Films You Have Watched

[Neon Ignition]

31 Nights of Horror - Night 17
The Blackening
A swithc up to horror comedy for this one in which a group of college friends reunite on the 10th anniversary of graduating at a house in the woods. There they discover a boardgame called The Blackening and find themselves caught in a game to save their lives. I wouldn't say it's funny but it is quite likeable with enjoyable banter between the characters and at least more screaming and chasing than the last few nights movies offered.

[Neon Ignition]

31 Nights of Horror - Night 18
Rec 2
The only time in the run I think that a sequel will appear to another film in the set, this was opted for because of it being more of a Part 2 by opening the second the previous film ends. Whilst the set up is good of showing the second half of the same night, the decisions in the story where the infection is heavily altered to become a demonic possession utterly kicks the legs out of the storyline and on this rewatch shows a clearer timeline of how the franchise derailed itself so aggressively. Each film misunderstanding the appeal of the original film and making it worse and worse.

[Dogg Thang]

See, I kind of love Rec 2 for that. For me, the film has so much of what made the first film good and, as you say, it’s like a part 2 of the same movie but the way it leans into a completely different interpretation of what’s happening (while still following the path set up in the first) is great. Because it’s a sequel that is guilty of being too close to the original but that element brought genuine surprises. I got to see it in a cinema and it worked really well there.

[wakka]

A couple of rep screenings at the cinema for me recently, and a random watch on PlutoTV.

Beetlejuice

My first ever viewing of this. It's an interesting one to finally watch because the iconography of Keaton in the suit is so incredibly familiar, yet at least among people of my my generation (middle Millennial) it was never a film that was much talked about or that I feel is one that a lot of people I know have seen.

I really enjoyed it. It's a bunch of fun. I thought it was interesting that it's basically a hangout movie. The plot is pretty loose and it's pretty much just there to enable the audience to spend time with the characters. One thing that is curious is that Beetlejuice himself has relatively little screen time. I think I could have stood to have a little more of him frankly. But it's a very likeable film, if not an earthshakingly brilliant one.

Mean Streets

Nice timing for this to get a rerelease, just a few days prior to Killers of the Flower Moon.

I hadn't seen it for a very long time, I think when I was in my teens, so I was ripe for a rewatch as I think it was a little young on first viewing and didn't really 'get it'.

This is also in some ways something of a hangout movie, as we orbit the dead end Manhattan street lives of a bunch of entry level, sub-Mafia hoods.
It's energised enormously by the central relationship and the central performances from Keitel and De Niro but it's also a film that now feels tremendously ahead of its time. Scorsese mastered the needle drop back in '73. Plus, there are some really cool sequences where the camera is attached to either the front or back of Keitel as he moves through a busy environment, foreshadowing the use of this technique to more intense ends by Aronofsky.

The other performance in the film that's worthy of mention is New York City itself. It's got an incredible sense of place. You've got to love being able to spend time in scuzzy 70s Manhattan, as trash billows down the road on the wind and hoods turn their collars up against it outside neon porno shops. Cool as hell. Great movie.

King of Comedy

Threw on PlutoTV the other day and this was on - ended up rewatching the whole thing. What a film. The film Joker wishes it was. The way it can blend tension with hilarity in a single scene is genius. And I just love the ending. Scorsese's most underrated, by a long shot.

[Atticus]

I'm planning on watching Beetlejuice this month. Haven't seen it in ages. likewise Mean Streets. I seem to remember not liking it as much as I wanted to ... but that opening with 'Be My Baby' is wonderful. King of Comedy is phenomenal. Hoping it gets the royal treatment for a physical release in the not-too-distant.

This weeks films so far are ...

The Burbs - It was okay. Strange new neighbours have a quiet neighbourhood wondering who they are and what they're up to. And it's not a lot really. Not Joe Dante's finest hour but a fun bit of nostaglic escapism.

The Breakfast Club - Haven't seen this one since I was their age. It's a film with many wrongs, but if you grew up with it when everyone was talking about it at school, then it holds a special place. Watching it again I thought Paul Gleason was just class.

Delicatessen - I saw this when it came out and remembered nothing at all about it. Loved every second really. Full of great moments (you know you're in for something special just watching the opening credits) and beautiful visuals (the 4K release is very pretty). Might have to pick up City of Lost Children now.

[wakka]

For me I originally came to Mean Streets having loved Goodfellas and Casino. And on the surface it looks like it'll be the same kind of material, but of course the reality is that it's a very different film altogether. Maybe like me you'll find it resonates more on the rewatch! All gangsters in Scorsese films are losers beneath the outward sheen of success, but the Mean Streets characters don't even have the appearance of being winners. And I think that's reflected in the small time, mostly low stakes action.

King of Comedy is phenomenal.

What I love about is how unpredictable it is.

->Open Spoiler<-

The fact that at the end he achieves his dream and becomes a big star because of his psychotic behaviour is such a brilliantly subversive conclusion.

Jerry Lewis - who is just brilliant in it, I don't think I have ever seen anyone else embody both fear and exasperation simultaneously in a film* - wanted it to end with De Niro's character killing him. So glad he was overridden because that would have been the obvious end and so much less effective.

*the scene where he has been kidnapped and is having to read off cue cards over the phone to his boss at gun point, which De Niro is holding up, and De Niro keeps holding them upside down and out of order

[Neon Ignition]

31 Nights of Horror - Night 19
Train to Busan
Hadn't seen this before and really enjoyed it, well paced and delivered really well.

