COMPLIANCE - A prank caller poses as cop and instructs the staff of a fast-food restaurant to search, strip and eventually violate one of the employees. Famously based on a real incident, this detached, semi-art house thriller frames itself as an attempt to explore the damage done by blind obedience to perceived authority, whereas some critics have detected a more cynical motive and put it all down to exploitation or an attempt at provocation. Doesn't really matter to me because 'Compliance' is an effective and engrossing film whatever the motives of its makers. It's maybe a bit less hard-hitting than some would have us believe, but it is pretty nasty both in terms of what happens on screen, and also on an 'ideas' level. Certainly worth a watch.

DEATH POWDER - Completely off the wall Japanese cyberpunk flick from the eighties. 'Tetsuo' is probably the nearest point of comparison I can bring to mind, but 'Death Powder' is by far the weirder of the two. In fact, it's so messed up, I can't really even describe what happens in it beyond saying that two scientists / detectives (?) and some soldiers end up in a warehouse where a cyberlady strapped to a gurney sends various people into a weird alternative reality - but actually 'Death Powder' gives up on any sense of linearity (or plot, for that matter) after about ten minutes and thereon after switches between clunky eighties B-movie sci-fi and a potentially mind shattering montage of badly rendered video effects which becomes increasingly Lovecraftian. For me though the highlight came when the film, for no reason whatsoever, basically stopped and decided to become a series of stills scored by wine-bar electro-funk. Woah. Undergoing sensory deprivation then being forced to wear a specially designed visor through which plays a 24 hour loop of 'Eraserhead' transposed with 'Liquid Sky' might have a similar effect to sitting down with 'Death Powder'. I wish someone would give this crazy film a legit release.

Worth seeking out. Bat people is a cat people rip off with bats. Earth dies screaming is a british sci fi with a dr who level production values. Chosen survivors is a great hybrid of post apocalypse and killer bat film.

I watched it earlier this evening and love the score and camerawork – it's superb form a technical standpoint. However, it doesn't engage me and have the je ne sais quoi which makes the original such a magical experience.

I've got the 'Beast' double and enjoyed both films but 'Beast' is by far the better of the two. Used to want to watch it when i saw the old video cover too but never did at the time so picked up the double, glad i did.:)

I also picked up the 'Mephisto waltz'/House on skull mountain' midnite movies double because i like waltz quite a bit, Skull mountains ok too in a cheesy voodoo blaxploitation kinda way.

Well finished nosferatu amazing and striking blend of imagery and sound. 9.5/10

The unnamable next.

Jet Pilot (1957)

According to the history books this extremely tedious Cold War thriller without any thrills took seven years to complete.

It also took what seems like the same amount of time to watch.

Howard Hughes was obviously going through one of his "phases" when he decided on this.

So few nights ago we watched Arnies The Last Stand. Great little film, and it was nice to see Arnold playing his age and using that to the films advantage.
And tonight we watched Oblivion, Tom Cruises latest. Excellent grand sci-fi actioner, really enjoyed it.

Yesterdays films were:

Taped a fantastic Dutch thriller about a man and a wife who visit Argentina to rebuild their marriage and accidentally video a policeman executing a suspect. Much chasing ensues.

Wrong another surreal work from the director of 2010's Rubber.

Cheap Thrills What would you do for $250,000 dollars Two friends compete to out do one another in a game of Dare in order to "win" money and entertain the bored wife of a rich man. Recommended.

Sweetwater Fantastic western with dark religous undertones. Recommended.

Devil's Pass I think this was shown at Fright Fest under the slightly different title of The Dyatlov Pass Incident. More found footage meets conspiracy theory hokum. Passes the time, but difficult to recommend.

22 films down only 17 left to go before its time to head home on Thursday. I have put more detailed thoughts of the first 3 days over on my diary thread.

i was visiting friends recently and they screened this film, i wrote a fan fiction story for the X-Files based on the original incident and so i didn't mind sitting thorough this but your right about it being hard to recommend.

we watched The Hobbit again last night and an old Rutger H classic Wed-Lock. Haha, not a bad film imo.

