Horror Movie Talk

In this episode we finally learn what happened “that night” with Liv and the Red Room.

This is the final episode of the series, and it focuses on the Red Room and how everyone finally escapes the pull of the dreaded Hill House.

Rosemary’s Baby is probably in the top ten most influential horror movies ever made. It prays on the rational and irrational fears of something truly universal, pregnancy. This movie is controversial, well-done, and important.

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Synopsis

Rosemary’s Baby is the story of Rosemary, a seriously delusional and paranoid woman who is impregnated and kept safe by her loving husband, and caring neighbors. She gives birth to a totally normal baby and all is well. 

Actually, Rosemary’s Baby is kind of the inverse of everything I just said. Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and her husband Guy (John Cassavetes) move into a new apartment in New York City, and are immediately greeted by super-nosey neighbors, Minnie (Ruth Gordon) and Roman (Sidney Blackmer). 

Small hints of things not being normal are dropped continuously throughout, but the young couple decide to try and have a child. 

Their neighbors, the Castevets, offer a bit too much help for comfort, even in the friendly age of the 60’s with everything from advice to daily vitamin shakes for the newly pregnant Rosemary.

Her entire life seems to become supplanted by offerings and suggestions made by the neighbors and enforced by Guy, her actor husband. 

Guy has come into a bit of good luck as the understudy for a play, but it’s because of the misfortune of the lead of the pla (obviously). 

As the gaslighting of Rosemary progresses, the audience knows that something is up, but it’s hard to read too much malice into it until the end.

Review

Rosemary’s Baby is one of the most influential films of the 60’s and is a masterpiece of storytelling and suspense. Direction and screenplay by Roman Polanski, it’s just as horrific and perverted as him.

Everything about this film is wonderful, but the casting, acting, and story is really what makes this movie shine. It’s not full of the most artistic shots, and it’s as slow as they come, especially for today.

Perhaps the real triumph here is the effort that goes into stringing the viewer along. There are tons of little clues and nudges that we receive as we make our way through this sometimes innocent, sometimes diabolical journey that poor Rosemary is forced to endure.

It’s always interesting to see movies that tap into our most innate fears, and what could be a more natural minefield for worry than a mother’s journey through pregnancy?

Rosemary’s Baby takes the little flap of cuticle and peels it all the way up to the elbow. It was clearly the inspiration for many movies and moviemakers since. While watching this, I kept drawing parallels with Hereditary.

Watching this movie is like scaling Mount Everest – it’s a slow and dangerous journey, but the view from the top is second to none. 

Score

10/10

Final Recommendations

This is one of the easiest recommendations I have ever made. Everyone except, or maybe especially those who are pregnant or are trying to become pregnant should see this movie.

At long last, and after much misunderstanding, we turn to the 1984 cult classic (at least in Sweden apparently) Rats: Night of Terror. We did it. It’s done. Let’s never talk of it again.

Rats can be found on streaming platforms for rent now.

Synopsis

A tribe of rats called the Jellicles must decide yearly which one will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new Jellicle life.

Oh wait that’s not right.

Rats is about a post nuclear apocalyptic world in which all vegetation is destroyed and humans are separated in to two factions, one above ground and one below. This has little to nothing to do with the actual plot of this movie, but the filmmakers thought it important that you know this. 

Rats is really about killer rats. That’s it.

Review of Rats: Night of Terror

Rats is bad. Sure it can be argued that it is so bad it’s good, and there are many times that I can point to where I laughed that the ridiculousness of certain scenes, but when it comes down to it, it’s a bad movie.

What makes it worse is that we were forced to watch it, which in essence makes this a school book report. No one likes reading books for a book report.

It took me about 2.5 hours to watch a 1.5 hour long movie, because I had to just take a break from the boredom every couple minutes. The worst part about Rats is the snails pace in which anything happens.

Even if you are looking for a gory exploitation horror film, this one falls short. Most rat attacks just look like a bunch of dead rats being dumped on someone, proceeded by the victim lazily rolling around among some lazy and disinterested rats.

