What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

Why do you think they are distasteful, aren't the majority of films we discuss on here distasteful to the masses. I personally love "The Football Factory" especially as Dyer has no character arch, he starts out an arse, learns nothing and remains an arse to the end! I find that really refreshing in a film.

It's because they seem to depict football hooliganism as some kind of life affirming event. In Green Street, for example, the Elijah Wood character says (and I paraphrase) that he learned more as a football hooligan than he would have studying at Harvard. The violence seems to be something attractive rather than an appalling criminal offence.

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

It's because they seem to depict football hooliganism as some kind of life affirming event. In Green Street, for example, the Elijah Wood character says (and I paraphrase) that he learned more as a football hooligan than he would have studying at Harvard. The violence seems to be something attractive rather than an appalling criminal offence.

I think for some people violence is a life affirming event, it is about power and control...I am not saying it is a good thing but an understandable thing. Have you read the book "The Football Factory" is based on, very different to the film, it is a howl of white working class rage.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

I think for some people violence is a life affirming event, it is about power and control...I am not saying it is a good thing but an understandable thing. Have you read the book "The Football Factory" is based on, very different to the film, it is a howl of white working class rage.

I understand that, but I hope it isn't a message some people – however few – take away from watching the films. I haven't read the book, but I'll see about renting it from the library during the summer.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

I understand that, but I hope it isn't a message some people – however few – take away from watching the films.

It isn't, i can assure you. I can't remember the last time i saw any trouble at or around a Premier League match.

Like the protagonists in films such as The Football Factory, these "events" are organized, if that's the right word, and don't tend to be something the normal fan experiences anymore.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

It isn't, i can assure you. I can't remember the last time i saw any trouble at or around a Premier League match.

Like the protagonists in films such as The Football Factory, these "events" are organized, if that's the right word, and don't tend to be something the normal fan experiences anymore.

That's good to know.

[Frankie Teardrop]

THIRSTY FOR LOVE, SEX AND MURDER – This is a Turkish remake of ‘The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh’! Well, it beats doing ‘Star Wars’ and ‘The Exorcist’ again and again. It’s odd and a bit messed up, and I really can’t work out whether this is due to knackered materials ham-fistedly assembled by cheapo distributors on the fly, or whether it’s going for a certain ‘aesthetic’… because there are obviously deliberate nods to giallo pop-surrealism in occasional skewed compositions, use of wonky lenses etc etc, but there are also crazy edits and random bits of audio collage which just don’t make sense. Usually I’d really dig this kind of thing, but ‘Thirsty for Love, Sex and Murder’ just left me thirsty for, well, a bit more sex and murder for a start, plus perhaps a bit more on the weirdo film dementia meltdown front as well (but then I’m always a bit ‘meh’ with gialli, so I guess the same applies to Turkish remakes, too). But, when I heard about it, I simply had to see it, and now I have, and I would still recommend it to fans of that particular strain of trash Turkish remix, or Giallo die hards, or fans of strange curios that really never would’ve seen the light of day were it not for the magic of home entertainment systems (still impressed that people are bothering to put stuff like this out).

ILSA, THE WICKED WARDEN – From the depths of Dietrich-era Franco bubbles up this tatty shred of video scum. Even with the presence of D Thorn, it’s an Ilsa sequel in name only. Thorn plays the head of a psychiatric institute dedicated to curing the nymphomania of its denizens (who all wander around in a state of semi-undress, obviously). There are various bits of torture and bad taste, although it tips more towards straight sleaze than the curdled camp of the first two Ilsa movies. But, even if it’s essentially just another WIP flick dashed off to pay the rent, it’s still a Franco movie through and through. Not that it’s as weirded out as he gets when he’s fully juiced… the zooms aren’t going crazy and there’s not too much free association or strange reflective surfaces at work, but you can sense something frothing away behind the camera. And there are plenty of strange highlights – Dyanne getting her cannibalistic come-uppance at the end, for example, which is juxtaposed with a tiger ripping up a carcass. Besides this, there’s a cool, super-scuzzy atmosphere, but you probably know that already.

