Vizigothe's strange and cult movie pit

[vizi]

Table of Contents:

Rabid

Shivers

The Hills Have Eyes

The Night Flier

Cronos

La Jetée

Near Dark

Ascenseur pour l'échafaud

Romper Stomper

The Beast Must Die

Dellamorte Dellamore

Braindead

Killer Drag Queens on Dope

Bad Taste

A Haunting in Connecticut

Phantasm

Un chien andalou

Night of the Living Dead

Dawn of the Dead

Dog Soldiers

Banlieue 13

The Mask of Fu Manchu

House on Haunted Hill

La cité des enfants perdus

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Fire in the Sky

Excalibur

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Cigarette Burns

In the Mouth of Madness

Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight

The Ninth Configuration

Dark Star

Aleksandr Nevskiy

Kakushi-toride no san-akunin

Dead Man by special guest protest frog, SoggyFrog

Brain Scan

Moon

Oldboy

OSS 117: Rio ne répond plus

Train de Vie and Der Baader Meinhof Komplex by special guest reviewer, Shikaka

Haute tension

I will toss a movie out here every so often. Expect a lot to come soon. [I added this on 10/15/2008] Mainly because it is near Halloween and I love watch strange horror movies, especially cult and underground ones. I will also be review classic movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood and foreign films. Because their are a lot of good films out there that most of my contemporaries have never heard of or never seen. And that is a shame. Feel free to comment. Remark. Cry. Punch me in the face. You can call me names. Tell me I am a moron. Even put your own review of either some really strange indie film or your favorite cult classic that I has slighted in some terrible manner and forgotten to review or even watch. Or offer suggestions and I will manage to find the movie by some means and toss out my short review. I will try to keep all my reviews as spoiler free as possible. However if their is a twist in the movie or something that I think shouldn't be spoiled. Expect me not to say a damn word about it. I mainly just want to get people interested in movies that are not mainstream Hollywood blockbusters. And I will also give people rep for commenting in this thread about my review or for suggestions for new movies. That is my speech. Live with it or GTFO!

Scoring guide:
equals a 1.
equals 0.5.
All ratings are out of 10.


Rabid
by David Cronenberg. Released in 1977.

The movie has a low budget. Which can be seen by the amateurish acting and the fact that, even though I am not one to look for set mistakes, I saw the camera man in the car during one scene. They were flipping back and forth between shots inside the car and outside and all the outside shots you could see the shadow of the cameraman and his camera. Meaning they lacked the time and money to do that scene with two different shots. But alas! A 1977 vampire-zombie movie is not going to have a massive budget!

Anyway the movie starts out with this couple on a motorcycle riding in some Canadian back roads. They have to swerve to miss a stalled van in the middle of the road and the man gets mildly hurt but the woman gets caught underneath the motorcycle that catches on fire. The man (Hart) and the woman (Rose) are somewhat lucky. They crashed outside of a plastic surgery resort type clinic. They go out and collect the two. Hart has minor injuries and they plan on sending him to the General Hospital. However Rose is badly injured and unable to be moved. They stop the internal bleeding and get her on blood transfusions and IVs. She has burn damage on her body. The plastic surgeon (Dr. Keloid) decides to take skin grafts from Rose's thighs and freeze them and send them to a hospital that can treat them (genetically or some such) to act almost like stem cells and grow as skin from the part of the body that it is grafted onto. Opposed to growing as thigh skin. And of course because this is Canada and in the middle of nowhere (Quebec) they go ahead with this highly sophisticated process, despite the small risk of the skin grafts developing a carcinoma and all without consent from family or the boyfriend, Hart.

Well needless to say about a month later she wakes up from the coma. Having developed a strange phallic stinger under her armpit. And she needs blood. And of course because Rose is acted by a former porn star we of course notice that this stinger often erupts from it's hiding place when she is sexual aroused...or topless...ahhh camp...how I love thee. However there is a strange catch. The people she drinks blood from develop rabies like symptoms and develops a strong urge to start biting people.

Of course there are some simple, yet effective statements about the reactions of politicians, health agencies and the law enforcement groups. Along with Rose trying to come to terms with what is happening to her as she tries to get back home. And Hart trying to find Rose.

