Decemberdike # 7
 

We Are Still Here (2015)

A couple, grieving the loss of their teenage son move to a new home in rural New England in an attempt to start a fresh. However the house is notorious in the area for being haunted and is seen by the towns folk as being a house that demands sacrifices every 30 years.

We Are Still Here is a slow burn horror film. The first half mainly consists of atmosphere and background building whilst being impeccably acted by Barbara Crampton and Andrew Sensenig as the new arrivals and Larry Fessenden and Lisa Marie as their spiritual friends who they hope can contact whatever spirits reside in or indeed beneath the house. In some respects this first half is actually quite dull (in comparison with what is to come) if occasionally eerie but succeeds in building a believable back story and characters in order for the second half to come to fruition as a worthy pay off.

If the first half burns slowly then the second half is ablaze. The mystery and truth is uncovered and a gory almost Fulci-esq bloodbath kicks into gear.

If anything We Are Still Here could have been an early 70's Italian horror production. It's set in the late 70's and has references throughout to Italian genre cinema especially Lucio Fulci's The House by The Cemetery (The lead spirit is named Lassander Dagmar after that films actress Dagmar Lassander and the electrician that discovers something is wrong is called Joe as he is in House among others) we've also got the bouncing ball on the stairs from Bava's Kill Baby Kill (1966) and not The Changeling as some ill educated oaf suggests on IMDB as it's reference point (Do these people not know we use the first used example and not one that borrowed it later on) The film has a high Lovecraftian atmosphere and utilizes it's ideas far better than the many crash, bang, wallop jump scare horrors doing the multiplex rounds.

Recommended.

I think your review was the reason I added it to my watch list in the first place. My only regret is that it took this long for me to finally check it out.

Yet another one added to the watch list! :sleighride:

This one is on Amazon Video so I might try and give it a watch over the weekend, I've hovered over the play button once or twice already.

Had me at Crampton.

I could have sworn you'd reviewed it in the past. :xmasdrunks:

No, not I.

Decemberdike Extra!
 

On the Game (1974)

Directed by Stanley Long, one of Britain's most prolific exploitation film directors, On the Game is a docudrama charting the history of prostitution from neolithic times (Yes, this means gorilla suit sex) through Roman times and the Dark Ages right up to modern day, well 70's, Soho.

On the Game is one of those films that received an X rating when it first appeared and it's easy to see why it still remains an 18 certificated film. The nudity is non-stop however it's also mixed with historical document such as medieval harlots and the ducking stool - a section straight out of Witchfinder General) and ickiest of all close up shots of genitals covered in sexual diseases. As far as film interest goes it's playfully narrated by the magnificent Charles Gray and features Blue Peter's Peter Duncan and Allo Allo's Carmen Silvera among it's mainly adult film making cast.

Although not a prime example of British 'slap n' tickle' On The Game would make a fine double bill with Anthony Balch's equally educating and titillating 1969 film The Secrets of Sex.

Look blame Inspector Abberline for my new found love of British sexiness. Had he not banged on about On the Buses and the alluring charms of Anna Karen then none of this would have happened.

Olivia (AKA: Double Jeopardy; Prozzie etc.) (1983)

http://primer.a.ltrbxd.com/resized/f...g?k=0d919d14e6

A lot better than I thought it would be, this isn't exactly a 'slasher' as such, but more a psychological thriller wrapped in the trappings of a romantic drama concerning a young woman trying to live her life of drudgery one day at a time whilst at the same time channeling her murdered prostitute mother who died at the hands of one of her clients and which the young Olivia was witness to.

Prozzie exhibits shadows of Polanski's Repulsion among other things and is grim and desperate in tone but also well shotand tinged with a kind of melancholic hopefulness. Performances are also very good all round, especially Olivia played by Suzanna Love. This one is certainly worth checking out and for me one of the more surprising hi-lights of 88's 'slasher' line.

http://fs167.www.ex.ua/show/28987257/28987257.png?1600

Hmm. I have this. Might have to give it a go this month.