I quite liked it in some respects. Much better than the tepid [REC] 4: Apocalypse.

I didn't even know there was a fourth installment. I shan't be bothering with it. :lol:

I didn't even bother with the second film.

The second film is up there with the first in my opinion and is more of a direct sequel in the vein of Halloween II etc. where it follows straight on from the first within the same locale. The third is completely different in as much as it shifts location and even ditches the shaky-cam style... I did kind of like it though. The fourth is pretty ropey and takes place on a boat.

Often i will rewatch a film i didn't like to see if i missed something. I think I'll be giving The Babadook another whirl for the opposite reason. I loved it and I'm now wondering why its getting so mucb flack. Particularly puzzling is i swear when it came out it had at least a dozen gushing reviews on this very forum.
Oh and New Nightmare is crap and the little arsewart of a kid in it is far more irritating than the sprog in Babadook.[emoji38]

I really like the first two films in the Rec series, the third was watchable and entertaining but not as good and they abandoned the camera gimmick.

The fourth i remember thinking was watchable but didn't amount to much, so much so that i can't actually remember much of it at all. :pop2:

More shark action tonight with

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Watch out for the review later.

I watched Rec & Rec 2 as a double bill and loved em, if you can watch both back to back I would advise you to, really good fun. As for tonight's ABUKtober...

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Film No.6

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A Tsunami hits a coastal town in Australia and traps the customers of a supermarket in the store but not only is the water rising great white shark has managed to make its way in with the water

The first scene of the film and we are off to a bad start the CGI is absolutely terrible why i am surprised is beyond me. The acting is syfy channel bad and no matter how hard they try and make you care about the characters you honestly just dont give two shits about any of them. As if things are not bad enough they dress one guy up in shopping baskets and bean tins to make him sink to the bottom to turn off the electricity before the water hits the exposed electric cables and the shark just brushes past him maybe taking pity on the poor asshole for volunteering for just a stupid stunt. I was not expecting too much but i did expect to have some fun with this one but it was horrendous all the emotional moments were just painful to watch because there was no emotion just people talking and not feeling anything. There are moments where the shark is a physical prop but more often than not is bad CGI.

Not recommended at all it gets a

2/10

Just gets the 2 because i enjoyed watching annoying people get munched but thats the only good side of the dud.

When i saw you were watching Bait i cringed and hoped you enjoyed it more than i did.

However you didn't. :lol:

I only watched this as Russell Mulcahy was meant to direct. Not sure whether he saw the writing on the wall and bailed, or if he was forced out.

Either way, I thought this was a dud too. Good idea. Lousy execution.

Thats a perfect review :)

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

Having watched the uncut region 1 dvd late Saturday night (I didn't bother with a review as i've done one in the past and you all know if you like it or not) i decided to watch the old UK Sanctuary dvd which has minor cuts to violence which whilst annoying is more than made up for by the highly informative and entertaining commentary from horror experts Stephen Jones and Kim Newman.

Some of the things i picked up on which will enhance my next viewing went into detail about the background of the film.

British science fiction writer Nigel Kneale wrote the first script and there's a lot of his treatment visible. From the irritating Halloween song to the tune of London Bridge is Falling Down to the absurdities of the Stonehenge elements which are typical Kneale and reminiscent of his television mini series Quatermass (1979) before turning into an Invasion of the Body Snatchers clone in the final third. Which begs the question at which point did Stacy Nelkin become a robot?

The dynamic duo also tell why it's called Halloween III. It's not due to it being the third film as it's in no way connected to the previous entries, the III signifies the number of mask styles being produced by the Silver Shamrock company.

I guess it helps for chat tracks like this when the two talking were both close friends of Nigel Kneale.

Oddly Newman and Jones also destroy the Blade Runner - Deckard is a replicant - theory. Deckard is definitely not a replicant. Stacy Nelkin was originally cast as the final replicant but was cut before filming began due to budgetary reasons.

On the Scream Factory commentary with Tommy Lee Wallace, he says that when Carpenter saw that scene go on and on, he laughed and told Wallace that he should have had the headless robot chase Tom Atkins all the way.

I'd love to tell Carpenter that. I imagine his eyes would roll faster than a slot machine.

Black Death (2010)

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Before watching Black Death, Christopher Smith was either a hit or miss director with me.

