I actually don't stream

I was on another forum and made a thread about having bought a brand new DVD with some scratches (which was secure in the platform, not shaking around in there), when someone jokingly said "What's a DVD, dad?"

Someone else said he "doesn't miss the clutter and cost" of DVDs.

He has a small point with the clutter, but the cost? Erm, you're paying for them when you pay your internet bill.

Besides, I've always thought that the variety is just too much.
How can you even pick something to watch, when there's too much to choose from?

I've never streamed, and I never will.
If this makes me a neanderthal, call me a neanderthal.

Vote for the Best! Finals!

IT Chapter One vs Hereditary

Have fun voting!

Insignificant questions about horror films?

Do they really need to be answered?

Actually, they do.
For example, why didn't Alex want to screw Dana in Puppetmaster (1989)?

She asked him in, and he declined, saying "I don't think that's such a good idea".

Is it because he thought that by bopping her, she'd be able to cast a spell (or enter his mind and control him)?

Otherwise, refusing her didn't make much sense. But that's just me.

Your 10 favourite Albums of 2019

It's been a great year for music, probably one of the best in recent memory, across many genres including Art Pop, Black Metal and Hip Hop.

Here, for me, are the best releases of the year (all rated at least 7/10):

LINGUA IGNOTA - Caligula (Neoclassical/Death Industrial)
clipping. - There Existed An Addiction to Blood (Hip Hop/Horrorcore)
Little Simz - Grey Area (Hip Hop)
Tyler, the Creator - Igor (Hip Hop)
Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising (Art Pop)
Leprous - Pitfalls (Art rock)
Tool - Fear Inoculum (Prog metal)
Opeth - In cauda venenum (Prog rock)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Ghosteen (Ambient pop)
Thom Yorke - Anima (Ambient pop)

Some HMs;
Danny Brown - uknowhatimsayin¿ (Hip Hop)
JPEGMAFIA - All My Heroes Are Cornballs (Hip Hop)
Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Bandana (Hip Hop)
Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell (Art pop)
Angel Olsen - All Mirrors (Art pop)
FKA Twigs - Magdalene (Art Pop)
Cult of Luna - A Dawn to Fear (Sludge Metal)
Litergy - H.A.Q.Q. (Black metal)
Mgla - Age of Excuse (Black metal)
Deathspell Omega - The Furnaces of Palingenesia (Black Metal)
Saor - Forgotten Paths (Black metal)
Alcest - Spiritual Instinct (Blackgaze)
Idle Hands - Mana (Heavy metal)
Dream Theater - Distance Over Time (Prog metal)

A few of the HMs need re-listening and I still need to check out Swans' Leaving Meaning. And no, Kanye West's Jesus is King was not great..

Semi-Finals Vote for the best! 

Alright the two match ups here are going to be:

It follows vs. IT:Chapter One




Bone Tomahawk vs. Hereditary

Vote in both! This will open for 24 hours, and then we will move to the finals! Have fun!

Yummy (2019) yup it certainly was for this trash lover!!

It was December 2018 when I heard the news that there that a horror project in my home country (Belgium) got the green light. Despite it's rather silly name "Yummy" the premise sounded cool to me immediately: hospital and zombies. Ok that didn't sound very original but somehow I had the hopes this movie might be old school. After all the hyped up stuff that year from Hereditary and Mandy (which were good in their own right but IMO also highly pretentious) it felt this one might actually appeal to me: simple story, gory, filthy and trashy. Sure there is spaltter movies still made but a lot of time they feel polished and over the top that it feels you are watching some busy cartoon. Not to mention that horror needs to be something more to be taken seriously. It needs to either be clever, be deep, send out a strong (political, social...) message, it needs to make one think or use your brain to solve the mystery (pay well attention to details or you might get lost), psychology and suggestion are more desirable than graphic horror, nudity must be kept to a bare (pun intended) minimum because we really want to PG 13 rating. Oh well I can go on and on... Oh yes and than there is the style over substance, arty farty brigade don't get me started on that lol.

After that announcement there was hardly any promotion done and it was only when I searched for some news at the start of this month (I was like hey wasn't this supposed to be released this month) that I found out the release was the 18th this month. The previous Belgian horror movie was not that long ago (to Belgian standards anyway where genres like drama, comedy, crime and in recent years thriller are the most popular in both movies and TV shows). That previous movie was '˜Welp' internationally known as '˜Cub' released in 2014. The premise of a killer on the loose in the woods where a group of boy scouts were camping sounded cool enough even though not very original either. However me not being a big fan of the slasher genre postponed it for a few years. When I saw it 2 years ago I was rather underwhelmed. The story started with a rather unlikable protagonist, one of the boy scouts was a loner, an outcast. Somehow he gets connected to that boy that cries at night in the woods. Is he human or a supernatural being. Some kills happen well I hardly remember how. The setting of the woods is great, the events and characters are not. The movie wants to be more than an ordinary slasher but in the end I wonder what it actually wanted to be. It felt a very unsatisfying experience. There had been quite a bit of talk before, after maybe too I don't know.

