What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Carrie (1976)

Brian De Palma's excellent treatment of Stephen King's first novel is a horror classic to this day.

A psychological study of mousy teenager Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) who begins to develop telekinetic powers with the onset of womanhood culminating in horrific vengeance when a macabre joke is played on her at the school prom in one of the iconic scenes in horror cinema.

There are a couple of cracking jump out of your seat moments and riveting tension builds up in the scenes between Carrie and her over powering religiously extreme mother (Piper Laurie). The grand finale is true Grand Guignol and the crucifixion scene unforgettable.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Live Feed (2006)

Ryan (Gutterballs) Nicholson's tale of five friends vacationing in China who end up in deep shit with a local crime syndicate who run a porn theatre.

Somehow this rather grotty torture porn film escaped the clutches of the BBFC uncut - I imagine the examiner dozed off during the first forty minutes of nothingness and woke up during the Kung-Fu style fight at the end without seeing the sleaze and extreme violence in between.

Very low budget in look (It was shot on video) which actually makes the violence probably more realistic, you know seeing as it's supposedly a live feed.

Nicholson does attempt to do more than simply create a low-fi Hostel rip off by adding a cop on the trail of the Yakuza gang sub plot which pays off in the end and is actually the most interesting part of the film.

The acting is by and large terrible but if you want blood...you've got it.

[iank]

Went to the cinema to see The First Omen this afternoon. Thought this was a bad idea from the start, but a bunch of critics practically orgasming over it persuaded me to give it a try. Big mistake. What a load of BS. Boring, trite, predictable, utterly lifeless, indistinguishable from every other supernatural demon movie we've had non-stop for the last 10-15 years, and can't even keep the continuity right with the movie it's supposed to be a prequel to. There was only one YT critic I follow who said it bored him to tears, with the rest apparently having had religious experiences. Utter garbage.
This is why I hate modern movies.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Blackwood (2014)

A college professor and his family move to the countryside following his emotional breakdown. It's not long before he starts seeing spectres and a local mystery might have some connection with his new home, Blackwood.

The story sets up many a possibility for the murder mystery at the heart of the film, seemingly involving a nifty Pagan style wood mask, Paul Kaye's vicar and local groundsman, Russell Tovey. However, come the end it turns out all the reasons and suspicions become a bit too much and the film seemingly gives up on the logical ideas labeling them red herrings that ultimately go nowhere, bringing us right back to the professors deep psychological issues for the finale. A finale i might add that is nicely gripping.

Blackwood ends up as a film with a lot of promise, it has a good cast including Sophia Myles and Greg Wise but falters badly with me because Ed Stoppard's professor is just so damn unlikable.

[MrBarlow]

Anguish. 1987.

We have Michael Lerner, a optician of some sorts having a telepathic link with his little old mother Zelda Rubinstein and goes on a killing spree, then we shift to a movie theatre where the patrons watching a movie become targeted by a killer.

With me so far? yes we have a movie within a movie in this one, it doesn't seem much but once the other story kicks in the atmosphere and tension is kicked up to a bigger notch. The acting is a bit on the naff side at times but the film itself does provide a lot of entertainment and then it gives us another curve ball with a extra twist to the film. The director did what he could with the film on the gore and blood count considering he was given a small budget and went with it.

This one I have watched but never managed to watch it all the way through and glad i came back to it.

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[MrBarlow]

Megan Is Missing. 2011.

14 year old Megan is kidnapped and her video footage is shown with her last days alive along with her best friend Amy.

I heard this was a disturbing movie, 3/4s of the movie is basically like a video diary and possibly warning sign of internet chat with someone who claims to have no camera due to it being broken then shifting from one excuse to another, a small red flag. Then to the news feed that a young girl is missing and her best friend trying to help and gets set upon by 2 girls who are seen upset, then when the friend disappears it becomes a nightmare.

This is every parents worst nightmare that a child goes missing and nothing is never really known about their demise, in this we see the last 22-24 minutes of sadistic torture that can make any parent feel uneasy and how a warped mind can work. The two main leads Rachel Quinn and Amber Perkins did a great job on this, not sure if i'd return to this one or not.

