The House on Skull Mountain (1974)

A fun blacksploitation Witchcraft film / murder mystery in which four family members are called to hear the reading of a will at yes, a house on Skull Mountain (Called as such because it totally resembles a skull). Told they have to stay for a week to hear the reading the family members find themselves stalked by a cloaked spectral skeletal figure.

I've seen this a couple of times now and always enjoy it. The characters are good and although the story is pretty slight it never feels like time is wasted. My only slight complaint is i think the voodoo scenes at the end go on for too long without anything happening other than dancing.

However for a PG rated horror from the seventies, The House on Skull Mountain works a treat.

Never seen this but it has popped up a few times, after your review, will certainly check it out

The Sinful Dwarf. 1973.

Olaf and his mother Lila run a boarding house and have a room in the attic that they use to enslave women for sex. A young couple take up residency with them, Olaf and Lila slowly begin to take a shine to the young girl.

I saw a trailer for this I think on one of the Grindhouse trailers dvd, so I knew it would be bad, straight from the lovely country of Denmark, this was a bizarre movie. right from the start Olaf picks up what seems to be a teen, in reality you can tell she is over 25, takes her home to show her his collection of stuffed toys and does a killing deed just about.

Anne Sparrow and Peter Eades plays the young couple who hear noises but brush it off and don't investigate till it's too late and are unaware that little Olaf is a peeping tom. Clara Keller plays Lila who thinks she can sing (it's like stragling a cat) and goes over the top at the end. Torben Bille plays the main character who can put Chucky and Norman Bates to shame, he doesn't discriminate who he kills and even uses his walking stick as a sex object.

This was the unrated hardcore version and yes everything is shown which surprised me but for streaming online these places can show anything and everything.

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“Urban Legends : Bloody Mary”

Obv not as good as the original “Urban Legend”, but was it just me or is this better than the first sequel? That spider scene was crazy!


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I feel I should elaborate - I really loved the first Urban Legend film, but have only watched 2&3 since getting the 88 Films box set. The 2nd movie feels so limp compared to the first, it felt like there weren’t actually any urban legend kills, and the ‘link’ back to the first film really felt so tedious and straw clutching. The 3rd movie was almost like it was the film that characters were making during the 2nd movie. Good kill scenes linked together with a simple story that skirted the line between slasher and supernatural. Obviously low budget with basic CGI, but overall good [emoji106]


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The Mephisto Waltz (1971)

Based on the novel by Fred Mustard Stewart, the story follows a deranged concert pianist (Curt Jurgens), dying of leukemia whose lust for his daughter (Barbara Parkins) and devotion to devil-worship destroy the marriage of writer Alan Alda and Jacqueline Bisset.

To revive his sexual mojo, Jurgens has Alda killed, then assumes his body via a ceremony of Witchcraft. As the film progresses Bisset finally realizes something is amiss after her daughter dies in mysterious circumstances. Alda/Jurgens starts getting ruthless in bed, and the ex-husband of Parkins (Bradford Dillman) tells her, before his untimely death, of a monster child miscarried by Parkins and sired by her father.

This is a decidedly offbeat occult thriller. Witchcraft scenes are well done and suitably spooky, but the standouts are the surreal hallucination sequences which are as Gothic as any Hammer film. A heavy sense of doom pervades this bizarre film thanks to some left-field cinematography and eerie music, as well as some truly shocking set pieces courtesy of director Paul Wendkos. Alda lacks the dangerous edge his character demands but Bisset's performance is chillingly effective. And that dog! That dog is just f*cking weird.

I’ve always been intrigued by this one (but never seen it) due to the awesome poster. Will have to check it out some day soon.

Is it Signal One who released it on Blu?

I watched it as part of a MGM Midnite Movies double bill dvd with The House on Skull Mountain.

It's not one i'd be looking to upgrade particularly. But if i saw it in Cex for a fiver then that's a different matter.

It was Signal One yes, don’t often see them around in the shops these days, I think they’ve taken their product out of HMV like Eureka and Indicator did after the takeover.

It was included in one of the last £6 sales in Fopp about 3 years ago and I never bought it :(

£6 sales. "Sigh".

Now £9 is classed as a sale.

I did notice that Amazon have Landis' Schlock at £7.99 today. I wonder if Amazon are trying to get rid of a few Arrow releases.

Massacre. 1989.

A red gloved killer stalks the crew making a film in the area.

