Innocent Blood (1992)

John Landis is really an underrated director, and it's sad that An American Werewolf in London is the only movie are talking about. Because Innocent Blood is one of his finest works so far, and it's sad it's so forgotten. Here we have an original (!!!) vampire-flick which look gorgeous and has a bunch of very fine actors, gory special effects and great make-up, not to mention a killer jazz-score by Ira Newborn and a couple of fitting Frank Sinatra-tracks! And what happen? It bombed. Totally. The distributors tried desperate to save some money by retitling it "A French Vampire in America", which is silly. Life isn't fair.

Anne Parillaud plays Marie, a kinda nice vampire-chick that only kills bad guys and drink their blood. One night she rips the throat of an italian gangster (Chazz Palminteri!) and get's involved in the New York-mafia. Robert Loggia plays Sallie The Shark and after biting him to, but never get's a chance to kill him, Marie finds that her bloodthirst is spreading a vampire-plague in the New York-mafia! Anthony LaPaglia plays an ex-undercover cop that forces to hunt her down, and get's to learn something more about vampires... and that they can be nice to. Meanwhile chews Sallie through his all staff, and there's not much time to stop the bloodsucking mafia!

First of all, Anne Parillaud isn't good in this movie. Well, sorry. She's good, but not as great as all her co-actors. But make no mistake, I love her as an actress, but I guess the language was a barrier here and there's places where she's not really there acting-wise. She's reading the lines very wrong most of the time. She works better when she's quiet. But expect that this is i wonderful movie with some of the most spectacular effects I've seen from the earlie ninties. The make-up effects by Steve Johnson is simply amazing, and I'm not sure how some of them where done. There's a scene when one of the characters are melting from the sun, and it looks stunning - it's up there with the transformation-scene in American Werewolf. There's some nice blood and gore to, so don't worry about that.

The best thing is the style. It's a luxery movie. Everything looks expensive, slick and stylish. It's one of John Landis finest hours as a director. Even the comdey works great, even from smaller cameos and and shorter scenes. After two thirds of the movie the pacing goes down for around ten minutes, including a quite graphic love scene. I alway get's a bit restless here, but it dosen't take long until it's back on track again. There's a lot of nice big band jazz on the soundtrack to, and it's always fun to hear Frank Sinatra in an horror movie!

One of Landis trademarks is cameos by other directors, and here we have Frank Oz, Dario Argento, Sam Raimi in fun performances, but also Tom Savini, Forrest J. Ackerman and Linnea Quigley! Another trademark (which seem to be quite common among actors around the same age as Landis) is a lot of clips on television from classic horror- and monsterfilms: Dracula, Strangers on a Train, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Phantom of the Rue Morgue and Hammer's 1958 Dracula.

Innocent Blood is still one of my favorite vampire-movies of all time. It's up there together with John Badhams Dracula, Romeros Martin and Tobe Hoopers Salem's Lot.

The Boys from Brazil (1978)

The Boys from Brazil is one of those films I've seen so many times I just can't count it. It began with television, then vhs, a dvd and now bluray. The book is a brilliant piece of over-the-top semi-serious nazi-sploitation, but the film is even better. Franklin J. Schaffner spoils us with a good old-fashioned thriller with classical direction and some great performances by everyone - except the one :)

Laurence Oliver plays Ezra Lieberman, a famous nazi-hunter (modelled after Simon Wiesenthal of course) that one day get's a call from Paraguay. It's a young jewish man (Steve Guttenberg actually!) who discovered a big conspiracy overseen by the almost mythological evil nazi-doctor Josef Mengele! Ezra starts to investigate the case and at the same time Mengele (Gregory Peck) starts his dream-project: to created 94 cloned Hitlers all over the the world!

Yes, the story is so absurd, so wild, so BIG, that it actually becomes realistic. No, not realistic as in that it could happen, but you believe the story at least! The best thing with the movie is that is's such a huge production. It's a lot of money spent here, there's locations in the US, Europa, South America and with a parade of great character actors in more or less smaller roles. You have James Mason there, Lilli Palmer, Denholm Elliott, Walter Gotell, Michael Gough and even Bruno Ganz (who played Hitler in the fantastic Der Untergang). Gregory Peck is, believe it or not, perfect as a Bond villian-style baddie and I have not understand for people not liking him in this role. He's a cold bitch, and is very far away from the kind uncle Peck that he probably was. 

But the only weak thing is Laurence Olivier. I know he was terrible in John Badhams Dracula (a masterpiece by the way), but here he's almost as bad! He has a ridiculous accent, rolling eyes and a body language that would fit better in a local cheapo-nudie-cabaret in Bangkok! It's like he's in Naked Gun 33/3 and not in a half-serious conspiracy-thriller from the seventies. But after a while you get used to this and even his terrible, terrible performance can't destroy a good movie.

I confess totally that I'm a sucker for these nazi-related conspiracy-thrillers, real-life and fiction like this. Maybe it just becomes a better movie than it because of my interest? I'm not sure about that, but I think it's a very cool movie and one of the best (and silliest) conspiracy-movies from the seventies.

A Century of Thai Cinema (River Books, 2001)

I bought this excellent coffetable-book from Amazon.co.uk today. I've been looking at it before and it's filled with great posters and information - but it has been so expensive! The cheapest one I found in Stockholm was sold for over 400 swedish kronor!

At Amazon.co.uk I found it for 143 swedish kronor - and that includes shipping to Sweden. I will write more about when I had the time to read it.

The Gladiators (1969)

In a near future, much like Melvilles Alphaville, where everything looks the same, but something is really wrong, the Peace Game controls the world. Instead of fighting in each other countries, the leaders are arranges a war game on neutral ground - Sweden. It's more or less China against the rest of the world. We follow a couple of the soldiers, their commanders, one french member of the resistance and the two slackers (from the proud swedish police force) behind the controls. The commanders is drinking tea and eating canned spaghetti while the soldiers are out on the field fighting for their lifes. And everything - EVERYHING - is controlled by the machine...

Wow, this is one of those really cool unknown movies that has to be seen. The Gladiators is a UK-Sweden co-production and directed by Peter Watkins. There's actors from Sweden, England, France, Germany, China, Vietnam and a bunch of other countries and everyone is playing their own nationality. It's more or less a drama-documentary, which has a narrator, interviews and a Roy Andersson-sense of humour. The scenes out on the field is more loose, more energic and free, but everything outside is static and very basic - which makes it even funnier, and more worrying. The Peace Game is sponsored by a spaghetti-manufacturer and everything is just about money and how to spend as little as possible at the war and the soldiers.

