Cult Labs

Go Back   Cult Labs > Film Discussions > General Film Discussions

Like Tree179041Likes

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
  #38501  
Old 1st October 2016, 10:39 PM
Nosferatu@Cult Labs's Avatar
Cult Don
Cult Labs Radio Contributor
Good Trader
Senior Moderator
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: The Land of the Prince Bishops
Blog Entries: 4
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by trebor8273 View Post
Now watching the shining. Forgotten how much I hate the Shelly duval character what a bitch, no jury would find anyone guilty if they killed her.I really can't remember her being so annoying in the book.
I am one of those who doesn't really get their hate for Wendy in Kubrick's film, seeing her as a victim in an abusive relationship with an atypical child.
__________________
Reply With Quote
  #38502  
Old 1st October 2016, 10:42 PM
Demdike@Cult Labs's Avatar
Cult King
Cult Labs Radio Contributor
Senior Moderator
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Lancashire
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs View Post
I am one of those who doesn't really get their hate for Wendy in Kubrick's film, seeing her as a victim in an abusive relationship with an atypical child.
She completely ruins it for me.
trebor8273 and J Harker like this.
Reply With Quote
  #38503  
Old 2nd October 2016, 11:07 AM
keirarts's Avatar
Cult Addict
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Barrow-in-furness
Blog Entries: 14
Default

Hills have eyes

Not really much to say that hasn't been said. Arrows reastoration is a big step up imo. It still looks like a rough and ready 16mm independent horror and the print damage is still present but the colours look terrific, there's more detail apparant in scenes and manages to feel like an improvment that still retains the grimey, home made feel to the action.
Reply With Quote
  #38504  
Old 2nd October 2016, 11:29 AM
J Harker's Avatar
Cult Addict
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Deepest Darkest South Wales
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs View Post
She completely ruins it for me.
She doesn't completely ruin it but she is easily the worst thing about the film. God knows why she was cast. She's irritating in everything I've seen her in.
Reply With Quote
  #38505  
Old 2nd October 2016, 12:10 PM
Inspector Abberline's Avatar
Cult Acolyte
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Blog Entries: 7
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by J Harker View Post
She doesn't completely ruin it but she is easily the worst thing about the film. God knows why she was cast. She's irritating in everythihttps://www.cult-labs.com/forums/images/editor/color.gifng I've seen her in.
I haven't read the Shining book,but I always assumed she was annoying and whiny and nagging and this was what pushed Jack over the edge,that and the booze,ghostly children,wrinkly old ladies and an axe of course.
__________________
Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much..

Reply With Quote
  #38506  
Old 2nd October 2016, 01:12 PM
Demdike@Cult Labs's Avatar
Cult King
Cult Labs Radio Contributor
Senior Moderator
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Lancashire
Default

The Undertow (2003)

Six friends go on a weekend canoe trip and arrive at the strange town of Old Mines. When they refuse to move on soon, the mayor releases the Boy, a 7-foot-tall deformed creature who enjoys tearing people to shreds.

From producer Eric Stanze (Scrapbook) and starring that films Emily Haack, The Undertow is a grimy throwback to the old Friday the 13th films especially as 'the boy' wears a sack over his head ala Jason in F13p2.

Although it takes an age to get going the acting for this type of film is pretty good. Some scenes go on way too long, the sheriff sequence on the road for one, but once 'the boy' is loose The Undertow is a quite satisfying low budget slasher film.

For very low budget film making The Undertow has good cinematography, memorable music and even better gore effects. In no way is it as sleazy as Scrapbook but some sequences such as 'the boy' playing with a half dead girl as if she were a doll are not for the squeamish.

The Undertow isn't for everyone, it's too grungy for that, but those who like their gore should enjoy the goings on here.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg the_undertow-547337891-large.jpg (60.8 KB, 5 views)
Reply With Quote
  #38507  
Old 2nd October 2016, 01:20 PM
Frankie Teardrop's Avatar
Cultist on the Rampage
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Leeds, UK
Default

