I think I started one but can't remember what I called it. I'll have a look and bump it up if I find it.

:lol:

I'd recommend The Witches and Ghost Stories for Christmas as ones that haven't been mentioned yet.

Thanks Dem, I have some 'borrowed' episodes from the Ghosts stories for christmas and i really really love them. Whistle and i will come to you is brilliant. it's £25 on dvd in Fopp at the moment so i hope after dropping hints to the other half that she will pick it up for me for christmas.

Vipp, the folk horror reviews start on page 172 of the CLMR thread.

RAGE - Part three of the Teardrop Poundland saga. 'Rage' is a sort-of 'Duel' rip-off about a philandering writer who is victimised by a disgruntled motorcyclist. His past follies come home roost when his wife is brutally raped and his elderly neighbours are chainsawed by motorpsycho guy. I can't really recommend 'Rage', although I tried to like it. The bedroom violation scene is, whilst not explicit, fairly grimy and harrowing and I suppose the last twenty minutes on the whole are possessed of an OK level of nastiness which would've made 'Rage' more of a proposition had the rest of it shown similar tendencies. But 'Rage' is mostly about build-up - not a problem in itself, but the backstory here is clichéd and fumbling, and the man-against-cyclist pursuit is tension free. It put me in mind of 'Duel again and made me want to watch it, and I feel I'm being very generous in saying that maybe that's where my pound really went in this case.

Shame as i quite like the cover.

Oh well it's a pound towards something else. :lol:

Julie Darling Julie(Isabella Mejia), is a disturbed teenage girl who has a bizarre infatuation with her dad (Antonio Franciosa) who we all know from Tenebrae. Julie is so obsessed with her father that woe betide anyone who comes between them, including her own mother who she lets die when attacked by a rapist in her own home.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, eventhough it has a tv film kind of feel to it.
The Code Red dvd is pretty solid as well.

The Frozen Ground - 2013. (Currently on Netflix UK)
Nicolas Cage and that dude from High Fidelity are just brilliant in this movie. I watched a documentary on the serial killer this film is based on and the movie really does a great job of re telling (briefly) the story of the victims and the one woman who survived his attack.

If you haven't seen this film but have an interest in films based on real events i would highly recommend this hidden gem. I will say i can't stand N.Cage i think he can't act but this movie changed my mind about him. he can be great in films.

Another interesting fact for those interested, the serial killer this film is about died just 2 months ago.

The Fog (1980)

John Carpenter's classic exercise in supernatural horror. A sinister mist coming in from the sea envelops the sleepy coastal California community of Antonio Bay. From out of the fog come decaying corpses of mariners, armed with hooks, pikes and other weapons to tear the flesh, seeking retribution and vengeance for past deeds steeped in greed and murder.

Director Carpenter who co-wrote the script with long time collaborator Debra Hill, and also has a small cameo, plays on our innermost fears of the dark and the unknown, delivering atmospheric shock after shock as the fog slowly consumes the town.

Still frightening today. The Fog is a masterpiece of horror cinema.

This is an abridged version of a review that appears here. https://www.cult-labs.com/forums/mem...tml#post421478

Overall, The Evil is a pretty formulaic haunted house flick in as much as we have a psychologist and his group of co-workers trapped inside an old mansion courtesy of a malevolent force of some kind.

Supernatural events start to occur gradually increasing in frequency and severity, in turn tormenting the various bell-bottom trouser sporting cast members, all of which leads to some creative kills and spills (and a spectral sexual assault) along the way.

However, the final act tilts more towards the bat-shit insane end of the paranormal scale, as our resident supernatural entity grows tired of playing little ghastly games in favour of revealing themselves and inflicting some truly torturous terror on the remaining members of the cast.

Evil by name, evil by nature indeed.

Originally posted here: https://www.cult-labs.com/forums/421485-post337.html

Things.

