Horror Movies

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

More werewolf promises! Maybe this is a rare good one?

I don't have Shudder so I'll have to wait until they sell it off to Netflix or someone

I’ve been loving Shudder lately so I’m hopeful!

 

[Blackshirts BLVD]

You pull up and see this...

 

[DJ]

 

[DJ]

 

[DJ]

 

[Nasty_Magician]

American Horror Stories on Hulu is halfway decent. They're individual episodes as opposed to an entire season. So far episode 1 was meh, 2 was pretty good and I really liked the most recent.

 

[DJ]

Yes!!!!

 

[returnofjakedog]

@DJ Nice that you posted a Texas Chainsaw Massacre meme as it is next up on my list of longest running franchises by number of movies!

Literally everyone knows about the original classic, but the rest if the series isn't as revered as the first. As far as longevity, it currently sits at 8 films, with a 9th on the way in 2021. (Only the attachment of Fede Alvarez as a producer brings me any hope of a good movie).

So Tobe Hopper was a camera man and documentary film maker at the U of Texas Austin in the late 60s when he met Kim Henkel. Together they conceptualized and wrote the script.
*Though everyone talks about the influence of Ed Gein on the story, Henkel says another serial killer, Elmer Wayne Henley, was also a large infuence due to his "moral schizophrenia" of admitting and accepting blame for his actions.
*John Larroquette (of Night Court fame!) performed the opening narration! I didn't know this before, but now it seems obvious when you listen to it.
John said he was paid 1 joint for his work! Lol!
*Speaking of paying the actors:
-They raised 60k to finance the movie by selling 50% of the film and profits. They then sold off an additional 19.5% to another production company. The problem with that is that they deferred the actor's pay by giving them points in the movie but the actors thought they were getting points on 100% of the movie, not the remaining 40.5%. This, and the actual filming conditions, led to many of the actors being pissed off at Hopper and Henkel for years.
-That all turned out to be kinda irrelevant as the film's distributor turned out to be a mob boss who used TCM to launder the profits from Deep Throat. They "cooked the books" on TCM so the actors ended up getting only $405 each. The TCM gang sued the distributor but it was too late as they had already declared bankruptcy. New Line Cinema bought the rights in '83 and gave the actors 25k each and future percentage points as part of the purchase agreement.
*The gritty realism of the film can largely be attributed to Tobe Hopper's documentary shooting style, and the crazy real life set:
-The old farmhouse was filled with actual animal bones, corpses and body parts! They got these from local veterinarians, and by getting road kill wherever they could find it.
Because of this, the house was an actual mess of rotting decay over the 30+ days they shot there in 100+ degree heat.
*The farmhouse was moved to a different town and refurbished into a restaurant! Though there is no acknowledgement of TCM, I still want to go eat there.
*The restaurant doesn't acknowledge it's history with TCM, but the gas station from the film has been converted into a TCM themed camp ground, complete with family-style barbecue.
*Due to the long hours in horrible conditions, the actors started going a bit crazy. At one point during the family dinner scene they were having repeated trouble with a fake blood tube clogging to the point that Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface) just cut Marilyn Burns' actual finger with a razor knife.
*For some reason that I still cannot really figure out, they often used a chainsaw with a real chain on it! This led to many actors actually fearing for their safety as Gunnar chased them around with it. In the scene where Leatherface accidentally cuts himself, they put a metal plate on his thigh but the heat of the chainsaw blade hitting it made him think he had actually cut himself! So his scream in that scene are real!
*Additionally, they only had the one costume and mask for Leatherface so Gunnar couldn't wash the costume he had to wear 16 hours a day in 100+ degree temperatures. By week 3 he smelled so bad no one would associate with him any more. Also, he could barely breath, and couldn't see well out of the stinky latex mask.
*There is actually very little gore in TCM. Hooper wanted a PG rating ('70s PG was different than now), but it was stll given an X rating due to violence so they re-cut it down to an R.
*The soundtrack. Other than a few public domain music clips, the soundtrack consists of animal. and slaughterhouse noises. Pretty cool!

There are many more interesting production details about the original, but lets move on to the actual movies.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) is a gritty, grimy, morbid classic. I won't go into great detail here as it is so well known, and we have already discussed it some in this very thread. It is highly influential, and help originate many of the slasher genre tropes.
It isn't a perfect movie, but it's ability to horrify an audience is unquestionable. There are budget constraints, and some great acting is mixed in with some bad. But the end result is a movie that can still shock and scare to this day.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) was a full 12 years later, and is a completely different movie than it's predecessor. It retains some of the dark grittiness, but it wasn't filmed in documentary style so it lacked the realism, and it was blatantly a black comedy and not a dark exploitation flick.
Check out the poster!

