What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by J Harker

The Devil Commands. Edward Dmytryk. 1941.

More Karloff. The fourth of Columbia Pictures barmy boffin series. This time Boris plays Dr.Julian Blair, a kindly somewhat absent minded doc who is researching human brainwaves. When tragedy strikes the good doctor becomes obsessed with attempting to breach the barrier between life and death.
Sadly this was a disappointing effort, even Karloff seems to struggle to do much with this, he seemed bored. I'm not sure if perhaps the producers also felt the cycle was wearing thin but everything but the kitchen sink seems to get thrown at the screen in this one. The mad scientist, the laboratory, an Ygor character in the form of Ralph Penny's brain-damaged brute Karl, the gothic clifftop mansion, perpetual downpours, pitchfork waving villagers. Yet none of it really came together I felt. A shame, Karloff is still good, or at least does nothing wrong. His character becomes more despondent and defeated as the film goes along and it felt like Karloff was feeling that way himself. Maybe it's just what I got from this one though.
Far from a bad film, simply sub-par for the great man.
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This was one of two from that set i hadn't seen before. Doesn't make me want to rush out to get it now. Not that i did anyway.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The House of the Devil (2009)

Director Ti West proved himself a master in the dark art of making a film where bugger all happens for 80 minutes, yet it remains entirely interesting and that time actually flies by.

The House of the Devil is one of those films where the anticipation of what might happen is actually far more fraught with underlying tension than what does actually happen, largely thanks to an impressive performance by Tom Noonan in full on Francis Dolarhyde creepy bastard mode as a gentleman who hires a student babysitter to sit at his home where there isn't actually a baby to sit for.

The rest of the story involves a full moon and the Occult, but it's the journey to the final fifteen minutes that will either enthrall or bore you shitless with this film before the bloody finale.

As with last years X, The House of the Devil is a beautiful homage to seventies slow burn horror and is also notable for Greta Gerwig playing the babysitter's friend a few years before she hit the big time with Lady Bird (2017)

[MrBarlow]

Executive Decision. 1996.

Good crafted well written and directed tense thriller with Kurt Russell as the office guy dragged along with Steven Seagal and his men to infiltrate a plane in mid flight that's been hijacked by David Suchet. Fortunately Seagal is only in part of the film so all eyes are not focussed on him strutting his stuff and looking out of breath. With a cast of John Leguizamo, Joe Morton, Oliver Platt, Halle Berry, B.D. Wong nobody tries to outshine everyone.

Aside from a good built up of tense moments and Platt's character looking like a nervous wreck there is some quirky comments and Morton's character able to give out some laughs while in agony. David Suchet shows he can step out of the limelight from Poirot and step into another role of a mad terrorist.

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[DahliaGebera]

A quick question. More like a small survey. Do you also partly read the books on films (if available) ?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by DahliaGebera

A quick question. More like a small survey. Do you also partly read the books on films (if available) ?

Sure do. There's The Film Books thread for all discussion and news regarding new titles and books bought.

The Film Books Thread

[SymbioticFunction]

Enjoyed watching dirty harry in Magnum Force as my Sunday afternoon film. The only reason I'm posting about it, is because I wanted to mention something that winds up my American wife: a silencer on a revolver. Funny how you sometimes see this in certain movies.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

This was one of two from that set i hadn't seen before. Doesn't make me want to rush out to get it now. Not that i did anyway.

You might like it Dem. In theory you should as it tries some interesting things combining the occult and science. There's a weird sort of sci-fi seance going on at one point, as an individual scene its quite eerie and well done.
The first two mad science themed films The Man They Could Not Hang and The Man With Nine Lives, make the Eureka/Columbia set worth it for me. For the price it can now be picked up definitely.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by J Harker

You might like it Dem. In theory you should as it tries some interesting things combining the occult and science. There's a weird sort of sci-fi seance going on at one point, as an individual scene its quite eerie and well done.
The first two mad science themed films The Man They Could Not Hang and The Man With Nine Lives, make the Eureka/Columbia set worth it for me. For the price it can now be picked up definitely.

I don't actually love those mad scientist movies at all. Which is why i haven't rushed out to buy the Blu's. I have them on good quality dvd's and that's probably fine. Half of them border on crime rather than horror and it seemed the studios found them a cheap way of reusing sets and similar premises rather than coming up with something original. They were certainly being hammered by RKO when it came to quality horror at the time.

[J Harker]

Ah fair enough. Horses for courses Dem. The worse film in the set by a long way for me has been The Black Room, which isn't one of the science films and I seem to recall being the only one you particularly rate.
I've just got The Boogie Man Will Get You left to watch. It doesn't seem to have a great rep even though it sounds fun.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Christine (1983)

Although based on the book by Stephen King, Christine is probably one of director John Carpenter's less heralded works from his golden eighties period.

It is with me, i don't know why because it's brilliant, yet last night was only the second time i'd ever seen the film and the first on Blu-ray.

More a dark fantasy than genuine horror film, Christine tells the story of the change in personality of geeky school kid Arnie Cunningham and how it affects his relationships with friends and family when he buys a clapped out 1958 Plymouth Fury and decides to do it up, little knowing the car, named Christine, has a murderous back story.

As with so much of Stephen King's work Christine is beautifully realised in a human sense with it's depiction of older teen culture. Arnie, really well played by Keith Gordon, has our sympathies to begin with but the longer he is influenced by the car the more we root for girlfriend Alexandra Paul and best friend John Stockwell as they are the ones being sidelined by the car's presence in Arnie's life. So much of the film is basically classic US college drama that you forget it's also a supernatural thriller until Christine gets to work on the dudes that have made Arnie's life a misery through high school.

Christine is a gorgeous looking car, i know at one point i doubted if it would fit through my standard driveway being an American vehicle from the fifties that's wider by far than typical cars nowadays. Christine develops so much of her own evil personality that come the finale i actually found myself rooting for Stockwell's Bulldozer as if it were Robot Wars or something.

As a piece of celluloid entertainment, Christine hits all the right marks. It's well acted - there's a great support adult cast including Harry Dean Stanton, Robert Prosky and Roberts Blossom - rattles along at a good pace with some terrific set pieces and is a lot of bad to the bone fun.