Horror Movies

[returnofjakedog]

Mayhem (2017)


The first 15-20mins or so it tries really hard to create background for the plot. Mainly it paints the picture of the office relationships. The humor is all about social satire in this case, which works fairly well for those of us that have experienced the corporate/cubicle workplace. The infection itself is a satirical play on sociology. Yes the premise for the virus is a bit overblown and unrealistic, but who cares! It's meant for mindless entertainment. And the humor is not outright funny unless you can relate to it. Who hasn't felt like punching their boss right in the face at one point or another. Whatever the case, if you enjoy action in an infection survival type scenario, or the "what would I do" situations, then this movie is perfect for you. It is well acted & scripted from a technical standpoint, even if a lot of it was unnecessary. But it is loaded with a plethora of bloodlust action. Something I think any horror/thriller fan can enjoy. Steven Yeun and Samara Weaving's characters were both fun to watch and provided good laughs amongst the mayhem & violence. This isn't a dramatic piece or great horror by any means, but rather an hour & a half of straightforward, solid, gory entertainment. Overall the story carries fairly well and it's fun to watch. Very similar to The Belko Experiment.

The perfect film for a cubicle drone on a lazy Sunday afternoon... 7/10

Finally saw Mayhem. It was a fine bit of fun!

(Posting another trailer because the one in the old post is no longer)

It was a bit hammy, and unrealistic but once they started, they went almost non-stop with the action and blood flow!

My nitpicks would be:
*All of the main characters ability to "keep it together" and execute their plans in relative normality while everyone in the background just loses their shit unless they become needed for the story/action. They tried to explain it away a bit but the inconsistency bothered me.
*The weird one red eye, but the other eye stayed normal crap. (Don't get me started on the basic movie writing mistake here!)
*I found the flow of the story to be a bit jerky and inconsistent.
*Characters have no depth.

........but great concept! Some really cool excessive violence! Yeun is a guy who is easy to like. Makes for a fun ride.
Also has a fine metal soundtrack.

*Did anyone catch the Half-Baked reference? During the action at some point you here a voice yelling "Fuck you! Fuck you! You're cool. Fuck you!"
That cracked me up a little.

*The "Corporation bad! People suck!" message was almost irrelevant to this movie despite being the main driver of the plot, for better or worse.

I agree with the 7 out of 10. Would have preferred a darker tone considering the subject matter but it works.

 

[returnofjakedog]

Creep (2014)


This film rests upon and succeeds because of Mark Duplass' excellent performance. His acting is of the type of person we've all met at one time or another... Someone a little bit too keen to be your friend, inspiring conflicting feelings of suspicion as to their motives and empathy with regard to their attempts at social interaction. This movie is simple, but still delivers quite a thrill ride! It's clear early on that something isn't quite right, and as you can probably assume, its somewhat predictable. Despite an occasional reliance on jump scares, the suspense flows nicely and keeps you guessing as to where it will end up going. The resolution is well-judged and perfectly executed. The only knock I gave it was that the film is dialogue-heavy. But like I said, Duplass did an amazing job. He was creepy, unnerving and discomforting...

Impressed! 7/10

Also watched both Creep and Creep 2 on @FaCe-LeE-uS recommendations.

(Again, reposting trailer because the one in the linked post is dead)

*As face noted, Duplass' performance made Creep. I don't know what to make of it, but it did make you feel squirmy and uncomfortable. But without it the story doesn't work.

*The realism of it all, with the ultra low budget feel was a big plus. You can easily feel like you are there and it is happening to you!
-On that note though, I would have gotten the hell out of there waaaaayyy before the camera guy even tried! Leaving didn't stop anyways though, so......

*Not much story and not a lot actually happens, yet it is still intriguing!

A fine found footage low, low budget example.
6 out of 10 from me.

Creep 2

I actually feel it is a bit better than the first movie. So that was nice.
-With a little more background given, Sarah was a more fleshed out protagonist.
-Add to that, Duplass was a bit more relatable at least partly due to the interactions with her. His performance was a bit easier to follow (though that might be more to viewer's familiarity?)

*Kept basically the same feel and camera flow of the first movie while adding a bit more depth to the story. There was more direct conflict, and the story has a start-middle-end, which the first was a bit blurry on.

