Topic: Jimmy's - 2012 Ooctober Horror Marathon

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Salem's Lot (1979)

Genre: Horror
Director: Tobe Hooper
Rating: 14+
Length: 3h03
Video: Full Frame
Audio: English
Subtitles: English and French

Stars:
David Soul
James Mason
Lance Kerwin
Bonnie Bedelia
Lew Ayres   

Plot:
Sinister events bring together a writer (David Soul) fascinated with an old hilltop house, a suave antiques dealer (James Mason) whose expertise goes beyond bric-a-brac and the dealer’s mysterious. Pale-skinned "partner" (Reggie Nalder). The solid supporting cast of vampire victims and fighters includes Bonnie Bedelia, Lew Ayres, Elisha Cook, Ed Flanders, George Dzundza, Lance Kerwin, Geoffrey Lewis and Marie Windsor. It’s hard to keep the undead down. And so easy to be scared in Salem’s Lot.

My Thoughts:

Pretty much everyone here know that I'm really critical with the Stephen King's film adaptation, to be honest except for Christine, The Tommyknockers and Pet Cemetary they aren't good adaptation. This one without being perfect (sorry Pete...) isn't too bad. My problem is always the same : I can't seperate a book from a film... The first half of the film (or TV mini-serie to be exact) follow the book and I appreciate it, but... the last part is just too rushed. An important character (Jimmy Cody) is ignored, the Father Callahan is treated like a non-entity (he is a crucial character in the book), important scene are ignore (by exemple when Barlow is forced to kill Straker wich is the reason why he hate Mears that much) and the end is an huge fail.

But if I forgot the book I must say it was an ok film but the TV vibes is too present in it.


 
Rating :

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: A Return to Salem's Lot (1987)

Genre: Horror
Director: Larry Cohen
Rating: R
Length: 1h40
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English
Subtitles: None

Stars:
Michael Moriarty
Ricky Addison Reed
Samuel Fuller
Andrew Duggan
Evelyn Keyes

Plot:
In a certain New England town, it's hard to keep the undead down. It's shocking story continues courtesy of Larry Cohen, a maestro of cinematic horror (the It's Alive trilogy) and writer of police-action thrillers (Best Seller, Maniac Cop), tapping into his senses of the macabre as well as satire in a clever chiller based on characters created by Stephen King. Joining in to bedevil and terrify are Michael Moriarty as an anthropologist asked to write a "bible" for the town's ghastly group, Andrew Duggan as the leader of the townfolk (including June Havoc and Evelyn Keyes) who hide their blood-feasting bent behind sweet exteriors and filmmaker Samuel Fuller in a rare on-screen role as a vampire hunter. For mortals who occasionally like to go to the devil – and come back – A Return to Salem's Lot is one terrific terror trip.

My Thoughts:

A lot of people don't like this movie and I can understand why as it isn't really a Salem's Lot sequel. But really who care? Certainly not me as I had a good time watching it. Of course I love Larry Cohen as a director and I like Moriarty since the first time I saw him in Holocaust when I was younger. Sure the story sounds silly and it is, but when Fuller appear the film start the vampire killing mode and the fun begin.

This one cost me a lot (more than 20$) but it worths every single penny of that price. BTW this is the first movie of Tara Reid.


 
Rating :

Yeah, I found it better than Salem's Lot so sue me

[addicted2dvd]

I guess that is where I am lucky on Stephen King films... since I never read any of his books... I can't compare them. 

I wish I had the DVD of Return to Salem's Lot... I only have an old recording of it. Hopefully one of these days I will get my hands on it... but like you said it is a bit expensive... especially for just a single movie.

[samuelrichardscott]

Do you like Misery Jimmy? Kathy Bates is beyond awesome in that...

[Kathy]

Return to Salem's Lot can be bought for $9.95 here: http://www.wbshop.com/product/return+to+salems+lot+a+1000089176.do?ref=CAFRGL&CAWELAID=1030023305&gclid=CKCBvsuy7LICFQqk4AodDWkA2Q

[addicted2dvd]

Thanks Kathy... but I can't be buying anything more this month. Especially if I want to get my laptop fixed/new laptop!

