What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[gag]

Originally Posted by nicholasrope

Mississippi Burning

Outstanding Film based on the True Story of F.B.I. Agents played by Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe travel down to Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of 3 Civil Rights Activists in 1964. There they encounter Racism and The KKK. Both Hackman (As the gruff no nonsense Detective) and Dafoe (As the man in charge) At over 2 hours it's breezes by as it is very enthralling. Best bit was when they decide to fight the Racists at their own game which includes intimidation (Of the Mayor) and by Tobin Bell playing the F.B.I. Agent brought in to intimidate the suspects. Definitely a recommendation if you haven't seen it yet.

Bikeriders

Story told by the Girlfriend of one of the members of a Biker Gang in the 60's. Tom Hardy, Austin Butler and Jodie Comer star in a film that promised so much but delivered so little. I heard it was a cross between Good Fellas and Sons Of Anarchy but I didn't see it, definitely not as violent. Maybe I wasn't really in the mood but I was very disappointed.

Commando

Don't think I need to go into the plot but this is one of those perfect put on during a hot night type of Films. Completely ludicrous but thoroughly entertaining with Arnold Schwarzenegger delivering the goods with Vernon Wells with the Freddie Mercury look (Not sure if it was intentional) and a scrawny weasely type bady guy who you want to see get his.

As this was the Blu-Ray, I watched the Directors Cut with some scenes that might have been problematic back in it's initial release.

I fancy Bikeriders almost went to see it last week, but other things happened that stopped me. Im undecided if to watch it this week or a quiet place, Day one.

[MrBarlow]

Summer Of 84. 2018.

With a spate of missing children happening round a small town, one boy believes his neighbour is the culprit and gets his friends to spy on the neighbour, only problem is the culprit is the local sheriff.

Going back to the 80s when kids actually played outside without technology being around were some good days Directors
Francois Simard, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell manage to create something that has been done, people spying on their neighbours but using things from the past and keeping happy memories going.

The acting from the young cast is decent and believable and the "parents never listen to kids" is very much alive in this little flick, it's more thriller type of film rather than full blown horror, it does start off slow and once it get going this held my attention right up to the end, certainly coming back to this.

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[MrBarlow]

Evil In The Woods.

We got a young Brian Abent checking out a book from the library and is sucked into a world of a film crew making a movie in the backwoods that are stalked and killed by...something.

This is one of those films where you know it's bad and it will never get any better and it doesn't it just gets worse and worse and here I am somehow thinking how I watched this to the end. The acting is laughable with the film crew trying to make a movie yet the acting still sucks. The costume design for the monster is laughable and the end was hilarious. Low budget Aussie film that will never be viewed again and I'm sure someone will go hunting for it

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[Frankie Teardrop]

SRIGALA - They call it the Indonesian 'Friday The 13th', but since when did Jason romp around in a red speedboat, tossing grenades? Might've pepped up least a few of the sequels if he had. No, 'Srigala' does in fact riff quite heavily on F13, in fact the climax is basically just that, but it's mostly about treasure thieves hassling pesky kids who might scupper their lakeside manoeuvres. I was torn between not feeling massively engaged and really liking bits of it; just when exasperation creeps in after one fake scare too many, a random zombie dream brings hope and guffaws with its misplaced weirdness ('Srigala's good with little bits like that, see also red speedboat above). And I dug the music, a lo-fi mix of keyboards, post-punk guitars and organ drones that seeps into scenes of chatty sunbathing and clouds them over with an under-the-surface oddness. One thing they do lift rather well from the original 'classic' is the OTT storm that dominates the latter half of that movie and does the same here. Overall, an interesting curio likely to attract Mondo Macabro enthusiasts - though this was put out by Terror Vision, who've done a sterling job.

DREAM HOME - There aren't all that many credit crunch slashers. 'Dream Home' is about Lai-Sheung and her unwavering fixation on a des res Hong Kong pad with a harbour view. We find out what drives this obsession through a series of childhood flashbacks that mar the pace a bit, but, beyond the semi-novelty of a slasher doubling as socio-economic satire - which you sort of had in 'Driller Killer', for example - 'Dream Home' is really more about pushing home the gore after Lai hits on her scheme to drive down local housing prices by butchering their tenants(!) There's certainly plenty of vicious splatter; although I was more impressed by it the first time I saw it, it's one of those noughties nasties that stand out set against the comparative anaemia of the now.

OPEN GRAVE - I'm not overly big on zombie aftermath movies when they're just about the usual bickering survivors and ghouls who can run. 'Open Grave', on the other hand, lays on nice visuals, a thoughtful approach and downer vibe - I quite liked. Sharlto Copley wakes up in a pit full of corpses, not knowing how he got there or what lies ahead in the world beyond. He finds a house of similarly memory-impaired people, and together they try to piece things together whilst fending off the advances of wild eyed posthumans. It takes its time but manages to sustain tension by not laying down its cards all at once - we're as much in the dark as the characters. Even if it relies too heavily on the beats of its particular subgenre to transcend it, the mood of sunny dereliction cut through with rabid menace makes it seem more offbeat than the usual post- '28 Days' fare, at least until the typical finish.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

DREAM HOME - There aren't all that many credit crunch slashers. 'Dream Home' is about Lai-Sheung and her unwavering fixation on a des res Hong Kong pad with a harbour view. We find out what drives this obsession through a series of childhood flashbacks that mar the pace a bit, but, beyond the semi-novelty of a slasher doubling as socio-economic satire - which you sort of had in 'Driller Killer', for example - 'Dream Home' is really more about pushing home the gore after Lai hits on her scheme to drive down local housing prices by butchering their tenants(!) There's certainly plenty of vicious splatter; although I was more impressed by it the first time I saw it, it's one of those noughties nasties that stand out set against the comparative anaemia of the now.

