The Last Movie You Watched

[Foxaèr]

Aftermath

A young couple struggling to stay together, when they are offered an amazing deal on a home with a questionable past that would normally be beyond their means. In a final attempt to start fresh as a couple they take the deal.

[Foxaèr]

Death of Me

A vacationing couple must discover the mystery behind a strange video that shows one of them killing the other.

[Gwaithmir]

My houseboy had never seen this movie, so I got it down from my DVD collection and we watched it while having supper. He thought it was an "awesome" film. 

[Rev. Rye]

This week in the Deep Hurting Project: because this marks the 52nd anniversary of the Tate-LaBianca murders (well, at least Monday does), The Haunting of Sharon Tate. Fun Fact: this film was released around the same time as Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. That film thoroughly trounced this one in the hearts of critics, audiences, and Sharon Tate's sister. Debra Tate compared seeing Margot Robbie's performance as Sharon Tate to seeing her sister alive again after 50 years. This film? She just called it tasteless, classless, and exploitative. 

• So, here's the basic premise for this film: it tries to turn the murders into a sort of supernatural slasher film by giving her premonitions eerily reminiscent of the way she'd actually be murdered. According to Debra: “I know for a fact she did not have a premonition — awake or in a dream — that she and Jay would have their throat cut. I checked with all of her living friends. None of her friends had any knowledge of this. Tacky, tacky, tacky.”
  
• Why is this scene of the bodies being discovered so drawn out? And why aren't we seeing the writing that the Manson family put on the walls in their victims' blood?
  
• Ideas for a Haunting of Sharon Tate drinking game: take a shot for every random potshot the film makes about Roman Polanski. And for every scene where absolutely nothing happens, take another shot, but drink it SLOWLY.
  
• Her once-spectacular ass? You know, the funny thing is, a lot of guys actually find an expanded ass more attractive.
  
• Talking a shitton about fate, a weird roulette wheel that tells the future? This has to be some of the most on-the-nose forehadowing I've ever seen in a film.
  
• I'm aware that, yes, Sharon Tate had a dog named Dr. Sapirstein (after the Satanist doctor from Rosemary's Baby), but she seems to have mostly called him "Sappy." Having her repeatedly calling him by his full name is just weird. Also, that wasn't even Sharon's dog at the time of the murders. Wojciech Frykowski accidentally ran him over when she was away, so Roman immediately bought her a new dog, and she named the new dog Prudence. And, unlike Dr. Sapirstein, Prudence managed to survive the murders and went into the care of Sharon's parents.
  
• Was that a jump scare from a fucking ice machine?
  
• Don't put Sharon under any stress, so why not have a woman who's 8 1/2 months pregnant go on a hike in the desert?
  
• Dr. Sapirstein stays outside all the time, but they still went ballistic when he ran out in the middle of the night? Also, looking at that canopy, I can't be certain that doing so would be a good idea. Especially in the California summers, although, to be fair, the hottest it got in LA that summer was 83 degrees. .Fahrenheit, and I'm going to be sitting in even bigger heat when I go to Ravinia. 
  
• So, the Manson family are sending the Tates their old tapes? Why the fuck is this The Strangers?
  
• I'm sorry, we're being harrassed by these weird hippies and you're talking about fate?
  
• Yep, it's officially The Strangers: Manson Family Edition. Kinda redundant when you consider that the Manson murders were already inspiration for the original film.
  
• "You're going to die and I can't feel a damn thing behind it?"
  
• Also, the Manson family kills Sharon and co. So why do we still have half the movie le- Oh. It's a nightmare. One that played out the exact same as the actual murder.
  
• So, you're hallucinating that someone put a decomposing animal in the fridge, and your friends are telling you everything is fine? This reminds me of Rosemary's Baby, where Rosemary's being gaslit by her friends and family so that she becomes okay with giving birth to the Antichrist. In this case, what is the fucking point?  
  
