Berlin Syndrome, 2017 - ★★★★

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I love seeing Germany represented well in an international movie... I don't mean the creepy kidnapper vibe, but more the general look and feel of the city of Berlin. And actual Germans actually speaking German.

And all of that by an Australian director, who would have thought.

I don't wanna take away too much of the plot, but the whole beginning felt to me like Before Sunrise, or maybe more like Spring because I knew it's a horror so I knew something has to go wrong. It's about an Australian girl visiting Germany and meeting a German guy, and falling for him. Hard.

The movie is great at setting up a romantic love story, yet having you feel worried all throughout. And then it goes crazy and manages to keep you interested and keep you wondering. After I was halfway through I was wondering how there were still 50 minutes left because so much happened already, but it kept on going and I was glued to the screen following along.

The score was great in a subtle way, also perfectly used. Just put an ominous score under a romantic scene and it starts feeling creepy right away.

The acting was perfect, the both main characters played their part perfectly.

The story isn't completely new, you've probably seen something similar before, but it is well executed.

Also movies set in Germany always get a slight bonus from me!

I'm rating this movie 4 out of 5 stars and a like. Check it out if you haven't, it's out on vod everywhere.

The Raven, 2006 - ½

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Another review in my ongoing My Horrible Collection 2 List, all the movies I talk about are picked at random.

Although it almost seems like a pattern that I'm only a few movies in and already watched my second Ulli Lommel film. Only a year after Zodiac, Lommel went to another classic, Poe's The Raven. Even though it still has more in common with the poem than Cormans movie of the same name, it's still much, much worse.

Most importantly, it didn't make any sense at all. At least in Zodiac I was still able to follow what was happening. But in this one I was lost almost instantly. Let me try to give a summary.

Eleonore is a poor orphan whose grandpa used to read her Poe's poems when she was little and she became obsessed with him. Now, all grown up, Poe actually stands next to her bed while she sleeps, while a Raven sits on her and moves roses. Also some other villain goes around and kills everyone Eleanore hangs out with as soon as she leaves them for a second. When she comes back, they are gone, never to be hears from again, but then again, I guess that's normal for her. Also there's some nuns involved somehow.

So as you can see, I love this movie... amateurishly shot, probably shot on tape instead of film. Poorly edited. The acting is shit. The gore is shit.

Yeah, just don't watch it. 1/2 out of 5 stars. Stay away.

PS: The Best adaptation of The Raven is still the first Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode!

The Spider and the Tulip, 1943

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The style of this short was pretty much that of Disney animation, maybe a few years earlier though. You can see the parallels.

The Dull Sword, 1917

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Watched on Tuesday September 26, 2017.

Ghost in the Shell, 1995 - ★★★

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Watched on Tuesday September 26, 2017.

Scarlet Street, 1945 - ★★★★½

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Watched this based on the recommendation of a friend, it's one of his favourite movies.

So far I loved the movies of Fritz Lang I had seen. So I was excited to watch this one, that's actually on youtube in a great quality.

It's about a simple cashier who meets a young, beautiful woman in danger. After saving her he spends the evening with her and because of some misunderstanding she thinks he's a famous painter. Thus, her ploy begins to trick this rich man out of his money, while he's actually just a poor cashier.

The story is great and you never know where it will go next.

What I thought was impressive where the characters. None of the main characters are good people, yet you understand their actuons and every now and then even side with them. Not something we have often in a movie from this time.

They dare to go places that were probably unvisited at the time they made this movie.

The acting was great, I believed them all.

I love that Lang always manages to put some sort of humour into his dark movies. Even here, in a movie that goes super dark at points, we have light moments of straight out comedy whenever our main character Chris is with his wife. It's the typical "married to an old nagging hag" relationship, but in this movie it is a central, needed relationship.

As you can see I really enjoyed Scarlet Street and I'm rating it 4.5 out of 5 stars and a like. Check it out!

Big Driver, 2014 - ★★★

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I read the Novella this is based on when it first came out. I'm a big Stephen King Fan so I was wondering when I found out this was made into a movie in 2014 and I never even heard of it. So I checked it out when I saw it on amazon prime.

It wasn't anything special, but it wasn't bad. It did the story justice as far as I remember. Acting was good.

Of course I knew the plot points and the ending. But I still enjoyed the movie enough.

I'm rating this 3 out of 5 stars and a like. Not the worst SK adaption, not the best.

2Everything2Terrible2: Tokyo Drift, 2010 - ★★★

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Watched as Part of the Letterboxd Movie Night.

And now I think I'm definitely on some sort of drugs.

