Board 8 > 2023-24 Horror Topic: Executive Producer - Jason Blum

(+) Yeah! (+)

Departing Seniors watched. Fairly good offering. I like some of the characters here, the actors do a nice job of bringing them to life. For a shorter film I think they got the pacing right; often times with these films that don't even quite reach 90 minutes things can feel rushed but I never felt like they rushed any with this movie. The general concept for this film is that it's a horror-comedy style teen slasher at a high school; lots of homage was paid to Scream here, several times directly by names or references. The twist in this film is that the main character experiences an injury during the story that causes him to be able to see the future, partially. The only weaker part of this movie is probably the villain and the reveal because it's really easy to see and figure out. I think the movie knows this though so they attempt to paint two of the other characters as the potential killer but I never bought it for a second because how obvious it was who it was going to be. It's a solid lower B tier film though.

Really looking forward to Stopmotion. Luckily, our local theater picked it up at the last minute so we'll be seeing that tomorrow. Delightfully creepy looking movie from the trailer.

Really want to see Stopmotion as well but it's not playing around here, closest theater is like an hour away

I can't wait to watch Stopmotion!

What to say about Stopmotion...

I don't think I can find the words really. Try to see it ASAP, I think a lot of people that frequent in here will love it.

I won't be able to see it in theaters unfortunately. I'll have to wait to see it on some streaming thing. I was really excited to see it too.

Shame it didn't have a wider release. It'll probably contend for best horror film of the year with a lot of people, I imagine. It's early on obviously but it should definitely fit that niche of a film beloved by many, but also despised by others. I always get a little nervous when I see a sky high critics score on RT next to a very meh audience rating, but this time I feel like the critics are correct.

We watched something last night called Alice in Terrorland. Based on the title alone, I was sort of expecting a Blood and Honey style knockoff with that similar vibe it has, but this movie is actually not that at all. Not saying it's great either, but it's definitely never in your face or too over the top. Sometimes it doesn't make very much sense and all, because it is pretty short and some things are just glossed over. At the end, it's a pretty simple story with a "twist" you can see coming from miles away early on, but I give it credit for not just hamming it up ala Pooh.

And with that, we're at 20 films watched so far this year. And this is how I'd rank what I've seen so far:

S Tier:

1. Stopmotion

A Tier:

2. Lisa Frankenstein
3. Destroy All Neighbors
4. Somewhere Quiet
5. My Bloody Galentine
6. Double Blind

B Tier:

7. Founders Day
8. Out of Darkness
9. Laced
10. Departing Seniors
11. Last Night at Terrace Lanes

C Tier:

12. I.S.S.
13. The Windigo
14. Alice in Terrorland
15. Gods of the Deep
16. Project Dorothy

D Tier:

17. Night Swim
18. Punch
19. Skeletons in the Closet

F Tier:

20. They Turned Us Into Killers

It seems sort of on pace with last year for me. At this time last year, there was also one film I ranked as an "S" (M3GAN). A handful of pretty good indie films; the theatrical films are mostly fine. There have been some duds, though only one I'd rank as without any redeeming qualities whatsoever.

So I am once again recommending a show to watch. Constellation is on Apple TV and actually outstanding. It stars Noomi Rapace as an astronaut, and something hits their space station and forces them all to evacuate. She has to stay behind though, and she sees a lot of strange things happening. It's regarding some kind of experiment being run on there and a former astronaut and now researcher, played by Jonathan Banks, is in charge of that research. She eventually gets back onto Earth, but she's slowly losing it and she remembers things a lot differently.

It's not a full on horror, but it has a ton of horror elements. It's a big mystery that I think has been incredible at four episodes so far. There's some legit chilling stuff in this show. So if anyone wants to dare a TV show, I recommend it!

Speakng of horror-comedies...who here has seen the movie Deep Rising? I had been curious about it for a while and saw it on Disney+ last year. I swear it might have come out at one of the worst possible times for that kind of movie.

