ok lets all shit our pants to something old: pre-2006 horror film thread

On reading a bit, the anime is a prequel and there is a SNES action-platormer and a PS1 beat'em-up.

The director of the films has an interesting character design CV for videogames.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keita_Amemiya

The monsters of Kamen Rider ZO (1993) pic.twitter.com/Xmw4uooG1G

— HTOP (@Htop_Gunder) March 25, 2021

Is anyone interested in the Hands Of Orlac release? I heard someone say it was a huge disappointment years ago so I've never had much interest until now.

I bought the Norman J Warren box after he died and hadn't seen Prey in years.

That's one immensely fucked up film, the alien creature plot is totally secondary to the story of Josephine's abusive relationship behaviour and how the pair of them just seem to assume Anderson is some mentally ill guy they can treat badly and he'll take it.

Currently working my way through the new William Grefé blu-ray boxed set. Seven low budget indie features made in Florida between 1966 and 1977 (not including Stanley which may be his best, nor Impulse starring William Shatner which I've not seen).

There's some horror in here (eg Death Curse of Tartu (1966)), some action thrillers, some noirish stuff, lots of hippie exploitation (the director evidently was down with the Haight-Ashbury-style hippie scene of Coconut Grove in Miami); there's also plenty of animals that attack. This is a director who's very comfortable with dangerous wildlife.

Best of all is the seedy, sordid, often fetid atmosphere that's typically present throughout Grefé's filmography.

I started with The Naked Zoo (1970) which is a potboiler about a modish young playboy type/writer having an affair with, of all people, the middle-aged Rita Hayworth. Not quite as fascinating as I remembered it from watching it in some bleary state on a late-night cable showing back in the early '90s. Pacing is poor and the plot elements don't really fit together. Fun to see Hayworth in this setting though. And still wonderful and priceless is a scene with Canned Heat performing at a hippie house party, this scene having been inserted by another director after Grefé turned in his final cut.

A genuine horror is Mako: The Jaws of Death (1976) about an antisocial shark whisperer played by Richard Jaeckel, and his misadventures with an unscrupulous bar owner in the Florida Keys. The stuntwork involving real sharks is phenomenal and truly frightening... more convincing than Jaws! The plot is generally implausible and marred by leaps of logic, but Jaeckel plays it as straight as possible (many of the other cast members are locals, per the director's usual m.o.).

Also watched The Hooked Generation (1968), an action thriller about drug running starring Jeremy Slate, with support work from Coconut Grove hipppies. Not terrible. Fun climax in a mangrove swamp that is actually a public park in Miami. For those more interested in horror, the set also includes The Sting of Death (1966), about killer jellyfish, and a Deliverance-style murderous redneck shocker called Whiskey Mountain (1977), among other goodies.

One of the coolest things I ever made was this boardgame based on the world of Jean Rollin. Art by Jessica Seamans and hand-sculpted tokens by Dan Martin. pic.twitter.com/BiPcT9JQCc

— Kier-La Janisse (@bigsmashkierla) March 16, 2021

xpost If I have one major complaint about Arrow, it's how ridiculously limited-edition some of their stuff is. That Grefé set was released, what, a couple months ago? I've read more about it recently that piqued my interest (including your post!) but now afaict it's already out of freakin print.

finally watching ravenous (1999)

this movie is WILD

That Grefé set was released, what, a couple months ago? I've read more about it recently that piqued my interest (including your post!) but now afaict it's already out of freakin print.

I saw this just before I gave the Arrow Easter sale one last look and added it to my cart on the off chance it would let me. It turned up today so there are copies in the UK at least.

Sad to report that Grefé's Whiskey Mountain is pretty dull, despite a good cast (incl Christopher George, Roberta Collins). It was shot in North Carolina instead of Grefé's usual territory of Florida. Having poor sound does not help.

(rare) Max Schreck taking a break filming 'Nosferatu' (1922) This photo is creepier than any shot in the movie pic.twitter.com/sQ2iCiN1wj

— Hammer Horror Films (@HorrorHammer1) May 1, 2021

dead and buried, 1981 slow motion seaside village horror a la messiah of evil, currently available on shudder, fog in every scene, totally fucking amazing

This has been a crown jewel in Blue Underground's catalog for so long I'm shocked I still haven't seen it. Was featured in the second installment of In Search of Darkness, though, and it looks fantastic.

There's a second installment of In Search of Darkness!? I think I saw most of the first one, and it was iirc 4 1/2 hours long! And was basically just a parade of talking heads going "and then this movie came out, and it was really cool," and then moving on to the next movie.

Totally forgot that I bought Dead and Buried from a Blue Underground sale late last year. I should get on that.

All criticisms of In Search of Darkness are 100% correct and I also 100% don't care.

xpost that was just included on Last Drive-In on Shudder

i've heard the second in search of darkness is an improvement on the first

The selection of films feels more esoteric, fwiw, and there's definitely more of a laser focus on the Italio horror of the early 80s.

Also, a somewhat hilarious meta moment where the doc includes Terror in the Aisles as one of its featured movies.

Dead and Buried is the other great horror film directed by Gary (Death Line) Sherman. It was actually considered a 'video nasty' in the UK on its first VHS release, probably because of the old needle to the eyeball moment.

