Night of the Big Heat (1967) AKA Island of the Burning Damned

 

Director: Terence Fisher
Writer: Night of the big heat by John Lymington
Starring: Christopher Lee, Patrick Allen, Peter Cushing, Jane Merrow. UK. 1h 34m.

You know that feeling when you buy a DVD with the title Island of the Burning Damned, get past the menus and the film (finally) starts, then you’re presented with a title of Night of the Big Heat and you suspect something is wrong.. but all the actors seem to be present.. Humm.. Why do they release films with two different titles anyway it’s confusing for us retards.

That aside this cryptic sci fi thriller has a heavy noir undertone which is quite unusual especially for a film of this time period but it works well as hot flustered temperatures play a key role in this intrepid space horror.

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

 

Director : Dan Trachtenberg
Starring : John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Gallagher Jr. USA. 1h 43m

This has to be one of the most unpredictable and yet most anticipated monster sequel for quite some time. The return of Cloverfield comes with a heavy dose of Hitchcock as the young franchise steps away from the found footage shaky cam horror that made original so popular. Instead 10 Cloverfield Lane, originally called The Cellar plays with a lot of psychological tricks while dealing with tremendous tension; mostly caused by the unknown saviour Howard played by John Goodman, is his homely and very creepy underground bunker.

Old 37 (2015)

Director: Alan Smithee.
Writer: Joe Landes, Paul Travers
Starring: Kane Hodder, Bill Moseley, and some other people.. . USA. 1h 24m.

With a promising story line and two seasoned legendary veterans of horror Kane Hodder and Bill Moseley this film should have had a lot more clout but unfortunately to poor writing a terrible script and appalling acting it’s just doesn’t deliver the goods, I know I’m in the minority here but it seems to be one of these films which have youngen’s all hyped up about being a slasher and to be honest Jason, Freddy and Michael probably kill twice as many people while warming up.

Trash Humpers (2009)

Director : Harmony Korine
Starring :Rachel Korine Brian Kotzur Travis Nicholson Harmony Korine.  USA. 1h 37m

Several years after the success of Gummo (1997) Harmony Korine returned with several starkly mystifying movies but it wasn’t until trash humpers did he manage to recreate the magic of Gummo but with the elderly and this time on home video, And that would be used home videos.

This psycho-mental black comedy comes in the guise of a horror drama as we proceed to follow the most peculiar elderly residents around wreaking deadly social havok. The Misfits are described by the director as “loser-gang cult-freak collective”,  and the antics are nonlinear but equally disturbing,  from actually humping Trash and any other inanimate object to hiring a troupe of  plus-size prostitute they managed to out do boys from gummo while tanking down gallons of alcohol.

A Most Violent Year (2014)

Director : J C Chandor
Starring : Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, David Oyelowo, Elyes Gabel .USA. 2h 5m

This film kicks off with an amazing intro song Inner City Blues by Marvin Gaye as Abel (Oscar Isaac), possibly the only carefree scene in the movie, but it good vibes dwindle rapidly but are replaced by the smooth sounds of 1981 new york, and we’re treated to a rare intense movie that mimics the smooth ruthlessness of any classic crime drama. The grit of the movie is all to do with the business transactions, keeping on the straight and narrow while in a dog eat dog world.

The Survivalist (2015)

Director: Stephen Fingleton
Starring: Martin McCann, Mia Goth, Olven Fouere. Ireland/UK. 1h 43m

A impressive and unusual post apocalyptic survival story, if the title didn’t give that away already.. instead of a desert wasteland and zombies this lush yet bleak take on our future is incredibly intense and thought provoking.

Unnamed and isolated a young man forges a future for himself in the wilderness, growing what food he can on land littered with the bodies of those who have tried to rob him in the past. Eventually his solitary existence is disturbed by two starving visitors, a young girl Milija (Mia Goth) and her long silver haired banshee of a mother Kathryn (Olwen Fouéré), who first offer the man seeds then sex for food and shelter. Eventually unspoken rules and a tentative bond is formed although everyone is striving to survive and no one fully trusted.

Strange Blood (2015)

Director: Chad Michael Ward
Writer: Pearry Reginald Teo (story)
Starring Robert Brettenaugh, Alexandra Bard, James Adam Lim.USA. 1h 20m.

