When I first saw it I didn't like it, but it's so different to the original that it's best judged independently of it. And looked at like that I quite like it. It's just a shame that by taking that name it'll never escape the comparison. The producers made that decision so they can hardly complain about the consequences, but then they'd probably argue that if they hadn't done it as a remake it would've probably gone straight to DVD without a theatrical release. And maybe not even been made at all.

Shame cos its not a bad film, especially if you ignore that it's a remake. As is so often the case.

Dracula with Bela Lugosi. It's very funny in 2016. Can't wait to see the Zucker brothers parody of it.

The original Evil Dead.

I love bits of it but Lugosi always comes across as a slightly creepy head waiter.

yeah my big problem with him in this movie is that he acts like in a silent movie. like that lady in 'sunset boulevard" ha ha ha. norma... something.

also it was too much like filmed theatre, not just the way the lines were delivered (by everyone, which points the finger at the director), but too many wide shots and very little film language proper. compare to fritz lang in the same era.

tod browning would go on to make the amazing FREAKS though, so all is forgiven.

i love the way the set was lit. except for the hilarious spotlights on dracula's eyes, i though the lighting people did a bangup job creating a spooky atmosphere in both dracula's castle and the sanatorium's balcony.

--

last night watched half of MULHOLLAND DRIVE. it's really great but i was tired and had to turn it off. will pick it up tonight, but this morning it's REANIMATOR.

since there is no futbol.

btw did you watch italy/spain? great 2nd half.

Agree about Dracula.
It's based on a stage production which helps explain the general staginess of it all. The scenes in the castle are its saving grace, done by Karl Freund, who funnily enough worked a lot with Lang. So it's a key film regarding Hollywood's absorption of German Expressionism, but by no means the best.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh.....

this all makes sense--thanks for that info-- i had no idea

i mentioned lang because the first that came to mind as contrast was spies which makes such great use of closeups and cutaway shots as opposed to this. the germans were closer grammatically to the soviets i suppose.

anyway-- reanimator was a lot of fun!

i might watch zombies in the snow next... what's the name of it... DEAD SNOW. bhaa haaa haaa.

for later the rest of mulholland drive and probably HIGH TENSION. which is presumably a sexy slasher if i go by the cover.

I always thought of dead snow as a kind of modern evil dead, the sequel maybe even more so.

Hated the evil dead remake. Can't remember why, it was more ghosts and less possessed demon types?! The memory is wine-enised..either way, it was awful and took a massive dump on everything that made the original great.

Cannot wait for that new Blair witch. I wonder if there's not much action like the the original. Then people can discuss it likewise and say it's rubbish because of a perceived lack of action so then I can call them out on their lack of imagination thus them obviously being a massive fucking idiot. Well nay good, there's apparently action going down so i'll have to find another excuse.

Hard to talk about before you've seen it without massive spoilers but I'd be really interested to see what you make of it, especially the ending.

I'm excited to see it but prepared to be let down. Unfortunately most films are made to cater for idiots now. Horror used to be an alternative to all that but it's now one of the worst offenders. It's all about merchandise now. Mugs in HMV, sold to mugs in HMV.

I buy my horror mugs from Ebay thanks.

Saw this recently which wasn't, awful.

 

Just look at that Shaun Of The Dead font style and placement above the title trying to make the movie look like a spin off of Shaun Of The Dead. Horrendous genius marketing.

i have only seen the original evil dead but yeah it's the same template! remote location, wake up the old evil, etc, and even the ending is similar

dead snow is more fun (action) and more spectacular -- has better budget and also better looking people ha ha. also some really funny moments.

i liked it a lot. it was going good, and when the twist was revealed it really freaked me out!

eta: i watched the original french version, director's cut, not the american release or any dubbed or recut version. just straight-up original french.

I absolutely loved it till the twist, then I was like, "fuck right off". I'll give it the benefit of the doubt on plot points that sort of make sense if you accept everything's just Marie's twisted version of events (even those she's not actually present at) but it felt cheap, unnecessary and ultimately spoilt for me what till then was a fantastic movie. I felt as duped as I would have had Alex woken up to discover it was all just a bad dream.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

see, as a 'murrican, i was mystified that an old fat man with a 3" razor could wreak so much havoc in a multi-person household plus a dog, unopposed. that was all along the vaguely implausible part to me.

so all along we're trying to figure out why she acts so stupid and how can it all go so wrong and why things don't make sense and what we'd do in case of a home invasion (i mean, tales of horror are some kind of mental vaccine)

so while it's all gory and shit we're basically saying-- that dude comes to my house, i'm the one with the shotgun and he doesn't last 10 seconds. and stuff like what a shit friend that hides and does nothing, it's too late for the phone etc etc.

so i'm like-- this is your basic serial killer, but he's maybe only scary in france where people think of the phone as their salvation whereas in my rural environs people have signs outside their ranches saying "we don't dial 911" and "trespassers will be shot" and shit like that. so, creepy guy, but quite manageable in real circumstances.

but then-- no! it's the fucking houseguest! uaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! aaaaaaaaaaa! no more house guests in my place ha ha ha ha.

so for me it worked on that level-- exploiting the fear of trust rather than the fear of poorly armed old fat serial killers having their way with defenseless elois.

i never took the film seriously as a reality, in the sense that i was watching for thrills and willing to accept any nonsense without questioning it. i had just watched nazi zombies come out of the snow earlier that day anyway ha ha ha. so it actually got way creepier for me with the multiple personality angle.

[eta: but i can totally see how it can be superfrustrating when you're invested in the storyline in a sort of ripley vs alien way]

END SPOILERS

speaking of dreams, and things like that-- MULHOLLAND DRIVE! every time i watch it i like it more-- started from near zero and now i find it really really good.

Thing is I wasn't invested in the storyline until the twist forced me to start thinking about it. The film tried to be too clever for its own good.

Anyway, a film that definitely wasn't trying to show off, and all the better for it:



Tarantula

50s square-jawed awesomeness.

that looks cool. i'm going vintage again today but a different direction

-mario bava's BLACK SUNDAY (i've heard you mention bava a lot but have never seen his stuff yet i think)

-CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON special edition DVD

i'll also be braising some beef tongue for added horror, ha ha ha ha.

internet crapped out so i watched black lagoon instead-- first time ever

one thing that really pissed me off with this "special edition" bullshit is that they broke the aspect ratio to make it fit a wide screen. so it looks like the whole frames are there, just anamorphically distorted in fatvision. who the fuck is the tetra-moron who makes these decisions??

same thing they did with dracula btw. which did not help.

fuckers.