That is not dead which can eternal lie.
And with strange aeons even death may die.
#1
The Evil Dead (1981, Sam Raimi) (2nd+ viewing) 9/10 (from 6)
“What the hell was that? Are you trying to kill us?”
“Hey don’t blame me, it’s your steering wheel. The damn thing jerked right out of my hand."
“I don’t understand, I just had this thing in for a tune-up yesterday and they said they’d go over everything”
“Yeah, well you better get it back, since the damned thing don’t work. Only thing that does work is this lousy horn.”
The film never once pretends to side from the perspective of the human characters, we don’t see the world from their point of view. It’s a masterpiece in showing the humans as prey, who are -- since the very beginning -- stalked in their car from behind and around. Invisible forces are rushing in through the forests, eyes are exploiting every vulnerability, emergent bizarrities begin locking in, cornering, and invading their victims now trapped within an occult trap, a magical vortex, Their playground. And the film transports one to the numinous field.
“You mean no one’s seen this place yet?”
Thrill-O-Meter: 4 out of 10 car honks because it’s not "The Ultimate Experience In Grueling Terror" for nothing (although in a sense, out there, maybe Nothing is exactly how).
#2
Street Trash (1987, James M. Muro) 7/10
The mishaps and bumpy adventures of Brooklyn’s homeless alcoholics, in an environment saturated with ominous sonics and dissipating lethal substances, where chaos is bound to erupt at any given moment, nothing is devoid of complete absurdity, and no human interaction is without banter or clashing interests. There are junkyard aesthetics, whooshing camera movements, seething paint discharges, gas masks, graffiti, lots of liquor and dirt, so this is a real joy to watch. Moreover the opening sequence is among the finest I’ve seen this year
Thrill-O-Meter: 1 out of 10 screams for realistically creating a world of desperation and menace
Hilarit-E-Meter: 3 out of 10 laughs for -- nonetheless -- seeing sympathisable characters trying to keep up high spirits, participating in an atmosphere of glee, misconceptions, and farcicality
#3
Epidemic (1987, Lars von Trier) 6/10
SWAP:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4559
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 screams, although it was nice to see a psychotic break for a high-count screaming character within the film
#4
The Dead Don’t Die (2019, Jim Jarmusch) 6/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 screams
Hilarit-E-Meter: 2 out of 10 laughs
#5
カメラを止めるな! /
Don’t Stop the Camera! /
One Cut of the Dead (2017, Shinichirou Ueda) 3/10
This is so metafictional and boring it shouldn’t even count it (it’s basically like watching two daft DVD bonus content special features with awkward music), but since I expected this to be a horror-comedy prior to watching and ended up sitting through it anyway, I’ll just count it along, to be generous
Thrill-O-Meter: Nope
Hilarit-E-Meter: 0 out of 10 laughs
#6
The Happening (2008, M. Night Shyamalan) 7/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 4 out of 10 screams for an increasingly more intricate and intense (albeit somewhat oddly campy, urgent, cloying) depiction of societal disintegration/weirding and psychological breakdowns following a coiling wave of inexplicable mass suicide, and also because it’s a smart film presenting a provoking scenario, cultivating connections, influencing the weather
#7
Freaks (1932, Tod Browning) 6/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 screams
#8
Evil Dead II (1987, Sam Raimi) (2nd viewing) 8/10 (from 6)
Groovy.
Thrill-O-Meter: 1 out of 10 screams for undead matter metamorphoses, body dismemberments, grotesquely weird coordinated ‘unity-in-separation’, alien hand syndrome, psychological manipulations, and “dirty bastards” variably ridiculing frail humanity on a whim
#9
Army of Darkness (1992, Sam Raimi) (2nd viewing) 8/10 (from 6)
Groovy.