It remains to be seen how Yummy will eventually fare but I'm not getting my hopes up too high. The problem is that it needs to compete with the release of mega franchise Star Wars (part uhm who cares). When my mate and I entered the theater and took a look at the screen of seats available where the SW movie was playing it said 2. Where our movie was playing there was plenty of room. I looked around us when our movie was about to start and counted about 9 people. The good thing is we could enjoy the movie without noisy people. If the attendance will be that low at other theaters or other moments Belgium might have to wait longer than 5 years for another horror movie. And what other movies besides Star Wars, a Frozen sequel, an animated version of the Addams Family, another installment of Jumanji; To be expected: a new movie of Charlie's Angels, the Grudge, another sequel to Bad Boys, another Dolittle movie (ok not Dr. dolittle but it's about the animal doctor anyway). Gretel and Hansel did get my attention though in the promo vids shown before the movie started. Maybe that might be something interesting.

Enough introduction on to the movie. I did watch the trailer in advance and read an article of one of the male leads. It was going to low budget, there would not be CGI involved, no film sets, all locations were real. These were all encouraging elements. It had a very good feeling about it and yes I'm happy to say these expectations were confirmed. Would the camera not turn away at the penultimate moment or most of the graphic moments be censored by filming in the dark? Would the bloodshed be minimal and nudity be filmed in a tactical manner so one won't see anything of it? Nope nothing of that shit! Other points where this movie scored well in my book: the characters get minimal background, the build-up is half an hour max. We have a couple Michael and his fiancee Alison and the latter's mother Sylvia heading to a Polish hospital where plastic surgery is done. Why they won't do it in Belgium is not touched upon, but since in Poland everything is cheaper I guess there lies your answer. While Sylvia in her 50s will get various treatments to still look young, her daughter is there for a breast reduction. Having an F cup she is tired of the back problems she faces and the horny looks of the men. Actress Maaike Neuville has in real much smaller breasts so all the added weight in her bra must have been physically demanding. Neuville is a big name in Belgium just like Bart Hollanders playing the husband, Annick Christiaens as the mother, Clara Cleymans as the head nurse and Tom Audenaert as William a male patient. The latter is using a false name because of a TV celebrity rather would not want the world to know he had been treated for a penis enlargement. The penis well it will play a role later on in a painful yet pretty hilarious way; I'm sure Bry Bry will love this particular scene. No splatter where we see limbs flying around but some good old zombie munching like the latter scenes in Romero's Day of the Dead.

Anyway it's awesome that such names were prepared to do this. They really didn't act like divas not complaining about getting dirty with blood, the pretty high pace, going through real garbage and a smelly sewer. And they slept with several in a room, no luxurious hotel rooms. And yes there was time for humor sometimes silly situations SPOILERS AHEAD (for example Michael on the run for zombies stopping for a little snack from the machine) or predictable (the doctor feeling up Alison's huge chest saying I guess it's for a G cup?) sometimes less so by a painful situation. Humor and shock are sometimes came together like one of the surgeons who is bitten in his arm demands it to be amputated. When it takes too long as something goes wrong with the ax the paper shredder gives him an idea. Yup there are certainly a few creative ideas in there even in the gore department with intestines in particular.

Are there clichés like the car that won't start or the ones having sex that die for sure, the virgin that survives. No not at all. It's incredible that a modern movie actually manages to avoid these and still be a throwback to the good old days of graphical horror where trash actually looked filthy. There is hope for the trash lover but if the big public will swallow it with the same enthusiasm as I did, remains to be seen. If it however develops into a cult classic I will be more than happy. One thing is for sure director Lars Damoiseaux has the right heart for horror. A project made with love for the genre and I hope we will see more of him.

Blood Stalkers is coming out on Blu-ray

December 20 release date. Diabolik DVD says it's an all-region disc, but is that true? Only reason I'm asking is because House by the Lake and Drop Dead Fred were also both claimed to be all-region discs that would work on USA players. I got burned on both - both boxes clearly say PAL region B. The sellers flat out lied.

