AMOK TRAIN – All aboard for some eighties Italian horror garbage. 'Amok Train' – is it about an out of control train? About a young American student who happens to be possessed? About an out of control train who happens to be possessed? 'Amok Train' doesn't really care about any of these questions, to be frank. There's just enough plot to string some ropey fx together - a few American college kids go over to Serbia for a reason that probably gets mentioned at some point, whereupon they end up in a village full of evil stereotype Eastern Europeans in hoods who clack stones, get chased by aforementioned, escape onto a train where demonic things happen and eventually lead to someone becoming the bride of Satan (almost). Chances are you'll be as interested in plot and logic as the filmmakers were, and if so, you're in luck, as obviously the main draw here, beyond the dickheadedness of pretty much everything else about it, is the essential element of trash. The latter is abundant enough to justify wading through the set up and the uneventful passages (the film does take the scenic route at times). If you want gore, you'll get a smattering and maybe more, with oddly excessive face ripping and various dismemberments providing nice counterpoints to the well shot scenes of trains passing through countryside. If you want freaky and just a bit 'erm, is that really OK?', well there's a hymen bothering old woman who sets out to prove the female protag's virginity twice and seems to really get into it. But best of all, if you want sheer eighties fantasy bombast, there's a mute monk who plays a recorder and turns out to be a benevolent spirit guide. Yeah, he gets the train just like everyone else. 'Amok Train' – can't scale the heights of 'Night Train To Terror', but still a pretty fun ride. And that last sentence does actually make sense in my mind, god help me.

What can?! ;)

Class! I almost watched this again last night. Eventually decided on Rakoff's clunky Death Ship for the umpteenth time.

As far as train film goes, i haven't seen Night Train to Terror but Amok Train is far superior to the brainless Train (2008) and head and shoulders above the anemic Terror Train (1980)

Death Ship (1980)

Films about haunted or possessed boats must be incredibly difficult to make as there isn't one that's totally successful. Val Lewton's The Ghost Ship (1943) goes down the mad captain route, whereas Venon Sewell's 1952 effort Ghost Ship features an actual haunted boat. The 2002 effort of the same name is a largely pointless time waster with one great prologue sequence.

Alvin Rakoff's Death Ship wisely uses the best of both worlds - a haunted vessel and possessed captain to come up with the best of the bunch. The basic plot is straightforward but ambitious. A mysterious black freighter hits an ocean liner causing it to sink. A small band of survivors including captain George Kennedy, Richard Crenna and Saul Rubinek, manage to board the deserted vessel . Once aboard they discover the ship seemingly abandoned has been sailing the seas ever since the Second World War with it's long dead German crew always on the look out for Allied boats to sink.

Death Ship is quite a lot of fun. It features some rather nifty set pieces. Saul Rubinek's early death is beautifully suspenseful and Victoria Burgoyne's shower sequence the film's stand out memorable moment. Captain George Kennedy's descent into madness and possession is also well done. The revelation that the ship was a Kriegsmarine prison ship, and the ghosts of its inmates and crew are still aboard adds a welcome air of absurd creepiness to it all.

What doesn't work so well are the endless shots of the boats engines and order telegraphs which often only serve to break tension, yet also add a certain something to the whole thing, a calmness, a hypnotic suggestion that only dares to break out of films of this ilk.

Whilst Death Ship isn't the best horror film of the 80's it does stand out thanks to it's ambition, filming on an actual old ship out at sea definitely gives this film an atmosphere which i doubt could be created in 2016.

'The Initiation' is one of those unsung second tier slashers that's better than a lot of the first tier slashers that came out around the same time. It's a pretty good one.

Innocence (2004, Lucille Hadzihalovic)
Coming in a roundabout way from the same source material as Suspiria, this was more like it. Essentially it uses a tried and trusted framework, but within this is a whole world of bewonderment (??). Highly recommended.


Paprika (2006, Satoshi Kon)
The blu this time. Looked a bit soft in places, though this just may be my crappy tv.... Another comm where they sit around basically saying "Look! We got away with this!!" Which is to be applauded. If indeed you haven't seen this particular film, I can only say stop throwing your money away on a certain Andreas Bianchi disc:rolleyes:........as this is like the ultimate present, you can never stop "unwrapping" it. And breathe!!