Anyways, if nothing else this movie is batshit crazy with over the top weirdness going on everywhere.
*Tobe Hopper returns to direct.
*The great Tom Savini is brought in to do the fxs!
*Bill Mosely as Choptop is pretty great! He got the role after making a fan film short that Hopper liked, The Texas Chainsaw Manicure, some years previous.
*Dennis F'n Hopper chews through the scenery as the duel chainsaw weilding Lt. Lefty! He was brilliant underrated character actor who rivaled Nicholson in the "crazy character" department.
All in all, a flawed but interesting movie. An extreme departure from the original in many ways.

Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 (1990) moved things in a different direction again as New Line Cinema bought the rights up from Cannon Films and tried to move it back towards it's roots storywise. However the end product was of questionable quality at best. This was largely blamed on having to recut the movie multiple times to try to get it down from an X rating. They were finally able to get it down to an NC-17, and also eventually an R rated version.
I don't know if I blame the cuts persay. Those just removed graphic violence, but the storyline, acting, directing, etc all seems to come up short here (this will be a common theme throughout the rest of the franchise).
To me, it is an ok watch but it comes off as a fairly generic retelling of the original story with a few twists thrown in. I wouldn't say it is a better or worse movie than part 2 in most ways, but it doesn't have the memorable characters and performances (though it does have Viggo Mortensen as the head of the family).

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995/1997): Ok, this one is a bit odd even for this series! It was headed by original TCM co-writer Kim Henkel, who both wrote and directed it, on a shoestring budget of $600k. He filmed it with a bunch of what was no-name actors at the time. It was picked up by Columbia Pictures, who ended up doing a limited test release and a LaserDisk release in Japan in '95 before shelving it for 2 years. They finally did a full release in 1997 after both Matthew McConaughey's and Renee Zellweger's careers were taking off but even that wouldn't save it from being the lowest box office release of the franchise.
Much like part 2 with Dennis Hopper and Bill Mosely, this one has a "brilliant" batshit crazy performance from McConaughey but in this instance it isn't enough to save the movie (IMO). The storyline weirdness of the Family working for some sort of bizarre sadomasochistic Illuminati is baffling and makes no sense (fortunately it was never mentioned again). So it basically goes full on Halloween with the Thorn trilogy subplot!
Oh, it also makes Leatherface a simpering drag queen who cowers when skinny little Renee Zellweger yells at him! So basically the also the equivalent of Halloween movies when Busta Rhymes karates Micheal around.......twice. Ugh.
Not much else to say. The weird Illuminati guy kills McConaughey, for some not clear reason, by running him down with an airplane.
I am confused!
Oh, also Robert Jacks, who played Leatherface, was friends with Deborah Harry, so he wrote and she performed Der Einziger Weg for the movie.

The next movie is a full on remake of the original. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) starring Jessica Biel, and the always entertaining R. Lee Emory as one of the main antagonists.
Not a ton to say as it is a remake in which the story is tweaked a bit but the overall is the same. But, by comparison to the other enteries, it is a pretty decent addition to the series and probably the one I would recommend to those who want something kinda close to the original when all aspects are considered (I'd recommend part 2 but that isn't anything like the original in tone or form).
They did have to fire their original choice for Leatherface on the first day as he was physically unable to perform the role (I can't find specifics on this), and their replacement had to go on a brisket and bread diet AND wear a "fat suit" to perform the role of a 420 lb Leatherface.
It was a Platinum Dunes release(!) and it made almost $110 million at the box office, making it the 2nd most profitable movie of the franchise.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) is a direct prequel to the 2003 remake.
They smartly bring back R. Lee Emory as the sheriff (but they show that he killed the real sheriff and stole his identity), and also show how baby Leatherface was rescued from a dumpster and raised by the family.
The story involves a couple of brothers and their gfs heading to Mexico to party and maybe dodge the draft. The are captured, terrorized, and eventually killed by the family.
Not much else to say. It was critically lambasted, and made only half the money of the previous movie so Platinum Dunes cancelled the planned next entry and dropped the franchise.

