What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Crimson Peak (2015)

Guillermo del Toro's Gothic horror tale is an absolute gem. A hauntingly beautiful tale that's a treat for the eyes from the gorgeous costumes to the stunning Gothic decaying house at Crimson Peak itself.

Superbly acted by Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston and Mia Wasikowska as the nattily titled Edith Cushing, the story as with many in the Gothic genre is part doomed romance part supernatural horror and it's in these parts where i find my only grumbles. Firstly i don't like Wasikowska, i don't find her attractive or appealing as a love interest, in fact it looked as if she'd wandered straight from the set of Alice in Wonderland, so wasn't quite so rooting for her as i should have been, even though her acting convinced, and the CGI ghosts which admittedly weren't on screen all that much were really poorly rendered and not the least bit scary.

The film certainly gained marks for it's atmosphere which i liken to that of Sleepy Hollow (1999) and it's occasional sequences of shocking violence which turned Crimson Peak into a dark love story with a surreal other worldly atmosphere rather than a Gothic romance.

Given that with the arrival of Decemberdike i'd been keeping an eye out for your thoughts on this one Dem, i don't know I bloody missed it. Still I'm glad you liked it, for me probably Del Toros best film, just gorgeous to look at and Hiddleston is splendid. I also don't mind Mia Wotsherface I thought she had a suitable gothic like look. The scenes of Hiddleston in his laboratory just made me think how perfect he'd be as Peter Cushing if ever there was a biopic.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by J Harker

Given that with the arrival of Decemberdike i'd been keeping an eye out for your thoughts on this one Dem, i don't know I bloody missed it. Still I'm glad you liked it, for me probably Del Toros best film, just gorgeous to look at and Hiddleston is splendid. I also don't mind Mia Wotsherface I thought she had a suitable gothic like look. The scenes of Hiddleston in his laboratory just made me think how perfect he'd be as Peter Cushing if ever there was a biopic.

Yes i thought he'd be a good Cushing as well. I'd love to see him play the Baron.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Yes i thought he'd be a good Cushing as well. I'd love to see him play the Baron.

Bit of work from the make up department he could have done a decent job of Tarkin in Rogue One in my opinion.

[Deadite]

I'm going to put this in the film thread rather than the tv one, even though it was shown as a tv mini-series. I have always watched it as a film and consider it one - and still a pants-wettingly scary one at that. I talk, of course, of Salems Lot, which other than Misery remains the best screen representation of Stephen Kings work IMO (yes, yes, The Shining, before you start screaming about it, but i find that inordinately dull, so there).

I dunno whether it's the fact that the first showing of this on British telly seems to have scarred a generation of kids, but it still seems to have a kind of weird dated time-warp nightmare quality that seems unique to this one film. For me, it is quite literally a one-of-a-kind. I can't think of something with a similar atmosphere where i instantly feel a certain way every time i watch it.

The biggest shocks have been seared onto my retinas since about the age of 12. You know the ones...

"Let me in" *scrape, scrape*.

"Look at me, teacher."

"Your faith against his, holy man!"

Watching this again is like walking past a stall selling toffee apples and getting that waft of scent that takes you back to your childhood or like seeing that girl who reminds you of your first crush. It's like popping your horror cherry all over again and wondering why all that torture porn shit is so popular when this stuff from your childhood still makes you quake like a long-tailed cat in a rocking chair factory.

and they say nostalgia ain't as good as it used to be.

[nosferatu42]

I'm with you on Salem's Lot, great stuff.
Shining i really like but have to be in the mood for, my other early favourites are Carrie, Christine, Creephow, Dead Zone and Stand by me.
My favourite overall is Carrie.

[J Harker]

IT is currently my favourite Stephen King adaptation, very closely followed by The Shining. I found Salems Lot rather dull.

[nosferatu42]

The Beastmaster

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Haven't seen this for about 10 years, loved it as a kid after going to see it at the cinema, got a uk dvd bout a year back and was disappointed with the picture quality and framing of shots, so traded it in.
Thought i'd go for an upgrade and although theres a blu available i just thought i'd go for a cheaper copy.
This copy must be a foreign disc due to some writing on the cover but the actual disc is in english, with removable subtitles. It's a decent quality print and widescreen so i was happy to finally re watch the film.

