What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

House of Usher (1960)

Upon entering his fiancée's family mansion, a man discovers a family curse and fears that his future brother-in-law has entombed his bride-to-be prematurely.

I don't know why but i just can't get excited by this Roger Corman, Edgar Allan Poe production. Despite it being beautifully Gothic, delightfully atmospheric and lushly photographed with a purring performance by Vincent Price, i find it for the most part quite boring, especially the middle third. Admittedly the finale works rather well i just find i've lost interest long before Roderick Usher's nefarious deeds including catalepsy and perhaps incest come to light.

The UK movie poster as seen below is simply gorgeous.

[trebor8273]

A wonderful feel good classic. A simple story with lots of classic scenes and quotes.

9.5/10


Up tonight

Frightmare (1983)

Werewolf Women.

[nosferatu42]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

House of Usher (1960)

Upon entering his fiancée's family mansion, a man discovers a family curse and fears that his future brother-in-law has entombed his bride-to-be prematurely.

I don't know why but i just can't get excited by this Roger Corman, Edgar Allan Poe production. Despite it being beautifully Gothic, delightfully atmospheric and lushly photographed with a purring performance by Vincent Price, i find it for the most part quite boring, especially the middle third. Admittedly the finale works rather well i just find i've lost interest long before Roderick Usher's nefarious deeds including catalepsy and perhaps incest come to light.

The UK movie poster as seen below is simply gorgeous.

I've never been that keen on 'Usher', my favourites are 'Pendulum' and 'Red death'.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by nosferatu42

I've never been that keen on 'Usher', my favourites are 'Pendulum' and 'Red death'.

The Haunted Palace and Red Death for me.

[nosferatu42]

Two words- Barbara Steele.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by nosferatu42

Two words- Barbara Steele.

Yeah, she's not actually a favourite of mine to be honest.

[nosferatu42]

She's my Gothic goddess, her and Carolyn Jones from the Addams family.
Perfect women to me.
I'm wearing a Morticia T- shirt at the moment.

Steele has a great way of seeming sweet then turning into some kind of demon with a single facial expression.
Then there's the eyes.

She's been turning up on Talking pictures channel recently, first as a student in some random film briefly, then yesterday she was in a film called 'your money or your wife' sexing it up with Donald Sinden no less.

To me she is the 'original' horror female star, others like Barbara Shelley were mostly the victim, whereas Steele was the monster,seductress,adultress or avenging spirit.

I put her among Cushing, Lee, Price, Lorre, Karloff and Lugosi as a true horror icon.
I think she's above being classed as a generic scream queen as she has much more presence and power in her roles.

[MrBarlow]

Ghost Game

Khmer prison in Cambodia where innocent people were tortured and killed in the 1970s, now turned into a museum. 11 people volunteer for a reality t.v show Ghost Game venture there, they will be pitted to survive bogus traps in order to win, but some Ghosts are unsettled.

This was a fairly some what weird horror movie from Thailand, that was banned in and around Cambodia itself for the background story.

The plot is like the film The Task but this does have a eerie background, and slow confusing parts to it, some of the jumps scenes can be predictable. Some bits could have helped the movie along the way and some failed acting but OK for passing some time. 5 out of 10.

[iank]

Game Night. Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams are a competitive couple whose weekly "game night" gets upped a notch by Bateman's show-off older brother, promising them an interactive real-world murder-mysteryesque game involving his own abduction. Unfortunately some real world thugs gatecrash the party and things do not quite as planned... This modern comedy has a similar style premise to the 1997 Bill Murray comedy The Man Who Knew Too Little, albeit nowhere near as good. By modern comedy movie "standards" it's not bad, and less gross-out rubbish than most, but it's overly long, with too many endings, and it doesn't milk the premise anywhere near as well you'd think.

[keirarts]

Mad dog killer

One of two Italian crime flicks I watched and fell asleep to, not through any fault of either film but simple random insomnia from the night before. This one was good enough from what I saw to get me to watch it again.

Anyway...

Helmut Berger is on fine form as Nanni Vitali. An utter psycho who escapes prison with three other convicts. Instead of lying low until the heat dies down Vitali goes on a bit of a rampage, kidnapping the man who testified against him and his girlfriend for a bit of rape/torture before sticking the rat in a hole in the ground and covering him with Lye while he's still alive. Richard Harrison plays police commissioner Giulio Santini, a tough by the books cop assigned to take this nutter down and the pair begin to play a game of cat and mouse with plenty of casualties along the way.
Mad dog killer is well worth seeking out. Its a lean, mean and fairly nasty cops & robbers Poliziotteschi. It cracks along at an entertaining pace and has an infectious theme song that you'll struggle to get out of your head afterwards. For me its also one of Bergers best roles in the genre, he's really damned good here as the maniacal Vitali who would rather settle scores than get away.