What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Door with Seven Locks (1940)

A wealthy lord dies and is entombed with a valuable deposit of jewels. Seven keys are required to unlock the tomb but the keys are well hidden The heiress of the fortune and her companion investigators become entangled in a web of fraud, deceit, torture, and murder as they attempt to unlock the door with seven locks.

Based on an Edgar Wallace play this is a typically convoluted story with supernatural and horror trappings. Leslie Banks who was excellent as the sinister Zaroff in The Most Dangerous Game (1932) plays a similar frightening role complete with monkey, torture devices and menacing man servant whilst attempting to stop the lovely Lili Palmer from claiming her fortune.

The film is a well paced old dark house thriller with striking cinematography and a suitably brooding Gothic atmosphere.

Network's dvd has a disclaimer about the quality of the restored 35mm print used, but it's quite watchable with excellent sound. The dvd also has a restored 16mm version on it with a slightly improved print but the sound is more muffled. Don't let this put you off giving The Door With Seven Locks a go though. It looks far superior to 88's Scalps release.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

I'm sure I reviewed it on here, but I'm struggling to remember what I said. I think 'possibly quite good in some ways, but has an ultimate tendency towards meh' pretty much comes to mind, though. The eighties period stuff as I recall seemed to work quite well, only it was filmed on harsh looking digital video - that put me right off. And I was looking forward to a bit more gore, but the sadist in me ended up feeling a little short changed, maybe.

Allow me to refresh your memory:

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

LOST AFTER DARK – Had mixed feelings about this retro-slasher, which mismatches a well rendered period feeling with the cold, hard look of contemporary digital video. Settled into it after a while, but it really could've done with being shot on celluloid to make good on the obvious time and effort spent on getting the 'eighties vibe' right (don't know how possible that is for a shoestring indie production these days). It could also have left behind yawn inducing gimmicks such as the 'missing reel' bit. As for the rest, well you can probably guess that it involves a van load of kids who head out into the wilds to smoke doobie and make out – only to touch down near a house with resident murderer etc etc. Some OK gore, and thankfully the cheeseball humour is kept in check, but basically this is pretty much like watching a fairly run of the mill late first wave slasher flick only with the added distraction of that shot-on-hi-def look.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

Allow me to refresh your memory:

Glad you quoted, Nos. I would have missed Frankie's original reply, i took that long to compose my review above.

[Deadite]

Is that from the Network Edgar Wallace box-set Dem?

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

Allow me to refresh your memory:

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to 'like' one of my own reviews! Shame about the film, though.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Deadite

Is that from the Network Edgar Wallace box-set Dem?

No it's one of the several stand alone releases. If i'm not mistaken the box set is of films that aren't feature length.

[Deadite]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

No it's one of the several stand alone releases. If i'm not mistaken the box set is of films that aren't feature length.

That film is part of the box-set too. I recognised the name. They can't have cut all these films down for the box-set could they? I'm not interested in them if that's the case.

Edit: Scrub that, it isn't part of the anthology - i presume all the individual films that Network released aren't either. Makes my buying choices a bit more complicated though!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Deadite

That film is part of the box-set too. I recognised the name. They can't have cut all these films down for the box-set could they? I'm not interested in them if that's the case.

Are you sure, is there a list of whats on the box set? I understood it was a collection of these 7 volumes. (3 pictured)

[Deadite]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Are you sure, is there a list of whats on the box set? I understood it was a collection of these 7 volumes. (3 pictured)

Yeah, edited my post above yours. They seem to be releasing single feature films alongside the 1-hour thrillers found in the anthology.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Deadite

That film is part of the box-set too. I recognised the name. They can't have cut all these films down for the box-set could they? I'm not interested in them if that's the case.

Edit: Scrub that, it isn't part of the anthology - i presume all the individual films that Network released aren't either. Makes my buying choices a bit more complicated though!

Ah, i see you had an exploration yourself.

The films are all quite good. I have Coast of Skeletons, Five Golden Dragons, The Terror, Circus of Fear and the one reviewed today and really like them all. Most are in colour and quite lavish especially Five Golden Dragons with Christopher Lee and Klaus Kinski. In my opinion Circus of Fear is the best.