Last Film You Watched + Your Comments?

[thehamish]

Jess Franco's Count Dracula

starring some dirty windows and out of focus tree branches.
Glad to finally see it as this was the movie being spoofed in the 1985 Fright Night-an exact copy with Roddy MacDowell getting squirted in the face.

Not a very impressive Dracula although I liked the locations and faithfulness to the book.
Too bad they couldnt get Herbert Lom to the final location--or maybe it was really that Van Helsing was a coward and he was faking his stroke(since he got up near the end to fetch a book).

Thought id posted about this, d'oh etc. Amazingly one his better films imo.Certainly id agree that it's closer to the novel than most adaptions, and loved his "cockernee" accent cough cough.

[jockfun28]

Don't Be afraid of the Dark (2011)- pretty entertaining film that i didnt realise was a remake of a 70's TV film pretty decent performances, including the young girl who at first was quite prickly & unlikeable, until she starts to witness strange going's on at her new home & starts to grow on you, don't know how faithful it is to the original, but it was entertaining for the most part, pretty decent special effects too

[MarcMorris]

I much preferred the original TV movie.

[jockfun28]

Will have to give it a watch, was only today while watching it & the credit said based on a Teleplay, that i even knew it was a remake

[Dave Jay]

What aspect ratio is the film presented in?

Doesn't state on the DVD itself, but I think it's 1.33:1. Since it says 'Standard Version' on the back of the cover, I take it this isn't the OAR. Can anyone else fill me in?

[jockfun28]

Jurassic Park Trilogy on Blu, Wow is all i can say all 3 films look absolutely amazing & the sound is fantastic, the definition on the dinosaur's is something i had never noticed before on any subsequent release, highly recommended

[MarcMorris]

It was shot open matte with the intention that it would be matted to 1.85:1 at cinemas and sold to TV open matte (full screen)

[g053584398]

Many Eastern European films were shot in the academy ratio (1.37:1) back in those days, so that is what I expected you to say. Thanks for the confirmation though.

Doesn't state on the DVD itself, but I think it's 1.33:1. Since it says 'Standard Version' on the back of the cover, I take it this isn't the OAR. Can anyone else fill me in?

[Dave Jay]

THE NIGHT DIGGER - seen many negative reviews of this 1971 psycho-thriller with overtones of NIGHT MUST FALL, but I personally thoroughly enjoyed it. Solid script courtesy of Roald Dahl, great cast, well produced and only let down by Bernard Hermann's untypically blah score, which barely registered with me. The late '60s/early '70s was a golden age for dark, twisted Brit thrillers (TWISTED NERVE, SEE NO EVIL, GIRLY, UNMAN WITTERING & ZIGO, I START COUNTING, STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING, etc.) and THE NIGHT DIGGER fits in nicely with the best of 'em. The print on Warner Archive's DVD-R has apparently been remastered and is in good nick. I'd say anyone with a taste for old-school British horror should get a kick out of this one.

[thehamish]

THE NIGHT DIGGER - seen many negative reviews of this 1971 psycho-thriller with overtones of NIGHT MUST FALL, but I personally thoroughly enjoyed it. Solid script courtesy of Roald Dahl, great cast, well produced and only let down by Bernard Hermann's untypically blah score, which barely registered with me. The late '60s/early '70s was a golden age for dark, twisted Brit thrillers (TWISTED NERVE, SEE NO EVIL, GIRLY, UNMAN WITTERING & ZIGO, I START COUNTING, STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING, etc.) and THE NIGHT DIGGER fits in nicely with the best of 'em. The print on Warner Archive's DVD-R has apparently been remastered and is in good nick. I'd say anyone with a taste for old-school British horror should get a kick out of this one.

That's a great pedigree, so it's on the list......
As a leaving present, mate and me went to see The Woman In Black, quiet audience (well, until the scares start) and i liked it! Easily the best of the 3 "new" Hammer films ive seen, even if Radcliffe is still a bit too young looking for the part, it didn't detract that much from the atmosphere. Some nice bits, slightly reminiscent of J-horror tropes i felt. unusual ending as well (was hoping for a more "trad" Hammer ending but you can't have everything haha.

[Dave Jay]

That's a great pedigree, so it's on the list......
As a leaving present, mate and me went to see The Woman In Black, quiet audience (well, until the scares start) and i liked it! Easily the best of the 3 "new" Hammer films ive seen, even if Radcliffe is still a bit too young looking for the part, it didn't detract that much from the atmosphere. Some nice bits, slightly reminiscent of J-horror tropes i felt. unusual ending as well (was hoping for a more "trad" Hammer ending but you can't have everything haha.

