DVD: The Keeping Room (2014) Two adult sisters (Brit Marling and Hailee Steinfield) and their (ex) slave (Muna Otaru) try to survive in an almost post-apocalyptic barren landscape during the American Civil war. I suppose one could call this a ‘revisionist western’, one that would hold hands with Meek’s Cutoff, The Beguiled and Cold Mountain. However, […]
Blu-ray: The Burning (1981) Released a year after Friday the 13th and continuing the ongoing trend of ‘slasher’ movies that would become part of the zeitgeist of the 1980’s, The Burning tells the story of ‘Cropsy’ (played by Lou David) who stabs, slices and chops his way through a succession of teenage campers…after first honing his skills on […]
DVD: Prince Regent (1979) Prince Regent from 1979 tells the story of George IV of Britain. In brief; George was the eldest son of George III and Queen Charlotte. The Hanoverian kings were notorious for having bad relations with their heirs, and George III and his son were no exception. George’s extravagant, and dissolute lifestyle caused his […]
DVD: The Legend of King Arthur (1979) Written by the BBC’s ‘go to’ history scribe Andrew Davies, and starring Emmerdale’s Andrew Burt as King Arthur, this series was shown on BBC1 in 1979. I (surprisingly) have no memory of it. It tells the iconic story of Arthur, how his mother was taken by Uther Pendragon […]
DVD: Reptilicus (1961) In all my years of movie watching, I’ve never watched a low budget, 1960’s Danish monster movie…until now. Thank you Fabulous Films. Directed by Sidney W. Pink, Reptilicus ticks all the check points in things that I love in these low budget movies, plus adds extra layers on top too. When copper miners […]
DVD: Bella Mafia (1997) Sicilian Mafiosi Don Luciano (Dennis Farina) and his wife Graziella (Vanessa Redgrave) live in Sicily. Their son Michael (Michael Hayden) has an affair with Sophia (Nastassja Kinski), leaving her pregnant but unmarried. After Luciano refuses to traffic drugs, American mob boss Carolla (Tony Lo Bianco) has Michael killed. Based on Lynda […]
Blu-ray: Burnt Offerings (1976) College lecturer Ben Rolf (the irrepressible Oliver Reed), his wife Marian (Karen Black) and their son David (Lee Montgomery) rent a sprawling mansion for the summer at a very cheap price. Accompanied by Aunt Elizabeth (Bette Davis) they discover that the bargain they thought they had acquired is slowly turning into […]
DVD: The Time Travelers (1964) Continuing my current run of reviewing sci-fi releases from Fabulous Films, next up is 1964’s The Time Travelers directed by Ib Melchior. Set in the year that it was made (1964), a group of 4 scientists are working on creating a screen that will allow them to see into the future. Things […]
DVD: The Beast With A Million Eyes (1955) A huge carnivorous beast with one million eyes, a city in terror with the population fighting for their lives, an intergalactic spaceship that rivals anything in Independence Day, those are just a few of the things you WON’T see in Roger Corman’s 1955 zero budget sci-fi movie The Beast […]
DVD: The Man From Planet X (1951) I love 1950’s sci-fi movies (along with 1930’s horror movies, 1970’s cop movies and 1980’s action movies) and it was with some surprise to discover that I had never watched The Man From Planet X before now. What better way though to watch it for the first time than with Fabulous […]