Year in Review: 2017

Misery Mill Year in Review: 2017

2017, Jesus. Even without politics it's been a year. I'm having difficulty remembering what movies I saw this year, specifically remembering that they were from this year. Spider-Man: Homecoming was only just this summer, as was Get Out, which seems impossible. As I'm writing this, I still haven't managed to see the new Star Wars and I probably won't for a while yet--not because of any of the vitriol, though. Frankly, all the complaints make it sound like something I'd like. I'm putting it off because there will be time to see Star Wars and I'm more concerned with seeing Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri before that leaves theaters. I did manage to catch a few screenings at this year's Philadelphia Film Festival, which was nice since it'll be my last one. Of course, most of the movies I saw came from the Graveyard Shift, aka the festival's genre offerings. Three stood out:

Takashi Miike's Blade of the Immortal was nice, but felt like it was trying to make too many nods to what are larger plots in the manga and anime. One very nice aspect of the movie was its repetition of every character having their own story, but having to recognize that this story isn't their story.

A movie I enjoyed a bit more even though narratively it's a bigger mess than anything I've seen recently was Jeong Byeong-Gil's The Villainess. The opening sequence had a higher body count than most films I've seen, and I've seen some monstrous movies. The plot is profoundly absurd and all the better for it. Plus the action sequences aren't just brutal and inventive, they necessitate a making-of documentary. If there isn't a visual effects special on the Blu-ray, it's not worth buying.

The final movie I'll mention actually comes out next year: Justin Benson and Aaron Scott Moorhead's The Endless. The only thing I'll say is don't watch any trailers, don't read any descriptions, just go in cold. The movie has a turn that I'm sure will make a lot of people check out, but it's best to go in and have the elements unveiled for you the way they are for the characters. What I can safely say of the plot is the starting point: two brothers escaped a UFO cult ten years before. After receiving a video from the cult, the two decide to go back to answer lingering questions. I really loved it.

In my personal life, for a variety of reasons, I decided to quit working in higher ed and pursue teaching English overseas. I'll be getting my teaching certification in the next few months and, hopefully by August I'll be in Korea starting a new job. I'm excited, nervous, and reconsidering a lot of my life. On a less introspective note, I've also started hosting a bad movie night at a local bottle shop, specifically The Bottle Shop. Trash Tuesdays every Tuesday at 8. I only started this December, but I'm hopeful it'll be a thing by the time I leave in August. I can guarantee several peak pieces from the Misery Mill will be screened.

Anyway, what all this means for the Misery Mill itself is very little. I'll have all the movies with me and will continue to watch and review them at the rate of two a week, hopefully getting everything done in a reasonable time. All that said, let's get to the purpose of this post, the Misery Mill Year in Review:

So far I've watched 237 of the 400 movies, but, because some of the movies are on multiple sets, I've actually knocked 292 movies off the list (because my list includes the movies from the Sci-Fi and Horror packs that I watched before, the number is actually 392 out of 501). I said when I started this project that it would take me until August 2019. Last year, I said the final date will be March 15, 2019. The current end point is January 18, 2019. The thought that I'll be finishing off most of these box sets in the next year is staggering.

Fun movies of note from this year:

A Bucket of Blood
City Ninja
Click: The Calendar Girl Killer (kind of)
Fighting Mad
The House That Screamed
The Kidnapping of the President
Memorial Valley Massacre
Ninja Champion
The Patriot (WTF WTF WTF)
Top Cop

Here, as of 31 December, 2017, are the movies currently available through the Internet Archive. Links lead to the Misery Mill posts which have links to streaming copies:
All the Kind Strangers
The Amazing Transparent Man
Anatomy of a Psycho
Atomic Rulers of the World

The Bat
Battle Beyond the Sun
Beast From Haunted Cave
The Big Fight
Black Cobra
Black Fist
Blood Mania
Bloodlust!
The Bloody Brood
Bloody Pit of Horror
A Bucket of Blood

Carnival of Crime
City Ninja
Counterblast
Curse of Bigfoot

The Day the Sky Exploded
Death Machines
Death Rage
Deep Red
The Demon
Devil Times Five
The Devil’s Hand
The Disappearance of Flight 412
Don't Look in the Basement
Doomsday Machine
The Driller Killer
The Dungeon of Harrow

Embryo
End of the World
Eternal Evil
Evil Brain From Outer Space

Fighting Mad

The Giant of Metropolis
Good Against Evil
Grave of the Vampire
Green Eyes
Guru, the Mad Monk
The Guy From Harlem

Hands of a Stranger
Hands of Death
Horror Express
Horrors of Spider Island

I Bury the Living
I Eat Your Skin
The Image of Bruce Lee
The Impossible Kid
Infernal Street
Invaders From Space
Invasion of the Bee Girls
Iron Angel
It's Alive

Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter

Keep My Grave Open
Kung Fu Arts

The Legend of Bigfoot

Mama Dracula
Man in the Attic
Manos: The Hands of Fate
The Manster
Mesa of Lost Women
The Mistress of Atlantis
Monstroid
Moon of the Wolf

Night Fright
Night of the Blood Beast
Ninja Death
Ninja Heat

Prisoners of the Lost Universe

Radio Ranch
Rattlers
The Real Bruce Lee
The Return of the Kung-Fu Dragon
The Revenges of Doctor X

The Sadist
Scared to Death
Shadow Ninja
Shadow of Chinatown
Shaolin Temple
Shock
Silent Night, Bloody Night
Sisters of Death
Slashed Dreams
Snowbeast
Star Odyssey

Throw Out the Anchor!
TNT Jackson
Track of the Moon Beast

War of the Robots
The Werewolf of Washington