7 out of 10 in my book. I will probably rewatch Creep 2 after a few years, and that is high praise from me for a low budget found footage style movie.

So the 2 guys in the first movie are solely and wholly responsible for the series. Not only did they fill the two acting roles, but Brice directed it, while both Duplass and Brice wrote it.

A part 3 is apparently in pre-production. So maybe we will see that soon?

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Why the hell are all my youtube trailer links breaking dammit!?

 

[returnofjakedog]

Hunter Hunter (2020)
Very misleading trailer. Thought I was getting into some sort of badass wolf/werewolf film with Devon Sawa (Final Destination (2000)). Starts off like a survivalist monster film with wolves attacking, but then it devolves into a metaphoric crime drama. Not a bad watch, but the character stupidity got to me at the climax. Also felt like it could have played out so much better than it did. Sawa's part was far too brief and IMO would have been a better conflict if it centered between him & the killer. Pretty epic finish though with some brutality I haven't seen since maybe the Hostel films lol.

Hunter Hunter

First off, the trailer is misleading as fuck, which is a problem for people's expectations. But that aside, it is still pretty good.

I agree that it could have given us more of the dad vs the killer but it would have killed the revel. But they didn't really explore that dynamic anyways.
I do wish they would have added more wolf stuff instead of it just being a red herring. At least have the wolf chompin' on some corpses, or getting involved in the finale somehow.

The ending was friggin nuts! Watching it, I was very impressed with the practical fxs and thought that it was very Eli Roth-like, and your Hostel comparison reaffirms this. That part is a must-see for all horror fans!

Is it horror? A lot of debate on this. I think it was but they didn't really explore the horror aspects as much as they could have (at least until the end). The horror was there but they kinda kept it on the boundries with just moments filtered in.

I'll go 7.5 out of 10 and that is with a 1 point boost for the finale.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Hunter Hunter

First off, the trailer is misleading as fuck, which is a problem for people's expectations. But that aside, it is still pretty good.

I agree that it could have given us more of the dad vs the killer but it would have killed the revel. But they didn't really explore that dynamic anyways.
I do wish they would have added more wolf stuff instead of it just being a red herring. At least have the wolf chompin' on some corpses, or getting involved in the finale somehow.

The ending was friggin nuts! Watching it, I was very impressed with the practical fxs and thought that it was very Eli Roth-like, and your Hostel comparison reaffirms this. That part is a must-see for all horror fans!

Is it horror? A lot of debate on this. I think it was but they didn't really explore the horror aspects as much as they could have (at least until the end). The horror was there but they kinda kept it on the boundries with just moments filtered in.

I'll go 7.5 out of 10 and that is with a 1 point boost for the finale.

Agreed! Lots of red herrings in this film. Not just the wolf stuff, but also the dad & daughter relationship. You got the sense that she was being trained to become something more, or at least her training would have played a better part... But nope... That was gut-wrenching when the mom found her...

I could think of at least 4-5 different ways I would have done this film to make it amazing in my mind lol. But it was still a solid flick. Felt somewhat painful that you knew who the killer was but you're just sitting there waiting for someone to appear to escalate everything. Lots of misdirection here to keep your eyes off of the known killer. Remember the term Dramatic Irony? Yep, that plays a big role here.

Skillfully filmed, good acting, overall sense of dread, but lacks the bite & the suspense.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Seriously?? I get motherf'n Casper?

LMAO... I always knew you were a softie.

I got Samara! lol. Could be worse, could be better.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Bored? How many movies can you name out of this picture?

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

There's supposedly 40... I got 30, but could stretch that to 38 with questionable calls.

1. Scream
2. Exorcist
3. Nightmare on Elm Street
4. Beetlejuice
5. The Purge
6. The Sixth Sense (red doorknob)
7. IT
8. Child's Play
9. Saw
10. Friday the 13th
11. The Shining (tricycle)
12. The Ring
13. Poltergeist
14. Alien (green egg shaped object)
15. Evil Dead
16. Rocky Horror Picture Show
17. Silence of the Lambs (death's-head hawkmoth on lamp post)
18. Blair Witch Project (stick figure hanging in tree)
19. Little Shop of Horrors (Mushnik's sign)
20. Sleepy Hollow
21. Wicker Man
22. The Lost Boys (green frog comics)
23. American Werewolf In London (slaughtered lamb sign)
24. Psycho
25. Wolf Creek (yellow road sign)
26. Shaun of the Dead (cricket bat & shovel)
27. The Conjuring/Annabelle
28. Hellraiser (orange box in window)
29. The Adams Family (hand on roof)
30. Amityville Horror (house)

