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The Incubus

Supernatural slasher flick. In which it’s not a loony, but a demon. And it’s going around doing horrific things to women.

It’s not for everyone. It’s just the right side of exploitation trash and titillation, but only barely. The attack scenes go on for too long and make for uncomfortable viewing. But they’re not especially graphic.


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Wacko!

And now we come to the end of the Slasher Collection. At least for now, this is the most recent entry, with none up for pre-order.

And this seems to be an attempt to do Airplane! for the horror genre. It even stars George Kennedy, alongside Joe Don Baker.

Sadly, it’s just not terribly funny. It feels very Film Student, and not in the good way. The jokes are rapid fire, but unlike Airplane!, they’re not delivered straight. Which renders them painfully unfunny. Scenes come, fail to raise a grin, and just end.



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Seedpeople

A 1992 straight to video affair. It’s kinda Body Snatchers meets Critters/Gremlins.

Mysterious plants crop up around a small American town. And they start transforming the unlucky townspeople in plant freaks.

I’ll be honest? I’m loving this. It’s not even a good film as such, but it’s fun. And the creature costumes are pretty well done for a small budget affair.

However, there are shades of Troll 2 here. But only shades. Like it’s walking a tightrope above Troll 2 Quality, but walking it well.

The Marvels

Can a trio of light-based superheroines save the universe?

It's okay, but a very weak entry in the Marvel catalogue.
On the plus side, the teleporting fight scenes are very well done, and I think they do a good job on introducing Monica and Kamala for those who didn't watch their TV series.
On the negative though, the villains characterisation is exceptionally weak, even by the franchises very low standards, it feels like they cut a lot out of the movie itself, and, personally, I still find Kamala Khan very annoying.

At least I'm almost caught up on everything Marvel, I think.

Final Destination Bloodlines

I love a good Final Destination movie, me. They’re big, but they’re typically not clever. And they’re not really trying to be.

This one has a terrific opening splatter scene. Sure, it’s ridiculous and overengineered, but what’s Final Destination without a proper Rube Goldberg opening death fest? And there’s a particularly satisfying squishing in there to boot.

And sure, there’s gore. But the whole thing is so studiously overblown you can’t help but giggle. Well. I can’t. I promise I’m not a sociopath!

As with any lengthy franchise, if you’ve not enjoyed the others there’s really nothing here to persuade you otherwise. But this is a return to form.

I've always seen that the fun of Final Destination has always been in the core of finding the most Rude Goldberg ways to kill people possible with the added twists therein when it's feeling like putting in some effort. Usually they're at their best imo when they are tongue-in-cheek and chuckle worthy about it.

Final Destination/The Marvels crossover when?

Elio

The next good-not-great Pixar film.

Do you like films an out outer space? Do you like films about aliens? Do you like films about the US Space Force tracking orbital debris fields? Without spoiling too much, one of those things will feature heavily in the climax of the movie!

Elio is a space adventure about loss and found family. It tugs the heartstrings just fine, but doesn’t have as much for grown ups in the audience as a classic like Wall-E. Your enjoyment of its humor will be proportional to your appreciation for Lrrr from Omicron Persei 8. Visuals were great, too.



The Life of Chuck

Thanks for 39 great years, Chuck.

Great movie. Overall it’s bittersweet, but through it you get all the feels and some good laughs. Great actors give great performances, with Mark Hamil and Matthew Lillard as the standouts for me. Worth seeing just for the drum busking scene and its lead up. Will make you want to learn how to dance.

Watch it.

 LordofHats wrote:
I've always seen that the fun of Final Destination has always been in the core of finding the most Rude Goldberg ways to kill people possible with the added twists therein when it's feeling like putting in some effort. Usually they're at their best imo when they are tongue-in-cheek and chuckle worthy about it.

It reminds me of long running UK hospital drama Casualty in its early days, before it became about who’s shagging who among the staff.

Every week the first act was following the patients-to-be, trying to guess what’s going to happen to land them in Casualty.

Definitely at its best when done as a black comedy. And yes folks, I’m still wary of following logging trucks. We don’t get many of those where I am, but we do get them!


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Now watching the sort of classics you’d think a film fan would’ve seen by now, but hasn’t,

Unhyginic CyrilDirty Harry

A pretty brutal film about a pretty brutal cop. Shoot first, ask question never, and sod judicial process I guess.

