What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[iluvdvds@Cult Labs]

Haven't done this for quite some time, so to make up for it here's the last 20!

[Justin101]

Eugenie... the Story of Her Journey Into Perversion (1970)



Starting my Franco odyssey with this little oddity! Poor Eugenie, invited to stay on a secluded island by a hot woman, I can't remember if a reason was given! Seduction and a false sense of security follow until a grisly end... Very entertaining I have to say. Took me a while to get used to everything going out of focus every time the camera moved and sometimes for no reason at all - I put it down to being the 'dreamlike state' of the film over all.

Nightmare City (1980)



I watched the damaged print version on the Arrow disc, first 10 minutes are a bit ropey and then it settles down fine until the end when it goes crazy again. I feel that's better than watching the softer version.
Never seen this one before but the ending has been long spoiled for me so there were no surprises there!
Great action flick, well made and suspenseful. I'm not sure why the zombies/infected were so horny though chasing after woman and tearing their clothes off!
Best bits for me were "So we're following emergency plan H, we'll keep plan B for a backup" ....what and the bit where the surgeon throws the scalpel YES! haha great fun.

[keirarts]

Enter the Ninja

Franco Nero graduates Ninja school and heads off to meet up with his old war buddy. As an added bonus he discovers his old mate is married to Susan George who spends most of the film in loose tops. Before you can say Jiggle, he discovers his old mate is in some difficulties with a local mobster with a hook hand. Nero gives him a bit of a slap down and everything seems to be fine. Unfortunately hook-boy works for a nutty criminal overlord played with insane glee by Christopher George, who in-between organising synchronised swimming displays is busy trying to secure the land Francos pal owns. Realising he'll need a bit more fire-power he hires Nero's rival Sho Kosugi to take care of business.
Directed by Menahem Golan, who seems to be a Ninja enthusiast, Enter the Ninja plays more like an old school revenge western, hence perhaps the hiring of Franco Nero. In all honesty Nero feels a little miscast but it's forgiveable as some pacing issues aside the whole affair is gleefully insane and plenty of fun. Watch the American release and there is some Random cock-fighting that the film could easily lose and not suffer, it might even improve the films pacing. Overall its daft, but lots of fun.

Revenge of the ninja

not even remotely a sequel, the film is more of a total overhaul of the Ninja film concept for Cannon films. Hiring Sho Kosugi was a good start, he's great, especially in action scenes and the whole affair works better thanks to Sam 'American Ninja' Firstenberg who had his action début with this film. Its weird that this is is first film as it has some of his best orchestrated action scenes.
The plot itself is fairly straightforward, Sho flees west with his son and mum after the rest of the family is butchered by ninja. He opens a gallery dedicated to Japanese art, unaware its a front for Heroin dealing. This leads him into conflict against a criminal gang, and a rival master ninja.
Its great fun, including a barmy end fight scene atop a skyscraper. Theres plenty of violence and the film is well paced. Overall its a better sequel and highly recommended.

[Dave Boy]

What great fun this movie is. I thought I would just check it out, not expecting much. Glad I did because I enjoyed this zombie romp.
Three scouts and a stripper find themselves the only ones in the town alive and band together using all their skills to take on the undead horde...
Some good comic moments, excellent gore scenes and great looking girl with a shotgun. What more could you ask ?

[J Harker]

Monster Hunter.

This evening my missus tried her old trick of picking a film to watch she thought i might fancy so's i don't go sloping of to my den in peace.
Not necessarily a bad thing except she then falls asleep halfway and snores over the top of it anyway so i can't hear the bloody thing.
Anyway tonight's pick was a flick called Monster Hunter from NowTV. For some reason this has previously been released under the less corny though decidedly more ambiguous title of Dark Was The Night.
Kevin Durand (the Russian exterminator dude from tv's The Strain?) is the sheriff of the small rural town of Maiden Woods, a town that wakes up one morning to find strange non human footprints running right the way through their little hamlet and off into the woods. Before long farm animals start to go missing and then the strange sightings start.
Finally its dismembered bodies in the forest time and the sheriff and his new deputy Lukas Haas have to defend the town from forces unknown while trying to battle their own personal demons.
I quite enjoyed this little film, Kevin Durand is surprisingly good in a role that required a bit more emoting than I've seen from him before. And the rest of the cast including Jim Mickle regular Nick Damici put in decent performances.
Its clearly a b-picture so effects are a bit ropey but the whole thing works quite well i thought thanks to the slow burner character building approach taken.
As long as you don't go in expecting too much I'd recommend this one.

