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Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs  I bought this in Morrisons a few weeks ago in a slip cased edition for the sum of three English pounds. Interesting thoughts, Frankie. I'm glad you said somewhere in your review that you liked it.  |
Well, you can't really go wrong for three quid. Tell us what you think once you've seen it, I'll be interested to hear your take on it. It's actually the kind of film we could do with more of - non-obvious, weird microbudget horror. The sort of thing I'm always whinging about the apparent lack of... just that its length and plod-factor were in danger of eclipsing the freakiness a bit.
Whilst I'm here, here are some quickies from the last couple of weeks before I forget I even saw them -
THE LOVE BUTCHER - Mmm, there's more to Don Jones than 'The Forest', it seems. LB has a similarly lopsided appeal, although it appears less a work of inspired incompetence and more a parodic pop at post-'Psycho' drive-in norms (Norms?) The deliberate artiness , if that's what it is, does partner up with moments of clunk, but the toxic ranting of its venomous lothario-cum-gardener is quite hilarious. Peter Sellers would've been an amazing choice for the lead, had he been into bottom-of-the-barrel fleapit productions.
SWITCHBLADE SISTERS - Jack Hill classic about a hard-bitten girl gang out to take no prisoners. They do let themselves down a bit by bickering over their boyfriends - who cares, just kick 'em in the bollocks and go and set fire to a pram or something. I love all the subcultural stuff that went on in the seventies; maybe it's just cos I'm jaded and out of touch, but it seems so vivid and nasty compared with what's around today, so much so that you can believe the roller disco shoot-'em-up and the machine gun-heavy attempts to kickstart a revolution. Lean and mean, and always worth a watch.
THE INITIATION - I have a slightly odd history with this one in that I loved it when I first saw it, found it really boring when I viewed a second time, and now I'm back into being into it again. Hot and cold, that's me. Anyway, 'The Initiation' is a tortuously silly sorority slasher movie from '84 or thereabouts, already pretty late in the day. Being last out of the door it strains for something new to say, tossing around lame twists and lamer ideas (dream research, in this case). It's the kind of film where the mentally ill are portrayed as gibbering, malevolent children, where someone might be evil just because they have a burned face, where the implement of murder is basically a trowel. During the climactic sequence set in a shadowy apartment store, there's an inexplicable flurry of creepy mannequin and statue bits - cool, I dig it, it makes about as much sense as anything else going on in it. Very gaudy, very eighties, utterly disposable schlock, but I imagine I'm not the only one susceptible to its brainless charms.