What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[keirarts]

Veronica

Veronica is a schoolgirl in early 90's Madrid whose father has passed away. She's left caring for her younger siblings while her mother goes out to work. She buys a ouija board and user guide from a newstand and her and two friends try and contact Veronica's father while the rest of the school are watching the eclipse. Things get strange pretty quickly freaking the girls out after veronica cuts her hand and bleeds on the table before it catches fire.
The girls hurry off but Veronica soon notices strange things happening around her and realises she has brought something back home with her.
After this hit Netflix there were stories online about people having to turn it off because it was too terrifying. I'm always sceptical about these types of stories but given this is directed by REC. director Paco Plaza I had at least some hope of something good. Thankfully it mostly lives up to its promise. Its not as scary as some people have claimed. Its got some very creepy sequences, especially with a mysterious figure stalking Veronica. However its not sleep with the lights on terrifying. The early 90's setting is well realised and some slightly iffy effects in places it mostly works. It's on Netflix so costs you nothing if your already a subscriber. Well worth checking out.

Ravenous

Not the Antonia Bird film with Guy Pierce. Ravenous is a French-Canadian zombie flick that follows various characters surviving in rural Canada several weeks after a zombie outbreak. It starts cutting back and fourth between the different characters before they ultimately meet up and decide to head to a nearby bunker.
In terms of plot, there's not a lot here that isn't especially new. Where it stands out is in terms of its tone and how well its been made. Its going to alienate a portion of its audience and I have to admit to struggling through the first 20-30 minutes. Stick with it though as it does pay off. Mainly its the quiet, almost dream like atmosphere of the film, with a quiet score that feels more like ambient sound. The zombies don't just charge in but seem to try and lure people in to traps. They also have begun building strange structures out in the wilderness out of chairs. The film is relentlessly downbeat, it kills off characters its spent time getting you to like and there's an almost strange sense of hopelessness that permeates the film. Again its on Netflix. Its worth a go.

[keirarts]

Shin Godzilla

A mysterious creature surfaces in Tokyo bay and begins trashing the city. However it seems to be evolving and growing and the threat increases. The Japanese government is beset by Bureaucracy and red tape, can it resolve to destroy the creature before America decides to drop a nuke on it?
Given America's two attempts to bring the big lizard to the screen with modern effects technology, its nice to see the Japanese taking a smaller budget and modern digital effects and successfully capturing the feel of classic Godzilla in a way the two bigger budgeted films didn't quite capture. The plot is somewhat strange. The obsession with having lengthy scenes of attempts to stop Godzilla thwarted by bureaucracy were a little baffling at first. I can only surmise that this is how the Japanese government operates as in western countries, we may bog certain things down more than we should, we certainly have the capability to act when under attack or in event of natural disaster. However there's still way more actual Godzilla on screen than the previous American entry. To be fair to that film, when he was onscreen Gojira looked correct however here they've one-upped that film by capturing the movement style of of the creature. It feels quite odd at first that they've spent time and money making a more plausible looking creature while also making it look like it has the movements of a guy in a suit stamping on models but it works. If your a fan of the older films then you'll understand what I mean. Also kudos to the film-makers for including the original Godzilla theme.

[keirarts]

Junk

Produced for Japanese home video in the late 90's - early 2000's. Junk is an action horror about a bunch of Jewel thieves who head to a remote factory to sell off their loot to a fence only to wander into a botched American experiment to revive the dead. It also nabs the plot of an earlier video hit score by having rival Yakuza and special forces in the mix. So when not battling the undead the rival factions are engaged in gun-play with each other. It's cheap and cheerful. A lot of stuff shot for the video market in Japan is. Takeshi Miike cut his teeth turning out films for the market early in his career and it seems to instil a discipline in the film makers to shoot quickly while turning out entertaining films that appear to have higher production values than they actually do. As a result Junk is a lot of fun. Score was excellent but credit where its due, taking that film then adding zombies is about as Exploitation as it gets.

