Recent viewings

[Rev. Powell]

HOUR OF THE WOLF (1968): A troubled painter and his pregnant wife vacation on a supposedly deserted Scandinavian island where they are invited to dine with a strange Baron and his retinue at his castle. Gothic imagery fits Ingmar Bergman like a comfortable shadow, and his only outright horror movie is every bit as philosophical, eerie and inscrutable as you would hope. 4.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Land of Silence and Darkness - It's no Grizzly Man, def for herzog completists only. It's a documentary about a woman who is deaf and blind and her life and mission. There's no research or interviews or things like that, it's basically just interviews with her while she is doing her job of being a person who is deeply involved in charity for people with these afflictions. They have a code they use with their hands where they spell out words. The first half is pretty dull but it picks up when they go to a zoo and the delighted deaf and blind people have a good time feeding/ dealing with the monkeys and elephants. After that, the main lady whatever her name is meets a blind- deaf guy who had been raised in a horrible environment and attempts to communicate with him and is somewhat successful. There's also another guy who they show who has learned to swim or at least go into a pool and this is understood to be a big step. the second half had some really touching moments I have to admit, but formallly speaking it's not much of a documentary

2.5 /5

[indianasmith]

Last night I finally got to see CRIMSON PEAK.  Not as good as the hype, but still not bad.  It was visually compelling and overall fairly enjoyable. Great performances, but the plot was a bit predictable. 4/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Lightning Bolt" (1966, aka "Operazione Goldman")

http://youtu.be/yWkCdFKYo8I
Yet another low budget Italian-made James Bond knockoff starring an American actor (Anthony Eisley of the Sixties TV show "Hawaiian Eye") as a suave federal agent.
In "Lightning Bolt," Tough-guy playboy spy Harry Sennet is investigating the sabotage of several U.S. rocket launches at Cape Kennedy. He eventually discovers a plot by a super-villain type who wants to control the world (of course) from a secret base at the bottom of the ocean.
I've been watching a lot of these "Eurospy" Bond wanna-be's lately and this one was the best so far. It's a ripoff of "Dr. No" on a cheese-and-crackers budget but it's got plenty of action, tons of pretty girls and some cool set pieces. Lots of fun!!

[indianasmith]

I watched a very fun flick called FREAKS OF NATURE last night.  Aliens invade a small town where zombies, vampires, and humans have lived in harmony for many years - creating a panic which turns undead against walking dead against breathers, as one young human, his vampire girlfriend, and zombified best friend try to survive their relatives and figure out what the aliens want!  Goofy, well-acted, and lots of fun.  4.5/5

[indianasmith]

Last night's movie was called FINAL GIRL (not to be confused with FINAL GIRLS, which I haven't seen yet).
An orphaned waif is trained as a vigilante, and then sent after four guys who hunt and kill young women for the fun of it.
She plays perfectly into their game, going with them into the woods and playing a game of Truth or Dare - but when they reveal their true intentions, it turns out they bit off more than they could chew!  Very fun little revenge flick, and the lead actress is CUTE! 4/5

[lester1/2jr]

Sinister 2 - it works up a decent head of steam but it can't hold a candle to the first one. The self effacing male lead reminded me a little too much of David Arquette in Scream but he was okay, as was the cute wife lady. I guess in general the casting was good. the main problem is it's a sequel and most of the good, profound, and surprising ideas for the scenario were used up in the first one. They did their best, but the elements just didn't come together in what we call the grand manner, more like the pretty good one. moves well enough and entertaining though and better than Insidious 2

3.75/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Killers are Challenged" (aka "Bob Fleming: Mission Casablanca," 1966)

http://youtu.be/2Jvac1VirsQ

More Eurospy fun with Richard Harrison reprising his Agent Bob Fleming role from 1965's "Secret Agent Fireball." This time he's impersonating a scientist who's been targeted by a trio of gorgeous femme-fatale assassins.
I liked this one better than the original film, due mainly to Harrison toning down his performance as Fleming - he was such a smirky, leering prick in the first movie that I was kinda rooting for the bad guys (haha) but here he sticks mainly to a man-of-few-words, two-fisted-tough-guy approach. Plus the action scenes are better and the female eye candy is outstanding!

[claws]

Kristy (2014)

Thanks to bad luck college student Justine must spend the Thanksgiving weekend alone on campus. It is a drag first, but she soon enjoys having the place almost by herself (there are two Campus Security Officers and one groundskeeper). While grabbing some munchies at the convenience store she encounters a strange and kind of threatening young woman. Soon enough Justine is stalked at her dorm by a group of hooded people, and they have murder on their mind.

Decent home invasion type of "survival" slasher the Weinstein Company held back in the US for whatever weird reason. One could complain that Kristy adds nothing new to the genre but I still found this to be engaging enough. This movie relies mostly on atmosphere and suspense, and if you happen to like Them (2006), The Strangers (2008) and You're Next (2011) you might enjoy Kristy as well. 4/5

[indianasmith]

ESTRANGED (2015)
   A young girl named January is touring Brazil on a motorcycle with her boyfriend is in a bad accident and suffers a head injury that leaves her temporarily in a wheelchair and with near-complete memory loss.  Finally, her boyfriend manages to locate her family in England and return her to their estate.  The family is cool and distant and openly hostile to the boyfriend.  Eventually he disappears, and January is left with her mother, father, and two siblings - but are they really?  As their behavior becomes more bizarre and hostile, she has to dig deep to find the truth about her "family" - and they punish her for being inquisitive.  This is a very dark, brutal, and messed up movie, brilliantly cast.  Drags a little in the middle act, but the climax is worth it!  4.5/5

[Rev. Powell]

BLOW-UP (1966): A hedonistic fashion photographer snaps some candid pictures of a couple in a park; when he looks at the negatives, he thinks he may have discovered evidence of a murder. A deliberately frustrating anti-thriller that's actually about the ennui of London's mods. When I was in my twenties I despised this film as a pointless movie about pointlessness. Now that I'm older I tolerate its longeurs better and even find the intellectual ambiguity somewhat interesting, but I still find it falls well short of the masterpiece its sometimes proclaimed to be. 3/5.

[claws]

The Apparition (2012)

Things go horribly wrong when college students try to manifest and capture an otherworldly being from another dimension. Years later a young couple experience paranormal activity while house sitting in the suburbs: the evil entity from the experiment is feeding on humans in order to get stronger and to take over the world.

Low key supernatural thriller with a few nods to Poltergeist. It took me a second viewing to realize that The Apparition isn't really that bad as it is made out to be. The infamous and hilarious "Cosco" ending does make more sense if you pay closer attention. But I will admit that some of the scares in the final half can be unintentionally funny but hey, it all adds to the entertainment. 3/5

[lester1/2jr]

Fallen Angel - generally decent Otto Preminger film noir but lacks tension and believeability. A grifter guy comes to town and falls for a local barmaid who is actually pretty hot and the best part of the movie. it should have just been about her. Anyway, his plan is to string along some church going lady to get her money and all of this is going to happen in like a day or two I mean come on. Might make a decent opening act for Nightmare Alley. the church lady is annoying

3/5

[lester1/2jr]

My Bloody Valentine - original one caught on IFC, seemed edited (edit to sentence about editing: yes it was). Why they would do that is beyond me are there FCC rules against gore and so forth on cable? What is it 1953?

A small mining town in Canada (soooory it was pretty obvious) with some of the least down trodden miners in film history is getting ready for their big Valentines day dance they have! Too bad a psycho guy who got stuck in a mine cave-in once wants to come back and kill everyone. I enjoyed this one quite a bit. The townspeople were goofy and upbeat, some of the girls were sort of pretty and the killer cuts out a guys heart and throws it into a pot of boiling hot dogs as a joke. There were some nice creative touches like that, not many but some. Sorry for the spoiler but LOTS of people get killed don't worry.

I recorded it not even thinking that it wouldn't be the full uncut film but even with key gore scenes missing it's a solid if less colorful 4/5 . There were a ton of horror movies in the early 80's and this while not quite a classic is in the second tier for sure

[FatFreddysCat]

"Manson's Lost Girls" (2016)
https://youtu.be/zMXnAcdv1OI

Yet another made-for-TV retelling of the Charles Manson saga, this time shown through the eyes of cult member Linda Kasabian, who eventually went to the police and turned state's evidence after witnessing the Tate/LaBianca murder spree.
The performances are decent, the period details are OK and the girls are nice to look at (esp. Josh Brolin's daughter Eden Brolin, who plays Susan "Sexy Sadie" Atkins) but there's nothing revealed in this flick that you haven't already seen in a half dozen other Manson movies.