What are you watching?

[Dom D]

Case Of The Bloody Iris is absolutely top tier for me. Maybe my favourite. The pacingis not perfect and the comedy cops are a bit trying but it's so definitively giallo for me. And the photography is just gorgeous.

[s.chivers]

Case of the Bloody Iris

Few things bring me as much joy on a Saturday night as a giallo from the golden era, and while this is certainly not of the top tier, it’s solid genre fare and endlessly re-watchable. It’s stylish, as evidenced by the famous artwork, has a memorable score from Bruno Nicolai and, of course, it has Edwige. Its shortcomings . . . I’m not sure how much sense it makes but don’t really care. I think the relative lack of flair around the murders hurts it more.

I actually had an Italian language VHS of this back in the nineties - it’s possible I still do. We watched the Celluloid Dreams 4k last night though, which looks great. There is quite a bit of hiss on the English soundtrack, which I don’t remember from previous digital incarnations . . . but I probably wouldn’t.

[Cody Layne]

Day of the Dead Ultimate Edition: Spent the last couple of days going through this set, which has to be the best edition of this movie ever. It has the two commentaries from the Anchor Bay release and, having listened to the one with George Romero, Tom Savini, and such many, many years ago, this time I listened to the one with the effects guys, including Greg Nicotero, Howard Berger, Everett Burrell, and Mike Deak, which was pretty fun. It also had that awesome documentary from the Scream Factory release, as well as an interview with Romero at the BIFF, a bunch of behind-the-scenes stuff, the documentary from the Anchor Bay release (which I missed, since I no longer have that set), an hour-long interview with Joe Pilato, a 78-minute documentary on Night of the Living Dead (no mention of Day of the Dead, which was strange for this release), and a travelogue with Pilato going to conventions across Scotland and Ireland. The only thing it's missing is that audio interview with the late Richard Liberty that was on the Anchor Bay DVD; otherwise, it is basically complete.

[f.ramses]

Rapiña - This really isn't a horror movie despite being in a set more or less sold as a horror set, it's barely a thriller and seems like more of a drama than anything to me but I found it really enjoyable despite my expectations. A plane crashes in a remote location and the one person who sees it happen doesn't report it so he can go and loot the wreckage but trying to hide what they have done once the plane is discovered proves a lot harder than they thought. It's not a very eventful movie and the characters in this are pretty stupid, often this is a recipe for disaster for me as far as movies go but this managed to keep me interested and not bore me. Lately I've been thinking about revisiting A Simple Plan and in some ways this is a similar movie.

Darker than Night - From the same set as Rapiña and an actual horror movie! ...too bad it's so boring. A young woman inherits a house but must care for the cat that lives there, she moves in with her friends, the cat dies, and the girls start getting killed off. The main problem with this one is that it takes so long for things to start happening but there's also the fact that this thing barely has an ending, it basically just ends.

Dr. Giggles - Every time I put this in it seems more stupid than I remembered it being but fortunately it's always fun. It's striking how silly some of the kills are, like the big band aid one, while some are pretty brutal, like the stomach pump one. A winner since the VHS days!

Smile - This movie definitely has some creepy moments that stay with you long after you see it, the movie definitely does that well and stands out in that regard, but sadly the movie is too damn long and boring for this to really matter; the ending was pretty meh too. I think this would have been a lot better if it was 20 or so minutes shorter.

The Rejuvenator - The cover of the old VHS used to always grab my attention at the video store but I always had a suspicion that the movie would be pretty underwhelming, decades later I was finally able to confirm this suspicion! It wasn't terrible and I didn't hate it but there also wasn't really anything I liked much about it.

[Matt H.]

This was my first Meyer film (decedes ago) and I was blown away. Initially was disappointed with his other stuff for not being as crazy. Have done a complete 180 over the years, but oddly I am really hoping that Severin does Up! next.

At the very least, I'd like to see CHERRY & HARRY & RAQUEL!, UP! and MUDHONEY get released.

[Marshall Crist]

Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens - This was a Meyer I had never seen previously. I found it to be excruciating. It was like somebody screaming in your face for 90 minutes. None of the usual Meyer techniques work here, everything seems off. The sequence at the dentist's office starts to gain some momentum, but it ends too quickly, and we're back to incoherence. It's like it was directed by Jerry Lewis. Worst Meyer film I've seen.

This was my first Meyer film (decedes ago) and I was blown away. Initially was disappointed with his other stuff for not being as crazy. Have done a complete 180 over the years, but oddly I am really hoping that Severin does Up! next.

[s.chivers]

I haven't seen it in 20 years. At the time I was on a Meyer kick and was just coming off Supervixens expecting similar highs and this and Up absolutely lost me. I'd been considering going back to them for another look, as I figured they couldn't be that bad surely, but your summary above is exactly my recall.

Likewise. It has been years, but I don’t remember liking Beyond the Valley of the Ultravixens enough to upgrade it. I picked up the other two but passed on that and will pass on Up, if Severin get around to that one.

[Matt H.]

I haven't seen it in 20 years. At the time I was on a Meyer kick and was just coming off Supervixens expecting similar highs and this and Up absolutely lost me. I'd been considering going back to them for another look, as I figured they couldn't be that bad surely, but your summary above is exactly my recall.

Definitely give UP! another look. It's one of his best.

[s.chivers]

Planet of the Vampires. One of the few Bava’s that I’ve never really warmed to, and last night’s viewing did nothing to change that. Obviously there are some memorable visuals but for me it’s too slow and entirely lacking in tension. It probably doesn’t help that I often found myself wondering who was who.

For all that, the Radiance presentation is very strong and there is a Tim Lucas commentary, which I’m looking forward to listening to at some point.

[agent999]

I love the late period Meyers, second only to the black and white gothics.

[Dom D]

Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens - This was a Meyer I had never seen previously. I found it to be excruciating. It was like somebody screaming in your face for 90 minutes. None of the usual Meyer techniques work here, everything seems off. The sequence at the dentist's office starts to gain some momentum, but it ends too quickly, and we're back to incoherence. It's like it was directed by Jerry Lewis. Worst Meyer film I've seen.

I haven't seen it in 20 years. At the time I was on a Meyer kick and was just coming off Supervixens expecting similar highs and this and Up absolutely lost me. I'd been considering going back to them for another look, as I figured they couldn't be that bad surely, but your summary above is exactly my recall.

[Matt H.]

Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens - This was a Meyer I had never seen previously. I found it to be excruciating. It was like somebody screaming in your face for 90 minutes. None of the usual Meyer techniques work here, everything seems off. The sequence at the dentist's office starts to gain some momentum, but it ends too quickly, and we're back to incoherence. It's like it was directed by Jerry Lewis. Worst Meyer film I've seen.

[Cody Layne]

Alien: Romulus: Like Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, I saw this when it was in theaters last years. While I don't think it's absolutely amazing, I do think it's at least the best Alien movie since the original quadrilogy, and I also like it more than Alien 3, either version. Also, this 4K/Blu-Ray release looked good and had some fairly good, if short, extras on it (although, they didn't mention the Alien/human hybrid at the end at all).

[Newt Cox]

Firehouse off TUBI

Mid 80s DTV rip off of Police Academy. Average for it's era. This has that odd look that makes me think it might have been shot on VHS.

[Cody Layne]

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: I saw this when it was in theaters last year and today, I watched the Blu-Ray, which I got for Christmas. I enjoy it, although I do think all three of the previous movies were better. However, I would definitely watch this over Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, and the Tim Burton movie. And I am interested to see where the saga goes from here.