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#5551
15th October 2023, 08:16 AM
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When the two girls have been caught and are trapped in a pit, and one of the natives throws down some meat for them Gloria: No! Stop! Don't eat it. It might be Rudy!
__________________ People try to put us down Just because we get around Golly, Gee! it's wrong to be so guilty  |
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#5552
15th October 2023, 11:08 AM
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THE KEEP – Jaw dropping, enthralling… I could throw endless words and phrases like those at half of what’s left of Michael Mann’s missing-in-action work of visionary horror, but I kind of want to save them for when I drift off to some imaginary realm where I meet the real thing. The studio butchered ‘The Keep’ so they could cram it in the cinemas; it’s well documented that Mann’s original cut was over three hours long, but if you’ve ever clapped eyes on the 96 minute ‘available’ version, you’ll have caught a glimpse of the majesty that might have been (and that might still be, in my dreams). It’s a glimpse worth catching, for even the whittled down proxy that you find streaming here and there is pretty lush, full of backlit mist that coils in the depths of tombs, prowling with glow-eyed demons and the corpses they ravage, everything slooowwwing to the throb of an anaesthetised pulse as Tangerine Dream floods the soundtrack with waves of zoned out texture… totally aesthetic cinema and the direct forerunner of any movie I’ve ever described as ‘ambient horror’. One can only imagine what it must be like to behold its unexpurgated hypnagogia in full throttle HD, but even the shortcomings of the cutdown have their value in a weird way. The edit imposed by the studio has thrown its rhythms totally out of whack, resulting in what feels amusingly like a big budget version of an eighties Italian schlocker, lots of pretty lights, atmosphere and bad prosthetics decorating an incoherent narrative that begins to excite because it doesn’t make sense… and, if I’m in it for the trash, that’s the kind of ethereal slop I normally like, but it seems obvious that Mann intended something radically different. It’s all guesswork really, you assume that what you’re seeing is the ravaged shell of a glory that never was, but for all I know what ended up on the cutting room floor might’ve been a load of exposition and backstory about as dreamlike as an episode of Brookside… I guess we might never know. What remains is enough to ‘Keep’ me happy for now.
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#5553
15th October 2023, 11:10 AM
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By the way, the new TV series is really good. Demdike@Cult Labs likes this.
__________________  Triumphant sight on a northern sky |
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#5554
15th October 2023, 11:13 AM
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So many lasers in the smoke machine haze in The Keep, like a Goth nightclub.  the soundtrack is amazing too but the film is a bit of a mess due to the huge portion chopped out of it.
Frankie Teardrop likes this.
__________________ Triumphant sight on a northern sky |
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#5555
15th October 2023, 11:16 AM
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| October 14th 'Salem's Lot (1979) Having just read Stephen King's excellent novel for the first time i decided to revisit the tv mini series from director Tobe Hooper as it was in my to-watch Blu-ray pile for October. Whilst there are some major differences to the book - The character of Barlow looks totally different to his written description for example - essentially it remains the same; An updating of the vampire story to modern times although still remaining resolutely Gothic in style. Even at three hours in length the film is certainly truncated which helps with the pacing during the first hour. Some characters are missing altogether whilst some appear to be merged. James Mason plays the charismatic Straker with some success whilst David Soul brings lead character Ben Mears to life quite well. The film lacks gore - unsurprising for a tv production - but remains spooky and quietly chilling to this day. The sequences with Danny Glick floating at windows to be let into bedrooms is lovely and creepy whilst Barlow is still an iconic version of the vampire even though it's clearly influenced by the Nosferatu vampire from the 1922 silent film of the same name. That Hooper fails to capture the sheer scale of the vampire infection is the only let down for me in what was an absorbing, smartly acted three hours viewing. |
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#5556
15th October 2023, 11:22 AM
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#5557
15th October 2023, 11:26 AM
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The lack of blood and guts on show also resembles the book, King doesn't go in for visceral gore in this one at all so the cut aways as vampires attack is actually not just for tv audiences. Justin101 likes this. |
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#5558
15th October 2023, 11:31 AM
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The last time I watched it, I did it all in one sitting too, it really does hurtle along and before you know it you're in the home stretch. It's got convenient pausing parts too where the adverts would have been so you can make a cup of tea
__________________ Triumphant sight on a northern sky |
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#5559
15th October 2023, 12:02 PM
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Picked up a second pumpkin tea light holder the other day. I was so impressed with the first. I think they look great.
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#5560
15th October 2023, 12:23 PM
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Demdike@Cult Labs likes this.
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