What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Halloween: Resurrection (2002)

Three years after the events at Hillcrest Academy, Laurie Strode is now incarcerated in a psychiatric facility after it turned out she beheaded a paramedic and not wayward brother turned mass murderer Michael Myers. Now Laurie waits...waits for Michael to return for one final showdown.

Halloween II (1981) director Rick Rosenthal returns to the franchise for this rather tasty 16 minute short film which finally brings the protracted journey of Laurie Strode to an end and gives actress Jamie Lee Curtis a fitting finale as she comes to an end at the hands of brother Michael. As it's only a short film the story moves along at a pace. Myers murders two guards in bloody style and also frames a Gacy loving inmate for Strode's death.

As a short film Halloween Resurrection works well and brings the franchise to a fitting end. I'm just unsure why the producers stuck an hour of random outtakes from another movie on at the end.

[Nordicdusk]

Film No.12

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Kevin has just lost his wife while giving birth to their first child. Descending on a rapid downward spiral Kevin contemplates suicide but he cant go through with it instead he heads to an underground store selling rare vinyl extreme films and occult objects. The guy behind the counter recommends a book to contact the dead but warns Kevin to be careful and prepared for what he is getting himself into but these words of caution fall on deaf ear Keven is only interested in contacting his wife. It does not take long before Kevins life turns into complete chaos involving murder sacrifice and mutilation.

There is barely a word muttered through the whole film just a few exchanges here and there. The whole focus is on the mental breakdown of Kevin and how far he is willing to go to bring his wife back from the dead. The whole film feels like one big nightmare that he cannot wake up from. There is tons of blood from start to finish and most of the gore looks great for what budget they had everything is practical which shows no matter how little money you have you can still do it properly or at least make a good stab at it. We get everything from smashed faces self inflicted gunshot to the vagina to picking bugs out of a penis and more vagina based horror. This is not for everyone only for anyone looking for some over the top extreme gore so if thats not your thing better look else where for your horror fix. As for me i found it really entertaining not one you would watch over and over but well worth a revisit from time to time.

7/10

[Cinematic Shocks]

Offspring (2009)

Not as good as Lucky McKee's excellent 2011 sequel 'The Woman'.

**1/2 or *** out of *****

[Cinematic Shocks]

The Woman (2011)

Lucky McKee is one of the best contemporary horror filmmakers. That is when he's not making crap like 'All Cheerleaders Die'.

**** out of *****

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Frankenstein (1931)

Frankenstein - a name synonymous with the horror genre for one reason - this film from Universal Studios, this film from nearly a century ago. Whole books have been written about this film, it's sequels and the Universal monster legacy as a whole, so influential are they not only on horror cinema but cinema in general.

Frankenstein is a seminal film which belies it's age with each repeat viewing. A macabre masterpiece which fixed the monstrous image of the creature into the publics consciousness where it remains today. Frankenstein is a fascinating if primitive work that launched it's director (James Whale) and star (Boris Karloff or ? if you read the opening cast list) on interesting and in Karloff's case highly successful paths, and even though based on German expressionist silent works it established the horror film as a viable genre for Hollywood.

The film was seen as shocking in it's day and still plays as a genuinely creepy experience. The idea of a man playing God as Colin Clive does with his 'It's alive' speech and the lakeside sequence with the little girl fell foul of censors for decades to come even though today it all seems rather tame.

The film belongs to Boris Karloff. He breathes life into a career best and definitive portrayal of an on screen monster being both terrifying and sympathetic, witness Frankenstein's servant Fritz (Dwight Frye) torturing the creature with flames and the touching moment where the creature reaches up to grasp a ray of sunlight. James Whale also contributes to the grand scheme of things with his innovative direction and sometimes wayward camera angles that create an at times tense and at others melancholic atmospheres of Gothic horror mixed with science.

Everyone on here who reads this should have seen the film, nay, everyone should own the film such is it's historical impact on cinema and the horror genre.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

North Sea Hijack (1980)

Roger Moore plays against type as an eccentric underwater saboteur who can't stand women but loves cats who is enlisted by the British government and Naval commander James Mason to come up with a plan to stop Anthony Perkins and his band of terrorists who hijack a cargo vessel with the aim of blowing up the largest oil rig in the North Sea unless his ransom demands are met.

Absolutely terrific high seas adventure which although lacking in action is more than made up for by the level of suspense which rises with every passing minute. Often quirky and offbeat with a strong air of British humour, North Sea Hijack is one of the best thrillers of the decade and one i revisit at least once a year.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Frankenstein (1931)

Frankenstein - a name synonymous with the horror genre for one reason - this film from Universal Studios, this film from nearly a century ago. Whole books have been written about this film, it's sequels and the Universal monster legacy as a whole, so influential are they not only on horror cinema but cinema in general.

