metal zippers on the suit scarred the stuntman and led to a new flame retardant suit design). Despite this the "failure" of Halloween 3 led to this all being retconned and both Michael and Loomis being revived. I know that this is standard horror series stuff now but in specific reference to these movies it makes no sense as the explosion and fire were way to intense. Loomis gets scar tissue on his face for the next movie and then it goes away entirely (he explains it with reconstructive surgery). Oh well.
*The Ben Trammer death was ridiculous. Trammer is mentioned as Jamie Lee's crush in the first movie and he is mentioned in this a couple of times. Trammer is spotted by the sheriff and Doc Loomis because he just happens to be wearing the same cloths and mask as Michael. Note that Michael's attire isn't known by the general public at this point and he had gotten his cloths from a trucker he killed. Did Trammer just coincidentally decide to wear the same cloths and a similar mask to Michael, whom he had no knowledge of? Ugh. Trammer walks across the street as Loomis starts yelling and running towards him with his gun out. Then a police car suddenly comes screaming down this residential road filled with trick or treating kids at 50+ mph and violently rams Trammer into the side of a news van. WTF?? How did the speeding cop even know this was a suspect? Does he often drive the neighborhood streets at high speed, ramming his car into other vehicles? I feel the Trammer family should be winning a big lawsuit over this!
The Good:
*Generally tight direction, and continuation of the original story.
*Great fxs! The aforementioned end explosion is gruesomely spectacular. The wire coat hanger to the eye us semi-iconic. The hot tub face melting scene is really good (though highly criticized at the time for graphic violence).
*Acting is pretty good overall and the leads are very good. Jamie Lee does an excellent job as Laurie Strode, and Donald Pleasance's unhinged ranting as Dr. Loomis works well.
*The hospital setting works great. It provides a feeling of isolation and paranoia that only increases as Michael thins the herd of the late night employees.
*Surprise Dana Carvey appearance as reporter's assistant! I had no idea he was in this!
Despite my lengthy rant about specific issues, in retrospect I find it to be a very worthy sequel to the classic Halloween and highly recommend it. Much of the negative critic response was due to the "excessive" gore and violence, which really isn't that much by today's standards. This led to some critics claiming that it was a splatter film and not a slasher like the original.
7 out of 10. Check it out! 8 out of 10 if watched back to back with part 1.

Lastly, a couple of notes:
*In '82 a murderer took out an elderly couple by stabbing them 50+ times. He claimed that Halloween 2 made him do it. The movie was shown to the jury(!) before they sentenced him to death.
*I saw this at our local drive in a few years after release as a second feature (it must have been as I didn't have my license until '85.) We had to leave and go to the hospital as my younger sister screamed in surprise and jumped in her seat, hitting her head on the roof of the car! 3 stitches, no Michael Meyers at the hospital, and I had to go back the next night to see the conclusion!
All in all, the Halloween series is pretty hit and miss but the first 2 movies are debatably the best of the lot, though I still need to see the 2018 addition.

 

[returnofjakedog]

Last note: I almost forgot- Halloween 2 had what was supposedly the first needle-to-the-eye fxs scene! If it was truely the first then it was important horror movie genre moment.

Plus, a trailer:

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

I recently started a serious training regime and decided to watch horror movies while exercising. My first session yesterday I rewatched Halloween 2 (1981 version).

