What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Buboven]

The last three films I watched were Gator Bait (1974), Rolling Thunder (1977) and Death Weekend aka The House By The Lake (1976).

I was expecting Rolling Thunder to be the best, but actually found it the least enjoyable. It is a good movie though and felt it had some very strong and profound individual scenes and some great lines. Overall though I didn't engage with the movie as much as I hoped despite the quite dark societal themes which I found interesting. Overall a 6/10.

My fav was Gator bait. I really liked the central female character and the use of the southern USA/swamp locations both visually and for the action elements. I would describe it as a mix of the later films Savage Sisters (1984) and Southern Comfort (1981). Overall a 9/10.

I was also pleasantly surprised with Death Weekend. Again, a sold exploitation picture that does everything the audience expects this type picture to do more than competently. It also has some added depth to the story upon closer inspection. Overall a 8/10.

Death Weekend and Gator Bait are both crying out for an Arrow release.

[ArgentoFan1987]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I'm with you all the way on Duvall. That's why it scores 3/10 with me.

I only own it because horror fans are supposed to own it.

[ArgentoFan1987]

I watched The Day the Earth Stood Still last night. It's about the fourth time I've seen it and it's still a film I could never tire of. It's one of my favourite films ever (which is why I flat out refuse to watch the re-make)!

I also watched it on Blu-Ray and it looks absoloutely incredible! If you didn't know this film was made in 1951, apart from being b&w, you'd think it was made today. That's how great it looks on Blu-Ray!

[Frankie Teardrop]

A FIELD IN ENGLAND - After raised expectations based the director's other offerings, it actually took me a while to get into this - I found the mixture of dark comedy and weird intensity a bit grating at first. I don't know why, because a similar approach was used in 'Sightseers' and arguably the others, too. But happily, by the end, Wheately had won me over, because there is just a very real sense of the strange and the arcane about it, especially during some of the latter sequences - the black sun / orb, the slo-mo creepy guy emerging from the tent with umbilical rope attachment, a psychedelic video effects passage. And I liked the drizzly, monochrome English Civil War setting. So, definitely a winner, a genuinely creepy evocation of occult England which I feel I should check out again soon.

FRANKENSTEIN'S ARMY - Strange how Nazis have recently become a horror stock-in-trade, although they tend to used in a way that denotes standard horror bad shit, rather than something a lot more suspect / creepy in an 'Ilsa' vein. Again, with this one, the whole Nazi thing is a gloss to provide a convenient locale. It's good, though. I watched it in an odd mood a couple of weeks ago and it definitely had an impact. In fact, some of the scenes inside the Frankenstein 'bunker' / lab / labyrinth had a really claustrophobic, nightmarish feel to them, for me at the time at least. There's been quite a lot of hype about it, so I'm sure you'll all have heard about the steampunk zombie cyborgs, which are quite impressive, as is the slightly jokey 'first found footage in history of the moving image' angle (although I'm probably in a minority thinking that). It's quite visceral and violent, and, despite shadowy black humour here and there, the tone is pretty bleak and raw. I liked.

HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY - I always feel this one never gets the praise or the attention it deserves. I like it more than 'The Beyond' or ZFE. It never fails to draw me into a slightly dreamy state, more so than any of the other zombie flicks he made - there's just something about the blood spurting tombstones, the camera sweep through Freudstein's lair with all the dismembered carcasses, the senselessness of scenes like the one involving the decapitated dummy in the shop window - but more than these, the recurring Fulci signatures of eye close ups, field reversals, odd juxtapositions - that give it a genuinely trance inducing atmosphere from start to finish. It may even prove to be my favourite of its director's works - but then again, this is coming from someone who rates 'Conquest' and 'The Back Cat' and 'Cat in the Brain' much more highly than his more venerated 'classics'.

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

A FIELD IN ENGLAND - After raised expectations based the director's other offerings, it actually took me a while to get into this - I found the mixture of dark comedy and weird intensity a bit grating at first. I don't know why, because a similar approach was used in 'Sightseers' and arguably the others, too. But happily, by the end, Wheately had won me over, because there is just a very real sense of the strange and the arcane about it, especially during some of the latter sequences - the black sun / orb, the slo-mo creepy guy emerging from the tent with umbilical rope attachment, a psychedelic video effects passage. And I liked the drizzly, monochrome English Civil War setting. So, definitely a winner, a genuinely creepy evocation of occult England which I feel I should check out again soon.