Sweden is the neutral country in the game, which of course it bullshit. They're having the war on their ground, owning the machine controlling everything and is just weak cowards that can't handle a crisis. The swedish police force is presented as slow and naive (in one scene the swedish guards, chasing the french resistance, has to stop for red light for example!) and with no hope. Davidsson (Hans Bendrik) and Norberg (Björn Franzen) is the technicians and they're one of the best things with the movie. Dry and slow dialogue about nothing, just a day at the work - but also a symbol of those that accepted the machine and just don't care anymore, though they have the same opinions as the french resistance.

The irony is the only piece of love between the reds and the west is punished, harder than anything else in the movie. These leaders don't want peace. They want more money from sponsors, from their governments, more power. That's what it's all about. A curious thing about the movie is that at one point the soldiers are meeting a gang of hippie girls that will tease them, make them calm again before the killing starts. But it's not only girls, there one gay man to, being there to please... and it's no more comment on that in the movie. He's just there.

This is a unique, fun, smart and cynic look at the future - or what could have been the future, and maybe is "now", because it's all about symbols anyway. Do you want a lot of grey Sweden a really smart satire, this is the movie for you.

And I'm sure you won't be surprise to hear that this hasn't been released in Sweden yet? Because if it's something the swedish film companies don't care about, it's all the good movies that once where produced in Sweden.

Another poster, this onewith a "Flying head with intestines dangling underneath"!

Yes, after drooooooling over all the great artwork at Patricks blog, I decided to get one poster myself. So this piece of art will soon hang on one of my walls! I hate Ebay already. After all these years ;)

I just bought this poster at Ebay

Just felt for something thai. And with a huge crocodile on it. I think I should focus on thai posters of thai movies for a while. It's a country with a lot of movies I like, but I'm not sure how to find them. Sure, if I search on Ebay I find thai-posters of The Matrix and shit like that, but that's something very far from what I want.

I would love posters of some of Panna Rittikrais early movies for example. But where?

Cannibal Mercenary (1983)

Yeah! Finally, finally an exploitation movie that lives up to it's hype! Cannibal Mercenary is as fun, gory, violent and crazy as I've heard through the years. And it's actually quite well made and has some ambitions to be something more than just a one-take-quickie!

Lek Songphon (I think) plays Wilson, a depressed and hardhitting soldier that's accepts one final job. He's deeply disturbed by his experiences in Vietnam, but goes out in the jungle again so he can get money and save his sick daughter. He gathers his old gang of misfits, a sex-maniac, a wife-killer and so on, and they starts the journey. On their way they meed a lot of vietcongs, innocent villagers and traitors... and finally the main bad guy!

It's a simple storyline, but for once it has a lot of energy. The budget is of course low, but the director fills the movie with a lot of action, gore, fights and good acting (not kidding!). Lek Songphon makes a very fine performance as the haunted leader of the group and stays realistic in his acting. I'm not sure if he's really Lek Songphon, but I recognize his face so much and I can't place it. He must have continued with acting after this, I've seen him somewhere... 

Cannibal Mercenary really goes where no other movie has gone before when it comes to violence. There's a lot of violence, and everything is more graphic than expected. There's decapitations, throatslits, a lot of squibs, eye-rippings, skullcrushings and a very, very strange scene where a deformed man is peeing on a man and then rubbing his crotch against his face, licking his lips in some kind of sexual excitement - and he's one of the good guys! The gore is good to. Not realistic, but very nasty and very bloody. 

This movie is out on a cut german dvd (as "Jungle Killers: The Jaguar Project"), avoid that one. Download it or buy a bootleg, because I guess it won't come out on a legal, uncut dvd for quite a while. Which is a pity, because it deserves to be seen by more people.

The cover is from When the Vietnam War raged... in the Philippines. 

Dying Breed (2008)

Little did Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel know what would happen after their fantastic movie in 1974, you all know which one. There's been versions of TCM in most countries (expect Sweden of course, but that's no surprise) and one of the latest is Dying Breed, from the fantastic country of Australia. It took my some time to finish this movie, mostly because it's TO familiar set-up with a bunch of young people going out in the wilderness and meets some nice country folks. But when I finally got thru the first half hour, it turned better than I thought it would be.

The concept is Alexander Pearce, a famous criminal and cannibal that was hanged in 1824. In this movie there's still decendants of Perce living in Tasmania, closely connected to the Tasmanian tiger - the animal that our bunch of meat is out to take a photo of. The main character is Nina (Mirrah Foulkes), who goes to Tasmania together with her boyfriend Matt (Leigh Whannell) and a couple of friends to finish her dead sisters work about finding the tiger... what they don't know is that nice town (compared to other towns in other TCM-rips) is after their blood...

As I wrote above, it took my over one week to watch the first half hour. It's really nothing wrong with the movie. It's goodlooking, as nice actors and fun backstory, but it's also very generic storytelling with the same characters we've seen a thousand times before. But when you get use to that we have an okey little movie and some very nice gore-scenes, great locations and some mean-spirited ideas. Here and there you can feel the impact of (the superior) Wolf Creek, but most of the time it's a normal TCM-copy - but with more gore.

It's shot with a HD-camera, but it still has a little bit digital look. Nothing I worry about, but here it could have helped with a notch more of video-processing. But yes, it looks great and it's nothing to be scared away buy. The digital effecs, which are very few, are okey - but I've seen much better in cheaper movies. The gore- and make up-effects are great, realistic and bloody. This movie could well have my (from now on) favorite inbred redneck. His face is truly disturbing and for once we don't have to see the usual mongoloid eyes or hare-lipped mouth.

Another piece of modern ozploitation. Better than I thought from the beginning and give it a try if you feel for it.

The China Exhibition 2008

The fancy slideshow that Photobucket has dosen't work here in blogger, so if you want to see the twenty photos from our exhibition in Stockholm, just click here.

Voddler

I got Voddler today, and from now on I can use and test the beta-version that is out. Not bad at all. Not bad. The quality is very good, the movies are so-so. Not the latest, not the most obscure, a lot of Scanbox-titles and some interesting stuff that I've wanted to see but never wanted to buy. 

But this is still a beta, and it will be much more movies. I like this. Could be something fucking big. Sign up to and wait for an invite. 

One month of pure hell!!!!

Yes, the impossible is now possible. In a deal with Jocke at Rubbermonsterfetischism we will both stay away from buying movies for ONE WHOLE MONTH! The salary drops in on friday, but the official payday is the 25th - but still we must stay away from this beautiful drug from tomorrow, the 23rd of October.

I think Jocke is more positive about it than me, because he want's to spend money on posters and other stuff. I've never been a poster-guy, but in a time of crisis like that, even me is starting to think about posters on Ebay now! My co-workers suggests that I buy some clothes, because I have no winter clothes at all, so it could be a good way of spending the money. Maybe I should save the money instead, and make a huge order the 25th of November?

