What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[MrBarlow]

The Demons. 1973.

A group of nuns becomes possessed and declared witches.

What Ken Russell did with The Devils, Jess Franco obviously thought what he can do I can try and do better. We have nuns that are possessed and horny who don't mind trying it on with the other sisters and are slowly tortured. This seemed to go one way with as it seemed to be about witches, then goes down a different path then gives you a curve ball. The pace does tend to go quick and slow but this wasn't too bad.

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[MrBarlow]

The Dungeon Of Harrow. 1962.

A man shipwrecked washes ashore of a Count who stays on the waterfront and finds himself captive.

This is one I have bypassed a few times and generally didn't seem appealing but it can't be worse than what I've put myself through recently in movie viewing. This was probably filmed on a tight low budget but it does make up for in the dark tone atmosphere we are given, mixed with a dark Gothic style castle with the flickery candle light and dark shadows. The actors do try their best to make it convincing that they are in a horror movie. With the right frame of mind this would be a enjoyable film, certainly merits a re-watch from me.

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[MrBarlow]

Creepshow. 1982.

A anthology of tales created by Stephen King and George A. Romero

A family get together at a house where a woman murdered her father on Father's Day only for him to return from the grave and get his Father's Day cake.

A not too bright Farmer touches a meteor that lands on his farm and slowly turns into a plant.

A jilted husband takes revenge on his wife and her lover by burying them up to their necks in the sand, only for them to return and seek out the husband.

A janitor finds a crate under the stairs in a college that has a creature inside.

A rich mean old businessman living in a bug proof pent house, becomes prey to a horde of cockroaches.

One of the classic anthology movies to come from the 80s, every story is well acted and crafted by some popular names in tv and films, did Stephen King do this before and during his nasty drug habit or was it after or was he actually acting? No matter how many times I watch this I still can't get past the cockroaches segment. Think between Father's Day and The Crate are still the best for suspense and we slowly see the creature being revealed.

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Have a good day and weekend everyone.

[Frankie Teardrop]

THE STENDHAL SYNDROME – I’d forgotten that this was the one with that weird subaquatic “kissing a fish with a human face” scene – hats off to Dario for being warped enough to convince his own daughter into doing it. The rest of TSS is marked by other feverish moments, but the baggy thriller plotline and its sprawling runtime leave me a bit ‘meh’. On the plus side, Argento’s incomparable style means that the atmosphere never really drops, and I guess a mediocre work by a genius artiste is never simply just average.

THE MESSIAH OF EVIL – Although still relatively neglected, ‘The Messiah Of Evil’ is, for me, one of the greatest horror movies. Its atmosphere is as fathomless and as secretive as the sea at night – fittingly, because that’s where we are, in a small coastal town where the dead are walking. Seeing it is like watching a shadow form through a dreamy haze, with no zombie shoot-outs and only a couple of ‘big horror moments’ to distract from the slowly mounting dread. That’s the feeling this movie gives me, anyway. It’s still a low budget narrative horror movie with all the usual mainstays – wraparound in an asylum, Lovecraftian set-up, creepy guy at the gas station. But for nightmare ambience it’s got to be at or near the pinnacle of seventies horror cinema.

SPECIES – It never seems like a bad idea to watch ‘Species’. It is what it is – pure popcorn, a big flashy B-movie with a bunch of names acting like idiots. I mean, some of that dialogue. What drags me back to this one is the nostalgia value more than anything, and I’ll feel entertained, a little, but also a bit hollow after a while. But it’s nice to reminisce.

SPECIES 3 – I’m always a bit surprised this series made it as far as a ‘part four’, which I’ve never seen. No excuses now that I have the box set from 88. ‘Species 3’, on the other hand, has lived in the hinterland of my movie-watching memory for a good few years, having made a fairly feeble first impression that lingered on none the less. This not particularly highly anticipated reunion has done little to balance my perceptions. It’s basically classic early noughties DVD fodder, full of the flat but glib aesthetics of that time and with not much interesting going on but hey, you knew that anyway. On the other hand, it’s fine for a throwaway watch, doesn’t drag too much, and any movie which makes a big thing about a pile of alien tendrils flopping out of someone’s rent-open stomach is ultimately OK by me.

THE ORACLE – Roberta Findlay brings us the good and the bad (well, mostly the bad) with supernatural vengeance flick / mid-eighties fashion disaster time capsule ‘The Oracle’. Someone in New York moves into their new pad, finds a Ouija board and uncovers secrets from beyond the grave; then a rather butch fellow murders a prostitute across town, but it all makes sense in the end. OK, enough with ‘the good and the bad’, ‘The Oracle’ sucks big time, but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t sat there with a massive grin on my face for half of it, feeling a bit delirious. Findlay does a pretty good job of balancing torpor-inducing drag with cheapo funhouse macabre; outbursts of the latter, sudden flourishes of pound-shop effects done up with faux Bava lighting, are what make this film a bit special. Plus there’s the grit and the grime of mid eighties Noo Yawk, always a reason to watch a movie in my book.

