Season of the Witch (1973)

A film that's quickly becoming my favourite Romero film. Season of the Witch is less of a horror film and more a psychological study into sexually frustrated, alcoholic, housewives.

The horror influences are minimal, mainly nightmarish dream sequences, the type of which you only ever see in films from this period. Along with a terrific central performance of repressed sexuality by Jan White, the film shows an understanding of traditional witchcraft and the uses of potions and spells and being at one with nature rather than the demons and covens that other films like to portray as witchcraft. It's also interesting that the use of witchcraft is seen as a metaphor for female empowerment. I loved the use of dog leads in this and the difference the empowerment had in it's symbolism.

Romero builds atmosphere from the off and by the second half it's practically stifling, claustrophobic, blending reality with the abstract in that fractured way indie cinema of the late sixties and early seventies specialised in.

I've not seen this since the Redemption VHS days, alas, the discs are packed away somewhere so it will have to wait, I have 100's more films unpacked to watch anyway :)

Really kinda want to watch this one though lol.

Inside (2007)

Inside is the best example of new wave French horror cinema from the early 2000's, bar none.

The final fifty minutes of this eighty odd minute film are an exercise in frenetic, extreme, violence. It's nightmarishly claustrophobic, intense as f*ck and gut wrenchingly brutal. If you don't squirm when one character has her stomach cut open with scissors then i'm not sure you are still alive.

Quite simply Inside is pure, relentless, visceral terror!

Carnage. 1984.

A newlywed couple move into a new house where a couple died years earlier.

Low budget haunted/cursed house film from Andy Milligan that does start off well, then slowly declines down to being more funny with the cinematography and bad editing when the ghost appears and some bad decisions. I'm sure if you sure if you stop it at some places and rewind back you can see strings on objects. The acting isn't spectacular as some of the actors haven't appeared in anything else. For laughs its watchable but not to be taken seriously.

Attachment 223768

The Big Bus. 1976.

A new nuclear operated bus makes it's first journey from New York to Denver along with a assortment of odd passengers and mishaps.

This was a spoof of disaster movies, even commentated at the start of the films giving out nods to other disaster movies. Why has this not been given a proper release as it was made before Airplane and full of side gags, good one liners that are still comical and a very funny bar fight with milk and a candle. Plenty of noticeable bunch of actors and even Jose Ferrer as a scheming bad guy who is sorrounded by idiots.

Attachment 223770

H.M.S. Defiant (1962)

A rip roaring British Naval adventure. High on budget and even higher on excitement as Alec Guinness' Captain spars with Dirk Bogarde's sadistic First Officer.

Everything you could possibly wish for in seafaring adventure is onscreen. Mutinous crews, moral dilemmas, blazing Naval battles, floggings, fire ships, you name it, it's here. (Well, apart from pirates. Sorry).

Gripping from first to last.

Highly recommended.

Draft Day, Crime Story & Dredd
 

Draft Day

Kevin Costner stars as an American Football team GM who on the day of the NFL Draft is given the opportunity to obtain the number 1 pick overall. As an American Football fan, I find this film to be completely riveting and can watch it multiple times.

Crime Story

Jackie Chan is a Detective out to find a kidnapped businessman. This is one of Chan's more serious movies with some crazy stunts. If you can pick it up on sale, then it's worth a go, not full price though.

Dredd

Rather bonkers adaptation of the Comic Book, nice and violent story of Dredd and a rookie officer who have to go into a block of flats to capture a criminal but have to contend with numerous gangs out to stop the. Loved how this got released around the same time at the cinema as The Raid.

Attachment 223771
THE HIDEOUS SUN DEMON (1959)

Dr. Gilbert McKenna is exposed to radiation after an accident. Now, whenever exposed to sunlight he turns in to a murderous reptile like creature..

Low budget creature feature with good acting by it's lead man Robert Clarke as the tormented monster.
The creature make up is also very good.
Enjoyable drive-in movie type fun. I remember this film on home movie Super 8mm.

Attachment 223774 Attachment 223777

An American werewolf in London. 1981.

Two American backpackers travelling around Britain are attacked on the moors, one is killed and the other becomes a werewolf.

Aside from The Howling that came out the same year, this one deserves a bit more recognition...why? John Landis took things to the extreme with the transformation sequence seriously with the help of Rick Baker making the the change from man to wolf scary and seeing the change point of view style.

David Naughton and Griffin Dunne seem to have the great chemistry as good friends and plenty of banter and laughs between them, even Jack's make-up every time we see him he is changing into a zombie that only David sees.

