Come and See
A young boy joins the partisans in Belarus to fight the invading nazis. He is left at camp and tries to make his way home, only to discover his mother and sisters have been butchered. He then tries to get food for the survivors with some others.
Probably one of the most harrowing war movies you can possibly watch and that's not just due to the fact that the boys hair changes colour and he looks old by the end, nor is it because they used live ammunition during the film. It is numbing throughout. There are some lighter moments but these are few and far between and the final act of this film is shocking.
I would be surprised if not many have seen this here, but if you haven't then I cannot recommend this enough.

City of the living dead. this is directed by Lucio fulci and is the first in the gates of hell trilody. it is about a priest father tomas in dunwich who hangs himself and opens the gates of hell. and during a seance in new york the main character Mary woodhouse played by Catriona mcoll sees it in a vision and collapses and dies afterwards.
then journalist Christopher george wants the story of marys death. he goes to the cemetery were mary has just been buried and hears screaming coming out of the ground wer e mary is. it turns out that mary isnt dead afterall but in some type of catalepic state. after digging her out using a pick axe, mary tells him that they have no time to loose as the gates of hell have to be closed before all saint day. so they set off to dunwich to find the priests body and destroy it to close the gates.

this one i like. and has great music and effects 96.2 out of 100.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFYWazblaUA

It's ok with good acting and direction but it's hardly Oscar material 6/10

Just looking at films which were eligible for this year's Oscars, I consider The Shape of Water to be probably the most finely crafted and engaging, and a beautifully evocative and moving fairytale. I'm pleased it won Best Picture because (although I haven't seen Call Me by Your Name yet) because I thought it was the best film which was nominated for that award.

Earthquake. A devastating earthquake rips through California and levels LA in this late 70s disaster movie starring Chelton Heston and George Kennedy. Mildly amusing (if sometimes unintentionally) epic that takes some time to get going and has some not particularly interesting characters, but it does have some great effects and set-pieces.*

Contamination. film about a ship the carribbean lady that arrives and looks abandomned like in Zombie flesh eaters. but when the police investigate it they find the crew all blown up and dead as well. also there are boxes of coffee on board but there not boxes of coffee but boxes of green pulsating eggs from outer space.
then a female government agent contacts a man called Hubbard played by Ian mccullough who was an astronaut who went on a mission to mars with his friend Hamilton. when they came back from Mars Hubbard said there was alien eggs but no one believed him and say he was mad, and Hamilton lies about seeing the eggs because while on mars Hamilton got possessed by an alien cyclops and comes back to earth to do the cyclops bidding.

later on Hubbard and the female agent go to south america to find the source of the eggs

this i like very much as well, and i love the arrow bluray with superier picture quality 90.2 out of 100.

1408 (2007)

An adaptation of a Stephen King short story which sees John Cusack play an author who goes round debunking myths about ghostly places. However he might just change his mind when he checks into room 1408 of New York's Dolphin hotel.

Following a promising start where we get to see Cusack settle down in the room as quietly mysterious things happen - chocolates appear on his pillow, a rise in temperature, the loo roll refolds itself - and the film sets itself up to be a lovely subtle and creepy affair, the script decides to throw absolutely everything at the viewer in random fashion. All scares and chills go out the window, along with previous occupants and even Cusack himself, as we go into Shining overdrive - freezing rooms and climbing through ventilation shafts to fake plot twists designed to bore me even more. It's as if the scriptwriter had just watched Carnival of Souls and thrown that films plot twist into the mix just for the hell of it.

It's descends into total bollocks if i'm honest. More is most definitely less and i became bored really quickly with the absurdity of it all. The films only plus point was an elongated cameo from Samuel L. Jackson, he had just the right combination of mystery and menace to leave you thinking about his role but in the end even this got lost in the histrionics of this ridiculous film.

