http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN44M0UhAa8

A boat captain ( Rosco from dukes of hazard ) is dropping of some supplies to a small island gets trapped when there is a storm but that's the least of his worries as giant hungry shrews are on the loose and are very hungry .

It stupid and silly and the shrews are dogs dressed in coats but it's strangly enjoyable.

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

This is a creepy little corman movie about a alien trying to save his race by stealing and using human blood. The actor playing the alien is very creepy. This has been remade two times but the original is still the best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOrP34Q-1BA

A strange structure which is believed to be part of a UFO appears in a small town, A scientist , a general and the mayor's son set investigate it and why the townsfolk are turning violent . Short but enjoyable, watch out or more appropriate listen out for Leonard Nimoy who narrates as the mayor's son who on film is a different actor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOoFIFU2smY

After a test rocket crashes the pilot is believed to be dead as he has no hart beat etc but he is in fact alive and this appears to be connected to a creature that was on the rocket when it returned to earth. A small group that have been cut off from the outside world battle the creature. Another short but enjoyable bit of 50s sci-fi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGvv-Hhft3U

While nothing brilliant it was better than I was expecting and was a dumb fun ride that never takes its self seriously, Huge Grant hams it up too a 11. Which seems a trend a the moment most of the male character's are weak , incompetent or stupid and in Chris Pines case all 3, but it didn't bother as much as I thought it would. Lots of Easter eggs and one that stood out that connects to the 80s cartoon.


Now watching

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6Mm8Sbe__o

Let's prepare for the world's most disturbing dance scene!

Good slice of 50s movie viewing Treb, save your sanity and avoid Return Of The Killer Shrews, you will never get the 80 mins of your life back.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

"Hi-ho, hi-ho" and all that shit!

Seriously though, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is an exceptional piece of work, in fact a landmark of film, the first ever Walt Disney feature film and one that reflects cinema of the time.

Certainly there's a frivolity here with the adorable dwarfs and their comic pratfalls but it's all beautifully done and the delight of the animals cleaning the dwarfs woodland cottage is timeless. Yet for every scene of lightheartedness and song there's an underlying aura of German expressionism and horror whilst still keeping the fun levels at a peak.

The wicked Queen and her poisoned apple invoke the horrors of the eras darkest creations and bring a new colourful level of terror to 30's cinema.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs remains my favourite Disney film all these years later probably because it scares and remains fun without ever becoming twee.

It's such a classic and brilliant film even viscous Gremlins loved it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K94NoRGbevg

Jessabelle. 2014.

Second time watching this dark atmospheric chiller set in the swamps of Louisiana with a young girl returning home to her father's house and uncovers a dark secret with tarot and voodoo.

I will admit this is a bit of a slow burner of a film but it is better with the second viewing, it's not a masterpiece of horror and has some element(s) of The Skeleton Key ideas mixed in. Sarah Snook is the leading actress who must have had a sore throat with all the screaming and shouting (Don't listen to this with headphones) there is a decent play out to the end with a good background score. For me this isn't one to watch over and over again.

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a great film which is funny, romantic, scary, and utterly endearing. Your review has made me want to watch it this weekend. :clap:

My favourite of the 'classic' hand drawn Disney films is Pinocchio because it's all of the above and more – a film that really tugs at the heartstrings and takes you on an emotional rollercoaster with great songs.

I'm having a Shudder binge before my subscription runs out.

FUNERAL HOME – Also known as ‘Cries In The Night’. Guests are disappearing from Lesleh Donaldson’s granny’s morbid guest house. Will the reason for all the sinister stuff be something you can see coming a mile off? FH is pretty dull, and offers a creepy cellar and a strange cat in lieu of any thrills or horror. Even so, uneventful semi-slashers can sometimes be a bit like a comfy evening in a pub with an old mate, and the early eighties completist in me wanted to give it a watch, so I said go for it. From William Fruet.

THEY REMAIN – When I read the fiction of Laird Barron, I sometimes imagine it in scope with visuals by Dean Cundy. This isn’t quite that, but it does have something of a Barron vibe to it, by which I mean brooding menace in a remote locale with the sense of something vast and cosmic about to erupt in the background. Two biologists have been sent to a forest to investigate eco anomalies following a cult massacre; cue slow descent into madness. If you prefer atmosphere over action and your secret idea of a good time is the very last scene of ‘The Thing’ playing out over ninety mins, welcome to ‘They Remain’ – I enjoyed it.

THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE – Jodie Foster is the precocious brat with a big house and a secret in the cellar; Martin Sheen is the gerbil-torturing creepo trying to paw his way in. The autumnal flavouring is partly seasonal, but remember that TLGWLDTL hails from nineteen seventies Canada, zone of Degrassi. Vibes are somewhere between stage play and TV movie, but that works because it’s about dialogue and head games. Otherwise, entertain yourself with quirks such as Jodie’s magician mate and the weirdly funky soundtrack.

Klute. 1971.

Shamefully this was the first time I have sat and watched this little neo film noir. Donald Sutherland plays John Klute who is hired to find a missing person and only lead is Bree Daniel played by Jane Fonda who is a lady of the evening. Although the title is seemingly pointing out the Klute is the main character, it's Bree that seems to be the main character who may know more than she is letting on and a target for a killer. Roy Scheider pops up as the pimp and one of the many suspects and brings his good acting talents as a person you want to punch. Did I miss something or was it actually explained why some people were set up and killed, either way this was a good thriller.

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Thanks Dem for this little number :thankingyou:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5dA92wqmME


Trainee FBI agent Clarence Starling (Foster) is sent too interview cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lector ( Hopkins ) to see if he can give insite on help capturing another serial killer buffalo bill. So starts a game of cat and mouse between Starling and Lector . It's is fantastically directed and acted film with both Foster and Hopkins deserving there oscars , as well as the director. He end up routing for Lector even with all the terrible things he has done and comes of as a bit of a antihero with his code and unless it's necessary it's usual someone who deserves it who gets killed. Sadly as the movies went on his performance became more OTT . As good as Hopkins performance is I enjoyed both Cox's and Mads performance more with Mads being the definite Lector for me. The 4K UHD release looks and sounds stunning why it's not got a UK release is beyond me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szby7ZHLnkA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5kzUpWAusI

Both of these were a pleasant surprise and ended up being very enjoyable.

The first Sonic flees his home and ends up on earth at the town of Green Valley , one of many easter eggs. When he comes to the attention of government agent Doctor Robotnik he teams up with the local sheriff to stop the mad doctor from stealing his powers .

The second takes place months later when Robotnik returns and has teamed up with Knuckles to find the Chaos Gem which will giving him ultimate power to take over the earth , luckily Sonic has help of his own in the form of tails . Can they stop the evil Doctor?
These shouldn't work but some how they do which is probably largely to Carreys performance as Robotnik who's cranks it up to 11 and then thinks what the hell I'll crank it up to 15!

Now watching

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t433PEQGErc

Chopper. 2000.

Eric Bana delivers one of his great performances as Australia's criminal Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read who spent most of his days in prison and when he wasn't in prison he was creating havoc and working with police.
This film was based on from Read's books chronicling some of his tales including the murder of Sammy The Turk, confessing it to the police and being disappointed that he wasn't arrested. The film shouldn't be funny at places but you can't help laughing at some of the quirky comments.

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Bloody Muscle Body Builder In Hell (1995, Shinichi Fukazawa )

Twas worth the wait. Found the dvd cheap so went for it.
Japanese SOV. Probably my film of the year tbh. :nod:
A pair of acolytes and a psychic visit the site of an old tragedy, go on guess what happens? Structured slightly like a film made by Sam Raimi cough, this was a total hoot and will be getting the rewatch shortly. The director wears his influences on his sleeve but for all that it would have been fun to see what he could have done with a budget.

The True Story Of The Nun of Monza. 1970.

Claudio Fragrasso and Bruno Mattei team up for this munploitation showing a young nun Virginia becoming the new mother superior and those around her willing to do anything anything to have her removed from her post. This is not the best nunexploitation film, I'm sure the start of the film with two horses was...borrowed from The Beast. Part of the film makes no to little sense or did I blink and miss it but there is plenty of female nudity and a guy dressed as the devil seeking confession :lol: it's not bad to pass a bit of time by.

