Fair enough. I was wondering if this was one of those BAMBI / THE DEER HUNTER type double-bills.

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983)

British production starring Ian Richardson as Sherlock Holmes and Donald Churchill as Dr. Watson. The Hound of the Baskervilles is a story we all know and love or at least should do. As one of the most Gothic horror like Holmes stories it has had various adaptations over the years the best of which is probably Hammer's 1959 version starring Peter Cushing as Holmes.

This version which i've only just found out was made for tv, not that it hinders as the best Holmes adaptations bar none are all television productions, which surprised me as the production values are of very high standard. Boasting a top notch cast including Martin Shaw, Brian Blessed and Denholm Elliott and wonderfully spooky sequences out on the moors at night this adaptation takes all the best parts of the story and embellishes them. It even adds scenes and characters (Blessed's Lyons was never in the book for a start) and brings the death of Stapleton to macabre life which Conan Doyle does not.

It's not perfect though. Martin Shaw has a dubbed American voice which not only sounds wrong as Shaw has a wonderful recognizable tone but is wholly unnecessary, i also wasn't keen on Churchill's Watson who as with Nigel Bruce in the Rathbone films tended to bumble along in dim witted fashion. However any flaws in Watson are more than made up for by Ian Richardson whose portrayal of Holmes with a twinkle of mischief in his eye is excellent and i would have loved to see more of him in the role.

Whilst i suppose a little unremarkable, but that's more to do with the story itself than this actual adaptation (I never like the fact Holmes goes missing from a large chunk) this is a solid production and well worth seeking out for Holmes fans or lovers of the Gothic.

http://i976.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps7344aa24.jpg
Ian Richardson as Holmes and Edward Judd as Barrymore.

Ju-On: The Grudge (2002)

http://zardoz.a.ltrbxd.com/resized/s...g?k=9087481315

Whilst by no means a favourite, I have some fond memories of watching Ju-on, which was at a time just prior to the point where the sub-genre started to become oversaturated and its popularity seeped over into western cultures fuelling the inevitable ‘remake’ machine.

The main reason for me returning to this one was as an anti-thesis to the previous night’s Ring remake, which although not as terrible as I’d found it the first time around, was a little hollow and stale in terms of conveying the subject matter in such a way where it pales to the thrills and chills of the original. Ju-on was therefore administered as a kind of antidote to restore balance to my cinematic world whilst at the same time feeding the pangs for some atmospheric, nuanced, Asian horror I’d been left hungry for whilst viewing The Ring…so I suppose in a lot of ways I have Verbinski’s remake to thank for re-watching this one and the resultant satiation of my hunger.

Ju-on is a cinematic puzzle in essence, and a creep-tastic one at that with some tense chilling set-pieces peppered throughout and enhanced by its segmented approach to storytelling. Whilst a little repetitive, I feel that this is sort of the point in many ways, with the vengeful spirits inhabiting the earthly plain in a repetitive cycle inflicting the pain of their past existence on others until their curse has been lifted.

70/100

I think you know what cometh nexteth



BURN THE HERETIC!!!


:lol::lol:

Prince of darkness. 9.2/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5I3Lt8PwyQ

Tonight's viewings a hammer double bill.

Nightmare Weekend (1986)

http://primer.a.ltrbxd.com/resized/f...g?k=6f0e8fdb10

Artificial Intelligence, experimentation, mutants, softcore porn and pinball, Nightmare Weekend belongs to that special group of '80s trash-fest disaster pieces that inhabit dual dimensions simultaneously; the dimension of the disjointed mess, and the dimension of the incomprehensibly mis-understood genius. The film flits between both of these dimensions lavishly throughout and by the time the end credits roll it's hard to tell whether you want to erase its entire existence from your memory or to watch it again straight away.

Despite all fathomable coherence and reason having been stripped away and confusion reigning throughout, I'd be lying if I said that I didn't have fun with this one.

Last night i watched a couple of films i've reviewed before.

The Pumpkin Karver (2006)

Although this has a mighty score of 3.2/10 on IMDB i rather enjoy this Halloween set slasher and tend to give it an airing each October. It's got a decent budget and has some fun murders including a poor chap who ends up on the sharp end of a farm drill with his intestines swirling round. Added to this is a decent cast of unknowns and a scary pumpkin masked killer...yeah! i like this one.


Satan's Little Helper (2004)

Jeff Lieberman's chilling tale of a boy who befriends a masked serial killer and knocks about with him on Halloween as he goes about terrorizing the neighbourhood.

This is a real favourite of mine. Fun to begin with it becomes more sinister as it goes on and perhaps offers the idea that today's kids are so unsensitized to violence due to tv and video games that they can't tell the difference between reality and what's on the tv screen in front of them. Katheryn Winnick looks sexy in her wench costume throughout and Amanda Plummer gives a typical Amanda Plummer turn until Satan get's hold of her and it all becomes ever so grim.

Top notch Halloween entertainment.

Looks like a great double bill Dem.

I really recommend Satan's Little Helper if you haven't seen it.

Seconded! :pumpkin: