TODAY I WATCHED (Movies, TV series) 2015

Dual Survival

Over the past couple weeks, I have seen some utterly fantastic indie Horror and Sci-Fi which has left me very satisfied with the current state of micro-budget cinema. This is quite a list so I'll leave out full descriptions, but I'll just say they're worth seeking out. Most are available on Netflix/Amazon.

Time/Lapse (twilight Zone-esque/camera takes photos of future) - A-

The Last Days (foreign/apocalypse due to widespread agoraphobia) - A

Housebound (NZ comedy-horror/haunted house) - B+

The Harvest (coming-of-age erupts into twisted horror plot) - B+

Suicide Theory (immortal hires hit man to kill him) - A-

Coherence (comet f*cks up a dinner party) - B+

Mr. Jones (found footage, this one wasn't so hot) - C

We Need to Talk about Kevin (bad seed) - A

All wonderful and enjoyable titles.

Fear The Walking Dead

Fear The Walking Dead

Fear the Walking Dead

Over the weekend...

'Fury', the Brad Pitt WWII tank movie. Not bad, but didn't seem to have much of a plot. It was just the tank division going around from area to area and blowing up Nazis. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But they didn't have a planned mission to accomplish or anything. Every scene was "Sgt., go here and blow sh*t-up". Although seeing Shia LeBeouf get shot in his stupid face made it worthwhile.

'There Will Be Blood'. It was way more boring that I expected it to be. Nearly 3 hours long and the whole "I drink your milkshake" scene isn't until the very end. Not sure I saw what all the hoopla was about. Nice period piece, but overall kinda boring.

"Fraternity Demon" (1992)
(no trailer available on YouTube)

A no budget horror/sex/campus comedy mess from Troma, aka the Toxic Avenger people. A college dork accidentally conjures up a blonde, busty "demon of sex and lust" on the night of the big fraternity/sorority mixer. Soon Demon Chick is stalking the halls of the frat house screwing the livin' hell out of everybody who crosses her path.
...sadly, this is not nearly as fun as I probably made it sound. The jokes aren't funny, the acting sucks, and I've seen porn with better production values than this flick. The few quick bits of eye candy aren't enough to make this watchable. AVOID.

Troma is real hit or miss.  Especially once they started buying up every cheap-ass property they could in addition to making their own movies.  I've been burned plenty of times by seeing the Troma name on a flick only to find out they simply bought someone else's movie and released it.

tohostudios wrote:

I've been burned plenty of times by seeing the Troma name on a flick only to find out they simply bought someone else's movie and released it.

I'm pretty sure that was the case with "Fraternity Demon" -- Lloyd just bought some local yokel's Shot-with-a-HandyCam student film and put his logo on it. It was extremely cheap looking, even by Troma standards (which is really sayin' something!!) and aside from the female nudity, there was very little else in the movie that had a "Troma" feel to it.... no gross-out makeup or sick humor, no over-the-top violence, etc.

At least the gal who played the "Demon of Lust" was pretty dang hot, she looked kinda like a low-rent version of Heather Locklear. Sadly, according to IMDb, this movie was her one and only film credit.

We Are Still Here - A-. Now THIS is a horror movie! What starts as a traditional haunted house tale set in the 80's (starring Barbara Crampton!) becomes a grim rollercoaster of violence. This is THE best direction I've seen in the genre in god knows how long. Slow-burning, mounting tension and dread, a nice twist midway, rather menacing ghoul effects, and a total ramped-up gorefest of an ending without ever resorting to camp. The photography is also terrific, with a film-like, low-contrast haze similar to 80's horror movies. Though there are sprinkles of humor here and there, this is a movie that takes itself seriously, and brings some memorable characters into play. My only minor complaint is that some of the acting is a bit lacking (yet still viable), and Crampton isn't given near as much screen time and dialogue as she deserves.

I hope to see more from the first-time director of this indie. He's got tons of talent and it shows in each frame.

"Compliance" (2013)


A prank caller pretending to be a police officer calls a fast-food joint, accusing a young female employee of theft. Eager to please the "police," the manager willingly imprisons the employee in the back of the store... and things only get more bizarre from there. Disturbing indie drama based on an actual case.

Drive Angry

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

corplhicks wrote:

Fear the Walking Dead

Caught up on the last two episodes, it's getting better but I really don't like the main character (Travis.) Unlikeable character IMHO. I hope Travis is a tatsy Zombie dinner soon.......

Also watched Agents of Shield

thejokeriv wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

Fear the Walking Dead

Caught up on the last two episodes, it's getting better but I really don't like the main character (Travis.) Unlikeable character IMHO. I hope Travis is a tatsy Zombie dinner soon.......

AGREED. He's by far the least potent and most clueless of the bunch. Also the most underdeveloped. Everyone else is being fleshed out and explored while Travis just waltzes around with his fly down. Inane.

The show is getting a quarter-of-an-inch better with each episode but we're already at the season finale?? Hoping it's going to be explosive to make up for all the slack.

Pawn Stars

"Oculus" (2014)


A brother and sister reunite at their old family home to try and stop the mirror-dwelling spirit which killed their parents. A cool, creepy haunted-house flick.

Jeopardy

Dewey Cox - B. Funny but could've been much funnier.

Continuum

Purple Rain

Last Man On Earth

This show has really grown on me. I started to bail on it when they destroyed the original premise and started introducing other people but they've taken the whole thing in a direction I was not at all expecting and that has me interested again.

Gremlins (1984)
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

First one is still highly entertaining. Second one has many amusing sequences (and many that fall flat) but it's at least 30 minutes too long.

Fear The Walking Dead season finale

Fear The Walking Dead