A Field In England (2013, Ben Wheatley)
From the psychotropic to the monochrome in one leap. Is it the spawn of an unholy marriage of a Public information film & folk horror?? Another film set "somewhere", like the other two above, which in all 3 cases isn't just used to shovel some "weirdness" at you. Phew!

Demolition Man (1993, Marco Brambilla)
It's is the smugness of most Hollywood productions that I can't stand, I've worked out. Plus The Bullock still resembles Kira :lol:. And to think they could have had Lori Petty, who might have injected some life into the part, instead of SB's furious mugging. Ho hum. So I dug out...

Tank Girl (1994, Rachel Talahay)
Beset with behind the scenes problems, this glorious mess is still one of my real guilty pleasures haha. Ice T as a kangaroo. Enough said. :lol:

Conan The Barbarian (1982, John Milius)
Thought I better actually watch a JM film. :behindsofa:
AANyway. Priceless. Whilst I enjoyed The Sword & The Sorceror more on balance, CTD is next on the list!! A boy becomes a man, meets a girl and conquers half the known world...you know, that old tale.

I beg to differ. :D

:laugh:

A.W.O.L. 8.1/10

Time cop 8/10

My mum wanted to watch a film callled heaven is for real.
Never heard of it so i imdb, reviews where pretty good so thought i would watch it as well.
So i sat down with her and watched her. It was as exciting as watching the grass grow.
Lets just say yawn YAWN zzzzz. Wake up, well im of to bed
It was slow (so slow never got into first gear let alone 2nd) dull and boring and made the waltons look like action film of the year. (Ok it was tv show).
If there ever was cure for insomnia then this must be it.

About a religous couple who father preaches in the church and their son needs surgery, he survives but starts talking about how he went to heaven and seeing god and his parents crying, and well thats about it really.

All the stuff you won't watch and you watched that?!?

Colonia. A young couple are caught up in the Chilean revolution of the early 70s, and the young man is sent to a supposed detention center that's run more like a wacko and seriously cruel religious cult, prompting his lover to join up as a supposed recruit to try and get him out. This mediocre thriller has a couple of good performances from Emma Watson and Michael Nqvist as the heroine and the crazy villain, but is otherwise thoroughly run of the mill.

Yes and no, thought be nice to spend time with my mum, and she heard it was a good film, i never heard of it, hence why i imdb it, just briefly looked at reviews ratings and they where reasonable, hence i did say fell asleep then went to bed leaving my mum to it, i didnt know what i was letting myself in for, didnt read what it was about just briefed over the * star ratings.
Sorry if any one fancies :whip:me for it i promise i won't do it again :hail::wise::pray:

Revenge Of The Nerds (1984, Jeff Kanew)
Really?? Robert Carradine unrecognisable. Quite cute the way they make it so that education is seen as a bad thing. Typical American drivel.

The Blood Beast Terror (1967)

With a title such as this, The Blood Beast Terror was always going to be a classic of horror cinema or a complete let down. The very thought of the title itself brings ghoulish ideas to the imagination, although probably not exactly what we see on screen. For The Blood Beast Terror is a Victorian tale of carnivorous moths. Robert Flemyng, better known as Italian icon Dr Hichcock, and his daughter, Wanda Ventham, house a terrible secret. Peter Cushing plays the police inspector on the trail of a mysterious murderer who bizarrely leaves moth scales on his victims.

Admittedly when it's finally onscreen the moth creature is as ropy as you'd fear but the moth in chrysalis stage in Flemyng's lab looks super creepy. For such a daft film it has a fine cast. Peter Cushing is as brilliant as ever, Flemying channels mad Dr. Hichcock and Ventham as lovely as ever...for a weremoth. The supporting roles are lit up by a nutty comedic turn from Roy Hudd as a morgue attendant, future Doomwatch star John Paul, Glynn Edwards and the gorgeous Vanessa Howard in her feature debut.