Watched Evil Dead on Saturday, still one of my personal faves of horror. Bruce Campbell was just a good laugh being a magnet for shelves

Absurd (Joe D'amato, 1981). For all it's faults, I still love this film. Mainly because of the score....

Absurd(Rosso Sangue)(Horrible)(1981)Soundtrack - Part 3 - YouTube

Dario Argento's Dracula

Struggled to get through this. I thought it was rubbish and had to keep from fast fwd the film. Even the music score by Claudio Simonetti was a disappointment for me with an electronic effect that sounded that it should have been in an episode of Scooby Doo.

Bah! Dario, what happened to you man ? :doh:

Damn, if a movie looks like a duck, sounds like a duck then it's probably Argento's Dracula. I'm gonna give this a wide berth I think, after this is from the man who gave us Deep Red and it's all too depressing to dwell on it. If The Ward was a continuation of John Carpenter's downward trajectory, at least it was a respectable effort. This one sounds pretty unforgivable...

evil dead,the remake!
very dissapointing in my opinion.
was expecting a lot more,maybe as my folks said how good it was?
still,glad ive seen it,just waiting for no.4,if it happends?

A long day today

Revenge for Jolly unlikeable main protagonist goes on a killing spree to avenge his dead dog.

House of last things really poor haunted house movie

Drug Wars effective police thriller from Johnny To

Haunters great haunted house cum groundhog day film

Welcome to the Jungle JCVD leads a team booster survival camp in this charming comedy

Human Race is the midnight movie.

Fully agree. Argentos dracula is a steaming turd of a movie. Utter rubbish.


Currently an hour into BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW. Really dont know what to make of it. Feels like the sci-fi cousin of AMER.

Damn good title regardless...

THE TALL MAN. Very effective thriller tapping into the fears of poverty and child abuse. It has a great twist half way through and a semi ambiguous ending that keeps popping into my mind, which is no bad thing. Recommended.

DEAD MARY. This wants to be THE BIG CHILL but settles for a semi EVIL DEAD rip off instead. Odd but not in a good way.

SLC PUNK. Maybe it's my mood today or just the feeling in the air but this light hearted story of punks in 80s America resonated so hard with me that I physical felt the film at times. To me, this was like travelling back in time to meet my younger self and my mystical path to discovering the punk rocker within, who is an attitude not a hair cut.

I don't want to pick fault with your score system Troggi but to newcomers 8/10 would appear as if you really liked this movie a lot.:nod:
8 for me is really very good. 9 almost perfect, 10 perfect (almost unheard of.)
Personally i like your rating system, your'e a renegade agent of chaos.;)

Fascinating stuff... Funnily enough I was only thinking of American punks yesterday when I came across something about Penelope Spheeris' Surburbia, a film I haven't seen since the video days...

I rewatched SURBURBIA a few years ago, it is much more of an exploitation film than I remembered. I'd like to see a British punk film full of glue sniffing, smack, speed and violence, set in the 80s when it became a movement of the people. Sadly, it will never happen as the media can't see past art school punk rock as the BBC's recent reshowing off PUNK BRITAINIA proved. It is a sad day when the only person in a documentary you agree with is Gary Bushell.

Yep, I hear you, and Bushell's comments were perceptive. I loved that footage of an emotionally exhausted Jimmy Pursey caught in the maelstrom of punks and NF'ers... I gotta say though my allegiance was always with Wire rather than The Clash, but I'd love too see that film too...

Apparently no.4 is actually going to be Army of Darkness 2, followed by another sequel tying the Raimi/Campbell films in with the remakes.

Army of Darkness... the only film where I witnessed the audience up and leave in their droves, leaving only me and my slightly disgruntled buddy behind...

If you watch the remake you notice little things from the originals like ashs car etc. but why is he's car even there didn't it get sucked into the vortex at the end of two and he converted it into a deadite killing machine.

