I thought Iron man 3 was great as well, best in the series imo.

On the other hand I watched Dark knight rises again with friends last night and.....well the charm has worn off. I liked it at the cinema well enough but on the small screen it doesn't hold up nearly as well as any of the marvel films and I have to say its actually a wee bit shit and very boring :behindsofa: Certainly it doesn't hold up to repeat viewings.

Bane is a weak villain, Nolan seems increasingly ashamed of the characters comic book roots and by this third entry it feels more like a film Nolan is turning out for the studios simply in order to get his more personal projects greenlit. Occasionally I change my mind on certain films and Dark knight rises is going to be one of those.

THE LORDS OF SALEM - Generally quite liked this 'new direction', which substitutes a sickly, detached Euro-feel for the more manic stylisation of his other stuff. Succeeds in building an atmosphere of slow burn dread, although I wished R Zombie had been a bit more generous with the Russelesque psychedelia we see towards the end.

THE COLLECTION - Sequel to 'The Collector'. First half hour had me feeling a little dismissive due to the choppy but flat 'Saw' franchise type style, but interestingly this blossoms into vivid Italo-horror bombast by the end (in quite a tightly controlled way, too). Pretty gory, with some nice set pieces involving mannequins. I liked the way the killer's mask made his face look like that of a demented eel. Definitely worth a look.

I DIDN'T COME HERE TO DIE - At first I thought this was overhyped, but by the end I was thinking "no, this is great stuff with all the hallmarks of a cult classic to be". At least it's a clever, funny slice of anti-horror which dispatches its kids in the woods with wit and verve. The culprit is no backwoods slasher, but something more abstract - a plot device based on miscommunication and overinterpretation, randomness and existence being a total bitch. If Beckett had done low rent indie genre deconstruction, this would be the result.

LA TRASGRESSIONE - Italian exploitation from the late eighties. I say 'exploitation', but for most of the run time I was scratching my head trying to figure out whether it was coming from an art or a sleaze direction, because at times it plays like a bad approximation of both. A psychology student takes a hit of a magic serum and transforms into a total psychopath, hangs out with a spoilt but equally vicious rich girl and goes on a rampage during which bad things happen and nudity occurs... or does it? Maybe it's all a dream. Or is it? Doesn't feel anything like last gasp Italian genre product of the time. I don't know what it feels like, but if you enjoy clowns with umbrellas who look like they might symbolise something then you might dig this strange little oddity.

BIOTHERAPY - Obscure Japanese trash from the mid-eighties with an alien monster pissing off a bunch of scientists working on a secret drug. There's some gore and a palatable run time (about forty minutes, which suits my attention span these days). It lacks the sleazy punch of something comparable like 'Entrails of a Beautiful Woman', but still manages to be entertaining and diverting enough. I don't think it has an official release.

AMITYVILLE 2 - THE POSSESSION - I've never bothered with it in the past, but decided to check it out after reading some good reviews on here. I was surprised at its intensity, and for a mainstream B movie it manages to be pretty sleazy in places. Some of the sub- 'Poltergeist' haunting effects seem a bit stale, but the portrait of the violent forces at work within the nuclear family is really hard hitting. Enjoyable trash but also paradoxically quite dark - definitely a 'find' as far as I'm concerned.

And Soon the Darkness
I found this quite engaging for the first half at least. I’m always attracted to thrillers featuring tourists stuck in an unfamiliar environment. After the one hour mark or so though, my interest began to wander. The lack of any significant action for a long stretch of running time, as the girl searches for her missing friend, I found quite tiresome. Picked up a bit for the climax, but not a film I’d come back to in a hurry.

Schizo
I love a bit of Pete Walker, but I definitely found this to be one of his lesser efforts. The story I found quite dull, and I missed the lack of a juicy villain character like Sheila Keith or Anthony Sharp. Lame scares and extremely dodgy psychology added some comedy value at least, there’s always something to enjoy in his films!

Was this the original or the remake.?

I think the original film is superb, extremely creepy, with an almost claustrophobic atmosphere of dread.

The remake is shite though.

This afternoon I watched Jaws on blu-ray. Fantastic.

This evening I have some ironing to do, so will probably put on Sightseers to keep me company.

I thought the remake was okay, but nothing special. As I said in my review, it's certainly better than most of the other recent horror film remakes.

Just a curious Q? What are people favourite sites / forums to go on to learn about latest releases?
Because to be truthful I don't buy any mags and apart from going on here that's all I do and want to have a few fav site bookmarked to go on and learn latest release any film foreign world cinema etc etc .

Blu-ray.com
Hi-def Ninja
D&T Mailorder (sign up for their newsletter and they'll email you about upcoming releases)
The Digital Bits
DvdActive

The original I'm afraid. Like I say, I thought the first half did a good job of establishing the tone and mounting dread. But as it went on I began to lose patience with the film. Girl goes up the road to look in the bushes. Girl goes back down the road to the spooky cafe. Girl goes back up the road and looks around again. Girl goes back to the spooky cafe, then back to the bushes... just seemed to take a long time to get anywhere! Maybe me being tired at the time didn't help . . .

