Watched quite a few lately:

BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR (hammer - Studiocanal DVD): About as matinee as it gets!
THE SCARLET BLADE (hammer - studiocanal DVD): Still matinee but more of a plot and a great performance by Reed.
MURDER OBSESSION (Raro BD): fantastic satanic eurohorror, had read bad reviews but was pleasantly surprised.... the first Freda film & Rarovideo release I've watched and I was impressed on both fronts.
FOOTPRINTS (LE ORME) (shameless DVD): Surreal mystery film set on a strange island, slow paced but extremely atmospheric. Don't get to see Kinski much but Florinda Balkan is excellent as the confused protagonist.
THE BOSS (di leo - Raro BD): Henry Silva kicking arse!
THE ITALIAN CONNECTION (di leo - Raro BD): Woody Strode and Henry Silva kicking arse!
LISA AND THE DEVIL (Kino BD): Pretty confusing but generally good atmosphere + Telly Savalas in an amusing turn as a butler... who also happens to be THE DEVIL! *du du duuuuu*. I'm keen to see the alternate version also on the disc called THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM, it might make more sense!
BLACK SUNDAY (Kino BD): Very gothic and eerie; glorious black and white scenery... very entertaining hammer-esque story of a witch.
DEAD & BURIED (BU BD): Very atmospheric little seaside horror in which the residents aren't quite what they seem! stars Robert Englund among others.
DEATH RACE 2000 (German BD): Brilliant: cheesy, hilarious, gory and David Carradine steals the show! and the AV on this BD is very impressive too (+cheaper than the US BD on amazon)
DEMONIA (shriek show DVD): Slightly shoddy Fulci film... The story could have been better... The atmosphere suffers due to stagey lighting throughout + pretty crummy dubbing. Some good location-shooting and gore FX but overall a bit of a dissapointment.
MAN WITH THE SEVERED HEAD (arrowdrome DVD): Not exactly the height of technical efficiency, but very entertaining. Naschy puts in a pretty unexciting display but the rest of the cast do well enough. More of a crime thriller/mad scientist effort than horror.
DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE (arrowdrome DVD): I enjoyed this more than TOOLBOX MURDERS & MANIAC put together. Better script, better lead performance (by grimaldi) and more pyrotechnics! :D

Great review of Grimmfest by the way, Keirarts :)

All great, interesting choices !

What films have you seen recently?
 

What films have you seen recently?

Vic what did you think of Prometeus ?

I enjoyed it for what it was,then again if Ridley had just done two hours of people being chased by aliens id of been happy,I had no real expectations so was not disappointed,then again i am easily pleased :lol:

I'll always remember the kid with "a secret stash of dirt" and the campfire shenanigans... ;)

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Knew nothing of this film going in only what was mentioned in an other thread so i was very surprised that i enjoyed it so much. A great blind buy picture quality and sound were rubbish but felt just like the vhs days which i think added more to this film bringing more atmosphere to it.

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Just watched Romero's THE CRAZIES (BU BD). This one exceeded all my expectations... The story moves along at 100 miles an hour and is a thrill-ride! The editing is one of the key reasons for this, shot follows shot with Peckinpah-style rapidity. The acting is also very solid all round and the paranoia generated by the situation the characters are faced with is tangible. Top film. Oh and the transfer is really impressive, unlike BU's transfer of DEAD & BURIED, which I wasn't bowled over by after watching last night.

Im just watching the DVD of this right now.

ATTACK OF THE WEREWOLVES (2011) (AKA LOBOS DE ARGA) Terrific Spanish Werewolf horror/comedy Naschy would've been proud of.Nice to see old school creature effects instead of the heavy use of CGI too.The werewolves are impressive pumped up versions of the type we remember from the old Naschy movies as well as Roy Ashton's sterling work on Curse Of The Werewolf.Nicely atmospheric and genuinely funny with some good one liners.Recommended viewing & nice lenticular cover on the UK dvd.

