#a very ridgeway halloween 20XX

[ridgeworld2006]

A VERY RIDGEWAY HALLOWEEN 20XX: CREEP 2

I only knew the very basic premise going in, and having watched the original right before I have to say... this is actually better than the original lmao. and frankly building off the original makes this one EVEN GAYER if you have the eyes for it.

DON'T GET ME WRONG, the original is good in its own right, but the second takes a more interesting angle to the same idea and OOH it's good. it's so good. I hesitate to say it's completely ahead of its time, but it's close... ironically, it actually totally delivers on the suggested premise of a "look into the mind of a serial killer," being that they're mostly just creepy fucking guys who are such pathetic spineless wastes of life that they have to give themselves as unfair an advantage over other people as possible and who lose all their power on even footing, and how the public feeding into the "hype" around them just encourages this sort of thing to continue.

Even still, it has moments as tense as the first, even more so with the climax, which i won't spoil but has an amazingly tense back-and-forth that basically edges the audience as it keeps flipping the script until you're tearing your hair out, and it's GREAT-- me and the friends i was watching with were losing it trying to figure out what was real and what was a fake-out. And GOD that conclusion to that made us all LOSE it when* (spoilers below the cut).

Only criticism is that nightmare on elm street ass ending. when the climax is actually done and the scene changes and you're not sure if the movie is over, just turn it off. I think i get what they were trying to do, but it just feels tacked on and like... doesn't make sense? but oh well i at least get the thematic intention which improves it substantially... still maybe give urself a break between climax and ending... really soak it in.

*- sara finally WHACKS josef in the back of the head with the shovel. And the movie EARNS that ultimate climax, with how it pulls back the curtain on Josef's actual personality that the audience by this point has grown to be unable to STAND him and how long it takes sara to grab the shovel and crawl out of the grave quietly... genuinely great. and just when you think it couldn't get more perfect, his death is the same as aaron's too... {': snuck up on from behind and hit in the head with a heavy metal tool. snif snif

also it seems obvious to me josef is a really repressed faggot who kills basically only men (and after an extended period of doing really gay shit to them, no less) as like a fucked up way of dealing with it by like, getting that impulse "out of his system" and taking out the resultant self-hatred on a symbol of itself. You'll get it, watch the damn movies

[ridgeworld2006]

A VERY RIDGEWAY HALLOWEEN DAY 7: THE FUNHOUSE

I would not have thought, going in, that this movie would be the one I was most affected on finishing thus far... Most of what I have to talk about are spoilers, so i'll get the other stuff out of the way now: 1. That clown from the poster is freaky, i'd be sad it wasn't in the final movie if I didn't already like what we got. 2. That ending shot is great, chills 3. That bit toward the end with the crowbar is darkly funny. ZZZAP!

The best of this movie all revolves around Gunther (whose design fucking rules, by the way-- I'm surprised that's not a more common horror trope, it seems so obvious to do looking back). Both him and his dad do some vile shit in this movie, and there's no doubt about it; all the same, they're tragic villains. That scene where Gunther's convinced to kill the main characters is honestly kind of heart-wrenching in a way that's kind of hard to explain if you haven't seen it. If you know, you know, i guess. It just seems like the both of them were destined to end up this way, and maybe that's what all the allusions to god were getting at.

[ridgeworld2006]

A VERY RIDGEWAY HALLOWEEN 20XX DAY 6: STAGEFRIGHT

Decent slasher movie, would recommend. The acting is pretty bad and not in an over-the-top way that i'd like as much as the delivery is just very weird at times. Also the whole thing about how the killer even gets to the theater is super duper contrived, and while I don't mind that I think explaining that element at all takes away from the scariness of the movie (ESPECIALLY that first major kill, great idea but flawed execution all-around on that) as well as undermines the thematic nature of the killer's initial appearance.

