What are you watching?

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Last night:

Cropsey - I really dug this, very interesting doc. about a Staten Island serial killer with some fascinating twists. Made me wanna learn a lot more about the case.

Death Wish III - Alison had never seen it. I think she has a new favorite movie now.

We followed that with Thor's An-Thor-Ology DVD collection, for research purposes.

[Todd Jordan Smut is good. Find all posts View Profile Close Todd Jordan]

I'm glad you dig Cropsey. What'd the other half of the Janes think? Wasn't that kind of eerie when the older boy that disappeared was in the new clip next to the interviewer during news coverage for a previously missing child?

And those images from the Geraldo expose...horrific. Great documentary. I too want to learn more.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

We were both pretty taken with the movie. Gonna see if I can get an interview going with the filmmakers as I have a lot of questions about it.

[Paul Casey Frito Bandito Find all posts View Profile Close Paul Casey]

That sounds like a cool flick. Wasn't that also the name of the killer in The Burning?

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Yep. The doc. mentions that there are different takes on the 'cropsey' legend all up and down the Hudson River area, which would explain how it pops up there and how it's also cited as an influence on F13th.

[Mike T Guest Find all posts View Profile Close Mike T]

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) -- it's been years since I watched this! And I'd forgotten what a spectacularly nasty variation of the good doctor Cushing played as well. I think this was Hammer's Frankenstein at his most calculating, cunning and downright evil. As a result, the film is amazingly grim and fatalistic. Three thumbs up (one a severed spare)!

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

I like that one a lot too, one of Cushing's most diabolical roles.

Last night? The first few bits of the BBC's Human Planet series. I'm a sucker for the BBC nature documentaries. This one featured crazy guys hunting sharks in a canoe and bizarre Filipino compression divers herding fish into nets 120ft down in the ocean. Nutty stuff.

[Nolando Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Nolando]

Went and saw Of Gods & Men, dramatized story of a small group of French monks in Algeria during an extremist Islamic uprising in the late 90s. Incredibly well-done, reserved and very thought-provoking.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

The Real Cannibal Holocaust - this was a wacky 70s Mondo movie with Queen Elizabeth II, gay cannibals, piercings, wang guards made out of dead bats, and a Riz Ortolani song. I kinda dug it.

[Toyboy like a hole in the head Find all posts View Profile Close Toyboy]

I was curious about that. That's not the original title, is it?

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

The original title is either 'Guinea Ama' or 'Nuova Guinea, l'isola dei cannibali' depending on who you believe. Either way, it's a weird Japanese/Italian co-production deal that seems to have been released cut on tape in Germany as 'Faces Of Death' but otherwise not given much life on home video. Full review tomorrow, with dead bat-tastic screen caps.

[Toyboy like a hole in the head Find all posts View Profile Close Toyboy]

Crotch rabies.

[Mike T Guest Find all posts View Profile Close Mike T]

...wacky 70s Mondo movie...

There's those magic words that say: buy me next payday!

Btw, what's all this I hear that Severin might be releasing Gwendoline on Bluray?

And it looks like my past educated guess as to the future of the Sevs might be somewhere near the truth, albeit maybe a bit longer than I first intimated. Reviews for their film Devolved have been uniformly awful* across the board -- at least, they have been from professional sources and not those running amateur BD/DVD review sites set up with the sole purpose of scoring freebie movies. ;)

* even their "instant cult hit" Birdemic is starting to draw reviews that admit it isn't a "so bad it's good" film, but just simply a terrible, terrible film with absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The trailer told me there was no need to see the film, so heavens knows why people race to see that kind of backyard DIY crap...

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

I thought the trailer for Birdemic made it look fairly amusing - haven't seen it myself though, and haven't seen much of anything for Devolved.

Gwendoline on Blu-ray would be great though.

[Mike T Guest Find all posts View Profile Close Mike T]

The Black Panther Warriors (1993) -- One to the late Alan Tang's (47 at the time of its production) last forays into big screen Hong Kong action cinema is also one of his craziest. Tang is Black Cougar, head of an organisation of elite assassins, and the "plot" revolves around him gathering his team together to tackle his former "brother", Bloody Wolf (Yuen Wah). An all-star cast supports: Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung Kar Fei, Simon Yam, Carrie Ng (Naked Killer), Melvin Wong and Elsie Chan; and the whole thing is flat out nuts. Naked Killer director Clarence Ford directs with an eye towards the absurd and the film feels like a cross between a kung fu film, guns & gangsters opus, part Saviour of the Soul and part Mo Lei Tau (nonsense) comedy. It also boasts no less than SIX directors of photography, and editor Cheung Ka Fai deserved a medal for putting the whole thing together. Mad as a hatter!