*** SPOILERS *** (but not the one that matters)
Well after 2 weeks of good movies, I couldn't expect another good 'un and indeed I didn't get one. It wasn't a 'bad' movie as such, mainly the acting irritated me. I found it very hard to get past the actors in the movie appearing like they were reading (very slowly) from a sheet without any prior reads or practise.
Showing posts with label Axe (weapon). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Axe (weapon). Show all posts
Saturday, 29 September 2012
Unhinged - Will's Review
When 3 girls on a road-trip have a car accident in an area known for 'disappearing' girls, they are taken in by a strange mother / daughter combo, and forced to wait out a storm. When one of them decides to brave the woods alone to cut to a nearby town with a phone, it (quite predictably) isn't long before she joins the numbers of the missing...
Saturday, 22 September 2012
Twitch Of The Death Nerve - Lisa's Review
*** SPOILERS ***
My flabber is well and truely gast this week! 2 movies worthy of a 'Recommends' tag from me in 2 weeks!! What is the world coming to? I really enjoyed this weeks movie, on pretty much every level. I knew from the opening scene, it was very likely that this was a good 'un. The cinematography in this movie is cracking! I loved how they used the camera, lighting and staging. In the opening scene alone, the filming of our first victims home (from inside and outside) is just stunning.
My flabber is well and truely gast this week! 2 movies worthy of a 'Recommends' tag from me in 2 weeks!! What is the world coming to? I really enjoyed this weeks movie, on pretty much every level. I knew from the opening scene, it was very likely that this was a good 'un. The cinematography in this movie is cracking! I loved how they used the camera, lighting and staging. In the opening scene alone, the filming of our first victims home (from inside and outside) is just stunning.
Sunday, 2 September 2012
Tenebrae - Wills review.
I'm sure a film student could go to town on this one; telling us how it lacks Argento's usual strangely colourful lighting, but how despite this the camera work and set design all still have his fingerprints all over them.
They could explore the idea that the films central character was a proxy for Argento himself; The character is a creator of horror and thrillers (books not movies) and is accused of misogynism by a critic (I don't know that the Argento himself ever was, but most purveyors of horror face the charge at some point).[1]
They could explore the idea that the films central character was a proxy for Argento himself; The character is a creator of horror and thrillers (books not movies) and is accused of misogynism by a critic (I don't know that the Argento himself ever was, but most purveyors of horror face the charge at some point).[1]
Saturday, 1 September 2012
Tenebrae - Lisa's Review
*** SPOILERS ***
So another Dario Argento outing this week. I know the guys is the recipient of much praise and is held in awe amongst many movie fans, but I find his movies full of pretentious drivel.
Saturday, 14 July 2012
Nightmares in a Damaged Brain - Lisa's Review
***SPOILERS ***
A little late with the review for this one, my apologies, just completed a relocation back to good old Norn Iron.
Soooo what to 'Nightmares in a damaged brain', well I enjoyed this one. I can find quite a few faults if I want to be pedantic, but sometimes I like the general 'feel' of a movie and with this one I did.
A little late with the review for this one, my apologies, just completed a relocation back to good old Norn Iron.
Soooo what to 'Nightmares in a damaged brain', well I enjoyed this one. I can find quite a few faults if I want to be pedantic, but sometimes I like the general 'feel' of a movie and with this one I did.
Saturday, 30 June 2012
Night of the Demon: Will's Review
I hate to rag on micro budget movies, getting a film finished and out there is no mean feat, but for some things there's no excuse; There are plenty of good actors who will work for guild minimum, and a coherent script costs no more to write than, say, Night of the Demon...
You see, the film starts at the end, and is told in flashbeck, a common enough method, only there are several flashbacks along the way - flashbacks within flashbacks, and while many of the scenes do not feature the main character (the one doing the flashing back) the sub-flashbacks almost all have no survivors, and in one case the guy doing the main story wasn't present when the nested (and witness free) flashback was recounted! So he is recounting the recounting of a tail which no one could have known about and which he didn't even hear!
You see, the film starts at the end, and is told in flashbeck, a common enough method, only there are several flashbacks along the way - flashbacks within flashbacks, and while many of the scenes do not feature the main character (the one doing the flashing back) the sub-flashbacks almost all have no survivors, and in one case the guy doing the main story wasn't present when the nested (and witness free) flashback was recounted! So he is recounting the recounting of a tail which no one could have known about and which he didn't even hear!
