posted
The original is fantastic! I remember someone saying that the remake was like an unintentional comedy. I did not bother watching it after that review. But I guess if Helen likes it, that's all that really matters
[ 04. May 2015, 02:48: Message edited by: Bernie_Lomax ]
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Helen_S
Hiding behind the shower curtain.....
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Last night I watched Let's Scare Jessica To Death. It took about half an hour to get going but once it did it became great and went off in a totally different place than I was expecting. Made me think of Symptoms from a few years later.
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Were you sought of brought up on these movies Helen?
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Helen_S
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From about 7 years old the most important thing in life was looking through the TV guide for horrors. Didn't matter the decade but I was beyond overjoyed when one was listed from the 60's or 70's. Apart from the fact that I can buy many of them now nothing much has changed Posts: 4057 | From: uk | Registered: May 2007 | Site Updates: 0
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Last night I watched Let's Scare Jessica To Death. It took about half an hour to get going but once it did it became great and went off in a totally different place than I was expecting. Made me think of Symptoms from a few years later.
Something is after Jessica,something very cold,very wet and very dead - it's Bernie Lomax
[ 04. May 2015, 10:47: Message edited by: the young warrior ]
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I loved the orignal Wicker Man. I've seen the Nick Cage version too, but I honestly don't remember much about it, so I can't say if it was terribly bad.
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The Nic Cage version of The Wicker Man is pretty much a travesty.
Yeah, Let's Scare Jessica to Death is a slow-burn, but once it gets going, it's pretty impressive. I'm also impressed, Helen, that you've seen Symptoms, which I like even more. That's my favorite of all Jose Larraz's films, even over the very good Vampyres.
Like with my soul sister across the pond--I grew up in the 60s and 70s--the TV Guide was absolutely mandatory reading material to see what horror films were on at 4:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Saturday or if the CBS Late Movie was showing a Hammer or Roger Corman/Poe film Friday night at 11:30 p.m. It was only when I got a little older that I could physically stay awake for the Chiller Theatre double feature starting at 11:30 p.m. Saturday night and running into the wee hours of Sunday morning.
Man, those were fun times. Unlike the instant gratification of the Internet and streaming today--which is also fun, but in a different way--you had to read a lot of magazines like Famous Monsters, Castle of Frankenstein, The Monster Times, and Cinefantastique and great, groundbreaking books by David Pirie and Denis Gifford and be on the look-out for stuff to pop up on broadcast TV. There is this legendary story from back in the day about this guy who drove 100 miles with VCR in hand to a motel room to tape a rare showing of Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural in the middle of the night. LOL I knew those days were over when a film that no one had ever seen--and I had only seen the same couple of stills from it in magazines and books--showed up in a beautiful DVD edition. Yep... Jess Franco's Vampyros Lesbos. The old days of hunting down obscurities were gone forever when that thing got an official release.
[ 04. May 2015, 14:42: Message edited by: Crash ]
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Just for fun and to give you a flavor of what it was like to be a teenage horror film fan in the 70s--PGHgirl, you will get a big kick out of this--here's the schedule of movies for the first four months or so of a random year, 1976, of The Late Show Chiller Theatre from Channel 11 in Pittsburgh. You can see the wide variety of eras--and quality--represented. Heck, some of the films weren't even horror films, and some are really rare. You had to stay awake in those pre-VCR days, but it was fun viewing.
Saturday, January 3rd 1976 "Shock Treatment" (1964) "Dimension 5" (1966)
Saturday, January 10th 1976 "Horror Hotel" (1960) "Flight To Mars" (1951)
Saturday, January 17th 1976 "The Flesh Eaters" (1964) "Them!" (1954)
Saturday, January 24th 1976 "The Torture Chamber Of Dr. Sadism" (1967) (This is the US TV title of Harald Reinl's German film with Christopher Lee "The Pit and the Pendulum." I didn't even know it existed until I saw it on Chiller Theatre.) "The Maze" (1953)
Saturday, January 31st 1976 "Inn Of The Frightened People" (1971) (This was the heavily censored version of an obscure, but worthy, Spanish horror film called "A Candle for the Devil." When I saw it here, I thought that it was boring and made no sense. I recently saw the full, uncut version. Wow! What a difference! Minor classic.) "The Thing That Couldn't Die" (1958) (The talking head classic, forever immortalized by Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep in "Heartburn." LOL)
Saturday, February 7th 1976 "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" (1961) "Planet On The Prowl" (1966)
Saturday, February 14th 1976 "The Creature's Revenge" (1972) "Two Lost Worlds" (1951)
Saturday, February 21st 1976 "Island Of The Living Horror" (1968) (This was the TV title of the Independent-International drive-in classic "Brides of Blood." I-I retitled all the Filipino Blood Island films to remove the word "blood" for TV!) "Scars Of Dracula" (1970) (Not a good Hammer Film. I saw it again recently. Still not good.)