I've passed it up many times but I might give it a shot soon

Fade To Black looks pretty good, anyone seen it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5BFrJEmbak

i enjoyed it quite a bit

watched the original Nosferatu this afternoon, 99 years old

saw it a couple of years ago, it was a memorable film

pretty influential. the 25 minute Grayling talk about it was also interesting (this was the bfi disk).

my usual concentration span failings seem to be doubled when watching silent films though - without the speech telling me to pay attention i tend to drift away

Rewatched Dead and Buried after many, many years, thanks to this thread. Still holds up imho. I misremembered the film as being quite comic - a la O'Bannon's Return of the Living Dead - but in fact it's not even especially a 'black comedy', just an out and out shocker. You can sort of see why it got caught up in the Video Nasty scare, despite having more production values than most of the VNs - there's a certain dreamy disconnected energy that's not that far removed from Fulci's House by the Cemetery etc - as well as some fairly graphic gore, especially for an American horror movie at this time. The bandaged man who gets his eyeball needled really looks looks terrified - it's a great image of fear. Perhaps the one major downside is that the central sheriff guy isn't very charismatic and seems kind of slow on the uptake even for movies of this type - his wife teaching kids at her school about voodoo while hiding books about witchcraft around the house does provide some laughs, and brings the film closer to Night of the Eagle than Night of the Living Dead. The sequence where the sheriff watches some black and white film he's got developed by the sinister local chemist already feels v v 'found footage horror' - all the paraphernalia of old cameras, film projectors, flash lights seen throughout now becomes a wonderful snapshot of old means of seeing, as well as a fairly unique portent of sinister intent, still, wisely not too literally explained.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6dFW-ZHAs8

The video isn't one of his best but I'm really happy to see somebody with a big audience talking about Lemora, fingers crossed for a bluray
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyFT7usSROU

finally watched Maniac Cop, not the tone I was expecting and bruce campbell kinda phones it in but overall a lot of fun, stoked to watch the sequels

Maniac Cop 2 is maybe better and more fun and features a pretty novel car chase conceit that I've never seen before and I have no idea how the stuntwoman made it through the scene without sustaining severe carpal injuries. Haven't heard much good about the third, though.

I remain very interested in the refn/hyams reboot series

Finally! I've got a czech dvd of this but I'm so happy about this
https://secondrundvd.ecwid.com/#!/Beauty-and-the-Beast-Blu-ray-Special-Edition/p/367281809/category=0

Watched Night of the Eagle aka Burn, Witch, Burn! last night, holy shit did I ever love that. great script, really inventive direction, awesome effects, engaging performances, a killer premise, and an ending that doesn't shit the bed. (also, since it involves witches and voodoo, I kept waiting for overt racism and/or misogyny, but it never really materializes much - I'm sure it helped that this fellow apparently wrote the final draft) the US version, which is under the latter title, adds a wonderful voice-only intro that is already one of my favorite-ever openings to a movie

Just saw that for the first time a few months back. VG+, a much more serious-minded horror flick than most Arkoff productions of that era. As much love as I have for AIP's campy goof-fests, it's a welcome change of pace.

I wld say that Night of the Eagle/Burn With Burn is Baxt's best credit, although City of the Dead has some nice atmos.

Peter Wyngarde gives a 'full' performance in NOTE/BWB but he's pretty effective playing/conveying fear in the face of unseen terror.

he really grew on me over the course of the movie for sure

horror channel uk seems to be working through cronenberg movies. and i must've seen Scanners before, but i hadn't recognised the sample on, i think, Dubstep Allstars Volume 2 until today.

(yeah, DA2, specifically Loefah's Goat Stare

)

https://arrowfilms.com/product-detail/the-snake-girl-and-the-silver-haired-witch-blu-ray/FCD2196
Worth a watch, I have a bootleg of this. Adapted from Umezu's comic, he makes a brief appearance.

shudder just added messiah of evil. if you have not seen messiah of evil, drop everything

Dead and Buried is the other great horror film directed by Gary (Death Line) Sherman. It was actually considered a 'video nasty' in the UK on its first VHS release, probably because of the old needle to the eyeball moment.

― Ward Fowler, Monday, May 17, 2021 6:52 PM (two months ago)

Quite surprised by this. Just watched Dead And Buried and found it a little underwhelming despite good moments. Script seemed a bit cliched and the acting didn't smooth over it. Style of Death Line is just completely different.

I am psyched to see Messiah of Evil at some point but I don't have Shudder so someone needs to put the blu-ray back in print.

Fun fact: it's written and directed by the folks that brought us Howard the Duck! I won't hold that against it, though.

Abel Ferrara watching The Driller Killer, the good stuff. pic.twitter.com/QHVcyuAMhH

— John Frankensteiner (@JFrankensteiner) October 20, 2020

Messiah of Evil is gd fun - in parts it's the most proto-Lynchian film I can think of - but it does have one of the all-time lame endings (they ran out of money before they could shoot a proper finale).

I missed the recent Eureka release of Viy with the bonus limited edition extra film called Sveto Mesto/A Holy Place. Luckily it is on youtube in a probably scratchier but very watchable form.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwYk7h_wJAk
It's one of the most substantially different versions of Viy I've seen (let's forget about the recent one). More sex, ballbusting, an angry cat and the witch seduces women too. Doesn't have the full-on phantasmagoria of the other ones, but takes interesting directions, definitely worthwhile.

that ferrara commentary is hilarious

Yeah, next time I pick up any of his films I'll check for commentary. Kind of great to hear him just laughing at the really nasty bits.

Just got the Daimajin boxed set (the trilogy all came out within 7 or 8 months in 1966!) and reading an essay in the booklet about the cultural impact. A ton of famous writers and directors were going to do reboots. Katsuhiro Otomo scripted a film that was going to feature Steven Seagal and Golden Harvest was going to co-produce one featuring Kevin Costner. There's a very expensive fan film that was well liked but copyright prevents it getting a proper release

Seems that Kim Newman stuffed his recent Anno Dracula books with an extensive list of japanese monsters including Daimajin and even Kato from Teito Monogatari (the character that M Bison/Vega from Street Fighter was based on)

Daimajin and (at last) Criterion Godzilla set on their way to me, psyched for big-time kaiju filmfest