Terror on Tape
Humongous
Dungeonmaster


The Conjuring: It had some good moments, but I'm still notta guy who's scared of ghost

World's End: Oh man!!! I love this movie!!! Nick Frost giving someone the Torture Rack (a wrestling move) is more than an excuse to go and see this!

And John Travolta is fantastic in this movie. De Palma's best film along with Phantom of the Paradise. As the 80's wore on he became an increasingly hit and miss film maker which often makes me forget how great his early films were...

Like you Wes i also really like his early films, both of those are great and i also really like 'Sisters', Carrie and 'The Fury'.:nod:

The Fall of the House of Usher (1960) Going to get me some red candles and burying my sisters alive!....No Really! Cant stand them! :lol:

Son Of Frankenstein (1939)
Another classic Universal and Karloff's last appearance as the monster. The lightning storm and petrified landscape at the start of the film creates a awesome atmosphere. Bela Lugosi shines as Ygor.

The Time Machine (1960)
The original and the best version of HG Wells novel. The scenes in which Rod Taylor watches the fashions in a dressmaker's window change as he flies forward in time are just great.Yvette Mimieux looks stunning in her girl of the future role and is later seen in 1979's The Black Hole.
Awesome film.

Watched Lethal Weapon last night, performances were top notch, the action was brilliant and Mel Gibson stole the show

I forgot to put Haunter in my Frightfest scores. I was a bit disappointed with this one. Coming from the director of Cube I thought it would be better. Anyone else see it at Frightfest?

Watched The Gingerdead Man last night. I like this movie.
Decent enough effects, characters you can care about, bar one IMO.
And the short running time helps you stick with it until the end. Got the
odd laugh or two, whether intentional or otherwise ;)

DAVID ICKE AT THE OXFORD UNION DEBATING HALL. Crazy man Icke drops all the Royal Family as space lizards shit and delivers a fairly reasoned 2 hour plus talk about media control and overarching political agendas. He's a seasoned speaker who doesn't refer to notes for the the whole talk. Strangely he ends his talk by quoting Bill Hicks. I must confess I miss the lizards, though Icke briefly mentions before the speech of meeting Ted Heath who's eyes turned black during their interaction!

"Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains" A scatter gun attack on the music industry, the ethics of punk rock and selling out for fame. This starts out real well with sultry badass Diane Lane channelling her anger at her mother's death into sub the Shaggs performance based punk rock before it becomes just another story of the rocky road to stardom. Yes, it swipes a playful paw at various rock film standards but the main point of interest is seeing Sex Pistols, Steve Jones and Paul Cook joined by the Clash's Paul Simonon as Ray Winstone's backing band. Dated but fun. Various Tubes are in it too.

THE BRADY BUNCH. A great hymn to the original series with a wink in it's eye, and a dark and very funny sub plot involving "the middle child".

FRATERNITY VACATION. Laughter free, teen sex comedy from the mid 80s, featuring a pre porn Evil Ed, whatshername from RE-ANIMATOR and Tim Robbins.

I'm now on the fourth of the planet of the apes films. Conquest of the planet of the apes, I've heard there is a alternative ending to this a darker ending that didn't go done well, is this version available if so which release company etc is it? Like to get hold of it ..

Gag, this alternative version was included on the US boxset but Fox in their wisdom did not include this alternative cut on the otherwise identical UK box. Pure laziness really...

Bourne Legacy (UK Blu) last night, which I enjoyed.

This afternoon I watched Gallow Walkers (German Blu) which I saw at last years Fright Fest Halloween event. Its competent if uninspired.

This evening back to the local cinema to see Meet the Millers which although entertaining suffers from almost all of the best moments having been shown in the trailer - I also saw the trailer for Bad Grandpa which had a fantastic sequence of a young boy dresses as a girl pole dancing at an American Beauty Pageant - brilliant.

NIGHT OF THE CREEPS. Fred Dekker's playful take on 50s sci-fi paranoia and elements of post NOTLD American horror still holds up well today in the present climate of shaky cam horror. This has everything a mainstream horror of the period should have: a love of genre, college girls in showers, gore, great effects, nerdy heroes and a genuine warmth for the film's characters and the viewer. Recommended.

One of my favourites, along with Monster Squad.

It's available in the 40th anniversary Blu-ray set:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Planet-Apes-...et+of+the+apes

There is Monster Squad graffiti in the toilet in NOTC and one of Tom Atkin's first scenes uses slightly reworded dialogue from MS. Have you seen Dekker's TEEN AGENT recently? I wonder how that holds up these days.

That's not a bad price for all them on blu-ray or used just under £12.

West of Memphis

A contender for one of my favourite documentaries ever. I hold this case particularly close to heart as I've followed it now for well over a decade and a half - in fact it was one thing I was particularly taken with when my OH and I first got together, so much so I'd bought the books, downloaded all the court materials and was an ardent supporter of The West Memphis Three. I even attended an anti-death penalty charity gig and talked to Steve Earle backstage about the three (he was a supporter, along with Eddie Vedder, Henry Rollins, Patti Smith, Johnny Depp and many more.)