All in all it makes some simple yet nice statements about modern society and the closeness we exist in. And of course it has camp, nudity and zombies. Did I mention the ex porn star was topless several times during the movie?


Giving this movie a 65% It had a low budget, some of the shots were poorly edited, you could see cameramen in cars and such. But all and all it was a decently fun zombie movie.

or

/10


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076590/

[Maverick]

Sounds interesting, I have not seen any of his earlier work with the exception of Videodrome. I will remember to check this out when I get the chance.

[vizi]

Check this out of Shivers. Shivers is a zombie outbreak in a much smaller scale. Island Hotel. I am gonna watch Shivers soon...I have been watching a bunch of rather strange movies lately and will drop some reviews on this place soon. So be on the look out mate.

[vizi]

Shivers

by David Cronenberg. Released in Canada in 1975.

Rabid is a strange amalgam of vampire-zombie movie that I reviewed previously. Shivers is closer to a pure zombie movie than Rabid. But still strange and worthy of a watch by those late night fiends out there.

Shivers takes place on Starliner Island outside of Montreal. A resort apartment high rise away from the bustle of the city. However something is about to go horribly wrong...or horribly right.

As with your typical zombie movie from the 70's they make up with the lack of acting ability with lots of nudity. However our genius director made sure that it wasn't gratuitous nudity. Oh no this nudity has a point!

Anyway this man is sick and very distant and his wife is tense and uptight because he doesn't like doctors and doesn't know what is wrong with him. Well he has been having an affair with a girl on the top floor. This same girl gets in a scuffle with some strange old guy who strangles her and performs a strange surgery on himself before slitting his own throat.

Well as we progress, the man who is distant starts coughing up blood and then coughs up a thing. Of course we had just learned that the guy he slit his throat after killing the girl was a doctor who was working on breeding a parasite that can replace organs, like a kidney and be beneficial to mankind. Yea...where have I heard that one before?

Well this thing slithers around and attacks some ugly fat lady doing her laundry. So what is this thing and come on! This sounds more like that movie Slither! Not a zombie movie! Oh but wait there is more!

The details are better left to the actually viewing. But this insane doctor thought that humanity was an animal that over rationalizes everything. And pulled wool over the eyes of his partner's and financiers and was creating a parasite to make humanity accept it's sexual nature and enjoy a more hedonistic sexual life.

And of course it goes wrong. Which has to happen. Otherwise there would be no movie.

Instead the people become sex starved lunatics. When they are in the presence of someone they could...ummm infect via kissing or sex they go insane. So very much like zombies! But instead of clawing and biting...they are kiss and fornicate.

Yes this sounds like a prono. No it is not a prono. It is a sex zombie epidemic infecting an apartment.

Seriously though. As strange as the movie sounds. I suggest you find the movie and give it a watch. Cronenberg is an amazing director and this is a genuine zombie movie. With a sexy little twist.

Which gives it another 65% score. Same problems as Rabid. I mean these are good movies, but they just do not hold a candle to Romero's Night of the Living Dead. But still worth a watch if you like zombie movies.

or

/10

[vizi]

I have several movies I am going to write reviews for soon...Night Flier, The Hills Have Eyes, Near Dark, The Addiction and The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (yes it isn't a horror movie, but it is a UK film and is the only movie produced by the Salem Films Limited. So I think is qualifies.) Not to mention it is most likely the best spy movie ever made. And Bond fans? Well as Sean Connery always said. Suck it Trebek.

Look forward to all those soon. The People Under the Stairs might get on this list. If I can get the damn DVD to work. It keeps freezing about halfway through...and I have cleaned the disc once.

[chriscase]

My favorite halloween flick for years was Suspiria, an ultra-cheesy, ultra-violent Dario Argento film. I still think it's scary as hell, mostly because of the outstanding soundtrack by Goblin.

[James Cook]

The Hills Have Eyes

these a ing awesome both 1 and 2

[vizi]

I might be kind of back. So I will hop on this horse again....

The Hills Have Eyes
by Wes Craven. Released in 1977.

Last you heard from me, I flipped out and disappeared from this site for awhile. Leaving this work unfinished!

