What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Poor Things (2023)

Poor Things will definitely be worth my Blu-ray purchase price as there will be so much rewatch value... I can't wait. Meanwhile i might have watched the best new-to-me film i'll see all year and it's only the first of January.

This is highly recommended but perhaps not for those who are easily shocked or offended.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, as it was one of my favourite films from 2023. I praised the same things as you in my review after watching it at the cinema and I've seen it a couple of times since then, so it definitely has a lot of rewatch value.

I loved the film and laughed out loud multiple times because some of the dialogue is wickedly funny; some of it comes from Bella's impulsivity and lack of inhibition and some of the other characters wouldn't be out of place in a Jean-Pierre Jeunet-Marc Caro film.

Finally, although this is undoubtedly Lanthimos' finest film, it's also the finest performance of Emma Stone's accomplished career ? it's the sort of acting achievement which happens very rarely and is notable because of its bravery (few actors of her stature and fame would make a film with so much nudity and sex) and audaciousness.

If you can, I recommend watching Poor Things at the cinema but, if you can't go before the theatrical run finishes and have enjoyed either The Lobster or The Favourite, then this is definitely one to buy when it is released for viewing. As I haven't seen The Killing of a Sacred Deer, I'm going to watch that this weekend.

What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[nicholasrope]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Terrifier 3 (2024)

Sicker and more violent than any of the video nasties, Terrifier 3 is kind of ironic. Usually by the third film the quality is beginning to drop along with the budgets, but Damien Leone's Terrifier series began with practically no budget ($35,000) with the irony being that the more films they do the more successful they are and the bigger the production values of the next film - in this case $2m. We even get treated to Dolby TrueHD sound on the Blu-ray.

This probably doesn't have the greatest story but all we are really here for are the gruesome set pieces of which there are several, including a seriously gross out visit by Santa and a shower scene that features more blood than water. The special effects are once again outstanding and David Howard Thornton a revelation as Art the Clown matched by Samantha Scaffidi as the equally twisted Victoria Heyes. A fun Tom Savini cameo too.

I imagine the BBFC examiners had long since given up on attempting to classify this by the time Victoria masturbated with a long shard of broken mirror as Art playfully skinned a guy alive. Whilst they didn't even bother submitting it for classification in the States.

Terrifier 3 is the most refreshing and honest horror film since the the last Terrifier and stands out like a beacon of light among the anaemic horror dumped in cinemas by the major studios.

I agree with what you said, you can't take your eyes of the screen when Art The Clown is on and I agree about the plot:

Wish they explained about the hibernation

For such a remorseless killer, why was he so happy to see Santa Claus in the bar, that scene was amazing, just barging past the 2 girls.

I do wonder whether that end scene on the bus has signalled us to a new character.

Can't help feeling that Damien Leone should do a film on the Ninth Circle

[nicholasrope]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Gone in 60 Seconds (2000)

For a supposed action film there's not an awful lot going on in the first hour other than a get to know you with the cast, a pretty impressive one at that. However the second half almost makes up for it, especially the wild jump Nic Cage does in his Shelby Mustang to escape his pursuers.

A cool soundtrack - Janes Addiction, Apollo 440, The Cult, DMX, Johnny Cash - ensues there's always something to listen to as we go.

Mars Attacks! (1996)

Tim Burton's love letter to all the sci-fi movies he grew up watching in his youth. Another where it takes a while for the fun to begin but once it does and the Martians arrive it's beautiful mayhem until the end.

If i thought Gone in 60 Seconds had a good cast, it's nothing compared to this, and i mean nothing, as Burton brings together one of the greatest ensemble casts of all time.

Really like Gone In Sixty Seconds, good summer movie

[nicholasrope]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

CRAWLSPACE - Slight but enjoyable mid-eighties horror outing from the director of one of my favourites, 'Tourist Tap'. The main draw is Klaus Kinski as a landlord turned slasher with severe peeping tendencies, a Nazi past and a killer gadget obsession. He gives maximum creep by simply murmuring and creasing his face the right way, but it's a revelation seeing him on a skateboard.

