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Felonious Monk said:
I thought it was well done considering it was PG-13. I didn't expect a full on Horror film--just darker than Spider-Man, and it was.
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I should say, while it wasn't for me, that's not really commentary on it being well done as a film. There's nothing technically wrong with it. For what it's aiming for the writing is fine, the casting works, the camera is doing its job, the effects and such are on par for similar stuff of the era.

I just didn't vibe with it, and I think Raimi probably has better ideas in him. I feel like any horror director could have made this one. But I like Raimi doing the stuff only Raimi could make. That's just a taste thing, and I'm definitely not one of those folks who will say if folks do vibe with something i don't that this makes them wrong.

In fact, if I'd seen it closer to release, I might've liked this one a lot more. Sometimes a movie just needs to hit you at the right time.
 
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JakeEkiss said:
Drag Me To Hell: An oldie, but I hadn't seen it and after years of hearing about it I was honestly really underwhelmed. Nothing about it was unusually bad for a Raimi film or anything, but I just didn't vibe with it. This is the first one of the season that was just a total miss for me.
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It's funny how much expectations can impact our enjoyment of a film. I went into Drag Me to Hell as not a huge Raimi fan and having never heard anything particularly good about it, so I watched it with 0 expectations and had a blast. The slapstick gore was so unexpected in a movie that was leaning serious that it hit way harder for me than any sincere attempt at horror would have. And I just enjoyed how offbeat it is compared to the formulaic haunting/curse type horror movies with similar plots.

I finally got around to watching the original Suspiria the other day and was quite underwhelmed by it. My only previous Argento movie was Phenomena, which I really liked, and everyone considers that one kinda bad compared to Suspiria so I thought I was in for peak giallo. Instead got non-stop weird vibes with choppy editing and an extremely thin coven plot. Still enjoyable, but was definitely overhyped by my expectations.
 
Horror is a goofy-ass genre. I'll take a little slapstick on the side.

My Halloween-season watches:
  • The Devils (1971)
  • The Crow
  • The Innocents
  • The 'Burbs
  • A Tale of Two Sisters
  • Blade
  • Ravenous
  • House (1977)
  • Ginger Snaps
  • In the Mouth of Madness
  • X
  • Fright Night
  • Child's Play
All first-time watches except Blade and The Crow. Child's Play was probably the worst of them, but there wasn't a bad movie in the group.

Fright Night, House, In the Mouth of Madness, The 'Burbs, and The Devils were the standouts.
 
TheSameIdiot said:
Horror is a goofy-ass genre. I'll take a little slapstick on the side.

My Halloween-season watches:
  • The Devils (1971)
  • The Crow
  • The Innocents
  • The 'Burbs
  • A Tale of Two Sisters
  • Blade
  • Ravenous
  • House (1977)
  • Ginger Snaps
  • In the Mouth of Madness
  • X
  • Fright Night
  • Child's Play
All first-time watches except Blade and The Crow. Child's Play was probably the worst of them, but there wasn't a bad movie in the group.

Fright Night, House, In the Mouth of Madness, The 'Burbs, and The Devils were the standouts.
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I'm guessing from your list you went with the original Fright Night. That was one of my favorites since it debuted on cable. I never saw the remake.

I bought House on Edgar Wright's recommendation. Even the nudity couldn't save that film for me. LOL! On paper that should've been right up my alley.

Being a huge Horror fan, I've tried to force myself to like Argento (among others), but I just can't get into any Italian Horror/Giallo for some reason. Every time I'd pick a new batch of classic films to try they'd just fall flat for me. I generally find them visually unappealing as well. The one exception I can think of is the infamous Fulci film, The New York Ripper, of all things. Ha! I didn't watch the trailer so avoided knowing the biggest shock of the film and loved it for that even though it pisses most viewers off. The 2nd biggest shock was a scene where something horrendous is done to someone and it is still one of the very few things I've ever seen that made me cringe (that's saying a lot) it was so well done.
 
