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Post by Prime etc. on Jul 11, 2021 7:24:56 GMT
DEEP STAR SIX - 1989 I saw this back on video in 1990 and didn't watch it until last night. I preferred LEVIATHAN--for the cast and monster but this is the more dramatically successful of the two--especially for Miguel Ferrer.
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Post by theravenking on Jul 11, 2021 12:24:03 GMT
Hell Fest is a traveling horror theme park which also serves as the hiding ground/lair of a masked killer as we already find out in the movie's opening scene when the ghoul kills a young woman and hangs her corpse in the maze so it blends in with the props. This scene is devoid of any blood though and comes over rather uninspired which means that Hell Fest is off to a rocky start beginning almost like a PG-13 movie. One has to wait about half an hour until we get some nastier kills but this is still among the tamer slashers. A group of friends decides to visit Hell Fest on Halloween night. Soon the killer starts stalking them, showing special interest in the main girl Nathalie (Amy Forsythe). The plot is business as usual as Nathalie's friends get picked off one by one until she gets her final confrontation with the killer. The theme park setting is a cool idea, but I found the cinematography and lighting of the various sets a bit monotonous. the movie has the typical soulless modern look to it, the characters are cardboard, the attempts at humor mostly fall flat and as mentioned before it could've done with some more brutal kills. The body count is rather low and the ending feels like a cynical attempt to prepare ground for a sequel. The killer's mask is actually pretty cool (designed by the same guy responsible for the Scream killer's mask), but we find out nothing about the character's motivation or backstory. Overall this is just a formulaic slasher with little to recommend for general audiences. 5/10
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Post by gspdude on Jul 11, 2021 12:28:43 GMT
Daniel Isn't Real(2019). Young boy Luke has an imaginary friend, Daniel, who starts telling him to do bad things, so his Mom tells Luke to (symbolically?) lock Daniel away. Years later while at college Luke's shrink tells Luke he needs to reconnect with his imagination. Uh oh! Gets pretty far fetched at times, but over all well done. 6.5/10.
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Post by politicidal on Jul 11, 2021 23:31:28 GMT
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mgmarshall
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Post by mgmarshall on Jul 12, 2021 13:31:14 GMT
Shrunken HeadsExtremely goofy, but ultimately likeable offering from Full Moon. Sure it's really kinda stupid, but it's stupid in such an offbeat, weird way that ended up sorta charming me. It's also quite a bit more ambitious and visually inventive than what you'd usually expect from a Charles Band production. Chalk it up to either a higher-than-usual budget or the madcap directing sensibilities of Richard Elfman. And hey, he brought his brother Danny along with him to compose the title theme! Granted, it feels kinda phoned in and derivative of his earlier work, but it's still nice and somewhat atmospheric. Richard Band's score for the rest of the movie is pretty undistinguished in comparison. Although it does very weirdly quote "When You're a Jet" from West Side Story at one point, that stuck out to me. The plot is nothing special in itself, even for Full Moon. I feel like "Person or persons who were wronged come back from the grave as killer dolls/tiny monsters" is a story template they have lying around waiting to be filled in like Madlibs at this point. Where this one stands out is in that weird, Oingo Boingo-ish, subversive streak Elfman imbues it with, even if it's more restrained than something like Forbidden Zone. You've got three child leads who are straight up gunned down less than a half hour in. You've got rotting zombies who are compelled by voodoo to clean graffiti and pick up litter. You've got the most deranged, sociopathic teenage gang this side of a Stephen King story, who are apparently connected to the mafia (!) And heading up that mafia, and looking like she's having the time of her life, is Meg Foster as the lesbian drag king mob boss, Big Mo. Chomping cigars, dressing like James Dean, and speaking in a rough, gravelly Marlon Brando impression, this movie is Meg's to steal and she runs away with it. Nowhere near as nutty as Foster, but still quite hammy in his own right, is Julius Harris putting in his final movie appearance as a good hearted, stern voodoo priest. Elfman even works in a bizarro cameo for himself as the preening leader of a Fundamentalist Christian suicide cult (?) Overall, it's a standard 90's Full Moon production- cheap but creative effects, short and fast-paced runtime, questionable acting from much of the cast, but with enough inspired nuttiness brought to the table by Richard Elfman to help it stand out some from the pack. And be sure to stick around through the credits for a fun, mean-spirited final stinger. As a side note, I found myself wondering just how much Full Moon had to shell out to use all the licensed D.C. Comics memorabilia that appears early in the movie, or if (more likely) they just didn't bother getting permission and did it anyway...
