What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Gold6082]

Viewer discretion is advised some of the below contains bad puns and may upset viewers...



Unfriended

When I saw on the cover the guy was behind Oujja and The Purge, I had very low expectations as I disliked both of those immensely. Also this type of film is also not usually my thing so I was pleasantly surprised,while certainly no ground breaking best film of the year or cinematic masterpiece this is a very enjoyable film that does not outstay it's welcome. It doesn't offer much new in terms of revenge nor does it confirm for sure whether the tormentor actually was a spirit seeking revenge or a warped internet troll. However it does drum home 2 messages 1. Facebook is bad news as just like in real life it has led to many murders,rapes & life wrecks. and 2. Don't trust anyone! 7/10



The Boy Next Door

Cliche Atrocious Borefest with Jennifer Lopez as a "cougar" who ends up with a nightmare on sesame street after big bird makes the mistake of sleeping with a deranged Muppet Gonzo, What comes next is the usual that we've seen 50,000 times Gonzo doesn't appreciate being spurned and proves he is unhinged and a bad loser in love. Nothing we haven't seen before,it offers nothing new whatsoever and has an extremely annoying actress that sounds like Sharon Osborne after abusing Laughing gas. absolutely pointless,if you're not asleep by the end you'll be mourning the loss of 86 minutes of your life "ain't it funny" how these things pan out! 1/10


Eaten Alive

I never liked Texas chainsaw Massacre, I never knew what was so fantastic that 99% of the population think it is some kind of holy grail. It is slow boring and dated (I know I know but we all have 1 "huge" film in horror everyone loves and you don't!) Anyway welcome eaten alive a totally different Beast with an impressive cast and some hilariously bad lines. Neville Brand mutters psycho babble before feeding his motel guests to a croc,Robert Englund has a short lived appearance & Mel Ferrer arrives on the scene at least if Plan H doesn't work we can go with plan B!

Arrow's Blu looks stunning the colours are fantastic and pop the red scenes now look blood red not washed out like a sons & daughters sepia frame where you expect a scene to end with "Love is very strange it can come and go.." when arrow gets it right it really gets it right. The film is odd but a "scythe" for sore eyes on this blu 6/10


Nightbeast

E.t's stool sample with teeth arrives with a hologram gun stolen from a space invaders arcade machine & starts taking pot shots turning a town's resident's into lilac and pink silouettes before they disappear some cheap gore which doesn't look bad for the budget,this is fun if not taken seriously. 4/10


Morturis

Gory excellent homage to the likes of Fulci,lenzi & Bava with a wink to the spanish Blind dead series. As always being a Synapse release Blu Don is a perfectionist with quality and as always with synapse you know a fantastic transfer is a certainty. 7/10


The Omen (original)

We've all seen it the kills still look good especially Warner's demise with the lorry and sheet of glass,Bruce Boa turns up briefly at the party at the beginning well done on him for not asking gregory peck for a waldorf salad. 8/10

1408

I love this film it is underated and harshly hammered by some critics. Samuel Jackson warns John Cusack that room 1408 of his hotel is really not a wise choice for his stay in order to get experience for his new book. Films like this one and Carpenter's In the mouth if madness as well as others seem to have a hatred for the Carpenters song "we've only just begun" I doubt their managers would of been "on top of the world" about that! 8/10


The Town That Dreaded Sundown (remake)

half remake half sequel. Not bad it attempts to go back to the slasher style appreciated in the 80's but it's average at best but it was good to see American Horror Story's Dennis O' hare turn up. 5/10

[Frankenhooker]

Unfriended dropped through the letterbox yesterday, the odd thing is I can't remember ever ordering it. There's a chance the missus ordered it, but she hasn't said anything. I'm really going to have to start reading my emails.

At least it sounds like it won't be a complete waste of £10.

[Frankie Teardrop]

THE CHANGELING – George C Scott is a composer who's struggling with the loss of his wife and kid. When he moves into a new place – OK, 'place' being mansion which looks radically open to haunting – things start to get a bit odd. There's this banging in the pipes, and possibly the the first cinematic manifestation of a “ball bouncing down stairs signposts ghost of child” moment. 'The Changeling' is interesting in that it flips the standard 'haunting' riff over into supernatural murder mystery territory. Before this transition comes a steady build up of atmosphere and fraught conversations with letting agents. Pretty good, but I wanted more. A quite disturbing drowning scene seemed out of place enough to evoke the feeling of a different kind of movie.

THE CONJURING – I suppose this is part of that post-'Insidious' wave of multiplex jump-scare schtick. I saw it at the cinema when it first came out a couple of years ago – I don't know what I was expecting. It's alright. Watching it on Amazon Prime or whatever the other day left me feeling a bit weary, though – although it's nicely put together in a visual sense, its progression lies squarely within the 'boo!' moment. Scene upon scene lays on the same tactic and risks blunting some nice imagery – hands emerging from the dark, clapping. That doll sold it to some, including me – but it's not in it much.

THE BUTTERFLY ROOM – I was a bit nonplussed when I saw this last year, but I really quite liked it on second viewing. It's about an ageing Barbara Steele and the creepy relationship she strikes up with an adrift-seeming youngster. The latter is the daughter of a specialty hooker (amputee), and soon turns out to have an agenda of her own. Enjoyably twisted meditation on the mother-daughter angle let down formally by some tacky abstruseness (film running backwards when we venture into the past etc etc). Interesting to have a genre film tackle a realm where the only important relations are those between women, although it is directed by a guy. Full of old horror stars.

