Hatari (1962)

Epic adventure directed by Howard Hawks portraying a group of professional big game catchers on the African plains.

The film features several exciting and extremely dramatic chase and capture sequences as animals ranging from elephants, giraffes, zebra, Wildebeest, monkeys and rhinos are pursued and lassoed by the group in jeeps and trucks.

All good, but it becomes a far more interesting movie when you know it's background.

The cast - John Wayne, Hardy Kruger, Elsa Martinelli, Red Buttons, Gérard Blain and Bruce Cabot - had to do the driving and captures themselves. No animal handlers or stunt personel were involved - Hawks needed it to be authentic. He said Wayne was basically shitting bricks trying to lasso an extremely pissed off rhino from a seat on the hood of a jeep and had to be redubbed afterwards because of all his swearing and cursing as the beast was constantly charging the jeep head on causing real damage. All the cast had to be capable with wild animals and they clearly were. A rhino did escape and the actors really did have to recapture it. Martinelli's relationship with three baby elephants is an absolute joy and thankfully is a large part of the movie, whilst the area used as the groups farm / base was actually owned by co-star Hardy Kruger.

Where it kinda gets a little bogged down are the none chase scenes, especially some of the conversations which feel awkward but it's perhaps understandable as Hawks was making these parts up as they went along.

Henry Mancini's score is tremendous, really adding to the excitement with his piece 'Baby Elephant Walk' as the three elephants dash around the local town has become an all time great musical score.

Hatari was a bit of an unknown movie for me coming into it and it was one i thoroughly enjoyed and DEFINITELY one of a kind. The Mad Max Fury Road of it's time. Without any CGI.

Don't Knock Twice. 2016.

A troubled mother and daughter try to re-connect only for the daughter and her friend Danny who go to abandoned house where a witch lived and knock on the door to summon her, believing it is a urban legend, they find out it may be true.

This was a good horror film that plays on the urban legend of the witch Baba Yaga, it's nothing we haven't seen or done before and has a good build up suspense, this is the second time I have watched this and it's better than the first time seeing it. Katee Sachoff plays the mother Jess who had a tormented past and willing to try and build a relationship with her daughter Chloe who seems to be followed by a dark shadow. There is a decent eerie background score that adds to the suspense and expect the unexpected moments but really not enough to make you jump or hide behind a cushion.

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The Corpse Of Anna Fritz.

Young Spanish actress Anna Fritz dies suddenly, in the morgue, orderly Pau his two friends Ivan and Javi look over her and start having ideas, their ideas turn to madness.

This was a tense thriller with only four main actors, it does seem effective with the plot and goes at a decent pace and certainly does help pass an hour or so of your time but I think this is one of those movies "that once you have seen it that's it", doubt I would watch this again and if I did It won't be anytime soon.


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Occasionally, I dip into 'Shudder' for a month or so. It's not something I'd subscribe to all the time, but I always think it's quite good for catching up with indie horror flicks that I otherwise might not get around to. Anyway, these are from my latest binge. Part two coming soonish.

THE ROOM – World-within-a-world sentient house thing, which to some extent plays on similar themes to ‘Vivarium’ (see below). Looks good and I liked what I can only describe as the vaguely Lovecraftian electrics at the heart of all the weirdness, but there was something ever-so-slightly clumsy (and familiar) about the rollout. Despite these reservations, enjoyable enough.

BODY – Three young women gather on xmas eve to smoke pot, play scrabble and break into some dude’s house. It all goes murderously wrong. This works better as a sassy indie with college girls sat around chatting shit rather than the darkside exploration of group dynamics it later becomes, the latter being slightly marred by a mounting obviousness. Still a deft little thriller. L Fessenden co-stars.

THE MORTUARY COLLECTION – Good anthology with bits of body horror and obligatory nods to the eighties. A light, faintly Burtonesque tone doesn’t quite obscure the bleak narratives concerning care for the terminally ill and child murder, along with some messy gore – uh yeah, what light touch was that again? Anyway, another quite good one.

THE BEACH HOUSE – Young man and young woman visit the family beach house, only to find that it’s inhabited by another, older couple. That’s incidental; the real gist has more to do with a peculiarly Lovecraftian (whoops, I did it again) infestation of icky sea microorganisms. Ends up with a bit too much crawling around in the dark maybe, but I thought it was quite eerie. An oblique, slightly trippy vibe predominates, along with lots of blue lighting. Recommended.

THE DARK AND THE WICKED – A brother and sister visit their dying father at the familial farmstead… mom doesn’t do anything to improve the atmosphere when she hacks her own fingers off. TDATW seems to be pitching on a ‘Hereditary’ type level, but for my money it doesn’t quite get there. Washed out visuals of mannequins in derelict surrounds and people on their deathbeds are effective enough, but there also too many moments that seem more in tune with those ‘Insidious’-type derivatives which were popular in multiplexes five or six years ago. Still worth a watch if you’re up for a bit of a Debbie Downer with jumps.

VIVARIUM – Looking to get their feet on that all-important property ladder, a couple end up stranded on a housing estate which looks like it was designed by Escher. To make matters worse, they’re forced to raise a Midwich Cuckoo type. Bleak, claustrophobic but still slightly funny, ‘Vivarium’ is an odd work which is poignant on its main issue of social discord at the same time as it slips in a Lovecraftian (for the third time!) tinge. Poots and Eisenberg are good. Recommended.

THE BORDERLAND – Found footage – arghh? Not so fast, this is pretty good. I didn’t watch it at the time, but everyone seemed to like it. They were mostly right. Three diocese-affiliated paranormal investigators look into a church where bad stuff is reported to have happened. Its main strength is almost in the character-based black comedy, but you get the dark atmosphere swelling in the background and a pretty messed up ending.

BATTERY – Follows two disaffected dudes as they journey through a desolate post-zombie world. However, ‘Battery’ leaves most latter-day undead tropes shambling in the distance, being a film that goes in for the edgy humour of a zombie-wank scene and yet somehow manages to conjure an abiding atmosphere of fragile melancholy; for all the back and forth of the bro-ish banter, the feeling ‘Battery’ evokes is an eerie emptiness that gives way, by the end, to a more desperate anguish. Highly praised when it came out, and rightfully so. Recommended.

Glad you dug The Borderlands F, it's due a rewatch in this lair certainly ...

And as always ...

:hail::hail::hail:

The thing on blu ray, how stunning is the picture quality absolutely amazing , been literally years since I’ve seen this but it’s films like these that prove one thing, practically effects win over cgi anyway.

I liked the book much better than the film, have you read it??

No, but i think i should. Everyone says it's brilliant.

If you're blown away by that Universal BD, just wait until you see the Arrow version, so much better!

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

I'm not going to even pretend i have any knowledge of how this fits into Wonder Woman lore or the DC Multiverse nor do i give a shit. I can't remember a thing about the first Wonder Woman movie but i can say i enjoyed this knockabout romp pitching Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) into a world of spandex and Duran Duran.

Being set in the mid 80's the whole thing felt more grounded in reality than the majority of superhero movies (Looking at you, in fact staring intently at you here, Marvel) and the fact we go for long stretches without any superhero action helps no end, giving Gadot more to do than simply look good. It also means when the set pieces come they are actually enjoyably thrilling, be it scrapping in the White House or a Raiders of the Lost Ark style road chase.

Plus there's a cameo from the original (and best) Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter, during the end credits.