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Post by Prime etc. on Mar 4, 2021 6:31:06 GMT
Castle of Blood 1964 This story about a writer who meets Poe and agrees to a bet to stay in a haunted house until morning has the concept that a person is split into three parts--the body, the spirit, and the senses. If a death is violent, the senses will carry on and keep the individual from truly dying. This is demonstrated by cutting a snake in half--the remake from 1971 by the same director has the same exact demonstration. But it the film is kind of creepy beyond that all too realistic bit of morbidity. Given that she plays a ghost, is Barbara Steele the last living horror marquee star before performance-based horror was replaced by the slasher and spfx film?
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Mar 4, 2021 9:44:58 GMT
Had a nice re-watch of that film, last fall, during the October Horror Challenge, rated it with a 7/10, and was quite the difference since I first saw it, as then I only gave it a 5/10, but yeah, surely one of those that benefitted from another visit, and one of the better and creepier of the early 80s slasher/horror releases. That image/gif you posted, makes me wonder if the character or design, somehow inspired the later Dario Argento, Phenomena (1985):
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Post by gspdude on Mar 4, 2021 14:26:17 GMT
The Beyond (1981) When I saw Lucio Fulci's name in the opening credits I knew what to expect: Gore. I just didn't know how much. It pretty much went from one gore scene to the next, with a little bit of plot thrown in between. I have nothing against gore in and of itself, but I find too much loses it's shock value and becomes pretty much "here we go again" boring. The film does have it's fans (6.8 on IMDB), I'm just not one of them. 3/10.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Mar 5, 2021 8:23:20 GMT
The Beyond (1981) When I saw Lucio Fulci's name in the opening credits I knew what to expect: Gore. I just didn't know how much. It pretty much went from one gore scene to the next, with a little bit of plot thrown in between. I have nothing against gore in and of itself, but I find too much loses it's shock value and becomes pretty much "here we go again" boring. The film does have it's fans (6.8 on IMDB), I'm just not one of them. 3/10. I believe, I payed the film a re-vist last winter, for the first time since I picked up a neat uncut and remastered DVD version (part of the scandinavian 7 numbered zombie collection from 2006-2010) and, yeah, little had changed since last time. Visually, very beautiful and dreamlike, but the plot and characters did end up a bit to "all over the place", with just another excuse to throw in a bunch of nasty and brutal scenes, here and there. However, I might be a bit more generous with my rating, gave it a 6/10, but surely not one film that I was too impressed or entertained by, but I can see why some love it, and others not so much. I guess I got stuck in between, as I really wanted to like it, way more, but that is just how it go, not much to do about it. Wrote a little review back then, but have trouble finding it again. Well, turned out I gave it a 6,5/10 and yeah, the pace was another thing which did not help out, too much either. The highlights for me, was the music, atmosphere and all the crazy and visually madness which takes place. The spider part, sure was nasty, and did not look too out of place, even today. She the special effects, I guess must also be praised, as they looked really gruesome at times, and straight out of a nightmare, which I guess is not that far off, as it has that feverish dream tone and setting, very strong. And once more, with a few of other 70s and 80s italian horror films, they seem to have a certain thing, about not so friendly german shepards, who ends up going against their human owners. Speaking of the music, for me, I have always been very impressed of how much great music, even some of the lesser (not saying The Beyond is among those) often came with fantastic or great soundtracks, so it must have been quite an inspirational time for both movie directors and composers back then.
