Lurker > v_charon

I both remember and don't remember Pet Semetary 2. My memories of it are super faint, my main memory is that I felt a lot like I did when I watched Mortal Kombat Annhilation; what the hell is this movie and what did they do in between the first and second films to make this so shit?

Watched Bad Things, another Shudder exclusive film from earlier this year. It's essentially a LGBT+ reimagination of The Shining. Unfortunately, it just doesn't do it very well. They kept the cast small but I still feel like I barely knew the characters despite character interaction being the driving force of this movie. It has a fleeting moment here and there where you think it might get interesting, but ultimately I found it to be a confusing mess that I couldn't make heads or tails of by the ending. Very little background is given about the hotel setting, they do very little with the otherworldly inhabitants of it also; even to go so far as sometimes just making you question whether they even exist at all or if these things are all in the heads of a couple of characters since only half of them actually see anything.

I will also say, and said as we watched this movie, a chainsaw is a really poor choice of a believable weapon for a small-framed woman. Not only is this is a heavy, unwieldy object but she murders two of her friends at the same time while they're together. Right after they do the horror trope of "I fell while I was being chased now I'm on my back watching my death, oh no!". Oh, and she murders them in a parking lot full of people at a strip mall. It's like... is that supposed to be a commentary about how society views queer people? If it is, the rest of the film never makes any allusions to trying to portray that message. I don't know; I feel bad for not liking this movie, but I just don't.

FNAF might be boring a bit, but voting for Pooh over it should be a crime.

Cocaine Bear is pretty easily the best though.

Kuja
Sephiroth
Marche
Auron
Basch

FNAF is apparently going to be the biggest horror opening of the year and shatter Halloween records as well. It doesn't deserve all that, but again, I don't find it to be that bad either. With it being PG-13... yeah, I mean it does definitely hamper the film a lot. But an important thing to remember is this: The games aren't particularly gory either. They rely mostly on jump scares, not on screen gore. It's not a surprise because Scott Cawthon is pretty Christian and wants to keep his game friendly enough for younger children to play or at least watch their favorite Youtubers play. It's not a surprise either that Cory was the one that made it into the film, because he too is upfront about his Christianity and probably the safest Youtuber there is. Much more so than taking a chance on putting Markiplier or PewDiePie in there anyway.

But yeah, I think people wanting the R rating are forgetting the series it's based on doesn't usually carry a M rating, in fact I'm not sure it ever has. Looking up the first and last game of the series, both carry a T rating.

Kefka
Ignis
Freya
Basch

S Tier: (100-95)

1. Scream VI
2. M3GAN
3. Talk to Me
4. Saw X
5. Evil Dead Rise
6. Totally Killer

A Tier: (94-85)

7. Re/Member
8. Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead
9. Influencer
10. The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
11. A Haunting in Venice
12. Satanic Hispanics
13. When Evil Lurks
14. Beau is Afraid
15. The Blackening
16. She Came From the Woods
17. Knock at the Cabin
18. Bunker
19. Birth/Rebirth
20. Cocaine Bear
21. Insidious: The Red Door
22. Final Cut
23. It Lives Inside
24. Appendage
25. Jagged Mind
26. Haunted Mansion
27. Renfield

B Tier (84-70)

28. 65
29. The Boogeyman
30. The Last Voyage of the Demeter
31. V/H/S/85
32. The Pope's Exorcist
33. Infinity Pool
34. Cobweb
35. Stalker
36. From Black
37. Inside
38. Nefarious
39. The Exorcist: Believer
40. The Nun II
41. Clock
42. Natty Knocks
43. The Ghost Within
44. Til Death Do Us Part
45. They Wait in the Dark

C Tier (69-50)

