Cult Labs

Go Back   Cult Labs > Film Discussions > Horror > General Horror Chat

Like Tree26818Likes

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
  #3701  
Old 29th October 2020, 05:13 PM
Frankie Teardrop's Avatar
Cultist on the Rampage
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Leeds, UK
Default

BLOODSUCKING FREAKS – I first set eyes upon ‘Bloodsucking Freaks’ when I was a more militant kind of horror fan, the kind who wouldn’t watch ‘Troll 2’ but would bang on about something like this as if it were the second coming. Now I’m middle aged I prefer stuff like ‘Cellar Dweller’ – such evolution of the spirit. Anyway, I was quite amused when ‘Bloodsucking Freaks’ was passed uncut by the BBFC five or six years back, but looking at it now, I suppose you could say that the grossness is more tonal than explicit. Well, you do get to see a cageful of naked madwomen rub torn-out organs into their breasts, arses repurposed for use as dartboards, electrified nipple clamps etc etc, but I always remembered it as far nastier and less comedic. On the other hand, the ‘lightness of touch’ that seems designed to make ‘Bloodsucking Freaks’ appear to give its audience a knowing wink is more difficult to swallow than the gore in some ways. For the unacquainted, it’s about Sardu, the purveyor of a reviled Times Square basement grand guignol show, who operates a human trafficking business on the side with his mate Ralphus. They get embroiled in a vendetta against a snooty theatre critic and kidnap a ballerina; a football hero (!) and a corrupt detective investigate. Whilst all of this is going on, various little asides and scenes turn up like inverted comedy sketches, most of them involving flakily rendered sadism of some kind along with Sardu’s wisecracks (all courtesy of a genuinely mesmerising performance by Seamus O’Brien). ‘Bloodsucking Freaks’ has always enjoyed an obnoxious reputation, and in some ways it’s quite difficult to defend. There’s undoubtedly way ‘worse’ out there as far as explicitness goes, but it’s just the attitude, sneery and misogynistic. On the other hand, it’s quite shrewd, and could even be seen as a self-aware parody turning the screw on that kind of horror, or maybe brought into, or closer to, the fold of the acceptable through a kind of rehabilitation as a wilful blast of post-John Waters bad taste. Regardless of its underlying intent, it does conjure up a real ambience of sleaze and decrepitude, pure mid seventies NYC, a grimness that clings to the celluloid like a layer of pond scum but takes shape as a series of glimpses of starkly lit cellars, squalid interiors, naked flesh pressed against dripping, peeling walls, and that ever-swarming film grain. In that way, it is still quite an effective film, the shadow of a flyblown past cackling away in its own darkness. A lot of genre fans think it’s wretched, but in its callous way it’s less hypocritical than the last few dozen flicks on at your local multiplex (as was).
Reply With Quote
  #3702  
Old 29th October 2020, 05:36 PM
Nosferatu@Cult Labs's Avatar
Cult Don
Cult Labs Radio Contributor
Good Trader
Senior Moderator
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: The Land of the Prince Bishops
Blog Entries: 4
Default

As always, Frankie, kudos on an outstanding review.
__________________
Reply With Quote
  #3703  
Old 29th October 2020, 07:07 PM
trebor8273's Avatar
Cult Veteran
Good Trader
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: UK
Default


A young man who is accused of murder whom says it was a beast and not a man is be escorted to be killed.

They end up staying at a secluded in for the night , soon the young man finds out that the owners are planning too kill them. The guest banned together and kill them but this is the start of their problems when they find out they where going to be sacrificed to a group of werewolves whom come looking for there meals.

The acting while not the best is passable and the film movies at a fast pace and is very gory and is the only film I've seen with a werewolf shitting on someone!7/10
Reply With Quote
  #3704  
Old 29th October 2020, 07:16 PM
Justin101's Avatar
Cult Veteran
Cult Labs Radio Contributor
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Liverpool
Default

I was going to pick up Werewolf... in Morrisons yesterday but there are only a couple of days left and I still have a load of films I plan on watching before the end of Saturday, so skipped it. I'm sure I'll get to it at some point though, MusicMagpie next October possibly
__________________


Triumphant sight on a northern sky

Reply With Quote
  #3705  
Old 29th October 2020, 08:07 PM
MrBarlow's Avatar
Cult Veteran
Good Trader
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Dundee
Blog Entries: 2
Default

Zombie Holocaust. 1980.

An expedition on a remote Island to find a tribe of the Kito find a doctor conducting experiments on humans turning them into zombies.

Another film I wasn't keen on but warmed up to it on a second viewing and love it, Zombi star Ian McCulloch returns to a different remote island to battle zombies and cannibals with a small team who fall foul to the cannibals with eye gouging moments and cutting people up while still screaming. I didn't think the premise would work but it actually does, the removal of vocals cords was causing the doctor to be disturbed while operating on a woman while she is alive..what was he thinking it would tickle? The cannibals seem to have a thing for blonde women with a perfect body and designs.