Felonious Monk said:
I bought House on Edgar Wright's recommendation. Even the nudity couldn't save that film for me. LOL! On paper that should've been right up my alley.
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This was without a doubt the worst movie I have ever seen. Watched it with a friend this month because it was highly rated and he loves weird off the wall stuff like this but even he couldn't see what all the fuss was about. I'm convinced there is some kind of mass hypnosis going on that makes people want to think this movie is good. It's the only explanation. I mean, it didn't even fall into the" so bad it's good" category that a lot of good cheesy movies do. This one was just bad bad.
 
Felonious Monk said:
Being a huge Horror fan, I've tried to force myself to like Argento (among others), but I just can't get into any Italian Horror/Giallo for some reason. Every time I'd pick a new batch of classic films to try they'd just fall flat for me. I generally find them visually unappealing as well.
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I was surprised that the visuals in Suspiria didn't do that much for me, as I always loved the colourful lighting in the Roger Corman Poe movies, and Argento's cinematography and visual direction feels like it should be superior to Corman's, but for some reason it was underwhelming even in comparison to the Poe movies' limited production values.
Have you tried Phenomena? The soundtrack alone makes that one of the most memorable movies I've ever watched, without even getting into the monkey murders and telepathic bug swarms or whatever the fuck the plot is.
 
TheCaptain said:
I was surprised that the visuals in Suspiria didn't do that much for me, as I always loved the colourful lighting in the Roger Corman Poe movies, and Argento's cinematography and visual direction feels like it should be superior to Corman's, but for some reason it was underwhelming even in comparison to the Poe movies' limited production values.
Have you tried Phenomena? The soundtrack alone makes that one of the most memorable movies I've ever watched, without even getting into the monkey murders and telepathic bug swarms or whatever the fuck the plot is.
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Yes, I watched at least Phenomena, Susperia and Tenebrae from him that I recall. I was generally impressed with Corman's Poe era aesthetics.

Lately, I've been really getting into Val Guest's Hammer films and have enjoyed everything I've seen from him.

Oh, and a minor correction: I enjoyed most of the Mario Bava films I've watched so far and his visual style, which is weird since he more less started the look of these films, but it doesn't work the same when I see others attempt to achieve that look.
 
Damien said:
Is 'The Crow' horror? I don't think I ever saw it that way.
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You'll notice I called it "Halloween-season," not horror. 😉
Felonious Monk said:
I'm guessing from your list you went with the original Fright Night. That was one of my favorites since it debuted on cable. I never saw the remake.
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Yep, original Fright Night. After seeing that and Child's Play, I spent the night wondering why Chris Sarandon didn't have a better career.
Felonious Monk said:
I bought House on Edgar Wright's recommendation. Even the nudity couldn't save that film for me. LOL! On paper that should've been right up my alley.
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It's a cinephiles-only kind of picture. It's off-the-wall and allegorical in a way that worked for me. There's a character named Kung Fu who has her own musical theme and spends the movie doing martial arts. What's not to love?
Justice said:
This was without a doubt the worst movie I have ever seen. Watched it with a friend this month because it was highly rated and he loves weird off the wall stuff like this but even he couldn't see what all the fuss was about. I'm convinced there is some kind of mass hypnosis going on that makes people want to think this movie is good. It's the only explanation. I mean, it didn't even fall into the" so bad it's good" category that a lot of good cheesy movies do. This one was just bad bad.
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My wife feels this way about a lot of movies. Notably, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
TheCaptain said:
I was surprised that the visuals in Suspiria didn't do that much for me, as I always loved the colourful lighting in the Roger Corman Poe movies, and Argento's cinematography and visual direction feels like it should be superior to Corman's, but for some reason it was underwhelming even in comparison to the Poe movies' limited production values.
Have you tried Phenomena? The soundtrack alone makes that one of the most memorable movies I've ever watched, without even getting into the monkey murders and telepathic bug swarms or whatever the fuck the plot is.
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The score and lighting are the highlights of Suspiria for me. I've watched thousands of movies and I can't think of any others that were lit like that.
 
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