What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Jurassic Park (1993)

Still a terrific movie with a second hour which is a brilliant piece of sustained tension from Steven Spielberg.

The DTS seven channel sound mix took this film to another level entirely.

Short Sharp Shocks (2020)

The Lake (1978)

This was more like it. A beautifully filmed supernatural tale about a pair of young lovers who picnic by a lake which unfortunately for them shares it's horrific secrets.

The best looking film in the set. This was genuinely good.

There's also a twenty minute interview with star Julie Peasgood. Such a wonderfully enthusiastic lady. She talks lovingly of The Lake and also of House of the Long Shadows in which she co-starred with Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and John Carradine. If Fabulous Films don't have her all over the special features on their upcoming Blu-ray then they are missing out big time.

I did watch The Errand (1980) The final film on the disc from David McGillvray which was so instantly forgettable i can't actually remember it. Whilst a forty minute interview with the man himself was more memorable and entertaining even though i rarely agree with what he he has to say.

All in all Short Sharp Shocks was pretty poor. There's only really The Lake i could envisage returning to.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Wild (2014)

Reese Witherspoon stars in a chronicle of one woman's 1,100-mile solo hike along the Pacific Crest Trail, undertaken as a way to recover from a recent personal tragedy.

Wild feels like Easy Rider for the hiking generation and in a way it is. Except in Wild, Witherspoon is leaving a life of sadness, death, heroin and dangerous sex and seeking redemption from herself along the way. Witherspoon gives a terrific, soul baring performance in a film that captures the emotional anguish and pleasures of one woman as she attempts to heal herself.

Wild takes Witherspoon i imagine out of her comfort zone of bubbly lovable characters, in fact for so much of the time she's quite unlikable but we do get inside her head and slowly begin to warm to her especially seeing how out of her depth she is in the remote wilderness.

Beautifully photographed the film captured the loneliness of the great outdoors and the anxiety that hits you when you meet someone - at one point when she meets a hillbilly type farmer in his pick up who offers her a hot meal and a shower she says 'I was scared of you, i thought you were going to kill me', to which he replies kindly 'I know you did'.

I have to say i really enjoyed Wild all over again on this rewatch, after finding the Blu-ray in Poundland, well, it was a no brainer really.

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)

Well it was Friday the 13th of August. What was i supposed to watch?

Generally thought of as one of the poorer films in the series but i've always quite liked this fifth entry about a copycat Jason Vorhees killer who is at least given a motive and reason to go on a killing spree (Kind of).

There are several good murder set pieces and they come along nice and frequent. Where it falters a little is there's nobody to really get behind until the closing stages. The character we are following Tommy Jarvis barely speaks and is totally unlikable and Melanie Kinnaman only really becomes the 'final girl' in the last reels. but despite this A New Beginning is a solid entry in the series.

[Demoncrat]

Siege (1983, Paul Donovan/ Maura O'Connell)

Dug out the vhs since it's been reissued finally ahem.
On the night the local police start a strike, a gay bar is targeted by vigilantes.
Hadn't watched this for long enough, and the print's a bit faded now, but it still held my attention (possibly due the fact that one of the thugs resembles Seth Rogan if you squint )
Ahem. Recommended.

[Frankie Teardrop]

SPARE PARTS – Some Riot Grrl-esque punksters are abducted and welded to bits of Meccano in ‘Spare Parts’, a gladiatorial horror flick set in a brutal shanty town. The frequent flashes of gore struggle to offset the sense that ‘Spare Parts’, after it settles into a rhythm of fight-scene / build up / escape plan / repeat etc, is all a bit one-note. Still, in a way it’s a nice updating of a sort-of WIP scenario. Worth a shot if you like contemporary feminist action horror with splattery combat involving big metal pincers.

SCARY MOVIE – This odd little labour of love follows a nervous guy, who happens to look a bit like Ian Curtis dressed for Sunday School, as he frets about various issues near or within a Halloween funhouse. Meanwhile, item – a dangerous madman has escaped en route from a carceral facility. What will happen? Maybe not quite what you expect. ‘Scary Movie’ is a sort-of ironic take on the whole slasher cliché, and spends most of its run-time wrong footing the audience one way or another. It drifts along, lazily taking in a succession of great Halloween costumes and pageantry, not really focussing on much beyond nervous guy and the local punks who stand around waiting for the carnival to happen. The Butthole Surfers play on the radio more than once before Roky Erickson pops up as the end credits roll. It’s very dreamy and just kind of floats by, not really caring whether it makes sense or not. I really enjoyed it, a 16mm backyard flick hewn from the same dark matter as Horror, but not quite of it.

