Jackhammer's Horror Corner
 

Welcome to Jackhammer's Horror corner. From time to time I will review some of my favourite Horror films or those lesser known to you and maybe introduce you to some cult classics and hidden gems. A few films you will know but don't expect general Hollywood fare such as 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' etc. That claptrap is not horror.

Horror does not have to be gratuitously violent (although you will be getting some of that) or does it have to make sense (Lucio Fulci) to make me enjoy it. The budget does'nt have to be astronomical, indeed a low budget often forces a director to be more innovative (think John Carpenter. Since he's had bigger budgets his films have got worse). I also like Humour in Horror films and sometimes even SBTG films (So Bad They're Good) earn a place on my DVD shelf.

Expect treats such as British Hammer Films, Asian shockers, Italian Giallos, American Grindhouse and the new French renaissance to make an appearance.

If you don't like Horror, just read the reviews for something different and if you do like Horror, then I hope I will include at least one of your favourites in here.

If you have any suggestions or would to like to see a review of a film just PM me. I will review each film immediatedly after reappraising each one.


http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/..._470x301,0.jpg

Awesome, just awesome. I'm really looking forward to this one.

Looking forward to it. I love horror.

This should be interesting. It's threads like this that make Music Banter such a great forum.

good good good

i'll smoke to that

i have a moldy old one
the first horror film i ever saw
i can remember that entire night

i was so scared

anyway the movie was 'the hand' from 1960

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/e...nBnXkFtZTc.jpg

may not be all that horror-ific anymore
but i'll never forget it

:rofl:

get iiiin. review stuff i can watch in terrible quality on the internet please.

I need to watch some Fulci. Any advice on where to start with him?

Jackhammer, if you don't start posting reviews soon I'm going to have to resort to watching I Know What You Did Last Summer. I know you don't want it to come to that, man.

You are in luck. I am beginning with a Fulci film today. Expect a review in a few hours.

The Beyond (AKA L'Aldila/ 7 Doors Of Death) 1981. Dir: Lucio Fulci

The Beyond has the tag of 'The best Horror film you have never seen'. While this might be stretching the truth regarding non /casual Horror film fans, the opposite is apt for those in the know.

The Beyond is a truly unique Horror film. It has many inherent faults but many points for originality. If you are fairly new to the Horror genre then The Beyond is not the best place to start. This is'nt directly linked to it's content, it refers more to it's disregard for 'Internal logic'.

'Internal Logic' is a series of sound's and connecting images that are progressive and provide the viewer with an internal narrative that is relative to the charcters moods or situations. Therefore a sudden change in situation would be alluded to in previous images.

The Beyond works mainly in an 'External Logic' plain. This means that scenes appear not just visually random but aurally too and may not allude to the films previous scenes. This does not mean that The Beyond is an incoherent mess. Far from it. It means that the film cannot be related back to an internal logic which would (no matter how fanciful the subject matter) mean that it would still fit in morally and socially.

An example is 'The Exorcist'. No matter how ridiculous the scenario may become, the story ultimately reaches it's targets in ensuring that good triumphs over evil and social order is restored (I Love The Exorcist BTW).

The Beyonds premise is the fact that a hotel has been built upon one of the seven doors of hell and a brutal murder (the films opening) keeps the door open until a lost relative inherits the hotel in the early 80's. To pontificate on the plot from hereon would defeat the object.

The plot (as stated) takes a back seat to all manner of grisly deaths (eye gouging, rabid dogs, shards of glass, zombies etc).

The real crux of the film is the sheer operatic scale of it all. Extreme close ups of eyeballs, both intact and harmed (a Fulci obsession): stunning photography, dizzying camera zooms, surreal scenes (the deserted highway is a doozy) and sheer imagination.

The Beyond is a film that is not well acted. It has it's fair share of dodgy F/X (check out some of the spiders in the libary) and is badly dubbed, yet it is totally unpredicatable, fascinating, original and almost baroque in it's intentions.

You will rarely see a Horror film quite like it.

the most obscure horror film I've seen and indeed the only Italian one is Dario Argento's Suspiria, so you're talking to an ignorant n00b here. Any suggestions on what to follow up with?

I only managed to find a couple of l'Aldila clips on the 'tube... Honestly I find it difficult to get over the 'acting' in most of these films but something still appeals... Would you say these films were largely responsible of the look/feel of 'Evil Dead'?

I have had the Beyond sitting on my HD forever but without subtitles... I'll get around to seeing it eventually. Your description is pretty appealing to me.

Oh nice. I went through a big "horror"-ish phase last year.

Some of my favourites are:

Cannibal Holocaust
Redneck Zombies
Island of Death
Evil Dead



One of the most unusual that I've seen is Centipede Horror.

pssshhhahahaa

yes. love it. The hordes/swarms/flocks of ''<insert pest here>'' approach to horror. Birds, spiders, bats, snakes... Centipedes. It's so obvious. There was some piece of arse that used to be on tv all the time about deadly ants... Wish i could narrow that down...
But who was that bloke controlling them with his mind? I have to watch this

Oh, and Calamity of Snakes!
---> youtube.com/watch?v=2u8NcXbIV0o <---


If you can find downloads for either of these films, let me know!
They're incredibly rare.