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The Black Castle (1952)

Richard Greene of Robin Hood fame plays a man searching for his brother who seemingly went missing at the castle home of an Austrian count.

The Black Castle is basically a typical Gothic horror with Poe motifs crossed with The Most Dangerous Game. The film has some quite horrific moments towards the end for those with a fear of being buried alive, the rest of the film is more swash and buckle with sword play, a moat full of alligators, prowling leopards, human game and the usual torture chambers.

The film is headlined by Universal stalwart Boris Karloff as well as Greene, unfortunately for the bulk of proceedings dear Boris isn't actually in it that much and when he does appear he tends to skulk around in the shadows looking menacing rather than actually moving the story along. It isn't until the horror really kicks in that he finally shines in his role. A second Universal stalwart Lon Chaney Jnr is also in the film but like Karloff he has very little to do in what is a glorified cameo except yes, look menacing in one or two scenes before Greene sends him hurtling to his death in the alligator infested moat. Fortunately Richard Greene makes a convincing heroic leading man and Stephen McNally a lovely sneering one eyed lunatic of a villain.

Director Nathan Juran here in his debut feature shows his talent with action scenes and he would later go on to greater things with films such as The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) and Jack the Giant Killer (1962) among others.

One of the best horror films from the first half of the fifties. That perhaps isn't saying much as it was one of the only horror films from the first half of the fifties.

KUSO – I didn’t think anything else on Shudder was capable of out-madding ‘Mad God’, or outgrossing ‘The Sadness’ for that matter, but I was wrong on both counts. Flying Lotus’s ‘Kuso’ is a scatological kaleidoscope that’s both completely nuts and only partly describable. It’s basically a series of sketches set in a sub- Lynch / Burroughs netherworld where an earthquake has made a load of weird stuff happen and everyone has boils on their faces. It made me think of Chris Morris’s ‘Jam’ reconfigured by Hieronymus Bosch after being force-fed some awful mind-bending substance that takes its user to the depths of delirium whilst leaving them with the potty-fixation of a backward teen; or to put it another way, I haven’t seen many movies that culminate in an xxx scene of someone f*cking a talking abscess that sounds a bit like Frank Sidebottom. Jimmy Screamerclauz did some of the frequent animated sequences, so if you know his stuff you’ll have an inkling of what to expect. Breathtakingly bizarre and crying out for a blu ray. With George Clinton!

FRIED BARRY – This bad taste sci-fi ‘social satire’ is about an alien-abducted junkie used as a vessel by a disembodied intelligence; he gets ‘assimilated’ or whatever in a close encounter sequence with trippy lighting and a bad rubber monster. Then it’s back on the streets of Johannesburg’s concrete wilderness, where ‘alien’ Barry rescues some children from a chainsaw wielding maniac, contributes to a psych ward uprising, and uses his spooky ET abilities to make someone pregnant and give birth to a replica Barry in under two minutes… we basically follow him from one wacked out vignette to the next, and it works in a shaggy dog way a) because it’s ludicrous and b) because of Barry, a silent, perplexed weirdo afflicted with massive gauntness (played by Gary Green, who puts in a pretty good stab at physical comedy). I was expecting something a bit more ‘Greasy Strangler’, but it’s less skanky and somehow has a bit of heart. Frankly, after ‘Kuso’ it was a bit like ‘Songs Of Praise’!

Kuso just is I thought. I'd never seen anything that insisted about itself so much. Rewatch!! :nod::pop2:

Aside from the whole thing being a bit like an open sewer, I quite liked the fact that a scary voice keeps coming up that sounds a bit Yorkshire.

:laugh:

Interview With The Vampire. 1994.

You don't have to be a big Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt fan to enjoy this film, both actors who didn't get on well behind the scenes manage to start the story brilliantly as a lost man who seeks death and welcomes a new way of life and tells his story.

