4 posts categorized "B-Movie"

October 20, 2024

LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT — SHOCKTOBER!

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Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Punk heart still beating.

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ColeSmithey.comWes Craven's debut film is everything wrong with exploitation cinema. Mean spirited to its core, this film's overriding theme seems to be that society is broken up into three categories: killers, victims, and witnesses.

Amateur filmmaker Craven switches tone between horrific sexual abuse, lighthearted comedy, and hippie crushing thriller.

Schlock.

Just ugly.

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Actor David Hess's folk guitar songs point in a dead-end direction. Hess takes a piss at Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven" with a too often repeated song that states, "And the road leads to nowhere."

I suppose it is fitting for such a piece of shit movie.

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David Hess plays Krug, a cigar-chomping killer living out his perverted obsessions on two hippie girls that Krug and his "family" kidnap to torture. 

Wes Craven reworks Ingmar Bergman's significant "Virgin Spring" into something cruel and disgusting.

The specter of the Viet Nam War only hangs over the movie with the thinnest of threads.

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The sexual abuse and murder scenes are treated without regard to any meaningful subtext. This is a movie without a soul.

There is no social commentary to be found. This is exploitation for exploitation sake.

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Gene Siskel put it succinctly in his review of the movie.

"My objection to The Last House on the Left is not an objection to the graphic representations of violence per se, but to the fact that the movie celebrates violent acts, particularly adult male abuse of young women ... I felt a professional obligation to stick around to see if there was any socially redeeming value in the remainder of the movie and found none."

Rated R. 84 mins.

Zero StarsZERO STARS

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October 05, 2024

MALEVOLENT — SHOCKTOBER!

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Welcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Punk heart still beating.

ColeSmithey.comGet cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

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ColeSmithey.comIcelandic director Olaf de Fleur Johannesson takes too long in getting around to the point in a slasher film single-handedly carried by Florence Pugh's sturdy performance.

Angela (Florence Pugh) and her brother Jackson (Ben lloyd-Hughes) are an American brother/sister ghost-expelling team who take their game to Scotland where they plan to run one last scam.

Angela, Jackson, and their teammates Elliot (Scott Chambers) and Beth (Georgina Bevan), bite off more than they can chew when they take on Mrs. Green (Clia Imrie) as a client.

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Angela ignores a ton of red flags to interact with the ghosts of children found murdered with their mouths sewn shut 15 years ago.

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Olaf de Fleur Johannesson ramps up the tension but plotholes let out most of the steam.

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"Malevolent" is based on the novel "Hush" by Konstantopoulos, although you'd never guess that this lightweight ghost story/slasher pic was based on novelistic source material.

TV-MA. 89 mins.

2 Stars

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October 02, 2024

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL — SHOCKTOBER!

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Welcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Punk heart still beating.

ColeSmithey.comGet cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

ColeSmithey.com

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ColeSmithey.comWilliam Castle's 1959 B-Movie horror classic retains its goofy charm with a litany of gimmicky sight gags that, however tame by today's standards, keep their childish appeal.

The popular set-up trope for this tale of murder involves five specifically chosen people to attempt winning $10,000 for each one that can withstand an entire night in Vincent Price's "haunted" house.

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Wealthy Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) in unhappily married to Carol Ohmart's Annabelle. The couple hate each other so much that either one could kill the other.

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So it goes that Frederick supplies each "party" guest with a loaded gun, presented in cute little coffin cases.

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Vincent Price does his all-knowing wink to the audience as he glides through the action with marvelous aplomb.

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"House On Haunted Hill" is a kid-friendly horror movie that tickles as much as it surprises.

Of special importance to the film is it's use of the historic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Ennis House in Los Feliz California.

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William Castle ("King of the Gimmicks") revels in the story's silliness. It's all an excuse to get the audience to scream along with the actors.

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If you want silly fun for your Halloween popcorn-eating enjoyment, "House on Haunted Hill" is a safe bet.

Not Rated. 75 mins.

4 Stars

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