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  #4051  
Old 12th October 2021, 05:21 PM
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HALLOWEEN HORROR BINGE ROUNDUP #4

9/10/21

HAPPY HELL NIGHT – A mess of non sequiturs, cliches and the awfulness that only stillborn nineties horror can provide, ‘Happy Hell Night’ is fast becoming one of my favourite rubbish late slashers. It’s just bafflingly entertaining, even on my third go with it. An evil priest / Freddy K surrogate with an impressively gaunt face delivers nonsense one liners as college kids party and try to solve the mystery of what happened on ‘hell night’ all those years ago… inspired tripe.

MACABRE – Lamberto Bava, who would offer the ultimate in wham-bam horror a few years later in the form of ‘Demons’, is on subdued form with this simmering tale of obsessive love from beyond the grave. In some ways uneventful between its first and final reels, and clearly grasping for Hitchcockian suspense, ‘Macabre’ succeeds because of its strained, off-key atmosphere, the casual malice of its little psychopath, and the final flight into gonzo supernaturalism. Weird and absorbing.

10/10/21

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET – With a stature that’s hard to deny, I don’t think ‘A Nightmare On Elm Street’ is looking for any converts these days. I suppose repeated viewings over the years have deadened my eyes to it a little, although when I see it now I’m more taken with the quieter bits, the low-key dreamy wanderings, the menace and melancholy of the suburbs in the shadow of the razor glove. I guess it goes back to ‘Halloween’; even before ‘Scream’, Craven was into his quotes. Always nice to see John Saxon doing his thing.

SHOCK WAVES – I don’t revisit this spooky underwater nazi zombie flick nearly as often as I should. It’s always somehow quite pleasing to see ‘names’, including in this case John Carradine, Peter Cushing and Brooke Adams, caught beneath the grain of a 16mm production, but he real star of ‘Shock Waves’ is its ambience. It’s there in the long shadows of its ruined hotel, in the shots of zombies prowling scummy, derelict swimming pools, and above all in the wailing, groaning synth score.

11/10/21

THROUGH THE FIRE – The mystery surrounding an ancient pendant gives rise to a very eighties mix of dull chases and bad special effects. Although its recent emergence after decades of obscurity is not likely set the indie-horror world alight, there were a few things about ‘Through The Fire’ that hooked me in, mostly the graininess, the aura of moderate incompetence, the occasional awful attempts to emulate the sort of fx that might be seen in eg ‘Poltergeist’ or some other big budget studio affair. A bit slight, but in the end I quite liked.
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  #4052  
Old 12th October 2021, 05:46 PM
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From Beyond. 1986.

Dr Edward Pretorius and Dr Crawford Tillinghast create a machine called The resinator which opens up the pineal gland of the brain and shows what the eyes can't see. When the experiment is a fail, Crawford is committed to a psychiatric unit he is released under care with another doctor and a detective to re-create the experiment and investigate what actually happened to Dr Pretorius.

This has always been a favourite H.P. Lovecraft tale of opening up the human mind and sixth sense ability with some tongue and cheek humour mixed with horror. Jeffrey Combs teams up with Barbara Crampton and Ken Foree as the bad ass detective. John Carl Buechler should get praised for his work as the special effects designer with every time we see Pretorius he comes in different forms as his body changes.

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  #4053  
Old 12th October 2021, 05:48 PM
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Eyeball



First time viewing for me. Kept me guessing.
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  #4054  
Old 12th October 2021, 06:42 PM
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Zombie Creeping Flesh. 1980.

A virus is released into the atmosphere, a journalist, cameraman and four commandos team up to investigate how the onslaught happened.

Bruno Mattei's Italian version of Dawn of the dead, except he went a bit further and had his leading lady Margie Newton dress up like a native and run through a jungle topless. George Romero wanted gore and got it done in a tasteful way yet Mr Mattei just went over the top extreme, the dubbing is a bit off and unbalanced aside from that this was still enjoyable, even though there is a homage to alien with a old granny except it's a rat that comes out of her chest.

e_cover.jpg
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  #4055  
Old 12th October 2021, 07:22 PM
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30 days of unseen horror

Film 4

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Jenny is in love with a jack the lad sort of bloke who would rather mess around with any old tart rather than count his blessing having such a beautiful girlfriend who is always there for me. During one of there frequent break up Jenny bumps in to an old friend she has not seen in years who has become a priest who offers her a shoulder to cry on any time she needs. A couple of days later Jenny decides to take him up on the offer and heads to the church hoping to find him where she ends up at confession rather than finding the priest she is looking for but instead ends up with Fr Xavier Meldrum who hears her confession. After telling him she had an abortion and that her sex life was on the rocks Fr Meldrum becomes instantly obsessed with her trying to force her to give him more intimate details of her sexual exploits. This will not be a one time meeting once she is out of the confessional Fr Meldrum starts to stalk Jenny and removing any males that may potentially come between him getting closer to her. When things start to get nasty Jenny has nowhere to turn because no one is willing to believe the word of this woman over a man of the cloth.