The godfather of gore Lucio Fulci takes a seat in the back as a producer in this and allows Andrea Bianchi to take the helm, did Lucio think I need to make a sleazy film and get a porn director to do it that will surprise the audience?? The actors must have been told they were going to be in a film within a film and act really bad, there is one or two decent kills, a background score that was borrowed from another film, a twist that really didn't wow me, and a film poster that shows two actors from another movie that aren't connected to the film, more laughable than horror,

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Fortress Of Amerikkka. 1989.

A paroled Native American seeks revenge against a corrupt Sheriff and fights against a Military group called Fortress Of Amerikkka.

From the team of Troma comes their action adventure styled Rambo movie, love or hate them, we know never to take them seriously and have gave out memorable movies but this was just plain stupid. The acting is worse than any other film they have dished out, the plot of the story is just stupid and a Sheriff who knows the group is there but does sod all except be corrupt. Second time seeing this and managed somehow to stick it all the way to the end this time.

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Lorna The Exorcist. 1974.

A man who made a pact with a witch becomes tormented when she comes to collect the soul of his daughter who has turned 18.

A bit of Eurotrash sleaze movie from the mind of Jess Franco and we would expect nothing to come to a surprise from a great film maker. The MPA and BBFC must have had fun cutting and tearing this film to shreds.

Guy Delorme plays Patrick who was down on his luck and by chance meets Lorna played by Pamela Stanford who offers him her body and what he wants and in return she wants his daughter Linda played by Lina Romay. Jacqueline Laurent plays Marianne the faithful wife who is caught up in Patrick's secret. I thought I would be watching a badly edited version but no this was full blown uncut version that shows everything, even the father watching his daughter have a shower and girl on girl. Not a film to watch at work but was intruiged on how the film ends.

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Last year I reviewed the Pet Shop Boys Movie, It Couldn't Happen Here.

For those unsure about it before purchasing, Sky Arts are showing it on Friday 10th June at 21:00

It's something else isn't it? I sat agog the first time tbh. Many many highlights. Still, having seen far more of his work than ever, I still remember the first time i watched it. Vernon's cameo :hail:.
Ahem. As you were folks ...

Tenement. 1985.

A gang in the Bronx attack the resident of a apartment block until the resident are pushed to the brink and attack back.

While Michael Winner was filming Death Wish 3, he was probably unaware or aware that Roberta Findlay was making a film about a gang terrorizing people in the Bronx area. I will admit hands up, the acting is not that great even with a tenant coming face to face with someone in her flat tends to over act. Back then the rape scene may have been a bit disturbing and the killing, but we do get a satisfying creative finale. One that I will come back to again.

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Violence In A Women's Prison. 1982.

A reporter goes undercover in a female's prison to expose the brutality of the officer's and the wardens.

Laura Gemser plays the reporter Emanuelle...is it the same Emanuelle that went looking for the cannibals?? Here she is trying to expose corruption within the prison walls until her identity is exposed and she becomes a target by warden Lorraine De Selle and her hench woman Franca Stoppi and pervert doctor Gabriele Tinti. There is some humiliation, nudity and some good girl on girl fights that Bruno Mattei...sorry Vincent Dawn brings to us, not the best female prison movie but not the worst either.

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Have a good Friday all :rockon:

Ms.45. 1981.

Thana a mute seamstress is raped twice in one day and goes on a revenge spree hunting those who shamed her armed with a gun.

Abel Ferrara's female revenge style movie that see's Zoe Lund taking to the streets of New York armed with a gun she took from a rapist after bashing him in the head with a iron. This is very low key B-movie grade but certainly has you rooting for the main protagonist, for a film that ran for almost 80 minutes or so this was well worth a watch for the first time and won't be the last.


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Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000)

The problem this film has is Rebecca Gayheart. As with anything she appears in she's always comfortably the best thing about that film.

So to have her in a thirty second cameo at the finale, well, nothing else we've seen can come close to that and when you throw in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents music and the close up of her feet stepping in time to the music and the wheelchair she's pushing.

As Sinead O'Connor might say "Nothing Compares 2 U"

Other than Gayheart's cool cameo there's not a lot else to say about this basic slasher film other than there's one rather nifty Argento-esq murder but the rest just as with the first film is fairly tame but watchable.