Thrill-O-Meter: 1 out of 10 screams for dark fantasy action with a manifold bestiary
#10
In the Tall Grass (2019, Vincenzo Natali) 7/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 1 out of 10 screams for an intensive voyage into alien topologies and curvatures of spacetime
#11
Menu Total (1986, Christoph Schlingensief) 4/10
SWAP:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4568
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 “MAAMAAAAAA”s, among a million other squealed words
Hilarit-E-Meter: 0 out of 10 laughs
#12
Student Bodies (1981, Michael Ritchie & Mickey Rose) 7/10
An entertaining compact dissection of the protocol-like tropes and rules operating the rhythms of slashers and a parody of all the American cultural wackiness corresponding to and reflected by slashers. The villain in the story is none other than the viewers themselves, reproducing the audience’s desires and logic. Kill count, “boobies”, suspect, eggplant, money, education, talking in class, “who would logically have access to the murder weapons”, “the chair”, social exclusion, the game, important plot point, rebellion, prom, … all these somehow mass appeal American cultural stocks, social investments, micro-intensive aspects of daily lives and fantasies. I don’t know, it’s such a bizarre world for me. This film gets that across and -- like, say, ‘South Park’, ‘The Simpsons’, the Coen bros. and ‘Freaks and Geeks’ I guess -- it’s elucidative and compelling. The ultimate perceptive fuck you. And perhaps this just shows regular genre slashers aren’t for me. Anyway, the film also holds sway perfectly on its own, it has many authentically original humorous threads on top of everything
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 screams
Hilarit-E-Meter: 5 out of 10 laughs
#13
Friday the 13th (1980, Sean S. Cunningham) 3/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 screams
#14
Scream (1996, Wes Craven) (2nd viewing) 6/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 screams
#15
Scre4m (2011, Wes Craven) 5/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 screams
#16
Frankenweenie (2012, Tim Burton) 6/10
Thrill-O-Meter: “The fear of loss is a path to the Dark Side. Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them, do not. Miss them, do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is. Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.”
#17
Nosferatu, Eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922, F.W. Murnau) (2nd viewing) (soundtrack: The Gerogerigegege - Hell Driver & Endless Humiliation) 7/10 (from 8)
„ Einen shönen hals hat Eure Frau . . . . . “
Thrill-O-Meter: 1 out of 10 screams for influentially nailing… I meant long nails -- claws and fangs
#18
The Fly (1986, David Cronenberg) (2nd viewing) 9/10
"when everything has been taken care of, when nothing can go wrong, or even surprise us . . . something will"
Thrill-O-Meter: 3 out of 10 cheeseburgers making computers crazy
#19
Treehouse of Horror VII (rewatch?),
VIII,
IX
#20
King Kong (1933, Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack) 6/10
Anyone got Mitchell Prettyplace’s definitive 18-volume study on the film or a number to the King Kong Kultists?
Thrill-O-Meter: “Yeah well, you know, he
did love her, folks.”
#21
In Fabric (2018, Peter Strickland) 5/10
Co to kurwa, Magiczne Drzewo for senile
chic textiles fanatics? Reminded me of ‘Perfume: The Story of a Murderer’ and department stores, which I don’t care about either
Thrill-O-Meter: What are you on about?
#22
Unsane (2018, Steven Soderbergh) 8/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 3 out of 10 screams
#23 shorts:
Courage the Cowardly Dog: A Night at the Katz Motel; Cajun Granny Stew (rewatch?)
L’Araignéléphant (1967, Piotr Kamler) 6/10
Labyrinthe (1970, Piotr Kamler) 6/10
From the Drain (1967, David Cronenberg) 2/10
#24
Trouble Every Day (2001, Claire Denis) (2nd viewing) 5/10
SWAP:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4575
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 brain slices
#25
Deanimated: The Invisible Ghost (2002, Martin Arnold) 8/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 1 out of 10 divisions by zero
#26
Les Documents Interdits (1989, Jean-Teddy Filippe) 6/10
“Those who have seen it can never come back. It’s the. . . . “
Thrill-O-Meter: [Voice-over: “The rest was erased for evermore”]
#27
ノロイ /
Noroi: The Curse (2005, Kōji Shiraishi) 6/10
Plays out like a structured argument of sorts, the mock-editor himself trying to imbue his material with suspense and foreshadowing. There are J-cuts, a take being stopped followed by a dramatic close-up within the still image, on-screen text, footage from a ‘TV variety program’, stuff like that setting it apart from the “raw” found footage films I’ve seen in the past, which spatially (and hence tonally) tend to be uniform. But the disjointedness here is methodical: events are arranged, evidence accumulated, the investigation leads somewhere deeper. It’s pretty long, slow-burning, and seemingly strategically includes tangential dead-ends (like ‘Zodiac’ for example), such that the viewers can properly savour the time it takes to chase clues, to piece disjointed information and mysteries together. It’s a fine film, but I didn’t feel it on any keen level
