What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Paul Zombie]

The Adventures of Robin hood.

king richard is off on the crusades and ends up being captured. and his evil brother prince John( claude rains) takes over while he's away and starts terrorising the Saxons. but sir Robin(Errol flynn) won't stand for it and gets his band of merry men together to fight the evil tyrant and his nasty henchman Sir Guy(basil rathbone from Sherlock holmes).

This is one top notch Robin hood adventure from hollywood with great action, romance and music which still stands the test of time. Errol Flynn is superb with his witty portrayal of the outlaw and has great on screen chemistry with actress Olivia de Havilland as the demure maid Marion. basil Rathbone also makes a excellent villain and is very convincing in his swordfight with Sir Robin. and Claude rains gives a rather camp and funny turn as Prince john.

yes, i enjoyed this nostalgic and very colourful film a lot. and which used to be my dad's all time favorite film. so it gets a solid 85 out of 100.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

December 8th

The Comeback (1978)

Pete Walker's film stars Jack Jones as an American singer who who retreats to a remote manor in Surrey to record an album; there, he is followed by a psychopath wearing a hag mask who murdered his ex-wife.

Whilst not top level Pete Walker,The Comeback has much to recommend it. The film has a nice ghostly atmosphere as Jones is haunted as the cries of his dead wife echo round the old mansion, and there are a couple of graphic murder sequences that book end the film. You can't have Pete Walker without Sheila Keith who co-stars here, in as you can guess, truly sinister mode along with Bill Owen as her hubby and fellow house keeper. Keith is one of those actresses who even when playing nice seems like she's going to stick a knife in your chest. Not so much typecast as born for roles like this.

The films final shot takes us out of the films slasher movie beginnings and suggests that the supernatural was also at work. This was Walker's last pure horror film and the cracks were beginning to show, although enjoyable there are long sequences where not an awful lot happens other than recording studio chatter, but the grisly murders and finale will ensure it stays in the memory.

[Paul Zombie]

Werewolf Woman.

Busty sondra Locke lookalike daniella neseri(Annik borel), has a hatred towards men after being raped as a child, and has since suffered from mental problems. so her dad takes her to the family villa in the country to recouprate. but it doesnt help at all when she finds the belongings of an ancient ancester in the attic, of a woman who was thought to be a werewolf and Daniella then becomes convinced that she is a werewolf as well and goes on the rampage murdering men.

Apparently Quentin tarrantino is a big fan of this film and i'm not surprised why. It is indeed one sleaze masterpiece with lots of gore, sex and nudity that is highly entertaining, and with a I Spit on Your Grave type climax.
Annik borel is actually very good in the role and quite convincing despite the usual bad dubbing. sexy Dagmar Lassander also co-stars as daniellas sister and certainly isn't shy at all in this one . and the chap from New York ripper Howard Ross also shows up too playing a nice chap for a change eventhough he does come to a bad end.

Great fun all round, including a great comedy moment in a dream sequence were Daniella's ancester changes into a hilarious fake looking werewolf complete with comical fur boobs. 80 out of 100.

[iank]

Saw Friday the 13th Part 2 the other day. Not really a fan of this series, always regarded it as markedly inferior to the Halloweens and usually only like the knowingly daft ones like VI and Jason X, but I didn't mind this on this occasion. Entertaining enough schlock.

[Paul Zombie]

Clash of the Titans.


Persius(harry Hamlin), son of the greek God Zeus ends up on a quest to save the woman he loves Princess andromenda from a big sea monster called the kraken. and ends up meeting three old cannibal witches who are blind
and use a magic glass eye and tell him that the only way to kill the Kraken is by using the head of a gorgon Medusa.

Okay a little cheesy and a bit slow to get going, but Not a bad effort at all in the great tale of greek mythology. with some superb creatures from effects wizard ray Harryhausen, including a winged horse Pegasus, a ugly hairy chap called Calibos, giant scorpions and the superb battle with the snake headed Medusa.
And with a lot of big stars including Laurence Oliver as Zeus, Ursula Andress as goddess Aphrodite, and Burgess Meredeth as well. Although Harry Hamlin is a little wooden as persius to be honest.
But overall this is a fun and entertaining action and adventure fantasy film that is well worth a watch, although the funny beeping tin can owl got a little annoying after a while. 80 out of 100.

