15 Jan 2012

WEEK 35: Exposé




Alternate Titles : The House on Straw Hill, Trauma
Year: 1975
Reviews / Author Comments due: 21/01/2012
DPP Status: Successfully Prosecuted
Wikipedia:  Exposé
DVD: Uncut version currently unavailable - look for French or Australian version, under title "The House on Straw Hill"






Feel free to use the comments section of this post to add your own reviews and thoughts about this movie.

14 Jan 2012

Evilspeak - Will's Review

I'd like to start by saying I really did enjoy this week's movie - I know it's a little weird to give my conclusion at the start of a review, but the thing is; on paper, it's a pretty shitty movie, as a result anything I can say about it is likely to sound like I didn't enjoy it, so unwanted to clear that up before I start.


So, why should it suck?

Well, for one thing it's like a checklist for 80's teen horror movie villein clichés. Our main character is an orphaned, unpopular (save for one close friend), bullied computer wiz. If he only listened to heavy metal and played Dungeons and Dragons, I do believe we'd have a full house.

Young Coopersmith (the aforementioned main character) is in military school, and finds himself on report rather a lot - usually as a result of his bullies' actions, which means he spends as much time taking out the rubbish, or tending to the schools psychotic killer pigs (yes, the military school has a farm full of angry pigs) as he does in class. One particular punishment he receives is to clear out the chapel basement.

But this is no ordinary military chapel - it seems that, in the days of the inquisition, a priest by the name of Esteban was banished, not only from the church, but from all of Spain, for turning to Satan. On arrival in the new world  Esteban  built a church - years later an entire military school was built around it (!).

And so, while clearing the basement, Coppersmith finds an entire room that no one knew was there (including 'sarge'; the mad and potentially violent old guy who the school allows to live in the basement) in the room he finds some of  Esteban 's relics, including a notebook.

After knicking one of the schools computers and sneaking it  down into the basement (I never said that this movie didn't require you to suspend disbelief) Coopersmith sets too translating the Latin notebook into English - and in doing so, frees an evil force into the computer.

Y'know... He has a point.

There are a couple of deaths along the way (the school secretary steals the notebook at one point, and is eaten by pigs for her trouble) but the action really doesn't kick off until literally the movie's last nine minutes!

At one point my partner (who refuses to watch these things) asked how my film was, prompting me to say "I'm half way through, nothing nasty has happened, this thing was prosecuted and not passed uncut for 20 years - there'd better be a fucking bloodbath on the way!"

Sadly, there isn't - there's quite a body count (unusually for these things, Coopersmith even takes out some people who didn't particually do anything to him) but it isn't as graphic as you would want, given the length of time it holds out to get there.

I can't be the only one who cringes when someone
in a horror movie has a dog...

The odd pacing doesn't hurt the film though, as it has 90 minutes to mess around with things modern audiences just don't have time for (things like 'character development' and 'setup') and I never actually found by self being board.

Oh, and if some of Coopersmith's mannerisms seem familiar; that's probably because the actor seems to channel his brother, big-shot director and one time Ritchie Cunningham, Ron Howard.

Body Count: 12
Boob Count: 2 pairs
Animal Body Count: 1
Most Memorable Death: When a zombie takes heart...


Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.

Evilspeak - Lisa's Review

***SPOILERS***

Bit of a wierd one this in some respects... in that although there were monumentally crap parts to this movie, I quite enjoyed it. For some reason, it reminded me of a male Carrie (obviously nowhere near as good, but the idea was there).

I thought we had a movie set in olden times when this one started and subtitled... I thought this is going to be a challenge with a screaming baby to contend with, but thankfully after an initial 5 minutes or so to set the scene, we switch to what would have been the present day when this movie was made.


We start with what looks like a monk/priest (very bad man!! you just know by looking at them don't you? The menacing glare usually gives it away) being banished by what must be the top dog amongst the holy men. He is accused of satanism and refuses to renounce his worship. This scene ends with possibly the worst beheading (as in crap) I have yet to see in any movie. It was rather satisying that it was the young woman with the impossibly high breasts! *snigger*.