No, I see this period as a way to watch through a lot of my unseen movies that's piled up all around the livingroom. Maybe buy some art (that I always talking about outside this blog) or just eat better meals during lunch time.

Wish me luck. Wish Jocke luck.

(and if you find out that he's buying movies behind my back, let me know ;))

Ruggero Deodato to Stockholm!

Seriously, I must be the last person in the world not knowing about that Ruggero Deodato will visit Stockholm in 5-6 december! I was already happy with Doug Bradley and Michael Ironside, but Ruggero must be the best guest so far. It's at the Sci Fi Convention, a place where you have to use violence to aviod Star Wars- and Star Trek-nerds.

Antichrist (2009)

My relationship with Lars Von Trier has been very turbulent over the years. I adore, love, worship The Kingdom, I actually like Europa, Dogville is a fine movie... and so on. But I never understood The Idiots - but I've decided to watch it again to see what the fuzz is about, and I think that Dancer in the Dark is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Both boring, pretentious and with some very, very bad acting (and Björk should get near a camera again). But I like the guy anyway. But Antichrist restored my faith in the man!

It's like walking into a dream filled with symbolism, some very obvious and a lot much more obscure. From the first scene in ultra-slowmo where Gainsbourg and Dafoe have graphic sex and the tragic accident to the long scenes of dialogue that follows. Dafoe trying to figure out and analyse his wife grief and the beautiful hypnos-trip to Eden, the cabin in the forest. And the stunning and violent finale that has some of the most painful things I've seen in a movie, and most original to.

But the violence is such a small part of Antichrist. There's a couple of seconds with stuff that can seem be controversial and/or graphic, but this story is mainly a drama about loss, about religion, about gender and a very complicated relationship. But when it's gore/violence it's quite hard, and makes even a tough guy like me to almost cover my eyes (or actually, more cover my ears). Von Triers knows how to create talk around his movies, and I see him as an arthouse-version of William Castle. There's always a gimmick, and I think it's beautiful to mix that sense of commercial thinking and thought-provoking art.

Von Triers style of directing is very typical, but maybe more stylish and "normal" than a lot of his other recent movies. It's neither static or mega-shaky. It's inbetween, and it was probably for the best regarding this movie. It will be very interesting to see his next movie, Melancholia, a sci-fi movie - which I guess will surprise everyone that's expecting a normal sci-fi. But the main stars of Antichrist is Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe, both making marvelous performances. As common with Von Triers movies, the female character has the most complicated part, and there's no difference here. Gainsbourg goes through every emotion there is, often within seconds, and there's no doubt she's a real person. Not a single frame indicates that where talking about a movie character here. A problem that every swedish movie have for example. Dafoe makes an excellent part where he have to be more less visually one-emotional. He must pretend to have everything under control all the time, even when shit hits the fan at the end.

This is far from a horror movie, even if it has some moments that could belong in one. But it's a drama, a strong drama, and a brave one to. It's nice to see movies that just dosen't fuck around, and shows life, death, love, sorrow as it is.

Antichrist is a highly original movie, and probably one of the best movies I've seen in 2009.

The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008)

I've stayed away from modern asian cinema for quite a long while now. I got tired with the usual ghosts and the usual gangster-stories, and just wished "it" would come back the part of the world that I love so much. But then came The Good, the Bad, the Weird, a movie that's also starring one of my favorite actors, Kang-ho Song. It was also an asian western, which of course is a good thing. I've never seen a bad asian western so far. 

Kang-ho Song plays the Weird, a crazy thief. Byung-hun Lee plays the Bad, a psychopatic bandit. Woo-sung Jung plays the Good, an honest and cool gunfighter. What brings them together is a map that says be leading to an amazing treasure. The map is stolen from each other, from other gangs and soon they find themselves in a wild chase far out in the desert... and getting closer and closer to the treasure!

It's basically a version of Sergio Leones classic western, but with extremly stylish action and lots of violence and comedy. The action scenes are wonderful, and most of them are in full daylight and on horses, trains, in old buildings and in a cool city of thiefs! The squibs flows like rain in the Amazonas, and everything is tied together very carefully with interesting characters and a simple but effective storyline. 

Much of the exteriors where shot in China, in some very nice deserts, which both gives the movie something familiar, but also very exotic. But the best thing is that it's a movie that completely lacks female characters. There's no love story that slows everything down, just men shooting at each other, beating other men and some slapstick inbetween. The koreans always tend to throw in some very boring love-stories in their movies, so this is a fresh movie without that silly cliché. It uses every other cliché in the book anyway, but makes them interesting. 

Some people probably would call it shallow and style without substance, I'll say it's a great cool movie which I wished I could have seen in cinema.

Death Ship (1980)

Okey, Death Ship dosen't begin good. There's some a very cheesy boat-collision with stockfootage from at least three movies. Different ages, different qualities. Not good edited either. The acting seems a bit hammy at first, but as soon as the ship has sunken and the main characters is aboard the life raft this movie is turning quite good. Yes, I'm talking about Death Ship. Written by Jack Hill and directed by Alvin Rakoff.

After a while the people in the raft, among them an excellent George Kennedy as Captain Ashland and Richard Crenna as his co-captain Marshall, who will be taking over the ship after this journey. Ashland really hates people and sees the boat as his life. But this means that he dosen't care shit about other people, something that gotten him fired. Suddenly, from nowhere, a big rusty old ship comes sailing and they climb aboard. It's like a museum piece, with cobwebs and rust everywhere... and soon they realise that this ship is alive. It want to hurt people, and soon it's taken control over the bitter Ashland. 

Marshall and his family must now both fight the ship... and the crazy Ashland!

First of all: it's wonderful to see George Kennedy playing a such unpleasant characters. He's a bastard. A bitter, evil bastard that you just want to drop dead. But he dosen't. He starts to fuck around with the lives of his co-stars, and hearing german voices that tells him what to do. Great work from a very underrated actor. Crenna is the typical hero and the rest of the actors are good, but not fantastic. Saul Rubinek, as a shortlived role as the ships entertainer. He dies fast. 

But the first half is kinda slow, it shows it's low budget and there's a lot of scenes that just are there to make the movie longer. But then something happens, the ship's going more crazy and we have a very gritty and brutal ghost-story set in an amazing location. The ship looks scary, and I'm sure it's not that much set designed involved. This is a rusty old ghost ship they found, and it's works great. 

No, there's not much graphic violence - which is a pity, but the few scenes of violence is nasty and works fine. The famous shower of blood is cool of course, and offers some nudity of those who appreciated that. I haven't checked all the extras on the R2-release, but it looks like fantastic release. The documentary has a lot of the people involved talking honestly, even Mr Kennedy - who looks like he's dressed liked a black basketball-player or something. 

