What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Rik

One of my favourite Hammer films, absolute classic and far more enjoyable than the source material

I do like the book as well. Read it a couple of times in the past but not in the last 20 years i admit.

[Rik]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I do like the book as well. Read it a couple of times in the past but not in the last 20 years i admit.

I like it too, but find it drags on a bit in places, been years since I read it as well

[John Matrix]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

I laughed all the way through Ghost. Sorry!


Commando (Mark L Lester, 1985)

They do not make them like this anymore. A better Queen tribute than that film wot they just dun did imho, this rollicking tale of revenge and violence is still quite jaw dropping.

Haha even with Demi Moore crying for the whole film. Heart of stone.

Commando is one of the finest films ever made, there's not a single wasted scene. It's just pure Arnie gold from start to finish.

[Paul Zombie]

The Godsend.

A pregnant woman(Angela Pleasence) befriends a family with 4 kids and gives birth at their house. and later buggers off leaving her baby behind. and the couple raise the child as their own and name her bonnie.
but then their own children start dying in weird accidents.

This i thought was a pretty good creepy killer kid film in the tradition of Bloody Birthday and The Omen. although it doesn't really explain if the child is satanic or just evil.
not particulary gory as most of the killings are off screen, and is more of an atmosphere driven film. but does still pack a punch when all the victims are children.

angela Pleasense, daughter of Donald, is as creepy as ever, despite her short screen time. and the rest of the cast pretty convincing as well. 75 out of 100.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Paul Zombie

The Godsend.

A pregnant woman(Angela Pleasence) befriends a family with 4 kids and gives birth at their house. and later buggers off leaving her baby behind. and the couple raise the child as their own and name her bonnie.
but then their own children start dying in weird accidents.

This i thought was a pretty good creepy killer kid film in the tradition of Bloody Birthday and The Omen. although it doesn't really explain if the child is satanic or just evil.
not particulary gory as most of the killings are off screen, and is more of an atmosphere driven film. but does still pack a punch when all the victims are children.

angela Pleasense, daughter of Donald, is as creepy as ever, despite her short screen time. and the rest of the cast pretty convincing as well. 75 out of 100.

I was really surprised when i first saw this. I'd not really heard of it even though it's featured in the Ten Years of Terror book. So when i got it as part of a Shout Factory four film set i wasn't really expecting a British horror film. Cue - Nice surprise.

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by John Matrix

Haha even with Demi Moore crying for the whole film. Heart of stone.

Commando is one of the finest films ever made, there's not a single wasted scene. It's just pure Arnie gold from start to finish.

Finest movies cough

Demon me. Heartless etc

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Strange Awakening (1958)

As i watched this South of France set thriller all i could think of were the Hammer thrillers which also had the odd exotic location such as Maniac and decided Merton Park were basically cashing in, but no, this actually came first.

This tale about a man (Lex Barker) who, following an accident, wakes up at a posh mansion on the Riviera not knowing who he is or where he is, only to be told by three women that he's the heir to two million dollars.

Naturally it's not all plain sailing and the police soon get involved as Barker tries to work out exactly what's happening.

What starts off as an intriguing thriller sort of peters out after the half way mark, there are no great reprisals and the fiery finale seems almost tacked on to maintain interest. Lacking the macabre er' thrills of the Hammer thrillers The Strange Awakening ends up being merely alright.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Dracula (2006)

A difficult film to write about as i did enjoy it but it was so far removed or perhaps rushed in comparison to Stoker's novel and other adaptations that for long periods it didn't feel like i was watching Dracula.

Marc Warren as the titular character was an interesting choice. He certainly channeled Gary Oldman in the old Dracula stakes (cough) but his renewed youthful vamp was so out of step - too foppish by far - that he seemed badly miscast.

The film as a whole took themes from the novel but added long scenes where Arthur Holmwood (Dan Stevens) battles Syphilis and David Suchet's Van Helsing barely features at all and when he does he's a hermit in a cellar and which part of the novel features the Satanist Singleton as played by Donald Sumpter? There were no vampire brides and... i think you get the idea.

The film to give it credit had a great production design and a nice atmosphere to it, the blood scenes although few and far between were well done particular when Dracula rips off Holmwood's head, so it was a watchable film, it just didn't really feel like a Dracula film.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Atlantic City (1980)

Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon head a film set in the grey foreboding gravestone like buildings of early eighties Atlantic City a place which is nearer a run down Blackpool than anything remotely glitzy Las Vegas.

Lancaster, a voyeuristic past it one time hoodlum reduced to running a gambling racket and living off memories from Vegas that never happened, and Sarandon a waitress whom Lancaster spies on and becomes involved with following a drug deal gone wrong.

It's beautifully played and at times charming but equally bizarre and beguiling. Part gangster, part romance but excelling at neither this is really a story of the intertwined lives of small time losers.

Although i enjoyed this film it didn't seem at all remarkable yet i have this sneaky suspicion i'll be returning to Atlantic City as it left a lingering (perhaps) stain (is the best word) in my head.

[trebor8273]

Tonight's viewings