Days 7 and 8 for me involved Michael Reeves’ The Sorcerers (1967) and Jess Franco’s Necromonicon (1968).
Perhaps neither are out and out horror films by everyone’s standards but they just about fit for me. Reeves’ film is a nice slice of 60s kitsch with the added bonus of Boris Karloff and a very young Susan George. (and of course Ian Ogilvy, it is a Reeves film after all) Necromonicon is more of a bad but sexy acid trip but does have the benefit of being set in Lisbon for much of the time. (One for Topo if he hasn’t already seen it) Bizarrely, the lead actress seems to live in the Torre de Belem. Presumably it’s handy to the lovely custard tart shop. I’d certainly live there if I could. Not a great film but enjoyable and probably one of Franco’s better efforts that I’ve seen
quote=“autephex, post:916, topic:405” - Wesley Snipes plays a highly groomed gunman that hunts down weird undead no-skin-bandits in the middle of the desert. The film is ripping off classic spaghetti stuff left and right - the entire post-credits scene is lifted basically from OUATITW and then proceeds to even quote the scene. Tons of violence and gore in this strange horror western. There’s also tons of attention placed on the visual appearance of everything, unfortunately its styled very much like an anime cartoon and has the effect of being really cheesed out superficial stuff.
Snipes’s character reminds me of Depp in the Pirates movies, and no one really looks believable in this film. There’s also some fairly heavy usage of an annoying fake grain filter.
Despite its flaws, I have to admit its got some cool shots and there is a blatant amount of spaghetti styling, lots of crazy stuff and gunslingin’ going on, so maybe worth watching, but can’t say I necessarily recommend it…[/quote]
Just viewed this one. Yes could not believe what a ripoff it was of OUATITW at the start of the film. The film trys just to hard to be stylish, so becomes a little self concious in this regard. But even so there are some nice shots. The story was not really my thing and did not get me involved at all.
Today: Not necessarily a bona fide classic, but certainly a remake of one, and IMO a pretty good remake for that matter: Dawn of the Dead (Snyder, 2004), featuring Ving “Marcellus Wallace” Rhames and a pre-Modern Family Ty Burrell. Come on, get down with the sickness!
The Family Frightener today is a VERY “Family” Frightener: Scooby Doo & the Reluctant Werewolf (Patterson, 1988). Yoinks!
Tonight’s movie is going to be the cracking Grave Encounters (Minihan & Ortiz aka The Vicious Brothers, 2011). Found-footage shenanigans in an abandoned hospital with a cynical Most Haunted-style TV crew who finally get everything they’d ever wanted. Nothing original here whatsoever but what it does, it does well IMO. The sequel was a limp attempt to replicate this movie and not worth the time of day but Grave Encounters is an effective little picture.
The Family Frightener today is Timur Bekmambetov’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012).
Days 9 and 10 for me involved a couple of more recent British / Irish releases. Both of which were actually pleasant surprises.
[b]Wake Wood (Keating 2010)
Outpost (Barker 2008)[/b]
The first has a nice pagan ceremony / closed community thing going on which doesn’t all go exactly as you’d expect and the latter is a low budget Nazi Zombie affair which delivers everything you’d expect in an entertaining fashion and looks better than its budget would suggest. Reminded me a bit of a Neil Sullivan film in a way. A bit Dog Soldiers, a bit Doomsday but without the women. Neither will trouble my all time great list (if such a thing existed) but were enjoyable time passers and both were better than I expected.
I like Outpost in that same “enjoyable enough, nothing Earth-shattering” way - indeed, I have it pencilled in for the 27th or 28th or thereabouts - but I found Wake Wood a bit dour. I love the premise, it lends any film of that paganist/Satanic nature an almost Lovecraftian tone, I feel, but I think that that might’ve elevated my expectations or at least my hopes for that picture, and I came away from it feeling that it lacked… I dunno, something. Traded my copy in at CEX, I think.
Jess Franco was originally the director but bailed due to arguments with the distributor, so we get Jean Rollin instead. Nazi soldiers killed and thrown into some kind of sacred, sacrificial lake return as zombies (but they still live in the lake). This incredible horror film includes what I think may be the strangest, most off guard moment in any zombie movie ever. The English dub is comicly bad, I was continuously laughing at the way the dialogue was being delivered. Totally cheap and nonsensical, but this was one of those rare ones that actually gets me laughing over and over. One thing I notice watching these really low grade movies is that the director and crew still manage to turn out something more stimulating to look at than basically all the low tier stuff made today. The soundtrack is actually kinda cool too, although I don’t know if it was lifted from something else
Sometime this weekend, I am going to follow this one up with Jean Rollin’s The Iron Rose.
Posters of horror movies are often much better than the movie itself.
Apparently it’s a genre that inspires poster designers. Maybe it’s easier to design a good poster for a horror movie than, let’s say, a drama or an ordinary thriller.
