What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I can relate to what you said regarding boutique labels releasing for want of a better word rubbish in great packages. I've already seen two or three slashers released by Arrow this Christmas that aren't fit for purpose but look absolutely lovely in HD. Trapped Alive, Doom Asylum and The Prey spring to mind.

Yep, more and more I find myself thinking "I just can't justify spending twenty odd quid on something that looks ravishing, but which I'll watch once or twice at the most." On the other hand... what the likes of Arrow and VS do is so worthy of support, if only from an archival standpoint. I mean obviously they're businesses, but so many of these little films wouldn't be on anyone's radar were it not for the kind of efforts that result in eg 'Phantom of the Mall'.
But it's all horses for courses anyway. As much as I loathed 'Doom Asylum', I loved 'The Prey'!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

Yep, more and more I find myself thinking "I just can't justify spending twenty odd quid on something that looks ravishing, but which I'll watch once or twice at the most." On the other hand... what the likes of Arrow and VS do is so worthy of support, if only from an archival standpoint. I mean obviously they're businesses, but so many of these little films wouldn't be on anyone's radar were it not for the kind of efforts that result in eg 'Phantom of the Mall'.
But it's all horses for courses anyway. As much as I loathed 'Doom Asylum', I loved 'The Prey'!

I watched The Prey pretty late one night and i can't remember a thing about it so never reviewed it.

What i do know is a 70cl bottle of Jack was almost half empty the next morning so i'll have to revisit it before making any radical decisions on it's quality. The film, not the bottle i mean.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I watched The Prey pretty late one night and i can't remember a thing about it so never reviewed it.

What i do know is a 70cl bottle of Jack was almost half empty the next morning so i'll have to revisit it before making any radical decisions on it's quality. The film, not the bottle i mean.

I think perhaps some anaesthesia whilst watching that one couldn't hurt. But it is a pretty crazy flick - half slasher, half wildlife documentary, weird electronic sounds.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

I think perhaps some anaesthesia whilst watching that one couldn't hurt. But it is a pretty crazy flick - half slasher, half wildlife documentary, weird electronic sounds.

I might give it another go tonight. Just looked at Google images and saw one of an inanely grinning park ranger or something similar and i kind of remember him.

Thought i'd also give Chill Factor a whirl. Is that terrible?

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I might give it another go tonight. Just looked at Google images and saw one of an inanely grinning park ranger or something similar and i kind of remember him.

Thought i'd also give Chill Factor a whirl. Is that terrible?

I quite liked 'The Chill Factor', but it's another very divisive slasher I'm afraid. "'Boring' or 'mesmerising'... you be the judge" kind of thing. There's definitely something a bit 'off' and slightly weird about it, and I seem to recall I gave it a good write-up on here.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Chill Factor (1993)

Also known as Demon Possessed, The Chill Factor centers on a group of snowmobilers who end up trapped at an abandoned summer camp where occult goings on took place. Upon finding an awesome looking ouija board called the Devils' Eye things start to go a bit awry as one by one they come to gory demises.

This was certainly different. Parts of the film are narrated which brought a new dimension to a by now cliched genre as did the whole atmosphere of the film, brought on by a constant soundscape of what can only be described as hypnotic elevator muzak. I felt transfixed by the music watching the on screen action through a surreal trance like state. I wasn't sure if the shadowy figures half glimpsed were in the film or my imagination.

The murders when they happen are fun, especially the icicle through the eye, and the fact they all play out to the unearthly muzak back drop which is unflinching in it's constant drone gave them an especially eerie dream like nature as did the cabin which itself was very Evil Dead like.

Of course anyone who isn't captured and swept away by the atmosphere may find parts of this a bit dull but i loved it and it goes straight into the top division of backwoods horror for me.

/ 5

[Frankie Teardrop]

TRANSFORMATIONS – An old Empire flick set in a penal colony, where a guy has crash-landed after a calamitous deep-space shag with an interstellar succubus. Stuff happens, then more stuff, and it all builds to an extremely dull escape attempt made by a trio of utterly nondescript thugs. What about the good bits? Can’t really remember, there’s more shagging, some people milling about in futuristic corridors, a stab at romance, and some monstery transformation bits which blossom into the form of a scaley space gargoyle (or similar). If there had been more of the latter then I might have better memories of ‘Transformations’, which however still manages to appeal in that ‘typical end of the shelf video flotsam of the eighties’ kind of way. You could file it next to the slightly wilder and more rancid ‘Breeders’ and I wouldn’t mind.

THE AFTERMATH – Well this is quite a strange film really, and I get the impression that it was perhaps one of those ‘one-man-labours-of-love’, which automatically makes me think of the most notorious example of those in (my) recent memory, ‘Champagne and Bullets’. ‘The Aftermath’ isn’t anywhere near as joltingly deranged as that cinematic shitstorm, but in some ways it might be scaling towards (or maybe even sliding down) the same filmic ladder. ‘The Aftermath’ was written and directed by its ‘star’ – a stocky, moustachioed guy who looks like he’d be more at home on a construction site than the world’s stage after an apocalypse. He guides us through his oddly macho vision of The End, in which he fancies himself as an upholder of basic family truths / avenger of violations of same; this feels somehow slightly personal and heartfelt, but it might all be just a set-up so that bad guy gang leader Sid Haig can rape women and shoot kids with gusto. Apart from tangles with gangs, there are random zombie attacks (nice looking undead, by the way) and an unusual sequence set in a dinosaur museum(!) seemingly slipped in to convince us that we’d all nodded off and started to dream. The only truly cinematic presence in it of course belongs to Sid Haig – the rest is disjointed, silly pap, but the kind that manages to keep the likes of yours truly glued to their sets.

[Demoncrat]

Last Night In Soho (2021, Edgar Wright)

I was so looking forward to this one.
What I got was .... a bit overdone and undercooked at the same time.
I have no problem with films that make no sense afterwards (Devil Fetus/ Blood Beat recently) but come on ffs.
I will be rewatching this just to make sure, but wasn't taken at all, sorry.
A young girl moves to that London to make her mark. London leaves its mark on her certainly. Some reasonable flair technically does not make up for the shortcomings narratively IMHO.
Harumph.

[MrBarlow]

The Scarlet Claw. 1944.

Holmes and Watson are drawn to a case where the locals believe a monster is at large after a woman is found dead, but the duo believe it to be no more than a human murderer.

Basil Rathbone and Nigel Watson return as the crime fighting duo with their on theories, the plot is brilliantly written and has a good atmospheric background score that blends in well. This one does tend to go in the way of the Dark Gothic tone and makes it feel like it may be supernatural creature but does make it feel like you want to be on the edge of your seat a lot.

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[Mojo]

AN ANGEL FOR SATAN (1966)
A sculptor is brought to restore an allegedly cursed statue of a woman in this Italian gothic.
Said statue resembles the character as played by Barbara Steele, who enjoys one of her best ( and certainly sexiest ) roles in this black and white gem, steeped in loads of atmosphere, ghostly castles and thunderstorms.
The Blu Ray from Severin looks absolutely stunning.

BEYOND TERROR. (1980)
A group of young thugs rob a bank, terrorise an old lady in her own home, then end up in a haunted church inhabited by the undead in this bizarre Spanish oddity.
It’s a pity the undead section only features in the last third, as it is quite effective ( even if it doesn’t make a lot of sense).
Not the greatest film you’ll ever see by any stretch of the imagination, but entertaining in its own ( sometimes unintentionally ) funny way.