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Barbarian: Three narrative strands eventually coalesce to create an enthralling tale of terror. The plot line involving a Tv star is heavy on black humoir as he is a terrible cad; the double-booked Airbnb swiftly descends into a tale of terror and the 1980 sequence ties it all together. We have a tale of basements within basements, a tunnel complex containing cages. But who lives there? You get quite a few of the standard horror tropes but they're deftly handled here. Underground no one can here you scream. Characters make unwise decisions but yiu can sort of understand that ihey act through empathy rather than being stupid. Some grim scenes with heads bashed in and limbs ripped off. The dead, abandoned suburbs of Chicago are vividly displayed, police showing indifference to someone they take to be street person. An engaging horror thriller which doesn't sacrifice plot consistency for a few more shocks. Written and Directed by Zach Cregger. 8/10.

In cinemas.
Really enjoyed this, especially the tape measure stuff. And it must take an award for dumbest cops of 2022?
 
The Haunting of Margam Castle: Disappointing welsh haunted castle caper. A group of American parapsychologists investigate the haunting. Bad script, wooden direction (both by Andrew Jones), unconvincing effects. Why did I watch all 80 minutes of it? I guess my attention was divided, I was also online. I was on the side of the evil spirits. It's saving graces was the presence of scream queens Caroline Munro, Jane Merrow, Judy Matheson and a timeslip to the 1640s involving an encounter with the Witchfinder General. On Netflix. 3/10.
 
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The Haunting of Margam Castle: Disappointing welsh haunted castle caper. A group of American parapsychologists investigate the haunting. Bad script, wooden direction (both by Andrew Jones), unconvincing effects. Why did I watch all 80 minutes of it? I guess my attention was divided, I was also online. I was on the side of the evil spirits. It's saving graces was the presence of scream queens Caroline Munro, Jane Merrow, Judy Matheson and a timeslip to the 1640s involving an encounter with the Witchfinder General. On Netflix. 3/10.
Thanks for saving me valuable time that would not have been regained if I thought of watching this:)
 
Prey for the Devil: This is really set in a parallel universe where not only demons and possessions are commonplace but the RCC has allocated vast sums of money to create Institutes to teach exorcists and treat/exorcise the possessed. In one of these Institutes, large numbers of young priests are instructed in the rites of exorcism, flocks of nuns are restricted to training to nurse/care for the afflicted who are housed in a hospital wing. The Institute first checks to see if the inmates are suffering from psychiatric disorders before proceeding to the exorcism stage. One nun, Sister Ann (Jacqueline Byers), isn't satisfied to just be a carer and sneaks into the priests' classes with the indulgence of their tutor, Fr Quinn (Colin Salmon). When Ann has encounters with a demon through a possessed patient Quinn realises that she has attracted the attention of The Devil and allows her to attend all classes and practical sessions. There are many of the usual tricks displayed here, scars, burns and skin diseases afflict the possessed, they have superhuman strength, scamper up walls, levitate. It's how it's all put together though which makes this film stand out, an ill old man rises from his bed and grabs a nun, dancing with her, a child throws priests around. Jump scares abound but the atmosphere also builds up the tension and terror - switching from the modern Institute to old holding cells in the basement levels We see portraits of exorcists who were killed in action adorn the walls. Ann fights for the life and soul of one patient, when exorcisms fail in the Institute the possessed ones are forwarded to the Vatican. This is The Nun's Story recast through a prism of horror where overconfidence can result in tragedy and exorcists like doctors bury their mistakes. Ben cross acted in his last role here as Cardinal Matthews, he died just days after his part was filmed. There are a few intriguing plot twists and reveals as the narrative unfolds., see this engaging horror film if you want to know what they are! Directed by Daniel Stamm and written by Robert Zappia. 8/10

In cinemas.
 
