SHOCK – I was very pleased to see the recent upgrade. For me it’s one of Bava’s finest, despite the countervailing view of people who really know what they’re talking about. Bought it on crud VHS way back along with Fulci’s ‘The Beyond’; something took root around then, so me an ‘Shock’ we’ve got ‘istry, bruv. Even if you consider it a little flat compared to Mario’s more full-on goth outings, how can you not be creeped out by that big porcelain hand? Put me off shrooms for life. Elsewhere, Nicolodi’s eerie underwater Medusa bit is the peak of an endless parade of otherworldly moments. It all comes together under the roof of Arrow’s super-duper newish blu-ray.
AMITYVILLE 1992: IT’S ABOUT TIME – In fact it’s about a dark clock that f*cks with reality, but equally it’s about an impressively gammy leg, a smattering of tasty vintage fx moments, a plot to do with sinister architecture that was either too complicated for me to understand or one that I made up due to being half cut, and various other instances of heart-warming early ninetiesisms (by which I mean, stuff that looks like it’s seeped over from a music video). I enjoyed it, anyway. In fact, I have a weird hankering to watch it again. Director Tony Randell’s oeuvre speaks for itself – ‘Hellraiser 2’, ‘Ticks’. To me, that says “dumb fun with icky latex”, which is really all I ask for if I’m in a forgiving mood.
CURFEW – An old VHS era home invasion flick, ‘Curfew’ is derivative and slight but offers period charm, as long as you’re charmed by the late eighties. It’s a film that arguably pulls its punches – there’s nothing to disturb in the way of, say, even more dated fare such as ‘House on the Edge of the Park’ – but something about its unfussy approach hooked me in a little. It’s sometimes hard to say what makes a film click – it can be a theme, an idea or an emotion, but as often it’s something much less abstract but equally mysterious, like the lighting, the camerawork, the look and feel of grain, even the way the rooms are decorated. Anyway, a solid B-movie that I happened to quite like.
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