News – Jan 2018

Its been a while since I made a news post and why not attempt one for the New Year

Here’s some new and not so new titles to check out

Alone (2017)

A Post Apocalyptic film by Daniel Attrill & Louis Taylor

Beard Facts

via Beard Facts

La Weekend July 5

Ghostdog (1999)

One of those life changing movies, and continues to be my go to film from time to time, a small indie movie graced by some impressive names, just because it’s that darn good of a film. Ghostdog is a lonely character, is only friend is a French speaking ice cream seller, his passion is Bushido and his Pigeons. After being saved by a mob boss, his adapted the way of the Samurai and looks upon this man as his master and he is a retainer. The mafia uses his dedication and sends him out to do hits. One goes awry and the mob turn on Ghostdog, but they don’t’ know who they are fucking with. Forest Whittaker plays the main character and he’s perfect, RZA had a hand in it’s production and the soundtrack takes a facet from each style of black music, it almost started a movement, (black) urban samurai 9/10

April 2017 News

Trying to get the news to be all serious and schit but there isn’t much going on that I give a schit about .. wait.. yes there is…

Twitter

Here are a few interesting twitters for this month…

Nick Cato, always a good source of “stuff” and check out his books, link in the pinned tweets 

Barbie Russell is a doll, check out her horror feed here  – 

YouTube

Trailers That Smell – Crocodile 1979 and check the out on Twitter (link in the bio)

Martyrs (2008)

Day 25 of 31

Director: Pascal Laugier.
Starring:Morjana Alaoui Mylène Jampanoï . Canada. 1h 34m.

This film comes straight out of left field and doesn’t ever give any real explanation for it’s bizarre and wildly disturbing nature and really crushes your guts at the end, but it’s a delight to muse over. On the outset it’s pretty forgivable to assume this is just another excuse for torture porn styled horror, without spending a lot of time thinking about the gruesome detail it’s easy to see how it all boils down to the persecution of women, so no brownie points there but simmering around the narrative are lots of other social and religious questions, most of which will turn anyone insane if you go into them in great detail.

Life (2015)

 

Director:Anton Corbijn
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Dane DeHaan, Ben Kingsley, Joel Edgerton Canada, USA. 2016. 1h 51m

I can honestly say that this film wasn’t ever going to be a winner with me, but I’m opening minded and I’m more than happy to let a good film change my opinion, but there was something worrying and lifeless about this new film from Anton Corbijn.

Meandering along at a cool jazz tempo throughout this piece of American icon worship featuring an underpowered performance from Dane DeHaan impersonating James Dean, which just comes across as drowsy more than introverted, misses out all of the gritty details about sexuality.

Review: Equilibrium (2002)

Source: Review: Equilibrium (2002)

The Gate (1987)

Day 6 of 31

The Gate  (Horror,  1987) (15) D: Tibor Takács W: Michael Nankin P:  C: Stephen Dorff, Christa Denton, Louis Tripp. 1h 25m. USA.

Synopsis : Two young boys accidentally release a horde of nasty, pint-sized demons from a hole in a suburban backyard. What follows is a classic battle between good and evil as the two kids struggle to overcome a nightmarish hell that literally begins to take over the Earth.

TAGLINE : There’s a Passageway – A Gate Behind Which the Demons Wait to Take Back What Was Once Theirs.

A slightly silly comedic horror,  based around a few kids who accidentally open the gates to hell and have to deal with the consequences without getting into trouble with their parents. The film seems to be inspired by a lot of events that were kicking around in the mid to late 80’s including the ludicrous Judas Priest backward lyrics case and just other general shenanigans.

The Offering

Link: https://youtu.be/Wpov7iKacNo

Duration: 9.26

Dir: Ryan Patch/USA/2014

Ryan Patch’s bio suggests that he likes telling campfire tales and it’s easy to see that they have rooted deep inside of his psyche and are aiding his production of some amazing creepy shorts. While this movie plunges straight in at the deep end with little back story, a tense father and son are travelling in blizzard regularly checking the clock and are almost over the edge with panic and fear. The father starts to prepare the “offering” giving hints that everything has to be done at a specific minute, in this case EVERY second counts.. but one item is missing!!?

I’m not going to lie I kinda saw the ending coming but didn’t want to believe it was actually going to go down like that. The film is incredibly edgy and tense!!! More so than similar full length counterparts such as Roadside (2013) which I think loses its momentum just because it’s so long. In contrast this is just long enough to give you hints of the back story and what’s about to happen before it totally wipes out your hopes of humanity. The receiver of the offering has a terrifying presence, all created and enhanced by flawless sounds and camera effect, topped up with outstanding acting this is actually a surprising good short and effective film.

I’m definitely rating this high as I adore short films that capture the imagination, and this could easily be written into a thrilling longer movie. The backstory seems amazing with so many opportunities and what could happen next proving to be too stimulating I might be writing some fan fiction and this is what makes a great film.

8/10

Crooked Rot

 

Duration 4.19
Dir: David Firth /UK/2008
Link: www.fat-pie.com

You can also view this in reverse here http://youtu.be/SLp3tyCacxU

Life, sex and death? Or just an unusual imagination.

I’ve been a long admirer of David Firth for a quite a long time now and have enjoyed a lot of his flash based animations like the heroic bass playing Burnt Face Man,  ultimate creepy guy Salad Fingers and other random sketches that he has lovelingly produced. A sort of young hero in the world of modern surreal animation and definitely a cult figure. Crooked Rot doesn’t come as a surprise! Although I wasn’t aware of David doing a lot of Stop Motion Animation (Call myself a fan huh).

I’ve never really tried to make sense of David’s work it has a dreamlike.. no scrap that..  nightmarish ambiance, David has a talent for getting a lot of people out of their comfort zones. to try and make sense of this fully I think I’d need therapy but it does suggest interesting themes about relationships, birth, death and communication, this is purely if you look at the symbolism.

You could stretch it to suggest it tells about relationships,  birth, life and death. The symbolism of the male and female head, the egg and the halo could represent offspring and god,  or alternatively it could just be an experimental piece while David tested out a new camera?! Who knows?!  Either way it’s a quirky little animation that you can watch either forwards or backwards. Not entirely sure why but give it a go, you might get something out of it. then again you might not.