What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Originally Posted by suziginajackson

This was one of the 'unprosecuted Video Nasties', which was re-released in 1986 with approximately 1 min cut in 1986

However... in 1989, ITV got it's knuckles rapped by the Broadcasting Standards Council when it broadcast a version which was uncut, and had not been cleared for release!

I think I still have a copy of this screening on video somewhere

I watched that showing but all I can remember of the film is Michael Ironside squeezing a tennis ball.

[applecore]

Watched The Marine today.
WWE golden boy John Cena stars as an ex-marine fighting to save his hostage wife from baddie Robert Patrick.
Despite being made in 2006, it plays out like a tacky '90s straight-to-video action flick. However, the hammy acting, bad jokes and sheer ridiculousness of it all makes it a hell of a lot of fun to watch.
Can't wait to give it another go with a few beers!
7/10

[Buboven]

Watched Jim Mickle's Cold In July last night at the cinema. End up costing 1.10 altogether as I sold my M (1931) Dual Format at Cex for 5 quid.

Didn't realise it was a Jim Mickle film until couple of hours before I went to the cinema. What a film though. One of the most tense opening scenes I have ever seen. Mickle builds up the suspense so well. The score was really cool aswell and it had some some great shots, for example deep focus shots. Some of the very best acting I have seen for a while aswell.

I doubt many of the surprisingly packed audience knew the director had done horror films about mutant rat people, a cannibal family and vampires before though. You can tell he likes horror, even a casual horror fan will smile at the nod to Night of The Living Dead.

Well worth selling my M Dual Format for.

Without a doubt my fav film of 2014 so far. 9/10.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

L'assassino ha riservato nove poltrone (The Killer Reserved Nine Seats) (1974)

More of a character heavy piece that is a take on the classic 'ten little Indians' tale, the pace at first is quite slow as we are introduced to all our players and their various personalities and vices. It is only around the 30 minute mark where things start to pick up as the group get locked inside the theatre and are picked off one by one by our masked and caped killer. In amongst this there are sordid adultery-laden sub-plots with a fair amount of nudity.

Despite my above simplified premise, there is no denying that the film has a unique charm to it. It not only plays out as a giallo but also a supernatural thriller tinged with a gothic air... you can also see how Soavi borrowed on some of the tropes for his Stagefright. I thoroughly enjoyed the film overall and would urge fans of the genre who maybe haven't seen it to check it out. My only regret is that I didn't watch it in the dark... which would certainly make for a creepier environment and would have also enhanced one of the film's biggest positive factors: the creepy deserted theatre setting.

As for the Camera Obscura BD transfer, it is exquisite - as you would expect from this label. I watched it with the Italian audio track and everything was crisp and clear. I quickly flicked through the English dub once I'd finished the film and aside from the usual dodgy dubbing of some of the main characters it was also a great sounding track.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Devil Doll (1964)

A British chiller seemingly influenced by the classic anthology Dead of Night. Here cult director Lindsay Shonteff expands on the ventriloquist section of that film and elongates on the mysticism aspect especially soul transference.

The script has a starkness that is matched by it's excellent photography and absorbing performances from Bryant Halliday, as the ventriloquist, William Sylvester, and the lovely Yvonne Romain adds glamour.

Hugo, the films wooden devil doll is an eerily chilling creation and is delightfully nasty. Fully uncut the continental version is a sleazier proposition than it's UK imprint with added nudity. Both versions are on the US dvd from Image.

A compelling little film and well worth seeking out.

The main problem with the film really has nothing to do with it at all. It just leaves you wanting more. Director Lindsay Shonteff is the problem and the sad fact that his estate refuses to allow anyone the rights to the bulk of his work at a price worth taking a gamble on. I fear we will never see the likes of Big Zapper and Licensed to Love and Kill on disc at all, and that is a crying shame.

[JoshuaKaitlyn]

1956: part 2
Love Me Tender - Elvis Presleys first movie and apart from the anachronistic hip swiverling it aint too bad.
Invasion of the Bodysnatchers - "They're here already! You're next! You're next, You're next...!" Great movie!
And God Created Woman - Ahhhhh Bardot!
Forbidden Planet - Good old sci-fi and a great presentation on bluray.
Reach For The Sky - BAFTA winner for Best Picture starring Kenneth More.
The Ten Commandments - " God opens the sea with a blast of his nostrils." Good old fashioned 'biblical' epic.
Anastasia - Ended a bit strangly for me this one, kind of expected more.
Rodan - nuff said!
Aparajito - Satyajit Ray's second film in his 'Apu trilogy', I liked this one better than the first.
The King and I - Absolutely brilliant movie, my favourite musical and a deserved Oscar for Brynner, really it should have won best picture rather than 'Around the World in 80 Days'.
Now off to see something a little more modern....Robocop.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by JoshuaKaitlyn

The King and I - Absolutely brilliant movie, my favourite musical and a deserved Oscar for Brynner, really it should have won best picture rather than 'Around the World in 80 Days'.

It's a brilliant film. When i was a child i saw Brynner as the King of Siam at the London Palladium. Virginia Mckenna played Anna.

I was only eight but still recall it vividly especially meeting Brynner afterwards. I still have the signed theatre brochure.

[jhippyfro]

Snowpiercer
I liked it a lot, a great science fiction story from Bong Joon-ho the director who brought us The Host and my personal favorite Barking Dogs Never Bite.
If you get a chance go see Snowpierce. It's a great ride to enjoy in the theater.

[Frankie Teardrop]

SHATTER DEAD - I thought this was amazing, sort of. I mean, it's not very good, but it is proof that conventional filmmaking skill and even talent are unnecessary when it comes to what's fascinating about film, for 'Shatter Dead' is uneven and coarse, and not at all aided by good acting or cinematography or maybe direction, but it is utterly mesmerising (as well as being conceptually interesting). A listless, perma-bored looking protag wanders a wilderness infested by the living dead, who often pause to lecture her on how crap their lives are... on top of this, some kind of preacher is readying a sect of human outliers and being a bit bad ass, to ultimately no great consequence. Eventually, bored protag reaches her estranged homestead and tries to patch things up with zombiefied lover. Made in 1994, well before the noughties codification of the post-apocalyptic zombie sub-genre, 'Shatter Dead' takes on an undead world and ramps up the existentialism, to the point where vast swathes of the movie disappear into naval gazing dialogue spun forever into zoned out eternity but, crucially, remain absolutely unhinged and compelling... I could listen to any one of 'Shatter Dead's' boring, self obsessed zombie protagonists pontificate for an eternity about how rubbish it is to walk the face of the earth into deathless infinity and remain absolutely fixated... I don't know why, I guess this is a tribute to Scooter McCrae and his wide eyed vision about where to take post-Romero splatter (I should add that it isn't all mumblecore metaphysics - there's a bit of gore and an unexpected HC gun-in-a-vag). And how can you balk at a movie whose lead actress is called Stark Raven? Hope it's not just a porno thing and that her parents were actually Eskimo hippies or something. In a world of all too often dull and homogenised ultra-low budget filmmaking, 'Shatter dead' remains baffling and mysterious and feels like a genuine cult anomaly waiting to rise from chronic sleeperdom... I'll revise what I said in my opening lines, for 'Shatter Dead' IS a very good film and almost completely remaps what it means to do horror.

[ReversedBible]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

Not related to this, but I love your username. 10/10.