Absolutely a movie of its time. Definitely gritty, but don’t know enough to say it’s realistic.

Clint Eastwood is of course the eponymous Needs A Bath Kevin “Dirty” Harry Callahan, but I never realised the baddie is Andrew “Garak and Cenobite Fodder” Robinson, so that’s nice.

And I’m enjoying it. The music is particularly well used to build tension and tell us something about Scorpio’s state of mind.

I’ve got the rest of the series lined up for watching too. So expect more comments on the Slightly Grubby Darren Dirty Harry films.



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Magnum Force

Mucky Ronald Dirty Harry Callahan returns in a sequel a good bit more gritty that the first. And there’s a cop that’s had enough, and is going around offing wrong’uns with extreme prejudice. And indeed sometimes people who just happened to be in the wrong’uns presence.

An oddly challenging film. The baddies being murdered are scumbags, benefitting from the rigours of due process. So on one hand, it’s hard to have sympathy with them.

But the question remains that if the rule of law breaks down, why should anyone obey it?

It’s clear to see how this and Stinky Colin Dirty Harry had a real influence on future media, such as Judge Dredd, Robocop and even modern tv police procedural.


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The Enforcer

Besmirched Robert Dirty Harry returns in this third outing, apparently based on a fan fiction unsolicited script submission.

Joining as Harry’s partner is one Tyne Daley, who’d go on to portray Mary Beth Lacey in 80’s cop show Cagney & Lacey.

This time there’s a terrorist group menacing San Francisco, and two career criminals are using them for their own ends.

There’s a bit more comedy at play here than the other Muddy Callum Dirty Harry films. And to be honest, it genuinely reminds me of Jaws in places, with nobody taking Harry seriously that they’ve got the wrong man. Given this came out a year after Jaws, I wouldn’t rule it out as an inference.

The slightly lighter tone is working for me. And again I can see its influence on Judge Dredd, with More (Tyne Daley) being the Anderson to Harry’s Dredd.

And I’ve got to say, there’s a good bit more Dectoring going on than I initially expected in these.


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Sudden Impact

Unkempt Algernon’s Dirty Harry’s fourth outing, and the first from the 1980’s.

Stakes are lowered somewhat here, as Harry finds himself inadvertently crossing paths with a vigilante. A vigilante going after the gang that SA’d her and her sister ten years previous.

With Harry off his patch, and mostly resulting to fisticuffs this does make for a nice change of pace.

I wouldn’t say there’s exactly character development as such, but it welcome all the same.


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The Dead Pool

Untidy Malcolm Dirty Harry’s fifth and final movie.

Quite the supporting cast with Liam Neeson, Jim Carrey and Marc Alaimo.

Thankfully Jim Carey isn’t in it for very long, so that’s a big old plus in my book.

What’s intrigued me having watched all five in a single day is that, whilst the series is known for its catchphrases? They’re not used film to film. Indeed “Go ahead Punk, make my day” doesn’t turn up until Sudden Impact - and is only said twice.

Netflix’s Grenfell Tower documentary. Only watch if you want a massive dose of how crap capitalism can be, mixed with the worst kind of governance at national and local level. All respects to the 72 dead, and all those traumatised by the tragedy.

They have some of the emergency call snippets from people calling for help basically as they are dying, so only watch when you are in a good place mentally.

It doesn’t go into a great deal of technical detail, but it covers the main points clearly enough.

I think I saw one Filthy Fred film, on a plane maybe?

Might be time to try them

They’ve definitely stood the test of time. I mean, you can tell when they were made by style and attitudes, but it’s never too much. And oddly, Callahan isn’t exactly a butthole.

He’s not womanising, he’s not trying to fit up minorities, he’s not threatening stoolies.

I mean, yes he’s extremely trigger happy and would almost certainly be drummed out of the force today. But that he’s never presented as a the perfect copper etc? That’s a nice touch.

The Thief and the Cobbler (ReCobbled Mk 4)

The great unfinished animation masterpiece.


Lovingly crafted by animate Richard Williams from the 1960’s to the 1990’s, the Thief and the Cobbler was to be his magnum opus until reality, and lack of funds took it out of his hands. There was a butchered, Disneyfied cut released by Miramar to piggyback off of Aladdin’s success, but it was pretty much forgotten. In the 2000’s, the ReCobbled cut was created by fans to ‘complete’ the film in accordance with Williams’s vision. This is the version we saw.

