Vampires (1998)

Nicole and I watched Vampires (1998). We had reasonably high hopes bc John Carpenter, but this vampire western was hot garbage. Misogynistic thug vampire-hunters James Woods and Daniel "Budget" Baldwin hunt "The Master" with lots of inane tough talk and gratuitous violence. (I've now filled my lifetime quota for hearing "you fucking bitch." 🙄) Also, there is a strange homophobic/repressed homoerotic thing going on with Woods' character... no idea what that's about. The vampires themselves were also pretty uninspiring, brain-dead cannon fodder. All the effects were super OTT too. There were a couple cool scenes, but honestly this one was kind of a slog. ~~ If you wanna watch dusty tough guys kicking vampire butt, watch From Dusk til Dawn (1996) instead. ~~ Thanks for hanging in there with me, Nicole!

Henry: A Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)

Henry: A Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) is a strange film, wherein the titular serial killer is the protagonist. I put off watching this film for a long time, because I don't like violence or gore in films. However, unlike in most slashers, you mostly don't see Henry killing his victims. Henry (Michael Rooker) goes about his daily activities, and the mutilated corpses of women surface in his wake. The murders, if not exactly incidental to his life, seem as natural as any other part of his routine. However, there were some graphic and deeply disturbing scenes in the movie. Rooker is almost TOO convincing as a cold-blooded, murderous thug. I don't know if I can really "recommend" this movie, but it was certainly effective for what it was -- a more realistic, less romanticized view of violence. It's based on a true story, too, of Henry Lee Lucas.

Hush (2016)

Thanks to Nicole for kicking off the top 100 countdown with me! First of the season was Hush (2016), a slasher with a strong female lead who is deaf and mute. This was interesting from a plot perspective (cf The Quiet Place), and I always enjoy seeing sign language represented in films (learned the sign for "bitch" haha), but unfortunately this was pretty much the only interesting part. As Nicole said, pretty standard cat-and-mouse stuff. And the gross violence/gore was frankly pretty gratuitous.

Must say, I'm not impressed with Mike Flanagan, who also did Gerald's Game, which sucked.

We Are What We Are (2013)

UPDATE: In the final assessment, I think this is not a good movie. It lacks depth. And in the end, mostly jump scares, and grotesque and uninventive violence.

Whoa We Are What We Are (2013) was super goddamn intense. Not too many movies leave me with heart pounding, thinking about puking. 😳 (Last one was the insane 2017 short film Julkita, which remains the most f*cked up thing I've ever seen.) Not sure yet if I think this was actually a GOOD movie tho... gonna have to let this one sit for a minute...

Hostel (2005)

 Hostel was super fucking gnarly.

The Signal (2007)

The Signal (2007) was brutal. 3 different segments by 3 directors - only Jacob Gentry's portion (Jealousy Monster) had any redeeming value, IMHO, because parts were very funny (photo is from this segment). The first part was meh and the third part was just ugly and awful. Overall "yuck" rating for the gratuitous violence against women, which felt motivated more by misogyny than by the plot.

From Dusk til Dawn (1996)

Horror movie 2 of Halloween season - From Dusk til Dawn. Standard gangster hijinks and then shit got weird. Like, Dead Alive weird.