October Horror Movie Marathon

[trebor8273]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

What's the sequel like, guys?

I'll just add that i don't love Silent Hill. I found it a scare free shambolic mess.

Stear clear, not a patch on the first and if you didn't like the first you will more than likely hate the sequel

[MacBlayne]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

What's the sequel like, guys?.

Silent Hill: Revelation

Oh, no. Oh, no! OH, NO!

If Silent Hill was the equivalent of a beautiful flower, then Silent Hill: Revelation is the wormy manure underneath. Loosely based on the third game, Michael J. Bassett’s film (Christophe Gans presumably got tired of studio meddling and bailed) sees Sharon (Adelaide Clemens) all grown-up and heading to Silent Hill to find out her mysterious past. And then stuff happens. And more stuff happens. And then Malcolm McDowell shows up. And other stuff starts happening.

This film is a disgrace. Nobody will ever accuse Gans’ film of being a classic, but at least it was a film trying its very best. It was loaded with disturbing visuals and was captured by deliberately unwieldly camera in order to heighten the dread. Bassett, however, choses to film his atrocities in a very boring manner. The visuals are as pathetic as the monsters. Gans had charred infants and bugs with disturbing humanoid features populating his vision of Hell. Bassett has “creepy” clowns and people with their faces sewn up to scare the audience. It even transforms the infamous Pyramid Head, the nightmarish murderous rapist from Silent Hill 2, into a cuddly hero figure.

Silent Hill: Revelation is a calamity. An abysmal wreck. I don’t know what happened to Bassett here (he previously did the rather gorgeous Solomon Kane), but he delivered a train-wreck with this film. The only things going for it is Clemens' performance (she actually bothered to deliver one – more than what can be said of Kit Harrington), the soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka, and a rather well designed monster that can be best described as a spider made of mannequins. But even with its short running time, all this is not enough to redeem the film.

Avoid like the plague!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by MacBlayne

Silent Hill: Revelation


Avoid like the plague!

Fair enough!

[trebor8273]

Candyman. 9/10




Nightbreed directors cut 8.4/10

[Inspector Abberline]

The Wizard Of Gore (1970)

wizard_of_gore_poster_01.jpg


The Wizard Of Gore (1970)
Montag ,top hat wearing, moustached Magician does rather macabre magic tricks, that seemingly leaves the victim un-touched, until a few hours later then the results of Montag's magic soon come to fruition. Say what you like about H.G.Lewis low budget and low brow gore movie,but its story of a subliminal tricks being shown to UN-realising hypnotised audience is bizarre and quite unsettling at times. So its just a shame that Ray Sager (Montag) is such a bloody bad actor ,im surprised that when he decapitates himself at the start the film, the crew could tell the difference between him and his wooden looking severed head. Luckily the gorey magic tricks manage to divert some of the attention away from Mr Sager and his top hat tom foolery.And lets be honest here,Wizard is a demented blood feast,chainsaws,punch presses and any assortment of things are hammered and stuck into Montag's audience participation. If your a Lewis fan then you embrace all the weirdness and short cummings you expect from the godfather of gore. For example when the first victim falls down in the restaurant, why is there plastic sheets protecting the carpet? its as if they knew she would come in and spill her guts all over there clean floor. The cast is the usual amateur's draped in polyester and mini dresses all of whom give the best performance they can muster, but who watches a Lewis film for he acting? Montag The Magician now available for children's parties, please bring your own vomit bag,no refunds given.

[J Harker]

The Uninvited, 1944. Lewis Allen

I gave this charming old 40's ghost story a whirl the other night. Seemed like a good Halloween film.
Rick and his sister Pam, Londoners on holiday on the Cornish coast fall in love with Windward House a beautiful old abandoned clifftop mansion. Impulsively they track down the owner, a one Commander Beech who to their delight is more than happy to accept an offer well below the value of the property.
Of course not long after moving in the reasons for the Commanders eagerness to sell the place start to become apparent as Rick and Pam begin to encounter strange unexplained events and a woman sobbing at night.
Throw in a bit of romance between Rick and the Commanders beautiful granddaughter Stella who has her own interests in Windward and you have a classic old fashion old dark house movie which despite a few flaws is a delight and considering its age actually contains a few genuine chills.
Ray Milland is excellent as the somewhat roguish but very likeable Rick and I particularly enjoyed Alan Napier's (Alfred from 60's tv Batman) turn as local Doctor Scott.
Flaws? The film is about 20 mins too long I thought, and some pivotal plot details seem to be quite vague. From what I gather the 1942 novel Uneasy Freehold the film is adapted from contains some major subplots that have been dropped from the film version and I wonder if possibly extra scenes were filmed that didn't make the final cut.
Also the tone is a little too jolly at times, with Rick and his sister not seeming anywhere near as shaken up as they should be upon finding out there new home is haunted. The ghosts seem tone be acknowledged as little more than a 'darn nuisance my dear!'.
Still the film works well, the first time Rick hears sobbing in the night and stands atop the staircase calling to Pam only for her to emerge from the bedroom beside him is quite eerie as are some other scenes, the seance in particular. The Uninvited is a film well worth tracking down and perfect viewing the time of year.