First of all, the animation is incredible where it is completed. I can think of few movies like it. Unfortunately the only reason to watch The Thief and the Cobbler is for the spectacular hand-drawn animation. The story is basic and the pacing is amateurishly uneven at best. Williams clearly spent a lot of time animating scenes that should have been shortened or cut. On the other hand, the animated set pieces will make you forget all about those issues.

If you’re interested in weird, highly skilled animation, watch this movie. If not, skip it.


Here is an example of the animation in action:

That's something that pops up on youtube every so often - and yeah the animation work is amazing. As is the dedication of fans to keep tweaking and improving and adding to it to try and complete it.

Rogue One

Yeah, still an enjoyable flick. Perhaps too rushed, but it holds together pretty well.

Rogue One 100% has that "there's a LOT of deeper stories here than we have time for" feel to it; but they manage to walk that REALLY razor fine line between the film feeling hollowed out and rushed; and deep and engaging enough to be good. And they walked it so darn well!

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

"If you hadn't stopped me we could have taken it. Dead or alive, what's the difference?"

Buncha yanks in a foreign country trespass in search of loot. The native dude who owns the place investigates what the commotion is about only to get shot by a trigger-happy American with the biggest gun he could get his hands on. The Americans aren't finished yet and figure it's best to drug the guy and get him to make inappropriate advances towards the group's lady to get a pretext for bludgeoning him to death. Only they decide to stick him in a cage instead to get some extra kicks out of their trip. And that lady ain't no lady. Ladies don't light dudes on fire.

Dude finally manages to escape and goes Rambo on his captors' asses. Who will live? Who will die? Will any kind of justice prevail? Watch this gruesome home invasion thriller to the end and find out!

Revenge of the Creature (1955)

"Don't you think you're making a lot out of nothing? He's chained and you have the bull prod."

Buncha yanks out for blood go to the same foreign country to trash the place our hero from the first movie calls home. Dude's all chill, having a grand day until he spots the Americans. PTSD flashbacks, a classic thousand yard stare and some dynamite fishing later, he's abducted to a Florida black site where he is kept without trial or legal counsel and subjected to electroshock torture and unethical medical experiments.

Will he escape incarceration and go Rambo on his captors' asses? Will he seek his way home? Does an illegal alien even stand a chance against a riled up redneck posse? Watch this harrowing prison drama to the end and find out!

The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)

"Listen, we can create an entirely new form of life!"

Buncha yanks in their own country go combing the wetlands in search of our hero from the previous two movies. They don't stumble around and hope to get lucky like their countrymen in the other movies. Oh no! For they are men of SCIENCE! and use sonar to get the drop on the poor illegal alien who's just been trying to get by and live in peace. To what end? Mad science, of course. Something something helping evolution along, prattle about tweaking humans to survive the colonization of space, stuff like that. And so once more our hero finds himself set on fire, captured and subjected to medical experimentation.

How much abuse can one dude take before he loses the will to go Rambo on anyone's ass? Is inhuman conduct a solid foundation for the betterment of mankind? Did that mountain lion actually think things through? Watch this thought-provoking science thriller to the end and find out!

...

I saw the first movie before but never the sequels. It was high time to change that. And well, not to sound overly dismissive or anything, but I'm not sure one misses out by only watching the original movie. It feels a bit like Jurassic Park. The first movie has everything covered and explores the clash between out of their depth humans and the rampaging fishy dude pretty conclusively. The second movie turns the situation around by giving the humans the upper hand until things go ever so predictably south, and at least that part adds something of value to the conflict between humans and fishy dude. The third movie goes off the deep end by departing from most familiar themes, getting communication going between humans and the fishy dude and generally sidelining the titular hero for some tenuously related conflict to the point where you might question what you are even watching.

 Overread wrote:
Rogue One 100% has that "there's a LOT of deeper stories here than we have time for" feel to it; but they manage to walk that REALLY razor fine line between the film feeling hollowed out and rushed; and deep and engaging enough to be good. And they walked it so darn well!

I really need to rewatch it with Andor as context. I had gotten to where I felt a little blinded by the parts of act 3 that don't involve the main cast and less impressed with the rest of it. Curious to see how much the additional material given to so much of the cast has changed that.