I've fancied buying this since I saw that Canon documentary film where they quickly glossed over it :lol:

I'm surprised that Treb didn't LOVE Shape.. as it's Del Toro at his peak and a worthy winner of the Oscar but I personally wanted Call Me By Your Name to win, that not to say it's the better film but it had more of an effect on me. I loved both of them though. Lady Bird also could have easily won.

Your review matches my opinion of this film perfectly! I'm interested in reading the short story though.

Take the plunge. It's just jaw dropping in places. And the songs ... woo mama etc. "Child Of Love" in particular :pound: New favourite film of all time.

I watched Nightmares in a Damaged Brain for the first time yesterday, what a grubby film that is, I felt filthy after watching it :lol:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/v5CHOy2Tt8M/hqdefault.jpg

The number of times somebody screamed at an ear piercing volume during the running time of the film was so frequent that it completely put me on edge all night! And don't get me started on that little twat of a kid, his poor mother is just trying to get on with her life and he's clearly a maniac who needs a smacked bum...

However, I bloody loved it haha.

One thing though, the picture on the disc seems to be cropped/zoomed in, I don't know whether it's all of the scenes, but when he's walking down 42nd Street I remember thinking I wish I could see the marquee names for the films, I recognised Caligula but that was pretty much it, but on the special feature about the grindhouse heyday on the same disc, they show that scene again and you can see the names of every single film he walks past...

Now where did I put those matches......?


;)

CR or 88 J? Any excuse to watch the only real grindhouse film imo :behindsofa:

Got both versions a fantastic film in my opinion , but I don't think its as nasty as its made out to be .

The 88 Films ‘bootleg’ version :lol:

Gag, depends what you mean by nasty, it’s not particularly gruesome no, but it’s sleazy and sweaty and grimy. So in that way I’d say it was pretty nasty.

The Beyond. Lisa Catriona mcoll inherits a old hotel off her aunt in louisiaana but doesnt know it is cursed and that a warlock called schweik was crucifiyed by the townspeople before being whipped with chains and coverd in lime afterwards, and then walled up in the celler.
later joe the plumber discovers the body but is killed by schweiks zombie who gouges his eye out.
meanwhile Emily who lives locally in an old houes and is blind with dicky her alsation warns Lisa to leave the hotel because it is built on one of the 7 gateways to hell.
Lisa then gets strange visions and tells her fears to the doctor who is david warbeck who i saw in lucio fulcis Black cat recently. but he thinks its all mad until the town gets taken over by zombies.

this is most excellent and i enjoy it very much also, and will give a high rating of 97.4 out of 100.

I watched Magnolia again last night, it’s just a phenomenal film. In my opinion it sits alongside Mulholland Drive and Zodiac as a modern masterpiece. Some have criticised it, calling it overly melodramatic, and I suppose It’s a valid criticism but the direction is so audacious I can forgive its perceived faults.

Has PT Anderson ever made a bad film ? It took me a while to warm to Inherent Vice but I love the film now.


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The Skull (1965).

Stars Peter Cushing as a professor, Christopher Maitland, who is an obsessive researcher and collector.
When given the chance to purchase the skull belonging to the notorious Marquis De Sade, from a rather less than honest dealer, played by Patrick Wymark, he does so, despite the warnings from a fellow collector, played by Christopher Lee. Lee tells him the skull is evil and that he should get rid of it. But he is sceptical and doesn't heed his warnings.

Although starring two of horror's heavyweights, this is essentially Cushing's film. And Cushing, as usual, shines throughout.

I enjoyed this film from Hammer rivals Amicus. It is a little slow at times, but it has a surreal atmosphere, including a nightmarish dream sequence. And overall, a good old fashioned horror film. 7/10.

Watching The Apple again. :hail: Crazed tis.


Tomb Raider (2018)

Ooh it's just like the game. Without the fun of breaking a controller or two :lol:. Exciting enough I suppose....

Ecstasy (Rob Heydon)

Lloyd Buist is in a jam. His boss wants his money post haste, so a wee rave on ra side shid de the trick richt? WRONG. Based on the 'main' story in Welsh's collection of tales of same name, this is Trainspotting lite on all fronts from the exploito sleeve tae the rather familiar end spiel, this is ok ... a genuine time filler for once :lol:.

