What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

Both sound worthy of my time and attention – I'll see if they are available on Lovefilm to rent or stream.

Kanako is astounding but brace yourself!

[anythinggoes78]

10 Cloverfield Lane

Really good film very tense and claustrophobic John Goodmanham is great I don't want to give anything away just that is a rollercoaster ride.

[AberZombi&Flesh]

The Dark
Skeeter

and tis the season, Bunnyman

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Big Heat (1953)

Wow! What a tremendous film! This film is worth discovering for yourselves so i won't go into the who's, what's, how's and why's of the plot. Needless to say it's a gripper from the opening seconds and a tight script, crackling dialogue, Oscar baiting performances, strong violence and stunning direction from Fritz Lang, guarantee to keep you glued to the screen.

I would just like to pause and say how brilliant Gloria Grahame came over. Not usually a favourite of mine but here she practically steals the film from under Glenn Ford's nose. Not an easy feat as he was as tough and calculated as they come and his performance surely was a precursor to the classic crime films of the 60's and 70's. In fact the whole film seemed to have sequences that would influence film makers for years to come. Grahame however gave a multi-faceted performance. At times extremely funny and at others a dame to kill for or indeed be killed by. She was an absolute joy to behold. In fact everyone was on top of their game here. From nasty Lee Marvin to smaller roles for Dorothy Green, Jeanette Nolan and Alexander Scourby, each and everyone just so memorable.

The Big Heat is the best 'new to me' noir since i saw Rififi last year.

[keirarts]

La Bambola di satana

A group of people head to a remote castle with a dark history for the reading of a will and get bumped off one by one by a mysterious black gloved killer.
Made in 1969 it carries a lot of the tropes of Italian Gothic horror and Giallo and represents another transnational film where the Gothic would make way for black gloved killers. Not as successful as other examples of the genre it features a great location let down by a lack of any real thrills. There's a bit of nudity and it threatens to get perverse but ultimately feels a little bit of a mis-fire.

The wild-eye

Like Cannibal holocaust this ones more a comment on the morality of film making and a critique of the Mondo pictures of the time. The director Paolo Cavara was a co-director on the original mondo cane. Here a director of mondo type pictures picks up a married woman and they head to Asia where he pushes for more and more exploitative and extreme footage. Like the protagonists of Holocausts he becomes complicit in the crimes he's seeking to capture on film while ruthlessly exploiting the locals.
Its not as extreme as Holocaust but still features some shocking (for the time) sequences and a great score. It lacks the clever construction of Holocaust as well but remains a film worth checking out if you have any interest in the subject matter.

No the case is happily resolved

Another real discovery for Camera Obscura. Here a working class family man stumbles across a college professor murdering a woman. Intending to go to the police he panics and ends up at home. By the time he resolves to contact the police the Professor has beat him to the punch and is busy framing him for the killing. As the film progresses he makes numerous futile attempts at covering himself that ends up making him seem more guilty.
Not at all sleazy or violent, aside from a shocking murder near the beginning, the film is a cracking thriller that had me screaming at the screen at how dumb the main character is. This is pretty much the point as he's depicted as being rather naive and straight forward and ultimately this makes him a victim of the system. Well worth watching.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Dr. Cyclops (1940)

Dr. Cyclops, whilst being fairly run of the mill plot wise is actually an extraordinary piece of work. Only the second horror / sci-fi film to be filmed in technicolor (33's Mystery of the Wax Museum was the first), it's genuinely a joy to watch.

I adore technicolor, i think it's a gorgeous filming technique and Dr. Cyclops looks stunning throughout. Full of vibrant colours, it actually made me wonder what classics like The Black Cat and Frankenstein could have looked like bathed in the green hues that open this film.

It's not only technicolor that adds to the enjoyment of the film. Directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack and produced by Merian C. Cooper the creative duo behind King Kong (1933). The film has ingenious special effects, with a whole environment produced in super size to allow the shrunken heroes of the film, and victims of Dr. Cyclops experiments, to run about in. This, some 17 years before The Incredible Shrinking Man pulled off the same trick to great acclaim, allowing Schoedsack to wow the viewer with some stunning set pieces involving cats, crocodiles and er'... a chicken.

Dr. Cyclops...story wise it's mundane but creatively it's a quite beautiful experience.

Recommended.

[trebor8273]

With watching the show Damien decided to watch this as the show is directly linked to the film, with flash backs etc used in the show, granted its only 30 years between the film and the show but in fact should be 40 years.

Even though I'm not religious, I still find the film as creepy and unnerving as when I saw it as a child. Thanks to the direction and cast but especially Harvey Stephens as the most creepy and evil looking child to grace the screen, that last shot of the evil little bastard smiling still sends a shiver down my spine. 9.5/10

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Faust (1926)

Following some decidedly dodgy modern horror over the Easter weekend i thought i'd finish the mini break with FW Murnau's classic take on Faust.

With silent films i often struggle a little with the acting as it's often over exaggerated seemingly to make up for the lack of speech, however in this particular film it doesn't grate so much and i think the actors do a better job than in say Murnau's other classic horror, 1922's Nosferatu. Even Emil Jannings who could have hammed it up no end in the two guises of Mephisto played it largely straight.

My overriding feeling following this first viewing wasn't of story or characters but of the visuals. What visuals they were. Murnau really excels himself and creates onscreen brilliance that would influence film makers to the present day.

Faust is a film you can practically fall in love with in it's first twenty minutes. Murnau's use of light and shade and the movement of these mediums even in still sequences is stunning, i'm sure it must have had a great influence on Val Lewton's forties output. As was the scene when Faust goes to the crossroad to make his deal with the devil.

However the most outrageously brilliant part of the film comes in the first ten minutes. A breathtaking overhead journey of the town the viewer gazing at what's below. When you take into account there was no CGI and no aviation as such and the tracking shot was all done with models, it really is some feat...with the best still to come...There at the peak of the town is the devil, laughing, slowly, malevolently, spreading his wings, the plague, over the town and it's citizens. Quite honestly this could be the greatest moment of horror cinema, indeed cinema, i've ever seen.

I'm sure there are many on here like myself up until last night who have never seen this film. Do yourself a favour. Treat yourself to Eureka's Blu-ray, sit back and marvel at what unfolds on the tv in front of you.

[Vampix]

Kung Fu Panda 3 and Interstellar.

[Dave Boy]

Boy did this film take ages to get going anywhere. Once it did I thought it was pretty good. Batman looks and sounds awesome and once Wonder Woman appears she is straight in the fight and when she uses her lasso I was in my element. Shame we never got another solo Superman film as I think we needed one before this. Lex luthor is more like the Joker than anything else and far too young. Overall, a decent effort, pretty grim and not really a superhero movie for the kiddies.