OPEN GRAVE - I'm not overly big on zombie aftermath movies when they're just about the usual bickering survivors and ghouls who can run. 'Open Grave', on the other hand, lays on nice visuals, a thoughtful approach and downer vibe - I quite liked. Sharlto Copley wakes up in a pit full of corpses, not knowing how he got there or what lies ahead in the world beyond. He finds a house of similarly memory-impaired people, and together they try to piece things together whilst fending off the advances of wild eyed posthumans. It takes its time but manages to sustain tension by not laying down its cards all at once - we're as much in the dark as the characters. Even if it relies too heavily on the beats of its particular subgenre to transcend it, the mood of sunny dereliction cut through with rabid menace makes it seem more offbeat than the usual post- '28 Days' fare, at least until the typical finish.

I keep wanting to rewatch Dream Home as i loved it first time round and i don't want to not like it as much.

I also thought Open Grave was a crushing disappointment. Although i have seen it and used to have the dvd i couldn't tell you a thing about it other than it takes place in woods.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I keep wanting to rewatch Dream Home as i loved it first time round and i don't want to not like it as much.

I also thought Open Grave was a crushing disappointment. Although i have seen it and used to have the dvd i couldn't tell you a thing about it other than it takes place in woods.

Yeah, that kind of thing stops me rewatching stuff, the haunting sense that you might be trashing your memories with a slightly disappointing return. That said, I've been doing quite a lot of revisiting recently, pretty much on account of the drought that seems to be affecting new stuff generally and the endless reissuing from the boutiques. 'Dream Home' wasn't a let down as such but it didn't hit 'home' as much as I remembered. The gore's still quite heavy, for what it's worth. Like you, all I could remember of 'Open Grave' was the vague sense that it was set in the woods - couldn't even really recall what I thought of it. My rewatch was OK.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

Yeah, that kind of thing stops me rewatching stuff, the haunting sense that you might be trashing your memories with a slightly disappointing return. That said, I've been doing quite a lot of revisiting recently, pretty much on account of the drought that seems to be affecting new stuff generally and the endless reissuing from the boutiques. 'Dream Home' wasn't a let down as such but it didn't hit 'home' as much as I remembered. The gore's still quite heavy, for what it's worth. Like you, all I could remember of 'Open Grave' was the vague sense that it was set in the woods - couldn't even really recall what I thought of it. My rewatch was OK.

I have a large box of horror dvd's i'm supposedly getting rid of (Been doing it for two years and all they've reached is the garage) so if Open Grave is in the box i'll give it a rewatch.

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

SRIGALA - They call it the Indonesian 'Friday The 13th', but since when did Jason romp around in a red speedboat, tossing grenades? Might've pepped up least a few of the sequels if he had. No, 'Srigala' does in fact riff quite heavily on F13, in fact the climax is basically just that, but it's mostly about treasure thieves hassling pesky kids who might scupper their lakeside manoeuvres. I was torn between not feeling massively engaged and really liking bits of it; just when exasperation creeps in after one fake scare too many, a random zombie dream brings hope and guffaws with its misplaced weirdness ('Srigala's good with little bits like that, see also red speedboat above). And I dug the music, a lo-fi mix of keyboards, post-punk guitars and organ drones that seeps into scenes of chatty sunbathing and clouds them over with an under-the-surface oddness. One thing they do lift rather well from the original 'classic' is the OTT storm that dominates the latter half of that movie and does the same here. Overall, an interesting curio likely to attract Mondo Macabro enthusiasts - though this was put out by Terror Vision, who've done a sterling job

[MrBarlow]

Jive Talkin'. 1974.

Released under a different title, this is Blaxploitation not at it's finest but certainly not at it's worst, set in 1954 Harlem with actors I got no idea who they are throwing about the "N" word alot and even a song with the word in it, so the makers may have tried to push it out more than they should. We got the Big Daddy of Harlem and the not so Italian Stallion Mobster at war for turf that even the police are racist who'd da thought that for a 70s film. You got the second in command "Sweet Daddy" trying to be a bookie but also tries to get young ones going straight and a near father figure teen looking out for his family. Truth be told even though it was low budget and badly edited I actually enjoyed this.

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[iank]

Saw The Conference on Netflix last night. A bunch of municipality workers go on a retreat to celebrate the imminent breaking ground of a new shopping mall (that most locals don't want), only to become the target of a psycho killer with a score to settle. This very entertaining 2023 Swedish slasher feels vaguely reminiscent of the 2006 British comedy-horror Severance but is a whole heap of fun.