What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Beyond the Door (1974)

An Exorcist rip off from Ovidio G. Assonitis, starring Juliet Mills, Gabriele Lavia, and Richard Johnson. Mills stars as a San Francisco housewife who becomes possessed by a demon during pregnancy.

Despite being laughable at times Beyond the Door is okay. Juliet Mills is a lot of fun, seemingly knowing the film is dross but none the less she gives it her all and revels in her exploitative pea vomiting role, whilst Richard Johnson lurks mysteriously in the background during the first hour looking scarily cool.

Mills and Lavia's daughter, Gail, must be about nine but has the dialogue of an eighteen year old hipster whilst her curly blonde haired younger brother Ken, comes direct from the Frezza / Bob school of acting.

The film has some good San Francisco location work including a drive down the eight hairpin turns of the famed Lombard Street. The sound design is weird. It feels like it's from another film half the time, namely City of the Living Dead, with it's constant zombie moaning and groaning and eerie musical motifs. Assonitis obviously didn't rip off said Fulci classic as Beyond the Door arrived a full six years before Lucio's masterpiece.

In a way there's too much going on here for it to be described purely as an Exorcist rip off, much of the stuff doesn't work but other parts do work very well as does it's all round general oddness and whilst it may be a poor man's Exorcist it entertains with it.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Censor (2021)

Set in 1985, the film follows a young woman, Enid, (Niamh Algar) who works for the BBFC basically censoring video nasties.

Director Prano Bailey-Bond introduces everything possible from the video nasties phenomenon of the time. Be it video shops selling uncut video tapes under the counter, the press hysteria regarding the films, even more press hysteria when a tabloid rag decides a man who murdered his family was influenced by one of the films Enid didn't cut - spoiler - He'd never seen it - then there's cult horror director Frederick North (Adrian Schiller) who harasses Enid for banning one of his films outright. A film that Enid thinks features her missing sister Alice, and this plot development takes over the second half of the film as she goes searching for North's filming location for his next feature in which Alice is supposed to feature for one final time.

I did wonder how much exec producer Kim Newman influenced the first half of the film centered around the nasties outrage but the second half is more a female centric character study and how Enid's psyche is affected by seeing the films themselves on top of her fragile feelings regarding her sisters disappearance.

Censor is an interesting and audacious film in the way it looks at video nasties. It looks and feels authentic of the period thanks to it's muted colour grades and also captures the authorities take on video violence - at one point Enid tells someone she's cutting and banning films to protect the British public. However Censor isn't the film to see if you want gory violence in the main although there is one scene in particular featuring Michael Smiley that's violently memorable. Yet as the film ended in a nicely peculiar way which certainly altered my perception of it's third and final act as it's murky line between fiction and reality finally dissolved completely, it felt like a piece of cinema that could have been so much bolder given it's context in what was a dark period for the British film industry.

[Frankie Teardrop]

CHERRY TREE – I love it when high stakes supernatural events that threaten the whole of humankind play out down the road, where there are cul-de-sacs and dogwalkers and people who go to their nondescript PE teacher-type jobs. The mundane backdrop for ‘Cherry Tree’s supernatural antics is some English / Irish backwater (never clear where exactly), and the PE teacher in question is a witch who wants to entice one of her pupils into a Satanic pregnancy. ‘Cherry Tree’ at first struck me as a bit blunt, a bit clunky, with a shopworn visual style that seemed dated for its 2015 ‘vintage’. But then it got weirdly carried away with itself and pulled out a load of pulpy shit that wouldn’t seem out of place in a late eighties Italian genre flick by way of Hong Kong (read – cellars full of candles, nicely lit zombies, and countless shots of revolting flesh eating centipedes burrowing in and out of writhing bodies). Enjoyable trash that was a pleasure to revisit, especially given my initial inability to recall anything about it. From the makers of the comparatively prim and proper ‘Wake Wood’.

