What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

NIGHT OF THE HUNTED – Jean Rollin flick from near the conclusion of his canonical phase. Don’t expect vamps, but it does contain some of his usual staples i.e forlorn expressions of love between two twin-like female protagonists. It’s seen as a bit of an anomaly set against the rest of his work from around this time, however. NOTH unfolds in a semi-futuristic psyche ward / apartment complex that houses the victims of a vaguely defined dementia. Bridget Lahaie is on the run trying to figure out what it all means whilst a bit of random stabby stuff goes on in the background. It’s a film that never seems to get great press, possibly because of this perception that it deviates from the ‘usual’ JR template. I’ve always really liked it. The morbid atmosphere of Rollin comes through strongly, only this time the sense of ‘dreamlike suspension’ has an early Cornenbergian tilt (think ‘Stereo’ / ‘Crimes of the Future’), or maybe the arid complexion of a J G Ballard novel.

OFFERINGS – Looks like they were still doing ‘Halloween’ rip-offs in the late eighties. This isn’t a very good one of those, but I still found it pretty entertaining in a scraping-bottom-of-barrel kind of way. Copies are generally more interesting when they’re imperfect, and ‘Offerings’ tempers its fairly literal retread of the Carpenter classic with a host of flaws. Unfortunately one of these is a relative lack of splatter - you’d think they’d soup things up with something a bit gratuitous, but, not really. In its favour, the pace isn’t too bad, and the ‘shot on a shoestring regional horror indie made by probable non-professionals’ feel comes through rather well – I happen to like that sort of thing, but many don’t.

DREAMING PURPLE NEON – Todd Sheets might be a name familiar to those with an interest in shot-on-video horror, a fannish underground that spawned some real trash. Sheets himself was known pretty well for items such as the undynamic but gory ‘Zombie Bloodbath’ etc back in the early nineties. As for what he’s doing these days, DPN is a microbudget indie about some guy who returns to his home town only to find it laid low by a drug epidemic manufactured by devil worshippers. Things heat up at the local dentist’s, where some ritualistic shit goes down along with a load of blood and guts. In true Sheets style, DPN is very graphic and goes through a ton of prosthetics in its bloated run-time, although a slight levity of tone takes the edge off any harsh stuff. Looks much better than his earlier camcorder-in-a butcher’s-window workouts such as ‘The Goblin’, and flies by pretty quickly.

THE RITUAL – Some thirtysomething Brit guys go on a walking holiday in Sweden to commemorate their friend, a dude who died in during a robbery. They find themselves lost in a forest that turns out to hide a small community of monster-worshippers. ‘The Ritual’ is pretty good overall and offers lots of finely honed cinematography, tense atmosphere (early on) and some decent performances. It does actually suffer when the horror elements become more overt – maybe these were always going to end up as more central (haven’t read the book it’s based on so can’t say), but, up to a certain point, it works better as an increasingly paranoid thriller about the dynamics of male friendships, and to me it felt like a real shame when that psychological intensity was abandoned halfway through for something more literal. Anyhow, still worth catching.

As always sir. NOTH a favourite here also .... and all the rest are duly noted. Kudos ...

[MrBarlow]

Eraserhead 1977

Henry Spencer tries to live his life with his girlfriend who has given birth to a mutant baby.

Last time i saw this movie was about 20 years ago and couldnt understand it but now i think i got the jist of it as a adult.

This movie is like being trapped in someones head or being with them in their worst nightmare or surviving a nuclear war thats left very few inhabitants. Breathing in the fallout or constant smoke blowing out of factory's with whirring of machine noise causing hallucinations.

This is a weird tale brought on by David Lynch for his hatred of places, fear and anxiety of fatherhood thats seems to feed from a realm of paranoia.

Jack Nance is very good at playing Henry who seems to be spaced out and having visions of a woman in his heater yet seems to be very vulnerable with what and who is around him. Is this movie over or underated at being 41 years old??

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Evils of the Night

Not too sure what the hell is going on in this one...necks are obsessively licked and bum fetishism rules the day as aliens harvest blood from a group of sexed up teens out camping. There are no central characters except the baddies as the teens are merely sexualised blood sacks waiting to be killed until the last two standing become the lead characters by virtue of still being alive at the end of the film. It is all a load of bollocks or an exercise in camp art that went over my head, either way worth a look.

[Demoncrat]

It's an odd one for sure. Mates were nonplussed on Boxing Day ... you can't win them all

[bleakshaun]

Go for round 2 with begotten

Sent from my PRA-LX1 using Tapatalk

[Demoncrat]

Cough ... opened that bag have we???

It does become ... involving ... the more y'watch it ... imo

[Demoncrat]

Perfect Sunday film anyhow ....

Endure!!

[Demoncrat]

Superman IV: The Quest For Peace (1987, Sidney J Furie)

Somewhat saner than I was expecting ... until Nuclear Man enters the scenario ... then it's Cannon all the way. You can see Hackman having a ball. Ducky!!!
I'll be revisiting this soon methinks!!

[gag]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

Superman IV: The Quest For Peace (1987, Sidney J Furie)

Somewhat saner than I was expecting ... until Nuclear Man enters the scenario ... then it's Cannon all the way. You can see Hackman having a ball. Ducky!!!
I'll be revisiting this soon methinks!!

Love original superman films that's when superhero films where good and not just cash cow machine like they are now, their just tonnes of crash bang wallop action with CGI and huge budgets, never really been a fan of superhero but because of that of puts me of them anyway

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by gag

Love original superman films that's when superhero films where good and not just cash cow machine like they are now, their just tonnes of crash bang wallop action with CGI and huge budgets, never really been a fan of superhero but because of that of puts me of them anyway

Then you'll hate this g ... as it's a CANNON film ... crash bang wallop is what you gets ... SBU on a global scale (on that unique cough budgeting of theirs). Ahem. I quite liked Doctor Strange ... just throwing that in