Mandrake, 2022. 6/10

Director: Lynne Davison

BRUTAL (2007). >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
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I found this hard going, especially when We find out who the killer is so early. The interplay between Jeffery Coombs and Sarah Thompson was awkward-He's her supervisor/lover and despite being a Huge jerk and married/kids, She's practically leaping at the chance to rekindle-WHY??
Just nothing exceptional here, although it was nice seeing Michael Berryman playing a halfway sympathetic character for a change. **

Glad to see this board is up again. :-)

Time to do some catching up.

Witchboard III: The Possession (1995) ★★½

Your average ouija board/ghostie fun, though not as scary as you would expect from the subgenre.

But it does have one or two things going for itself, like a few good kills and fun moments. The lacklustre ending keeps it from earning a third star.

Troll Hunter (2010) ★★★½

Interesting stuff, this.

One of the new elements is that the film lets up every now and again. You are so used to found footage not letting up once the scary stuff sets in that you feel odd to see a bit of down time between scary moments.

Based on the subject matter, you would expect a lot of blurry images. But this one shows the trolls in all their glory. A good chunk of the two million dollar budget must have gone to special effects. CGI in a found footage film? Could that be a thing?

The biggest surprise? The big villain is not the trolls, but mankind. Cool or womp womp? Not entirely sure.

Two points of criticism, though:

The idea of letting up makes the ending more sudden and a whole lot less scary than it could have been. Secondly, the casting of Norwegian comedians is a cool inside joke. But then again, it does not really add to the credibility of the found footage idea.

A fun watch, though.

50 BEST HORROR MOVIES YOU'VE NEVER SEEN (2014). PJ Soles narrated TUBI offering that is a decent watch, but better for a neophyte Horror fans. Lots of clips (Thankfully little to no spoilers) and comments by many quite enthusiastic people, including some "Scream Queens"-Linnea, Brinke and Michelle.

While I question some of the choices-INSIDE, FOOD OF THE GODS, CASTLE FREAK, SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT- ,it's good to see some films that deserve another look-PUMPKINHEAD, WRONG TURN, THE DESCENT, TRILOGY OF TERROR, HARD CANDY.

Some of the films listed I had not heard of -ALONE WITH HER, JOSHUA, GRACE-and some others I hadn't seen in some time-REPULSION, HALLOWEEN 3:SEASON OF THE WITCH, VISITING HOURS, VISITING HOURS. If nothing else, it gave Me some ideas.

The #1 film they pick...Well, it wouldn't be cricket to tell You. I wouldn't place it so high, but there is no denying its legacy. ***

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) ★★★★½

I will never get tired of this.

FDTD set the standard for badassery in the past 30 years. Regardless of wether it is in terms of cast or in terms of set pieces.

It's a pity Clooney only did this one before going more mainstream. Then again, he did do the one, so there's that. Then there's the casting of cult heroes typical of Tarantino, like Fred Williamson, Cheech Marin or Michael Parks. Or launching the careers of Danny Trejo and Salma Hayek.

Tom Savini delivers what's probably his coolest role since Dawn of the dead and his turning scene is simply hilarious. As much as the banter between the Gecko's. Bitch, bitch, bitch.

26 years old and not getting any less cool.

Is this the one?

Fear Street: 1666 (2021) ★★

With the declining level of part 2, I went in with less than stellar expectations. More of a let's get this thing over with-feel.

In all fairness, it was not all that terrible. At least not Transformers-terrible. The dead kids-moment was pretty good and the first reveal had a good set up.

The rest was laid on too thick. With the "goode is evil"-line as the lame topper. And since this is the last part, we are up to our ears in full circle stuff. Not terrible, it just did not do much for me.

The Last Broadcast (1998) ★★★½

The Last Broadcast was a precursor to what we now know as found footage. Contrary to other found footage films, however, this focuses more on the crime investigation behind the deaths of the makers of Facts or Fiction.

I did like how they managed to hang an eerie, foreboding atmopshere over the footage the guys shot. Also, the film did not actually show what happened to Locus and Steven, but we do get an unexpected twist and kill. Granted, it did come from out of nowhere, but it also raises questions like "why would this person do that?"

Nevertheless, it was pretty entertaining overall and it managed to create tension in a different way than the ones that came later. Not the best in the genre, but certainly not the worst.