Reviews

This was easily the most anticipated film of my life, and I have to say I was not disappointed. After hearing scathing reviews from critics didn`t help things though. What an amazing film! How can you totally badmouth such cracking entertainment?!?! I have NEVER seen anything like that pod race, and when that can be upstaged in the same film by a three-way climax that this film had … wow … No bad performances among them, even Jar Jar, who everyone seems to hate: me & my friends thought he was great! Watto was also fantastic – scum of the highest order. As a matter of fact, there was not one character I disliked. I didn`t know the plot, having somehow avoided all talk about it until I saw the film, and it was well worth it for that ending… It`s Star Wars for a new generation, not to be compared with the original trilogy as so many special effects breakthroughs have happened since 1983. One small gripe though; not enough of the villains.. But besides that small criticism; see it, be totally amazed, then see it again !!!!!

Come on Wes… The first film was a horror milestone, this is merely a Friday 13th rip-off !!! Don`t get me wrong. I enjoy a good stalk & slash, but not from one of the finest directors in the horror genre.. The first film raised many interesting questions about the resorts average people must come to in order to exact revenge: This sequel concerns a bunch of the most 80`s people ever going to the same location for an odd reason, and just getting picked off by cannibal types. Loads of flashbacks to the first film, which I feel is lazy on the part of the director.. Even a flashback by a dog, which was the highlight of the film for me !! A few good little scenes, but if you`ve seen one stalk `n` slash, you`ve seen `em all ! Sorry Wes, but we know you can do better than this !

Obviously Craven had a bit more money to play with here; but what he`s basically done is transfer the basic plot of Last House On The Left & to the desert. I think that on the whole, it`s probably better executed than his earlier film. Again it concerns the way average citizens have to forget their values to exact revenge for previous wrongdoings – to reduce themselves to the level of their attackers. There is certain plausibility to it all; nothing is too over the top here. This is a courageous, at times brutal account of two very different groups of people coming into contact. Strong stuff indeed, but recommended to horror fans.

Another great Lucio Fulci offering !! Once again, we are subjected to rather odd dialogue & dubbing, but, hey, this is a Fulci film ! Cracking good fun all round, that is; if your idea of good fun is seeing people barf up intestines, have the backs of their heads torn off (it has to been seen to be believed), and of course, the old drill through the head joke. Gets `em every time !! Great special effects and a decidedly eerie atmosphere at times make this a hundred times better than any American zombie film. Fulci has got this genre down to a tee, and he`s showing us great form with this gem. A zombie fanatic must !!!

It took me ages to track this one down, thanks to the glorious BBFC banning the damn thing since 1984. I`ve seen a couple of versions of this, and the British video version seems to be the more complete. It is an experience; watching this film for the first time; and for all the graphic violence (much of it sexual), we are occasionally given comic relief, which seems almost unbelievably out of place.. You don`t really know how to take this film.. It is a raw piece of low-budget filmmaking, more than making up for it`s low production values by pushing the boundaries of taste as far as they can go. Amazing to watch this & then something like Vampire In Brooklyn back to back & try to comprehend the same director did both of them !!

I`d read the reviews, so I was prepared for shocking with a capital `S`. And that it was, the approach of the film seemed to be to offend as much as possible. The subject matter deals with; putting it plainly; sex with decaying corpses (made to look erotic, if you can imagine such a thing). It`s filmed in very much a documentary style, but then you get `Bad Taste` standard gross-out effects to remind you that this is still a low-budget movie you`re watching. Not a good nor bad film, and quite upsetting at times, but I sat through it ok, and if you have a similar strong stomach, then it might be worth a look. The closing scenes are some of the grossest you`ll ever see, though. (6 out of 10)

Another one of the titles that made our `Video Nasties` list for seemingly no good reason. This is three-quarters TV movie, and one-quarter slasher movie. It has some interesting ideas, but somehow, it never quite works. It`s good to see the female lead go quite mad at the end; which, if you can maintain interest until then; is worth the wait. Still can`t see how this gets banned & the likes of Braindead is passed uncut. Inconsistency somewhere… (5 out of 10)

