Film What's the Last Film You Saw? v. Tell Us What You Thought!

[Burnt Offerings]

Big fan of Argento’s work - some films are hit and miss but his style is amazing.

I was never really into his stuff. "Tenebre" was pretty good, from what I remember..."Suspiria" was OK, but not all that it was cracked up to be IMO...and that's about it. I know that I've seen "Deep Red" because I enjoy 70's Italian thrillers/horror, and that's a pretty well-known one so I probably would've sought it out at some point, but I remember literally nothing about it, or even whether I liked it or not.

If anyone is interested in this type of film (sleazy wacky and/or stylized Italian suspense films from the 70's), I can definitely give some recommendations I feel like I give too many recs in this thread but it's fun to nerd out on the topic of weird off-the-beaten-track movies

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

watched The Conjuring last night and The Conjuring Two right now. not my picks. i’m enjoying the creepy little girls. particularly sleep walking mackenzie foy.

better than the previous series we watched, The Purge. the younglings in residential do not have fine taste in film. one says she’ll get the safari icon back on my phone though.

all these big ass guys and no one can kick in a door.

 

[ghostfreak]

watched The Conjuring last night and The Conjuring Two right now. not my picks. i’m enjoying the creepy little girls. particularly sleep walking mackenzie foy.

better than the previous series we watched, The Purge. the younglings in residential do not have fine taste in film. one says she’ll get the safari icon back on my phone though.

all these big ass guys and no one can kick in a door.

Thought the Conjuring films were pretty good. Can’t wait for the third one.

Have you seen any of the Insidious films? Actually decent horrors with some good scares.

 

[Gormur]

The Scopia Effect (2014)

As a sci-fi horror film about a woman who experiences reincarnation while seemingly being conscious of it I thought this might be interesting. Unfortunately this film seemed to throw concepts at me without explaining any of the characters, including the main character; making it impossible to empathize/identify with her or to really care what happened.

It would've at least been better if there'd been a storyline. Instead this is a confusing film that tends to be alienating to the audience who's just sort of along for the ride. I won't give away the ending but it wouldn't matter if I did since it's one of those endings where the writers were probably like okay, we ran out of time. Make up your mind as to what this means. At least the acting was good

 

[SnafuInTheVoid]

The Scopia Effect (2014)

As a sci-fi horror film about a woman who experiences reincarnation while seemingly being conscious of it I thought this might be interesting. Unfortunately this film seemed to throw concepts at me without explaining any of the characters, including the main character; making it impossible to empathize/identify with her or to really care what happened.

It would've at least been better if there'd been a storyline. Instead this is a confusing film that tends to be alienating to the audience who's just sort of along for the ride. I won't give away the ending but it wouldn't matter if I did since it's one of those endings where the writers were probably like okay, we ran out of time. Make up your mind as to what this means. At least the acting was good

mmm reminds me of several potentially amazing movies ruined by people who apparently couldn't fruit it into reality or limited by budget (?)

 

[Gormur]

mmm reminds me of several potentially amazing movies ruined by people who apparently couldn't fruit it into reality or limited by budget (?)

Ha. Maybe both

 

[TheLoveBandit]

Mum & Dad (2008 )

Plot seems based upon real life serial killers Fred & Rosemary West*. I'll admit, the film probably was better than I felt it was, because I watched while reading the wiki on them which is many times worse than the film. The movie itself follows a young polish immigrant girl, working janitorial duties at an England airport who misses the bus and a co-worker offers to let her crash for the night. Well, the co-worker (Birdie) and her silent brother (Elbie) take them home to mum & dad. Upon entering the home, our lead 'Angel' is drugged, then awakens to find herself restrained and catching glimpses of dad killing someone in an adjoining room. The film revolves around this dysfunctional family, and Angel's efforts to stay alive in abiding their rules while looking for escape. There's a few more good bits of gore, and a somewhat infamous Christmas scene, and an odd twist of a young girl we don't discover until late in the film. The entire film is pretty much in the house with the dynamics of Bridie wanting to be the favorite child, mum & dad with their sadistic approach to family and nonchalance of torture and murder, Elbie being the semi-reluctant participant, and Angel as our connected character enduring unexpected hell. For gore, it's got some good stuff, but never felt over the top (though Xmas does make some queasy in viewing), for tension I never felt much (most likely due to my reading the wiki simultaneously), and for depth of plot I have explained it all. I suppose the main selling point was the fear, unexpected hell so close to everyday life, like anyone could be a fly in this venus flytrap. It's solid in that respect, but not spectacular, IMO. I'll give it a good 6.5/10, could definitely have been better but probably lost a point from me because of my distraction.