Shot on 8mm at the tail end of the 80's by two stoned as hell Canadians, Things is a film that I'm still trying to wrap my head around. After a frankly weird as f*** opening dream scene with a naked woman in a Satan mask being propositioned by a sweaty bloke asking if she will have his baby, the film switches back to "reality"
Two drunks turn up at sweaty blokes house looking to get their drink on. They find a tape recorder and some sort of satanic book in the freezer. After listening to it a bit they continue to get pissed. Sweaty bloke tricks his mate with the mullet into eating a spider. Then sweaty blokes wife gives birth alien style to a spider thing so the drunks decide to hit the whiskey. Eventually they decide to do stuff and things happen. All the action is broken up with occasional newsflashes with porn star amber lynne.
Things is a complete mess. The sound mix is sloppy, the editing crude and the script is... well the script is complete garbage. YET, I somehow managed to stick it to the end. You could almost say its hypnotically bad in a way films like Birdemic and The room wish they where.
This film is wrecked.

Dial help.

Charlotte lewis is stalked by phones. There I said it. And after Things this wasn't the most wrecked thing I watched this evening. In fairness, when put next to a train wreck of a film like things, a film like dial help shines in comparison. It's an odd bird of a film, can't say i've ever seen another film where a phone makes a guys pacemaker explode. Still, director Deodato makes the film stylish and Lewis is grade A eye candy and I like the more mental end of italian schlock cinema so this was enjoyable enough.

MADISON COUNTY - The final chapter in Frankie's Poundland Chronicles brings me to 'Madison County', a dead straight slasher flick from indie hotshot Eric England. It's about a quintet of student types on a mission to track down the writer of a book about a local serial killer. When they get to the backwater where all the bad stuff happened, they find a bit more bad stuff happening (to them, courtesy of a dude with an axe and a pig mask). 'Madison County' has its detractors, but I thought it was pretty good. Every slasher cliché is piled on, sometimes with a nod and a wink, but the tone is thankfully serious. Those willing to climb on board will need to accept a lengthy build up... whilst England doesn't go in for atmospherics in an overly stylised sense, 'Madison County' slowly gathers a feeling of unease until the bough breaks and the mayhem starts (the usual running around and a bit of gore). It helps that the acting is (for the most part) good and that the film is well shot. In fact, the whole thing almost feels like a calling card production, a very self conscious attempt to show how a clearly talented film maker can overcome threadbare resources and a rigid narrative framework. A silk purse from a pig's ear, then, or just another cheap slasher rip with a pig mask? You be the judge, but for my 'money', 'Madison County' works simply by being well made. And whilst it lacks ideas, imagery, originality and style, it still manages to entertain and occasionally disturb (a little, there are some scenes which at least brush against intensity) and I came away from it thinking "yeah. I liked that". I'd probably be much more into one of his other ones, 'Contracted', which I haven't seen yet and doesn't have a UK release, but 'Madison County' - would I buy that for a dollar? Well, I bought it for a pound, and so can you.

For me it stumbled because it was so well made, scripted and acted, then the kills unfortunately didn't match or indeed live up to the build up. It was a bit bloodless really, which in my view spoils a slasher completely.

I'm off to Poundland in a few minutes to see if anything new is on offer.

The Owl Service - Currently on Youtube
This was recommended by MTDS.

The show is split into 8 parts with narration at the start of episodes 2 through 8 to explain what happened in the previous episode. (apparently the program was hard to follow to the narration was added to help bring viewers up to speed)

The story is quite simple and based on a welsh folk story of a man who makes a wife out of flowers because he is cursed to never take a human wife. The wife made of flowers then betrays her creator, in favor of another man, when the wife convince the other man to kill her creator, she is then cursed to live as an owl.
This short series tells the story of three young teens who basically get wrapped up in that folk story, to the point of re-creating the character histories.
When Grenada/ITV tried to sell this show to the European markets they were shunned because of the adult situations the teens find themselves in. I did question a few of the scenes in the show - the actress strolls around set with a shirt on and nothing else in a lot of the scenes - This shouldn't put you off like it did the Germans who refused to buy it, however i will say it's not your average show. The actors are very god for their age and i was sad to learn that one of them was murdered in a pub brawl some years ago.

