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Yesterday I saw the old British classic "Day of the Triffids". Then today I watch the newer British remake. A solid remake with plenty of twist and good sci-fi. Similar story -plot but w a few new twist which made the remake less predictable. However at nearly 3 hrs. long it did drag a bit. I prefer them to wrap up in less than 2 hrs. in general. Both full length films are here for your viewing pleasure.
 
Watched the "The Brain from Planet Argoes". A ridiculous 50's farce about an alien that takes over a scientist body. Imagine that. The Alien has plans for earth but in addition finds the scientist wife very attractive. In the aliens own words "I like your wife, she appeals to me". Of course we all know the real reason these aliens come to earth is to have sex w earth girls. Fun to watch if you like these old classic sci-fi horror movies.
 
John Agar's greatest role! Those contact lenses played havoc with his eyes, but he really went full tilt on the villainy and looks to be having a whale of a time.
 
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Provodnik (Soul Conductor) is the latest in the New Wave of Russian Horror.

Something of a star vehicle for Aleaxandra Bortich - the `Russian Jennifer Lawrence`, it is a dark fantasy-cum psycho-thriller in which a psychic young lady - plagued by visitations from the dead - tries to find the killer of her twin sister with disbelieving cops in pursuit.

Tagline: `Who can you trust - when you can't even trust yourself?`

It is rather slick and over-eggs the pudding somewhat (which seems to be a signature trait of Russian horror) - but if you are a fan of modern horror cinema and not getting any of the Russian input then you really are missing out on something. The genre is exploding over here.

 
Could I get some of your thoughts on A Dark Song (2017)?I've watched it through 6 or 7 times. Still enjoying it all.

Trailer and design art: https://bavelladesign.com/a-dark-song

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Could I get some of your thoughts on A Dark Song (2017)?I've watched it through 6 or 7 times. Still enjoying it all.

Trailer and design art: https://bavelladesign.com/a-dark-song

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Dark_song_3.jpg


darksongpic1.jpg

I was impressed by it as well. The way the ritual progressed, how it had to be dealt with, preparations, purifications, the risk of demons and other entities appearing rather than an angel.
 
GRABBERS

An Irish horror comedy, the premise being the aliens weakness is alcohol and the aliens are blood suckers so everyone has to be pissed to fight them ..

edit: FULL MOVIE .. I enjoyed it .. I think the pub landlady was also in The Commitments ..

 
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The Possession of Hannah Grace: Opens in Boston with Hannah (Kirby Johnson) tied to a bed as two priests attempt a, exorcism. The Demon is having none of this however and levitates the priests killing one of them. Her father, Grainger (Louis Herthum) smothers Hannah to save the other priest. Three months later Megan (Shay Mitchell) an ex-cop with a drug and alcohol problem starts work on the night shift as an intake assistant at a hospital morgue. She processes a female corpse but the Ilmar won't photo the corpse, neither will the fingerprints scan. It's Hannah Grace's cadaver. A strange hooded figure has also gained access to the morgue. Odd things happen, thousands of flies seem to leave the corpse but then disappear, objects move.

Its The Living Dead In The Boston Morgue. more levitations, the Demon likes levitation. People are stabbed, bitten, dragged into corpse cold chambers, the still possessed corpse feeds on the living, a life or death battle in front of the Crematorium furnace door. But these come rather too late in the film. After such a strong opening the most we get for the next forty minutes is Megan fighting with the intruder. Even the weird events could be imagined: she suffers flashbacks to her time in the police when her partner was killed.

A lop-sided film with uneven pacing but Johnson puts in a good performance as Megan. 6/10
 
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Not sure whether to put this in horror films or science fiction because it's kind of both, but if you're looking for a Christmas horror that's actually pretty good, and British too, then give Await Further Instructions a go. It starts out like umpteen others, with a bad family Christmas where everyone's getting on their nerves and worse, then turns into Videodrome. Can't say they weren't trying something different. Some bleak laughs in it too. Recommended.
 
