What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Blood Tide (1982)

A young couple played by Martin Kove and Mary Louise Weller go to a Greek island where Kove's sister (Deborah Shelton) allegedly disappeared. Soon after arriving they find her shacked up with James Earl Jones' treasure hunter, whilst drug fueled ramblings of ancient monsters and human sacrifice are frequently spouted by islander Jose Ferrer and his cronies.

The island has the same sun drenched cliff tops of other 'classic' Greek set horrors such as Incense for the Damned (1981) and The Devil's Men (1976) and shares those films levels of comforting dreariness randomly punctuated by shots of beautiful deep blue seas and even more beautiful bikini babes - Those with a nervous disposition had better steer clear of Kove's small white shorts - Meanwhile James Earl Jones does his own private audition for the role of grizzled sea captain in a Jaws sequel that never happened.

Although produced by Nico Mastorakis this lacks the breathless energy of his directing gigs in the 80's, after an hour you realise there's more benign nothingness here than horror and yet i find it eminently watchable for all it's lacklustre goings on.

[MrBarlow]

Bog. 1979.

We got a local fisherman at the bog lake doing some dynamite fishing and wakening up some sort of creature that wasn't best pleased about the wake up call and going on a rampage killing women for blood. Gloria DeHaaven is the biologist trying to figure out what is going on while some locals and outsiders are trying to give a description of what they have seen to the local sheriff Aldo Ray and we got local doctor Marshall Thompson who has the hots for Gloria.

The film does give out Deliverance vibes being out in the small town in the middle of nowhere and with one or two characters on screen there may have been some inbreeding going on. The budget was probably low for the costume designers or were they on a constant acid high trip and try to do something different from the Creature From The Black Lagoon. The acting is not great which surprises me as the three leads are great actors, but you go with what you can, it's not great but not terrible.

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[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Can anyone be more of a bastard than Inspector Cliff? (1973)

Ivan Rassimov is an undercover cop who has infiltrated two drug gangs. One Italian, run by Mama the Turk (a bizarrely cast although pretty convincing Patricia Hayes) and the other in London hiding behind a front of an escort service which it uses to blackmail wealthy clients.

This Italian-British Poliziotteschi is an enjoyable crime thriller full of strong violence, car chases and double crosses galore, not to mention politicians dressing up as rabbits plus an exquisitely groovy score by Riz Ortolani.

Then there's the lovely Stephanie Beacham. Any fans of her are going to love this film. All in all this is a fine example of Italian crime movies and remains memorable thanks to Massimo Dallamano's classy direction and great performances from Beacham and Rassimov.

The film was re-released on vhs in the UK in the 80's as Super Bitch which was a play on words on the Joan Collins film from the 70's. It was to capitalise on the fact Beacham starred alongside Collins in hit US series Dynasty at the time of the vhs release. The UK re-release also had a prominent credit for Gareth Thomas from the BBC series Blakes 7 which was popular in the early 80's even though he's in just a single short scene.There's also an uncredited role for popular Grange Hill, Doctor Who and Indiana Jones actor Michael Sheard.

Unfortunately i can't find an example of the UK vhs art (A painting of Beacham laid on a bed) work so will use it's original Italian one.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Cry Macho (2021)

When everyone else was staying indoors in a global pandemic Clint Eastwood grabbed a bunch of Mexican actors (And country music star Dwight Yoakam for a few scenes) and headed into New Mexico with a fully masked crew to make this wonderful neo-western movie about a former rodeo star hired to reunite a young boy (Eduardo Minett) now in Mexico with his father (Dwight Yoakam) in the United States. Meanwhile the boys Mexican mother sends one of her henchmen (For want of a better word) after them making the pair hole up at a small border town in the company of cafe owner Marta (Natalia Traven)

I've seen this twice now and think it's a total delight. Clint Eastwood the actor at age 90 playing a sort of amalgamation of many of his classic cowboy roles whilst Eastwood the director proves once again that not only has he an eye for a shot but he can make a simple largely inoffensive film about small events and populate it with character's you'll fall in love with.

Macho by the way, is a rooster owned by the boy, once used in cockfights and now his and Eastwood's traveling companion. An odd name for a bird for sure but as Eastwood says "A guy wants to call his cock Macho, it's okay by me".

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Can anyone be more of a bastard than Inspector Cliff? (1973)

Ivan Rassimov is an undercover cop who has infiltrated two drug gangs. One Italian, run by Mama the Turk (a bizarrely cast although pretty convincing Patricia Hayes) and the other in London hiding behind a front of an escort service which it uses to blackmail wealthy clients.

This Italian-British Poliziotteschi is an enjoyable crime thriller full of strong violence, car chases and double crosses galore, not to mention politicians dressing up as rabbits plus an exquisitely groovy score by Riz Ortolani.

Then there's the lovely Stephanie Beacham. Any fans of her are going to love this film. All in all this is a fine example of Italian crime movies and remains memorable thanks to Massimo Dallamano's classy direction and great performances from Beacham and Rassimov.