*Arrested on 10-12 murders, the horror and incest of the true West couple is astounding. Active roughly '67-87, but tracing back to West's own twisted childhood this is a reality beyond imagination. I won't get into the details. Those who have an interest in truly disturbing human actions can read up on the wiki and what they did. I'm not sure it could be made into a movie, certainly not without an X or XXX rating (and not just for the sex).

 

[Cream Gravy?]

Blood and Black Lace (1964)

Another Giallo style flick I watched on Prime. This one I quite enjoyed and agree with the around 7.0 average it garnered on IMDb. Visually exciting and the plot was decent and twisty. A short run time helped keep me from boredom.

The only detractor was the English dub; Amazon doesn't always offer films in their original language and it's irksome. I would be interested to have seen it in Italian with subtitles... oh well.

7/10

 

[TheLoveBandit]

Willy's Wonderland (2021)

Billed as an ode to 80's horror flicks, we have a broken down amusement restaurant (knock off from Chuck E Cheese) which was set up and run in the 80's by some insane guy and his friends. They started killing customers, and as the cops closed in they did a satanic ritual so their souls could escape to inanimate objects....the animatronic characters of the restaurant. Nick Cage is a silent loner chugging Punch soda travelling through the backroads, gets four flats in 'an accident' and gets towed into tiny Haneysville. Repair shop only takes cash, but he can work off the new tires by cleaning the local joint someone is trying to re-open. Add in a low rent version of millennial teens looking to burn the place down, and the rest of the town in a pact with WIlly the Weasel and his gang to feed them strangers, then all you have left is Nick drinking soda and beating the crap out of life size animatronics. The highlight is a toss up between Nicks lack of any lines (just grunts, sips, and attacks, plays pinball, rinse and repeat) and Caylee Cowan as the second string female teen getting horny in the horror house and giving us bra cleavage (straight shot, jiggling shots, and a blood splatter shot) - both of these leave us disappointed. Even for fans of 80's horror, I can't recommend. I really, really wanted to like this based on the concept; and even having Nick Cage didn't ruin it (he actually did decent considering he has no lines); but it was not to be. 4/10.

 

[SnafuInTheVoid]

I enjoyed this movie. Sci Fi / Mystery / Suspense packaged like a horror movie. Pretty neat.

At first I hated it because the entire movie runs off dialogue and I thought a few of the characters were annoying. Definitely gets better and the ending is quite good, which was a nice surprise.

Very interesting concept and keeps you guessing that's for sure.

They should have left the ketamine references out... only funny to people who have never done drugs... hated that part

It's really not as much as a mind fuck as they portray it... more just a mystery you have to put together.... or maybe I just have a 300IQ genius brain and ate it up like candy. Jury is out.

Snafu Criterion Collection™ approved

 

[ghostfreak]

Wasn't really expecting this to be any good but it actually surprised me. Three people stuck in this high rise (well mid to be fair) building with a malevolent paranormal force - oh the horror! We have creepy visions, running out of food, the water stopping etc etc.

2.5\5

 

[jimdron]

I watched Spun recently for the second time in several months. Absolutely great when heroes are spun, not so much when they are coming down and seemingly leaving meth for good at least for a while. That "leaving for good" part was just too cheesy and too easily jumped to existential (healing) part. Does not happen in real life and does not work as part of heroes story. Director should have had courage to continue true (phenomenologically) description of heroes life after stopping drugs. Actually, it would be as interesting (if not more) than spun part.

But spun part was absolutely great. And I haven't tried meth or amphetamine, which does not matter really, because art is a substitution for those.

 

[ghostfreak]

Interesting film about the Wendigo. Two friends go hiking and encounter it/them.

Actually trippy enough. You can feel the cold as the whole film takes place in the snow.

 

[Cream Gravy?]