Yoooo this movie looks sick. Another A24 artsy horror.

https://twitter.com/A24/status/1762840076642627677?t=iMYy1zEJlx3g5Mzt3NTw2g&s=19

Not just another A24 horror movie but Jane Schoenbrun also directed We're All Going to the World's Fair. And LOOK at that musical line-up - so good. I'm so fucking excited for this.

Oh, I didn't like We're All Going to the World's Fair very much, but I at least appreciated what she wanted to do with it.

This looks like something that is much more what I would enjoy though!

Strongly recommend Lovely, Dark and Deep. New horror film from the writer of The Wind, which was a few years ago and had a video game developed by Airdorf to go along with it. It stars Georgina Campbell as well, so she's been pretty busy lately. The film is about a park ranger who gets a job in the rural wilderness of a national park; basically it's about people who go missing in the vast expanse of the parks and what happens to them. I really like the tension, acting, storytelling and there are some good scares and disturbing scenes mixed in too. This is another one where the critics seemed to have praised it but the audiences didn't like it; typically movies like that I lean with the audience score, but they're definitely wrong on this one in my opinion.

Trailer for The Strangers: Chapter 1 is out. It's literally just the same movie as the original. Lmao hope they surprise us but I dunno man.

They have three of these movies already filmed and ready, and they're actualizing the idea they intended to do for Fear Street, which is that they're releasing all three movies this year. I really don't know if this is the franchise to make this kind of idea succeed, but it should be interesting to follow.

https://youtu.be/3pZUQmZdOi4?si=r7yXnPqD6IM4ctWo

Honestly looks pretty decent even though yeah it's just the same thing again. But the original will always be one of my top favorites ever and it's just a concept that resonates with me. I wasn't even as hard on Prey at Night as most people. It's decent!

Watched two new films. Both were surprisingly sort of about the same type of subject matter: Guilt.

The first one we watched was Monolith. It stars Lily Sullivan of Evil Dead Rise. She's actually the only physical actor that you see in the entire movie. It's about a disgraced journalist that begins a new career as this sort of conspiracy podcaster, though at first her heart isn't really in it. It's definitely more along the lines of a slow burn horror, but I think the reveal is really worth it and it ties everything together really well. She's really great here, definitely a film that needs someone that can have enough presence to act by herself. It's another one of those films that critics seemed to praise and audiences especially disliked it for some reason. Again, I think this is one of those films people here should enjoy.

The other was Cellphone. Based on the title and synopsis, which is basically a woman suffering from the loss of her fiance sees weird images and her cellphone, I was pretty sure this would be hokey and awful. While this is not a great movie, it's far from terrible either I thought. Now it has some plotholes and by the end the cellphone part of the movie is kinda irrelevant and you're wondering how the protagonist is at all connected to the sequence they use to open the film, but it's alright enough. Mostly I'll forget this movie existed, if not for one specific character. One of the most bizarre characters in a horror movie I think I can recall. Genny said he was like an anime character who had somehow found his way into the wrong film, and yeah, I think that's the best way to describe this dude. If you ever watch this, you'll know who I'm talking about the first scene he's in.

Skeptical about new Strangers but I should get around to seeing Stopmotion

I didn't even care for the original Strangers, why would they try to make that into a franchise of all films?

Speaking of the Strangers I burst out laughing at this
https://twitter.com/HorrorLovesBeth/status/1765426455834460271

I know I've seen the original but I couldn't tell you anything much about it, I found it to be entirely forgettable. Prey at Night was easily one of the worst horror films of the year when it came out, only reason I remember that one better.

I really liked the segment in the original Strangers when the masked man walks in and just stares at Liv Tyler - no jump scare or anything - and the skipping record segment. the rest is kinda meh. it is funny that Glenn Howerton gets his head blown off.

Fun fact, my sister made the masks for us for the Halloween after it came out - I walked to our high school's football game with it on and security made me take it off cuz people were freaked out lol

jcgamer107 posted...

Fun fact, my sister made the masks for us for the Halloween after it came out - I walked to our high school's football game with it on and security made me take it off cuz people were freaked out lol

That's awesome lol

Anyone seeing Imaginary in theaters this weekend?

Yes, Friday.