BURIAL OF THE RATS – 'Bram Stoker' (or his nineties American TV equivalent) and his dad are waylaid by a cult of rat worshipping rad feminists in this bedraggled bit of rubbish. I say 'feminists', but they seem quite keen in hanging out in rat skin bikinis and scenes of mild softcore, so I don't think Laura Mulvey will be holding her breath. What IS important is that you get to see a dignity defying Adrienne Barbeau (“I'm the Piper's twisted sister”!) entice a bevy of rats into a frenzy with her frequent displays of flute playing. That, along with the cheap atmosphere of plastic pageantry, really made it for me. Enjoyable toss, made me feel slightly nostalgic for really bad pre-Horror Channel TV shit and therefore quite old and haggard.

HORNS – D Radcliffe finds that he has a new pair of horns and an ability to make others speak of their darkest desires in this horror-fantasy from Alexandre Aja. In the mix is a relationship drama which morphs into a murder mystery. 'Horns' got some lukewarm reviews, most of which levelled criticisms of tonal incoherence and excessive length. It IS a bit of a mess, and stumbles like an amiable drunk from black comedy to moody dramatics to fx-driven horror, along the way scrambling some moving and / or intense bits with cheesiness and loose ends (and a really lame 'bad trip' scene). I did however find it very likeable and absorbing, and was never less than entertained. A step closer to the mainstream for Aja, who seems to be putting those seventies horror remakes behind him.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Island Claws (1980)

No creature is left untouched by the 'nature runs amok' sub-genre, so with Island Claws it was the turn of the humble crab to strike fear into the hearts of your average beach-goer.

However, these are no ordinary crabs... instead we have some half-baked scientific mumbo jumbo from 'crab experts' about warm water making crabs grow at an exceptionally fast rate coupled with some news reports about a dodgy nuclear power facility peppered throughout the first portion of the film, so with that in mind the bulk of the film can be pretty much discarded as viewers are aware of and just want to get to the giant crab action!

The giant crab (singular unfortunately) is a pretty impressive site when it does finally scuttle onto the screen (after some semi-ginat efforts crop up here and there) and certainly causes some mayhem, however it's all over a little too quickly and certainly doesn't reach the heights of some of the nature-sploitation fare out there in the carnage department. Still, the effects are pretty decent and at least manages to entertain in parts. It's certainly one of the best if not the best giant mutated crab film I've seen thus far.

Originally posted here: Nightmare USA Films Discussion Thread

[bdc]

I've said it before...always be careful how you react to a woman's strangely formulated romantic advances...she may get frustrated and cut your arm off!

[Gold6082]

Sleepaway Camp II

Pamela Springsteen (Bruce's Sister) visits the "Glory Days" of the original by taking up the role of Angela from the Original. I enjoyed this as a kid on this revisit sadly my love for it is lost and a divorce is in order. The dialogue & acting are atrocious,the kills are not as shocking or well done as the original and I won't be in a hurry to watch it again, although the original & part 4 "return" I still have a lot of love for. 5/10

Impulse

Some dross with Meg Tilly & Tim Matheson about an earthquake who disturbs the balance & disturbs a town's residents state of mind. Nowhere near as good as the artwork or plot suggests in fact it bored me witless 1/10


Phobia

Fun Asian Anthology with a mix of humour,brutality and originality,sadly flew under the radar of many and should be watched at least once by anthology fans 8/10

Sweet Sixteen

A Decent Slasher on Blu which I had never seen before,it's not quite "Rosemary's Killer" but it certainly isn't no "final exam" either a young girls admirers end up meeting their maker,Patrick Mcnee stars 7/10


Shakma

Monkey Shines meets Night of the creeps, a bizarre film to say the least in which an aggressive monkey dances around on the loose maiming anyone in it's path especially a bunch of oddballs playing dungeons and dragons,Roddy McDowell is on hand for that row of tent's camp element. The gore is not bad not as much fun as Romero's aforementioned piece from 2 years earlier but great fun. 7/10

Beyond Evil

Atrocious crapfest where Lynda Day George Lowers herself to appear, John Saxon moves in with a witch that looks like Grotbags with haemhorroids poorly excecuted in everyway possible directed by "herb Freed" which sounds like a Cannabis Plant on Parole. 1/10

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Gold6082

Phobia

Fun Asian Anthology with a mix of humour,brutality and originality,sadly flew under the radar of many and should be watched at least once by anthology fans 8/10

I've been meaning to check this out for a while now, so thank you for reminding me of it!

[bdc]

Originally Posted by Gold6082

Phobia

Fun Asian Anthology with a mix of humour,brutality and originality,sadly flew under the radar of many and should be watched at least once by anthology fans 8/10

aka Prang aka 4bia, there's also a sequel called 5 Prang aka Phobia 2.
It's Thai btw.

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Gold6082

Sleepaway Camp II


Impulse

Some dross with Meg Tilly & Tim Matheson about an earthquake who disturbs the balance & disturbs a town's residents state of mind. Nowhere near as good as the artwork or plot suggests in fact it bored me witless 1/10

I rather enjoyed this one!

[Metallicbomb]

See No Evil
See No Evil 2

Fun modern day slashers, helps that I'm a wrestling fan. Shame Undertaker hasn't done a film can imagine him playing some grim reaper type character.

Dead Snow 2 - Just as good as the first with even more blood guts and action, I fount this one funnier but the first was a better straight horror so they both have there charms.