[Atticus]

31 Nights of Horror - Night 19
Train to Busan
Hadn't seen this before and really enjoyed it, well paced and delivered really well.

Took me a while to get round to this one. Zom flicks just felt a bit done and dusted but this was brill.

[Neon Ignition]

I know they're not as well thought of but at some point we're going to check out the other two films

[Zaki]

just wondering why it had to be done this way.

Wes Anderson has become a parody of himself, which is probably why it's become so easy to make a Wes Anderson AI trailer (film?).

I still think Rushmore is his best film, before he stuck with his monotone character delivery.

[QualityChimp]

Quick catchup. Hope you're all well.
I'm watching some horror this month, but there's a Scorsese season to promote Killers of the Flower Moon.
Host was briliant.

In reverse order:

The Beyond 1981 (Prime)
The Lost Boys 1987 (Cinema)
Mean Streets 1973 (Cinema)
From Beyond 1986 (Prime)
Mr. Vampire 1985 (DVD)
Host 2020 (iPlayer)
Friday the 13th 1980 (Cinema)
GoodFellas 1990 (Cinema)
Bloody Hell 2020 (Prime)
Oldboy 2003 (Cinema)
Totally Killer 2023 (Prime)
The Belko Experiment 2016 (Prime)
The Relic 1997 (iPlayer)
Willy’s Wonderland 2021 (Prime)
Raging Bull 1980 (Cinema)
The Creator 2023 (Cinema)
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil 2010 (Prime)
No One Lives 2012 (Prime)

[fallenangle]

Watched a weird western last night on Freeview > Legend I think called Forsaken 2015 which sounded like one of those straight to cable/DVD low budget plot rip-offs that come in the wake of bigger and better movies that have been successful.

Various Freeview channels seem to specialize in that sort of second division movie usually identified by the fact they feature 'stars' you've never heard of before or since.

This was different; genuine stars: Donald and Keifer Sutherland, Brian Cox and Demi Moore (strangely the latter not credited on Imdb cast list).

However in all other respects it was just a second division mash up of 'revisionist' western film plots and characters 'borrowed' from the likes of Unforgiven, Pale Rider, The Magnificent Seven (Remake), True Grit (Remake) and others.

Not bad and certainly watchable but utterly derivative in every respect and therefore redundant except as a vanity piece allowing Donald and Kiefer Sutherland (who commissioned the script himself) to act together in something halfway decent.

[Neon Ignition]

Friday the 13th: Vengeance 2 - Bloodlines
Follow up where Jason's father continues to try to get him to kill the youngest of Tommy's kids. The plot makes little sense and though some elements are better than the prior effort this remains not near the Never Hike Alone series quality.

Jason Rising
Coming from some of the same people as Never Hike Alone, this film follows up from Part IV and plays more to the tongue in cheek elements than NHA does. Pamela Vorhees body returns to resurrect her son and itself to its own decapitated head.

Sleepaway Camp
F13 style 80's film, awful though. Made with a seeming intention of trying to dial things up to eleven with some awful characterisations etc that just make the whole thing off putting.

31 Nights of Horror - Night 20
Re-Animator
The ending of the film is bonkers and I always enjoy a Jeffrey Combs performance but this was mostly naff

31 Nights of Horror - Night 21
Pumpkinhead
Stan Winstons horror see's desert bowl yokels able to raise a creature for revenge when a loved one is killed. Lance Henriksson does this when his son is killed by visiting cityfolk and then sets about trying to stop the monster he's unleashed. The film is okay but lacks any scares, it's also disappointing that Winston, for once, kind of phones in the creature work with Pumpkinhead being 95% a carbon copy of his Alien design.

31 Nights of Horror - Night 22
The Autopsy of Jane Doe
The body of a woman is sent in for autopsy by the local police when it's discovered half buried in the basement of a crime scene. As a father and son team begin to work on uncovering the cause of death, the more they investigate the more strange occurances begin to unfold. Won't put you on edge but it's a solid enough film, almost like a tale you'd get from Twilight Zone/Cryptkeeper.

We're out most of tonight so to play safe:

31 Nights of Horror - Night 23
The Burning
Again, right out of the era of F13th copies, some teens set up a prank on a cruel caretaker of a summer camp and accidentally set him ablaze. Five years later he is freed from medical care and returns to the lakeside location seeking to kills the teens on summer break. Clunky but passable enough.

[Dogg Thang]

I rewatched The Expendables at the weekend. It wasn’t good. I remember it being better.

I also watched Footloose for the first time. That is a funny, funny movie. My biggest gripe is that the title track sounds like it’s from a different era and so, all these years, I thought it was set in the early ‘60s or so when, actually, the film is full of stone cold ‘80s classics.

[Neon Ignition]

Footloose, the film that embodies how I'd feel if I ever win the Blueroom competition







We got back early enough to fit in another horror last night keeping us fairly on track for around 40 in 31 nights.


The Funhouse
It was a whole lotta fun, no prizes to be won, a real wacky show where anything could go. Four teens hide in a carnival funhouse because for some reason they think that would be hilarious (and want some hanky panky) and witness a murder. Soon they find themselves being hunted by the monsterous figure and unable to escape the attraction. It's actually not that great a film but it just about holds your attention to the end due to the weirdness it has in places.