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At long freaking last I got time to check out Zombie/Zombi 2/Zombie Flesh Eaters/Whatever Else This Film Is Called and I think it's better than Dawn of the Dead.

Yeah. I said it. Fite me.

That's the TL;DR version of my experience. As for why it took so long to get to this film? Idk man it just wasn't that high on the list of zombie flicks I needed to watch (and there are unfortunately a lot of them out there). Zombie has everything - dry British humour, gore, convincing gross zombie effects, characters that are (mostly) competent, cheese and most importantly an amazing soundtrack! I wish I'd seen it sooner.
Reading this made me smile, always love to see another convert to the church of Fulci. He really was the fuckin' GOAT. I would consider The Beyond my favorite horror film of all time, and House by the Cemetery, City of the Living Dead, Manhattan Baby, New York Ripper, Don't Torture a Duckling, Lizard in a Woman's Skin, Contraband, and Four of the Apocalypse some of the greatest ever in their respective genres. Dario Argento, Mario Bava, Lamberto Bava, Andrea Bianchi, Umberto Lenzi, Ruggedo Deodato, Joe D'Amato and Sergio Martino all have some phenonemal flicks under their belt too, but Fulci is definitely the most consistent of all the Eurosplatter auteurs, IMO.

Gotta hear everyone's two cents on this, though...where do people in general stand on Exorcist II: The Heretic? I know a lot of people dig the third one (as do I), but I gotta say I really appreciate the drug fueled lunacy of the second one a lot, seemingly more than most people do. The score by Morricone is excellent, and visually its an absolute delight. The script is absolute nonsense, but John Boorman definitely makes the most of it. I bring it up cause it definitely feels more like an Italian horror flick from that era more than something from New Hollywood. It's not the masterpiece the original is, but I still like it a lot.
 
This wasn't my first rodeo with Italian horror. The first film I ever saw was Dario Argento's Phenomena thanks to my love of the first Clock Tower game and I loved it. Suspiria's quite good when it comes to atmosphere as well. Fulci was that one director I kept sort of forgetting to check out. What I admire about Italian horror films is that they don't pull their punches - if a character dies, then you get to see it in gruesome detail right down to the fluids in ways that a lot of modern horror films just can't replicate. There are exceptions to the rule but there's a certain charm old 1970s-80s indie horror films have - to quote RLM - they feel like they were made by a director, not a committee.

I was so impressed by the quality of Zombie that I bought it on Blu-Ray while out shopping today, and even scored Zombi 3/Zombie Flesh Eaters 2/Whatever You Get The Point in the process (which is the best worst sequel ever and has a great soundtrack). It's a film I'm definitely going to be watching quite often.

As for Exorcist II my feelings on it are that it's a decent sequel. The one up it has on the original is having Richard Burton in the cast. Dude's a mad lad.
 
This wasn't my first rodeo with Italian horror. The first film I ever saw was Dario Argento's Phenomena thanks to my love of the first Clock Tower game and I loved it. Suspiria's quite good when it comes to atmosphere as well. Fulci was that one director I kept sort of forgetting to check out. What I admire about Italian horror films is that they don't pull their punches - if a character dies, then you get to see it in gruesome detail right down to the fluids in ways that a lot of modern horror films just can't replicate. There are exceptions to the rule but there's a certain charm old 1970s-80s indie horror films have - to quote RLM - they feel like they were made by a director, not a committee.

I was so impressed by the quality of Zombie that I bought it on Blu-Ray while out shopping today, and even scored Zombi 3/Zombie Flesh Eaters 2/Whatever You Get The Point in the process (which is the best worst sequel ever and has a great soundtrack). It's a film I'm definitely going to be watching quite often.

As for Exorcist II my feelings on it are that it's a decent sequel. The one up it has on the original is having Richard Burton in the cast. Dude's a mad lad.
Glad you liked Zombie. There's a 4K by Blue Underground and the quality is superb. Fulci's other horror films are worth checking out. Particularly: City of the Living Dead, The Beyond, House by the Cemetery and New York Ripper. You could stop there when it comes to his filmography although his Giallo's are fucking amazing and on par with Argento.

Images from the new Hellraiser reboot have come out:

H1.jpg

H2.jpg
H3.jpg

I heard a rumor that the show (I guess it's a show, this is very confusing) uses stories and ideas from the older Hellraiser comics from the early 90's that Clive oversaw. Those comics and pretty much all the Hellraiser comics (excluding the Pinhead series) are very, very good and that includes the more recent ones.

Thoughts regarding new Pinhead: he/she/it looks fine. I think the design should have been more radical. The bell around the neck is something from the book but in the book the pins were very decorative. Maybe they skipped that to simplify the makeup? To be fair, the design of Pinhead was pretty much perfect so there's not much you can really do to differentiate it but also keep that level of perfection.

I like the fucked up dude and the 2nd Lament Configuration which goes back to part 2 and the comics.
 
Looking at those Hellraiser screencaps, it's another, "Orange and Teal" exercise. That it something that keeps me from viewing many modern films, is that overuse of those, "Complimentary colors". I am hoping it fades away into, "WTF were we thinking?" terriotry one day, but, it's been going on for 10+ years, and most people don't notice it, or say they like it, so, I'll just continue to scour the backlog of stuff out there.
 
