This is my "Internet is Broke + my a local video store was having a sale" film festival.
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So far I've watched Ghost Story, UHF, and Dominique. I bought some sake and sushi from the grocery store, now I'm going back for Round 2.
I watched 8 of the 11 movies I had picked out for this weekend (Candyman, Don't Look Now, and Flesh+Blood may be on the docket tonight if my internet doesn't get fixed today
).
Ghost Story (1981) - Does what it says on the tin. This is a nice and spoopy ghost story, that's heavy on the wintery New England atmosphere and mounting sense of dread. It does lose some of the tension when it decides to make the ghost unambiguously real instead of leaving it up to the viewers imaginations whether the characters are being haunted by a ghost or only their own guilty consciences.
3.5/5
Dominque (1978) - Another ghost story, but this one is creaky and without much bite. It tries to subvert the old trope of
Gaslight by having the gaslighter become the gaslightee, but it spends way too much time building up to any real suspense, only to have it resolved way too quickly and unsurprisingly. A failing businessman starts messing with his wealthy wife's mind after she injures her head in an accident. She commits suicide at the end Act 1, leaving her husband sure to collect her fortune if he can just wait until the reading of her will a few weeks later on October 31st. The last hour of the movie is him creeping around the mansion, being haunted by strange whispers and ghostly apparitions. A bit of a snoozer.
1.5/5
UHF (1989)I haven't seen this movie since college. It's still really funny, but tbh the plot is awful. They should have jettisoned all the parts with his girlfriend and the network boss trying to take over the station, and just made a Kentucky Fried Movie style film of loosely connected shorts, centered around them running a UHF station (the fuck is a UHF station, amirite, fellow millenials?). Victoria Jackson is
, Kevin McCarthy is great as the snarling rival studio head, but most of the ancillary scenes related to that plotline are
. Just keep racist Kramer making kids drink from his fire hose and the racist Japanese stereotypes intact.
3/5
Party Line (1988)Speaking of "Only 80's kids will remember", how about party lines, eh? How about Richard Hatch and Leif Garrett, eh? This movie sucks, and not even in a fun and trashy way, like the cover implies. It's about an incesty brother/sister duo who lure adulterous men to their house using an adult party line, and then murder them in a reenactment of the murder of their abusive father. Richard Hatch plays the loose-canon, doesn't-play-by-the-rules cop that is assigned to solve the case, along with the sexy, but straight-laced Assistant DA. It's very bad. A 1 star movie, but I'll give it 2 stars because of an exchange between the siblings early in the movie after the brother messes up playing the piano and slams the keys and his sister says "You just ruined father's favorite piece" to which the brother snarks back "You were father's favorite piece. "
2/5
Black Sunday (1960)The B&W camera work in this movie is gorgeous. The long shadows, the bright contrasts, the spooky gothic interiors, the moldering cemeteries and crypts.*chefs kiss* As far as style goes, it's up there with Universal classics like Dracula and Bride of Frankenstein. The plot is a bit too familiar, but even it is pulled off with some nice touches, like the Mask of Satan being hammered down on the witch, and the scene where her eyes are bubbling back into her face after being brought back with blood. Great movie.
4/5
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)I love comedy road movies, and this one is the original. It's not as laugh-out-loud funny as it probably was 55 years ago, but it's still a joy to watch. The Criterion Blu-Ray that restores the movie back to 197 minutes is spectacular.
4.5/5
C.H.U.D. (1984)CHUD is a movie that I only knew because of reputation, mainly because of it's absurd but kind of awesome title. It really enjoyed it, it was a fun little B creature feature. The CHUDs were nicely done, the sewer sets were effective, Daniel Stern was great in a pre-Home Alone role, and I was surprised to see John Goodman in an early (albeit minor) role as well, as the cop that hits on the burger joint waitress and then gets killed by a CHUD.
3.5/5
Dressed to Kill (1980)I wish I could save a high-priced hooker's life and then hang out at her apartment and solve murders and trade stock tips.
4/5
