What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Manitou (1978)

Based on the novel by Graham Masterton about a woman (Samantha Egger) who ends up in hospital due to a large growth on the back of her neck that completely flummoxes the experts. A psychic (Tony Curtis) and a native American shaman (Michael Ansara) come to the conclusion that the growth is alive and is in fact an old Indian shaman reincarnating himself to exact revenge on the white man.

Although not the most thrilling horror film, in fact it sags quite alarmingly around the mid way point, The Manitou ends up well worth a watch. Tony Curtis is always good value and the whole concept of a living tumor growing on someone's neck is all a bit skin crawling as is the suitably gooey scene as the shaman leaves Egger's body at the end in a memorable finale, which, along with Curtis performance, turns something fairly average into something absurd but surprising.

[nosferatu42]

The Pit

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Absolutely f*ckin nutzoid obscurity from 1981.
Jamie is a pretty disturbed and withdrawn 12 year old boy who is shunned by the local kids and whose best friend is Teddy ( a teddy bear that talks to him).

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When his parents go away on a trip they leave him with an attractive female babysitter who he becomes obsessed with, watching her sleep and creeping up on her in the shower etc.

Meanwhile he finds a pit in the local woods, inside live some weird creatures he calls Tra-la-logs, he becomes obsessed with them and decides to look after them, only to find they have a taste for raw meat.

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Running out of money for food, he decides to take those who have teased and upset him and lead them to the pit.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, it seems to just bung a load of random elements together, but i have a soft spot for these type of weirdo films. Stuff that you watch late at night and just say WTF were these guys on, things that have a dreamlike feel.

The film is pretty well made and well acted, there's not much gore or nudity, but just enough to ice the cake.
The story went in a few directions i wasn't expecting so it gets points for that from me too.

Recommended 8/10

[nosferatu42]

Also watched some stuff on T.V last night.

Scouts guide to the zombie apocalypse.

Didn't expect much from this and missed the start but what i saw i enjoyed, aimed at teens with some gross out moments, this rises slightly above that by having fairly likeable people playing the teenagers.
I found this enjoyable but nothing special. 7/10

Eden Lake

A film i've been meaning to catch up with due to the F-bender being in it, because he's a pretty decent actor usually. He's good in this too and the film is well made and tense, i was on the edge of my seat throughout as a couple are set upon by homicidal chavs.

I must be getting old though because even though i thought it was well made it just seemed too grim and the ending made me want to rip what's left of my hair out, leaving me wanting more vengeance and some satisfaction.

So very well done, but don't know if i'll ever watch it again as i felt pretty down afterwards.

7/10

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by Buboven

After passing on the two Suzuki boxsets, thinking of asking to get one of them now for my Birthday.

Which volume is better or are they both worth getting? Leaning towards Volume 2 as I think I might enjoy his crime films more than the youth centred collection in Vol 1.

I bought both volumes but I've only watched vol 1 so far, I loved all of the films, but they are not all serious, a couple of them are pretty much comedies with musical interludes. vol 2 looks like they are all serious crime films.

[Rik]

Originally Posted by nosferatu42

Eden Lake

A film i've been meaning to catch up with due to the F-bender being in it, because he's a pretty decent actor usually. He's good in this too and the film is well made and tense, i was on the edge of my seat throughout as a couple are set upon by homicidal chavs.

I must be getting old though because even though i thought it was well made it just seemed too grim and the ending made me want to rip what's left of my hair out, leaving me wanting more vengeance and some satisfaction.

So very well done, but don't know if i'll ever watch it again as i felt pretty down afterwards.

7/10

I watched it for the first time a few weeks back and felt exactly the same

[SymbioticFunction]

Blade Trinity, 2004.

I love the first 2 Blade films so it's unsurprising that I would also own the 3rd one. Disappointing film but certainly not godawful. Blade has to share his screen time with Jessica Biel and a wisecracking Ryan Reynolds. Something which didn't make Snipes happy (he was also unhappy with writer Goyer being the director).

Production was troubled with Wesley Snipes smoking copious amounts of cannabis and often refusing to leave his trailer. This film is a bit too comic-booky with odd things like a blind computer expert and a moment where they somehow extrapolate a full image of Dracula armour from a little tiny fragment (how??).

I've got the theatrical cut on Dutch blu-ray which unusually, is a slightly improved version of the film with a different opening, some poor background character dialogue removed and a different ending (Dracula's final words about a parting gift doesn't even make any sense in the director's cut).

Film score 6/10 (for theatrical cut, would be a bit lower for director's cut).

[Justin101]

Some recent watches for me, after watching a few disappointing films in a row I went on a re-watch frenzy and just watched stuff I've seen before. Theatrical version of Terminator 2 because the DC is too long

[Paul Zombie]

Dracula AD 1972.

One of my all time favourite Hammer films that i first saw in 1981 when my dad got our first VHS recorder.

Starting off in 1872 Count dracula played by Christopher lee and Van helsing played by Peter cushing are fighting on top of a runaway coach in Hyde park. as it crashes Lee gets impaled on a wheel and Cushing pushes it in deeper to kill him before dying as well. Later Draculas disciple shows up and gathers up Draculas dust in a glass jar which he later burys in unhallowed ground in St Bartoffs church yard.

moving on to 1972 were we see Van Helsings descendent again played by Cushing and his grand daughter Jessica. Jessica played by the gorgeous Stephanie Beacham runs around with a group of hippys including a chap called Jonny Alucard who is Draculas disciple who unbeknown to Jessica is planning to resurrect Dracula in a black mass so that Dracula can get his revenge on the Van Helsing family by making Jessica one of his kind.

this film is a absolute gem with it's 70's setting, fashions and music. The black mass is genuinely creepy and well done. and i love the
fact that Hammer tried something different from the old gothic films.

Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing are as excellent as ever and the film has a very strong supporting cast overall, including the stunning babe Caroline munro.

and funny dialogue like, Professor Van helsing: Murder, Jessica. that's what all this is about. Ghastly, horrible, obscene murder!
and Jessica Van helsing: Weird man. Way out. I mean, spooks, hobgoblins, black magic. all that jazz.


Another funny moment for me is when Peter cushings writes down Jonny Alucard's name and he has to make a diagram to work out that it spells Dracula. Priceless. 93.7 out of 100.

[Demoncrat]

I love Eden Lake. Because it's so grim

[JoshuaKaitlyn]

Off work for the week so decided to watch the three releases in the 101 Blacl Label collection that I bought last week.

The Grifters - Not a bad movie and one that I would probably see again.
Exitenz - OK WTF did I just see? Not overly keen on this.
Rollercoaster - I enjoyed this.

Might do the first five in 88's Slashers next