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Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Feb 24, 2021 8:18:53 GMT
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 24, 2021 10:54:06 GMT
Mortal Passions (1989) by Andrew Lane Well, that was just my typical "luck". Ending up, wasting time on a film, I had seen almost 4 years ago, but totally forgotten the title, but found it lying around on Youtube, looked at names like Zach Galligan and David Warner, thinking "Hey, those guys starred in one of the Waxwork films together", that, and with a title like Mortal Passions, it souned like a potential cheesy late night cable erotic thriller, which I guess it kind of is, but what I ended up with, was also the reason to why had pretty much forgotten the last visit back in winter of 2017. This was just your ordinary generic b-movie erotic thriller, with a few familiar names and faces, where Zach plays an unlucky husband, and where his slutty wife is screwing around with a sleazeball, and the two of them are planning on killing off poor Zach, to cash in on the insurance money, but, then all of a sudden her husband's violent and psycho brother arrives, in the middle of the night. It then ends up with some crazy and hilarious scenes, where the psycho brother end up killing the slutty wife's lover, right in front of her, and what do they do next? The two, end up making love, with the freshly killed corpse lying right next to the bed, like it is no biggie. Then again, the wife was not exactly all that "normal", so I guess they kind of deserved each other. David Warner sadly, ends up wasting his talent, by sitting the entire time, on his ass, during some incredible dull and boring talking scenes with the main characters, and that is pretty much all that he got to work with. Probably done within a few shots, and then straight over to next film. The plot is kind of similar in way, to another poor and forgettable video title by director Andrew Lane, and where his later release Distant Cousins (1993) featured also jealousy, greed and sex, where a long lost violent psycho relative, suddenly arrive on the doorstep, to cause some friction in a "perfectly" healthy relationship, but at least that film came along with a more solid cast. Mortal Passions does deliver some pure ridiculous and sleazy as hell scenes, which kind of brighten up the mood, and makes up for the more dull and endless drivel of attempts on being a bit more serious and dramatic at times, so all in all, no changes in rating, but this one is only enter at your own risk, if you are a big fan of David Warner or Zach Galligan. 4/10
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 24, 2021 11:14:41 GMT
Watched a few over the weekend. Here goes... Bloody HellWow, was this one a wild, nasty ride. The overall premise is a little easy to figure out early on, but this one still found a lot of ways to keep me guessing where it was going, to the point where I really don't wanna give away too much about the story. Just know that you're in for a grimy, fast-paced, hyper-violent time, reminiscent of early Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson. The whole thing's held together by an incredibly strong, smarmy performance by Ben O'Toole as our unbalanced would-be action hero and the voice of his inner monologue. His arguments with himself are pretty riveting stuff. Never seen or heard of, but if is anything close to resembling early Raimi or Jackson, then I guess I might just have to try an check upon it. Thanks for bringing it up, as I have not seen or really been all that updated when it comes to more new/modern horror releases, but this one looks and sounds rather interesting. CrittersYou know, I'd somehow managed to go my entire life without ever seeing any of the Critters movies. Spotted the Blu-ray set of the first four for really cheap and figured "Why not...?" And yeah, I can see why people like it. It is some solid, cheesy 80's fun with incredibly memorable effects and creature designs, and an eclectic, likeable cast. It's practically a stroke of genius casting Dee Wallace as the mom in yet another extra-terrestrial movie, particularly one that directly mocks E.T. Billy Green Bush, Scott Grimes, and Nadine van der Velde are all likeable and sincere as Wallace's family. M. Emmet Walsh is the same old grouchy, loveable curmudgeon he always is as the sheriff. The two alien bounty hunters are pretty cool. Perhaps the only misstep is killing off Billy Zane so early. I was kinda having fun seeing him with real hair playing the most generic 80's douchebag I've seen in quite a while. Overall, I really enjoyed this one and I'm interested to see how the sequels pan out. I kind of had plans on going through all of the 4 Critters (well, the original ones from my