LEGACY OF SATAN – This is on the Brentwood ‘Blood Bath 2’ collection, along with a couple of other interesting obscurities. Don’t think there are many other legit versions available, which is a shame because this is obviously cut, mostly for violence going by where the jarring edits flare up (although it’s rumoured to have originally been a hardcore XXX porno, perhaps due to its director being Gerard Damianio of ‘The Devil in Miss Jones’ fame). I’ll take what I can get in this case, because ‘Legacy of Satan’ is prime seventies horror cinema and just oozes freakiness. A young woman is summoned to appear at a remote castle, where a satanic mass will feature her ritual transformation into the bride of a devil worshipping dude whose face will ultimately melt. It’s got everything I look for in this kind of thing – distorted electronic score, a kind of stand-offish disjointedness, hallucinogenic lightning, that all important sense of “what’s going on?”, creeps with messed up faces, bad décor, satanic sleaze, post-hippie malaise, bad claustrophobia and a feeling that nothing can end well. Sure, there are elements of period creakiness and very occasional slumps and sags – but nothing to spoil the overall tone. Some bits filled me with a feeling of real dread – a scene where a door opens slowly and the camera pans up the stairs next to some awful wallpaper, filling the room with vile presence as the soundtrack crawls towards an electronic scream… maybe it’s just me, but you don’t get that every day. ‘Legacy of Satan’ isn’t all that well known, and it would be great for a definitive version to surface one day, but for now I totally recommend this version, despite the presence of those edits.

BLOODY REUNION – Really good Korean slasher movie about a school reunion that goes bloodily wrong. I say ‘slasher movie’, but it isn’t, really – maybe for a bit in the middle when the rabbit mask comes out and the blood starts flying. Either side of that are enough twists and shifts in tone to project it into another zone. I knew I was in interesting territory with this one when I caught myself enjoying the build-up. Normally with ostensible slashers I’m going “shut up, just throw a load of gore at the screen already”. But with ‘Bloody Reunion’, I was quite into the characters and what was going on. The former students of a dying school teacher gather at her coastal retreat to reminisce about the good times. During their stay, it becomes apparent that the good times were actually pretty bad, and that the teacher was essentially a bit of a shitbag who left her mark on the group in various development-stunting ways. Flashbacks reveal that the teacher kept a deformed child down in her basement. The arrival of a silent, detached character who the gang humiliated back in the day telegraphs the start of a sequence of gory murders perpetrated by a figure in a rabbit mask. And then it all changes again… the hook here for me was trying to figure out what had happened in the past, which wasn’t obvious even with the final ‘reveal’. Actually, the graphic horror seemed misplaced somehow, and what really worked beyond the intrigue was the gradually evolving sense of despair and anguish which came to a head in the final scene. Quite a few Korean horror flicks I’ve seen have that really moving, sad vibe to them ie the brilliant ‘A Tale of Two Sisters’. Definitely a full on recommendation, despite the dull, muted transfer from Tartan.

THE DEVIL’S NIGHTMARE – Seventies Italian horror in which a busload of tourists stay over at a castle owned by a family with a dark past, which in this case involves alchemy and a succubus. Some stuff to do with the seven deadly sins goes down. I watched this years ago, and couldn’t remember anything about it apart from the WW2-set baby stabbing prologue… I’m surprised it didn’t make more of an impact on me, because it’s got a really pungent atmosphere, or at least it did when I saw it last night. In fact, it’s a good example of a certain characteristic of Euro horror of its time, a kind of plodding, clunky quality which is transcended by a really haunting, strange vibe. This makes it immersive and trance inducing rather than boring, although I could see how viewers could go either way with it, depending on taste, tolerance and expectation. But I could watch ‘The Devil’s Nightmare’ endlessly, even the bits where nothing happens… it’s all about the knowing stares that go on for too long, the awkward silences, the echoey la-la-la soundtrack, the shots of a fat man fondling a sausage which segue into dissociated lesbian erotica… it all piles up into something hypnotic and unhinged way before the more overt horror starts. And the star of this show is, as has been pointed about by other reviewers many times, Erica Blanc’s deeply unsettling face. Even when she’s in straight, non-succubus mode, there’s something about the way she looks that gives me the creeps. Sometimes films of this type and era get it wrong. They lack that haywire mystery quality and just end up seeming flat or dull. ‘The Devil’s Nightmare’ has this weird X factor to burn, and remains a fascinating excursion into the backwaters of European gothic.

