22.5.09

bloodrayne II: the deliverence (2008)

aka BloodRayne: Deliverance. BloodRayne: The Vampire Chronicles.
Rayne is back, this time in the wild west of the 19th Century, coming to the aid of the town Deliverance, which is plagued by vampires headed up by Billy the Kid. Who seems to be named so because he predates children.
Again an interesting premise and nice looking film that is spoiled by wooden direction, and a bad script with no real pacing. Another so-so film from Boll.

bloodrayne (2005)

Rayne is a dhampir (half-human, half-vampire), in 18th Century Rumania who is searching for her father. Unfortunately he raped her mother and later killed her in front of Rayne, and Rayne wants revenge. Her big problem is her father is Kagan, King of Vampires (Ben Kingsley).
A nice looking film with great special effects, but let down in pretty much every other department, especially the big named actors who seem to sleepwalk through their parts, and an all action heroine who doesn't seem to be able to convincingly hold a sword, never mind use it in a threatening manner. All in all a bit of a dud.

21.5.09

twins of evil (1971)

aka The Evil Twins. The Gemini Twins. The Virgin Vampires. Twins of Dracula.
Gustav Weil, (Peter Cushing) is the leader of a puritan sect in nineteenth century Europe, who think of no better entertainment on a night than to find and torture witches. But even they won't go up against Count Karnstein. Until that is when he takes a fancy to Weil's twin nieces.
The third in Hammer’s Karnstein Trilogy, after The Vampire Lovers and Lust for a Vampire. This has all the elements that a Gothic horror needs, mad zealots, satanic aristocrats, and beautiful innocents ripe for corrupting. What's not to like? If you are looking for some gothic Hammer entertainment, then this should suffice. It's never going to win any awards, but then it wasn't meant to. It was made to entertain for 90 minutes, which it succeeds in doing.

20.5.09

dr phibes rises again (1972)

Dr. Phibes is awakened three years after his last outing, with the idea of finding the River of Life in Egypt, which flows only once every 2000 years. He hopes the waters will revive him and re-animate his dead wife. Unfortunately he finds his house has been destroyed and the map he needs is missing. But Vulnavia again helps him as he finds the culprit and the papyrus, then leaves for Egypt with Inspector Trout hot on his heels.
This sequel continues in the same light hearted way as the original and whilst it follows a similar formula, and similarly ingenius murders, it can't quite hold up against the first film. Nevertheless its still an entertaining and humerous horror and worth 90 minutes of your time, especially if you enjoyed the first one.

19.5.09

the abominable dr phibes (1971)

aka The Curse of Dr. Phibes.
Doctors and surgeons are being murdered in interesting ways, based on the curse of the pharaohs
. Various representations of the ten Biblical plagues. Detectives are initially puzzled, but soon figure out that they are all linked to an unsuccessful operation on the wife of the dead Dr. Phibes.
An entertaining and beautifully realised horror, set in the 1920's. The art direction makes the most of the art deco excess of the period and the tongue in cheek style perfectly fits with Vincent Price's over the top acting style. Camp and humourous entertainment.

30 is a dangerous age cynthia (1968)

Rupert Street (Dudley Moore) is a piano player and composer, who decides to write a musical and marry before he reaches his thirtieth birthday. The only problem, he'll be 30 in six weeks. Then he meets his next door neighbour Cynthia (Suzy Kendall).
Throughout this film comic and musical interludes constantly impose themselves onto the most basic of plots, and are used to show Dudley's musical and comic versatility. It also serves to highlight the beauty of Suzy Kendall. A lightweight but entertaining piece of fluff that provides a great feeling for the period and swinging London.

18.5.09

gog (1954)

A top secret government laboratory is experiencing lots of mysterious and unexplainable accidents. An agent from the Office of Scientific Investigation is called in to investigate the deaths and whether deliberate sabotage of NOVAC, a mainframe computer which controls all equipment in the underground facility is taking place.
Post war paranoid angst rules in this film that throws nuclear power, computers, Russian sabotage and robots running amok into the mix. An interesting curio from the period of commie terror, all rendered in 3-D!