What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Frankie Teardrop]

WILD BEASTS – I always find ‘animals attack’ movies a bit lame, but this is nuts. You sense its wonkiness from the credits alone – silky saxophone lullaby over a depressing cityscape and toxic waste! Yum. It just gets worse from then on in. A zooful goes mental via PCP, and the ensuing rampage is infused with a very odd, leering attitude. “Mmm, that’s right,” murmurs the ‘hero’, licking his lips as he watches a load of rats being torched! Those rats, by the way, were real, and the fact that animals here are generally treated with the utmost disrespect shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with Prosperi. As much as I quibble over that stuff, ‘Wild Beasts’ is such a stone cold classic of Italian trash cinema.

EMMANUEL AND THE LAST CANNIBALS – Speaking of which, EATC is almost there. This time, she’s off to the jungle to find out about a lost tribe… the specifics don’t really matter when it’s pretty much all about dull sex scenes. On the other hand, these are infested with kookiness and sometimes greatness by the music, which spans euphoric disco through shady, flange-bass sleaze to cockeyed Phillip Glass imitation. As with a lot of this kind of thing, it’s the pile up of eccentricities that elevates… the cheap but brutal gore, lush photography taped together with crappy edits, Donald O’Brien looking sweaty and evil… A keeper.

SILVER BULLET – I kind of have a soft spot for this fairly rubbish S King adaption. It really does teeter on the brink of being an out and out bad film, what with that turbo-charged wheelchair and an evil, eye-patch wearing cleric who looks like he’d be better off in a panto. Even with a simple set-up, it meanders all over the place in telling its tale of kid struggling against the odds to best a werewolf in (of course) smalltown American. This disjointedness, along with some woeful acting (Gary Busy is the least of this film’s problems) and a couple of wild fx moments / dream sequences, makes it worthwhile in my book.

DEERSKIN – Some middle-aged guy on his uppers develops a psychotic fixation on an awful deerskin jacket. It’s the kind which, with its short cut and tasselled fringe, gives me the creeps just to look at. Stranded in the sticks, guy meets a would-be editor and pretends to make a film about some kind of metaphorical ‘hunter’ quest to divest the local population of their own coats(!) It all goes to shit from there. ‘Deerskin’ is an example of arthouse cinema turning the screw. It adopts the attitude of detached but quirky metafiction, but then takes a left turn into surprising gore and nastiness. Violence aside, what stops its weird dissection of male mid-life crisis from being too cute is the atmosphere of washed-up isolation in a rural French backwater. I really liked it. The director has form in this territory; his film ‘Rubber’ was a cult hit ten years ago.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Horror Express (1972)

At the turn of the last century, a professor (Christopher Lee) is transporting his cargo in the form of the prehistoric remains of a creature from China to Moscow aboard the Trans-Siberian Express.

The British-Spanish co-production encapsulates the best of both worlds. Featuring the best of British Gothic horror and the Naschy-esq madness of Spanish monster movies, Horror Express is a classy example of early seventies horror.

The films production values are excellent, the train interiors are lush and sophisticated, and the film features some tasty gory effects, not to mention the cream of classic horror performers in Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Two stalwarts who are almost upstaged by a memorably OTT turn from Telly Savalas as a Cossack army Captain, not to mention the marvelous, scary creature terrorizing all on board. Then there's the tense direction from Eugenio Martin who just about keeps Savalas in check and some genuinely funny lines - Cushing's "Monster? We're British you know" always makes me laugh.

A superior slice of seventies horror, Horror Express is essential viewing. Last night felt the right time to watch this with snow lashing down outside in freakishly high winds. The Arrow Blu-ray looked lovely.

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Horror Express (1972)

At the turn of the last century, a professor (Christopher Lee) is transporting his cargo in the form of the prehistoric remains of a creature from China to Moscow aboard the Trans-Siberian Express.

The British-Spanish co-production encapsulates the best of both worlds. Featuring the best of British Gothic horror and the Naschy-esq madness of Spanish monster movies, Horror Express is a classy example of early seventies horror.

The films production values are excellent, the train interiors are lush and sophisticated, and the film features some tasty gory effects, not to mention the cream of classic horror performers in Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Two stalwarts who are almost upstaged by a memorably OTT turn from Telly Savalas as a Cossack army Captain, not to mention the marvelous, scary creature terrorizing all on board. Then there's the tense direction from Eugenio Martin who just about keeps Savalas in check and some genuinely funny lines - Cushing's "Monster? We're British you know" always makes me laugh.

A superior slice of seventies horror, Horror Express is essential viewing. Last night felt the right time to watch this with snow lashing down outside in freakishly high winds. The Arrow Blu-ray looked lovely.

I first saw 'Horror Express' on television, back in the late 70's. At the time I was a pre-teenager, so I had to watch it in bed on a tiny portable television set in my bedroom. It still managed to scare the hell out of me, and give me sweaty feet (which was always a good sign when I was watching horror films!)

Even now, I don't feel comfortable whenever I have to go anywhere on a train!!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Susan Foreman

I first saw 'Horror Express' on television, back in the late 70's. At the time I was a pre-teenager, so I had to watch it in bed on a tiny portable television set in my bedroom. It still managed to scare the hell out of me, and give me sweaty feet (which was always a good sign when I was watching horror films!)

Even now, I don't feel comfortable whenever I have to go anywhere on a train!!

The best times. The shaping of our viewing futures.

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

The best times. The shaping of our viewing futures.

Tiny screen, black and white picture that was only ever tuned in about 75% of what it should have been, rabbit ears aerial which would always result in a distorted picture every time a car, pedestrian or animal would go past the front of the house!!

Good times indeed

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Susan Foreman

Tiny screen, black and white picture that was only ever tuned in about 75% of what it should have been, rabbit ears aerial which would always result in a distorted picture every time a car, pedestrian or animal would go past the front of the house!!

Good times indeed

No buttons to change the channel, just a knob to turn to traverse between channels and static nothingness.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

No buttons to change the channel, just a knob to turn to traverse between channels and static nothingness.

We had one of those. It wasn't our main TV (that had buttons above the speaker next to the screen), but it was a spare which we would watch in the loft. I used to know the numbers on the dial for each station and still remember 33 was BBC1.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

We had one of those. It wasn't our main TV (that had buttons above the speaker next to the screen), but it was a spare which we would watch in the loft. I used to know the numbers on the dial for each station and still remember 33 was BBC1.

My current Samsung has no buttons. Totally screwed if the remote control goes wrong.

[MrBarlow]

Honor and Glory. 1992.

F.B.I Agent Tracey Pride tries to take down a business man who is involved with extortion and murder along with her sister Joyce, her former Hong Kong partner and a young ex bodyguard.

This was a 'no bad' martial arts film with Cynthia Rothrock as the F.B.I agent and Robin Shou as her partner Dragon Lee, John Miller plays a decent part as the businessman Jason Slade. The fight scenes are decently choreographed but at times you do notice a few goofs along the way with a bit of wooden acting but did help pass the time.

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[MrBarlow]

Tough And Deadly. 1995.

Private investigator Elmo Freech is hired by John Portland, a C.I.A. operative who has amnesia and wants his help to remember about a drug smuggling operation around Washington that involves his boss.

Fairly enjoyable 90s film with Roddy Piper as the private investigator who has more than the C.I.A. chasing after him and former crooks he help get busted by the cops. Billy Blanks plays amnesia sufferer John who somehow manages to remember how to pack a punch and a kick. Piper and Blanks seem to work together well and create some comedy in parts, entertaining little number.

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