TOTALLY KILLER – Well, not ‘totally’, it’s not quite rad enough. It’s alright though. Basically, it takes a similar line to other recent timeslip genre movies like ‘Happy Death Day’ and uses it as an excuse to pay a wry visit to the nineteen eighties, represented here by the apparently pre-everything year of 1987. That was when a masked killer chopped up three young students in the small town of Vernon, setting up a mystery that survives into the present and fuels a local true-crime industry, not to mention a late revival; said slasher steps out of the shadows once again to murder eighties veteran Pam Hughes, leaving her daughter to use her best friend’s time machine (it’s a comedy) to go way back when to sort it all out and stop it ever happening in the first place. You know how it’s going to pan out – lots of ‘Back To The Future’ references, slasher winks that wouldn’t be lost on non-specialists, a bit of high minded commentary to pander to the maker’s notion of generational self-perception (a bit hypocritical, considering the current political climate is no more progressive than the eighties). Lightweight fare and a little bit in love with its own superciliousness, but still I found it amiable and entertaining enough.

[Dave Boy]

Original UK Double bill..

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THE SAVAGE BEES (1976)

Originally a US TV movie but given a theatrical release here in the UK.
This is good stuff with some great set pieces involving the bees. Notable is a scene where the bees cover a car.
The movie follows the usual storyline in which nobody believes that the killer bees are coming!

THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN (1977)

No introduction needed for this one! Great ride of a movie showcasing super yucky make up from Rick Baker.
Nice skull cracking sound effect as the severed head goes over the waterfall!
Strange to think that this movie was originally a AA certificate.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

CHERRY TREE – I love it when high stakes supernatural events that threaten the whole of humankind play out down the road, where there are cul-de-sacs and dogwalkers and people who go to their nondescript PE teacher-type jobs. The mundane backdrop for ‘Cherry Tree’s supernatural antics is some English / Irish backwater (never clear where exactly), and the PE teacher in question is a witch who wants to entice one of her pupils into a Satanic pregnancy. ‘Cherry Tree’ at first struck me as a bit blunt, a bit clunky, with a shopworn visual style that seemed dated for its 2015 ‘vintage’. But then it got weirdly carried away with itself and pulled out a load of pulpy shit that wouldn’t seem out of place in a late eighties Italian genre flick by way of Hong Kong (read – cellars full of candles, nicely lit zombies, and countless shots of revolting flesh eating centipedes burrowing in and out of writhing bodies). Enjoyable trash that was a pleasure to revisit, especially given my initial inability to recall anything about it. From the makers of the comparatively prim and proper ‘Wake Wood’.

One of the best Irish / British horror films of the past decade. I really like it.

Best not get it confused with the formulaic British home invasion film Cherry Tree Lane

[Nordicdusk]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Beyond the Door (1974)

An Exorcist rip off from Ovidio G. Assonitis, starring Juliet Mills, Gabriele Lavia, and Richard Johnson. Mills stars as a San Francisco housewife who becomes possessed by a demon during pregnancy.

Despite being laughable at times Beyond the Door is okay. Juliet Mills is a lot of fun, seemingly knowing the film is dross but none the less she gives it her all and revels in her exploitative pea vomiting role, whilst Richard Johnson lurks mysteriously in the background during the first hour looking scarily cool.

Mills and Lavia's daughter, Gail, must be about nine but has the dialogue of an eighteen year old hipster whilst her curly blonde haired younger brother Ken, comes direct from the Frezza / Bob school of acting.

The film has some good San Francisco location work including a drive down the eight hairpin turns of the famed Lombard Street. The sound design is weird. It feels like it's from another film half the time, namely City of the Living Dead, with it's constant zombie moaning and groaning and eerie musical motifs. Assonitis obviously didn't rip off said Fulci classic as Beyond the Door arrived a full six years before Lucio's masterpiece.

In a way there's too much going on here for it to be described purely as an Exorcist rip off, much of the stuff doesn't work but other parts do work very well as does it's all round general oddness and whilst it may be a poor man's Exorcist it entertains with it.

I didn't like this at all first time I watched it I will get around to rewatching at some point

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[Demoncrat]

Dark Age (1987, Arch Nicholson)

John Jarratt stars in this semi Jaws style animal caper.
An ancient croc is stirred from hibernation by poachers. Mayhem ensues. Always wanted to see this after seeing the trailer on some vhs cough. Time might not have been kind to the dialogue, but you get Alf Ramsay sporting a moustache so it balances out
Ahem. Fun was had.