Neil Jordan who gave us The Company Of Wolves and comedy horror High Spirits does turn up the horror and blood factor and not shy about delivering it out. Kirsten Dunst is brilliant as the newly orphan in a plagued ritten world and becomes the daughter to both Louis and Lestat and able to lure victims to their deaths. Antonio Banderas appearance is something out of a Dracula film, the black face and pale skin but manages to bring a strong presence to the screen as the oldest living vampire and able to bring something of calmness delivering his dialogue and be tempting to lure another man to join to be a new pupil. Like every old vampire films there is the showing of the gothic tone atmosphere within the cities and underneath it with a haunting background score.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t433PEQGErc

This is a hard watch not because it's a bad movie it's not , it's with the subject and how depression the movie is and just how unlikable everyone is with exception of probably the midget. We follow Arthur Flek a wannabe comedian who works as a street clown and suffers from Pseudobulbar( can't stop laughing ) he also a laughing stock to everyone he meets this leads him descending into madness and becoming the Joker. It's a good film with a great performance from Phoenix and Gotham looks impressively dirty , seedy and depression but not a film I would watch over and over. People say this has similarities to king of comedy and taxi driver but as I've not seen either i couldn't say.

Now watching

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1roy4o4tqQM

Followed by, which I've I've already wrote I've not seen. :behindsofa:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUxD4-dEzn0

Be interesting to see your thoughts on Taxi Driver enjoy Treb:pop2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1roy4o4tqQM

A young man who's farther he has not seen since he was a child , is killed in car crash while checking his father's apartment ( who was a private eye) he finds a Pokémon who was his father's partner and they set out to investigate the crash which leads them to his father's last case which has implications for both humans and Pokemon's.

A easy and enjoyable watch which is thanks to Ryan Reynolds performance as Detective Pikachu. The world with its mixture of humans and Pokemon's was charming and visually stunning , the effects where better than any seen in DC superhero films and found this a lot more enjoyable than any of those probably because of its light-hearted nature and you can actually see what's going on with it not being as black as the night.


Now watching Taxi driver, which is the polar opposite of Pokémon. Taxi this is not!

Queen Of The Damned. 2002.

Lestat awkens after a 100 years sleep and re-invents himself as a rock star only to anger the other vampires. Queen Akasha awakens and draws in Lestat to be her new king.

Stuart Townsend steps in the role that Tom Cruise made in the previous film, can you see Tom Cruise as a rock star in a horror flick. This I really wanted to enjoy but seems more focussed on Lestat rather than Akasha played by Aaliyah (who died after principal photography of the film) who appears near the hour mark and is on screen for about 20 minutes or so. We do meet the man Marius played by Vincent Perez, who was the one to turn Lestat and teach him, the good thing with the film is the soundtrack.

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Everything Everywhere All at Once. Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert. 2022.

What the hell was this. I don't even know how to review this madness. Something about Michelle Yeoh and her husband running a Chinese laundry when interdimensional forces do something involving people with hot dogs for fingers, oh and there's a fight with dildos. Just sheer off the charts bonkers and not in a particularly good way. How the hell this won Oscars is beyond me. The Banshees of Inisherin is a far far far superior film. Hell I'd have given the best picture to Cameron's Avatar dross over this.

I'm the same way regarding this film, for me, it's like The Emperor's New Clothes. It's a film virtual everyone loves, bit I didnt see what all the fuss was about.

I was curious. The trailers hadn't really grabbed me but it was on Prime so we thought why not. Utter nonsense.

Sent from my SM-G780G using Tapatalk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUxD4-dEzn0

I can see why people said Joker has similarities to this film both have a unstable loner who believe the world's against them.

DeNiro plays Travis a Vietnam vet who suffers from insomnia and takes a job as a taxi driver, but this only makes the unstable Travis worse as he sees the absolute worse humanity has to offer . There is a small sliver of light in his dark world in the form of Cybal Shepard's character but he screws that up by taking her to see a porno in a filthy cum stained cinema ! But he completely goes over the edge when he meets Jodie Fosters child prostitute , Foster really should of gotten best supporting actor for her role. The film ends in a bloody shootout , I was surprised that he actually survived . A excellent film that deserves it's classic status.


Now watching
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv-BPuqhW9U

Smoking Causes Coughing (2022, Quentin Dupieux)

Wanna see the strangest Power Rangers film ever? Form a queue ...
Being the adventures of five trusted and true types sent on a sabbatical after advice from the top. They pass their time swapping stories and the like, when an old adversary rears his head ...
That's what happens. To actually describe these scenes? Pass. Watch the trailer if you dare :laugh:
He does not give a flerk does this QD imho, TF for that says I.
Ahem. As always, it's a brisk wee turn, so you won't get bored. :nod:

In a Lonely Place (1950)

What a film this is, and what a performance from Humphrey Bogart.

