What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Jungle Cruise (2021)

Hopefully a one off miss fire from Collet-Serra.

I had similar thoughts about the film to you, Dem, only I didn't rate the first half as highly as you. I didn't think it ever really got going in a way that fully engaged me or left me feeling entertained, wanting more.

Although Jungle Cruise is based on a theme park ride, it was so similar to The African Queen and The Mummy that it felt derivative and uninspired.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

From Beyond (1986)

The ever so slightly crazed Dr. Pretorius (We know this because he has a bondage dungeon in his house) has invented a machine called the Resonator which taps into the pineal gland and produces intense pleasure and also shows the recipient creatures from another dimension. When he ends up with his head bitten off and assistant Jeffrey Combs becomes the main suspect, Barbara Crampton's psychiatric doctor begins an investigation to find out exactly what happened.

Produced by Brian Yuzna and directed by Stuart Gordon, From Beyond is a prime example of eighties gloopy horror, a film bursting with gooey effects and horrific visuals with memorable if overwrought performances from Combs, Crampton, Ken Foree and Ted Sorel as the screwed up Pretorius.

Loosely based on the short story of the same name by H. P. Lovecraft, From Beyond shows it's inter dimensional beings through what can only be described as an eighties horror synthesizer light show with weird fish like creatures floating in the air, although it's so very much of it's time it's also totally brilliant with it.

The Second Sight Blu-ray is simply a joy to watch. A visual feast for the eyes and i heartily recommend it whilst it's currently at the low (for Second Sight) price of £9.99. A stunning release.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

I had similar thoughts about the film to you, Dem, only I didn't rate the first half as highly as you. I didn't think it ever really got going in a way that fully engaged me or left me feeling entertained, wanting more.

Although Jungle Cruise is based on a theme park ride, it was so similar to The African Queen and The Mummy that it felt derivative and uninspired.

To say it was a Collet-Serra film it was severely disappointing. I'm not suggesting he's a great director but until Jungle Cruise he was a director i could rely on for a fun couple of hours entertainment because everything from House of Wax to The Commuter i've thoroughly enjoyed as popcorn entertainment. He also proved he could make a terrifically gripping film with just a single woman on screen for the majority of the time in the excellent The Shallows, so to say i felt let down by Jungle Cruise was a bit of an understatement.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

To say it was a Collet-Serra film it was severely disappointing. I'm not suggesting he's a great director but until Jungle Cruise he was a director i could rely on for a fun couple of hours entertainment because everything from House of Wax to The Commuter i've thoroughly enjoyed as popcorn entertainment. He also proved he could make a terrifically gripping film with just a single woman on screen for the majority of the time in the excellent The Shallows, so to say i felt let down by Jungle Cruise was a bit of an understatement.

He's a very capable director with a good eye for visuals. I didn't like House of Wax, but everything else he's made has been, at the very least, entertaining. Even with a fairly minimal plot (as in The Shallows), he can make a gripping film. Unsurprisingly, Jungle Cruise looked good, but the story and characters weren't very interesting.

[Demoncrat]

Death Ship (1980, Albin Rakoff)

Revisiting this one, yep, it's still really odd

A pleasure cruise comes to an untimely end, but the guests have more to worry about than losing their place at the captain's table ahem. Finding an unusual shelter, they try to make the best of things, but something seems to have something else in mind. The eerie atmosphere and lack of pandering still makes this work imho. Recommended.

[Frankie Teardrop]

FATAL GAMES – I suppose a lot of these lower-tier slasher movies are best appreciated for their quirks and misfires. There are plenty of those in ‘Fatal Games’. The setting, a sports academy, has an air of strangeness – for the first half hour or so, everything is games, workouts, showers. It’s an obvious ploy designed to show a lot of young people in and out of tight gym gear, but it all feels quite detached and clinical. This is cheapshit filmmaking on a porno budget; tonally, it’s all over the shop. I should have mentioned, before all the deadpan sports stuff there’s a yee-ha rock’n’roll theme (one specific to the film, a seventies / eighties trait I adore) and a bit of light relief; it opens with an inexplicable tug of war involving a huge kitchen roll (?) Then the comedy is gone, and the serious stuff begins. This is a movie which is basically about death by javelin administered over and over by some creep in a shiny shell suit, so of course it’s played with suitable gravitas. There are many films out there in the world – which one should you choose? If your idea of fun is watching some dude on crutches hobble for what seems like a lifetime through a maze of corridors, accompanied only by ‘Madman’ blue lighting and bizarre musique concrete… then welcome to the team, you’ll find your skimpy costume in the locker room. But you shouldn’t ever knock a movie that ends with impalement by sports trophy.

DEADLY GAMES – Reviews of the recent Arrow have been on the discouraging side, full of gripes about it being dull and not really ‘a slasher’. They’re right, it’s not really ‘a slasher’ (although it is, a bit). You can’t really take it in the same way as ‘The Burning’, or even ‘Fatal Games’. It’s actually quite an odd film. After an opening which, with its balaclavas and gloves and nudity, is all very ‘giallo’, it settles down into soap mode with an eye on small-town bitching more than anything else. Then it gradually splinters. There’s the disfigured Nam vet who bears a grudge, the square-jawed hero who seems more and more of a total cock as things roll on, the musical interlude where the three main characters play a board game, and then of course there's the board game itself – what's it all about? Is it really 'deadly? is it a metaphor? If so, what for? Snatches of strangeness pile up; gothic bits in a graveyard, a roomful of mannequins. A seemingly inexplicable freeze-frame caps it all. You sense the sharpness behind the camera, little references and nods that suggest some refinement of vision; the pithy dialogue and drama of the first half are well handled, but they give way to some really strange shifts that make you question what it’s all about, whether its deliberate, whether there’s a key to it all. Me, I have no answers. Is it any good? I liked it. I wouldn’t watch it every day. I think going in with a certain set of expectations will end in disappointment for many, but those with a fondness for mildly strange cinema that’s quite enigmatic and difficult to tag will find something. A film this talky would’ve been a drag to watch on VHS, but the Arrow restoration is very nice.

[Demoncrat]

As always FT ....

[Demoncrat]

Rock And Roll Cops (2002, Scott Shaw)

Another belter from the SS ... er ...

Hassled by their captain and drenched in complaints about their behaviour, two coppers decide to "get Mr Big" as respite to their woes. How they go about this is .... unique to say the least.
Making Breen look like Lean is some mean feat but boy does he achieve this ... in spades. Some fascinating cameos towards the end made me sit up at least, the rest was tear enducingly funny tbh.

[nicholasrope]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

From Beyond (1986)

The ever so slightly crazed Dr. Pretorius (We know this because he has a bondage dungeon in his house) has invented a machine called the Resonator which taps into the pineal gland and produces intense pleasure and also shows the recipient creatures from another dimension. When he ends up with his head bitten off and assistant Jeffrey Combs becomes the main suspect, Barbara Crampton's psychiatric doctor begins an investigation to find out exactly what happened.

Produced by Brian Yuzna and directed by Stuart Gordon, From Beyond is a prime example of eighties gloopy horror, a film bursting with gooey effects and horrific visuals with memorable if overwrought performances from Combs, Crampton, Ken Foree and Ted Sorel as the screwed up Pretorius.

Loosely based on the short story of the same name by H. P. Lovecraft, From Beyond shows it's inter dimensional beings through what can only be described as an eighties horror synthesizer light show with weird fish like creatures floating in the air, although it's so very much of it's time it's also totally brilliant with it.

The Second Sight Blu-ray is simply a joy to watch. A visual feast for the eyes and i heartily recommend it whilst it's currently at the low (for Second Sight) price of £9.99. A stunning release.

I remember that picture in the centre of a Video Shop Magazine back in the day.

Kinda scared me at the time lol, this and Hellraiser

[Justin101]

The Godfather, in 4k, what a film, what else can I say? Take the cannoli!