Creep I found to be derivative nonsense, whilst Triangle a work of art which gave me chills - and still continues to do so on re-watches. Black Death sits somewhere more towards the Creep end of the Spectrum unfortunately.

I would have expected a film about the bubonic plague and witchcraft to be both more plague-y and witch-y, although I am a little bit of a sucker for medieval tales with horror-ish undertones, so with that in mind I did take to the overall aesthetic quite nicely.

However, the bitter pill to swallow in this for me is not only the lack of witchiness but the puritan nature that the film is put across. Our 'heroes' (read: mercenaries and a monk) being nothing more than tools of the church and the villagers who have used 'magic' (read: medicinal techniques) to be free of plague along with keeping outsiders at bay who may aid to spread the disease being painted as ignorant savage cultists. The plague-spreading mercenaries on the other hand who blindly follow their god are cast in a more just light and whom we are encouraged to feel empathy for. Perhaps the point in some ways, but the tone was just a little too 'off' for me to ignore... that and the ending (which I won't spoil) does leave a bit of a nasty aftertaste. Luckily I had some witches' brew on hand to wash it away.

41/100

Again it's all from Nigel Kneale, the info that is. I'm sure Carpenter has listened to the commentary anyway.

There was an idea floating round it pre production that this film would be the start of a new series all offering brand new unconnected stories but under the Halloween banner.

I thought the whole thing was way too pessimistic and downbeat.

I loved this film. A frightening portrayal of the hate that religion can inspire.

To The Devil a Daughter (1976)

Christopher Lee plays a defrocked, devil-worshipping Catholic priest who convinces a man (Denholm Elliott) to sign over his daughter (Nastassja Kinski) so she will become the devils' representative on earth on her 18th birthday. As the time draws near the two become locked in a deadly battle over possession of the innocent girl's soul.

The final horror film from the studio that dripped blood. To The Devil a Daughter is one of Hammer's unsung great films. Based on a Dennis Wheatley novel, as was 1968's The Devil Rides Out* also starring Lee but this time as the heroic Duc de Richleau rather than the worshipper of the occult he portrays here.

As with The Devil Rides Out, To the Devil a Daughter has strong occult influences, but this films modern day setting takes it out of any fantasy story and as with The Exorcist (1973) and The Omen (1976) the contemporary setting makes it all the more believable and indeed terrifying. Unusually for Hammer the film sports strong gore and is often unsettling, - see the sequence of the hallucinating Catherine running across Tower Bridge - as well as sexual scenes in a satanic orgy meaning for once the 18 certificate or X as it was back in the 70's is just as relevant now.

The film sports a fine cast. Joining Lee, who exudes true malevolent evil, and Elliott are American legend Richard Widmark who's fine performance steal the film from under Lee's nose, and former Avenger Honor Blackman as well as Colditz star Anthony Valentine. Also appearing in one scene is Brian Wilde, best known as Foggy from Last of the Summer Wine, acting out a scene with Richard Widmark was definitely something to tell the grand kids about.

To tie in nicely with watching it in October, the film is set during the run up to All Hallows Eve when the satanic ritual will take place. The final showdown between Lee and Widmark is unfortunately a bit of a let down and it passes by in a blur of wildly coloured film stock, however there's plenty of occult nastiness before hand to make up for it including a naked Lee (probably a stand in) taking the virginal Catherine on the altar and a frankly disgusting sequence with a demonic baby literally giving her head. These sequences are genuinely grim and should have inspired Hammer's direction into the 80's but alas it was not to be.

To the Devil a Daughter is one of those films that gets better and better the more times i watch it.


*Wheatley's story Uncharted Seas was also adapted by Hammer but wasn't a horror film.

[QUOTE=Demdike@Cult Labs[/QUOTE]

"Blade Runner - Deckard is a replicant - theory. Deckard is definitely not a replicant."

In all the versions of BR I've seen he certainly IS a replicant IMHO (which is why the 'narration' in the original version seemed so daft) the origami clue is a blatant pointer as is the final "She won't live, But then again who does?" line at the end...