He plays a short fused Hollywood screen writer Dixon (Dix) Steele, down on his luck and without a hit film to his name in a few years. When he takes a young woman back to his apartment to read his latest work for him and she ends up murdered later on that night, Steele is immediately arrested by the police, only to be given an alibi by neighbour Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame). Before long the two begin a fractious relationship.

It's testament to Bogart that following a run of iconically cool roles beginning with 1941's The Maltese Falcon and taking in such acclaimed films like Casablanca (1942), To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Key Largo (Both 1948) he would then portray the unscrupulous and violent Steele and garner so much acclaim for it. His ultimate portrayal of an anti-hero.

What happens in the murder case following Steele's alibi thanks to Gray is barely of any consequence in the second half of the film. It's all about the characters. In A lonely Place is a title that fits Steele to a tee. He's in a lonely place career wise, mentally certainly and very much so when it comes to his love life.

Steele falls in love with Gray and then she begins to get doubts about his innocence thanks to several violent temper flare ups. Gloria Grahame excels here as Laurel Gray. A bit flighty, a victim herself and extremely insecure.

Nicholas Ray directs, he would go on to direct Rebel Without a Cause five years later which gained him the bulk of his fame, but he does a stellar job here in only his fourth film. The way he makes the murder mystery incidental to the mesmeric character study that unfolds is crafted expertly. Most film makers would have you itching to know the identity of the killer but Ray, Bogart and Grahame make you forget about it until it's almost matter of factly revealed during the final few moments. However it's not just the way Ray works with his actors. He has some great compositional sense as well.

In the early scenes he shoots Martha Stewart (The murdered girl) reading the screenplay to Steele at his home, except the way Ray uses the camera she's talking to the viewer and it works beautifully. It shows her personality and her effervescence remarkably well in what is only a few minutes screen time and we come to fall for her completely making her murder all the more shocking.

The script is a delight, the direction exemplary and the acting phenomenal. In A Lonely Place is quite simply Hollywood at it's finest.

So, after a break due to stuff happening in my life, I picked up where I left off and watched all of Ray Harryhausen's movies..

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After each movie I re-read the chapter in 'Ray Harryhausen An Animated Life' book and re-read 'The Ray Harryhausen Scrapbook'. I previously also read the 'Titan Of Cinema' book.

Thanks for everything Ray.

Which were your favourites, Dave?

Blimey! I think JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS remains the ultimate Harryhausen movie. My least favourite has to be The 3 WORLDS OF GULLIVER but the whole library is just awesome.
I saw CLASH OF THE TITANS at the cinema and Medusa still remains my favourite of Ray's creations.

I saw Clash of the Titans at the cinema as well. I also saw Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger as well. Possibly not the moment it was released but when it went round the regions.

The Three Worlds of Gulliver i agree with. It lacks the awesome creatures of the other films.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv-BPuqhW9U

Bogie plays Sam Spade a private eye who when his partner is murdered gets involved in a case involving blackmail and murder which all appears too be linked to the "Maltese Falcon".

Absolutely brilliant a joy to watch from beginning to end, the ultimate film noir and Bogie plays the ultimate hardboiled detective, everyone is out for themselves and will stab each other in the back and that includes Bogie who's character not the white hat hero he's more shades of grey.

Directed by John Huston in his first film. Sam Spade is a fantastic creation brought too life by Bogie who delivers some fantastic lines. "
The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter" brilliant!

The picture and sound quality on a film that's over 80 years old is fantastic. A classic that will be getting many , many more viewings .

Now watching .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOGpvoKcEyY

Lovely write up, Treb. :clap:

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. 2022.

Daniel Craig returns as the great detective Benoit Blanc who is invited to a private island to solve a murder that hasn't happened. When he gets there a party guest dies and he uncovers who done it.

