What was the last movie you saw?

Scream VI (2024) dir. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin/Tyler Gillett; starring Courtney Cox, Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega

Continuing on from Scream (2022), the sisters who survived that are in N. Y. City, Tara (Ortega) trying to get into college life, and Sam (Barrera) trying not to go insane while also protecting her sister and having a relationship with Danny (Josh Segarra). As in all of the Scream movies, there’s a group of young people, some of whom may be the killer, several of whom are likely to be victims, one of whom is an expert in horror/slasher films, and there’s many references to the Stab movies-within-the-movie. This time around one of the youngsters has a cop father, Detective Bailey (Dermot Mulroney) who is assigned what appears to be another Ghostface killing, and is aided by Kirby (Hayden Panettiere), a friendly FBI agent and survivor of an earlier Ghostface killer.

Samara Weaving shows up early on, and there’s a blink-and-miss-it call out to her Ready or Not character: A brief glimpse in a subway car of a blonde woman with her hair in a bun, wearing a wedding dress and bandoliers for a Halloween costume. So, it’s all very meta- and more entertaining than yet another in a franchise should be.

I think the reason this franchise keeps going while others sputter and peter out is that it’s only nominally horror: The bad guys are not supernatural, but twisted people (or occasionally caricatures of people) and so the foundation of the franchise is mystery/suspense punctuated with gore (and this one offers more of that than I recall from others).
 
The Nun (2018). Quite silly but watchable. For some reason set in Romania as an appropriately evil place.

The Hills Have Eyes (2006). It is some years since we went through a run of watching this kind of hillbilly/inbred mutant family horror. This one was more gory than I remembered but quite entertaining. It is set in an area of New Mexico where there was previously nuclear bomb testing (though filmed in Morocco).

The Woman in Black (2012). Ghostly horror with Daniel Radcliffe. Another watchable tale but a little slow.
 
Don't Move (2024)
A young woman grieving the loss of her son is kidnapped, and injected with a drug that paralyses her after 20 minutes. All she can do is move her eyes. A very good edge of your seat thriller that felt like a Dean Koonts novel
 
The Corpse Vanishes (1942) Dr. Lorenz (Bela Lugosi)'S wife needs transfusions from young women to keep aging away, so he begins killing young brides, sending his own coroner's wagon that arrives just minutes before the official one does. Not actually dead, but having been assumed dead, the victims are stashed away for future use.

Just over an hour. 7/10
 
Not a movie, but a TCM short, in which Greg Nicotero opens his talk about monster make-up, with about 5 minutes covering the Creature from the Black Lagoon, not so much the film, but the creature himself. Never seen some of this stuff before. Watched it twice.
 
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Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations (1938) & Olympia Part 2: Festival of Beauty (1938) Not much for sports, but I watched these in their entirety.

The 1936 Berlin Olympics as documented by Leni Riefenstahl. These films were among the 100 most significant political films, being shown Friday nights through November 1st. on TCM.

I was a bit surprised at the coverage of Jesse Owens, given the racism of the Nazi culture. Yet, the sportscaster always identified the black athletes as such.
 
Dana Andrews double feature

NIGHT OF THE DEMON - 1957

AIRPORT '75 - 1974 - Despite the absurd comedy bits and the singing nun who is hard to appreciate after the Airplane! version, the basic situation is pretty intense thanks to the convincing nervousness of Karen Black as the flight attendant forced to pilot the plane. Also Charlton Heston helps to sell the scenario by his authoritative dictates to her on how to fly. It is easy to take for granted but much of those moments are without even a window view to remind you that it is supposed to be in the air. This was the big season for disaster movies 50 years ago as Earthquake (also with Heston and George Kennedy) was released and then The Towering Inferno.
 
The Werewolf (1956)

Lycanthropy as a product of Mad Science instead of the supernatural. (There's a companion film from 1957 called The Vampire which I'd seen some time ago.) Has the mood of film noir, with the wolfman an ordinary guy on the run after a couple of doctors injected him with wolf serum after a car accident. (The crazy idea is to create a human being who can survive the nuclear apocalypse they expect to happen.) Treats the premise seriously, with the wolfman's wife and young son adding poignancy. Not bad at all.
 
Deadly Games (1982)

Woman gets killed by a masked intruder who pushes her out a window, so it might be seen as an accident or suicide. Sister comes home. Lots of time spent with the quirky chatterbox of a sister visiting old friends, etc., and not much time spent mourning.

Lots of adultery among the locals, so it's no big deal when the sister starts a romance with married cop on the case. Cop has a weird buddy who apparently lives in an old movie theater and who shows old horror movies. (We get scenes from The Monster Walks [1932].) They also play a board game which seems to be horror-related, although we learn very little about it. Cue romantic montage of all three of these characters doing stuff while a sappy song plays on the soundtrack.

After a lot of this, a couple of other folks get killed and we get our twist ending. A film not likely to satisfy either horror buffs or those looking for a character-driven drama, although it's trying to be both.
 
It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955)

Like The Werewolf, I should have seen this decades ago during my misspent youth, pursuing any film that might show up on my local version of Monster Chiller Horror Theater. If so, it is lost to memory.

