What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Bringer Of Funerals

I recently watched Fast And Furious 7

The ending was a nice ending and it should end there.

There are $800m reasons (In just two weeks) as to why there isn't a cat in hell's chance of it ending there.

[Bringer Of Funerals]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

There are $800m reasons (In just two weeks) as to why there isn't a cat in hell's chance of it ending there.

What really pissed me off was everyone was posting spoilers all over Facebook of videos of the ending and saying it's sad watch this every 5 mins.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

THE EVIL – Back to some kind of normality with 'The Evil', a seventies horror film which I hadn't seen before. Basically, it's about a psychologist who renovates an abandoned house in the hope that he can turn it into a rehab clinic. He's joined there by a bunch of his students, and before long the usual supernatural schtick rears its head and we're treated to a barrage of era-specific special fx and mounting hysteria. I quite liked 'The Evil'. It's a bit lightweight, but it does its job. OK, I didn't get that sense of 'whaaat?' that I always hope for when I'm sifting for forgotten relics, but then, for every 'The Pit' come ten or more mere functionaries. 'The Evil' is a bit better than this, and odd moments of craziness hang around its hoary framework and worn out foundations. There's a strangely effective moment when a statue tilts its head, there's Andrew Prine cutting his hand off apropos of nothing, and there's the ending, which has a Lucio Fulci kind of 'metaphysical plane in a cellar' feel to it – the two surviving characters go beneath the house and find a vast white space with the devil in it. Wish the rest of the film had been more like that, but to be honest 'The Evil' is pretty entertaining, and rattles along at an excellent pace, meaning I didn't check out my watch too often, or at all really. Will be enjoyed by lovers of seventies horror and is probably quite good value for money if you get hold of it via that Shout Factory double bill with 'Twice Dead'.

I also quite liked The Evil, Frankie and would also recommend it. It was one of the high-lights in my slog through the as then unwatched films of Nightmare USA.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Starry Eyes (2014)

Great review, Dem.

Really looking forward to checking this one out now.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by bizarre_eye@Cult Labs

Great review, Dem.

Really looking forward to checking this one out now.

I was pleased Frankenhooker also really liked it.

Although reading about his ugly sex, spandex, masturbation fetish, this may or may not be a good thing.

[Frankenhooker]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I was pleased Frankenhooker also really liked it.

Although reading about his ugly sex, spandex, masturbation fetish, this may or may not be a good thing.

If it's wrong, I don't want to be right.

[SShaw]

Final two films of my weekend at Imagine were The Winter and The Young Ones.

The Winter was an effective character portrait of a young Greek writer whose reality collapses after he moves to his decrepit family house, which may be haunted, in order to escape his debts.

The Young Ones is a post-apocalyptic quasi-western following a family who struggle for water in an America that has been suffering long term drought. The film doesn't quite come together due to weaknesses in the development of the story, which is a shame as there is a lot to like here to like.

A short rest now until the weekend after next when I will be in Edinburgh for my favourite festival, Dead by Dawn which announced its usual collection of classics, shorts and discoveries on Friday. A strong classics line-up includes The Vanishing, Manhunter and The Fly. Can't wait.

I also booked for a couple of nights in Hamburg for the Japanese Film Festival at the end of May.

[J Harker]

I'm currently watching The Visitor. Erm...

[J Harker]

Right, what the hell was that about?
The Visitor, a real oddity this one. From what i gather a young girl in 70's Atlanta is in some way capable of bringing about the rule of Sateen (?) John Hustons character, the Visitor of the title must somehow prevent this from happening. Franco Nero apparently plays Jesus though he never seems to actually be named in the film.
I honestly don't know what the hell was going on here and at some point I'll need to try this again. I'm not convinced i actually missed anything but i definitely didn't get everything either. Interesting cast and some cool visuals. In tone it reminded me of Lynch's Dune for some reason. With a bit of The Keep thrown in.

[Frankie Teardrop]

DER FAN – Some people like yoghurt. Some others like quince. Simone likes 'R', and she eats him too. 'Der Fan' chronicles the obsessive star lust of a teenage German girl. Her life is is a litany of dull TV nights before she hits the autobahn and makes his (R's) scene. Collapses in his arms, shags him, then, in the true manner of the terminally attached, kills and eats him when he has to 'go away'. I admire this girl's aloofness. She's magnetic, despite evincing not one emotion beyond starstruck yearning or disdainful dismissal. I wonder why she falls for a Gary Numan clone, though. Gary Numan. I once sat reading a Patricia Highsmith novel outside a pub where he was lunching with his gig mates. He sounded really boring, droning on about his tedious suburban existence. I guess that's all part of it. Anyway, 'Der Fan' is great, an icy trawl through a culture fixated on its masters ie ours. Semi-art / semi exploitation, 'Der Fan' gets to pose as an interrogation of what it means to be beholden to social power AND blow its wad on a climax of sex and violence (and apostolic head shaving). See it. They make Germany look like Leeds. By the way, if you're the star-besotted type, you could do worse than check out Judy and Fred Vermorel's book 'StarLust', which is a crazed compendium of cranky fan mail detailing the wonky dream life of celebrity infected youth (the one I remember most is some poor waif's intricately detailed fantasy of nursing a terminally ill John Peel.)