I have no idea how this movie will turn out.

Doesn't seem like it's proved a hit with critics or audiences unfortunately. That's kinda sad, but I'll make my own judgement on Sunday I guess.

We watched our first anthology of the year last night called Midnight Peepshow. It's... a bit crass for my tastes. The overarching story is that of a businessman who has invested in this company which is essentially a dark web torture porn site. Each of the shorts that make up the film in large are closely connected, and really some of the stuff is a bit too much for me. I guess the concept itself was never going to hit a homerun with me, but it's well made enough for the most part I suppose. There are some oddities here and there but I wouldn't say this movie was "bad", just definitely not my cup of tea.

Was hoping for better since there were some good to great anthology films last year with VHS 85 and Satanic Hispanics.

The fiance backed out of watching Imaginary so I'll have to watch it on my own.

We ended up continuing to watch Constellation which is such a good show. It does such a good job with space dread bullshit and what we bring back from it.

Imaginary watched.

From what I've seen online, it seems a lot of people either are giving it a 1/5 or a 5/5 for some reason. It isn't that divisive of a film, at least not in my opinion. I'd say it's a good offering, certainly a heck of a lot better than Night Swim as far as Blumhouse is concerned. I think from a concept standpoint it's great, and the first half or so of the film does a great job with the ominous world building and subtle spooks tossed in. The knock I have on this movie is that it wants to tell too much of a story in a small amount of time. That forces it into an exposition dump at one point, and it's not something I found to have been very well done. The movie was at its best when it wasn't holding your hand and just letting you draw your own conclusions, because they aren't hard to make. One of the characters also has a drastic personality change around this same time, and it's kinda hard to ignore.

But ultimately I did enjoy my experience with it. It does a lot of things I like such as the trope of "you haven't escaped, you're just imaging you did". I really like when I see this trope, it's one of my favorites and I think it was set up nicely here. Not quite on The Descent level obviously, but again, I'm a sucker for this.. Monster design if good, of course, it's Blumhouse. Child actor is also really pretty good too. Solid B film for me.

I guess Kathryn Newton likes appearing in horror movies?

Yo, the new The First Omen trailer looks absolutely awesome. I thought the first trailer was great, but this new one has me completely sold. I absolutely didn't expect this to look as good as it does. Very excited for it.

Still kinda baffled at that and Immaculate coming out within weeks of each other.

Anyone here hear of Thorns?

It's playing at my local theater this weekend and I know nothing about it

Looks like it's playing here too, but only at Regals, which I try to avoid because I have an AMC membership and it's hard to drop that much money on one film.

There's also a limited release South Korean horror-sounding film coming out as well called Exhuma. The plot sounds pretty horror adjacent and related to me (not TO me), though it's billed as Thriller. Only two theaters nearby have it starting Friday.

https://deadline.com/2024/03/neve-campbell-scream-7-1235856220/

looks like they backed that truck full of money up to her front door

Came here to post that. I'm still unhappy with Spyglass though, they are unequivocally wrong. I'm torn on how to feel about one of my earliest character crushes returning and with Kevin Williamson at the director's chair too.

Eh.

I just don't know how to feel.

Oh spyglass is 100% trash. But they are in full panic mode to where they might still stumble face first into a good movie because of all this

Yeah, I'm pretty not thrilled, finally agreeing to pay the old star because they mistreated their new stars to the point it threatened to destroy the entire movie just feels so shady

like I guess I can't fault people for wanting a probably massive paycheck but I'm still a little disappointed Campbell and Williamson agreed to the project tbh

it's just such a shame, Scream has been legitimalely one of my favorite horror franchises

Wes Craven's turning in his grave that's all I know.

Watched a movie on VOD called Stranger in the Woods. It was pretty decent. It had a similar story to a lot of other movies we've seen recently, but it felt well produced and I thought the actors did a nice job. Essentially the film is what you might expect to get if you asked someone to make a horror movie and told them it had to be based on r/niceguys. There are so many things that happen in this movie that make you feel like you're listening to one of those videos of someone reading from the subreddit. There are a few nice touches though, Genny and I both liked that the black couple in this film were just eventually like, "Yeah, nah. We're leaving" and could not be coerced into staying and actually DID leave and survive just fine.