For those that don't know, the WM3 were convicted as teenagers in 1993 of the murder of three young boys, in what was assumed to be a satanic cult ritual. Despite astounding incompetence from the investigating officers, contradictory evidence and the boys maintaining their innocence (except one with learning difficulties who was coerced into giving a false confession) the courts and media effectively condemned these kids in one of the biggest media witch hunts of all time, leading to life imprisonment for two of the boys and time on death row for the so called ring leader, Damien Echols. 18 years later, with new DNA evidence surfaced and ropey convictions proved false, the men are finally free, although shockingly still not cleared by the courts.

This superb documentary, produced by Peter Jackson's Wingnut films (Jackson is featured, and was also a supporter), tells their story brilliantly and I found it quite emotional. A true cautionary tale about an extraordinary miscarriage of justice - just brilliant.

The Orphan Killer.

A Matt Farnsworth film. I was surprised by this low budget slasher in that it is far more competent than I hoped. The story is basic, brother and sister are orphaned after their parents are murdered. Sister is adopted, brother beats another kids head in with a bat and is forced to wear a mask and endure many years of torture from the nuns. Then he gets an axe and becomes Marcus Miller, The Orphan Killer.
The film is carried by the female lead (Diane Foster) and I was mightily impressed with her efforts (and her bum!) all the way through. The blood flows thick and fast as Marcus throws that axe about with some mean intent!
I believe Matt wants to make a new franchise with this character.. best of luck to him.

THE ORPHAN KILLER Official Trailer [HD] - YouTube


Edit; German Blu/DVD Mediabook available from D&T, Official Orphan Killer site sold out of Blu's but have DVD's.

I was really surprised by this when i first seen it. Some great gore and kills i must get the blu ray sometime.

Watched Beetlejuice last night for the very first time. Wow, Tim Burton is definitely out there. While I'm not his biggest fan, this movie ranks as one of his most accomplished. Super performance from Michael Keaton. Loved the horror elements in this movie. Set design and make up effects were just fantastic. Might just watch this one again come Halloween. Didn't get a chance to watch this with 5.1 surround sound, but the PQ was very impressive. Overall a very enjoyable viewing experience was had. Tim Burton's best movie IMO :woot:

2 very different films over the weekend ...

Orphans - a great film - sad, poignant and, at times, hilarious with some great performances. The BD was a blind buy from HMVs 4 for £10 and I'm really glad I took a chance on it. Must check out NEDS from the same director.

Coffy - this is probably the most exploitative exploitation film I've ever seen and it's all the better for it! Seriously, every situation seems to end up with a topless woman. Fight in a cocktail bar ... boobs .... a heavy threatening a barmaid for unwittingly taking a picture of a politician up to no good ... boobs ... you get the picture! For what it is, 'Coffy' really delivers - action packed, violent and undeniably of it's time and genre. I personally prefer 'Foxy Brown', which has better performances and a more ambitious plot but it's close call.

NEDS is a great film, gritty, violent then all of a sudden it slips into magic realism every now and then.

I remember there being a bit of positive buzz about Detention on here, so watched that last night. I found it fairly obnoxious to be honest. All that too-cool-for-school whip-panning with woosh sound effects. Remined me of other American comedy I never got on with, like Scrubs or Malcolm in the Middle. It’s like the frenetic pace is there to mask the lack of any actual wit, just chuck everything at the screen and see what sticks, under the guise of BEING WACKY. I suppose the attempt to do something different is admirable. But I think it failed as a horror film, and as I only smiled a few times, for me it failed as a comedy too . . .

I saw Beetlejuice at the cinema! Love that film.

That's a shame, Jack. I'm one of those who championed it, as for me it worked. It does indeed throw everything into the mix, and it's certainly an ambitious feature by a director who clearly has a music video background, but the thing for me is that it worked. I liked the characters, the craziness, and the off-the-wall humour. I found it exceptionally entertaining and considering how quick-fire the gags are, I found the hit rate pretty high.

And I'm normally turned off by the idea of high-school comedies.

Didn't realise it was made by a music video director, but I can totally see that now! For me, everything just felt really affected and smug, the horror elements treated like throwaway gags, as if the makes felt they were 'above' such fare . . .

I wasn't sure where to post this: I've just bought a Blu-Ray Player. Could someone please tell some Blu-Rays that have the best special features (I've been told that some films such as Kingdom of Heaven lose out on a lot of the special features in comparison to the DVD)

I worked on 'Beetlejuice'!

DEATHDREAM - AKA 'Dead Of Night'. 'Monkey's Paw' variant which sees an all American kid return from 'nam in sinister form. Despite some obvious moves, this remains a disturbing and in places quite poignant meditation on the collapse of the nuclear family. In some ways it's quite 'EC comics', but with the added dimension of interpersonal tragedy - somehow this is all summed up by the scenes at the drive in, which are quite emotionally wrenching.

