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Horror Films

Overlord (2018) Amazon.

WW2 - A squad of US Airbourne troops gets shot down over France hours before D-Day. Their job is to take out a German radio tower in a village church.

The 4 surviving squad members eventually meet up to continue the mission. However, the basement of the church holds something more sinister than just plain old Nazis.

A surprisingly fun film. Just the right mix of action and gore not played for laughs by a very proficient cast. It's ironic as it's essentially a Thing tribute even down to the 'You're got to be fuckin kidding me" which is an almost total rip-off/homage to the line Palmer uses in The Thing.

I'm sure the irony was not lost on the again brilliant Wyatt Russell, (Lodge 49) who is the son of RJ McReady - the legendary Kurt Russell. Wyatt Russell plays the cynical and deadly corporal Ford. The other standouts are Jovan Adepo the hero of the film who does the right mix of terror and reluctant bravery and Pilou Asbæk a terrific villain.

Lot's of Fortean stuff to be enjoyed but I won't give anything away. Think The Thing crossed with Dog Soldiers.

A solid 7.5/10 almost pushing an 8 - almost.
 
If I may please suggest, some early horror films I had only recently bookmarked...?

The latter is particularly interesting as I thought Zombie movies were a much later genre.

It would be fascinating to see how it compares - presumably nothing like so much 'blood and gore'. :chain:

Alternatively, are they all well known here, diabolical and plainly not worthwhile?



 
Comfortably Numb said:
If I may please suggest, some early horror films I had only recently bookmarked...?

The latter is particularly interesting as I thought Zombie movies were a much later genre.

It would be fascinating to see how it compares - presumably nothing like so much 'blood and gore'. :chain:

Alternatively, are they all well known here, diabolical and plainly not worthwhile?



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Many oldies but goodies. Universal made the classics in the 30's. Hammer made their classics 58 to early 70's. A bunch of fun and sometimes a bit silly British and American low budget films films made as well. Personally I don't know if anyone will surpass those Hammer classics nth Christoper Lee and Peter Cushing.
 
Jim said:
Personally I don't know if anyone will surpass those Hammer classics nth Christoper Lee and Peter Cushing.
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How quite extraordinary.

Having grown up in that contemporary 'Dracula' era and fondly recall going to see many of their films which had just been released, I had a look online, curious re history of the partnership.

To great surprise, I discovered one of their early collaborations was 'She', famously starring Ursula Andress.

This film has particular meaning to myself, as it must surely have been the first I had ever seen at the, 'pictures'.

I more recent years, it has often come to mind and have only just discovered the film is now available on YouTube.

Here though, we have an enigma.

I have no memory of whom I was with at the cinema.

First thought is it could only have been my dad, however, for various reasons that doesn't really equate.

Unless... it was my witchery Auntie Ina. Right enough, even at an early age I was introduced to Ouija sessions - glass and cut out paper letters plus 'Yes', 'No' and 'Goodbye', on the big dinner table.

Aunt Ina also encouraged my apparently perceived ability to' read tea leaves'. This may have partly been the result of my first 'reading' at the traditional family Sunday afternoon gathering.

This is true; I told another aunt, 'Cathy', that I could see a map of Australia and this caused much amusement. Within a year, she had met a new partner and they emigrated to Darwin. :cool:

The enigma is also... if the film was released in 1965 and I had seen it that year, I would only have been seven years old - which actually fits perfectly with glimpses I can recall.

In the film, Ayesha is, "She who must be obeyed"...

It has resonated with myself in recent years because it's a phrase I often use.

Forteana... my granddaughter, younger then and as previously pictured with a 'dream catcher', to ward off, 'bad dreams about witches'... how delightfully this all seems to somehow connect and belong here... :)

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/random-peculiar-images.58483/post-1795900
 
Watched The Haunted (2019) last night on Prime.

Obviously low-budget, with a minuscule cast and handful of locations.
It also employs pretty well every trick in the book to telegraph its make-you-jump moments in the obligatory old dark house.
BUT ... I must confess to not expecting the twist, which sort-of makes sense, if you re-watch the first 10 minutes and watch carefully for clues.
I thought most of the following reviews were a bit uncharitable and I would rate it 6/10.

haunted.JPG

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4572116/
 
Rogue: Finally saw this horror treat. A saltwater crocodile who inspires existential terror as he snaps at humans and then devours them or stores them for a midnight munch. Tension builds up at a steady pace. A wildlife photographer arrive in a small settlement in Australia's Northern Territory. Small? It makes Broome look like a teeming metropolis. In a bar there are clippings of croc attacks and missing tourists on the walls. A group head off on a tour of a river in a flat-bottomed boat, they are soon diverted from their course when they see a flare. Attacked by a giant crocodile they beach the damaged boat on a small island. But this is a tidal river so their time is limited. A gory battle for survival ensues. Best scenes are those in the croc's cavern lair/larder. Directed and written by Greg McLean. A horror movie with bite. Showing again on the Horror Channel Sunday 20th September - 2.35 AM. 8/10.
 
