What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Frankie Teardrop]

LEPRECHAUN - Warwick Davis, who appeared during my Covid-era afternoon treadmill sessions on the TV in the corner whenever 'Tenable' played, also starred in this early nineties horror froth. He's the eponymous beastie, out for blood now his treasure's been nicked, and has a habit of yelling "I wants mi gold!" in bad imitation Irish before reverting to whatever the equivalent of RP is for shoe-making, rainbow bothering mythic entities in B movies. 'Leprechaun' is quite interesting in a way because it lies at the point where eighties 'Gremlins'-style small creature horror, 'Nightmare On Elm Street'-style wisecracking killer horror, and something more akin to special-effects based fantasy family comedy, all intersect. It boasts the usual era specific vibes and a pre-'Friends' Jennifer Aniston. Teenage Frankie had had enough of horror at the time it came out - everything was being played for laughs, why couldn't it all be like 'Cannibal Holocaust'? Seeing them stop Warwick in his tracks by bombarding him with shoes put a smile on my face though, after all these years I have a good chuckle watching it now.

GRAVEYARD DISTURBANCE - Hard to believe Lamberto Bava followed classic eighties gore banger 'Demons' with this lightweight frippery. Chocolate bar thieves in a Scooby Doo van do a runner from the cops, only to be stalked through a forest by a man in wellingtons with glowing red eyes; they end up spending the night in a cursed crypt. It's obvious Lamberto was having fun here but I'm not sure how much of that transfers to the viewer. The half-baked self-referential movie gags could only ever have fallen flat even in back in 1987, and the weird undergirding that seems full of allusions to Greek myth feels too inexplicable to go anywhere. It doesn't necessarily end there, though. Clunk, bad pacing and awful dialogue might be problems for normal horror fans, but eighties / nineties Italian completists such as myself can take solace in the fact that the tedium is counterbalanced by THAT atmosphere, lots of candlelight, cobwebs and mist (it's heavily into gothic pastiche), plus a bevy of maggot faced undead and bizarre scenes like the freako family's gross out meal. Is that enough? The sane world cries "No!", but I'd probably still get it if VS or Cauldron or TV put it out.

[MrBarlow]

Invasion Of The Blood Farmers. 1972.

WTAF have I just watched? a guy staggering down a road covered in blood and almost hit by a car and wonders into a diner and one person shouts out "here comes your best customer" and then the guy falls down deed. Then it shifts to two farmers looking for directions to a house avoiding any unnecessary questions and a doctor working on some sort of red stuff that has a life of it's own, then we see some sort of cult religious guy talking about some woman he wants to bring back to life. From start to finish, you can tell this was low budget, very amateurish cinematography and bad acting that the dialogue is almost laughable and one actor talking for two characters. Defeneitly one to watch if you want a laugh.

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[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

Murder In A Blue World. 1973.

A killer is on the loose murdering young men, while a gang is terrorising unsuspected families, while a doctor is trying out a new experiment to reform criminals.

Yep as you may have guessed this is a take on A Clockwork Orange style flick brought to us by Spanish director Eloy de la Iglesia that the title was originally released as A Clockwork Terror...not very inventive but hey ho. Some of the colour scheme used in the film both Kubrick and Argento would be proud of that another director went the same way that these directors used in their films. To be honest this was watchable and entertaining, a mix of crime, sci-fi with some Giallo thrown in the mix with some decent acting and not so great dubbing I may add. Certainly worth a glance or two.

Attachment 251757

Is this on disc or did you watch on YT?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

GRAVEYARD DISTURBANCE - Hard to believe Lamberto Bava followed classic eighties gore banger 'Demons' with this lightweight frippery. Chocolate bar thieves in a Scooby Doo van do a runner from the cops, only to be stalked through a forest by a man in wellingtons with glowing red eyes; they end up spending the night in a cursed crypt. It's obvious Lamberto was having fun here but I'm not sure how much of that transfers to the viewer. The half-baked self-referential movie gags could only ever have fallen flat even in back in 1987, and the weird undergirding that seems full of allusions to Greek myth feels too inexplicable to go anywhere. It doesn't necessarily end there, though. Clunk, bad pacing and awful dialogue might be problems for normal horror fans, but eighties / nineties Italian completists such as myself can take solace in the fact that the tedium is counterbalanced by THAT atmosphere, lots of candlelight, cobwebs and mist (it's heavily into gothic pastiche), plus a bevy of maggot faced undead and bizarre scenes like the freako family's gross out meal. Is that enough? The sane world cries "No!", but I'd probably still get it if VS or Cauldron or TV put it out.

