Until Death (2006, Simon Fellows)
JCVD plays a cop, estranged from his wife, a pariah within his precinct, and his ex partner seems to have it in for him ...

Whilst it's fun to see the Damme play a less than super 'hero' ... the film is a bit perfunctory sadly. Nice Aliens reference though ;)

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Great cast, decent story, but ultimately hit and miss throughout. 7/10

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Powerful in every way. 9/10

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7/10

Zombie Creeping Flesh

Wonderful wildlife and anthropology documentary spoilt by zombie inserts.

Kong: Skull Island (2017)

***1/2 out of *****

city
 

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Atmospheric gothic horror, but do I detect a touch of the Wurzel's in ?Chris Lee's wavering accent...?

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Contaminated Man 2000.

In Budapest Joseph Muller (Peter Weller) is exposed to a disease which kills people he touches quickly. David Whitman (William Hurt) is assigned to track him.

This is not a big budget movie but fairly gripping contemporary thriller that was enjoyable 7 out of 10.

Up next ABSURD

ABSURD 1981

A priest is summoned to help stop a killer who is part of a experiment gone wrong.

This ex video nasty and some what sequel of Antrpophagus with George Eastman and Joe D'Amato writing and directing. The plot of the story is weird but the gory murder sequences are really good. Highly recommended for a good gore fest movie night. BIG 10 for this.

What happens if he touches them slowly?

Lol!

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

A slow death?

You mean he forces them to watch Doctor Who? :scared:

:laugh:He probably gets done for indecent assault lol

I think what you're all trying to say is he Makes Them Die Slowly.

Body Puzzle (1992)

A rather poor later giallo from Lamberto Bava, a director who should know better. Coming across like amateur hour, the film is riddled with both editing and continuity errors. Watch the toilet cubicle murder. It's awful. The victim whose arm is grabbed under the cubicle switches from side to side and the killer is outside the cubicle, then in the next cubicle, seriously it's really poorly edited. There's also a murder in a swimming pool where a man is repeatedly stabbed to death. There's no blood in the water at all. Then of course there's the freezer sequence... honestly it's just inept rubbish.

I first saw Body Puzzle on vhs and thought it poor. The passage of time can change your mind though, but in this case it's just as bad as i remembered and makes films such as Argento's The Card Player and Giallo seem like masterpieces of the genre.

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016)

And so this record breaking video game horror franchise comes to an end and thankfully everything is pretty much sewn up in a satisfying conclusion.

The only other film in the series that is multi referenced is the 2002 original, both in plot terms and in fan pleasing references to past events namely the corridor of automated grid traps.

The film begins with a huge set piece and in true video game fashion never lets up from beginning to end. It's a pop corn thrill ride where characterization gives way to action. In fact the only ones with any depth are Milla Jovovich's Alice and Iain Glen's satisfyingly evil Dr Isaacs. The rest including Ali Larter's Claire Redfield are hastily fashioned cardboard cut outs.

Come the end, the Umbrella Corporation is liquidized, a T-virus cure is airborne and Alice sets off on another journey as a voice over is heard

"When the T-virus spread across the Earth, it did so at the speed of the modern world, carried by jetliners across the globe. The antivirus is airborne, spread by the winds. It could take years for it to reach every corner of the Earth. Until then, my work is not done. My name is Alice."

Final installment or not. If you enjoy the Resident Evil films then this is recommended, but for non-fans it isn't likely to win you over.

I've yet to see this or the previous instalment. I'll be looking to pick the complete boxset up soon as it drops a bit.

The previous one is easily the pick of the series in my opinion.

Golden Years (2016, John Miller)
More fun than We Still Steal The Old Way. Plucky pensioners accidentally find a solution to austerity. ;)

Friday Foster (1975, Arthur Marks)
The Grier plays a shutterbug who stumbles into a conspiracy that reaches the upper echelons. Crammed with incident and many familiar faces, tis one of Pam's better films imho.

Danger Tomorrow (1960)

A doctor and his wife (Robert Urquhart and Zena Walker) move into an old house near a country practice. Walker begins to have strange ESP like visions as she realizes her life will be soon under threat.

An enjoyable chiller that veers into old dark house territory as well as being a compelling crime mystery. It's well acted and guaranteed to keep you guessing as to how events will pan out.

Another solid B-picture from Network that looks and sounds gorgeous with a terrific full screen print 1:66:1.

Recommended to those who like their British cinema to be full of dark deeds.