Bio-Zombie

Hong kong entry into the western influenced zombie genre. This has a pair of hapless video store clerks making money selling counterfeit VCD's (remember those?!) and robbing people. They aim to save up some cash but end up blowing it on hookers, drugs and booze. They run down a man carrying a bio-weapon in a lucozade bottle and unwittingly unleash a zombie plague upon the city. Back at the shopping centre they work at they must work with various other shop workers to try and stay alive as the shopping centre begins filling up with the undead.
More of a straight up comedy with nods to video games like house of the dead, Bio-zombie is a lot of fun. It's got the traditional crude humour that can be found in HK cinema and the main characters are hopelessly corrupt but have enough likeable charm to keep you watching. The film doesn't scrimp on the gore either with plenty of blood and actually manages a genuinely bleak ending that doesn't feel out of place given the amount of humour that precedes it.

[keirarts]

Versus

There are 666 portals to the 'other side'. the 444th is in the Forest of Resurrection. Two escaped convicts meet up with a Yakuza gang that are supposed to be taking them to safety. However there is another agenda at play. Their seemingly immortal boss wants to open the portal in the forest and the convicts and a female hostage who is brought to the scene seem to play a key role in this plan. However one of the escaped cons is a belligerent trouble maker and things go quickly wrong. With hordes of gun wielding zombies thrown into the mix it quickly descends into all out war with the Hero and the Yakuza battling each other and the undead.
To say the plot of Versus is baffling is an understatement. However the plot is the least important part of this film. It's pretty much style over substance but the style is so hyper kinetic you end up just going with it. Like the made for video era stuff such as Junk or Evil dead trap its got a small cast of the directors friends and colleagues in a single location and in true Evil dead style they throw everything they can at the screen to see what sticks. We have a guy who tries to use knives while armed with a handgun because it looks cooler. A tiny coward who seems to pull out a never ending stream of guns from his tight leather pants. A hero who is more concerned about looking cool and being a stubborn asshole than actually trying to achieve anything. Cast members pose dramatically and fire weapons in stupid ways because of aesthetics. Ultimately its a film that feels like a bunch of people having a laugh and that's no bad thing. The end result is still ludicrously entertaining.

[Demoncrat]

Solid reviews k. Junk is a favourire ....

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Near Dark (1987)

Kathryn Bigelow's classic film shirks all the usual vampiric Gothic trappings and takes on the look of depression era dust bowls with it's starkly bleak Americana landscape - think The Last Picture Show - as the film combines the western and horror genres in one visually stunning and frightening package.

The film is a tense road movie in which a farm boy, Adrian Pasdar, is inducted by sweet Jenny Wright into her nomadic family of terrifying bloodsuckers as they manage to keep one step ahead of both daylight and the law. Bigelow spins a genuinely scary and powerful yarn which both slickly and brutally examines the life of the outlaw gang. Lance Henrikson and Bill Paxton give standout performances as fascinatingly grotesque vampires of the down and dirty rock n' roll variety - we're talking Motorhead and TSOL here rather than surfer dudes hoping for good times tonight.

The film has many standout sequences, but it's highlight is the trashing of a roadside bar as the vampiric gangsters kill everyone inside in a shockingly taut set piece of nightmarish suspense. There's also the familiar whiff of Interview with the Vampire here - the 1976 book not the film - as at times Bigelow plays it out as a parable of innocence exposed to evil especially the many scenes where Pasdar refuses to take another humans life in order to feast and become strong as well as the child vampire unable to grow up.

The 80's were a decade which unleashed some outstanding horror films. Near Dark is one of them.

[Demoncrat]

Well said that man!!

[profondo rosso]

Great review, which has prompted me to go and watch this again, and also think why this has not had an all whistles and bells release? such a cult film which would surely move in great numbers if released.

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by profondo rosso

Great review, which has prompted me to go and watch this again, and also think why this has not had an all whistles and bells release? such a cult film which would surely move in great numbers if released.

It’s Studio Canal isn’t it, they can rarely be bothered. Although with their recent reissue of The Howling there is hope. The old BD edition seems to be OOP now...

[gag]

Its been released on blu ray but no idea what pic quality like


https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_f...k&_sacat=11232

Also I think 80 & 70s where a great era for horror , and much prefer the acting as well tbh a lot of it just comes across as effortless a lot of today's acting you can tell their trying or just overdoing it.