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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 2, 2022 9:49:34 GMT
Oh yeah, I almost forgot: The Return of Swamp Thing (1989) by Jim Wynorski Not sure if this one counts as a "horror" film, as it is surely way more goofy and lighter in tone and setting, than the first film, by Wes Craven. However, a few familiar faces re-appears, and you get the lovely Heather Locklear in the leading part, returning to the swamp, to met up with her stepfather, the still very much alive Dr. Arcane (Louis Jourdan), who runs his madman operation, like always, and is constanly on the search for new "recruits" which can help him succeed in brining forward another "super creature". Have not seen either of these 80s blend of super hero adventure, horror, action and comedy, but kind of wanted to revisit this late 80s film, as I had not done so, for a very long time. Yeah, it is goofy and quite over the top, but knowing Wynorski is behind it, I guess it should be of no real surprise, and I think he handled it rather well. Nice to see Jourdan back in action, even if he is less involved than he was in the original. Always a riot, to see those ridiculous rubber-creatures, take on Swamp thing, and I got a huge laught out of the not exactly "threatning" brainiac monster, who enter the fight during the last part, like a true "champ": Oh yeah, that will scare the hell out of Swamp Thing, for sure. Also, Heather was both sweet, sexy and quite amusing at times, but all in all, a pretty mediocre film, and well, I ended up with a bit more favorable rating, than my last watch back in 2012, and decided to give it a bit kinder one, with a: 5/10
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Post by gspdude on Feb 2, 2022 13:18:08 GMT
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) Been too long since I Watched this one. Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston are a Vampire couple who live more like dope addicts than vampires, acquiring their blood on the black market. It's slow moving and even a bit dreary at times, but it's well acted and I find it engrossing, almost hypnotic. Not a movie I would watch a lot, but one I should try to enjoy at least once a year. 8/10.
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Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Feb 3, 2022 0:58:18 GMT
4/10Basic slasher 'guess who do it' story. Sleezy as hell. And it has Todd Bridges.
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Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Feb 3, 2022 1:01:24 GMT
5/10Odd enough I never seen this film before last week. Nothing great but its very watchable. I liked it more than the new one.
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Post by Nalkarj on Feb 3, 2022 3:14:36 GMT
I should have learned my lesson about Amazon Prime movies based on—inter alia, damn it— Lost Voyage, Woodland, and Devil’s Island. Instead I keep getting suckered in by intriguing premises. Tonight I watched Dead Body (2017). Premise: “Nine high school students celebrate graduation at a secluded home in the wilderness. Once the party dies down they play a game: Dead Body. But when one of them actually murders someone, it's up to the group to ferret out the real murderer.” What Salzmank thought before hitting “Play”: Oh, this seems like a fun, knockoff-Agatha-Christie slasher flick, a good way to de-stress after work. What Salzmank should have thought before hitting “Play”: Oh my God, oh my God, keep away, keep away, it’s a low-budget Amazon Prime movie!So here I am to tell you OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, KEEP AWAY, KEEP AWAY, IT’S A LOW-BUDGET AMAZON PRIME MOVIE! Thank you. Picture of Salzmank after watching this movie:
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Post by Nalkarj on Feb 3, 2022 17:35:58 GMT
As I wrote in the Whodunits thread, I’ve wanted to see La chambre ardente ( The Burning Court), 1962, dir. Julien Duvivier, for a long time. And last night I finally sat down and watched it, in large part to exorcise Dead Body from my mind. The movie is a rare adaptation of a book by John Dickson Carr, a favorite mystery writer of mine. And while I don’t know Duvivier’s oeuvre as well as I probably should, I’m a big fan of late composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim, and Duvivier was Sondheim’s favorite filmmaker. Which is all to say I was probably setting myself up for disappointment. But I enjoyed the movie. I didn’t love it uncritically, but…I enjoyed it. So many set pieces here are beautiful, including some stunning long takes throughout and some genuinely eerie moments. Best of all is a scene not in Carr’s book in which mourners waltz around a dead man’s coffin. The scene