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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 03 Nov 2020, 15:37 
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I watched my Blu Ray edition (an HD world first for this film) of Drive-In Massacre last night to make up for missing my horror film tradition on Halloween. Here's some drivel from my Letterboxd entry.

Might watch the TV version that is included on the same disc tonight to compare the two editions.

Image

After a long time sat on my shelf I finally got around to giving this short and not very sweet 'proto slasher' a whirl.

In short, Drive-In Massacre isn't very good. Yet it holds a particular charm that takes it away from being an full-fat, high calorie stinker.

The film is very much a boring cop procedure with a few gory kills and Z Core smut thrown in. However there are elements that make the film engrossing and, upon reflection, appear ahead of it's time, even so far as shaping and influencing the very many splatter and slasher films that would flood the late 1970's and throughout the 1980's and beyond to today.

Drive-In Massacre opens with flower power-esque music over a montage of patrons arriving at a drive-in theatre. Simple stuff, but it instantly throws you off thinking that the credit sequence would be more sinister in tone. It kind of reminded me a bit of Last House On The Left, just with more upbeat music.

Acting is virtually non-existent along with any real plot, though the ending is a great and almost comedic twist. Kills are few and far between but when they arrive they are, for their time and the size budget, rather graphic and don't hold back. Watching the interviews on the Blu Ray afterwards gave some great insight in to the inventiveness that was called upon that helped the crew to get this film done, on a miniscule budget too.

What we have in Drive-In Massacre is a pretty terrible film, but one that certainly has earned a place in the annals of cinema history. The influences in films that came after this one are plentiful and varied. Don't dismiss Drive-In Massacre. It is what it is. Sub par hokum. But without it, many a modern film would be lost.
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 20 Nov 2020, 15:53 
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Since Christmas is coming up, it's time to start watching Christmas movies so....



...on HD-DVD no less!
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 20 Nov 2020, 23:50 
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My head is spinning from Sean Connery in ZARDOZ circa 1973. A John Boorman film.
What a head trip....
Zeta, correct me if I am wrong, this production falls into the "tripping balls" genre.....

Had to watch it again to attempt to get my mind around what the message was....
Still struggling.....
My old brain is not as elastic as once was lmao !

If any members like distopian futuristic movies.... CHECK OUT "ZARDOZ"

cheers mates,

J
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 21 Nov 2020, 01:24 
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may have to watch that one again, one of the first 15 LDs my father bought new widescreen.
crazy film, one of my favorite.
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 21 Nov 2020, 03:20 
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You guys are acting like you don’t watch Zardoz every night.

I love this movie. You have to be comfortable with the fact that it’s more weird and dumb than it is brilliant scifi but once you’re comfortable with that it’s a blast. I love how earnest it is. People are too afraid to look stupid nowadays.

One of my favorite rappers is POS of Doomtree and one of the many reasons I like him is that he once referenced this movie with the seeming non-sequitor “god barfs guns.” I wish I could remember what song that was...
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 21 Nov 2020, 03:47 
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signofzeta wrote:
People are too afraid to look stupid nowadays.

Thousand times this. No major motion picture studio today would make a movie as earnestly hokey as the 1980 Flash Gordon for example.
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 21 Nov 2020, 04:40 
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takeshi666 wrote:
signofzeta wrote:
People are too afraid to look stupid nowadays.

Thousand times this. No major motion picture studio today would make a movie as earnestly hokey as the 1980 Flash Gordon for example.


I don’t know. They made Cats and that thing is quad dumb as Flash. If it’s officially gay canon then it’s OK, I guess. This was dumb and new though.

I guess what I meant with Zardoz is...well, the plot is *really* similar to stuff kids say when they get effed up on something for the first time. Or it’s a bunch of 60s scifi half remembered and ripped off by some sort of 1970s Joe Rogan. I don’t know. It’s dumb, but it wants to be smart, and a guy will wear a red diaper to get the point across. It’s not common. I respect the enthusiasm.
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 21 Nov 2020, 11:01 
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signofzeta wrote:
You guys are acting like you don’t watch Zardoz every night.

I love this movie. You have to be comfortable with the fact that it’s more weird and dumb than it is brilliant scifi but once you’re comfortable with that it’s a blast. I love how earnest it is. People are too afraid to look stupid nowadays.

One of my favorite rappers is POS of Doomtree and one of the many reasons I like him is that he once referenced this movie with the seeming non-sequitor “god barfs guns.” I wish I could remember what song that was...



You may be on to something zeta, I need to watch ZARDOZ every night for stretch and see what happens.

If I go dark, I was committed and am resting quietly in some institution singing the ballad of Dwight Frye LmAo !

Seriously, I do like the film, it just took me for a loop with the abstract nature.
Absolutely loved the introduction with the floating head explanations of "reality" ! ! !

I burned a copy to share and reccomended it to a few friends in memory of Mr. Connery.......
Cannot believe that crazy Scott went from 007 to ZARDOZ Disciple.....

What a mind job first watching it ! And I am a fan of WEIRD stuff !
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 21 Nov 2020, 11:07 
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Watched Strangers On A Train and North By Northwest over the past couple of nights.

Not seen either before and enjoyed both. North By Northwest is my preferred choice of the two. Strangers On A Train was very good too and I think would make for a potentially very good modern interpretation. Not some turgid Hollywood reboot fiesta, but some sort of serious, bleak and unforgiving NC-17 rated Scandinavian version.
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 21 Nov 2020, 15:19 
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signofzeta wrote:
I don’t know. It’s dumb, but it wants to be smart, and a guy will wear a red diaper to get the point across. It’s not common. I respect the enthusiasm.

Well if you really want to boil the movie down to just the message it's trying to send (immortality = bad) then yeah, it is kind of dumb. But that's not really all there is to it, is it?

