What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Handyman Joe]

The Borderlands - Here's the back of a stamp pitch in full - deserted churches at night are creepy. Let's camcorder one and get some of that Paranormal Activity dough. I didn't hate this film I just saw the steals, sorry influences, in every scene, as will any semi literate horror fan. The last ten are really well done (thanks The Descent) up to the last scene where the effects just aren't up to it. A decent effort at Nigel Kneale does found footage but comes up short, unfortunately.

Stalag 17 - A funny uplifting POW movie that doesn't skimp on showing you the real life horrors that went on - that's the genius of Billy Wilder. The Great Escape hogs the festive schedules every year but this is the better movie - IMO of course!

Sabrina - More Wilder, more Holden - he's Bogies brother here and they're both in the orbit of radiant Audrey Hepburn (what big feet she has though, I couldn't help but ungallantly notice). I didn't buy the romance angle for a second but the one liners and running gags are top drawer, especially the indestructible plastic.

The Sniper - a handful of great scenes scattered through screeds of psychological wiffle. One in particular still haunts me - murder no. 2, the floozy and her doll. The fairground duck the dame scene is another classic and the giant chimney bit. Well worth a check out.

Fallen Angel - Quintissential noir - Dana Andrews dishing out the snark, Linda Darnell the wicked siren of a cafe full of losers - nice setting in a foggy coastal nothing town. One point deducted for happy ending - what was that all about?

Whirlpool - A hypnotism themed Noir that made me feel sleepy, very sleepy.

Murder By Contract - Curious hybrid of French Art movie and hard boiled American crime flic. The breezy soundtrack (think the Third Man played on a surf guitar) is a little overplayed, but kinda cool. More philosophy than killing. Best bit - a gun being put in a corpses pocket with the line 'keep it, you'll need it where you're going'' It's that kind of film.

On Dangerous Ground - typical Nicholas Ray movie, ie like nothing else you've seen. Starts off a brutal cop on the edge Noir before ending up a quasi religious tale of redemption in the snowy mountains with a blind, over emoting Ida Lupino - it's like a riff on the hermit scene in Frankenstein with Robert Ryan as the monster. Must admit, I preferred the arse kicking first third.

[Frankie Teardrop]

RAW FORCE - A middle aged Hitler lookalike sells some naked hookers to a bunch of monks. Some holidaymakers set sail for an island of Kung-Fu exiles where the dead reputedly come back to life. Loads of people get their tits out. Hitler's Kung-Fu henchman attack holidaymakers. Holidaymakers end up on island with zombies and monks, who are revealed to be avid cannibals as well as procurers of young girls. Sounds great? A bit like the wildest Shaw Brothers moments chopped up and remixed into a delirious hurricane of sleaze and schlock? You wish. I did too. I'd been waiting to see 'Raw Force' for some time before it arrived on DVD / BD 'properly' from Vinegar Syndrome recently. I was looking forward to some pretty whacked out trash, and 'Raw Force' is that to a certain extent - but I think its proponents have overhyped it over the years. In the madness stakes, it's no 'Boxers Omen', nor a 'Mad Foxes' for that matter. It doesn't possess the bizarreness or freakishness I wanted it to. It's still pretty unique though, as my slim synopsis suggests... it's just that I was primed for something a bit more full on. Oh well. Expectations levelled and out of the way, it's definitely worth a watch, and I suspect its general ludicrousness will grow on me with time. The low grade sex shenanigans aboard the cruise ship are sort-of entertaining, but smutty rather than sleazy, and better when peppered with arbitrary weirdness like the mafia-murder involved young woman who appears randomly for five minutes just to hit on a guy and whack a Nazi biker over the head. Things do get going when the Kung-Fu bloodbath kicks in halfway through and the film shifts gear from sex comedy mode to something more hard edged but enjoyably inept. The zombie / cannibal bit at the end again could've been more balls-out than it was, but the fact that the filmmakers were prepared to add yet another layer of loopiness to their already tottering stack warmed my heart at least a little. The never less than interesting Vinegar Syndrome have done a sterling job as usual and 'Raw Force' looks great, and likely as good as it ever will. I did have overly heightened expectations, but at the same time I still recommend it to lovers of obscure, gonzo trash.

[nosferatu42]

Kiss of the Damned

kiss-of-the-damned-dvd.jpg kiss2.jpeg

Only heard of this the other day then noticed it on Netflix so thought i'd give it a go, i'd read it was a throwback to 70's euro vampire films and it is, sort of.

Basically a young woman who lives in an old house by a lake meets a bloke and they hit it off, but when they start getting close she suddenly pushes him away and wants nothing more to do with him.

Trouble is he's already got the horn for her so pesters her till she gives in, anyway turns out that shes a vampire and doesn't want to sentence him to her cursed existence. obviously he doesn't believe her so she decides she'll let him handcuff her to the bed while they get it on so she can't attack him.

Sounds good to me.

Anyway she turns and he realises she's not just a nutter after all, being in love he then decides to take the cuffs off and join her in her vampiric life.

Ok, fair enough, happily ever after. Well not quite, suddenly her sister turns up, she's a vampire too but rather than being refined and careful with her blood drinking,the new one is a bit of a loose cannon psycho slut.

The rest of the film consists of the trouble the sibling causes to the vampire lovers.

