What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Night Tide (1961)

Dennis Hopper stars as a GI who meets a young woman named Mora on Santa Monica pier who works as a mermaid in a pier sideshow attraction and is homed by her adopted Godfather Captain Murdock. Murdock tells Hopper he thinks Mora is dangerous and killed her last two boyfriends...

Curtis Harrington's debut film clearly draws inspiration from Jacques Tourneur's Cat People (1942) in the way it's ambiguous regarding the nature of the main female protagonist. Unlike Cat People, Harrington filmed his movie in the bright Californian sunshine which removes much of the horror film trappings and places the film solely in the realms of the fantastic although it is fairly atmospheric and has hints of both Lovecraft (A wonderful dreamlike sequence) and Poe (Annabel Lee).

I've always liked the idea of mermaids and sirens - both so underused in horror films - so i rather enjoyed this.

Indicator's lovely Nicolas Winding Refn overseen 4K restoration is a joy to the eyes.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Appointment (1981)

You know when you watch something and it seems brilliant but the reasons and explanations for it are frustratingly out of reach as in you just can't quite grasp what exactly is going on. That is how i felt with The Appointment.

The opening is quite something else almost making you think you'll be watching a similar movie to 1971's Assault. However that really isn't the case.

For the next hour the film veers off into what is basically a family drama with Edward Woodward's husband having to disappoint wife Jane Merrow and daughter Samantha Weysome in telling them he won't be able to attend his daughters concert recital as he has to go away on business for a couple of days which he cannot avoid.

This is quite slow and seemingly at odds with the opening sequence until the dreams begin kicking in for each family member, dreams which become ever more vivid. Meanwhile there's the constant ambiguity that there could be some sort of malevolent presence lurking outside the house and seemingly controlling Rottweiler type dogs which stalk the streets.

This could only ever be a British film. It doesn't thrust us into a whirlpool of weirdness it slowly tempts us in toe by toe until it's impossible to escape and before we know it we can't keep our head above water. The sense of terrible foreboding kicks off during the first dream sequence and the eeriness becomes ever stronger as it leads up to a truly mind blowing finale on a road in Snowdonia. That's not hyperbole. It is genuinely mind blowingly intense and a stunningly filmed achievement.

Despite several kind of get outs along the way i'm guessing director Lindsay Vickers is telling us that we simply cannot control our destiny however it may seem.

[Demoncrat]

C.O.R.N. (2021, Robin Christian)

When a flat tyre halts their journey, a family finds that the locals are into some weird kicks and then some.
An odd wee beast. Flatly filmed with a few interesting editing choices, but it held my attention.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Moon in Scorpio (1987)

A sort of psycho killer whodunnit (If i'm being kind) about three couples including Britt Ekland and John Phillip Law, who go on a pacific voyage on a yacht. However one of the six is a murderer.

One of those films that's probably described as a bit of a mess really. From watching last night via the nice looking 88 Films Blu-ray it would appear that the opening and closing scenes in a hospital were tacked on as was Eckland's narration which soon begins to grate. There are clumsy attempts to implicate the men as possible killers thanks to daft flashbacks to their time in Vietnam, however these flashbacks don't really go anywhere and seem to basically be there to add to the running time. There's a memorable sequence in which Law wrestles with a half rotted corpse in a swimming pool but again this doesn't really bring anything to the rest of the film.

Eckland seems uncomfortable throughout and the direction is perfunctory although there are some well shot scenes outside on the yacht and the kills and suitably bloody.

Although i quite enjoyed myself watching this it's not a good film and i was on more than one occasion thinking it was a poor man's Waves of Lust (1975).

Awesome poster art mind you.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Best of Both Worlds (1990)

Movie version of the classic two parter that ended season 3 and began season 4 of The Next Generation. Watched via the Amazon exclusive Blu-ray - Picard The Movie and Tv Collection.

The Enterprise must battle the Borg who are intent on conquering Earth aided by a captured and assimilated Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart).

