I fell a little behind with day five and didn't get to watch any movies, but I squeezed one in on day six and three more in on day seven. Day six's only viewing was The Wild Hunt (2009). Anyone who reads this blog may have gathered that I'm a sucker for horror movies that involve role-playing games, so I was happy to stumble upon this movie which centers around a group of live action role-players. In it, a guy gets caught up in one of these medieval reenactments when he goes there after his girlfriend who has just broken up with him. When emotions start to run high for everyone involved, the line between reality and fantasy begins to blur and things become increasingly unlikely to end well for anyone. The Wild Hunt takes a long time to get started and there were points where I thought that I had been duped into watching a drama/comedy under the false pretense of it being a horror film. However once the film's endgame begins to unfold, it very clearly becomes a horror film and a rather good one at that. 9 1/2 out of 12 beers.
Determined to play some catch-up on day seven, I put on The Refrigerator (1991). In this intentionally ridiculous movie, a young couple rent out a cheap apartment in New York only to find out that their refrigerator is actually a man-eating portal to hell. Nothing special here. The concept is silly fun and there are a few good refrigerator kills, but most of the movie falls flat and gets old pretty quick. It's a decent film to watch with friends and get a few chuckles out of, but don't expect too much. 5 out of 12 beers.
Next up was Night Life (1989). This was a really fun take on the zombie movie. Archie works part time at a mortuary run by his uncle (John Astin, who seems to be phoning it in but is still great) and is harassed by the popular kids at his school. When the same kids die in a terrible automobile accident and come back as murderous ghouls, he has to find a way to stop them and the zombie menace. This movie sets itself apart from other zombie flicks by having it's zombies display a reasonable amount of intelligence. Unfortunately, none of the characters come off quite as charismatic as they need to be to keep us fully invested. That being said, Night Life was still good fun and earns 8 1/2 beers. Unlike the next movie I sat through...
Under The Skin (2013) is an exercise in patience and a perfect example of style over substance. While the film does a lot of cool things, if you asked me what it was about I couldn't tell you. The best I can gather is that Scarlett Johansson plays some sort of alien sexual predator that cruises around in a van and lures men into dark places so that she can suspend them in a dark abyss and steal their insides... maybe? Some other things happen, but by the time they do I had already lost patience with this movie. I understand that defenders of the movie will tell me that "it's a metaphor" or that "it's a movie that's meant to be experienced instead of simply watched" and I get that. I'm a very big fan of both David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky. I'm okay with unconventional films. I just prefer to have some sort of narrative structure, no matter how bizarre, to go along with it. If you're not telling me a story, why am I watching a movie? I imagine that there are people out there that absolutely love this movie and good for them, but it just was not for me. To me, this movie is the equivalent of having a drunk person at a party talk your ear off about all of their deep philosophical ideas about the human condition without allowing you to get a word in edgewise. It's a one-sided conversation that goes nowhere and ends with someone falling asleep or leaving. 1 beer.
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