It’s been quite a long time since I’ve been doing this blog and watched countless movies (and tv shows). And how I approach these are just having an open mind, not having big expectations and most of the time, I’m never disappointed. I find that I’ve had a good time. It’s the rare moments when I don’t are the most memorable.
I was trying to think of all the movies I’ve seen during the pandemic, “post”, when I was younger and experiencing horror as a kid on tv or in movie theaters and gosh, those are a lot of big memories. And as big as a percentage those are in a positive/fun/learning light, I’ve written some reviews where I was very… wtf or “this is awful” or just flat out anger cos execution could have been better so we’re gonna talk about that today.
Also, I am a bit of an emotional wreck because of BTS (if you know, you know) so if it appears if I’m struggling in this, I am!
Let’s start with the biggest one off the top of my head: The Beast Must Die from 1974. I think I was just overwhelmingly disappointed with everything. I saw that I didn’t give a full review, it was a quick snippet in the Lightning Round Reviews post and I gave it a 3 out of 5. This film has a great cast attached to it: Peter Cushing, Charles Gray, Michael Gambon, Marlene Clark and the other actors who fill out the cast, I would assume were great in their own right. But a good ensemble cast does not a good film make! The plot is interesting, a werewolf creature is among a group at an English mansion and we have to figure out who it is.
Fine, I love a good werewolf film. However, this one dropped the ball. And you know how? Little subtle details could have changed this film. Did we need the Shaft sounding music every time our lead black actor was on screen? Show us the werewolf creature better! And the biggest thing I disliked at all was this 30 second werewolf break? I have to figure out who it was? I don’t think audiences need that! It was so jarring that it took me out of the film and then when it started back up again, I couldn’t get back on board. It was unnecessary, in my opinion. I think of the film Clue (1985) as a good example of a mystery, figure it out yourself film that in retrospect, did it right. And the pauses at the end of different endings works to its campy advantage. The Beast however, flopped.
The second film I can think of is The House of Seven Corpses (1973). I physically own this film, on vhs, and I finally sat down to watch this. I’ve given a full review of this so I won’t go into too much detail, you can read it there but I’ll repeat myself: there’s no big payoff. And by that, I mean, I didn’t care about these characters in any way. The opposite problem is present compared to The Beast Must Die. I did somewhat care about those characters and I, too, was very curious about who the werewolf was. With Seven Corpses, the plot was interesting but the characters and payoffs weren’t developed. I truly wish that the world building of fiction mixing with reality of what they were doing was more expanded. And you had John Carradine in this and gave him nothing!
Hell House LLC 3 (2019) was more of just pure confusion. It’s been 2 years since I’ve watched that trilogy and what a fall from grace. The first film would HIGHLY recommend. If you enjoy found footage, haunted houses/property or demonic stuff in horror movies, that first one is great. The “found footage” scratchy effects are a little overdone or fake but other than that, please check out the first one. I’m still spooked by the clowns. The second is a full on rehashing of the first but not as good and the final one which is “Lake of Fire”, I don’t… I just, what? It goes too left field in my opinion and it feels like the odd one out of all 3. 1 and 2 feel more closer and cohesive and 3 is just there.
If I wanted to, I’d include the countless sequels of the big franchises that just make me want to pull out my hairs but I won’t do that. These are some immediate, recent watches I’ve had within the past couple of years.
I may not remember every single film I’ve seen so far but damn, I’ll remember the worst ones.
What films have you seen where you just weren’t on the horror journey anymore? Leave a comment below!
Shots of Horror 