46. Huesera: The Bone Woman
47. There's Something Wrong With the Children
48. Malum
49. Bird Box Barcelona
50. Five Nights at Freddy's
51. Baby Ruby
52. Meg 2: The Trench
53. Kids vs. Aliens
54. Enys Men
55. Blood Flower
56. The Royal Hotel
57. You're Killing Me
58. Run Rabbit Run
59. The Strays
60. Consecration
61. Soul Mates
62. The Offering
63. No One Can Save You
64. Trinket Box
65. Spoonful of Sugar
66. Unwelcome
67. Hunt Her, Kill Her
68. Unseen
69. Don't Look Away

D Tier (49-30)

70. Elevator Game
71. The Black Demon
72. Leave
73. The Headmistress
74. Children of the Corn
75. Fear
76. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

F Tier (29-0)

77. The Outwaters
78. The Unseen
79. Skinamarink

New on List: Soul Mates, Elevator Game, V/H/S/85, Five Nights at Freddy's

Surprisingly enough, I was glad I watched VHS 85; really redeemed my faith in the series. I still think if you like these anthology style horrors, Satanic Hispanics is a lot better and more solid than VHS 85 is. If you liked this movie, I'd highly recommend looking into that one. That being said, I did really enjoy Dreamkill and No Wake/Ambrosia. If the other shorts were as good as these two, I'd maybe have a lot different overall opinion of this. I feel like TKNOGD was the weakest, and to be the overarching interlude theme, Total Copy was kinda just there and underwhelming to me, especially when put up against the two I liked a lot more. It just felt kinda predictable and a little boring; though I did like the guy who was basically pretending he was Robert Stack. It's a solid offering on the whole.

I personally did not think FNAF was garbage, but at the same time... what more can you really expect out of this movie. I'm in the camp of people that find FNAF to be highly overrated as a series of games, and really, I only find Security Breach to be in the realm of "a good game". The others really just get by on gimmicks and were massively assisted in becoming an iconic franchise by Let's Play Youtubers like Markiplier and PewDiePie... and yes, the seldom actually seen on his channel Cory Kenshin who of course makes his cameo in this. Despite the snide comment on his uploading, I am a fan and do enjoy seeing him here. I mean, it's a run of the mill horror movie that happens to have the FNAF animatronics in it, really. There are times when they are more involved but we really get a lot of exposition on Mike's background here, which I get a lot of the people who want to see Freddy and friends a lot more aren't going to like. But I think it's fine for what it is; it pays homage to what the franchise is, and it plays a lot like the games do. Mostly pretty safe, by the book stuff with a few bright moments that are too far and few between.

Squall
Laguna
Vincent
Vanille

It's hard for me to find much time for series considering the project I've undertaken. But I'll keep stuff in mind for sure. I do like horror series if I can get the time and get into them. I really enjoyed the first run of Penny Dreadful and The Haunting of Hill House when I watched them.

V/H/S 85 on the docket tonight.

Elevator Game was pretty eh.

When you create these urban myth horrors, or really any horror that features a "game" or has a set of rules, I think it's important that the ghost, demon or whatever it is should be bound to follow the said rules. It doesn't make for good writing if the entity can just say fuck it whenever it feels like it; unless it can find a loophole or something, then sure that's good but in this case I feel like this villain just did whatever they wanted to however they wanted to. I didn't really like any of the characters either; the acting was fine, the characters just weren't super likable for any real reason. Monster design is okay enough, but all in all a very run of the mill film.

Yes

Cloud
Lulu
Rikku
Rufus

Yeah, I got the impression that it's a very non-horror horror movie. It has just a few real like, actual horror elements to it. I appreciated it for what it was; like you said, the acting was fairly good here. We're going to be watching Elevator Game on Shudder tonight; has all the potential to be horrendous perhaps! Or it could just be run of the mill.

I liked You're Killing Me more when I first watched it. I think the more I thought about it, the more I could see some really obvious plotholes and "why not just ___"'s in it. I still think it's decent though.

Watched Nightmare Before Christmas last night, because how is Halloween complete without it?

Soul Mates tonight... left thoughts in the main topic.