THE PAPERBOY - I really liked this. It's set in Miami in 1969, and features a newspaper reporter who teams up with his college drop-out brother to investigate a man wrongly accused of murdering a sheriff. Nicole Kidman is involved as a death row fixated pen pal of said accused. I thought it was really mesmerising, and quite non-linear for a mainstreamish film - it drifts dreamily between hazy whimsy (Kidman pissing on Z Efron's jellyfish sting) and harsh brutality (reporter guy's one night stand goes wrong). Recommended.

MELANCHOLIA - Arthouse semi sci-fi from Von Trier. A depressed woman endures an abysmal wedding whilst a planet slowly journeys through space with intent to trash the Earth. It's divided into two segments, the first dealing with the wedding, the second focussing on the dynamics between depressed woman and her sister. I thought it was great, the wedding segment in particular, which, although nuanced, seethes with grim foreboding.

HELL ROLLER - Forgotten SOV trash from the early nineties. A disabled man loses his mother, then goes on a murderous rampage. Well, that's kind of what it's about, but plot doesn't really factor into it because after a minimal set up it fragments into a random collage of mild softcore, bad gore fx, random stabs at humour, scenes that appear to make no sense whatsoever, and outbursts of really awful nineties cheapo video effects (I have an inexplicable liking for latter, the shitter the better). In theory this could all add up to a psychotronic bad taste classic a la 'Black Devil Doll From Hell', but that's all too clearly what the 'filmmakers' had in mind - you can't force that kind of outsider genius. Still, I was really into at least three quarters of it - unfortunately, the grating humour sullied it for me and sort of cancelled out the nutrition coming from all the freakiness. On the plus side, it does feature Warhol affiliate NY performance artist Penny Arcade as the murder guy's aunt.

Me too. That pulpy, sleazy, sweaty Southern Gothic vibe I thought worked really well . . .

Hey Marc, there's a lot of excellent Blu-Ray dedicated review sites out there but the most comprehensive is probably Blu-Ray.com. Try their reviews database here and use the filter to pinpoint what you want - one of the filters is a score by extras so you can list Blu's with 5-star extras right down. Handy. Also, if you're region-locked, and you're only playing region-B discs, make sure you glance at the Region Code info on the review...

The Beev is a great resource as well... step this way (the up-arrow means a superb disc and worth getting)

Julia's Eyes. (2010)

A superior horror thriller from Spanish director Guillem Morales . Julia's Eyes tells the story of a woman trying to get to the bottom of her sisters apparent suicide. Along the way she is drugged and realises she is losing her eyesight.

Julia's Eyes is a terrific thriller with some strong horror overtones reminiscent of the best work of Dario Argento. Director Morales, an associate of Guillermo del Toro, who indeed acts as producer on the film, has created a film with a fascinating premise and some genuine scares along the way, best of all he doesn't resort to loud music crashes to fake the viewer into a jump. The scenes in the blind women's shower room are very unnerving and seem really creepy except there is no actual threat to be had. This scene alone makes Guillem Morales an excellent director in my view. Whilst the film is quite talky in places its still rivetting viewing which makes the flashes of horror even more devastating. One or two scenes are reminiscent of the aforementioned Argento at his absolute best.

Belen Rueda is quite superb in the role of Julia, utterly convincing and the object of our sympathies, in fact all the actors perform well with an intelligent script,and it isn't until the final reel that the film could ever be called formulaic.

For me Julia's Eyes is one of the best films i've seen this year

Enter The Dragon on blu - classic Bruce Lee

I got all excited and nearly fell through the window after trying a flying kick after I watched it

This is yet another film I haven't seen since I watched it for review even though I loved it and thought it was sophisticated and moving experience. As you mentioned, Belen Rueda shines in the title role, but then she seems to be excellent in every film in which she appears, particularly The Sea inside and The Orphanage.

Actresses such as Belen should be heading the latest blockbusters not here today gone tomorrow unknowns picked just because celeb magazines thrust them on us.

Le Orme aka Footprints on the Moon.

The striking giallo regular Florinda Balkan stars here as a woman plagued by nightmares involving Klaus Kinski and a moon stranded astronaut. Having realised she's lost all memory of the past three days, she flys to the near-deserted resort named only as 'Garma' (which appears to be in Turkey), in which she expects to find answers.

I liked this a lot. Its exotic, sun-baked, near-deserted locale reminded me of Don't Torture a Duckling, and as far as gialli goes, this is a psychological thriller rather than a murder mystery - there's no black gloved killers stalking our lead here, as it's rather more a journey of self discovery.

With some gorgeous cinematography, a terrifically cacthy soundtrack and Balkan's usual brooding intensity, I was swept up in this. It's one that begs a rewatch, as I was quite tired and feel I may have missed some clues; so while the ending initially struck me as a bit of a cop-out, it's possible other interpretations could be had.

It also stars Nicoletta Elmi, the young girl from The Night Child, Who Saw Her Die?, Profondo Rosso and Demons among others. Apparently she quit acting and became a doctor later in life.

This one has been gathering dust on my Love Film queue for a while now. I'll have to bump it up to 'High Priority' in the near future. :nod:

Great review Delirium. You should join in with the monthly Review Club (as should anyone else who is interested).

Thanks a lot!!