What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by Justin101

Adult World is the one with Emma Roberts in it? I keep meaning to watch that, it's on Prime Movies at the moment.

Aye. Her rather amusing turn in Scream Queens has converted me. Nancy Drew next haha

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Ravenous (1999)

During the Mexican-American War (1846 – 1848), US captain John Boyd (Guy Pearce) inadvertently takes a Mexican stronghold singlehandedly by playing dead as all his comrades died around him. His superiors realize this but also know he has to be promoted due to his exploits so send him high into the Sierra-Nevada mountains to take command of a secluded outpost. A skeleton crew currently reside there lead by Jeffrey Jones. Once firmly in place, a stranger named Colqhoun (Robert Carlyle) turns up, wounded and hungry with a tale so sickening.... I'm going to leave it there, don't want to spoil things.

The late Antonia Bird's film whilst blackly comic is also grim and eerily disturbing. The idea that eating human flesh rejuvenates the body provides chills but also a wealth of sly smirks. The film has some fantastic scary moments and the whole thing is thoroughly gripping. Witness the scene where Boyd and Reich (Neal McDonough) enter the cave. This as good a sequence of horror film making as you're likely to come across. Claustrophobic, tense and with a sickening pay off at the end of it.

The soundtrack from Michael Nyman and Blur frontman Damon Albarn is remarkable. At once placing you in the 1840's yet also feeling ever so slightly contemporary, and it's often simple yet avante-garde arrangements once heard aren't easily forgotten

The cast seem to have a whale of a time. Robert Carlyle is so convincing when he tells how human flesh makes you stronger, you'll be looking at the person next to you with a slight pang of hunger in your stomach...especially when Bird shows us the stew. The characters, of which there are quite a few, are all well written and given their own personality by the sharp script, even those with few lines come over as fully rounded people. Guy Pearce who along with Carlyle has top billing, gives a performance that's so understated, so underplayed that you fear he might get ushered away off set by some jobsworth when filming begins.

The film is morally dubious but it shows no fear in asking the question Eat! Live or die? Yet it's this area where the humour lies, Antonia Bird showing us that (in)human excess has always existed and isn't likely to go away anytime soon.

Whilst the film isn't out and out gore like the Italian cannibal films of the 70's it is at times startling in it's brutality. The final showdown between Carlyle and Guy Pearce is as savage and gut wrenching as anything mainstream cinema has offered us.

Ravenous is one of those films you either 'get' straight away or you don't. It's a rare example in that it's a film unlike anything else i think i've seen.

You know... That stew did look immensely satisfying!

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Ravenous (1999)

During the Mexican-American War (1846 – 1848), US captain John Boyd (Guy Pearce) inadvertently takes a Mexican stronghold singlehandedly by playing dead as all his comrades died around him. His superiors realize this but also know he has to be promoted due to his exploits so send him high into the Sierra-Nevada mountains to take command of a secluded outpost. A skeleton crew currently reside there lead by Jeffrey Jones. Once firmly in place, a stranger named Colqhoun (Robert Carlyle) turns up, wounded and hungry with a tale so sickening.... I'm going to leave it there, don't want to spoil things.

The late Antonia Bird's film whilst blackly comic is also grim and eerily disturbing. The idea that eating human flesh rejuvenates the body provides chills but also a wealth of sly smirks. The film has some fantastic scary moments and the whole thing is thoroughly gripping. Witness the scene where Boyd and Reich (Neal McDonough) enter the cave. This as good a sequence of horror film making as you're likely to come across. Claustrophobic, tense and with a sickening pay off at the end of it.

The soundtrack from Michael Nyman and Blur frontman Damon Albarn is remarkable. At once placing you in the 1840's yet also feeling ever so slightly contemporary, and it's often simple yet avante-garde arrangements once heard aren't easily forgotten

The cast seem to have a whale of a time. Robert Carlyle is so convincing when he tells how human flesh makes you stronger, you'll be looking at the person next to you with a slight pang of hunger in your stomach...especially when Bird shows us the stew. The characters, of which there are quite a few, are all well written and given their own personality by the sharp script, even those with few lines come over as fully rounded people. Guy Pearce who along with Carlyle has top billing, gives a performance that's so understated, so underplayed that you fear he might get ushered away off set by some jobsworth when filming begins.