Thrill-O-Meter: 1 out of 10 ectoplasmic worms, since some represented particularities can create a sense of unease burrowing itself into my mind, hijacking it to start spinning film-unrelated reveries nonetheless first spurred by the film’s imagery or ideas
#28 shorts
Pièce Touchée (arnold 89) (short) (2nd viewing) 8/10
passage à l'acte (1993, Martin Arnold) (short) (2nd viewing) 8/10
Alone. Life Wastes Andy Hardy (1998, Martin Arnold) (short) 8/10
Poradnik Uśmiechu 1 - Jak skutecznie jabłko (2013, Wiktor Stribog) (short) 6/10
Poradnik Uśmiechu 2 - Jak zrobić z papieru (2014, Wiktor Stribog) (short) 6/10
#29
Dead of Night (1945, Cavalcanti, Crichton, Dearden, & Hamer) 8/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 2 out of 10 screams for being fucking awesome
#30
The Conjuring (2013, James Wan) 4/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 screams
#31
Anguish (1987, Bigas Luna) 7/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 1 out of 10 subjections to subliminal messages and mild hypnosis
#32
The Forest of Love (2019, Sion Sono) 8/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 2 out of 10 cigarette scars
#33
つぶろの殻 /
Tsuburo no gara (2004, Masafumi Yamada) 5/10
SWAP:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4584
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 clogs
#34 shorts
Lenore: The Cure Little Dead Girl (2002, Roman Dirge) (a couple eps.) 5/10
Elégia (1965, Zoltán Huszárik) 6/10
Oramunde (1933, Emlen Etting) 4/10
Tabeta Hito / The Person Who Is Eaten (1963, Nobuhiko Ôbayashi) 3/10
#35
Vargtimmen /
Hour of the Wolf (1968, Ingmar Bergman) (2nd viewing) 7/10 (from 5)
Thrill-O-Meter: 1 out of 10 endless nights
#36 shorts
Brouillard: Passage #14 (2013, Alexandre Larose) 8/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 3 out of 10 wandering sets
The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror XI
Ślepy tor (based on a short story by Stefan Grabiński) (1968, Ryszard Ber) (short) 6/10
#37
Night of the Living Dead (1968, George A. Romero) (2nd viewing) 6+/10
Among the coldest, most affectionless, starkest, and pioneering films. Excellent craftsmanship, but hopefully a third viewing will do more in terms of atmosphere
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 slow cannibalistic ghouls
#38
Inside (2007, Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo) 7/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 1 out of 10 newborn baby screams for a jolly bloody suspenseful Christmas eve
#1-100 21/09/2019 dream (2019, Carmel)
Thrill-O-Meter: 5 out of 10 screams for a TP:FWWM-like mesh
#39 shorts
The Exquisite Hour (1994, Phil Solomon) 6+/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 last hours of the
wolf giraffe
Lindemann - Ich weiß es nicht (2019, a GAN & Lukas Rudig) (twice)
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 introspections of a deepfake
Fragment of Seeking (1946, Curtis Harrington) 7/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 1 out of 10 dream corridors and doors
Poslední lup (1987, Jirí Barta) 6/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 Czech thou shalt not
steal or gamble in enter a dark old mansion
#40
La Novia Ensangrentada /
The Blood Spattered Bride (1972, Vicente Aranda) 7/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 screams for lesbo-vampiric emancipation from He who “spat inside your body to enslave you”
#41 shorts
The Twilight Zone: Perchance to Dream (1959, Robert Florey) 7/10
Thrill-O-Meter:
I see the spider moving along its web
Le Tempestaire (1947, Jean Epstein) 7/10
Thrill-O-Meter: «Je te salue, vieil océan!»
La fin de notre amour (2003, Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani) 7/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 3 out of 10 incisions
+ bonus faces
#42
Unfriended 2: Dark Web (2018, Stephen Susco) 6/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 screams
#43
Halloween (2007, Rob Zombie) 6/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 screams
#44
Halloween II (2009, Rob Zombie) 6/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 screams
#45
Eden Lake (2008, James Watkins) 4/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 screams
#46
地下幻燈劇画 少女椿 /
Midori (1992, Hiroshi Harada) 7/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 1 out of 10 screams
#47
The Dead Center (2018, Billy Senese) 6/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 screams
#48
怪談 /
Kwaidan (1964, Masaki Kobayashi) 6/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 0 out of 10 screams
#49
Иди и смотри /
Come and See (1985, Elem Klimov) 8/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 3 out of 10 screams
#50
Subconscious Cruelty (2000, Karim Hussain) 7/10
Thrill-O-Meter: 1 out of 10 screams
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