S&M HUNTER - Mid eighties Pinku starring a guy with a whip and a skull and crossbones eye patch who thinks all women long to be dominated via his rope bondage techniques. Includes something to offend just about everyone ie. a gay man is kidnapped by an all girl criminal gang and basically held captive and raped. Much of this isn't explicitly rendered and has about as much edge as an episode of Benny Hill. In fact it plays pretty much like a sadistic Japanese version of same. Whilst I didn't identify with its sexual politics, I did find myself chuckling from time to time, mostly at the beguiling figure at the centre of it all, this Indiana Jones type with a really harsh downer on women. I couldn't decide whether the humourous angle made it even harder to take than the really gratingly nasty approach of some J-Horror-Porn.
THE EVIL DEAD - Yeah, not very original I know. But I do like it when I revisit these old numbers and find the magic hasn't quite gone. In fact, TED is a film I never tire of. Each time I see it it feels kind of closer to the older, more mean spirited days of 70s indie horror than the 80s horror boom which it partly spawned. On the other hand, tried to re-watch 'Reanimator' recently and just couldn't get into it.
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