What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by SymbioticFunction

I find that relationship quite touching and a highlight of the film. Sorry. Having said that, Trauma does probably remind me more of a Brian De Palma movie than a Dario Argento one.

It's a strange one because he lifts elements off his own movies (Deep Red, Tenebre, even the lakeside house reminds of Phenomena) yet like you say it feels more like a De Palma effort.

[Mojo]

I don?t mind TRAUMA. It?s not among his very best, but I still find it pretty watchable. For me, Dario?s worst film is GIALLO - it?s absolutely f*cking dreadful.

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Mojo

I don?t mind TRAUMA. It?s not among his very best, but I still find it pretty watchable. For me, Dario?s worst film is GIALLO - it?s absolutely f*cking dreadful.

Your scaring me Mojo, I got that one on my watchlist

[Mojo]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

Your scaring me Mojo, I got that one on my watchlist

Ha ha! Only my opinion - you might like it!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Phantom of the Opera (1998)

A series of terrifying accidents and brutal murders leave a bloody trail into the subterranean caverns of a Paris Opera house. Below the theatre lurks a man raised by creatures of the underworld who falls for a young opera singer (Asia Argento) when he hears her voice.

Dario Argento's take on the classic Gaston Leroux tale is a luscious epic of Grand Guignol, rich in detail - the sets and underground caverns are stunning - and dripping with grue, with a lovely score from the maestro Ennio Morricone to give things an even more poetic feel.

Argento takes the well worn story down some refreshing watery tunnels especially in the look of his phantom. Gone is the deformed masked composer and in his place is a dashing and enigmatic Julian Sands whose orphan upbringing by rats has given him strange telepathic powers. Powers which of course he uses to put the charming singer (I'd argue Asia has never been better than her performance here) centre stage.

I'm not going to lie. I don't particularly like The Phantom of the Opera. Two colour experimental 'Masque of the Red Death' sequence in the 1925 silent version aside the rest are boring, although Robert Englund's straight horror version from 1989 has it's merits. Dario Argento's effort is by far the best as far as i'm concerned as it does something different with a dull concept yet remains a Gothic extravaganza.

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I'm not going to lie. I don't particularly like The Phantom of the Opera. Two colour experimental 'Masque of the Red Death' sequence in the 1925 silent version aside the rest are boring, although Robert Englund's straight horror version from 1989 has it's merits. Dario Argento's effort is by far the best as far as i'm concerned as it does something different with a dull concept yet remains a Gothic extravaganza.

The live stage version by Andrew Lloyd Webber is very good

[MrBarlow]

After Hours. 1985.

Paul a computer programmer leads a boring dull life, work, eat, sleep repeat until one night he decides to go out, meets a oddball of people and then becomes a wanted man by a vigilante group.

Griffin Dunne probably best know as Jack in An American Werewolf In London plays the hapless programmer who meets up with Rosanna Arquette and then his long night in the open world becomes a somewhat laughable bad dream. This film really puts you on the edge as Paul just wants to go home and you really hope he does but what can happen does happen. Just when you think he can catch a break and be hopeful, nothing ever goes smooth for him. Martin Scorsese has made great movies over the years and this is one of his underrated movies, with John Heard, Teri Garr, Linda Fiorentino, Catherine O'Hara, Will Patton, Robert Plunket being some of the people Paul meets.

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[Justin101]

I loved After Hours but I was definitely feeling stressed out, poor guy just wants to get home haha.

[MrBarlow]

Spider. 2002.

A man recently released from a psychiatric unit goes to stay in a halfway house close to where he was brought up and slowly lives out his childhood and the trauma that came along.

Ralph Fiennes plays the adult Dennis "Spider" Cleg who tries to fit back in society and slowly slips back to his childhood memories with Gabriel Byrne and Miranda Richardson as the parents, who witnesses his father's adultery that leads to murder and a new woman in his life. The film is a bit of a slow burner but does manage to keep your eyes on the screen as you do want to find out what actually unfolded in Spider's childhood and how the film will pan out in the end, but does make you wonder if everything we see did happen or are you looking through the eyes of a mentally disturbed person.

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[Frankie Teardrop]

EVIL JUDGEMENT - There's a smidge of discord about this Canadian giallo / slasher that had me intrigued. The characters are 'off', events roll by at random as if in search of another script - a tramp pisses in his soup, a hooker and her friend do a jig in a restaurant window just cos it might perk things up for a couple of mins. It's about a down-on-her-luck dancer who's always blowing up with her schmuck of a boyfriend; when her best mate convinces her she'd be better off on the game, they head off to a big mansion for a threesome with a judge followed by some throat slashing. Pace is baggy and the tone is out of whack - sometimes it feels like a domestic drama that's been gate-crashed by an Argento wannabe with a thing about blue gel, but then it swerves into police conspiracy and judicial corruption (and back). An odd fish, but I like odd fish.

NIGHT SCHOOL - Another slasher. This time the killer has a gimmick - they're into biker gear and collecting heads. If nothing else, you should stick it to the end to hear their motive, it's hilarious. 'Night School' takes a fairly by-the-numbers approach to what was a tired formula even by 1981, weaving a police procedural and a subplot about a lecturer's many affairs around a set of slightly anaemic kills. It has a few cards up its sleeve. The gore may be lacking, but there's a theatricality to the way some of the kills are set up that brings the occasional note of strangeness, with odd scenes such as the roundabout head chop, or the one where a severed head floats slowly to the bottom of the tank in a darkened aquarium. The presence of people like Rachel Ward lends an air of fake class, and there's something really nice about the overall look, wintry browns framing twisted trees and Hitchcockian staircases. If you want a full throttle slasher look somewhere else, but this is a competent murder mystery that hides its derivative nature and basic silliness behind a few tasteful moves.