Rate the Last Film You Watched

31 Days of Halloween 2024! Day XXIV: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984, Wes Craven)

IMG_9969.jpeg
Forty years on, ANOES remains a fairly effective horror movie, with a great premise and legendary horror icon antagonist in Freddy Krueger, who thanks to Robert Englund’s performance remained the main selling point throughout six sequels and a crossover with Jason Vorhees.

This is also the first time I’ve seen the uncut version courtesy of the recent WB 4K release, which was the catalyst for this rewatch. Though Dream Warriors and New Nightmare are my favourites entries in the franchise, this deserves credit for paving the way. 4/5
 
31 Days of Halloween 2024! Day XXV: Guts of a Virgin (1986, Kazuo Komizu), Guts of a Beauty (1986, Kazuo Komizu), Rusted Body: Guts of a Virgin II (1987, Kazuo Komizu)

IMG_9970.jpeg
IMG_9971.jpeg
IMG_9972.jpeg

This was quite the bizarre trilogy of films to say the least - 45 minutes into the first film and I had seen seldom a drop of blood but a lot of sex, before an evil being dispatched the pornographers/photographers who act as the leads. Its follow-up featured more of a narrative (and budget) to go alongside a similar combination of sex and violence before descending into a batshit insane finale.

The third film meanwhile, arguably veered the furthest into the Pinku subgenre, and was the weakest of the trilogy and overall, I’m not sure what to make of these films but director Kazuo Komizu wasn’t afraid to go places with his features here, and I’m curious to see what 88Films will release next as part of their Japanarchy sub-label. 2.5/5, 3/5, 2/5
 
Last edited:
31 Days of Halloween 2024! Day XXVI: Evil Dead Trap (1988, Toshiharu Ikeda), Evil Dead Trap 2: Hideki (1992, Izo Hashimoto), Evil Dead Trap 3: The Brutal Insanity of Love (1993, Toshiharu Ikeda)

IMG_9973.jpeg
IMG_9974.jpeg
1729979897535.jpeg
A curious blend of late 80s J-horror and Italian horror/giallo influences made for an engaging first film, whilst the second, though a lesser entry still provided some solid moments, and the third was more of a demented romance drama of sorts with the original director returning. 4/5, 3/5, 3/5
 
31 Days of Halloween 2024! Day XXVII: Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things (1972, Bob Clark), Dead of Night (1974, Bob Clark)

IMG_9976.jpeg
IMG_9978.jpeg
Before he directed the now cult-classic Christmas feature A Christmas Story (and Black Christmas a notable Christmas slasher film), Bob Clark worked on several horror films, two of which made up this evening’s entries.

CSPWDT, Clark’s directorial debut, focuses on a theatre troupe who travel to a small island off the Miami coast and end up raising the dead, namely deranged criminals, after a necromantic ritual goes wrong. The film is dubbed as a horror-comedy but it’s a tedious watch if laughs are what you’re expecting - the final act makes up for this but not by much.

DoN, also known as “Deathdream” is an all round better feature focusing on a pair of parents grieving the loss of their son in Vietnam, only for him to somehow return home after they will it to happen. It’s not the strongest of films but offers an interesting story and premise, and is well worth a look. 2/5, 3.5/5
 
31 Days of Halloween 2024! Day XXVIII: Late Night with the Devil (2023, Colin Cairnes, Cameron Cairnes)

IMG_0016.jpeg
The most modern watch for this year’s marathon, LNWTD is an interesting watch with a fun premise and central lead performance from David Dastmalchian who portrays a struggling late-night talk show host whose latest broadcast goes wrong in a supernatural fashion.

Where the film succeeds is capturing the vibe of a late-night talk show, with awkward humour and banter (yet still funnier than anything Jimmy’s Fallon or Kimmel could muster), though in an attempt for authenticity with the use of “we’ll be right back” transitional stills, the filmmakers opted to use AI for the designs - there’s no excuse for this and I fear it’s a slippery slope that cinema shouldn’t go down, a blemish on an otherwise good film. 3.5/5
 
31 Days of Halloween 2024! Day XXIX: Alligator (1980, Lewis Teague), Alligator II: The Mutation (1991, Jon Hess)

IMG_0017.jpeg
1730241456206.jpeg
I came into this not expecting too much but this was above the myriad of giant animal movies that would come later on and felt like a legitimate horror film in the vein of Jaws and Pirahna with some solid acting and tense moments. Its sequel, meanwhile, is a more conventional affair and feels more akin to a lesser remake than a continuation. 3.5/5, 2/5
 
31 Days of Halloween 2024! Day XXX: Trick R’ Treat (2007, Michael Dougherty)

IMG_0019.jpeg
A horror anthology film that’s become something of a modern classic for the genre, TrT’s main segments each had their highlights and dark humour. I’m glad this got a nice 4K release from Arrow Video. 4/5
 
31 Days of Halloween 2024! Day XXXI: The Exorcist III (1990, William Peter Blatty)

IMG_0035.jpeg
Another Halloween passes and so does a fresh watch of one of my all-time favourite films, now courtesy of a recent Arrow Video 4K release. 5/5