ramonmercado said:
Rogue: Finally saw this horror treat. A saltwater crocodile who inspires existential terror as he snaps at humans and then devours them or stores them for a midnight munch. Tension builds up at a steady pace. A wildlife photographer arrive in a small settlement in Australia's Northern Territory. Small? It makes Broome look like a teeming metropolis. In a bar there are clippings of croc attacks and missing tourists on the walls. A group head off on a tour of a river in a flat-bottomed boat, they are soon diverted from their course when they see a flare. Attacked by a giant crocodile they beach the damaged boat on a small island. But this is a tidal river so their time is limited. A gory battle for survival ensues. Best scenes are those in the croc's cavern lair/larder. Directed and written by Greg McLean. A horror movie with bite. Showing again on the Horror Channel Sunday 20th September - 2.35 AM. 8/10.
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... And it’s got Radha Mitchell:

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:p

maximus otter
 
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Wolves: Not a great Werewolf film but it's watchable. Cayden (Lucas Till) seems like just another teen but then the changes occur. He goes wild on a football field seriously injuring an opponent, when he's with his girlfriend he starts to transform. next morning he wakes up to find his parents dead, partially eaten. He's on the run, the media call him the cannibal kid. He turns wolf again, kills a couple of bikers. Finding out he was adopted he sets out for Lupine Ridge to locate his kinsfolk. Interesting Werewolf lore, the more civilized "town wolfs" and the savage "hill wolfs", few pure lines left Some savage fights between the werewolves, the feral ones are cannibals. The Alpha of the hill wolfs resembles the Larry Talbot werewolf in the old Wolfman films, Cayden looks more like a hirsute Wolverine. Good fun. Directed and written by David Hayler. On Horror Channel. 6/10.
 
Can't Come Out To Play (AKA The Harvest): We've been here before, a girl moves to a small town, finds a bed-ridden ill boy and befriends him. Even the boys mother disapproving of the friendship is familiar. But this parent is a hybrid of Nurse Ratched and Carrie's mother. She's a doctor who treats the boy, even her husband, a nurse thinks she is over-medicating. But something far darker than Munchausen syndrome by proxy is going on. To say anymore would be a major spoiler. Just be assured that this is a good horror thriller. Directed by John McNaughten from a screenplay by Stephen Lancellotti. On Horror Channel. 7/10.
 
I See You: A film of mixed tropes - child abduction, domestic disharmony and intruders living secretly in a house. A detective (Jon Tenney) is investigating the disappearance of a boy which may be linked to old cases. His wife (Helen Hunt) is having an affair and her paramour becomes involved in strange events which occur in the house. Throw in a surly son (Judah Lewis) and you have a natural suspect for the oddities. But this movie is even stranger as twist after twist occurs and we see the same events unfold from several different perspectives. Nothing is quite as it seems. Some shocking and violent scenes but the tension is mostly maintained through the use of psychological horror. Maybe the film has one plot turn too many for it's own good but I See You is well worth watching. Directed by Adam Randall from a screenplay by Devon Graye. On Netflix. 7/10.
 
Now available on YouTube, this was a 1972 spinoff film from the innovative 'Doomwatch' BBC TV series and may be of interest.

If unfamiliar, there's firstly also a helpful film trailer.


 
Watched "Why?" on Prime Video last night.

A 2019 Indie Welsh movie, featuring 4 friends on a camping weekend, who cross paths with a gang of sadistic savages, who seem to be up for a bit of of cannibalism.

It is very amateur - looks like it was filmed on someone's old mobile phone, with audio and video quality well below HD.
It even changes aspect ratio a couple of times.
A lot of the action - basically extended screaming, swearing and misogynist torture porn, was shot in almost total darkness, but with the phone or whatever it was, switching periodically from black and white night-vision mode to dark and murky colour.
The actors display a certain naturalistic talent and the music soundtrack was actually quite inspired, but the presentation is so poor that it was almost unwatchable.

3/10
 
Reborn: Trashy horror in a good way, watchable but doesn't deliver as much as it seems to promise, maybe it's 70 minute running time is due to excessive editing. A stillborn baby, Tess, is reanimated by an electrical charge and is "adopted" by a weirdo morgue attendant Ken (Chaz Bono). The family are really strange, when 16 year old Tess (Kayleigh Gilbert) discovers she has electro-kinetic powers and kills the abusive Ken, the police find that Ken has kept his mother's mummified body in the house. Tess goes in search of her mother Lena who is played by the great Scream Queen Barbara Crampton. Lena is a fading actress who is trying to make a comeback. Tess leaves a rail of frazzled corpses as controls electrical devices, death by zapped hearing-aid, hacked car (Christine!) and lift. A few good shocks in more ways than one. This might have worked better as an episode of an anthology series as it's either too short or too long. Worth watching though, even has a homage to Carrie. Directed by Julian Richards and written by Michael Mahin. On the Horror Channel. 6/10.
 
Devil, 2010, currently on Netflix and Prime Video (not free). A short, taut movie involving, unsuprisingly, the devil. Strangers are stuck in a lift and one of them is the devil. A detective, dealing with his own demons, needs to save them. Okay, it's a writing prompt which has wandered in from an old book of supernatural tales, but it works. It really works.