A nice little movie. Not fantastic, but worth watching more than once.

Children of the Corn (2009)

I never been a fan of the first Corn-movie from 1984. It was well made with some nice location and good actors, but lacked inspiration and edge. Then we have the hundreds of sequels following, and I have a very soft spot for them - good or bad. I just like the idea with religious children chopping up people in the name of the lord! It's more or less my own opinon about religion and it seem that Children of the Corn is a very good story about just what religion can do.

In this version the couple coming to Gatlin is on the verge of divorce. Burt (David Anders) and Vicki (Kandyse McClure) spend most of their time (and most of the movie) to terrorise each other with small words, a psychological war that is so common among people that are about to breaking up. He's still obsessed by his experiences in Vietnam and always relates everything that happens to the war. She is a good girl, scarred because of her religious background and is tired of Burts Vietnam-stories. This is their second honeymoon, and their last...

You who have read the book or seen the first movie knows that they are trying to find the police after hitting the body of a little boy. Burt refuses to realise that the Gatlin is a dead town and stays there long enough to be attacked by the children... he escapes out in the corn, and all hell breaks loose!

This is a way more gritty and violent version of the story. It's not a splatter-movie, like some of the sequels, but it has blood, violence and gore - and a quite disturbing scene where two of the oldest teenagers are fucking in the church with all the children in ecstasy around them! All in the name of He Who Walks Behind The Rows! Robert Kurtzman is the man behind the mayhem and offers som realistic and nasty killings. I'm as far as possible from politically correct, but it feels strange to see a grown man killing children and still be the good guy! 

I guess the Vietnam-theme isn't for everyone, but I think it was a nice touch to the story, especially since Burt get's a nam flashback when he's out of the corn and starts believing the children are vietcongs! Nice idea and quite okey executed.

The weak thing with this version is that it's talky. The first half of the movie is one big Bergman-scene where Burt and Vicki is fighting themselves through the story. There's a lot of screaming. The actors are good, but it feels like filling. The same thing with the children, where we have to listen to a few to many religious speeches. It's a gorgeous movie, but the locations (buildings etc) is smaller and not so big and open as in the first movie. The fields are of course awsome, but you notice it's a tv-movie.

Not a bad reboot of the series and I hope there will be silly sequels to this one to.

Final Solution (2010)

This sounds interesting! A danish (I guess) horror movie dealing with the neutral Sweden - for you who don't know that, Sweden didn't care at all about the countries closest to us, we just licked the boots of the nazis - and what REALLY happen there. Cool concept and it can be really good. We'll see... Until then, check out the official homepage.

During the second World War in Nazi occupied Denmark, local fishermen helped Jews flee to the neutral grounds of Sweden. The trip was not cheap and came at an even higher price for the Landau family who where forced to leave their youngest daughter Emma behind. Here she would be hidden by her mothers friend, waiting for a chance to follow her family. 

The Nazis employed fishermen of their own to ferry the fleeing Jews to a remote and hidden Extermination Camp deep in the dark forests of Sweden. This became the fate of Emma´s entire family. 

As time passed, Emma grew up watching the Nazis lose the war, the powers in Europe shift and her mothers friend pass away. Never getting any news about her family´s fate, she decides to follow their trail and uncover what happened to them in Sweden. But what she and her friends found was evil beyond their wildest imagination.

Been busy!

Sorry, I've been very busy with the upcoming photo-show me and G have in Stockholm. Starts next week in thursday. We need to have all the photos in order, frames painted, emails sent and free stuff to lure people there ready :)

But I will try to crank out some reviews to. 

Cya!

Today's shopping!

I couldn't help myself today, because I was meeting a friend in town and it usually means that I spend money on movies. Today I spent 500 kronor on these movies:

The Trip
- Great movie, and another proof of Cormans genius!

Watchmen 2 disc special edition (bluray)
- It costed 79 kr. And I think the movie is brilliant.

The Andromeda Strain
- The mini-series. Jocke liked it, so I guess I will appreciate it to :)

Inju - The Geisha Killer
- By Barbet Schroeder and sounded interesting.

Outlander
- Ok, it costed 25 kr! It must be good for that amount of money ;)

The Midnight Meat Train
- I must in the collection!

Long Weekend
- An aussie-classic that I haven't seen yet.

Death Ship
- The nice UK-release.

Road Games
- Another aussie-movie, this time with Jamie Lee Curtis and Stacy Keach.

D-Day - Russian Commando (2008)

Uh-keeeey... what's going on here? D-Day, or as it's called on the net: Russian Commando, is also a scene for scene remake of the old Arnold-classic from 1985, and at the same time a (sort of) parody of the same movie. But it's far to serious and far to similar to Commando to count as a parody, at least that what's I think. But I don't mind really. If this is an unofficial remake it's a helluva way to fuck Arnolds ass, only if it could have been at as good as the original. But I'm afraid to say that we're not that lucky.

Mikhail Porechenkov plays Ivan, our Arnold in this movie. And... I won't go through the story. It's more or less the exact same as in the first one. His daugher get's kidnapped... yeah yeah. Well, let's skip that. I kinda like Mikhail in the lead, but he's so far away from Arnold when it comes to energy and charisma. At least in this kind of role. But he's a charmig actor that reminds me more of a kind bear than a killing machine. He just looks to nice to be killing people. He works okey in the action-scenes though. The rest of the actors is lousy, except some minor characters.

How do the parody work? Okey, some jokes is quite funny - but it's hard to make fun of a movie like Commando, because itself from the beginning has a tongue-in-cheek approach. The famous scene in the mall is now in a bath resort where Ivan is fighting lifeguards dressed in tropical hats instead of cops. The first car-chase after the attack on the house is now on a snowmobile chasing after two cars... and so on. The only action-scene that works is the finale, which has some nice stunt work and big explosions. But if you want gore, blood, mayhem, more fun, better jokes and a great action movie, it's better to stick with Mark L. Lesters masterpiece.

A russian remake of Commando sounded good on paper, but it never lives up to how much fun it could have been. Now it's just like Gus Van Sant's version of Psycho: quite boring.

I would like to take this moment...

.... to congratulate my mother on her birthday today, the 14th of October!

No, I'm not a Norman Bates or something, but it's rare (I think) with really good mothers. Indirectly it's because of her that I love horror movies (she never liked them, but never stopped me from watching my first classics as a five year old child) and during the last 10-15 years I helped her to discover martial arts-movies - she loves Jackie Chan and Shogun Assassin is her favorite japanese movie!