[Justin101]

You’ll be glad to know that Species 4 is a little bit better than part 3 haha. I enjoyed all 4 of them.

[MrBarlow]

Thriller: A Cruel Picture. 1973.

A young girl is sexually assaulted and becomes a mute, when she is offered a ride she is lead to a life of prostitution and seeks revenge on those who abused her.

This is pretty grim, but that's the way the audience love these revenge films, sadistic torture to vulnerable females can be upsetting to anyone but here Madeleine bides her time and decides to fight back. We see her being drugged and sold as a sex slave (yes there is some hardcore scenes and close up of everything in the uncut version which I just watched) but the more exciting scenes was her revenge.

The film is not fast paced so you will need to have the patience for the build up of some scenes, Christina Lindberg who plays the lead character does do a decent job in this that can certainly make your eye twitch at one specific scene.

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[trebor8273]

A enjoyable omen type movie we start the film with a young woman on the run and about to kill her new born baby we jump ahead ten years or so and the woman is living happily with her son but he takes ill not long after she sees people in his from , the doctors can't tell whats the matter and the young chap soon devlopes a taste for human flesh like all good mother's she tries to protect and help him by finding victims and looking for a cure.

As I said enjoyable and a little different than the usual devil child films with some decent gore.



Really more like Dumblebore! Really didn't have much of a clue what was going on at times just seemed to jump from one pointless scene to another and characters I didn't have much of a clue about , even the worse Harry potter's are a lot better than this, but maybe I should of rewatched the first two first.

Now watching.

[MrBarlow]

Shakedown. 1988.

A narcotics street wise cop teams with a legal attorney to bring down corruption within the police force and go against a tough female District Attorney.

Peter Weller plays the smart attorney who is trying to help a troubled youth who allegedly killed a police officer who said it was self defense but other officers say it wasn't. Sam Elliott plays the street wise wrong place wrong time cop who wants to try and shake down corruption within his precinct and needs all the help he can get.

Both actors do try their best but at times Weller's performance seems wooden, not sure if he was told to be like that or not. Patricia Charbonneau plays the tough district attorney and ex partner of Weller, and some daft moments of a love triangle happens but doesn't really get thrown in our faces a lot. plenty of action and some good build up of tense moments.

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[MrBarlow]

Creepshow 2. 1987.

3 anthology tales based on the stories by Stephen King and George A. Romero.

In a small dead Arizona town, Hardware store owners Ray and Martha who have a statue of a Indian war chief, are robbed and killed. The Indian chief comes to life for revenge.

4 teens drive out to the middle of nowhere to a lake that has a raft with the intent of smoking weed and getting laid, unaware of what's in the water.

Adulteress is running late from leaving her lover to pick her husband up and accidentally kills a hitch-hiker. She leaves the accident which comes back to haunt her.

With a different director at the helm, Michael Gornick does try his best even inserting a short piece with a boy called Billy from the start and the creep who was performed by Tom Savini and voiced by Joe Silver does add a bit of The Crypt Keeper touch to it.

George Kennedy and Dorothy Lamour play the elderly couple who meet a grim end, the statue coming to live was done decently and slowly with a eerie background score that adds some dark tone to the film. We basically want the robbers to meet a grim death and we do get it without any disappointment.

The car that Deke drives in the second one, what car was that as it has some battery in it that doesn't run out, in the morning the radio still plays. These are your typical teens that have one thing on their mind...getting high and not caring about their surroundings, the end of this one was almost a near swear word when I first saw it and that was from my dad

Lois Chiles plays the cheating wife and is tormented by the hiker who comes back to haunt her, every time he appears his face decays away, nice touch by the make-up team, and a small cameo by Stephen King himself. This one I have always enjoyed even though it's only 3 stories but they are all good steady enough paced.

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If anyone is wondering if I will be watching the third installment...oh hell no

[MrBarlow]

Deadly Weapons. 1974.

Larry who has a list of people's names on it he tries to blackmail them, when he is killed by a mobster his girlfriend Crystal goes for revenge.

This does sound bad...and it is, Chesty Morgan (yep that's her name) does act like a blonde in this, has very little acting abilities but her bosom is the best quality in the film. She has a way off offing the guys that killed her lover and at least they died in comfort and probably with a smile on their faces. It was more comedy than anything else and only in the 70s you can make a movie like this.

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