GRABBERS

An Irish horror comedy, the premise being the aliens weakness is alcohol and the aliens are blood suckers so everyone has to be pissed to fight them ..

edit: FULL MOVIE .. I enjoyed it .. I think the pub landlady was also in The Commitments ..

One of my favourite movies, not much horror but plenty of charm and laughs, and the female lead is very, very beautiful.
 
The Forest (2016)

Natalie Dormer seeks her twin sister missing in Aokigahara forest. She is befriended by an American jounalist who joins the search.

Some nice shocks but there is little character development and the plot struggles to keep the film focused. Dormer is very lovely and is good in the action sequences but spends a lot of the time quizically pouting and staring into the woods. Confusing as it reaches its climax as the film doesn't know if its a "pyscho on the loose" or supernatural horror. No real closure as we never find out what the sister was up to. Most of the support are oddball Japanese versions of Twin Peaks residents.

A missed oppotunity to explore a genuinely strange and tragic place. 5 out of 10.
 
The Forest (2016)

Natalie Dormer seeks her twin sister missing in Aokigahara forest. She is befriended by an American jounalist who joins the search.

Some nice shocks but there is little character development and the plot struggles to keep the film focused. Dormer is very lovely and is good in the action sequences but spends a lot of the time quizically pouting and staring into the woods. Confusing as it reaches its climax as the film doesn't know if its a "pyscho on the loose" or supernatural horror. No real closure as we never find out what the sister was up to. Most of the support are oddball Japanese versions of Twin Peaks residents.

A missed oppotunity to explore a genuinely strange and tragic place. 5 out of 10.

I thought it was supernatural involving trickster ghosts. My review:

The Forest: US made but set mostly in Japan. US woman, Jess, goes missing in the Aokigahara Forest, where people go to commit suicide. Her Twin Sara rushes to Japan to find her. Many of the usual Japanese Horror Film Tropes with Angry Ghosts and Trickster Spirits, Yúrei. These Yúrei fool you into harming yourself rather than directly causing harm.

With the aid of a forest ranger and an Ozzie travel writer Sara searches the forest but she is soon submerged in a world of dangerous illusion.

Confusing at times, perhaps due to editing but ending suggests a sequel. 6/10.
 
Just watched a zombie flick from a couple of years ago called The Girl With All The Gifts, recommend.

Just watched this recently and will watch it again as I got interrupted a couple of times and sort of lost the flow.

The actor who played the girl was outstanding, vulnerable but also unnerving. I love Paddy Considine, even if he has the odd miss. 7.75 or even 8 out of 10?
 
I thought it was supernatural involving trickster ghosts. My review:

The Forest: US made but set mostly in Japan. US woman, Jess, goes missing in the Aokigahara Forest, where people go to commit suicide. Her Twin Sara rushes to Japan to find her. Many of the usual Japanese Horror Film Tropes with Angry Ghosts and Trickster Spirits, Yúrei. These Yúrei fool you into harming yourself rather than directly causing harm.

With the aid of a forest ranger and an Ozzie travel writer Sara searches the forest but she is soon submerged in a world of dangerous illusion.

Confusing at times, perhaps due to editing but ending suggests a sequel. 6/10.

Won't spoil it, but it sort of got quite confusing if that guy was a real nutter or just possessed by ghosts. I thought it was well shot and had some nice ideas. I can see the director going on to do better things if he has better writers.
 
The Shape of Water: A Horror Film but also SF Adventure, Spy Thriller, Love Story, directed, produced and co-written (with Vanessa Taylor) by Guillermo del Toro. Beautifully filmed by cinematographer Dan Laustin in so many shades of green, teal, aquamarine, tans, brown, gold and red which give it a 50s/early 60s feel. Wonderful production design by Paul D Austerby with a subterranean laboratory and over cinema apartments in which most of the action transpires.