Moulin Rouge (2001)

This was one of the more enjoyable musicals I've watched (I very much dislike musicals generally) at least for the first half; full of sexual-innuendo and brilliant word play. Nicole Kidman is a stone cold fox and Ewan McGregor really pulls the film together. The second half is depressing and unreasonably drawn out.

They told me at the beginning, Kidman's character would die. I don't know why, it only lessens the value of her dying... whatever.

It was okay, worthwhile if you're bored and stoned.

6/10


Vanilla Sky (2001)

The American version of Open your Eyes (1997) of which I haven't seen and cannot comment on. Also both star Penelope Cruz, sexy. Anyways...

A rich guy learns that he can't have everything he wants in life and that treating other people like shit has repercussions. Who woulda thunk?

The movie then becomes more of a sci-fi and gets weird. There are some interesting small details and phrases that keep you hooked till the end, but then... what? Roger Ebert (that man hated every good film and loved every bad one, how am I not a critic...) said this film was an Escher Staircase. I'm pretty sure that man wouldn't have known an Escher Staircase if he walked through it one million times over. This movie is not that; self absorbed? Yes. Depressing? Yes. Well acted/scripted? Yes. Stellar cast? Check. Good movie/a mind fuck? Nope.

'They' say that you either really love this film or really hate it. I'm of the opinion that it was a bad movie executed very well with high production value. So while I hated it, I have to admit it was well done.

Therefore, I'm 50/50 on how I feel about this film, which garners the coveted, very mediocre score seen below:

5/10

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

The Peanut Butter Falcon

the “cherry hill is a place where they send prostitutes and drug addicts!” line coming from a good guy character was awkwardly hilarious for last night’s movie in the residential ward. feel good psuedo-indie tripe. better than our usual choices.

 

[SnafuInTheVoid]

recently rewatched this masterpiece, must see movie this is.

This movie really creeps me out and makes me uncomfortable. It does a really good job at doing that while you experience a man losing his mind. It's insane that Christian Bale actually cut down that much weight for this movie. True method acting.

 

[BK38]

I watched "Anon" ( 2018 ) yesterday and it was not very good. It had a lot of promise but then fell into some majorly cliched writing and it just fell short. It is set in some kind of not-too-distant future where everyone is recording what they see through their eyes at all times and your eyes basically function as an augmented reality thing (where there are overlays over everything) and also as an interface, cpu, comms etc. It follows a homicide detective and he uses these systems to catch killers until one day they start finding homicides that have no trace, where some nefarious actor has hacked into and deleted these recordings.

The story is ultimately about privacy, security, anonymity etc and is a ham-fisted attempt to lay out the issues in a creative way. It's basically a derivative and shitty Black Mirror episode. It tries to be deep, but it lacks depth. Also the last bit of dialogue at the end between the main two characters is terrible; I imagine the director had an "oh shit" moment where he realized that maybe his target audience is too dumb to understand to get what he's trying to sell and so tacked on some really middle-school-essay-esque crap about privacy and why it's important. Eugh. With that said, the girl in it is pretty hot and the acting is not the worst I've ever seen?

3/10

 

[Burnt Offerings]

It's basically a derivative and shitty Black Mirror episode.

That's what immediately came to mind when I read your plot description

 

[TheLoveBandit]

Homefront (2013 ) <Netflix>

Yet another Jason Statham film, this time he's a retired undercover cop who moves to rural Louisiana to raise his daughter on his own (wife died or something). Movie opens with him inside a gang when the DEA comes down on everyone, he tries to arrest the head and his son, the son gets killed. Jump ahead to a new life in the Bayou, and he runs afoul of the local meth dealer played very well by James Franco. We do get our requisite fistfights and action sequences, but they are enough to prove characters, intent, and ability rather than being the main theme of the movie. Much more human side for a Statham role presented, and carried to better cinematic success. Mix in a crooked cop, payback from the original gang leader, and Wynona Rider as Franco's meth-head girlfriend (his sister is one too, but blond if that's more your thing). Central plot is trying to start over with his kid, but history repeats and catches up with him. Good flick. Not great, but good. Not on par with Transporter films for action, better than Redemption (reviewed earlier, also released in 2013). Overall 6.5/10.

 

[schizopath]

Zack snyder justice league...
ItS ArT /5