"KEEP BUSTIN'."

My underrated horror list on Rupert Pupkin Speaks

tn_bereavementIf you haven’t seen the blog RUPERT PUPKIN SPEAKS, you’re missing out on some good stuff. He’s one of these rare individuals who knows his shit but is still relentlessly passionate and positive about movies, recognizing that at any given time there are way too many gems that you haven’t seen out there to fixate too long on hating the new Starbat prebootquel or whatever. Some of his passions include obscurities available from the Warner Archive and collecting weird movie novelizations.

Alot of his material is lists of recommendations from various guests, and every October he has an avalanche of underrated horror lists. I love reading these and have found some good ones from them, and I’ve always wanted to do one myself.

Well, he never invited me, so this year I just asked him if I could do one. And I guess he is a gentleman, so he said yes.

note: As you can see in the intro I tried not to overlap with anybody else’s lists, but I think P2 and maybe something else ended up on other lists after mine was submitted. But what can you do?

here’s my list

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4 Responses to “My underrated horror list on Rupert Pupkin Speaks”

  1. The Original... Paul

    October 27th, 2013 at 11:36 am

    Hmmmmmmmmmm… interesting list. Of the movies you list that I’ve seen, I’m afraid I would disagree with you on 2/3… The one I would agree wholeheartedly with is “Bereavement”, definitely my favorite of the movies you’ve mentioned. (And another of those great little movies that I would never have seen if it wasn’t for this website.) The thing that bothered you so much about it didn’t bother me at all… knowing what happened to certain characters in “Malevolence”, and considering whose “story” the movie is, I think it had to happen like that.

    Haven’t seen “Don’t go into the house” but I’ll pick it up if I see it. Sounds interesting at least.

    I haven’t seen “Highwaymen” either, but from what you’ve said it sounds a little like a cross between the Stacy Keach / J L Curtis thriller “Road Games”, which you recommended on this site and which I very much liked, and “Road Kill”, the faceless killer trucker movie starring Paul Walker that was about a thousand times better than I expected. Honestly if it’s as good as either of those movies I’ll probably enjoy it, so I’ll check it out as well when I have a chance.

    “Dead in 3 Days”… I like the style and the “natural” tone of it. I also like that the actors are clearly better than the standard slasher movie fare. But honestly this movie irritated the hell outta me for its frequent use of cliches that really should be dead and gone, from the very start (they’re still doing the “main characters’ eventual fate is foreshadowed when they hit an animal on the road” thing?) to the moment at the end that you mentioned, completely spoilt by the old cliche that one character can’t think to SHOOT THE KILLER IN THE DAMN LEG. There is absolutely no excuse for that.

    And “P2″… I just thought it was ok. I didn’t like the cinematography (that blue filter effect is another thing that I’d be quite happy to never see in any film ever again, along with “dramatic slow-mo” and the shakycam fight scene) and I didn’t think either of the two main characters were sufficiently interesting to carry the movie, although Wes Bentley was at least convincingly creepy.

    My choices would be “Hostel” and the Gabrielle Anwer version of “The Bodysnatchers”.

  2. The Original... Paul

    October 27th, 2013 at 11:56 am

    Just been checking out the other choices. I love that someone’s put “Cherry Falls” in there… unfortunately the same guy put “The Spiral Staircase”, which is one of those ’40s movies that I looked at on recommendation and was forced to the unhappy conclusion that it’s just aged really, really badly. I’m going to have to check out “Wendigo” – two separate people pointed out that one.

  3. BLOOD CREEK is way more entertaining than I anticipated, which I didn’t — never heard of it but was intrigued by the cover image

    so I gave it a spin.

    As usual, I recommend everyone go into it 100% tabula rasa, but I will risk entering ****SPOILER TERRITORY HOLY SHIT WE’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER FENCE TO KEEP OUT ALL THESE MINOR SPOILERS****
    to say that I look forward to Vern’s thoughts on the equine zombie attack sequence, as well as a possible corroboration of my theory that the narrative is a statement on inter-generational American war experiences (OIF/OEF vs. WWII vs. the guys who stayed civilians at home vs. sections of the country that are completely out of touch with the wider world).

    Also the ending turns into one of those hero-badass origin stories most of us like, leading to possible sequels & further [dtv] adventures. Also this is a Batman director directing Superman.

  4. Okay, I’ve severely undersold BLOOD CREEK. Initial impression was that Michael Fassbender was only in a couple early scenes, possibly only there because his agent was drunk and owed Schumacher a favor, and that the pathetic marketing for this shot-in-Romania Nazi-occult tale was doing that thing where it puts a more current star’s name in the top 3 credit listings to fool us into thinking it’s respectable.

    After further research, it turns out BLOOD CREEK is the unloved B-horror schlock in Fassbender’s closet, and he actually is one of the leads. The make-up job fooled me into thinking the main bad guy, the swastika-carving-skull guy there, was played by some anonymous whoever. But it’s Fassbender. That instantly makes the movie more absurd & enjoyable. Star power doesn’t hold much sway with my movie selection or taste, but this casting should intrigue some people.

    Maybe his turn in 12 YEARS A SLAVE wasn’t the evilest character in Fassbender’s resume.

    If you still need convincing, be advised it’s a ridiculous story told with a straight face, and it’s based on revenge, and the lead brothers have one of those moments where one asks the other to grab as much guns & ammo as he can to help him with a situation, no questions asked, and the other brother just fucking does it. Sort of a THE TOWN scenario, mixed with some ROLLING THUNDER, plus supernatural evil, plus a better role for the guy who played Dracula aka “Drake” in BLADE: TRINITY. And it’s less than 90 minutes long.

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