What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[MrBarlow]

Damien: Omen 2 1978.

Damien is now a teenager living in Chicago with his Aunt, Uncle and cousin, he begins to understand who he is, and kills off anyone who threatens him.

William Holden and Lee Grant play Richard and Ann Thorn who's incredible acting skills they both have are not well displayed enough are surrogate parents of Damien played by Jonathan Scott Taylor who gives out a very creepy performance of Damien and plays the role very well.

Robert Foxworth and Lance Henriksen have supporting roles as what appears to be guardians/protectors of Damien. Also from Sylvia Sidney as a somewhat relation to the family who suspects something is off with Damien. The death scenes in this are very different from the first movie even a doctor that died splitting his side (wow I'm at poet and didn't know it ). The film may start off a bit slow but does pick up the pace in some bits. 8 out of 10.

[Paul Zombie]

Tenebre. an insane lunatic is on the rampage in rome on a mission to get rid of the sexual deviants. he murders a girl and stuffs her mouth with pages from a book, tenebre. and the auther of the book
Peter neal has just gone to rome for a book promotion. when he,s there the lunatic starts sending him anonymous letters after he commits each murder and quoting passages from the book about sexual perverts who the maniac wants to kill.
many more murders follow that include a young girl who makes a doberman angry that chases her and attacks her before being chopped up my the lunatic, two lesbians being killed for being perverts and so on.

this is very exciting film by Dario argento and his best giallo 98.5 out of 100.

[Frankie Teardrop]

XTRO – My thoughts on H B Davenport’s Brit-‘nasty’ haven’t changed that much over the years – what a strange film, one which transcends the usual lazy classification i.e ‘Alien’ rip-off. In fact, it’s in keeping with a lot of English horror movies from the seventies and eighties in that it grounds itself in a dowdy, beige-coloured social reality before it starts nattering on about extra-terrestrial chrysalises and the like. That said, it does satisfy the demand for VHS-era prosthetic gloopiness although the odd, slightly elliptical atmospherics, aided and abetted by the director’s wonky approximation of a J Carpenter style synth soundtrack, are what make it for me.

SUPER INFRA-MAN – Colourful Shaw Bros weirdness in which some dude is transformed by science into a shiny suit-wearing ‘hero’ who has to save the earth from a bunch of shit Dr Who monster lookalikes led by whip crackin’ Princess Dragon-Mom. Well, that’s basically it – turn your brain off and witness the spectacle of seventies pulp-psychedelia going Toho. The constant monster bashing does threaten to wear thin after a bit, but really there’s nary a dull moment. From the director of ‘The Bloody Parrot’.

BLACK MAGIC 2 – More Shaw Brothers craziness from the mid / late seventies. As you watch, you can feel HK horror coming to the boil – ‘The Boxer’s Omen’ may not be quite there yet, but crotch-shaving, mammary milking and head nailing definitely are. OK, it’s not that explicit in the scheme of things, but it’s a notch or two weirder than its predecessor, a solid flick in its own right. The usual problems apply – wooden performances, a lack of suspenseful dynamics, a tendency to derail through a bit too much talk despite a reasonably sharp pace. There’s atmosphere in places and a debt here and there to Euro-Goth. It’s a cinema of imagery, and a few visuals – zombies with hollow eye sockets, a monstrous birth etc etc – loom larger in the mind after the film than during.

A BRUTAL GAME – From Jean Claude Brisseau, known for ‘Sound and Fury’ and various other pieces of skewed realism. ‘A Brutal Game’, from nineteen eighty-three, was one of his first. It follows an angry young girl as she struggles with disability and the revelation that her father, a discredited government scientist, has been moonlighting as a serial killer. It’s less a genre flick and more a stark, bleak drama that focuses on the cloistered reality of its central character and her daily trials. With its morbid theme of child murder and its cold, claustrophobic atmosphere, I was wondering whether it would go the way of, say, ‘Angst’ or ‘Tenderness of the Wolves’, but really, when viewed from another standpoint, it’s actually a strangely moving account of transformation and self-transcendence. Recommended.

