Is anyone else a fan of Crimes of the Black Cat?

I remember very little about it, because it's been a while – probably years – since I saw it last, but thought very highly of it when I did see it. I have the DVD with the original Italian title, probably the same one you have.

I have the Dagored release too. Watched it ages ago and enjoyed it, although the pq was quite poor, as I remember. A nice remastered blu ray would be very welcome.

More Euro-fever:

Sex of the Devil (Il Sesso Del Diavolo) (1971)

http://zardoz.a.ltrbxd.com/resized/f...g?k=09b7480f3d

Weird multi-genre melting pot Sex of the Devil is an extremely difficult film to pin down, not least of all because it is the epitome of style over substance, and is perhaps best described as an esoteric psychological thriller drama tinged giallo.

Filmed in Turkey the film deals with an impotent surgeon questioning his worth who flees to Istanbul with his young wife and medical assistant where he rents a villa which was once occupied by a French sculptress who apparently committed suicide. Oh, and the housekeeper of the villa practices witchcraft in her spare time too. Complimenting all this there is also an odd Cipriani score which shifts from subtle to in your face 'boing-ing', plenty of gratuitous nudity and some rather random dialogue coupled to a story that rarely makes sense - although I guess it doesn't have to.

A real curio for sure.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mPd3Ix1Fz70/hqdefault.jpg

62/100


Who Killed the Prosecutor and Why? (Terza ipotesi su un caso di perfetta strategia criminale) (1972)

http://primer.a.ltrbxd.com/resized/f...g?k=1dd25724fa

A pretty run-of the mill politically focused mediocre giallo that sees a photographer and his model girlfriend witness a murder that's dressed up to look like an accident. The photographer takes pictures as the crime unfolds and then, after finding out that the victim was a crusading prosecutor for the Republic, tries to raise interest and a little cash by attempting to take the photos to the Mafia and an unscrupulous scandal sheet journalist. However, a black gloved killer shows up and after dispatching the murderers, starts to work their way through everyone else who is connected with the photos.

https://i2.wp.com/farm9.staticflickr...ab77df92_z.jpg

58/100

Great write ups B_E. :clap:

Who Killed the Prosecutor and Why? sounds rather good actually. :nod:

It's very talky. Certainly worth a watch though. :nod:

I definitely haven't seen it but i do think i've heard of it.

I thought this was enjoyable. I think I have the same release as the quality on mine wasn't great. All the folk who complain about crushed blacks ect would probably drop dead from an anurism watching it so it probably should come with a health warning.

Death Carries a Cane (1973)

A photographer, played by Nieves Navarro, witnesses the murder of a woman through a tourist telescope. Unable to get a clear sight of the killer she informs the police as one by one all witnesses to the killers escape wind up dead.

Directed by Maurizio Pradeaux, and one of only two gialli he made out of a rather tiny seven film career, the other being 1977's Death Steps in the Dark. Death Carries a Cane is promising but on the whole meanders about a little too much for my liking. Despite having a high sleaze quota with frequent nudity and some graphic razor murders, the in between stuff just isn't that involving. However the finale with Navarro being stalked by the killer in a darkened greenhouse (i think) is suspensefully executed.

The dialogue, albeit dubbed on this release from Full Moon, (Under the title Tormentor) is uninspired as is Pradeaux's camera work, although none of this is helped by the out of his control pan and scan hatchet job on the film. There are numerous scenes of dialogue which are so badly handled, especially across desks,as in the police station, that none of the actors are on screen whilst speaking, with the camera seemingly focused on inanimate objects in the centre of the original widescreen print. It is distracting and does harm the film's overall impact.

Despite this obvious problem the film possesses some nice touches, the typical giallo killer - black hat, coat and gloves, being one. I also like the idea of the cane. The killer holds his victims down using the cane handle before slashing their throats with the razor. Yes it's practically a cliched idea but it's one that works for me in a film with practically no clues as to the killers identity.

Death Carries a Cane is unremarkable but still more than watchable example of the giallo thriller despite it's woeful pan and scan print and despite it's flaws is still worth picking up for anyone wanting a less expensive release than the German one.

I've decided February is definitely giallo month for me. :nod:

Well I'm off to see deadpool so will give my thoughts when I get back

Just back from seeing it. Bloody brillant, and funny as hell from the opening "credits".

Every month should be Giallo month! :happy:

Great reviews from B E and Dem. Keep 'em coming!