Frankenstein is a seminal film which belies it's age with each repeat viewing. A macabre masterpiece which fixed the monstrous image of the creature into the publics consciousness where it remains today. Frankenstein is a fascinating if primitive work that launched it's director (James Whale) and star (Boris Karloff or ? if you read the opening cast list) on interesting and in Karloff's case highly successful paths, and even though based on German expressionist silent works it established the horror film as a viable genre for Hollywood.

The film was seen as shocking in it's day and still plays as a genuinely creepy experience. The idea of a man playing God as Colin Clive does with his 'It's alive' speech and the lakeside sequence with the little girl fell foul of censors for decades to come even though today it all seems rather tame.

The film belongs to Boris Karloff. He breathes life into a career best and definitive portrayal of an on screen monster being both terrifying and sympathetic, witness Frankenstein's servant Fritz (Dwight Frye) torturing the creature with flames and the touching moment where the creature reaches up to grasp a ray of sunlight. James Whale also contributes to the grand scheme of things with his innovative direction and sometimes wayward camera angles that create an at times tense and at others melancholic atmospheres of Gothic horror mixed with science.

Everyone on here who reads this should have seen the film, nay, everyone should own the film such is it's historical impact on cinema and the horror genre.

Great review Dem. One of the best films ever made. While i believe we agree that Bride is actually inferior what are your thoughts on it?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by J Harker

Great review Dem. One of the best films ever made. While i believe we agree that Bride is actually inferior what are your thoughts on it?

Thanks, much appreciated, J.

I do like Bride but i also find it a tad disappointing. They had the chance to create a second iconic monster, some will say they did, but Elsa Lanchester had so little screen time as the wild haired bride that it was barely worth the wait.

I like the fact that Lanchester actually plays Mary Shelley, the author of the story, and she's the one who becomes in essence her own creation but the film revolves around Colin Clive as Frankenstein more than it does Karloff as the creature and i feel that's also to the film's detriment as Clive is less interesting both in character and as an actor than Karloff.

It's still a work of great depth and i fully appreciate that people love it, but better than Frankenstein? Never!

[Frankie Teardrop]

HIGH RISE – Ben Wheatley's take on J G Ballard's novel is a stylised glide through a parallel seventies. It centres on an apartment block and its new arrival, Dr Laing, a wry but ultimately somehow blank-seeming psychiatrist. This being the seventies, disaster isn't far away, and before long the social fabric of the high rise collapses in the form of some progressively unbridled parties before going a bit 'Shivers' meets 'Lord of the Flies'. It's quite a brave film – as far as narrative basics go, you could see it playing out as a kind of action thriller in hands other than Wheatley's. Since Wheately has a bit of vision and Ballard definitely does, 'High Rise' is far stranger than any mere 'outbreak' type movie, and seems more intent on capturing an abstract atmosphere of unease rather than explosions and gunfire. Visually it's very impressive, and really brings home the chilly vibes of a Ballardian world, all brutal angles and concrete vistas where humans are accessories and somehow the mere afterthought of some strange architecture. Its slow, deliberate unfolding is immersive and mesmerising – not the kind of film you'd watch for shits and giggles, but for an insight into the cold climate we now live in (there's a subtext about the rise of the media class, it seems to me, and the inclusion of a Thatcher speech at the end is heavy handed but accurate). These references are a bit scrambled, but I caught glimpses of Peter Greenaway, Derek Jarman, Terry Giliam, Lindsay Anderson as well as David Cronenberg. Importantly, the film stays true to the spirit of Ballard's fiction, somehow. Hypnotic, eerie and definitely a recommend. Kudos also for incorporating The Fall's 'Industrial Estate' into the end credits!

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Thanks, much appreciated, J.

I do like Bride but i also find it a tad disappointing. They had the chance to create a second iconic monster, some will say they did, but Elsa Lanchester had so little screen time as the wild haired bride that it was barely worth the wait.

I like the fact that Lanchester actually plays Mary Shelley, the author of the story, and she's the one who becomes in essence her own creation but the film revolves around Colin Clive as Frankenstein more than it does Karloff as the creature and i feel that's also to the film's detriment as Clive is less interesting both in character and as an actor than Karloff.

It's still a work of great depth and i fully appreciate that people love it, but better than Frankenstein? Never!

If there is another monster in The Bride of Frankenstein, I would contend it is Dr Pretorius, beautifully essayed by Ernest Thesiger, who cleverly manipulates Henry Frankenstein into creating another reanimated human being. He is such a wonderfully funny and sinister person, someone who elicits fear and laughs due to his many vices and interactions with 'The Monster' (with Karloff arguably giving a finer performance in this film than the 1931 classic).

I love both of them for different reasons, with Frankenstein as probably the simpler and purer horror film, and Bride of Frankenstein as one which is probably deeper, with more humour, a more personal film for James Whale, and one which is blessed with a better score, make-up effects, production and art design, and camerawork than the original.