Recent viewings

[Rev. Powell]

THE SNOW CREATURE (1954): A botanist on an expedition in the Himalayas gets sidetracked into capturing a Yeti, then flies him back to Los Angeles where the creature quickly escapes. Dull, by-the-book creature-feature. 1/5

[Rev. Powell]

JIVE TURKEY [AKA BABY NEEDS A NEW PAIR OF SHOES] (1974): The Italian mafia tries to horn in on the ghetto numbers business in 1956 Chicago. Stars Paul Harris and Frank DeKova are too good for this incoherent, exploitative, and occasionally incompetent period blaxploitation picture that features a transvestite hit man. Maybe 3/5 on a bad movie scale, 1.5/5 on an objective scale.

[Jack]

Argento's Dracula (2012) - The usual Dracula vs. Van Helsing thing with a couple girls thrown in for eye candy. I liked the atmosphere, mostly because of the beautiful interior sets. I also enjoyed the cheesy horror music. It was slow moving and the characters were pretty dull though. Some of the special effects were good for a chuckle and the lighting was at times distractingly amateurish, especially the outdoor scenes at night. More like a soap opera than a feature film in that respect. My wife had fun MST3K'ing the fact that Argento always has his daughter doing nude scenes in his movies. "Is this the boy you hired to f**k me in your movie daddy?" 3/5.

Sick Nurses (2007) - kind of a weird thing from Thailand about a group of hot young nurses who are all in love with the same doctor. One of the nurses is especially possessive of him so the others kill her, and a week later she's back as an evil spirit to take her revenge. This thing skips all over in time as well as from character to character; it's easy enough to follow but gives it a very disjointed feel. The nurses all act like they're 12 years old too which makes it a bit silly. There were some enjoyably gruesome scenes in this, whoever made it had a serious nasty streak and I like that. I guess I'll be generous and give it a 4/5.

[indianasmith]

UNIDENTIFIED - a bizarre "found footage" film in which four friends go to Las Vegas and run afoul of space aliens in the Nevada desert.  Can't decide if it wants to be funny or scary, but serves up a decent amount of both.

[Rev. Powell]

AFRICA ADDIO [AKA AFRICA BLOOD AND GUTS]: The makers of MONDO CANE spend three years in Africa documenting the transition from colonialism to self rule, capturing massacres of both wildlife and humans. This is a difficult movie to watch, and a difficult movie to evaluate. On the one hand, there are the allegations that some scenes are staged, other scenes (such as the drawn-out killing of an elephant with spears) are needlessly exploitative and tasteless, and that the entire tenor of the film seems skewed towards mourning the loss of European civilization on the continent while fearing the savagery of native Africans. On the other hand, the directors unearthed an amazing amount of historically important footage of massacres and crimes against humanity that were going on in Kenya, Rawanda and other places in post-colonial Africa, which progressive Europeans did not want to admit or see. Overall I would average it to a 3/5 and say it's worth seeing for those with strong stomachs.

[lester1/2jr]

I liked that I think Farewell Uncle Tom was better though.

[Rev. Powell]

I liked that I think Farewell Uncle Tom was better though.

I'll be watching that one soon, this weekend maybe.

[lester1/2jr]

It's very good.

[indianasmith]

I just finished a semi-zombie movie from England entitled DEAD CREATURES.
It's about a group of women who have been bitten and infected with a virus that compels them to devour human flesh, and slowly they decompose and
lose mental and physical function until their girlfriends are forced to put them down.  Most of the movie is them talking and agonizing about the cruel twist of fate that has driven them to cannibalism.  Very slow moving and not much action (although the gore is pretty nasty when it does happen). Yet at the same time I found myself wanting to see all of it - normally I am very bad about fast forwarding when a movie gets dull.
I'll be generous and give it a 3 out of 5.