Ah, those horror movies? It wasn't anything extreme, but it really started my fascination for the dark and macabre. It was King Kong, The Invisible Man, Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolf Man and all their sequels. It was a great start of a lifelong passion.

Congratulations mum, and continue to stay cool and fun!

Hellraiser: Deader (2005)

Here we have part 7 in often hated Hellraiser-saga. The official series did end with part 4, but the franchise wasn't dead until much later. I've always liked the sequels. Many of them are far from perfect, but they still is above average. Well, not for hardcore-fanboys that hasn't moved away from mommie yet of course. They still cry and whine over the sequels. But not me, no way man ;) Sure, it's just a way to squeeze some money out from Clive Barkers original vision, but the movies themselves isn't especially commercial at all - except for Hellworld. But we'll discuss that one another day.

This time Kari Wuhrer plays a journalist, Amy Klein, that dosen't scare easily. She has a new assignment, to go to Romania to find out more about a mysterious sect that seem to raise people from the dead. Their leader is Winter (Paul Rhys), a decendant of the original inventor of the Lament box, and Amy soon finds her deep involved in the sect and the people around it. Soon the reality around her begins to shift and she can never be sure what's happening and if she's even alive...

I really like the idea, and Deader has some parts that works fine. I like the stuff with the bed, which is an interesting nod to the Hellbound. The idea to use the bed, inflict pain on it, and then get powers from Pinheads world is cool. Also to include a relative of LeMerchant is nice, and brings the story to a circle. That's more or less the basic concept with Deader, and it's a pity they couldn't go deeper into those ideas. The location in Romania has a lot of atmosphere and Wuhrer makes a fine intensive performace as Amy, as most of the actors. The budget was obviously restrained and that shows. There never enough time to show really cool stuff. For example, the subway train-scene could have been a lot more decadent and violent. But instead it's feels very rushed.

The gore then? Not that much. Sure, there's some blood and some very fast glimpses of gore (someone getting torn to pieces for example), but not as much and as dirty as I would like. But it also seem to be a case of low budget. This also means that we see way to little of Gary J. Tunnicliffes excellent make-up and not much Cenobites either. Or at least not much close-ups.

Concept and story can't just fill 85 minutes of a nice looking movie, even if Rick Bota do a good job with the directing and a lot of other competent people behind and in front of the camera.

The upcoming Rituals-dvd from Code Red

One of the best backwoods-horrrors ever made is coming to dvd, from Code Red of course. I love this movie, it's canadian quality at it's best. Read my old review. Code Red is one of my favorite companies nowdays, so I hope they continue to deliver all the movies I want them to release :)

My one and only experience with a thai ghost!

First of all, I'm an atheist and don't believe in god, ghosts or aliens. Nothing. But I'm very interested in it. This is something I've written about before, and the text here is lifted from the avmaniacs-forum.

"I once experienced something interesting in Khanom, Thailand, during bike-trip through the night with my ex. There's no lights out on these country roads, so me and him had to drive very carefully. We had one weak flashlight and he was pointing it at me so cars and other vehicles on the road could see us in time. My ex was a very religious person, and claimed to work both with white and black magic. Raised in the jungle and very close to the nature, but I will never know if he told me the truth. At one point we came in to a long stretch of jungle on both side of us...

He was on his bicycle in front of me and I was trying to keep up with him. Suddenly I hear a baby cry out loud. In the middle of the jungle. I froze. The baby's scream was getting louder and it almost felt unreal, that someone... or something...was imitating a baby. I called to my ex in front of me, who's been quite and didn't say anything about this, and asked him what was going on.

"Quiet! Just go faster." Was his only reply. He didn't even look around. Just said it cold. We started to go faster and faster and 10-15 minutes later we finally reached a village. There was a funeral ceremony in the village and we could hear monks chanting over the small town. He stopped and turned around. He was white in the face and I asked him what was going on. According to him there was a special ghost that imitates children to lure people out in the jungle and kills them or eat them. He was afraid that this "being" was following us, but felt that we was quite safe in the city, especially close to the monks.

It's hard to describe actually. But it's the weirdest thing that ever happen to me. And scariest. I knew he had some (that was an understatement I can say) darkness in him and he told me some other stories that he experienced, that could be lifted directly from an asian ghost-movie. Or more from an indonesian one, because everything was so fucking extreme..."

Somehow I feel it's even better to have experienced something like this far, far away from Sweden. In such an exotic location to! :)

Infestation (2009)

I love insects. Not for real of course, they just don't deserve to live! Kill them! Kill them!!! But in movies they are one of the coolest thing there is to see. Especially if they're big bugs wanting to eat humans! Remember Eight Legged Freaks? I liked that one, a fun comedy with a lot of cool monster. This movie, Infestation, is a little bit like that one, but with the comedy more towards Shaun of the Dead and The Office.

Chris Marquette plays Cooper, a good-for-nothing guy who just got fired from the office. But maybe it was his lucky day, because in the same moment he's getting fired something hits his town and a couple of days later people are starting to wake up, wrapped in cocoons and ready to be insect-food. Together with the (ex) boss daughter, the tough and cynical Sara (Brooke Nevin) and a couple of other people they try to escape the city and survive! But first Cooper want's home to his dad, a retired military, and maybe solve some problems between father and son...

This is one of those movies that it's hard to not like. It's cheaper than movie mentioned above, and the script is a bit less thought through (some characters just vanishised along the way for example), but it has enough charm to charm me. Marquette is a fun and likable actor that probably will rise and be a much more famous comedy actor. He injects some humanity to his character and the little love story actually works without being silly. The best actors is, as usual, Ray Wise as his dad. A typical Burt Gummer-character that instead of focusing his attention to his son just cares about his "sister", aka his little stupid dog!

How's the creature-action and gore/slime then? Not much blood, but it's not bloodless if someone thinks that. Like Drag me to Hell it focuses mainly on slime and other kinds of bodily fluids, and there's a lot of smashed insects and humans. The effects are very good, and I'll buy both the practical insect-animatronics and the CG-stuff. A lot of the action is set in daylight, so expect to see a lot of insects in different shapes and moods.

A very charming movie that brings laughs, slime and father/son-relationship into our livingrooms. Buy it!

Stockholm Zombie Walk 2009

My plan was to go to an audition for a tv-commercial and then eat something thai-ish with my boyfriend in town, but we ran into Stockholm Zombie Walk at Observatorielunden to - so here's a couple of photos from the gathering. The walk itself did we miss, but I think this was enough. I don't want to be eaten anyway.

What people are searching for to get to my blog!

This is always fun to check. I had 546 different search words/meanings now, and I'm sure half of them was about Mia Engberg and the Dirty Diaries-collection I reviewed some time ago. So that was a popular review. Probably the most visited review on this blog. Strange how life can be ;) It's like on my old swedish blog where the Italian Stallion-review was and still is the most visited ever. 

