šŸ’€ Just When You Thought It Was Safe - The Rolling Horror Thread 2022 šŸ’€

Watched recently: The Mummyā€™s Curse. This is the 4th and final installment in Universalā€™s original Mummy sequence. (Iā€™m not counting the Boris Karloff version because itā€™s unrelated to the ones that came after it). The Mummy definitely isnā€™t my favourite Universal monster series but I do love the fact that they really tried to maintain continuity between the various installments (even if they werenā€™t always successful - e.g. the swamp where the mummy perishes in the film before this has somehow moved from New England to Louisiana). The story here is the usual mummy seeking his lost love, yada, yada. Nothing new there, but the lost love herself makes a really impressive entrance, clawing her way out of the earth and far out-creeping the mummy in terms of her physical appearance. This is nothing you need to check out if youā€™re not already a fan of these films but at just over an hour, it never came close to outstaying its welcome.

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Coming Home In The Dark - stumbled across this on Netflix not expecting a lot but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Family are held up at gunpoint to be robbed on a picnic in New Zealand and things escalate. Not a new premise at all but thereā€™s a couple of nice twists and some really done set pieces - one with some teenagers in cars is properly tense. Endingā€™s a bit underwhelming but overall its done well

Mulberry Street - the first (I think) from the guy who made Stake Land/We Are What We Are. A proper low budget one where people are attacked by rats in New York and transform into ratty people themselves. For such a low budget film it does a good job at building the story and the practical effects are decent but the film does go down the route of making the second half just having people running away and avoiding being attacked, whilst the camera work is quite frenetic and tries to avoid focusing too long on the creatures which makes it hard to really get engaged.

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I enjoyed Coming Home In The Dark - very bleak. That early death lets you know that you are not in for a fun rideā€¦

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Yeah I expected a standard Netflix thing but it was well done - thought the lead antagonist was really good in the role too

Didnā€™t realise it had made it to Netflix. I saw it at Frightfest last year, so glad itā€™s got an opportunity to find an audience :+1:

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crossposting my thoughts on Men.

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Um, I quite liked it.

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Watched recently ā€“ Shadows: The Witchā€™s Bottle Three episodes in to this 70s kids supernatural anthology show and this one definitely has a lot going for it, even if it never quite scales the heights of last weekā€™s After School. Premise here sees brother and sister visit their uncle in his super atmospheric country cottage. Thereā€™s a tree in the back garden that, according to legend, was the site of a witch-burning. Before you know it, the sister is coming over all unnecessary. This is the seriesā€™ first foray into folk horror; one of the genuine pleasures of exploring the backwaters of 70s British TV is the ease with which you come across occurrences of this sub-genre. Thereā€™s a sĆ©ance scene that would definitely have got to me when I was younger, although adult me didnā€™t find anything here quite as creepy as the goings-on in After School. (Having said that, the initial appearance of the ā€˜herbalistā€™ neighbour below is really well done). The ending here leaves something to be desired. Itā€™s not bad, but after an episode thatā€™s mostly taken itself seriously, thereā€™s a sudden tonal shift that, while fitting, is a bit jarring. Still, on the whole, I really enjoyed this ā€“ itā€™s super atmospheric (even the external scenes, which are clearly shot on set, have an off-kilter fairy tale feeling to them) and if you like the witchier end of folk horror, this is definitely recommended.

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Dashcam was another great ride, even if Annie Hardy is borderline unbearable (just stop it at the right moment, like Pink Cellphone), and it wasnā€™t quite as inventive as Host. Still lots of holy shit moments and it will never not be an exciting way of showing violence erupt from general mundanity. Wonder how many more of these sorts of films heā€™s got in him though.

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Interesting, I feel like most of the press Iā€™ve seen for this has been pretty negative. Might have to give this a go at some point.

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Itā€™s definitely worth a watch Iā€™d say. Some of itā€™s a bit obvious and Annie Hardyā€™s character is awful (presuming thatā€™s deliberate), but it can be just as thrilling and unpredictable as Host at points.

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Totally agree with this. Is she an asshole in real life? I was really tired when I watched it, but kept being woken up by horrific things. Will rewatch, but skip up to when she meets Angela.

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It was pretty convincing wasnā€™t it?! I think it is her persona but magnified quite a bit to sayā€¦something vague about libertarianism and social media. Not entirely sure what its angle was overall though!

Holy shit, Iā€™ve just rewatched it and have no idea how I could sleep through so much of it. Absolutely relentless. Her being such a jerk really plays with the final girl trope. The ā€˜real time commentsā€™ on screen were at times distracting, but also revealed something ahead of time too? Surprised I could stay focused considering I gave up half an hour into Hardcore Henry with itā€™s similarly erratic/ jarring camera work. Itā€™s not Host, but what is?

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Where did you watch this, buddy?

I rented it on Amazon Prime for a fiver but thereā€™s probably less legal avenues to go down!

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It is pretty incredible how seamless it all is, and that it is more action-oriented kept it fresh for me. Thought it got the balance of shaky stuff and fixed angle right as well so it wasnā€™t too disorienting. I did try and read the comments when I could too - when Angelaā€™s mouth starts bleeding in the car is a pretty good example of what you mention! Iā€˜d be interested to see what else he can get out of different technologies.

OK thanks!

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Gonna post more tomorrow as I need to go to bed but Iā€™ve just finished Dashcam and it has one of the most unlikeable main characters in a film, its filled with inexplicable actions and its altogether quite unpleasant and I absolutely loved every second like no film Iā€™ve seen in ages

If you go down the less legal routes to watch it, make sure you get the right Dashcam as I spent 5 minutes watching a film from last year with the same name but isnt the Rob Savage one (did seem quite good though and I will watch it this weekend as well)

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definitely less in love with Scream 5 on a rewatch - just goes to show what a positive impact a good cinema trip can have on your enjoyment of something, need to get myself back to actual screenings asap!

still thought it was very very good and the second best Scream and one of my fav horror sequels ever, just maybe not film of the year category like I said at the time :smiley:

but yeah, liked all the commentary, liked the new characters and cared for them, liked the introduction of the old characters and the continuation of older storylines, the jokes landed for me etc etc. Would have liked bloodier kills but some were pretty brutal, didnā€™t get the anaemic criticism I saw levelled at it a few times. Ending was definitely the weakest part and felt a bit rote, but thatā€™s the case even with some of the truly great horrors so, shrug

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