Is it just me as well or did anyone else watch VAN HELSING then completely forget everything about it 5 minutes after watching? I thought I was coming down with a neurological condition as the whole thing felt like nothing more than a vague blur, like the suits from a scanner darkly.

It is one of those films which you watch and if, ten minutes later, someone asked you to tell them the plot, you wouldn't have a clue.

Maybe there's a subliminal flash at the beginning of the end credits similar to the devices carried by the Men in Black which causes you to have only a vague recollection of what happened during the past two hours. It would explain a great deal about Van Helsing and other such films.

:mob:

Finally saw 2 films I've been meaning to watch for an eternity -

Melancholia - Just great - no matter how arty farty Von Trier is, his films always have a gritty, realistic edge to them. Kirsten Dunst is just amazing and there's great cameos by the likes of Udo Keir ('I am at the end of my rope'), John Hurt, and not forgetting Charlotte Rampling as the mother-in -law from hell. A lot of doo-dahs on Amazon dismissing this as pretentious drivel, completely missing the black humour and sly references (Alain Renais especially) that underscore all the weird goings on. A depressing treat for Xmas!

13 Assassins - 75% of me loved this, the other 25% wished I was watching The Seven Samurai. This is like a pulpy, cartoon version of that film - none of the mythic granduer and spot on characterisations but plenty fun. I hated those stupid CGI flaming bulls though, much as I hate all CGI these days.

Better than setting real bulls on fire surely?!

The Wolf Man (1941)
 

Larry Talbot returns to his ancestral home in Wales,which is fair enough,but boy is it foggy,and er where are all the Welsh?And Bela is the most unconvincing gypsy ever,I mean he doesn't once offer to tarmac Talbot Castle's driveway.

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IMO better not to have included them at all!

December 14th.

Die Monster Die (1965)

How the hell i've never seen or owned this gothic classic before is beyond me.

Produced in England by AIP as a vehicle for the great Boris Karloff. Very loosely based on Lovecraft's story The Colour Out of Space. Set typically in Arkham County, the story involves an American (Nick Adams) searching for his bride to be who is holed up in Karloff's gothic mansion. Adams soon discovers something from outer space is mutating the locals and fear runs deep in the village.

A full review will appear in the Gothic Thread in the new year.

December 15th

After. Life (2010)

A young couple Paul (Justin Long) and Anna (Christina Ricci) are toying with the prospect of marriage when they have a chance encounter with Eliot (Liam Neeson), a mysterious undertaker who claims he can speak with the dead. When Anna who is involved in a car accident is declared dead, she becomes caught in the otherworldly realm between life and death, she risks being buried alive. Will Eliot help her, or is he being driven by darker motivations?, can he really talk to the recently deceased or is it all in his mind?

Performances are excellent in After. Life. Liam Neeson plays sinister so well, Justin Long who's not someone i have great affection for was also very good. Christina Ricci however is the undoubted star of the show, she gives a performance of strength through doubt and denial and turns in a performance that will have all lovers of the dead salivating, she spends a good performance of the film topless and is a dream come true for necrophiliacs and Marilyn Manson fans alike.

The premise of this thriller was intriguing, yet also undercooked. The final denounment was frustratingly left open. I would have loved a happy Hollywood ending, but even the director says she left it open ended for the viewer to make up their own mind. Generally i always see this as a good thing but not in this case. Some sort of conclusion would have helped resolve what was an interesting, yet for this reason flawed movie. Recommended.

December 16th

Humongous (1982)

Bog standard slasher thriller about a boat load of young people who find themselves stranded on an island, then at the mercy of someone or something who would like them all dead. After a suitably sleazy opening involning a fairly graphic rape and a gory dog attack, we are then introduced to our victims, sorry, protagonists, and all is going well. Unfortunately the bulk of the film is very hum drum, set in near darkness, and i'm pretty sure we never get a good look at the killer. The film blatantly steals the girl wearing the mothers jumper in order to pass herself off as the killers son from Friday The 13th Part 2 a year earlier.

December 17th

Bare Behind Bars (1980)

The governess of a female prison in South America sells her captives off as slaves to wealthy buyers.