Score

1/10

Rats

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Friday the 13th Part 2 is the continuation and borderline recreation of the first part in the franchise. 

The old proverb, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” rings so true in this sequel that I’m not even mad that I watched the same movie all over again. 

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There were new counselors at Camp Blood, er, I mean Camp Crystal Lake and damnit, they had to pay! They never seem to learn, and that’s what I love about kids these days. 

Synopsis

Friday the 13th Part 2 picks up the reins from the first movie and just does it all over again. 

Holy moly, come to think of it as this episode of Horror Movie Talk releases, Friday the 13th is in just 2 days! Part 2, 2 days, coincidence?

There is a new camp in town around Crystal Lake, and wow, it looks pretty much just like the camp from the first movie. The driveway, the doom prophet, the buildings, the boobs, it’s all the same.

Two things have changed – there is a new group of campers and a new killer. Our last killer, Mrs. Voorhees, was killed by beheading while seeking vengeance for her son Jason, who died due to (in her eyes) negligent camp counselors.  

This time around we get to learn a bit more about Jason, and what makes him tick.

Review

While Friday the 13th Part 2 doesn’t do much to add anything new to the story, it does give us Jason, and to be honest, that’s enough for me. 

I can’t quite pin down the difference in my opinion between Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees, but they are the two least complicated and most iconic slasher baddies. I can say, I tend to prefer Jason. I’m not sure why.

Maybe it’s the super distilled execution of the script – Horny youth must die. Maybe it’s the unapologetic grab at quick cash – Horny youth pay to see horny youth while horny. Maybe it’s the, well, that’s probably enough.

This is a paint by numbers slasher, but it was released only a year after arguably the first honest-to-goodness modern slasher, and that was the original Friday the 13th. So, whatever. It’s still the basis for most slashers to this day and it’s maybe the most engaging of the bunch that I have seen with the exception of meta slashers, like Scream

Score

6/10

In which we apologize for an egregious recent error on our part.

We watched Bats on Tubi because Magnus, our Swedish super-fan has been clamoring for it for months. Our fans have united behind Magnus and demanded that we review Bats, and I have to say, I get it! It was a fun movie with a decent but goofy premise and some B-list actors that you will definitely remember from the 90’s!

Synopsis

Bats is about, you guessed it, killer bats. These bats have been genetically tampered with and now have a taste for blood. 

This small town in Texas has been hit hard with this new strain of genetically modified bats, and our small team of bats biologists and police need to get it under control before they spread across the continent in exactly the same way that real life scientists told us killer bees would take over in the 90s. 

Eventually, the military is called in and everyone gets more bats than they bargained for.

Review 

Bats is a very stereotypical creature feature from a time when Jurassic Park, Gremlins, and Anaconda were big hits. There was a formula, and if you stuck to it, generally speaking, it paid off. 

In this instance, they stuck to the formula but it didn’t pay off, and I’m not totally sure why. Is Bats an undeniably great movie? No. Does it deserve the kind of ire that it drew from critics at the time? Maybe a little bit, but I would argue, no.

Bats had me laughing more than a few times, and it definitely left me wondering why I had never heard of this made-for-cable movie.

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I was never left totally amazed but I had a good enough time. I think the reason this movie got waylaid the way it did was because it was released on the tail-end of a totally fucked-out concept.

By the time Bats was released, everyone was tired of this super generic creature feature  kind of movie because it had been done to death. 

I think if it had been released in 92 instead of 99 we would all remember this movie fondly, instead of never having heard of it at all. 

Score

5/10

Final Recommendations

If you like fun, campy 90’s creature features, this is totally that kind of thing. Is it good? No. Does it make sense? Yeah, pretty much. It’s mostly a good time and a laugh.

We rented Trick ‘r Treat, and it’s Pulp Fiction for horror fans. This episode we are joined with my wife and discuss some of the recent one-star reviews we have gotten. The salt flows, and then we play a new game “Sense and Stabability”.

Trick ‘r Treat can be found on streaming platforms for rent now.

Synopsis

This movie reminds children of their worst fear during Halloween. Bryan Singer!