Watched Soul Mates tonight.

Sigh...

ALL. MEN. ARE. BAD. I am so tired of this trope in horror. They let you believe for a long while that maybe, just maybe, Jason wasn't the villain and everything was legit but nah... of course not. I'm really burnt out on horrors that just can't have a strong male lead without either killing them or making them the twist villain the whole time. I feel like there's just so many films like this in the market. It's nothing new, I'm just a little burnt out with it.

I wouldn't say it was a bad movie, really. It's sort of like if someone watched Escape Room, Fear Factor and The Dating Game back to back and then came up with a movie plot based on them. It's sort of like that I think. The opening is a bit cold and you're thrown in really quickly, but they sort of settle the ship with the narrative, at least until the final act of the movie. It's nothing super offensive, other than really pushing my buttons as I delve more into in that spoiler block. But I think if I asked you what you thought this movie would be about and describe it, you probably could do it and be 75% or better without actually watching it. I just wished it had taken a few more chances and not adhered to a formula.

Vivi
Tifa
Fran
Yuna

Tidus - 10
Balthier - 8.5

Barret
Reno
Terra
Tidus

It's never a good sign when TI is your best actor.

Lightning
Ashe
Red XIII
Ardyn

I put Night of the Hunted on my list to watch of course; I would like to definitely knock out all of Shudder's 2023 releases before the end of this year. My main goal for my 2023 horror rankings projects is to finish the following:

1) All Major Theatrical releases (on pace, none missed)
2) All Limited Theatrical releases (going to need to rely on Amazon Prime for some of these)
3) All Netflix/Shudder films (this is going fairly well, still a little behind with Shudder but making dents thanks to the Roku box)
4) All Hulu/Prime available films (free with subscriptions)

Beyond that, I don't have a ton of hope I can get through the films available on Tubi. I added it on the Roku but we've yet to try it out yet. Of the films on there, I might see a couple worth checking out but a ton of them look really, really bad. There's also a host of films that are on Prime, but require a one time purchase. I'll probably look at some of these that strike my interest (a few limited theatricals are on here, as well as things like Devilreaux which have actors I like in them).

I know seeing them all is impossible now, but I think the goals I have are still somewhat possible at least.

S Tier: (100-95)

1. Scream VI
2. M3GAN
3. Talk to Me
4. Saw X
5. Evil Dead Rise
6. Totally Killer

A Tier: (94-85)

7. Re/Member
8. Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead
9. Influencer
10. The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
11. A Haunting in Venice
12. Satanic Hispanics
13. When Evil Lurks
14. Beau is Afraid
15. The Blackening
16. She Came From the Woods
17. Knock at the Cabin
18. Bunker
19. Birth/Rebirth
20. Cocaine Bear
21. Insidious: The Red Door
22. Final Cut
23. It Lives Inside
24. Appendage
25. Jagged Mind
26. Haunted Mansion
27. Renfield

B Tier (84-70)

28. 65
29. The Boogeyman
30. The Last Voyage of the Demeter
31. The Pope's Exorcist
32. Infinity Pool
33. Cobweb
34. Stalker
35. From Black
36. Inside
37. Nefarious
38. The Exorcist: Believer
39. The Nun II
40. Clock
41. Natty Knocks
42. The Ghost Within
43. Til Death Do Us Part
44. They Wait in the Dark

C Tier (69-50)

45. Huesera: The Bone Woman
46. There's Something Wrong With the Children
47. Malum
48. Bird Box Barcelona
49. Baby Ruby
50. Meg 2: The Trench
51. Kids vs. Aliens
52. Enys Men
53. Blood Flower
54. The Royal Hotel
55. You're Killing Me
56. Run Rabbit Run
57. The Strays
58. Consecration
59. The Offering
60. No One Can Save You
61. Trinket Box
62. Spoonful of Sugar
63. Unwelcome
64. Hunt Her, Kill Her
65. Unseen
66. Don't Look Away
67. The Black Demon