The background set, we head to military school and meet our 'hero' if you will. - Coopersmith (I thought he was called Cooper Smith, but a check online told me otherwise). His parents have been killed in a car accident and he's been placed in this school that he otherwise would never have got into, as he's a bit slow it seems. He (like Carrie) is the misfit, the nerd, the one no-one likes. He is bullied, picked on and ridiculed by other boys and even it seems by a rather cruel minister. One thing which I found it really hard to shake through the whole film is that this is the little kid from 'Gentle Ben'... I so wish they had named a character Ben, just so he could lose him and run around shouting his name... just for the nostalgia.

Getting on to the story, while on a punishment cleaning duty of the cellar, he comes across a rather cool looking book of Black Magic with a jewelled pentagram on the front. This is obviously from our original banished priest. Coopersmith sets to translating the book and for some reason that was completely lost on me through the entire movie, he decides to follow the commands within it to worship satan (and he seems such a nice boy) and bring our nasty man back to life.

One thing I found really irritating about the movie is that the computer he uses to translate the book somehow seems to become possessed and throughout the movie, it throws up all kinds of crap statements and images. I would have much preferred the movie, had he done it the old fashioned way and went to the library and translated it.

We kick off proceedings with a drunken caretaker who wakes up and gets into a tussle with Coopersmith. This culminates inCoopersmith crying out for help and the caretaker meeting a nasty end where his head twists completely around to face the wrong direction. The special effects here are laughable btw.

Later on Coopermith leaves his book on a desk with the school secretary when he is in seeing the head teacher and she develops an obssession with the jewels on the Pentagram... consequentally we need to see her have a shower with the obligatory boob scene, then she is inexplicably attacked and eaten by wild boars. This scene is quite funny as we alternate between a vicious puppet of a boar and some very contented boars wandering about the bathroom.
We go on to a beauty contest (for whatever reason) at the school and lots of girls walking about in bikinis. I didn't really see the point of this section of the movie, but hey ho.

We go on to have Coopersmiths little pet doggie (given to him by a staff member and rare friend) killed by the bullies who are trying to give this 'computer' what it wants - blood. He however demands HUMAN blood. Hmmmmm. That fecking computer!

Meanwhile, there is a service going on upstairs where a Jesus on a crucifix seems to come to life. The veins on his wrist start to pllsate and a nail flies out of his bleeding stoney hand and lodges itself in the miniters forehead... most amusing!

You don't wanna mess with Coopersmith! He becomes possessed by our scary evil priest man and goes on a rampage. This is where the movie went all Carrie for me. Lots of people die nastilly. Very amusingly Coopersmith starts to hover above everyone with his hoisty thing, very clear to be seen underneath his very oddly shaped clothing.

He wields a very lovely sword and the best kill of the movie is a head splitting scene. There are also some awfully bad decapitations and some more hog eating to be done.

We end the movie weirdly with the caretaker who died earlier with the reverse head spin coming back to life and pulling one of the bullies still beating heart out of his chest.... getting bored of that effect now....

In conclusion, we are treated to the news via that update text you sometimes get at the end of movies (I hate that!) that Coopersmith is now in an asylum recovering from everything that happened but the computer with his crap graphics, informs us that he shall return!

I did enjoy parts of this movie, even though some of it was spectacularly bad. You could do worse than watch this one, but you're not going to see anything ground breaking, overly disgusting, creepy or witness any fantastic acting. Medicore but with its own charm.



Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.

8 Jan 2012

Week 34 - Evilspeak



Alternate Titles : Evilspeaks
Year: 1982
Reviews / Author Comments due: 14/01/2012
DPP Status: Successfully Prosecuted
BBFC Status: Passed uncut in 2004
IMDB: Evilspeak
Wikipedia: Evilspeak
DVD: Uncut R2 (the cheaper Prism version is cut)




Feel free to use the comments section of this post to add your own reviews and thoughts about this movie.

7 Jan 2012

The Evil Dead - Will's Review

I've been looking forward to this one for weeks; I haven't seen it for years, but I LOVE the sequels.

As such, this is a tough one to review on it's own merits, but screw it: These "Reviews" are supposed to act as a discussion for people who have seen (or are interested in) the movies already, hence the liberal spoiler policy, so if comparisons to Evil Dead II, or Army of Darkness show up, then they do!

I will say, right off the bat, If  you havn't seen the Evil Dead movies, stop reading, head over to your DVD retailer of choice and buy the trilogy, NOW, come back when you're through watching.

