What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demoncrat]

Deadtime Stories (1986, Jeffrey Delman)

Charmlessly charming Canadian caper.
Oh, how I see myself in one of this film's characters
Psychoanalysis aside, this one just missed the boat, so here it is.
Three fairy tales ... told anew .... honest.
In all honesty, they all have their merits, but I must admit a preference for the third, a skewed take on Goldilocks if there ever was
Ahem.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Devil's Honey (1986)

A film i'd been looking forward to watching for so long and sadly second time around (I also watched it last December) it remains disappointing.

I suppose i enjoyed it more last night as i kind of knew now what not to expect. Even after a hiatus for director Lucio Fulci following ill health this is one of his least note worthy examples although it does a nice reversal on the typical sex slaves trope regarding who is dishing out the retribution.

I find leading lady Blanca Marsllach lacks the appeal to hold the film together, even though she's naked for great swathes of the running time, and she comes across as whiny rather than domineering. Although i laughed out loud when she poured candle wax on the back of Brett Halsey who screamed as though it was acid, the dodgy acid like FX didn't help either. It's a pity co-star Corinne Clery, who was extremely underused, didn't have the lead role.

[Dave Boy]

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DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE (1931)

The best ever version of this story. Hyde looks absolutely grotesque in this version. The effects when Jekyll changes are still great to see and excellent for 1931.
The new Blu ray from Warner Archive looks fantastic and in it's intended aspect ratio. This is a really recommended blu ray.

[Demoncrat]

Terrifier 2 (2022, Damien Leone)

Wooooooooooh. Did the demon gag at one point? I think he did
A touch of the meglomania here, as he chucks everything at you more or less from the start, yes there's some filler (the plot ) but tis easily the grossest flick that I've seen that didn't have the name Ittenbach attached to it . Word.
Recommended ?!? !? ??! Hmmmm. Hmmmmm.

[Frankie Teardrop]

THE HIDDEN – Maybe I’m being a bit OTT, but I’ve come to think of it as one of the best B movies of the eighties. It’s certainly a master class in punchy minimalism, lean and stripped down but as slick as an LA pool shark, and mean with it. Like ‘Dead Heat’, it’s a weirdly mismatched buddy cop movie, with ardent hardnose Michael Nouri paired with eerie Kyle MacLachlan in a quest to snuff a body-hopping alien that looks like a slug with spidery appendages. Frantic chase scenes and lots of shoot-outs ride a high tide of adrenalin driven along by gleeful psychopaths who blast out punk (and a fair amount of lame poodle rock). A few fluid brush strokes are all it takes for ‘The Hidden’s violent world to burst into life, and low budget genre filmmaking is thereby raised to the level of Japanese calligraphy.

SHRIEK OF THE MUTILATED – I love any film that features a stuffed armadillo where it really shouldn’t be. But I’m being a bit hasty. After all, SOTM is a hard film to truly love, or even warm to. It’s bad - the acting’s as stiff as cardboard, the cinematography’s either disjointed or as flat as a pancake, there are prolonged stretches that appear quite pointless, and, without getting into spoiler territory (not that you could spoil this film really) even the monster-value turns out to be a con. You’ve seen that kind of ugliness countless times before, most recently, for example, if your pockets are deep enough, in plush blu ray box sets housing the extended corpuses of the likes of HG Lewis, Andy Milligan, Ray Dennis Steckler. Either you dig that bilge or not. Me, I’m still quite easily won over by a wonky composition and the look and feel of curdled film stock, and I always go on about how shit films of a certain vintage have their charms. ‘Shriek Of The Mutilated’ leaves me with highly conflicted feelings. On the one hand there’s the snooze factor of all that stiffness, but on the other there’s the delirious heights of that toaster murder, that foot-stuck-between-rocks-with-tromboning-fisheye-lens bit, and yes, that armadillo. What do you do? Lay back, submit, let go. It will all end soon enough. Or, switch it off and ask for your money back. The choice is yours. Vinegar Syndrome have done a lovely job.

