Vampire Journals (1997)

Vampire Journals is one of Charles Band's Full Moon productions and stars Jonathon Morris, best known as Adrian Boswell from eighties tv classic Bread. Don't let this put you off though as Vampire Journals is enjoyable stuff.

Blood is spilt, heads roll and necks are bitten frequently, the film also has a couple of orgy scenes and other titillating sequences. Director Ted Nicolau, a veteran of Full Moon straight to video rubbish clearly knew his stuff by 97 and made the film look quite impressive despite its impoverished budget and tv movie sheen.

The film benefits from its East European locations with many scenes playing out in some rather posh mansion houses with characters that look to have been swiped from classic horror productions of the sixties, giving the film a nicely polished Gothic feel to it. The acting isn't always wonderful and the film could really do with a Cushing, Price or Lee to give it gravitas, but on the whole Full Moon have done a good job with this.

The Devil Wears Prada, The Bogey Man & Clockers
 

The Devil Wears Prada

Fantastic movie staring Anne Hathaway as a Assistant to Meryl Streep Devil like Fashion Editor. Whilst Streep is amazing as a terrifying boss who has her staff under constant fear, Hathaway along with Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci also shine in a film that can be watched regularly.

The Bogey Man

A young boy murders his mother's abusive Boyfriend whilst his sister looked on, years later he lives as a mute with his Sister and her husband. Plagued by nightmare his sister breaks a mirror from their old house which contained the soul of the dead Boyfriend. Therefore whenever some fragments of glass gets a reflection from light, some deaths occur. I heard many good things about this film but I was quite disappointed. I thought it was slow and the deaths weren't all that great.

Clockers

Spike Lee directed film in which Harvey Keitel tries to work out who murdered an alleged Drug Dealer. The film focuses on whether a Drug Dealer or his law abiding Brother (Who admitted to doing the killing) did it. It was ok, nothing special.

A Knight's Tale (2001)

Sometimes a film is worth watching for pure entertainment value alone, rather than scrutinizing the story or it's anachronistic dialogue and soundtrack, i always find A Knight's Tale to be a simple fun filled experience.

Heath Ledger is great as the Knight in question as is Mark Addy (Playing basically the same role as he would in the BBC'S Atlantis series some years down the line) and Paul Bettany who steals every scene, even those involving the sneery Rufus Sewell.

So if you want to cry piss and vinegar about the use of football crowd chants or Thin Lizzy on the soundtrack then A Knight's Tale is not for you but if you just want two hours of entertainment in these lonely days of lockdown then this film fits the bill perfectly.

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VAN HELSING (2004)

The Vatican sends Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) to Transylvania to destroy Count Dracula. The mission is important to save the souls of the last of the Valerius family, Prince Velkan and Princess Anna (Kate Beckinsale). Due to an oath 450 years before, the souls of the Valerius family will not enter heaven until Dracula is destroyed..

Another movie that always panned. I have no idea why as this movie is constantly entertaining, an action packed fun movie.
The opening sequence is a homage to the Universal movies and looks pretty awesome in black and white.
The sets and art direction throughout the movie is superb.
Sure, some of the antics of Van Helsing and Anna are pure comic book stuff but that is the fun of the movie.
You just gotta sit back and enjoy the adventure ride because they just don't make movies like this anymore.

I love Van Helsing, never understood all the hate it gets :nod:

Trick. 2019.

A detective tries to track a mass murderer Patrick "Trick" Weaver who moves from town to town over a three year period surfacing on Halloween Night.

I wasn't expecting much from this as it seemed to be a Halloween rip off from the start of the film with the point of view opening of a house but was a bit surprised by it. Omar Epps plays the detective on the trail of the killer he believes has supernatural abilities as he seems to survive gunshots and a swan dive from a window. There a small appearance by Tom Atkins as the diner owner and cinema operator who hosts horror films every Halloween. The killings are done well with plenty gore and splatter and the acting and twist were decent.

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Let's re-phrase that shall we?