Does it stand up to my memories, well yes actually it does.

Its quite dark for a kids style film and has a couple of quick flashes of breasts, it has cheesy dialogue and a suitably corny performance by Marc Singer of TV series "V" fame.

The story concerns some gumf about Singers character being the first born son of a king, an evil villain who worships some dark god wants rid of the king and gets a witch to remove his queens baby by transferring the unborn heir into a cows womb(as you do.).
~The villain has been told that the queens offspring will kill him so the witch removes the baby from the cow to sacrifice it, but the child is saved and raised by a passing old man.
Due to being born of an animal the young boy has powers to befriend and control animals, he becomes the beastmaster and sets out to get revenge for the slaughter of his village's people.

I still find this to be hugely enjoyable sword and sorcery nonsense, most of the other actors play their characters pretty well, with Rip Torn as a pretty nasty villain who is always trying to sacrifice kids.
Tanya Roberts is the love interest who we first meet with her tits out in a bathing scene, which is nice.
Marc Singer although cheesy is entertaining and a suitably dashing protagonist who always travels with his animal companions - An eagle, a black panther (ahem, tiger painted black) and two ferrets that help him in various situations.

Along side this we get some black guy with a staff, his young boy sidekick and a race of weird bat/bird winged creepy lookin' guys.
The adventure is fast paced,well shot and entertaining with some really effective scenes. It still ranks among the Sinbad,Argonauts,Clash of the Titans and Conan films for me as the best of these adventure style films.


This is directed by Don Coscarelli who also made Phantasm and Bubba Ho Tep, a guy who always seems pretty creative and with a lot of interesting ideas and bizarrely has a theme tune that is reminiscent of the original Battlestar galactica TV series music.
I really love it and it gives me a nostalgic buzz to catch it again.

Recommended 8.5/10

beastmastertanya.jpg munns-beastmaster1.jpg

[keirarts]

Battle of Algiers

Shot in a neo-realist style and based on actual accounts (and even starring real life guerrillas) Battle is an account of the often brutal struggle for Algerian independence against the French colonial forces. It shows the escalation from street shootings to bombings and the sometimes brutal and underhanded tactics French forces used against the Algerians.
This is one of those films that ranks high on a lot of best of lists for good reason. Its a tense, gripping film from start to finish, shot in sark black & white.

Come & see

If you ever want to see something that depicts as brutally honest as it can, the absolute horrors human beings can perpetrate on one another then this is the film to watch. Based around the Nazi invasion of Belorussian SSR. The film follows an idealistic young boy who is thrust into the direct horrors of war as the Nazi soldiers begin purging each village of its residents. As the horrors stack up the boy visibly ages and appears to go mad from the nightmarish and surreal world he has been thrust into.
This is absolutely harrowing stuff and not for everyone. Certainly it makes a lot of Horror titles appear restrained in the scenes of terror they depict, partially because this is based on true accounts. Its tough going but comes with my highest recommendation.

[nosferatu42]

Nice review Kierarts, Come and See is brutal but brilliant, one of my favourite war films, but it is a really difficult watch.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Prehistoric Women (1967)

Big game hunter Michael Latimer is captured by a tribe of dark haired women after he is mysteriously sent back in time to prehistoric days. The women led by the buxom Martine Beswick have imprisoned all the fair haired women (including the pouting Edina Ronay) and use them as slaves and sacrifices to the Rhino God.

Written and directed by Michael Carreras in order to hopefully continue the skin bikini success of the previous years One Million Years BC, Prehistoric Women is a Hammer glamour watchers delight but probably a bit of a chore to everyone else. The film features acres of writhing female flesh as they gyrate and parade away in ritualistic dances that actually come across less tribal and more Hollywood musical in front of the phallic Rhino statue.

Beswick does the sex symbol routine rather well and with gusto but Latimer, whom i watched again recently in Pete Walker's Man of Violence (1974), appears hopelessly out of his depth that you long for someone to look like they are having fun trapped in a place full of beautiful women (Where's that Askwith fella when you need him?). In fact that might be the key problem with Prehistoric Women, it's all so earnest, yet when you witness Beswick stroking the rhino horn and cracking a whip you can't help but smile at the seemingly unintentional sexuality.