What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demoncrat]

Sidekicks (1992, Aaron Norris)
A bizarre blend of Walter Mitty and chicken soft core. Asthmatic teen struggles through life with Mako spouting wisdom and dumplings in reality and El Chuckie grooming him in his heid. Quite simply the strangest 'kids' film since Return To Oz. Joe Piscopo obviously never changed his haircut at all ...

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Rik

1408

2007 film starring John Cusack and Samuel L Jackson, loosely based on a short story by Stephen King.
Cusack stars as a writer who specialises in writing books about haunted places, with titles such as 10 nights in 10 haunted houses etc, and being a sceptic he makes a habit of debunking the myths surrounding these places. Upon receiving a postcard of the Dolphin Hotel in NYC, with the only writing being "Don't stay in room 1408", he decides to check it out for himself, despite the protests (almost begging) of the hotel manager, played by Jackson in a pretty shitty wig

What follows is a series of strange experiences as he attempts to stay the night in 1408, the sceptic in him slowly disappearing.

I read the story back in 2002, as part of Kings Everything's Eventual collection, and enjoyed it enough, and have had the film sat on my shelf for years without watching (cheap impulse buy from CEX), and for whatever reason it popped into my head yesterday, so I thought I'd give it a watch.
I'm glad I did because the film is excellent, despite barely resembling the source material (which, as you know pisses me off about The Shining), there are some genuinely terrifying moments throughout, I jumped several times (which is rare for me these days) and there was an overall sense of dread during the bulk of the film, which perfectly captured a Stephen King type of feel, hard to explain unless you're familiar with his work.
Cusack gives a great performance, I really felt for his character (a troubled past literally coming back to haunt him) and Jackson was convincing as the hotel manager, no muthaf***ers from him, but he did throw in a single F word

4/5 Highly recommended

It's not often Rik and i disagree over horror... but in this case we do.

I thought 1408 was a typical run of the mill ghost story, bland, instantly forgettable and as scary as a doormat!

[Rik]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

It's not often Rik and i disagree over horror... but in this case we do.

I thought 1408 was a typical run of the mill ghost story, bland, instantly forgettable and as scary as a doormat!

87BA055C-35F0-4A8F-AFB7-05C52064FC14-4528-00000343FFA5EAF7.jpeg

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

It's not often Rik and i disagree over horror... but in this case we do.

I thought 1408 was a typical run of the mill ghost story, bland, instantly forgettable and as scary as a doormat!

I'm with Rik on this one. 1408 is really well scripted and directed, with fine performances by the main characters. I think it's a really tense and atmospheric film without the cheap, fake jump scares which blight so many recent films.

[Demoncrat]

Lake Eerie (Chris Majors, 2016)
Moving can be traumatic. But finding that your new abode may just be a hellgate?
Bummer.
Low budget horror can often be a battle betwixt intention and ability...in this case both may be overreaching themselves somewhat. Plus it commits the crime of being quite dull....ho hum ...

Now watching the rather loonier Witch Bitch (1990, Michael Fischa)
More later today as the battery is fading again ahem ....nighty night all!!

Morning!!
AKA Death Spa, this fetching tale of revenge from beyond the grave gives lie to the phrase "til death do us part" . The Starbody Health Center () is the place to be it seems. But not for long...featuring some nasty demises and the actual cause of all this sorrow could be put down to the worst case of post partum depression yet!! Always had a soft spot for this one, mainly due to one of the characters being called Moray . Ahem.

[bleakshaun]

so me and one of my mates (just because it was Easter Sunday) decided to watch Passion of the Christ.
Mel Gibson's controversial film, kinda blows what you were taught at school (well what i was taught anyway).
The film portrays the last hours of Jesus and depicts the torture he went through up to and including his crucifixion. even if you're not religious it is a very fascinating film to watch, however while watching it there are moments where it tries to be horror but fails.
6/10

[Cinematic Shocks]

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Extended Edition.

****1/2 out of *****

My rankings of the Middle-earth saga:

The Two Towers
The Return of the King
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Desolation of Smaug
An Unexpected Journey
The Battle of the Five Armies

[Rik]

Zombie Flesh Eaters

Seen it tons of times before, first via the cut 1992/3 Vipco VHS, then via the slightly less cut Stonevision UK DVD in the early 2000's, finally uncut a couple of years later with the Italian Shock DVD (as Zombi 2), and again fully uncut with the Mediablasters R1 25th Anniversary DVD. A few years back Blue Underground released it on Blu Ray, so I saw in HD for the first time and finally Arrow released a great 2 disc set 5 years ago (I won't mention the missing 6 seconds, or the piss about I had getting my copy)

Despite seeing it many times in various versions on various platforms, last nights viewing of the Arrow BD was ruined slightly.
The reason for this is because back in October (and again a couple of weeks back) a certain moderator called Demdike reviewed the film and pointed out all the glaring mistakes, mistakes I'd known about and seen previously, but now I found myself watching out for them and realising just how much they stand out

It's certainly not Fulci's best film, but it is definitely my favourite of his and the one I tend to watch the most, so thanks Dem for ruining it for me every time I watch it, most appreciated

*It is a bit shit really, but I ****ing love it



Note to self, I must watch Casablanca and TRY find some mistakes to pay Demdike back

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[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Rik

Note to self, I must watch Casablanca and TRY find some mistakes to pay Demdike back

Casablanca movie mistakes, goofs and bloopers

[Susan Foreman]

While I'm at it

Zombi Flesh Eaters movie mistakes, goofs and bloopers