Rate/comment on my recent haul, please

I haven't seen any of these.

Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Blood for Dracula (1974)
Count Dracula (1977)
Psychomania A.K.A The Death Wheelers (1973)
Def by Temptation (1990)
Wasting Away A.K.A Aaah! Zombies!! (2007)
Love at First Bite (1979)
Children of the Night (1991)
Dracula (1974)
The Dead Next Door (1989)
Ombre roventi A.K.A Shadow of Illusion (1970)

Books:

Vampire Legends in Contemporary American Culture: What Becomes a Legend Most
By William Patrick Day - I have read some of this and it is pretty good. It basically talks about vampire films through the decades. Good read!

Anyone seen any of these? What do you think?

Full Metal Alchemists

I'm not very into anime but I absolutely love this sersies. Just wondering if anyone else has watched it.

Rare or OOP Titles That You Own

What rare or OOP titles do you own?

Only one that I can really think of in my collection is the Unsolved Mysteries Ultimate Collection DVD boxset. Bought it for $80 about 8 years ago and now it's OOP and super expensive online.

Also, does anyone still own a VCR? I bought a used one cheap last year and have gotten back into the VHS swing a bit. Video stores were the shit back in the day, but too bad they're few and far between now.

Any good horror/porn films?

K, so I was watching Hardgore last night, which works best as an interesting oddity ~ the combination of hardcore porn, graphic violence and surrealism ~ but it's a pretty slow moving affair, with the energy of a sloth and the horror scenes, while decent, are spread far too thinly apart.

Are there any horror/porn hybrids that genuinely work as a horror film? I doubt it, since it seems the whole point of these films are the sex scenes, but they're often much too long and not even all that hot to begin with. I just want a good, nasty, violent horror film with hardcore pornography here and there. Is that too much to ask? Sheeeit.

Leatherface - Redband Trailer



It doesn't look too bad. I like how they're kind of taking things in a different direction, but I'm still iffy on the 1950s settings. We finally brought this series back to the present, and they throw it back in the past? 🙄

Haunted Houses

Haunted house movies can be extremely creepy and atmospheric when done right, the tension builds and builds, they grab you and don't let you go. They need to be precisely and brilliantly choreographed. They can also be a hell of a lot of fun. The haunted house sub-genre remains, quite possibly, my favorite of the genre. So here is the best haunted house flicks that I seen (rated 8 or higher) in order:

Don't Go to Sleep (1982 TV Movie): My favorite and perhaps the most overlooked film in this list. Surprisingly creepy and genuinely terrifying that possesses a thick atmosphere that you could almost drown in. If you have the chance to see it, see it. 9

Burnt Offerings (1976): Another fine and creepy haunted house outing that like, Don't Go to Sleep, is creepy and mesmerizing for all the right reasons. It starts of as a slow burner, building up to a chilling climax make this a must see horror film. This is a great creepy haunted house tale. 9

The Haunted (1991 TV Movie): Supposedly inspired by true events makes The Haunted even the more terriyfying if it wasn't already. So few horror films today truly terrify, so it's nice to finally be able to see one that sends shivers down my spine. 9

The Appointment (1981): At just 208 votes it is criminally overlooked. All set in the space of the day, the surreal masterpiece is completely gripping throughout, and well worth tracking down. 8

The Amityville Horror (1979): I realize that it has its detractors but I feel it has all the ingredients of what makes a good creepy haunted house flick. 8

The Shining (1980): Its reputation precedes itself and it remains the cornerstone of the sub-genre. 8

The Woman in Black (1989 TV Movie): Unforgettable and haunting film, with an atmosphere of brooding terror. An absolute masterpiece of chilling atmosphere. One of the most frightening ghost stories ever made. No other way to describe it. Everything about it works for me - the eerie and foggy setting, the character development. 8

The Innocents (1961): Creepy, claustrophobic in glorious black & white. It is equally elegant and stylish as it is eerie and atmospheric. Deborah Kerr is excellent here as the paranoid governess. It is the Citizen Kane of haunted house movies. iI also really like how the made, O Willow Waly sound creepy. 8

The Evil (1978): Like, Don't Go to Sleep, it is unfairly overlooked. It may not be that scary in comparsion to the others mentioned but it is delightfully entertaining all the same. 8

The Haunting (1963): Excellent psychological horror film by the magnificent director Robert Wise. It is a fairly minimalist story in that it does not have special effects or gore but nevertheless the camera angles and sounds more that make up for it - creating an eerie environment. 8

The Changeling (1980): Largely psychological in that it shows no gore, but it really succeeds a lot with the suspenseful atmosphere tied in with of course a great storytelling. 8

The Nesting (1981): A surprisingly creepy + entertaing haunted house movie for its rating (4.6) that I seen the other day. It is similar to The Evil in that is higly entertaining but never strays from its atmosphere.