[Demoncrat]

What an excellent double bil you have there FT.


Spooked! (2007, Bill Zebub)

Yeah, I went there. A group of white folks find their world shattered when one of them is turned into someone of colour
Jest aboud as offensive as BZ gets. Every second word is that dog's name from The Dambusters. Lawdy Thomas. At least it was short, much like ...



Dark Intruder (1965, Harvey Hart)

Leslie Nielsen acquits himself as the gadabout with a secret in this HPLish tale of torment and ting.
When a friend begins actly strangely on the eve of his wedding, LN leaps into action to prove he isn't a flake and that. Liked this, only an hour, so it rattles along decently enough. Recommended.

[trebor8273]

In a grotty and miserably 70s London a number of gruesome murders called the necktie murders are sweeping through the city. A man is accused of the murders and goes on the run trying to clear his name, but problem he is just such a unlikable prick you really don't care about him , most of the other characters in the film are just as unlikable the one character I really liked was the poor police said inspector who is inflicted horrible meals by his wife when all he wants is a good old fry up.

A mixture a psycho and the fugitive.



Easily my favorite of the Dc movies, which is a none stop ride from beginning to end this is largely thanks too the beautiful Gal Gadot. A film that gives us a powerful woman without beating us around the head are making men look weak and incompetent.


So it's the 5th of November so that means my annual watch of .

[MrBarlow]

Hellraiser. 2021.

A drug addiction finds the puzzle box in a container with her boyfriend and solves part of the box. When her brother disappears, she goes in search of who owned the container and the box.

This was intriguing to watch after the first sight of the trailer, new concept, female cenobite and a new tale of the movie. Odense A'Zion plays the drug addict Riley who is able to open the box and goes on a journey of exploring the box.

Decent thing with this is they introduced us to a new priestess of hell and they brought back "The Chatterer" cenobitre, new designs to the other cenobites, and the original theme. It does explore the box a bit more, each time it changes it gives meaning to each part and what it represents. The plot goes all over the place, just when you think its going well it shifts and parts tend to drag on. The voice of the female cenobite could have been better and a bit more darker. Think maybe another watch of this is in order.

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[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Solomon Kane (2009)

An origin film for the character Solomon Kane, a character created by Robert E Howard, who also created Conan the Barbarian, almost 100 years ago back in 1928.

Kane began as an English privateer ransacking places for money until following a betrayal by his men he renounces violence and becomes a man of God. Kane takes to the roads of south east England and befriends Pete Postlethwaite and his family. As with stuff like this a film about happy families isn't going to excite the blood thirsty hordes so it's not long before they are ambushed by the demonic followers of the sorcerer Malachi who kill the family leaving a distraught Kane vowing to seek vengeance and save the families only daughter from the demon.

I really like this, always have done. James Purefoy who plays Kane is a charismatic lead and born for the role even if you never quite believe him as a man who refuses to commit violence. Kinda laughable as when it comes the violence is hard hitting in places. At one point Kane grabs a villain by the pony tail and hacks away at his neck till his head comes off...you know that sort of thing.

Director M J Bassett (Wilderness, Death Watch) once again creates a film of gloomy grimness and despairing bleakness in a classy mini-epic of violence, witchcraft and swordplay.

[trebor8273]

A fun and enjoyable musical comedy , Jack Black plays unemployed loser who is kicked out of his band, he takes the temp teaching of his best friend think it's a easy way to make money and slack off. But it's not long before he teaches the kids the only thing he knows how too rock and enters them in a battle of the bands. A perfect role for Jack Black but the real stars are the kids themselves.




One of my favourite comic books and probably one of the best comic adaptations. The film is more relative today than when the comic first come out with the state of the media and government corruption. A very dark movie but it also has a very clear and uplifting messages . Well directed with two great central performances. A classic.

Now watching.