What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

It's nice to see another fan of Last House on the Beach, nos.

[keirarts]

Mom & Dad

Nicholas cage and Selma Blair play parents heading for mid-life crises. Then the Apocalypse happens and people begin killing their children, so the pair begin hunting their bratty teenage daughter and young son. Things are getting brutal when the Grandparents show up.
The film doesn't really do anything original. Watching the film you can see tropes dragged kicking and screaming from various other films including the zombie sub-genre. However it does its thing well enough to be worth a watch, especially with Nicholas Cage giving full cage with swearing, wailing, shouting and flashing the Cage stare at various points in the film. manage your expectations before going in and you should find a solid little horror.

[keirarts]

Cry of a prostitute

Henry Silva plays Tony Aniante, an American mafiosi in Sicily. He's called in by the bosses after a horrific car crash leads to the discovery of a Heroin smuggling racket using the corpses of dead children. The bosses are not happy about this and want Tony to find out who has being using dead kids as this goes against the mafia code. Apparently its ok to distribute heroin so long as you bring it in your luggage, but I'm not here to debate the hypocrisy of the mafia. Anyway, there are two gangs in town and Tony doesn't know for sure which one is responsible so begins playing both sides off against the other. He's a nifty gunman and begins shooting people in the head while whistling a jaunty tune. This leads him to working for Don Cascemi, a paternal seemingly good guy (for a gangster) and Don Ricuzzo Cantimo who seems the most likely culprit for the Heroin smuggling racket. Cantimo is married to Margie, played by Barbara Bouchet. She's an alcoholic ex whore from Brooklyn who takes a liking to Tony. Tony is somewhat disgusted by Margie, not enough to stop him having angry sex with her, including a scene where he forces Margie's head into the guts of a dead pig while giving her a 'bully ramming' from behind, and later beating the tar out of her with fist and belt before raping her in a barn. Ironically Cantimo isn't too bothered about Margie screwing other guys, in fact he seems to get off on it. He's the sort of bloke some angry internet nerd would call a cuck and he'd respond, 'yeah so what'. Eventually after numerous massacres and reciprocal massacres things come to a head and Tony sets about destroying Cantimo.
Cry of a prostitute is a jaw dropping slice of sleaze that's strangely well directed while at the same time almost makes one choke on their takeaway at the general luridness of the whole thing. From Tony arbitrarily discovering a steam roller and crushing mafiosi corpse for some inexplicable reason. To a bereaved mother pushing the corpse of another mafiosi through a bandsaw. The stilted dialogue that seems to have been translated to english without anyone actually speaking it as a first or even second language. Also the genuinely misogynistic attitude to women. Its a criticism that's far to readily applied to films, even when it doesn't fit. However I think here its genuinely valid when it comes to the rough treatment of Margie at the hands of Tony. The film probably ranks as one of Bianchi's best pictures. It rips off the plot from Red Harvest/Yojimbo/fistful of Dollars up to and including Tony rescuing a young couple and getting a beating for it. The film is very well shot with great use of location and is very well paced. It goes completely OTT in terms of violence perhaps but for genre fans that's no bad thing.
I watched the Filmart release. Some people have said its slightly longer than code reds. I never know when thats BS or when it isn't with German releases. I still remember being swindled over a hardbox copy of the slayer that bosted of being better quality than vipco's and it clearly wasn't . However in this case it looks good and frankly cost me about the same as what I'd pay for Code Reds.

[Deadite]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

DERANGED – Morbid grindhouse relic is still unsurpassed for sickly atmosphere. This is the tale of lonely necrophile Roberts Blossom and his habit of messing around with his mother’s corpse. It’s set in fifties rural Midwest America - what else was there to do back then? Despite being outdone in the notoriety stakes by ‘TCM’ and ‘Psycho’, both also inspired by the exploits of Ed Gein, ‘Deranged’ is creepier than either - something about those shots of old women's corpses lolling about in their front room always stays with me. Blossom's performance is a real tightrope act between simplicity and psychopathy, and is great. I always forget, it's kind of a black comedy until the end.