The footage of Pursey is fantastic. I've never got into the arty side of British punk. By the time I got into arty type stuff I got lost in American pre-grunge noise and never looked back to some of the British stuff that was an influence on it.

Surely that would mean it would be set in either ruined London of the future or modern day.
Unless Ash isn't in it, (i always preferred the bleaker ending myself). I don't really mind as long as they pull their fingers out and get on with it.

I wish I had had the sense to walk out and on EDII as well. I know that there is a lot of love for these two films here but they are bloody awful. Most people I've seen leave a film showing was MEET THE FEEBLES on it's original release.

I forgot that I saw ON THE ROAD last night. I think that says it all.

Campsite Massacre - In truth, the picture quality on this DVD spoiled my enjoyment of it to an extent - yes, it's 'digitally remastered' in the Vipco sense!! Picture quality doesn't tend to bother me that much (unless it's a BD or expensive DVD) and, to be fair, I was expecting it to be bad but a lot of the action takes place at night and some of the darker scenes were quite difficult to make out. Nevertheless, this is a fairly standard early 80s slasher and, whilst it's not a shining example of the genre, I've seen a lost worse! Lacks a bit in the gore department but, when it comes, it's done quite well. Also notable for an early appearance from Darryl Hannah (and one she probably scrubbed from her CV).

Boardinghouse - even within the context of all the other random crap I watch, this is one crazy film!! The 'plot' roughly goes like this ... bachelor with telekinetic abilities inherits a house where lots of bad things have happened and decides to turn it into a boardinghouse, although, from the advert, he clearly has a certain criteria for his tenants (ie. if you're, young, female and beautiful, contact Jim!!). Despite Jim's transparent lecherous intentions, beautiful women soon start to arrive (a bit like 'Field of Dreams' really) and bad stuff starts happening again. To go into any further detail would spoil the fun but, suffice to say, this isn't a 'good' film in the traditional sense but it's an absolute blast! Slasher Video have produced what must surely be the ultimate presentation of the film and there are loads of extras I've yet to work my way through, including a 2.5hr director's cut :shocked:. Recommended.

Beyond the black rainbow.

I can understand why some people hate this. Very much style over substance it seems to be trying to make statements on cold war america and regan. That said in terms of style it looks stunning and the moody score gives it real atmosphete.i cant promise you will like this film but its worth giving it a try. Make sure you watch it on blu-ray though. Unfortunately the disc is region locked.

I would have gone with Fulci's New York Ripper myself... ;)

I absolutely loved this. One of my all time favourites of the current decade. :nod:

The Evil Dead remake. Nasty little film that I quite enjoyed. Maybe a little more depth to the characters but I liked the fact that they weren't your typical horror movie fodder and were actually out in the cabin for a more mature focused purpose. Has anyone watched to the end of the credits? It's nothing special but Bruce gets a very very brief look in. Not sure if it means anything.

I loved 'Beyond the Black Rainbow'.

Damn, I'm a big Kerouac guy and I had high hopes for this one...

I know some people who hated it. Personally i'm glad I bought it. Despite my criticisms I definately want to watch it again. Unlike a lot of films I watch it stuck with me.

Decided to wind the evening down with something a little more easy going and watched Curse of Frankenstein. Certainly the Blu-ray is lacking in terms of quality, perhaps there was an accident that affected the contrast dial (same problem they had with straw dogs) but the film itself is still great fun. I'd forgotten how different Cushings Frankenstein was to the source material. Here he's a genuine certified grade A bastard who thinks nothing of killing people off to further his own agenda. Cudos as well to Christopher Lee for brilliant dialogue free performance as the creature.

It might be really good! I'm not a fan of Kerouac, I was way too old when I read him...at least 20 at the time. I liked the style but not the content. As to the film, I enjoyed the scenes of life with the Lees which captured some of the casual craziness I always imagined would rule in their household.

Yeah, I'll definitely catch it at some stage. I knew this could go either way...