Gonna do something unusual for me and recommend a mainstream, PG-13 horror movie. Had heard good things about Ouija: Origin of Evil and it just started playing on Cinemax so I figured I'd check it out. Mike Flanagan has made some decent horror flicks, and with this he's managed to make a prequel that surpasses the original by a long shot. The acting is solid, with top honors going to the younger actress, there are only a few "stupid" actions by characters, and there's tons of effective creepiness, especially in the first hour. Once the possession happens we delve into some cliches, but overall it's a solid little scare-fest. The films takes place in 1967 and there's some fun touches the director added to make it appear like that's when the movie was made.
Interesting - I thought Ouija: Origin of Evil was one of the most boring things I ever watched in a movie theater. Zero original ideas. Zero scares (ok, on scare, pretty early on). The story did not make much sense if I recall correctly. Also, why blow the budget to set it in the 70s?
It actually takes place in 1967. Regardless, as I always say, when it comes to horror to each their own.
Thanks for letting us know, @Lttr Prssd . I've been curious about that one. Not sure if it's available on any steaming paysite yet, but if you want to watch a unique take on the mermaid mythos strung within the daily life of an aging local club band (giving this film one of the best original movie soundtrack scores in a long time), find and watch this joyfully bizarre Polish drama - The Lure (2015) / Córki Dancingu (original title). I guess it'd also fall under being a musical, but if so, it's one of a very small teeny tiny amount of musicals that I enjoy and want the music from.
^ Ah! I just put a link up elsewhere for the upcoming Criterion release of this picture. Haven't had the pleasure yet, but your endorsement has me even more enthused about having a look.
The Lure looks C-R-A-Z-Y good. There's nothing I didn't enjoy about that trailer. Need to check that one out real soon. So The Devil's Candy is a pretty intense 80 minutes of metal and mayhem. Don't go in expecting much in the way of character development or deep social commentary; it's a quick, brutal ride. I'm not a big metal-head or anything but the music really worked here. And Pruitt Taylor Vance was mesmerizing in a horrific way. The House on Willow Street also popped up on the ol' 'Flix today, but it's not nearly as good. Started out well with a nice take on the kidnapped-turns-the-table-on-the-kidnappers trope, but then kinda tanked about midway through when the cliches kicked in. Not bad though.
Devil's Candy is definitely worth a watch! Its so fun to see goofy Ethan Embry still getting work. He'll always be the kid who got eaten by Gwar to me.
Haha, that's right! The Worm! How great of a throwback would it have been had they been headbanging to GWAR in the car? By the way, I saw Devil's Candy and thought most of it was thumbs down material. If the supernatural element was removed (which also lead to a lame twist), and it instead focused more on the disturbed fella and perhaps a breakdown of the Father for influenced psychological reasons , I think it would have been much more interesting with greater fleshed out creepiness... Ha, tho I don't know, worst of all for me was the unbelievability surrounding All of the Art stuff. It was a laugh and what put it over the edge of redeemable imo. Coming across clearly as an unfamiliar and ill-informed topic for whoever was responsible. For example, You're telling me that rejected album cover painting of a dark inverted cross is unique enough that a gallery director MUST meet with you and come to your home to do so?! Apparently I've been wasting my time I call ballyhoo! Even had it been painted by Stephen Gammell (from Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark fame), that would not have happened. If you don't know shit about a subject then please don't include it as a key element in your story, and if it is in your wheelhouse , make sure everyone involved in bringing it to life is on the same page. This part of it seemed to be from the viewpoint of an inexperienced pre-teen who just discovered goth and thinks it's "different" & original. One of my pet peeve words is "pretentious", with as much as it's thrown around and misused, but Devil's Candy is that. I wouldn't even call it a metal movie, as the music element is almost just as vague. Whereas a movie like Deathgasm breathes metal (although humorously for the most part) where even the original music is legit. Hmm,.. I apparently had more problems with Devil's Candy than I thought. Props to the actors tho and to Embry for jumping on the buff train and trying to reinvent himself as the tough guy. It made me happy to see he's still at it.
In an interview the director said the fake teeth had the added benefit of making the actor drool a lot and they loved it.
Just a semi-late heads up, one of the worst horror films of all time has been given a glorious digital restoration and transfer. That's right, you can now watch Cathy's Curse in all it's hideous glory! I say semi-late cuz I think it just dropped off of Amazon Prime, but it is available through Shudder. Or you can buy the new Blu-Ray if you're so inclined. The version that's streaming is the US cut, which I think has about 6 minutes missing, but apparently there are a bunch of different cuts since it was in the public domain for so long so who knows. The Blu-Ray has a director's cut available. It's the Citizen Kane of really bad Exorcist/Omen/Carrie rip-offs, and a lot of fun to watch. Plus, it's Canadian!
It's really a lot of fun! Just go into it knowing that you'll be shaking your head A LOT, and laughing and wondering why Mark and David recommended this hunk of junk.
Got my tix for IT on the 7th. Anyone else yet? I'm probably a little too excited for this. Hopefully it doesn't lead to feelings of being let down.
Death Note on Netflix isn't bad so far...I guess. Lakeith Stanfield is impressive. I really like him in everything I've seen so far.
So I just discovered that Johnny Depp will be playing the Invisible Man an Russel Crowe is cast as Dr. Jekyll. Jekyll's character will supposedly be tying all the characters together through some form of international organization. Pretty interesting stuff. It's a shame that Tom Cruise Mummy movie looks like total shite. Gonna have to go back now and binge watch the classics since it's nearly fall.
Watched The Void just now. Pretty fun movie. ALOT of loose ends and lack of character development, but damn were those creature and gore FX awesome.
Watched XX. I liked the idea behind this - female directors do horror shorts told from the perspective of a female protagonist. I hated (almost) everything else about it. There were no ideas. Just settings. No payoff, no conclusion, no point, no punchline, no nothing. Just badly edited stuff you wouldn't expect from film students. Also, there were no likable protagonists. Well, there were no likable characters at all. This was really weird. The longer I think about it, the worse it gets. They did the whole horror genre and the whole female lead / female directors attempt a huge disservice. This 'movie' is like a 'what to do not' manual.
Yeah, I was bummed by how bad XX was. The trailer had given me high hopes, but man, you're absolutely right, there was no payoff to any of the stories.