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Jul 13, 2021 11:54:06 GMT
Another one of these films I remember watching a few times back in the day, but then somehow time went by, and I kind of wanted to give it another go this winter, and yeah, sadly I understood early on, why I did not remember too much, as it was surely a mess of a plot/story, and where not even the impressive cast and interesting use of location could save it, surely one of the weaker/lesser films of Sly from the late 90s and early 00s. A shame, as it had potential, but I think it suffered badly from being butchered in the edit/cutting room, and not released until years after it was made, with not much promotion backing it up either, so it felt more like a costly DTV release instead.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Jul 13, 2021 12:06:23 GMT
Beyond Re-AnimatorOkay, this was just silly. The performances are hammy and cartoonish, the production values are low, there's some embarrassingly bad CGI, and by and large it's about on par quality-wise with a Sci-Fi Channel movie. Still, there are some positives to focus on here, first and foremost being Jeffrey Combs. He slides right back into the role with ease as if the first two movies were made just yesterday. His presence lends the movie far more dignity and gravitas than it likely deserves. Sadly, Bruce Abbott is not back for this one (Dan "turned state's evidence" on Herbert somehow?!), and his replacement, Howard Phillips (yeah, ha ha, guys) is about as bland and forgettable as they come. Most of the cast around Combs is pretty amateurish, to be honest. Although Simón Andreu is pretty fun as the pervy, rat-mutated warden. The prison setting is pretty cool, too. Though it occurred to me halfway through that this movie is basically kinda ripping off Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell. I also quite liked the prologue- very atmospheric and featuring an amazing practical zombie puppet. In fact, the few non-CGI effects the movie has to offer are all top notch. It's ultimately not a terrible movie, just a sloppy and very ridiculous one. It never once matches the tone of the first two, but since I guess that long-proposed House of Re-Animator is probably never gonna happen, it's nice that we got to see one last turn from Jeffrey Combs in his most iconic role. Speaking of rats, that scene with the rat and the little "sausage" always, cracks me up. Yeah, the film is surely not on the same level as the first two, but somehow I have always kind of enjoyed it, and it sure do feel like a few of the Bruce Campbell Sci-Fi Channell releases, that were probably made around the same time. But hey, at least we got Jeffrey Combs returning to the screen, and he sure does not disappoint, but it is a shame we never got to see the long awaited/rumored House of Re-Animator, but I guess that one will suffer the same fate, as the follow up to Bubba Ho-Tep, which also circulated for years, but never seemed to get anywhere, and I guess if it is made one day, it will never be able of living up to the hype.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Jul 13, 2021 15:21:37 GMT
Nightwing (1979) by Arthur Hiller Surely, one of many Jaws, creature-feature knock-offs, during the second half of the 70s, but for me, (not seen too many of these kind of similar themed releases) the best or most enjoyable of the killer-bat horror movies. Anyway, the plot takes place in a indian reservation, and where some rather strange and nasty attacks and killings on both animals and humans, have taken place, and it does not get any better, with the intense rivalry of two tribes. However, unexpected help, arrives when a bat-expert, or more expert in killing them, comes with David Warner, and who only seems to have one thing going for him, and that is to destroy as many of these flying "rats", or big ass mice, as possible. I did not expect a "great" film, but I really enjoyed the atmosphere, locations, and surely the chemistry and delivery of Nick Mancuso and Warner, who helps making sure, that the film never drags on, and of course, some of the special effects, might look a bit cheesy/campy, yet there is also a certain level of creepiness to these flying beasts, and I guess Nightwing is not all that of a "bad" movie, anything but if you ask me. While it might not go down, as one of my favorite, of the many the animals strike back features of the late 70s, like Piranha, Grizzly, Day of the Animals or The Food of the Gods, I think it is well worth a watch, if one enjoy these kind of films. This one, were included on a two for one Blu-ray release, by Eureka!. The other, Night of the Hawk, or something like that, I have yet to seen, but will most likely get to, sooner or later. 6/10
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Post by teleadm on Jul 13, 2021 18:19:09 GMT
Mill of the Stone Women aka Il mulino delle donne di pietra 1960 Italian horror movie, before the went Giallo. Takes place along the canals in The Netherlands. often in eerie mist. A young man arrives to a small town near Amsterdam to study the art and sculptures of a reclusive professor little knowing what the macabre sculptures are actually made of, and meets the strange flirty daughter of the professor. She dies suddenly, but are soon alive again... Great cinematography and old-fashioned macabre horror.