Kiss Me Deadly - Every so often you see a film that makes you re-evaluate everything you thought you knew - this is such a movie. It's insane in a way I did't realise 1950s film noirs could be. It's like a complete deconstruction of the genre: the endless dead ends, surreal twists, random acts of violence. Alex Cox puts it brilliantly - the tough guy's world becomes increasingly complex and convoluted and ultimately meaningless. I gave up following the plot about halfway and just enjoyed the dialogue ('can someone open a window?' a cop says as our 'hero' exits the room) and the random nature of the scenes, which could really be placed in any order. In short it's a must see - and you get to find out what was in Pulp Fiction's suitcase and Repo Mans trunk!

JUST BEFORE DAWN - I forgot how haunting and atmospheric this early eighties backwoods horror is. It's been ages since I last saw it, and I kind of wrote it off as being slow and a bit boring, but this time I was really struck by its murky, oppressive ambience. Jeff Liebermann's direction has a claustrophobic quality, and the score is amazing, like 70s German trance music when they just got hold of sequencers. The opening credit sequence sends a shiver down my spine. An eerie classic.

Frankie, I wanted to like this movie but I was cold on it – I wrote about Squirm and Blue Sunshine on my blog and planned to do Just Before Dawn but I could not write anything positive about it and I never went with the review. I just thought it was formulaic and indistinguishable from other campsite massacre films...

A few years ago I thought the same. I don't know quite what captivated me about it this time around, but it felt really heavily textured and full of forboding and because of all this seemed much more interesting on second viewing. I really like that grim seriousness of tone you got with that kind of material before later in the eighties it was played for laughs. And I've never disliked a Jeff Lieberman movie, wish he'd made more.

Prometheus...Visually stunning, Naoomi Rapice was super hot:), but for me there was some unanswered questions(maybe I missed some things). Overall not the epic I thought it was going to be:(

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Just watched this and not sure what to think of it. I have never heard or seen Coffin Joe films so didnt understand it to start but some flashback scenes caught me up with that. after that though it still got confusing at times, such as why he had so many followers to start with and how a mass muderer would get released so early to start with. I will say there a few impressive gore scenes if you like that sort of thing as well as a few wtf moments such as a cheese covered rat insertion!

Just back from the film SINISTER. Really enjoyed this one.

As the film was starting a bunch of teens further back were sat gossiping and I felt annoyed thinking I was going to have to come across as the bad guy for telling them to shut the F**k up. (why do people come to the cinema just to chat through a film or social network on their phones) Suddenly the grainy 8mm footage of the family suspended from the tree slowly being hung came on the screen and the teens shut the hell up and stayed quiet for the rest of the movie!

Sinister is not an out-and-out scarefest like its advertised but it is damn creepy all the way through and goes for a sense of absolute dread rather than screaming panic. Kudos to Christopher Young for his score which does a lot for the film and is probably some of his best work, very low key, industrial moody sounds, fantastic. Ethan Hawke does a marvellous job with his role making his morally grey character sympathetic despite some of his really poor behaviour to his family. Finally the 8mm footage of the family murders is very creepy and the fleeting glances of the killer are far more scary than the end reveal which is one of the few dissapointing moments in an otherwise solid horror movie.

Watched a couple of my purchases from CEX this morning today while cracking on with some assignment work.
First up was the excellent Frailty starring and directed by everyone's favourite annoying older brother Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey and Powers Boothe. For those that haven't seen it, here's the summary from IMDb FBI agent Wesley Doyle is startled by the spontaneous declaration of youngster Fenton Meiks about how his father's delusions to have a divine mission as avenging angel required him and his brother Adam to become his 'demon-slaying' murder accomplices. And how hard an dangerously revolting proved. But when Doyle accepts to be shown concealed victim graves, the plot twists in the present just as gruesomely.
I'd only seen it once before when it was first released so the twist at the end was a bit of a shock to me, highly recommended and a steal at 50p!