This one has a few different things going on a crazy homicidal priest a forbidden love between a priest and his old friend and current landlady a mute mother locked away and cared for by a horrible bitch of a housekeeper so there is plenty happening to keep you busy. Anthony Sharp steals the show as Fr Xavier Meldrum i didn't really find him overly sinister just a complete tosser and also quite hilarious just constantly flying off the handle the second anyone looked at him not really going out of his way to keep attention off himself with what he gets up to away from the alter but also it just shows how crazy he is that he just doesn't care. There are some enjoyable frenzied kills but they are few and far between really a few more would of been most welcome but it was still entertaining nonetheless.

Special mention to Stephanie Beacham PHWOAR!!!!!

7/10
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  #4056  
Old 12th October 2021, 07:46 PM
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30 days of unseen horror

Film 5

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Six scientists go to a country manor to investigate strange goings on after 18 people are all murdered in one night a few years previous in a variety of different ways. The house in situated on land used by a satanic cult who plan to murder the scientists for entering the house of satan.

I can't say i enjoyed this one at all the humour was just annoying and annoying characters especially Kenny Everett i used to think i liked Kenny Everett but apart from this a few weeks ago i saw him hosting Top Of The Pops 70s he was dressed as a farmer and just rolling around of the floor i didn't laugh. Anyway back on topic the only reason i decided to watch this was purely for Vincent Price and i always loved that he wasn't afraid to have a bit of fun but i just felt bad watching him in this mess. I have nothing good to say.
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  #4057  
Old 12th October 2021, 08:35 PM
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Nightmare City. 1980.

In a European city, a plane lands that has been exposed to radiation and a horde of exposed people have turned into monsters and run amok in the city while a news reporter and his girlfriend try to escape while the military are loosing a battle.

A zombie film with Umberto Lenzi at the helm had me interested when I saw this a last year, this takes a different turn, usually in Zombie films it's voodoo, chemical released in the air or some form of satanic ritual, Lenzi decided to go with radiation. The acting may not be the best, lead actor Hugo Stiglitz looks a bit uptight and stiff and I couldn't take him seriously, it may not be the best Zombie/undead movie but certainly not the worst.

15775.jpg
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  #4058  
Old 12th October 2021, 08:52 PM
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30 days of unseen horror

Film 6

images.jpeg

The ladies of 70s London can't get enough of mysterious Indian guru Krishna they will do anything to be close to him. Romy is the newest member of Krishnas teachings and she just finds herself drawn to him and feels a constant need to be close to him at all times. When Krishna moves from London to the countryside Romy must go and join him. All is not what seems with the mystic he is all about helping people achieve a heightened sense of enlightenment but while helping people escape their demons he has his own demons namely his disfigured crazy brother Kantaka who uses voodoo to raise scantily clad ladies from the dead to do his bidding.

A very fun but total cheesefest with a very odd upbeat jazz soundtrack. The scene with the devil made me laugh quite a bit it just looks ridiculous with the big massive horns and everyone just smeared in paint rather than made up to look dead or decaying and even the room the scene is shot in just looked so bare and lifeless not even made to look like its hosting lord satan himself .

7/10
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  #4059  
Old 12th October 2021, 09:29 PM
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Freaky (2020)



Basically a slasher version of Freaky Friday where serial killer Vince Vaughan accidentally body swaps into a teenage girl. Some great bits in this one, funny and gory although Vince trying to act like a teenage girl is more creepy than anything else The teenage girl as serial killer however is pretty brilliant! Worth a watch.

Halloween (2018)



I know this had a mixed reception on this forum, but personally I really liked it! This was a rewatch for me in anticipation of Halloween Kills which arrives later in the month. Some of the scenes in this just look amazing, for example the crashed prison bus and the inmates roaming around in the fog looking confused and lost. Also, one of the best on screen head stomps!
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  #4060  
Old 12th October 2021, 09:34 PM
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Just finished the Lighthouse i need to recover mentally and emotionally before i review this
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