I'm not sure why people say the film dispenses with anything to do with urban legends after the first twenty minutes. It really doesn't, Certainly they aren't laid on thick and fast with character exposition but virtually every kill has nods to urban legends. From the campus killer to the sniper in the theatre and the cursed movie production to the body in the bell tower. All are supposedly urban legends of one form or another.

One thing i did laugh out loud as was Loretta Devine as the security guard who is caught dancing and miming to Foxy Brown playing out on the monitors that are supposedly set up to show what's happening around the college CCTV cameras. She declares "I don't just sit here watching movies all night"

No, i thought, of course you don't. Just like someone else i know who watches security cameras at night as a living. He doesn't watch movies all the time either. That's just an Urban Legend in the CCTV world.

Yeah that's definitely a Urban Legend/Myth that people in a CCTV room watch movies all night :pound:

Obviously. I mean. You watch tv too. ;) :lol:

Nope not me, when I'm at work I focus on the task in hand :lol::behindsofa:

Carry On Girls. 1973.

To boost up their image of the seaside town, the local council group of Fircombe decide to hold a beauty contest that upsets some of the female residents who plan to sabotage it.

Was this the film for the inspiration for the saucy seaside postcards or were the postcards the inspiration for this film?? Sid, Barbara, Joan, Kenneth C, Bernie and Jack all team up again with Valerie Leon this time dubbed with Joan's voice, god knows why. The smart remarks from Sid are always a laugh and Bernie getting dressed up as a woman didn't really suit him. Still made me laugh a lot.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OwLvtqhMMc

Not a patch on the first too much pointless talking and not enough alligator also doesn't help that the bestie doesn't seem that large .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f27iJTxhPX0

Probably Tobe Hoopers second greatest film and one of better King adaptations. Along with horror express this what got me into horror but unlike horror express this scared the crap out of me and I think we all know what scene I'm taking about , still creepy after all these years. Creepy little vampire bastard thanks for all those sleepless nights.


Now watching .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxwA_E0ywUs

Be interesting to see what you make of SON treb :nod:

Enjoying what I've seen.

Did you enjoy it?

I thought it was interesting and enjoyable with a good twist in the end

Carry On Henry. 1971.

King Henry marries Marie Of Normandy, trying to decide how to get rid of her without upsetting her cousin the King of France without starting a war causes problems.

This may not be the best Carry On film but certainly not the worst, Sid plays Henry who marries Marie played by Joan who won't stop eating garlic and plans to do away with her and sets his sight on Bettina played by Barbara. Kenneth W, plays Thomas Cromwell who seems to run about a lot trying to get a confession from Sir Roger de Lodgerley played by Charles. for me the laughs were few in between and when they came it was more of a snigger than a laugh.

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Jawbreaker (1999)

Part of last nights Rebecca Gayheart double bill (If you could call Urban Legends: Final Cut and her thirty second appearance the first part).

Jawbreaker is one of those black comedy high school style movies that always gets mentioned in the same breath as Heathers from eleven years previous. It does share similarities such as the popular girl cliques (Here we have Rose McGowan, Gayheart and Julie (Darla) Benz), bright and slightly odd sickly sweet dispositions and naturally student deaths.

For her birthday, the three girls above accidentally kill fourth clique member Charlotte Ayanna with a large jawbreaker sweet so naturally attempt to cover things up as the school and police investigate.

When they are rumbled by the timid Julie Greer who sees them trying to cover up the girls death as a rape and murder (Incidentally the guy who the girls frame for this is played by McGowan's boyfriend at the time Marilyn Manson) so ends up indoctrinated into the clique and given a very 'pink' transformation into the high school's new 'Miss Popular'.

At the time it was slated for ripping off Heathers but i liked it then and still do. McGowan does 'vicious bitch' very well and is a great villain in true Bette Davis style. Meanwhile the clever script and excellent support from Gayheart and Greer plus that very wicked streak of black humour, not to mention The Donnas playing live at the prom, elevate it to the upper echelons of high school movies for this viewer.

The Demons. 1973.

A group of nuns becomes possessed and declared witches.

What Ken Russell did with The Devils, Jess Franco obviously thought what he can do I can try and do better. We have nuns that are possessed and horny who don't mind trying it on with the other sisters and are slowly tortured. This seemed to go one way with as it seemed to be about witches, then goes down a different path then gives you a curve ball. The pace does tend to go quick and slow but this wasn't too bad.

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The Dungeon Of Harrow. 1962.

A man shipwrecked washes ashore of a Count who stays on the waterfront and finds himself captive.

This is one I have bypassed a few times and generally didn't seem appealing but it can't be worse than what I've put myself through recently in movie viewing. This was probably filmed on a tight low budget but it does make up for in the dark tone atmosphere we are given, mixed with a dark Gothic style castle with the flickery candle light and dark shadows. The actors do try their best to make it convincing that they are in a horror movie. With the right frame of mind this would be a enjoyable film, certainly merits a re-watch from me.

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Creepshow. 1982.

A anthology of tales created by Stephen King and George A. Romero

A family get together at a house where a woman murdered her father on Father's Day only for him to return from the grave and get his Father's Day cake.

A not too bright Farmer touches a meteor that lands on his farm and slowly turns into a plant.

A jilted husband takes revenge on his wife and her lover by burying them up to their necks in the sand, only for them to return and seek out the husband.

A janitor finds a crate under the stairs in a college that has a creature inside.

A rich mean old businessman living in a bug proof pent house, becomes prey to a horde of cockroaches.

One of the classic anthology movies to come from the 80s, every story is well acted and crafted by some popular names in tv and films, did Stephen King do this before and during his nasty drug habit or was it after or was he actually acting? No matter how many times I watch this I still can't get past the cockroaches segment. Think between Father's Day and The Crate are still the best for suspense and we slowly see the creature being revealed.

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Have a good day and weekend everyone.

THE STENDHAL SYNDROME – I’d forgotten that this was the one with that weird subaquatic “kissing a fish with a human face” scene – hats off to Dario for being warped enough to convince his own daughter into doing it. The rest of TSS is marked by other feverish moments, but the baggy thriller plotline and its sprawling runtime leave me a bit ‘meh’. On the plus side, Argento’s incomparable style means that the atmosphere never really drops, and I guess a mediocre work by a genius artiste is never simply just average.

THE MESSIAH OF EVIL – Although still relatively neglected, ‘The Messiah Of Evil’ is, for me, one of the greatest horror movies. Its atmosphere is as fathomless and as secretive as the sea at night – fittingly, because that’s where we are, in a small coastal town where the dead are walking. Seeing it is like watching a shadow form through a dreamy haze, with no zombie shoot-outs and only a couple of ‘big horror moments’ to distract from the slowly mounting dread. That’s the feeling this movie gives me, anyway. It’s still a low budget narrative horror movie with all the usual mainstays – wraparound in an asylum, Lovecraftian set-up, creepy guy at the gas station. But for nightmare ambience it’s got to be at or near the pinnacle of seventies horror cinema.

SPECIES – It never seems like a bad idea to watch ‘Species’. It is what it is – pure popcorn, a big flashy B-movie with a bunch of names acting like idiots. I mean, some of that dialogue. What drags me back to this one is the nostalgia value more than anything, and I’ll feel entertained, a little, but also a bit hollow after a while. But it’s nice to reminisce.

SPECIES 3 – I’m always a bit surprised this series made it as far as a ‘part four’, which I’ve never seen. No excuses now that I have the box set from 88. ‘Species 3’, on the other hand, has lived in the hinterland of my movie-watching memory for a good few years, having made a fairly feeble first impression that lingered on none the less. This not particularly highly anticipated reunion has done little to balance my perceptions. It’s basically classic early noughties DVD fodder, full of the flat but glib aesthetics of that time and with not much interesting going on but hey, you knew that anyway. On the other hand, it’s fine for a throwaway watch, doesn’t drag too much, and any movie which makes a big thing about a pile of alien tendrils flopping out of someone’s rent-open stomach is ultimately OK by me.

THE ORACLE – Roberta Findlay brings us the good and the bad (well, mostly the bad) with supernatural vengeance flick / mid-eighties fashion disaster time capsule ‘The Oracle’. Someone in New York moves into their new pad, finds a Ouija board and uncovers secrets from beyond the grave; then a rather butch fellow murders a prostitute across town, but it all makes sense in the end. OK, enough with ‘the good and the bad’, ‘The Oracle’ sucks big time, but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t sat there with a massive grin on my face for half of it, feeling a bit delirious. Findlay does a pretty good job of balancing torpor-inducing drag with cheapo funhouse macabre; outbursts of the latter, sudden flourishes of pound-shop effects done up with faux Bava lighting, are what make this film a bit special. Plus there’s the grit and the grime of mid eighties Noo Yawk, always a reason to watch a movie in my book.

