/horror/ general megathread - Let's talk about movies and shit.
- Thread starter Internet War Criminal
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- Joined
- Jun 6, 2020
The film series gets batshit insane trust me man. I think that's way alot of people enjoy the series that's way I do.
Tootsie Bear
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- Joined
- Jun 24, 2014
I haven't seen that movie in a good while. When I was a child it was crazy because it involved killer puppets/toys. However, as an adult it's kinda silly and you can tell the characters wouldn't have put themselves in the position to get killed if they weren't stupid.
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2020
I'm reminded of Class of 1984 and it's sequel Class of 1999. While not strictly horror films, they can still be scary considering the subject matter.
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2019
I'm watching the first one right now and the concept of a group of eccentric psychics trying to find out why a guy killed himself is really cool. The puppets are also cutely designed as well, but the film is really dragging for me and the acting is kind of stiff.
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2015
It's 100% the puppets. The designs of the puppets is genius. Fun fact: Blade's likeness was based on Klaus Kinski.
I can see it.
But yeah, it's the puppets. That and the charming stop motion work. Part 1 is pretty bleh. 2 is also bad but has some good kills and introduces Torch which is my favorite puppet after Blade. Parts 3 and 4 were the closest they ever got to anything that resembled being good even though there's some slow parts. Part 5 is protracted but has good kills. The best one is a reboot called Puppet Master: Littlest Reich. I would recommend that one. You can skip the rest.
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2020
Like Bruno says the middle of the series is when things get actually crazy good
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2019
I finished watching the first film and it was alright. It's a 6/10 film overall. The first half really dragged for me and the acting felt kind of stiff, but once we got to the puppets, the film for me actually became more enjoyable to watch. The puppets themselves weren't scary, but they were kind of cute and charming and that's enough for me to really enjoy them. The main villain himself was really cool too and he's by far the best actor in the film in sort of a campy, at least he's having fun, kind of way. Soundtrack's really good too.
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2020
This is the thread that made me join KF back in the day, but I feel like everyone’s already listed most of my favorites and everyone’s also got pretty good taste. I’m still kind of crap at replies, so I’m just touching on stuff I’ve seen people saying recently, sorry if this is tl;dr.
I‘m a huge fan of giallo, maybe unusual but Lenzi is my favorite director for giallo; the zombie/cannibal subgenre in Italy, Hammer, basically all early seventies horror, with Texas Chain Saw having been the formative movie for me. A friend of mine was having this huge combination sleepover/birthday party and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity, so I volunteered to bring the movie. Grabbed it at the local mom and pop video store, waited till the six packs were out, and popped it in. People hated my guts for that one for a while! We were flipping as soon as the Hitchhiker gets in the van, but it’s a testament to how good it is that no one could shut it off.
Not sure if I saw S.F. Brownrigg mentioned, but I’m sure a couple of you know him. He did super low low budget pictures like Don’t Look in the Basement, Don’t Open the Door and Scum of the Earth. He always worked with the same actors, kind of like having his own little studio. He’s a kind of trashy backwoods wanna be Bergman, but I say that with fondness.
I’m also a big fan of grindhouse, which I know doesn’t really fit the thread, but Russ Meyer, Crown International Pictures, roughies from the Findlays—all that stuff is good fun and these days it’s like having a palate cleanser for your brain. Too much bullshit going on in the world? Watch Curse of Her Flesh and all‘s well.
Saw Jason X at a very, ah, urban theater and it was probably one of the best times I’ve ever had at a movie. Everyone was wasted and screaming at the screen. It’s a dumb movie but the entire theater had a blast. Horror can be one of the best genres for that old school, organic audience participation.
Klaus Kinski is one of my favorites. I see that Blade resemblance! He can always be relied on to give 1000%, even if it’s totally unnecessary—he just gets in there and goes for it. Crawlspace is high on my list of trashy yet amazing movies and David Schmoeller was lucky to have him, so his ‘Please Kill Mr. Kinski‘ always irked me.
I guess I’ll list a few films. I’m trying to leave out things I’ve seen a lot of people mention, which I think is going to make this sound pretty bland. House With the Laughing Windows, Daughters of Darkness, Curtains, Burial Ground, Savage Streets (not exactly horror, unless seeing Linda Blair’s pudgy tits floating in the tub is considered horrific, which it may be), Spasmo, Wizard of Gore, Pieces, Horrors of Malformed Men, Sugar Cookies, House on the Edge of the Park, lots of Jess Franco, lots of Jean Rollin. It strikes me that this is almost a bog-standard list these days, but I haven’t seen anything new that’s stuck with me the way TCM did.
Way back in the day I was lucky enough to see a bunch of the cat III Hong Kong pictures at a theater in NYC’s Chinatown called the Music Palace. Great place to watch stuff like Black Magic or Green Snake. I miss places like that.
I also miss Rick Sullivan’s Gore Gazette, but I still have a few copies. Nice to meet you all.
