What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Against the Dark (2009)

Steven Seagal stars as the leader of a group of four military vigilantes who spend the whole film wandering the corridors of a hospital looking for survivors in the aftermath of a world ravaging disease that left most of the population as flesh crazed vampire / zombie mutant things.

Did we really need a Steven Seagal action horror film you ask? When it's as gory as this one i'll happily say yes. I don't think i've ever seen so many bodies with their entrails ripped out.

As a Seagal film it's kind of disappointing as he's barely in it for the first hour as it concentrates on a small group of survivors in the hospital frantically trying to evade being gutted as they attempt to get to the only working exit from the building. This reminds of things like Romero's Survival of the Dead in it's execution but when Seagal and his kill squad really get into proceedings the action is upped considerably and there are some cool set pieces involving slicing and dicing the infected in the hospitals confined corridors.

I think last night was the fifth time i've watched Against the Dark and i always enjoy it even though it lacks the mumbling martial artist for much of it's first two thirds.

[gag]

Dune II,

There’s films that are well made and then there’s s films like this that are just pure stunning and spectacular in every single sense.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Ticker (2001)

Albert Pyun (Cyborg, Nemesis, Adrenalin: Fear the Rush) directs this entertaining (Not always for the right reasons) San Francisco set action thriller starring Tom Sizemore, Dennis Hopper, Steven Seagal and Jaime Pressley.

Naturally shit blows up!

[Dave Boy]

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ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968)

Rosemary and her husband move in to an old apartment in New York.
Soon, they get friendly with a rather meddlesome couple and hear strange chanting from adjoining room. After having a strange dream, Rosemary becomes pregnant and is doted on by the old couple in building.
After a friend dies after visiting, Rosemary is given a book on Witches..

Great stuff. When Rosemary learns the truth about what is happening, the movie really pumps up the dread atmosphere as she tries to get people to believe her and you do really feel for her going through all this.
And yes, the ending...

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

My Name Is Modesty: A Modesty Blaise Adventure (2004

An origin story based on the early years of the character Modesty Blaise, a former crime boss turned secret agent. Told as flashback when the casino she is head croupier at is overrun by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau's gang of machine gun wielding thugs we see how a resourceful little girl from the Balkan wars met up with a man who would become her mentor and teach her everything from languages to martial arts.

Even at a mere 75 minutes this feels overlong. Other than a final action scene which is decent enough the rest of the film is all back story. It felt like i was watching a pilot episode of a series that was never commissioned rather than a fully fledged feature film in it's own right. Thankfully Alexandra Staden is assured as Modesty and her verbal battle with Coster-Waldau manages to keep things ticking over before the big fight finale.

The dvd however is something else. There are lengthy synopsis of all 95 of author Peter O'Donnell's books and stories as well as many examples of featured artwork. There's an hour interview with the author, plus a 42 minute chat with fanboy and executive producer Quentin Tarantino, a 15 minute making of and a couple of commentaries including director Scott Spiegel & producer Ted Nicolaou. Basically it's everything a fan of Modesty Blaise could want and is so much more worthwhile than any of the dvd / Blu-ray releases of the 1966 film Modesty Blaise.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The House That Screamed (1969)

An excellent Spanish horror film from director Narciso Serrador set in a 19th century boarding school for young women.

The film follows new arrival Cristina Galba, as she gets to know her new surroundings, class mates and teachers, including the tyrannical Mrs. Fourneau (Who is she protecting?), and also finds out how to meet a local delivery lad as well as discovering there's a killer on the loose.

Serrador expertly captures the oppressive sexual needs of the girls without veering into leery Jess Franco or Jean Rollin territory, and the film is all the better for it. The erotic atmosphere flutters like a gentle breeze rather than submerging the film in soft core sex, culminating in a clothed shower scene which shows minimal skin but works wonderfully. No wonder pervy John Moulder-Brown scurries through the air conditioning vents like a sweaty rat determined to have a peek.

The film is firmly in the Gothic horror genre with the killer almost a side note to the beautiful atmosphere. Whereas say, Pete Walker would have created an exercise in decay and sexual subjugation the environs here are lush in the style of Roger Corman's Gothic chillers which add to the class of Serrador's relaxed but constantly interesting direction.

The young women who play the school girls are all believable in their own right and never lurch into sleazy parody whilst Lilli Palmer brings a real touch of class as the formidable but not OTT headmistress.

This is often said to be a direct influence on Dario Argento's Suspiria. As much as i love Suspiria i think i like this more having now seen it three times in just over a year. For me it's up there with Kill Baby Kill and Inferno as the very best Euro horror offers.

All in all The House That Screamed aka The Residence (My preferred title) is a seriously good film that i highly recommend.

Rewatched via the US version last night which runs 11 minutes less than the international release.

