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Salem's Lot (1979) [Full 3-hours version] **** out of *****
__________________ My articles @ Dread Central and Diabolique Magazine In-depth analysis on horror, exploitation, and other shocking cinema @ Cinematic Shocks |
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Snake Eyes. Nicolas Cage is a cocky and not-exactly-honest cop who finds himself plunged into a terrible conspiracy when a US Senator is assassinated at a boxing match in an Atlantic City casino, and soon learns he doesn't know the way things work, or the people around him, quite as well as he thought he did. Gary Sinise and Carla Gugino co-star in this fast-paced and thoroughly enjoyable late 90s thriller, directed with typical flair and style by Brian DePalma.
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Went to the cinema today to see Ouija: Origin of Evil. The sequel (or rather, prequel) no one wanted to the horror flick no one liked, but which has turned out to be a somewhat unexpected critical darling. Though perhaps it shouldn't have been too unexpected, as this one (unlike the original) is co-written and directed by Mike Flanagan, whose track record includes the low-budget but excellent Absentia and the excellent 2013 Karen Gillan horror flick Oculus (he's also done a home invasion thriller called Hush this year which is not out here yet) and who is rapidly becoming my favourite modern horror director. A widow and fake medium conducts her "sessions" with the aid of her two daughters, one teenage (and played by the same young actress who played the young Karen Gillan in Oculus, funnily enough) and the other a little girl. One day the mother decides to bring home one of these newfangled ouija boards to spice up her act, but unknown to her, her youngest decides to play with it alone at night. And something decides to start answering back, and it ain't interested in playing 20 Questions. Needless to say, things start going rapidly downhill for the family after that... I totally dug this movie, from the excellent cast (which includes an all growed up Henry "ET" Thomas as the family's increasingly concerned priest) to the slow-burn tension and mood, to the whole 60s atmosphere and iconography (which even includes the use of the old Universal logo at the start of the film and "cigarette burns" to indicate reel changes throughout). Love a bit of period stuff (anything to get away from the 21st century I guess!). I shall certainly be getting this on Blu ray, which is the first time I've said that since The Conjuring 2, and I actually think I even liked this a little more. I really enjoyed this! |
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Zombie (1979) This has long been my favourite zombie film and still is. However on watching Arrow's beautiful bells and whistles edition for the very first time last night (even though i've had it months) i did notice some glaring errors especially in continuity. The first was the zombie fighting the shark. As he grapples with it the zombie clearly has lost his arm however in the next shot the shark bites it off. Secondly there's the mystery of Al Cliver's bloody shirt. When he cradles Auretta Gay's blood soaked corpse and stands up he has a small patch of blood near his arm pit. In the next scene his shirt is torn and covered in blood. When they reach the hospital the shirt is fairly clean again and not torn then reverts back to being blood soaked. Finally as our heroes begin to petrol bomb the zombies, the first is thrown followed by four more yet each one explodes in the same area showing no fire from the preceding bombs. Also the shark fight itself. How come this zombie backs off from the shark and takes stances against it when all the other reanimated corpses just shamble along very slowly with no reaction to anything in their surroundings. Somebody should have told the shark wrangler how to act like the living dead perhaps? Finally there's the poor reaction acting from the cast. As they walk into the room where Olga Karlatos is being eaten by a group of zombies, Ian McCulloch and Al Cliver don't even notice until one of the girls screams suggesting there wasn't actually anything happening in said room and it was two separate shots.In fact this happens more than once with poor reactions, thank god these guys never had to act with green screen. Probably best not to mention the films final shot either... Zombie Flesh Eaters clearly isn't anywhere near perfect but i love it anyway. |
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ZFE is enjoyable enough but probably wouldn't scrape my Top 10 where zombie films are concerned. |
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As for flesh-eaters, my fave is probably Romero's Night of the Living Dead closely followed by Fulci's The Beyond. |
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