What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[MrBarlow]

Saint Maud. 2019.

A young woman becomes a in carer to a housebound women, soon she begins to feel God inside her and tries to save the soul of her patient and herself.

I know some people haven't seen this so I will keep it short, this is a different kind of horror more psychological that explores illness and religion and the guy upstairs testing people. The acting is quite decent even for a British movie this had me fixated. Forget the trailer go with a open mind on this one.

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[Demoncrat]

The Den (2013, Zach Donohue)

Oooooh, the internet.
FF.
When Elizabeth starts a new study, she gets more than she asked for (and no, I dinnae mean dick pics ).
Reasonably creepy in places, even if tis a tad jump scare heavy ahem. Decent ending.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Vanguard (2020)

Ludicrously plotted globe trotting Jackie Chan action adventure with some scarily bad dialogue...but i didn't care. I was caught up in the sheer spectacle of it all.

I had a lot of fun with this lively OTT escapade as Chan and his Vanguard team hit London, Africa, an unnamed Middle East country then finally Dubai with it's wild finale involving a US Aircraft carrier, missiles galore and solid gold cars racing through the streets.

More than one nod here to Chan's 1985 classic Police Story and stunt fans should know that Jackie nearly drowned whilst filming a jet ski waterfall stunt. As you do.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by J Harker

Watched Clive Barking's Nightbreed for the first time today. I watched the Directors Cut and to be honest i loved it. What does the Cabal Cut have in store? Is it worth tracking down?

From the websites I've read, the Cabal Cut is longer, but reliant on substandard source material. This leads to some jarring cuts where the AV quality changes dramatically. It's also very expensive to buy.

I have the director's cut and theatrical version – the former is a more coherent, engaging, and rewarding film – I have no burning desire to buy the Cabal Cut. I'm not sure if this helps or not!

This website has straightforward and fairly detailed explanations of the different versions:
All The Versions of Nightbreed Explained - Update - www.CliveBarkerCast.com

This is also good and, although I haven't seen it, I think it's a good guide about whether to track down the Cabal Cut or not:

Because of varying quality due to the different sources of the additional footage, the Cabal Cut should be considered a bonus and is definitely not recommended when watching Nightbreed for the very first time. Similar to the DC, the Cabal Cut focuses more on mythology and many creatures in Midian of which there is additional footage. Other than that, there are many scenes in the Cabal Cut that got removed for the DC and a few character developments are entirely different. Especially Decker (acts kind of other-directed) and Lori (feels closer to the Midian residents) profit from that. Since this version is based on an old workprint, it should get at least come close to Barker's first cut and be his favored version back then when the movie was released. Unfortunately, it is not available any longer because the very limited release is already sold.

https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=261608

[Justin101]

I don't know what it is about Nightbreed, it always leaves me disappointed. The book, Cabal, is one of my favourite Clive Barker stories, but film is either unsatisfying in the theatrical cut or too long (and a bit boring) in the directors cut. I really have no intention of watching a three hour version! It's a shame though, it's a film I really wish that I enjoyed more.

[gag]

In arrows sale they have nightbreed 2 disc blu ray both cuts if the film, £8

https://arrowfilms.com/product-detai...lu-ray/FCD2027

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Justin101

I don't know what it is about Nightbreed, it always leaves me disappointed. The book, Cabal, is one of my favourite Clive Barker stories, but film is either unsatisfying in the theatrical cut or too long (and a bit boring) in the directors cut. I really have no intention of watching a three hour version! It's a shame though, it's a film I really wish that I enjoyed more.

I'm with you. I saw it once on vhs rental, thought it was poor and have no inclination to watch it again.

I probably compared it to Hellraiser and thought it was gore free rubbish.

[Frankie Teardrop]

TORSO – I’m not massively big on gialli, but I’ve always liked ‘Torso’. It’s a very moody film – balaclava’d figures looming in the mist and eyeless dolls probably represent it more than the sunny Etruscan squares and rococo décor. The shadowy vibe is augmented by bits of gore and sleaze; forget the lame reveal and the dubious backstory, ‘Torso’ remains a pungent trawl through swampy menace, and is really quite suspenseful in places. From Sergio Martino, with Suzy Kendall.