You’ll be glad to know that Species 4 is a little bit better than part 3 haha. I enjoyed all 4 of them.

Thriller: A Cruel Picture. 1973.

A young girl is sexually assaulted and becomes a mute, when she is offered a ride she is lead to a life of prostitution and seeks revenge on those who abused her.

This is pretty grim, but that's the way the audience love these revenge films, sadistic torture to vulnerable females can be upsetting to anyone but here Madeleine bides her time and decides to fight back. We see her being drugged and sold as a sex slave (yes there is some hardcore scenes and close up of everything in the uncut version which I just watched) but the more exciting scenes was her revenge.

The film is not fast paced so you will need to have the patience for the build up of some scenes, Christina Lindberg who plays the lead character does do a decent job in this that can certainly make your eye twitch at one specific scene.

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

A enjoyable omen type movie we start the film with a young woman on the run and about to kill her new born baby we jump ahead ten years or so and the woman is living happily with her son but he takes ill not long after she sees people in his from , the doctors can't tell whats the matter and the young chap soon devlopes a taste for human flesh like all good mother's she tries to protect and help him by finding victims and looking for a cure.

As I said enjoyable and a little different than the usual devil child films with some decent gore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9dr2zw-TXQ

Really more like Dumblebore! Really didn't have much of a clue what was going on at times just seemed to jump from one pointless scene to another and characters I didn't have much of a clue about , even the worse Harry potter's are a lot better than this, but maybe I should of rewatched the first two first.

Now watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHamE8gmA8Q

Shakedown. 1988.

A narcotics street wise cop teams with a legal attorney to bring down corruption within the police force and go against a tough female District Attorney.

Peter Weller plays the smart attorney who is trying to help a troubled youth who allegedly killed a police officer who said it was self defense but other officers say it wasn't. Sam Elliott plays the street wise wrong place wrong time cop who wants to try and shake down corruption within his precinct and needs all the help he can get.

Both actors do try their best but at times Weller's performance seems wooden, not sure if he was told to be like that or not. Patricia Charbonneau plays the tough district attorney and ex partner of Weller, and some daft moments of a love triangle happens but doesn't really get thrown in our faces a lot. plenty of action and some good build up of tense moments.

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Creepshow 2. 1987.

3 anthology tales based on the stories by Stephen King and George A. Romero.

In a small dead Arizona town, Hardware store owners Ray and Martha who have a statue of a Indian war chief, are robbed and killed. The Indian chief comes to life for revenge.

4 teens drive out to the middle of nowhere to a lake that has a raft with the intent of smoking weed and getting laid, unaware of what's in the water.

Adulteress is running late from leaving her lover to pick her husband up and accidentally kills a hitch-hiker. She leaves the accident which comes back to haunt her.

With a different director at the helm, Michael Gornick does try his best even inserting a short piece with a boy called Billy from the start and the creep who was performed by Tom Savini and voiced by Joe Silver does add a bit of The Crypt Keeper touch to it.

George Kennedy and Dorothy Lamour play the elderly couple who meet a grim end, the statue coming to live was done decently and slowly with a eerie background score that adds some dark tone to the film. We basically want the robbers to meet a grim death and we do get it without any disappointment.

The car that Deke drives in the second one, what car was that as it has some battery in it that doesn't run out, in the morning the radio still plays. These are your typical teens that have one thing on their mind...getting high and not caring about their surroundings, the end of this one was almost a near swear word when I first saw it and that was from my dad :lol:

Lois Chiles plays the cheating wife and is tormented by the hiker who comes back to haunt her, every time he appears his face decays away, nice touch by the make-up team, and a small cameo by Stephen King himself. This one I have always enjoyed even though it's only 3 stories but they are all good steady enough paced.

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If anyone is wondering if I will be watching the third installment...oh hell no :lol:

Deadly Weapons. 1974.

Larry who has a list of people's names on it he tries to blackmail them, when he is killed by a mobster his girlfriend Crystal goes for revenge.

This does sound bad...and it is, Chesty Morgan (yep that's her name) does act like a blonde in this, has very little acting abilities but her bosom is the best quality in the film. She has a way off offing the guys that killed her lover and at least they died in comfort and probably with a smile on their faces. It was more comedy than anything else and only in the 70s you can make a movie like this.

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