Agree re Cushing Devil Bunny. Been a favourite of mine for a very long time ! 
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Thats right Scherpschutter it has some erotic influences.
And yes Paco a very mean CushingâŠa man who gets the job done period with no messing around.
Itâs funny how women always like to speak for their âbetterâ halves 
I do like SOME Hammerâs but it can get a little confusing as to which ones they are. Dracula, Nephew Of Dracula, Ex Co-Worker Of Frankenstein, If Youâre UndeadâŠDracula, Suck! They are very atmospheric but hit or miss for me. Lee & Cushing are always great watches for me but not always the movies theyâre in. I prefer the Cormanâs though.
HA! 
Just saw the hammer version of Hound of the Baskervilles.
Really good (and faithful) representation of Holmes by Cushing. Not very likeable but he wasnât in the books either. Surprised that Chris Lee is a good guy in this one! Andre Morrel is good but I donât like how Watson is always the fat bumbling sidekick, instead of the intelligent, handsome and womanizing doctor that he really is in the books.
Some events seem to occur without much of an explanation (that aspect reminds me of many gialli).
I think they couldâve been more faithful to the book, for example having the dog glow in the dark instead of just wearing a mask (sorry for spoilers). Great looking sets.
7/10 for me.
[quote=âDevil Bunny, post:283, topic:405â]
HA! :D[/quote]
Forgive DB guys, I have no idea why she posted a pic of what she looks like in the morning :-[
TRUE! 
[quote=âCol. Douglas Mortimer, post:284, topic:405â]Just saw the hammer version of Hound of the Baskervilles.
Really good (and faithful) representation of Holmes by Cushing. Not very likeable but he wasnât in the books either. Surprised that Chris Lee is a good guy in this one! Andre Morrel is good but I donât like how Watson is always the fat bumbling sidekick, instead of the intelligent, handsome and womanizing doctor that he really is in the books.
Some events seem to occur without much of an explanation (that aspect reminds me of many gialli).
I think they couldâve been more faithful to the book, for example having the dog glow in the dark instead of just wearing a mask (sorry for spoilers). Great looking sets.
7/10 for me.[/quote]
A good review (Iâm not sure I agree about Watson being a âwomanizing doctorâ in the books⊠I too think itâs really good (itâs my favourite Hammer, but I have only seen one other, the dissapointing âThe Devil Ship-Piratesâ), the only downside is the day-for-night scenes.
HOTB is a great Hammer. The atmosphere reminds me of the first Dracula film of theirs, Horror of Dracula. Unfortunately Watson is is as you said, fat and bumbling like the old Basil Rathbone films which I canât stand. Another Hammer I would strongly reccomend is Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed. Peter Cushing is smart and wicked and not a nice sort at all! Kidnapping, rape, transplanted brains, What more could you ask for! And a nice part by Freddie Jones whoâs creepy even when heâs a good guy!
100% agreed.
Iâve been working my way back through Hammerâs Frankenstein series recently and FMBD stands out as one of the best for all the reasons you mention. One of Cushingâs best performances for my money and I like him in pretty much everything he did. A class act.
Interestingly I just picked an autobiography by Cushing at a library sale and he mentions in it how much trouble Hammer had in depicting the Hound in HOTB. One entire scene which they hoped would convey its size included dressing children as the main characters on a scaled down set with a life size dog but it didnât work so was scrapped.
[quote=âPhil H, post:289, topic:405â]100% agreed.
One entire scene which they hoped would convey its size included dressing children as the main characters on a scaled down set with a life size dog but it didnât work so was scrapped.[/quote]
This sounds like the Laurel & Hardey short, Brats!
Just finished watching the horrible Dr. Hichcock. Really good performances by Barbara Steele and Robert Flemyng. Great visuals, sets and cinematography as well. Riccardo Freda is a talented director and Iâm sure he mustâve taught Bava a few things.
To bad the plot made absolutely zero sense though.
6/10 for me.
Looking forward to watch the loose sequel, The Ghost aka Lo Spettro
[url]http://img689.imageshack.us/i/images2qj.jpg/[/url] [size=4]Darkman[/size] (1990, Sam Raimi)
![http://img689.imageshack.us/i/images2qj.jpg/[/url]](http://img689.imageshack.us/i/images2qj.jpg/%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
Enjoyable blend of cartoon, grand guignol and melodrama in Raimiâs typical hyperactive style
Iâm not a fan of this director (there must be some fans around here), although I usually find his work rather entertaining. This is a good example of what I like and donât like in most of his work: he takes his films either too serious or not serious enough. Darkman is basically a cartoon brought to the big screen, and as a cartoon it works quite well - itâs fast, colourful, furious and funny - but it never transcends the basic cartoonish idea, reminiscent of The House of Wax, of the brilliant scientist mutulated in his own lab, who âcomes back from the other sideâ to get even with those who did him wrong. There are some hints that Raimi noticed there was more in this story (especially towards the end), but he misses the opportunity he created himself, so to speak.
