Male vamps turn on female vamps. It's certainly quite cheap looking, but there's a real 70s/Rollin vibe to it. Unfortunately, it's got none of the style or craziness of Rollin and is really badly acted. Tits and social commentary do not a good film make - especially when it's all just a bit crap.
Reviews
28 Reviews
Relic
(2020)
Understated, patient and excellent.
9 January 2022
Very nice spooky opening - nothing overt, just that feeling. I'm starting from a great sense of tension and building from there, slowly and patiently. Black mould on the walls, lovely use of sound. The bruise on the chest; the terror of dementia. Lovely use of shadows and colour. The 3 mains are outstanding. That's a great under the bed moment. It's a smooth move to outright horror. Top tension with the corridors, the face bit. Lovely little flick!
Tales of Halloween
(2015)
Hahahahahaha... yeah
19 December 2021
Groovy opening music& a quick visit to the 10 tales. Some decent, fun with that first - and they're all worth a laugh. The stories are short & sharp. There's a feel that some could've been expanded - but I like the EC comic/Crypt feel to them. Lovely bit of Bostwick in that top 2nd; very nice opener; more than decent McKee effort, with so many funny touches... Mendez has fun with Jason, little but of Landis, killer pumpkins...yeah - lotta fun!
The Gold of Love
(1983)
Um - OK for German new wave...
21 November 2021
Cacophony of a German soundtrack calling to a woman. Always like a bit of bleeding from the eyes and there's some groovy imagery - the blood, the chase through the night -but it's just too odd and German for me - the distance. The lack of emotion. The utter bollocks of it all.
They Have Changed Their Face
(1971)
Capitalism sucks. Literally.
17 October 2021
Italian jazz, Italian car factories and an invitation to meet the boss. That juxtaposition of the naked woman in the fur coat and the lifeless village. All surface style in the villa, executive toys clacking away. Great first appearance (complete with choir!) of Celli. The offer is made; there's a room full of ickle babies and a troupe of white fiats. It's a fascinating little flick. The allegory may be a bit heavy handed, but there's a real style here.
The Lighthouse
(I) (2019)
Good, but - um-, really?
7 September 2021
Liking that fog opening., ditto the opening mood and use of light. That horn becomes a presence. Dafoe ha! Such a great face. Dreams and visions; shadows and stories. Intense performances and a study in... something. Eerie music, insanity. There's something quite Beckett-like in that black comic sense of no- place and the squabbling dialogue escalating into almost slapstick violence. Shame I've got that faint smack of wank and self-indulgence.
From Beyond
(1986)
Well worth a look - do like a bit of Stuart Gordon.
30 August 2021
There's Jeffrey Combs doing his bit! "The Resonator, it's working! We know that, 'cos weird worms pop out of the air and try to eat your face! Love a doctor called Pretorius complete with mad laugh! Acting dialled up to 11 - "I want to see more than any man has ever seen!" Lovely makeup and gore effects - only Gordon does Lovecraft like this and has so much fun doing it - but it just gets silly as they totally lose it at the end!
Martyrs
(2008)
Brutal, unflinching and worth a watch
29 August 2021
A bloodied girl running down a street. We set the scene with an old TV documentary - nicely done. Screams and terrors when all should be fine. Intense as mood and tone change furiously. Explosive and angry. With shock effects - from the emaciated woman to torture porn. Unflinching, it's a brutal, nihilistic piece - but I don't think it's got anything to say.
Body at Brighton Rock
(2019)
This is a decent little flick.
28 August 2021
Can't go wrong with Oingo Boino! A park ranger takes a risky role to prove she's not a fuckup. Then it starts to go wrong. The map is lost, then she is. Nice move from fun to panic. There's a nice 70s TVM kinda retro throwback feel to it, but C21st sensibilities. Her performance is top! Good creation of tense atmosphere as her situation keeps getting worse. Good flick, decent ending, just a slight feeling it could've been something more.
Let Sleeping Corpses Lie
(1974)
Outstanding!
12 August 2021
Great opening - city, smoke and chimneys, ratraces, traffic and zombie-like people - but for one naked woman running, ignored by all! Then that first red-eyed zombie attack - jerky and fast paced, great clutching hand moment. These aren't Fulci's monsters or Romero's shamblers - these are a different breed . Excellent atmosphere, political, lovely direction (very macabre!), sharp and one of the best zombie flicks there is.
The Devil
(1972)
Cacophony of madness
16 May 2021
Thick smoke, nuns and screams. Crazy people and blood. Intense lighting and use of colour amidst the chaos. Each frame seems crowded - either through closeup or frenzy; moments of stillness are rare. Who is the stranger who saves Jakub? Why the nun? The madness of his surroundings - acrobats and theatricals, dancers and whores, mirror the insanity of the world. There is no goodness here. Monstrosity is the only answer.
Torso
(1973)
Um... bit average, innit?
6 April 2021
That is such a 70s exploitation start - writhing naked bodies, breasts, doll's heads and a clicking camera. There are black gloves - but this is slasher - strangles with a black and red scarf, strips the woman's body to the waist and carves them up. A lesser Italian of the period - lots of style and bare-chested women, odd hippie bits, but style over substance.