Recommendations of this film came from a colleague who, when only 10 or so, rented what he thought was Superman 3, but when he got it home, it was this very film! He witnessed the horrific opening scene before it was swiftly turned off, but he has never shaken that image !! Now, I and my horror movie experience see what spooked him out so much. And it`s not a bad film at all ! Certainly one of the best so called `video nasties` I`ve seen. Some great gory Stan Winston effects (syringe in eye, acid through face, that kinda thing. The acting isn`t great (you were maybe expecting Kenneth Branagh?!) but it was certainly a lot of fun, with a neat little twist at the end. Recommended, but the gore could be a little graphic for some tastes. Not for mine, though !! (7 out of 10)

It`s all been done before, I know, but for some reason I love these summer-camp based slasher films. Some bunkum about a caretaker with a grudge against..well, everyone it seems, and he returns to the scene of his humiliation etc etc etc. We know the score, but it`s nice in a slasher film to see people who are actually doing something these days (if you disregard Jamie Lee Curtis & Kevin Bacon), George from Seinfeld is here, as is Holly Hunter. All the unsuspecting teens are bumped off in a variety of ways; Tom Savini`s makeup is very impressive with several rather graphic deaths (especially when our killer jumps out of a canoe at a group of people). If you love slasher films, and you don`t mind that you`ve seen it all before, (like me!) then this is one of the best of its subgenre. (7 out of 10)

Surely the best film Fulci has ever directed, involving several zombies on a Caribbean island. As with all Fulci films, the movie suffers from rather bad dubbing, but all Fulci films seem to have this problem, so it`s almost a hallmark for the director. The gore is graphic & over-the-top, but when you`ve seen a zombie deep in the ocean fighting with a shark, nothing is over the top. A few memorable scenes, (the eye scene has to be the highlight) but this is movie is all about escapism. If you can handle the explicit gore (and if you`re watching Fulci, you better had!) this is a definite `lads night in movie`. Just don`t try to find too many subtexts in it`s, ahem, plot. (7 out of 10)

I consider myself to have a fairly desensitised nature when it comes to violence in movies, but I was not prepared for Deodato`s film in the least. Cannibal Ferox was graphic, violent, and somehow a bit believable, but CH went well beyond this. The most uncomfortable time I`ve ever had watching a film. I kept saying to myself, well, it can`t get any worse than that scene, but it consistently did… So many images from the film that stick in the memory, be it the real animal cruelty to the equally real looking human indignities we see during the course of the film. The POV camerawork of the `documentary` really enhances the realism, particularly in those unforgettable final scenes. Whether Deodato was making a social comment about the difference between `civil` and `savage`, or whether this was merely an excuse to display such atrocities I do not know. One thing`s for sure, this is not the sort of movie I will forget in a hurry; and that can only be to the director`s credit. (8 out of 10)

After hearing the reputation of this film, you have to expect some crude, low budget exercise in gore & violence; and although the latter two attributes play a part, this is so much more than a mere slasher film. Hooper employs breakneck editing, so much so that the running time will fly by. Eerie sound effects (the music as the opening credits roll is particularly memorable), and images such as the gravedigger`s display with the sunrise as a backdrop, and the camera prowling around the bones in `the house` play their part as well. It`s not just technique though, the hitchhiker`s first interchange with the main characters is a triumph of tension. Don`t listen to the critics damning the explicit violence & gore. They must have been watching another film. This is an extremely well made & genuinely unsettling piece of work by a director who has never repeated this feat. Ignore the redundant sequels, this is the one to watch ! (9 out of 10)

Having bought this from my local vid shop`s ex rental sale, I think it's fair to say I knew what was in store after looking at the title... Routine slasher on hopelessly predictable lines, (I`d say more Halloween than, say, Friday 13th). Not even any big mystery over the killer... Our country`s version of this film is brutal with it`s cuts of the film`s violence (at one point, the killer seems to slow dance with a babe who then dies without reason), but doesn`t mind showing us ample sights of flesh (particularly in the most gratuitous shower scene ever), but it passed 70mins away, I guess..

You`ve seen the rest..make way for the best!! There`s not many films that can turn your stomach around in knots quite as much as Lenzi`s most memorable film. Horribly real special effects including poor old John Morghen`s trio of painful moments (surely a movie character has never suffered so much..) It`s the kind of film you know will have no great plot revelation, character developement etc, just a succession of ultra-gory moments, the next more gruesome & graphic than the last. A cracking night`s in!! (word to the wise: if you`re an animal, don`t go anywhere near the filming of a Lenzi film unless you have a genuine deathwish..)