What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Metallicbomb]

Originally Posted by Prince_Vajda

I've only watched this once, and I was pretty disappointed. All I remember is a confused story and a quite inept leading lady.

Having said that, I know that I have the Arrow Blu-ray somewhere (one of the last that came in a white slipcase, if I remember correctly). Maybe I should rewatch the film some time soon.

Originally Posted by Buboven

I remember not particularly liking it first time I watch it but liked it a lot more second time round when watching the Arrow Bluray.

Yeah you should watch it again, give it a chance and take it for what it is. I think its a grower and a film that is appreciated more second time i felt like that with a few of Bava's films namely (Hatchet For The Hooneymoon and A Bay Of Blood.)

[Metallicbomb]

And more Bava

I Vampiri - a film which Riccardo Freda originally directed but left on the last day of shooting so in stepped Mario Bava who was working on the film as a cinematographer. The film itself is an enjoyable film and a glimpse of what was to come with Bava's own Black Sunday. The special effects for the ageing scenes are amazing for it's time.

Black Sunday - wow what a film, a film that is very gruesome for it's time which led to it being banned in the UK for 8 years. Babara Steele is brillant in the main role(s), and the scenery is fantastic very creepy. It is amazing that the film is 55 years old it is ahead of it's time and can still be shocking today.

[keirarts]

Untold story

Apparently based on a real-life murder case in Macau, Anthony Wong plays a crooked mah-jong cheat who kills a family of seven after being caught out. He carves them up and puts them in Pork buns which he serves to the public. While trying to claim legal ownership of the business, which is proving tricky given the owners 'disappearance' (Macau has a legal system based on Portuguese law given its status up until 1999 as a colony of Portugal) he proceeds to murder any employee who gets suspicious, throwing in a bit of rape for good measure when said employee is female. Once again, any meat is used in Wongs famous Pork buns! Meanwhile the police are closing in after some remains not suited for the buns washes up on the shore. Eventually the police capture Wong and the final third is devoted to him getting pretty much abused and beaten repeatedly until he confesses before topping himself.

Untold story is pretty much a definitive Cat 3 film. Some of the scenes are still pretty shocking today. It was apparently a big hit on release and spawned a sequel and numerous imitators. Future Tony Wong classic Ebola syndrome borrowed a bunch of stuff from it, especially the enforced cannibalism and rape, though Ebola is actually a more outrageous and over the top picture. Behind some of the sensationalism and over-the top violence, Untold story is a pretty decent true crime picture. If you can get it its worth a watch. The american DVD is pretty dear right now but the Thai release was £7.99 on ebay and is decent quality and english friendly.


Helter skelter

Continuing the evenings true-crime theme comes the TV movie account of the Manson murders, still one of the definitive accounts of what happened. The film starts with the Tate murders and continues on through to the capture and ultimate trial of manson and his family for multiple murders. The film is based on the true crime classic book which it gets its title from the Beatles song which one of the family wrote in blood at a crime scene. The closest film I can compare it to is Finchers ZODIAC which I consider to be one of the all-time great true crime pictures, along with Charles B pierces TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN.
I'm not really a big remake fan but another adaptation of this, with a Zodiac like approach to the material might be petty good. The only real difficulty would be finding someone as terrific as Steve Railsback as Manson, still THE greatest depiction of the cult leader and killer on screen to this day and never bettered.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

With the earlier discussion of M Night Shyamalan, it could be that he has made his worst film yet with The Visit. This is what Mark Kermode wrote in The Observer:

There’s a terrible sense of dread lurking in M Night Shyamalan’s latest. Sadly, it has nothing to do with the boring shaky-cam story about two incandescently irritating teenagers spending some Grimm-lite time with their unhinged grandparents. Instead, it’s the horrible realisation that the film-maker who was lauded for The Sixth Sense, defended for The Village, and just about tolerated for The Happening, may actually have made a movie worse than Lady in the Water. Is it meant to be a horror film? Or a comedy? The publicity calls it “an original thriller” but it is neither of those things. Only “endurance test” adequately describes the ill-judged shenanigans that ensue, as our two young heroes film their estranged Nana and Pop-Pops scratching at the walls, puking on the floor, and mysteriously stockpiling soiled nappies in the woodshed. Can you spot the inevitable plot twist that lurks noisily in the corner? Can you listen to any more of little Ed Oxenbould’s cute comedy rapping without stabbing yourself in the ear? Can you get a refund? Bring back The Last Airbender!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Midnight (1982)

I was expecting a little bit more horror from this glorified travelogue than is actually onscreen. The films director John Russo might have been the writer of Night of the Living Dead but Midnight suggests his real love affair is with the likes of Easy Rider and the great American road trip.

It starts off promisingly with a decent pre-credits sequence which offers hope but then any horror aspects are dropped until the final fifteen minutes. I was hoping for a bit of grubbiness and seedy film making...I hoped wrong.

[sjconstable]

The Visit (2015) - 6.5/10

Funny, creepy, and just overall a fun time at the cinema. One of the better found-footage films.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

N. a pris les dés... (1971)

An interesting experimental film from Alain Robbe-Grillet. N. a pris les dés... is basically the previous years Eden and After re-cut and re-edited to come up with a new film using the same footage.

There's not much in the way of story narrative and in a way if you've seen Eden and After you have seen it all before, but Robbe-Grillet has created a film with a different atmosphere here due to the fact that the footage although the same, is from different angles making it a bold experiment in editorial techniques rather than a coherent film in it's own right.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by sjconstable

The Visit (2015) - 6.5/10

Funny, creepy, and just overall a fun time at the cinema. One of the better found-footage films.

You clearly liked it much more than Mark Kermode did (see above).

[sjconstable]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

You clearly liked it much more than Mark Kermode did (see above).

So did my friends, they were jumping and laughing throughout and rated it 9/10 and 10/10! My scores are more realistic but it's fair to say I enjoyed it.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by sjconstable

So did my friends, they were jumping and laughing throughout and rated it 9/10 and 10/10! My scores are more realistic but it's fair to say I enjoyed it.

The average score at Rotten Tomatoes is 62, so not everyone is of the same opinion as Kermode.