What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

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.

I absolutely hated this. There just seemed so many instances where the couple could escape or get one over their assailants yet they didn't. I can't go into detail or discuss it more as i tried to wipe it from memory it was that bad.

Where is Giallo A Venezia available from Frankie? I've never seen it but would quite like to, good or bad.

[Cinematic Shocks]

The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)

One of Wes Craven's best.

**** out of *****

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I absolutely hated this. There just seemed so many instances where the couple could escape or get one over their assailants yet they didn't. I can't go into detail or discuss it more as i tried to wipe it from memory it was that bad.

Where is Giallo A Venezia available from Frankie? I've never seen it but would quite like to, good or bad.

GAV has been out there ever since the Austrian Blu-ray was released a year or so back. Looking on ebay, you could get one for £35, which I don't recommend unless you're an absolute giallo completist. I saw it after I swapped it for 'Dark Waters' with a friend. I promptly swapped back! It's worth seeing, but not for big bucks imo.

As for 'The Strangers', shame you didn't like. As I've said before, I'm not too bothered about logic and real characters making the right decisions. I won't go on about it if it's bringing back bad memories, but filmically, atmospherically, I thought it was ace! Bit depressing, though.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

GAV has been out there ever since the Austrian Blu-ray was released a year or so back. Looking on ebay, you could get one for £35, which I don't recommend unless you're an absolute giallo completist. I saw it after I swapped it for 'Dark Waters' with a friend. I promptly swapped back! It's worth seeing, but not for big bucks imo.

As for 'The Strangers', shame you didn't like. As I've said before, I'm not too bothered about logic and real characters making the right decisions. I won't go on about it if it's bringing back bad memories, but filmically, atmospherically, I thought it was ace! Bit depressing, though.

Yeah they can keep Venezia at that price.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Yeah they can keep Venezia at that price.

It also comes up now and again on YTube.

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by 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.

As always F ... as always

Hated Them (sidebar). Up to a point I was a lover. Then it crapped out on me (breeders!!! )

Ahem.

[Demoncrat]

Ach, GAV pulls off the neat trick of being simultaneously boring and horrific. And it's a '79 er ... so it gets a thumbs up from this Demon.

[keirarts]

Possibly worth checking out the dvd of giallo in Venice. When the blu ray was released the DVD plummeted in price. I got a composite release of several different versions including a hardcore sequence. Cost me less than a tenner.

[MrBarlow]

Leatherface 2017

After being taken away from his family, young Jedidiah Sawyer is placed in a mental asylum. during a riot he escapes with three other patients and a nurse that the group have kidnaapped, they are persued by a lawman hell bent on revenge.

This is the prequel to the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, There is some good performances from Lili Tayloer as Mama Verna Sawyer who is in control of the family, who has no boundries on what she would do to protect the family.Stephen Dorff as the local Sherriff who is hell bent on seeking revenge and will push the boundries to seek justice his own way.

The film starts off fairly good then goes a bit slow then the pace is picked up again, it does has it bad flaws in it, but they can be sidelined, and does come with its share of blood and violence. 7 out of ten

[trebor8273]

Rip roaring adventure in the mold of Indiana Jones/ forties action serials. A group go seeking the legendary city of the dead and unwittingly unleash and evil mummy who is set on bringing back is dead love and taking over the world? It's up to our intrepid band of heroes to try to stop him. The ultra 4k is impressive with bold colours and level of detail not seen in the blu ray release. Was going to watch it last night with the 2017 film but ended up finishing mindhunter. 9/10