I remember really enjoying this as a companion piece to the original and if you cut out the original Halloween ending recap at the start of part 2 it does flow pretty seemlessly. Despite a new director (Rosenthal, whose career seems a bit "meh" to me with the main exception being the Sean Penn prison movie Bad Boys in '83) they specifically tried to recreate the feel of the original with the same actors, filming techniques, and a script by Carpenter. Despite these similarities it was a bit critically lambasted mainly due to the uptick in violence. Lots more graphic fxs! For me this is an improvement but '83 society was a bit more easily freaked and didn't agree.
Some notes:
The Bad-
*The security guard at the hospital is a bumbling idiot. He reads a book while Michael strolls into the hospital on the security monitor in front of him. Then he leaves a nurse in charge of the security desk(!) as he bumbles around the hospital, first falling into trash with a cat jumping out of a dumpster scare, then falling a couple of times while opening storage closets that have unlocked padlocks engaged on the outside. Did he think someone hid in the closet, then magically put the padlock back through the hasp? Is he really so surprised by empty boxes leaning against the door? Sorry about the rant but there is no reason for this crap buffoonery.
*Jamie Lee shoots out both of Michael's eyes after already poking one of the eyes out with an iconic coat hanger scene. Loomis fills the room up with gas, Jamie runs away as Loomis flicks a Bic and goes up in a huge explosion with Michael. Michael stumbles down the hallway engulfed in flames in what might be one of the best actor on fire stunts ever. Very intense flames (apparently the metal zippers on the suit scarred the stuntman and led to a new flame retardant suit design). Despite this the "failure" of Halloween 3 led to this all being retconned and both Michael and Loomis being revived. I know that this is standard horror series stuff now but in specific reference to these movies it makes no sense as the explosion and fire were way to intense. Loomis gets scar tissue on his face for the next movie and then it goes away entirely (he explains it with reconstructive surgery). Oh well.
*The Ben Trammer death was ridiculous. Trammer is mentioned as Jamie Lee's crush in the first movie and he is mentioned in this a couple of times. Trammer is spotted by the sheriff and Doc Loomis because he just happens to be wearing the same cloths and mask as Michael. Note that Michael's attire isn't known by the general public at this point and he had gotten his cloths from a trucker he killed. Did Trammer just coincidentally decide to wear the same cloths and a similar mask to Michael, whom he had no knowledge of? Ugh. Trammer walks across the street as Loomis starts yelling and running towards him with his gun out. Then a police car suddenly comes screaming down this residential road filled with trick or treating kids at 50+ mph and violently rams Trammer into the side of a news van. WTF?? How did the speeding cop even know this was a suspect? Does he often drive the neighborhood streets at high speed, ramming his car into other vehicles? I feel the Trammer family should be winning a big lawsuit over this!
The Good:
*Generally tight direction, and continuation of the original story.
*Great fxs! The aforementioned end explosion is gruesomely spectacular. The wire coat hanger to the eye us semi-iconic. The hot tub face melting scene is really good (though highly criticized at the time for graphic violence).
*Acting is pretty good overall and the leads are very good. Jamie Lee does an excellent job as Laurie Strode, and Donald Pleasance's unhinged ranting as Dr. Loomis works well.
*The hospital setting works great. It provides a feeling of isolation and paranoia that only increases as Michael thins the herd of the late night employees.
*Surprise Dana Carvey appearance as reporter's assistant! I had no idea he was in this!
Despite my lengthy rant about specific issues, in retrospect I find it to be a very worthy sequel to the classic Halloween and highly recommend it. Much of the negative critic response was due to the "excessive" gore and violence, which really isn't that much by today's standards. This led to some critics claiming that it was a splatter film and not a slasher like the original.
7 out of 10. Check it out! 8 out of 10 if watched back to back with part 1.

Lastly, a couple of notes:
*In '82 a murderer took out an elderly couple by stabbing them 50+ times. He claimed that Halloween 2 made him do it. The movie was shown to the jury(!) before they sentenced him to death.
*I saw this at our local drive in a few years after release as a second feature (it must have been as I didn't have my license until '85.) We had to leave and go to the hospital as my younger sister screamed in surprise and jumped in her seat, hitting her head on the roof of the car! 3 stitches, no Michael Meyers at the hospital, and I had to go back the next night to see the conclusion!
All in all, the Halloween series is pretty hit and miss but the first 2 movies are debatably the best of the lot, though I still need to see the 2018 addition.

Excellent!

So how would you rank all the Halloween movies?

 

[returnofjakedog]

Excellent!

So how would you rank all the Halloween movies?

That's a big question. I'll have to go back and look at the series to try to remember what happened in each one. I vaguely recall Busta Rhymes beating up Michael over and over in one of them so that one was probably the worst, whichever one it was. Ugh.

 

[DJ Fieri]

 

[DJ Fieri]

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

That's a big question. I'll have to go back and look at the series to try to remember what happened in each one. I vaguely recall Busta Rhymes beating up Michael over and over in one of them so that one was probably the worst, whichever one it was. Ugh.

That was Halloween: Resurrection (2002).

And yes, that is my worst too. Right next to Halloween 5: Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

 

[Schmoopy1000]

That was Halloween: Resurrection (2002).

And yes, that is my worst too. Right next to Halloween 5: Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

the worst was Halloween 3
It didnt even have Michael Myers in it.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

the worst was Halloween 3
It didnt even have Michael Myers in it.

That is a popular vote, but IMO it was actually a pretty good movie. It doesn’t necessarily belong in the same franchise & probably would have been better as a standalone film. Still have to force it into the bottom tier within the franchise because of the lack of my favorite masked villain.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

That is a popular vote, but IMO it was actually a pretty good movie. It doesn’t necessarily belong in the same franchise & probably would have been better as a standalone film. Still have to force it into the bottom tier within the franchise because of the lack of my favorite masked villain.

If we're counting all of the Halloween's, I'd put Rob Zombie's Halloween 2 at the bottom or next to the bottom. That was complete trash.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Watching The Bridge Curse now and so far so good. The pacing is a little weird, I don't love it, but definitely doing well with the creepiness factor.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Watched Hunter’s Moon (2020) last night... It was pretty bad. None of the progression made any sense, and it didn’t try very hard to build suspense. Plus there were too many over the top dumb scenes.

The werewolf practical fx was decent but we only got 1 glimpse. Aside from that there was very little redeeming value to merit watching this. Maybe I pirated some sort of poorly edited, unfinished version... but damn.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Watched Ravage (2020) which was also pretty bad. Lots of logical flaws & confusing plot points. This one had some potential but it squandered it every time it attempted to turn the corner. Some smart kill scenes that were fun to watch, but then stupidity follows.

 

[DJ Fieri]

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Trailer is on point! Love horror movies with new lore elements.


@Shanemansj13