With my big complaints out of the way, there are some pretty great moments in this, mostly comedic; for example the occasional cuts to the buddy cop duo doing fuck-all outside and that one idiot trying to go toe-to-toe with the killer and getting immediately fucked. Also a surprising amount of depth thematically for a slasher, you kinda have to keep an eye out for it but it's definitely there, especially the reappearance of the villain and how he kinda wins in the end after all, which usually I hate but works here for thematic reasons.

oh also the soundtrack fucking goes OFF i was literally jamming out half the movie. pretty much worth watching for that alone

[ridgeworld2006]

A VERY RIDGEWAY HALLOWEEN 20XX: TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2, THE BRIDE OF LEATHERFACE

I think the first thing i wanna get out out of the gate is that this movie is at its best in the first third, and i don't just mean it peaks there. i mean, like leatherface, it blows its load wayyyyy too early and underperforms thereafter as it struggles to get the viewer to climax. I love camp, that's not the problem for me; the problem is all the camp past the half hour-ish mark is boring as fuck, save for a few good moments like franklin's skeleton and stretch wearing that guy's face. I'd list the chainsaw duel as one of the better scenes of the last 2/3rds if not for the fact that Motel Hell did it better and six years earlier.

IN SPEAKING OF WHICH... i can't believe they missed the opportunity to have stretch join the family and marry leatherface. i TOTALLY thought that's where it was going and was genuinely dissappointed to see it wasn't-- all that setup goes nowhere so the movie can instead do the world's most mind-numbingly boring spoof of the original's climax. IT WOULD HAVE FIT WITH THE TONE SO WELL... i totally thought the bit with the mask disguise would be like her origin story. I usually love it when narratives just do whatever they want, but at the same time i can't stand wasted potential.

ALL THAT SAID... still worth watching, just for the first third and the few funny scenes thereafter.

[ridgeworld2006]

A VERY RIDGEWAY HALLOWEEN 20XX DAY 2: HOUSE

dudes will say they like chubby girls and then they mean Mac

Had a good time with this one, it's more "spooky" than scary on the whole but the effects looking very "unreal" actually helps the horror element a ton. its kinda hard to describe if you havent seen the movie but its kinda like something you'd see in a dream, especially one that dips in and out of "nightmare" territory. For me, this especially goes for the floating head and the piano bit, both are actually kinda uncanny to watch.

The way the shots are edited is really good as well, i really like it when movies experiment like that and aren't afraid of being "silly," it makes for a much more visually interesting and distinct movie

[ridgeworld2006]

A VERY RIDGEWAY HALLOWEEN 20XX: CUBE MORE LIKE ACAB

SPOILERS (the whole thoughts) UNDER THE CUT (we'll see if i'm doing this right)

uhhhh yeah that was the shit. god what a brilliant climax and what a (also helpfully budget-cutting) "anticlimax". very Eide way to go out which fits considering their personalities are pretty similar. when i FINALLY finish crow cillers i wonder if marcus will go out like that (if at all). Armchoppy seems to be the usual fashion for whatever archetype they are. i feel like there are guys out there who will be like "quentin was right though, skyler was the real villain". totally faked me out thinking at first too thinking quentin was gonna be the "main character" and rolling my eyes but hahaha nope.

also that scene with the sound detector was fucking tense as hell i usually dont get that way anymore about movies but DAMN idk if it was cause i was high but i was heart a-thumpin blood a-pumpin etc etc about it

i think its really cool they never showed what was outside The Cube or why, just let the characters (and audience) speculate. also fight club guy kinda "dragging quentin to hell" was sick i love that type of trope (both "i'm taking u with me" and a particularly awful bastard getting metaphorically pulled down into hell)

only complaint is the bit about the cubes moving seemed obvious from the start like i took it so much for granted that when the characters figured it out i was like "wait i thought we already knew this?" but luckily i didnt connect their solutions to that fact (i was and am still mildly high) until that moment so i wasnt bored or irritated about it. still worth watching though ofc, i wanna know what people think the cube is for in-universe (theres probably no real answer but i wanna hear interpretations). feel free to respond w them blink blink