HONEYDEW – Takes the standard backwoods horror route, then stylises it to oblivion. At some points, I was thinking that Peter Greenaway would appreciate the level of artifice on display, but the overall vibe is Lynchian – odd characters, weird mannerisms, dreamy nebulousness vying with the grotesque. Either you’re with that kind of thing or not, and I’ll say straight up that if you’re not, then you’ll probably find ‘Honeydew’ tedious to the point of aggravation, because the main draw here is sheer atmosphere, and a pretty curdled one at that. ‘Plot’ is as alluded to above – city types stranded off the highway out in the sticks happen across hostile locals, then a friendly farmstead… friendly in a TCM vein, ha ha. Lina Dunham pops up, oddly enough, just as things get sicker and sicker. Countless rural American horrors are referenced, but I do wonder whether the makers saw and took note of that tawdry bit of Brit-grot from back in the noughties, ‘Mum and Dad’? That’s kind of where we’re headed. Anyway, recommended if it sounds like your bag.

[Demoncrat]

As always

All duly noted FT!!!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Lords of Chaos (2018)

An account of the start of the Norwegian black metal music scene through the perspective of Mayhem co-founder Euronymous.

Director Jonas Akerlund gave the film the tagline of 'About truth and lies' so the bulk of the film may be true other parts less so. None of the characters come across as particularly sympathetic and although it's all based on Euronymous' viewpoint he hardly comes across as the hero of the piece. Rival Varg Vikernes is just plain nasty. At one point he's asked by a journo interviewing him in his home how he can be a Satanist, a Pagan and a Nazi at the same time to which he has no answer but it sums him up perfectly. He also calls the likes of Morbid Angel and the Swedish death metal scene poseurs.

Whilst some of the film could be seen as a black metal version of Empire Records or Clerks for example other parts are truly horrific with very strong gore. The suicide of Dead is extremely graphic and i actually winced whilst watching it whilst a couple of murders are depicted in startling realism with the kills far more horrific than any slasher film.

The infamous church burnings are shown in all their fiery glory. In fact one of them is filmed in an almost poetic dreamlike way by Akerlund.

Unfortunately the film doesn't really depict the actual black metal scene in Norway at the time. It really is only Mayhem's influence that we see. It should be mentioned that there is a lot of black metal music played throughout the film - Mayhem, Tormentor, Bathory, there's also the likes of Sodom, Celtic Frost, Dead Can Dance, Cathedral, Carcass and Sigur Ros, but for me the two best songs in the whole film come from Accept (Fast as a Shark) and Dio's Stand Up and Shout. I was also fascinated by Euronymous' record store and often paused the Blu-ray so i could check out the record covers on display such as Motorhead, King Diamond, Metallica and weirdly Motley Crue.

Although the film is certainly of serious tone there's a wicked streak of black (metal) humour running throughout kind of summed up by a final narration from Euronymous following his death. As mellow music from Sigur Ros wafts through the speakers Euronymous finishes with a narration -

" No! F*ck, stop the sentimental shit! Stop! There's nothing sad about my death or my life. I'm Euronymous, founder of Mayhem, the most infamous Black Metal band in the world. I had my own record store. I had my own record label. I created a whole new musical genre: True Norwegian Black Metal! And I created Mayhem. What the f*ck have you done lately? Poser"

I don't think this film will be for all. Most will hate the music for a start and a fair few will be put off by the nastiness on show, some will also think it factually bollocks, but for anyone interested in the metal music scene this is required viewing.

[Demoncrat]

I'd recommend the (Finnish?) flick Heavy Trip for a double bill with LOC, if only for it's more light-hearted nature ahem, balance etc ....

It's not entirely accurate, no. Mate was horrified at the Faust scene. It's not Glitter certainly

[Nordicdusk]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Lords of Chaos (2018)

An account of the start of the Norwegian black metal music scene through the perspective of Mayhem co-founder Euronymous.