Next up was the updated version of 'Salem's Lot from 2004 starring Rob Lowe, Bobby from the Hills Have Eyes remake, Donald Sutherland and Rutger Hauer.
I liked it, it is more faithful to Kings masterpiece but that doesn't mean it's better than the Tobe Hooper adaption. I think I prefer the older of the two's depiction of Barlow, he looks far scarier in a kind of Max Schreck sort of way than Rutger Hauer looking like, well Rutger Hauer and the infamous "bedroom window" scene was far scarier in the Hooper version. Recommended if found cheap, but if you only want one then stick with the Hooper version.

Just about to stick on Renato Polselli's BLACK MAGIC RITES (AKA THE REINCARNATION OF ISABEL). I've wanted to see this since I was a teenager... Those lurid Redemption VHS covers always did intrigue me but I never got around to seeing any. But, luckily, all these new Kino/Redemption releases on BD will allow me to put that to rights :D

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ACAB - All Cops Are Bastards - I read about this in the programme for Fantasy Film Fest and decided to give it a chance. Its an effective and violent look at the life of 4 men working within a team of Italian riot police. Recommended.

Chernobyl Diaries - just dreadful. And kind of offensive. Urgh.

Don't you mean "put that to 'rites'?" ........

I'll get my coat

Making my way through some unwatched films tonight!

Patrolmen: One or two nice ideas but poorly handled, better cover art than the homemade movie inside, still it was only £2.

Asylum tapes: Poor man's grave encounters directed by oliver stones son and starring the big man himself! Not terrible but not great either, feels a lot like i've seen it all done better, but for a quid from cash generator I can't complain.

Mutants: Interesting and enjoyable if somewhat unorigional. A decent french zombie flick with great make-up and locations. Not as good a french zombie film as the horde but worth a look nontheless. Certainly worth the £2 in HMV manchester's pre-owned section.

Absentia: Best film of the evening by a long shot and probably one of the best films i've seen this year. Fantastic, well written and well acted slow burning horror movie that never needs to resort to blood and guts or cheap scares. Personally I rate this one up there with films like with Lets scare jessica to death and Lemora. Definately pick this one up if you havent seen it. It goes for about £4 in CEX.

Lunacy/ŠÃ*lenÃ* - 2005 Czech d: Jan Svankmajer

A funny and harrowing masterpiece from Svankmajer. Based largely on Poe, with a healthy side order of de Sade, it analyses madness and the treatment thereof. Period set, but with anachronistic trappings, lots of animated meat and tongues and general Svankmajer magic. An essential viewing for lovers of intellectual horror or surrealism. An exceptional film.

I must see this, thank-you Gojirosan !

I'm glad you've said this. I actually thought the idea of it was offensive.

Just watched this,not bad if you like the French Bilal comics...lots of eye candy.
Got it from a colleague at work who thought it was too weird. ;)


Immortel (ad vitam) (2004) FAN TRAILER (HD) - YouTube

At the London Film Festival:

Room 237: Being an inquiry into The Shining in 9 parts

This fascinating, insightful documentary probes deep into Kubrick's The Shining as various academics provide an analysis into what they believe Kubrick was trying to tell us, often through hidden codes and cyphers. These range from the thoroughly plausible (references to the genocide of the American Indians) to the absurd (Kubrick metaphorically admitting having faked the moon landing footage) with lots of jaw-dropping theories in between (a secretary's in-tray become a phallus; a poster of a skier representing a minotaur, etc). But each theory is so well articulated and researched even the most absurd proves interesting. And if anything I learned details of the film I'd never noticed before (continuity errors that were - according to various speakers - intentional. Hey, Friedkin did it, so why not Kubrick?) as well as peculiar little details that seem too odd to overlook (ahem), such as Jack reading Playgirl in the lobby. I also like the idea that Kubrick sent a specific message to Stephen King through the film. All of this supplemented by some fascinating 3D diagrams of the Overlook Hotel and various, often unexpected film clips (not all Kubrick, although Eyes Wide Shut and 2001: A Space Odyssey feature heavily.)