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mgmarshall
Junior Member
@mgmarshall
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Post by mgmarshall on Mar 5, 2021 8:29:06 GMT
Critters 3: You Are What They EatYeah, I didn't like this one as much as the first two. The apartment building as a setting for the Critters to wreak havoc in is interesting, but they don't ultimately do all that much with it. Also, the direct rip-offs of Gremlins are beginning to get a little bit blatant by this entry (the stripe-haired "leader" Critter). It's nice to still have Don Keith Opper around as Charlie, but Ug and Lee are sorely missed. And yes, baby Leo DiCaprio is perfectly fine as the lead kid, but I liked Scott Grimes better.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Mar 5, 2021 8:42:00 GMT
Critters 3: You Are What They EatYeah, I didn't like this one as much as the first two. The apartment building as a setting for the Critters to wreak havoc in is interesting, but they don't ultimately do all that much with it. Also, the direct rip-offs of Gremlins are beginning to get a little bit blatant by this entry (the stripe-haired "leader" Critter). It's nice to still have Don Keith Opper around as Charlie, but Ug and Lee are sorely missed. And yes, baby Leo DiCaprio is perfectly fine as the lead kid, but I liked Scott Grimes better. Damn, that movie poster, just screams video rental 90s (around 1997-1998) good times. Sadly, I remember that most of the film were a long shot away of the "big" city feel, kind of like with Jason Takes Manhattan, but again, I have not seen Critters 3, for many years. Yeah, I remember something were off, with the charm or chemistry, which I guess is not so odd, missing out on two major important reasons to why, with Ug and Lee gone, and also no Grimes either. Still, it was my first introduction towards the Critters franchise, and where nostalgia might help out a bit. Think I rated it with either 4/10 or 5/10, most likely the latter. After that, well, I doubt I will be visiting space Critters, anytime soon, as that one just was not very "impressive".
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Mar 6, 2021 12:24:36 GMT
Zombie Flesh Eathers (1988) by Lucio Fulci Well, I was so sure I had either seen it, or parts of it, but watching it last night, I am not really that sure I ever had. Yeah, it is ain't even close to the earlier italian zombie releases, in acting, style, atmosphere, quality and also the zombies, well I will come back those later on. Still, there is lots of ridiculous cheese which takes place, that's one thing those italians never seeemed to run out of, at least during the 80s and ealry 90s. Some new super dangerous chemical named "DEATH 1", has just been stolen, and later on leaked out, from its canister. And yeah, you pretty much know the drill by now. The infected guy, instead of taking off to the nearest hospital, ends up booking himself a room, at some luxery hotel, in the middle of nowhere, and soon the whole place is filled with flesh eating mutants on the loose, and gun triggered military who shoots the whole thing up, and not long after, a bunch of party going and horny people arrive, and yeah, no big surprise there, everything continues on. Sadly, this uncut version, while sure delivering the goods with gore and cheese, it ends up getting a bit boring after a while. The characters are either terrible or annyoing as hell (not unusual in horror films, specially italian ones) but this bunch just were too "much" for me, and the one who probably stood out, not likeable but entertaining, was the head doctor or scienticst who seemed to go for the Oscar nomination, due to his performance. There is a whole bunch of references to far superior films, specially within the zombie genre, and I guess the most obvious one, has to be Return of the Living Dead (1985). But we also get a Friday the 13th or Jason moment, when one of the zombies seemed to go completely berserk, with a huge machete, only missing the iconic hockey mask. The bird attack, might be some influence by similar zombie films, but felt similar in that I believe Zombie 4 or 5 went further, and even named a movie after its killers, with: The Killing Birds. My main problem, was that as I mentioned earlier, it got to a point where things just dragged on, and stayed there. The zombies did not help out either, as this has to be one of the most sorry looking excuse of a bunch of aboslute lames and dullest movie zombies I have ever witnessed. They all looked like they just came straight out of their bed, dressed in their pajamas and did not bother taking them off, and yeah, not scary, fun or creepy at all. I did not went in, expecting some "classic", and I guess it delivered well on the cheese and b-movie stuff, but this was quite a drop in quality and entertainment from what I have been seeing lately of italian zombie films. So I end up with a very kind: 4/10
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Post by politicidal on Mar 6, 2021 16:38:03 GMT
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Mar 7, 2021 10:09:54 GMT
Hell of the Living Dead (1980) by Bruno Mattei The last of the 7 total Zombie collection releases (2006-2010) by the danish movie company, AWE (Anotherworldentertainment) and you could clearly see the negative trend, where Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 (1988) and Hell of the Living Dead (1980) both was put out, several years after the first five (The Beyond, City of the Living Dead, Nightmare City, Zombie Flesh Eathers and Zombie Holocaust) as the two latest entries, are just not even remotely close, to the quality or entertainment (well, so I think) and at times, I felt that Hell of the Living Dead could have easily been mistaken for a product of the late 80s, not the early 80s. Anyway, they never released anything zombie and 80s italian related titles after those 7 films, and I guess the sales went down, or they lost the rights to put them out anymore. Kind of sad, as I loved most of their releases from spring/summer of 2006 