What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Buboven]

Originally Posted by The Reaper Man@Cult Labs

My least favourite of Bava's too I'm afraid.

As a huge Bava fan, this is not one of my favourites either, maybe due a rewatch though.

[trebor8273]

Originally Posted by Justin101

Sleepwalkers is the cat one with Madchen Amick isn't it?

That's the one.

[Deadite]

Originally Posted by bizarre_eye@Cult Labs

Really?! It's one of my favourite Bava films.

I found it much better on second viewing.

[MrBarlow]

Jeepers Creepers

Two siblings Darry (Justin Long), Trish (Gina Philips),
are en route to spring break travel through a countryside, begin to be menaced by a strange van and its occupant. They see the same van by a abandoned church dump something down a chute. When Darry investigates it their journey becomes a fight for survival.

I saw the movie Roadkill before I watched this back in 2001 and thought it be the same, I was wrong, this is more chiller thriller with plenty of suspense. This is was entertaining back then and still is.

Jeepers Creepers 2

Set a few days after the first movie a farmer is set on getting revenge on the Creep after his son was taken. On a quiet road a school bus with a basket ball team are heading home after a victory win when their bus breaks down and are being hunted by Creep.

Not many sequels live up to its predecessor but JC2 does, it does lack the originality of the first one and we know it's some sort of demon. It's crafted well with a lot of effects, killing tools and a acting veteran in Ray Wise and the vengeful father who matches Creep's strength and perishable.

Jeepers Creepers 3 (spoiler alert)

Set in the night after the first movie ended and days before the second film. Sheriff Tashtego (Stan Shaw) and a bound of hunters who have encountered Creep before go hunting to stop more killings.

This didn't really live up to the previous installments as I thought the background of the Creep would be revealed but it was like angry mob rules. We do see the van from the first movie and what it hides and one or two jump scenes but not the best special effects.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Deadite

I found it much better on second viewing.

I've always enjoyed it. In fact, on checking now, it is the Bava I've ranked the highest.

My Bava Top 10:

1. Hatchet for the Honeymoon
2. Planet of the Vampires
3. The Girl Who Knew Too Much
4. Kill Baby, Kill
5. Black Sabbath
6. A Bay of Blood
7. Blood and Black Lace
8. Black Sunday
9. Danger: Diabolik
10. The Whip and the Body

[Rik]

I’ve only seen it once, years ago on the Horror Channel and I didn’t think much of it tbh so I’ve never bothered giving it another go.
My opinion might be different if I watched a version that didn’t look like it was filmed with a potato seeing as THC have a knack for showing the worst looking prints they can find!

[keirarts]

Fright night

For all the online tussles between Lost Boys and Near Dark fans, I would personally argue this one's better than both. Tom Holland (no not spiderman you millennials!) makes a genuinely charming Vampire movie that's tense and creepy when it needs to be and funny as hell at the right moments. The setup is simple. A vampire has moved in next door. Geeky Charlie Brewster has noticed this. No one believes him. In desperation he turns to the host of a late night horror host and fading horror star Peter Vincent who turns out to be the exact opposite of his on screen persona.
There's some great performances on display. Chris Sarandon as the vampire Jerry Dandridge oozes creepy charm and manages to turn the menace on quite effectively. Roddy McDowall was always great in my opinion and here seems to be having loads of fun with the character of Peter Vincent. A vain and cowardly man who must find the inner strength to fight the vampire. Its well shot, paced and has some terrific creature effects and is a great homage to the classic vampire film.

Fright night part 2

Charlie Brewster is in college and is now convinced Vampires are a delusion. This makes him vulnerable when a group of Vampires come to town looking to take down both him and his friend Peter Vincent.
A decent sequel. Not as good as Fright night but very watchable. Its main problem is that its not as lean or focused as the first film and the plot at times feels like its somewhat meandering to a conclusion. It also feels about ten minutes too long.
That said its still a damn good film regardless with some great effects sequences and another great turn from Roddy McDowell as Peter Vincent.
This one has just turned up on Amazon Prime in a lovely looking HD transfer. If your a prime member check it out.

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by keirarts

Fright night part 2
This one has just turned up on Amazon Prime in a lovely looking HD transfer. If your a prime member check it out.

Nice! I was considering buying the German bluray but this will save me £20-25.

I love the original Fright Night and I might be inclined to agree with you in saying it's better than Lost Boys & Near Dark, but arguments aside I love all 3 a lot.