In Search of the Wow Wow Wibble Woggle Wazzie Woodle Woo, 1985 - ★★½

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Watched as part of the Letterboxd Movie Night.

I feel like this Wow Wow Wallie Woodle Woo is some drug that I'm scared of trying!

Black Sheep, 2006

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Watched on Saturday September 23, 2017.

They Nest, 2000

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Watched on Friday September 22, 2017.

Logan Lucky, 2017 - ★★★★

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Watched on Monday September 18, 2017.

Mother!, 2017 - ★★★★★

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I went into this movie cold. I had seen one trailer, the one with all black and just voices. I knew of course that this is Arenofsky, so I had some expectations.

And yeah, this movie fucked me up good. After I got home the friend I watched this movie with actually sent me an article with an analysis (that I'm not gonna mention because I would suggest seeing this movie blind for maximum impact) that helped me understand this movie a bit more.

That being said, it's not like a David Lynch movie where you have to think hard or you won't get anything. This movie just works on many levels. You can watch it as a straight forward narrative (that most people probably won't like) or you can interpret it in many different ways. Just while watching I had at least 3 or 4 interpretations, that all still make sense.

The acting was great, every one of the characters did a great job doing their role.

A fair warning, even though this movie sounds and is very artsy, it is also artsy on the more fucked up side of things. Think Antichrist or Enter the void.

What it is not is a mainstream horror movie. There are two jump scares, that are both fake-outs. But this movie is great in setting up tension.

After all I just said still I don't know if I can recommend this movie to anyone I don't know personally. Audiences are split on this, you either love it or you hate it. I clearly loved it, but I could totally understand if anyone hated it.

I'm rating Mother! 5 stars, just because it is beautiful but also makes you think hard. Also I'm a big fan of movies that have one or multiple deeper meanings, yet are well done.

Plastic Bag, 2009 - ★★★½

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Can Werner Herzog narrate my life as well? Thank you.

Zodiac Killer, 2005 - ★

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Another entry in my Horrible Collection 2: Shock Harder list. I'm lucky I didn't start with this one, would have ruined the whole list for me.

I mean, there's some intriguing ideas in there, but overall it's just so low budget, so badly done, I don't even know how to describe it.

The acting is horrible, the story, while interesting, is badly executed. Some of the gore looks realistic, but I have a feeling that they simply used actual footage of dead people, which, if true, puts this movie down a notch because that's just disgusting.

So yeah, don't watch this. 1 out of 5 stars.

... I can't believe I own this as a Steelbook.

Psycho, 1960 - ★★★★★

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Watched on Saturday September 16, 2017.

The Room, 2003 - ★½

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I don't even know how to review this movie. It is so bad. Yet so good. I can't wait for The Disaster Artist.

She-Wolf of London, 1946 - ★★★

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This is my first watch in my Horrible Collection 2: Shock Harder list.

I actually enjoyed this more than I would. I mean, for Londoners their accent is pretty American, but hey, this was the 40s, I'll forgive it.

The story is actually quite interesting. Like it often was the case with classic werewolf movies, before they could show great transformations on screen, it's all about suspense.

Brutal Murders are happening in London, and it seems like they weren't done by a human. It seems there's a wolf, or maybe even a werewolf roaming the park at night. Our main character, a nice young woman, about to get married, wakes up after one of those murders with dirt on her shoes, wet clothes and blood on her hands. Is she a werewolf? Who knows.

Sadly, even though it is supposed to be a shocking twist, most of you will know what's happening far before that ending, because they really give it away, are pretty on the nose with it.

But still, I liked it. It's not a great movie, not one I would call a classic Universal monster film, but it is enjoyable enough. And it's really short, only about an hour. I could have definitely started off with a worse movie than this.

I'm rating She-Wolf of London 3 out of 5 stars, because even though the ending was foreseeable I enjoyed what I got.

The Ghost, 1982

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I have no idea what I watched... This movie is just weird and fun and kind of crazy. I feel there is lots of social commentary in this but to be honest I was too confused by what happened to realise anything.

Jesus comes down from his cross and gets into lots of whacky adventures. Like searching for shit for the Policemen who ordered it, only to then end up coming back to them and having them shit in shot glasses. But they don't succeed, so they shoot each other.

I really want to rate this but I can't. There is a level of weirdness that goes far beyond what I can grasp. I liked it though. In some weird whacky way, I liked this. So make of that what you want.

My Horrible Collection 2 - Shocktober

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Just like last year I decided to once again go through my horror movie collection.

Last year I had 125 unseen horror movies in my collection. I watched lots, but by now I added enough new movies to be at 128 unwatched horror films sitting on my shelf.