[SShaw]

Can the rehabilitation of LOTR actors continue with my last film of the weekend ?

Fortunately this is not an unneeded remake of the 1964 classic Zulu, but a rather pedestrian South African set police thriller starring Forest Whitaker and Orlando Bloom. Bloom plays a hardbitten washed up cop and while this is perhaps the best acting of his career he brings nothing new to the craft.

The script suffers a little from too many ideas and too much backstory and as a consequence never manages to build the tension needed to succeed. A shame as there is probably a good film somewhere in the material. Instead we are left with this distinctly average effort.

[keirarts]

The Swimmer.

Ned Merrill (Burt Lancaster) appears out of nowhere at a friends house wearing nothing but his swimming trunks. He seems to be a well liked bloke and his upper middle class friends welcome him. While they sit around the pool moaning about getting old Ned looks out across the valley and decides its possible to cross the county going from garden to garden and stopping off along the way to swim in each pool he comes across. Most of his mates think he's kidding until he ups and leaves. The film follows Ned in his journey as he encounters people along the way and as he does we learn a little more about him. The closer he gets to home the darker things become, leading to a genuinely devastating conclusion.

The Swimmer is a great example of how to deal with exposition in screenwriting. At no point does anyone sit and explain things for the audience. Instead we learn more about Ned as he travels from pool to pool through his encounters with other people. I don't want to get too into the plot however as I'm trying real hard here to give nothing away as the film works most effectively if you go into it blind.

Nonetheless The Swimmer is a clever film that is surprisingly bleak and pessimistic about human nature for a typical studio picture. It still feels like an odd selection for Grindhouse but it's a film that's well worth seeking out.

Needless to say being a grindhouse disc its jam-packed with extras including over 2 hours of documentary detailing the production of the film. As with all previous Grindhouse blu-rays it's also totally region free. The transfer is excellent and once again Grindhouse give the film first class treatment.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

ILSA, THE WICKED WARDEN – From the depths of Dietrich-era Franco

!?

[Linbro]

I really liked 'Candyman' when I first saw it, but then I read 'The Forbidden', which is probably one of the five best stories in 'The Books of Blood'. The short story is amazing, and a straight adaptation would have been so much better. Not sure why they added the mirror thing? The original story has a real sense of mystery, that is sadly missing from the film.
After reading your thoughts, I'm keen to give it a rewatch.
Your reviews are excellent, Keirarts, I always enjoy reading them.

Originally Posted by keirarts

CANDYMAN.

Based on the clive Barker short story The forbidden from his books of blood, Candyman is an intelligent and thoughtful slice of horror that really brings something fresh to the slasher genre. Freddy, Jason, Michael and all the lesser known slasher villains are all based on folklore to some extent. The idea of story's passed along over a camp-fire or at school. The bad thing that happened down the street ect. Candyman actually goes into this idea much better than any of it's contemporaries.

He's the hook handed folk devil that symbolises white persecution of african americans. The son of a freed slave who became wealthy and was horribly murdered for the 'crime' of falling in love with a white woman. Candyman exists as a piece of urban folklore, a being that exists because of peoples belief in him.

When Helen Lyle causes that belief to be tested, Candyman comes forward to make an example of her and slowly her life begins to unravel in very bloody ways.


While Candyman himself is a fairly original character in many respects, the film imbues him with certain traits found in popular american myth and folklore including the hook for a hand and the Bloody mary legend where you need to say his name five times in the mirror. These things help establish him as a creature of folklore in the audiences mind as these aspects of his character should be familiar to the audience.



Bernard rose really brings out the best in the material. It's easy to disparage the American tradition of taking story's and re-locating them to America but here it works. A ghetto is a ghetto whether in Liverpool or Chicago and the only real difference is that one is based on class while the other is race. Philip Glass brings a haunting and memorable score to the film and it lingers in the mind long after the film is over.

The blu-ray is decent quality but not jaw dropping, it lacks the bonus material of the special edition DVD but I picked it up cheap so no loss.