[Frankie Teardrop]

BAG BOY, LOVER BOY – In grimy NYC, hapless hot-dog stand operative Albert dreams of being a world class photographer, but local artiste Ivan exploits his real ‘talents’ and puts him in humiliating sex scenarios down at his studio. Does that give him license to go around strangling people, though? In some ways, BBLB harkens back to well-known examples of NY gutter pulp – ‘Driller Killer’, Maniac’ and the like, which all had a similarly arty edge, though were more flyblown. Here the vibe is contemporary, and no doubt dishes the dirt on the intersection between poverty, wish fulfilment, the art world and its broken-mirror reflection, porn. Maybe it also shares something with recent genre wonkiness such as ‘The Evil Within’ and ‘The Greasy Strangler’, and, come to think of it, ‘Maniac’ (the remake), if only because of the high level of absurdism and the ambiguously placed communication differences of the central character… I should point out that BBLB is a black comedy of sorts, although at times it seems coy about some of the humour it might be aiming for. It’s also less graphically violent and sleazy than I thought it might be. But hey, BBLB is worth checking out because you’re a scumbag and you know it.

TAG – Sion Sono’s latest. It’s a weird one alright, giving us Japanese schoolgirls under attack by supernatural forces in a gory opening bus attack scene that leads on to some twee friendship stuff, then a mad scramble featuring a bit more gore and some multiverse schtick with people running about. “What is reality, after all? Maybe it’s all in our mindddssssss…” Cheers, Sion, that’s quite extraordinary really, hadn’t thought of anything like it since I smoked half a spliff behind a bike shed that time. There’s plenty of imagery and ideas in it that I dug, including a fairly messed up wedding scene with a dude with a pig’s head and a slit throat in a vertical coffin, but… somehow the whole thing didn’t quite gel for me. The randomness all makes sense in the end, kinda, with the proceedings ultimately shoehorned into heavy handed gender critique and explanatory hokum to do with virtual reality (or something), but I found it all a bit meh next to some of the director’s other work, such as the brilliant ‘Exte’. Still worth checking out I suppose.

GIALLO A VENEZIA – The problem with notoriety in cinema is that it usually only centres on one thing. Once that ‘one thing’ (in this case, a close-up of someone being stabbed repeatedly in the vag) is out of the way, the rest either stands up… or it doesn’t. What about GAV? Well, I find gialli hard work at the best of times. This one doesn’t really have much going for it. There’s none of the usual stabs at style, no pop-art set designs and the like, although it does have some charming eccentricities such as the detective who is constantly scoffing boiled eggs. There’s a cheap, tawdry feel to it that could work in its favour in a grotty sub-porno kind of way, but then again there’s too much messing about and idle chat. The nastiness is appropriately sadistic, but too few and far between. The bad sex is just bad sex. And I really loathed the musical score, a kind of seventies Euro-la-la-la that might’ve been deliberately annoying for all I know. Still, good that it’s available, maybe.

THE STRANGERS – Put this on, looking for a nice bit of creepiness. It is that, but I’d forgotten how bleak and nasty it is. ‘The Strangers’ was always mentioned in the same breath as the French film ‘Ils’ from a couple of years before. Whilst the basic premise is identical i.e home invasion focussing on a young couple up against seemingly unknowable assailants, the same could be said of lots of other flicks. ‘Ils’ actually gave an implicit rationale for the attack in the end, whereas ‘The Strangers’ probably has a lot more in common with the horror trends active in the US around the time – ‘torture porn’ and the whole grindhouse throwback thing. Tonally and visually it’s really compelling, definitely atmospheric, and there is something of the seventies horror flick in there. Most of it plays out in a standard cat-and-mouse fashion, but there is a relentlessness to it and it does manage to ratchet up the suspense. Again, I was surprised at the nihilistic, forlorn feel, although admittedly it concentrates at the end, rather than being constant… nothing new for a horror flick, but ‘The Strangers’ was a fairly mainstream effort with some biggish names (Liv Tyler for one) that did well at the box office. Looking back, one of the stronger movies of its time – see it if you haven’t.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Rik

I’ve only seen it once, years ago on the Horror Channel and I didn’t think much of it tbh so I’ve never bothered giving it another go.
My opinion might be different if I watched a version that didn’t look like it was filmed with a potato seeing as THC have a knack for showing the worst looking prints they can find!

The UK Anchor Bay dvd looks gorgeous.