DVD box-set that is) last fall, but at least ended up re-watching Critters 2: The Main Course (1988) during the October Horror Challenge, and I had lots of fun doing so, and might have to dig out the rest of the films later this year. I am glad to hear that the first Critters ended up as an enjoyable ride, and by so, I am, well at least pretty darn sure you might also get a kick out of the sequel, which focus mostly on Scott Grimes, who returns a bit older and wiser, maybe also braver, that and we get more of Don Keith Upper along with his newly made alien hunter friends, Ug and Lee (who seems to finally be able of finding the right body and style to go with, causing a bit of confusion along the way). The sequel is more action filled, and feels at times more in common with a few of the later Tremors movies, and I guess that is also why I enjoyed it so much. Hack-O-LanternWow. Just f*cking wow. I really don't know where to even begin with this one. I'd had it in my Amazon queue for some time now, and it was hearing it mentioned on The People's Court, of all things, that finally made me decide to check it out. (If you're curious, it came up on The People's Court last week because Massacre Video were suing some guy who showed it on his local late-night horror show without permission. I didn't see who won the case, though) Once again, this is one I don't wanna give too much away about, because you need to be surprised by this thing. This is a jewel of incompetent filmmaking. This is Troll 2 bad. This is The Room bad. For the love of god, if you have Shudder or Amazon Prime, just check this ridiculous thing out. Well, now I just gotta see it, if I can find it that is. Sadly, neither Shudder or Amazon Prime seems to work out for me, as there is some kind of regional code/country blocked bullshit stopping me from doing so, and I guess I might try to look it up other places. Not sure if I would hand out lots of cash on a overpriced VHS tape, but maybe some kind soul, has uploaded it on Youtube?
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mgmarshall
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Post by mgmarshall on Feb 24, 2021 11:27:13 GMT
Watched a few over the weekend. Here goes... Bloody HellWow, was this one a wild, nasty ride. The overall premise is a little easy to figure out early on, but this one still found a lot of ways to keep me guessing where it was going, to the point where I really don't wanna give away too much about the story. Just know that you're in for a grimy, fast-paced, hyper-violent time, reminiscent of early Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson. The whole thing's held together by an incredibly strong, smarmy performance by Ben O'Toole as our unbalanced would-be action hero and the voice of his inner monologue. His arguments with himself are pretty riveting stuff. Never seen or heard of, but if is anything close to resembling early Raimi or Jackson, then I guess I might just have to try an check upon it. Thanks for bringing it up, as I have not seen or really been all that updated when it comes to more new/modern horror releases, but this one looks and sounds rather interesting. CrittersYou know, I'd somehow managed to go my entire life without ever seeing any of the Critters movies. Spotted the Blu-ray set of the first four for really cheap and figured "Why not...?" And yeah, I can see why people like it. It is some solid, cheesy 80's fun with incredibly memorable effects and creature designs, and an eclectic, likeable cast. It's practically a stroke of genius casting Dee Wallace as the mom in yet another extra-terrestrial movie, particularly one that directly mocks E.T. Billy Green Bush, Scott Grimes, and Nadine van der Velde are all likeable and sincere as Wallace's family. M. Emmet Walsh is the same old grouchy, loveable curmudgeon he always is as the sheriff. The two alien bounty hunters are pretty cool. Perhaps the only misstep is killing off Billy Zane so early. I was kinda having fun seeing him with real hair playing the most generic 80's douchebag I've seen in quite a while. Overall, I really enjoyed this one and I'm interested to see how the sequels pan out. I kind of had plans on going through all of the 4 Critters (well, the original ones from my DVD box-set that is) last fall, but at least ended up re-watching Critters 2: The Main Course (1988) during the October Horror Challenge, and I had lots of fun doing so, and might have to dig out the rest of the films later this year. I am glad to hear that the first Critters ended up as an enjoyable ride, and by so, I am, well at least pretty darn sure you might also get a kick out of the sequel, which focus mostly on Scott Grimes, who returns a bit older and wiser, maybe also braver, that and we get more of Don Keith