House Of Frankenstein (1944, Erle C. Kenton)

Switching gears a tad, we revisit this old comfort blanket. You get a mini Dracula short, then some Wolf Man action, then old square head wakes up and saves the day cough didn't see that coming harumph.



Miracles (1989, Jackie Chan)

Bask in all its silly glory.
JC stars as a man who is placed in a dangerous postion, but it's ok, a few mad stunts later and he's on top of things.
Somewhat sentimental in tone, this is a showcase for the all round good guy persona that he worked so diligently during this period.
A set piece set in a rope factory presents a man at the top of his game.

[nicholasrope]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Censor (2021)

Set in 1985, the film follows a young woman, Enid, (Niamh Algar) who works for the BBFC basically censoring video nasties.

Director Prano Bailey-Bond introduces everything possible from the video nasties phenomenon of the time. Be it video shops selling uncut video tapes under the counter, the press hysteria regarding the films, even more press hysteria when a tabloid rag decides a man who murdered his family was influenced by one of the films Enid didn't cut - spoiler - He'd never seen it - then there's cult horror director Frederick North (Adrian Schiller) who harasses Enid for banning one of his films outright. A film that Enid thinks features her missing sister Alice, and this plot development takes over the second half of the film as she goes searching for North's filming location for his next feature in which Alice is supposed to feature for one final time.

I did wonder how much exec producer Kim Newman influenced the first half of the film centered around the nasties outrage but the second half is more a female centric character study and how Enid's psyche is affected by seeing the films themselves on top of her fragile feelings regarding her sisters disappearance.

Censor is an interesting and audacious film in the way it looks at video nasties. It looks and feels authentic of the period thanks to it's muted colour grades and also captures the authorities take on video violence - at one point Enid tells someone she's cutting and banning films to protect the British public. However Censor isn't the film to see if you want gory violence in the main although there is one scene in particular featuring Michael Smiley that's violently memorable. Yet as the film ended in a nicely peculiar way which certainly altered my perception of it's third and final act as it's murky line between fiction and reality finally dissolved completely, it felt like a piece of cinema that could have been so much bolder given it's context in what was a dark period for the British film industry.

I was enjoying the Film until the end, the weirdness took me out of it, such a disappointment.

Will have to watch it again as I remember seeing it at a Cinema on a wet Sunday Night during a Partial Lockdown with restrictions.

[nicholasrope]

Wonka

Prequel starring Timothy Chalamet as the younger Wonka which tells the story of how Wonka started in the Chocolate Business. After being duped into working in a Clothes Washing Business, he enlists his fellow Prisoners into establishing his Empire whilst incurring the wrath of The Chocolate Cartel and the Police Chief (A funny Michael Keegan Key who keeps on getting fatter during the Film)

It's got a great cast which includes Sally Hawkins, Matt Lucas and Rowan Atkinson along with Hugh Grant (Who's not in it as much as you'd think) but it's Olivia Coleman and Tom Davies who delight as the mean Hotel Owners who imprison and force Wonka to work for them. Chalamet does his roll well and his believable as Wonka.

It's not the greatest film you will probably watch but it's worth giving it a go and whilst it's not a Xmas Film, it's got that feel in spirit.

It's being released at Cinemas at the right time.

[Nordicdusk]

The city of New York is overrun by gangs and crime and the cops couldn't care less about the average Joe. A group of work colleagues have had a enough and take the law into their own hands dealing out their own justice on the scum of the streets.Eddie is a devoted family man who misses out on a lot of time with his young son and wife trying to work hard to bring in some cash for them and a holiday he promised but one day while he is working his kid and wife are attacked and after going the legal route it's the same old same old and the attackers are free to walk the streets. Eddie has enough and joins the vigilante group with his friends to exact his revenge.

Right from the first seconds you just know your on to a winner here the atmosphere is one of sleaze and filth with New York the perfect backdrop to these horrible events of robbery drugs rape and murder.

There are some great action scenes from parkour style chases before parkour was even a thing and a sweet little car chase followed by a cat and mouse through and a building site. The revenge and violence are so satisfying to watch after witnessing so many brutal scenes and just how cold and cocky the scumbags all are.

Along with New York itself setting the mood things are ramped up even futher with an amazing soundtrack.

Absolutely loved this film and it's going to be revisited many many times.718vBg+FMUL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg

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