[Jack]

Universal Soldiers (2007) - the Asylum's ripoff of the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. A group of people are chased around the woods by a couple of super soldiers. Everything about this - writing, directing, acting, special effects etc. is of the lowest quality possible. The whole thing can fully be summed up in a single word: stoopid. I've watched it about 4 times now Favorite scene is when two guys are on opposite sides of a tree and they both think one of the killer super soldiers is on the other side. They slowly creep around the tree until they meet and one of them shoots the other one. It's like something out an an Elmer Fudd / Bugs bunny cartoon. 3/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Grabbers" (2013)
Grabbers Official Trailer #1 (2012) HD Movie

In this goofy Irish horror comedy, a horde of multi-tentacled, blood sucking sea monsters invade a small island village. Fortunately the local constable (who also happens to be a raging boozehound) discovers that alcohol is poisonous to the critters. So to keep everyone safe, the whole village proceeds to get extremely drunk in the local pub while the police figure out how to stop the monster invasion. Funny stuff in the "Shaun of the Dead" mold.

[lester1/2jr]

Indiana - Semi zombies are even more terrifying than zombies imo

Thale (2012) - This was an interesting Norwegian horror /weird movie that isn't exactly a masterpiece but is at least entertaining and different. Plus, the wood nymph thing is pretty hot. Two stereotypical looking Norwegian guys are for some reason investigating a cabin in the woods and stumble across some very weird goings on. They eventually deduce that the scientist had somehow procured a wood nymph and was raising it or something. There are a couple of very unconvincing CGI wood creatures but it's mostly the actors. There is a fair amount of violence, vomiting and a little bit of nymph nudity. It definitely could have used a professional touch here and there in terms of the writing and special effects but it's fairly compelling anyway. Only like 70 minutes I'd say check it out 4/5

[FatFreddysCat]

Silent Running (1972)
Silent Running Trailer
Environmentally-themed sci-fi in which the Earth's foliage has gone extinct, but new forests are being grown in massive greenhouses in outer space. When the crew of one ship receives orders to destroy the greenhouses and return home, a crew member goes "rogue" and does whatever he can to protect the precious plant and animal specimens.
The flick is pretty dated looking now, but features a great performance by Bruce Dern (in what amounts to a one-man show) charming old-school special effects and even a couple of cute robots.

[lester1/2jr]

Feng Shui (2004) - amateurish, not very scary but still enjoyable Philippino horror movie. If not for the occasional tiny bits of gore it would be pg 13. It's almost like a cross between Ringu and Pamela's Prayer or something. There's no overt religiosity in the movie but it's got that vibe.

A relatively attractive middle aged woman finds an 8 sided Chinese mirror thing on the bus. She puts it up in her house and it brings her good luck, but also horrible luck. I don't know if this is an allegory against good luck charms or just this specific one. Ridiculous things happen and people just go on with their lives like yeah seeing that ghost was weird what's for dinner. The kids are always crying or upset about something it's like shut up kids. The ghosts are Japanese horror style appear out of nowhere for 3 seconds ones.

It's not very sophisticated and at 1 hour 55 it's a little long (I ffed though one pretty pointless scene of a guy trying to buy the mirror) but it was charming in it's own ridiculous way.

3.75/5

[fulci420]

The Visitor (aka Stridulum)(1979)-After hearing about this one on the Sound on Sight podcast and reading about how bizarre this movie is I just needed to see this one. The Visitor is what you get when you mix 70's horror/sci movies, LSD, a few legendary directors (not behind the camera but in front!) and put them all in an Italian blender.

Basically this movie rules hard, and deserves an even bigger reputation than its already developed. Many reviewers have pointed out that it doesn't make any sense as if that's some kind of strike against the kind of movie where John Huston goes and fetches space children for Jesus (Franco Nero). Rather than a plot synopsis lets go point by point on why this movie deserves recognition.
-The early slo mo basketball scene is incredibly shot, Brian de Palma quality set piece.
-Sam Peckinpah appears due to years of bad decisions and was unable to remember the lines, he gets dubbed here.
-Random bird attacks.
-Lance Henrisken!
-Best of all every time the kind faced Huston appears this song starts blasting
Stridulum(The Visitor)(1979)OST - Part 1