What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Lord Shango (1975)






The Mad Dog Killer (La belva col mitra) (1977)

[trebor8273]

Edward Scissorhands. 9.5/10







Nightmare on Elm Street. 9.4/10






Now watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Hallow (2015)

A family is forced to fight demonic creatures for survival after they move into a remote millhouse in Ireland.

What is a fairly run of the mill story of folklore showcasing only two central characters and two or three support roles, proved a fairly non-event during it's first half with little or no threat to the couple. I mean had something happened to one of them then it would have made the remainder a one person show.

However come the half way point the film moved up a gear. The tales of Irish myths and legends came to fruition and we have some gorgeous gnarly creatures skulking in the woods, Del Toro like in their look as the film takes a left turn from warnings of industry and development and turns into pure (body) horror of which David Cronenberg would be proud.

I'm not sure The Hallow works entirely, especially in it's pacing but it certainly shows some promise.

More successful, at least as far as i'm concerned is The Sex Thief (1974).

Bond director (Goldeneye, Casino Royale - the two best Bond films since Dalton left) Martin Campbell's directorial debut is a film that could only have come from Britain in the 70's. Smutty and fun the film features a hunky David Warbeck as a masked thief who steals only the hottest jewels from the sexiest women before seducing them as both the police and insurance investigators attempt to solve the carnal crimes. Meanwhile the violated women all give differing accounts of the same man - dwarf and 6ft + Russian -were both described as the women try and keep his identity secret in the hope he'll be back for more. The likes of Chastain, Evans and Rachel-Wood would no doubt be appalled for us all at such behaviour.

There's plenty of flesh on display but the dirty mac brigade would have been disappointed with one rampant sex scene which is intercut with scenes of Christopher Biggins watching mens wrestling. At times the film did feel like a minor James Bond film or at least something starring Richard Johnson, and keeps you entertained more than it keeps you titillated.

It should be mentioned that the film was scripted by Hammer's Tudor Gates and Mark of the Devil's Michael Armstrong who also co-stars in the production as a police inspector.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

The Hallow (2015)

A family is forced to fight demonic creatures for survival after they move into a remote millhouse in Ireland.

What is a fairly run of the mill story of folklore showcasing only two central characters and two or three support roles, proved a fairly non-event during it's first half with little or no threat to the couple. I mean had something happened to one of them then it would have made the remainder a one person show.

However come the half way point the film moved up a gear. The tales of Irish myths and legends came to fruition and we have some gorgeous gnarly creatures skulking in the woods, Del Toro like in their look as the film takes a left turn from warnings of industry and development and turns into pure (body) horror of which David Cronenberg would be proud.

I'm not sure The Hallow works entirely, especially in it's pacing but it certainly shows some promise.

More successful, at least as far as i'm concerned is The Sex Thief (1974).

Bond director (Goldeneye, Casino Royale - the two best Bond films since Dalton left) Martin Campbell's directorial debut is a film that could only have come from Britain in the 70's. Smutty and fun the film features a hunky David Warbeck as a masked thief who steals only the hottest jewels from the sexiest women before seducing them as both the police and insurance investigators attempt to solve the carnal crimes. Meanwhile the violated women all give differing accounts of the same man - dwarf and 6ft + Russian -were both described as the women try and keep his identity secret in the hope he'll be back for more. The likes of Chastain, Evans and Rachel-Wood would no doubt be appalled for us all at such behaviour.

There's plenty of flesh on display but the dirty mac brigade would have been disappointed with one rampant sex scene which is intercut with scenes of Christopher Biggins watching mens wrestling. At times the film did feel like a minor James Bond film or at least something starring Richard Johnson, and keeps you entertained more than it keeps you titillated.

It should be mentioned that the film was scripted by Hammer's Tudor Gates and Mark of the Devil's Michael Armstrong who also co-stars in the production as a police inspector.

Surprised you didn't think more of The Hallow Dem. The heavy reliance on some marvellous old school practical fx was enough to win me over.

[Frankie Teardrop]

ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE – Seems eager to join the list of gory, disreputable Santa horror movies that features such prezzies as 'Silent Night, Deadly Night' (and its remake) and 'Don't Open Till Christmas' etc etc. 'All Through The House' is about a young woman who has some kind of dark past related entanglement with her strange neighbour across the road, the lady who fantasises about odd S Klaus mannequins. As she's putting said lady's xmas tree up with a couple of her friends (no euphemism), a load of Santa murders happen and we wait with baited breath for the resolution of a dark mystery. It's full of quirky characters, graphic violence and bits of sleaze, but for some reason I didn't take to it all that much – something about the pacing was off, a bit leaden. Still, worth a punt on the grounds of the aforementioned ingredients.

