Kanashibara - 2007 - 6/10
Young male grieves in the basement, dreams tormented by the death of his girlfriend.
Who may – or may not – be physically / spiritually there.
Damaged look works to exacerbate the nocturnal state.
Dreamlike short of haunted possession.
Another Life - 2001 - 5/10
Edith is wowed and wooed by shipping agent Percy.
He dodges Great War duty by feigning injury, does she care?
By the 1920’s their marriage soured, 27-year-old Edith meets the 18-year-old Frederick.
Our couple launch a torrid affair, heightened by her wild romantic fantasies.
The upshot? Murder most foul.
What ought to be a murder mystery is overblown kitsch.
Perhaps the director was trying to show Edith’s addled mental state.
He failed. Angel (2007) carried that off better, although many disliked Ozon’s film, too.
Based on Edith Thompson, whose real story is more compelling.
English (AI generated) subs = https://subscene.cam/subtitle/3350844
Sorceress - 1974 - 3/10
A couple decide to fleece his poker friends.
She pretends to be a fortune teller, then helps the men enact fantasies.
After filming various stuff-the-muffin encounters, extortion time.
Andrea (♪ More, More, More ♪) True rassles in one section. Sonny Landham another.
Dreary, boring, with nary a whiff of magic.
Blink Twice - 2024 - 6/10
Frida and Jess, wait-staff for an exclusive, A-list gala, miraculously catch a VIP’s eye.
They are invited back to his private island for gourmet meals, endless sun, designer drugs.
Hallucinogens or narcotics, with spinning side effects, compounded by the massive blunts everyone tokes.
Island servants, mocking and unsettling, refer to Frida as the red rabbit.
Slow burn thriller will test the patience of some during the leisurely first half.
Compensations include stylish photo compositions, and a soured fairytale undercurrent.
The finale, while not clichéd, does feel contrived, and I wish it had been better thought out.
Vernon Subutex - 2019 - 6/10
Opening flash of his 90’s heyday, when Vernon ran Revolver, a trendy Parisian record shop,
Wild customers, camaraderie, sex, drugs, good times!
Bump a few decades, no more music store, broke, Vernon is evicted and out on the streets.
A chronic mooch, a list of Facebook “friends”, he possesses an easy charm despite the growing dishevelment.
Then there are the tapes, left to him by a deceased, fallen musician.
Nine half-hour episodes that, I gather, barely scratch the surface of an influential novel trilogy.
The framework resembles a quest, the grail a testament.
Lightweight adaptation.
Alien: Romulus - 2024 - 6/10
For Alien fans, this borrows from / plays homage to the whole franchise.
Including, as ever, Weyland-Yutani employees with the intelligence of sock puppets.
A large craft drifts toward a terraformed mining colony.
Overlooked by scientists & military, yet seen by young scavengers.
‘Hey, if there’s the tech gear on that, we might could escape this ole rock!”
The wayward craft turns out to be a huge research station.
And our plucky crew of scrap dealers land themselves into a dead teenager flick.
While this looks fantastic, the script is below derivative.
So much money lavished on a fan-service film. Disappointing.
The Bells - 1926 - 6/10
Innkeeper Mathias, determined to be village burgomaster loans money, gives free drinks.
Up to his eyes in debt to Franz, who is poised to hurl Mathias and family onto the street.
Arriving during a blizzard is the stranger, wearing a thick money belt.
No one knows him, no one misses him, until the locals realize he has been murdered.
Creaky Silent benefits from Lionel Barrymore’s theatrical performance.
Also Boris Karloff as a mesmerist, appreciated by all, save the guilty.
McCartney 3, 2,1 - 2021 - 8/10
Documentary I had resisted for a long time.
Rick Rubin interviews Paul McCartney in a studio.
Thorny topics avoided, they discuss Beatles and Wings.
Predominantly, the songs, and the art of song craft.
How compositions came about, inspirations, learning curves.
Informative, with an easy tone, as Paul, growing comfortable, shares memories.