One thing that benefits this film enormously is the small cast - there are literally 5 people in the entire film; the nature of the titicular* 'Evil' (it possesses humans with Canderian Demons) mean that they don't even have to introduce extra characters as villains - the 5 main cast play both sides, with only a voice on a tape to provide a little exposition. Also, while the first possession happen early on, the deaths don't start to mount up until the films final act, which gives us plenty of time to get to know everyone.

Unfortunately, "everyone" includes Scotty, the groups requisite asshat - why does every horror movie group have to have one person that you just can't imagine ANYONE being friends with?

Aside from Scotty, there's Ash, Ashes sister Cheryl, ant the 2 guy's girlfriends, Lynda and Shelly. The group are headed out to a run-down cabin in the woods which they have rented cheaply. Once there, they find severel things, including handy shotguns, an old reel-to-reel tape recorder, and the Naturan Demanto (Necronomicon Ex-Mortis in the sequels), roughly translated (we are told) "The Book of the Dead" the tape turns out to be a reading of the book, which unleashes the evil into the woods (again - we are led to believe that this also happened when the tape was made) and the rest is horror movie history!

Speaking of the Sequels, The Ash we see here is a different man to the sequels' Ash; Here, he's far more sweet than the "Hail to the King" ladies man, and far less assured than the "This is my Broomstick" quoting hero we will come to love.

It's great to see physical effects done... if not actually well, then at least competently enough for a feature of this caliber; The stop motion may not put Harryhausen to shame, but they are good enough that their sheer charm carries them the extra few steps that they're intrinsic quality could not, and they are great to see.

Also - keep a look out for the Wes Craven shout-out - I think this is the first in a chain of Raimi and Craven referencing each other.

Oh, and a woman gets raped by a tree.

Body Count: 4
Boob Count: 0
Animal Body Count: 0
Most Memorable Death: Self-killing demons? That's handy!.

*Side note: Not only does Chrome's spell checker not know the word "Movie" (Which it always wants to correct as "Mo vie" but it wanted me to talk about the "Testicular 'Evil'" too...




Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.

The Evil Dead - Lisa's Review

***SPOILERS***

As I write the word spoilers at the top of this review, I wonder if indeed it is possible to 'spoil' anything here, as has any horror fan NOT seen this movie?

We follow a group of young teenagers into the woods and a shack where they discover a recording of a Necronomicon. Slowly they all become possessed and start to kill each other. Thats the basic plot folks and all you really need to know.



This is Sam Raimis first venture into the world of horror and its quite fitting that he makes his debut alongside Bruce Campbell who goes on to work with him in many many more projects in the future.

The Evil Dead is a favourite amongst most horror fans and although it is full of terrible (even laughable) effects which look exactly like a GCSE students plasticine project, the movie is still enjoyable on every level. I found the zombie makeup on some of the characters really good in saying that.... It does have genuine scary bits, fantastically gorey bits, laugh out loud funny bits, some great acting (which is novel for these movies) and just a general eerie feel that is missing in most movies these days. I don't know why but when I first saw The Evil Dead and when I watched it again for this review, it reminded me in style a lot of 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' (one of my favourite movies). It manages to grab that feel and style sought after so much but usually missed by a mile, that feeling where you feel a little uncomfortable in places, but want to keep watching all the same.

I generally HATE comedy/horror mixes, but this one works. Weirdly the things that make it fall down (poor effects) also add to the charm of the movie and if they attempted to remake it (I hear nasty rumours about this being the case.. and no I don't mean Evil Dead 2), I don't think they could capture the same cult movie feel.

Scenes to watch out for are the possessed hand, the montage of melting plasticine figures, the dismemberment and twitching body parts, the white eyeballed and terribly face painted zombie lady under the trapdoor in the ground, spectacular hatchet kills, spewing severed limbs..... the list goes on and on.

In short, I definately recommend this to any horror fan. A must for the collection!








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1 Jan 2012

WEEK 33: The Evil Dead



Alternate Titles : Book of the Dead
Year: 1982
Reviews / Author Comments due: 7/1/2012
DPP Status: Removed from list September 1985 after the distributors fought the ban in court.
Wikipedia: The Evil Dead
DVD: R1 Uncut



Feel free to use the comments section of this post to add your own reviews and thoughts about this movie.

