The month of October is almost over and Halloween is fast approaching. As always this means that I watch even more horror movies than usual, bringing out some old favourites and discovering new ones. This October has definitely been one full of Lucio Fulci, with City of the Living Dead marking the third movie of his I've seen just over the last couple months. The more I see, the more I love his work, and City of the Living Dead has me craving more.
I'm clearly not adverse to old movies, seeing as I spent the last dozen or so movies traveling through some highlights (and lowlights) of the 70's, I had not until today seen any Hammer Horror. Now, for many horror fans, Hammer Horror represents a golden age of horror; when Christopher Lee played Count Dracula and Frankenstein's monster roamed the world. For some reason, I had never ventured to this period in horror, but it seems like a movie promising both vampires and a circus was just what I needed to get there.
Charlton Heston, you must pick roles specifically based on the memorable ending lines. After leaving such an impact on cinema as Taylor in Planet of the Apes, Heston returns to another dystopian envisioning of earth, a world with just as dark a secret as the Planet of the Apes. While Soylent Green may not be the widely famed classic Planet of the Apes is, I don't think anyone who watches it will ever forget the ending.
In time for Halloween comes my list of the top five movies from the Splat Pack. The unofficial group of filmmakers who have created some of the scariest and bloodiest horror movies of the last decade, bring the current horror genre back to a state where it can rival the golden ages of violent, boundary pushing horror long gone. Check these out if you're looking for something more current to check out this Halloween.
One of my favourite genres of film is post-apocalyptic and I'm always keeping an eye out for new films in the genre. Sometime a couple weeks ago I read about a German movie titled Hell, which is German for Bright, a movie where, in 2016 the earth's temperature has risen by 10 °C. The movie follows the journey of a group of survivors who are trying to make their way across the wasteland in search of... well, anything.
This weekend I got around to re-watching one of the most exciting and terrifying social commentaries ever made, George A. Romero's satirical film about consumerism. With an epidemic of zombies rising from the grave and society as we know it collapsing, four people seek refuge in an abandoned mall as they try to survive against the living and the living dead alike.
Why is it all dystopian fiction seems to set itself only about 25 to 50 years in the future? Do they really imagine that such radical change will happen that rapidly? I for one hope not, and I can safely say we are not any closer to the dystopian world of Death Race 2000 than we were back in 1975. Yet, it still remains a very entertaining movie that can still make you think about society and many of the questions it raised are still relevant today. So maybe they just got the date wrong.
While perusing my local independent rental store the other day, I happened across a copy of Tombs of the Blind Dead an intriguing Spanish documentary about the handmade mannequin industry in the 70's. The movie follows the story of hard working Bet, as she meets an old friend and decides to take a vacation and head out into the beautiful countryside by train. Along with a dramatic retelling of Bet's life, we get the world's first view inside the mannequin industry that dominated Spain in the 70's.
"A long time ago" in our galaxy, George Lucas changed cinema and the world forever. Could I get a more cliched opening than that? But as cliched as it might be, the statement remains true today as pop culture has never been the same since Star Wars was released back in 1977 and so, I will play the 10 hour loop of the Mos Eisley Cantina song as I tell what you should already know, and maybe a few interesting facts you didn't.
Well, it warns you right in the title and this Swedish exploitation film is merciless in it's cruelty, and as it also states, has no limits to evil as we watch the disturbing story of Frigga unfold. This was the first half of my Saturday night double feature, after which I had to watch Star Wars for a much happier change of pace, but even that however will probably never erase some of the images Thriller burned into my retinas. Thriller is one rape and revenge story you won't forget, and as underground as it might be, it's influences are still visible in the mainstream today.
Westerns are one genre I have watched very little of. I've seen a few but in general I have little knowledge of the genre beyond visuals of cowboys and gun fights. So, in order to correct this and broaden my film knowledge I figured I should check out a healthy slice of westerns. I have however decided that that slice will be the Spaghetti Western sub-genre, and what better way than to start at the beginning of it all with Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars.
