Decemberdike # 5
 

Beyond the Door (1974)

An Exorcist rip off from Ovidio G. Assonitis, starring Juliet Mills, Gabriele Lavia, and Richard Johnson. Mills stars as a San Francisco housewife who becomes possessed by a demon during pregnancy.

Despite being laughable at times Beyond the Door is okay. Juliet Mills is a lot of fun, seemingly knowing the film is dross but none the less she gives it her all and revels in her exploitative pea vomiting role, whilst Richard Johnson lurks mysteriously in the background during the first hour looking scarily cool.

Mills and Lavia's daughter, Gail, must be about nine but has the dialogue of an eighteen year old hipster whilst her curly blonde haired younger brother Ken, comes direct from the Frezza / Bob school of acting.

The film has some good San Francisco location work including a drive down the eight hairpin turns of the famed Lombard Street. The sound design is weird. It feels like it's from another film half the time, namely City of the Living Dead, with it's constant zombie moaning and groaning and eerie musical motifs. Assonitis obviously didn't rip off said Fulci classic as Beyond the Door arrived a full six years before Lucio's masterpiece.

In a way there's too much going on here for it to be described purely as an Exorcist rip off, much of the stuff doesn't work but other parts do work very well as does it's all round general oddness and whilst it may be a poor man's Exorcist it entertains with it.

Decemberdike # 6
 

Censor (2021)

Set in 1985, the film follows a young woman, Enid, (Niamh Algar) who works for the BBFC basically censoring video nasties.

Director Prano Bailey-Bond introduces everything possible from the video nasties phenomenon of the time. Be it video shops selling uncut video tapes under the counter, the press hysteria regarding the films, even more press hysteria when a tabloid rag decides a man who murdered his family was influenced by one of the films Enid didn't cut - spoiler - He'd never seen it - then there's cult horror director Frederick North (Adrian Schiller) who harasses Enid for banning one of his films outright. A film that Enid thinks features her missing sister Alice, and this plot development takes over the second half of the film as she goes searching for North's filming location for his next feature in which Alice is supposed to feature for one final time.

I did wonder how much exec producer Kim Newman influenced the first half of the film centered around the nasties outrage but the second half is more a female centric character study and how Enid's psyche is affected by seeing the films themselves on top of her fragile feelings regarding her sisters disappearance.

Censor is an interesting and audacious film in the way it looks at video nasties. It looks and feels authentic of the period thanks to it's muted colour grades and also captures the authorities take on video violence - at one point Enid tells someone she's cutting and banning films to protect the British public. However Censor isn't the film to see if you want gory violence in the main although there is one scene in particular featuring Michael Smiley that's violently memorable. Yet as the film ended in a nicely peculiar way which certainly altered my perception of it's third and final act as it's murky line between fiction and reality finally dissolved completely, it felt like a piece of cinema that could have been so much bolder given it's context in what was a dark period for the British film industry.

CHERRY TREE – I love it when high stakes supernatural events that threaten the whole of humankind play out down the road, where there are cul-de-sacs and dogwalkers and people who go to their nondescript PE teacher-type jobs. The mundane backdrop for ‘Cherry Tree’s supernatural antics is some English / Irish backwater (never clear where exactly), and the PE teacher in question is a witch who wants to entice one of her pupils into a Satanic pregnancy. ‘Cherry Tree’ at first struck me as a bit blunt, a bit clunky, with a shopworn visual style that seemed dated for its 2015 ‘vintage’. But then it got weirdly carried away with itself and pulled out a load of pulpy shit that wouldn’t seem out of place in a late eighties Italian genre flick by way of Hong Kong (read – cellars full of candles, nicely lit zombies, and countless shots of revolting flesh eating centipedes burrowing in and out of writhing bodies). Enjoyable trash that was a pleasure to revisit, especially given my initial inability to recall anything about it. From the makers of the comparatively prim and proper ‘Wake Wood’.

