Ten Minutes To Midnight - on her way to her radioshow, Amy, a discjockey is being bitten by a bat. During her show, where she learns that she is about to be replaced by a younger woman, she starts seeing things and she wonders whether they are real or not. Slowly but steadily she turns into a vampire, or are the others turning into vampires instead? Visions and reality mingle in this somewhat pedantic existentialist film about having to say goodbye to parts of your life. The cast is small but performances are OK, it's just that there was something about the lead actress which put me off, it somehow looked like there was something wrong with her face, not sure what exactly but it didn't sit well with me. The whole transforming persona thing also was a bit too weird for my taste. Running time is really short, it's only just over an hour, but that was actually a good thing. It will be added to the vampire section of my collection but I doubt I will ever watch this again.

That's Caroline Williams, right? She does look strange. First I thought she is a he. You can't be sure nowadays.

Female Prisoner #701 Scorpion - Japanese WIP and revengefilm from the 70s which I bought in a box with three parts, of which this is the first one. WIp, revenge and 70s always make me tick, let's see how the Japanese do it. In the opening scene Nami Matsushima (Matsu the Scorpion) escapes prison together with one other inmate. After a chase they get caught and locked up in solitary, where they are being mentally and also physically tortured. The warden and his guards are hellbent on breaking the spirit of Nami, but she grows stronger every time they punish her. There is blood flowing, there are many naked women parading around, sometimes for no apparent reason other than giving the guards an opportunity to see some T&A, there is some intrigue and you get to see the background story as to why Nami got in prison in the first place: a detective she had fallen in love with turned out to be in cahoots with the yakuza so she tried to kill him. Escaping from prison only serves the purpose of getting her revenge. I'm not very much into Asian women, but Meiko Kaji is a pretty one, and she has a view to kill. Acting is sometimes very exaggerated like you can see in many martial arts films, but it's not too much overall. I had fun watching this and it makes me curious about the other two. Recommended for fans of the genre.

Yup, it's her. Checking some pictures after reading what you posted I think it's the botox or whatever got injected into her face.

Francesca - a modern giallo by the Onetti brothers, filmed in 2015. I bought it because someone wrote in a review: "if someone told me this was made in 1978, I'd have believed him" and that reviewer is right. Everything in the film is made so you can travel back in time to the golden age of the giallo: the coins are from Republica Italia, the music is played on tape or cassette, the books read (actual giallos btw) are vintage, the cars are models which were around in the 70s, etc. The image and sound is also made to look and sound like the 70s and there is "authentic" dubbing where audio and video are just out of sync(nice touch). And to top all that, the default giallo ingredients are there too: a gloved killer, extreme closeups of body parts like eyes, a dramatic score and several red herrings. The killer might be the one you had guessed, at least it was one of my two options. I had fun watching this, as I'm a giallo fan. If you're not you're probably not gonna like it. The story is about a killer roaming the city to purge it from "sinners", dropping quotes from Dantes Divine Comedy at the body and coins on the eyes of the victim. The police is clueless, but one detective gets closer and closer... Recommended for giallo fans.

Lodgers - sometimes picking a movie to watch is kind of difficult because there are so many choices but this time I was sure I wanted to see Lodgers. The atmosphere and the setting are right up my alley: Ireland 1920, a lone mansion where a twin sister and brother live together after their parents have died. They live there together with the entity which gave the film its title. The twins have the day, the lodgers have the night, and as long as the twins live by the rules nothing will happen to them: don't let strangers into the house, don't leave each other alone and be in bed by midnight. This is as much horror as it's coming of age, as the boy tries to stick to the rules very strictly, the girl is experimenting on bending, maybe even breaking the rules. When a boy from the town falls in love with her, and they run out of money, this complicates things heavily. Acting is great, shots are beautiful: the mansion, the lake, the woods, I loved it. Not everything is explained like you don't have a brain and that is nice too. Recommended, especially if you like atmospheric horror movies.