 

[returnofjakedog]

Texas Chainsaw Massacre post continued:

This leads to Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013), which is a direct sequel to the original (all other movies retconned).
So the story is that after the original movie, the (real) sheriff, and the townfolk burn down the family house, which kills everyone but Leatherface, and a baby girl who is taken in by a childless couple.
Cut to 20 or so years later and the baby girl somehow inherits a house (I'm still not clear how anyone knows who she is, but whatever). She goes there with her friends, despite warnings from the locals, and all hell breaks loose as Leatherface starts chopping them up.
It made money enough for a prequel, but was critically panned. It is essentially the most "Scream" of the franchise imo, with cool, hot young people getting slaughtered. It also goes Rob Zombie-lite by trying to make Leatherface an anti-hero, and having the lead chick eventually "team up" with him (just plain stupid).
There were a couple of small good things though:
*Bringing back both Gunnar Hansen and Marilyn Burns from the original movie in cameos. It wasn't the first time they had reappeared in the series but it was the last as they both passed in the next couple of years. R.I.P.
*Also Bill Mosely gets a part.
*The meatgrinder kill was pretty fun, despite the cgi blood.

The final entry as of now is Leatherface (2017), which is a prequel to 3D.
Now I wasn't a big fan of TC3D, but this one.......well, the story was even more shit.
It starts with a young boy luring people to a barn where the family kills them. The boy is caught and sent to a special home for violent offenders. 12 years or so later, there is a riot, 2 guys and 2 girls escape. They head cross country on a killing spree, and eventually end up back at the family's house.
Now we have been (poorly) red herring'ed into believing that the hulking, quiet escapee is eventually Leatherface but it turns out the thin and articulate pretty boy is the chainsaw wielding madman instead. He gets shot in the head, which causes brain damage, and I guess he eventually grows an additional 6" and gains 150 lbs?? Hmmmmm.......
Stephen Dorff and Lili Taylor put in decent performances.

Anyways, that catches us up until now, but the Fede Alvarez Texas Chainsaw Massacre is still due to release this year! I do see the original directors, the Tohill brothers were fired and replaced, which is never a good sign.

A couple of offshoots:
*Original co-writer Kim Henkel did a direct sequel to TCM: The Next Generation called The Butcher Brothers (2012). It isn't considered to be TCM canon but it apparently does "fit in" with the storylines.
*William Hopper (Tobe's son) did a movie in 2000 called All American Massacre , which stars Bill Mosely as the head pickin Choptop. Weirdly, Bill Mosley's bandmate from Cornbugs is uber-famous guitarslinger-for-hire Buckethead (formerly of Guns and Roses!). Apparently Mosely plays as Choptop in the band and has also sung as Choptop on a few Buckethead solo records!
All American Massacre started as a 15 minute short but apparently there is a 60 to 70 minute version that has never seen the light of day out there somewhere.


Timelines: also like Halloween, we are dealing with several different timelines here:
Original: TCM (74), TCM2 (86), TCM3 (90), and TCM4 NG (95/97)

Remake: The Beginning (2006), and TCM remake (2003)

Alternate: Leatherface (17), Original (74), TC3D (13)

New Alvarez timeline: Original (74), TCM (21)

What else to say?
A lot of unnecessary sequels of questionable quality here. The original is a must watch for any horror aficionado. The 2003 remake and it's 2006 prequel are decent-to-good horror movies that are worth a watch if you like the genre. The 1986 TCM2 needs to be seen just for the complete lunacy of the whole thing (and Dennis Hopper):

......and you could watch TCM Next Generation (95/97) for McConaughey's and Zellweger's performances but beyond that it is a shit movie.

I can't recommend the other enteries except for some chainsaw blood and guts, and as general horror timefiller.

That's all I have at the moment! I'm just glad I have enough enthusiasm and knowledge to talk about this franchise, particularly after the Paranormal Activity franchise where I wasn't familar enough with the movies.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

@DJ Nice that you posted a Texas Chainsaw Massacre meme as it is next up on my list of longest running franchises by number of movies!

Literally everyone knows about the original classic, but the rest if the series isn't as revered as the first. As far as longevity, it currently sits at 8 films, with a 9th on the way in 2021. (Only the attachment of Fede Alvarez as a producer brings me any hope of a good movie).