MADHOUSE – A woman is stalked by her twisted sister in this atmospheric slasher from the early eighties. 'Madhouse' might not automatically satisfy those hoping to score at the blood'n'guts end of the spectrum, but there's something hypnotic about it. It may aspire to the same sub-genre as 'The Burning' et cetera, but is closer to Italian neo-goths such as 'The Beyond' in terms of look, texture and feel. Crazed throat ripping hound aside, maybe it's about the cinematography, with its shadowy compositions which all have an air of unease about them, as if something's going to happen... that 'something' might involve a climax which overlaps a bit too much with the end of 'Happy Birthday to Me', but is at least slightly maniacal in its OTT nonsense. So, 'Madhouse' – disjointed, dreamy, a bit like a slasher but not really – you wouldn't expect anything massively straightforward from the maker of 'The Visitor', and this isn't.

ALL THE COLOURS OF THE DARK – Something weird's happening in early seventies London. Edwige Fenech is having nightmares, and someone's following her. Her buddy has the great idea of getting her into a satanic cult, and prods her further down the winding road to certain madness etc. 'All The Colours Of The Dark' takes aspects from 'Rosemary's Baby' and 'Repulsion' and swaddles them in the look of the giallo. We get some great, unhinged dream sequences and various other outbursts of gratuitous overstylisation, all played out against the kind of interior design you last saw when you were on mescaline. All of which I'm in favour of, because I'm not such a big fan of gialli and to be honest they only ever really interest me if the pop-psychedelic bits manage to overcome the massive police procedural yawn induction that always seems part of the package. None of those tiresome shenanigans here though, it's mostly all Edwige and her inner / outer demons and various people looking intense and haunted at the relevant moments. Sergio Martino keeps some degree of tension flickering in the background, and at its best ATCOTD aspires to Hitchcock through a fractured lens. For me though, the datedness and the lack of pace mire it in a kind of clumsiness, and as a result it never quite clicks. But again, I tend to have that issue with most gialli. Even though, let's get this straight, 'All The Colours Of The Dark' is not a giallo. Not really, anyway. Erm, what was I talking about again?

Sir!! I applaud this latest missive most heartily. Kudos :hail:

I think this is the first time I've read a film review that is:
A) completely accurate
B) with which I am in complete agreement, and
C) channels Hunter S. Thompson.

Kudos, sir!

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RESPECTABLE- THE MARY MILLINGTON STORY (2016)

Excellent companion documentary to Simon Sheridans book 'Come Play With Me, The Life And Films Of Mary Millington.
Lasting nearly two hours, the doc is full of interviews, clips and photos of Mary's life. If you have read the book then most of the content will be familiar to you but there are interviews with people from Mary's past including David Sullivan that expand the story.

Dario Argento's
Door into darkness

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Episode 1 - The Neighbour

Dario's short lived T.v series, and although the picture quality is not amazing i found this perfectly watchable.
I'd mean't to catch up with these for a while after buying the dvd set in January, but have only just got around to it, well the first episode so far.

I enjoyed this episode in which we get a brief intro by Dario then enter the story of a couple who are moving house with a baby to a isolated place by the coast.
Arriving at night they have no furniture and also no lights working so have to use a candle, they go upstairs to ask a neighbour for some assistance but are told to go away.
Left to their own devices with only a candle and a T.V for company (showing Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein) they hear the neighbour leave and after noticing a stain spreading on their ceiling go upstairs to investigate.
They find the dead body of a woman and a bath left running hence the stain.
Attempting to leave their car will not start so they are left stranded in the house fearing what will happen if the neighbour returns, the candle flickers out and the couple realise they have left their lighter in the bathroom upstairs...

I found this pretty tense and even though it's a basic Hitchcockian premise i thought it was handled well by director Luigi Cozzi and was worried for the couple and their baby as the drama run it's course.

At just under an hour it doesn't outstay it's welcome and i'am now looking forward to watching the remaining episodes.

7/10
:pop2:

Aftermath. A terrible tragedy has aftershocks that result in another tragedy in this dark drama starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnie is an ordinary man whose world collapses around him when his wife and daughter are killed in a plane crash, the result of human error on the part of the Air Traffic Controller, whose life simultaneously collapses in the wake of his fatal mistake. But Arnie's grief, shock and growing anger at his inability to get a simple "I'm sorry" from anyone in the airline leads him to an unthinkable act... Big Arnie gives a powerful performance in this very good film based on a shocking true story.
Probably won't buy it though, I don't think it's the type of film for repeat viewings. Not exactly a barrel of laughs, know what I mean...;)

Glad you like it so far, nos. I've seen them all a few times now and have to say i really enjoy them.

I prefer The Tram to several of Dario's films, including Cat o' Nine Tails.

