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Post by ripper on Oct 27, 2023 19:29:51 GMT
I watched a couple of horror films from the 1980s recently, they were nothing stunning, but I thought it would be interesting to now move on to the 1990s. Please leave suggestions below for this decade. Thank you. I would recommend Army of Darkness from 1992. It's the 3rd film in the Evil Dead series. If you haven't seen Evil Dead II then I recommend that one too, though it's from the 80s. Army of Darkness is so much fun and I don't really think it is absolutely a requirement to watch Evil Dead II beforehand.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Oct 27, 2023 19:41:15 GMT
I think this one is an instance of television material being edited together for a theatrical issue. Indeed. They were episodes of a 1975 tv anthology series called Classics Dark and Dangerous.
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Post by sadako on Oct 28, 2023 9:38:38 GMT
Here's another one that may be of interest-- Three Dangerous Ladies, from 1977. I think this one is an instance of television material being edited together for a theatrical issue. www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-ym8eoETlAcheers, Hel. Includes a segment directed by Robert (Dr Phibes) Fuest!
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Oct 28, 2023 12:20:52 GMT
Thank you for the suggestions. I've put the 1990s films on hold as I've decided to concentrate on Bella Lugosi films. I picked the worst possible start to my Belathon in Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla, but get the worst over first I suppose. I'm curious about a film he did for Monogram in 1934 called The Mysterious Mr. Wong; Bela plays a Fu Manchu type character. It is described on wiki as tongue in cheek. I hope that doesn't translate to unfunny. He is after the 12 coins of Confucius apparently.
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Post by helrunar on Oct 28, 2023 14:26:02 GMT
I watched The Mysterious Mr Wong a while back on youtube. Bela is fun to watch--otherwise it's all rather plodding.
Some good Bela films: The Raven (1935), The Invisible Ray (1936), The Devil Bat (1940), The Corpse Vanishes (1941, heroine is plucky "girl" reporter), Return of the Vampire, The Black Cat (1941) (memorable, if you're a Bela fan, for a scene where Bela is looking for the cat and is crooning "here kitty, kitty"), Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein (1948). I've heard good things about Dark Eyes of London but still not seen it.
Bela is fun to watch in a 1939 serial called The Phantom Creeps but there's a lot of padding.
cheers, Hel.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Oct 28, 2023 22:24:59 GMT
After recovering from Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla I decided tonights late viewing would be The Dark Eyes of London as suggested by the Vault's resident wizard. It has the less interesting title of The Human Monster for it's American release. Found here is a version with both titles.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Oct 30, 2023 14:22:00 GMT
Will anybody be watching anything for Halloween? I won't have time as I will be with relatives, but I will watch something tonight. I can't decide what though.
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Post by helrunar on Oct 31, 2023 2:52:33 GMT
Tonight I attended a digitally projected screening of the 2021/22 "4K" restoration of Joe Dante's 1981 film The Howling. I'd only ever seen this once, on a VHS tape back in the 1990s, and I didn't remember much. It was a memorable evening. Unlike a lot of 1980s horror I have experienced, this film has a look and feel that is both taut and at times dreamy, or nightmarish, with a wonderful way of looking back at both werewolf folklore and classic horror traditions (actual clips from The Wolf Man show up in the film). I appreciated the stunt cameos from Roger Corman, Forrest J. Ackerman, and Roger Corman/ Joe Dante regular Dick Miller (as a jaded, hilarious occult bookseller). And of course, John Carradine's role which almost riffs on Karloff's in Targets. I also have to mention Elizabeth Brooks who was amazing as the proud, fearless, lewdly feral Marsha. Loved her final appearance in the movie.
The screening was preceded by a short talk by a Brandeis University English professor who discussed the differences between the film and the source novel by Gary Brandner, as well as making some amusing comments about The Howling II (which I saw again last winter).
It was so much fun to see a film like this with an audience. People laughed at some of the horror sequences, but in the more high voltage werewolf transformation scenes, the crowd was mesmerized by what they were seeing. Physically accomplished effects done in that era look so much more realistic and, yes, nightmarish, than the crap CGI glitz that has become routine today.
Hel.
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Post by andydecker on Oct 31, 2023 8:06:10 GMT
Tonight I attended a digitally projected screening of the 2021/22 "4K" restoration of Joe Dante's 1981 film The Howling. but in the more high voltage werewolf transformation scenes, the crowd was mesmerized by what they were seeing. Physically accomplished effects done in that era look so much more realistic and, yes, nightmarish, than the crap CGI glitz that has become routine today. Hel. I love this movie since I first saw it back then. For me this is still the best transformation scene ever. Not American Werewolf, none of the CGI crap.
It is a strange movie, isn't it? So many different tones which shouldn't work together but does. Serial killer Noir, gritty urban sleaze, horror, sex, stunt casting, humour, self-referential in-jokes. The only thing I never liked were the Wallace-Stones. They reminded me always of aunt and uncle and not a couple.
Always thought it so sad that Brooks died so young.
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Post by helrunar on Oct 31, 2023 13:25:01 GMT
I wasn't aware at all of Dee Wallace prior to this screening. What a bland, drippy presence. Her husband did have a nice body. Like Elizabeth Brooks, he died young, of a sudden heart attack in his case. I do give Wallace credit for acting the completely traumatized reaction of somebody having had a genuine encounter with supernatural horror really well. Her inability to scream during that scene in the sleaze bookstore was very realistic.