I remember reading the movie was very well received in literary science fiction circles, because it is very similar to literary science fiction. Is it really any dumber than, say, The Fantastic Planet?
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 21 Nov 2020, 16:33 
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Fantastic Planet is animated so it will probably always look less dumb than a real guy in a real diaper. I’ll treasure both forever though.
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 21 Nov 2020, 16:42 
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1st I never knew it was a diaper or thought of it as a diaper until I heard about it around 2012.

2nd at that same time there was a movie guy, the one i've mentioned before who didn't have his tv setup correctly with refresh rate.
anyway he never saw Zardoz and I was the one to introduce him and an entire group of people at the time to this classic film
with a Zardoz party.
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 22 Nov 2020, 01:55 
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ZARDOZ.

Must be about 30 years since I watched that one, now perhaps time to give it another view.

The opening/introduction was apparently added by John Boorman at the request of studio execs to help the audience understand what they were about to see.....

I am Arthur Frayn, and I am Zardoz. I have lived three hundred years, and I long to die. But death is no longer possible. I am immortal. I present now my story, full of mystery and intrigue - rich in irony, and most satirical. It is set deep in a possible future, so none of these events have yet occurred, but they may. Be warned, lest you end as I. In this tale, I am a fake god by occupation - and a magician, by inclination. Merlin is my hero! I am the puppet master. I manipulate many of the characters and events you will see. But I am invented, too, for your entertainment - and amusement. And you, poor creatures, who conjured you out of the clay? Is God in show business too?

The part played by Sean Connery was originally offered to Burt Reynolds but he apparently had to pull out before shooting started due to an injury or ill health at the time.

When I last watched this it was on VHS with a couple of friends & when it ended one of the chaps said "can someone tell me what have we just watched, that was a mind-fu+k that was."

Looks like I will be giving ZARDOZ a another viewing soon - looking forward to seeing it again.

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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 22 Nov 2020, 03:52 
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Je280 thanks for posting that intro !

Great to know it was a late add on ! ! !

Cheers,
Stay safe over there mate !
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 06 Dec 2020, 00:19 
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Watched 13 Ghosts in Illusion-O! Lifted from my diary if you wish to read it. :thumbup:

Also watched Moonraker, Live Like A Cop Die Like A Man (which was BRILLIANT) and Murder By The Book over the past couple of nights. Anyway…

==================


A fun, and very much of it's time, little horror film from 1960 packed with an Illusion-O gimmick!

I watched the main Illusion-O version with a pair of red/blue 3D glasses I had laying around as the Indicator Blu Ray box set doesn't have a Ghost Viewer packed in. Early pressings of the 2001 Columbia DVD did come with a viewer but these are hard to find now and expensive.

Interestingly, William Castle was originally going buy a 'haunted' mansion and then get 2 million keys cut for it. The keys would have been handed out at screenings but only one key would open the door to the house. In other words William Castle was going to give away a house to a lucky winner.¹

Another interesting piece I learned from the Indicator blu ray is that Rosemary DeCamp, who plays the mother, was at home with her husband on July 7th 1946 when an X11 airplane, piloted by mogul Howard Hughes, crashed in to the house next door to them but not before the wings of the aircraft tore through her home, with her and her husband in it, first! Hughes apologised and offered to pay for all of the damage.¹

The film is fairly short and sweet, telling a simple tale of a haunted house but with a treasure-laden twist. It's all good stuff and by today's standards it's fairly innocent fare. I would imagine that even back in 1960 there were more terrifying films to see but the gimmick is the draw here and it works really well.

I had a great time donning my 3D glasses and looking for the ghosts as well as peeking through the blue filter to see them instantly removed!

There's not a great deal to say about 13 Ghosts as it's really straightforward stuff. I guess if the gimmick was missing this would just be a picture lost in the vat of countless other horror films of the time.

There's a fairly good score here, decent acting and some lovely direction to get the best out of the filtered ghost viewer scenes. Nothing that will leave you sitting in a damp collection of your own loose, watery stools, but an enjoyable gimmick-laden 80-something minutes will probably be had by many.

Seek this one out, preferably as part of the two excellent William Castle Indicator box sets.

¹ source: Steven Laws introduction feature, Indicator blu ray release.
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 13 Dec 2020, 21:22 
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Bridges of Madison County tonight on Blu ray. I do not think any movie has moved me so much in my entire life except maybe for Boys Don't Cry.
It is such a sad film. I could cry the entire evening now.


Last edited by confederate on 14 Dec 2020, 19:00, edited 1 time in total.
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 14 Dec 2020, 17:13 
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Finally got the replacement belts for my player. I say "belts" even though I only needed one; I actually bought two because the 3.6" belt didn't show up on search and I'd already bought a 3.8" one. Anyway, the first thing I spun up was Snowman, The (1982) [50LS-4011] - fantastic picture quality, just like on Father Christmas. I wasn't expecting the David Bowie introduction to continue as a voiceover into the cartoon though, I wonder if the other one with the Raymond Briggs intro is the same?
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 14 Dec 2020, 18:26 
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Finished watching the Hunger Games films a few nights ago.
Anybody else think this is a cross between Matrix and 1984 with a happy ending?????
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 14 Dec 2020, 18:58 
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I’ve never seen it but to me it looks like a 3000 minute version of Lord of the Flies. If I wanted an eternal slog through fantasy land predicated on kids killing each other I’d watch...probably Zeta Gundam, actually.
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 Post subject: Re: What have you been watching?
PostPosted: 14 Dec 2020, 19:37 
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Just watch Battle Royal its shorter.
But yeah first is like Lord of the Flies but then it turns into the matrix, but SHE is the one......
It was free and I had watched the first one years ago, probably when we last paid for netfilx which would have been about 8 years ago???
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