Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)

A real cult movie directed by Allan Arkush and starring the legendary Ramones, the story loosely tells the tale of a southern Californian High School who's principal goals are to 'rock out' even in the face of their new stricter and more repressive principle and her 2 goofey sidekicks. Led by superfan Riff Randall the school embark on a mission to see the Ramones in concert (The Roxy), much to the Schools disgust! Campy... hilarious and totally charming this film is a whole lot of 80s fun. The Ramones are awesome especially Dee Dee Ramone who in one scene is seen playing his bass in the shower! Dee Dee was notoriously hospitalised over the course of the shoot and because of his terrible acting had his lines axed to just 2! They're absolute beauties though! This film is great fun and a must if you have any interest in the Ramones...
7.5/10

Death Warmed Up (1984)

Directed by David Blyth and starring Michael Hurst this resides in the 'best worst movie' or 'so bad its good' category. Set in New Zealand it tells the sorrowful tale of a man who seeks revenge on a scientist, who 7 years prior hypnotised him into killing both his patents. The story however is far from that straight forward and has elements of 'Mad Max', 'Scanners' and equally bad Aussie cult flick 'Body Melt' about it. Ridiculous, but a good laugh overall. A few mates round and a few beers and you'll enjoy it. Awful acting, booms appearing in shots and an incoherent plot. I enjoyed it.
George 5/10

The Killer (1989)

Directed by John Woo and starring Chow Yun Fat as a proffesional hit man this is an unusual blend of superb choreographed action, a limitless body count and endless fag smoking, all served with a healthy portion on bromance. Between the endless killings its fairly humerous, but doesn't live up to the hype. The action, however is second to none.
George 5/10

Macabre (1980)

Directed by Lamberto Bava and allegedly based on a true story that took place in New Orleans the film depicts an adulterous woman's decent into madness after both her son and lover die. Although this hasn't aged particularly well its beautifully shot and is is unintentionally hilarious in places. Definately a strange little movie and worth a watch if you enjoy old Italian genre films. If you don't avoid as you'll probably find it boring. The end however is an absolute treat!
George 4.5/10

Piranha 3D (2010)

Directed by Alexandre Aja of 'Switchblade Romance' and 'Hills Have Eyes' fame, this light hearted teen romp is nothing more than good fun. Ridiculous in places, tongue in cheek in others, all with plenty of cheer inducing gore! Home 3D worked ok too.
George 6
Cassie 7.5
Scott 5.5

Inside (2007 Unrated Version)

An uncomfortable and unflinching watch. Gorey yet intelligently written, willfully playing with its audiences expectations. Superbly acted and a great score. Worth tracking down Dimension Extremes Unrated Version as im not sure if its been fiddled with by the BBFC. Not a first date movie but definately worth a watch.
8/10

The Dead (2010)

An achievement when you find out what the Ford Brothers went through to make this film . Shot in Africa and with some beautifully shot scenes the film focuses on a 2 mens quest for survival amidst the zombie apocalypse. Even with some nice slow moving zombies the film never quite captures a feeling of dread or despair and ultimately doesn't really push the envelope as far as the story goes. A clunky script and wooden acting from the lead characters didn't help either. Overall its a little disappointing and very slow paced.
George 4/10

Manufactured Landscapes (2006)

Documentary directed by Jeniffer Baichwal, this must see film follows the stunning photography of Edward Burtynsky, touching on so many issues regarding de-humanization, mass manufacturing and mass industrialization. The film documents some amazing imagery without being judgmental or biased. Its not for everyone, but its definitely worth a watch.
George - 7.5

We Need To Talk About Kevin

Adapted from the widely acclaimed novel from Lionel Shreiver and with an overwhelming fanbase I feel a lot of people are fairly forgiving for some of the films failures. Having not read the book and being oblivious to its content I watched this with a clear pallet. The film successfully conveys a feeling of dread,  but through a series of early flashbacks spoils the shock ending that the film ultimately builds to. The end reveal didn't quite work and didn't provide the payoff I was hoping for.
George - 4

Paranormal Activity 3

More predictable jumpy shocks in this finally of the series. This time taking us back to where the 'troubles' began offering some fairly well written explanations. This time captured on VHS surveillance footage it wisely avoids straying from its predecessors tried and tested formula. A real crowd pleaser and definitely worth seeing with others. Nothing too original, but nothing wrong with it either!
George - 6.5
Cassie - 7

