Waxwork.
The umpteenth time i've seen this and it never get boring! Shady David warner turns up in a rich beverly hills neighborhood with his waxorks and begins sacrificing teens to the exhibits in a bid to destroy the world.
Written and directed by Anthony Hickox The film also stars Patrick Macnee, Miles o'keefe, Zach Galligan, Deborah foreman and Twin peaks own Dana ashbrook. The plot itself really serves to give an excuse to delve into the directors own favorite horrors with werewolves, Zombies, Mummies, The phantom of the opera and the Marquis de Sade. The wide and varied horrors on display, with superb FX courtesy of Bob Keen help drive a film that is gorey, funny fast paced and surprisingly atmospheric in places with a superb score to boot.
It's still one of my favorites, the UK disc is widescreen but does not have the equally great Waxwork 2 that comes with the U.S release. Either way its one that's well worth seeking out.
PITCH BLACK.
A low budget Sci-fi that did good business when released and proved to be a big sleeper hit at the turn of the noughties. Set in a surprisingly bleak and unforgiving sci-fi universe, the film follows a group of survivors stranded on a planet that's facing a year of Darkness and contains hordes of photosensitive monsters that are sharpening their claws to eat them all.
The characters all do their best to defy expectations. The hero was prepared to dump the civilian passengers to save her own ass. The bounty hunter is a drug addicted bastard and the central character Richard Riddick is a seeming sociopath who actually threatens to show some decency once in a while. Re-visiting the film on Blu after a good few years its still an entertaining little film that never outstays its welcome.
Dark fury.
Peter Chung (Aeon Flux) got given this short animated project that attempts to bridge the gap between Pitch black and chronicles of Riddick. The dark universe Riddick inhabits is perfect material for the sensibilities of chung. The film ends up being and entertaining slice of animation that gives us a look at some of the wilder ideas for the setting they had but could not pull off in live action.
Chronicles of Riddick.
After Pitch black was a lot more successful than anyone expected, Vin diesel and director David Twohy got free reign and a decent enough budget to attempt to expand the riddick setting and create a 'dark star wars'.
The result was widely panned by critics thanks to some crazy dialogue and a plot that is at best inconsistent. Its something of a vanity piece for Diesel who even made sure Dame Judy dench got a major role because he was a fan.
That said I really, really like COR. Sure the directors cut features some even odder and occasionally out of place scenes but the film is actually pretty entertaining. The necromonger armies are actually well realised and the film retains the harsh and often violent universe Riddick exists in.
Sure the film could have done with a little script doctoring and the film isn't a bona fide masterpiece but its very entertaining and at least retains the charm of films like galaxy of terror.
Next up is riddick....
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