Those who worried about any sort of one-upsmanship, fear not.
Superb, inspired presentation of how an interview should be done.
Here - 2023 - 6/10
Construction worker Stefan has a mandatory 4 week vacation.
He cleans the fridge, makes soup for friends, wanders Brussels and nearby forests.
Preparing to head to eastern Europe to visit family.
ShuXiu is a botanist, specialty moss. She is also in the woods.
Measured buildup before the two meet, kindred spirits, passing ships.
Lengthy takes, allowing viewers to fill in their own conclusions.
Gorgeous photography contrasts Nature with Urban.
The narrative, however, is opaque and unresolved.
English subs = https://subscene.cam/subtitle/3350448
God Went Surfing With The Devil - 2010 - 6/10
Surfers 4 Peace want to deliver 23 surfboards into Gaza.
Owing to ongoing conflict, the border is only intermittently open.
The are endless customs forms, fees, weird concerns (Israel fears terrorists will surf into their country).
Residents of both nations are interviewed amidst rocket attacks and retaliations.
Along with a few officials from Israel and Hamas.
By design, no history is expressed or explored.
Surfers, professional, amateur, and youthful aspirants, all seem a hopeful, optimistic bunch.
Eye-opening companion to Gaza Surf Club.
Spiral - 2024 - 6/10
Morning parcel, hallway drug deal, address query, utility survey, bangers and mash supper.
Next day, repeat. Next day, repeat. Next day, repeat. Next day, repeat.
Midway, Tyzer catches on. He is caught in a mindless time loop.
Disconcerted at first, then increasingly violent.
Uncomfortable Horror short from Scotland, funny, brutal, bleak.
Blitz Spirit - 2021 - 7/10
Historian Lucy Worsley separates myths and fables from actual events.
She relies on diaries and journals of London participants, with actors voicing their words.
Also utilized are newsreel footage and official documents.
The Government initially declared the Underground off-limits as bomb shelters.
Ongoing news was scrutinized, rewritten, censored.
The Luftwaffe initially targeted the Docks and East End, sparing the ruling class.
The lower orders recognized the timeless slight.
Timeline is brief and accurate. Declaration, Phony War, Blitz, Germany pivots toward Russia.
Worthwhile. In a vein similar to Worsley’s Suffragettes (2018).
English subs = https://subscene.cam/subtitle/3350451
The Ruins Of Rhia - 2047 - 6/10
It started as a midterm assignment, it started with an A I misunderstanding.
Chuck (AKA - Chucksteak), on athletic scholarship, registers for Archeology 101.
His professor tells him to locate and diagram Rhia, which the class gamers snicker at.
Completely out of his depth, Chuck asks “Madam”, his A I tutor to contact and resurrect Rayla.
“Do you mean R’lyeh?” it prompts. “Sure, Madam, whatever.”
The computer links to the university network. Powered by a small reactor in the Science Dept, it then uplinks to SpaceX, and thousands of small energy beacons focus on the South Pacific.
47°9’S 126°43’W. R’leyh.
Seas blacken, then waters grow turbulent, while Madam continues to hurl energy at an alarming rate.
Fairly good Cthulhu yarn has imaginative premise, ingenious models, and is strongly plotted until two thirds in.
Then everything ebbs. New characters appear with the Peruvian Navy (Peru provided funding).
One gathers at a certain point, backers were going, “Now what?”
Doesn’t help that two actors were murdered, one committed suicide, one was kidnapped.
Parasyte: The Grey - 2024 - 7/10
AKA - 기생수: 더 그레이
Alien spores drop through our atmosphere.
Landing, sluglike entities seek human, enters, devouring brains and taking control.
Once in the new body, it’s hungry. And its preferred meal? Yeah, tastes like chicken!
Team Grey is the government agency, aware of the invasion, trying to quell.
Several narratives in this six-part K-drama.
Aliens carving territory, local cops dealing with Black Ops.
A cheap thug, an honorable cop, a girl where the possession failed.