Jenny Argutter plays the nurse David shacks up with (who wouldn't) and seems to think David is traumatized about Jack's death. John Woodvine plays the doctor who thinks the villagers are hiding something.

There is suspense in the film especially in the underground after the first change and it goes to point of view from the wolf's advantage to a split blink and miss 3 seconds of seeing the wolf. Then the grand finale with the wolf terrorizing London's Piccadilly area with everything at a panic, innocent people involved and blood. Top Notch Film that wasn't appreciated by me years ago now i love it.


Attachment 223778

American Werewolf has one of my all-time favourite lines, from Woodvine:
"If there was some kind of monster roaming about the Yorkshire moors, I'm sure we'd have seen it on the telly." :nod::lol:

Indeed. "A small Guiness will suffice .... " Rewatch.

You ready then?

Fit To Kill (Andy Sidaris)

How apt that my other favourite Andy is mentioned on this page. How apt that they are so similar, ploughing wildly different furroughs natch. This time the L.E.T.H.A.L. ladies spend their time hunting a diet Roger Rees, whilst trying to recover Nazi plunder. Yes, there's the prerequisite sex, BOOBS, the token song, yadda yadda. You knows whats to expects. It did seem a tiny bit perfunctory, but there is still a bunch to salivate/die of laughter of over (delete as appropriate). Too drunk to write anymore, but check that poster :laugh:, you know you wants it ..... :lol:

Silly, I know, but my favourite line is delivered by a small boy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgVtg1VV05U

I was just about to post this! haha.

Also, the legendary line "You. Made. Me. Miss."

It's worth watching this little clip only to see Rik Mayall with his only line in the film!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeD-oLMIovw

Hallowed Ground (2007)

Decent if unspectacular supernatural / slasher horror film that will have you thinking of films such as Scarecrows and Children of the Corn, except here it's the towns people who are the villains rather than the kids.

Reasonable production values, good locations and a better cast than you normally get in this sort of thing (Jaimie Alexander, Nick Chinlund, Xena's Hudson (Calisto) Leick and Chloe Grace Moretz) make it a decent time waster.

If like me you are a sucker for these sort of American folk horrors then Hallowed Ground may well be worth watching. I think this was my fourth viewing of the movie.

Attachment 223794
THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS (1959)

A lighthouse keeper has a secret. He has been feeding a creature from a cave by the sea.
When the creature tires of the scraps left, it heads out leaving a trail of headless bodies..

Decent creature feature. A good looking monster which used some costume parts from 'This Island Earth' and 'The Mole People'. Some quick gruesome scenes involving severed heads.
Good fun.

https://imgc.allpostersimages.com/im...15-8363144.jpg

The Godfather Trilogy

Great movies, even Part 3 which for some reason comes in for a bit of a panning! The only problem was with Part 2, I found the back and forth nature of both Michael and Vito's story a little annoying. The old 'Epic' mini-series of parts 1 and 2 was told in a more linear fashion.

Just Friends & The Principle
 

Just Friends

Comedy staring Ryan Reynolds where he confesses his love to Amy Smart which isn't reciprocated. 10 years later, he returns home along with neurotic singer Anna Faris and tries again. Only this time he has to battle former geek Chris Klein for her affections. Still funny with Faris being the star of the show.

The Principle

James Belushi stars in this 1987 film where he's promoted to the role of Principle of a lawless High School. Along with Lou Gossett JR, he turns things around whilst making enemies of a drug gang. Whilst full of the usual clichés, it's one of those films that when you watch it (After a while) you realize it's still a good movie.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/...%2C215_AL_.jpg

A mute boy stumbles upon a teenage girl kidnapped and buried alive by three young psychopathic criminals who want to extort diamonds from her rich stepfather, but can he help her?

Wow! This movies could only be made in the 70's , full of twists with an amazing ending , Recommend 100% - I don't really care about slipcovers but this one from VS it's beautiful :nod:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/...82,268_AL_.jpg

Strange occurrences plague a small town detective and his family as he investigates the disappearance of a young boy.

Some movies are better watched without knowing about them - I stumble on this one I don't remember how any more.. but anyway from the poster looked like another ghost/spirit movie, the first 20 minutes of the movie I was already bored, after a while it started to warm up a little and around the 3rd act (50minutes of the movie) I was all in! Nice thriller with a couple of nice surprises, but bigger surprise was seeing the wax doll of Helen Hunt acting :pound:

Non-Stop (2014)

Director Jaume Collet-Serra and star Liam Neeson team up for their second of four films together.