Silence Is Garbage



Did they really think no one would mind? Is this type of thing really OK, all of a sudden? You know what I'm talking about, right? Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2 and all it's shortcomings. Or one really long one. But hey! If one enjoys the first installment, is it really a flaw? Yeah, it's a flaw, but if you haven't seen it in a while, maybe it's not so bad. Yeah, most of the first 40 minutes of this sequel consists of flashbacks from the original which has it labeled a joke for all time. And rightfully so. That's actually pretty uncool to be honest, but this film is a joke for more reasons than the obvious. What about Eric Freeman? Clearly, this guy makes it all an even bigger joke. But one worthy of developing a following over time, which could be compared to that of The Room or Troll 2. Why? Cuz Freeman's acting was shit? Yeah, that, and several other things we'll get into today. However, we're in on the joke or we at least wish we were. Either way, it's garbage day!

Ricky has been in a foul mood as of late. You can tell by the look on his face. Or I guess that's just the way his face is, but one can easily assume Ricky isn't having the greatest day. Well, whatever his problem is, the fact that they won't let him leave the insane asylum doesn't help. Is Ricky insane? Does he belong here? Personally, I don't see how. Just because he's a big enough asshole to kill a bunch of people does not mean he's crazy... does it? No, not really, and just because his brother, Billy, would have ended up here, had he lived, does not mean this muscle-bound prick deserves the same special treatment. But yeah. This guy's older brother dressed up like Santa and killed a bunch of people years ago due to their parents being murdered by a bad guy. Said bad guy happened to be dressed as Santa, and, well, you know how it goes. Billy was scarred because he saw it all go down. Fine, but Ricky was practically a newborn, but here he is, not even pretending to be crazy, really. Still insisting he remembers the events of that night. It was never touched on, but I'm thinking Ricky must have gotten himself one hell of a Lawyer to end up in this place. Just my opinion.

Yeah, get the fuck out of here! This guy looks more like a smart ass rapist with a negative attitude than a psychotic killer, but ok. Today, Ricky is being forced to talk to a psychiatrist who is insisting Ricky tells his story. Oh, he does that, but first, he's going to spend literally the first half of the movie telling us Billy's story. Probably just to be a dick. And half the info he gives up are things he has no way of knowing because he was either too young or just plain not there. Ricky jerks us around for exactly 40 minutes on the dot, which I found odd. I'd say we got about 1/4 of the first movie in those 40 minutes, and I don't know really what else to say about it. It is what it is.

And finally, some flashbacks we haven't seen: After Billy was gunned down, Ricky went on to experience a seemingly normal childhood, getting adopted by a nice enough couple who aren't particularly fond of Christmas. Now that we're in the Ricky Flashbacks, somehow, it feels like we're still watching scenes from another movie, but maybe that's a good thing? A somewhat normal next few years for Ricky, but as he reaches adulthood, he gets it in his head more and more that it's ok to fuck people up if they more or less deserve it, or if there happens to be nearby violence already going on.

Ricky's girlfriend definitely didn't deserve it, but she pissed him off by not being happy about him killing her ex. And that's pretty much IT for Ricky. The girlfriend was all that was keeping him from reaching full-blown douchebag mode. Now that she's gone, we witness five of the most epic minutes in 80's Horror history. A scene that seems like the entire movie was leading up to, as Ricky goes on a little shooting spree, sarcastically screaming "Garbage Day!" at some guy before blowing him away. The actor then almost gets killed right in the middle of all this due to not getting out of the way of a car that flipped over, but that's neither here nor there. Ricky says a lot of funny shit, attempts suicide, fails, and here we are... And there Ricky goes! Escaped from the asylum just like that. Now hell bent on killing Mother Superior from the first movie because she was a dick to Billy. At least we finally have an idea as to where this movie is headed, though we're just about done here.

This is one of those rare bad ones that I started out hating, but ended up loving as I got a little older. You can't blame one for only noticing the obvious and hating the film for it. There is a lot to be said about all the other flaws which becomes more obvious with repeated viewings. Ultimately, this is just such a damn fine example of so bad it's good 80's Horror, it's not even funny. Eric Freeman does a spectacular job at being entertaining and nothing else, but that's all we really needed him for. This sequel is, for sure, a downgrade from the original, which is also cheesy in its own right, but a movie that can be taken far more seriously. While it IS hard to take this one half as seriously, think about this for a minute: What if there was no original? What if the Silent Night Deadly Night series began here? What if those flashbacks all belonged to this movie alone? Exactly! We would have one hell of an epic story on our hands that would be remembered as much more than the scene-stealing joke that it is. Perhaps that's all it would take for the nay sayers to give it a break and focus on what's really important, here... GARBAGE DAY!!! 5/10




#Review

Vote for the Best! Round 4

Okay since it's going to be super busy the next few days, I will go a head and put up round 4.

Halloween(2018) vs It(2017)

This will stay open until after Christmas

Vote for the best! Round 3

Okay, round two is still going on, but i am posting round 3:

Greenroom vs Bone Tomahawk.

Open until after Christmas! Once round 2 closes I will add the winner.

Advancing:
It Follows