The film itself is decent but not outstanding. Some of the editing leaves a bit to be desired, in fact it seems like entire scenes went missing at times. However some scenes are also terrific with beautifully framed camera work - I love the shot of Ventham standing with the chrysalis for example - but other parts make you splutter such as when director Vernon Sewell decides Flemyng should become Bela Lugosi - it's all in the eyes - but the overall effect is one of enjoyment and a film i often revisit.

Full review with screen grabs on The Gothic Thread.

The Nice Guys. Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling are a self-employed enforcer and private eye respectively who are thrown together while looking for a missing girl whose connection to a number of suspicious deaths soon lands them in a murderous conspiracy way over their heads. Mildly amusing 70-set comedy-thriller with some good moments but nothing particularly remarkable.

I just watched the excellent documentary, Eurocrime: The Italian Cop And Gangster Films That Ruled The '70's (2012). It was very informative, and I thoroughly enjoyed the actors and directors reminiscing about their experiences (Silva, Nero, Castellari etc.).

I saw it at the cinema and thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought it was similar to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, but that is not necessarily a bad thing, and the chemistry between Crowe and Gosling was very funny.

I've watched a varied bag lately, not as many films as I wanted to due to a trip to London but a few, mostly new for me as well, a few revisits to films I've seen before though.

https://s25.postimg.org/oyngsxnm7/Recent_Watch_List.png

That Joplin doc is well worth it.

2 GTO films....Dont Go In The House & Island Of Death.
Both stalwarts of sleaze and grime. Mate still shudders at mention of IOD :nod::laugh:

Nemesis (1992)

In the year 2027 a cyborg LA policeman is hunted down by humans and other cyborgs. There are other parts to the story but i can't be arsed with them. Why? Because Nemesis is basically an ass kicking action movie where plot gets in the way of mayhem and bloodshed.

Albert Pyun, a director of spectacular cheese fests, delivers a fast moving, violent romp that only slows to show German star Olivier Gruner's ass or former Dallas girl Deborah Shelton's wonky boob job. From the fifth minute onwards Nemesis is carnage all the way, hell even Gruner's dog is killed, as Gruner slays a whole host of C-grade video stars including Brion James, Thom Matthews and direct to video stalwart Tim Thomerson. Also look out for Thomas Jane in an early role and naked throughout. You'll wince as Shelton knees him in the bollocks.

Channeling everything from The Terminator to Robocop and featuring more gun play than The Matrix, Nemesis has great location work throughout and is one of the slickest, maddest, coolest pieces of trash cinema about.

I still need to pick up 101's boxset. I've not seen Nemesis in years, can barely remember it.

This was the old Prism release. A few extras but i'd expect 88's print to be better, not that this was bad at all.

I had an old big box ex rental vhs. Last time i watched it.

No One Lives (2012)

...and no plot points either as i wouldn't want to spoil this film for any newcomer such as myself who watched it without any prior knowledge. I didn't even read the reverse of the sleeve.

Needless to say No One Lives is a terrifically bloody thrill ride starring Luke Evans and he's perfect in the role of... No sorry, not saying.

If you want twisty turny, fast paced violent shocks then give No One Lives a go. Chances are you won't regret it.

Adelaide Clemens is great in it too. She really should be doing more big stuff.

Red Hill, Patrick Hughes, 2011

A young policeman and his pregnant wife relocate to the country to raise their family. On his first day on the job the officer is thrown in the deep end when convicted murderer Jimmy Conway breaks out of a maximum security prison and heads back to town seeking revenge on the police department that put him away.
Pretty much a western, this excellent Australian film had me gripped with some great characters and some surprisingly old fashion western touches. The bad guy Jimmy Conway makes for a great villain too stalking his prey through the town and not uttering a single word Michael Myers style. Brilliant film. Blu ray looks stunning too really showing off the gorgeous but almost alien Aussie landscapes.

The Synapse HD release of Basket Case 2. The movie looked gorgeous. Synapse did a better job with this movie than Something Weird Video did with the original, which was still acceptable, by the way. Not as good as the original Basket Case, but watchable, nonetheless.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)

A huge British production with a terrific cast who superbly play it throughout. Michael Jayston and Janet Suzman are excellent as the Tsar and his wife with performances that take you away from the savage political and social unrest they caused, ending with the Russian revolution and their abdication and imprisonment in Siberia, making the viewer feel sympathy for them even though they clearly had it coming.