Sidespin of the anime Parasyte Maxim (2019), itself derived from the 1989 manga.
In-between, a two-part film in 2014.
Near the end, I was highly doubtful, yet this DOES reach a conclusion.
A Chinese Ghost Story - 1987 - 7/10
AKA - Sien lui yau wan // 倩女幽魂
Bill collector / scholar is caught up in a rainstorm, where his invoices bleed.
He cannot collect, lacks funds to return home, nor can he afford a room.
Locals advise he lodge free at Lan Yeuk Temple.
Where he encounters a gorgeous female (Joey Wang).
Not knowing she is a ghost, in thrall to a powerful demon who consumes humans.
Also there is Dao monk, slinging rhymes and battling the underworld.
What follows is part ghost story, part comedy, part bittersweet romance.
The look is beautifully stylized, with an energetic, bonkers finale.
One of the countless glories of Hong Kong cinema heyday.
Shivers - 1975 - 6/10
“Say one of your vital organs is failing. Replace that with a genetically modified parasite to take over the function.”
Except that the parasite (which resembles a crinkled, red water weenie) has a powerful reproductive urge.
It takes over the human sex drive, and the afflicted become “again and again and again” addicts.
Early Cronenberg effort already shows his interest in sex, fluid and taboos.
The film is restrained, with adequate actors and empty locations.
Budget limitations are apparent, yet he does pull out the stops with the bubbling climax.
Some nudity, not as much as anticipated; again this is an early work.
Palma, Clemente - Malevolent Tales
Late to the Decadent Party, and penned in a country (Peru) where the consequences could well be dire, Palma’s stories shy away from the conte cruel, and blasphemy is more a flirtation.
“The Last Faun” shows the Olympian gods displaced from the earth, with a young faun overlooked. He matures into a satyr, without any congenial nymphs. Until he spies an attractive group of novices, and he fails to grasp the difference between a nymph and a nun.
Ernesto long courted Suzón. He is melancholy, serious, while Suzón is vivacious. An ideal match. In “A Vulgar Story” hopes and aspirations are dashed, in a sordid reveal.
Do we really live? Or is life an illusion? In “The White Farm” our narrator is pledged to Cordelia, even after she is stricken with malaria. After fevered prayers, she recovers, and the pair flee to his isolated rural estate. Again, do we really live? Or is happiness itself a dream?
Fortunately, the doctor recognizes the tell-tale signs. Punctures on the neck, the ebbing of life force. His young man is troubled by “The Vampires”. His recommended prescription – get married? For many, isn’t that merely changing one vamp for another? If viewed that way, this can be comical.
“The Tragic Day” is the longest yarn, an apocalyptic doom that approaches with Halley’s Comet. You Lifeforce fanatics, please settle down. Death lies in the dust of the tail that will sweep and engulf the planet, killing all life within seconds. Humanity reacts predictably: prayer, pillage, suicide. Yet, our narrator, perhaps like others, has a survival plan. This is a gripping story, although it feels like Palma wrote himself into a corner as the ending is a brick toss.
My copy is from a new press, Strange Ports, specializing in obscure or forgotten decadence.
Zombie Fight Club - 2014 - 6/10
AKA - Shi Cheng // 屍城
Could be the drugs were tainted, only how would that infect Taipei so quickly?
The tactical combat unit glides upwards into the tenement.
A weaponized drug gang, a partying rapper, trio of kidnappers, birthday celebrants, various lowlifes.
Plenty of females. Must be summer as most are skimpily attired, if at all.
Then the dying starts.
Way too many side stories – except – these make for a banquet of unhappy meals.
Extraordinarily bloody and gory, this is full-on jet spray of splatter.
Deep into the film, the story shifts to an apocalyptic “after”.
Planet overrun, dwindling survivors underground, enduring arena combat.
Excessive, redundant, perhaps repellent, depending on your tolerance.
Midnight Meat Train - 2008 - 6/10
Leon, city photographer, wants to be the next Weegee.
Capture the worst elements of humanity or similar city dwellers.