The 8 episodes are 30mins each and not a chore to get through in one sitting if you have a free afternoon. It has a fantastic opening and closing sequence with good 'folk horror' style music. The show has a nice look to it and overall i enjoyed it.
I'd recommend for Folk Horror fans and thank MTDS for sharing this nice hidden gem.

If you have a moment check it out via youtube. the DVD set is about £7.

Love that ending.....;)

Fatal Games falls somewhere within 'medium tier' slasher territory for me, as a crazed killer is stalking and bumping off a group of teenage Olympic hopefuls; a javelin being their weapon of choice.

Whilst he javelin aspect allows for a few creative (and unique) kills, the film is a little light on tension overall, instead deciding to concentrate more on the trials and tribulations of the teen athletes, their pushy over-bearing coaches, inter-teen fornication and horseplay, and a side plot involving performance enhancing drugs.

Despite not guessing who the killer was, I certainly guessed how they would meet their end due to the set piece in question being meticulously and deliberately set up in such a way you couldn't help but know what was coming.

When the revealing of the killer does finally come, it all feels a little rushed. Plus, as mentioned above, due to suspecting how they will perish, a little anti-climactic too.

Originally posted here: https://www.cult-labs.com/forums/421594-post338.html

Alien

When I was younger aliens used to be my favourite of the movies but as I have gotten older and tastes change this is now my favourite( same goes for terminator and terminator 2) . a classic that's still as atmospheric and griping as the first time I saw it.10/10

Exorcist 3

A huge step up from the second movie but still not in the same league as the first and it really could of been its own movie with the slender link to the first. Some great imagery (heaven beng one which I found a little creepy ) added to that some chilling and disturbing moments and decent acting, we have a good movie that can stand on its own merits. 8.5/10

Mr majestyk

A average run of the mill Bronson film that's very tame compared to most of his movies around the same time. But that thanks to good old Charlie it's still a enjoyable tale of a watermelon farmer who who has trouble with the mob and sets out to set things right. In a lot of ways it reminded me of a episode of the A team minus the a team. I would love to see a remake that is more violent with Jason Statham as Mr Kipling taking on the criminal underworld as they try to muscle in on his cake business . 7.5/10

Now watching the visitor which I'm enjoying a lot more than the poor reviews on Amazon would suggest.

The US BD has just been shipped to me; it's a film I like a great deal but I really wish 20th Century Fox and Morgan Creek would allow William Peter Blatty to release the 'Legion' version of the film without the exorcism scenes and such things as the original opening. It is apparently lost, but I really hope that's not the case.

Just read up the legion verison and its suits the movie a lot better I hope Blatty finds the footage as its sounds interesting and I would buy it, the exorcism parts where my least favourite of the film and they felt tacked on. Still even with those scenes its. A great film and a lot better than the second.

Gun Fury (1953)

By the numbers Rock Hudson starer with Lee Marvin in one of his usual token early bad guy roles.

Despite some enjoyable action set pieces, the script has paper thin characterization, meaning you don't really care either way about anything. It's sole redeeming feature being it's wholly on location shoot in Sedona, Arizona - A place i've visited twice.

FIGHT CHURCH. A documentary on Christian mixed martial artists! I really enjoyed this look at the rise of kick arse pastors in the USA who use the cage to spread the word of God. All come across as genuine and sincere in their beliefs both as fighters and Christians. However there is another documentary to be made from this following the life of one gun slinging pastor who believes the church has become girly and only through violence in every day life can we have a better world! Rather tellingly his church doesn't use the normal cross but the equal armed T cross beloved of the American uber far right.

