What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by profondo rosso

Gothika



I saw this when it first came out and could not remember much about it, so though I would give it another spin. The main story line is happily married Halle Berry works in a women’s mental institution and through circumstances best left for viewing ends up inside herself as a patient. Robert Downey Jnr, once her lecherous colleague is now her main carer and treats her like the supposed loon she is. There is a thriller filling, wrapped up in a supernatural tortilla that works quite well but will never really test your grey cells. There are some atmospheric moments and good skewered camera angles thrown in, with some especially good lighting and to top it all off, many shots of Halle's berries either wet from the rain or struggling to get out of the extremely tight institutional outfit. All in all better than I remebered but will stay on Netflix and not on my hallowed shelves. 6/10

Great review Prof. Liking your layout as well.

I've seen Gothika just the once and remember enjoying it. Your review although you didn't rave about it makes me want to see it again.

I used to own it in a set with the abysmal Grudge remake and Boogeyman. Those two were so bad i ditched the whole lot.

[profondo rosso]

Thanks Dem,

I have not done a review before so thought I had better start paying all you good people back for your efforts.

[trebor8273]

The sorcerers

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Boris Karloff has invented a machine that allows people to control people and feel what they are doing. He and his wife test it on a young man (Ian ogilvy). It's purpose is for old and house bound people to have the sensation of going outside. But his wife has different plans and becomes addicted and uses the the young man to steal and kill. It's up do her husband to try and stop her. 8/10

The mole people

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A group of archaeologist discover a stone tablet which leads them to discover a underground Sumerian civilisation that with being underground for thousands of years have become albinos and keep the population at certain level by human sacrifice, they also use mutated humans as a slave labour force, it's up to our heroes to find away to escape. 7/10

rocket ship X M

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The first rocket ship to the moon through a number of malfunctions ends up at Mars. Once they land they find that there used to be an advanced civilisation which was destroyed by a nuclear war. Unfortunately for the crew some of the Martians have survived but have reverted to a caveman race. It's up to our crew to try and survive and return to Earth. The film stars a young Lloyd Bridges as the commander of the ship. The film is black and white but uses a red filter once they arrive on Mars. 8.5/10

Now watching the creation of the humanoids, followed by from hell it came and doc savage

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by profondo rosso

Thanks Dem,

I have not done a review before so thought I had better start paying all you good people back for your efforts.

Keep up the good work.

[SShaw]

Been working my way through the unwatched pile today.

First up was Knights of Badassdom which I bought on German blu-ray yesterday evening while on my way to see Interstellar. I had really been looking forward to seeing this, the trailer suggests that it could have been a great comedy take on LARP (live action role play). While it has its moments they are too few and too sleight to make this a good film. I am really disappointed to have to tell you that this is most definitely a film that should be avoided.

To cheer myself up I watched Wolf Creek 2. I still haven't seen the original, but I really enjoyed the sequel.

Finally the rather good documentary of punk singer and activist Kathleen Hanna The Punk Singer which follows her development through Bikini Kill and Le Tigre. It deals extensively with her decision to leave the music scene in 2006 when she fell ill with undiagnosed Lymes disease and her recent emergence with new band The Julie Ruin.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

At Midnight I will take your Soul (1964)

Ze do Caixao (Coffin Joe) is a grave digger in a small Brazillian town. Finding his wife is infertile, he brutally murders her and begins the task of finding the perfect woman to conceive his child, letting no one stand in his way.

Classic Gothic tinged horror from Brazil. Primitive yet powerful, with some quite shocking scenes when you consider it's year of release.

Jose Marin's Coffin Joe character is a marvellous creation. Sinister, dark and brutal, and capable of deranged acts of violence. He is also a person fuelled with charisma, therefore he commands each and every scene in which he appears. The standout being an alcohol soaked fued in the tavern with local townsfolk. The character may not be particularly influential in the horror genre but Marins the director certainly is. There were several sequences and shocks seemingly borrowed by later genre directors such as Lucio Fulci. The spiders prominently spring to mind.

The gypsy, or witch as Joe refers to her, is also a fine creation from her opening monologue to her verbal sparring with Joe. Mysterious and creepy, i hope she returns in subsequent films.

The film may be low on budget but it never lacks in ideas. From it's basis in traditional Gothic horror cinema, full of atmospheric dread, to it's swirling maelstrom of hallucinatory imagery during the finale. The film belies it's low-fi production values with fine technical achievements in this wonderful grotto of the grotesque.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Great review, Dem. Glad you enjoyed your first foray into the world of Coffin Joe.

