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Post by grubl on Mar 30, 2010 20:28:21 GMT -5
Okay. You got me so goddamned excited that I ordered DARKTOWN STRUTTERS on Amazon. It better not suck. Speaking of the blaxploitation films of the '70s, have you guys checked out ACROSS 110th ST (I guess that's a ridiculous question)?
AND... What is this fascination with the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET films. Goofy schlock. I haven't been scared at the movies since the original HALLOWEEN.
You want to get scared, try these (the originals, of course):
CARNIVAL OF SOULS
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
ROSEMARY'S BABY
THE OMEN
THE EXORCIST
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE
THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT
CARRIE
Those are scary fucking movies.
Also, Hendrix actually did end up opening for The Monkees on several US dates.
And since you seem adverse my request to look at the BILLY JACK series, how about THE PLANET OF THE APES? A couple of my foundest memories from childhood were seeing the first two at the drive-in. When looked at closely, all 5 of the originals, the cartoon, the live action series and the remake can actually co-exist as a single continuitywithout contradicting eachother.
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Post by Derrick on Mar 30, 2010 23:57:37 GMT -5
DARKTOWN STRUTTERS does not suck. Of course, YMMV.
Our fascination with NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET comes from me since next to the PHANTASM movies it's the only horror movie film franchise I can stomach.
And I agree that all of the movies on your list are scary except for THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Moly Hoses, that takes the prize as the stupidest movie I've ever seen.
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Post by grubl on Mar 31, 2010 0:14:13 GMT -5
I don't know. My friends and I were covering our eyes and screaming when we saw TEXAS CHAINSAW. We were really scared.
What is YMMV? I don't know internet lingo at all.
You know what scared the shit out of me as a kid? Two things that deprived me of months of sleep:
The pilot episode of GHOST STORY (a short lived anthology series that I have heard one of you guys reference) and the dream sequence from PAPILLON, I still can't watch that part ("You're...dead.").
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Post by james on Mar 31, 2010 9:32:57 GMT -5
Our fascination with NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET comes from me since next to the PHANTASM movies it's the only horror movie film franchise I can stomach. And I agree that all of the movies on your list are scary except for THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Moly Hoses, that takes the prize as the stupidest movie I've ever seen. I'm with you on Nightmare, Derrick. I love the first one (although it's hampered by an improvised ending Craven had to cook up when the budget on the film was slashed), and the fourth (an early Renny Harlin film) is visually striking. And Part 2 is oddly fascinating, for (probably) unintentional reasons. Texas on the other hand... I don't know, I don't find it stupid at all (except for maybe the final chase sequence). I think it's a film of its time and place (America in the final days of the Vietnam conflict, with a dying industrial manufacturing economy). Maybe as much by accident as by design on the part of Tobe Hooper, but there are some good ideas there. YMMV = your mileage may vary |
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Post by james on Mar 31, 2010 16:28:24 GMT -5
DS is tenatively scheduled for broadcast on TCM at 2:00 AM EST, on Friday, June 18th.
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Post by Derrick on Apr 1, 2010 19:44:16 GMT -5
Texas on the other hand... I don't know, I don't find it stupid at all (except for maybe the final chase sequence). I think it's a film of its time and place (America in the final days of the Vietnam conflict, with a dying industrial manufacturing economy). Maybe as much by accident as by design on the part of Tobe Hooper, but there are some good ideas there. To each his own and that's one of the fun things about doing something like BiTD: we get a chance to hash out why we like certain movies and why we don't. I dunno...I just don't get the logic of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. To me, you go taking your behind into backwood country where you have no way to get help you kinda deserve what you get. I went to see this movie on 42end Street and my friends asked me to go sit somewhere else as I was laughing uproariously as I honest thought the movie was a spoof/satire of horror films. And I think we can write TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE as a fluke since as far as I know, Tobe Hooper never again directed a movie that came anywhere near the success of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. I know, I know, somebody is going to bring up POLTERGEIST but I'm firmly convinced Steven Spielberg directed that movie. |
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Post by james on Apr 1, 2010 20:15:38 GMT -5
Tobe Hooper - I really like his 1981 movie The Funhouse. It's probably the only post-Halloween slasher I really like, although it isn't exactly a slasher, either (it was made to cash in on the success of Carpenter's film, though). I plead ignorance on the Poltergeist issue. I've read plenty about it, arguments for both sides, and all I can say is that I wasn't there on set. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Part 2 is also very good, and this time, it's supposed to be funny (it's a black comedy).
I recorded Hooper's follow-up to Texas Chainsaw, a movie titled Eaten Alive, from IFC around last Halloween. It has its moments, but on a certain level it gets wrong what the former did right. Hooper tries to build up the same tense atmosphere of building dread, but the movie lacks focus and it gets repetitive and draggy. According to one Michael Weldon's Psychotronic books, Eaten Alive went into theaters with five different titles over the years.
If you ever wonder what happened to William Finley after the played the Phantom of the Paradise, he's in both Eaten Alive and The Funhouse.
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Post by james on Apr 2, 2010 9:58:49 GMT -5
Oh, there's one other Tobe Hooper film I really like. His television adaptation of Salem's Lot. The "let me in" sequence gave me nightmares as a kid.
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Post by grubl on Apr 2, 2010 15:41:24 GMT -5
I agree on SALEM'S LOT. Very eerie. I don't care which one directed Poltergiest, it's a complete piece of shit.
Speilberg has moments of visual brilliance, but none of his films hold up entirely, with the possible exceptions being JAWS (although those then forgivable moments of hokiness became a recurring pattern in later work), CLOSE ENCOUNTERS and the first 2 Indiana Jones films. The first 20 minutes of RYAN was fantastic, then it turns to crap. SCHINDLER, as well, was great in terms of recreating the ghetto massacre, but was subverted by the dialogue. Fuck Speilberg! Fuck the academy!
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