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The Menu: The Island of Chef Moreau, some of his culinary creations are a tad odd but it's his behaviour which merits him being ranked with the bad Doctor. Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) also channels Hannibal Lecter as the narrative unfolds. The chef runs an exclusive restaurant on a private island, accessed via his own ferry. A group of customers get more than fine dining as they arrive at a scenario where the staff are acting oddly from the beginning. The guests include a food critic and her editor, a jaded film star whose assistant/lover is leaving him, a rich couple and Tyler, another top chef (who hero-worships Slowik) along with his date Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy). The food served (including non-existent bread) seems to be a parody of celebrity chef menus. Things turn distinctly weird when tacos turn out to have private information regarding the guests printed on them. It soon becomes clear to the diners that their very lives are at stake. A really dark horror/comedy/satire, the humour is desperately needed to leaven the atmosphere of existential terror and despair which builds as the implications of what is occurring becomes clearer. There is the mondo horror of mutilation. suicides and stabbings but the mundane act of a chef having to cook under pressure from Slowik and his army of sous-chefs will send a shiver along your spine. Fiennes has some of the best lines but Taylor-Joy comes in a close second as she provides the most effective opposition to him. There are plot twists and secrets revealed but you'll have to watch The Menu to learn how they evolve. This certainly provides food for thought and I'll never think of an angel investor in the same way again. Directed by Mark Mylod, written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy. 8.5/10.

In cinemas.
 
Nomads (1986): I'd never heard of this Urban Fantasy/Horror film before I saw it on Legend Channel last night, It's the first film that John McTiernan directed, Arnold Schwarzenegger was so impressed by it that he convinced the producers to hire John McTiernan to direct Predator (1987). I was equally fascinated by this tale of an LA doctor (Lesley-Anne Down) who has the memories of a french anthropologist (Pierce Brosnan) impressed on her brain as he dies (not a spoiler this happens in the opening scenes). These reminiscences cover the last week of Brosnan's life and relate to his encounters with a bunch of partying vandals who seem to be above the law, attacking people and wrecking property at will. They seem to be attracted to places where violent murders have occurred. He soon suspect that these thugs might be possessed by evil spirits he has heard about whilst living with/studying nomadic tribes, especially Inuits. Now he has attracted their attention,There are more than a few violent scenes but what really works here is the dark, tense atmosphere inducing a sense of existential despair - there is no way out; psychological horror at its best. The narrative unfolds in a series of flashbacks which send Down into a sort of waking coma as she talks out the scenes as we observe, them. Adam Ant plays the leader of the evil Nomad spirits. Writer/Director John McTiernan delivers an engaging (if challenging at times) directorial debut, a film which perhaps might qualify for entry into the Folk Horror Canon. 8/10.
 
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Nomads (1986): I'd never heard of this Urban Fantasy/Horror film before I saw it on Legend Channel last night, It's the first film that John McTiernan directed, Arnold Schwarzenegger was so impressed by it that he convinced the producers to hire John McTiernan to direct Predator (1987). I was equally fascinated by this tale of an LA doctor (Lesley-Anne Down) who has the memories of a french anthropologist (Pierce Brosnan) impressed on her brain as he dies (not a spoiler this happens in the opening scenes). These reminiscences cover the last week of Brosnan's life and relate to his encounters with a bunch of partying vandals who seem to be above the law, attacking people and wrecking property at will. They seem to be attracted to places where violent murders have occurred. He soon suspect that these thugs might be possessed by evil spirits he has heard about whilst living with/studying nomadic tribes, especially Inuits. Now he has attracted their attention,There are more than a few violent scenes but what really works here is the dark, tense atmosphere inducing a sense of existential despair - there is no way out; psychological horror at its best. The narrative unfolds in a series of flashbacks which send Down into a sort of waking coma as she talks out the scenes as we observe, them. Adam Ant plays the leader of the evil Nomad spirits. Writer/Director John McTiernan delivers an engaging (if challenging at times) directorial debut, a film which perhaps might qualify for entry into the Folk Horror Canon. 8/10.
Thanks I'll look for it - I have always thought that Predator was way undervalued.
 
