What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by SymbioticFunction

It's good fun to watch this in anaglyph 3D with the cardboard glasses. The killer's head torch works especially well in anaglyph.

Although i didn't watch it in 3D i agree. In fact it's probably the best film on dvd i've seen as a showcase for the format.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Informers (2009)

Based on a series of short stories of the same name by Brett Easton Ellis, The Informers depicts an assortment of morally bankrupt, wealthy characters whose sense of emptiness and boredom is numbed by casual sex, alcohol and drugs in the almost alien decadent world of Los Angeles in 1983.

A good cast of Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Winona Ryder, Mickey Rourke, Rhys Ifans, Brad Renfro, Chris Isaak and a near constantly naked Amber Heard impress as does the early 80's soundtrack (Simple Minds, Devo...) but the film itself is devoid of humour and charm and ultimately aimless. There's no real story to it other than a week in the lives of these largely vacuous and unlikable people. In fact it's nicely summed up by it's final scene of Heard lying on a towel dying alone on an empty stretch of beach.

Interesting and bleak but in the end pointless.

[MrBarlow]

Lakeview Terrace. 2008.

Samuel L Jackson plays Abel, a family man and tough policeman who has rules for his two children and takes a different approach to Patrick Wilson and wife Kerry Washington who have just moved in and doesn't approve of a interracial couple.

This is one of those films that takes "Nightmare Neighbour" to a extreme and a policeman who has a few marks next to his name, based on a true story that happened in California. All actors in this play a decent part especially Big Samuel who tries to be nice then turns then becomes nice and turns again, as the movie went on, this became interesting as you never know how it will turn out as Abel uses his position to be a bully and how the victims will will react. Anyone want a decent tense thriller, check this one out.

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[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Cliffhanger (1993)

Sylvester Stallone plays a mountain ranger overcome with grief at the death of a colleague who is unwittingly drawn into a heist of a US Treasury plane crash flying high above the Rocky Mountains.

Director Renny Harlin teamed up with a star in Stallone whose career had stumbled slightly the past couple of years with critical flops Oscar and Stop! Or My My Mom Will Shoot. However together they deliver an exercise in fraught tension, terrific action set pieces and spectacular scenery in a high octane action adventure that reinstated Stallone as box office gold.

Shot before the days of instant CGI, Cliffhanger boasts an aerial stunt of breathtaking proportions with a crossing via cable line between two planes at an altitude of 15,000 feet which at the time was the most expensive aerial stunt ever filmed and probably remains so. The rest of the film is equally stunning with the rest of filming taking place high up in the Italian Dolomite mountains.

One thing that did irk a little was the main theme from Trevor Jones that pretty much pilfered key cues from his Last of the Mohicans score with Randy Edelman from the year previous. That being one of my favourite film scores made me think WTF? the first couple of times it appeared in Cliffhanger.

Although a favourite of mine and a film that transfers through the formats as my collection changes - cinema to vhs to dvd and now to Blu-ray thanks to StudioCanal's gorgeous looking 2018 restoration - i hadn't seen it in several years and tonight it felt like revisiting an old friend and catching up with the good times.

[Demoncrat]

Legend Of The Overfiend (1989, Hideki Takayama)

Fun flick.
What's a creepy nerd to do when a girl with aquamarine hair tells him he could be really big in the future .. if only he'll make the ultimate sacrifice.
Is it weird that it all seems a tad quaint now?
It looked better than my old vhs certainly, but this only helped highlight certain flaws ahem.

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

Legend Of The Overfiend (1989, Hideki Takayama)

Fun flick.
What's a creepy nerd to do when a girl with aquamarine hair tells him he could be really big in the future .. if only he'll make the ultimate sacrifice.
Is it weird that it all seems a tad quaint now?
It looked better than my old vhs certainly, but this only helped highlight certain flaws ahem.

Not seen this one for years!! Tentacles

[Demoncrat]

Yep, plenty of them as well. Sigh.