Breeder - Danish film about a company which aims for rejuvenating people by treating them with DNA samples. Ruben, the woman who runs the company, gets told by Thomas, a financial consultant, that she has to stick to the rules, because her plans are crossing some legal lines. When Mia, Thomas' partner, tries to help a Russian woman who has escaped a kidnapping, she investigates the company. Upon entering the building she gets caught herself and is being put in some underground room which serves as a jailcell. She finds out she isn't alone and has to face some serious ill treatment while being captive in the facility. Will she ever get out? If you don't read up too much on this beforehand, the story will break into you a bit harder. This film is actually

Spoiler:

a revengefilm

but to reveal that will give away much of the plot, so hence the spoiler tags. Tension is palpable in this film and atmosphere is pretty bleak. Acting is well done, my only gripe is

Spoiler:

that the sadism of the guys wasn't really necessary for the story. I mean, in order to breed babies to use their dna doesn't necessitate torturing the women.

Film still impressed me though, well done. Recommended.

I've ripped that one, haven't watched it yet though. Priority's just been bumped up.

My guess is that you won't be disappointed!

The First Purge - part four in the Purge franchise, taking us back to its origins. The RFFP just took over power in the US and wants to see if a Purge would actually solve things, They spin it like an experiment but when Staten Island, the proving grounds, are locked off and the inhabitants just decide to not kill but party, they release a bunch of mercenaries to incite violence. The story follows Nya who has to deal with both her impulsive brother and her gangleader ex-boyfriend while violence explodes around them. Not so much horror as there aren't any supernatural beings around but there are lots of killings going on and gore is aplenty. Nya looked sweet and the story is quyite comprehensive but I missed something in it, it felt more like a documentary than a movie, let alone a horrormovie, Acting ios decent and although there are some really improbable actions going on it was enjoyable. If you like The Purge then you wil, like this one too, mIf you are new to the franchise don't start with this one.

Doctor Sleep - the Stephen King story which follows up on The Shining. I recently watched the extended version of The Shining, so I thought now was a good time to give this one a go. Running for 2,5 hours, this is not something you can watch as an inbetween activity, but I had the whole evening left so no problem there. The story first goes back to the Overlook Hotel and follows Danny driving his scooter through the long hallways of the hotel, stopping at room 327. The cast for the Torrance family was nicely done, they looked more or less like the cast from The Shining. After these opening scenes we follow Danny in his adult life, where he is trying to deal with his abilities and battling alcoholism. Upon arriving in a remote town, he befriends another former alcoholic and together they work and go to the AA meetings. In his apartment Danny has a blackboard wall and on this wall words are appearing. These words are sent by Abra, a young girl who has plenty of shining, but there is a group of strange people calling themselves The Knot, who prey on children like Abra to eat their shining in order to lengthen their own lives. Danny must try and save Abra before The Knot gets to her. I enjoyed this one very much, acting is great and it's especially good after you have watched The Shining, so if you haven't watched The Shining (you probably have if you are on this site, but anyway) you should do that first. The entire The Knot thing felt a bit strange and not so much in line with The Shining, it would have been better if the ghosts of Overlook would have taken that role, but they have a different task in this film, I loved the fact they returned to Overlook, not once but twice, great job. Recommended, but highly recommended to watch it after The Shining.

Brimstone and Treacle - the 1980s remake of the 70s TV film starring Sting as Martin Taylor, who invades the Bates household where daughter Patricia is bedridden and katatonic after an accident. Pretty boring film, a small cast in mostly one location and the plot evolves very slowly. It only gets interesting after more than half an hour when Mr Bates is having a nightmare and then it falls back into the boring state for another 15 minutes. The last half hour is the least boring, but it still didn't grab me and my interest was at an awful low. From what I gathered this movie is anout the dark side of humanity but there are many, many much better examples of that. Maybe this movie just had the bad luck of following up on Breeder and Doctor Sleep, but I'mnot sure if I would have liked it even if I would have watched it after Frenzy. Save yourself some 80 minutes and skip this film.

