What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Dread (2009)

Two college students conduct a thesis where they film their fellow students discussing their greatest fears...and then it starts to get really f*cked up.

On the whole this is a pretty nasty little chiller that even when it's not going full on gruesomeness has a mean spiritedness to it that's quite rare in horror today.

There are some standout shocks such as a stripper being slashed by an unknown force as she dances, with great gashes opening up across her body but the sequence as a vegetarian girl is locked in a cell like room with only a piece of meat to eat as it slowly rots and becomes maggot infested as the days go by. I found this just as gross as any of the torture sequences in Martyrs (2008) which is generally cited as a pinnacle of torture porn movie making.

And yet some scenes are surprisingly moving especially a standout with a girl who has a huge dark birth mark from her face right down her body. It was as much a gut punch listening to her talk about the cruel jibes she's had to suffer throughout her life. It was a scene i found incredibly moving and provoked interesting thoughts in my head.

Dread is so much more than a typical teen horror movie, it's a descent into obsessive madness and i really liked it once more.

Rawhead Rex (1986)

Like Dread, Rawhead Rex is also a story from Clive Barker's Books of Blood but is quite literally a different beast altogether.

A film with strong elements of folk horror in it, Rawhead Rex concerns the resurrection of a monstrous Pagan deity on the rampage in the Irish countryside.

The excavation of the stone at the start screamed Stigma and Clive Exton and it has a nice Pagan vibe throughout. Whilst Rex himself is not the greatest monster you'll see in horror cinema it is a lot of fun and pretty memorable also it's a big plus that you actually get to see the monster. A lot.

Although not the goriest of films, the SFX of the slash wounds the creature inflicts are Fulci-esq in their gruesomeness. Filmed entirely on location in Ireland the film has an authentic feel and look to it which also adds to it's charm and it's rewatch value because on Blu-ray it's a beautiful film to look at.

[MrBarlow]

24 Hours To Live. 2017.

A assassin fails to take out a target and is killed, he is revived due to e experiment procedure but his bosses decide he should die. He escapes and has only 24 hours left and uses the time to take out his former employers.

Ethan Hawke plays the broken down killer Travis who is mourning the death of his wife and son but is willing to go against former comrades lead by Paul Anderson and boss Liam Cunningham. Yeah ok some bits don't make sense but this is a decent action flick and Travis isn't scared to take a beating or a bullet. There is a pretty good shootout in the main building while one person remains calm and then we are given a slight twist to the story or a last confession. This is one that's worth a watch.

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[MrBarlow]

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland. 1972

Another adaptation of Lewis Carroll's tale of the little girl who follows a white rabbit down a hole and meets a assortment of characters. Fiona Fullerton takes on the role of Alice in this little musical number that almost seems faithful to the original story. There is a good line up of cast from Roy Kinnear, Michael Crawford, Sir Ralph Richardson, Patsy Rowlands, Dudley Moore. I didn't go into high hopes with this but it is enjoyable even though it seems to be on a tight budget.

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[MrBarlow]

Atomic Blonde. 2017.

A list of double agents is missing, MI6 sends a female agent to Germany during the fall of the Berlin wall to retrieve the list.

We got a hot blonde Charlize Theron explaining what went on to Toby Jones and John Goodman with her contact James McAvoy and meeting a French agent Sofia Boutella who becomes her lover. We are given decent fight scenes that are believable and well choreographed, good shoot outs and decent car chases and crashes but the plot itself is something that seems to be rushed in some parts and other bits just drag on or it just me that thinks that? Doubt I'd return to this one.

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[MrBarlow]

Panic Button. 2011.

Four people bound for New York believe they have won a prize but end up playing a game to save their loved ones lives.

A interesting concept of four different people from all walks of life all have the same thing in common with a social media site. What seems to be a joke or a laugh after their lives are somewhat exposed for embarrassment then things turn a bit sinister and deadly. As the pic says best British horror film in years is a understatement to be honest, it's not. Done on a low budget and the actors do try their best the film does lack some suspense and seems a bit rushed but it's entertaining.

