What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Nordicdusk

I loved The Lighthouse

I was severely disappointed in it first time round but liked it more on a second viewing.

Reminds me. Must dig out my Blu of The North Man otherwise it made no sense buying it at full price.

[Nordicdusk]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I was severely disappointed in it first time round but liked it more on a second viewing.

Reminds me. Must dig out my Blu of The North Man otherwise it made no sense buying it at full price.

As i said when i originally reviewed the film i felt the draw of the sea watching it

Reminded me of old fishermen telling me of their adventures at and out on the sea so it resonated a little bit more with me.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Nordicdusk

I loved The Lighthouse

I was so so so disappointed Nordy. A headache inducing mess I found it to be.

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[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Nordicdusk

I loved The Lighthouse

On first viewing, I was hooked throughout and thought it was brilliant.

I've seen it once or twice since then, as well as with the commentary, and it stands up to repeated viewings, possibly improving each time.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Ricco The Mean Machine (1973)

Violent Italian / Spanich crime film starring Chris Mitchum as Ricco who spent two years in prison following the murder of his father. Now released Ricco swears vengeance on Don Vito (Arthur Kennedy) the man who killed his father and took his girl (Malissa Longo).

Seen Ricco a few times over the years thanks to the dvd from Dark Sky Films and always find Mitchum slightly unconvincing in the angel of vengeance role. He seems to go about things half hearted with a sense of almost wimpy lethargy, a far cry from the way someone like Nero, Merli, Milian or indeed Bronson would act. Mitchum is also out acted by the reliable Arthur Kennedy as Don Vito which doesn't help his case. In fact when you consider the splendid eye candy that is Bouchet and Longo it's painfully obvious that Mitchum is comfortably the worst thing about this film.

Quite slow moving at times, although the film is notorious for it's violence, in particular a castration sequence near the end, meaning the violent acts are quite hard hitting. All in all Ricco the Mean Machine is a decent thriller featuring fine Turin locations and some interesting camera work that could have done with a better leading man.

[Frankie Teardrop]

MEATCLEAVER MASSACRE – Don’t let Christopher Lee con you into thinking you’re in for some kind of British gothic thing. Once we’re past his strange introduction, which probably cost half the budget, MM lays its grindhouse soul pretty much bare. So much for gravitas. Three thugs do over their college Professor after he gives a lecture about a weird painting; he ends up in a coma, the kind of movie coma that allows you to psychically materialise as a vengeful spirit whilst your body lies prone. No prizes for guessing what happens next, and there’s a fairly bad monster at the end to look forward to, too. In the ‘supernatural comeuppance’ stakes it stacks up well beside another film full of similarly gaudy seventiesisms, ‘The Psychic Killer’. Whereas that movie was a heads-down straight-ahead boogie into mild exploitation, MM is more scrambled. It shares a similar B-movie terseness and simplicity of set-up, but weirds the tone with dreamy excursions and bits that seem quite disconnected. I have to admit I was a bit boozed up, but I prefer to think the haziness was in the film rather than just my mind. It’s kind of academic because films like MM sometimes seem like they were only ever designed to be consumed half cut or half asleep. Either way, I enjoyed it. For those interested it’s on YT or an expensive recent blu-ray from Scream Fact.

LEGACY OF SATAN – Another nugget of seventies freakery, LOS is stranger than the above and throbs with an unwholesomely trippy vibe that brings genuine menace. All the little bits and pieces that make the weird side of grindhouse such a delight are present and intact – distorting lenses, lighting from the wrong side of Bava and, more than anything else, the soundtrack. It’s as far out as they come for this kind of thing, basically just someone having a bad day and working it all out on their moog. Very odd, very jarring, but quite transporting. As for the film itself… the set-up is porno-basic, essentially some people know someone who’s into the occult and get entangled, a mere contrivance that opens the door on a faux-gothic chateau and the rituals it contains. There’s lots of silliness, some of it involving a glowing sword, but the weird tone makes material that might appear lame in the light of day seem quite ominous. I mentioned porn, and LOS has the loosely constructed feel of a lot of that stuff, strung out performances, questionable edits, but it all adds to the air of abstraction. It was directed by Gerard Damiano, and some say it’s the stripped-down, expurgated end of what began as a hardcore feature – who knows? But as it is, it’s a high point of atmospheric seventies trash.

[Demoncrat]

Glorious (2022, Rebekah McKendry)

The brother from True Blood and JK Simmons connect in an intimate setting
Short but sweet, this one pleased me initially, but eventually began to grate. But then it wouldn't be me otherwise
Some may baulk at the reveal, I just knew the end must be nigh then ...
The set up was fun, and will probably revisit, but still .... worth it to hear JKS channel Sam Elliot tbh.

Glorious_(film).jpg

[Demoncrat]

Guzoo: The Thing Abandoned By God (1986, Kazuo Kozumi)

Some title. It does take me back to those halcyon days watching crazed Asian stuff on vhs
Sigh.
Short but sticky, 4 friends take a break at a scientist friend of a parent of one of the group.
She is shifty and evasive when it comes to her "research".
We get the gist
When one of them is assaulted in the kitchen, things come to a head. The ending will please anyone who reads these reviews all the way through

[nicholasrope]

The Forgiven

Ralph Finnes and Jessica Chastin are in Morocco for a lavish party but end up killing the Son of a local. Finnes ends up going with the Boy's Father in order to gain forgiveness.

When I saw the Trailer, I thought that the locals will get their revenge but I WAS DUPED, NOTHING HAPPENS IN THIS MOVIE, no-one is likeable and is one of the worst Movies, I've seen.

Seriously a lot of C-Movies are better than this

[Frankie Teardrop]

BULL – A mob enforcer, seemingly dispatched by his own gang after they turn against him, returns following a mysterious absence to track down and reunite with his son. ‘Bull’ comes from the director of ‘London to Brighton’ and is full of the same feeling of a despairing UK, the sense that the social façade of morning TV and high-street takeaways conceals a pretty cold and brutal world. ‘Bull’ is a bit more suburban, but its suburbs are a place where you can get your fingers chopped if you don’t sign off on some gangster’s whim. I found it utterly gripping; I haven’t seen such a compelling crime flick for a long time, and I’m not surprised that reviewers have mentioned echoes of Ben Wheately, Shane Meadows’ ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’, and for my money that harsh but superlative revenger ‘The Horseman’. It’s terse, clipped and muscular, as elliptical as arthouse but in its marrow a down and dirty thriller - it just goes for it, like any one of the predatory arseholes who inhabit it. A few may have reservations about the ending, but I was expecting something like it and actually enjoyed the left-fieldness of it. Anyway, just excellent really, go and see it.