[Demoncrat]

Venom

Best buddy movie since The Nice Guys imho.



Halloween (2018, David Gordon Green)

[Frankie Teardrop]

THE DEVONSVILLE TERROR – From Ulli Lommel. His ‘The Boogeyman’ is still probably my favourite slasher movie, daft as a brush though it may be. And then of course when he was Fassbinder’s protégé he made his most genuine claim to cinematic excellence, the undeniably haunting and beautiful ‘Tenderness of the Wolves’. I don’t know why he’s so loathed as a filmmaker – even the video trash he poured out in his latter years is dotted here and there with quirky, weirdo little films ie ‘The Raven’. ‘The Devonsville Terror’ is from back when movies were shot on celluloid, and is definitely one such quirky, weirdo little film. I really like it. It’s hard to explain what’s good about it. Not all that much happens in it. Basically, a small, isolated town replays its own history of violent witch-hunting when a new (female, urbane, distressingly ‘other’) teacher arrives. The film feels really static after its basic set-up is established, but instead of this being boring it somehow goes Zen and empties out into a hollow, cavernous space that gradually fills with strange characters, odd and maybe inconsequential goings on and just a really weird tone. Donald Pleasance is around – he does f*ck all apart from pull worms out of his arm and mumble about generational curses. Oh, he also hypnotises a couple of people. I don’t know, maybe this is a lazy comparison, but because of the small-town mystery angle, the air of foreboding and the quirkiness of the characters, it made me think of ‘Twin Peaks’ reconstituted as a VHS era horror knock-off with a rubber animatronic demon head at the end. Which, all told, is my kinda movie.

NIGHTMARE BEACH – Late Umberto Lenzi flick (or maybe not) about a slasher in motorcycle gear terrorising a bunch of none-more-eighties spring break party goers. Backstory has to do with the leader of local motorcycle gang The Demons, who fried in the chair after he was set up for murder… I mention this because the killer’s MO, mostly murder by electrocution delivered by bike, seems a bit ludicrous. Well, it all does, really. Though it all feels more American than Italian, if that makes sense, in that things like bad dubbing appear absent. ‘Nightmare Beach’ ticks a lot of boxes for me, but I have to be realistic and admit that sadly my mind has already condensed the good bits into a better flick than truly exists in real viewing time… which is a shame, because, even if you discount the lame kills and the fact that countless rampaging party scenes soundtracked by bad hair metal ultimately pay diminishing returns, the essence of the true hideousness of the eighties is laid bare here. Plus, there’s never an excuse not to watch a John Saxon movie.

AFTER DEATH – Aka ZFE3. When it comes to ‘Zombie Flesh Eaters’, I prefer the sequels to the original. ‘After Death’ isn’t the hot mess that was ZFE2, but it’s still a lot more compelling than Fulci’s overrated plodfest. If you want to know what ‘After Death’ is about, forget it, man - you’ve got it already. There’s an island, there’s some zombies, there’s some stuff about voodoo and some people get eaten. It’s a trashy rip-off, and it knows it. Good for it – there’s something authentic about its unabashed cheapness, but, more to the point, it makes good on its promise of crass thrills. It’s the cinematic equivalent of a dollop of congealed fat splattered beneath the counter in a fourth tier KFC rip-off joint, but it bounces along the way you want it to and manages to somehow stay absorbing despite a good eighty percent of it being shots of people hiking through woods. There’s decent gore (mostly at the beginning and end) and lots of fight scenes involving zombies who look a bit Kung-Fu. In its essence it can be nothing more than hokey entertainment, but there are patches where it manages to be inadvertently creepy as well as amusing – some of the stuff shot in the caves, the sound of the dead rising in the distance, the slightly claustrophobic air at points. The constant electro-boogie in the background makes it infectious for me. All in all, a winner.