Another year, another Halloween marathon - my full list can be seen here:

  1. The House on the Edge of the Park (1980, Ruggero Deodato) 3.5/5, A Blade in the Dark (1983, Lamberto Bava) 3/5
  2. eXistenZ (1999, David Cronenberg) 3.5/5
  3. Bride of Chucky (1998, Ronny Yu) 3.5/5, Seed of Chucky (2004, Don Mancini) 2.5/5
  4. Curse of Chucky (2013, Don Mancini) 3.5/5, Cult of Chucky (2017, Don Mancini) 3.5/5, Living With Chucky (2022, Kyra Elise Gardner) 3/5
  5. Witchfinder General (1968, Michael Reeves) 3.5/5, Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971, Piers Haggard) 3.5/5
  6. Lawnmower Man (1992, Brett Leonard) 3/5, Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1996, Farhad Mann) 1.5/5
  7. The Crow (1994, Alex Proyas) 4/5
  8. Scream and Scream Again (1970, Gordon Hessler) 2.5/5, The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962, Riccardo Freda) 3/5
  9. Visible Secret (2001, Ann Hui) 3/5
  10. Messiah of Evil (1973, Gloria Katz & Willard Huyck) 3.5/5
  11. Cannibal marathon: Man From Deep River (1972, Umberto Lenzi) 3/5, Eaten Alive! (1980, Umberto Lenzi) 3/5, Cannibal Holocaust (1980, Ruggero Deodato) 3.5/5, Cannibal Ferox (1981, Umberto Lenzi) 2.5/5
  12. The Toxic Avenger (1984, Lloyd Kaufman, Michael Herz) 3.5/5, The Toxic Avenger Part II (1989, Lloyd Kaufman, Michael Herz) 3/5
  13. The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie (1989, Lloyd Kaufman, Michael Herz) 2.5/5, Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger Part IV (2000, Lloyd Kaufman) 3/5
  14. The Ring (2002, Gore Verbinski) 3/5
  15. The Ring Two (2005, Hideo Nakata) 2/5, Rings (2017, F. Javier Gutiérrez) 1.5/5
  16. Bubba Ho-Tep (2002, Don Coscareli) 4/5
  17. The Little Shop of Horrors (1960, Roger Corman) 3.5/5, Meatcleaver Massacre (1977, Keith Burns, Ed Wood) 2/5
  18. Jaws 2 (1978, Jeannot Szwarc) 3/5, Jaws 3-D (1983, Jon Alves) 2/5, Jaws: The Revenge (1987, Joseph Sargent) Michael Caine’s’ house/5
  19. Ginger Snaps (2000, John Fawcett) 3.5/5, Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed (2004, Brett Sullivan) 3/5, Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004, Grant Harvey) 2.5/5
  20. Dolls (1987, Stuart Gordon) 3/5, Cellar Dweller (1988, John Carl Buechler) 3/5
  21. The Amityville Horror (1979, Stuart Rosenberg) 3/5
  22. Anthropophagous (1980, Joe D’Amato), 2.5/5, Absurd (1981, Joe D’Amato) 3.5/5
  23. Dr. Lamb (1992, Danny Lee, Billy Tang) 3.5/5
  24. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984, Wes Craven) 4/5
  25. Guts of a Virgin (1986, Kazuo Komizu) 2.5/5, Guts of a Beauty (1986, Kazuo Komizu) 3/5, Rusted Body: Guts of a Virgin II (1987, Kazuo Komizu) 2/5
  26. Evil Dead Trap (1988, Toshiharu Ikeda) 4/5, Evil Dead Trap 2: Hideki (1992, Izo Hashimoto) 3/5, Evil Dead Trap 3: The Brutal Insanity of Love (1993, Toshiharu Ikeda) 3/5
  27. Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things (1972, Bob Clark) 2/5, Dead of Night (1974, Bob Clark) 3.5/5
  28. Late Night with the Devil (2023, Colin Cairnes, Cameron Cairnes) 3.5/5
  29. Alligator (1980, Lewis Teague) 3.5/5, Alligator II: The Mutation (1991, Jon Hess) 2/5
  30. Trick R’ Treat (2007, Michael Dougherty) 4/5
  31. The Exorcist III (1990, William Peter Blatty) 5/5

Another Happy Halloween to all of those reading the thread!
 
Saw X (2023)

Never seen a Saw movie before, but this is pretty much what I expected it would be like. There’s a certain absurdist comedy in the sheer excess of it all and, if you like this kind of film, I can appreciate that this is a good example of the form, it’s just not my kind of thing. The most amusement I got from it was in how I keep wanting to read the title as ‘Sawks’.
 
Professor Irony said:
Saw X (2023)

Never seen a Saw movie before, but this is pretty much what I expected it would be like. There’s a certain absurdist comedy in the sheer excess of it all and, if you like this kind of film, I can appreciate that this is a good example of the form, it’s just not my kind of thing. The most amusement I got from it was in how I keep wanting to read the title as ‘Sawks’.
Click to expand...

I'm trying to come up with a good socks-themed joke in response to that and failing XP
 
Back
Top