I will say, in Rogue One Director Krennic is not afraid to do his own dirty work.

 Geifer wrote:


Revenge of the Creature (1955)

"Don't you think you're making a lot out of nothing? He's chained and you have the bull prod."

Buncha yanks out for blood go to the same foreign country to trash the place our hero from the first movie calls home. Dude's all chill, having a grand day until he spots the Americans. PTSD flashbacks, a classic thousand yard stare and some dynamite fishing later, he's abducted to a Florida black site where he is kept without trial or legal counsel and subjected to electroshock torture and unethical medical experiments.

Will he escape incarceration and go Rambo on his captors' asses? Will he seek his way home? Does an illegal alien even stand a chance against a riled up redneck posse? Watch this harrowing prison drama to the end and find out!

You missed the best thing about this movie! It's Clint Eastwood's first film!

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 Geifer wrote:


Revenge of the Creature (1955)

"Don't you think you're making a lot out of nothing? He's chained and you have the bull prod."

Buncha yanks out for blood go to the same foreign country to trash the place our hero from the first movie calls home. Dude's all chill, having a grand day until he spots the Americans. PTSD flashbacks, a classic thousand yard stare and some dynamite fishing later, he's abducted to a Florida black site where he is kept without trial or legal counsel and subjected to electroshock torture and unethical medical experiments.

Will he escape incarceration and go Rambo on his captors' asses? Will he seek his way home? Does an illegal alien even stand a chance against a riled up redneck posse? Watch this harrowing prison drama to the end and find out!

You missed the best thing about this movie! It's Clint Eastwood's first film!

I considered mentioning his appearance but opted against it because he blames the missing lab rat on the cat and when it turns out he was responsible all along, he doesn't even apologize to the innocent little fur ball.

I didn't want to mar my entirely evenhanded review of these movies by condemning the deep depths of human degeneracy that they occasionally feature all the time from start to finish without even the slightest respite ever.

 Geifer wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 Geifer wrote:


Revenge of the Creature (1955)

"Don't you think you're making a lot out of nothing? He's chained and you have the bull prod."

Buncha yanks out for blood go to the same foreign country to trash the place our hero from the first movie calls home. Dude's all chill, having a grand day until he spots the Americans. PTSD flashbacks, a classic thousand yard stare and some dynamite fishing later, he's abducted to a Florida black site where he is kept without trial or legal counsel and subjected to electroshock torture and unethical medical experiments.

Will he escape incarceration and go Rambo on his captors' asses? Will he seek his way home? Does an illegal alien even stand a chance against a riled up redneck posse? Watch this harrowing prison drama to the end and find out!

You missed the best thing about this movie! It's Clint Eastwood's first film!

I considered mentioning his appearance but opted against it because he blames the missing lab rat on the cat and when it turns out he was responsible all along, he doesn't even apologize to the innocent little fur ball.

I didn't want to mar my entirely evenhanded review of these movies by condemning the deep depths of human degeneracy that they occasionally feature all the time from start to finish without even the slightest respite ever.

I always thought that it was interesting that Eastwood plays a villian for his first role.

Since I learned from Del Toro that the Creature is not the bad guy in these films.

You certainly need to take a very specific point of view to make out the gill man as the bad guy in the first two movies. By the third movie you'd be hard pressed even then.

Overwhelmingly he's the designated bad guy more than an actual bad guy.

M3gan

“feth off, Holly!”


M3gan is the eponymous killer doll of this campy ‘horror’ film, and the only one who stands a chance against her is Ronny Chieng. Comedically speaking. Those two made this movie. Hopefully the sequel will bring in an Al Madrigal, Desi Lydic or Wyatt Cenak to counterbalance her sass.

Fun movie. Not scary at all, but full of memorable lines and character actors.




The Triplets of Belleville

What if Studio Ghibli were unapologetically French?


This was the kind of weird and engrossing animation we were looking for. Yes, the first five minutes have something very un-PC during the introductory back-in-the-day flashback, but even with that the whole movie has a comfortable, warm, early Pixar feeling to it. I just wanted to spend a lot of time in the movie.

The animation is distinctive. The humor is sometimes pretty spicy. (All the Americans are corpulent, for example.) The music slaps. The backgrounds and set design are top notch. The storytelling is so well done that the film doesn’t need any dialogue. Watch it.