BUTCHER, BAKER, NIGHTMARE MAKER - This ex-Video Nasty has benefited from its boutique blu-ray era rehab and can these days be viewed as a thoughtful, well-made and disturbing inversion of 'Psycho'. Its standout aspect is absolutely Susan Tyrell's performance as terrifying Aunt Cheryl. What a face! I wonder whether the Tyrell connection inspired Julia Davis when she did 'Nighty Night', which also featured a ruthlessly efficient gaslighting maniac.

GHOST DANCE - Supernatural slasher about a museum curator on the tail of a murderous Native American spirit. Highly enjoyable, for the tone more than anything - the splattery aspects are nothing to write home about, but something's always rumbling away in the background, the same kind of shadowy early eighties eeriness that runs through overlooked classics such as 'The Dark Room' and 'Incubus'.

STRANGE DARLING - Another one that everyone's been talking about this year, 'Strange Darling' has made the fan community headlines by virtue of its zig-zagging 'post-Tarrantino' structure, blurts of ultraviolence and a mindset seen by some as a bit iffy in the wake of '#Me Too'. A hotel-room hook-up goes wrong and spirals into cross-county cat-and-mouse. I'll leave it to others to unpack the layers of potential controversy and just simply say that it didn't blow me away or anything but worked well enough as a fairly nasty thriller. Nice to see Barbara Hershey, didn't really get the whole "hey stop what you're doing this is in 35mm" thing.

AENIGMA - I love how Fulci can do a film in complete defiance of anything that might be taken as 'good cinema' and still make my head spin by zooming in on a snail crawling across a 'Smash Hits' poster. Totally weirdo, totally class. This is a typical mongrel exercise that throws in bits of 'Carrie', 'Patrick' and 'Phenomena'. Lots of silly bits, some lovely-to-behold high vaulted shadowy chambers, and inspired bouts of mania such as the sequence in which someone runs from room-to-room in a dorm where everyone's been decapitated.

Is Crawlspace, the 88 Films release. If so, have you watched the Extra Features?

I've heard a lot about the filming of the movie and wonder if it's informative

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Devil Girl from Mars (1954)

Creaky black and white British sci-fi about a space craft from Mars that lands in the Scottish Highlands. It's inhabited by a woman, clad head to thigh in black leather / pvc who has arrived with the sole intention of taking human males back to Mars to help repopulate the planet.

The effects are quite primitive but charming to boot and the film sports a fine cast of scream queen actress types in the lovely Hazel Court and Adrienne Corri as well as Patricia Laffan who looks stunning in her fetish outfit as the alien from the red planet. The script is intelligent with enough going on to have been a perfectly good movie without the space ship arriving at all as characters had well rounded back stories and motivations, mystery and intrigue to fill the allotted 80 minute run time as they were.

Having said that proceedings really liven up when the Martian woman arrives and later brings out her robot - a relative of Robbie the Robot maybe, and it begins zapping all in it's path. It's a film that kind of looks cheap and cheerful in the 2020's but back in the fifties would have seemed perfectly at home alongside other British science fiction such as The Quatermass Experiment and Hollywood's The Day the Earth Stood Still.

For what it is i really enjoy Devil Girl from Mars, it was a delight to see it in HD via StudioCanal's recent Blu-ray last night and a definite step up from my old dvd from Image Entertainment which i might add looked pretty darned decent anyway.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by nicholasrope

Is Crawlspace, the 88 Films release. If so, have you watched the Extra Features?

I've heard a lot about the filming of the movie and wonder if it's informative

Yes, I watched the 88 Films release (very likely the same transfer as the old Scream Factory edition and I doubt whether the upcoming Kino offering will be any different) but I have to admit I'm not very big on extras, so have no idea whether the ones included turn up anything especially interesting or not. I think there's an extended piece about Klaus on set, which has 'potential'.

[Frankie Teardrop]

ALIEN: ROMULUS - Considering I think that 'Alien' is one of the best films of all time, I'm always disappointed to realise I feel so little for the rest. I don't even truly believe 'Aliens' is that hot. Pointless expectations aside, 'Romulus' is pretty fun. It diverts away from the ponderous direction of the more recent sequels and sets us on a punchier, pulpier track. I liked the grotesque human/Xenomorph hybrid at the end, less sold on the contentious use of dear old Ian Holm. Overlong but a good laugh, and I use 'good laugh' in the context of a movie by the director of 2013's ultra-depresso 'Evil Dead' reboot.