And ponder on this, as I recall you never see any children in the film either, so maybe all but the very, very wealthy have been replaced by replicants so the workforce of the world is now just robots who's 4 year lifespan is short enough that they expire before gaining awareness and are simply replaced, which is why a rouge like Batty is so dangerous and could bring the whole scheme and what's left of the human race to an end. Even if that's tosh I still prefer Deckard as a replicant... :thankingyou:

Except the original release of course where he clearly isn't a replicant.;)

You misinterpret my post possibly. The commentary in question was referring to pre-production not the various versions since.

Besides both Harrison Ford and author Philip K Dick said he was human.

:focus:

Ring of Darkness (Un ombra nell'ombra) (1979)

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Parenting 101: You only really have yourself to blame when your once loving, polite, well-mannered offspring starts showing signs of being possessed if you, yourself have engaged in a tryst with Lucifer.

Still, that doesn't prevent Carlotta Rhodes expressing shock and surprise when her daughter starts upsetting the status quo at home and at school, having frequent strops, throwing stuff about and maiming her class-mates and killing her teachers.

Perhaps a victim of the dubbing, but our dear little Daria is a far cry from The Omen's Damien or The Exorcist's Reagan (which are the film's main reference points); there's no big evil dogs, soiling of carpets, head-swivelling projectile-vomiting madness or cross-masturbation. She is instead, to be quite frank, a bit of an annoying brat (she'll surely be going to hell for knocking all those things off tables all the time though!...). She does channel a Damien vibe on occasions, exhibiting a cold, calculated calmness and driving people to madness, fear and suicide with her penetrating gaze and good manners - more of a case of "your mother sups tea in hell" than "sucks cocks". She is also someone you don’t want to get too close to as evidenced when she burns her hand-print into a class-mates chest.

The main pluses for me here were the sumptuous Stelvio Cipriani/Claudio Simonetti score and a final act that builds in some delightful witchiness, chanting, and choppy editing, which together kind of make up for some of the (at times) sluggish nature and teenage angst of the preceding events. You also can't fail to escape the vein of icy menace which runs throughout this one, which only aids to captivate.

57/100

The Purge: Anarchy (2014)

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Having only recently watched the first installment in The Purge franchise (I guess I can call it a franchise now we have three films with a talked about potential fourth on the way...) my body and mind were indeed purged and gleefully ready for this more mayhem filled open-environment based sequel what with having enjoyed the original one a great deal.

Whilst the budget was a step up on this one I'm still torn as to whether I actually prefer the sequel or the original, as whilst the original was bound by the constraints of the environment and therefore didn't really show a great deal of 'purging' taking place, in some ways I feel like this was it's strength as it not only provided for a slicker, more polished film in many respects, but also a more tense, suspense driven one too. However, the sequel does provide us with a broader cross-section of characters, government agendas, articulated trucks with mini-gun attachments, and all manner of creatures of the night sporting various garb and equipped with a multitude of weaponry, as well as rich white people clubs who auction off civilians to 'hunt' during The Purge... and whilst there's indeed a lot going on it still manages to stay fairly lean and on-point despite wobbling a little towards the end.

Now all that there is to say is bring on 'Election Year' - my body and mind have been purged and are ready!

66/100

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)

A title and concept which is probably works far better in your head than what we actually get on screen.

Yes the 8th Friday the 13th film is a bit of a let down. The idea of our favourite masked serial killer stalking the folks of Times Square is an idea of pure genius but we only get to see it for a minute at most, in fact Jason Vorhees only reaches the city that never sleeps in the final half hour and even then spends his time skulking round the docks. The only memorable sequences involve Jason and some punk kids with their ghetto blaster and the maniac on a subway train.


I'm sure you've all seen this a number of times and don't need me to go into much detail, only that Jason spends the majority of the film stalking high school graduates on a ship on passage to New York. One or two of the kills are nicely done - shower girl for one - but the rest are largely tame and uninspired.

I do like the film but in the long running series it surely ranks quite low down in the thrills stakes due to it's by the number direction which fails to create much suspense and the lack of the 'chi chi chi ka ka ka' motif as Jason stalks his victims.

Average at best but still quite watchable.

The Wormwood Star (1956)

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Experimental short film from Curtis Harrington on occultist and painter Marjorie 'Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome' Cameron.

Watch it here.

This needs no introduction, tho that cover is appalling:lol::lol:
ABUKtober weekend kicks off...

