Recent viewings

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Chilling" (1989)
A cryogenics facility becomes Ground Zero for a zombie outbreak when a storm knocks out the power and its frozen occupants thaw out. Can a lab assistant (Linda Blair) and a night watchman (Dan "Grizzly Adams" Haggerty) stop the invasion of the walking Popsicles?
Cheap direct-to-video nonsense that's good for a few laughs, depending on your tolerance for B-movie pain.

[lester1/2jr]

Mad Love - this is part of a scientifically dodgy two fer with Tod brownings The Devil Doll. It's the better of the two. weird Peter Lorre is in love with a singer in a weird horror play.



He goes to great lengths to win her affections but alas she is married to a famous composer piano player guy. As luck would have it, he gets in a horrible train crash and his hands get destroyed. Unfortunately for him Peter Lorre is a awesome doctor and sews some new hands on, but the hands he chose are hands of a murderer and of course you know hands have their owns brains.

It's a good movie. the lady is pretty and the ridiculous science and unlikely coincidences are okay and almost charming.

4/5

the Devil Doll - Well it's no freaks but it's passably entertaining if you like old movies. A scientist has figured out how to shrink humans ( and also dogs) to be really small. the hook is the cheesy effect they use which probably blew peoples minds in 1935 or whenever this was made. The scientist expires but his wife and an ex con train the little people to rob people and he uses them to get back at his former business partners. it works well as the b side to Mad Love but on it's own it's a little thin though ultimately I kind of liked it. what an endorsement
3.5/ 5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Unearthed & Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary" (2017)
Cool behind-the-scenes doc about the making of the '89 flick based on Stephen King's novel. Lots of interesting stories are told by cast & crew members and fans, tho King himself is noticeably absent. I've seen the movie lots of times over the years and thought I knew everything about it, but I came away with a few new tidbits of trivia.

"Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter" (1984)
In the fourth, though obviously far from "final," F13 flick, Jason escapes from the morgue and heads back to Crystal Lake, where he proceeds to start carving up yet another cabin full of horny/stupid teenyboppers. However, The Big Jay may have met his match in the form of Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman!) - a local pre-teen who's handy with monster makeup and also possesses mad skills with a machete. In other words... more of the usual enjoyably gory nonsense.

[Rev. Powell]

So I'm watching a lot of movies for the film festival I'm judging, but it's hard to mention them here because most of them are unreleased to the public and may never be distributed. One you might try looking for due to the subject matter is CINEBASURA: THE MOVIE. It's a Spanish film about two snarky video bloggers who open a portal to an alternate universe of bad movie cliches. It's a love letter to bad movies, with plenty of references you guys will catch. 3.5/5, for bad movie fans only.

Also

INSIANG (1976): Manila-set revenge drama; pretty young Insiang suffers under her domineering mother, her creep boyfriend, and her own feckless beau, until she decides to take matters into her own hands. Effective social realism with just a hint of melodrama to keep you watching. 3/5.

[Dr. Whom]

Okja (2017)

After the brilliant Gwoemul and the decent if not exactly earth shattering Snowpiercer, I had high hopes of the new movie by Bong Joon-Ho. Unfortunately, these are disappointed. It begins alright, with a suitably bonkers Tilda Swinton, a pig-hippopotamus hybrid channeling Totoro, some very polite and safety-conscious activists, and assorted quirkiness, but then it doesn't go anywhere, and becomes just a by the numbers ecological fable of cute girl against evil corporation. It is not actually bad, but the satire is generally tame and predictable. It has none of the sarcasm of Gwoemul, which apparently doesn't travel very well. Also, Paul Dano seems to think he is in a Wes Anderson movie.

[A_Dubya]

Day of the Dead - 1985


This was my first time seeing it. I saw the Dawn remake but not the original yet, and of course I saw Night of the Living Dead (original). It had some lulls in the first hour or so, but the final 2 acts were great in my opinion. I was glad that in this installment of the Dead films, a few of the protagonists survived, and were not killed at the end.

It was predictable that the army soldiers who were threatening to kill innocent survivors, spouting racial slurs at the Latino and black characters, and being general douches were going to eventually die in a very gruesome fashion. The special effects were extremely gross and done well, especially for the last part of Rhodes' standoff with Bub.

It was a fun ride, and I'm gonna try and seek out Dawn of the Dead from '78.

