What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demoncrat]

Superbeast (1972, Glen Schenck)

The poster sold me. What I got was a Phillipino production (hello Vic Daz!!!)
A bint wants answers, what she finds is less than desultory. A bit flat was this one, though it was quite crazed on a dull level tbh

Ahem.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Monster Club (1981)

A final throw of the dice from Amicus kingpin Milton Subotsky. Although not an Amicus production, that company's and Subotsky's finger prints are all over it, sadly this anthology is a mere imitation of what came before. It was however something i enjoyed more second time around via the beautiful looking Network Blu-ray than i did when i saw it for the first time via dvd some five years back.

The wraparound story with Vincent Price as a vampire (the only time he played one) and John Carradine as author R. Chetwynd-Hayes is amusing but slight whilst the Monster Club setting only needed Christopher Lee in his horrendous Howling II shades and the all singing all dancing nightmare would be complete.

Of the three tales on offer The Shadmock, The Vampires and The Ghouls, only the latter shows any frightful promise as movie director Stuart Whitman scouts locations and comes across a small isolated village, reminiscent of City of the Dead's Whitewood. This is the only story told with any horrific verve although it has to be said the bureaucratic vampire killers - Donald Pleasence, Anthony Valentine and Neil McCarthy - are a delightful comedy team throughout the middle story. First offering The Shadmock is instantly forgettable other than the rotting corpse style payoff.

Undemanding fun.

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

The Monster Club (1981)

A final throw of the dice from Amicus kingpin Milton Subotsky. Although not an Amicus production, that company's and Subotsky's finger prints are all over it, sadly this anthology is a mere imitation of what came before. It was however something i enjoyed more second time around via the beautiful looking Network Blu-ray than i did when i saw it for the first time via dvd some five years back.

The wraparound story with Vincent Price as a vampire (the only time he played one) and John Carradine as author R. Chetwynd-Hayes is amusing but slight whilst the Monster Club setting only needed Christopher Lee in his horrendous Howling II shades and the all singing all dancing nightmare would be complete.

Of the three tales on offer The Shadmock, The Vampires and The Ghouls, only the latter shows any frightful promise as movie director Stuart Whitman scouts locations and comes across a small isolated village, reminiscent of City of the Dead's Whitewood. This is the only story told with any horrific verve although it has to be said the bureaucratic vampire killers - Donald Pleasence, Anthony Valentine and Neil McCarthy - are a delightful comedy team throughout the middle story. First offering The Shadmock is instantly forgettable other than the rotting corpse style payoff.

Undemanding fun.

One of those movies that's a guilty pleasure, The Shadmock is not the best story in this for me.

[MrBarlow]

V/H/S/ 99. 2022.

Shredding.
A punk band head into a abandoned building where a band disappeared only to realise they may not be alone.

Suicide Bid.
A girl wants to join a sorority and for her initiation she has to spend the night in a cemetery while lying in a coffin.

Ozzy's Dungeon.
After a girl is badly injured on a game show, her family kidnap the host which their plans take a sinister turn when they go back to the studio.

The Gawkers.
A group of teens spying on the new female neighbour, when one of them sets up her webcam and installs a spyware programme they discover something darker about her.

To Hell And Back.
Two filmmakers are asked to document a ritual on the eve of the Y2K are transported to help and try to find a way back.

This was a bit better than the previous release V/H/S/ film there is two stories I feel were decent, for the last story although it seemed interesting, the good thing about it was it's depiction of Hell and make up. The Gawkers took a turn that I wasn't expecting, Suicide Bid seemed to copy one or two phrases from a 90s horror film that kind of made me laugh. Think now is the time to put this franchise to sleep.

VHS99-movieposter.jpg

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

The Monster Club (1981)

A final throw of the dice from Amicus kingpin Milton Subotsky. Although not an Amicus production, that company's and Subotsky's finger prints are all over it, sadly this anthology is a mere imitation of what came before. It was however something i enjoyed more second time around via the beautiful looking Network Blu-ray than i did when i saw it for the first time via dvd some five years back.

The wraparound story with Vincent Price as a vampire (the only time he played one) and John Carradine as author R. Chetwynd-Hayes is amusing but slight whilst the Monster Club setting only needed Christopher Lee in his horrendous Howling II shades and the all singing all dancing nightmare would be complete.

Of the three tales on offer The Shadmock, The Vampires and The Ghouls, only the latter shows any frightful promise as movie director Stuart Whitman scouts locations and comes across a small isolated village, reminiscent of City of the Dead's Whitewood. This is the only story told with any horrific verve although it has to be said the bureaucratic vampire killers - Donald Pleasence, Anthony Valentine and Neil McCarthy - are a delightful comedy team throughout the middle story. First offering The Shadmock is instantly forgettable other than the rotting corpse style payoff.

Undemanding fun.

Good review Dem. I rather enjoyed The Monster Club the first time I watched it back in October. The last story is easily the best.

Sent from my SM-G780G using Tapatalk

[J Harker]

Dracula. Tod Browning. 1931.