QUEEN OF EARTH – Excellent American indie about two ‘friends’ and the descent of one of them into what looks like madness. Elizabeth Moss plays a washed-up artist who retreats from the death of her father and the end of her relationship by decamping to her mate’s isolated lakeside household. We witness her unravel in the tradition suggested by the likes of ‘Repulsion’, ‘Images’, ‘Let’s Scare Jessica to Death’ etc. Well, that’s sort of true, but one of the interesting things about QOE (and something I feel I see more and more elsewhere in other films these days) is that it adopts the atmospheres and textures of a horror film but remains dramatically a low-key drama. There is no melodrama here, no butchery or mayhem – the protagonist essentially has a bit of a bad time and endures / reinforces some wonky relationship dynamics – but the tone of the film is one of extreme disquiet. The edit, the cinematography, the performances and, above all for me, the soundtrack, all conspire to bring this about. It’s the kind of film where you’re constantly questioning point of view and perspective – whose headspace are you in? – and one where nuance is everything, where a single look could contain a thousand backstories. Enigmatic and utterly beguiling, QOE will work its quietly poisonous way under the skin of anyone in the mood for something other than bodycount. Totally recommended.

[Demoncrat]

Phantom Of The Paradise (1974, Brian de Palma)

Continuing my musical spree with this sombre yet gaudy film. It reminds me of Phibes also ...why I cannot think . Mate declared that this was the sanest of the trio ... which makes it all worth it really.....




Unmasking The Idol (1986, Worth Keeter)

If Cannon had done Bond. SEE THIS. Lawdy Thomas etc

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

XTRO – My thoughts on H B Davenport’s Brit-‘nasty’ haven’t changed that much over the years – what a strange film, one which transcends the usual lazy classification i.e ‘Alien’ rip-off. In fact, it’s in keeping with a lot of English horror movies from the seventies and eighties in that it grounds itself in a dowdy, beige-coloured social reality before it starts nattering on about extra-terrestrial chrysalises and the like. That said, it does satisfy the demand for VHS-era prosthetic gloopiness although the odd, slightly elliptical atmospherics, aided and abetted by the director’s wonky approximation of a J Carpenter style synth soundtrack, are what make it for me.

SUPER INFRA-MAN – Colourful Shaw Bros weirdness in which some dude is transformed by science into a shiny suit-wearing ‘hero’ who has to save the earth from a bunch of shit Dr Who monster lookalikes led by whip crackin’ Princess Dragon-Mom. Well, that’s basically it – turn your brain off and witness the spectacle of seventies pulp-psychedelia going Toho. The constant monster bashing does threaten to wear thin after a bit, but really there’s nary a dull moment. From the director of ‘The Bloody Parrot’.

BLACK MAGIC 2 – More Shaw Brothers craziness from the mid / late seventies. As you watch, you can feel HK horror coming to the boil – ‘The Boxer’s Omen’ may not be quite there yet, but crotch-shaving, mammary milking and head nailing definitely are. OK, it’s not that explicit in the scheme of things, but it’s a notch or two weirder than its predecessor, a solid flick in its own right. The usual problems apply – wooden performances, a lack of suspenseful dynamics, a tendency to derail through a bit too much talk despite a reasonably sharp pace. There’s atmosphere in places and a debt here and there to Euro-Goth. It’s a cinema of imagery, and a few visuals – zombies with hollow eye sockets, a monstrous birth etc etc – loom larger in the mind after the film than during.

A BRUTAL GAME – From Jean Claude Brisseau, known for ‘Sound and Fury’ and various other pieces of skewed realism. ‘A Brutal Game’, from nineteen eighty-three, was one of his first. It follows an angry young girl as she struggles with disability and the revelation that her father, a discredited government scientist, has been moonlighting as a serial killer. It’s less a genre flick and more a stark, bleak drama that focuses on the cloistered reality of its central character and her daily trials. With its morbid theme of child murder and its cold, claustrophobic atmosphere, I was wondering whether it would go the way of, say, ‘Angst’ or ‘Tenderness of the Wolves’, but really, when viewed from another standpoint, it’s actually a strangely moving account of transformation and self-transcendence. Recommended.