TOTALLY KILLER – Well, not ‘totally’, it’s not quite rad enough. It’s alright though. Basically, it takes a similar line to other recent timeslip genre movies like ‘Happy Death Day’ and uses it as an excuse to pay a wry visit to the nineteen eighties, represented here by the apparently pre-everything year of 1987. That was when a masked killer chopped up three young students in the small town of Vernon, setting up a mystery that survives into the present and fuels a local true-crime industry, not to mention a late revival; said slasher steps out of the shadows once again to murder eighties veteran Pam Hughes, leaving her daughter to use her best friend’s time machine (it’s a comedy) to go way back when to sort it all out and stop it ever happening in the first place. You know how it’s going to pan out – lots of ‘Back To The Future’ references, slasher winks that wouldn’t be lost on non-specialists, a bit of high minded commentary to pander to the maker’s notion of generational self-perception (a bit hypocritical, considering the current political climate is no more progressive than the eighties). Lightweight fare and a little bit in love with its own superciliousness, but still I found it amiable and entertaining enough.

Original UK Double bill..

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THE SAVAGE BEES (1976)

Originally a US TV movie but given a theatrical release here in the UK.
This is good stuff with some great set pieces involving the bees. Notable is a scene where the bees cover a car.
The movie follows the usual storyline in which nobody believes that the killer bees are coming!

THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN (1977)

No introduction needed for this one! Great ride of a movie showcasing super yucky make up from Rick Baker.
Nice skull cracking sound effect as the severed head goes over the waterfall!
Strange to think that this movie was originally a AA certificate.

One of the best Irish / British horror films of the past decade. I really like it.

Best not get it confused with the formulaic British home invasion film Cherry Tree Lane

I didn't like this at all first time I watched it I will get around to rewatching at some point

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Dark Age (1987, Arch Nicholson)

John Jarratt stars in this semi Jaws style animal caper.
An ancient croc is stirred from hibernation by poachers. Mayhem ensues. Always wanted to see this after seeing the trailer on some vhs cough. Time might not have been kind to the dialogue, but you get Alf Ramsay sporting a moustache so it balances out :rolleyes::laugh:
Ahem. Fun was had.


House Of Frankenstein (1944, Erle C. Kenton)

Switching gears a tad, we revisit this old comfort blanket. You get a mini Dracula short, then some Wolf Man action, then old square head wakes up and saves the day cough didn't see that coming harumph.



Miracles (1989, Jackie Chan)

Bask in all its silly glory.
JC stars as a man who is placed in a dangerous postion, but it's ok, a few mad stunts later and he's on top of things.
Somewhat sentimental in tone, this is a showcase for the all round good guy persona that he worked so diligently during this period.
A set piece set in a rope factory presents a man at the top of his game.

I was enjoying the Film until the end, the weirdness took me out of it, such a disappointment.

Will have to watch it again as I remember seeing it at a Cinema on a wet Sunday Night during a Partial Lockdown with restrictions.

Wonka

Prequel starring Timothy Chalamet as the younger Wonka which tells the story of how Wonka started in the Chocolate Business. After being duped into working in a Clothes Washing Business, he enlists his fellow Prisoners into establishing his Empire whilst incurring the wrath of The Chocolate Cartel and the Police Chief (A funny Michael Keegan Key who keeps on getting fatter during the Film)

It's got a great cast which includes Sally Hawkins, Matt Lucas and Rowan Atkinson along with Hugh Grant (Who's not in it as much as you'd think) but it's Olivia Coleman and Tom Davies who delight as the mean Hotel Owners who imprison and force Wonka to work for them. Chalamet does his roll well and his believable as Wonka.

It's not the greatest film you will probably watch but it's worth giving it a go and whilst it's not a Xmas Film, it's got that feel in spirit.

It's being released at Cinemas at the right time.

The city of New York is overrun by gangs and crime and the cops couldn't care less about the average Joe. A group of work colleagues have had a enough and take the law into their own hands dealing out their own justice on the scum of the streets.Eddie is a devoted family man who misses out on a lot of time with his young son and wife trying to work hard to bring in some cash for them and a holiday he promised but one day while he is working his kid and wife are attacked and after going the legal route it's the same old same old and the attackers are free to walk the streets. Eddie has enough and joins the vigilante group with his friends to exact his revenge.

Right from the first seconds you just know your on to a winner here the atmosphere is one of sleaze and filth with New York the perfect backdrop to these horrible events of robbery drugs rape and murder.

There are some great action scenes from parkour style chases before parkour was even a thing and a sweet little car chase followed by a cat and mouse through and a building site. The revenge and violence are so satisfying to watch after witnessing so many brutal scenes and just how cold and cocky the scumbags all are.