The Menu: The Island of Chef Moreau, some of his culinary creations are a tad odd but it's his behaviour which merits him being ranked with the bad Doctor. Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) also channels Hannibal Lecter as the narrative unfolds. The chef runs an exclusive restaurant on a private island, accessed via his own ferry. A group of customers get more than fine dining as they arrive at a scenario where the staff are acting oddly from the beginning. The guests include a food critic and her editor, a jaded film star whose assistant/lover is leaving him, a rich couple and Tyler, another top chef (who hero-worships Slowik) along with his date Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy). The food served (including non-existent bread) seems to be a parody of celebrity chef menus. Things turn distinctly weird when tacos turn out to have private information regarding the guests printed on them. It soon becomes clear to the diners that their very lives are at stake. A really dark horror/comedy/satire, the humour is desperately needed to leaven the atmosphere of existential terror and despair which builds as the implications of what is occurring becomes clearer. There is the mondo horror of mutilation. suicides and stabbings but the mundane act of a chef having to cook under pressure from Slowik and his army of sous-chefs will send a shiver along your spine. Fiennes has some of the best lines but Taylor-Joy comes in a close second as she provides the most effective opposition to him. There are plot twists and secrets revealed but you'll have to watch The Menu to learn how they evolve. This certainly provides food for thought and I'll never think of an angel investor in the same way again. Directed by Mark Mylod, written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy. 8.5/10.

In cinemas.
I saw The Menu last evening. Can I just say that I relished every morsel? I gleefully watched it. It is quite quirky and very dark.

I have a difficult time calling it horror or comedy. It is definitely for refined tastes:lolling:
 
Bones and All: Sometimes a film comes along which defines and revitalises a horror genre; Interview With The Vampire did it for Vampire films, hopefully Bones and All will do the same for Cannibal films. Bones and All is romantic story but much more than girl eats boy, it's horror, it's a road movie, it's about finding one's community. 1988, Maren (Taylor Russell) has moved from town to town with her father Frank, never staying long because Maren is a cannibal, she cannot control her urges, we see her biting off a girls finger during a sleepover. Maren and Frank flee again. Shortly afterwards it's Maren's 18th Birthday and her father departs in the night, leaving her with money her birth certificate (long version) and a cassette tape. the tape relate's Maren's past cannibalistic acts, most of which she doesn't remember. As the narrative unfolds the tape provides a backstory and structure through flashbacks. Maren rakes to the road hoping to find her birth mother, travelling through the Mid-West. She meets more of her kind, Sully (Mark Rylance), an eccentric middle-aged man who can smell her out, tells her they are both "eaters", ""there's not so many of us but more than you'd expect". He teaches her some cannibal lore before she abandons him, we see his sad face as she departs on a bus. She then meets up with Lee (Timothée Chalamet) another eater, closer to her own age, they become friends, travel together, fall in love.

This is a horror film, people are eaten alive, some eaters wait until their meal is dead though. Non-cannibals may be seen as prey to be tricked and slain. We even meet eater groupies, they self ID as cannibals. There are some very disturbing scenes but the life of an eater is similar to that of a vampire. Such a lifestyle takes both a physical and emotional toll on waters but their choices are suicide, confinement to a psychiatric hospital or to live a peripatetic lifestyle, moving from place to place as you seek your next meal. next meal. In ways this film reminds me of Mallick's Badlands and Bigelow;s Near Dark as Maren and Lee drift through the American heartlands but it is very much it's own film. Surprisingly tender in parts given it's subject matter. There are some plot twists and surprises as befits such an epic and I won't give away the origin of the film's title. It fully deserves it's 130 minute running time. Not a film for the squeamish or faint of heart. Directed by Luca Guadagnino from a screenplay by David Kajganich, based on the 2015 novel of the same name by Camille DeAngelis. 9/10.

In cinemas.
 
Just watched the 2018 movie called Annellation. Great movie with jump scares and an intriguing plot that just continues to thicken as the movie progresses. Not being a spoiler but great creature effects.
 
