Blogging about my passion
I mostly enjoy writing about films that fit into the category „Cult“ in one way or another. It‘s, frankly, where my comfort zone lies. It would be easy to just focus on horror films (by far the most films labeled „Cult“ are horror films) but the category also includes so many films that are really un-classifiable. Many of these movies are so truly enjoyable and you don‘t even know exactly why. These are often films that are considered very poor, very cheap, very amateurish and some are just plain old studio films that got panned or performed very poorly when released. This is the stuff I like to write about and I hope you like reading about.
It’s the year 1922; Farmer Wilfred James works the land in Hemingford, Nebraska with his son Henry and is proud of his way of life. His wife Arlette has never taken to the farming life and she’s the owner of the land and intends to sell it for a large amount of money. Wilfred then plans to murder Arlette and convinces his son to aid him in this deed.
An Ouija board was left in the apartment and Paige makes contact with a spirit that calls itself Susan…
The script is decently written and functions as a bit more of a murder mystery than the first “Witchboard”. It’s not predictable and has a few surprises up it’s sleeve and inserts some good humour in places. The way Paige connects the dots is done in a fairly believable way and the film is well paced.
At Alpine University the film students are competing for the coveted Hitchcock award. Ace student Travis is considered the likeliest to win but fellow student Amy impresses Professor Solomon with her idea of doing a horror short based on urban legends. Soon the students of Alpine start turning up dead and just maybe someone wants the Hitchcock award badly enough to kill for it.
Suburban parents Charles and Christine along with their daughter Cathy receive the shattering news that their son Andy has been killed in action in Vietnam. Christine can’t accept that fact and starts praying for her son to return. Later that night Andy returns home to the amazement of everybody. Soon after it’s apparent that Andy’s not the same as everybody remembered; very distant, cold and quiet…and possibly killing people.
“Rituals” is a very good wilderness thriller that may draw inspiration from the classic “Deliverance” (1972) but it’s even more layered and very effective. The title alone has multiple meanings from both the protagonists perspective but also from the antagonist who actually is given a reason for the reign of terror he invokes on the vacationing doctors.
Dr. Newbury is conducting experiments with blind Laura where he’s testing her psychic abilities and trying to uncover a possible connection to comatose patient Ricky Caldwell. There seems to be a connection between the two…
“Resurrection” is a stylish thriller that practically never stood a chance, as it seems, with either critics or the general public as it was pigeonholed as a copycat of David Fincher’s “Se7en”. It played in theatres in some European countries but was relegated to Video in most other territories. That’s a shame since it really is a worthwhile flick in most respects.
Recently I watched the entire “Final Destination” (2000 – 2011) franchise. It’s a solid collection of horror films with a knockout premise that has the Grim Reaper as it’s baddie. Every film starts out the same and every film follows the same formula and tries and be as imaginative as possible with the death sequences that really are the franchise’s raison d’etre.
A group of scientists are working on a freezing cold planet excavating the ruins of an ancient civilization believed to have lived there. Soon one crew member starts showing signs of being possessed and another one, Sandy, is attacked and impregnated by a creature there. At first she seems to have survived the ordeal intact but soon starts behaving weirdly and eventually starts killing her colleagues and drinking their blood in order to protect her rapidly growing fetuses.