Collet-Serra ratchets up the knuckle whitening tension in this at times ludicrous thriller whilst Neeson growls at anyone who gets in his way.

There's everything you could want from an airplane thriller in Non-Stop including bullets, Julianne Moore, ransoms, bombs and Michelle Dockery, sadly no snakes though.

Gremloids (aka Hyperspace). 1984.

Due to a small navigation error, Lord buckethead lands on Earth instead of another planet far far away and mistakes a girl as a princess who he searching for.

Star Wars parody made 3 years before Mel Brooks made Spaceballs, This is very low budget and remember it being funny when i was young, after re-watching i thought what was funny about it or has Spaceballs corrupted my mind. The acting isn't great, but not crap, there is some memorable lines that still made me laugh, Lord Buckethead appearance was always comical and stupid. This is on the list of so bad it's good.

Attachment 223805

The Evil Below. 1989.

A down on his luck sea captain searches for treasure in a old Spanish galleon that's alleged to be cursed.

Aside from being listed as a horror...this isn't a horror, from the start there is a killing and small blood shown that's it. This is more action and maybe underwater adventure. There is a few nightmare sequences that seem to lead to nowhere and what people were screaming at or did i miss something?? There seems to be a few flaws and yeah ok whatever moments, like the guy vaulting over a balcony landing on his hip and somehow gets up and runs away without a limp or not even a grump. Waste of time.

Attachment 223806

Death Screams (aka House Of Death). 1982.

Teens are stalked and killed by a maniac while the small carnival is in town.

This was by no means a great slasher film, it could have had potential but seemed rushed from the first five minutes and even at the end you kind of figure who the killer was and most of the killings is done near towards the end and had some good decent effects. I will admit it took a few watches to get into the film to understand, and seemed more watchable. Surprisingly the odd ball sheriff in this seems more on the ball even though he takes his time in to the police work but knows when young kids are looking at a copy of Hustle. Keep a open mind with this one.

Attachment 223814

Necessary Roughness, Nightmare Beach & Running Scared (2005)
 

Necessary Roughness

Scott Bakula stars as a American Football Quarterback who enrolls as a College Freshman so he can be on a team of misfits. If you like your sport movies with the usual clichés then this is for you.

Nightmare Beach

A serial killer is stalking victims during Spring Break. Not a bad film for it's genre. Apparently Umberto Lenzi directed this however he is not mentioned during the credits.

Running Scared (2005)
Paul Walker stars as a member of a criminal gang who is charged with disposing of a gun but doesn't however it is used in another shooting and therefore goes missing along with a boy, so Walker has to find them both before other gangsters. Slightly mad film which has one of the most craziest plot diversions I've seen. It's entertaining however.

Penetration Angst (2003)

As with all the Fiona Horsey films i have that are directed by Wolfgang Buld, Penetration Angst is micro budgeted, however here the budget has been wisely put to use with some nice location work in the capital and also on the Isle of Wight as well as some genuinely expansive ideas.

The film has a remarkable plot that you will never, ever guess where it leads, and indeed the path is a strange and pretty grungy one involving mutant sex, conjoined twins and camper vans.

There's a lo-fi twistedness that doesn't really hold together yet the never shy Horsey and the sheer bizarreness of it all makes you cheer loudly for warped indie cinema.

The film has an awesome soundtrack including several Tiamat songs, Lacuna Coil, Flowing Tears and Moonspell.

Attachment 223846
PHASE IV (1974)

After an event out in space, ants generally at war with other species, join together. Strange structures are found in the desert.
Scientists work in a dome out in the desert to try to find out what is happening and find themselves under siege by the intelligent creatures..

A great piece of sci-fi entertainment.
The close up filming and the actions of the ants are just incredible.

https://66.media.tumblr.com/f2a4d7f3...emvwo4_500.jpg

Hot Dog... The Movie (1984)
 

Hot Dog... The Movie (1984)
Some skiing,some tits and a smidgen of xenophobia,( but it's aimed at the Germans so that's ok),the 80s,when sexism and racism were normal....