WE ARE THE BEST! F*ck yeah, a film that lives up to it's title. Slim on plot, this is a fantastic character study of three 13 year old girls who form a punk band in the early 80s. Ditching all the politics of marginalisation and social commentary that usually swallow up most films about punk, this concentrations on friendship and belonging. Charming, funny and awkward, director Lukas Moodysson's film really resonated with me as I was a thirteen year old punk in the early 80s, something that has stayed with me and shaped my life ever since. Highly recommended.

WE ARE THE BEST! Trailer | Festival 2013 - YouTube

Wolfcop - Just finished watching this film, I saw the trailer a few months ago and was intrigued as it looked really good. Now maybe the film isn't quite as good as I hoped but that does not mean it's a failure. The acting in most parts was fine a lot of the special effects worked (a couple didn't). There was a story nothing to complicated and a little twist at the end again nothing hard core just nice and easy going. I wish there was More time spent with him as Wolfcop, but at the same time his make up was pretty poor. I think this film will gain a cult following, and I hope the sequel that was promised at the end was true too.

Ok i keep not getting round to posting here because i tend to go on a bit, but here are a few brief ( hopefully) reviews of what i've watched lately.

Dracula vs frankenstein.

I know a lot of people seen to think of this as a nadir of cult films, but i sort of enjoyed it. Bad acting and pacing and just about everything else,
I've re- named it 'Frankensteins beehive vs dracula's afro' in reference to Dracula's bizarre haircut vs frankensteins bee stung face.
Old Frankie is truly looking worse for wear in this.
Lon chaney jr wanders about looking like he's no idea what's going on, killing with an axe half the time and stroking a puppy the rest of it.
Twin peaks and the Hauntings Dr Jacobi turns up as a random biker, Geydon Clarke director of the dodgy horror spoof 'wacko' is one of the other lead players and J'Carrol Nash plays a dodgy scientist.
Add to this some woman who has an instant trip after she's slipped some drug, in one of the more enjoyable moments.
Also Dracula seems to talk through some weird distortion valve, and is probably one of the most pathetic versions of the count this side of 'whatever happened to count dracula'.
I know Ron seems to like this film and i'm with him, despite all the stupidity on offer i kinda enjoyed it, it has that feeling of being made by a monster obsessed 12 year old,and because i was that kid i liked it.
Forest j Ackerman turns up too because he was also that kinda kid.
Not recommended to anyone possessed of a sane state of mind, but if you like the old universal monster mashes you might just tune in to the insanity on offer here and enjoy yourself, obviously beer is recommended!
6/10:pop2:

King Kong Lives

Another really bad film by any sane persons standards, but one which i enjoyed.
King Kong survives DinoDilaurentis and is revived from a coma via a heart transplant and the blood of a newly discovered female kong.
Cue an adventurer who seems like a shit kurt russell, add terminators Sarah conner, a plot that makes absolutely no sense and some prick with a tank,and what do we get?
Well a bad film, but to me b movie gold.
Mrs kong shows up with sexy ginger hair and droopy ape tits and thats it,Kong's hot for it.
They escape to a forest somewhere for a bit of hot lovin', before being captured again. cue angst from the nice humans,leading up to a finale when kong goes apeshit and destroys loads of tanks n stuff.
What we learn from all this is that Gas that sedates giant apes will not affect minute humans in the vicinity, and that Apeshit is a phrase dating at least back to the early 80's.
Totally stupid but, another film i enjoyed.
6/10:pop2:

Dead Silence

A newer film that from reviews i expected to enjoy.
Don't get me wrong i did enjoy it, up to a point.
It's basically about possessed Ventriloquist puppets and a creepy old woman who controls them.
Nice Atmosphere, creepy puppets, and quite a creepy old woman add up to make quite an enjoyable film right up to the final half hour when everything falls apart. An ending that's all over the place and doesn't satisfy, that blows the creepy premise and leaves you feeling let down.
Such a shame coz i enjoyed most of it.

