Some Reviews

[Mr_Vindictive]

I've been getting slack when it comes to posting reviews.  Here is what I remember seeing in the past few weeks.


John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns - Recently watched this installment of the Masters Of Horror on DVD.  Udo Kier hires Norman Reedus to track down "Le Fin Absolue De Monde", a film that was supposedly burned after it's first screening since it caused extreme violence in it's audience.  As he tracks down the film which may or may not exist anymore, he begins to have hallucinations and terrible things begin to happen.  Overall, it's not bad but not great either.  I was expecting more from Carpenter but he just didn't deliver as I had hoped.  

6/10

Stuart Gordon's Dreams In The Witch House - Another installment in the Masters Of Horror.  This one is from Stuart Gordon who directed Re-Animator and other Lovecraft based films.  He doesn't break from tradition here, as this is another working of a Lovecraft story.  The film is about a college student who rents a run down apartment in a sort of boarding house.  Once he moves in, he notices the strange architecture of the room and notices how it coincides with what he's studying at the college.  He begins to believe that one corner of the room is actually a portal to another dimension.  While studying this, he also falls in love with the woman who lives in the apartment next door with her infant son.  Soon, he begins to realize that there is an evil that lives in the house, and it wants the child for nefarious reasons.

Overall, this is one of Gordon's best Lovecraft based films.  It has everything that I remember loving about Lovecraft's works.  At one point, he is even forced to sign his name in an ancient book by the evil force, which I remember being present in many of Lovecraft's stories.  This one is well worth a rental.

8/10


11:14 - Picked this one up on a whim without knowing much about it.  It's one of those films that I don't care for, for much of it's runtime, until the very end.  Then, one word was uttered: Wow.

The film consists of a few vignettes each one coming together in the very end.  The movie begins with a drunk driver hitting a body that seemingly fell from the sky.  We then go back a few hours and watch what caused this and the various effects of each character's actions.  Wether it's a very botched gas station robbery or someone getting their penis severed, they all have an effect on the final car accident at 11:14.  

Great film, that has a dark sense of humor about it.  This is one to rent.  

9/10


Creepers - So I finally talked myself into buying the 50 Drive In Classics set that Burgo has been reviewing lately.  I sat down last night to watch Creepers, which is the cut version of Argento's Phenomena which I saw many years ago.  I knew it was cut, but I didn't realize how badly.  I ended up turning off the film about 20 minutes into it.  It's disjointed, confusing, and all around awful.  I guess I'll just have to rent Phenomena again.

0/10


Unsane (Tenebre) - So I popped in "Unsane" last night, after the incident with Creepers,  not expecting much.  It too is part of the Drive In Classics.

The film starts off with a terrible voice over about a man commiting his first murder.  Then, the credits started and I knew I was in for something good, as the credits were in Italian.  Then I saw Claudio Argento's name pop up.  Could this be an Argento film?  Unsane?  I've never heard of it.  Then, Dario Argento's name popped up a few times.  Yippee!, I thought.  An Argento film I've never heard of.  


The film starts off with an American writer on his way to Rome.  Then it cuts to a woman in Rome stealing a book from a shelf.  What was the name of the book?  Tenebre.  At this point, my hopes were deflated as I knew it would be another badly cut version of an Argento film.  I wasn't wrong.

The film, much like Creepers, is cut and confusing and nearly unwatchable.  I did suffer through it, as I've not seen Tenebre before.  Overall, I was disappointed.  The film didn't really feel like Argento to me.  Hell, there wasn't even any music by Goblin.  

Is this one actually worth seeking out in uncut form?  From what I saw, it didn't seem like it would be any better.  

3/10


Silent Hill - Caught this one at the theater last weekend, and I must say that I loved it.  I'm not going to go into detail as it's a film that you forget most of about 5 minutes after leaving the theater but I found it to be fun.  I'm glad they kept in the siren, and I loved the faithful adaptations of the creatures.  Pyramid Head kicks almighty ass, and watching a woman get raped and then split apart with barbed wire is something that more films need.

8/10

[Shadowphile]

Personally I thought hte barbed wire scene in Silent Hill was poorly done.   It was too fast.  There was too much barbed wire.

Evil Dead did this scene much better using shrubbery....

[LH-C]

<>

Hell yeah Tenebre is worth seeking out! Awesome movie!

[Mr_Vindictive]

LH-C,

That's what I was looking for.  I'll see about renting it on DVD sometime soon.  Thanks!

[LH-C]

Oh and Goblin did do the music for Tenebre....

[Mr_Vindictive]

LH-C,

Must have been different on the disc that I saw.  The music didn't sound anything like Goblin, whom I've always felt to be the heart behind Argento's films.

I'm actually quite looking forward to seeing how different Tenebre was from Unsane.