For me, I thought the first one rocked: the vampire chick story was awesomely freaky when they’re hiding in the bathroom, the camping in the woods was a rollicking good time, the skyping girlfriend had some nicely creepy moments, and the haunted house at the end was unmitigated win.
But when I was reading about VHS 2 in the imdb comments section (which is usually terrible but I occasionally read anyway) most of the people thought VHS 2 was a lot better. Some even hated the first one but like the second one.
I can’t really wrap my head around those sentiments. The sequel was less interesting, I thought, but it did have much higher production value. But I loved them both. I can’t really recommend the second one if you didn’t like the first. So I’m thinking wait for cable and give it a shot for free.
Selfie is a sitcom. But after both loving Oculus and You’re the Worst (FX sitcom with Aya Cash) I’m on a redhead thing right now, so I’m giving anything with Karen Gillan (other than Dr Who) and Aya Cash a chance.
Never heard of it, but now I have my next double feature lined up. Thanks!
I added Bereavement to my list solely for Alexandra Daddario. Now that it’s become a “double feature,” which do you think I should watch first? (I’m also looking forward to Texas Chainsaw 3D just because she’s in it.)
Hee. I’ve such a passion for the genre, I’ll watch Lifetime “horror” movies. Anyone actually seen Tori Spelling in a thriller? Im just sayin’. But to be fair and honest, I saw The Beguiled more because I’m a 70s nut. If I could go back in time, we’d have to break out the tie dye and drive my Pinto there. I do love the idea of stretching the definition though. Keep them coming.
These remind me of how much I loved, loved, loved Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer. Jesus, what a great movie! And what’s this about David Janssen? I’ll be off to the IMDb again here in a minute.
Okay, Ellis, I might need to try VHS and its sibling again. Maybe I was having a bad night, but it just seemed more amateurish than I could take. However, Ti West did direct one of the most controversial segments of ABC, so that might be enough to compensate. If you’ve never seen that, I recommend it. It has lots of goodies.
Oh, a sitcom? I’ll pass, but I agree she’s delectable. Let me know how it goes.
As to the rest? You have the benefit of seeing those movies in order, so if you like things all chronological, here’s your chance. But if you’re purist (and a lot of the reviews carp that the first is better), there’s always logic in sticking with the natural order of things. I dunno what I’d do, but I think I’d lean toward watching whichever I felt was the least well done to start. That way I’d end on a high note.
OK, it’s not nearly as good as the original WICKER MAN but it’s way beyond the Nicolas Cage remake…
THE WICKER TREE, written & directed by TWM’s Robin Hardy.
A young U.S. Evangelical couple come to Scotland to spread the Gospel & are welcome into one town by the local Lord & his Lady as they near the May Day festival… and you can guess where it goes from there. Has a cameo by Christopher Lee who may or may not be Lord Summerisle.
It went through a series of possible titles- The Riding of the Laddie, May Day, Cowboys for Christ (the novelization title), The May Queen, and castings (the U.S. couple was to be Sean Astin & LeAnn Rimes, and the Lord & Lady- Chris Lee & Vanessa Redgrave, then Joan Collins) and a decade from announcment to release (2002-2012).
One thing I will say, there is more of a fight than in the end of The Wicker Man.
Some good music, and nudity, and certainly solid religious struggle & temptation - all the things which made the original TWM special & which were stripped from the remake.
I didn’t hate The Wicker Tree, though to be honest I kept hoping against hope for a “No, not the bees!” moment.
So I finished watching Malevolence and am partway through Bereavement. I’m sticking with Bereavement to the bitter end simply to watch Michael Biehn and Alexandra Daddario, but holy shit these movies suck HARD.
These are totally “A Fiim By…” movies. Stevan Mena writes, directs, produces, edits, and even composes the music for them. Every aspect of which is amateurish and just plain bad, plus it’s chock full of bad cliches of the genre. It’s like if you gave college students a couple hundred grand to make a straight-to-video horror film. Or maybe $20 grand to high school students.
I expected to see IMDb ratings in the low 3s for both, maybe even 2s, but they have implausibly high ratings, both in the 5s. There’s a suspiciously large amount of rave reviews from accounts that don’t review any other movies.
Rottentomatoes has Malevolence and Bereavement listed at 33% and 44% for critics, with audience scores of 27% and 29%. The audience scores are about right.
I’m sure by now you’ve seen Frank Darabont’s The Mist, but if you’re a die-hard fan: on the DVD there is a version done in black-&-white; it’s fun, you get that '50s American International Pictures feel. Of course, the violence is ramped up.
Yes, Grabbers is a Shaun Of The Dead-type comedy, and it’s pretty fun. Stars Richard Coyle! And House of the Devil is done in a retro-80’s (?) style with a kind of slow creepiness. If it’s direct to video and doesn’t suck, Zombeavers?
I didn’t care for the new Daniel Radcliffe version of The Woman in Black, but I’ve always heard great things about the British teevee version from 1989.
I just noticed that Kate Beaton, the brilliant cartoonist lady of Hark, a Vagrant fame, has posted a link to the whole damn movie on her tumblr.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Troll Hunter (TrollHunter?) was pretty decent. Subtitled, so you have to sit and watch, which is hard for me. But suprisingly not as dumb as it sounds.
Damn, Trollhunter has a 7.0 rating on IMDb. That’s extremely high for a horror movie. And it has over 43k votes, so it’s not a matter of 32 friends and family members out of 80 total votes jacking up the rating. I’ll have to add that to my list.
On another note, I see that both Stake Land and Triangle are currently in rotation on Showtime channels. (Mostly Showtime Showcase, but also Showtime Extreme.) The former plays tonight, the latter tomorrow night, and both repeat later in the week. Out of curiosity I checked their ratings compared to Trollhunter: 6.6 and 6.9 respectively, also very high. I’m used to horror movies I like being in the 5s. For example, Salvage (one of my favorites) is only 5.5.
For comedy/horror I’d say Dale and Tucker Vs Evil.
I just recently re-watched Fright Night and it stands up. It’s 80’s cheesy but it’s good 80’s cheesy.
I can heartily recommend that you do NOT watch Annabel, currently in theaters.