Edward Norton is the rich guy who throws the party and plans a murder mystery that takes a turn with his party guests including Dave Bautista, Kate Hudson, Jannelle Monea, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr, Jessica Fenwick and Madelyn Cline who all have a motive to kill the host until one guest drops down dead. You got the perfect setting of a isolated island cut off, a great set of cast, a decent plot but for some reason I wasn't as thrilled with this as the previous film. In some parts a lot seem to drag on and not so much comical moments that were added in unlike the first film. A re-watch may happen.

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The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009)

Starring Gemma Arterton, Martin Compston and Eddie Marsan, this three person film - They are the only people in it - shot in mainly two rooms works surprisingly well thanks to an articulate twisty turny script, good performances and some crafty direction courtesy of J. Blakeson.

No spoilers regarding the plot twists, it's basically a film about Marson and Compston who kidnap Arterton and hold her ransom.

Last night was my second viewing and it holds up very well when you've forgotten the majority of what happens. Gotta admit i always remembered a part of the film, although for every Arterton boob you get Compston's butt threefold.

At a quid from Cex a few weeks ago upgrading this from dvd was a no-brainer.

I Start Counting. 1970.

A nice decent late 60s early 70s film with Jenny Agutter playing Wynne, a 15 year old school girl living with her mum and step-father, step-brother and foster brother. She seems infatuated with the step brother George. When a girl is found dead, Wynne begins to suspect George to be the killer.

What starts off as a tale of growing up and discovering yourself turns into a decent psychological tense chiller that has its moments of twists and turns thats played out well with great direction and brilliant acting by Agutter and Bryan Marshall who is the brother that she has a crush on.The climax of the film can have you on the near edge of your seat as to where the last victim is and coming face to face with the killer that added a good twist although it can be obvious as to who it is. Certainly a good film to recommend for a good watch.

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Mosquito. 1994.

A spaceship crash lands near a forest park where mosquitos are nesting and grow in size and become hunters for humans.

A 90s version of the 50s creature B movies with some bad acting, cheesy dialogue, and some bad effects of the mosquitos. Gunnar Hansen makes a good appearance in this but even he can't save this film from been taking serious and makes a good comment about a chainsaw he finds. There is some noticeable goofs when a man appears with a beard and next it's gone so he had a good close shave. Watchable for its daftness and eye popping scene, you know it can be bad when original effects guy walks away from the film.

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I saw both at the cinema as well, Sinbad on this very double bill.

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Yes I'm that frickin' old that i remember the arse end of the double bills and choc ices in cinemas.
Halcyon days indeed.:cool: :pop2:

THE STRINGS – Sometimes all it takes is a snowy wilderness and a few creaking floorboards. ‘Strings’, the tale of a mopey singer-songwriter looking for inspiration in a remote house with a past, gets fair mileage out of its horror tropes (lurking silhouettes and a shuddering painting) because of the lingering chill of its photography and sound. There are a couple of missteps – that scene involving the roof was a bit ‘clunk’, the string theory stuff strains for the cosmic but remains decorative, and frankly it all works so much better when the characters just stay quiet – but this exercise in glacial hush is worth a watch, particularly if you can explain what it all has to do with Edvard Munch (I can’t).

THE BAY – A small town is hit by a plague of parasites in this eco-horror from Barry Levinson (not a name I’d automatically associate with horror). I was sceptical at first, given that the very mention of ‘found footage’ is usually enough to put me off. But this is really one of the best ‘outbreak’ type movies I’ve seen, and even though I’m usually irritated by ff gimmicks like shaky camerawork and digital breakdowns, here they do actually inspire the feeling of a documentary from a nightmare – you end up being carried along by such a sense of mounting dread, or at least I was. On top of that, it’s fairly icky in a way I wasn’t expecting. Very impressive and something of a surprise.

CRYPT OF THE LIVING DEAD – Andrew Prine arrives on a Greek island to uncover what happened to his archaeologist father. He wasn’t expecting to find him stuck under a crypt with a vampire in it. The film plays with gothic trappings, but the windswept location and aspects of its style make ‘Crypt Of The Living Dead’ seem more in tune with strange Euro horror then Hammer. There’s a dreamy, detached feel to it all, and something almost Rollinesque about Hannah, the silent vampire. I like the fact that even these days I’m finding weird stuff from the seventies I haven’t seen. And I like ‘Crypt Of The Living Dead’.