Well well. Here's what people are looking for now, and I will try to give some answer and comments to these poor, confused souls.

thaiass
- I won't deny that I've seen a lot of thaiass in my life. But I stayed away from mentioned that on my blog. But I hope that you found what you were looking for.

all sex scenes of the the mighty peking man
- For  mankinds sake, I hope you  aren't looking for actual sex scenes with the mighty peking man in action!

brad pitt takes on ninja
- That would be cool. Is there any ninjas in Inglorious Basterds?

did rutger hauer play satan
- Not what I know, but he played a lot of other gentlemen through his career.

porn dvd collection
- I can honestly say that I don't have any porn dvds. Except Caligula. And Dirty Diaries. And Thundercrack. And Silip But these are works of art. Not porn.

elephant dick
- Good luck.

is there nudity in the siege of firebase gloria 1989
- Yes,  if you really think that you will find sleazy hot nudity in a respected Vietnam-movie, you just need to visit a doctor. At least female hot sleazy nudity. Or dead bodies.

polska girl porn movies
- You are  way out in the wrong direction here. Go back to  where you belong.

will i ever be my old self again
- If you ask the mighty Internet-God about that, then I'm sure you will never be your old self again.

That's all folks!

Children of the Corn 5: Fields of Terror (1998)

After a hard days work I prefer to go home, lay down on the sofa and watching something completely mindless. One of those movies is Children of the Corn 5: Fields of Terror, a movie that is almost (but only almost) a guilty pleasure for me. I guess it came in the wave of neo-slashers because it has a bunch of overaged teens going out in the countryside and getting killed one by one. I'm sure the script wasn't a Corn-script from beginning, but they rewrote it so it could be another sequel to the first not-so-classic Stephen King-movie.

What I like about it is that the script is totally... stupid. There's nothing smart och intelligent about the story, the kids are the usual killing machines and the you can see what's coming all the time. Yeah, you could call it crap, but it's entertaining crap anyway. First of all there's a couple of fun actors: David Carradine (that has two scenes, sitting in a chair and then die in gory way), Fred Williamson (three scenes and then die in a gory way), Ahmet Zappa (one scene and then die in a horrible way), Alexis Arquette (many scenes and then get's burned, drilled and finally blow to pieces) and Eve Mendez (and she's really bad, but I guess that's more because of the absurd character-development she has to do - from sex-bomb to religious fantatic in just a few hours!) And yes, the great Gary Bullock has a cameo and Diva Zappa plays one of the killer-kids! Ah, did I mention that Kane Hodder has a cameo to? And he does a good stunt to.

So it's a fun bunch of get-me-the-paycheck-actors to watch. The gore is nice to, and I like gore. Not as graphic or over-the-top as in part 3 (and thank mothrzokk this part dosen't have the final monster from part 3), but enough to satisfy me. The highlight is a The Thing-esque scene when a characters head splits open and reveals a fire-spurting demon that blows away the head of another character. Nice touch and easily the funniest kill-scene in the whole movie.

So at the end of the day this Corn-movie at least is entertaining and it helps you from thinking of the boring things in life. Well, it's so thin and stupid that it's hard not to think of the boring parts of life. Depressing thought to. Fuck. I need to see something with a meaning. Maybe next review. Next.

Hellraiser: Inferno (2000)

I'm one of those tasteless people that have no problems at all with all the Hellraiser-sequels. Part 2 is of course in a league of it's own, but even lesser (aka "sillier") sequels like Hell on Earth and Hellworld has something that attracts me. Inferno is the most underrated of the all sequels, and for a while it seemed that everyone hated it. "Not enough Pinhead!" (he's featured more in Inferno than in the first movie by the way) and not enough connection with the Hellraiser-mythos. Sure, it takes some liberties with the legend, but if you are openmined enough and can look beyond those small details, this is one helluva movie. 

Craig Sheffer plays Det. Joseph Thorne, a real bastard-police that fucks whores, don't care about his family, takes drugs, steals and is... yeah, a traditional bad cop. One day he comes to a murder scene where a man has been ripped to pieces with hooks and chains and Thorne finds the Lament-box... and takes it with him, and of course manages to open it. From that moment he's being trapped in a nightmare where more murders is taking place and everything is connected to him. He starts seeing weird Cenobites, and the person/thing behind it all is The Engineer - an almost mythological character in the underground crime-scene...

This movie is so criminally underrated that those who claims it's bad deserves a smack in the face. With an axe. Well, I won't be so hard to you all that dislike it, but it's still underrated. Scott Derrickson (who later directed The Exorcism of Emily Rose and The Day the Earth Stood Still) makes a fantastic job and creates a cool noir-style nightmare with great make up-effects by Gary J. Tunnicliffe (one of the best in the business today I think). It's hard to like a movie with such an unpleasant lead as Thorne, but Craig Sheffer do it well and it's a pity he never had a bigger career than he has now. He gives it all here and do a marvelous job. 

Inferno almost travels into Lynch-territory with some scenes, for example the cowboys playing poker. You can take a slice from the atmosphere and eat it, so think is it. And juicy. But it never becomes pretentious. One of the best scenes is the first trip into Hellraiser-world where Thorne encounters a couple of strange female Cenobites and one of the weirdest ones inte the series, a creture with hardly any torso and that is walking on it's hands. Everytime I watch Inferno it reminds me of the norwegian mindfuck-movie Naboer (made five years later), but the visual style and some of the gimmicks. It's a good movie to, but never come close to the small genius of Inferno.

I'm not saying it will change your world, but I dare to say it's the finest work from Scott Derrickson and a damn fine small masterpiece of direct to video-movies. 

Mitr Chaibancha - today it was 39 years since he fell to his death...

Thai Film Journal (great blog) reminded me of his death day, and I've mentioned many times before that I made a trip to the terrible town of Pattaya only to visit Chaibancha's shrine and put down some flower and show my respect this thai superstar. 

I also made a small documentary which I'm quite proud of (only in swedish though) that shows my visit there and some thoughts about the legacy of this cool guy. I've posted this link many times, but this is one of the few of my own productions that I really care of and feel is kinda good. The speaker isn't perfect, it was just something we recorded fast - but... it stayed work-in-progress and I will never, because of lack of inspiration, finish this and make it the way it's meant to be.

Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)

The first Hellraiser-movie is one of those movies that grow on you. I wasn't really fond of it the first time, but it's been a movie I've watched over and over again during the years and it get's better. But one movie that is actually better is Hellbound, the first sequel. It might not be more original, but it's a unique horror movie with some amazing visuals and a really cool story. It's set directly after the events in the first movie, and starts without any hesitation. The strongest part of the sequel is that the filmmakers directly expands the mythology of the cenobites and that hell/other dimension that they're coming from.