[Make Them Die Slowly]

SUPERMAN UNBOUND. I'm not really a fan of Superman though I like him as an idea. In this animated film from DC he leaves Earth under the care of an angsty and perky breasted Supergirl to go off and knock the shit outta robots and Brainiac. Fun.

FREEWAY KILLER. Fictional take on the crimes of William Bonin, who cruised the Californian freeways killing young men. This is fast and furious stuff that whips along at breakneck speed only taking a breathe to sprinkle a little depth here and there. Fortunately this doesn't happen too often so we get to see Billy kill loads of people. However, and this is a big however, all the rape, sodomy and general depravity from true life have been removed and are only hinted at throughout the film.

BIG ASS SPIDER. Fun homage to B movies of old as a giant spider goes on the rampage across LA with the army and a pest controller in tow.

DEVIL'S TOWER. Low budget Brit horror that starts out as a kitchen sink comedy drama before shifting gears into a zombie film. There are some really nice ideas in this one that never get the chance to work amongst the lame comedy and Jason Mewes' "will work for a bag of brown" performance.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Another week off, and I'm faced with the stark choice of either doing something with my social life and being creative, or on the other hand binging on a massive pile of DVDs. Hmm, wonder which way it'll go.

HIDE AND SEEK - Good ghost / or is it? film with Robert De Niro as a psychologist trying to deal with his wife's recent suicide. Things get murky when his daughter meets her new imaginary / or is it? playmate. Well made mainstream horror that tangles with the usual haunting-type tropes, but manages to sustain a fair level of suspense and deliver a few genuinely creepy moments. It does however lose it slightly in the last twenty or thirty minutes or so with the big reveal being a little underwhelming (and just not very plausible, not that I'm big on straight realism), and too easily dispensed with. Still, I enjoyed it for the most part.

LITAN - This would be a kind of standard horror flick... if it played in the cinemas and on the screens of a twisted world designed by Thomas Ligotti and Andrej Zuwalski. As it's from our own somewhat blander universe, it seems pretty messed up. A plot weaves in and out of narrative coherence and has something to do with a man and a woman running around gothic hospitals, caves and derelict factories whilst pursued by a cynical cop (called Bollek?) and a health inspector who seems to be involved with experimental contact with the dead. All the while cryptic symbols abound, masked figures cavort, strange encounters happen, people act bizarrely, and blue laser effect entities dart around in underground pools. It's French, but it looks like it's set in my mind's eye version of a supernatural East European slum. A real find - the director has done loads of films little seen, it seems, outside France or festivals. Recommended, but I think it's only really available 'on the grey market', haven't checked out YTube.

CHERRY 2000 - Cool eighties sci-fi satire with Melanie Griffith as a future gun-for-hire type who helps a heartbroken yuppie search the desert badlands for a replacement love droid. I like eighties imaginings of the future, despite them inevitably looking, well, quite eighties. Maybe the eighties was the future we never quite got back from. Food for thought. Anyway, I like Melanie Griffith and I love her voice, and 'Cherry 2000' gets the thumbs up from Frankie.

THEATRE OF FEAR - I was quite prepared to loath and dismiss this Poundland offering, but 'Theatre Of Fear' turned out to be quite an odd little film. It's about a circus troupe who collectively are quite into murder. What marks TOF out is its approach - glumly British (well, it's Welsh but I'm not about to get into socio-political disputes at this point) and subdued, despite obvious stabs at black humour. A lot of Brit horror still has one foot in dour social realism, and actually I really like that - stuff like 'F', 'Dead Creatures', 'Eden Lake', 'Mum And Dad' all feature that tension between bleak greyness and more grotesque elements. Here, the filmmakers seem more interested in following the ups and downs of the murderous entertainer's daily lives and relationships rather than going for an obvious heroes, villains, suspense, pay-off kind of route. This gives it the weirdly soap operatic quality noted by one reviewer (possibly the only other reviewer, I can well imagine this to have debuted in £land). In the end I really quite liked it. Check it out if it's still around for a pound - it may seem a bit grating at first and there isn't all that much grand guignol on show, but 'Theatre Of Fear' strikes me as way more interesting and off beat than the average direct to DVD pick up.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

Anyway, I like Melanie Griffith and I love her voice,

Is that a general observation or just in this film Frankie?

If it's in general, because i do too. Have you seen Milk Money? A fine rom-com where Griffith's hooker gets embroiled with single dad Ed Harris. It's perhaps a little schmaltzy for you but i love it.