Plato Shrimp / All The Shrimps Be Haunted

**Posted by Jinnistan** 10/08/2023 1:20 am

Rock wrote:
Mexican horror is a blind spot for me, but I had fun with Doctor of Doom and it’s pseudo-remake Night of the Bloody Apes. (Be warned however that neither delivers on the ape rampage you’d hope.)

It's these masked wrestlers and ape-suit types of Mexican horror that I was deliberately trying to avoid this time around.

Rock wrote:
And Even the Wind is Afraid is worth a look. Nice atmosphere, although I had trouble telling some of the cast apart. Might be a me problem.

Ah, another Taboada.

**Posted by Jinnistan** 10/08/2023 1:24 am

I watched the first Final Destination at the time, and at least one (probably two) of the sequels, but they all blur together now, of what little I remember of any of them. The most memorable thing was that the DVD for the first one had some kind of puzzle to help you calculate the exact day of your death, which was fun in a Ouija kind of way. Like a Ouija, these films seem best suited for teenage church sleepovers or something.

**Posted by Rock** 10/08/2023 3:37 pm

Let me break down what I've been watching so far...

Did a double feature of Freaks (the original) and She Freak. The former is a classic for obvious reasons, and is probably a better movie than Browning's Dracula on the whole, but it also doesn't have Bela Lugosi or those sets so I can't see myself going back to it as much. The latter has a lot of carnival footage to pad the runtime, which isn't a bad thing. Brings a different angle to the material as it aligns you with the villain's POV. I enjoyed it quite a bit even if I wouldn't call it "good".

Went to see The Nun II in theatres with my brother. Obviously not good, and looks much worse than the last one which was at least nicely shot. But things happen often enough that I didn't mind killing an afternoon sitting through it.

Started digging into the Criterion Channel series on Pre-Code Horror with Thirteen Women and Mystery of the Wax Museum. The latter looks great and has a lot of fun dialogue to boot. Hope to watch the 1953 House of Wax and Tourist Trap later this month to see how they compare.

I'd had my suspicions that Jennifer's Body was actually good, as a lot of the reclamation that happened since its release felt a tad performative, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was a lot better than I'd expected. The casting of Megan Fox was obviously a stunt but a) I don't think the movie would work without it and b) I think she's pretty good in the role and c) while she did nothing for me previously, I think this makes a great case for her attractive qualities.

Out of the first three Final Destinations, only the first works as a "real" movie (i.e. emphasizes its characters emotions during the grieving/contemplation process), but I think they're interesting relics of that particular era in how they deal with reactions to mass death. And the elaborate death scenes only really work if they're sufficiently well directed, which I think is the case for most of them.

Went through the Mr. Vampire series (except the unofficial part 5, which isn't on the Criterion Channel). Watching them back to back was probably a bad idea as they became a bit numbing by the end, but I do appreciate that they still put in effort by the last one. Plenty of fun stuff in all of them, although the first one is easily the best.

House on Haunted Hill... maybe not a lot to this, but Vincent Price is having fun and William Castle is good at making his scares pop out. I'll be watching The Tingler soon, hope that one is as enjoyable.

And started getting my modern horror porn fix with The Texas Vibrator Massacre and Dawna of the Dead. Neither are all that effective as actual horror movies but are made with more effort than you'd expect from 2000s porn. Surprisingly gory too. I found the latter almost accidentally interesting thanks to its trancelike, ritualistic structure. And went a little old school with Daughters of Discipline, which has some of the grungy charms of Shaun Costello's other films, but put me off a bit with its weirdly moralizing ending.

**Posted by Rock** 10/08/2023 3:46 pm

Links to some of the more long-winded reviews I hammered out on Letterboxd:

She Freak
The Nun II
Mystery of the Wax Museum
Jennifer's Body
The Texas Vibrator Massacre
Dawna of the Dead
Daughters of Discipline
House on Haunted Hill
Final Destination
Final Destination 2
Final Destination 3

Last edited by Rock (10/08/2023 3:46 pm)

**Posted by Jinnistan** 10/09/2023 6:59 am

Rock wrote:
She Freak

I was hoping that this was actually Michael Reeves' She Beast, which is another film frequently mistaken as a bad movie, but which is secretly an intentionally very funny movie.