I have another weird chinese horror on dvd called RED SPELL SPELLS RED. In one scene a supposedly possessed man bites the wings and head off a live chicken

Man, this is a cool idea for a thread.

I love horror films, when they are done right, which is very rarely unfortunately, theres so many horror films being sh*t out every couple of seconds that quality ones are hard to find.

John Carpenter, Wes Craven and Tobe Hooper were great in their day but holy sh*t do their new films suck.

I would like to see Romero's new Dead film though. Looks pretty sweet.

ugh I HATE centipedes...

You'll hate them even more after seeing centipede horror :)

Diary of the Dead...was lacking in plot and had some really unrealistic situations (what am I saying...it's a ZOMBIE movie), but I will say this movie had some of THE BEST zombie death (or would that be re-death) scenes I have ever seen. Particularly in the hospital. But that's all I'm going to say.

I <3 Cannibal Holocaust, me and my friends still talk about it and the wackiness that ensues in this film.

gee

thanx for the nightmares


:rofl: :rofl:

I found this on Netflix, but I thought it was a joke...

Review coming up later for 'Scrapbook' and it's definitely an acquired choice.

Scrapbook is an extreme and harrowing film that required over 19 minutes of cuts on it's U.K release, which I should imagine would make the film a complete mess and fail to grasp what the film is trying to say.

Scrapbook is pieced together from various real events that were researched over a 5 year period by the writer and co star Tommy Biondo who unfortunately died before the films eventual release. This was a great shame because despite the lurid subject matter, it is a brave, bold and exceptionally well played film.

Biondo plays Leonard who kidnaps his victims and then proceeds to mentally and physically torture his victims and keep momento's, thoughts and photos in his scrapbook. He truly believes that when he finishes the book, he will then become a celebrity and appear on talk shows. His determination is infallable.

Clara (a bravura piece of acting from Emily Haack) is his latest victim, and the first time we see her, she is tied up in the back of a parked van next to a disembowelled body. This is no ordinary glamorous Hollywood take on serial killers. This is as unflinchingly raw as you can get. It is shot on video and is shot mainly in two rooms. The camera pays close attention to Clara's face and this framing device cranks up the claustrophobia to the max.

Now to the aforementioned subject matter. Clara is raped three times in the movie and in one scene is brutally sodomised and the film pulls no punches in showing this. It is extremely upsetting and frighteningly realistic yet it is never exploitative. This is enforced when Clara accepts Leonard sexually but he shows his true colours when he fails to get an erection.

Why does she accept him? Despite being seemingly weak, she realise that by writing in Leonards scrapbook she can emotionally manipulate him as this is the one area he obviously at his weakest.

The film is as much about female empowerment as it is man's callous approach to life. Where he uses brute force and power, she uses guile and cunning. There can only be one survivor and the climax is both surprising and powerful.

Although it's a low budget film and is definitely not easy to watch, it also a highly charged piece of work and psychologically complex enough for you to appreciate the effort of all involved.

I will reiterate that it is raw film making and it is something that I personally will not let my partner see. You have been warned.

Suspiria may well make an appearence ;). The thing is with Italian films, they were made for Italian audiences and usually used Italian actors so the dubbing is not great. Watching clips on youtube will not give you the full idea of what The Beyond is about. It has been said that it is a film about Catholicism and the truly stunning ending partially back this theory up.

If you are to buy it, do not get the U.K DVD. It is pan and scan and has a terrible print. I have the region one Anchor Bay release (only 20,000 copies released) and is a great little set.Amazon.com: The Beyond (Limited Edition Tin): Al Cliver, Laura De Marchi, Giovanni De Nava, Roberto Dell'Acqua, Anthony Flees, Gilberto Galimberti, Veronica Lazar, Catriona MacColl, Maria Pia Marsala, Michele Mirabella, Cinzia Monreale, Gianpaolo Sac

Just out of curiosity, are you going to be going over anything by Mario Bava? Also, have you ever seen Don't Look Now?

I have only seen Shock, Black Sunday and Bay Of Blood by Bava but I remember Black Sunday being excellent but unfortunately don't own it to review it. As for Don't Look down, keep on visiting. ;)

Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer (uncut)

Makes Silence Of The Lambs look like Sesame Street

On the list but not as repulsive as Nekromantik or Murder Set Pieces. They are seriously deranged serial killer films.

George A. Romero's Day Of The Dead (1985)


Let's face it. We watch zombie movies for one thing-the gore. There is nothing more perversley enjoyable than seeing someone being eaten in a grotesque manner. However, when Romero makes a zombie film it is always filled with social commentary and even an allegorical subtext.

Romero is the undisputed king of the zombie film. To date he has made 5 '..of the dead' films and each and everyone has spoken more succinctly about the socio-political climate of the time than many films that directly dealt with those issues. 'Night Of The Living Dead' was a thinly veiled attack on both America's involvement in Vietnam and racism. Ten years later we got the superlative 'Dawn Of The Dead' that heaped scorn upon consumerism and with 'Day Of The Dead' the theme played upon man's pitiful ignorance to the outside world. This again could be linked to the 80's phenomonem of money being god and screw everyone else.