Trick ‘r Treat is an anthology film set during Halloween in suburban Ohio. Seven short stories are loosely interwoven with each other in a non-linear narrative to tell the dangers of eschewing Halloween traditions. Wearing costumes, giving out candy, and lighting Jack-o-lanterns are all a part of ancient traditions whose purpose are long forgotten, but are made… kind of apparent in this movie.

Review of Trick ‘r Treat

Trick ‘r Treat basically accomplishes in one movie what John Carpenter wanted to do with the Halloween franchise when they made Season of the Witch. That is, telling an assortment of spooky tales set during Halloween. 

The seven stories told throughout the film are of varying quality and complexity, but the non-linear narrative structure keeps the audience engaged and never dwells on one story long enough to bore the audience. Most of the stories do little in the way of set up, and prefer to jump right to the good scary part.

It’s a decent film that deserves to be on the rotation during the Halloween season.

Score

6/10

Trick ‘r Treat

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We saw Possessor Uncut, which is a new flick released in 2020, and wow, what a disturbing masterpiece. This came highly recommended to us by our hard-fucking artist, Dustin Goebel, and I was not let down. 

Synopsis

Possessor Uncut follows Tasya (Andrea Riseborough), who is the most incredible mercenary for hire ever. 

She works for a secret organization that uses brain-implant tech to put her consciousness into the bodies of people who can get close to important people – aka targets. Her job is to inhabit the consciousness of strangers, take control of their body, and use their body to assassinate people for, presumably, very rich corporations and clients.

As we follow Tasya, we learn that she is the best at what she does, but also that there seems to be a time-limit on how long you can possess others before there is a danger that you can lose yourself in the process.

As the movie progresses, we get a real look into what makes us empathetic humans, and the real ramifications of our actions if we let our moral compass slip for too long. 

Review

Possessor Uncut is directed by Brandon Cronenberg and is more than just an interesting concept, it’s the complete package.

Tremendous effort has gone into setting the dark/sad mood, and Possessor Uncut presents some very fucked up ideas into what seems like a not-so-distant, real future.

The acting and film-craft is stellar, but the imagery and ideas in this movie are so much more depraved than even the most intense gore-porn entry, because it seems like we aren’t far off from this being a potential reality.

There were parts in this movie where I actually covered my eyes because I was fearful that I would see something that I couldn’t unsee. 

This is definitely an artistic film, but it doesn’t hang its hat on the art. It really stands on the concept that it presents, which is the loss of privacy, and the danger of losing control of one’s self. Our inherent lean toward the voyueristic can result in the loss of self, and that may be the scariest and most insidious thing I can imagine. 

Score

10/10

Final Recommendation

If you like disturbing ideas and visuals, it doesn’t get a lot more crazy than this unless you are talking about the fringe-type movies like A Serbian Film or I Spit on Your Grave. This is a well-made movie with some incredible concepts, watch it.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch is available for rent at your local Blockbuster Video.

What do you think of, when you think of the horror franchise Halloween?

Ok, What do you think of when you think of witches?

Well none of that is in this movie.

Halloween 3: Season of the Witch is a mystery wrapped in a riddle wrapped in an enigma inside a dumpster fire.

Synopsis

A murder/suicide at a hospital sets off the attending doctor to investigate the crime. Stuff happens that involves the Irish, Stonehenge, Halloween Masks, laser technology that turns heads into rotten bug/snake infested fruit, and robots.

Review of Halloween 3

I hear a lot of talk about how Halloween 3 is a underrated gem, and that the backlash of fans expecting Michael Myers skewed the opinion of this film. The reality is, the critics got it right the first time. This film is not underrated. It is rated. It’s bad.

A series of poor decisions, and I assume plentiful cocaine led to this mess of a movie. The characters in this film are all the type of one dimensional fodder of slasher films.

Instead of entertaining the audience with frequent kills and chases, Season of the Witch tries to weave a complex mystery to sustain interest. However, instead of an intriguing mystery, we get a wacky mad libs plot of completely incongruous and random concepts. 

Score

2/10

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

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For a better time, check out Halloween II (1981) or the original, Halloween.