Oh and i watched the Lou Ferrigno film Hercules...
...erm...
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😃😃😃😅😅😅😂😂😅😂😄😄😂😂

[Frankie Teardrop]

WITCHBOARD – Comes from the director of 'Night of the Demons', Kevin Tenney, although it's quite different in tone. In it, Tawny Kitaen plays the bored wife of a medical school drop out who gets into messing with a Ouija board left behind after a disastrous house party. She contacts what she thinks is the spirit of a little boy, who starts to cause some mischief – like killing hubbie's work colleagues and basically trying to possess her. Hubby does the manly thing and teams up with an ex chum to sort things out. 'Witchboard' goes for atmosphere over eighties schlock and manages quite well for some of the time. There are sequences which feel quite tense, despite being 'horror basics' – the bird's eye view shot circling a room conjures a spirit vibe, despite it just being a camera move etc. It falls down when it has to face those aspects it can't embrace ie aspects of eighties cheese like the ditzy medium and the whole 'buddies on the road' thing later on in the film. But, for a film with quite a lot of talk, 'Witchboard' is pretty absorbing and entertaining.

MURDER-ROCK – Once again I come round to reviewing a lesser Fulci flick, and once again I'm baffled as to why I hold this end of his stuff in such high regard. Over-stylised eighties hell 'Murder-rock' is a last gasp Giallo / slasher set in a 'Fame' style New York dance academy. Someone's going around offing legs and co by skewering their breasts with a long needle. Unlikeable, slightly snappy dance teacher takes centre stage to solve mystery etc etc. Although it's not very good, of course I lapped 'Murderrock' up. It has that mixture of rank awfulness and style that I see as the hallmark of Fulci – a collision of sweaty, leering dance sequences soundtracked by catchy hits such as 'Paranoia's Coming Your Way' and artfully elegant shots such as the one which follows a body on a gurney down a corridor, passing each suspect's face in turn. Class and tastelessness, that to me is Fulci. And of course there's those stock in trade heavy close ups around the eyes and weird field reversals. The plot may be bland but the resolution is psychotic, and the film is full of eccentric characters and events, from the little girl in the wheelchair to the bitter dude with the metal foot. And of course there's that pungent but difficult to 'pin' Fulci atmosphere. See it, and squirm your way through those skewerings, the awful music and that whole 'Hot Shoe Show' travesty thing.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

MURDER-ROCK – Once again I come round to reviewing a lesser Fulci flick

I truly prefer this to most of his work.

It has a sort of salacious, tasteless style to it that i can't place anywhere else.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I truly prefer this to most of his work.

It has a sort of salacious, tasteless style to it that i can't place anywhere else.

I'm at least half way with you on that, man. A lot of his less well regarded stuff just has this over-ripe, mad atmosphere - 'Conquest', for example, which for some godforsaken reason is my fave from this period. Although as someone who sees 'Cat In The Brain' as the pinnacle of his career, maybe I'm not qualified to talk.

[TJ Doc]

London Has Fallen

With less CGI and a more physically imposing antagonist, this would be a bona fide modern day Cannon production.

Just the kind of senselessly violent (and bromantic) cheeseburger movie that gives me a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

I'm at least half way with you on that, man. A lot of his less well regarded stuff just has this over-ripe, mad atmosphere - 'Conquest', for example, which for some godforsaken reason is my fave from this period. Although as someone who sees 'Cat In The Brain' as the pinnacle of his career, maybe I'm not qualified to talk.

I love Zombie Flesh Eaters, and i think i always will. The first time i saw it age 14, i was eating beans on toast and almost vomited when Auretta Gay get's her throat bitten out.

Films like The Beyond and House by the Cemetery, i loved earlier on in life but have since fallen out with them in recent years. Preferring the likes of Cat in the Brain, Murder Rock and Perversion Story.

I don't feel the majority of his so called fan faves stand up to much scrutiny or oft-repeated viewings. City of the Living Dead seems to grow on me more and more though. Maybe because it's so disjointed.