What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[R-T-C Tim]

My Alistair MacLean season going into the more obscure now:



The novel The Way to Dusty Death is usually considered the start of MacLean's decline as a writer, ending the epic first person narratives and endlessly twisting storyline of his heyday in favour of straight forward action stories.

The novel has some highlights but it is far from a classic. This low budget television adaptation is helmed by Geoffrey Reeve (who previously worked on the much better 'Puppet on a Chain') and is decent enough but obviously hampered by a low budget and trends more to a generic DTV actioner than a thriller.

Unfortunately not readily available, there is a decent enough Danish DVD although seems to be asking a few quid on Amazon Marketplace at present.

Full review of [url=http://mondo-esoterica.net/Way%20to%20Dusty%20Death.html]The Way to Dusty Death featuring car explosion pictures.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Sawney: Flesh of Man (2012)

Just occasionally low budget horror can really amaze me and Sawney: Flesh of Man is one of those cases.

The film is a low budget technical achievement with superb photography throughout that showcases the Highlands of Scotland at their bleakest and most beautiful. Director Ricky Wood Jnr really has an eye for a camera shot and the location shooting is outstanding, belying what is at heart a nasty cannibal film.

The director also tricks the viewer into what they think they are seeing, again probably due to financial constraints. No actual violence really occurs onscreen until the finale, but because we are subjected to a lot of grimy chopping up of limbs which have already been dismembered from the bodies, the film really does appear far nastier than it actually is.

Although the Bean clan have a lot of screen time the majority of them are wisely and neatly obscured so we don't get a good look at their faces until the end thus keeping the films shock value throughout.

The plot about people taken from the towns and dragged off to a hillside lair isn't original but it is effective and the film showcases the terrible plight of the many real life people who go missing from our streets and the grief and feeling of helplessness their loved ones feel when confronted by a police force who seemingly brush the cases under the carpet in the hope they'll eventually just go away.

An excellent piece of independent film making, Sawney: Flesh of Man is creepy, disturbing, surprisingly well acted and stylish throughout.

Recommended.

[keirarts]

The taking of Deborah Logan.

What starts as a documentary on Altzheimers disease becomes increasingly darker as what at first seems to be symptoms of the disease might actually be something else entirely. Its found footage, but one of the better examples out there and actually worth watching with some genuinely creepy moments.


Don't go in the woods....Alone!

How this ever got into trouble with the DPP I will never be able to fully fathom. Essentially various random people (very few who are alone) head into the woods and get murdered by a savage mountain man. The gore tends to be of the monty python and the holy grail quality, there is zero sexual violence and the idea of this film depraving or corrupting anyone (even the family dog) is laughable at best. Whichever idiot seized it should never have kids.
That said, as frankly inept as the film is (very) with all its ropey editing, poor quality dubbing and silly gore the film remains a great deal of FUN. Perhaps i'm mental, perhaps its just my dreadful taste in films but this one never fails to entertain. 88 films blu-ray looks bloody marvellous, perhaps better than the film itself deserves but for me it was an essential purchase.

Also this release has the soundtrack all the way through it and not missing like the previous uk release.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings (2011)

Although not a patch on the first film (nor the second film which i also really like) this third sequel, or prequel in this case, is still an effective, sleazy, graphic horror film.

Unfortunately some of the writing and dialogue lets it down at times, so much so as to distract the attention due to some of the characters decision making which is occasionally ludicrous and at times stupid. However, stupid is as stupid does, and all the characters come to a decidedly gory end thanks to our resident mutant cannibals.

As with all these films it's the gore that attracts the viewers and Wrong Turn 4 has it in spades with some really well executed kill sequences which in turn captivate and repulse at the same time. The camera is happy to ogle the neck slicings, limb ripping, decapitations and cannibalism much to the viewers delight. In fact i'm quite sure had this been released during the early eighties it would easily have gone down in cult cinema folklore as a video nasty, been banned by the British censors and been heralded in the same terms as much of the other gory fun we've all come to love.