Upper along with his newly made alien hunter friends, Ug and Lee (who seems to finally be able of finding the right body and style to go with, causing a bit of confusion along the way). The sequel is more action filled, and feels at times more in common with a few of the later Tremors movies, and I guess that is also why I enjoyed it so much. Hack-O-LanternWow. Just f*cking wow. I really don't know where to even begin with this one. I'd had it in my Amazon queue for some time now, and it was hearing it mentioned on The People's Court, of all things, that finally made me decide to check it out. (If you're curious, it came up on The People's Court last week because Massacre Video were suing some guy who showed it on his local late-night horror show without permission. I didn't see who won the case, though) Once again, this is one I don't wanna give too much away about, because you need to be surprised by this thing. This is a jewel of incompetent filmmaking. This is Troll 2 bad. This is The Room bad. For the love of god, if you have Shudder or Amazon Prime, just check this ridiculous thing out. Well, now I just gotta see it, if I can find it that is. Sadly, neither Shudder or Amazon Prime seems to work out for me, as there is some kind of regional code/country blocked bullshit stopping me from doing so, and I guess I might try to look it up other places. Not sure if I would hand out lots of cash on a overpriced VHS tape, but maybe some kind soul, has uploaded it on Youtube? I do know Hack-O-Lantern is on Blu-ray from the aforementioned Massacre Video, but I don't know if it's only in Region 1. No luck searching it on YouTube, but there are a bunch of reviews of it up on there.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 24, 2021 11:41:30 GMT
I do know Hack-O-Lantern is on Blu-ray from the aforementioned Massacre Video, but I don't know if it's only in Region 1. No luck searching it on YouTube, but there are a bunch of reviews of it up on there. I might try to give a few of the clips or reviews of the film, that is lying around there a go, as often they could be a nice way of telling or describing if this is something to bother with, or if it is something to stay the hell away from. Hopefully, it is not the latter one.
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Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Feb 25, 2021 9:57:55 GMT
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Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Feb 25, 2021 9:58:11 GMT
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Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Feb 25, 2021 9:58:40 GMT
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Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Feb 25, 2021 9:59:22 GMT
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Post by forca84 on Feb 25, 2021 22:13:57 GMT
Hondo The last house on the left (original) Bad Words The Hobbit: an unexpected Journey
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 26, 2021 10:01:00 GMT
Tunnels (1989) by Mark Byers Aka Criminal Act, follows a couple of nosy female reporters on the lookout for a big story, down below the city streets and into the sewers. Yeah, I guess my luck with picking out impulsive gems and winners these recent weeks, have finally "caught up" with me, as now it seems to be back to "usual". Here I browsed through Youtube, looking for a good time, or at least some enjoyable b-movie fun, and this one, titled Tunnels, came with quite a promising theme of potential giant man eating rats, down below the streets. That, and knowing the great John Saxon had a part in there as well, was more than enough to convince me, to give it a go. Sadly, I kind of got the feeling, far too early on, where it might lead me. As this was really had more of a low budget, almost tv-production over it, like someone made an 90 minutes pilot episode of some crime-comedy show, that just never went any further. Sure, the leading women are beautiful and fine, they even have a certain charm and chemistry going, but there is not gigant man eating rats to be seen, only a big fat guy, a small angry midget, some long haired skinny dude, crawling around and a slimy yuppie business guy, and that is just a very misleading title and movie poster, and I got suckered into it. Yeah, Criminal Act might have suited it better, but still, it was not god awful, as it thankfully moved rather fast forward, and as already mentioned, the ladies were cute, but for fans of Saxon, he is probably in this mess, for no more than a few minutes in total. All in all, a good reminder to myself, that I really need to be a bit more picky when it comes to not only search up, but deciding which films to watch at night, as this was certainly not one I would recommend to anyone. Still, I guess I am not the only one who got fooled by the title and movie poster, but done is done, and it is time to move one, and hopefully be a bit more lucky with the next ones. 3/10