"I love Kate Beckinsale and have never seen anything on screen except her"

:D

That’s one reason yeah :lol:

My wife and I finally saw Knives Out yesterday. It was very enjoyable and it was pretty cool to see Daniel Craig in a non-Bond film that could really hold it's own. He seems to have had a few leading role misfires outside of the 007 universe. Might sound odd but it was also quite refreshing to see a modern American film (with a healthy budget) that seemingly didn't have any cgi. Would recommend to fans of the whodunnit genre. btw I think a sequel with Craig has already been greenlit?

The Brain that wouldn't die. 1962.

doctor experimenting with transplants is involved in a accident and his girlfriend is decapitated, he intends to keep her head alive so he can find a new body for her.

How come some of the old 50s and 60s horror black and white horrors seem more creepy than the films that come out today. This one was full of suspense and tense moments that kept me entertained and asking what was behind the locked door in the laboratory. Jason Evers plays the doctor trying to keep his beloved Jan (Jan in the pan) alive played by Virginia Leith. Worth a watch.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3HbbzHK5Mc

Birds of Prey

Dear God in heaven that was awful probably the worst film I've seen in the last decade, truly terrible with no redeeming qualities , with a super annoying kid , unlikable characters and juvenile humour but not in a good way, Christ never seen anyone so badly miscast as ewan mcgregor! 2/10


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz9WT449jRw

Snatchers

That's more like it a highly enjoyable comedy horror that's has great gore and is actually funny with a likable cast of characters . A high school girl sleeps with her boy friend n fear of losing him and her social status, she awakes next morning 9 months pregnant which is only the start of her problems. 8/10

Now watching The Omen a film that still creeps me out just as much as when I watched it as a kid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7CEbd7ffNw

The Omen

While it's neither partially scary or gory it has a unnerving and chilling atmosphere . A classic that's brilliantly acted and directed. That kid is so ****ing evil looking, enough to put anyone of having kids! 10/10

Omen a fantastic trilogy
Did you know how they decided on who played the part .

Four-year-old Harvey Stephens won the role of Damien during a group audition, when director Richard Donner asked the potential little Antichrists to attack him the way Damien attacks Katherine (Lee Remick) in the church. Stephens went further than the other boys, clawing Donner's face and kicking him in the junk. That won Stephens the part, but Donner still didn't think he was scary enough, so he had the blonde boy's hair dyed black.

But here 10 facts about omen

http:///www.moviefone.com/2016/06/24/the-omen-facts/

From Beyond, Black Eagle & Cliffhanger
 

From Beyond

A mad scientist is able to enhance a part of the Brain which enhances creatures from another dimension. His assistant (Jeffrey Combs) is accused of his murder and placed in a Mental Hospital where Psychologist (Barbara Crampton) takes him and a Detective (Ken Foree) back and recreate the experiment. It works and brings back other creatures and the Scientist, of course all hell breaks loose. Not bad, most of the F/X still looks alright all things considering.

Oh yeah, seeing the picture of the VHS front cover in the center pages of the Video Shop Rental Magazine bloody scared me when I first saw it (I was 6 at the time lol)

Black Eagle

Sho Kosugi is the Spy operative sent to retrieve a top secret weapon which is at the bottom of a sea in Malta. Jean Claude-Van Damme is part of the Russian Unit also after it. Kosugi's sons are also in this. It was good back in it's day but by today's standards, it's rather tame (If they cut out the broken neck scenes, ITV could show it on a Sunday Afternoon) but it's not bad fodder for 90 minutes.

Cliffhanger

Sylvester Stallone film where he's a Mountain Rescuer who is forced by Robbers lead John Lithgow to retrieve stolen money that are in the Mountains. It's good but it's one of those films I forget about unless I come across it. It's not one of those films I think about when I decide what film to watch.

I put a lot of why horror is effective is down to the soundtrack, and the music to the Omen still freaks me out.

Prisoners (2013)

A taut, tense thriller from Denis Villeneuve about child abduction and the fallout and impact it has on those affected by it.