There's so much historical matter here that a mere three hours doesn't do it justice and there are one or two inaccuracies (I did early 20th century Russian history and the rise of Stalin as a ten week GCSE evening course in my early twenties) which i suppose is inevitable when it comes to these things.

As for interest to Cult Labs members, Tom Baker is quite brilliant as Rasputin with his drinking, shagging and everything you'd expect a devout monk to indulge in. I'd almost say he nailed the role even better than the late, great Christopher Lee did in Hammer's 1966 film. Also look out for an uncredited Robin Askwith who shoots someone in the head.

Whilst not Cult Labs material by any stretch of the imagination Nicholas and Alexandra is a good film that should appeal to anyone who enjoyed the BBC's recent adaptation of War and Peace.

CURTAIN – Newish indie horror about an ex-nurse who's aggravated by her disappearing shower curtains. That's a pretty thin premise for a horror sci-fi movie, but there is more to it. Ex-nurse finds out that the curtains are vanishing through some kind of portal which leads to the local woods, where they emerge covered in ectoplasm – at least, that's as much as she can gather from the crazy bum who lives there. A back story involving occult sacrifices and transformations is gradually uncovered. I quite enjoyed 'Curtains'. I was a little worried that it'd be played for laughs, given the apparent emphasis on shower curtains as harbingers of the unknown. There is a comedic edge to it in places, but this is phased out by the bleak climax. Elements that appealed to me were the eighties-harkening synth soundtrack, the slight originality of the whole thing and the bits where there was some monster action, which were all too brief in my opinion. Definitely well put together on a shoestring, 'Curtain' deserves plaudits for imagination and scope, and the slender run time is a plus, too. Definitely one to check out – as microbudget debuts go, it's not quite in the same realm as 'Absentia' for example, but is a good opening shot nonetheless.

MANIAC COP - Have I reviewed this before? Never mind, it seems a while since I last saw it. 'Maniac Cop' has really grown on me over the years. I remember seeing it in the early nineties for the first time, when I had a much more indignant gobshite type attitude, and I recall moaning to my buddy about the fact that we weren't watching 'Cannibal Holocaust' or something equally 'transgressive'. I suppose that back then it just seemed like another VHS rental. After years of watching shitty, abysmal dreck from all corners of the genre, a film like 'Maniac Cop' really shines as an example of tight, slick low budget film making. You'll all know the story, about Cordell the hot-shot officer who's 'back from the dead' after being fitted up and murdered in Sing-Sing. For me, it's a perfect meeting of minds, taking in Lary Cohen's socio-political approach and Bill Lustig's NYC grime aesthetic. Fast paced and down and dirty, 'Maniac Cop' never fails to entertain, although perhaps it stays its hand (or trigger finger) when it comes to graphic violence and sleaze – nothing here is as excessive as some of the stuff in Lustig's earlier 'Maniac'. Still, nearly excellent and an essential B Movie after all this time.

MAUSOLEUM – Bobbie Bressee is a woman in a house who's struggling with a family curse. 'Mausoleum' is a low budget horror movie from 1983, and really feels like it is too. Which theoretically should mean that it's great, but, sadly, it just isn't. There are some definite plus points – the effects by John Buechler are vivdly 'VHS era', and would grace the back cover of any big box. What surrounds them is more of a problem. 'Mausoleum' is not slowly paced, in fact the reverse. But it is tension free, and that really affects my perception of time during a film. If I'm not anticipating something, I'm kind of veering towards looking at my watch. As for why 'Mausoleum' is so uninvolving, there's something about the flatness of the direction that makes it seem like a soap opera viewed through a haze brought on by too much cough syrup, or perhaps the vague recollection of a dull dream about a TV movie. This in itself might be interesting, but yesterday afternoon I just wanted some horror action and some hard hitting narrative. With 'Mausoleum', there is certainly some horror action, quite a lot of it in fact, but again, it's like islands in a not so great stream. Seen in the right frame of mind (preferably one which allows for mental fast forward), 'Mausoleum' could certainly seen as trashy fun, and to an extent it is. My memory now is taking me back to the 'good bits', the crappy glowing green eye fx and the demonic face-breasts, the bits of gore and the moments which just don't feel right, and pretty soon I'll have forgotten that there's a certain amount of other stuff to wade through. In about three or four years I'll be thinking “Mausoleum – cool! It's that one with all the bladder effects and cloaked figures and eerily lit, gory... yeah, think I'll put it on. Why don't I watch it more often?” Future Frankie, take note – this review is your answer to that last bit.