The make up looks surprisingly good but the voice is what will sell it. The trans looks more creepy and unsettling than the guys who replaced Doug Bradly did.
True but that was in the book. Pinhead was originally described as being androgynous, had a laugh like a young girl, had decorative bells, the tip of the pins were decorated and I believe they had a belly piercing.

You can say woke all you want and I wouldn't disagree. But, this is accurate to the book and I love Doug Bradley but a changeup is needed. Either that or you adapt the more recent comics with Pinhead trading places with Kristi and initiating the apocalypse (a long story that sounds stupid on paper but when you read the comics it mostly works).
 
Gotta hear everyone's two cents on this, though...where do people in general stand on Exorcist II: The Heretic? I know a lot of people dig the third one (as do I), but I gotta say I really appreciate the drug fueled lunacy of the second one a lot, seemingly more than most people do. The score by Morricone is excellent, and visually its an absolute delight. The script is absolute nonsense, but John Boorman definitely makes the most of it. I bring it up cause it definitely feels more like an Italian horror flick from that era more than something from New Hollywood. It's not the masterpiece the original is, but I still like it a lot.

Honest to god, I love it, no fucking irony. For a teabag, Boorman is pretty great at pulling off Italianate in that same perfectly insane, operatic way that they do. We get: Linda Blair tap dancing her way back into Pazuzu’s heart, the lightbulb on a stick glued to a box with matching pleather headbands that is the amazing sync machine, and Richard Burton going for fucking broke and making the acting choice to devour the set decorations and scenery whole. There’s some genuinely creepy stuff in there, too—the weirdo moment when Sharon self immolates, Linda Blair honest to fucking god almost falling off that hyper unsafe penthouse in NYC, the superimposition of the two sets of hands grabbing at Dr. Tusten’s/Merrin’s heart while everyone’s all synced up. It is a very strange movie but it’s never, ever boring, and I also love the fact that Marty Scorcese thinks it’s better than the OG.
 
Glad you liked Zombie. There's a 4K by Blue Underground and the quality is superb. Fulci's other horror films are worth checking out. Particularly: City of the Living Dead, The Beyond, House by the Cemetery and New York Ripper. You could stop there when it comes to his filmography although his Giallo's are fucking amazing and on par with Argento.

Images from the new Hellraiser reboot have come out:

View attachment 3666806

View attachment 3666808
View attachment 3666810

I heard a rumor that the show (I guess it's a show, this is very confusing) uses stories and ideas from the older Hellraiser comics from the early 90's that Clive oversaw. Those comics and pretty much all the Hellraiser comics (excluding the Pinhead series) are very, very good and that includes the more recent ones.

Thoughts regarding new Pinhead: he/she/it looks fine. I think the design should have been more radical. The bell around the neck is something from the book but in the book the pins were very decorative. Maybe they skipped that to simplify the makeup? To be fair, the design of Pinhead was pretty much perfect so there's not much you can really do to differentiate it but also keep that level of perfection.

I like the fucked up dude and the 2nd Lament Configuration which goes back to part 2 and the comics.
Shit this Pinhead actually looks badass. Dare I say maybe Trannie Pinhead won't be bad as I thought.
 
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The script is absolute nonsense, but John Boorman definitely makes the most of it.
There's a 4K by Blue Underground and the quality is superb.
Tangential thought: Devil Story and Zombie Holocaust have 4K releases replete with special features, Boorman's Excalibur apparently has nothing but a basic assembly line bluray. I don't entirely understand the economics at work here but it's kind of funny.
 

Original Pinhead Actor Doug Bradley Unimpressed With ‘Hellraiser’ Reboot’s Gender-Swapping Of Horror Icon: “None Of That Will Make The Movie Work Or Not. It’s The Story.”​

 
Was reminded of this cable Western horror anthology Into the Badlands that aired on USA back in the day, not many of those around, besides a few other examples like Grim Prairie Tales.

What triggered this was my coming across an old copy of a paperback collection of short stories by "Will Henry" aka Henry Wilson Allen, a prolific author of Western stories. It contained his short story "The Streets of Laredo" which was one of the stories adapted for this, (a bandit on the run from a vengeful sheriff stops in Laredo, TX long enough to take up with a gal who is suffering from "consumption" aka TB) along with a short story from crime novelist Marcia Mueller (Mariel Hemingway as a frontier wife who tries to keep a neighbor woman company during a snowstorm and finds her oddness and paranoia off-putting and infectious) and the framing device, which features a whiskery, cart-driving Bruce Dern as a bounty hunter who has after 13 months finally caught the wanted man he's been hunting. Getting the body positively identified so he can claim the substantial reward is another matter, especially since most of the few inhabitants of the nearest excuse for a town seem to be his target's pals.


I can say it from memory it was pretty well shot and directed but somewhat muddled at times. I sought it out - on VHS - years ago since I'm a mark for horror and "Westerns" (a rather broad term actually, that can encompass a variety of settings over centuries of different time periods) it's one of those genre hybrids that can be done well, or be a complete fizzle.
 
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Original Pinhead Actor Doug Bradley Unimpressed With ‘Hellraiser’ Reboot’s Gender-Swapping Of Horror Icon: “None Of That Will Make The Movie Work Or Not. It’s The Story.”​

Well actually... Doug congratulated the actor playing the new Pinhead on Twitter. So, is his original quote taken from an older source and dug up now to create clickbait?

I didn't know the new Pinheads actor was a troon. I just knew the actual character was asexual or something. Ew

Now you know. And knowing is half the battle.

STK271873.jpg
 
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