I so enjoyed this film. The confined setting of a broken down lift, with the tension being racked up as it builds to its conclusion; it's a classic story in the manner of the portmanteau films from Amicus but without the cut-away stories, very like an expanded episode of Inside No. 9.

It is a short film (80 mins) and I think worthy of anyone's time.
 
Witches in the Woods: Mountainous Massachusetts, you've got woods and historical accounts of the persecution of witches. You also have six college students out for a weekend in the wilderness. They get trapped, not in a cabin but in a car as a snow storm rages. Paranoia sets in as the stress makes the fractures in their relationships all too obvious. Strange things occur, people get injured wander off. A witch hunt is initiated to apportion blame. Some gory and violent scenes in this film along with suggestions of possession. The real horror though is psychological as trust breaks down. Doesn't quite pull off what it's trying to do but director Jordan Barker delivers a watchable horror thriller. On the Horror Channel. 6/10.
 
Devil's Due: A Rosemary's Baby clone but it has some worthy scenes. The coven are much more hands on, Allison Miller, bearer of the Devil's Progeny, develops supernatural powers causing a priest to have a stroke when he discusses the Eucharist. Anyone who gets in her way is levitated/thrown about. Not great in comparison to the original but worth watching. Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin (Ready Or Not) and Tyler Gilbert (Southbound) from a script by Lindsay Devlin. On Film4. 6/10.
 
Perfect Skin: Katia (Natalia Kostrzewa) is a Romanian Au Pair who has fallen out with the host family, she is dependent on acquaintances to provide accommodation. She meets Bob (Richard Brake) a seemingly friendly tattoo artist who is anything but. When Katia is drunk he abducts her and keeps her caged in his basement while he inscribes his masterpiece on her skin. Brake is excellent as he mixes family life with his nefarious activities. A skilled sociopath he makes it look as if Katia had ripped off her inquisitive flatmate Lucy (Jo Woodstock) before he accumulates even more victims. Kostrzewa puts in a great performance as she veers from Stockholm Syndrome to desires to escape. The horror is mostly of a psychological variety but there are some very disturbing scenes. Decapitation, smothering, piercing of skin with hooks. Not a film you'll forget in a hurry. Writer/Director Kevin Chicken has plenty to crow about as he delivers this dark horror thriller. 8/10.
 
Mara: Sleep Paralysis is really Demonic Possession! Mostly the Demon moves on but sometimes it targets people, marks them on the whites of their eyes and eventually crushes them to death! Olga Kurylenko plays a forensic psychologist investigating a strange murder when she attracts the attention of the demon - Mara. Throughout history under many names the sleep demons have preyed on humanity. Some jump scenes and the demon is scary when it appears. Plenty of psychological horror, a victim uses an alarm clock to ensure he won't sleep for more than twenty minutes, thwarting Mara - for a while. An effective horror thriller directed by Clive Tonge and written by Jonathan Frank. Showing again on the Horror Channel Thursday 17th September at 10.45 PM. 7/10.
 
sherbetbizarre said:
Looks like you chose a better Horror Channel film than me. I went for Shed of the Dead... :horr::horr::horr:
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God, that was bad, wasn't it? I saw that the other night. It was like a low-budget, unfunny version of Shaun of the Dead.
 
The Bridge Curse: Urban Legend/Found Footage. Students decide to test the legend about a student who drowned herself a ns haunts a bridge. They shouldn't have but you know that already! Filmed mostly on phones and vidcams but you even get proper film because a tv presenter is making a show about the dead students. All a bit meta. Vengeful ghosts, rising from, water, scampering along ceilings, killing people. It seems familiar and is a tad derivative but it's worth watching. Directed by Lester Hsi from a screenplay by Keng-Ming Chan and Po-Hsiang Hao. On Netflix. 6/10.
 
Anyone seen William Shatner's new film, The Tomb: Devil's Revenge? It's not up there with The Devil's Rain, but it's a lot funnier, starts off with a man breaking his ankle by rolling along the ground a bit and ends up with The Shat, as the hero's incredibly aggressive, reactionary, gun-toting, elderly father blowing up skull demons with a "special" rifle (and the same special effect every time). Gets a bit boring in places, but some of it is the best comedy you'll see all year. Oh and Jeri Ryan (7 of 9) is in it too, so of course she isn't in any scenes with Shatner - too obvious!
 
How about Two Heads Creek? Best horror comedy I've seen all year (more consistent than Devil's Revenge), really funny, though the subject matter is p*l*t*c*l in an extreme mickey take way, so I can't go into the finer details. I'll just say it moves between Britain and Australia and finds common ground in... um, fervent patriotism. With a woman using a severed male member as a microphone in a musical number. If you think you can take it, so to speak, I think you'll laugh a lot.
 
Yummy (2019 Flemish Dutch). Painful to watch. It couldn't decide if it was to be a zombie horror/comedy or horror and attained none. Lots of splatter gore effects and all of the zombie tropes. Supposed funny scenes (maybe, I couldn't tell) come off as just plain nasty. Reminded me of torture porn like Hostel (didn't like it). I did watch it to the end only because I'd already started it. 3/10. On Shudder Tv.
 
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