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[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Mist (2007)

Based on a Stephen King novella this follows Thomas Jane and his son and other members of the small town in Maine,(Where else?) who, following a severe storm that causes the power to go out the night before, meet in a supermarket to pick up supplies. While there an unnatural mist envelops the town. A mist which conceals Lovecraftian like monsters as tensions rise among the survivors.

Director Frank Darabont had huge success with his previous King adaptations, namely The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and 99's The Green Mile, however i don't think this works as well.

The creatures, what you see of them, look great. Many tentacled, maybe octopus like, as well as horribly large flying bug type creatures. Darabont mainly keeps them off screen but there are enough of them during some effective set pieces to maintain tension and certainly enough gory delights to enjoy. However it's less a monster movie and more a study of human psyche when shit hits the fan.

The captive townsfolk soon split into factions. Those following Jane have a more hands on resourceful approach to their terrifying predicament whilst others rally round Marcia Gay Harden. A Christian extremist preaching Gods will to all those who'll listen - a lot as it happens. As such much of the movie plays out like a study of religious fanaticism and all the hell, fire and brimstone excesses of Harden grew tiring very quickly.

On the whole though The Mist is a success thanks to it's claustrophobic setting, a committed ensemble cast including Toby Jones and William Sadler and a brilliant downbeat ending.

[MuckyFunster]

Has anyone seen ?Hitler : Rise of Evil??

Currently streaming on Netflix, it?s is a two parter each being roughly 90 minutes.

Scottish Robert Carlisle plays Hitler with an English accent. The other cast members play the various characters in their own native accents (as far as I know) so Liev Schreiber and Matthew Modine play Germans with American accents and Peter O?Toole plays a German with proper classically trained English annunciation.

It?s a good wee film but it kept putting me in mind of those ?Monkey Dust? pieces where they had ?hollywood? ruining things with Americanisms, like ?Goddamn that motherf*cking Hitler son of a bitch? I?m sure Monkey Dust had a WW2 bit like this but YouTube yielded no results.




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[nicholasrope]

Godzilla X Kong: New Empire

Godzilla is still trashing Earth and is resting in the Coliseum and Kong is still in his world but comes across a secret society of Apes who want to take over. It's not bad but it's just the same as the others really. It also felt like I was watching the new Planet Of The Apes Movie at times. Just wish there was more story progression, however it is a decent way to spend time..

Ruthless People

Danny DeVito plays a man who is planning to kill his Wife, played by Bette Midler. However before he can, she is kidnapped by incompetent, Judge Reinhold and Helen Slater. BTW, his Mistress wants to blackmail him with her idiot Boyfriend (Bill Pullman) lot's of miscommunication and mishaps occur.

OMG, I haven't seen this before and had the DVD for ages and I'm trying to work out why I never watched it before today. IT'S ABSLOUTELY HILARIOUS, everybody is suitably casted and had a whale of a time. There are so many funny moments from DeVito's reaction and smile when he realizes that somebody is about to do him a huge favor, Middler ridiculing her Kidnappers, DeVito's battle with a Dog, a Mugger who stumbles in a Police Sting and Pullman's reaction when he realizes that Policemen are at a ransom drop, when he's trying to steal the money.

I thought that seeing it's a 1986 Film, it would be outdated, it's not.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Sightseers (2012)

Ben Wheatley's blackly comic tale about a Midlands couple of who set off on a caravanning holiday into the Yorkshire Dales. What begins as an erotic adventure for her (Alice Lowe) and a tourist trip for him (Steve Oram) takes a turn for the deadly when Oram notices very quickly that other tourists simply refuse to follow the country code.

The wicked streak of humour combines with British eccentricities and a torrent of shifting moods to form an effortlessly entertaining bloody road trip / killing spree that begins at the National Tramway Museum in Derbyshire and ends in shocking fashion at the Ribblehead Viaduct just north of Skipton in the Dales.

Recommended if you've never seen it.