and up till around 2009, and where they delivered so many great, fun and cheesy cult film, b-movies, giallo, splatter, zombie, cannibal, post-apocalyptic, vigilante and yeah, the list just goes on. I guess they just run out of steam, but what a ride it was for scandinavian fans of those kind of genres of movies, as many have never before gotten a DVD release, or an uncut as well, so I knew it was always gonna be a special treatment, whenever I visited my favorite movie store, and they had something new from AWE lying around. Well, Hell of the Living Dead, aka Virus aka Night of the Zombies, and probably a hell of a lot of other alternative titles, but I went with the one which seems most frequently used. Typically my luck, I have seen it, but something about the film made me just forget that I had, and it is no big surprise as this is just another forgettable zombies on the loose, yawn. The story feels like a bigger budget version of Zombie Flesh Eaters 2, where some new scientific drug or chemical is leaked onto the population, and I think it even has the name of EVIL or DEATH in it, but yeah, again, you know very well what will happen next. We get a bunch of horny special forces soldiers, along with one of the most annoying female characters I have ever witnessed in a movie, along with her unlikeable cameraman, set for some random jungle, in order to hunt down these zombie creatures. On a positive, the zombie are actually not as terrible or dull as the ones in Zombie Flesh Eaters 2, but still, a long way from what I hoped for in return. Some looks like they are about to crack up of laughter, during the attacks, while other seems to just want a big hug, or wave goodbye. But the funniest ones, are those who look like they should belong at some 80s night club, doing the robot dance, that or warming up for the latest Michael Jackson music video. The special forces guys, are quite a bunch of characters, no question about that. Still, I felt they tried too hard on the comedy and slapstick or goofy routine, it got dried up, too early on, and after a while, I just hoped they would be written out, so we could go ahead, but I guess that would be probably not a good idea, as one would be left with the horrible bimbo journalist and her cameraman. The only real good thing she does, is suddenly "loosing" all of her clothes and go totally native, but even then, I am not sure, she has that smug and annoying feel going far too strong. Another thing that annoyed the hell out of me, was the terrible overdragged runtime, of almost 1 hour and 40 minutes. Lots and lots of some random animal footage, which had nothing to do with the story of the characters, but felt like they were just thrown in, at the last minute, to make the film even longer and more boring. I guess one could kind of hope for some cool animal attacks, which actually happens once, early on. And I guess Bruno Mattei (along with so many other italian directors) is not very fond of rats, as he also made a much more fun and enjoyable cheesy post-apocalyptic films, a few years later, called Rats (1983). Well, I have probably wasted too much time on this film, not only by watching the damn thing, but also writing about it, but felt like just letting off some steam while doing so. It is a poor and pretty boring zombie adventure, and these two latest ones, have left me (for now) rather unmotivated of watching any more of similar themed movies, but kind of fun, at least when the films were good or entertainment, but I have my limits for what I consider to be fun and enjoyable zombie entertainment, and yeah, I think will take a long break of that, for now. Still, the best thing about these two latest seen zombie horrors, is surely their incredible cool looking movie posters, but sadly the films itself, are nowhere close of that kind of quality. 4,5/10
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Post by Captain Spencer on Mar 7, 2021 18:44:38 GMT
Rawhead Rex (1986) A farmer unwittingly releases a demonic creature from its centuries-old slumber. The territorial monster terrorizes the local village. This British-Irish co-production, written by Clive Barker and based on his short story which appeared in his Books of Blood series, is mostly average. Being filmed and set in Ireland plus using local Irish actors certainly gives the atmosphere an authentic feel, but the problem is with the writing. Certain aspects of the story should have been expanded better. Could it be that somebody else tinkered with Barker's script and things got lost in translation? And then there's the matter of the monster himself, which is goof-looking. With its rubbery face and walnut-goggling eyes, the creature looks more comical than horrifying. Even Barker himself was unhappy with the end result.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Mar 8, 2021 11:58:40 GMT
A farmer unwittingly releases a demonic creature from its centuries-old slumber. The territorial monster terrorizes the local village. This British-Irish co-production, written by Clive Barker and based on his short story which appeared in his Books of Blood series, is mostly average. Being filmed and set in Ireland plus using local Irish actors certainly gives the atmosphere an authentic feel, but the problem is with the writing. Certain aspects of the story should have been expanded better. Could it be that somebody else tinkered with Barker's script and things got lost in translation? And then there's the matter of the monster himself, which is goof-looking. With its rubbery face and walnut-goggling eyes, the creature looks more comical than horrifying. Even Barker himself was unhappy with the end result. Another one of these hilarious looking b-monster movies of the 80s, I have long wanted to see, but still have not gotten around to do, yet. Yeah, I guess trying to sell the film/creature as scary, well, I mean the poster looks quite impressive, and then you end up with: But I would still very much like to see it. Maybe even more, judging by the cheesy gif, than the badass looking movie poster.
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Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Mar 8, 2021 17:55:37 GMT
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Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Mar 8, 2021 17:56:15 GMT
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Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Mar 8, 2021 17:57:37 GMT
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Post by Captain Spencer on Mar 8, 2021 18:36:56 GMT
A farmer unwittingly releases a demonic creature from its centuries-old slumber. The territorial monster terrorizes the local village. This British-Irish co-production, written by Clive Barker and based on his short story which appeared in his Books of Blood series, is mostly average. Being filmed and set in Ireland plus using local Irish actors certainly gives the atmosphere an authentic feel, but the problem is with the writing. Certain aspects of the story should have been expanded better. Could it be that somebody else tinkered with Barker's script and things got lost in translation? And then there's the matter of the monster himself, which is goof-looking. With its rubbery face and walnut-goggling eyes, the creature looks more comical than horrifying. Even Barker himself was unhappy with the end result. Another one of these hilarious looking b-monster movies of the 80s, I have long wanted to see, but still have not gotten around to do, yet. Yeah, I guess trying to sell the film/creature as scary, well, I mean the poster looks quite impressive, and then you end up with: But I would still very much like to see it. Maybe even more, judging by the cheesy gif, than the badass looking movie poster. Yeah that poster was deceiving. Not the first time this sort of thing has happened. But yes, Rawhead Rex is still worth a look.
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Post by Prime etc. on Mar 8, 2021 20:38:01 GMT
I remember Rawhead Rex talked about in Fangoria but never got to see it. Simply a case of it not showing up on cable or home video nearby or due to the lack of a recognizable cast. Same thing with Scarecrows--which I finally watched not so long ago.
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Post by gspdude on Mar 9, 2021 12:30:40 GMT
The Brain(1962) Scientists remove the brain of a wealthy plane crash victim and keep it alive. Naturally it begins to exert influence over them. Concentrates more on a murder mystery (who caused the crash?) than on the sci fi aspect, but works well as that and kept me interested. 6/10.
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mgmarshall
Junior Member
@mgmarshall
Posts: 2,043
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Post by mgmarshall on Mar 9, 2021 22:11:07 GMT
Silent Night Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out!Christ, what a boring nothing of a movie. Back in December, I had planned to watch all the Silent Night Deadly Night movies, but I didn't make it past Part 2. And while that movie was admittedly a corrupt, lazy dumpster fire of stock footage and incompetent editing, at least it had Eric Freeman's nutty performance keeping me entertained. This one has got nothing. Bill Moseley, when utilized correctly, can be one of the most entertainingly batshit performers out there. This movie? Gives him two lines of dialogue. Bill Moseley is gold, you do not waste gold!Also, wow does this movie ever wish that Samantha Scully will remind me of Jennifer Connelly in Phenomena. But Jennifer Connelly was likeable in that movie. This lady isn't in this one. The only person here who's even remotely fun to watch is Robert Culp, and the movie strands him on the sidelines for the duration. Once again, you do not waste gold!I think this one can be best summed up with the following- When the rule of "never reference a better movie in the middle of your crappy movie" still applies when you're showing clips of Roger Corman's The Terror, we have a serious problem.
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Post by Prime etc. on Mar 9, 2021 22:18:43 GMT
The Brain(1962) Scientists remove the brain of a wealthy plane crash victim and keep it alive. Naturally it begins to exert influence over them. Concentrates more on a murder mystery (who caused the crash?) than on the sci fi aspect, but works well as that and kept me interested. 6/10. I have been meaning to watch this but I want to check out the earlier Donovan's Brain movie first (Seen it a long time ago).
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Post by politicidal on Mar 10, 2021 2:15:25 GMT
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