What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

The Abominable Dr. Phibes. 1971.

This isn't and never going to be one of Vincent Price's greatest roles or film

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Susan Foreman

sorry Susan couldnt resist, I dont whether it was the film itself, the other actors or director that dragged Mr Price to over act in some areas.

Or you can.blame my crappy night at work for my frame of mind.

[Demoncrat]

Watch it again in the summer then ....

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Is their new album any good?

Sorry, I didn't think they were still recording! I'll stream it today and let you know

[MrBarlow]

Horror Of Dracula. 1958.

Jonathan Harker takes up a job to cataloge books for a eccentric Count Dracula but has intentions to destroy him, when he fails his friend Professor Van Helsing seeks to finish Harker's mission.

The first of the hammer Horror series of Dracula With Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, right from the start there is narration John Van Eyssen who plays Harker and after being bitten we find out his intentions truly are. 30 minutes or so into the film Peter Cushing appears with Michael Gough who seem to have a battle of wits and form a unique bond and become Vampire Hunters. Christopher Lee doesn't really get much screen time but when he appears he excels in being charming at first then full blown scary.

The film has everything we like in horror, great acting, dark atmosphere, Gothic castle and perfect background score. The pace can be a bit slow but upto the climatic is is always great to watch and admiration on how the effects were back in the late 50s.

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[Demoncrat]

Red Notice (2021, Rawson Marshall Thurber)

Who names their kid Rawson ffs??
Ahem.
Wonder Woman, The Rock and Deadpool trade quips and t'ing in this tale of greed and globetrotting which quite frankly left No Time Too Dire in the dust in this demon's opinion. Whilst it is nothing new under the sun it was fun to peruse.
I will say one thing. The sequel will be less exciting

[Frankie Teardrop]

THE TOXIC AVENGER – Completely skewers the sadism underlying the eighties (and beyond) fitness fetish, and for that reason ‘Toxic Avenger’, with its dizzying array of cruelties and humiliations, will always have a place in my heart. Watch a poor schlub melt into a superbeast, see airheads wank over pictures of human roadkill, revel in the slathering eruption of a corpulent habitus… ah well, you know the rest. Still a ‘classic’.

THE HAND – Michael Cain (who in this plays frankly a bit of a cock) suffers an unlikely motoring incident, loses a hand and then loses ‘it’. The hand doesn’t stay down for long. Oliver Stone should’ve done more in the genre, what with the likes of this and ‘Seizure’. ‘The Hand’ simmers away, staying more with Caine’s roiling angst and resentment than body horror, though when the latter crops up it’s enticingly dream-like and expressionistic. Very good, I thought.

UNDER THE SILVER LAKE – Dickhead slacker wanders LA, increasingly drawn by little signs and symbols that he perceives form part of a vast cobweb of conspiracy. Along the way he encounters an owl woman, some kind of Mephistophelian song writer, and erm some other stuff. It all gets very labyrinthine, but after a while its convolutions take a sharp left turn to nowhere. Was full of hope, having loved ‘It Follows’… but ‘Under The Silver Lake’ is, to be frank, a mess and although it pulled me in at points with its stoner sprawl and moments of gore, mostly it was just a bit of a turn-off. It might be worth seeing once for its sprinkling of weirdness , but any expectations the director might’ve had for a freewheeling voyage into the abstruse along the lines of ‘Inherent Vice’ seem a bit misplaced on the evidence.

LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM – I noticed this crop up a couple of times during the Labs Halloween countdown, so I decided to pay it a revisit (full of slight trepidation and vague memories of a rubbish looking DVD). Well it’s excellent really, Ken Russell being Ken Russell and just throwing stuff around and finding any excuse to slip in splurges of tormented nun imagery. Combined with the twee Brit village stuff, the presence of unscrupulous seductress Donahoe, Capaldi and Grant looking very awkward and proper, and some f*ck-off animatronics right there at the end, it’s quite a noxious little cocktail. Thumbs up, Ken.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Def-Con 4 (1985)

Part of the Canadian exploitation movement. Def-Con 4 firmly instills itself into that post apocalypse / Mad Max groove as a small team of astronauts crash land on a nuclear decimated earth and are caught up in a war between gangs, cannibals and even ordinary people, whilst unknown to all a warhead is counting down to detonation.

I really enjoyed this. It's often clunky but is very watchable despite not really having the budget or overall imagination to really pull off a convincing post apocalyptic world. The feral characters don't really look that feral and it has that wild amalgamation of rip offs and genuine interesting ideas that so many films of this ilk don't and i was totally invested in it.

More often than not after watching a film like this it makes you want to watch their better known and more competent inspirations but after seeing Def-Con 4 all i really wanted to watch was Def-Con 5.

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

THE TOXIC AVENGER – Completely skewers the sadism underlying the eighties (and beyond) fitness fetish, and for that reason ‘Toxic Avenger’, with its dizzying array of cruelties and humiliations, will always have a place in my heart. Watch a poor schlub melt into a superbeast, see airheads wank over pictures of human roadkill, revel in the slathering eruption of a corpulent habitus… ah well, you know the rest. Still a ‘classic’.

THE HAND – Michael Cain (who in this plays frankly a bit of a cock) suffers an unlikely motoring incident, loses a hand and then loses ‘it’. The hand doesn’t stay down for long. Oliver Stone should’ve done more in the genre, what with the likes of this and ‘Seizure’. ‘The Hand’ simmers away, staying more with Caine’s roiling angst and resentment than body horror, though when the latter crops up it’s enticingly dream-like and expressionistic. Very good, I thought.

UNDER THE SILVER LAKE – Dickhead slacker wanders LA, increasingly drawn by little signs and symbols that he perceives form part of a vast cobweb of conspiracy. Along the way he encounters an owl woman, some kind of Mephistophelian song writer, and erm some other stuff. It all gets very labyrinthine, but after a while its convolutions take a sharp left turn to nowhere. Was full of hope, having loved ‘It Follows’… but ‘Under The Silver Lake’ is, to be frank, a mess and although it pulled me in at points with its stoner sprawl and moments of gore, mostly it was just a bit of a turn-off. It might be worth seeing once for its sprinkling of weirdness , but any expectations the director might’ve had for a freewheeling voyage into the abstruse along the lines of ‘Inherent Vice’ seem a bit misplaced on the evidence.

LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM – I noticed this crop up a couple of times during the Labs Halloween countdown, so I decided to pay it a revisit (full of slight trepidation and vague memories of a rubbish looking DVD). Well it’s excellent really, Ken Russell being Ken Russell and just throwing stuff around and finding any excuse to slip in splurges of tormented nun imagery. Combined with the twee Brit village stuff, the presence of unscrupulous seductress Donahoe, Capaldi and Grant looking very awkward and proper, and some f*ck-off animatronics right there at the end, it’s quite a noxious little cocktail. Thumbs up, Ken.

As always ...

I remember seeing an interview with Stone where he was clearly coked out of his skull around the time of The Hand. I will redouble my efforts to acquire this one!!!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

I remember seeing an interview with Stone where he was clearly coked out of his skull around the time of The Hand. I will redouble my efforts to acquire this one!!!

I have it as part of a region one Twisted Terror collection dvd alongside Carpenter's Someone's Watching Me, Eyes of a Stranger and Deadly Friend.

Well worth picking up if you can find it.