Film Journal - June 2016

So the first movie I saw this month was actually "The Witch" (2015), but I couldn't find it in the add section for some reason. I really liked it, and it's a great addition to the art-horror wave that's popular currently, with films like It Follows and The Babadook.

Now, onto "Blue Jasmine". I'm not the biggest woody allen fan, I really liked Annie Hall, but other than that I haven't really been that interested in checking out his films. I thought I'd at least watch Blue Jasmine, because I really like Cate Blanchett as an actress and I like films with damaged characters. Overall I thought it was a really good film, balancing on the thin line between comedy and tragedy. Cate Blanchett knocks it out of the park as the main character, and the rest of the cast do a great job as well.

Probably one of the most underrated horror films ever made.

It's super low-budget, so that might be a turn-off for a lot of watchers, but I feel like it adds to the creepiness. It's rough, unpolished and incredibly grim. It's also one of the few horror films that manages to be both genuinely creepy and heartbreaking.
It's a family drama, a horror film and an allegory for war and the effects of war.

One of the better giallos out there. Incredibly sleazy, with a lot of suspicious looking characters, macabre kills, a killer soundtrack and some good ol' twists and turns along the way.

Batshit insane film that constantly walks the line between being disturbing and funny. Full of fantastic visuals, with phenomenal acting from Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave.

Hands down, the most disturbing film I've ever seen.
It's not shocking like A Serbian Film, Salo or Cannibal Holocaust, instead it slowly creeps over you, enveloping you in it's darkness.

I expected to like this more than I did, since I'm a big fan of Fulci's films, and this is supposed to be one of the better ones. It's pretty tame gore wise, compared to a lot of his other films, but the ending was probably the high point of the film for me.

Like a feature length episode of "Tales From The Crypt", "Night of the Demons" brings a lot of fun, some creepy moments and great gore to the table.

Surprisingly really creepy. It starts out as more of a thriller, but slowly turns into a horror film. The cast and setting is fantastic, but the score gotta be one of my favorite parts of the film.

Probably the best exploitation film I've ever seen. It's stylish, violent, sexy and somewhat funny at times. Varla is probably one of the best female villains out there.

Another shockingly underrated horror film, with one of the most vicious monsters in horror history.

While the subject is really sickening and horrible, it handles it in a very classy way so that it doesn't turn into a exploitive film, but it's still a truly scary horror film.

I sure do love a good giallo!

This one is from Sergio Martino, the man behind one of my favorite giallo films, "Torso", and while I didn't like this one as much as that one (Mostly due to the ending) it's still a very stylish and visually impressive giallo.

It's very dreamlike through it's runtime and downright nightmarish at times, reminding me of films like "Rosemary's Baby" and "Repulsion", where you start doubting what's real and not. The gore is pretty tame in this one, especially compared to say an Argento or Fulci film, but it doesn't need to be that explicit to work. It's dark and moody, with some stunning scenes of horror.

I'd recommend this one to anyone fan of giallo films and moody 70's horror.

A very entertaining old school monster movie, elevated from a standard b-movie by it's great cast of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing among others.

Really dark, unpleasant and brutal period horror film, with the always great Vincent Price as one of the villains.
It's definitively more of a "torture n' gore" shock-film than actually being a creepy or scary film, but the acting elevates it above the level of similar and more exploitive films from that time.

With beautifully crafted visuals and a great operatic (and sometimes heavy metal, because why not) soundtrack, Dario Argento's Opera ends up being my favorite film by the director.

It's incredibly brutal, it's mean-spirited, it's sometimes sleazy, and it's very intense all the way through. It's everything you'd want in an Argento film, served with some of the greatest camera work I've seen in a horror film.

As a detractor, the last 10 minutes is pretty unnecessary, but I liked the film enough to not really be bothered by it that much.

Slightly better than the first, in my opinion. The 2 hours just fly by.

Anthropophagus is famous for it's gore and it's poor pacing, and while the pacing wasn't very good (I expected it to be much worse, to be quite honest), it's unapologetic, raw and gore-filled finale made up for it.

The cast, aside from the awful dubbing, is okay, but George Eastman as the villain really shines in it. He's incredibly intimidating, and really ups the creepy-factor.

The location is fantastic, and really brings some moodiness to the film together with the lovely soundtrack.

Overall I'd say the film is a mixed bag. It's badly paced and even worse dubbed, but it's got a lot of charm and whenever Eastman is on screen the movie gets so much more entertaining.

A very visually striking and well-edited Giallo by "the godfather of gore" himself, Lucio Fulci.

I ended up really enjoying this film, especially a lot more than Fulci's "Don't Torture a Duckling" (which I liked just fine). This one was much more visually interesting and didn't feel as uneventful, even though this one had less deaths than that one.

Florinda Bolkan was fantastic as the lead, and does a great job with the script. The dubbing in this one was also really damn good.

I'd put this one among Fulci's best. It's far from as gruesome as a lot of his other films (even though it has one scene that's pretty damn sadistic and cruel) and it plays on suspense more than it plays on shocking gore.

A beautiful nightmare.

The plot is kinda messy, but overall I might have liked this one a little bit more than "Suspiria". I know, that's heresy.