It's beautifully acted by Hugh Jackman,who proves there's much more to him than mere teeth, claws and top hats, Jake Gyllenhaal, (a fantastic noirish detective) Paul Dano, Viola Davis and co who perform wonders with a cleverly complex and absorbing script which gives you clues from the off, if you realise they are clues of course.

Roger Deakins photography is as beautiful as ever even though he paints the Pennsylvania with a cold brush of greys and dark greens so if you don't get chills from the story you will from the stark cinematography.

At two and a half hours Prisoners is a long film but Villeneuve wastes not a second with some meticulous character building and story telling.

THE OMEN is still my No1 scary movie.
Everything about the movie for me is unnerving and frightening and the music score just adds to the sheer horror of it all.
I have seen the movie countless times and know the script off by heart and the movie never loses any impact. It's excellent.

The other day i was only listening to Stallone tell a story about working with Michael Rucker saying how crazy he was gliding over and back on a wire across a canyon just for kicks :lol:

It old 70s horrors why I complain they just don't make films / horror as good as they use to, some really great cult / classic horrors from the 70s, era of Exorcist, Tcm, Hills have eyes, Jaws, Halloween, Black Christmas, Salems lot tbh the list is endless, and omen is a perfect eg of horrors should be made.

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BATTLE OF THE BULGE(1965)

All star Hollywood version of the World War II events in the Ardennes counteroffensive in 1944.
Though it may lack somewhat in historical accuracy, the movie is an enjoyable action epic.

Midsommar (2019)

The Wicker Man (1973) is the perfect 'Pagan festivities' film. It runs for 100 minutes in it's extended directors cut version.

Ari Aster's Midsommar plays out over nearly 150 minutes.

I think you can see a problem right there. Midsommar is just too damn long and uneventful and it also emanates a strong sense of deja-vu at times with Robin Hardy's British classic as well as Ben Wheatley's A Field in England, Ti West's The Sacrament and even Herschell Gordon Lewis' Two Thousand Maniacs!, among others.

Whilst the film is unsettling in it's final third it lacks any dramatic tension up till then and the story is hardly gripping, seemingly borrowing from a multitude of genre sources in reaching it's destination.

That's not to say Midsommar is a poor and derivative film. It's not.

It's beautifully filmed and has a strong personality of it's own. The Swedish midnight sun setting is highly original and means that the very strong gory moments have no hiding place in the shadows and the stunning practical effects are there for all to see. It's also a beautiful film to look at, full of vivid colours especially in it's flowery costume designs.

Midsommar is, was, in the end over hyped, and to devotees of the horror / folk horror genre nothing remotely new.

I’ve only seen the theatrical version of Midsommer, but it bored the crap out of me, I should’ve watched the Wicker Man remake instead! Beautifully filmed though, which is the reason I gave it 2 out of 5 stars on Letterboxd :nod:

Invasion of the saucer Men. 1957.

A alien space craft lands in a small American town and nobody believes the two teens who see it.

I think this was one of those 50s B movies that wasn't meant to be taken seriously, big bugged eyed head aliens arriving and doping people up with alcohol, great cover up and denting a car and placing a dead guy by it and blame other people for a accident, smart creatures they are. Beside all that it was enjoyable, the actors did put in the effort to make it work and also make us laugh at the same time, with the hand the pops up with a eyeball.

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THE VIOLENT YEARS (1956)

Paula who seems like a nice girl is sadly neglected by her parents.
She is in fact the leader of a group of girls who at gun point rob gas stations, rape men and smash up school rooms..

Low budget drive-in delinquent teen movie written by Ed Wood.
Actually a not bad movie even with Ed's name attached.
Ends up with a moralising monologue about bad parents and their responsibilities to stop their kids getting out of control.

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Philip Raven is hired to assassinate a blackmailer but right from the get go things start to go wrong. The blackmailers assistant is also at the meeting and Raven is forced to kill both of them. Once the job is done Raven meets the man who hired him he is strangely paid in all ten dollar bills but what he doesn't know is that its a set up and the bills are all marked. When Raven is pursued by the police after using some of the money he discovers the double cross and follows Willard Gates and his boss the men who hired and stabbed him in the back to square things up. On route to L.A Raven meets the beautiful Ellen Graham who is on her way to L.A to work in the club of the the very man Raven is hunting down. They both have their own agendas but can they find a way that they both get what they want.

