What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Pete]

Originally Posted by mbv

Yeah the UK Hollywood release.

I'm very new to the Bava thing so didn't realise this was 'Shock'.

It's an easy mistake to make.

I had that dvd but i never watched it.

[vincenzo]

I enjoyed Shock and the music is superb.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

I watched Splinter last night. A pretty good film, and a nice spin on the 'Mother Nature is coming to get you!' angle.

Watched Gruesome (Salvage) again this afternoon. A very enjoyable film from Danger After Dark releasing. A good film to watch for the second time too, as you notice little bits and flashes that are sometimes easily missed first time around. Recommended, anyhow.

Plus I have finished watching the new season of Family Guy. Not nearly as funny as earlier episodes but still good for the odd laugh, even though some of the episodes feel a bit cobbled together. Road to Germany was particularly disappointing IMO - a missed opportunity as those Road to... episodes are usually some of the best of the lot.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

I've just finished watching Viy - a creepy tale of Russian witchcraft which was recommended by (and then traded with) loops. Really enjoyed this one.

[Pete]

Glad you enjoyed it.

Did you find the disc's menus confusing? I did!

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by loops

Glad you enjoyed it.

Did you find the disc's menus confusing? I did!

Yeah especially trying to get the desired audio and subtitle combo playing - It took me three attempts to activate the Russian audio track with English subs. It kept playing in English with English subs...

[42ndStreetFreak]

"Tooth and Nail"

Hmmm....
A barmy post-apocalyptic plot that has all civilisation virtually destroyed in no time at all because the electricity has run out.
This sudden lack of lack of twinkly lights, PC's, DVD players and HBO is so bad that many humans turn to cannibalism (despite there being rather a lot of animals in the world) and as the survivors try to stay survivors...these cannibal sorts roam around picking them off one by one.

After an effective enough start the tiny budget starts to show, the silly script starts to scream at you about how silly it is and the few good bits in the film start to drown in the rising boredom and general ho humness now swamping all before it.

Despite Michael Madsen playing one of the cannibals he actually appears in only 2 scenes and then without the other cannibals.
Vinnie Jones also appears in only 4 or so scenes and again, he is either alone or with only one other cannibal chum.
Obviously this was because the budget only stretched to having these guys there for one day or so.
Jones is hammy rubbish, Madsen is...er...Madsen again and is soon dispatched in a crappy way.

The fact the cannibals (to keep the meat fresh!) only kill one person at a time adds a certain sadism to the proceedings as those left at the end of a particular grocery trip know they will have to go through it all again the next night when the ribs have all been eaten.
But this methodical way of doing things also means that a dull repetitiveness sets in, not helped by some bad acting and small scale of the set-pieces as it's almost all set in a few deserted rooms and corridors with only 2 or 3 people on ever on screen.

Gore wise it starts off very well with a nasty throat slicing and an exceedingly sadistic axe attack (with Madsen enjoying himself!), but after that there is very little gore and little real bloodshed.

A late twist is also ineffective as quite frankly it seemed blindingly obvious ages ago, so the film is playing catch-up to its audience which is never good.
A weak finale rounds things off badly.

Could have been okay...ended up not.



"The Invisible Man" (1933)

Universal's groovy, pretty faithful, adaptation of HG Wells' story of the same name still holds up on many levels.

The FX are still damn good and effective, with no wires on show for the many moving objects, and the clever (and damn hard) invisible man effects are also fine...with the Black and White cinematography ensuring that the ancient matte work looks great thanks to none of those typically awful colour problems.
Hell , look at the truly dire matted Alien FX (a green hued blob on a wall more like) in "Alien 3" to see how even decades later colour problems could ruin many a matte shot.

Away from the great FX we have a fast pace, some great sets, a brilliant support cast of whacked out and theatrical local yokels (with the great Una O'Connor in top camped up form as the shrieking landlady and a top 'comedy cop' performance by E.E. Clive) and a wonderfully mixed brew of slapstick comedy, black comedy and out and out nastiness.

And it is Claude Rains who superbly utilises this mix of horror and humour.
Wrapped in bandages or quite simply not there at all Rains has only his commanding voice to make an impression. And he does.
His psychotic rants, mad cackling and comic singing as he causes mayhem all help to essay one of the most whacked out and downright nasty characters in any film ever.
Something I think people tend to forget.

Today, we mostly think of an invisible man as a purely comical creation or a good guy figure.
Add this to the fact that a man you simply can't see is somehow not as scary or visually impressive as a werewolf, vampire or man-made monster and the character has been rather pushed aside when we talk about great screen villains and threats.
But in reality...The Invisible Man is by far the most deadly figure in any 'Universal' horror film!
A couple of dead yokels or local wenches? Small fry!
Dracula, The Wolf Man and Frankenstein's Monster are novices in death dealing!
The Invisible Man racks up a body count of...wait for it...122!
By the time he has bashed in heads, rung necks, pushed people of cliffs, sent a man (who screams in a genuinely unsettling way) crashing to his death in a runaway car as well as derailed a damn train...he's bumped of 122 human beings!
As such there is real sadism in the film, as the laughing killer routinely kills people with psychotic glee.

A few plot hiccups (a guy is murdered and next we see that the national press is reporting the murder in blazing newspaper headlines and yet the scene of the body being carried out of the room comes after this press coverage! Must have started to smell a bit!) fail to hurt the film to any degree and in fact the great dialogue given to the Invisible Man is so memorable it bulldozes everything else out of the way.

The embracing of the violence and mass death that is constantly on occurring, when added to the great FX, wonderful cast and generally effective black comic styling, ensures that "The Invisible Man" has dated less than many other 'Universal' horror films and still retains a genuinely horrific edge.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

I loved the bike scene in The Invisible Man - genius effects for the time.

I watched The Last Horror Film today, variable print quality throughout but great to have it uncut. Spinell is also on top form a la Maniac.

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

The Last Horror film was not bad eh B.E.?

Watched NEKROMANTIK the other night......

Not advisable for bunny lovers nor to eat pickled onions whilst watching.....

[42ndStreetFreak]

Love "Nekromantik".
Although it was a tough love as I chose to walk around the trade stalls when the bunny/bath scene occurred when I saw it for the first time years ago at a 'Black Sunday' all night festival.

This strange moment of normal morals and tastes was happily a one off though...and I saw it later in full and loved it! Still do.