Thanks to a PM from gag, I have ordered the DVD from CeX for £3.50 (+ £1.95 p&p), which is much cheaper than the £20+ it was being sold for on eBay.

:ilovecultlabs:

I should have added, i didn't think it made the best use of Atmos sound. Seemed to channel music through it rather than actual incident on the screen.

Yes...and no!

Also made in 1977, 'Ilsa, The Wicked Warden', which was directed by Jesús Franco, is an unofficial entry in the series. It features Dyanne Thorne as 'Wanda', a character that is very similar to Ilsa

The films original title was 'Wanda, The Wicked Warden'


When it was released in North America, the film was purchased by the official Ilsa rights holders, who proceeded to re-dub the name of the character so that it could be released as an official entry in the series


Exploitation film-making at its finest!

Thank you Susan, I will be on the hunt for it :thankingyou:

I've seen WW84 twice and, although I prefer the first one, I think it's very good escapist entertainment, a film that seems more like a comic book-based movie than anything else DC has done recently, and an interesting use of a 'wish maker' character.

Walk East on Beacon! (1952)

There are Commie bastards everywhere infiltrating society working in the shadows to destroy our way of life. At least that's what the dire Walk East on Beacon! would have you believe.

The film is based on a Readers Digest article by the then head of the FBI J Edgar Hoover, and this seems as though it's bankrolled by the bureau too like some sort of recruitment film as well as a paranoid warning to the general American public of the threat of Communism as Federal agents trail 'suspects' across the country.

Despite all the 'red scare' business the films real issue is that it's so dull. There's no action, no tension and certainly no thrills. In short it bored me shirtless.

1959's The FBI Story starring James Stewart is far, far superior to this.

Part of Indicator's Colombia Noir # 4 box set.

Oculus (2013)

An enjoyable modern ghost story based around a haunted mirror. Although this sort of thing has been done before - From Beyond the Grave, Mirrors and the terrible Mirror Mirror movies - Oculus stands out because of it's time shifting storyline, which i won't spoil for anyone who hasn't seen the film.

The scares are quite subtle, avoiding the musical jolts which i think spoil so many of today's supernatural horrors, giving us blink and you'll miss 'em ghostly figures including a creepy suspenseful set up with three covered statues. Gore is minimal, but there's a sequence with a light bulb which had me squirming.

Oculus showcases the acting talents of two sci-fi tv legends in Karen Gillan (Amy Pond from Doctor Who and later to star in the Marvel Universe as Nebula) and Katee Sackhoff who shot to fame playing Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica's reworking. Both are excellent.

Directed by Mike Flanagan, he of the terrific Absentia, the film has a reasonably fast paced plot even though it's clearly a slow burner that keeps pulling you in with it's build up of tension. With convincing acting by all involved, Oculus is a clever little chiller that i enjoyed immensely first time around and last night in a Blu-ray rewatch.

Oculus is indeed excellent Dem. I've enjoyed most of Mike Flanagans work that I've seen, particularly his adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House. I've yet to see Absentia though.

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THE DENTIST – More vintage Yuzna (if that exists as a concept). This one has Corbin Bernsen giving a great turn as a rampaging dentist who has looked beneath the veneer of his polished existence and found only filth and rot (quite amusing when he’s vocal about this). There’s enough of a whiff of nitrous about ‘The Dentist’s stagey unreality to suggest that maybe Yuzna aspired to something Lynch-like, and occasionally the Dentist, although baggy and not well paced, does extract a bit of real oddness from its hazy black comedy. Enjoyed.

FROSTBITER: WRATH OF THE WENDIGO – It being a grainy regional ‘Evil Dead’ rip-off from the early nineties starring Ron Asheton of The Stooges, I think it unlikely that I would have to search high and low to find something good to say about ‘Frostbiter: Wrath Of The Wendigo’. On the other hand, it’s just too kooky, and I don’t like comedy horror that’s overly kooky. ‘Evil Dead’ wasn’t kooky, it was just f*cked. If they’d held back on the kook and just gone with snowy wilderness and bad prosthetics, well then, I’d be charmed, wouldn’t I? I still am, but only a bit.