Hope you like it, thehamish! I'm a sucker for these old Brit chillers, so if you are as well I reckon you'll dig on it. Do plan on seeing WOMAN IN BLACK at some point... heard nothing but good things about it.

[Leatherface]

Melancholia - deeply affecting. Slow but incredibly well acted and directed. Even if you don't care for Lars Von Trier, I recommend this film. By focusing on the micro rather than the macro it is all the more devastating and arresting.

[Harold Monroe]

watched the new blu ray of dracula prince of darkness last night.
didnt notice any audio sync issues, the picture was easily as good as ive ever seen it. big improvement on previous dvd versions. the colours were particularly striking.

great film, good extras. lovely stuff

[Dave Jay]

SLAYGROUND - I remember this UK-produced thriller being advertised back when it originally came out in '83, with an ad campaign that made it look more like a horror flick. Had never got around to seeing it so recently picked up a second-hand DVD to give it a look. Based on the same series of Parker books that begat POINT BLANK, SLAYGROUND is a strange beast of a film that starts its action in the US of A and ends with a climactic shoot-out in... Southport. The story of a robber on the run from a hitman following the accidental killing of a little girl, it contains a narrative that is so rushed it leaves little room for engagement from the viewer: we meet many characters as the film trundles along but often don't really get to know who they are or what their importance to the main plot really is... more often than not they drop out of sight, never to be seen again. One can't help but feel that SLAYGROUND originally existed in a longer cut that was trimmed down to appeal more to action fans with short-attention spans.

Still, the cast is certainly eclectic, with Peter Coyote, Mel Smith and a rather wasted Billie Whitelaw headlining. Also keep an eye out for minor roles played by Kelli Maroney (NIGHT OF THE COMET) and Cassie Stuart (one of the cockney punk tarts from Stuart Gordon's DOLLS). I've gotta say I was entertained for 85 minutes, but couldn't shake the feeling that, fair fun though SLAYGROUND may be, there was a far stronger and more cohesive movie aching to be made from the source material. Nevertheless, if you see it selling cheap, I'd say pick up a copy and give it a spin.

[jockfun28]

I have this film it was not only filmed in Southport but the Fun fair interiors were filmed in Blackpool pleasure Beach in the climatic chase sequence i think they used the ghost trisn & Alice in wonderland ride's in Blackpool, but all the exterior's were filmed in southport, i think the reason they used the blackpool interiors is because blackpool's ride's are larger than southports, good film in a strange kind of way

[Dave Jay]

Yeah, I did enjoy it and as a film it's aged quite well, but the script by Trevor Preston (who also wrote NIGHT HAIR CHILD) is somewhat of a mess...

[jockfun28]

& you dont actually see anyone getting killed just the aftermath if memory serves me right

[Leatherface]

Kill List - conflicting feelings with this one. Excellently shot and acted, gruesome special effects and gore moments, and natural dialogue, but, although something along the lines of the ending was sign-posted early on, the climax still left you feeling incredibly confused and with far too many questions; it also shared no consistency with what had occured prior. Interesting but disappointing.

[Kel E]

Dracula Has Risen From the Grave
and House of Dark Shadows

watching 2 vampire movies back to back can be a tiring experience. There's nothing really new to add to a discussion on DHRFTG. I liked the melodrama and horror that could be generated in a small village bakery. As for HoDS, is this the first to have a vampire pining for a reincarnated love interest? Truly the most overused plot device in vampire movies-it was old by the time Fright Night threw it in, and by the time Coppola's Dracula did it, it was time to put a fork in it and call it done. Never saw the soap opera and the movie goes at a rather brisk pace. Never seen Night of Dark Shadows-maybe I will check it out sometime.

[Dave Jay]

& you dont actually see anyone getting killed just the aftermath if memory serves me right

That's right, though I'd guess it was more a reaction to the censorship in the UK at the time rather than a stylistic decision...

RE: KILL LIST... don't get me started on that one, Leatherface! Anyone that doesn't have a problem with how that film turns out is too easily pleased by piss-poor narrative, IMO. There seems to be two schools of thought on this: those that seem to think the fact that it doesn't really make sense as a film means it must be like, DEEP. And those like me who really feel that the film-makers got two-thirds of the way into the script and didn't really know how to end it, so just made it up as they went along. For the record: no, it wasn't a surprise that KILL LIST ended up playing out a sub-WICKER MAN situation (very badly). The real surprise was how shoddy a way they threw out character motivation and narrative sense in order to get there.

If it was TRULY a clever film, you'd watch it the second time and all the signposts would be there in order to justify the ending. But they aren't in a true sense, simply squeezed into the meandering plot in order to provide some semblance of completion. It's a lazy script seemingly eaten up by even lazier movie goers quite happy to mistake haphazard writing for profundity.