[Rob4]

Mickey 17 (2025)

Viewed at my local Odeon last night, this is a continuation of Director Bong Joon Ho's obsession with the haves and the have nots. Outside of this recurring theme there is a neat sci-fi premise of what it's like to be constantly reborn just minutes after you have died and what if you didn't die but were reborn anyway?

A good showcase for the talents of Robert Pattinson in a dual role which is essentially the same character but with different character traits - a sort of futuristic riff on the Jekyll & Hyde theme. Ruffalo is good entertainment value as the villain but his performance is perhaps too-knowing a take on the orange berk in the White House.

The style of the movie is irreverent which got me thinking that it wouldn't have been out of place as a 2000AD comic strip. It has that wacky satirical vibe.

If I had a complaint, I'd say the climax was too drawn out and 'Hollywood', but there is a nice creepy coda to bring it back into focus which is a great scene for Toni Collette playing Ruffalo's deranged wife.

This was a good Friday night at the flix - recommended.

[Frankie Teardrop]

HERETIC - Horror wears many masks, these days more than ever, but I never thought I'd see what's basically a slasher flick done up as a long metaphysical conversation about the existence of god. Another surprise is cackling Hugh Grant, a malignant atheist clearly having a great time repudiating religion in front of Mormons Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East. The drawn-out talky chamber piece bit focusing on what lies on the other side is the film's strongest hand, with 'horror' mainly driven by the conversational tone and the atmosphere of Hugh's shadowy manse; when it takes an inevitable turn for the generic, it remains strong. Excellent performances and a weird premise... this film's talent for the unexpected shows there's life in the old dog yet.

PHANTOMS - I like films that just get into it. There's a minimum of fuss about the set-up here - small town, largely depopulated, and now there are these... things. And here's Ben Afleck looking like it's still the mid-nineties (cos it is), leading the troops into the sub-Lovecraftian darkness. 'Phantoms' is based on a Dean Koontz book I haven't read, and I imagine any untrimmed doorstop-compatible flab comes in the form of a bollocks-spouting Peter O'Toole, who blethers on about sentient petroleum with a fragile ago. It's lightweight action-horror of a Carpenterian hue that throws up nice visuals whilst rattling along at a breathless pace, although it's too straightforward to carry the brooding atmosphere of obvious influence 'The Thing'.

OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN - Peter Weller has a rat problem. It's not James Herbert-sized - there's only one - but it's trashing his posh New York townhouse. This is the early eighties, when big businesses were all glass, boardrooms and bad behaviour, and Weller is something of a hotshot with room in his mind only for the corporate ladder. That ladder's being chewed to shit by his new friend. 'Of Unknown Origin' is a smart film that always strikes me as a bit unusual. What is it going for? It's not quite black comedy, full-on horror, or the kind of Yuppie satire that was popular by nineteen eighty three, the year it came out. More than anything it's a study in ruinous obsession - at one point there's a Poe reference, and you can just about catch a wisp of 'The Black Cat' and its narrator's unravelling. It's not perfect. Its momentum plateaus and it starts to run in circles, like a rat in a cage, with Weller tearing through his house Tom and Jerry style, always outdone by vermin. The same gag repeats endlessly. But its sharp tone, presence of Weller, and the fact that they blow up the absurd non-horror of an intrinsically unthreatening solo rat by using close-ups to bring out something menacing and a bit gross, make for a fascinating watch.

THE HILLS HAVE EYES - Another of those remakes from the noughts, and again I feel moved to point out how they were, surprisingly, by and large pretty good considering they were really having a go at the canon. No-one's as territorial as a horror fan around their fave flick, not even a mutant cannibal whose only lot in life is a foul stretch of radioactive scrubland. Alexandre Aja's THHE holds its own. It's deliberately paced and takes time to get going, but the last hour is highly adrenalised, brutal stuff. Does it add anything? Cover new ground? I'm not convinced, though it's certainly slicker and probably nastier. Only slight disappointment was, even though it's been ages since I last saw it, it all came back to me very clearly when I put it on the other day. Y'know, my memory's shite, I like to feel I'm 'rediscovering' stuff if it's been a while. Anyway. Very good.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Fantastic post there, Frankie.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

City Under the Sea (1965)

Released Stateside as War Gods of the Deep, City Under the Sea is one of those AIP productions that straddles genres. Based very loosely on Poe's poem The City in the Sea, yet it's certainly more fantasy than it is horror and has a real Jules Verne steam punk vibe to it.

Directed by the great Jacques Tourneur, City Under the Sea is a moderately pacy affair with some terrific underwater filming. Vincent Price is excellent as always, Tab Hunter is a little stiff around the edges but makes for a decent-ish hero and Susan Hart does the eye candy in peril part rather well. British actor David Tomlinson's blundering buffooniness isn't needed but he doesn't really let the side down. And then there's Herbert... the chicken! It doesn't get more steam punk than a chicken in a Victorian diving helmet.

City Under the Sea is a worthy effort and sits proudly, at least with me, in the AIP/ Poe/ Price arsenal of chillers.