What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[keirarts]

Baby Blood

A woman working for a travelling circus is impregnated by a primordial creature that is brought to France hiding in a cheetah that has been captured for the Circus. The 'Baby' inside her begins communicating with her and directing her to kill so it can get the blood it needs to grow. The woman flees to Paris and begins working first as a waitress and then as a Taxi driver in order to both support herself and find victims to feed the creature growing in her womb.
Baby Blood is a fantastic horror. Its a precursor to the new wave of extreme French horror that led to films like Inside, Martyrs and Haute Tension. Its very bloody and surprisingly humorous, its even quite clever in its look at male attitudes towards women and gender identity. Especially with a central female horror character with a real sense of agency.

Night of Death

This one's been in a lot of my Top Ten tuesday lists. A young woman is found a job at a local care home by her fiancee. She settles into the job fairly easily however something seems a little off. Another nurse working there vanishes. We see her get eaten by the elderly residents so as an audience we know more than the character. This leads to a sense of uneasy tension as the woman begins to investigate the dark secret behind the care home.
Stylistically the film feels very much inspired by the films of Jean Rollin, the film has the feel of a nightmare where things don't always make sense but don't really need to. Highly recommended

[keirarts]

Stendhal syndrome

Ana, a detective from Rome is investigating a serial rapist who has progressed to killing his victims. She travels to Florence and receives a tip-off that the killer will be at a local museum. While there she experiences the Stendhal syndrome and enters a painting. Left disoriented she ends up falling victim to the killer Alfredo Grossi (Thomas Kretschmann). She's raped but manages to escape and begins to track him. This leads to a cat and mouse game between the killer and Ana. At the hour mark Argento throws a curveball and Ana actually seems to kill Grossi, however Ana continues to be tormented by the killer.
With the new Blue underground release of Stendahl (which is great btw) there seems to be an attempt to 'redeem' the movie critically. It's not a bad movie, its certainly not as awful as Dracula 3D, as horribly underwhelming as mother of tears or as mediocre as Giallo. In fact it has some terrific scenes that come close to vintage Argento, the only limitation being the limited early CGI that doesn't look great. The fact that lead actress Asia Argento is his daughter gives an added creepiness to proceedings. However my main complaint with Standahl remains. It really runs out of steam about 80 minutes in, yet continues on for another 40 minutes that should be a Repulsion-esque descent into madness but feels flat and uninvolving. Its still watchable and I enjoy it more than I used to however its far from his best work.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Excellent reviews, kierarts. I haven't heard of most of those, so I'll keep an eye out for them on Amazon marketplace and Music Magpie.

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

Excellent reviews, kierarts. I haven't heard of most of those, so I'll keep an eye out for them on Amazon marketplace and Music Magpie.

Baby blood is horribly dear right now but Night of Death has plummeted on Amazon right now. Used to be about £35+ but now down to about £11.

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by keirarts

Future shock: the story of 2000AD

Superb documentary. It's fairly comprehensive including dealing with the Ropy issues they put out in the 90's that caused me to drift over to Vertigo titles along with a lot of their best talent. That said I have a deep fondness for 2000AD as I pretty much grew up reading it.

I really want to get into 2000AD, and I tried a couple of years ago but the lore is so dense that I found it really hard to break into. I know that you, and Bleakshaun are fans, what do you think I should do?

[bleakshaun]

Originally Posted by Justin101

I really want to get into 2000AD, and I tried a couple of years ago but the lore is so dense that I found it really hard to break into. I know that you, and Bleakshaun are fans, what do you think I should do?

i initially just started reading Judge Dredd, and then explored through Nemesis the Warlock and ABC Warriors (you have to read these 2 together), and then Strontium Dog and Rogue Trooper.
With Dredd alone I find there are 2 ways to get through it. 1: get the case files for the chronological release (easiest way of doing so) or 2: research and read the main storylines - Cursed Earth, Day the Law Died; Apocalypse War etc.
Option 1 was how I got into Dredd.
Nemesis is easy to get into lore wise.

[bleakshaun]

Originally Posted by bleakshaun

i initially just started reading Judge Dredd, and then explored through Nemesis the Warlock and ABC Warriors (you have to read these 2 together), and then Strontium Dog and Rogue Trooper.
With Dredd alone I find there are 2 ways to get through it. 1: get the case files for the chronological release (easiest way of doing so) or 2: research and read the main storylines - Cursed Earth, Day the Law Died; Apocalypse War etc.
Option 1 was how I got into Dredd.
Nemesis is easy to get into lore wise.

also, unlike other comic series (batman, spiderman etc). Judge Dredd is 40 years straight, no reboots or anything just 40 years continually

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by bleakshaun

also, unlike other comic series (batman, spiderman etc). Judge Dredd is 40 years straight, no reboots or anything just 40 years continually

That's what makes it a harder egg to crack

[bleakshaun]

Originally Posted by Justin101

That's what makes it a harder egg to crack

it really is, but as i said if you start with the case files; you're getting a chronological release. and also one of the most badass comic series ever

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Justin101

I really want to get into 2000AD, and I tried a couple of years ago but the lore is so dense that I found it really hard to break into. I know that you, and Bleakshaun are fans, what do you think I should do?

Picking up specific graphic novels is the best starting point. I know Dress is publishing from the beginning. It should be possible to get collected Nemesis the Warlock, roguectrooper ect. The 'complete' Halo Jones is highly recommended (the fact it's unfinished is delt with in the doc) I also highly recommend the collected Thargs future shocks which was one of my favourites growing up.