Just watched the 2018 movie called Annellation. Great movie with jump scares and an intriguing plot that just continues to thicken as the movie progresses. Not being a spoiler but great creature effects.
Yes this was quite good. It is pretty true to the novel by Jeff Vandermeer. The novel is part of the Southern Reach Trilogy. I have only read this one of the trilogy.
 
Yes this was quite good. It is pretty true to the novel by Jeff Vandermeer. The novel is part of the Southern Reach Trilogy. I have only read this one of the trilogy.
Book 2 is my favourite out of the trilogy. I thought the movie was a good adaptation, but the film-maker only read the first book so changed the ending making the possibility of following it up a bit pointless. But as adaptations go I thought it was really good. Can't recommend the books enough.
 
In the spirit of Tales from the Crypt and Creepshow, enjoy the full '93 John Carpenter horror anthology, Body Bags. I've still got this winner on VHS. (the film starts after the two goth types stop talking)

 
Goodnight Mommy: Austrian film. Two boys play around a lakefront house, their mother returns after an accident, her face swathed in bandages. The boys begin to suspect she isn't really their mother. Relations between them and their mother worsen and they decide to tie her up and torture her to get her to prove that shes their mother. Not a film for the squeamish or faint-hearted. There is a twist to it which you may get early on or not until the end, but the evidence is there all along. 8/10.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3086442/

I hadn't seen or even heard of the Austrian Original ( "Ich Seh, Ich Seh), but watched the 2022 US remake "Goodnight Mommy" starring Naomi Watts on Netflix last night.
I guessed the twist quite early on, as the clues felt rather telegraphed.
Both Ich Seh, Ich Seh and Goodnight Mommy seem to have pinched the central premise from the 2004 Korean movie "A Tale of Two Sisters".
It's a 6/10 from me. Decently acted, notably by the twin boys, but unoriginal and predictable.
 
This oddly titled film looks intriguing from the trailer, tapping into childhood fear big time:
With his feature debut, SKINAMARINK, director Kyle Edward Ball plunges us into those endless childhood nights in his expressionistic and experimental horror vision. Two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing, and all windows and doors in their home have vanished. While they decide to wait for the grown-ups to return, they realize they’re not alone, and a voice that sounds like a child beckons them.
 
This oddly titled film looks intriguing from the trailer, tapping into childhood fear big time:
It looks pretty dark photography wise. I hope it isn't one of those movies that just show up mostly black on screen .
 
This oddly titled film looks intriguing from the trailer, tapping into childhood fear big time:
Added to list. Great trailer.

Edit: Watched it last night. Not sure what to say really, its filmed, photographed and edited in a very uncompromising way. Its like being inside a childs dream with things happening you dont understand just out of reach. Even the film noise in the empty areas in shots you find yourself filling in half seen shapes in. The last shot will stick in my head for a very long time.

Its slow, almost impossibly vague and I personally thought it brilliant. Do not watch if you like everything neatly wrapped and tied with a bow.

Also
was the chair on the ceiling?
 
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Violent Night: A Christmas movie with a violent Santa, kind of a cross between Home Alone and Die Hard. It does enter the slipstream of horror though, this Santa blows up, strangles, stabs, shoots and uses myriad other means to slay his opponents. There is a kind of rich family soap going on but the main action is due to there being $300 million in cash on the house. Crooks disguised as caterers infiltrate the house and cold bloodedly kill staff and security so Santa's violence is justified, sort of, This is the real Santa, he's a kind of a spirit and we learn a bit about his origin story. Ge can also be excused for his haed drinking but poking over the side of the sleigh is a bit much, not exactly manna from heaven. Plenty of laughs along with the gore but some of the deaths are far from amusing. David Harbour is a fearsomely funny Santa. Directed by Tommy Wirkola, written by Pat Casey and Josh Miller. 7/10.

In cinemas.
 
Just watching "The Invitation" . I see a nod to classic Dracula , the mansion house is called "New Carfax Abbey".