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Witchcraft (1964)

When her grave is disturbed by land developers, a 300-year-old witch is accidentally resurrected and terrorizes the descendants of those who destroyed her coven and buried her alive.

Starring the great Lon Chaney Jr as modern day warlock Morgan Whitlock and Colditz star Jack Hedley as the head of the development company, the film has a lot of potential, however a less than legendary performance from Chaney, who director Don Sharp says could only film in a morning due to his daily consumption of a bottle or two of vodka whilst filming, means it's all a bit of a minor piece when it could have been so much better.

Yvette Rees who plays the resurrected witch, Vanessa Whitlock, gives quite a memorable if wordless performance, her icy presence giving her scenes a lovely tinge of Gothic horror especially when appearing in the bedroom of Hedley's daughter. The film has a couple of terrific set pieces including a couple of possessed or spellbound car journeys that result in tragedy but overall Witchcraft is let down by the script and Sharpe's direction that generates little in the way of overall suspense.

Midnight Offerings (1981)

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Kind of like an odd precursor to The Craft in many ways, Midnight Offerings pitches actresses from The Little House on the Prairie and The Waltons of all things against each other in the form of two dueling high-school witches, who just happen to be involved with the same guy.

More of a curio than anything, and despite its premise, the film comes across as more serious than you'd expect with some grisly deaths, including a teacher getting killed in a car explosion.

55/100

Ridley Scott said he's a replicant. :nod:

But, I do think Blade Runner is a film that asks you to draw your own conclusions. I think he's a replicant myself as it suits the paranoia theme of the story.

bride of godzilla
 

Godzilla vs Biollante (1989)

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Im putting the MONSTER back into Halloween... See ghosts and the supernatural are all well and good but I mean what's the worst a ghost can do? slam a door, wave a bedsheet at you. And as for masked serial killers, PAH when was the last time you heard of anyone being murdered wearing a hockey mask and waving a machete around. But I am more than happy to believe that one day , we will unearth a prehistoric monster from its ice age tomb or perhaps a volcano may erupt and spew out a Diplodocus who will rampage threw granddads allotment to chew on his prize marrow, these are feasible things that could happen, never global warning the monsters are coming.!!! Any how there's lots of talk about saving the semen of all the brainiest (um I thought this was a kids film) and managing to save some cells from Godzilla ( who is imprisoned inside Mount Mihara ) .There is also a subplot in there some where as well, involving genetics and saving the Sahara desert ??? but who the hell cares just bring on the fighting monsters. When the action does get under way its pure old school kick ass monster wrestling, Biollante in some respects looks quite a lot like some of the incarnations of the alien from the The Thing, tentacles with snapping jaws on the end and a rose for a head? But its no match for radiation loving Godzilla. Plot wise there is so much going on I felt my brain was hurting from radiation emitting monster's, but I really loved the effects and Godzilla was looking pretty good here especially his heat emitting eyes and mouth shooting radiation everywhere. And we have the usual city stomping as Osaka gets a damn good flatening,while the military run around a lot seemingly looking lost,but what's this is that a Thunderbird I can see in the sky? no someone better phone lawyers, anyhow its pretty useless against Godzilla. But lets not right off Biollante just yet , as it is an ever evolving creature, and in round two he looks like a fat crocodile crossed with some broccoli .Overall a very enjoyable film,. Maybe a bit over long, there certainly was some dialogue that could of been easily trimmed.


Bride Of Frankenstein. (1935)

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Out of all the Universal Monster movies BRIDE is my up-most favourite. When Boris Karloff first appears out of the walls of the underground chamber he had fallen into (as opposed to being burnt alive) , its such a marvellous reveal, Karloff looks fantastic as the monster. The other major character in Bride is the wonderfully camp Doctor Septimus Pretorius ( played by the rather flamboyant Ernest Thesiger ),who with his rather blasphemous experiments, can create life by growing as nature does with seeds. Pretourius convinces Dr Frankenstein (Colin Clive) that they must create a mate for the monster. Of course no Universal monster movie is without its baying crowds of villager's brandishing pitchforks and torches, and when the villagers finally capture the monster, you do feel pity for him as he looks mightily sorry for himself all trussed up. But they can not hold him for long, as he breaks free from his chains and starts throwing the locals around like rag dolls. What Karloff manages to achieve under that make-up is sympathy for his character,with no dialogue as such,( Alone Bad, friend good) he creates a simple but child like character just through some rather marvellous acting, and the odd growl. If the segment between Karloff and the blind man does not warm the cockles of your heart then your probably a moderator on a forum some where. The monster's longing for a mate and his pitiful plight is only exasperated by the two creatures encountering each other and what must class as the worlds worst first date ever. That said Elsa Lanchester as the Bride looks absolutely stunning, if a little on the electrified side. A firm favourite of mine although i am not to keen on the prologue with all that Mary Shelley and Byron nonsense, its all acted out so stiffly that it looks ridicously old fashioned compared to the rest of the film. . I think Bride is one of Karloff's greatest performance's, he manages to convey huge amount of different emotions, in what must of been at the time some heavy duty makeup effects work, yet he breaks through all that and still gives us a memorable performance that stay's with you. Still the course of true love never runs straight "We Belong Dead".