Along with New York itself setting the mood things are ramped up even futher with an amazing soundtrack.

Absolutely loved this film and it's going to be revisited many many times.Attachment 249103

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Decemberdike # 7
 

Opera (1987)

A hugely enjoyable revisit and first time Blu-ray screening of Dario Argento's last great film (Although i personally think Mother of Tears (2007) is more fun).

In his first reworking of Phantom of the Opera - 1998's Phantom of the Opera was a more faithful down the line adaptation - Dario follows a young soprano given the lead in Macbeth by Verdi at the Parma Opera House who becomes the target of a serial killer.

The film sticks in the memory and gained notoriety because the killer stalks the singer and prior to any murder manages to overpower and restrain her then tapes a row of needles beneath her eyes to ensure she sees what comes next. It's wonderfully grisly and an iconic moment in Argento's filmography especially that first time when the kill itself is orchestrated brilliantly.

It's beautifully shot and the frequent raven eye views as the birds, present in the production, fly around the opera house are extremely clever taking the directors typical tracking shots to another level entirely. High definition does wonders for the operatic sequences in the soundtrack and although only two channels envelops the room turning it into my own mini opera house when played via 7:1 surround.

Decemberdike # 8
 

The Climax (1944)

Boris Karloff plays a theatre physician who on hearing a new singer (Susanna Foster) is reminded of the fiancee he murdered ten years earlier out of obsession and jealousy, so he sets about seducing her to sing only for him and if she refuses...eek!

A nice atmosphere even if there's a little too much singing and aimless chatter in this riff on The Phantom of the Opera. (Seriously following Argento's Opera with another opera set film was bad planning by me). There's a reasonable amount of tension in Curt Siodmak's script but on the whole this is minor Karloff fayre when you consider the rest of the great man's output. He is however always a reason to watch films of this ilk.

Nice to see Turhan Bey in a slightly heroic leading man role rather than typecast as an Egyptian. The sets were the same ones as the 1943 Universal Phantom film so as you can imagine they look splendid.

Decemberdike # 9
 

Wrong Turn (2021)

Reboot of the long running horror franchise, this seventh entry does away with the cannibalistic hillbilly aspect and has a group of friends hiking in the Appalachians when they run foul of the 'Foundation' - a group of settlers who settled in the mountains to get away from the rest of humanity 170 odd years ago.

There's a lot going for this reinvigoration of the series. The use of bone animal masks and head dresses is always something i find both satisfying in a horror aspect and genuinely disturbing too as are Pagan or Germanic cults of which the Foundation certainly are. The fact the friends are either (brutally) killed or integrated into the Foundation is an interesting premise even though their prime objective is to escape with the finale quite surprising - at least to me.

At almost two hours the film is a little too long but the set up is well thought out and for almost half the film you are sure the paranoia and alienation that exudes from nearby townsfolk to the hikers will all be due to cannibal killers in the woods rather than a Heilung gig in the forest.

I liked this one, but then i more often than not always enjoy backwoods horror films.

Decemberdike # 10
 

I Start Counting (1970)

I mistakenly thought this British thriller was more serial killer film than a coming of age drama. Perhaps with good reason as the plot is essentially that of a fifteen year old Jenny Agutter who suspects her older foster brother might be the serial killer of several local teenage girls.

However it centre's more on Agutter's Wynne and her crush on her said foster brother (Bryan Marshall) as well as her friendship with best friend Corinne (Clare Sutcliffe) who is seemingly more sexually experienced than Wynne.

However the serial killer theme is a constant and properly comes into play during the last twenty minutes. It's not difficult to guess who the killer is thanks to the cast list and one 'name' who appears all too briefly (and creepily) during the first hour.

By no means is this out and out horror but it is a subtle psychological thriller which definitely has an air of the taboo about it as well as that off kilter Grittishness that was only witnessed in British films from this era such as Permissive, Deep End, Girly and Baby Love.