FREEWAY – Reese Witherspoon is a foulmouthed hick whose ‘can do / f*ck you’ attitude is basically meant to seem quite charming; Kiefer Sutherland is, well, just a nasty c*nt in a car. On a freeway. When Reese hitches out of town, ‘Freeway’ mutates into a strange odyssey loosely based on ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. The presence of those players should indicate to you that it’s a relatively mainstream affair, and it’s true that ‘Freeway’ demonstrates sufficient restraint in dealing with decidedly creepy subject matter. But it has a really grubby, dark edge, the kind that was alive in nineties cinema, even in stuff like Tarantino, just that kind of cynicism bordering on nihilism. I didn’t catch it at the time, but here it is on blu ray from VS, and I highly recommend.

THE WEREWOLF VS VAMPIRE WOMAN – I often find Paul Naschy a bit hit and miss, but TWVVW really works for me. Give me a black-veiled vampire gliding in slow motion down misty corridors and I’m hooked (I don’t even really like vampires, by the way); TWVVW is full of such seventies pop psych high-goth imagery, plus oodles of the kind of badly written Euro horror dialogue that is by turns boneheaded and poetic. Of course, Naschy is playing his trademark tragic nobleman, who’s a helluva nice guy till he turns and rips yer throat out (he seems to have cultivated a fondness for blood spattered breasts here, too). Perfectly crepuscular silliness. I can’t believe it, as I’m writing this someone in the street outside is playing the theme tune to ‘One Foot In The Grave’ at high volume on a ghetto blaster for the third time in a row! Leeds is way weirder than Paul Naschy.

I need to see The Haunting of Hill House. Only owned it for two and a half years. :rolleyes:

Not seen this since i owned it on vhs.

If my mind is working properly weren't there a few weird style road movies that came out around the time? SFW? , Kalifornia, Love and a 45 and such like?

A lot of them in the shadow of NBK. I suppose 'Freeway' is too a bit, and again there's that almost throwaway callousness you wouldn't really expect nowadays.

I thought it was an excellent piece of work. The follow up, The Haunting of Bly Manor just didn't work for me though, just overly confused and confusing. Midnight Mass is good though. I just checked IMDB and I see Flanagan has turned his attention to Poe's, Fall of the House of Usher. Definitely interested to check that out.

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Happy days though.

Far better than the constant deluge of superhero stuff we get nowadays.

Is there even any genre cinema being made in Hollywood anymore?

Oh yeah, for sure. I think there was a more abrasive attitude back then, a willingness to just bear witness to human ugliness and not feel a need to dress it up in platitudes. But maybe that's just retrospective bias. Either way, I could imagine something like 'Freeway' and a lot of those nineties films being made today, but they'd do it so differently.

I used to also own the unrelated sequel Confessions of a Trick Baby but can't remember a thing about it.

Same here. It ended up in a bag in someone's loft after a house move... been toying with the idea of getting it back so I can decide whether to shell out on the upgrade, but I don;t think I'll bother, there's way too much stuff coming out all the time now and I can't really keep up. I do have a vague recollection of not being overly fussed when I saw it, which might be enough for me to go on for now.

Last Man Down. 2021.

After a pandemic nearly wipes out the population, a former mercenary now living as hermit is drawn into battle against his former colleagues after a woman arrives at his cabin.

Another post Covid film as people are seen wearing masks in this, after the good start which is shown in flash backs of how Daniel Stisten's character John became a hermit is decently made then it goes a bit pear shaped. How he had accumulated all his weapons is a mystery,a squad don't come back and then second squad move in and then a third...bad decision. Olga Kent plays the survivor of a base camp experiment and learns quickly how to fight which she is a good student. The shoot out scenes are decent with a upbeat version of In The Hall Of The Mountain King played in the background. Not the best action flick but entertaining enough.

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Noted! He was in that The Siege etc. :nod:

Just checked the trailer, looks good thanks so on the hunt for it, thank you Demon

Greta: The Wicked Warden. 1977.

A young woman infiltrates a mental health facility to look for her sister and encounters Greta.