So Tobe Hopper was a camera man and documentary film maker at the U of Texas Austin in the late 60s when he met Kim Henkel. Together they conceptualized and wrote the script.
*Though everyone talks about the influence of Ed Gein on the story, Henkel says another serial killer, Elmer Wayne Henley, was also a large infuence due to his "moral schizophrenia" of admitting and accepting blame for his actions.
*John Larroquette (of Night Court fame!) performed the opening narration! I didn't know this before, but now it seems obvious when you listen to it.
John said he was paid 1 joint for his work! Lol!
*Speaking of paying the actors:
-They raised 60k to finance the movie by selling 50% of the film and profits. They then sold off an additional 19.5% to another production company. The problem with that is that they deferred the actor's pay by giving them points in the movie but the actors thought they were getting points on 100% of the movie, not the remaining 40.5%. This, and the actual filming conditions, led to many of the actors being pissed off at Hopper and Henkel for years.
-That all turned out to be kinda irrelevant as the film's distributor turned out to be a mob boss who used TCM to launder the profits from Deep Throat. They "cooked the books" on TCM so the actors ended up getting only $405 each. The TCM gang sued the distributor but it was too late as they had already declared bankruptcy. New Line Cinema bought the rights in '83 and gave the actors 25k each and future percentage points as part of the purchase agreement.
*The gritty realism of the film can largely be attributed to Tobe Hopper's documentary shooting style, and the crazy real life set:
-The old farmhouse was filled with actual animal bones, corpses and body parts! They got these from local veterinarians, and by getting road kill wherever they could find it.
Because of this, the house was an actual mess of rotting decay over the 30+ days they shot there in 100+ degree heat.
*The farmhouse was moved to a different town and refurbished into a restaurant! Though there is no acknowledgement of TCM, I still want to go eat there.
*The restaurant doesn't acknowledge it's history with TCM, but the gas station from the film has been converted into a TCM themed camp ground, complete with family-style barbecue.
*Due to the long hours in horrible conditions, the actors started going a bit crazy. At one point during the family dinner scene they were having repeated trouble with a fake blood tube clogging to the point that Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface) just cut Marilyn Burns' actual finger with a razor knife.
*For some reason that I still cannot really figure out, they often used a chainsaw with a real chain on it! This led to many actors actually fearing for their safety as Gunnar chased them around with it. In the scene where Leatherface accidentally cuts himself, they put a metal plate on his thigh but the heat of the chainsaw blade hitting it made him think he had actually cut himself! So his scream in that scene are real!
*Additionally, they only had the one costume and mask for Leatherface so Gunnar couldn't wash the costume he had to wear 16 hours a day in 100+ degree temperatures. By week 3 he smelled so bad no one would associate with him any more. Also, he could barely breath, and couldn't see well out of the stinky latex mask.
*There is actually very little gore in TCM. Hooper wanted a PG rating ('70s PG was different than now), but it was stll given an X rating due to violence so they re-cut it down to an R.
*The soundtrack. Other than a few public domain music clips, the soundtrack consists of animal. and slaughterhouse noises. Pretty cool!

There are many more interesting production details about the original, but lets move on to the actual movies.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) is a gritty, grimy, morbid classic. I won't go into great detail here as it is so well known, and we have already discussed it some in this very thread. It is highly influential, and help originate many of the slasher genre tropes.
It isn't a perfect movie, but it's ability to horrify an audience is unquestionable. There are budget constraints, and some great acting is mixed in with some bad. But the end result is a movie that can still shock and scare to this day.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) was a full 12 years later, and is a completely different movie than it's predecessor. It retains some of the dark grittiness, but it wasn't filmed in documentary style so it lacked the realism, and it was blatantly a black comedy and not a dark exploitation flick.
Check out the poster!
View attachment 276935
Anyways, if nothing else this movie is batshit crazy with over the top weirdness going on everywhere.
*Tobe Hopper returns to direct.
*The great Tom Savini is brought in to do the fxs!
*Bill Mosely as Choptop is pretty great! He got the role after making a fan film short that Hopper liked, The Texas Chainsaw Manicure, some years previous.
*Dennis F'n Hopper chews through the scenery as the duel chainsaw weilding Lt. Lefty! He was brilliant underrated character actor who rivaled Nicholson in the "crazy character" department.
All in all, a flawed but interesting movie. An extreme departure from the original in many ways.

Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 (1990) moved things in a different direction again as New Line Cinema bought the rights up from Cannon Films and tried to move it back towards it's roots storywise. However the end product was of questionable quality at best. This was largely blamed on having to recut the movie multiple times to try to get it down from an X rating. They were finally able to get it down to an NC-17, and also eventually an R rated version.
I don't know if I blame the cuts persay. Those just removed graphic violence, but the storyline, acting, directing, etc all seems to come up short here (this will be a common theme throughout the rest of the franchise).
To me, it is an ok watch but it comes off as a fairly generic retelling of the original story with a few twists thrown in. I wouldn't say it is a better or worse movie than part 2 in most ways, but it doesn't have the memorable characters and performances (though it does have Viggo Mortensen as the head of the family).

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995/1997): Ok, this one is a bit odd even for this series! It was headed by original TCM co-writer Kim Henkel, who both wrote and directed it, on a shoestring budget of $600k. He filmed it with a bunch of what was no-name actors at the time. It was picked up by Columbia Pictures, who ended up doing a limited test release and a LaserDisk release in Japan in '95 before shelving it for 2 years. They finally did a full release in 1997 after both Matthew McConaughey's and Renee Zellweger's careers were taking off but even that wouldn't save it from being the lowest box office release of the franchise.
Much like part 2 with Dennis Hopper and Bill Mosely, this one has a "brilliant" batshit crazy performance from McConaughey but in this instance it isn't enough to save the movie (IMO). The storyline weirdness of the Family working for some sort of bizarre sadomasochistic Illuminati is baffling and makes no sense (fortunately it was never mentioned again). So it basically goes full on Halloween with the Thorn trilogy subplot!
Oh, it also makes Leatherface a simpering drag queen who cowers when skinny little Renee Zellweger yells at him! So basically the also the equivalent of Halloween movies when Busta Rhymes karates Micheal around.......twice. Ugh.
Not much else to say. The weird Illuminati guy kills McConaughey, for some not clear reason, by running him down with an airplane.
I am confused!
Oh, also Robert Jacks, who played Leatherface, was friends with Deborah Harry, so he wrote and she performed Der Einziger Weg for the movie.

The next movie is a full on remake of the original. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) starring Jessica Biel, and the always entertaining R. Lee Emory as one of the main antagonists.
Not a ton to say as it is a remake in which the story is tweaked a bit but the overall is the same. But, by comparison to the other enteries, it is a pretty decent addition to the series and probably the one I would recommend to those who want something kinda close to the original when all aspects are considered (I'd recommend part 2 but that isn't anything like the original in tone or form).
They did have to fire their original choice for Leatherface on the first day as he was physically unable to perform the role (I can't find specifics on this), and their replacement had to go on a brisket and bread diet AND wear a "fat suit" to perform the role of a 420 lb Leatherface.
It was a Platinum Dunes release(!) and it made almost $110 million at the box office, making it the 2nd most profitable movie of the franchise.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) is a direct prequel to the 2003 remake.
They smartly bring back R. Lee Emory as the sheriff (but they show that he killed the real sheriff and stole his identity), and also show how baby Leatherface was rescued from a dumpster and raised by the family.
The story involves a couple of brothers and their gfs heading to Mexico to party and maybe dodge the draft. The are captured, terrorized, and eventually killed by the family.
Not much else to say. It was critically lambasted, and made only half the money of the previous movie so Platinum Dunes cancelled the planned next entry and dropped the franchise.

Can't believe I never made the connection between those two posters.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Just watched A Quiet Place 2. Didn't really find it all that interesting or scary. Never thought that the main characters were ever really in serious trouble. The first one was definitely better.

 

[returnofjakedog]

Can't believe I never made the connection between those two posters.

I didn't know about it until I saw an article that mentioned it last year.

It does change my expectations of what the movie is. At the time of release people were a bit baffled because it was not at all what they expected from a TCM sequel.

 

[R.J. MacReady]

Just watched A Quiet Place 2. Didn't really find it all that interesting or scary. Never thought that the main characters were ever really in serious trouble. The first one was definitely better.

I'm a real stickler for things making sense in movies ...it can seem petty to some but it just drives me nuts.

Like he just instantly knew the creatures hunted by sound? ...so many movies do a great job at cultivating the "ah ha!" moments in a movie.

It drove me nuts how she crushed the skull of one of the creatures with electric conduit? .... was having her find a piece of rebar so hard? ..you know something that would actually do damage.


.

 

[DJ]

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

@returnofjakedog

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

 

[Blackshirts BLVD]

Has anyone seen Werewolves Within or My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To?

Those are up on my list.

 

[DJ]

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Has anyone seen Werewolves Within or My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To?

Those are up on my list.

Don't be shy, post the trailers!