Anna and the Apocalypse. A teenage girl and her friends battle for survival in the wake of a zombie apocalypse. This very weird 2017 British flick is a comedy horror zombie... musical. No, really. It's better than it sounds, but it's not just the musical aspects that make it odd, it's also a very strange fish tonally. I've heard it called a "feelgood Christmas classic" except that, take away the songs, and it's ultimately as bleak and depressing as most other zombie flicks, even lacking the hopeful "everything's back to normal, more or less" coda to Shaun of the Dead. The lead girl is very likeable and very beautiful, and it's watchable - I didn't turn it off, which is a major win for modern cinema lol - but it's just... odd. :psychosanta:

Dumb Money

Based on The True Story of the Game Stop Shares story during the Pandemic sees a number of ordinary people almost take down Hedge Funds due to them buying Shares in a company. Think Big Short meets Generation X. It follows the ups and downs and the dilemmas of whether to hold or sell and how the major Hedge Funds manage the situation. It's a very decent watch but due to being a True Story, I was with their friends and family who want them to sell and take the life changing money and thinking you idiots when they didn't.

Starring Seth Rogan (Who's facial expressions showing worry and dismay are amazing) Paul Dano, Shailene Woodley and Nick Offerman.

The Horseman (2008, Steven Katrissios)

Revisited this one as it fell on me whilst shifting some stuff.
A man finds out his daughter's demise was slightly more sordid than normal after cleaning out her room. He sets off to find the folk responsible, so it's a revenge caper yes, but it's mostly low key with only the death scenes being somewhat histrionic cough. It all centres around the lead, so luckily he's quite believable as a man who just trying to keep himself together. Not as grim as some in this genre, but it's no Carry On either.

I remember when this came out. I was kinda' disappointed when i watched the dvd as it was said to be some sort of masterpiece of revenge brutality but it really wasn't.

I still own it but have only watched it the one time.

Two Aussie films came out at a similar time i recall. The Horseman and Van Dieman's Land and were both pretty brutal cutting edge films. I much preferred Van Dieman's Land.

Decemberdike # 11
 

Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021)

Nicolas Cage plays a notorious criminal, Hero, who is sent to rescue the governor's adopted granddaughter, who has disappeared into a dark region called Ghostland. In order to make sure Hero completes his task or dies trying his new leather suit is fitted with small bombs which will kill him should he run out of time or set off in certain places should he mistreat the granddaughter in any way.

A largely dull rehash of Escape From New York with Cage strangely subdued although Bill Moseley as the governor is value for money. Director Sion Sono's attempts at the weird and quirky largely fell flat for me and following a promising start i became increasingly bored. A huge disappointment.

Decemberdike # 12
 

L'arma l'ora il Movente (1972)

Internationally titled The Weapon, the Hour, the Motive, this is an intriguing little giallo. From what i understand it was the first one to feature that regular giallo motif the corrupt priest. Here said priest is having an affair with two women until he abruptly calls them both off. Soon after he is found murdered in his church. Both women quickly become the suspects of the local police inspector (A very good Renzo Montagnani) however the only witness allegedly is a young boy who doesn't seem entirely trust worthy.

Director Francesco Mazzei seems to be as influenced by the slew of nunsploitation films that populated European cinema at the time as he was the typical giallo as the film is full of naked nuns be it in the shower or flagellating themselves more so than giallo style murders, although there is a beautifully graphic throat slashing scene courtesy of the maestro Carlo Rambaldi.

The acting is uniformly excellent, the convent a good location and there's creeping suspense due to tight direction from Mazzei along with a slightly surreal air to certain scenes that for me elevated this above the standard giallo thriller.

I look forward to seeing this again in the coming months.

Assassins (1995)

Despite being directed by Richard Donner and scripted by the Wachowskis and Brian Helgeland it's probably best not to think about the plot and it's loopholes and simply sit back and enjoy Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas going at each other tooth and nail as a pair of assassins given the same mark - tech wiz Julianne Moore.

Stallone, despite being nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award actually does a really good job and underplays his role to near perfection with Banderas being the one to go a little OTT with his emotional and impatient outbursts. Whilst Donner injects the film with enough suspense and action to keep things bubbling along nicely.

Have been tempted so many times to watch this don't think I'll bother now.

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I'm always up for a Nic Cage movie, but i'll never watch this again.

For the record I LOVED Prisoners of the Ghostland :lol:

Decemberdike # 13
 

Spiral (2021)

Chris Rock plays a homicide detective handed the task, along with a reluctant back up team thanks to shit that went down years before, of stopping what appears to be a Jigsaw copycat killer.

