Recent Movies You Saw

[VideoGameCritic]

Well I saw the new Nosferatu (2024) last night. I'm a fan of filmmaker Roger Eggers (loved The Witch and The Lighthouse) but this one fell flat.

The actors are great and the cinematography is off the charts, but the story itself just flounders for 2 and a half hours. The vampire Orlock isn't scary at all and neither was his castle for that matter. Lily-Rose Depp is probably the scariest thing in this, playing a possessed girl.

This movie is just overwrought. I think that fact that Eggers has wanted to make it for so long accounts for his lack of restraint. If they had hired an editor I'm pretty sure they could have chopped a good hour off of this.

[Zack Burner]

Well I saw the new Nosferatu (2024) last night. I'm a fan of filmmaker Roger Eggers (loved The Witch and The Lighthouse) but this one fell flat.

The actors are great and the cinematography is off the charts, but the story itself just flounders for 2 and a half hours. The vampire Orlock isn't scary at all and neither was his castle for that matter. Lily-Rose Depp is probably the scariest thing in this, playing a possessed girl.

This movie is just overwrought. I think that fact that Eggers has wanted to make it for so long accounts for his lack of restraint. If they had hired an editor I'm pretty sure they could have chopped a good hour off of this.

Nothing can beat the eerieness of the 1920's classic! Before Bela Lugosi's Dracula Count Orlock managed to bring audiences real chills, especially those shadow scenes!

[BlasteroidAli]

Well I saw the new Nosferatu (2024) last night. I'm a fan of filmmaker Roger Eggers (loved The Witch and The Lighthouse) but this one fell flat.

The actors are great and the cinematography is off the charts, but the story itself just flounders for 2 and a half hours. The vampire Orlock isn't scary at all and neither was his castle for that matter. Lily-Rose Depp is probably the scariest thing in this, playing a possessed girl.

This movie is just overwrought. I think that fact that Eggers has wanted to make it for so long accounts for his lack of restraint. If they had hired an editor I'm pretty sure they could have chopped a good hour off of this.

I watched it twice at the cinema. Thought it was great. Just the right length.

[VideoGameCritic]

Rewatched House of the Dead (2003) the other night. When it was first released, this was kind of a joke. It was a low-budget video game movie directed by the infamous Uwe Boll. But after years of watching random low-grade horror movies on Prime and Netflix, this is starting to look like Citizen Kane.

The story doesn't make sense and the dialog is awful. The attempts at "humor" (guy throws up on girlfriend) are sophomoric at best.

BUT. This film has a lot of cool set pieces, like the rave, house, and that cool fishing boat. There's a lot of over-the-top fighting and shooting. The way they weave scenes from the game into the movie are awkward, but at least they tried. The babe factor is off-the-charts. That Asian chick dressed in red/white/blue is just amazing.

[Zack Burner]

Kwaidan (Japan 1964/5 translation - Ghost Stories) 4 cultural, eerie tales adapted from the work "Kaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things". Black Hair - a samurai tired of his life of poverty leaves his wife for service and marriage with another woman, though he longs for his first wife and after he completes his service after a few years, he returns home, embraces his wife, only to get a shocking surprise the next morning. The Woman of the Snow - a Woodcutter's apprentice gets greeted during one cold night by a mysterious woman white skin and kimono who freezes to death his master, but spares his life on the condition that he not tell anyone about her. Can he keep his promise? Hoichi the Earless - a blind travelling musician is greeted by the spirits of those who fought in a battle long ago and is asked to sing about the epic night after night, but what are the spirits really up to? In a Cup of Tea - a writer keeps getting visions of a strange man in his cup of tea, what could these signs mean? While eerie, you get the scope of why author Lafcadio Hearn was intrigued by the Land of the Rising Sun.

Quite long (3 hours) and hard to find but worth it. To save anyone the trouble if anyone's interested....:
https://archive.org/details/kwaidan_202103

[Zack Burner]

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - the famous mockumentary of 3 young filmmakers deciding to do a documentary of a Blair Witch in the woods out in some small town out in Maryland. After interviewing the locals, they decide to experience all the hysteria behind it head on out in the wilderness with no one else to aid them, and strictly holding camping gear and cameras. Things go terribly wrong out there, they see creepy effigies, something attacks their tent in the dead of the night, and then one goes missing and someone leaves behind a gruesome package, that ultimately leads to a (seemingly) deserted house only for the trio to end up dead. We never see the evil they are seeking (or is it the other way around?), yet its enough to chill the blood. It's not without its flaws though, the trio do some pretty irrational things like kicking the map down the creek or arguing amongst themselves. Other than that this is definitely worth the look.

[Zack Burner]

Celebrating its 40th anniversary "Day of the Dead" (1985) the final installment in George Romero's Dead Trilogy, and its safe to say this is the weakest entry in the trilogy. While it has its moments, it lacks the razor sharp social commentary of "Night" and the artistry and fun of "Dawn". Spending the majority of the film inside of a bunker, it becomes more human vs human than human vs zombie. The characters here are not as sympathetic or interesting as the ones in the previous entries save for Sarah, Bill, and John, especially the last one, who comes with an interesting speech about the situation, though he's no Ben or Peter. The "protectors" which are the militarists turn out to be cold, self-aggrandizing scumbags who hubristically think they know what's "right". The angle of the intelligent zombie Bub at least is one of the saving factors especially at the end. Overall, not recommended unless you're a die-hard Dead fan.

[Stalvern]

Quite long (3 hours) and hard to find but worth it. To save anyone the trouble if anyone's interested....:
https://archive.org/details/kwaidan_202103

Thanks for the link. I need to watch this when I have the time.

Celebrating its 40th anniversary "Day of the Dead" (1985) the final installment in George Romero's Dead Trilogy, and its safe to say this is the weakest entry in the trilogy.

I thought the bad guys were ridiculous in this – and not in a good way, which could have been the case in a comedy – but just about made up for by how fun the obsessive scientist and the "rehabilitated" zombie were. On the other hand, even the good guys spend most of the movie just yelling at each other (which is also what I hated about The Blair Witch Project).

[matmico399]

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - the famous mockumentary of 3 young filmmakers deciding to do a documentary of a Blair Witch in the woods out in some small town out in Maryland. After interviewing the locals, they decide to experience all the hysteria behind it head on out in the wilderness with no one else to aid them, and strictly holding camping gear and cameras. Things go terribly wrong out there, they see creepy effigies, something attacks their tent in the dead of the night, and then one goes missing and someone leaves behind a gruesome package, that ultimately leads to a (seemingly) deserted house only for the trio to end up dead. We never see the evil they are seeking (or is it the other way around?), yet its enough to chill the blood. It's not without its flaws though, the trio do some pretty irrational things like kicking the map down the creek or arguing amongst themselves. Other than that this is definitely worth the look.

That's one of those luv/hate films. I saw it in the theater back in the late 90s. I'm a huge fan.

[VideoGameCritic]

So I saw The Blair Witch Project on opening night in Baltimore's Charles Theater, and at this time people didn't know if it was real or not. The internet/college advertising campaign was pure genius. Suffice to say, after that "ending" you could hear a pin drop in the theater.

Not only would I not go camping after that; I didn't want to go down into my own basement!