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Post by lostinlimbo on Jul 14, 2021 0:11:39 GMT
Hell Fest is a traveling horror theme park which also serves as the hiding ground/lair of a masked killer as we already find out in the movie's opening scene when the ghoul kills a young woman and hangs her corpse in the maze so it blends in with the props. This scene is devoid of any blood though and comes over rather uninspired which means that Hell Fest is off to a rocky start beginning almost like a PG-13 movie. One has to wait about half an hour until we get some nastier kills but this is still among the tamer slashers. A group of friends decides to visit Hell Fest on Halloween night. Soon the killer starts stalking them, showing special interest in the main girl Nathalie (Amy Forsythe). The plot is business as usual as Nathalie's friends get picked off one by one until she gets her final confrontation with the killer. The theme park setting is a cool idea, but I found the cinematography and lighting of the various sets a bit monotonous. the movie has the typical soulless modern look to it, the characters are cardboard, the attempts at humor mostly fall flat and as mentioned before it could've done with some more brutal kills. The body count is rather low and the ending feels like a cynical attempt to prepare ground for a sequel. The killer's mask is actually pretty cool (designed by the same guy responsible for the Scream killer's mask), but we find out nothing about the character's motivation or backstory. Overall this is just a formulaic slasher with little to recommend for general audiences. 5/10 Yeah, agree with this one. An intriguing concept and cool production design, but wasted by its tame and underwhelming execution. Even the final twist is taken from a really low-budget indie slasher film Murder Loves Killers Too .
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Post by lostinlimbo on Jul 14, 2021 0:18:09 GMT
Chase 1985 TV movie I love how the trailer only plays footage from the last 15 mins, because there’s not much of a chase in this film.
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Post by theravenking on Jul 15, 2021 22:07:10 GMT
The Case Of The Scorpion's Tail (1971) When Lisa's (Ida Galli) husband dies in a plane crash she inherits a million dollar fortune from her husband's life insurance policy. But as it turns out other people are after the cash too and Lisa was having an affair with a man she's planning to retreat with, making her a suspect in her husband's death. Enter insurance investigator Peter Lynch (John Cassavetes/Martin Landau love child George Hilton) who promptly gets accused of some wrongdoing by the police too when Lisa is hacked to death by a knife-wielding maniac. Generously the cops allow him to play detective in the course of which he hooks up with an attractive reporter (Anita Strindberg). Together they follow the clues to solve the mystery of the scorpion's tail. This giallo begins in London but the setting soon moves to Greece. This feels like a proper mystery with a plot that's far more down-to-earth and less bewildering than in some other gialli. I had mixed feelings about The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, the previous giallo from director Sergio Martino. It felt a bit disjointed and lacking in the horror department, although the surprise ending almost made up for it. Now The Case Of The Scorpion's Tail (1971) is almost the opposite of that movie. Gripping, with good detection and some nice twists and turns. Director Martino adds some lovely visual flourishes to proceedings such as a sequence taking place in the dark, seen through night vision. Even though the blood doesn't flow as freely as with Signori Argento and Fulci there is a graphic scene where a guy gets a broken bottle rammed into his eye socket. Sounds like a winner, doesn't it? Alas it's let down by a sad excuse of and ending which is so tired and illogical that it destroys some of the good impressions that came before. I would almost recommend stopping the movie about 15 minutes before the end and coming up with your own ending, chances are it would be a more convincing finale than what the film makers provided.
6/10
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mgmarshall
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Post by mgmarshall on Jul 16, 2021 0:03:33 GMT
From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood MoneyWell, the first one aped Sam Raimi's style quite a bit, so who better to direct the sequel than Scott Spiegel? He brings along his penchant for wild, Raimi-eqsue camerawork and deranged, giallo-influenced P.O.V. shots, and honestly those make this a whole lot more watchable that it would be otherwise. The story's not too inspired, and the direct-to-video budget limitations are pretty self-evident, so at least having some energy behind the camera certainly helps. Although, like in his underrated 80's slasher Intruder, Spiegel commits a true cardinal sin- he completely wastes Bruce Campbell! It's just unforgiveable for me, but at least Bruce gets a whole scene this time as opposed to a 30 second walk-on like in Intruder. Other than Bruce , the cast is okay. Robert Patrick is a solid lead, although it's kind of depressing to think that this movie represents one of the few times he got to headline a movie. The man deserved more than he got. The heist crew is a pretty fun assortment, too- you've got Duane Whitaker of Pulp Fiction, Breaking Bad's Raymond Cruz basically in the same Tuco mode he'd be in on that show, Woody Harrelson's brother Brett as doomed, dimwitted hayseed, and Muse Watson from I Know What You Did Last Summer. Bo Hopkins is pretty good though clearly phoning it in as the Texas Ranger, and James Parks gets to pop up and wear the world's largest ten gallon hat while playing the son of his dad's character from the original. Oh, and Danny Trejo stops by (and gets about as much thankless screentime as Bruce Campbell does) as Razor Eddie, presumable the brother of Razor Charlie from the first movie. Despite still having KNB on hand, the effects this time around are pretty unimpressive, and augmented by some embarrassingly bad CGI. I blame the low budget. I also blame for just how cheap and low-rent this movie's version of the Titty Twister looks in comparison to the original. It's pathetic, but thankfully we only spend about a minute of the movie on it, anyway. The movie's not too impressive generally, but I don't expect too much from cheap direct-to-video horror sequels as it is. It's certainly not terrible as far as that arena is concerned, and it's an okay way to to kill 90 minutes.
