Blacula (semi-rewatch, 1972, William Crain, tcm) - 8
Dracula turns an African prince into a vampire, and locks him in a coffin for a couple hundred years, until some interior decorators accidentally set him loose into LA. It was better than I remembered.
Scream Blacula Scream (1973, Bob Kelljan, tcm) - 7.5
Pam Grier is chosen to inherit voodoo queendom even though she's adopted, and so the non-adopted son gets mad and resurrects Blacula. This one is a little funnier than the original, and seemed to have potential to be even better, but it's slow in parts, and never really drew me in as much.
Alone (2008, Banjong Pisanthanakum & Parkpoom Wongpoom, 35mm) - 5.5
A woman is being haunted by her Siamese twin, who died after their separation operation. There are a lot of creepy moments and good jump scares, but it's ultimately somewhat depressing in how typically Asian horror it is. And there's a really frustrating twist at the end. The twist itself was fine, but the way everyone reacted was retarded. I hate anything where there's a twist involving someone not being exactly who you thought they were, and as soon as it's revealed, they are suddenly a complete fucking psychopath trying to kill every single person they come into contact with, even though they've been completely fucking normal for 15 fucking years. I can suspend my disbelief with the fucking best of 'em, but I mean, come the fuck on.
Stuck (2008, Stuart Gordon, 35mm) - 7
Mena Suvari hits Stephen Rea with her car, and he gets stuck in her windshield, and rather than take him to a hospital, she hides him in her garage and waits for him to die. It occasionally seems like it's trying to make some kind of statement about people ignoring the needs of others for their own selfish gain, which was lame but mostly not too blatant. And the beginning of the movie with Stephen Rea having a bad day was a bit too similar to Gordon's last movie, Edmond. But there's some bloody stuff that I liked, and the cast is kinda good, and I liked the dark comedy.
Bigger, Stronger, Faster (2008, Chris Bell, 35mm) - 9.5
Documentary about steroid use in America, covering why so many people feel the need to use them, whether or not they're as dangerous as we're lead to believe they are, and whether or not their use should be regarded as "cheating". I had only a moderate interest in the subject matter, but I was fully invested from the moment the film started. It's funny, personal, extremely informative, always entertaining, and brilliantly edited. It may not be as good as last year's King of Kong, but it's definitely my favorite documentary of 2008 so far, and will most likely remain that way until the end.
Comments