davedanfilm Reviews

Markham (2020)

Acid Trip - Mad Movie with great visuals

[6/10 · 29 August 2022]

**I got a free copy of this film when I bought the DVD of Mountains of Madness** I wasn't asked to leave a review on that basis though.

Mountains was good (for a nothing budget thing) but I was surprised at this film. Visually sumptuous on a pennies budget, but the plot, atmos and the whole feel of this (even down to some tech mistakes) makes it come across like a bad queasy paranoid acid trip to the north coast of England in the middle of winter.

There was no script according to the director (who wrote East Enders and Emmerdale for a bit) but the themes in this are picked up in Mountains too. I enjoyed it, but it is marred by sound issues, at what appear to be vital bits. Ropey CGI has a home made feel to it as well. Still worth seeing.

At the Mountains of Madness (I) (2021)

Pretty decent version

[5/10 · 29 August 2022]

Low budget / no budget. But, not too bad version of ole H. P's most famous story.

Ended up here from the Dark Eyes of London fanzine which covered this and other films from the director in detail - which I picked up at a horror film fest.

Nice to see they used little bits of H. P's actual dialogue. Pity the poor actor who had to get his mouth around some of the tongue twisters in the script.

The director of the film provided me with a free DVD copy of Markham the first film as well, which in some ways I prefer to this. Although there's not really much Lovecraft in the first one, apart from random bits of Innsmouth and the UK sea side setting which is pretty bleak (Staithes). The first film is almost impossible to describe, like a bad trip (if you're into that sort of thing).

Looking forward to the last in the series. These are not for everyone, but if you're looking for UK films made under the radar, and are a low budget horror fan (and UK based) these have enough art and craft to keep you entertained - even if the zero budget shows sometimes.