31 Dec 2011

Driller Killer - Will's Review

An odd one this week, that I think fancies itself as an art movie, with some lingering (Carefully composed) shots, and extended musical cutaways.



It centres around Reno - an artist who lives in a studio apartment with his girlfriend and his girlfriend's girlfriend (yes, really). Reno is broke, but working on a "masterpiece" that he believes will change all that... Oh, and he's going slowly mad.

I say "going mad", "Going madder" would probably be more appropriate, as he is obviously not entirely untroubled from the beginning of the movie, having  a serious aversion to homeless people, and being prone to violent outbursts at the slightest provocation. Oh, and a love of the word "man".

A balanced man, that one!

Reno's already tenuous grip on reality isn't helped what a No-Wave / Punk band move into the studio below his and use it as a rehearsal room - apparently to rehears just one song.

I quite liked the band, but I do have a lot of time for down-and-dirty garage punk, so your mileage may vary, but even I got board of hearing the same song - with 2 or 3 more, the music angle could really have helped this film along, but alas, it was not to be...

Somewhere in the mists of all this, the lead singer of The Roosters (the aforementioned band) commissions a portrait, Which Reno somehow manages to paint despite his subject dancing around singing from Crowley's Goetia when he's supposed to be posing, and then shagging Reno's girlfriend right in front of him...

A big turning point for Reno is when he catches a TV advert for a "Power-Pak"; you see, battery drills weren't up to much back then, but the "Power pak" is a (20 dollar!) 110v battery with enough amp-age to run any plug-in appliance, including electric heaters and, of course, power tools! Armed with a Power-Pak and his trusty drill, Reno goes on a rampage through New-York's homeless population.

Murder seems to give him the munchies, as at one point he manages to start a row by eating most of a large pizza, then asking his girlfriend is she want's a bite with peppers - thus causing her to sling a slice at his head and storm off (!) whatever, he obviously feel bad about this, as he paints her a beautiful apology picture:


No, honestly, his other stuff is rally quite good...

I won't ruin the end, as the movie is so readily available to watch for free, But I'd just like to say (although it seems an odd thing to say especially here)  that the murders add NOTHING to the film and, in fact, it would have been a more compelling movie without them...


Body Count: 12
Boob Count: 2 Pairs
Animal Body Count: 1
Most Memorable Death: The first (where he appears to be dry-humping the tramp while killing him)

Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.

Driller Killer - Lisa's Review


***SPOILERS***

I watched this one FREE on Youtube as instructed by Will. I didn't know the full version was on there. Quite often you get 'Kill' videos and clips of movies, but this time, there is a full unedited version of the movie, so go get watching!

Sooooo, what did I think? Well the movie had elements that I enjoyed and elements that I didn't. I probably shouldn't say this during the nasties review, but I think this movie would have been much better with the crap kill scenes taken out.

I found this movie to be much more about a mans mental breakdown than the kills. I enjoyed the lead character (Reno's) acting, but the rest of the cast were just abysmal. The music was gawd awful (and thats coming from a fan of a lot of punk music).

The basic premis is an artist (who reminded me a lot of the guy from Dexys midnight runners but better looking... with a very cool jacket... sorry I deviate) who lives with his girlfriend and her lesbian lover... yup I shit you not. I think this is just an excuse for gratuitous lesbian scene, which to be honest is no great shakes (no crap double entendre intended) anyway. On a side note, Renos girlfriends lover is probably the skinniest women I have ever seen in a movie not set in a POW camp.

Back to Reno.... He's skint and getting skinter with no money to pay the bills and a very annoying, very loud (and in my humble opinion, very crap) punk?!! band having just moved into his building. Everything builds up, culminates and sends him out onto the streets with a drill and a rather fetching battery pack belt (which we co-incidentally saw advertised on TV when he was going crazy). For some odd reason he sets his sights on homeless guys and bums. The kills are awful... not gorey awful, just crap. The blood looks like ketchup, the actors are hamming it up and don't even have the courteousy to look frightened and the overall feeling of the scenes is just rushed and cobbled together.

So we trawl through the movie of awful music, crap makeup and unconvincing kills and find some little pieces of good acting and I enjoyed how one tramp, irritated by some noise one member of the aforementioned punk band was making (and I'm with him there) was drilled to the wall in exactly the same pose as Carries mother in one of my favourite movies Carrie.