A puzzle this one. With so much female flesh and sex on display this film couldn't go wrong. Somehow director Oswaldo de Oliveira has contrived to make his Brazillian exploitation classic extremely dull. The film has minimal plot and all the sleaze just blends into one great orgy of limbs. Not one of the characters bar the nurse and prison governess are memorable, even this is probably due to the fact they wear different clothes to the rest of the cast. Many think this film is decidedly grubby but to me i became unaware of it all as my mind wandered after half an hour. I did wake from my slumber for a few minutes as i howled with laughter at the excruciatingly funny gloryhole lesbian sex through a prison cell door. The faces the guard pulls are priceless. There are a few hardcore scenes scattered throughout the movie, mainly at the end, but they add nothing to it. Three escaped prisoners licking a captured boy certainly wasn't in the best taste but by then i was really beyond caring. Had i known i would have got the UK cut version as it would have, mercifully, a shorter running time.

You've made me want to re-visit this one, Dem :D

Yes, i shall also be going back to it in a couple of weeks time. :)

Watched this myself on Blu last weekend and was transported back to my young teenage years (when I wanted to be a Baseball Fury!) Magical film, aged well I think. I also enjoyed the extras, the actors have so much love for this film. Highly recommended.....CAN YOU DIG IT SUCKERS?

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) Steve Rogers wants to be a soldier, he wants it so bad that he agrees to become part of an experiment to create a race of super soldiers who will fight against Nazi Germany in the war. Unfortunatly for the allies Rogers is the only one created and as such isn't of much use so becomes a stage act in order to encourage the public to buy war bonds. But he soon tires of this and sets out to rescue hundreds of pows who are being held by Hydra. A part of the axis but an organzation with its own agenda run by the Red Skull. The movie ticks all the comic book boxes. A neferious villian, a cleaner than clean hero, flag waving, massive war machines and of course superhero signature moves. A little bit of location trivia for you: The street that the newly transformed Rogers runs down whilst chasing the Hydra agent is in the city that I live in....No not New York but Manchester in the UK. Its called Dale Street and for a good few months it was close off whilst filming was taking place. It was chosen as a location because of the architecture which was thought to be right for the period.

[QUOTE=VicDakin;303472]And Bela is the most unconvincing gypsy ever,I mean he doesn't once offer to tarmac Talbot Castle's driveway.

:pound:

The boy MTDS and I watched this today too. It's growing on me with each viewing. Next time I'm in town with the boy, we'll have a walk down Dale Street and see if he recognises it. Wasn't some of it filmed in Liverpool as well?

I always thought it was filmed in the Northern Quarter where they filmed Cutting It and Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes.

You learn something new... as they say. :)

That whole area, Church Street into Dale Street, is now in the Northern Quarter I think. It's certainly expanded since I moved to Manchester about 15 years ago.

Just how many of us live in Manchester? :lol: Yep that area is also now the Northern Quarter. As for Liverpool I didn't know that! Nor did I know about Sherlock Holmes being partly filmed here!

Death Valley (1982) I had never seen this before viewing the recently released Scream Factory Blu Ray and I was pleasantly surprised by this quiet little film that has obvious slasher influences. The atmospheric landscape scenery was photographed beautifully and the cat and mouse interaction between Billy (Peter Billingsley) and the "maniac" was a joy to watch. One evident flaw is how thin the plot can be. There isn't much to go on but I don't feel like that obstructs the entertainment factor. The blu ray looks and sounds fantastic to boot. I recommend it.

I thought this was a really good film which thankfully has improved on repeated viewings thanks to the open ending. I don't always like events to be wrapped up neatly at the end of the third act as it allows your imagination to play a part in working out the dénouement or think through what you've just seen, digest it and maybe give you a completely different viewing experience the next time around.

The final thoughts in my review are:

I used to have the pre-cert uk vhs release of this, it was a decent little horror movie imo and certainly got re-watched a few times. I got rid of it with most of my vhs collection fully expecting a dvd release that never materialised. So the blui is a must buy for me, hadn't realised it was out yet.

Lips of Blood (1975) As a child Frédéric had gotten lost one day and found himself in the ruins of a castle where he was befriended by a young woman. Twenty years later he sees a poster of the ruins and starts to remember that night which he has since forgotten. He starts to see visions of the young woman beckoning him but someone is trying to stop him from finding the castle. Meanwhile there are four vampire women, (two of them inexplicably nude beneath diaphanous gowns in the wind no less), who are determined to help Frédéric find the young woman. A typical Rollin vampire film more about style rather than story. The ending scene with the two naked on the beach made me laugh because Annie Belle visibly shivered in the wind. Perhaps vampires do feel the cold!