I too rate this although it's not really one i could recommend to anyone. For years i thought it was total rubbish (To be fair it probably still is) but then one time when watching my jewel cased dvd (Remember them) it all clicked and the atmosphere, silliness and general lack of scares all came together as one hugely enjoyable mess.

[nicholasrope]

MaXXXine

The 3rd in the series which sees Maxine, the lone survivor of what was dubbed, The Texas Porn Star Massacre go to Los Angeles to become a star. After starring in many Porn Films, she is given a role in a Horror Sequel but is stalked by a mystery person named the Night Stalker.

Mia Goth again excels and there is good support from Kevin Bacon as a sleazy Private Eye. Good Soundtrack and there is some nice gore and whilst it's interesting, it's not one I think I'm dying to see again.

Bowfinger

Steve Martin is a struggling Director and his last shot at glory involves him Directing a movie starring the hottest Film Star (Played by Eddie Murphy) without his knowledge. This is so funny especially when they are doing the scenes and seeing that Murphy's character is paranoid only enhances the funniness.

Pretty sure I read that Heather Graham's character was based on someone.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by nicholasrope

MaXXXine

The 3rd in the series which sees Maxine, the lone survivor of what was dubbed, The Texas Porn Star Massacre go to Los Angeles to become a star. After starring in many Porn Films, she is given a role in a Horror Sequel but is stalked by a mystery person named the Night Stalker.

Mia Goth again excels and there is good support from Kevin Bacon as a sleazy Private Eye. Good Soundtrack and there is some nice gore and whilst it's interesting, it's not one I think I'm dying to see again.

I didn't even know this existed.

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Is this on disc or did you watch on YT?

I came across it on Bitchute, it's a site that is similar to YT. free to sign up and all good quality movies.

[MrBarlow]

Police Story. 1985.

A Hong Kong police officer tries to clear his name after he is framed for the killing of a corrupt officer by a drug lord he has tried to arrest. Jackie Chan stars and directs as the police officer Keven also called Jackie in this flick that sees the destruction of a shanty hillside slum, the long boring court scene that does tend to drag on and then the big finale in the mall where no glass is safe. Mixed in with all that is the comedic Buster Keaton/Charlie Chaplin inspiration moments. I always wanted to love this film, the action and fight scenes are always impressive but the plot is not the best.

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[J Harker]

You Should Have Left. David Koepp. 2020.

A retired banker and his much younger actress wife book a vacation with their daughter in a remote holiday home in the Welsh countryside. I came across a clip of this online the other day and it really intrigued me. I looked it up and came across some other plot points that sounded fascinating.
Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried play the seemingly happily married couple Theo and Susanna who admittedly have a few issues they want to iron out, so with Susanna due to start filming a movie in London they decide to find somewhere in the country to get away from everything for a bit and focus on these little niggles in their marriage. The place they find is a horrid modernist glass and brick monstrosity, apparently a real house in mid Wales called Life House.
I don't want to say too much of what happens but sadly You Should Have Left is disappointingly derivative. Stealing ideas from other better movies and failing to develop any of them or truly mesh it together, as if just slapping creepy ideas at the screen one after another is enough.
The film most reminds me of the far superior The Witch in the Window. There's also a bit of say Identity, the John Cusack film by James Mangold. Basically ideas pinched from all over. There's also some opportunities woefully overlooked to play more on the location, the rural village down the road with its passive aggressive locals and so on. I wonder if perhaps the film would have worked better with lesser names in the cast instead of A-listers Bacon and Seyfried.
Plus points there are some genuinely eerie moments and it all looks quite pretty, oh and its quite short. That's about it really. I'll keep it in my collection but I'm glad I only paid ?7.99 and frankly would only recommend streaming it on something or paying 2 or 3 quid in Cex.

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[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Pity, thanks for the review, J.