Our ears are not even free from the incessant noise when Reno is painting the musician as he plays guitar and sings when he is meant to be posing for a painting!! In another bizarre scene he then gets it on with Renos girlfriend in front of him.... very odd.

Reno drills his way through the movie killing tramps and eventually moving on to his landlord. I wonder in part if this had anything to do with the over the top negative critique of his finished Buffalo painting. It wasn't the best painting sure, but I don't think it deserved quite the scathing reception it received.

The movie ends as Renos girlfriend finally fed up with him, decides to go back to her ex husband. He pursues her there and drills the beardy ex before slipping into her bed (as she finishes in the shower, weirdly covering herself in case anyone see's when there is no-one else there). The movie ends as she climbs into bed and the screen darkens. I really do wish they had ended the movie with a whirring drill noise though.

In conclusion, I liked Renos performance, I like the darkness in places, I liked the elements of madness, I liked some of the paintings. On the other hand though, I hated the music, the kills, the rest of the cast, most of the dialogue and the weird inclusion of some scenes which made no sense to the rest of the movie (see the first scene).

Would I recommend it? Probably. Did I enjoy it? In places. Would I rant about it? Most definately not.



Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.

26 Dec 2011

WEEK 32: The Driller Killer


Alternate Titles : Driller Killer
Year: 1979
Reviews / Author Comments due: 31/12/2011
DPP Status: Successfully Prosecuted
BBFC Status: Passed uncut in 2005
Wikipedia: The Driller Killer


Feel free to use the comments section of this post to add your own reviews and thoughts about this movie.

Driller Killer - Free on youtube

We've already told you where you can see Driller Killer for free or download it on a neat DVD , but we just found out that it's also on Youtube. 

UPDATE:

The above youtube link MAY be cut... this one isn't.

Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.

24 Dec 2011

The Dorm That Dripped Blood -Will's Review

****Spoilers***

In one of those great "you couldn't have done this if you'd planned it" moments, this review is due Christmas eve - and the film just happens to be set during the Christmas holidays!

That said, apart from one shot of some lights, you'd never know it... Oh, and the movie is shit!

This one really did fail to grab my attention, so this is likely to be a very short review.

I am a slasher fan, but this one didn't do it for me, despite all of the elements being in place; and I do mean ALL the elements - annoying prank-guy (come back FT13 part III's Shelby, all is forgiven) the (seemingly) obvious 'final girl', hapless love interest, horny teenagers, creepy guy with "Obvious mislead" virtually tattooed on his head... - I don't think anyone smoked pot, but that aside this is slasher-by-numbers stuff; and BOY did it suffer for it.

The only thing I did like was the bleak ending - now that's something that needs to get ripped off in a decent slasher!

Body Count: 9
Boob Count: 1 Pair
Animal Body Count: 0
Most Memorable Death: But.... Driller Killer is NEXT week!

Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.

The Dorm That Dripped Blood - Lisa's Review

*** SPOILERS***

I watched this one last week so hopefully I'll remember enough to review it.

The only thing you probably need to know about 'The dorm that dripped blood' is that it is a typical - been done 100 times - teen slasher movie from the 80's. I've certainly seen much much worse movies in my time, but I have to say it didn't grab me, purely as I'm not a fan of this kind of movie.

All the elements are there, nerdy blokes, jocks, pretty girls and misunderstood loner guy who everyone suspects is the killer all along (apart from any viewer with anything resembling a brain cell) but who is actually not. I typed the word 'spoilers' at the top of this review, but I would be very surprised if any reader/viewer couldn't predict most of this movie.

The basic premis here is a group of college students staying behind at their college building over the holidays to help clear the building and get it ready for an impending shutdown... why students would be doing this is anyones guess. We have one girl who suddenly cannot stay and as her parents come to pick her up, the murders start with her dad, then her mum, finishing with her. We continue through the movie with the inevitable dispatch of the rest of our characters. I usually like to play a 'what order will they be killed in' game. I didn't do too badly with this one if you're wondering.

Deaths include a spiked bat through the head, strangulation (I found this one most amusing down to the time it takes the victim to react to whats actually happening), running over with a car, a drill to the head, boiling to death and death by cop. We also have a dismembered body discovered by poor scared female star, who must overcome her fear to steal a machete from the body... text book stuff.