BITE – A young city type is having second thoughts about her upcoming wedding, but, even worse, she gets bitten by a mysterious bug whilst on holiday with the girls and ends up spewing slime everywhere before turning into some kind of human-insect hybrid. Bummer. I know DTV fodder when I see it, and, with 'Bite', I see it. Not necessarily a bad thing, but don't set your sights too far beyond The Horror Channel to avoid feeling disappointed by the pedestrian concept, direction and everything else. 'Bite's main problem is that it spends just a little too long wringing its hands over the lives of characters I could never really bring myself to give a shit about, but it picks up with the slime time and rounds things off with the conversion of an apartment interior into a massive chrysalis, which is vaguely cool. The kind of movie I'd buy for £2.49, but no more. That said, I'll probably see it when I'm pissed one day in the future and lie to people about it being better than 'Inland Empire' or something.

THE GOOD NEIGHBOUR – Good suspensor with James Caan as a cantankerous old guy who falls victim to two snotty punks with video monitors and surveillance devices – they're out to drive him mad or something with paranormal hoaxes and mean assed pranks. Needless to say, it all ends tragically. A smooth watch that keeps the thrill juices flowing.

EVIL GAMES – From the man who brought us 'Here Comes The Devil' and 'Late Phases'. It's about a disgruntled employee who finds that his life is being ground down to nothingness by the total rubbishness of (his actually fairly comfortable and quite well paid) existence. So he does the logical thing and goes out and kidnaps a teenage girl. 'Evil Games' is well made and engaging, although whether it's entirely successful or not will depend on how you handle the swift left turn the film takes after its carefully layered implied blackmail plot gives way to a highly unrealistic and frankly quite bonkers gory revenge type scenario. I actually liked this aspect, but it seemed like a strange direction for a quite well honed film to go in. Hey, maybe I missed something dead clever. The question is, will you? I recommend that you find out, 'Evil Games' may not be quite as visceral as 'HCTD', and in fact in many ways it has more in common with the subdued character study of 'Late Phases', but it has its own thing going on and is tricky, gory and compelling.

[J Harker]

Day of the Outlaw. 1959. Andre De Toth.

Cattle baron Blaise Starrett rides into the tiny snowbound town of Bitters looking to settle a score with local farmer Hal Crane regarding access to land. It seems access to Cranes wife and Blaise's former lover is also something of an issue. Before the men chance to settle anything however a band of brutal bandits led by the notorious but oddly semi honourable Captain Jack Bruhn. show up on the run and take the small town hostage while the unforgiving weather passes. From here on out morals and loyalties twist and turn all over the place as men do what men do in such films and the merciless weather closes in.
I love films set in snowy environments and this beauty is no exception.
Robert Ryan plays Blaise with the sort of unflinching manliness that makes you come away from the film hoping tomorrow you can wake up and be just a little more like him. Burl Ives is Captain Jack Bruhn (what is it with Captains called Jack?) a bad guy with a conscience and some sort of skewed sense of morals and again is played very well as a villain both intimidating and yet somehow respectable. Various other actors none of whom I am familiar with acquit themselves perfectly in their respective roles and give the movie a tremendous sense of place. I'm amazed that this movie was from 1959, the sensibilities feel quite modern. The constant threat of rape posed to the women of the town feels quite unsettling even now. This has become easily one of my favorite westerns and films for that matter and I look forward to revisiting it.
How the hell a load of arsewank like The Searchers gets held in such high esteem when westerns like this seem to float under the radar is beyond me.
Possibly one of the best blind buys I've ever made. Thanks to Demdike for the recommendation.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by J Harker

Surprised you didn't think more of The Hallow Dem. The heavy reliance on some marvellous old school practical fx was enough to win me over.

I did commend the creatures and their look in my review. I just felt the pacing and one dimensional characters who do daft things let it down during the first half. I mean the scientist husband. Do you really start digging around animal carcasses which clearly show signs of weird grue with a baby in your arms?

Chuffed to bits you loved Day of the Outlaw by the way. An outstanding film.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE –

BITE –

THE GOOD NEIGHBOUR –

EVIL GAMES –

Great read as always, Frankie.

All four have gone into the wishlist. Although All Through the House was already there but i'd ignored it as it was at the silly price of £17.99 for ages. It's probably one to leave until next year as i have Krampus, Christmas Evil and A Christmas Horror Story to watch this Yule. All of which are new to me.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Chuffed to bits you loved Day of the Outlaw by the way. An outstanding film.

I really did, and excellent film I'm amazed isn't better known.

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Elf (2003)

There's something ever so slightly sinister about Elf. I don't know if it's the whole man elf thing where he sits on mens knees or if it's just star Will Ferrel himself who's creepy as ****.

It starts to settle down when the elf reaches New York after being kicked out of Santa's grotto in the North Pole for being a disaster at everything thanks to his large size. James Caan as the elf's estranged father is brilliant, working at a children's book publishers, he's under pressure to deliver a cracking Christmas tale, and channels his classic Las Vegas tv casino boss Ed Deline to perfection here until the inevitable melting of his heart and embracing the elf as his long lost son. Zooey Deschannel also adds a lot to the film with her reigned in performance as the elf's potential girlfriend.

As the film goes on either i warmed to Ferrel or just became used to his elf act, either way the film becomes lovely and heart warming and features some worthwhile funny escapades and might just bring a bit of Christmas cheer to even the coldest of hearts

I hate it.