[J Harker]

Killer Klowns From Outer Space. 1988.
The Chiodo Brothers.

Not much to say really. The title pretty much covers the wafer thin plot.
Alien clowns invade typical small-town USA.
Um...I liked it. But it's a bit bloody out there. Cool soundtrack.

[BAKA]

[17] Pigs
Marc Lawrence’s Pigs is one of those ‘70s films that succeed in setting a great atmosphere. The desolate, arid landscape and lack of characters gives an isolated and unsettled feeling. The music perfectly capturing the tone of the rural setting, and those squeals from the pigs are almost demonic. The script is surprisingly funny, the small town dynamics feeling satirised, the curtain-twitching neighbours, the vigilante mob and a bungling Sheriff who seems to believe grave robbing isn’t a crime, as the dead have no rights. The director also stars in the film as Zambrini, one brief delirious scene stealing the show as a cross between ringmaster and clown, with a waxy looking pointed nose that appears as if it’s melting. The director’s daughter, Toni Lawrence also stars, but it’s hard to tell whether she’s really good at portraying the disturbed nature of her character or just uneasy acting. It’s very much of its time but also anomalous, effortlessly entrancing during its short running time.



[18] Some Kind Of Hate
Adam Egypt Mortimer’s Some Kind Of Hate completely took me by surprise. I didn’t read reviews, but did check the general audience and critical metrics, and clearly I was in for a very average affair, which is par for the course for modern horror. I was completely unprepared for the provocative nature of the film, conceptually innovative, but thematically controversial, dealing with bullying, abuse, self-harm and suicide. I won’t spoil it, but the way the killer kills is ingenious for the subject matter, however many will likely find it in poor taste, and at one point, when self-harm gives way to pleasure, you feel the director may be overstepping the mark slightly. It’s very slow to unfurl, but when it does the ultra-violence feels more reminiscent of modern European horror than its US contemporaries. The score is magnificent, brimming with hate, superbly building dread. The film has a cynical, bleak heart, and the mixed reaction is understandable, but for me the despair resonated, and I found the moral and execution captivating, if a little grotesque.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

I like the sound of Some Kind of Hate, Baka.

The next 5 for £20 HMV dvd order i do i'll probably swoop on it.

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by bizarre_eye@Cult Labs

The Visit (2015)



What the absolute **** was this shit?!

As soon as this started (I knew pretty much nothing about this one going in except Shyamalan directed it, so was anticipating the inevitable twist), I was worried I'd put in the wrong disc in error. I assumed I'd been given two annoying kids' shot on camcorder amateur, meandering holiday video instead, but no, I was unfortunately not mistaken.

I almost turned it off when the annoying boy-kid started rapping but insanity prevailed. Annoying girl-kid also came across as a prissy, know-it-all little shit, so already I was hoping someone would die. And quickly. When they arrive at the grandparents' house none of this meandering twattiness lets up and instead we are introduced to two plainly overly bizarre caricatures - just so it hits home (like a sledgehammer) that this couple aren't quite 'right'. You're also treated to some granny-ass too. This is pretty much it, and you endure the camcorder capers in the build-up to the 'dramatic' ending that a blind, lobotomized goldfish could see coming a mile off and which is anti-climactic uninspiring nonsense - or perhaps I'd just given up caring / hoping characters would die by then.

When this finally ended, I was physically angry at myself for actually having watched this dreck... and I'm the first to admit that I watch a lot of dreck, and this very very very rarely happens to me where watcher's remorse is invoked and I feel the need to give my brain an enema to expel the very memory of this turgid garbage from my very being. The turd icing on this dense shit filled cake is the end-credit sequence of the annoying boy-kid rapping again - a final '**** you' from master film-troll Shyamalan.

I would say 'kill it with fire' but I wouldn't waste the matches.

Ha hahaha great review. Still think it's the funniest thing that I've seen since THC II.