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  #27871  
Old 31st March 2014, 12:22 PM
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Originally Posted by SShaw View Post
The T.V. series sounds a lot better than the film
It's highly addictive – I can't wait for the second series to begin. I know the first series is available to buy, so it's probably available to rent and you should do that and watch the second series when it's on Channel 4 later this year.
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  #27872  
Old 31st March 2014, 05:23 PM
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Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs View Post
Is it anything to do with the excellent French TV series of the same name?

"The Returned" (2012)
returned.jpg


if its this film then the TV series is based on it.
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  #27873  
Old 31st March 2014, 06:34 PM
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Horror Island (1941)

Treasure hunters discover an old castle on an island where there is reputedly a pirates hidden horde.

This Universal quickie is one of those films that treads the fine line between horror and comedy yet excells at neither.

Coming across as a live action Scooby Doo mystery minus the dog, and featuring a feeble phantom who seems desperate to exclaim "I would have got away with it if it weren't for those pesky kids", whilst swishing his cape and twiddling with his moustache.

The film fails to achieve the Gothic atmosphere so prevalent in the majority of Hollywood's output at the time, despite it being set in a spooky castle with a creepy torture chamber, the film never creates any tension or thrills due to the laborious scripting, lacklustre acting and limp direction, making it one for Universal completists only.
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  #27874  
Old 31st March 2014, 08:06 PM
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I had not watched this in a while so it was good to see it again after a long break. Great to see matte paintings and loads of good model work. The set designs are fantastic. I think Michael Keaton made a good Batman and I think that now, with the new Batman films, this one tends to be overlooked.
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  #27875  
Old 1st April 2014, 03:18 AM
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Possession (1981)... Wow.
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  #27876  
Old 1st April 2014, 08:02 AM
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The Fiend.

Robert Hartford-Davis delivers a films possibly as seedy and disreputable as Corruption, so this comes highly recommended!

Kenny is 'troubled' to say the least. His mothers something of a religious fanatic, his father has left the scene so filling in is the minister (Patrick Magee) a corrupt lay preacher who promotes a fanatical americanised brand of christianity that seeks to control every aspect of it's followers lives.

This upbringing only seems to have made poor Kenney worse as his reaction to meeting a gorgeous woman these days seems to be murdering her and leaving the corpse some place for people to stumble upon. His mothers district nurse and her sister, a chain smoking investigative journalist are suspicious and begin digging around for clues.

The fiend is fairly nasty piece of work, while not as bloody as corruption its themes of religious fanaticism and sexual violence make it stronger stuff than a lot of horror made in Britain around 1972.

Scanners 2 the new order.

Cheapie direct to video sequel to Cronenberg's film. Enjoyable enough tale of psychic warfare and police corruption in Canada. Nowhere near as good as the first it's also perhaps a little overlong.

Scanners 3

Realising the sequels are never going to be as good as the original this third entry is much better than part 2 as it becomes sleazier and gorier and as a result much more entertaining in a trashy kind of way. A new drug causes a female scanner to turn evil and its up to her brother to stop her.
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  #27877  
Old 1st April 2014, 09:10 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Boy View Post

I think Michael Keaton made a good Batman and I think that now, with the new Batman films, this one tends to be overlooked.
Which is a shame because this one and it's sequel are brilliant.
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  #27878  
Old 1st April 2014, 12:44 PM
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Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1973, Bo A Vibenuis) (dvd)

Of course, with it being a swedish exploitation film, this is quite a sombre affair. After a fairly shocking opening, this doesn't get any easier to watch. Iconic images abound though!
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  #27879  
Old 1st April 2014, 01:11 PM
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I've just returned from the cinema where I watched Under the Skin. It's a very strange film, but utterly mesmerising. It seems to improve the more I think about it and what happened, making some sense of the extremely abstract elements, though it will definitely require several more viewings.
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  #27880  
Old 1st April 2014, 02:35 PM
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Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)

When producing sequels to popular horror films there are two ways to go. You can either essnetially just remake the first successful film like they did with Hatchet 2 for example or you can veer off in a completely new direction which is what the makers of Blair Witch 2 did. The Blair Witch Project was a remarkably successful low budget bit of indie horror which thanks to a great marketing campaign and a superb website became a phenomenon the likes of which we haven't seen since in adult horror film making. The film for better or worse spawned a million imitators and started the found footage / shaky cam film making boom. In truth, along with the excellent documentary The Curse of the Blair Witch, the film didn't really need a sequel at all.

So how do you follow it up in sequel terms? The answer is you don't, at least not in the purest sense.

Book of Shadows begins with later news reel footage after the events of the first film. The locals interviewed are complaining about the influx of tourists and witch hunters on the trail of the Blair Witch, which after all is a piece of fiction that put the town of Burkittsville on the map. Some locals are profiteering on the film's success selling gimmicky home made trinketts alleged to have been discovered at the scene of the original murders of Heather Donahue and her two friends from The Blair Witch Project. The local sheriff just wants everyone to clear off to make his life easier. Some are even offering guided tours of the area and this is where the film begins in earnest.

A group of young people from all horror stereotypes decide to go on a Blair Witch tour with one of the local guides. During the evening they discover the ruins of the witch's house from the film and camp there for the night. When they wake the next day they discover all their equipment has been trashed and their video tapes hidden in the ground in the same place the original tapes from the first film were uncovered. Once back at the guides place - a converted factory or something on those lines - they watch the tapes and make a horrific discovery.

The footage shows the group at night in the ruins practising witchcraft then murdering a second tour group in the same way as the Blair Witch was alleged to have ritually murdered her victims centuries earlier. The friends have no recollection of these events. But the camera never lies... or does it.

I quite like Book of Shadows mainly because it takes us on a different journey to the original film whilst still toying with the witch's legend and playing on the audiences fears of witchcraft and superstition. The ending, during which the survivors are recounting what happened to the police is left open to the viewers conclusions. Whilst it may come across as the return of the Blair Witch, it does seem to point more to the fact the group were all doing drugs at the camp site, their inhibitions gone, and callously slayed the other people in a ritualistic killing spree.

The film is well acted and after a slow first half builds nicely to it's conclusion, although the clues the viewer is given throughout do tend to give away the ending somewhat. The film deserves points for it's creativity even though much of it isn't entirely successful and does turn out a little generic. Book of Shadows is difficult to recommend as it is so different to it's predecessor, yet because of it's subject matter people who disliked The Blair Witch Project won't find anything to impress them here either.
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