SQUIRM – An electrical storm makes a bunch of worms go crazy in small-town America in yet another morbid grindhouse relic. ‘Squirm’ is quite a lot of fun, although its problem is that it saves the good stuff till last. The final half hour, made somehow gothic by the heavy use of candlelight, is pretty mental, with huge masses of flesh eating worms pouring through windows and out of doorways whilst some murderous dude runs around with a face full of ‘em. Prior to then, it’s all build-up that does manage to sustain a degree of intrigue and mounting tension, but you’re thinking “where are the worms?” Or, I was. Not Jeff Leiberman’s best flick, but pretty cool and a perennial re-watch round chez Teardrop.

MOTHER! – To some extent dissed on its release, ‘Mother!’ comes across like a mash-up of Bunuellian home invasion and Polanskian sinister pregnancy before blowing its wad on a free-form apocalypse under a single roof and becoming a metaphor for the world situation. Or something. I really liked it – when is mainstream cinema this daring? Not very often. Arguably, the first hour is stronger, with Ed Harris and Michelle Pfieffer bringing simmering dynamics and bad vibes into J Lawrence’s fragile household, although the mad idea of having a societal melt-down take place in someone’s kitchen takes some beating, as do some surprisingly brutal scenes involving the fate of Lawrence’s young one. Definitely a recommend.

DOGS – Enjoyable seventies nonsense with David McCallum as some kind of scientist who’s worried that dogs might be getting together to bite the hand that feeds them (i.e humanity itself!) It’s all got something to do with that nuclear reactor they’re running tests on, apparently. ‘Dogs’ doesn’t really work as an effective ‘nature runs riot’ flick, but it does have its good points. The pace is there, so it doesn’t flag or get boring. There are some stand out scenes, like the doggy shower attack. McCallum looks and sounds like someone who should be nicked for peddling soft drugs down the boozer in an episode of ‘The Sweeney’. There’s also the fact that any movie that tries to convince its audience that roughly ten domesticated animals of unthreatening demeanour can ravage the entire population of a small town has to be a bit crazy. In fact, ‘Dogs’ doesn’t even try that hard, which lends an air of unintentional surrealism to the proceedings. Entertaining.

Great as ever, mate. Going to graduate to 2 word film titles next time?

[iank]

Couldn't make it to the end of The Limehouse Golem, I'm afraid. Found this very dull, very disappointing and very "not as advertised". Started off okay, but seemed to be more interested in telling the story of this woman's love life and music hall career than the Victorian serial killer thriller it was billed as, and left me bored and ultimately reaching for the remote...

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by iank

Couldn't make it to the end of The Limehouse Golem, I'm afraid. Found this very dull, very disappointing and very "not as advertised". Started off okay, but seemed to be more interested in telling the story of this woman's love life and music hall career than the Victorian serial killer thriller it was billed as, and left me bored and ultimately reaching for the remote...

Glad it wasn't just me then.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by iank

Couldn't make it to the end of The Limehouse Golem, I'm afraid. Found this very dull, very disappointing and very "not as advertised". Started off okay, but seemed to be more interested in telling the story of this woman's love life and music hall career than the Victorian serial killer thriller it was billed as, and left me bored and ultimately reaching for the remote...

Originally Posted by keirarts

Glad it wasn't just me then.

I can appreciate where you are both coming from but i quite enjoyed it.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by iank

Couldn't make it to the end of The Limehouse Golem, I'm afraid. Found this very dull, very disappointing and very "not as advertised". Started off okay, but seemed to be more interested in telling the story of this woman's love life and music hall career than the Victorian serial killer thriller it was billed as, and left me bored and ultimately reaching for the remote...

I'm surprised because I found it engrossing and couldn't wait for the cases (court case and serial killer investigation) to be resolved. Although I saw it at the cinema and know how it finishes, I want to see it again, though probably when it's in a 5 for £30 offer rather than buying it at full price right now.

[Cinematic Shocks]

12 Strong is… strong. It’s not a great film, but it’s solid; I really enjoyed it, I thought it was very good. It just could’ve done with some deeper characterization.

***1/2 out of *****

[trebor8273]

8/10



Tonight's viewings are.

Five deadly venoms

The dark (1979)