What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[mr 420]

Originally Posted by Inspector Abberline

I just enjoy a man in a monster suit smashing tiny models to pieces with his big feet....

What?....You mean it's not real?

[Frankie Teardrop]

THE CHILD – Watching a movie like 'The Child' brings home just how bland and ordinary most genre fodder is these days (and back then, too – late seventies in this case). It's about a babysitter who starts a job in a household where an obnoxious little girl has psychic powers and is mates with a bunch of zombies. So much for the 'story', but really, with 'The Child', we're in a place where narrative merely pegs up more important qualities like tone and feel. Nothing about 'The Child' is normal. It makes you wonder what the makers were going for, because intent is hard to gauge in a film where artiness and ineptitude seem to walk hand in hand. Deliberately skewed shots give way to badly composed ones. Lines of dialogue feel stilted and alien (it was post dubbed). Everywhere is smothered in mist and fog. Random freakiness bursts out at the drop of a hat – a jack'o lantern makes like it might be evil, but then doesn't do anything, someone dances with a scarecrow in a dream, zombies crop up apropos of nothing and lay on a sprinkling of primitive gore. The atmosphere, omnipresent and as charged as the air before a storm, truly has the unhinged quality of a slow motion fever dream. Do yourselves a favour and watch 'The Child'. It's a grainy masterclass in disjointed grindhouse murkiness.

THE DEATH WISH CLUB – Fans of 'Night Train to Terror' (they do exist) may recall one of the badly edited and typically ludicrous segments being about a game of Russian Roulette involving a deadly insect and some bad special fx. Well, that was a minature version of the film now under discussion, 'The Death Wish Club', a truly remarkable and sui generis flick from the early eighties. I can't really summarise it to be honest, although there is a straightforward narrative of sorts. I guess it's a kind of surrealist sex comedy with a bizarro horror undercurrent, albeit without much sex, much horror or that much comedy (although parts of it are pretty funny). In essence, it's about college dude Greg who falls in love with a porno actress called Greta after watching a stag reel. He tracks her down, only to find that George, her possessive and slightly psychopathic lover, is in the way of things. More complications arise when Greta randomly changes gender, leaving Greg desperate to “win back the real her” (well, it was the eighties, cis- and trans- didn't really figure in these guy's vocabularies back then). On top of all this, there's this club called, yep, 'The Death Wish Club', which is a haven for decadent types who want to push the limits of their own mortality by playing the aforementioned Russian Roulette type games with various implements of human destruction. It all mingles together into one prolonged head scratch. 'The Death Wish Club' has a lopsided atmosphere. It's not stylised, there's cheap naturalism to it so after a while you kind of acclimatise to its odd premise, but every now and again you come out of that and think “what IS this film on about?” It does carry the grainy stench of low, low budget eighties product, and you can hear the room reverb of the dialogue, which gives it a slightly porno-level feel. As an aside, another weird thing about it is that many of the actors look really recognisable to me, but an IMDB search reveals resumes that begin and end with TDWC. Did those involved anonymise their contributions? Is Frankie losing it a bit? Both are equally possible. Anyway, 'The Death Wish Club' is certainly an odd curio and is worth tracking down.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Inspector Abberline

I just enjoy a man in a monster suit smashing tiny models to pieces with his big feet....

Doubt you like the 50s original much either then Inspector?

[mr 420]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

THE CHILD – Watching a movie like 'The Child' brings home just how bland and ordinary most genre fodder is these days (and back then, too – late seventies in this case). It's about a babysitter who starts a job in a household where an obnoxious little girl has psychic powers and is mates with a bunch of zombies. So much for the 'story', but really, with 'The Child', we're in a place where narrative merely pegs up more important qualities like tone and feel. Nothing about 'The Child' is normal. It makes you wonder what the makers were going for, because intent is hard to gauge in a film where artiness and ineptitude seem to walk hand in hand. Deliberately skewed shots give way to badly composed ones. Lines of dialogue feel stilted and alien (it was post dubbed). Everywhere is smothered in mist and fog. Random freakiness bursts out at the drop of a hat – a jack'o lantern makes like it might be evil, but then doesn't do anything, someone dances with a scarecrow in a dream, zombies crop up apropos of nothing and lay on a sprinkling of primitive gore. The atmosphere, omnipresent and as charged as the air before a storm, truly has the unhinged quality of a slow motion fever dream. Do yourselves a favour and watch 'The Child'. It's a grainy masterclass in disjointed grindhouse murkiness.

