due to the current pandemic my social life has nearly ceased so I've caught up on some unwatched Blurays and made some other extremely dubious choices for the past month. Heregoes...
Lamberto Bava's Demons (1985) - nearly plot-less gorefest with very good gore, a bizarre soundtrack that swings between Italian synth and British heavy metal and hard rock, and a movie within a movie. I liked it more than when I watched it 8 years ago but it's still not a favorite.
Darrell James Roodt's Dracula 3000 (2004) - one of the worst movies I've ever seen but it's actually bad/good. And it stars Casper Van Dien, Coolio, Udo Kier (not as Dracula) and Erika Eleniak?! Of course it's bad but it's actually worth a watch with friends.
John Woo's Face/Off (1997) - It's the best English language film John Woo ever made, but it's still very flawed. And the whole hand across the face intimate thing John Travolta does? Terrifying and upsetting. While it was the coolest film when it came out and I was 10 years old, at 32 it's just dumb but fun.
Iain Softley's The Skeleton Key (2005) - my fiancee's choice but to her credit this wasn't the worst thing I'd ever seen. Especially for a mid-00s horror film. it did feel a little like Get Out stole some pages from it though.
William Friedkin's To Live and Die in LA (1985) - the plot is silly and acts as an excuse to push an inane/insane neo-noir police procedural, but its that aspect that makes it such a ruthless and nihilist showing of violence and greed culture. best character is Dean Stockwell as a big deal LA lawyer or the city of LA itself. Wang Chung's "soundtrack" which is inserted and cut super abruptly through scenes is a weird fucked up choice, and allegedly the impetus for the whole film being made. the car chase is mind-boggling, truly amazing. the only downside to the whole thing is when the main character's partner has his last scene with the informant. it's too corny. but everything else is just the right blend of cruel.
Lucio Fulci's Manhattan Baby (1982) - unsuccessful as "movie with a plot". very successful as a series of bizarre barely connected images with sometimes interesting sound design. first 15 minutes and last 20 are great vignettes by themselves. watched it streaming but actually bought the recent Bluray AFTER watching it because I'm insane.
Michael Showalter's The Big Sick (2017) - fiancee's choice. a rom-com partially based on the lead and his wife's relationship. some parts were funny but there's very little character development or much to like about either so it fell flat.
Sonny Laguna & Tommy Wiklund's Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich (2018) - liked this one even more the second time. a great restart to this series that always had major pacing and tonal issues and still hasn't fixed them.
Lucio Fulci's Four of the Apocalypse (1975) - a mostly solid western that slows to a fucking crawl for no apparent reason to deal with the birth of a child and some related shit, only to have the last violent bits rushed. I felt disappointed by the film as a whole but loved some of the segments on their own. but isn't that what Italian cinema is all about?
Lucio Fulci's Aenigma (1987) - of all the Fulci I recently watched, this was easily my favorite. I watched it twice in 4 days! Honestly a new favorite Fulci film altogether. It has some very loose similarities to Carrie and Dario Argento's Phenomena but it does its own thing. if school girls are the focus I'm gonna be intrigued. the use of model shots was unexpected and great. the interiors were amazingly hilarious or bizarre and very cool. the gore wasn't insane but there were moments. if the budget had been higher this one could've looked even better!
Jorge Grau's The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974) - wow!!! this was so different and so much better than I knew to expect. really an exception zombie film full of gorgeous shots of the north English country side and ever escalating gore from the master Giannetto De Rossi. a slow burn but a damn strong one!
