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Post by theravenking on Mar 16, 2024 10:56:57 GMT
The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire (1971; Ricardo Freda)This giallo has a terrible reputation, and by god! - it definitely earns it! It is said to be the only giallo film ever shot in Ireland, but instead of lush green grass you are drowned in buckets of blood. It starts out with an incredibly gory scene with a victim having acid thrown in her face before getting her throat cut, featuring some of the most atrocious make-up effects I’ve ever seen. You can clearly make out, that it’s actually a plastic dummy which has its throat slashed. The plot, if we can call it such, concerns a family of Polish diplomats in Ireland, who are targeted by a vicious psychopath. The police bring in tough cop John Norton (Luigi Pistilli, in a role originally intended for Roger Moore) to shake things up a bit. Which he does by getting into physical fights with his own colleagues and romancing the family’s pretty daughter. Norton has enough skeletons in his closet to have been thrown out of the force, but apparently, he’s somehow back again, or only in an unofficial capacity or whatever the heck is going on. He once brutally interrogated a suspect, viciously beating the man, resulting in him committing suicide by getting hold of Norton’s gun and blowing his brains out, - an occurrence we are shown several times in flashbacks with the poor guy’s brains getting splattered all over the wall in close-up. Is Norton traumatised by this? Or more importantly are we supposed to care? It’s shamelessly exploitative trash which commits the mortal sin of being boring. With no coherent story, no stylish murders, - most of the cast end up dead, but we rarely even see the killings, the detective just stumbles over a dead body now and then, - and a culprit who’s randomly pulled out of a hat at the denouement, it fails to generate any suspense. Some of the usual giallo elements: dead cat, cross-dressing, dysfunctional families, - are present but utilised in such an incompetent way that this ends up being the blandest possible movie about a perverted sociopath you could imagine. It’s not all bad though. The always delightful Dagmar Lassander is on hand to provide some eye candy. She was once called the parsley in the butter of Italian genre cinema, and if the butter is as rancid as it is here, you can at least still enjoy the taste of the parsley. Director Ricardo Freda was so unhappy with the end product, that he pulled an Alan Smithee having himself credited under the pseudonym Willy Pareto. This might well be the schlockiest giallo I’ve seen so far. 4.5/10
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Post by Captain Spencer on Mar 18, 2024 1:50:29 GMT
Winterskin (2018)After being shot in the leg while hunting, a young man seeks shelter in an isolated cabin inhabited by an eccentric older woman. Meanwhile, there seems to be a kind of skinless creature lurking about outside. Chalk up another winner from director Charlie Steeds, who I feel is one of the best directors working in the horror genre these days. However, I should point out that the advertising for Winterskin is a bit misleading; it's not exactly the creature feature the ads make it out to be, but rather a thriller that's a cross between Misery and The Hateful Eight (which I thought of as I was watching it, but the trailer on IMDb said the same hybrid as well). But with some horror undertones. There's a suspense-filled story at work here that gets more and more shocking as the mystery gradually unravels with some neat surprises. One particular element that Steeds is skilled at is the ability to pull out superb performances from the cast. The standout here is Rowena Bentley as the Annie Wilkes-like spinster. Kindly at first, but then shown to be an annoyingly cackling psycho, and Rowena really nailed it. And there's the bloody finale. So intense and excitingly done, you just never know how it will turn out until the very end with all the busy activity going on. It's like a combination of Peckinpah and Tarantino stylings. Steeds easily proves himself a master of stylized, bloody violence. 7/10
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Post by Teleadm on Mar 18, 2024 6:50:41 GMT
Gwoemul aka The Host 2006 "A monster emerges from Seoul's Han River and begins attacking people. One victim's loving family does what it can to rescue her from its clutches." The girl apparently is kept as a spare by the monster, if the monster can't find anything to eat. Remember this one being hailed and rated highly by some critics when it was new. I also remember being a bit dissapointed at that time. Watching it again many years later I thought it was a bit better this time. We follow one family and it's members as they try to save a girl from the clutches of the monster, and their ways of handling the situation is not always rational or bright but somehow manage to get things done. There are a few surprising deaths among the main characters. 6,5-7/10
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Post by politicidal1 on Mar 18, 2024 16:59:16 GMT
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Post by SixOfTheRichest on Mar 20, 2024 12:22:25 GMT
After a promising scary and suspenseful opening, this slasher devolves into one of the least memorable and lame offerings the early 80's had to offer. It has very little gore, the kills are poorly presented and cut away from showing anything and the killer and climax just aren't creepy enough. It has a rip-off Carpenter Halloween score and can't pull of the less is more approach, due to lack of skill in the presentation. I despise this slasher with a passion.
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Post by politicidal1 on Mar 20, 2024 12:26:13 GMT
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Post by SixOfTheRichest on Mar 20, 2024 12:31:23 GMT
I saw this for the first time as a double feature with The Thing when it was first released. At least The Thing was on second. Odd horror pairing too. The film has no piece de resistance sequence either within its being. In the best horror films, the substance is reflected in the style. This one had neither and it tried to be something it wasn't. It needed bloody kills to make up for what it couldn't pull off.