We have a lovely family from Cleveland driving through Nevada it would seem. Nellis AFB and the nuclear testing zones and what have you. The family is going to see California, but they also got an old silver mine for the parents 25th wedding anniversary. Silver anniversary, silver mine, how cute.

The family runs across a place called Fred's Oasis. To get gas and directions and what have you. Well their is a strange man running about, the family doesn't see him, but the dogs do. Fred warns them not to go traveling the back roads and to just get on to California. Fred is nervous and is planning on leaving the area as well.

Of course the father doesn't listen and decides to continue trying to find the silver mine. The wife and daughters are nagging the father to death...man this is sounding familiar...reminds me of driving to Florida once or twice a year...I digress. When suddenly two jets buzz the car and camper causing a massive crash that leaves the family stranded in the middle of nowhere. Thank god this is a 70's movie, it already sounds cliched. Oh that's right, where do you think modern horror movies get this silly set ups? From movies like this one of course!

And wouldn't you know, camera pans up to the sky and we see buzzards. Holy foreshadowing Batman! Get me the robotic madman psycho killer repellent spray!

Well one of the sons sets off towards what should be a military base up ahead and the father walks back to Fred's Oasis. I could have sworn Scooby Doo had been out for at least 5 or 6 years when this movie took place. Don't you ever know not to split up!!! Sheesh! Thankfully, the stupidity of the family isn't really the concern! Otherwise I would have told you I tossed the DVD in the trash bin after about 10 minutes.

Well one of the stupid daughter's lets one of the german shepards loose and it runs after something and then you hear it yelp and scream. Now this is a bad move. You simply do not kill a dog, especially if you are a bad guy. I mean maybe if he knew the name of the remaining, male dog, was Beast he would have restrained himself.

The movie escalates into what Charles Manson would call a creepy crawly death fest. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6dh8XXISro. The song is not for children or for people who hate rap for no reason other than it is rap, but it conveys the creepy crawly part I just said, and has audio clips of Manson.)

All I can say about the rest of the movie, without giving too much away, is that it becomes brutal and keeps you on the edge of your seat. Literally. And, if someone has a German Shepard named Beast, you should leave that family alone, or at least not kill Beast's female compatriot. Personally Beast is the hero of the movie. Want to see a properly executed dog attack in the most vicious manner on celluloid? Go and see this film! In fact, damnit! Go see as many Wes Craven films as you can! Most are good, or at least redeemable in some manner!

And, since I can't find a decent clip from the original...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB3p0444q6k

Flashback to the half the scene from the first movie. (This is from the Hills Have Eyes 2.)

Have never seen 2. Personally, I have my own ideas on how 1 ended. And that is all I need.

Over all I am going to give this movie a 70% It contains plenty of gruesome fun and isolation. Inbred mutant rednecks with a lust for blood and death. You just can't go wrong with this one. Again this is the original, not the remake. Do not be fooled by horror movie remakes, they are a dime a dozen.

or

/10

Edit: The next movie I am going to do will be Cronos and Night Flier. A Twofer. Both vampire movies. Both weird vampire movies. One is a Stephen King story. And the other is done by Guillermo del Toro, which means it contains Ron Perlman. Which makes me smile. Well...actually it did make me smile for a little over an hour. Perlman is always superb!

[God]

Wahay, Visi's back!

I need to watch this film. Just got The Wicker Man finally, so I'll watch that soon next.

[vizi]

Wicker Man. The first one or the remake? I have only seen the 1973 version.

/10

Maybe their was some British thing about it that I missed...I was also so drunk I couldn't stand...but the movie just seemed to drag on unreasonably and really wasn't scary, shocking or terribly entertaining. I mean I knew what was going to happen and why they were doing what they did not to far into the movie.

I mean I was drunk and their was a few scenes with nudity and it just bored me.

Let me know what you think.

[vizi]

The Night Flier
by Mark Pavia. Released in 1998.

