Yep, me too! I didn't expect it to be such a little gem of a slasher film! It's going on my favorites list, for sure. And yes, Susan was brilliant in the film. I thought she carried the entire movie with her performance. I loved her towards the ending! :)

Definitely!

These are some of the commercials the late great Vincent Price appeared in-

Nestle's Souptime
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9Kkg1A6hcA


Time-Life Books
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvS1xOhnn1k


Polaroid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTwKortN5iE&NR=1


Tilex
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9Gv4l6CGPY&feature=related


Sun Country Wine Coolers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVMXkj9DvMk&feature=related


Milton Bradley Hangman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHlAKfTvqaE&NR=1

Nice! But I'm a bit biased. Haha.

Just finished watching:

Terror in the Aisles



Donald Pleasance (Halloween I & II) and Nancy Allen (Dressed to Kill, Carrie) take us through some of Hollywood's most terrifying moments in horror history in this documentary-type movie, which features several of the finest horror, sci-fi, and crime drama films of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Included are 'Night of the Living Dead', 'Psycho', 'Jaws', 'Halloween I & II', and 'The Fog', as well as countless others. Be ready to be scared!

I like Terror In The Aisles, as a kid this was one of the ways to learn about horror and thrillers I wasn't aware of. They used to air it a lot on TV back in the 80's, the TV version had different clips than the theatrical version.

We didn't have that and saw it for the first time today. It was rather nice to be reminded of some films that I would like to watch again as well as be given a sneak peek of those that I haven't seen. I hope they would do something of the sort again these days. It's actually a good concept.

Just finished watching and recommend:

Pieces (1982)



While playing with a puzzle, a teenager is repressed by his mother, and he kills her and severs her body with an ax. Forty years later, in an university campus in Boston, a serial killer kills young women and severs their bodies in parts, stealing body pieces from each student. Lt. Bracken makes a deal with the dean of the campus, and infiltrates the agent Mary Riggs as if she were a tennis teacher and together with the student Kendall, they try to find the identity of the killer.

Just finished watching:

The Hunger (1983)



The Egyptian vampire lady Miriam subsists upon the blood of her lovers. In return the guys or girls don't age... until Miriam has enough of them. Unfortunately that's currently the case with John, so his life expectancy is below 24 hours. Desperately he seeks help from the famous Dr. Sarah Roberts. She doesn't really belive his story, but becomes curious and contacts Miriam ... and gets caught in her ban, too.

I think you already know how much I love Pieces. The Special Edition 2 disc set comes with the option to watch the English dubbed version- now this is crazy, but usually the original subtitled version is better than dubbed, but not in the case of Pieces, the English dubbing is better, the dialogue is funny, and the music score is even different. In the original language subtitled version they try to be more serious which just doesn't quite work for this film, and the music definitely sets a different tone, it's more classical.

The closest I've seen to new compilation movies are the 42nd Street Forever series, these are a collection of grindhouse/exploitation trailers. I guess with the Internet and Youtube it's easier for people to access horror clips.

Recently watched:

Amer



The Observer:

The lurid Italian horror movies of the 1970s were called giallo (yellow) after the colour of the covers in which the original books appeared in the 1930s, and this Franco-Belgian homage to them invites, indeed compels, the viewer's participation. It unfolds in three chapters over some 30 years at a grand mansion on a cliff overlooking the Côte d'Azur. In the first part, the young Ana is terrified by the family's witch-like housekeeper, is fascinated by the corpse of her grandfather (from whose deathly clutches she wrenches a watch) and sees her parents having sex.

In the second chapter, the adolescent Ana leaves the house to accompany her sexually competitive mother to the hairdresser and is drawn, to her mother's horror, towards a motorcycle gang. In the final, most compelling episode, the grown-up Ana returns to the empty, decaying house where her sexual fantasies merge with reality in a violent, bloody, ambiguous conclusion.

This is basic movie Freud, elegantly mounted. The soundtrack (footsteps, dripping taps, creaking doors, banging shutters) is ominously exaggerated. The close-ups are extreme. Colours change melodramatically to fit the shifting moods. The music is borrowed from old horror films. The dialogue is at first sparse, then non-existent. Luis Buñuel (sliced eyeballs, insects crawling out of bodies), Mario Bava and Dario Argento are affectionately alluded to. Viewers are left to create their own narratives or absorb the events into their own dreams and nightmares. This is art-house horror, a pure cinema for connoisseurs, a return to late-19th-century decadence.

Of Unknown Origin (1983)



Bloody Good Horror:
Quick question: Who wouldn't want to watch iconic actor/college professor/jazz musician Peter Weller valiantly battle a destructive, malicious New York City rat for nearly an hour-and-a-half? It's a tough temptation to resist, especially if you have an overwhelming hatred of prehensile-tailed vermin and a special place in your heart for "Robocop" and/or "Naked Lunch." Did I mention that the film in question is also the big screen debut of the undisputed queen of the erotic thriller, Shannon Tweed? This B-grade cinematic equation keeps getting tastier by the minute. How I ever lived without it is beyond me.