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FRANKENSTEIN THE TRUE STORY (1973)

Superb two part TV series clocking in at three hours.
First shown in the UK on the BBC in 1975 the series did have a limited theatrical run in an edited two hour version.
The original title was to be 'Dr Frankenstein' but was changed to 'The True Story' much to the disgust of the writers as this is not the TRUE story of the novel but an original work with ideas from the book.

Any fans of this TV series should check out the new Little Shoppe Of Horrors #38 magazine as it is devoted to this production and is jam solid with the story of getting this made and is a terrific read.

NO-ONE LIVES – Fun schlocker from the director of 'Versus' and 'Azumi'. It's about a family of armed robbers who tangle with the wrong dude after one of their gigs goes badly wrong. Just how 'wrong' aforementioned dude is becomes apparent when all those news reports from 'America's Most Wanted' point in one direction only... 'No-one Lives' is slick and has a certain relentlessness to it. It also has that heightened sense of slightly delirious badassery you want from films about unrealistic criminals taking on unrealistic criminals, and some pretty good gore in places. Definitely worth a shot if you haven't already.

THE CHURCH – 'The Church' isn't Soavi's shining hour, but it still gets a few things right. I realised this after witnessing a few scenes of languid chaos in a church (in The Church, actually) give way to an equally casual shot-in-passing of a kid sat around playing a trumpet. Ah, it takes a special mind to conceive of such things... meanwhile, the world carries on turning. Anyway, for the uninitiated (see what I just did there ?), 'The Church' is about a church, The Church (stop it, Frankie), built over a pit containing the victims of a pogrom-type massacre from back in the day, which is about to unleash something demonic because of a meddling historian (or something). As is usual with this kind of thing, story and plot take a back seat to atmosphere. There is some of that, but there's also a lot of plodding. When Soavi lays on the visuals they seem appropriately majestic and otherwordly in a Ken Russel kind of way, and elevate the film towards the shining beacon it could've been with a little less 'scene setting'.

DEMON SEED – From the late D Cammell comes this strange item which is part sci fi / horror pot boiler and part excursion into mysticism. You would expect the latter from someone who was partly responsible for 'Performance'. In 'Demon Seed', a conscious computer takes over Julie Christie's futuristic household and basically rapes her for the sake of having a child. This robo-roughie element is dealt with quite coldly, and lends a real curdled undercurrent to a movie which is for most part about a captor – captive dynamic. Gender politics aside (they are ambiguous here ultimately) 'Demon Seed' is utterly of its time and is furnished with a very seventies imagining of the shape of things to come. More interesting is the post-hippie aspect, with its occasionally trippy visuals, droney electronic soundtrack and frequent hand wringing about the nature of consciousness.

I finally got round to watching The Void. A cop finds a chap crawling about on the road, bloodied and incoherent and takes him to the local hospital which is in the process of closing down so only has a skeleton staff packing stuff up and looking after one young pregnant girl and her father. Two blokes who set fire to a young woman at the beginning of the film also arrive, while outside mysterious figures dressed up like the Klan add more menace.

You get scissors in eyeballs, faces peeled off and tentacle/The Thing/Cthulu type beasts doing nefarious deeds forcing our cop hero and friends deep down into the bowels of the hospital to sort this shit out.

There are nods to numerous classics along the way, Hellraiser, Event Horizon, The Thing and The Beyond immediately came to mind as I watched. It is bleak with an unsettling atmosphere and played straight, no laughs at all, which to my taste is how a horror film should be...BUT....

It just didn't grab me like it should/could have. The characters don't elicit any sympathy so you don't really care about their demise, the dialogue needed some snappy quotes along the lines of, "I'll tear your soul apart" or even, "Jesus wept" and the gore, whilst decent needed one or two really stand out moments to drop your jaw.

It garnered many plaudits along the way but I can only surmise these are from critics who have been bombarded with the insipid crap that passes for horror in the last two decades and missed out on the glorious '70's and '80's horror heydays. It's okay and a worthy effort... but won't stay in your mind too long.

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Totally agree, Boo. :nod:

Well
It would be a dull world etc ....

4 times I've watched it now and while it's flaws are there they are certainly not as jarring as they are in say, Manhattan Baby ... a film that is loved by some loathed by others ...the point being that TV reminds me of 'that period' with it's draggy pacing and whatnot.
I look forward to seeing what they come up with next ....;)

Petrified

Officially titles 'charles bands petrified' Petrified is a clear example of how much money Charles band has to play with. Back in the heyday of home video when Empire pictures then Full moon could sell enough units to home video to spend a bit of cash on the pictures themselves and have some kind of revenue, stuff like puppet master, ghoulies, demonic toys ect at least looked like they had some kind of budget. Hell, watching puppet master there are some genuinely great looking scenes for example. Petrified is not all bad, the monster itself is ok until it glows, and Band has found a few actresses willing to make out with each other so it has some appeal it's just not his best effort. The basic plot involves a mummy that petrifies people terrorising a hospital for female nymphomaniacs. This probably should be a set up for a much better film but at the end of the day its falls too flat in too many places to be a winner.