Biohazardous - aka Zombie of the Dead II. The aka title suggests that this is a sequel, but afaik there is no part one. I have the Japanese version which means that in the menu you have to gamble which button does what and after chapter one this disc rewinded back towards the beginning which was a tad annoying because now I had to guess which button was scene selection and skip to chapter 2 that way. This is a low budget zombie flick which succeeds in being just a tad better than the usual B grade stuff. The story is quite OK and reminded me of the gamestory of Half-Life. In a facility which has protesters outside everyday and a committee led by a priest hellbent on locking the facility down, there is some accident which turns the employees into zombies. Of course the CEO of the facility is a heartless a-hole who onky thinks about himself and the kids need to save the day. There is a mildly interesting subplot with one of the town's cops playing a double role, but overall it is not a very good film, my thoughts were drifting off regularly. There is some stuff which doesn't really make sense like the zombies being all covered in blood from the get go and the "gas" being visible but that's passable. I had some fun but I will probably never watch it again.

The Boy II: Brahms' Curse - the doll named Brahms returns to the big screen in this 2020 sequel to The Boy (2016). I don't remember much about watching that film, only that it was pretty good. Not very surprising since it has been seven years since I saw it. This sequel is about a family of three, where the mother (Katie Holmes, who is still a sweetheart even though she is getting older) gets hit on the head in a home invasion burglary. Her son Jude witnesses all this and afterwards he becomes mute. To try and solve his issues, the family moves into the countryside where they end up in a house very close to the mansion from part one. Of course Jade stumbles upon Brahms the doll, buried shallowly in the ground. And again, Brahms starts to influence,ives, this time mostly that of Jude. He comes up with the same list of rules and makes people who are hurting Jude (mentally or physically) regret their actions by hurting them back, sometimes pretty extremely. The ending of this film was a bit of a disappointment and while I enjoyed it (mostly because of Holmes) it wasn't as good as part one. So go see part one if you haven't and give this one a spin afterwards if you liked it.

Midnight Evil - a low budget production: it has Michael Berryman's name on the front cover and of the five pictures on the backside, two are of Berryman. He is in the film for about one minute and what he did could have been done by anyone. OK, the story: two girls have stolen a suitcase of money from some criminals who think someone else did it so they let him dig his own grave. The girls crash their car close to the old parental house of one of them, so they decide to hide there (even though in the opening sequence, the one with the minute with Berryman, you see there is some kind of threat in the house). When the criminals (who fought a bit amongst each other) reach the house, they demand the suitcase but instead they get into a fight with a demon, on one hand looking like a demon from hell (with goat horns) on the other hand being called Wendigo, a native American demon with antlers. Well, that's not the only mess in this movie as what is happening is pretty chaotic. Acting Is subpar and overall you don't really care if everyone dies.So is there anything good about this film? Yes, the goat demon looked really cool. But aside from that, a totally forgettable piece of moving wallpaper.

Boys From County Hell - Irish horror centered around a small village called Six Mile Hill. Nothing ever happens there and youth is trying to get away from it all. The local pub is called The Stoker, after the famous author Bram S who once visited the village and afterwards came up with Dracula. Did he by any chance get inspired by Six Miles Hill's local legend of Abhartach? This bloodsucking monster can't be killed and has to be put to rest in a grave with a pile of stones (a cairn) over it. When the cairn gets destroyed in order to construct a new road, the village gets to deal with some bloody deaths. What can the builders do to put it back to rest? Nice film in which I was superbly glad with the subtitles, otherwise I could not have followed what everyone said, the Irish English is too strange for me in that way. Acting is pretty good, the characters are believable even though the story is not. Enough gore to go around and some nice jokes, I enjoyed it, sImple but effective. Recommended.

The Da Vinci Virus - this film, originally made as "Cup of my Blood" probably took on the new name as The Da Vinci Code became a hugely popular book and the film was in the making, so they thought they could drift nicely upon that wave. Well, it's about the only good thought that was put into this film. Trying to be somewhat arty, this film didn't deliver in my opinion. The story is about JHack, a guy who lost his wife and now is a washed up artist who comes by by taking porn pictures for a mobster. By a seemingly coincidental accident where he almost gets run over, he receives a box which he is supposed to guard but never to open. The box contains the Holy Grail, and many mysterious characters are out to get it. So Jack is being stalked from then on and sometimes has to confront his enemies who can be sly or ruthless. There is some gore and omse sex but all is pretty much unbelievable. The ending sucked balls even though the writer tried to make the plot return to its origins, which was a nice attempt, Didn't save the film though, I'd say skip this.