DREDD. Nowhere near as much fun as the similarly plotted THE RAID. Sorry Hawk.

BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW. Rabidly anti youth and counter culture madness set in the mud, a theme that runs throughout another weird beard film of the same time period, PSYCHOMANIA. That said, both films are high on my all time fave list as they perfectly capture the esoteric folk byways of an England that is real and mythic at the same time.

War Horse (2011) I liked it but that horse just seemed way to intelligent! Taking the place of his mate pulling the cannon because he knew his mate was too sick to pull it! :pop2:

Piranha DD (2012) OMG! What a waste of an hour and half! What the hell was I thinking! Oh yeah! Boobs! But thats enough of Hasselhoff! :doh:

Is it like this in Troggi's cave?

Just seen Scanners blu ray.
It was a good flick but not my fav Cronenberg flicks. It was not brilliant but average I thought! Some people will hate that but meh lol

Another person whose a fan of amityville 2! :rockon: I'm doing my best to get as many genre fans as possible to check it out.

Jackass 3 type of things they do makes you think they have a screw loose to do some of the stuff they do. But at the same time certain bits must have been fun and entertaining to do.

I've always been a fan of Amityville II. It's my favourite of the series and has a real fun, trashy sensibility to it.

I thought it was fun too!
Excited for the trilogy blu ray release.
I also am a big fan of Amityville Dollhouse! *cringe* :eek:

I've only seen I, II and III. Not seen Dollhouse, and thought III (3D) was awful.

Doubt I'd buy the trilogy, but I'd pick up I and II individually. It puts me off having stinkers in boxsets just for completions sake.

Hell I also love amityville 4, the one with the posessed lamp. Part 2 has always been my favourite. Andrew Prine as an exorcist and the lovely Diane franklin. The tacked on exorcism scene to cash in on the exorcist. I had the thorn emi x rated tape of this for years, now i'm on the special edition with kim newman commentary and will definately be upgrading to the blu-ray!

I watched the Redemption blu of Virgin Witch yesterday. Even the opening credits has copious boobage - a taster of things to come, as its nubile leads end up in various states of undress throughout. It's a relatively shlockly tale of a virginal girl ('Allo 'Allo! star, Vicky Michelle) being freshly recruited into a dodgy model agency, which is actually a front for a witches coven. Heading off to her first shoot with her sister in tow (real life sister, Ann Michelle), we soon discover that rather than being terrified at the true purpose of her employment, she takes to the idea like a duck to water, jealously turning on her high priestess in the process.

So lots of nudity and silly dancing as the coven go through the ritual of deflowering the newly inducted, pretty young things. There's a great moment when our lead casts a spell on someone's photo, only for their expression to change in the photograph to one of pain as it catches fire.

http://mariasmoviereviews.files.word...pg?w=202&h=300
"Solomon Kane"
I read Robert E. Howard as a teenager. Conan is the big one of course but among his lesser heroes is Kane who always struck me as an interesting character and should have had more adventures. So it was with trepidation that I put this into the drive last night as I have been disappointed by heroes before ("John Carter", "Kull", Sly Stallone's "Dredd", etc).

It could have been much worse and I am glad I saw it, enjoyable movie.:nod:

Despite its title i wasn't really expecting the hit anthem from Survivor to kick into gear as the opening credits roll on Eye of The Tiger (1986). I sorta thought it was a Rocky III exclusive and found it a pleasant surprise.

The next pleasant surprise was how good the movie actually was. The tale of an ex-con returning to his home town to find lawlessness has taken over and the local sheriff is as corrupt as the nasty biker gang are viscous.

Yes its been done a million times since, but none of them showcased the underrated Gary Busey in the lead. Usually remembered for his bad guy performances in Lethal Weapon and Under Siege, Busey takes to the role of hero rather well, his hero being the everyman type rather than the decorated former Navy Seal who's at home taking on the worlds wrongs.

The film boasts some fine action set pieces and its always great to see former Bond villain Yaphet Kotto in a film, here, as Busey's old time mate helping him get the town back in order.

The film because of its many imitators has a slightly formulaic feel but its a tried and tested formula that tends to always make for an enjoyable ninety minutes with me.

The dvd from Shout Factory is part of its Action Packed Movie Marathon and boasts a quite beautiful print. I'd not heard of Eye of the Tiger until i made this purchase, and really bought the set for Exterminator 2. If the films keep at this level it will have been £7 very well spent.

Last nights film Sightseers was a lot of fun. I found it worked better at home than on the big screen.

This evening I watched the German blu-ray of Under the Bed another film I saw at last years Fright Fest. As you can read on my diary thread (where I also discuss Sightseers) I was largely underwhelmed by this film and am sad to report that a repeat viewing has not changed my opinion.

I'm a big Robert E. Howard fan and have always found Kane to be a much more interesting character than Conan. In fact, Soloman Kane was on my list of names to call my son before he was born as was Conan. As you can imagine he was called neither once Mrs MTDS looked at the list and decided what we were going to call him. I managed to get Kane as a middle name for him though spelt Cain. If you can't name your kids after biblical murderers...

