What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Oldboy - meh!

A Tale of Two Sisters - Brilliant!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

THE OTHER HELL - This has to be my favourite Bruno Mattei film. Yes, such a statement has the right to exist. Yes, I am a human being. Here is nunsploitation which opens with a volley of sleazy gall-bladder stabbings, then turns into... well, I can't quite remember, but there's a faceless Giallo-type nun - or is there? - who keeps popping up, then... then there're some deamonic eyes which - who knows? A priest investigates everything, but a nun had an illegitimate kid years ago whose face was partially burned and anyway she was psychic and the dog-keeper has a fist full of maggots and someone else dies horribly... 'Robo-Commando' was linear cheapshit compared with this surreal patchwork masterpiece. And if I don't really mean that, I sort of do.

I've yet to see this. Your review makes it sound great Frankie. I have several nunsploitation classics but not this.

[Rik]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Oldboy - meh!

A Tale of Two Sisters - Brilliant!

I bought Oldboy when it was first released on DVD 10 years ago, on the strength of an Empire review, watched it once and it's never been off the shelf since, that's how much of an impact it had on me!

[keirarts]

Another year and another grimmfest all done and dusted.

saturday

MODUS ANOMALI: Indonesian thriller about a man who wakes up in the middle of nowhere and hunted by a mysterious assailant. Great plot and some nasty twists.

OUT THERE: Irish short. Another amnesia case as a man wakes up in the middle of nowhere and finds the world has gone to hell. Excellent use of music and a dark look at human nature.

SLEEP WORKING: This short film is going to give our beloved captains of industry some ideas. A dystopian sci fi about new technology that lets people work 18 hours a day 7 days a week while asleep and creates a workforce of slaves. Dave cameron will love it.

THE HUMAN RACE: From john hough's son paul and produced by his dad. This is a disturbing and violent tale of a group of people abducted and forced to run in a deadly race where losing means death. Its nasty but briliant and has a real pessemistic view of the human race.

SAMUEL AND EMILY VS THE WORLD: Another short. This one a zombie apocalypse tale of a couple doing whatever they can to survive. Great fun.

FOUND: A fantastic, well crafted tale of a young horror fan discovering his older brother is a serial killer. Mainly a charactet piece but this one has some very dark and disturbing moments and a shocking ending. Reccommended.

KISS OF THE DAMNED: A vampire film inspired by the works of jess franco and jean rollin. It looks beautiful and is probably one of the best looking vampire films since THE HUNGER. A superb soundtrack as well. Nice to see an adult vampire movie being made post twilight.

THE CONSPIRACY: Found footage film that uses conspiracy theory culture to generate the terror. Very well crafted and intelligent.

BIG BAD WOLVES. One of my favourites of the festival. Israeli made thriller from the creators of RABIES. A gripping, intelligent and at some points funny tale of a driven cop and grieving father who abduct a suspected child sex killer. Very well written, great acting and a nasty ending. Highly reccommended.

JOHN DIES AT THE END: Don coscarelli nails a supposedly unfilmable novel. Hilariously surreal and twisted its great viewing if hard to categorize.

Sunday


THANATAMORPHOSE: Stomach churning tale about a woman who begins to decompose. This one had some walkouts. Very low budget it looks it as well. I suspect every penny went on the horrifying gore fx. Really hard going unless you have a cast iron stomach.

BUTTERFLY ROOM: Barbara steele is amazing as a deranged killer mom in this twisted thriler. Cameos abound from cult stars like heather langenkamp and ray wise. Also a nice cameo from joe dante as a cabby. Worth looking out dor.

WITHER: Swedish evil dead tribute that manages to be twenty times better than the lousy official remake. It is essentially evil dead in all but name and far more entertaining than the remake.

STALLED: A zombie film set mainly in the loos at an office party. WAY better than it sounds. Had the whole audience laughing and cheering.

THE BODY: short with alfie allen as a killer disposing of a corpse at hallowen and getting waylayed by party goers. Very funny and looks great

SHELLSHOCKED: Dominic brunt wowed the audience last year with before dawn . This year he was back with a great little short about soldiers facing off against each other and zombies. Great fun.
And finally...