I really enjoyed Spiral. There's enough unrelated police corruption back story to give the cops and their attitudes to Rock a simmering tension away from the boiling tension of watching the wildly impressive murderous traps of the copycat Jigsaw killer. In a way it has the feel of a little brother to Fincher's Seven (1995) without the gut punch ending of course.

Rock is fine as the cop at the centre of the film, if a little shouty, but it's the support cast of Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols and Samuel L Jackson that give the film that something extra.

It's been a long time since i saw (Haha) any of the Saw series and i found Spiral: From the Book of Saw, to give it it's full title, quite refreshing and a stand out in what seems to have been years of gore free, scare free studio horror.

Revolver (2005, Guy Ritchie)

To watch this pretty tosh after a documentary about Tarkovsky ... I pick my moments :lol:
A man wants revenge. Help seems to come from an unexpected source. Or is he?
Hmmm. To have seen this garish miasma at the pictures would have been fun. Mark Strong gave off serious Arkin vibes in his performance, so that was nice. I had to, having missed it during the Stafamathon I had a while back. Old age no doubt.
Musical remake anyone?? :rolleyes::laugh:

Scrooged 1988.
I watched this with my son the other night. I think it is a classic adaptation and both funny and poignant at the same time. I really love the fake trailers at the start and especially "The Night the Reindeer Died" with lee majors arriving to save an under siege Santa Claus and his helpers from Russian looking terrorists.

Countdown. 2019.

Something new...ish but follows the same path as two other horror movies, Elizabeth Lail is the newly promoted nurse who downloads a app called "Countdown" which predicts when she will die, of course those around her have years to go before dying yet she has three days.

All I could think of this is a bit like The Ring except its via a phone when the curse starts and our heroine must try and find a way to break the curse with a stranger who will die minutes before she does in a Final Destination way of trying to cheat death. The acting for this isn't that bad although will never be perfect, the deaths are shown off screen and nothing is brutal, but also copies a death scene from a Final Destination movie. The jump scares are predictable in some moments and decent effects for the "Angel Of Death". This is one I would return to for a second viewing.

Attachment 249186

Decemberdike # 14
 

The Long Night (2022)

Scout Taylor Compton plays a young woman searching for her missing family. Upon hearing they might be back in their old South Carolina home where Compton grew up she returns there with her boyfriend to their former home and unwittingly become the target of a supernatural cult about to fulfill an ancient prophecy of evil.

Although Taylor Compton and Nolan Gerard Funk as boyfriend Jack are decent enough the likes of Jeff Fahey and Deborah Kara Unger don't get enough screen time in this stylish but ultimately empty horror film.

There are lovely aerial shots and the cult look suitably terrifying and demonic donned in their robes and animal skull masks yet despite them standing outside the house for great swathes of the film looking menacing with flaming totems, not an awful lot happens between the half hour mark until the last fifteen minutes. There's a nice unnerving atmosphere of dread but it can't sustain a whole movie.

As far as indie horror goes The Long Night is technically excellent and really looks the business, it's just a shame the script lacks the required thrills to move this into the higher echelons of indie horror.

Tower Of Terror. 1941.

This is a excellent wartime thriller that benefits from a low budget for once. The setting for the film is a lighthouse in Germany, and most of the running time takes place within the claustrophobic confines of the building. Wilfrid Lawson is excellent as an oddball lighthouse keeper with a hook for a hand who is afraid of no one, rude to everyone and definitely very scary to live with. This was a decent afternoon British war movie with great acting, shoot outs and after the opening you get immersed in it that time just flies by. Certainly worth a watch.

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An Innocent Man:1989
Next on the agenda for me and my sons is this cracking little thriller. Two racist, drug addled cops break into Tom Sellecks house in a case of mistaken identity. Rather than apologise and offer to pay for damages they instead plant drugs on him that results in a prison term. Once inside jail Tom has to get mean and take no shit.
Unintentionally funny in places this film is perfect for the middle aged, dad type like myself.

