Some recent viewings:
Halloween III: Season of the Witch: The best Halloween sequel, but needs an immediate Blu-ray release!
Amsterdamned: A fun little slasher set in Amsterdam (which is pretty obvious from the title!), dealing with a scuba diver going around killing people in the various canals throughout the city. Some shocking dubbing aside (watching the detective's daughter conjured up horrible memories of Bob from House by the Cemetery), this is a lot of fun.
The Lady Vanishes: A great mystery thriller from the master, which has been imitated (but never bettered) in varying forms over the years.
Branded to Kill: A fantastic, moody film from Sazuki with plenty of gun play, which is also one of my favourite Japanese 'Noir' style crime thrillers. The ending in the empty boxing ring is one of my favourite scenes in cinema history.
Despair: Fassbinder's genius tale of a chocolate firm owner who goes slowly mad and ends up trying to fake his own death in order to start a new life. A surreal film, with some great dialogue.
Tokyo Drifter: Suzuki's jazzy crime thriller. Whilst I slightly prefer Branded to Kill over this, there is no doubt that both are fantastic and are essential viewing for fans of Nikkatsu/crime cinema.
Scarlet Street: Lang Noir surrounding a naive painter blinded by his love of con artist Kitty and her lover, Johnny. He begins to get in too deep and as things spiral out of control, nothing but tragedy awaits. A fantastic Noir by Lang: highly recommended. The Kino BD is pretty decent, too.
Hotel: Jessica Hausner's mystery bordering on supernatural drama surrounding a strange hotel, the disappearance of a receptionist, and the dark mysterious woods that surround it. A very minimalistic slow-paced film, which leaves a lot to your imagination. Decent, but I can't see myself wanting to watch this again for a long while.
Kwaidan: Absolute classic series of short Japanese ghost stories. A firm favourite of mine, and another one I'd love to see arrive on Blu-ray sooner rather than later!
The Terror: Classic Corman tale of witchcraft and the supernatural starring Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson. A beautiful gothic palette and some creepy set-pieces makes this worthwhile viewing, irrespective of the low budget, and at times poor acting.
Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion: The best of the series, and a classic of the genre. I never tire of watching this.
Bedevilled: Pretty decent revenge/thriller sprinkled with madness. I found that it started to de-rail itself a bit at the end, but overall a decent story with some decent performances.
The Naked Kiss: Fuller's tale of a reformed prostitute, this deals with some heavy themes (especially for the time when it was made), but is tinged with warmth throughout.
The Nude Vampire: Not my favourite Rollin, but this is essential viewing for erotic vampire film fans. Like most of Rollin's films this is moody and beautiful, often touching on the surreal. Also, like all the Redemption BDs so far, this has a fantastic transfer and is a noticeable upgrade over previous DVD versions.
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