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[Frankie Teardrop]

DARK NATURE – I stumbled upon this when I was searching online for the Scottish semi-giallo with the same name. ‘Dark Nature’, the one I saw, is a contemporary indie about a therapeutic wilderness trail for trauma survivors. Things go off the rails when it turns out that the forest they’re in offers plenty of trauma of its own. I really liked this one. The aesthetics are fairly plain but nonetheless capture something of the essence of woodland menace, a vibe that drew me in well before ‘Dark Nature’ morphed into a creature feature with ‘The Descent’ on its mind. All the cave stuff is pretty strong, and there’s a nicely icky monster with stuff about healing and toxic relationships that’s way less ‘cringe’ than it sounds. It’s not perfect, there are a few fumbles and it could’ve been a bit more graphic, but it’s well worth a shot if you happen to notice it.

FEAR CITY – New York’s strippers are in crisis after a man with a few martial arts moves and a sharp object decides he doesn’t like them very much – stony faced strip agency guy Tom Berenger grapples with his inner demons and tries to optimise bookings. ‘Fear City’ is a step down compared with ‘Ms 45’, ‘Driller Killer’ etc and is a bit of a mess really, little more than a meat and potatoes thriller decked out in sleazy glad rags (quite scanty ones, obviously). But it’s still an Abel Ferrara film. Melanie Griffith is magnetic as always, David Johanssen sings ‘New York Doll’, the whole neon vista of NYC at night pulls you in and pins you to the gutter – a gutter overflowing with slick artifice, for this is mainstream exploitation with way more of a Canon vibe than any of his other stuff.

[MrBarlow]

The Best Man. 2023.

Luke Wilson, Brendan Fehr and Dolph Lundgren are all ex special ops soldiers at a private wedding when mercenaries storm the secluded hotel. Simple plot like another Die Hard film where the good guys are low on weapons until they start killing the bad guys and use their weapons. As trying to fight off the bad guys, our hero's have to think on their feet quickly while trying to keep the bride and her bridesmaid alive and the father of both of them. This isnt a high octane adrenaline fuelled movie even though it should be with a good star cast but enjoyable enough for a re-watch.

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[Nordicdusk]

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A computer programmer who has a bit of an odd relationship with a computer program that he communicates with like a living breathing thing. His girlfriend is doing her best to keep the relationship going but she feels like a third wheel and the female computer program seems to get more love and affection than her. Things reach a new low when she is proposed to only to be told the computer calculated that it makes better sense to get married than not. After a big bust up the couple are transported to a mysterious world where they are challenged to a series of games by an ancient wizard where the girlfriend is the prize.


You might think in a film like this that the acting might be terrible but it's actually much better than you would expect and I was surprised it's the cheesey dialogue that stands out but the actors really do a great job with what they have been handed. I loved all the make up and creatures yes you can tell it was done on a tight budget but that's the charm of it a lot of effort went into making it look as awesome as possible.

The highlight of the film has to be WASP I got such a kick out of Blackie Lawless attempting to murder the female lead while the band are belting out some kick ass 80s metal in the background


This is the first film from Arrows Empire Films set and like I already said I haven't seen this in decades so going back was a real joy and it really brought me back to my teenage years I had a real fun time.

Far from a great film but it's a blast and if your in a goofy mood you may also get a kick out of this.

[Demoncrat]

I still have the vhs of Ragewar Nord, it's one of a kind imho.


Underworld (1986, George Pavlou)

Barker also wrote this one. Larry Lamb tracks down a missing bint in this ... thing. Littered with familiar faces, I sat sort of stunned into submission by this low key little caper. Would I return to these murky shores? Unsure. It doesn't have the budget to create what the story requires, so suffers from this. Very British imho.

[MrBarlow]

The Monster Squad. 1987.

Something for a bit of Saturday mid afternoon/evening time. Andre Gower, Robby Kiger, Brent Chalem, Michael Faustino who are later joined by Ryan Lambert and Ashley Banks are horror fans and form a little group on monster talk to only face, Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Mummy and Gil Man.

Straight up from the 80s with Fred Dekker 's other film Night Of The Creeps he does do a homage to the Universal monsters with Duncan Regehr's performance as Dracula and almost as menacing with the same costume as Bela Lugosi and Tom Noonan as the friendly Frankenstein. The dark humour in this has never aged and still brings out a laugh as it did back in the day. Aside from one or two noticeable goofs, the effects still hold strong and Dekker knew how to do things right for a comedy horror. A classic that never gets boring.

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