22.7.11

blood tide (1982)


aka Bloodtide. Demon Island.
"You have seen your death Mr. Frye."
Neil (Martin Kove) and his wife Sherry (Mary Louise Weller) are cruising the Greek islands looking for his sister Madeline (Deborah Shelton), who went missing some months previously. They find her on a remote island, along with a dodgy treasure hunter Frye (James Earl Jones), just in time for Frye to awaken an ancient and cranky sea beast, and it wastes no time in eating as many of the islanders as it can get its claws on. But how do they stop it?
The bizarre thing about this film is that I got to the end of it, as its an extremely run of the mill thriller, with no thrills.

needful things (1993)


"You're drenched to your soul."
Here we go again, another day, another Stephen King adaption. This one sees a small town getting a new shop on the high street, one that sells your most desired object, but at a price!
A twist on the Faustian pact story, with Max von Sydow sowing seeds of discontent and disharmony as he goes. And although Sydow holds your attenton as the films centre, this comes across as as lesser TV movie.

20.7.11

eye of the devil (1966)


aka 13.
"I thought it was the most frighening place, almost like you were back in the middle ages."
A French winemaker (David Niven) is under pressure due to a series of disasterous harvests. His family start to worry about him, especially when they find him employing pagan rituals in a desperate attempt to save the crops, pressured into it by the local witch (Sharon Tate).
A star studded cast, including Deborah Kerr, David Hemmings, Donald Pleasence and Flora Robson, cannot make up for an uneven, and only mildly chilling horror. Best remembered as a precursor to The Wicker Man - using essentially the same central plot device.

we are what we are (2010)


aka Somos lo que hay.
"Why did you make me like this?"
A family have to learn to fend for themselves and put food on the table when their father dies suddenly. A task made more difficult when you consider that this family are cannibals.
With no backstory or exposition, we are thrown straight into the deep end with this drama, as the family slowly falls apart, and it slowly dawns on us that this is not a normal family. You also realise that this is more of a drama with touches of horror than a true horror film, but its slight plot manages to keep you watching all the same.