[Frankie Teardrop]

END OF THE LINE – Subways always hold good horror potential, ‘Death Line’ and ‘Creep’ being impressively morbid examples that expose London’s foundational rat warren. Maurice Devereaux’s ‘End Of The Line’ shows that Montreal is no slouch when it comes to underworld descent. A psychiatric nurse shrugs off visions of pending apocalypse to catch the train to work. Onboard is a doomsday cult whose gimmick comes in the form of stabby crucifixes (definitely one up on kool aid). Sometimes it feels a little workmanlike, a bit of overtalk drags it down in places, but all the good stuff allows it to gather a grim head of steam. Rubble strewn tunnels weave a labyrinth of shadows around scenes of fairly nasty gore – it’s not non-stop, but there are a couple of ‘moments’ for sure, a nightmarish evisceration being one. There’s a creepo whose smug, leering chops reminded me a little of Andrew Robinson. I might’ve wanted to see a little more of the demonic pay-off, but ‘End Of The Line’ is a pleasant ride and a safe journey if the destination you have in mind is ‘solid mid noughts indie horror experience’.

MOST BEAUTIFUL ISLAND – Mascaraed young women decked out in black party dresses stand shivering in the shadows of a vast warehouse. They look nervous. They’re hoping that the door at the far end won’t open, that they won’t be ushered into the room beyond… more than anything, they’re cursing the day they ever watched ‘The Death Wish Club’! MBI is a handheld indie that gives very gritty vibes as it charts the toils of Luciana (played by director Ana Asensio). She’s off the grid, living hand to mouth, pulled down by a harsh economy; someone hands her a dress and a bag, and so begins our mystery of the locked room (actually, it’s more a locked Givenchy.) Most of this is about the aggro of day-to-day living in a pitiless city, but you could say that about ‘Driller Killer’. I liked it.

[MrBarlow]

Oldboy. 2003.

A bleak, dark movie that begins very well indeed and stays strong throughout. Park Chan-Wook is a great accomplished director and really handles everything well in crafting a great plot. Choi Min-sik is brilliant as the leading actor, imprisoned for 15 years without any reason in a small room and then released and giving suttle clues on his captors and as the story unfolds we find out who imprisoned him and why. This shows the desperation of one man trying to find the answers and knowing who to trust and going to extreme lengths to get the answers to the point of torture and being able to take a punch or a knife in the back and stand his ground. No matter how bad the violence is you still keep on watching as to how it goes and comes up with twists and turns.

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[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Antichrist (1974)

Alberto De Martino's film is far better than those that say it's merely an Exorcist knock off would have you believe. Certainly it was clearly inspired by Friedkin's classic opus but there's more going for it than merely an Exorcist clone Italian style.

The film is held together by a terrific performance by Carla Gravina who seemingly has visions of a past life. Visions which showcase some deliciously decadent scenes of Satanic ritual. Think Norman J. Warren's 1976 film Satan's Slave for reference, with a horned beast impregnating Gravina on an alter of sacrifice as hordes of hooded followers salivate on.

There may be a few stretches in this two hour film where not a lot happens but it's difficult for the mind to wander as alongside Gravina, who i say once more is excellent, there are more than watchable performances from Hollywood stalwarts Mel Ferrer, Arthur Kennedy and George Coulouris as well as Italian genre cinema ladies Anita Strindberg and Alida Valli.

De Martino gives us some fantastic location filming in Rome, including the Vatican (Maybe) as Arthur Kennedy's Cardinal becomes aware of the possible possession before allowing a full on exorcism of Gravina to go ahead. The finale takes place in the streets and avenues approaching the Colosseum and then finally inside the great monument of Rome's ancient past for what i consider an excellent climactic final showdown.

Whilst The Antichrist will never trouble the likes of The Exorcist or The Omen nor recent movies such as The Pope's Exorcist in the higher echelons of Religious horror it remains a worthy take on the subject in it's own right.

StudioCanal's new restoration looks stunning. The reds of the Vatican and blue's of the Roman night sky a delight for the eyes.

As a footnote - Now i know where the movie sample that opens the title track of Belphegor's Conjuring the Dead album comes from.