Rock wrote:
Started digging into the Criterion Channel series on Pre-Code Horror with Thirteen Women and Mystery of the Wax Museum.

It'll be interesting to see what they included. (I don't have Criterion.) Some of my favorite of the extra-Universal would be Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Murder in Rue Morgue, Vampire Bat and (obviously) Freaks. House of Wax is one of Vincent Price's best. I wasn't impressed with Tourist Trap.

Rock wrote:
I think this makes a great case for her attractive qualities.

The later plastic surgery didn't help. My issues with Fox has never been her attractiveness (she clearly was), but that she's frankly not a very good actress. Jonah Hex is a good example of a film of the same time that was horrible despite Fox looking incredibly sexy. And my problems with Jennifer's Body, which I caught on first-run cable, had a lot more to do with Diablo Cody's writing and attitude. I doubt I'll ever bother to revisit it, and the recent "reclaimation" hasn't been convincing for me.

Rock wrote:
House on Haunted Hill... maybe not a lot to this, but Vincent Price is having fun and William Castle is good at making his scares pop out.

Plus Carol Ohmart's classic scream.

**Posted by Jinnistan** 10/09/2023 7:18 am

I see that Criterion includes the Mamoulian Jeckyll & Hyde (still my favorite film version) and Murders in Rue Morgue (the same), as well as the Universal Island of Lost Souls, James Whale's Old Dark House and what I'm used to seeing as a double feature Black Cat/The Raven. I haven't seen Thirteen Women or Murders in the Zoo.

**Posted by Rock** 10/09/2023 12:38 pm

Jinnistan wrote:
Rock wrote:
I think this makes a great case for her attractive qualities.
The later plastic surgery didn't help. My issues with Fox has never been her attractiveness (she clearly was), but that she's frankly not a very good actress. Jonah Hex is a good example of a film of the same time that was horrible despite Fox looking incredibly sexy. And my problems with Jennifer's Body, which I caught on first-run cable, had a lot more to do with Diablo Cody's writing and attitude. I doubt I'll ever bother to revisit it, and the recent "reclaimation" hasn't been convincing for me.

I found Cody's writing easier to swallow as how teens think they sound (rather than how they actually sound). I was kind of expecting a lot worse so I didn't mind the results.

As for Fox, I suspect Kusama is a better director of actors than Michael Bay or most of the other directors who've cast her, because I found she came off a lot more convincing here than in those Transformers movies.

I'm weirdly intrigued to watch the DTV movie where she takes on a lion now, which is not something I would have expected to say even last month.

Last edited by Rock (10/09/2023 4:34 pm)

**Posted by Rock** 10/09/2023 12:39 pm

Jinnistan wrote:
I see that Criterion includes the Mamoulian Jeckyll & Hyde (still my favorite film version) and Murders in Rue Morgue (the same), as well as the Universal Island of Lost Souls, James Whale's Old Dark House and what I'm used to seeing as a double feature Black Cat/The Raven. I haven't seen Thirteen Women or Murders in the Zoo.

Thirteen Women is fine. I wouldn't call it a priority but it's a reasonably diverting hour. Murders in the Zoo they've put on the channel before. IIRC it's more gruesome than you'd expect for the era. Delivers on the animal action implied by the title.

**Posted by Rock** 10/09/2023 12:40 pm

I just realized I'm 1 movie away from finishing the F13 series, 3 movies away from NOES and 2 movies away from Halloween. Do I dare finish all of them off this month?

**Posted by crumbsroom** 10/09/2023 3:38 pm

Rock wrote:
I watched the first two this week, plan to see at least the third as well. I thought the first was pretty good, tbh. The second has a great opening scare but becomes pretty by the numbers right away.

I was admittedly surprised that it wasn't bad. And there is an interesting premise here, even if I feel the film squanders it by falling directly into that premises flaw....that without a clear nemesis beyond the inevitability of death, the film dies in its moments of suspense. When everything is a threat, nothing is. A clever director or script could have made something of this, but it wasn't here.

I know I also saw a later sequel, one with a rollercoaster, which I remember liking more than this because at least it filled its empty space with more elaborate Rube Goldberg machine nonsense. At least by embracing the absurdity of how what we are basically watching is people dying by 'accident' over and over again, it gave me something. This early in the franchise though, what we've got is some slippery floors and gas leaking ovens. Hardly a thing of either nightmares or inspiration.