This movie is based off a Stephen King story. And I can hear the groans now. Stephen King movie? Another one? You have to be kidding me, they are for the most part all crap. And you would be right. For the most part. The Night Flier isn't all that special. But it wasn't ever suppose to be special. Just unique. I earlier mentioned that I don't spot set mistakes in movies all that often, I just don't look for them. I counted at least three times where the boom mike dips into the frame. I burst out laughing everytime. Because it was also a scene where Miguel Ferrer is trying to be all serious and a hard ass. This is another reason I liked the movie. I have a soft spot in my heart for Miguel Ferrer. And now most of you are asking who in the hell is Miguel Ferrer? Several reasons really, first and foremost is that he was Doctor Garret Macy in Crossing Jordan, which was a great show. I spent a lot of time watching it when it hit syndication on A&E. He also appears in quite a few random episodes of DC Animated Cartoon shows. And perhaps the most cool reason to love Miguel Ferrer is that he was a Executive Officer of the USS Excelsior in Star Trek III.

And he was also in RoboCop as Bob Morton, but honestly, who remembers Bob Morton from RoboCop?

Enough about Miguel Ferrer! The movie has an interesting premise. We are talking about a classic Bram Stroker vampire, cape and all! But he flies a plane around from small airport to small airport mesmerizing the people that run the airport and spending a few days their before draining their blood and killing them in a most violent manner. Miguel Ferrer plays a hotshot tabloid reporter (as if such a thing exists.) He is Richard Dees and he doesn't want the case until it turns out to be interesting. He is fighting for the story with a new reporter, named Katherine Blair, played by some broad who is in like 2 movies. Anyway Mr. Dees keeps getting images from the vampire not to pursue the story. Mr. Dees is not willing to accept these strange visions and clues to back off and keeps going after the leads. Eventually he has to team up with Katherine Blair to find this vampire.

The movie moves forward just fast enough and develops Richard Dees and what is happening to him just enough to actually make this movie worthwhile. I won't give away the ending. But honestly, I didn't expect what happened to happen. I had somewhat of an idea, but I was surprised somewhat to say the least. All I can say is that the vampire is mostly classical, in the Strokerian sense, but their are some differences. But trust me, check out your local library, mine had a copy. The finale of this movie is amazing. And the tagline and the best line in the movie is superb as well; Never believe what you publish...Never publish what you believe.

And ironic that I put that up their, because if you follow my advice you failed to follow the tagline, but if you listen to the tagline you fail to enjoy a fun little vampire flick that nobody has ever heard of!

Go watch the movie!

Over all
/10

[vizi]

Cronos
by Guillermo del Toro. Released in 1993.

Cronos is a very interesting movie. Yes it is a vampire movie. But it is a darn weird one. The main people of interest are Jesus Gris (Federico Luppi,) Angel de la Guardia (Ron Perlman,) De la Guardia (Claudio Brook) and Aurora (Tamara Shanath.) If you watch this movie, adn you should, you will be surpised that Aurora only has one line the entire movie, Abuelo, but you don't have to have lines to be important. The other three characters are really well acted. Luppi and Brook have tons of work behind them. And most people should know who Ron Perlman is by now.

In 1535 an alchemist who fled the Inquistion in Spain to Mexico builds a device that grants the owner immortality. However their is a cost. But in 1936 a vault collapses and one is lead to assume that the creator is crushed and has his chest pierced by the rubble and dies. His possessions are auctioned off.

Here the story diverges. De la Guardia apparently comes into possession of the alchemist's journals and notebooks and discovers this amazing device and the cost of use. De la Guardia is dying from some cancer and desires the device to cheat death. He sends his nephew, Angel to buy these angel statues where the alchemist his the device. Jesus Gris has such a statue and after someone pokes around looking at the statue he discovers the device. He removes the device and Angel buys the statue with the hiding place empty.

As per usual, Jesus accidently activates the device and gets 'stung' by it. He becomes dependent on the device and slowly starts to become consumed by it. Aurora, his granddaughter fears for him. And tries to protect him.

This movie is really a touching story of a granddaugher's love, her grandfather's weakness and a dying man's obsession. And one wonder's, can Aurora's love save her grandfather before it is too late?

The movie suffers from a smaller budget, but the sets are great. The drama is slower paced so buyer beware. If you can't sit through a slow movie, steer clear. I suggest the new Rambo movie or the new Punisher movie.