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Post by Captain Spencer on Mar 20, 2024 17:07:46 GMT
After a promising scary and suspenseful opening, this slasher devolves into one of the least memorable and lame offerings the early 80's had to offer. It has very little gore, the kills are poorly presented and cut away from showing anything and the killer and climax just aren't creepy enough. It has a rip-off Carpenter Halloween score and can't pull of the less is more approach, due to lack of skill in the presentation. I despise this slasher with a passion. I agree with everything you said. This one was a complete bore. I'm sure Tom Hanks would never want to include it on his resume.
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Post by SixOfTheRichest on Mar 21, 2024 4:36:52 GMT
Inferno (1980)In Dario Argento's semi-sequel to Suspiria, an American studying music in Rome returns to New York to investigate the disappearance of his sister who has been living in an old building inhabited by the witch Mater Tenebrarum. One of my least favorite Argento movies. I thought I'd watch it again to see if I might like it better, but sadly I didn't. Inspite of the great camera work, striking imagery, amazing set pieces and impressive set designs, I can't get over the fact that there's actually very little story here. It just rambles on and on, and turned out to be a big build-up to nothing. Cool music score by Keith Emerson that sometimes tries to be like Jerry Goldsmith's Omen score. 4.5/10 I agree. Visually and aurally strong in parts only, it fails to impress overall. It just sort of fizzles out, when it should have been boiling over like witch's grue. A build up to something that comes across as nothing.
The film leaves me feeling empty by the end of the viewing, as though I have wasted my time. It doesn't quite have the subliminal quality of Suspiria - '77 or Deep Red - '75. The horror violence set pieces could be considered shocking, but as a complete whole, they seem to lack a certain panache in the delivery. The film is sort of dreary and I find it to be the least of Argento's mid to late 70's directorial offerings.
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Post by 99999 on Mar 25, 2024 22:46:12 GMT
It was predictable.
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Post by politicidal1 on Mar 26, 2024 0:04:53 GMT
It was predictable. I saw it once but remember liking it.
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Post by Captain Spencer on Mar 29, 2024 4:12:55 GMT
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 (2024)Following the events of the 100 Acre Wood massacre, Pooh and Piglet, now teamed up with Owl and Tigger, terrorize the town of Ashdown and continue their pursuit of vengeance against Christopher Robin. I think my expectations were a little too high for this sequel to the surprise hit from last year. Despite the higher budget, better make-up effects, better cast, and an improved story that explores the lore behind the characters, I was somewhat disappointed. It just seemed so standard and routine. Plus the finale felt a little too rushed, like it was in a hurry to set up the door being wide open for a third movie. I guess this is where the so-called "Poohniverse" will begin. 6/10
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Post by Captain Spencer on Apr 5, 2024 2:49:49 GMT
Late Night With The Devil (2024)On Halloween night in 1977, a struggling late night talk-show tries to spruce things up with a demonic possession theme special, all for the sake of higher ratings. The new horror movie that everybody is raving about, and with good reason. Instead of the same old Exorcist theatrics that's been done a million times before, this one puts a fresh spin on the demonic possession theme (well, there is little bit of inspiration from the '73 classic, but still). By combining a mockumentary style with the found footage subgenre, Late Night does its best at refusing to play its cards too soon and keeping things at a gradual build-up. This type of pacing really pays off with a slam-bang finale and some surprising revelations. The recreation of a 70s talk-show style is impeccable; kudos to the production design team for creating an atmosphere of seemingly authentic cheesiness. 7.5/10
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Post by Teleadm on Apr 5, 2024 6:08:22 GMT
Strait-Jacket 1964 "After a twenty-year stay at an asylum for a double murder, a mother returns to her estranged daughter where suspicions arise about her behavior." The choppings begin again. Produced and directed by William Castle, who had raised to be something of a King of gimmicks surrounding his movies, in this case audiences got a blood-stained axe made out of cardboard, maybe a collectors item if anybody spared it. It's called a camp classic, I wouldn't go that far myself. Making Joan Crawford look younger through make-up looks very campy, but as the story unfolds it's actually part of the plot, and she must have known what she was doing since she had economic intererst in this movie getting percentages of the profits. The movie creates a rather good atmosphere of dread and doom with the cold and chilling black-and-white cinematography effectivly. An early role for George Kennedy as a farmhand who also ownes an axe, and future TV-star Lee Majors playing Joan Crawford's husband in an early flashback sequence. Worth at least 6,5/10.
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Post by Captain Spencer on Apr 6, 2024 14:49:29 GMT
Scanners (1981)A mentally unstable man with telekinetic powers, known as a scanner, has plans to breed other scanners and take over the world. A doctor enlists a "good guy" scanner to help stop the evil one. Not one of my favorite David Cronenberg movies, as I find it curiously slow-moving at times. But it's still an intriguing mixture of science fiction, horror and spy thriller. Stephen Lack is incredibly bland as the leading man and it seems like he's sleepwalking in his role, but at least there's solid support from the likes of Patrick McGoohan, Michael Ironside and Jennifer O'Neill who make up for Lack's blandness. And a special nod to the late Canadian veteran actor Lawrence Dane who is an effective baddie. But of course the real star of the movie is the special effects. The exploding head scene is a triumph as are the mutated pulsing veins. These scenes would not have the same impact if they were done with GGI, so it's further proof that practical effects rein supreme. 7/10
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