Phantom menace

For me still the poorest of the main films, it has some good points Maul, Qui Gon and a great lightsaber battle and William's wonderful duel of the fates score. But this all brought down by a badly miscast Anakin an overly long pod race as well as a cringe inducing scenes with Anakin in a star fighter and let's not forget Jar Jar ****ING Binks, people can complain about last jedi etc but this is the greatest crime against star wars along with making the force a microbe infection instead of something mystical. 5/10

Probably better of saving two hours and watching this. 10/10


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEcjgJSqSRU

I also have a lot of love for Magnolia. I didn't take to Inherent Vice much at all though. Ditto The Master.

Wolfen. Gruesome killings lead an NYPD detective to conclude that the perpetrators may actually have been wolves - but these are no ordinary animals. Albert Finney and Gregory Hines star in this spookily effective early 80s chiller that has a wonderfully creepy atmosphere and is very well directed throughout. The actual use of real wolves makes many scenes hella scary. :nod:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYbW1F_c9eM


An improvement on phantom but not by much, still have some of the same problems , not hard to see why people say Anakin the mannequin but this i would say partial down too Lucas dialogue than the actors ability. Also like the phantom the effects have not age well and it's even more noticeable here, more so at the end battle. Give the new films there due at least they went on location and used models effects et c and it wasn't all green screen. 5.5/10


Black Magic Part 2.

Absolutely bonkers and fantastic , asian take on the zombie genre with black magic and a man keeping himself young by feeding on breast milk. Also some unintentional funny scene one near the beginning with a crocodile attack and the other with a possessed/ zombie being attack with a dead cat! :pound: 8/10

Now watching contamination.

The Omen 1976.

After the death of his newborn son, Ambassador Robert Thorn adopts a newborn baby after the mother dies in labour. Things take a mysterious turn when people start dying, Robert investigates his son's background with a help of a photographer.

Gregory Peck and Lee Remick play the lead roles of Robert and Kathy Thorn, Remick's performance is brilliant as the easy going game mother who slowly slips into a state of paranoia as she believes her son Damien isn't right. Peck's performance is superb as the father who tries to shrug things off but starts to believe.

David Warner plays the photographer Keith Jennings who is drawn into the search and his demise is totally a pain in the neck (pun intended). Dr Who actor Patrick Troughton gives us a bit of a chilling appearance as Father Brennan who wants to save souls and his from the Antichrist.

Along with every good movie comes a great score from Jerry Goldsmith's Ave Satani which blends in well as the movie goes on. Think this film gave a new meaning to the numbers 666, or new parents naming their son Damien and all we think about is this movie. 10+

Burnt Offerings, 1976. 8/10

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YGVLM2i9n6...s400/dream.jpg

The Endless, 2018. 7,5/10

Excellent Sci~Fi film from Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson who directed and wrote Spring {2014} and Resolution{2012}


https://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/v....w710.h473.jpg

Incident in a Ghostland, 2018. 9/10

Brutal as f uck!

http://newtv.co.th/images/content/ct...9035819544.jpg

The Honey's Devil, 1986. 5/10

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Combat Shock, 1984. 8/10

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Race with the devil. Roger, peter fonda and his wife, and Frank and his wife go on vacation in Franks motor home. one night they see a black mass going on across the river and a girl stabbed too death in the ritual. but the satanists see them and chase them, luckily they get away despite getting stuck in the river and the satanists attacking the motor home.
When they go to the police they dont them seriously and think it is just hippies getting stoned and sacrificing a dog.
after that they decide to report it instead to the police in the main town, but everywhere they go the satanists chase them and try to kill them, including putting rattlesnakes in the motor home.

very good film and exciting, i like it a lot 91.5 out of 100.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTUtaPdcM4E

One of the many alien style rip offs that sprung up after its release . 7/10



Now watching the Spanish version of Dracula (1931)

Cry of A Prostitute (1974).