The Polish "Hellhole" film sounds good, I may even give Wolf written about above a chance as sometimes I do like films others find a bit crap.

invitation is so far a little slow but worth watching for the amazing house, I do love a bit of the big old rambling country houses.
 
Currently watching "In Search of Darkness part 2" (very long documentary from Shudder, that follows on from another equally long documentary, about 80s horror movies), and an actor (Lori Cardille) from Day of the Dead is talking about how she wanted to be an archaeologist rather than an actor, and she says, " so I went to [name of school] which is a really good theatre school". I think a link in the chain of information was dropped there! I want to be an astrophysicist, so I auditioned for RADA....

Anyway, the documentaries on Shudder are superb: in depth and made with real love and passion. The In Search of Darkness pair, the one about folk horror (Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched), and a fascinating one about found footage (The Found Footage Phenomenon) are the ones that stand out (so far).
 
Beware My Brethren (1971): An English fundamentalist church has a small but committed (they should be) congregation. They listen to tapes from their Leader in Arizona. Crazed scenes as they respond to Preacher Patrick Magee who puts in a worthy performance. Amazing how many low budget horror features he starred in along with Pinter and Beckett plays, exploitation movies paying the rent I guess. Anyway one of his flock, Tony Beckley is a few psalms short of a psalter and has become a serial killer. A demented portrayal , not just as he gruesomely dispatches his victims but also as he simultaneously listens to tapes of their pleadings along with his Leader's rants. Some really good editing as the action cuts between a full immersion baptism and the drowning of one of those murdered by Beckley. Production values suffer from a limited budget but it;s certainly worth watching. Directed by Robert Hartford-Davis, written by Brian Comport. On Legend Channel. 6.5/10.
 
The Caller (2011): It;s a familiar trope, a phone rings, the person on the other end is from a different time, likely long dead. The Caller is a fresh take though, great acting, especially from Rachelle Lefevre as Mary Kee, who has recently split from a violent partner, the script and dialogue also help maintain tension throughout the film. Lorna Raver is Rose the caller, for Rose it's 1979, her voice changes from weak and pleading to manipulative and domineering as the narrative unfolds. Through their conversations Rose changes history over the 40 yea time gap by acting differently, people disappear, only Mary remembers them, scars appear on bodies. There is some overt horror in The Caller but much of it is psychological, it is offstage, suggested by the telephone conversations. I hadn't heard of this movie before I watched it last night but it is certainly a hidden gem. Directed by Matthew Parkhill and written by Sergio Casci. On Netflix. 8/10.
 
The Pale Blue Eye: Gothic Horror involving Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling) during his time as a cadet at West Point. 1830 a cadet is found hanging from a tree, Superintendent Thayer (Timothy Spall) recruits an alcoholic ex-constable Landor (Christian Bale) to investigate the case. Landor spots signs that the cadet had been murdered, which had been missed by Dr Marquis (Toby Jones). The cadet's heart has also been stolen, impressed by comments by Poe, Landor takes him on as an aide. Soon cows and sheep are discovered butchered in the area, their hearts removed. Will these hearts tell a tale? Lander and Poe examine fragments of a note, discover signs of occult activity. Is a secret Satanic society at work? Poe's infatuation with Dr Marquis's daughter Lea (Lucy Boynton) distracts him as more evidence of a conspiracy emerges. Much of the action takes place in the dark buildings of West Point, it's environs and nearby woods, the dark itself is a supporting character. Possession, ancient books, summoning and sacrifices all figure in this narrative. Most of the horror is psychological though. There are a few red herrings and plot twists, perhaps one too many for the films good. Still this is an interesting if fictional take on Poe's formative years with good performances from an ensemble cast. Written and Directed by Scott Cooper, adapted from the 2003 novel of the same name by Louis Bayard. On Netflix. 7.5/10.
 
Blasphemy? ..
On the 13th of October, The Exorcist remake will be released but will it be as good as the 1973 classic horror movie ?
I have my doubts but time will tell ..

aexorcist001.jpg



 
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