RED MIST – A pack of attractive but fairly nasty medical students make an arch-nemesis of a feeble-minded janitor and do all sorts of horrible things to him, including feeding him a funnel full of drugs and calling him ‘freakdog’. I mention the nickname because it’s also ‘Red Mist’s AKA. Janitor ends up in a coma, but his spirit gives his life support system the slip and reaches out to get ‘em all by means of possession; which one’s it trying to be, ‘Patrick’ or ‘The Meatcleaver Massacre’? From the airbrushed smiles of its protagonists to the tepid bits of torture porn that plug the empty narrative, ‘Red Mist’ is ‘2007’ to the core. Little scraps of joy fall here and there courtesy of its blunt ways and callous attitude (I found its portrayal of necrophiliacs as bumbling oafs to be quite insensitive). It’s a film full of tacky shit – many of the possessees hiss “freakdog…” and try to look a bit evil whenever they’re about to do a kill – but it rattles through its schtick swiftly enough not to bore. An added fillip is that it’s one of those flicks where a lot of UK TV actors try to sound American, always a little amusing to me at least.

SOUTHERN COMFORT – The national guard gets it wrong in the bayou and riles some Cajun trappers; Keith Carradine tries to keep a level head whilst Brion James gives it stary blue eyes. Funny, even though it’s short on thrashing tendrils and metamorphic monstrosity, ‘Southern Comfort’ always reminds me of ‘The Thing’. In principal they’re quite similar I think, just that stifling sense of a closed little world where macho men seem destined to do themselves in through their own rampant paranoia. Hypnotic and tense, atmosphere thick with Ry Cooder and swamp mist at every turn. I’d choose ‘The Driver’ or ‘Warriors’ over this as my fave Walter Hill, but it’s a close third.

THE NESTING – Armand Weston did quite a lot of porn and this, a supernatural horror flick about an agoraphobic writer’s big dark house full of secrets. It’s never shaken off a slightly tepid reputation and is for the most part overlooked these days, unfortunate when you consider the fawning regard for other early eighties creepy house movies eg the mediocre ‘Amityville Horror’. ‘The Nesting’ is flaky but strong on atmosphere. Beyond the rote plot moves and a tendency to lumber looms the feeling that flows from rooms full of shadow in a house surrounded by endless forest. If that fails, you might be tickled by the odd flourish of ineptitude (that shrink, that roof incident), and if you need a little more, there’s always croaky John Carradine and a sickle to the head. It’s a pity that, in the end, it’s just a fairly conventional ghost story wrapped in the usual through-the-motions type mystery. But I’m drawn by the well-framed rot and murky style, and just that densely wooded upstate New York thing.

Demolition Man (1993)

A slick futuristic sci-fi actioner starring Slvester Stallone as a tough cop from the twentieth century whose uncompromising methods land him in a cryo prison. Decades later, 2033 to be precise, he's revived to track down an old sparring partner in maniacal criminal Wesley Snipes who has been revived from his cryogenic state to create havoc in the now crime free state of San Angeles.

There's a lot of fun to be had sending up 90's political correctness and Stallone and Snipes deliver the goods when it comes to the frequent action scenes. Sandra Bullock offers decent support as a fellow police officer but i can't help feeling Nigel Hawthorne probably wandered onto the wrong movie set.

Decemberdike # 15
 

Endless Night (1972)

Based on the novel by Agatha Christie, Endless Night follows heiress Hayley Mills who falls in love with chauffeur Hywel Bennett and gets married much to the annoyance of her family. The couple have a new home built but it soon becomes apparent the land it was built on is cursed.

Endless Night isn't a bad film, it's just not that thrilling. Directed by Sidney Gilliat who was most well known for the St. Trinians film series, it lacks both suspense and that quirky Britishness so prevalent in genre cinema of the time.

There's a whole bunch of well known faces including Britt Ekland, Peter Bowles, George Sanders, Lois Maxwell and Leo Genn but there's not a lot they can do with a film that really doesn't know what it wants to be - horror, thriller, romance, or least of all an Agatha Christie mystery - and with such lacklustre pacing as well.

Watchable but nowhere near essential. As far as Mills and Bennett go this is no Twisted Nerve.

A woman goes to a small down seaside town searching for her father who she hasn't seen in years but only communicates with letters she has become more and more worried of how bizarre the letters have become. As soon as she arrives it's obvious this place is not right the streets are more or less empty and anyone she does encounter barely acknowledges her especially when she mentions her father's name.

