What have you been watching?

[helrunar]

Latest discovery: Cave of the Living Dead (1964), an offbeat German-Yugoslav co-production that seems to have been shot in a real village with a real castle AND real caverns! The black and white photography is gorgeous, with beautifully sustained atmosphere, even with the potentially jarring element of an American detective-inspector in hand. Online blog reviews complain that we've seen it all before, but I thought it was very special with some unusual nuances, and I enjoyed all the performances. 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFSzUaMRJBY

Hel.

[andydecker]

Thanks, Hel. Nice find!

The star is Adrian Hoven. He later produced and directed horror movies like Mark of the Devil and some Jess Franco productions.

[andydecker]

Sept 1, 2024 21:59:20 GMT helrunar said:

Latest discovery: Cave of the Living Dead (1964), an offbeat German-Yugoslav co-production that seems to have been shot in a real village with a real castle AND real caverns! The black and white photography is gorgeous, with beautifully sustained atmosphere, even with the potentially jarring element of an American detective-inspector in hand. Online blog reviews complain that we've seen it all before, but I thought it was very special with some unusual nuances, and I enjoyed all the performances.

I watched it. You are right, photography is good, the atmosphere is nice, but compared to other German productions of its time it is very slow. Material for a short story pumped up to a novel. Which is a bit sad, as some parts and scenes - especially the end - were surprisingly well realised. All very subdued, of course, German filmmaking of the time couldn't do Hammer or Bava. Still, an interesting oddity which was new to me. Thanks.

[helrunar]

Andreas, I am glad you enjoyed it for what it was. One scene did remind me of an episode in a short story, when the vampire smashed the ingenue's hand mirror and admonished her for her "vanity." I just can't recall in which tale that occurred. And it was one I read fairly recently--my short term memory is just very limited now.

The parts were much more meaningful to me than the whole. I liked the landlord (innkeeper) character and the village wise woman the best. The English dubbing was much better than the norm. I would love to know just where it was filmed but there does not seem to be any record of this. I think I read that the director was Hungarian. It just seemed offbeat and intriguing to me.

I also had to watch it over several days because of how crazy my schedule has been over the past week or so. So, I don't have much of a sense of it as a coherent whole.

cheers, Steve

[andydecker]

Sept 3, 2024 20:06:09 GMT helrunar said:

Andreas, I am glad you enjoyed it for what it was. One scene did remind me of an episode in a short story, when the vampire smashed the ingenue's hand mirror and admonished her for her "vanity." I just can't recall in which tale that occurred. And it was one I read fairly recently--my short term memory is just very limited now.

The parts were much more meaningful to me than the whole. I liked the landlord (innkeeper) character and the village wise woman the best. The English dubbing was much better than the norm. I would love to know just where it was filmed but there does not seem to be any record of this. I think I read that the director was Hungarian. It just seemed offbeat and intriguing to me.


cheers, Steve

Hm, the mirror scene is a classic out of Stoker's Dracula. It's from the first part, when Harker is the guest of the Count.

 "Take care," he said, "take care how you cut yourself. It is more dangerous that you think in this country." Then seizing the shaving glass, he went on, "And this is the wretched thing that has done the mischief. It is a foul bauble of man's vanity. Away with it!" And opening the window with one wrench of his terrible hand, he flung out the glass, which was shattered into a thousand pieces on the stones of the courtyard far below. Then he withdrew without a word. (Dracula, end of chapter 2)

I can't remember if it was in Murnau's Nosferatu or Browning's Dracula, but is has become one of those standard scenes.

Yes, I also liked the landlord. (Even if I have to confess I started fast-forwarding at some point.) I found also the short near-nudity scene remarkable for the time of origin. Rather uncommon in 1963. It was the era of the Edgar Wallace movies which never showed any skin in this decade. Insofar it was pretty risque and frankly I am astonished that a) they did it and b) it wasn't cut out.

German Wikipedia says the movie was shot in Yugoslawia, at Predjama Castle where those caves are. I don't know if this is true or not. But at the time a lot of German productions were shot in Yugoslawia.

[andydecker]

Cold Moon – (USA, 2016) directed by Griff Furst

This is the adaption of Michael McDowell's novel Cold Moon over Babylon from 1980.

Basically this is surprisingly faithful to the novel, right down to the ending. Maybe it is a bit too faithful, because it drags in places and is compared to a lot of contemporary horror movies a bit (or a lot according to one's taste) boring and rather harmless. No doubt it is atmospheric, and the cast is okay – Christopher Llyod is in it, but it is one of those 3 to 5 minutes screentime roles -, but it could have been visually better and more suspenseful told with some improvements on how to tell the story. It is strange to say this, for I hate those "re-imagined" for screen productions of old and beloved novels. But as a major McDowell fan I so wanted to like this, sadly it left me rather cold.

 
Abigail – (USA 2024) directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

A group of six criminals kidnap Abigail, who is about 13 or so and has just come back from ballet training into the posh house of her absent father. It is a professional assignment, the four man and two woman – a smooth leader, a sniper, a mob enforcer, a driver, a ditzy hacker and a medic – don't know each other. They just know that their client who waits in a safe house for them will ransom 50 millions from the unknown child's father. The gang will have to babysit Abigial in the old villa until the money is there.

The gang freaks when they accidently discover that Abigail‘s dad is a powerful crime lord. Then the first of them gets found with his head ripped off, and the night literally drowns in blood.

I don‘t want to spoil what this is about, I managed to restrain myself and didn't read any synopsis before viewing. So while the beginning was the umpteenth repetition of a Tarantino movie, the revelation what this is about was a bit of a letdown at first.