Saturday, February 28th 1976 "Night Without Sleep" (1952) "Beginning Of The End" (1957)
Saturday, March 6th 1976 "The Beast In The Cellar" (1971) (Strange, stagey, obscure Tigon horror film. No one seems to remember it or talk about it. It's not particularly good, but it is different.) "The Terror Beneath The Sea" (1966) (I'm glad that I saw this one--a rare non-Toho Japanese science-fiction film starring a very young Sonny Chiba of all people!)
Saturday, March 13th 1976 "The Strange Door" (1951) "She Devil" (1957)
Saturday, March 20th 1976 "The Woman Who Came Back" (1945) "I'll Never Forget You" (1951)
Saturday, March 27th 1976 "Blood On Satan's Claw" (1971) (A heavily censored version of a Tigon classic. I kind of liked it at the time because it was still pretty violent and sexy, but thought that it had flaws. A few years ago, I saw a beautiful uncut print with the UK title "Satan's Skin." Now I think that it's a near masterpiece!) "Diary Of A Madman" (1963) (Forgotten, minor Vincent Price film that they used to show all the time. Pretty decent.)
Saturday, April 3rd 1976 "The Unknown Terror" (1957) "Tomb Of The Living Dead" (1968) (I believe that this was the retitling of "Mad Doctor of Blood Island." Great film!)
Saturday, April 10th 1976 "Women Of The Prehistoric Planet" (1966) (An incredible film: the first film of great director Peter Bogdanovich, the re-editing--with US-filmed inserts--of a Russian science-fiction film purchased by Roger Corman. Bogdanovich used a pseudonym in the credits. It's in the public domain so look on line for it. You will rub your eyes in disbelief.) "The Wizard Of Mars" (1965)
Saturday, April 17th 1976 "Hangover Square" (1945) "The Unearthly" (1957)
Saturday, April 24th 1976 "Nightmare Castle" (1965) (Badly censored US version of a really good Barbara Steele Italian gothic horror.) "The Spider Woman Strikes Back" (1946)
Saturday, May 1st 1976 "Gargoyles" (1972) (Very memorable TV movie with early Stan Winston creature make-up--and one of the coolest, sexiest actresses ever in a 70s horror film, Jennifer Salt. A movie with quite a nice cult following because it's scary and pretty neat for a TV movie.) "The Missing Guest" (1938)
Saturday, May 8th 1976 "Nightmare In Wax" (1969) "The Strange Case Of Dr. Rx" (1942)
[ 04. May 2015, 20:14: Message edited by: Crash ]
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quote:Originally posted by Helen_S: From about 7 years old the most important thing in life was looking through the TV guide for horrors. Didn't matter the decade but I was beyond overjoyed when one was listed from the 60's or 70's. Apart from the fact that I can buy many of them now nothing much has changed
I think it kinda feels more in the moment when it's actually on TV. Kinda like when a song is on the radio. You might have that song on CD but when it's on the radio it is in the moment more somehow.
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Helen_S
Hiding behind the shower curtain.....
Member # 5804
quote:Originally posted by Crash: [QB] Just for fun and to give you a flavor of what it was like to be a teenage horror film fan in the 70s--PGHgirl, you will get a big kick out of this--here's the schedule of movies for the first four months or so of a random year, 1976, of The Late Show Chiller Theatre from Channel 11 in Pittsburgh. You can see the wide variety of eras--and quality--represented. Heck, some of the films weren't even horror films, and some are really rare. You had to stay awake in those pre-VCR days, but it was fun viewing.
