What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[MrBarlow]

K2. 1991.

Michael Biehn and Matt Craven play Taylor and Harold, two experienced climbers who meet Raymond J Barry, a millionaire who is funding a expedition party to climb the second highest mountain.

The creation of the two characters is amazing, one a lawyer who is a arrogant wamanizer and the other is a happily married man and a scientist with doubts about the new hike up a mountain that has claimed a lot of lives yet both men willing to risk everything for achievement. Barry's character is what you would expect, a bit brass and cocky, remorseful that he didn't get to see the top and yet willing to leave everyone behind to save his own ass. The scenery/set design is how you would picture it, temperatures that would freeze the ball off a brass monkey and looking for a sign saying Death Awaits. Hanz Zimmer's background score is amazing and haunting especially during the last trek and you expect something to happen then it doesn't and then it does. A film i'd happily sit through again.

[Frankie Teardrop]

WHIRLPOOL - I have a lot of time for Larraz. He brought us two pinnacles of UK horror in 'Vampyres' and 'Symptoms', striking exercises in misty melancholia for the grotty seventies. 'Whirpool' is proto- all that stuff. It's about a 'sensitive young man' (read - a very specific kind of sixties / seventies English post-'Psycho' psycho a la Hywel Bennet in 'Twisted Nerve') who takes photographs in his 'Aunt's country house, where something bad happened to their last houseguest - we don't know what exactly but people keep mentioning it in hushed tones. Her replacement, a model there ostensibly for a weekend photoshoot, soon finds herself up to her neck in saucy mind games. I really like 'Whirlpool'. It has that early seventies 'NEL paperback' feel I adore in Brit stuff of its vintage - trashy psychosexual pulp dolled up in groovy glad rags, but with that tawdry, curdled postwar English vibe pulsating in the background; you can practically smell the incense curling around decommissioned stacks of ration-era Spam. It might be that the Eurohorror dialogue is at once stilted and over-ripe, the performances distracted and rickety, the flow plagued by stretches of nonaction and filler, and all of these misfires can seem charming or not. But there's this very slight magic in the air, and, in the forest, there's a mystery dude playing a flute! As soon as he appeared in the graveyard, I knew that this was the film for me. Threesome-based sleaze fades in and out, an hilarious encounter with the village drug dealer takes a dark turn, and the end is pretty brutal - I can see why people make LHOTL comparisons. It may not demonstrate the command of his better-known films, but 'Whirlpool' is a worthy precursor to those movies that have put Larraz on the map.

[Justin101]

Update since last week, not as many re-watches this week, trying to whittle my watch-pile down 'Twin Peaks' referring to just the 90 minute pilot.

[MrBarlow]

Alive. 1993.

Based on the true story of the Uruguayan rugby team heading to Chile and their plane crashes in the Andes Mountains. When food supply goes short and the rescue efforts called off, they decide to resort to cannibalism and find help on their own.

Considering the dramatic and sensitive theme of the film and with respect of the survivors and families of those that passed away in 1972, the screen play is very well written and the characters are portrayed very well and you can only imagine what exactly happened. Most of the time the pilots are to blame in the film and the decision to eat them is seen as a laugh until the survivors are in a huddle making the tough decision. it tough times they are a few laughs and comments made but nothing goes overboard and the film goes back to being serious. Not a film I can watch over and over but like to return to it every once in a while.

Alive92poster.jpg

[gag]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

Alive. 1993.

Based on the true story of the Uruguayan rugby team heading to Chile and their plane crashes in the Andes Mountains. When food supply goes short and the rescue efforts called off, they decide to resort to cannibalism and find help on their own.

Considering the dramatic and sensitive theme of the film and with respect of the survivors and families of those that passed away in 1972, the screen play is very well written and the characters are portrayed very well and you can only imagine what exactly happened. Most of the time the pilots are to blame in the film and the decision to eat them is seen as a laugh until the survivors are in a huddle making the tough decision. it tough times they are a few laughs and comments made but nothing goes overboard and the film goes back to being serious. Not a film I can watch over and over but like to return to it every once in a while.

Attachment 251276

Society of the snow is Netflix version of the story, they did their research and interviews ppl etc, it?s very good and well made etc.
and they got praised for it.

[nicholasrope]

Manhunter

William Petersen plays a Criminal Profiler who gets brought in to help catch a Mass Murderer. In order to do this he seeks help from a notorious Serial Killer, Hannibal Lecktor, who is played by Brian Cox. I originally watched this when I was much younger and now that I am older, I'm able to appreciate more especially the side story of the Killer, played marvelously by Tom Noonan trying to romance a blind Joan Allen and the slow methodical build towards Petersen and Co working out who the killer is.

Co-staring Dennis Farina and Stephen Lang, who had one of the more memorable scenes in this Movie. Another memorable scene is Petersen jumping through a window to In-A-Gadda-Vida.

Beverly Hills Cop

Classic Eddie Murphy Film in which he plays a Detroit Detective who goes to Beverly Hills to investigate the Murder of his friend. Whilst there he uses his trademark wisecracks, mannerisms and ability to annoy people to take down the criminals the Beverly Hills Police Department especially John Ashton and Judge Reinhold.

Still really funny especially the scene where he gets thrown through a window and gets arrested.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Haunting (1999)

Professor Liam Neeson gathers a group of people (Catherine Zeta Jones, Owen Wilson and Lili Taylor) at a huge estate in Massachusetts for an alleged volunteer study on insomnia, only to find themselves plagued by paranormal events connected to the house's grim history.

Jan De Bont's remake of the 1963 classic is a bit of a strange one. It ramps everything up on the earlier film including the special effects from Phil Tippett which are largely excellent whilst the sound design is magnificent in True HD surround and thankfully all the jump scares are based round natural sounds rather than musical cues. I can't really fault the cast - Taylor is good as the put upon heroine of the piece whilst Zeta Jones vamps it up, even Owen Wilson is watchable. The house itself is the star of the film. Filmed at Harlaxton Manor in Lincolnshire, it's beautifully grand and quintessentially Gothic, a stunning example of Victorian architecture.

And yet it doesn't quite work. Once you've done marveling at the technical aspects you realise the script lacks something and it's not in the least bit scary or thrilling.

Despite all this i enjoyed it when i saw it at the cinema, bought it on dvd and upgraded to Blu-ray so make of that what you will.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

I'm interested in what other members think of the 1999 Haunting?

'Crap' is just not an answer.

[gag]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I'm interested in what other members think of the 1999 Haunting?

'Crap' is just not an answer.

I hate that I?m in a few film forums on fb and twitter, and I feel ppl saying a film crap it?s like the latest craze ppl have to call every film crap, but never explain why ? Even if it classed as film of the year,
It was crap because it wasn?t horror enough,
Why was it not horror enough ?
Because it wasn?t scary, or not enough ppl get killed, or not gory enough, load of rubbish horror comes in many forms, and worst ones are ones that could actually happen,
Many times I?ve posted and asked why they think it was crap but they don?t responds or explain why, just say because it was.

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I'm interested in what other members think of the 1999 Haunting?

'Crap' is just not an answer.

I like it, it?s the exact opposite of subtle but there is something about 90s horror films. The house was amazing.