Fear clinic

Robert Englund runs a hospital that uses revolutionary techniques in order to conquer fear. That sentence alone should tell you all you need to know about how well its going to go, and it seems that Englunds character is posessed by a weird looking creature that feeds on fear so yeah, things go wrong. If yoy see it in poundland its worth a go, its a bit hit and miss but it has some interesting ideas and the creature is well designed so its a diverting watch at least. Not going to live on as a horror classic though.

Eden lodge

Another poundland entry (wednesday nights seem to be the night for this stuff) This time its a British entry. Pretty much a fan love letter to Pete Walker (at least thats how it feels) the film has a nuclear family in the midst of a crisis break down and forced to stay for a few days at the lodge. An overpriced guest house run by a fundamentalist christian and her uptight son. Theres also an Australian backpacker sleeping rough in the grounds and a couple of girls who get trapped early and spend the bulk of the film in a torture shack. Its nowhere near as good as Walkers films but its a diverting 90 minutes and certainly not as bad as some low budget brit horror i've seen. Again, for a quid its worth a go. Lower your expectations a bit though.

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)

Dario Argento's directorial debut and the first and best of his animal trilogy.

Well crafted and especially well acted, Tony Musante makes for an appealing hero who witnesses an attempted murder at a posh gallery and is then rather unwillingly roped in by a local detective - an equally good Enrico Maria Salerno - to help trace the would be killer. Sadly English actress Suzy Kendall is underused for the most and then totally loses herself in over acting madness at the finale.

Stylishly shot, Argento's classic camera techniques were in the teething stage here but on the whole are delightfully done. Witness a tracking shot of Musante which elevates from street level onto a roof top before giving us a magical vista of Rome. The same goes for the murder set pieces. Innovative and occasionally bloody but not as gruesome as in later efforts. Whilst a couple are rather tame, one assault in a womans bedroom is all quite sleazy. Dario does ramp up the tension in the build up to a kill in a way so many Italian thriller directors fail to do. You can see his Hitchcockian traits in The Bird With the Crystal Plumage and whilst it's possibly a lazy way to describe him it also feels spot on.

The Bird With the Crystal Plumage is often described as a seminal giallo. Yes i'd go along with that. Recommended!

ALL THE COLOURS OF THE DARK
Edwige Fenech stars as a troubled soul gradually drawn into a Satanic cult. Or is it all in her imagination? This highly enjoyable Giallo with a satanic twist makes its welcome debut on UK blu ray via Shameless. Great to see Almar and co back in the game - particularly when it involves titles they've not released before. More please!

INQUISITION
Old barrel chest Paul Naschy takes the lead role ( and directs ) this tale of a torturous Inquisitor and witchfinder. I never really got Naschy's obsession with the wolfman character ( it's one of my least favourite of the classic monsters ) but he really shines in this role. The whole thing is beautifully filmed, too. Extras on Mondo Macabro's blu ray include the Spanish horror episode of Eurotika - from the days when Channel 4 used to show interesting stuff.

Completely agree! All the reviewers who these days seem to give rave reviews to merely average horror movies seem to have missed the classics!

Am coming to realise I should stop blind buying, as have given up on Hellgate, Hell Comes to Frogtown & loads of other recent releases. I'm sure I loved these when I was 15, but my mindset must have changed as I'm finding it hard to get in the goofy but fun mood of these things.

I think the problem with the void was too much hype. Its a crowdfunded horror movie with high ambitions and practical effects that can prove expensive. Because the trailer was excellent a lot of people went in expecting something game changing when what they got was a decent (certainly better than a lot of the crap on the market) low budget horror flick.

i know a lot of people had problems with the void, i really enjoyed it but i do think hype spoiled it for a lot, me i knew nothing about it till it was mentioned on here. But its still a million times better than beyond the gates which was just shockingly bad, good idea spoiled by poor pacing,direction and acting.

you get a feeling of the 80s horrors from The Void something that can't be said for Beyond the Gates, even at £3 for the movie i felt ripped off.

I haven't watched a film in ages, I need to pull my finger out, long work days and Netflix TV series which release the whole lot in one go are to blame!

That being said, Orange is the New Black season 5 has been amazing, although every episode was pushing 60 minutes meaning it's taken up 13 hours of film watching time :lol: