Movie Recommendations

I put off Troma films for a long time because I assumed they would be stilted and boring like a lot of Herschell Gordon Lewis' splatter movies or just cynical and lazy trailer bait like the endless chain of 'self-aware' giant shark movies we have these days, but it turns out Lloyd Kaufman is a good director who puts heart and effort into all the films of his I have seen so far.

Thoroughly enjoyed The Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke 'Em High, Troma's War, Tromeo & Juliet and Poultrygeist: Night Of The Chicken Dead!, all of which are on YouTube for free on Troma's channel. Recommended for connoisseurs of camp. I can't wait to dig into the rest of the output.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

The Fury - One of the most purely enjoyable films I've seen this year. It does so many things. I'm surprised how similar it is to Carrie, but leaning towards Scanners and a whole bunch of other things thrown in. Kirk Douglas is great. I'm a little more eager to read John Farris books now.

Body Double - I really loved this and it's surprisingly affecting too, but it's hard to say why. I'm quite saddened to see how Craig Wasson's film roles dwindled away, but he seems to be Stephen King's choice of audiobook reader now. Can't assume an actor doesn't have a satisfying theatre career but I really wish he was still in big films.

I previously didn't have much interest in De Palma outside a few films but the brilliant documentary put Body Double on my list and I'll have a few more in the future.

[Patrick G.P]

Quote Originally Posted by James

I put off Troma films for a long time because I assumed they would be stilted and boring like a lot of Herschell Gordon Lewis' splatter movies or just cynical and lazy trailer bait like the endless chain of 'self-aware' giant shark movies we have these days, but it turns out Lloyd Kaufman is a good director who puts heart and effort into all the films of his I have seen so far. Thoroughly enjoyed The Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke 'Em High, Troma's War, Tromeo & Juliet and Poultrygeist: Night Of The Chicken Dead!, all of which are on YouTube for free on Troma's channel. Recommended for connoisseurs of camp. I can't wait to dig into the rest of the output.

Excellent stuff! I love the old Troma films. If you get a chance, check out Terror Firmer, it's two glorious hours of some of the finest trash cinema ever made!

I have now seen all of Kaufman's feature fiction films from Toxie 1 to the present day. The only ones I didn't have a fantastic time watching were Toxie 2 and Return to Nuke 'Em High Vol 1, and they were still more creative and interesting than most horror movies. Just less remarkable than his usual work.

Terror Firmer was a great one, but I think his masterpiece might be Poultrygeist.

Could anybody recommend good feminist horror movies? I have seen the obvious ones like The Stepford Wives, Rosemary's Baby, Season of the Witch, The Love Witch...

[cannibal cop]

Finally got to see the "Argento cut" of Dawn of the Dead, and it's a pretty bad job. Chief among its faults is how Argento's misuse of the Goblin score completely undermines the atmosphere of the movie. Whereas Romero used their eerier ambient tracks to good effect., accentuating the horrific quality of certain scenes, and showed a masterly control of mood by the way he switched carefully between goofy stock pieces and muzak and doomy ethereal dirges, sometimes within a single scene, Argento generally just opts for a constant background of bouncy uptempo incongruous "generic action scene" backing tracks that make most of the movie feel closer to something like the cheerfully cheezy Night of the Zombies.

I hate to say it, but Fulci's Zombie, zombie shark and all, with its often brooding and unsettling Fabio Frizzi soundtrack, is a much better horror movie than what Argento did with DOTD, even though his version also includes some extra gore shots and whatnot.

That's not to say I don't like Argento generally, I'd even say his entries were the only ones worth watching in that whole Masters of Horror thing, but he really missed the boat here.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

Wolf Devil Woman - Pearl Cheung/Chang Ling (and many other variations of those names) writes, directs and stars in this shoestring budget fantasy/horror/martial arts film.
A couple flee from a group of monster men (one wearing what looks like a Halloween mask from a costume store, but this is supposed to be his actual face), to save their baby, they kill themselves and cover the baby in their blood to keep it warm then headbutt the snowy hill they're on to hide the baby under the avalanche. Wolves find the baby under the snow and bring her up in their ice cave.