However, this is an amazing movie. I watched it in orginial Spanish with subtitles (my mastery of the Spanish language is....lacking....so I needed the subtitles at times. I do believe you can also find dubbed versions. Still their was some English in the movie as well. It provided a nice contrast. Also Ron Perlman's character is quite an enjoyable one.

Over all
/10

This is a torrid pace at the moment.

I am trying to get some of these vampire movies out of the way...also a suggestion. If you enjoy some avant-guarde type films, go find the movie The Addiction. It came out in 1995 and is interesting. It is an art type film and instead of dealing with with vampires, it deals more with the addiction to blood. And what that addiction will do to people. I watched it earlier in the semester and it has a philosophy doctorate student, I couldn't even look my philosophy teacher in the same light after this movie. It is a weird movie but give it a try. 6/10.

Also with a remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still coming out tomorrow...please, try and watch the version that came out in 1951. Just watching the trailer for the new one makes me wonder if the director even read the story or watched the movie before embarking on his quest to tarnish a classic...

[chriscase]

I have a soft spot in my heart for Miguel Ferrer. And now most of you are asking who in the hell is Miguel Ferrer? Several reasons really, first and foremost is that he was Doctor Garret Macy in Crossing Jordan, which was a great show. I spent a lot of time watching it when it hit syndication on A&E. He also appears in quite a few random episodes of DC Animated Cartoon shows. And perhaps the most cool reason to love Miguel Ferrer is that he was a Executive Officer of the USS Excelsior in Star Trek III.

And he was also in RoboCop as Bob Morton, but honestly, who remembers Bob Morton from RoboCop?

Whaa? First of all, the Robocop role was awesome. But you seem to have forgotten this:



Star Trek??? Who gives a crap???

[God]

Yay! Twin Peaks! One of the best shows ever easily (I'm watching series 1 now )

And the soundtrack is great too.

I'd be lying if I said I recognised Miguel Ferrer though

Also with a remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still coming out tomorrow...please, try and watch the version that came out in 1951. Just watching the trailer for the new one makes me wonder if the director even read the story or watched the movie before embarking on his quest to tarnish a classic...

Remakes...

[vizi]

Never seen Twin Peaks. I guess I will have to since two people seem to think so highly of it.

I am sure that God's taste is good. However since chriscase bashed Star Trek...well, I am not so sure about his taste

Edit: And remakes are not all that bad. I really enjoyed the remake of 3:10 to Yuma...however timeplot movies are basically all remakes of the original timeplot movie anyway...but for the most part the remakes just tarnish their classic originals and the tweeners and high schoolers only know of the first movie and then make having any intelligent conversation about a movie impossible...hell even my friends do that. We will be watching a movie and when it is over my friends will talk to me about how amazing the movie was and how they couldn't believe someone hadn't thought of a movie like that before. And i will shake my head and tell them that it was an ok movie. But it all over the original. And they stare at me in disbelief like slack jawed morons and say, "You mean that was a remake?"

[God]

I've actually never seen the original 3:10 to Yuma (I definitely must sometime), but the remake was really good.

[vizi]

It's a good movie. Glenn Ford is a pretty good actor, he plays Ben Wade. I saw it after the original though. I can't see every western out there...

I am trying to figure out what movie to do next...the movies I plan on watching soon are Roman Holiday, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Lifeboat and I plan on rewatching Lawrence of Arabia because it has been soooooooo long!

However those movies are not what I would consider cult classics...Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Hitchcock and O'Toole? Hardly cult material. That is mainstream from the golden age!

Edit: it just dawned on me! You gave me the idea! Holy God is really talking to me! I'll do Ascenseur pour l'échafaud I actually know where to get the movie at. I have a friend who is big into old noir!

[God]

Yeah, do that. The soundtrack rules.

[Viking Prince]

If you plan to watch Breakfast at Tiffany's, read the Truman Capote novella also. The differences are interesting. Both are good, but differant.

btw - I would place this in a cult type of category. Blake Edwards movies have that feel about them.

[vizi]

Well as movies do get older, they certainly do start to fall into a cult status. A local movie theater is running on mondays a golden age of hollywood screenings for 2 bucks. Thinking about going and enjoying some classics.