THE DEATH WISH CLUB – Fans of 'Night Train to Terror' (they do exist) may recall one of the badly edited and typically ludicrous segments being about a game of Russian Roulette involving a deadly insect and some bad special fx. Well, that was a minature version of the film now under discussion, 'The Death Wish Club', a truly remarkable and sui generis flick from the early eighties. I can't really summarise it to be honest, although there is a straightforward narrative of sorts. I guess it's a kind of surrealist sex comedy with a bizarro horror undercurrent, albeit without much sex, much horror or that much comedy (although parts of it are pretty funny). In essence, it's about college dude Greg who falls in love with a porno actress called Greta after watching a stag reel. He tracks her down, only to find that George, her possessive and slightly psychopathic lover, is in the way of things. More complications arise when Greta randomly changes gender, leaving Greg desperate to “win back the real her” (well, it was the eighties, cis- and trans- didn't really figure in these guy's vocabularies back then). On top of all this, there's this club called, yep, 'The Death Wish Club', which is a haven for decadent types who want to push the limits of their own mortality by playing the aforementioned Russian Roulette type games with various implements of human destruction. It all mingles together into one prolonged head scratch. 'The Death Wish Club' has a lopsided atmosphere. It's not stylised, there's cheap naturalism to it so after a while you kind of acclimatise to its odd premise, but every now and again you come out of that and think “what IS this film on about?” It does carry the grainy stench of low, low budget eighties product, and you can hear the room reverb of the dialogue, which gives it a slightly porno-level feel. As an aside, another weird thing about it is that many of the actors look really recognisable to me, but an IMDB search reveals resumes that begin and end with TDWC. Did those involved anonymise their contributions? Is Frankie losing it a bit? Both are equally possible. Anyway, 'The Death Wish Club' is certainly an odd curio and is worth tracking down.

I can also recommend The Child. Great review, Frankie.

[trebor8273]

Romantic comedy in which Bill Murray plays a cynical weather man phil conners who is sent to cover the annual groundhog day festival. Things get weird when Phil keeps living groundhog day over and over. He starts out enjoying this as he can do what ever he wants, but as time goes on he grows disenchanted with the endless monotony but love is in the air as he falls for his producer Rita (Andie McDowell). Lots of memorable scenes and great performance from Murray. 9/10


Now watching mark of the devil( what the hells up with the soft porn music)

[Deadite]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

Fans of 'Night Train to Terror' (they do exist)

Me! Me! I love that crazy smorgasborg of shit. No idea The Death Wish Club existed! Where can i track it down, any ideas?

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Count me in as a fan of THE CHILD too.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Deadite

Me! Me! I love that crazy smorgasborg of shit. No idea The Death Wish Club existed! Where can i track it down, any ideas?

Well, it used to be available on Amazon / ebay fairly cheaply, but a quick check has revealed it to OOP and ££. Also included as an extra on the Vinegar Syndrome 'Night Train to Terror' Blu-ray / DVD set, which is probably still going for a reasonable price. Surprised it's not on YouTube, but a cursory search comes up with nada. Can't find anything else besides, not being acquainted with all the other darkly interweb pockets. Soz, thought it'd be out there and marked down, but it's been ten or so years since I last got a copy.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Incense for the Damned (1970)

In truth, Incense for the Damned is a total mess, but a total mess with some good ideas. Directed and then disowned by Robert Hartford-Davis, a director i admire from his films The Black Torment (1964), Corruption (1968), School for Unclaimed Girls (1969) and The Fiend (1972), his name doesn't appear on the credits, nor as a pseudonym, and when you watch the film you can see why.

It's a film that treats vampirism as a sexual perversion as a young woman searches for her lover, a university student who is seduced into a satanic cult on a Greek island. The film sports a fine cast including Patrick Macnee, Peter Cushing, Edward Woodward, Imogen Hassall, Patrick Mower and Johnny Sekka but pretty much wastes all of them. The film's production was a troubled affair with much of it shot on Cyprus which gives it a unique feel, however money ran out, scenes were dumped and the producers shot new scenes with new actors at a later date.

The odd thing is that i rather enjoyed it second time around. I knew what to expect and the sheer clumsiness of it all had a certain charm that kind of allowed me to have more fun with it this time around.

Full review on The Gothic Thread. https://www.cult-labs.com/forums/mem...tml#post520035

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Swamp Ape

A group of students shuffle around under a couple of trees whilst being killed off by a geezer in a monkey suit. Clocking in at under one hour and never taking itself too serious this micro budget film is as cliche ridden as you would expect. That's kind of what I liked about it, there is a uniformity to this sort of bottom rung dreck that means you will never be disappointed when watching them as there are no expectations to overcome.

Prey

A group of twenty somethings run around in the dark whilst being killed off by a goat sucker. As with the above film this is a collection of cliches holding together a slim plot but this film takes itself deadly serious and as such fails to deliver despite its exotic location, great creature effects and technical skills in film making.

Holy Virgin Vs Evil Dead

Excellent Hong Kong fantasy/horror film that never lets up from beginning to end in a martial arts frenzy of fists, feet and dodgy optical effects. Recommended.

Sennentuntsci

Some Alpine goat herders get pissed whilst listening to T Rex and Serge Gainsbourg, make a sex doll from a sack and broom and unleash a vengeful demon!

Swiss made folk horror cum police thriller which is pretty good in a leisurely way as the story and action slowly unfold giving it the feel of a tv detective show as the crimes and investigation play out against some stunning scenery. Worth a look if you have Netflix and enjoy films with folklore at their heart.