I quite enjoyed this, true it is a slow burning ponderous film but it's well acted and quite arty in it's cinematography.
It is kinda 70's in style, parts of the soundtrack (which i really liked) and the relationships reminded me of Daughters of darkness, but it also reminded me partly of The Hunger as well, and the sisters city kills echoed The Addiction ( although i haven't seen that in a while so i may be imagining stuff)

It's not as good as any of the above films, but i thought it was above average, although it's not very gory, the two women are nice to look at and theres a few sex scenes.

i would have rated it higher but the ending was a bit of a non event and let the film down.

The uk dvd cover is really bad and doesn't reflect the film at all, the second pic above shows the 70's influence and suits the film better.

I'd recommend this over twilight and a lot of the badly acted shite modern vampire films, but would only really recommend this to people who aren't expecting a flashy gorefest. 7/10

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Nice review Nos.

Why the REC pic though?

[nosferatu42]

Because i was bout to do a review of that too, then thought i'd do it in a new post, i'd already loaded it up into the attachments thingy tho.

[nosferatu42]

REC

rec.jpeg

I'd been meaning to watch this for a long time but never got round to it, bought the disc bout a year ago, but i think the fact that it was a hand held style flick put me off.

I won REC 3 in a cult labs comp the other week so thought it was about time.

Anyway i really enjoyed it, and actually thought the hand held style worked really well in this case. It follows a reporter and her cameraman who are making a documentary following firemen through a nights work.
We have about 15 minutes of introduction and during this time i was finding the reporter a little irritating, but hey this all fits with the self obsessed, anything for a story typical reporter stereotype, so it worked fine.

Suddenly there's a call out for the firemen, what sees like a routine call out to an apartment block soon turns horrific when an old lady they go to help starts getting a bit bitey. It turns out there's some unknown virus going about that causes people to go apeshit and bite and infect their victims, spreading the virus and creating chaos.
To make things worse, the authorities outside are wise to this and close off the building shutting the reporters,firemen and occupants inside, so they are trapped to fight or die, or worse.

I thought the film wracked up the tension admirably, capturing the mounting hysteria well and liked the way it showed us glimpses of the horrific situation developing, especially the scene where the cameraman is peeking through a window to see the situation and suddenly everything kicks off.

At only 75 minutes long, there's hardly a moment to catch your breath as it launches into the chaos. There's a twist at the end which i thought was an interesting explanation, and the last few moments echoing 'Silence of the lambs' darkness scene were very effective.

Definitely recommended if you've never seen it before. 8.5/10

[profondo rosso]

I have all 3 Nos and have not watched any yet, this has bumped it up my list. Cheers

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

RAW FORCE - A middle aged Hitler lookalike sells some naked hookers to a bunch of monks. Some holidaymakers set sail for an island of Kung-Fu exiles where the dead reputedly come back to life. Loads of people get their tits out. Hitler's Kung-Fu henchman attack holidaymakers. Holidaymakers end up on island with zombies and monks, who are revealed to be avid cannibals as well as procurers of young girls. Sounds great? A bit like the wildest Shaw Brothers moments chopped up and remixed into a delirious hurricane of sleaze and schlock? You wish. I did too. I'd been waiting to see 'Raw Force' for some time before it arrived on DVD / BD 'properly' from Vinegar Syndrome recently. I was looking forward to some pretty whacked out trash, and 'Raw Force' is that to a certain extent - but I think its proponents have overhyped it over the years. In the madness stakes, it's no 'Boxers Omen', nor a 'Mad Foxes' for that matter. It doesn't possess the bizarreness or freakishness I wanted it to. It's still pretty unique though, as my slim synopsis suggests... it's just that I was primed for something a bit more full on. Oh well. Expectations levelled and out of the way, it's definitely worth a watch, and I suspect its general ludicrousness will grow on me with time. The low grade sex shenanigans aboard the cruise ship are sort-of entertaining, but smutty rather than sleazy, and better when peppered with arbitrary weirdness like the mafia-murder involved young woman who appears randomly for five minutes just to hit on a guy and whack a Nazi biker over the head. Things do get going when the Kung-Fu bloodbath kicks in halfway through and the film shifts gear from sex comedy mode to something more hard edged but enjoyably inept. The zombie / cannibal bit at the end again could've been more balls-out than it was, but the fact that the filmmakers were prepared to add yet another layer of loopiness to their already tottering stack warmed my heart at least a little. The never less than interesting Vinegar Syndrome have done a sterling job as usual and 'Raw Force' looks great, and likely as good as it ever will. I did have overly heightened expectations, but at the same time I still recommend it to lovers of obscure, gonzo trash.

Watched this last night as well. Thought it was tons of fun. Sexploitation
meets kung-fu meets horror in a bizarre hybrid that is jack of all trades and master of non. Certainly there are other films out there that deliver the individual components better but few that mix it up as well as this.

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by VeZius

Went to see Dumb and Dumber To yesterday with my fiancée (she's a big fan of Jim Carrey).

There were only 6 people in the theater including us. Great for us, but bad for the movie. So if you liked the first movie, then go see it people so that it won't completely flop.

But do we really want 'Dumb And Dumber Free' tho?

[VeZius]

Originally Posted by suziginajackson

But do we really want 'Dumb And Dumber Free' tho?

If they can manage another well done sequel, then why not? In another 20 years, Carrey and Daniels would be in their 70's tho... that would be peculiar.