DVD Collectors Online

From Dusk Till Dawn, a review by Jon

From Dusk Till Dawn
4 out of 5



I love this movie. One of my favourite horrors. And after the last few days of the elegant brilliance of Val lewton, I felt I needed to cut loose with some balls-out action vampire killing!

I wish I could have seen it without knowing what it actually was, because the shock of the switch from thriller to horror would have been great fun. It's great that Rodriguez put full effort into that first half to give us well rounded characters, because a problem with a lot of horror films is the thin characters. What's also lacking is a sense of humour, but last section is full of laughs, especially Tom Savini trying to hide his new teeth! Or the vamp that disintegrates on a pool table and his eyes roll into the pockets!

Speaking of which, the gore never gets boring. So many gags, you could watch this several times and still see something new and disgusting. The script is fantastic, full of quotable lines, some of which I've been able to get into everyday conversation... like "I might be a bastard, but I'm not a f***ing bastard!" or the speech about pussy. Actually, I wish I'd not tried that last one. I'm still not welcome in Asda...

It's alright having a good script, but you need a good cast to deliver it and this lot are perfect. Even Tarantino, working to his, erm, strengths. Juliette Lewis I thought would be wrong, but she strikes a good tone between schoolgirl and temptress to Richie's nightmare. Harvey Kietel is as dependable as ever and Clooney is obviously having a riot. Well, I say "obviously", but the outtakes show him frequently pissed off and without his usual humour, so maybe it just proves what a good actor he actually is. And it does no harm to have room for cult favourites like the afore mentioned Tom Savini and Fred Williamson.

Everything oozes confidences in this movie. All the scenes have that little extra they didn't actually need, but looks cool anyway. It will possibly always stand as Rodriguez' best film because it's the most perfect fit for his seat of the pants directing style and there aren't many stories that can stand such a change in tone and still work fully committed to both styles.

"And I don't want to hear anything about "I don't believe in vampires" because I don't believe in vampires, but I believe in my own two eyes, and what I saw is fucking vampires!"

(From October Marathon: Horror! on October 8th, 2008)

The Perfume of the Lady in Black, a review by Danae Cassandra

The Perfume of the Lady in Black (Il profumo della signora in nero)
Year of Release: 1974
Directed By: Francesco Barilli
Starring: Mimsy Farmer, Maurizio Bonuglia, Mario Scaccia, Jho Jhenkins, Nike Arrighi
Genre: Horror, Suspense/Thriller, Giallo

Overview:
Director Francesco Barilli's hallucinatory giallo horror-thriller stars Mimsy Farmer who portrays Sylvia, a chemist who begins to suffer from strange visions; a mysterious woman in black applying perfume in a mirror appears to her and strangers follow her everywhere she goes. Barilli's psychological investigation into the workings of the mind becomes apparent when it is revealed that as a child, Sylvia committed a horrible crime. The slow progression from successful scientist to a woman on the verge of insanity shows an in-depth look at the intricacies of the haunted mind. This is a remarkable film, weaving reality, fantasy and memory into an almost seamless fabric.

My Thoughts:
This is my first giallo, and it bodes well for my enjoyment of the genre. There is some gore at the end of the film, but for the most part this is psychological horror. This was a beautiful film with a genuinely foreboding, ever-deepening, aura of palpable dread. The viewer knows there's something wrong here, and even the most mundane objects become talismans of fear. I thought Mimsy Farmer did a great job as Sylvia, and found her descent into madness to be very believable. If none of the other actors are as good, they still each convey a level of suspicion about them. Everything conspires to keep the viewer wondering what is real, and what is in Sylvia's mind. Unsettling, uneasy, and and disturbing. Recommended.

Watched For: Scavenger Hunt #18, Hoop-tober 3.0

Bechdel Test: Pass
Mako Mori Test: Pass

Overall: 3.75/5

(From Horror/Halloween 2016 Challenge on October 1st, 2016)

The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

What's the show about?
Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan is a forensic anthropologist and works in the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington, D.C.. On occasion she works together with FBI special agent Seeley Booth on cases where only a skeleton or parts of it were recovered from the crime scene. Bones's team consists of a number of specialists who all help to solve the current case.

"Pilot"
Dr. Brennan has just come back from Guatemala where she excavated mass graves from a genocide. Now she's back and she's asked again by the FBI to help in a case. She's worked with them before but was restricted to lab work. Now she wants to get in on the whole investigation. And while Special Agent Booth is not too thrilled about this, he agrees. They have found the remains of a young woman that has been missing for two years and back then it was Booth's task to find her.

My Opinion
Just like with House M.D. I am not overly interested in the actual cases because despite the show being created by an actual forensic anthropologist, in my opinion there's a lot of "Voodoo" involved when it comes to solving the crime. For example, Hodgins can take a sediment sample and his "dirt database" can tell him exactly where the sand is coming from - down to the square mile. Or the case where the bones were dissolved by a chemical reaction but the computer recreated an image of the bones and you could see where and how the knife was going through the ribs.
But I really like Bones and Booth and their development and I also like Booth's gut approach to the crime solving. And Hodgins and Zack are real fun when they try to experiment and fight for the "King of the Lab" trophy.

(From The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon on September 22nd, 2009)