Topic: Eric's 2009 "Best Effort" October Horror Marathon.

[Touti]

As stated in a previous post I've decided to join in this year and participate in this marathon although I'm not a huge fan of the genre and I don't own many horror movies.

I previously said I only own 6 and would watch them all this month but I've decided to push a little and either acquire new horror movies or rent some to increase my watching.  Time is not really an issue but budget is so I don't know how many I will watch.

I will do my best to post reviews although I don't feel very good at it but in the event that I don't know what to say I will at least give each movie a score on a scale from 1 to 5 with half values using the following icons.

[addicted2dvd]

very cool Eric! Great Icons! 

[Touti]

Where do you guys/girls draw the line between horror and suspense/thriller.  I'm going through my collection to see if I can stretch things a little and include more stuff.  Would you consider these as horror ?

Frankenstein
Silence of the Lambs
Misery

I think I remember reading about the first 2 in the forum earlier this week and that they could count. 

If TV Series are allowed then I also have "Grande Ourse" and "L'héritière de Grande Ourse" which I think could be considered as horror, I'm sure Jimmy and Seb have seen them so they can probably give an opinion on that.

[RossRoy]

If TV Series are allowed then I also have "Grande Ourse" and "L'héritière de Grande Ourse" which I think could be considered as horror, I'm sure Jimmy and Seb have seen them so they can probably give an opinion on that.

Grande Ourse can go either way. It deals with spirits and the occult, so it fits horror, but I do feel it is more a suspense/thriller than horror. But like I said, either way goes.

[Touti]

Columbia House has a special going on for members.  You buy 1 movie at regular price and you can get as many as you want of same or lower value at 50% off.

I ordered

Pan's Labyrinth
Otis: Uncut
Land of the Dead: Unrated Director's cut

With my 4 Japanese movies and maybe a few rentals I should be good for a month.

[Dragonfire]

I definitely consider Frankenstein horror.  Misery and Silence of the Lambs fit as horror for me too..though it is a different type.  The first time I saw Silence of the Lambs, it really freaked me out..and I was periodically hiding behind a pillow.

[Jimmy]

Sorry Eric, I've never watch "Grande ourse" since I don't really watch a lot of our tv (it's always the same people). In fact one of the only TV show that I watch on our tv is "Une grenade avec ça" (I know I'm not really the age target for this show , but Catherine Proulx-Lemay and Rose-Maïté Erkoreka are in this )

I've check your collection and I think that you could count those as horror :

I Am Legend, Misery, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Hide and Seek and,of course, the Japanese movies.

[addicted2dvd]

That is why I make mine a Horror/Halloween marathon... that way if it is anything I like to watch this time of the year... it counts! 

Personally I say if you want it to count... then it counts. I am definitely not strict about such things! 

[Touti]

Marathon starts now.

Isola


Overview: The second film based on the works of award-winning novelist, Yasuke Kishi. When Yukari, a psychic able to read the thoughts of other, comes to help suvivors of the 1995 Kobe earthquake, she encounters a trouble girl named Chichiro who is suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder. Chichiro has 13th different personalities and her 13th personality is a revengeful ghost named Isola. Can the psychic find a way to stop Isola without harming Chichiro ?

My Thoughts: I'm a bit puzzled by this movie.  Not that it isn't good but not what I would expect from a horror movie.  It's difficult to judge this one because it's made by and with people from a culture I know very little about.  I think what leaves me puzzled is that the chararacters don't show much emotion, even when they're scared or hurt, they're all a bit cold all the time.  On the other hand it's not necessarily a bad thing as it adds to the strangeness (is this a word ?) to the movie which it can use as it needs something to compensate for a little lack of action you would normally find in horror movies.  Watching a Japanese horror movie with English subtitles was an interesting experience nonetheless.

My Score:

[Touti]

I know I only signed up for a "Best effort" marathon but I only watched one movie so far so I think it's time for me to do a few more.  After lunch I'm gonna watch "Misery" which I haven't seen in a few years.  After that I'll probably read a little and hopefully fall asleep for a few hours.

Tonight I'm gonna watch "The silence fo the lambs" starting at 10:00 which should put me right on time for the Japanese F1 race.

[richierich]

I know I only signed up for a "Best effort" marathon but I only watched one movie so far so I think it's time for me to do a few more.  After lunch I'm gonna watch "Misery" which I haven't seen in a few years.  After that I'll probably read a little and hopefully fall asleep for a few hours.

Tonight I'm gonna watch "The silence fo the lambs" starting at 10:00 which should put me right on time for the Japanese F1 race.

Interested to see your review of Misery, it's one of those films I didn't originally warm to as I kept comparing it to the book. Might give it another go this month.
Should be a good F1 race, given all the penalties imposed which has mixed up the starting grid nicely.

[Touti]

Should be a good F1 race, given all the penalties imposed which has mixed up the starting grid nicely.

Yeah definitely, especially on a fast track like Suzuka.  I think Kimi is in a pretty good position to claim the win, most fast cars will be behind and he's got Kers................while others seems to only have curse

[Touti]

Misery




Overview:Paul Sheldon (James Caan) barely remembers the blinding blizzard that sent his car spinning off the road into a near fatal accident. Nor does he remember being nursed back from unconsciousness. All he does remember is waking up to the worst nightmare of his life.

Rescued from the accident by his self-confessed number one fan, Paul Sheldon learns that Annie lives vicariously through his novels based on the character Misery Chastain. Grateful to Annie for saving his life, Paul allows her to be the first to read his new manuscript.

From that point on it becomes increasingly clear that Annie has trouble distinguishing fact from fiction and Paul comes to the harrowing realization that he might never leave the home of Annie Wilkes alive.

My Thoughts:  Misery has always been and still is one my favorite movies for a few reasons.  First, it's in this movie that I saw Kathy Bates for the first time.  She always gives wonderful performances but in Misery she's just brilliant.  The way she plays the different faces of her character is so credible it makes the viewer feel like he's watching a reality show.  Annie (Bates' character) is a not too bright girl, a bit naive in her views of the world but within a snap she can turn into this monster who takes pleasure in hurting this man she's sequestering while claiming she loves him while what she actually loves is the control she (finally ?) has over something.

This is one of a very movies that I find hard to watch because of the way the violence is showed......or not.  The director took a very interesting approach in getting to us not by showing violence but by showing, and making us feel, the pain associated with it.  Misery has got this very nasty way of showing you how and how much pain Paul Sheldon is about to endure and as if this wasn't enough, the director always gives you a few seconds or minute to realize how bad it's gonna hurt..................almost making you hurt as well.

(click to show/hide)

There is the obvious and well known scene where Annie Wilks puts a block of wood between his legs and breaks both his ankles with a big hammer but that's just one big hard one to watch.  There's a few other ones that are just as painful like when she throws a pack of paper on his thighs because she's pissed it didn't like the paper she bought or this other scene when Sheldon gets out of bed the first time and we've given a few seconds to think of how much it's gonna hurt and he pulls his legs out and they hit the floor.

After having seem that movie so many times I can still almost feel that pain myself and this will always remain one of my favorite suspense movie.

I give it a perfect score.

[addicted2dvd]

I haven't watched Misery in a while! It is definitely a great movie.

[Achim]

I also think that Misery is an awesome movie and will probably upgrade my non-anamorphic DVD to Blu-ray soon. Performances are great throughout Kathy Bates leads, but also James Caan and the guy who plays the sheriff are great to watch.