Attachment 223848

Flashdance (1983, Adrian Lyne)

What a feeling ..... of bewilderment and revulsion if I'm brutally honest. I am in half a mind to rewatch it ... just to be sure :lol: of what I witnessed.
A young girl struggles to make it on her own terms in a man's world. and it is a man's world this. Made by Mr surface sheen himself with the aid of a drug crazed pervert and Jerry Bruckheimer.
Like an endless stream of awful music videos strung together with dialogue that makes The Room seem Tarkovskyian in comparison :laugh:
I'm sure I heard them say she was 18? So the fact that she's an old hand at dancing in some bar seems to just be a thing, legality be damned. That's cocaine for you though, it makes you seem invincible cough. In fact the whole thing screams cocaine. From the jittery, genre jumping jamboree of the ST to the epilepsy inducing "pierrot" sequence (ouch), it's redolent of the essentially empty experience of taking cocaine ahem.
Yet again, this was successful? Times have changed as female emancipation is ... not an issue here. The so called plot thread which I'm sure was meant to be "romantic", just came of as disturbingly reminiscent of some sexual harrassment story.
Horrible horrible horrible. Take it away





Cats

The new The Apple?? give it ten years. Otherwise, a real furball. Screaming "Ulthar!" ... didn't help. :laugh:

Deadtime Stories. 1986.

A young boy is told a trio of stories by his uncle based on fairy tales.

1. A fisherman sells his son to two sisters who are witches and try to resurrect their third sister.

2. Rachel has to collect her grandmother's medication, there is a mix up and the person who has her gran's medication turns into a werewolf.

3. Three criminals team up with a girl called Goldi Lox.

I didn't have high hopes for this one as it seemed to be a total horror parody with more laughs than horror,there was some good effects, even included a disembodied hand that seems to appear in a lot of anthology movies. the acting wasn't great but delivers some good in joke moments. The tales do have a twist in them that can be predictable, it's good for it's laughs.

Attachment 223874

Indiana Jones And The Templw Of Doom, Johnny Be Good, Dig! & The Punisher (1989)
 

Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom

This was one of those films I never got round to see and to be honest, I got bored, it seemed forever to get to the cult scenes and to be honest I was disappointed by this. It's definitely one of those, I would have enjoyed it better if I had seen it years ago.

Johnny Be Good

Antony Michael Hall stars as a high school American Football player who is sought after by all the major colleges and we see all the negotiation tactics involved. Robert Downey JR and Uma Thurman co-star (I'm guessing that if this gets a blu ray release, they will be front and center of the cover) it's a very enjoyable film and certainly one that makes you wonder if all these negotiation tactics actually go on.

Dig!

Documentary on The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Johnstown Massacre which focuses on how one band were trying to make a career out of music and the self-destruction either willingly or unintentional. As I am a fan of The Dandy Warhols, I found this quite fascinating.

The Punisher (1989)

This is the Dolph Lundgren version and it's still entertaining after all these years. May give the Thomas Jane version a go as the story changed for the most part.

Is this the film 101 Films have just released?

Yep, that's the one. :nod:

Grave of the Vampire. 1972.

Kroft, a vampire returns from the grave and attacks a couple, the woman gives birth to a baby boy that feeds on blood. 30 years later the boy who has grown up searches for the man who raped his mother and plans to kill him in revenge.

70s horror that was made quickly and low on the production scales and mediocre editing that was involved makes it look bad. This is a different take on the vampire genre, with a plot that seems daft and uninteresting, this was actually decent, it ain't perfect due to some noticeable flaws. Michael Pataki makes a decent vampire while William Smith plays the son who wants revenge. Worth a watch.

Attachment 223887

What's the quality like of the VIPCO dvd, Mr.B?

A lot better than the copy i had before as it looked like it had been a bad pirated version.

Attachment 223888

This was the cover of the one i had, don't know what it was but i felt like my eyes were straining to the point i had to switch it off

I always wanted to see this but held off until i got the recent American scream factory bluray as i always heard most copies were shit quality.

Attachment 223889

I enjoyed it when i finally saw the film last year.:pop2:

That looks like VCI i suspect.

um...

Yeah...Very Crap Import :lol:

Attachment 223890
ONIBABA (1964)

During a civil war in 14th century Japan, two women kill any stray soldiers and sell the armour for food. They put the bodies down a dark pit.
One night a Samurai appears in a strange mask to the older woman.
After luring the samurai to fall in to pit, the woman uses the mask to frighten and stop her younger companion visiting a nearby man who has returned from the war..

Filmed in fields of towering susuki grass, this movie is full of atmosphere. Part drama part horror and filmed in black and white.
Great.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_EFsVPzi-wm...kOk/s400/1.jpg