Some stretches for these:

1. Halloween? (pumpkin from carpenter's intro)
2. Gremlins? (paws in the box)
3. Ghostbusters? (that mechanical thing leaning against the post above Ghostface)
4. 28 Days Later? (biohazard sign on chimney)
5. Christine? (red car)
6. Arachnophobia? (spider in tree)
7. Dracula? (castle)
8. Frankenstein? (mob)

That leaves the tree, the cross, the RIP headstone, and the white paper stuff near the pumpkin... Not sure?

 

[returnofjakedog]

There's supposedly 40... I got 30, but could stretch that to 38 with questionable calls.

1. Scream
2. Exorcist
3. Nightmare on Elm Street
4. Beetlejuice
5. The Purge
6. The Sixth Sense (red doorknob)
7. IT
8. Child's Play
9. Saw
10. Friday the 13th
11. The Shining (tricycle)
12. The Ring
13. Poltergeist
14. Alien (green egg shaped object)
15. Evil Dead
16. Rocky Horror Picture Show
17. Silence of the Lambs (death's-head hawkmoth on lamp post)
18. Blair Witch Project (stick figure hanging in tree)
19. Little Shop of Horrors (Mushnik's sign)
20. Sleepy Hollow
21. Wicker Man
22. The Lost Boys (green frog comics)
23. American Werewolf In London (slaughtered lamb sign)
24. Psycho
25. Wolf Creek (yellow road sign)
26. Shaun of the Dead (cricket bat & shovel)
27. The Conjuring/Annabelle
28. Hellraiser (orange box in window)
29. The Adams Family (hand on roof)
30. Amityville Horror (house)

Some stretches for these:

1. Halloween? (pumpkin from carpenter's intro)
2. Gremlins? (paws in the box)
3. Ghostbusters? (that mechanical thing leaning against the post above Ghostface)
4. 28 Days Later? (biohazard sign on chimney)
5. Christine? (red car)
6. Arachnophobia? (spider in tree)
7. Dracula? (castle)
8. Frankenstein? (mob)

That leaves the tree, the cross, the RIP headstone, and the white paper stuff near the pumpkin... Not sure?

*The octopus with the boxing gloves appears twice (pic above door, and tentacles around Ghost Face) = The Lighthouse
*I'll go Night of the Living Dead for the tombstone. The graveyard figures prominently in the start.

 

[returnofjakedog]

Agreed! Lots of red herrings in this film. Not just the wolf stuff, but also the dad & daughter relationship. You got the sense that she was being trained to become something more, or at least her training would have played a better part... But nope... That was gut-wrenching when the mom found her...

I could think of at least 4-5 different ways I would have done this film to make it amazing in my mind lol. But it was still a solid flick. Felt somewhat painful that you knew who the killer was but you're just sitting there waiting for someone to appear to escalate everything. Lots of misdirection here to keep your eyes off of the known killer. Remember the term Dramatic Irony? Yep, that plays a big role here.

Skillfully filmed, good acting, overall sense of dread, but lacks the bite & the suspense.

The daughter's storyline being a dead end was an intentional choice by some combination of the writer, director, and producer. But the trailer was post-production from an editor with instructions from within the production studio in some form.

I can live with someone making a story decision to forward their vision of the story even if I don't fully agree on it, but when the studio intentionally misleads the audience it is a bullshit move and often kills the movie.

From the trailer the emphasis is obviously on the family vs the wolf, with a hint that the wolf might posess supernatural abilities on some level. Instead the wolf branch is entirely secondary.

So why would they put a twist in the trailer?
-They didn't understand the movie, or thought the movie wasn't going to make back it's cost back so they panicked and tried to get it to appeal to a larger audience by lying in the trailer. In this case the movie is pretty good so I lean towards the attempted boxoffice pandering explanation. But even that doesn't seem to make a ton of sense since the movie is on Netflix. So...........??? I don't know why they would do it!

