Poor Zac he's not that bad!
I started last week with
Fulci's The Black Cat a film which I do enjoy despite it's flaws, mainly that the story is bloody bonkers and makes little sense. I really liked the new transfer on the Arrow 'Black Cats' set and watched a couple of the supplements too, I always enjoy Stephen Thrower talking about movies and Kim Newman too!
After that was a Hammer triple, I didn't watch these all in one night, it was one a night for 3 nights
First up was
Dracula Prince of Darkness which I will admit I was slightly disappointed by, however this is probably because I went in with expectations that were simply not met, but also because the finale was a limp fish! I did enjoy it though, it was a romp from start to finish and the touches like the carriage with no driver and the creepy butler were great fun!
I followed that with
Plague of the Zombies which has quickly become one of my all time favourite Hammer films. I think in part because it's unlike any which I have seen and unlike an zombie film I have seen. It was almost perfect for me apart from the thing which really annoys me about 60s/70s films and that's day for night filming. I think it's worse on the DVD than it is on the bluray but it's so obvious that the night scenes are filmed in daylight, even to the point of the some characters having shadows
The Nanny followed these and you know what, I bloody loved it. Nothing at all like I was expecting and I warmed to it right away. At first I just enjoyed the boy being naughty and upsetting Nanny but then the flashbacks started and everything got even more interesting! Naughty Nanny!
I also watched 3 films which aren't particularly Cult-Labs so I wont talk in depth about them.
Fassbinder's Querelle the story of a sailor on shore leave who gambles with a brothel owner and after fixing it to lose has to sleep with him, to see what it was like obviously... Very interesting film with art direction like you've never seen, looks like one of those old French postcards.
A quirky film staring Lukas Haas and Winona Ryder called
Boys which starts with Ryder waking up with a hangover to the police knocking on her door asking about a stolen car, she goes for a horse ride to clear her mind and gets thrown off the horse only to be found unconscious by Haas, a local student at the all boys boarding school in town. It's a gentle film that's easy to watch but not great by any means.
Also
Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, I'd never seen it... Admittedly I was put off by the running time of 3 and half hours but I took the plunge yesterday when I found out there was an intermission after 1hr 45 mins. I LOVED IT! Seriously the pacing is so good the time flies by. Everything about the movie is right. The acting, the direction, the editing, the action, the story, everything!
Finally, I watched
Class of 1984 another first time for me. Awe Michael J Fox as a chubby short-fry with a bowl cut! I loved this one too, I went in with misconceptions, I thought it was an 80's exploitation actioner but it was actually played straight. A social commentary on Reagan's America? It's coming out very soon on BD in Australia, I'm going to grab it I think - I'd be able to watch this film pretty often I think!