comes off as a perverse parody of Ernst Lubitsch’s extraordinary waltz sequence in The Merry Widow (1934). And then Duvivier tops it off with fading to an empty dance floor, making the dancers seem like phantoms. Great stuff. (I wonder if this scene inspired the waltzing ghosts in the Disney ride the Haunted Mansion. Too tenuous a link, right? Still, I’ve got to wonder…) But… the movie doesn’t totally work. Alas and alack. While Édith Scob, she of Eyes Without a Face (but with a face this time), gives a splendid performance, she doesn’t get much to work with—especially troubling when Carr’s book gives her character a lot to do. The problem isn’t that Duvivier and screenwriter Charles Spaak aren’t faithful to Carr’s book, it’s that they’re faithful to the wrong elements. What makes Carr’s book scary is the fantastic that invades the quotidian. As one of the characters puts it in one of Carr’s best monologues:We never get that feeling here. By setting this story in a spooky Black Forest (or across the border in Alsace? I wasn’t sure) château rather than a Philadelphia suburb, there’s no counterpoint. (Andrew Sarris once noted that counterpoint is crucial to Alfred Hitchcock’s films—a murder in a gleaming shower, for example.) We never think “no, this couldn’t happen—but maybe…?” because the setting is simply too Grimm. VERY MINOR SPOILER. Duviver and Spaak make the interesting decision to reveal the murderer halfway through, which I certainly wasn’t expecting. I’m not sure it works as they intended—it’s intended to make us think we know more than the characters and then surprise us by showing that we don’t know that much more after all—but it’s far from the most significant flaw. The biggest problem here is that the most important characters, and the most important character arcs, are sidelined. The characters spend so much of the movie investigating Lucy, played by the gorgeous Perrette Pradier. (This is like an Ingmar Bergman movie in how packed it is with beautiful women: Scob, Pradier, Nadja Tiller. I’m certainly not complaining.) I can understand why she has such a large role—again, Mlle. Pradier is a knockout here—but her character, in both Carr’s book and ultimately in this film, is a minor player. The real focus should be Scob’s character—but Duvivier and the story keep cutting away from her. And the plot here exchanges Carr’s devastating final twist for something that’s…less devastating, to say the least. Again, I did enjoy this. The spooky scenes are first-rate. But I think an adaptation that’s more faithful to Carr’s characters would be, perhaps ironically, more cinematic. Mildly recommended, but I wish I could change that mildly to a highly. Also, some studio has to readapt this book. Has to! Johnny Depp as Gaudan Cross?
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Post by teleadm on Feb 4, 2022 18:26:38 GMT
Crack in the World 1965 directed by Andrew Marton starring Dana Andrews, Jeanette Scott, Kieron Moore and Alexander Knox. Dana Andrews plays a slowly dying scientist obsessed with breaking the earth's magma layer as it might solve all energy problems on Earth, he is warned but goes through with it anyway, to disastrous results making the maybe unrepairable crack in the World that could blow us to pieces, that's the premise of this movie. I remember seeing pictures from this movie in my old Horror or SF or fantasy movies books from the 1970's. Most of the action takes place in Tanganyika (at the time when it was already Tanzania) in Africa, but filmed in Madrid and it's surroundings, Samuel Bronston's studios. Some miniatures works rather well, some not, most of the action takes place listening to loudspeakers and looking in panic on maps. It's OK on a 6/10 level.
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Post by Nalkarj on Feb 5, 2022 3:34:59 GMT
Tourist Trap, 1979, dir. David Schmoeller. A lot of people, including Stephen King, like this one, but… Man, does King’s plot synopsis sound better than the movie is: “Wax figures begin to move and come to life in a ruined, out-of-the-way tourist resort.” As a lover of atmospheric places in both real life and movies, I think my biggest problem is that the setting isn’t a tourist resort, nor is it ruined. It’s just a cabin with a coupla wax figures in it and a house with more wax figures but less atmosphere. Also, the plot is so confused: some supernaturalism, some slashing, sometimes the wax figures come alive, sometimes they’re robots, sometimes the killer’s going all House of Wax, sometimes he just kills the kids Jason Voorhees-style. It all just seems like no one put much thought into this. Maybe that’s to be expected, but basically this is a movie called Tourist Trap that never seems like it’s taking place in a tourist trap.