Metamorphosis (2007)

Good production values and great location filming in Austria and Hungary can't hide the fact that this take on bringing the Countess Bathory legend into the modern day is a dismal failure.

A woefully miscast Christopher Lambert hams it in the role of an ancient vampire and whilst Romanian born Irena Violette looks pretty as Elizabeth Bathory her performance is average at best. However despite the poor acting the films main problem is the lack of thrills, scares and worst of all - blood, there isn't any at all, not a drop, even during vampire bites. Tragic considering legend has it that Bathory bathed in the blood of virgins.

Don't waste your time.

Feast.

A group of people become trapped in a bar by a group of creatures that are intent on eating everyone. Lots of OTT gore with the story just an excuse to get from one grisly death to another. Enjoyable gory fun that turns the stereotypes of who survives and how long they live on its head. 7.1/10

Now watching double dragon

Mother of God!

I'm really enjoy it. Its corny,its stupid and it has little to do with the games ( which lets be honest had no story as such)but that's all part of why I'm enjoying it. Silly brain dead b movie fun. Give me a film like this any day off the week over something overrated boring crap like citizen Kane

John Wick. One of the best action flicks of the decade. :nod:

Landmine goes click

Its half decent, starts of as a couple and best man backpacking, but the groom idea is revenge for his best man for sleeping with his partner and ends up like a kinda remake of last house on left but slightly different.

Read reviews for this on imdb, and judging by them i was expecting more, dont get me wrong not saying i was disappointed, but judging by the reviews half of them mustn't watch many films like this,
Just found it a bit tame and the passer by attack was dragged out and went on for to long to the build up.

Slight spolier warning

I kinda liked the ending because the guy was enjoying it, getting revenge more or less exact same way as the guy did to them,
But the way he felt when he got carried away and it all went wrong.

Midnight Special, Jeff Nichols, 2016.

A father and his young son aided by the fathers old friend an ex cop go on the run from a dangerous religious cult that have been practically worshipping the boy due to his strange abilities. For reasons not entirely clear the FBI also begin hunting the trio. The boy is somehow able to recieve highly confidential satellite transmissions containing sensitive security data, he's also capable of causing major destruction without any control over his actions. The FBI and NSA think he's a weapon, the cult think he's some sort of prophet. His father just wants to keep him safe.
So with that done is Midnight Special any good? Well its ok, unfortunately given I've been looking forward to it for a while its nothing more than ok. There are good performances all around, Michael Shannon plays Roy, the father and as ever he's magnetic, Joel Edgerton plays his friend Lucas, an ex-cop, who again for reasons not made entirely clear is highly dedicated to helping Roy and protecting his son Alton. The boy is played by a kid called Jaeden Lieberher and while not at all grating he's also not particularly interesting, his powers or abilities or whatever are frankly a bit crap, a bit like Harry Potter and the final payoff all feels a bit old and done. One of the films biggest flaws is in its vagueness with regards to the plot. For instance we join Roy, Lucas and Alton already on the run. We don't really get a feel for what was going on at the cults compound 'The Ranch', as all of this is mentioned matter of fact by characters later in the story. All in all Midnight Special is worth a watch but maybe don't go in with high expectations.

Superfly (1972, Gordon Parks Jr)
Harlem looks like Dresden here, a fitting backdrop to Ron Neal's struggle to get out of "the game". Curtis turns up to sing. Whitey are all scummers.

It's funny because the reasons you state for not liking it are some of the reasons why I really liked it :lol: different strokes etc

I recently saw three films that I've not had the opportunity to see before -- 300, The Patriot and The Wolf of Wall Street. Great films! :)