THE MACHINE: Ghost in the shell meets beyond the black rainbow. Genuinely stunning british sci fi that deals with its themes brilliantly. Expect to see more of director caradog w james based on this.

Lots to do tommorrow so missing the aftetparty but another great fest. Already looking forward to next year!!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Rik

I bought Oldboy when it was first released on DVD 10 years ago, on the strength of an Empire review, watched it once and it's never been off the shelf since, that's how much of an impact it had on me!

Ditto.

Not the Empire review part though. I had some mates who were into everything korean and used to trawl the Asian websites for bargains a year before the UK press got onto Korean cinema.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I've yet to see this. Your review makes it sound great Frankie. I have several nunsploitation classics but not this.

'The Other Hell' is certainly a weird film. Of course, this is due to Bruno Mattei not really giving a shit about whatever measures he needed to take in order to deliver a finished reel on time - so its non-linearity shows contempt for its audience, but what the (other) hell, it's a freaky ride that wouldn't see the light of day these days. It's nunsploitation by way of reference only - it doesn't explore anything, just cashes in, exploitation whittled down to the bare bones, then junked and thrown in a mincer like an ill-conceived Burroughs cut-up. Yeah I'm riffing, but this film makes as much sense. I got it for around £5 ages ago -no idea what this Media Blasters / Shriek Show DVD goes for now, maybe the price of a packet of space raiders if this world has any concept of cinematic justice. PQ etc OK if I remember from watching on big TV eons back, but this latest was on my laptop which makes everything look a bit threadbare.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

'The Other Hell' is certainly a weird film. Of course, this is due to Bruno Mattei not really giving a shit about whatever measures he needed to take in order to deliver a finished reel on time - so its non-linearity shows contempt for its audience, but what the (other) hell, it's a freaky ride that wouldn't see the light of day these days. It's nunsploitation by way of reference only - it doesn't explore anything, just cashes in, exploitation whittled down to the bare bones, then junked and thrown in a mincer like an ill-conceived Burroughs cut-up. Yeah I'm riffing, but this film makes as much sense. I got it for around £5 ages ago -no idea what this Media Blasters / Shriek Show DVD goes for now, maybe the price of a packet of space raiders if this world has any concept of cinematic justice. PQ etc OK if I remember from watching on big TV eons back, but this latest was on my laptop which makes everything look a bit threadbare.

Cheers Frankie.

The SS edition on Amazon is going for around £8.50 delivered.

[ArgentoFan1987]

Juan watched an exciting little thriller called A Perfect Getaway. This is the kind if film that shows me never to judge a book by its cover, because I hated the look of it and expected to dislike it. I was pleasantly surprised.

It stars Milla Jovovich and some other guy I recognise but who's name I'm not sure of, go to a Hawaiian Island on their honeymoon and run into two other couples supposedly doing the same. They soon discover that a husband and wife have been murdering similar newlyweds, which leads to lots of suspicion and distrust.

I thought it sounded pretty awful, but it's actually really well done and really well acted, especially by the two male leads. It also had some really good humour.

One little complaint was the couple of scenes of slow-motion used didn't quite fit the film. 7.5/10

[Wes]

Okay, final word on Oldboy - because I was less than impressed with that and Tale of Two Sisters, another Korean film I picked up at the time Save the Green Planet was put on the long finger. A friend of mine urges me to watch whenever it comes up in conversation - apparently this is a good one. It looks a bit whak. Anyone seen it ?

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Wes

Okay, final word on Oldboy - because I was less than impressed with that and Tale of Two Sisters, another Korean film I picked up at the time Save the Green Planet was put on the long finger. A friend of mine urges me to watch whenever it comes up in conversation - apparently this is a good one. It looks a bit whak. Anyone seen it ?

Well i liked oldboy so bare that in mind...

Save the green planet is basically a more warped take on misery with an alien invasion plot. I love it. But then i did like oldboy (not as keen on tale of two sistsrs)