All hail the new flesh! If David Cronenberg was going to make a vampire film then it would be something like this, but on a much larger scale possibly with hordes of infected people running around.  Strange blood is a low budget attempt at showing us the horrors that sometimes come disguised as a scientific blessing. Melding science and mythology, this film successfully depicts a deep raw worship of an alien being, something akin to Existenz (1999), Tetsuo Body Hammer (1992) or even Hardware (1990) while keeping a firm foot on the daddy didn’t love me backstory.
Starting out fresh and curious the film is full swing in the laboratory,  no need for a achievement montage,  the experiment is a success!! Unfortunately the blob gets a little hostile similar to Ginger and Fred in Splice (2009) and attacks Henry the pious doctor. Assuming It was a one-off attack and that he’s totally ok he carries on with the experiment, during this time his student falls in love with him and attempts to start  a relationship but the pathogen running through his blood from his experiment starts to transform him mentally first into a unemotional beast.

Fear the cure.

Stigmata (1999)

Director : Rupert Wainwright
Starring: Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne. USA. 1h 43m

Patricia Arquette plays, Frankie a young hip hairdresser who works and salon  that also offers tattoos waaaaaay you before that was ever popular, she goes out clubbing with her friends and is generally having quite an amazing time before she starts getting gross bleeding wounds in her wrists and feet which then turn to my fan to a constant downer.

While her life of turned upside down she is soon made a pet  project by the experience tennis to father Andrew Keirnan (Gabriel Byrne) who also managed to play incarnation of Satan in the same year In the more efficient at end of days also starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.  the astute father, is deeply concerned about her situation  as he is the chief Vatican phenomenal investigator he is constantly dressed in severe back and designer spectacles,  he manages the coach her  through an unusual situation.

Hey do you know what’s scarier than not believing in god?

The film seems to take several different directions the narrative is never clear, at first it seems that this is a phenomenon that could just happen to anybody but it seems a mistake to have happened to Frankie as she is an atheist. There is no attempt to make this a spiritual journey Frankie goes through possession style torture and is under the watchful eye of the church you’re more likely to find more meaning of suffering by watching MTV.

There is some strong dialogue and good acting all round and it’s quite interesting but the film forms the basis for which the viewer has to fill in the blanks therefore you can make it is a spiritual all as supernatural if you wish. The storyline does make it watchable but it’s just not a great movie,  but possibly one of the better modern introduction to the phenomenon that we don’t actually see a lot of in these modern day features,  even with the rise of exorcism and possession films especially from the found footage genre, stigmata if often glazed over. It would be interesting to see someone address this is more gritty way.

 

 

Rating 3/10

R –  The Exorcist (1973), End of  Days (1999),  Matthew 18 (2014)
L – Selected Religious Films
5B – Gabriel Byrne, Patricia Arquette
Vs -Gabriel Priest vs Gabriel Satan
Post Discussion

K Pax (2001)

Director : Iain Softley
Writer : K Pax by Gene Brewer
Starring : Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges.David Patrick Kelly. USA. 2h

You’ll want to believe him, or so the poster claims but this film delivers two very different stories and makes them both very believable. And years after watching K Pax for the first time I still have the (guilty) pleasure of sitting down and enjoying the beefed up psychological thriller/ sci fi adventure as Prot builds bonds with the characters of a mental hospital and horrible suspicions are realised.

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Director : Tim Burton
Starring: Johnny Depp, Christopher Walken,  Christina Ricci, Michael Gambon, Christopher Lee Miranda Richardson. USA. 1h 45m

The alluring Johnny Depp returns to the big screen under the gentle hand of his best friend Tim Burton in the timeless epic,  Sleepy Hollow,  Washington Irving’s all  American gothic mystery thriller romance,  and with it’s dark and twisted back story it’s one of the prime suspects of a classic novel that would  inspire Tim Burton to direct again and he manages to give it his stereotypical darkly tinted overhaul, conjuring up massively creepy action scenes for his favourite leading man despite his cheerful disposition and constant fainting, he is strangely the man for the job. Depp plays Ichabod Crane a police officer sent by the New York authorities, in this case by Christopher Lee in the late 18th century to investigate a supernatural crime wave in a small town almost lost within a forest called Sleepy Hollow, one of the obvious twists with this retelling of the story is the modern FBI approach that Crane has towards investigating the series of beheadings like Takeshi Kaneshiro in Dragon (2013) but without the CSI graphics.