QUEEN OF EARTH – Excellent American indie about two ‘friends’ and the descent of one of them into what looks like madness. Elizabeth Moss plays a washed-up artist who retreats from the death of her father and the end of her relationship by decamping to her mate’s isolated lakeside household. We witness her unravel in the tradition suggested by the likes of ‘Repulsion’, ‘Images’, ‘Let’s Scare Jessica to Death’ etc. Well, that’s sort of true, but one of the interesting things about QOE (and something I feel I see more and more elsewhere in other films these days) is that it adopts the atmospheres and textures of a horror film but remains dramatically a low-key drama. There is no melodrama here, no butchery or mayhem – the protagonist essentially has a bit of a bad time and endures / reinforces some wonky relationship dynamics – but the tone of the film is one of extreme disquiet. The edit, the cinematography, the performances and, above all for me, the soundtrack, all conspire to bring this about. It’s the kind of film where you’re constantly questioning point of view and perspective – whose headspace are you in? – and one where nuance is everything, where a single look could contain a thousand backstories. Enigmatic and utterly beguiling, QOE will work its quietly poisonous way under the skin of anyone in the mood for something other than bodycount. Totally recommended.

All noted F. ABG I felt was a more 'middle class' I Stand Alone myself
As always sir .....

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

All noted F. ABG I felt was a more 'middle class' I Stand Alone myself
As always sir .....

And, as always, ta very much. As for your take on ABG - true, better than what I was groping for.

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

And, as always, ta very much. As for your take on ABG - true, better than what I was groping for.

But yours makes better reading . Grope away ... you put me to shame. Now I'm off to show someone else The Apple ... wish me luck !!

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

QUEEN OF EARTH – Excellent American indie about two ‘friends’ and the descent of one of them into what looks like madness. Elizabeth Moss plays a washed-up artist who retreats from the death of her father and the end of her relationship by decamping to her mate’s isolated lakeside household. We witness her unravel in the tradition suggested by the likes of ‘Repulsion’, ‘Images’, ‘Let’s Scare Jessica to Death’ etc. Well, that’s sort of true, but one of the interesting things about QOE (and something I feel I see more and more elsewhere in other films these days) is that it adopts the atmospheres and textures of a horror film but remains dramatically a low-key drama. There is no melodrama here, no butchery or mayhem – the protagonist essentially has a bit of a bad time and endures / reinforces some wonky relationship dynamics – but the tone of the film is one of extreme disquiet. The edit, the cinematography, the performances and, above all for me, the soundtrack, all conspire to bring this about. It’s the kind of film where you’re constantly questioning point of view and perspective – whose headspace are you in? – and one where nuance is everything, where a single look could contain a thousand backstories. Enigmatic and utterly beguiling, QOE will work its quietly poisonous way under the skin of anyone in the mood for something other than bodycount. Totally recommended.

As usual, great reviews, Frankie.

Queen of Earth sounds like a fascinating film and definitely worth a blind buy – thanks!

[Crimson Blade]

La Ardilla Roja-The Red Squirrel (1993).

Spanish thriller about a washed up rock star, Jota, who contemplates suicide by jumping off a bridge into the river below. But before he has a chance, a motor bike comes hurtling through the railings down to the beach below. A girl who was riding on the bike is okay but appears to have amnesia. She has no ID papers. And when the ambulance arrives, he pretends that he is her boyfriend and that her name is Lisa.
Jota continues the charade and later takes her on holiday to the Red Squirrel camp site. But is Lisa playing him as well, and remembers more than she's letting on?
Eventually, it is discovered that Lisa's real name is Sophia and that she has a violent husband, and things take a dramatic turn.

Interesting Spanish film with a surreal atmosphere and nice cinematography.
Good cast and well acted, especially by Emma Suarez who plays Lisa/Sophia.
8/10.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

But yours makes better reading . Grope away ... you put me to shame. Now I'm off to shpw someone else The Apple ... wosh me luck !!

'The Apple' is sheer bad craziness - some kind of permit or disclaimer should be required before anyone healthy views IMO. Hopefully your 'someone else' has been appropriately vetted!
Might dig it out, now you've reminded me...