Do you watch a lot of Gialli, Mojo?

Any reviews or input would be most welcome. :)

Deadpool

Went in with low expectations which where blowing out of the water, absolutely fantastic as Stephen said hilarious from the opening titles, it's a breath of fresh air from the usual PG13 superhero movies, it's got it all gore, romance , violence and sex. Never been a big fan of Ryan Reynolds but the character of deadpool was made for him. Loved all the little in jokes and this is one movie in which it isn't annoying when the lead character talks too the camera. Not laughed so hard at a movie for a long time. 9/10

I'm thinking about going to watch it again next week!

One of my favourite genres, Dem. I've watched a load of them through the years. They sometimes crop up on my 3-line reviews!

You do 3-line reviews?

I must have missed them. :tongue1:

We demand more!!! :D

:crying: :D

Another Euro-double:

The Bloodstained Lawn (Il prato macchiato di rosso) (1973)

http://oblivion.a.ltrbxd.com/resized...g?k=c826e36dc5

An odd trio of rich aristocrats entice people back to their extravagant home with the promise of drink and a good time. They then suck out their blood using a 'vampiritic robot' constructed by the eccentric lady of house's brother and bottle it, passing it off as wine.

Whilst the first hour is a little slow going as all the parties are introduced and time is spent getting to know each character, with the intent of feeling sorry for them when they eventually meet their bottled demise, there is still a peppering of psychedelia throughout the proceedings with some general nudity and mild debauchery to keep you interested. Marina Malfatti is the stand-out performer playing her role as icy hostess to perfection.

Not quite as bizarre as it sounds from the synopsis, but still a trippy slice of Euro-sleaze nonetheless.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_prod...ained-lawn.jpg

61/100


The Killer is One of Thirteen (El asesino está entre los trece) (1973)

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A sort of spin-off of the Agatha Christie 'Ten Little Indians' tale, instead we have a wealthy widow who invites a group of her friends to her luxurious home in order to try and find out which of them killed her husband. However, the guests start to die off one by one at the hands of a mysterious black gloved killer.

A rather bloody Spanish gialli (once it gets going that is) from Hunchback of the Morgue director Javier Aguirre that keeps you guessing right up until the climax, although the first hour of the film seems content to deal with all the potential perpetrators' shady pasts therefore creating a whole barrel of veiled potential red herrings for the viewer to chow down on. Paul Naschy also crops up as a chauffeur, but unfortunately is not really given anything much to do (other than take his shirt off of course...)

Overall an enjoyable enough film once the killing kicks off.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_prod...f-thirteen.jpg

64/100

Great stuff! What next? The Bloodstained Tulip Patch?

Fine reviews as always B_E. :nod:

Kiss of the Damned (2012)

http://zardoz.a.ltrbxd.com/resized/f...g?k=c6bb6ccf7c

Supposedly heavily influenced by '70s erotic vampire fare from the sub-genre's maestros Rollin and Franco, Xan Cassevetes' film whilst rather stylised and sublime with shades of the erotic unfortunately falls short of the mark in terms of re-creating that particular aesthetic; at least for me - and this is coming from someone who has invested a lot of their time and clean underwear poring over many of these vampire erotica cinematic delights from the sub-genre's golden age.

The narrative is fairly straight forward: boy meets mysterious girl and falls for her and girl then turns boy into vampire. Her sister comes to stay with them and shakes things up a bit amongst the vampire community and her relationship with her recently turned beau... and that's pretty much it; certainly a plot-line more akin to Twilight fan-fiction (albeit put across in a more stylish - and dare I say it - pretentious manner) than the surreal sex-peppered ramblings of Franco or Rollin.

Despite what may appear to be a lot of negativity directed towards it above, Kiss of the Damned actually isn't half-bad and once my brain had successfully put to one side the film's slightly suspect claims of influence, it was able to settle down and enjoy the film for what it was; a passionate, romantic tale with deep, fairly well-rounded characters you actually care about - and it plays to these strengths by focusing on the characters and their turmoils. It does lose its way a little in the final third and gets a little trying, but overall I'm glad I decided to give this one a watch. Oh, and the soundtrack is really good - whilst the film won't be on my shopping list, its OST certainly will be.

