Horror

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Fright Night (1985)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1979)
Sweet Home
Seven
Carrie
Ghostbusters I/II
The Fly (1986)
Gremlins 2: The New Batch

[Avaitor]

The Loved Ones
Puppet Master
The Purge: Election Year

[gunswordfist]

Sweet Home? 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Sweet Home? 

It's probably better to experience it through the video game, but the movie is rather entertaining for what it is. Some parts are cheesy in an amusing way, while other parts are legitimately well done with some great practical effects. It's not a terribly above average horror movie, but it is worth watching and worth talking about.

[gunswordfist]

Yes, the effects are the movie's real sell and the game is much much better. Thankfulky, I played the game first.

[Daikun]

George A. Romero has passed away.

[Avaitor]

We also lost Martin Landau.

Two legends in one day.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, Stephen King's It is coming out fairly soon and I've been cautiously optimistic about it all year long. I read the book about two years ago and found it to be incredibly engrossing. It has some....questionable bits to be sure, but don't let naysayers who hate Stephen King fool you, it's an incredibly well-written novel and is equal parts emotionally enthralling and creepy. Putting nostalgia for the Tim Curry mini-series aside, it doesn't really adapt the source material very well and doesn't really hold up in its own right either. It's still a guilty pleasure of mine, though, if only for how absurdly fun it is to watch Tim Curry go nuts.

That said, this reboot seems like a far more faithful and interesting attempt at adapting the source material. I was initially interested when I heard that Carry Fukunaga would be involved, but quickly lost interest when he stepped down from the project. However, the promotional material that surfaced for this movie over the course of this year really caught my attention, and the closer we've gotten to the release of the movie the more hopeful I have become that it's as good as it looks. Hearing early positive buzz for the film has almost completely sold me on it, but I still do have some reservations. Even so, if the movie can capture the spirit of the book as well as it looks like it can, it'll easily be one of my favorites of the year.

[gunswordfist]

Rest in peace, Tobe Hooper.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, IT basically smashed all records to become the highest grossing horror movie of all time, the second highest grossing rated R film of all time (following closely behind Deadpool), and the third highest grossing film of the year (so far), even beating out comic book giants like Spider-Man and Wonder Woman.

And I'm really glad. IT genuinely deserves the success (pun obviously intended). As an adaptation it manages to take the best parts of the source material while cutting out the crappier parts, resulting in an overall superior adaptation, IMO. The movie isn't necessarily scary, but that doesn't bother me as describing it as a darker version of The Goonies or Stand By Me with a Killer Clown are strong enough selling points for me.

I honestly want to go back and see it in theaters again this coming weekend to catch all of the hidden stuff that I missed. But man, even on a first viewing I just couldn't help but love this film's attention to detail. There are two scenes in particular (there may be more, but I only noticed the two on my first viewing) in which you see an "extra" in the background staring at one of the children, one being a Librarian with their sights directly on Ben Hanscom from behind and the other as a circus performer on stilts in direct sight of all of the kids in a group at a carnival. Both scenes eventually lead to a related scare, but what I love is that careful viewers will notice that this is clearly Pennywise marking his prey from a distance, but he's taken the form of an unassuming person that blends in with their environment, so his presence is subtle enough for most people (including the audience) to miss it. Surely enough, though, I looked it up and as I suspected, both "extras" were actually Bill Skarsgard in a different costume and makeup. That level of dedication to such minor details really goes a long way for me.

Another little Easter Egg that I noticed is during the scene in which Mike Hanlon first encounters IT, you can see a painting on the alley wall depicting a shoot-out from the 1930's in which various members of the mob were gunned down, and later on in the film when the kids briefly return to that alley, you get a better look at the picture and can actually make out Pennywise's face well hidden within a dark portion of the painting, alluding to his influence over the violence in Derry. All over the film you can actually find visual clues as to the history of the town over the years (as elaborated on extensively in the novel) without any of the characters spending countless minutes of exposition on any of it.

It's clear that a ton of effort went into this production by people passionate about the material, and it really is one of my favorite films of the year so far.

[Peanutbutter]

Anyone check out Mom and Dad, the one with Nic Cage? Was wondering how it is. Not into most horror, but I like some with certain gimmicks or interesting plots like this looked to me.

[Daikun]

Platinum Dunes gives up on horror remakes.

[Daikun]

Since Universal's attempt at a "Dark Universe" wound up in shambles, they're now giving Blumhouse a chance to reboot their classic monsters, starting with The Invisible Man.

https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3543599/blumhouse-reviving-universal-monsters-starting-leigh-whannells-invisible-man

[Dr. Insomniac]

I'm still not sure how the Dark Universe could have worked. Were they going to be individual horror movies that would have culminated in a monster mash? If I wanted that, I would have watched Van Helsing movie. It would have made as much sense.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I guess that the monsters would have teamed up to fight aliens or something? Either that or it would have culminated in a Monster Squad remake, which I would be cool with if you got the original director back.