Oh it’s from Rollin. Haven’t seen a bad film from him so far, only unusual stuff (even if the cheapness sometimes shows). And The Iron Rose is recommended.
Zombie Lake is one of the cheapest films I’ve ever seen. I liked it because it was bizarre and funny, and interesting camerawork which you never really see now days… decent gore effects but the make up is beyond cheap
[quote=“scherpschutter, post:952, topic:405”]Posters of horror movies are often much better than the movie itself.
Apparently it’s a genre that inspires poster designers. Maybe it’s easier to design a good poster for a horror movie than, let’s say, a drama or an ordinary thriller.[/quote]
You probably al ready know this, but it’s a story (legend?) worth repeating: Hammer used to come up with a title and poster before a script to see if they could sell the film, and if they thought they could, would [I]then[/I] commission a screenplay. It’s a shame that so many of these horror film poster artists are now forgotten or a very obscure as they created some really extraordinary images.
Dog Soldiers (2002) are debut movie from Neil Marshall who after this movie made one of my favorite modern day horrors The Descent (2005). Dog Soldiers are combination of modern werewolf story and Night of the Living Dead ‘house under siege’. Slightly predictive and nowhere as chilly as The Descent. I’ll give overview of Masters of Horror anthology after I’ve watch whole season, so far the first 3 episodes ranged from OK to very good.
Tonight my local TV is showing another Hammer feature, Scars of Dracula (1970) , so I’ll go with that.
Today I’m going with recent(ish) box office smash Sinister (Derrickson, 2012). It’s a wee bit too polished and “Hollywood” to truly grab anyone by the danglies in terror but it’s got one or two effective, nasty set-pieces and was IMO quite a bit better overall than I would’ve expected from a mainstream horror.
The Family Frightener is a double-bill: the original version of The Fly (Neumann, 1958) and its fantastic sequel, Return of the Fly (Bernds, 1959).
What do you think about AL VH? I saw it at the cinema and enjoyed it a lot. Second time viewing at home not as entertaining, maybe watched it too soon or maybe it just wasn’t as impressive on small screen. I liked the western/horror blend though. Goes a bit too far overboard at the end with the train stuff.
My latest viewing:
Speaking of horror/western blend, I’m about midway through [b]Ravenous /b. I’ve been aware of this film for a while now, having heard good things since it came out, but never yet watched. I picked it because it was listed under the horror genre, although I’m not sure if it really qualifies. It does have a lot of horror type stuff mixed in, but this seems to be one of those films that doesn’t really fit into one genre. So far I’ve been thinking that this really feels like what a real, late-late-period spaghetti could have been like, with its strange story and characters with heavy violence and some dark stuff. Also a good amount of humor in this film. Will probably finish the rest shortly, had to to turn it off and go to bed last night.
Wishmaster (1997)
A tricky Djinn is trapped in a gemstone until he is unwittingly released in 1990s America, and proceeds to be a huge dick to everyone. I remember seeing this back in 1997 at the theater, and totally hating it. A strange movie to remember seeing at cinema, as it completely looks like a straight to video release. Now that I think about it, I recall seeing several similar titles at this particular theater like Hellraiser IV Bloodlines which didn’t really get a theatrical release. Anyway, I probably hated it then because of this straight to video vibe, which isn’t a big problem for me any more. A few familiar faces like Robert Englund and Tony Todd - personally I would have loved to see Tony Todd play the Djinn instead. Kind of a unique film in that there’s not a lot of horror movies that make use of the Djinn mythology, and makes for different take on all the same old stuff with a bit of dreaminess to it. However, this is still very casual viewing and there maybe plenty of gore but there’s nothing scary or disturbing here. Now that I’ve started, I guess I will have to watch all the sequels.
Metal band frontman decides to kill all his mates but one girl survives, naming him as the murderer and then going on to become a successful singer using his songs. He’s executed but comes back to take revenge. I thought this might be a fun watch mainly because my girlfriend grew up with all that 80s metal stuff, and it was kinda fun in this aspect but that’s about all the film has going for it. As a horror movie, this is standard by the book stuff, and only real interest is the occasional funny dialogue lines which aren’t enough to make this a worthwhile view. (Unless you really like boring 80s American slashers)
The Iron Rose is one that I want to check out. Who wouldn’t want to see a movie that takes entirely in a graveyard? I heard the plot was a bit incoherent but I’m kinda used to that by now.
As for posters, it was actually the cover art that made me go for a blind buy for the Blind Dead box not knowing whether I would like the films or not, but it turns out that I loved the films. So its a good example of the movie living up to the artwork.
Some decent films being mentioned here. Dog Soldiers was decent enough. I preferred the book of Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter over the movie. I agree that Sinister was too “modern day hollywood” but I still thought it was decent.