Director Jonas Akerlund gave the film the tagline of 'About truth and lies' so the bulk of the film may be true other parts less so. None of the characters come across as particularly sympathetic and although it's all based on Euronymous' viewpoint he hardly comes across as the hero of the piece. Rival Varg Vikernes is just plain nasty. At one point he's asked by a journo interviewing him in his home how he can be a Satanist, a Pagan and a Nazi at the same time to which he has no answer but it sums him up perfectly. He also calls the likes of Morbid Angel and the Swedish death metal scene poseurs.

Whilst some of the film could be seen as a black metal version of Empire Records or Clerks for example other parts are truly horrific with very strong gore. The suicide of Dead is extremely graphic and i actually winced whilst watching it whilst a couple of murders are depicted in startling realism with the kills far more horrific than any slasher film.

The infamous church burnings are shown in all their fiery glory. In fact one of them is filmed in an almost poetic dreamlike way by Akerlund.

Unfortunately the film doesn't really depict the actual black metal scene in Norway at the time. It really is only Mayhem's influence that we see. It should be mentioned that there is a lot of black metal music played throughout the film - Mayhem, Tormentor, Bathory, there's also the likes of Sodom, Celtic Frost, Dead Can Dance, Cathedral, Carcass and Sigur Ros, but for me the two best songs in the whole film come from Accept (Fast as a Shark) and Dio's Stand Up and Shout. I was also fascinated by Euronymous' record store and often paused the Blu-ray so i could check out the record covers on display such as Motorhead, King Diamond, Metallica and weirdly Motley Crue.

Although the film is certainly of serious tone there's a wicked streak of black (metal) humour running throughout kind of summed up by a final narration from Euronymous following his death. As mellow music from Sigur Ros wafts through the speakers Euronymous finishes with a narration -

" No! F*ck, stop the sentimental shit! Stop! There's nothing sad about my death or my life. I'm Euronymous, founder of Mayhem, the most infamous Black Metal band in the world. I had my own record store. I had my own record label. I created a whole new musical genre: True Norwegian Black Metal! And I created Mayhem. What the f*ck have you done lately? Poser"

I don't think this film will be for all. Most will hate the music for a start and a fair few will be put off by the nastiness on show, some will also think it factually bollocks, but for anyone interested in the metal music scene this is required viewing.

I may have to finally watch this.

[MrBarlow]

Spiral: From The Book Of Saw. 2021.

Detective Zeke Banks is teamed with rookie Detective Schenk to investigate a death of a homeless person and soon they think it's linked to the Jigsaw killings.

I don't mean to be a typecast but seeing Chris Rock in comedy then going to horror I was waiting for him to come out with some funny dialogue even though he does make a good point about Forest Gump. With Samuel L Jackson he managed to make it look like a serious horror movie that doesn't go off the rails. The twist in the story was played out well even though there are suttle hints that do make it a bit predictable on who killer is. The traps are done decently but after the first kill it does loose it's edge with the gore, may not be the best entry but a lot better than Jigsaw 2017 IMHO.

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[nicholasrope]

Run Hide Fight

A Teenage Girl attempts to save her Classmates when her School is taken over by Live Streaming School Shooters. Whilst it's not a Die Hard type Movie, it was thrilling and very entertaining. I was happy that I came across it yesterday.

Spiral

A Saw spin Off which sees Chris Rock as a Detective out to find a Jigsaw copycat. The initial reviews made this to be really inferior so my expectations were lower going in but I rather enjoyed it. I chuckled when Chris Rock made a New Jack City reference. Also it was a little jarring when listening to a Jigsaw Audio Tape that it wasn't Tobin Bell's voice.

Naked Gun 2 1/2: Smell Of Fear

Slapstick fun which sees the bumbling Police Squad Detectives try to thwart a kidnapping orchestrated by a Nuclear Power company owner. Really enjoyable Comedy which you can't take your eyes off in case you miss something and it shows that this type of Comedy can be done really well.

Unleashed

Jet Li is used as a Heavy for Gangster, Bob Hoskins but after he is able to get away, he is taken in by Morgan Freeman but he is recaptured by Hoskins's Gang. Really entertaining Film, nice Fight scenes (Which includes a Scott Adkins early role) and Hoskins is really good.