HACK O’LANTERN – Forgotten eighties horror that transmits a seriously wonky vibe. I can’t tell whether I liked it or not, so that interests me for a start. It’s about a family in thrall to its pumpkin truck-driving occultist granddad, an obnoxious dude who has the manner of a vaguely camp toad about him. The clan’s sullen, trout-faced son is about to undergo some satanic induction because it’s Halloween, whilst his clean cut copper brother goes on dates with his sister’s friend and tries to foil evil – this sets the stage for a weird combination of slasher flick and skewed family saga. ‘Hack O’Lantern’ is full of tedium and hilarity, but even more so just plain randomness – see, for instance, a dream sequence featuring an eighties poodle metal band and a laser-eyed vision of Kali, although perhaps a more typical example of its kookiness is a scene where a guy of uncertain relevance delivers five minutes of sexist gags to a crowd of appreciative onlookers from an odd-looking Halloween party, never to be seen again. Huh? Basic narrative sense? Expecting that quality seems unrealistic when it comes to ‘Hack ‘O Lantern’, which is after all the kind of movie where a bout of graveyard sex is soundtracked by music that sounds more suited to the bit in a nineties pet-based drama where a child picks up a lame puppy. Predictably, soaking up the incessant craziness is a lot of talk, most of it stilted and really boring. A bit of sleaze and gore is the icing on this cake of wholehearted dung. Hard to tune into in some ways, but I’d take it over ninety percent of what gets tossed out these days.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

THE DEVONSVILLE TERROR – From Ulli Lommel. His ‘The Boogeyman’ is still probably my favourite slasher movie, daft as a brush though it may be. And then of course when he was Fassbinder’s protégé he made his most genuine claim to cinematic excellence, the undeniably haunting and beautiful ‘Tenderness of the Wolves’. I don’t know why he’s so loathed as a filmmaker – even the video trash he poured out in his latter years is dotted here and there with quirky, weirdo little films ie ‘The Raven’.

So is The Raven worth a watch, Frankie?

Love the reviews by the way. You almost convince me After Death is better than Zombi.

Almost.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

December 9th

To The Devil a Daughter (1976)

Christopher Lee plays a defrocked, devil-worshipping Catholic priest who convinces a man (Denholm Elliott) to sign over his daughter, Catherine, (Nastassja Kinski) so she will become the devils' representative on earth on her 18th birthday. As the time draws near the two (and Richard Widmark) become locked in a deadly battle over possession of the innocent girl's soul.

The final horror film from the studio that dripped blood. To The Devil a Daughter is one of Hammer's great unsung films. The film has strong occult influences, but it's modern day setting takes it out of any fantasy story and as with The Exorcist (1973) and The Omen (1976) the contemporary setting makes it all the more believable and indeed terrifying.

The final showdown between Lee and Widmark is unfortunately a bit of a let down and it passes by in a blur of wildly coloured film stock, however there's plenty of occult nastiness before hand to make up for it including a naked Lee (probably a stand in) taking the virginal Catherine on the altar and a frankly disgusting sequence with a demonic baby literally giving her head. These sequences are genuinely grim and should have inspired Hammer's direction into the 80's but alas it was not to be.

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December 10th

Slaughterhouse Rock (1987)

Fairly dreary and hard to sit through slasher horror set on Alcatraz island. It's a muddled mess that features too many dream like sequences, cannibals, soul transference, bad 80's pop rock and Toni Basil.

The poster is far more memorable than the film itself.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

December 11th

Nightmares (1983)

Hopefully i'm getting the boring stuff out of the way early because this portmanteau chiller is very run of the mill. Following a promising but short opening drama which was basically the old urban legend of the killer hidden on the back seat of the car, it becomes very dull very quickly and very PG rated as well.

From Emilio Estevez playing arcade games to Lance Henriksen's priest in a knock off version of Spielberg's Duel to a terrible giant rat effect that terrorizes a family home, this is as formulaic as it comes.

Not exactly 'Ho,ho,ho', more like 'Ho-hum'.