A precursor to the 1996 film Star Trek: First Contact, this is an excellent film / double episode in it's own right and rightly regarded as some of the finest tv Trek ever made.

The Blu-ray image quality is outstanding. In particular the FX shots and model work whilst the 7:1 soundtrack is beautifully immersive. Even in the quiet moments there's the distinctive hum of the Enterprise engines and computer banks which put you in the middle of the ship's bridge.

I bought this set for the four Next Gen films and the two tv movies were a bonus. With the tv stuff looking and sounding so good i look forward to experiencing the feature films in all their glory.

[Justin101]

I can highly recommend the Next Generation box set if you don’t already have it, head and shoulders above the DVDs. Paramount really did a great job remastering the show.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Justin101

I can highly recommend the Next Generation box set if you don’t already have it, head and shoulders above the DVDs. Paramount really did a great job remastering the show.

No, TNG is the only one i don't have on dvd as i thought it seemed like it had dated badly... Not this film anyway, looks great.

There's also another two parter / film in the set called Chain of Command which i've never seen. I'll see what i think about that then maybe save up for TNG on Blu.

I bought Voyager three years ago this month and still haven't started on it.

[Frankie Teardrop]

TRANCERS – Picked up a sort-of old fave and realised I’d inadvertently hit on a Christmas movie. Twenty-third century gumshoe Jack Deth slips ‘down the line’ to mid-eighties LA, where a sinister bad guy is messing with the future. A nice, solid B with all the era-specific turkey and trimmings, including a constant neon and palm trees vibe. One slight bit of trivia of interest only to me is that I always think ‘Trancers’ features a cameo from The Exploited as the band in the punk club, but when I watch it I realise it’s someone else. Being wrong sucks. Anyway, the ending feels rushed and a bit fumbled but doesn’t really make this anything other than an enjoyable romp.

THE MEATEATER – Every shoe salesman must dream of opening their own movie theatre – but not one that comes with its very own ‘Phantom Of The Opera’ clone, right? A cheapo indie from the late seventies that’s bad in a way you couldn’t carry off nowadays. If you dig that kind of thing, there’s plenty to like; inky shadow vibes, baffling edits and odd camera moves all have their magic. You could also overlook the flat acting and constantly bungled scenes in favour of quirks such as the avalanche of references to meat snacks (don’t expect cannibalism, this one’s in it for the hot dogs) and the fact that the cinema only ever plays a documentary about animals shagging and eating each other to a tranced-out audience who giggle like they’re in someone’s dream. It must all be a metaphor for… something. When the meat eater appears, he looks distressingly like Jimmy Saville! ‘Off’ enough to invite but not weird enough to excite; the creaky regionalism charms on a level with, say, something like ‘Toxic Zombies’, but doesn’t quite reach the sinister strangeness of Don Dohler’s similarly semi-competent ‘The Fiend’.

HIGH DESERT KILL – Some guys are on a desert hunting trip to commemorate their dearly departed best mate. After a while their macho antics start getting weird and a bit dangerous; an alien presence might be involved. ‘High Desert Kill’ is actually a late eighties TV movie that cribs from era mainstays in ways that are awkward and quite interesting. ‘Predator’ as a metaphor for grief? It just doesn’t happen. I guess the desert setting lays on a bit of atmosphere, and there are some nicely eerie stretches, particularly when they all start going a bit mad. A few lulls, although the TV flatness was less in evidence than expected, and in looks and tone it reminded me of a direct-to-video work from around the time more than anything else. Enjoyable. Chuck Connors always gets a thumbs up from me.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

I had no idea Trancers was set at Christmas, Frankie.

Another one for the Your Christmas Movies thread. (Next year)

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I had no idea Trancers was set at Christmas, Frankie.

Another one for the Your Christmas Movies thread. (Next year)

There's a nice bit with a crazed Santa in a shoot-out.