6/10:pop2:

A Dangerous method

A film that i kept meaning to check out, i have to admit respectable David Cronenberg doesn't do it for me like he used to.
Having said that i quite liked this, all that psycho-analytical gumf spouted by Freud etc fascinates me. and a film about Jung and Freud seems tailor made for one of Cronenberg's journeys into the psyche, but this is far too respectable to be top tier Cronenberg.
Very much a period piece with added sex and angst, but i did find it well made and acted, especially Fassbender who is a pretty interesting modern
actor i think, he always seems to give a good performance.
Kiera Knightly is a bit annoying as usual, but manages not to unbalance the pic and is better than usual in my opinion.
Many would find this incredibly dull i suspect, but if your interested in head doctors and hypothetical jibber jabber this may well float your boat.
7/10:pop2:

Didn't really manage to keep the reviews short again...damn. Back to the drawing board, Maybe one of these days i'll catch that damn road runner.:)

Unfortunately, I watched Leprechaun Origins last night. I really don't know what they were thinking with this one. They clearly marketed it as part of the original Leprechaun series, it even came in a box set with them in the US, yet it is just a generic american 'young people get killed by a monster' movie. Also, how the hell can they say that it is starring Hornswaggle, when all you see of him is a few glimpses of a rubber monster suit?

I know the original films are far from masterpieces, but I have always enjoyed them. Mostly thanks to Warwick as the Leprechaun, who always managed to be entertaining, even when the film was complete crap (Lep in Space?). So why they went this direction I have no idea. Hornswaggle is no Warwick Davis but he can be amusing, so I thought this had a little potential, but it was just a complete waste.

Santa's Slay (David Steiman, 2005)

Not a patch on the slightly similar Sint

Some dweeb and the whiny blonde from Lost battle a wrestler dressed as Santa, Robert Culp turns up to boost his pension and that's all he wrote folks.

Highly recommended.:lol:

TCM3, which I think is an under rated b movie. Shot with style - some really great shots and angles, the family are all crazy, Viggo and Foree look like they're having a blast, Leatherface walking with a brace after his accident in TCM is a nice little wink, KNB SFX, Hodder on stunts. Whats not to like.

Then I watched Arrow's TCM2 and it's as rubbish as I remembered it. The first 30 minutes are ok then the family turn up at the radio station and it falls to bits. Stretch screaming constantly for the next hour gets old quick, Hopper looks like he immediately regretted accepting the job, the guy with the metal plate is irritating as hell and you're stuck with him right up to the end way after Leatherface bites the dust, the whole thing is dull. Highlight is Savini's SFX. About the only positive thing I can mention. I have no idea why Arrow gave this the deluxe treatment, it's more than it deserves.

Watching the extras now; a very troubled production from the beginning to end. Boy does it show.

My 9 year old son and I watched 'The Goonies' tonight. Great stuff, we had a fantastic time. I was a bit too old for it when it was first released, so have not seen it before. He loved it, especially the swearing and 'dick' jokes:nod:
Mixed feelings for me, because it reminds me of doing similar with my dad, who passed away way too early. Overall though, a great night.

The visitor

First time viewing this and I have to say I enjoyed it more than I thought I would from the mixed reviews. Not scary or gory but it had a really bizarre and chilling atmosphere. Lots of big name stars glen ford, Shelly winters, John Huston i that really can't figure out how stars of this caliber ended up doing this film. Has to really have one of the most bizarre stories that involves aliens, a psychic girl, God, Jesus and evil. Have to say it's marmite film that I think people will either will or will not like.8/10

Tonight's viewings to that I have not seen before the curse of the Crimson cult and banshee chapter.

Both fine films Trebor. :nod:

I really enjoyed the brooding Banshee Chapter.

Took the opportunity to watch one of the movies on 44 Spaghetti Westerns boxset from Mill Creek:
White Comanche (1968) William Shatner takes on a dual role playing the Moon Twins. One who has taken the 'white' way and the other an Injun massiah. Filmed apparently during the hiatus between seasons of Star Trek and is one the Razzie Awards 100 most enjoyable bad films! It wasn't great but there again its a movie I would never have seen without getting the set.

