Recent viewings

[FatFreddysCat]

"Devil Fish" (1984)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afU2PYUMs10

Also known as "Monster Shark," "Devouring Waves" and "Red Ocean" among other titles, this is a sh*thouse no budget "Jaws" wanna-be made in Italy. A resort area is plagued by a series of mysterious deaths and a crew of oceanographers discover that it's the work of a prehistoric species of shark/octopus hybrid. Yes, seriously. 

As usual with Italian horror flicks, the dialogue is nonsensical, the dubbing is bad and the effects.. well, they leave a lot to be desired. You barely see the creature in this movie and when you finally do it looks like an old sofa with teeth. On the up side, the female cast members are attractive and they spend most of the movie wearing very little clothing.

Apparently "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" ripped this movie a new ass some years back. I'd say that it was well deserved.

[indianasmith]

Yesterday I watched THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS. It is a typical Quentin Tarentino flick - bloody, goofy, sexy, with over-the-top gore and ridiculous combat seqences, but very little in the way of plot.  That being said, I really liked it!!!

[Jack]

I've gotta check out Devil Fish - you've even got shirtless faux-fu action 

Rise of the Gargoyles (2009) - watched this again. In Paris, a gargoyle is flying around killing people and it's up to an American author and a French journalist to save the day. A couple of cute girls in this, but otherwise it's just a slightly-above-average SyFy Original type thing. 3/5.

[Rev. Powell]

Yesterday I watched THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS. It is a typical Quentin Tarentino flick - bloody, goofy, sexy, with over-the-top gore and ridiculous combat seqences, but very little in the way of plot.  That being said, I really liked it!!!

You know it wasn't directed by Tarantino, right? It was directed by RZA (the rapper). It's definitely a bad movie; I kind of liked it too.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND (1986): This is a British miniseries with four half-hour episodes. The good? It's very true to the actual text of the story. The neutral? It sets most of the poems to original music. The bad? The actress playing Alice is in her 20s, which is distracting, and the special effects are on the level of a children's TV show. Overall I was fairly unimpressed, but if you want a very accurate adaptation to show young kids this may work. 2.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Going to Pieces: the Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film" (2006)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oljh6sRKXXg

Way cool documentary that explores the slasher film boom-and-bust cycle of the 80s, featuring loads of clips from vintage films and interviews with John Carpenter, Tom Savini, Wes Craven, Sean ("Friday the 13th") Cunningham, Betsy "Mrs. Voorhees" Palmer, and dozens more. Tons of fun for horror geeks.

[indianasmith]

Last night my family and I watched OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL.  Yes, there is a TON of CGI.  That being said, it doesn't get in the way of the story.  We all loved this one a lot!

[Jack]

The Vampire's Ghost (1945) - in a small village in Africa, a few people are found dead with their blood drained and a couple of bite marks on their necks. So our group of characters tries to figure out who the culprit is - probably the guy who we can't see in a mirror. We never see any vampire activity, he just stares at people and puts them under his power. Less than an hour long and that's good because nothing of interest happens in this whole thing. If they were aiming for horror, they missed by a mile. 2.5/5.

The Shrine (2010) - some reporters go to Poland to investigate a series of missing persons reports. Once there they find a cult performing human sacrifices and a cloud that seems permanently stationed over a certain spot in the woods. I liked this - the plot was actually intriguing and had a twist to it that wasn't obvious, unlike most other movies. It wasn't your typical happy ending thing either. It maintained an atmosphere of suspense and tension throughout. Oh it wasn't great, the main characters were decent enough but not terribly sympathetic and they were prone to do some fairly dumb things. Overall not bad at all though. 3.75/5.

Fingerprints (2006) - a teenage girl moves to a small town where years earlier, a train hit a school bus and killed all the kids aboard. Now there are ghosts of the kids running around and it's up to our main character to solve the mystery of why they're there. This was really boring. The main character was well acted and likable, she was just way too friendly and outgoing to be believable as a teenager. The plot dragged, it was 90% banal teen drama and 10% "horror" movie. And the whole story was so uninteresting. 2.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Queen of Versailles- Documentary about people who tried to build the biggest house in the US but then the housing market crashed and they were left way way way up the creek without a paddle. boo hoo! The couple, the Siegals,  are self made but kind of crass and have a ton of kids. Their whole business model is based on flipping properties and getting super low interest loans and when that ends, oh I just kind of repeated the first sentence.

"The bankers are almost like vultures" more like a jackal vulture hybrid, mrs. Siegal. She has huge fake boobs 4.5/ 5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Shock Waves" (1977)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUemv6hW2S8

In this schlocky, waterlogged 70s horror flick, the crew and passengers of a pleasure cruise boat find themselves stranded on a seemingly deserted island ... only to find out that the waters around them are home to a troop of underwater Nazi zombies, the products of a WWII German experiment gone wrong. Fun to watch in a goofball kind of way, but far from "good."

This flick has become a cult classic and is considered the best underwater Nazi zombie movie ever made, which sounds impressive till you realize that there really isn't much competition for that title.

[voltron]

"Shock Waves" (1977)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUemv6hW2S8

In this schlocky, waterlogged 70s horror flick, the crew and passengers of a pleasure cruise boat find themselves stranded on a seemingly deserted island ... only to find out that the waters around them are home to a troop of underwater Nazi zombies, the products of a WWII German experiment gone wrong. Fun to watch in a goofball kind of way, but far from "good."

This flick has become a cult classic and is considered the best underwater Nazi zombie movie ever made, which sounds impressive till you realize that there really isn't much competition for that title.

LOVE Shock Waves! Its only competition that I know of is Zombie Lake which I've yet to see.

[FatFreddysCat]

LOVE Shock Waves! Its only competition that I know of is Zombie Lake which I've yet to see.

It was nice to see Peter Cushing. 1977 must've been an interesting year for him.

Agent: "OK, Pete, I got two roles lined up for you this year. One is some little science fiction flick, the other is about underwater Nazi zombies."   

[lester1/2jr]

Zombie Lake was jean Rollin wasn't it? It was really pretty bad. I remember that all the budget seemed to have been spent on an underwater skinny dipping scene and the rest was absurdly cheap, like people getting shot and no makeup or special effects just like "ahh" like little kids playing cops and robbers.

[Rev. Powell]

SHOCK WAVES is much, much better than ZOMBIE LAKE!

(Note: I haven't seen SHOCK WAVES, but a blank screen is better than ZOMBIE LAKE!)

HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE (2004): In a magical steampunk kingdom, a witch turns a girl into an old woman; a wizard embroiled in a war and a fire demon hold the key to returning to herself. This beautifully animated Hayao Miyazaki fantasy has the casual incoherence of a folk tale, with the magical transformations around every corner making the plot truly unpredictable. 4.5/5

[Jack]

I made it to about 15 minutes before the end of Zombie Lake.  Been meaning to finish it up - for about six months now 

[lester1/2jr]

" In a magical steampunk kingdom" no thanks