Like I said, its not the worst movie I've ever seen, but having seen so many of them and their time having been and gone long ago, for me, this movie doesn't hold its own in todays market or any appeal for me like some of the more classic nasties may. Dated movies don't bother me, if they have a charm, but sadly I didn't find anything charming about this one.

The acting was awful in places and ok in others, the storyline was very stereotypical of the era, the deaths were nothing shocking or surprising and the supposed twist was obvious enough for a child to work out before we get halfway into the movie.

If you're a medicore slasher fan with nothing better to do, then you could do worse than check this out, but if you prefer to be shocked, surprised or have your brain cells stimulated - best avoid.


Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.

18 Dec 2011

WEEK 31: The Dorm That Dripped Blood



Alternate Titles : Pranks, Death Dorm
Year: 1982
Reviews / Author Comments due: 24/12/10
DPP Status: Removed from list September 1985


Feel free to use the comments section of this post to add your own reviews and thoughts about this movie.

17 Dec 2011

Don't look in the basement - Lisa's Review


*** SPOILERS ***

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to write as I start this review as I'm making up my mind what I think about it as I type.

Hmmmm. Well as I started watching I thought 'This is going to be monumentally shite'. The way it was shot, the acting, the characters.... as it continued though it developed an odd kind of charm. Its the kind of movie, I thought that I would like to see remade in the modern day. I have been reliably informed that it is indeed being remade. THAT I would be interested to see. The reason for this is that in retrospect, I enjoyed the actual storyline and the concept and the 'idea' of the characters in this movie, I just wasn't overly keen on the execution of the story.

The basic premis here is an open asylum for the insane (of all descriptions) where the patients are encouraged to 'act out' their hallucinations and imaginations to help cure their illnesses. Oddly one of the patients (an ex judge) is encouraged to 'vent' by chopping things up with a huge axe. I'm sure you can figure out where thats going..... There is no security, no bars, no locks, no-one to look after these guys apart from a surly female doctor (Dr Masters) who seems to have a love of cruelty and inflicting pain. She is the only one left following the dispatch of the head doctor (Dr Stephens) by way of axe by aforementioned patient.

Amongst the other patients are a nymphomanic, an irritating screaming woman who is convinced a doll is her baby, a hallucinating ex vietnam vet (yup, yet another one!), an old woman who spends her time being freaky and spouting old rhymes, a lobotomy patient with a childlike innocent nature but a massive stature, an extremely irritating screeching ginger twat and a really dull, seemingly depressed young woman.

We are however later joined by the gorgeous young nurse to complete our set who says that Dr Stephens took her on several weeks ago and she was arriving to commence her employment.

We get to know our characters and strange things start to happen... patients are murdered (along with a visiting telephone repair man), the old dear has her tongue ripped out (it seems she knows something and someone is trying to silence her).

We find out late on in the movie that Dr Masters, our remaining doctor, is in fact not a doctor, but a patient, who is 'acting out' her illness as with the other patients. Dr Stephen used to allow her to pretend to be a doctor. I didn't see this coming at all and was pleasantly suprised by this twist.

The rest of the movie concentrates on the young nurse Charlotte trying to escape as suddenly the entire asylum is under lock-down with no means of escape.

The film as you can imagine ends messily and well actually. I won't break it down completely for anyone wanting to watch the remake, but our lobotomy victim seems to be the only one left at the end after dispatching with all the patients. He does however help Charlotte to escape the madhouse.

This little movie wasn't too bad at all. It was ruined by the camera work, some of the script and some very cheesy acting performances, but the plotline was solid enough and I will be really interested to see the remake. I would definately recommend it to people who like weird or odd little movies.

Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.

Don't Look In The Basement - Will's Review

I am so undecided about this movie. On the one hand I don't really see much in the way of redeeming features, on the other hand, I found it quite an easy watch. That said, I'm not sure an asylum set exploitation movie should be easy to watch...


It seems to be equally schizophrenic about itself;  the movies 'twist' is given away on the poster, but it seems from the movie that the filmmakers wanted to surprise you with it.