I've still never seen An American Werewolf in London and don't feel particularly inclined to do so, even though I've seen people rave about it in horror film groups and claim it is the greatest horror film of all time. Yawn. I do want to see Wolfen and I note that it is available for streaming on a popular retail site, so perhaps I will finally catch up with it.
Incidentally, a very entertaining "dish-up" of this style of lycanthropy is the episodes shot in London of a TV show from the late 1980s, She-Wolf of London. It had two excellent regular players in Kate Hodge and Neil Dickson, and some amusing offbeat supporting characters. When they moved the series to LA it became very boring and very 80s.
Steve
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Post by Swampirella on Oct 31, 2023 13:27:39 GMT
I wasn't aware at all of Dee Wallace prior to this screening. What a bland, drippy presence. Her husband did have a nice body. Like Elizabeth Brooks, he died young, of a sudden heart attack in his case. I do give Wallace credit for acting the completely traumatized reaction of somebody having had a genuine encounter with supernatural horror really well. Her inability to scream during that scene in the sleaze bookstore was very realistic. I've still never scene An American Werewolf in LondonĀ and don't feel particularly inclined to do so, even though I've seen people rave about it in horror film groups and claim it is the greatest horror film of all time. Yawn. I do want to see Wolfen and I note that it is available for streaming on a popular retail site, so perhaps I will finally catch up with it. Steve You really should see An American Werewolf In London, Steve! Even if you donāt care for it (hard to believe but I suppose itās possible) youāll know what the fuss is about. I enjoyed it tremendously when it came out and ever since.
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Post by helrunar on Oct 31, 2023 14:39:12 GMT
I don't know, maybe. I just played the trailer again and I feel as if I don't need to bother seeing the film. Clueless Yanks backpacking in England attacked by werewolf--Brits ask surviving Yank, "don't you think you'll feel so much better after a nice cup of tea, dear?" The makeup FX are more impressive than ever because, again, it would all be done by CGI today. And CGI to this old hag looks fake, fake, FAKE.
I found this paragraph about the behavior of Werewolf director John Landis (best known for a string of cheesy frat-style comedy films) in events leading up to a fatal accident on the set of the Twilight Zone movie--it shows to me that things humans do in waking life are far more horrific than anything seen on a feature film screen:
Despite insisting that the deaths were the result of an accident, Landis' aggressive and cavalier behavior on set likely contributed to the crash. Camera operators filming the scene testified to Landis being a very imperious director, a "yeller and screamer" on set. He was also glib about the dangerous set environment created by shooting at night with a helicopter and many large explosions. During a take three hours before the incident, helicopter pilot Dorcey Wingo (a veteran of the Vietnam War) told Landis that the fireballs were too large and too close to the helicopter. To this, Landis responded "You ain't seen nothing yet." With special effects explosions blasting around them, the helicopter descended over Morrow, Le, and Chen. Witnesses testified Landis was still shouting for the helicopter to fly "Lower! Lower!" moments before it crashed.
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Post by ripper on Oct 31, 2023 19:18:58 GMT
I don't know, maybe. I just played the trailer again and I feel as if I don't need to bother seeing the film. Clueless Yanks backpacking in England attacked by werewolf--Brits ask surviving Yank, "don't you think you'll feel so much better after a nice cup of tea, dear?" The makeup FX are more impressive than ever because, again, it would all be done by CGI today. And CGI to this old hag looks fake, fake, FAKE. I found this paragraph about the behavior of Werewolf director John Landis (best known for a string of cheesy frat-style comedy films) in events leading up to a fatal accident on the set of the Twilight Zone movie--it shows to me that things humans do in waking life are far more horrific than anything seen on a feature film screen: Despite insisting that the deaths were the result of an accident, Landis' aggressive and cavalier behavior on set likely contributed to the crash. Camera operators filming the scene testified to Landis being a very imperious director, a "yeller and screamer" on set. He was also glib about the dangerous set environment created by shooting at night with a helicopter and many large explosions. During a take three hours before the incident, helicopter pilot Dorcey Wingo (a veteran of the Vietnam War) told Landis that the fireballs were too large and too close to the helicopter. To this, Landis responded "You ain't seen nothing yet." With special effects explosions blasting around them, the helicopter descended over Morrow, Le, and Chen. Witnesses testified Landis was still shouting for the helicopter to fly "Lower! Lower!" moments before it crashed.The Twilight Zone Movie accident was both horrific and tragic. The two children who died had been hired without the proper permits for employing minors. As for American Werewolf... I won't claim it is the best horror film ever made, but imo it is rather good, with excellent effects, and a nice mixture of horror and humour. It also has Jenny Agutter, which for British males of a certain age is enough, and she's in a nurse's uniform to boot!
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Post by helrunar on Oct 31, 2023 21:29:03 GMT
Yeah, a fan with whom I'm friendly in the UK did a whole book on Agutter, and it was frankly baffling to me. I'd seen some of her work in the Seventies and she just never registered for me. I'd forgotten she was the nurse/girlfriend in American Werewolf.
Hel.
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Post by Swampirella on Oct 31, 2023 21:37:26 GMT
Yeah, a fan with whom I'm friendly in the UK did a whole book on Agutter, and it was frankly baffling to me. I'd seen some of her work in the Seventies and she just never registered for me. I'd forgotten she was the nurse/girlfriend in American Werewolf. Hel. I don't know if she's currently involved in anything else, but she's been in Call The Midwife for most or all of it's 12 seasons.
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