Helmed by "Cobra" director George P. Cosmatos, the quirky 1983 thriller "Of Unknown Origins" pits a mild-mannered, corporate ladder-climbing executive (Weller) against an intelligent, chew-happy rat within the cozy confines of the man's swank New York City townhouse. The concept is pure schlock, filtered through a major Hollywood studio and powered by solid director and a handful of strong performances. Had this beast been tackled by someone of Roger Corman's dodgy caliber, I strongly suspect the end result would have been completely different. Amazing what solid production values can accomplish.

Specifically, the film follows the exploits of Bart Hughes, an upwardly mobile professional who is literally on the cusp of bigger and brighter things deep within the inky black bowels of the corporate jungle. While his wife and son are off visiting her well-to-do parents, Bart spends most of his free time contemplating the finer points of his assignment, though his concentration is soon shattered by the sudden, unexplained appearance of several destroyed items around his home. The culprit, of course, is the legendary New York City rat, a particularly nasty beast whose only apparent purpose is to make Bart’s life a living Hell.

As the days wear on, Bart discovers that more and more of his possessions -- ranging from food to magazines to fluffy feather pillows -- are being ravaged by this unsightly creature, forcing our hero to place traps of varying degrees of deadliness all around the townhouse. The rat, who is always seen observing Bart from a distance, is well aware of what his adversary is up to, and manages to sneak the bait off the trap without causing the mechanism to activate. Eventually our hero, driven purely by obsession, takes his version of pest control to brink of lunacy, culminating in an epic, no-holds-barred showdown between man and nature.



Despite the presence of other characters, “Of Unknown Origin” is essentially a one-man show. While other actors and actresses pop in and out of the picture from time to time, Peter Weller is the guy with nearly all of the important screen time. Which is fine, really, since he’s one of the major reasons I decided to give this moderately-budgeted creature feature a spin in the first place. Watching him lock horns with this pint-sized terror is never dull, and because the film clocks in at just under 90 minutes, the concept never wears out its welcome. Cosmatos keeps the film evenly paced, allowing the vermin’s reign of terror to escalate naturally. Nothing ever feels rush or forced, even when Bart’s fragile stability begins to completely shatter. The climax, meanwhile, falters a bit; after all of that calculated terror, I would have appreciated a bloodier former of vindication.

Truthfully, the secret to the picture's overall success isn't Peter Weller's inhuman screams or Shannon Tweed's shower scene or rat guts stuck to spiky baseball bats -- it's Cosmastos' ability to make this pint-sized monster seem like a larger than life threat, a full-blown menace. What's more, the bastard is incredibly smart, and is always at least two steps ahead of his human prey for nearly the entire film. Anyone who's had to address a pest problem, be it big or small, can attest to the constant irritation and frustration associated with this sort of problem. "Of Unknown Origin" does an excellent job of capturing that sensation of overwhelming helplessness in an eerie and engaging fashion. A seriocomic classic.

Blooded



In October 2005, five young people were kidnapped in the Highlands of Scotland. Stripped and abandoned in the the wilderness, they were forced into a deadly game where the hunters became the hunted. Their ordeal was filmed by an extreme animal rights group as a warning to others: if you hunt... you're fair game. Combining dramatic reconstruction and compelling interviews with the survivors, BLOODED finally tells the full story behind one of the most extreme internet virals of modern times.

Regrettably watched:

Fading of the Cries



Jacob, a young man armed with a deadly sword, saves Sarah, a teenage girl, from Mathias, a malevolent...

After watching a few minutes of this movie, I wanted to cry. I would never get back the minutes I spent watching this piece of crap movie. This would make Penny Dreadful look like a horror icon movie classic. Except for Brad Dourif, there is nothing worth mentioning about this film. I hate to think that his family was held hostage or something worse, because those are the only reasons that I could think of to make one consider being a part of this garbage.

The two lead characters, who was obviously fashioned with Twilight in mind, were the worst actors I have seen in a long time. Jacob looks like he's having an identity crisis with his Neo(The Matix)-Van Helsing-samurai-Edward(Twilight)-Michael Bolton ensemble. Sarah, on the other hand, is one spoiled whiny brat who is not even cute enough to make you consider forgiving her for her shallowness.

I was lured by the promise of seeing zombies, but they were not even the type pf zombies I've come to love and want to see. They look like their faces were copied from The Birds and the extras who played the zombies looked like they didn't know what they were doing half the time. All in all, if you hate someone just bad enough, make sure you get them a copy of this for their birthday.

Recently watched:

Tenement



A South Bronx gang rape and kill the residents of an isolated tenement. The tables turn and the surviving residents viciously despatch the gang. There is a gruesome scene depicting the repeated stabbing of the leader with a TV aerial followed by a lightning strike for good measure.

Did they look like birds? I'm getting flashes of the chicken zombies from Poultrygeist.

Haha. That would have been fun, but to answer your question...



That was the only zombie pic of the movie I could find. That shot was taken during the morning so the blood doesn't look black, which makes them look more like the kids on The Birds.

Hahaha they do look like they're from The Birds.

Recently watched:

The Majorettes



A hooded psycho killer is going around killing the members of a high school cheerleading squad in a small western Pennsylvania town. While the local sheriff and a federal officer investigate the killings, other going ons around them include a greedy nurse ploting to kill her employer and daughter for a piece of an inherentence while the nurse's creepy son stumbles upon a clue in the killings. Among the various other red herrings include a local biker gang that's suspected in the killings which complicates matters for the police and all the persons involved.