TERRIFIER 3 - Well, if you don't know what you're getting by now... the return of Art The Clown, doing pretty much what he did in the other two. As is director Damien Leone. To state the obvious - it's really f*cking gory, and in some ways quite twisted, and brings into focus something missing from the horror landscape these days - sheer bloody spectacle. The carnivalesque revel in grotesque for grotesque's sake has been nowhere near the horror mainstream for years. But Leone doesn't overlook our love of poignant subtext, and although he isn't interested in doing nuance, he fills the gaps with backstory and mythos. This is a flaw. 'Terrifier 3', like its predecessor, is too long, there's too much set-up and backtracking and explanation. He should've just brained us with a bucket of blood n guts and left it at that. But it's good, I'm not saying I don't welcome it, and I'm not trying to sound jaded, I just hope come the third sequel he trims a bit of runtime and leaves it all upfront.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

ALIEN: ROMULUS ? Considering I think that ?Alien? is one of the best films of all time, I?m always disappointed when I realise I feel so little for the rest. I don?t even truly believe ?Aliens? is that hot. Pointless expectations aside, ?Romulus? is pretty fun. It diverts away from the ponderous direction of the more recent sequels and sets us on a punchier, pulpier track. I liked the grotesque human ? Xenomorph hybrid at the end, less sold on the contentious use of dear old Ian Holm. Overlong but a good laugh, and I use ?good laugh? in the context of a movie by the director of 2013?s ultra-depresso ?Evil Dead? reboot.

TERRIFIER 3 ? Well, if you don?t know what you?re getting by now? the return of Art The Clown, doing pretty much what he did in the other two. As is director Damien Leone. To state the obvious ? it?s really ****ing gory, and in some ways quite twisted, and brings into focus something missing from the horror landscape these days ? sheer bloody spectacle. The carnivalesque revel in grotesque for grotesque?s sake has been nowhere near the horror mainstream for years. But Leone doesn?t overlook our love of poignant subtext, and although he isn?t interested in doing nuance, he fills the gaps with backstory and mythos. This is a flaw. ?Terrifier 3?, like its predecessor, is too long, there?s too much set-up and backtracking and explanation. He should?ve just brained us with a bucket of blood n guts and left it at that. But it?s good, I?m not saying I don?t welcome it, and I?m not trying to sound jaded, I just hope come the third sequel he trims a bit of runtime and leaves it all upfront.

Alien Romulus was watched by me on Boxing Day but i haven't got round to writing anything about it yet.

In short i rather enjoyed it. Far superior to that last thing that came out under the Alien banner.

You are right in what you say regarding the Terrifier films. They are too long. However i can't help admiring the fact that Leone wants to give his characters mythos and back story rather than simply being one dimensional.

It's a pity the makers of the equally long Scream 6 couldn't have figured that out as, a couple of people aside, everyone in it is one dimensional and poorly fleshed out.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Alien Romulus was watched by me on Boxing Day but i haven't got round to writing anything about it yet.

In short i rather enjoyed it. Far superior to that last thing that came out under the Alien banner.

You are right in what you say regarding the Terrifier films. They are too long. However i can't help admiring the fact that Leone wants to give his characters mythos and back story rather than simply being one dimensional.

It's a pity the makers of the equally long Scream 6 couldn't have figured that out as, a couple of people aside, everyone in it is one dimensional and poorly fleshed out.

I should probably add that even though I think Leone does it all a bit sloppily, I quite like the mythos aspect of Art and was quite taken with what he seemed to be trying to do in the second one in particular, which appeared to blossom out into a weirdly visionary, prog-rock album cover direction at points with wild imagery and supernatural asides. Unless I imagined it. I'll have to check it out again. In all fairness, he's injecting something vital back into things, which I definitely feel should be celebrated.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

I should probably add that even though I think Leone does it all a bit sloppily, I quite like the mythos aspect of Art and was quite taken with what he seemed to be trying to do in the second one in particular, which appeared to blossom out into a weirdly visionary, prog-rock album cover direction at points with wild imagery and supernatural asides. Unless I imagined it. I'll have to check it out again. In all fairness, he's injecting something vital back into things, which I definitely feel should be celebrated.

I've seen the second one twice now. I would have watched it last October as a third viewing but didn't.

Why?

I thought it was too long and never got round to it.