SEIZURE – Oliver Stone’s first feature. Lovers of ‘Wall Street’ etc etc will possibly end up scratching their heads, but I really enjoyed it. It that kind of Euro-nuanced cryptic post-Hippie vibe to it, all woozy fish-eye visuals and oblique connections, something you got a lot of in films from around the time that were essentially quite grindhouse but had one foot in the ‘art’ camp. It’s about an author whose weekend gathering is gatecrashed by a trio of creeps, including Herve Villechaize. All of the assembled are required to participate in games leading to inevitable death. Mary Woronov plays another of her sassy characters, but Martine Beswick rules as The Queen of Evil. Excellent stuff, really.

THE RENTAL – A good film, but it’s really an attempt to do a ‘grown up’ slasher. Two couples rent an isolated house for bit of weekend r&r – but who’s that watching them? A nice, subtle build up, full of foreboding and the sense of relationships derailing, gives way to a slightly flat post-‘Saw’ era type resolution. But enjoyable and quite absorbing for the most part, definitely worth a watch.

DON’T PANIC – From the maker of ‘Cemetery of Terror’. It’s not as satisfyingly grotesque as that film, being a more overt kind of ‘Nightmare on Elms Street’ cash in, but it’s certainly very charming. After a birthday Ouija board session, a college stude has nightmarish visions… some ghastly person from the other side is going about doing some murders. It rolls along in its predictable way, sprinkling just enough horror stuff to keep the audience from getting too impatient with ‘the relationships angle’ (which actually here is done in an entertainingly convoluted manner by way of a long-running metaphor involving three balloons sailing into the sky and a wilting rose). Then you get the whole eighties dubbed horror aesthetic, which is probably the main draw for people like me these days. Say what you will of it, but in the end I don’t believe it’s possible to dislike a film whose title song is an electro-synth ditty composed and sung by the lead performer.

BLOOD HOOK – My heart sinks a little whenever I see the ‘Troma’ banner – I have to remind myself that, in with all the dross they’ve put out, are some inspired oddities and a few stone-cold classics. No-one would call ‘Blood Hook’ a stone-cold classic, but for my money it’s certainly an inspired oddity. A bunch of eighties college kids come to a backwater town after an inheritance; during a fishing tournament, some slashings go down. That could be all there is to it, but ‘Blood Hook’ boasts a plethora of quirky characters and weird events. The killer’s mode of execution, death by fishing tackle, is strange enough, but then there’s the incredibly contrived explanation for their murderous frenzy, which, of all things under the sun, takes in the chirruping of cicadas and the devil’s tritone. That sets the (off-) beat to the whole film, which walks a queasy tightrope between snarky humour and eeriness. It could so easily be written off as another misfiring eighties horror-comedy, but it’s so much interesting, and better. Some of the gags fall flat, but some of them really work. It helps that much of the acting that isn’t deliberately weird is quite good, not that this film is intended to be a hugely resonant character study. It’s at its best in moments which feel absurd but strangely atmospheric, enough to stop the laughter in your throat. And ultimately, does it not take a certain genius to set a slasher movie in the world of angling?

[SymbioticFunction]

Revisited Brian De Palma's Body Double after a more than ten year absence.

No bullshit, this is genuinely the one film that torments me the most (as I can never decide whether it's actually good or in fact, just hot garbage). And I'm still not sure!

On the plus side, the UK blu-ray did look and sound excellent and since yet again, I still can't figure out what to make of the actual movie, it'll be staying on the shelving units.

btw I wish the make-up wasn't so damn obvious. At least it doesn't look quite as bad as Adrien Brody in Dario Argento's Giallo - and here it actually serves a purpose.

[Justin101]

The Karate Kid (2010)



As much as Dre Parker (Jaden) was an annoying shit, he didn't deserve the bullying and public beat down given to him by Cheng.

Not a perfect film, there are plenty of things which could be changed to make this one better, but I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed this. Especially Jackie Chan who gave such pathos in his role, the scene where he smashed the car in really touched me.

Has a few story beats from the original film but it's not a remake at all, it's a re-imagining if you will. I liked it a lot.