91lLwERaVxL._SX300_.jpg
__________________
" I have seen trees that look like tortured souls"
Reply With Quote
  #3706  
Old 29th October 2020, 09:10 PM
Cult Veteran
Good Trader
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: summerisle
Blog Entries: 21
Default

#Alive (2020, Il Cho)

Director's first full length effort apparently. Accomplished enough then.
I enjoyed this in the comforting way that horror fans will in these times.

Ah, bless, the undead, you can always rely on them
As an infection spreads rapidly, a millenial prat is left to cope on his tod. Can he? Let's all see shall we .....
Reasonably constructed, the moral being, do you know who your neighbours are?
I'll say no more as I'm off to see what comprises of the finale of Lovecraft Country, and you'll all be hearing about that in an hour or so
No nodding off at the back there now!
__________________
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

[B]
"... the days ahead will be filled with struggle ... and coated in marzipan ... "[/B]
Reply With Quote
  #3707  
Old 29th October 2020, 09:11 PM
Cult Veteran
Good Trader
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: summerisle
Blog Entries: 21
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by MrBarlow View Post
Zombie Holocaust. 1980.

An expedition on a remote Island to find a tribe of the Kito find a doctor conducting experiments on humans turning them into zombies.

Another film I wasn't keen on but warmed up to it on a second viewing and love it, Zombi star Ian McCulloch returns to a different remote island to battle zombies and cannibals with a small team who fall foul to the cannibals with eye gouging moments and cutting people up while still screaming. I didn't think the premise would work but it actually does, the removal of vocals cords was causing the doctor to be disturbed while operating on a woman while she is alive..what was he thinking it would tickle? The cannibals seem to have a thing for blonde women with a perfect body and designs.

Attachment 228971
I love it. O'Brien is just crazed . REWATCH!!!!
__________________
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

[B]
"... the days ahead will be filled with struggle ... and coated in marzipan ... "[/B]
Reply With Quote
  #3708  
Old 29th October 2020, 09:37 PM
Justin101's Avatar
Cult Veteran
Cult Labs Radio Contributor
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Liverpool
Default

(Rob Zombie's) 31 (2016)



I'm unsure about 31 at this very moment in time. On one hand, it has some very atmospheric and well shot scenes, on the other hand, as soon as anyone talks the dialogue is so awful it just ruins it all. It's also very mean and nasty but I'm sure that was the point.

However, possibly Sheri Moon's least annoying character performance, and a pretty good chainsaw section in the middle! But I doubt that I'll ever watch it again!



Final thoughts, all the way through the Doom-Head opening sequence in B&W I was thinking how cool and ballsy would it be if the entire film was shot like that.
__________________


Triumphant sight on a northern sky

Reply With Quote
  #3709  
Old 29th October 2020, 09:59 PM
MrBarlow's Avatar
Cult Veteran
Good Trader
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Dundee
Blog Entries: 2
Default

Mausoleum. 1983

A woman becomes possessed by a demon that hovers over the females in her family for years and tries to free herself from the curse.

Apart from the plot being something that has seen before and family's having curse's and the next generation trying to defeat it, this is one of those B movies from the glory 80s that not that bad. The acting may not be great but certainly entertaining enough and some dark atmospheric moments. The cinematography is close to being the same as the Italian-American horrors we love that helps the tone of the film seem a bit haunting. Enjoyable enough for me to watch it again.

1545c2c24baf7a170cc31c89c1acde288893ffd4_00.jpg
__________________
" I have seen trees that look like tortured souls"
Reply With Quote
  #3710  
Old 29th October 2020, 11:11 PM
Demdike@Cult Labs's Avatar
Cult King
Cult Labs Radio Contributor
Senior Moderator
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Lancashire
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Justin101 View Post
(Rob Zombie's) 31 (2016)



I'm unsure about 31 at this very moment in time. On one hand, it has some very atmospheric and well shot scenes, on the other hand, as soon as anyone talks the dialogue is so awful it just ruins it all. It's also very mean and nasty but I'm sure that was the point.

However, possibly Sheri Moon's least annoying character performance, and a pretty good chainsaw section in the middle! But I doubt that I'll ever watch it again!



Final thoughts, all the way through the Doom-Head opening sequence in B&W I was thinking how cool and ballsy would it be if the entire film was shot like that.
I was disappointed first time round, but second time thought it better.

As for Sheri's best performance - definitely 3 From Hell - she's incredible in that.

reminds me. I saw that last night and haven't reviewed it yet.
Justin101 and trebor8273 like this.

Last edited by Demdike@Cult Labs; 29th October 2020 at 11:25 PM.
Reply With Quote
Reply  

Like this? Share it using the links below!

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



Our goal is to keep Cult Labs friendly. If you feel discouraged from posting by certain members' behaviour then you can e-mail us in complete confidence.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
All forum posts are contributed by members of the site; Cult Labs cannot take responsibility for all content posted on the site. If you have an issue with content posted on the site please click the 'report post' button.
Copyright © 2014 Cult Laboratories Ltd. All rights reserved.