[indianasmith]

HAUNTED HIGHWAY (2005) -  A photographer named Greg gets in a fight with his wife over his affair with one of the models he's working with.
He shoves her, she falls backward, hits her head, and dies.  So he decides to wrap her body in a sheet and take it out to a remote lake and dump her.
Problem is, he goes insane during the four hour drive.  He keeps seeing her standing by the road, sitting in the car next to him, etc.
Basically, the movie is endless shots of a guy driving at night making intense facial expressions.
It FELT four hours long!!  2/5

[indianasmith]

TRANSHUMAN (2017) - Man, this has been a week of loser movies!  First the boring HAUNTED HIGHWAY, now this movie makes that one look positively entertaining by comparison!  A disgraced British journalist working out of Barcelona uncovers a 70 year old plot with roots in Nazi Germany, to use some specially formulated serum to transform human beings into invincible warriors.  At least that is what the box says.  The thing is so slow-paced, the accents so thick, and the dialogue so muted that it is hard to tell what is going on.  The frequent use of flashbacks lends to the incomprehensibility, and the pace is so slow that you are falling asleep by the time you finally get to a little bit of action near the end.  AVOID this one at all costs!  1/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"It Follows" (2015)
After a one-night stand, a teenage girl is pursued relentlessly by a mysterious, murderous spirit. Is there such a thing as an "STG" (Sexually Transmitted Ghost)?
This movie got a lot of rave reviews when it came out but I thought it was "meh." The concept is interesting but aside from a couple of creepy bits it mostly runs around in circles. Pass.

[javakoala]

"It Follows" (2015)
After a one-night stand, a teenage girl is pursued relentlessly by a mysterious, murderous spirit. Is there such a thing as an "STG" (Sexually Transmitted Ghost)?
This movie got a lot of rave reviews when it came out but I thought it was "meh." The concept is interesting but aside from a couple of creepy bits it mostly runs around in circles. Pass.

I loathe this film with a burning intensity beyond reason. More than I hate Zach Snyder movies.

[indianasmith]

Anyone who cannot appreciate the glorious wonder that is SUCKER PUNCH is somehow damaged inside anyway . . .   

[javakoala]

Anyone who cannot appreciate the glorious wonder that is SUCKER PUNCH is somehow damaged inside anyway . . .   

I love you, too, Indy.       

[indianasmith]

ATTACK GIRLS SWIM TEAM VS. THE UNDEAD (2007)

OK, this week the Forbidden Gallery, where I now rent my movies, had a triple feature in one case to rent: Three Japanese zombie movies ("Nihombies" they called them!).  I had already seen ZOMBIE SELF DEFENSE FORCE, so I went for the next one in the pack, this one.  No one does weirdness quite like the Japanese, and while this one wasn't as bizarre as some Japanese films (I don't think any movie will ever match the bar set by HELLDRIVER for utter weirdness), it was plenty strange.  A mandatory vaccination by the government transforms the population of a Japanese high school into zombies, however, the swim team remains unaffected because the chlorine in the pool forms an antidote to the virus.  So the all-girls swim team fights the zombies while trying to find the source of the infection - whenever the two lead characters aren't doing some lesbian canoodling, or the new girl isn't having flashbacks to her days as a sex slave/trained assassin in the service of a mad scientist.  Half zombie movie, half softcore, all messed up.  This thing definitely falls into the "so bad it's ALMOST good" category! 3.5/5

[lester1/2jr]

^ I saw one of those movies a while back. frankenstein woman vs I can't even remember Dracula Girl? it was really good

bit of  a back up here so i'll be brief

A hole in my Heart (2004) - this is too cerebral to be like Martyrs or Serbian Movie or one of those gross out foreign movies but definately too edgy for a foreign oscar. I thought it was great.

A Swedish amateur porn producer lives a squalid life in his gross apartment he shares with his introverted son who hates him. example: the guy asks for a glass of water and the kid brings him one...from the toilet. He films a really cheap and horrible seeming porn and we get to know him and the two stars. Everyone is sweaty and smelly and gross. Why did they choose this life? and how can I join

The same director did the extremely sad lilya forever, the more upbeat Show me Love and a few other very good movies.

5/5 its not a riveting can't pause it type movie it might take a little while but its worth it. the writer and director have something to say about...the modern condition or whatever

murder my sweet - dick Powell (if thats not a stage name then it should be) is Philip Marlowe trying to find a lost jade necklace. Its not a usual detective story though, its mainly about the decadence and sexual tension and so forth in this little group, much more of an overt film noir than say The Maltese Falcon.

4.5 / 5 theres an awful lot of powell he's good but I don't know maybe they could have moved around among the characters a litte more

Candyman - can't believe I never saw this. very cool movie. the lead actress is hot, the story is by Clive Barker. its constantly on tv and i just never checked it out instead I watched wacky races and Sea Hunt like I was 7. The ghost of an old hunted down and killed ex slave (I think?) haunts a ghetto like if you are bad Candyman will come after you. A researcher looks into it and gets "in too deep" as they tend to do with their research. If you like Stephen King and that sort of thing check it out

4.5 /5

[dean]

The Lure:

"They only touch the fish tail vagina once. Why set it up like that and not use it again??" - My friend complaining at the end of this movie.

Polish Vampire Mermaid musical. Yup that's right.

It's an incomprehensible mess (but the good kind) and some of the songs are pretty catchy even if the plot doesn't make a lick of sense. I mean nobody seems particularly worried about mermaids existing and the Polish nightclub/strip club scene is very different to the ones I'm familiar with here. The key being the working kitchen, cabaret level productions, house band and an average age of about 50 as the clientele. Either way though they seem like a ton of fun.

Worth a watch with some friends and an open mind about plot structure. 3.5/5

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