D Tier (49-30)

68. Leave
69. The Headmistress
70. Children of the Corn
71. Fear
72. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

F Tier (29-0)

73. The Outwaters
74. The Unseen
75. Skinamarink

New on list:

Totally Killer: More like totally killer... movie, right? A real treat. I debated whether or not to give the S rating to this one but ultimately decided it was worthy. Typically, I reserve a high score like that (especially when it comes to a slasher) for films that I feel can continue the story, or create a new horror icon like I feel M3GAN did. While I don't think the Sweet Sixteen Killer quite will be on that level, I did enjoy this movie a lot. It's listed as a "horror comedy" but that's pretty debatable; it's a horror film a lot like Scream in that in might have some comedic elements here and there, but it's never heavy-handed with them. This still comes across as a high quality teen slasher to me. I enjoyed the supporting cast here too, surprisingly. They were often really charming even though they are almost just tropes and stereotypes, it's just acted and written so brilliantly. I loved what they did with the killer near the end, no spoilers obviously. A must see for 2023 for sure.

Clock: This movie has some pretty horrific and grotesque moments scattered in, and is combined with a pretty competent story about the societal pressures that are put on women to further the species. The film will often leave you guessing and unsure what is real, what is imagined and who you can ultimately trust. There's really only one scene where it's easy to predict what has actually happened, which is a little disappointing, but I think this movie does pretty good with what it's given.

Baby Ruby: We decided to continue the theme of childbirth by watching a movie about postpartum depression right after watching a horror film about getting pregnant. This one is quite psychological in nature, and in fact there are no supernatural elements as the film would have led you to believe at times; this is all in the head of the main character and depicts just how frightening postpartum depression can really be. Ultimately it isn't quite as exciting as Clock and is more of a slow burn sort of styled horror, but I still enjoyed my time with it more than I did not.

Delita
Cissnei
Wiegraf
Cecil

Watched Hulu's Clock tonight. It was fairly good psychological horror with some nice scares tossed in to boot; interesting premise. I'll probably post more thoughts on it when I do a list repost, probably after watching another movie tomorrow night.

Edgar
Cid
Kain
Balthier

Marche actually winning is wild.

I had a ton of issues with it. I guess I'll speak pretty openly about it since it's a fairly older movie at this point.

I think my main issues stem from how the main character is presented. She's able to coldly murder a heroic drifter who saved a man from drowning at the risk of his own life, but for some reason she starts to feel bad because she lured a deformed virgin to his demise? Then she decides she wants to become human (I'm making assumptions here since the film has a great lack of dialogue to confirm it), but she's unable to consume human food. She presumably starts to develop actual feelings of attachment to a man, but they are unable to copulate because of the... well, skin suit.

Where I'm going is that now she's sexually assaulted by a trucker and by slaying her, he's sort of like the hero of the day? It almost felt like glorifying a rapist, and I can't get why they'd go with that. Maybe at this point we're supposed to actually like the protagonist, but again, she murdered innocent people. Yeah some were horndogs but that isn't a crime; she lured each and every one of the men to their deaths on purpose and once the man wasn't even really interested in sex or with her. So I'm still not really caring about her just because she finally felt guilty and then tried to love someone; by me still viewing her as a villain, I have to look at this sleazy sexual offender as the hero who finally vanquished the monster. Just yuck.

Hopefully tonight's film will be better; it will be Clock, on Hulu.

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

You'll either like it or hate it.

Yeaaaah...

the latter for sure.

Marche
Seifer
Emet-Selch
Auron

More votes needed

A24 has released some of their films back into theaters on limited runs. We never got to see Under the Skin, so we're going to check that out tonight rather than focusing on one of the films from the current year. Not even sure this movie qualifies as horror, seems more like science fiction.

Totally Killer was awesome.

Kuja
Jecht
Sephiroth
Locke

Very nice.