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Post by Captain Spencer on Feb 5, 2022 5:57:37 GMT
Pieces (1982) A deranged killer kills young women (usually with a chainsaw), cuts off the victims' body parts and uses the parts to create a human jigsaw puzzle. Fans of early-80s misogynistic horror sleaze should get some fulfillment out of this notorious, Spanish-produced slasher. Lots of graphic violence and nudity to go around. The director does show a sense of style when staging the murder sequences. My favorite scene is the slow-motion stabbing on the waterbed. Oh and by the way, for those who have seen Pieces, do you think Christopher George ever got around to lighting up that damn cigar?
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mgmarshall
Junior Member
@mgmarshall
Posts: 2,047
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Post by mgmarshall on Feb 5, 2022 23:58:40 GMT
Dug out an old "MGM Midnite Movies" double feature disc the other night...
The Last Man on EarthFor better or worse, this is probably still the most faithful adaptation of Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend, although even this one kinda misses the point of that title, and still takes quite a few liberties. If ever there was an actor who could pull off a one man show, it had to be Vincent Price. He's just so naturally entertaining, and easily makes this movie way more watchable than it could've been with another actor. Frankly, the rest of the movie is really not all that great- every other actor is laughably, incompetently dubbed (this being shot in Rome and not the US, where it's set), the action is kinda clumsy and awkward, it spends way too much time on a lengthy flashback sequence- as if they had no faith in a one-person story- and the music is stock and corny. But Price seems genuinely connected to the material, and elevates the movie a great deal, really making you feel the character's despair and loneliness. I'll also say this for the movie- it does succeed at times at creating a disquieting feeling of emptiness all around Price. It really does feel like there's nobody else left but him in some scenes, and it manages to be at least a little bit creepy on that level. It's also pretty interesting to look at from a historical perspective in that this may very well be the first modern zombie movie. George A. Romero always admitted I Am Legend as one of his biggest influences; but here- eight years earlier- you have a pretty literal adaptation of the novel, and yeah, it looks a whole lot like Night of the Living Dead in some scenes. Makes me wonder if Romero ever saw it... Panic in Year ZeroI don't have quite as much to say about this one. Like The Last Man on Earth, it is of some historical interest, as it must be one of the earliest nuclear scare flicks. And at the time, I'm sure it must've been very shocking. That said, given there's a whole nuclear apocalypse genre at this point, this one comes off as a tad generic; and it really lacks the despairing horror of later movies of this ilk. In fact, it really may be the most optimistic nuke movie I've ever seen. Sure, there's violence and panic, but the main family perseveres and survives, and the end of the movie implies everything will soon return to normal. Still, this isn't to say it's bad. As a director, Ray Milland lacks any sort of flair to distinguish himself from, say, Roger Corman or Charles B. Griffith, but his leading performance is a strong one. As his family, Jean Hagen, Frankie Avalon, and Mary Mitchel are all solid. The recurring trio of greaser villains are also pretty fun. Overall, it's fine.
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Post by mszanadu on Feb 6, 2022 4:53:32 GMT
Dug out an old "MGM Midnite Movies" double feature disc the other night...
The Last Man on EarthFor better or worse, this is probably still the most faithful adaptation of Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend, although even this one kinda misses the point of that title, and still takes quite a few liberties. If ever there was an actor who could pull off a one man show, it had to be Vincent Price. He's just so naturally entertaining, and easily makes this movie way more watchable than it could've been with another actor. Frankly, the rest of the movie is really not all that great- every other actor is laughably, incompetently dubbed (this being shot in Rome and not the US, where it's set), the action is kinda clumsy and awkward, it spends way too much time on a lengthy flashback sequence- as if they had no faith in a one-person story- and the music is stock and corny. But Price seems genuinely connected to the material, and elevates the movie a great deal, really making you feel the character's despair and loneliness. I'll also say this for the movie- it does succeed at times at creating a disquieting feeling of emptiness all around Price. It really does feel like there's nobody else left but him in some scenes, and it manages to be at least a little bit creepy on that level. It's also pretty interesting to look at from a historical perspective in that this may very well be the first modern zombie movie. George A. Romero always admitted I Am Legend as one of his biggest influences; but here- eight years earlier- you have a pretty literal adaptation of the novel, and yeah, it looks a whole lot like Night of the Living Dead in some scenes. Makes me wonder if Romero ever saw it... Panic in Year ZeroI don't have quite as much to say about this one. Like The Last Man on Earth, it is of some historical interest, as it must be one of the earliest nuclear scare flicks. And at the time, I'm sure it must've been very shocking. That said, given there's a whole nuclear apocalypse genre at this point, this one comes off as a tad generic; and it really lacks the despairing horror of later movies of this ilk. In fact, it really may be the most optimistic nuke movie I've ever seen. Sure, there's violence and panic, but the main family perseveres and survives, and the end of the movie implies everything will soon return to normal. Still, this isn't to say it's bad. As a director, Ray Milland lacks any sort of flair to distinguish himself from, say, Roger Corman or Charles B. Griffith, but his leading performance is a strong one. As his family, Jean Hagen, Frankie Avalon, and Mary Mitchel are all solid. The recurring trio of greaser villains are also pretty fun. Overall, it's fine.
