Burial of the Rats (1995)

Whilst traveling in 19th century France, Bram Stoker is captured and taken to a coven of rat worshiping female bandits, ruled over by a self styled Queen who controls the rats using a flute. These Amazonian rat women supported by the rats undertake murderous raids on the men who have previously wronged them and use Bram to chronicle the events.

This Roger Corman production is only very loosely based on the Stoker story of the same name. The film whilst full of dungeons, torture, rats eating folks alive etc isn't exactly a horror film its more a Gothic pirate movie, on land. Despite having plenty of naked flesh, sword play in abundancy and the fantastic Adrienne Barbeau as the Pied Piper of Hamlyn's twisted sister, the film is a little too sedate. It lacks the bite and oomph of a true Corman exploitation film, all the ingredients are there but somehow director Dan Golden fails to do anything substantial with them. Had Jess Franco been director, now that would have been a film.

Kevin Alber as Stoker is incredibly wooden in the role, even as he spouts reams of dialogue he really can't compete with even a glance from Barbeau who must really wonder who, what and why she is in this production. Barbeau has all the best lines and a frankly unforgettable cleavage, even aged fifty, whilst Maria Ford and Olga Kabo have all the best hair pulling scenes. All three are fair game here, but in the acting stakes that's about as far as it goes. The rest of the cast, star Alber included, are instantly forgettable. Even the rats seem a little disinterested in proceedings and don't exactly convince that around twenty or so of them have stripped the flesh of a victim in a mere couple of minutes.

The film also falls down as it was filmed as a cable tv movie, as with many tv productions the end product seems just a bit wrong, over bright and unnatural. Unfortunately this doesn't really help the film's cause much despite the production having great locations, costumes and set design.

Despite all these failings or maybe because of them, i still find the film entertaining and have now seen it four or five times. I'm not sure i could really recommend it to others though, other than it being a bit of a curiosity.

Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

It struck me towards the end of this master piece how visual effects legend Ray Harryhausen lulls you into proceedings. Beginning with the statuesque Talos, a slow moving almost lumbering giant cast out of bronze. Then we have a couple of Harpies, more complex in their movements especially when in flight.

The Clashing Rocks are the calm before the storm so to speak because soon after the shit really does hit the stop motion fan with the multi headed snake like Hydra before the pièce de résistance head f*ck of the "children of the Hydra's teeth" - seven sword and shield wielding skeletons. The stop motion animation work that went into them must have been obscene.

Stunning stuff. The rest of the movie pales in comparison.

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THE THREE MUSKETEERS(1973) THE FOUR MUSKETEERS (1974)

An all star cast in these comedy adventures. Full of sword play, action and slapstick moments. These movies stick quite close the Dumas novel.
The Three Musketeers (The Queens Diamonds) is the most humorous of the two movies. The Four Musketeers (The Revenge Of Milady) takes a more serious turn with some characters meeting their deaths.
Originally filmed to be one big roadshow movie, the cast had no idea that the film had been split in to two movies. This led to a lawsuit by the actors and actresses as they had only been paid for one movie.

Godzilla vs Gigan
Godzilla vs Megalon

Both superd Godzilla movies, and although Megalon is apparently not popular amongst fans, I loved it! Action packed & fast paced.

Watched an upload of the withdrawn Tokyo Shock commentary (on youtube) while the movie was playing, amazing!

You Should Have Left

Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried and bairn go on holiday to Wales. To a house that Ballard would have had nightmares about tbh. Poorly scripted and edited, this just unravels after about 20 minutes. If you take anything away from this, it should be to give this one a swerve. Bairn reasonable. No pets.
It made me want to revisit The Skin I Live In, though I can't say why ....

Ever After (1998)

A charming take on the Cinderella story which dispenses with the singing rabbits and shit like that to concentrate solely on telling a good story.

Enjoyable, heart warming and fun.

Kicking off my Gamera set with Gamera: Guardian of the universe.
Having only seen about two of these, I'm in awe of how good this is. Made in 1995, it has a Jurassic Park vibe but also seems to anticipate the 2014 Godzilla remake. Very fast paced, with an option of 3 soundtracks (went for original Japanese with subs).

Great film, with effects better than most Hollywood films of the last 20 years! :clap:

Jesus... Who doesn't like singing rabbits... you sir have a heart of stone...

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MURDER BY THE CLOCK (1931)

Excellent old dark house movie with a cemetery and crypt in the grounds.
The crypt has a horn installed in case the owner of the house is entombed alive.
Lilyan Tashman is superb as the woman who is scheming to get her hands on family inheritance by twisting men round her finger and getting them to commit murder.

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THE SHUTTERED ROOM (1967)

Carol Lynley returns to her mill house family home after being sent away when she was four years old. Despite repeated warnings of a family curse and constant harassment by Oliver Reed and his gang, she and her husband move in to the old mill.

There was a bit of an uproar when the mill location, re built in 1820 was bought by the film company to be destroyed.
This is interesting and includes the history of the mill and the filming information.

Norfolk Mills - Hardingham watermill

Mary Queen of Scots (2018) ★★★★

Working from a book by Dr John Guy, director Josie Rourke and screenwriter Beau Willimon took a lot of liberties with historical facts that, because I haven't studied the Tudors in much depth and are not particularly precious about the characters, dates, and locations from that period, the historical inaccuracies of which I am aware don't bother me at all.

The film uses two fascinating characters from a really interesting piece of British history and weaves them together to make the film which, both times I've seen it, has been compelling and enjoyable. It's beautifully directed with exceptional costumes, production design, set decoration, art decoration, make-up, and locations, and shot in such a way to make it visually interesting at all points. I also love Max Richter's score, an innovative and emotional piece of music.

This film also has wonderful performances from Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, Adrian Lester, David Tennant, Guy Pearce, Martin Compston, Ismael Cruz Cordova, and Simon Russell Beale – the colourblind casting allows directed Josie Rourke to work with a hugely talented ensemble cast.

Mary Queen of Scots is a fine film, though one which will probably irritate those who know their Tudor history too well to accept the story they are being told, wishing it was factually accurate.