S Tier: (100-95)

1. Scream VI
2. M3GAN
3. Talk to Me
4. Saw X
5. Evil Dead Rise

A Tier: (94-85)

6. Re/Member
7. Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead
8. Influencer
9. The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
10. A Haunting in Venice
11. Satanic Hispanics
12. When Evil Lurks
13. Beau is Afraid
14. The Blackening
15. She Came From the Woods
16. Knock at the Cabin
17. Bunker
18. Birth/Rebirth
19. Cocaine Bear
20. Insidious: The Red Door
21. Final Cut
22. It Lives Inside
23. Appendage
24. Jagged Mind
25. Haunted Mansion
26. Renfield

B Tier (84-70)

27. 65
28. The Boogeyman
29. The Last Voyage of the Demeter
30. The Pope's Exorcist
31. Infinity Pool
32. Cobweb
33. Stalker
34. From Black
35. Inside
36. Nefarious
37. The Exorcist: Believer
38. The Nun II
39. Natty Knocks
40. The Ghost Within
41. Til Death Do Us Part
42. They Wait in the Dark

C Tier (69-50)

43. Huesera: The Bone Woman
44. There's Something Wrong With the Children
45. Malum
46. Bird Box Barcelona
47. Meg 2: The Trench
48. Kids vs. Aliens
49. Enys Men
50. Blood Flower
51. The Royal Hotel
52. You're Killing Me
53. Run Rabbit Run
54. The Strays
55. Consecration
56. The Offering
57. No One Can Save You
58. Trinket Box
59. Spoonful of Sugar
60. Unwelcome
61. Hunt Her, Kill Her
62. Unseen
63. Don't Look Away
64. The Black Demon

D Tier (49-30)

65. Leave
66. The Headmistress
67. Children of the Corn
68. Fear
69. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

F Tier (29-0)

70. The Outwaters
71. The Unseen
72. Skinamarink

New on the list: The Unseen, Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead and Blood Flower

Blood Flower is a Malaysian horror film available on Shudder. I haven't seen very many Asian horror films outside of ones from Japan, so checking this out was pretty interesting. I didn't realize at first this was a foreign film as I didn't closely check the synopsis. You kinda get thrown right into this one. It's pretty gory, which I'm not sure I was expecting from a Malaysian film. I guess I don't know enough about the country but yeah, this one pulled very few punches with its subject matter and how it displayed it. It's serviceable enough for sure, I will say I just never really connected with the characters that much and at times the main monster could look a little bit hokey, but overall it wasn't a bad experience at all.

Cool, curious to see your thoughts on it! I'm trying to decide on tonight's film still... think it's going to be Blood Flower on Shudder.

Yuffie
Freya
Basch
Zidane

mnk posted...

@v_charon is that official or fan art of Leon?

Official. It's from the FF trading card game. Artwork is by Toshitaka Matsuda.

Zom 100 was, thankfully, super enjoyable and charming. I really love these Japanese horror films that include a little slice of life style content, it's pretty unique since it isn't usually a feature of Western horror films. It really makes you care about the characters on a more personal level and goes a long way in selling the film itself as a whole. I haven't watched the anime or the manga that this is based on, but if they're similar I imagine they'd be great.

There are a lot of silly moments throughout this one but again, I just found the whole thing to be so charming and the characters so likable. A great one to end the day on after that steaming pile from earlier.

No

Kefka
Garland
Agrias
Steiner
Red Mage

There are no words.

The Unseen is one of the worst films I've ever seen. I really didn't think I'd run across something that would be F tier the rest of the year given how much I hated Outwaters and Skinamarink but this is just...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emFPMGAR4Cg

Now Skinamarink is still worse because it was 100 minutes straight of staring at walls and grainy screens but really, one of the worst written, acted and directed films ever. The plot is so disjointed, the dialogue is so cringy and every character in the movie has a complete lack of continuity. What a huge disappoint, holy shit I can't get over how bad this movie was.

