Sunday, 30 January 2011
Crazed Kelp Monsters
I love 'The Lost Continent', even though it's incredibly silly, perhaps because it's incredibly silly. Cobbled together from one of Dennis Wheatley's less coherent works, it's a rip roaring adventure with several unpleasant deaths, some over-inflated balloons and a load of stranded latter day Conquistadors.
Saturday, 29 January 2011
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Ice and Darkness
'The Damned' may be the most cerebral film Hammer ever made. It's certainly the best film ever made in Weymouth. It has it all: cold war, a government conspiracy, an underground facility, radioactivity, creepy kids, eerie sculptures, leather boys, pointy bras and Oliver Reed.
Once seen, never forgotten. Seriously.
Saturday, 22 January 2011
Rated X
Cannily designed to exploit the 'Quatermass' market, 'X: The Unknown' lacks the originality and startling ideas of Nigel Kneale's work, but spins the idea of alien invasion to feature a radioactive monster that lives within the Earth rather than beyond it.
It's rather good.
Sunday, 16 January 2011
Brave Captain
Under happier circumstances, 'Captain Kronos' could have been a new start for Hammer. Created by Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell (who had both brought 'The Avengers' to the screen), the duo had plans for any number of sequels starring the enigmatic, swashbuckling enemy of darkness. Sadly, the film flopped, the plans were shelved and Hammer continued their slow, fatal decline.
They'll probably remake it soon, starring Nicolas Cage and his acrylic hair.
Saturday, 15 January 2011
Sunday, 9 January 2011
A Mind So Evil
'Crucible of Terror' is a curious film that, unfortunately, hinges on the acting talent of Radio 1 DJ turned thespian, Mike Raven.
Raven, who makes crappy old Christopher Lee look like Sir John Gielgud, lurches from scene to scene throwing elaborate gestures not seen on screen since Tod Slaughter hung up his top hat, all the while emoting unconvincingly in a booming, hollow sounding voice.
It's one of the most pathetic performances in film history, and I've seen that Bond film where Denise Richards is supposed to be a nuclear physicist.
Saturday, 8 January 2011
Your Blood Will Run Cold
The last in Hammer's long-running 'Frankenstein' series (the first was in 1957), 'FATMFH' (as no-one calls it) upped the gore ante considerably but, ultimately, is a pretty dull affair, despite Peter Cushing's bouffant and Dave Prowse under all the hair and rubber as the unhappy tititular MFH.
Plans to launch pretty boy Shane Briant as a major screen star were thwarted by him being rubbish. He now lives in Australia.
Saturday, 1 January 2011
Welcome To The Island
There'll be sci fi, and public information films, cinema and TV, maybe even the odd bit of sleaze or music. There will also be blood and tits, so please click away now if you are offended by that sort of thing.
No strict time constraints on the content, but don't expect to see too much on here that dates from later than, say, 1984. This isn't a project, or course work, or even a particularly good and original idea: it's just something I want to do. This silly bloody stuff has entertained and inspired me all my lives and, like all supernatural content, occasionally needs exorcising.
Welcome to The Island.
Unmann-Wittering.