Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Rev. Powell]

RIFFTRAX: KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS: Rural Arizona veterinarian William Shatner and big city toxicologist Tiffany Bolling deal (badly) with a plague of aggressive spiders whose venom has been mutated by DDT, or something vague like that. Dull drive-in dreck of the type that definitely benefits from having jokes inserted. 3/5.

[indianasmith]

THE CURSED (2021) - In 1880, A group of French landowners hire mercenaries to kill a band of gypsies who showed up with a claim on their land. The gypsy's shaman curses them as they bury her alive, and within a few weeks the village and the landowners are being stalked by a deadly, wolflike creature.  Interesting take on the werewolf myth; great creature effects and gore.  4.5/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Dog Day Afternoon" (1975)
Two inept crooks' attempt to rob a Brooklyn bank spirals into a hostage situation, turning them into media sensations and unlikely folk heroes. This slow burning suspense drama is based on an actual incident that took place in 1972 and features fantastic performances all around, esp. by Al Pacino as "Sonny." A classic.

[Rev. Powell]

EROTIC GHOST STORY III (1991): A Buddhist monk shows a wandering swordsman how to enter a drawing that leads to hell, where he falls in love with a beautiful demon while another female demon schemes to enter and conquer the earthly realm. A step down from the previous two entries with an equal amount of sex but less verve and imagination; it does, however, include the most athletic wuxia action in the climax. 2/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Sisters (1972) - I wasn't super in the mood for this, but I clicked on it anyway. It feels superficially kind of grindhouse-ey but with a lot more thought put into the plot and less focus on the blood and gore. Imagine if "Don't Go in the Basement" was directed by very young David Fincher or something.

A guy appears on a goofy local game show in NYC and ends up going home with one of the other guests. Unfortunately for him, she has an insane twin sister. His troubles escalate with the introduction of her mad scientist looking ex husband who shows up and a complicated back history of the twins emerges. blah blah blah

It certainly could have used more nudity and gore, but director Brian De Palma does what he can. I liked this about as much Blow Out but not half as much as Body Double. I'm trying to come up with something writerly to describe my relative disappointment, but it just kind of needed to be more rated R. It bears some similarity to Warlock Moon which I saw the other day, but I liked that more for some reason, even though it was technically less accomplished.

4/5

[M.10rda]

I don't dislike BODY DOUBLE but I saw SISTERS and BLOW-OUT first (as a kid!  ...inappropriate...) and something about those two very low-key, chilly, ?subtle? movies really struck a chord w/ me. I agree BODY DOUBLE is more "fun"... or maybe "ostentatious" is the word? I feel like BODY DOUBLE has more in common w/ CARRIE than SISTERS or BLOW-OUT. (Actually I didn't like CARRIE when I first saw it, either, though I appreciate it/love it today.)