It wasn't a waste of time. But it also wasn't much of anything at all.

**Posted by Rock** 10/09/2023 4:22 pm

I gotta be honest, as someone who is very accident prone, the first one gave me a lot of anxiety. Especially that scene where the guy slips in the shower. The kills in the second and third are more fun, but they didn't get under my skin the same away.

**Posted by Rock** 10/09/2023 4:34 pm

Nightmare fuel.

**Posted by Jinnistan** 10/09/2023 10:11 pm

Man, these Exorcist: Believer reviews. Little harsh. Good thing they already greenlit two more sequels before these got published

I think the most cynical thing about all of this is how the studio is trying to spin the opening weekend as the "best" opening for any of the Exorcist films. Which might be true...as long as we don't adjust for inflation or multiplex proliferation. PR people are the real demons here.

**Posted by Jinnistan** 10/10/2023 9:06 pm

Jinnistan wrote:
Man, these Exorcist: Believer reviews. Little harsh. Good thing they already greenlit two more sequels before these got published

Looks like the director is suggesting he won't be back for the sequels (despite having co-wrote them). Looking pretty fetid.

Universal reportedly paid $400 million for the rights to the Exorcist franchise, and this was supposed to be their flagship release? And Universal is said to be looking to buy Warner Bros as well? Hey, good timing to start paying your writers, huh?

**Posted by Rock** 10/10/2023 9:12 pm

I found Halloween Kills a total chore and straight up hated Halloween Ends, so no complaints from me if David Gordon Green stays the hell away from classic horror franchises going forward.

**Posted by Jinnistan** 10/10/2023 9:19 pm

Prime is listing this as "horror", but the Wiki label of "psychological drama" is better suited. Oh well. Director Giuseppe Patroni Griffi is better known for more erotic films, but Elizabeth Taylor, in her plump middle-age, makes it clear throughout that she's not interested in sex at all. It's a strange film, especially for Taylor, but it does provide the opportunity if you've wanted to see her tell a confused Andy Warhol that "You're not my type at all". Or to go a bit more esoteric, an opportunity to see British character actor Ian Bannen complain about how two orgasms a day gives him indigestion. But the silliness aside, the film's non-linear, dream-like structure and typically excellent photography from Vittorio Storaro keeps it compelling throughout.

7.5/10

**Posted by Jinnistan** 10/10/2023 9:27 pm

Rock wrote:
I found Halloween Kills a total chore and straight up hated Halloween Ends, so no complaints from me if David Gordon Green stays the hell away from classic horror franchises going forward.

I hated the 2018 Halloween enough to stay away from the sequels, which even fans of the first one don't seem to like.

About the best news for Green is that his new movie is slightly less hated than this new Pet Semetary prequel. I supported the writer's strike but that doesn't mean I don't think a lot of people need to get fired.

**Posted by crumbsroom** 10/11/2023 6:01 am

Who would have thunk turning the Exorcist into something indistinguishable from all of its modern third rate clones wouldn't pass the smell test.

You can do this with a basic slasher premise like Halloween, since most of the audience is going to be too dumb to notice that big a difference. But to do this with a film like the Exorcist, which is basically built upon its real world drama, with the possession really only being a single ingredient in the film as a whole, makes it immediately irrelevant to fans of the original. Not to mention probably or little interest to modern audiences who would call it 'boring'.

I hope these hacks take a bath.

**Posted by crumbsroom** 10/11/2023 6:47 am

I don't think Pearl completely works, as its ambitions are probably outside of the directors skill set, but the fact that it mostly works couldn't help but win me over. Doesn't redeem the garbage heap that was X though. Strangely West seems to understand the spirit of classic Technicolor filmmaking than he did Grindhouse.

Doesn't help my view of critics much though when in many of the reviews you get appeals to the films defence claiming 'less a horror film than a blood soaked character study'. Ah, yes, anything from distancing yourself from the black mark of giving a horror film a decent review. Let's pretend horror films just have some simple low brow function and we should consider one that deals in character as some kind of outlier.

**Posted by Rock** 10/11/2023 7:08 am

I wish I could be win over by Pearl, but I find West and Goth’s work too deliberate for any of it to breathe. At least the mix of influences is more novel than X.