This Gun For Hire is a fantastic film beautifully shot and flawlessly acted its hard to find any negatives at all. Alan Ladd is great as Raven he is a man hiding lots of pain beneath his cold exterior he is cool and calm underpressure but their are moments where the cracks start to show but he quickly pulls himself together and its back to business. What can you say about Veronica Lake she is beautiful mysterious and just oozes class. Laird Cregar is the other stand out as Willard Gates he is such a weasel of a man afraid of his own shadow but he plays it spot on.

Just a wonderful film

8/10

The Brain Eaters. 1958.

When a large cone shaped object appears from the ground a group of people begin to act strange.

It always always amazing how a small town can seem to be the starting point of a alien invasion in these 50s science -fiction films, This one based on the book by Robert A. Heinlein (The Puppet Masters) starts off well then goes off track then back on the to being decent again. Ed Nelson takes point as the doctor who is curious about the coned object. There are are some good suspense moments but don't expect a lot more. Worth a watch and check out the remake The Puppet Masters 1994.

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The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, Species & L.A. Confidential
 

The Garbage Pail Kids Movie

Yes I know that this is considered to be 1 of the worst films ever but I remember not minding this when I was a child and considering I found a cheap DVD, I got it. To be honest whilst it's not good, I didn't consider it to be 1 of the worst either. It's a basic story of a bullied kid being helped by The Garbage Pail Kids.

Species

Rather enjoyable adult Sci-fi Action film in which a half woman-half alien escapes from a laboratory and is hunted by a rather impressive cast including Michael Madson, Ben Kingsley, Forest Whitiker, Alfred Molena and Marg Helgenberger whilst trying to procreate and murdering people. There is a commentary track with Natasha Henstridge. I may have to give that a try sometime.

L.A. Confidential

This film noir is 1 of my all time favorite films. Starring Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce, this is a tale of Police Detectives investigating murders, missing drugs and blackmail. What I really like about this film is that while there are multiple storylines, it isn't too complicated to follow.

For me it's one of the Oscars biggest fails that this did not win Best Film.

The Hidden Hand. 1942.

A rich eccentric woman helps her insane brother escape the mental hospital in order to conceal him as a butler and frighten her guests who are after her money.

Great comedy mystery film set in a somewhat dark house thriller with plenty hidden passages with twist and turns on each of the characters who want to find where the old woman hid her fortune within the house. Cecile Cunningham plays the old eccentric Lorinda Channing and Milton Parsons as her insane brother John, who has the evil look and stare on hi face. Willie Best plays the chauffeur and bring in the laughs with his wide eyed stare and squeals.

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ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932)

Castaway Edward Parker finds himself a guest on a strange island run by Dr. Moreau. Surrounded by beast like men, Parker stumbles upon Moreau performing and experiment on a man beast and finds out the truth..

All round great movie which was originally banned in many countries.
Charles Laughton is a joy to watch and the make up effects very good although unfortunately there are some excellent designs that for some reason were never seen in the movie.

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/p...souls_1932.jpg Attachment 224175

Black Mountain Side (2014)

Interesting psychological horror about a group of archaeologists who discover what appears to be an ancient structure buried in the snow towards the arctic circle.

What plays out is a dark thriller as the group face fears of isolation and strange physical mutations in a film thick with supernatural undercurrents.

I rather enjoyed this. It takes a bit of Carpenter's The Thing in addition to Larry Fessenden's The Last Winter and throws in what might be a dose of Lovecraft lite, in a beautifully photographed, nicely acted slow burning chiller.

What i did find utterly bizarre were the end credits. I wasn't paying attention as the cast list rolled so slowly 'rewound' the disc. The film's title Black Mountain appeared followed by a second title Black Mountain Side. On playback Black Mountain Side is nowhere to be seen. The credits simply say Black Mountain, then the cast list rolls.