Semya vurdalakov
(1990)
Well worth a watch for the imagery alone
5 April 2021
Soviet horror. Lots of closeups of worried faces and a hero who looks like he came out of an early 80s sitcom. Striking imagery, lovely landscapes, dull colours and suspicious peasants with blunt faces. Snow and wind, often silent with creaks and shadow and with lots of meaningfulness about something. One where you let the imagery wash over you. Great ending!
The Poughkeepsie Tapes
(2007)
Overrated, unpleasant little flick that's just not worth it.
13 March 2021
Unpleasant serial killer flick with a talking heads documentary style, evidence all on tapes - lots of tapes. The talking heads are blackly bleak, well done and make up for the found footage laziness. Bits are horrible in a 70s grindhouse style, but nothing that hasn't been done before. It's torture porn - and anti-woman - and just nasty for nastiness sake.
Trauma
(1993)
Not his best - but still a top film!
13 January 2021
We are quick with the black gloves and that first murder and decapitation! Piper Laurie as crazy mom. An anorexic daughter. A weird clinic. Then the trademarks - black humour, twists and turns and stilted dialogue, tilted swirling camera work, heavy urgent music, hallucinations, keyholes, screams and heads! - not to mention those great extended chunks of POV tracking and closeup. Not the master at his best, but pretty damn good almost 20 yrs after 'Rosso'.
Oh...Kaufman's being clever again...
26 December 2020
Slow with pretensions of art, so convinced of it's own cleverness. A long half hour picks up with great performances from the parents - of course, it's Toni Collette and David Thewlis. We start properly playing with reality giving it a dreamlike feel where things don't entirely make sense. Then it's back to the talkiness - why does the film feel the need to keep telling me how odd it is - I can bloody see that. Kaufman doesn't half irritate me.
Alien
(1979)
Old Dark House in space!
26 December 2020
What is there to say? The daddy (mommy?) of the space alien film. A great cast, spooky interiors, lots of shadows, a great monster and a hero who spends most of her time running away. I've got creepy androids, Yaphet Kotto, Ridley Scott at the top of his game. Shocks, scares and jumps; a cat you want to kill... and it's basically a Universal monster picture set in space.
28 Weeks Later
(2007)
Outstanding zombie flick!
26 December 2020
Just as good as 28 days and still fiercely intelligent zombie movie. The imagery again is bleak and grim, the grey only lifted by sudden splatters of red. It's bloodier than it's predecessor - and more jump cuts for more jump scares. Things get bloody and there's no key character to associate with, so no easy answers. Tense, nerve shredding and populated with too believably flawed characters. And we're still working on our two levels - Zombetaphor!
A Quiet Place
(2018)
I mean, it's worth a glance...
12 December 2020
Devastation; a family move in silence. The atmosphere set from go - fluttering pages in the wind - but then spoils it by a desperate urge to play non-diegetic music as if scared we won't get it - big alien bugs that follow sound and eat people = scary. The music means the sudden sounds that should shock and scare - don't. Good moments - the nail, the clock - it could just be smarter. Takes long enough to work out the answer too.
Definitey a watch - but it;s not one of the greats
14 November 2020
A black gloved killer, semi-naked women slashed by a razor, police baffled. Twists and turns and roundabouts. We're deep in giallo territory here. It's a serviceable little film with all the hallmarks - bright red blood, closeups of eyes, men with bad wigs and aviators - but it also makes you realise the genius of Argento and Bava and even the bravura of Fulci.
Host
(II) (2020)
Was not expecting this - in a good way!
6 November 2020
Very nice idea - Corona quarantine, a seance on zoom. Easy start as the friends meet up online - and then the séance starts and it all gets weird. The Zoom idea works really well - they are alone and can only communicate by screen and watch emphasises the sense of dread. We watch the screen as they watch it; we are part of the seance! Then it gets horrible. A lovey horror surprise!
Dead Men Walk
(1943)
Seriously underrated!
29 October 2020
This is so underrated and undeservedly forgotten. Zucco is great as two brothers, one rational and good who has committed fratricide, one amazingly evil out for revenge - sinister and spooky s a man back from the dead, intent on spreading evil. Lots of up-lighting and evil laugh. Dwight Frye is crazy and Fern Emmett grand as the busybody. Tight and lean, the usual baggage stripped away. The townspeople are positively Trumpian in their doubt of science.
Thinner
(1996)
Thin? The film's positively skinny!
29 October 2020
A fat lawyer gets thin thanks to a gypsy curse - and because he's a bit of a prick. So are his friends. Stephen King, so it's worth a watch - but not really that much more. It's all a bit TV movie - I kept waiting for Doug McLure to crop up.
The ABCs of Death
(2012)
Worth a watch, but no more.
29 October 2020
A is genius! They just keep on coming - quick snippets, minifilms of death by a host of directors. (J is just weird, L is twisted) They're not what you think, the project is very ambitious, but too much of a mixed bag. Some are awful! P was just pretentious, Q is really clever, S is so badly acted it's ridiculous - which was a shame; T was class, U was top Wheatley, X worth a look. W was just appalling - and all the Japanese ones just strange.
Modern Vampires
(1998 TV Movie)
Not worth it
30 September 2020
Has Casper Van ever made a film that was actually good? We have Rod Steiger eating the scenery with an accent, Kim Cattrall, Udo Kier... but it doesn't know what it wants to be - horror, comedy, melodrama - so it gets increasingly awkward, no one's very likeable and it keeps on getting all American heartfeely and bonding on us.
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