We're going to be watching that other Unseen movie on Prime today just to say we watched those back to back, and then later going to check out Netflix's live action version of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead.

I noticed The Puppetman. Might see it later this month, we'll see.

Zack
Vincent
Red Mage
Blank

S Tier: (100-95)

1. Scream VI
2. M3GAN
3. Talk to Me
4. Saw X
5. Evil Dead Rise

A Tier: (94-85)

6. Re/Member
7. Influencer
8. The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
9. A Haunting in Venice
10. Satanic Hispanics
11. When Evil Lurks
12. Beau is Afraid
13. The Blackening
14. She Came From the Woods
15. Knock at the Cabin
16. Bunker
17. Birth/Rebirth
18. Cocaine Bear
19. Insidious: The Red Door
20. Final Cut
21. It Lives Inside
22. Appendage
23. Jagged Mind
24. Haunted Mansion
25. Renfield

B Tier (84-70)

26. 65
27. The Boogeyman
28. The Last Voyage of the Demeter
29. The Pope's Exorcist
30. Infinity Pool
31. Cobweb
32. Stalker
33. From Black
34. Inside
35. Nefarious
36. The Exorcist: Believer
37. The Nun II
38. Natty Knocks
39. The Ghost Within
40. Til Death Do Us Part
41. They Wait in the Dark

C Tier (69-50)

42. Huesera: The Bone Woman
43. There's Something Wrong With the Children
44. Malum
45. Bird Box Barcelona
46. Meg 2: The Trench
47. Kids vs. Aliens
48. Enys Men
49. The Royal Hotel
50. You're Killing Me
51. Run Rabbit Run
52. The Strays
53. Consecration
54. The Offering
55. No One Can Save You
56. Trinket Box
57. Spoonful of Sugar
58. Unwelcome
59. Hunt Her, Kill Her
60. Unseen
61. Don't Look Away
62. The Black Demon

D Tier (49-30)

63. Leave
64. The Headmistress
65. Children of the Corn
66. Fear
67. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

F Tier (29-0)

68. The Outwaters
69. Skinamarink

New Entrants: Influencer, The Royal Hotel, Unseen

I've given my thoughts on the other two. Kinda fell behind our progression a little bit this week due to unaligned schedules, will have to make up for it at a later date I guess. Tonight we watched Unseen (included with Prime). Not The Unseen, which is apparently a different movie, yet another horror from 2023 somehow. This movie's premise is that a woman is abducted by her ex-boyfriend and held hostage, and she has extremely poor vision without her glasses which are of course promptly broken early on. She manages to escape from him and dial a random number on her phone, which was broken by a fall. The random number was a wrong number call she received earlier, and it happens to be our other main character, a gas station employee, who has to help her escape from her ex by guiding her through a video call.

Premise wise... it's interesting. But the movie gets off to a really jarring start from me with some bizarre editing decisions. I guess it's to create a stylized film, but it never quite sat well with me. I was sure this would have to go into my D tier films but the narrative managed to turn it around during the middle part of the film and once they stopped with all the crazy editing. It's still not a particularly good movie, a lot of goofy stuff, but I wasn't offended by it (which I have to be to go below a 50 score overall).

I've noticed, personally, of course. I think you chose a couple of different images a few times but since I redid so many of those images recently they stand out in my mind. Was glad to see you making use of them!

Just wait until Rufus hits that Rebirth boost.

guffguy89 posted...

LoL, I just took the photos from vcharon's guantlet. Honestly, the original photo looks like a random chocobo from FFX. If it makes you feel any better, I don't think any chocobo is beating Squall. Let me see if I can edit the image though with the one you provided.

Yeah, I haven't played the series and researching that is kinda hard online when you have no frame of reference to what "Chocobo" looks like. I'll be updating the images in the gauntlet with this one here, thanks mnk.

Squall
Estinien
Edward
Braska