What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

The Lazarus Effect. 2015.

A group of medical discover a way to bring back the dead unaware of the side effects that can cause.

This was a good horror concept that takes some notes from Flatliners and Re-Animator with a little bit of Carrie in the mix, we all know experimenting with the dead can lead to a bit of Frankenstein if you want to go down a scientific route but some things should stay dead. The acting is solid in this with Mark Duplass and Olivia Wilde as the lead doctors who try something new and then big Ray Wise comes in and takes control and then all goes haywire with a unexpected new test. The film can be dark in places and sets up the tone for a good atmospheric horror and claustrophobia.

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I too enjoyed this. An easy to watch sci-fi horror

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I too enjoyed this. An easy to watch sci-fi horror

I would certainly watch it again and recommend it, it does have the expect the unexpected jump scenes

[Frankie Teardrop]

THE SINISTER DR ORLOFF - Franco's at it again with yet another riff on his 'Orloff' character. Now it's the eighties, with Howard Vernon playing Dr O as an old man allowing his son centre stage in the ill-advised pursuit of immortality. It's from what I like to think of as Franco's 'gossamer period', when he seemed more interested in the play of light and shade than such earthy matters as plot, character, action etc. You can see that kind of thing in masterpieces of shimmering delirium like 'Macumba Sexual' and 'Mansion Of The Living Dead'; 'The Sinister Dr Orloff' is less immersive, but still feels like it plays under the same layer of dreamy mist. Hazy synths zone in and out over scenes where Orloff Jr lingers far too long around the naked body of his dead mum - no wonder old Vern looks so disgruntled. Their wacky assistant and procurer of young female experimental subjects somehow resembles a tubby Oliver / Lou Reed combination in 'Pan Book Of Horror' front cover eye make-up. We prowl the shadowed streets of Alicante by night, taking in a drift of neon verite, before ending up in cellar bars where slivers of chiaroscuro faces swim up from the depths and somehow nail our attention even though nothing is happening. Alongside this is a bunch of mild sleaze, grim gropings and a scene of gratuitous whipping. Franco is no Doris Wishman, but the number of times I caught myself staring at a lampshade or an ash tray rather than a pivotal 'plot moment'... 'The Sinister Dr Orloff' dedicates itself to weird camera placement and the celestial hankering of its visual atmosphere over narrative or even the horror it's contracted to deliver, and makes for yet another quirky chapter in the work of Jess Franco, a 'book' unlike any other.

INSIDE - It's nice to see this notorious example of The French New Wave Of Nouveau Splatter or whatever it was on a good blu ray at last. I remember watching it for the first time back in the day, thinking "feckin' 'ell." Viewing it now, it's stronger when it's quieter, spookier - the film belongs to Beatrice Dalle when she's slinking through all those dimly lit rooms, looming full spectral like Barbara Steele in a nightmare chateau. I doubt the twenty something Frankie would agree with me now, but maybe it even loses something when it goes full tilt gorefest in the final half, and the smoky menace parts to let in a blizzard of scissorings and other grue. On that note, something in me dreads Dalle's amateur C-section coming round, but looking at it you see way less than you thought was there, a testament to 'Inside's capacity to stir the viscera via only suggestion a la TCM. One aspect of 'Inside' that always stays with me is the final image, of burned Dalle cradling her foundling, it's like something out of Goya.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Saw V (2008)

Seen away from the rest of the Saw films this will be a nonsensical tirade of gory traps and bewildering flashbacks, however watching them back to back a week apart it's clear this is just one extremely long eight and a half hour film (so far) chopped up into ninety minute segments to make it easier to digest.

Justin asked me not to give away any spoilers or plot points from these films and to be honest it would be nigh on impossible to give a brief synopsis of the story as the whole Saw storyline is far more intricately plotted than any horror film should be. Although i will just say that this film features the best pendulum scene in horror cinema.

I'm loving rewatching these films on Blu-ray for the first time. They make so much more sense and i'm really invested in the complexities of the puzzle as the pieces of the Jigsaw gradually slot into place.

[MrBarlow]

Five Nights At Freddy's. 2023.

A troubled security guard takes on a night shift job at a old family themed diner and slowly uncovers the secrets and the previous owner.

Ok where to start with this....we have a guy bringing up his younger sister after a family trauma that's haunting him and seems to have a connection with Freddy's pizzeria. There was one or two jump scares but this is more psychological haunting horror rather than pure horror. The acting is good and a small role for Matthew Lillard as a work counsellor for Josh Hutcherson. The animatronics in the film are decently made and can be creepy looking but not sure if i'd watch it again or even recommend it.

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[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

Five Nights At Freddy's. 2023.

A troubled security guard takes on a night shift job at a old family themed diner and slowly uncovers the secrets and the previous owner.

Ok where to start with this....we have a guy bringing up his younger sister after a family trauma that's haunting him and seems to have a connection with Freddy's pizzeria. There was one or two jump scares but this is more psychological haunting horror rather than pure horror. The acting is good and a small role for Matthew Lillard as a work counsellor for Josh Hutcherson. The animatronics in the film are decently made and can be creepy looking but not sure if i'd watch it again or even recommend it.

Doesn't sound like this is a patch on the similarly themed Willy's Wonderland.

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Doesn't sound like this is a patch on the similarly themed Willy's Wonderland.

Willy's Wonderland is a lot better

[MrBarlow]

The Sleep Experiment. 2022.

Two detectives embark on a investigation of a secret military experiment that went wrong.

Based on the creepy pasta story of the Russian Sleep Experiment that was based after WWII, however this was based in 1961 and 1976 which didn't give the film a proper background. 5 guys chosen at random that could face prison or do this experiment and be freed and all strangers to each other, which is different from the story that was told. The film does leave some unanswered questions about a detective and his reason for doing the investigation and is revealed but we are never given a proper answer. Part of the film does give out from the story of the test subjects turning on each other that reveals some purple blood and not red. The actors themselves deliver great dialogue and can't be faulted but the direction is a bit amateurish and low budget.

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[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

Well that was bloody fantastic!

Unfortunately it's ruined the chances of me watching any more action films for the next few weeks. Way to go, Tom.

[MrBarlow]

Men Behind The Sun. 1988.

A harrowing tale centres on Camp 731, a medical centre where the Japanese attempt to perfect bacterial weapons, using Chinese prisoners as guinea pigs in their nasty experiments. The director's objective is to reveal to the world how people suffered at the hands of their enemy, and in this he totally succeeds; the atrocities that are depicted in this is completely disturbing.

17 minutes into the film we are given a death with a note saying Victim, the person's name and date, and throughout the film with deaths we get a name that comes up unknown. Behind the brutality there is a story of a prisoner trying to escape the camp and let the authorities know of what is going on and a general trying to stay ahead of every country in the war and be superior. Certainly a film not to watch while eating.

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