Euro-crime drama starring Henry Silva as Tony Aniante, a hitman who is hired by the mafia to get rid of a rogue gangster who is using the dead bodies of children to smuggle goods.

One of the more violent entries in the genre, with Silva giving a ruthless performance in a role that seems to come naturally to him.

Also co-starring is Barbara Bouchet as a hooker with a penchant for rubbing cow's milk all over herself :lol: Who ends up getting brutally treated at the hands of Silva.

Interesting film, with nice locations and with elements of a spaghetti western in the way that Silva pits the rival mafia families against each other.

Recommended 7/10.

Dracula (1931 Spanish version)

For me the superior too the American version in almost every way. The actor playing Renfield was excellent giving a very creepy performance. 8/10


Now watching crimes of passion which will be my first viewing.

Damien: Omen 2 1978.

Damien is now a teenager living in Chicago with his Aunt, Uncle and cousin, he begins to understand who he is, and kills off anyone who threatens him.

William Holden and Lee Grant play Richard and Ann Thorn who's incredible acting skills they both have are not well displayed enough are surrogate parents of Damien played by Jonathan Scott Taylor who gives out a very creepy performance of Damien and plays the role very well.

Robert Foxworth and Lance Henriksen have supporting roles as what appears to be guardians/protectors of Damien. Also from Sylvia Sidney as a somewhat relation to the family who suspects something is off with Damien. The death scenes in this are very different from the first movie even a doctor that died splitting his side (wow I'm at poet and didn't know it :pound:). The film may start off a bit slow but does pick up the pace in some bits. 8 out of 10.

Tenebre. an insane lunatic is on the rampage in rome on a mission to get rid of the sexual deviants. he murders a girl and stuffs her mouth with pages from a book, tenebre. and the auther of the book
Peter neal has just gone to rome for a book promotion. when he,s there the lunatic starts sending him anonymous letters after he commits each murder and quoting passages from the book about sexual perverts who the maniac wants to kill.
many more murders follow that include a young girl who makes a doberman angry that chases her and attacks her before being chopped up my the lunatic, two lesbians being killed for being perverts and so on.

this is very exciting film by Dario argento and his best giallo 98.5 out of 100.

XTRO – My thoughts on H B Davenport’s Brit-‘nasty’ haven’t changed that much over the years – what a strange film, one which transcends the usual lazy classification i.e ‘Alien’ rip-off. In fact, it’s in keeping with a lot of English horror movies from the seventies and eighties in that it grounds itself in a dowdy, beige-coloured social reality before it starts nattering on about extra-terrestrial chrysalises and the like. That said, it does satisfy the demand for VHS-era prosthetic gloopiness although the odd, slightly elliptical atmospherics, aided and abetted by the director’s wonky approximation of a J Carpenter style synth soundtrack, are what make it for me.

SUPER INFRA-MAN – Colourful Shaw Bros weirdness in which some dude is transformed by science into a shiny suit-wearing ‘hero’ who has to save the earth from a bunch of shit Dr Who monster lookalikes led by whip crackin’ Princess Dragon-Mom. Well, that’s basically it – turn your brain off and witness the spectacle of seventies pulp-psychedelia going Toho. The constant monster bashing does threaten to wear thin after a bit, but really there’s nary a dull moment. From the director of ‘The Bloody Parrot’.

BLACK MAGIC 2 – More Shaw Brothers craziness from the mid / late seventies. As you watch, you can feel HK horror coming to the boil – ‘The Boxer’s Omen’ may not be quite there yet, but crotch-shaving, mammary milking and head nailing definitely are. OK, it’s not that explicit in the scheme of things, but it’s a notch or two weirder than its predecessor, a solid flick in its own right. The usual problems apply – wooden performances, a lack of suspenseful dynamics, a tendency to derail through a bit too much talk despite a reasonably sharp pace. There’s atmosphere in places and a debt here and there to Euro-Goth. It’s a cinema of imagery, and a few visuals – zombies with hollow eye sockets, a monstrous birth etc etc – loom larger in the mind after the film than during.