[Jimmy]

Do you like Misery Jimmy?

Find it ok, but this isn't one of my favorite King's book. In the same genre I prefer Gerald's Game and Dolores Claiborne (I didn't like the film).

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Twins of Evil (1971)

Genre: Horror
Director: John Hough
Rating: NR
Length: 1h27
Video: Widescreen  1.66:1
Audio: English
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Peter Cushing
Madeleine Collinson
Mary Collinson
Damien Thomas
David Warbeck   

Plot:
Two beautiful orphaned identical twins, Maria and Frieda Gellhorn (Playboy centerfold models Mary and Madeleine Collinson), move to the village of Karnstein to live with their uncle Gustav Weil (played by Hammer horror favorite, Peter Cushing), a fanatical puritan and leader of the local witch-hunting "Brotherhood." The village Count (Damien Thomas, Never Let Me Go), an evil man who secretly practices Satanism, uses black magic and transforms into a vampire. Unhappy with her new life, Frieda seeks escape and tragically falls under the spell of the Count. Now overcome with an insatiable hunger for human blood, Frieda has to hide her secret from her sister, and escape her uncle's killing grasp!

My Thoughts:

This is an Hammer production so you know it will be a period piece and a well done one. At least visually it is, because their seventies productions always lack something in comparaison with their contemporaries. Sure the visual was always awesome, the story well done and the acting a notch above their rivals... but it was all tease with no real reward. But don't get me wrong as I like their films, really nothing beat the atmosphere of them and Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee precense is always welcome in a film. I just feel they could have done more with the material, Carmilla is a great story and they didn't do it well (just watch Vicente Aranda's The Blood Spattered Bride for a good adaptation).

But it certainly worth a watch.   


 
Rating :

[Dragonfire]

I think I may have seen some of Frogs on tv at one point.  Whatever it was, I thought it was stupid and I didn't keep watching.

[Jimmy]

Usually this is what I would have done, but I did an effort for the marathon

[Dragonfire]

Oh I understand.  I have done that many times before so I could get a review out of it for Epinions.   

I sat through Date Night, Epic Movie, and Norbit even after hearing how horrid they were.  I even got encouraged to watch Vampires Suck..gee...who did that to me again? 

[Jimmy]

I even got encouraged to watch Vampires Suck..gee...who did that to me again? 

It wasn't that bad
At least better than Epic Movie and Disaster Movie

[Dragonfire]

It wasn't that bad
At least better than Epic Movie and Disaster Movie

Well, that is true.  It's far from great, but it is leagues better than those two.

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: The Day After Halloween (1979)

Genre: Horror
Director: Simon Wincer
Rating: R
Length: 1h32
Video: Widescreen 2.35:1
Audio: English
Subtitles: None

Stars:
Chantal Contouri
Robert Bruning
Sigrid Thornton
Hugh Keays-Byrne
Denise Drysdale   

Plot:
Angela (Sigrid Thornton, THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER) is a young hairdresser thrown out of home by her puritantical mother after too many nights out. She quickly falls in with the modeling crowd and does some modeling work herself, while it seems she is being stalked by a mysterious figure driving an ice-cream van! Also known as SNAPSHOT, and directed by award winning director Simon Wincer (LONESOME DOVE, FREE WILLY), now see this Ozploitation film in its original scope format – first time anywhere in the world!

My Thoughts:

They got me
I just watch a thriller who was marketed as an horror film but is in fact a soap opera... Guess that could happen to everybody, but I should have known when I read in the synopsis that this guy did Free Willy (seen that at the drive-in... a chance I wasn't there to watch a film in the first place). So for 1h10 we see a girl (Sigrid Thornton who is kind of cute) experiencing the fashion world and some action happen in the last 10 minutes...

Yeah that was sure boring to watch... I'm sure the commentary with Anthony Ginnane will be interesting to listen but that film is sure not my kind of cinema.


 
Rating :

[Dragonfire]

Never heard of that one.