I quite like this, its energy overcomes the budget at times and I thought the fight scenes worked quite well (lots of wire work), Pearl has a few really cool costumes (and her bird claw rope weapon), I'm always happy to see snowy mountains and the weaknesses are amusing but don't spoil it completely. I wish more trash films were this watchable.

I'm a bit troubled by the rabbit scene. It appears to get shot by an arrow but I wasn't sure if it was really shot or if they used some trickery, I kept rewinding and it didn't look bloody or react the way I'd imagine an arrow shot rabbit would. Who knows?

Pearl directed a few films in the early eighties and Matching Escort is supposed to be an enjoyable oddity too but I cant find any information about her later life.

Wolf Devil Woman is English dubbed and "free" if you're subscribed to Amazon prime but there's subtitled versions on youtube. I have no idea if any creators or copyright holders see money for the Amazon streaming.

Wolf Devil Woman excerpt - YouTube

Brave Archer - Another Chang Cheh film but this time an adaptation of a classic Jin Yong book series, so he didn't get to follow all his usual inclinations (there's a romance with a fun female lead). There is a main trilogy and an unofficial sequel Brave Archer And His Mate with the same director and star. There's only one brief scene of archery in the first film and I don't know if the later films feature more, so the title might seem misleading.

I've often found it hard to follow Chang Cheh films, but this time there's a relatively large sequence near the start introducing the very large cast (some posing and showing off moves), perhaps acknowledging it wont be easy to keep track of the characters? Some experts say Brave Archer is hard to follow and relied somewhat on the popularity of the novels, so I feel less bad about not keeping up.

There is some shoddiness (like the inconsistent eye injuries and some of the romantic dream scenes are bizarrely austere) and the absurd fairy tale logic wont work for everyone but I was engaged enough by the mythology. Two of the female characters were very enjoyable (one referred to as "Iron Corpse") which is apparently a real rarity for Chang Cheh and perhaps to please the fans of the books.

Fortunately the first volume of the source material (which Ashes Of Time and Eagle Shooting Heroes were also based on): Legends Of The Condor Heroes by Jin Yong is getting an English translation release in a few months. not many Jin Yong/Louis Cha books available in English but they're very important in the wuxia genre.

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There is an absolute ton of Shaw Brothers films available on subscription of Amazon Prime, no extra buying. This includes a lot of the films about to come out in the 88 Films Shaw series, so it seems like someone has been clumsy in allowing this (I'm committed to buying the series so it doesn't matter in my case). A great amount of them only have English dubbing as an option, so I'm wary of what I want to watch multiple times to hear the original audio.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

Quote Originally Posted by James

Could anybody recommend good feminist horror movies? I have seen the obvious ones like The Stepford Wives, Rosemary's Baby, Season of the Witch, The Love Witch...

I've seen a ton of horror films that have been described as feminist but I don't think many live up to the description, they simply have those values, as many storytellers do.

Roger Ebert might have felt I Spit On Your Grave was misogynistic but it's apparently become a popular film in feminist studies and the director claimed he was inspired by seeing a woman reporting rape and being ignored by police.
I haven't seen this or It Follows.

Roman Polanski has said he doesn't like feminists (he may have revised his opinion but I don't know) and considering his crimes, it's interesting that he made Repulsion.

Three I wasn't really into but aren't bad and do have a definite feminist themes: Blood Spattered Bride, Witch Who Came In From The Sea and American Mary. The latter is a gore film and quite unique but it just wasn't my style.

Amer has aspects to it. I adore the first segment but that's probably the least relevant to your request.

The book House Of Psychotic Women might be a good guide for this.

Argento is (well, was during the 70s and 80s) the master. That run from Deep Red to Opera is golden.

I just watched Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce. I thought the gothic visuals were incredible and made up for the goofy script. Worth a watch and more Lovecraftian than most Lovecraft adaptations. Cool movie.

[Patrick G.P]

Quote Originally Posted by James

Could anybody recommend good feminist horror movies? I have seen the obvious ones like The Stepford Wives, Rosemary's Baby, Season of the Witch, The Love Witch...

Let's Scare Jessica to Death from 1971 is an absolute must! A really excellent supernatural horror film viewed from a feminist perspective.

Lets scare Jessica to death/ Trailer (1971) - YouTube