Pinhead has a bigger part here, of course, and hams it up together with his favorite friends Butterball, Female Cenobite and Shatterer. We're also getting a look at where they came from and some clues to their identities, which is a nice touch. But Pinhead is such a masterful character, a combination between a poet, philosopher and a serial killer. And it never becomes cliché (they saved that for part 3). Doug Bradley is probably the only actor I could see as Pinhead now, but if there's a new one I guess they want to reboot it completely... pity in away, but on the other hand, this is one of those series that needs a good reboot to feel fresh again.

I've never been fond of the small ounces of comedy that's in this movie. For example some of the patients at the hospital are more comic relief than scary och strange. It breaks the dark illusion for a while, but as we all know it's not that much. Because most of the time we're witnessing brutal acts of violence and a stunning vision of hell. Though the budget was much bigger here the effects and sets are very uneven. Some is even very bad. But the good stuff steals everything. Hell is a labyrinth with the god Leviathan in the middle. This is my favorite part of the movie, and I just love the idea of god as a huge diamond-shaped object pouring out black light and making strange deep sounds. It's so fucking mighty. 

The script had to be rewritten quickly, but I think that was only a good thing. Sure, we miss one of the most important characters from the first movie, but on the other hand: it gives more mystery to the story and makes the twist even more nasty and surprising. The biggest shame with this franchise is that they never returned to the new Cenobite again, Doctor Channard. The transformation of him and the creation of the new lead demon is really cool and that character deserved to be resurrected for another sequel. Never happen, so I guess I have to walk through life without him. Shitty life.

Hellbound is a masterpiece. It's one of the coolest, most radical and weirdest horror movies from the eighties and I think it will last forever. One of those movies that never will die.

Chocolate (2008)

2008 was a marvelous year for thai-action. Not only did we see Tony Jaa in the masterpiece Ong-Bak 2, there was also the charming Somtum (more of a family movie, but with great fights and stunts) and the subject of this review: Chocolate, a movie retitled Zen - Warrior Within for the scandianvian release! Terrible "new" title, but probably more easy to sell to stupid teenagers.

JeeJa Yanin plays Zen, an autistic girl that has a real talent: she's extremly fast and learns martial arts quicker than anyone else. Born by a thai woman and a japanese gangster, she's now starving together with her cancer-sick mother and a chubby boy called Mang Moom. First she and Mang Moom starts to have shows on the streets where she catches oranges and other round objects. One day the find her mothers old book where all the people owning her money are written down. Moom and Zen are start collecting the money, and suddenly - with the help of some Tony Jaa-movies - Zen is a martial arts champion, kicking her way through gangsters and other lowlife!

If you fight (no pun intended) your way through the first half hour of thai soft-rock and even lamer popsongs, you will find one of the coolest and most spectacular fight-movies I've seen in a long time. This the second time I've seen it but I honestly didn't remember that it was SO much action in it! The first three fights/chases are vintage Jackie Chan, even if Yanin isn't as quick as a young Jackie or Tony Jaa nowdays. It even get's a bit nasty when people are really getting hurt during the slaughterhouse-fight. One guy kicks to high and get's his foot stuck in a meat hook, looses his balance and get's hangning in it. Brutal and a nice touch! Then it get more serious and quite bloody in a couple of cool sequences, until the stunt-filled finale where people are falling like rain from the walls and roof of a seedy building in the middle of Bangkok.

The only problem is that JeeJa Yanin is quite small and it's hard to believe that she can pull those powerful punches. And the stuntmen are taking it more easy with her than with Tony Jaa or Dan Chupong. But the fighting is beautifully staged and the stunts are wild and painful. This is a movie that deserves much more praise and press than it gotten so far. 

Now we can only looking forward to Raging Phoenix, Power Kids, Vanquisher and The Sanctuary. And I haven't seen Demon Warriors yet. Life is great!

The Battle of Red Cliff (2009)

John Woo is back, and it's with a helluva movie! The Battle of Red Cliff is actually an edited version of two feature length movies that was released in 2008 and 2009. But I have either time or inspiration to watch through four hours of stuff, so this version, around two and half hour felt (and was) a great choice for me. It's basically a retelling of what happen at this famous battle. There's intrigues, action, chines mumbo-jumbo and more action - and god damn, I wonder if this isn't Woo's best movie since Hard Target? The heart is there, the blood is there and it's a great piece of historical action. 

It starts of with almost thirty minutes of pure action, mass-scenes and buckets of blood! Then there's some drama, some good drama to, and another great battle scene... and then some planning for the finale... and then the finale, almost one hour of battles! First at night with boats and fire, and then on land in the morning light. All Woo's trademarks is there: slow-mo, doves, lot's of blood and manly men staring at each other. Yes, of course there's (very) underlaying homoeroticism, something an action director of Woo's rang can't afford to skip. 

Wei Zhao, from Shaolin Soccer is there, Tony Leung is handsome and cool, and Takeshi Kaneshiro do an excellent work. The acting is good, and the actors carries the action with seriousness and respect. I guess it could be easy for an actor and be lazy when everything just explodes around you, but as usual the asians impress. Talking about explosions. There's some huge one's here, and the rest of the action is over-the-top. Woo dosen't want to bore us with normal action, and people are flying through the air after explosions and arrows, there's spurting blood all over the screen and lot's of stunt work. 

Woo shows us who's the master!

X-rental: Missile X - Geheimauftrag Neutronenbombe (1978)

I love this cover just because it's painted by the great, great Hans Arnold. A swiss artist living in Sweden. The movie seem to be some spy-romp with Peter Graves (as the hero I presume) and Curt Jürgens as the bad guy (I presume...). 

Stunt Rock (1978)

Brian Trenchard-Smith, of the best aussie-directors to set foot in the filmindustry, invented Stunt Rock after a few hours together with a pen and a joint. So he says himself, and I don't doubt it. He had a weekend to find a band to star in this absurd movie and found Sorcery, and the rest is history. There's not much to say about the story by the way. Macho-stuntman Grant Page, who likes to walk around with a hairy breast and sunglasses, goes to LA to work on Undercover Girl. He meets his friends in the glam-metal-magic rockband Sorcery and.... that's it. Yeah, of course he performs some stunts and the band show performers rock music and magic tricks. 

It's more of a pseudo-documentary, but with a healthy dose of fiction. A movie to show off the talents of Grant Page (and the guy is really talented, and a complete nut!) and musical talents of Sorcery. As a former magician I enjoyed the magic tricks, and I like rock music and stunts - so like the director, this was a movie that suited me very fine! It's hardly a masterpiece, but as usual with Trenchard-Smith's productions it's slick, professional and never boring.