Saturday, 9 June 2012
Madhouse - Lisa's Review
I have just finished watching this and struggle to work out exactly what I thought of it.
The first 3/4 of this movie is sooooooooooo slow and dull, I found it very hard to maintain an interest. As with a previous movie, it felt like some of the scenes were actually never going to end. The ending of the movie however does kind of make up for the dragging nature of the rest of the movie.
The first 3/4 of this movie is sooooooooooo slow and dull, I found it very hard to maintain an interest. As with a previous movie, it felt like some of the scenes were actually never going to end. The ending of the movie however does kind of make up for the dragging nature of the rest of the movie.
Saturday, 17 March 2012
The House by the cemetery - Lisa's Review
A nice little movie this week! Another Fulci offering. This movie is apparently a part of an unofficial trilogy with The Beyond which we watched a few months ago when we were still on 'B' and City of the living dead.
*** SPOILERS ***
Although the movie is quite dated as you would expect and the poor dubbing is irritating, I still managed to enjoy this movie. Its a good little afternoon view. I didn't find anything particularly scary, but the makeup in places is very good. Its just in shame in some other places, its so bad.
The basic premis without going into too much detail is a family (Mum Lucy, Dad Norman and young boy Bob) moving to a town called New Whitby due to the the father (Norman) having to research some old houses. The house they move into however is not as innocent as it seems.
We 'the viewer' already have this information on board from the opening scene of a young woman (topless at that... why do women never wear bras in these movies?) who is murdered via a knife to the back of the head (which protrudes from her mouth) as she is looking for her boyfriend. Also Bob keeps seeing the ghost of a young girl Mae who warns him not to go to the house.
Of course they go anyway and the inevitable happens.
They have gravestones in the garden and even in the hallway, of a family called 'The Freudsteins (on a side note, this really bothered me as they were referred to as Freudsteens in the movie, but german pronunciation dictates that with an ie or ei, you pronounce the last letter, so they should have been referred to as Freudstine!) anyways I deviate. We find out that Dr Freudstein does what all historical doctors have done in movies like this....illegal experiements. He also ends up killing his family.
We find out Freudstein is in fact still alive and in the cellar of the house as he is using parts from his victims to regenerate his blood cells. The reveal is kind of disappointing. He looks kind of like a withered ET and a scene which shows only his eyes glowing in the cellar when young Bob comes across him is just laughable.
Nothing much more to the story really. Bad stuff happens, people die.
Points worth noting in the movie are the doggedly determined, haemophiliac bat (very amusing scene), the stabbing by poker (what a horrid way to go and very good effects) and the slow decapitation by knife (again good effects, but let down by the poor severed head rolling down the stairs later).
The movie has its faults, but on the whole, it was a fun watch and something I would watch again. This one gets a 'recommended' from me.
Something I've gained from watching these movies is an appreciation of Mr Fulci!
Saturday, 17 December 2011
Don't look in the basement - Lisa's Review
I'm not quite sure what I'm going to write as I start this review as I'm making up my mind what I think about it as I type.
Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.
Hmmmm. Well as I started watching I thought 'This is going to be monumentally shite'. The way it was shot, the acting, the characters.... as it continued though it developed an odd kind of charm. Its the kind of movie, I thought that I would like to see remade in the modern day. I have been reliably informed that it is indeed being remade. THAT I would be interested to see. The reason for this is that in retrospect, I enjoyed the actual storyline and the concept and the 'idea' of the characters in this movie, I just wasn't overly keen on the execution of the story.
The basic premis here is an open asylum for the insane (of all descriptions) where the patients are encouraged to 'act out' their hallucinations and imaginations to help cure their illnesses. Oddly one of the patients (an ex judge) is encouraged to 'vent' by chopping things up with a huge axe. I'm sure you can figure out where thats going..... There is no security, no bars, no locks, no-one to look after these guys apart from a surly female doctor (Dr Masters) who seems to have a love of cruelty and inflicting pain. She is the only one left following the dispatch of the head doctor (Dr Stephens) by way of axe by aforementioned patient.
Amongst the other patients are a nymphomanic, an irritating screaming woman who is convinced a doll is her baby, a hallucinating ex vietnam vet (yup, yet another one!), an old woman who spends her time being freaky and spouting old rhymes, a lobotomy patient with a childlike innocent nature but a massive stature, an extremely irritating screeching ginger twat and a really dull, seemingly depressed young woman.
We are however later joined by the gorgeous young nurse to complete our set who says that Dr Stephens took her on several weeks ago and she was arriving to commence her employment.