A haunted dvd for sure. And a movie with definite rewatch value.

I'm intrigued - just ordered the dvd from music magpie.

I hope you enjoy it, zeroid :)

And i also hope you took note of my use of the words slow burn. ;)

Oh I'm all about the slow burn these days :clap: films I've particularly enjoyed over the last few years include The Endless, Personal Shopper, Blade Runner 2049 and one of my all time faves is Antonioni's The Passenger...

I've liked slow burners for sometime because they are better told, better story and build upto something and sometimes more rewarding, that's why I don't mind midsommar and vvitch.

Premutos. 1997.

The fallen angel Premutos wants to control the world of the living and dead, his attempts to do so through the ages is thwarted. In present time he comes back by accident and tries again.

This is a strange horror from Germany that may seem like a ghost story but turns into a zombie film that goes back and forth in back flashes with the main character being the focus of the family bloodline that's been selected as the chosen one.

The film does start off explaining the back ground of Premutos then becomes the start of the guy who sleeps then wakes up in the past. It certainly does have it's good gory moments with good kills and few ball shots and bites moments as well as some really bad dubbing that makes it more comical but may have been decently written in it's native language, the dinner party seemed to go on and have very little meaning to it.

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Seoul Station

Anime film regarding the start of a zombie apocalypse and the story of a dad trying to find his daughter. It's my 1st Anime film and I rather enjoyed it. There was a twist at the end which I didn't see coming. This is also the prequel to Train To Busain, which is on my viewing schedule.

Accepted

An under the radar teen flick in which Justin Long can't get into College, so he along a couple of others (Including Jonah Hill) invent a College. Soon by accident others come along thinking they have enrolled into the fake College. Soon they are in the sights of a snobby College and Fraternity. It follows the standard script of the idea going well only for it to fall apart followed by the feel good ending. This is the type of film that gets released at the Cinema the same week as a major film so it can sell tickets when the customer's intended film sells out but this is an easy watch and quite a bit of fun.

Two Evil Eyes

George A Romero and Dario Argento each direct a short Edgar Allan Poe story. I ended up forwarding most of this film on as I found it quite boring.

Top Gun

The Tom Cruise 80's film in which he's a Fighter Pilot who's in the most elite training course. He soon falls in love with Civilian Instructor Kelly McGillis. This is a well known 80's movie which is good and a film that I can watch now and then but I don't think it's the classic that it's made out to be.

I can imagine Danger Zone and Take My Breathe Away was cranked up on the record players back in 1986 especially in The Summer.

Footsoldier

British thriller in which a woman is hunted in the woods after hunters accidentally shoot her fiancé. It really wasn't all that good.

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Currently on as background, this in a way is a weird film for me to judge being that it's overlong and indulgent in places but certainly has it's moments and I wasn't bored watching it at the Cinema.

Found this in a Poundland on Saturday, picked it up, it sounds good but I am concerned about the 127 minute running time for this type of movie. But presently have a lot of time on my hands at the minute lol

Watched both Guardians of the galaxy films back to back. I really love these films both easily in my top five marvel movies and far superior family sci-fi too the new star wars films with the exception of Rogue One. Humour with great characters and films that show how a great sound track can make a film and who doesn't love Baby Groot!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d96cjJhvlMA


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cv2ueYnKjg

Now watching The Thing ( 1982).

976-Evil: The Astral Factor. 1992.

A harmless horror-scope number gives a teacher supernatural powers from beyond the grave.

I wouldn't say this was a superior sequel to the first film, this started off interesting in a way it deals with astral projectory, but half way it slowly goes downhill to being stupid and how a student has some sort of connection with the teacher is never really explained. Patrick O'Bryan returns from the first film as Spike who has escaped the fate of the number and helps out a student of the murderous teacher and a small cameo appearance by Brigette Nielsen as a witch book store owner, it does have good make-up creations, maybe worth a re-watch at some point.

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I thought Personal Shopper was excellent. Superb performance by Kristen Stewart.