Despite the academic approach, this is an extremely well crafted, accessible and entertaining documentary. There's a knowing humour in the film too, which makes the more crackpot theories slightly more palatable. I'd re-watched the US extended cut of The Shining the night before in preparation, but the doc has made me want to throw it back on again.

Essential viewing, I highly recommend catching this if you get a chance!

Sounds fascinating...

Prometheus - 2012 US d: Ridley Scott

Proof positive that you can make a film with technical perfection and it will still fall short.

Dreary, badly developed, some astondingly bad acting from usually good performers, derivative (clichéd, even) and something of a travesty as part of the Alien series.

The only positives: it's not as bad as AvP:Requiem and it was quite witty of them to rip-off the costume design from Planet Of The Vampires.

Sorry Ridley, but you boring "big spectacle" films just don't do it for me at all. As empty and boring as Gladiator. No thanks.

Oh, it's not as bad as THAT travesty! I personaly liked it. But that was my greatest problem with it. It was ub par sci-fi that I WANTED....dear sweet zombie jesus did I want to love this movie. But as you have quite rightly pointed out, there a a few thing's that spoil the experience.

I loved it. I personally found it so smart and clever, and tying in so well with the other films that I ignored the annoying bits, like running straight ahead away from a rolling structure

Just finished watching the blu of Plague of the Zombies, I've had it ages but not got around to watching it before today. I must say that it looks absolutely fantastic in HD, another fine set from SC, really looking forwarde to the next batch of them to arrive in the next few weeks, including the George Lucas edit of The Devil Rides Out.
It's hard to believe that a mere two years after this fantastic zombie film was released a certain little known director from Pittsburgh would turn the genre on it's head by turning the slow moving "slave" type walking dead into the flesh eating monsters we all know and love today(well, not literally because bits would fall off left, right & centre!) :popcorn:

I thought it excellent. Imaginative and beautiful.

As you say lots of eye candy, but a great cast as well - Kretschmann, Rampling and Linda Hardy was wonderful as the blue haired Jill. Added to this you get massive pyramids and the ancient God Horus.

Your colleague is wierd :lol: Immortal is a treat.

Another mind-bender for me in the shape of World On A Wire. The thought of a 2 part 3 hr 40 min made for TV German movie from the early 70s might be a daunting one but this is a surprisingly accessable and playful movie, albeit a deep and philosophical one as well. I loved the retro futuristic look - think 2001 Kubrick or Solaris. Any Mad Men fans out there? Paul Kinsey's doppleganger is in this movie - either the actor or creator Matt Weiner must have seen this, its just too similar for coincidence. Points for use of Albatross by Fleetwood Mac. Lots of gloriously arty farty scenes with frozen models in the background like a mid seventies Roxy Music album cover. Central idea of infinite parallel realities seems very prescient or is the movie actually an acute portrayal of mental disintegration by paranoia? Strange decision by Criterion to have the end credits of part 1 appear halfway through the film - just edit them together dammit. Great picture though, really boosts the saturated, lurid 70s look.

Visions of Ecstasy and Axel. To be honest I am not sure why there was so much fuss around this film in '89. Its pretty tame stuff and not a lot different to some of the scenes in Scorsese's Last Temptation of Christ - although perhaps more sexually explicit. My view - pretty bad soft core port. Hopefully the "feature" Sacred Flesh will be more entertaining.

A Lonely Place to Die. I really liked this when I first saw it last year and see no need to change my opinion after a second viewing. A pretty straightforward action thriller.

Still better than Alien Resurrection. :lol:

Yeah but that film had Dan Hedeya, J.E. Freeman, Brad Dourif, AND Ron Perlman :cool::cool::cool::cool: . . .

Just got back home and unwrapped my birthday prezzies - this was one of em :cool: . . .

Happy Birthday :bananatrain: