What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by nordicdusk

I'm heading to see guardians of the galaxy later today has anyone seen it.

Yes Nord it's fantastic. The best film Marvel have done in my opinion.

[Nordicdusk]

I don't watch all the marvel films but this one I really wanted to see as soon as I saw the first trailer. Did any if you see it in 3 D

[J Harker]

I did. There were some nice touches but I don't think the film would be any less enjoyable in 2D.

[Nordicdusk]

Originally Posted by J Harker

I did. There were some nice touches but I don't think the film would be any less enjoyable in 2D.

I missed the 2d so it's the 3d in an hour now

[SShaw]

Two films this afternoon, the weather is a bit miserable so I have stayed in.

Rigor Mortis Second time round for this one. I still think its worth the effort to see, it does some quite interesting things with the chinese concept of house ghosts. My earlier, more detailed, remarks can be found on my diary thread.

Detention of the Dead this was a film I was unconvinced by when Fright Fest showed it at one of their satellite events. Unfortunately my second viewing confirms this as a badly cliched, unoriginal high-school rom-com with horror trappings.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Death Carries a Cane. (1973)

I hate to say it but Bizarre_Eye summed this up to a tee on another thread. Death Carries a Cane is an enjoyable giallo which throws us many of the genre's great trademarks - the black gloved killer, the killer who has a special calling card during his kills - wooden cane and cut throat razor, bloody kills and ample nudity and sleaze.

However after a really enjoyable opening hour it seems to lose it's way and meanders towards it's final showdown. When the excitement should be gripping you by the throat you end up clock watching. However come the ending the film regains it's mojo with a finale that is both suspenseful and disorientating. A shame really as Death Carries a Cane had real potential but stumbled at getting to that final hurdle.

[Frankie Teardrop]

THE HOUSE THAT CRIED MURDER - AKA THE BRIDE. I quite enjoyed this relic from the groovy age of horror (ie 1973). It stars Robin Strasser as a horrible overgrown brat who pesters her loaded daddy into funding her delusions of being an architect. He agrees, resulting in the birth of a monstrous house which looks awful on every level. So much for that, then. Cut to... overgrown brat dating, then marrying a hugely unlikeable lothario type who brazenly shags his ex on his and brat's wedding day, whereupon brat bursts in on the scene and scissors him good before fleeing, disappearing and setting up the rest of the film, which consists of wounded lothario receiving mysterious, snotty phone calls from an unknown location... hey, could it be spurned scissor-brat? The answer isn't as obvious as it may seem, and the ending, played out in that rubbish scissor-brat-house, is kooky in a way only seventies horror can pull off. For fans of the kind of subtly wonky vibe pervading the likes of, say, 'Death by Invitation' or 'Warlock Moon' there are eg. shots of a wedding reception jazz band that go on way too long interspersed with moody, arty framings of wedding guests followed by severed chicken's heads on pillows and a generally paranoid atmosphere.

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

THE HOUSE THAT CRIED MURDER - AKA THE BRIDE. I quite enjoyed this relic from the groovy age of horror (ie 1973). It stars Robin Strasser as a horrible overgrown brat who pesters her loaded daddy into funding her delusions of being an architect. He agrees, resulting in the birth of a monstrous house which looks awful on every level. So much for that, then. Cut to... overgrown brat dating, then marrying a hugely unlikeable lothario type who brazenly shags his ex on his and brat's wedding day, whereupon brat bursts in on the scene and scissors him good before fleeing, disappearing and setting up the rest of the film, which consists of wounded lothario receiving mysterious, snotty phone calls from an unknown location... hey, could it be spurned scissor-brat? The answer isn't as obvious as it may seem, and the ending, played out in that rubbish scissor-brat-house, is kooky in a way only seventies horror can pull off. For fans of the kind of subtly wonky vibe pervading the likes of, say, 'Death by Invitation' or 'Warlock Moon' there are eg. shots of a wedding reception jazz band that go on way too long interspersed with moody, arty framings of wedding guests followed by severed chicken's heads on pillows and a generally paranoid atmosphere.

Do you think the more arty moments in 70s oddball horror are there by design, chance or a reflection of the times?

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

Do you think the more arty moments in 70s oddball horror are there by design, chance or a reflection of the times?

It's difficult to say. But there's definitely a whole 'different' feeling to a lot of seventies cinema in general. The more advanced mainstream stuff was co-opting elements of New Wave and home grown psychedelia. What we get with bottom of the barrel horror of the time is probably the result of trickle down, but also there were some genuine surrealists and magicians out there, and on yet another level, there was less consensus about what could feasibly play at the movies so you got some perfectly incompetent shitly-made-to-the-point-of-being-mind-altering stuff simply because it hadn't been stamped out by focus group,

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

It's difficult to say. But there's definitely a whole 'different' feeling to a lot of seventies cinema in general. The more advanced mainstream stuff was co-opting elements of New Wave and home grown psychedelia. What we get with bottom of the barrel horror of the time is probably the result of trickle down, but also there were some genuine surrealists and magicians out there, and on yet another level, there was less consensus about what could feasibly play at the movies so you got some perfectly incompetent shitly-made-to-the-point-of-being-mind-altering stuff simply because it hadn't been stamped out by focus group,

It the latter stuff that I find interesting when directors shatter reality by accident and lack of film making skill. I sometimes wonder if these filmmakers have ever even seen a film before stepping behind the camera.