As for Thorns... I'll see it, eventually. Only Regal continues to carry it and I'm not gonna pay like $30 for us to go watch that. I like Doug Bradley and all, but the dude was in The Asylum's knockoff of the Exorcist last year and this film doesn't have very good review scores from what I've seen.

Big weekend for horror with Immaculate, Late Night With the Devil and Ghostbusters all coming out. Ghostbusters is pretty fringe horror for me, and admittedly I did not watch Afterlife so if we do plan on seeing it, I will definitely have to watch it before we go for that one. Tonight we're watching something called Sunrise; looks like a vampire movie featuring Guy Pearce

Want to see Late Night With the Devil so damn bad but of course it's not in my nearby theatre as usual

It is coming near me but I won't be around all next weekend so hopefully it actually lasts more than a week in theaters

Not really horror-related, but I saw The Towering Inferno for the first time this month (dad wanted to show it to the family so he purchased it for 4 on Prime Video) and Independence Day for the second time, then realized the former movie's director's next film was a King Kong remake and the latter's was a Godzilla remake. Nice coincidence! Honestly did not plan it out that way!

I'll save my thoughts on both movies for if someone wants to know since they aren't horror.

Lol The Poohniverse is somehow going to end up more successful than the Universal Dark Universe when that should have been a complete lay up.

https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1769741186179199309?t=K4C2JD_NZcoZErEAEWk9PA&s=19

This feels like a prank

I hope it is.

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

Lol The Poohniverse is somehow going to end up more successful than the Universal Dark Universe when that should have been a complete lay up.

https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1769741186179199309?t=K4C2JD_NZcoZErEAEWk9PA&s=19

Tbf the movies cost so little to make. Your comment also reminds me of how I once caught the Tom Cruise Mummy on TV and gave up 5 minutes in. And I watched the entirety of The Lost World: Jurassic Park under similar circumstances. And then I realize both those movies share a screenwriter, David Koepp. Quite an unlucky bastard.

Sunrise was... kinda underwhelming. I wanted to like it more but by the end I was just a little bored and confused by some of the plot points. It's a pretty slow-paced film, and it doesn't help that there are 3-4 flashback scenes that occur throughout the movie to tell you how the protagonist is related to the villain. I don't feel that aspect of it was done very well; gave it a really disjointed feeling. The acting is pretty good. But the writing and direction suffer a bit; it's not a difficult story to tell but for some reason I felt they made it out to be. There are tons of plotholes that made no sense to me as well, mostly all to do with the motives of certain characters. Pretty meh.

We also watched a Tubi original tonight released in January called Guess Who. Initially, this movie had a ton of stuff going for it and I was really liking it. It's based on this tradition I hadn't heard of before called "mummering", basically it's kinda like Halloween and Christmas together. You dress up so people don't know who you are, and you go door to door like caroling except you tell a riddle and people have to get it right to know who's under the mask. It's an interesting concept that lends itself well to horror, and to start out with there's a ton of promise. The film's first half or so sets an ominous atmosphere where you don't quite know what's going on; sadly I remarked that I hoped this film didn't turn into movies such as The Invitation, Ready or Not and Till Death Do Us Part just to name a few and sadly, that's exactly what happened. It really, really lessens the impact of this one for me because I've kinda seen too many like this before. Certainly these people are watching each other's movies right? Why does this movie keep getting made? Again, like 2 of those 3 movies I mentioned in those spoilers, it isn't a bad film (one of those 3 certainly was though). It's just not as good as it could have been if they hadn't gone this route; I had this one pegged a lot higher on my list through the first act or two.

https://youtu.be/4BVW7axwtQk?si=7AKFNF80_hrJQmoj

This seems to be getting rave reviews. A slasher movie from the slasher POV. This seems like a movie that should very easily end up bad.

Damn looks and sounds really fantastic. Kind of like Behind the Mask without the humor and mockumentary elements.