This is my idea of what heaven looks like
Aww, Scars of Dracula is one of my favourites of the Hammer Dracula series.
I have Beast in the cellar in a 6 film Tigon set, which unfortunately includes the awful Virgin Witch. Yes, very strange. I loved the ending. Have you seen the 1976 TV series Beasts? It's similar to that in the way it feels very much like a weird play.
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Helen_S
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quote:Originally posted by Crash: There is this legendary story from back in the day about this guy who drove 100 miles with VCR in hand to a motel room to tape a rare showing of Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural in the middle of the night. LOL
Haha, that is great! Posts: 4057 | From: uk | Registered: May 2007 | Site Updates: 0
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Yeah, in a perfect heaven, there is a multiplex where one of the theatres is continually playing giallo films, another the Filipino horror films, another UK horrors, and another stuff that no one has seen like Terror Beneath the Sea. Of course, Helen, you are the only person I've ever met who has seen Beast in the Cellar. I coveted that Tigon box set, but it was never released here in the U.S. Virgin Witch is dreadful, and I've never seen The Body Stealers, one of the few Tigon films that has eluded me over the years. (Yeah, I've even seen Zeta One. LOL) Blood on Satan's Claw has never had an official release on VHS or DVD in this country. That uncut 35mm print entitled Satan's Skin that they somehow found for the drive-in showing a few years ago was simply astonishing. It was beautiful. It's now one of my favorite UK horror films.
But have you seen Lemora? You don't have to drive to a motel anymore. Synapse's remastered version is wonderful. It was the only theatrical film of UCLA film school graduate Richard Blackburn. He did a Southern Gothic vampire film set in the 1930s with next to no money. (You see exactly one nice vintage car in the film.) But the weird, other worldly atmosphere he put on film is stunning. When I first saw it on TV cut up with loads of commercials in the middle of the night, circa 1976, I was completely underwhelmed. (I must've fallen asleep through some of it too.) But seeing it again a few years ago in its full restored glory was a revelation. It's one of the best "lost" horror films of the 70s.
[ 06. May 2015, 09:31: Message edited by: Crash ]
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This comes to blu ray in the us in July from olive films - king of the gypsies from 1978,it's got a really good cast including Shelley winters,Susan sarandon,annette o'toole,Brooke shields and what looks to be Eric Roberts feature film debut.
I've never actually seen it but would like to check it out.
Anyone ever seen this one,if so is it worth checking out?
[ 21. May 2015, 01:18: Message edited by: the young warrior ]
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This is on the more movies channel here in the UK within the next few days,I've set my hard drive to record it,it's bite the bullet starring gene Hackman,James coburn,Candice Bergman and Jan Michael vincent.
Not sure if i've actually ever seen this one,don't think I have.
Anyone ever seen this all star action adventure from 1975.
If so is it any good?
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Bite the Bullet is an excellent western. Some even call it a classic. I haven't seen it since way back in the day, but I think that you will enjoy it. I know that a lot of people agree with me: great cast, magnificent scenery, and extremely well written and directed by Richard Brooks, a real pro. And even with the action-adventure plot--a long, amazing horse race through the desert--there's some serious underlying content here about the death of the Wild West, animal abuse, and feminism.
Let us know after you watch it. Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
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Crash, I'm sure I sneaked in a few of those old horror films. My mother would get ****ed off when I watched them. They really didn't scare me to death, I never had nightmares, so I don't know what the problem was with me wanting to watch them. She probably didn't want my brother watching them as I am sure the baby that he was, he would've been terrified. Btw Crash, are there any films you haven't seen?! You are so knowledgeable on every type and timeframe out there!
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I was lucky pittsburghgirl my mother was the exact opposite, when she used to take me to the video shop she would ask the people behind the counter for there recommendations for me to watch and they would suggest things like - flash Gordon and my mother would say no that's a bit to babyish for him (I was about 11 at this time,plus no offence to flash Gordon fans intended either) and we'd end up going home with something like -ten to midnight,Friday the 13th part 2,the exterminator etc. instead which was pretty cool!
I can even remember when i was still about 11 or 12 my mother getting hold of a copy of the awesome Dario argento horror-tenebrae and me sitting down with her,my brother and sister to watch it one night and that was a pretty gruesome flick for the time(it still is),in fact I'm sure it hit what was known as the video nasties list here in the uk a few years later and dissapeared from the shops for a while altogether.