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mgmarshall
Junior Member
@mgmarshall
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Post by mgmarshall on Feb 26, 2021 10:40:02 GMT
Vampire CircusI've long heard that this one had a strong reputation and cult following, but like a lot of the later Hammer movies, it kinda fell a bit flat for me. Sure, there's more gore and tits (which I certainly won't complain about), but the production values are noticeably cheaper than their earlier works and the overall plot is pretty slapdash and sloppy. That being said, this one does have a little more creativity and energy than most of the later Dracula flicks Hammer churned out. The opening few minutes are very fun (and honestly feel like the ending to a better vampire movie); I really like the were-panther the lead vampire turns into; The lead vampire himself (who I swear is a dead ringer for Brian May) is pretty fun and hammy too, and is supported by a great henchwoman in Adrienne Corri, who just about carries the movie; the plague aspect of the story is an interesting wrinkle, but hardly exploited; there's likeable supporting turns from dwarf extraordinaire Skip Martin and future-Darth Vader David Prowse, who spends the entirety of his screen time pretty close to naked (which I'm also not complaining about); the human leads are all essentially bland and forgettable except for Thorley Walters and Robin Hardy, but the movie isn't afraid to get really downbeat and kill off most of its cast (including a bunch of child characters), which is an impulse that always earns my respect. All in all, I came away thinking it was nothing special, but I'll take it over, say, Lust for a Vampire or Dracula A.D. 1972.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 26, 2021 10:57:03 GMT
Vampire CircusI've long heard that this one had a strong reputation and cult following, but like a lot of the later Hammer movies, it kinda fell a bit flat for me. Sure, there's more gore and tits (which I certainly won't complain about), but the production values are noticeably cheaper than their earlier works and the overall plot is pretty slapdash and sloppy. That being said, this one does have a little more creativity and energy than most of the later Dracula flicks Hammer churned out. The opening few minutes are very fun (and honestly feel like the ending to a better vampire movie); I really like the were-panther the lead vampire turns into; The lead vampire himself (who I swear is a dead ringer for Brian May) is pretty fun and hammy too, and is supported by a great henchwoman in Adrienne Corri, who just about carries the movie; the plague aspect of the story is an interesting wrinkle, but hardly exploited; there's likeable supporting turns from dwarf extraordinaire Skip Martin and future-Darth Vader David Prowse, who spends the entirety of his screen time pretty close to naked (which I'm also not complaining about); the human leads are all essentially bland and forgettable except for Thorley Walters and Robin Hardy, but the movie isn't afraid to get really downbeat and kill off most of its cast (including a bunch of child characters), which is an impulse that always earns my respect. All in all, I came away thinking it was nothing special, but I'll take it over, say, Lust for a Vampire or Dracula A.D. 1972. Been a while since I went on a Hammer Horror ride, might do so later this year, as watching them during fall at night time, is the time I usually prefer to see that kind of entertainment, as it fits so right with the time of the year and have a "cosy" atmosphere to it, at times. But yeah, I did notice from my last visit of the Hammer Horror DVD box-set I picked up, I think contained 18-20 of their releases, most were british made, but a few actually was american releases, or so I remembered, and I sure enjoyed the ones from the 50s and 60s the most, where those moving towards the 70s or beyond, never quite reached the same impact on me. Never heard of Vampire Circus, but then again, I have not been looking up any Hammer films of recently either. I did however notice, that the further to the 70s their films came, the bigger the "assets" of the female actresses got, and we sure did get a whole lot of cleavage, not that is a bad thing, but it felt like they went for something familiar with the Russ Meyer style and approach. From The Horror of Frankenstein (1970), which I remember to be quite an enjoyable film, not only because of the beautiful women, but again, have not visited since fall of 2012 or 13, so I should probably do something about that, soon.
