Resurrecting standard threads... What's the last movie you saw?
This October I've mostly been watching horror movies. Last night I watched "The Devil's Candy" (2015). A family moves into a house where there's some evil presence, and the father is affected. I don't want to say much more than that. Interestingly, it has a mostly metal soundtrack (the father and daughter are metalheads). Some stuff by Metallica, Slayer, Pantera (ugh), Sunn O))). The two are seen wearing Motörhead, Metallica and Slayer t-shirts (possibly one or two more I can't remember).
I watched 825 Forest Road last night. Not especially original, a mix of 2-3 genres. It had that creepy ghost aspect throughout, and I certainly didn't expect that ending. One of the main characters, Chuck, is played by Joe Falcone (not even a photo on IMDB) and watching the movie, I could have sworn that was like the son of Titus Welliver. Nearly identical voice, similar acting style. I did a quick search and they don't seem to be related. Must be like Jason O'Mara who sounds and acts like Mel Gibson.
I've been doing that Horror Film Every Day In October thing and realized I forgot to inflict my daily thoughts on you all, so let's make up for lost time.
For Day 21, I went with a John Carpenter I hadn't seen yet, Prince of Darkness. It's basically about college students getting recruited by a priest played by Donald Pleasance and his professor friend to try and decode a message that might help stop the devil from returning, which gets complicated as he starts possessing people to stop him. That all sounds interesting on paper, but frankly, I found it all pretty boring. We're given a ton of characters that don't get any meaningful development, and the ones that do get some focus at the beginning and end, but have so little to do in the middle you forget they're ostensibly the protagonists. The practical effects are cool, and it has some good acting for what little is given (and some shit acting from a deliberately unlikable character, which just makes it worse), but the story is undercooked and the pacing oddly sluggish as it trots along until tripping into a weak ending. Carpenter has made some great movies, but this definitely isn't one of them.
Day 23 made for the third George Romero movie this month with The Crazies. It's basically a zombie film in all but name as a man made virus called Codename Trixie that leads to death or unpredictable madness ravages a small town along with the slapdash government effort to contain it. How accurate a scenario for an actual viral outbreak in the 70s this is can be called questionable at best, but it's more about the chaos and lack of proper response and oversight than anything and is approached with the biting satire and sharp direction you'd expect. Maybe not every aspect is fully explored, but it all more or less comes together to remain compelling and tense till the bleak, disquieting end. Another Romero classic in my book
File under "what's going on and where is this going?" The latter part is why I watched until the end. Kind of a slow burner and you don't really know where they're going with these teen girls at a private school, though eventually it becomes obvious that something is lurking in the shadows. Ultimately a story about possession. The main interest is in seeing whether something eventually happens. Can't say I liked it nor hated it.
Interestingly, it has a mostly metal soundtrack (the father and daughter are metalheads). Some stuff by Metallica, Slayer, Pantera (ugh), Sunn O))). The two are seen wearing Motörhead, Metallica and Slayer t-shirts (possibly one or two more I can't remember).