I Stand Alone (Gaspar Noe). A claustrophobic tale of isolation, not a film to watch when you have guns in the house I'd say haha. mate was suitably appalled/impressed.

He gets thrown off a car right outside the Heritage Market by Liverpool's docks too.

I've been delving into the BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas short films these last few days. Aside from those, I've also recently watched the following:

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Did you like Katalin Varga?

I thought it excellent.

YES! I really enjoyed it. It's made me hungrier to check out Berberian Sound Studio.

Thats the only film i have on pre order.

I posted stills from Katalin Varga on this page. http://www.cult-labs.com/forums/gene...tml#post234174

I'm going to rent it first, as I've heard mixed reviews.

Nice KV stills :)

Mixed really?

I've seen nothing but positive - 70% on Rotten Tomatoes, 6.7 on IMDB, The Guardian calls it one of the films of the year. :)

Well... admittedly the positive has far outweighed the negative.

I'm trying to curb my blind buying though, as I'm seriously starting to run out of room!

Me too. Nothing but good things.

You'll have to do as i now do. Cover them with throws and use them as tables, chairs etc.

It may come to that, as I probably have space for about 20 more DVDs and 50 more Blu-rays on the shelves as they're set up at the moment.

I might build a small fort out of DVDs at the the bottom of the garden :D

The Hobbit.

A startling return to form for peter jackson after the dreadful oscar bait vomit that was LOVELY BONES. Felt a great deal shorter than the 3hr 20m running time with some real humour lots of action and great creatures, this one certainly ranks up there with my favourite blockbusters of the year including SKYFALL and THE AVENGERS.

Also brace yourself for Sylvester mcoy stealing every scene he's in and riding a sled driven by rabbits. Surreal genius.

December 18th

A Night in the Woods (2011)

Excellent British take on the well trodden formula of found footage movies ala The Blair Witch Project. Yes its derivative, and yes it has basically the same plot devices but it works for me. Set on Dartmoor as Autumn begins to take hold i found A Night in the Woods to be an enjoyable and slightly disturbing film.

For anyone fortunate enough to be able to walk in our beautiful unspoilt countryside for miles without seeing another living soul as i am lucky enough to be able to do, should get something from the film. If anyone has ever tried walking in said countryside in the dead of night they will also know how true to life A Night in the Woods actually is. You cannot see a thing and even familliar routes become near death traps as a single rock or ditch could have you saying good bye to the use of an ankle. Similarly once you lose the train of thought that made you walk in the pitch blackness then you realise just how much of a stranger in a strange land you really are. The slightest sound has you warily looking round, unable to see anything in any direction, once you get that sensation of being spooked its pretty much all over.

Its this feeling of unease and fear which really works in A Night in the Woods. Ignore all the cliche's - the bickering characters, the witch hunter legend, artifacts hanging from branches, the film is well acted, well directed and deserving of your attention.

I'm hoping to put my review up by the weekend – it's one of the best films of the year and a definite 5/5.

Looking forward to reading it, Nos :thumb:

Iron Man (2008) "Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist" if there ever was an actor to play the role of Tony Stark then Robert Downey Jnr is the one. Its hard to imagine anyone else in the role! Filled with humorous touches and action packed! The movie starts off with the weapons maker being kidnapped by a terrorist group, (a group which works for someone as yet unseen in the Iron Man movies according to the Director), and forced to make a missle. However he builds a prototype suit that will enable him to escape. Thus Iron Man enters the world and immediately gets the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D. An organization putting together a team of extraordinary people. In the meantime there is a traitor within Stark Industries who is responsible for orchestrating Starks kidnapping and they have their eyes on the new technology that powers the suit. This was the first movie filmed in the Avengers series of movies.

Pretty cool cameo from Tom Morello too, one of my favourite guitar players

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__...ello_cameo.jpg

Lust for a Vampire (1971)
 

A Hammer film I somehow missed,it borders on parody,all the men seem to be playing fops and dandies while channeling the spirit of Kenneth WILLIAMS,while the women are either simpering or predatory lesbians,all that was missing was BABS Windsor and her bra flying antics.

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