In order to reduce that number (until I once again get lots of new horror films) I will try this another time:

October is the favourite month of horror fans, so I'll use that month to watch as many horror movies from my collection as I can. My goal is to watch all 33 of the movies on this list by the 31st of October. They are all going to be horror movies I have not seen before. Optionally, I'll try to write a review for each one of these movies.

As last year we got a random order, and I'll be picking movies through a random number each time.
(for time reasons I'm going to start early, just to make sure I'll finish it this time)

1. A Tale of Two Sisters
2. Black Sheep
3. Crimson Peak
4. Dead Silence
5. Exorcist II: The Heretic
6. Hammerhead
7. Psycho
8. Swamp Thing
9. The Forest
10. The Legend of Hell House

...plus 23 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Afflicted, 2013 - ★★★ (contains spoilers)

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This review may contain spoilers.

A random watch, got this movie for my birthday and didn't even really look what it's about, just put it in.

I was pleasently surprised. Imagine going out to travel the world, only to be bitten by a vampire and then turning into one all so slowly... And capturing it all on footage to share with the internet.

The directors and stars of the film were so good. I guess it's because they are close friends in real life, but I just believed them.

I loved the special effects. They really used the found footage to their advantage by doing shots you didn't even think of, showing things in a fun new way.

I had lots of fun with the characters on their own, but then adding this vampire element really sealed the deal for me.

I'm rating Afflicted 3 out of 5 stars and a like.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, 1986 - ★★★★

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Tobe Hooper clearly knew he couldn't make a movie as impactful as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre again without it being a straight up remake. So he decided not to.

Instead he made a parody of the original movie, a different version of a similar family. Look at the poster alone!

I loved this from the very first second, when a similar preroll to the first movie runs, telling us about the events of that movie, but rolling slightly too fast so that the narrator had to hurry.

Then we get a great over the top scene of two assholes just shooting at stuff while being on the phone to a radio station. You root for them to die. And then we get the great special effects by none other than Tom Savini.

It's just so much fun and with the themes of cannibalism you still get some disturbing scenes that should not fit into the comedic theme of the movie but still fit perfectly.

I like this movie almost as much as I liked the first movie, but for completely different reasons. The first movie makes you scared and wonder, Leatherface is a hulking menace that would scare the shit out of you. In this, you just can't help but laugh at how grotesque it is. Even Leatherface (who looks kinda smaller) is now less scary and more just weird in a funny way.

In the end, this is a great enjoyable movie for all horror fans. I'd almost compare it to the Evil Dead Franchise, which is also a great mix of horror and comedy. I'm rating The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 4 out of 5 stars and a like.

PS: Ì hope someone told Dennis Hopper that this is not how you use a chainsaw to cut wood...

Little Evil, 2017 - ★★★

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This was a fun take on the "Antichrist" lore.

Imagine being the stepfather to the literal Antichrist. According to this movie, every step child is the Antichrist.

I love referential movies and this one is just full of subtle and not so subtle references to other movies starring evil children.

It's not as good as Tucker and Dale vs Evil (by the same director), but it's a fun time for sure. I'd say check it out if you like horror comedies in general and if you like movies about scary children and about love.

I'm rating Little Evil 3 out of 5 stars and a like.

Salem's Lot, 1979 - ★★★½

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Watched on Saturday September 9, 2017.

Twilight, 2008

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Watched on Sunday September 3, 2017.

The Emperor's New Groove, 2000

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Watched on Sunday September 3, 2017.

Don't Breathe, 2016

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Watched on Saturday September 2, 2017.

Vile, 2011 - ★★★

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I watched this movie as blind as can be, I only knew the bluray cover and that it was brutal.

Torture Porn is a genre that many people can live without. I like the genre because it makes me feel uncomfortable more than most other horror genres. So did this movie. Because if a movie makes me react in any way, that's a good sign.

Vile is an entry into this genre that tries to take it a different route. Imagine being stuck in a house and being told you have to torture each other to get out. And you know you'll be tortured soon as well. I love the idea of this movie and also the execution. Also the gore is not super graphic, but still enough to make you feel.

Sadly you can see this was a low budget effort, so while the acting is okay, it's weak at some points.

Also most of the characters are very one sided. Also it starts off so lovely, with 2 befriended, loving couples. But as soon as we are in the situation, only the main couple are really still kind of taking care of each other. For quite some time I, and the movie as well I think, forgot who the other couple was again. There were supposed to be some connections, but in the end it was just all random people with no connections in there.

Still, the movie was quite a watch, it's not for everyone, but if you wanna see a little twist on the genre, then try this out. 3 out of 5 stars.