Ilsa or Greta any way you look at it Dyanne Throne still gets her kicks tormenting those below her for her own pleasurable enjoyment while someone inside like to record the sex acts and pass them on as amateur porn with the patients who are drugged up. Tania Busselier plays the new inmate who gets close to Lina Romay who is the warden's pet and enjoys getting a good rimming. Right from the start there's naked woman right up to the end, Franco's take on the Ilsa exploitation film.

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Will be good to get someone else's perspective on it ahem. Enjoy!! :nod:

Incredible But True (2022, Quentin Dupieux)

Where to start? Well, he crams in more incident and all that into 73 minutes for a start. No time to ponder, which is just as well, as his films tend to be their own little worlds.
Yes yes, that's what all directors aim to achieve surely?
I suppose what I like about them is that they do not pander probably. They all trundle along at their own pace, with scant regard to fashion and furniture and the like. TF.
A couple are househunting. What they find isn't ... unpleasant certainly.
Initially.
Yet again, I was left pondering on the meaning of such a travail.
I'll let you know when I find it. :nod::behindsofa::laugh::pop2:




Non Film (2002, QD)

An early short from him above. A film crew try to make magic out of almost nothing. So meta it squeaked at points.
On watching this, I saw that in two decades he has honed his unique world view mostly free of flab, as this one is a tad Godard lite in places I felt.
Am glad to have seen it, whether I return to it will be another matter ....

The Siege. 2023.

Scott Walker, a hitman who's identity is compromised heads to a secluded farm area to get a new identity when mercenaries storm it to kidnap a pregnant woman. Walker teams with Elda to try and survive the night.

A little independent low budget film that starts off interesting and does become entertaining as the film goes on, Daniel Stisen plays Walker and seems to be tormented about something that happened in the past and can't make amends. Lauren Okadigbo is the female assassin trying to protect Yennis Cheung and her unborn baby and manages to use one or two good ideas for weapon use. There is some good shoot out scenes and a decent girl on girl fight scene, even though it does have few daft moments i'd say give it a glance. Cheers Demoncrat for pointing this one out to me :thankingyou:

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I'm here to help, not to hinder etc ...

How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)

A film that's pure eye candy and i'm not just talking about Lauren Bacall, Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe. No i'm also talking about the stunning CinemaScope photography. Every scene is a picture especially the snow covered wonders of Maine.

As for the film? It's an absolute gem. Bacall, Monroe and Grable are three models who rent a swish New York apartment they can ill afford in the hope of finding eligible millionaires to sweep them off their feet.

Do the girls find that mister right with millions in the bank? Well you'll have to watch it to find out.

The script is wonderful. The dialogue a delight, especially any scene featuring William Powell. At one point as Bacall attempts to explain her love for Powell's wealthy older man, twenty five years her senior, she says

" Look at Roosevelt, look at Churchill, look at that old fella what's his name in The African Queen"

Referring to her real life husband Humphrey Bogart who was indeed twenty five years older than she. It's just one of many in-jokes and comical lines in this extremely witty script as is Grable's introduction to the film when she only has a quarter to her name.

The film co-stars Cameron Mitchell who would go on to star for a certain Mario Bava in three films during the sixties including Blood and Black Lace (1964)

“Not with that flute!”

One of my favs, always feel better after watching a Marilyn Monroe movie.

The largest mouth thermometer ever. :lol:

it's a shame the Blu-ray set has only four films in it. The dvd box set i have has ten.

Bus Stop and Niagra (I think) both have out of print blurays. It’s crazy she’s one of the most famous people from that era and is so poorly served on home media. I always mean to import the films that aren’t in that box set. Maybe some day.

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People keep wondering into the woods alone and never returning so long is the list of missing persons in the area the local Sheriff just can't be bothered anymore to put any effort to investigate. When four friend head out camping they encounter the the person responsible for the disappearances but what match can four city dwellers be against a man of the wilds.

Right first off the acting and dialogue are horrendous sometimes it's funny and some times it's just annoying. The two cops are dumb as f**k just fumbling around and talking b*LL*x with the deputy doing his best to hold back the laughing every scene he is in.

The kills are ok but we aren't really shown much just lots of neon blood and one ripped off arm scene.

I do love the setting the scenery is absolutely beautiful and it is helped by the fact almost the whole film happens in daylight so we really get to enjoy the view in all its glory.

At times the soundtrack is great when it's the synth side of it but the rest can be silly and jarring at times but when it's right it's right and creates a dark sinsiter atmosphere but the film can't live up to the music.

It's hard to recommend this even though I'm sure most people have seen it before. It's just a bit boring honestly it just starts to drag on and even at 80 minutes it still feels too long.

Steak (2007, Quentin Dupieux)

Going for broke, this was more like it. Absurdist to the nth degree, this one defies description. We meet quite a few folk along the way. Some aren't very nice :laugh: but that's life I suppose. 73 min again!!
On the surface it has a veneer of genre cliche, but that doesn't really take hold. I know it sounds like I'm being willfully obtuse here, but it's for the best really :lol: as they are best witnessed unspoiled imho. Then afterwards if it all just seems a tad trite, well, that's life also.
Ahem.

I really want Niagara and also The Misfits.

Bus Stop and River of No Return would also be lovely.

Close Range. 2015.

A former soldier tries to protect his sister and niece from a drug cartel and a corrupt Sheriff.

Scott Adkins plays Colton who rescued his niece from a Mexican cartel and steals a USB stick that may have a lot of info on it that can bring down a empire. His brother in law and the Sheriff seem to have a link or more like a good paying job with the cartel and the family were leverage. The dialogue is questionable, the camera work does seem a bit amateurish, the fight scenes are brilliantly choreographed. Adkins isn't scared top take a beaten and knows how to dish out a beating or two. Isn't not perfect but a decent late Saturday night flick.

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THE VAGRANT – Uptight yuppie Bill Paxton finds that his new house comes with an unwanted freebie. Who is the neighbourhood’s mysterious tramp, and why does he seem so portentous? ‘The Vagrant’ is by eighties fx maestro Chris Walas, who also did ‘The Fly 2’. There’s an element of gloop, a little, but it’s more in the lineage of those eighties absurdist black comedies about social mobility fears, where office types find their mundane worlds tested to the point of downfall – ‘After hours’, ‘Something Wild’ etc. Pretty good and definitely interesting and enjoyable but, as much as I’m nowhere near as brassic as ‘The Vagrant’, I doubt I’ll be upgrading.

THE SPECIAL – Indie horror about what appears to be the bj of a lifetime; the owners of the brothel where hapless Jerry gets his rocks off certainly think so, that’s why they call it The Special. But the facilitator of The Special resides within a small box with a hole in it next to an arrow and a message that reads ‘insert dick here’. I don’t think I’d be up for it, but if nothing else it’s an interesting spin on that old device, “the mystery of the locked container.” ‘The Special’ (the movie) contains an amount of, to use that fast-becoming hackneyed term, ‘body horror’, but mainly near the end; I wouldn’t call ‘The Special’ restrained necessarily, but it doesn’t really push either the sleaze or the slime. Microbudget stuff these days looks so slick and well made, and that’s definitely true here, although the other drawbacks of this kind of cinema creep in – a certain flatness perhaps, a slight obviousness of tone. But ‘The Special’ gets a lot of mileage out of its yucky central idea, and there’s enough flow, momentum and strangeness to make for an absorbing watch.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR – One from Franco’s glory days. There’s a seriousness of tone – even the zooms seem a little grave – about this tale of a woman’s attempts to break semi-incestuous ties with her obsessive father, now deceased. Forgoing some of the delirium of his more out-there stuff opens up a more affecting side; I’d never accuse Franco of being the sentimental type, but Emma Cohen’s performance as doomed jazz waif Ana carries a real air of melancholy. And that’s only one side of the mirror. On t’other, we get visits from dad in the form of spectral Howard Vernon at the end of a rope (he’s a reflection), and these interludes are dreamy and claustrophobic. Probably one of his best on a pseudo-objective ‘cinema’ type level, though I do prefer it when he just throws together something wonky and bizarre.

Riot. 2015.

Cop Jack Stone, mourning the death of his wife stages a bank robbery owned by a Russian mobster and is sent to prison. The Russian mobster Ballan who runs his empire from prison wants revenge on Stone just as Stone wants revenge on him and meets a prisoner called William who gives Stone inside information.

This may not be a blockbuster hit but certainly entertaining, Matthew Reese is the cop now turned new inmate who doesn't take well to the new rules he has to follow and creates a new enemy with Semyon who is the cousin of Ballan played by Chuck Liddell. Dolph Lundgren plays the prisoner and general cleaner who looks and plays a simpleton but has other agenda's. Lundgren does look old in this but certainly is still able to pack a punch. The acting is decent and fight scenes are brilliantly choreographed and everyone isn't scared to take a punch. Worth checking out.

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Something Wild [1986]

Melanie Griffith plays a free spirited girl who meets yuppie Jeff Daniels at a New York diner and half kidnaps him for the weekend as they embark on a road trip from the city through Pennsylvania in order to go to her high school reunion where she comes across ex-husband Ray Liotta and things quickly turn dangerous.

Definitely a film with tonal twists. The first half is fun all the way as Griffith's Lulu larks about with Daniels having kinky motel sex and robbing liquor stores as the film has a playfully breezy vibe even though for Daniels it's kind of a yuppie nightmare.

The film then moves up a gear with Liotta in proper crazed mode as he kidnaps them both, violently beating Daniels in the process before the three head into Virginia.

Jonathan Demme's film confounds the viewers expectations with all the wild turns it takes but remains a clever anarchic black comedy with Griffith in brilliant form.

Unpredictable, quirky and charming - and that's not just John Waters cameo as a used car salesman.

An Eye For An Eye

Chuck Norris is a former Detective who resigns after the Murders of 2 friends by Drug Traffickers. He goes after revenge with the help of a Reporter. Christopher Lee co-stars in a Film that I hadn't seen before and it falls into the category of I've seen better but if I had seen it in the 80's, I would have loved it.

Renfield

Nicholas Hoult is Dracula's Assistant which means he has to do his bidding along with getting Victims. Nicholas Cage is outstanding as the very demanding Dracula along with great performances from Hoult, Akinfenwa and Ben Shultz in a very funny and gory Film. I believe it's my favorite Film of 2023 so far, the Trailer gave me Vampire In Brooklyn vibes and it felt that way watching the Film.

Slap Shot 3: Junior League

Straight to DVD Sequel which sees a group of Orphans trying to save their Home from a dirty trick playing Developer by winning a Junior Ice Hockey League. It does have a connection to the previous Movies by being based in Charlestown and having The Hanson Brothers in a substantial role, not a quick 30 second cameo. It's basic but I found it tolerable.

Extra Ordinary (2019, Mike Ahern/ Enda McLoughman)

Irish horror comedy.
Liked this now. A driving instructor whose real talent has been hidden due to past trauma finds that that talent is needed if love is her true aim.
Will Forte pops up as the antagonist. Not a showy thing at all, the performances carry it along assuredly.

Virgin Mountain. 2015.

A soft drama from Scandinavia about a over weight 40s something guy still living at home, collects small models and work as a baggage handler at the airport. He starts going line dancing and realises life can throw challenges at him.

Gunnar Jonsson plays Fusi is quite a likeable character facing perils in life that everyone faces and at times you can feel sympathy for him when things look up for him his dreams are shattered then picks himself up and things go down. The pace is slow but that goes with the tone of the film especially at the start then it can go fast then slow. There is some points where it can go in one direction then switches to the other even though right at the end you can help but smile with the character. May not be for everyone but certainly worth a glance if you don't mind subtitles.

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(this is known as Fusi)

Security. 2017.

Former military captain takes on a job as a night security officer at a shopping mall, when a 12 year old girl appears and says people are after her, the staff make a stand to protect her.

This was a low grade B movie that went straight to dvd and it must have been a blow for Antonio Banderas and Sir Ben Kinsley as this was actually decent. You got Banderas as the ex military, a guard who has turned up for their shift hung over, one who is in the job for the excitement, one who is in the job till a better paying job and a stuck up guard who thinks he is "the boss"...sounds like people I have worked with.

Ben Kingsley has always been a great actor to watch and leads a team to track down a girl who is due to testify and they want her out the way from their employer. The night shift staff do think on their feet on what can be used as a make shift arsenal even though it might seem a bit far fetched but what they use can be done. Another entertaining flick.

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