What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demoncrat]

Rewatched A Virgin Among The Living Dead and Satanic Sisters, both still fairly bonkers btw.

Sherlock Holmes...Hound Of The Baskervilles and The Scarlet Claw (which is basically a Hound ripoff, same plot etc). Loving these, Rathbone looking every inch the authorititive sleuth that he's playing.


Have come across Boris Karloff's Chiller, which is a tv series I believe....may watch a few tonight, if time permits...

[trebor8273]

Well just finished first part of storm of the century and had to restrain myself from watching it all. Up next wilow creek or the mangler

Edit

Willow creek

Was actually enjoying this up till about the last third of the film. It starts of as documentary being made on the Bigfoot legend by a man and his girlfriend. The first two thirds is done more or less as a documentary with them interviewing people etc as they go off into the woods to look for Bigfoot. Then when they set up camp for the night we have about 20minutes of them stuck in tent listening to noises outside etc, but it's not scary in the slightest. Those 20minutes felt a lot longer. Things pick up once dawn breaks but like a lot of these lost footage/ documentary films it's not scary. But unlike most the acting is ok and characters are likable. not great but worth a watch if you can get it cheap. 6/10

[keirarts]

Mark of the Devil.

In an unnamed european town, (actually shot in austria) brutal and corrupt witchfinder Albino is abusing his authority to rape and pillage the local population in the name of religion. Mainly however its a tool to get his end away, his latest target is the buxom tavern wench he's intent on denouncing. Unfortunately a new witch finder is coming to take over, the notorious lord Cumberland. His apprentice takes issue with Albinos methods and believes his master will instil justice in the local population. After falling for the tavern wenches charms Christian begins to doubt his mission. doubt that begins to grow when Cumberland's true nature becomes exposed.

Whether intentional or not there's a fierce political undercurrent to MOTD. Witch finder general, the film that precedes it and influenced it was as much an English set western as it was a horror. A revenge piece that owed as much to the revenge westerns of Anthony Mann as it does the Gothic horror of hammer and roger corman. Mark of the Devil on the other hand is about political disillusionment. Christian is a true believer who honestly thinks Lord Cumberland will bring real change and justice to the proceedings and soon begins to realise that there is little difference between him and the evil Albino. The corruption has been allowed to fester in the village thanks to the apathy and moral cowardice of the townsfolk who allow this all to happen. And when they do rise up the slaughter is indiscriminate, with even the hint that things may go back to business as usual when the credits roll.

Mark of the devil is a nasty film even by today's standards, thanks in part to the well researched use of of actual medieval torture devices and methods. As much a condemnation of the use of torture for political means as for titillation of its audience. (or again perhaps I was reading too much into the film.)

for those with a strong stomach, Mark of the Devil is a beautifully shot, wonderfully scored film with some great performances, especially from Udo Kier and Herbert lom. Arrows disc looks fantastic and has some interesting bonus material as well. I've been a fan of the movie for quite a while and was tempted by the German blu-ray but to be honest i'm glad I held off.

[g053584398]

Originally Posted by keirarts

Attachment 143239

Give the amount of remakes and re-imaginings, re-boots and generally re-pulsive films polluting the market these days it's hardly a surprise that Patrick would get an aussie remake given that Mad max aside its one of the most well known Oz-sploitation films out there. While not a patch on the origional, the remake is still worth checking out as it falls under 'not that bad when viewd objectively' banner.

sharni Vinson from You're next plays a nurse starting work at a hospital dedicated to treating coma patients. Run by Dr Roget, played superbly by Charles dance, the clinic is devoted to finding a way of restoring people in a persistant vegitive state. One of the star patients is Patrick, and it should come as no surprise to anyone that theres more to patrick than meets the eye.

Setting aside the film its a remake of, Patrick offers a gloomy gothic atmosphere, some decent deaths and is reasonable well paced enough to not be boring. Some of the effects however are very ropey, including the final death and the film works more as an interesting 'see it if you get the opportunity' film, rather than any sort of bona fide classic.

Personally though I'd save your coins for the origional as its out in a nice blu-ray edition.

I bloody well hate remakes.

[g053584398]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Hired to Kill (1990)

Eighties C-list action star Brian Thompson plays a mercenary hired by George Kennedy to rescue rebel leader Jose Ferrer and kill revolutionary upstart Oliver Reed. To do this Thompson's team is made up of seven beautiful female killers in the guise of a modelling agency.

After a rather sedate opening hour (for a Nico Mastorakis film) things really hot up in the final third and we get an action packed, explosive, helicopter blowing up, finale.

The initial hour is never dull as we get to ogle the eye candy on their modelling assignments but this is the least of the Greek director's four thrillers released by budget label Hollywood Dvd, and is essentially just another eighties action movie. As with the other three films, Hired to Kill has a beautiful pin sharp widescreen print and is well worth picking up.

I quite enjoyed that one and the Hollywood DVD releases of selected Nico Mastorakis films all seem to feature really good quality anamorphic widescreen transfers.

[Rik]

A few weeks back, I read Bizarre Eye's review of Blood Orgy of the She Devils Nightmare USA Films Discussion Thread, and even though he explained how bad it was, I was curious to see it for myself. Then, a few days later, I read Demdike's review of it Nightmare USA Films Discussion Thread, once again saying how shite it was, so for some unknown reason I decided to add it to my rental list from Lovefilm, maybe these two guys had got it wrong, I usually agree with their reviews, but maybe, just maybe they missed something here.
Fast forward a week or two and said disc arrived, so last night I popped it in to see what my thoughts would be on this low budget piece of trash.
A full 17 minutes later and I'd turned it off, cursing myself for not realising that B_E and Demdike were absolutely right about this steaming pile of utter shite, I was tired when I put it on after a long day at Uni/work, so if I'd stuck it out for any longer than the 17 unbearable minutes I managed, I'm fairly certain I would've fallen asleep before the "film" finished, missing out on the lack of Blood, Orgies and She Devils promised by the title and cover and as those two guys mentioned, appear to have been missing from the "plot"!

So, there's a lesson to be learnt here, if two people say something is dull, shite and boring, ****ing listen to them!!!!

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Sorry to hear about your ordeal, Rik (although you only have yourself to blame! ). It just goes to show sometimes that when reading opinions on a film, it does often pique your interest to seek it out irrelevant of how damning those opinions are.

As I've mentioned when reviewing these films though, I'd hate for my opinions to be the cause of someone deciding not to check something out that they could potentially enjoy... 'She Devils' aside of course!

[Rik]

Originally Posted by bizarre_eye@Cult Labs

Sorry to hear about your ordeal, Rik (although you only have yourself to blame! ). It just goes to show sometimes that when reading opinions on a film, it does often pique your interest to seek it out irrelevant of how damning those opinions are.

As I've mentioned when reviewing these films though, I'd hate for my opinions to be the cause of someone deciding not to check something out that they could potentially enjoy... 'She Devils' aside of course!

I'm just glad I rented it, I had considered blind buying the 88Films DVD!

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Rik

I'm just glad I rented it, I had considered blind buying the 88Films DVD!

I think Dem did.

[Rik]

Originally Posted by bizarre_eye@Cult Labs

I think Dem did.

Yeah, he did