December 23rd

Lucker The Necrophagous (1986)

On its initial release Lucker had huge distribution problems thanks to its subject matter - murder and necrophilia. Deemed shocking, its master tapes were destroyed and the film was released only on hard to find grey market vhs tapes.

Here in 2012, Lucker can be seen for what it really is - low budget, poorly acted rubbish. Granted some of the gore effects are decent but the acts of necrophilia are nowhere near as shocking as the later Aftermath for example, even though the scenario is perhaps worse. Lucker murders a prostitute then waits four weeks for her corpse to decompose before having sex with it.

Due to the lack of film elements the dvd looks terrible in places, sometimes this can add to the effectiveness of certain films but not in this case, despite its meagre 68 minute running time i can't see me visiting this film again.


December 24th

The Uninvited (1944)

An absolute joy to watch. The Uninvited is a classic ghost story i'd never heard of until earlier this year. This seemingly unheralded film from Paramount is as effective and spine tingling as its more famous relatives - The Haunting, The Innocents etc.

Set in a brilliant Cornish clifftop location, the house the film is centred around is lovely and creepy allowing the film to achieve its frights through sound rather than effects. Distant wails in the night, and doors gently banging are two of its assets. Shadows dancing on the walls and the scene where the ghost manifests itself at the top of the stairs is as brilliant as anything in supernatural cinema since. Although the later part of the story is more gothic romance than straightforward horror The Uninvited rewards the viewers patience and the film has an effective conclusion. Superbly acted by its cast including Ray Milland i would easily recommend this to all lovers of classic horror.

The UK dvd from Exposure cinema is lovingly put together. It has a beautiful full colour 24 page booklet with essays on the film, poster reproductions lobby cards and such like. The disc also features two radio adaptions also starring Ray Milland.

Date Night - good cast but starts off very flat. picks up in the second half and even includes a splendid car-chase sequence which I really was not expecting from a silly comedy.

Cockneys Vs Zombies - poor film with a dearth of originality. Only one comedy set piece has a decent idea behind it. Not unlikeable, but a shoddy effort. It's no Attack The Block...

Singin' In The Rain - Hollywood perfection. A masterpiece. One of the 10 or 15 or so greatest films ever made, for me.

The Watch - not the greatest script in the world and a lot of it falls flat, but the occasional funny bits are very funny and Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade are decent. It's no Attack The Block...

Dredd - excellent comic adaptation that succeeds on pretty much every level. Not perfect (characterisation is perfunctory at best, and it would have been nice to address Dredd's inherent fascism more convincingly) but bloody hell! this is as good a comic to screen as I have seen. Fine performances, exceptional and apposite soundtrack and it looks utterly wonderful.

Enchanted - superb Disney effort which seems aimed more at adults than kids. Really very, very good. The cast are sterling, in particular. A couple of very dodgy songs on the soundtrack are all I can nitpick over here.

D.E.B.S. - adorable romantic comedy/spy spoof that really deserves to be better known. Extremely witty and unassuming. Everyone clearly had a ball making it! Excellent stuff.

i watched breakdance and breakdance 2 the other day.
i saw the most horrible site ever, i young girl in the crowd with the hairiest armpits i ever seen lol.

Arrived home earlier today after my Christmas and New Year travels and thus far have watched Cronenberg's [/b]A Dangerous Method[/b] (Blu) which was interesting, but I can't help but think that along with last years Cosmopolis represents a loss of direction for a directors work whose work I have always enjoyed.

Followed up with some trash, Astron 6's Father's Day (Blu). Works even better on the small screen than at the cinema and Troma's 4 disc SE is fantastic. I can't wait for Astron's other feature Manborg - an homage to classic 80's action films - which is coming to German blu later in the year.

BUSY DAY LOL

The Barbershop (1894)
Sandow (1894)
Sioux Ghost Dance (1894)
Buffalo Dance (1894)
Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894)

http://www.cult-labs.com/forums/memb...tml#post308654

THE SUCKLING - Quite interesting late eighties attempt to recreate seventies grindhouse - people didn't start doing that kind of thing until at least a decade later. A low budget oddity which could've just been a bit MORE if you know what I mean, but it's still worth catching. Built around the bad taste premise of forced abortion in a skid row whorehouse... the ex-foetus in question becomes an irradiated beast in some quasi-Tromatic way, and the stage is set. It suffers from a surfeit of talky null and void midway, but the first and last sections are suitably scabrous, and the grimy atmos and mean assed characters carry it through the boring bits. As I said, it possibly could've wallowed in its own slime a little more for my benefit, but it at least forms a decent pustule on the sterile face of late eighties genre fodder and for this reason stands out, a bit.

Been watching the Mark the cop trilogy of films starring Franco Gasparri.
I would definately recomend the third in the series Mark Strikes Again.
In this installment Mark sporting a Keegan style perm is now undercover having infiltrated a terrorist organisation run by John Steiner who speaks in a sort of Allo Allo style german accent.
Theres the usual shoot outs involving hostages and explosions and its just a fun movie to watch, Stelvio Massi is underrated, ive enjoyed nearly all his films so far.

Are Tiny Tim and Lung Leg in this one? If so, it's a film I've wanted to see for ages but have never got round to tracking down yet.

Maybe if it'd been directed by Jack Smith, but sadly, no.