We get to know our characters and strange things start to happen... patients are murdered (along with a visiting telephone repair man), the old dear has her tongue ripped out (it seems she knows something and someone is trying to silence her).
We find out late on in the movie that Dr Masters, our remaining doctor, is in fact not a doctor, but a patient, who is 'acting out' her illness as with the other patients. Dr Stephen used to allow her to pretend to be a doctor. I didn't see this coming at all and was pleasantly suprised by this twist.
The rest of the movie concentrates on the young nurse Charlotte trying to escape as suddenly the entire asylum is under lock-down with no means of escape.
The film as you can imagine ends messily and well actually. I won't break it down completely for anyone wanting to watch the remake, but our lobotomy victim seems to be the only one left at the end after dispatching with all the patients. He does however help Charlotte to escape the madhouse.
This little movie wasn't too bad at all. It was ruined by the camera work, some of the script and some very cheesy acting performances, but the plotline was solid enough and I will be really interested to see the remake. I would definately recommend it to people who like weird or odd little movies.
Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.
Don't Look In The Basement - Will's Review
I am so undecided about this movie. On the one hand I don't really see much in the way of redeeming features, on the other hand, I found it quite an easy watch. That said, I'm not sure an asylum set exploitation movie should be easy to watch...
It seems to be equally schizophrenic about itself; the movies 'twist' is given away on the poster, but it seems from the movie that the filmmakers wanted to surprise you with it.
I'm not sure if the twist would have been a surprise or not of the poster, tagline and trailer hadn't ruined it going in - it certainly seems well enough executed that you might not have spotted it, but it's such a cliché that you may well have been ready for it. Also - it cheats! I don't really buy that none of the inmates would have said anything sooner than try do
Speaking of the inmates, one thing that did strike me was the size of the cast! There are only 13 people in the entire movie (not even so much as an extra in the background) but almost every one of them (with the possible exception of the telephone repair man) is an actual character (and all but 2 of them will die before the credits roll, which is a heck of a cast:kill ratio!)
So what of the plot? The asylum in which the movie is set is far from conventional - its curator, a Doctor Stephens, has rather unusual ideas about how to treat insanity; his potentially groundbreaking 'obsession development therapy' in which patients are encouraged to live out thier dilutions, in the hope that they become so big they'll go away... or something. I can't say it sounds like the best plan...
Anyway, the day before our heroin (nurse Beal) starts at the asylum, Doctor Stephens is 'treating' an axe-obsessed patient... By allowing him to chop wood with a scary, sharp, axe. What could possibly go wrong?
With the main doctor dead, and the previous nurse having handed in her resignation, the last remaining staff member, Doctor Masters, decided to greet the new girl and carry on the running of the place as normal!
Most of the rest of the movie is simply the asylum going about its business, but the colourful collection of inmates keep it from getting dull - there's an ex soldier who still belies that 'they' are coming every night, an enormous man child (the result of Stephens' final lobotomy - and the reason he quit surgery), a woman who's obsessed with a tiny tears doll, a catatonic / mute woman, an axe-obsessed justice I the peace, and old lady who thinks that flowers are her children, a nymphomaniac, and a generically-mad ginger.
The biggest problem I think, is the pacing of the murders... 2 happen at the beginning of the film, but most of the rest happen in (literally) the last scene. I think if the twist had been hidden, and the kills spread 'whodunnit' style throughout the movie, this one could have been quite good - I certainly hope that that's the direction next year's remake will take. As it stands its a flat, but not unpleasant, way to kill and hour and a half.
Body count: 11
Boob count: 1 pair
Animal Body count: 0
Most memorable death: let me axe you somethin' Doc...
Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.
It seems to be equally schizophrenic about itself; the movies 'twist' is given away on the poster, but it seems from the movie that the filmmakers wanted to surprise you with it.
I'm not sure if the twist would have been a surprise or not of the poster, tagline and trailer hadn't ruined it going in - it certainly seems well enough executed that you might not have spotted it, but it's such a cliché that you may well have been ready for it. Also - it cheats! I don't really buy that none of the inmates would have said anything sooner than try do
Speaking of the inmates, one thing that did strike me was the size of the cast! There are only 13 people in the entire movie (not even so much as an extra in the background) but almost every one of them (with the possible exception of the telephone repair man) is an actual character (and all but 2 of them will die before the credits roll, which is a heck of a cast:kill ratio!)