Looking back I can now see why I've got such a love for all things horror
[ 23. May 2015, 00:46: Message edited by: the young warrior ]
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Young warrior, your Mother sounds like a cool lady and Mom. That is so cool that she got together with you and your siblings to watch those movies.
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quote:Originally posted by Pittsburghgirl: Crash, I'm sure I sneaked in a few of those old horror films. My mother would get ****ed off when I watched them. They really didn't scare me to death, I never had nightmares, so I don't know what the problem was with me wanting to watch them. She probably didn't want my brother watching them as I am sure the baby that he was, he would've been terrified. Btw Crash, are there any films you haven't seen?! You are so knowledgeable on every type and timeframe out there!
Thanks for the compliment! I started as a serious movie fan at the age of 9 back in 1969. As I've said in other posts, those were fun times where you had to read magazines, TV Guide, books, and talk to other fans to find out about films. There were visionquests to see lost or obscure films. Sometimes in the pre-VCR days, that meant just staying awake until all hours. Also, over the years it's obviously gotten easier to be a movie buff because just about everything is available. While the thrill of the hunt is gone, it's amazing that I can see all kinds of things now. Another sort of compulsive thing about me is that over the years, I will go on these sprees to fill in gaps in my film knowledge. For example, in the 1990s, I watched a lot of HK stuff, John Woo, Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark... I watched some Jess Franco stuff, though when I was a small boy, even I recognized that his films were pretty bad. I discovered a few very good films by Franco--She Killed in Ecstasy, Vampyros Lesbos, and Gritos en La Noche (The Awful Dr. Orloff). And then I went on a binge of spaghetti westerns--watching about 25 and not the ones everyone has seen by Leone--with just amazing stuff by Sergio Corbucci, Sergio Sollima, and Tonino Valerii. More recently, I've been trying to track down giallo films that have eluded me over the years. I recently saw Footsteps on the Moon, The Strange Case of Mrs. Wardh, and The Fifth Cord, which are all very different, but excellent. In between, I managed to see my first Turkish rip-off, the Turkish version of The Exorcist, swiping Tubular Bells and everything. It wasn't as rotten as I thought that it would be. I just saw Eurocrime, which is an exhaustive--and somewhat exhausting--documentary on poliziotesschi films, of which I've seen some good ones, but not enough. That may be my next project. But I have Eyeball and Death Laid an Egg first.
That's how it goes for me, lifelong lover of all cinema--good and bad, art film and exploitation film, masterpiece and piece of trash...
[ 24. May 2015, 16:51: Message edited by: Crash ]
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aTomiK
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Re-watched The Gauntlet (1977) the other night. The film has two excellent action scenes and Clint is in good form but there´s also few very silly moments. What we have here is an entertaining popcorn road movie.
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cool flick atomik,though like you say more than a touch daft at times,do enjoy it though.
have the us region free blu ray and for its age it looks pretty solid.
last clint flick i saw i think was either tightrope or pale rider which i picked up on blu ray sometime back,both great films!
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I think Pale Rider is better than the rest. Gauntlet and Tightrope are pretty average IMO. I will always succumb to watching them when they are on TV though. All those movies were on TV here recently. Pale Rider is very good and Clint is always good as the man with no name (I assume he's not really a preacher).
Cool photo aTomiK.
Clint must have lived the life. I could just imagine him being the same as in the movies as far as his humour and personality goes.
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I think Pale Rider is definitely the best of that bunch, guys. It's very good. Tightrope is decent enough, and apart from the big action set pieces, The Gauntlet is just mindless and silly. I never really understood the attraction of Sondra Locke. Pretty good actress, sure, but look at her in The Gauntlet. She looks pretty haggard like she's been up all week. And the scene where she flashes the bad guys beating up Clint seemed to me to be more like a Clint Eastwood fantasy than anything else. I wonder what their home life was like. Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
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aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
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I share your thoughts about Locke. Remember the scene where she have fantasies about family life with Clint... It´s reality tv right there in the mid 70s Posts: 7054 | From: Finland | Registered: Feb 2008 | Site Updates: 7
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