But some well-known actors like Giancarlo Esposito of Breaking Bad fame and Dan Stevens from Downton Abbey made the waiting worthwhile (even if Esposito is a bit wasted here). The movie begins slow and takes a while until it get bloody. But it is a lot of monster fun, well scripted with some nice twists, and child actress Alisha Weir who is 15 is marvellous as Abigail, the little ballerina with a secret. I liked this a lot.

[andydecker]

The Innsmouth School for Girls – (USA 2023) written, produced and directed by Joshua Kennedy

A low, low very low budget version of H.P. Lovecraft‘s The Shadow over Innsmouth this tells the story of young orphan Roberta Olmstead who gets a place on the Innsmouth School for Girls. After being bullied by her new class-mates and their alpha girl Suzie Banion and fighting for her place among them she stumbles upon a dark secret. The dean is one of the Innsmouth brood and his niece Lori is changing.

Produced with untrained actors, this is both amateurish but often quite clever. The young woman playing the girls are giving their best, while the special effects are, well, rubber masks, make-up and editing. Make no mistake, this is trashy, there is no gore, no nudity and no violence. But the screenplay is surprisingly good, following the original story rather faithfully. Also there are a lot of in-jokes.

To be honest, this is not a good horror movie. But it isn‘t a spoof either and it takes the subject more seriously than a lot of better budgeted B-Movies. Despite its deficiencies I liked it.

[helrunar]

Thanks for this review, Andreas. I bet I'd enjoy this film. I've gotten to where I just do not want to see big marquee movies any longer at all because I'm so fatigued with all the CGI, software, over processing, AI and other drek they load onto the screen. Ingenues running around thesping in rubber masks sounds much more entertaining. (I've become something of a devotee of community theater in recent years.)

Best, Steve

[jamesdoig]

I'm about halfway through - it's a bit like Wednesday meets H.P. Lovecraft. As you say, very low budget, but good fun with some nice atmosphere and tentacles - all those screaming teenage girls are the scariest thing in it.

[andydecker]

Oct 29, 2024 19:36:00 GMT jamesdoig said:

I'm about halfway through - it's a bit like Wednesday meets H.P. Lovecraft. As you say, very low budget, but good fun with some nice atmosphere and tentacles - all those screaming teenage girls are the scariest thing in it.

Still not having seen Wednesday. Heard only good things about it. But the flood of productions is eroding my interest for these series. How many spin- offs of The Walking Dead does the world need?

With ‘Innsmouth’ I marveled again about the big gap between low budget movies and TV productions. How slick and effortless looking are series like Pretty Little Liars or Vampire Diaries depicting schools and teenage girls compared to stuff like this.

[andydecker]

Diabolik 2: Ginko Attacks (Italy 2022) directed by the Manetti brother.

The sequel to Diabolik replaces Luca Marinelli with Giacomo Giannotti in the role of the master criminal, but at the end this matters not a bit. Monica Bellucci is wasted in her role as inspector Ginko’s love interest – this role could have been played by anyone -, only Miriam Leone as Eva Kant is great again. But this is not enough. This is even more boring than the first part, which again is mostly due to the slow pacing and the lackluster story. Compared to this Mario Bava’s version from 1968 is a breathless action blockbuster. A wasted opportunity, as it looks good and has nice production values.

[andydecker]

Immaculate – (USA 2024) directed by Michael Mohan

Sydney Sweeney as a young nun which becomes a victim of a conspiracy in a convent. I don‘t want to spoil the plot, as the movie was released this year. Suffice to say that there is nothing supernatural here aside the usual religious insanity. (At least there is not another ghost nun.) There is also nothing new here in terms of ideas, somehow all elements are familiar and the characters rather stereotypical. But it can‘t be denied that it has good production values and is atmospheric. The gory ending is surprising though, as it comes a bit out of the left field.

The attraction here is mostly Sweeny‘s excellent performance. The movie also was produced by her company, which gave her the control over the finished product and the story-line. A decent horror movie is the result.

[jamesdoig]

Nov 6, 2024 21:32:54 GMT andydecker said:

Immaculate – (USA 2024) directed by Michael Mohan

I saw it a few days ago and enjoyed it - not overlong and the ending didn't pull any punches. Was hard to reconcile that Spanish guy from Heist as the nutter priest. Also recently watched the new Salem's Lot, which was fine up to about half way, the Substance, which sadly didn't work, Oddity, which was great, Apartment 7A (Rosemary's Baby prequel), which was pretty good, Longlegs, which should have been better, that weird semi-supernatural show The Passenger, and the 2nd season of Devil's Hour, which is becoming a bit tedious. And Abigail was good fun. Still need to watch MaXXXine and the others in the X trilogy - hadn't heard about the series until the last one came out, but must give it a go.

[Swampirella]

I'm afraid I'm not keeping up on the latest horror movies. The only one of those I've seen is Apartment 7A, which I agree was pretty good.

[andydecker]

Nov 7, 2024 7:55:41 GMT jamesdoig said:

Also recently watched the new Salem's Lot, which was fine up to about half way, Still need to watch MaXXXine and the others in the X trilogy - hadn't heard about the series until the last one came out, but must give it a go.

I still shudder at the thought of the 2004 version of Salem's Lot, which was one of those re-imaginings and changed the ending because it could.

I just ordered X - the first one - on Prime as it was in one of those short bargain sales after I read that MaXXXine was way more successful at the box office than Joker 2 which seems to have crashed badly. 

Prime seems to have an unending stock of low budget trash horror. I ordered a few at this sale, most of which I finally fast-forwarded. I have come to loath the IMDB with its vile Parent Guide and its mostly brain-dead reviews, but unfortunately for once they were right with most of those turkeys. :-)