It's both a really pretty looking film, with amazing colors and lighting, and also a pretty sounding film, with a great soundtrack and a really kick-ass theme song.

It's got a theatrical, and a more "over-the-top" feel than "Suspiria" (from what I remember, it's been a long time since I last watched that film...) and also introduces a lot of mythology to the plot, which I really enjoyed.

I really didn't like this one.

It's dry and uninteresting for the most part, and I didn't really get involved in the characters until the very end. The dialogue is clunky and unintentionally hilarious at times, just like Lenzi's "Cannibal Ferox".

It's got some interesting ideas, but it never fully develops. The soundtrack is pretty great though, and the film itself looks good and is somewhat competently made.

I wouldn't recommend this one. It's pretty "meh" giallo-wise, and it's honestly just a waste of time.

A really atmospheric and creepy little film with a really menacing villain, that gets dragged a bit down by pointless comedic elements.

When it's serious, it really works, but the comedy parts doesn't fit and just falls flat. It's not like "Black Christmas" where the humor is pretty dark and vulgar, which kinda fits with the mean-spirited tone of that film. Here the comedy is so light and silly that it just ruins the mood of the film.

Still, the scenes with the phantom killer are brilliant, and the narration is incredibly spooky, with one of my favorite endings to a horror film ever.

A really comfy and cozy family-friendly horror film, with a few genuinely creepy moments. It's got that low-budget charm to it, and the music is actually quite beautiful.

I'd recommend it for family-viewings or if you just want something comfy to watch.

Probably my favorite Bava film, and one hell of a giallo!

A Stephen King mini-series directed by Tobe Hooper about vampires, that also pays homage to old monster movies? Sign me up!

Unfortunately, I didn't like this quite as much as I wanted to. It's got a lot of the usual Stephen King tropes, part 1 feels long and dry (except for a few spooky moments), it's full of characters that I don't like or care about, and it's got a subplot that wasn't needed at all.

Part 2 was much better, though. It's still got some of the faults that part 1 had, plus some really goofy moments, but it was much tighter and way more interesting. The climax was pretty intense, and I actually really liked the main characters. But "Mr. Barlow" portrayed by Reggie Nalder was by far the show-stealer. He looks absolutely terrifying, and is incredibly intimidating whenever he shows up.

This is really a mixed bag. On one side, it's a really freaking cool, old-school vampire flick. On the other side, it's a overlong Stephen King mini-series with some goofy moments.

But overall I'd recommend it. The good parts outweighs the bad parts, and if you have enough patience, you will be rewarded.

Well, that was one of the most uncomfortable films I've ever sat through...

It's a very subdued and creepy low-budget psychological horror film, focusing on slowly digging under your skin, rather than being over-the-top and full of jump-scares and gore. The concept never gets silly, instead the titular character feels more and more real, which is perhaps the scariest part...

I never get tired of watching this one.

I don't feel like calling this a guilty pleasure of mine, since while I can admit it does have some faults and some really cheesy elements, it's still a genuinely unnerving, creepy, weird and interesting film, especially with such a low-budget.

It's easy to say that it's just a weird "Texas Chainsaw Massacre"-clone, but it's still overflowing with creativity, charm and some pretty nightmarish imagery, and Pino Donaggio's score to it is among my all time favorites!

Starts out as a very Hitchcockian thriller, and then turns completely insane after a while.

A really creepy little film, and one of my new favorites from De Palma.

Kinda feels like a mix between an EC comics horror/suspense story and a romantic drama, and it actually goes really well together.

Really well-made and acted superbly, making the somewhat silly premise really believable and a lot of scenes incredibly intense.

It really reminded me of the Canadian horror film "Pin" (1988), which I watched just a couple of days earlier. This one was less uncomfortable than that one, but both left me feeling horrible.

I'm still trembling.

One of the scariest films I've ever seen. It's absolutely phenomenal at creating an impenetrable atmosphere of pure and utter dread. It's got exactly one, I repeat, ONE jump-scare, and it's one of the most effective jump-scares I've ever witnessed.

Stay away from the mediocre remake, because this is how you really do horror.

A heavily flawed, but fun low-budget sci-fi/horror film.

The acting ranges from passable to plain bad regarding most of the cast, but Peter Weller is pretty great in it, and is one of the brighter spots in the film.

It does a lot of world-building, which I really liked, and the "Screamers" themselves are pretty interesting and neatly designed.

While I enjoyed some parts and elements in it, it does have it's share of plot-holes and bad acting. I wouldn't really recommend it, since it isn't an essential viewing of any kind, I just watched it because it looked interesting and I'm a fan of Peter Weller.

It's exactly what it sounds like, and that's a lot of fun!

One of the better Hammer horror films I've seen by far.

It's bloody, it's good-looking, the acting is great for the most part and it's paced really well. Some minor things kinda bothered me, but that's mostly spoilers and I'll avoid dabbling into that.

It's a way more tragic and bleak film than what I've usually seen from Hammer, which is why I probably liked it so much.

Quite possibly the perfect b-monster-movie.

Great creature designs and suits, phenomenal gore, a great score and a spectacular finale! This one's got it all!