I have to confess, this is only the second time I've watched this version of the classic story. I think if truth be told the last time, about 2001, I just wasn't that taken with it. It was a little on the dull side next to Whales classics Frankenstein or The Invisible Man.
This time around I was far more engaged, thoroughly appreciating it for the original gothic horror it is. Sadly its a film I think suffers under the weight of its own iconic status, difficult to watch today without thinking of the Count from Sesame Street or other silly spoof representations. Its a great shame because Brownings film if one remembers to watch it with context in mind is so gothic it hurts. Mist and fog and eerie scenes abound. Old crumbling castles or the ruins of Carfax Abbey give a wonderful sense of place and I feel help massively in taking the film away from the more stagey aspects.
Elements of the film are also much darker and nastier than I remembered. For the era at least.
Lugosi is a horror star I have a lot of time for but have never viewed in the same light as his contemporary Karloff. Here he excels, if one remembers he hasn't done a load of later poverty row pictures or gloriously silly Ed Wood projects.
While it won't replace Frankenstein as my favourite Universal Horror, yes unlike many I prefer Whale's original. I had a great time with Dracula a few nights ago now viewed through older wearier eyes. I look forward to revisiting sooner rather than later.

[Demoncrat]

Dr Otto And The Riddle Of The Gloom Beam (1985, John Cherry)

Jim Varney stars as the titular character. And then some. An oddity. Part MTV, part stop motion, part bonkers. Good versus evil in the shape of two chaps whom were born on the same day what what. Ahem. Elements of this film find a home finally in today's climate.
JV invents Ernest at the end and all

[Frankie Teardrop]

FACELESS – Awful Parisian nightclubs in the late nineteen eighties, Bridget Lahai getting stabby with a syringe and someone else’s eye, Anton Diffring moaning about The French, some brute finishing a chainsaw decap with a morbid kiss… none of these snapshots captures the wonky essence of ‘Faceless’, which manages to be badly off-centre whilst seeming, for Franco, somehow quite digestible. Mainstream? Franco? Frankie, are you sure you’ve got it right? The theme song, done by a terrible George Michael impersonator, gives evidence for both sides of the argument. “Destination nowhere…” Exactly. I always enjoy revisiting this piece of cockeyed tat, and the newish Severin blu ray looks very nice.

THE DRONE – Said drone is the favoured tool of a serial killer who, struck by lightning, undergoes a B movie mandated transference of souls and ends up with a shiny new body to hover around in. I bet loads of people fantasise about being drones and remote-controlled aeroplanes, they just don’t let on about it. ‘The Drone’ is quite odd in some ways, one which seems to qualify its relentless and impossible-not-to-acknowledge-silliness with a tone of equally incessant deadpan. Personally, I thought it was hilarious, but I kept wishing it’d just go for it. A few notches of bad taste short of ‘weird new anti-classic’ status, but as it is it’s worth a watch.

COLD SKIN – Xavier Gens was known for his French New Wave Of Pseudo-Transgressive Splatter offering ‘Frontiere(s)’, basically a ‘Hostel’-era take on the whole backwoods Nazi cannibal thing, a perennial problem near the Franco-Belgian border I’m led to believe. ‘Cold Skin’ is different, a relatively subdued take on otherness, isolation and madness set on an island whose inhabitants include two men and some worrying amphibians. I would say that it’s another one that nods towards old HPL, but apparently it’s an adaption of a novel by Albert Pinol. It does well with an atmosphere of craggy desolation, and it’s interesting that it predates some aspects of the more widely regarded ‘The Lighthouse’.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

COLD SKIN – Xavier Gens was known for his French New Wave Of Pseudo-Transgressive Splatter offering ‘Frontiere(s)’, basically a ‘Hostel’-era take on the whole backwoods Nazi cannibal thing, a perennial problem near the Franco-Belgian border I’m led to believe. ‘Cold Skin’ is different, a relatively subdued take on otherness, isolation and madness set on an island whose inhabitants include two men and some worrying amphibians. I would say that it’s another one that nods towards old HPL, but apparently it’s an adaption of a novel by Albert Pinol. It does well with an atmosphere of craggy desolation, and it’s interesting that it predates some aspects of the more widely regarded ‘The Lighthouse’.

I really like Cold Skin. Way better than The Lighthouse if you ask me.

[Nordicdusk]

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A professor of anthropology with an obsession with a string of violent murders takes a group of his students into the woods to try and uncover the truth. Many claim that the murders have been carried out by a beast of demon who the locals claim is actually Bigfoot after tracks are discovered in all the locations of the murders. What they discover is even more disturbing.

Just added this to a long long list of why has it taken me so long to see this film. I loved every minute of this the atmosphere is spot on and the kills are very violent and very grusome and they all look great. It love when we get to see plenty of a creature in a film rather than just glimpses or something in the shadows this Bigfoot isn't one big shit but if I was as ripped and had such a beautiful mane of hair as him I'd be parading around in plain sight all the time too .

Some of the acting is questionable but it's never distracting or annoying plus in this case it adds to the overall feel of the film so it really worked in the films favour for me keeping it feeling realistic and gritty like the people are real people out in the woods rather than a group of actors.

Very entertaining and quite disturbing when you really think about it.

Recommended.