I‘m a huge fan of giallo, maybe unusual but Lenzi is my favorite director for giallo; the zombie/cannibal subgenre in Italy, Hammer, basically all early seventies horror, with Texas Chain Saw having been the formative movie for me. A friend of mine was having this huge combination sleepover/birthday party and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity, so I volunteered to bring the movie. Grabbed it at the local mom and pop video store, waited till the six packs were out, and popped it in. People hated my guts for that one for a while! We were flipping as soon as the Hitchhiker gets in the van, but it’s a testament to how good it is that no one could shut it off.
Not sure if I saw S.F. Brownrigg mentioned, but I’m sure a couple of you know him. He did super low low budget pictures like Don’t Look in the Basement, Don’t Open the Door and Scum of the Earth. He always worked with the same actors, kind of like having his own little studio. He’s a kind of trashy backwoods wanna be Bergman, but I say that with fondness.
I’m also a big fan of grindhouse, which I know doesn’t really fit the thread, but Russ Meyer, Crown International Pictures, roughies from the Findlays—all that stuff is good fun and these days it’s like having a palate cleanser for your brain. Too much bullshit going on in the world? Watch Curse of Her Flesh and all‘s well.
Saw Jason X at a very, ah, urban theater and it was probably one of the best times I’ve ever had at a movie. Everyone was wasted and screaming at the screen. It’s a dumb movie but the entire theater had a blast. Horror can be one of the best genres for that old school, organic audience participation.
Klaus Kinski is one of my favorites. I see that Blade resemblance! He can always be relied on to give 1000%, even if it’s totally unnecessary—he just gets in there and goes for it. Crawlspace is high on my list of trashy yet amazing movies and David Schmoeller was lucky to have him, so his ‘Please Kill Mr. Kinski‘ always irked me.
I guess I’ll list a few films. I’m trying to leave out things I’ve seen a lot of people mention, which I think is going to make this sound pretty bland. House With the Laughing Windows, Daughters of Darkness, Curtains, Burial Ground, Savage Streets (not exactly horror, unless seeing Linda Blair’s pudgy tits floating in the tub is considered horrific, which it may be), Spasmo, Wizard of Gore, Pieces, Horrors of Malformed Men, Sugar Cookies, House on the Edge of the Park, lots of Jess Franco, lots of Jean Rollin. It strikes me that this is almost a bog-standard list these days, but I haven’t seen anything new that’s stuck with me the way TCM did.
Way back in the day I was lucky enough to see a bunch of the cat III Hong Kong pictures at a theater in NYC’s Chinatown called the Music Palace. Great place to watch stuff like Black Magic or Green Snake. I miss places like that.
I also miss Rick Sullivan’s Gore Gazette, but I still have a few copies. Nice to meet you all.
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2018
Truly elite post, sir. I'm fond of Lenzi too, I especially dig Cannibal Ferox and Nightmare City. I love House with the Laughing Windows too, def in my top 5 giallo....you fond of Sergio Martino at all? Torso & Strip Nude for Your Killer are in my top 5, too (my favorite of all time is Fulci's Don't Torture a Duckling. You mentioned some of my other favorites too...Horrors of Malformed Men is cool, Teruo Ishii is my fav Japanese director hands down. Most of his stuff isn't really horror outside of that (except maybe Blind Woman's Curse) but I love it all the same...Yakuza's Law and Bohachi Bushido: Code of the Forgotten Eight are two of my fav movies ever.
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2020
Teruo Ishii doesn’t get a lot of love, it’s true. You’re right in that he’s not really a horror director per se, more like weird cinema, maybe? He’s underrated for sure, his movies always look like he spent a bundle but he was frugal, he just knew how to shoot. Bohachi Bushido is excellent.
Nightmare City is brilliant on all the levels. There’s so much amazing shit even before the nightmare becomes reality, like the lead couple stopping for a coffee break directly in the middle of the zombie apocalypse, or the other couple that goes on vacation by parking their RV on what looks like the side of a highway while shit is going down. I think Lenzi is great because there‘s always this bizarro factor that is appealing; he’s like fun horror, whereas Sergio Martino seems/is more serious and in lots of ways is, imo, better than Dario Argento.
Autopsy with Mimsy Farmer is another good one, Armando Crispino I think is the director.
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2017
Like everyone else said, Puppet Master is mainly interesting because it gets more over-the-top and insane with each installment. Sort of like how Sharknado was before that got milked to death and became a tired dead meme.
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2015
Do not compare Puppet Master to Sharknado, sir. FFS, have some respect to the prestige of the Puppet Master franchise.
SMDH.
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2017
Fair point, I was just trying to think of another series where it gained a cult following for being over-the-top and insane.
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2018
From what I remember of Puppet Master, the first... 9 or so films take themselves pretty seriously. I mean, they are dumb schlock but I don't think it's until the last few entries that they embraced that and became deliberately comedic.
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2020
I agree from what I can remmber most of the movies took themselves seriously despite how insane the plot for each movie got.
A better way to compare something to the Puppet Master sequels would be something like either Saw or Friday the 13th sequels, even though that's a tad bit easy to compare, but still given their sheer over-the-top nature of these sequels as these respective franchises keep going, I'd say comparing that to either the two would still be better than comparing it to bullshit like Sharknado.
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2015
I still haven't got over the fact that we'll never have a The Littlest Reich sequel...