'Day' unfortunately is not a fully realised movie. The original scipt was much wider in it's focus and required a bigger budget. However this was slashed in half to $3.5 m (a pittance today) and rewrites by Romero were hastily put together. Despite this we still have a wonderful film that embraces nihilism whilst simutaneously deriding it.

The worlds population is outnumbered approx 400,000:1 in favour of the zombies so a hastily planned team of soldiers and scientists are dispatched to an underground silo to provide answers and possible cures to the zombies. Unfortunately this leads to chaos and bitterness, with both sides blaming each other and being utterly intolerant; therefore abandoning a possible resolution and instead are virtually destroyed themselves. All of this because no one wanted to back down.

'Day' features some of the very best make up F/X seen in zombie films both before and since. This is entirely down to an undisputed master: Tom Savini. Savini was a Vietnam war photographer who used the horrors of Vietnam to fuel his love of make up and effects. Stomach contents slop to the floor. Arms and legs are torn off and craniums are drilled to death (literally) .

A big shout must also go the film's score by John Harrison. It is one of my favourite scores and is a classic 80's synth score that genuinely does add to the film and does'nt resort to cliche.

Romero should always be applauded for his liberal stance on film making ettiquette. In every film he has made he has always had very strong Female and African-American characters that are intrinsic to the story. This is what sets him miles apart from formulaic Horror directors.

'Day of The Dead' is probably the least dynamic of Romero's zombie films but it is wonderfully perverse and has a rich vein of black comedy that is still admired today (ask Simon Pegg what he thinks about the film and he could fill 3 pages on this forum professing his love for the film) and stands up as a veritable masterpiece in modern horror.

As a little aside. If you ever wondered where the intro for the Gorillaz track M1 A1 came from, then the beginning of 'Day' is your answer.

For some reason I don't enjoy excessively gory film without a plot which flood the cinema nowadays.

Two films that I love are Poltergeist and the original Halloween.

You'd probably like Don't Look Now. It's not gory, and it's really intense. It's probably my favorite horror film of all time.

Not every day you get a Bono lookalike to be in your movie!!

I wasn't exactly overwhelmed by Day Of the Dead. I liked it, but Dawn was the best one for me. Great review though, makes me wanna go and give it another chance. Good job man

Latest horror film I watched was a japanese movie called infection. The plot centres around a group of doctors/nurses treating a patient with some odd and disgusting symptoms. The title will give you enough information to get what the rest of the movie will be about.

Great review.

It was so satisfying to finally see Captain Rhodes and all those other assh*les get their come uppings.

Slightly late review as Halloween has now passed but nevertheless it's no excuse to not include my all time favourite horror film. Halloween is one of the most successful independent horror films of all the time which is a remarkable feat in itself but couple that with critics approval and you have one of the finest horror films ever made.

There are many reasons for this but the creative umbrella for the films success ultimately belongs to master director John Carpenter. He not only directs, but writes (with Debra Hill) and scores the movie all on a ridiculously low budget of approx $300,000. Yes you read that right. 300k

Let's begin with THAT theme tune. Everybody knows it and the main reason why it is so unforgettable is that it is in 10/8 time which is unerving on it's own:



Another example of the film's plus points is the camerawork. The film's masterful opening Steadicam shot is a P.O.V shot that takes in the killer circling the house before entering and taking a knife and then preceding to murder the inhabitant. This seems like one continuous shot but there is a careful edit half way through. Nevertheless the reason why it works so well is because you are not passive in this, the director takes you into the killers mind and wants you to experience it further.

The use of a widescreen filming technique is utterly critical to this film and for a film with such a low budget, much praise has been heaped upon this. When you use the bigges widescreen ratio that you can, then you can make the background as interesting as the foreground. If you click on the shockwave presentation here:TV & film aspect ratios - Planet Of Tunes you will notice how much more you can see with the 2.35:1 ratio. This meant that he could have the killer encroaching upon the edge of shots without losing the composition shots and add a sense of someone always watching but who you can never quite see.

The film is also remarkable for the almost complete absence of gore. this was intentional. Although this film was the catalyst for the 80's blood soaked slasher genre, Halloween wanted to stray into psychological as much as physical horror.

The film's plot of a knife weilding maniac was hardly groundbreaking but the manner in which the story was fleshed out is. A film with a strong Female heroine was a year before horror cinemas most famous heroine (Ripley from 'Alien') and there is debate for it's moralistic stance. Characters who are murdered are pot smoking, promiscuous teenagers but the heroine is chaste.

The film has admittedly dated as more visceral horror has desensitised us to violence and murder but Halloween remains a truly supreme achievement due to it's highly effective use of composition, music, suggestion and intelligence and for me is still the greatest horror film ever made. (I have 3 different DVD versions of the film-now that's dedication/madness).

Ah, Halloween, what a movie! Definitely in one of my favourite horror movies too (a notch or two below American Werewolf In London and American Psycho for me though). Another sharp review man, looking forward to some more

At least one of those films will be reviewed sometime.