What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Gojirosan]

Children Of The Corn II Final Sacrifice

In some technical ways this is better made than the first film in the series, with more polished camerawork, more energetic acting and a superb opening couple of sequences showing the uncovering and reporting of the mass murder of Gatlin's adults. But then the story loses its way. There is no real focus, just another creepy kid preaching, some clunky insertion of Native American mythology, an unnecessarily protracted sex scene and some toe-curling teen romance. The scenes of the kids rising up against the adults are pretty well handled (though there is an absurd "death by house" that seems to be there just because they could) and there are some nice tongue-in-cheek moments with stock characters (mental priest, patronising doctor, mad old women etc).

Not a very good film, but not the complete disaster it might have been, I certainly found myself enjoying as at least as much as berating it! Anchor Bay's disk is superb, offering the original 4:3 print and the matted 16:9 (anamorphic) that ended up in the cinemas (presumably to the surprise of the film-makers!) with great picture and sound quality. There is a commentary track too and a few other odds and sods.

Children Of The Corn III Urban Harvest

Another mixed bag. A more promising story involving the adoption of one of the Children Of The Corn by an urban Chicago family. The change in setting from rural Nebraska is a fine idea and from this fine idea the film-makers chose to make one of the most ridiculous films I have seen in a while!

Preposterousness is the name of the game here, a truly riotous tale of often hilarious proportions. There are times when you wonder if they were intentionally trying to get this film on Mystery Science Theater or something! Within this cheesiness there are a few moments of genuine horror - helped no end by some sincere performances - but you end up a bit dizzy wondering which way the film is going to go...well...it goes the only way it could...full-on nonsense with a plastic model and doll laden effects finale the like of which Ed Wood could only dream of!

Yes, we finally come face to face with He Who Walks Behind The Rows, eschewing the red clouds and lightning of the previous films we get a full on rubber monster! It's...well....a mess! There seems to have been no coherent design put into it, just a half corn plant half toothy thing with all kinds of appendages. It's like something Lovecraft might have come up with on a Friday afternoon after a lunchtime piss-up.

This absurd ending changes the film from "meh" to "oh my God did they really do that". It becomes an instant camp classic and you immediately start planning when you can show your friends this wonder of cinematic absurdity.

Once again, Anchor Bay have presented this odd film brilliantly with matted and unmatted, commentary etc etc.

A terrible film but with moments, then an ending that everyone should see. I recommend this heartily but with my tongue squirming in my cheek!

[vincenzo]

Mother's Day

Frenetic and the very definition of exploitation (complete with terrible acting) but still entertaining in a visceral way. The ending is exceptionally manic.

Hasn't seen an official light of day in the UK since its cinema rejection. Long overdue for one.

[Gojirosan]

Originally Posted by vincenzo

Mother's Day

Frenetic and the very definition of exploitation (complete with terrible acting) but still entertaining in a visceral way. The ending is exceptionally manic.

Hasn't seen an official light of day in the UK since its cinema rejection. Long overdue for one.

Definitely. Watched this again a few months back and remained impressed by it. Some of it is a bit vicious, but it would surely be let through uncut now? It's one of those films that I feel accomplished more than they even intended to accomplish. It just works.

[vincenzo]

Yes it's absolutely daft as a brush but it still has an impact (a bit like the bedroom pillow really).

Wouldn't have any BBFC problems today.

[42ndStreetFreak]

Originally Posted by vincenzo

Mother's Day

Frenetic and the very definition of exploitation (complete with terrible acting) but still entertaining in a visceral way. The ending is exceptionally manic.

Hasn't seen an official light of day in the UK since its cinema rejection. Long overdue for one.

Yeah, the ending is surprisingly hard and deadly serious as well. Some of the more goofy 'Troma' type humour works less well than the times this plays it straight.

A remake is on the way too I think....meh.

[vincenzo]

Originally Posted by 42ndStreetFreak

Yeah, the ending is surprisingly hard and deadly serious as well.