What kinda stunts do we see? A cool car-chase where Grant is climbing from on car to another, another car-scene where he crashes the car and get's catapulted out through the front window - on fire! There's high falls, some martial arts and some nice adventure sports. Trenchard-Smith was also Grant Page's manager, and this is mostly a movie to make advertising for the best stuntman in the world. He also wanted to do the whole movie like a ninty minute trailer, and he's quite close to achiving that.

Code Red has released a wonderful dvd. It's a 2-disc set with a couple of commentaries, interviews, trailer and the best of all: the 1973-documentary The Stuntmen, also directed by the same director. It's a fun and charming fifty minute piece where the first show an action-scene and they explains how everything works. It's four or five action-scenes all together and here we also for the first time sees Grant Page, cocky as ever. I love the way these stuntmen acts behind the scenes, often with a beer and a cigarette ready, and some words about a dangerous past and real-life troubles. 

Well worth buying, and especially for the second disc containing the vintage documentary!

Conspiracy of Silence (1994)

It's always interesting with obscure and controversial documentaries, and Conspiracy of Silence is one of the most obscure and talked-about. It was produced by Yorkshire Television in a co-production deal with Discovery Channel and was about the alleged Lawrence King-pedophile case that stunned US politics for a short while. Lawrence, or Larry, was a famous black republican who owned a bank, took a lot of money for his own purposes and also was a pedophile with sex-parties in his luxery home. He had a deal with Boy's Town, an organisation who's helping homeless or troubled boys to a new life, and some suspects they gave him boys after he supported them with a lot of money. 

This documentary claims that the pedophile-case led directly to the White House and with a lot of republicans and other right wing-people involved. But the film was never aired. It was pulled back by the channel and someone (it's said) payed a lot of money for all the material regarding the film, and just made it disappear. A couple of years later a copy surfaced, and it's that one that's out on torrents and on youtube now.

What's scary about it is that it's so serious. The proofs that are being delivered seems okey, and there's not the usual crazy stuff going on - but later one of the participants wrote a book claiming that satanism was involved in the orgies... so you can never know about the seriousness here. But anyway. It's a dry film, with facts and facts, investigation and it feels very real. What's even more absurd is how people got in jail for witnessing in the case, got killed in a plane crash or just denied everything. 

Like it never happen. 

It's a good documentary, but I'm not sure what to make of it. Truth or just another hoax? 

Yeah, I will be rich! ;)

Sorry, it was just such a long time since I got a Nigeria-letter ;) This time they just dosen't tell me the amount directly in the email, so I don't know how rich I could have been if this was real.

This reminds me of District 9 where they have Nigerian Cat Food Scams to fool the aliens. Great little joke.

Engr.Anah Patricks

Power Holding Company Of Nigeria {PHCN}
Lagos, Nigeria.
Private Email:- anahpats@webmail.co.za
 
Attn The President/Ceo,
 
I am an account officer with the Power Holding Company Of Nigeria{PHCN}.My name is Engr.Anah Patricks.
 
This contact is being made with you for a serious purpose bordering on financial transaction arising from executed over inflated contract awarded to an expertriate company by the immediate past democratic regime in 2005 for upgrading of ageing thermal stations.
 
Therefore,my intention in reaching out to you through this medium is to seek for your assistance/cooperation in getting the over invoiced part of the total contract fund transferred into your bank accout for for our mutual benefit.I already have every arrangement relating to this transaction diligiently worked hence you can be rest assured of 101 risk/hitch free transaction
 
I'm oblige to giving you more details upon receipt of your favourable reply only on my private email above indicated bellow.( anahpats@webmail.co.za ) While thanking in advance for your anticipated of your favorable response to this proposition,
 
I remain,
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Engr.Anah Patricks
Private Email:- anahpats@webmail.co.za

What? Me, not effective?

Yes, I've been very restless the last week or so. I've hardly watched one single movie since last week, and it's been a fight watching one. Even good ones. Or silly ones. Or bloody ones. I hoped that my bluray would give me some more energy to watch movies, but no... maybe the opposit instead.

Instead I've only managed to watch episodes of Millennium. It's easy. They are dark, grim and only 45 minutes long each. And have Lance Henriksen non-stop. It's just to complicated to concentrate on 90 (or more) minutes of story. Maybe I need to rest from movies? But how? I don't have the energy to read, and I don't play games. Nothing left to do. Maybe talk a walk or play with the cat? No, I'm leaving that for the golden years.

Maybe I should watch more documentaries? Not Quite Hollywood went down really easy, and Dreamland, a highly entertaining documentary about Area 51, was fun to. Maybe "real" life in the movies can get me back in the movie watching-business?

The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974)

Isn't strange that you, and me, sometimes can't stop using a certain title. I know that The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue maybe nowdays is more known as Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, but I have a big problem using that title. It might be a more poetic a logical title (I mean, the living dead eating people at the Manchester morgue is just a small part of the movie), but I will never use it. 'Nuff said about that. 

They're testing a new technology out in the british countryside. It kills bugs and other terrible insects very effective, but the side-effect is that it brings dead people to life again! Ray Lovelock plays an art-dealer going to meet some friends and business partners. His motorcycle get's destroyed in a little accident, and the woman driving the accident-car, Edna (Cristina Galbó ) is forced to borrow her car to him so he can get to his meeting in time... but stuff happens and suddenly they're in deep shit far out in nowhereland... when the zombies attack! A grumpy old cop, played by a great Arthur Kennedy, is convinced that they young couple is behind all the mayhem, and uses all his power to stop them... not realising that the living dead is after his blood to!

The hype is true. After revisiting this movie after many, many years, I just have to agree with most other reviews out there. It's a great movie, slow and with a lot of atmosphere. It reminds me of older british horror, but with way more gore and blood, and some of the best zombies I've seen. They actually look like dead people! What makes this zombie-movie so good is the location, which a lot is filmed in the UK. 

It also is smart enough to build a tension. There's not much going on from the beginning, just character-work and setting the mood of the story. Then, after half of the movie there's cool zombies, bloody gore and some nice cozy frights. No, it's not mega-gory. But they stuff that are is great, and the effects are top-notch. 

The acting is overall very good, but Arthur Kennedy is most fun as a bitter policeman, filled with hate and violence. He's never happy once second, well maybe after arresting Ray Lovelock in a scene, and he's just so fucking stupid. He don't want to understand what's happening. He just want to arrest someone, go home and take a drink and then sleep and wake up to fuck someones life up again. Of course he get what he deserves! 

A little masterpiece.