Remember that we have our movie meeting tonight!
Black Sunday (1960): This is a fairly influential horror movie because of its shocking violence (for the time, anyway; it's rather tame by today's standards) and for how stylish it is, in particular the way the movie uses shadows. It's not really scary today (is any vampire story scary anymore?), but it is a well-crafted horror movie. My only problem is that there's a romantic element to the movie that nearly made my eyeballs roll out of their sockets.
The Devil's Backbone (2001): I've wanted to see this for a while now but was always too lazy until I saw it on Netflix instant streaming. I like that this isn't strictly a horror movie -- it's just as much about the chaotic close of the Spanish Civil War as it is about the ghost story that is going on in here. For the most part, all the stories that are going on are mixed well, but there are a couple of points where everything is a bit too jumbled ... but, hey, I won't fault the movie much for trying to be a bit too complex. Guillermo del Toro knows what he's doing, anyway -- this movie actually foreshadows Pan's Labyrinth in a way, in that it successfully mixes supernatural horror elements with more human stories.
Blood and Black Lace (1964): Another influential movie from Mr. Mario Bava, who directed the aforementioned Black Sunday. I greatly preferred this, actually, because the filmmaking style is more inventive and really takes advantage of the fact that the movie is in color. (Which would in turn influence movie like Suspiria, which are freakin' color explosions.) The style is definitely the reason to watch this, because the story is pretty simple -- someone who looks like Rorschach from Watchmen kills a bunch of models for mysterious reasons. Kind of weird in that it's a strange mix of horror movie and police thriller.
On the queue for this week: The Hustler (1961), Macross Frontier The Movie: The False Songstress (2009),Zombie (1979), The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)
Total Movies: 157 (The Taking of Pelham 123, The Station Agent, The Final Destination, Silent Movie, The African Queen, Departures, Moon, Bound, Solaris, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rifftrax), Wristcutters: A Love Story, In the Loop, Public Enemies, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Rifftrax), Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-Hen, District 9, The Magnificent Seven, Night Moves, My Name is Bruce, Big Fan, Almost Famous, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Drag Me to Hell, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Kara no Kyoukai 1-7, 9, Zombieland, Ninja Scroll, Primer, Re-Animator, Summer Wars, The Changeling, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Ponyo, Eden of the East: The King of Eden, Porco Rosso, Something Something Something Dark Side, Castle in the Sky, Robot Carnival, Halloweentown, Whisper of the Heart, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, Fiddler on the Roof, Kiki's Delivery Service, Genius Party, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, The Sky Crawlers, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, My Neighbors the Yamadas, THX 1138, The Stepfather, Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks, Tremors, Horror of Dracula, The Brood, Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter, Rabid, Inglourious Basterds, Them!, The Yakuza, Alphaville, Ghost in the Shell, Priceless, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance, Whip It, A Boy and His Dog, Fletch, The Blind Side, Speed, June 17, 1994, Nobel Son, Invictus, Toy Story 3, The Two Escobars, Soylent Green, Up in the Air, Tyson, This Is Spinal Tap, The Proposition, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, The Informant!, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Macross: Do You Remember Love?, Coco Before Chanel, The Vanishing, Inception, Mind Game, Pale Rider, The Hurt Locker, Roujin Z, Broken Blade, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Black Christmas, Crazy Heart, The Man with Two Brains, Ninja Assassin, Panic Room, Mobile Suit Gundam I-III, Casablanca, Stray Dog, Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva, Memories, The Gold Rush, Paprika, Martian Successor Nadesico: The Motion Picture - Prince of Darkness, An Education, Eden of the East: Paradise Lost, Dr. Strangelove, Doomsday, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Natural, Bungaku Shoujo, The Book of Eli, To Kill a Mockingbird, Aim for the Ace!, Animal House, The Princess and the Frog, Char's Counterattack, Date Night, Cool Hand Luke, Kiss Me Deadly, An American Werewolf in London, Teen Wolf, Logan's Run, The Naked City, Dirty Harry, Swingers, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rifftrax), Harper, Chinatown, Hoosiers, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, Inherit the Wind, Airplane!, Emperor of the North, The Happening, Santa's Slay, Candyman, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mega Piranha, Phantasm, Goldfinger, The Thing, Black Sunday, The Devil's Backbone, Blood and Black Lace)