The film was re-released on vhs in the UK in the 80's as Super Bitch which was a play on words on the Joan Collins film from the 70's. It was to capitalise on the fact Beacham starred alongside Collins in hit US series Dynasty at the time of the vhs release. The UK re-release also had a prominent credit for Gareth Thomas from the BBC series Blakes 7 which was popular in the early 80's even though he's in just a single short scene.There's also an uncredited role for popular Grange Hill, Doctor Who and Indiana Jones actor Michael Sheard.

Unfortunately i can't find an example of the UK vhs art (A painting of Beacham laid on a bed) work so will use it's original Italian one.

Thanks for getting me interested in a film that seem pretty much impossible to get these days (30GBP used DVD on Amazon lol)

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Justin101

Thanks for getting me interested in a film that seem pretty much impossible to get these days (30GBP used DVD on Amazon lol)

Haha, sorry. Yes that was the Arrow dvd i watched. It's one that could really do with a Blu-ray upgrade.

It's odd watching it in a way as it's a Poliziotteschi but set mainly in London.

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Haha, sorry. Yes that was the Arrow dvd i watched. It's one that could really do with a Blu-ray upgrade.

It's odd watching it in a way as it's a Poliziotteschi but set mainly in London.

I'm very surprised it's not been put out by someone (in the world) in the last 10 years! Surely soon... It's unlikely Arrow still hold the license for it.

[MrBarlow]

Mr Vampire III. 1987.

Richard Ng is Mao Ming , a priest able to expel ghosts from homes and using two friendly spirits for his con game only to be expelled from his village. He meets with Ching Ying Lam who is battling with powerful sorceress along with his two assistants. This one goes back to the same era as the first film which is a good start but it has very little to do with any vampires technically it should be titled Mrs/Miss Witch or Mr Ghostbuster. The action is there when ew more people become possessed and the comedy does seem a bit lacking in some areas but when the comedic parts appear you can't help but laugh.

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[MrBarlow]

The Devil's Partner. 1960.

Ed Nelson turns up in a quiet little back town somewhere after the death of his uncle who was a hermit. The locals seem to take well to the nephew but he is hiding a darker secret.

First things first, the cover art has nothing to do with the film, someone must have wanted to attract a audience by putting a woman on a black stallion...jeez sounds like a porno film set up...ahem anyway for a low budget this was actually a decent flick, taking hints from the old Wolf Man scenario with the metamorphosis during the film. The acting is entertaining with some chessey dialogue thrown in for good measure and using a dark lens for night when it's noticeable it's actually daytime. This is one i'd certainly recommend to check out if you have 74 minutes to spare.

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[Frankie Teardrop]

LIPS OF BLOOD - I can never really get enough Jean Rollin. He hits on the essence of something dream-like in film, and I just like the way it's all so unapologetically geared towards his preoccupations and obsessions, narrative and cinematic nicety being flimsy veils pulled aside to reveal... well, nude vampires looking windswept in a bleak coastal scene, more than likely. 'Lips Of Blood' is maybe a step away from the early seventies stuff, which had a more far-out pop sensibility to it, and is less full-on in its gothicism and general excess than the watershed 'Requiem For A Vampire'. It's also more formally elegant than those earlier films and its psychology feels more layered. It follows a man's Proustian fixation on a childhood memory he can't fully grasp; his journey leads him to an ancient ruin and the inevitable encounter with a naked vampire off the Normandy coastline. Rollin's camera becomes the mind's eye of a dreamer at points and offers visions that seem truly oneiric in their shadowy splendour; a trip through the dilapidated streets of Paris after dark nearly had me salivating. "Meet me in the aquarium at midnight" - where else would you hear those words? There's a looseness to the whys and wherefores, but, whether you want to go all Freud about the lead character's mummy issues, there's also a depth. Another instance of the director's unbreakable spell.

PSYCHO COP RETURNS - Adam Rifkin did 'Invisible Maniac' and the impressively strange 'Dark Backward'. 'Psycho Cop Returns', a film to which I am returning now, applies the formula Rifkin used more effectively in 'Invisible Maniac', namely cringey smut, yucks and risible 'laughs', and might sit contentedly near the bottom of the mid-nineties genre barrel were it not for a few haunting details. Office dorks throw an after-hours party in their skyscraper, get some strippers and booze in and generally set the scene for the kind of post-'Porkies' sleaze comedy that would've been considered passe even a decade earlier. Gatecrashing the above is Psycho Cop, played as a post-Freddie wisecracker by Robert Shafer, who basically just wants to murder everyone in the name of a parking ticket. The gags are a bit feeble and so is the horror, but a slight oddness intrigues. Why is the lighting so shadowy? It borders on noir and feels so out of kilter, making all the stripper action and the eventual and inevitable decline into endless runaround seem nearly surreal. And how about that Rodney King shout-out? Maybe 'Psycho Cop Returns' just needed to a little more space to let its political conscience breath. It's a film that's proudly schlocky to the core and needs no elevation whatsoever, but this weird expressionistic quality, misfiring tone and Shafer's bug eyed performance together lend a tinge of enigma.