So what of the plot? The asylum in which the movie is set is far from conventional - its curator, a Doctor Stephens, has rather unusual ideas about how to treat insanity; his potentially groundbreaking 'obsession development therapy' in which patients are encouraged to live out thier dilutions, in the hope that they become so big they'll go away... or something. I can't say it sounds like the best plan...
Anyway, the day before our heroin (nurse Beal) starts at the asylum, Doctor Stephens is 'treating' an axe-obsessed patient... By allowing him to chop wood with a scary, sharp, axe. What could possibly go wrong?
With the main doctor dead, and the previous nurse having handed in her resignation, the last remaining staff member, Doctor Masters, decided to greet the new girl and carry on the running of the place as normal!
Most of the rest of the movie is simply the asylum going about its business, but the colourful collection of inmates keep it from getting dull - there's an ex soldier who still belies that 'they' are coming every night, an enormous man child (the result of Stephens' final lobotomy - and the reason he quit surgery), a woman who's obsessed with a tiny tears doll, a catatonic / mute woman, an axe-obsessed justice I the peace, and old lady who thinks that flowers are her children, a nymphomaniac, and a generically-mad ginger.
The biggest problem I think, is the pacing of the murders... 2 happen at the beginning of the film, but most of the rest happen in (literally) the last scene. I think if the twist had been hidden, and the kills spread 'whodunnit' style throughout the movie, this one could have been quite good - I certainly hope that that's the direction next year's remake will take. As it stands its a flat, but not unpleasant, way to kill and hour and a half.
Body count: 11
Boob count: 1 pair
Animal Body count: 0
Most memorable death: let me axe you somethin' Doc...
Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.
Saturday, 11 June 2011
Axe - Will's Review
Lisa Lisa took an axe, gave her captor 40 wacks, when she saw what she had done, she gave the other 41...
One of the greatest things about this film (aside from the bastardised 'Lizzy Borden' poem used in the trailer) is the runtime - at an hour plus credits, it's mercifully short.
The opening scene, in which some gangster types sit scowling and sniping at each other, passing the time by burning a transvestite's cloths while they wait for him to come home, is shot like a VERY low rent Hitchcock rippof, but things soon take a turn for the (even worse) as the film was apparently edited by dropping the filmed footage into a food processor; people get unexplained cuts wheel the camera looks the other way, shirts open themselves between shots an so fourth.
Once the gangsters have beaten the tranny to death with a plastic doll (!) we are introduced to our 'heroin' - Lisa, a young lady with an aversion to shoes (she goes out to tend to the chickens, and even into the forest to gather wood, barefoot. Lisa lives alone with her catatonic, raw egg eating grandfather, who is arguably the more exciting of the two...
After stopping to hassle a shop assistant, our gangsters haul up at Lisa's house, forcing her to feed and tend to them; which she seems only mildly annoyed at.
On the subject of the shop assistant (surly one of the least emotive actresses ever) there is a great gag at one point, where a shot is fired, and she gets tomato sauce on her - in a decent quality film the gag wouldn't have worked, the red stuff that dribbles down her is so obviously vegetable (well, allright, fruit) based that in a higher standard production one would have imideatly spotted the bluff - here it could conceivably be supposed to be blood.
Anyway unfortunately for our home-invading tranny killers, they don't know when they're onto a good safe-house, and they get nasty with Lisa (i.e. One of them rapes her) so she starts picking them off with an axe.
And that's it, the entire story; hence the short running time, and padding at the convince store.
The direction is very odd indeed; I already mentioned the (bad) faux Hitchcockian opening scene, but once they arrive at Lisa's house it gets really odd... I can only assume the director was going for 'arty' as we get lost of odd lingering shots of things like Lisa's feet, a decapitated chicken on a draining board (Lisa killed it for dinner) and, oddest of all, about 10 broken eggs on a shelf in an otherwise empty fridge (we have no idea how the eggs came to be smashed, or why they were left there - in fact, they are never mentioned).
Finaly, regards its placement on the DPP list...
WTF???
This thing was even one of the final 39, and you see NOTHING - I had to double check that mine was really an uncut print, as the camera cuts away from EVERY SINGLE axe / knife / doll blow. Save for the rapes (neither of which is remotely graphic; in-fact both are committed fully clothed) I expect this film would get a 15 rating these days.
Human Body Count: 8
Animal Body Count: 1
Boobs: 0
Most memorable death: Beaten with a plastic doll.
Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the "Reader Reviews" post for this movie.