Mute janitor Elisa (Sally Hawkins) and her friend Zelda (Octavia Spencer) work in a military run research facility when a strange Creature (Doug Jones) is brought to the laboratory. The Creature injures Colonel Strickland (Michael Shannon) who was torturing it. Strickland captured the Creature in the Amazon and hopes to exploit its amphibious nature to advance the US Space Programme. Falling in love with the creature, Elisa enlists the help of Zelda, her neighbour Giles (Richard Jenkins) and a kindly scientist, Dr Bob (Michael Stuhlbarg) to free him from the laboratory.

The Creature resembles the 1950s Creature From The Black Lagoon with aspect of Predator and ALF. Jones brings the creature to life and you can truly believe in the love which develops between them. Inter-species sex results which strangely doesn't strain credibility due ti the acting skills of Hawkins and Jones but will no doubt outrage some. Its not so long ago since director Tim Burton in Planet Of The Apes avoided a romance between Astronaut (Wahlberg) and Chimpanzee (Bonham Carter) as he feared that such a film would be shunned by cinema chains.

This is also a film about loneliness, that of Elisa, Giles who is gay, Bob a stranger in a strange land, Zelda who is estranged within her marriage and of course the Creature himself. The Civil Rights struggle takes place in the background as the film is set in 1962 Baltimore. Sometimes it comes to the fore as when the man Giles longs after refuses service to a Black couple in a café. Also, all of the janitors/attendants at the research facility are Black or Hispanic but the scientists/technicians and military police are White.

All of this is expertly juggled and mixed together by del Toro to make a masterpiece. 10/10.

Finally got around to watching this hugely hyped movie on Sky last night.
Whilst the effects and retro look were quite effective, I found it all a bit meh.
It's clearly a Cold War or civil rights allegory, masquerading as sci-fi.
That, in itself, wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but I found the grossly stereotypical characters downright cringeworthy (the ludicrous boo-hiss villain, who doesn't even wash his hands after having a pee, and the "Mammy Two-Shoes" black working-class woman, being the worst examples). The ending was ripped off shamelessly from Le Grand Bleu (Big Blue) too.
Nowhere near as good as Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. I'd rate The Shape of Water as 5/10.
 
Finally got around to watching this hugely hyped movie on Sky last night.
Whilst the effects and retro look were quite effective, I found it all a bit meh.
It's clearly a Cold War or civil rights allegory, masquerading as sci-fi.
That, in itself, wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but I found the grossly stereotypical characters downright cringeworthy (the ludicrous boo-hiss villain, who doesn't even wash his hands after having a pee, and the "Mammy Two-Shoes" black working-class woman, being the worst examples). The ending was ripped off shamelessly from Le Grand Bleu (Big Blue) too.
Nowhere near as good as Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. I'd rate The Shape of Water as 5/10.

But the inter-species sex was hot wasn't it?
 
Thats the Mayor of Cromer with Miss Cromer.
I briefly dated Miss Cromer (well, one of them, the change every year obviously) before I got together with the Mrs, she was a party animal and she sang for a local choir. She's got a fashion vid up on youtube, I'll send you the link via pm.

I was once asked to help a local rock band make a Cromer based horror rock video but that never happened, my involvement was to be to make fake human sized crab claws that the musicians would wear playing on the pier while super imposed 'giant' crabs would attack the town sort of like TARANTULA, she was going to be the scream queen but they couldn't raise the cash in the end.
 
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I briefly dated Miss Cromer (well, one of them, the change every year obviously) before I got together with the Mrs, she was a party animal and she sang for a local choir. She's got a fashion vid up on youtube, I'll send you the link via pm.

I was once asked to help a local rock band make a Cromer based horror rock video but that never happened, my involvement was to be to make fake human sized crab claws that the musicians would wear playing on the pier while super imposed 'giant' crabs would attack the town sort of like TARANTULA, she was going to be the scream queen but they couldn't raise the cash in the end.

Pity, I can see her battling the monsters!
 
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