At the Door. The Strokes

A animated music video.

It’s mostly a pastiche of recognizable animated movies from yesteryear, but gorgeous. Better quality than the next most obvious music video animation. We really enjoyed watching this.

After this we started Daft Punk’s music video movie, Interstella 5555, but ran out of steam two songs after Harder Faster.

oh man, hadn't thought of the triplets of belleville in years
as a kid, i can remember seeing a trailer for it and then searching for what felt like ages before
i was able to get a copy, on vhs because it was the long long ago
I think it might have been the tape that eventually killed my old vcr also, now that i think about it

For my next trick, watching a bunch of Tigon films.

The Sorcerors, Curse of the Crimson Altar, The Haunted House of Horror, The Beast In The Cellar, Doomwatch, Witchfinder General andThe Blood on Satan’s Claw.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
For my next trick, watching a bunch of Tigon films.

The Sorcerors, Curse of the Crimson Altar, The Haunted House of Horror, The Beast In The Cellar, Doomwatch, Witchfinder General andThe Blood on Satan’s Claw.

No one is making you do this to yourself.

…right? Slip a subtle Ghostbusters quote into your next post if you’re being held against your will.


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 greenskin lynn wrote:
oh man, hadn't thought of the triplets of belleville in years
as a kid, i can remember seeing a trailer for it and then searching for what felt like ages before
i was able to get a copy, on vhs because it was the long long ago
I think it might have been the tape that eventually killed my old vcr also, now that i think about it

A kid? Didn’t come out in 2003, two years ago?

Oh this is entirely self inflicted.

I don’t just love Horror. I don’t just have a particular fondness for Folk Horror. I’m a nut for the history of it all. Hence I love my Hammer, Amicus and Tigon films. All pretty small and oddly successful until they, typically, very suddenly weren’t, British Studios.

I like seeing how people did a lot with not very much other than a smallish budget and Strict Censorship Rules.

To see the boundaries ever so subtly pushed ever further back. Extra “blood” here, even more gratuitous booby there. Just seeing transgressive elements be pushed and pushed and pushed with skill.

And because of the restrictions? We often wind up with something pretty interesting and creative. Not necessarily good. Art doesn’t need to be good to be interesting.

Unless it’s Art from Terrifier, which is an awful film series which really needs to learn some restraint and skill.


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Also. I’ve seen The Blood On Satan’s Claw before and it’s absolutely fantastic. Genuinely gripping and unsettling.

The Black Cauldron

The film Disney doesn’t want you to see. No, the other one. The other, other one. The not racist one where no animals were killed.


I had read the books it was based on to my son years ago, but still remembered them enough to notice how lifeless and bland the movie seemed in comparison. Something about the animation and the voice acting felt cheaper and lazier than even The Sword and the Stone. It doesn’t help that the animation of the boy walking about felt like traced over footage from TSitS, which was traced over footage from The Jungle Book. And all the faces felt extremely formulaic for Disney of that era, like background character stock from old TV spots. Even the not-human Gurginwas just Short Mustachioed Character number 3 with some dog ears added.

The only real revelation was Gurgi’s voice, which sounded just like the LOTR movies’ Gollum….and also like the Glomer from Punky Brewster cartoon.

MDG, are there more than 24 hours available where you live? Are you stuck in the Heart of the TARDIS with the Mad Monk (I assume he's still in there)?

I wake up, run the dishwasher, sweep up, and throw some laundry in the machine and swoosh! Half the day vanishes into the great vortex that swallows time like Pac-Man on PCP.

How can you watch so many horror flicks in such little time? And paint 30k robots? And post on here... etc?

Please explain how you've copied the Time Stone and made it work for you.

Got sod all better to do! I also work during the same period.


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The Blood Beast Terror, 1968

Oh no! Were-Moths! And not the sort that just tit about around your light. Bloodsucking Were-Moth!

Starring Peter Cushing, and apparently he considered this his worst film.

It’s not all that bad to be honest. Hokey and silly, absolutely. But an interesting curio all the same.

M3GAN 2.0

As M3GAN was a fun mix of Robocop and Childsplay, the sequel is M3GAN mixed with shades of T2:JD and Metropolis, and what a jolly good experience it is too. Thumbs up.