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![]() Maniac Cop 2 Matt Cordell is back and is still killing people and this time he teams up with another Serial Killer. It's up to Robert Davi and Claudia Christian to stop them. I think that this is better than the original, Leo Rossi is pretty good as the other Serial Killer but I didn't like how Cordell is this seemingly indestructible person. Got the Spanish Blu-Ray on Import, good picture, did the job but it's another one I can't believe hasn't had a UK Blu-Ray release. Gore In Venice A Film that is seemingly has a product placement from a Egg Company sees a Detective investigate the Murders of a married couple and other associates. A quite enjoyable Gallo, which I highly doubt will get passed the BBFC uncut that contains lots of sex and nudity as well as some very gory violence. One of the trailers on this Disc was a film rather bluntly called Naked Girl Murdered In Park (I couldn't help but think that both films would have been perfect for Shameless back when in their heyday) Nothing But Trouble A somewhat Gothic style Comedy which sees Chevy Chase and Demi Moore end up in a Victorian style Funhouse full of traps and weirdness when they commit a Traffic Offense in a remote town. It's a bit bizarre but it does entertain. Co-Stars Dan Akyroyd and John Candy. |
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I have the Blue Underground BR, and agree it's a cracking action-horror which I like more than the first film. |
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Other than the stuff i've reviewed here and on other threads i've watched several films recently that i've written about previously including The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964) The Last Winter (2006) My Bloody Valentine (2009) Cold Skin (2017) Knock Knock (2008) Action in the North Atlantic (1943) Z.P.G. (1972) All are in that 6-8/10 range except Z.P.G. which is bloody awful and a chore to sit through. Last edited by Demdike@Cult Labs; 1st March 2025 at 06:15 PM. |
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![]() The Town (2010) Ben Affleck directs actor Ben Affleck in a film with a screenplay by Ben Affleck. If this hasn't put you off then the chances are you will, like me, find The Town an excellent thriller. Set in Boston the film tells the story of a gang of armoured car thieves and the FBI personnel out to stop them. Affleck, the director makes this interesting for the first hour but not particularly involving in this extended cut i saw for the first time tonight. And oh boy is it extended. I was expecting a few minutes but what we get is an additional 33 minutes. There are lots of scenes with Affleck and Rebecca Hall as their romance blossoms, which to be fair is pivotal to the entire movie and many of these scenes were cut from the theatrical version. It's a little catch 22 as they do slow the film down in truth. Its worth the effort though as much of what we see and hear bears fruit in the second half of the film, as the main story kicks into gear - The robbing of Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. The three main action scenes are frenetic and leave the viewer breathless especially the climactic shoot outs in and around the baseball ground which Affleck brilliantly stages and for me are reminiscent of Michael Mann's Heat in their realism. Another sequence features a robbery with the gang wearing nun masks as seen in the poster below. They'll haunt me for the rest of my days. The film has a great cast - Affleck, Rebecca Hall, John Hamm, Pete Postlethwaite, Jeremy Renner, Titus Welliver, Blake Lively and a sadly underused Chris Cooper who only has one scene but thankfully Affleck the director gets the best out of them. I really need to go back and watch the theatrical version again and see which i prefer, but theatrical or extended, The Town is recommended as an intelligent action thriller. |
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![]() Keep My Grave Open. 1977. A reclusive woman living in her family manor believes her brother is luring victims to the house. Camille Carr plays the eccentric woman and believes she is a killer but is it all in her mind or is she infact suffering a split personality? Think what the director tried to do was to create a film from the 60s with the dark toned gothic atmosphere and create a twist ending that would have made us gasp in amazement but all we got was a dark film that can strain the eyes, audio music played over the dialogue and a ending that we never really cared for as the film lost it's audience interest. This had potential to be something good but went straight down the pan. MV5BZDE4NjVlY2MtMWUyNC00MThmLWFmMjEtNDlmNmE5M2NhNmY3XkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpg
__________________ " I have seen trees that look like tortured souls" |
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THE SUBSTANCE - Although I came to this slightly worried that it was already a victim of overhype, it's undeniably a striking film in many ways. The full throttle prosthetic blowout that everybody talks about is clearly in evidence by the end and delivers on the base level of graphic horror, notwithstanding that the more interesting thing about 'The Substance' is Demi Moore's Brundle-esque performance. The film's handling of hot themes around internalised body shame, social marginalisation and intergenerational dynamics is really on the nose and the fantastic / sci-fi aspects, particularly the age reversal process at the heart of the film, are all ludicrous, but still I quite liked this multi-level bluntness, it's all so obnoxiously in-yer-face; 'The Substance' has the loudness of a big statement film and director Fargeat really drives it all home with her relentless hyper-stylisation (her previous 'Revenge' showed a similar preference for aggressive visuals). Another of last year's best and all the better for being so shrill. THE MASK OF SATAN - No, not that one, the other one, the late eighties one that not many knew about till Severin rescued it for blu ray. It's by the other Bava as well, son Lamberto, and it swaps the gothic eeriness of the classic for a ski trip full of turquoise jumpsuits, which is kind of the opposite really. There's no Barbara Steele around to dignify things, but if you're a fan of late period Italian horror you'll have very little to complain about; personally, I love to watch endless scenes of stilted dialogue as wooden actors wander candle-lit grottos and suddenly there's monster. I'm not being flippant, I do. If it can't lay claim to the kind of crowd-pleasing gore that made the likes of 'Demons' a hit with more mainstream horror audiences, then there's enough of an atmosphere of lingering weirdness to keep me happy - slap on a load of filtered lighting and a Boswell score and it's thumbs up from me, particularly if I'm rat-arsed when viewing, which, in this case, I was. THE GUARDIAN - I quite like it when big directors slum it a bit. 'The Guardian' isn't really slumming it, but I don't suppose all that many were expecting William Friedkin to make an evil babysitter flick with druids and tree monsters. On the strength of this, I kind of wish he'd done more schlock. It's all really well done though, there's plenty of stylistic panache in evidence, all pivoting around a star turn by the great Jenny Seagrove. Bad babysitter was such a nineties trope, wasn't it? The druid thing, the tree thing, well, I don't really think there was much of that in the air back when this was made, so we have to congratulate Friedkin on some strange choices. I've only seen 'The Guardian' a couple of times over the years but I enjoy it more with every viewing. |
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![]() Fanatic (1965) Hammer's 1965 horror thriller about a religious fanatic. Tallulah Bankhead, star of Hitchcock's 1944 classic Lifeboat is an excellent choice as the damaged Mrs Trefoile. An aging woman who lives in a secluded Gothic house with her two servants (Yootha Joyce and Peter Vaughan). Clearly insane following the death of her son several years earlier, the madness comes to the fore when her sons former fiance (Stephanie Powers) visits to pay her respects prior to marrying another man. Italian director Silvio Narizzano moves the film at a fair rate of knots and the story adapted by Richard Matheson kept me glued to the screen as a web of murder, betrayal, rape, repression,abduction and fanaticism unfolds. It's exploitative for it's era and certainly suspense filled and the film boasts one or two memorable set pieces, but it's the performance of Bankhead (allegedly drunk on set every day) that makes the film for me. The way she spits out the immortal line "Die! Die! My darling" is terrifically venomous and immortalises her along with fellow American Bette Davis in that same years Hammer production, The Nanny, as a queen of British Grand Guignol. |
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