Anyway, not much to say about this basic giant radioactive monster movie that hasn't already been noted by many. Great Ray Harryhausen effects. Giant octopus with only six tentacles. Lots of time wasted with romance between Navy Guy and Beautiful Lady Scientist. (Kudos to her fellow male scientist, who defends her expertise and bravery when Navy Guy treats her like someone to be protected.) Pretty dull when there isn't any monster action, although the documentary-style narrative tone helps a little. If you like this kind of stuff, it will satisfy you.
 
WORLD OF THE VAMPIRES - 1960 --Mexican film with a suave vampire who has a bunch of vampire women and goons in cheap rubber masks to carry out his plan for world domination. But first he has to kill the last descendant of his archenemy, Colman. He plans to get revenge by turning his daughters into vampires and he does it to one. He then has her bite a family friend who has a theory of destroying vampires by playing certain music on a piano. He starts to turn into a vampire himself (starting with his hand--which looks like a werewolf claw). The vampire also has a pit of stakes in his lair--not so smart it turns out. Kind of goofy but atmospheric.
The vampires when cornered make seagull sounds.


BLOOD AND BLACK LACE -1966 - Had planned to rewatch something else but it came up first so....
 
We watched Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. As with Bumblebee, I enjoyed this one more than the originals. However, Optimus Prime continues to be a most underwhelming leader/hero in these movies. I'm not sure if we will watch the ones with Mark Wahlberg, however my daughter says she wants to see Optimus Prime riding a dinosaur so we'll see. :giggle:
 
NIGHTMARE - 1964 - rewatch-- girl returns from a school after having bad dreams and continues to have strange visions.

THE UNNATURALS - 1969 - now I know i have seen this before and I had it saved as a file for some reason--and the thing had no English subtitles nor did it work properly so I gave up on it. Trying to understand why I had it there when I couldn't play it. It's unnatural.
 
Today I discovered that you can watch the whole of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari on Wikipedia.
 
Watched some of the classic horrors again this week.

The Exorcist (1973) (Writers Cut from 2000)
This film is a true masterclass. I often forget the opening scenes in Iraq. It is a brilliant way of creating a somewhat alien or uneasy feel without anything obviously bad happening. Which still works present day with many people still knowing little of this region. Then after this is the stages going through the doctors working on Rogan without success, and the family's frustration increasing. Before we get to the now more stereotypical exorcist phase. The extra scene at the end of the film also adds a positive spin looking forward compared to the theatrical version.

The Omen (1976) Another great film. I don't enjoy it quite as much as the Exorcist but again it has a great buildup. This one has the Middle East (Israel) featuring later in the film. A lot of tension in this one.

The Shining (1980). This one is a little different in that Jack Nicholson's character already has a somewhat dubious history so his descent to evil is not so shocking. Also a great actor if perhaps a bit over the top. But particularly the second half of the film is brilliant, other than they really don't need to show some of the visions/ghosts that they do. There are so many classic scenes and famous quotes in this film. Shelley Duvall really knew how to show extreme fear! Probably the genuine discomfort she had in filming "helped" with that.

All of these three films have a great child actor performance.
 
Victoria Silverwolf said:
The Werewolf (1956)

Lycanthropy as a product of Mad Science instead of the supernatural. (There's a companion film from 1957 called The Vampire which I'd seen some time ago.) Has the mood of film noir, with the wolfman an ordinary guy on the run after a couple of doctors injected him with wolf serum after a car accident. (The crazy idea is to create a human being who can survive the nuclear apocalypse they expect to happen.) Treats the premise seriously, with the wolfman's wife and young son adding poignancy. Not bad at all.
Click to expand...
I saw this! weird, as I recall.
 
Victoria Silverwolf said:
It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955)

Like The Werewolf, I should have seen this decades ago during my misspent youth, pursuing any film that might show up on my local version of Monster Chiller Horror Theater. If so, it is lost to memory.

Anyway, not much to say about this basic giant radioactive monster movie that hasn't already been noted by many. Great Ray Harryhausen effects. Giant octopus with only six tentacles. Lots of time wasted with romance between Navy Guy and Beautiful Lady Scientist. (Kudos to her fellow male scientist, who defends her expertise and bravery when Navy Guy treats her like someone to be protected.) Pretty dull when there isn't any monster action, although the documentary-style narrative tone helps a little. If you like this kind of stuff, it will satisfy you.
Click to expand...
The suckers on the tentacles were so large, it could not possibly catch anything smaller than a bull elephant!:LOL:
 
I watched for the nth time, Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows. I really am rather hazy on just what a producer does. I recall the disappointment of William Castle, in being denied the directorship of Rosemary's Baby, though he did produce it. Just what creative control does a producer have?

Lewton made so many wonderful films, without ever showing the creatures/monsters. What could he have done with Jaws?

Sadly, I missed my opportunity to re-watch any of his films this year, as my DVR's HDD is just too full. I suppose my favorite one is The Body Snatcher. Both Karloff & Lugosi are wonderful in that!
 
Finished off October with:

It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
followed by
The Devil Rides Out - 1967
and
Necromancy - 1972 which I had not seen before. It's not a good one for Orson Welles or Pamela Franklin.
 
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