MUTILATIONS – Yesterday's real bargain basement stuff, especially from the seventies, eighties and nineties, tended to go two ways. Either you got really unabashed, punkish weirdness with no aspiration to conventional cinema – e.g 'Black Devil Doll From Hell', 'Alien Beasts' etc etc – or you got the kind of film made by, I guess, 'amateur professionals', the sort of people who didn't necessarily burn with outsider visions, but just wanted to do a good job to the best of their abilities. 'Mutilations' is in the latter category. It's the story of a college professor, his students, some cattle mutilations and some bad-ass aliens. You can probably tell already where it's going – professor and students head out into the wilds and before long they're trapped in a house by an unconvincing creature with a rubbish space craft. See, minimal resources, minimal story, it's kind of fitting. 'Mutilations' is awful. But it might be the kind of 'awful' that tickles your imagination. The performances, for a start: the level of actorly expression here is so deficient that everyone involved wouldn't seem out of place in some kind of specialist clinic. Wooden isn't the word. Blank isn't the word. I'm searching for the word, but it isn't coming. Already, 'Mutilations' is feeling like a whole world unto itself. The actual sci-fi horror aspects, the alien stuff, it's all pretty badly done, but it's the kind of 'analogue badness' that warms the cockles of today's movie geeks. I'm talking about rubbishly rendered stop motion claymation, lame but absolutely laboured over. Look, where else can you see a heavily mutilated plasticene cow flap about whilst everyone involved in the same scene suddenly becomes part of a really crude back-projection? Yes, they used back projection as a way of fitting in their obviously scaled down models, and it sucks, but it looks so strange. Will it take you out of the movie? I don't know if anyone can 'get inside' a movie like 'Mutilations'. In as much as a really well made, engaging film can become an immersive experience where you almost forget about real time, films like 'Mutilations' are the opposite, objects to be contemplated and beheld from the outside, films which have their own internal logic but which don't really ever let you 'in' because they seem too artificial – at every turn, the badness reminds you that you're watching a movie. 'Mutilations' might be badness personified, but it's at the very least endearing, and maybe for some (including me), really enjoyable. As with all films whose badness is so obvious that it has a distorting effect, you're never quite sure whether you've been had, whether it's all kind of deliberate, an attempt at camp. Is it ever OK for an old dude with a shotgun to yell “eat my biscuits, blood sucker” at a feeble plasticene alien before opening fire? Moments like that seem a bit too knowing, and make you question everything you've witnessed. After all, it's hard to truly like a bad film which is intended that way. But I'll defintely give 'Mutilations' the benefit of the doubt on that one.
Reply With Quote
  #38508  
Old 2nd October 2016, 01:30 PM
Demdike@Cult Labs's Avatar
Cult King
Cult Labs Radio Contributor
Senior Moderator
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Lancashire
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop View Post
MUTILATIONS – Is it ever OK for an old dude with a shotgun to yell “eat my biscuits, blood sucker” at a feeble plasticene alien before opening fire?


The Undertow seems like a huge studio production in comparison. Wouldn't surprise me if it had less money behind it though.
Reply With Quote
  #38509  
Old 2nd October 2016, 01:54 PM
Frankie Teardrop's Avatar
Cultist on the Rampage
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Leeds, UK
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs View Post


The Undertow seems like a huge studio production in comparison. Wouldn't surprise me if it had less money behind it though.
You're probably right. 'Mutilations' was shot on 16mm in the mid eighties, way before the era of readily available digital video. These days, you can make something for absolute peanuts and still give it a professional sheen, in some ways.
Reply With Quote
  #38510  
Old 2nd October 2016, 03:14 PM
Demdike@Cult Labs's Avatar
Cult King
Cult Labs Radio Contributor
Senior Moderator
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Lancashire
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop View Post
You're probably right. 'Mutilations' was shot on 16mm in the mid eighties, way before the era of readily available digital video. These days, you can make something for absolute peanuts and still give it a professional sheen, in some ways.
I'm not sure The Undertow has any sort of sheen.

I'm surprised you haven't seen it, Frankie. I presumed films like Scrapbook, Ice From the Sun, and I Spit on Your Corpse, I Piss on Your Grave would be in your collection already.
keirarts and Frankie Teardrop like this.
Reply With Quote
Reply  

Like this? Share it using the links below!

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



Our goal is to keep Cult Labs friendly. If you feel discouraged from posting by certain members' behaviour then you can e-mail us in complete confidence.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
All forum posts are contributed by members of the site; Cult Labs cannot take responsibility for all content posted on the site. If you have an issue with content posted on the site please click the 'report post' button.
Copyright © 2014 Cult Laboratories Ltd. All rights reserved.