What I often miss in Raimi, and especially in this movie, is the satirical edge I admire in the work of Verhoeven. Itâs good, but it could have been better.
Had Verhoeven directed this film, it wouldâve been a lot better.
IN MY OPINION
I guess a lot of people wonât agree with me âŠ
Have been wondering about Darkman for some time now⊠Havenât watched for many years, but always seemed to sound better than it was. Didnât realize it was a Sam Raimi film. Not a big fan myself⊠Evil Dead 2 is probably my favorite Raimi but canât say any of his films make my favorite list. Have had a lot of buddies that absolutely love his films, but they are somewhat lost on me. I bought Evil Dead on VHS back before DVDs existed, because a friend had told me it was the scariest movie heâd ever seen. I was extremely excited about it, only to be drowned in boredum⊠Army of Darkness isnât my style of humor, doesnât get many laughs at all from me.
Would like to check out Drag Me To Hell though
[size=6]Opera[/size] (Dario Argento)
While Gialloâs heyday ended in the late 70âs, a few hold outs (VERY few) still made some Giallo thrillers into the 80âs. This was Argentoâs second and finale Giallo of the decade and most say it is his last really good film!
What I find interesting about this film is that it is not ruined by itâs rather large budget. Argento seems to know exactley how to spend the money properly. Good special effects, top notch technical personal such as Gandhiâs DP, Ronnie Taylor who, by the way, does absolutley wonderful work under Argentoâs crystal clear vision.
As a Giallo, this one is very good. It has even pacing between all the thrills and murders and such. And features some of Argentoâs most gruesome kills. Our heroin is tied up most pf the time with pins taped beneath her eyes to watch a deranged fan/stalker of hers, murder her freinds. They are uncomfortably realistic and the sound effects are equally vomit inducing. The traditional POV scenes are present mostly in the beginning where a stagehand is murdered POV style. The susoense is pretty much non existant here as the killer doesnât leap out of the shadows to kill our herion. Once she is tied up, itâs no doubt someoneâs gonna die.
but my major problem with the film is that there seems to be too much going on all together with little rest in-between. I did say it was even;y spaced which it is. but Argento seems to try and make every single scene, something special or important to the plot. It had the effect of warring me down and left me grasping for air by end, so to speak.
5/5 as a giallo
4/5 as a film
4/5 overall
Drag me to Hell (Sam Raimi)
Not bad, but I canât share the enthousiastic comments I read here and there.
Itâs probably the subject, a gipsy curse. Horror is about - so the experts say - the suspension of disbelief: I find it hard to belief in those curses, even for a second. Usually an older gipsy, man of wife, calls a curse upon someone when he or she feels mistreated or insulted. The gipsies (or better romani) were never welcome in any country in the course of history, and were chased or persecuted over and over again. If they had the faculty to cast curses, the whole world would be cursed!
Some may say this is not the way to look at those movies, but itâs the way I look at things (not only movies): itâs silly, not good thinking.
Raimiâs postmodern tongue-in-cheek (in this case: false-teeth-out) approach doesnât help either. Once again he is taking his subject too serious or not serious enough. His visuals are impressive, as always, and I did like some of the more light-hearted scenes: the fly, the dinner with the boyfriendâs parents. The final scene (reminiscent of Carrie) is also very good.
If you donât care about ideas, suspension of disbelief etc. this will be a very rewarding film: itâs well-crafted, slick and entertaining
Ă lâintĂ©rieur by Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury (France 2007)
Extremely violent slasher of the new French wave of explicit Horror films.
A pregnant woman, alone in a house, is besieged by a strange woman who wants her unborn baby.
[quote=âStanton, post:296, topic:405â]Ă lâintĂ©rieur by Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury (France 2007)
Extremely violent slasher of the new French wave of explicit Horror films.
A pregnant woman, alone in a house, is besieged by a strange woman who wants her unborn baby.[/quote]
Havenât seen it yet, but heard a lot of good things about it
The recent Martyrs scared me off a little as far as French horror is concerned, but Iâll give it a try (probably after Christmas)
Itâs set on Christmas Eve. And Beatrice Dalle gives the intruding woman.
Some of the ideas to get other people in the house only to get slaughtered are (as often in this genre) lacking logic and traceability. The film should have focused on the main story.
Shot with a digital cameras using not much light.
I enjoyed this oneâŠreal heavy duty horror.
Anyone a fan of Christmas themed horror? I love the late Bob Clarkâs Black Christmas a lot and the over the top slasher film Silent Night Deadly Night as well as Christmas Evil. Christmas Evil is absolutely one of the best Christmas themed horror movies out there. I also love Gremlins as well.
also Lionsgate has released a Silent Night Deadly Night boxset which includes:
Part 3: Better Watch Out!
Part 4: Initiation
Part 5: Toymaker