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62/100

The Killing (1956)

Stanley Kubrick's classic noir stars Sterling Hayden as Johnny Clay. An ex criminal who devises a scheme to become $2m richer with a daring robbery at a race track...during the 7th race. Unfortunately he should never have told Sherry (Marie Windsor), a tough talking dame who also intends to become a couple of million richer.

I love films like this. The idea of Hayden coming up with the plan and getting a crew together then meticulously planning every detail, it's film noir heaven to me and it's a theme that was duplicated so brilliantly in the 1960 British classic The League of Gentlemen, which proves an even better film than this in my opinion.

The first half an hour i found a little too talky and slightly uninvolving. Naturally we get to meet all of the characters including Elisha Cook jr's betting office clerk, but it's via this talky opening that everything clicks into place during the second half of the film. Kubrick also wrote the screenplay and where he perhaps fails dialogue wise he certainly makes up for in the action and suspense department.

It's that second half which makes The Killing the classic it is. Tightly plotted, and directed with flair to create a gripping scenario which plays out precisely as planned... or does it.

The Killing is an excellent noir thriller. Highly recommended.

The Killing is superb, it would easily make my top five 'noir' films.

It may be sacrilegious, but I'm not a massive Kubrick fan, but I do love The Killing, Lolita and Dr Strangelove.

I wouldn't call myself a great Kubrick fan either. I don't even own A Clockwork Orange on dvd.

The films of his i like, i really do like. I haven't seen all of his work but after a quick scan there's only The Shining and 2001 i don't like.

I've yet to see Lolita, Barry Lyndon and Killers Kiss.

Me neither, I've not seen many of his films, and only own his attempt at adapting a great Stephen King novel without bothering to read it first :lol:

Mate i love Barry Lyndon! It's a great movie! Killers Kiss is also a great watch!

Mate i'm sure Kubrick read the book but i think he wanted different things than King, it's very true that the film doesn;t work in regards to storyline but Kubrick is a photographer who learnt how to use video cameras and that's why he makes stunning films that often don;t really flow or end very well.

A clockwork orange is the exception, that film is just glorious. :nod:

Don't get me wrong, I love The Shining, great film, but it always bugs me how unlike the source material it is, it's basically a film about Jack Nicholson going crazy, so a Jack Nicholson film then :lol:

Eyes of a Stranger. A serial rapist-killer is stalking the streets, and a TV journalist obsessed over the safety of her disabled younger sister (a young Jennifer Jason Leigh in her movie debut!) becomes convinced that the bloke living just opposite from her is the lunatic. This early 80s suspense thriller is fairly well made and acted, and has a very intense climax, but was marred slightly just by the sheer unhinged stupidity of the lead character. She has a fairly reasonable reason to be suspicious, though not entirely certain, of this man, but rather than calling the police and leaving a tip, she starts breaking into his apartment and then harassing him over the telephone, while leaving a gigantic clue as to her identity. She practically INVITES the killer's attention onto her and her sister and I was just sat there shaking my head and doing my best Rene-from-'Allo-'Allo impression: "You stoopid wo-man!" :woot:

I agree mate, i love the book and weirdly im re-reading the new copy i got for christmas, lots of importnat stuff is missing. :) It is basically a kubrick movie about jack nicholson.

I have The Shining (book) upstairs. How is it in terms of pace and such? My biggest problem with Stephen King, and i keep coming back to this term is his books are so bloody long winded. He never uses 1 page when he could use 5.

The book of The Shining is actually awesome, of the King books I've read it is easily the best. It's not as loose as his later books where his editors were obviously too afraid to cut him down!

I couldn't agree more mate, I truly believe King is the most over rated writer in modern history however this book has it all, it's the only book to ever managed to scare me and it gives up the goods right to the last page, I doubt you will think it's boring when you get to the end mate.


Harker if you needed any more proof I'd say Justin has hit the nail on the head with this comment. It's time to go upstairs and get that book mate. :woot: :hide:

Meh, I think, despite a few mis-steps, King is a fantastic writer. I read around four books a month, not much fiction, but the only two novelists I get excited about are Stephen King and James Ellroy. I actually think King is getting better as a writer.

The Stand is well up there when it comes to popular fiction.

NORTHMEN

A bunch of Nordy lookalikes tart around Scotland with swords...dumb and fun actioner with plenty of mud, blood and hair.

THE VOICES

Indie throwback to pre slasher, psycho killer times when abused kids grew up to be schizophrenic serial killers. Actually, this works quite well with an uneasy mix of comedy, horror and raw emotion...however I for one could have done with a little more head from Gemma Arterton.