Mr Halloween (2007)

With a picture that was interlaced to death, this amateurish production had no redeeming features whatsoever so i fast forwarded it after forty minutes of it's whacking 110 minute run time.

There's no terrifying clown in it either.

Shockingly bad.

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[05] Nightmare City
Nightmare City is typically Lenzi, with a succession of set pieces, a breathless pace and a hypnotic synth score throbbing under the surface. Revisiting Nightmare City it’s hard not to notice the similarities with modern zombie cinema. The label zombie never being uttered, instead using the likes of ‘infected’ or ‘contaminated’, the zombies don’t lumber, but run (slightly at odds with the alternate title City Of The Walking Dead), use weapons and strategise (they actually cut a telephone cord at one point to prevent a victim calling for help). They have a striking look; burn victim coated in chocolate cake, which is oddly effective. There are so many things to love, a thrown television set explodes like a grenade at one point, a priest using a giant candle like a sword, the section where the lights go out at the hospital and the protagonist’s wife first encounters the contaminated is effortlessly creepy, the haunting shots of the contaminated from the helicopter, the theme-park set climax is just bad-ass, the protagonist atop a roller coaster holding off the infected with a machine gun. It lacks the discordant tone that pervades the likes of Fulci’s genre work, and it has a questionable ending, but what Nightmare City lacks it more than makes up for with the sheer velocity it unfolds at.
:pumpkin::pumpkin::pumpkin::pumpkin:

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[06] Under The Shadow
Set in Iran during the 1980s, Under The Shadow combines real world horror with supernatural psychological horror, in a similar way that Del Toro would with his earlier features. A country at war, the landscape ravaged by bombings, people fleeing from their homes. It creates a haunted and increasingly desolate backdrop to the proceedings. At one point we see a bomb hit in the distance through a window, but one character doesn’t react, doesn’t even blink. The unsettling atmosphere unnerves the viewer, constructing the perfect environment to amplify the supernatural horror. It’s hard not to compare the film with The Babadook, so many parallels exist with the mother and child relationship, but unlike The Babadook, Under The Shadow manages to physically affect the viewer, melding effective jump scares with psychological horror to terrorize. This is the experience I expected going into The Babadook, from all the hype surrounding it. If you found yourself disappointed in The Babadook, seek this out, this is the movie that deserved that hype.
:pumpkin::pumpkin::pumpkin::pumpkin:

Never heard of this film. I'll try to check it out. Thanks.

Definitely worth checking if it's still playing in your local independent or arthouse cinema. It's really effectively made, and undoubtedly works best theatrically. It came out last Friday though, so is probably already gone from many places. It caught me by surprise.

Why do I now want to see this? What is wrong with me. :confused:

:doh: :skull:

I could tell it was going to be awful when the main cast are all supposed to be school kids but must be at least thirty and obviously just mates with a camera on them.

I always have a slight fondness for those types of films. They're bloody awful but there's something endearing about a group of friends giving it a shot.

Well quite. But do you really want that shot to last 110 minutes?

Ha! What I mean is, watching a Zach Snyder film that blows $400million on boring toss brings my piss to a boil. Whereas, these guys, while failing miserably, made a heartfelt attempt.

That said, I would have not lasted more than 10 minutes.

#3 (I've got a bit of catching up to do)

"House at the end of the street"

Meh...



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Saturday's pleasure in ABUKtober...:loveeyes:

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