What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

Korloff as the narrator is amazing even at the start but his face at the window certainly very haunting.

Who on earth is Korloff?

Sorry but i wasn't let you get away with that one.

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Who on earth is Korloff?

Sorry but i wasn't let you get away with that one.

Karloff, one of those days for spelling mistakes.

[MrBarlow]

Falcon Rising. 2014.

A former marine suffering PTSD travels to Brazil to find the perpetrators who attacked his sister and left her for dead.

I went into this one not expecting much as the plot is something we have seen before but it does deliver some decent acting especially from Michael Jai White as the former marine on the brink of life and death and is given a reason to keep living after his sister's beating. Neal McDonough plays the government agent from the American Embassy based in Brazil and delivers his acting as a good guy for a change and manages to make friends and enemies. This does seem to have stock footage of the South American country but certainly worth a watch.

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[Frankie Teardrop]

SMILE – The corrective to a contagious laugh, this ‘smile’, which doesn’t look very friendly at all by the way, is passed from person to person when one witnesses the suicide of the other. An A&E psych doc with a traumatic past tries to get to the bottom of it. As many others have noted, it leans heavily on J-horror tropes and the vibe of all those jump-scare driven post-‘Insidious’ spookers from ten years back, but it’s well put together and worth a punt.

MANIAC DRIVER – A self-proclaimed giallo homage, but you can forget about black gloves and mysteries, this is basically just a dude in a taxi who goes around philosophising about how bleak life is. I admit, life is pretty bleak if you’re one of his passengers as you’ll probably end up with your boobs out plus or minus being decapitated by a garage door (!), so it’s not all a delicate paean to Travis Bickle. In fact there’s lots of filtered lighting and some obvious nods to ‘Strip Nude For Your Killer and the sleazier end of that stuff so yeah, ‘giallo’, why not. Creeped out, scuzzy and, despite the short run time, hypnotically languid. I liked it, maybe not as much as ‘Gun Woman’.

NIGHTMARE AT NOON – I’m such a ‘Nightmare At Noon’ nerd, I have the original cheapshit UK DVD (which looked really good if I remember), the Scream Factory Blu ray and now this new Arrow version, very rare I double dip. I must say that the Arrow video looks the best of the lot. As for the movie, I’m slightly less hot on it these days but it still inspires the odd quiver; I think any movie that crams Bo Hopkins, George Kennedy and Brion James inside the same desert town as Wings f*cking Hauser deserves some kind of medal. For the unanointed, it’s a bone-headed retread of ‘The Crazies’ (or maybe ‘Mutant’) decked out with western references and just loads of stupidity. Trashy fun, and one of two Mastorakis movies I really rate.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

NIGHTMARE AT NOON – I’m such a ‘Nightmare At Noon’ nerd, I have the original cheapshit UK DVD (which looked really good if I remember), the Scream Factory Blu ray and now this new Arrow version, very rare I double dip. I must say that the Arrow video looks the best of the lot. As for the movie, I’m slightly less hot on it these days but it still inspires the odd quiver; I think any movie that crams Bo Hopkins, George Kennedy and Brion James inside the same desert town as Wings f*cking Hauser deserves some kind of medal. For the unanointed, it’s a bone-headed retread of ‘The Crazies’ (or maybe ‘Mutant’) decked out with western references and just loads of stupidity. Trashy fun, and one of two Mastorakis movies I really rate.

I too rate this. I'll get the Arrow Blu but not yet as i only rewatched said cheapshit UK dvd a few months back (Yes it did look really good - All the Mastorakis films on Hollywood dvd looked really impressive.) Nice write up on it by the way.

Go on. I have to ask. Which is the other then?

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I too rate this. I'll get the Arrow Blu but not yet as i only rewatched said cheapshit UK dvd a few months back (Yes it did look really good - All the Mastorakis films on Hollywood dvd looked really impressive.) Nice write up on it by the way.

Go on. I have to ask. Which is the other then?

Oh, 'Island Of Death', obviously! I find him a bit uninspiring apart from those two. A couple of the others are OK, 'Zero Boys' etc.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

Oh, 'Island Of Death', obviously! I find him a bit uninspiring apart from those two. A couple of the others are OK, 'Zero Boys' etc.

Got to admit i've enjoyed all the Mastorakis films i've seen so far. Island of Death, Blood Tide, Blind Date, Zero Boys, The Wind, Nightmare at Noon and the dodgy but still amusing Hired to Kill.

I have Death Has Blue Eyes but yet to watch it.

None of them are great films as such but they entertain me.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Got to admit i've enjoyed all the Mastorakis films i've seen so far. Island of Death, Blood Tide, Blind Date, Zero Boys, The Wind, Nightmare at Noon and the dodgy but still amusing Hired to Kill.

I have Death Has Blue Eyes but yet to watch it.

None of them are great films as such but they entertain me.

Actually yeah, 'Blood Tide' I really liked, despite it being almost universally panned. It was quite atmospheric - he brought that out in 'The Wind', too, one which I really liked at first but then found myself a bit bored by when I had a re-watch back in November, despite all the nice night time scenes with that gale blowing about. Still, at least it had crazy Wings in it. All the others though, I just find them fairly enjoyable if a bit pedestrian, and certainly never full-on 'yay', which is I guess one of the perils of unconsciously wanting him to deliver another attention-grabber like 'Island Of Death'.

[MrBarlow]

Possession. 1981.

A woman exhibits strange behaviour after asking her husband for a divorce.

What starts as a every day life, man comes home from overseas work, wife asks for a divorce, husband speculates a marital affair, confronts the alleged man only to be told they haven't seen each other in a while then begins a a dark psychological rollercoaster ride that never gets boring.

Sam Neil and Isabelle Adjani play the couple in despair and both main leads give out a truly haunting performance, Neil's acting shows how to be a troubled lead actor especially when trying to find answers about his wife's infedility. Adjani does steal the show with her performance especially in the ballet class with he pupil and the unforgettable underground subway scene.

Zulawski's camera work is amazing from the outside on the streets of Berlin as he shows the landscapes and tries to keep things continuous especially when the actors are either walking and running. As the movie goes on we are shown close ups of everyone and tries to show fear and a slow decent into insanity at the same time right up to the end that gives you the WTF have I just watched feeling.

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Shudder have advertised the trailer on YT, so this may appear on there but unsure if it be availble in the U.K. or just the U.S.

[MrBarlow]

A Bell From Hell. 1973.

A man released from a mental asylum is handed into the care of his aunt and her daughter's and try to drive him insane so they can get his inheritance, only for him to turn the tables on them.

A somewhat obscure Spanish psychological horror, that can also be a slow burner at times but can't fault the creators trying to attempt pull something off. Viveca Lindfords plays the greedy jealous crippled aunt intending to keep nephew Renaud Verley locked up in order to get the family fortune.

Part of the scenery and most is set in a gothic style mansion that can be at times shrouded in fog and low light can make the perfect place to try and attempt to drive someone crazy only for the film to have twists and turns in the last act that is played out well. Think this one will be re-watched again at some point soon.

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