A taxi driver stops for a stranded woman, not to help her but to murder her instead. Her fiancé just so happens to be a trained Secret Service agent who becomes obsessed with tracking down the man who carried out this atrocity. Violent, yes, but with a brilliant script, beautiful cinematography and great acting. There's …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 52- I Saw The Devil (2010)
Sadistic Yakuza enforcer Kakihara searches for his boss who has gone missing but during this crosses paths with Ichi, a literal psycho killer (to quote Talking Heads) who appears to be even more extreme. Ichi The Killer caused serious waves in its release here in the UK with the BBFC wanting substantial cuts before it …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 51- Ichi The Killer (2001)
‘A troubled and perverted family find their lives intruded by a mysterious stranger who seems to help find a balance in their disturbing natures.’ This Takashi Miike film was bound to be notorious, as it was directed by the same director who made Ichi the Killer and Audition. I was also looking forward to this …
Thank God for IMDB- ‘A strange man known only as the "metal fetishist", who seems to have an insane compulsion to stick scrap metal into his body, is hit and possibly killed by a Japanese "salaryman", out for a drive with his girlfriend. The salaryman then notices that he is being slowly overtaken by some …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 49- Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
In the Old West, a sheriff and his posse set out to rescue several townspeople from a cannibalistic tribe known as the troglodytes. It’s cowboys vs cannibals! Or The Searchers meets The Hills Have Eyes. I normally hate Westerns except when they involve gore, people eating each other and star none other than Kurt Russell. …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 48- Bone Tomahawk (2015)
The Devils takes place in 17th-century France. Father Urbain Grandier is trying to protect the city of Loudun from the evil Cardinal Richelieu but this is threatened by a sexually repressed nun's accusation of witchcraft. The Devils is bonkers filmmaking, and I mean that in the best possible way. It’s frenetic, frenzied and hits a …
American scientist Shane Brown, is with his wife on their honeymoon in Paris but seems more intent on locating his former colleague Léo Semenau and his wife Coré, who hold cannibalistic urges. Apparently this film had a budget of $3.8 million. But it looks like none of these were spent on the film’s opening credits …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 46- Trouble Every Day (2001)
On Christmas Eve, Marc, a singer and performer who plays at old people’s homes finds himself stranded when his van/mobile home breaks down. A creepy innkeeper, still dealing with his wife leaving him, comes to his rescue. Warning- this film is Belgian. They do horror and ‘weird’ very differently from everyone else. The problem I …
A woman with ESP is kept heavily sedated and is held against her will in an isolated commune. I had heard that this film was like marmite- some loved it, some hated it. Things didn’t bode well for it as it was consistently compared to a film I hate- Solaris (the original). But I actually …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 44- Beyond The Black Rainbow (2010)
Superman III had some seriously big boots to fill. Superman: The Movie had a huge budget for its time (a cool $55 million), talented writers (including Mario Puzo) and a cast to die for (Marlon Brando, anyone?) An unknown actor, Christopher Reeve, was cast as the Man of Steel, which was a considerable risk. The …
Continue reading Computers, Comedy and Camp- Making the Case for Superman III (1983)
