What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demoncrat]

Noted as always F.
I may revisit your last recommendation after all.

LDATMM I've always loved ... even the howwibly twuncated vhs I had.

[Rik]

I love Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue, looking back through my Letterboxd account, it seems I've not watched it since before I started logging my films (January 2016), so I'm going to give it a watch this afternoon

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

As usual, superb reviews, Frankie. I am a big fan of Hardware and The Living Dead in Manchester Morgue (neither of which I have seen in the last couple of years) so it's great to read your thoughts on those.

Likewise with Don't Go in the Woods… Alone, which oddly is a film I think is an omnishambles of writing, direction and acting, but there is something which draws me back to it time and again!

[SilverSurfer]

Turistas (2006) or give it's UK title of Paradise Lost (Lions Gate Home Entertainment) which stars Melissa George , Josh Duhamel and Olivia Wilde.

A group of young backpackers' vacation turns sour when a bus accident leaves them marooned in a remote Brazilian rural area that holds an ominous secret.

The plot does not sound great to many maybe but it is worth giving it a try ( I watched the extreme edition) and you maybe surprised,I do not understand why so many reviews of this have given it a thumbs down because it does not deserve it imo,Quite gory and suspenseful.

A thumbs up from me.

Going to watch 30 Days of Night next.:-)

[Demoncrat]

I remember some Americans behaving appallingly in a foreign country.
So they deserve what they get imho

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

I remember some Americans behaving appallingly in a foreign country.

So they deserve what they get imho

Same, spot the American is a very easy game to play while in Tokyo as they stick out like a sore thumb in such a quiet and reserved country.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by SilverSurfer

Turistas (2006) or give it's UK title of Paradise Lost

Not so long ago, I confused Paradise Lost with The Ruins in a conversation on here with someone. This is not entirely unsurprising because it is a case of two films released two years apart with two word titles in which Westerners go to a South American country and bad things happen to them!

Due to that misunderstanding, I re-watched both, buying The Ruins on Blu-ray, and thoroughly enjoying both. I think I liked the 2008 film the most, simply because the horror is slightly more grotesque (people pulling vines out of their skin and a wonderfully realistic broken leg) and, aside from the broken leg incident and what follows, they stumbled across their fate by accident rather than antagonising those around them through gross cultural insensitivity. They are films where they have a lot going for them, whether it's the direction, the engrossing story with realistic dialogue or the good ensemble casts and, if you haven't seen either of them, they are both well watching.

[Rik]

Speaking of Paradise Lost, currently sat waiting for a bus to a students house listening to:

IMG_0659.JPG

[trebor8273]

Originally Posted by Rik

Beyond the Gates (2016)

Two brothers find an old VHS board game (remember those, I still have Atmosfear somewhere?) while emptying their missing fathers Video Shop and decide to play it with the girlfriend of one of them.
Like the far superior The Void, this is a throwback to cheesy Horror films from the 80's (see the entire 80's Full Moon/Empire back catalogue), even down to the music. But, unlike those films, Beyond the Gates isn't even a "so bad it's good" film, it's just bad! Barbara Crampton looks bored as the "host" of the titular board game, trying her best to make the terrible dialogue she's been given remotely menacing, the acting of the rest of the cast is piss poor too.
The SFX are ok, but not a right lot happens, I actually paused it mid way through to go for a cig!

How this won the Audience Award at last years Los Angeles Film Festival is beyond me (no pun intended), the rest of the nominees must've been really terrible!
3/10

Totally agree absolutely awful movie how this piece of shit won any awards is beyond me. Dreadful in every sense paid £3 and still felt ripped off.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Mother of Tears (2007)

Dario Argento's third and final film in his Three Mothers trilogy. I've always thought it unfairly criticized. Perhaps due to the first two films being Suspiria (1977) and 1980's Inferno. For sure Mother of Tears doesn't compare to them, but in truth in Italian horror or perhaps any horror, what does?

There are flaws. Rome falling to pieces under the spell of the witch of tears is hampered by budgetary constraints and should have been left out - a couple of men bashing a car with iron bars does not really suggest that modern society is breaking down - and the arrival of witches from across the globe into Rome is no different than a typical Essex girl holiday. The film also suffers from a weak score from Claudio Simonetti which is a shame because his score for Suspiria is one of the finest musical accompaniments to a film full stop.

Despite these errors of directorial judgement which give the film an at times decidedly clunky feel, it's well paced with some tremendous gory interludes courtesy of Sergio Stivaletti. Dario's daughter Asia, holds the film together well in what i think is her best screen performance, and the easy to follow script has several nods to the two earlier films in the trilogy and a creepily debauched wicked witchery feel to the second half of proceedings

Some 27 years on from Inferno, Mother of Tears is actually a very good Italian horror film and a fitting finale to an excellent trilogy of terror.