EQUALISER.

A loose reworking of the TV series, Denzel plays a bloke with OCD who makes friends with a teenage hooker. When her Russian pimps put her in hospital, the mild mannered customer service representative reveals a much darker past and murders the Russian Mafia. Yes, pretty much the entire Russian Mafia.

He's special forces or something, but I suspect he may simply be the African American Michael myers in the way he can move about silently, dissapearing when you stop looking at him and murdering people with various household implements. Pretty much all the film is, is Denzel killing a bunch of people in a bid to make his character from man on fire look like a pacifist and the Russians running around like blue arse fly's trying to catch him.

Stupid? Yes Entertaining? Most definitely.

Completely agree with you. No idea why I bought it in the first place. Glad I got a good price for it on Ebay.

Last film I watched was Escape From Alcatraz (1979)

My favourite Eastwood film I have seen so far. 9/10.

They Drive By Night (1940) - Ida Lupino steals the picture as your classic money grabbing vixen, the wrinkle being she's completely genuinely insane. Some great trucking action in the first half replete with Bogie/Raft banter and overall the film just oozes all the class you would expect from a vintage Jack Warner production. Well worth a watch and you'll never look at a remote control garage door the same way again.

Secret Beyond the Door - Michael Redgrave as a suspicious spouse with a collection of 'felicitous rooms' (AKA recreated murder scenes) - well, this would raise the old eyebrows as you bedded into your new family home. Has its moments but for me this is a bit of a plodder from Fritz Lang, more gothic melodrama than film noir, I give it a generous 7/10, mainly for the nice atmosphere and the one man trial dream sequence.

You Only Live Once - Now this is top tier Lang, Henry Fonda unforgettable as a no-hope punk trying to go straight - I went into this knowing nothing about how the plot plays out and so should you - all I'II say is it's well worth the trip.

Brighton Rock - dug this out in memory of old Sir Dickie - how brilliant is he as a complete sociopath? See also his John Christie. Once I got used to the cor blimey guv accents I loved this film - it builds to a fantastic double whammy climax and has some indelible moments (the Ghost Train being my favourite)

Where the Sidewalk Ends - I often find Dana Andrews a bit wooden (and drunk!) but he's perfect here as a corrupt cop sliding into a mire of his own making. The noir photography in this is superb, the city a shadowy sinister dreamscape, as it should be.

T-Men - another essential Anthony Mann/John Alton Noir. Get past the jingoistic narration and plunge into a world of moral degradation. A proto Donnie Brasco but there's no kindly Al Pacino here, just a psychotic Charles McCraw and a neverending stream of scumbags from all strata of society. This film pulls no punches and has some gut punch scenes - I loved it - a high 8/10.

It's been over five years since I saw that (it was for a film noir module at uni) and I thought it was a really interesting take on the Bluebeard story with a nice turn by Michael Redgrave (making his Hollywood debut) and I liked Joan Bennett, who played his on-screen wife. I should probably add it to my rental list and give it a reappraisal.

It's not bad at all, I just found the pace draggy, a lack of tension palpable, maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind for a more cerebal number

I ordered it last week from Exposure Cinema via Amazon marketplace and although it was shipped on Saturday it hasn't turned up yet. :(

I don't disagree Paul W.S. Anderson is a filmmaker who has a lot to learn and what he did with Event Horizon in terms of pacing, atmosphere and maintaining tension could have been done a great deal better by someone like Ridley Scott or even Danny Boyle, whose Sunshine is a similar, but vastly superior film, but I still think Event Horizon is a solid sci-fi-horror.

Heh heh, bit of a quoting mix up I think - for the record I recall Event Horizon as a pretty decent time waster although like Sunshine the build up was way better than the pay out.

If I had to put numbers on them, I would probably say Event Horizon was a 6/10 film, whereas Sunshine is about a 9/10.