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mgmarshall
Junior Member
@mgmarshall
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Post by mgmarshall on Feb 26, 2021 11:32:11 GMT
Vampire CircusI've long heard that this one had a strong reputation and cult following, but like a lot of the later Hammer movies, it kinda fell a bit flat for me. Sure, there's more gore and tits (which I certainly won't complain about), but the production values are noticeably cheaper than their earlier works and the overall plot is pretty slapdash and sloppy. That being said, this one does have a little more creativity and energy than most of the later Dracula flicks Hammer churned out. The opening few minutes are very fun (and honestly feel like the ending to a better vampire movie); I really like the were-panther the lead vampire turns into; The lead vampire himself (who I swear is a dead ringer for Brian May) is pretty fun and hammy too, and is supported by a great henchwoman in Adrienne Corri, who just about carries the movie; the plague aspect of the story is an interesting wrinkle, but hardly exploited; there's likeable supporting turns from dwarf extraordinaire Skip Martin and future-Darth Vader David Prowse, who spends the entirety of his screen time pretty close to naked (which I'm also not complaining about); the human leads are all essentially bland and forgettable except for Thorley Walters and Robin Hardy, but the movie isn't afraid to get really downbeat and kill off most of its cast (including a bunch of child characters), which is an impulse that always earns my respect. All in all, I came away thinking it was nothing special, but I'll take it over, say, Lust for a Vampire or Dracula A.D. 1972. Been a while since I went on a Hammer Horror ride, might do so later this year, as watching them during fall at night time, is the time I usually prefer to see that kind of entertainment, as it fits so right with the time of the year and have a "cosy" atmosphere to it, at times. But yeah, I did notice from my last visit of the Hammer Horror DVD box-set I picked up, I think contained 18-20 of their releases, most were british made, but a few actually was american releases, or so I remembered, and I sure enjoyed the ones from the 50s and 60s the most, where those moving towards the 70s or beyond, never quite reached the same impact on me. Never heard of Vampire Circus, but then again, I have not been looking up any Hammer films of recently either. I did however notice, that the further to the 70s their films came, the bigger the "assets" of the female actresses got, and we sure did get a whole lot of cleavage, not that is a bad thing, but it felt like they went for something familiar with the Russ Meyer style and approach. From The Horror of Frankenstein (1970), which I remember to be quite an enjoyable film, not only because of the beautiful women, but again, have not visited since fall of 2012 or 13, so I should probably do something about that, soon. Did you ever see Captain Clegg (or Night Creatures)? It's one of theirs I've always thought was really underrated. It's not strictly horror, but it's got a lot of atmosphere and is action-packed.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 26, 2021 11:46:43 GMT
Captain Clegg? I guess with a title like that, I would probably have remembered it.
Well, I did search it up, and no. Have never seen it, nor heard about it before.
Looks like one which comes along with a strong cast, but judging from the usual high ratings (IMDb) of these Hammer titles, I often try not to let that get me too excited, as I have sadly experiences that the higher the ratings, the chances for bigger disappointments, have sadly often been what I got in return.
However, The Horror of Frankenstein and a few others, that is not as high rated, have done the exact opposite, and impressed or entertained me very much. In fact, way more than some of the highest rated Hammer titles.
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Post by Captain Spencer on Feb 27, 2021 4:57:32 GMT
Blackenstein (1973) Eddie, a black Vietnam veteran who lost his limbs by stepping on a landmine, becomes a doctor's radical experiment of limb reattachment. But when a lab assistant tampers with DNA injections, Eddie becomes a deformed creature going on a murderous rampage. A dreary run-of-the-mill monster movie that lacks style and creativity, and with actors who perform like robots. The director has no idea how to effectively set up the attack scenes, just does a lot of quick cutting. And then there were those dramatic music cues that were used at inappropriate times, which was really annoying. Oh well, I'm sure fans of campy bad movies will enjoy this.
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mgmarshall
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Post by mgmarshall on Feb 27, 2021 6:50:25 GMT
Blackenstein (1973) Eddie, a black Vietnam veteran who lost his limbs by stepping on a landmine, becomes a doctor's radical experiment of limb reattachment. But when a lab assistant tampers with DNA injections, Eddie becomes a deformed creature going on a murderous rampage. A dreary run-of-the-mill monster movie that lacks style and creativity, and with actors who perform like robots. The director has no idea how to effectively set up the attack scenes, just does a lot of quick cutting. And then there were those dramatic music cues that were used at inappropriate times, which was really annoying. Oh well, I'm sure fans of campy bad movies will enjoy this. Eh, they can't all be as good as Blacula or Ganja & Hess...
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 27, 2021 11:55:09 GMT
Blackenstein (1973) Eddie, a black Vietnam veteran who lost his limbs by stepping on a landmine, becomes a doctor's radical experiment of limb reattachment. But when a lab assistant tampers with DNA injections, Eddie becomes a deformed creature going on a murderous rampage. A dreary run-of-the-mill monster movie that lacks style and creativity, and with actors who perform like robots. The director has no idea how to effectively set up the attack scenes, just does a lot of quick cutting. And then there were those dramatic music cues that were used at inappropriate times, which was really annoying. Oh well, I'm sure fans of campy bad movies will enjoy this. Damn, I guess I missed out this, sure I have watched both of the Blacula titles, the first one was actually kind of fun, however the second one was not, but I do have a soft spot for Blaxploitation cinema, specially during the early 70s, and also being reminded of the hilarious Doctor Funkenstein parodies by MADtv much later on, I wonder if the original might be worth to check up on.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 27, 2021 12:08:22 GMT
Nightmare City (1980) by Umberto Lenzi Just as with the New York Ripper I saw a while ago, I seemed to have purchased this film twice. Once through a Anchor Bay release, then later on a Scandinavian uncut remastered 2007 DVD. Anyway, I know I have seen it earlier, but must be a very long time, as I had not rated it, through either my older IMDb account nor the Letterboxd one, so I decided to give it another go. Well, the film sure do not waste its time on building much of a story or "deep" character backgrounds, as just within a few minutes in, and we are introduced to a bunch of crazy, murdering, axe, knife and gun wielding lunatics, who is the recent result of an radioactive leak, and where a tv journalist and his crewman arrives at an large airport, expecting some German expert to arrive, instead, well we get total madness. Yeah, I kind of dig these kind of rapid moving and surprisingly clever zombies/mutants/creatures, who has a taste for human blood, but where some sure enjoy a bit of female titties as well, but who can blame them? I only wished the film would try to slow things down a bit, like maybe adding some creepy atmosphere, once in a while, but instead we get a bunch of unlikeable and rather dull characters, who I could not care any less of what happened to, and the main anti-hero, is almost more of zombie-looking creature, than the zombies themselves, I mean talk about showing your "emotions". Okay, so I did not expect some Academy Award acting here, but could it have hurt, to hire a more likeable couple in the lead? I almost wished the creatures would kill them off, as soon as possible. Anyway, the film sure moves, one rapid and violent attack, after another. Sadly, for one who seems to prefer the slower and more atmospheric zombie releases, or have a bit more interesting and enjoyable main leads, this film got a bit too much of the same stuff, happening, again and again. Sure, for those more interested in gruesome special effects, killings and cheese, might love this, far more than me. But once again, another hyped up italian zombie/mutant film that just never really got a hold of me, but I gotta give it some credits, as I sure enjoyed the pacy zombies, but they just looked too silly and never scary, at all. More like someone attempted on re-creating the Wolfman style from the 40s and 50s, but forgot to add the hair on their face and hands. Still, it was not all bad, and I am probably a bit too generous, but I think it lies somewhere around: 6/10
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Post by gspdude on Feb 27, 2021 13:48:15 GMT
The Eternal(1998) Odd movie about a Woman who takes her husband and young son to Ireland to meet her aging grandmother at her family's estate. Finds her Uncle(Christopher Walken) has been keeping the mummified corpse of an ancient witch in the basement. Hmmm, what are the odds he plans to revive it? Sufficiently creepy. 6.5/10.
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