Linger anywhere long enough, and one might sense a pattern.
Leon realizes a serial killer haunts the subway.
One of the better adaptations of one of Clive Barker’s ofttimes unfilmable stories.
Vinnie Jones effectively used as the near-wordless, enigmatic menace.
Updated Slasher has an explanatory ending, which annoyed some viewers.
The Bridge Curse - 2020 - 6/10
AKA - Nü Gui Qiao // 女鬼桥
There is “found footage” (a style I detest) early, but that subsides after ten minutes.
Dual narratives. An investigative journalist examines the deaths of five students four years earlier.
Weaving the activities of those same five on the night they died during a “courage test”.
At midnight, near the bridge where many students have died, 13 steps become 14.
This is heavy on suspense and tension, with little gore.
After the midway point, the plot grows increasingly twisted, and imaginative.
Stick with this – into and past the credits!
Hey, creative opening graffiti for producers. Nice job.
Lust Of The Vampire - 1957 - 6/10
AKA - I Vampiri
Not what you would anticipate.
Young women are being found in Paris drained of blood and the press dubs the killer.
As the camera tracks showgirls and college debs, you see the targets.
There is an inquiring journalist, a young duchess who flirts with him, and the besieged police.
Not to overlook the stately manor, a Gothic overload better suited to the house of Dracula.
A young Mario Bava is the DP, who makes full use of shadows, cellars, tunnels, and subliminal gems.
Despite Bava, despite the vampire, despite the gloomy trappings, this is closer to a Krimi.
And this is a lot ongoing. Mad scientist, grasping aristocrat, kidnappings, murders, even a kitten!
A Candle For The Devil - 1973 - 6/10
AKA - Una Vela Para el Diablo // It Happened At Nightmare Inn
Well, she had it coming, the tramp.
After all, our house is a respectable house.
Next day, another bus of tourists, and indecent girls, arrives.
Marta and Verónica have an inn and cafe. Both sisters are straitlaced and moralizing.
Well … Verónica does kick the sheets with a much younger man.
Needs and frustrations must be satisfied.
The DVD has two commentaries; Kim Newman seems distracted on the first.
WARNING! There are two cuts of this film. “Candle” is uncut and runs 87 minutes.
“Happened” is heavily cut and runs 67 minutes.
The Invisible Ray - 1936 - 6/10
Professor Rukh invents a telescope that permits him to peer deep into the universe, and into Earth’s past.
Even seeing a meteorite strike Africa millions of years ago.
He and a team journey to Africa and FIND the meteor. Hooray.
Except the rock is dangerous. Exposed, Rukh’s touch is lethal, and his mind is going.
So-so Universal SciFi / mystery marred by a lackluster script.
This re-teams Boris and Bela, although Mr Lugois is underutilized.
Nevertheless, this has genuine spooky moments and Karloff is excellent.
Totally Killer - 2023 - 6/10
Here in Vernon, where every Halloween, people still dress up as the serial killer.
After a death, 35 years later, Jamie vows to put a stop to the murderer, now and then.
How? Her best friend is tinkering with her mother’s time machine experiment.
One strike of iron into the system panel, and Jamie is back in 1987.
Where social norms are wildly different. Woke? Political correctness? Acceptance?
Comedy flits between SciFi and Horror. Note: This is a Slasher, flat out.
Plenty of in-jokes for fans who recognize homage to two franchises.
Gleefully wicked fun. Pair with The Final Girls for your October party.
Satan’s Rhapsody - 1917 - 6/10
AKA - Rapsodia Satanica
Merry party-goers leave Alba’s Castle of Illusions, while she, despondent, pines for her youth.
Out steps Mephisto, offering her youth and beauty, but she must not fall in love.
Of course, Alba is adored and soon has handsome admirers, including two brothers.
Slowish Silent melodrama is noteworthy for Pietro Mascagni’s only film score
Likewise the hand-coloring of Alba in fuchsia and olive green, and Mephisto is crimson.
Running less than an hour, Silent fans ought to give this a look.