A BRUTAL GAME – From Jean Claude Brisseau, known for ‘Sound and Fury’ and various other pieces of skewed realism. ‘A Brutal Game’, from nineteen eighty-three, was one of his first. It follows an angry young girl as she struggles with disability and the revelation that her father, a discredited government scientist, has been moonlighting as a serial killer. It’s less a genre flick and more a stark, bleak drama that focuses on the cloistered reality of its central character and her daily trials. With its morbid theme of child murder and its cold, claustrophobic atmosphere, I was wondering whether it would go the way of, say, ‘Angst’ or ‘Tenderness of the Wolves’, but really, when viewed from another standpoint, it’s actually a strangely moving account of transformation and self-transcendence. Recommended.

QUEEN OF EARTH – Excellent American indie about two ‘friends’ and the descent of one of them into what looks like madness. Elizabeth Moss plays a washed-up artist who retreats from the death of her father and the end of her relationship by decamping to her mate’s isolated lakeside household. We witness her unravel in the tradition suggested by the likes of ‘Repulsion’, ‘Images’, ‘Let’s Scare Jessica to Death’ etc. Well, that’s sort of true, but one of the interesting things about QOE (and something I feel I see more and more elsewhere in other films these days) is that it adopts the atmospheres and textures of a horror film but remains dramatically a low-key drama. There is no melodrama here, no butchery or mayhem – the protagonist essentially has a bit of a bad time and endures / reinforces some wonky relationship dynamics – but the tone of the film is one of extreme disquiet. The edit, the cinematography, the performances and, above all for me, the soundtrack, all conspire to bring this about. It’s the kind of film where you’re constantly questioning point of view and perspective – whose headspace are you in? – and one where nuance is everything, where a single look could contain a thousand backstories. Enigmatic and utterly beguiling, QOE will work its quietly poisonous way under the skin of anyone in the mood for something other than bodycount. Totally recommended.

Phantom Of The Paradise (1974, Brian de Palma)

Continuing my musical spree with this sombre yet gaudy film. It reminds me of Phibes also ...why I cannot think :lol:. Mate declared that this was the sanest of the trio :laugh: ... which makes it all worth it really.....




Unmasking The Idol (1986, Worth Keeter)

If Cannon had done Bond. SEE THIS. Lawdy Thomas etc :hail:

All noted F. ABG I felt was a more 'middle class' I Stand Alone myself ;)
As always sir ..... :hail::hail::hail:

And, as always, ta very much. As for your take on ABG - true, better than what I was groping for.

But yours makes better reading ;). Grope away ... you put me to shame. Now I'm off to show someone else The Apple :laugh: ... wish me luck !!:behindsofa:

As usual, great reviews, Frankie. :hail:

Queen of Earth sounds like a fascinating film and definitely worth a blind buy – thanks!

La Ardilla Roja-The Red Squirrel (1993).

Spanish thriller about a washed up rock star, Jota, who contemplates suicide by jumping off a bridge into the river below. But before he has a chance, a motor bike comes hurtling through the railings down to the beach below. A girl who was riding on the bike is okay but appears to have amnesia. She has no ID papers. And when the ambulance arrives, he pretends that he is her boyfriend and that her name is Lisa.
Jota continues the charade and later takes her on holiday to the Red Squirrel camp site. But is Lisa playing him as well, and remembers more than she's letting on?
Eventually, it is discovered that Lisa's real name is Sophia and that she has a violent husband, and things take a dramatic turn.

Interesting Spanish film with a surreal atmosphere and nice cinematography.
Good cast and well acted, especially by Emma Suarez who plays Lisa/Sophia.
8/10.

'The Apple' is sheer bad craziness - some kind of permit or disclaimer should be required before anyone healthy views IMO. Hopefully your 'someone else' has been appropriately vetted!
Might dig it out, now you've reminded me...