Tuesday, June 22, 2021

House (1977) is the greatest movie of all time

House. "The girls will wake up... when they are hungry." "Bananas... everywhere!" This movie is fucking bananas. It is out there. Obviously influenced some of my favorite horror, but this was something else. Definitely a lot of fun, but I'm not sure it is good. Basically takes the whole haunted house trope, and turns it into a zany movie of extremes that I guess are sort funny. Like Evil Dead II, but not nearly as good. I was really feeling it and then the last 10 or so minutes were terrible. 

Gist is a young woman and six of her schoolmates travel to her elderly aunt's home in the country, which, indeed, turns out to be haunted. Thats one way to explain it, I guess. But what ensues is pretty indescribable. 

House is made in 1977. The Japanese horror comedy was directed, written, and produced by one Nobuhiko Obayashi. It came about after a film company approached him (he was previously a director of commercials) about writing a script "like Jaws." When he came back with the screenplay for this nonsense and the company was like, "what the fuck is this shit?",  and he figured he'd have to make the movie himself if he wanted his vision to come to life. 

Amateur actors are okay, but the real MVP of the movie has to be Obayashi for getting this psychedelic flick made. It is also pretty engaging and beautiful. From the trailer, I was expecting way less in terms of plot, not this this has a real coherent narrative or anything. It is worth a watch if you are into extremely weird shit. 

Tuesday, June 8, 2021

What I Watched: May 2021

Here are the movies/television programs I watched last month. Giving each a one-word review, where I watched it, and when it was made. Going to make this a thing...

Thunder Force - 2021 - Netflix - Okay            

Sullivan's Travels - 1941 - Criterion Channel - Good        

Class of 1984 - 1982 - Shudder - Good        

The Regan Show - 2017 - Amazon Prime - Good        

Cemetery Man - 1994 - Plex - Terrible        

Bad Trip - 2020 - Netflix - Great            

Sons of Sam - 2021 - Netflix - Good            

The Lady Eve - 1941 - Criterion Channel - Bad        

Happy Death Day - 2017 - Plex - Great        

The Mitchells vs. the Machines - 2021 - Netflix - Good        

You Only Live Once - 1937 - Criterion Channel - Good        

The Disappearance of Crystal Rodgers - 2018 - Peacock - Good        

Maniac Cop - 1988 - Shudder - Good        

Hemingway - 2021 - PBS - Great        

Army of the Dead - 2021 - Netflix - Okay        

What Keeps You Alive - 2018 - Netflix - Good        

Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight - 2020 - Netflix - Okay        

The Clovehitch Killer - 2018 - Netflix - Okay        

Truth or Dare - 2018 - Netflix - Terrible        

Hard Eight - 1996 - Criterion Channel - Great