LONE SURVIVOR

If you ignore the wraparound flag waving at the beginning and end, this is a brutal true story of 4 navy seals trapped in Afghanistan after a failed mission, being hunted by the Taliban and defeated by the landscape. Recommended.

Trouble is they did a faithful adaptation of the shining and it wasn't very good.....


Children of the corn

Not my favourite King adaptation, I prefer Cujo, Dark half, Carrie, The shining, Dead zone.. It's still a neat little killer kid movie that sticks closely to the short story until the point it needs to provide more of an audience friendly ending. Essentially its a look at the often bizarre interpretations of the Bible found out in the middle of nowhere in the bible belt taken to its extreme. Given the surge in fundamentalist religion its still an interesting film to watch, if perhaps it attributes everything to an actual bogeyman rather than the more terrible notion, and one that's in Kings story, that it's all happening because the kids actually believe in it. 88's transfer looks less waxy than my Anchor bay blu-ray but it loses all the extras, it does carry an interesting documentary on the producer that's worth a watch.

Children of the corn 2

If you ignore the native American sub-plot, this is a pretty decent sequel. It takes place in the aftermath of the first one and has a reporter coming to investigate and discovering local corruption at the heart of the mystery. It's main flaw is that it wants to provide both a rational explanation to the events of the first while keeping the supernatural menace. Well it can't have its cake and eat it and it doesn't really gel together. Still fun however and nice to finally see it on blu-ray.

Children of the corn 3

This one cashes in on the craze for 'urban' cinema and moves the action to the inner city and includes all the cliche's that one might expect. It's still enjoyable nonsense however, and features an appearance from the lovely Charlize theron. The gore scenes are well done and the end monster rampage is barmy, over the top but adds to the fun of the film. Ultimately silly in a way I enjoy.

Children of the corn 4

An early Naomi Watts film, part 4 has her coming back to visit her mom and her sister. She discovers an ancient curse placed on the town is turning the kids into killers. A few changes this one could actually get away being a separate independent film. It deviates from the 'lore' quite a bit. Its nice to see Karen Black in the film and overall its not bad, more a little bland and forgettable.

Children of the corn v

Probably the best of the Dimension pictures Corn movies, this one also ahas the best cast including Fred 'the hammer' Williamson, David Carradine, Eva mendes, Alexis Arquette, Kane Hodder... I could go on. Its directed by Ethan Wiley who does a bang up job of delivering something that while in no way ground breaking at least manages to be entertaining.

Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return

John Franklin returns as Issac in a bid to return the franchise to its roots. It doesn't really work and the film feels a little dull. I suspect Dimension peaked with part V. I have 7 and 8 someplace but can't be arsed to locate them which tells you all you need to know and I never even bothered with the remake.

Aaaaaaaaah!

frankly batshit insane bit of surrealism where everyone is required to communicate in grunts and behave like apes. Its funny, and contains some genuinely outrageous moments including a store manager spunking over a photo of prince Harry. I suspect this is the sort of film that will probably alienate some but I enjoyed it. Certainly the scenes of Toyah Wilcox communicating in ape speak stuck with me.

Really good reviews of the Children of the Corn films, keirarts. I've only seen the first three which I have on DVD and Blu-ray (the latter of which I have recently watched); I want to check out the others for the sake of completion.

I also really want to watch Aaaaaaaaah! – the Blu-ray is high priority on my Lovefilm rental queue.

The Keep (1983)

When Michael Mann decided to adapt F Paul Wilson's vampire novel for the big screen he opted to leave all vampire references behind thus crushing the very soul of the work by taking himself all too seriously.

It's overlong and decidedly dull and manages to waste a fine cast - Ian Mckellan, Jurgen Prochnow, Scott Glenn and Gabriel Byrne, with the only saving grace being the special effects light show extravaganza that is at least a bit of fun to begin with.

In the end what could have been a very promising World War 2 story about Nazi's, vampires, Jews, and the demonic Molasar, savior of the Jews, ends up a pretentious, two hour long, Tangerine Dream music video.

Sure, this may well work better on blu-ray with super surround sound, but i watched this off a home recorded vhs and what you see is what you get.

This one's region free.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...4&s=dvd&sr=1-4

Thanks – I'll keep it in my basket and (probably) buy it sooner rather than later.