We Are Still Here (2015): A solid, entertaining and creepy piece of atmospheric horror. The camera work is deliberate and interesting. It establishes the creepiness of the location very well indeed. Also, the demons/zombies/whatever were fairly scary looking too. 8

The Legend of Hell House (1973): a creepy and atmospheric horror movie with the basis of a good story of a haunted house. Also, the tecs such as lighting, make-up and camera work and whatever few special effects were used are top-notch. 8

Dark Places (1973): This obscure horror deals with how the house takes over the person. I would place this up there with the best of the British haunted house flicks IMO. 8


Other honourable mentions for me include: Night of Dark Shadows (1971), She Waits (1972 TV Movie), The Others (2001), Poltergeist (1982), The House That Would Not Die (1970 TV Movie), The Strange and Deadly Occurrence (1974 TV Movie), Rose Red (2002 Mini-Series)

It is all subjective but those are my favorite haunted house flicks.

What are some of your favorite haunted house movies?

Review: Mutants (2009)

Naturally, there are so many horror movies released each year that it's difficult to see them all. Subsequently, some great horror films have, and continue to, slip under the radar. Mutants is one of such movies. The breathtaking French countryside that serves as a background to a deadly virus that spreads through France, that turns its unfortunate victims into unstoppable flesh-eating mutants, but unlike other Zombie movies, it differs, in that it offers its victims the cruelty of hope - a long, slow and painful transformation (that can only be truly compared to that of I Zombie: The Chronicles of Pain and The Fly) to full-blown mutant, by means of loss of biological functions and decay - in the most terrible of ways.

The story centres around a deadly and terrifying infection that has transformed the majority of people into raging mutants. Marco (played by Francis Renaud) and Sonia (played by Hélène de Fougerolles) - (who both give wonderful performances) are a young couple, Sonia, is a medical professional and Marco is a paramedic, who are both eescaping the monsters and trying to fight their way to a military base. Marco himself becomes infected in an attack, leaving the pregnant Sonia, who must defend herself against one of these mutants - who is also the man she loves. She feels that Marco can be saved and she truly believes that she can cure him of the infection. She is fighting against time...

Mutants is claustrophobic, atmospheric and has tons of gore and blood, often disturbing and sickening, with scary looking mutants - but what do you expect from a Zombie flick? There is more to this movie than just blood and gore. The cinematography is stunning. For all its action packed sequences, reminiscent of The Walking Dead, this is effectively a love story, wrapped in a morality tale, inside an Zombie movie. It does, however, share similarities with other movies in this sub-genre, namely, Day of the Dead and 28 Days Later. That being said, it is fairly unique to the other movies, in that, it is psychological in nature, ultimately it is a unique inclusion, to an exhausted sub-genre. It certainly makes my Top Ten Zombie movies!

Abel Ferrara

I love this guy's work. I hate to to use the clichéd phrase, but I feel he is a tad underrated. I really like how his films have remarkable, gritty quality to them. The characters in his films, tend to be, for the most part, caught up in self-destructive patterns. He often collaborates with screenwriter Nicholas St.John, who is also very good IMO.

Anyway, instead of listing some of my favorites (because I kinda like all of his movies) I thought I would just rank them:

The Addiction
The Funeral
Bad Lieutenant
China Girl
King of New York
Body Snatchers
The Driller Killer
Ms .45

There are a fair few more I have to see yet.
**
Do you like his movies? What are you favorite(s) ?**

Something I would like to see more of in horror...

A little difficult to exactly explain but I'll give it a go. A sustained feeling of fundamental wrongness throughout a film. A sense that at no point are things quite safe or normal or happy and that things will only get worse and worse. Unrelenting, suffocating doom. The main example I have of a film that does this, the film that prompted it in fact, is Noroi. But the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre does a similar sort of thing. And otherwise films sometimes approach it, like The Blair Wtch Project or Candyman or earlier stages of Jacob's Ladder. But all too often there is levity, or clarity. The doom lifts. I want unlifting doom.

What are some horrors I should try out for unlifting doom?

Sean Penn....

Though he's a douche like Clooney for mixing his stardom with politics, there's no doubt he's one of the greatest actors of the past 30 years...thinking to myself I've come up with my favorite parts he's had, I've come up with this top 10 IMO.
Carlito's Way
At Close Range
Bad Boys
State of Grace
The Thin Red Line
U-Turn
The Falcon and the Snowman
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Colors
The Game

Any thoughts?