FRANKENSTEIN'S ARMY - Strange how Nazis have recently become a horror stock-in-trade, although they tend to used in a way that denotes standard horror bad shit, rather than something a lot more suspect / creepy in an 'Ilsa' vein. Again, with this one, the whole Nazi thing is a gloss to provide a convenient locale. It's good, though. I watched it in an odd mood a couple of weeks ago and it definitely had an impact. In fact, some of the scenes inside the Frankenstein 'bunker' / lab / labyrinth had a really claustrophobic, nightmarish feel to them, for me at the time at least. There's been quite a lot of hype about it, so I'm sure you'll all have heard about the steampunk zombie cyborgs, which are quite impressive, as is the slightly jokey 'first found footage in history of the moving image' angle (although I'm probably in a minority thinking that). It's quite visceral and violent, and, despite shadowy black humour here and there, the tone is pretty bleak and raw. I liked.

HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY - I always feel this one never gets the praise or the attention it deserves. I like it more than 'The Beyond' or ZFE. It never fails to draw me into a slightly dreamy state, more so than any of the other zombie flicks he made - there's just something about the blood spurting tombstones, the camera sweep through Freudstein's lair with all the dismembered carcasses, the senselessness of scenes like the one involving the decapitated dummy in the shop window - but more than these, the recurring Fulci signatures of eye close ups, field reversals, odd juxtapositions - that give it a genuinely trance inducing atmosphere from start to finish. It may even prove to be my favourite of its director's works - but then again, this is coming from someone who rates 'Conquest' and 'The Back Cat' and 'Cat in the Brain' much more highly than his more venerated 'classics'.

Great reviews as always frankie! A real pleasure to read. Fully agree with house by the cemetary. It always seems to get flak but i've always loved the film. Its score is wonderful and Bobs odd dub adds to the overall weirdness of the film. I really wish Fulci had done more straight up gothic horror like it. I suppose The Beyond is very much southern gothic, but HBTC is a really great old dark house movie.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by keirarts

Great reviews as always frankie! A real pleasure to read. Fully agree with house by the cemetary. It always seems to get flak but i've always loved the film. Its score is wonderful and Bobs odd dub adds to the overall weirdness of the film. I really wish Fulci had done more straight up gothic horror like it. I suppose The Beyond is very much southern gothic, but HBTC is a really great old dark house movie.

Thanks for the praise, Keirarts! I watch 'House by the Cemetery' about every year - I think only 'Videodrome' and 'Black Christmas' share the same 'honour'.

[SCM]

Watched Frankensteins Army on Monday, accents were a bit off on one of the guys (English accent was clearly there on one of the russian guys) and the designs were badass.

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

Thanks for the praise, Keirarts! I watch 'House by the Cemetery' about every year - I think only 'Videodrome' and 'Black Christmas' share the same 'honour'.

I'm probably the same. Though Waxwork and Waxwork 2 from Anthony Hickcox are films I always seem to come back to as well. Looking to watch them again soon.

[fuzzymctiger]

I can't say I think the same of HBTC.

Zombie Flesh Eaters and The Beyond are absolute masterpieces in my opinion, ZFE being so much fun, and The Beyond being such a beautiful haunting film.

HBTC on the other hand, I find really hard to sit through. Maybe it's Bob, or all the annoying padding for the most part of the film. The actual kill sequences are really really hard to watch, especially the throat slitting and the fire poker.

That being said, the final sequence in the basement is amazing, thrilling stuff, I'll give them that much.

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by fuzzymctiger

I can't say I think the same of HBTC.

Zombie Flesh Eaters and The Beyond are absolute masterpieces in my opinion, ZFE being so much fun, and The Beyond being such a beautiful haunting film.

HBTC on the other hand, I find really hard to sit through. Maybe it's Bob, or all the annoying padding for the most part of the film. The actual kill sequences are really really hard to watch, especially the throat slitting and the fire poker.

That being said, the final sequence in the basement is amazing, thrilling stuff, I'll give them that much.

Your not alone in that opinion. A lot of people are not keen at all on hbtc. Its similar on that respect to soavis THE CHURCH. Another film a lot of fans find dissapointing but i love.