The film is morally dubious but it shows no fear in asking the question Eat! Live or die? Yet it's this area where the humour lies, Antonia Bird showing us that (in)human excess has always existed and isn't likely to go away anytime soon.

Whilst the film isn't out and out gore like the Italian cannibal films of the 70's it is at times startling in it's brutality. The final showdown between Carlyle and Guy Pearce is as savage and gut wrenching as anything mainstream cinema has offered us.

Ravenous is one of those films you either 'get' straight away or you don't. It's a rare example in that it's a film unlike anything else i think i've seen.

You know... That stew did look immensely satisfying!

went to see this at the cinema back in the late 90's. As I had a student card I went to see everything. It had rotten reviews but I really enjoyed it. one of my early DVD purchases.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by keirarts

went to see this at the cinema back in the late 90's. As I had a student card I went to see everything. It had rotten reviews but I really enjoyed it. one of my early DVD purchases.

My dvd is the American one 2:35:1 and it looks quite poor in comparison to todays prints.

Like you it was one of the first discs i bought.

[Justin101]

I've just watched Midnight Special and it was fantastic. Yet another film with an outstanding young actor this time Jaeden Lieberher who plays Alton, a boy who is special. It's probably fair to say it's a film that's best not spoiled in any way so I urge you if you have any desire to go see it, don't look at any reviews or videos and just go.

It's on a limited release I think, in fact tomorrow is the last day that it's on in my local, so don't miss out!

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Ghoulies (1984)

Tediarse creature feature with a bunch of Garbage Pale kid rejects that do nothing except open their mouths and occasionally roll their eyes.

There's some sort of plot about a bloke who moves into a new house, becomes possessed and attempts some wicked witchery. Don't bother, it's just bollocks.

There are publicity stills showing one of the puppets in the toilet which is ironic really as that's where they belong.

I'm going to attempt to watch the second film next Sunday. Pity really as Part 4 is pretty decent.

Ah yer bugger Dem. I was gonna pick up the blus of Ghoulies 1+2 today but you've put me off.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by J Harker

Ah yer bugger Dem. I was gonna pick up the blus of Ghoulies 1+2 today but you've put me off.

You might like them, who knows?

I'll see what Ghoulies II is like this weekend.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

You might like them, who knows?

I'll see what Ghoulies II is like this weekend.

Will it truly be a 'number 2' like the first?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by bizarre_eye@Cult Labs

Will it truly be a 'number 2' like the first?

I expect so but somewhere on the film there should be a song called Scream Until You Like It so it gains an extra mark for that alone.

[Frankie Teardrop]

PHANTASM 4 – I'm a big fan of Don Cosarelli's original, that bizarre coming of age yarn about ice cream men and mutant dwarfs. Can't remember much about parts two and three, but 'Phantasm 4' is surely a sequel worthy of the first film. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, for a start. The kid Mike from part one has grown up, and he's driving around a desert when he's not fending off apparitions in his car. He goes back in time, too, where he meets a kindly Angus Schrimm who used to be a civil war medic way back before he became the embodiment of evil or whatever. Mike's brother is back from the dead, and crops up as either a flying silver ball, or occasionally in human guise when he needs to have a heart to heart with Mike. Meanwhile, Reggie the ice cream man is off fighting zombie cops and being menaced by silver globes in hotel rooms. He's still got his pony tail, and by the end of the film he'll tape two shotguns together in the form of a climax weapon which doesn't do much to rival Ash's chainsaw-arm, but which looks hilarious when wielded by a guy who seems like he should be in a Status Quo tribute band. I can't really recall what happens in the end, it's all ungraspable anyway. 'Phantasm 4', in case you haven't guessed, is all over the place. Geographically, historically, phenomenologically (there are long passages of dreamy recollections, for which read: bits of the previous movies stitched in by way of padding). It's a formidable brew, one which actually benefits from its slightly anodyne stylistic quality. It feels like late night TV surrealism, as if Bunuel had hijacked a ninety minute graveyard slot and decided to broadcast bits of direct to video horror he found lying around in bargain bins. Needless to say, I liked it.