Totally agree here mgmarshall
I actually have " The Last Man on Earth from 1964 " on DVD too .
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Post by mszanadu on Feb 6, 2022 5:33:34 GMT
I watched this movie a little while ago on the Svengoolie show .
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Post by gspdude on Feb 6, 2022 13:12:15 GMT
The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake(1959) Voodoo, shrunken heads, South American Indian curses, B&W 50s horror. Normally a movie I would like, even the bad ones of this ilk I usually get a kick out of. But this one disappointed. It was dull and none of the characters had enough flair to overcome that. 3.5/10.
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Post by theravenking on Feb 6, 2022 16:49:56 GMT
Masquerade (1988; Bob Swaim) Imagine a cross between Hitchcock's Suspicion and Wild Things and you would get something like Masquerade. Okay, Suspicion had more class and Wild Things is more fun, but this doesn't mean that Masquerade would be all bad, it's just not good enough to recommend it unless you have a crush on Rob Lowe or Kim Catrall. The film is about a recently orphaned millionairess (Meg Tilly) who falls in love with a young yacht racing captain (Rob Lowe) who isn't completely truthful with her about his past. Rob Lowe plays a more morally ambiguous character here, but his acting skills aren't really up to the task. Meg Tilly is quite good though and Kim Catrall is lovely as usual in a smaller supporting role. There are twists aplenty, but I managed to guess most of them and Bob Swaim's rather workmanlike directing style does little to elevate the average material. Apparently the film was nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best (Mystery) Motion Picture in 1989. Which could only mean that the competition couldn't have been too fierce that year. 5.5/10
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Post by theravenking on Feb 6, 2022 16:59:03 GMT
Tourist Trap, 1979, dir. David Schmoeller. A lot of people, including Stephen King, like this one, but… Man, does King’s plot synopsis sound better than the movie is: “Wax figures begin to move and come to life in a ruined, out-of-the-way tourist resort.” As a lover of atmospheric places both in real life and in movies, I think my biggest problem is that the setting isn’t a tourist resort, nor is it ruined. It’s just a cabin with a coupla wax figures in it and a house with more wax figures but less atmosphere. Also, the plot is so confused: some supernaturalism, some slashing, sometimes the wax figures come alive, sometimes they’re robots, sometimes the killer’s going all House of Wax, sometimes he just kills the kids Jason Voorhees-style. It all just basically seems like no one put much thought into this. Maybe that’s to be expected, but basically this is a movie called Tourist Trap that never seems like it’s taking place in a tourist trap. I wanted to like this, but it wasn't very scary or particularly well-made. It's just goofy and a bit weird. I gave away my DVD a while ago, since it's just one of those movies I know I'm never going to watch again.