R.E.Howard is one of my favourite authors. Some of his horror tales are awesome, I love Pigeons From Hell and Graveyard Rats.

Pirates of the Caribbean:The Curse of the Black Pearl-despite my son having the first 3 Pirates films in a DVD boxset for the past few years, last night was the first time I'd watched this, thought it was brilliant and I wish I'd watched it sooner. Johnny Depp is IMO the best actor of my generation, I can't think of a film of his that I've seen that I haven't really enjoyed.

Fancied some cheesy slasher action after, so I watched Sleepaway Camp, been a while since I last watched it and I'd forgotten how creepy the cook is, borderline Coronation Street cast member material :eek:
Endings still ****ed up though, I can imagine the amount of shock people had when this first came out in 1983!

Not a film but an hr long episode

I watched Cigarette Burns last night

I watched On Stranger Tides (2011) on Sunday night.

I love the first film like you, but the sequels lost the enthusiasm and became tired. On Stranger Tides has all the ingredients but doesn't really have much of a story to tell. Penelope Cruz makes you realize how good Keira Knightly was in the original films, and yes, you do actually miss Orlando Bloom as well.

Ian McShane as Blackbeard had a promising opening few scenes then his character really went nowhere at all. The film whilst having one or two decent set pieces felt like it was treading water. On the whole it was very disappointing.

Watched From Beyond on Bluray last night.Wow what can I say,except well done to Second Sight. An amazing transfer of a great movie. Detail,definition and colour looked outstanding in my eyes. Hard to believe the movie came out in 1986,ah yes the wonders of Bluray.Good performances too from Barbra Crampton,Jeffrey Combs and Ken Foree and lets not forget Ted Sorel. Didn't get an opportunity to soak up all of the extras yet,but that's next on my agenda. Now all I want from Second Sight is Bride Of Re-Animator,Society and Re-Animator all with great transfers(which SS will provide) and loaded with special features. As of now From Beyond from Second Sight is my number 1 region B release SO FAR ;)

My favourite episode in the Masters of Horror series. Well, that and Takashi Miike's Imprint.

Many of the others I found lackuster, although I have only seen about a third of the last series, selling the DVDs when I noticed Netflix had them - only for them to expire and be taken off before I had a chance to watch them.

I wasn't that impressed with the MOH episodes I saw, but along with Imprint , I enjoyed Larry Cohen's Pick Me Up, Michael Moriarty was perfect. :loco:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9SKHYOeV2I

Masters Of Horror - Pick Me Up - Larry Cohen - YouTube

So last night I finally watched Dead of Night (aka Deathdream) for the first time. I've had the DVD since it was released, and being a huge fan of Bob Clark's Black Christmas, as well as knowing the film's glowing rep, I was very much looking forward to it. But I was disappointed.

I'll admit off the bat I don't like Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things very much, although certain things I admire about it: the impressive makeup and the use of locale. Where Alan Ormsby is probably an acquired taste, he grated on me, and I thought the whole thing had a puerile sensibility.

Deathdream, while a smarter film, worked neither as a polemic on the horrors of war (like Combat Shock) or a melancholic zombie flick (like I Zombie), instead it just meanders. While seeing Ormsby pop up in just a cameo is a relief, his missus, the incredible dull Anya Ormsby, crops up in a major role as his sister. She employs the same method of acting that she does in CSPWDT - namely that she can't act and does this ridiculous wide-eyed thing throughout that is neither endearing or cute.

I didn't hate the film. It's suburban malaise made me wonder if the director had been inspired by The Graduate as Richard Backus reclines in his lawn chair, vacantly staring ahead while the neighborhood postman lectures at him. And there was some nifty acting from John Marley as his old man. But I think in this case the film's reputation preceded it.

A decent effort, but I'm glad Clark started fresh with Black Christmas, as that's a film that really showcased what he was capable of - especially with fresh talent. I must watch Deranged again, see if I can gain some respect back for Ormsby. Maybe I'll give Deathdream another shot later on down the line, now my expectations have been put back in check.

Note: My BU DVD is faulty, but it's too late to return it now. It skips three minutes during the killing of a certain character midway through. Must be a manufacturing issue as the disc is clean.

Funny you should say that Sam because Maniac could be a great companion piece to Drive. They're very similar in style and design

Shame, as it that very "suburban malaise" vibe that makes it such a vital film for me, each to their own and all that, but the drabness of cookie cutter housing, Backus' sonambulistic performance all make it for me. Hey ho....please give it another try at some point......

ive only seen upto the Chocolate episode on MOH

I will. I expected my thoughts not to be popular as I know it's highly regarded indeed, but it just didn't do it for me - at least, this time. It may get another shot down the line, especially now I know I can't sell off the DVD. And as I said, I didn't hate it, I was just unimpressed. Probably a combination of over anticipation and annoyance at actors I didn't much like in CSPWDT making a return.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ven_Poster.jpg

I thought that I might enjoy this as E.A. Poe is one of my top 10 writers. This isn't the Poe I've come to know and love so much. Poe was a flawed character, yes, but this travesty of a characterisation is positively ridiculous. A good story ruined by an implausible lead.:(