A good or bad trailer can sometimes make or break a movie.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

The daughter's storyline being a dead end was an intentional choice by some combination of the writer, director, and producer. But the trailer was post-production from an editor with instructions from within the production studio in some form.

I can live with someone making a story decision to forward their vision of the story even if I don't fully agree on it, but when the studio intentionally misleads the audience it is a bullshit move and often kills the movie.

From the trailer the emphasis is obviously on the family vs the wolf, with a hint that the wolf might posess supernatural abilities on some level. Instead the wolf branch is entirely secondary.

So why would they put a twist in the trailer?
-They didn't understand the movie, or thought the movie wasn't going to make back it's cost back so they panicked and tried to get it to appeal to a larger audience by lying in the trailer. In this case the movie is pretty good so I lean towards the attempted boxoffice pandering explanation. But even that doesn't seem to make a ton of sense since the movie is on Netflix. So...........??? I don't know why they would do it!

A good or bad trailer can sometimes make or break a movie.

Good points. Whatever the case, it worked to lure us in! I doubt I would have jumped in so quickly had I known it was going to be a crime drama of sorts that borders on horror. Not sayin it wasn't worth it though.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Widows Point, woof, not even worth a write up. Hard pass.

 

[returnofjakedog]

Widows Point, woof, not even worth a write up. Hard pass.

Not a huge surprise. Have you seen Craig Scheffer's filmography? It has been steadily trending downward since the early '90s.
He even got so desperate that he did a Seagal movieain '16. How desperate do you have to be to sign up for a Fat Seagal ego-masterbation flick?

 

[Blackshirts BLVD]

Freaky. Idk if I was in the right mood to watch this film. I watched it back to back after first watching Greenland. I expected it to be funnier than it was, but I didn't find myself laughing too much. I thought the concept, though simple and somewhat overused worked. It didn't seem any more silly than any other Freaky Friday concept. I wasn't too big on the acting, though Vince Vaughn was fine. Some of the kills were at least done well even if they weren't all that original. All in all, not impressed. 4.5/10.

 

[Blackshirts BLVD]

Watched American Psycho for the first time. I think Bale was excellent. The story was lacking quite a bit though. Nothing came of anything and while it seemed like that was kind of the point, it also left me with a feeling of it being incomplete. No real gore or kills to really note as nothing is really shown. This movie seemed to highlight Bales ability. I would be interested in a sequel. 5.5 or 6 out of 10.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Watched Light of My Life on Amazon, more post apocalyptic/survival than horror but definitely stressful/suspenseful. Really simple but really enjoyed it.

 

[returnofjakedog]

Watched American Psycho for the first time. I think Bale was excellent. The story was lacking quite a bit though. Nothing came of anything and while it seemed like that was kind of the point, it also left me with a feeling of it being incomplete. No real gore or kills to really note as nothing is really shown. This movie seemed to highlight Bales ability. I would be interested in a sequel. 5.5 or 6 out of 10.

It is a strange one. I remember it being pretty decent, probably 6.5ish(? I'd have to rewatch to confirm). Bale certainly chews it up.
I have a buddy who is obsessed with this movie. He constantly quotes lines and uses Huey Lewis and the News references to it (who were the other bands in it? Phil Collins? I don't recall).

How is the covid going? You recovering yet? Family ok?

 

[Blackshirts BLVD]

It is a strange one. I remember it being pretty decent, probably 6.5ish(? I'd have to rewatch to confirm). Bale certainly chews it up.
I have a buddy who is obsessed with this movie. He constantly quotes lines and uses Huey Lewis and the News references to it (who were the other bands in it? Phil Collins? I don't recall).

How is the covid going? You recovering yet? Family ok?

Yeah it was Phil Collins. But my biggest problem is the story.... or lack thereof. Like I mentioned, nothing seems to matter and there is no character development, only character reveals, but those reveals are expected and mean nothing. Nothing comes from him being crazy, nothing comes from work, nothing comes from the investigator, nothing comes from his spree, nothing comes from his lawyer, etc... I understand it is kind of the point as Bates mentions that in a way, but.... I mean... nothing? There is no real story.

As for covid, everything seems mostly back to normal. I basically have a head cold left over, nothing bothersome.

 

[Blackshirts BLVD]