Female Prisoner #701 Scorpion: Beast Stable - aka Joshuu sasori: Kemono-beya. The sequel to the WIP film I reviewed earlier. In this film, Scorpion is on the run for the police, and she ends up in a shabby neighbourhood ruled by the Yakuza. They force prostitutes to pay for their "protection", and several of them get into trouble: one of them because she has a mentally ill brother at home for whom she has to provide but doesn't pay for the "protection" and one because she is pregnant by a custmer and doesn't ant to give up the baby. Scorpion gets caught by the Yakuza in the process and when she is being put into a cage in the boss' house, a former jailmate recognizes her and this woman gets scared to death. After a while Scorpion escapes and the memners of the Yakuza meet their demise. In the meantime the police resumes the hunt for her. I did not enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed the first part, There is enough weird stuff going on like the woman who cares for her brother (she also takes care of him sexually and gets pregnant by him) and enough violence, like a guy who gets burnt by boiled water and some sliced faces of Yakuza members. But still I thought this was less entertaining than part one. I guess I missed the prison part, even though there was a small scene in the prison near the end. I hope part three is more like the first one again, but I'm not keeping my hopes up when I'm reading the description.

Achilles - Italian peplum actually called L'Ira di Achille and directed by Marino Girolami who would later give us Zombie Holocaust. A pretty long film, almost two hours and boy does it get repetitive! It follows the Iliad of Homer pretty nicely when it comes to the story, and so there are lots of fights with some dialogue in between. The fights are the parts where at first you will look amused because these scenes in an early 60s Italian movie aren't the most convincing, even though there are some mass movements by hundreds of men sometimes on foot sometimes on horseback. But when the 7th or 8th fight is starting you will get bored a bit because they all look the same. The story itself is great of course, but there are some parts which were shortened for the sake of the film and that made those parts very unbelievable, like the women who are taken slaves, the girl of Patroclos doesn't resent him but falls in love even though he ransacked her city and murdered many of her fellow townsmen. Historically there are also many mistakes, like the riding on horseback (they only started doing that much later in Greek history) and the use of the saddle and stirrup (something from the MIddle Ages) but this is of course no documentary. Most peplum films I have seen were rather dumb and had some laughable sfx. but this one is pretty OK in that regard. So if you have two hours to kill, sit back and relax and watch this film, no thinking required.

Krampus - the 2015 film by Michael Dougherty. I have seen several Krampus movies before and most of them were bad or very bad. This one is actually pretty good and although it's. Not really scary, it does the horror job and it also has some nice jokes, mostly in the beginning of the film. The opening sequence is a funny part on the Christmas madness in shopping and what follows is a series of jokes on awkward family business. It takes quie a while before the monster appears, and even then it's only in the distance during a snowstorm and thus you don't get to se it that well, a good thing in my book. When the family is besieged in the house by the  monster and it's minions, there were some scenes which reminded me a bit of Demonic Toys, but less ridiculous than in that film. There is a nice flashback in animation, the only thing which I seriously disliked was the ending, very disappointing. But as far as Christmas horror movies go, this is one of the more enjoyable ones.

You're Next - felt like a slasher today.

When I saw this movie for sale I bought it because of what chup wrote. It's a home invasion film with a twist, and it's very hard not to love Erin in this film. The setup is well done, it felt quite eerie in the beginning, when you know something that the characters in the film don't. Soon enough you know that stuff will go wrong but how it will play out is not as clear from the get go. The twists are nice and surprising, near the end I had these "aha" moments, suddenly understand stuff from the beginning of the film better. Very nice, loved it. The violence is brutal, the gore plenty, the drawback is that several of the characters are underdeveloped. For example, why is Zee such a special person? I would have loved to know more about her. Ti West is in this with a cameo/small role, nice touch. If you're up for some hack and slashwork, then pick this one, I really enjoyed this one! Recommended!