What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demoncrat]

The Devil's Well (2018, Kurtis M. Spieler)

FF.
Investigating a local legend should be fine and dandy for a husband and wife team, no? There for each other and all that, yes?
When the wife disappears in ... strange circumstances, the focus eventually falls on her partner, as the local fuzz find no other evidence either way.
A year later, the husband manages to convince another team to return to this location after being released due to legalities, go on guess?
This started out well enough in a mockumentary style, with the focus being on the aftermath of the original event.
The skeptic of the group feels that it's a hoax (naturally) and the psychic feels bad vibes (ahem). The set up was fine enough, I just felt that the ending was a bit pat, though one scene did make me sit up. Hmmm.

[J Harker]

The Appointment. Lindsey C.Vickers. 1982.

Dreamlike. A word that's get thrown about a lot in horror cinema. Yet I can only name a handful of films I think it truly applies to, whatever the back of the box may tell you. Jordan's The Company of Wolves, Herk Harvey's Carnival of Soul's, Theodore Dryer's Vampyr are a few I'd say the term has a place describing. Then comes along The Appointment. A British film I'd until recently never heard of. A film that truly encapsulates the transcribing of a nightmare onto celluloid in a way I've honestly never seen before.
Family man Ian finds himself reluctantly having to disappoint his precocious daughter Joanne when a business trip means he is unable to attend her school violin recital. That's sort of it as far as actual plot goes.
However there's a lot more going on here. It's weird that a film should start on a wierd rather ferocious freaky opening sequence (that I'm not spoiling here) then descend into borderline kitchen sink drama for a good chunk of the running time. The Appointment is never ever less than gripping though. There's a sort of disjointed coherence that runs through the whole thing right up to the horrific conclusion.
Edward Woodward in the second best thing I've ever seen him in (I'll let you guess the first) is superb in his blah-ness. He's the, perhaps too doting dad, who seems genuinely pained letting down his oddly attached daughter, the doorknob sequence sticks with you....something's off here.
The Appointment truly had me. One of the most original and unexpected things I've watched in a long time. Gets under the skin tremendously.

[J Harker]

Mystery Junction. Michael McCarthy. 1951.

A well regarded detective novelist is on a train journey when a scream breaks his chit chat with an elderly fan who just happens to be sharing his compartment. The passengers end up having to disembark at a remote snowbound station house somewhere in the North of England from what I could tell. When a policeman on board is killed in a blind shootout its left to the novelist to work out who's who and what's going on. Part whodunnit and also bordering into gangster film territory I thoroughly enjoyed this atmospheric little film from Networks British film collection.
I do love a snowbound setting and while it's not that blatant in Mystery Junction the film has a claustrophobic feel, like once you head outside anything could happen.
Recommended, glad I picked this up at last.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by J Harker

Mystery Junction. Michael McCarthy. 1951.

A well regarded detective novelist is on a train journey when a scream breaks his chit chat with an elderly fan who just happens to be sharing his compartment. The passengers end up having to disbark at a remote snowbound station house somewhere in the North of England from what I could tell. When a policeman on board is killed in a blind shootout its left to the novelist to work out who's who and what's going on. Part whodunnit and also bordering into gangster film territory I thoroughly enjoyed this atmospheric little film from Networks British film collection.
I do love a snowbound setting and while it's not that blatant in Mystery Junction the film has a claustrophobic feel, like once you head outside anything could happen.
Recommended, glad I picked this up at last.

Really pleased you enjoyed it.

[nosferatu42]

A mate came around and brought "Final Flesh" to watch, then I put on "Dr Caligari", honestly one of the most nutzoid viewing experiences i've had in my life,. a highly recommended double bill.

Final_Flesh_Poster.jpeg 295805_front.jpg

Two thumbs and three dicks up.

[Demoncrat]

Live (2018)

FF.
A woman in the throes of a divorce starts streaming to vent her spleen.
Sadly she attracts more than simps. Bit grim this one. A PI is hired by "someone" in order to investigate her whereabouts. When he comes to a dead end, he reaches out to the filth to help. They fob him off (typically useless). The moral? Always carry a weapon. Next!!!

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by nosferatu42

A mate came around and brought "Final Flesh" to watch, then I put on "Dr Caligari", honestly one of the most nutzoid viewing experiences i've had in my life,. a highly recommended double bill.

Attachment 245998 Attachment 245999

Two thumbs and three dicks up.

Inspired back-to-back there. Both are completely barmy. Can't wait to check out the MM Caligari, I've only ever seen it as a shit bootleg.

[Frankie Teardrop]

DEATH GAME – Basically midlife crisis reconfigured as waking nightmare, ‘Death Game’ demonstrates that bathtub threesomes come with strings if you happen to be a lecherous walrus who’s just thrown open his doors for two psychotic waifs. I’ve seen this once or twice over the years and have never found it less than haunting, the way it slides from edgy chamber piece to something approaching delirium; one moment it’s cat-and-mouse with Sondra Locke and Colleen Camp, the next it’s bent itself into a phosphorescent hell, an underworld descent with Seymour Cassel as crap Orpheus who ends up covered in gunk from his own larder as the demented duo circle him like screeching harpies. I’ve always been impressed by how creepy Locke looks in this, with her not-quite-emaciated appearance and unwavering leer, and that’s exactly the sort of thing that ‘Knock Kock’, Eli Roth’s decent but generic remake, sorely lacked. ‘Dead Game’ is a different kind of film in a very different league, one of those strange seventies movies that pitch halfway between grindhouse and surrealism, and in that sense it shares some common ground with things like ‘Seizure’. Lots of re-releases fall short of the kind of hype they attract, but ‘Death Game’ is highly and effortlessly unsettling. Various subtexts might apply, but the screwy ending rams home one angle – karma sucks, be kind to pets.

WARLOCK – Julian Sands is the 17th cent sorcerer who thinks a notorious grimoire will make him all-powerful – Richard E Grant is the mere mortal with a fur coat and a slightly strained Scottish accent. A timeslip happens, and they end up in eighties LA. ‘Warlock’ mashes together some larger than average names with a few genre tropes from around the time – there’s a weirdly heavy debt to ‘Terminator’. It’s quite fun watching Sands and Grant stumble from one action set-piece to the next, although the effects are drecky for the (I’m guessing) budget, not that that’s a problem watching it nowadays. Didn’t quite click with me, but there’s some amusement to be had.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

You Can't Escape (1956)

Hugely enjoyable British noir thriller in which a novelist tries to cover up the accidental death of a former mistress by burying her in a wood. However the body is soon found and suspicion abounds the novelist resorts to desperate measures to keep his guilty secret.

At a mere 74 minutes You Can't Escape flies by thanks to it's pacy and intricate script and clever twists with Robert Urquhart on fine form as the edgy writer, especially when he's bribed by Peter Reynolds seedy hack journalist and his attempts to frame the local doctor (Guy Rolfe) whilst Noelle Middleton as Urquhart's current lover is torn through guilt when he confides his crime to her and she reluctantly helps him bury the corpse.

A third viewing over the years of this taut crime drama via Network's excellent dvd.

[gag]

Cube Japanese remake,


The original cube was something different new and fresh, and very good and well made, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it,
Generally it’s Americans that make remake of other ppl films,
This is the first Japanese remake of an American film,
Japanese tend to be very good at films that are different, or creating something new and different
In all honest it doesn’t it really bring anything to the table and lacks everything the original version did, it’s quite slow dull and boring,
And not enough excitement or kills either, ok as a one of out of curiosity but that’s as far as it goes, stick with the original.