Stalker (1979)

Three people go off into the wild in search of a possibly-supernatural phenomenon. On their way, they bicker with each other, getting on each other’s nerves (and sometimes the nerves of the audience, too). We never actually see any of the terrifying things that confront them… but toward the end, a woman makes a tearful confession directly into the camera, and…

And…

Ummm, even though all this is technically accurate, I see I’m inadvertently giving a description of the wrong film. Let me try again:

Our protagonist goes from a mundane, monochrome world into a mysterious land of color, where nothing is quite the same; and (with some curious, ill-matched companions and a dog) follows a winding path on a quest for a magical place where they’ve heard their wishes will be granted… Theyyyyy’re off to see the…

Oh, boy. Now I’m really describing the wrong movie. Forget it. Just read the damned review, OK?

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I had two different lists of possible second films for this Roundtable: one of bad-place-but-not-a-haunted-house films, one of potential Resurrected Reviews that fit the profile…

…only then, having waded through the entire cinematic Amityville oeuvre* – and I think waded is the right word – I got curious about how The Murder House trope might operate away from the Amityville framework.

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SINISTER (2012)

…in which a struggling true-crime writer, in an attempt to reboot his career, moves himself and his family into the site of a notorious, unsolved mass murder and child abduction…

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(*Yes, yes: I’m aware that there’s one more to go and at least one more on the way. Sigh.)

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The title of the movie Quackser Fortune Has A Cousin In The Bronx fortunately does not overshadow the great amount of charm and humanity in the movie itself.

While George Kennedy is one of the stars, Death Ship isn’t a disaster movie. At least with the typical use of the term.

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You were expecting maybe something else? ANYTHING else??

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THE AMITYVILLE HAUNTING (2011)

…in which found footage reveals the fate of the latest bunch of idiots who just couldn’t say ‘no’ to a real-estate bargain…

This offering from The Asylum was sold as a documentary, cut together from video images found after the tragedy, which is why it has no credits.

Sure…that’s why…

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One of the final efforts by Crown International Pictures, Hunk takes the tale of Faust and tries to make it a comedy, though the filmmakers forgot to add the laughs.