[nosferatu42]

Big Zapper (1973)

big-zapper-movie-poster-1973-1020262237.jpg

Watched this via youtube, i first heard of it from Darkside magazine and 'Art of the nasty' book.
Basically follows a female private eye, who is asked to investigate the disappearance of a brother and sister, they were killed off by a 70's London crime boss who spends his life in a weird schizophrenic haze, one minute talking calmly the next shouting and swearing his head off violently.
Zapper is soon on the case, a posh, well dressed no nonsense type of girl who has a mean line in kung fu and gunslinging.
The film is pretty absurd and juvenile, with typical 70's sexism spread on top of the confection and a couple of sleazy moments when the crime boss kills some girls. Zappers bloke is a guy who oogles dirty mags all day, sleeps in the backseat of her car when she's being attacked and basically just wants to screw all day long, he's called Rock hard and that's basically all his character amounts too.
The rest of the pic follows her as she beats the crap out of all the bosses hired men on route to a final showdown that kinda never happens.
So twas a pile of shit right ?, well no i really enjoyed it.
The crime bosses outbreaks are pretty bizarre and sometimes hilarious, the numerous thugs are pathetic and whimper and wail when beaten up which is pretty entertaining, there are bizarre moments like when zapper punches two men through a wall and it leaves cut out body shapes like in a cartoon.
Zapper is kinda attractive in the way she strides in, kicks ass then strides out,
i don't think she gets hurt once.
So recommended if you like so bad they're good films. 7/10

Zapper's blade of vengeance.

If you enjoyed the first film i would strongly suggest you leave it at that, i found this really boring.
Can't even be arsed to describe the story, but whereas i enjoyed the first movie, this one obviously had a bigger budget because of some travel scenes, but the whole thing is toned down.
The inadvertently bad but good acting is just bad here, there's no humour, there's less boobs,less cheese and less kung fu. Instead what we get is loads of swordfights that are badly done and some woman with a crossbow that can't shoot for shit.
A disappointment . 3/10

[Frankenhooker]

The Babadook

I was expecting a film in the same vein as The Conjuring and countless other 'quiet, quiet, loud' films that have flooded our multiplexes over the past ten years, what I got was an exploration of grief and depression, a genuinely chilling look at the demons that reside within.

Echoes of Lynch, Friedkin and German expressionism, The Babadook is a haunting, atmospheric masterpiece. Fantastic.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankenhooker

Echoes of Lynch, Friedkin and German expressionism

Largely thanks to the above quote, I've just moved The Babadook up to 'High Priority' on my Love Film rental list.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by bizarre_eye@Cult Labs

Largely thanks to the above quote, I've just moved The Babadook up to 'High Priority' on my Love Film rental list.

The films that sprang to mind whilst I was leaving the cinema included We Need to Talk about Kevin, Dark Water, The Innocents, The Shining, Repulsion and The Brood. It has many excellent antecedents.

[Demoncrat]

Felt that I would have enjoyed The Babadook more, but what do I know? Like Lovely Molly, it tries to blend two genres unsuccessfully imho.

AANYway.........Watched

Silent Rage (Micheal Miller, 1982).
Chuck Norris' only horror film (unless you count the one where he teams up with a dog cough) hasn't aged well. Whilst ostensibly a slasher film, it seems more preoccupied with Norris' relationship with Stephanie Dunham. Plus Flounder from Animal House is his deputy! The killer is sidelined by evil medicos, whom experiment on him foolishly. Tired and tiring, am amazed I made it to the end of this potboiler.

Deliver Us From Evil (2014, Scott Derrickson)
Cliche piles upon cliche in the "true" tale of a NYPD detective battling demons with a priest as sidekick. Whilst the most horrible thing about this is the overuse of The Doors, I am heartily sick of Seven lite clones, of which this is one. At least it wasn't FF haha, which it threatens to be at the very beginning.........

[Demoncrat]

I also watched The Raid 2 with the comm, which is quite rude haha. Still made me tired haha. Roll on number 3 then!!