What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Boo Radley]

I finally got round to watching The Void. A cop finds a chap crawling about on the road, bloodied and incoherent and takes him to the local hospital which is in the process of closing down so only has a skeleton staff packing stuff up and looking after one young pregnant girl and her father. Two blokes who set fire to a young woman at the beginning of the film also arrive, while outside mysterious figures dressed up like the Klan add more menace.

You get scissors in eyeballs, faces peeled off and tentacle/The Thing/Cthulu type beasts doing nefarious deeds forcing our cop hero and friends deep down into the bowels of the hospital to sort this shit out.

There are nods to numerous classics along the way, Hellraiser, Event Horizon, The Thing and The Beyond immediately came to mind as I watched. It is bleak with an unsettling atmosphere and played straight, no laughs at all, which to my taste is how a horror film should be...BUT....

It just didn't grab me like it should/could have. The characters don't elicit any sympathy so you don't really care about their demise, the dialogue needed some snappy quotes along the lines of, "I'll tear your soul apart" or even, "Jesus wept" and the gore, whilst decent needed one or two really stand out moments to drop your jaw.

It garnered many plaudits along the way but I can only surmise these are from critics who have been bombarded with the insipid crap that passes for horror in the last two decades and missed out on the glorious '70's and '80's horror heydays. It's okay and a worthy effort... but won't stay in your mind too long.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Totally agree, Boo.

[Demoncrat]

Well
It would be a dull world etc ....

4 times I've watched it now and while it's flaws are there they are certainly not as jarring as they are in say, Manhattan Baby ... a film that is loved by some loathed by others ...the point being that TV reminds me of 'that period' with it's draggy pacing and whatnot.
I look forward to seeing what they come up with next ....

[keirarts]

Petrified

Officially titles 'charles bands petrified' Petrified is a clear example of how much money Charles band has to play with. Back in the heyday of home video when Empire pictures then Full moon could sell enough units to home video to spend a bit of cash on the pictures themselves and have some kind of revenue, stuff like puppet master, ghoulies, demonic toys ect at least looked like they had some kind of budget. Hell, watching puppet master there are some genuinely great looking scenes for example. Petrified is not all bad, the monster itself is ok until it glows, and Band has found a few actresses willing to make out with each other so it has some appeal it's just not his best effort. The basic plot involves a mummy that petrifies people terrorising a hospital for female nymphomaniacs. This probably should be a set up for a much better film but at the end of the day its falls too flat in too many places to be a winner.

Fear clinic

Robert Englund runs a hospital that uses revolutionary techniques in order to conquer fear. That sentence alone should tell you all you need to know about how well its going to go, and it seems that Englunds character is posessed by a weird looking creature that feeds on fear so yeah, things go wrong. If yoy see it in poundland its worth a go, its a bit hit and miss but it has some interesting ideas and the creature is well designed so its a diverting watch at least. Not going to live on as a horror classic though.

Eden lodge

Another poundland entry (wednesday nights seem to be the night for this stuff) This time its a British entry. Pretty much a fan love letter to Pete Walker (at least thats how it feels) the film has a nuclear family in the midst of a crisis break down and forced to stay for a few days at the lodge. An overpriced guest house run by a fundamentalist christian and her uptight son. Theres also an Australian backpacker sleeping rough in the grounds and a couple of girls who get trapped early and spend the bulk of the film in a torture shack. Its nowhere near as good as Walkers films but its a diverting 90 minutes and certainly not as bad as some low budget brit horror i've seen. Again, for a quid its worth a go. Lower your expectations a bit though.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)

Dario Argento's directorial debut and the first and best of his animal trilogy.

Well crafted and especially well acted, Tony Musante makes for an appealing hero who witnesses an attempted murder at a posh gallery and is then rather unwillingly roped in by a local detective - an equally good Enrico Maria Salerno - to help trace the would be killer. Sadly English actress Suzy Kendall is underused for the most and then totally loses herself in over acting madness at the finale.

Stylishly shot, Argento's classic camera techniques were in the teething stage here but on the whole are delightfully done. Witness a tracking shot of Musante which elevates from street level onto a roof top before giving us a magical vista of Rome. The same goes for the murder set pieces. Innovative and occasionally bloody but not as gruesome as in later efforts. Whilst a couple are rather tame, one assault in a womans bedroom is all quite sleazy. Dario does ramp up the tension in the build up to a kill in a way so many Italian thriller directors fail to do. You can see his Hitchcockian traits in The Bird With the Crystal Plumage and whilst it's possibly a lazy way to describe him it also feels spot on.