I'm not sure if the twist would have been a surprise or not of the poster, tagline and trailer hadn't ruined it going in - it certainly seems well enough executed that you might not have spotted it, but it's such a cliché that you may well have been ready for it. Also - it cheats! I don't really buy that  none of the inmates would have said anything sooner than try do

Speaking of the inmates, one thing that did strike me was the size of the cast! There are only 13 people in the entire movie (not even so much as an extra in the background) but almost every one of them (with the possible exception of the telephone repair man) is an actual character (and all but 2 of them will die before the credits roll, which is a heck of a cast:kill ratio!)

So what of the plot? The asylum in which the movie is set is far from conventional - its curator, a Doctor Stephens, has rather unusual ideas about how to treat insanity; his potentially groundbreaking 'obsession development therapy' in which patients are encouraged to live out thier dilutions, in the hope that they become so big they'll go away...  or something. I can't say it sounds like the best plan...

Anyway, the day before our heroin (nurse Beal) starts at the asylum, Doctor Stephens is 'treating' an axe-obsessed patient... By allowing him to chop wood with a scary, sharp, axe. What could possibly go wrong?

With the main doctor dead, and the previous nurse having handed in her resignation, the last remaining staff member, Doctor Masters, decided to greet the new girl and carry on the running of the place as normal!

Most of the rest of the movie is simply the asylum going about its business, but the colourful collection of inmates keep it from getting dull - there's an ex soldier who still belies that 'they' are coming every night, an enormous man child (the result of Stephens' final lobotomy - and the reason he quit surgery), a woman who's obsessed with a tiny tears doll, a catatonic / mute woman, an axe-obsessed justice I the peace, and old lady who thinks that flowers are her children, a nymphomaniac, and a generically-mad ginger.

The biggest problem I think, is the pacing of the murders... 2 happen  at the beginning of the film, but most of the rest happen in (literally) the last scene. I think if the twist had been hidden, and the kills spread 'whodunnit' style throughout the movie, this one could have been quite good - I certainly hope that that's the direction next year's remake will take.  As it stands its a flat, but not unpleasant, way to kill and hour and a half.

Body count: 11
Boob count: 1 pair
Animal Body count: 0
Most memorable death: let me axe you somethin' Doc...





Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.

11 Dec 2011

Watch For Free: Don't Look In The Basement

Just Found out that this week's movie is available free online!

Stream or Download from Archive.Org

or

Watch on YouTube



Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.

WEEK 30: Don't Look In The Basement



Alternate Titles : The Forgotten, Death Ward 13, Don't Go in the Basement, The Snakepit
Year: 1973
Reviews / Author Comments due: 17/12/11
DPP Status: Removed from list December 1985
BBFC Status: Passed uncut in 2005
Wikipedia: The Forgotten



Feel free to use the comments section of this post to add your own reviews and thoughts about this movie.

10 Dec 2011

Don't go near the park - Will's Review

SPOLERS


12,000 Years ago a tribal elder gets pissed off at her son and daughter, and curses them - already things are a little mad here; Their crime is killing children in order to gain eternal life and youth, the punishment is... Eternal life, with the option of killing children in order to stay young! - That'll learn 'em!



Even stranger, the Curse includes 10x aging speed (so.. they'll have to kill more often then!) AND a get out clause, whereby if a virgin (one bread half of the Tribe and half of a mortal) is sacrificed in 12,000 years (there's an astrological significance) they get to keep their life AND youth forever!

11,984 years later (or 16 years ago) the brother and sister decide that he should find a woman to give him a child to use as the sacrifice (why the sister doesn't find a man to give her one I don't understand, she could have a plethora of one-night stands to ensure pregnancy, and custody would be easy... oh, whatever), so he meets, charms, marries and impregnates a mortal woman, nipping off to the part the whole time to eat young people and maintain his youth.

The next 16 years are a brief montage, until we reach the film proper; The sister is living in a shack in the park (the park is on the site of the films opening, which makes me wonder what these Caucasian people were doing in America in about 10,000BC), the park is rumoured to be cursed (which even in the 1970's is apparently enough to keep people out), the brother hates his wife, and his daughter is a young woman.

If anything the film is too full - the basic story isn't great, but it isn't terrible, but the film-makers are far too busy telling other plots: the sister (from her shack in the woods) seems to run a centre for runaways; she lives with an 8 year old necrophiliac (see clip) and a "hunky" 16 year old called 'cowboy', after a compleatly superfluous attempted rape scene, she takes in Bondi (Her niece, although Bondi doesn't know it). On top of that, the 8 year old befriends a writer, who just happens to be working on a history of the park.

Oh, Well THAT'S aright then!!!

Speaking of the superfluous attempted rape scene; Bondi (not the brightest girl) accepts a lift from 3 strangers (all men) in a van with painted out rear windows. No sooner are they on the road than two of them are groping her, eventually pulling her into the back of the van in order to...  forcefully kiss her neck and chest (through her blouse, even though they have torn it open)... More offensive than the scene itself though is that just a short time later (after dreaming the entire opening of the film) she's recovered completely, and starts hitting on 'Cowboy'!

Probably as a result of it's being overcrowded, the film seems to lurch and stagger forward, giving the impression that short connecting scenes have been cut - for instance, Bondi is running from the wreckage of a crash and then, without warning, she's following a dog into an abandoned shack...

And then, at the story's climax, our immortals suddenly have Super powers - It's a moment of 100% WFT (not from concentrate) - out of nowhere, she can start fires with her mind, and he can control animals and shoot lasers from his eyes?!? Its like a scene from a different movie with the same actors!

The effects are sub-hammer, the acting bearable (barley) and the film goes on for what feels like about 15 mins (actually 5) after iot should rightly have ended. Oh, and the last shot of the movie is spoiled on the poster!

All in all, I wouldn't advise you to run screaming form this one, but I wouldn't come close to recommending it either...




Body Count: 10
Boob Count: 3 Pairs
Animal Body Count: 0
Most Memorable Death: Exploding rape-van

Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.

Don't go near the park - Lisa's Review


***SPOILERS***

So after a couple of weeks of late reviews, here I am on the first day of the week with the movie in the bag. Yay me!!

So another one in the series of 'Don't go' movies and thankfully they seem to have absolutely nothing to do with one another. We start with some text telling us that the movie, although fictional is based on occurances throughout centuries... Okaaaaaaaaaaay. I'm sure just about anything committed to celluloid has happened through the centuries, but we'll go with it.


The basic premis here is.. 12,000 years ago a woman puts a curse on her 2 children who have messed about with the sanctity of the secret of eternal youth and been naughty so and so's. The curse sentences them to a lifetime of ageing without the ability to die. They will age 10 years for every 1 year of life. The only way to break the curse is to sacrifice a 16 year old virgin female in 12,000 years time (something to do with a when the moon is covered).. blah blah blah. The irony is, the only way they can stay young is to kill and eat the innards of young people...kind of what they were being punished for in the first place, but anyway....

The movie cuts to 12000 years in the future (the present day) and we see the brother and sister looking much older and greyer. They both kill a few people, eat their insides and hey presto, youth is restored again. There's not much more to it really. The guy meets a woman. He oddly does this by breaking into her house and into the bathroom when shes in the shower, yet she still offers him a room as a lodger, sleeps with him, marries him and goes on to have a daughter with him. This all happens in the space of about 10 minutes in the film. After the daughter is born, they quickly separate as we find out he no longer has any use for his new wife, now that he has a daughter... Hmmmmmm I wonder what he intends to use her for... (long scratch of chin)

So yup you got it. He intends to use her as the sacrifice. The ending is monumentally pants and so predictable I almost laughed out loud when I watched it played out. I won't put it here in the vain chance that anyone actually reads this and wants to watch the movie. We can but hope...

When I thought the special effects were shite, nothing prepared me for the laser beams shooting out of the eyes in the finale. Now that effect deserves to be documented. Check out 5 mins 58 seconds into the review below (or if you want, watch it for a much more detailed and educational review than this one).

The Nasties Review: Don't Go Near The Park (YouTube)

I can't really make my mind up about this movie. It wasn't the worst thing I've ever seen (see last weeks review for that) but then again it wasn't very good either.

The acting is ok (meaning its not laughably awful) but it held no intrigue for me and the gore was pants. There was also a rather distasteful scene with the young 16 year old 'virgin' with a few young lads in a van that I could've done without... another one of those 'for tittilation' pieces. Not a lot was shown fair enough, but the idea that these movies need to keep showing sexual attacks just for kicks just p*sses me off. The fact the teenager jokes about it later to a young boy she meets (and is also in the mood to come onto another lad the same day as her attack) just about sums up the thought put into this movie.

I wouldn't watch it again but it wasn't the hardest to sit through by any stretch of the imagination.