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Post by Captain Spencer on Feb 6, 2022 17:12:44 GMT
Tourist Trap, 1979, dir. David Schmoeller. A lot of people, including Stephen King, like this one, but… Man, does King’s plot synopsis sound better than the movie is: “Wax figures begin to move and come to life in a ruined, out-of-the-way tourist resort.” As a lover of atmospheric places both in real life and in movies, I think my biggest problem is that the setting isn’t a tourist resort, nor is it ruined. It’s just a cabin with a coupla wax figures in it and a house with more wax figures but less atmosphere. Also, the plot is so confused: some supernaturalism, some slashing, sometimes the wax figures come alive, sometimes they’re robots, sometimes the killer’s going all House of Wax, sometimes he just kills the kids Jason Voorhees-style. It all just basically seems like no one put much thought into this. Maybe that’s to be expected, but basically this is a movie called Tourist Trap that never seems like it’s taking place in a tourist trap. I wanted to like this, but it wasn't very scary or particularly well-made. It's just goofy and a bit weird. I gave away my DVD a while ago, since it's just one of those movies I know I'm never going to watch again. I never really cared for Tourist Trap either. It's average at best. Never understood its cult status.
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Post by politicidal on Feb 6, 2022 17:29:21 GMT
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Post by Nalkarj on Feb 6, 2022 19:23:56 GMT
I wanted to like this, but it wasn't very scary or particularly well-made. It's just goofy and a bit weird. I gave away my DVD a while ago, since it's just one of those movies I know I'm never going to watch again. Same—this is the kind of thing that seems up my alley. And the inklings of a good idea are here, but it’s like someone wanted to make a movie with scary mannequins and then just up made random stuff.
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Post by politicidal on Feb 7, 2022 4:05:08 GMT
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Feb 7, 2022 12:56:11 GMT
Lifeforce (1985) by Tobe Hooper "She killed all my friends and I still didn't want to leave. Leaving her was the hardest thing I ever did." The crew onboard a spaceship, with focus on an upcoming comet, will get the surprise of the lifetime, when they pick up some strange signals, coming from an unknown and gigantic vessel, one which also seems to include the potential of life. However, the decision to enter it, will be a disastrous one. And not just for the crew, but one that might harm the entire human race. Well, I was very happy with my recent re-watch of this one, as I have "incredibly" only rewarded it, with a poor 4/10, many years ago. But on friday, everything seemed to just work so much better, and I really enjoyed it a lot more, with a second visit. Lifeforce, sure shows the potential and where Cannon Pictures really showed some heavy ambition back then, especially with trying to combine sci-fi with horror, and the notorious b-movie company, managed to get a hold of such talents as Tobe Hooper and Dan O'Bannon, who seemed to work very well out from a theme based upon a story about space vampires, who feeds of human souls, in a rather large portions as well. Hooper seeemed to be on quite a roll, at least for a while with Cannon, as not long after, the highly enjoyable and fun Texas Chainssaw Massacre 2, would arrive, but yeah, Lifeforce is surely something else. It comes with some spectacular visual scenes and moments, and yeah, I am not just thinking of one of the most stunning sci-fi women I have ever seen, in the lovely Mathilda May, who pretty much spends most of the time, wandering around completely nude (no complains from me), but also the special effects, make-up and the "beauty of the chaos" during the later scenes, all makes this film into one of those rare gems within the sci-fi/horror genre, that I can see why things did not work out the first time I wactched it. As I had pretty little to go by, beside a very promising DVD artwork, that seemed to "sell it" as yet another Alien rip-off, but yeah, that was probably not the best way of going in. Beside May, I think Steve Railsback put in a very solid performance. A man, completely possessed, after stumbling upon "Sleeping beauty", in a glass coffin, but yeah, the finding will result in a whole doomsdays catastrophic hell for the crew and "lucky" survivor. At some parts, I thought (if not for Railsback), that part might have been perfectly suited for someone like Jeffrey Combs back then. Of course, I guess he was pretty occupied with making Re-Animator, so that was not going to be. All in all, I am very glad I decided to re-watch it, and it also gave me a bit of a reminded that I might have to look up for one of the recent Arrow Video Blu-ray releases, as the film sure displays some incredible well made visual scenes, and one that might benefit from an upgrade from DVD (2004 edition) towards Blu-ray. Hopefully, that means the international cut, which I think runs for about 116 minutes (as my region 2 copy did), but there is also a heavily cut copy, that has over 14-15 minutes edited out, which I guess went pretty tough on Mathilda and her part, along with some very nasty and gruesome scenes as well. 7,5/10
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