The Bird With the Crystal Plumage is often described as a seminal giallo. Yes i'd go along with that. Recommended!

[Mojo]

ALL THE COLOURS OF THE DARK
Edwige Fenech stars as a troubled soul gradually drawn into a Satanic cult. Or is it all in her imagination? This highly enjoyable Giallo with a satanic twist makes its welcome debut on UK blu ray via Shameless. Great to see Almar and co back in the game - particularly when it involves titles they've not released before. More please!

INQUISITION
Old barrel chest Paul Naschy takes the lead role ( and directs ) this tale of a torturous Inquisitor and witchfinder. I never really got Naschy's obsession with the wolfman character ( it's one of my least favourite of the classic monsters ) but he really shines in this role. The whole thing is beautifully filmed, too. Extras on Mondo Macabro's blu ray include the Spanish horror episode of Eurotika - from the days when Channel 4 used to show interesting stuff.

[Nostalgic]

Originally Posted by Boo Radley

I finally got round to watching The Void. A cop finds a chap crawling about on the road, bloodied and incoherent and takes him to the local hospital which is in the process of closing down so only has a skeleton staff packing stuff up and looking after one young pregnant girl and her father. Two blokes who set fire to a young woman at the beginning of the film also arrive, while outside mysterious figures dressed up like the Klan add more menace.

You get scissors in eyeballs, faces peeled off and tentacle/The Thing/Cthulu type beasts doing nefarious deeds forcing our cop hero and friends deep down into the bowels of the hospital to sort this shit out.

There are nods to numerous classics along the way, Hellraiser, Event Horizon, The Thing and The Beyond immediately came to mind as I watched. It is bleak with an unsettling atmosphere and played straight, no laughs at all, which to my taste is how a horror film should be...BUT....

It just didn't grab me like it should/could have. The characters don't elicit any sympathy so you don't really care about their demise, the dialogue needed some snappy quotes along the lines of, "I'll tear your soul apart" or even, "Jesus wept" and the gore, whilst decent needed one or two really stand out moments to drop your jaw.

It garnered many plaudits along the way but I can only surmise these are from critics who have been bombarded with the insipid crap that passes for horror in the last two decades and missed out on the glorious '70's and '80's horror heydays. It's okay and a worthy effort... but won't stay in your mind too long.

Completely agree! All the reviewers who these days seem to give rave reviews to merely average horror movies seem to have missed the classics!

Am coming to realise I should stop blind buying, as have given up on Hellgate, Hell Comes to Frogtown & loads of other recent releases. I'm sure I loved these when I was 15, but my mindset must have changed as I'm finding it hard to get in the goofy but fun mood of these things.

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Nostalgic

Completely agree! All the reviewers who these days seem to give rave reviews to merely average horror movies seem to have missed the classics!

Am coming to realise I should stop blind buying, as have given up on Hellgate, Hell Comes to Frogtown & loads of other recent releases. I'm sure I loved these when I was 15, but my mindset must have changed as I'm finding it hard to get in the goofy but fun mood of these things.

I think the problem with the void was too much hype. Its a crowdfunded horror movie with high ambitions and practical effects that can prove expensive. Because the trailer was excellent a lot of people went in expecting something game changing when what they got was a decent (certainly better than a lot of the crap on the market) low budget horror flick.

[trebor8273]

i know a lot of people had problems with the void, i really enjoyed it but i do think hype spoiled it for a lot, me i knew nothing about it till it was mentioned on here. But its still a million times better than beyond the gates which was just shockingly bad, good idea spoiled by poor pacing,direction and acting.

you get a feeling of the 80s horrors from The Void something that can't be said for Beyond the Gates, even at £3 for the movie i felt ripped off.

[Justin101]

I haven't watched a film in ages, I need to pull my finger out, long work days and Netflix TV series which release the whole lot in one go are to blame!

That being said, Orange is the New Black season 5 has been amazing, although every episode was pushing 60 minutes meaning it's taken up 13 hours of film watching time