Messiah of Evil is a pure nightmare it's emptiness gives you a feeling of loneliness and the house scenes give you the feeling that you are trapped and you need to get out but something is keeping you there. The use of art on the walls of the house creates a feeling that you are constantly been observed even in the bathroom it's like an audience watching you have a bath. Outside not only is the empty town haunting but the dark beauty of the sea the waves crashing on a desolate beach surrounded by beautiful but imposing cliffs that while feels quite idyllic it always adds to the feeling of being trapped.

The use of lighting is absolutely astonishing every single scene it's pure art not only at night when the colours really pop but how the day time scenes are shot gives you a false sense of beauty the town has that clean look that anyone would want to live in but you know it's hiding a horrible secret.

As always with me a soundtrack is so important and Messiah of Evil doesn't disappoint it's a very heavy synth soundtrack which is the perfect blend of beauty and horror.

Messiah of Evil for me is more of a feeling than an understanding.Attachment 249218

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THE DARK POWER – Oh, this takes me back. Me and my mate used to derive hours of amusement from its endlessly quotable dialogue, most of it courtesy of Lash Larue, a whip-wielding local hero whose delivery was flat enough to worry a mortician. “Taste my whip, you son of a bitch.” “I understand you’re indestructible.” Maybe you need to hear it. He’s pretty formidable, but anyone looking into ‘The Dark Power’ will find that Lash Larue is but the tip of an iceberg of weirdly uplifting trash oddity. Some college kids move into a house; it once belonged to a shaman who knew of myth, the Toltecs and supernatural things; some of those ‘things’ arrive in the form of four badly made-up members of the demonic undead, who lay siege and juggle their axes; people run around and try to escape; cue Lash. Before the horror bit, a procession of matter-of-fact bizarreness toddles along, including an in-yer-face racist who spouts on for no reason other than to fill in as an obvious meanie (no explanation / exploration, then she just… vanishes? I may have lost track), then various expected leg warmer moments and eighties-specific awkwardnesses. Sometimes the boring bits are the best bits. This is a film that sneers at the very notion of tonal consistency, whirling from inept comedy to shades of nightmare with all the finesse of a fake tomahawk hurled by a plastic zombie hand… the house glows red… people do the same thing over and over… “take that, you demonic bastard.” Here’s to you Lash, wherever you are.

Decemberdike # 16
 

The Pope's Exorcist (2023)

Russell Crowe stars in this film based on the 1990's books An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories by Father Gabriele Amorth.

Crowe plays the Pope's personal exorcist who is sent by his holiness to attend to a seemingly possessed boy in the Spanish countryside.

I'll be clear straight away, i loved this film. Russell Crowe in something of an acting resurgence thanks to roles in genre cinema such as 2020's Unhinged and the following years Thor: Love and Thunder, gives the film genuine acting clout and the inspired casting of the great Franco Nero as the Pope adds extra gravitas and indeed class.

It's slickly directed by Julius Avery and has a well written script with tasty dialogue and some lines i found genuinely laugh out loud funny. For example as the child partially taken over by the demon, tells Crowe "I am your nightmare" to which the exorcist replies "My nightmare is France winning the World Cup"

At one point there's excellent use of the 5:1 Dolby Digital soundtrack as the boys older sister hearing banging in the house turns to look in terror in the direction the sound comes from in a home theatre speaker set up. I thought that was extremely clever direction.

The final battle with the demon Asmodeus is terrific. Whilst it isn't as groundbreaking as Friedkin's The Exorcist it's still executed superbly and is wonderfully tense. I couldn't take my eyes off it.

To almost top it all there's an early scene of an annoyed Crowe riding his Lambretta across Rome's St. Angelo Bridge as Faith No More's We Care A Lot blasts through the speakers. That's a music to image marriage that Tarantino would be proud of.

Anyone who likes atmospheric religious horror with plenty of demon lore and fine performances could do a lot worse than The Pope's Exorcist.

Glad you enjoyed this one Dem, I was apprehensive about this but the more it went into the film and the somewhat thrown in curve ball about the ancestral family home, the edge of the sofa became a bit more comfortable :lol:

Good to know you thought highly if this I will give it a go now I wasn't expecting it to be much but now I want to see it.

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I don't really understood what Sion Sono was trying to do with this one, I was hugely disappointed(tbh I fall asleep couple of times).
If you want to see Sono on his best try Cold Fish or Why Don't you Play in Hell.