The Woman

Finally caught up with this film after missing it at Frightfest in August, where it got fairly good reviews. On the surface its a tale about a dysfunctional family who embark on domesticating a primitive woman the father captures on a hunting trip. However the undercurrent focuses heavily on an abusive parent within the family and the nature of abuse itself. An original film that really builds in tension. Intelligently written, believably acted and well directed by Lucky McKee. It get the thumbs up from us. Definitely check it out.
7/10
 

Frightfest Halloween All-Nighter 2011... George & Cassie Review

So after a somewhat disappointing Frightfest ‘Halloween Special’ last year at the Odeon Leicester Square, we were looking forward to this years bash at its potential new home The Vue. Although being plagued with the same old ‘air conditioning’ problems The Vue is a good space with a great bar area and a nice side entrance for smokers. Definitely leaning back towards the excellent atmosphere of the ICA. We're sure this will be Frightfest’s new home for its Halloween all-nighters and we’re assured the heat situation will be sorted for next year, but this is something that HAS to happen! Trying to stay awake with sweat dripping down your neck is NOT fun… it makes the evening unnecessarily uncomfortable. So was the night a success, well this is mostly down to the films so lets run through them: 

(Scores are out of 10)

Bad Meat was an enjoyable teen boot-camp horror that we initially thought we’d dislike. However the characters were really well played, pace was lively and had some good humorous moments. What destroyed the film entirely was its failure to KILL any of the characters and its abysmal ending which left the crowd and the films special guests speechless. What was unforgiveable was the writer and leading actress had not seen the film prior to the screening so were unaware of the terrible ending. 

Was a little cringey.

Cassie – 5/10

George – 4/10

Livid was a nice French supernatural horror with some beautiful filmography, great make up and stylised set pieces (with some cracking taxidermy). What unfortunately let it down were some overindulgent complexities with the narrative and not enough tension to really let the scare moments build and work. That said it was enjoyable and definitely worth checking out.

Cassie – 5/10

George – 5/10

Human Centipede 2 was the feature of the night with all cast and director Tom Six present. Great introduction from Dr Heiter (Dieter Laser) too!  Now we’re at Frightfest! Shot in black and white and mostly on hand held camera, part 2 is in stark contrast to its predecessor. With buckets of gore it documents an obsessive and deranged fan of the first film who attempts to create his own human centipede, but on a much bigger scale. As with the first film it clearly goes out of its way to upset the audience, but what doesn’t ooze from the print is a sense of anger or malice. Through the disturbing imagery comes a sense of shall we say ‘fun’. Clearly the cast had a laugh making this monstrosity and that clearly comes across. What’s more disturbing is the BBFCs knee jerk reaction to ban this film, and ultimately now make it the most sought after film to watch, simply because it depicts the ultimate ‘fanboys’ copying and mirroring of a film. That said the cut footage may be too strong by standard BBFC guidelines, however the film played OK, with no obvious jumps were footage had been removed.

Cassie – 6/10

George 5.5/10

Faces In The Crowd followed and offered some light relief from the relentless gore of Human Centipede.  It was Alan Jones’ choice for its obvious Giallo themes, however this was a far cry from the slasher favourites of the 70’s and leant more towards films like ‘Sex In The City’! It was soppy and Marian Faithfull’s role as a therapist offered some unintentional humour, as did Nip Tuck’s Julian McMahon’s beard. The heat was unbearable for this!

Cassie – 1

George – 2

Cold Sweat was next and was the feature that saw the most nodding off. Argentinean horror about some geriatric rebels torturing women with various explosives. A little more invention than your average ‘Hostel’ fare, although ultimately fell into the ‘seen it all before’ camp.

Cassie (Only saw beginning and end, unavailable to grade)

George – 3

The Watermen was the final film of the evening and after some caffeine interjection we were ready for it. Jason Mewes was the obvious draw to this film about a group of well to do, thick as pigshit teens who embark on a fishing trip which goes horribly wrong. Picked up by mumbling inbred fishermen they get tortured and picked off one by one. The biggest mistake being Jason Mewes is the first to die. If you thought ‘Cold Sweat’ was the only ‘seen it all before’ flick of the night you’d be wrong. The horrible clichés were rife and without a tongue or cheek in sight. The script was appalling and acting was plain bad.  Unfortunately these were the least of its problems. The endless torturous elements of these type of films are done with a real nasty misogynous nature and seem to totally misunderstand what genre fans want. We’re sure we’re not the only people who turn off when films go down this route and in our eyes these ‘throw away’ torture flicks are more harmful than ‘Human Centipede’ could ever be. Maybe because they wont be watched by real fans and people who really understand the genre.

Cassie – 2

George – 1

The new venue is good and back on track with the atmosphere definitely on the up. Maybe the films let it down a little this Halloween, but did the night redeem itself for us to go next year? The juries out.