Watched Arachnid,thank god, not very cheesy and fortunately the spider wasn't cgi

liked D&TVE, what was May like? have always loved the trailer etc....

I enjoyed May its very slow paced but keeps you interested. Builds to a nice climax if not a little strange.

Anyone who enjoys films of Boorman's Point Blank variety should pick up THE OUTFIT on Warner Archive.
A great cast as well!

Also watched BAD RONALD.
Having not seen this for YEARS,it's still worth a look today,although the pic quality isn't too hot on this one.
A few young familiar faces in this one as well.

The Outfit was based on a novel by the same author as Point Blank/Payback, right? Never seen it but had a pre-cert MGM tape once upon a time.

Talking of Point Blank, anyone seen the recent French film of the same name? It's superb!

To celebrate David Bowie's 65th birthday on Sunday I watched The Hunger.

Not everyone's cup o' cha, but I'm a big fan of this film and whilst people often aim the 'style over substance' argument at it, I genuinely believe there's a really powerful emotional level to it. It must be hard to envisage how the emotions of a human(?) would function over the time scales that some of the characters endure here, but Deneuve and Bowie excel in this difficult and unknowing task, the latter in particular as the 'wronged' lover and the former as someone who has certainly become resigned to her moebius loop of an existence - balancing her primal/magical 'hunger' with her lust and love for her victims/partners.

It is a stunning film and there's more than a few shades of Scott Sr at play here I would guess, what with the tight bouffant of Deneuve's hair that is surrounded by an aura and haze of light in her home somewhat mirroring Rachel's in Bladerunner, but it's no secret the brothers Scott are stylish so and sos and after growing up together and making amateur films together, crossover is inevitable.
The lightning is tremendous throughout and I've never really picked up on this before, but there's a certain verisimilitude between the lesbian love scene in this and the one on Lynch's Mulholland Drive, something incredibly dream-like, tender and quite moving... and yeh, of course pretty darned sexy.

Billowing curtains a-plenty, but they really break up the hard lines of the shadows and furniture in the rooms and add that very dream-like feel, which is attached to Deneuve's house and life.

Also of note is the tremendous sound design, which often seems to counterpoint the score, but not in a jarring way, it's really impressive and helps to bring another welcome dimension to offset the visual elegance.

Oh yeh, how could I forget Bauhas - Bela Lugosi's Dead :)

Also dusted off an old VHS the other night, Guy Magar's Retribution which has this awesome cover:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

A suicidal artist's soul is entwined with a lowly mobster's as they both 'almost' die at the same time. Cue lots of retribution from the mobster who uses the artist's body as a vessel for his vengeance.

A great B-movie that never outstays it's welcome. All the gruesome set pieces are done brilliantly and with some twisted humour. Oddball characters that were the tropes and essence of 80s low budget flicks fill the screen and laughs are a-plenty.
There's some intriguing set design and some pretty hallucinatory moments with simple but effective make-up for the possessed artist.
And an absolute stonker of a synth score from John Carpenter's right hand man Alan Howarth.

Simply all round great fun and highly recommended.

I saw The Good The Bad, The Weird tonight. I get the feeling I'm going to be flying in the face of popular opinion here but I found this to be a bloated bore of a movie. Familiar scenes and music cues trotted out with nothing interesting added (except for Asian Actors in Cowboy Hats - this movies one and only idea), paper thin characters I couldn't give a toss about, tedious gunfights, gratuitous horse cruelty, duff cgi, frenetic, irritating editing - honestly I was gratefully counting down the minutes here like an Aberdonian in a taxi, all 140 of em.

The Unborn - typical overblown Hollywood horror effort. Massively derivative and ultimately quite tedious.

Yeah same author.:nod:

Vamp - enjoyed this enormously more than when I last saw it (when it was screened as part of BBC2's "Moviedrome"). Excellent low budget flick based around a wonderful idea recycled ten years later for From Dusk Till Dawn*.




*Seriously, you cannot deny that this film was a massive "influence" on Tarantino and Rodriguez's over-rated crime/vampire/action flick. You just can't.



Ring - another I haven't seen for many years. Already a horror classic I suppose. It is a fine film. Lovely deliberate pacing and a good story well told.

So why no remasters? No Blu-rays? The Tartan Asia Extreme DVD release looks pretty bad - almost VHS like - lacking in detail, dark scenes are inpenetrable, lots of print damage and a hissy audio track. Surely this is a film deserving of tarting up?