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mgmarshall
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Post by mgmarshall on Jul 16, 2021 1:23:33 GMT
From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's DaughterNow this one is something special. It is far better than From Dusk Till Dawn 3 has any right to be, chiefly due do the efforts of two men- P.J. Pesce and Michael Parks. Pesce directs the movie with a real flair and stlye, and almost succeeds in shrugging off its direct-to-video limitations. This is clearly the work of someone who's having fun playing with the medium. Between this and his grim, hyperviolent made-for-TV western The Desperate Trail, I really find it confusing and disappointing that Pesce never managed to become more of an established director and remained imprisoned in the realm of direct-to-video. The movie also very wisely takes its time getting to the vampire action, spending a sizeable chunk of its runtime crafting a compelling western narrative to drop the vampires into. And right in the center of that narrative is the great Michael Parks as Ambrose Bierce. It's a really inspired choice to include him as a character and speculate that his famous disappearance was due to running into the 1800's version of the Titty Twister. And it's a stroke of casting brilliance getting Michael Parks for the role. He singlehandedly makes this movie with his sardonic, detached performance, and lends the movie a great deal of credibility it wouldn't have without. There are some good supporting turns backing him up, too. Sonia Braga is having a lot of fun Elvira-ing it up as the madam of the Titty Twister, Temuera Morrison is great and intense and very Yul Brynner-ish as the titular hangman and as his daughter Ara Celi just nails it as the young Santanico Pandemonium. She's a dead ringer for a young Salma Hayek. Marco Leonardi is a little bland as our outlaw hero (and the t-shirt he's wearing for half of the movie doesn't exactly look period-appropriate), but with the excellent support he's receiving from the rest of the cast, it doen't matter too much. Oh hey, and Danny Trejo's Razor Charlie is still tending bar 100 years earlier, and they actually give him some real screentime this time around. While there's still some terrible CGI, the makeup effects on display in this one are a marked improvement on Part 2, as is just about everything else in the movie.
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Post by Prime etc. on Jul 17, 2021 7:38:52 GMT
THE STRANGE AND DEADLY OCCURRENCE 1974 --the was a movie posted the Herald Erjen on another forum--it sure is spooky--really spooky build up. Textbook example of how to stage scary house scenes. That moving dummy. It's so basic and yet so effective.
I also watched a Tales From the Crypt directed by Richard Donner
Dig That Cat-He's Real Gone
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Post by Prime etc. on Jul 17, 2021 7:40:36 GMT
I had mixed feelings about The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, Is that one with the ice being used to lock the room door? That was a neat trick.
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Post by theravenking on Jul 17, 2021 13:09:04 GMT
I had mixed feelings about The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, Is that one with the ice being used to lock the room door? That was a neat trick.
No, I think you are confusing it with another movie. There was no such scene in this.
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Post by Prime etc. on Jul 17, 2021 15:20:47 GMT
No, I think you are confusing it with another movie. There was no such scene in this. Dammit! Now I wonder which one it was. I know it was another Fenech movie.
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Post by theravenking on Jul 17, 2021 15:31:02 GMT
No, I think you are confusing it with another movie. There was no such scene in this. Dammit! Now I wonder which one it was. I know it was another Fenech movie. This didn't have Fenech in it.
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Post by Prime etc. on Jul 17, 2021 15:35:02 GMT
Dammit! Now I wonder which one it was. I know it was another Fenech movie. This didn't have Fenech in it. What? Isn't this the movie?
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