Comes completely out of centre field too. Much of the film is almost bordering on (the blackest of the) black comedy, which lessens the film for me.

A remake is about as necessary and useful as a chocolate teapot.

[iluvdvds@Cult Labs]

Watched The Card Player last night and really enjoyed it. Not as gory as I was hoping but featured some very nice suspense moments.

[Gojirosan]

Manhattan Baby

First off, congratulations to Shameless for their presentation of this film. It was barely recognisable as the same picture I owned on VHS as The Possessed.

In many ways this is Fulci doing what Fulci did best: dream-like surrealism, broken logic, the pressing in of a powerful, fear-inducing outer evil (which he borrowed wholesale from HP Lovecraft, as many others have!)- all photographed beautifully with a Fabio Frizzi soundtrack...

...but this is all achieved to a lesser degree than in The Beyond or City Of The Living Dead, say. The Frizzi score is mostly recycled from previous Frizzi scores for Fulci's preceeding films, there is no real sense of focus to the evil and its intents and the performances are not up to the standard seen in the prior films ("Martha Taylor" is no Catriona MacColl and "Laurence Welles" mugs and feasts on scenery until you can barely bear his scenes).

Yet, the beautiful cinematography is there and the scenes of oneiric weirdness and horror are pulled off with aplomb, and the Egyptology angle makes a nice change from the Roman Catholic view of possession and Good vs Evil and so it is all worth seeing as "nearly but not quite" Fulci. If nothing else it looks fantastic, and I suppose Lucio Fulci's take on The Exorcist is always going to be interesting!

It's also interesting to see how often New York looks just like New Orleans...hmmmm...

So, I hope I haven't sounded too harsh on a film that I really did quite like. It's just it had a lot to live up to. And when it comes down to it, my main issue it not the film itself but that horrible, horrible, hateful title! Why "Manhattan Baby"? OK, so it is presumably meant to evoke Rosemary's Baby (along with the naming of a character "Adrian Marcato"), but it is a clumsy, ugly way of doing so. It is a ghastly title that has nothing to do with the film and was - in my opinion - a huge mistake. I don't know what the film was originally written as in Italian, but most of the alternative release titles are to do with the ancient concept of the Evil Eye or Malocchio, which makes far more sense!

I have just noticed that I have been rather overdoing the "Evil Kids" subgenre lately!

[pedromonkey]

watched Dead End Drive-In last night, wow that was a fun film. Reminded me of Class of 1984 and Def-con 4, very cool, i can't believe that Brian Tremchard Smith made this and Turkey Shoot and BMX Bandits, random.

[Gojirosan]

Ironmaster

Well this was a surprise! I was expecting this to be a dreadful but fun sword'n'sorcery thing kind of Umberto Lenzi's version of Conan The Barbarian or Conquest or something. But in some ways it is more like Quest For Fire...if a tacky, pulp version thereof!

It tells of advanced Stone Age tribes whose universe changes when the evil banished member (George Eastman) accidentally discovers iron in the form of a roughly sword shaped slab of the metal formed by a volcanic eruption. With this new wonder weapon he sets about conquering the lands and tribes therein, This advance in materials technology has profound effects until the brain of the protagonist comes up with a riposte...missile technology (ie the bow and arrow!)...

Anyhow, it is really very well done for '80s Lenzi and remains gripping throughout. It is not going to win any awards for anthropological correctness which is good as it means there are ape-men also involved - with quite astonishly excellent make-up/costume design. Some cave dwellers carrying leprosy or similar provide Lenzi with an opportunity to indulge in his favoured "zombies that aren't really zombies" schtick. Again the make-up on these folk is very good, indeed gore and wound effects are pretty fine throughout.

So, I liked this film, Indeed, I think it may well be my favourite '80s Lenzi flick - that I have yet seen, of course. I am fairly sure that this is not available on DVD (I watched a copy of a panned and scanned VHS print), which is a shame. The depiction and treatment of animals during the film might also mean that any UK release would have to be cut...that is, in the unlikely event of a revival of interest in musclebound sword-waving epics!