Saturday, 28 May 2011
Absurd - Will's Review
I cannot for the life of me see how this movie found itself on the DPP list; much less how it was Successfully Prosecuted; It boggles the mind a a jury could watch this and find it sufficiently offensive to jail people over!
With the Tile "Absurd", and the US title "Horrible" I was so hoping to hate this film - the review would have written itself!
Okay, opens with the most casual "Chase" sequence I've ever seen (it looks like 2 guys just out for a jog) the "Acting" (both from the origional Italian actors, and the US voice actors hired to do the dubbing) is mostly terrible, and some of the effects are less than special, but it has a certain charm to it, and with another pass of the script and a better cast, I think it could actually have been quite good!.
When 2 men arrive form Greece to a small town (I believe, despite its Italian roots, the film is set in the USA), things take a turn for the strange - One of the men has seriously accelerated regeneration / healing powers (he needs to be operated on after impaling himself on a fence during the aforementioned jog, and almost heals while still in theatre) the other is a mysterious priest, reluctant to divulge any information about himself, or healing-man.
We're also introduced to a family who's members include a girl on traction for a deviated spine, and the most irritating boy in the world, who's reaction to not enjoying a TV show seems to be to pull "I'm pooing myself" faces and then have the fakeist tantrum in the history of film:
The priest also gets what is now officially my 2nd favourite priest-line (after the 'Braindead' / 'Dead Alive' classic "I kick arse for The Lord"); The line "I serve god with Biochemistry" is delivered without a trace of irony or humour.
By about the 20 minute mark, the movie has all the trappings of a decent mystery, and the last half hour of the film is very reminiscent of a low-rent "Halloween", right down to the films moody electronic score, which recalls Carpenters classic theme. And some genuine tension is somehow squeezed out of "Indestructible killer v's Near-crippled Girl" which is impressive.
The movie also has a great (but Cheesy) final shot, that may have been meant as a sequel setup, but was more likely just intended to be a 'sting' (although it does feature the most awkward lingering close up of ever survivor in turn).
There are better ways to kill a couple of hours, and it's not a "get the beers in" movie, but if you can borrow a copy for free, it's worth a look when you're board one Sunday afternoon.
Human Body Count: 6
Animal Body Count: 1 (implied)
Boobs: 0
Most memorable death: Worlds fastest pre-heating oven.
Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the "Reader Reviews" post for this movie.
With the Tile "Absurd", and the US title "Horrible" I was so hoping to hate this film - the review would have written itself!
Okay, opens with the most casual "Chase" sequence I've ever seen (it looks like 2 guys just out for a jog) the "Acting" (both from the origional Italian actors, and the US voice actors hired to do the dubbing) is mostly terrible, and some of the effects are less than special, but it has a certain charm to it, and with another pass of the script and a better cast, I think it could actually have been quite good!.
When 2 men arrive form Greece to a small town (I believe, despite its Italian roots, the film is set in the USA), things take a turn for the strange - One of the men has seriously accelerated regeneration / healing powers (he needs to be operated on after impaling himself on a fence during the aforementioned jog, and almost heals while still in theatre) the other is a mysterious priest, reluctant to divulge any information about himself, or healing-man.
We're also introduced to a family who's members include a girl on traction for a deviated spine, and the most irritating boy in the world, who's reaction to not enjoying a TV show seems to be to pull "I'm pooing myself" faces and then have the fakeist tantrum in the history of film:
see?
The priest also gets what is now officially my 2nd favourite priest-line (after the 'Braindead' / 'Dead Alive' classic "I kick arse for The Lord"); The line "I serve god with Biochemistry" is delivered without a trace of irony or humour.
By about the 20 minute mark, the movie has all the trappings of a decent mystery, and the last half hour of the film is very reminiscent of a low-rent "Halloween", right down to the films moody electronic score, which recalls Carpenters classic theme. And some genuine tension is somehow squeezed out of "Indestructible killer v's Near-crippled Girl" which is impressive.
The movie also has a great (but Cheesy) final shot, that may have been meant as a sequel setup, but was more likely just intended to be a 'sting' (although it does feature the most awkward lingering close up of ever survivor in turn).
There are better ways to kill a couple of hours, and it's not a "get the beers in" movie, but if you can borrow a copy for free, it's worth a look when you're board one Sunday afternoon.
Human Body Count: 6
Animal Body Count: 1 (implied)
Boobs: 0
Most memorable death: Worlds fastest pre-heating oven.
Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the "Reader Reviews" post for this movie.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)