What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[J Harker]

Just took my boy to watch Disneys latest offering Moana.
Brilliant film.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Cinematic Shocks

Savini's remake of NOTLD (a truly great film) is very good. So, there's a good chance of him remaking a bad film and turning it into something a least good.

I found Savini's remake horrendous. Mainly because i really disliked Patricia Tallman who shrieked throughout the film and much the same way Shelley Duvall did in The Shining completely ruined it for me.

Not to worry. We can't all like the same things or Michael Bay would be on the streets.

[Buboven]

Brighton Rock (1947)

An absolute masterpiece worth a truly terrifying and chilling performance by the late great Richard Attenborough that puts many horror villains / bogeymen to shame.

10/10

[trebor8273]

About to watch edward scissorhands, which I've never seen and makes me as bad as Dem for not seeing poltergeist!

[Rik]

Originally Posted by trebor8273

About to watch edward scissorhands, which I've never seen and makes me as bad as Dem for not seeing poltergeist!

It's ok, a guy I work with (who's 30 BTW) has never seen a single Star Wars or James Bond film!

[trebor8273]

Originally Posted by Rik

It's ok, a guy I work with (who's 30 BTW) has never seen a single Star Wars or James Bond film!

Holy crap! There are people out there that have never seen a star wars movie?. these people have my pity!

[J Harker]

Doctor Strange.

Just got back from Marvel Studios latest.
The story of a brilliant but egotistical neurosurgeon who loses the use of his hands in a car accident. After exhausting the possibilities of traditional medicine he heads to the far
east in search of help through spiritual enlightenment. In the process Dr Stephen Strange learns that the reality he perceives is but the tip of the iceberg and that there are worlds beyond ours and threats to humanity that he could never imagine and thus finds his true calling. Of the Marvel films this is by far the silliest, I can't say I didn't enjoy it but it is a bit....well strange😊.
Benedict Cumberbatch plays the title character and given how much I love his turn as Sherlock I was rather underwhelmed with his performance. Not sure if it was him or what the film/script required of him but his accent definitely didn't help and he came across as nowhere near arrogant and big-headed enough in the first place for the transition to seem all that great. Marvel did an animated movie that is significantly shorter than this and yet somehow seemed to feel more accomplished in its plotting. Mentions have been made of the Matrix like effects with characters seemingly floating and flying about the place a bit too much, I'd say the problem was more the kaleidoscopic scenery effects. Imagine the city folding effect from Christopher Nolans Inception on speed. Rooms, walls, cityscapes just endlessly folding in on each other and turning inside and such until it's just impossible to work out what the devil is going on. Tilda Swinton was good as Dr.Strange's mentor known only as 'The Ancient One' and Chewitel Ejiofor provides able support as fellow sorceror Modor.
So worth watching but certainly cheesier and sillier than the other Marvel movies.

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by J Harker

Doctor Strange.

So worth watching but certainly cheesier and sillier than the other Marvel movies.

I started thinking I had imagined it because everyone else is going nuts for it, I just didn't think it was all that. I'm glad I'm not the only one.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Castle of Blood (1964)

Following an evening spent interviewing author Edgar Allen Poe in an English tavern, journalist Alan Foster (Georges Rivière) accepts a bet to spend All Hallows Eve night in a supposedly haunted castle.

Italian director Antonio Margheriti returns to Gothic horror following the previous years excellent Virgin of Nuremburg. A genre he would also visit with this same years The Long Hair of Death and with 1973's excellent Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye. Castle of Blood shows, and make no mistake here, that along with the other three mentioned films Margheriti was Italy's top Gothic horror director (Sorry Mario) and it's a crying shame he made only four films in the genre, preferring it seems science fiction, crime and fantasy.

Castle of Blood is an absolute delight of Gothic cinema. Rather than going all out for shocks, Margheriti clearly has an understanding of the Gothic and allows an atmosphere of dread to slowly build from the moment Rivière begins to make his way to the castle. The journey on foot is slow, dark and incredibly eerie. Even as he enters the castle the gloomy corridors and rooms are lit only with a candelabra he carries. It really is truly atmospheric and quite wonderful and thankfully it never lets up throughout the films hour and a half run time.

Once established in the castle Foster meets Elizabeth Blackwood who apparently resides there, but unbeknown to him she's actually one of the many ghostly apparitions that appear every Halloween when the fabric between reality and the spirit world is at it's most vulnerable. What the put upon writer soon comes to understand is that the ghostly residents need blood - in this case his blood - in order to return the following All Hallows Eve.

The characters are well rounded, believable and nicely written, ghosts or otherwise, in fact Sergio Corbucci 's screen play i'd say is practically flawless. Even lesser characters such as the lovely Sylvia Sorrente when she shows up in the final reels are fully fleshed out. In fact Castle of Blood is everything you could want from Gothic horror from it's eerie atmosphere of dread and decay to startling visuals and impeccable performances.

Highly recommended.

[Inspector Abberline]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Castle of Blood (1964)


Highly recommended.

I got this on the Nightmare Castle blu ray,so looking forward to watxching it.