• Also, probably a minor note, but it's kinda strange that Sharon's always wearing shoes. This isn't just me as a foot fetishist spoiled by Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, it was well-known that Sharon Tate IRL was a big enough barefooter that she basically Leibnized her way into inventing the barefoot sandal so she could get away with going barefoot in public. Here, she's even wearing shoes while she's poolside, and eight and a half months pregnant. 
  
• Very strange that "Helter Skelter" made it into the Manson tapes. Especially weird since they were recorded in 1967, long before The White Album came out and Manson included the Helter Skelter horseshit into his ideology. Also, they can only be noticed if played backwards? That's not how backmasking works.
  
• So, Charlie's already threatening to kill the inhabitants of 10500 Cielo Drive. Why the fuck aren't they calling the cops?
  
• Abigail Folger and Wojciech Frykowski were in on the plot? Are you fucking shitting me?
  
• Also, that blood in the bathtub effect looks like shit. When it's pouring out, you can easily see that there's a clear layer of water surrounding the "blood."
  
• And how the fuck did "Helter Skelter" get on the bathroom walls when she locked herself in the- Oh. It's just another fucking dream.
  
• Third rule for the drinking game: every time they decide to shoehorn a random slasher movie cliche, like the lines being cut or the car that won't start, take another shot.
  
• Why do Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel sound like they're on Ember's Ghost Squad?
  
• Frankly, the Manson family murders would probably be more dramatically effective if you didn't foreshadow it by repeating it word for word in a dream sequence. Hell, the sheer unexpectedness of the murders (plus the fact that a film star was involved) was probably a big part of why it's so famous today.
  
• Oh, so it looks like Sharon Tate's the one who killed the Manson family this time around.
  
• That moon should  not look this full at this point in August 1969.
  
• So, here's the twist, it's basically a longer, more drawn-out and pointless version of this:
  
  
  Except it's everybody at Cielo Drive and not just Sylvia Likens. Bite me, Daniel Farrands.
• And we're ending on these long, dialogue-free shots that may or may not have any real dramatic point.
  
• Um, Sharon, I don't think looking at your own bloody corpse is the time to talk about wanting to be a faerie princess.
  
• Holy shit, I recognise the name Monette Moio from Elliot Rodger's manifesto. And she's apparently working as a stunt double. I should probably keep more of an eye on stunt doubles in the future.
  

Note: I have a prior engagement at Ravinia (the CSO are playing Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante, a favourite of mine), so it's likely I'll have to stop mid-film so I can meet it. Scratch that, made it.

[onlinebiker]

My houseboy had never seen this movie, so I got it down from my DVD collection and we watched it while having supper. He thought it was an "awesome" film. 

Houseboy?


No shit....


Do you ever find yourself wanting to call him Dobby?


I wouldn' t be able to keep myself from doing so....


Don' t give him socks for Christmas.....

[Spongebob]

My wife and I went to see Stillwater at the theater last weekend. It's a very watchable film but not a blockbuster. Some people have criticized it because it was "inspired" by the true story of Amanda Knox, and the filmmaker did not deny this fact. But the film actually focuses more on her father than the stand-in for Knox, so we get an entirely different story with just the framing of the Knox ordeal. I was impressed by the depth and complexity of the characters, versus the carboard cutouts we get in a lot of films. I felt like I knew Bill extremely well at the end of the film and I had sympathy for him despite some of the foolish things he had done.

[brewer]

Fish Don't Blink, only cause it had Wheaton and Grieco.

[arewethereyet]

Birds of Prey. It turns out I like these movies based on comics. Fun movie.

[Spongebob]

Did anyone else watch The Tomorrow War on Amazon Prime? I read some terrible reviews but decided to watch it anyway to see just how bad it was. The basic story idea wasn't that bad, not very original, but the writing, characterization, direction and editing was just abysmal. I think they produced this thing over a long weekend.

[HappySkeptic]

Did anyone else watch The Tomorrow War on Amazon Prime?  I read some terrible reviews but decided to watch it anyway to see just how bad it was.  The basic story idea wasn't that bad, not very original, but the writing, characterization, direction and editing was just abysmal.  I think they produced this thing over a long weekend.

I enjoyed it.  There wasn't a single original idea, but I liked the actors and the genre.